Italy got manhandled earlier today by Brazil in the FIFA Confederations Cup.  3-0 score, but the last 20 minutes were pretty much nonstop breakaway scoring attempts.  Italy, the 2006 World Cup winners, will not be advancing out of their group, while the US is, despite playing like complete shit.  I would have liked to have seen Egypt advance.

Anyone interested in seeing Drag Me to Hell this weekend?  I'm not usually a fan of horror movies, but this is Sam Raimi going back to his roots with a good old-fashioned tongue-in-cheek freak show!  It's at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes so far, as well.

In other news, tonight after a game of volleyball, one of the guys starting taking off his jeans as he had shorts on under.  One of my teammates said that "We get to be on the winning side" since we switch sides of the court between games.  Me, in my sophisticated mindset, heard that as "We don't need no raging semis."

Well, you would be laughing if you were there...

I saw on TV today a guy with the name Cliff Butt.

That's friggin' awesome.

 My VW is in need of repairs and the sum is high enough that it's not worth keeping it.  So, last weekend I went car shopping.  As much as I hate the stigma and image of the Prius, I'm getting one.  I've always been interested in hybrids and they're getting pretty cheap now (0.12% interest on a lease).  I just have to be careful to not start smelling my own farts.  We can't have a smug storm like what happened in South Park, Colorado.

Still not sure how I'm going to work it out with the dog.  There is room in the back for him, but unless he lays down (which he doesn't do often in cars), he might be hitting his head on the glass.  Then again, he probably wouldn't even notice...

Seat slip covers for the back are a possibility, but my sister had bad luck with those in the past.

And they must die!

 I know rubberduckgrrl will especially love this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nopKDuydRo

I'm having a good time reading the complaints posted online about this ad.

I finally got around to seeing Transformers.

How the hell is Michael Bay still making movies?  They all follow identical scripts and they have god-awful dialogue and "comedy" moments.  Transformers was particularly bad.  I fast-forwarded past the interactions between the main character and his obligatory love interest.  I also skipped the parts of the film attempting to appeal to the sense of humor of a theater full of college kids.  Even though this movie was surprisingly long for an action flick, the extra 45 minutes was filled up with comedy and/or "character building" between the two lovebirds.

I will say, though, that some of the action sequences looked like the producers were have a hell of a time dreaming up what ridiculous stunt would happen next.  Starscream's tussle with the fighter jets was easily the best of these, IMO.

I found Armageddon to be somewhat watchable, though I'm ashamed to admit it.  This movie would have been similar if Bay would just leave out his clumsy romantic moments and comedy that appeared to have been ripped directly from the Fantastic Four movies.

Of course, I've always hated romance in movies.  I'm far too cynical for it to work in 99% of the cases.

I'm going to attempt Watchmen next... 

I have to say that Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe is one of the funniest shows I've ever had the pleasure of exposing my retinas to.  It's a British show that basically shows how fucked up the world of TV is.  On face value that doesn't seem very noteworthy (have you guys seen the trash they put on TLC and ABC?), but Brooker approaches the subject with a hugely cynical mindset.  He's very much like Lewis Black.

Youtube user xthemusic has uploaded some of the episodes.  I highly suggest giving it a try.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0318091dog1.html

Nothing more to say. 

 I finally ordered my PC parts for my new system build.  I went through Newegg, of course.  The best electronics site around, bar none.

My specs, for those that are interested:
Intel Core i7 920, can easily overclock it from 2.66 GHz to just under 4 GHz.
6GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM
GeForce GTX 285 card, in the future when I upgrade my monitor I can get a second of these in SLI mode
1TB HDD + my 3 other drives in this PC
A $15 flash card reader and floppy drive combo :)

I should be able to overclock the CPU and video card, but I might have to underclock the RAM as it's really designed for use with the Core i7 965 CPU.  No big loss as underclocking the RAM will let me achieve tighter timings.

I'm not sure what I should do with my old PC.  I'll be salvaging the HDDs, keyboard, mouse, and monitor.  However, I do plan on upgrading to a 24" widescreen monitor, as prices on those things are going down FAST.

I hope I remember to venture outside now and then...

Courtesy of anadamous .



