A few weeks ago I started using a Rio Cali in the gym because it has an FM tuner and the gym broadcasts TV audio on radio frequencies. I originally figured that I’d be using it to keep up with ESPN broadcasts, which sometimes don’t have closed captioning, but I’ve actually been listening to The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News which has actually been entertaining. Until today. Today’s show threw me for a loop: we all need to wake up and like right now. Continue reading Wake Up. Right Now.→
Fox: A lawsuit claims the video game “Grand Theft Auto” led a teenager to shoot two police officers and a dispatcher to death in 2003, mirroring violent acts depicted in the popular game.
Yeah, right, because after playing the game he obviously has no sense of right or wrong. Games obviously override everyone else’s sense of morality. And it’s also obvious that this was the only time that he saw any form of death or violence: never on a TV or movie screen or magazine or newspaper. It’s obvious.
What’s makes this whole thing worse is that the smart fucker will probably get away with it, having made a pointed comment or two about video games during the whole thing… inconceivable.
Seeing as I signed up for MLB via MSN Premium – I wanted to be able to keep track of live Yankees games during the season – I didn’t realize it until recently that I had access to the MSN chat rooms again. I used to visit them when they were available for free and when they switched to subscriber only, I kept in contact with chat people in a Group-based room, which was much smaller than what MSN used to offer. And since I had access to them again, thanks to the Premium package, I thought I’d take a peak and see if they were still as active as I remembered them to be…
[note: I’ve been cranky lately – house buying pressures – so I’m pulling out a post that I typed up a while ago and never got around to posting, so it might seem dated, but it’s still accurate enough] Continue reading Owner’s Manual?→
Since part of my job is to uncover bugs in software, it should stand to reason that I would find bugs in other non-digital situations: it’s hard to turn off your detection circuitry. Saw a news article and found a new bug in the world today:
It’s come early this year, but it’s still here, just the same: Big Steak Thursday. Second annual, I guess you’d call it, but I’ve sorta always observed it. Enjoy!
Packing has started to creep back into my life again. I’m hoping to pick up a townhouse soon, which means I’ll be moving again, but not nearly as far as the last two times. It’s odd: I didn’t move for 20 years but this next move will be the fifth one – including temporary housing – in 11 years; the third in the last 12 months. Still, I can deal with that. What can’t I deal with?
Growing up in an Italian household was never without its challenges… your extended family was larger than your homeroom in school – there’s still relatives I don’t recognize on the street and some I’ve never met. Trying to explain to your Wonderbread eating friends what calamad[calamari] was and why anyone would willingly eat squid was never an easy thing. Having peanut butter and Fluff in school was considered an exotic meal – my grandfather would have tried to Spackle walls with Fluff before thinking to eat it. In fact, there was usually a difficult moment during the daily trips to the school cafeteria: even when they had Italian food, there was a communication barrier. Continue reading It’s Gravy Dammit!→
Reuters: A Southern California man has sued MGM Mirage for preying on his gambling addiction and inducing him to borrow and lose millions of dollars at its Las Vegas casinos.
See what I mean about how lawsuits are idiotic these days? Consider this with the vendor, being American, the patriot [sarcasm] and the oreos… sad, really. You can do whatever you want and just get out of it later with the court system. And still people wonder why the US feels so “run down” and “chaotic” and “in decline” – dur!
Why aren’t people forced to take responsibility for their own actions?!
Reuters: The family of a girl paralyzed in a car crash caused by a drunken football fan won $105 million in damages from the concessionaire that sold him beer, and the girl’s father said on Thursday the case should have far-reaching effects.
Not to take away from what the family has gone through because I can’t imagine it, but… well… what the fuck, right? I mean, does this make any amount of sense to anyone, anywhere?! I’m sorry, but the driver drank the beer. He actively got the beer. He willingly got behind the wheel of the car. He’s the one that drove. He’s the only one that should be at fault here…
What’s next? Suing the grain used to make beer because it has alcoholic effects if it’s fermented?
Cosmic irony: watching 18 people get shipped to New York City to work for Donald Trump in a… Burger King. Having applied for season two of the show – and not getting accepted [thankfully! after seeing the last episodes of season one I wanted no part of the job!] – I feel pretty warmed, since I could have nailed this first task. After all, I got a job at Burger King with only one interview and I didn’t even have my high school degree at the time. I wonder they have to code some C# for the next episode? Coulda been a dream season!
And good luck to Verna who works for a Seattle-based technology company – I particularly like the fact that she didn’t dive into the rah-rah stuff on this episode, but that’s just me…
jwz: Those of you with Tivo may have noticed an irritating trend that the networks have started, of marking hour long shows as being 61 minutes long in the schedule. That extra minute will make Tivo skip recording a show on another channel that started at 9.
This strikes me as funny since the networks think they’re being smart while getting out played by a different PVR… Continue reading jwz on TiVo→
I’ve watched “Good Day, New York” for years. Over 15 years actually. It’s one of the few shows that I’ve missed watching during the last seven months. You can imagine that I was looking forward to catching it a few times during my vacation… and I’m glad that I did see a few episodes. Unfortunately one of the reporters that has joined the show over the last few months made me want to drop kick the TV. Continue reading Why News Shows Need a Bitch-slapper on Staff→
Fox Sports: Calling the [final World Series out] ball, “my retirement fund,” [first baseman, Doug] Mientkiewicz stored it in a safety deposit box. Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino said Thursday he’s going to ask Mientkiewicz to return it to the team. “We want it to be part of Red Sox archives or museums so it can be shared with the fans,” Lucchino told The Boston Globe. “We would hope he would understand the historical nature of it.” Mientkiewicz seems to understand it very well, which is exactly why he held on to it.
Can’t the Red Sox do anything right? I swear, they could somehow fuck up a wet dream.
I keep up on Mac news from a few different Blogs, including MacMinute and The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), and through other random sites like Neowin and C-Net. Keeping tabs on Apple news started before I got my first iPod and has stretched long past the dumping of my PowerBook… I might not have much skin in the game right now, since I’ve only got a couple of iPod, but I like to keep up with their new releases. Having said that, I think it’s time to kill off my subscription to TUAW, because they’ve gone completely off the deep end lately. I feel like I’m being intellectually tithed and it’s giving me gout.
My vacation is just about over, now. Sadly, I did not one bit of coding for my side projects this holiday season – sorry about that – but winter is settling in, which should help to keep me in front of a computer (or an Xbox) more often than not. I also took the down time to tweak my ThinkPad: I’ve ordered a replacement modem for my T41 – for some reason, they stacked the internal Bluetooth module onto the modem – and popped in an additional 256MB RAM which brings me up to 1GB. I also pinged IBM for a replacement keyboard and write rest, since they are worn shiny and covered under warrantee…
