File Under: Punk Ass Ki...Adults

Social Distortion - Far Behind



Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Tomorrow (some of you know why I picked this one)

File Under: Comcast just can't help being douche bags

It seems that Comcast paid people to take up seats at public hearings regarding their infringements on net neutrality. Blocking people from accessing their desired content, IS what they do best.

File Under: The Braden will finally reopen

Well I was there till 10 last night, but we got the register system up and running. The projection systems are almost done. Now comes the cleaning, tons and tons of cleaning. I just know I won't be able to not help clean. Stupid urge to help, making me tired.

Side note: Had a good if convoluted experience with Microsoft Tech support. It seems when you call in for their Office product, they don't assume you're a dirt bag (Xbox).

File Under: Yeah, it's like that!

File Under: Lego Indiana Jones--You know you want it!

File Under: Kimmel gets revenge on Silverman

File Under: Lego MMO Anyone?

A Kotaku story about Lego Universe, a Lego based MMO. I suspect that by release Erik will be bugging the snot out of me for it.

File Under: Microsoft latest rat to jump off HD-DVD ship

The title pretty much covers it all, here's the link.

File Under: FCC is working on rules for putting brakes on broadband.

A NYT article about a meeting today regarding the practices of ISP's (*coughcomcastcough*) that slow down certain traffic on their networks. They seem to be working on a way to make sure these practices, which can be necessary, are done evenly with no preference to content.

File Under: Digging Tunnel Tom and Tunnel Baker

After brunch today Ellyn, Erik, Addy and I went out to dig tunnels in our nice big snow banks. I began on Tunnel Tom and Ellyn started on Tunnel Baker. After awhile we met up and began working on a room. A good time was had by all.

File Under: Big Brother wants to watch you play WoW

It seems that the US Government thinks that MMORPGs may be harboring terrorist activity. So in order to further violate any civil rights we may have in this country they are developing the Reynard project. They want to monitor all of us to see what we are up to. Joy.

File Under: EVE Online

Suckered in by a free 14 day trial and the lure of flying a starship. I tried the EVE Online MMORPG. Here are my thoughts. The game is detailed and deep. In fact it is almost to detailed. It really is aimed toward the hardcore gamer. I say this because the missions actually have expiration dates. If you fail to accept or complete missions you will lose standing with your agents, who issue the missions.

The game also appears to have a rather in depth economic engine. You have to run your ship like a business. You need to manage resources, plan expenditures and buy things like insurance. That's right insurance. If your ship gets destroyed, it's gone. You will be issued a new base level ship and an insurance settlement, assuming you bought any.

If you and your escape pod, don't make it, you better have contracted for a clone. I didn't get that far so I don't know what exactly happens.

This info is just a snowflake on the tip of the iceberg of EVE Online. My point is, only bother if you are a hardcore gamer with lots of time. If you are, you will be rewarded with a rich gaming experience. Then again, you're probably already playing it.

File Under: Yahtzee GYIR @ GDC

File Under: Mars Volta haunts my brain

This damn song seems to always be poking at the back of my mind. It's beginning to...ow quit it.

File Under: Maine losses Supreme Court case

The Maine state statute that required shipping companies to confirm the age of recipients when delivering ciggies purchased over the internet, has been struck down. It seems we will have to prod Congress to make a similar law on the Federal level.

File Under: Republicans steal more than elections.

They also steal music from hard working Democratic artists. This AlterNet post makes note of Republicans using songs by artists that don't agree with their positions. Tom Scholz is quite annoyed that Huckabee is using "More than a Feeling." I would be pretty pissed if Fuckabee was using my tunes too. I find it interesting that his campaign refuses to stop using Boston's song when asked nicely. Tom get a lawyer.

File Under: Against Me!- Thrash Unreal

This song has been getting lodged in my head like a Butterfinger in your molars. I though I would share (the song not the Butterfinger residue).

File Under: Told ya

Toshiba has announced that they will no longer manufacture or market HD-DVD players. At least one war is over. I figure I can use my 360 drive as a DVD drive for my laptop, for disc copying. There has gotta be a hack out there somewhere.

The above link is to Wired, if the link does not work, seek out the story there.

File Under: 360 Saga of Customer Service

The box to send the 360 to the repair center finally showed up yesterday. For those of you that kept track, that is 10 days.

Now we can see how long it takes to come back. We should start a pool.

Also, while in NH for training, met a lad who has had 2 rings of death. They really built a great piece of hardware, didn't they.

