At first I thought I had just drank too much coffee this morning, but it turns out that we are actually getting some snow flurries now. It won't be long and we'll get our first real snow of the winter...

Run DMC's Jam Master Jay was killed yesterday in a shooting in his New York studio.

Damn... That's just sad...

I always feel that this is a cheap post and I try to avoid it, but I think I'll just limit it to one end of the month traffic report/search engine referral report.

October was my busiest month ever, with 2449 unique visitors (as of 9AM today), serving up almost a gigabyte of traffic. Traffic was up because of Steven Den Beste linking to some silly comments I had on the Iraqi elections, and various other bloggers linking the silly chart I did earlier this month. Hooray. Now on to the part you've all been waiting for:

Gimpysoft.com's Wackiest Search Engine Referrals!!! (October 2002 edition)

"funny monkey pictures"
Everybody likes the funny monkey pictures.

"www.bears still suck.com"
www.they sure do.com

"vikings haters"
You've found 'em

"funny flash movie of randy moss bitch dropping ball"
Please point me to this when you find it...

"sousaphone girl photos" and "sousaphone photos"
The sousaphone is my favorite instrument

"falcor luck dragon"
Month after month, this is consistently popular. I don't understand

"the greatest american hero episode download"
I truly wish I could help you... I really do...

"the coors light twins nude"
Really wish I could help you there.

"robocop dance till you drop"
Popular month after month as well...

"the man show intro on french horn"
I think that Gurney could help you out with this one...

"joe piscopo workout"
Nope.

"experiences of panty boy"
Maybe a good theme for my book...

"neverending pi math"
Is there any other kind of pi math?

Next month, I think I need to curse a lot more on here. Get some really wacky ones next month. Enjoy your halloween everybody...

I'll bet you five dollars I can tell you where you got your shoes...

Right here on the floor of the New Orleans Jail, apparently...

Anyone catch the premiere of 24 last night? Looks like it could be a decent season. But what was up with all those washed out, grainy shots? Maybe I just need a new TV.

Salon reviews the episode here.

My favorite part: Former cute brunette from Rosanne Sara Gilbert as Paula, the over-eager new hacker for CTU. (Well, formerly from Rosanne... Not formerly brunette and certainly not formerly cute...)

Dick LeBeau, head coach of the 0-7 Cincinnati Bengals (along with a player or two) is guaranteeing a win this Sunday against the Houston Texans. You should read the article... Plenty of smack talk from the bottom of the barrel. At least Houston has an excuse... (Not to mention two wins.)

Hell, ESPN's rankings have Houston three slots ahead of you, Cincy. After the Texans get done dismantling your team, they have an outside chance at being tied for second in their division. Give us a call when you get there LeBeau, from wherever it is you end up after Cincy kicks your ass to the curb...

If there is a God, Houston will shut out the Bengals. I just wish I could watch the game...

I just realized that once I get this new machine built (Gurney is definitely in the lead for naming rights with "deadboy"), it's actually going to be a bigger, faster and all-around better machine than pi, the current web server. I'm not in the mood to move everything over to the new machine, but I figure I ought to do something cool with the new processing power I'm going to have. I figure it's about time for Gimpysoft Radio to return...

Once the machine is up and running, I'll start the process of converting all the live shows I've downloaded lately to mp3 and get them transferred over to deadboy. Then I should be able to set up a shoutcast stream and let at least three or four people listen to music.

I always had a hard time keeping the music stream going because I didn't have a machine to dedicate to that task. I should have that again soon so watch for a Phish/Particle/Big Smith/Steve Kimock/Cracker heavy music stream coming at you sometime soon. I don't think I'll be having it just play a random selection of tracks... I think I'll set it up to serve whole shows. Your suggestions in this matter would be appreciated as well...

The anti-war argument to read. Go read it now.

I suppose I should comment on it, but I have work to do now... Maybe later. I was thinking about a little something to say about Israel this morning too.

I'm sure the suspense is killing you... Maybe later this evening.

Well, I just shut down drscience.gimpysoft.com, the second computer I ever owned. It's a lovely 486DX/66 with 8 megs of RAM. It currently has Slackware Linux installed on it, and ran this website for the first eight months of its existence.

After I bought my current windows machine (glii.gimpysoft.com), it was cannibalized for parts to be used to build glii and the current webserver, pi.gimpysoft.com. I came into a monitor recently and decided I wanted a web surfing machine for the living room. I managed to get drscience working again well enough to use lynx, but it just wasn't cutting it. I'm working on building a new machine right now. In the process of building the new machine, I had to shut down drscience. I just tried to start it back up, and it's claiming it has a HD controller failure. Of course, I could try reseating the HD controller, but I think instead, I'll declare that machine dead and see that it gets a proper burial. Perhaps even a literal burial in the back yard, with a marker and everything. I can imagine no better resting place for the old fellow than the back yard of Fort Awesome.

