How many times can you pick wrong in a tournament and still keep your job? Shit man, dude should let his 30yr old grudge go and admit MSU is a lot better team than he thought they were. He's yet to give them or Tom Izzo any credit.

Yeap, I'm pretty eloquent. It seems that I hate a lot of things. I'd like to tell you about a small fraction of them now:

- Yellow Candy / Fruit Snacks: Why in the fuck do they still make yellow? It's always either banana or lemon, and it always tastes like shit. People generally leave them till the end, then throw them away. How about some more red or purple or orange, for fuck's sake? From the beginning of time, people have hated these, and yet they still end up in the bag.

- The Office: This show isn't funny. It's stupid. I get that it's supposed to be clever and all that, but seriously, get off the air. People that like this show have downs.

- Religion: Give me a break. Get off your high horse, stop contradicting yourself, and get real. Not even just a particular religion, all of them. Hey, I believe in God as much as the next guy, but I don't need some HUMAN BEING who thinks he's better than you and I telling me what's right and wrong, or interpreting some ancient book for me. I'll make up my own damn mind about what's good. And don't even get me started on the people that can't seperate church and state.

- HTML Frames: If you're still using frames on a web page, you're about ten years behind. If you can't adapt, get off the internet, we don't want you here anymore. I'm talking to you Monitor247

- Bluetooth headsets: Hey, guess what? You're a douchebag! You look like a psychopath wandering around Meijer talking to yourself. Just shut your word hole, get your economy sized bag of Cheerios and beat it. You're annoying 99% of the population with the glowing growth in your ear.

So I have a few things I want to add to the site before it's complete. They are as follows, in order of importance:

- Editing of posts. This is easy as shit. Not sure why I don't knock it out in 10 minutes
- Comments. Shelby, stop asking for it. In due time.
- Better post interface. Probably steal a rich text editor for this as I have some experience with stealing them.
- Some better view of old mobile images. Easily my favorite part of the site
- Editing of twitter right from the page.
- Tag cloud (why tag posts if there is no cloud)

That's it. Trying to keep updating this, but fuck do I hate blogging.

I'm gonna plug some good sites here, stuff I like to read on a fairly regular basis. Only gonna mention the lesser known shit here, no sense in plugging Slashdot, Fark, Ars, etc.

Kotaku:
Kotaku is a fantastic blog (part of the whole Gawker Media deal) that talks and reports about video games. I'm a huge gaming nut, love me some video games, and this site has the best news and gaming commentaries I've ever read. I could visit this site anywhere between 1 and 1 billion times a day if it's slow.

MLB Rumors:
Since the baseball season is coming up, I figure mentioning this one is pretty timely. Great amount of baseball transaction news here. They have done a great job with the hot stove coverage, both aggregating other sites' postings, but giving thoughts on the items as well. In addition, they have a pretty savvy base of commenters over.

Consumerist:
Another Gawker Media one here. This site is an absolute necessity for anyone that considers themselves an informed consumer. Recall information, companies wronging customers, the "Worst Company in America" tournament. So much great shit here. Another site with great commenters.

Torrent Freak:
Not a bit torrent site exactly, they are more a site reporting on P2P news. I have always liked the site, but they really started to shine with their daily coverage of the Pirate Bay trial. I would advise going back and reading the synopses of these in order. Really interesting shit

Highly Essential:
This is a fairly new site run by a friend, but so far, I'm digging the posts. I generally hate blogs unless they are strictly constrained to a topic, but I like this one. Ignore the Mac news (that shit is played out) and read the rest of it. I got the link to http://laserportraits.com from them, so I'm happy as a clam for that.

Others:
Gorilla Grams
The Superficial
MLive Sports
Punknews
Uncrate

So Oklahoma lost tonight. Pittsburgh lost tonight. Both of those teams were projected to get #1 seeds in the NCAA tournament over MSU. Now that they both lost, MSU controls their own destiny to a 1 seed They get to the finals of the Big Ten Tournament, or win the Tournament, and I'd have to think, based on all factors involved (RPI, strength of schedule), it is theirs to lose.

Exciting time to be an MSU fan.

So I added a roll of five mobile images from my phone up there. I can not send in the images whenever I want and they automatically appear there. Only the last 5 added appear there, but if you click, it opens a lightbox2 enabled slide show where you can view all mobile images ever uploaded.

It seemed to feel to fit along with the idea of the new site. Twitter and mobile images and shit, that has always fascinated me anyways.

I could use a nap. Not gonna get better I guess.

This whole blogging thing really isn't that interesting to me. Strangely, I appreciate the one liners of twitter and facebook more than I do any full set of thoughts. However, for some reason, I got the hour worth of ambition to do something with this nonsense enough to get it working again. I actually scrapped everything I had before and rewrote it all in an hour. And it's better than it was before too. I suck less now.

Also got the twitter status displaying on the header. I'm just going to continue to steal ideas until I am bored with this again. Wait, bored already!

And domains are good:

Micro Gorilla Grams
I Hate Llamas
Alan Clock
LLEDNHOJ
Ask Ilbay

No Iggy and the Stooges, but Madonna? Rock and Roll? Come again? What a load of horse shit. Until The Stooges (and the MC5, for that matter) are inducted into this, it's not even real. The Stooges and Fun House are two of the greatest records of all time. And I mean, come on, they put the fucking Sex Pistols in there, and the Stooges are at least as important as they are in the grand scheme of things...

Meh. I don't get it.

So I'm sitting here watching Snoop Dogg's Fatherhood (I don't know why I started watching it, and it's pretty apparently scripted, but Snoop is funny, so it's worthwhile), and every other commercial is for a movie called "How She Move", which I guess is a movie about "stepping". I've gotta wonder how stupid a person has to be to lap up this mindless drivel? This is the most formulaic of movies. Take an underprivileged lower class inner city youth that has aspirations of dancing/cheerleading/drumming/singing, and tell their story about their rise from the streets of Los Angeles/New York to gain acceptance through doing their activity at a high level. It is in this youth's struggle and success that the audience gains a warm feeling inside, no matter how cheap, and cliched it is.

Chance are, the people that are going to see this movie have also seen all the other movies that follow this exact same story arc. They are the stupidest sons of bitches on the planet. They are the same ones that buy "album by cute boys in a band" and "album by pretty young girl". There is a reason that the record companies and movie companies put out the same shit over and over again. It's because there are so many goddamn idiots that will buy the shit with their parents expendable income. This movie is going to be all the rage on Michigan State's campus in the very near future.

This would not be "grinding my gears" if it wasn't for the fact that the commercial is on so goddamn much during one of the five shows I actually like. It is no wonder that this is an MTV film. They have been suckering stupid kids into watching awful rubbish for 20 years.

On a more happy note, I have a laptop now. Thinkpad Z61t. It's great. I'm really digging it.

Edit: Seems there is another movie called "Step Up 2" coming out soon also. I can't even begin to describe how stupid this up (start with the '2')

I figured I would post this since I only found one place that ever talked about it. I was doing includes in PHP with query string on them. This necessitates including the file with the full URL (http://domain.tld/script.php?foo=foo1&bar=bar1). However, when including something with the full URL, sessions in the included file do not work anymore. This gave me fits for about two days before I found this out. I got around it by passing the variables into the included file another way (due to the way I am doing my templating), but you could probably just include the file after setting the variables, as the included file will read those variables from the including file.

Ok, I finally worked out my top ten for the year.

1 (tie). Streetlight Manifesto - Somewhere in the Between
1 (tie). Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound
3. The Snake the Cross the Crown - Cotton Teeth
4. Guilty Simpson - Stray Bullets (mixed by DJ Rhettmatic)
5. Blue Scholars - Bayani
6. Ghostface Killah - Hidden Darts Special Edition
7. Sundowner - Four One Five Two
8. Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond
9. Various Artists - Chrome Children v.2
10. The Good Life - Help Wanted Nights

Biggest disappointments:

Bright Eyes - Casadaga
The Stooges - The Weirdness
Ghostface Killah - The Big Doe Rehab

One of the best things I've ever seen. Just fantastic. I'm not even really a Letterman fan, but fuck, is this good shit.

Today is my last day at my current job. On one hand, I'm excited to be leaving, and for my new job. It's going to be a good challenge, and it should be enjoyable. On the other hand, there are a lot of good people here that I'm going to miss working with. My boss was easily the best boss I've ever had, and I've become friends with him. I will absolutely keep in touch with him and will still go to Camp Losey as often as I can.

I wrote a letter to the staff today thanking them for the opportunity to work here, and got a lot of nice responses from them. I'm pretty happy that I am valued by this place, and hope that at my new job, I am equally as valued. Some lyrics:

"So now I try to keep up, I've been exchanging my currency
While a million objects pass through my periphery
Now I'm rubbing my eyes, cause they're starting to bother me
I've been staring too long at the screen
But where was it when I first heard that sweet sound of humility?
It came to my ears in the goddamn loveliest melody
How grateful I was then to be part of the mystery
To love and to be loved
Let's just hope that is enough"

So I started posting some of my tech related crap over at Chainsaw Hands . It's a site a couple of buddies of mine started and asked me to put some stuff on. Check it out, it should get a fair amount of diversified information.

So I finally broke down and wrote something that will accept images sent from a phone, put them in the gallery, and display a random one on the sidebar. Cool I guess...

Really Dell? No IDE controller? No PS/2 ports? Sheesh, really skimping these days.

1. Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound
2. The Snake, the Cross, the Crown - Cotton Teeth
3. Sundowner - Four One Five Two
4. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
5. Blue Scholars - Bayani
6. Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth
7. Feist - The Reminder
8. Various Artists - Chrome Children v2
9. Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond
10. Lifetime - Lifetime

After the first two albums, it's a huge drop off to me. I've gotten 42 albums released this year, so I didn't have very many to pick from.

Ads on the right side, under the menu. If you find a solution to a problem here, please click!

Check this guys story out. What customer service!

Comcast Sucks

Really sucks

Ok, so I'm only posting this because I had problems with booting Linux from a flash drive on some of the Dells around here (most notable a GX270 and a Precision 650). I could boot Slax and DSL just fine on most machines, but on the Dells, I got the error "Unable to load operating system". The fix for this was found on the DSL Wiki, and it dictates that you have to overwrite the MBR of the flash drive with something called ms-sys . I did this, and booting on those problem Dells became easy.

In the project I am currently working on, I have to take data from a form field and generate images from it. These images need to have a transparent background. Here is the way I did that:



Done!

This one took me a minute to figure out, but I'm happy I did. To create a new skin from the filesystem, and add your own layers to it (or in this case, add the layers from Plone Default), do the following:



Pretty straight forward, right? In any case, it is helping me immensely with the current project.

Over the past year and some months, I have learned more than I ever wanted to know about Zope and Plone. The problem with those pieces of software is the lack of really good information for filesystem development there is out there. Hence the reason I am posting this here, so I can remember it.

To change the permissions on a filesystem file, in it's associated metadata file, add the following:



That will make it so that only Authenticated users and Managers can view the object. You can set this for any permissions that are available on the object. The 0 is the setting for acquisition. As expected, set this to 1 to turn acquisition on.

So I recently got an Xbox, and have been messing around with it lately. I finally figured out how to put it into HD, and let me tell you, it looks worlds better now. I also have Xbox Media Center running on it, and have gotten the MythTV Frontend working on it to the point where it's actually better than sitting down at my mythbox to watch tv.

There are a bunch of very interesting things I can do with this Xbox, and I'm sure I'll post more about it later on. I'm going to take some screenshots of the XBMC interface for MythTV and throw them up here.

At work, we use SugarCRM for a wide array of tasks. While we do pay for the "Pro" version of the software, there is also an OS version of it. I recently read a post on a blog that described a lot of the woes I have with Sugar. However, it also detailed a bunch of other less-than-savory dealings by the company itself. Check that out here. The paragraph on upgrading the software is my nomination for Paragraph of the Year 2006. Absolutely spot on about the huge pain in the ass it is to upload, of all things, PHP files. It seems that, as each incremental update is released, Sugar wants to change the database around, drop all your old data, add new php files, when really, it should be as simple as copying over some php scripts to a directory and perhaps running some SQL files on a database.

However, my main issue from a security standpoint is that Sugar requires running PHP with safe mode turned off. PHP code, when written poorly, can be as insecure as anything on the web. I'm not saying Sugar itself is vulnerable, but running PHP without safe mode turned on, as a rule, is poor web server administration.

