Dec 14 2008
I meant to post this a couple weeks ago, but hadn’t had a chance to de-TiVo it, clip it, and put it on YouTube since I couldn’t find it there, but by now I’ve finally found it. Anyway…
Best part of the Obamas’ 60 Minutes interview (first interview since the election). How do you not love him?:
Dec 14 2008
I don’t know what this is, but I found Sam posted this great video on his blog, go check it out.
Also didn’t know that facebook had video capability, but I have unfortunately not been on there in so long that it’s no surprise that I don’t know. Hopefully I’ll be back on there before too long.
Dec 13 2008
I think perhaps the biggest shocker of the year in music is that Guns N’ Roses’ new album, Chinese Democracy, which has been 13 years in the making, is pretty good. This of course highly depends on whether you like Guns N’ Roses or not, more specifically if you like Axl Rose’s voice. I can imagine that lots of people don’t like the way he sounds, but I’m not sure. I like it, I find it very unique, and I enjoyed the Use Your Illusion albums in the very early 90s - they were some of my first rock-music-that-I-actually-like-and-want-to-buy experiences. Appetite for Destruction of course also had some good tracks. I didn’t like 80s hair glam rock, and I never really regarded GnR to be part of that category, though perhaps some members sported the style. At the very least GnR were a small part of the bridge between 80s rock and 90s alternative.
Now the thing to keep in mind is that as a whole, the Use Your Illusion albums weren’t really *that* great, nor was Appetite for Destruction. They weren’t bad, they had some stand out tracks, and when they stood out, they stood out, with really great music videos to complement the Use Your Illusion singles. But they also had some so-so tracks as well as some duds on there, which made for not continuously good albums. In this context, Chinese Democracy does not disappoint. I’m not even sure it’s not the best GnR album - probably not, but I’m not sure. It feels like a far more epic and deep album. I’m happily surprised to find that it has sincerity. When Axl sings, it sounds like he is being sincere and not just trying real hard. I find most of the tracks on Chinese Democracy to be good. It’s a very good Guns N’ Roses album. The super awesome stand-out memorable songs are not really there, but nor are the duds. This great and poor has been replaced with a constant good.
There’s not too much about it that sounds specifically modern either. This album could have come out in 1994, and if you heard it today you’d say “yeah, that’s the ‘94 Guns N’ Roses album..” Unfortunately Chinese Democracy is overshadowed by the well known fact that it’s been 13 years in making. So instead of purely enjoying the music, you can’t help occasionally wondering why it took so long if it sounds like it could easily be from 1994 (had the band not split, of course). Was Axl retooling it for so long, and working on it so hard that it took so many years of his effort to get it to sound like an actual GnR album? Has he lost it except when he spends 13 years to make an album? The most fascinating experiment possible right now would be to find where Axl’s been hiding for all these recent weeks, kidnap him, get the rest of the band, lock them in a studio for two weeks and force them to release a new album in that time. What would that sound like? Would it be horrible, another good GnR album, or something even better?
Either way, good job on Chinese Democracy, Axl, but it would benefit from some publicity. You’re not Tool.
Dec 13 2008
New home download speed record! FIOSers and South Koreans will laugh, but my ISP recently notified me that they’ve gone up to 20 megabit. I’m not seeing nearly that fast, still a boost none-the-less:
Dec 13 2008
Now I’ve watched myself a whole lotta UFC including the first 20 or so where there were almost no rules and this past Wednesday was the worst injury I’ve ever seen. Corey Hill, the tall skinny lightweight who you may remember from The Ultimate Fighter 5, kicked his opponent. His opponent blocked the kick, but just this caused Corey’s leg to break… completely… in half. This is gruesome and is guaranteed to make you shudder. Below the fold is a picture of it happening (which is NOT photoshopped but sure as hell looks like it is), and video of it happening, with slow-mo replay during the post-fight interview. I guess if you’re really skinny with long limbs, you probably shouldn’t be a fighter.
Dec 11 2008
I’ve noticed that in the OC there are a lot of Christian women with large fake breasts. How do I know they’re fake? Just the size-to-body ratio and the way they sit/stick out. Plus the OC is known for fake tits. How do I know they’re Christian? Cause I’m starin’ at these tits and I notice a cross necklace resting on them, or I see her getting out of an SUV with a cross or Jesus sticker or etc on it.
What’s strange about it to me, and granted I don’t know that much about Christianity/religion, is that you’d think this is hypocritical, or going against the ideas of the religion. If you believe in the biblical god and that he created everything and whatnot, then wouldn’t you be rejecting the way he made you? I’m sure they have some sort of interesting (ridiculous) reasoning for it.
Not that I have anything against fake tits per se, but something seems off about “Honey, don’t forget to bring the flowers with us to church on Sunday, and then I have my appointment to get my big titties on Monday.”
Dec 11 2008
It’s official, my desktop PC sucks. Haha, well that’s a bit harsh (actually with my shotty USB and poor ability to deal with newer hardware, perhaps it’s not). It’s obsolete at least. My recognition of this did not come in the fact that it can’t run any new games, or watch some high def video that someone ripped or recorded. I mean it worked fine for everything else, all the regular things. The official declaration came today as it started failing with the web. What happened was that I was watching this YouTube video and saw for the first time that YouTube has publicly started linking HD video, which I noticed by the “watch in HD” link underneath that video. Tried to watch it……… I mean… it’s watchable I GUESS… pretty terrible frame rate though.
Most parts donated via anon98, the is ye ol’ Athlon XP 2400, still sittin’ on 512mb of RAM! I love how it costs way more to buy another 512mb of this old RAM than to buy 4gb of new RAM. The very best component in this machine is the trusty ol’ SoundBlaster Live! (one of my components)… don’t be getting rid of those PCI slots completely please!!
Dec 10 2008
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290281952140
…though the shitty economy is going to screw me over on this sale, isn’t it! DON’T LIE TO ME!!!!
