Here comes the iPod killer, again.... zzzzZzzZzZzzzZ ...

Oh, my Gawd. WHY are we still talking about the Zune and using "iPod Killer" in the same sentence instead of phrases like "alsoran" or "only losers have them" or "landfill fodder" or "piece of shit that has failed in the open market?"

Microsoft today announced the (kazoo fanfare here) ... Zune HD! It's the iPod Killer. Seriously. No - we mean it this time. ZzzzzZZzzZZzZzZ....

It has a touch interface. Like the iPod. It has HD output and a wide screen. Like the iPod. Oh, and it has a web browser, also for when you're in range of a wifi network. Just. Like. The. iPhone. BUT WAIT! There's more! It ALSO has an HD radio in it and has XBox integration. ZzzzZzzZzzzZzzzz...

Pricing and specs haven't been announced yet, but if history is a guide, then it will be specced to match the iPod and priced about the same, too. So basically you can get a device that screams to your friends "I'M LAME" for the same price you could get a genuine iPod, which - and let's face it - will make your skin beautiful, make your hair shiny, your teeth whiter and will make you instantly more attractive to the point that you'll have to hide in a cave to rest from getting laid so much just because of your sheer awesomeness. Maybe a step too far, but you get it. For the same money you get The Real Thing®. Not Big K cola.

But I guess clueless parents have to have SOME way to disappoint their kids on Christmas morning SOMEHOW...

Last Day Dream

Very cool short film. Beautiful pacing and great looking footage.

Last Day Dream [HD] from Chris Milk on Vimeo.

I want my Throwback!!!!

Pepsi and Mountain Dew Throwback came out on April 20, and I've been keeping my eyes peeled for it every since, to no avail. It's only supposed to be out for 8 FREAKING WEEKS, so I know my window is limited.

Today I decided to take things into my own hands and go straight to Pepsi's website to use their store locator. According to their store locator (which is horribly designed, btw) there are no stores in any major metropolitan areas in Texas that carry it. I tried Atlanta. Nope. Ditto San Francisco and Los Angeles. The only place I could find that sells it is in Manhattan, NY.

That is unacceptable. I want my damn Throwback, Pepsi. If only yakeees are getting the sugary goodness for 8 weeks, I'm going to be all kinds of pissed and might just stop enjoying the occasional Pepsi all together.

Effing give me my sugar water, dammit!

THIS is Awkward...

I may have a new favorite site: Awkward Family Photos.

Ten years in bullet time

I realized a few weeks ago that it has been ten years since one of the greatest movies of all time came out - The Matrix. It was mind-blowing and groundbreaking when it arrived in theaters on March 31, 1999. I remember going to see it with my buddy Mark Barry and just being completely inspired.

I decided to go back and watch it recently, which I did over a series of lunch breaks and while Kristi was in Houston. I was really surprised to find that it holds up very, very well after ten years - especially for a movie so much about technology. You can't say the same thing about a lot of movies about high tech. More often than not, what was once really cool now looks completely cheesy.

I think about has changed in my life since then. I had dialup. I had just bought my first computer. I had never yet rented or even watched a DVD. I was married less than a year and we were still four years away from having kids. We lived in Spring and it wasn't uncommon to have a whole Saturday just to watch football. I still had all my hair and none of it was gray. What was gray was my old Chevrolet Cavalier (ugh!).

I'm not saying I'd trade any of it (okay - well, I 'd like to have my hair back). It's just amazing how much changes in ten years.

But most importantly, those two abominations of Matrix sequels hadn't been released yet. It was a simpler, better time in that regard.

Ford plant dumps SUVs, goes small

"Ford Motor said Wednesday it will spend $550 million to convert a plant, which previously produced trucks and SUVs, into a "green" manufacturing complex building small fuel-efficient and electric cars."

If you have one, hang on to your SUV for a couple of years. The prices they'll fetch will soon go through the roof as supply dwindles.

via CNNMoney.

Big Brother Knows Best, Dontchaknow

"The government has told Bank of America it needs $33.9 billion in capital to withstand any worsening of the economic downturn, according to an executive at the bank."

and

"The government notified the bank of its decision on Tuesday, bringing days of negotiations to an end. The amount is higher than bank executives believed the bank needed, the executivesaid. "

The government notified the bank of its decision?!????!!!

So Bank of America has been saying "we're fine, Mr. Obama - really. We can handle this. We can do it."

And the government busts down the door and says "listen, foo, we know what's best for you better than you do. You're gonna take this $33.9 billion and LIKE IT!"

"The government" has got to go. At least in its present form. Any government that is this big and this powerful is too big for its own good.

via the New York Times

No bailout for the newspaper industry

"The White House on Monday expressed "concern" and "sadness" over the state of the ailing US newspaper industry, but made clear that a government bailout was not in the cards."

Of course it's not. Less press is good for Obama, folks.

via Brietbart.

