Right now you're probably thinking what I'm thinking: "If I hear that damn Moulin Rouge song one more time I'm going to throw myself out the window." Or something to that effect.  Well it ain't getting much better folks, LFO just released a new single.  That's right, for the next 2 months you can expect to hear more witty lyrics about high school proms and such, all funded in no doubt by the Abercrombie and Fitch Corporation ("New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits, Chinese food makes me sick").  That's why I stand before you today, music collection in hand, ready to point you down the path towards righteousness.  Here's my take on some CDs that have come out in the last year.

(Artist -- Title)

Zebrahead -- Playmate of the Year (4 out of 5 stars)
If there's one thing that's guaranteed to get airplay nowadays it's tattooed, spiky-haired guys from southern California singing about boobies and other such mature topics.  It worked for the Bloodhound Gang, it worked for Blink 182, but Zebrahead forgot one crucial aspect: identifying their target audience.  Let's face it, the majority of Zebrahead fans or possible fans are high schoolers hanging out with their skateboards and their pot, so why promote your album in Playboy, a magazine that none of these pot-smoking skaters are old enough to buy?  Because of this a lot of people missed what turned out to be a really catchy album.  It's poppier than their first major-label release, and anyone with bleach tipped hair (which is pretty much everyone nowadays) would've loved it.  Alas, the band returns to SoCal to work on their 3rd release, which me and about 3 other people are eagerly anticipating.

New Found Glory -- New Found Glory (5 out of 5 stars)
Once upon a time, I went to a Less than Jake concert.  Before LTJ came out to play, I once again prepared myself for 2 mediocre opening acts which probably should still be playing in their parents' garages.  The first band, Anti-Flag, was all I expected and worse.  "Die Die Die for your government" they screamed, and between songs they preached mob rule and a violent disregard of our legislative system.  Next up was New Found Glory, who absolutely blew me away.  I purchased their album on amazon.com (which I by no means endorse) the next day, and it hasn't been out of my CD player since then.  Trust me, every song is the best song you have ever heard.  They get compared to Blink and other similar bands, but while Blink sings about girls from the point of view of a horny 14-year-old, these guys do it with the same upbeat style and 3 times the maturity.  Run, don't walk, to the nearest record store and buy this album, you will thank me later (hopefully by sending me money).

Less than Jake -- Borders and Boundaries (4 out of 5 stars)
There is no bigger underground band than Less than Jake.  They don't get a mention on MTV or any radio station, yet everyone has heard of them.  They tour the world about 4 times a year, and are treated as gods in Japan (where apparently every pop-punk-sounding US band is revered as if they have more musical talent than the Beatles).  In this album they've abandoned most of the ska rhythms found in their earlier work Pezcore and have gone to more of an all-out punk sound.  Unfortunately, they also let Roger sing more, which is a very bad thing.  Imagine yourself singing in the shower, then imagine yourself doing it completely off-key.  This is Roger.  I've been told that I sing better than Roger, this is not a good thing.  There are some very strong songs on this album, which is a little more diverse than some of LTJ's past offerings, but the presence of Roger's off-key voice is an automatic loss of one star.  Let us never hear from him again.

Blink 182 -- The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show (3 out of 5 stars)
A riddle: what do you do when it's been 2 years since your last album and you don't have enough hits to release a "greatest hits" compilation?  Release a live album, at least that's what Dave Matthews did about 5 times.  All of Blink's fun, immature hits are here (with the exception of Josie, why no Josie?) plus their one mature hit (Adam's Song, the obligatory serious song about teen suicide).  Then there are about 10 other songs that all sound the same.  In fact, 3 of them feature the exact same guitar line.  Finally there is the witty stage banter, a whopping 30 some-odd tracks worth of it, most of which involves Tom telling girls in the audience to take their clothes off.  They call it the Mark, Tom, and Travis show, yet we never hear a word from Travis, and Tom sounds like he has his guitar stuck up his ass.  If you don't own any other Blink albums, buy this one just so you get all their good songs in one place.

Sum 41 -- All Killer No Filler (3 out of 5 stars)
Let's say it's midnight on the night before you have a final exam and you see a crowd of people rushing into Vintage Vinyl for no apparent reason.  Being a follower easily swayed by the actions of others, you race to the door, pay the man $7 for some unknown reason, and run inside to find...a band you've never heard of playing 3 songs before they are ordered to stop because of St. Louis noise ordinances.  The funny thing is, this exact thing happened to me, with said unknown band being Sum 41.  Their song 'Fat Lip' may be tearing up the airwaves now, but this album (which I received in exchange for my $7) is much more than just this one song.  With a maturity level somewhere above Blink but below New Found Glory, this album clocks in at about 25 minutes, but if you can pick it up for $7 then I definitely recommend it, it's catchy as hell.  Plus one of the guys in the band is Indian.  How many other people of Indian descent are in punk bands?  None I say, support the Indian punk scene and give this album a shot.

American Hi-Fi -- American Hi-Fi (3 out of 5 stars)
Back before Napster was shut down by those evil corporate bigwigs from Metallica, I used it for its intended purpose, to "try before I buy".  I downloaded 3 random songs from this album in order to best judge whether I should purchase it.  Unfortunately those 3 songs (Flavor of the Weak, I'm a Fool, and Another Perfect Day) turned out to be the best songs on the album.  If you're expecting the whole album to be as pop-friendly as Flavor of the Weak, you will be disappointed.  Many of the others aren't as catchy, but are more musically complex.  After many listens, the other songs have grown on me to where I would say that I do like this album, but I still feel like I've been led on.  Damn that horrible bitch-goddess that was Napster!

