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Copyright |
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©2005 Jason Cross
All Rights Reserved
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 Sunday, June 22, 2003 |
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One day (ok, technically 1.5 days) and nearly 900 pages later, I have read the fifth Harry Potter book...
It's much darker in tone than any of the previous books, and I daresay that it's not quite appropriate for kids my nephews' ages (3 and 6). I wonder how that will affect some parents who, like my sister and her husband, got them all recently for their kids after the movies and expect them all to be fairly light chidrens stories.
I did find Harry's teen angst pretty realistic though. And once more we get a little more insight into how Harry is who he is in relation to Voldemort and his past. |
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Tuesday, June 10, 2003 |
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Hilarious that even though I don't work in any capacity of the movie industry (beyond being a fan of course), I have now managed to land a scoop of my very own on Ain't It Cool News.
Since the tradition on AICN is to choose a pseudonym, I went with Mr Tuesday as I thought I recalled Tuesday being the day Garfield hated. But that was Monday, so duh to me. Oh well. |
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Monday, June 2, 2003 |
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Just got back from the Styx / REO Speedwagon / Journey concert with Lori. Very fun, very loud - here's to future nostalgia! |
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Thursday, May 22, 2003 |
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So I got the following spam message today:
Jason,
NOW! Play Online GOLF and/or make Money!!
click
### NOT GOING TO SHOW A SPAMMERS URL AND HELP THEM! ###
..Play a FREE Round Online, right now!
You've GOT to see this!
To unsubscribe visit the above website
for instruction.
pupil cork back
gate student
Now, I don't know what the "pupil cork back gate student" bit is about (probably some sort of tracking code), but what I really love is that I could maybe play online golf, maybe win some money, maybe (but oddly enough maybe not) do both... Perhaps if I were to visit the site I could win money and NOT play online golf. Hmm... |
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I had intended to write about The Matrix Reloaded since I went to an 11pm show last night, but I've decided to wait a while so I can get into spoiler territory after most of you have seen it who care. |
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The Dixie Chicks brought their Top of the World Tour to Hilton Coliseum in Ames on Tuesday and thanks to tickets I had spent way too much money on a couple months ago, I was there along with over 13,000 other fans - a sold-out show.
My seats were in the 14th row of the balcony, but thankfully the show was "in the round" so they were actually a very good view of the entire stage. I still found it bittersweet, however, for the fact that my original tickets when ordering online were 3rd row floor - which were subsequently lost when the Ticketmaster site crashed on me.
There has been much controversy of late surrounding the Chicks' comments regarding President Bush II. Even today when telling an associate about the concert I was asked, "Did they at least keep their mouths shut?" Frankly I find it very sad that people who cry so loudly about preserving freedom and the American way of life also try to brand those expressing their views as "unamerican" and "unpatriotic".
The concert was awesome, probably the best production I have ever seen at a concert. They used a giant video screen walkway as a path, displaying video images below them in synch with the music and coordinated with the four large video screens of them above.
Joan Osborne opened up the concert as well as sung along with the Chicks on one song.
As we left the concert at 11:30 or so, there was a torrential downpour. Unfortunately I was parked about a mile away, so we were pretty much soaked through by the time we got to the car. Lucky me I have leather seats! |
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Last Thursday I went to see Mannheim Steamroller live and in concert at the Civic Center along with Lori and her mother. Why Mannheim Steamroller you ask? Because Lori's mom wanted to go for Mother's Day and Lori asked me to come along - and since I'm a sucker for A) doing weird things and B) Lori, I did.
Ahh Mannheim Steamroller (pronounced MAN-HIME by the group rather than Lori's preferred German-sounding MAHN-HIME)...that perennial Christmas favorite... Many times I have laughed at my step-mother Sheila's penchant for their Christmas CDs, so I was surprised to hear that they have non-X-Mas music too. Another surprise was finding out that the main band members all play electronic digital instruments rather than the main thing, except the drummer sometimes. And the girl who played the chimes. Chimes are rather analog.
