Go ahead, Apple. Yuck it up.

I've been sitting in front of the computer now for several hours importing CD's into iTunes so I can put them on the fancy new iPods that my girlfriend and I got for Christmas. Yes, I said Christmas because that's what we were celebrating when we got them. If you don't celebrate Christmas, you don't have to say it. Anyway, we got the nifty new iPods that play video, which anyone who read my first post will know that I sort of maligned when they came out. I have relented! They are really cool. I have somewhere around 48 videos, 3500 songs, and 83 photos on that thing now. And more being added as we speak, or type...or read, whatever! Much as I hate to admit it, I am hooked. Don't get me wrong, this is not totally new to me. I've been using iTunes for years, and I've had an ancient 2nd generation iPod for a while now, which I've always thought would do me just fine. Then I started getting frustrated with the limited 10Gig capacity of it. How spoiled am I? 10 gigs of music and that's not enough. Jeez. Anyway, I was wanting more space, then one of my friends got the iPod Photo when it came out. Higher capacity AND a color screen? Ok, I was jealous. But I still couldn't justify spending $400 bucks on it. Around this time my girlfriend started saying she wanted an iPod Mini. Fast forward to the release of the 5th generation iPod Video. I thought it was a bit ridiculous at first. I thought it would lead to nothing but trouble with people trying to watch videos while they're supposed to be paying attention to something else, like, say...driving. And it may still come to that, that remains to be seen. But once I actually went into Tekserve and to play around with one of these things, I was impressed to say the least. The picture quality is actually pretty good, though detail in dark areas is not so good. I feel like I'm missing out on a lot watching episodes of Surface on this screen because the darks band and pixelate pretty badly. However, when the image is not really dark it looks fantastic. Plus the storage capacity of these is up to 60 Gigs now. That's pretty amazing. So Christmas time rolls around and I decide I'll finally get my girlfriend that iPod mini she's been wanting. It doesn't take long to discover that the Nano has replaced the Mini. Damn. The nano is ridiculously small. There's just no reason for it to be that small. It seems very easy to break, and even easier to lose. So eschewing the Nano, I decided to spend the extra $50 and get her the 30Gig iPod Video. I get it home and decide to load it up with some music that she likes and some photos of us, and I even made a little video and put it on there. Adds a nice personal touch to it. That was my mistake. Over the course of the 4 or 5 days I was messing around with her NEW iPod, then going out and using my very OLD iPod, I was forced to admit that it was time to upgrade myself too. Fortunately I got a pretty decent bonus at work this year so I ran straight out and got the 60Gig iPod Video. And now here I am importing CD's and encoding movies to put on this tiny little black box that I'll plug into my head and walk around the city listening to music, watching movies and TV shows, and looking at photos, while Apple laughs themselves silly all the way to the bank.

Aaahhh...the Strike.

I heard today that the NY Transit Strike will probably be ending tomorrow so I thought I'd take the opportunity to vent my opinion of the first transit strike this city has seen since 1980. Please keep in mind that this is an opinion so you can take it or leave it, like or not like it, there's no reason to get tiffy about it. So here we go: while I can appreciate the fact that unions represent their workers in order to ensure that they receive fair treatment from employers, there was no unfair treatment going on here. The issues being debated (or at least, the ones we've been told) are : The MTA wants to raise the retirement age to 62, the workers want to retire at 55. The workers want less stringent disciplinary actions. The workers want their health benefits to continue to be free. They want cost of living raises of 8% a year. I'm sure there's more to it than this but these are the big ones the media has reported. Here's the deal: 62 is the standard retirement age across the country. If they've been retiring at 55, that's a bonus. The change would be to a national standard age, not beyond. That is not unfair. Less stringent disciplinary action. Hm, I don't really know what exactly the disciplinary policies are but, come on. You fuck up, you pay the price. End of story. Not Unfair. Free health benefits. Ok, this is the one that really gets under my skin. The cost of health care is going up. Millions of people are without health benefits of any kind (yours truly included), I think it's something like 1 in 8 New Yorkers has no health insurance. The vast majority of people who DO have health insurance have to pay something for it. So if the MTA workers aren't willing to pay for what they get when millions of other people don't have it, then too fucking bad. You want health insurance, you pay for it. End of story. Not Unfair. Cost of living raises. Ok this one kind of makes some sense, but considering I've never in my life gotten a "cost of living" raise and I'm still not living on the street I think they'll be 0k. Not Unfair. So there you have it. My opinion of the NY Transit Strike of 2005: Total Bullshit.