Fenix TX -- Leschuza (3 out of 5 stars)
I'm committing the cardinal sin of CD reviewing here, I'm reviewing a CD that I've only listened to twice.  I have not had enough time to fully soak in the ambience or formulate a true opinion.  But I'll try :-) The first song, Phoebe, is about being in love with Phoebe Cates from the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High.  I can't say that I've ever been that enamored with celebrity types, although I'm sure that Jennifer Love Hewitt and I would be great together.  This is the only real upbeat 'pop' song on the album, the rest are darker, longer, and some are just as good.  Tearjerker is a good rock ballad, although not as epic or grandiose as the monster ballads of the 80's, but then again every band can't be Def Leppard.  Nothing on this album is as good as Flight 601 (All I've Got is Time) from their first album, which is why it only gets 3 stars, but it is more balanced and deep.

Stone Temple Pilots -- Shangri-La-Di-Da (2 out of 5 stars)
There seems to be some sort of inverse relationship between the amount of drugs that Scott Weiland has in his system and the quality of songs that his band puts out.  Core was a phenomenal album, Purple was even better, and Tiny Music..., while more of a departure from their past success, showed more musical maturity and depth.  Then Mr. Weiland found his way into rehab, his band did their own thing for awhile, and a year or two later he made his triumphant return to sobriety to put out the most godawful piece of crap I have ever heard: No. 4.  Every review I read spoke of this album as "better than No. 4", which sounded promising, so I took a chance and purchased it.  Unfortunately, the reviewers must've been smoking some crack of their own because this album could also be called "No. 4 and a half".  The 'rock' style songs have the exact same sound and feel as the ones on No. 4, and for the most part the ballads (formerly the underlying strength of any STP release) are weak and uninspired.  The song Too Cool Queenie is a thinly veiled reference to Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain and is about as subtle as Britney Spears' implants.  With this said, there is one excellent song on here called Wonderful.  If you can track it down online, download it immediately.  Whether or not this song is worth spending $17 on the album for is up to you.

Blink 182 -- Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2 out of 5 stars)
...And check your adultivity at the door.  It's time for another rollicking romp through freshman year of high school courtesy of the boys from Blink.  Mark complains that kids are victims, Tom explains how easy it is to meet hot girls at concerts, Mark caterwauls about his girlfriend breaking up with him and unleashes a stream of cusswords a mile long (which are convieniently bleeped out on my disc thanks to the friendly folks at Amazon.com shipping me the wrong f***ing one).  Frankly I don't understand why any girl would go out in the first place with someone who seems to be afflicted with a disease causing him to scream "boobies" at every girl he sees.  Nevertheless, there are some fun tunes on here that have me looking forward to seeing them in concert in a few weeks.  Who knows, perhaps I will meet a hot high school girl at the rock show.

Comments: 0 Posted by chris on 29 June 2001 at 7:07 PM

sigh.. I went and told dave I was probably going to post tonight, so I guess I will.  but it should be noted that I am very sleepy and my hearts just not in it.  but I do have some news of interest to relate, so at least it wont be one of those topicless posts.

first, Id like to showcase my lastest aquisition of dragonball z merchandise.  those diehard readers with nearly photographic memories probably recall back around january when I first raved about irwins new line of dragonball z toys, of which I purchased krillin, trunks, dende, and king kai.  I loved my new toys, and I was anxiously awaiting irwins release of some of the more major characters, frequenting toy stores ever since in hopes that I will find them.  however, Id recently started to lose hope.  that is until last wednesday, when browsing at suncoast video my dreams finally became reality.  thats right: piccolo, vegeta, and goku have finally been added to my collection.  Im quite happy.

also, while I was at the mall getting my dragonball z toys, I witnessed the something I feel I must share with our readers.  while browsing in target I couldnt help but notice that something seemed strange about one of the other customers.  as the man walked toward me, something about his hair seemed out of place.  in the front it was short, but draped over his left shoulder were long brown locks of mullet.  but wait, this was no ordinary bad haircut.  as he passed and I turned to look at him, I saw very clearly that he had long hair only on the left-hand side.  the other half was shortly cropped.  it was a half-mullet.  I could not believe what I was seeing.  when told of the discovery of the mythical half-mullet, rachel (of ouranophobe.com) was shocked.  "that is like the missouri compromise times two," she said.  times two indeed. (I have absolutely no idea what she meant.)

also you should watch this if you get the chance.  its very neat.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 28 June 2001 at 11:34 PM

I registered a new domain name for myself tonight.  It's just a personal site.  Kind of like michael's nothingisgood.com, just not as cool.  My new site is called HiddenInput.com.  The DNS should propagate to you by next week.  Hopefully I'll have some content up before then.

This is the third domain name that I've bought.  About 18 months ago I registered siderealsystems.com.  I did it for fun, and put up a spoof company website on site.  The site design hasn't changed since michael and I worked on it in the spring of 2000.  A few months after I put it up I got this via email.  I was surprised, to say the least.  Anyway, to get my narrative back on track, you are looking at the second domain name I purchased.  michael and I got this site a few months ago, in December of 2000.  Although this is a joint site I am technically the owner, mainly because I have a credit card and michael doesn't, so I pay the bills.  Now I have three sites.  I imagine that this will be the last domain name I buy in a personal capacity of awhile.  Now I just have to come up with some content.

