Random Link

The Fountain Jet Home Soda Maker From Soda-Club

Alright, I realize that not everyone will think that this is as cool as I think it is, but check it out! This is a way to make your own homemade sodas that are supposedly healthier for you and all. Plus, you can create your own!

...Well, I think it's cool...

The Credit Card Prank

The Credit Card Prank

Ever notice how no one ever checks your signature on those credit card receipts? Well, this guy decided to test it by signing his receipts in progressively crazier ways until someone noticed. He got away with "Zeus", a checkerboard, and even a stick figure. Go ahead and read; it's a fun story.

I know I said I wasn't going to post another video,

but this is hilarious.

The Matrix XP

I've been noticing that my blog has been loading a little slow,

so I'll just link to this video:

Powers of Ten

This is an ancient (from the 70's or so) science video zooming out by powers of ten to the outer reaches of our universe then in to quarks in protons. It's very cool and well worth the jump.

Dugg!

Collection of Interesting Google Links. A collection of some interesting and strange google links that most people probably have not seen. Some are fun and some interesting.

read more | digg story

Dugg!

The biggest hole in the world - amazing photos. The biggest hole in the world is located in Russia.. it is actually a diamond mine.. see the amazing photos here...

Check this out! It's amazing!

read more | digg story

Josh's Wedding

Our good friends Josh and Courtnie were married last weekend. They got married on a yacht that departed from Newport. It was beautiful! A fun time was had by all. We also got to meet our friend Robert's new girlfriend. She was very nice and friendly. It was nice to meet her. They promised to come down some time and visit us. Here's a picture of the newlyweds cutting their cake. Notice their cake. It was made to look very... fantasy. It has crooked angles and everything. It was really a work of art.

From the bottom of our hearts, we wish them the best of luck and the happiest of lives in their future.

Random Link

Monopoly replaces cash with Visa debit card

Yes, you read that right. Say goodbye to arguments with your brother about his inability to count out correct change! Monopoly has gone pastic!

Random Link

Photographing Squirrels - a photoset on Flickr

This is the best pages I've ever seen of squirrel photography... okay, maybe the only. But check it out!

YouTube - Star Wars Next Gen

Saw this on Digg. This is awesome! AWESOME! This is a trailer for a new Star Wars game coming out on the next-gen systems (xbox 360, PS3). With force powers like these, who needs the light side?

Random Video

YouTube - Star Wars: A Lost Hope

Yeah, I know. This is pretty old, and I showed just about everyone when it first came out, but I just thought I'd revisit it.

Dugg!

"Flash: What is your religioin, if any? USA Religion Survey Shows Increase in 'None'."

This is a pretty cool graph that shows what states have what religions. Try clicking on Utah. Crazy Mormons. Always good for a laugh.

read more | digg story

Random Video

This is a demo of a new "window manager" (that's the thing that handles how your windows and desktop look on your computer) for Linux called XGL. It is beautiful. Even if you guys can't appreciate it fully, maybe it will make you think twice about your boring Windows XP window manager. Viva el Linux!

Random Link

Catholic High School Sues Over Wikipedia Posting

This is crazy. A school in Nebraska is suing (SP?) over what someone wrote in a Wikipedia article. Aparently, a disenfranchised student wrote "mean-spirited" comment about the school in the article. Now the school has contacted their ISP and are trying to get the names of the kid. Whatever happened to free-speech? What ever happened to the "edit this page" button in Wikipedia? Wouldn't it make more sense just to edit out the content?

Dugg!

This is a music video made in the 90's encouraging kids not to pirate their favorite games from school. You gotta love the mix of rap and the interviews with the programmers. Vintage.

read more | digg story

Random Video

I've been looking for this for a while. This is the classic 1990's anti-piracy music(?) video made by the software publishers: Don't Copy That Floppy! Watch it, love it. It is awesome.

