New Years Eve

So Is eveyone going to the party at Bryan's? As many of you know I have been sick... I don't want to miss out on the festivities and I plan to head out... (Jacob thinks this is a terrible idea by the way) but I may avoid the alcohol or just stick to the hot toddies.
What is everyone else doing?

Amadan, Piracy

I really don't like that bar, but it would be nice to see Chad. I'm in, assuming the cover isn't obscene.

And don't worry Kristi, we will always have The Pirate Bay. They're pretty much unassailable as far as I can tell.

Amadan show?

Is anyone thinking of going to that? It is sounding pretty good to me.

There goes another one

-------------------------------
Judge Rules Against Piracy Site
-------------------------------
Score one for the entertainment industry: It will soon get a little
harder to download a movie off the internet for free. TorrentSpy, a
web site that helps internet users find downloadable but copyrighted
materials such as movies for no charge, may be shuttered following
yesterday's ruling. A judge in U.S. District Court in the Central
District of California terminated the copyright lawsuit against the
web site that was filed by a group of entertainment companies that own
movie studios. The ruling means the web site is liable for copyright
infringement. The judge said in her ruling that TorrentSpy employees
destroyed evidence and lied under oath. The court has yet to place a
dollar amount for damages caused by piracy or an injunction. U.S.- based internet users can't access the company's Netherlands-based
servers but anyone outside the U.S. can. The studios' victory is
somewhat hollow, however, because there are other foreign-based web
sites still out there. The studios hope that the lawsuit will at
least discourage legitimate advertisers from supporting such sites.
(http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/News_shorts_31/index
.asp 12/18/07)

Starbucks is Good for All Around Business

Man, this is one of the most interesting articles I've read in a while. Apparantly, having a Starbucks open up next to your local coffee shop is a great thing.

Referencing Your Work To Dilbert is Sort of Lame

However after just finding out my boss will give me a dual monitor setup I remembered this comic.



Did anyone ever see the TV show Dilbert? It was kind of awesome. I think I would like Dilbert a lot more if I didn't see cliche comics cut out and put all over offices everywhere.



The Dublin Pub show sounds pretty decent. Is it free? Hell its got darts and 59 taps, that seems pretty attractive. We'll give it some thought.

Upcoming Amadan shows

I don't recall who, specifically, but somebody wanted to know when Amadan was playing in Portland again next. Here you go!

Sat, Dec. 29 9:30 PM - Dublin Pub (http://dublinpubpdx.com/)
Mon, Dec. 31 9:00 PM - Kell's Irish Restaurant & Pub (http://www.kellsirish.com/portland/index.php)

These are the only shows they have announced at this time. Last I talked with band members Chad and Eric, these may very well be the last couple shows until March/April, as I think the guys are looking to take a little time off from shows and writing/recording to just relax for a couple months.

If anyone's interested in seeing them, I'd definitely recommend the show on the 29th. Personally, Kell's on New Year's Eve sounds like getting punched in the junk repeatedly. Besides, the Dublin Pub is a pretty chill bar which can feel 'cozy' and yet somewhat open at the same time.

Public service message

In case anyone wants to pay attention to the elections, here is a pretty convenient way to do so from our friends at Google:

http://news.google.com/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=us&topic=el

PSH is out of control (or: what a backlog)

Probably my favorite actor is Philip Seymour Hoffman, and at this point everywhere I look there is another movie with him in it. Here is the backlog:

1. Synecdoche, New York (2008) (post-production) .... Caden
   
   
2. Charlie Wilson's War (2007) .... Gust Avrakotos
3. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) .... Andy
4. The Savages (2007) .... Jon Savage

Synecdoche, New York sounds really cool, probably will be out next year, but is another Charlie Kaufmann work:

A theater director (Hoffman) struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

The Savages and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead have great casts.

Of course, anyone who hasn't seen Capote yet is a 'tard. Although I mean that in the best possible way.

The nom de indie pinnacle

Here are the band member's names for Black Moth Super Rainbow:

(Tobacco, the Seven Fields of Aphelion, Power Pill Fist, Iffernaut, and Father Hummingbird)

Blue Oyster Cult

Yes they are good, in a straight-ahead 70's rock way. Also they have the sci-fi thing going. There most famous song other than Reaper is Godzilla, which has one of the best riffs ever. Also, two things about their live shows: 1) at one point everyone plays guitar at the same time (including the drummer and keyboard) for a total of 5 guitarists, and 2) the almost always do Born to be Wild (Steppenwolf song, also please see), including a Harley ridden onstage with a topless, busty, uh, rider.

P.S. I had a tenant that a) grew up and played with BOC, and b) (according to him) taught Gene Simmons to play bass.

Clothes

Well I like that idea, however I only have two kinds of clothes: ratty clothes that I call work clothes, and ratty clothes that I normally wear. I am more than willing to ([ed] commercial interruption: ok, this is really random, but in my ongoing effort to download music even though I have no hard drive space I am listening to stuff lingering about in iTunes. Now I am listening to Sir Lord Baltimore, which I got from god-knows-where. It is pretty good 60's acid rock though.) give away those clothes from the first category ([ed] Note: speaking of 60's acid rock, Blue Cheer will be playing here soon.) assuming that ratty is not an issue.

Ok, I'm bored, really, really bored.

If You Set It Up, They Will Come

Yeah Dan, I'll come along. I already gave away a huge amount of clothes to a shelter somewhere so I don't have too much of that. However I'm sure I could crank out some food or something. If I run into my local can/bottle man, I'll ask him what is something all those guys would like. He's definitely my favorite bum of all time. Nice, hard worker, pretty smart, just seems like he ran into some bad luck or something.

That Samarai Dude is Serious

He sounds like those guys you talk to at a party and 3 seconds into it you realize you REALLY regret saying a word to him.

Dan and Dave, is Blue Öyster Cult cool? Other than the cowbell skit and being on the radio a lot, I think Don't Fear the Reaper is sweet song.

I saw it again played behind a History Channel segment on Jonestown, the religious cult who forced the kool-aid mass suicide. The show's called History Rocks and its kind of tacky because it plays a rock song and makes a pop-up music video style history lesson, but Gloria and I actually enjoyed it. We learned about Jonestown, Watergate, Elvis becoming a DEA agent, muscle cars, CB radios, 747 vs. Condorde and Jimmy Hoffa. Its even hosted by Meat Loaf!

Re: Seven Samurai

This is the best IMDB comment ever made: http://tinyurl.com/2yztya

It's time to give back, good people of this blog

(Yes, I did edit this post :) ).

OK, my better third (based on weight), has proposed the idea of taking stuff we have in the garage, like blankets and old jackets, and actually giving them to people that need them. Basically, instead of giving them to a shelter, actually walking around and finding people that need stuff. This may or may not be an idea that works in practice. However, she's also proposed the idea of giving a gift box, with like cookies and, I don't know, stuff, to random, homeless people for Christmas. You know, to make their lives suck an infinitesimally smaller amount.

Like I said, don't know if it's something that would work in practice (well, the gift box would, but the coats/blankets thing might be harder), but just thought I'd put it out there for the heck of it. Kind of like a Santacon, but without the alcohol, and with goodwill - to the homeless. Random walking and singing is still allowed. :)

Just a thought. Don't really have info on where/when, since it's still in the idea stage.

