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Copyright |
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©2005 Jason Cross
All Rights Reserved
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 Wednesday, December 18, 2002 |
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Tuesday, December 17, 2002 |
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Let it be known to the Five Readers, IM contact has been made with The Elusive One. |
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Monday, December 16, 2002 |
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Saturday, December 14, 2002 |
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First linked by Phil, this is a great essay on piracy.
It essentially says that piracy hurts the distributors, not the medium itself, and that it should be looked at as a progressive taxation on the few products well known enough to even merit being pirated. It also goes on to discuss how historically free distribution methods inevitably become overshadowed by higher-quality pay-for methods anyway.
Read it here. |
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Friday, December 13, 2002 |
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As the Kikkoman saga continues, the following was posted on Benn's comments by an unknown (cough *josh* cough) poster...
Master Benn, at my first viewing, I believed that Kikkoman was a lone agent in the war to proliferate the use of Kikkoman soy sauce to the known world. Upon further examination, I have found that Kikkoman has two sidekicks, though they are of the usually inept variety, constantly running to Kikkoman whenever trouble appears. His two compadres, known as Suman (who I can only guess represents the yellowish substance represented as mustard whose ingestion is similiar to a pocket paks experience though not as severe) and a mysterious man known in the inner circles only as sugar cube with root symbol man. Though Kikkoman appears to use Suman as a human shield against Worcestshireman, he is obviously upset when the contents of Suman's head spill onto the ground. A special note about Worcestshireman: Worcestshire is made of soy and vinegar; it is believed that Worcestshire was originally Kikkoman's brother, but once tainted by the vinegar taste of the darkside, Worcestshire turned on Kikkoman in homoerotic rage. The connecting roundhouse between Kikkoman and Sugarcube believed to be an exchanged of blows is actually the equivalent to a high-five. This brief exploration into the world of Soy has not only shown that Kikkoman is joined in his crusade to spread soy the world over, but also shows some tasty treat ideas for icecream and omelets.
The true identity of Kikkoman? Hmm... |
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Wednesday, December 11, 2002 |
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I have no idea where Benn finds this stuff, but somehow he does...
Enjoy...Kikkoman! |
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Tuesday, December 10, 2002 |
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Ok, so this is a bit of an oldie for some of you, but I figure the other two of you readers might be unfamiliar with and appreciate Benn's "The Pocket Pak Experience" entry from last fall...
The "Pocket Paks" Experience
It'll happen to you at some time or another. You'll get that urge, that feeling of insatiable desire to try it. Maybe you've got a really hot date that night. Maybe you've heard the stories and you just want to try it for yourself. Maybe you have some deep-seated death wish guiding your actions. Whatever the reason, you'll open it up, and you'll place the tiny thing in your mouth.
I am speaking, of course, of Listerine's breath-enhancing "Pocket Pak" strips. Or, as I like to call it, Tiny Tape of Terror. There is a considerable lack of literature available dealing with the experience, and so I have compiled a moment-by-moment analysis:
1. Incredulity. You've heard all the stories, read all the warnings, but when you open the minuscule container and remove one of the deadly little things, you cannot believe any of it. The tiny strip is thinner than Scotch tape, and no longer than the bridge of your nose. It's probably 1/100th of a Smoot at best. How could it be possible, even according to basic physical laws, for that to cause so much pain? Laughing haughtily, you open your mouth and place it on your tongue.
2. Extreme skepticism. There's nothing to it. Can't feel a thing. The strip has dissolved, but nothing accompanies its destruction. No suffering, no fear, nothing. It must be a big joke.
3. Hyper-irrationality. The first wave hits. Your initial reaction is to jump out of your skin to escape the overwhelming sensation of fiery hell that descends upon you. You may exhibit outward signs of self-destructive behavior at this time. You may claw and tear at your skin, causing significant tissue damage. You may open your mouth to scream, but no sound will come out. Fortunately this stage is short enough that you might avoid doing permanent damage, if you're lucky.
