My Imagination Is Power

On the bus ride home today I saw a Bald Eagle perched out in a marsh area off of Lake Washington, near UW. It got me thinking about our nation and the coming elections, and I decided to let everyone know that I'm planning on voting for Hillary Clinton.

We need someone in the White House that can stand up to everything from sniper fire to cheating husbands. Someone who will be sure that 100 adults will lose the choice to play mature video games before even a single child is exposed to such depravity.

We need someone like Hillary who will learn from their opponents on the Republican of the aisle, picking up such tactics as voter suppression, spreading dirty rumors through third party supporters, spurning party rules, astro-turfing and any other dirty tricks that it takes to get them elected.

A president should obviously be someone who will carry on with their present course, regardless of the hard facts in front of them. Hillary has this down pat with her campaign. We need someone who will play to win, even when it's impossible for them to do so without dirty tricks.

Bring on the dirty tricks! Bring on the divisive politics! Bring on business as usual!

BRING ON HILLARY!

Having the Google ads run on my site has earned me all of $15 over the last couple years. Definitely not worth having John McCain ads run on my site. Funny how just a few years ago, I was actually pulling for John McCain to run as an independent. But now John McCain is just as bad as the rest of them.

To make up for the John McCain ads run on my site, I dedicate this post about John McCain to you, John McCain. May your John McCain campaign go as smoothly as the war you now cheer-lead, John McCain.

So yeah, the ads are deleted.

I like the idea of subsisting on simple meals of bread, cheese and mead, like in the days of yor.

Unfortunately I don't like the idea of scurvy.

I remember all the interesting things I would get to do when I visited as a kid. Driving hours and hours to be with you on Christmas, all of us cousins ripping into a stack of presents in the living room. We'd go down in the cellar to check out all the new wood gadgets you were making. I think I even still have a medal toy soldier you had made. Hiking back behind your old house, trying to avoid cowpies, hunting for fossils and I believe I even shot my first .22 with you back there. I remember sitting on the porch with the whole family, probably 4th of July weekend, in the heat, playing cards or board games and probably losing to Aunt Janet.

We always wait in anticipation of one of your stories. Ok, maybe not "wait in anticipation", but whenever you get started everyone knows to shut up and listen in. Whether it's a joke you had just heard from a buddy or a story about some guy you once knew, we all want to hear. I guess I take after you in that way, staying quiet most of the time; it only makes people want to listen in more when you do speak up. Makes everything seem a bit more important when it is said.

So, with memories of cowpies, greasy fingernails, quiet stories...I'll miss you.

Told you so.

One origin of the debate.

"I had just been asked a question -- I don't remember which one -- and Obama was sitting right next to me. Then the moderator went across the room, I think to Chris Dodd, so I thought I was home free for a while. I wasn't going to listen to the next question. I was about to say something to Obama when the moderator turned to me and said, 'So, Gov. Richardson, what do you think of that?' But I wasn't paying any attention! I was about to say, 'Could you repeat the question? I wasn't listening.' But I wasn't about to say I wasn't listening. I looked at Obama. I was just horrified. And Obama whispered, 'Katrina. Katrina.' The question was on Katrina! So I said, 'On Katrina, my policy . . .' Obama could have just thrown me under the bus. So I said, 'Obama, that was good of you to do that,'" - Bill Richardson, currently weighing whether to back the Illinois senator.

After sitting through Cloverfield, an 11 year old boy in front of me asked his parents, "Was that scarier than 9/11?"

Unfortunately, no. But I'm glad the kid didn't know.

I also keep seeing people comment that it's "too soon". It's been over 7 years since 9/11. When can we start play-acting it out through entertainment? Kids do this all the time. They see a scary movie, or have some trauma happen, then they act it out over and over until they're not scared of it anymore. Can we please start getting through this now? It took Japan 9 years to create Godzilla to help them deal with their national trauma, surely it's OK that we've been faster than that.

This is a first step. If we stop being scared of 9/11, stop cowering in fear over the prospect of it happening again, we can take a step back and be a little rational about it.

Anyway, it was a great movie. Who cares if the characters were ripped from One Tree Hill or the OC, the movie wasn't about them anyway. It was about their experience. I'm surprised it's taken this long since the Blair Witch Project for the technique to make it to a big monster/disaster movie like this. It's pretty much just how I wanted it to be. Maybe even less monster though.