Game and bowling

Not sure about tonight, but Luke and I agreed the other night that all you really need to say about bowl games in particular, and college football in general, is ...... it's football. I would probably stand around and watch a Lincoln High game if it came right down to it.

Nonetheless, there is a conflict tonight, as there is also an NFL game.

Regarding Interstate lanes, with a review like this I don't know how we can miss:

Games are cheap, it's air-conditioned, and the only time it's ever crowded are on league bowling nights (Wednesdays?). There's a restaurant/bar place, but my suggestion is to stay away from it. There's music and cosmic bowling in the evenings, and it's maybe the one bowling alley I've ever been to that I've never seen a child; there seems to be an unwritten rule about Interstate Lanes being only for near-toothless old guys in satin jackets only.

Bowl Time

As usual college football excitement is usually centered solely around me, but...I always offer. Bowl season is here and I'll be watching more or less, every one. All 32 bitch. Probably not. Anyway, it starts tonight so if anyone wants to watch any, I'll be watching them. Tonight's game sucks but eh, take what you get. Anyway, Colorado plays Alabama on the 30th at 5pm so I'll be having a party or something for that. I'm aware that there's NFL that day too, but Chiefs vs. Jets is a joke. I'll be making vegan pulled pork and vegan cheeseburgers. Maybe vegan ribs if I'm feeling awesome.

Oh by the way Dan, those are pretty sweet. I look forward to some day putting some solar panels on my house.

The future is nano and electric

Stanford's nanowire battery holds 10 times the charge of existing ones

Cheap, Solar-Power-Everywhere Nanosolar PowerSheets Go On Sale, Really Are Cheap

Just thought you guys might find this hilarious.
We've been covering a story about a bank robber police have named.... The Waddling Bandit.

Better Late...

Oh shit kids =)

Yeah, bringing the 2 below

What an Event!

So I probably agree with PETA this time (I usually agree however I think they act like dicks) but I would definitely love to see or enter a pizza eating contest against a bear.

Two Entirely Unrelated Things

Re: Number Six, aka "that blonde cylon chick", now that you mention it I do recall finding those scenes incredibly uncomfortable to watch starting out. Somehow it got a lot easier as time went on. Either you just get used to it, or learning more about what's actually happening makes it easier to take. Somewhat relatedly, BSG has really, really awesome music, and the Gaius/Six theme is a really stand-out example. Simultaneously menacing and intimate, much like the characters' relationship. There's an episode towards the end of season 2 where it's used in a different (but related) context, and it makes the scenes much, much more resonant and immediate than they might otherwise have been. I feel like I've learned more about TV and movie scoring from watching this show and paying attention to the music than I have from every other piece of media I've ever been exposed to combined.

The other thing. David, I've been meaning to mention this in a post for like a week: "Consolidated Pith" would be yet another Great Band Name.

No Country for Old Men

Word is that the Coen brother's rendition of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men is brutal, perfect, and even brutally perfect, so we should see it. Wednesday, the 7:55pm showing at Regal Fox Tower 10 (address: 846 SW Park Avenue). It'll get out just at the onset of the Dragonfish happy hour next door. 

See you then... friend-o. 

BSG Is Cool..But

I'm sure I'm supposed to hate that blonde cylon chick but god, other than the fact that its very plot related when she talks to Gaius, I can't stand watching those parts.

Only Two So Far

Grace has definitely bought Full Moon, Blue Moon's seasonal and Tom was telling me he'll probably get 2 Below, but I'm not sure.

Holiday beer tally?

Is there some way I can figure out who is bringing what tomorrow? I don't want to duplicate, has anyone chimed in yet on what they are bringing?

Chriistmas

For those of you looking for a Wii this Christmas (or those of you that know someone who is), this weekend is probably your best chance. Failing that, next Thursday and Friday may be your last hope.

Also, I really love how you can just add a double "i" to a word and make it Wii themed.

What happened to Kristi?

I missed bowling. You know why? I was asleep. Thats right, went home sick after the 6pm news. I could feel a battle being waged inside my body. My immune system was winning but it needed all its power to fight the germs. 8pm to 8 am I slept and now I'm feeling pretty good. But... I missed bowling. You have no idea how sad that makes me.
(I did spend the morning watching Firefly, that made me happy)

And I fight another war. Thats right Kristi vs. The Christmas Tree. Two tree stands later it falls down again. Can't seem to find enough lights to put on it. Go to the store, but the wrong kind. Jacob for some reason has the closet in the basement with all the ornaments locked (Christmas Present? Perhaps?). There are pine needles all over the house... *^%#*(#@

Tomorrow I leave for Disneyland.

Consolidated pithy comments

People are stupid. There is no denying that. Remember newspapers are written to an eighth-grade level (except, as Bobby pointed out, USA Today, which is probably more like fourth grade).

Speaking of 4 of things, and words that make no sense in the past tense (pet), here is one that should exist but doesn't, probably because it makes too much sense: fourple. Double, Triple, Fourple. We don't need no big stinkin' words y'all (that was my Texan impersonation).

Golden Compass looks interesting, I think I will see it at some point.

I had the longest argument with anyone in my life (several years) about whether Led Zeppelin was the best band ever. The obvious other one was the Beatles. It took me a long time to figure out that question is non-answerable without one more adjective, that is, the best rock band ever, or the best pop band ever. They are completely different genres in my opinion.

I always thought Kashmir was really great (much like Riders on the Storm) if you are completely high, but otherwise, mmmm, not so much, since that album has a ton of fantastic music. Really everyone just went all weepy about it when they figured out Jimmy Page was playing with a bow.

Frets On Fiire

I saw GlovePIE the other day and my first thought was that this guy is a bit of a loon. Part of the license agreement says that the software may not be used by missionaries, or within the nation of Israel. I can appreciate standing up for what you believe, but it's a fucking software license agreement man.

But it set some wheels turning in my mind, wondering if I could hack together a way to use it with Frets On Fire. Then, today, I saw this.

I am definitely getting Guitar Hero III now.

Edit: Looks like they're even gonna fix the mono problem. Sweet.

Wii News

Two days ago I got 120 stars. I'll say no more in case you guys plan to get all of them.

Also today I just got Guitar Hero so after I get up to scratch we're having a party.


Some side news:
Check out this terrible story. I absolutely love the second to last sentence though.

More dumb people.

New Column

On the Mercury, I found this and just ran into it again online.

Saw Golden Compass

It was sweet. Zero looks just like Iorek Byrnison.

Yeah dude, I think that Brawndo thing is totally real.

Apparently the Zeppelin show was amazing.

If they tour you know I'll be there. Here's a clip of the show.

Also, I probably should like it more, but I think I'm the only person in the world who has no feeling whatsoever toward the song Kashmir.

"Like out of the toilet?"

When I first saw the advertisements online for Brawndo, I was excited. I thought, perhaps, that this was the first wave in an interesting (and deeply ironic) new marketing push for Idiocracy, in an effort to engender the same sort of cult following that Office Space achieved. It would certainly be well-deserved, as that movie was criminally underpublicized. But there's been dead nothing since then, and the commercials don't even mention Idiocracy, so this can't be right.

