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January 25, 2005
A little quiz: Answers
Here we go:
1. I once dated a slightly psycho Australian girl while I was in college.
TRUE. And oh, what a disaster. I regret that one and hated the way I acted.
2. I chose Colorado over my other options for college because they had a better football team.
FALSE. (Better than what, anyway?) I chose Colorado because it was not in Okieland.
3. The only time I went bungee jumping, I couldn't let go of the handhold because my knuckles were whiter than a Klan rally.
TRUE. I'm not acrophobic, but I just couldn't jump.
4. My first dog was put down after he mauled one of my younger brothers.
FALSE. Put down, yes, but because he was big and aggressive. My parents always told us he was given to another family, not put down, because they didn't want to be traumatized. Hell, they could have told me -- I want that dog dead.
5. The strongest swear word I can muster most days is "crap."
TRUE. I just... don't.
6. The only reason I took up blogging was to learn Perl.
FALSE. I did it for a writing outlet and to pick up some web skills I wasn't learning at work. I'm awful at Perl, actually.
7. Right now I only have two pairs of jeans and two pairs of khakis that fit my too-large arse.
TRUE. And thus, back on the diet.
8. I have been sick on every Inauguration Day since 1981.
FALSE. 1981, 1997, and 2005 I was sick.
9. I wish that I could have a do-over on years 16-25.
TRUE. Sad, directionless years those were. Pretty much one giant misanthropic depression.
10. I still chew paper.
TRUE. And plastic. And rubber bands. And I have since I was little-little. I like the... fibrousness of paper.
If you scored 8 or higher, congratulations, you did better than my mother.
Posted by dylan at 08:25 PM
January 24, 2005
Three inches of partly sunny
And a hello to all the other USS Mariner readers who came by to see what sort of weirdo I am. Today Derek Zumsteg mentioned that Baseball America super-writer Alan Schwarz had written a followup column on the "stats vs. scouts" debated that's been nibbling at baseball fans like so many rabid goslins over the last few years. In his "reader reactions" section he excerpts one of my comments on the USSM site -- twice.
I think this is a good thing for me, since it means that, apparently, I'm funny, or insightful, or can just make odd comment on meteorology. I think, though, what's far better is that this means Baseball America super-writer Alan Schwarz is reading USSM. That's a credit to the fine job Derek, David, and Jason do writing USSM.
And by the way, it looks like about 30% of people with USSM referrers are using Firefox. This is supposed to be a Microsoft town, isn't it?
Posted by dylan at 07:57 PM
January 21, 2005
A little quiz
Since I'm home sick with Annabel's cold (thanks, daughter dear), I may as well post something. So, I'm plaigarizing Tara's quiz.
True or False:
1. I once dated a slightly psycho Australian girl while I was in college.2. I chose Colorado over my other options for college because they had a better football team.
3. The only time I went bungee jumping, I couldn't let go of the handhold because my knuckles were whiter than a Klan rally.
4. My first dog was put down after he mauled one of my younger brothers.
5. The strongest swear word I can muster most days is "crap."
6. The only reason I took up blogging was to learn Perl.
7. Right now I only have two pairs of jeans and two pairs of khakis that fit my too-large arse.
8. I have been sick on every Inauguration Day since 1981.
9. I wish that I could have a do-over on years 16-25.
10. I still chew paper.
Answers Monday. Comment with your answers.
Posted by dylan at 03:28 PM | Comments (4)
January 19, 2005
Gonna be some changes made
The comment spam problem is growing at a geometric pace. Since I upgraded mt-blacklist six months ago, I've had more than 7,000 comments moderated or denied. Comment spammers now make up about 75% of the hits on this site. It's really getting... annoying.
So, I'm increasing the firepower.
- As mentioned previously, the nofollow plugin is now active.