Pseudo-Anarchy and America

I watched V for Vendetta again today. Once again, I must say, it is a wonderful movie. They did a wonderful job on it. It is very... recent. I highly recommend it. For those of you who have already seen it, some questions:

>What is the feasibility of a sort of pseudo-anarchy in society today?
>Does/Would anarchy work?
>What is anarchy? Is it simply the complete nonexistence of government, or something more (or less, rather)?
>Can anarchy work within a particular economic framework, such as socialism or capitalism or communism?
>Does anarchy tend toward egalitarianism? Why or why not?

I am particularly interested in Allan's answers, since he is a sort of pseudo-anarchist. Comment away!

Random Link

Frownies™

Ever use a frownie? A frownie looks like this :-( Well, apparently, Despair, Inc. trademarked the frownie, so you may be sued. Have a nice day!

...criminal...

Random Link

Inspirational Posters

This is awesome. These are inspirational posters based on RPG games. Very funny. For dpressing inspirational posters, click here.

Random Link

My Dynamite Idaho

Has anyone heard of this before? Aparently, "The State of Idaho passed a resolution commending Jared and Jerusha Hess for the production of their film Napoleon Dynamite." Crazy, eh? Now I go to bed. Good night!

Hey! I can see my house from here!

I'm not sure if that Google Maps link is accurate, but try turning on the satalite imagery and zooming in on one of the people who visited recently. You can get right down close enough to see where they're using the computer. Kiss yo' privacy goodbye!

Random Link

Caught on Tape: Bush's Blunt Diplomacy

Frankly, this article is ridiculous. Apparently, Bush accidently left his microphone on while he and Blair chatted about different world events at the G-8. This makes news? What a load of crap. Really now. Apparently, even though the president isn't much of a conversationalist (shocking!), he says in private basically the same he says in public. If anything, this sort of reassures me. Now, we may not like him, but at least he's not just saying things in public that he doesn't say in private, eh? I mean, is anyone shocked he doesn't like Annan's cease fire plan?

I'd like to hear what you guys are thinking about the conflict! Drop me a comment!

Random Link

Key Events in Lebanon-Israel Conflict

An interesting timeline of the events leading up to the current Hezbollah-Isreali conflict.

Random Video

Hey, does anyone know where this is playing? It would be awesome to see this!

Random Link

Mini Pet Cactus

This is... odd. A pet cactus to carry around with you... Hmmm... I like that you have to buy the cactus and the stand seperately.

Awesome Gadget

Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard

This thing is so cool! It projects the image of a keyboard on any surface that you can actually type on! For only $189.99!

The Great Apartment Search

I Know I haven't posted for a while, but we've been busy. I know you guys have been searching for a reason to live without my daily posts keeping you company, so here's a new installment.

First off, yes, we did go to a Dashboard Confessional concert. It was awesome. Stinkin' awesome. Terezita surprised me with this. She went out and bought the tickets and planned the whole day without me even knowing what was going on. So that day, we drove out to Universal City (I think that's what it's called) and had dinner at Tu Tu Tango. It was very good. I had some of their specialty: sangria. It was alright, I suppose. It tasted like a very fruity wine. I'd have it again, I suppose. Then we went to the concert. When I found out who it was, I started jumping around in happiness. Those of you who know me know that I have loved Dashboard for a long long time. This was my first time seeing him live. So we got in and the show started. The first act was this guy Ben Lee. He was great. He sounds awesome. He is taoist, so his music is very positive, but in the same genre as Dashboard. I've been listening to this guy a lot since the concert. He's just so much fun. The next act was this band called Say Anything. Never in my life have I heard a more out of place band at a concert. They sang a sort of heavy punk metal. They pit was entirely still. The audience was talking or leaving to go get food. It was pretty bad. They didn't go over too well. Not a single whiny word proceeded from their mouthes, which is exactly why people go to a Dashboard concert. So, finally, Dashboard got up and played. It was amazing. Everybody was singing along with the music and many songs Chris Carraba let the audience sing instead of him for much of the song. It was awesome. And he put in a lot of his old stuff and just enough of his new stuff (which is considerably different). All around, it was crazy-cool. Very fun, indeed.

