Hello all. I guess I'm now convinced that this is a good way to keep in touch. I won't be able to post much until I get my new computer, but I'll be able to pop on from time to time. It'd be nice if I could get my name in the little e-mail list on the sidebar, but I guess admin privileges might be asking a little much for one so new at this sport. (Of course its asking too much! If you had adminstrative priviledges you could do things like this -NJS)
Speaking of sports, we're watching the All-Star homerun derby now. What a silly affair.
Time to go play the piano, or something. Later.
08 July 2002
Why Nat Hopes That Heaven (or Hell) Isn't Controlled By Geese
The geese of the Boston area probably don't like me very much. They're pretty slow birds, being so big, and so sometimes they have difficulty getting out of the way of crew boats. On several occasions I distinctly remember smacking a goose with my oar, though I don't believe any of the blows were fatal. So, I sort of believed that geese were rather annoyed at me for participating in a sport that inconvenienced them greatly and caused them bodily injury from time to time.
Then came yesterday.
While camping at Heron Lake, a man-made recreational park and reservoir in northern New Mexico, Almea and I went running with my goofy-looking dog, Griffy. The official park rules are to keep dogs on a leash at all times, but on runs we took him off the leash so he could dart about as he pleased -- we believed this made things more interesting to him. Yesterday morning, on one strech of shore, he spotted a flock of Canada geese. He ran after them, but they saw him from a good distance and had plenty of time to get away. They needed a lot of time because their general strategy was to glide down towards the water, which I guess they thought would get them away from land-borne predators but which wasn't as speedy as, say, flying away in the opposite direction from the predator. Well, once Griffy got to the spot where the geese were, they were all in the lake; but right around a bend there was another flock of geese chilling out on the shore, and this time Griffy was between them and the lake. They started flapping and gliding down to the water, and he just plucked one out of midair as Almea and I looked on helplessly (we were maybe 50 feet away at this point). The goose, which was well over half Griffy's size, immediately went limp as it hung from his jaws. We started calling to him but of course he didn't want us to take his prize away, so he didn't come. So, we did the next best thing: run away from him. And, I'm proud to say that his domesticated instincts forced him to drop the goose and run towards us. We don't know if he killed the bird; we didn't go back to check. But all I know is that those geese can't be too pleased about me introducing a foreign predator into their lives. Sorry, geese -- I'll keep him on a leash next time. And I'll pass on the pate de foie gras the next time I'm in France.
The geese of the Boston area probably don't like me very much. They're pretty slow birds, being so big, and so sometimes they have difficulty getting out of the way of crew boats. On several occasions I distinctly remember smacking a goose with my oar, though I don't believe any of the blows were fatal. So, I sort of believed that geese were rather annoyed at me for participating in a sport that inconvenienced them greatly and caused them bodily injury from time to time.
Then came yesterday.
While camping at Heron Lake, a man-made recreational park and reservoir in northern New Mexico, Almea and I went running with my goofy-looking dog, Griffy. The official park rules are to keep dogs on a leash at all times, but on runs we took him off the leash so he could dart about as he pleased -- we believed this made things more interesting to him. Yesterday morning, on one strech of shore, he spotted a flock of Canada geese. He ran after them, but they saw him from a good distance and had plenty of time to get away. They needed a lot of time because their general strategy was to glide down towards the water, which I guess they thought would get them away from land-borne predators but which wasn't as speedy as, say, flying away in the opposite direction from the predator. Well, once Griffy got to the spot where the geese were, they were all in the lake; but right around a bend there was another flock of geese chilling out on the shore, and this time Griffy was between them and the lake. They started flapping and gliding down to the water, and he just plucked one out of midair as Almea and I looked on helplessly (we were maybe 50 feet away at this point). The goose, which was well over half Griffy's size, immediately went limp as it hung from his jaws. We started calling to him but of course he didn't want us to take his prize away, so he didn't come. So, we did the next best thing: run away from him. And, I'm proud to say that his domesticated instincts forced him to drop the goose and run towards us. We don't know if he killed the bird; we didn't go back to check. But all I know is that those geese can't be too pleased about me introducing a foreign predator into their lives. Sorry, geese -- I'll keep him on a leash next time. And I'll pass on the pate de foie gras the next time I'm in France.
06 July 2002
04 July 2002
Sorry I've been inactive for a while. One phone line cuts down on available internet time. I won last year's strat World Series (we had to play it this summer instead of last fall on account of me being away at school) in six games thanks to some great pitching by Pedro Martinez and three Carlos Delgado homeruns.
What I'm spending most of my time doing, however, is working on our storage shed, which is coming along quite well despite the fact that I'm as useful with a hammer as my dog. Well, ok, I'm not that useless, but Jon is like Bob Vila on steroids and it makes me look bad by comparison. I've learned all the ins and outs of Home Depot (you have to aggressive and get the straight pieces of wood -- otherwise you'll get stuck with the warped ones) and all the neighbors are coming by inspecting the site (they seem surprised when it appears as though we're not doing things horribly wrong).
I'm going camping this weekend with Almea -- camping isn't as easy a proposition this year because most national forests and state parks are closed due to extreme fire danger. I'm expecting the ones that are open to be jam packed. They're even taking reservations at campsites, something I couldn't have imagined a couple of years ago. At least I have my reservations.
Noah, you're forgetting a vital function of the DC public school system: to provide administrative patronage jobs. If the district has to trim down, how are those poor politicians going to reward their friends and relatives?
Also, what do you folks think of the Pledge of Allegiance decision? This reminds me of the Confederate Flag controversy (albeit not as ugly or offensive) in the sense that this is a symbol that wasn't a part of the original pledge but which people are now clinging to as some vital part of their being. I agree with the reasoning that religious symbolism in official government oaths and whatnot are a problem if we really want a separation of church and state, and furthermore I think that "under god" screws up the rhythm of the pledge anyway.
What I'm spending most of my time doing, however, is working on our storage shed, which is coming along quite well despite the fact that I'm as useful with a hammer as my dog. Well, ok, I'm not that useless, but Jon is like Bob Vila on steroids and it makes me look bad by comparison. I've learned all the ins and outs of Home Depot (you have to aggressive and get the straight pieces of wood -- otherwise you'll get stuck with the warped ones) and all the neighbors are coming by inspecting the site (they seem surprised when it appears as though we're not doing things horribly wrong).
I'm going camping this weekend with Almea -- camping isn't as easy a proposition this year because most national forests and state parks are closed due to extreme fire danger. I'm expecting the ones that are open to be jam packed. They're even taking reservations at campsites, something I couldn't have imagined a couple of years ago. At least I have my reservations.
Noah, you're forgetting a vital function of the DC public school system: to provide administrative patronage jobs. If the district has to trim down, how are those poor politicians going to reward their friends and relatives?
Also, what do you folks think of the Pledge of Allegiance decision? This reminds me of the Confederate Flag controversy (albeit not as ugly or offensive) in the sense that this is a symbol that wasn't a part of the original pledge but which people are now clinging to as some vital part of their being. I agree with the reasoning that religious symbolism in official government oaths and whatnot are a problem if we really want a separation of church and state, and furthermore I think that "under god" screws up the rhythm of the pledge anyway.
03 July 2002
Everything you wanted to know about stealing home.
I once did that back when i was about 13 or so. We weren't allowed to lead until after the pitch was thrown, but you could still do the get a big lead right after the pitch and then go when the catcher throws to the pitcher. It was one of the most fun moments of my sports carear.
I once did that back when i was about 13 or so. We weren't allowed to lead until after the pitch was thrown, but you could still do the get a big lead right after the pitch and then go when the catcher throws to the pitcher. It was one of the most fun moments of my sports carear.
02 July 2002
Hey everyone...
There's a rather interesting, but extremely long, article on Europe by Joe Klein in Slate. (Ack, I fortunately corrected 5 minutes later, my misnaming him "Joel Klein" who if i remember correctly worked doing antitrust for the Clinton Justice Dept.) Here's the link. Its about as long as something can be and still be called an article, its almost closer to a book...
Speaking of books, I'm reading about one a day, and I just finished Nabokov's "Speak, Memory" which is amazing and I highly recommend. He's not only a brilliant writer, he lived a fascinating life, and this is about as good an autobiography as I've ever read (can't really think what would come close). Furthermore it fulfills the niche of "Book by Nabokov Which I Can Recommend To Anyone (e.g. my mother)" which Lolita obviously dosen't fulfill despite its brilliance, and I just didn't like Pale Fire so much (sorry Alec, speaking of sorry Alec, I didn't terribly like "Foucault's Pendulum" despite absolutely loving "The Name of the Rose").
The one bad thing about reading "Speak, Memory" is that when compared to Nabokov, I seem rather boring. I currently don't have any obsessions on par with his butterfly catching, or even chess problem composing, and I don't know 4 languages, etc. Ah well...
Back to the internet... The Volokh Conspiracy has finally released the results of their survey on homonyms. Here's what they found.
Lastly, as you all know I've become a supreme court junkie, and I'm rather strongly in support of school choice, thus last weeks supreme court decision was a rather joyful day... Read the opinion here. I would be particularly interested to have your take on the Thomas concurring opinion, as well as the whole issue in general.
I definitely think that voucher programs in general are not unconstitutional, and I tend to agree with the majority opinion on this one. However, I do think the "$2,500 isn't enought to educate kids unless your teachers take a vow of poverty"-argument has merit, and I could definitely agree with an opinion that said the money would have to be more for it to be constitutional. However, the desenting opinions do not seem to rely on this argument.