4. Hallucination, derangement. By now the sticky substance completely coats every centimeter of the inside of your mouth. Had you any rationality left to you, you'd wonder how so much goo could be produced by something the size of a postage stamp. But you do not think about this, it does not even occur to you. Rather, you begin to experience visual and auditory illusions. The specific details of this stage differ from person to person. Some have reported seeing their entire lives flash before their eyes. Others claim they've observed physical manifestations: demons climbing up nearby walls, the floating disembodied head of Col. Sanders informing them that everything they know is wrong, or something of that nature. The "lucky" few who pass out and miss this part of the experience talk of dreams so bizarre they sometimes cannot return to ordinary sleep for days.
5. Overwhelming desire to escape. Assuming you've maintained consciousness through the last two stages, you are attempting to form a plan to save yourself from certain destruction. What little remains of your sanity informs you that if you spit or attempt to remove the substance from your mouth with a vacuum or some other cleaning appliance, you'll have to go through this again from the beginning with a new strip. You do not want to go through this again from the beginning with a new strip. Saliva begins to build in your mouth, because you dare not swallow and risk suffering the feeling that you know would result if the goo were to travel down your throat. You may begin to drool or otherwise act in an impolite fashion at this time. It is imperative never to attempt a Pocket Pak strip experience while in the company of important people, for this reason. Do not place one in your mouth at a job interview. Keep them away from you during the moments just before you walk down the aisle at your wedding. The best place for a Pocket Pak is in your own bathroom, which is preferably constructed of lead, and make sure you have a functional plumbing system "just in case".
6. Steady relief. The goo that previously coated your mouth seems to be disintegrating, though you cannot be sure how, why, or where it has gone. You can move your tongue again, the paralysis has abated. You begin to make pleasurable cooing noises, and the rational center of your brain returns to ascendancy. You look around your environment and wonder how everything wound up scattered across the floor.
7. Pleasant amnesia. You do not remember much about the past minute of your life. You know you've just undergone something terrifying, but you cannot remember what it was. There's a small green container lying at your feet, and many tiny green strips of tape lying in jagged formation beneath it. You cannot recall what it is, or what any of it means, and you cannot reach down to touch it. When you try, you experience a terrible nauseous sensation. You wander off in a fugue state, possibly crashing into walls or otherwise injuring yourself. Still, no matter how badly you've stubbed your toe or crushed your arm, somehow you know it's not the worst pain you've ever felt. You are thankful.
I hope this little missive serves to warn potential Listerine sufferers of their fate, but I suspect they are likely to dismiss it as hogwash. Those of you who have been where I described, however, know the truth of my statements. May they be your guide when it comes to be your time. |
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From Slate:
"According to a history at SPAM.com, the name is a mushing-together of "spiced ham" and was born of a contest with a $100 prize. Perhaps a meat product that is scrambled and pummeled by industrial processes into a brazenly inorganic geometric shape once seemed futuristic and exciting. But like a lot of things that once seemed futuristic and exciting, Spam now seems funny and maybe a little creepy. You can't help but imagine a big vat of, I don't know, whipped pig, being poured into those cans. It doesn't make you think of ham, it makes you think of Soylent Green."
Mmm...whipped pig... |
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Sunday, December 8, 2002 |
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So my cat has once again gone insane and attacked me without provocation. Every so often she just gets this...look. I step back, but she takes it as a sign of weakness and jumps forward. I move forward on the offense, and she hunkers down, this low growl in her throat. Rrrrrrr. We stare at each other, at an impasse. I debate - back or forward? Which will piss her off less? Can I grab her without losing a hand? What's she so mad about? I try letting her talk on the phone to Lori, and she just starts growling at the phone! Is there no making this cat happy? Where's the reason? I finally let her attack me for a second, I shout "No!" at her to scare her a bit, and she runs off, until she comes back a few minutes later like nothing had ever happened...until the next time. |
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Tonight I went to see the movie 8 Mile with Lori (who accused me of owning "The Postman" by the way - Kevin Costner, not the Italian Academy Award winning Il Postino - can you believe that? Oh wait, I guess I am the guy who owns Killer Klowns from Outer Space...) Not too bad, though I believe seeing it once is enough. Wow, Eminem sure can act...as HIMSELF! Don't get me wrong, I've read the stuff saying that the script was written before his involvement and that it's just coincidental but come on... who are we kidding, right?