Not to mention they ruined by birthday party because none of my friends could get to it without the trains.

Seriously...

Could somebody, anybody, PLEASE make 50 cent stop?!

Good show, bad idea.

Last night there was a program on the National Geographic Channel about Grand Central Station. Most of it was about the history of Grand Central, and how and why it was conceived and built. Did you know that the Grand Central that stands today was not the first Grand Central? I didn't. The original was a much different structure built to accommodate steam trains. When the trains switched over to electric power, Grand Central had to be re-conceived and reconstructed. Anyway, that was all very interesting and it's nice to know these things about New York's history, but that's not the point I want to make here. The rest of the program was all about how Grand Central works. They covered the "secret" power-control room, the "secret" generator rooms, numerous little nooks and crannies, the hole in the ceiling of the Grand Concourse, "secret" tunnels and trains, security cameras, bomb threat measures, future expansion projects, and then to top it all off, they did a segment on how much of a threat terrorism is and how easy a target Grand Central would be. They said specifically that taking out Grand Central would effectively shut down New York City. This, after revealing all the "secrets" about how the place works, so now anyone interested in taking out Grand Central has a virtual instruction manual on how to do it. HELLO?! What are they thinking? In this day and age when terrorism is a very real threat, why would they air a program like this? It certainly doesn't give me a warm and fuzzy feeling of safety and security. In fact, it made me glad that I really don't have to go there all that often. I can appreciate the entertainment value of programs like this, I watch them all the time, but I think they should probably cut back a bit on the behind-the-scenes stuff. Here's a link to the web page about the show, if anyone's interested.

A bird in the Bush...

Speaking of the government (see the previous post), this is the man we have chosen to run our country? I feel the need to clarify to the rest of the world that the things Bush says and does do not represent the sentiment of the citizens. We hate him too. I don't know who those other guys are, but they seem just as amused as I was.

Quit blaming the TV, would you please?

I was watching The Daily Show last night (there was no CSI on) and they were doing a story about the recent hearings held in the Senate about the Family Values, or lack thereof, of cable TV. It made me wonder, what exactly is the meaning of "family values." I suppose it depends on which view you take of it. From my point of view, family values are exactly that. They are the values a family holds. From the media's (read: Government's) point of view, family values seem to be equated with those values held by the Church. This, I think, is just another example of the Govt. ignoring that old 'separation of church and state' thing that is supposed to be one of the basic components of our system of government. Don't get me wrong, this is certainly not the only basic component being ignored by the feds, just the one that's got my attention today.
Say I have a family and my family believes in things like smoking, drinking, saying naughty words, and having pre-marital sex. Well, then these are the "values" of my family, correct? Doesn't that make them family values? Yes, I think it does. And there are thousands upon thousands of families in this country who do exactly those things with impunity. So how can our government then generalize the term family values to stand for things like abstinence, clean living, attending church, etc., etc., when there are thousands of families who's values have nothing to do with those things? Not to mention if you were to get the full official version of family values I bet it wouldn't include things like taking bribes, taking away peoples social security and medical care, or taking funding away from the education system. If they really want to support the families of the nation, wouldn't things like tax breaks and low cost medical care for low-income families be a bit more useful than trying to shove out-dated, unwanted dogma down their throats?
Ok, I'm done now.

