December 2007

On the Web

• The Moby Equation: A clever formula used to determine a recording artist’s sellout level.
• Untraceable: The funniest film trailer I’ve seen in awhile. Looks like The Net meets Fear Dot Com. Enticing, no?

In the Stereo

• Salter Cane: Salter Cane
• Van Halen: Fair Warning

On the Silver Screen

• Juno

glad music is still more important to me than vacuuming.

disturbed by how consistently bad I am at being a responsible adult.

Juno stopped just shy of being too cool for its own good. It's pretty damned well done, and Ellen Page is really something else.

The highway's jammed with broken heros on a last chance power drive.

It's easy to distinguish HDTVs from each other by their catchy names, like the Panasonic TH-42PZ700U and the Philips 42PFL7432D.

Why does the Flash Player on the Mac still suck so bad?

predicting that excessive compression artifacts will become a hip retro design trend after lossy compression schemes are extinct.

just dumped all of my RSS subscriptions. I'm starting the new year fresh and looking forward to seeing what brings me back.

Recurring funereal dilemma for a recovering Catholic: To be happy or sad for someone who died believing in heaven?

heading out to what I hope is my last funeral of 2007.

sitting by the fire, reading about chess tactics. Merry Christmas, everyone!

heading up to western MA for some quality time with the lady's folks.

wincing through the, uh, podcast from, um, my Webmaster Jam Session presentation while wrapping, um, gifts.

shielding my ears from a nearby man's laughter, which sounds like a dying pig.

beginning a day to be spent at the intersection of power tools, spray paint, and graphic design.

anxious for details on the new My Bloody Valentine album, thinking it would be grand if my earplugs got to filter a stateside show in 2008.

wondering why a term as relative and vague as "new media" ever took off, and why its usage continues.

The title "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger" still sounds quite surreal. I wish the title "President George W. Bush" could sound that way, too.

thinking about turning off the RSS reader for the rest of the year, then unsubscribing from everything to see what I come back to.

discovering that Guitar Hero III both looks and runs like complete shit on my MacBook.

unsure of why the Wii is still in such short supply a whole year later.

Unicycle, bicycle, tricycle, motorcycle: Why does something cease to be a "cycle" once it has four wheels?

thanking @bobulate for recommending the superb Lives of Others.

retiring the devil horns from my hand gesture repertoire. Its menace and meaning(s) are gone. A eulogy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corna

Free, stupid joke for sitcom writers: A fast food junkie who can never quite figure out how the drive-thru window works.

having a nice, quiet breakfast disrupted by the wailing contents of bulky strollers.

wouldn't make a good transvestite because I just can't do buttons on the left (the beard doesn't help either.)

Today's Layer Tennis match is an epileptic's worst nightmare.

on the cusp of having health insurance for the first time in years, so expect me to be hit by a bus full of explosives just before January.

pretty sure I left my Nintendo DS (with Mario Kart) in a rental car. :(

looking forward to the forthcoming Faraquet singles compilation, and hoping their pseudo reunion yields some new material too.

remembering when I was young, and I thought competence surely must be a prerequisite for employment.

learning, at press time, that the opaque white ink used in offset printing is not all that opaque.

can't believe it took me this long to officially complete my David Lee Roth era Van Halen collection. I started with 1984 (in 1984).

wishing I always liked things made by people I like.

iPhone + Shure Music Phone Adapter + Bose On-Ear Headphones = Hands-Free Bliss.

watched 300, whose neocon smokescreen backfires by making you pine for a leader that actually gives a shit about you.

imagining that the FedEx/Kinko's training for store employees consists of "How to Put on Your Uniform."

preparing a declaration of war.

just sent a nasty e-mail to a mailing list whose unsubscribe doesn't work. Catch 22: If they don't call the cops, it wasn't nasty enough.

According to the chess game I'm playing, reducing my computer opponent to just a king (with checkmate imminent) results in a draw. Bullshit!

Although a lot of great songs do it, a fadeout seems like a lazy way to end a song.

Coors Light? Really?

working on this year's editions of holiday gifts. Is my artwork an inappropriate gift for someone close who might not otherwise be into it?

did a number on my back while bowling last night. Feeling old.

still in the office, annoyed that it stinks in here because some jackass was smoking downstairs. Who does that?

can't imagine how or why anyone would sing "Proud Mary" with any kind of enthusiasm.

in need of some more good alt country.

fascinated by the time and energy some people will put into building an audience to whom they have nothing to offer.

couldn't possibly be less interested in the Speed Racer movie.

It's amazing what they can do with corn and chemicals these days.

Apparently it never occurred to Omnigraffle that someone might want to select text in a PDF.

Second Law of Commuter Cycling: You are invisible to pedestrians, and their right of way is infallible.

The sidewalk is icy, so I'm walking like Ozzy Osbourne.

in pacing mode.

An oddly appropriate end to a bipolar kind of day: the first 12 episodes of Trapped in the Closet. Thoroughly entertaining.

nearly broke my thumb trying to crack it. It is pissed.

wondering if any other line of work I might have chosen would so consistently infuriate me.

completely distracted; absolutely buzzing with inspiration.

Fuck it. Virtual Stan 2.0 is happening.

wanting everyone to figure out once and for all that "loose" and "lose" are two different words.

Embarking on my second date in as many chilly days with a young lady you may know as the Swiss Miss.

Why do some Brits pronounce an R at the end of words that end with an A?

First Law of Commuter Cycling: "If there is wind, it will not be at your back."

feeling sorry for the people who have to work in the office downstairs, from whose sickeningly sterile fluorescent light nothing escapes.

wishing I got to see Thin Lizzy sometime between 1976 and 1980.

couldn't get through For Your Consideration.

watching the splogs overtake Google.

The solution to a street parking deficit? Cookiecutter townhouses with garages. Your own permanent parking spot starting at just $400,000!

watched Fast Food Nation with @bobulate and @jasonsantamaria. As heavy-handed polemics go, all this was missing was slow motion and strings.