The first half of the concert was pretty straightforward, with them playing selections from their past Fresh Aire series entries (1 through 7). There was one song where they played this video showing the band playing along with odd dancing kids, medieval figures riding horses, a mad scientist pianist and two sword-fighting warriors...that was a bit odd.
Then the second half was composed of the entire Fresh Aire 8, including the video portion which was "four years and five million dollars in the making". This was where it got really out there.
Fresh Aire 8 uses Infiniti as it's theme (you see, an 8 on it's side is like the infiniti symbol...), and as such there were 8 sections all devoted to various concepts of infiniti. Highlights included:
* A section with Greek Philosophers. Though it seemed more like a story of Greek philosophers written by a high school student, talking about "infiniti" between some Greeks and what looked like Romans and Egyptians. Then the "belly dancers with fake breasts" as Lori called them came on.
* A section on space and The Big Bang, with lots of CGI space shots, photos, LOTS of images of the Horsehead Nebula for some reason, and zooming by the planets remeniscent of the opening to Star Trek: The Next Generation
* A section on fractals that was very 1995 and computer screen-saverish.
* And my favorite for trippiness, a section where a cartoon Steamroller (complete with a smiling face and cartoon eyes on the windshield) be-bops through a cartoon town and comes upon a live-action 50s-era sock hop at a school and - get this - dances with a girl there. That's right, a live action girl twirling around the dance floor with a smiling cartoon steamroller.
I was not expecting that.
Ok, so I make fun, but I was also glad I went. The music was pretty good and it was certainly an experience. :) |
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Jason here, aka "He Who Is Near-Shamefully Bad At Updating", to fill in some events from the past couple weeks. Read on, my Five Readers, and ye shall learn of wonderments like ye have never seen...
Though as I write the above, I realize that the layout of my site will cause you to see this entry after all of the updates. Ironical! |
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Saturday, April 26, 2003 |
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So this is weeeird...
A few nights ago I had this dream. In it I somehow got a bootleg early copy of Star Wars Episode III on DVD (and THAT would be a REALLY early copy, since the script isn't even done yet!), and when watching it, for some reason it really stood out to me that Chewbacca was in it, which is funny because I've never really even cared for Chewbacca that much. Then this week Star Wars.com announced that Chewbacca WOULD indeed be in Episode III.
Now this was weird enough, but not that big of stretch. Then it got more surreal.
A week ago I had this dream where I went to this house to work on a computer, and living at the house was Tanya, my ex from a couple years back, and Mark, the man who between he, Tanya and I there was much drama. Then tonight, while at Java Joe's getting dinner with Lori, who walks in but Tanya and Mark! And this was the first time I've even seen Tanya in years since we split.
Two dreams in a week which ended up having some bit of foresight into my life. Very odd... |
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Wednesday, April 23, 2003 |
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The other night Lori and I went to the Iowa Cubs game against St. Louis courtesy of Tom Pohl and his wife Crissy. Tom works with I-Spot Access, a group setting up wireless access points around Des Moines, including one at Sec Taylor Stadium where the Cubs play.
What was really cool (besides the fun company, of course!) was that they have developed this real-time interactive game using the wireless access during the baseball game. You log on to their site and then predict actions that you think will happen during a given inning, such as how many strikeouts, errors, grand slams, etc. For those you guess right you get points, and for those you guess wrong you lose points.
It is an unfortunate fact that while I enjoy attending baseball games, I know very little about the game, especially terminology. So I started out guessing blind. And by the time the game was over, I was at over -100 points! ;P No World Series trip for me!
But it was still a cool enhancement to the game anyway! |
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Friday, April 18, 2003 |
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"Rroverrr heeere!" Or maybe this would be more fitting to say, "Jason Cross, Where Are You?!"
So I've been bad about blogging lately. Bad bad bad. Do not abandon, my five readers, for I will attempt to be better in the future once things die down.
What have I been busy with? Some programming (got to keep my skillz sharp) that may turn into a slightly commerical project. Workin' on the net. And various other madness that result in little time to blog, little more than apathy towards the computer, and a general tiredness.
But don't worry, I'll be back. And I'll even bring a movie review or two with me! ;) |
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Friday, April 4, 2003 |
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I spend Thursday and Friday of this week in Freeport IL on a work trip. It was a nice enough town from what I saw, and the trip there went much faster than I thought.
