Month: June 2004

Well, since everybody is talking about that damn Evian beauty poll, I just can’t avoid it. Thank God that they at least got number 1 right with the obvious choice of Audrey Hepburn. Of course, now I have to step away from it, otherwise I might spend all day looking at pictures of her and not getting any work done.

I still have to see the full list, and maybe make one of my own. That way I can move Grace Kelly up, and maybe bring in some better contemporaries like Audrey Tatou instead of someone like Angelina Jolie (she may be hot, but I certainly wouldn’t put her high on the natural beauty scale).

Now I’m not going to cheer like I did with the death of good ol’ Strom, but here is a nice summary of Reagan’s 8 year reign. It certainly helped to remind me that there were bad parts of the 80s.

Thanks to Jen.

I’ve been so busy at work so far this week that I didn’t even get to complain about my stupid weekend. I work late on Friday, and Lisa was already home since her early evening apointment in the city fell through. Of course we were both tired and the end result was the usual – we bailed on the planned excursion to catch Eugene (and possibly High Speed Chase) at CBGB. Totally lame, but I still had big plans for the rest of the weekend. Yeah, right…

Saturday was pretty miserable outside. It was rainy enough that I didn’t want to chance taking the camera out and about. That also meant that there was little chance of me heading up to Stevens for the alumni weekend – even if it is technically my 5th reunion. So instead I sat around playing games until Brian, Mike and I decided to head on over to Modell’s to hunt for sporting goods. It turned into more of a clothes-shopping expedition, but I did end up buying a Whiffle Ball & Bat! Oh the joys of pelting your neighbor’s car with a harmless puff of plastic. Unfortunately there were no gloves my size, and our subsequent game of catch was pathetic at best.

Yes, I made it home in time to catch yet another heartbreaker for Philly. Which simply turned into a lot more beer drinking for me before we finally ordered some wings, etc. So in the end, the whole day was pretty much awash.

Of course that meant the only possibility for Sunday was more miserable weather which discouraged Lisa (not the g/f, the co-worker) and I from going ahead with our planned hike. Oh joy, not a single picture taken the entire weekend. Sure, that night was cool as a bunch of us went to Johnny Carino’s in Bridgewater for dinner, but the rest was a big fat disappointment. Next week I’m planning on sitting on my ass the entire time – that way I’ll be pleasantly surprised when something cool comes up, or content to merely catch up on all my missed opportunities for ass-sitting.

Tonight Lisa (the g/f this time) and I will be checking out an apartment in Montclair. Let’s hope it goes better than the weekend.

Why do we have Lady Foot Lockers? Seriously, I was in Foot Locker today and half the store is women’s clothes, shoes, etc. Why do they have their own store, too?

Yes, Philadelphia is desperate for a sports champion. Yes, I generally ignore horce racing. Nevertheless, there’s no way I’m missing the race tomorrow. And while I may not cheer as loudly as during the NFL playoffs, I’ll still be screaming my head off for Smarty Jones.

Lots of fun with Picture Pages, now it’s time Bill Cosby drew a picture page… Oh where was I? Oh yeah, as I mentioned before, I ordered my new toy, and now my life is complete. Seriously, tonight’s show at CBGB’s with Eugene and High Speed Chase will be the first real test, but I’ve still been taking pictures in the meantime. First up is a picture of the camera itself (courtesy of my trusty PowerShot A40 – I think my cell phone is there for sizing purposes).

!@(images/thecamera.jpg popimg: “The Camera”)
!@—

We’ll follow it with a picture of the manual explaining how to hold the camera – please note the placement of the feet!

!@(images/themanual.jpg popimg: “The Manual”)
!@—

And lastly we shall conclude with a glimpse of my spacious office. Don’t let the angle fool you, it’s not nearly as big as this picture makes it look.

!@(images/theoffice.jpg popimg: “The Office”)
!@—

This concludes today’s brief experiment with photography and blogging. I truly hope this was uneducational for all.

So after my (somewhat over-the-top) response to “The Mac is a Harsh Mistress” I received a (somewhat) well-deserved reply by the author. My big mistake was using such a harsh title – I sometimes forget how trackbacks work 😉 . Anywho, the only reason I even bitched about it was the implication (well, not so much implied as stated) that Linux desktop users will eventually come to their senses and use something else. The rest of my complaints really weren’t enough to get me energized for a post.