The upshot is, I expect to have a new machine built tomorrow or so, and I guess I have to give it a name. I think it's bad luck to give an old name to a new machine, so I need to come up with a new name. I guess the theme I have going is Young Pups characters, so I guess I'd better stick with that. Any suggestions?

Well, I got an email from the folks over the weekend... I got a reprieve from the visit a couple of weeks ago on Columbus day, but the next visit looms a scant four or so weeks away. I wasn't really planning on going anywhere for Thanksgiving, but my folks seem to have decided that they'll be heading down here. Should be fun, but this'll be my first time hosting Thanksgiving at my place, and I'm really not looking forward to it with my small kitchen that lacks a dishwasher. At least it won't be all that big... Me, the folks and possibly my sister.

Four days off from work with dad around means that whether I like it or not, I'll probably be getting a lot of work done on the bathroom. I just hope that I'm not broke again by the time they make it up here. I'll need to be able to at least afford the tub, drywall and a truck rental. I bought some plumbing supplies this weekend so that at least got me moving in the right direction.

Weekend highlights... After the Whad' Ya Know house party on Saturday morning, I made a quick run over to Home Depot to get those plumbing supplies. My racquetball partner and her boyfriend had a party out at their place Saturday night. It was a lot of fun... Mostly TV folks and T&T's artist neighbors. For all the joking there is about militant anti-smokers, you really don't run into them all that much. I met what may have been my first at the party. I stepped out onto the porch for a cigarette and this one party attendant just went on and on about how cigarettes are bad for me... Ugh. She made two more cracks on subsequent nicotine sessions throughout the night, but that was about it. I was rather worried that that was all I was going to hear from her all night, but she backed off finally. Or she left, I'm not entirely sure.

But that was the only thing I really do have to complain about from the party... I had a really good time, and it was a fun group of folks. I'm hoping they do it again soon or that I can return the favor sometime... I'm getting to the point where I'm thinking about having another party out at my place. Unfortunately, any guest list I can think about coming up with would be somewhat short right now. I'm about to the point where if I invited everybody that I hang out with regularly and they all showed up, it would be a decent gathering. However, if very many people didn't make it out, it would be just a few of us.

Sunday, I finally got around go hitting that Indian grocery near my place. I bought a bunch of curry powders, curry pastes, and several boxes of spice-mixes for several different dishes. I made a pretty damn good Chicken Vindaloo yesterday for lunch, if I do say so myself. Incredibly easy, too. I was rather surprised. It was nice to cook again for once... It had been a while, and since last weekend's cleaning binge, I've actually been doing a pretty good job keeping things picked up around the house. My room still needs a bit of work, but other than that, the house is in pretty good shape.

Packers were on their bye last week, so I didn't watch to much football. I watched the end of the KC/Oakland game (Kick Ass! The Chiefs Won!), and a bit of the New England/Denver game. Patten didn't make one catch during the game. It certainly wasn't for lack of opportunities. I saw him drop a touchdown pass, a two point conversion pass and at least one deep pass that might have scored. Loser... You'd better watch it, or you're going to be cut from my team...

I should have gone to see Karl Denson's Tiny Universe last night, but I decided that sleep was a bit more important. Guess that's about it... Back to work now...

If you went to Bonnaroo, you may find this mildly amusing. It's audio of a speech he gave earlier this month where he talks about that monologue he gave at the end of his set Sunday night at Bonnaroo.

Besides having topped my previous record for nerdiness, I have now topped my previous record for laziness.

I've lived in this house since the end of January, nine months now. The hot water has been far, far too hot since I've been here. Solution to the problem: Turn the water heater down. Every time I burn myself washing dishes or washing my hands, I think "Hey, I really need to turn that down." Then I think that I'm going to need to find a screwdriver, take that front panel off and turn it down. And I don't. Nine months now.

I was just downstairs doing some laundry and feeling like being productive, so I decide to look for the panel. There is no panel. Just a big dial, right out there on the front of the water heater. Nine months. I never once even walked downstairs to look at the water heater. Damn.

That's right, ladies... I'm still available. Nerdy, Geeky, Poor and Lazy... All this can be yours!

Well, just when I thought I had reached the pinnacle of nerdiness, I find a whole new level and climb on up. Today I crashed a party... An NPR party, that is!

Ummm... Yeah.... So my normal Saturday morning routine is to lay in bed until I just can't stay asleep any longer. I'll then turn on our local NPR station and attempt to stay in bed just a bit longer. This morning I woke up just after Car Talk had started but felt lazy laying in bed, so I got up. I listened to most of the show, then Whad' Ya Know came on. I'm up in Wisconsin often, and always check to see if I can get tickets and work it into my schedule to go see the show taped, but have never managed to do it.

