the following was posted on slashdot in regards to rebuilding new orleans post-katrina:

A) Don't live by a freaking ocean. Oceans have hurricanes.

B) Don't live in a city that is 8 feet below sea level. Flooding WILL occur.

Problem solved.

as cold as it is, i kinda hafta agree.

--j

alayna and i both suffer from canker sores, so i was searching walgreens for some medication. knowing that one of the prime ingredients in topical pain relief is benzocaine, i searched for that to see what would turn up. along with the results i was expecting, i also got a link to Mandelay, which (fittingly enough) prolongs a man's ability to last. that would have been a great time for somebody to walk by my cube and get a good glimpse at what would appear to be my interest.

i'm on a kick lately of buying up some stuff that i've had burned for a while, but i feel i should probably own for real. it had occurred to me that some of my favorite albums i actually own only in the format of a circa 2000 memorex CD-R and often with 128kbps quality primitive rips. i'm much more of an audiophile than i was 5 years ago, and i can actually tell they're shittier quality, especially after i've abandoned playing CDs and rip everything to 192kbps mp3s. so rather than buying my favorite tracks on iTunes or napster (which highly unfortunately lock me into a proprietary format) i pick up the used CD for as low as i can find.

my favorite used CD store i've found so far is SecondSpin. this time around i've ordered the following --

Bush / Deconstructed – $3
Neve / Neve – $3
Caviar / Caviar – $3
Dave Navarro / Trust No One – $4
Silverchair / Frogstomp – $3
Fuel / Something Like Human – $4
2 Skinnee J’s / Volumizer – $3

each of those has at least 4 tracks that i like, which means they go into iTunes and my 20gb player. so for only $3 or $4, i average less than a $1 a track (so less than iTunes or napster) and i get it in uncompressed PCM format, so i can do what i want with it. plus an added bonus: the RIAA sees no profit from used CD sales. ;)

despite my giant lack of playing my PS2 lately, i've decided to go back and get legit copies of a few classics. i'm more likely to pick 'em up and play if i see the box over on the rack, heh. plus at this point a lot of 'em are pretty damn cheap.

as an example, i saw grand theft auto 3 on ebay with like 42 minutes left to go, highest bid at like $3.75. so i put one down with a max of $4.50 and had the winning bid at $4.25 till like the last second, when somebody won it for $6.50. i figured i had lost a good deal, but then i checked gamestop and saw they have it for $4.99 used anyway. vice city is only $8, beyond good & evil is $10. so i decided fuck ebay and half.com, i'll just buy 'em through good ol' gamestop. this seems to work for the older games, but newer stuff like god of war and gran turismo 4 is still like $40 used, so you're better off bidding on those probably.

a rare workday post, eh?

--j

been a lot of goofin around on the machines tonight. wanted to play paper mario for a while but i know i'll just end up getting sucked into a 2 hour gaming session. i messed around with google talk a bit, using iChat. it's a cool concept to unite all the major IM protocols, although you have to have a GMail account, which i had never even bothered with. so right now my jabber/gmail buddy list consists of... rick. heh, damn.

i was looking through some Growl applications and came across Last.fm, which looks pretty cool so far. it's basically a community for tracking people's music habits and meshing people with similar tastes. it tracks whatever i play through iTunes with a plug-in and uploads it to the site. you can even write small blog entries about certain artists or albums. it's cool to open up an album listing and see how popular each track is, too. check out my profile on the link to the left. (although i'm sure it'll be more interesting after a month.)

3am thunder is cool.

--j

here's what i'm looking forward to in the coming tv season, just for grins...

prison break (premiere) - aug. 29
looks kinda like 24, which is good.

the simpsons (season 17) - sept. 11
yeah, it's starting to get *really* played out, but can you blame them? still good for a late-night tivo.

family guy (season 4) - sept. 11
first half of the season was a bit hot and cold, but still some hilarious episodes.

survivor (location: guatemala) - sept. 15
couldn't be much more played out, but tough to avoid watching with alayna being a rampant follower.

arrested development (season 3) - sept. 19
season 1 was better, but season 2 was still some of the best shit on tv.

surface (premiere) - sept. 19
i dunno, could be cool. sorta sci-fi.

my name is earl (premiere) - sept. 20
yeah, it has jason lee in it. that's enough to at least try it out.

the office (season 2) - sept. 20
my personal second-most anticipated show. just got the season 1 dvd, absolutely terrific.

lost (season 2) - sept. 21
my most anticipated returning show. fantastic.

invasion (premiere) - sept. 21
could be cool, could suck. i'll know within 2 weeks.

