between the moon and the tide

i added an update to the blog on the side panel. you can now view a feed from digg.com of the most recent news stories i've "dugg." this is for anyone who wants to see what stories i'm interested in, and for my own use, since a lot of what i highlight are things i see at work and want to go back and read thoroughly later.

how ironic is it that the spell check on my blog doesn't know the word "blog"?

i have a couple of music reviews i thought i would share, with several more when i have time. Tool's 10,000 Days was the first quality album i'd heard from 2006. sure, it's not completely unique from the other albums they have put out. you can certainly tell that it's a Tool album, but that's not a bad thing. the cd is unique enough that it doesn't sound like a regurgitation of what they've done before (and i would hope not, seeing as their last release was five years ago). there's a lot of really good songs on it, and it's definitely better than most albums being put out right now. it can't quite stand up to Aenima or Lateralus, but its a solid effort nonetheless.

one album i was happily surprised to hear was David Gilmour's album On An Island. i never really got into most of his solo stuff, and considering this was his first studio effort in twelve years, i didn't care too much about hearing it. but it's really a good album. the whole mood is very mellow and peaceful, which i guess is keeping with the setting of being on a beach or island at sunset. that's the feel i get from the album. Gilmour's guitar playing is still great. it's a nice mix of rock, jazz, and lounge-type music. the guitar on one song even reminds of Pink Floyd's Piper At the Gates of Dawn. its not something i could listen to when i'm cruising around on a sunny spring afternoon, but it's perfect for a calm atmosphere.

i plan on having some more reviews from Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and some others in the next day or two.

ten thousand days in the fire

so according to another article i saw on Digg, the proposed 10 year maximum penalty for piracy proposed in that new piece of legislation would make the penalty for copying a movie or downloading a cd worse than pedophilia or assault:

Although sentencing varies in the US, the new law does send a very strange message as to what the government considers 'bad' in the 21st century.

For example assaulting a police officer will get you five years, downloading child porn will get you seven years, assaulting without a weapon will get you ten years and aggravated assault six years.

So in other words if you copy a Disney CD and sell it you will be in the same league as a paedophile who is distributing pictures of sexual attacks on children.

If you copy Craig David's CD you get ten years, but if you punch him in the face and pummel him into a seven day coma you will only get six. You are more likely to get the respect of the prison population with your six year sentence as well.

yeah i would say that our priorities for punishing crime are slightly off-base.

prying open my third eye

my new e-machine monitor is up and running, thanks to elly's family. it was good to see elly and tim last week; they were in for elly's sister's wedding. i went out to eat with tim and a couple guys from faith fellowship church on wednesday, which was a nice distraction from my bad day. we hung out with the family on thursday, and i emerged victorious after another bitter match of apples to apples. that game is always one huge argument waiting to happen. i can only imagine what would happen if rob and i played that together. blood would be shed, that's for certain.

middle to late may is now the new deadline work has announced for letting everyone know about future staffing (i.e. letting us know when we'll be laid off). we were supposed to know by next week, but once again they fail to just be straight-up with us. jen told me that whether or not someone gets severance pay depends on whether they've been actively looking for other jobs within the company. the severely drops my hopes of getting severance since #1 - i'm pretty sure the majority of jobs open within the company are either full time or outside the realm of possibilities for me, and #2 - i really don't think i have any desire to work another job in the company anyway. so i've decided i need to just start looking for another job and hopefully quit as soon as possible.

i saw an alarming article on digg.com today, about a new digital copyright bill being proposed in congress. in my opinion, it's a scary thought. the whole thing reeks of lobbyists from the likes of the RIAA sending their lackeys to washington and then scaring the politicians with buzzwords like "piracy" and "terrorism". there's nothing quite as wonderful as having politicans make decisions over issues they are entirely ignorant about. i would hope that if congressmen really understood what a "rootkit" was, they wouldn't be pushing legislation that would make removing it illegal. here's a few highlights from the article on the proposed legislation:

It also represents a political setback for critics of expanding copyright law, who have been backing federal legislation that veers in the opposite direction and permits bypassing copy protection for "fair use" purposes. That bill--introduced in 2002 by Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat--has been bottled up in a subcommittee ever since.
---
Jessica Litman, who teaches copyright law at Wayne State University, views the DMCA expansion as more than just a minor change. "If Sony had decided to stand on its rights and either McAfee or Norton Antivirus had tried to remove the rootkit from my hard drive, we'd all be violating this expanded definition," Litman said.
----
The proposed law scheduled to be introduced by Rep. Smith also does the following:

• Permits wiretaps in investigations of copyright crimes, trade secret theft and economic espionage. It would establish a new copyright unit inside the FBI and budgets $20 million on topics including creating "advanced tools of forensic science to investigate" copyright crimes.

• Amends existing law to permit criminal enforcement of copyright violations even if the work was not registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.

• Boosts criminal penalties for copyright infringement originally created by the No Electronic Theft Act of 1997 from five years to 10 years (and 10 years to 20 years for subsequent offenses). The NET Act targets noncommercial piracy including posting copyrighted photos, videos or news articles on a Web site if the value exceeds $1,000.

• Creates civil asset forfeiture penalties for anything used in copyright piracy. Computers or other equipment seized must be "destroyed" or otherwise disposed of, for instance at a government auction. Criminal asset forfeiture will be done following the rules established by federal drug laws.

• Says copyright holders can impound "records documenting the manufacture, sale or receipt of items involved in" infringements.

Jason Schultz, a staff attorney at the digital-rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says the recording industry would be delighted to have the right to impound records. In a piracy lawsuit, "they want server logs," Schultz said. "They want to know every single person who's ever downloaded (certain files)--their IP addresses, everything."

wire-tapping over the suspicion of something like downloading an mp3 illegally? making it illegal to remove unwanted third-party software from your own personal, private property? not being allowed to copy cds on you purchased with your hard earned money onto the computer you also purchased with your hard earned money? this bill sounds as american as communism. come on republicans and bush administration, you're striking out on this one. get out of bed with the music and movie industries already, and pass something to defend our rights.

ride the spiral to the end

and now my monitor died. i'd been expecting this to happen eventually. it had been making these weird crackling noises at times, and the screen would flicker every so often. then today it suddenly made this horrible high-pitched screeching noise and then the screen flickered out and wouldn't come back on. so i'm in the market for a new monitor now.

jess is right, maybe i shouldn't go outside today. at this rate i'll get struck by a meteor or random bolt of lightning on a sunny afternoon.

the end of all your dreams

nothing like going out to your car in the morning to head to work, only to find that some moron smashed your car windshield. awesome.

and it keeps repeating

my updating has become infrequent again. i'm spending most of my time with school and work, which also means i don't have much else to talk about besides that. school still keeps me busy, mainly from that one class. work has been slow. we haven't been getting many calls, and i'm thinking that we have to be getting notice soon on when they're letting us go.


ufc 59 saturday night had some good fights, but unfortunately the two biggest matches were a little disappointing. tito ortiz vs. forrest griffin ended up being a really good fight; at first it looked like it was going to be awful as tito spent most of the first round raining elbows down on forrest's face. but forrest somehow survived that and shook off all the rest of tito's takedowns until the very end of the last round. forrest wailed on tito the second round, and the last was split pretty evenly. sadly tito's last takedown at the end probably secured the win for him, as he one by split decision from the judges. forrest griffin really is crazy, and is rapidly becoming another one of my favorite fighters.

andrei arlovski, another favorite of mine, lost his heavyweight title to tim sylvia in the main event. the fight itself was pretty disappoint; i was hoping it would at least last longer than it did. they both came out swinging. arlovski landed a killer hit that knocked sylvia down, but amazingly not out. shortly after that sylvia landed a monster punch of his own on arlovski's jaw, which sent him to the mat. sylvia pounced on him until the referee stopped the fight. it was a sad way to see arlovski lose. but congratulations to sylvia. i don't hate him like i do tito ortiz.

it was nice to see evan tanner and jeff monson get wins. that parisyan looks impressive too, i'd like to see more of him in the future. i hope they come up with a good fight card for ufc 60, because the matt hughes vs. royce gracie headlining match isn't really interesting to me.