Since then, we've been on the hunt for an apartment. With our price range, it has been hard to find something without a load of graffiti on the walls and drug deals going on outside. But yesterday, Terezita went to look at an apartment that she found on the internet (using Craigslist (is that one word or what?)). Before she went to see it, I told her that if she fell in love with it, she could sign us up for it. While I was at work, she gave me a call. She had fallen for it. So we went to look at it last night. It was very nice. They billed it as a extralarge studio, but it was more like a one bedroom because the closet is so stinkin' big. For those of you that have been to the apartment that I'm living in right now, the closet is only slightly smaller than the room my roommate and I share. So, we have a nice living room and kitchen. It is pretty small, but that's sort of what we were looking for. We even have a patio area where we could put a couple chairs and maybe a barbecue. The neighborhood is also nice. It is in the Korean Town of Garden Grove, but it has to be the most Mexican Korean town in the world. Well, it's about equal measure Hispanic and Asian. Weird.

Anyway, we put in our application yesterday and are turning in our deposit tomorrow. Very exciting. So we are finally getting our first "our place". Both Terezita and I are very excited about decorating it and making it truly ours. In a couple of weeks, hopefully we can have all of you over so we can have a party or something. Even sooner, we'll have all of you over to help us move! :)

So, I'll try to get some pictures up of it as soon as I can. Maybe some video, too, if I can borrow Kevin's camera. Have a nice night, all!

Senate Telecom Overseer Not Plugged In to Web - Los Angeles Times

Senate Telecom Overseer Not Plugged In to Web

A LA Times article about Stevens and his tubes.

And a computer geek?

Why, yes I am! I am, apparently, a computer GOD! A god among insects, certainly, but a god nonetheless.

How nerdy am I?

Nerdy enough to take this quiz to find out:

Random Link

Meet the Geek Elite

You think you're a geek? This guy is certified!

Jon Stewart on Net Neutrality

Google Maps

The Google Maps tracker is finally working!

Go check it out and see where people are coming from! Just look at these recent cities:

Recent cities...

1) Houston, Texas
2) Athens, Attiki
3) Los Angeles, California
4) Springfield, Missouri
5) Abbottabad, North-west Frontier
6) New York
7) Naples, Florida
8) Clarksville, Tennessee
9) Quito, Pichincha
10) Dale, Wisconsin

I'm word famous! Yay!

Click on the link on the right hand side under the bravenet counter.

Dashboard!

We're at dashboard confessional concert! Yay! They're about to start!

--

Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

From Disneyland

 

(This is really a test of the new Picasa for Linux) 

Random Link

and then we lived...happily ever after...

Wow. This is... odd... and sad. Kinda in an Edward Gorey type way. I'm ot sure if everything they are saying is in English, but look around the site a little. It is strangely affecting.

Random Link

Instant Blog Post

This is funny. From the site:

"You know how sometimes you feel like you haven't posted anything to your blog for a while, and you should really get around to doing it, but there's nothing to really write about? We've all been there. That's why we at flooble have decided to give you an Instant Blog Post Generator."

Here's an example:

I very much hate my cousin Alejandro. At times he is quite crazy, but then yesterday he just disturbed me... I needed his advice talking to someone about ingratitude on the African subcontinent, and then he started whining:

"That's amazing! I am so sick of hearing about the African subcontinent all the time!"

At first I answered "NO KIDDING?!" and the next day I just subsided and began sobbing. After all, he *is* my cousin and he wants what is best for me...

Link of the day: All Your Oil... | Randomly generated by Flooble Instant Blog Post Generator

Random Link

Furor Over Sony Patent - Los Angeles Times

Hey, Sony is trying to take away some more of your rights with this new patent. Basically it keeps you from playing discs already registered on another machine. So, what if you have two PS3's? What if you want to take your game to a friend's house? What about the used game market? What if you simply want to make a dupe for backuup purposes? This is the sort of thing that sneaks in while we're unawares. Protect your rights!

