Sunday, December 25, 2005

Ahem....

Merry Christmas!!**

**Legal Disclaimer: "Merry Christmas" (hereafter "The Greeting")... this announcement is not intended to offend, alienate, foster hate or be a precursor for any egregious acts(legal or illegal), thoughts, words or deeds. "The Greeting" is made only in the context to which it may be legally received, if in fact, it is received at all. It is not intended to be nor should it be, in any way, connected to any other type of greeting, real or imagined, past, present or future. No references to any persons, things or substances, animate or inanimate, real, fictional or otherwise should be assumed by the reader or receiver of the greeting (hereafter, 'the greetee'). The greeting is not being made to (nor will tenders be accepted from or on behalf of) nonbelievers in 'The Greeting' in any jurisdiction in which making and or accepting the greeting would violate that jurisdiction’s laws or feelings (also refer to local statutes and ordinances related to 'The Greeting'). In any jurisdiction in which perceived 'greeting' is not welcomed nor agreed upon by all 'greetees', then the 'greetor' of 'The Greeting' will be held harmless in this life and the next, including all issuing posterity both now and forever. 'The Greeting' may be made by a licensed 'greetor' and any liability assumed or created by the 'greetee' shall be the sole responsibility of said 'greetor'. If you have been aggrieved, offended, waylaid, parlayed, filleted or delayed in any way, either real, imagined or perceived by said 'Greeting' and or by 'greetor' as the result of receiving said 'greeting', you can call toll free 1-800-CHRISTMAS to speak with legal counsel."

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Desperatly Seeking Serenity.....

Having lived in small towns up until 6 months ago I never really had a concept of the "Christmas Shopping Season" until this year. Before this year my concept was... there were alot of people on the weekends and the weekdays were a little heavy. Turns out the weekdays are almost as bad as the weekends. Holy crap it took me 45 minutes to get out of Best Buy last night.

I don't mind Best Buy, but I don't love it either.

Anyway... yesterday Serenity was released on DVD. I know you all saw it and all already own it. (If you don't stop reading NOW and go buy it!). Anyway I thought I would go to Target and buy Serenity since I needed to get a few other things and didn't want to deal with best buy. Well turns out that target is a mad house this time of year as well. But that is beside the point.

I find my way back to the DVD's.... find the New Releases... and there is a giant hole in the new releases and I don't see Serenity. I look at the tag... the hole belongs to Serenity. Well that makes me feel good, lots of people have already bought serenity... I however have not and I must own it.

I bring my mind into focus... I must venture to the dreaded... BEST BUY! *que ominous like music*

I goto Best Buy... it's busy as all get out.... I find my way to the New releases... they have Serenity!

Only 3 copies...

2 of them full screen....

1 Widescreen...

I snatch one of them.

And with that I got the last Widescreen copy of Serenity in my area. I'm proud of myself and I know more will come in.

good times... good times.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Commutes and their strange effects...

On the drive into work this morning Nine Inch Nails came on the radio.
I like NIN and I'm sure I've written about them before... Their current album is pretty good. Nothing ground breaking but defintly harder then
most of the stuff that is out there. Now when you think of NIN who do
you generally think of ?

Trent Reznor....

Trent Reznor is NIN, and so there I was sitting in my truck driving up the 101 and I had the next thought. "Is 'Trent Reznor' his real name?"
Really think about it, the name flows off of the tounge yet it sticks in your mind... I don't know I think that the name is made up personally.

Parents name their kids things like "Jack Johnson" or "Jack Black"

I don't know I may be totally off base with this one or I might be right on but at either rate I think I have entirely to much time to think each day when I'm driving.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Untitled post # 243

“I don’t know what I ever did before I had a computer Tommy”



What my grandfather said to me when I told him that I had his computer fixed and was shipping it back to Kingman.

He’s only in his early 80’s and was in his mid 70’s when we bought his first computer… Incidentally when he bought his first computer it was better then the one I had at the time which caused me to go out and buy a new one about 4 months later… that computer is still sitting in my closet since I can’t bring myself to throw it away. That and I’m not sure whats on it since I haven’t used it since college.

The first computer my parents bought was because my mother saved the money teaching a side class. The original computer purchase was quashed by my father when he got mad at me for spending $200 on a Super Nintendo (my own money no less!) and as a matter of principal wouldn’t buy a computer. He said something to the effect of “Why should I buy a computer for the kids… it will just become another video game machine” WOW now if that isn’t fore shadowing I don’t known what is.

I really don’t like typing in M$ Word, it interferes with my natural writing style. Which is to use lots of “…” and basically mangle the English language in anyway I see fit. I least I’m not doing comma splices like I did back in school.

Actually grammar has never been my strong suite, English was my weakest of the core subjects in school. Which is odd since the guidance counselors always wanted to put me in the advance classes and I always was working to keep up with the regular classes. I guess 90% of appearing smart is knowing what classes to take to make you look that way to everyone else.

For the record, I consider my self to be slightly above average in intelligence…. But higher then average in my Role Playing Skills and Hand Eye coordination.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

You will never take me alive...

Score one for the good guys... I'm back into running LINUX full time at home...


LET THE BORING TECHINCAL POST ROLL!!!!

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Somwhere between the sacred silence and me...

I read a article on CNN.com earlier this week that said that tryptophan was more prevelant in Soy Beans and something else then Turkey... And the quantintiy of tryptophan was so small in turkey that the tired feeling you get is from eating to much not the tryptophan... so for all of you jonesing for a tryptophan hit... time to start hitting your soy bean stocks.

So I guess my next question is... what is almost pure soybean so I get the most tryptophan for my buck? Food for thought.

Anyway I had plans of buying a microphone for my iPod and then talking to myself through my iPod on the trip to Kingman and then using a open source speech recognition program to transcribe it all and give you guys tons of stuff to read for hours on end. That plan died a quick painless death when I 1. Didn't buy the microphone thing for my iPod. 2. Dismantled my Linux box several weeks ago for a LAN Party in San Diego and have never reassembled it.

Basically you are left with your normal drivel... I hope you all are happy. I know I am.

OH yeah thanksgiving was good... both of them...

OK talk amongst yoursleves I have other things I need to attend too.

R.I.P. Bogart 1992 - 2005

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Sleep tight for me... I'm gone

This is a somewhat difficult post for me to write but it must be done... words cannot begin to describe what I feel right now.

I've just finished playing Star Wars Galaxies and I have to say that this game is now a pile of shit... I would like to say it's a steaming pile of shit but that would imply some sort of freshness the how bad this game has decended cannot be described. I stopped my accounts some time ago to make room in my budget for EVE online I had been considering going back to Galaxies for a couple of weeks now but after todays experince with the latest publish and the "New game experince" I'm no longer intersted in what this game has to offer me.

I started Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) in January of 04. I fell in love with this game immedatly. It was my first MMO and it helped me to escape a crumbling "realtionship" (didn't realize it at the time but hindsight is 20/20). The game was daunting but I got the hang of it. Within a month I had been hooked up with a group of fellow gamers known as IRON. I'm still belong to IRON and have moved to their EVE team. IRON is the best thing that ever came out of my time with SWG.

In the following months I became a "Master Rifleman" and "Master BioEngineer" I was a happy little wookiee doing my hunting for the materials to make my BioEngineering componets for a few people in my guild. I went on guild raids into the few dungeons that there were in the game and helped take down high end MOB's on a regular basis. I was a happy little camper. It wasn't unusual for me to spend my evenings on SWG rather then watch TV. I was interacting with people and it was fun to boot. The Geo-cave was added and IRON procededeed to wipe the floor up with our guild. People left the guild and people joined the guild but always there was the core group of Imperium, Silverwolf, Katana/Salinar/Ronin (dude could never decide on a name), Shuggs, Tailon, DeeDee, Atlantis, Zero, Masis, Excess3 (also known as Curtis to you regular readers) and Catalexiis (myself). Others came and went from but this was the core group through the summer and early fall of 2004.

When WoW and EQ2 came out we lost a couple of core people but the group carried on. With in 2 months most of the core group had come back and were splitting their time between games. I began experimenting with other professions keeping "Master Rifleman" but trying other various professions. In the spring of 2005 the long promised combat revamp became known as the "Combat Upgrade" or CU. The CU promised to change the game and make it more balanced and more dynamic for the older players and more enjoyable for the new players. The CU hit and the changes were dramatic to put it mildly. By this time the core group of players was less then half of what it had been a year before the CU killed the game for 4 or 5 players the day it hit and for all but 3 within 2 months.

The game continued I stopped my account in July of 05, I was one of the last core to leave. Curtis had left about a month and a half before me. By the end of September the last IRON member had stopped playing SWG full time and moved to another game.

In the middle of October news of massive changes started to circulate on the interweb... soon these rumors proved to be true these rumors turned into the "NGE" patch. This patch was supposed to balance the game and make it fun for everyone. Instead the patch made the game boring and it lacked the polish and dynamics of the game when orginally published. The UI was completely changed and not nearly as efficent as the orginal one, never mind that the guide interface keys were no longer editable.

The NGE hit on November 15, 2005

For me SWG died a slow painfull death from a once great game to a game that no one cared about at the publisher and was being pimped out because it was "Star Wars"

The Wookiee will not ride again... RIP Catalexiis 1-3-2004 / 7-27-2005

Monday, November 14, 2005

Happiness from a light beer?

I have a new favorite beer!

Sam Adams Light! Yes I know it's all about the propoganda on the commercials but seriously it's a good beer that is Light... what light means in this case I don't know since there is no info on the bottle and I threw away the box... but damn it's good!

