TrippOdd / Dan's Diatribe

I Should Be Committed

I should be committed... I brought a new hamster home today. Damn those cute hamsters in the pet store... damn them. While in the store, I stood there watching the surprisingly-active hamsters do their hamsterly stuff... and one in particular caught my eye. She was trying to get through a narrow part of the cage, but got stuck. She worked and worked and worked until she make it through. It's neat to see such determination. =)

The pet store put her in a large container, basically the kind that Chinese take-out comes in, with the folding top and the little metal handle. Within a few minutes, she'd managed to gnaw a hole through the container, and her nose and whiskers were sticking out. I had to put the container in a larger cardboard box to get her home.

I woke Elsbeth up to meet the new hamster, but she wasn't interested, so she went back to bed. They'll be in separate cages, so no hamster-fights.

I'm still trying to decide on a name. So far I like "Eris" and "Beatta." I'm not going to decide right away, and am open to suggestions.

dan on 12.31.04 @ 04:13 PM PST [link]

Call Me Danstrodamus...

I've been thinking about the past year and what I've done and accomplished. I sat and looked through the appointment book that Steve Cavin uses to run Open Mic. It had the past 18 months' performer lists, and I browsed through and figured out that I've played there about 11 times since June/July 2003. Only three or four times by myself. That was a tangent, but nonetheless, I thought it was cool to have that as a sort of statistic. Anyhow...

Traditionally, I've managed to linger in a post-holiday stupor, and wouldn't dare stop to think of things in this way, for fear of crying out "Everything is Meaningless." This year, though... the holidays were a non-issue... so I'm clear to give things an inventory-like scrub. =)

This year, I've managed to accomplish a lot more than I set out to... and predicted an event or two:

1. Ross being infected with MMORPG disease and neglecting his blog - (06/16/2004: "Alas, Poor Ross, I knew him Horatio.")
2. I correctly identified that Erik Ostrom is packin' - (06/28/2004: "Erik's Guitar, or is He PACKIN'?")

Call Me Danstrodamus.

dan on 12.29.04 @ 08:22 PM PST [link]

Didn't You Know that I'm a Hockey Coach?

"I’m disappointed with my kids’ effort," Taunton coach Dan Tripp said. "They didn’t play physically, they didn’t make passes, they didn’t skate, and mentally they weren’t ready to play."

From here.

I wonder if I didn't say it, if they're still quoting me.

dan on 12.29.04 @ 12:57 PM PST [link]

Handy Man

It's interesting that songs can get "stuck in your head." The songs that stick in mine are usually whatever I'm working on or learning, or some inane but terribly catchy tune. Sometimes this is a great thing, like when I wake up hearing Dave Allender singing "Dry River" or "Love's A Word I Never Throw Around," but sometimes it's hellish. The song stuck in my head today is a little bit of both.

"Handy Man" was written by Blackwell/Jones and initially popularized by Jimmy Jones (1959), and it's a catchy tune, for sure. However, it was also "popularized" by James Taylor. I suppose the saving grace is that the version of it running through my head is being sung by Cameron DePalma, who is about the antithesis of the smarmy smultzy shit that is James Taylor.

What's especially funny about today's "stuck song" is that I can also "see" Cameron playing it on the sidewalk outside of Red Rock, and this "vision" is intercut with Dwayne from What's Happening singing it and dancing in front of his class. It's a fairly sublime juxtaposition... Dwayne doing his Jackson 5-esque moves and Cameron wearing a bandana and well, being Cameron.

What songs get stuck in your head?

dan on 12.29.04 @ 12:31 PM PST [link]

More PSP News

Oh yeah... The Top 10 things you need to know about Sony's PSP.

dan on 12.28.04 @ 03:53 PM PST [link]

The Bloodforge Hammer

My friend and I were talking about when we worked together at the bank (long, long ago), and she remembered how obsessed I was at one point with EverQuest. She asked about the Bloodforge Hammer by name, because she remembered me telling her the story about how I got it. Heh. Strangely enough, I just found a disc with a bunch of EQ screen captures on it, including this one of the Bloodforge Hammer in my inventory. How funny.

