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Hybrid Theory

Linkin Park: Hybrid TheoryI have always found that I associate where I am living or what I am doing at a given period of time with the music that I happen to be listening to at that moment. For me, moving to Boston will always be about Linkin Park. Their debut album, Hybrid Theory (which was also the bands original name) was playing as we moved and I started a new job. Their hard edged, intense music for me represented a stressfull/emotional period in the last year. This album is one hit after another and in my opinion all of the songs could be singles in their own right. I only hope that these guys can live up to this album in future releases, but either way this one is a keeper. 

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Jerk of the Week Pick your sport - baseball, basketball, football or hockey - and get a rundown of the worst-mannered jerks in each league. Each entry comes with the story and a jerk point rating. I don't see why this is only available for sports. I'd love to see an entertainment jerk of the week and one for politics (other than the Daily News), maybe even one for the office Intranet. Hey - they're jerks - they deserve it. Songs & Chants This is just one of the reasons why I'm never going to live in Europe. These people are insane about sports. Or in their language; absolutely stark raving mad.


Then again, we have the WWF... YOUR LINK HERE I'm looking for a site that aggregates all of the major conspiracy theories from the past hundred years. It's just too cumbersome to slog through hundreds of crappy personal pages to get the dirt on cancer-causing contrails or the latest dish on how aliens abducted JFK. If you have a site like this, or know of one, send us the link and we'll see that it gets the attention it deserves. 

Joke leads to anger.

"Joke leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suing." -BBC Congratulations! You are the winner of a new Toyota! Or is that a toy-Yoda? A Hooters waitress in Panama City, FL was tricked into a beer selling contest with the promise of a "new Toyota" as the prize. Turns out, she actually won a "toy Yoda" - the Star Wars toy. Now, I love Yoda just as much as the next guy, but Jodee, the waitress, isn't laughing and I tend to think it was very poor judgement on the part of Hooters' management. It sends a message that it's acceptable to mislead people in order to get higher productivity out of them. What if Publisher's Clearinghouse started giving a million sand dollars (yes, the mollusk) to the winners of its sweepstakes? Would we stand for that too? Jodee did the work, won the contest, now give her the car.

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Six Feet Under I'm am not a tv person - I watch about 3 hours a week of that infernal talking box (I prefer a talking box with a CPU) - so the tv I do watch has to be pretty darn good to make it to the top of the list. Take a look at Six Feet Under on HBO; it's funny and original - the story of a quirky family that owns, operates and lives in a funeral home. It's not as gloomy as you'd think, but life at the Fisher's is no wreath of roses either! Sav-A-Club In the grand scheme of things, address labels for golf clubs are not that important, but the day you leave your $359.00 graphite shafted iron in a sand trap, you'll be glad you had them labeled. Hitting a dead end on the Information Superhighway. The creative alternative to an animated construction sign. Prettier to look at, but no less uninformative and annoying.

Diablo II: LOD

Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction is an expansion pack that is finally worthy of the game that it was created for. In the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion pack for Diablo II, you will return to follow the path of Baal, the last of the Prime Evils, into the Barbarian Highlands of the north. Traveling with hordes of demonic minions, Baal intends to corrupt the powerful Worldstone, which protects the whole of the mortal plane from the forces of hell. With two new character classes, you can play the entire Diablo 2 universe through again either as a shape-shifting druid or the stealthy assassin. The druid is a shapeshifter and master of the elements that combines magic and brute strength. In addition to transforming into a bear or a wolf, the druid can summon the elements, like ice blasts or even a volcano.

Syberian Express

 So generally I consider myself to be a slightly twisted individual, somewhere to the left of normal and well on my way to Cukootown. In recent months I have been known proclaim to passers-by that I am the King of the Fish People. On one occasion, Clay and I caused a young lady to walk right into a tree as a result of our proclamations. Today, I have been proven that I have a long way to go before I can even catch the bus to Crazy. I work in a small office building located just outside of Boston. In my building are a variety of lawyers, insurance companies, professional services companies, etc. Today as I walked to our upstairs office, there was an older (60-ish) gentleman wearing a shirt, tie, and a GIANT BLACK AND RED FELT HAT!! The hat had a red triangle on the front and he carried with him a 4 foot tall BELLOWS STYLE TRAIN HORN/WHISTLE!!! As he walked down the hall, he was tooting the horn and inviting passers-by to join him on, get this...THE SIBERIAN EXPRESS.


