Hey!

Sorry for the lack of posting. But don't think that means nothing is going on.

I ended up joining a country/rock/punk band about a month and a half ago and it is taking up a good amount of my time.

More when I actually get time to put my thought together.

I laughtered.

It's supposed to be one vote, right?

Found this video over at Digg.

It shows the Texas State Legislature hard at work voting on bills. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing underhanded going on here. Just business as usual.

In fact, unless you are against elected officials stealing votes to get laws passed is not only illegal, but immoral as well then there's no reason to even click the play button.

To be honest, I'm just glad that they aren't letting any votes go to waste.

[end sarcasm here, start rage]

Definition

terrorism - Definitions from Dictionary.com:
"terrorism [ter-uh-riz-uhm] –noun

1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.

2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.

3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government."

I don't think the majority of the United States fully appreciates the irony of our situation.

What the new iPod Touch needs.

After several hours of just looking at the new Apple iPod Touch on the internet I have come to the conclusion that while the iPod Touch is a giant leap forward, it still could use a little improvement.

First and foremost, the iPod Touch needs a phone.

That's right, a phone.

Apple really messed up on this one. How hard could it have been to just slap a decent cell phone to the back of this thing?

Just imagine being able to listen to music, watch video, surf the net and voice calls all wrapped together into one gorgeous device. Hell, while they're at it, throw in Mail and YouTube. That my friends would be the very definition of innovation.

And think about all the telcos that line up to be the official carrier for this "Apple iPhone". There's got to be millions of dollars in a deal like that.

Now, Apple can keep its head in the sand and keep denying that people would kill for this UberPhone and I'll watch from the sidelines as Apple goes down in flames.

As turns out, at least Nokia is listening to consumers.

That's right, fucking Nokia.

Meh.

66%The Movie Quiz

FilmCritic.com - Movie Reviews

I like chairs! v.2

Thanks for the sage advice on the previous version on this post.

I went to the audition and I feel pretty good about it. I think I have the gig. But then again, he has been pretty fickle in the past.

We'll see.

So, I finally did it...

So I finally got the Epiphone '56 Gold Top Reissue last week.

Initial likes: everything.

Initial dislikes: nothing.

So far this guitar is a winner. The action was seriously screwed up with a major back bow. All kinds notes were fretting out all over the fretboard. Adjusting the truss rod a couple of times and taking the action back down at the bridge turned it in to a real joy to play.

It doesn't play like a $499 guitar, it really feel and sounds like it should cost at least triple.

In my exctiement though, I forgot to order the case!

Going up?

Yeah, so I'm on vacation this week and we'll be spending time in Dallas this week as my wife attends a national convention for romance authors.

So what does this mean? It means that she'll be hanging out with her writer pals and spending most of her waking hours going to meeting and such.

That leaves the boy and I to fend for ourselves; which isn't a bad thing. Instead of being stuck in an estrogen palace we'll be looking at guitars. Dallas is a big guitar town and we plan to hit every music store we can find. This isn't a buying expedition but really more of a sight seeing tour, just looking at big game and dreaming.

While we're in the hotel I plan on trying this hack:


How To Hack An Elevator - Watch more free videos

I remember the first time I learned about elevator's secret presses about 12 years ago at our main library. The combo to get to the basement was "2-B-2-B-2". The way I remembered it was by singing the doo-be-doo-be-doo part in "Strangers in the Night".

39 Ways to Live

Every so often I forget.

Every so often I lose track of what its all about.

So every so often I need to be reminded.

39 Ways to Live, and Not Merely Exist at Dumb Little Man is the reminder I needed. It's all common sense really

Thje only thing that had me wondering was 39. Why 39? Why not a nice even 40? Was 40 a throwaway?

Will I stop asking questions? No. Wait... aw, damn.

BTW, the comic hits it right too.

Nations fall, life goes on.

"Zimbabwe will collapse within six months, possibly leading to a state of emergency."

This scares me. Things like this can spread like a cancer.

Chaos is the natural order of things and we seem bent on letting it have its ways with us.

I sound like where?

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far) Midland ("Midland" is not necessarily the same thing as "Midwest") The default, lowest-common-denominator American accent that newscasters try to imitate. Since it's a neutral accent, just because you have a Midland accent doesn't mean you're from the Midland.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

We got it, you're the President. Now can you quit fucking us over?