Microsoft STILL has yet to fix their DRM licensing issues for Xbox Live Marketplace downloads, locking many people out of the content they've paid for. So when your 360 gets the RRoD, they will fix it, but in the process break everything you've downloaded from XBLM, leaving it to you to spend months on the phone with XBL Support. Here's what I've had to go through so far:

A few months ago (Nov. 7th) my Xbox got the RRoD, and I sent it in to be repaired. After a few weeks, I got it back, fixed, but now everything that I'd bought and downloaded from Marketplace won't run if I'm not signed in with my primary gamertag. This included at least 15 Arcade games, and multiple game-addons. At least $200 worth of purchases. OXM recently had an article on how it was their primary complaint with the console.

So not only did my Xbox break, but after the "fix" I've now lost functionality on about $200 worth of purchases. It's very frustrating that in a home with multiple gamertags that used to have access to all the arcade games I've paid for, they now don't because of poor DRM management.

The handling of this error has been less than satisfactory. When I called Xbox support Dec. 6th about this, I was told my downloads would be fixed in 20 days, max, and to call back if it hadn't been fixed by then. After almost 30 nothing had changed. On Jan. 2nd I called and was told that now it might be fixed on the 12th. Maybe. So now my Xbox hasn't been fully functional for over 2 months, and to top it off, all I'm getting for my troubles is an "I'm sorry" from a call center worker, not even an explanation why they blew their first deadline. After asking how they would compensate me for these months that my Xbox or downloads don't work as intended, they said they couldn't do anything for me, and actually hung up on me.

I brought my Xbox to my family's over Christmas, but I couldn't show them any of the cool arcade games, themes, downloaded game content or videos because all of this content is completely broken without the internet. I had to explain to everyone that my Xbox broke, and then Microsoft broke the games in the repair process. That doesn't seem like a good way to get people excited about the product, and definitely doesn't make me very happy.

At this point, I'm going to think twice before spending money on Marketplace, and I've warned coworkers and friends about how this repair has been handled.

Whenever Major Nelson, Xbox spokesperson, posts about a new arcade game, the comments are filled with complaints about customers being locked out of their bought content due to poor DRM management.

UPDATE (01-13-08): I called 1800-4MY-XBOX again, to see if there were any status updates. After spending a while trying to get Tier 1 support to transfer me to a supervisor, I spoke with a "Carlos" who tried telling me about licensing and why my games don't work (duh). He also told me he had no authority to issue any sort of compensation (even though a previous Tier 1 support person told me Tier 2 could do this.) He finally looked up the status of my licensing transfer, and actually told me it was 97% done! He told me that, by tomorrow morning, I would be getting a call-back, telling me I could finally re-download my games/ add-ons, etc.

He PROMISED, over and over that I would receive this call, and that the person calling would be able to issue me compensation. We shall see!

Who knows if this is them just blowing their deadline by a few days, or if it is because this story made front page of Digg. This whole process still needs to be fixed. I shouldn't have to do a single thing to have my games working. It should have been automatically done when they repaired my console.

UPDATE (01-14-08): No call from Xbox Live as Carlos had promised. I had to give "Andrew" all of my information, even last 4 digits of my CC# before he would transfer me to his supervisor. Once he did, she had no more information, and no idea why "Carlos" promised me what he did, and had no clue where he got the 97% done figure. Guess it was made up. She wouldn't give me any other information or dates, but told me she marked down that "Carlos" had lied to me.

History:

Jan 29th
John called again and said my content was fixed. He said they would not offer my any compensation for the hassle, the time that my content hasn't worked correctly or the time that I've spent on the phone trying to get this issue resolved. I came home and tried to delete/redownload the content, and it still does not work correctly. Now even John's lied to me.

I got around to changing the oil in my motorcycle this weekend. I've changed the oil in cars a number of times, so I didn't think it'd be too problematic. Gathered up my oil, papertowels, a couple adjustable wrenches, a funnel, and a disposable aluminum turkey baster pan. After trying for 15 minutes trying to get the nut off with my adjustable wrenches I had to give up, and drove myself down to Home Depot looking for a good socket set.

Being a Honda, and Japanese, I was looking for MM sets that had a 17mm socket, but they didn't have any. Finally I found a dual SAE, MM set that actually had the sockets I needed. Then I walked over to Sears and, palm to head, realized that Sears carries every Craftsman tool under the sun, and I probably could have picked up just the sizes I needed.