Not to mention I have to up PHP's memory buffer to like 64MB to do any of the upgrades from their "upgrade" console (which never really work anyways). In any case, read that blog post, it's stating a lot of the things I now don't feel I have to state because they are all laid out there.

I was checking out the RSS feed of somethingawful.com today, and look what I happened upon! Check out who won Worst Image Makeover of 2006. Funny shit!

linky

Not going to type out a bunch of thoughts about these albums.

1. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
2. Defiance, OH - The Great Depression
3. J. Dilla - The Shining
4. Oh No - Exodus into Unheard Rhythms
5. Moneen - The Red Tree (very surprised by this album)
6. Murs - Murray's Revenge
7. (tie) Johnny Cash - Personal File & Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways
8. The Streets - The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living
9. Cursive - Happy Hollow
10. Mogwai - Mr. Beast
11. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
12. Feist - Let it Die
13. J. Dilla - Donuts
14. Kevin Devine - Put Your Ghost to Rest
15. Feist - Open Season

Biggest Letdowns:
1. Less than Jake - In With the Out Crowd
2. Tilly and the Wall - Bottoms of Barrels
3. Heavens - Patent Pending
4. Saves the Day - Sound the Alarm
5. Ice Cube - Laugh Now, Cry Later

Best EPs:
1. Cursive - Dorothy at Forty
2. Okkervil River - Overboard and Down
3. The Mountain Goats - Babylon Springs

Guess there's a lesson to learn
As if I hadn't learned it before
I tried my hardest to keep it all in
I ain't keepin' it in no more

Made mistakes every day
And I learned from two
Keep those that you love the furthest from you
And try to take care of them too

It's just a feeling I have
And it ain't what I think I should do
Pluck out my heart and I'll give it to you
Then you'll get more use from your's too

Get back (x4)
Look what I've done to you
Get back (x4)
Look what I've done to you

I'm too tired to go home
And I'm too lost and alone
I looked in the mirror on the back of your door
All my weaknesses show

There's a bomb going off
Out in the yard of the house
When we worked so hard to pull all the weeds out
What were we talking about?

Get back (x4)
Look what I've done to you
Get back (x4)
Look what I've done (x2)
Look what I've done to you

I have seen a recent influx of people coming to my site after querying Girlfriend. Amazing. I get a lot of hits for Dmitri Young and Joel Zumaya. Perhaps it is sparked because of the recent revelation that Zumaya hurt himself becoming a guitar hero .

I think it's funny, that query string for badname=D_Lowell. I think maybe they are on to me.

I am just posting this here while I have a few in my head:

Pi
Taxi Driver
Snakes on a Plane
Bottle Rocket

I am at work again, late. Every day since last Thursday, I have stayed late. To varying hours, from anywhere between 7:30p to 5a. Days are long. My mind wanders in and out of conciousness, seemingly only able to focus on the task at hand. One day blurs into the next. I'd love to go to sleep, but if I do, I wake up and go back to work. I haven't done anything with my free time lately because I haven't had any. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitching. I love my job, I love being here. Besides my wife, I have everything I'd ever want here. Warm glow from my monitors and lamp, otherwise dark office. Music. Food. A few people who don't bother me. Work. Work. Work.

How am I ranking for Davey Havok, on MSN, Yahoo, and Google in the first 30 results or higher. This is amazing to me, seeing as it's not like I've devoted alot of time to that arrogant, feminine danzig rip off.... oh well, let's see if I can get #1 on that shit, really tick some AFI fans off!

I don't typically post videos... but I had to this time....

Lin_ger is an IRC bot I wrote using the Net::IRC libraries in perl. Lin_ger can do the following:

- Play Hangman
- Give the weather
- Log all channel chat
- Op users
- Message information from http://4q.cc
- Display a random quote from the database.

My README for Lin_ger is pretty sparsely populated, I expect to have a better one up in the near future. However, I am putting the bot up for download.

Download Lin_ger IRC Bot 0.1.0 Here

Update:
Download Lin_ger IRC Bot 0.1.1 Here

I created a plugin for Quod Libet 0.23 that writes song data to a mysql database. Readme is included in the download, gives information about configuration of plugin.

Download dbIt 0.20 for Quod Libet

I recently got a WPS54G wireless print server from Linksys. After spending the odd 15 minutes trying to use their setup program to get it to work, and about 45 trying to find out what the static IP is set to on the device, I contacted Linksys Live Chat (I love Live Chats). What follows is my chat with Lailei, #17182:



This is where I gave up. I went out to shoot the shit for my boss, came back, and what follows is when I had some fun with it:



As an aside, I would like to state that plugging a print server into the back of a computer with a regular cat5 cable, and expecting the print server to magically obtain an ip from a computer that isn't running DHCP doesn't really work. Not even for linksys.

A good friend of mine passed away today. He had leukemia, and, after thinking thigns were going well, and having a bunch of drinks with him over the course of two nights, things went south.... the cancer spread to his lungs and lymphnodes, and before I knew it, he is gone. It's hard to even imagine what that is like, for him and his family, to die at such a young age. I know his fiancee, she was also a friend of mine. I don't know how anyone can deal with losing the love of their life. If my wife were to pass away, I don't know what I'd do..

Here's to you Chad, you were a hell of a guy. We had a bunch of good times together. I miss you already man. I'm glad I got to spend those few nights with you this past summer like it was older, better times. Everything seemed cool then, and those are things I take away from the short time that I knew you. There are about one million songs that you introduced me to that every time I hear them, I'll think of you. You're in a better place now. It's hard to even type this, and think it's real. It's very surreal to me at this point.....

On the sidebar now, there is a link to Music. I wrote a plugin for the best music player ever to write all the songs I listen to to a mysql db. It only writes it when I've listened to the song for longer than thirty seconds, and it writes the time I started the song, the time I ended it, the artist, title, album, and length of the song.

You can view what I have so far up here . This is inspired by some shit that Mike Neir did on his site.

http://pinkforoctober.org/

That explains it... Cancer, of any kind, is terrible. Of course, changing the site pink doesn't really do anything for the cause, but I guess it does raise awareness to some degree. I've had cancer hit a few times in the past year or so, and it's hard to deal with.... really hard....

Her is a link to some directions on how to install the nvidia kernel modules if you are using a vanilla kernel from kernel.org. This is mostly just for my own reference in the future.

Fixed the rippr to count pages in accordance with the total # of images displayed on the front photos page of a user. This is done by taking that number, and dividing by the median # of images per page, 18. This provides a within-a-page accuracy. This was necessary because of flickr's updates.

Download Flickr Rippr 1.0.1 here

If you are trying to mount something with sshfs and you get the following error:



execute the following command to resolve it:

Ok, I found out about a little bug in Ubuntu LTS 6.06 (Dapper Drake) yesterday. It concerns many of the D-Link wireless PCMCIA cards, those using the acx100 chipset. After every successive kernel upgrade, the problem returns, so you will want to make sure to fix this every time you upgrade to a new kernel.

In /lib/firmware//acx/default lies a file, tiacx111c16, which is the file used by the DWL-G630. This file is a symlink to /lib/firmware//acx/2.3.1.31/tiacx111c16. With this file being the one symlinked, you will never be able to connect to a wireless network. To get it to work, you need to remove that symlink, and create a symlink of the same name, in the same place, to /lib/firmware//1.2.1.34/tiacx111c16. Reboot, and things should be good to go.

I got a laptop. Gateway Solo 1450. Thanks to Shelby, it was reasonably priced. However, upon booting into X, I realized that I could only get 1024x768 at 8bit color depth. This is not going to work. After finding this site, I found out it's because of a supposed BIOS "upgrade" Gateway pushed out. At that link, you will find a BIOS downgrade which will allow you to run at 1024x768@24bit. This is obviously much more desirable.

What I want to know is, how do you push out an upgrade that makes the video card use 1MB of it's 8MB of memory?

Recently, had an issue with Horde attaching files with 0k in size. This was resolved by:

Modifying the conf.php file for Horde to include $conf['tmpdir'] = '/tmp';. Then, modifying php.ini to set it's temp directory as the same thing. Restart apache and it's good to go.

(( Analyst Analyst is here to assist you. ))
advanced_tool_log> user Wezzul has entered room
advanced_tool_log> analyst Karen 4732 has entered room
Analyst> Thank you for contacting Comcast, my name is Karen, I will be happy to assist you with your billing today.
Wezzul> accnt#XXXXXXXXXXX
Analyst> Thank you
Wezzul> was billed $20 for some sort of sevice call
Analyst> How may I help you today?
Wezzul> no idea why
Analyst> Let me check for you
Analyst> For security reasons, Comcast requires the last 4 digits of your SSN. If unavailable, please provide the account number or the last date you made a payment including the amount. Thank you.
Wezzul> XXXX
Analyst> Sorry I do not have an SSN listed on the account.
Wezzul> that makes sense
Wezzul> as far as the last date I made a payment, I have no idea, i do not have the bill in front of me. Let me see if i can login to my account on comcast.com
Wezzul> ...?
Analyst> Thankyou
Wezzul> it will be one second while I login there
Analyst> Thanks
Wezzul> finally getting in..
Wezzul> and of course
Wezzul> my billing history is unavailable
Wezzul> is there any other way for your to verify me?
Analyst> What is the error message?
Wezzul> [pasted the error]
Analyst> they are doing upgrades today so you will have to call in diectlry to technical support at 1-800-266-2278
Analyst> please select the internet option
Wezzul> but I don't want tech support
Analyst> A representative will be able to help you with your payment history until the upgrades are in effect
Wezzul> ...
Wezzul> you've gotta be kidding me
Analyst> They will be able to help you.
Wezzul> they will be able to hang up on me, as they generally do there.
Wezzul> hence the reason I use this instead. easy to actually get something done
Analyst> I am in the same office as these representatives
Analyst> sorry for the inconvenience
Wezzul> I am also sorry for it
Analyst> is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Wezzul> it's funny, I can sign up an account on comcast.com and I can have access to my billing information without providing any verification
Wezzul> but I can't do this
Analyst> What would you like me to do
Wezzul> help me with my problem
Wezzul> at the very least, explain to me what the $20 fee is for
Wezzul> i understand you have to try and verify me
Analyst> Thank you. One moment please while I gather the required information
Wezzul> however, I would imagine an account # and an address would be enough in this case, since I did not give an SSN when I signed up
Analyst> It is a credit to your account for -20.00
Analyst> It was an adjustment
Analyst> On July 12th
Wezzul> right. but what was the original $20 charge for
Wezzul> some service call
Analyst> I can only see as far back as 07-03-06 in the ledger.
Wezzul> the credit was supposed to be because comcast was 2.5 hours late when they setup the service
Wezzul> right, the service started on the 3rd
Analyst> It does show what the 20.00 is for. But they did credit it back
Wezzul> after that, at some point, there was a $20 charge, then the next day, there was a comcast on-time credit
Analyst> I am not billing department. I can't see the original 20.00 charge
Analyst> It is now off the account
Analyst> Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Analyst> It was regarding a service call
Wezzul> right, I told you that
Wezzul> so, using thjis online form, selecting billing inquiry, does not connect me to the billing department?
Analyst> But they have not put any details in
Analyst> That is why I was asking you to call in, so they can provide you with additional information
Analyst> No it does not
Wezzul> You asked me to call in so that you didn't have to do any work
Analyst> would you like the number?
Analyst> I am sorry, did you receive my last message
Wezzul> if you have a direct #, yes, I would like it
Analyst> 1-800-266-2278
Analyst>Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Wezzul> lol
Wezzul> 1-800-COMCAST
Wezzul> nice
Wezzul> well, you haven't helped me with anything yet, so I can't imagine you'd start now
Analyst> Thank you for chatting with Comcast. This chat can be printed out in the event that you need the information for future reference. After the chat, just click the "print" button. Thank you again for contacting Comcast. Have a great day!
Analyst> Analyst has closed chat and left room

She told me she'd be happy to assist me with my billing today. Not ten minutes later, she told me she didn't work in the billing department? What the fuck is she then? A goddamned robot or what? Don't tell me you can help me with my billing if you know damn well you can't.

Karma is a bitch, huh? (those that know me know what I mean)

Addendum: I was right. I called 1-800-COMCAST, and it disconnected me, telling me there was a high call volume.

Shelby just posted something about a dinglez war. It seems that I was in first for dinglez at one point today, but am no longer. It's interesting to watch dinglez work through google's index, and have it change position sometimes multiple times a day. As if dinglez is such an important word.

Here is what has been happening for some time. If I open firefox while I have something like XMMS open, then at no point during the current firefox session can I do anything and have it play sound. It's like XMMS locks the soundcard, and nothing else can take it back. Turns out it's an issue with firefox. I changed two things, and it seems to be fixed now.