My next thought was that perhaps the product was being put to market to capitalize on the popularity of Idiocracy, which is obviously idiotic. I think about fifty people in total saw this film, including the director and the editors. Marketing didn't even bother.

And so I am led inexorably to the conclusion that one of the aforementioned fifty people was an executive of some sort who saw the product in the film and genuinely thought it was a good idea.

Lord, give me strength.

You can't be me, but you can do your best, and that's what's important ... mostly

The smile on my face from the cheese/fancy lady comment is almost enough to make up for the profound horror of the Arnold video. Actually, no it isn't. I feel icky having seen that, even knowing such a video exists. Ick yuck ick. Make it go away!

I just had a great idea for a website! You know the idea of companies or people buying carbon "credits" to offset business as usual, with the idea that someone somewhere else puts out less carbon? Check this out - VEGAN credits! I'll be a vegan for a day, and David can gorge himself on Apizza Scholls, GUILT-FREE (no pork though, David)! Put the idea on a website, and all that vegan guilt goes away. God, talk about making the world a better place! Can you imagine a world with less grouchy, dairy-deprived, over-soyed, depressed vegans? I think we all can. And it's like eBay, the website gets a per-transaction fee from the deguilted (so-called! ha!) vegan. Want a real croissant? Someone, somewhere, will eat one less croissant for you, for a fee.

You might say I am a genius. You might say my idea could save the world and engender levels of goodwill among men...and the ladies...heretofore unprecedented in the history of not just this world, but of all conceivable worlds. You probably should say that, actually. But thinking it is good enough, because, let's face it, I realize not everyone can rise to my level of greatness. So, well, thanks for doing the best you collectively can. It's not much, but I appreciate the meager, meager efforts that I'm going to assume you all are doing, or going to do, or have preemptively done, in my honor.

Holiday Ale Party

So Gloria's dad is coming next week and we thought it would be fun to throw our own Holiday Ale party. Expidite the lines and prices and just have everyone bring a six-pack. Seeing as its holiday beer, that should be more than enough beer for everyone. Gloria also would like to have cheese tasters also, because she's a fancy lady (however I know all of you like cheese...except david). Anyway, I'll make a list of Holiday beers I can think of, and everyone should pick a beer to bring, either from the list or anything you want. Tell me what you got, so that way no one gets the same thing.

Ok, help me make a list of the store Holiday ales:

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
Widmer Snow Plow
Deschutes Jubelale
Pyramid Broken Rake
New Belgian 2 Below
Bridgeport Ebeneezer
Alaskan Winter Ale
Full Sail Wassail Winter Ale

Hell if you can get a bomber or two or some brewery Holiday beer, that would be awesome too. I'll try to recruit some people so we have a decent turn out. So the bottom line is, people are invited so long as they bring a six-pack of holiday beer, so if any of your friends want to come, tell them that and I'll gladly have them over.

Believe It Not

So after I left you guys at Amazon, I went to Voodoo Doughtnuts, went to the Max and then decided to run for a few stops. I had a lazy day so I figured I'd get a little exercise. The max was about 8 minutes away, so I'd catch it later. Well, I ended up just running more and more until I was home. I beat the max and ran the entire way without stopping for more than 10 seconds or so....

I've never done that before, or at least its been a LONG time. I'm not really sure why I kept going, I just kind of...did. Sometimes I test myself to see what shape I'm in, but I think I need to keep this up. I'm not a health nut, but if I could get it to feel this good, maybe I should keep up this active lifestyle.

Well

Bill O'Reilly

(the funniest part is at the end, after he had seemed to discount what he was saying as satire, when he adds "I still they are satanists who live on those websites").

And, since I'm getting political... again... Keith Olbermann. You have to love anyone that has the balls to say, on national tv,

We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War Three about Iran at least six weeks after he had to have known that the analogy would be fantastic, irresponsible hyperbole — or we have a president too transcendently stupid not to have asked — at what now appears to have been a series of opportunities to do so — whether the fairy tales he either created or was fed, were still even remotely plausible.

A pathological presidential liar, or an idiot-in-chief. It is the nightmare scenario of political science fiction: A critical juncture in our history and, contained in either answer, a president manifestly unfit to serve, and behind him in the vice presidency: an unapologetic war-monger who has long been seeing a world visible only to himself.

http://rename42nd.org/

One More Thing

Definitely click on the gas icons and read the captions, they're pretty funny. I love that they even point out the liquor stores and when they close. Good people.

Chinese, Santa, Terell, Beer

So as most of you know, Chinese is by far my favorite cuisine. Growing up in the Bay Area really spoiled me for good Chinese food. Since moving to Portland I've been trying to find a restaurant that can live up to my expectations. Did some digging today, and I think I may have found a contender. This place called Wong's King has a number of ecstatic, bordering on histrionically positive reviews on Citysearch, The Mercury, and pretty much everywhere I looked. Some of the reviews even said it could stand up to restaurants from San Francisco, Vancouver and Hong Kong. It won an award for being one of the top 100 Chinese restaurants in the country, and the head chef won some kind of cooking award in China. Basically, all of this has me really pumped up to try the place. Anyone else interested?

Oh also, apparently their Dim Sum blows Legin out of the water.

So Saturday...what are we doing? SantaCon, or Terell's B-Day? Or some of both? Is there any consensus here?

Also, what's the status of the Holiday Beer Party thing we talked about on Sunday? It seems pretty unlikely we'll be having it tomorrow, so is there a future date in mind? We should try and do SOMEthing tomorrow, since all the college kids are done with finals (and we still know a few of those).

SantaCon Info

I'm excited to see who these Santa Wranglers are.

Saturday, December 8 2007
12:00pm - 9:00am*

santa con

skidmore fountain-noon

Tips for this year:

Bar stops are a few minutes shorter this year to make room for more reality hacking, culture jamming, mindfuckery and handjobbery. So bring cash, five dollar bills, for the bars, rather than large bills or credit cards. It will speed things along.

The route is shorter than previous years, but still fucking impossible to do in high heels.

Bring a flask, bring a flask, bring a ma'fuckin' flask.

You can view the route as a google map here. It should be up and running by Dec 1. If it ain't up yet, just be patient.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108945842417085794828.00043d511ea562ea60ac6&z=17&om=1

If you get tapped by a Santa Wrangler and offered a chance to run on a "splintercon group," go. It will be fun, and you will be back with Santa in half an hour or so. Splintercons are planned through almost the entire event, and are the way we will be able to do things that we can't do as one massive group.

Santacon Link

Did not work for me, at least at the moment.

SANTACON!!

Get ready here we come!

http://www.drunkenrampage.com/event_pages/december/December.html

David. Dan. Go get a suit.
Why? Santa.
Where? Santa.
When? Santa.

Volunteering

I'm not trying to go crazy with the volunteering but, its something I used to do a lot more of when I was younger and I recently read about a couple cool opportunities where we could really help out.
This drunk driving service I could see us driving for and even using ourselves.

www.rideonportland.org

I have done a couple plantings with Friends of Trees, so I signed up for their mailing list as well as another organization called Growing Gardens (Gloria, I think you'd like this one). They help low income families and schools set up gardens to help provide affordable food.