Anyway, a couple of months ago they decided to do a show at somebody's house, and took entries from people who would like to host the show. The winner turned out to be somebody from my town of Shawnee, KS. They've been talking about doing the house party for a while, and I was thinking it would be cool to see the show when it's in town, but didn't expect to be able to get in. Hell, I don't know the hosts or anything. But when the show came on this morning I was listening and they were talking about the beautiful house overlooking the historic 435 interchange. 435 only cuts through a small section of Shawnee so I figured I'd head out and try to find the place, at least to get a picture of the house and the crowd.

After driving for a bit, I finally found the only house I could see that overlooked 435, and it's a beauty. I'd seen the house before, and thought it was rather old, but it's still being built. It took me a bit before I could work my way up to the house, but by the time I got there I knew I was in the right place. Cars were parked all up and down the street. At first I just drove by to get a picture, but then I decided to see if I could manage to get in and catch the last hour of the show. I found a place to park a bit down the street and wandered up to the house. I asked a woman out at the buffet if I could take some pictures. She said sure, but that the front door was closed, I ought to go in the back. So I did.

The house had now walls, just studs everywhere, and there were chairs set up all over the house. I found a spot kind of in the middle, I think I was standing by the crew. I was behind a stairwell, but I did manage to work my way forward once to get a (fuzzy) picture. I guess I got in around the end of the first hour, and got to listen to the band play their whole song during the break when the station was in top-of-the-hour news. But I got to catch the entire second hour.

I certainly noticed that Boulevard truck on my way in, but by this long into the show, I was starting to feel rather comfortable. The majority of the guests didn't seem to know the hosts, and most of them were drinking margaritas. I decided to head outside to grab a beer. I wonder how much it costs to get one of these keg trucks to come out to a party... They had Boulevard Wheat, Boulevard Pale Ale, and some sort of stout that was actually labeled as Wheat on the tap. I had a Wheat first (no lemons... the nerve!) and went back for a stout later. I actually think it may have been their Bully Porter, but I'm not entirely sure.

So I watched the rest of the show. They did the quiz, and a neighbor girl got to be on. I think the first people to take the quiz lost, but the second group got it. The prize package included a six-pack of Boulevard Pale Ale, and the Boulevard guys weren't really sure if she was actually 21, but I figure she was. After the show, Michael Feldman saw me in my Packers hat and I got a compliment and a handshake out of the deal. Pretty cool.

I thought about sticking around to hit the buffet (Chicken Brats!), but decided against it. I really need to go get some bathroom supplies here in just a bit, and I needed to finish up cleaning the bathroom and figuring out exactly what type of plumbing supplies I need. Anyway, it was cool to finally see the show live. I'll definitely have to get tickets in advance next time I'm heading up near Madison...

Well, mildly pathetic that the highlight of my week was crashing an NPR party, but it was fun. Well, the Particle show on Tuesday was pretty damn good, but I'm sure I'll catch them again. I doubt I'll see Whad' Ya Know in my home town again any time soon...

I'm going to go drive around and try to find the Shawnee, KS Whad'ya Know House Party...

Short notice, but would anybody be interested in catching Pork Tornado over in Lawrence tonight?

It makes me sad, seeing Ken Layne's site all blank like that...

Hey Dr. Science... can you solve this one for me?

(Via Jessy.)

Have you heard Beck's new album Sea Change? It's pretty damn good. Very good. Excellent. Give it a listen if you get a chance...

Deep Fritz vs. John Cusack.

Although I shouldn't have since I really can't afford it, I finally broke down and pledged to my local NPR station. Hell, they're sending me a bill and if I really can't afford it I can always disregard it, but the basic membership level is affordable, and I certainly listen to them enough to justify the small financial commitment.

But as I said, I'm tired... I think it's time for bed now.

Wow... I just got back from the Particle show over in Lawrence. I can't remember the last time I've enjoyed a show quite that much. Particle has jumped right up with Steve Kimock and Big Smith into the ranks of bands that I'll go out of my way and travel to see. You know you've got a high energy show when they whip out "Axel F" in the middle of the show and that's the song that calms the crowd down a bit.

"DJ Not A DJ" opened up for Particle. I've seen their shows listed on Jambase several times in the past, but have never gone. Call me silly, but I had actually assumed that the act was actually just a DJ with a moderately clever name. No, in fact they are a band and can play somewhat well. The guitar player is a DJ as well, and switches between the turntables and his guitar throughout the show.