He was asking anyone who hated his or her jobs to join him in this pilgrimage to the motherland. Now, I thought maybe this guy was just playing some kind of joke and that it was a one-time thing, until I went to go get lunch. There he was sitting in the cafeteria eating, hat still firmly in place. As I came in, he tried to convince me that the owner of the cafeteria was selling special airline tickets to Russia today, and that the offer was up at 5, so I had better hurry. After I left he finished his lunch and began walking up and down the halls playing the horn again! I swear on all that is sacred in my life that this is all true and that it really happened! I think I have found my new hero! 

Bugaboo

Tonight we went out to dinner to Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse. At first I was very apprehensive because I had heard that there were stuffed animal heads on the walls and lots of antlers around the place. I was pleasantly surprised. It had a nice atmosphere and the food was great. Although it is a steakhouse, none of us ordered any steak. In fact we all had different dinners that involved chicken in some way.  

Truck

I recently came into the possesion of a 1990 Toyota Pickup Truck. Our upstairs neighbor was getting rid of it and passed it on to me. A pretty fortunate event if you ask me. Anyway, it needs new brakes, tires, and a few other sundry items, but it runs well and the A/C works too. I am really looking forward to working on it and getting it up to speed so I can register it and start using it. The major limiting factor right now is the front brakes. They are so bad that it sounds like someone with TMJ is under the hood. I would like to fix them myself so I can save some money, but first I have to figure out how to do that before I can start. Here is a picture of what my truck looks like (large picture on the left), except mine is not as shiny and is powder blue with a cap on the back. I'll post a picture of it once I clean it up. 

Turtle

This one is for Clay.

 

More of the Aquarium

Here are some other pictures that I took. I love aquariums. They always seem to be so peaceful and simple.

   

Penguins

These first two pictures are of some African penguins. The aquarium has had these penguins on exhibit since 1969. They are the largest (in size and number) that the aquarium has.
Here is a link to the penguin tanks of the museum if you want to take a virtual tour.
This is a rockhopper penguin, "Their scientific name literally means "good diver with golden crest." Rockhoppers get their common name from their tremendous ability to jump around rocks. Rockhoppers are found on sub-Antarctic islands and south temperate islands in the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans"
These little guys were the cutest penguins there. Called "little blues"are the smallest of all penguin species. "Their scientific name, Eudyptula minor, means "good little diver." Their common name comes from the distinctive blue-turquoise tint of their back feathers. If you spend time listening to these birds, you will be surprised at how vocal and how LOUD they are, for such small birds. Little blue populations are considered to be stable or decreasing in the wild. One subspecies is considered to be endangered." 

Vacation (cont.)

So we never ended up going swimming. Total bummer. It got cool that afternoon, and then rained the next morning. Oh well. Back in Mass, we are continuing our vacation. Today we went to the New England Aquarium. Totally cool place. there was an excellent exhibit about penguins there, one of their key attractions. I got some great shots of them that I am going to be posting in a little while so check the SEE section.

Vacation

So, we are finally taking a vacation. After 2 years we are taking a full week off from work, and everything else. Right now, we are visiting some relatives in New Jersey, swimming, goofing around, doing some shopping and just generally being lazy. Tara and I got a few hours to ourself this morning. My mother took Trevor to visit my grandfather, (who he adores) and Tara and I made a trip to the Mall to get some shopping done. My brother and his girlfreind offered to treat Tara and I to the movies tonight. I am really looking forward to this because over the last few years, unintentionally, Paul and I have not spent a lot of time together. We always seemed to be heading in different directions. One coming in while the other was heading out. I think it will be fun to hang out tonight. We are all going swimming this afternoon and I hope to post some pictures of it later this afternoon.