This weekend also marked the beginning of the Christmas season for me, with Dickens of a Christmas (which was very cold and pretty dull this year) and the start of my Christmas shopping. Three down, more to go! |
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Tuesday, December 3, 2002 |
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Today is Ian's birthday, so with much ado and fanfare we present the second Legend of Ian...
Submitted by Robert H Wolfkill of Silver Point, PA
After reading Ms. Baker's report about your friend's whereabouts, I put two and two together and came up with four (as we say around these parts). You see, there's been all sorts of weird stuff going on as of late in our town. Chickens missing, cows scratched up one side and down the other, heck even my dog Jeb has been too afraid to come out from under the bed for the last three nights. Most people in town have been blaming it on wild dogs, but I'm not so sure. You see, when it's late at night and you get enough liquor in the old folks at the bar, they sometimes begin to talk about similar events from 50 years ago. Their eyes get that distant, half-pain and half-terror look and they tremble as they begin to talk about the curse and the legend of Silver Point.
Sorry, Mr. Cross, but that's as far as I can go, because what starts as Silver Point business STAYS Silver Point business. What I can say though is that there is a legend of a return to Silver Point of a man with a name both Trojan and Eire... And if he has returned, then I will have to do what my grandfather did a half-century ago...
Oh yeah, almost forgot, this Ian guy tried to sell me his car. I passed and am not sure where he went.
So Ian tried to sell his car to this gentleman who didn't buy it. Did the car sell? The world may never know... |
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Thursday, November 28, 2002 |
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Sunday, November 17, 2002 |
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A new addition to JasonCross.com - "Legends of Ian" recounting tales from the world of elusive Ian Morello sightings. More elusive than the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot and a good Steven Seagal movie...it's Legends of Ian!
Submitted by G. Bitzi Baker of Roswell, NM:
There I was eating at the Sip and Slurp (hot dog and chips for $1.99 at the Sip and Slurp!) along Highway 9 after my dancin' shift when the most frightening thing happened! I was finishing my third dog (eating for two, you know how it is) when the lights suddenly went out. Well Jimmy Joe tells me "don't worry G. Bitzi, probably just blew a fuse" but the next thing you know there's this GIANT BRIGHT LIGHT outside! The next thing I knew there were these little grey men coming in the door, kind of like on those books Jimmy Joe is always reading! They stood by the door for a second holding these little silver flashing thingies in their hands when I realized that they wanted my baby! Jimmy Joe had hightailed it into the back room so I was real scared, but the next thing I knew, they were gone. To this day I don't know why they left. At least they didn't take my little Nancy Lee, who was born 2 weeks later.
As for your friend, I think he's out east somewhere.
So there you have it, my five readers. According to G. Bitzi Baker of Roswell, NM, Ian is "out east somewhere". |
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Saturday, November 9, 2002 |
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I spent most of Thursday at the convention in downtown San Jose. The turn-out was tiny but there were a few highlights. The best part was meeting Craig Dodge and Duncan Crawford from Advantage Communications - our tech support company. I've been talking to Craig for a few years now and to Duncan for the last year, so putting faces to the voices was really cool. They're from Prince Edward Island, Canada, so their scottish accents really stood out.
Matt and I went to Fry's Electronics that night. For those who have never been to Fry's, it's like a Best Buy on steroids. TONS of software, games, movies, music. Hundreds of computer components ranging from the mainstream to the hard-to-find. I've been ordering parts for my new computer over the last week where at Fry's every part is readily in stock. "Sports Night: The Complete Series" was on sale and newly released, so I bought the DVD while I was there. We then ate dinner at Over The Border, a Mexican restaurant with great Fajitas. I believe they are a chain (owned by the same company that owns Chilis) but they're not around Iowa.
As was bound to happen, Friday came - departure day. Matt and I went to Intel and visited the Intel Museum where they have several displays on the history of the company and how they manufacture their chips. It was pretty interesting, seeing silicon wafers with hundreds of Pentium 4 chips uncut. Plus it was just neat actually being AT Intel.