-=Thanks to Kasey for the link=-

Random Link

U.S. Finishes A 'Strong Second' In Iraq War

A very funny article fro the Onion, America's Finest News Source.

Shout out to Kasey in Ecuador.

My biggest international subscriber. His dot on the map is getting bigger everyday, although I suspect that it is because he is enjoying the Ecuadorian food.

A Chapter of My Family History

I've been reading Maus (Amazon | Wikipedia) by Art Spiegleman recently. It is a graphic novel about a Jewish survivor of the holocaust. It is told from the point of view of the man's son, who is an artist and wants to make a book about his father's life. This got me thinking about my own family history.

My paternal grandfather, Jaap Overduin, was a survivor of the war. As a small child, he was chased through his native Holland by the invading Germans. He and his family survived by eating tulip bulbs. As I walked home tonight (I had about a 15 minute walk from my car to my apartment today because one of my apartment mates lost the only parking pass) I could smell the scent of flowers around me. It absolutely filled the air. The moon was huge, buoyant and about to burst. As I walked, I couldn't help think about my life. History is an amazing thing. It connects us through strands of humanity. I felt a sudden connection with my past. Granted, I have been reading the book so it has been in the forefront of my mind recently, but I had a moment of clarity. It was like stepping into a clearing, as Heidegger would say (which is ironic because Heidegger was a vocal Nazi).

How different my life is from my ancestors! But! I am the same! Truly, the same blood that gave them life gives me life. The same blood that carried them through the war allows me the pleasure of a kiss from Terezita or the sight of fireworks over Disneyland or the feel of the fresh California breeze on my face. How did this happen? They paid the price so that I may reap the rewards. I most likely will never experience what my grandfather went through. I will likely feel the breeze of a thousand shores and never wonder if I will wake up alive the next morning.

My grandfather is a hero. He survived the war. He flew out to California to live with a cousin of his - to get out of Europe, off the stage this ultimately tragic play. He married my grandmother and they begat my father. He now lives in the motherland again with my grandmother, an aunt and her family and an uncle and his family. My father stayed here, an American. Everyone on that side (to the best of my knowledge) has some sort of American citizenship. I remember my grandfather once saying that his American citizenship was one of the most precious things to him.

We live in a time and place where there is very little for us to fear. We are in a blessed situation. Even I, a poor college student, have a few bucks to blow on Ben & Jerrys when I want some. In this sort of society, where we do not have to focus on our primary needs, isn't it in our ability to help out a little? I am keeping my audience in mind! I am speaking to my friends, mainly. We all come from upper-middle class households. We all are in the process of gaining higher learning. We are all aware of our surroundings. What are we planning for the future? What is all this for? Are we going to use our education, our elevated position, to help ourselves or the world? With a little effort, I believe we can help out those who did not have the same opportunities as we have!

My grandfather lived through fear and accomplished great things. What can we do, without fear?

: : :

As a post script:

This is a true story:

My maternal grandmother was a riveter during the war. Much later in her life, she married a man who fought in the German army during WWII. His home town was bombed during that time, very likely by a plane that my grandmother tightened the bolts on. So it goes.

By the way, his name was Paul and he made very good eclairs. He worked as a baker in East Germany after the war before he came to America.

: : :

What was your family doing during WWII? Discuss!

Random Link

Super-Size Me

If you haven't seen this movie yet, here's your chance. I highly recommend it.

Random Link

Engadget 1985 - Engadget

The 1985 Version of Engadget

Dugg! and submitted by me!

Pirates Pirated?
This man claims that Disney stole his idea for the blockbuster movie.

read more | digg story

Summer Movie Review, Part 2

Here's Part 2!

