November 2002 Archives

I believe that apple pie should only ever be consumed warm. Preferably with ice cream. And if caramel sauce is available I'll take a bit of that on top too. Alas, I've just got the pie, so I'm consuming that, mmmmmm.

Last night I had a spontaneous dinner with a new LJ aquaintance. We went to The Burren in Davis Square, someplace that I'd only been to for my first time under a week ago. This got me thinking that I need to start exploring the area again. There are lots of interesting places around me that I've heard of a number of times, yet never actually visited.

I've also been getting to know a number of new people lately (like last night). Which I think is good for me. I have a tendancy to be a bit of a hermit these days. I know I want to go out and do things, but seem to have problems getting the momentum to do them. Plus, one can never have too many friends, can they?

Oh, and The Burren is quite cool. It's got a nice atmosphere, I could easily see slipping in for a bite now and then.

Sir Arnold Bax. "A sympathetic Scot summed it all up very neatly in the remark, "You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk dancing."" [Quotes of the Day]

There's just one thing I want LiveJournal to let me do. Put a little bit of javascript into my posts so that I can show how many comments there are for my posts when people look at them over on LJ. Bastards.

Last year I signed up for Thinkblank's Secret Santa. The idea is simple. You sign up, leave a note about yourself, and leave a link to your wish list at Amazon. On December 10th you get the name of the person you are a Secret Santa for and purchase something inexpensive for them (around $10-15 I believe they say). It's pretty cool. Last year I got a book (that's about three books away from being read), and sent out a CD to someone else. It was pretty cool, so I'm doing it again this year. Hopefully with just as good results.

My apartment is too fucking dry. I just woke up and drank about four cups of water in thirty seconds. Feh.

Voltaire. "Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well." [Quotes of the Day]

Here's some random thanks as I wake up this morning. There may be

more after I stuff myself with food:

I'm thankful that I finally have my own residency. I still find it

amazing how some of the best things in my life have just fallen into

my lap.

Thanks to everyone who blogs interesting stuff daily for me to read as

I look for work.

Thanks to Piro for MegaTokyo

for giving me something fun to read a few times a week.

I'm thankful for late night infomercials that keep me endlessly amused

when I can't sleep late at night. I still wonder how those people do

it without just bursting out in laughter.

I'm thankful for my parents. Even as an adult they seem to go way out

of their way for me. I don't know what I'd do without them.

I'm thankful for family in general. I'm getting to spend Thanksgiving

with my cousins, who I don't get to see often enough despite their

living less than an hour away.

I'm thankful for my friends. Too many to mention individually for

fear of leaving anyone out.

I'm thankful for my life. I'm still struggling along, still alive,

despite everything going on.

While reading a post on my LJ friends page, I found myself thinking how similar this person's experiences were to mine. And at the same time, ways in which I hadn't become quite as much as an extrovert.

As I kid I was quite a loner. I had a few good friends over the years, but for the most part I was happy reading in my room, playing with legos, having adventures in the backyard. Growing older I always found myself just on the outside of things. I was shy, still am in a lot of ways. But I found that if I was a bit more outgoing I wouldn't be sitting around at home feeling sorry for myself. There were other people out there with my same interests.

In the end I'm definitely more extroverted than I was, but I still have a lot of roots in the shy introverted world. In larger groups I'll withdraw some. When I think about it, DJing has been the ultimate solution. I'm able to attract the attention of a whole room, be the center of attention, without having to interact with people as directly. Yet I can have just as much interaction in a way.

Even writing about this here is a bit of a stretch for me. But the post above resonated with me enough that I felt I needed to write something about it. It's part of the neverending struggle for me.

The Reverse Cowgirl has made me laugh twice today with her Thanksgiving themed posts. Martha Stewart fisting a turkey is the best. I'll never be able to cook a turkey without thinking about it now.

A few of my friends on LJ have been talking about this site where you make your own nation state. You too can get one at http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi . Here's mine:

The Rogue Nation of Snoozeville

"Sleep is for the week!"

UN Category: Inoffensive Centrist Democracy

Civil Rights: Average Economy: Strong Political Freedoms: Very Good

Location: the Pacific

The Rogue Nation of Snoozeville is a tiny, devout nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, intelligent population of 5 million have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

The small government juggles the competing demands of Religion & Spirituality, Law & Order, and Defence. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 7%. A robust private sector is led by the Basket Weaving, Soda Sales, and Automobile Manufacturing industries.