But seriously the Ride on Portland Service is really awesome.

Volunteers

Remember to print out your volunteer registration form so they will let you in. I think they sent out an e-mail for it.

Dude, We're Volunteering

2:30-6:30 we'll all be there.

So who's going to the Holiday Ale Festival?

Still another option

I've gone to that new pub (The Bye and Bye) on Alberta twice now, it is rapidly becoming my favorite. All the food is vegan, so y'all may not be into that (it is the best vegan food I've had in Portland so far, especially the spaghetti and meatballs). Amnesia IPA on tap, $3 Anchor Steam for happy hour, Hamm's on tap. Lots of crazy ass mixed drinks.

More eating options

I really don't have the energy to schedule this, but I checked the Overlook Diner and they actually have DOUBLE-DECKER BLTs. Here is a review, I particularly like the one about the beverage menu:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/AVt5S16qeIuIaevEqynVag

The menu is enormous, breakfast (including 'trucker's vomit') all day. They close at 9 though. Also the lounge is open until 10 and it looks pretty sweet.

Put that shit on the calendar

Post haste. Obviously it was I, not gloria who Loves Pizza.

Grotto and other tricks.

Kristi: I am into the grotto. Is the tree thing a walk, drive, bus ride?

Is everyone coming to Santacon? We should get up early, get smashed and act like santa... yeah!

What do people think about beer olympics? Should we do it this month or wait until after the holidays?

Next friday: Emmi's birthday PARTY?! Lets fucking celebrate. (The date was Emmi's idea) Booya.

Kristmas Kitch and Other Fun

As I slowly pull myself out from the last month of hell we call sweeps here in TV land (btw- we kicked ass and pulled ourselves to just .1 percentage point behind KGW's usual comfortable first place position) I realize that it is... Christmas time!
And ohhh what fun is ahead-
Of course it all begins with the Ale fest this weekend.
I also have 4 FREE tickets to the Festival of Trees the weekend. Does anyone want to go? It could be a good laugh.
I will also be getting free tickets to ZooLights (KOIN is a sponsor.)
Then of course there is SantaCon on the 8th.
But the real reason for this post is that I MUST got to the Grotto this year. It costs 7 bucks, but you get a live 20 minute performance on the life of Jesus Christ, carolers, choirs like a bazillion lights and the best part the gift shop full of more religious bric-a-brac than any mortal can handle. Perhaps not this weekend but soon. We must go. I have been wanting to go for years- Perhaps afterwards Emmi can take us on a tour of local holiday light displays.

I have been wanting to go to Ken's Artisan Pizza since it opened. M-F I always get off at 9:30- I think they close at 10 (I've looked into it before). So if you ever go on a weekend- count me in.

Darts

Sometime (not tonight) I want to go play more darts. I just bought a set of steel tips, so we don't need to be dependent on the bar's crappy darts. I'd love to get my own board, but I'd be scared the entire time that Grimmy or Zero would get a dart in the eye.

Play the "National Republican Senatorial Committee" drinking game

Here's how: for each press release,

1. Drink once for every third use of the word liberal.
2. Drink once for each reference to San Francisco.
3. Drink twice for "angry" applied to liberals.
4. Drink three times for "vile" applied to liberals.
5. Chug the whole thing when you see the, uh, word?, "liberalist"
*****************

David - my schedule is any night after 9:30 or so, Tuesday and Thursday after about 6, and Saturday and Sunday. Monday night at Ken's would be tough. But you guys should do it. We should definitely do Apizza sometime, though. They're open Tuesday through Saturday. Or we could do the actual, new-fangled Ken's Artisan Pizza instead of the bakery.

I LOVE PIZZA

and I'm back. I've been really wanting to go to Ken's Artisan Pizza. Also whatever place you mentioned, I'm not a big fan of cracker crust. Its never worked out for me.

Sounds like Monday

We need to go to Ken's bakery. Or hit Apizza first maybe.

What's your schedule these days, Dan?

Pizza ^ 3

Apizza is crowded because, outside of Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix (yeah, of all places), which I think they're about even with, it is the best thin crust pizza outside of the east coast. If you show up at 4:30 you can always get a seat when they open at 5. You used to be able to show up at 5 and get a seat, but then they got some good reviews and people found out about them (I think they were on the Food Channel or something). I also made several trips out to Scholls when they were slightly less known, and they were crowded even then, though you could get it to go.

Ken's is good, though the toppings are spartan, and it's not nearly the deal, quantity-wise, that Apizza's is. The commonality to both is that the driving forces behind them both started as bakers first.

I've also heard good things about Dove. They are in the space that used to be Kustom Pizza, and they seem to go out of their way not to have a sign by which you could actually identify them as a restaurant. Yet there always seem to be people inside.

By the way, this is the pizza bible. I'm hoping Santa brings me a pizza peel this Christmas, even though my oven only goes to a measly 550 degrees.

Edit: Ken's Artisan Pizza started as pizza night at Ken's Artisan Bakery. I still think Monday night at the bakery is more fun/special than going to KAP.

Pizza Pizza

I did look at Ken's and Apizza, but both get somewhat dubious reviews by some people. I guess I would have to try. But the basic problem is that if pizza is intended to be used, the sauce is usually too bland to stand alone. The other part of this is I know entirely too much about making pizza, from my college days, so am not easily fooled. I've been to Nostrana and was not impressed incidentally. It was way expensive and I didn't like the cracker crust (that was burned).

But I'm totally down with a foray to Ken's (Apizza seems like a total pain in the ass to get into I'm not sure I'm that interested). I do respect that restrictions that Apizza puts on pies (no more than 3 ingredients, no more than 1 meat) as they are right on.

Also, I see this place mentioned as good (although it has an unusual cornmeal crust):

http://www.dovevivipizza.com/menu.html

Seems like some investigatin' my be necessery.

Pizza

You could get a Margherita (ask for no cheese) at Ken's Artisan Pizza (http://www.kensartisan.com/pizza.html);
Search Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/search?cflt=italian&find_loc=Portland%2C+OR;
Try Nostrana: http://www.nostrana.com/menu.html;
Try Bar Due in the Pearl: http://www.pfmenus.com/?p=115 (ask for no cheese on the margherita);
You could post the question at http://www.portlandfoodanddrink.com

The key to good pizza is San Marzano tomatoes, dough with very little yeast that has been allowed to rise slowly for at least 24 hours, and a 700 - 900 degree F oven.

Personally, if I were vegan, I'd go to Ken's. But the best pizza in town for a non-vegan is Apizza Scholl's. You might ask for the onions and peppers pizza without cheese. I'm sure they do get vegan requests.

That said, there don't seem to be that many places in Portland actually trying to do real Italian pizza. Nostrana is the closest in intent, though I haven't been that impressed.

Edit: And when I say real Italian pizza, I mean a place like this:
A16 in San Francisco, which "Transports the cuisine of Campania and the wood fire of Naples to San Francisco's Marina neighborhood." I even accidentally ordered the vegan pizza and didn't regret it. :)

The search is on

So I was just watching a show on Naples and this incredibly yummy-looking food was featured, Neopolitan Pizza Marinara, that is, authentic Italian pizza from Naples. Basically it is yummy dough, yummy marinara sauce, fresh basil - that's it.