First thing, I added the following:

exec aoss /usr/libexec/mozilla-launcher "$@"

to the bottom of /usr/bin/firefox. The second thing, I added the following:

FIREFOX_DSP="aoss"

to /etc/firefox/firefoxrc. After this, the issue is resolved. Just putting it up here in case anyone else has the issue.

I added a tag cloud and tags to the site. I like it ok thus far. It may need some tweaking as far as display goes, but I'll get to that eventually...

Eventually...

Quick update on the progress:

Sanding is almost done in the two bedrooms we pulled carpet up in. Just need to go over the closets and the corners with a hand sander to pull up the rest of the sealer so we can re-coat the floors. The wood looks really nice, in good condition, and I love hardwood floors, so this should be pretty cool.

Painting is done in two of the four rooms we are painting, and a third room has one coat down. Getting close to that.

Comcast is still fucking around. I now am led to believe that to have a TV plugged into a regular coax cable, and get basic cable on it, I have to have another line run to my house (which they did). This, however, didn't fix it. I guess this is some issue with some of the cities in this county. They are due out again today between 12-3.

The refrigerator seems to be on the fritz so we are looking into buying a new one in the coming days. My wife has found out that our current fridge is some odd size, so finding one to fit the spot of that one is annoying.

That's all for now. Have some more sanding to do today, we'll see how it turns out.

My wife finished the first coat on the second bedroom while I was at work. When I got home, her step-dad and I cut a piece off a pocket door so as to make it fit in properly so it would slide right. I also changed about 15 light switches and outlets from beige to white. Used some plaster to fix some cracks in the ceiling after digging out the old, and shoddy, plaster job that the old man must have done. In any case, it will probably end up being better now. We're getting there, slowly but surely.

I am sure I am forgetting something, but I don't know exactly what it is. I'm sure I'll think of it later and edit the post accordingly.

On Day Two, my wife went up north to visit her Uncle, so I was left alone in the house. I pulled up all the carpet in a second room, and all the staples, and tack strips to boot. It is now, like the first room, ready for sanding, which will be done Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

Comcast also came yesterday, two hours late. Their phone customer support is awful, I got hung up on four times asking when the tech that was late was going to come out. I guess they don't actually like to give any answers over there. In any case, I have internet now, so that is good.

Day Three is changing the locks, painting two rooms, moving a bit more stuff and perhaps some grilling.

We took possession of the new house today, and began work on it. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures just yet, but I will try and remember to do some tomorrow. We ripped all the carpet out of the master bedroom, and started painting in there as well. The color for the room, a dark green-brown type color, may not be suited for the room, as it seems to dry a bit darker than it goes on, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

My hands are raw from pulling staples out of the floor. That shit is fairly fucking annoying.

I also hung my bar mirrors in my basement bar today, and found that the previous owner left three beers in teh downstairs fridge.

Tomorrow, they come to hook up the internet, so I hope to have a fairly often running list of updates as we improve the house before the final move day.

Just an update on AFI being shitty. Someone hacked Amazon and changed the titles of a bunch of shitty albums and bands. AFI was one of them. Just in case Amazon were to fix their shit, I screenshotted it. Click the thumb to view it.

I just noticed comments are fucked up right now. I fixed it so you can post, but it's ugly. I'll take care of it later/tomorrow.

Since nothing has been going on in Detroit sports other than the continue success of the Detroit Tigers, I will keep this post strictly to what has been happening in their season.

The Tigers had continued success this weekend, defeating the Chicago Cubs in three straight games to take their current win streak to four, and put them up 1.5 games in the AL Central, and also giving them the best record in the MLB again. Not only that, the Tigers led for every inning of all three games, scoring a minimum of two runs in the first inning of each game, and topping out with a six run, three homerun first inning on Sunday, facing Mark Prior in his first start of the year. Six players hit homeruns, with a total of eight round-trippers in nine innings (Chris Shelton and Brandon Inge each hit two; Marcus Thames, Curtis Granderson, Vance Wilson, and Carlos Guillen each had one). Not only that, but Sunday's game marked the 200th victory of Kenny Rogers' storied career. When Rogers was signed this season, I was skeptical that he would be another high-priced free agent signing by the Tigers that didn't pan out (see: Troy Percival). However, he has proven he is still a more than capabale starter, becoming only the second pitcher this year to win ten games (Tom Glavine of the New York Mets being the other). As it stands right now, he is a shoe-in for a spot on the American League All-Star team, and his contributions to the team, both with his pitching, and his ability to teach young players, is worth every penny the Tigers have paid for him.

Unfortunately, the same can not be said of Dmitri Young. As of last week, Young had a warrant out for his arrest after missing a court date in the alleged choking of his ex-girlfriend. With Dmitri standing to make $8M this year with the Tigers, he could not be considered more of a waste of money. He has been out for two months, and when he was playing, he was batting near .160. For a guy that can really only conceivably play DH, this is unacceptable. Luckily for the Tigers, Marcus Thames has been a more than ample replacement. Not only is he hitting over .300, but he has 14 home runs in very limited starting time this year. Dmitri Young is not only a detriment to the Tigers on the playing field, but also in the locker room, and in the pocket book. Here's to hoping he stays away from the team for good.

There is no doubt in my mind that Curtis Granderson had the best weekend of any Tiger in Chicago, hitting two triples, a double, and two homeruns in the series with the Cubs. He continues to be a great asset to the team, both as a constantly improving center fielder, but also as a good bat at the top of the order. His accomplishments this year will often be overlooked because of the success of his rookie peers, Joel Zumaya and Justin Verlander, but his importance to the team is no less.

Briefs:

*Joel Zumaya pitched three solid innings on 6/11 to record his first major league save. As Zumaya continues to develop his curveball and change-up, he will become a more attractive option to close games for the Tigers. Anyone that can throw triple-digit fastballs for three straight innings is definitely an important part of any bullpen.

*Todd Jones continues to struggle, blowing three of his last six save attempts, including a four run, no out rally by the Toronto Blue Jays. As stated above, Zumaya is the perfect type of pitcher for the closing role, and while Jim Leyland certainly seems to have confidence in Jones right now, don't be surprised if you see Zumaya or Fernando Rodney getting a shot at closing some games down the road.

On a personal note, I attended the Friday and Saturday games for the Cubs series, and it was some of the best baseball I've ever had the chance to see live. Wrigley Field, in the bleachers, is like a party, and there was no shortage of Tigers fans out there, with "Let's Go Tigers" chants breaking out more than a few times during Saturday's game. It's a wonder the Cubs keep selling games out when they play the way they do, but if fans continue to buy tickets, their is no incentive to spend any money to try and improve the team. I also met Jim Leyland after the Saturday game, but do not have a photo due to some camera issues. On Sunday, I caught a BP ball that flew over the wall in center. It was a great time in Chicago, and the Tigers got three more good wins. The next series starts tonight at the Milwaukee Brewers.

I was recently reading your interview in the awful music magazine I receive once every two weeks (it's a free subscription), and I came upon this little gem:

Did you get drunk once and then realize it wasn't for you?

Actually, no I've never been drunk in my life. I've never even had like a beer. It never really appealed to me. That culture was just very unappealing and I never wanted to be part of it. I just saw how people acted and treated each other. And I was just like ''that is not for me.'' And I also thought of it as something very civilian. It seemed like the mandatory recreation for civilians. I thought, ''If alcohol makes you do this, I want no part. I want nothing in common with these people.'' That's when I was fifteen

I'd like to respond to a few things, regarding that quote, and other things I've noticed about you lately. First, what the fuck is up with your face and hair now a days. I remember in the video for Total Immortal, you at least looked a little bit tough. Of course, you looked like a direct rip off of Glen Danzig, but I guess if you're going to jack someone's style, at least make it that of one of the best punk singers ever. Now I see this picture of you you (one posted here isn't even it, but this is almost as bad), and you look like one of Good Charlotte's fifteen year old fans. That's a girl's haircut motherfucker, and I'm pretty sure it's a girl's shirt too. You absolutely SHOULD drink, becuase you are the kind of girl any lucky, drunken guy would like to take home and ravage after twenty or thirty cans of random swill. You got the prettiest nails on the block.

And as for the drinking comment, I don't know what you mean by calling drinking "very civilian", but I imagine you meant it to mean that the people that drink are lower than you. Using the word civilian here, though, would imply that you are, in fact, in some branch of the armed forces. I fear for my life, and the lives of my family if this is so. It's sandy in Iraq, bro, so make sure to close your legs. Last thing you need is a sandy pussy.

Lastly, I would like to remind you that your music is awful. It was cute when you did all that halloween shit before (and still do), but you know that isn't yours. It's something ELSE you took from the Misfits. If Glen or Doyle even gave enough of a shit about your band to take notice, they'd probably sneeze on you and blow up your overly sized tour bus for stealing their shit, spreading hair dye and makeup all over the land. The fact is, though, they don't give a shit, and neither does anyone else. You are irrelevant when it comes to music now. Your new single is about suicide. Clever. You guys think of that alone, or is it the team of writers, producers, A&R jerks, and old money white guys who came up with this brilliant and innovative concep. I seriously hope it was you guys, because then my idea of what an awful set of crappy musicians you are is totally spot on.

In closing, I would like to hope for you that your album sells well, lest you be dropped from your label, and have to steal to get by. I hope you don't get caught. You'd make someone in jail a real nice piece.

This is funny solely because people are willing to ask for help, but when you give them a way to help themselves, they are unwilling to do anything about it:

(11:53:13) Eli z: Hi. I have a question. Are you there?
(11:53:21) Wezzul: yeap
(11:53:39) Eli z: Do you know about WordPress?
(11:53:51) Wezzul: yeah, sure..
(11:54:03) Wezzul: i don't use it at all, but i know enough people that do
(11:55:00) Eli z: Well, I got someone to code the backend of my site
(11:55:13) Eli z: And I'm not sure if he's ripping me off by using all wordpress code
(11:55:14) Wezzul: so what does wordpress have to do with it
(11:55:30) Eli z: ^
(11:55:51) Wezzul: did you look at the code adn compare it to wordpress code?
(11:56:05) Eli z: No, I don't have wordpress
(11:56:18) Wezzul: so get it...
(11:56:30) Eli z: Wnvm
(11:56:36) Wezzul: hahaha
(11:56:37) Wezzul: weak
(11:57:21) Wezzul: you want to know if you're being ripped off, but you don't want to do any work to find out...
(11:57:28) Eli z: I don't know how
(11:57:36) Wezzul: you don't know how to open a text file?
(11:58:24) Eli z: bye
(11:58:28) Wezzul: lol
(11:58:33) Wezzul: honestly, that's hillarious
(11:58:45) Wezzul: if you can't open a text file, you should start there, not with a website...
(11:58:56) Eli z: i dont know how to view the code of the site
(11:59:04) Wezzul: 1. open the file with notepad
(11:59:11) Wezzul: that's the only step
(12:00:03) Eli z: what file!
(12:00:12) Wezzul: any file you suspect is a file that is actually wordpress code...
(12:00:23) Eli z: the source
(12:00:28) Eli z: ? i dont have any files
(12:00:41) Wezzul: so the guy you are paying to do the backend hasn't produced any product at all?
(12:00:51) Eli z: he has
(12:00:58) Wezzul: do you have it?
(12:01:01) Eli z: yes
(12:01:03) Eli z: online
(12:01:04) Wezzul: ...
(12:01:08) Wezzul: so download it
(12:01:08) Eli z: not on my computer
(12:01:10) Eli z: how
(12:01:11) Wezzul: ftp
(12:01:33) Eli z: forget it
(12:01:38) Wezzul: too much work for you?
(12:01:42) Eli z: you could have helped by now
(12:01:44) Eli z: bye
(12:01:46) Wezzul: no i couldnt have
(12:01:53) Wezzul: i'd have had to download wordpress AND download the files from your webserver
(12:02:04) Wezzul: which is something you should at the very least be able to do....
(12:02:14) Wezzul: that's like webpage 101 shit there....
(12:02:53) Wezzul: definitely something you should learn to do...