Crime is a serious problem. Snoozeville's national animal is the sloth and its currency is the breath mint.

It is also a game. So far the first issue for my nation is that the nudists are demanding time in the sun. Hey, I'm all up for more nudity, I think I'll let them have it!

The blogging world will never be the same. That's right, Barbie has a blog. Here's a sample entry:

11/6/2002 Play It Cool -- But Look Hot

So Robbie finally called. His band is playing downtown tonight. I probably should play hard to get, but he is just such a hottie. No girl worth her credit cards could resist him. I must go fabulize.

So does this mean Barbie gave in? Did Robbie have his way with her after the show? Unfortunately (fortunately?) we never find out. Thanks to Boing Boing for the link.

I woke up just a few moments ago and needed a glass of water, was I was walking back to bed i suddenly realized that it was white outside. The snow has started. Pretty cool. I'm so glad I'm not driving up to NH today, hopefully traffic will be lighter tomorrow. That's assuming that most people don't put off driving till tomorrow.

I love how quiet the snow makes everything. I may have to try and slip outside in a few minutes and take some quite nighttime snow pictures, or maybe some just as the sun comes up. I hope the weather isn't so bad that I can't slip out for morning coffee.

If you're worried that you are looking at too much pr0n on the internet, then I've got the place for you. Fires of Darkness is A ministry for pornography addicts and the people who love them. They have all kinds of resources here, including ecards for porn addicts and the people who love them and straight answers to porn addicts along with instructions on how to (gasp!) destroy the sources of porn in your life.

This site was discovered thanks to the wonderful reverse cowgirl.

Back at MacWorld New York, Apple showed a great ad spoofing their switch ads staring Will Ferrell. They've now posted two new ads staring him. They're pretty good, I just wish they'd post the "Hi, I'm Will Ferrell and I'm a porn star one." Anyone have it sitting aorund online? These were good, but that one was better.

My friend Lukas is mentioned in an article about TiVo in the Wall Street Journal. Pretty cool. I know someone famous for a few moments. He's also the person who, a while back, was blogging about having his TiVo online.

It's good to see TiVo getting more press. I love mine and couldn't live without it at this point. The pause button is my best friend.

I've gotten into this weird habit lately of having the TV on muted. I'll have on some music, but for some reason I like having the visual stimulation. Plus sometimes it's fun to make up your own versions of what is happening on screen.

(my god I need a life, someone please hire me now)

Edward Teller. "Two paradoxes are better than one; they may even suggest a solution." [Quotes of the Day]

Some days I feel my age. Last night I went to a house party at my friend Ethan's and didn't get home till around 3:30 or 4. I probably would have stayed even longer if I hadn't gotten a life home from friends. It was good I left when I did though because i was exhausted and passed out almost as soon as I got home.

It was lots of fun though. It was great to see everyone who came out for it. My friend Patty even drove up for the party. I also got to spin a pretty fun set. I'm still exhausted though, need more sleep.

Alexi Sayle. "Americans have different ways of saying things. They say 'elevator', we say 'lift'...they say 'President', we say 'stupid psychopathic git'...." [Quotes of the Day]

When I went out to check the mail today I saw a nice big magazine sitting on top of the boxes and knew it had to be the latest Newtype USA. Being the impatient type I quickly ripped it open to check it out. Inside I found a sampler disc from ADV (which supposed has an episode of Chance Pop Session on it) and an Ai Yori Aoshi poster. I gave the magazine a quick flipthrough and it looks quite good. I can't wait to sit down and start reading through.

John Kenneth Galbraith. "It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled sea of thought." [Quotes of the Day]

I'm toying with the idea of going to see Edie Carey tonight. She's playing in Newton and I really want to go so I can get a copy of her live CD. But I'm still undecided on going because it's icky out and I'm having a hard time motivating today. Anyone else up for going if I do?

So in Animal Crossing each animal has its own 'word' that it ends sentences with. Like Yuka the skunk says "tsk tsk" and the tiger says "GRaargh". So for instance they'll say "How are you doing snooze, GRaargh". Today I talked to Ellie the Elephant and she asked me what word she should use. I told her to use 'Kickass!' and now every time she says something she says 'Kickass!" at the end of it.

I hope I get to change what they all say!

Thanks to everyone who came out. Now all you people need to come by each week. Come by to start out your night, come by to get those last few drinks in after bars in Cambridge close. Very cool to meet all the people I did. Scary the amount of people who are on LiveJournal that I met. It's becoming like a social disease or something.