Superman Returns: (7/4/06) I think I would have enjoyed this movie better if I had grown up watching the original ones. I don't know... maybe I'm just used to seeing more moody, rugged heroes. He's clean shaven, nice haircut, not at all like other superheroes recently. And then there's this whole thing with his illegitamite kid. No matter what your moral stance, I think that we can agree that the honorable thing to do when one knocks a girl up is to marry her or at least stick around. Superman - Mr. Honor and Justice - took off for five years. Okay, maybe he didn't know, but after he does find out and Louis asks him to stick around, he gives her a crap answer like "I'm always here." Yeah, sure. I'm sure he's going to show up at his son's little league game. And just try getting child support from Superman. Hate to be the collector on that call. Surely, the man that Louis was dating was more of a man and father than Superman. He was the type of guy who would do anything for his family. And then, the whole bad guy plan to destroy the world: make an island out of crystals? What the heck is that? And then, the whole undeveloped plot with Superman's son and his powers... I don't know. It just didn't catch me. The special effects, though, were amazing. And Kevin Spacey was pretty good, too. Rating: 4/10 Official Site | Wikipedia

Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest: (7/7/06) I know a lot of people didn't like this movie (including certain ninjas) but I really enjoyed it. Lots of action, lots of special effects, lots of semi-witty banter. Johnny Depp still had his gay swagger, but he was a little more hetro in this one. The plot line was complicated though. Actually there were a lot more than just one plot line. Everyone and everything had a plot line. It was cool, though. It was at least as good as the first one. I called the ending, though, from halfway through the movie. I knew there was no way they could finish it in just three hours. Go see it. It is awesome. Rating: 9.462/10 Official Site | Wikipedia

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift: (7/8/06): Wow. This was a bad movie. I mean, bad. Horrible. Like a car wreck horrible. Just plot lines and character development strewn all over the pavement, all gooey and gross and starting to smell bad. I saw this while Terezita was in work and I was bored. Take my advice: just say no. This was the only movie I've ever seen that people actually walked out - not because of violence or sex or objectional content, but because of sheer boredom. There was no good part to this movie. Rating: -2/10 Official Site | Wikipedia

Goodnight, all!

Random Link

Another Free Year's Subscription to Electronic Gaming Monthly - Gizmodo

Get them while they're hot!

HEY! I TOPPED 100 VISITORS TODAY!

YAY!

Dugg!

How to PWN in the original Pac-Man
This guy has spent way too much time studying the workings of the original Namco classic. Here are strategic tips & patterns never to get eaten by that darn ghost again.

read more | digg story

The Summer Movie Review, Part 1

Finally, here it is: The Summer Movie Review, Part 1

So, in chronological order, here are the first three of the six movies I've seen in the last month:

The Break Up: (6/10/06) Gotta say, this was way more depressing than I thought it would be. They bill it as a comedy. No freakin' way. So, basically, the plot is 1) Guy doesn't appreciate girl. 2) Girl breaks up with guy to show him that he needs her. 3) Guy wants girl to appreciate what he does; decides to wait her out. 4) Plan fails and guy admits his mistake. 5) Girl rips out his heart and throws it into a bonfire, while performing satanic rituals. 6) End credits, ushers remove all belts and shoelaces. Depressing, and not very funny at all. But was it good? Eh, it was all right. Vince Vaughan and that chick from Office Space are both good actors. I didn't really care about them though - there wasn't enough of seeing them happy. Rating: 6/10 Official Site | Wikipedia

Cars: (6/17/06) Wow. This was great. I loved this movie. I believe that this is my second favorite Pixar movie ever (right after The Incredibles). Very cool, very fun. Owen Wilson's character was perfect for him. It is a classic (sorta cliche) story about the stuck up jock guy who doesn't think he needs to be part of a team. He ends up in a backward town on the old Route 66 and finds friends and brings them all to the final race where they help him win. I called the ending, though. You will have to watch to find out. The major fear I had about this movie was how the cars would look with mouthes and personalities and all that. Pixar (as usual) worked it all out and it looked very - for lack of a better term - natural. Cheers to Pixar! And the animation was gorgeous. Simply beautiful. I heard that it took about 8 hours to render each frame of the movie. It shows. Having recently watched The Incredibles, the advances they've made are amazing. Rating: 9/10 Official Site | Wikipedia