ER (season 12) - sept. 22
last season was better than the previous, which is encouraging. i think us and 11 other people still follow it.

numb3rs (season 2) - sept. 23
still getting through season 1, but really enjoy it.

desperate housewives (season 2) - sept. 25
one of the biggest surprises of last year. only hope the pace picks up a bit.

grey's anatomy (season 2) - sept. 25
another great surprise of last year. it'll be nice to have more than like 9 episodes.

amazing race (season 8) - sept. 27
family edition instead of couples, but still my top reality series.

the night stalker (premiere) - sept. 29
sounds like a cool concept.

NCAA football and NFL seasons starting up soon as well. look forward to any games in HD. can't wait for the NHL season to start on october 5th. i'll focus on all that stuff in a future post...

--j

sad news for nintendo fans today... zelda: twilight princess was delayed until at least march '06 instead of its original november release date. basically, everybody was looking forward to this zelda being sort of the last hurrah for the gamecube. but coming out in march of next year now? by that time the xbox 360 will already have been out for months and the PS3 could very well be close to launch, not to mention nintendo's own revolution.

the thing that baffles me is who the fuck's gonna want to play a game on the cube when the revolution is about to come out? isn't that kinda like having a good ol' time with super mario 3 while all your buddies were enamored with super mario world?

personally i'm behind enough in my gaming so that it won't affect me much, although i think over the xmas holidays i prolly would have been more likely to waste my days away with a zelda game rather than to fire up my long-awaited jumps into stuff like tales of symphonia and pikmin 2.

---

y'know, i still don't really know what my take on the next gaming generation is. i don't know if at this point i really lean towards any of the 3 with wholehearted support. i love nintendo for their first-party games, but as soon as they announced no HD support i was really disappointed. if the revolution doens't cost an arm and a leg it might work for a good second system i guess. i'd like to think that i'd purchase either a ps3 or a 360.

some stuff about the 360 turns me off as well though. microsoft's really rushing the console a bit, and the news that mulitple versions of it could come out in the next few years doesn't make you wanna run out and buy one on launch day. i have no doubt it'll be powerful and their HD support should be pretty strong, but i'm not sure if i'm the biggest xbox supporter. i didn't even play one till '04 actually, when i grew to love my roommate's ninja gaiden. i won't naysay the console enough to make myself look like an ass if i buy one, just that i'm not 100% excited about its upcoming release.

i feel like so far we just don't know enough about the ps3. sure it's gonna be powerful, but i dunno if their gaming network will stand up to microsoft's. i'm also really unimpressed with a lot of sony's decisions lately. if the console's gonna launch at $500, i sure as hell wouldn't buy it too quick. having a blu-ray player could be sweet, but let's face it, the HD-DVD vs. blu-ray battle hasn't even begun yet. i think the best feature of going with a playstation is knowing that you'll have good franchises for it, sorta like nintendo's legacy characters. if you go with the ps3, you at least know you'll have all of sony's best sellers coming soon, which could really drive its sales.

if the revolution drops enough in price or is considerably cheaper than its competitors, i'll strongly consider it. the idea of yet more advanced mario/zelda/f-zero/metroid/donkey kong/pikmin/etc franchises sounds too tasty to pass up. nintendo hasn't yet convinced me of anything with the classic gaming library access they've mentioned so far. i grew up playing a lot of fantastic nintendo games, but that doesn't mean i wanna spend my free time going back and playing 'em all for nostalgia's sake. if i wanted to do that bad enough, i'd invest more time in emulators.

sure i'm growing up a bit more and could maybe get by without any new console at all, but knowing me i won't go that route. it also helps that i feel i'm becoming more and more turned off by PC gaming now that consoles are so advanced. it's funny that i engineered my apartment to enjoy playing PC games on the 50" DLP, and yet i hardly ever use it to play games. a lot of PC games are plenty of fun, but i'll be damned if the instability of most of the games doesn't drive me insane. i always feel artificial pressure to fit in and play the latest junk that's come out, and yet it's so demanding on the hardware that it frustrates me enough to just flip on the cube or ps2 instead. i typically have like 20 minutes of fun with doom 3 or C&C: generals before the system just reboots itself and the monitor won't come back on for another 5 minutes. that kinda shit drives me crazy. i could do a million things to fix that kinda crap, but the problem is i have to spend 2 hours fixing something to play a game for 15 minutes. much easier to just bide your time on the console that never seems to crash.