Nevertheless, I brought it up, and was left thinking yesterday about what was my real problem with the analogy. Now many of you may have realized by now that I am not a fan of analogies. They tend to be poorly constructed to prove a one-sided point without really comparing issues properly. However I still find it a challenge to improve upon ones that I see as flawed. You obviously can’t take into account all factors (Macs are white and I’m dating a black girl!), but you can try for some sort of common ground, or consistancy, in compared areas. And that’s where the challenge is.

Personally I wasn’t sold on the whole woman idea. I don’t have any emotional attachment to my computer, merely some of the information I keep on it. I use it for fun and functionality, my life occurs away from it (which would be why my girlfriend wants me to spend less time on it 😀 ). But then it occured to me that the inherent problem with Charles’ take was using the extremes of whore versus lover. Let’s take it all with the same approach he looked at Linux – girlfriends! (Right now is when I’m glad that Lisa doesn’t actually read this 🙂 ). The basic setup is this: Mac = high school sweet heart / Windows = girl in college / Linux = high school girl you find later. Now let’s see if I can make this work:
Continue reading “What OS are you dating?”

A day late, but I made my weekly Best Buy run last night. I always like to check what new releases and specials they run, because I just can’t bother to keep up with that info myself anymore. This week, for example, I was surprised to find out that a 2-disc special edition of Trainspotting had finally been released. Yay, I finally get to see the international version!

Musically speaking, I also tend to find some real gems with their push for CD’s to be $9.99. I picked up another 3 fairly recent releases, and can so far praise one of them (haven’t listened to the other two yet). Motown 1’s is simply a stellar release featuring 26 tracks from one of the best labels and the foundation for so much modern music. There are so many songs that I know and love, and plenty that I loved but didn’t even know it! Even if you don’t feel like shelling out the 10 bucks, look at the track listing and download away. Everybody should be schooled in the classics so that they can truly appreciate music.

The most important track on the compilation for me is SmokeyRobinson & The Miracles‘ “The Tears of a Clown”. If you don’t know this song, you should. It would easily make my top ten songs ever written. And this leads me to my next point – I’m thinking of compiling a list of the songs that I consider the greatest. And I don’t mean favorites. I mean those songs that are so perfect and so important that the world would be severely lacking without them. Obviously this is still a matter of opinion, but since it’s my blog, my opinion rules. Number one on that list (although I doubt it will actually be numbered) is an easy choice for me, and anyone who hears me play it constantly will know what I mean. Still, I’m more than willing to take any suggestions…

I also just realized that this was possibly the most boring post on an interesting subject ever written. I’ve got to get back into the swing of things.

I find it so ludicrous when people espouse the virtues of Macs over PCs with an almost religious zeal, often under the guise of being “fair and balanced”. At least The Fishbowl makes it obvious that he is biased, still his analogy of operating systems and women is silly at best. To act as though Apple and it’s products actually care about its users in any way is just naive – Mac as a lover indeed! Of course all the usual types will jump out and say, “How true, Windows truly is a whore, and I love my Mac as much as it loves me!” But that’s what you get when products have followings.

What’s even worse is his attempt to bring Linux into the foray. To call Linux (yes, even on the desktop) a psychotic girlfriend who you will eventually abandon when you come to your senses shows how little he understands about anything computer-related outside of the Mac world. His description might have flown about 7 years ago, but it sounds clueless today. Personally, I know far more people who use Linux than Macs – and even OS X is built on BSD. At least a couple commenters seemed to have the right idea:

Linix is that plain girl from down the hall who might be your soul mate, who would be good to you and make you happy, if only you could get over your shallowness and ignore how she looks.
– Simon Brunning

I think that Linux is like that psychotic girlfriend that just seemed psychotic because you didn’t really understand her and becomes a lifelong companion later on 😉
– Nimalan Mahendran

Mac is the rich, snotty girl who would never give me a second look because I wore old bluejeans and t-shirts and drove an old Ford that I had rebuilt from parts. She wore designer outfits, drove a Lexus, scoffed at my rustic, poverty-stricken life.

Linux was the hippy girl in swirling skirts and tie-dye that looked within, welcomed me with open arms, because she loves all beings, didn’t ask for the moon…
– tony

I also liked the comment about BeOS and even the comparison of Linux to masturbation. I use my PC as a tool. I enjoy a lot of the things it can do, and also see where it can be improved. It’s a centerpiece of my life because of who I am and how I grew up, but I won’t let it define me.

Mac users tend to act like Apple the company can do no wrong and is so wonderful it practically invented kittens. They worship the ground Steve Jobs walks on because certainly his shit does not stink. What they don’t realize is that it is still a corporation, and sees them the same way as Gates and MS does – with great big dollar signs in their eyes.