Well, I had been trying to write a new blog here for a while, but I could never find the time! I can’t believe it’s been OCTOBER since I’ve written anything though! Crazy! Well, here’s a new post, I don’t have much to say but I’d love to try to get around to updating this more often. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy whatever you celebreate, Happy birthday Jesus, and a Happy New Year!

Here’s a link of funny re-enactments of that favorite orange fat cat who eats alot. It’s also a dedication to corporate comic strip god Jim Davis. I’m afraid they are mostly funny under at least one of the following conditions:

• It is late at night
• You are high
• You are contemplating suicide
• You are the dictator of North Korea
• You lack a brainstem

Remember…

Garfield is a big orange cat who doesn’t like eating cat food, but likes eating human food instead.

Now I will return to the meaningless void that is my life until next time.

OK, so that’s not the Uncle Pennybags graphic I wanted to use, but I couldn’t find the one where he’s pulling his pockets inside out, that would better explain my situation. Thanks to jX for finding the right image for me! And no, I’m not broke, I got enough to get me by until my next paycheck, and I had a big argument on the phone with a HSBC rep (For my Best Buy card). I think two of my biggest mistakes in the past couple years was getting a Best Buy card and a Sears Mastercard. I used to be able to pay them off fine, but ever since I moved into a more expensive apartment they’ve had to go to the wayside a bit so I can take care of the more important bills. I used to be able to make $40 or $50 more than the minimum on each card (which for the Sears card would keep my balance low, and they would increase my credit limit, which fell me into the trap of “ooh, I can spend more”). Right now I’m trying to work with these guys to get it paid off as painlessly as possible, but it seems like they give you very few options, and the past couple people I spoke with gave me incorrect information. Oh, and NEVER EVER do checks over the phone. It doesn’t work, even if they waive the fee, don’t do it. Learned that the hard way.

Anyway, the plan is once I pay off the Best Buy card, I’m cancelling it, and once i pay off the Sears card I’ll either cancel it too, or keep it for emergency situation. Although I may cancel it and get a card through my bank instead (Especially since it can be used as an overdraft protection backup). It’s nice to have a backup, but these fees are killing me and I’ve got to worry about other things.

Such as learning to drive. Yeah, I can’t seem to be able to get this done. It seems very few people want to help me with this, but I got a few options, it’s just whether I can depend on them or not… and that’s the hard part.

More to come…

Wordpress upgraded (Manually, since I don’t trust dreamhost’s automatic thingy to keep my plugins intact). I also cleaned up / upgraded many plugins, seems alot faster. Another excuse for me to tinker around with stuff.

UPDATE: For example, it appears I am tinkering with the theme, but it doesn’t seem to be doing what I want! I’m planning on creating a new theme (sorry for those who like the theme I was using, it just wasn’t doing it for me!) from the ground-up, something widget-aware and great-looking that I can make a release out of! Possibly based on my somewhat-popular Windstorm theme. But I am not too worried about it, and am more interested in getting some actual content… including a few of my first reviews…

I’ve been thinking of what to put on the site, and I want to do reviews for one thing (video games, albums primarily) but I will put other random stuff on here too. I just can’t find the time or the interest to do it. See, I work a full-time job doing website development. Which is great, but by the time I get home I’ve kind of lost interest doing it as a hobby. I mean, I can get on it for about an hour or so, but after that I’ll just fire up a game, or a video or something. Well, I’m trying to change that… so we’ll see. I know I’ve promised 767 763 times to put something new on this site, and it hasn’t happened, but I want to change my attitude and I’m trying to change my life. So getting passionate about something will help me do that.

Oh, and when I get a car, I plan on buying it from these guys:

WARNING: Not safe for work, or for children, or for old ladies. Has foul foul language! Will probably make your computer cry! !***NSFW***! You have been warned, so don’t come bitching at me about it.

Hi there. Not much going on. I did make a few screenshots of my linux desktop. I may put them on flickr, who knows? Anyway, I’m trying to add actual content to this site, but it’s slow going and hasn’t exactly been a priority.

Well, here they are:

Running Windows XP under VirtualBox with seamless integration
Desktop
System monitor. I need more RAM :(

Oh, and my system specs:

AMD Athlon X2 2.0GHz
1.0GB DDR2-800 RAM
Nvidia GeForce 7300GS
320GB HDD (Ubuntu Linux)
160GB HDD (Windows XP)

For new stuff on this site. If you’re still paying attention. Wha? Why did I say “Also” when there was nothing preceding it. Weird. Anyway, this isn’t a promise that there will be changes but I want to do something with this site instead of throwing my money down the drain on the hosting.

Well, like Corey Hart says, we should Never Surrender. And you have to believe him. He seems to be really passionate about… whatever. I mean, can’t you tell with those overly bombastic processed drum effects and the random sax solo?