And it's nice to know I'm not the only old person going out. It was fun watching some reactions as benny dropped some older tracks, but Fools Gold was the best of the bunch. I think I may have to dig out the remix of that I have for next week.

Oh, and to my friends that didn't make it out. You suck and you owe me a drink next week.

I've got a bad feeling that I'm going to hurt tomorrow (today?). Am I getting too old for this?

I woke up this morning with this tune stuck in my head and it has been driving me crazy. I just woke up from a wonderful (though to short) nap and it popped into my head what it was. It's the opening theme to the new Ghost in the Shell TV series. It's a really good song, and a pretty keen series.

Of course now I kind of want to knock it out of my head. Because there's something kind of maddening about having a song stuck in your head when you can't understand the words. Hmm, what to listen to.

Got a doctor's appointment this morning, which begins with an esophogram (did I spell that right?). As far as I can tell it consists of xraying my throat. And if I'm lucky they'll have me swallow some barium. ugs.

Two great interesting book related tidbits I snarfed from boing boing

10,000 public domain kids' books online soon. The International Children's Digital Library launches tomorrow, filled with over 200 books in 15 languages. The Library collects public domain texts and makes them available in a variety of formats, suitable for screen-reading and printing. The curators hope to build it up to 10,000 books before long. Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]

Very cool. I can't wait to look into this more once it is available. I like it when the net is used for good things like this. The second one is silly, but fun.

Out of print book about cattle mutilations now online. "An out-of-print book by a pair of Montanans about a wave of cattle mutilations in the Great Falls area in the 1970s is available online and free of charge." Link [Boing Boing Blog]

So I was playing Animal Crossing today and when I talked to one of the animals he said he'd painted my roof white! When I went and looked he had! That bastard! After I gave him a cool shirt he goes and ruins my cool purple roof. Damn him!

Anonymous. "A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats." [Quotes of the Day]

One of my favorite HBO comedy specials,

Eddie Izzard - Dress to Kill, is finally coming out on DVD. Anyone wanna buy this for a poor unemployed person? Though I'll most likely end up buying it myself.

Sometimes life just dumps things in your lap that are just too wonderful. This weekend my friend Dino called me to find out if I wanted my own night at the club Changmian does its current weekly, Anitya, at.

So, starting this week:

Changmian and Dubcoast present

~The Analog Lounge~

with resident dj's

• Gregory Blake (Changmian) Boston
• Special Pete (dubcoast music) CA
• With Special guest benny blanco¨ (blancodisco | beyond the qe2 | geezah!) Boston

Wednesdays

@ Vertigo (upstairs)

126 State St. Boston, MA

617-723-7277

10pm - 2am

21+ with ID

Free This Week!

No dress code

www.vertigoboston.com

www.mapquest.com (directions)

So come on down. Please note that we won't be playing goa and psytrance in the lounge, this is seperate from Anitya downstairs (which you should check out also). we're looking to do something a little different. Expect a bit of deep trance, a bit of deep house, a bit of tech-house, and whatever else happens to fit our mood for the night.

And speaking of Anitya. This week Dutch is spinning. And did I mention that it's FREE this week? That's right no cover charge. How's that for a bargin?

Looking for an interesting new coffee to try? This coffee costs $300 a pound. What's so special? It's been digested in the stomach of a luwak. I dunno. I just couldn't see spending that much on luwak coffee poop.

Sheesh, Tom Nook just did some renovations on my house and made it bigger. Then he charged me 148000 Bells! I think I should have gotten an estimate from him first. That's insane! On the other hand I now have someplace to store all my gyroid thingies. I want more games too, I've only got Donkey Kong right now.

I took a few days break from ripping CDs to get some work done. But I finished up another batch tonight.

• INXS - Listen Like Thieves
• Information Society - Peace and Love, Inc.
• Information Society - Hack
• Information Society
• Hybrid - Wide Angle
• The Housemartins - London O Hull 4
• The Housemartins - Now that's what I call quite good
• Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians - Element of Light
• Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians - fegMANIA!
• His Name is Alive - Livonia
• He Said - Take Care

Some good stuff in there. Hybrid's Wide Angle is one of my all time favorite CDs. There are times when it will stay stuck in my car's CD player for days. And of course there's Robyn Hitchcock, who I need to get more of.

