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May 14th, 2008

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October 8th, 2007

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September 18th, 2007

June 21st, 2007

11:56 pm It's been a pretty wild week, between some issues with the extended family and music, music and more music. Monday night I saw Rush from the fourth fucking row and it was spectacular. I made two new friends; Tony, originally from Daytona, and his buddy Gary (both inebriated). Before the show, Tony asked me if there was any one favorite song I was hoping to hear. An impossible question for me to answer, to be sure, but apparently not for my new friend: upon my failure to answer, he produced a printed banner sign from his pocket that read "SUBDIVISIONS". As the show went on, Tony would display his sign more and more frequently till the time for Subdivisions finally came. At that moment, Tony went into wild hysterics, jumping around like a madman and hugging everyone in range. After calming down slightly, he revealed a second sign, simply stating "THANKS". Here's the setlist if you are interested: ( (click here if you are a dork) ) Highlights for me included Secret Touch (my favorite Vapor Trails track), Dreamline (sounded massive), Witch Hunt (holy crap they played Witch Hunt), YYZ and of course Subdivisions. As usual, Neil has continued to improve upon his solo, incorporating Buddy Rich's One o'Clock Jump into it now as well. He is almost certainly the only drummer in the world whose solo I would actively anticipate at a concert. I've seen Rush three times now, and each time they played at least a full three hours. And each time, it's never enough. Tonight (Thursday...well, technically Friday now), I've just recently returned from catching the Tower of Power at the Neighborhood Theatre. Although I must admit I wasn't actually familiar with their music beforehand, I was aware that I should expect a hot show and I wasn't disappointed. My saxo-mo-phone playing buddy Antron told me he would be going to see the show, so I called him beforehand to meet up at the show. I arrived and was searching the aisles for 'Tron in vain when I heard my name called. I turned, looked, squinted (it was too dark to see a damn thing) and finally recognized my trumpet-playing friend Brandon who took my music courses with me at CPCC. I guess I messaged him on MySpace regarding the show and forgot all about it, as he thanked me for letting him know about it. After chatting with Brandon and his girlfriend Lauren for a bit I continued my search for Antron and was eventually successful. Antron must have had at least five different people recognize him and come over to talk before the show - mostly instructors from his time at Winthrop. A few minutes after showtime, the owner of the theatre came to the stage and made a few announcements, two of which were of importance: a call of attention to the newly installed, massive industrial ceiling fan above the main seating area (this is called foreshadowing) and the introduction of an unannounced opening act. To everyone's chagrin, a punk kid with an acoustic guitar (that he knew about four open chords on) and a harmonica on a mounting ring around his neck approached the stage. Guys, this kid's music was awful. He played a couple of covers as well, and was even able to make Tom Petty more boring than Tom Petty does. And he kept playing for nearly an hour! All these grievances were quickly forgotten when the Tower finally took the stage. These guys played the tightest, deepest, funkiest pocket I have ever had the pleasure of hearing live. Every player (including the very soulful and talented lead singer) was at the top of his game. I was particularly impressed by "Doc" Kupka, an older gentleman in a fedora, tie and suspenders who lacked none of the wind necessary to make his baritone sax wail. The climax of the night was an extended 10+ minute rendition of their hit "What is Hip" that ended the set and included a few verses of James Brown's "Soul Power". The audience went absolutely nuts for the tune, and the band came back out for a two-song encore. The band had promised to do a meet-and-greet in the lobby after the show, but Antron had a long haul back to Columbia and wasn't keen on waiting for the crowd. After almost everyone had cleared out, I found Brandon still sitting in his seat, well-intoxicated and flabbergasted by the show he had just witnessed. We shot the shit for several minutes while the crew broke down the stage and started cleaning up. And here is where that fan, that glorious enormous fan comes into the picture: the gust was so strong with the theatre emptied, that a sheet of paper flew off the stage. I calmly walked over and claimed my prize: ( big picture OK ) Oh yeah, and I got it signed by every member in the band, who were all very gracious to meet. I think I will give this to my coworker Mario tomorrow, who is a big fan but who was unable to attend. As he sagely advised me shortly after we met: "are you married? Good, keep it that way". Current Mood: happy Current Music: Tower of Rush Tags: music

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May 18th, 2007

08:41 pm - Wikipedia vandalism is funny! I do not take credit for these, I just came across them in ordinary Wikiing. Compare to the current entries and see if you can find what doesn't belong! Current Mood: amused Current Music: Pat Benatar - Heartbreaker Tags: humor

