THOMnottom

First, a brief note about work. I don’t talk about work much, but some really exciting stuff has been going on and I need to share. I have successfully installed a T1 line between the two facilities. Okay, in reality there were a dozen guys from Verizon that actually ran the fiber, spliced it, and hooked up the many boxen that converted light to electric signals. But I was the man standing next to the man! The important thing is that it works. No more crappy VPN file transfers, we’ll be able to work together as a real company. Now I just have to transfer the IP configurations to the new setup…

On a personal note, my car is now officially inspected until next March! That’s right, state of New Jersey, suck it! I went just over a year with an expired inspection sticker and suffered no consequences. Do you realize what that means? Laws do not matter. Go forth and do whatever you like, they can’t catch you! Ok, maybe that’s a little extreme, but I like the feeling that my laziness was a little bit of social defiance rather than merely… well… laziness.

The real kicker – not long after pulling out of my company’s parking lot I noticed a warning on my dashboard. Yup, the “Check Engine Soon” light had come back less than an hour after inspection.* Once again state of New Jersey, suck it! That little light ain’t fooling me, I’ll get it looked at next March.

* – In case I hadn’t made it clear, the whole reason I hadn’t taken my car in for inspection was that stupid light. It kept going on, which means I automatically fail. So what was the point of taking it in when I already knew it would fail?

Since it’s already being passed around LJ, I figured I’d try to help out in the blogosphere. From my friend Joseph, a request for help on creating a very geek-like library:

Subject: the future is tomorrow…
From: “joseph agostinelli”
Date: Thu, April 7, 2005 11:29 pm

Friends, strangers, and hopefully fellow geeks, your help is needed.

A very good friend of mine is the head librarian at a engineering college in Arizona; she is attempting to create what she believes will be the first comic book, anime, manga, sci fi, animation archive in the national library system.

the existence of this archive would set a precedent for the american library system, and seriously, would be a huge step toward “legitimizing” an art form that has made a profound impact on all our lives. other universities would in effect have to follow suit, and start archiving sci fi movies, comic books and so on themselves.

But she can’t do it alone; as much as we already know about these subjects, there are still large gaps in our expertise and we would greatly appreciate your help.

here’s what we’d love for you to do;

1. make a list of titles of sci fi, anime, manga, comic books, ect. that you consider indispensable in the experience of the genre.

feel free to geek out. you’re among friends 🙂

2. please list websites you know on the subjects mentioned. if you know a particularly great or informative website, please share it, as she will catalog the website and make it available to people searching for the subjects either just online, or at ANY library in the country. don’t be afraid to include sites designed for newbies.

3. feel free to explain and introduce esoteric categories, nomenclature, and so forth. pardon my own ignorance for only mentioning the genre’s i did.

4. pass this email to every geek you know.

5. make the subject of your email the word “geek”; it’ll make sorting things easier for us.

one caveat, and its a minor one; my friend is interested in including INFORMATION on, say, hentai and “adult” comics, but isn’t able to include them physically in the archive. websites and so forth are thus appreciated.

if possible, try to get back to me as soon as you can, and try to keep the info organized as best you can.

May the force be with you all.

Joseph

aim — carda55ia prim3
live journal — n3xus6
msm — agostinellijp at hotmail dot com (nexus6)

Mark and I caught Sin City tonight. It was the most violent, gruesome, bloody, and graphic film I’ve ever seen. Wow, what a ride. The style, direction, and characters were all amazingly well done. From start to finish I was completely drawn into the entire comic world Frank Miller created. I’d say more if I could, but my mind is so completely scattered from the intense cinematic experience that I can’t organize my thoughts.

However I do need to make one major statement: DO NOT TAKE KIDS TO SEE THIS MOVIE! Yes, that did need to be in all caps. To the people behind us who brought their 9 year-old girl: YOU ARE HORRIBLE PARENTS. Incredible film, but not for kids.

New coffee machine at work… Seven or eight ways to serve up hot caffeine… Craziness ensues…

I’m so excited about this machine that I’ve tried three of the options today alone: Cappucinno, Café Mocha, and Café Latte. Café Mocha is definitely the best, but they’re all way better than the crap I had been drinking before.

But the real point of this post? To test out the Auto shutoff comments plugin, of course. From now on, comments will be closed after 21 days. That sounds like a good length to me.

UPDATE: Oh yeah, it worked. Great plugin, this should definitely cut down on spam, and all those stupid comments about how much you like cheese (I’m not making that up, 6 from one person on a post about censorship). We’ll see if I have to do it to trackbacks, too. Not that I get a lot of trackbacks…

UPDATE: For starters, after a quick trial I’m seriously debating a third cup of the Hazelnut Cappucinno – which I’m sure you’re all fascinated by. Secondly, I’ve already received 2 trackback spams, so it is quite probable that I will kill trackbacks after 21 days along with comments.

Uh oh, looks like that time of the week again. You’d think with Mikalah gone, the suck factor would be almost non-existent. But with a theme like musicals, you can be assured that people will still suck. Pretend like this post never was.