Getting back home, it still took another 15 minutes or so, pulling and banging on the oil pan drain nut before I finally broke it's hold and got it out. I had the turkey baster pan under it, but of course, the oil shot out, hit the exhaust pipes, slid along and poured out 2" past the pan. I'm glad I was on the street, in an area that was already oil stained, instead of pulling into the apartments garage to do this. The oil filter nut was equally tough to get out, but a little WD-40 did the trick finally.

The turkey baster pan worked great. Looking under the motorcycle, you can definitely tell where the pan was, as everywhere but that spot is sprayed with oil. I was able to bend it up to form a little spout to pour the blackened, used oil back into the oil jug which is now sitting in my sink, waiting for me to find a place that'll take it.

Now I just need to figure out how to get my seat to lock down, and get some saddle bags that'll work with the bike.

This is pretty awesome. Hooking up my iPod with iTunes and Lastfm, and using this site, you can output your music listening habits as a very slick graph.

I read The Consumerist.com frequently. It usually has stories about deals and corporate wrong-doing, greed, ways to fight back, and general consumer advocacy. It's also part of Gawker Media, which is a large collection of blogs online, which mimic a digital Parade Magazine, covering gossip, celebrities, tech, gadgets, etc. A couple days ago, they did a post linking to their Flickr favorites, and mentioned thats where they get a lot of the good photos they post on their site. Right when I saw it I wanted to mention to them that they needed to be careful and only pick out Creative Commons Licenced photos, and make sure they use attribution. Distracted by the girl, and sleep, I didn't get around to it, and when checking the page the next day, for sure, they were called on it.

Their only response? "Transformative means fair use." In the comments there were links to a prior post from December where they were called on the fact that they had stolen someone's Flickr photo. The editor of Consumerist.com Ben Popken's response about adding a link to the flickr page was appalling:

"I have now removed the link because we realize that this policy would be more trouble than it's worth. If people want credit, they can ask for it. If people want their photo down, they can ask us. Otherwise, we'll just go back to using the best photos we can find in order to illustrate our posts. If you guys want a bunch of ugly ass retarded stock photos all the time, you're in the fucking wrong place."

"Credit is more [trouble] than its worth because then we would have to deal with people bitching all day that we didn't spell their name correctly, or they want their name and not their Flickr ID and so on and so forth... when my time is better spent looking for the next post to write. The next post that will save you time or money, or reveal some corporate skulduggery or whatnot. What is the greater good? To use the best photo possible to illustrate the post and move on!"

"I know, let's make drawings of everything. We are careful. We choose nice photos. If musicians and producers used the same notions of copyright today back in the day, there would be no hiphop. Consider us the Paul's Boutique of consumer knowledge."

I knew that just writing an email to the editor wouldn't cut it at this point. So I posted the whole thing to Flickr's forums, and then linked to it in the comments of 4 or 5 of the photos they'd stolen. I told Chase about it, and he put up a story on Digg, which made the front page earlier today.

After a number of posts in the flickr thread, and a couple of hours Stewart, a member of flickr staff, and I found out later, one of the founders, said they were looking into it, and "It is definitely a bizarre attitude coming from a publication that is ostensibly out to protect "the little guy" ... "

By the end of the day, The Consumerist had apologized. They also set up a flickr group and asked for photo submissions that they could use on their site. There are at least a handful of posts where images are still being used without attribution, but they may be working on that, and will no doubt be called on it if they remain up much longer.

It was quite interesting, watching the posts and the comments, and seeing the response build through out the day. It is also pretty amusing to look at The Consumerist frontpage today, covered with crappy screenshots from commericals.

This is all just too hilarious:

I have made my way through a whole NY Times crossword, and only needed help with two words. Granted, it was a Monday, but I still think that's pretty good.

The two words:
53a. Three Letter Combo (7 letters) I had TRI _ _ A _ (I hadn't heard of the word at all)
37d. Travelers (8 letters) I had V _ Y _ _ _ E _ _ (though, after seeing the answer, I feel dumb for not getting it)

Next, onto Tuesday!!

For anyone who wants my Mariokart DS friend code:

107452321218

I was bored and decided to do a little upgrading around here. Let me know if you run across anything broken. Hopefully the comment spam doesn't come back.

Fuel Valve
Ignition
Neutral
Engine
Choke/Clutch

then when done:

Thumb
Key
Valve

Already aced the written portion, just need to ride for 4-5 more hours tomorrow, and apparently I'll be street legal.