Speaking of school choice, I looked up today the funding per student state-by-state. Here's a link. (Sorry, its USAtoday, but CNN didn't have the nice table.) Now, this info is a couple years out of date, and funding has changed in a lot of cases (Laura tells me Oregon's has decreased steeply in the past two years), but on the whole nationally it probably still gives a decent picture... We need to keep in mind that this is averaged over the state and so poor districts get a lot less. Nonetheless, look at DC, they spend nearly $10,000/student, and have a miserably failing school system. For $10,000/student, you can have classes of 10, pay a teacher $70,000 and still have leftover $30,000 for overhead. Now I guess building expenses are part of that, but still... I just do not understand it. It seems in DC at least that private schools would almost have to be able to do a better job with those funds...
I definitely think that school choice is not an excuse for actually making better public schools, however I also think that the ability to give your children a good education is something which poor people should have, and giving them more flexibility is nonetheless a good thing.
There's a rather interesting, but extremely long, article on Europe by Joe Klein in Slate. (Ack, I fortunately corrected 5 minutes later, my misnaming him "Joel Klein" who if i remember correctly worked doing antitrust for the Clinton Justice Dept.) Here's the link. Its about as long as something can be and still be called an article, its almost closer to a book...
Speaking of books, I'm reading about one a day, and I just finished Nabokov's "Speak, Memory" which is amazing and I highly recommend. He's not only a brilliant writer, he lived a fascinating life, and this is about as good an autobiography as I've ever read (can't really think what would come close). Furthermore it fulfills the niche of "Book by Nabokov Which I Can Recommend To Anyone (e.g. my mother)" which Lolita obviously dosen't fulfill despite its brilliance, and I just didn't like Pale Fire so much (sorry Alec, speaking of sorry Alec, I didn't terribly like "Foucault's Pendulum" despite absolutely loving "The Name of the Rose").
The one bad thing about reading "Speak, Memory" is that when compared to Nabokov, I seem rather boring. I currently don't have any obsessions on par with his butterfly catching, or even chess problem composing, and I don't know 4 languages, etc. Ah well...
Back to the internet... The Volokh Conspiracy has finally released the results of their survey on homonyms. Here's what they found.
Lastly, as you all know I've become a supreme court junkie, and I'm rather strongly in support of school choice, thus last weeks supreme court decision was a rather joyful day... Read the opinion here. I would be particularly interested to have your take on the Thomas concurring opinion, as well as the whole issue in general.
I definitely think that voucher programs in general are not unconstitutional, and I tend to agree with the majority opinion on this one. However, I do think the "$2,500 isn't enought to educate kids unless your teachers take a vow of poverty"-argument has merit, and I could definitely agree with an opinion that said the money would have to be more for it to be constitutional. However, the desenting opinions do not seem to rely on this argument.
Speaking of school choice, I looked up today the funding per student state-by-state. Here's a link. (Sorry, its USAtoday, but CNN didn't have the nice table.) Now, this info is a couple years out of date, and funding has changed in a lot of cases (Laura tells me Oregon's has decreased steeply in the past two years), but on the whole nationally it probably still gives a decent picture... We need to keep in mind that this is averaged over the state and so poor districts get a lot less. Nonetheless, look at DC, they spend nearly $10,000/student, and have a miserably failing school system. For $10,000/student, you can have classes of 10, pay a teacher $70,000 and still have leftover $30,000 for overhead. Now I guess building expenses are part of that, but still... I just do not understand it. It seems in DC at least that private schools would almost have to be able to do a better job with those funds...
I definitely think that school choice is not an excuse for actually making better public schools, however I also think that the ability to give your children a good education is something which poor people should have, and giving them more flexibility is nonetheless a good thing.
Just wanted to say a brief hello from New York. I'm currently in the computer room of the New York Public Library's Science and Industry branch on 33rd and Madison, which is where I've been accessing the Internet these days. (You need to sign up for a one-hour time slot, and usually it's a pretty long wait.) My routine this week has been rather fixed: get up around 10, get the breakfast special at Zorba's, take the subway to Union Square and look at magazines in the big Barnes and Noble there for a few hours. Then, after I've gotten the names of the human resources directors for various publications, I walk twenty blocks to the library to work on my cover letters, do research online, and basically read job hunting books and fret. Tomorrow I think I'll finally print out twelve or so resumes and send 'em out. It's not a bad life: basically I'm doing all the legwork now, so I can relax for the July 4th weekend and beyond. But because my bank account doesn't activate for another 10 days, I've got exactly $200 dollars in cash to live on between now and July 17th. Which means I can't buy a bed. Haiwen has suggested that I get a $10 air mattress for the interim. Maybe he's right....
Anyway, it's been a weird couple of days. My life is definitely undergoing a sea change....
Anyway, it's been a weird couple of days. My life is definitely undergoing a sea change....
01 July 2002
Apparently Alec wasn't imagining the phrase "sea change":
"Most importantly, I think Williams could be a sea change for Chicago; the kid actually wants to play for the Bulls."
--espn.com article
"Most importantly, I think Williams could be a sea change for Chicago; the kid actually wants to play for the Bulls."
--espn.com article
28 June 2002
26 June 2002
So I'm off to New York tomorrow. Until I get my internet situation straightened out, I probably won't be posting again for a while, so further discussion of Minority Report (which I saw for the third time today, thus maintaining my Tom Cruise streak) will have to be postponed.
God, I'm nervous about this whole thing. I need to find a job....
God, I'm nervous about this whole thing. I need to find a job....
I agree that multiple Radiohead albums should have been way up there. I think the "Album" part of the radio station's description doesn't mean what we think it should mean. They try to play a greater variety of songs off of hit albums (i.e. not just the 2 hit singles), but they don't play songs off of albums that don't have hit singles. That said, I'm still not sure why Radiohead wasn't selected.
I saw MR again last night and I'm afraid to say that Agatha is wholly incapable of masterminding everything. Her "gift" is pretty imperfect -- I think she can only see a little bit in advance when it's not murder. That's why she doesn't warn John that PreCrime cops are coming to get him at his wife's place until they're already there. And the simplest explanation of her behavior at the hotel is that she thinks he's going to murder Leo Crow. I think it's more plausible that Burgess sets up the murder 36 hours in advance fully expecting John to get arrested by PreCrime and get safely put away. John went to Burgess right after the Ann Lively discovery in containment, and so I think Burgess developed the idea to kill John right after that meeting.
I saw MR again last night and I'm afraid to say that Agatha is wholly incapable of masterminding everything. Her "gift" is pretty imperfect -- I think she can only see a little bit in advance when it's not murder. That's why she doesn't warn John that PreCrime cops are coming to get him at his wife's place until they're already there. And the simplest explanation of her behavior at the hotel is that she thinks he's going to murder Leo Crow. I think it's more plausible that Burgess sets up the murder 36 hours in advance fully expecting John to get arrested by PreCrime and get safely put away. John went to Burgess right after the Ann Lively discovery in containment, and so I think Burgess developed the idea to kill John right after that meeting.
25 June 2002
Speaking of Radiohead and Tom Cruise movies, i've been reunited with my cd alarm clock, and after waking up to "a beautiful day" for several months i figured i needed a change (before that it was the beta band song off the Hi-Fi soundtrack) and so the last two days i tried "everything in its right place"... it has a surprisingly soothing opening few bars and is a pleasure to wake up to, although it does make me worry that something terrible will happen as a result of my listening to it...
Incidentally you guys are underestimating the power which Agatha has with her ability to see the future. She knows what the outcome of her telling him to "run" is, that is its not going to stop him. Keep in mind, she needs him to meet Leo Crow, BUT she also needs him to not immediately kill him. To do this she must tread the line between discorouging him too much and not enough. Since she can see the future she can more easily adjust her actions to mantaining this delicate balance. This is why she tells him to run, why she fosters his confidence in her, while also convincing him that the future can in fact be changed.
Incidentally you guys are underestimating the power which Agatha has with her ability to see the future. She knows what the outcome of her telling him to "run" is, that is its not going to stop him. Keep in mind, she needs him to meet Leo Crow, BUT she also needs him to not immediately kill him. To do this she must tread the line between discorouging him too much and not enough. Since she can see the future she can more easily adjust her actions to mantaining this delicate balance. This is why she tells him to run, why she fosters his confidence in her, while also convincing him that the future can in fact be changed.
My local "Adult Album Rock" (???) radio station had a listener poll of the top 103 albums. I was surprised at the diversity, though there's definitely a modern slant to it, as witnessed by the absence of classic albums (Beatles, Pink Floyd) and the great showing by grunge bands and stuff that's come out in the last 10 years in general. I definitely don't know about Alanis being #2, but I can't argue with #1. The order of the U2 albums was odd (at least to me) -- #1 Joshua Tree, #11 War, #33 ATYCLB, #43 Achtung, #80-something Unforgettable Fire. Achtung deserved top 10, in my opinion -- it's a lot better than War, which only has a couple of really good songs.
(if you can't read the top 5 that's because they came out today. The website will be updated soon, I imagine.)
(if you can't read the top 5 that's because they came out today. The website will be updated soon, I imagine.)
More Minority Report spoilers:
Hmmm, I rather like Noah's explanation. It would go a long way towards resolving another apparent implausibility in the plot: Why didn't Agatha's flashbacks to her mother's death reveal Burgess's face until the very end? Or why didn't she simply tell Anderton who the killer was? Because she didn't want to reveal the killer's identity until she was assured of enough witnesses to end Pre-Crime for good!
We should write Roger Ebert about this, seriously.
Hmmm, I rather like Noah's explanation. It would go a long way towards resolving another apparent implausibility in the plot: Why didn't Agatha's flashbacks to her mother's death reveal Burgess's face until the very end? Or why didn't she simply tell Anderton who the killer was? Because she didn't want to reveal the killer's identity until she was assured of enough witnesses to end Pre-Crime for good!
