Liberals at it again.

here's the story.

People are complaining that their street is named "dicks." I think that's allarious. I think it's fair to say that there are worse things in this world. Rumor has it some people are even named "dick."

The New Horoscope.

As if it weren't enough for burger time to be one of the all time best games, experts have discovered a way to use it to predict your future. Here's how to do it:

Simply start up burger time, and click once, without moving the mouse. By default the guy will be somewhere in the middle of the screen. DO NOT MOVE HIM. Let one entire game play through. at then end, you'll have a score, in all likelyhood between 0-10. 3 is probably average. Anything above that is pretty good. 2 or less can mean bad things for the day.

Typo what?

I just stumbled upon this website which had been dugg. It's called dreamlines. You enter a word, and it searches google images for results with that word, then, it uses some crazy algorithms and stuff and comes up with an ever changing image dream. the result is stunning.

This gives me a new hobby, and knocks www.typogenerator.net a few spots down on the list(it is still quite amusing though, and i must admit it's still pretty high on the list)

In case you missed it

Andrew posted it as a comment here a couple of days ago, but for those of you who missed it, Borat is being sued!

ASTANA, Kazakhstan (Reuters) -- Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry threatened legal action Monday against a British comedian who wins laughs by portraying the central Asian state as a country populated by drunks who enjoy cow-punching as a sport.

check it.

Clergy speak out against Microsoft

This is at least a little interesting. Christian clergy and lay men across the US and britain have spoken out against Microsoft's refusal to accept the OpenDocument standard. I think that's great, or at least hilarious.

ali g

http://demand.stream.aol.com/turner/gl/tnt/home/wmx/alig_kobe.wmv

relatively larious video, worth a watch, if you've never seen ali g.
i'll transript i here, for those of you too lazy to watch:

ali: check it. west side. this be ali g representing with my main man kobe bryant.
a: yo. respek.
a: how many springs does an official ball have in it?
kobe: how many springs?
k: doesnt have any springs in it.
a: why does it bounce then?
k: it's air.
k: there's air in the ball
a: well there's air in this room.
a: how come this room ain't bouncing.

Open source gaming handheld.

I'm sure some of remember the gp2x. They're finally shipping, so i thought that was kinda exciting. The thing's got very impressive hardware, plus all of the features one could want: plays movies(divx, xvid etc.) from sd cards, has dual cpus, special graphics chip, easily connects to TV and all sorts of other jive. Plus, there are plenty of free games and emulators that come with it.(emulators for like 20 systems i think). Not to mention it's real developer friendly for those of us who are a bit more adventurous. Anyhow, i'm excited. Maybe i'll grab one.

146ish

so then we went to oxford lanes bowling with all of the Best Buy employees. It was quite fun. I'm not a good bowler, by any means. actually, i dont know that i've ever gotten 100 before tonight. Anyhow, the people i was bowling with were pretty good on average. They were getting 140-180 games.
I guess i played much better because of that environment. Anyhow, i think i got over 100 on all the games i played (four or five). The last game, i wasn't playing that seriously, because i knew i wouldnt finish before they shut off the power. To make a long story short, i have 136 after the ninth. First toss(terminology) of the next round, i nail the strike. That put me at 146 with two more shots. Then, the asshole shuts off the power. Keep in mind, i was the last one bowling there, and i was the last bowler at our lane to finish my last two shots. Oh well though, 146 is fair enough for me. Oh then though, the prick was like "and thank you for not stopping play when i asked." Whatever though, people don't realize some people dont get out to bowl that often.

note: by the end of the last game, i was the only one at my lane with less than 12 shots and one pitcher in them, so it was kinda unfair by then.. (i still came in second) xD

Leap Second
http://www.npl.co.uk/time/leap_second.html
I know this is kinda old news, but it's interesting anyhow. About every 18 months, there will be a leap second. In the case of a leap second, the last minute of the last day of either june or december will have 61 seconds. The last minute of december 31st this year, for one, will be 61 seconds long.

Don't forget to set your clocks accordingly. You just dont wanna be late for work as a result.