now i'm bored and old

we are only a week into spring quarter, and i already know it is going to be my hardest quarter yet, mainly because of just one class. it's an introduction to the study of history and one of the core classes for history majors. the basic work load has us reading three 300+ page books in a week or two, with some form of homework due every week (including three 2,000 word reviews on those books, and a ten page paper at the end). the massive amounts of reading is what makes this course so impossible. i just don't have the time, with other classes and 22 hours of work a week.

my other classes make up about 5% of the rest of my workload for this quarter. the journalism class i'm taking has homework most weeks, but the load isn't too bad. films & history of wwII is great, we spend the class listening to him lecture and watching old propaganda movies. there's no books at all, and no homework to speak of. history of rock n roll just has a minimal amount of reading required, and the class is 2 1/2 hours of entertainment. so basically it's just history 300 that's going to kill me. that and the journalism course, the two classes with homework, also fall on wednesday, which is my crazy-busy day: work 8:45-2:15 (same work schedule on monday, thursday and friday too), history 300 from 3-5:20, then journalism from 6:30-9.

so... i've decided i'm giving up video games for the rest of the month. i wasted way too much time yesterday and lost too much sleep playing day of defeat: source and sid meier's alpha centauri (which i pointed out to austin ironically abbreviates to form the word "smac," which is an accurate testament to addictiveness of most sid meier games). i originally was going to give up video games for the whole quarter, but figured that was much too unrealistic. i'll take this one step at a time. the sole exception i'm making is if i'm already hanging out with people, and they want to play x-box or 64. other than that, i can't afford to waste anymore time. i can't afford to spend anymore time writing this post now either...

like the cancer in your system

you should all go donate to jess' relay for life team. all donations need to be in by friday, so go do it today. you don't want to look like a cancer lover for not donating like austin lubbers (yeah that's right, mr. "no thanks" response to a donation request). just click on the link, search for "jessica alexander" under participant's name, and make your donation. any amount helps.


edit: ok, this link should take you right to her team page to donate. if not, follow the steps above to get to her page.

written on the palm of my hands

at work this monday everyone becomes a "universal" agent. that means instead of taking calls just on laundry and dish products, i'm going to be taking calls on everything. diapers, shampoo, toothpaste, medicine, make-up, you name it. with a handful of exceptions for certain brands, if we make it i have to answer calls on it. and with the exception of one hour of training on certain health care products, we've had no formal training. the best they've done to prepare us is email out some powerpoint presentations on some of the products (most of which don't make a lot of sense if there's no one to explain them) and told us to try and look through the files on the computer when we have time between calls to teach ourselves. except that there's such a crazy number of products, it's impossible to learn all about them. i don't even know all of the different brands i'm taking calls on, let alone know about all the products each brand has. i counted forty different types of conditioners being made, and that's from just one of our hair care brands. i basically feel like they're just throwing us to the wolves on this. we'll see how this next week goes...

just like the ringing in my ears

i decided to turn one long post into two shorter ones in order to make it more digestable for those of you who's short attention spans can't handle a long one. the new schedule at work is going alright; i really am not built for getting up for work early in the morning. i still cannot believe i somehow managed to work at delhi park for a whole summer when i had to be there at 7am every morning (ok, so i usually showed up at 7:05-7:10 but you get the idea). however, getting out from work at 2:15 is going to be fantastic when the spring weather comes. especially on mondays and fridays, when i'll have no night classes to attend. everyone is going "universal" at work in april, which means instead of handling only calls on things like laundry and dish detergent, i'll be taking calls on a huge variety of products. they're not even giving us classroom training on most of these new products, it's going to be up to us to teach ourselves about them. i'm not looking forward to this at all. oh how i can't wait to get my 90 days notice, followed by a nice severance package (assuming they haven't been lying to us all along).

i really wish the weather would just stay warm and stop going back to being cold. i've been feeling like i'm getting a cold for the last couple days, which i'm sure has something to do with the sudden burst of snow and cold that we got on monday night. it looks like this coming week will get warmer again, so let's hope it stays that way.