They're called Gumpagraphs

Gumpagraphs are photos taken by a fellow named Kent Tenny. And they're really good photos, check 'em out.

Does this look like me?

Yahoo! has this fun new feature now where you can go make an avatar to represent you online. This is kind of fun if you're really bored, although many of the options are really amazingly bad. I was, in fact, really bored so here's what I came up with:

Now, what am I supposed to do with it?

AYNtK

I don't know who this guy is, but I like his blog. It's funny, it's sarcastic and I shall be reading it often. You should too.

Snow makes stuff pretty.

I woke up this morning to find the first snow of the season had fallen in the night. Here's a couple shots of the view from the apartment.

12 posts in one day?

You may be wondering why I've posted 12 blog entries in one day. Actually, you're probably not because you must be me because I'm the only one who ever reads my blog and I know why I made 12 entries in one day. But, on the off chance that you are not me, I'll explain. What I've done is transferred all the postings from my old blog to this one, but I did it all on the same day, which is why all the postings have shown up together on December 2nd. That's all, no conspiracy, no grand design, nothing to worry about.

CSI: Boon or Bane?

Before we begin, I have a question. How and why is it December already? Ok, on to today's blather.
I love CSI. I might even go so far as to say I'm addicted to it. Whenever I find myself in front of the TV I check to see if there's an episode on. And there usually is, it's getting to be almost like Law & Order like that. I like the original in Las Vegas, and the new one in New York but I'm not a big fan of the Miami version. Something about that red-headed guy really annoys me. Anyway, I was watching the new episode of CSI: New York last night and it struck me that aside from being a cool and entertaining show it might actually be useful in improving the effectiveness of our judicial system. Millions of people watch CSI, and other shows like it, and all those people are potential jurors in some sort of criminal case someday. So I reasoned: If a viewer does end up on a jury someday they may be less susceptible to the slick talk and misdirection presented by the attorneys and be more focused on the evidence itself, as Dr. Gil Grissom has taught us to do. That's a good thing, right? But then it occurred to me that, while these shows do give us a small taste of the science that's involved in Forensic Science, it is by no means a comprehensive education on the subject. However, due to the need to feel intelligent and important that many people have, many viewers will take this small taste of Forensic science and think they are masters of the field, thereby drawing erroneous conclusions from any evidence that is presented to them. Then it occurred to me that slick talking, misdirecting attorneys have probably already thought of this and might build a presentation that caters to these jurors whose heads are full of Prime-time Pseudo-Science. They could present their evidence in such a way that it would seem credible to those of us who have watched too much CSI, but might not actually make any real sense at all. CSI has also taught us that "Expert" testimony, as it relates to scientific evidence, is often unreliable (unless presented by Dr. Grissom himself), once again leaving jurors to draw their own conclusions, accurate or not. In which case CSI might actually be detrimental to our judicial system, which is completely opposite to the first idea I had. So then I realized that I had confused myself by coming up with all these conflicting ideas and I didn't really know what to think about the whole thing anymore. So I thought I'd just let you guys decide for yourselves. Feel free to post a comment below if you'd like to share your thoughts on the matter. Ok, go decide.