Update: Passed the driving test with a 91. Anything above an 80 is passing. The biggest "mistake" was taking a right hand turn too wide by about 2 feet. For some reason I can do that much better turning left than right.

I went to the DMV today and got my temporary license with a "END 3" addition to it, and should have my real one in a few days. Now it's time to find some gear and a bike!

For anyone who wants my Tetris DS friend code:

364088469743

Maybe I'll see you in Tetris sometime.

I finally put in an order at Threadless, which I'd been meaning to do for a while. A couple popped up that I couldn't resist.

Chad (aka Shishka) pointed out to me today that I'm listed on Moby Games directory of people in the video game industry. Though they mixed my entry with a Creative Designer for a Splinter Cell game.

I was checking out Google Calendar the other day. One of the neatest features is the ability to import other calendars from around the web. I was able to get the KEXP event calendar as well as other Seattle calendars integrated right into my own. So this, and the fact that I always miss live shows of bands I want to see, got me thinking.

What I need is a service that I can input the groups I like to go see, the Go! Team, Paul Simon, Johnny Clegg, etc. and it gives me an RSS feed or email reminders when these bands are planning to come to town. I never remember to check these individual bands sites to see when they'll be around, and often they've come the week before I check, and I've already missed out.

I suppose the trick is to get bands to submit their schedules to a site and keep them current. They all want the traffic to their own sites, and promoters the same. It would probably take someone in the industry with connections to get something like this set up. Maybe creating it semi-wiki style with fans submitting dates for artists...

Maybe I need to figure out how to start it myself. Just grab a Stranger each week, start a database, and get it going for Seattle...and see how it goes...

I saw this on Craigslist, but it was an old listing and sure to have already been bought up. I'm trying to figure out what type it is, or what store carries it. I haven't seen any coffee table that would work as well as this one.

Only Alex and Melanie would find, buy, and give as a gift, a box that looks like this kitty. Just what is that paw print doing there?

And the bumper sticker "I Played D&D Before it Was Cool" begs the question, is it actually cool now? I have been tempted to pick up the 20 sided Tshirt. But I've never assumed what I thought was cool was actually cool. But I guess if Alex thinks so, it must be. Oh, wait, his site currently features a post titled, "linuxppc & airport extreme". Maybe I should take that into account before I stick that bumper sticker to anything important.

I was about to give myself the gift of a new cellphone and added minutes and txt messages (easily blew through 300 this month, and it was worth it). Luckily I noticed that I get a phone upgrade at the end of January. Makes the Razr sound slightly reasonable.

Now, the real question is, when I return to Seattle, will it be 360 or Cube?

Over the weekend I got a pretty decent headcold, and I wasn't sure if I'd make it to work on Monday. After hearing my alarm clock go off, I check the bus schedule, and the last reasonable bus takes off at 9:56 (it is after this that they run half as often, so it's harder to catch one). I decide that if I can't get out of bed by 9:40 (giving me just enough time to wash my face/hair and throw on clothes) I was too sick to go to work. After falling back asleep for a while, I wake up and check my cellphone for the time. Yup, 9:50...time to get up and write an email to my manager saying I wouldn't be in. Crawling out of bed, I check the wall clock...CRAP! 9:20. I completely dreamt that I overslept. Guess I can make it to work.

While at work, and high on Advil Cold and Sinus and Afrin, I got swamped with stuff that's due end of day Tuesday. Luckily I was able to finish most of it because, SUPRISE! Team meeting day. I have to leave the building by 4 because they'll be discussing "top secret" stuff, most of which I actually work on, but whatever... Which, while not getting many hours in, was a welcome suprise, seeing as my face was clogging up again.

Then I decide to finally make my way out to Target and pick up a bunch of stuff I've been putting off getting. Like some more clothes, actual blankets for my bed, a humidifier, etc. I should have guess though, that going down the aisles and seeing the one blank spot on the shelf that that would be the size and color blanket I wanted. Happened for the humidifier as well. Shelves brimming with humidifiers and the one that's sold out is the one I wanted. Oh, and a couple shirts that caught my eye? Yeah, none in my size.

At least I got socks.

Is it just me, or are these Seattle Metro seat signs that they've attached to the first forward-facing seat in all the buses a little strange? Sure, it's pretty neat that the buses are honoring Rosa Parks, but isn't it a little odd to use the vehicle of her oppression as a memorial to her? And who's going to want to sit there? It's not even the first seat in the bus, though I can see the debate now:

"It needs to be the front of the bus!"
"But those are for the handicapped and elderly! You can't honor her with a handicapped seat!"
"What? Now you're saying the handicapped are better than Rosa Parks?"
"Whatever, give her the first forward facing seat."

