help?
Open links in new window
Feedback?...
Movies I Wanna See! (UPDATED! Recently!)
LINKS AHOY!
SEARCH THE NET
MISC. KNOWLEDGE
G33KY 5+UFF
MISCELLANOUS
UMBC:
Homepage
Want your link here? All you have to do is
ask...
DVD/FILM 
![[Blue Ribbon Campaign- STOP CENSORSHIP!]](http://br.eff.org/brstrip.gif){kind=small}
Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign!
Tuesday, October 29, 2002
Man, I'm so glad 24 is back. Even though tonight's premiere was a little slow at first (and I'm not talking about that eternal infomercial for Ford), things really started cookin' in the last 15 minutes. It's an edge of your seat experience you can get no where else: vintage 24.
By the way, I did kind of like the interruption-less presentation, which meant 4-5 minutes or so at the beginning and end to hype Ford, not to mention Jack's Expedition and that possible terrorist's T-Bird. I understand that's how things are in the U.K. and Germany, if not all of Europe: no commercial breaks but long ads before and after the show.
Next week can't come soon enough.
P.S. "I'm gonna need a hacksaw."
Oh, hehe... one tiny thing more (I am Jack's acute ability to procrastinate):
In that post the other day about the Greatest Britons of all Time, I mistakenly listed Terry Gilliam as a candidate I wished had been on the ballot. I should be smacked silly with a very large fish for that! Any tuddle-headed twit knows he's not from England:
he's from outer space! (Somewhere in the 3rd quadrant of the Hyperion galaxy, I assume.)
Sorry for any confusion in this regard; I will now eat a lot of spam with my lumberjack buddies.
Other matters:
Further proof that UMBC is da best school in town (hon):
Yeah, we rock. Or at least we rock at voting online. Woo-hah.
Oh yeah, and my latest writings for TRW:
The Secrets of History Revealed
Steve Wiley
Retriever Weekly Staff Writer
Have you ever wanted to tell a secret, but you have to leave the actual message out in the open? The answer for your quandary lies in cryptography, which has been employed over the centuries in warfare and in world-shaping political intrigue. The development of this secret science is recounted with remarkable lucidity in Simon Singh’s "The Code Book: The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptograpy." Though the narrative is complicated and at times very technical, the author guides the reader through thousands of years of history, explaining methods and reasons for the use of ciphers, and casting light on mysterious figures from ages gone by...
Read the rest; it'll increase brain cells by at least .00001 percent, guaranteed!
242424242424242424242424...
I could complain about how teachers are finding new insidious ways to give us more homework.
I could complain about the disgusting weather and the lack of daylight when I get out of classes.
I could complain about certain professors who are late on returning papers, for 2 weeks running (and would never accept work handed in to them that's late.
*grumble...mumble...*
But...
24 is on tonight and I'm happy! Guess that puts things into perspective, doesn't it?
Monday, October 28, 2002
A humorous IM conversation...
Featuring Vampire Hunter Bob and yours truly.
HunterVampireBob: so, going to stop by today?
SJWiley: I can't- I don't think...
SJWiley: 1 sec...
HunterVampireBob: i know you don't think
HunterVampireBob: so stop changing the subject
SJWiley: HEY!
HunterVampireBob: :-D
That's not funny! Stop laughing. Don't think you're better than everyone 'cause you're so smart and you're a member of NAMBLA!
... er... I meant "a member of MENSA." Haha! Goof's on you.
Saturday, October 26, 2002
Hoorah, I just got my voter registrations card in the mail, so now I can vote.w00t!
I waited until the last possible day to actually register, which was the 15th of this month. I almost got in an accident on the way to the HoCo elections office. That would have been so sad.
District/Predistrict: 01.01
Councilmanic District: 01 [councilmanic? wtf? that would make a great band name...]
Congressional District: 03
Legislative District: 12A
Not having a political party association: Priceless
Friday, October 25, 2002
Oh yeah, this is kind of cool:
The BBC's Great Britons
Too bad none of the following made the cut: Michael Palin, Terry Jones,Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, John Cleese, and Graham Chapman. Bloody scandalous! [ni!]
A little site maintenance.
You know, I really should set this thing up so that each post is individually id'd and archived, but I'm too lazy, stupid, and/or cheap. So what can I do?
So I wound up replacing the link on the left of Arts and Letters Daily with Spinsanity, probably my favorite "political" site out there.
You ask: are they liberal, conservative, socialist, libertarian? Nope, nope, nope, and nope. They are, I can confidently say, one of the only great bastions of truly objective, rational thought on the web. They take it as their solemn duty to notify the reader of the illogical errors which present themselves in every manner of media out there. Or, as the "about" page puts it,Spinsanity is the nation's leading watchdog of manipulative political rhetoric.
