Thursday, July 28, 2005

What's on my Ipod

I just submitted a new mix at The Art of the Mix site. To create this mix I just placed my Ipod in Shuffle mode and let her rip. This is pretty much the original order the songs came out. I had to remove about five songs in the middle when the Ipod got caught up in a serious Elvis Costello/Jpop rut. In order to accommodate the extended Shakira track (Ojo Asi - Thunder mix) I chose a much shorter Frank Zappa track. And I moved the TMBG track to the end of the set as I thought that would be a good track to end with.

The Random Ipod Shuffle #1

  1. Pizzicato Five - Baby Love Child
  2. Dawn Landes - Suspicion
  3. William Burroughs - Word is Virus
  4. Negativland - My Favorite Things (Live)
  5. Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy
  6. Shakira - Ojo Asi (Thunder Mix)
  7. The Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You
  8. The Corrs - Everybody Hurts (Unplugged)
  9. B. B King & Eric Clapton - Worried Life Blues
  10. The B-52s - Private Idaho
  11. Frank Zappa - Harry, You're a Beast
  12. You're Under Arrest - Miyuki vs. Natsumi
  13. Alanis Morissette - You Learn
  14. Gal Costa - Desafinado
  15. Joe Jackson - Got the Time
  16. Eileen Ivers - The Devil in the Kitchen
  17. Elvis Costello - Secondary Modern
  18. The Pillows - Runners High
  19. Move - Rage Your Dream
  20. Scott Joplin - Swipesy/Cake Walk
  21. The Platters - In the Still of the Night
  22. They Might Be Giants - 'Til My Head Falls Off

Monday, July 11, 2005

Don't be hatin'.

Who knew knitters could be so passionate. I have not received so much hate mail and so many death threats since that time I made an unfortunate observation regarding bicycle messengers.

Monday, June 27, 2005

Worst Blogs Ever

I feel I can not contain myself any longer. I must comment on a type of blog that is a plague on the world of web-based publishing. Much like gaming comics are to webcomics and furries are to sci-fi/fantasy/anime fandom, knitting blogs are the lowest of the low.

What are these people thinking? Who wants to read about someone’s ongoing knitting projects accompanied by pictures of cats laying about on piles of yarn. C’mon, the pace of knitting is glacial. You don’t see Fox running specials on Extreme Knitting!

Short of all of us calling our congressmen and women and getting a constitutional amendment outlawing knitting blog, this problem is not going to go away. Each one of us has to personally take a stand. For my part, like Charles Foster Kane, I am publishing a “Declaration of Principles” that this blog will adhere to.

1. I will not fill up this blog with descriptions in bone-crushing detail of my on-going knitting projects.

2. I will not link my blog to my Flickr or Webshots accounts in order to post a multiple of shots of yarn I just bought or of my works in progress.

3. I will not inflict my reading public with pictures of my dogs and/or cats. I’m sure other people are not interested in them. (Personally, I’m not that interested or fond of my own nasty beasts.)

4. I will not plug my local yarn shops in a fawning attempt to score yarn and/or knitting implements.

5. I will not link to knitting blogs of personal friends in the hopes of they will write something nice and link back to mine.

6. There is NO rule 6!

7. I will not put one of those fancy progress bars in the sidebar. (Mainly because I don’t know how to do it without locking up my computer and causing half the internet from melting down.)

8. Finally I will not get caught up in the newest knitting fad. No Ponchos! No Clapotis! No hand-dying woolen yarns with Kool-Aid! And what the hell is a Clapotis!

Friday, February 11, 2005

A Hunk, A Hunk of Burnin' Love

Evidently I was wrong about the crew at CSI.

And now in two flavors: spicy and extra spicy!

Thursday, February 10, 2005

To Boldly Go… Nowhere

If you haven’t heard, UPN has cancelled Star Trek: Enterprise! As a rabid fanboy I can categorically state that I feel… I feel… I don’t know how I feel. You see, the powers that be switched out the local UPN affiliate to Telemundo during the first season of ST: Ent. So the upshot is I never have seen enough episodes to form an opinion one way or another. At least I can now keep up con mis telenovelas.