Following Intel we stopped at Jamba Juice for a smoothie as it had been highly recommended by Laura at work, our marketing director and a former resident of San Jose. I had a Grapeberry Splash that combined grape, blueberry and raspberry. Very tasty, and of course I had to call Laura and tell her I was there while drinking it!
We then went to Nasa's Ames Research Lab, a facility where Nasa has a wind tunnel and does much of their aerodynamic testing. To tell the truth, there wasn't all that much for the public there, but it was neat getting my picture next to an actual Titan missile.
We then drove down to Palo Alto to see the Hewlett-Packard garage - the place where HP was started and now a California state landmark designated as "the birthplace of Silicon Valley". It's funny because it literally is this little detached garage next to an ordinary looking house in this residential area. Except it has this huge rock next to the driveway with a metal plaque from the state declaring it a landmark.
As we were in the area, we decided to walk a bit through downtown Palo Alto again. There we visited the Apple store and browsed around the iMacs, iPods, and iBooks. It really presented the Apple lines well and works in their positioning as a great place for a Mac person or computer layperson to learn about and buy a Mac.
For lunch we stopped at World Wrapps - another place recommended to me by Laura. There I had a GREAT chicken caesar wrap. I really wish they had a World Wrapps in Des Moines. :(
Finally it was time for me to catch my flight and say goodbye to the bay area. The week certainly flew by and I know I wan't to come out to the area again before too many years pass by.
Favorite: Pleasure Pizza in Santa Cruz - the food, the atmosphere, the staff - all perfect California
Runner-Up: Tie: Stanford/Palo Alto and Downtown San Francisco
Sorry I Missed: Monterey and Carmel |
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Wednesday, November 6, 2002 |
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Yesterday was spent in San Jose exclusively. Going around downtown, you can't help but get the feeling that San Jose is a city in the decline. The downtown is mostly empty, even compared to Des Moines. Most activity in the area centers around the convention center circled by hotels and The Tech Museum as well as the light-rail and bus center where some small businesses are located around the way. I can't help but wonder what the city was like at the height of the Tech surge when everyone thought that sky was the limit and money flowed through the city.
A homeless man asked us for 50 cents. I believe he might have been the former CEO of Pets.com! :)
Yesterday was also a day for work as it was day one of the ISPCon show. Arriving at the show, I was surprised to see how large the convention center was compared with how small the convention itself is this year. I was last at ISPCon in Spring 2000 - Orlando - and it was easily 4x as big as this year. My guess is that both the economy and next week's Comdex Vegas show play largely into the size this year. I did have a chance to meet some vendors and do some passes through the vendor floor which gave me a good idea of what technologies and vendors I want to talk to at greater length when I return tomorrow.
That evening Matt and I met up with his friend Josh for dinner at Faultline Brewing Company. It was pretty typical brew pub fare with great shrimp bisque and a spicy chipotle ravioli.
The weather report last night gave a very high likeliness of rain on Thursday and Friday, so Matt and I decided to step up our plans to drive along the coast up to Muir woods – the area north of San Francisco where there are giant redwood trees (and also where they filmed Return of the Jedi). We started off by driving south-west through the mountains to Santa Cruz. The mountains in northern California are interesting in that they are smallish compared to the greater mountain ranges but are very scenic with dense evergreen forests, rock faces, and many twists and turns.
In Santa Cruz we started at the Boardwalk, an area along the beach with many rides, shops and arcades. Unfortunately it is off-season, so most of the Boardwalk is shut down. It was still a nice area to see – it looks like it would be lots of fun in mid-summer when everything is open and teeming with life. Walking along the beach I found a sand dollar and a shop where I bought a Santa Cruz t-shirt giving me two souvenirs of an interesting area. I love simply walking along a beach, smelling the salt in the air and listening to the rhythm of the waves along the fine sand.
Going further into Santa Cruz we stopped at the Surfing Museum to find it closed. The museum is a little lighthouse-shack on a cliff pointing out into Monterey Bay. There were a handful of surfers in the water at the base of the cliff waiting for waves. They would jump right off the cliff into the water fifteen feet below, sit on their boards until the right wave came, and then ride the wave along the coast for a ways before either getting out of the water or paddling back to start the cycle over again.