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March 31st, 2007

10:10 am section 2 row C ... FUCKING RUSH WOO Current Mood: jubilant Current Music: Clannad - Caislean Oir Tags: music

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February 17th, 2007

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January 4th, 2007

09:14 pm "One of the nice things about looking at a bear is that you know it spends one hundred percent of every minute of every day being a bear. It doesn't strive to become a better bear. It doesn't go to sleep thinking, 'I wasn't really a very good bear today.' They are just one hundred percent bear, whereas human beings feel we're not one hundred percent human - that we're always letting ourselves down." -Stephen Fry No resolutions. No remorse, no repent. No Re-Load. (Jesus Metallica what were you thinking?) Current Mood: aloof Current Music: Zillatron

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October 23rd, 2006

04:02 am Apparently there's no proper source for this on the internets anymore, or if there is then Google can't find it in which case it isn't really there anyway. Behold the glory of: NESTacos. Also if anyone has episode 46 (does it exist?), I'd be much obliged. Current Mood: happy Tags: humor

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October 9th, 2006

09:30 pm There are few things cooler for a musician than having your very own custom instrument designed and built just for you. And among the custom luthiers prepared to build your dream machine for the right price, few carry the prestige of Alembic. They belong to an elite class, just as their owners belong to an elite income tax bracket. I was recently pondering just what would make such an instrument unique and special enough to justify a five figure price tag, when it suddenly dawned on me: A custom pot leaf inlay cut from solid abalone shell! What could possibly add more taste or value to such an already classy instrument? [edit: eat a dick, Imageshack] Current Mood: mischievous Current Music: Lotus - Umbilical Moonset

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October 1st, 2006

09:44 am buh Current Mood: speechless Current Music: Dream Theater - Lie (Awake demos) Tags: myspace

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July 12th, 2006

01:19 am - Road trip recap ( In hindsight, I probably should have serialized this. ) Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Star Salzman - Bionic Commando: Advance with Caution Tags: photos, travel

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June 18th, 2006

02:15 am I finally got around to seeing X-Men 3 tonight. I found it alternately breathtaking, disappointing, and bewildering. It suffers immensely from poor pacing and development, diminishing what would otherwise have been poignant, impactful scenes. I won't go into detail for the sake of anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but suffice to say my opinion is pretty mixed on this one. Instead, allow me to gripe about my wonderful experience at The Belmont Drive-In Theatre. First, all of their showings are double features. As X-Men isn't the "new" film this week, this meant sitting through Cars. Let me tell you one thing about Cars: Cars fucking sucks. The only redeeming element is the character Mater, and the fact that I liked Mater only makes me hate the movie more because Larry the Cable Guy is seriously less than shit. Cars didn't start till nearly 9:30, so it was obvious we were going to be there pretty late. As soon as X-Men started, it was clear things would not go well. The radio transmitted a constant noise that increased in amplitude along with the soundtrack. This wasn't the low level hiss of background interference; either the frickin' tape was damaged, or their hardware was borked. Regardless of the cause, it gets worse: they muted the audio and interrupted to announce the food stand's closing time. Twice. So after putting up with all that, and staying there till after 1 o'clock, we waited through the entire epic length credit roll as I'd been alerted not to miss the final epilogue. As the credits drew to a close, the first frame of the epilogue quickly flashed and then disappeared. And that's it. They played the entire near-ten minute credit sequence, and then cut off whatever followed. Fuck you, Belmont Drive-In Theatre. Fuck you to Hell. Current Mood: pissed off Current Music: Orbital - Doctor? Tags: movies

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April 14th, 2006

10:28 am "The Doody family hope to raise profile of faggots" Current Mood: man I'm crying here Current Music: Ozric Tentacles - Jurassic Shift Tags: humor

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February 14th, 2006

07:08 am - Fuck Valentine's Day Man who's horrible idea for a holiday is this? All my dreams this past week have been dominated by...girly stuff. Like the other night, I dreamed I was in a happy relationship with a woman who looked exactly like Mila Kunis but who was not, in fact, Mila Kunis. Then the night after that, I almost got married till my bride revealed herself to be Matthew Perry in a very, very clever disguise. We had a laugh about it then joined the rest of the Friends cast in raiding an ice cream and donut shop after they were closed. The lesson here is: do not watch Fools Rush In. Ever. In the spirit of today's occasion, here's a little something I scrounged up off my old hard drive. It was copied from the Primus Sucks forum of all places, and has a file creation date of 2/14/1999. The meter might be a little odd, but the sentiment is sincere: "Fuck Valentines Day" Hearts and roses and kisses galore... What the hell is all that shit for? People get mushy and start acting queer It is definitely the most annoying day of the year This day needs to get the hell over with and pass Before I shove a a dozen roses up Cupid's ass I'll spend the day so drunk I can't speak And wear all black for the rest of the week Guys act all sweet, but it soon will fade For all they are doing is trying to get laid The arrow Cupid shot at me must not have hit Because I think love is a crock of fucking shit So here's my story, what else can I say? Love sucks my dick...Fuck Valentines day! I also found an IRC log full of helpful advice from the internet's own MickoZ, of which I found the following particularly relevant: <MickoZ> you gotta pull it out, but be prepared. <MickoZ> You gotta be sure that when you put it out, that you know what you are sayin' A happy VD to all. Current Mood: sick Current Music: Alan Parsons Project - I'd Rather be a Man

