John Paul II

so apparantly there might be some truth to the story that the guy who tried to kill the pope in 1981 was saying. (he claimed that the bulgarian secret service offered to pay him to kill the pope) According to recently found east german documents the KGB ordered the Bulgarian Secret Service to kill the pope.

sad day

so this seriously sucks... mitch hedberg is dead. he was one of the few truly funny commedians that just didn't make it that big. which was good for his fans because it was easy to see him live.

he was supposed to play at the baltimore improv this weekend... just sad...

apple issues

ok so now i've got issues. remember how i was going to wait to get a new mac (mac mini, powerbook, ibook... or maybe even an iMac G5). well, at amazon.com if you buy before april 5th (right before mac os x tiger is released) you can get between $100 (12" iBook) , $150 (14" iBook w/ComboDrive) and $200 (17" powerbook w/SuperDrive) back in a mail-in rebate....

oooh and look what i found while looking around amazon: the 17" iMac G5 (1.8 Ghz w/SuperDrive) is already discounted $100 down to $1399 (no rebate needed!).

and dont forget to check Apple's refurb store which is unusually chock full of stuff now.

so is guess the issue stands at: is getting tiger later, worth the $100-$200 off?

my "woah!" moment of the day

so this news story got me to say "WOAH!" outloud: Johnnie Cochran died of a brain tumor today... crazy huh?

crazy pennies

i always do this.

after i see things like this, i say to myself "hey! i want to try that." but i never do... i guess i just don't want to look for all those pennies.

get 'em tiger

as noted on forevergeek.com, mac os tiger is now available for pre-order from amazon. I would get it but i'm actually planning on getting a new mac (and with new mac comes new os.) according to think secret tiger will be ship (be in stores?) by april 15th, so ill just wait til then to get the new mac mini... or maybe ill just shell out for a new laptop.

travesties and huge eggs

what better way to start easter weekend than with news of a 12 year old pummeling the easter bunny. it seems that last week a kid decided the easter bunny needed a beating, and the fellow in the suit was, understandibly, none too happy about it. im just surprised that it happened in Michigan and not Philadelphia (where a few years ago, Santa Claus was booed at Veteran's Stadium.)

oh and if that got you down this might help ya feel better... a picture of a giant chocolate easter egg.

idol revote

unlike the last 2 presidential elections and the washington gubernatorial election, american idol has decided to revote in the face of controversy. well actually they messed up... but so what, its still interesting.

i can't help myself

so i wasn't going to talk about terry schiavo. the republican grandstanding and pandering was just too obvious, too easy a target. but when i read this i had to link to it. it seems that if the same case had occurred in texas, terry schiavo would have had the right to die according to her wishes along time ago. why? well, in texas there is in essence a right to die law. And who signed that bill into law? None other than former Texas governor George W. Bush. Is the term flip-flop too apparent?

De Lorean

John DeLorean has died.

If you don't know who John DeLorean is you either know his car or you didn't grow up in the 80s. You might remember his company, the De Lorean Motor Company (DMC), from it's inauspicious existence and eventual demise after De Lorean's arrest for drug trafficking. But you are more likely to reconized his company's only manufactured car, simply known as the De Lorean. It became famous for starring as the time travel machine in the "Back to the Future" movies. Any self-respecting child of the 80s should wants one of these cars in his/her garage.

idol redux

so i had stopped watching idol. that's not to say i didn't follow it, i just didn't watch. it had gotten to the point where the judges just commented, america decided who stays and whose "journey ends here." i guess i just had no faith in america.

America started off well though, voting off decidedly uninspiring contestants like judd, jared, joseph, and melinda (she was so forgetable i had to look her up). Last week they came down to the final 12. And I couldn't really disagree with who America picked. After a strange happening, with Mario inexplicably leaving and being replaced by Nikko, this week arrived with America deciding who went home regardless of sex.

