i.am.vince

computer down

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:28:24 GMT

Computer has gone bonkers and I don't know if it's hardware or software related yet. I'm going to backup my data and reinstall Windows. Hopefully that's it rather than having to send it in. btw, I'm typing, er, wanding this on my Wii. :o)

b-day shout-outs

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:34:40 GMT

Happy 38th birthday to my sister Stephanie!

&

Belated b-days to Cholly & Mikey!
(I'm getting too old to remember them these days, oi)

sigh

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:28:59 GMT

My favourite torrent site has been down for days with no expected return time. Colour me bummed.

R.I.P.

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:58:27 GMT

Mary Travers - one-third of folk group Peter, Paul and Mary - died today at the age of 72 after a battle with leukemia. I enjoyed both the group and her solo material very much. I even looked forward to the PBS pledge drives if only to see PP&M concerts they usually ran. Farewell Mary.

update

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:11:38 GMT

The last two days we've had the scent of smoke in the air as well as a rare sprinkle or two of ash from the fires southwest from here. The intensity of the smell varies considerably.

Babysat for about an hour today for my aunt & uncle while my aunt went to the doctor. My two charges were their great-grandkids, 2 yrs old and 2 months old. The 2 month old mostly slept and when awake just stared at the surroundings very zen-like. She cried just once and when picked up I realized she was wet. Once the diaper was changed I rocked her to sleep. It's then when you have a baby on your shoulder sleeping with tiny hands clutching your shirt long-ago assumed dead paternal feelings rise up a bit. That's soon squashed by the smell of killer-atomic waste poop. ;o) I spent most of my time with the two year old who watched streamed episodes of Special Agent Oso half the time and played with various office supplies for the other. Who know a manilla envelope could be so versatile

What else? Oh yeah, I got new glasses about 3 weeks ago I had broken one of the nose guards on my previous pair. I had to get my eyes examined first and boy had my eyes changed. I mentioned I had trouble seeing up close with my glasses on so he suggested I get bifocals. Uh.... I hemmed and hawed enough that he said I could put it off this time but not the next. Anyway, 10 days later I got my new ones and there was definitely a Keanu-esque "Whoa!" moment when I put them on.

this and that

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:23:55 GMT

I'm going to have to take in my monitor to be repaired tomorrow (under the extended warentee.) Most likely I'll get a call in a few days saying it's toast and to come in to get a new one. In the meantime, I'm back to using my oooold 17" CRT at a maximum rez of 1024x768. *eyetwich* Hardly any of my games are setup to use this ancient resolution mode. The text looks so...small and mushy/bleary to me.

It started off with the monitor not quite turning on. The power light would flicker on but then go off with the monitor not subsequently turning on until I replugged the monitor in and out several times. Then today after the replugging kabuki dance the image displayed dim. The thing is though the monitor optons menu appears just fine. Proper brightness and contrast. I borrowed my mother's monitor to see if maybe that wasn't a graphics card issue but it worked fine. When I hooked my monitor back up it refused to turn on at all. Hrm. Toast.

In other news, I had joked about how I was going to hurt my joints playing Wii Tennis but it was turned out to be true. I was hurting enough I had to stop playing for a few days until I created a new Mii to use with my other arm (left) and now I alternate between arms. For a while my left arm had a 200 point advantage over my right but now it's a 100 point difference the other way (1300 vs 1200.)

All spare time lately was been taken up with the Sims 3. I had lots of complaints & grumbles over it but Pes' Awesomemod has fixed & quelled those. Once he gets same-sex baby making working I'll be a happy camper.

Wii enabled

Wed, 27 May 2009 04:31:05 GMT

Last Wednesday at Costco, a Nintendo Wii was bought. A new TV was supposed to be gotten too but... *shrugs* I suppose there's nothing wrong with the one in the front room. It's only 24 years old and not cable ready (which never gets used 'natch), so, I've got the Wii attached to the 20" TV in my bedroom which suprisingly displays quite well.

It was the bowling part that got everyone in my family (it seems) to get the console+game but it has turned out to be tennis that I play the most - even though I'm not too good at it. Now, the manual clearly states to "swing gently." I laugh at this. I swing more like Serena Williams and thank god for the wrist strap. For a nostalgic touch I like to throw in an old-school Monica Seles grunt every now and then. If I keep this up though I'm going to throw both my shoulder and elbow out of joints. But who cares, I'm having fun. :o)

bad citizen & out of the UCM loop

Wed, 20 May 2009 04:49:07 GMT

I can not believe I completely forgot about the special election today. I only realized it when I was reading the news at CNN.com. And that was 10 minutes before the polls closed. Ah well, the politicians would be glad I didn't. I was planning to vote yes on two, no on another two, and was still iffy on the fifth. All five needed a yes to "solve the crisis." Pfft, whatever.