Indeed, sir.  Indeed.

I got kicked off my super cheap Unicel plan and I signed up for AT&T and gots me an HTC Fuze (uber-nerdy phone tweaking ensuing!!!!). My new cell number is 497-4502. However, I still prefer being called at 316-4276, but the cell number is there for texting (though I haven't signed up for texting yet).

I have swimmer's ear. My left ear is completely swollen shut.

First off, thanks to all of you who donated!

I will definitely be doing plunges again. It's good fun. There were probably around 500 people there watching and probably around that number participating, though the event was spread out over a couple of hours. I also heard there was a TV crew interviewing people as they got out of the water. I'm glad I wasn't stopped for that as my feet were in critical condition.

There are 4 tents set up, each of them with some heating units installed. There were a men's and women's tent for changing, hence lots and lots of nudity. Then you are called to the staging tent, where a giant TV is showing live feed of teams going in the water. It is accompanied by constand cheering and shouting. Then you're called out and you have about a 300 foot run to the water. The lake was totally frozen over, so a large part of the ice was cut and removed at the shore.

I have to say that is really wasn't all that bad, though my feet were in searing pain the whole time. I dove underwater and I was planning on swimming out the edge of the ice (about 30 feet) but I pussied out. The hardest part was leaving the water. The floor was very icy and it was extremely difficult getting traction, all the while your extremities are losing feeling. Good times!

I highly recommend everyone give it a try. There's a lot of team spirit going on and there were some great, ridiculous costumes!

Oakley is growling at the snow outside. Beware!

I've signed up for the Penguin Plunge, aka The Shrinkage Club. It's on Feb. 7. I'm hoping to raise $200. Come help me out!

http://www.firstgiving.com/justinthrall

I'm returning from my latest dabble into being a hermit.

The roommate experiment in my condo worked out well and I'm looking to get another. However, since no companies around here are going to be hiring interns for a while, it looks like I might have to post the ad on craigslist, which I am rather loathe to do.

My dog continues to be awesome.

My computer that I built 3.5 years ago is finally not satisfying me. It was a very good system, but I am now actively looked for parts for a new machine. I'm going to be going with the Core i7 chip, as the new architecture is rather intriguing, even though the price is somewhat high, being a new chip series and all. Also, since I have many programs open at the same time, I'm going with 6GB of DDR3 triple channel RAM. I HATE not having enough RAM and the X58 motherboards support up to 12 GB at least, so there's a bit of future-proofing there.

The dating scene has been stagnant, which is pretty typical. I have been meeting this girl I met a year ago (very very casually and not very often), but I have no idea what's going to happen. I won't lie, I'm mostly interested in a physical relationship (she's very cute), but there really isn't anything personality-wise that meshes well, though I admit she has a unique and charming sense of humor.

Work is going pretty well. I'm totally swamped, which is good for job security, I guess. I'm hoping I can move more into timing at this point, but my tcl aptitude needs to be improved for that to happen. Timing usually involves writing lots of unique scripts, which I can do, just not very quickly and efficiently.

And I'd like to add that Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series on youtube is totally awesome.

EDIT: I might as well post my loot I got for Christmas and my birthday. I got 25 (!!!!) DVDs. Dumb and Dumber, Tropic Thunder, Black Adder III (a British comedy), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and this really cool collection of groundbreaking scifi movies from the 1950's to the present. Now all I need is a TV that's actually good (mine is too small for my place).

http://community.livejournal.com/pkmncollectors/1296167.html

A little food for thought:

Though I don't know the reason, but you may have noticed that humans are essentially hairless. But, how different would the world be if we weren't? Aside from the immediate thoughts, such as "Would 'nudity' have ever been taboo in history?", would technology have changed immensely? I imagine the need for shelter due to our poor physical insulation drove us for rapid architectural progress.

How about social classes? I'm sure racism would be an rampant as ever, though hair colorings would be the superficial target of choice for obvious reasons. Odd hair colorings may have provided even more things to be afraid of, perhaps increasing the levels of discrimination.

Tropic Thunder is easily one the 5 funniest movies I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. I can see, though, how it could be a hit-or-miss kind of humor.

I can't wait to see it again.