Ben, Brendan, and Bryan, keep up the wonderful work!
what would you do if I sang out of tune?
This has been a pretty exceptional week. Although this weekend will be a major pain in terms of homework, I think the blow will be softened by some good memories, and hopeful expectations of the week ahead.
[I note how my attitude has changed since not many days ago...]
So, yeah, I'm all peace and love now. I think I got some things out of my system over the last few days.
Don't repress your feelings folks. Express yourself; that's what blogs and journals are for. ;-)
I get by with a little help from my friends
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
NEW TRW ARTICLE! Yay!
*Why do I get the feeling that that's hardly the most exciting thing you've heard all day?*
Breaking All of the Rules
Steve Wiley
Retriever Weekly Staff WriterThe Rules of Attraction (*** out of four) is a movie that is challenging, shocking, and provocative, but it nearly collapses underneath the raging nihilistic debauchery of its characters. Moments upon moments of absolutely jaw-dropping depravity unfold on the screen, often played comically, but always to the hilt and out of control. It’s clear that everyone involved in this movie set out to break as many supposed rules as possible, and by the end, their reckless pursuit has had definite consequences...
Man, what a nutty movie. See it, if you think you can handle it.
Oh, I forgot to note in my last post that both the Oscar docu and the Apple ads were created by famed documentary director Errol Morris. I guess Steve Jobs et al. saw the Oscar telecast and payed him to rip himself off. Guess that's better than ripping him off without his permission. ;-)
Tuesday, October 22, 2002
I've noticed a cliche in advertising that's come up in the past year, and by now everyone's seen it. And one would think everyone is extremely tired of it now.
What I'm talking about is the ads with people, usually "normal" people (or sometimes celebrities ironically posing as such), who address the camera directly while standing against a white background. Who came up with this?! It's just about driving me nuts! A hex on any advertisement agency that creates anymore commercials like this. Just off the top of my head, here's a few of the offenders:
That documentary of people talking about their favorite flicks at this past Oscar Award show. (Not an ad, but perhaps an inspiration to the following.)
Most notably, those infernal Apple "real people" ones with the folks extolling the virtues of switching from Wintel machines to Macs. Glorp.
The TechTV guys have playfully parodied the Apple ads for a series of funny spots. Ha!
Finally, I've heard, but haven't actually seen, that Bob Ehrlich, Republican Maryland gubernatorial candidate, has aired an ad with -you guessed it- people talking on a plain white background "discussing his or her support for Ehrlich in terms designed to appeal to traditionally Democratic voters." Check 'em out here, if you can stand one more of these shoddy rip-offs.
So that's all I got; I'm sure there's more out there. Until next time...
OK, normally I don't get all political on y'all but I just had to with this one:
Bush and Powell were sitting in a bar.
A guy walked in and asked the barman, "Isn't that Bush and Powell?" The barman said "Yep, that's them."
So the guy walked over and said, "Hello, what are you guys doing?"
Bush said, "We're planning world war 3." The guy said, "Really? What's going to happen?" Bush said, "Well, we're going to kill 140 million Iraqis this time and one bicycle repairman."
The guy exclaimed, "A bicycle repairman?!!!"
So Bush turned to Powell and said, "See, I told you no one would worry about the 140 million Iraqis!"
I'm definitely not a peacenik in general, but I missed the whole "we can't find Osama so let's get even with Daddy Bush's nemesis" meeting. I hope I'm invited next time they decide on who our next Enemy is.
(Note: Bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the Taliban got what was coming to them after their attack on us. They brought it on themselves; we didn't decide to make them our enemy. Of course Saddam needs to go, but so do a few other dozen heads of state.)
That gives me an idea of what to do with the sniper when we catch him.
The mood of this post: SEETHING WITH RAGE
OK, I almost snapped a few minutes ago when my ******* brother wouldn't let me get on MY computer. OK, admittedly it really wasn't because I simply had to get on here and blather my thoughts on the blog, so color me guilty of neglect. But I've got homework to do, and this obnoxious, obstinate, ornery little twerp won't get off 'cause he wants to register for some garbage on [not making this up] funnybagels.com . So that really steams me.
I think I should consider anger management.
Monday, October 21, 2002
Geek Factor 11
I've put myself under mandatory reading restrictions: no reading anything in print (exceptions: minimal periodicals; TV Guide, etc.) until I finish Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Not as if it's a difficult read, that I'm supposedly forcing myself to read something I don't want to. To the contrary- I'm really enjoying it (Treebeard rocks, just got to Gandalf the White around p. 115), and I really, really, really want to complete it before the movie's release less than two months from now. I'm past a quarter done out of 400+ pages. Cheer me on; I have a feeling this school year is not going to get any easier as it progresses.
Unfortunately there's a casualty from my link list over on the left. Arts and Letters Daily is no longer. I'm mulling over what I should replace it with. As a tribute, an elegy if you will, here's some quotes on censorship, against which aldaily was a strong force, or something like that:
"The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book."