So since I've always heard (and frankly never experience myself) how GREAT food is in Portland, please let me know if you have ever encountered this here, or know where it can be found.

I will be happy then. I have searched all through Citysearch and found nothing even remotely close, but I'm sure there is some hole-in-the-wall Italian joint somewhere that has it......right?

Bootable

You could make it bootable as a rescue disk. Linux can mount NTFS. http://pendrivelinux.com You can also make it DOS bootable if you need DOS.

Standalone apps for flash drives?

So, I picked up a 4GB USB Flash Drive today for work and personal usage. I plan on throwing the applications below onto the little bugger, and am curious if anyone else has any suggestions.

*Utorrent
*VLC Media Player
*DOSBox
*GIMP Portable
*FileZilla Portable
*Firefox Portable
*Pidgin Portable
*PuTTY Portable
*Sumatra PDF Portable
*7-Zip Portable

***Edit for more***
*ClamWin Antivirus App
*Toucan (pretty neat little app for simplifying backups and adds encryption support for flash drive)


Think of anything else that would come in handy?

Calamity

I'm back, got back yesterday.

David

When are you getting back?

My votes for best youtubes

I'm sure they really aren't, but here are my current faves (maybe everyone has already seen them all, in which case I am just lame):







and of course, my alltime favorite (although youtube hassles you to get to it),

Cars

This weekend

Anything sweet happening?

MIDI Arcade

This is sweet:



The guy has a bunch more of them at his YouTube page, like Super Mario Brothers, Megaman II and Kirby. I don't know why nobody thought of this before, but it's awesome.

New real estate data

I thought I was not crazy, but you never know. Here is the actual data from October 2007:

The October RMLS numbers are out and they're surprisingly strong. The median home price is up 6 percent year-over-year. It's $287,000 in October 2007 compared to $270,000 from the year before. That's down a from the $300,000 in August but still pretty strong given what else is going on the country. The inventory remains high at 8.4 months. That's up 80 percent from the year before but actually a decline from the month before.
All in all, a strong showing.

Ok, ignore that, but not this

So ignore that real estate post of mine, it was old data.

But this is amazing. my sister has that Verizon FIOS fiber-to-premises service, it is utterly badass. I am downloading the latest Heroes episode and it has slowed down to 110 KB/s, but was peaking at about 325KB/s.

Overall it will take about a half-hour it looks like to get the whole thing.

OK, back to non-depressing things

OK, this could be cool (or possibly not). In any case in December SciFi is doing a miniseries re-adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, except really dark. Zooey Deschanel (who I've always liked) plays DG (Dorothy):

http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/tin-man/290904

Pointlessness taken to absurd (i.e. government) levels

There's apparently a big debate going on about new Cafe standards. Should the 2007 Energy Bill mandate all vehicles get 35MPG by 2020, or, as the auto industry wants, 32MPG by 2022?

To put some context to this absurdity:

The Wall Street Journal (not exactly a knee-jerk, reactionary kind of publication) has this to say about our oil supply:

"A growing number of oil-industry chieftains are endorsing an idea long deemed fringe: The world is approaching a practical limit to the number of barrels of crude oil that can be pumped every day."

So, essentially, 85 million barrels per day (seriously, stop and think about this number - 85 MILLION barrels every day), is, according to this, the highest rate the world will ever produce. We are at that number now.

And about global warming:

The IPCC, which tends to be conservative in its reports, is basically freaking out.

"The world will have to end its growth of carbon emissions within seven years and become mostly free of carbon-emitting technologies in about four decades to avoid killing as many as a quarter of the planet's species from global warming, according to top United Nations' scientists."

And our politicians are having serious, heated discussions about whether to raise fuel standards to 32 or, oh no!, 35MPG, and whether to do it 13 or 15 years from now!

Speaking of pointless (housing market)

That would be a reference to statistics:

The Portland-area median home price rose 8 percent in May over the same month a year ago, continuing a trend of outperforming the national slumping housing market.
The median home price for the Portland area hit $297,000, according to the Regional Multiple Listing Service. While the mark constitutes a record high price, the rate of appreciation over a year ago was relatively modest compared with gains in the high teens last year.


I could go on and on, have my own theories, etc. In summary, a) Portland has a growth boundary, thereby restricting supply, and Portland is still by far the cheapest city on the west coast, thereby increasing demand (read: Californians).

Just my theory.

Recommendations on style when sending a letter to the editor

Write it in shorthand. Don't spend more than 2 minutes. They will edit it into oblivion anyway, and the insipid result will make you want to throw up.

Yes, I write letters. But I've never had them so brutally tortured into effete submission until today. I guess I should write a letter about this. I would say something like:

"While I won't attribute to malice your uninspired butchering of my letter into something completely unrecognizable by me, possessed of none of the character nor strength of my original letter, I am baffled as to a reason for such sloppy and overzealous editing of a letter that did not need it (save perhaps for one grammatical error at the end which I noticed right away). My last line summed up the intent of the letter perhaps better than any other sentence, and that is gone. If you insist on editing letters that don't need editing, can you at least try to avoid sucking the soul out of them?
Thanks,
Dan Cooper"

Which they would probably print, since I'm sure they would take my constructive criticism to heart. Except it would look something like this.

"Why you change my letter? It was good.
Thanks,
Dan Cooper"

</PointlessAndSelfAbsorbedAndAlsoNoDoubt ExtremelyAnnoyingWhining>

P.S. I should probably point out that I'm talking about the (Bush-endorsing) Oregonian.

YouTube FTW

I'm not going to ruin this by telling you anything about it.

Buying opportunity? Housing downturn finally hitting Portland?

"Pollock's move is the first clear public signal that a Portland-area homebuilder is feeling serious pain from the housing slowdown -- and doing something drastic about it.

Portland's housing market remains relatively stable compared to the busted markets in Florida, Ohio and California. But home builders here also sit on a growing backlog of finished but unsold homes. In September, the region had 8.6 months' worth of homes to sell, nearly double the figure from a year earlier."

More

RE: Mascots

I think I sent this to Josh already, but it is the best mascot thing ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkbKjtuNJhQ

Great Comments

I was digging around on Barfly looking for a sports bar in NW to watch the Ohio State Michigan game tomorrow, and stumbled on the comments for the Marathon. They are hilarious.

NEW YEARS PLANS!

Oh damn, do I know what we're doing for New Years. I've been wanting to do this for a while and here's our chance!

Bar Fly Bus Tours!

Here's a longer description

Basically we pay $25, unless 10 of us want to go, then its $20 and we get driven around to 8-11 bars. It starts and ends right by mass transit and even has a free champagne toast. What do you guys think? Lets discuss this and figure it out now because it sounds like it sells out fast. Oh and its on a bus and drinking on a bus is totally legal. I'm sure it would be shaky to bring a twelve pack, but a flask would be no problem.

The Exact Opposite Sentiments

These are supposed to be the least initimidating, possibly lamest mascots on this list.

Instead they've basically put down the best mascots. These are EXACTLY what I look for in a mascot. Who the fuck cares that your mascot is The Tigers or oh god, the worst The Wildcats, or The [INSERT BIG JUNGLE CATS].