And since she doesn't have hordes of teenage girls voting for her, Lindsey is headed home tonight. I wouldn't say she deserved to win it all (like i thought when I first saw her) but she most certainly is a better singer than at least Constantine, Anthony, and Nikko (although Nikko might be considered a better entertainer). oh well... hopefully the 'Constatine vote' and the 'Anthony vote' don't actually get a constistantly good singer kicked off the show early.

oh and finally my favorite moment of wednesday night's show came during a commercial: "Coca Cola with lime, it's lime flavored Coke!"

why no post

so i've decided to start doing something i used to do on the old site... which is to post lyrics from songs that i've been listening to. sorta like a small window into my state of life, mind, smell, flavor, body temperature, shoe size, caloric intake, etc.

lyrics

going home, i've done enough to sow my little name
going where the fields are green and i can do my macrame
a buffoon fumblin' without a clue, who likes to shift the blame
And often feels betrayed, there's gonna be some changes made

- bruce hornsby
gonna be some changes made

return of the lyrics

i got two tickets to iron maiden, baby
come with me friday, dont say maybe
i'm just a teenage dirtbag baby like you

- wheatus
teenage dirtbag

supreme descision

so im definitely happy about the supreme court barring excecution of juveniles. what i find intersting is that it was a 5-4 decision. it is amazing how split this country (and the court) is. 5-4. the same margin which killed al gore's bid to hand count the florida election.

Hilary, Hilary, Hilary...

So much talk about Hilary and little did we know it should have all been about two time oscar winner, Hilary Swank. I never thought i'ld ever be able to say that and not be lying. Now I haven't seen 'Million Dollar Baby' but of what I've seen of her acting I am surprised. I saw parts of 'Boys Don't Cry' and thought her acting was average at best. And I faithfully watched the 4th installment of The Karate Kid staring our fair herione, and needless to say she stank. I just don't get it.

Oh and Jamie Foxx in 'Ray?' He was much better in 'Collateral.' I finished watching 'Ray' and thought Foxx played Ray Charles as the most uncharismatic and one sided celebrity ever.

That 'Aviator' didn't win anything that involved acting or the storyline. Which both sucked... maybe I was just to adverse to Leonardo. (Espcially since I have to admit that Cate Blanchett's performance as Katherine Hepburn was pretty good.) That 'The Incredibles' won for best animated feature film, but that was almost a given (I even thought it should have been nominated for best picture). And finally that 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' won for best original screenplay.

Btw, I didn't watch the Oscars because I was on my way back from NYC. But I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to them anyways and it would have been a good thing. Tom Shales (a writer who I respect) wrote in the Post that Chris Rock was "strangely lame and mean-spirited." I think I've already given my 2 cents about him (Great comedian, AWEFUL actor) and I think this just proves it.

lost and found

so go to Unclaimed.org and look in the states you have lived and see if there is a check waiting for you... old feature, but this site nicely compiles all the states for you.

fits of dispair

Joel Achenbach writes in his blog this morning about the snow that is now falling in our uneven city and about Hunter S. Thompson.

Now I never really understood Thompson's writings and I would be inclined to yell "the emperor has no clothes." But that would just be ignorant, especially since I never truly tried to understand his writings. Honestly, there were a few lines here and there that I enjoyed but as a whole I really didn't get it. Anyways, towards the end of his post Achenbach said, "Life is so damn interesting, I can't stand the thought of anyone feeling so much despair that they don't want to see the rest of the show."

So it got me thinking: was Thompson's suicide a result of his "despair?" He had been suffering through some ailments but, as Achenbach noted, Thompson had expressed that he had already lived the life he wanted. I might be talking crazy, but it's not like Hunter S. Thompson was really all that normal. Maybe he became tired of waiting and took it upon himself to see what was next. I would think this would be rather easy without a belief in a higher law. (Implication aside, I'm not trying to suggest that this was the case with Thompson. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't.) I guess if you think there is no plan and things just don't seem to be moving on their own... once you get impatient, there isn't much there to stop you. Not even a snowy evening.

batter up

According to the Washington Post, Bush says attacking Iran is "simply rediculous." yeeaaah, so pretty much Bush has painted himself into a corner. Either he talks tough (State of Union) and doesn't walk it or he will have to live up to being simply rediculous.

watching idol pt. 2

so things are crazy... anwar robinson sung "moon river." april put it best when she said "before coming out he must have thought, 'crap i picked the wrong song.'" but after recovering right at the end, all the judges loved it. am i crazy? he seriously was all over the place on that song. and then anwar smiled stunned face with his eyes wide open like he was getting lasik surgery trying to not blink... its sorta the same look i had the whole time he was singing.

judd harris was better than average but thats not saying much considering how all they guys have sung. interesting song.

joseph morena is next. and he's reminding me a karaoke bar. a good singer, but just not great. oh uh... he just stood up. and shalise made the best comment, "he's got a big mouth." yeah, thats right. simon put it best "it gets you there, but its not really exciting."

the final singer of the night is mario vasquez. and he can sing. and picked a good lively song. and simon was entirely correct in saying "not the best vocal performance."

oh well the ladies are up tomorrow.