Insanely Awe-dical

Today I saw a chair in a bathroom. It wasn't a chair of utility as shown above, but more of an useless side chair. Not to prop open a door, not to use for the towelman, not for use for anyone, other than the same person that rides in the sidecar of a motorcycle -- a buddy along for the ride. Any chair in the bathroom should be part of business, not some random chair in a bathroom.

Today I made this wonderful casserole-type thing. I was hungry, and immediately decided on fried-rice. Something about it called -- it promoted use of random spices (the smell of cooking garlic pulls me in), the chopping of types of vegetables and extras, and the addition of meat and rice in an odd mixture of fun. Something about cutting vegetables and preparing a meal is almost therapeutic. During this time I enjoyed a hilarious episode of Arrested Development playing in the background. I felt at peace.

The manic mixture was a blend of garlic, green onion, and onion to start the base smells. I cut up mushrooms, hot dogs, bacon, brocolli and tofu to follow it up. Follow it up with this morning's rice dropped in from above, followed by a stream of seasoning -- chicken marinade mix, garlic salt and good ol' pepper. I enjoyed a steaming bowl of this, and lots of it is left in the fridge for a midnight snack or tomorrow's meal.

Funny how a small desire to eat has transformed into this brilliant and odd mixture of flavor that I enjoyed almost way too much.

New post at 160 Rawkviews, featuring the best music video I've seen in a long time.

I enjoyed this mouse, and even now as I reach to get move my mouse, I end up positioning my hand in the patented hand-shake style this mouse promotes.

I realized there are a couple of weird things that I enjoy with no particular useful or explainable reason. It's like when people want to wear the latest fashion, or drive the newest version of the car they love, except mine aren't so much about "looking cool." It's something intrinsic and odd.

I enjoy computer peripherals.
- I love looking at mice at the store. I reallly think I should they should have some wipes there, since I'm sure everyone and their mom touches every mouse almost Monk-like as they pass them. I am currently using an whatever Kensington Optical mouse -- with it's frilly side rubber design, non-ergonomic with a cord. On occassion (read: when it works) I use the Microsoft Optical Cordless Duo, a beast of a mouse with it's ergo-cordless design, but sometimes I feel like I just enjoy a simple corded-works-all-the-time mouse. This vertical mouse looks like fun, and I'm tempted to get a laser mouse, just to have an excuse to say laser more often.

I enjoy left-handedness.
- It's some weird personal interest of mine -- I like realizing people are left-handed and I like left-handed stuff. My character in Fight Night Round 2 and 3 are all left-handed. To the point, where I can't play right-handed characters (a lot of punches require certain motions; I'm used to the power hand being left now, and my leading hand being my right).

I'm just a nerd.

A familiar pain struck me today. Blinking cursors and cryptic error messages relayed a problem that was not indicative of the real problem. All programmers have gone through the phase of the dreaded SEMICOLON. I'm working with a MySQL database today, and the error today comes from nesting single-quote marks. Experience shows me that the error the system is giving me is not really the problem, but merely a problem caused by the original problem.

me: gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah runtime errors
jae: lol
jae: i'd rather deal with runtime errors than pain in my legs

Apparently Gmail and Blogger have combined. I don't mind, except when I hit my *blog* shortcut, I get sent to the blogger login, but for some reason, Firefox decides to put in my gmail login; this confuses both the browser and me, and I'm sent to this blogger/gmail beta coalesence, which apparently has apparently hit their maximum for the time being; so I am forced to manually enter my login. I digress.

This video of Kenta Kobashi has been the latest "stuck-in-my-head" thing. Pretty big guy doing some sick clotheslines, chops, spinning neck chops, his Burning Hammer finisher, and some hefty-looking moonsaults.

The video is set to Alkaline Trio's "Burn", a song I didn't enjoy so much until it's heavy points where highlighted by some some god-fearing half-nelson suplexes. Now all I can see as it ends is a series of chumps being brutalized by these suplexes I've only seen in video games.

While looking for an image for this post, I came across the "Top 100 great images of Wrestling". I'm not sure a lot of you will feel the same stuff I felt when I saw them, but I thought it would be interesting to share:


Jerry "the King" Lawler and Ric Flair; two classics in their entrance attire...