"Dude... you're a chick. Turn around for a second." - Eifson

"You're the only Level 30 I know who still does the mail quest." - Unicron

"WTF? That dude just gave you that because you're a chick? That's just wrong." - Eifson

dan on 12.27.04 @ 01:38 PM PST [link]

KOTOR 2 is Stealing My Soul

KOTOR 2 is Stealing my Soul, or at least a good chunk o' my time... and this isn't actually a complaint.

I'm surprised at how the story is unfolding, and how much of an immediate impact some decision-making has. Quite cool. Oh, and the swoop racing doesn't suck... unlike KOTOR.

dan on 12.27.04 @ 11:46 AM PST [link]

Grand Theft Auto 2 Available for Free Download

Rockstar Games is allowing folks to download Grand Theft Auto 2 for free. Pretty hip.

dan on 12.26.04 @ 12:45 PM PST [link]

What's Happening for the Holidays

I picked up Season Two of What's Happening today at Best Crappy Chain Buy Buy Buy Store. Guess what I'm doin' for the holidays? That's right... hangin' out with Dwayne, Raj, Rerun, Dee, Shirley, and Mrs. Thomas.

dan on 12.24.04 @ 02:59 PM PST [link]

George W. Bush vs. Dan Quayle...

Two men, each with one leg... in an ass-kicking contest: George W. Bush vs. Dan Quayle.

dan on 12.23.04 @ 08:59 AM PST [link]

Kantacky Fried Chicken...

Kantacky Fried Chicken, JFK Fried Chicken, Kennedy Fried Chicken, JF Kennedy Fried Chicken, Arizona Fried Chicken, Utah Fried Chicken, and more, more, more... here, here, here.

dan on 12.23.04 @ 08:22 AM PST [link]

Jackasses for Jesus Gone Wild

News story about a ho-bag and her family suing a video game company because it contains footage of her exposing her 17-year-old breasts in public during Spring Break.
I'm terribly offended that some "Jackass for Jesus" thinks it's a-ok to be a part of "Jackasses for Jesus Gone Wild" over Spring Break... especially when that Jackass knows that she's under 18 and her top should stay on. Oh, wait, I forgot... "Go to Spring Break, take off your clothes and act like a cheap, stupid slut for plastic beads"* is in an obscure passage of the Old Testament. There's a New Testament passage that points out that true believers will throw their plastic Mardi-Gras beads at Jesus' feet while he's in the Beama seat, because Jesus alone is worthy of praise, especially when said praise is in the form of plastic beads gained from whipping out one's breasts.* So, I guess I'm being really wrong and judgemental... oh, please God, forgive me.

Those named as defendants include not only developer Topheavy Studios and publisher Gathering of Developers, Inc. but both Sony and Microsoft on whose consoles the game has been available since this summer.

Apparently, suing the hell out of everybody and their cousin is "God's Way" to the Jackasses for Jesus people too. Especially since Topheavy Studios, y'know, purposefully conspired to get this 17-year-old ho-bag to take off her clothes in public, so that they could open themselves up for the Nora Kuzma treatment.

I'm shocked that the Jackass for Jesus and her family haven't tried to spin this whole thing in such a way that it somehow implicates homosexuals as a whole. I mean, gay people must have been at South Padre Island during Spring Break, and it must have been them (and maybe Jews too??) that encouraged her to bare her breasts. C'mon, Ms. Jackass for Jesus from Austin, you're leaving out a bunch of folks who (according to the stereotypes your "bretheren" promote) have lots of affluence and money. Wouldn't this be a great way to help God pour out his Wrath on these heathen?

