MoreCooler.com: It's more cooler with the thing

FYI, I'm going to move the site to Wordpress this weekend (really!), so there may be some downtime. Deal with it. :-)

Hey kids. I keep meaning to send an e-mail about this, but it's been a crazy couple of months. For those of you who were on the new server, y'all owe me money. :-) For the first three months, everyone owes me $75. From here on out, I'm open to suggestions on a cleaner way to do the money besides everyone sending me a check every month. One idea was to have y'all take turns paying the full amount (minus my share). So assuming no one else gets in on the server (Kim, are you going to be using it?), each month one of the three of you would send me a check for $75. Thoughts?

Either way, my address is in the address book, so if you could send me money for the first three months, that'd be awesome.

.

Hey y'all. I'm thinking it's not worth my time/effort to upgrade this CMS since I'm not actively doing web dev work any more, so I don't have clients who are paying for me to keep it going. I just installed WordPress on http://www.brycekujala.com/ and think I'll do the same over here. Any objections?

As for what's here now, I was thinking about just putting it in some archival form so we can refer back to it, but start the new version fresh without any of the past content.

Bush talks about the content of his iPod. The funniest part is that he doesn't have a Shuffle in the picture, and it sounds like he's reading an alphabetical list off the display, which a Shuffle doesn't have. I do love how he talks, in that "scares me that he runs our country" sort of way.

Merry Christmas!

http://slashdot.org/articles/05/12/20/2050214.shtm...

And I'm sure it's a complete coincidence that this is timed with the DVD release... ;-)

Hey guys. Since the DB went out and now we're back in the past, I was thinking this might be a good time to kick this site in the ass (and maybe just archive the old stuff somewhere and start fresh). I'd like to shake down the overall backend and clean up some things I did that are pretty hacky in retrospect. I think we had a list of feature requests somewhere back in the archive, but I'm too lazy to look for it. So what would you like to see? My list:

-Redesign
-Search (keyword & author)
-RSS (just 'cause it's fun)
-Better overall posting/comment system
-Fix referrer thing so we can use it again
-Better nav on recent activity
-Photo gallery
-Better file manager

Also, chime in here if you still use the site, just so I know who is still hanging around.

;-)

Nimoy's music video. This is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

It's election day, go vote!

Ashleigh has a project to make a map of a fake country. She drew a bunch of states and cities on there, and then needed help naming them. Someone wasn't thinking when the job got assigned to me, since I then recruited Matt, Martin, and Kim to help. Below are the 12 states from the country of Staightuv. Can anyone guess who was in charge of spelling? ;-)

The State of Denyahl has the cities of Kno Wei and Gnuh-Uh
The State of Kohnfusen has the cities of Huh, Seiwhat, and Whatchootalkinboutwillisville.
The State of Disarray has the cities of Kludder and Mai Roomia.
The State of Bohrdumm has the cities of Snohr and Yon
The State of Apahthi has the cities of City 1, City 2, and City 3.
The State of Imergenci has the cities of Panik and AAAAAAAH
The State of Unnrrest has the cities of Tyred and Ryet.
The State of The Ahrt has the cities of Brite and Shinee
The State of Insanitee has the cities of Cahrazy and Skroolooz
The State of Theeyunyin has the cities of Baad and Gewd
The State of You4ia has the cities of Squee and W00t.
The State of Pairanoya has the cities of Noya and Noya.

Pairanoya, Apahthi, and Whatchootalkinboutwillisville my favorites. If anyone else needs help with elementary school homework, you know who to call!

Matt's dad sent me this link. Basically, the guy goes to concerts of mainstream bands and uses a bullhorn to tell their fans that they have bad taste in music. He then outlines his three-step plan:

1) Do not attend this concert.
2) Stop listening to band music.
3) Turn off your radio and television.

My favorite is the video from the Justin Timberlake/Christina Aguilera concert, which includes him saying to some of the older people "Do you sleep with twelve-year-olds? Then why do you listen to their music?" I'm amazed he makes it through without getting beat up.

I was going to try to think of something birthday-ish to say using A-F, but I can't think of anything, except that you're A BABE ACE.

You know what would be really weird? If other people were to comment on this just minutes after I posted it.

Has anyone else ever seen this comic? I just started reading it in our paper a couple of weeks ago, and I was surprised how geeky it was. It's the only print comic I've ever seen to use a Turing machine as part of the punchline. Too bad the archives only go back a week, and are two weeks behind.