- Walt Whitman
"Books won't stay banned -
Ideas won't go to jail."
- Alfred Whitney Griswold
"To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit
reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to
be either fools or slaves."
- Claude-Adrien Helvetius
"Every burned book enlightens the world."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Friday, October 18, 2002
Oh, this is sort of funny.
I got a visitor from the co.jp domain (that's Japan to all you commoners), who had searched for the following in Google Japan:
"plants.inc pov"
uhmmm... Right. OK then. Well at least this site didn't come up for "ugly self-involved nerd who goes to UMBC". Not yet at least.
Oh by the way, I'm also proud to be the #1 hit for "scary image of a snakehead fish". For sure.
What an odd day.
The power was out at school, so no classes. But I learned more today than I had in a long time. It was fun. Becoming friends with people you already know is so wonderful.
(Yeah, I realize how sad my writing on here has become. Not triste sad; embarassingly weak sad. Like a terrible, talentless imitator of Hemingway, I've been forced to limit my ramblings here to a few pitiful sentences clumped together like unwanted foster children. Please bear with me in this time of writing duress.)
You know how you feel when you're forced to sit on something (metaphorically of course) for a while, until you can hardly contain yourself? I mean, people start asking you about "it" until you want to explode? Yep, that's kind of how I'm feeling right now.
-In case you wanted to know.
Thursday, October 17, 2002
I'm sad and happy at the very same time. It's a feeling I'd recommend for all you joyless, depressed people, and for all the sappy smilers of eternal bliss.
Life can be such a bummer, but still be worthwhile.
Conflict of emotions threatens to overcome one's peace of mind. Sometimes that's a good thing.
This vague set of pithy contradictions brought to you by Chocolate Milk- drink it, or the terrorists have already won. And the sniper too. And the San Francisco Giants. And IFSM midterms.
Saturday, October 12, 2002
Has it been a whole week since I last posted???
(That question pretty much answers itself.)
So how are all you pretty people out there? Holdin' up ok? That's cool- better than I could claim for this past week. I did get a pretty nasty cold... but it's ancient history now. Whatever... enough sick talk.
No TRW article for this week, and we'll have to see about one for next week. They jury's still out, as they say in clicheland.
hmm.. what else has been going on? Oh yes, the sniper...
Have you seen this truck?
This is... nuts. I mean, there was a cop just across from this guy (assuming it's a man...) when he took his last victim. The criminal hubris of this guy is unbelievable. Shooting a kid at school... the trial for this guy will be a load I bet... I'm all for due process and a fair trial but really, any punishment this guy (again, sexist pronoun) gets will be too lenient. The terrorism angle could get interesting, if that becomes an issue. I mean, what is this guy if not a terrorist? Why do terrorists have to have a political cause and a different skin color/religion? (Which this ... person... could have, but it isn't likely- probably just a white ex-marine gone off his rocker. Semper fi, indeed.)
OK, on to a lighter topic.
Zookeepers Suspended for Eating AnimalsBERLIN (Reuters) - Two zookeepers in a small northwest German town have been suspended and put under police investigation for eating the zoo's animals, police said on Friday.
A police spokesman in Recklinghausen north of Cologne said the keepers in a section of the zoo popular with small children had slaughtered and barbecued five Tibetan mountain chickens and two Cameroonian sheep.
"The animals were in the 'pet' zoo where all the children would go to stroke them," the spokesman said. Suspicious zoo managers called police after the animals went missing.
Isn't that just terrible? I mean... What a rotten thing to do. He just took the animals under care and threw 'em on the old George Forman grill?!?! That's so wrong!MMMMMmmmm... barbecued Tibetan mountain chickens...
One more thing... I love Yahoo!, think it's a great site, get all my news from my.yahoo, etc. blahblah,... but-
Has anyone noticed that most of their links to other pages on their site ARE COMPLETELY NON-FUNCTIONAL! ? For example, any of the links to other news stories at the bottom of a news page...
Stormdrain Crawler Pulled From Sewer
Model worker wins Miss Tibet pageant
Two examples from that stupid news story. Both have a redirector, and both come up dead... until you pull out that stupid http://rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/morefrom/story/headlines/* from the url. Maybe it's just my Windows set-up, I have no clue. But it's really annoying me. So there. Does this afflict anyone else? Let me know either way. It would make my day.
Alrighty, I more or less promise that it won't be a full week before I return. Cross my heart, hope not to get shot while pumping gas...
Saturday, October 05, 2002
Back from one looooong day in PA.
Lebanon Valley College seemed like a nice campus; small, but, as they say, big enough to meet students needs and stuff. Side note: the roads in Pennsylvania were a bit improved since my last visit, when they were slightly bumpier than the average roller coaster ride. I know, life must be pretty boring if better highways prove to be a highlight, but I digress...