In all seriousness, it surprises me that they're not suing every electrical power supplier, every retail outlet that carried the dopey-ass game, and every fast-food chain in the United States. By virtue of their argument, everyone involved is a criminal (except the Jackass for Jesus). If you supplied electricity to power the Xbox/PS2 to play the game, then you're obviously aiding and abetting a stupid 17-year-old slut in taking off her top. People who play games on the Xbox or PS2 obviously eat a lot of fast food, so McDonalds must be on the hook too. And hey, let's not even talk about the fact that most games are played on a television... so there's a double-whammy for Sony right there. Damn, the whole world apparently conspired against this poor, helpless victim to show her breasts in public. Those must be SOME BREASTS

While I'm not interested in seeing this moron's naked or scantily-clad body (even after she turns 18), it'd be interesting to know if she was wearing her "What Would Jesus Do" bracelet, or if she took it off for more beads. I remember that Jesus had his "What Would I Do" bracelet on when he and I went to Spring Break. He may not be a sinner, but that doesn't make him a bad guy.

the "Plaintiff is still a teenager and wishes to attend college, develop her career and be active in her community and church."

Regardless of the outcome of the case, she'll probably still be active in church... especially if "active" means that she's persuing strenghtening the callouses on her knees by fellating the choirboys (or girls). I think she's headed for a life of "service," and a former president might like her to come and visit (after she turns 18).

Lest you think that I have to have the last Word, here are a couple more scriptural passages related to this story:

"Thou shalt engage in all manner of frivolous abuse of the legal system. Be thou certain that you claim everyone imagineable as a defendant."

"Everybody elseth on the planet is to blame for thine irresponsible, immoral behavior except for thee. Thou are infallible and holier-than-all."

"Taking personal responsibility for thine own actions isn't how God acteth. If thou taketh responsibility for thine own actions thou art putting thineself above God, liketh the Secular Humanist doest."

*Quoted from the relatively new "New NeoConservative Lip Service to God" translation which is generally unavailable anywhere other than Jackasses for Jesus bookstores, because it's a wild mix of "something somebody ignorant at church said" and "whatever suits my particular interests/political agenda at any given moment."

dan on 12.22.04 @ 08:52 PM PST [link]

Nonsense

I intend to post about this nonsense later. The true spirit of Nora Kuzma lives.

dan on 12.22.04 @ 12:42 PM PST [link]

Movies

I've been watchin' movies. =) Ten Word Review Style:
Lost in Translation: Murray is a brilliant actor, this is a worthy favorite.
Hero: Great non-Hollywood story with superb cast and stellar martial arts.

dan on 12.21.04 @ 11:04 PM PST [link]

PSP vs. DS

This image tells the story:

psp_vs_ds

dan on 12.20.04 @ 03:44 PM PST [link]

Rape, Murder, Genocide, Slavery, Incest, and On and On... it's All About the Children

Lawmakers are at it again with the "Parents shouldn't be responsible for managing what their kids look at/do" thing again... and the same, tired, boring, dumb argument about video games being the source of voilence is rearing its stupid head.
If this truly was true, then we'd have seen no violence in last four thousand to three million years... since there was no electricity and therefore no video games. But wait, there was voilence before then... and it was caused by what? Oh, maybe a set of books and stories that were passed around which were full of tales of rape, murder, genocide, prostitution, slavery, incest, and on and on. Maybe we should take a look at the root cause: smack a big "Rated X" on the Bible, disallow children from buying it in stores, and fine anyone who would provide such "adult" materials to kids.

dan on 12.20.04 @ 12:24 PM PST [link]

More Dan Quotage...

Who the hell knows why, but I've been quoted again. Why is this amusing? Well, I know that 1-2 people view my blog every-now-and-then, but it's funny to see that "strangers" read it too... likely accidentally... and likely rarely.

dan on 12.20.04 @ 11:21 AM PST [link]

Interesting...

Hey, this looks interesting. Would anybody be interested in trying it out with me when it's out? Right now it works with the GAIM client on Linux, but a plugin for Windows should be available soon.

dan on 12.18.04 @ 08:06 PM PST [link]

PSP Envy

My PSP just arrived! I was planning on writing up some impressions of the Spike TV awards, but screw that. Maybe later. This thing is fucking incredible.

I got to play with Sam's PSP... and yeah, I have big-time PSP envy.
(Man, that sounds SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO dirty.)

dan on 12.17.04 @ 04:53 PM PST [link]

Embracing the Inner Geek...

