Typing Test.

It appears I haven't lost my touch since I left school.

A funny thing happened on the way back from lunch today. And by funny I mean utterly terrifying at the time, but funny now. Naturally.

Ok, first the setup. (I suddenly feel like I'm in some lame version of The Italian Job.) We were coming back from IHOP, which requires us to drive down the road that runs parallel with the mall. "Mall Road" is your standard 25-MPH 4-lane highway, split in the middle by a raised, concrete median. Very typical.

Now, there are a lot of intersections on this road, naturally, since it runs parallel with the mall and all of the adjacent shop plazas that go with it. So just about every 3 car lengths, there's a place to turn off to get to some store, restaurant, or whatever. What I'm saying, basically, is that you get cut-off a lot on this road due to insane mall shoppers.

Now, the event. I'm in the left lane driving back, because I know that at the end of Mall Road, I'll be making a left to get back to the office. As I round a sharp corner, I suddenly find myself speeding towards a car coming down the wrong side of the road, in my lane. Yeah, that certainly removed any post-lunch drowsiness I was experiencing at the time.

Luckily, the driver had already realized they were coming down the wrong side of the road, and they were completely stopped. So, I had no trouble stopping, thus avoiding what would have been a rather unpleasant head-on collision.

I could see that the driver was attempting to rectify the situation by turning (her left, my right) into the nearby bank. The problem was that on this road, the right lane was not congested but was instead a steady stream of cars moving too fast for that road. She couldn't make the turn safely, because no one was expecting a car to be making a turn from that angle.

I resolved the situation by waiting for an opening, and then turning my car to block both lanes. This stopped traffic completely, and allowed her to turn into the bank. Problem solved.

Wow. Just...wow.

A little research goes a long way. Take, for instance, my recent problems with Windows Movie Maker. For whatever reason, anytime I would attempt to work with a video file of any kind, the program would just shut down for no reason. Quite frustrating.

To the Google!

One interesting article I found stated that Nero 7 utterly breaks Windows Movie Maker. I thought that was interesting, but was pretty sure that wasn't my problem since I didn't even have Nero 7. At least, I didn't think I did until I looked at the programs in my Start Menu. Sure enough, I had it. And uninstalling it completely fixed my problems.

So for those of you who care, Nero 7 and Windows Movie Maker cannot co-exist.

She cracks me up.

What the fuck is this? It's not a Bond song, it's a train wreck!

It's official. Piece By Piece by Feeder is officially a PD Hit, since it has been looped more than three times in a row. And through the act of looping, I found out something quite unique about it. It begins as it ends, therefore it's nearly impossible to tell when it ends and starts over again. I like that.

Anyway, check out the YouTube video I posted. That's not the "official" music video, but one that was redone after the September 11th attacks. The original has the Twin Towers featured, and is quite rare to find. It is on YouTube if you look for it, but it's such a high quality video/audio that it's quite a lengthy download. I chose this more convenient version to share the song with you.

As always, if you want a high quality version, just look in my playlist -- it's there.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gHs5OM3gFG_DytQQZFbWfgPT08MAD93L609G1

I love the word usage in this article. Such as:

Suffered
Traumatic
Plunging
Despaired
Crisis
Heavy Toll
Hobbled
Starved
Dried Up
Spiraling Downward
Fears

They've got to be running out of synonyms, although I've yet to see Trepidation or Apprehension.

And the audio clip that goes with it: "Hurk!"

I will be the first to admit that SNL hasn't really been all that funny lately. With one exception. The Palin stuff is brilliant. I mean, just watch it for yourself.

I can see Russia from my house!

I find new music via strange means, sometimes. Take, for instance, the band I just discovered this evening. They are by no means new, since they've been around since 1992 and have released six albums. But, I have never heard of them before tonight.

I was on YouTube looking for an anime. I know I have it on a disc around here somewhere, but I couldn't find it anywhere in my 1TB collection. Go figure. Anyway, I didn't find the full anime on YouTube, for reasons that I won't explain. (Let's just say it's a very adult anime.) But, I did find clips of the show, and the one video I found was set to the tune of a song that sounded really good to me.