File Under: They make it look so easy

As I am learning about guitar and exploring great players I have found some great stuff.



Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters - "Blues for Westside"




Mason Williams, playing "Classical Gas" as far as I know the only Classical Guitar song to ever top the charts.




Chet Atkins-"Vincent"



Chet and Mark Knopfler- "Imagine"



Mark - "Brothers in Arms"

File Under: Did I pass?

Hell Yeah!

File Under: Rush and Company attempt destroy their own.

This AlterNet entry about the neo-con attack dogs going after McCain. It seems that the Republican party is going to have to hack off it's previously favorite appendage.

File Under: Count the references

This strip from Saturday's User Friendly is ripe with cultural references. Do you know what they are.

File Under: Wish Me Luck

I am about to head South for my ground school, for my balloon pilot's license. Two days of intense learning followed by a test. Oh boy, I can't wait....Hold Me.

File Under: Oreo Cookie Blues

SRV and Lonnie Mack

File Under: Comcast to FCC "Yep we're douche bags, by right"

Post on ZDnet by Russell Shaw, brings to light yesterday's filing made by cable giant Comcast to the FCC. They claim that shutting down P2P data is well within their right (it is, if you actually tell people your are going to do it before hand), and it is necessary to maintaining their networks. As you tech savvy readers know, this is kind of BS.

If they were upfront and told customers, that during high traffic times, their P2P and other bandwidth intensive apps would cause the data flow be throttled back and/or shutdown; they may have a case for not being douche bags. Since they had to be caught before they openly admitted the practice, they are douche bags.

File Under: That's a lot of cabbage!

General Motors posted a $38.7 billion (yep with a b) loss in 2007. I think it hits harder when you see it like this $38,700,000,000.00, or consider it to be 1,548,000 x the mean average Aroostook family income ($25k).

File Under: Grace and Joe kickin it at the Jammy's

Grace Potter, Joe Satriani and friends kick out a sweet ass cover of "Cortez the Killer"

File Under: Senate to Civil Liberites, FU

All I can say is don't make any phone calls that you don't want listened to. Our country just rounded another corner toward a bad end. Read this and weep for the slow death of our Constitution.

File Under: Dick continues to live up to his name.

Some of you may remember the story of Steven Howards who is suing for wrongful arrest. For those that don't, Howards was arrested after expressing his opinions to Cheney and patting him on the shoulder.

Now Cheney's office has filed a motion to suppress the release the video of depositions made by two of Cheney's aids. They are concerned that the videos would be used to make YouTube videos mocking the staff members. To this I say, tough shit, grow up and stop working for an evil prick. More importantly, the identity of his staff is not a state secret. Then again 90% of what he has been hiding isn't at a national security level, it's embarrassing or may prove the traitorous things he has done to secure sweet cash cow deals for his cabal of friends.

File Under: Peons4Hire..fired!

This news is apparently 8 days old, but still deserves acknowledgment and celebration. It seems In Game Dollar (Peons4Hire), those annoying in game spammers trying to get you to buy your World of Warcraft gold, have been permanently banned; thanks to a Federal Court ruling. To this I can only say w00t!

File Under: Grace on a blog

There is a blog at http://www.thisissomewhere.com/ which exists to remind us all that Grace Potter and the Nocturnals are pretty damn good. Check it out...now...why are you still here...Go damn it.

File Under: All But official, HD-DVD is dead.

First Warner jumped to Blu-Ray. Then Microsoft and Toshiba couldn't be bothered to send me the movies they offered for those that bought their players (my Blu-Ray movies showed up in 4 weeks, it is now over 8 for HD-DVD). Then today I received this email from Netflix.

We're Going Blu-ray Dear XXX, You're receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well. While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements. Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don't worry, we will contact you before this happens. You can click here to change your format preferences. We're sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call us at 1 (888) 638-3549. -The Netflix Team

File Under: Chavez says Oil could hit $200 a barrel

This article in Hindustan Times, makes note of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's threats to cut sales of oil to the U.S. if Exxon/Mobil's litigations cause Venezuela financial damage. By his estimation, the loss of 1.3 MM barrels daily, should drive the cost up over $200/barrel. It stems from a 2007 nationalization of Venezuelan oil fields. Exxon/Mobil wants their assets back. Understandable, but four other major oil players have come to terms and are still doing business. Should be interesting to watch, assuming it doesn't end up tanking our economy.