For lunch we stopped at Pleasure Pizza, a nice little local pizzeria. It was the perfect Santa Cruz place to eat with lots of surfboard décor, a cute little California girl serving the pizza calling out the names of the pizza as the slices were served up (“Santa Barbara!” “Hawaiian!” “Vindicator!”), and these huge specialty pizzas sold by the slice. The most interesting was a pizza with large prawns on a pesto sauce though I stuck with a slice of Hawaiian and a Sausage-Salami.
After Santa Cruz we headed north up Highway 1 following the coast. The drive offered many scenic Pacific beaches along with several little beach towns. We eventually passed through Pacifica and reached the south side of San Francisco where we took the Great Highway along the west edge keeping to the ocean. This really gave a fascinating view of San Francisco’s many attached yet disparate buildings. We passed through north San Francisco, an area that seemed to be comprised of Chinese restaurants, houses of worship, and beauty salons, drove through the Presidio, and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge.
On the north end of the Golden Gate is a spot for cars to pull over for a scenic view and to walk across the bridge. Matt and I grabbed our jackets as the wind off of the ocean was somewhat chilly and walked halfway across the bridge, watching out for bicyclists and crazed drivers. The bridge is massive and impressively high. Walking underneath its red-painted cabling really gave me a sense of how exciting it is to be out here in this classic American destination at the edge of the continent.
Following the Golden Gate, we drove further north past Sausalito until we diverged further west to Muir Woods. Muir is a redwood forest – some trees reaching as high as 380 feet! By this time it was reaching four o’clock giving us one hour until the park closed and allowing for about two miles of trekking through the forest. The forest was very peaceful with other quiet travelers taking in the paths around the giant trees while breathing in the pine-scented air.
Something to note – Muir Woods is where they filmed the Endor scenes for Return of the Jedi! We didn’t see an Ewoks on our trip though.
We continued our trip north until we reached San Rafael and turned south, crossing the bay again though this time on the very long Richmond Bridge. We continued south along I-80 (the same I-80 that passes through Des Moines), stopping in Berkeley for dinner at Genki Japanese restaurant. Finally we crossed the Bay one last time, this time on the Bay Bridge, catching 101 south to San Jose.
All in all it was a great day, a fitting good bye to San Francisco as I will likely remain in San Jose for the rest of the week for the conference. I would have liked to visit the downtown areas again, but I guess that gives a good reason to come back to the bay area one day!
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Monday, November 4, 2002 |
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I left for San Jose on Saturday afternoon. My plane took off at 8:30 am, but 30 minutes into the flight we received a message from the ground crew that a diagnostics panel door had been left open forcing a return. We landed for half an hour and then took off for Salt Lake City once more. The plane was only half-full letting me get an aisle to myself. Another surprise was in store once we reached SLC - we were minutes from landing on the runway when the plane took off again! The tower signaled at the last minute for us to circle once.
I got into San Jose around noon Pacific time. It struck me that the San Jose airport was small - not much bigger than the Des Moines "International" Airport. Josh, my cousin Matt's friend, picked me up so we could hang out at his apartment until Matt's flight arrived.
Saturday night we went to the Imax theater at The Tech museum to see Star Wars Episode II on Imax. The large scale was impressive, though having so much action take place so high up on a curved screen became pretty painful on the neck. I highly recommend taking a small pillow should you go see it.
On Sunday we drove to San Francisco. Along the way we stopped at Stanford to visit the beautiful campus. Tne combination of palm-lined streets and spanish-influenced architecture makes the campus quintessential California. We stopped for a bit at the Rodin Garden where I had my picture taken by the Gates of Hell sculpture.
Once in San Francisco we checked into the downtown Marriott where we had a room on the 27th floor. We dropped off our luggage, let valet park the car and walked down to Fisherman's Wharf. Downtown San Francisco is impressive - fairly clean with lots of style and stores similar to the Michigan Avenue area of Chicago. We stopped at the Trolley Car museum along the way to the wharf seeing the machinery that ran the four remaining cable cars (which work by attaching to cables that run under their tracks to go up hills). We then caught a trolley the rest of the way to the Wharf.