So yes I have found happiness in a light beer. And for the record my previous light beer of choice was Coors... so you can see how this is really a rather large step in the right direction.

So how is everyone... I mean because you all write in your own little blogs oh so much. Well actually some of you do like 4 or 5 times a hour... ok maybe not that much... but if you count comments yeah it might be damn near that number.

Life is good right now, house is setup... discovering the pain that is having a halfway decent looking back yard. Read as pain the ass in keeping it up. Discovering the pain that is not having a dishwasher... that part isn't so much a pain as a inconvience. I will get over it but I don't know if my dishpan hands will ever be the same again. Life is really quiet right now and I gotta say I like it like that sometimes. I'm sure something will rear it's ugly head in dew time but until then lets talk about something else shall we?


**10 minutes later...***

yep I've got nothing else.... umm talk amongst yourselves I'm going to go do something else.

Friday, November 04, 2005

The after 10pm ramblings of a madman...

It's after 10 and it's well past my bedtime but I need to get a few things out there.


1. The new Depeche Mode CD is good... I know most of you think that Depeche Mode sucks... quite frankly that is your problem not mine.

2. I got my new drivers liscence this week so that means that "The Man" knows where I live now. Not like "The Man" didn't know already... really the Drivers Liscence is more like a recipet that "The Man" is keeping tabs on you.

3. Time to take a quick stock of things

Beer... running low but not dangerous... get more tommrow
Snacks.... Batman Cookiee jar full of halloween candy. we're good
Abundance of computers.... only 3 of 5 hooked up at the moment. not bad.

I've tried to lead my life in way that Karma owe's me something.... I.e. I help other people so some blonde with big boobs will want to have her way with me... you know that Karma. I was thinking about Karma recently and realized that I've cashed in a rather large chunk of Karma recently. I've been having a good run as of recently and it didn't dawn on me that it was enabled by 2 people... I'm pretty sure they know who they are and I know they read this. Thanks guys for making the beginings of a new life possible.

Yes I'm sober...

No I haven't drank anything in a while...

get off my case will ya.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Have you seen....

Seen my copy of Star Wars Episode II "Attack of the clones" I can't find it with my DVD's


Reward for who ever finds it.... call Tom for Details.

Sunday, October 30, 2005

It was all that I needed...

Amazing... I've been living in my new place for just a little over 24 hours and I'm already falling back into my old patterns. I only lived with Krissy and Curtis for 3months but even I'm surprised at how quickly I've fallen back into my old patterns.

At least that means that I will once again start posting on a fairly regular basis for your pure drivel enjoyment.

Or this could be a tease :)

Anyway in this episode of "One man's quiet contemplation of all things that are not tied down"

I move into a new house
I learn all about living on a budget again.
New names all around!

So as stated before I've moved into a new house, for those of you keeping score this is house #2 in 4 years. That Batcave was home for the longest of any one place other then my parents house. I think I shall call the new house "The Watch Tower" Kingman will forever be the "Batcave" along with the new naming of my houses we should also clarify a few of the existing names that are out there to make sure that things stay straight with everyone.

Curtis's office = "The Troll Cave" or "The cave" he's tall like a troll and some might even argue he looks like a troll, it's Curtis he now has to dial a phone or drive for five minutes to make fun of me.

Matt's office = "Starfleet command" really do I need to explain this one? Didn't think so.

Clint's office = "The play room" he has kids and he has to share his office with them nuff said*

*Even though Clint and Brandi occupy the "Bat cave" there is nothing caveish about them living there.

Changing gears...

So last week I'm having breakfast with everyone down here (Curtis, Krissy, Don, and Bev) and the subject turns to my house. Krissy asks me "So Tom are going to have another bachelor pad or are you going to have a "Big boy house"".

I will give Krissy this she doesn't beat around the bush with me.

I respond "Big boy house" and then ask her and Bev to help me.... 3 quaters of a football game later they have a list. Curtis and Don goto a sports bar... I go with Bev and Krissy to Ikea... do you know what $600 in Ikea looks like? 2 plastic bags and a bunch of boxes in my garage! I will tell you what though my house is looking damn good. I'm pretty sure they are no where near done (they still have money in the budget). All I have to say is I'm duly immpressed.

So big props to Krissy and Bev.

Watch tower out.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Things that make you feel warm and fuzzy...

I've only met Nick twice... and he only knows me as "Kern's brother"


Email forwarded to me from Curtis...

------------------------------------------


Hey Buddy,

Got your package today. Holy hell, you guys go all out don't you? This is single-handedly the coolest package I've ever recieved. Please give my thanks to everybody who pitched in and tell them they've made my life more enjoyable. I truly appreciate this. It couldn't have come at a better time too... Its been a rough couple of weeks over here. I don't know if I can ever enjoy fireworks or anything else that makes loud noises ever again. Rest assured that items recieved are tucked away behind a suitable amount of sandbags and hardend structure though. I hope things continue to go well for you and everyone else there in Arizona and hopefully I'll join you there soon.

Nick

P.S. The e-books work fine, I just had to rework the file structure a little bit and the photo of all of us in Vegas is my wallpaper now.

P.P.S. Thanks again.

Monday, October 10, 2005

Acclimation... I think.

I know that I have become acclimated to the valley when it's 87 out side and I'm thinking to myself "gosh it's a bit chilly out here maybe I should find a jacket"

Yes folks that is how I know that I have become acclimated. 87 is cold 90+ is long sleeve weather and 100+ is nothing more then a annoyance while moving about my day.


Friday night we (we being the Kinney's and Currin's along me and myself (we had to leave I at home they weren't feeling very well)) went to the Arizona Science Center. The science center is really geared for kids but it's fun for adults too... Especially when it's 1. free and 2. They have free food! (yes I know it's very college of me but remember I've been a bachelor for many years now I find real food where ever I can). So there I am going through the science center and they have a exhibit on the human body. I'm looking through it and they have a ultrasound of a human fetus. COOL! Finally working in X-ray department is going to pay off. So I'm standing there looking at the ultrasounds of a unborn baby I see the nose, mouth, eyes, and other parts of the body. As I'm doing this a young 20 something couple comes up behind me and they are looking at the ultrasounds with me and I start pointing things out to them and I not making this next part up.

She says "Is that really a baby?"
Me "yes it is"
She Says "wow that is a really crappy picture, they need to get a better camera"
Me... *Tom says nothing and shuffles away quietly*

After the science center we hit Pizza Bianco.... Apparently it's one of the places to get pizza... in North America!

You know what I believe it too. That stuff is good.

Now it's off to look for basketball tickets... seeing as how I live in Phoenix I should probally start taking advantage of the things it has to offer me. :)

Kristina just informed me it's colder outside then it is in the house (it's 74 outside) I guess I should go find my sweatshirts...

Sunday, October 02, 2005

More River...

Go see Serenity... if it is the only movie you see for the next three years go see it... I don't care what your excuse is go see it. If I talk to you and I find out that you haven't seen Serenity I will start to phase you out with Extreme Predjudice....

OK maybe that is a little harsh.... Maybe I will just put you on friend probation... or just something like that... Just go see it. You need to stop reading this drivel and go watch it!

OK now with the formalities out of the way it's time to get on with it all. Life's been good to me things are falling into place nicely down here I'm loving it. Things are going so well for me in fact I'm pretty sure they are going to be coming crashing down on me at any second. I don't know this for a fact but nothing every goes my way for more then a minute or two before it all goes to crap.

Needless to say the paranoia has not gone away, and I'm still pretty sure everyone is out to get me. I don't know who everyone is but I know they are out there. I doubt anyone will help me neither will someone they are both pretty unrealiable folks.

It's pretty safe to say that my mental state still leaves quite a bit to be desired.

We Must Remember...

Read first....

With all the news lately about Hurricane Katrina and Rita, we shouldn't forget that Houston has had it's share of devastating weather also.

The attached photo illustrates the damage caused to a home when Hurricane Rita passed through the Houston area a couple of days ago. It really makes you cherish what you have, and reminds us not to take life for granted!!!

See the devastation....

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Making promises you will never keep

I think I have finally found a problem with all of the napsters of the world and napsters spawn.... crappy music. You all know what I'm talking about... that song you loved in High School it's was "cool" for the day and you liked it. None of your friends did but dammit you were cooler then your friends and therefore had better taste in music. Somewhere between now and highschool you copied all of your CD's to MP3 and loaded them up into your computer. Never really playing them but they were their because dammit you have good taste in music.

Somewhere in the last couple of years you bought a iPod and stared to use iTunes to organize your music. Life was good.

Sometime after that you created a auto playlist that you defined rather broadly so that you would have the maxium amount of music on it.

And that is when you realize that you at some point along the line actually owned... Ini Kamozie "Hot stepper"

And suddenly you realize that you taste in music from High School actually is crap.

But at least you can take solace in the fact that your "Incubus" albums will all be timeless... or will they?

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Annoyed by a million screams....

I'm listening to Disturbed's new album... they have a cover of "Land of Confusion". Most of you who are over the age of 23 will remember this as the video with the puppets of the various world leaders in the 80's...

It's not bad.... I would be curious to see if the "covered" the video... not that the video would get much air play. It would be curious to say the least....


At least the closing scene of the video would still hold true..

/sigh.

Friday, September 16, 2005

Na Na Na Na Na Na BEER!

Beer is truly good.. of course I'm not saying anything that any one who reads this drivel hasn't already read before. Mainly it's worth writing because it's the first beer in two weeks and it's just that good.

Anyway I'm fine thanks for asking.

