Adventures in My Mind
 |
 |
 |
 |
Aug 31, 2001
Happy Birthday to me. Happy Birthday to me. Happy Birthday to me. Happy Birthday to me!
It's great having a birthday on a Friday; you can celebrate all weekend! And Monday is Labor Day, too! Woo Hoo!
Have a great weekend, all!
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 11:52 AM
Aug 30, 2001
Background: I've had an AOL Instant Messenger account for 5 years. I use it regularly. It's okay. I prefer Yahoo! Messenger, but most of my co-workers and friends have IM so que sera, sera. Note: For all of my IM Buddies, give Yahoo! a shot. My username is teddy_carroll.
Recently I had to sign up for AOL at work. The process was a customer service nightmare: broken databases, multiple upsell attempts, banner adds out the ass before I even got one scrap of content. All of that pales in comparison to the point of this rant. I just cancelled my AOL account and they have no way to keep my five year old IM account. I will, therefore, have to resubscribe to IM after my AOL account is cancelled on 9/3.
Question: If IM and AOL are so seperate that I can have one without the other for five years, why do they both have to be cancelled now when I attempt to cancell only one of them.
Answer: Switching cost. While they totally have the ability to let me keep IM without AOL, they don't want me to, thinking that if they make the switch from AOL as painful as possible that I won't switch. Well, guess what Steve and Gerald. Piss Off, the both of ya!
For all of you 30 million plus AOL subscribers, jump ship. Get out of there while you still can. You are being manipulated with fancy buttons and pretty colors. Get a different ISP and experience the Internet your own way, not the way a multi-billion dollar media giant like AOL Time Warner wants you to. Use your own mind. Don't let corporate America think for you. Vive la Revolucion!
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 10:29 AM
Aug 29, 2001
I've found that I like movies much more in the theatre than I do at home. Now hold on. Before you say, "Duh, who doesn't?" let me qualify. I like bad movies much better in the theatre. Meaning that I have often walked out of the theatre after watching a decidedly bad movie and felt that I enjoyed myself. I later realize that the movie sucked but I enjoyed the experience of watching it on the big screen with big speakers and a big tub-o-popcorn.
I am not that forgiving at home. I have a pretty good home theatre and DVD system, but it lacks the necessary "bigness" of the movie-going experience that allows me to overlook such trivial things as flat story lines, bad direction, horrible acting, and editing that makes the cutting prowess of Lizzie Borden look like a Japanese blowfish carver.
I find this rather curious, because until recently I thought of myself as a rather savvy movie-goer, but that just isn't the case. Hollywood's manipulations are not lost on me. It seems that I am just as capable of dragging my knuckles into and out of my local cathedral-like multi-plex as the next guy. Only after digesting the movie for a copule of days do I feel the burning idignation of someone who has just been had. Which, of course, is the idea. Hollywood wants to get your money up front. You pay for the bells and whistles only to find that they are woefully out of tune.
I suppose that's why I left Hollywood in the first place. Honestly, though, I miss it sometimes.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 4:16 PM
Aug 28, 2001
Director Kevin Smith (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Dogma, Mallrats, etc.) has written a comic strip about how he met and fell in love and finally kissed his wife Jen.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 10:02 AM
Aug 27, 2001
This video comes courtesy of my college roommate who has gone on to ponder the wonders and mysteries of the universe. (It sort of makes you wonder what astrophysicists do with the rest of their time!)
These are quite possibly the best movie reviews I have ever read in my entire life. Pauline Kael would be proud! I highly recommend the amusingly vituperative Jurassic Park III and Planet of the Apes. The scathing A.I. [prediction] is a beacon-like spear through the dark heart of modern schmaltz filmmaking. (Thanks to Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing Blog.)
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 9:35 AM
Aug 24, 2001
Inverse, reverse, controverse through ...
Adverse, subverse, perverse, too!
The trouble with boredom is there is just too much to think about!
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 4:45 PM
Aug 23, 2001
From Big Trouble in Little China ...
JACK BURTON:
You just listen to the ol' Pork Chop Express an' take his advice on
a dark and stormy night when some wild-eyed eight-foot tall maniac grabs
your neck an' taps the back of your favorite head up against a barroom wall.
An' he looks you crooked in the eye an' he asks if you've paid your dues.
You look rihgt back at that big sucker an' remember what Jack Burton
always says at times like that. "Have you paid your dues, Jack"
"No, sir, I've just charged 'em."
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 1:50 PM
Aug 22, 2001
Thank you, Mr. Green for the B-Day wish. Enjoy your trip.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 2:41 PM
Yesterday I was told of a guy who has jellyfish larvae under his skin. I know there are some pretty weird things associated with the ocean. But how does that happen? Jellyfish larvae under your skin? Must you fall asleep in a school of jellyfish? Have illicit relations with a jellyfish? However it happened, he has festering pustules all over his body.
Ack!
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 10:13 AM
Aug 18, 2001
I have fixed the problem with the comments links. The 43 blank comments dated 12/31/69 are a thing of the past.
On a side note, I'd like to thank Dan Engler at dotcomments for his help in isolating the problem. I would also like to thank him for sending me an email with the following opening words:
"If would have bothered to read ..."