Now, it’s been going on for a little while now, but here is th final setlist for the 2007 Genesis European tour, followed by my comments

• Behind the Lines / Duke’s End / Turn It On Again
• No Son Of Mine
• Land of Confusion
• In The Cage / The Cinema Show / Duke’s Travels / Afterglow
• Hold on My Heart
• Home by the Sea / Second Home By The Sea
• Follow You Follow Me
• Firth of Fifth / I Know What I Like
• Mama
• Ripples
• Throwing It All Away
• Domino
• Drum Duet / Los Endos
• Tonight, Tonight, Tonight / Invisible Touch
• I Can’t Dance
• Carpet Crawlers

A good setlist, I suppose. But a little disappointing. I mean, why isn’t “That’s All” on there? Couldn’t they replace that horrid “Hold on My Heart” with that instead? It’s a classic. Well, maybe it’ll show up on the American leg of the tour, because I know “Mama” was alot more popular over there. I am glad to see some of the good choices from the classic era: “In The Cage”, “Carpet Crawlers” (A pretty good song to close the show with), “I Know What I Like” is mandatory. I’m rather intrigued by the “Behind The Lines / Duke’s End / Turn It on Again” medley. What a strange idea, but I haven’t seen it so it might work well, they’re decent pieces of music.

Let’s run through some the other choices: “No Son of Mine” is a favorite, as is “Land of Confusion”. “Duke’s Travels”… okay, I guess the crowds nowadays like the 8 minutes of instrumental bombast. “Afterglow”… more like Aftersnooze. “Home by the Sea” oooh, big deal. The second half is still really boring, I can’t imagine they’ve done anything to improve it. “Follow You Follow Me” GREAT SONG! And they included the whole version instead of a short part in the old medley. And I hear Phil plays drums while singing on this one. What a treat! Anyway, “Firth of Fifth”, “I Know What I Like” classics, of course. “Mama” is always a crowd-pleaser, and I’m sure Phil is still good at those HA-HAs! “Ripples” is an unusual choice. Good song, but I don’t expect too many people to really care for it. “Throwing It All Away” probably still includes that annoying chant shtick (Well, I kinda like it.) “Domino”… ooh, big surprise there. I know the crowds love this performance. “Drum Duet” of course, with Phil and Chester Thompson battling out again… and then into “Los Endos” which I can enjoy. Ahh looks like they shorten “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” again and transition it into “Invisible Touch” again this time. Phooey. “I Can’t Dance” is another great pop song, and underrated by many of those who didn’t like Genesis’ turn to pop. And it closes with the classic “Carpet Crawlers”. So that’s an interesting setlist, but I’m waiting to see the American version and hopefully they’ll get smart and drop “Hold on My Heart” and add “That’s All”.

Well, it’s over. The immigration amnesty bill died in the senate today, thanks to the people who bothered to speak out against it, much to the chagrin to those in Washington… which depresses me, since THEY represent US. Yet, they want to pass something that is not wanted by the majority of the people in this nation. Quite sad to see Bush trying to push this through, and see people like Trent Lott and Lindsay Graham(nesty) trash conservative talk radio. And liberal democrats are looking to reinstate the (un)fairness doctrine. Quite scary, but that’s for another post.

Now that this is DRT it’s time to find a REAL solution to the immigration problem, Mr. President. How about finishing that fence we were promised? How about doubling or tripling the border guard to help stop the illegals from crossing our border? Just a thought.

I received an email recently from someone suggesting this…

GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work

This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola
executive. It came from one
of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton.
It ‘ s worth your
consideration.

Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to
hit close to $4.00 a gallon this summer and it might
go higher!!
Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take
some intelligent,
united action. Phillip Hollsworth offered this good
idea.

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the “don’t buy gas on
a certain day”
campaign. The oil companies just laughed at this
because they knew we wouldn’t continue to “hurt”
ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an
inconvenience to us
than it was a problem for them.

BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a
plan that can really work. Please read on and join wi
th us! By now you’ re probably thinking gasoline
priced
at about $2.00 is super cheap. Me too! Now that the
oil companies and the OPEC
nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of
a gallon of gas
is CHEAP at $1.50 - $2.00, we need to take aggressive
action to teach
them that BUYERS control the marketplace….. not
sellers. With the
price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers
need to take
action. The only way we are going to see the price of
gas come down is
if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing
their gas! And,
we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How? Since
we all rely on our
cars, we can’t just stop buying gas. But we CAN have
an impact on gas
prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here’s the idea:

For the rest of this year, DON’T purchase ANY gasoline
from the two biggest
companies EXXON and MOBIL(which now are one) and BP.
If they are not selling
any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices.
If they reduce their prices, the other companies will
have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally
millions of Exxon and
Mobil and BP gas buyers. It’s really simple to do!
Now, don’t wimp out at
this point… keep reading and I’ll explain how simple
it is to reach
millions of people.

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each
of us sends it to at least ten more (30 x 10 =3D 300)
… and those 300
send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =3D
3,000)…and so on, by the
time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we
will have
reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three
million get
excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30
million people
will have been contacted!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people.
That’s all.

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this
e-mail out to ten more
people within one day of receipt, all 30 MILLION
people could conceivably be contacted within the next
14 days!!!