Happy Thanksgiving?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all ate too much, that's what you're supposed to do on Thanksgiving. I know I did. I had a wonderful stress free Thanksgiving dinner with friends. We've been doing Thanksgiving this way for about 3 years now it really seems to make much more sense than the normal stressful family Thanksgiving that seems to be the norm. Why does it have to be such an ordeal? All it really is is people getting together for a big meal and being thankful for things that you appreciate in your life. That's it. But so many people blow it way out of proportion and turn it into some kind of ridiculous contest to see who can out "family" everyone else. People will be comparing stats next week back at work.
"We had 11 people at the table for dinner!"
"Oh yeah? We had 23. Beat that."
"Guess you got me there. Did you have a nice time?"
"Hell no! It was miserable! Dennis wouldn't shut up telling the same crappy stories we've been hearing for the last 30 years, Judith was trying to sell everyone makeup, and Steve's kids were total shit heads. Same shit every year."
Why do we torture ourselves like this? We know what happens when the whole family gets together and, despite the shiny happy movie endings, things generally don't end up all nice and fuzzy in real life. It's just a great hassle. Mostly it's just dinner and then everyone sitting around trying not to be the first to leave. So let it go! I know many people use the excuse that the holidays are the only time of year when the whole family gets to see each other. Big deal! The family doesn't really get along all that well, do they? They probably don't want to see each other. Otherwise, they'd see each other more than once a year, right? Don't get me wrong here, family is a wonderful thing, I like mine quite a lot. They do have their problems, just like any family, but that's not the point here. My point is this: Are you thankful for this family that is stressing you out, or are you thankful for the friends that you actually enjoy spending time with? It's called Thanksgiving, so I say go with what you're thankful for.

Shameless Plug

Got Boof?

Bensons at Van Cortlandt Park

I was out flying kites this past weekend with my friend Jim and I just happened to have along the video camera, so I shot some footage of Jim flying kites. Here's what I put together from it. Sort of "music video" style. Bensons @ VCP

Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now!

I just had to share this. This really is creative marketing. And it's funny too!

David Piven or Jeremy Spade?

It's been a week now since my last entry and I'm feeling a bit remiss. I don't know why, I really shouldn't. After all, I never said I'd update this thing every day, did I? No, I specifically did not, so I don't appreciate your tone OR your insinuation!! GET OFF MY FREAKING BACK, ALRIGHT!?!!!? Alright. Anyway, I haven't really had anything particularly interesting to write about in the past week, so for this entry I think I'll plug a web-site that I find entertaining. I have no affiliation whatsoever with this stuff, I don't even know the guy who did it, it just makes me laugh. I think this guy is the love child of David Spade and Jeremy Piven. I haven't really checked out the "Calls Gone Wild" section, and some of the original shorts are ok, but the part that really cracks me up is the "Movies I'm In" section. Very creative stuff here. Some are better than others, but all of them are pretty funny. Check 'em out if you feel like laughing a bit. Here's the link: Kahn-Artist

They've lost that lovin' feeling.

This is kind of an update to the last entry, so if you haven't read that one, this one may not make much sense. So, after repeated listening and some research I'm very very sad to report that the crappy-ness of the System of a Down album is not to be blamed on a thick-headed label producer, but rather on the band themselves. They really like this album. So I guess that just means that they've lost their touch. I'm going to go cry now.

Art vs. Industry (and Art is on the ropes)