Diablo II: Expansion

This is a response to Dave's post of the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction Expansion Pack. Browsing in online gaming communities, I've noticed more than a few complaints that this offering was not worthy of a full-price expansion. Many people commented angrily on the tendency of game companies to release an unfinished product, then charge for the rest of the game under the guise of an expansion. Some gamers suggested Lord of Destruction should have been an inexpensive expansion or even a free upgrade, because it was not worth the $35.00 price tag. I love Diablo (in all of its incarnations) and I'd play for hours if I didn't have to eat, sleep and go to work, but I'm starting to agree with the cheapskates. There wasn't enough meat here to justify the price. Neither of the new character classes are that amazing and the new items (jewels and runes) are gems in new clothes. Don't even talk to be about the supposed 'feature' of larger stashes - that is the correction of a mistake in my opinon.


How were you ever supposed to store a billion gems (before tansfiguration) and extra gear in that tiny chest to begin with? The main draw of Lord of Destruction is supposed to be the two new character classes. In addition to the rogue, barbarian, sorceress, paladin and necromancer, you can now choose to be an assasin or a druid. I'm not thrilled with the assasin - her spells are weak and clumsy. Her martial arts moves are novel, but not compelling enough to replace my favorite sorceress (who was deleted recently because I have been using another account). The druid is the Dr. Dolittle of necromancers. His pack of wolves, etc. is enough to slow down the fastest of parties. Get a necro and a druid in a party together and you might as well be playing a turn-based game. Don't get me wrong, there are some nifty little details that are great new additions - but not enough major changes to make this an expansion and not an upgrade. I remember, way back when, there was talk of a guild hall in D2.


There would be common storage areas for guild members and a meeting space where characters could gather in a simulated meeting hall. The game arrived with no hall - so it was speculated that it would be included in the expansion. I recall official Blizzard talk to that effect. Again, no halls. Guilds and clans were created out of the desire of D2 gamers to play with like-minded individuals. Giving these groups an official nod with an in-game area would have been a phenomenal business move. Not to mention it would have been great to enter a trading game and merely browse through the items in the hall instead of trading person to person. Final analysis – worth the 35.00? Not really. More like 15 and change for 2 new non-compelling characters and a handful of variations on a theme.

Interesting Links

The Museum of E-Failure From the site: “The Museum of E-Failure is an attempt to actively preserve the home pages of sites that will probably disappear in the next few months. Our goal is not to laugh at the fallen, but to preserve their last image, before all traces of these sites’ existence are deleted from history’s view. It is my hope that these screenshots may serve as a reminder of the glory, folly, and historically unique design sensibilities of the Web’s Great Gilded Age. With our June update, the Museum’s Screenshot Collection now numbers 400.”


Encyclopedia Mythica Encyclopedia Mythica has more than 5,700 articles about people, objects and animals that are featured in folklore, myth and legend. Includes genealogies and a gallery of images of deities. If you picked up Amercian Gods from my previous post, you're going to need this site.


adflip.com If you love flipping through old magazines from decdes past just to see add for odd products with their earnest sales pitches, you'll love adflip. Billed ad the world's largest archive of print ads, adflip offers ads from every era, for every taste. This 1940's ad for Spam is one of my favorites.


Cliche Site More cliches than you can shake a stick at! (That really just says it all.)

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein has to be one of the coolest thinkers of our modern world. Not having known him personally, (no really, I don't) all I have to go on, are the remains of what his life was. His work, others writing about him, movies clips, etc. One of my favorite bits of his history are quotes of his. A student a The University of Colorado has put together a decent site that collects many of his qoutes into one place. Here are a few: "Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love" "Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts." "When a blind beetle crawls over the surface of the globe, he doesn't realize that the track he has covered is curved. I was lucky enough to have spotted it." "I have no particular talent. I am merely inquisitive." "It's not that I'm so smart , it's just that I stay with problems longer ." "If I had my life to live over again, I'd be a plumber."
"I want to know God's thoughts,..... the rest are details.." "My life is a simplething that would interest no one. It is a known fact that I was born and that is all that is necessary." "As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue." "I cannot believe that God would choose to play dice with the universe." or sometimes quoted as "God does not play dice with the universe." "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

Fun with Albert

You have to love a brilliant guy who can remain humble about his own intelligence and also be cool enough to stick out his tongue at a camera. I am also posting a READ section today about some of his quotes, so check it out.