Alright, been a while, done some things, so it's time to update (warning, linka-a-rific):

This last week I went and saw the Go! Team again. They were probably just as good, but the crowd wasn't quite as into it (they were either moshing, or just standing there, no good "jumping-up-and-down" medium). But the real treat was finally seeing Smoosh before hand.

I knew it was an all ages show, but even so it was strange to see a few 10-12 year old kids running around, chasing each other. One boy was chasing a little blonde girl, and the security grabbed the boy and told him to chill and not run. I figured they were just some kids who had heard of Smoosh, maybe went to school with them. Then, after the first act, the little girl gets up on stage and starts playing guitar! I knew Smoosh was two girls, 11 and 13, blonde sisters, but I didn't expect them running around the venue before the show started. I believe it's the 11 year old that sings and plays keyboard, and the 13 year old plays drums. Ha, (fake) 19 year old Nellie McKay eat your heart out!

Chase has been trying to see them for over a year now, so I kept hearing them mentioned and then him groaning that he missed them again. There are some mp3s here (done when they were 8 and 10). You can see, at least, that they aren't just a "kiddie" band. They really rock hard live (check out the end of the video). It was strange to see them roll their eyes, or grimace when they hit a wrong note or skipped a beat. They have such a mature sound (except for the higher pitched voice) that you can forget they're just kids playing, and thats what kids do when they screw up. Hopefully they'll still be playing in 10 years.

Onto the next thing, I finished Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation a while ago, but finally posted my "review". I'm halfway through another whole stack of books (I can't seem to concentrate on just one at a time).

I've been playing some Urban Dead lately. Massive browser-based zombie RPG. I started as a cop, but was killed and resurrected a few times now. I'm up to level 3 (it's very slow), but it's going to pick up, now that I can claw people with a 50% chance of hit (you get XP based on damage dealt, so when you start, it takes FOREVER to get to the next level.) Pretty fun for what it is.

The Adventures of Art Lad has been pretty interesting. It's a young kid who's father types out his blog for him, and they post some of his artwork online. His first work is pretty genius. Especially when you see his father's descriptions of how the piece was made.

I know, I know, this is becoming way too much of a "blog" for my own good. Promise to post more of my artwork/photos/projects soon. I've had a few things go live over at Bungienet that are pretty fun, which I'll mention soon. The most current thing is the eBay auction for a Bungie jamboard that I did a drawing on. It's raising money for Katrina victims. It's up to $305 at this point, but still has over 8 days left.Can you spot mine?

Barenaked Ladies- This Old Apartment
Paul Simon- You Can Call Me Al
Blind Melon- No Rain
Otis Redding- Try a Little Tenderness

Again!

(Notes: I tried to do 99 Problems, but the machine kept screwing up and skipping that one. Also, Try a Little Tenderness gets really really hard if you're used to hearing a different version of the ending. I couldn't keep up.)

You're all a bunch of stick in the muds. You definitely missed out on a great show. I even saw hipsters dance! I guess KEXP warned the Go! Team that Seattle doesn't dance, because the lead singer was suprised to see people actually moving. I have to tell you though, gangly drunk hipsters don't know how to control their elbows, I got smacked in the face two or three times buy this one guy. I was about to tell him to watch himself or I'd smack those blackrimmed glasses right off his face the next time. But the rest of the crowd was great.

After reading the Stranger review and listening to the music I expected that there wouldn't be much in the way of live instruments, figuring that a lot of it was sampled. But with two drumsets, two keyboards, three guitars, a base, and a piccolo I was definitely wrong. I think the only thing that they had sampled was the horns. After the show I heard someone asking why their record isn't for sale in the USA and the reason given was the sampling.

Such a fun show.

Thanks to Jason, I'm addicted to roaming around Google Earth. People have started making paths and plugins for it. Some of the more clever ones make use of flickr geotagged photos, which allows you to see either the latest 50 photos added to flickr worldwide, or the closest 50 to where you've focused Google Earth.