Dick Cheney has said that the economy isn't properly reflected in the new job numbers because it doesn't count all the people who make money from eBay. John Edwards replies: "If we only included bake sales and how much money kids make at lemonade stands, this economy would really be cooking." I love that.

If you haven't seen it, Free iPods.com is a site that gives you a free iPod for signing up for one offer (most of which are free and can be easily cancelled at no charge) and for getting 5 friends to do the same. So far, I have one (Chris), but I'll keep this post up to date as people sign up on my account and pull my referral link when I get 5 so someone else can refer from this site. http://www.freeiPods.com/default.aspx?referer=8905476

Note: This is legit, and people are getting their iPods. Check out this article for more info.

Only one left! Martin, do an offer since you already signed up, then I can change the link to the one that credits Chris. ;-)

It's that time of year again! I'm coming up to see Cowboy Mouth in San Francisco and visit my family (yes, in that order :-P ). Cowboy Mouth is playing at Slim's on Friday, Sept 17th. The show is at 9pm, and tickets are $20 bucks. I may even be able to swing a couple free tickets, so if anyone is interested, let me know. Kim and I are coming up on the 17th, and then we're going up to Chico on Saturday to see where my siblings live (and possibly to melt, since Chico is about 15 miles east of Hell). Kim is flying home on the 20th, so Cowboy Mouth may be your only chance to see her!

I'll be kicking around Redwood City until Sunday, the 26th, so I can definitely get together to do something with y'all (yes, Jeff, that means you too (speaking of Jeff, do you still have the Paul Sanchez CD I left in your boombox when we moved? If so, I want it back)). Anyway, definitely let me know about Cowboy Mouth if you're interested, and we can figure out plans to do something as it gets closer.

Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash This is a pairing I would never have imagined.... I hope it works out.

This has to be the dumbest thing I've seen in a while: "Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed! A Small Lesson in Conservatism"

"Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed! A Small Lesson in Conservatism" is a wonderful way to teach young children the valuable lessons of conservatism. In simple text, parents and children follow Tommy and Lou on their quest to earn money for a swing set their parents cannot afford. As their dream gets stuck in Liberaland, Tommy and Lou’s lemonade stand is hit with many obstacles.

Liberals keep appearing from behind their lemon tree, taking half of their money in taxes, forbidding them to hang a picture of Jesus atop their stand, and making them give broccoli with each glass sold.

Law after law instituted by the press-hungry liberals finally results in the liberals taking over Tommy and Lou’s stand and offering sour lemonade at astronomical prices to the customers.

My favorite is the part where the Conservatives show up and tell Tommy and Lou they can't have a lemonade stand because a business partnership is defined as being between one man and one woman... okay, maybe that's something else.

A guy I used to work with (I guess I worked with him.... Technically we were both employed at MentorU at the same time, but I don't know that I ever spoke to him... Francesco, tell the kiddies how I know you when you see this click-thru) has started up a link sharing service at URL123.com. It's pretty snazzy, so give it a look.

(You owe me five bucks for ad space. )

Mediafeast lives! Come one, come all.

Well, maybe "lives" is a bit of an overstatement. Right now, we're signing up artists. The plan is to do the full roll-out on July 1st. Sign up for an affiliate account and use that link to tell your friends so you can make a couple of bucks at the same time. Also, it's still new, so if you find anything that doesn't act like you think it should, and I'll let the development team of Me, Myself, and I know about it.

The FCC Song by Eric Idle. It's hilarious. Not something to listen to at work (unless your workplace is okay with songs starting with the line "F*ck you very much") though.

Check out this story about a two-year-old kid who "works" at his parents' restaurant.

http://homestarrunner.com/ Make sure to visit today!

Al Franken was on Letterman last night promoting his new radio show, which debuts on New York, LA, Chicago, and San Francisco on March 31, and will air M-F from noon to 3pm. He's calling it The O'Franken Factor. It was a really great interview, especially the discussion of O'Reilly refusing to call him "O'Franken" and O'Reilly declining Franken's invitation to appear of "The Factor" (Franken's theory was he was afraid to enter the Zero Spin Zone). All of this is part of his promotional strategy to get sued again.

The stations that Air America (the liberal talk network the show is part of) is taking over haven't updated their sites to reflect the format change, so I'm still looking for somewhere to listen to a live stream. For those in the bay area, it will be on there, but the station hasn't been announced yet.