We should write Roger Ebert about this, seriously.
24 June 2002
AGAIN MINORITY REPORT SPOILERS:
so... I still think they should have ended it with the arrest. I think you still know that the system is wrong and can happily guess that something will happen to get rid of it...
I think you guys are missing the important key to alec's supposed plot hole, and i'm surprised Nat "kissinger was deep throat" Chakeres didn't come up with it himself... What happens at the end of the movie? What's the final result? The supposedly innocent "pre-cogs" are set free and left to live an idyllic government funded life in a beautiful cabin. So let me ask, who has something to gain from this whole series of events? Follow the money... I'm telling you its the precogs. Agatha set up the whole vision thing. She can see the future (they tell you at the beginning its just murders, but as the movie goes on you see that's a lie that's been propogated by the vast precog conspiracy). She knows that Burgess is trying to set up Anderton. She fakes the vision. Don't put it past her, she is "the leader" of the precogs... Follow the money, Agatha sets up the whole thing, and gets all the benefits...
so... I still think they should have ended it with the arrest. I think you still know that the system is wrong and can happily guess that something will happen to get rid of it...
I think you guys are missing the important key to alec's supposed plot hole, and i'm surprised Nat "kissinger was deep throat" Chakeres didn't come up with it himself... What happens at the end of the movie? What's the final result? The supposedly innocent "pre-cogs" are set free and left to live an idyllic government funded life in a beautiful cabin. So let me ask, who has something to gain from this whole series of events? Follow the money... I'm telling you its the precogs. Agatha set up the whole vision thing. She can see the future (they tell you at the beginning its just murders, but as the movie goes on you see that's a lie that's been propogated by the vast precog conspiracy). She knows that Burgess is trying to set up Anderton. She fakes the vision. Don't put it past her, she is "the leader" of the precogs... Follow the money, Agatha sets up the whole thing, and gets all the benefits...
From today's imdb.com: Portman's Lesbian Lust. "Sensual Star Wars babe Natalie Portman has feelings for other women. The stunning actress who plays Senator Amidala in Attack of the Clones annouced that, although she has never explored her lesbian fantasies, she would not rule it out. The sexy stunner, who once dated Moby, claimed that although her personality is more compatible with men she wouldn't want to close herself off to girl only action. She says, 'I've never dated a woman or anything like it. But I think it's much more the person that you fall in love with and why would you close yourself off to 50-percent of people?'"
I have no idea why this caught my eye.
I have no idea why this caught my eye.
Uhh, I think everyone who is active on the blog has seen the movie, so I'm just gonna give my thoughts on Alec's question (which had occured to me as well):
My little brother's explanation of this problem was that maybe Burgess developed concrete plans to lead Anderton to the hotel room. Had these plans been carried out, then Anderton would have killed the guy -- but it turns out that they are unneccessary because Anderton decides to go find the guy anyway (and Agatha sorta gives him directions to get there). Still seems kinda floppy, but that's the best we could think of. As for what those plans might be, maybe dropping Anderton some note saying "I have your son" and giving him the room number in the hotel would be sufficient.
I had a couple of other minor questions that might be answered if I saw it again, such as: why doesn't the eye surgeon do something horrible to him? How does his wife get his eye? I also agree that they could have been more subtle about the scene where his wife finds out -- I mean, she doesn't even need to find out right then, she can just be really suspicious and then go get Anderton.
As for Noah's question regarding the ending, at first I thought it could have ended either where he starts to arrest Crow or where he shoots him -- but if it had ended with him shooting him, we would have been really confused as to why he had been set up (since we would have known that he had been set up). If it had ended with the arrest, I think we would have been dissatisfied because precrime would have continued and we already know that there's something very wrong with it.
My little brother's explanation of this problem was that maybe Burgess developed concrete plans to lead Anderton to the hotel room. Had these plans been carried out, then Anderton would have killed the guy -- but it turns out that they are unneccessary because Anderton decides to go find the guy anyway (and Agatha sorta gives him directions to get there). Still seems kinda floppy, but that's the best we could think of. As for what those plans might be, maybe dropping Anderton some note saying "I have your son" and giving him the room number in the hotel would be sufficient.
I had a couple of other minor questions that might be answered if I saw it again, such as: why doesn't the eye surgeon do something horrible to him? How does his wife get his eye? I also agree that they could have been more subtle about the scene where his wife finds out -- I mean, she doesn't even need to find out right then, she can just be really suspicious and then go get Anderton.
As for Noah's question regarding the ending, at first I thought it could have ended either where he starts to arrest Crow or where he shoots him -- but if it had ended with him shooting him, we would have been really confused as to why he had been set up (since we would have known that he had been set up). If it had ended with the arrest, I think we would have been dissatisfied because precrime would have continued and we already know that there's something very wrong with it.
So here's my question. Scroll your mouse over to read:
The movie's plot hinges upon the fact that Lamar Burgess (Max Von Sydow), John Anderton's boss, frames Anderton by paying a criminal to pose as his son's kidnapper. My question is, after recruiting the guy and setting him up in that hotel room, how could Burgess be sure that Anderton would find him and kill him? Anderton is led to that hotel based solely upon the material from Agatha's psychic vision, and is given no other information about the case. Burgess seems to be making a pretty big assumption if he figures that simply hiring an impostor will affect the future enough to lead to a vision in one of the pre-cogs, in the absence of any other clues that might lead Anderton in the desired direction.
Anyway, that's my one objection. By the way, that "scroll over to read" thing is pretty cool, huh? Check out the source code to see how I did it.
The movie's plot hinges upon the fact that Lamar Burgess (Max Von Sydow), John Anderton's boss, frames Anderton by paying a criminal to pose as his son's kidnapper. My question is, after recruiting the guy and setting him up in that hotel room, how could Burgess be sure that Anderton would find him and kill him? Anderton is led to that hotel based solely upon the material from Agatha's psychic vision, and is given no other information about the case. Burgess seems to be making a pretty big assumption if he figures that simply hiring an impostor will affect the future enough to lead to a vision in one of the pre-cogs, in the absence of any other clues that might lead Anderton in the desired direction.
Anyway, that's my one objection. By the way, that "scroll over to read" thing is pretty cool, huh? Check out the source code to see how I did it.
Stephen Jay Gould must be rolling over in his grave: baseball historian claims that DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak was a fraud. File this along with South Korean World Cup conspiracy theories....
23 June 2002
So I've seen Minority Report twice now (gotta keep my streak going...), and I've been thinking about Noah's question, as to whether it ends in the right place. I'll try to keep this discussion spoiler-free, but you've been warned!
On the one hand, I'm glad that the film moves beyond its first possible ending, if only because I wouldn't have missed that L.A. Confidential-type moment of recognition for the world. (You know the scene I'm talking about....) On the other hand, as a whole, I don't think the last twenty minutes really work: the resolution of the murder plot is ingenious, in its own way, but more appropriate to a routine thriller than the kind of movie Minority Report showed promise of becoming. (Think of the scene where Cruise's wife figures out what's going on: as the reviewer on Slate observes, that kind of slip-up would be more appropriate to an old episode of Murder She Wrote.) However, my opinion may change over time: I once felt the same way about the ending of L.A. Confidential, after all, and these days I find very little to argue with in that particular movie. And I can think of no higher praise than to say that Minority Report ranks with L.A. Confidential as one of the most technically accomplished studio films I've ever seen.
There are a bunch of small implausibilities in Minority Report's plot, of course, although the movie is so wonderfully polished and assembled that it seems almost unfair to quibble. There is, however, one major hole in the story that has been bothering me for a while and which, based on my second viewing, doesn't seem to have a solution. Since it involves giving the ending away, however, I think I'll hold off until I know we've all seen it, or until I can figure out a way of explaining the problem in a non-revealing fashion.
On the one hand, I'm glad that the film moves beyond its first possible ending, if only because I wouldn't have missed that L.A. Confidential-type moment of recognition for the world. (You know the scene I'm talking about....) On the other hand, as a whole, I don't think the last twenty minutes really work: the resolution of the murder plot is ingenious, in its own way, but more appropriate to a routine thriller than the kind of movie Minority Report showed promise of becoming. (Think of the scene where Cruise's wife figures out what's going on: as the reviewer on Slate observes, that kind of slip-up would be more appropriate to an old episode of Murder She Wrote.) However, my opinion may change over time: I once felt the same way about the ending of L.A. Confidential, after all, and these days I find very little to argue with in that particular movie. And I can think of no higher praise than to say that Minority Report ranks with L.A. Confidential as one of the most technically accomplished studio films I've ever seen.
There are a bunch of small implausibilities in Minority Report's plot, of course, although the movie is so wonderfully polished and assembled that it seems almost unfair to quibble. There is, however, one major hole in the story that has been bothering me for a while and which, based on my second viewing, doesn't seem to have a solution. Since it involves giving the ending away, however, I think I'll hold off until I know we've all seen it, or until I can figure out a way of explaining the problem in a non-revealing fashion.
22 June 2002
And here's a result that not even Pre-Crime itself might have been able to predict: according to Box Office Guru, it looks as though Lilo and Stitch will just barely edge out Minority Report for the top slot on the box office this weekend, although both had strong debuts. I'm guessing this is the first time in about ten years that a Tom Cruise starring role has failed to land at the top of the charts. Looks like I'd better give Minority Report another boost. (Off to the theater again...)
Rats, i was about this [] close to posting something last night on Minority Report with essentially the same line "and i'd bet Alec'strend of seeing Tom Cruise films multiple times in the theater will continue."
I agree... Wonderful movie...