On the way back today we stopped by Davenport to look at some space for equipment we're looking at placing there, and while there had the distinction of seeing what was claimed to be "The Largest Marquee Sign in the Western Hemisphere"! Though I have my doubts as that's a mighty big claim. Get it - mighty big? |
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Friday, March 28, 2003 |
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Well, fine, I guess. Not a whole lot going on this week... Played a little Zelda on GameCube (crazy animated cartoon Zelda), played a little Zelda on GameBoy (crazy Super Nintendo style Zelda), moved 13,000 email accounts across the country in mid-week, programmed a calendar, and have been diligently watching Rurouni Kenshin on Toonami.
Speaking of Zelda, remember the old cartoon show? It used to be on Fridays instead of Super Mario Bros. Here's to nostalgia! |
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Friday, March 21, 2003 |
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The crickets must all be gone finally, as the chirping has ended. "Hello, Clarice... Do you still hear the crickets chirp at night?..." |
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Or at least that's what his show was titled according to the tickets. I remember how excited I got when I was a kid and heard that Copperfield had a special coming up on TV. His magic was always so cool. He's been in Des Moines a few times, but I never got tickets before for various reasons (usually forgetting until it was too late).
But tonight, that all changed!
The show was very entertaining with both lots of humor and amazing spectacle. I have theories on how SOME of the tricks were done, but most of them boggle the mind.
Here's a weird thing, though - about midway through, some stagehand goes up to David and tells him something, and then Copperfield announces that we've killed Saddam Hussein. But when checking the Internet and news stations afterwards, there's absolutely no mention of it.
Did David lie to me? Has the cycle of trust been broken? Hmm... |
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Tuesday, March 18, 2003 |
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I've had a leopard gecko for about seven years now, which I raised since it was only a one week old hatchling. The other day I bought it some crickets as usual.
Unfortunately, it's not being too quick on eating the dang things. So now they keep chirping all night long! |
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Monday, March 17, 2003 |
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Some would "say it with roses", others with a card, but sometimes you need that little something extra to get your message across.
Luckily, my friend Chris Pirillo has come up with the solution for you! I could only be talking about the one (and thankfully only) RentMyChest.com!
$20 and you, too, could have your message enblazened with erasable marker across Chris' chest. Try it. I dare you! |
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So today was the day of legend, the day celebrating that most famous of Saint Patricks, Saint Patrick himself. According to ancient Irish bar legend, Saint Patrick brought beer to Ireland. Or maybe something to do with driving snakes out. Or something like that, I'm really not sure.
Maybe he was a leprechaun? The inventor of Lucky Charms? Oh wait, no, that was Lucky.
Ok, using the rule of "Someone on the Internet has reasearched it first", I found the following:
Courtesy of Kids Domain
We celebrate Saint Patrick's Day each year on March 17th. The festive holiday has everyone wearing green (so they don't get pinched) and chatting of four leaf clovers, shamrocks, lucky leprechauns, and kissing some big rock called a blarney stone. Does it all sound a bit strange? It did to me too but after a bit of research it all made sense. Here's what I found out.
Did you know that Saint Patrick's name at birth was Maewyn Succat? He was born somewhere near the end of the fourth century and took on the name Patrick or Patricus, after he became a priest, much later in his life. At the age of sixteen Maewyn Succat was kidnapped from his native land of Britain, by a band pirates, and sold into slavery in Ireland. Maewyn worked as a shepherd and turned to religion for solace. After six long years of slavery he escaped to the northern coast of Gaul.
In Gaul, Maewyn became Patrick (a more christian name) and studied in the monastery under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre for twelve years. He came to believe that it was his calling to convert the pagans of Ireland to Christianity. St. Palladius was appointed to go to Ireland first but transferred to Scotland two years later opening up the door for Patrick. Patrick was about sixty years old when he arrived in Ireland and it is said that he had a winning personality that helped him win converts. He used the shamrock, which resembles a three-leafed clover, to help explain the concept of the Trinity (father, son, holy spirit).