Burgers in the a.m.... fun. :-) The homecoming game kicked off at 1:30 after a great marching band intro. The game itself was... well, to put it fairly, somewhat lopsided. Those LVC Dutchmen (real name... not made up!) got spanked pretty good by the Moravian College Hounds (name also authentic), and the refs didn't give much help in their officiating. The halftime show was really fantastic... major props to the cos and his amazing drumline, et al.
So who else needs more hours in a day? I vote for a cancellation of Monday- Sunday gets 48 hours, according to the plan. I need to finish Henry V, do some coding, finish my Shakespeare paper, study for Math exam 1, etc. etc. etc...
Thursday, October 03, 2002
Some random things:
If you had invested $5,000 in MarketGuide, Inc. last Monday, you would have wound up with $33,200 on Thursday morning.
Suddenly I feel so incredibly powerless. Not because of the last sentence (as taken from DisInfotainment Today). No, I just feel as though I have no chance to really succeed in anything important. This semester's already going by so quick.. I just want to hit 'pause' and take a breather. Sure, I'm a little overworked, but who isn't? I just want more time, not less work. Things are OK, but not great. Moments of happiness arrive, and just as quickly vanish. Surprises abound, but are crushed into bland nothings a second later. Things come up, and I'm not available. I'm completely unoccupied, and things are normal as usual. Everyone is so nice, but no one cares...
LOTR: TTT trailer is up. Simply brilliant. Drop everything and download it. Now.
BTW, I love the music from Requiem for a Dream they use. Perfectly done!
I love this:
Professor posts digital device hit list
The computer scientist has launched a site, called Fritz's Hit List, that points out devices that could be forced to carry anti-copying technology if Sen. Fritz Hollings', D-S.C., Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) passes. The bill, which is designed to thwart piracy, would restrict digital products that don't carry government-approved security technology.
So far, Fritz's Hit List features a catalog of unlikely devices Felten said would be regulated under the law. They include common objects such as baby monitors and automobile navigation systems as well as seemingly innocuous toys such as the Shop With Me Barbie toy cash register, the Sony Aibo robot dog and Big Mouth Billy Bass.
This is why morons should not be allowed to write laws about technology. Leo 4 Congress!
I'll be visiting my cos cyberdrum's (of MNIJ fame) college on Saturday. That should be a ton o' fun. I think they actually have a football team that's playing.
*UMBC students: "Huh? What's that??!?"*
My latest Retriever Weekly article:
Getting High Zero
Steve Wiley
Retriever Weekly Staff Writer
Seeing and hearing Thomas Lehn perform can best be described as an earful. Or perhaps, one should say, it’s very ear-opening. Whatever the cliché, the experience should probably be called, above all, provocative and quite stimulating. Lehn is a performer and interpreter of improvised contemporary music who hails from Germany, where he studied music recording engineering and received formal musical training in classical piano.
The maestro fiddles with his doohickeys.
Since the late-1980s, he has been playing concerts of various classical and modern pieces, but as of late, he has focused on electronic live musical performance. What is his instrument? It is an analog synthesizer which dates back to 1969. What is the reason for his unusual, modernistic art? "Music is a reflection of human existence," he told the crowd in the recording studio of the Fine Arts building. "I’m open to try anything; I don’t like easy things- I like to work through them." ...
See, this is one of the reasons I wanted to write for the paper: you get to do and see stuff you otherwise never would have done or seen. Even weird (for me) stuff like this.
World's Funniest Joke..."Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other man pulls out his phone and calls emergency services.
He gasps to the operator: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator in a calm, soothing voice replies: "Take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead."
There is a silence, then a shot is heard.
Back on the phone, the hunter says, "Ok, now what?"
Tuesday, October 01, 2002
LOL
The Branch County Sheriff's Department in Michigan mistakenly used a spoof in a news release and the local media bought it, reporting al Qaida representatives were doing telemarketing to the elderly. The Battle Creek Enquirer in Michigan reports the news release was an attempt to warn the public about actual fraudulent telemarketing schemes operating in the area. Detective Dan Nichols wrote it and inserted excerpts from the Sept. 18 edition of The Onion, a publication that carried a spoof about al Qaida telemarketers. "The CIA has announced that they acquired a videotape showing al Qaida members making phone solicitations for vacation home rentals, long distance telephone service, magazine subscriptions and other products," read the Branch County release, which used by at least one local media outlet. Nichols says he didn't know The Onion was a humor publication.
God bless them, every one!
Must... buy... "Ad Nauseum"...
_________________________________________________________
Want more coagulated brilliance? (And who doesn't?) Then go to the archives and read the oldies to your heart's content. Don't like this blog? Click here to move on to another... Come on back now, ya hear?