Also, here's a feature from the NY Times about Franken.

Edit: Stream at http://airamericaradio.com/www/main.cfm or http://www.super62.com/jacor-common/pdx/streaming.php

FYI, Bullshit returns to Showtime on April 1st. I guess they moved it from Friday to Thursday this season. Also, Amazon says the first season comes out on DVD on March 30.

So with the Democratic primary coming up, how is everyone voting? If you're not voting, what do you think of the candidates? (I meant to post this back when there were more people still in the race.)

I was pretty impressed with Wesley Clark, and I was sad to see him drop out. As a person, he reminded me of John McCain in a lot of ways. Most importantly, when he said something, I could believe he meant it (at least more than with other politicians). Also, I agreed with his thoughts on most of the issues. Of the remaining four, I find myself agreeing with Kucinich on almost every issue. For some reason, he was never considered a serious candidate, so I don't know if there's a point in voting for him. I'm satisfied with a ticket of Kerry-Edwards (which is what seems to be how things are heading). The only major (to me) issue where I disagree with them is gay marriage (they oppose it), though both see it as an issue of state's rights and oppose the ridiculous idea of amending the constitution.

So there's my thoughts. Your turn!

Maybe those of you who don't live under a rock know this already, but I just found out that Christoher Guest, Eugene Levy and Michael McKean won a Grammy for Best Song Written For A Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media for the song "A Mighty Wind". Also, "Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow" is up for an Oscar. Not bad for a mockumentary.

Other Grammys worth noting: Two for Warren Zevon (who says dying isn't a good career move); Al Franken for Best Spoken Word Album for his audio book; Weird Al for Best Comedy album. Does Weird Al just win by default for every album, or is this a big thing for him?

Snazzy!

They like us. They really like us. ;-) So which one of you submitted this link?

I just got spam sent to whatacoolguy AT brycekujala.com. That's a step in the right direction. (I actually used this address as a mailto: on my front page back in August). I'm amused, so I thought I'd share.

A couple in Michigan have named their newborn son Jon Blake Cusack 2.0 (instead of Jr. or II). By naming him 2.0, that means they see him as an upgrade to the dad. Hopefully this includes fixing a bug that made the previous version name his kids stupid things.

I'm doing some contract work for a cellphone store, and after two days, I finally figured out why the dump of the query string keeps showing the character ∏... one of the variables being passed it 'prod' and it's always listed at &prod in the string... so when I print it out, the browser is nice enough to convert it to ∏ for me. Seeing "mode=update&cart=0∏=145" was VERY confusing. Just thought I'd share.

Al Franken has signed on with Progress Media to host a radio show. I'm looking forward to an alternative to Rush Limbaugh on daytime talk radio. The show's three-hour format will be a mixture of interviews, listener calls, and scripted comedy. No launch date has been announced.

At Christmas dinner, we (okay, it was mostly me) were bashing how stupid "Hulk" looked, and I stumbled upon an improvement.

Imagine Bruce Banner getting angry. "You won't like me when I'm angry," he says. He starts growing and turning green. Suddenly, he turns into... The Jolly Green Giant. "Eat your brussel sprouts!" That'd be way better. I don't know why I didn't go into screenwriting as a profession.

I've never been more disgusted to be associated with a group of people than I am to be associated with the fans on the Cowboy Mouth board. When I created the boards, I put in an off-topic board for everything non-Cowboy Mouth. In the last few months, it has basically become a playground for Adam (who happens to be a friend of Griff's), where he creates a handful of usernames, and has conversations with himself and his group of followers. At first, it was cute (in the same way that it's cute when a 4 year old has an imaginary friend). After a while, it became a bit stale. Eventually, it just became ridiculous. Then the fun started.

He created a username for a character called Jitterbug Jackson. This character was nothing more than a black stereotype straight out of a minstrel show. He did it in the form of an advice column, and featured such gems as "dat b a tough question. How do you know this fella is acturrly your broyfriend? . . . Until a fella gives you a ring and spends a substainiaill amounts o money on you he may just be playin wit your lurve." Apparently this was supposed to be witty humor of some sort.