How come every time I need to go grocery shopping it is icky and rainy out? On the bonus side, I have stuff to make english muffin pizzas!

I've been a little busy lately with life so I haven't been posting much. Okay okay, so it's been Animal Crossing. What can I say, I'm a geek. Just thought I'd post along some interesting links:

• Kermit gets a star - Kermit the Frog finally gets a star on the Walk of Fame. Am I the only one surprised he didn't have one before?
• Atari Classic 10 in 1 game - 10 classic Atari games stored in what looks like the old Atari 2600 joystick. There's a cable coming out of it with RCA jacks and you just plug it in and play. It has Yar's Revenge and Adventure. I want it.

Both those links courtesy of Boing Boing

Voltaire. "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong." [Quotes of the Day]

The special extended version of

Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring came out this week and I got a copy of it on Wednesday. Last night I watched the first disc of it and it was stunning. According to the liner nodes that came with the DVD:

But rather than simply inserting deleted scenes, Jackson approached this Extended Edition as if he were creating a whole new version of the film. He and the editor, John Gilbert, carefully evaluated material to be integrated into the film, and then worked to bring each scene up to the same polish as the rest of the feature -- visual effects were completed, dialogue was recorded, and sound effects were created

To make sure all of the scenes flowed, Howard Shore composed and recorded new score with the London Philharmonic Orchestra

After seeing the first hour and three quarters I have to say that it I could definitely spot things that I don't remember from the movie. But there were other differences that I think were a little more subtle. The movie seems to flow a little more smoothly. I've seen too many 'extended versions' where they just drop in unused footage that was better left on the floor. If you haven't picked up the original version of this movie I highly recommend picking this one up. Heck, even if you do have the original version I recommend picking this one up too. It also comes with a two disc documentary on the making of the movie.

The ever cool lilymab pointed me at MuffinFilms.com today. This is pretty cool. Some of the films are even interactive (I like 'Feed Me').

Ogden Nash. "Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore." [Quotes of the Day]

William Dement. "Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives." [Quotes of the Day]

One of the people on my LJ friend's list has been posting about MegaTokyo lately. And I just noticed a recent post about a sequence of comics that I think may be one of my favorites. It is certainly a good example of why I like the comic so much.

Let me just go on the record and say that Peeps scare me. Something about their evil shape, and how they up when you nuke them just makes me want to crawl under my bed and hide. That being so, I still enjoyed The Lord of the Peeps: The Fellowship of the Peeps. Some people definitely have too much time on their hands.

Shamelessly stolen from /usr/bin/girl

I had an obscene amount of legos as a kid, but I was much too innocent back then to even consider all the things you could do with them. Luckily in my old age I've crawled deep into enough the gutter to appreciate things like lego porn. I think I heard about this site a while back, but hadn't actually looked until this morning when reading the reverse cowgirl's blog and realized what I was missing.

I've rediscovered cinnamon toast lately. I was at the store and noticed they had cinnamon sugar in the spices section. I decided this was a very cool idea and bought some and I've been hooked since. Of course this will be one of those products that stops being produced by the time I'm ready to get more.

Jane Austen. "I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them." [Quotes of the Day]

According to the J-List web site news The Glico Confectionery Company has proclaimed that today is "Pocky Day". Supposedly they did this becuase the numbers 11/11 look like Pocky sticks. Sounds look a good reason to eat too much Pocky to me! Here's the page listing all their japanese snacks and candy.

I've had one of those magnetic poetry things for ages and never put any on my fridge. Tonight I took a handful of words and randomly put them up. Here's what I got:

Why none feet though

finger frantic a whisper

after stop of those power

Ambrose Bierce. "Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another." [Quotes of the Day]

One year ago today I was talking about puppets, work, and packets of cream cheese.

Every once in a while Amazon hits it on the head with their recommendations. This morning it was recommending this to me:

It is a three DVD boxed set that has Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, The Little Drummer Boy, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and Frosty Returns.

With the exception of Frosty Returns, these are all shows that I remember growing up with. Though, I never could actually sit through all of Rudolph because the abominable snowman guy always scared me too much (he doesn't now). These were an immediate wish list item for me (and I think my newphew will be getting these too).

I think I need a drink of something. Anyone wanna get me a drink?

Here's an update on my cd ripping progress. It's been a while since I posted (or ripped) anything.