I grew up with the original Star Trek, so I have fond memories. I found Star Trek: The Next Generation to be a good successor to the original series. The character development and the writing was, for the most part, solid. In the initial seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, I must admit I was not impressed. But as the characters and the back stories progressed, I grew to like the series and felt it went out strong. Then came Star Trek: Voyager. I was underwhelmed to say the least. I liked it better when I was a kid and it was called LOST IN SPACE!

I had high hopes for ST: Ent.

But grumblings from the loyal fans started early, right from the opening theme, and didn’t stop. I have a friend who is a dyed-in-the-wool Trekker, who stopped watching the show because the creators where taking too many liberties with established Star Trek canon. Evidently the creators, Berman and Braga, had no problem rewriting whole sections of Federation history. C’mon people don’t fix it if its not broken. You don’t see anybody updating Shakespeare!

With the cancellation of ST:ENT, it will be the first time in 18 years that a Star Trek theme program hasn’t aired. Of course there are grassroots efforts to get UPN to reconsider its position. And there is a lot of chatter on the forums about what a new Star Trek show should be about. Some fans are trying to breath life into old ideas like Starfleet Academy and the adventures of the U.S.S. Excelsior.

I personally like R. K. Milholland’s idea for the next Star Trek franchise: Intergalactic Pole Dancers XXX.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Whatcha talkin’ about Willis?

Serena Southerlyn gay? Where the hell did that come from? For those of you who don’t follow Law & Order, the actress who played Serena, Elizabeth Rohm, is leaving the series. They wrote her character out by having the District Attorney fire her for being too emotionally involved in her case. That was fine, it was in line with how her character was developed. But then in the last seconds, the show just up and jumps the track. She asks, “ You’re not firing me because I’m a lesbian?” The DA says, “No.” To which she replies, “Good… good.”

What the hell! As far as I can remember there has been no previous references to her sexual orientation. Hell, there hasn’t been any indication that she even has a private life.

Come to think about it the characters from the various incarnations of Law & Order (the original, Criminal Intent, Sports Utility Vehicle) and Crime Scene Investigation (Las Vegas, Miami, New York) are a fairly sexless bunch. They are such emotionally closed down individuals that is hard to envision them getting jiggy with a living, breathing human being. The only time I’ve seen Gil Grissom, the reigning king of icy dispassion, warm up to anybody was to a dominatrix who was his prime suspect in a homicide. And let me tell you, you don’t need to get romantically involved if all you’re looking for is having your ass beaten raw.

Or so I’ve been told.

It seems to me that the writers of the L&O and CSI shows have been channeling Jack “Just the facts, Ma’am” Webb for way too long. Maybe that’s why my new favorite is House M.D., the new medical show starring Hugh Laurie. At least the main character has a personality, albeit an arrogant, repellent one.

Still I look forward to the day that the CSI franchise takes a page from the Parker Brother’s game Monopoly, and produces a version for every community. By the time they get to my area all the good songs by The Who will have been taken. And CSI: Bryan/College Station will open to the strains of “Boris the Spider”.

Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

New Years Revulsions

It’s already 4 weeks into the new year and I haven’t started on any of my resolutions:

  • Go to the gym so I can lose 15 pounds
  • Fix my bicycle so I can commute the 2.5 miles from home to work
  • Create a new profile for Match.com
  • Write in my blog at least 3 times a week
  • Restart my comic strips at Stripcreator.com
  • Perform a thorough spring cleaning of my house

I know part of the resistance is due to the fact there is so much to do that I don’t now where to start. I have a brand new datebook full of empty pages. Empty, except for my teeth cleaning appointment on Friday. (Fantastic! Now I can look forward to the dental hygienist giving me grief for not flossing.)

Maybe I’ll start on the profile. It would be nice to be in a normal relationship. Normal! Who am I kidding? It would be nice to be in a relationship that doesn’t get me on the Jerry Springer show or Judge Judy.