I would like to point out that Eli Z actually runs/ran a webhosting company, but doesn't know how to FTP files. This is literally amazing to me. So, if you are looking for hosting, steer clear of siaro.com

Update:

I talked to Eli Z (also can be IM'ed at Siaro1), and sent him the link to this post. What follows are his thoughts on the post, and, his idea of the proper time to beat off, and his candid feelings on Eli P, his archnemesis:

(00:05:26) Wezzul: http://wezzul.com/AIM-Convos/758/Failing-Youth
(00:05:56) Eli z: Cool. Thanks!
(00:09:15) Wezzul: it just cracked me up how lazy people can be, and unwilling to help themselves....
(00:09:55) Eli z: I was in the middle of doing something which occupied my hand which didn't allow me to type or do anything.
(00:09:58) Eli z: If you get the drift.
(00:10:26) Wezzul: you were beating off?
(00:10:50) Eli z: possibly.
(00:11:06) Wezzul: nah, i think you're just dumb...
(00:11:12) Wezzul: but i guess oyu could be DUMB and have been beating of...
(00:11:29) Eli z: Think whatever, but at least remove my sn, please.
(00:11:32) Eli z: Or delete the z
(00:11:48) Wezzul: if i remove it, it takes away from the authenticity
(00:12:02) Eli z: make it a "p" then
(00:13:56) Wezzul: well, then it would be about someone else...
(00:13:58) Wezzul: like Eli P
(00:14:08) Wezzul: i don't wanna call out Eli P as lazy
(00:14:11) Wezzul: when clearly, he isn't
(00:14:19) Eli z: How is that clear?
(00:14:30) Wezzul: because I know Eli P
(00:14:33) Wezzul: he's a stand up guy
(00:14:36) Eli z: No he's not.
(00:14:41) Wezzul: he can open a document too
(00:14:53) Eli z: I know how to open a fucking document.
(00:15:10) Wezzul: uh-huh
(00:15:10) Eli z: I was just busy because I have better things to do than post some covo on my blog.
(00:15:18) Eli z: I hope you get a life.
(00:15:21) Wezzul: is that because you don't have a blog?
(00:15:27) Wezzul: because you can't find anyone to code one for you?
(00:15:37) Eli z: I have one already coded
(00:15:58) Wezzul: did you pay someone for wordpress?
(00:16:27) Eli z: No, I found out they didn't use WP.
(00:16:37) Wezzul: how did you find out?
(00:16:54) Eli z: I compared the code to that of WP, which didn't match up.
(00:17:22) Wezzul: YOU compared it?
(00:17:26) Wezzul: or you had someone else compare it?
(00:17:30) Eli z: No, I did.
(00:17:50) Wezzul: hey alright, i'm actually giving you a hand now. I now know you are one step closer to being Eli P. You can open a document.
(00:19:09) Eli z: I'm thrilled.
(00:19:25) Wezzul: i'd be thrilled if i learned to open a document too!
(00:20:25) Eli z: Is there anything you actually want? I don't see the purpose of continuing this conversation.
(00:20:48) Wezzul: i just wanted to point out what a lazy moron you are, but I think that point has been made... good day to you sir.

Well, since the last time I posted, things have most certainly taken a turn for the worse as far as Detroit sports are concerned. Most recently, the Tigers lost three of four to the Yankees, and four in a row overall, being shutout twice in a span of two days. However, after last nights bottom of the ninth, come from behind win against the Bronx Bombers, things are looking a bit better. The Tigers begin a weekend series with the Boston Red Sox today, continuing their three series streak of playing some of the best teams in the AL (the next series is against division rival Chicago White Sox). To be considered one of the elite teams in the league, they need to have a good showing over the next six games, especially since they lost three of four to New York. Sure, the Tigers are still in first place, sure, they still have the best record in the major league, but when you play the Kansas City Royals as much as the Tigers do, that definitely helps.

The Detroit Pistons now stand behind in their Eastern Conference Finals series with the Miami Heat, three games to two. Games three and four both showed why Dwayne Wade is considered one of the premiere players in the league right now. Not only can he drive the basket and make circus shots, but since last year, his jump shot has greatly improved. He's also clutch. Like Michael Jordan kind of clutch. He wants the ball with the game on the line, and he hits when it is. The Pistons did win game five though, facing elimination for the third time in these playoffs (two elimination games against Cleveland), and looked good doing it. The defense was smothering, the offense was potent, and they kept Wade and Shaq in check enough to win the game. That leaves two more games, that are both must win for the Pistons. The first of those is tonight, we'll see what comes of it.

Briefs:

*Mike Maroth, who is probably having his best season as a Tiger (due in part to Kenny Rogers' arrival) is having arthroscopic surgery on his elbow today to remove bone chips and could be out up to three months. This is a huge setback for the Tigers, as they don't have a readily available starter to come in and take over. Roman Colon started for Maroth on Tuesday. He gave up five runs in two inning of work. On Sunday, Zach Miner is starting. Let's hope he can do a better job.

*Dmitri Young is still a jackass. He is currently attending to "personal issues", and is probably still hurt. The Tigers aren't saying shit about it, and neither is he. Marcus Thames is filling in nicely at DH.

*Wings signed three former drafts picks, goalie Stefan Liv, forward Evan McGrath, and defenseman Jonathan Ericsson. The only one I've heard of is Liv. Not sure about the skill level of these guys, but all three are expected to play in Grand Rapids next season, so don't look for too much.

*The Lions left Shaun King go. Huge surprise. I was hoping they'd start the season with something like two dozen quarterbacks and forty-five receivers. Oh well. They also signed guard Ross Verba. Who?

*The Lions did re-sign Jeff Backus which is a big deal since he's pretty much the only guy on the o-line worth a damn in Detroit. Not to say he's worth THAT much of a damn, but the offensive line has been bad enough that even a slight step backwards would destroy the entire team. Not that that's a bad thing

As an aside, over the next month, I have no less than four Detroit Tigers games scheduled, starting tonight with the game against Boston (Schilling vs. Rogers!). I also have tickets to all three games at Wrigley field on the 16th, 17th, and 18th. With the way the Chicago Cubs have been playing, winning 5 of their last 25, those should be fun games to watch.

This is my last dinglez ditch effort to rank for the word dinglez. Google seems to hate mah dinglez!

This season for the Tigers is getting pretty amazing. They won again, last night, agains the Kansas City Royals. What made the game special was that after the sixth inning, the Tigers only had four hits. By the end of the game, they had seventeen. At the end of the sixth, the Tigers were down, 4-2. By the end of the game, it was 8-5, Tigers. This the sort of thing that NEVER happened for the Tigers last year, winning games in the late innings. Last year, if the opposing team went up four runs in the first or second inning, you knew the game was over, they'd never come back from this.

Since Saturday, this is the second time the Tigers have come back to win in the late innings. On Saturday night, versus the Cincinnati Reds, the Tigers had a 5-2 lead when Ken Griffey Jr. hit a grand slam off of Joel Zumaya to put the Reds ahead 6-5. The Tigers responded in the ninth inning, when Curtis Granderson hit a solo homerun with two outs to take it to the tenth inning. Then, on a pinch hit RBI single in the tenth by Placido Polanco, the Tigers took the lead, and Todd Jones closed out the game, which coincidentally set the Detroit Tigers record for career saves. This is a perfect example of what Jim Leyland has brought to the table this year. With a roster that, for all intents and purposes, is the same as last year (add Jones and Kenny Rogers from free agency, and rookies Justin Verlander and Zumaya), he has managed to turn an also-ran in the MLB to a early contender for the AL Central division lead. The Tigers now stand at 31-14, and have a one game lead over the Chicago White Sox. They are the best team in the MLB right now. This is fun.

As for the other Detroit team currently still playing at this time of year, the Pistons lost their first round game against the Miami Heat last night after a very poor showing. At times, the Pistons contended for the lead, or even had the lead, but it looked bad pretty much the entire night. The Pistons shot a poor 37.8% from the field, lead by Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamiltons combined 15/41 shooting effort. The one thing about this Pistons team that everyone likes is that every night during the regular season, someone would step up, be it Rasheed Wallace, Chancey, Rip, Tayshaun Prince, or Antonio McDyess (you can't really put Ben Wallace here, as he's not really a huge scoring threat). In the playoffs, they haven't had a lot of that, where one guy picks up the slack for the other guys that aren't playing as well in that game. For the Pistons to win this series, they're going to need to get some better performances from their starting five. They have been a team that relied on their starting five, and should continue to do so if they want to reach the NBA Finals. Game 2 of the series is Thursday night, and it is a must win for the Pistons. If they go back to Miami down 0-2, it's going to be a hard climb back to evening the series.


Briefs:

*The Detroit Red Wings have re-signed 44-year old Chris Chelios to a one year deal. I couldn't be happier about this. During the albeit short playoffs for the Wings, Chelios was a great stay at home defenseman, which the Wings need with the loss of Jiri Fischer. I remeber a particular penalty kill where Chelios cleared the puck from deep in the Detroit zone three times, essentially killing the penalty all by himself. I don't care how old the man is, he's still tough, he can still play defense. I'm happy he's going to be back. Now, on to Shanahan and Yzerman.

*Dmitri Young continues to suck. This is not news, but it's an indication that the Tigers are going to be looking for someone else to DH for them, perhaps Marcus Thames, who has made the most of his limited time at the plate. He's on the DL now as well. John Hannahan, 3B, was called up from Toledo

*Dmitri Young also has been charged with domestic abuse, after allegedly strangling his 21-year old ex-girlfriend at a Birmingham, MI hotel. Not only is this guy high paid, and not performing, but he's also a woman beater. Detroit has the best .169 avg DH in the league, that's for sure.

*Detroit Lions let Dan Wilkinson go. He had a good run with the team, helping Shawn Rogers become the two-time pro bowl player that he is today. Shawn Cody is expected to start at Nose Tackle in the coming season.

*Still no Steve Yzerman news. My feeling is the longer it takes, the more likely he is coming back.

Articles:

Wade's Hot Hand Helps Heat Steal Home-Court Advantage - NBA.com

Heat's Energy Rolls Pistons - ESPN.com

Oh So Cold! - freep.com

Wings re-sign Chelios - freep.com

Leyland's Message Hitting Home - detnews.com

The Detroit Tigers won their seventh straight last night, and now, not only do they have the lead in their division, but also the best record in the MLB. They swept a division rival, the Minnesota Twins, for the second time this season, and are rolling behind stellar pitching from both the starting rotation as well as the bullpen. Let's hope they can keep this up and be in this spot in September. As nice as it is to be in first right now, it's a marathon, not a sprint as they always say.

The Tigers have some important series coming up. This weekend is the Sparky Anderson classic, a series with Sparky's other team, the Cincinnati Reds. After that, there are two division series, one with the weak Kansas City Royals, one with the Cleveland Indians,. Then, they take on two of the more popular teams in the American League at home. First, a four game series with the New York Yankees, then a weekend series with the Boston Red Sox. If they can come out of those two with some good wins, it should put the Tigers on a more national stage.

Below are some articles about the Tigers recently:

Add victory to list of things going right for Tigers - detnews.com

Leland says he's happy for the fans - detnews.com

Tigers extend longest team winning streak since '93 - espn.com

I am now using mod_rewrite to do a bunch of stuff as far as making nice looking URLs point to pages that would normally have to have a query string. For instance, now, instead of going to something like http://wezzul.com/747/, you can go to http://wezzul.com/General/Festival!-Festival!-SMASH!. This is mostly for the search engines, though a URL without a query string looks a fuck of a lot better than one with one.

Dinglez to that, I'm happy that the site still interests me enough to work on it every so often.

Last night, I attended the Detroit Tigers game with the Minnesota Twins, and it became even more apparent why the Tigers have the best record in the major leagues right now -- pitching. I watched 21 year old Justin Verlander pitch eight scoreless innings against the Twins. He pitched amazingly well, and was calm, and confident even during the few jams he got himself in. A few times during the game, the batter worked the count full, and with men on base, Verlander would force the easy pop up or ground out. I don't think he struck anyone out the entire game, but it doesn't matter if you're still getting the outs. I think he probably could have stayed in the game, and finished it, getting the shutout, but there is no reason to chance it when you only have a slim (two run) lead.

It's hard to think that Kenny Rogers wasn't worth the price paid. Not only does he lead the Tigers in wins (6), but he is also tied for inning pitched with Jeremy Bonderman. Sure, he's 41, and sure the Tigers had to pay too much to get him here (as they usually do with quality free agents), but his impact, not only on the Tigers win/loss record, but on the young staff is immeasureable. You think a guy like Mike Maroth would be pitching as well as he is this season without the veteran pointers that a guy like Rogers can dole out? They have a similar style as far as what kind of pitches they throw, and it's clear Maroth is learning from Rogers by example. He's 5-2 with a 2.18 ERA. Compare that to years past, and tell me Rogers isn't worth every single penny the Tigers have got built into his contract.