I try to keep up with news from my birthtown by reading the local paper, the Sun-Star, online but I hadn't for a few weeks. So, I go to read this evening and found out that the First Lady, Michelle Obama, spoke at the graduation ceremory at the University of California campus* there last Saturday. I felt a bit of pride about that for some reason. I've lived here in Barstow now more than I did in Merced (20 vs 18 years). I have no illusions that the political bent there is to my liking. Too republican-leaning, too much religion influencing the populace. But still. My heart skipped a beat. Yes, I give her pass unlike her husband. I still dislike him. More so now, actually, than I did before the election. But he was, after all, the lesser of the other evils. Hmmph.

* Which is still new enough to have that brand-new car smell going on.

Go ma!

Sat, 09 May 2009 16:44:12 GMT

Just got a call from mom. She's in Los Angeles participating in the REVLON Run/Walk for Women. She and some co-workers were about 1 mile into the walk when she called. Good to see so many people participating and raising money. ($55 million over the past 15 years!) There's just too many women out there with cancer. I had a cousin die from cancer long ago, and, my step-mother had breast cancer. Sad sad sad.

by all means, go

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 04:52:18 GMT

"In a new survey by Research 2000 for the liberal Daily Kos blog, Texas voters were asked whether the Lone Star State would be better off as an "independent nation" or as part of the United States.

Overall, more than six in ten chose the latter option. (No big surprise there.) But, among Republicans, 48 percent said it would be better for Texas if the state was an independent nation -- the same number who said they would prefer the state remain a part of the United States."

Read more @ the Washington Post

Sure, invite all the other right-wing wackos, wall yourselves in and call yourselves the Holy American Empire (as if ya'll didn't already.) I'll help build the wall.

w00t

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:22:03 GMT

With their 1st round choice the 49ers picked WR Michael Crabtree. We've sucked at that position since Terrell Owens left in 2003.

a Wii bit of fun

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:43:24 GMT

Easter dinner was, like always, down my aunt and uncle's house. There was less food than the year previous just like we've been doing for several years now. That's a good thing. After dinner we got to play Wii Sports which was fun. There was lots of bowling, which is the best game IMHO. I get much better scores on this than in real life. :o) Boxing suuuucks though. The Wii fitness age thingy told me I was 35. I'll take that. The tennis part of it really threw me off. My eyes kept following the ball in play after I hit it instead of focusing on the next one coming. I hope ya'll had a great day!

so sad

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 03:22:07 GMT

After all this time, I finally got a Wikipedia account. Why? To fix several [citation needed] requests for a comic book character biography page (refs 19-23 are mine). Neeeeerd!

brightened my morning

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:36:09 GMT

For all the little ~~Susies~~ Siouxsies out there:

Goth Barbie [YouTube]

yes it is

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:45:40 GMT

This Is Why You're Fat *drools @ too many things*

initial impression of the Pet Shop Boys' "Yes"

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:10:14 GMT

On a first-listen basis of their new album only two tracks stand out for me: "Pandemonium" and "More Than A Dream". The rest seemed very uninteresting. It'll take a few more listenings to see if I warm up to any more but right now I can only see happening to maybe two or three tracks. Honestly, I used look forward to their releases but now it's more of a "oh dear, let's see what kind of mess we're talking about now" reaction.

QotD

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:53:28 GMT

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin

Seriously!

New days not like the old days

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:50:34 GMT

Spent all evening watching marching band videos at YouTube starting with the band review at my hometown then on to the ones at Fairfield and Santa Cruz. Watching the current version of my high school band is... disappointing. But I know that's not entirely fair. After I graduated a new high school opened and resources got split. That being said, the newer one, Golden Valley, is bigger, sounds better and was in the Rose Parade two months ago. Luckily, I can relive some memories at the Merced Marching 100 alumni group at Facebook.

This economy can suck it

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:26:26 GMT

I got a letter today saying that my co-pay for each of my perscription meds just went up $3. Oh, and it takes effect on Sunday. Thanks for the advance notice guys. *rolls eyes* And for more fun, jury duty on Monday!