I had never seen Particle before, but have downloaded a couple of shows. When I first arrived at the club, they were playing some techno type of stuff, but I hung out in the back room and watched game 3 of the World Series. Damn you Gerg, Damn you! During the strike scare, I was looking forward to writing off baseball... Now I'm actually going out of my way to pay attention the the baseball playoffs and World Series. By the way, is the Bell of the Anaheim Angels the same Bell formerly of the Killer B's of the Houston Astros?.

While watching, I assumed that DJ Not A DJ was responsible for the music, and when I heard a band fire up, I headed in to the club assuming that Particle had taken the stage. I thought it was a bit early for Particle to be starting, but I had heard that they often play long sets, so maybe they were just starting early. I didn't recognize any of the songs, but I only have two of their shows, and they're both from over a year ago. Anyway, so a guy bummed a cigarette off me and asked me what I thought of the band. I said they were pretty good, and I'm sorry I had missed them at Bonnaroo. Later, they finished up their set, announced that Particle would be on soon, and left me feeling like a moron.

Normally I have a tendency to obsess when I do stupid things like that, but when Particle went on, I had completely forgotten by the time the first song ended. I was out of my seat and dancing by the second song, and only left the dance floor for beer and restroom breaks the rest of the night. Lately, I've been turned off by lyrics in general. Too many bands have silly lyrics, and often the singers can't sing properly. (I notice that this is an unfortunate trend among jam bands.) Particle is untainted by bad lyrics or bad vocals, just straight up guitar/bass/drums/keyboard groove. It makes you dance, and that's good for the soul.

Unfortunately, it is now 2:32AM, and my soul is a bit sleepy. I think I will allow it the sleep that it desires... I am not really looking forward to the dentist appointment tomorrow morning.

Worried that you're still going to end up flipping burgers after you finish up that high-falutin' college degree?

Well it's worse than you think, buddy...

"Cops to Suspected Sniper: Call Us Back"

"The person you called could not hear everything you said. The audio was unclear and we want to get it right. Call us back so that we can clearly understand," Montgomery County, Md., Police Chief Charles Moose said.

Oh my god, that has to be the lamest thing I've ever heard.

Police added, "Better still, I believe we could more clearly understand your message if you delivered it in person to the Montgomery County Police Station. Just come on in at your earliest convienience and we'll be sure that we can respond to your message properly."

My suggested headline for this article:

Montgomery County Police Don't Have A Fucking Clue

Diagnosis: Sprained lateral collateral ligament
Treatment: Ice and rehab
Prognosis: Probable for Monday night

Whew...

Dave Barry claims that I live in the stupidest state. I'm impressed that an article about dumb states came and went without a mention of Arkansas. Mississippi got a nod, but Kansas took the prize. Lawrence is singled out, as a matter of fact.

See you there tomorrow night!

Roll your own Tivo. Only for satellite, though... I'd love to have something like this if it worked with my digital cable service...

The players seem to expect him back for their next game two weeks from tonight. Favre himself says that the injury doesn't seem to be as bad as it looked or felt at the time. The MRI is today, though.

Best of luck, man... Get well soon...

This one goes out mainly to the locals... I went to see The Elders Saturday night at Molloy Brothers Irish Pub, and while I was there I met Bob O'Connor, the host of KKFI's Your Morning Buzz radio program. He told me about the show, and I figured I'd give it a listen. I get tired of news occasionally, and I've been getting there again lately.

Anyway, if overly-hyper morning DJs don't quite do it for you, check his show out. He plays mainly down-tempo music, perfect for keeping you calm while dealing with all the morons on the freeway. This morning, he played some blues guitar type stuff, some Nat King Cole, some Woody Allen stand-up, and three tracks off Beck's new album that I hadn't heard yet.

Crap! Brett Favre just went down with a horrible, horrible looking knee sprain. It is a small blessing that Green Bay has a bye next week, so he'll get to rest it a bit.

But Damn... I can't imagine anything worse for a Packer fan than hearing the words "Brett Favre" and "knee sprain" in the same sentence. Rest up, bud...

Jambase has posted a coast-to-coast Halloween Show Guide.

Ok, my pick as being the Halloween show of the year……..Steve Kimock and Friends at Chester's Place in Fayetteville, AR. This show features Reed Mathis (Fred Jacob Jazz Odyssey) on bass, Jason Smart (Fred Jacob Jazz Odyssey) on drums, Martin Fierro (Zero, Legion of Mary) on sax, Banana on rhythm guitar, keyboards and vocals, and special guest Steve Pryor on guitar and vocals. Can you say heady? I think you can.

See you there...

Yet another technological advance that I unfortunately have no need for at the current time...

Sigh...

I finally won a game of racquetball last night. Over the last several months, our play has been plagued by injuries and the decline in general fitness that lack of exercise due to injury brings. Somehow we've managed to play for almost a month now with no major injuries, and I'm starting to get back into the swing of things. I'm particularly happy because my win didn't seem to come as a result of any injury in my racquetball partner... I just played exceptionally well. I still haven't been lifting any weights because I've normally been beat after one and a half to two hours of racquetball. Last night I was feeling good after an hour and a half, but just got lazy and decided to go home.

