Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Okay, happy thanksgiving everyone. I've made it to a computer today. Just a few notes from the past few days:
- I never feel older than when I see someone young enough that I can remember when they were born and realized that they've graduated from high school/college. I also feel old when I see an actress on tv or in the movies and think she's hot and then realized she's an actress I had seen years ago when she wasn't even old enough to be jailbait. This occurred this week when, while watching 10-8: Officers on duty, I realized that the cute female rookie officer was the little girl who starred in Life with Mikey. The same thing happened when I saw the movie Angus and realized that the girl who formed the triangle with the fat kid and the kid who would be Dawson was the little girl from Spaced Invaders. I could find comparisons to the Olsen twins, too, except they never went away and they still are jailbait.
- I've been seeing commercials for the tv show "Line of Fire". It looks really good. Seems like Sopranos if they concentrated as much on the police side as the mob side. Watching it, I recognized three faces. One was David Paymer. The second was Leslie Hope, who played Jack's wife in the first season of "24". The third was a twenty/early thirtysomething girl whose face I couldn't place. I thought maybe she was the romantic lead in the Jon Cryer movie classic "Hiding out". Turns out she's Leslie Bibb, from the tv show "Popular", which I never watched, and a few movies which I've never seen. So I should not have felt bad about not being able to place a face because I never should have recognized it in the first place.
- I've been watching "The Practice" a little this year. I had stopped watching it a couple years ago. This season, to stay on the air, the network made them cut costs, so they got rid of a few people, including Dylan McDermott. In his place, they put James Spader. Spader is, simply put, kicking ass. McDermott was only really known for one thing, The Practice, while Spader is a well known movie actor. To put it into a sports analogy, it would be like the Pirates last year, needing to cut costs, cutting Brian Giles and signing Barry Bonds at a lot less money.
- I went to the Clarks at Nick's Fat City on monday night with my brother. It was a great show. While we were waiting for the show to start, he kept on trying to talk to me, but I have larengitis and the music was loud but that didn't keep him from trying. At one point, Tiff was going to go to the show with me, but she ended up staying in Ohio. I was going to call her during the concert so she could hear some of it, but the only song I knew for sure she really liked was "Better Off Without You", and I didn't want to give her the wrong idea. The show was great, as they always are. They played some new material from they're upcoming album. One of the highlights was when the guitarist and bassist left the stage and the lead singer/guitarist Scott Blasey sang their song "Chasin' Girls" with just him on the guitar during the verses and the drummer coming in with a light beat during the chorus. The whole crowd was singing along with both the lead vocals and the backing vocals and for the last chorus or two, scott didn't even sing. He just sat and watched the crowd singing. Other highlights were, of course, "Cigarette" and "Help Me Out". "Boys Lie" was also great and they sang "Treehouse" which might have been the first time I've seen them do it live. They also did their cover of "The River" from the new Springsteen tribute album. They said it was the first time they've done it live. The song is growing on me, but I still like the original version better.
- I never feel older than when I see someone young enough that I can remember when they were born and realized that they've graduated from high school/college. I also feel old when I see an actress on tv or in the movies and think she's hot and then realized she's an actress I had seen years ago when she wasn't even old enough to be jailbait. This occurred this week when, while watching 10-8: Officers on duty, I realized that the cute female rookie officer was the little girl who starred in Life with Mikey. The same thing happened when I saw the movie Angus and realized that the girl who formed the triangle with the fat kid and the kid who would be Dawson was the little girl from Spaced Invaders. I could find comparisons to the Olsen twins, too, except they never went away and they still are jailbait.
- I've been seeing commercials for the tv show "Line of Fire". It looks really good. Seems like Sopranos if they concentrated as much on the police side as the mob side. Watching it, I recognized three faces. One was David Paymer. The second was Leslie Hope, who played Jack's wife in the first season of "24". The third was a twenty/early thirtysomething girl whose face I couldn't place. I thought maybe she was the romantic lead in the Jon Cryer movie classic "Hiding out". Turns out she's Leslie Bibb, from the tv show "Popular", which I never watched, and a few movies which I've never seen. So I should not have felt bad about not being able to place a face because I never should have recognized it in the first place.