File Under: Secret of Blizzard's success...

is what they throw away. This 1UP article points out how Blizz isn't afraid to walk away from a project that isn't working.

FIle Under: Xbox 360 pandemic of crappiness

It seems that I understated the number of people I know with the same 360 issues I have. I found out today that there are two more people in my circle that have recently suffered from the red circle of doom. That brings the total of people I know who have had 360 melt downs to 5 (including myself). That is a 5 out of 10, or 50% failure rate, not including the multiple malfunctions that two of us have experienced. I can tell you that the other five are getting a little nervous.

File Under: Don't ever even think about buying a Microsoft Xbox 360

That's right I said it. I have fucking had it. For the third time I have the three flashing lights of death. For the third time I had to call these assholes, in what ever country they are in. For the third time, they will take a month to fix the damn thing. Oh wait, they don't actually do that, they keep it for 2-3 weeks then send me another one.

For my trouble they were kind enough to offer me a free month of X-Box Live. Free? Fuck you I already paid for it and you are just replacing it. Then they offered me one of their shitty discount shelf games. We are talking launch titles here. How is that compensation? Admittedly Viva Pinata is one of them, but I already have it.

So I asked to talk to a supervisor, stupid shit that I am. I had time for Eve Online to finish downloading (I started the download when I made the call), install, watch the intro video, and start creating a toon, before Mark (she said her name was Mark), came back and handed me over to Edgy. Edgy is a royal douche and I hope that his education in the language of English helped him to pick up the nuances of what I was telling him. All Edgy and his ilk will tell you is that, there isn't a damn thing they are going to do to make you feel better about the fact that their product is a world class piece of donkey flop. He just kept repeating that I could either do it their way or enjoy my new 36o shaped brick. The conversation ended with me asking him to "Please just send the fucking box." Which is all that was going to happen in the first place.

So to you, I say, don't even think about buying an Xbox 360. It's a big festering turd. You will end up with 4 different consoles in just over 2 years and contemplate why you shelled out all that fucking money in the first place. Just go read a nice book or something.

Addendum: This is not an isolated issue, I have two friends who have had this failure in the last 4 months. Theses machines are shit.

Also, EA, that's right fucking EA, replaced their defective drum pads for Rock Band in 2 days. TWO DAYS!

File Under: Guitar Rising, gimme gimme I want it now.

Guitar Rising is a game that will allow a person to play a real guitar instead of a Fisher Price squeaky toy. That is right, you can actually learn how to play guitar while playing this game. Due out in late 2008.

File Under: Erik checks this guitar thing out

Erik is home today with a fever. He asked if he could try the old guitar.

File Under: Mi guitarra

Slightly before my birthday I bought myself an electric guitar starter kit. It was made by Behringer and cost a whopping $130. It came with a nice 15w tube amp, a Strat wannabe, and other things you need to start playing.

When I first began, I was happy, even though the frets were sharp on the edges. The longer I played the more I became annoyed with the tone and action. As I was stopping into the music store on a regular basis to check out sheet music, this was a dangerous situation. Being a frugal guy, I did some research and learned that I needed to spend some time setting it up. I set about to adjust the neck, the action, the intonation, and pickups. I don't think the factory even tried to set this thing up. I also filed those sharp fret bars. After doing all this, it sounded and played better than it had. However, you can't guild a turd, so it was time to buy a big boy guitar.

After much research, and finding a hell of a good deal (dealer cost) I ended up buying this Hagstrom Super Swede, it came well recommended on Harmony Central and plays so smooth and sounds great. Eventually, I hope to be able to do this guitar justice.

File Under: Erik's NY Giants win Super Bowl

As many of you know, despite his mother and I being Eagles fans, my son has chosen the NY Giants as his team. Suffice to say that he is very happy today, even though he has a fever and is stuck in bed. He is also lucky in that his team has won a Super Bowl in his lifetime. Eagles, I am still waiting.

I would like take this opportunity to brag and eat some crow. I have been defending Eli all along, saying it wasn't his fault. Who did I blame? I blamed Coughlin, it is now obvious that I was wrong. So to Tom Coughlin, I apologize. It seems it was all Shockey's fault.

File Under: Why the Alliance sucks in Battle Grounds

This comic sums up the real issue with the Alliance when playing in Battle Grounds. The Alliance seems to be burdened with a large number of schmucks who don't understand the point of the old "Bird in the hand" saying. For some reason they want all the flags, which isn't the point. The point is to control the flags and garner enough points to win. Thus, the horde tends to win more often than not.