Inevitably, people got offended. When these people voiced their opinions, they were insulted. Eventually, Adam created a new name who was offended by everything, and he and a group of others proceeded to make fun of the people who "couldn't take a joke." I ended up calling management, and we pulled the entire board for a day, then reinstated it with some rules. It's so sad that we need to have rules to tell people not to make racist comments, but we do. Based on a post to the board that has been made since, someone (the poster didn't identify himself) sent a person to the board in an attempt to impress them, and because of this thread, he had to major damage control. Only now are the people involved getting the clue that their actions on the Cowboy Mouth board reflect upon everyone involved with the band (myself included). Now they've moved the little game to the major Cowboy Mouth fan site. So far, the voice of reason on the fan site is a 14 year old (oh, did I mention that Adam is 36?). I love the Internet.

Now I understand why they had so much trouble Finding Nemo

Warren Zevon has been posthumously nominated for 5 Grammys for his final album, The Wind (Full list of nominees). In part, I'm happy that such a great album got some serious nominations. On the other hand, it's a shame that this attention only started when he announced he was terminally ill (not to mention the increase after he died). Still, I hope he does win something. "Keep Me In Your Heart" is up for both song and vocal performance, and that's an amazing tune. Even Howard Stern spent ten minutes talking about the album and how that song choked him up.

Shoot, forgot to post this sooner. Cowboy Mouth's appearance on Kilborn airs tonight on CBS at 12:35am! I'm planning to tape and encode it, so if you miss it, it should be online in a few days.

For when going to a Kiss concert makes you feel too short, Minikiss is the answer.

Hola amigos. Just a brief update on Saturday's plans. The lunch reservations are for 1:30 at Palomino's. A little later than I hoped, but pretend it's like a lunch in SLO and start trying to leave at 11:30, and it'll be seem perfectly normal. The final list I have is Chris, Jua, Martin, Sean, Andrea, Matt (maybe), Kim, my sister, my sister's friend, and myself. If anyone is NOT coming, let me know ASAP and I'll change the reservation.

Secondly, the Cowboy Mouth in-store has been cancelled. No idea why, but I got an e-mail from the record label saying that, so I have no reason to doubt it. I'll comment on this post if I find out anything more or if they're doing anything else for free in SF.

Martin, you want to drive me and my crew, since I assume you'll be coming from Cupertino and you are our Matt substitute?

This was posted on Penn & Teller's website:

"Production on 13 new half-hour episodes begins this month with the second season premiere slated to air in the spring of 2004, following the DVD release of season one during the first quarter of 2004."

Yay!

One of the kids had this thing with the headline "Costumes are cool, but Heaven is awesome!" among all the candy. Why didn't they give this out when I was a kid?! If I had known Heaven had more candy than Halloween, I'd have so been there! Instead, I signed a Book of Mormon. I hope Hell at least has some Pop Tarts.

I looked at Palomino's online reservation thing, and there are no tables for a large group at dinner on the 15th, so if that's where we want to go, it has to be for lunch. My sister and a friend are coming down to see Cowboy Mouth with Kim and I, so there's four people right there. Right now, they have openings at 11:45 and 1:30 for a group of 10, and I can't see us having any more than that (my 4, Martin, Sean, Andrea, Chris, Jua, Jeff), unless I'm missing someone. Within the next few days, let's figure out who's in and we can make the reservation.

A quick reminder of my Cowboy Mouth-related info for the evening of the 15th:
In-store appearance: Tower Records, 6pm, free(!!)
Concert: Bimbo's 365 Club, 9pm, $25

If anyone really wants to go the show, talk to me soon. I might have an extra ticket that I can give you (free).

California has regained our rightful title of "Nuttiest Political State Ever", and we're looking to extend our lead! The Washington Times says Dennis Miller is thinking about running for Senate. The real Senate. Making laws.

The man seems confused lately. Alright, I'll give him Monday Night Football (I'm in a generous mood), despite some of the ridiculous things he said. [Note: When I decided to give him Monday Night Football, I had no idea how bad it was. I really want to believe ESPN made all these up.] Football is one thing. If you screw up, the worst that happens is a bald man in his underwear yells "Hey, you mispronounced Grbac!" at you through his television. If you screw up as a senator, people in suits yell at you from inside a television. That, and you can help Bush screw the American people a little bit more.

Already, the man has his enemies. No, not George Carlin. Elton John. You may remember him as the inspiration for my new career (don't hold it against him). After Miller want on a pro-Bush rant (the only kind I've seen him go on lately) during his set at a charity event in Las Vegas, Elton John took the stage. Before performing, John said "This night is about charity - not washing your dirty political laundry. I love America, but if you want to know why the world hates America, I can give you two words: Dennis Miller."