- I've been watching "The Practice" a little this year. I had stopped watching it a couple years ago. This season, to stay on the air, the network made them cut costs, so they got rid of a few people, including Dylan McDermott. In his place, they put James Spader. Spader is, simply put, kicking ass. McDermott was only really known for one thing, The Practice, while Spader is a well known movie actor. To put it into a sports analogy, it would be like the Pirates last year, needing to cut costs, cutting Brian Giles and signing Barry Bonds at a lot less money.
- I went to the Clarks at Nick's Fat City on monday night with my brother. It was a great show. While we were waiting for the show to start, he kept on trying to talk to me, but I have larengitis and the music was loud but that didn't keep him from trying. At one point, Tiff was going to go to the show with me, but she ended up staying in Ohio. I was going to call her during the concert so she could hear some of it, but the only song I knew for sure she really liked was "Better Off Without You", and I didn't want to give her the wrong idea. The show was great, as they always are. They played some new material from they're upcoming album. One of the highlights was when the guitarist and bassist left the stage and the lead singer/guitarist Scott Blasey sang their song "Chasin' Girls" with just him on the guitar during the verses and the drummer coming in with a light beat during the chorus. The whole crowd was singing along with both the lead vocals and the backing vocals and for the last chorus or two, scott didn't even sing. He just sat and watched the crowd singing. Other highlights were, of course, "Cigarette" and "Help Me Out". "Boys Lie" was also great and they sang "Treehouse" which might have been the first time I've seen them do it live. They also did their cover of "The River" from the new Springsteen tribute album. They said it was the first time they've done it live. The song is growing on me, but I still like the original version better.
Sunday, November 23, 2003
There is one bit of news I saw that I've been shocked hasn't gotten more press. A couple weeks ago, I saw a small article on a back page of the local newspaper that says that Larry Flynt announced that he had topless photo of Jessica Lynch, but he wouldn't publish them because she had been through enough. I don't know if that's true, but I find it believable. Larry Flynt, despite his often disgusting image, has always seemed to have a patriotic streak. Besides, his not publishing them would actually be better publicity than the backlash that would probably occur if he did. Now, today, I read that, although Larry Flynt won't publish them, some magazines overseas have also bought the photos from the sellers, apparently fellow soldiers of Jessica, and have no such reservations about publishing them. Once again, I'm amazed that the mainstream media hasn't jumped all over this. There always seems to be a feeding frenzy over anything Jessica Lynch related. Of course, the pictures, if published, will eventually make it to the States via the internet, but I don't think it will have a big impact on Jessica, even if the media does start reporting it. Considering her status as a hero and her image being more cute and innocent than sexy, added to the fact that she seems to have no interest in parlaying her 15 minutes of fame into a public career, I don't see that big a interest from the american male public of seeing the photos.
I posted the blog entries from friday while sitting on the CMU campus. As I mentioned in one of the entries, my cough was really bad the night before. The over-the-counter cough medicine the doctor told me to use was totally useless. If anything, it actually seemed to make my cough worse. On the way home, it sunk in that I could be stuck all weekend with the bad cough so I called the doctor's office. The doctor called a prescription into the pharmacy for some prescription strength cough medicine that contain codeine. I was to take that at night and take the stuff that doesn't work if I'm going to be driving anywhere or need to be awake. That's because codeine knocks people out. I only ever took medicine with the stuff once before, back when I was in middle school. The doctor told me at that time that it would knock me out. I remember laying in bed that night waiting for it to knock me out. It never did. I had insomnia as usual. My only other contact with codeine was when I got alot of dental work done at one time, including getting all my wisdom teeth pulled. I got the prescription for the pain killer filled, but never used them. They were as needed and I have a high enough pain threshold that I never needed it. NyQuil also never knocked me out the few times I've taken it. In fact, since it took care of my various symptoms, it had the affect of making me feel more energetic. So, despite my belief that it won't make me drowsy, I've only been taking it at night. I haven't been able to fall asleep til 3 or 4 am the past couple of nights, but my cough seems to be under control, so I guess the medicine is doing what it's supposed to be doing. I can't wait til I get home from dropping my brother's laptop at his place so I can take more of the stuff.