After we've all seen it, or in email, i have a topic for discussion... If you'd have ended it way earlier at that moment (i bet you know where i'm talking about), would it have been a better or worse movie? Not that the last 45 minutes were bad, or made it a bad movie, far from it, its a great movie. But, my question is simply better or worse? (Its really a moot point because it wouldn't have been a Spielberg movie, but its still an interesting question in the abstract.)
I agree... Wonderful movie...
After we've all seen it, or in email, i have a topic for discussion... If you'd have ended it way earlier at that moment (i bet you know where i'm talking about), would it have been a better or worse movie? Not that the last 45 minutes were bad, or made it a bad movie, far from it, its a great movie. But, my question is simply better or worse? (Its really a moot point because it wouldn't have been a Spielberg movie, but its still an interesting question in the abstract.)
Just wanted to say that I just saw Minority Report, and it looks as though my habit of seeing Tom Cruise films multiple times in the theater (four times for Eyes Wide Shut, three for Magnolia and M:I-2, and four for Vanilla Sky) will, happily, continue: I thought it was good enough immediately after it was over, but it's the kind of film that grows and grows inside you after you see it, and right now it feels like the most satisfying movie I've seen since...well, since the year began, anyway. I have various observations and thoughts about some possible plot holes, but I think I'll wait on those until both of you have seen it. So see it!
21 June 2002
File this under "truth is stranger than fiction": The Christian Counter.
Yes it is exactly what it sounds like, a website counter program exclusively for christians, so that you don't have some heathen counting your webhits. The advertisements for AdamMeetEve.com are also pretty funny.
Yes it is exactly what it sounds like, a website counter program exclusively for christians, so that you don't have some heathen counting your webhits. The advertisements for AdamMeetEve.com are also pretty funny.
I think we should try our hands at this challenge on the Volokh Conspiracy: Find any quintuple or sextuple (or more) homophones (that is spelled differently, but pronounced identically). "To", "two", and "too" is an example of a triplet. For details see this posting.
Here's a great newspaper clipping from the Volokh Conspiracy.
Incidentally, cleanweb has no problem with sex-geek.com.
Incidentally, cleanweb has no problem with sex-geek.com.
This is a few days old, but I found this Maureen O'Dowd column amusing: From 'Cats' to Cicero. It's about the President's commencement speech at Ohio State University, and the fact that his ideas (according to USA Freedom Corps director John Bridgeland) are derived from "Tocqueville, Adam Smith, 'the world's major religions,' Aristotle, George Eliot, Emily Dickinson, William Wordsworth, Pope John Paul II, Cicero, Abraham Lincoln and the founding fathers Benjamin Rush, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington." Looks like I'm not the only one who has been working through his Great Books of the Western World set....
Well, according to the cleanweb.net FAQ, a site is blocked if it contains "pornography, depictions of sexual acts, violence, criminal acts, drug use, excretory acts, graphic medical images without medical context, discrimination, profanity, [or] adult humor." I'm guessing that iFeminists's Porn, Prostitution and Sexual Freedom directory probably links, at some point, to one or more of the above (at least by cleanweb's standards).
For example, there's sex-geek.com, which looks like a very interesting weblog written by a freelance writer and ex-prostitute. Wonder if cleanweb would approve of that?
For example, there's sex-geek.com, which looks like a very interesting weblog written by a freelance writer and ex-prostitute. Wonder if cleanweb would approve of that?
20 June 2002
so being at home, not only do i have a modem slowww connection, i also get the internet through the fliter of cleanweb.net. This means no maxim's top 50 list. also, no fark, and no onion (oddly enough the britanny spears guide to semiconductor physics works fine). My most recent odd block finding is: ifeminists. If any of you could poke around their site and figure out why on earth its blocked.
Of course your library can no longer be forced to used this filtering system on us adults due to this decision and our good friend Ben Edelman.
Speaking of that decision and Ben, i found the following footnote (number 14 in the 3rd court's decision) quite amusing:
"Edelman is a Harvard University student and a systems administrator and multimedia specialist at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. Despite Edelman's young age, he has been doing consulting work on Internet-related issues for nine years, since he was in junior high school. "
(To see how this filter works, go to control panel/internet options. go to the connections menu. click settings. now check the box marked "use proxy server". enter as the address "filter.cleanweb.net" and as the port "81". This will set you up to use their filter. If you also use their ISP like we do, then if you don't have this part set up then it will not work at all.)
Of course your library can no longer be forced to used this filtering system on us adults due to this decision and our good friend Ben Edelman.
Speaking of that decision and Ben, i found the following footnote (number 14 in the 3rd court's decision) quite amusing:
"Edelman is a Harvard University student and a systems administrator and multimedia specialist at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. Despite Edelman's young age, he has been doing consulting work on Internet-related issues for nine years, since he was in junior high school. "
(To see how this filter works, go to control panel/internet options. go to the connections menu. click settings. now check the box marked "use proxy server". enter as the address "filter.cleanweb.net" and as the port "81". This will set you up to use their filter. If you also use their ISP like we do, then if you don't have this part set up then it will not work at all.)
Also, there's an article on Maxim about The 50 Worst Movies of All Time. As usual, some of my favorite movies made the cut, notably Dune at number 20 and The Thin Red Line at number 16. A number of striking omissions, too, although I have a hunch that the guys at Maxim are just the kind who would dig Fight Club, still my least favorite movie of all time....
I can't believe I forgot all about this wonderful site: The Britney Spears Guide to Semiconductor Physics. I'm not sure why it amuses me so much, but it does. Thanks, Fark!
19 June 2002
So i haven't been posting much, because the really slow connection from home makes websurfing too annoying. But this article is just too good to be missed. If you recall this character named "Ahn" scored a golden goal for south korea, eliminating the favored italians. This Ahn it turns out plays for a team in italy... The owner of this team declared, "I have no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian soccer" and promptly fired the guy. For more details check out this ESPN article.
16 June 2002
The Deep Throat debate rages on! An article in the Chicago Tribune (it requires registration to view the article so I haven't linked to it) reports that a journalism class at the University of Illinois has concluded that Deep Throat is none other than...Pat Buchanan?!
They apparently looked at a lot of FBI records and talked to members of the Nixon administration, and they also got an original manuscript of All the President's Men which may have held some clues -- specifically, one passage that was not in the printed edition "characterized Deep Throat as 'in a position to possibly understand the whole scheme and not be a potential conspirator.' [the] students interpreted that as meaning Deep Throat was a speechwriter or publicist rather than an official with a staff and policy-making responsibilities."
I think this could just have easily been interpreted as meaning Deep Throat wasn't actually in the White House, which points a finger towards the officials in the FBI who were implicated by James Mann in his article that sparked our interest in the subject in the first place.
According to the article, Buchanan's motive was that he was angry at Nixon for the China opening. This strikes me as the flimsiest motive I can think of, since Buchanan has a reputation for loyalty and, in my opinion, wouldn't have been so eager to work with the liberal Washington Post. It is also questionable, in my view, how much a speechwriter would really know about the whole scheme, since Nixon was so secretive.
I was, of course, elated to read that "there have been many guesses including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger." Apparently my theory is gaining ground.
But, the best news of all is that these students won't have to wait long to see if their theory is correct. Former White House counsel John Dean is set to unveil his theory on Deep Throat's identity tomorrow -- and since he was actually there, he might settle the question once and for all.
They apparently looked at a lot of FBI records and talked to members of the Nixon administration, and they also got an original manuscript of All the President's Men which may have held some clues -- specifically, one passage that was not in the printed edition "characterized Deep Throat as 'in a position to possibly understand the whole scheme and not be a potential conspirator.' [the] students interpreted that as meaning Deep Throat was a speechwriter or publicist rather than an official with a staff and policy-making responsibilities."
I think this could just have easily been interpreted as meaning Deep Throat wasn't actually in the White House, which points a finger towards the officials in the FBI who were implicated by James Mann in his article that sparked our interest in the subject in the first place.
According to the article, Buchanan's motive was that he was angry at Nixon for the China opening. This strikes me as the flimsiest motive I can think of, since Buchanan has a reputation for loyalty and, in my opinion, wouldn't have been so eager to work with the liberal Washington Post. It is also questionable, in my view, how much a speechwriter would really know about the whole scheme, since Nixon was so secretive.
I was, of course, elated to read that "there have been many guesses including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger." Apparently my theory is gaining ground.
But, the best news of all is that these students won't have to wait long to see if their theory is correct. Former White House counsel John Dean is set to unveil his theory on Deep Throat's identity tomorrow -- and since he was actually there, he might settle the question once and for all.
Boy oh boy, I love the local news. Who needs News of the Weird when you have stuff like this?
Man sues to remove names from ballot
"A Taos man has filed a lawsuit requetiong the Secretary of State's office remove all names from the November ballot. Daniel Pearlman, who filed the lawsuit Thursday in US District Court in Santa Fe, wants the state to issue a blank ballot so voters can make choices 'without the government telling them who to vote for.'
According to the lawsuit, the Secretary of State has a 'constitutional obligation to expunge all printed candidate names protecting the right of Pearlman, and The People, to freely write in the names of any person to serve in any public office in all future elections.'
...Pearlman has tried unsuccessfully to get on the ballot as a write-in candidate for governor and president in previous elections."
The New Mexican
Man sues to remove names from ballot
"A Taos man has filed a lawsuit requetiong the Secretary of State's office remove all names from the November ballot. Daniel Pearlman, who filed the lawsuit Thursday in US District Court in Santa Fe, wants the state to issue a blank ballot so voters can make choices 'without the government telling them who to vote for.'