I've been trying to write while sitting in front of the tv... I find that I can't get anything out that is up to my usual sub-par standards and I always get distracted. Granted it's not hard to do but it's even easier when you are actively trying to do it.

3 weeks to the Serenity Premire
2 Weeks till I close on the house
1 week till lan party

Life is good right now.... now if only I had more beer.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

And now for something...

I know it's photoshopped....

I know it's wrong to post when our country is in Crisis...

But I just can't stop laughing...

Transistors Gone Wild

1. Got a house under contract!

2. New Cell phone
2a. New Ringers for friends
Scott - As good as I once was
Brandi - Rooster
Curtis - Tribute (subject to change)
Clint - Get a phone number of your own

3. What my back now faces when I'm at the computer in Curtis's office

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Franken Parents

So what do you get when you mix the following items

1. round the clock news coverage
2. A wireless network
3. A Laptop computer
4. Two parents who are just now realizing the true potential of technology

Yep my parents with have discovered the horror/joy of using a laptop. I in my mid twenties find it rather disturbing. There is just something unholy about the marriage of technology and old people.

Though the wireless router I bought for my parents does have this nifty yellow light on it and it flashes all sorts of colors when you push it. I have no clue what it does but it looks cool.

Yeah I'm in Kingman I don't have much to write about.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

I'm all choked up inside

Wow! Who would of thought that I would have to take out a second mortgage to pay for gas for my truck. Shit it's not even a big truck it's a FUCKING TOYOTA! I can't win. I would bitch more but there are so many reason as to why gas prices are this high in my opinion that I'm not going to go into them for fear of have my heart explode. Or my head.. they both have a lot of blood and I do tend to run a little hot.


Speaking of things that are just about unbelivable but true.... I placed a bid on a house last week. 1200sqft 2bd 2bath nice little place just off of the 101 and with in about 10 minutes of Fry's which as we all know is a huge thing for me. Well I was supposed to find out how I did in the bidding yesterday... when I called my real estate agen she told me that there were so many bids on the house that the selling agent had to put them into a spread sheet to keep them straight for the seller.

I may have had a small edge because I was actually going to live in the place as opposed to turn around and sit on it for a investment. Great... so needless to say I'm back on the hunt for a house.

I'm going to go figure out how many times a week I need to sell my body in order to afford gas for my truck... I will worry about the house later.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Something to think about...

Rivers Cuomo of Weezer took a break from the band in the late 90's to finish his degree at Yale/Harvard/Random Ivy League School...

Guy looks like a total nerd... skinny but not Scott Weiland skinny... Weezer on the whole is a pretty good group and I dig most of their stuff.

I however tonight put the proverbal two and two together...

Hash Pipe...
Dope Nose...
We are all on drugs...

These are three singles that have videos from Weezer... no I'm not saying that they do drugs but it really has to make you wonder....

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

No I'm never, No I'm never....

Ah the joys of rebuilding a PC.... it's been a year since my last rebuild... needless to say this little rebuild was long overdue.

There is nothing really like a fresh clean computer install. It makes everything feel better... of course I use Firefox so my installs tend to stay toasty fresh for a longer period then most others.

The one side effect of all this rebuilding however has been that I lost all my playlists in iTunes and subsquently lost the playlists in the iPod. Not a big deal really, just go and recreate them all and away we go. It's kind of cathartic really, new ways to create dynamic playlists and you never really create them the same way twice. So new stuff always perculates to the top. So far I haven't had enough stuff to listen to have anything intersting perculate to the top. Give it time...

While creating the playlists a stray neutron hit my brain and caused the following thought... in 20 years what music will we look back on as being "good" and as being "crap" .... it's a intersting thought take a look at a few of the classic rock stations they play Led Zepplin from time to time, Led Zepplin only had 1 top 10 hit in the U.S. and that was in the late 60's or early 70's. However I know that I have heard several diffrent Led Zepplin songs not only on the Classic Rock station but also on a few others as well. As I sit here thinking about it I don't think TOOL has every had a top 10 hit (though they have had most of their albums hit #1), Pearl Jam only had one "hit" "Jermey", Greenday seems to be the exception to the rule.... I don't know it's intersting.

I guess time will tell however I pretty sure that when I put on the classic rock station of the future I won't be hearing Limp Bizkit or Staind, but I'm pretty sure I will hear the White Stripes, Soundgarden, Mars Volta (haven't heard of them? time to get cracking...)

Saturday, August 20, 2005

2 in a row?

Could it be that the Cardinals might be having a winning year this year? they are 2 and 0 in the preseason...

First they beat Dallas and then they beat the Chiefs...


hmmm how about them apples?

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

food for thought...

things that are just unholy...

Lee Iacoca and Snoop Dog in a car commercial.

Cardinals having a winning seaon...

The Diamondbacks being in contention for the NL west...

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Roll On...

The worst part about picking titles from the music that I'm listening to at the time I write a post is that I have no clue what they are saying half the time. All I know is that tonights selection is from a band called "Sneaker Pimps" who I found through the power of 120 Minutes back in the day (read as college). I've had this music for a while and just haven't listended to it and it is what came up in iTunes. Sometimes I don't know what to make of it all, well in regards to my music any way :)

Anyway, the house/condo/cardboard box hunt is begining nevermind that this is the single hottest market ever.. and I'm a 1 income person and I have no desire for a roommate so that pretty much puts me in the catagorey of carboard box with a highspeed internet connection. Actually it will probally be like 3 cardboard boxes... a fridge box and then on either side the boxes for a washer and dryer. Actually that would be a pretty sweet deal, I have a nice living room, bedroom, office and my internet. What else does anyone need?

Oh I guess a stove would be a good thing too huh.... and probally a fridge... oh and a recycle bin... gotta do my part to save the world ya know.

I'm going to look back on this in about 4 years and go what the hell was I on.. sadly I'm stone sober and quietly eating a cold piece of pizza.

And now the bachelor comes out in me..

Best cold pizza is Papa Johns.

Best Frozen Pizza - Digiorno/Californa Pizza Kitchen

Best Pizza - Alpine Pizza in Flagstaff

Somedays I really miss that place. Today is not one of those days.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

RRRRIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGG!!!!

48 hours later the ringing in my right ear has finally stopped... It's nice to finally be able to walk around and not have that ringing and also don't forget it's nice to hear what people are talking to you about.

Moving on, I'm now looking at a 30 minute drive to work and home each day. Which means I have about 1 hour a day to think. Not that I think that much since I'm sitting in traffic pretty much that entire time but hey the potential is there.

Did I mention that I love my new job? No ? oh hear let mention that I love my new job :)


2 weeks in and I'm glad I made the move and took the jump. I think that things are going to work out for me very nicely down here. Doesn't hurt that I have my whole outlook on the up and up since you know I've been in like a good mood and stuff. Probally the most dangerous thing about living down here is that Fry's Electronics is 15 minutes away... which means that I have any part I could possibly want at my fingertips. The problem with that is I do not that mythical no pay credit with wich to buy these things. That must what comes with the territory.
/sigh

Ok it's time to go find that mythical no pay credit card... money may not be able to buy happiness, but it sure does go a long way :)

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Signs you are getting geezerly....

Sure sign that you are getting geezerly.....

When you goto a concernt and your sore and can't hear the next day.



AND ACTIVLEY COMPLAIN!


P.S. System of a Down Live is a pretty good show.

Monday, August 01, 2005

It seems to me they are on the same team...

Started work w/ new job today... I think I'm going to like work ing at SHC. Now if only I can figure out where everything is at I will be doing ok.

Moving on, Battlefield 2 is my current addiction in the online gaming arena... it's really a good game once you get past the bugs and the occasional lagginess of it all. Best part IRON has a BF2 team so I actually have a group that I can play with that I kinda of know their styles and can work from there. That also helps because I suck... no really I suck worse then I normally suck at this game.


Something about 300+ deaths to 150~ kills... yeah my Kill to Death ratio is not the greatest... probally doesn't help that I keep walking into Artillery barrages or tanks... actually the biggest problem I have is I keep trying to tank on things that are bigger then me with a machine gun. That is how they, not a wise move.

Other then that it is a good game if a bit to real in some cases.

Friday, July 29, 2005

Apple I love thee... let me count the ways :)

So last night I'm merrily listening to my iPod and looking at stuff on the iTunes music store... low and behold Richard Cheese has a new CD out. If you don't know who Richard Cheese is I'm sorry you just aren't cool enough to be reading this. Step away from the computer and come back later.

I buy the album and just like I've done a million times before I plug my iPod into it's dock. It lights up like it is supposed to... but iTunes is not coming up. Odd, it's not showingup in the device manager. Reboot PC.


Ah there it is in Device Manager... wait now iTunes won't load. I yank out my iPod iTunes loads right up. Repeat this scene several times over the course of the next several hours.

Finally I hook up the iPod to another computer... the computer freezes and then starts going, anything having to with the iPod is very slow though. I go back to my computer and look at the event manager. We all know to look at the event manager when weird shit happens don't we boys and girls

/nod and agree

There in the event manager is a ton of messages saying "sbp2 port device timed out" ? what the hell is a sbp2 port device? I google.... oh it's a device hooked up to my Firewire port. The only thing hooked up to my firewire is my iPod... crap. I take the iPod and hold it to my ear and I hear the drive spinning but I don't hear the heads seeking. Good thing I live in Phoenix now.