Friday, November 21, 2003
Now for some thoughts on things that are not directly personal to me:
- This is my take on Michael Jackson. I think he still thinks he's still only twelve years old. He still acts like he's a kid. Let's face it, there are things that are acceptable for for young kids to do (like have a sleep-over and sleep in the same bed) that is not acceptable with a young kid and a 45 year old man who isn't related. Another example would be a tickle fight. Well, in his mind nothing he did was sexual, in this day and age the average person would be hard to take it any other way. Of course, you have to put some of the blame on the parents of the children. I don't have children, but when I do, I plan on placing a high priority on keeping them away from anybody accused of being a pedophile, convicted or just simply accused, especially if they've never had to disprove the accusations in court.
- There is just something strange about the look of the point in Pittsburgh when the area around the fountain is flooded. Instead of a triangle, it's a wierd quadrangle with one side curved in.
- And speaking of flooding, it's just proves how much change needs to be done on the road system around pittsburgh that one small section of road being flooded can cause so much havoc.
- I watched the American Music awards pre-show and I'd just like to say that there needs to be a end put to "celebrity" red carpet reporters. I like Monica and think Lance Bass is the least annoying of the N-Sync guys, but the questions they asked were lame and they're expressions were repetitive and overall more painful to listen to than John Madden on MNF. The third reporter was the worst, especially since I had no idea who the hell he was.
- Britney's performance at the AMAs was a whole lot easier to take once I started thinking of it as a dance performance and not a singing performance. It's not that I think she's lip-syncing. I honestly believe her when she say she isn't. The problem is, like most female pop stars nowadays, her songs has a ton of layers of vocal tracks all on top of each others. Britney is singing one of the vocal tracks while performing and all of the other ones are pre-recorded and turned up so loud it drowns out the live vocals. That's one thing I give Hilary Duff credit for, she didn't have a ton of vocals drowning out her singing. Instead, she had all the music drowning out her singing. But it actually looked like she was singing.
- Speaking of Hillary, I still say she looks like a younger version of the current version of Jenna Jameson. I would say that she looks like a young Jenna except Jenna had some face work done and Hilary looks nothing like Jenna did when she was a teen. Um... not that I would know.
- This is my take on Michael Jackson. I think he still thinks he's still only twelve years old. He still acts like he's a kid. Let's face it, there are things that are acceptable for for young kids to do (like have a sleep-over and sleep in the same bed) that is not acceptable with a young kid and a 45 year old man who isn't related. Another example would be a tickle fight. Well, in his mind nothing he did was sexual, in this day and age the average person would be hard to take it any other way. Of course, you have to put some of the blame on the parents of the children. I don't have children, but when I do, I plan on placing a high priority on keeping them away from anybody accused of being a pedophile, convicted or just simply accused, especially if they've never had to disprove the accusations in court.
- There is just something strange about the look of the point in Pittsburgh when the area around the fountain is flooded. Instead of a triangle, it's a wierd quadrangle with one side curved in.
- And speaking of flooding, it's just proves how much change needs to be done on the road system around pittsburgh that one small section of road being flooded can cause so much havoc.
- I watched the American Music awards pre-show and I'd just like to say that there needs to be a end put to "celebrity" red carpet reporters. I like Monica and think Lance Bass is the least annoying of the N-Sync guys, but the questions they asked were lame and they're expressions were repetitive and overall more painful to listen to than John Madden on MNF. The third reporter was the worst, especially since I had no idea who the hell he was.