According to the lawsuit, the Secretary of State has a 'constitutional obligation to expunge all printed candidate names protecting the right of Pearlman, and The People, to freely write in the names of any person to serve in any public office in all future elections.'
...Pearlman has tried unsuccessfully to get on the ballot as a write-in candidate for governor and president in previous elections."
The New Mexican
12 June 2002
Where to begin? When I was in New York, I felt as though Harvard: The TV Series had come to an end, and I was currently starring in the spin-off, in which a bunch of wacky supporting characters from the original show are sent to some interesting new location. Usually, the producers settle for the oddball supporting cast because the stars don't want to come back. And we all know how long these spin-off series usually last!
That said, my new place in Queens is spacious and nice, as described. There's a park a few blocks away. Subway is close by, and it's only twenty minutes to Manhattan. Neighborhood is mostly Greek, as are the restaurants. At the moment, I'm back at home in California, where suddenly I'm dreaming every night about Harvard, after four years of dreaming about high school when I was in college. It's going to be a long, long life....
That said, my new place in Queens is spacious and nice, as described. There's a park a few blocks away. Subway is close by, and it's only twenty minutes to Manhattan. Neighborhood is mostly Greek, as are the restaurants. At the moment, I'm back at home in California, where suddenly I'm dreaming every night about Harvard, after four years of dreaming about high school when I was in college. It's going to be a long, long life....
A little tidbit from my hometown paper, The Santa Fe New Mexican:
Web site of the week:
"Anxious to see which part of New Mexico is on fire this week? Visit www.nm.blm.gov/fire/fire.html for information on wildfires throughout New Mexico and Arizona. This site contains fire weather forecasts and Southwest-area news and is updated twice daily."
Web site of the week:
"Anxious to see which part of New Mexico is on fire this week? Visit www.nm.blm.gov/fire/fire.html for information on wildfires throughout New Mexico and Arizona. This site contains fire weather forecasts and Southwest-area news and is updated twice daily."
11 June 2002
Sorry about our not posting stuff for the past week. We were busy moving and graduating and paying library fines so that we could graduate and all. Al Franken spoke to us on class day, but Alec and I had to miss the speech. Noah, I don't know if you can call my state that backwards. Driving back to New Mexico, I found that the roads in Arkansas and Oklahoma to be infinitely worse. The entire Arkansas highway system is either undriveable or under construction, and Oklahoma isn't even making an effort to reconstruct its atrocious roads. Oklahoma is also the state where the bridge over the Arkansas River was knocked out, which meant I had to take a detour. At least I got home safely.
04 June 2002
Some states are moving forward, nat's state (New Mexico) is still rather backwards. See this article.
"I know it's a business, and I can't really get into the business side of this,'' Webber said. "But Mike knows how I feel. I've got some duct tape in the house. I'm going to tie him up, if that's what it's going to take.''
--Webber on resigning Bibby (from espn)
--Webber on resigning Bibby (from espn)
03 June 2002
Here's an interesting tidbit from the washington post.
The Des Moines Register last week carried what it called "your typical boy-meets-girl-and-boosts-her-bust story."
Seems that Bobbi Silvernail, the 28-year-old morning anchor on WHO-TV, had just married Ronald Bergman, a prominent 53-year-old plastic surgeon in town. They met, Bergman told the paper, when Silvernail came to him to have her breasts augmented.
"By marrying a plastic surgeon, I can stay 28 forever," Silvernail told the Register.
The Des Moines Register last week carried what it called "your typical boy-meets-girl-and-boosts-her-bust story."
Seems that Bobbi Silvernail, the 28-year-old morning anchor on WHO-TV, had just married Ronald Bergman, a prominent 53-year-old plastic surgeon in town. They met, Bergman told the paper, when Silvernail came to him to have her breasts augmented.
"By marrying a plastic surgeon, I can stay 28 forever," Silvernail told the Register.
02 June 2002
Wait, so do we know how the ESP test works? I was only able to foil it once in about 20 tries, and that's pretty consistent with his supposed 98% success rate. And some of the user explanations aren't very misguided -- some of them seem like they genuinely randomized their selection and it was still accurate. If that is indeed the case, then there is only one conclusion: this dude has ESP.
As part of our wild senior festivities we watched Battlefield Earth last night. It's not as bad as everyone says -- it's worse. It's disturbingly bad. On the video's box there's a positive quote from Joblo's Movie Emporium, so I tracked down their review. It's quite amazing, and the reader reviews/responses are priceless.
Well, we've all been terribly busy with being seniors and doing crazy senior things and so the weblog has been neglected.
The new york times has a fascinating article on how they've butchered quotations from famous authors in the new york regents exams in english, so as to make sure not to offend anyone.
The new york times has a fascinating article on how they've butchered quotations from famous authors in the new york regents exams in english, so as to make sure not to offend anyone.
28 May 2002
Star Wars update: Natalie Portman will be filming new scenes for the DVD edition of Return of the Jedi. Speculation is that she'll be appearing in flashback scenes involving Princess Leia, and perhaps the dying Anakin? (That last possibility could actually be quite moving, if done right. Unfortunately, when's the last time Lucas did anything right?)
27 May 2002
Hey, I found the Photic Sneeze Reflex site!
(By way of explanation, this is a European web site devoted to the subject of photic sneeze reflex, a very interesting topic. I'm linking to it because they use an excerpt from one of my X-Files fanfic stories to illustrate the phenomenon. The funniest part is that the character who suffers from photic sneeze reflex in my story actually gets killed in the next paragraph, although they don't include that part here.)
(By way of explanation, this is a European web site devoted to the subject of photic sneeze reflex, a very interesting topic. I'm linking to it because they use an excerpt from one of my X-Files fanfic stories to illustrate the phenomenon. The funniest part is that the character who suffers from photic sneeze reflex in my story actually gets killed in the next paragraph, although they don't include that part here.)
25 May 2002
This site is great: ESP Experiment.
The actual trick is cute enough, but make sure you read the "Explanations" section for an amazing look at genuine, if misguided, human ingenuity.
The actual trick is cute enough, but make sure you read the "Explanations" section for an amazing look at genuine, if misguided, human ingenuity.
17 May 2002
Even though I sorta like "Episode One," I thought that this was very, very funny: 78 Reasons to Hate Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace.
Sample reason:
"Reason #27
Anakin built C-3P0
I will not accept that fact that Anakin built C-3P0. I won't do it. You can torture me in a scene reminiscent of the finale in Braveheart and I will cry out "Freedom!" rather than admit to this horse shit. Anakin simply didn't build C-3P0, end of story. Anakin says that he's good at building things. I'll believe that. My friend's nine-year old son used to build stuff and wire up all the home electronics. That I'll believe. Anakin built a Pod Racer. I will even believe that. I will entertain the notion that he may have put C-3P0 together using an "Assemble Your Own Robot" home kit but I doubt that they give those away to slave boys. I have one simple defense to prove that he didn't build C-3P0: Anakin Skywalker--the ten year old boy--does not know 6,000,000 forms of communication. Does Anakin Skywalker have experience with binary loadlifters? No. We know that C-3P0 does. Does Anakin Skywalker know how to speak Ewok? I doubt it. C-3P0 can. Does Anakin Skywalker know how to understand moisture vaporators? Probably not since he's not a machine (yet). The only language (other than the main language that they speak [which Lucas would probably call "English]) that Anakin knows is Huttese. I'll accept the fact that maybe he was lying to try to impress Padme in hopes that she would sleep with him. I hope that's what it was because otherwise I'm very upset with this turn of events."
Oddly enough, this otherwise very comprehensive list omits the single worst scene in Episode One: the "revelation" of Padme's real identity, which I still think must be the clumsiest scene of its kind ever shot. Well, not counting anything from Episode Two, anyway.
Sample reason:
"Reason #27
Anakin built C-3P0
I will not accept that fact that Anakin built C-3P0. I won't do it. You can torture me in a scene reminiscent of the finale in Braveheart and I will cry out "Freedom!" rather than admit to this horse shit. Anakin simply didn't build C-3P0, end of story. Anakin says that he's good at building things. I'll believe that. My friend's nine-year old son used to build stuff and wire up all the home electronics. That I'll believe. Anakin built a Pod Racer. I will even believe that. I will entertain the notion that he may have put C-3P0 together using an "Assemble Your Own Robot" home kit but I doubt that they give those away to slave boys. I have one simple defense to prove that he didn't build C-3P0: Anakin Skywalker--the ten year old boy--does not know 6,000,000 forms of communication. Does Anakin Skywalker have experience with binary loadlifters? No. We know that C-3P0 does. Does Anakin Skywalker know how to speak Ewok? I doubt it. C-3P0 can. Does Anakin Skywalker know how to understand moisture vaporators? Probably not since he's not a machine (yet). The only language (other than the main language that they speak [which Lucas would probably call "English]) that Anakin knows is Huttese. I'll accept the fact that maybe he was lying to try to impress Padme in hopes that she would sleep with him. I hope that's what it was because otherwise I'm very upset with this turn of events."
Oddly enough, this otherwise very comprehensive list omits the single worst scene in Episode One: the "revelation" of Padme's real identity, which I still think must be the clumsiest scene of its kind ever shot. Well, not counting anything from Episode Two, anyway.
16 May 2002
Can any of you figure out what seems to be a hidden message encryped in morse code at the end of the trailer for CQ?
We saw episode II today, and i think it was really for the most part genuinely terrible, although certainly bits were fun. Anyway afterwards i told alec i'd post a link to this humor piece. What the new starwars are missing is characters like han solo.
My word of advice today for aspiring directors and screenwriters? Don't cut away from a scene unless you know what is going to happen next.