I may hate Ohio State, but it is awesome that their mascot is a buckeye, those chestnut things that fell out of the tree in our front yard.

My favorite though is DEFINITELY Big Red. I mean look at him! He's just a big red furry mouth! Apparently the guys inside the costume are always incredible because he's always one of the top mascots every single year. If I ever started a school, I would refuse to have my mascot be anything boring. And if it was something like the Tigers, it had better because Tigers are indigenous to the campus.

I Love Mascots.

Sanity Check

Just in case you thought the world was a sane, reasonable place: the World of Warcraft just hit 9.3 million users. If it were a country, it would be the 88th most populous in the world, ahead of Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Puerto Rico and New Zealand. If it were a U.S. state, it would be the 10th most populous, just barely behind Georgia, and ahead of New Jersey, Massachusetts, Colorado, Washington and Oregon.

That is all.

For the record...

...Elliot Smith's lyrics are an epic fail.

Good luck with sweeps, K.

And re: David's article, I knew it was serious as soon as he said "Defense Department". Cause, y'know, NASA and the Endowment for the Humanities really don't get shit.

Response(s) to previous posts

1)Bitches, I come home Monday. I am pumped OUT for the beer Olympics. I am so ready to drink something other than Saigon Beer (bad.)

2) Elliot Smith sucks every dick.

3) I have solved the social security problem. I am moving back to Vietnam. Yesterday I went to the dentist with no appointment. I waited for five minutes, and they filled a cavity in less than fifteen. Including X-rays, my bill was
WAIT FOR IT
SIX DOLLARS.
And, Yes, this place was entirely reputable.

4) I prefer to imagine Josh retiring like a queen.

no further points of note.

Beer Olympics

As much as I'd like to get get wrecked this weekend, my ability, desire and especially time, is being sucked away from the pit of despair the TV business calls Sweeps. I was here an hour late last night, no lunch break, and already in two hours early this morning. STILL behind, and the work load only piles up. But enought of my belly aching.
I also think we NEED Emmi, she has a power none of the rest of us possess to get people out of their damn houses and join in the fun. (Emmi can you tell we miss you?)

This weekend I'll try to pick myself up, and get a new plan together.

Contrarian

Elliott Smith was a genius. Just like Vincent van Gogh, Kurt Cobain, and all those drummers who spontaneously combusted.

Which is to say, I never liked his music either, nor understood why people did. Perhaps people just liked him, or what he represented to them. Perhaps his lyrics are amazing. Perhaps he had a covert ninja marketing team. Maybe he appealed to alienated youth at a time after grunge but before post-grunge. Maybe he used subliminal mind control techniques but it didn't affect us because we're all too smart - or too dumb. I just don't know. I think we should ask a bunch of random people in a bar if they like his music, and, if so, why. In a diplomatic way, of course, or we're likely to be run out in the same way that someone uttering "Fuck the Alamo" in a suburban Dallas honky tonk might be. Except without the waving of (urban) cowboy hats.

I do like "At the Bottom of Everything" by Bright Eyes/Conor Oberst.

SHIT

that last post was from Gloria not Josh... sorry.

?? (I hate titles) (I can never think of a good one)

David- thanks for the advice, its smart. I definitely don't think people my age are thinking about retirement. Now me, I would like to retire today... I will be trying my best to make sure I retire like a king (queen?).

I don't think the beer olympics is going on this weekend. We can choose a different weekend. Possible one Emmi is here for.?

Fuck Elliot Smith.

Oh yeah... chocolate beer sounds like THE SHIT!

I am a Downer

What I'll say about real estate is that you can live on a LOT less in your retirement if you can figure out a way to pay off the house you are living in. I can't remember the numbers, but if you make one extra payment per year you reduce a 30 yr mortgage by 7 years or something.

Hardly anyone pays off their mortgage by living in their house for 30 years, but for sure renting will hurt more and more as time goes on.

In any case the two killers are rent and health insurance.

He's a Pretty Good Rhythm Guitarist

I will give him that. If he didn't sing I think I'd feel a lot different about him in general. Conor Oberst does nothing for me, and Elliot Smith is the same way. This song has a pretty good guitar line at the beginning. You can quit when he starts singing. I don't think its the tone of the music that I dislike, but their voices just drag you down. Bleh...

Elliott Smith is DEAD

And now he is deleted from my iTunes. I really don't see what the fascination with this guy is, or why he is so great. Except that he is DEAD. He wouldn't even get an audition in my dead musicians band.

Silly me

I forgot it is the United States of Don't Worry Be Happy. And anyway, Bush said lowering taxes will increase revenue and pay for everything including a $1.6 trillion dollar war. I don't know what I was worrying about, but I feel much better now.

Does anyone have anything I can buy (on credit)?

David is a Downer

I've definitely been starting my investments. If any of you want to read a small book that will make you feel WAY more confident about your retirement (seems reasonable to spend a few hours figuring out your last 30 years) I have this book a friend gave me called The Wealthy Barber. You can borrow it from me if you want. Its very readable and doesn't expect a lot from you. There aren't any stupid schemes or bold ideas, just safe time trusted advice. Here's the bottom line:

401k's and IRAs are the shit, there's just no denying it. Even if you feel unsafe with the current economy, invest in a Global Fund. You seriously can't lose. Even at a very modest rate of 8% (that's a low-medium return over 10-20 years) every $100 you put into a fund over 40 years will get around $700 taking inflation into account. And that's a very safe estimate. I'm not going near individual stocks, but I'll put my money into mutual funds.

Use your direct deposit like crazy. The company doesn't care how much you split up your check, so I have it going into 4 places. 401k, $50 or so going into a savings account, my student loan account, and then my final checking account. Its just a lot easier seeing one number instead of seeing your big paycheck get dwindled down by bills that you pay every month already. Might as well just make a separate checking account devoted solely to that. This alone has made my finances way easier and manageable.

Real estates seems cool, but I don't know how I feel about all the work I'd have to do. I'm sure there are many ways to do it that don't involve tons of renovations, but I'll have to reserve my judgement until I actually own a house of my own.

David the downer

Is it possible we shouldn't have started a $1.6 trillion war? Or passed a prescription drug benefit that is a massive giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry? Is it possible it was a mistake to base our entire civilization on a finite energy source, and not have a backup plan for when that runs out? And is it true that, even if all sources of man-made CO2 were to stop tomorrow, we'd still have an increasingly warmer planet for several centuries?

Come on, David. Of course it's going to be alright. Somehow.

Just sit back and relax.

P.S. I do actually think most young people assume Social Security will not be around for them. So yes, time to start saving now.
P.P.S. And I agree that it's a good article. David Walker was on 60 minutes a while back with essentially the same message.

Three Things

Josh, I have ALL of Galactica burned to disc. You don't have to download that shit, just ask to borrow it.

Just to F y'all's I, next week's retarded Toys'R'Us sale is "Buy 2 Get 1 Free on All Wii Games." Seems like a decent way to burn that giftcard. How do these people stay in business?

Also, that calendar just to my right says that we're doing the beer olympics on Saturday. That seems like the sort of thing that would require a good deal of planning, which (to my knowledge) hasn't happened. Are we actually gonna do this, or?