- I've also added two additional plugins: MT-DSBL and Real Comment Throttle. MT-DSBL will bounce any comment that comes from any server listed as an open proxy on the DSBL. Real Comment Throttle limits the total number of times a day anyone can leave a comment on this here site. Both of these plugins may have some detrimental effects on legit commenters. If so, e-mail me and let me know the trouble. The user name might be wnalyd. You would probably want to send it to gmail. And it's a .com TLD.
- And oh, you should do your best not to mention any pharmaceuticals in any comment you post, trade name or generic. You were able to get it up and/or grow hair on it? Nice. But I don't care to hear about it.
Posted by dylan at 07:01 PM | Comments (5)
Say goodbye, don't follow
The Client and Server family of sites (both of them) has jumped on the nofollow bandwagon.
Everyone with a blog should get onboard. Even you Wordpress folk have no excuse.
Back to staying home from work with a sick kid. Sigh.
Posted by dylan at 12:54 PM | Comments (1)
January 13, 2005
Losing My History
I think my brain is at capacity. Memories seem to be leaking out at the seams.
Christmas 1989. I knew what I wanted for Christmas -- a CD player. So I asked, and I did receive, in the form of a big fugly gray boombox from Garrard. It was an awful player. It had this bad tendency to just stop reading CDs and flash up all these weird LCD screen characters, like it was possessed, and required a slap on the hood to work again. Still, it was a CD player, and I was just happier than you could imagine.
I was even happier to discover that my parents, by skimping on quality, gave me quantity -- $100 to build the CD collection. So day after Christmas I high-tailed it down to the Sound Warehouse at 51st and Lewis. And here is where my memory is suddenly fuzzy. I swear, upon the Bible, the complete OED, and the Baseball Encyclopedia, that I bought six CDs that day. (And yes, I was a bit of an over-the-top REM fan in those days.)
- Fables of the Reconstruction, REM
- Life's Rich Pagent, REM
- Dead Letter Office, REM
- Never Mind The Bollocks, Sex Pistols
- Synchronicity, Police
- ?
My brain is working overtime trying to solve the mystery. Did I only buy five CDs? It's possible, but a CD at Sound Warehouse was $13.99(or less... I'm a little fuzzy there), and I know I had change (because I remember taking that money and going to QuikTrip with it afterwards), but I didn't have a lot of change (that is, not more than $10), and I only bought as many CDs as I could for $100. So, at $14, that means I had to have bought 6.
What could the sixth CD have been? Well, I was a little too in to REM, so it could have been Reckoning. After all, I'd pretty much worn out that tape. It could have been Murmur, too. I've also thought it might have been New Order, but that doesn't seem as likely.
Meanwhile, the mystery keeps pestering me, eating up valuable CPU time that could be going to other, more meaningful things. Like video games.
Posted by dylan at 09:03 AM | Comments (2)
January 03, 2005
Best music of 2004
Geez, this is way overdue.
Like last year, I didn't buy all that much in the CD department. However, this year I did have iTunes and a few more radio stations on the Internets to choose from. So, my list of the best albums of 2004 (in no particular order):
Escondida, Jolie Holland
Eveningland, Hem
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, U2
Van Lear Rose, Loretta Lynn
Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand
Good News For People Who Love Bad News, Modest Mouse
The Dirty South, Drive-By Truckers
Final Straw, Snow Patrol
The Gray Album, DJ Danger Mouse
Albums that disappointed me this year:
a ghost is born, Wilco -- A wholly frustrating album. Does Jeff Tweedy want to be the new Thurston Moore? Because they're a really awful Sonic Youth cover band. I gave up on them returning to their alt-country roots two albums ago, but I'm sure not liking the shoe-looking experiementation they're trying now.
Drag It Up, Old 97's -- It sounds as thrown together as it is. Just chalk this one up to experience and hope that Rhett and Co. can reclaim the cohesiveness they used to have.