Next morning I head down to the Apple Store... I don't like malls, but I will put up with them for this. I get there sign in and wait for help. 1.5 hours later I tell my story to the person at the "Genius Desk" who I watched help several other people with other problems. She plugs the iPod into her iBook and says.. yep it's dying. You have two choices... 1. Pay $250 and wait six weeks to get it fixed or 2. We take this one to recycle and give you 10% off of any iPod in the store today.

I took number 2... so I now I have a spiffy 20gb iPod with a color screen. No muss no fuss. The only thing that sucks is these things come with a 1 year warranty and not a 3 year warranty but I guess when they get abused as much as they do you need to do what you need to do.

I still Love Apple... I'm even thinking that it's time to get a Powerbook for the next laptop. Provided I can afford it :)

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Into the nuthouse.....

So I'm moved in down in phoenix... living w/ Lenny and Kristina...


we have 10 computers in the house...


5 of them are mine.


That's all I have to say about that.

Saturday, July 23, 2005

All good things...

Taking a page from the book of Star Trek tonight... it's the last night in the "Batcave Kingman" well almost last night there is one more after this but tonight is the last one I will have ready access to a computer.

This is somewhat bittersweet I'm excited to be moving, starting a new job, new life yadda yadda yadda... at the same time I'm going to miss this house it's been a good place to live if a little warm in the summer and little cold in the winter. I guess it's like your first car you become attached to your first house in the same way... for me this was the first time living alone and on my own.

I do have to say the whole living alone thing does agree with me quite well. But that is just me... I find that I actually do crave and even seek out social interaction now... sigh the burden of getting old :)

So long batcave Kingman... hello batcave **insert name of city in phoenix valley that I end up in**

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Things to know... #451

Good thing to know #451

When moving be sure that you don't pack your can opener if you planning on having something that comes from a can for your next meal.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Thicker then water...

In the midst of all the packing and getting ready to move to a new city and start a new job a cousin has come to visit. Normally this wouldn't be blog worthy, but this cousin is diffrent.

Matt is 14... yep he's a full on teenager, skater, gamer, and by the sounds of it budding ladies man. The thing that is cool is he's not like other teenagers I've had to deal with he's actually helpful and CONSIDERATE (who knew a teenager could be like that). Anyway the really cool thing is we have been having conversations about D&D, Star Wars Galaxies, Video Games, and Science Fiction. It's cool to see the next generation coming no so strong and not being harrased like I was when I was his age.

Who knows I actually have hope for the future now... not much but some.

Holy Pile of Garbage Batman (part 2)

Cleaning the house out over the last week I've been throwing alot away... basically anything that I numerous amounts of and is less then $5 in value... and even then that is only a guide line not a hard and fast rule.


So far I have tossed / recyled / donated

4 - 15 gallon shopping bags full of clothes that I have not worn in at least 2 years (who knew I had so many clothes)

8 - 15 gallon shopping bags of garbage from my office and bedroom

3 - 15 gallon shopping bags of items that I have shredded (and I'm still finding more)

3 computers


I think I finally have most of the crap cleaned out so now it's actually down to start packing... most of which is again in the office and living room. So it won't be that bad.

I'm just one guy... imagine if I had a family...

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Is it just my way?

Looking at the post count tonight's post is number 100. Since I switched to blogger last September.

Seems somehow fitting that this is the post where I talk about new beginings and starting with a somewhat clean slate.

Starting from the begining (kinda the begining is really far away in a land from long ago..) I got a job in Phoenix full filling a promise to myself and achieving a goal of mine. Getting the hell out of Kingman. The details? Well that comes under the catagorie of "work" so I'm not really hip on talking about it. Just know that I'm doing the same kind of work in a new and much larger enviroment.

As for Kingman I leave a job that for the most part I have very few complaints about and a group of people that have taught me quite a bit. However it is time for me to move on.

Looking in the near future I have to clean this thing I call my house and get it ready for the renters... joy...

Next stop Phunky Town.

Sunday, July 10, 2005

Holy Pile of Garbage Batman

I have a lot of crap... Figuratively not literally... well literally as well but not the fecal material kind of crap more like I still have all my notes from NAU. Yes that is right I still have all of my notes from NAU.

Lets think about that for a second when I lived in Flagstaff I moved once from the Dorms to the apartment (which way back when was the original reason for this blog like device since I needed someplace to vent out) I lived there for a year and then moved back to Kingman... I lived with my parents for almost a year and then moved into my own house. So some of these notes have been through 3 moves. I really need to learn how to let go ya know.

That is the kind of crap my house if filled with. The 3 gallons of paint from when I turned Matt, Scott, and Kristina loose on my garage with Sharpies... yeah that was 3 coats of a KILLZ base and then another 3 coats of paint. I swear that if you look at it just right you can still see a elephant.

It maybe that I have a lot of crap but believe it or not a lot of the crap also holds some pretty special memories for me. Don't worry the memories I want to forget have been burned in the BBQ... BTW hair spray does not make a good flame accelerant.

Man moving out of this place is going to be a bitch.... 3 years I have lived here and I have accumulated a lot of crap.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

As a public service

Given the recent attacks in Madrid and London I thought it prudent to bring back the Seasame Street Terror Alert Thingy please be on guard as we are in code "Ernie"

I repeat we are in a code "Ernie"

That is all

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Boldy going forward...

Because we can't find reverse!


Apologies to Dr. Demento for that one... driving back from San Diego will cause severe mental problems for even the most astute of people. Luckily I had Curtis with me so he took the fall for the mental problems and I'm still just loopy.

In other words not much has changed.

Anyway now that I've gotten the formalities out of the way, lets see what kind of crap comes out of my fingers dancing across the keyboard. Or how long before I throughly drive myself up the wall while typing. Either way I say 20 minutes and I lose interst.

So I'm on vacation which is a nice change of pace. Basically vacation for me means doing things all day that I would rather be doing then working (read as video games, beer, and movies) The video games portion of this episode has been getting a good bit of attention for the last few days. Which is what happens when you goto a LAN part in San Diego. I have to say that the SD LAN party is one of the best I've been to in a very long time if not the best. Lots of co-op games which work very nicely when everyone is in the same room . "Act of war" is a very intersting RTS for nothing more then the fact that it could actually happen. I do suggest that if you are a RTS fan that you check it out. SWAT 4 is also pretty good but, you need alot of patience and time to do it correctly.

I don't road trip much, so this weekend was also a nice change of pace. Also the point of a Road Trip is to commune with your other roadtipee's in this case Curtis. Lets just say that Curtis is a excellent Pit Crew Chief at the gas station, Navigator, and Co-pilot... so long as he can sleep through his Pit Crew Chief, Navigator, Co-pilot duties. I shouldn't bitch the last time I did the second seat thing I was a sleeping maniac.

Next on the vacation agenda is the Las Vegas Wedding... I wonder how many flying Elvis (Elvi?) their will be.

Only time and a trip to Vegas will tell.

Saturday, July 02, 2005

So there we were....

So there we were... Curtis and I sitting in the Burger King in Yuma, Arizona.


Suddenly the two of us snap and kill everyone in the place with nothing but a straw between the two of us.

Monday, June 27, 2005

$.50 cheaper then the real thing...

I had a intersting conversation at work today... a coworker in another department was experssing her frustration about her husband who has recently been discharged from the military after being in Iraq. In her words he just lays around the house and takes classes at MCC. She is extremly frustrated by this. I understand where she is coming from, she's working 40 hours a week. He's not. I think it's intersting to note that after WW2 upon discharge you were given a $20 a week stipened for one year. Think about it, in 1945/46 that would go a long way. Back then you could live off of that money. Just a little perspecitve for everyone.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Insane in the membrane

I've been thinking alot lately... About alot of stuff. Personal, proffesional, spirtiual you know the basics. I've not really had any great reflections or insights. Nothing is jumping out at me saying "HEY THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR" I don't think one should expect to find those things when they are looking in on themselves. The reason I bring it up is because there is no one thing that triggered this latest inward looking. I just started doing it. The last time I was like this was right as I was finishing school.

I don't I think it's just the funky weather we are having here today... it's feels very much like flag did that last couple of days I was up there.

I don't know about you folks.... you all keep reading this drivel... and I keep writing it. I don't think that this is the healthiest realtionship.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

On the stone it's time to go...

Things brewing...could this be the start of something?

Sunday, June 19, 2005

I need a fix!

I've been having this weird problem with my iPod for a couple of weeks now. What's been happening is songs have been cutting out in the middle of playing... it was really quite annoying. I traced it back to my 200gb hard drive from hell. The one that works but it is really having data integrity problems. I'm thinking about RMAing the sucker. I don't know if it's the drive or the SATA card it's plugged into. It's rather annoying at any rate.

When Rednecks move....

Flipped down to Phoenix this weekend to help Curtis and Kristina move into their shiny new house that is as old as me. So compared to my house it's way new (theirs was built in 79 mine was built in 66) Wow my house is going to be 40 years old next year... that does not make me feel good. Anyway... I go to Phoenix thinking that their is going to be 4 of us and three trucks... well Matt bailed on us... (thanks alot Matt... bastard ) Don had to work(slacker)... I will cut him some slack on that one but not much. So it's Curtis and me... all day... in Phoenix... in June... We did 15 round trips between the two of us. We started at 9A.M. We officaly finished and had dinner at 10P.M. (thanks Bev)

Lets just say the only thing missing from the whole affair was bailing wire and duck tape. We probally could have used it in a few spots.

So congrats go out to the Krissy and Curtis on their new house

When I'm in Phoenix I do like to listen to the radio since they more of a selection then we have here in Hell. Curtis turned me onto one station 103.9 it's a locally owned station (read as not Clear Channel) they actually play music. Which is always a good call for a radio station. They also have a Ska-Punk show... actually it's more of a underground punk show. Anyway it's a god station.