Sobering

Well I don't really want to clutter up our lovely blog with depressing shit, but since you are all quite a bit younger than me, this is more relevant to you than me, and you really, really need to start thinking about it.

Basically, you can assume there will be zero Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid when you retire, and you should start working on setting yourself up now. The power of compound interest is in your favor right now.

I'm not joking either. And although working on houses has totally screwed me up physically, it is still probably worth it.

Here is the article:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/70378

here is the most chilling quote:

Just for perspective, can you compare the size of this fiscal "tsunami" [to the size of particular spending programs]?
Well, you could decide not to renew the Bush tax cuts, you could eliminate all foreign aid, eliminate all earmarks, eliminate NASA, eliminate the National Endowment for Humanities and eliminate the entire Defense Department tomorrow, and you still wouldn't solve the problem.

OK, back to your regularly schedule jocularity.

Recreating Old Nintendo Stuff

The whole old school Nintendo thing is sometimes overdone, but as someone who was in marching band, this was a ton of work. I'm curious if they really learned all of this in a week. I mean they are going to Berkeley, so I'm sure they're smart but still...

Streaming sites

To Josh's question below:

I cannot verify if the sites actually have the miniseries, as they are blocked from my office, but here are a couple sites to try.

www.quicksilverscreen.com
www.justvids.org
tvlinks.co.uk - this site may be defunct now

Battlestar Miniseries

Is there a site that hosts a flash video of the Battlestar miniseries? Not the TV episodes but the miniseries. I'm downloading a torrent at home, but I'd like to watch it soon during my lunch break at work.

I want chocolate beer!

Chocolate? And beer? It's like chocolate and peanut butter, only better. Why can't I buy chocolate beer now? And not just chocolate-flavored beer, I mean beer fermented with cocoa.

Bowling Score

Man, HUGE new record in bowling tonight. I hope I can bring it to the bowling league.




209!

Pub Crawl

David-
I think a pub crawl is definetly in order to celebrate when you get a new job. We still have to do the other one you suggested a trillion years ago. And after the pub crawl we can do the toilet crawl... lets start at your house!!

Go Colts. Go Kitna. Fuck Football. Fuck the Police (run).

- Gloria

We are bowling tomorrow (at Hollywood bowl) and playing darts at Moon and Sixpence someday this week, maybe Thursday Wednesday. Everyone is invited to join us if you're free.

Bowling Alley Nachos...

...are the best nachos. I desperately miss the Beaverton Bowling alley just for its nachos. And that place closed before I was in high school.

Also, am I the only one who thinks tags ("labels" here) are a really cool idea? 'Cause I seem to be the only one who uses them.

Another pub crawl idea

Once I am employed again, in fact I would like to suggest in celebration of that event when it happens, this might be fun:

Gotham Tavern
White Eagle (which I didn't realize was a McMenamins, but oh well)
Mint (although this may be too foo foo)
Widmer for happy hour, pretzels, and friggin' awesome mustard

I think total walking is two blocks, maybe three

RE: Nachos

Vita Cafe has some pretty tasty vegan nachos (I think the only difference is they use mock cheese). For carnos, I seem to recall Chez Jose on Broadway having pretty good stuff.

(Note: Just after I wrote that I googled it and came up with the following)

http://www.oregonlive.com/weblogs/food/index.ssf?/mtlogs/olive_food/archives/2006_06.html

Nachos

I just thought of nachos and realized that I can't remember me EVER ordering nachos in my entire life even though I think they're pretty good. Does any place make a nice nacho dinner?

Awesomely awesome AD

The Flag

That's the Portland flag up there. Suitable enough. I rather like it, it strikes me as quite dignified.

goat

The Strike

So as some of you may know, possibly from my constant blathering on about it, the Writers' Guild of America is currently on strike. This being the group of people who write TV shows and movies. This is, naturally, raising all sorts of hell with this winter's TV schedule. As in, the December 3rd episode of Heroes is looking like it's gonna be the season finale, and we're only gonna get 8 episodes of Lost. They've already cancelled Heroes: Origins, which really sucks, as I was very much looking forward to Kevin Smith's inevitable Bluntman and Chronic episode.

Anyway, I really support the writers, blah blah etc. If you're actually interested, there's a good list of blogs and sites covering the strike here. I've been following it pretty closely, because I really don't have anything better to do. There have been various videos posted related to the strike and its consequences. This one is by far my favorite that I've seen: "What Will Happen To Television If The Writers’ Strike Continues?"



And you know, I started this post with the intention of just posting that video, so ignore all that stuff I wrote before it.

Bowling this Weekend

Our League is starting this Sunday and Kristi and I were talking about going sometime on Friday or Saturday. Is anyone else interested? My availability is Friday after or before we see that Ground Kontrol DJ, and then Saturday before 9 and after midnight.

Liechtensteinian

I think the flag looks vaguely Scandinavian. As if there were some heretofore unnoticed, Liechtensteinian principality nestled into some tiny wedge between Norway and Sweden. And it would of course be called Awesometopia.

In other news, the U.S. dollar is worth about 93 Canadian pennies. Do Canadians accidentally get U.S. quarters in change and feel gypped?

Flag?

Why do we even have this flag? Is it our flag? What the hell is it even doing here? Why don't we make our own flag? Like, with a goat on it, or some shit? Or like, The Iron Maiden Logo? Or something? What the hell.

Again. Again. Again. Again. Again.

Just finished (finally) watching Razor. Holy fuck, do I love this show. Those of you that haven't watched yet: DO IT!

God, that was awesome.

RE: The Flag Above

Yes, he has proven conclusively that he is a fucking idiot. Are you telling me that the 5 hits/day that he would get from this blog is in any way, ANY WAY, an issue? Is this image hosted on his iPod or something? No, I didn't think so (since we are in having-conversations-with-ourselves mode).

He is a meddling, uptight dweeb that is WAY too aware of his bandwidth and needs to do a cranial-rectal inversion to fix his problem. Then go outside and get some air.

My dream car may be ugly

But it's electric and AWD and going into production in 2009. See here and here. Not sure where Mitsubishi's press release went.

You can't deny it

So I just got back from a joyful jaunt into the heart of lovely downtown Hillsboro, and realized something: Hillsboro is happenin'! Now, you might be thinking "sure, but it's no downtown Portland," to which I would respond "Yes, it actually, really is," to which you might respond "you're a fucking idiot," to which, I imagine, I might respond with something like "I know you are, but what am I?" and you'd say "An asshole!" and I'd say "Goddamn it, it's fucking awesome! I just basked in its sweet exurban glow, along with many other beautiful downtown Hillsboro appreciators (Q: wait, were the appreciators beautiful, or was downtown Hillsboro beautiful? A: both). What is wrong with you? Why the Hillsboro Hatin'?" at which point the conversation would end uncomfortably. But really, Grocery Outlet rocks.

So uhhh, Ground Kontrol on Friday? Josh is going to destroy everyone at DK.

Hillsboro Goat

The Flag Above

Man, I don't know if any of you recently checked the site, but the flag above was changed into this:



Well, I uploaded it to Blogger which I should have done earlier, but this guy really makes a point.

Anyway, games on Thursday and Ground Kontrol on Friday.