At Fisherman's Wharf we took a boat tour of the bay. The boat went out for an hour passing under the Golden Gate bridge and circling Alcatraz. At Pier 39 there is a large group of sea lions that apparently showed up during the 90s and have never left. After the boat tour we made the long walk back to our hotel, stopping at and walking up Lombard Street, the curviest road in America.
On Monday we went back to the shopping district where I bought some sesame sticks at Harry and David. We then watched a bit of a large political rally for Governor Davis and some other Dems. It was interesting seeing a large public rally coordinated for television with announcements telling people to make sure that all signs were double-sided for the camera to view them.
We walked through China town where I looked for a green stone dragon for my living room - a dragon brings luck according to Feng Shui. I had been looking for one for a while and had yet to find one that quite fit exactly the style I was looking for - but in Chinatown it was found! Chinatown is a funny little area with lots of little souvenir shops, Chinese restaurants, and major chains in pagoda-style buildings. We found that dozens of stores were selling little chirping metal crickets that are powered by solar energy making a warbling high-pitched noise throughout the area.
We then walked on to Rockstar Software, creators of our ISP connection software. Gregor (aka The Pizza Archangel) took us to a great little italian restaurant hidden away nearby. I've been dealing with Rockstar for a few years now so seeing the office and meeting the staff was interesting.
After walking around downtown some more, we drove a few miles to the Castro area to visit Chris, the Lockergnome and a friend who moved out here from Iowa. Chris and his wife Gretchen live in a great apartment on the second floor of a side-street that's near a wide variety of stores and restaurants. We ate dinner at a place called Squat and Gobble - a bistro-style restaurant with great food. We then got coffee at Peet's - a Pirillo must! - and then went back to Chris' to mess with his computer and just hang out a bit more.
Finally we got back to San Jose and checked into the Hyatt San Jose where I will be staying the remainder of the week. More on this place once it's light and I can get a better feel for the place.
Pictures and more to come! |
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Monday, October 28, 2002 |
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After seeing the new McDonald's commercial showing Donald Trump and Grimace together, it occurred to me that we hadn't really seen Grimace in a while and that it's never been really clear what food he represented.
I had always suspected desserts (due to his purple and somewhat dumpy style) and now this article seems to support this, along with another revelation.
Hold on folks, this will shock you. Throw you into mass hysteria. Dogs and cats...living together... Night will become day. The whole nine yards.
Grimace...was EVIL!
Read this article and learn the truth for yourself. Now aligned with the Trump empire, may god have pity on our souls. |
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Saturday, October 26, 2002 |
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Quit yer complainin'! I've finally done some code updates on the site, so comments should no longer cut off anything after a quote mark!
In other news, I am building a new computer. 2.5GHz P4, 1G of DDR RAM, a 128M DDR Nvidia GeForce-4 Ti 4600 video card, and I got a great deal on a 21" monitor on Ebay. All the parts should be here just in time for me not to use it before San Jose. Ah well. |
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Thursday, October 24, 2002 |
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It's not even the end of October yet and there's snow... I've got a bad feeling about this...
Time to get the Artic Alpins on the car. |
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Wednesday, October 16, 2002 |
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From The Onion:
WASHINGTON, DC—Amid growing concerns about the faltering stock market and deepening recession, President Bush vowed to tackle the nation's economic woes head-on Tuesday, assuring the American people that he "will not rest" until Saddam Hussein is removed from power.
"Our nation's economy is struggling right now," said Bush, delivering the keynote address at the National Economic Forum. "Our manufacturing base is weak, new home sales are down, and unemployment is up. Millions of our people are suffering. That is why I stand before you tonight and make this promise: Saddam Hussein will be stopped."
With the Dow regularly suffering triple-digit plunges and the Nasdaq hitting a six-year low of 1184.94 late last month, Bush used the speech as an opportunity to outline his plan for getting the economy back on track.