Wow, now isn't that a way to greet your customers! Dan, your customer service skills are an inspiration to us all.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 5:16 PM
I have fixed the php bugs created by adding dotcomments. I figured out how to do a php include and my header, footer and left nav came back into the fold. But I still have one major problem: As you can see, most of my posts say that there are 43 comments. Well, there aren't. It's a bug somewhere in the dotcomments code. Dan, I really need to have this fixed! Please respond to my emails!!!
BTW, you can go ahead and post. The 43 blank comments will disappear and be replaced by your witty, reasoned, and insightful commentary.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 12:28 PM
Aug 16, 2001
I have added the ability to post comments. The code is provided by dotcomments. There are a couple of bugs to work out, like why does it open multiple blank posts dated 12/31/69 when clicking on comment for the first time. After adding a comment, the multiple blanks disappear. If anyone else out there is using dotcomments with blogger, and you can help, please let me know. Thanks.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 4:38 PM
Aug 15, 2001
It seems that I'm on a roll today.
The Bumper Dumper. You really have to see to believe it. The bitch of it is that it's a pretty damn good idea.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 3:06 PM
The Serial Killer Profile Quiz
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 2:19 PM
If you don't blog, would you? If you do blog, why? Tell me and I'll post edited responses.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 1:45 PM
Aug 14, 2001
Warner Home Video is about to release the 30th aniversary edition of Willy Wonka and the Chocolote Factory on DVD, which is great. What's not so great is that there will be no widescreen version included on the disk. If you are a true cineaste, you understand the importance of preserving the integrity and original intent of the filmmakers' vision. If you're not just remember this: the black space at the top and bottom of the screen is a good thing. You're actually seeing all of the film, not less of it.
All films should be released on DVD in their original widescreen theatrical aspect ratio. Sign this petition that tells Warner Home Video that we want to see Willy Wonka the way it was meant to be seen. As of this posting the petition has nearly 10,000 signatures.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 2:44 PM
Why does negativity sell?
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 1:50 PM
Aug 13, 2001
My friend Jim has posted a rather lengthy theme on Karma. It seems he's dealing with a pretty heavy episode of being screwed royally by someone. I have no personal insight into the matter, but I'd like to examine what he wrote. To paraphrase liberally, he suggests that the fruits of being a "nice guy" are not always apparent. The reward, he says, may only be a good night's sleep. This is certainly true, but I think that Jim's good night's sleep is only the tip of the karmic reward iceberg.
That good sleep comes from the knowledge that you are not like that. While it's certainly true that you are no saint - Who is? - you know deep down that you are a "nice guy." You can truthfully say that you would never do to someone what was just done to you. When all is said and done you gain comfort from the fact that all you have to do is pick up the pieces, to clean up what the other person messed up. This is an easy task. We do it all the time.
But how does one stop being an asshole? This is the task left to the other person. Most of the time you can bet that they don't even know that they are an asshole so they don't even recognize that there is a problem; therefore, they will most assuredly be an asshole to someone else. It's a never ending cycle. They move from one event to another and from one person to another and leave behind a trail of damage to which they are totally oblivious.
How does that stop?
Only through a deep personal introspection that assholes aren't capable of or they wouldn't be assholes in the first place. This is were the nice guy's satisfaction comes in. You know that all you have to do is rebuild a little while the other person will always be an asshole. This may be of small comfort when you wish you could drop the world on their head, but there is a sense of personal triumph when you succeed despite their best efforts. Besides, you're a nice guy and shouldn't be thinking about dropping the world on someone's head anyhow.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 10:55 AM
Aug 6, 2001
I waited nearly an hour for my bus this morning. It never came.
Sami drove me to work. We sat in traffic for 30 minutes.
Suburbs suck. At least I have a yard.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 2:39 PM
Aug 2, 2001
A perfect example of unintentional hillarity ...
This is the actual mascot for Butte High School in Butte, MT.
I know. It's sophomoric. It's juvenille. But you know what ... It's damn funny, too.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 3:05 PM
Aug 1, 2001
I envy the boaters outside my window. They zip up and down the river, happy to be on the water and away from work. I'd like to be out there with them. Instead I'm trapped up here on the fourth floor watching their aquatic fun.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 3:41 PM
MTV turns 20 today! Big f*****g deal.
What started as a revolution - you're kidding yourself if you think it wasn't - is now so derivative, passe and self-indulgent that I can no longer tell the difference between the bad wigs of Kurt "I'm a serious journalist" Loder and John "Do you want fries with that?" Norris.
I will not even comment on Carson Daley.
Much like SNL after the original Not Ready for Primetime Players left, MTV has not been the same since the departure of Martha Quinn, J.J. Jackson, Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, and Alan Hunter. But while SNL rebounded with the fabulous talents of Eddie Murphy, Phil Hartman, Dennis Miller, Billy Crystal, Mike Myers, and Darrell Hammond, MTV has given us the thrilling pre-packaged homogeneity of Jenny McCarthy, The Real World, Fred Durst, Eminem, Brittney Spears, and a resurgent, geriatric nightmare called Aerosmith.
Of course there are those who cling to the notion that MTV is still relevant, and, yes, still revolutionary. Yeah, they're so revolutionary that the people who franchised the music video no longer play them.
Get it?
Got it.
Give me the remote before I rip your goddamn arms off!
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 11:46 AM