I've been typing this post while looking at my new monitor.  It has rocked my world.  My old monitor was crap and if I made things too bright, text got so blurry that I couldn't read it.  So I kept it very dark.  On my new monitor colors are bright and vivid.  This may be one of the best upgrades I've ever made.

michael has promised to post later tonight, so hold on to your chairs.  We're about to go on a wild ride involving multiple posts from multiple contributors all in one day!  Huzzah!  Or whatever.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 28 June 2001 at 9:41 PM

Yesterday I had to move to another cubicle here at work.  I packed up the three or four books I use here at work, my files, phone, computer, monitor, various desktop organizers, Kimwipes, CDs, cans of Coke, Jolly Ranchers, and other various items and carried them across the office to my new desk.  I wasn't too put out by this, even though I had to go through various doors, all of which swung in the wrong direction (from my perspective), to get to my new desk.  The thing that irked me was the fact that while I had to carry all of my stuff, everyone else had carts to use to move their stuff on.  And none of the engineers were allowed to move their own computers, for liability reasons should they drop it, but I was specifically told that I had to move my own computer.  When I asked if I would be liable if I dropped it, I was told that "It's best if you don't worry about that." To me, that statement is open to a number of interpretations, some which aren't so good for me.  Fortuantely, I didn't drop my computer.  All told, I was not too happy by the time I get set up at my new desk, so to spite the people who forced me to move, I didn't do any work for the remaining 2.5 hours before the day ended.  (Of course, I couldn't think of any new designs for the webpage I was working on, and that may have contributed to my decision to browse the 'net for inspiration.)

In other, happier news TigerDirect finally emailed me the tracking number for my monitor.  I'm expecting it to arrive today.  If you'd like to join with me in checking on the package status every five minutes, click here.

I've been thinking about writing some reviews of some of the online stores I frequent.  Time premitting I may throw a review of the dirty and vile TigerDirect later tonight.  (Tiger is not actually dirty and vile, just irritating and frustrating.)

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 27 June 2001 at 12:10 PM

A boring, uneventful day is how I would describe my day is I were asked to do so.  I wasn't, so I offer no comment on it other than to mention that the highlight of my day came when I cleaned out my closet, which doesn't exactly rank highly on the fun-filled-activities meter.

I bought a couple of CDs at Best Buy today, but I haven't had the chance to listen to them yet, so I don't know if they were worthwhile purchases or not.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'll try to make things clear: I have nothing to post about.  Try clicking on the links at the top of the page if you are looking for something interesting to read.  Or go here or here.  They are both good sites.

Later.

PS -- I bought a digital camera yesterday on the Internet.  Yet another item I can check the shipping status of every ten minutes, only to be upset when I find out it hasn't shipped yet.  I really need to stop these Internet purchases.  They're enough to make you go insane.  Or at least go broke.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 26 June 2001 at 8:25 AM

So many good things to report today.  My RAM arrived yesterday.  I had to drive down to the FedEx office and pick it up because they wouldn't leave it wihout a signature, but I was more than happy to do so.  My computer now has 768megs of PC133 RAM.  I had 384mb before the new stuff arrived, so I pulled the 128 meg stick, which I will put in my parents' new computer (i.e., my old computer).

What else do I have to report?  Well, my monitor has finally shipped.  TigerDirect isn't nice enough to provide tracking numbers, so I don't know exactly when it will arrive, but I'm thinking Thursday or Friday.  Oddly, I checked my credit card statement online, and the temporary charge for the monitor has been removed from my account, but it wasn't added to the posted charges.  (Temporary authorizations are used by merchants to see if an account is active and has the balance neccesary to complete the transaction.)

Well, that's all that occurs to me to relate to you.  I'll leave you now with a small passage from David Sedaris's new book Me Talk Pretty One Day, where he discusses his younger brother, who has given himself the nickname Rooster:

My mother was, for the most part, delighted with my brother and regarded him with the bemused curiosity of a brood hen discovering she has hatched a completely different species.  "I think it was very nice of Paul to give me this vase," she once said, arranging a bouquet of wildflowers into he skull-shaped bong my brother had left on the dining-room table.  "It's nontraditional, but that's the Rooster's way.  He's a free spirit, and we're lucky to have him."

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 26 June 2001 at 8:25 AM

Why are beautiful things so expensive?  Well, at least I won't have any use for the damn thing until school starts this fall, so I'll probably be able to resist buying it for a few weeks.  (I hope.)

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 25 June 2001 at 2:35 PM

TigerDirect has changed the order status of my monitor from "Awaiting Inventory" to the equally cryptic "Shipment Pending." Note that my merchandise has not actually shipped, so these two phrases are basically indentical from my perspective.  I suspect that they change the wording of the order status after a week so that people don't pester them with emails.  Everyone will think, "Look they changed the words.  That means something's happening.  Now I don't need to send an angry email!"  But I have seen through their scam.  And have I sent an angry email?  Yes, sir!

I get paid this Friday.  But this doesn't mean much to me, as I've been spending money as if my credit limit had suddenly increased to $10,000.  Oh wait, it has been.  (Should I ever max out my credit card while in college, please shoot me.  It will save me the trouble of having to do it myself.)