Today I'd like to talk a little bit about music. Music used to be an extremely vital part of my life. I made it the number one priority for most of my high school and college years. I even went so far as to shirk some very important responsibilities in order to follow a certain traveling band around for a short while. I spent many hours just sitting in my room or my car or wherever I could listening to music. I mean really listening, dissecting the songs in my head and hearing the subtle nuances of each part and each instrument. I knew every word to every song on every CD I owned and, at that time there were a lot of them. I think at one point my CD collection was around 700 discs. I know some of you have more, or know someone who has more, but I was proud of that collection. I even custom built a rack myself to hold it all. Music is an extremely powerful thing. It can evoke just about any emotion you'd like just by sending some moving air into your ear. Weird, huh? If you think about it, music has intertwined itself into just about every facet of life that you could think of. It is, perhaps, the most prevalent form of art the world has ever known. So what the hell happened to it? When did music become the toilet bowl of the art world? I used to think it was a pretty recent phenomenon, but now I think it happened a very long time ago and it's just taken us forever to notice. The point when music took a nose dive was when corporate influence took the reins and turned music into an industry rather than an art form. People used to make music for the sake of making music. If they happened to be able to make a living doing it, bonus. But if not, they'd continue on with their day jobs and make music when they could. They did it because they loved it. Now people make music for the sake of making money. If they happen to make a good song while doing it, bonus. Unfortunately, those good songs seem to be few and far between these days. There was a small, brief resurgence of music for music's sake in the 1960's and 70's but it didn't last long. Luckily that movement produced some of the greatest rock music you'll ever want to hear. Led Zeppelin was recently named the greatest rock band of all time by VH1, and I happen to agree whole-heartedly. A lot of people think that music has gone down the toilet since the 70's, but the truth is that music was already in the toilet when the 70's came along. It was just a high spot, a blip on the radar, so to speak. Think back to the cheery pop music of the 40's and 50's. It's really not that much different than the pop music we have today. Sure the beats are a little more aggressive now and it's more blatant in almost every way, but essentially the formula is the same. Pretty people sing songs they didn't write in order to make a buck for themselves and someone else who's name you may or may not ever hear. That someone is whoever it is that heads up the record label that supports the "artist." So now we have this gargantuan entity that is the music industry and it supports a lot of people. It has become a necessary part of our modern economy, but really, what would Mozart think? Something tells me he wouldn't approve. The industry is so worked up over music theft, music sharing, music piracy, whatever you want to call it, and yeah, it's a bit of a problem I guess, but I think there's a much much bigger problem than that. The problem with music sharing (theft, piracy, et al) is that it robs the artist of money that they deserve for making their music. The bigger problem than that is, the artist only gets about 8-12 cents for every dollar that is spent on their music. The rest goes to the label and all the other people who were involved in turing that music into a product. So I ask you, who's really ripping the artists off? The kid who downloads a song and costs the artist 8-12 cents? Or the label that's bastardizing music and robbing the artists of 88-92 cents? Of course, this is all a result of the even bigger problem of music being turned into something the value of which is measured only in dollar signs. I had all this in my head today because I bought the new System of a Down CD. This is a band, that up until now I had considered one of the modern greats. Ok, so it was nothing especially earth-shattering or ground breaking, but it was a refreshing, intelligent take on a notoriously dodgy genre of music. It was honest, it was political, it was pertinent, it was passionate, and it was bloody good. Just a few Armenian guys thrashing their balls off and having a blast doing it. The new album, Mezmerize, is not quite up to scratch. "Here's a new album from a band who's music has been consistently good," thought I. "I've heard a few songs from this album and they are also good. I think I'd like to have the whole album so I can hear more of their good songs." Solid reasoning, if you ask me. So I actually went out and bought the CD instead of downloading it (legally, of course). A real CD in a real package, designed by real people. Because I was so sure it would be worth it. Oops. I should have bought the good songs from the iTunes music store and left the rest alone. It would have saved me twelve bucks. There's the two good songs I had already heard and there are maybe two or three other pretty good songs, but the rest of it sounds like music from a band who's falling victim the industry. It sounds like the band is being over-produced to sound more like itself. I know that may not make sense, but I think I can explain it, just give me a minute. This is the band's third release on a major label. (Their first album was on a semi-big label.) Being their fourth album, they were, understandably, making some changes in their style of music. Nothing too major, just a progression of style like any good band will go through. The label, hearing the change, panics. Labels hate change from a formula that's proven to sell, especially if it's an artist that's still sort of new. (In other words, if the band has been around forever like, say, oh, U2, they can make whatever crap music they want and the label doesn't care because they know it will sell anyway.) Oh, no! We might not make as much money off this new style as we did off the old one. Never mind that fact that this is how the band wants their music to sound. Fuck the band. It's all about the Benjamin's, see? So they send in a producer to make the band sound like they did on their last album that sold a gazillion copies. And it comes out sounding fake, weak, and unsatisfying. So I weep once again for the fate of modern music. And I take a lesson from this experience; Don't waste my money on the songs that suck, just download the good ones. The industry is shooting itself in the foot and they don't even notice.

Guinness, lions, Jazz and a hat.