The Weight Chart hasn't been updated in a long, long time, but I have actually been better at keeping track, and just have to actually enter the last couple of months. Anyway, nothing really to report... It's been the same +/- about five pounds.

Some folks from Arkansas are up in town tonight so I think I'm going to head out with them if I can get in touch. This is the second weekend in a row where there really hasn't been anything going on in town musically that I'd really like to see, but Particle is in Lawrence this Tuesday. I'm definitely heading down for that. I suppose I will see you all there.

Enjoy your weekend everybody...

Be sure to eat your lunch at Burger King for the next couple of weeks. The Burger King Big Kids Meals include Simpsons Halloween Figures. They're perfect for brightening up your cubicle, bringing you small respite from the drudgery of your dead-end job.

I already have Emperor Kang (Don't blame me... I voted for Kodos), Bride of Frankensein Marge and a donated King Kong Homer from my boss. Collect all 10! I won't be happy until I get Frink.

OK, I don't think I'm going to deal well with the winter this year. I went out for lunch today and got back at around noon. It was cool, but bearable. I just stepped downstairs to indulge my nicotine addiction, and it's downright cold. It's raining, and it's 37° with a wind chill at 33°. I've never really had a problem with cold weather in the past, but I think I'm starting to get there. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea wearing a short sleeve shirt today.

Whine, bitch, moan...

One of the things I've always liked about the Green Bay Packers is that they tend to not have morons like Randy Moss on the team. They're generally a class act all around. So I was particularly upset when Green Bay fullback Najeh Davenport got caught in that moronic dorm-room closet defecation thing. Well, at least it will be over soon... What were you thinking, man?

Another fairly decent Photoshop contest from Fark. Photoshop a Saddam Portrait.

Career advice for The Rabbit: Become an unlicensed therapist. You'll make a mint.

I was updating my blogroll adding Jesse Walker's site when I realized that my categories "Cool" and "Political" don't quite work... I mean, Robot Wisdom is cool even though it is often political (with politics I often disagree with). Steven Den Beste is often political, but being an engineer can hardly be defined as cool.

So with apologies to Heather and Terry, I drew up a little graph of the Political/Cool spectrum including my blogroll, some frequent commenters, and some other crap. Anyone taking offense is advised to give a second thought to the source of the analysis, then to lighten up a bit...

Come on Reuters, even M. Kahil knows that Saddam is full of shit.

There's a new album out by The Future Sound of London called The Isness. Kenan Hebert at Blogcritics doesn't like it.

How to calculate a quarterback rating.

Or this site will do it for you.

Sorry for getting all political for a second there... I'll get back to the stories that really interest me:

Why is Randy Moss such a dick?

I still think that the most disappointed I've been in Bush since last September was his State of the Union speech when he named North Korea and Iran as part of the Axis of Evil. Particularly Iran, since it seems like they're going to have a revolution and overthrow the Theocracy any day now if we'd just back off and let it happen. North Korea I never really got. Granted, they do have a brutally repressive failed government that is responsible for starving its people, and I guess they sell some arms, but they kind of seemed like small fries, and didn't really seem much like a threat to anybody.

I don't really know why, but crap like this makes me reconsider a bit. About twenty-five years ago, North Korean agents kidnapped many Japanese citizens and brought them to North Korea to train North Korean agents in Japanese language and culture. The North Korean government denied this for years, but has finally admitted that the kidnappings took place, and five of them have been allowed to return home.

Well, not really. They're being allowed to go to Japan for a visit of a couple of weeks. Their children are being kept back in North Korea. I guess that's just to avoid subjecting them to the dangers of travel, and not at all to make sure that the kidnappees don't decide to stay in Japan or say anything negative about North Korea during the visit. (The kidnappees read from prepared scripts during a press conference, and took no questions.)

Ugh... That's just criminal. Why the Japanese government isn't absolutely demanding they be allowed to return is beyond me.

I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, and was in no way fair comment, and was motivated purely by malice, and I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you, or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.

Apparently, Reuters has taken Saddam's bait already. Guess I shouldn't really be surprised...

I'll be stealing my links from Matt today, but this one is a no-brainer. Australian blogger Tim Blair has rounded up all the best coverage of the Bali bombing, with his comments.

It's election day in Iraq.

Voters will go to election booths, then using non-secret ballots will be given the choice to vote "Yes" or "No" to Saddam. Iraqi leaders seem to actually think that this election is going to be taken seriously by somebody.

Or as Kazem put it, the outcome "will be like a fork in the eyes of [President] Bush."