This should surprise me, but it doesn't.

Georgie Anne Geyer: A spreading terror | Dallas Morning News:
"Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated 'I am the president!' He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of 'our country's destiny.'"

This scares me for a couple of reasons.

If you have to tell people that you are in charge, then you aren't in charge. That's not how power works. It's like telling people how cool you are; if you are, you don't.

But the part that really bothers me is that he has chosen our destiny and we will be forced to follow it no matter what. What if "We the people" want out of this destiny? I thought we kind of showed that we wanted a change, did you not get the memo?

This newest revalation begs the question: have we ever had a president removed for being crazier than a shithouse rat?

I truly believe that our president dillusional and needs to be removed. But what can we do? Are there protocols for this? Is there a manual in the Whitehouse that plans for this sort of thing?

To be honest though, I don't beleive that he'll leave office after the next election. I think he'll break in his new, self granted emergency dictator powers and it'll take a coup to remove the madman from office.

New Moleskine!

This evening after dinner we went to Borders.

I love going to the bookstore. I always get a buzz off of it. It's not like I've had time to read lately, I just wanted a new book.

Books have weight. Books matter. So even if I'm ignoring a book, at least I'm ignoring something great (hopefully).

On this ocassion though, I wasn't really looking for a book but a new Moleskine.

I love my Moleskine, it is my blank slate, my confidant, my one indulgence. I carry it everywhere and scribble throughout the day. Sometimes notes, sometimes lyric ideas, but lateley I've ebeen sketching. Just simple sketches of the things that surround me. My clock, a speaker, the head light on a truck are in my mole.

But the paper rips easy. So... the sketchbook.

I think I'll still use my personal mole for roughing out ideas, but the new mole will get the finals drafts.

MoveOn.org Political Action: Stop Price Gouging

BREAKING NEWS: GAS PRICES ARE AT AN ALL TIME HIGH!!!

Story breakdown: while you are paying record prices for fuel, oil comapnies are growing fatter with record profits.

So what can you do?

Click on over to MoveOn.org Political Action:
Stop Price Gouging, fill in a couple of blanks and let your government know what you want done.

Enough is enough!

A bill in the House would make gasoline price gouging a federal crime, and it could pass this week!

Can you help be sure it does?

What do you have to lose?

Thanks to Richard for the head's up.

Putting it all into perspective

Sometimes its hard to really know what numbers mean.

Quantities in small numbers are easy. Everybody can imagine the amount in a six pack. Even a baker's doezen isn't hard, but how about a gross? Can you really imagine what a gross of anything looks like?

No, me either.

So a round of thanks needs to go to Chris Jordan. He was kind enough to put a few numbers into perspective for us.

So maybe I still have a chance for FCKBSH. Hmmm...

Good news.

Heather Moriah gets to keep her South Dakota license plates the read "MPEACHW". This is pretty damn cool. I really expected that they'd show up at her house and pry the plates off her car.

Two things bother me though.

I wonder why they changed their minds and I wonder how long it'll take before some good old boy shoots her windows out?

36 0D C2 EC 52 86 1E EC 05 39 66 B6 2D 35 E1 0B

Thanks to Freedom to Tinker I now have my own 128-bit integer! And if I catch anybody using it I'm gonna sue ur azzez!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about click here.

MPEACHW

7 letters.

That's all it took to cause touble for Heather Moriah.

The letters in question are "MPEACHW" which are located on her personalized South Dakota license plates. The trouble is that after a single complaint the SD DMV want her plates back. DMVs typically have a list of offensive letter and number combinations that they won't allow to appear on plates but they're usually more offensive in nature. Things like "3M TA3" and "N05H1T" are on the red list and get refused right away, but since "MPEACHW" is a little harder to decode for anyone below a 2nd grade reading level it got through the system.

Here's where things get sticky: South Dakota wants the plates back, Heather wants to keep her plates. Heather says that her plates should be protected under freedom of speech. South Dakota thinks that the plates are offensive and that since the plates are owned by the state, they think that some may see some sort of state endorsement of her views.

Here's the best part, if Heather doesn't return them willingly the state will be forced to send law enforcement to get the plates from her.

See? Trouble.

Here's how I see it. Since the state issues and own the plates they can at any time revoke the license to the plates and ask for their return. IMO Heather should just return the plates and get the free replacements that South Dakota is offering.