i haven't really been playing any games at all lately. in fact, i think i went all of spring break without playing any video games, which is surprising. there just isn't much that interests me right now. call of duty and day of defeat both got stale for now. i'm still having video card issues that are preventing me from playing civilization iv. i was disappointed by the release of red orchestra: i like realistic war-themed shooters, but not when the realism overshadows the fun. it also seemed a lot less polished than i expected. for a game that began as an unreal tournament 2004 mod, it was not very impressive looking. command & conquer: the first decade was a fantastic idea (packing all of the c&c games on dvd for only $40) and i played it for awhile, but i got annoyed when it locked up and crashed on me at one point, and i haven't played it since. sid meier's pirates! and f.e.a.r. have also both been sitting on the shelf for now; i'm almost afraid to play pirates! because it just eats up too much time, and f.e.a.r. is one of those games that is good, but so suffers from being so creepy that it can be almost painful to keep playing. it doesn't have the healthy mix of creepy and fun like half-life 2.

echoing your voice

i guess i'll try and recreate the post i attempted to make yesterday. i was originally going to update back on wednesday, but my internet was not working for almost two days. austin and i are having continual problems with the internet either running slow or quitting entirely for periods of time. at first i kept blaming zoomtown for the problems, but now i think the real culprit might be our router. we're currently using a linksys, and i think i might go buy a new router to see if that helps. anyone have a brand or model they'd recommend?

i also need to get an fm adapter for my ipod so i can use it in my car. the ability to have my entire music collection at my disposal when i'm driving is one of the primary reasons i wanted an ipod in the first place. carrying my entire cd collection back and forth from to my car is something i'm unwilling to do in corryville, and the ipod gives me an easy solution to the problem. jess and i stopped by the apple store in kenwood mall last weekend. they had some fm tuners there, but i wanted to see what other places are selling them for, and if there are any good third-party alternatives out there. so far i haven't had any luck, but i also haven't done much looking.

my anger over the bearcat's loss in the nit quarterfinals has subsided somewhat, but there's still little happiness to take away from how this season went. the team just took one too many punches. shame on muhammed and white for not being able to put forth a minimal amount of academic effort for just one more quarter. saying that they let the team down is an understatement. still, the rest of the bearcats gave it all they had, and for basically only playing seven players they did well. i'm still bitter over the way that the administration treated kennedy. i don't think they ever had any intention of giving him the job, unless there was really no other alternative out there. good luck to him in mississippi though, he deserves it. and good luck to bob huggins at kansas state. i don't have any ill-will towards cronin as uc's new coach (hey, a fellow uc history major!) because the situation isn't his fault, but the administration should be ashamed. they keep talking about wanting to give uc a good image; well snubbing your interim coach after he did a fantastic job holding this season together is not the way to do it.

break from what we're tied to

there's nothing more frustrating and annoying than being in the middle of posting about other annoying and frustrating things, and then getting an error that makes you lose your whole post...

still cannot fix this broken machine

there's been a huge lack of updates from me lately. its a mixture of a lack of time and a lack of motivation/inspiration on my part. the big 2-1 last week was a lot of fun, and i'm already enjoying my new 30gb ipod. now i need to get something to let me play it in my car, and maybe some other accessories.

i'm still pretty angry about the bearcats not making it into the tournament. just as with the poor officiating in this year's super bowl, there's plenty of controversy and complaining about who was picked and who was left out for good reason. its not just the bearcats that got robbed either, there were other schools (including ones like michigan that i don't like) that should have been in over crappy teams like air force and arizona.

rob made an ncaa tournament pick'em on yahoo. the league id is 44543 and the password is cincinnati.

it's a bittersweet day in bengal-town, as jon kitna signed a contract with the detroit lions. i hope he beats out joey harrington for the starting job and can make something of that team. he was a great guy, and it'll be too bad not to have him around anymore. in good news, we signed dexter jackson at safety yesterday, which should give us a big boost in the secondary. between jackson and madeiu williams, we're looking pretty good at safety. now we can focus on defensive line and tight end in the draft.