- Britney's performance at the AMAs was a whole lot easier to take once I started thinking of it as a dance performance and not a singing performance. It's not that I think she's lip-syncing. I honestly believe her when she say she isn't. The problem is, like most female pop stars nowadays, her songs has a ton of layers of vocal tracks all on top of each others. Britney is singing one of the vocal tracks while performing and all of the other ones are pre-recorded and turned up so loud it drowns out the live vocals. That's one thing I give Hilary Duff credit for, she didn't have a ton of vocals drowning out her singing. Instead, she had all the music drowning out her singing. But it actually looked like she was singing.
- Speaking of Hillary, I still say she looks like a younger version of the current version of Jenna Jameson. I would say that she looks like a young Jenna except Jenna had some face work done and Hilary looks nothing like Jenna did when she was a teen. Um... not that I would know.
One thing me being sick has allowed me to do is catch up on some reading. I finished Terry Bradshaw's second book, "Keep It Simple", and the new Ed McBain's 87th Precinct book, "Fat Ollie's Book". I subscribe to alot of magazines, one of which is Maxim. One of the section Maxim contains one chapter from new books. It was there that I found out that not only is there a new 87th Precinct book coming out next year, but James Patterson just released a new Alex Cross novel. Both 87th Precinct and Alex Cross are series that I collect.
For those that don't know, Alex Cross is the character played by Morgan Freeman in Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider. The 87th Precinct books, of which there are over fifty, have been made into a few tv movies, a old tv show and one Burt Reynolds movie, but aren't neccessarily a household name. I do rate the 87th Precinct's occassional arch-nemesis "The Deaf Man" up there with Boba Fett as one of the coolest fictional bad guys ever.
For those that don't know, Alex Cross is the character played by Morgan Freeman in Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider. The 87th Precinct books, of which there are over fifty, have been made into a few tv movies, a old tv show and one Burt Reynolds movie, but aren't neccessarily a household name. I do rate the 87th Precinct's occassional arch-nemesis "The Deaf Man" up there with Boba Fett as one of the coolest fictional bad guys ever.
While I'm at home, I'm always thinking of things to blog about and think that I should right them down so I don't forget them but I end up not writing them down and end up forgetting them. I'm going to start writing stuff down so I can post them hear.
Okay, I've been feeling like crap. Last week I had a cold and this past tuesday I finally made a doctor appointment since I wasn't feeling better and it turns out I have bronchitis. So I got medicine from the doctor and have been feeling better except for a cough that has popped up and is just one step above debilitating. In fact, last night, I was almost coughing up a lung.
I had an appointment with an advisor at the CMU career center, which I decided to keep. I got some help with my resume and got shown some more places to look for job listings. So it was worth it, although, I'm not going to go ahead right now and fix my resume and send it out to those new job listings since my sickness is starting to catch up to me, so I'm going to hurry up and go home now and do my resume when I'm more clear headed.
I had an appointment with an advisor at the CMU career center, which I decided to keep. I got some help with my resume and got shown some more places to look for job listings. So it was worth it, although, I'm not going to go ahead right now and fix my resume and send it out to those new job listings since my sickness is starting to catch up to me, so I'm going to hurry up and go home now and do my resume when I'm more clear headed.
Thursday, November 13, 2003
I saw the movie "Elf" this week. I'd just like to say that there is very little in the movie, plot-wise, that you don't see coming. But the casting, especially of James Caan, makes the movie work. I'm not saying to go out and see it in the theatre, but it would be a good dvd to own and when it is eventually on tv every Christmas, it'll be a movie I'll probably sit down and watch.
I also got Matrix:reloaded from Netflix. I fell asleep part way though it. I was never caught up in the Matrix hype. I really like the first one. The thought that our lives are really a V-R world inside of a computer was a great sci-fi concept.
