March 30, 2005
Goooorillaz
Check out the Gorillaz new video. I dig their anims.....
New Video
Wurd.
Anne Colter..Person zero for Blond Jokes
Ok...you guys/gals have to check this out.
Watch the Anne Colter piece for sure but if you have time watch the whole 5th estate about the right and left in the USA.
I'd like to hear your take on all of it.
I believe there is a connection between peroxide and brain damage. Shame..
She's purdy
Let me know if hear a rebuttal. Especially if she wears a skirt.... (I'm only objectifying her because she deserves it)
Megan's Law Rocks the House
A new California law, Assembly Bill 488 (Nicole Parra), sponsored by the Attorney General now provides the public with Internet access to detailed information on registered sex offenders.
This expanded access allows the public for the first time to use their personal computers to view information on sex offenders required to register with local law enforcement under California's Megan's Law. Previously, the information was available only by personally visiting police stations and sheriff offices or by calling a 900 toll-number. The new law was given final passage by the Legislature on August 24, 2004 and signed by the Governor on September 24, 2004.
That's right, we are LIGHT YEARS ahead in California, check out this database:
Do a search on San Francisco, or Oakland for that matter...
March 29, 2005
Imposter!!!
Someone is an unoriginal naming bastard!! I hope it was that guy. Either that or it's jeremies identity theft back in action.
Ok, not that exciting but I thought it was funny when I looked up a familiar blog on the web and came up with this.
Marky Lipsmacker
I am going to start making some of the old icons better... because it is fun for me, and I there are a few that are just bad. Stay tuned. Actually, there are a ton of things I want to do in general... but I never have the balls to just sit down and do them. Maybe I will post a to do list so you all can motivate me. Oh, and mark, sorry, like all icons the big picture is better than the mini icon.
We Miss you too!
Hey Jer - thanks for starting this thing - it is nice to see what people are up to - especially when you don't live near anyone else (and no one visits!). Kurt and I have been in town for a while now without weekend flights. We went to 3 shows last week - it is our mission to see as many music shows as possible. All were pretty good and ran the gamut from sold-out main stream (Interpol) to small semi-local (Hockey Island visiting from NYC with local bands) and inbetween (Guitar Wolf from Japan). We're off this week, but have a lot more lined up!
March 28, 2005
1-2-3 Post
Many interesting articles have been written on how our sense of community has changed over that past hundred years.
It is one of the things that pisses me off about living in a large metropolis like san francisco. I know none of my neighbors in any sort of real way... other than recognizing their faces and saying hi on the street. I would actually feel out of place borrowing sugar or cream.
One thing that has been on my mind frequently is the crowning of "work" as the only priority for most people in our culture. That is not to say that I am a slacker. If any one of you knows me well at all, you know that I am the opposite of that when it comes to my career in graphics etc. Where did the priority of community go to? Where is the priority of corresponding with friends? (i.e. talblog?) Why does work trump all of our personal relationships in such a universal way? The most obvious reason is survival: money=food=house=comfort... but when we do all of this in excess of our needs , and it actually detracts from comfort, what then?
The main argument here is that we all say "I just don't have time to do this or that"... It is not that we don't have time, it is that we don't give it a priority in our lives. I am thinking about this after easter weekend, where another holiday went by I didn't see any of my family.
Here comes the cheesy part: When I originally set up talblog, I did it for a specific reason. After moving about 5 times in 10 years I realized that a lot of people that were really important to me were just too hard to keep in touch with. Not that I couldn't call or write, but just because they weren't part of my day to day life anymore. I wanted a place that we could all just throw up a little link or snippett or saying and it would help us keep in touch, and it would put some of my really close friends in touch with other ones who might not have met. (Brett, missy, rob, liz?). Fact is, my friends are a big important part of my life, and I want to make sure that I keep them. This talblog thing is a silly little way to try to do it, but I wouldn't have known that liz has started knitting otherwise...
I got the idea from my buddy loren, who comments now and then and runs www.underachievers.com which is a blog about his old high school pals.
So anyway, don't forget to post, it means a lot to me (and hopefully others) I am done talking because I feel like I might just start rambling without a point... I like checking this site and seeing what people are up to... even if it is just a link or a line.
March 27, 2005
March 26, 2005
March 24, 2005
March 22, 2005
Brawny Paper Towels, the quicker picker upper
thank god for the Brawny Man....
March 21, 2005
Animation Reference
This is a pretty cool discover by cornell researchers, that in order to escape danger, vampire bats often run away, as opposed to flying. Don't you wish you went to Cornell?
Check it, also click the movie...
XBOX star wars republic commando
Who wants one... I have one extra to give to you... first comment (by someone I know) gets it...
March 19, 2005
Irony
I saw something strange today but I didn't realize it until a little later.
Driving to the store a saw a van nearly jump the curb to miss a squirrel.