They had this one band on called "The Network" that I decided to play $10 on iTunes. I'm actually rather digging it. It's almost a new wave type of punk... it's diffrent and yet still good I think this one is going on the to burn list for a few friends.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

It doesn't matter who you are.

On a whim this week I picked up Coldplay's new CD. I like harder stuff but, every now and again it's good to plug in and find out what the rest of the world is listening to. I gotta say I like it... very mellow and flows together nicely and at the same time it has moments of being much rougher. I'm digging it. Who knows maybe I'm mellowing in my old age.

Anyway with new truck ownership I've now begun to collect the assortted things that no truck owner should be with out. Most of which I already had since this is my third truck. It's going to take a couple of weeks for my dash mat to get here but I can deal with that. It's still a new truck style and they aren't exactly having problems moving these things off of the lot. I did however invest in a Mr. Clean auto dry thingy... you know what it works as advertisted.... one unit that holds the soap you actually wash the vechile with a sponge or washing glove of some sort and then dry it with with the the ionizing dry thingy.... It didn't spot at all so all I have to say is I may just be a believer in this product. I'm going to give a few more tries before I go to the dark side that is the Mr. Clean autowash thingy...

Come with me as I shit in the woods why don't you...

I think that is the style of writing a blog is supposed to be... I've never found it very intertsing since the day to day existance of a person is not that much diffrent from one person to the next. It's the neurosis and pet peeves that make it all so very intersting. I think that is my favorite part of reading other peoples blogs and the such. It's a very female thing from what I have noticed very few guys who blog write about what is going on in their head. And when they do it does tend to be a bit more cryptic then most would care to admit to.

Me... maybe I should change my style to the come with me as I shit in the woods style.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Follow me into the desert...

I recieved a rather "threating" letter this evening
---------------------
Curtis
to me


You are putting entirely too much time in between you blog updates.
You can’t tell me there isn’t anything to talk about. We both know that is bull.

If you don’t make a post I will be forced to take drastic measures…. and we neither of us want that to happen.



-Lenny the Terrible
------------------------------------

It appears that the fans of drivel are still out there and apperntly they are capable of being vocal. Who knew? I actually looked at this email for 10 minutes on and off trying to decide if I was going to update or not just to see what good ol Lenny would do. I guess we will never know.

Anyway not a whole hell of a lot going on. Pretty much the same story as always video games and beer. I really need to expand things out to include women.... Things to work on. At this point I'm happy I can talk to people.

Any I did spend memorial day weekend in Phoenix with the Kinney's (how weird I now refer to Lenny and Kristina (aka the Spatula Queen (if you don't get the joke tough luck) as a singular unit). I went down looking to spend a nice quiet weekend floating in a pool and helping ol Lenny get into a new car.

Yeah Lenny got a new car... and so did I... hey I can't help it that I fell in love and had two engineers along with me :). Lets just say when Don and Lenny were done with the salesmen their heads were spinning and when I went Psycho on them that pretty much sealed the deal. I was very happy with the deal I got. And a good portion of the credit goes to Lenny. Who actually made out pretty well himself.

I've been debating on whether to post a picture of the new truck or not and since 99.9% of the people who come here have already seen it I will post it for the benefit of the the .01% who have not.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

No Teeth

Saw this on CNN this afternoon

NIN leaves MTV show over Bush image



I just saw this and remembered fondly when once upon a time in my mind MTV would was a breeding ground of anti establishment imagery. I'm pretty sure that this just comfirms that thought was almost entierly in my own head.


I now return you to your normally scheduled drivel.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

And now a word....



GO SUNS!!

Lying to get what I need now

It's interesting what some people find cathartic for getting stress and bad feelings to go away. Some people drive, some people paint, some angsty teens write really bad poetry, and others blog.

What do I do? I plan for all things to the point of "Are you serious?" Hey we all relieve stress in our own ways I just happen to be a little freakier then the rest of you :)

I've only seen Revenge of the Sith once... I know I will see it again. Overall I liked it very well. Hands down best of the second trilogy. In the grand pantheon of things though I think time will tell where it lands in the over all order of star wars films. I think it will probally be fighting with "Empire" for the top spot. I personally still think Empire is the best.

My only real disappointment in Revenge of the Sith was how Mace Windu went down. That was a bit anti-climatic but what are you going to do? As for the other Jedi I thought the clone trooper wipe out was a very effective method of portraying the demise of the Jedi order.

I was really happy with the Obi-wan/Darth Vader fight. It lived up to all of my expectations. The Yoda/Darth Siddious fight was almost laughable again... I'm sorry Yoda is not supposed to be a fighter he is a thinker... and when he fights he looks like a freaking super-bouncy ball.

I guess my real question in all of this is why did Vader not think to look for his child in Tatooine? More questions for the ages. And it seems like at some point in the first trilogy that Palpatine didn't know about Vader's child until half way through ewok picnic. Why wasn't old palpatine scouring the universe for the child of vader.

Finally... with all of their wonderful technology in this galaxy far far away a long time ago. How come they didn't figure out that Padme was going to have twins until she was about to deliver? Sure lightsabers are a ancient weapon of the Jedi but they haven't developed a good ultrasound machine?

Some things will always bother me about Starwars and I guess that is why I love it.

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Son she said, Have I got a little story for you....

4 Days to the new star wars movie... I'm exictied to see it. No real narriative shockers in it... Anakin goes to the dark side... the good guys win and foster a terroist movement that will displace thousands of innocent galactic citzens under the guise of a "rebellion"

LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE!!

I broke out my copy of Attack of the clones the other night and watched it. I still think it's better then Return of the Jedi and A Phantom Meance. It ties for A New Hope for second best Star Wars film. I still think Empire is Best.

That is just me though.

This last film has also got me thinking about when Phantom Menace came out and what I was doing at that time. I had just moved to Flag to start NAU. That thought took me back because it's been six years since I started NAU and June 1 will be 4 years since I got it and 4 years since I came back to Kingman from my 2 year break. It doesn't seem like 4 years but it has been. Bought a house... 2 somewhat serious realtionships... so many people crashing at the batcave... 4 weddings... 2 births.. 1 total meltdown. It just doesn't seem like that much. But really it has been that long. I just find it hard to belive.

And I've been blogging through it all. Very rarely about my own life and more on the random thoughts and ramblings that go through my head. I know it doesn't make much sense and it never does to me. Hell it very rarely makes sense to me even when I read it some months later. There are 2 posts in the last 5 years that I can tell you exactly what happened when I wrote them. I like to remember one of the events the other event I keep there to remind me how badly I screwed up.

That is about as personal as this is going to get for a while.

The more things change, the more they really don't seem that diffrent when you look on them through time.

Friday, May 13, 2005

An Exercise in futility...

So about a week ago I decide that it's time to start looking for a new cell phone. The one I have has served me well but it's starting to take on more then a bit of wear and tear. It's also a pretty basic phone and I would like to start playing with the some of the cool new stuff thats out there like pictures and bluetooth. Mainly bluetooth though.

Earlier this week I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new phone. And since I haven't been under contract to Sprint for well over a year now I decided to re-up my contract while I was at it so I could get the discounts on the nice new phone. I order the phone I want from Sprint off of the internet. And they send me my order confirmation email. Not a problem phone is on the way.

Next day I get another email.. I have a new cell number... wonderfull. I don't want to give up my exisiting cell number because everyone I know has it and It'a a real pain in the ass to change. Nevermind the fact that it's listed as my primary contact number on I don't know how many resumes and job apps that I've randomly done in the last couple of months. The point in staying with Sprint was so I could keep my number. Their service over the last 6 months has been less then spectacular and it hasn't been just me who's noticed.

I decide to send the phone back as soon as I get the email.

Later that night I'm surfing the internet and decide to check out some cell phone boards to see if anyone else has gotten the same kind of boning as I did from Sprint. I do find a couple and they all descirbe how the person called up said they wanted to to keep their old number but move it to the new plan. Hell I think it's worth a shot.

So the phone arrives today, I call up Sprint. I tell the first woman that I talk to that I want to move my exisitng number to the new line of service and keep the exisitng phone number. She says it's not a problem they will cancel my exisiting line of service reserve my number and I call and activate my new phone tommrow and ask for my old number which will be reserved in my name.

COOL! she just need so to send to one other department before it can all happen.

After about 5 minutes of silence I get someone else. The previous lady has already explained the situation to her. The new lady says it won't be a problem. Cool!

her "Did you buy your new phone off of the internet with the online discounts?"

Me "yes"

Her "you have to keep your new number for 3 months in order to recieve those discounts, if you take your old number to your new account you will lose the discounts and we will charge your account $180 to replace the discounts"

Me "Ya know I think I will just send the new phone back and cancel the new account"

Her "Ok"

So the new phone sits on the table awaiting the box to be sent back to Sprint. I'm not real happy with sprint right now. Their quality of service has gone down in Kingman and do something nice for a customer is apperntly way out of their way.

I would have happily signed up for a 2 year agreement and not worried about it. But instead sprint is about to lose a customer because of fine print.

I think my number and me are going to go check out T-mobile and Cingular now.

Sprint might win me back but it will have to be pretty amazing for them to do it at this point.

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Toys for those that no longer belive in Santa...

New Star Wars movie is out in less then 3 weeks... WHOOOO HOOOO!!