Michael Savage banned from the UK

Conservative talk show host Michael Savage has been banned from the UK. Here's a statement from the United Kingdom Home Secretary:

"Coming to this country is a privilege. If you can't live by the rules that we live by, the standards and the values that we live by, we should exclude you from this country..."

We should post that quote on every airplane coming into the United States and on every square inch of our border.

Fishing Report

The following is post that I began while we were in Rockport with Tim and Janet back in January. I didn't finish because no matter how I tried, I couldn't quite find the right words to describe how stark it was that Tim was really, really not doing well. Almost immediately after our car trip to Port Aransas, Tim took a dramatic turn for the worse. Every time I wrote something after this, it sounded melodramatic, even though it was just reporting the facts. So I just kept deleting it. I finally just quit.

I was having a tough time coming to grips with the fact that Tim spent pretty much the entire weekend on the couch feeling like crap. It just felt empty somehow describing taking the kids fishing when Tim couldn't even get up the strength to take a ride in the car or to go with us and watch.

I feel like it's finally time to share it, though...

-James



We got to Rockport on Thursday afternoon when it was a balmy 72 degrees and sunny. Tim and Don had gone out on the boat earlier in the morning, but the wind really picked up when they were about 12 miles out, so they had to come back in. To hear them tell it, it was a really, really rough ride - and I believe it, too. We went on a short boat ride yesterday when the wind was only blowing 10-15MPH, and as we got to the mouth of the canal that opened into the Gulf, water started crashing over the bow and there were whitecaps everywhere. We promptly turned around.

Kristi already blogged about the restaurant where we ate dinner on the first night. I've got nothing more to add other than it is the kind of place I'd love to hang out and become a regular. Although, I suspect that if I lived down here I'd probably just cook my own seafood because there's plenty around. But the atmosphere was cool.

In days of old, I would have been woken up at about 5:00am by Tim, already ready to get going to go fishing. I would have thrown some clothes on, grabbed some coffee and headed out the door. Tim would've already been waiting in the truck. He would have brought some honey buns or powdered doughnuts to eat for breakfast, which we wouldn't have eaten until well after we had gotten on the boat.

On Friday I woke up at 5:30, not really sure what to expect. I was encouraged when I walked into the living room of the house we're all staying in to find lights on, fishing shows blaring and coffee being consumed. But my hopes were quickly dashed when all the the grumpy old men were talking about was how the wind was blowing. It was blowing about 5-10 MPH.

There was a time when we would have gone out, no matter how bad the wind was. I have many, many memories of dreading the boat ride in Tim's aluminum Roughneck boat as we headed to the coast to go fishing (this was before he got his pontoon boat, which took rough water much better). We would put the boat in, no matter how strong the winds, and try to find a place to fish that was out of the wind. I can remember a couple of times going across the bay and being almost beaten to death by the waves. I was literally sore after some of those boat rides. But I always had a great time, so it was worth it.

But not this day. Tim was feeling okay, but not up to braving the weather, so we all went to a local restaurant for breakfast. After breakfast, the womenfolk went to the quilt shop and I drove Tim and Don down to Aransas Pass. They were looking for either a place to put their boat in down there so they wouldn't have to make the trip in the water or to see if anyone was catching fish. We drove all over, but didn't find anything going on.

My, how times have changed...


...

"the overwhelming majority of whom were black..."

A sentence that jumped out at me from an article on torture by Douglas Turner of the Buffalo News about methods used by the United States in the past.

If we look for race in everything, that's what makes us racists. This sentence has no place in this story. The fact that the tests that it refers to were done isn't good, but race has absolutely nothing to do with it. It's just race-baiting.

The sentence reads just as effectively when written "Keeney in 1962 covertly set up a CIA front called MK-ULTRA, which used the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies to conduct tests on unwitting federal inmates to chart the effect of hallucinogenic drugs."

Shameful in an otherwise decent story.

One of the best jokes ever

An Italian, a Scotsman and a Chinese man, are hired at a Construction site. The foreman points out a huge pile of sand.

He says to the Italian guy, "You're in charge of sweeping."

To the Scotsman he says, "You're in charge of shoveling."

And to the Chinese guy, "You're in charge of supplies."

He then says, "Now, I have to leave for a little while. I expect you men to make a dent in that pile of sand."

So when the foreman returns after being away for a couple of hours the pile of sand is untouched.

He asks the Italian, "Why didn't you sweep any of it?"

The Italian replies, "I no hava no broom. You saida to the Chinesea fella that he a wasa ina charge of supplies, but he hasa disappeared and I no coulda finda him nowhere."

Then the foreman turns to the Scotsman and says "And you, I thought I told you to shovel this pile."

The Scotsman replies, "Aye, that ye did laddie, boot ah could nae get meself a shoovel. Ye left th' Chinese gadgie in chairge of supplies, boot ah couldna fin' him neither."

The foreman is really angry now. He storms off toward the pile of sand to look for the Chinese gent.

Just then, the Chinese man leaps out from behind the pile of sand and yells, "SUPPLIES!!!!"