I think the big thing this year for the Tigers is getting young players from their farm system to step up and win games for them. The aformentioned Verlander, along with Joel Zumaya (RP) and Curtis Granderson (CF) are really playing good baseball this year. You can see in Zumaya (who, along with Verlander, has had pitches clock at 101mph) a future closer for the Tigers that could easily be in the tops of the league. It's amazing that, at the start of the season, it was said he could be a starter. If he can keep up pitching the way he does for 6 innings, I'd love to see it. And it's a real testament to the Tigers staff when a guy with that much obvious talent can't make the rotation. Granderson isn't playing GREAT baseball, but he's a real asset to have at the lead off spot, since he combines speed and a reasonable amount of power. He does lead the team in strikeouts, but he also leads them in walks. As he gets older, and refines his eye at the plate, we will see him become a more important part of the Tigers squad. The one thing you can say about him is he is defensively sound. He has a 1.000 fielding average at this point in the season, and while he may have trouble running balls down at times, this is another thing that will come with experience.

The Pistons are looking very frustrating lately. Last night, they lost their third game in a row (first time this year that has happened), and first playoff game at home. Chauncey Billups fouled out with about five minutes left in the fourth quarter, which hurt them, and Rasheed Wallace was also in foul trouble (and probably still injured) for most of the fourth. After watching the end of the game, it's easy to see that the Pistons are not playing like they want to win. Now, they are left with the task of beating the Cleveland Cavaliers at home and then bringing it back to the Palace for game seven. While it is clear that the Pistons can pull this off, it has yet to be seen whether they have the will to. It will be an interesting couple of games. Lets hope they can step it up on Friday and bring the series back home.

I won't even mention the Lions or Red Wings here. No reason to sour up the post.

Since learning some perl, I've realized it has great applications for automatically ripping data from webpages. So I wrote something for flickr to take a users album, rip all the pages out of it and then pull all the full sized images from those pages.

In the archive, there are three files. The perl script, rippr.pl, a users.txt file, and a records.txt file. All that needs to be done is populating the users.txt file with user directories in the format http://www.flickr.com/photos/username. You will also need to create a directory, images, as a subdirectory of the directory where the perl script resides. Then, while running the script, it will create a new directory in images for each user, and pop the images in there, naming them incrementally with numbers so as not to have duplicate image names.

It has worked pretty well for me so far, and it's relatively fast as well. Get it here.

Edit: I upped a new copy that pulls down the original images instead of the sized ones flickr displays by default.

Here are some of the keywords that have been used to access my site recently:

Google:
"caught my wife"
what size should my cock be, I'm 13 years old
azalia ubuntu (about 3 of these a day)
hauppage lirc ubuntu (same)
teh site
corecomm sucks
bear vs shark alia

MSN:
jingle jangle dropkick murphys
seabass cowboy boots
lickmypussy (a lot of times)
beer can size cocks
Flat dog crips
drunk driving leave girl disfigured
prostetics for the homeless
Pregnant Fat Six (my favorite)
fun kids oral fuck
elephant size cocks

No really good ones from Yahoo, but this is just odd. And me typing these out and putting them here should INCREASE MY RANKINGS with these keywords. God, I hope so.

My parents wanted to buy me something for graduation. I told them I didn't want anything, but they insisted. I saw this as a great opportunity to get a mythtv box up and going. Since I had about $700 to spend, I figured I could get some decent stuff together to have a really nice myth box that I could use to do general media center tasks, including tivo-type applications. I gave my dad a wishlist, and he pretty much came through on all of it. The box is as follows:

Cooler Master C541 Centurion Micro ATX Case
Intel Pentium 4 2.4A Prescott 533MHz FSB
MSI 661FM3-V Micro ATX Motherboard
Corsair ValueSelect 2x512mb PC3200 Ram
Western Digital Caviar SE WD3000JB 300GB 7200 RPM IDE
Hauppage Win-TV PVR-350

Pretty nice, right? I got the box on Christmas, put it together, all except the PVR which I was ordering from Insight.com due to my work getting decent pricing from them. I ordered that PVR a week later, and to my dismay, Insight was out of stock. However, yesterday, due to my boss being cool, he loaned me one of the two PVR-350's he picked up a week before I called. So I was all set.

Popped the PVR in last night, and installed KnoppMyth because of it's ease of use as well as the relatively painless install it does for MythTV and all it's plugins. It may not be the fastest (and I say may as I am 99% sure it's as fast as anything else doing these same tasks), but it surely works to the fullest of my expectations. However, things weren't as easy as I would have liked, and some extra configuration was required. First, since I wanted to use the PVR-350, which has S-video output, to do both the recording as well as the displaying to the TV, I had to run a script which reconfigures the XF86Config-4 file as well as recompiling the ivtv driver to support the PVR-350 for video out. That script can be found here . It is extremely well run, and does all the work for you. It may require some configuration, but nothing that is too terribly difficult. However, what this script does do is configure myth (and X) to run at 720x480. This is great if you are running a 16:9 viewing ratio, but for those of us running 4:3, it's a bit off. Since you really don't want to mess with the XF86Config-4 here (believe me, no good results come of it), you can set the width/height of myth and the offsets to produce a fullscreen looking front end. I am using the following:



Tv output is not effected by this, and plays fullscreen in mplayer. A second configuration that was needed was to the /etc/lircd.conf file so that my remote, which is not natively supported, would work. Another file, /home/mythtv/.lircrc also had to be modified, and mine is linked here .



Simple enough, right? So now the remote works, but it's not booting without me hitting CTRl-D and CTRl-C alot. A big issue is not being able to see all the boot output when you boot up after the video switches to the PVR's S-video out. This stinks, and was particularly a problem for me until I booted using a monitor to find that my boot was halting as a disk needed to be checked. So fixed that, re-modified the XF86Config-4 file, and was good to go. Everything is working now, and I'm pretty happy with it. I plan on looking into what I can do to customize the UI for both MythTV itself as well as making MythWeb more useful to me and my wife. More to come...

Ok, so I've taken advantage of some Ajax (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) to make the site a bit more user friendly, in my opinion. A few of the things I've done:



In addition to those Ajax things, you can see I changed the theme some (I know it emulated Wordpress' Kubrick, but it's not), added a new banner (thanks to Motts at Opacity.us ), and cleaned up the stylesheet for some added effects.

Something on the docket now is to improve the navigation on the left side so that it also uses javascript/ajax, perhaps dropdown menus or something of the like. All in all, I'm much happier with how the site looks/acts now than I was before. Let's see how long it lasts.

It's the caffeine, the nicotine, the miligrams of tar
It's my habitat, it needs to be cleaned, it's my car
It's the fast talk they use to abuse and feed my brain
It's the cat box it needs to be changed, it's the pain
It's women, it's the plight for power it's government
It's the way your giving knowledge slow with thought control and subtle hints
It's rubbing it, itching it, It's applying cream
It's the foreigners sight seeing with high beams, It's in my dreams
It's the monsters that I conjure, It's the marijuana
It's the embarassment, displacement, It's where I wander
It's my genre, It's Madonna's videos
It's game shows, It's cheap liquor, blunts, It's bumper stickers with rainbows
It's angels, demons, gods, it's the white devils
It's the monitors, the soundman, it's the motherfucking mic levels
It's gas fumes, fast food, Tommy Hil, mommy's pill (?)
Columbia House music club, designer drugs and rhyming thugs
It's bloods and crips, five and six,
It's stick up kids, It's christian conservative terrorists, it's porno flicks
It's the east coast, no it's the west coast
It's public schools, it's asbestos
It's mentholated, It's techno
It's sleep, life, and death
It's speed, coke, and meth
It's hay fever, pain relievers, oral sex, and smokers breath
It stretches for as far as the eye can see
It's reality, fuck it, it's everything but me

Too good for words...

Being September 1st, the summer is now officially over in my head. I always have thought of the summer being June, July, and August. And with the summer being over, I'd like to point out a few things about some of the shows that were attended this summer.

Worst Show

Up until 07/25, there was no doubt in anyones mind what the worst show of the summer was. Unfortunately, most of the usual suspects did not even attend this one. It was me, Adam , and some girl who has since never come around. The show was Gil Mantera. Let me make this particularly clear: we attended the show because of pink spandex. The picture of the band shows one of them in a pink ski suit, one of them in a pink spandex jump suit. This seems like good enough reason to attend a show, right? After two mediocre opening bands (including The City on Film, Bob Nanna from Hey Mercedes' new band), Gil takes the stage. We stay for almost one song. I actually left WITH A BEER IN MY POCKET. I couldn't even finish a beloved PBR. How upsetting.

On 07/25, we attended a metal show. An awful metal show. We should have known something was up when we asked the bounced what band was on, and he wouldn't tell us. The band we had come to see, Heads Will Roll had already played and gone home. What we were left to see was a band that made liberal use of a gong. Give me a fucking break, a gong? We were at this show for less than a half hour. That is $1 for every five minutes we were there. Talk about a fucking rip off. This metal show, however, cleared Jake's name, as Gil Mantera was his idea. (we also came to find out later that Gil Mantera shows devolve into crazy debauchery. Oh, the regret)

Winner: Nondescript Metal Show (07/25)
Runner-up: Gil Mantera's Party Dream (06/29)


Drunkest Show

I would love to say that this is an easy one to pick, but it isn't. There were alot of shows where I was somewhat drunk. The one I recall being the worst was the Streetlight Manifesto show on 06/10. It was about 100 degrees outside. There was no re-entry, and me and Seabass got there way too early. There was one window and one door, at the back of the club. A combination of the profuse sweating and copious amounts of PBR between the hours of 8p and 3a (we hung out after hours) made for a crazy, drunken night. I remember waking up at Seabass' house, my feet covered in some unknown black tar-like substance. I used the decorative soap. His wife got mad. It still makes me laugh that Seabass, the silly motherfucker that he is, has decorative soap in his house. Nancy.

The Diver show had $0.50 PBR's. Nuff said.

Winner: Streetlight Manifesto (06/10)
Runner-up: Diver (07/06)


Funniest Goings-on

The people that I did most of my show-going with this summer like to drink. They like to get rowdy and crazy and stupid (and some of them like to fall asleep at the bar). In any case, I can think of two fairly funny moments of the summer. The first one was on 07/19 at the Constantines show. It was average at best (we were attending as someone compared the Constantines to Fugazi -- give me a break!). We drank some cheap beers and stood around for a while. My friend Angie was at the show, so we were talking with her. A friend of hers came up to be and Dylan and started talking to us like he knew us. His name was Neil. As he was talking, Dylan grabbed his beer and started drinking it. He didn't force it out of his hand, or make some quick move to obtain it; he non-chalantly just took the beer as if Neil was handing it to him. Neil walked away, not seeming too mad. About five minutes later, he comes back over and says "You took my beer!". Dylan replies with "Yeah. I did." and keeps drinking it. Neil comes back with "Do you know who I am?". Now I have no fucking clue who this kid is. Maybe he is important or rich or his parents told him he was more special than the other kids. However, that is no excuse to throw the old "Do you know who I am" around. You just sound like a tool saying shit like this. Neil walks away again, doing nothing. A bit later, we are outside talking to Katie and she mentions that at one point, Neil pushed a girl. Dylan, already looking for a reason to fight this kid, calls him out on it. I break this up. The ridicule of Neil resumes when he walks outside to leave, and his truck won't start. For some reason, he comes back up to the group of people making fun of him, and THEN proceeds to call AAA. Like he wanted us to see just how big of a jackass he actually is.

The other funny event that is clear in my head is from the 07/28 Hard Lessons show at Kraftbrau. It was all going well until Dylan got cut off, and Jeremy got thrown out. I guess Jeremy, from outside, punched through a window and stole a clock. Then he came back in with the clock (this is all vague to me, I didn't know of any of this). When I heard Jeremy got kicked out, I had to let the Kraftbrau folks know that there was better beer brewed across the street . They then threw me out, telling me to go across the street, where my kind belong. I guess my kind, those of us that like good beer, don't belong at Kraftbrau. It makes sense now. In any case, I heard that someone through a pint glass at the Kraftbrau building. I don't know who it was.

Winner: Constantines (07/19)
Runner-up: Hard Lessons (07/28)


Best Show

This one was a hard one. It could have been much harder has Bear vs. Shark played longer on 08/12, and had that show not been during the day. Thinking of seeing sunlight in Mac's still gives me the shakes. However, my favorite show was the first one of the summer, Bear vs. Shark on 06/06. This show was attended by myself, Adam , Mona , and Jake . I was totally blown away by BvS's presence and talent. I had only started listening to them earlier in the day, at the recommendation of Sean . I owe him big time for that now. I listened to them for about two months straight following the show, becoming very acquainted with both their albums.