Yes, I'm a Starwars geek... not like you didn't know that if you've been reading this little piece of crap for a while. I'm sad to see the movie come but I think it will be a very cathartic experince and it will hopefully bridge everything very nicely. I wonder about the younger generation though... what will they think of the second part of the trilogy (ep4-6) Will they think more highly of the second trilogy (ep1-3) then of the first. I don't know, and it takes a while for things like loyalty and the dust of time to settle on things. To me starwars will always be "A New Hope", "The Empire Strikes Back", and "Return of the Jedi" aka "Ewok Picnic".

At the same time though Starwars also has a very healthy expanded universe that is drawfed by only Star Trek. And lets face it Star Wars is much cooler then Star Trek. And I like both of them.

As Sci-Fi series go Babylon 5 blows Star trek out of the water anyway. The trick to Babylon 5 is that you need to watch it from episode 1. Which is rough if you don't have the box sets.

I guess my question in our marketing happy company is where in the hell is the Star Wars Return of the Sith ironing board? I mean really there are enough home owners out there that would kill to have one of those things. OK maybe not alot but a sizable number. Alright fine... Curtis, Kristi, and I. 3 out of 300 million is not that immpressive of a number.


Can you tell that I've been watching just a bit of Television lately?

Sometimes living alone really warps the mind.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Dear Wal-Mart;

Dear Wal-Mart,

I find that I often shop at your fine establishments where ever I may travel I know that I will always find the products that I need. Though they may be of questionable quality I always get what I pay for. However this letter is not about your quality of product or the quality of your employees.

Rather this letter is about the quality of your customers. I recently was shopping at your Wal-Mart Supercenter #205 (Kingman Az) and was treated rudely by more then a few of the customers. One female customer, who might add didn't know where to find any of your reasonably priced personal hygiene products, cut in front of me at your automated check out. It was bad enough that I used to be belittled by the employees of Wal-Mart but now I'm belittled by the customers too? Where will it end?

I suggest you start somesort of customer appreciation program to teach customers how to be nicer to one another. And in the process maybe how to put on clean clothes, refrain from using their celluar phones in a inopportune manner, and proper hygiene and grooming for being out in public. Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world so I know you have the resources to do this program since you already pay your employees next to nothing and provide them with minimal or no health insurance.

However if you do find that the methods you currently have in place for customer training are not sufficient. Let me suggest a few more methods that might work for you a bit better.

1. Use the Wal-Mart TV network to send out a hypnotic pattern that will subliminally send a message to the customer. This is the most effective way to reach a good majority of your customers.

2. When ever I walk in to a Wal-Mart I always have a 1984/Soylent Green/Mind Fuck America feeling when I hear the over head annoucments. How about using the annoucments to train your customers

"Bathing is good"
"deodorant is not the work of the devil"
"Tube tops should not be worn by fat women"

3. Beat customers, inevitably you will have several customers where the first two methods do not work. I suggest you beat the resistors. That will bring them into alignment.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter and I look forward to assiting you in your new customer training program.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

High my name is Tom and.....

I'm addicted to Massive Multi Player online games. No longer do I find simple gaming pleasure in playing a game alone in my office... No I now find the greatest amount of joy for a game in when I play with others in real time. No longer am I confined to the the areas of what has been loaded onto a disk. No now I'm off exploring whole new worlds that are brought to me as if by magic.

Of course this is all over the internet so it's about as close to magic as one can get before they have to go to Hogwarts to really know whats going on with the whole magic or not thing.

I love how in Star Wars I play a wookiee and there are others who play their characters. They don't break character it's like we are in all a movie.

I love how the entire dynamic of a battle in Planet side can change with the addition or removal of one piece of armor or just a couple of soldiers on the ground.

I love how ever is not a traditional role playing game. It's a real time strategey more akin to chess then dungeons and dragons.

My name is Tom and I'm addicted to MMO's and I'm proud of it.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Finally a movie based on a television show worth seeing...

Serenity Movie Trailer


If you have questions go rent this....


Rent Disk 1 of 4 at Blockbuster.com


It's a 4 disk set so you will need to get it queued up now. Or if you live in Hell you can borrow my copy.

It's going to be a good summer for us Sci-Fi geeks.

Sunday, April 24, 2005

And now something for you space Nurds...

Slashdot has had some very intersting articles recently with regards to space. And seeing as how some of you may not even know what slashdot is I'm going to help you out and link to everything. So you to may become a space nurd.

Nasa Return To Flight: You need a broadband connection to really make this work effectivley but it gets the job done. Hosted by none other the Scott Bakula (aka: Capt. Johnathan Archer). This sight is NASA's offical return to flight page. As goverment webpages go this is really a good site and should be on your short list of sites to see today.

Computers in space: This nifty site goes throug the comptuers that are found in modern space craft and how they are constructed. Things of intersting note are; The latest model Ariane and Delta V heavy lift rockets have less power in their computers then a Nintendo DS. The Mars rovers have INTEL inside. The space shuttles are still using the same flight computers from the 70's today.

So there you have it kids... now go to these sites, learn all there is to learn and impress your friends with your space nurdiness!

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Recapp

So lets recap the day... It started with my computer at working taking a nose dive... then my computer at work took another nose dive. Then the report I "fixed" yesterday took a nose dive... and then it was 9am.

2 hour respit... Then the internet takes a dive. It's not just the internet it's the whole freaking T1. Stupid frontier...

By the time I left computer hadn't taken a nose dive in a few hours and the T1 was still working for as much as I could tell.


At least I didn't kill anyone.

Somone tell me again why I have this god forsaken urge and desire to work in I.T.? I really just don't understand. And don't tell it's for the money and chics... I've got lots of neither.

I must enjoy a challenge in some sort of sick masochistic way.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Someone falls to pieces...

I don't know where the hell these titles come from, but I'm pretty hip on them. Even if they don't really have anything to do with my mood or what ever the hell it is that I'm writing about.

In tonight's episode... Tom tries to explain the significance of quantum physics and the future of the common microprocessor... but Tom just got bored writing that sentence.


LOOK A DISTRACTION!!

/runaway

Funny thing about just randomly pointing and going "Look a distraction" is that people just look at you funny and go "you are the distraction you dork" Meanwhile Cutis goes "Look a Unicorn" and people look everytime! I know it's stupid but it's true and what's more they almost always look.

I don't know for that little trick Cutis gets the "Tom Shiny Foil Ball" award so now Curtis truly does a distratction to try and get people to look away with. If nothing else it's a shiny foil ball that he can have hours of fun with.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

It's only a life time..

I received a rather strange email today... and I shall quote it for you now;

----------------------------------
Subject = Music Piracy Paper

Dear Tom,
I just read your paper and I thought it was wondeful. You explained everything from the history to your own suggestions on what shoud be done. I'm writing a paper for one of my classes and I'm using your paper as a reference because i think its the most thorough explanation I could find on music Piracy without all the legal mumbo jumbo. Thanks, Nitzalis Cora

-----------------------------------

So I don't know if I should be flattered or just down right scared that some one thinks that my random ramblings on a random blog on a random server on a random planet in a random universe is worthy of quoting.

Well someone things my work is worth quoting. I guess this brings up a pretty interesting question what is the Academic stand on blogs as reference source for research and information? Some blogs (like the ones at IBM or Google) are of a very technical nature and can be used to actually do some good for the world. Then there are blogs like this that are just mindless drivel... no really I'm about 2 steps away from drooling on my self most days.

And after a couple of beers I'm really close.

After a few beers I'm past drooling on myself and have moved on to drooling on other people.

I know that is a lovely thought and mental picture isn't it? Which may go a long way to explaining why I like to drink alone so much.

In the end though I do get the warm and fuzzies knowing that I'm helping someone actually figure out the screwed up world that is digital media rights in a information age.

Monday, April 11, 2005

The Empire isn't all that bad... No really it's not!

As I've written here many times I play a game called "Star Wars Galaxies: A Empire Divided". In case you can't tell by the name the game is based on "Star Wars" and in this game I play a Wookiee... A Imperial Wookiee. Ok I can see my non geek readers already wondering why this is significant.

I'm going to break it down for you real quick. Wookiee's are a slave race of the Empire. So in most all of the fan fiction and sanctioned fiction Wookiee's always work for the "Rebels".

Already I'm playing against type... but that is not the point of this post (as if there ever is).

Ok now get over that... And lets get to the point of the post. In the "Star Wars" movie's the "Good guys" are the "Rebels" and until very recently I just took this as fact. Then about 3 years ago (read as I saw "Attack of the Clones") I got to thinking... You know I bet that life for the average citizen of the republic/Empire didn't change that much. So why would I cheer for a terroist organization?

I've probally just ruined "Star Wars" for several people.

You will get over it... I did.

Of course when Lucas wrote the original movies he may have using the "Rebels" as a allegory (God John Kitts would be so proud of me right now) for the counter culture folks in California. The "Empire" as the existing government of California who was "oppressing" the "Rebels" in the late 60's and early 70's.

I don't know "Revenge of the Sith" comes out in 5 weeks and I'm ready. I want to see Anakin go medieval on Obi'wan. Mostly though I just to see Yoda do his impression of a super bouncy ball again.

Ahh Everyone's favorite Zabrack

Saturday, April 09, 2005

In search of a GDK hide...

If you don't get the title don't worry only one reader maybe two will get it. Lets just say it's a sought after item in SWG that is never around when you need it.

Much like a life... never around when you need it but when you busy with work. BAM! all of your friends come out of the woodwork wanting to do something. Ok that is not really true. My friends don't come out of the woodwork. They are the woodwork.