When I passed by him I noticed it was a pest control company van.
I chuckled..
It makes sense when you think about it. I mean, it's not like a contract killer randomly blows people away on route to his next job.
The guy was just trying to be professional.. I guess..
March 18, 2005
Augmented Animals
Our furry friends can benefit from technology in all kinds of ways!
March 15, 2005
Mark's icon in progress
I'll color it up soon... what do you all think? (besides the fact that he looks walleyed when I shrink the image)
March 14, 2005
BOO!!!
Man it's quiet around here. I came across this today at work. It's pretty awesome. Basically you just take your black and white photo, paint colors on it roughly and it turns it into a color image/movie, etc. Very interesting.
Colorization Using Optimization - Linky McLinks
Lates.
March 8, 2005
red mug phone home
I FOUND IT! finally, it has returned to me...i'm talking about my red mug. i probably didn't blog about losing it, b/c i was too depressed. basically when i first started here over a year ago, i walked up to crate n barrel and bought myself the best red mug ever. it was oversized, with a fabulous scarlet glaze; quite suitable for tea, hot chocolate or just water. i loved it.
mostly i'd hand wash it or sometimes i'd stick it in the dishwasher in our little work kitchen. normally, i'd be sure to snatch it up after the wash cycle was up...but about a month or so ago, i forgot about it and someone abducted her. coworker pigs.
i asked around, but the other assistants and custodial staff scoffed like i was asking if anyone had seen the penny i dropped in a fountain. fuckwits. i was about to make a ghetto "missing" poster for it and slap it on the cabinets...but thought management might frown apon that. so i conducted my own private investigation...walking around and checking out people's desks....dropping hints....waiting for someone to slip up and produce my prize. nothing.
after six weeks of opening the kitchen cabinets hoping to see my ruby gem, i just about gave up. then i'd think of the jerk who held it hostage on his or her desk and get mad. where the fuck is my mug?!?! i should have written my name on the bottom with permanent marker.
today i got in late b/c i took the time to get my hair cut this morning (FYI, it looks lovely). being late to work is always something to smile about, so as i bounced down the hallway to the kitchen, it didn't even phase me when i opened the cupboard and thought, oh wow, that's a nice red mug.......WAIT A MINUTE, THAT'S MY MUG! *GASP*
so i snatched it up without another thought and peered around as if i expected someone else to be waiting in the wings for it. i was pretty much golem with his precious ring. i then felt the need to shove it in the faces of the jerks who said i'd never see it ever again. dicks.
one of the assistants down the hall, who knew about my lost mug saga, saw the reunification and only then felt the need to share how she had just used the mug a few days before...she realized it was my mug she was using and still didn't tell me about it. um, thanks for holding out on me, you snot. see if i help her align her excel files ever again. *SNAP*
to finish the drama....i needed a visual. i couldn't find an exact photo of the mug, but this is pretty damn close...obviously mine is red, not yellow. imagine my big, fat happy face right next to it.
anyway, that made my day. as did the free daffodils from one of the agents' offices.......then six more hours of work unmade my day. *sigh*
March 7, 2005
Mavericks, Ca.
A friend of a friend just went out to mavericks (big wave surf spot down here) and was able to get on a press boat with his 12 megapixel pro camera...
He posted some amazing pictures on his website... fun to drill through.
The Wire: Season One.
We have been plowing through the first season of the Wire at home. It is surprising great and everyone should rent it.
1) It is set in baltimore, and a lot of CRIME takes place on street names like Lanvale (that becky and liz used to live on), which is just strange.
2) It does a great job of showing what a pain in the ass it can be to be a police officer, with the utter bureaucracy of it all. Departments stepping on each other, politicians with agendas defining police priority. It really does a good job of showing why it is so hard to really FIX systematic problems
3) Everything has a consequence. Actions taken by the characters resonate through the worlds of both the criminals and the police. Using wiretaps and listening devices as ways of connecting the police and criminals, and wrapping their worlds together is amazingly interesting. HBO does a great job (in all their series) of illustrating how one action can move down to all the characters in a realistic and compelling way.
4) It is HBO, so they act like real humans. They do stupid human things, and sad human things and they don't seem to be acting at all.
5) So far, they haven't used the "cocktease" device to make me want to watch other episodes. "Will they hook up?" Oh I have to tune in. They don't do that and I am happy about it. We will see if they try to pull that shit in subsequent seasons.
So, you should rent this series. It is a great thing to watch on a rainy day.
March 4, 2005
Republic Commando: Like it
Just started and by golly it looks super keen! It's not suckin the life out of my system and I have all the graphic options at the max. AND it looks good (ATI 9600 128)
I was missing a opening mov...sup?
I never asked. Have you played the game start to fini?
I wanted to sit through the concept art during the load but dinner was ready.