In addition to this, just yesterday I was asking about the current Tour de France route. I hadn't checked a map yet, and had no idea where it would be running this year (besides being somewhere in the French region of Europe...somewhere...) Wouldn't a virtual globe be perfect for that? Sure would. And actually someone on the staff at UW is already on it. 2005 Tour de France with Google Earth. Unfortunately, there aren't any photos of the tour geotagged yet, maybe in the next couple days (though, I doubt there's all that many people adding long/lat tags to their flickr photos).

Here are the simple paths, though there are more complex paths with towns along the path as well as sprint stages.

The Alp stages look a tad steep.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation has another great use. They've made a timeline of the London bombings. It's extremely slick. As you play the timeline, it brings up news photos and links to eyewitness accounts, additional photos links to Blair's speech and even a link to the wikipedia entry for the area. It'd be an amazing way to showcase events like Alexander's march across Europe, or the settling of America.

Update: After checking out how layered images work, and seeing other people do it for the Gulf Coast, I've made an image overlay that shows Seattle area weather.

Recently a video hit the internet made by the British Royal Dragoon Guards, stationed in Iraq. It wasn't a pilot's nightvision recording Iraqis having sex in a car, or the newest prison abuse scandal. This was a group of guys having fun despite the situation. It has this great feeling of being from some old Gene Kelly movie, the sort of bright optimism that followed WW2 (it helps that the song kicks ass). BBC has the story on the soldier's video. It was based on a Comic Relief Charity performance by Peter Kay (embedded wmv).

And finally, I've uploaded a small version of the video here (mov). Really big versions here (wmv).

After everything that has happened, it's good to see things like this.

While there's been talk about getting a ten10 site back up again, nobody has stepped forward quite yet. I'd gladly fix the site up so it's a little more than a default install, if someone wants to actually make that default MT install somewhere (back where it was on meatfreezer, or should I host it on imaginationispower?)

Either way, since there has been such an influx of people, I wanted to post the last few cycles so everyone can see where we're at.

05-06-04 Andrew
16-07-04 Chase
20-07-04 Skyler
17-08-04 Liz
07-09-04 Alex
10-10-04 Andrew
15-11-04 Ken
01-02-05 Skyler
27-03-05 Melanie
01-04-05 Liz

Looks like Chase is a bit of a slacker, huh? Seriously though, it doesn't need to be a rigid cycle. As we've discussed, if you think it's been a while or you just want to make one, go right ahead. I actually have one done (just needs to be burned and printed), which is what prompted this post, along with Chase firing up Soulseek and cursing it's unreliability.

Seeing as I've got a little vacation coming up, I can spend some time ripping all of the old cds and setting up a "ten10 classics" library. I know I'd love to get my hands on those older compilations.

I was able to work things out with M$.

We had a lot of fun at work, posting 3 fake stories that day. It was amusing reading the forums and seeing everyone freaking out, totally buying it, and others being really upset that we didn't post any real news.

I'm not sure how long these will stay up (Bungie tries to remove everything after the first), but we had an article on hidden easter egg audio clips in the game, a "fan favorite" map from Halo 1 that's being remade for Halo 2, with new Mountain Dew branding, and then a Weekly What's Update that was just chock full of jokes.

I had fun, but it seems like most people are just bitter about having people joke all day. Lighten up people!

Johnny Cochrane: Dead.
Abe Vigoda: Alive.
The Pope: Pulling a Shiavo.
Terry Shiavo: The new Jesus.
Miramax: Dead. Long live the Weinsteins.
Jerry Falwell: Fingers crossed.

A guy with a fresh, bright red, swollen black eye. Carrying a bag with one package of Irish Spring soap. Just as a truck drives by with a bed full of sacks of giant potatoes.

Today I received and email to my gmail account which I never use.

From: Mizzi Ritianne at Appogg [ritianne.mizzi@gov.mt]

Dear Dr. Andrew Galea Debono,

I have received your letter together with the certificates. Yesterday I went to Police Headquarters and spoke to the two persons you mentioned (04UU-026 and James Babatunde). I agree with you that in speaking to them I can help them psychologically as they can understand their situation.

Regards
Ritianne Mizzi
Social Worker
RSA
Appogg

Now, should I reply to Mr/Mrs/Ms Mizzi and tell them they have the wrong Andrew G D. Or is it just a way to confirm that email address is active? What if Mr. Debono never finds out this information? What will happen to the two persons in jail? Will Mr. Debono fret over their welfare? What's an anonymous email account owner to do?