Ouch.

In the October 30 issue of Rolling Stone, there's a quote about record sales being down from Antonio "LA" Reid, President and CEO of Arista. "People buy a CD when it's good, and they don't buy it when it's crappy. We've had bootlegging foverer in our industry. We have ourselves to blame, too. In the music business, we don't concern ourselves enough with value or quality. The reality is that we're suffering because we sell a lot of sh-t."

Then again, this is from the man who gave us Avril Lavigne. ;-)

I went to a Coupling taping yesterday. I'd never been to a TV taping before, so it was kinda cool to see how it's done and all that. The only problem is that the audience warmer SUCKED. His job is to keep the audience entertained between takes and during set-ups and stuff. His overall plan seemed to be to systematically offend the entire audience. He kept asking where people were visiting from, and then he'd make fun of their people. He asked the people from Israel if they had gone to some deli in LA. He did an Apu-style accent to talk about the Indian people. I almost felt bad for him. Almost. The plus side was that it seems that if I can't work with my CSC degree, the standards for audience warmers isn't very high so maybe I could do that.

Oh, and also among the most annoyed in the audience was Anthony Michael Hall or, as Katie now calls him, Tony Mike.

Sean, you said to tell you the next time something good is happening, so here it is! Kim and I are heading up to visit my folks from Nov. 13-16. Due to the cancellation of A Mighty Wind's show on the 13th, the only thing we have planned is to go see Cowboy Mouth in SF on the 15th. Tickets are 25 bucks (and it looks like Cracker is headlining that night), and y'all are welcome to come with us to that. There's also a free in-store performance around 6pm at a Tower Records in SF that same day. Also, if anyone wants to get together at any other time while we're up there, let me know that too.

According to The Register, Steve Cox just saved MP3.com's ass. Their domain expired, and Cox (a musician who has some music on the site) called and renewed the domain for them on his credit card. I know Vivendi didn't hold the site in high regard, but you think they'd protect the domain a bit better. Still, what a loyal guy. Would any of you step up to renew this domain? I think not.

Matt, Kim, Katie and I went to see Bubba Ho-Tep tonight. Bruce Campbell was scheduled to do a Q&A session after one of the shows, but after getting the run-around about when tickets went on sale for that show, it was sold out. We ended up buying tickets to the next show, hoping he'd hang around, and we got lucky since he showed up for that showing as well, which was great.

He IS Ash. Someone asked if he could give them a one-liner. "Give you a one-liner? If I was your little monkey, I could." Someone else asked if he was ever going to fight any non-undead evil, such as werewolves or Nazis. "Fight Nazis? You mean like your future governor? (A mix of applause and booing) I don't give a rat's ass, I live in Oregon." The guy behind us did a student film that his daughter was in, and he asked where it was from. "It's from UCSC." "UCSC? Uncle Charlie's Summer Camp? Why was she in it?" "It was a favor." "What did she do for you? No. Don't tell me."

The movie was pretty fun too. I love Ossie Davis. He's the best black JFK ever. Overall, it's probably not as good as Army of Darkness, but you gotta love Elvis and JFK fighting a soul-sucking mummy. Find out when it's playing near you and check it out if you get the chance. (Martin, it's worth the drive from SLO!)

I'm going to make some changes to the site's HTML markup, which will most likely cause some weird styling stuff to happen until I'm done and get to make the changes to the CSS files. It should remain readable, at least. =)

This is amazing. It's software that prevents users from downloading images! How does it do it, you ask? According to the site, "CopyNo is a patent-pending, multi-leveled copyright warning/system and Application." What's this multi-leveled system? I'm glad you asked. First, it links the images to this. More importantly, it creates a Javascript rollover to prevent people from right-clicking to save-as. That's right. This is software that makes a link AND a rollover. I wish I'd thought to patent that combo back in 1998 when I started using it. I'm off to work on a new project called MusicNo that prevents you from stealing music by muting your speakers.