March 3, 2005
Republic Commando: BUY IT
Hey everyone, the game I poured my life into for 2.5 years just hit the shelves yesterday... friggin buy it!
It is like splinter cell, only more simple, star warsy and basic. It has an online component for xbox and pc that is straightforward, but not boring. In case you are wondering, I was character generalist guy, who did the openning cutscene and a bunch of everything else in the game (except story), brett and loren were both animators and it is just a dern cool game.
March 2, 2005
leenks
wooooh, this made me chuckle.
http://www.leenks.com/redirect.php?lid=8382
March 1, 2005
the countdown
seeing as i begin training my JFPasst replacement next week, yet still haven't found a new job. i thought it would be fun to say "f*ck you" to the man and blog for a bit. here's some complete randomness that has amused me or gone through my noggin' in the past 72 hours.
* i'm wondering if my boss's hotflash could pass sometime soon, so that he'll actually stop cranking the A/C to sub-artic temperatures. i'm about to fashion a scarf out of tissues and light a fire in my trashcan.
* i have zero respect for my boss. and i hate that i'm so bitter. but somehow, someway, something new comes up every week to reinforce this statement.
* so a former coworker and i were seriously checking all over the internet to purchase mark's great find - the serial killer knife holder. well the company doesn't distribute in the US. so basically we were thinking of every human we know in europe/asia/canada and how we can smuggle some into the US.
well low and behold mike gets an email back saying how IT'S NOT EVEN IN PRODUCTION YET. so we have to wait even longer for the little gem. what terrible news.
* this email transaction made me laugh...from some assistants today:
__________________
Does anyone know of a GREAT traffic school, for a ticket-prone client?
Thank you.
__________________
Yeah, the Improv place on Melrose does one on Saturdays and it's pretty good for torture.
__________________
Thanks for all the online and comedy club schools; howver, by GREAT, I meant CORRUPT. Does anyone know of a CORUPT traffic school, for a ticket-prone client?
Thank you.
__________________
hahaa whew....hollywood is like the mob.
* could i look ANY scarier than i do here in this oscar photo? of course it's the ONLY one taken. i mean i have serious PSYCHO eyes. people would think i'm the BTK serial killer before that dude in kansas.
* i wish i had some good Oscar stories for everyone, but sadly the show was pretty normal. the celebs really did look amazing. the women were gorgeous and healthy looking. the guys were shined up and quite handsome. overall chris rock was funny, no one complained.
* i did see star jones and want to vomit at her nasty, sloppy cleavage. the best/saddest part was. i only saw her once (thank you Jesus) and she was actually quite out of it. you could tell that the future of her red carpet career was riding on that one night. she was quiet, and a bit morose as she skirted down the press line. it made me happy, but then sad b/c i don't want to damage my karma too severly.
* i was hanging out around the deadline press room when jamie foxx was giving his acceptance speech. samuel l. jackson and a woman were also standing there watching the same screen. after the "moving" speech i thought, oh samuel will be excited for his fellow brotha to win.
but i was wrong. mr. jackson turned around, sort of rolled his eyes and made an "are you kidding me" kinda face....then other messenger (kevin) and i heard him mumble something in a patronizing tone re: jamie foxx's speech. so i pretty much gathered that samuel l. jackson thinks jamie foxx and his speech were full of shit. kevin and i pretty much turned to each other and went, "daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn".... *ouch*.
* and that's all i got for now. check back lata.
Absent Observer
Things just don't seem to be slowing down around here. Kurt and I just got back from a trip to B-more this weekend for our third and final installment of "packing and moving" and his stuff should be coming to a storage space near us tomorrow.
We threw a small party on Saturday night in the completely empty apartment - BYOB & BYOC (chair). We had a lot of fun - our friend Emily from college came down and we got to see Allison and her pregnant belly - she is due at the end of April. Things got kinda crazy with a large roll of industrial cling wrap but it stopped short of throwing it over the 18th floor balcony to see how fast it would unravel (and kill someone).
We have also gotten to sample a number of rental cars over the past month or so and the last was certainly not our favorite.
We got a Mercury Sable - which unbeknowst to us is the modern day old people's car. A list of the old-people friendly amenities: bench seat in the front with pull down arm rest, gear shift on the steering column, light knob on the left panel and the thing had no turning radius to speak of. No new-fangled console with confusing buttons, and a really loud chime if you don't put your seatbelt on.
Other than that things are busy and domestic. Kurt lost the remote to the TV about 2 weeks ago while it was on input mode (there's not button on the TV to change it) so our tv is only good for watching DVDs or playing video games.
I've been trying to cook, but with 2 people in a tiny one bedroom apartment, we seem to be cleaning most of the time.
Time to find somewhere new to live! Other than that, the sharing of bills is starting to kick in and it is sweet!
More next time I can resurface…