Archive for the “Random” Category

If you remember the days of the one red button joystick, cell phones as big as your head, and betamax, then this video is for you.  If everything that I just said made you scratch your head and say “huh?”, then you’re obviously not up on your history and should be ashamed of yourself.  (What are they teaching kids in schools these days?)

Some of us just happen to broadcast them in front of 30 Million viewers.

My wife has sort of gotten me onto the whole American Idol kick.  I realize the show has gone on for eight years now, and so I’m a little late to the party but I really don’t care.  After sitting with her through all of last season and hearing some of the awesome performances (as well as the more miserable ones) I’ve come to understand that the show might actually have some merit to it.

Then we have last night’s “Country Night”.  Some people moved up, some people moved down, and some people stayed right where they’d been for awhile.  One person in particular had done an incredible job in previous rounds and I really found myself rooting for him (even if he has ridiculous emo hair).  Last night, however, I was honestly waiting for lightning to come and strike him down.

Well, I originally had a few drafts I was going to finish up for today . . . but things happen.  So instead, we have a random list of observations/thoughts for today. An actual post will be up tomorrow instead.

• Wordpress updated to a new version today.  I of course instantly upgraded.  I of course did not back up the old installation.  As a result, when we realized that no matter how cool the new admin menus were, they didn’t mean much when we couldn’t write anything, we also realized we couldn’t go back to the old system.  After maybe an hour of looking around online, we found that another plug-in the site uses was conflicting with the new back end, and all was cleared up.

I realize that there are many words that geeks/gamers use that are entirely unique to our sub-culture.  However, there are others that were originally not meant for us at all, but we’ve adopted anyway; frag and uber being two that immediately come to mind.

Now, to the uneducated, those words sound like they had to be created by some Halo players and managed to be sneaked into the common vernacular, but in actuality the opposite is true!  It’s just that many of these words have fallen out of use by the general public and have now become associated with geeks.

The inspiration for this post’s subject came from a rather unexpected place: maxi pads.  No, I’m not kidding.  While watching TV, the commercials came on and my brain stopped paying attention.  Right up until one word was uttered in the weirdest context.

I would like to think that I’m rather handy around the house; I like to fix things, improve things, and learn new skills to do so. One slight downfall is that I’m usually learning how to do something, while trying to fix it at the same time (installing new power outlets, having never done so before). I usually figure that I’m bright enough to figure things out as I go.

This is normally ok, as I’m often right and can figure out the basics and go from there very quickly. This is how I learned how to build computers, service furnaces, maintain a car, rewire circuit breaker boxes, reassemble a clothes dryer, crimp networking cable, and troubleshoot Microsoft Windows. It does, however, leave me with an end product that is a little less than polished: the laptop I’m using now has no fan so we have to use it in short bursts, I’ve electrocuted myself more times than I can count (or remember), and never use a grounding strap when building computers.

I know that a lot of those who work on and visit this little website of ours have at some point in their lives worked tech support in some capacity.  That being said, last night a guy in one of my classes brought this video to my attention. It’s very funny because it’s very true but if you’re offended by language, then you may not want to watch it.  Also, if you work in an environment where borderline NSFW material can get you fired, you may want to wait until you get home to push that play button.

Now, I know Squishy is a huge Beatles fan, and I quite like them myself.  So why would I title a post like I did?

BECAUSE I HATE THIS SONG!!!

Now, you can argue all you want that Paul is a musical genius, and I won’t argue you.  But even Einstein had problems with math at times!  I have my own gripes about Christmas music playing too early in the year, but you live with it (I mean, you can’t really avoid it).  My wife is notorious for loving Christmas and everything about it, but even she can’t stand this song.  It’s only annoying in short bursts, but it seems that department stores have some sort of special 35-minute torture version that they play overhead.

When can we finally retire this sad, sad song?

Zuke:  ”Quick, what do we write about?!”

Schmidty: “I dunno.”

Zuke: “You suck.”

Schmidty: “Your mom!”

I’m a big fan of a local radio station here called X96.  Their morning show (Radio From Hell) has a bit called “Our List of Things That Must Go” where each of the hosts names some things that annoy them and why it must go (be banned, outlawed, or otherwise just stopped).

I hadn’t really meant to copy this idea from them, but as I thought of ideas to write about I noticed how many of them are things that I wish people would stop doing.  Therefore, I was creating my own list of things that must go.  So, here I go:

• No-talent hacks who write jingles for background music in shows and TV ads who can’t do anything original and so take a popular song and change 3 notes.  It’s not like we can’t tell who it is you’re ripping off!

For those who follow my misadventures over on my personal blog, you may be familiar with the fact that I recently finished construction on my basement.  While it’s nice having a third bathroom, fourth bedroom, and laundry room, the best part about it is the family room.  I wired the room to accommodate a 7.1 home theater.  I even built a shelf over my fireplace that will be home to a 52″ LCD television.  The whole setup is very sweet and I take great pride in knowing that it was my hands that built it all.

Despite construction having been mostly completed for weeks, it has only been within the past few days that I’ve had the time to begin moving my electronics into place.  Unfortunately, I haven’t upgraded my components yet so I’m using a 12-year-old Pioneer four-channel receiver with a seven-year-old 27″ television.