fun
Prom Night
So I took my wife to the prom last night. No, we didn't go to a high school as chaperones. We went to the 2d Chance Prom that benefits the Kidd's Kids charity. Dallas radio personality Kidd Kraddick's charity takes terminally ill kids to Disney World each year, and this event is their primary fund-raiser. I rented a tux, my bride bought a lovely dress that she'll get multiple use out of (unlike most prom dresses), and we had a great dinner at Sonoma before heading off to the prom. Half concert, half dance party, the 2d Chance Prom was a gas. Texas native Jennifer Love Hewitt performed four songs with just an acoustic guitar player accompanying her. This cutie can sing, and she was well received by the crowd. A little over half an hour later, MC Hammer and company took the stage for an eight-song set that capped off with a non-stop medley of his big hits "Can't Touch This," "2 Legit 2 Quit," and "Pray." I don't go for the hip-hop scene, but Hammer's set was enjoyable. It's amazing the energy he and his crew brought to the stage. My only druthers are with the DJ's music selection. Way too much hip-hop/techno/dance remix stuff. We got there before 9, left a little after midnight, and there was only one slow song played the entire time. There's also plenty of normal pop and rock out there that's good for dancing. And whoever remixed AC/DC's "Shook Me All Night Long" to a dance beat should be put against a wall and shot for messing with a classic rock anthem. All in all, we had a fun time. I'll post a pic of my gorgeous wife and I when we get our prom pics in a couple of weeks.
Rumsfeld Sorry for Embarrassing Anti-War Celebrities
You can read the full story here.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld apologized to the celebrity community for the outcome of the war yesterday at his daily press briefing. "In spite of the joy we feel at what happened in Baghdad this week, it is tinged with sadness as we know that we have embarrassed and disappointed the many members of the celebrity community who wanted us to fail."
Dictionary for Comicholics
For thorough research of words in the world of comics, be sure to use Ka-BOOM! The Dictionary of Champions.
Dozens Dead in Chicago Meatwave
As if terrorism wasn't enough to worry about, now we have this to contend with.
More for Kelly
Can't Stop Lovin' You Hey! There's a time and place for everything. For everyone We can push with all our might, but nothin's gonna come Oh no, nothin's gonna change An' if I ask you not to try, oh could you let it be? I wanna hold you and say We can't throw this all away Tell me you won't go, you won't go You have to hear me say I can't stop lovin' you And no matter what I say or do You know my heart is true, oh I can't stop lovin' you You can change your friends, your place in life You can change your mind We can change the things we say, and do any time Oh no, but I think you'll find That when you look inside your heart Oh baby, I'll be there. Yeah! Hold on. I'm holdin' on Baby, just come on, come on, come on I just wanna hear you say I can't stop lovin' you And no matter what you say or do You know my heart is true, oh-oh! I can't stop lovin' you Oh, I'm so twisted and tied And all I remember, was how hard we tried Only to surrender And when it's over I know how it's gonna be And true love will never die Or, not fade away And I can't stop lovin' you And no matter what I say or do You know my heart is true, oh I can't stop lovin' you And I know what I got to do Hey Ray, what you said is true, oh I can't stop lovin' you, oh no Oh, can't stop lovin' you © Copyright 1995-2000 Van Halen From VH's site:
This was the first single from "Balance" and the song became the band's 16th Top 40 single! The Ray Sammy refers to in the song is Ray Charles, who had a hit with the Don Gibson original, "I Can't Stop Loving You" in 1962.
By far one of my favorite VH songs, right behind "Dreams." I love you, sweetheart.
One million in one week
Yeah, I know everyone has read how the Apple Music Store has sold more than a million songs in its first week. But Lee has broken down what that means, and the results are impressive. Better than one-and-a-half songs sold per second. I can't wait to see Apple's financials on this as the year progresses. My stock has already gone up about three bucks a share in the past week.
InDVDiana Jones
My gorgeous mother-to-be spouse points out that Lucasfilm is releasing the Indiana Jones trilogy on DVD! Slated for release on November 4th, this will be at the top of my birthday (Dec 3) wish list.
iLoo
I wish I was making this up. From the idiot savants at Microsoft UK. (Note that the emphasis is not on "savants.") (Thanks, Ricky.)
I have an accent?
A couple of days ago I was talking to my little sister on the phone (okay, she's 27, but she'll always be my "little" sister), and she stated that I was picking up a Texas accent. Seeing how I have long confounded people as to my origins by being pretty much accent-less, this is a trifle upsetting...
Apple's music Fortune
My lovely bride pointed me to this Fortune article on the new iTunes Music Service. Obviously written for publication before the service was officially announced, it provides a great look at Jobs' vision behind the service, and the inadequacy of the music industry in its previous and current efforts at online distribution. A few items I'd like to address:
One thing's for sure: If ever there was an industry in need of transformation, it's the music business. U.S. music sales plunged 8.2% last year, largely because songs are being distributed free on the Internet through illicit file-sharing destinations like KaZaA.