--j

god dammit, i was gonna blow some hours playing paper mario tonight. instead i fell asleep.

stupid essential bodily function.

--j

hmm, miscellanous shit today, hey?

watched a couple dvd's over the last few days... sin city has got an 8.4 on IMDb, and i think i actually agree with it. the movie was a little confusing here and there, but the style and action were brilliant, i was quite impressed. i'm debating whether to buy it on dvd, since it does have a sweet DTS track on there. highly recommended.

i was also eager to come across a very long engagement. i loved amelie so seeing this had the same director and lead actress i was intrigued. it wasn't as good as amelie (only cuz of the world war I setting) but it was still terrific. a movie's gotta be somewhat good when you can watch it for 2 hours without hearing a single word of your native tongue. i've give it a 7.5. also highly recommended.

lauren let me know that dane cook's shooting a pilot, which as much as i love the guy's comedy, does not bode well. seems more likely to be cancelled than adored for the next half decade. it smells like... a sellout.

i dunno how i didn't catch it sooner, but ricky gervais (david brent from BBC's the office) has a new show on BBC2 called extras. i don't get BBC2, but i've watched the first episode. tricky, eh? it's not quite up to the office's standard yet, but it's still entertaining. it'll actually show stateside on HBO this fall. but i, uh, don't get HBO.

i might be in the minority on this one, but i was thrilled when i saw that the american version of the office is being released on dvd next week. a lot of people didn't like the vibe from it, but i think it's hilarious. bit of a rip with 6 episodes for $20, but if i did it for coupling, i guess i'll do it for the office. props to NBC for putting this DVD out quickly, as opposed to taking forever to put the scrubs seasons out.

we've got a handful of episodes of curb your enthusiasm season 3 left, so good timing for CYE season 4 to street on 8/30, in time for season 5 to start up on 9/25. hoping somebody seeds those episodes somewhere, heh.

big brother australia is finally winding down, and stateside BB6 is surprisingly better than last year's edition. i was proud to get lauren hooked on TVgasm's hilarious recaps of each episode.

an hour or so of paper mario was entertaining the other night. i haven't played a PS2 game in ages, which worries me.

i finally found a disease i can claim. it's called Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS) and i hereby claim to have it from now on. that wiki article describes me to a T. remember, if you see it on wikipedia, it must be true.

--j

pardon me, i'm feeling ranty, and i haven't bitched for a while on here...

i think this is basically the closest i get to being bored. i don't really get bored. i've always got so many things lined up to entertain myself that i'm not sure it's technically accurate to say that i'm capable of actual boredom. but i think this feeling is as close as i'll get.

i'm not really one to fall in love with the idea of routine. i try to avoid routine as much as possible. i don't like showing up at work the exact same time everyday. whether it's 7:45, 8:30, 11, whatever, as long as it's not back-to-back-back days of standard 8am everyday. so far i've been able to avoid it well enough.

but at home, it tends to be a different story. alayna and i are comfortable with each other enough so that we're basically like a couple that's been married for a couple years. we're sweet to each other like a married couple, and we bitch at each other like a married couple. we're kind of the standard couple really... she's more apt to do the dishes like a woman, i'm more apt to get in trouble for not doing a chore.

when you're past college and into the working world, you're really free to do anything you want with your nights. people take a lot of different approaches to that... some take up hobbies, some go out all the time, some have organized events and activities that keep them away from the house for hours, some people work 60 hours a week and have no free time at all, some spend their whole night just couch potato'ing. i think i'm still trying to find my niche as far as how i spend my night hours when living with someone else.