Now before you get all mad and question my beliefs, I WHOLEHEARTEDLY SUPPORT THE MESSAGE, but the medium is wrong. Allowing her to have "MPEACHW" on her plates does in fact imply some sort of state endorsment. However, if she were to have the same plate in Vermont then all'd be cool.

The biggest problem I have with the whole story is that some fucking prig without a life even bothered to called and complained to the south Dakota DMV in the first place.

that person needs to be shot.

One day, I'm not going to learn how to play drums and piano.

I said what?

Don't you hate when somebody uses your own words against you? I try not to be put in that position, but sometimes it happens, especially if you have a teenager.

Think Progress was able to dig up this nugget from the June 5, 1999 Scripps Howard/Seattle Post-Intelligencer where then Texas Governor George W. Bush said:

I think it’s also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn.

I'm sorry, what?

Time-whatle?

Now, if only someone in big media could grow some balls and call him on it. What could he say? He'd hem and haw but he would know that he'd been stuck.

What's scares me with this guy is that he's going OJ on us. He really believes the shit he's feeding us.

And so it appears do a good majority of the forces fighting in Iraq.

Zogby International published the findings of a poll conducted with Le Moyne College’s Center for Peace and Global Studies and the findings are troubling.

Almost 90% of the troops polled believe they are in Iraq because of Saddam's hand in 9/11. That's right, even though we know who planned and committed 9/11 they beleive Saddam is to blame. I wonder where they're getting this info from. Are they being told this in the feild?

Again, this is something that big media should be looking into, but they're too busy collecting Murrow Awards.

Savenetradio.org

If you're like me (and of course, you are) you grew up with radio. Before corporate radio I used to love listening to all of the different kinds of music I could find on the FM dial. With just a quarter turn of the dial you could go from listening to Asleep at the Wheel to Rachmaninoff.

Those days of course are gone.

But I still get the same experience from internet radio... at least for now.

To make the story short, internet radio's royalty costs have been raised between 300 to 1200%. These outrageous rates will kill internet radio.

But there is hope...

The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on May 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). If the increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date. Internet radio needs your help! H.R. 2060, The Internet Radio Equality Act was introduced by Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL ) to save the Internet radio industry. Please call your congressperson to ask them to co-sponsor H.R. 2060

So please head over to Savenetradio.org and join the fight to keep internet radio alive.

So, I searched for Jesus Christ...

And found that there are 6 adults with the name "Jesus Christ" living in the U.S.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 6 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

What the fuck were their parents thinking?

YOU HAD 9 MONTHS TO COME UP WITH ANOTHER NAME AND YOU WENT WITH THE FIRST NAME THAT POPPED INTO YOUR MIND?

I checked my name and found that they could only find 1 with my name. I wonder if it's me or one of the other 2 guys with my name?

BTW, I checked. There are currently no "Adolph Hitler"s living in the U.S.

Moleskine Hard Drive Geekery

After becoming infactuated with my Moleskine a couple of months back I've searched for others who share the same illness.

My latest find is an entry on the zonageek: blog.

Imagine my joy... no, my utter elation at finding instructions on how to build The Geekster Moleskine, a portable hard drive encased in a Moleskine! Oh my, this is the perfect marriage of tech and that big word I used a few posts back!

All I need is that Moleskine hard drive and a Steampunk Keyboard and I'll be set.

I swear.

If only there was some way to watch TV shows on the internet...

TV Links has a bunch, and I mean a bunch links to television shows for you to watch from the comfort of your internet browser.

Grey's Anatomy?

Yup.

Battlestar Galactica?

Uh huh. The new one and the original, though thankfully not Galactica 1980.

In fact, with the eclectic collection of links there's gotta be something for almost any taste.

I can't imagine that it'll be around too much longer so click while you can.

One day, when I'm creative...

Jim Woodring is a right bastard, he is. Trust me on this.

Fine! See for yourselves!

This jerk has combined my 2 fave things: pop-up books and moleskine notebooks into one great activity.

GRRR!!! Why is he doing this? Is he trying to make look and feel bad? ;-)

Anyway, stop by and look. It's cool.

Hidden message

To the woman I almost met with my car...

That thing you blew by on the access road as I was exiting the highway is called a Yield Sign.