For my own sanity, let's keep all bug reports and feature requests to this thread so I can find them. I tried to gather all that have been posted so far. Let me know if I missed any. I'll keep this post edited to show the current list. The list as of now:

• Bugs
  • Style sheets don't load all parts of the page
    This is a known bug for Mozilla. For now, it appears that the blue and green styles both work fine. If you want to use another, just refresh and it seems to fix itself. Annoying, but what can ya do? Currently looking into alternatives.
    By making Matt constantly refresh while I tried some things, I think it's working (we're now using PHP to switch instead of Javascript). If anyone notices it not working, let me know!
  • Use selected style in admin pages.
  • Stop long links from running off the side of the screen.
• Feature requests
  • Allow editing for comments by logged-in users
    There should be an edit link next to any post you make while logged in. Let me know if you find one of your posts that you can't edit.
  • Add Ninja and Quotes to main menu for public access
  • Don't display duplicate referrers
  • Search capability

The cast of A Mighty Wind (minus Fred Willard and Ed Begley, Jr.) is doing a small west coast tour, and they're playing the Warfield on November 13th. It sounds like each band does a set, and Bob Balaban's character is still serving as MC of the event. I was debating coming up to the bay area around then anyway, so I'm now considering going. Looks like tickets are 35 bucks and go on sale tomorrow. Would any other bay area folks be interested in going? I'm not 100% sure I'm even in at this point, but I figured I'd ask now. It sorta depends on the amount of contract work I can get in the next few days. It's a bit more than I'd want to pay, but I figure this chance won't happen again, and since this does take place post-movie, it's almost worth the price to see [spoiler] (select to see)Harry Shearer in the dress[/spoiler].

I just found this in an old e-mail I sent regarding Netscape 4.x being used in offices despite sucking:

Just tell everyone you work with that upgrading to Netscape 6.0 prevents evil men from being downloaded onto their hard drive. No one wants evil little men on their hard drive. If they don't listen, secretly set all their start pages to a web page with pictures of Gary Coleman and Verne Troyer with the words "We've arrived." Then you can say "I told you so."

I woke up this morning to hear some sad, yet not unexpected news. Best known for his hit Werewolves of London, singer/songwriter Warren Zevon died in his sleep yesterday. Last August, he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and given three months to live. He used this time to record The Wind, his final album. In a released statement last year, he said "I'm okay with it, but it'll be a drag if I don't make it till the next James Bond movie comes out." Not only did he make it to see the release, he made it to the DVD release, not to mention the birth of his first grandchildren and the release of his final album. Nine months after he was supposed to die.

The album is extremely powerful, and has been getting glowing reviews in the media (though it's a shame it took his illness to get his due in the mainstream). The album serves a goodbye to his friends, family, and fans, and includes an all-star list of guest appearances. In his final appearance on Letterman in October, he was asked, "From your perspective now, do you know something about life and death that maybe I don't know now?" Zevon replied, "Not unless I know how much you're supposed to enjoy every sandwich." The crowd went completely silent.

Last night, I saw the commercial. The Thing is officially back at Olive Garden. I'm so there.

In case anyone hadn't heard, Fox had filed a lawsuit against Al Franken and his publisher for using "fair and balanced" in his book's subtitle (Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right). Why would that be a problem? Fox owns a trademark on the phrase. It got tossed out by the judge, who stated the case was "wholly without merit, both factually and legally." Ever since I heard about the case, I wondered why Fox would bother. All they are doing is bringing publicity to the book (even Rush Limbaugh was smart enough to not do that!), but a column in the New Yorker suggests that it was a result of trying to keep Bill O'Reilly happy. After his temper tantrum at the BookExpo in May, I wouldn't be surprised. Check out the video of the panel with Franken and O'Reilly if you've got some time to kill.

In response to all of this, Franken was quoted as saying "A few months ago, I trademarked the word 'funny.' So when Fox calls me 'unfunny,' they're violating my trademark. I am seriously considering a countersuit." I love that guy.

We were trying to find radio that didn't suck yesterday, and as we went by a station, Kim thought she heard Elton John, so we went back. It was a Spanish station, so I've decided to learn Spanish, eat until I'm 2000 pounds, and then become a Spanish-language Elton John tribute act and call myself El Ton Juan. Some of my songs:

• Alcance gran altura rápida y súbitamente A Hombre (Lo pienso Voy A ser Un Rato Largo Largo)
• Adiós Camino Amarillo Del Ladrillo
• Gato De Honky
• El

Me gusta los Babelfish.