I read through the comments on the video. Sure enough, someone asked the question "What song is that?", and someone, in turn, answered. The name of the band is Feeder, and the song was Piece By Piece. I had very little difficulty finding the song, and I downloaded it. I've now listened to it several times, and I like it a lot. I'm probably going to forever associate the song with this anime I was looking for, but that I can live with.

I downloaded three of Feeder's albums, and have listened to several tracks so far. They sound great, and Piece By Piece is certainly not the exception to what they sound like. From what I can tell, they aren't very big here in the US. They're from England, and mostly tour in Europe. This explains why I've never heard of them until now. So yeah, I'm looking forward to listening to rest of these tracks, and hopefully finding more songs that I really enjoy.

Oh, and if you're wondering, I did end up finding that anime I was looking for. It amounted to me using BitTorrent for the first time in...a LONG time.

I just read an article on Roger Moore. He's recently written an auto-biography, and he granted an interview regarding it. I read the article for a number of reasons, mostly because I like the guy. I think he's a fine actor, and I've enjoyed his movies. The reason the article stood out for me, though, is because I just this past weekend began watching the Bond movies all the way through. I actually just finished watching The Man with the Golden Gun a few hours ago. So I thought it was an interesting coincidence, and read the article.

I was happy to see that after all these years, he's not bitter about playing the role of Bond, unlike his counter-part Sean Connery generally appears. He even joked that according to the Internet, he was the worst one. (I beg to differ on that point.) While I will agree that he probably played the part 2 movies too long, I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Sab now has his own blog.

The plot thickens.

An Open Letter to Non-Elitist Assholes

I'm posting this here instead of on my guild's forums because this is more for my benefit than for anyone else. If I had posted this on the forums, I would have locked the thread immediately after and ended the post with, "This thread is locked and you cannot reply to it, because I don't give a fuck what you think."

This is a letter addressed to all the people I have played WoW with who I, at one time, considered a friend.

To those of you who disappeared without a trace: Fuck you. That includes you Nawee, and Atreyuhunter, and Gruten. You could have at least had the courtesy to say good-bye, you ungrateful sons of bitches. I've got news for you -- you know those characters you played with that helped you out? There are real people playing them, and they cared about you. Shocking, I know, but it's true. Way to say thanks, jackasses.

To those of you who left because we weren't good enough for you: Fuck you. That includes you Orgrom, and Cloris, and Bobotheassclown, and Ruzle, and Wonderbar, and Phrenzy, and Xelvan. Congratulations on...what was it you accomplished again? Oh right, I forgot, I don't give a fuck. We helped you through three tiers of gear levels, and you show your gratitude by abandoning us. Thanks, Judas. At least now we know that you all value PROGRESSION and GEAR and PLAYING THE GAME AS A JOB over friendship. Gratz?

To those of you who left for stupid reasons: You're as stupid as the reasons for your departure. That includes you Java, and Curative, and Lofts. Obviously, you didn't much care for anyone here in the first place if you would leave so easily.

To those of you accusing me of being an elitist: Fuck you and your silly crusade for the common people. That includes you Coopoe, and Lofts, and Phrenzy, and Tearsong, and Jederenn. Learn how to conduct an intelligent conversation without continuously contradicting yourself, and maybe I'll show some semblance of giving shit about what you have to say.

To those of you who we threw out on your asses: You got what you deserved. That includes you Jederenn, and Tearsong. My only regret is that I didn't realize sooner what a miserable excuse for a human being you really were.

But, there's one good thing that has come out of me having had the displeasure of meeting each and every one of you. You've cured me of my naivity. So in the end, you haven't been totally useless. Just mostly.

If any of you who I've mentioned above actually read my blog, good for you. If you want to contact me to protest what I've said or to flame me, go for it. I'll happily ignore you because as I stated before, I don't give a fuck what you think.

For anyone else who reads this and thinks, "Whoa! What an angry guy!", that's not the case, really. Those listed above are the subject of my wrath, and no one else. I'm tired of these kinds of people, and even though I have 5 different categories up there, they can all be pegged into one. They simply don't know what friendship means, or they don't care about it. I'm willing to accept that part of it is my fault for letting any of these people get as close to me as I did. That I can rectify. You want my friendship? Earn it. I'd like to think that I'm worth that little bit of effort. If you don't think so, then I don't see why I'd want your friendship anyway.

And this concludes the last time I'm displaying any sort of seriousness about a game.