Anyway... I came across a intersting statistic this week. The city of Kingman should be prepared to provide services for 110,000 people by 2007. We currently have 30,000 people in Kingman proper and close to 60,000 people with butler and golden valley thrown in for fun. I guess my big question is WHY? What is here the people want to live here. It's not the cheap rents, typical house is now 145k in a decent part of town. Ok maybe if they are coming out of Californa that is a good reason. It's not the job market. The last big influx of jobs we got was Super Wal-Mart... yeah thats a real reason to come to Kingman. It's not the weather either... hot in the summer not so bad in the winter but there are nicer places.

It really just baffles my mind that people would come here WILLINGLY! Mean while I'm sitting over here trying to figure out my escape plan.

On the upside though we are getting a EB games... so now instead of the gaming geeks just being teased and tormented in private they can be teased and tormented in public too. Ahh sweet progress.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Disconnect and self destruct...

Ok someone explain to the logic of this one... I can mail a police "night stick" (you know a batton that police officers use) in the mail but I can not mail said item via UPS or Fed EX to a PO Box because the USPS does not allow for drop off at their PO boxes.

The second part I'm fine with it's the whole sending things that can kill people in the mail with no problem that I'm trying to comprehend.

Maybe it's just me I don't know...

Also I want my old wal-mart back, I never thought I would utter those words in my life. I can't find crap in this new mega monstrosity that we have now. It's just not right, of course wal-mart is just not natural in the sense that it's workers should have revolted a long time ago. But again that is just the easter choclate talking.

Sunday, March 27, 2005

Now I have to find a way to put the bottle down...

Internet radio is a wonderful thing... At least it is on a broadband connection. I remember my first experience with "internet radio" back in 98 I was on a 56k dial up and it chocked my connection and the sound quality was something akin to a piece of string and two cans. Now flash forward 7 years and a much better connection. It actually sounds good and doesn't affect my connection. Which as we all know is very important to me since I'm forever playing SWG and Planetside.

Anyway my two current favorite are www.racketradio.com a mix of just about everything out there, as I'm writing this the songs playing have been hard rock / heavy metal and a bit of Depeche Mode and Weird all thrown in for good measure. I wonder who requested those **looks off into distance**

The other favorite is sputnik7 It's a mix of mainly heavy stuff. Since I'm already pretty pissed off at work I don't listen to it as much at home.

Remember kids Gammawaves carry more cooking energy then microwaves, which is why nuclear weapons have such a nasty reputation.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

It's easy when you don't know better

A while back I copied my music to give to a friend so that they would have something put on their shiny new 40gb iPod. Two nights ago I get this rather long rambling message on my answering machine about what great a broad taste in music I have and how much she is learning about me as a person. It was a nice warm and fuzzy feeling I got with that whole broad taste in music thing. I don't like a lot of stuff but what I do like seems to be pretty broad. I also tend to think that some types of music just get better with age.

Pink Floyd is a good example of this.

Music that still sucks even after proper aging is anything you don't like. Music is art and it's all up to the end person as to determine whether they like a particular piece of music.

I think it's interesting how people get fixated on a particular part of a artists career and don't consider anything before or after a moment. I like to trot out Pearl Jam as a good example of this. Clint and Brandi are good friends and loyal readers (so I know they will see this sooner or later). The only Pearl Jam they have heard other then what is occasionally on the radio is the "Ten" album from 1991. Don't get me wrong Ten is good and it holds up rather well 10+ years on. However There are 7 albums worth of material that have come out since then. I'm sure they have listened to "VS" (I think that CD was standard issue for everyone in High School in 1994) I'm fairly sure they haven't heard "Binaural" or "Riot Act" both of which are excellent CD's and have come out in the last 5 years and both had maybe one or two singles released just to keep the record company happy.

Anyway my point is to me Pearl Jam is a current group. When someone says Pearl Jam then I think the songs "Save You" or "Bush Leaguer". When Brandi or Clint hear Pearl Jam they may think "Daughter" or "Release". It's all a matter of perspective.

I've been writing about Pearl Jam for the last 10 minutes and the music that has come up has been "Radiohead" and "Smashing Pumpkins"

I guess I like there to be some sort of depth to my music. I cannot wait for a new TOOL CD that will keep me busy for several months.

Which brings up another point... I've been buying most all of music from iTunes for the last year now. The last CD I bought was A Perfect Circle "The Thirteenth Step". That has been well over a year now. I have about 15 CD's worth of music on my computer that nothing more then files on my computer. I guess music has finally been boiled down to it's most basic componets. Sound and a non physical medium with which to carry that sound.

I need a hobby I've got way to much time to think about stuff.

Saturday, March 19, 2005

It's a bit more true then I care to admit...

Lets just say that when I saw this comic a few people I know in real life came to mind...

I'm not going to name names...


You know who you are.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

The Life of a punch bowl...

So little brothers roommates have moved out which means that me as his older brother now gets a bi-weekly visit instead of a single visit maybe every week. Don't I feel honored.

Anyway I do enjoy talking to my brother it does help that we are no longer at each other throats on a pretty constant basis. Doesn't mean he can't irriatate the hell out of me. Just that we are not at each others throats.

Tonights conversation consisted of him talking and me listening. At one point he said that next book he plans on reading is "Zen through motorcycle repair" I found that funny since 1. My brother is far from zen and 2. He doesn't own a motorcycle. But if you know Scott then you already knew that.

So that got me thinking about other zen books and what their titles may be

"Zen and the art of washing machine repair"

"Zen and Home Improvement; Achieveing one-ness while increasing your property values"

"Zen and getting laid"

Yeah I think that one would be a best seller personally. But that is just my thought.

The grass is always greener on the other side. And in my case it's true the neighbor on either side of me has greener grass then me. Then again I don't have grass I just have dirt... well dirt and twig attached to a stick.

Thursday, March 10, 2005

And I hear he uses a MAC too...

Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was
better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly
God was tired of hearing all the bickering.

Finally fed up, God said, "THAT'S IT! I have had enough. I am
going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those
results, I will judge who does the better job." So Satan and Jesus sat
down at the keyboards and typed away.

They moused.
They faxed.
They e-mailed.
They e-mailed with attachments.
They downloaded.
They did spreadsheets!
They wrote reports.
They created labels and cards.
They created charts and graphs.
They did some genealogy reports.

They did every job known to man.

Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell.

Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning
Suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of
course, the power went off. Satan stared at his blank screen
and screamed every curse word known in the underworld. Jesus just
sighed.

Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their
computers. Satan started searching frantically,
screaming:
"It's gone! It's all GONE! "I lost everything when the power went out!"

Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the
past two hours of work.

Satan observed this and became irate.
"Wait!" he screamed.
"That's not fair! He cheated!
How come he has all his work and I don't have any?"

God just shrugged and said,
"Jesus saves."

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Hi ho on the down low range...

I was watching a trailer the other night for a movie called "Gunner Palace" it's about a American artillery unit in Baghdad from late 2003 to mid 2004. I'm watching this trailer and the only thing that I can think of is... The people in the movie can't be more the 21 or 22... Holy crap I'm 25 and I'm older then them and they are "Seasoned combat veterans" I seem to have one of those moments about once a year I've been having them a lot more lately. I'm going to be 26 next month and I have problems imaging being married with kids at this age much less being in combat.

It just blows my mind.

Anyway instead of a lawn this year I'm going to do something a little bit easier.. I planted a tree... Right now it's a twig attached to a stick. If I kill this then I will just write off the whole green thumb thing and stick with computers.

Maybe I should save myself the money and time and just do that anyway.

Ever notice how if you put enough olive oil in to a pot of water before you add the spahetti how it looks like urine?

Hope you weren't eating lunch when you read that last line.

I think the people at the iTunes music store have a real hard on for Bill Shatner. This week on the front page under the exclusivies tab there is a album from both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy (or as they are known to the non geek set Capt. James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock) It was just one of those things where I said... this must be a sign of the apocalypse.

And as Matt is reading this he is firing up iTunes to see if I'm shitting you or not.

I shit you not.

Oh speaking of strange things....

I've been having a rough go of it lately at work and some people have helped to make these last couple of weeks just a bit more standable. I would like to call them out so they can come to front of the class and take a bow or at the very least have things thrown at them.

Curtis...

Brandi...

Clint...

I'm not going to say anything about them if you have been a reader (and actually those three make up half of my total known readers) then you know about them already. If you are a newer reader (with in the last year or 3) then you probally need to hit the ol' website and see the previous incarnation of this here blog like thing and read up on these fine diamonds among my mountains and mountains of rough.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

What wonders does ye think ?

I've gotten my 15 boxes of girl scout cookiees... this year I mixed it up and got samoanns in addition to my normal thin mints.

So if you have a girl scout cookiee craving in the next couple of months you know who to hit up.

No really I will burn out on girl scout cookiees in about a week here and not know what to do with the rest... of course come july nothing is better then frozen thin mints.

Anywho The must see movies this year in order of release are

1. Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy (it can't be as good as the book but as long as it's weird I will be happy)

2. Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith; All I have to say is No Jar-Jar is still a good thing.

3. Serenity; Firefly comes to the big screen! This is the movie I'm waiting for, more so then Star Wars actually.

If you have not seen firefly go rent the series from your favorite online rental place you will thank me later. It's really very good across the board. To bad FOX totally messed it up.

Not that I'm bitter or anything

Oh wait I am bitter.. but not from FOX I'm bitter from work

but that is another story for another day

**system error not allowed to talk about work on blog like thingy**

damn... my brain just blue screened.

Monday, February 28, 2005

But I like the old one...