It lets you know that you need to yield to traffic exiting the highway. If the powers that be had wanted you to merge at that point in the roads they would have placed a Merge Sign at that location instead of the aforementioned Yield Sign. Actually, a Merge Sign might have forced you to acknowledge the cars coming off the highway.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you have no idea how close that Yield Sign was the last thing you didn't see in your life.

Maybe though in the future you will.

The Top 7 or so Austin Punk Videos I could find with very little work.

After finding the show flyer in my last post I went scrounging YouTube to see what I could find. There wasn't that much but I did manage to find some old stuff and some reunion stuff.

This is some of the music and people who bent me into what I am.


Big Boys - Live / Austin TX punk, 'Funk Off' / 'Baby, Let's Play God


Big Boys - Live / Perkins Palace, Pasadena CA


The Huns (live in Austin, TX 1979)


The Huns (live in Austin, TX 1979) Pt 2


POISON 13 at Emos, Austin, Texas, Feb. 24, 2006


The Delinquents - Do you have a Job for a Girl like me?


The Dicks @ 710 Club

Notice

I wonder if this was written by a model or the gamesman?

Either way...

>insert title here<

filed under:Punk and Austin


I was poking around teh internts and I came across this flyer. I love old punk flyers. They never look the same, sometimes with multiple designs for single gigs and there's always something that grabs your attention. In this case it was "Missile sandwich" because I remembered it.

This is a poster for a big rock show that took place on 9/4/81. The 3 headliners were pretty damn good. If I remember correctly, this was a gig for the MDA. While Jerry Lewis was doing his thing in Vegas on the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon these bands put on a show and all the profits went to the MDA.

The Big Boys may have been the best band on the planet. They headlined because nobody could touch them. They were the first skate-punk band that often toured with a funk horn section. Great stuff.

The Dick Gas 5 were a just barely contained explosion. Mixing noise with more noise and a beat poet adlibber their sonic collage would assault you, take your wallet and leave you wondering why your pants were around your ankles. a couple of weeks later they changed their name to Butthole Surfers.

the rejects was my band. Denise was 18, Mark and I were 16. We were kids.

What surprised me about finding this flyer is that somebody actually saved it. My mom doesn't even have it.

So yeah... something, something, something.

3/14

My Visual DNA

Read my VisualDNA™     Get your own VisualDNA™

So, I got this going for me...

Now with pretentiousness! Yum!

I finally broke down.

After years of hemming and/or hawing, I have finally purchased a Moleskine.

For those who don't know, a Moleskine is one of those (mostly) little black notebooks with the elastic strap that artists, writers and other creative types use to jot down ideas and whatnot.

Allegedly.

Anyway, I've always been enamored with them. There's something about them that suggests they carry content of weight, that whatever is written inside their black covers matter. I think part of it is that I've always prefered to write with a fountain pen because it felt like it lent weight to what I was scribbling, like I was creating.

Quality in anything comes at a price, so after passing by them in the stores for years I finally made my purchase.

Almost at once I started wondering what was hidden inside for my pencil (until I find the right pen) to uncover.

I've already used 4 pages just on random things, but it feels like I've found a muse.


UPDATE:

I found THIS after looking for some tips. HAH!

Here's a cool FlickR stream.

Oh yeah..

Uhm... I kinda forgot that I had this place.

I swear I'll post some sort of update soon after I unlazy myself.

I swear.

If this had been an actual post...

filed under:Meme and Queen

I'm 'Any way the wind blows'!

Which Line from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody Are You?

Found at Electronic Ephemera. Thanks again Richard!

Live Macworld Keynote Links

filed under:Macworld and Apple


Yeah, if you're an Apple fan you're probably going to be paying attention to what goes down Tuesday morning during Jobs' Macworld Keynote speech. This is where he throws out all the cool stuff and "one more thing" that Apple's been working on.

Anyway, here're some links to "live" feeds of Jobs' speech.


www.macrumorslive.com

http://arstechnica.com

live.macobserver.com

dailytechtalk.com

uneasysilence.com

www.worldofapplelive.com

Listen

filed under: rock and roll, guitar, home studio and DIY

My son's band recorded in our living room on New Year's Eve.

It sounded like this.

Happy New Year!

Enjoy this picture of an Gold Top Epiphone Les Paul!