Winner: Bear vs. Shark (06/06)
Runner-up: Hard Lessons (07/28)


Band of the Summer

For me, no question, Bear vs. Shark. I listened to them most of the summer in my car, I listened to them at work, and on my iPod. I love this band to death, lyrically and musically. I can't wait for them to put something else out.

I was also introduced to the Hard Lessons this summer thanks to Adam and Dylan. They put on an awesome live show, lots of energy, and seem like cool people as well. Easily the best band I know of to have come out of Lansing. I would see them every time they come around, the show is that good.

Winner: Bear vs. Shark (06/06, 08/12)
Runner-up: Hard Lessons (06/16, 07/28, 08/18)

Thanks to all the people that made all the shows fun this summer: Adam , Alia , Dan , Dylan, Jeremy, Mona , Neil, Sam and anyone else I'm forgetting. Leave comments or don't!

Edit: And Jake

Wow, so I looked at the list of users today as I was doing an sql dump, and there are a shit ton of users that look strangely like (a) spammers or (b) people trying to inject sql into the site. I hope it was the latter, because if it was, then it's obvious they haven't done dick (as the DB is still intact). We'll see if I can get anywhere with this.

Edit: Most of the IP's are from AOL, MSN, or SBC. Silly little script kiddies. Get with the program you talentless fucks, you can't do shit. You have NO '5K1LL5' you NON-1337 FUCKS! LOLOZOROAO!L!!1!11!1

Edit 2: Keep trying though. If you can hack it, I'd be happy. Always looking for vulnerabilities!

Interesting times as of late. Moved into an apartment that I'll be living in for a month. Boxes are piled up, I sleep on the floor. It's already depressing the fuck out of me, not only because it's cluttered and empty at the same time, but because I don't have steady internet access. I feel shut off from the world.

School is going awful, as predicted. I've failed on class thus far in my life, and it was taught by the prof I have now. To say he is not a good teacher is an understatement. I'm almost to the point where I'm going to seek out a tutor as if I don't pass this, it is going to ruin my entire life, no exageration (sp?).

Shelby moves away today. That sucks. He's my best friend in Lansing, and I'm sure I'm gonna miss him. Even if he is a royal fucking jackass.

Another show tonight, it seems. Heads Will Roll. Going to Mac's, lately, has nothing to do with the band, and everything to do with the bar and the people going. I dig it just the same anyways.

So check out this list of shows coming up in July and August. This is perhaps the best summer of shows I've seen in a long time:

07/19: The Constantines (Mac's)
07/28: The Hard Lessons (Kraftbrau)
08/07: Lord of the Yum Yum (Mac's)
08/10: Flogging Molly (Intersection)
08/11: Planes Mistaken for Stars (Mac's)
08/12: Bear vs. Shark , HORSE the Band (Mac's)
08/13: Fallopian Dudes (Mac's)
08/17: The Hard Lessons (Mac's)

Wow. This is gonna be fun!

Implemented a currently listening to thing. I guess that's pretty cool. I stole the idea from the dreaded Live Journal. I'm not sure I totally like the layout of it yet, but I'll fuck around with it and see what I can get.

Also, I registered mysticaljackass.com . Go check it out, it's a lesson in good web design.

Since June 01:

06/06: Bear Vs. Shark (Mac's)
06/10: Streetlight Manifesto (Alvin's)
06/12: Enon, Thunderbirds are Now! (Mac's)
06/16: The Apes, Hard Lessons (Mac's)
06/29: Gil Mantera's Party Dream, The City on Film (Mac's)
07/06: Diver (Mac's)
07/09: MC 3rd Degree, La'Resistance (VFW, Lansing), Bit (Mac's)
07/19: The Constantines (Mac's)
07/25: Some crappy metal show (Mac's)
07/28: The Hard Lessons (Kraftbrau [CRAPbrau])
08/01: The Good Mornings (Vine street fair)
08/02: The Van Ermans, the Cartridge Family (Mac's)
08/09: Flogging Molly (Royal Oak Music Theatre)
08/11: Planes Mistaken for Stars (Mac's)
08/12: Bear vs. Shark, HORSE the Band (Mac's)
08/18: The Hard Lessons (Mac's)
09/07: Ill Gotten Gains, C. Gibbs (Mac's)
09/08: The Sights (Temple Club)
09/09: One Be Lo (Mac's)
09/14: Neva Dinova, Orenda Fink, Tilly and the Wall (Mac's)
09/26: Casionauts, Bit (Mac's)
09/27: Bear vs. Shark, Hella (Mac's)
10/13: Fallopian Dudes (Mac's)
10/19: Boomin' System, Fun Ender (Mac's)

More to come....

This is my last day of work this week, I have tomorrow off for the Streetlight Manifesto show. Going with Seabass, that should be a fun time. I'm pretty excited, two decent shows in a week, and more good ones coming up at Mac's:

6/17 - Fallopian Dudes
7/17 - Neva Dinova and Mayday
8/11 - Planes Mistaken for Stars
8/12 - Bear vs. Shark

That is FOUR good shows in Lansing. Wow. That's more in that short period of time then the entire time I've been in this city, I think. I'm especially excited to see Neva Dinova here in L-town. They put on a good show, good lazy drinking music.

So I saw Bear vs. Shark tonight... awesome show.. I would suggest gettting their newest album, Terrorhawk, at your earliest convenience.... awesome band, awesome album...

My PS2 is in decent shape... I need to start burning at 1x.... I think that is my problem with games... however, I'm getting the best DVD's for burning games, we will see how that goes....

Pistons won... here we come, the finals..

My ipod is broken. The hard drive will spin up, click, spin down. I can't format it, can't do shit with it. Diagnostics on the ipod report the HDD is good, but it isn't, not even close. I can hear it clicking. A new drive is $175 if I get it from ipodmods.com, and it's about $250 to have Apple repair (replace) it. I can't go without an mp3 player, so I'm taking suggestions on what else to get. Losing all the music on it is a pain as I don't have all of it on computers anymore.

If you know me, you know how important that fucking thing was to me. It's a real shame that it doesn't work anymore. I don't have enough money for a new one, so I'm going to have to go alot cheaper for my new mp3 player. But a new one is necessary, for sure.

So I implemented a search. It's pretty shoddy right now though. It seems to be secure, but then again, I don't know. I backed up my database as I test it. In any case, it will work as long as you include the full word as it is a mysql FULLTEXT search. If you include partial words, it doesn't do much of shit.

You can read more about mysql fulltext searches here

So this seems to be pretty nice... Imagemagick is the bomb... using the convert script that comes with imagemagick makes it fairly easy to create dynamic text and effect using a php script... here is the imagemagick command:



Sweeeeeettttt

I integrated the photo shit today with this, so it will show up in the main window. Looks pretty nice. Also, thanks to Emily , I added a back/next funtionality in the picture view pop-ups for easy traversal through each album.

So the other day, I figured I'd get dual display working in Linux. I had a spare video card and monitor laying around, so there was no reason not to add more real estate to any given desktop.

Though I don't run Gentoo, this site was extremely useful in getting things going.

First, I had to find out the PCI Bus ID's for both video cards. This can be easily found out executing the command lspci. I found the BusID's to be 2:0:0 and 1:6:0 for the Nvidia onboard card and the ATI All-in-Wonder, respectively. These values go in the Device sections. These values are not required for a one card setup, but if you are to use two video cards, it is absolutely necessary to have these Bus ID's in your XF86Config-4 file. Another major difference is adding the amount of video ram (in kilobytes) to that same Device section. I'm not totally sure if this is necessary, but I figure it definitely can't hurt. Next is to define both monitors, which is about the same as you would with one monitor. Defining the HorizSync and VertRefresh values is key for getting the most out of your monitors. Generally, you can find these specs for any given monitor with a simple google search. As usual, you need to define two Screen sections, one for each monitor, listing the device and monitor to be used, as well as setting the depth (in bits) and resolution.

The big differences in the config file lie in the ServerLayout section. Mine as is follows:



Note the RightOf command. This is pretty cool. You can use plain-text requests such as this to define where the second screen is in relation to the first. Also, for Screen0, the 0 0 after the name is the position that the screen lies at. I am fairly sure that, by default, this is where it lies anyways, but there is no need for ambiguity.

A last section that was not in my config by default is the ServerFlags section. I added the following:



Xinerama is a set of extensions for Xfree86 that allow you to use multiple displays as one big virtual desktop, therefore allowing you to move windows between them (much the same way Windows works). If you do not include this, from what I've read, programs need to have coded in them the ability to move from one display to another, and the performance is a bit flaky at best.

In any case, it seems to be working now, I'm not really having any issues with it. There is some tweeking to be done to increase speed, and I will post about that if I get any results. My full config is here .

She came out west to find the sun
She lost her name but found a new one
Amy goes to school all day
But at night in the neighborhood they call her Amphetamine

She is perfect in that fucked up way
That all the magazines seem to want to glorify these days
She looks like a teenage anthem
She looks like she used to be happy with the girl inside

Yeah she looks so bored sometimes
And she has that super pale skin and those soft green eyes
She looks like she could have been happy in a better life

She came out west just to break away clean
From her family and her friends and a little girl's dream
All she wants to do every night
Is to sit beside my window and listen to the sirens

She is perfect in that fucked up way
That all the magazines seem to want to glorify these days
She looks like a teenage anthem
And she looks like she should have been happy in another life
In another life

She came out west just to break the spell
After three long years in a marriage from hell
Six months clean living sober and right
Her doctors tell her everything will be alright

Yeah, you just take your pill
And everything will be alright
Yeah, you just take your pill
And everything will be alright

She looks like a teenage anthem
She looks like a magazine girl
She looks like a teenage anthem
Like she used to be happy in another world

She looks like a teenage anthem
She is happy with the girl inside
She looks like a teenage anthem
And looks like she could have been happy in another life
In another life
Happy in another life

Met her at a party and I took her home
She is the saddest girl that I have ever known
Yeah she wakes up in the middle of the night
Just to tell me everything will be alright

Amy smiles at me, tells me everything will be alright
Yeah Amy smiles at me, tells me everything will be alright
Yeah I tell myself the same damn thing
Everyday
Everything will be alright

The needle on my record player has been wearing thin..
The fucker has been playing since the day you've been with him
No more long rides home
No more of your station
I didn%u2019t like it anyways

Remember the time we wrote our names upon the wall
Remember the time we realized thriller was our favorite song
Have I waited too long
Have I found that someone
Have I waited too long
To see you
Have I waited too long
Have I found that someone
Have I waited too long
To see you

Maybe it%u2019s for the best
Maybe it%u2019s not for anything
It wouldn%u2019t be so bad to take this right from me
No more long rides home
No more of your station
I didn%u2019t like it anyway

Remember the time we wrote our names upon the wall
Remember the time we realized thriller was our favorite song
Have I waited too long
Have I found that someone
Have I waited too long
To see you
Have I waited too long
Have I found that someone
Have I waited too long
To see you
How many times I%u2019ve tried
It%u2019s simple to you, so simple to lie
How many times I%u2019ve tried
Blatant mistakes of your design
How many times I%u2019ve tried
It%u2019s simple to you, so simple to lie
Blatant mistakes of your design
Have I waited too long
Have I found that someone
Have I waited too long
To see you
I%u2019ve had so many chances
Turn my back and I ran away
I%u2019ve had so many chances
To see you

I got Make Believe, Weezer's new album yesterday, and I'm REALLY digging it. I made the statement that you have to look at Weezer as two bands... pre-Pinkerton and post-Pinkerton... but now I'm not so sure about that... this may just be something where I'm really digging the new album too much, but I'm not sure... I am really enjoying This is Such a Pity, Peace, The Other Way and Hold Me of all the songs on the album... track list is as follows:

Beverly Hills
Perfect Situation
This Is Such A Pity
Hold Me
Peace
We Are All On Drugs
The Damage In Your Heart
Pardon Me
My Best Friend
The Other Way
Freak Me Out
Haunt You Everyday

In other news, I left my car on from 4p until about 10p yesterday... the penalties of getting out of my car with my ipod headphones on.. can't hear if the car is on or not...

Going to install OS9 on my "new" PowerMac7500 tonight... should be fun, anyways...