Two Items of Note

Galactica fans: I am downloading Razor as we speak. It's at all the usual sites (Demonoid, PirateBay, etc.). I'm planning on watching it tomorrow, you're welcome to join me. Probably start around 7:00 or so (so as not to interfere with Heroes).

Wii owners: Toys'R'Us is planning on offering a $25 giftcard FREE with the purchase of Super Mario Galaxy. That is fucking insane. I'm gonna try and make it to one as soon as I can to place a preorder, I suggest you do the same. Once the ad hits the streets those stores are gonna be bedlam. CheapAssGamer has a long forum thread on the subject, culminating in a confirmation by a Toys'R'Us employee.

Just wanted to let everyone know

I feel like vomiting. I think something must've gotten my goat.

Winco = Winning Company?

Did you know that? What a great company name!

I hope to God this is redundant and you've all already seen it. Otherwise, my sister hasn't done her job.

GOAT TRUMP

You know I took this picture WHILE DRIVING A MOTORCYCLE. This motherfucker has ALL the goats.
ROCK BALLS.

Holy Shit!

New Joss Whedon show!

I'm seriously freaking out here. Like, jumping up and down and stuff. I'm glad no one is around to see me.

For David

Arizona St. vs. Oregon is on ESPN on Saturday.

Holding back the urge.

You guys have no idea how hard it is for me to refrain from taking this 'goat' thing too far on the new Blog. Lucky for you all, I can't go tracking down the goatse guy while at work. :)

Prepare to be rocked...

This is for you, Gloria:

The Horror!

Happy Halloween.

Goat.

Wigs

There is this woman in the office across the hall from me. She never says a word, but she wears a wig. The first few months she worked here I didn't notice, but as she has become more comfortable or whatever- she's let the wig slide- literally- it is always twisted the wrong way, too far forward or too far back- it makes her look like a drag queen. She probably has cancer or something and I'm a horrible person for commenting at all, but everyday it looks like she is wearing a mop on her head-
time to do the news-

Football, football, FOOTBALL!!!!!

OK, so my dilapidated, discouraging Vikes are playing San Diego Sunday at 10am on HD broadcast. I guess someone figured it might be interesting to see LT and Adrian Peterson on the field together. AP is due for a breakout game against the SD's 7th ranked rush D. Minnesota, on the other hand, has the 3rd-ranked rush D (we won't be talking about the pass D here.....) so will have their hands full with LT.

But we are just getting warmed up, because this is a double-header (actually a triple-header). Of course, the main event is the Indy/NE game with two 8-0 teams meeting for the first time in NFL history. Brady vs. Manning. You know. This will be the only time that any team will get close to beating NE this year, in my opinion.

Finally, the other 1pm game will also be of interest, as it is the Seahawks (Luke) vs. Browns (David, when not able to tolerate being a Vikings fan), with local boy Derek Anderson at the helm. The Browns, believe it or not, have the same record as the Seahawks at this point, 4-3.

And a consolation prize, the late game (5pm) is that old rivalry of teams that nobody likes, the Cowboys and Eagles. Since Donovan McNabb just tuned up by destroying the Vikings, maybe he can do the same with the Cowboys.

I will have beer and snacks, and of course there is TBell, Subway, and buffalo wings at the end of the street.

So you are all invited, let me know if anyone wants to attend.

David

Movie Night

I'm going to go rent Talk to Her, an Almodovar movie. Probably next week I'll download the best quality Tampopo I can find. I can't find it on Netflix or Blockbuster online, so I guess I have to settle on downloading it.

More goat



Looks like grimmy.

Amazing...

For the first time ever, and almost certainly the last time, I find myself wishing I'd seen a Vikings game. Who'd have thought.

Movie night on, Josh?

Also, thank you for posting and getting that goat...thing off the top of the page.

It Was Real!

Remember how I mentioned that insane score we saw over at the PSU game? Well they mentioned it on ESPN.com. Apparantly it beat the NCAA record for all divisions. It looks like PSU never ever runs the ball, so that probably kept to clock from winding down. Anyway here's the link.

No Game Night This Week

That's all. Just trying to get ready for this weekend.

Goat...Thing

Integrate Tons of Shit

If you see something on another website, like some kind of widget that would be perfect for the site, I'm sure I can always try and integrate it into here. Right now I just have the calendar and a feed from the Meet In Portland event calendar.

I like the new Blog. I'm just discovering the kick-ass integration of Gmail- calandar- Picasa, Blogger, and maps. Dare I say it... its almost as awsome as a Mac programs.

I'm still getting one though.

7pm

Dan, if you want to come, come on down with David.

Game Night

What time is game night tonight, Josh? I put it at 7:00 on the calendar, but I just realized that in Gloria's absence that time is pretty arbitrary. So, what say you?

Flag, Football

I like the flag up there, Josh.

Poking around online, I found that the Timbers are playing an exhibition match against Toronto FC (an MLS team) this Sunday at 5:00. Any interest? I'll stick it on the calendar.

Next Time You're Over

I'll show you the Sifl and Olly episode with that.

Rock uh, Balls?

Yeah.

Aka Dan

Edit: Oh wait, now I feel silly.

Here's One Solution

I'll keep adding more when I find them:

http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/itunes-albumlist.html

Edit:

This looks really easy:



Copy whole iTunes listing.
Paste into OpenOffice Spreadsheet.
Delete all columns except Artist and Album.
Go to Data > Filter > Standard Filter.
Click 'More >>' button.
Tick 'No duplication'.

So basically just get rid of the columns you don't need and then copy it over to excel and get rid of the unique values. You can do that by going to Data, Filter, Unique Values Only.

Comments Disabled

Yeah I disabled comments. Since we're all able to post, might as well just make a post rather than comment. Keeps things linear.

Our Previous Solution Asplode

The CPU in Tom's computer had a stroke, a heart attack and a wicked case of diarrhea all at the same time. I have no idea if or when it will be back. So, forums go boom. Honestly, I was contemplating taking it down anyway. Let's see if we can make this work out better.

P.S. Are comments just flat-out disabled? Is this intended?

Here's a question for the technogeeks

OK, so I'm up to about 30G of MP3's at this point, and it is literally in hundreds of different albums. But being a sharing sort of fellow, I would like to be able share. To do that I would like to be able to create a nice, clean list of only the Artist/Album pairs so I can mail the list to people.

I can probably figure out how to do this is DOS (which is far superior to Windows in this regard), but does anyone know how to do this directly from iTunes? I tried Export Libarary but it creates this obnoxious XML file that is a) unreadable, and b) has way too much information in it.

I Don't Mean To Undermine Our Previous Solution

I appreciated the old forum dearly, however I think it may be too complicated for our needs. Also, its down again, so I'm wondering if having a dedicated server could be better. Anyway, the main reason I did this was because I wanted to integrate the calendar into a forum, and I finally got it. Once I figured out how to do it, I decided I'd try to create it before I asked for change.

I think for our limited needs this may be easier. Most everyone already has a google login, so posting to this shouldn't be a problem. Also, if you add something to the calendar, it will show up immediately on the webpage which I think would encourage people to do so. Lastly, the other reason I wanted something simpler was because sometimes I just want to chat or write nonsense. We usually only have one train of thought at a time and with only one page, its only one click, and you can read something. No thinking involved. What do you think?