I take issue with this statement, since it's impossible to prove that illegal file sharing has had this much impact on the U.S. music biz. There is a ton of physical piracy (blanket CD copying) going on overseas, especially in Asia, that eats in to the music industry more than a bunch of geeks swapping songs online. I have downloaded a lot of music from peer-to-peer networks, as well as some centralized sites I have access to. Some of it was digital copies of CDs and cassettes I already own. The rest was stuff I wanted to listen to before I went out and bought it. A lot of that got trashed when I realized it wasn't for me. I know I'm not the only one who probably spent more on music (albeit looking for sales and good prices online) because I was pulling music off the net. Second, it seems as though hardly anyone in the music business thinks that the problem with falling sales may be attributed to the product itself. Elsewhere in the article:
For years they have been able to get away with releasing albums with two or three potential hits bundled with ho-hum filler cuts. That has been wonderful for the industry, but it has made a generation of consumers who pay $18.99 for CDs very cynical. "People are sick and tired of that," says singer-songwriter Seal. "That's why people are stealing music."
Amen. That's it right there. And we see further evidence of the music industry's slow-to-catch-on attitude:
But MusicNet users still can't download songs onto portable players. "These devices haven't caught on yet," insists MusicNet CEO Alan McGlade. Never mind that U.S. sales of portable MP3 players soared from 724,000 in 2001 to 1.6 million last year.
Hmmm. I would think a better-than-two-times annual growth, in a year, in any segment of the tech economy would be cause for consideration of said segment. As for the service itself, I think it's great. I haven't actually bought and downloaded any music yet, but that'll change any day. I've spent quite a bit of time searching through it and listening to samples. It's going to change the way I buy music. It's going to change the music business.
S.W.A.T.
Another trailer, this time for the Sam Jackson-Colin Farrell-LL Cool J-Michelle Rodriguez vehicle, S.W.A.T. Loosely based on the 1970s television show of the same name (apparently the only similarity is an updated theme song), it looks pretty good. This was one of my favorite shows when I was about four or five years old. For the uninitiated, S.W.A.T. stands for Special Weapons And Tactics. The first S.W.A.T. team in the United States was fielded by the Los Angeles Police Department, and next to the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT), they are considered the elite such force in the nation. (Of non-military units, that is. The Army's Delta Force and SEAL Team Six are also antiterrorist units, but are used for overseas operations.) All of the above units are modeled on the antiterrorist division of the British SAS (Special Air Service), which remained secret until Operation Nimrod, the 1980 Iranian Embassy hostage siege in London, which was broadcast worldwide.
Daddy's little Stars fan
Back off, you Rebel scum!
Thanks to Carbon Copy Cloner, my TiBook has gone from four partitions to three, without missing a beat. Well, there was obviously some downtime, but no muss, no fuss! The new desktop pic is courtesy of my new Canon PowerShot G3.
The Bush Regime Change Tour
First it was Afghanistan, where the U.S. military accomplished in less than three months what the former Soviet Union failed to do in a decade. In the process, we ousted a terrorism-supporting regime and installed a democratic form of government. Then it was Iraq, where the greatest military force in the world took over a country the size of California in under three weeks, liberating its people from an oppressive dictator bent on supplying terrorists with weapons of mass destruction. Tomorrow, Syria? North Korea? Iran? France? Whatever terrorism-supporting regime we take down next, be sure to nab your official Bush Regime Change Tour merchandise! Brought to you by the new United Nations: Inefficient. Ineffectual. Irrelevant. (Major thanks and kudos to Rick for the idea!)
Baker Bros. redux
So, on my own for lunch again. Three bucks in my pocket. Sure, it's enough for fast food--McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's--but I'm not eating at the first two, and I don't want fast food. Need some place to use the debit card. So I figured, back to Baker Bros. This go-around, I had the Texas Star and black bean soup. The soup was good, but nothing spectacular. I've had lots of black bean soups that tasted just as good. Some worse, and few that tasted better. Of the two, I think I prefer their baked potato soup. The Texas Star sandwich was also good, but messy. Of the two, I'll stick with the Kentucky Club. Ok, no more Baker Bros. this week! Really.
New York Office Space
I don't live in New York. Don't work in New York. Plan to never, ever live or work in New York. Yet I found this article by Joel Spolsky, on searching for office space in NYC, fascinating. (via Glenn)
Tax Day Desktop
Not sure what compelled me to suddenly share what my desktop looks like, but here it is:
Baker Bros. = Yum!
My buddy FranX is celebrating five years of service with the company today, at a special lunch for folks in his division who also qualify. So I was on my own for lunch. As I pulled out of the parking garage, my Jeep politely informed me that I had 17 miles to go before the tank went dry (theoretically). So I rolled over to Costco, gassed up, then decided to go try the Baker Bros. American Deli. It sits across the parking lot from the Genghis Grill Kelly and I frequent, and we have long talked about trying it out. It was delicious. I had the Kentucky Club and a cup of baked potato soup. Two enthusiastic thumbs-up. It is a little on the high side for lunch, $11 for the above plus a iced tea, so it's certainly not a place I'll go each week. However, the food is excellent, and a couple of visits a month is not out of the question. Retrophisch™ Recommended!