they keep calling me

the nine inch nails concert on saturday night with justin and dougie was amazing. i had big expectations going in, and i can't say i was disappointed. the opening band was bland and mediocre, and the microphone kept cutting out on the singer. this made it amusing for us, but i feel a little bad for them in that situation, because i'm sure being the opening band is never an easy thing.

anyway, they kept it decently short, and nin came on. and they were fantastic. i am so glad justin went for the floor seats, as it was a much better experience than it would have been sitting up in the seats. we must have been twenty or so feet from the stage. i started off with a terrible view behind the tallest couple at the show, with the guys shoulder directly in my face, and some big dude right behind me. thankfully everyone pushed forward more at the beginning of the show, giving me a lot more room, and a pretty good view. it was fun to watch, they had a lot of really great looking lighting and effect. plus, you always like seeing trent screaming, and the guitarist either flailing his guitar while he plays, stage diving into the crowd, or trashing his guitar at the end.

its really hard to pick a highlight from the show. dead souls, terrible lie, something i can never have, and march of the pigs all stand out (the last one partially just because their guitarist, aaron north, is insane). although i didn't like with teeth as much as their older albums, the songs came out really well live. only, you know what you are?, getting smaller, and the hand that feeds were probably among the best from that album. the acoustic version of right where it belongs was cool, but i'd have to say i like the piano version from the album better. i'd say i liked that title track a lot better live too (and seeing trent reznor use a tamborine is pretty hilarious). wish and gave up are always favorites of mine, and always are even better live. and you can never go wrong with the classics (hurt, closer, and head like a hole). you know they'll play those, but getting other great songs you wouldn't expect like eraser, burn, and dead souls is what really makes it great.

looking back, it was a little disappointing not to here anything off the fragile. actually, shocking is more like it. but to be honest i hadn't even realized it till justin mentioned it after the show. like he said in his recap on the concert, you always wish you could write the setlist to a show like this. its always hard not to hear all the songs you'd like to hear, especially from the fragile and the downward spiral. but regardless, it was an awesome show, totally worth the money, and i'd go see them again if i got the chance.

justin took pictures with his camera phone, which you can see here. his comments on the show can be found on his blog. if anyone's interested, people have also posted some low-quality video clips of the show on youtube.


the full set list:

1. intro - The New Flesh/Pinion
2. Love Is Not Enough
3. You Know What You Are?
4. Terrible Lie
5. The Line Begins To Blur
6. March Of The Pigs
7. Something I Can Never Have
8. Closer
9. Burn
10. Gave Up
11. Eraser
12. Right Where It Belongs
13. Beside You In Time
14. With Teeth
15. Wish
16. Only
17. Every Day Is Exactly The Same
18. Getting Smaller
19. Dead Souls
20. Hurt
21. The Hand That Feeds
22. Head Like A Hole

i've watched this scene a thousand times

ok family, here's my expanded birthday list:

books:

• the hobbit: collector's edition
• the ultimate hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
• the screwtape letters

cds:

• star wars trilogy soundtrack
  

computer games:

• star wars battlefront II
• lego star wars (or for xbox)
• gun (or for xbox)
• star wars: empire at war?
  

dvds:

• goodfellas
• star wars episode II: attack of the clones
• monty python & the holy grail
• the three wallace & gromit short films
• walk the line
  

misc. items:

• 30gb ipod
  
• grado sr60 headphones
• blank cds (not blank dvds, i have plenty)
• computer paper for my printer
• gift certificates to best buy, target, chipotle, skyline, dick's, or for the mall or a shoe store (i need new shoes)
• a new small travel bag for toothbrush, concact lense stuff, etc.
  
• gas cards
• cotton/fleece-type gloves (mom knows what i'm talking about)
• money
• a new cell phone?

that's all i got.

just one man beneath the sky

way too much school work going on. trying to finish my paper for moral & political ideas due tomorrow. kicking myself for how little research i've done towards my huge history paper on the battle of stalingrad due in one week. plus another world literature essay, a class a despise, due next wednesday on things i don't have the time or inclination to read.

navigators key laborers conference is this weekend. i'm looking forward to it because last year was really good, but having all this hanging over my head is going to be a drag. plus that means i won't get any work done on my papers this weekend.

