Friday, December 20, 2002

The Battle of the Dans


Let's just have ourselves a little smarminess contest. In this corner, a funky yet smooooth band named after a dildo. And in this other corner, some guy, we'll call him "Dan," and let him go first:

Just for a moment I was back in school.
And felt that old familiar pain
And as I turned to make my way back home
the snow turned into rain.


Wait! That was so smarmy, I think Dan Fogelberg just won. Steely Dan could never hope to go up against an angst-filled crooner that talented. Oh, the shame!

Well, next time you're itching to torment some poor creature, just lock it in a bathroom, or other inescapable-yet-sound-permeable area, and crank up That Same Old Lang Syne.

Cheers!

(ps: Confidential to T- www.danfogelberg.com seems to be available!)

Monday, December 16, 2002

Well, my good friend Chuck just switched to Mac. Technically he switched to MacS, because now he's running dual 867 MHz processors. He's been gloating how it hasn't crashed yet. And yet it must be particularly galling to him that there's already a Microsoft product on it. Just when you think you've thumbed your nose at Bill, he wriggles his way into your market segment. Maybe Dar's right.
Breakfast at Milo's. Dinner at Oasis Pizza. Leftover Oasis for breakfast. La Buca for lunch. Hell-o abituale! I'm living the Portland food dream.
My new pet peeve is people writing "lol" about their own comment.

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

For those of you who don't necessarily partner with synergy, there's a new level of crass in town. Demotivational posters for all your needs.

Monday, December 09, 2002

You know you've got an ounce of cool when the young, unwashed hipster behind the counter at Music Millenium approves of your choices. Susan Tedeschi, because of the voice, and Steely Dan's Aja, you know, for sheer production quality. To which said unwashed hipster replied, "Word."

I suppose the best thing about the trip was that, besides picking up one of the best-produced albums of our parent's time, I walked more than a block in the rain and didn't melt, immediately die of pneumonia or even get significantly wet. Seems that coat technology has improved since the last time I lived in the beaver state. Being here, I feel like I'm obligated to walk somewhere in the rain, and it's nice to know that I can do it without the soggy misery of an incompletely waterproof coat.

Props to Matt B for the Aja recommendation.

Sunday, November 24, 2002

Sometimes I think:

Words... don't come easy.

Wednesday, November 20, 2002

There are nerds, and then there are übernerds. I dabble in nerdery (nerdition? nerditude? nerdtia?). My friend, Matt has been struggling to come up to speed in this overclocked and benchmarked society. He now has a P4 2.4GHz 512M (2100ddr) system with a mostly badass video card. We started the project last weekend, and encountered nothing but spontaneous hard resets, and seriously misconfigured video drivers. He almost converted to Mac. Again. But I saw him through the momentary weakness, and slogged onward. The weak link, we decided, was the cut-rate motherboard, so off to the local electronics mart we went to exchange the despised thing for a recognizable name brand. The nerd behind the counter went up the nerd chain of command and noticed that one jumper might have been causing all the problems- it was likely causing most of them.

So today I learned the importance of knowing my place in the nerd hierarchy, that being somewhere near the bottom.

Today also marks the day that this blog became an official shrine to Matt, who apparently is all I ever write about. Tomorrow, we obsess about someone else!

Wednesday, November 13, 2002

It's always a little sad to watch a young one's dreams come true in the most mundane and disappointing of ways. We saw 8 Mile with Matty and Trina last night, and a certain someone was feeling let down afterward. Kudos to Eminem, though, for cashing in early on his overexposure. The movie goes as follows: plucky white boy rages against the black mid-90's hip-hop machine and comes out on top. The dumb sidekick gets hurt, Our Hero gets the girl (strictly speaking he Gets Some - which I suppose is close enough), and the audience spends about 2 hours waiting to see Eminem do what he's supposed to: rap. Matty stumbled out of there, crestfallen, and mumbling about how his overinflated expectations ensured that the movie would fall short.

On the upside, Eminem does a pretty good job of playing himself, and you get to see a little of Kim Basinger's rear end, which should pretty much make up for any cinematic shortcomings.

Peace out.

Monday, November 11, 2002

Old stuff here. As long as it stays up. Look! I'm embracing the ephemeral nature of the medium!