I can't imagine anybody taking the results of this election seriously, but Steven Den Beste seems to think that somebody will. I guess I just have a bit more faith in humanity than that. Silly me. I'll be keeping my eye on Indymedia, though... If anybody will try to use this sham as evidence that the people of Iraq actually love Saddam, it'll be those guys.

And if you don't believe that the case for war in Iraq has yet been made, I now have the clincher:

His campaign song, Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You," has been getting lots of airtime.

If that's not a crime against humanity, I don't know what is.

I've been meaning to link to this site for a while, and figure I'd better do it now while I'm thinking about it. I've seen the links to the new Strong Bad Email every Monday on Fark for a while now, but hadn't ever clicked on it until a couple of weeks ago. I finally did, and it turns out it actually is some funny stuff. After working my way through all the Strong Bad Emails, I viewed just about all the rest of the content on the Homestar Runner website. If I ever should have kids, I hope that there is a Homestar Runner cartoon show that they can watch. About the worst stuff on there is Strong Bad saying "Holy Crap" a lot, but other than that, suitable for children but pretty funny. Just a couple of my favorites:

Strong Bad Email - Techno

Strong Bad Email - Action Figure

Halloween 2001 (Excellent costume ideas in here...)

Anyway, that's funny stuff. Check it out sometime if you're bored. I think I want to be Strong Bad for Halloween.

Monday is racquetball night, so I headed over to the gym to play at 8:00. The guy I work with and I played for about an hour, then the guys in the next court came by and said that they were wanting to try playing some other folks. We proceeded to trounce the two of them. One was a guy who just got back from Army basic training. I'm glad that the coming conflict in Iraq won't be settled on the Racquetball court.

As I continue to funnel free cash into my bathroom, my life remains rather boring. Therefore, I have little to write about. I spent most of the day Saturday watching old episodes of Family Guy that I downloaded a while ago, and getting them named and sorted properly so I could see if I have the full set yet. I still don't, but I'm pretty close. I'm only missing about four, and I even have a couple that never made it on the air. It's a shame that show got cancelled. Was there anybody out there that didn't like it?

That was Saturday. Sunday was football. For the second week in a row, I was able to watch the Packers play on TV at home. Green Bay's decimated defensive squad came through and helped the Packers join New Orleans, Tampa Bay, San Diego and Miami in the ranks of NFL leading 5-1 teams. (OK, I guess you'd have to let Indianapolis, Oakland and probably San Francisco after tonight in that club, all at 4-1.)

I've mentioned Green Bay's defensive problems on here before. Last week, I wasn't sure if they had turned it around, or if the Bears were just playing sloppy. Yesterday, they looked good for a second week in a row, and this time against a more daunting challenge. If they can keep things going, I'll be looking forward to the Green Bay v. New Orleans NFC Championship game, and the Green Bay v. Oakland Super Bowl. Would that be a Battle of the Bays? That's questionable, I guess...

After Green Bay's game, I spent the rest of the afternoon napping and flipping between 1998's Arkansas vs. Tennessee disaster on ESPN Classic, the Minnesota/Anaheim American League Championship game, and the Kansas City vs. San Diego matchup. I stayed on the Arkansas/Tennessee game just long enough to cringe when Clint Stoerner fumbled the ball with under two minutes to go in the game to give Tennessee the win.

Mildly amusing story about that game... The next year, the teams met the night of a friend's wedding in Arkansas. A friend and I were getting dressed for the ceremony, and ended up leaving early in the fourth quarter so we wouldn't miss it. We arrived at the church to find the entire wedding party (pastor included) gathered around a car radio listening to the end of the game. The wedding was postponed until after the game.

Kansas City looked good, but mostly as a result of sloppy play by the Chargers early in the game. They were able to recover and get the win. Also, any Minnesota Twins fans can thank me for the kiss of death I gave their team by giving them my support last week. I didn't catch much of that game, but I did catch most of the god-awful seventh inning that put their season away for good.

One final note to the DC cops: Please catch that fuckrag sniper soon... Brett's on his way to town...

I thought that the Good Doctor would never return from Beirut, and just a couple of weeks ago I almost removed my link to Hunter S. Thompson's long dormant "Hey Rube" column on ESPN. I knew we could expect more now that Football is back in season. He's back with a column sort of about this Monday's game.

"Any fool should know better than to bet against Brett Favre."

"I mean, I'm not a sexist person, but a woman has no business being down there trying to make some comment about a football game." --Andy Rooney.

Drug-warriors like Drug Czar John P. Walters would probably be more convincing in their arguments if they didn't make completely idiotic statements like "we know that [marijuana] is responsible for 20 percent of accidents on the road today."