That's all for now.  I need to run down to the ATM and withdraw some money so that I can buy some lunch.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 25 June 2001 at 11:07 AM

hi, I know I havent posted in a few days, but for the record its been kind of a busy weekend.  and while I have been doing lots of stuff, Im afraid I havent really been doing anything all that interesting, so I guess youre stuck with a boring post.  dont worry; Ill keep it short.

okay, so here is my weekend: on friday I went to work, got my haircut, and my mom and brother and sister came into town, and in the evening they came over to my dorm and we ate chinese food and watched gladiator on hbo.  on saturday I went to my maternal grandfathers 80th birthday party and spent the whole day trying to avoid unhealthy levels of chaos.  (its a very very large family, and they were all in attendence.)  while there I caught a very entertaining cardinals game on television, and then a rather silly star trek voyager.  (I never really followed that series, but I get the impression that they were all pretty silly.)  anyway, then on sunday I went to the cardinals game with my dad.  it was a sold out game, so our seats were pretty high, but they were giving away "bobble-head" mike matheny dolls to the first 30,000 paying fans, so now Im the very happy owner of a quite ridiculous looking wobbly-headed representation of the cardinals catcher (whose mask, I notice, could not possibly fit him).  also, even though I was watching we still managed to win, so it was a good night.

yeah, so that was my eventful weekend.  a haircut, a birthday party, a cardinals victory, and also, today marks the fourth month that my lovely, wonderful girlfriend and I have been together.  (four month anniversaries are probably silly things to mention, but oh well.)  I am going to go call her now.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 24 June 2001 at 11:34 PM

I typed up a really long post this afternoon, but the index file here proved to be too large for me to successfully upload from work during the late afternoon (late in the afternoon end of shift reports are being sent up to the Whirlpool HQ in Benton Harbor, MI, and our Internet connection slows to a crawl).  I kept getting timed-out.  So, in keeping with the devotion that we normally show to -273, I decided to forget the whole damn thing.  Trust me, it was no major loss for you, as it was one of my crappier attempts at a post.  (Note to self: IN the future, do not write -273 posts because you've run out of other things to do at work).

Anyway, I archived so hopefully I'll be able to post from work next week.  And a happy side-effect is that the page will load faster for you and me.

Jared, Luke, and I drove out past Dogtown along the river this evening.  There were a bunch of abandoned houses and old cemeteries out there.  I kept finding myself wishing I had a camera with me.  BY the end of the evening, I had pretty much made up my mind to get a digicam ASAP, hopefully this weekend.  I have my options narrowed down to two cameras, the Canon Powershot A20 and the Olympus C-700 Ultra Zoom.  The Canon costs $100 less, but the Olympus has a 10x zoom and the Canon only has a 3x zoom.  Suggestions?

Do you remember about a month ago when I mentioned that I was looking for a replacement for the Windows Notepad?  Well I think I've found it.  The program is called metapad, and I've been using it both at work and here at home for about a week now, and I'm very happy with it.  After turning off a few of its GUI features, I was able to get it to look like notepad, which was something I wanted to do.   I never use any of those toolbar buttons in a text editor (my hands are on the keyboard all the time, so I use keyboard shortcuts), so I prefer a simple layout.  Metapad can have a simple layout, it has good keyboard shortcuts, and it has some features I really like, so I think it's a keeper.  Of course, most people don't get excited by text editors, so in writing this paragraph, I've just shown how nerdy I am.  Oh well, it's not like you didn't know I was a CS major. (If the link to the metapad site isn't working for you, try this one).

I'm beginning to think -273 needs a redesign.  Any comments?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 22 June 2001 at 10:21 PM

Have any of you ever heard of or, even better, used one of these Fuzzy Brushes?  If you have, please drop me a line and tell me what you think, because I'm thinking about getting some.  Yes, I know I'm strange, so you don't need to email me about that.  Anyway, look for a review of Fuzzy Brushes in a few weeks, once I've had the chance to order, receive, and try some out.

Later.

(Yes, I know I just managed to accidentally delete my last entry. But it's no big deal because all did was rant about tigerdirect not shipping my new monitor, even though it claims to have them in stock; rant about Netscape incorrectly rendering one of the three text boxes on my intranet site here at work; and mention the fact that I bought 512MB of RAM at mushkin.com for $80.  There, now you're all caught up, and I promise not to delete any more posts for awhile).

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 21 June 2001 at 3:23 PM

[michael returns home from work, checks his phone messages, email, browses web, etc]
"ooh, I wonder how the cardinals did.."
[checks mlb.com]
"oh wow, its still on.  3 to 1 cubs in the 6th.  I should watch."
[michael turns on television, changes to fox sports.]
"make that 3 to 2 cubs in the 7th.  hmm, bases are loaded, I hope we are at bat.  damn, no, its the cubs.  how many outs?  1.  okay, well, we can get out of this."
[pitcher pitches]
[batter hits it]
"oh..  this could be bad.  please be caught"
[ball goes out of the park.]
"...damn."

Im sorry everyone.  at first I thought it was just coincidence.  I mean, I know I never seem to see them win, but I didnt realize that it was my fault.  I think maybe I really should just stop watching.  except I am actually going to be at the game on sunday; weve already got the tickets, so I wouldnt bet on that game if I were you.  just thought it would be fair to warn you.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 20 June 2001 at 8:33 PM

so i went on a road trip to grand teton national park in wyoming last week. wyoming, just for the record, is more than 1,200 miles from st. louis. it's beautiful up there; i definitly recomend it. animals sited in the park include wolves, moose, elk, bison, black bear, marmut, and bighorn sheep. animals sited en route include a genuine six-legged cow.

one thing i do not recomend is old faithful, in yellowstone. when i arrived there to see it, there were at least 1000 people standing around staring at a hole in the ground, waiting for it to explode. made me feel silly.

in all, a great trip.

Comments: 0 Posted by mike on 20 June 2001 at 11:34 AM

You know your day is going to be really, really boring when the highlight of your first three hours at work is getting a mass mailing about a missing binder.