"We can no longer turn a blind eye to our tumbling stock market and the disintegration of the retirement package of the American worker," Bush said. "That is why I have developed a 14-point plan for reviving America's economy. The first step is taking the biological and chemical weapons out of the hands of this madman. These sorts of weapons have no place in a peaceful world."
Turning to the problem of unemployment, Bush discussed his strategy for creating new jobs and stimulating growth in the tech sector.
"We're working hard to put Americans back to work," Bush said. "Our citizens are fighters, they just need the opportunity. And it is in this spirit that we are committed to defeating Saddam Hussein, so that the world may stand together in liberty and freedom."
Bush then addressed the issue of corporate malfeasance, promising sweeping reforms and a major crackdown on white-collar criminals.
"Corrupt CEOs must be treated like any other criminal," Bush said. "The damage they do to this country, eroding investors' faith in our stock market and corporate institutions, is extremely serious. I would like to deliver a clear message to those who would bilk hardworking Americans out of their hard-earned 401K plans while greedily lining their own pockets: We cannot, and will not, sit idly by while this threat continues to mount in the Middle East. Iraq has stood in violation of U.N. resolutions since 1991 by refusing to allow weapons inspectors into the palace compound, where we suspect there are laboratories for creating weapons of mass destruction. We must remove the dictator Saddam Hussein and install a government that is committed to working toward free and democratic elections for the nation of Iraq."
Added Bush: "This man tried to kill my dad."
After the president's speech, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer issued a brief statement.
"As you have just heard, the president and this administration are fully committed to turning the economy around," Fleischer said. "We know how important it is for everyone to feel confident that their investment dollars are safe and that they will be able to build a better future for themselves and their children. We also know that what we really need to do at this time is to oust Saddam Hussein. Let's roll."
Not a true news article though it sounds oddly familiar... |
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Tuesday, October 15, 2002 |
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As I will be in San Jose during the general election come to November 5th, I have ordered an absentee ballot. I highly doubt that I will change my mind between now and 11/5, so voting early doesn't really pose much of an issue.
I mean, it would take something like an aneurysm to get me to vote for Doug Gross or Greg Ganske...
A guy at work yesterday told me I should hold off "because criminal charges could be filed against Tom Harkin any day now". Come on! This is an example of the modern Republican party's Say It Enough and Make It Seem True! philosophy. Not an illegal taping, so claim it could be and some people might start thinking it is. Other examples include "Our President is a GREAT speaker!" and "Whitewater!".
Too bad so many people are sheep or at least apathetic enough to look a bit beyond the soundbite. |
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It's official! I'm heading to San Jose Nov 2 - 8! I've never been to California, so I'm really looking forward to it.
More as plans develop... |
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Saturday, October 5, 2002 |
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It's been a movie weekend, seeing both Red Dragon and The Tuxedo over two days, so here are my thoughts for the faithful few, starting with Red Dragon.
A prequal to Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon features Edward Norton as Agent Will something or other, giving a glimpse of how Hannibal Lecter was first caught and then moving on to the main story revolving around a killer dubbed "The Tooth Fairy" by the media but calling himself the "Red Dragon" based on the Blake painting.
As a side-note, there is a movie coming out in the future with a monster called the Tooth Fairy. Anyway...
Ralph Fiennes plays the Tooth Fairy/Red Dragon as a much conflicted man, his serial killer side in conflict with his humanity as he meets and falls in love with a blind woman played by Emily Watson. I really liked her character as the subplot added some depth to what could have been a somewhat generic though scary character.
As another side note, I can't help but think of Schindler's List when I see Fiennes - The Red Dragon is scary, but Amon Goeth is scarier...
Hannibal Lecter plays a role in the film as he simultaneously assists and attacks Agent Will Graham (thank you Internet Movie Database!) This time Lecter is played with much more seething rage, as he is newly captured by a man whom he considers much inferior (the indignity!). He's not the main bad guy in the movie, but he is very much the antagonist.
My only chief complaint lies with the ending, which had it stopped one major plot point earlier would have made the movie feel somewhat unique, though from what I hear when the book Red Dragon came out (along with the original film version Manhunter), that which seems cliched in this movie was actually fresh. The genre was set and now that which made it unique feels tired all this time later.