Click: (6/24/06) This was a very surprising movie, mostly because I went into it expecting very little. Adam Sandler stars in this movie about a guy who gets a "universal" remote that - wait for it... - controls his universe. He can fast-forward, rewind, pause, skip chapters, etc. Well, it turns out that it begins skipping whole years of his life and he sees his family fall apart around him. It is actually very touching. And funny. One of the more hilarious parts of the movie is his boss' habit of hiring beautiful women as his assistants. Sandler's assistant, though, is one of the more homely (and scheming) women known to mankind. This is a great movie to go see. I laughed, I cried... although it seems like a much more cliche movie in retrospect. Rating 8/10 Official Site | Wikipedia

Goodnight!

This is pretty cool.

If you click here you can see a Google map with the locations of the visitors to this page on it. Pretty cool, eh? By the way, if this page is running really slow for ya'll, tell me (leave a comment) so I know. There is a lot more javascript running under the hood now.

Random Link

THE SHOW OFF T-SHIRT - With built in sound sensitive graphic! - gadgets, funny gifts and company gifts

This is pretty funny, although very expensive for a t-shirt.

Random Link

The Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books

This site isn't going to win any design awards, but it is interesting none the less.

Another late night post.

Went to the movies again today. You know when you're watching too many movies when you think to yourself "Oh... I gotta hurry up or I'll miss 'First Look'!" Goodnight everyone!

A Ninja's Take on Pirates

Pancakes, Fireworks and Pirates

So, tradition is that on the Fourth of July, my family would always have a pancake dinner. Sweet, sweet strawberry and blueberry pancakes. Mmmmm... So I got to Terezita's apartment and we began making the food. We used this recipe and they turned out really well. I handled the griddle and Terezita did the decorating. Everybody seemed to really enjoy them. Here's some pictures:













Yeah, that's me with the fire alarm. We set it off when we were cooking. Nearly woke everyone up in the whole house.

So then, after breakfast and all that we lit some of the fireworks that we had bought a couple days before. Very fun. I know the picture is bad, but just use your imagination. All in all, it was a very fun Fourth of July.

Yesterday (well, actually this morning), Terezita and I went to see Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest. We kinda dressed up in pirate garb.. That's us below. It was really good, although I knew how it was going to end. I'm really planning to do a sort of summer movie review tomorrow or something to show off all the movies I've seen this summer. Well, we were up really late, so I'm really tired. If the post seemed a little incoherent, that's why. Good night everyone.

Dugg!

20 Years of PC Viruses - Sit back and enjoy the tour!

"This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first PC virus. We look back at the highs and lows (well, mostly lows) of the ongoing struggle against malware."

read more | digg story

Random Link of the Day

Welcome to the 419 Eater

This is the anti-nigerian scam site. It's really great. These guys do something called "scambaiting" where they wait for scammers to get into contact with them and then scam them. Fun stuff. Check it out.

Sorry I haven't written lately. I want to show

off the fireworks from 4th of July. It was a lot of fun.

Today after work, Terezita and I went to Macy's and registered for some new stuff. So, that's good. Then we walked around a little and went home. I'm going to bed early because we're going to go see Pirates tomorrow at the midnight showing. Gotta get some sleep. Good night!

The Simpsons... LIVE!

A real life version of the famous opening sequence, made in the UK.

read more | digg story

Yay! More computer for less money!!

Nothing better...

Well, today was eventful-ish. This morning I went with Terezita to the doctors. She has one more appointment before we get married. Just a little bit longer. We only have two more months! So, after that, we went and had breakfast with her parents at Denny's. Then, we went and bought fireworks for tomorrow.