Arizona Daily Sun Story




Ironically I can not find the old logo to make a comparison... sigh... I'm pretty sure I'm not alone when I say I think it will take alot more then a logo change to make the changes they want.

Sunday, February 20, 2005

Riding the bit torrent....

It's been a rough week at work... so I decided to do something just for me tonight... I was going to attack the last thing in the Linux world that I have never tried... I was going to instal Slackware Linux (Que somesort of thematic music) however I seem to have a problem. And I whish it were only related to this one Linux Distrobution but alas it as has been on all of the distro's I've downloaded in the last 6 months.

Yes I'm getting corruptued Linux downloads!

OH THE HUMAINTY OF IT ALL

**note as if this weren't geeky enough I'm about to go off the deep end, if you are not a geek you may want to goto another blog since this is about to get real boring real quick**

About six months ago I had 3 things happen all with in about the same amount of time that I really can't pin my finger on any one event.

1. I got a 200gb SATA hard drive and add in raid board to run it off of (I have the SATA connections on my motherboard but I'm paranoid about them failing so I'm keeping my data drive off of my MOBO SATA ports)

2. I got a Dual Layer DVD-/+R/RW burner, It's SONY DV-700A I've patched the firmware to all hell.

3. I started to use bit torrent to download my LINUX ISO's

Now the part that doesn't make any sense to me is the one where one of these would be making me get bad LINUX ISO's

I have been able to download KNOPPIX from bit torrent and store it on my data drive and burn it with the DVD burner and not have a problem but why can I not burn a good copy of Fedora, Mandrake, SUSE, Slackware, Gentoo, or Free BSD? I've tried burning them at the slowest rate possible I've redownloaded them. I can't think of anything else.

I wouldn't think that they are coming off of the torrent traffic as bad since I'm sure that the bit torrent app has some sort of MD5 check summing going on.

I've burned a million CD's and DVD's on my burner for friends and backup with out a problem.

I've got all of my media stored on my 200GB drive and I haven't had a problem.

This is all just very mysterious to me it's almost like my ISP is somehow corrupting my torrents as they are coming down the wire.

Which I actually wouldn't doubt. Hmmmm.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Oh the light...it burns the flesh!

Good lord it's 9:30 on a Sunday morning and I'm making a post... I must be feeling sick or I just have something to say.

I'm willing to bet that I just feel sick. Very rarely do I have anything worthwhile to say. At least I think so, then again you people are the sick and twisted that keep coming back for more of my goodness :)

OK moving on, What's up with all of these "Magnetic ribbon's" on peoples cars? I keep seeing Yellow "Support our Troops" which I'm all for and Red, White, and Blue in the style of the American flag. I think that one is for supporting our country but I'm not quite sure as I've never seen it up close long enough to actually read it and then there is the Pink ribbon for "Breast Cancer awareness" I don't know about you but I'm a guy and I'm checking my man boobies for tumors... I don't think you can get any more aware then that.

So where are the ribbon's for protectings us from censorship from our own government and the NFL.. by god the Godaddy.com girl was hot and I should have been able to have seen her twice during the superbowl not just once... but no instead we have 30 minutes of mister I'm the most successful surviving beetle.. Yes I didn't like the half time show... I could have defiantly worked with a Brittany Spears "Full wardrobe malfunction" personal thought right there. Seriously when FOX blurs out a cartoon characters rear end because they are afraid of fines from the FCC when 2 years ago they showed the same scene from the same show from the same episode unblurred you know things have gotten out of control. Remember this is FOX this is the same network that brought us low brow humor and scantily clad women on a nightly basis.. and actually it still does.

What about a ribbon for free speech in all of it's forms whether it be by a person speaking or source code to a program.

What about a ribbon for the fact that our nation has 250,000 men and women at war and when they get back they may or may not have all the money they need to continue with higher education if they so choose? OK this one is kind of interesting... but hear me out. I have a good friend who was medically discharged from the Marines about 2 years ago now and has part of the GI Bill paying for school but he still has to work and still has to make other bills. Personal thought but anyone who serves in the military should get a full ride to any public university in their home state on the governments dime. I'm sorry what we pay our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen. Is pitiful and then they are put in harms way... they deserve a full ride to college.

OK it appears that I actually do have something to say. Maybe just maybe this is the start of something different or it's just me venting... who knows.

Friday, February 04, 2005

Television the last best hope for big media to get digital rights, right the first time.

Television is a interesting media in our day and age. It is the one media where the end consumer has almost total control over what they watch yet at the same time lack the fundamental control that is a given with other forms of media. In our age today a person can purchase any number of different television packages that range from the very basic to everything but the kitchen sink. People if they so choose can even choose to not purchase television and just watch what is broadcast publicly. There is a fundamental problem with any of these television options you (the consumer) have no control over when you get to watch you purchased service.

Think about it, when you get your morning newspaper the ink on the page stays visible for as long as the paper lasts. The ink doesn't disappear a couple of hours after the paper arrives. When you goto the movies there isn't just one showing on one screen there are many showings on many screens making it all the more convenient for you the consumer to par take in the movie experience. How come with television if I miss a show and I forget to tape it I'm out of luck?

I can get all of my printed media on the Internet for free, but I still buy books and magazines. Why well sometimes I just want a very small section of what is the Internet other times it's just nice to have a off line edition. Movies are moving to a on demand format and if you happen to like porn I'm sure that you know all the porn you could ever want from midget porn to super husky amazon porn is available on the Internet for a price. Sure it's a huge download but you keep it for as long as you like in most cases for the same price as going to the store and getting your DVD from there.


Which brings us to television the last of the big media formats to become wildly a on the Internet. Today if you try to download a television show from the Internet you will probably not have anything happen to you. However the Television industry is out there and they are watching. Somewhere someone will get a notice saying if you don't want to get sued you will stop downloading the shows right now.

Ok I can understand why television studios/networks are doing this they are losing money in the form of advertiser dollars every time someone downloads a show. If enough people download a show for free then that is the end of the show because there is no more money being made from it. There was a similar situation not to long ago in the music industry. At first the music industry tried to squash the downloading of songs but that didn't work because for every one service they took down three more popped up to replace it. Finally the music industry got smart started selling music on line for a small fee. Turns out the magic price point for music is somewhere between $.88 and $.99

This led to another problem, formats of the music itself. There are at least FIVE different formats for music files and that is not including the encoding schemes and compression algorithms that may or may not require additional codecs. On top of the technical mess there was also the problem of how to integrate everything so that John Q Public could download their music pretty much trouble free and not have to worry about it.

All of the pieces of the puzzle where there but no one had put them together. Until Apple started a little thing called iTunes. A all in one program that would take care of the music store thing ,the music downloading thing, and the music playing thing. Oh and provided a nifty interface along with looking cool. And Apple gave this little program away for free. What was the catch? You couldn't play music purchased at other stores on iTunes but once you purchased your music from iTunes it was your forever. Pretty quickly everyone moved to iTunes or was trying to be like iTunes when it came to music.

So what now of Television? The reason I bring up iTunes is because it is one of the few successful marriages of marketing and DRM out there. Would a iTunes for Television work? That is a very good question. However once again we have all of the pieces we just don't have them put together in the right order.

First off how do you download a television show that is literally 100X the size of a music file? You can't push it out a single big pipe any kind of user load that would be the end of your service. Instead you share the load. We already have this technology it's called bit torrent. You have a few seeder files out there on the Internet and when someone purchases a show a bit torrent tracker file is sent to their iTunes for television automatically. The downloading begins immediately at a low priority as to not to interrupt the web connection to much. Now that the load is broken up how do you break it up even more? You have to give to receive. In the iTunes for TV program there is a optional feature that is turned off by default but when turned on it allows the shows that you have purchased and downloaded to be shared with other iTunes for TV users. Ok thats nice you say but what do I get out of it? So long as the user continues to share the television shows they have downloaded they will be entitled to something for free every week. Like one free show a week or if they build up enough credit they could download from a selection of movies that are also on iTunes for TV. I know not the cleanest but it works.
How much do you pay for your downloaded TV? The $.99 a song model seems to work pretty well for music. And something very similar would probably work for iTunes for TV as well. A typical season of television will run for 20 to 24 episodes on network television these shows are typically available 6 to 18 months after their original air date on DVD for somewhere between $29.99 and $49.99. That works out somewhere between a $1.10 and just under $2 a show. This is all gravies for the television studio since the money has already been made in merchandising and selling the series to various television networks. A $.99 model would probably work as well in the form of a loss leader. Drawing people in to maybe purchase the extended edition of the show where some sort of fore shadowing occurs that is not really important but is really more for the die hard fans. Lets crunch some numbers here, Star Trek: Enterprise costs approximately $1.6 Million a episode to make for the studio. That is everything actors salaries, food, sets, film, and whatever else goes into a show. When the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Babel One” aired approx 2.5 million people nation wide tuned in to watch on a Friday night at 8pm. The studio and television network lost money on the episode of Star Trek. Now at $.99 The studio just made about $2.5 Million for a $1.6 Million investment. That is not including any merchandising or syndication or anything else that is just straight downloads. Paramount just made some money.

What is the last piece of the puzzle? Television it self... people will still surf television not willing to spend their hard earned dollars on shows they know nothing about but. But how do most people discover television shows? Word of mouth and surfing channels. You need television to advertise for your download service so you can make money on both fronts.


Now this is my own ramblings and thoughts on the digital media in this current day and age and quite honestly I could be full of it and I wouldn't know. So take this with a grain of salt and remember kids starving artists need to make money too.