For lack of anything better to do, I've decided to try to make the website I've been working on here at work Netscape compatabile.  The thing is, no one here, including me, has Netscape installed on their computer.  I've heard rumors that the CAD people have to use Netscape on their Unix boxes though, and I'm hoping this rumor is true, as it will justify what I'm doing.  You see, the page I made leans pretty heavily on iframes, which while I think they are very cool, don't render at all in Netscape.  So I need to come up with a solution that will at least let the Netscape people see the content on the page, even if it isn't pretty.  Ideally, i'd like to preserve the page layout for them as much as possible, so I'm going to see if Netscape's ilayers can handle the task.  Sadly, ilayers are not a perfect solution, since they don't support scrollbars.  Netscape does provide a rather complicated JavaScript program (if you can use the word program with js) that will allow you to add scrollbars to layers, so I'm going to give that a try.

Of course, all this is dependant on me getting a copy of Netscape so that I can actually see if this is going to work.  So far I've downloaded 1.25 MB of the Netscape browser.  This may take a while.

I've heard some rumors about more -273 guest posts in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled for those.  It would be amusing to me if we got more guest posts up on the main page than posts from michael.  Perhaps that will motivate him to resume posting.

My thirty day trial version of Paint Shop Pro ended yesterday, so I've been forced to use Microsoft Image Composer here at work.  It seems to me that I've mentioned this horrible program on -273 before, so I won't rant about it at length.  I'll just mention the fact that I will be downloading the Photoshop trial version this afternoon.

Is there anything else I want to tell you about?  I can think of a few things, but I think I'l save them for after lunch.  That way I'll have something to do then.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 20 June 2001 at 11:08 AM

Hi.

Here's what i've been thinking about lately: Do our readers know our email addresses?  We have an email address at the bottom of the page for general site comments, but it is rarely, if ever, utilized.  Also, both michael and I have individual email addresses, but you can only mind when I include it in a post, as my name up at the top of the entry refers you to my instant mesenger screen name.  So, I thought to myself, should I do something to make it easier for people to contact me?  Yes, I decided, but not now because you are too lazy to code something up here at work by hand(!) when you can do it in the wonderful, beautiful, and delicious Dreamweaver at home.  (In case you're wondering how I manage these posts from work without dw [I know you're not, but lets pretend], I'll let you in on the secret.  I put together a crappy html page that uses javascript to insert all the tags and stuff for me.  I just type the text, press a few buttons, paste the entry into the index file, and upload it.  It's all very easy, although it will get even easier when michael finishes working on the php backend he has promised to write).  (Putting long boring things in parentheses is fun).  (I wonder if I overuse these things?)

What this whole internal monologue means, beside the fact that I am very strange, is that when I get home I will work on a contact page for myself.  It really shouldn't be too hard, and I probably would have no trouble coding it up here at work, but why do now what you can out off until later?

With that out of the way, it's time for me to simulate actual content by providing links to sites you probably all know about already.  Like thirtyfour.org, one of my favorite weblogs.  In fact it may hold the title of favorite weblog all by itself.  I figure that's pretty good praise coming from someone who spends way too much time reading blogs.  Another site you should go visit is robotstories.com.  It's a pretty good online comic.

Well, that's about it for now.  I ordered a new (to me, it's actually refurbished, but I can deal with that for a $250 discount) monitor yesterday (it's black to match my new computer.  I would provide a picture of the new computer, but I'm too lazy to find one.  Try digging around in the Images directory and see what you can come up with), and I need to go check the order status page.  Last time I was there it said "Awaiting Inventory." I'm thinking this is a bad sign.  Heads will roll if I don't get the damn thing soon.  (That's the only drawback to buying things online: no instant gratification).

Later.

Update: Click on my name up above or here for contact info and other stuff.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 19 June 2001 at 1:15 PM

I know, I know.  It's been days since I posted here and gave you a peek into my oh-so-boring life, but I have an excuse.  Actually, now that I think about it, I don't have an excuse.  As I told michael via instant messenger at some point this weekend, I just didn't feel like posting.  So shoot me.  (Although, in all truth I would prefer that you didn't).

I mentioned instant messenger up there, and it reminded me of a program I found this weekend called DeadAIM.  It removes the ads from your instant messenger window.  Just extract the file into the directory that you have aim installed to and change your bookmarks to point to deadaim.exe.  It's so simple that just about anyone can do it.  Which is to say that I did it, and I offer no guarantees about your success with it.  Anyway, I found DeadAIM on betanews, which is a pretty cool site, so you should head on over there sometime.

Speaking of cool sites, I'd like to take this opportunity to point you to some of the sites linked up in the header of this page.  The big groups of words up there?  Those are links hand-picked by michael and myself for your enjoyment, so please click on them should, you feel so inclined.  My selections are on the left and michael's are on the right.  Should I find myself motivated to do so, I'll probably update my selections later this week with a few different sites.  I'll give you a sneak peek though: q daily news.  It's a cool site that I just found a few days ago.  I'll also point you here, even though the site is linked from above.  It's a pretty good blog, even if the proprietor doesn't post on the weekends (or tomorrow, but you should go there to find out why).

PBS is showing Gormenghast later tonight (at least here in EVV -- check your local listings to see when it plays in your area), and it is definitely worth watching.  I saw it last year when it was on the BBC, and I was really impressed.  The books on which the show is based are awesome to.  Go to your local library and look for books by Mervyn Peake.  Here's a US link that will tell you more about the show and the books.  Hopefully it will offer you some slight variation on the British link I gave earlier in this paragraph.