Hungry Howies vs Microsoft

.. in a way. I've been thinking this over for a long time now, and so i figured i'd share it. I hate little ceasars. I honestly cannot stand it. And the thing is: i guess i dont even hate it because the pizza's no good. I dislike it because the pizza's not good. But surely, there are places with mediocre pizza, that i do not hate. I hate little ceasar's because of the way it is forced on everyone, in such a passive way. err.. People don't eat little ceasar's because it's good. They eat it because it's convenient. There is no faster, more inconvenient way to get a large pizza. So by making it cheap and convenient, little ceasars wins by selling shitty pizza. How do i respond?
I eat at hungry howies. At hungry howies, i can get a medium ham pizza with butter cheese/garlic flavored crust for roughly the same price of a large at LC. But believe you me. I would sooner make that purchase any day of the week. In fact, i do it several days per week.
What does this have to do with microsoft? EVERYTHING. Well nothing really, but there are similarities. Why do people use msoft products? For the most part, because they're convenient. Windows is (for all intents and purposes) the only operating system that will come preloaded on a Pc in the US, and school or work provides microsoft office...
How does one respond? By using alternatives that are actually better products, even if they require a special initiative to get going. Obviously the biggest battle is on the operating system front.
I use Ubuntu(www.ubuntulinux.com) as do thousands of other happy computer users. In all honesty though, i don't think it's ready to be shipped on computers. I think there are still a few big steps that need to be taken for most people to use it, but i forsee that happening soonish.
Okay that been said, one can see how it's not obvious to switch away from microsoft products.. and certainly one shouldnt do so just because something is a msoft product. Let's look at other products though that compete with microsoft:
From the open source community, we have firefox. Personally, i only use firefox. Most people i know use it, and everyone i know who uses it is extremely pleased with it. Many users don't even know/understand that it is open source.
Thenthere is OpenOffice.Org. I use OO.o for one, because it runs on ubuntu, and also because i think it will eventually be the standard. Google has recently hired programmers specifically to work on the suite. Other companies have already donated tons of money/work to it, and it is only getting better. Hopefully with google's help, it will get the push it needs to be really competative with office.
Obviously there are many more points to make, but i've said enough... I hate little ceasars and i hate microsoft. I dont hate little ceaser's pizza, and i dont really hate windows(plays warcraft and runs photoshop) but i cannot stand being forced into using subpar product merely because it is easier to come by.
moral of the story:
Open source software can only get better. It is always getting better, and though it may be behind right now, proprietary software simply won't be able to keep up the pace forever, and the community will come up with what she needs on her own.
..and in a perfect world, everyone would eat only good pizza.

Life Goal Acomplished.

...sort of. Actually not really. Thomas and i often discuss the dream of getting two snacks from one vending machine. Actually, i think he brought up the dream, and it's stuck with me since then. Today i heard the following story:
Grace has one dollar. A girl asks if she has a dollar. being the kind person she is, grace gives her a dollar, and accepts the girl's invitation to walk to the pop machine. To make a long story short, she bought a water and two came out.
Part of me is extremely jealous, but at least now i know it's sort of accomplished. Makes the goal more real to me, plus if it never happens, i can just tell people it did.

I've been thinking for a bit about control.
Who really is in control?
To answer that question, i reflect upon several warcraft games i've played in. In any 1v1 game, i have the option to win it or to lose it. If i should play well enough, i win, but should i fail to play well enough i lose. therefore, i have complete control over the outcome.
Now, my oponent really has the same control. He has the power to win or lose depending upon how well he should play. How do we both _really_ have controll then?
The situation gets more complicated when you introduce other factors. Lets look at a 2v2 game. It is possible to be paired up with a teamate who is completely useless, rendering the battle a 2v1. In that case though, it is still possible for me to play incredibly well and win the game. If that weren't the case, any players online record would hardly reflect his skill at all. The fact of the matter is that going into any warcraft game, or any class, or any argument, or whatever situation one may be presented, each of us has the power to win or to lose. we each have 100% control (sort of... just everyone else has 100% control too.)
That been said, in a situation in which many factors are introduced, we still have control over the situation, although perhaps a bit less. Introduce thousands of factors, and an individual's control truly seems negligable. I would argue, however that even when going against tens of thousands, one's control is enough to not be scoffed at. One truly can influence the outcome of an event even when he or she plays a seemingly insignificant role.

That been said, get up and go vote.
You have the day off work for a reason.

(that been said, i must admit that i missed voter registration, so i won't be participating in the ritual today ^_^)

and for those of us voting in detroit, dont vote for kwame. (but you knew that)

So i decided i'd start blogging. i feel like i often times have a lot to say, and i usually just tell it to people who dont care. the internet gives me the opportunity to share it with even more people who don't care. i had been thinking about ways of publishing thoughts. one friend (who didnt care much about what we were actually talking about) told me i should start a magazine. he was serious too. he said i had a lot to say.. more than enough to start a magazine. i'm far too lazy for that, and so i started thinking of more convenient things. a website perhaps.
i started thinking about making a website called 'the conservative club' as a public forum for people to discuss hot issues from the real world, and i would moderate in an extremely biased manner. a friend of mine (who tends to be more liberal) said he'd like to team up with me. make a site that would take an issue and talk about both sides... or rather, just talk about the truth, regardless of sides. i supose that sounds like a good idea... but it's been done before. plus, there are more than enough people saying the liberal side. we know the war is failing.* we know george bush planned the attacks on 9/11.* we know george bush hates black people.* we know george bush pockets a dollar from every gallon of gas sold.* there are plenty of liberals out there saying there side of the story. enough so, that i do not feel i'm doing anyone any wrong by only talking about things as i see them, although i'll try and explain why other people are wrong. also, i'll probably talk about random things that i find compelling enough to talk about: religion/technology/politics/entertainment mostly, i suppose. i'll try to keep them each seperate.
anyhow, after thinking about all this, i know i'm too lazy to take on a large website like that anyhow. plus, i found that i started this here blog some time ago for the heck of it.
at any rate, this is what i came up with.
-nick

*i hope the sarcasm in these statements is not lost on the reader.