• Killing Joke - Wilful Days
• Andrew Kerr - Rock Star
• Joy Division - Substance
• Just say Yes
• Just say Yo
• Just say Mao
• Just say Da
• Just say Anything
• Just say Yesterday
• Jesus Jones - Doubt
• Howard Jones - Dream into Action
• The Jams - 1987
• The Jam - Compact Snap!
• The Jam - Sound Affects

Some great stuff in this batch. The Sire Records Just Say series is one of the best sets of music and has some of the best remixes of tracks. I credit them with my finding out about a number of bands I hadn't ever heard of before.

I ran across a great new flash game this morning. Cat Bowling is the latest craze. My high score is 102, but I keep finding myself wanting to play more and more.

Sir William Bragg. "God runs electromagnetics by wave theory on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the Devil runs them by quantum theory on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday." [Quotes of the Day]

Did you know that Benjamin Franklin invented the first disposable safety razor. Two years after he first patented his invention, he had the idea of fitting bats with miniature bombs that would occupy the building. Really!

A friend pointed me at this list of fun facts that has been Markovized. Some of them are pretty funny. Here's another: "During the film Don Juan, John Barrymore delivers a grand total of 191 kisses to a telephone pole or street lamp."

This post over on Game Girl Advance left me quite speachless. Is this the future of home video games? (Note, not really worksafe).

I'd wanted to get Rez for a while, a friend of mine kept raving about it (maybe this is why). But being a single guy living a lone I think it might look bad.

Ice cream is one of my favorite things. And the Arctic Twister Ice Cream Maker is the latest kitchen toy I want. You add ice cream, and things you want mixed in and it mixes them and dispenses it like softserve ice cream.

You can mix ice cream with just about anything edible you can think of ö candy, nuts, cookies, cereal, and fruit. It is best to avoid chewy foods such as marshmallows, raisins, dried fruit, gummy candies, and caramel chews. But essentially you can mix ice cream or frozen yogurt with whatever you like!

Mmmmm. I've got sooo many ideas on what kind of ice cream to make.

Dan Quayle. "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." [Quotes of the Day]

This is probably quite old and I'm most probably the last person to have seen it, but I thought I'd share it because it made me laugh. I haven't played any role playing games in years, and when I did I never quite thought about my character having sex. Well, if you have ever thought about such things there is The Complete Guide To Unlawful Carnal Knowledge For Fantasy Role-Playing Games. A guide to everything sex for rpgs.

There comes a time in an adventurer's life when he/she wants to engage in the act of sex. Unfortunately, most RPG rule books avoid the subject for obvious reasons. A player rolls dice from pottery to dancing, so why not sex?

At first glance, it may seem that a character can have sex for quite a long time. This is true for player characters. They have superior attributes, and thus can perform better (that's why they're great adventurers). However, an average character would have attributes between 9-12. Using the below rules, an average character (10 or 11 in all attributes) could go a minimum of 10 or 11 minutes (rounds) and might be able to go an additional 10 or 11 minutes if very, very lucky (dice deities willing, but don't bet on it).

Personally, I don't need my rpg characters having sex. But that's just me.

Today I was sitting at home today checking my mail when my friend Kyle IM'd me to say he was listening to my mix 'Summer' on some random shoutcast station. When I went to check it out it was certainly summer. And it was even credited to me. I don't think I even know this person who had it up there. But it's still cool. I like thinking that random people all over the net might be listening to my mixes.

I've got a major craving for coffee right now, but I'm waiting till a friend stops by to pick up a tape (and hopefully breakfast). So in the meantime I'm working on tweaking some stuff on the web, checking the job search boards, etc.

Want to welcome k-chan to the anime blog. I think she'll add a bit of energy to things. I've still got one or two more people to possibly ask to join. I am just slowly dropping people in one by one to see how each one fits in.

Robert Frost. "The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them." [Quotes of the Day]

See! Proof that clowns are evil!

You too can create your very own evil clown! [thanks to boing boing for the cool link.]

I have this old folding chair that I've been using in front of my computer for years. I just sat down on it and the seat snapped off. Time for a new chair!

Last night I got to spin over on WZBC with the most cool bennyblanco. I'd been pestering him on and off for a while to spin again on his show and he asked me to spin this week. It was a fun night. The first set I spun came out really well. I was pretty happy with how it sounded and can't wait to hear the mp3 of it. Friends Jeff and Hank came by to chill also, which was cool. I got home around 4:30ish and ended up falling asleep on the couch till 10. Then I got some food and crashed for the rest of the day.