Well, that's all for now I guess.  Hopefully michael (or is it Reynard?) will provide you with some content later tonight.  If not, you'll have to wait until tomorrow, I suppose.

Later.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 18 June 2001 at 9:31 PM

hello.

I am a psychic fox.  if you were wondering, I am here to tell you about michaels day.  you see, it looks like michael is in another one of his non-posting moods, and he apparently cant be troubled to type a paragraph or two.  he gets like that sometimes.  anyway, Im thinking it will probably be a while before we hear from him again, so Im here to fill in.

he wanted you to know, for those of you who might care, that he is well.  he had an all right evening, although he spent the majority of it watching comedy central and wishing that friday night television line ups were the same as the other four week nights (so that he could watch sports night).  dave told him it was because people are supposed to go out on friday nights, so they dont bother putting on good tv shows.  this, of course, only makes the lives of the pathetic that much more so.  but michael made due and busied himself well into the early morning drawing pictures of, among other things, monkeys dressed up like the lead singer from u2.  he also said that if I was running out of michael-related topics to discuss (which I am, despite my supernatural intellect) I should mention that he likes drawing very much, only he has a difficult time thinking of things to draw sometimes, so if you send him titles like they do at exploding dog, he will try to draw them, and it will be fun.  email him a title if you think of one.

okay, I dont feel like talking anymore.  I am going to go read peoples thoughts and move things with my mind now.  I will talk to you later, maybe.

Comments: 0 Posted by reynard on 16 June 2001 at 4:34 AM

Today I set my alarm for 9:30, shut it off, and slept til quarter til noon.  I got up in time to take a quick shower before lunch.  Friday is always fish and chips day, which is great cause I love the chips here (they have a delicious seasoning).  Then I walked to campus to pick up my Aborigine paper, but the office was closed for lunch, which really pissed me off.  I came back, pounded out 500 more words on my ridiculous Australian Pop Culture paper, and then watched Passions with Reggie.  For those of you who are missing out, Passions is a suspenseful daytime drama with lots of crazy plot twists and characters.  It is well worth watching.  Then I came down here to write this post, and I think I'll go use the rowing machine before dinner.  Then its back to the paper.  I know it's not that exciting, but hey, thats finals time in Australia for you.  Take it easy, everyone.

Comments: 0 Posted by ben on 15 June 2001 at 4:37 PM

Does anyone want to recommend a weblog to me?  I used to visit about 10 per day, but now I'm down to eight, and some of those aren't really blogs.  So, as I was saying, if you know of a good weblog, let me know.  I'd really appreciate getting some mail on this issue, so please, please send me some.

Later.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 15 June 2001 at 2:51 PM

Okay, here's my dilemma: do I move my TV into the spare room that I cleaned out yesterday (hereafter and forever more referred to simply as #23) even though I probably won't be able to move my computer into there until this weekend.  In my mind computing and television viewing are bound tightly together, and separating them seems rather harsh and cruel.  What do you think?

Here's another question for you (I'm posting with questions because my day was in such a mind-numbing fog that I remember little, perhaps none, of it).  My first paycheck gets direct deposited on Friday and I've promised to buy myself a present.  Of the following choices, what do you think I should get:

DVD player, digital camera, computer monitor, acoustic guitar, electric guitar and amp, pants press, ring-pop?

I'm leaning toward the digicam, but your opinion is valued here at -273, so let me know what you think.

I must now go hide lest I be asked to mow the lawn in this 90° heat.  Later.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 14 June 2001 at 4:35 PM

Remember yesterday when I told you I was going to clean out the spare room here at home and move my TV and computer into it?  And how I thought it would only take a few hours to do?  Well, I didn't get around to it yesterday, but I did work on it today.  In fact, I spent all evening on it, about four hours, and my TV and computer are still in my bedroom.  I did get all of my school crap cleaned up and put away, but there are still some things I need to go through in there.  Maybe I'll get it done tomorrow.  But I have a feeling that my energy and motivation will be gone then.

Anyway, I'm tired, so I'm heading off to bed.  Later.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 13 June 2001 at 9:42 PM

For the past hour or so I've been watching the PBS show Nova.  It's a rather typical Nova show, some American experts go overseas and try to figure out how people from thousands of years built some major structure.  In this case, an American engineering professor and a timber expert went to China to help some Chinese scholars build the "Rainbow Bridge."  Normally I wouldn't mention this to you, but this show is a bit different.  The American engineer's name is Bashar, and he looks to be of Indian descent.  He is also crazy.  At least twice during the show, they've shown him blowing up at someone if they aren't building the bridge the way he thinks they should.  Halfway through the show he fired his translator because he thought the guy wasn't telling the work crews what he said.  (He was wrong about this, he just couldn't ever remember what he'd told them to do).  The whole show, mainly because of Bashar, almost seems like a spoof of the other Nova shows of this genre.  It's definitely worth seeing, should it be repeated (which, given that this is PBS, it most likely will be).

Later.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 12 June 2001 at 8:58 PM

Jared has to work at the ice factory during the second shift tonight, which sucks for him, but it did free him up to have lunch with me this afternoon, so I'm happy.  We went to the new Subway (where my friend John works in the evenings after he finishes work at his golf course job -- he's hoping to save up enough money to take piloting lessons next year, so that by the time he graduates with his airplane mechanics degree, he will also have his pilot's license).  Anyway, I had a chicken brest sandwich with marinara sauce, and it was very tasty. I don't think I could have taken another day of salad from the Whirlpool cafeteria, so I'm glad Jared called me.