But I never had a great interest in seeing the second one. I don't know why, I just never did. So I never saw Reloaded in the theatres. I now don't regret that. The digital effects are no longer a novelty and the whole concept no longer surprises. That leaves the story and the people. I never cared much for neo or trinity. I liked Morpheus, but in the second one he seems more human than the guy who contacted him. Morpheus was cooler when we didn't know who he was. I think it was the other crew of the ship that kept me interested in the first movie. They were the ones I related to and the ones I had emotional connection to. This time, the crew was just one guy. And he wasn't involved enough for me to care enough to carry me through the movie. As bad guys go, Agent Smith is great, but the best part of the first one was we didn't exactly know who/what he was, plus we had the extra plus of Joe Pantoliano's Cypher as a additional bad guy. The biggest disappointments for me was the action sequences. When neo was fighting the army of Agent Smiths. I was so bored I almost fast-forwarded through the rest of it. It reminded me too much of a video game. Give me the more human fight sequence at the end of Kill Bill vol. 1 instead anyday.
So, to wrap things up, I probably won't see the last Matrix movie until it's on cable and I get cable. At least there will be the last Lord of the Rings movie for me to talk to fellow geeks about.
But I never had a great interest in seeing the second one. I don't know why, I just never did. So I never saw Reloaded in the theatres. I now don't regret that. The digital effects are no longer a novelty and the whole concept no longer surprises. That leaves the story and the people. I never cared much for neo or trinity. I liked Morpheus, but in the second one he seems more human than the guy who contacted him. Morpheus was cooler when we didn't know who he was. I think it was the other crew of the ship that kept me interested in the first movie. They were the ones I related to and the ones I had emotional connection to. This time, the crew was just one guy. And he wasn't involved enough for me to care enough to carry me through the movie. As bad guys go, Agent Smith is great, but the best part of the first one was we didn't exactly know who/what he was, plus we had the extra plus of Joe Pantoliano's Cypher as a additional bad guy. The biggest disappointments for me was the action sequences. When neo was fighting the army of Agent Smiths. I was so bored I almost fast-forwarded through the rest of it. It reminded me too much of a video game. Give me the more human fight sequence at the end of Kill Bill vol. 1 instead anyday.
So, to wrap things up, I probably won't see the last Matrix movie until it's on cable and I get cable. At least there will be the last Lord of the Rings movie for me to talk to fellow geeks about.
I got the series finale for Dawson's Creek through netflix this week. I watched the show the first season or two. I think I stopped watching it when it seemed that Joey, who had been madly in love with Dawson, would get together with Pacey. It simply pointed to a road traveled by many other long-running shows. The road being everyone eventually sleeps with everyone else. I mean it happened on 90210 and I think by the time Friends is over, the only hetero coupling not tried will be Ross & Monica (brother-sister). Okay, the Friends example might be a exaggeration, but on the dramas, I can deal with evil twins, drug addictions, amnesia, but I can never take the fact that on alot of shows every character has the ability to fall in and out of love at the drop of a hat. I'm not even talking about casual sex aspect. It's the declaring their undying love to a different person twice a season. I think that's one of the things I liked about Buffy. Love took some getting over. It wasn't just something turned on and then off. Except, of course, for the whole Buffy/Spike thing. That still bugs me.
But I got totally off my point. I watched the series finale of Dawson's Creek after not following it at all since season #2. The action takes place five years after the action of the rest of the series. Alot of it played off like a reunion show with the characters remembering events that happened in previous episodes. The thing is, alot of it dealt with destiny and whether they made the right choices in life and what is in store for them in the future and the whole "big decisions" that are often made when a person are in their twenties. It got me thinking about my life. I never made those "big decisions". Well, when I was laid off last time, I considered going back to school for a different career and decided not to. Well, I've almost always have been behind the curve on the major life milestones, maybe, for me, they're still to come. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Anyway, for those who know me know I ramble. Everything previous to this, if you don't understand it, don't worry, it's just me rambling. Don't lend any importance to it.