You ever have one of those days when people just really annoy the living shit out of you? One of those days when even people who are trying to be helpful get on your nerves, and the people who really are being pricks are at risk of receiving serious injury? At least in your mind they are. One of those days when it's a non-stop string of people and things that require your attention RIGHT NOW and, despite the high volume of things you seem to be doing, you actually get nothing accomplished? One of those days when you think you've finally gotten everything done, only to discover another stack of shit you completely forgot about. You ever have one of those days? Of course you have. Everyone has. How do you deal with those days? What is the antidote? Well, I don't have the answer, but in the meantime, I'm having a Guinness. That's a good start. Let's discuss the healing properties of Guinness, eh? Actually, no, let's not. I'd love to, really, but my brain refuses. It just stood up and said, "JUST DRINK IT AND STOP THINKING, WILL YOU PLEASE!?!?!" I'm inclined to listen. I find that my brain has an excellent safegaurd system built into it for times like these. It just shuts down and refuses to do any more. Then it yells at me until I comply. Works rather well. Of course, it can be a bit troublesome if it decides to shut down in the middle of something important. One time it decided to shut down right in the middle a particularly intense lion taming session. The lions were really grumpy and hadn't been fed yet that day so it was already taking every bit of concentration I could muster just to keep up with them. One of them broke out and tried to kill the ringmaster and that was all my brain could handle. It shut right down and started demanding Guinness and I was lucky to get out of there alive. Of course, the ringmaster was pissed and when he got out of the hospital he kicked me out of the show and I was forced to return to life in the normal world. The strongman felt sorry for me so he put me in touch with someone who could get me a job and help me re-aclimate to the world. I ended up with a day job at Macy's and a night gig washing taxi cabs. I was living in a crap motel that cost $104 a week, which left me just enough for a pack of Camels and the Weekly World News. I made friends with a dame at the diner who's name was Rosanna and she'd slip me leftover food whenever she could. I always looked forward to taco and barley soup day. To this day, though, I still can't eat macaroni and cheese. You don't want to know why. I started hanging around this seedy jazz club on the other side of the bridge. At first they wouldn't let me inside since I didn't have any money to buy drinks. After a while though I started doing favors and running errands for the barkeep and eventually I was able to replace my taxi washing job with a gig washing dishes at the jazz club. The work sucked real bad but the music! The music was amazing. I'll never forget it. Thursday night was Rutger Chek night and I couldn't believe that God would give that much talent to just one person. He was amazing! Every once in a while I would bang around on the piano after hours and pretend I was him but I had no business with that instrument. Still, it was nice to dream. I had finally worked up the courage and I was going to introduce myself to him. I didn't really think he'd talk to me but I had to try. There was some bigshot from a Jazz label there that night to hear the show and I just knew he'd get signed and we'd never see him in our little hole again. The show ended, the crowd went nuts and Rutger stood up and took a bow. That's when the gun went off. It was so loud in that tiny little club I couldn't even comprehend what had happened at first. Then Rutger's silk shirt started turning red and he fell forward off the stage onto one of the tables near the front. People started screaming and running everywhere but I couldn't move. I was glued to the spot and my eyes were glued to Rutger's corpse. It was just there draped over the table with a gin and tonic spilling on his hat. I couldn't believe what had just happened. I walked over and picked up his hat because it just didn't seem right to let it sit there in a puddle of gin and tonic. This was HIS hat, after all. The cops nabbed the guy who shot him right outside the club. He wasn't even trying to run away, they said. He was some crazy junk-head who had wandered in and thought Rutger was Richard Nixon in disguise. At least, that's what we were all told. I don't know if it was true or not. What I do know is that when I finally wandered home that night I was still holding Rutger's hat, and I still have that hat to this very day.

Good News, Bad News

The Good News: Nathan Fillion has a new movie coming out! The quirky actor who played the beloved Captain Mal Reynolds on everyone's favorite cancelled sci-fi show "Firefly" has what appears to be a starring role in the new psuedo-horror film Slither. (I'll be holding a seminar next week on how to write expositional run-on sentences.) This is good news for those of us who enjoyed his tongue-in-cheek, shoot-from-the-hip, flippant style and delivery. That style appears to live on in this latest role, in fact, it kind of looks like they've just transplanted Mal into a different movie and put him in a cop uniform.