Patrick was arrested several times, but escaped each time. He traveled throughout Ireland, establishing monasteries and setting up schools and churches to aid in converting the Irish country to Christianity. Legend has it that Saint Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland. Evidently, they all went into the sea and drowned. The snake is a pagan symbol and perhaps this is a figurative tale explaining that he drove paganism out of Ireland.
Patrick's mission in Ireland lasted for thirty years. He then retired to County Down and died on March 17 in 461 AD. That day has been commemorated as St. Patrick's Day ever since. The first year St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in this country was 1737 in Boston, Massachusetts. As the saying goes, on this day "everybody is Irish!" Over 100 U.S. cities now hold Saint Patrick's Day parades.
So there you have it. A man named Maewyn Succat who drove not snakes but pagans out. And probably not a leprechaun. |
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Monday, March 10, 2003 |
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Bowser (the programmer at Lighthouse, not the King of the Koopas): The guy from Xerox sued to get the term Xerox not used for photocopying, right?
Me: Yeah, copyright infringement. Not wanting to lose their copyright by allowing the word to become a public term.
Bowser: And the same happened with Rollerblades, now calling it "inline skating"...
Me: Right.
Bowser: So what do the people who make Spam - the meat - think of the use of the word "spam" for junk mail?
And now, here is his answer, straight from the horse's mouth, or at least Hormel's corporate web site:
Spam and the Internet
You've probably seen, heard or even used the term "spamming" to refer to the act of sending unsolicited commercial email (UCE), or "SPAM" to refer to the UCE itself. Following is our position on the relationship between UCE and our trademark SPAM.
Use of the term "SPAM" was adopted as a result of the Monty Python skit in which a group of Vikings sang a chorus of "SPAM, SPAM, SPAM . . . " in an increasing crescendo, drowning out other conversation. Hence, the analogy applied because UCE was drowning out normal discourse on the Internet.
We do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE, although we do object to the use of our product image in association with that term. Also, if the term is to be used, it should be used in all lower-case letters to distinguish it from our trademark SPAM, which should be used with all uppercase letters.
This slang term does not affect the strength of our trademark SPAM. In a Federal District Court case involving the famous trademark STAR WARS owned by LucasFilms, the Court ruled that the slang term used to refer to the Strategic Defense Initiative did not weaken the trademark and the Court refused to stop its use as a slang term. Other examples of famous trademarks having a different slang meaning include MICKEY MOUSE, to describe something as unsophisticated; TEFLON, used to describe President Reagan; and CADILLAC, used to denote something as being high quality.
Position Statement on "Spamming"
We oppose the act of "spamming" or sending unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE). We have never engaged in this practice, although we have been victimized by it. If you have been one of those who has received UCE with a return address using our website address of SPAM.com, it wasn't us. It's easy and commonplace for somebody sending UCE to simply adopt a fake header ID, which disguises the true source of the UCE and makes it appear that it is coming from someone else. If you have or do receive UCE with this header ID, please understand that it didn't come from us.
Other "SPAM" Websites
This is the one and only official SPAM Website, brought to you by the makers of SPAM Luncheon Meat. All of the others have been created by somebody else. We are not associated with those other websites and are not responsible for their content. As a Company, we are opposed to content that is obscene, vulgar or otherwise not "family friendly." We support positive family values and you can count on us for "safe surfing" by your children.
Thank you for visiting the official SPAM Website!
Note to self -- never mention the Spam "meat" and a horse's mouth together.
Bowser: Now, Princess Toadstool, you are mine!!!
Ok, so that last part didn't happen, but I couldn't help it. |
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On Saturday at approximately 2pm we turned up our CrossPaths domains on Postini. On Sunday we blocked over 8000 spam messages, encompassing 78% of total message volume.
Over the weekend, we also blocked nearly 100 Directory Harvest Attacks - where spammers try to hit a mail server with a list of common names looking for valid accounts to send junk mail to.
And then today we turned up all of the FBX domains. We are now blocking over 1.3 spam messages per second. I estimate that we will have over 1 million blocked spam messages in about 9 days.
Insane levels of Spam are flooding the net. It looks like we've finally got a halfway decent solution though! |
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