work is as much of a pain as ever. the actually work itself hasn't been too bad, but this whole impending layoff thing is annoying. it seems we officially are going to have the opportunity to accept a severance package, so i'd just like to do that and get on with it. but they're saying we're still going to work 90 days after they give us official layoff notice, and that hasn't even happened yet. so i've got a job for another three months, which then throws my class schedule into disarray for next quarter. and there's the possibility of a schedule bid (which means a different schedule than what i have now, and less control over what my schedule is) and a reduction of hours. i wish they'd get it all over with.

take me on board their beautiful ship

anyone interested in going up to cedarville, ohio to hear donald miller talk on march 23? tickets are available on february 24. i don't know if it costs money or what. see it here.

a handshake of carbon monoxide

last night's super bowl showcased some of the shabbiest officiating i think i've ever seen. bill leavy and his crew disgraced referees everywhere, and that's not an easily accomplished feat. the fact that very few steelers turned in noteworthy performances last night just goes to prove that it was the calls, or in some cases the lack there of, that decided the game. first they robbed the seahawks of an obvious touchdown with a nonexistent offensive pass interference call. the idiot ref looked like a deer in the headlights. he let it go till the steeler player turned and screamed at him, then panicked and threw the flag. then they gave them roethlisberger's diving touchdown, when after replay it was obvious the ball never crossed the goal line, as doug already pointed out. but considering they'd ruled it as a touchdown, i didn't expect them to overturn it. and let's not forget the ridiculous low-block called on hasselbeck when after his interception when he tackled the ball carrier, and just happened to take out another steeler. plus some terrible holding calls against the 'hawks, and the "fumble" that took them a review to overturn (and boy did they sound sad to admit it).

thankfully, it seems some of the media is admitting how terrible the officials were. sports analysts are actually getting over their love affair with the steelers in the super bowl (i don't care where bettis' hometown is) and calling the nfl out on how bad the referees are. its pretty terrible when the super bowl is decided by the officials, not the game. these articles do a good job talking about all the calls the refs got wrong, but they don't talk about all the holdings, blocks in the back, and horse-collar tackles they neglected to call on pittsburgh.

i guess what we all learned is that in order to get what you want, open your big obnoxious mouth and complain. well joey porter certainly can never complain about the refs again. in fact, he should probably take them out to dinner, seeing as he owes them for that shiny new ring on his finger. we also learned that the referees are suckers for the media. it was pretty obvious who the sports media wanting to win, with them talking nonstop about bettis' super bowl homecoming, or roethlisberger possibly being the youngest quarterback to win a super bowl. i guess the referees got caught up in the pittsburgh frenzy. but i will agree with him on one point: the nfl refs are terrible. they need to take a hint from the acc's example, and start disciplining refs for this kind of disgraceful performance.

and just for fun, here's fox sports' 10 worst calls of the postseason.

breeze still carries the sound

i don't like homework.

or my lack of focus whenever i try to get it done.

all these weird creatures who lock up their spirits

there was some big news announced friday in regards to work. in the morning they had a big meeting for the whole consumer relations department for some "training", which i heard was basically a three hour motivational talk by some speaker to get everyone pumped up, since morale has been fairly low with the impending downsizing looming over everyone's head. i wasn't at the meeting because i had classes in the morning. then, at the very end of the talk, they made the announcement that in the next month or so they would be letting people know that they are being let go. from what i hear, they're going to let about 75% of the CSRs go. they'll be cutting the number of contacts (emails and phone calls from consumers to 10%, so obviously they won't need many people. with only 30-40 of 120 people being kept on, only people ranked in the top third of the department stand a chance of being kept, but even then not all of them will be. i am not in the top third, so i'm as good as gone, which is okay. i was probably going to quit before next quarter, because i couldn't find any useful classes to schedule around work. but the pay will be greatly missed, and i don't know what i'm going to do next. i'm not sure i want to go back to nick and tom's, but its always an option.

tim and elly will be staying in new jersey for another eight month rotation. i think that's what they wanted to do, so that's good. i know they're hoping they can come back to cincinnati for the final eight month section. hopefully they can work that out.

i feel like i had some other big news to talk about, but i can't remember it.