Pulling Back the Curtain: What a Top Reporter in Baghdad Really Thinks About the War. Really interesting first-hand account of what’s going on in Iraq from a reporter that’s stationed there. Biased? Perhaps. And to anyone who isn’t seduced by what the media and the White House like to tell us, nothing in this letter is really new.
“Despite President Bush’s rosy assessments, Iraq remains a disaster. If under Saddam it was a ‘potential’ threat, under the Americans it has been transformed to ‘imminent and active threat,’ a foreign policy failure bound to haunt the United States for decades to come.”
disillusioned witih post-college life. This guy’s charts are amazing, and he’s describing my life down to the letter. Let’s hear it for post-college life, hooray!
What happened? Work happened. I go to a job that sucks, then I come home to nobody that does.
Well, as expected, the debates are going to be completely worthless thanks to all the rules and regulations that have been agreed on. This commentary by Connie Rice pretty much tells all. I love politics.
“This is what I call the Obstruction of Democratic Debate Rule, which sets an impossibly high threshold for third-party candidates… Where are we, Russia? Isn’t Vladimir Putin wiping out democracy in Russia by excluding all opposing candidates from the airwaves during his re-election campaigns? Most new ideas come from third parties — they should be in the debates.”
Alt-Rock Karaoke 2004 via Waxy. Indie/Hipster songs in karaoke form. These are some nice finds, but I’m more excited about the karaoke version of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’”.
Creality. This is genius - a cereal bar and cafe where employees dressed in PJs serve you your cereal exactly the way you like it, with toppings and milk and even flavor crystals for milk.
Alvin Shunned By Animal Community, Force To Wear Scarlet ‘A”. While Alvin refused to identify the father who’d abandoned him, many say he bears an uncanny likeness to popular entertainer Dale, a singing, dancing chipmunk who arrived in Hollywood around the time of Alvin’s downfall.
Abolishing the Electoral College. Another blog post speaking out against the dated electoral college. The comments are especially interesting to hear other people’s opinions on the subject. Admittedly the solution isn’t as simple as giving everyone an equal vote, but isn’t that the way it should be?
The state with the highest ratio of elligible voters to electors is Pennsylvania. In PA, there are 436,000 eligible voters per electoral voter. Thus a voter in Wyoming is worth 2.6 times “more” than a voter in Pennsylvania. Who said “one voter, one vote?” More like, “one voter, some kind of vote.”
Got my DVD. Watched again. Totally loved it again. Essential already. Awaiting Garden State DVD for comparison.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is out today on DVD, my pick for best movie of the year so far (It’s neck-and-neck with Garden State at this point). It’s a shame that the review I wrote for it is gone, lost forever in the now legendary Webhost Crash of ‘04.
For anyone who was wondering, my essential movies list made a reappearance on the sidebar a couple of weeks ago. I’m refraining from putting any movies on there that I haven’t seen more than once, so ESotSM is on hold, as is Garden State, Iron Giant, and Usual Suspects. I know there’s other movies too, I just can’t think of them now.
Phantom Planet really knows how to put on a show. I’m not exactly the biggest fan of their music, but I was a fan of their earlier stuff and enjoyed the emphasis they placed on vocals over music. Most people are familiar with their “California” song used as the theme for The OC. I didn’t even recognize most of the songs they played at the show, but I still enjoyed it.
The live show was full of energy, as lead Alex Greenwald was in total control of the club. It’s pretty neat the way he acts out the lyrics too, using hand gestures to play out the words. Lots of banter with the crowd, having us choose songs and sing along as part of a song.
I’m surprised they didn’t play “California”, and yells of “Do the Panic” by me and Mr. Vassar went unanswered. Still, a very fun show by a very fun band. They closed up when Greenwald and the bassist moved the drums from the back of the stage to the front, and then Greenwald climbed up the rigging to the top of the club where he sang the end of the song “Stiffs”. That man is a nut.
Troubadour’s a sweet venue too, good sound and not too packed. I wasn’t too familiar with the songs played, but still an excellent show. Thanks to Brad for the late birthday present.
The Non-Expert: Hipster. You stopped listening to your favorite band because your Abercrombie-wearing cousin told you he likes their new single. I hate you guys for taking my music.
O’Brien to replace Leno in 2009. Official announcement to be made on tonight’s show. Should we all celebrate now? I just hope he doesn’t change his format and keeps all the lame jokes that work so well.
Well, I didn’t post this the other day, but in Japan they’re selling a ringtone that supposedly increases breast size. Today engadget has an mp3 of the ringtone. Use at your own discretion…although if anybody does actually use it, I’d like to hear about the results. Or inspect them first hand ;-)
Kill Bill Box Set. Not a region 1, but it’s got the uncut volume 1 (black and white scenes are in color) and a neat little mini sword. Where’s my damn US version now? I hate buying multiple copies of DVDs.
Remember the sweet opening credits of Spider-Man 2, featuring artwork by Alex Ross? They’re up for sale on eBay. Someone gimme $22,000 for the upside-down kiss.
Shaun of the Dead was way better than expected. I figured all of the funny parts were shown in the trailer, but the movie had laughs going all the way. Advertised as a “romantic comedy”, it actually had some sentiment thrown in that worked fine for me. It wasn’t so much a horror flick, although it had its moments, I found myself laughing and smiling throughout most of the movie, and this is from someone who gets scared very easily. Recommended.
She was getting frustrated with guys.
strjules: forget this
strjules: i’m turning gay
valloq: yayyyy
valloq: YAYYYYYY
valloq: OMG
valloq: LET ME WATCH
strjules: shut the hell up
Nerve.com’s Pickup Line Contest. Some of these are pretty funny, and a couple of them are just sweet ones that make you go “aww”.