Edit: Pardon Me is my new favorite song

Me and Potterj were working on modifying Torrentflux today, and got one nice little thing done on it. However, I have a bunch more ideas for it, which may incorporate RSS'ing a site by parsing out the data on that page. Should be interesting to see if I can actually get anything done on it tonight. I almost wish I wasn't leaving work, as I'm sure I'll lose my motivation.

However, I'm getting out early due to coming in early. I'me excited. Tigers game and beer tonight, Cokedick Motorcycle Awesome tomorrow, and then, YES, Wedding Classes!!! YAY!!!!

I hear mariachi static on my radio
And the tubes, they glow in the dark
And I'm there with you in Enceinta
And I'm here in echo park
Carmelita, hold me tighter
I think I'm sinking down
And I'm all strung out on heroin on the outskirts of town
Well I pawned my Smith and Wesson
And I went to meet my man
He hangs out down at El Dorado street
At the county chicken stand
Carmelita, hold me tighter
I think I'm sinking down
And I'm all strung out on heroin on the outskirts of town
Well I'm sitting here playing russian roulette
With my pearl handled gun
The county won't give me any more methadone
And they cut off your welfare check
Carmelita, hold me tighter
I think I'm sinking down
And I'm all strung out on heroin on the outskirts of town
Carmelita, hold me tighter
I think I'm sinking down
And I'm all strung out on heroin on the outskirts of town

Another article about CSS2 in IE7, this one about how Microsoft things CSS2 is a "flawed standard". This issue makes me more and more angry as I continue to think about it. I mean, those guys at Microsoft must have SOME intelligence. Get rid of the required Microsoft ego, and become developers again. Conform to a standard that alot of the web already uses. If it is flawed, it is much less so than any standard that Microsoft has tried to implement.

I'd like to be able to design a page and have it work REASONABLY well in all browsers. I'm not even asking for all browsers to render pages EXACTLY the same way, but at least similarly. IE just screws up CSS so much. It's a pain in the butt.

There will definitely be more to come on this issue, and I'll continue to post interesting links from both sides of the issue.

Fear and Loating of IE7

Operas Acid2 Challenge to Microsoft

IEBlog Info on IE7

Jeremy C. Wright 's post which seems to be in defense of IE7...

And of course, this petition....

IE SUCKS!

I found some information about getting iTunes to work with Linux, and I followed the steps listed here , but was unable to get iTunes to detect the iPod. I can actually get ephPod to run in Crossover Office , and have it read the iPod. iTunes also plays music fine, and can read and upate ID3 tags. But it won't read the iPod. I posted on the Crossover Office forums, but I don't know that I'll get anywhere with that.

I'll keep at it though, as I really dig iTunes and WISH Apple would port it to Linux.

If you are using MSIE right now, you probably aren't viewing this page. I have change the site so that the script auto-dies if the user agent contains MSIE, due to IE's shortcomings with viewing CSS. I will be making a new, IE only stylesheet in the future. If you can't use a good fucking browser, you sure as fuck don't need to be doing anything here anyways...

Fuck.

Thanks to Sean for the moth graphic.... he does good work, check his blog out...

Also, I don't know how this looks in IE. I imagine it looks like shit. Fuck IE. Fuck your shitty ass browser. Why don't you use a GOOD browser, eh? Sheesh...

I fixed a few other things.... it's definitely coming along, at any rate...

So, as you can see, I made the changeover to O2... I couldn't stand using that other shit any longer, and I had to switch it.... however, I'm not totally sure how stable this is yet and/or if it has gaping security holes... so if you find something, please email me the problems you found, and let me know that it's not working...

That's all... time for some work on this shit, as the only reason I really switched as it will force development...

Been gone for a while.... a long while... I almost forgot about this site for a minute....

Interesting times since the last time I posted here... and that's the thing, I have no urge to talk about them online.... it makes the whole blog idea sorta pointless if you don't actually say anything that anyone gives a damn about....

On the coding scene is absolutely nothing.... the leagueonline project fell apart because of some issues with the games it was to track (both Madden and ESPN2k5 have online league support built in).... and other then that, no coding whatsoever.... I'm waiting on something at the place I work at now, would be nice, I'm super pumped, but I'm not gonna get my hopes up....
Bad news since the last time I posted as well.. the people close to me know what I'm talking about and are praying about it (those people that are close to me are the only ones that read this site, so really, I should just outright say it...)

Hmm... I moved too.. yeah.. .new internet connection.. download is better.. upload is much, much worse... goodbye littleorange.. it's a shame, that box now holds Windows XP in it's inards.... whereas my main desktop machine is now running Debian.... the conversion went smoothly, and so far, I have had no problems doing anything I used to do on Windows, with a few minor kinks... I now see no reason to ever use windows on my main machine... sure, you can't play games on Linux (well, you can't play all games), but shit, with performance this well as a day-to-day, desktop OS, I have to use it....I'm enjoying the relearning of all the things that make Linux better then Windows.... All I have to do is look at Gkrellm, telling me that I have 380mb of my 512 free, and I'm happy.... I can also play 15 copies of a 1.4gb quicktime file with no slowdown in any of them.. sorta funny.. i can watch 6 episodes of the simpsons, and six of seinfeld at the same time....

Wow, does it suck in here not having a chair.... cripes..
I just realized, my cookie timed out while I was typing this.. I hope not to lose it....

Here

Big news is that Streetlight is going to be coming to Toledo, Cleveland, Chicago and Grand Rapids... and I plan on going to at LEAST two of these shows if not more. I'm super pumped as are the crew that will be going with me. It's been a long time coming, but from EVERYTHING I've heard they put on a kick ass live show, so it's probably worth the wait.

The problem with these shows is that as they get closer, the day my girlfriend leaves also comes closer. That's not good, I'm really going to miss her. I'm hoping that everything works out between us even with her in another city, but I guess it's hard to say if that's the case. Only time will tell, as they say in cheesy tv sitcoms.

I added some new pictures today from my new desk at work. It's nice. Shelby has the other desk near me, but I'm pretty sure I got the better of the deal, as my desk faces the window that sees the sun go down. One of the pictures in their (the album cover) is just great... it was beautiful there, regardless of the shitty amount of work we got going..

Programming trudges on, with my splitting my attention between my pet project, the Tecmo Tourney and Leagueonline.net. Both seem to be going well, with the Tecmo Tourney project basically done at this point. It's really nerdy, I know, but it's enjoyable.

Gmail invites have been coming in like crazy lately. I've gotten about 13 in the last two days. Getting some decent stuff for em now, regardless of how many there are out there. It seems there are alot of people who haven't even heard of Gmail. Hillarious. Interface is just AWESOME. I love gmail, I leave it open all day, hence the reason I'm getting so many invites. Rockin'!

Nothing else to say for now. Should be moving soon. Who knows what will happen to littleorange when I move. Hopefully, I can find somewhere to host it.

The Tecmo Project is done now. It has alot of paralells to the league online project as well, and most if not ALL of the code will be able to be re-used for that site. I thought it would be sorta hard, but now I realize it shouldn't be too difficult at all....'

I am so lucky to be able to work today, on this beautiful Monday.... boy, I sure love my job! What a lucky fella I am
/sarcasm

That's it....

I got a gmail account from a really nice guy (who is also a fellow Debian user). I'm trading him a bunch of simpsons and seinfeld episodes for them, going to mail them out to California later this week. I'll tell you, the interface is pretty smooth, and some of the features (keyboard shortcuts!!) are an amazing and new revelation in webmail. I am super happy I got one. And as you can guess, the address is wezzul@gmail.com

I'm just really excited about it!

Boy, it's been busy lately. Me and shelby have been going crazy with the project we are working on. It's shaping up pretty nicely. It should be done alot sooner then we thought. And with the news that moveable type is now going to charge for their shit, it's all the better.

Also working on a project with X @ digitalpimpz. That's one that we really haven't begun yet, but he is confident we can get it done shortly. It's funny I'm working with both these guys as neither of them really knows shit about php. I'm not saying I'm a genius, but I have a great grasp on it, that's for sure.

This past week, it seems, has been working, drinking, and coding. There was other stuff, of course, but the coding is what is fresh in my head at all times. I actually wrote some code out in church the other day. It was great. I can write coherent and working code away from the computer.

I need to stop thinking about this project, and about drinking, and work, and go sit in a tree somewhere, and eat leaves. Return to nature. Yah, that's it. Look for some updates from a tree real soon.

So I changed the color, if you didn't notice.. Gallery is working again as well... work makes me busy, but not doing anything having to do with work.....

One more final, and I'm done for.... a week? Summer session is going to suck, but at this point, it's necessary.. I've been in school for too damn long, and I gotta get outta here....

Wings lost.. I've posted my thoughts on that just about everywhere I go.... pretty damn upsetting to me.....

That's it.... littleorange in full effect...

Testing some gallery shit...

Well, we're back, in some shape or form.... though not exactly how I'd like it... take what you can get though.....

I got nothing much to say except that I hate school, and I hate work, and I lost my best disc this past week....

Look for some shit in the gallery soon if I get around to it.... also, maybe some more scripting work for 7pounds.

I've been busy as fuck doing some coding for Shelby for 7pounds. I did a randomimage script for him as well as an uploader for it, as well as a news poster and an uploader, which I am also using on littleorange for those that are not adept with the mystical ways of ftp (read: computer illits)

Other then that, not much is going on. School is just about as bad as ever, I hate it with a passion. Same with work. I do like doing this coding though, as this is stuff I'd like to do for a job some day. Next is to tackle the interaction between php and mysql dbs. We'll see how that goes when I get some time to actually do it.

Hockey playoffs are coming soon, I can't wait. That's seriously one of the best times of year, if you ask me. We'll see how the wings do, though, as always, I think they're gonna win it.

We played poker last weekend at my buddies house, and it was a laugh riot, so we are playing again this week. It should be fun again, even though we aren't playing for big money. I won big last week (doubled my money) so this week should be even better if I get those bitches to up the stakes. ;)

That's all.... update again in a month.. :)

Well, my spring break from work and school is in full swing... tomorrow, I go to Grand Rapids until Friday... I was going to get in alot of disc golf, but it seems that Riverside is flooded as hell, as happens every year, so that may not be happening as much as I'd like, though there are other courses in the area.... bought a new disc just for this, so hopefully, I can get some play in with it...

Littleorange is in a new case now.. it's snazy, all black.. in turn, the old case has been modified by shelby, you can see pictures of it here. He uses chameleon paint for it, which changes from green to purple, depending on the angle you look at it from. I can't wait to see it in person.

That's about all I got right now. I'm looking forward to a week where I'm not using the computer very much. I've become much to reliant on computers, I think. I was checking out this blog and read one of his entries there, and I agree with alot of what he said about using the internet net too much, and over stimulation....

Me and my boy Deke leave tomorrow for Connecticut to see Streetlight Manifesto... this is, without a doubt, the farthest I've ever went for a show, and probably the farthest I will ever go for one.. I'm sick as a dog, but I watched Bamfer's rough edit of the first song from the most recent Stone Pony show, and it made up my mind, I gotta go. I'd regret it for a long time if I didn't. For some reason, this band really touches me. I doubt I'll ever be able to explain it.

So wish us luck, and look for pictures here when I get back. Should be an awesome time, even though I'm sick, and we're sleeping in the car. I could care less. It's worth it for this show.

Well, it's actually Saturday now. Really early Saturday. I worked till 11:15 last night, and work from 7-1 today.... it's all so I can go home and see Mindell, as he is home for a week, and this is the only time I got... .me, him, deke, and the bass should have a good time tonight.... a good, beer drinking time..

Beer Friday at work was yesterday... it was actually pretty nice... most of the bigwigs seemed drunk, and alot of the techs too... it's so easy to do this job in any state of mind though... it becomes very routine after a while, so much so that I don't even have to think about it anymore... I'm on a call right now, but you'd never know it from this totally coherent ranting I'm doing here... but I don't have to listen to the customer, and I don't have to think about what they are saying... I know what they want, regardless of what they say, or do...

Song of the Random Amount of Time: Cursive - The Great Decay

Everytime I fuck with spreadsheets, I seem to get a better understanding as to what exactly is going on... I actually enjoy using them because honestly, it's easier that way, for sure....

Yeah, I think it's time for a song.... let's see here...

Lifetime - Turnpike Gates

Still not sure I really enjoy this band, but this song is a-ok..

Getting things back into shape here.....

About to be a new year.. how exciting.... right...

I'm sick right now... also found out I need a root canal... that sucks.. awful fucking day.... being home was fun, but not THAT fun.... I'm glad to be back in Lansing, that's for sure......