My word of advice today for aspiring directors and screenwriters? Don't cut away from a scene unless you know what is going to happen next.
I'm not sure how i'd never heard of alexa's web rankings before, but if you put in a url it'll pop up a description with a ranking which is made by the number of hits by people using their software. If you've ever wondered whether more people read the new york times online or shop at amazon, now you can find out (amazon is 22nd, while new york times is 82nd).
Also there's a convenient, "people who liked this site also visited" feature a la amazon. Which reminds me of a post today on the Volokh Conspiricy:
This case aside, I love the "readers who are reading this are also reading that" function of Amazon, however incomplete it may be. I don't buy all of my books online, or all on Amazon, nor are all of the books I buy online for me, but the service provides some amount of information. A friend once made the seemingly obvious but brilliant suggestion that Amazon merge its database of reader's preferences with an online dating service.
Give me a man who is reading Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward, Jennifer Weiner's hilarious Good In Bed, and The Dictionary of Insurance Terms, and I'm there. Of course, we don't want this model to be taken too far:
"Men who have enjoyed dating Suzy have also enjoyed dating Kelly and Sarah . . ."
Also there's a convenient, "people who liked this site also visited" feature a la amazon. Which reminds me of a post today on the Volokh Conspiricy:
This case aside, I love the "readers who are reading this are also reading that" function of Amazon, however incomplete it may be. I don't buy all of my books online, or all on Amazon, nor are all of the books I buy online for me, but the service provides some amount of information. A friend once made the seemingly obvious but brilliant suggestion that Amazon merge its database of reader's preferences with an online dating service.
Give me a man who is reading Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward, Jennifer Weiner's hilarious Good In Bed, and The Dictionary of Insurance Terms, and I'm there. Of course, we don't want this model to be taken too far:
"Men who have enjoyed dating Suzy have also enjoyed dating Kelly and Sarah . . ."
Time Waster of the Day:
Remember the good old video game music from the original nintendo? Ever wanted to listen to thousands of songs based on those tunes? Well then check out remix overclocked.
My personal favorite so far is a mario 1 remix called underworldrock.
Remember the good old video game music from the original nintendo? Ever wanted to listen to thousands of songs based on those tunes? Well then check out remix overclocked.
My personal favorite so far is a mario 1 remix called underworldrock.
Here's a really good blog, which was blogger's blog of the day sometime this week. It'll definitely go on the list when i get around to making a list of my favorite blogs. The bit on the first day of high school and the bit on tatoos (both last week, scroll down a tad) are quite fun. Definitely my favorite blog of the more journally-type that i've found recently.
15 May 2002
My paper on applications of the theory of representations of Lie algebras to particle physics is finally done, and so I can bet back to the important things in life, like blogging. This was my last Harvard paper ever, which isn't really so sad.
First topic of conversation, in keeping with our recent links to video games, there have been several recent articles about video games...
Apparently some judge in a district court in Missouri has decided that video games categorically are not speech and deserve no first ammendment protection (here's the decision). Salon has this article. His argument comes down to the claim that video games are like other games and sports and not like films. The crucial point in his argument is the following:
"This Court has difficulty accepting that some video games do contain expression while others do not, and it finds that this is a dangerous path to follow. The first Amendment does not allow us to review books, magazines, motion pictures, or music and decide that some of them are speech and some of them are not. It appears to the Court that either a "medium" provides sufficient elements of communication and expressiveness to fall within the scope of the First Amendment, or it does not."
I don't think I really buy that argument, but I'm not a lawyer and so perhaps he is right. However, having made that argument, it stands to reason that it is sufficient to find a single video game which clearly contains speech in order to give protection to all of them. Rather than conduct such research or request such information from the party to the suit, or even say that he does not have enough information to make this decision, this judge decides to look only at the 4 games which the defense had provided him. These games were, Doom, Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat, and Fear Effect. As one would expect, these four games which were chosen by the defense have little to no important speech in them.
Perhaps judge Limbaugh should have read this article, whose headline is "Civilization and its Discontents, A video game makes you ponder the nature of history."
What do I think on the matter? There are video games which clearly qualify as speech, some now, but there will be many more in the future. On the other hand, no matter how much i enjoy them, games like Quidditch and 3-D Pong are, just as judge Limbaugh argues, really just high tech versions of bingo.
First topic of conversation, in keeping with our recent links to video games, there have been several recent articles about video games...
Apparently some judge in a district court in Missouri has decided that video games categorically are not speech and deserve no first ammendment protection (here's the decision). Salon has this article. His argument comes down to the claim that video games are like other games and sports and not like films. The crucial point in his argument is the following:
"This Court has difficulty accepting that some video games do contain expression while others do not, and it finds that this is a dangerous path to follow. The first Amendment does not allow us to review books, magazines, motion pictures, or music and decide that some of them are speech and some of them are not. It appears to the Court that either a "medium" provides sufficient elements of communication and expressiveness to fall within the scope of the First Amendment, or it does not."
I don't think I really buy that argument, but I'm not a lawyer and so perhaps he is right. However, having made that argument, it stands to reason that it is sufficient to find a single video game which clearly contains speech in order to give protection to all of them. Rather than conduct such research or request such information from the party to the suit, or even say that he does not have enough information to make this decision, this judge decides to look only at the 4 games which the defense had provided him. These games were, Doom, Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat, and Fear Effect. As one would expect, these four games which were chosen by the defense have little to no important speech in them.
Perhaps judge Limbaugh should have read this article, whose headline is "Civilization and its Discontents, A video game makes you ponder the nature of history."
What do I think on the matter? There are video games which clearly qualify as speech, some now, but there will be many more in the future. On the other hand, no matter how much i enjoy them, games like Quidditch and 3-D Pong are, just as judge Limbaugh argues, really just high tech versions of bingo.
13 May 2002
One of the coolest places in America has got to be Youngstown, OH. You know it's cool because the newspaper is called The Vindicator. It's also cool because until recently it had the nuttiest congressman around, James Traficant. Traficant doesn't always get the most attention in national media but on Capitol Hill he's a great source of entertainment. C-SPAN watchers got more than their share of Traficant's one-minute speeches, whose subjects ranged from his ongoing "feud" with the FBI (actually he was being investigated for corruption) to UFOs to the China Threat. This is unsubstantiated, but he often looked to me like he was drunk when he made those speeches. Maybe that's just the way he acted. In later years his corruption investigation overshadowed everything. In 2000, he even pledged to vote for Dennis Hastert as House Speaker because he had "done more to help him [Traficant] with his problems" than the Democratic leadership. The Ohio State Democratic Party tried, but failed, to get him kicked out of the party.
Youngstown is not without its problems. A steel-dependent town, it has suffered from a shrinking steel economy in the past 30 years, and it's one of the most mob-infested places around. There were gallons of evidence against him and it was clear to all that Traficant was guilty of corruption, but he maintained his innocence and defended himself in court, as he had successfully done in 1983. Unfortunately, he was finally found guilty last month. He could be spending many years behind bars.
I was delighted to find that the Vindicator had written Traficant a fitting political obituary.
Youngstown is not without its problems. A steel-dependent town, it has suffered from a shrinking steel economy in the past 30 years, and it's one of the most mob-infested places around. There were gallons of evidence against him and it was clear to all that Traficant was guilty of corruption, but he maintained his innocence and defended himself in court, as he had successfully done in 1983. Unfortunately, he was finally found guilty last month. He could be spending many years behind bars.
I was delighted to find that the Vindicator had written Traficant a fitting political obituary.
12 May 2002
Our email addresses are now online. Thanks to hivelogic's encoding robots won't be able to find them and we won't get spammed. Visitors feel free to email any of us.
Here's something interesting, Alec if you're in new york watch out for this. Copied from jaded writings:
An Official Brush-Off
You're in a bar, humoring the guy who bought you a drink. You've tried to be kind, maybe even a bit forceful in telling him you're simply not interested. He doesn't get the hint; he assumes since you accepted the drink, he's "in there."
Now, if you live in New York City, you have a painless way out of this difficult situation. Just give him this phone number: 212-479-7990.
Instead of reaching your answering machine, Casanova will get the Rejection Line operator. For no charge, the rejected paramour will also be given the option of speaking with a comfort specialist or hearing a sad poem.
What will they come up with next?
An Official Brush-Off
You're in a bar, humoring the guy who bought you a drink. You've tried to be kind, maybe even a bit forceful in telling him you're simply not interested. He doesn't get the hint; he assumes since you accepted the drink, he's "in there."
Now, if you live in New York City, you have a painless way out of this difficult situation. Just give him this phone number: 212-479-7990.
Instead of reaching your answering machine, Casanova will get the Rejection Line operator. For no charge, the rejected paramour will also be given the option of speaking with a comfort specialist or hearing a sad poem.
What will they come up with next?
Exciting Deadly Mantis News Item:
Today we got what appears to be a visit from Katie Granju of loco parentis. I had linked to her site in passing on tuesday, may 07. Anyway, she's a real live A-list blogger with actual readers and a link on instapundit and everything. Furthermore, so far from what I've read she wins the best name for a blog contest hands down. I mean bilingual puns are pretty cool when one of the languages is in english (for example for those of you who know American Sign Language and spoken english (as opposed to written english, not as opposed to signed english which ASL is not), the famous "past-your-eyes milk"-joke), but a latin/spanish pun? that's just great.
Anyway her blog is all about the joys and trials of parenting and promoting increased parental involvement. For a good example of her writing at its best, see her may 6th posting on infants sleeping with their parents. Anyway, her blog is generally quite good. although its from a perspective that many of us at harvard might find a little anti-career anti-feminist, its certainly not in a sexist way and she makes a lot of good points, check it out and let me know what you think.