Final plus - Mary Louise Parker. Love her on The West Wing, so it's great to see her elsewhere.
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The Tuxedo is not a BAAAAD movie, but it's not a good one. It's tiring, unfunny, and leaves you with a "Why?! Why was this movie made?!" feeling. Jennifer Love Hewitt just isn't that good and Jackie Chan feels completely wasted with much of his trademark action reduced to wires, special effects and fast forwards in this movie. Unless you are bored, have a free pass, AND have seen the other movies playing near you, I wouldn't recommend it.
Can't wait for Shanghai Knights, though! |
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Sunday, September 29, 2002 |
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On Saturday I decided to see a matinee of "Sweet Home Alabama", that new "romantic comedy" starring "Reese Witherspoon". In this movie, she plays "Melanie Carmichael" a New York "Fashion Designer" who gets engaged to the Mayor's (played by Murphy Brown) "son". Only it turns out she's already married from 7 years earlier and has to return to Sweet Home Alabama (Pigeon Point, Alabama, actually) to get a divorce from her rogueish husband. "Hilarity" insues.
I'll admit it, though, I am a sucker for a good romantic comedy sometimes. Hope springs eternal and all that. I am having trouble defining if SHA is good, though. My Reese Witherspoon blinders are on (damn you Ryan Phillippe - and Tobey Mcguire for encouraging them to get together!). The movie was cute, though incredible predictable.
Do you think that:
A) Romantic Comedy Heroine marries guy she starts out with.
B) Romantic Comedy Heroine discovers she still loves the guy she left.
C) Romantic Comedy Heroine shows all the boys in Pleasantville what true "color" is all about.
Of course, telling you the answer would give away the ending. Then again so did the commercials if you look closely, so B.
I wonder if the Dixie Chicks have a song on the soundtrack. Wait, nope, Amazon says they didn't, but Jewel does a cover of the title song. Ugh. |
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Friday, September 27, 2002 |
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StarWars.com just posted a pretty cool article explaining widescreen vs fullscreen video formats, including some great side-by-side screenshots from Episode II which exemplify why widescreen is the way to go. Click here to read that story.
Of course, despite this they are still releasing Episode II in a full-screen format as an option AND re-releasing Episode I in full-screen too. Ah Lucasarts and the almight dollar... |
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Sunday, September 22, 2002 |
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Last night I went to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the new comedy making all sorts of money. It's a great movie, very funny. In fact, I'd call it the funniest comedy I've seen since Undercover Brother, and you all know how much I liked that movie!
The characters are all very real and fleshed out, the plot is not cliched (though it all happens rather easy), and the writing and observations are very witty.
Rumor has it that a sequel is in the works (My Big Fat Greek Honeymoon) as well as a TV series (My Big Fat Greek Family). Too much of a good thing maybe... |
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Friday night was the premier of Joss Whedon's new show, Firefly. The premise is interesting sci-fi, basically a show set in the future with spaceships and the like, but there are no aliens at all, only humans recovering from a major civil war where a federation of sorts forced all planets under a single rule. Kind of an anti-Star Trek.
As for the style of the show itself, calling it a space western would be very apt. From the clothing to the weapons and even the music, it's very old-west style in contrast with the clean militaristic government.
The writing is very sharp, the premise somewhat unique, and I usually have a measure of faith in Joss (creator of Buffy and Angel) so we shall see! |
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Thursday, September 19, 2002 |
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Today I gave Lori, who was on her way to Russia and the rest of Europe for a whopping *8* weeks, a ride down to Kansas City International, where she caught a jet to Chicago and then "over there".
We have an airport in Des Moines, but it cost $300 more to fly out of Des Moines! Crazy!
As we waited at the airport, this really drunk guy came up and kept talking to us about this prop plane he flew on once. "Oh yeah, it was this little plane from Brazil..." and then he'd apologize for interrupting us and then continue on "...but yeah, this prop plane..." It was actually kind of funny - I'm amazed how smashed some people get at the airport. |
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