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February 2nd, 2006

04:27 pm I have confirmed that it is indeed pretty fun to stay at the YMCA. Current Mood: headache Current Music: headache

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January 14th, 2006

02:35 pm Update: so I reboot (off of the unaffected drive) and refuse Win2k's demand to run chkdsk and lo and behold, there's my files! Burn spree now I think. Really wish I knew what the fuck was up with this computer! Current Mood: blah Tags: computers

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January 13th, 2006

07:07 pm Jesus fucking Christ it happened again. Current Mood: morose Current Music: not a fucking thing Tags: computers

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December 15th, 2005

12:16 am - Fukkatsu; or "That Which Doesn't Kill Us Makes One Paraphrase Nietzsche" Here I am, back at it again. Round two - FIGHT!! So now I seem strangely unable to boot from the freshly formatted and reinstalled HDD (boot sector error? Maybe, but I'd have thunk Seagate's Seatools would've caught that) or from my FDD for that matter (am I gonna have to burn a CD just to flash my BIOS?), and I just got a "system failed VGA test" error from my motherboard for the third time since I built this box (my PC has a sexy downsampled female voice!) and you know that power on/reset issue probably still isn't solved but hey I think my HD is OK (famous last words). (paranthetical aside) Current Mood: I still hate computers Current Music: Michio Fujisawa - Sonnet (PrePrimer) Tags: computers

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December 11th, 2005

04:21 pm So uh...anyone know anything about data recovery? :( See I was just minding my own business an hour ago, leeching ridiculous quantities of copyrighted material via bittorrent like any red-blooded American man, when I tried to launch Firefox and was hit with a barrage of error messages to the effect that each plugin Firefox attempted to load was "corrupted or could not be read". The error messages recommended I run chkdsk immediately, but doing so rewarded me with similar errors. After shutting down (which itself resulted in more disk corruption errors), I attempted to reboot but failed miserably. So I says to myself, "self, you've got a dusty Win2k installation on that 120 gigger Maxtor in there; why don't you try booting that?" And I did, upon which chkdsk explained that it was very urgent that it scan the Seagate right away. So I let it, not knowing that in chkdsk's language "scan" apparently means "wipe". Now I'm left with 11 GB of data out of what was probably totalling close to 100, a woefully incomplete Win2k installation, and 2.5 GB of "found" *.chk files (gee, thanks a lot chkdsk). All told, it could be a lot worse. Chkdsk found no bad sectors, and the contents of the Maxtor drive remain unscathed (man am I running some ancient software at the moment though). Much of what was on the Seagate was either transferred from my "temporary" machine which still retains all of that data, or was torrented within the last couple of weeks and can be leeched once more, if I have the patience. The Seagate drive appears to be fully functional, and hasn't given any physical symptoms of failure. If I had to hazard a guess as to what went wrong, I guess a virus wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility - the only source I can think of though would be a warezed copy of Nero, which I tested after installing and seemed to be normally operational. I also had a couple of ports open for p2p functions, but I don't know of any exploit that would allow an attacker that kind of access. I'd like to hear some other ideas though. I'm wary to reinstall on the Seagate till I'm positive that it's stable, virus-free and my lost data has either been recovered or confirmed to be unrecoverable. I guess I'll be trying to update this installation and working with it for the time being. One last thing that's really bugging me: lately my PC has been requiring me to reset it after powering on before it will POST. After that, it appears otherwise stable and boots fine. It's frighteningly similar to the problems I was having with my last build though, and I didn't start experiencing problems with that till after six months of use. Any ideas, no matter how useless they might seem to you, are appreciated. I'd particularly like to find an accurate, reliable guide to determining PC component power requirements, just in case. Everything I've read on the subject has been vague and unhelpful. Current Mood: fucking through w/ computers Current Music: Guilty Gear XX #Reload Korean Version - Dementia Tags: computers

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