Today we got what appears to be a visit from Katie Granju of loco parentis. I had linked to her site in passing on tuesday, may 07. Anyway, she's a real live A-list blogger with actual readers and a link on instapundit and everything. Furthermore, so far from what I've read she wins the best name for a blog contest hands down. I mean bilingual puns are pretty cool when one of the languages is in english (for example for those of you who know American Sign Language and spoken english (as opposed to written english, not as opposed to signed english which ASL is not), the famous "past-your-eyes milk"-joke), but a latin/spanish pun? that's just great.
Anyway her blog is all about the joys and trials of parenting and promoting increased parental involvement. For a good example of her writing at its best, see her may 6th posting on infants sleeping with their parents. Anyway, her blog is generally quite good. although its from a perspective that many of us at harvard might find a little anti-career anti-feminist, its certainly not in a sexist way and she makes a lot of good points, check it out and let me know what you think.
Noah's News Commentary of the Night:
So over the last couple weeks the issue of whether television advertising is sustainable in the light of TiVo and other machines which make it easier to skip commercials. For example this article on lawmeme was one of the more popular links last week. However, as lawmeme also points out people don't watch commercials that much anyway as pointed out in this article. Already advertisers are trying to find new ways to get around the notion of the 30 second commercial, mostly through product placing, as discussed in this column.
All of this got me thinking, what sort of commercials would get me, a dedicated commercial skipper (read a book, change the channel, go to the bathroom, etc.) to actually watch a commercial. And then it hit me, there's another paradigm for commercials which we've seen this year. BMW commisioned half a dozen highly skilled moderately famous directors to make 6 minute shorts featuring cars and put them on their website. I highly recommend it, most of them are good, and wong kar-wai's film "the follow" is really quite amazing, i've watched it maybe a dozen times.
So why not do the same thing for television commercials? Instead of a bunch of 30 second clips, you sell a full 5 minute block to some big company who has an army of directors making good short films featuring their products. I wouldn't miss them if they were good...
(Don't forget, you heard it here first.)
So over the last couple weeks the issue of whether television advertising is sustainable in the light of TiVo and other machines which make it easier to skip commercials. For example this article on lawmeme was one of the more popular links last week. However, as lawmeme also points out people don't watch commercials that much anyway as pointed out in this article. Already advertisers are trying to find new ways to get around the notion of the 30 second commercial, mostly through product placing, as discussed in this column.
All of this got me thinking, what sort of commercials would get me, a dedicated commercial skipper (read a book, change the channel, go to the bathroom, etc.) to actually watch a commercial. And then it hit me, there's another paradigm for commercials which we've seen this year. BMW commisioned half a dozen highly skilled moderately famous directors to make 6 minute shorts featuring cars and put them on their website. I highly recommend it, most of them are good, and wong kar-wai's film "the follow" is really quite amazing, i've watched it maybe a dozen times.
So why not do the same thing for television commercials? Instead of a bunch of 30 second clips, you sell a full 5 minute block to some big company who has an army of directors making good short films featuring their products. I wouldn't miss them if they were good...
(Don't forget, you heard it here first.)
A great new resource for procrastination has arrived online... FHM has released a top 100 web video games. (No, i do not read FHM, i followed the link from fark (although i did recently describe fark as "the Maxim of the weblog community", so maybe i'm not totally exonerated).
My five favorites:
1. Quidditch. The multi-player version is wonderful. Nat and I just played it for a solid half an hour. Really a delightful game.
2. mini-putt. Yeah i've been raving about it for weeks, but that's cause its fun. Notice what this says about how much i liked Quidditch.
3. Rock-Paper-Scissors/Russian Roullete. I know that liking this makes me sick and twisted, but its sooo sooo funny. PG-13 for cartoon violence.
4. Monster Sumo. This one is really amusing and fun, although the computer gives itself a bit of an unfair advantage and the gameplay takes a moment to catch on to.
5. Snowball Fight. Great idea and good graphics, plus i'm going to miss snowfights in berkeley...
My five favorites:
1. Quidditch. The multi-player version is wonderful. Nat and I just played it for a solid half an hour. Really a delightful game.
2. mini-putt. Yeah i've been raving about it for weeks, but that's cause its fun. Notice what this says about how much i liked Quidditch.
3. Rock-Paper-Scissors/Russian Roullete. I know that liking this makes me sick and twisted, but its sooo sooo funny. PG-13 for cartoon violence.
4. Monster Sumo. This one is really amusing and fun, although the computer gives itself a bit of an unfair advantage and the gameplay takes a moment to catch on to.
5. Snowball Fight. Great idea and good graphics, plus i'm going to miss snowfights in berkeley...
Yay technology! I'm currently reading No Place for Amateurs by Dennis Johnson. It's a book about the professionalization of political campaigns, and Johnson talks a lot about scientific and not-so scientific polls. Here's a couple of stories about bad polls that I found amusing:
"USA Today asked its readers in June 1990 if Donald Trump symbolized what was right or wrong with the United States. Eighty-one percent of the 6,406 people who called an 800 number said that Trump was great and 19 percent said he was bad for the country. But there was an organized effor to fix the numbers: it turned out that 72 percent of the telephone calls came from two phone numbers."
"In July 1999, baseball fans were encouraged to use the internet to vote for their favorite All-Star players. One Red Sox enthusiast programmed his computer to cast ballot nonstop, and after two days, he had "voted" forty-thousand times for his hero, Nomar Garciaparra."
"TIME.com conducted a straw poll allowing anyone, not just registered voters, to cast their ballot choice for president. Orrin Hatch, who was barely visible in most traditional polls in late 1999, garnered 60 percent of the votes on the TIME.com survey. Hatch had hyperlinked the TIME.com poll to his own campaign website, and his supporters enthusiastically clicked away."
If only real voting were that easy. Of course, bad polling has been around a lot longer than the internet. It's just a lot easier to cook up convincing numbers that mean nothing nowadays.
"USA Today asked its readers in June 1990 if Donald Trump symbolized what was right or wrong with the United States. Eighty-one percent of the 6,406 people who called an 800 number said that Trump was great and 19 percent said he was bad for the country. But there was an organized effor to fix the numbers: it turned out that 72 percent of the telephone calls came from two phone numbers."
"In July 1999, baseball fans were encouraged to use the internet to vote for their favorite All-Star players. One Red Sox enthusiast programmed his computer to cast ballot nonstop, and after two days, he had "voted" forty-thousand times for his hero, Nomar Garciaparra."
"TIME.com conducted a straw poll allowing anyone, not just registered voters, to cast their ballot choice for president. Orrin Hatch, who was barely visible in most traditional polls in late 1999, garnered 60 percent of the votes on the TIME.com survey. Hatch had hyperlinked the TIME.com poll to his own campaign website, and his supporters enthusiastically clicked away."
If only real voting were that easy. Of course, bad polling has been around a lot longer than the internet. It's just a lot easier to cook up convincing numbers that mean nothing nowadays.
11 May 2002
I found this link about Nixon and Kissinger on a professional video gamer's weblog. He was upset about electoral tampering in Uruguay, his home country. I was interested because I've been researching the Nixon White House recently to come up with a theory about Deep Throat (see my previous post). History is not exactly being kind to these men.
10 May 2002
Upon further reflection, I've decided not to post my response to the James Mann article on the identity of Deep Throat. It's a nice byzantine conspiracy theory rife with crime, betrayal, and coverups. It's also completely made up, and I don't want conspiracy theories about real people with my name on them circulating around the web. Still, it's entertaining, and if you want to read it, email me at chakeres@fas.harvard.edu. This was my first try at coming up with a conspiracy theory, and it's pretty fun -- you start by assuming that there was a conspiracy, then you do your research to find random coincidences and connections, and then you weave a story around them. Don't assume they're telling you the whole story. I think I would have written some good history papers if I had done them this way...
09 May 2002
Man, your google searches are way cooler than mine. Noah, I am in awe of your inspirationality, and Alec, believe it or not, I sometimes get the urge to break your head open also (I suppress the urge with cough drops, usually).
Not counting my bio on Dave "too cool to blog" Freeman's website, these are my top search results:
1. The HVL roster (not to be confused with the far superior HVL website).
2. Apparently I'm a member of the BU bowling association. I went bowling with them last year through a friend of a friend because they had cheap deals with the bowling alley. Nice people.
3. I am also listed on the Star Tournaments leaderboard. These are strat-o-matic tournaments that go on all over the country, and I participated in one in Fort Collins once. I almost made it to the World Series but I never did a tournament again for a number of reasons. I objected to the gambling aspect, they were really inconvenient ways to gobble up your time, and the people were very frightening (in a "I hope this guy doesn't get too angry and slit my throat if I beat him" kind of way). I suppose I should have expected them to have a screw loose if they're spending all their weekends betting money on a board game. They weren't even very good at it.
Those are the only remotely interesting returns for my name. I guess I'll have to make a better name for myself, maybe by becoming a noted conspiracy theorist...
Not counting my bio on Dave "too cool to blog" Freeman's website, these are my top search results:
1. The HVL roster (not to be confused with the far superior HVL website).
2. Apparently I'm a member of the BU bowling association. I went bowling with them last year through a friend of a friend because they had cheap deals with the bowling alley. Nice people.
3. I am also listed on the Star Tournaments leaderboard. These are strat-o-matic tournaments that go on all over the country, and I participated in one in Fort Collins once. I almost made it to the World Series but I never did a tournament again for a number of reasons. I objected to the gambling aspect, they were really inconvenient ways to gobble up your time, and the people were very frightening (in a "I hope this guy doesn't get too angry and slit my throat if I beat him" kind of way). I suppose I should have expected them to have a screw loose if they're spending all their weekends betting money on a board game. They weren't even very good at it.