“I may not have gotten your virginity, but can I at least have the box it came in?”
The Paper Napkin email rejection service. Speaks for itself. What’s even better though is the blog where they post up some of the e-mails that are actually sent.
Both links courtesy of web zen.
Craziest. A well-narrated and excellently told short story about Scrabble and life.
Sonny Liew’s Squash Rental Agency. Nice artwork to enjoy.
Winners of Oprah car give-away must pay up to $7,000 tax. It’s always the little things in life that they don’t tell you about that end up getting you. I’m not surprised that Oprah didn’t offer to pay for this tax as well, although I guess it’s cause it’s not something that can be easily paid for since it differs with income level.
Free Programming and Computer Science Books. Handy for any CS students out there or anyone who just wants to brush up on their programming.
Finally today, Kurt Vonnegut gives out the rules for creative writing. Have I mentioned yet how much I love this man? And he hands out the definitive rule about following…well, rules.
The greatest American short story writer of my generation was Flannery O�Connor (1925-1964). She broke practically every one of my rules but the first. Great writers tend to do that.
Man Shoots Wife, Mistakes Her for Monkey. Hahahahahahahah. Ahem, sorry…I just read the headline, thought about it for a second, and then started laughing. I’ll continue laughing to myself now.
Saw looks very promising. I haven’t seen a good thriller in a while now, and anything to get me away from those spooky ghost movies that scare the crap out of me.
More interesting though is this 4 minute clip of Enduring Love (Requires iTunes to watch). It totally got me hooked and involved and I started to feel a little tense watching it. This is a good way to sell a movie too, sometimes trailers just don’t cut it, and showing the first four minutes of a movie is a good way to do it.
Dance Floor Moves. An interactive dance floor that reacts to movement. I’ve seen similar art installations just like this one, where images are proejected down and sense movement from users. Time to change majors again. Oh wait, they need someone to program these. Dammit, was ready to change careers again.
Someone please tell me these redesigns for the MINI are a joke. These just can’t be real. They look so…angry. And ugly. Damn you Chris Bangle! I’ll forgive you for the Z4 since it kinda grows on me…7-series and 5-series though, that’s a no no.Update: Looks like these may only be student designs, so we can all rest easy now.
Matchbox Twenty Finally Finishes Watering Down Long-Awaited Album. I heart the onion. Wait, can I say that “heart” thing? That was kinda gay, wasn’t it? Okay, forget I said it.
We wanted to give our fans exactly what they’ve come to expect: music so inoffensive and indistinct that it could be played virtually anywhere�a bank lobby, an SUV stuck in traffic, a party full of aging stockbrokers and their girlfriends.
First Look at the Fantastic Four. Just from these four photos, it doesn’t look half bad. Jessica Alba is hot as hell like always, but I don’t know how it’ll work since her character has always been portrayed as a goody-goody white girl with blonde hair.
Thanks to Pat for the heads up on this one. It looks like Dairy Queen is offering free cones today as well, yay! Alright, so today, hit up Dairy Queen first for the free cone, then over to Ghiradelli if time permits.
I gotta be more efficient in my browsing. I’ve got 20ish sites that I visit every morning to get the latest news and it takes me longer and longer the more sites I find. Perhaps I should invest in an RSS Aggregator, anyone got any suggestions for a good one?
The Star Wars DVDs come out today, and since people have been asking me, no, I’m not really planning on getting them. Lucas can just go suck it with his changes that make the movies suck even more, although Empire Strikes Back is my favorite of the trilogy and also the one with the least changes, and now that the pansy scream that was given to Luke in the special editions has been taken out, that may be worth looking into. Oh yes, the reason of this post: people are reporting audio problems with the audio on the DVDs, and Lucasfilm has even reported back saying that they’re intentional.
Yeah, right. I’ll wait around for them to fix it.
Are poker ‘bots’ raking online pots? Seems like people are programming bots to play poker online and possibly making money if programmed correctly. Why didn’t I think of this before? This beats robbing a bank any day.
In the Shadow of No Towers, Art Spiegelman’s latest comic since his award-winning Maus series. Here’s a review from Time, but notable because Spiegelman will be appearing at the Los Angeles Public Library on October 7th.
Sketch-a-move. Prototype next-gen Hotwheels, that are controlled by drawing the path of the vehicle on the top of the car. Make sure to watch the video…although these are mock-ups, it’s still pretty cool to see what they intend to have them do.
Finally, everyone head out to a local Ghiradelli store today. They are celebrating the official last day of summer by offering single-scoop ice cream cones for only a dollar. This e-mail I have says to bring it in as a coupon, but I don’t think they’ll be that picky to check.
Happy 22nd to Cindy, purveyor of execellent music recommendations.
Our little buddy Richard went up north this weekend to meet Mary’s parents:
valloq: so ben stiller
valloq: how was meeting the parents
Doughy637: SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TSH
Doughy637: that was a brad comment
I think that deserved my “…”. Brad suggested I turn that into a daily feature…hmm…
From the description:
Howtoons are one-page cartoons showing 5-to-15 year-old kids “How To” build things. Each illustrated episode is a stand-alone fun adventure accessible to all, including the pre-literate.
These comics are really neatly drawn, and not even all that cheesy considering their audience. The videos on the side are really nifty too. Who wants to build a hovercraft?
God vs. Bush. Just a tad too coincidental. I’m curious to see the paths of the hurricanes myself though, as I’m not quite sure what liberties the creator of this image took.
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