"Macho man" Randy Savage and Elizabeth

I'm sure not many share my feelings when it comes to this stuff -- only a handful would really remember Owen Hart, British Bulldog, Mr. Perfect, Eddie Guerrero and thinking about how much the wrestling world has lost. Hogan went to his induction to the WWE Hall of Fame to meet a bunch of old school wrestlers. I've really enjoyed how Wikipedia and YouTube has got me way more into wrestling. Imagine following this stuff and seeing great untelevised matches through the wonder of the internet.

New post over at 160 Rawkviews. Check it out

It's my first day at my new job, and I'm not sure what to expect. I want to stay pensive, but aggressively look to learn to impress. To be honest, it's not enough to just learn, but to show that I'm going to learn and perform.

I'm pretty comfortable with myself at the moment, so here's to hoping that I'll do well on my first day.

YouTube link of the moment: Jay Z, Linkin Park, Paul McCartney - Numb/Encore/Yesterday

The best part is the mixing with the piano between Numb/Encore to Yesterday with Jay-z's rap and Chester's Yesterday singing. Paul sounded classic, and while it doesn't mesh quite perfectly, it sounds very cool.

but come on!

Yorkshire Post has an article where the local law enforcement voiced their disdain at the new Reservoir Dogs game where characters are players can willingly torture and kill police officers.

Quote: "It is disappointing to find violent video games on the market that may cause psychological harm to those who play them"

- The idea of ESRB rating is to only allow those of a sufficient maturity level to play games of its nature. Don't let kids play this game -- don't let kids play GTA. It's not about video game violence just as it isn't about MOVIE violence. When you watch a rated R movie, the idea is that you are mature enough to take it and absorb it.

If you allow your 12 year old to go watch Reservoir Dogs, then you are the one at fault, allowing someone relatively more impressionable to watch something gruesome. Same logic applies here - don't let your 12 year old play a game like this if you feel that it is too gruesome.

Quote: "It sends out the message that the police and authority figures are there to be targeted and dispatched, desensitizes people to the idea of killing and undermines normal moral values."

Hello GTA? I remember playing GTA and targeting and dispatching authority figures. That shit has been said left and right already. Get over it. While this game involves relatively more gruesome depictions of torture, the Punisher does similarly gruesome things, all in the name of personal self-pursuit.

To be honest, there was a recent brutal killing of several local police officers in the Yorkshire area, and this article may stem from the traumatic effect of that. Everyone wants to protect their own, and when one's own is damaged, they feel a need to fight against that. If there was a game where Filipinos were mercilessly slaughtered, I might feel a twinge.

Gamespot's Best of 2005 awards "Biggest News" to the Hot Coffee scandal:

When the "Hot Coffee" sex mini-game was first found inside the PC version of San Andreas, released in June, Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two dismissed it modders' unauthorized tinkering of code. However when the offending minigames were found inside an unalterable, first edition of the original PlayStation 2 game, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board found itself backed into a corner. Unable to dodge the oncoming avalanche of media invective and public outrage, it slapped San Andreas with a retroactive AO for Adults only rating, the kiss of death at retail.

While Take-Two paid a hefty price in the form of the top-selling San Andreas being pulled from most store shelves, the scandal had serious implications for the industry as a whole. It made games a convenient political whipping boy, as evidenced by a series of state laws restricting game sales. It also prompted federal action in the form of the Family Entertainment Protection Act, co-sponsored by Democratic U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton and Joe Liebermann.

If passed, the Family Entertainment Protection will make it a federal crime to sell M-rated titles to minors, regulating game sales along the same lines as cigarettes, alcohol, and pornography. If that comes to pass, the effects of Hot Coffee will be felt not just in 2005 and 2006, but five, 10, or 20 years down the road.

- To be honest -- I don't want my kid playing GTA no matter if it's rated AO or M. To be honest, the M versus AO difference is just between 17+ and 18+, but the stigma of AO takes them off big store shelves, like Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Target. Regardless of sales, yes - punish people who sell kids cigs, alkie, porn and those games. It hurts me to agree with Hilary - initially I thought her stance was just banning those games. Do not simply ban games. We don't ban porn. We have a rating board for a reason - let’s play by those rules and not get all fucking caught up in it.