I’ll bet you didn’t think you and I had that much
potential, di d you?

Acting together we can make a difference. If this
makes sense to you, please
pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from
EXXON/MOBIL AND BP UNTIL
THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.50-$2.00 RANGE AND
KEEP THEM DOWN.

THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

A very typically liberal idea. A very very flawed idea. The very idea that 30 million people will receive it, let alone actually follow it, is preposterous. And the very idea that it will WORK is preposterous as well. Notably the part that says: If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. . What? I think this page on Snopes.com explains why this is a myth. How can we help reduce gas prices (which by the way are probably not that bad if you adjust the prices for inflation over the last 50 or 60 years)? I duly replied back with this suggestion:

Hey all, I have a better idea than this. Since it’s not the oil company’s faults (they are merely responding to free-market supply and demand, of course most people who don’t take an economics class don’t understand the difference between a profit and a profit MARGIN), and not the gas stations (since most gas stations make less than 8 cents for every gallon of gas, that’s why you never see JUST a gas station… it’s always accompanied by a food mart and a car wash or something like that). Instead, call, email, fax, or in any way contact the bureaucrats and politicians who make almost 20 cents a gallon off of the ridiculous taxes on the gas. That’s where the real impact is. Better yet, instead of complaining about the gas prices… how about the fact that almost 14% of our paychecks go to the government? Think about it.

Shall we? You know, they say if you don’t like the weather in Virginia: “Wait 5 minutes. It will change.” Also, they say that about Rosie O’Donnell’s diaper.

ZING!

I knew you’d like that one. Here’s another one: Why does Rosie O’Donnell hate Bill O’Reilly?

I don’t know, but she sure is an annoying loud bitch!

All right, now that I’ve driven away all nine of my readers, here’s something about the weather. It’s gonna be 81 today. Whoop-dee-doo-diddle! Tomorrow it will be 76 but stormy :’( <– (that’s me crying!) But on Thursday and Friday it will be 57. Grr! What happened to the 60s? That was great! The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and lesbians were invented in the 60s. If you don’t believe me, look it up on Wikipedia!

Well, I’m looking forward to the Genesis “Turn It On Again” reunion tour… and while it’s not likely coming anywhere near here, hopefully I can find a bootleg or they’ll release a decent CD/DVD out of it.

This is probably the most likely setlist or at least what I’m hoping for. Since they’re in a trio, and likely to perform their more popular tunes from the 80s/90s. And thankfully no songs from Calling All Stations, although I wouldn’t mind hearing “Congo”… It would be funny to hear Phil sing that.
(In Chronological order by album. Note the absence of such horrid songs like “Hold On My Heart” and “Fading Lights”.)

• Behind The Lines/Duchess
• Misunderstanding
• Turn It On Again (duh! it’s in the name of the tour!)
• Abacab
• Dodo/Lurker (Not too likely, but I love this song)
• Me And Sarah Jane (Not gonna happen at all, but I love this song too)
• That’s All (Hopefully they won’t just incorporate it into the old medley!)
• Illegal Alien (Same as above)
• Mama
• Home by the Sea/Second Home…
• Invisible Touch (Not too big a fan of this one, but it’s a worthy tune)
• Tonight Tonight Tonight (Hopefully not a bastardized 3 1/2 minute version)
• Land of Confusion
• In Too Deep
• Domino (with Phil getting up on the Jumbotron again… maybe he’s too old)
• Throwing It All Away (Complete with the dee-da-days too!)
• I Can’t Dance (Although they stretch it out WAY too far)
• Jesus He Knows Me
• No Son of Mine
• Dreaming While You Sleep (Not likely… they did play it on the WCD tour, but I don’t expect to see it)

And as for the old medley, it will hopefully include most of these classics! (In Chronological order by album.)

• I Know What I Like
• Firth of Fifth (At least instrumental portion)
• The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
• Carpet Crawlers
• In The Cage
• Dance On A Volcano
• Squonk (Why not?)
• Your Own Special Way
• Follow You Follow Me

I wrote a little PHP script that displays an error page based on what error code the server sends, you can basically use this as one file for all your error codes (instead of messing with multiple files. If you don’t know how to create custom error pages for your site, put something like the little code snippet below in your .htaccess file

ErrorDocument 404 /cgi-bin/error.php
ErrorDocument 403 /cgi-bin/error.php
ErrorDocument 401 /cgi-bin/error.php
ErrorDocument 400 /cgi-bin/error.php
ErrorDocument 500 /cgi-bin/error.php

/cgi-bin/error.php is, quite obviously, where the error file is.

And here’s the code!

I just have ErrorDocuments for 400, 401, 403, 404, and 500 setup, but I will have more as I feel like adding them.

Hey, well, life’s okay.

BTW, is this not the best drum solo EVER! Such POWER! (You’ll have to wait until about the 4 minute mark, or if you know the song you’ll see what I’m talking about)

CNN’s Jack Cafferty attempts to find out:

Video Link