Now, I have never bought fireworks before. I used to live in a place where fireworks were illegal. This was a whole new experience for me. I had fun buying them. So we got a bunch (about $20 worth) and we plan on setting a few off tomorrow morning. Fourth of July morning is the traditional pancake breakfast at my house. Since my parents are in Utah, Terezita and I are going to make pancakes at her apartment. They are plate-sized pancakes with blueberries, strawberries and whipped cream in the shape of an American flag. I'm very excited. Then we'll be going with her parents to watch fireworks somewhere in Ontario. Maybe we'll see Superman, too.

The rest of today, I spent mostly at home. I did go to the store, though, and bought stuff for tomorrow and some stuff for dinner (Terezita is at work again). I made pizza. It was a little too sweet for me, but besides that it was pretty good. I know that the picture is bad, but you get the idea. I used pepperoni and olives for the top and a seven cheese blend for the cheese. I think the problem was the sauce. It was the one included with the crust. I think that next time I will find a different one, one that is less sweet. I have about half of it left over. I don't know when I'm goign to eat it. Maybe for lunch on Thursday.

Well, I hope that all of you have a wonderful night. And have fun tomorrow, but don't get your hand burned off or anything.

ACP-EP 1 GB High Speed USB 2.0 Aloha Style SurfDrive Flash Drive - Wal-Mart

These are awesome.

ACP-EP 1 GB High Speed USB 2.0 Aloha Style SurfDrive Flash Drive - Wal-Mart

Magnetic Floating Bed: Oh. Your. God. - Gizmodo

Wow.

Magnetic Floating Bed: Oh. Your. God. - Gizmodo

Last post of the day, I promise!

Well, I finally got down to an After Hours to get my tuxes done for the wedding. It was a really good experience. The guy who helped us was just the right amount of helpful. We got cool jackets and all. It will be very nice. It felt good to get it done, too.

Terezita's first day as a Cast Member at Disneyland went really well. She loved it. They did something called "Traditions" today, which is somewhat of a presentation and tour of how cast members are supposed to act in the park. She loved it. I think that she's really going to like working there.

Other than that, not much happened. I finally got in touch with Best Man II, Allan. This got me thinking. I've known Allan for years and years and years. He is without a doubt my oldest friend. We hung out a whole lot in our lives. But recently, our lives have taken different tracks. He was always a lot... deeper than me. He is a dark poet, long hair, a dirty prophet, standing on the corner screaming for all the world to hear that the world is most certainly coming to an end. And he's often right. Whereas I may pen a poem to disclose - to let out - to flush onto the paper, Allan seems to live a poetic existance. In politics, we often agree (Socialists as we are), but he takes a more active revolutionary role. Why don't I? I have often coveted Allan's commitment to a cause. He is a far better man than me. He may very well change the world. I seem to stand on the shoulders of giants with my friends. Kasey too, is on his way to a promising political career. I'm sort of "Greg, friend to the stars!" Now, I'm really not depressed or anything by this. I am very happy for my friends. They are great men. They will do great things. I hope that I can join them. My life, though, is a different one. I have a different path. As Mohandas Gandhi said, "As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves." Or, as my mom says, "Different strokes for different folks." I love my friends. They have always been there for me and I wish them the best of luck in their futures. To them, I propose a toast. Cheers!

Dugg!

From Digg.com:

Simple question: if Rush Limbaugh, who is not married, is against premarital sex, then why does he need viagra?

read more | digg story

Know Your Rights

Interesting video on knowing your rights from the ACLU: [note: this is very long.]

Kase, can you verify this?

Random Links

Best looking myspace page ever: link

This is crazy. I'm not sure how I feel about this. This is pretty bad. He should of handled it more... discreetly. Now thousands of these pages will pop up: link

The Story of Net Neutrality and the Crazy Senator

Maybe you guys haven't heard about net neutrality. It's sort of like a... On the other hand, I'll let the ninja from AskANinja.com explain:

So here's what's happening: The phone companies pretty much run the ISPs (Internet Service Providers). Recently, there's been this cool revolution in phones: VoIP (Voice over IP (Internet Protocol). This is where you can make a phone call to anyone in the world using a phone that's hooked up to your computer. Companies like Vonage do this and Skype to a lesser degree. These are not run by any of the Baby Bells (phone companies), which ticks them off to no end. So, basically, the phone companies are charging you like $24 a month for high speed internet and you're using it to make calls instead of using their service. This causes the phone companies to lose money. It turns out that their real income comes from phone calls. Go figure.