Well, when I got home from work yesterday, I (almost) immediately changed into work clothes and got to furiously scraping linoleum felt off of my bathroom floor. I honestly thought I was going to be up until around 3AM finishing off the linoleum and cleaning the house in anticipation of my parents arrival either late tonight or tomorrow morning. I got a call from Mom just before I left for racquetball, and since my dad has some events to attend over the weekend for work, they're not going to be able to make it down this weekend. I'd love to have them, but the place really is a mess, and I didn't do nearly enough to remedy the situation.

I really did try to clean, but I kept getting distracted and just made things worse. I started cleaning in the computer room. While I was down there, I found the pieces of my old 486 that used to host this website back in the day. When I went out to Wisconsin the weekend before last, I looted an old computer and monitor that had been left in my parent's lake house by the previous owners when they bought it. I decided I needed a computer up in the living room, so I dragged drscience.gimpysoft.com (that's the 486) and the computer from Wisconsin upstairs and got them hooked up. The computer from Wisconsin was a 286... I can't imagine that that is going to be useful for anything, but I was able to cannibalize it for parts to get drscience running again. Now I just need to run a network cable from the living room down to the hub in the computer room, and I'll have at least some sort of computer up in the living room.

Oh wait, but I was supposed to be cleaning, wasn't I. Nope, instead, I've spread my box of computer parts all over the living room floor, have wires running all over the place, and have done nothing to get the place ready for the folks. As I said though, they're not coming down. So I can concentrate on the bathroom and (hopefully) cleaning this weekend. Since I thought the folks were going to be in town, I didn't make any weekend plans. If anybody is up for anything, let me know. Otherwise it'll just be housework all weekend, and I don't know if I can handle that two weeks in a row. I need to go out and do something tonight or tomorrow night.

Well, I guess that answers that question...

With the impending release of Age of Mythology, it would do us well to exercise some caution.

I've never hidden my dislike for the sport of Baseball on here, but I have to admit that I'm following the playoffs a fair amount more than I normally do. You just have to give respect to the players of the Minnesota Twins... The commissioner of baseball and the owner of the Twins tried as hard as they could to eliminate this team before this season. Now they're two games from going to the World Series. I hope they take it, even if they are from Minnesota.

Listening to the radio this morning, a sports reporter said that somebody is going to make a movie out of this baseball season. Didn't that already happen?

After that report, NPR's Frank Deford did a segment on Fantasy Football. About the only thing he got right in the report was that fantasy players tend to watch more football on average than non players. I definitely know that I've been watching more since I've been involved in fantasy leagues. He was a bit condescending, though. Harry Potter on your fantasy team? Come on... Like he's going to score more than Priest Holmes. Condescend to me... I'll fucking kill you, man...

Lastly, for those of you interested, you can get Randy Moss bobblehead dolls here. There has to be something that could be done with one of those... Suggestions?

My favorite articles in The Onion have always been the depressing ones... An excellent one today...

I have had nothing interesting to say for a while now, so for once I decided to keep my mouth (fingers?) shut. Here is a quick update:

The most exciting things that have happened in the last four days:

1: The Packers looked good Monday Night against the Bears. I missed all the good stuff offensively at the beginning of the game, but I thought that the defense looked much improved over previous weeks. They're going to need it this Sunday against the Patriots.

2: My home internet connection has been flaky lately. It's been intermittently out for several minutes at a time. I'm beginning to get slightly upset about it, but will deal with it for a bit longer before I start to complain. In the meantime, you may notice this site unreachable from time to time. I know, I know... Whatever will you do...

3: I'm almost done clearing out the bathroom. I was able to get the bottom of the shower out and begin peeling up the floor, but haven't finished that yet. And I still have a bit of ceiling and one wall to take off. I will hopefully finish that up tonight because...

4: It looks like the folks are dropping by this weekend for a visit. Nothing like a surprise visit from the folks to kick-start badly needed and long overdue housework. I need to do some serious cleaning. Phil... You thought I kept the place messy when you lived there, but you have no idea... Actually, it really isn't all that bad, but dishes are a bit piled up and the carpets need to be vacuumed badly. Plus, I ought to get the computer room cleaned up a bit. This also means that I need to catch up to where I had told my folks I was with the bathroom (all walls down, all linoleum up except one patch) before they get here. I have a feeling that if they come down that Dad's going to want to help me get started with the re-building of the bathroom. We'll see, though. It's not even certain that they're coming at all.

5: I finally got around to seeing Lord of the Rings. (Yes, I was the last person in the country who hadn't seen it.) Pretty decent little movie. Definitely gave my sound system a workout, and I think it may just be the best I've heard out of that stereo. I still need new speakers. I have to watch Monster's Ball tonight or tomorrow, but will probably save it for tomorrow so I can be sure to finish up the bathroom tonight.