Instant Messenger has crashed on me about ten times today, and I should probably reboot my computer, but everything else seems to be working fine, so I've decided to forgo talking on aim during my breaks today.

Nothing else all that new or exciting going on here.  Tonight I'm going to clean out one of spare room upstairs and move my TV and computer into it.  It already has a couch and chair, so it will be much more comfortable than hanging out in my bedroom, which has a bed and a desk chair.  All I need to do is move the ottomon out of the closet (I have no idea why my dad moved it into the closet in the first place) and move my boxes of school stuff into the closet.  I'll leave myself a couple of hours to do this, but it shouldn't take nearly that long.

Well, time to get back to work.  Later.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 12 June 2001 at 2:49 PM

Thanks to a fun CD-burning session tonight, I got three new CDs, and will have a couple more by the end of the day tomorrow.  Other than that, I didn't do much today.  I was really tired at work, but I think I got a lot done.  And I wrote down two pages of things to do tomorrow, so at least I'm keeping busy.

To keep with this theme of commercials seen on TV, I'll take this opportunity to mention a CD I saw advertised on TV last week.  It was a CD of, among other things, show-tunes and Judy Garland songs that was marketed at drag queens.  The ad showed a male, in drag, singing along to the songs on the CD.  I can't for the life of me remember what the CD was called, or I would look it up on the Internet and link to it for you.  My mom saw the ad too, so if I remember to ask her, I'll see if I can find the out the name.  (I know you're all interested in a CD marketed at drag queens).

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 11 June 2001 at 11:27 PM

I saw a commercial today advertising st louis.  the concept of advertising a city to people who already live there seemed a little strange to me, but Im sure there are reasons.  anyway, the basic idea of the commercial was a man living in new york talking on the phone to his parents about how great his apartment was, only in actuality, his apartment was cramped and expensive and had a terrible view and shook when trains went by, and I suppose the point was that in new york, this was a good apartment.  so basically it was a commercial badmouthing new york, and when it was over, it cut to a screen that said "St. Louis: We've Got It Good."  weird, huh?  apparently people defecting to new york is a big problem here.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 11 June 2001 at 10:34 PM

I was watching an hour long paid advertisement for a tooth whitening product (I forget the the name), and they showed some remarkable before and after photos.  it appeared as though their product actually straightened teeth as well as whitening them.  the dingy teeth on the top half of the screen were slightly crooked, and the ones on the bottom were not.  Im giving serious thought to buying this gel, since one of the incisors on my lower jaw is kind of out of line with all of the others, and its always bothered me.

I am kind of curious, though.  I wonder why they didnt advertise this aspect of their product, as well.  seems like it would be a selling point.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 11 June 2001 at 1:03 AM

today was a good day.  my mom called around noon and I went over to my grandparents and from there we went shopping, and she bought me a whole bunch of stuff, including a vcr, a microwave, and a lot of food.  its very exciting, and it very much made my day.  then we went back to my grandparents and had dinner out on the patio.  there was barbecued pork steaks, cheese potatoes, cole slaw, baked beans, and fresh green beans.  it was good.  afterwards there was ice cream, but I was too full to eat any.  then we cleaned up and hung out for a while, and then I went back to my dorm, hauled at least ten bags of groceries and some medium sized appliances up to my room, and spent the rest of the evening setting things up.  I didnt even have places to put all the food I have now.  its going to be so nice tomorrow when I dont need to drive some place for dinner.  also, it was very nice to be able to flip through channels tonight.  I dont know if I told you or not, but my tv is something like eight or nine years old, and it doesnt have remote control capabilities.  but now that I have things wired through the vcr I can change channels with the remote.  also, my tv only goes up to channel 47, and m2 is on channel 58, so I couldnt watch it before.  but now I can.  like I said, its very exciting.  tomorrow I think Im going to microwave some popcorn.  Ill tell you all about it.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 10 June 2001 at 11:23 PM

This afternoon, thinking that we should begin to use the memberships we shelled out $100 for last week, Jared and I decided to go "Fitness World."  Well, the place is supposed to be open from 3-5pm today (for those of us with temporary memberships -- the full-time members have keycards that let them into the building at all hours), but no one showed up to unlock the door.  We waited around with some other people for about 30 minutes, and then Jared and I went off to buy some drinks.  When we pulled back into the parking lot, we say that someone who had gotten into the gym through the 24-hour access door was letting everyone in.  We ran over to the door a few seconds after it closed, and even though we knocked on the door and people saw us, no one, even the people we'd been waiting with before, let us in.  I am really kind of pissed about the whole situation.  Tomorrow I'm going to go in and vent my frustrations at "Dell," the owner.  Hopefully my anger will inspire him to give me a keycard that will at least get me extended hours.  He tried to sell me one for $10 when I signed up, but I declined.  I think I have enough ammunition to get one for free now.  At the very least he's going to give me the dollar I lost today (the membership is $99 for 99 days).  I know it's not much, but it's the sentiment that matters.

All was not totally lost I guess.  We did end up going running back on the mine roads, so I did end up getting some exercise.  I just would have preferred to do my running on a treadmill in a climate-controlled environment, that's all.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 10 June 2001 at 10:47 PM

Hi. I should probably wait a bit before posting this, since michael's return from the dead (or whatever) should be recognized for at least a few hours hours before I kick him out of the top spot. But I'm tired, and want to lie down and read my book for about 30 minutes and then go bed. So I guess michael'll have to post again if he wants the recognition and attention that are directed to the person with the most recent post here on -273. With that out of the way, let's move on to the post.