I went to the International Pop Overthrow in LA last night to see Leisure McCorkle. It was pretty awesome. Seven bands over four hours for 10 bucks, and they were all really good. That even works with the "$2.50/hr. for entertainment" school of thought. The best part was when the MC said "A friend of mine just had the greatest line of the whole festival. 'When he hits those low notes, it really tickles my ass.' THAT is rock and roll! I hope you all found something tonight that tickled your ass."

Kim just showed me the trailer for this on the Quicktime site. It's looks pretty cool. http://www.bubbahotep.com

"Based on the Bram Stoker Award nominee short story by acclaimed author Joe R. Lansdale, Bubba Ho-tep tells the "true" story of what really did become of Elvis Presley. We find Elvis(Bruce Campbell) as an elderly resident in an East Texas rest home, who switched identities with an Elvis impersonator years before his "death", then missed his chance to switch back. Elvis teams up with Jack(Ossie Davis), a fellow nursing home resident who thinks that he is actually President John F. Kennedy, and the two valiant old codgers sally forth to battle an evil Egyptian entity who has chosen their long-term care facility as his happy hunting grounds..."

It looks like it's doing a tour of indie theatres in the fall. I can't wait!

I got this message this morning. I'm drafting the plans to send right now. ;-)

"Hello,

I'm a time traveler stuck here in 2003. Since nobody here seems to be able to get me what I need (safely here to me), I will have to build a simple time travel circut to get where I need myself. I am going to need an easy to follow picture diagram for a simple time travel circut, which can be built out of (readily available) parts here in 2003. Please email me any schematics you have. I will pay good money for anything you send me I can use Or if you have the rechargeable AMD dimensional warp generator wrist watch unit available, and are 100% certain you have a (secure) means of delivering it to me please also reply. Send a separate email to me at: info@federalfundingprogram.com.

Do not reply back directly to this email as it will only be bounced back to you.

Thank You"

BTW, I think he's looking for Martin's watch.

To anyone that thought I was too big of a geek... I give you GoVeg.com: http://www.ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html? qdate=2003-07-18&nav=VIEW&id=8TSYY314166030718

Now, this is funny without my comments, but here they are anyway.

• "The-vegan-formerly-known-as Karin Robertson changed her name to the same as that of a vegetarian information website to encourage meat-eaters to become vegetarians."
  I'm convinced. Just keep me away from the guy named LightYourHairOnFire.com, because that might hurt.
• It says "GoVeg.com says her mother worried at first what she would do if she got married, but GoVeg.com says her parents know how much animal rights activism means to her."
  First, with a name like GoVeg.com, this won't come up. Second, is this really her mother's biggest worry? Mine would have been "People will realize you're a complete nut job."
• "23-year-old GoVeg.com, a Youth Project Specialist for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, says her new name is a great conversation starter."
  I would imagine it to be quite the conversation ender as well. "Your name is what? Ooooookay, freak."

Now, that said... any volunteers to change their name to MoreCooler.com?

Tonight, I am very angry at my parents. When naming a child, there are three things to consider:

1. Will this name incur the teasing of others? Namely (pun intended), will your son Jennifer get beat up? Think of the effect you could have on little Eggbert's fragile psyche. This also includes considering the first name/last name combination. I do not know what was going on in the minds of the parents of Chris Columbus.


2. What does the name mean? If you name your child Kennedy, you may be thinking John F. Try its origin of Cinnéidigh, the Gaelic name which means "misshapen head." Not so cool now, is it? Ask Ralph (wolf counselor) and Cameron (crooked nose) what they think of their names.


3. Can this name be effectively used in a palindrome?

Rule #3 is where my anger originates. With the "rb" pairing (not to mention the "ecy" that precedes it), I am forever doomed. I will never be able to enjoy the sounds of friends yelling "Yo, Roy!" or the chants of "Bob bob bob!" What if I meet a woman named Norma? Will I be able to introduce myself by saying "Norma, I am Ron." No!

Interestingly, I feel this palindrome envy is the cause of the rising population. Those of us who are not blessed with a name fit for palindroming are resigned to become a simple "Dad" or "Mom". Not as exciting, but it is better than nothing, I suppose.

Just call me Dr. Awkward.

Brian, you're off the hook. The library found the book. Finally. So I'm now the unhappy owner of a copy of the book. Whoop-de-freakin-doo! On a happier note, Kim's making cheesecake. She said that if I'm lucky, she might even cook it. Martin, should I save you a sli... er, a puddle of pie?