Tonight, it's off to dinner to celebrate yesterday's birthday with my friend Heather. We're going out to this place called Case de Pedro that is quite yummy (and I know that will make at least one friend of mine quite envious). I'll report what I had later on LJ.

Harper's Index. "Estimated amount of glucose used by an adult human brain each day, expressed in M&Ms: 250" [Quotes of the Day]

Samuel McChord Crothers. "The trouble with facts is that there are so many of them." [Quotes of the Day]

I heard about this on NPR's On The Media a few weeks ago and thought it sounded pretty cool. I actually forgot about it until tonight when we were talking about DVD commentaries online. DVD Tracks is a site where people post their own commentaries for DVDs.

DVD Tracks was inspired by Roger Ebert's column You, Too, Can Be a DVD Movie Critic in Yahoo! Internet Life in February of 2002. In that column, Ebert says that he would like to hear what people who aren't being paid by the movie-makers think about movies. He recommends taking the "alternate audio tracks" on DVDs one step further.

That's where DVD Tracks began. DVD Tracks is a gathering point for alternate movie tracks from anybody.

The idea is that you start up the movie, and start up the comment track at the same time (they're mp3s). Then you can hear what someone else thought about the movie you are watching. It's a kind of neat idea, almost like blogging a movie. I just don't think I could do a commentary for a whole movie. I would probably get bored halfway through or annoyed with my inane comments.

Vice City is just too much fun. First, there's the radio. When you are in the car you can listen to a number of different stations. The cool part is they are playing actually songs from the 80s. So there's the pop station, the new wave station, the rap station, the talk radio station, it's great. Then there's just the random violence of it. I'm one off those people who is always yelling at everyone else on the road when I'm driving. And this game lets me just take out my agressive road rage. I love when I see someone on a Honda Scooter because I just give into my urge to RUN THEM DOWN.

There are also parts of the game that are just so absurd and funny. Like at one point I got beat up by a gang of chefs. I was laughing so hard I couldn't work the controls right. Then there was the time I had to chase down the and kill him off with a chainsaw. The fun never stops!

So MS is going to start fighting spam with Outlook 11, but for some reason this seems much less effective than Apple's solution.

New Outlook to give spammers the boot

Outlook 11 will, by default, no longer grab data such as images from outside servers when previewing e-mail formatted like Web pages. The ability to send and receive e-mail formatted in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) was at one time touted as a feature in Microsoft's e-mail programs. [CNET News.com]

Um, that's it? That's their solution to blocking spam? Don't load things like images. I can understand that it might stop spammers from using 'web beacons'. But spammers are going to keep spamming even without them. At least Apple is providing a way to identify spam and filter it off so that you don't even have to worry about seeing it. And if you don't look at it, you won't ever load those beacons.

Ronnie Shakes. "I like life. It's something to do." [Quotes of the Day]

It's November 1st, which means two things. One, it's the day to say "Rabbit Rabbit" (I remembered this morning, did you?). And secondly, it is the day before my birthday. I'm actually kind of dreading this one because I don't have much in the way of plans. The whole jobless thing is getting to me a little bit I think.

On the plus side, for those of you in Boston who don't sleep. On Saturday night, after the midnight hour you'll be able to hear me on WZBC. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to spin yet. I think I may just bring a whole heck of a lot of records and do the whole eclectic thing. I've been toying with the idea of pulling out some of my old trance stuff that I haven't played in ages. We'll see.

So I got a copy of Grand Theft Auto:Vice City today in a nice little game trade. Now, I never played GTA3. I watched Lukas play it for a while one day, but never really got a feel for the play of it. It's taken a few hours, but I am starting to get a little bit of a feel and it's pretty fun. There are definitely things about it that I'd change a little if I was making the game. My one complaint is that for someone who hasn't played the game at all there is nothing to give you any kind of insight into how some things work. I can understand that they want you to learn how to do things by playing, but there are some things it doesn't make much sense to learn in gameplay. For instance, that you can't save when you are in the middle of a mission. I honestly spent a good 40 minutes wandering around trying to figure out why I couldn't save and only really found out when Lukas told me. I guess I see a slight difference between no information and just enough to get you curious and exploring. Beyond that one gripe though, I'm having a blast. I actually had to go out to the store earlier and kept thinking "Hey, if this was GTA I could just drive up on the sidewalk and around all this traffic." Luckily I didn't follow through on that thought.