As much as I hate how much George Lucas has butchered the "first three" Star Wars movies, I can't help but to delight in the fact that Eidos is producing a Lego Star Wars game. Yes, a game in the Star Wars universe with Lego as the visual style. Rumored to be released in May, 2005, it looks like it might be worth waiting for.

dan on 12.17.04 @ 11:50 AM PST [link]

The Sony PSP

I got to touch/play with a Sony PSP today... and I think it's not named correctly. It should be renamed the Sony PCP, because it'll be as addictive as crack. The screen is freakin' amazing, and the overall design (minus the possibly annoyingly-placed drive opening button) is solid. It doesn't feel like a cheap toy, quite unlike the Nintendo DS.
An article I'd read recently suggested that the PSP will find a market with adults, and the DS will be popular with kids. That's probably the most spot-on observation I've read. I don't see a point in a religious war 'bout which system is better, but the PSP definitely appeals to me, while the DS does not.
The PSP has a lot of potential for hardware hackers to do interesting/useful things. I'm willing to bet that some Hardware Hacking Geek (and I offer the title as a badge of honor) will get Linux on it and open the door to a whole world of awesome possibilities.

dan on 12.16.04 @ 07:54 PM PST [link]

Funny! Dan Quoted in a Newsletter. :)

I'm quoted in the Laszlo DevNews - Winter 2004 e-mail. How funny is that?

GET YOUR FREE BLOGBOX
"... oh, man... a super-duper-hella-mega-cool application
for playing .mp3s from a web site... This gets a hip++
rating. 'tis another application built using Laszlo."
That's a verbatim quote from a blogger who discovered the
SoundBlox, part of a line-up of, well...
super-duper-hella-mega-cool Laszlo Blogbox widgets that can be
embedded into HTML pages. They are free as in beer and in
speech, so go ahead and deploy a rich Internet application on
your own web site, learn from the source code (released under
the Apache 2.0 License), and spread some good cheer.
http://www.blogbox.com/

'tis true, I think the Blox components are pretty cool... however, what they didn't quote (understandably) was my comments about why I wasn't ready to take the Laszlo plunge. The major obstacles (besides actually learning Laszlo [which isn't hard... it's XML and Javascript]) have been removed by Laszlo going open source, but the reliance on the Laszlo Presentation Server is still the dealbreaker. They've got version 3.0 of the Laszlo Presentation Server slated for release soon... and if it really creates standalone flash files that do cool data binding and data exchange stuff... well, it's on like duct tape. 'til then, I'm still playing with Laszlo because there's no way I'd be able to convince my hosting provider to install it, and MyLaszlo just isn't for me.

Soon Laszlo may be a useful tool... instead of just a neat toy.

dan on 12.16.04 @ 07:42 PM PST [link]

Vai Tickets on Sale

STEVE VAI: REAL ILLUSIONS TOUR - ATTENTION NY FANS!

The first of our exclusive Vai.com ticket Pre-sales for the 2005 Real Illusions Tour is ON NOW for the show on March 26, 2005 in New York, NY at the Town Hall. As a special service to our loyal Vai.com visitors, we have worked with the promoter to bring you the first chance to score seats in the first 14 rows. There are only a limited number of seats available so don't miss out!

dan on 12.16.04 @ 02:16 PM PST [link]

Lap Pillow...

More stupid products from Japan.

dan on 12.16.04 @ 02:14 PM PST [link]

Silly/fun

Andrew found this bit o' silly fun and I thought it was worth sharin'! =)

dan on 12.14.04 @ 11:55 AM PST [link]

Just Great...

Oh, this is oh-so-fabulous... Tim "I'd never read a comic book, but I directed Batman" Burton is doing a bastardization of Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Although Tim "I'm a freaky ah-tist" Burton's involvement almost guarantees suckitude on a large scale, Johnny Depp is involved with the project. Maybe Depp heard Burton was doing it and thought "well, if Tim does it, it'll totally suck... maybe I can get involved and perhaps salvage it."
I'm not that optimistic. Here a link to the trailer.

dan on 12.13.04 @ 12:26 PM PST [link]

Games...