But I got totally off my point. I watched the series finale of Dawson's Creek after not following it at all since season #2. The action takes place five years after the action of the rest of the series. Alot of it played off like a reunion show with the characters remembering events that happened in previous episodes. The thing is, alot of it dealt with destiny and whether they made the right choices in life and what is in store for them in the future and the whole "big decisions" that are often made when a person are in their twenties. It got me thinking about my life. I never made those "big decisions". Well, when I was laid off last time, I considered going back to school for a different career and decided not to. Well, I've almost always have been behind the curve on the major life milestones, maybe, for me, they're still to come. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Anyway, for those who know me know I ramble. Everything previous to this, if you don't understand it, don't worry, it's just me rambling. Don't lend any importance to it.
Okay, I'm back. I check my email almost every day, but I don't entirely trust logging into blogger on a public computer and my parents computer internet connection gets kicked off every five seconds. So, for now, I'll be adding entries to my blog when I have my brother's computer or if I get a chance at Tiff's.
Right now, I'm still looking for a job. No interview yet, but I did get one rejection in trying to get an interview. If anyone reading this knows of any job openings (even if it's not around Pittsburgh. I would consider relocating) please let me know. I can do pretty much any object oriented programming, especially C++ and Java. Anything else computer related, if I don't know how to do, I can learn fast.
Right now, I'm still looking for a job. No interview yet, but I did get one rejection in trying to get an interview. If anyone reading this knows of any job openings (even if it's not around Pittsburgh. I would consider relocating) please let me know. I can do pretty much any object oriented programming, especially C++ and Java. Anything else computer related, if I don't know how to do, I can learn fast.
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
I've watched the movie Clockstoppers recently and it was a decent sci-fi movie. It had the potential to be alot better, if it hadn't been made as a "Nickolodeon" film. The only really bad scene in the film is a DJ spin-off that wouldn't been in a non-teen aimed film. The science behind the movie was better than I expected. The only thing, besides the spin-off, that truly got to me science-wise, was the fact that no matter how fast the driver can move, I don't think the car would ever be able to go as fast. I'm sure the movie makers have some sort of explanation, though.
I see Bill has finally decided to post again to his blog. I'd just like to be the one to admit that I was the one who decided to point out his birthday. I actually was also going to post here a congratulations to Bill for something else, but since he has begun posting, I'll wait and allow him to do the announcing.
I had a lot of things I've been thinking I wanted to post on here about, but I now draw a blank. I haven't been posting here because I don't trust using blogger on a public computer. When I have tried signing off of it, it doesn't seem to log me off, so I haven't tried using blogger when on the computer at Kinko's or the library. For those who don't know, I never bother getting a phone line or cable at my apartment, so I surfed the web mainly at work. Since getting laid off, I've read my email at Kinko's, the Carnegie Library, my brother's, my parents', and Tiff's. Thanks all.
I'm sitting on the campus of my Alma Mater, Carnegie Mellon University. CMU regularly sits atop Yahoo magazine's "Most Wired" campus list. One reason is that every building has wireless LAN. I'm sitting on a couch in the University Center with my brother's laptop on my lap. Wireless LAN would have been great to have when I was going to school here. Also walking on campus on a 80 degree day really makes me miss school.
Okay, so I haven't posted in eight days. The reason is, only hours after my last post, I got laid off. Seems the company didn't get quite as much funding for the project that I was on than they expected. Hence, when I left work a week ago yesterday, it was my last day there. There's still a chance that the funding will come back, so there's still a chance I could go back there, although it probably wouldn't be until after new year's.
So I'm looking for work. I can do pretty much anything programming wise. I've done mostly C++ and Java. I can work on any platforms and have done alot of work porting between different versions of Unix and different versions of Linux. If anybody knows of any job openings, please pass them on to me. Thanks.
So I'm looking for work. I can do pretty much anything programming wise. I've done mostly C++ and Java. I can work on any platforms and have done alot of work porting between different versions of Unix and different versions of Linux. If anybody knows of any job openings, please pass them on to me. Thanks.