The Bad News: The movie appears to be a bit crap.

Check out the trailer here.

First dud.

So I've finally given in and decided to try doing a blog of my very own. I have no idea what's going to go into this thing, how often it will get updated, who will read it, what it's going to look like, if it will be interesting, if I'll get attacked by accountants in purple suits on my way home from work tonight, or if Pluto will be demoted from planet to comet. I don't think any of that really matters anyway, aside from the fact that a few Astronomy textbooks may have to be re-written soon. So, on with the first entry, I guess.

I'm being bugged to go get gelato once again. Every day Lois bugs me to go downstairs and get gelato from Jimmy's Gelato here in the Chelsea Market. It's really quite good stuff but I just can't eat it every day. It's a slow day at work today. Actually it's completely dead. I've taken the opportunity to get a bunch of personal business taken care of, namely finishing up a project that I've been working on for several months now. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. I'm really quite happy to see the end of it. Even though it was a lot of fun to do, it more or less took over my life. All of my spare time was poured into this project and I'm ready to have my life back, thanks. So a celebration is in order for the successful completion of the project ON SCHEDULE! I had some serious doubts about whether this thing was going to be done on time but it all got pulled together at the end and the deadline was met, if just barely. But it turned out really well, I'm very pleased with the final product and very happy to have been involved. I'm looking forward to doing more, just not right away.

Moving on.

What the hell is going on at Apple? They've released a new version of virtually all their products within the past month, some of which were only just updated a month before that. Have they lost their minds? Slow down guys! That point aside, some of the new stuff is pretty cool. The new Power Mac G5 has up to 4 processors now. Well, really it's two dual core processors, but who cares? This thing is smokin'. If I'm going to be doing any more work with digital video, I really need to get my hands on one of these. The catch? They START at $3299. *OUCH* You can also connect up to 8 monitors to it, but that's really overkill, don't you think? I mean who uses 8 monitors? Sure, they did it in the movie Swordfish, but that was just to make it look cool on camera. There's no practical reason for that unless you're trying to decode the human genome. Anyone here working on that? Anyone? Anyone? The new iPod has video capability, which, while seemingly cool can only spell disaster. I don't think we as a society really need any more disctractions from the real world, let alone self contained, super-portable video players. Yes, I know portable DVD players have been around for years now, but it's not quite the same. They're kind of bulky and cumbersome, plus you have to carry the discs around with it. Not really all that convenient. The iPod on the other hand, fits in your other hand. Just one hand. It's easy to carry, all the media is contained within the unit itself, no switching discs, no flip-up screens, and it all fits in your pocket. People will no longer be watching where they're walking. I see a rash of man-hole accidents in the near future. And let's not even talk about people trying to watch videos while driving. Really, we'll not talk about it.

Moving on.

I'm going to a Halloween haunted house on Friday night. I'm not sure if this is a good idea as I'm generally a big wuss and I scare easily. I don't watch scary movies because I have an overactive imagination and it keeps me awake at night thinking about all the horrible things that could happen. Scary media does not help the situation. Lately I've been having weird visions of my car, with me at the wheel, going wildly out of control, smashing through the barriers and flying off the Williamsburgh Bridge into the dark, icy water below. What?! Why?! What's wrong with me?

Moving on.

Actually, I think I'll stop there. This is more than enough for a first entry, especially considering I really didn't have anything in particular to say when I started it. I'll update this whenever I feel like I have something to say, or vent about, or get off my chest. Or whatever. I feel like an arrogant bastard here, thinking that somebody might give a shit about the inconsequential ramblings of some random guy in New York, but whatever. This is where the modern marvel called the internet has brought us. Revel in it!