i kinda see nightly interests as a venn diagram. some couples have a large overlapping area, some have virtually no overlap at all. i guess i feel like we've got an average amount. i consider both of us individually to have a pretty wide array of interests -- alayna will sit down and enjoy a basketball game just as much as she'll stay glued to the tv for an episode of rachael ray's 30 minute meals. i'll play first-person shooters one minute and watch a tivo'd episode of steven's untitled rock show the next.

the thing is, at times when we start falling slave to a routine i start to feel like we have very little interests in common. at this time of year, we've got australian and american big brother's airing, and we're both interested in that. she considers herself a bona fide reality tv fan, whereas i'm the complete hypocrite that shuns all things reality except big brother, amazing race and occasionally survivor. but my problem is i tend to grow a little weary of shows like that way quicker than she does, and i end up just kinda coasting along. big brother australia has a little over a week left, and thus far 126 episodes have aired this season. no, i didn't mistype that. when a show has been running non-stop (roughly 11 episodes per week) for 87 days, how can it not wear thin on you? you get to the point where you just watch till the end just to finish the damn thing, and you end up being completely relieved when it's over.

i get a little scared sometimes cuz i'm afraid we've sort of fallen into that every-night-we'll-be-tv-drones category. we aren't traditional tv watchers, we basically watch nothing live. but sometimes, it's... kinda all we do... it's weird. and this isn't even prime tv season, it's the middle of the damn summer. i mean it's great that we have specific interests and we're able to download or record what we want and enjoy it, but sometimes it makes me a bit embarrassed. i'm the one with the killer home theater setup, i've got the giant tv and great soundsystem, a gamecube and a PS2, and we spend 90% of our time watching shows 98% of the people we know care nothing about.

it's one of those things that never let up. there's always something else to watch. i have gigabytes and gigabytes of shows i like or have heard good things about. some of it i end up getting around to and love (the office), some of it i delay for a while and get to later (futurama) and some of it i get so lagged behind that i disgustingly delete it and forget about it (robot chicken). but i'll never run out. i know i know, terrible problem to have, but that's how i always approach it.

i have the first 2 seasons of alias on dvd. wanna know a secret? i've never even seen one full episode of it. but i've seen 20 minutes before that were great, and rick (who has similar entertainment tastes) says it's good. this fall, the fifth season of alias is starting. do i actually expect to watch 4 complete seasons worth before that? i'll be lucky to have seen 4 episodes. i have countless examples of shows i'd love to watch. but then i have a handful of burned dvd's i have yet to see. i have stacks and stacks of terrific GC/PS2/PC games i've only played 5 minutes of.

it's my nature sometimes. i have an interest and i squeeze the life out of it till i'm almost not interested at all anymore.

i'll admit, and alayna (now having had 2 months to observe my daily ways) has pointed it out as well. i spend too much goddamn time at the computer, and i have to find some way to stop. i remember when i moved from college into my apartment that i purposely set it up so that my tv was in a different room than my main PC, so i'd be more apt to stay near the tv (hence, more gaming/movies/etc) instead of at the computer all the time.

in college, downloading was my vice. didn't matter what it was, just to get something, to collect something was what i wanted to do all the time. who cares if i didn't listen to the albums i downloaded or played the PC games i burned. now, i think it's RSS feeds and message boards that eat all my time. i put too much stock into the latest slashdot and tivocommunity topics, the latest tech news and apple rumors, gaming reviews, etc etc etc. i'd say a tenth of what i come across actually interests me. most of the time i get to a point where i just realize i'm sitting at the computer(s) just for the sake of sitting and i'm too lazy to start something else in another room.

i think sometimes i just need to tell myself on particular nights that i don't need to do anything online. i like to be up on the news, but i don't care this much. i don't have to organize newly ripped albums or my latest catches from the complete_cd newsgroup every night. i just need to vary things up a bit. i need to feel the accomplishment of watching a movie everybody talked about but i never saw (sideways) or a guilty pleasure i wanted to see (constantine). i need to be honest and blow off big brother for a night or two and just say that i'd rather get back into paper mario or play a few games of NHL 2005. i think that's what will make me feel better. every night can't be about sitting around bullshitting on a computer and watching people trapped in a house with cameras.

imagine the irony of complaining about internet addiction on a blog. ;) i'm sure we've both had enough.

--j