20041129


smashing time



it was a nice 4 days off.

we had the whole family over for the holiday, and everyone seemed to have a good time. the food was great.

the next day, my friends had a "day after thanks giving" potluck, which featured all vegetarian items. good stuff!

saturday i made my second batch of beer. the first one came out superb, and we drank it during the making of batch number 2. i felt like i was conducting a class, since there were 4 extra people who came over to help out. the more, the merrier, i say.

sunday was "do nothing day". i didn't even leave the house until 5:30. and that was to get pizza at zeldas.

the weekend after next i am treating myself to a trip back to the UK to see the t.v. personalities and my friends, pipas, along with some other good bands. this time i'm stocking up on brown sauce and bacon flavoured crisps (for niki) to take back. it will be neat going back so soon and not having to "work" (not that i mind playing shows every night, it's just the time limits on "sight seeing" got to me after a while). i'm trying to be as nonchalant as possible about it, so i can feel like a jet-setter, just doing my thang.

oh yeah, niki and i are getting one of these pups for christmas...er...i mean hanukkah...

20041119


so, what have you been up to lately?



nothing much. working. coming home. playing some GTA:SA. eat dinner. work from home a little. go to sleep. repeat!

NY Post: That sounds like a pretty mundane lifestyle. I bet you are one of the people who live by the motto TGIF!

i really look forward to the weekends. last weekend was ruined due to a reoccurring pain in my right foot in the big toe area. it hurt so bad i didn’t even want to leave the house. i had it looked at by a doctor last friday, and they tested me for gout, which does run in my family, and one of my good friends who has it swore that's what i had after describing the symptoms to him.

NY Post: That sounds pretty major. My Russian Grandfather had that. He can't eat peas anymore. Did you ever find out exactly what the problem was?

it turns out that i just have a "flat arch" in that foot. hopefully insoles will work. thank goodness it's not "the gout"!

NY Post: Yes. Good thing! Did your close call with "The Gout" and your second chance at living a normal life affect your habits at all?"

with the fear of my body falling apart and having severe cases of the "blahs" lately, i kicked my butt into gear and made my way back to the gym after not going for about half a year. typical back-to-gym scenario: work out for a good hour before work, feel great all day long, and wake up the next day in pain, preventing anymore trips to the gym that week. hopefully i'll recover by monday and i can make exercise my routine again. i'm sure it won’t hurt a bit!

NY Post: One thing our readers have noticed lately is your great hair!

last friday, i decided to hobble my way to my old barbershop for a haircut. it used to be called "judy's on j street" owned and operated by judy, the nicest barber i ever had. she never once asked how i wanted my hair cut, she just knew, and did what she did best. she would always finish the haircut by shaving the back of your neck old school style with a straight edge razor. niki even used to have her hair cut there!

NY Post: Sounds like a great place. Do you Still go there or have you gone the SuperCuts route?

judy sold the business, i think due to health reasons, and moved away. i hadn't been there since, until friday. it's now called "buzz" something-or-other. it looks pretty much the same on the outside, except for the harley parked out front (i later found out that it's the owner's bike). inside was another story. it looks like the new owner (buzz?) did everything possible to add a sense of masculinity to the place. there is a fridge with a glass door filled with Budweiser on one side of the room. he has his power tools on display (drill, hammer, etc..) on another side of the room. on the counter was a bottle of some hard core japanese liquor, that had an actual snake inside the bottle (which buzz would periodically take a swig from while chopping hair!). he kept complaining to the other barber, the old dude that cuts hair once or twice a week, about being hung-over, while drinking a beer and the "snake juice".

NY Post: Wow! Once you saw all that was going on, was your first inclination to make a bee-line to the exit door?

not really. anyway, my turn finally came up and i swear there were people ahead of me for a hair cut, but they all wanted the old dude instead, so i took a deep breath and stepped up to bat. "talk to me about your hair buddy!" was the first thing buzz said to me. i gave him the specs, and without any further questions, buzz did his thang. there was a time during the haircut where buzz was actually talking on the phone and cutting my hair simultaneously.

NY Post: It's a surprise your hair looks so good.

anyhow. as you can see, my hair came out great. it only cost 10 bucks. so i'll be back for sure!

NY Post: Very interesting. We here at the Post are always curious about what is now playing on your Hi-Fi system. Could you please tell us?

np: "ruby, don't take your love to town" - kenny rogers

20041115


RIP ODB



as well as:


  • Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader, died November 11 at the age of 75.
  • Howard Keel, actor/singer best known for his roles in musicals like Annie Get Your Gun, died November 7 at the age of 85.
  • Ken Caminiti, all star baseball player, died October 10 at the age of 41.
  • Christopher Reeve, actor best known for his role as Superman, died October 10 at the age of 52.
  • Jacques Derrida, founder of deconstructionism, died October 9 at the age of 74.
  • Rodney Dangerfield, comedian, died October 5 at the age of 82.
  • Janet Leigh, actress best known for Psycho, died October 3 at the age of 77.
  • Richard Avedon, photographer, died October 1 at the age of 81.
  • Geoffrey Beene, fashion designer, died September 28 at the age of 77.
  • Francoise Sagan, author best known for Bonjour Tristesse, died September 24 at the age of 69.
  • Russ Meyer, film maker, died September 18 at the age of 82.
  • Johnny Ramone, founder of the Ramones, died September 15 at the age of 55.
  • Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, psychiatrist best known for her book on death and dying, died August 24 at the age of 78.
  • Elmer Bernstein, composer, died August 18 at the age of 82.
  • Julia Child, chef, died August 13 at the age of 91.
  • Fay Wray, actress best known for King Kong, died August 8 at the age of 96.
  • Paul 'Red' Adair, famed oil well fire fighter, died August 7 at the age of 89.
  • Rick James, musician best known for Super Freak, died August 6 at the age of 56.
  • Francis Crick, codiscover of the DNA double helix, died July 28 at the age of 88.
  • Jerry Goldsmith, composer best known for scoring films such as The Omen, Alien, and Chinatown, died July 21 at the age of 75.
  • Isabel Sanford, actress best known as Louise Jefferson on the tv series The Jeffersons, died July 9 at the age of 86.
  • Marlon Brando, actor, died July 1 at the age of 80.
  • Ray Charles, musician, died June 10 at the age of 73.
  • Ronald Reagan, one time president of the United States, died June 5 at the age of 93.
  • Brian Linehan, celebrity interviewer, died June 4 at the age of 58.
  • Tony Randall, actor best known as Felix on the tv series The Odd Couple, died May 17 at the age of 84.
  • June Taylor, dancer and choreographer best known for the Jackie Gleason show, died May 17 at the age of 86.
  • Alan King, comedian, died May 9 at the age of 76.
  • Estee Lauder, cosmetics queen, died April 24 at the age of 97.
  • Carrie Snodgress, actress best known for Diary of a Mad Housewife, died April 1 at the age of 57.
  • Alistair Cooke, broadcaster best known in North America as the host of Masterpiece Theater, died March 30 at the age of 95.
  • Peter Ustinov, actor, died March 28 at the age of 82.
  • Jan Berry, musician best known as half of Jan & Dean, died March 26 at the age of 62.
  • Queen Juliana, former queen of the Netherlands, died March 20 at the age of 94.
  • Robert Pastorelli, actor best known as house painter Eldin on Murphy Brown, died March 8 at the age of 49.
  • Paul Winfield, actor best known as the father in Sounder, died March 7 at the age of 62.
  • Spalding Gray, monologist, was found dead March 7 at the age of 62.
  • Mercedes McCambridge, actress known for films such as Touch of Evil and The Exorcist, died March 2 at the age of 85.
  • Marge Schott, one time owner of the Cincinnati Reds, died March 2 at the age of 75.
  • John Randolph, actor known for his Tony award winning performance in Broadway Bound and as Rock Hudson's alter ego in Seconds, died February 24 at the age of 88.
  • Claude Ryan, Quebec federalist intellectual, died February 9 at the age of 79.
  • M.M. Kaye, author best known for The Far Pavilions, died January 29 at the age of 95.
  • Jack Paar, talk show pioneer, died January 27 at the age of 85.
  • Bob Keeshan, better known as Captain Kangaroo, died January 23 at the age of 76.



via - http://www3.sympatico.ca/jenoff/obit.htm

20041109


man, someone really put time in this to make it look authentic...




NOT!!!!

and oh yeah, i did click on the link knowing it was a phony.

i know you just said "man, you crazy fool!, that could be some viral ass shit. your computer might catch herpes or sumfin'".

i know i know. well let me use this opportunity to promote a great open-source browser called firefox. this may be the first you've heard of it (but not the last), but lets just say that M$ Internet Exploder, (a virus writers dream come true btw) hasn't been updated in 4 years, with a new version not coming out until 2006 (if the new version of windows gets released in time)

...i'm just sayin'. you might want to think about switching to a browser that is developed by the community at large for the betterment of mankind.

since most people use it, virus writers use the unpatched vulnerabilities in IE. fixes for these software bugs are few and far in between. of course, exploits will be found in any piece of software, but since firefox is open source, bugs are fixed almost immediately after they are found.

the same folks who give us firefox also bring the world thunderbird, which is the email client i use at home. i likes it a lot as well.


thanks to maya for the 411 on the article about the battle between good and evil (and no, it's not about kerry vs. bush). and thanks to all of you who don't open email attachments from strangers.


FOLLOW UP:
looks likes this email was an attempt to infect my computer with a new email worm called w32-mydoom-ah

here is what you can do to make the world a better place


Delete suspicious messages with the following subject lines:

* Hi!
* Hey!
* Confirmation
* ...or a blank subject line.


This virus infects your machine when you click on the URL link contained in the message body.

Some forms of this virus are masquerading as official looking PayPal email notifications, stating that a charge has been made to your credit card. This is not the case, but clicking on the link will infect your machine.

20041101


oh yeah



VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FOR THIS GUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

all this work, and all i got were around 5 trick or treaters