Hey all. I thought I'd post now that I'm (more or less) settled down in San Diego. Most of the boxes are put away/unpacked, and I'm getting used to being back down here again. Advantages over the SLO house:

• It's now safe to microwave things without a lead vest.
• I don't have to deal with the annoying birds (though I now have the annoying kids next door).
• If I go into the closet to get clothes and find another person, I can now be justified in the emotion of "surprise".

Regardless, the whole graduation aspect hasn't sunk in yet. I'm sure it will soon (maybe once I find a job!), but right now it feels like any old summer. Anyway, congratulations to everyone on making it this far. Come down and visit me sometime.

"The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." -Lester Bangs, Almost Famous

Yay, I just finished my last final and turned in my last project. I feel like I should say something important or interesting now... but I won't. Now I can sleep.

Theoretically, when you come to the site (with cookies on), all posts that are new since your last visit with have black text, and the rest will be grayed out a bit. Let me know if this seems to work for y'all. The first time you visit after I post this, they'll all be black because the initial cookie will be set then. After that, it should work!

Commenting has now been implemented, so the general public can get in on the fun. My apologies in advance for anything my people may say. ;-) Also, each post has a link below it that can be used to link to specific posts and should work no matter how much the post moves around. Questions/comments/suggestions welcome!

Matt, your highlighting thing is on The List, and I'll see what I can do.

Consider this the first serious rant of the new blog.

I just saw this link [hollywoodhalfwits.com] on another blog. Last week, there was an column in the Mustang Daily entitled "Senate unseals McCarthy manuscripts, who cares?". It basically said the documents are irrelevant because "there are no more communist 'witch hunts' going on today or in the last 45 years..." To me, this is the same thing, different accusation. It frightens me that there are people in the United States that feel blacklisting might be a good idea. Beyond that, I'm amazed at the gall of the makers of that site. If you want to make some lists, knock yourselves out, but don't try to trick me. Morgan Freeman is said to be a Bush supporter based on this article, dated April 30, 2002.

Once I get past my anger, there is also a degree of fascination with the mindset of this part of the population. Moreso than ever before, Americans are living vicariously through their favorite celebrities. Who is marrying, who is breaking up, and what are they wearing while it happens? What shampoo is she using? I must use it too, so I can look like that! Wow, he is in a Burger King commercial? I like Burger King too! You're opposed to the war? Shut up, what do you know?

Wait, what just happened? Since when are celebrities not entitled to opinions? Just like you and I, they have thoughts too. If a reporter asks their feelings, they might share them and have them reported in the media. You don't have to agree, but if we're going to blacklist people just because we don't agree, let me remind you: Many celebrities are morons. Yes, it's true. Why do I buy their movies or CDs? Because they are up on current events? No. Because I like their art. Eminem sold 7,420,840 copies of The Eminem Show in 2002. Are there 7.4 million of us who think he's even of average intelligence? No. Think he's nice? Nope. Think he should shut up? Here's one vote for yes! Regardless, we should buy music for music. Does it help if the artist is nice/smart/funny, etc? Of course it does, but it can't be the only factor. If we start limiting movies to only the "nice actors", Philip Seymour Hoffman just might die of exhaustion.

Then again, I didn't support the war, so what do I know? Add me to the list.

"I'm setting my VCR to tape C-SPAN2 on Sunday." That's right, I'm taping C-SPAN2. On purpose. No, this has nothing to do with Charlie, Animal House, or Mexican wrestling. Even better, this SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY, they're showing the biggest showdown since The Thrilla in Manila. In the left corner, polical humorist Alllllllllllllll Franken! In the right corner (oh wait, he's not conservative. Really. And neither is Fox News!), Bill O'Reiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilly. I hope it's as good as the articles (Fox and USA Today) I've read lead me to believe.

My money is on Franken.

This falls under the "DON'T DO THAT" rule. This is twice I've had to talk to you. Next time, we'll have to call your parents.

Hey hey, don't blame me for this. I just had too much free time, so I spent it creating the site instead of doing something less productive, like having "nightly activities". The inmates have taken over the asylum.

Oh, and Chris? You only get mocked because you're a jerk. ;-)

I'd like to designate this site a Petey-Free Zone.

MoreCooler.com is now officially more cooler with the thing. I think I've gotten all the major kinks out, but let me know if you find any. If you do find one, DON'T DO THAT.

Anyway, use it or lose it... well, use it or get mocked.