Today was a very uneventful day. I went to the library, where I checked out a couple of books I've been thinking about buying for use at work. If I find them useful, I'll probably go to Barnes & Noble and pick them up next weekend after I get my first big paycheck (my first pay check came on 1 June, but it was only for two days of work, so it was pretty small). After I got back from the library, I mowed the lawn and then watched the end of the women's championship match at the French Open. I was rooting for Kim Clijsters, but Jennifer Capriati won after the longest third set in a women's grand slam event since, I think, the 1947 US Open. It was a really good match.

About 4:30 Jared came over and we went out to eat. Well, we tried to go out to eat. We ended up driving around for about an hour trying to decide where to eat. We finally ended up at Red Lobster, mainly because Jared had a gift certificate for it. I had an excellent 12 oz. New York strip steak and Jared had grilled salmon. After dinner we went to the Book and Music Exchange, Best Buy (where I bought a "Letters to Cleo" CD and Jared bought a "Live" CD), and K-Mart (where I bought some scratch-off lottery tickets, and ended up losing money). Then we drove out to the Subway where John started working last week and talked to him for a bit. I wanted to buy a sub to have for lunch tomorrow, but I had blown all of my cash on lottery tickets at K-Mart. When John needed to get back to work, we went to the Blockbuster store next door and Jared rented "Skulls." Then we went home. I watched the SNL Game Show special, and then started working on this post.

(I told you today was an uneventful day).

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 9 June 2001 at 10:39 PM

um, hi.  my name is michael.  I dont know if you remember me or not.  I post here on negative two seven three sometimes.  only I took something of a vacation for the last couple of weeks, so you probably forgot about me.  Im sorry.  I know how disappointed you all must have been.  Ill try not to let it happen again.

anyway, not that much has happened since last time I talked to you.  work has been good.  I got my program to recognize faces fairly accurately, and I built a really neat camera mount out of legos that will allows us to tilt and pan the camera.  now we just need to write the part of the program that takes in a set of faces (their positions and sizes) and decides how to move the camera to make a good picture.  its pretty neat stuff, and Ill post some screen shots later.

other than that, not much is happening.  artemis is visiting for the weekend, and that is fun.  we havent done anything all that interesting, just hanging out mostly, but at least Ive been having actual person-to-person social contact, which is nice for a change.  also my mom is going to be in st louis tomorrow, so I think I will go over to my grandparents and have dinner.  which will be good, because it will be the first time in quite a while that I eat something that didnt pass through a drive-through window.

um, thats about all I have to say.  oh, and I know we dont have an mp3otd or anything like that here on -273, but I just thought that I should share that Ive been obsessively listening to "there are ghosts" by karate.  its a really good song, and you should listen to it someday.  also "bad diary days" by pedro the lion is really good.  I cant stop listening to it either.  oh, and Ive decided Im going to by my first cd in years.  I saw the new tool video, and I decided that I need that cd.  you need to support the good guys.

okay, Im going to go now.  Ill talk to you again in a couple of weeks.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 9 June 2001 at 5:23 PM

I'm back (from dinner at Two Brothers), but I still have a pretty bad headache.  Splitting, I think I've heard them called.  And I'm bored.  I brought home some stuff from work (I backup to a floppy every night and bring it home.  Off-site back-ups seem like a very good idea) but I don't think I'll do anything with it.  Maybe I'll open it up and post some screen shots later on.  It seems somewhat unethical to post the actual html files, as they technically don't belong to me, and putting them in a publicly accessible place would violate one of the many agreements I signed when I started working, but I don't think they'll object to some screen shots.  And it's not like anyone reads this site anyway, so no one will ever know.

I wonder if michael is working on the php backend for the site?  If he's not I may try to put something together this weekend, as I don't really have anything else to do.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 8 June 2001 at 7:58 PM

Go here.  You might laugh.  I did.  (Thanks for the link, Chris.  Sorry it took me a week to get around to posting it).

I made some cool improvements to the page I'm working on here at work, but now I am feeling very tired.  In one more hour, I can go home and take a nap.  This fact makes me very, very happy.

Since michael is in one of his non-posting funks, you should go here to get your daily dose of his original content.  Except it's not updated daily.  But it was updated recently, I think, so go there.  Trust me, you'll thank me for this later.

More from me tonight, should this headache I just got abate sometime in the near future.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 8 June 2001 at 3:03 PM

Evening.  I went to Barnes & Noble looking for a good general purpose web design book, but I couldn't find one.  O'Reilly had some books that looked pretty good, but they were printed in 1998 and 1999, and I thought they might be a bit out-of-date, so I didn't buy them.  But I did have a good time at the bookstore.  They had a copy of the new Get Fuzzy book, and I read about halfway through it.  It was really, really funny.  It's only $11, and I think I may get it.

My boss came by today and we talked about the web design I've been working on.  I got some great feedback, and some good ideas for improving the design.  I feel pretty good about this thing.  A little project I started on the side is turning out to be pretty popular, and may end up supplanting my original work.  Anyway, it's something to do , and it pays well.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 7 June 2001 at 9:13 PM

Alex Chiu was interviewed on slashdot!  Go there.  Hurry, it's too funny to be missed.  Here's a brief excerpt:

How do scientists know the diameter of earth? Must a scientist walk the equator in order to tell you the exact diameter of earth? How do scientists figure out how far is the sun from earth? Must a man fly to the sun in order to measure the exact distance? I don't have to live 130 years in order to tell you what my device does. We gather scientific evidence (testimonials) in order to base our assumptions.