And my favorite songs:
- Take Me Out, Franz Ferdinand -- In 20 years, this will be the song that will pop into your head when the person in the white coat says "2004." A mid-90s grungy please-date-me intro that drops straight into a Foreigner-meets-East-Germany-martial-rock riff? A song that could be blasting out of a jukebox in 1981 or the be the theme to La Femme Nikita: The Movie Based On The TV Show Based On The Movie? To call this brilliant would be like saying Seurat was a dot painter.
- Portland Oregon, Loretta Lynn -- As it was for Johnny Cash, so it is for Loretta. The difference is while Rick Rubin was a Cash fan, he didn't get him the way Jack White got Loretta Lynn. When she sings, "Well Portland Oregon and sloe gin fizz/
If that ain't love then tell me what is," you're saying "uh-huh" half a second before she adds it, because it's Loretta Lynn singing the truth, even if you hate gin. - Won't Be Home, Old 97's -- Weak album, but what a strong song.
- Somewhere Only We Know, Keane -- I said to myself, "This year I won't get sucked in by yet another Bends-era Radiohead soundalike band." Everything was going well until this song went into 24/7 rotation on KEXP. Damnit. And it's so pretty it's worth getting sucked in by. Damnit again.
- Float On, Modest Mouse -- Damnit yet again. It's not that I don't like Modest Mouse, it's just... they were EVERYWHERE this year. Go get coffee, the song is playing. Turn on the radio, there it is. Ride the elevator, it's a David Sanborn-esque arrangement. Heck, the government mind-control satellites were probably blasting it out. I mean, any song with the line "Bad news comes don't you worry even when it lands/Good news will work its way to all them plans" had to be Dubya's campaign theme song.
- Take Your Mama Out, Scissor Sisters -- No wonder Elton John loves this song. It's a better Elton John record than anything he's released in the last 25 years. (And yes, I did rip Fountains of Wayne last year for their Cars homage, but what's different here is that "Take Your Mama Out" is inspired by Honky Chateau-era John, "Stacy's Mom" is a couple of notes shy of a Ric Ocasek lawsuit.)
- Freedom Isn't Free, Trey Parker and Matt Stone -- After three years of craptacular country songs dedicated to making money by lionizing America, someone finally has the gumption to skewer the genre like so much chicken satay.
- Everyone Knows Everyone, Helio Sequence -- Because it's pretty, and because the whoop-whoops are devious little earworms.
And the worst. Not as many as last year, but this is less an indication of an improvement in the quality and more an indication of a lack of quantity heard this year. And oh, I'm tired and want to finish this.
The entire works of William Hung. There's bad and campy (Shatner). There's so bad it's good (The Darkness, aka the Sons of Spinal Tap). And there's William Hung, who isn't good, lacks irony, and needs to get back to Cal soon and get a real career so that my ears will stop bleeding.
The Dog Song, Nellie McKay. I know she's getting all these glowing reviews as this acerbic, New York version of Norah Jones, but this song... annoys me. A lot. I mean, it sounds like William Hung wrote it. It's about 1/3rd the trite lyrics that Jessica Simpson could outsmart, and 2/3rds that gawdawful dog panting.
Comfortably Numb, Scissor Sisters. For as great of an homage "Take Your Mama Out" is, "Comfortably Numb" is a stark reminder that late 70s disco should not be revived, and that there should be an international treaty banning covers of Pink Floyd songs.
Posted by dylan at 12:27 AM | Comments (4)
January 01, 2005
The new year
Well, last year's resolutions were a total, utter bust. I mean, it was more a failure than Cal's "statement game" in the Holiday Bowl.
So, I'm keeping it simple this year.
- I will get my weight down to a healthy level.
- I will redesign this weblog and think about fulfilling some of these create thoughts I've had about blogging in the last two years.
- I will enjoy my daughter's second year alive, because soon enough she'll be 16, crashing the car, and dating some good-for-nothing named Braden or Caden or Payden.
And happy birthday to my dear wife, who has had to endure depression, impatience, incompetence, and financial bewilderment this past year... on top of whatever it is she's personally dealing with.
Posted by dylan at 10:44 AM