No drinking for me tonight.... taking it easy..... listen to music or something, that's what I've been doing basically all day today..... revisiting some favorite Bright Eyes and Good Life tracks.... and with that...

The Good Life - Don't Make Love So Hard

Well, somehow, in my laziness, I have become somewhat productive. I finally have found "Moveable Type in an iframe"'s issue with cutting text or and/or showing un-necessary scroll bars. However, now that my fuckign pages look pretty in IE, they are fucked up in Mozilla. I have no idea why, and the code looks fucking fine.... but alas, it's not working like it should....

I tried to walk away from this, and do something OTHER then think about these stupid nagging little issues, but it's plaguging me not, eating at me until I can't think of anything else, and all I can do is try and fucking fix it.... so I sit here, Guinness by my side, trying endless shit, and the thing is, once I fix it, I will have forgotten, tomorrow, what I did.... oh well, if it gets fixed, I don't really care....

It's almost christmas.. I need to buy some presents.. I've taken it too far this year with the shopping late int he year... lets see if I can get that shit done..

Man, this week has been hell.. *lol* actually, it's been great... my grades were decent, and all I did this week was work and fuck around.. it was pretty fun... and I got 3 weeks of this left..

Christmas approaches.. it may be time to go shopping now.... I don't know, I hate this more and more every year.. it's just quite tedious and everyone gets upset if they don't get what they want, and shit like that.. I mean, whats the whole point of all that anyways.. I really don't get it..

No song of the week, I'm too lazy/busy for even that...

Yeah, this is fun.. first final went well, second one went shitty... made some money off the final though, so that's all good at least....

Man, I'm delinquent on posting here.. that's bad... I should post here more often.. but I don't think anyone reads it..

As you can see to the left, there is now a link to the past songs of the week for your downloading pleasure.. boy, I sure hope the RIAA doesn't bust me.. *lol*

Two new songs of the week this week, both songs I'm really into lately...

Pharoahe Monch - Simon Says
Dropkick Murphys - Fields of Athenry

Still working on the MAT page... blah blah blah.. I'm boring as fuck..

I'm on day two of the great 4 day weekend. I have to work tomorrow, but that's ok, it's only 4 hours.

The Lions game on Thursday was amazing.. the defense played GREAT, especially Dre Bly (who has to look around and wonder when the Lions will get someone BESIDES HIM out there in the secondary).. the seats were astounding, really great view of the whole game.... again, thanks to Vicente for graciously taking me to the game... we had a good time!

Listening to a cover of "Redemption Song" by Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer.. really damn good... link is here, check it out.

Two more days and then back to school. How I am dreading it.. Poop..

It's gotta be quick, heading out the door to see the Lions play the Green Bay Packers.... big up to Goose for this! Doubleshot this week...

The Specials - Ghost Town
Fear - I Don't Care About You

Happy "Turkey Day" as they say in the more trendy parts of the country...

Been a while since I last updated.. I know you're all clamoring for more... *l*

It snowed for the first time this week, with the snow actually sticking. How wonderful. I sure missed the bitter fucking cold that is Michigan between the months of November and March. Oh well though. I could move.

Streetlight Manifesto has scheduled some shows out on the east coast. I may go to the one in NYC if I get the money around for it. We shall see about that though. It would be nice if they'd come to the midwest.

I kicked ass on my physics test the other day... with the sheet of jesus christ.....

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, going ot the Lions game. That's gonna rock. Gotta get up at 6a. That is NOT going to rock. And to boot, I have to drive my rickety piece of shit car to Detroit. Ugh....

That's it... song of the week later.

So it's a velvet underground song this week..

The Velvet Underground - Candy Says

That's it. Work approaches..

Well, since I have this wonderful server, and a shit ton of bandwidth, and not alot to do with it, I set up a competitive tetris server today. You can come play on it, it should be up most of the time. First you need to download the client program, located here, and then just connect it to littleorange.wezzul.com. There you go. There won't always be someone playing, obviously. But if you want to play, IM me @ wezzul.

That's it for today....

Last night was real interesting... went to the bar with some buddies of mine, went to a party that was next door to my buddy's apt, then came home... that really doesn't begin to describe the fun of it all... but yeah, it was great... Big up to Tobassco Sauce Beer....

Today, going to some dude's house with Shelby because he sells computer shit really cheap.. looking to upgrade the very server that this shit runs on.... would be nice if I could get maybe an 800mhz proc or something like that...

Song of the week seems to be going over well.. my mom downloaded the track and even she likes it... amazing.. first time I think I've EVER liked music that my mom likes....

MSU blew it yesterday... in 3 weeks they have went from first place in the big ten to being in 6th... and now, they are most likely going to the Motor City Bowl.... woo... get to go all the way to Detroit for a fucking bowl game.. lucky me..

Thanksgiving approaches and so does the great, great Lions v. the Packers that I am going to see that day.. Thanks to Goose for that treat... it's gonna rock..

Until next time...

New song of the week is:

Mogwai - Kids Will Be Skeletons

Check it out.

Today, I found a 17" monitor in the dumpster at work. Brought it home, in perfect working condition. How lucky can a guy be?

Tomorrow, I get my haircut. I'm gonna miss the ol' mop, that's for sure.... it's really grown on me (get it, har har har!)

Yeah.. that's about it... Bell's Batch 6000 sucks... not tasty AT ALL...

Decent weekend this weekend... went home to Grand Rapids for a night, went to the Moped Assault Team show... they get better and better every time I see them... I may be working with some members of the band on their website as well... which would be cool....

Went to the Lions game this weekend as well.... was a very boring game, but it was my first time to Ford Field, and the stadium is really nice... the team is very undeserving of it, that's for sure... also, it gets quiet like church in there..

Being in Detroit is sorta upsetting, especially where we were.... you can tell the city used to be really classy, and exciting, and now, it's deteriorated into what it is now, a shit hole... beautiful architecture, but it's being used for squat... sad, really...

This week sucks already.. but it's better then last, so that's all good... song of the week will be up later....

So tired... been a long time since I felt rested.. and after this weekend, I become more and more tired with every passing day.... it's a struggle to do daily activities now without falling asleep.... I really wish I could take a day off from everything and sleep all day... but that day isn't coming anytime soon... maybe Saturday I can sleep..

What a crazy weekend it was... ended up selling my ticket to the MSU/UM game for $150. I plan on buying a new computer for littleorange with that money. Titaniumorange, I'll call it. Oh how sweet it will be.

I'm going to be doing a song a week now so that you all can get a listen to what it is I am listening to for the week. This weeks song is "A Better Place, a Better Time" by Streetlight Manifesto. Their album, Everything Goes Numb was, in my opinion, the best album of the year. Link is below:

Streetlight Manifesto - A Better Place, a Better Time

Boy, this weekend is packed to the gills for me. Tomorrow night is Halloween (which is probably the onlky night this weekend I'm NOT doing something -- got a paper to write)... Saturday is the Michigan/Michigan State game, which promises to be large... my tickets are most likely sold for more then the price of the whole season's worth of tickets.... either way, if I go or not, my eyes will be glued to that game, as will most of the greater Lansing area's... and then Sunday night is the Atmosphere show in Grand Rapids, with my boy Seabass.. should be a good show as, after seeing him live earlier this year, I've got quite a good idea just what a GREAT show this dude puts on....

I'm glad this week is almost over... school has been a fucking bear, tests, and all this other bullshit... I really hate school...

This page is now hosted on my second server (which will end up being the 2nd in a series of 3 servers I'm going to use)... soon, if I get the money for those tickets, I'm going to buy a new mobo/chip/ram (thinking Athlon XP 2000 or something) for linux, as it sorely hates it's K6-2 ways....

Big up to those that read this... you're good people... tell the people that don't read it to fuck right off..

Decent weekend, overall, except for Sunday... Lions lost, had to stay an extra half hour at work.... it really kinda sucked...

I think that I am the only one that reads this.. that's ok though... often, I forget how I felt just a few hours ago....

I often wonder what it would be like to go without any human contact for an extended period of time... would I go crazy? Maybe it would be enjoyable, or a rewarding experience, but I can't really say for sure, as I've never done it, and I don't know that I ever will...

I'm currently making a mix cd for the winter called "Cold Grey Winter", based on the fact that winters here in Michigan are terribly dreary and depressing to me.... looking for any and all suggestions for this mix... I've got a list going right now, which is posted on various boards that I post on... but nothing concrete thus far.....

This week in school, I have two huge tests, and some homework as well... Paper due on Monday, and of course, this is the one weekend where I KNOW I am busy for the whole thing.... Halloween is Friday, Saturday is the biggest game of the year, Sunday is the Atmosphere show in GR.... I wonder if I will get it all done or not.... I wonder if I even care right now...

More later....

Well, tonight is the Wings/Stars game which I will be attending. That should be pretty fun, for sure. Then tomorrow, going with m'love to Uncle John's Cider Mill, which should also be a good time. Not sure about the rest of the weekend, but I know the Lions SHOULD get a win this weekend, as they play the dreaded and awful Bears.

I got the new Iggy Pop album, Skull Ring, today, and I am really enjoying it. The tracks that he does with Green Day are pretty stellar. Favorite so far is Private Hell, though, for the most part, the whole album is pretty decent.

Out

Elliott Smith died today. That's a fucking shame. Good lyricist, good song writer. I guess he stabbed himself in the chest too. If that's not fucking gruesome.

Going to the wings game on Friday. I'm pretty pumped for that, espeially since it is against Dallas.

Suggestion on content for here? I'm getting bored with my Linux box cuz I don't know what to do with it now. So give me some ideas.

It's funny how I act like people read this.

I was speaking with a friend today online, and I made a (in my opinion) profound statement about the past. He was asking me about getting back together with an ex, and if it ever works. My advice was that it can work, but is more then likely not going to work. He said that he really still liked her, and at this point, I made the statement that the past is almost always romanticized by us. We all seem to remember the good things in a relationship, and that it was all hunky dory, when actually, it wasn't. It's sort of sad to think about the past when you think of some of the good times. But don't forget that there were bad times too, and everything wasn't all great...

Wow, that sounds alot stupider then it did earlier today.. and not profound at all...

How painfully awful it was on Thursday, when my computer stopped working all together. For the first time in a long time, I got a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) and in Windows XP no less. I'd boot up, and get it. It didn't reference a driver as it usually should, and there was really no fix to it anywhere online. I flashed the BIOS, swapped out all sticks of memory and drives, did a system restore, to no avail. Eventually, I ended up being able to get in long enough to back up the most important of files, and to install Win2K on it. I am not back, "so fresh and so clean", with Windows XP, starting all over again with jsut about everything. I salvaged most of my mp3s, and most of my videos.. but I lost a good part of alot of the stuff I worked hard to attain..

Oh well. . it's just a computer.. if only I could think that way about it..

This weekend looks like it may be alright.. thus far it has been interesting.... for those that read this (that being me, and maybe a couple guys at work), I will post on Monday when I get done with this weekend... we'll assess it's value then..

I forgot how much I liked these lyrics....

Did you expect it all to stop
At the wave of your hand
Like the sun's just gonna drop
If it's night you demand
Well, in the dark we're just air
So the house might dissolve
Once we're gone, who's gonna care
If we were ever here at all?
Well, summer's gonna come,
It's gonna cloud our eyes again,
No need to focus when there's nothing that's worth seeing
So we trade liquor for blood
In an attempt to tip the scales
I think you lost what you loved
In that mess of details
They seemed so important at the time
Now you can't even recall
Any names faces or lines
It's more the feeling of it all
Well, winter's gonna end, I'm gonna clean these veins again
So close to dieing that I finally can start living..
Alright......

I have tickets to the following sports events.. Shit, I'm lucky!

10/24, Friday - Detroit Red Wings v. Dallas Stars
11/01, Saturday - Michigan State v. University of Michigan
11/09, Sunday - Detroit Lions v. Chicago Bears
11/24, Thursday (Thanksgiving) - Detroit Lions v. Green Bay Packers

Wow, how great this will be....

I am a selling machine, I just upsold enough before everyone else to earn myself a free dub from Menna's. That is about the only thing to make work good..

On another note, I did not get a wristband for the LOTR trilogy showing as I know no one would be able to go to get the tickets.... I'm real pissed about that, but oh well, that's the way it goes..... I guess I'll have to see them all individually... what a shame.. maybe someone will be selling the tickets in the paper or something...

Hmm... this is my first day running Moveable Type off my linux box, so basically, it is still in the testing phase.... hopefully, if work isn't busy today, i'll be able to fuck with it enough to get it to the point where I like it.....