I'm about 3/4 of the way through Halo 2, but I bought Knights of the Old Republic: The Sith Lords yesterday, and it refuses to leave my Xbox. I'd forgotten how much fun KOTOR was, and KOTOR2 isn't disappointing.
I bought the Xbox Live kit (w/1 year and Crimson Skies) a couple of weeks ago, but I've still got stuff to play before I go online. =) I wanna play Battlefront online, though. I bet that'd be way fun.

dan on 12.12.04 @ 01:38 PM PST [link]

KOTOR 2

I picked up Knights of the Old Republic: the Sith Lords today. I did the starting tutorial, and realized that I'd almost completely forgotten how the KOTOR interface works. Heh. =)

dan on 12.11.04 @ 08:11 PM PST [link]

Christmas Gift Idea...

If you have a friend who works at EA, you might like this gift idea.

dan on 12.10.04 @ 02:01 PM PST [link]

Seattle

I'm good to myself sometimes... I bought tickets to Seattle in early March. =)
The March 2005 invasion of Archie McPhee's has moved past the initial planning stages. Wallet alert level: RED.

dan on 12.09.04 @ 12:18 PM PST [link]

Phones or Service?

Do you think they're trying to sell phones or um, "services" in this ad.

dan on 12.08.04 @ 03:19 PM PST [link]

Super Special Treat

I was super smart and preodered Mike Doughty's double CD dealie. I'd forgotten that I'd ordered it, so when it arrived in today's mail, it was like a super special treat. Happy Tuesday!

dan on 12.07.04 @ 04:43 PM PST [link]

What's Happening?

I bought the first season of What's Happening, and watched the first disc (of three). So far, I've watched seven episodes of the hijinks of Raj, Dwayne, and Rerun. They should've stopped making new TV shows after this.

dan on 12.06.04 @ 11:47 AM PST [link]

Kristy Scott, Just For You...

I'm gonna finally watch "Joe Vs. the Volcano," against my better judgement.

dan on 12.05.04 @ 02:00 PM PST [link]

Yay, I'm on Track!

'nother thing... I'm excited that I'm back on the "posting something at least once a day" track.
I've been enjoying reading Chris Purdum's blog.

dan on 12.04.04 @ 07:05 AM PST [link]

Early to Bed, Early to Rise...

I fell asleep around nine last night, and I woke up rather early. This means I'll probably nap this afternoon. Heh. I know you needed to know that.
I've been reading a really great book called The Pragmatic Programmer. Nods of appreciation to Pam.
I have cancelled a Featured Artist spot that I had at Red Rock Open Mic on 12/13.
I'm up early enough that I think I'm gonna go have breakfast around "breakfast time."

dan on 12.04.04 @ 06:58 AM PST [link]

Uh, Now Master Chief... Now Arbiter!

More obsessive Halo 2 play underway. It's quite engaging, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I got Fable this week too, and will probably give it a go tonight. Who knows when I'll escape from the Inner Sanctum of Xbox?

dan on 12.03.04 @ 06:01 PM PST [link]

I Am the Arbiter

I am the Arbiter... or was... in what's probably been my favorite part of Halo 2 so far. I finally took Star Wars Battlefront out of the Xbox, and Halo 2 has been great so far. Well, minus the Flood. I hate the Flood... they annoy me... especially the ones that balloon up and explode and send out all those little yellow guys. They suck.
Halo 2 is basically Halo with updated graphics (which my old Xbox kinda chugs a bit on), nifty new environments and story, and the ability to dual-wield. =) I hate to confess that I'm still adjusting to how dual-wield works, but it's soooooo cool to be able to have two plasma rifles (or whatever they're called) at once.

dan on 12.02.04 @ 10:43 AM PST [link]

"Blog" is the #1 Word of the Year...

'tis true. Read it here.

dan on 12.01.04 @ 10:36 AM PST [link]