Lately things have been sort of crappy. I don't know what the story is, but it feels as if I'm getting metaphorically kicked in the crotch quite a bit lately, and it's starting to make me edgy. Really. I'm getting really sick of it.


on the Tetsuo scale, I think I'm about right here right now...

It doesn't help that about three months ago i realized I probably am stuck in Arizona for the rest of my life as I have no clear means of ever returning to Texas, let alone Austin. And that's depressing as hell. I have a good paying job, and so does Jamie. I may not like my job, but it pays better than digging ditches, and it keeps me out of the broiling sun during the Arizona summer.

But even my job has turned from a job where I handled interesting multimedia projects into a job where I babysit faculty day in and day out as they whine about classroom space. it's chimp work and should be a minor, minor part of my job. Instead, it's turned into at least 25 hours a week of what I do.

I got my job threatened last week by one guy, another faculty called me at 4:30 yesterday to tell me he was unhappy about something we'd previously agreed upon, and he was going to pull his class from our program, effectively neutralizing the program (because he doesn't want to walk an extra quarter-mile to teach class two days a week).

My boss is asking me to create roll-away carts to create online multimedia, which seems like a splendid idea. Only I've done this before. It's a huge hassle, isn't worth the cost of what it takes to employ such a set-up, and the final product is usually pretty cheesy. In general, it's a terrible idea, and something only an engineer would dream up. No self-respecting video jock would create such a set-up as they would inherently recognize the flaws in such a set-up. Unfortunately, the video world is now run on the advice of engineers with toys more often than people who actually know a little about production work. Bleah.

There are a host of other, smaller and more annoying issues, but it seems that's all I deal with anymore. It's been a long time since I got up for work and actually was at least impassive about going. Lately it's been feeling like a real chore. And life's too short for that.

It's insane. it's 8:30 AM, and it's already a shitty day.

When you assume...

So I'd been loosely following the development of Cryptic Studios/ NC Soft's new release "City of Heroes", a massive multiplayer video game which one can play online. The basic gist is: you create a superhero and send them out into a massive virtual environment to fight crime. Sounds right up my alley.

Except I am not a gamer. Nor am I, despite my credentials, really much of a computer guy.

So I spent a good chunk of change on the game and pre-ordered it. It finally showed up at my house last night. I loaded it, all looked good.... until I realized I didn't have a good enough graphics card or even a good enough processor to play the game. In my computer I bought in December. And I have a laptop, so it's not like I can readily change out either item.

In order to even set-up the game, I had to get a subscription to the service which would allow me to play.

So:

1) I can't return the game to Best Buy because I already opened it (that's their policy in Black and White)
2) I'm not sure if when I cancelled my subscription to the service if I am getting refunded for the 6 months I was too be billed for, and may be billed for 6 months instead of the two hours it took for me to decide to forego trying to make this work and just try to sell the copy of the game.

As I mentioned, I am not computer savvy. And I know there's a snickering army of Melvins out there saying "Snort! How did he think he could play a game on an Inspiron! Snort! He might as well have been using a Apple IIe! Hynuck hynuck!"

Cinco de Mayo!!!!

It's not about just boozing it up any more than that's what the 4th of July is about north of the border. But it's also not really officially Mexican Independence Day. So what is it?

Read here and here.

It's 1st Amendment Morning today at the League.

We don't need hooded government goons in this fair land of ours. We have CEO's with bottom line's and whatnot to worry about.

Michael Moore's new flick (sure to be boo'd by the right and overly lauded by the left) is being blocked from distribution by Disney head, Michael Eisner. Apparently, he just noticed that this Michael Moore chap, who one of his little subsidiaries works with, is a bit of a rabble rouser. He's effectively blocking release of Moore's new un-surprisingly anti-Bush documentary as he doesn't feel Disney should be entering into a political debate. Here's the story.

thanks to Nathan and Randy for pointing me to the story.

In more colorful news, the euphemism "getting your salad tossed" entered my universe late Sunday night, has popped up numerous times since then. I first heard it on, show of shows, MTV's Wildboyz. I wrote it off then, but it was yesterday, whilst browsing The Smoking Gun that I read up on Howard Stern and Jimmy Kimmel's attempts to get Oprah fined by the FCC. Apparently, Oprah had a show (pre-Janet Jackson's nipple) which was a "frank" discussion about sex. In which they bantied about terms like "tossing the salad".

Taking exception to being singled out by the FCC, Stern has been encouraging his listeners to write into the FCC to complain about the Winfrey program. ABC's Jimmy Kimmel, always one for anything potty-humored, has joined in the charge. Read about it here.

I encourage you to read the letters to the FCC. They're pretty funny. And the truth is, Stern has a point.

If anyone can locate Louis Black's anti-FCC rampage from The Daily Show from a month ago, let me know. (It's never easy explaining to your wife you know exactly what "Hot Carl" means.)

I just screwed up. Badly.

My friend, Jeff, sent out a group e-mail telling everyone that he CAN go to Mexico for his wedding. So delighted was I, that I replied to him an e-mail, said some nice things, and whatnot.

But I accidentally hit "reply to all", which means I sent nice things out to a hundred people.

Oops.

I've known Jeff since I was 10, and this is surely less embarrassing than dozens of other things I've done in that time, but I did the equivalent of having a conversation with him in a crowded room while leaving a microphone on.

Ugh. It's hard to shake the creepy crawlies after you've done something like that.

I sent a Recall in Outlook, but I can only guess about how well that is going to work.

I am so embarrassed, my head hurts.

Thanks, Science!

Turns out owning a hybrid car could cause you some additional giref if you're in a car wreck.

ZAP!!!!

I am very excited about the upcoming models of hybrid car. I love the Forester, but with it's tiny tank and my weekly mileage, if I don't fill up every Monday, it can spell trouble.

Can Jim D. and Randy meet the challenge set before them?

Loyal Leaguers may recall that a month or so ago I challenged Jim and Randy to:

1) see Garfield: The Movie in the theater

2) write a full review of the movie for use on both of their sites and The League

The League is willing to fully fund the price of 1 ticket, a large popcorn and a soda of their choice for each participant. Girlfriends, kindly grandmothers, and random children chosen off the street must pay their own way. The League is not a charity.

So will they accept the challenge, or be all cowardly and stuff...? June 11th, we'll know for sure.