That's about it. You see why I haven't been posting. Well hope things are going well with you folks. Does anybody have any suggestions for something interesting I could do tomorrow evening so I have something to post about on Thursday?

Juan Gato brings something disturbing to my attention.

You know, I dig politics and all... But come on... Don't fuck with the one night I'll get to watch the Packers in the comfort of my own home.

One more reason I no longer vote Libertarian.

Frickin' idiots... It looks like the Republicans in New Jersey are going to appeal the ruling to allow Lautenberg on the ballot all the way up to the Supreme Court. As I see it, there are two possible outcomes here:

1. The Supreme Court refuses to hear the appeal or upholds the ruling of the New Jersey Supreme Court. The Republicans lose, Lautenberg is on the ballot. Lautenberg beats the crap out of Forrester in the election in November.

2. The Supreme Court overturns the ruling of the New Jersey Supreme Court, and does not allow Lautenberg to appear on the ballot. This would do wonders to reinforce the belief that the US Supreme Court is partisan, and illegally handed the 2000 presidential election to W. Hell, I really don't believe that the presidential election was stolen, but if this New Jersey ruling is overturned I'm certainly going to be less sure of the impartiality of the Supreme Court.

Come on guys, you lost. Accept it and move on. At this point, you're just making Republicans in general look bad, and I don't see any way this situation could turn out good for you guys.

One more suggestion, Forrester... Lay off the "Torricelli-Lautenberg" thing. It appears that the new tactic of the Forrester campaign is going to be to try to tie Lautenberg to Torricelli and continue to run against Torricelli. I'm fairly certain that nobody's going to buy that.

Ordering pizza online rules.

I need to get out more.

I just looked up those political Flash ads I saw a couple of months ago, and noticed that he has a bunch of new ones (on the left... the "? Campaign"), including this one with "One Of These Days" from Pink Floyd's Meddle as the soundtrack...

So I did make it out to see Drums and Tuba last night. I enjoyed the show, but many of the songs they played didn't have quite the same groove as the couple of shows from earlier this year and late last year that I've downloaded. It was very cool to see them play, though. The horn player also apparently had some sort of sampler. He'd sample a sixteen-bar or so backup track on trumpet, then loop it, play another part over that and loop it with other, then switch back to the tuba. When I was listening to the shows I downloaded I had assumed that they had a somewhat large horn section, but it was just the one guy playing over his own loops. Fairly cool, I must say.

Drums and Tuba were worth the cover charge on their own, but they're currently touring with That1Guy from California. He is a one man band, and by far the most impressive such outfit I've ever seen. He played most of his music on a contraption he calls "The Magic Pipe". It's a six foot long section of two inch steel pipe with what I assume are bass strings strung along it. Attached to the top of this pipe is a joint with some buttons duct taped to it, curving around to a freely swinging shorter section of steel pipe with what I assume are cello strings strung along it. The buttons are attached to sound effects generators, and he had some more equipment at his feet that I couldn't really see from where I was sitting. But this guy was amazing on that thing. He played it with a bow, by plucking, by slapping, and for a while with a playing card. He also had a cool rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" played on a hand saw. If you weren't already convinced to catch Drums and Tuba, definitely catch the show if this guy is there. It's definitely something to see.

Looks like the next show is Particle in Lawrence in a couple of weeks, then the big Kimock/Big Smith weekend in Fayetteville a couple of weeks after that.

Nooooooooooooooooo!

A while ago it came to light that Snoop Doggy Dogg would be appearing in "A Very Muppet Christmas" to be shown on NBC. Various people were shocked, etc., most notably Fox News fucknut Bill O'Reilly, who complained both on his radio show and his television program. It turns out that NBC had already decided to remove the scenes before O'Reilly got to the story, but he still claims credit for having the scenes removed.

Anyway, G. Beato has a nice post-mortem on the fiasco. Well done, good sir... Too bad about Snoop, though. When I first heard about this, I was planning on tuning in. Can't think of much reason to do so now...

We are now thirty-one days away from 2002's National Novel Writing Month. After my pathetic failure last year, I'm reinvigorated and ready to take on the challenge once again, this time free of the distractions of having a roommate and having enough money to afford food and entertainment.

No, it's on to success this year! I'll begin outlining the novel tonight, before I go to see Drums & Tuba.

I honestly don't think that I care too much about this Torricelli thing. Torricelli takes bribes, gets censured for it, runs again anyway, then withdraws from the race when it starts to become apparent that he is going to lose to the Republican. Now the Democrats want to appoint somebody to run in his place after the deadline to do so to keep from losing the seat.

Like I said, I really don't care too much about this, but if they can do that in New Jersey, can somebody in California talk Dan Simon into doing the same thing so they can get Riordan elected instead of Gray Davis?