Those are the only remotely interesting returns for my name. I guess I'll have to make a better name for myself, maybe by becoming a noted conspiracy theorist...
08 May 2002
Okay, google results for my name:
1. Somehow a quote from this really bad teenage angsty play which i wrote junior year of highschool ended up on a stone soup seminars page of inspirational quotes. I can't for the life of me figure out how these people found this quote. I have no idea who this person is.
2. I knew I had a famous surfer alterego, i did not, however, know that he is now an evangalism tool. He and some other surfers have a website with their own T-shirts and which is a tool in the evanglism toolbox.
3. My Harvard Ultimate bio is the first link which comes up which actually refers to me and is somewhat amusing.
4. This article appears in one of my favorite publications, which is cool enough to put it on this list.
5. A wonderful annagram of my name appears on this site: "shy? no, a nerd!"
1. Somehow a quote from this really bad teenage angsty play which i wrote junior year of highschool ended up on a stone soup seminars page of inspirational quotes. I can't for the life of me figure out how these people found this quote. I have no idea who this person is.
2. I knew I had a famous surfer alterego, i did not, however, know that he is now an evangalism tool. He and some other surfers have a website with their own T-shirts and which is a tool in the evanglism toolbox.
3. My Harvard Ultimate bio is the first link which comes up which actually refers to me and is somewhat amusing.
4. This article appears in one of my favorite publications, which is cool enough to put it on this list.
5. A wonderful annagram of my name appears on this site: "shy? no, a nerd!"
Most interesting Google results for my name:
1. A movie review I wrote for Student.Com ended up on a Holocaust revisionist website. Lovely.
2. Another one appears in a student newspaper in Limerick, Ireland. Hmmmm...
Everything else for the search "Alec N-L" is pretty boring (lots of movie reviews, section lists, etc.). But you get somewhat more interesting results when you search for "LGG" (my nom de plume from when I used to write X-Files fanfic, mostly in high school). Sample quotes from people's fanfic web pages:
1. "LGG...is a god."
(http://cofax.freeservers.com/writers.html)
2. "The LGG is getting famous for being the best fanfic writer no one reads."
(http://members.aol.com/chinapttns/topic1.html)
3."LGG. This fellow makes me look extremely lazy. His stories graft a bafflingly wide range of knowledge involving history, science and literature to moody, surprising plots. I would like to crack his head open just to see what's inside. And to stop feeling outclassed."
(members.dencity.com/hearne/recommended.htm)
4. "Blood of Angels by LGG. I read this story and I honestly started to cry. Not because it was sad, but because this was so bloody good that I could never write anything that could compare."
(http://www.angelfire.com/bc/squeakaxfileshipper/other.html)
No wonder I get a swelled head sometimes.... Anyway, you get the idea. There's also a site that has a discussion of one of my stories in what appears to be Polish. I do love the Google ego search...
1. A movie review I wrote for Student.Com ended up on a Holocaust revisionist website. Lovely.
2. Another one appears in a student newspaper in Limerick, Ireland. Hmmmm...
Everything else for the search "Alec N-L" is pretty boring (lots of movie reviews, section lists, etc.). But you get somewhat more interesting results when you search for "LGG" (my nom de plume from when I used to write X-Files fanfic, mostly in high school). Sample quotes from people's fanfic web pages:
1. "LGG...is a god."
(http://cofax.freeservers.com/writers.html)
2. "The LGG is getting famous for being the best fanfic writer no one reads."
(http://members.aol.com/chinapttns/topic1.html)
3."LGG. This fellow makes me look extremely lazy. His stories graft a bafflingly wide range of knowledge involving history, science and literature to moody, surprising plots. I would like to crack his head open just to see what's inside. And to stop feeling outclassed."
(members.dencity.com/hearne/recommended.htm)
4. "Blood of Angels by LGG. I read this story and I honestly started to cry. Not because it was sad, but because this was so bloody good that I could never write anything that could compare."
(http://www.angelfire.com/bc/squeakaxfileshipper/other.html)
No wonder I get a swelled head sometimes.... Anyway, you get the idea. There's also a site that has a discussion of one of my stories in what appears to be Polish. I do love the Google ego search...
Time for another top 5 list:
Top Five Links Which Appear When You Google Your Own Name
By top five i of course mean your five favorites, not the first 5 which anyone can find out. Alec is at a slight disadvantage because all of the ones that come up are actually about him... I on the other hand get lots of fun surfer sites...
Top Five Links Which Appear When You Google Your Own Name
By top five i of course mean your five favorites, not the first 5 which anyone can find out. Alec is at a slight disadvantage because all of the ones that come up are actually about him... I on the other hand get lots of fun surfer sites...
Despite the fact that we've had two hits by people who aren't us in the past 10 minutes, we unfortunately still have not gotten into google as is evidenced by the results of this search...
On the other hand, this search is a bit more flattering... Incidentally because of this link when i went to visit berkeley (where i'm going next year) half the first year grad students i met said "noah... are you the abc guy?" it was a little embarassing.
On the other hand, this search is a bit more flattering... Incidentally because of this link when i went to visit berkeley (where i'm going next year) half the first year grad students i met said "noah... are you the abc guy?" it was a little embarassing.
Wow, this is amazing... These people are developing a virtual nightclub where you can pretend to dance and pretend to pick up other people...
We now have a counter telling us how many billions of people are not visiting our webites, so far the 1 is just me... sigh...
on the other hand i have found a new internet game for those of us bored with beruit...
DWARF TOSSING!!
Nat, if you wrote a justice paper on dwarf tossing, i think now is the time to link to it on this site...
on the other hand i have found a new internet game for those of us bored with beruit...
DWARF TOSSING!!
Nat, if you wrote a justice paper on dwarf tossing, i think now is the time to link to it on this site...
07 May 2002
At first i thought how can this guy write this much about the spiderman movie? And then i looked at the old postings and they're all this long, which is undeniably cool, its like long emails instead of like your usual blog snippets...
Reading some other blogs I've been inspired to try posting more often...
So today I spent walking all accross cambridge looking for appartments...
Now i'm not only tired but feeling annoyingly grown up, almost graduated and appartment shopping... So how do I comfort myself? Finding ways in which I'm not yet grown up...
So today I spent walking all accross cambridge looking for appartments...
Now i'm not only tired but feeling annoyingly grown up, almost graduated and appartment shopping... So how do I comfort myself? Finding ways in which I'm not yet grown up...
Here's my gem of the day from blogdex. This is the blog of a law professor and was linked by blogdex because of his ammendment competition which seems like it could be interesting once the answers come in. Lemme know what ammendment you'd choose... But beyond that it seems to be a generally interesting blog mostly on legal issues and public policy.
Of course my favorite legal commentary on the web is Dahlia Lithwick's hysterical Supreme Court Dispatches on Slate. (Yes you did just hear "hysterical" and "supreme court" in the same sentence. Its amazing how funny she is with such little material.)
Any other favorite legal links?
Of course my favorite legal commentary on the web is Dahlia Lithwick's hysterical Supreme Court Dispatches on Slate. (Yes you did just hear "hysterical" and "supreme court" in the same sentence. Its amazing how funny she is with such little material.)
Any other favorite legal links?
06 May 2002
So, at the end of the Mavs-Kings game tonite, the tv guy asked Mavs point guard steve nash what he thought of Mavs nutty owner mark cuban's threat to hand out 600 cowbells to the fans behind the Kings bench in the games in dallas... Steve nash said something roughly like this:
"well... you know mark... his psychological tests haven't come back yet..."
can you imagine someone saying that about steinbrenner? he'd get fired the next day. that's what you gotta love about mark cuban, he may be a nut, but at least he's an amusing one.
"well... you know mark... his psychological tests haven't come back yet..."
can you imagine someone saying that about steinbrenner? he'd get fired the next day. that's what you gotta love about mark cuban, he may be a nut, but at least he's an amusing one.
So, i've put up my daily reads into the links part. Alec and nat, you should put up some of your favorite sites as well... i hope to also get added a list of favorite blog links, unfortunately i haven't read enough yet (only having been blogsurfing for a few weeks) to really do that, but i hope to soon.
05 May 2002
For everyone who's tired of online putt-putt, here's a new diversion: beirut.
My top score: 4465.
I'm still working on my theory about Deep Throat...
My top score: 4465.
I'm still working on my theory about Deep Throat...
03 May 2002
Quote of the day:
"That's just who I am. I want to have a nice career for my children. I want them to have a great education. I want to fly my birds. I want to live my life. I want to have a drink every now and then. I want to have a charity event every now and then. And every now and then, I want to fornicate and that's just being a human being." -- Courtesy of this guy.
"That's just who I am. I want to have a nice career for my children. I want them to have a great education. I want to fly my birds. I want to live my life. I want to have a drink every now and then. I want to have a charity event every now and then. And every now and then, I want to fornicate and that's just being a human being." -- Courtesy of this guy.
A great article on the less famous cousin of the Sports Illustrated curse, the ESPN magazine curse, and the pistons/raptors series:
espn
espn
02 May 2002
Link of the Day:
The Atlantic
This is a rather old article which Slate claims is the best argument for the identity of Deep Throat thus far. Read it and see what you think.
The Atlantic
This is a rather old article which Slate claims is the best argument for the identity of Deep Throat thus far. Read it and see what you think.
01 May 2002
I'm not sure why i find this so amusing:
Completely Pointless Personality Test
For what its worth (which isn't much) i got 41% making me a doc martin boot.
Completely Pointless Personality Test
For what its worth (which isn't much) i got 41% making me a doc martin boot.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)