This business plan is not working out for them. So, they decided to break out the big guns. What they want to do is block certain bits of data, or at least slow them down. This is where it starts to get confusing.

Say you have Vonage and you want to make a call. Right now, when you make a call, the data that is sent from your service is treated the same as the data you send and receive when you're surfing the web or downloading a movie or chatting using AIM. It all travels using the same speed. Under the ISPs' plan, they would purposely slow down your Vonage data so that the quality of the call decreases and you'd be forced to use their phone service.

Recently, the movie companies have come out in favor of this plan as well. They have asked the ISPs to slow down movie bits too. That would include NetFlix' new service where you can download movies online. It might even include things like YouTube and Google Video. The ISPs would then return these bits to their normal speed if you signed up for a sort of premium service.

The crux of this is that this is not the way that the internet was supposed to be. The internet is a true democracy. Anyone can post, download, look at anything they want. Data is data. It should not be bought and sold. This is straight out big business greed.

So I thought that this would never go through. No way our politicians were dumb enough to limit something so revolutionary as the internet. And then I saw this. This is Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska. It's a little hard to read, but apparently, the internet is a bunch of tubes and his staff sent him an internet on Friday. Here's the digg story. At last try, his webpage at the Senate website is suffering from the Digg effect, but here's the link.

With people like this in the Senate, my hope is dwindling. But we need to mobilize. Get out the word. Write your congresspeople. Tell your friends. Save the internet.

• Wikipedia article
• savetheinternet.com [They have a good video here about it. Better than the ninja one!]
• John Kerry on net neutrality
• The bad guys

Comment on this. Tell me your thoughts. As always, have fun and have a good day.

Of Clocks and Music

Hello, all. Well, we made it down to San Diego. It was a lot of fun. We drove down early this morning, listening to the new Dashboard Confessional CD. Yes yes, I know. Certain people reading this blog are quite happy that they weren't there, knowing what happens when Terezita, Dashboard and Greg get in the same car at the same time. The new CD is good... but not great. It's not like his other stuff, but it's good. Worth checking out if you are a fan of his, or of other people like him (which has become a very large genre).
Anyway, we drove down and got to Seaport Village about 11:00. We walked around for a while, ate, did stuff like that. I got a really cool clock. It tells time on that gear thing and the minutes are on the little silver knob thingy. Weird, yeah, but really cool. They had a cooler one there though. It had marbles that moved to different levels as the time passed. I tried to find the website, but it kinda looks like they are now defunct. Oh well, you can still buy them down in SD.
So, we had a good time, just walking around and all. They had a lot of good eating there. I had a pizza that was very good and some baklava afterwards that was... ok. Not as good as yours, Kase! So we saw a lot of cool stuff and everything.
On our way back home, we went to the San Diego County Fair. That was pretty cool too. Lots of animals and food and stuff. We saw this really good musician named Tim Mudd who was pretty darn good. I am writing this knowning that a full 50% of people who read this will not like his music in the least (*cough*Kasey*cough*). Still, it was good even if he's an "emotional young man". He was a nice enough guy, as well, in the short two seconds that I talked to him. We had good funnel cake later on. Then we came home. Terezita dropped me off and she went to her apartment. Tomorrow is her first day working at Disneyland. Hooray!
So, two odd things for you to chew on:

Strangest thing we saw at the fair today:

Read the sign.

-And:

Worst Music Video Ever.

Okay, two techno-geek links for y'all.

Cool for like two seconds, but will probably just take up space on my dresser after a few months

Stinkin' awesome. Anyone got $500 I can borrow?