Continue reading “American Idol – Top Nine”

With all other world matters finally taken care of, we can now focus our attention on the important issues. What, pray tell, could that be? Why, “Which beer would you most like to drink?” of course. Realbeer.com (which is based on the West Coast, lest anyone view this as regional bias) is holding its annual Battle of the Beer Championship, which finds two-time champion Dogfish Head out of Delaware fighting Cherry Hill’s own Flying Fish. Boy, the original Tri-State Area sure produces some great beer.

Make sure to fulfill your civic duty and vote. And remember, we need informed voters. If you don’t know the beers, go down to your loval pub and research.

Mark should get a big kick out of this:

My car failed inspection! w00t!

Normally people would be upset by this, however I see it as a true triumph. I took my car in for inspection on Friday (April Fool’s Day of course) because it expired in March. No big deal, you say. Last March. That’s right, I made it a full year with an expired inspection sticker on my car. And now, for some reason, I am driving more legally… or something like that. All thanks to a piece of paper that says it’s ok for my car to not work properly, because it will sometime soon.

What a wonderful system. For my next trick I’m going to see how long I can drive without a front right wheel before a cop notices.

I’m not sure if I can make the Great Chinned One‘s appearance tomorrow night, but if you’re interested, here’s the press release:

CAMDEN — Actor/author Bruce Campbell, the star of the cult favorite “Evil Dead” and “Army of Darkness” films, will present “An Evening with Bruce Campbell” at Rutgers University—Camden at 8 p.m. Sunday, April 3.

Noted for his role as the chainsaw-wielding “Ash” in the “Evil Dead” film series, Campbell is the author of the book “If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor” (LA Weekly Books, 2002) and the forthcoming book “Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way” (Thomas Dunne Books, 2005). He also co-authored an issue of the comic book series “The Hire,” published by Dark Horse Comics.

In the 2003 film “Bubba Ho-Tep,” Campbell played an aging Elvis Presley who emerges from seclusion to battle mummies. The film, which co-starred the late Ossie Davis, was selected for inclusion in international film festivals in Toronto and Hong Kong, and earned “Best Actor” and “Best Screenplay” honors at the U.S. Comedy Arts Film Festival.

He starred in the 1993-94 television series “The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr.” and has appeared in numerous films, including “Spider-Man” and “Spider-Man 2.” He has produced or co-produced several movies, including the forthcoming “Man with the Screaming Brain” (in which he also stars), which is slated for release in 2005.

“An Evening with Bruce Campbell” will be held in the Campus Center, located on Third Street, between Cooper Street and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge on the Rutgers-Camden campus. General admission is $5.

For more information, call (856) 225-6161. Directions to Rutgers-Camden are available at www.camden.rutgers.edu.

If anyone is interested, let me know and I’ll try to work it into my schedule.

Finally caught Super Size Me last night, and the verdict is: meh. It was definitely interesting, and Morgan Spurlock was funny throughout, but I really don’t see the big deal. I got the feeling that this movie really opened eyes, but I just didn’t see anything new or shocking. I certainly enjoyed watching the movie, but as a documentary it was not the amazingly brilliant, earth-shattering message that it’s been made out to be.

When I worked at NetTech, it was only three or four guys originally working out of a basement in the ‘burbs. The nearest shopping center had a Wendy’s, a Burger King, a Chinese place, and a pizza place. We typically alternated amongst them when we weren’t out job sites. It was also common for us to hit a Mickey D’s or BK out on the road, but all the time. At the worst I’d say that I ate fast food anywhere from 2 to 4 lunches a week. Outside of that I’d hit one for dinner maybe once or twice a month. And guess what? It made me feel like crap. It wasn’t surprising in the least, but it’s what we did. And if we hadn’t all been in fairly good shape, it probably wouldn’t have gone on that long. But every so often we would make the effort and cut down, and guess what? We’d feel better.

Well, maybe not Doug. I think he actually needed Popeye’s at least once again for his metabolism.

These days I really cut down on the whole fast food experience, because I’ve known since I was a little boy that it was bad for me. Just go out to a nice place and get a real burger. You know, the ones that cost $5.99 instead of 89 cents. If you honestly think they were made in the same way, you’re nuts.

This is somewhat scattered, but I’m having trouble trying to organize all of my thoughts here. I didn’t dislike the movie, and I certainly don’t think Spurlock was trying to blame America’s obesity problems strictly on Mickey D’s, but I also don’t think he really made much of a point. Well, aside from the one that if you eat crap for 30 days straight, it will be bad for you. Thanks, I figured that one out about 20 years ago.

I’m not trying to excuse some of the crappy standards that fast food companies operate under, but then again it’s called FAST food for a reason – the health and quality of it sure ain’t the major selling point. But come on folks, it’s not that hard to NOT supersize a meal. I’m glad that people are trying to be healthier, but it’s funny when people act like this kind of crap is just plain evil. Sure it is, just like bread.

Somedays I feel like I’m the only person who’s ever heard of a little thing called “moderation.”

I’d have to say this makes sense:

Your Brain is 46.67% Female, 53.33% Male

Your brain is a healthy mix of male and female You are both sensitive and savvy Rational and reasonable, you tend to keep level headed But you also tend to wear your heart on your sleeve

(thanks to Donncha)