Greatest. Article. Ever. Be sure to click through the 'Online video game bullies or "griefers"' link as well. I wonder if the writer was up on all of it before having to write such a dry article on it, or if it had to be MeTiCuLouSLy r3s34rch3d first.

Lollerskates!

Without further adieu (since it has been 10 months since the last "Hey Mom"): Volume 2 of Hey Mom, check this out!

1. From the makers of Matrix Ping Pong: Matrix Pole Vault!

2. I just don't know sometimes. But it's still amusing.

3. Finger Skating. I wonder if he's ever broken a knuckle. He should probably be wearing padded gloves. Oops, link down, can't find another copy.

4. One does not simply walk into Mortor. Who knew you could get perfect timing in a animated gif.

Let me preface this by saying, yes, we are dorks. We all understand that. Let's move on.

So Alex (Wonky), Chase (Zomberella) and I (Curly) are walking down the path. Just a Troll and his two Zombie buddies walking down the road, armed to the teeth. A perfectly normal situation when you're in Tirisfal Glades, deep Undead country. We're pretty confident with ourselves, a nice little group with a Shaman, Priest and Fighter.

So we're walking down the path, trying to figure out if we want to deliver a letter or kill our thousandth vampire bat, when another group comes up. They were obviously other players. I looked at them quick, but didn't pay too much attention. Then I got the feeling something was strange. I quickly spun around again and realized, "Oh yeah, they're humans." Humans don't show up in our neck of the woods. What. Is. Going. On?

They were just staring at us and we were staring back, both groups standing together. Had they inadvertently wandered too far? Were these actually part of the game, not real people? Why weren't they attacking us? Why couldn't we see what level they were? All of these thoughts raced through little Curly's mind and then it finally hit me. They can't attack us. We have to initiate combat if they're in our land. I hurriedly told Chase, "DON'T SHOOT THEM! THEY CAN'T HURT US UNLESS WE ATTACK FIRST!" Then, just as I was trying to get that message to Wonky, we see him power up his magic blast.

• bowling for columbine spoiler - (I'll give you a hint, Americans Suck!)
• download animation chest pain
• fun iraq - (Hey, I bet Iraq would be a great place to visit with all the fun they're having.)
• happy iraqis - (Well, they should be, living in such a fun country.)
• iraq killer - (Aww, crap! Scrap those vacation plans.)
• men with large nipples
• wimpy superhero
• 2004 photosbroke my leg - (Just wait until you come across photos from 2005!)
• eat my poop scad - (Well said.)
• just gay - (Too many bisexuals showing up in your searches?)
• kinky killer - (Aww yeah, bow chicka wow.)
• things i haven't done before - (Ever search for "just gay"?)

So after an emergency cleansing and purging, the new (and only) Plant seems to be doing decently. In my zeal to keep it watered (and not kill it) it apparently became a swamp plant (which almost killed it.) Now, with the shades open most of the time (as opposed to keeping it a cave in here) it looks like it is drying out, and doing better.
Though just based on the fact that it is residing in Seattle may mean that I won't ever have to water it again. We are also on the side of the building that now seems to only get sun for 2 hours a day, if that, which may hinder Plant's time with us. Here's hoping it'll live longer than most goldfish.

I haven't listened to any of these songs in months, but this last week, each day, I've had one pop into my head and stay there just about all day. So I thought I'd share:

Johnny Clegg - Ring on her Finger
"That girl is feeling trapped by that ring on her finger. Some man thought he shot her down, but he only winged her."

Sandy Rogers - Fool for Love
"What he wouldn't do for love. He's a fool for love."

The Commitments - Try a Little Tenderness
"But its all so easy. All you got to do is try, try a little tenderness."

1:15- Time it takes to get to work in the morning.
1:35- Time it takes to get home from work in the evening. +/- 15 minutes.
26- Miles to work.
10- Levels in Halo completed.
2- Levels in Halo 2 completed.
2519- Minutes of DVDs recieved for birthday (not counting bonus footage or alternate audio tracks.)
1048- Minutes Watched (yeah, I'm a slacker. Or am I not a slacker?)
128.4- Miles to Mount St. Helens.
2- Eruptions in the last few days.
1- Concerned relatives who have asked if I'll be ok.
5- Hours of sleep I got last night.
12- Hours of sleep I got Saturday night.
91- Days since I had caffeine.
2- Cans of OJ I had today.
2- Rootbeers I had today.
2- Milk containers I had today.
2- Beers I had today.

"The resonance, perhaps, was in the smiles