Ow

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 19:17:55 GMT

My jeans and leg have become causalties of the War On Weather. As usual, my mom and I walked around before we washed this morning just to get some exercise in. There's still random piles of snow around, which were avoided, as well as ice on the sidewalk. But while gabbing I missed seeing an ice patch and promptly fell. As I was falling there was a brief moment where I thought maybe I could stop myself from going all the way down. Nuh-huh. I landed on my knee, tearing my jeans and scraping off the skin just below that. It didn't feel bad at the time but later it started to sting, even so, I still finished washing and grocery shopping. It was only when I got home and got my pants off I noticed how much skin was scraped off. Too much for a Band-Aid, so, I ended-up using leftover gauze and medical tape. I'll have to pick up another pair of jeans at WalMart this week.

Here we go again

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:46:55 GMT

About a half hour after my last post it stopped snowing. By mid-afternoon yesterday it had all melted away. Take a guess what's going on right now? *glares at the falling snow* Hopefully it'll switch over to rain soon.

Edit: nope, it's still snowing. There's more now than we had on Monday. The road out to Fort Irwin was closed. Workers at the Marine Corps Logistics Base, just outside of town, were sent home at 1pm. Look at this idiot in the snow...

What's this white stuff? Snow?! OMGWTFBBQ!

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:06:38 GMT

When I woke up it was raining. Just after 9am it started snowing. It's not falling as much but it's still going (noon, local time.)

Ran into an upstairs neighbor who said he got out of Ohio to get away from the snow. Heh

ooh

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 04:19:45 GMT

Small earthquake in progress...

Edit: magnitude 5.5 near Ludlow, ~56 miles east from here

Music Review: Shiny Toy Guns - "Season of Poison"

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:55:19 GMT

First off, after the previous album "We Are Pilots" (all three releases at that) I had high hopes for the next album. Hope that took a huge hit once I heard of the replacement of the female lead Carah Faye with Sisely Treasure. Different sound and not in a good way. I find her voice breathy and squeaky. Nothing brings that to mind to me more than "Turned To Real Life" but I'll get to that later.

01 When Did This Storm Begin - The beginning track is one that should set the tone for the album and grab the listener's attention. Unfortunately, it does that but for all the wrong reasons. Schizoid and discordant music and tempo. Spoken word/rap by the new female lead. Not good.
02 Money For That - Guitar-laden. Clearly rock-focused. Is this really Shiny Toy Guns? I keep thinking Blink 182.
03 I Owe You A Love Song - Finally, a song that sounds like something from WAP. Too bad the lyrics are pedestrian. I'm so grateful for the music that I'm willing to overlook Sisely's participation here.
04 Ghost Town - Back to the rock-guitar sound. Surrounding music's not that great. And then there's Sisely's staccato words/chant. (Think of the "Hey hey you you"s in Avril's Lavigne "Boyfriend".)
05 It Became A Lie On You - Back to softer sounds. Would have fit in well on WAP. I could definitely listen to this one regularly.
06 Ricochet! - Complete 180 degrees here. Heavy guitar. Shouting. After repeated listening I'm finding I can tolerate this more than before. That's not to say I actually like it though.
07 Season Of Love - Not lyrically significant but the music and bits of harmony pull me in.
08 Poison - Gah! Booooooring. I want my 8(!) minutes back.
09 Blown Away - Back to guitar-focus. Not that terrible but not that good either.
10 Turned To Real Life - The original version of this song was on the 1st release of WAP and turned out to be my favourite song. As you can imagine I was pissed when it was removed from WAP in the 2nd release. Now it's sort of back but with Sisely singing it and the music being retooled. I can only accept this as a cover of the original song and even then I find myself stopping this and playing the original.
11 Frozen Oceans - The only Sisely-focused song. While not... bad, I find myself relegating it to the role of background music.

vote early, vote often

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:07:02 GMT

It took maybe 7 minutes to walk my ass to the church before it opened for voting. I usually get there 5 minutes early and am 1st to 3rd in line. This time I got there 10 minutes early and was around 12th. The line quickly doubled maybe three minutes later. Everyone huddled close to the building as possible to get out of the wind. Voting in of itself was uneventful, thankfully. As I walked out of the church parking lot though there were two women right across the street waving pro-Prop 8 signs. I wanted to flip them off... Ok, what I really wanted to do was take their signs away from them and give them a beat-down they'd never forget. Instead, I opted to give them the dirtiest look I could. :o/ me=weenie

I have to state something publicly. I want to thank McCain for chosing Palin as his running-mate. It's no secret that I don't like Obama. I never have. Prior to the Republican convention I was leaning 51% just staying home on election day. I felt somewhat guilty about that but I was tired of choosing the lesser of two evils. Then McShame picked Caribou Barbie for the VP slot. And then she opened her mouth. I knew then I couldn't let her have a chance at the presidency.