Author: cosmo

Here’s a log of an actual IM conversation between my friend Steve (playing the role of VirtualSmitty) and his brother, as SmittysPetShop.

VirtualSmitty: campjinx.pictureshowfilms.com/bls/leonard/im_fight.html
SmittysPetShop: campjinx.pictureshowfilms.com/bls/leonard/im_fight.html
VirtualSmitty: why did you just send me that?
SmittysPetShop: so you could check out
VirtualSmitty: but i sent it to you
VirtualSmitty: just before you sent it to me
VirtualSmitty: did you forget who sent it to you?
SmittysPetShop: ohh yeah
SmittysPetShop: that was funny

The Great Pumpkin continues to grow, and now probably outweighs Zack. It’ll be fun carving this puppy for Halloween; I wonder if I should plan on renting a chainsaw…

Today I went to lunch with my friend Glenn. I ordered a grilled-cheese sandwich and fries, mostly because I remember the sandwiches being pretty good the last time I was at the place (about a year ago).

The waitress came back with my order and informed me that there would be an additional one-dollar charge because the grilled cheese was technically on the Kids’ Menu, and I wasn’t a kid. I asked her if I therefore received a bigger sandwich, or perhaps more fries. Nope, I just got charged an additional dollar. Apparently it was some kind of “adult tax”… who knows.

It reminded me of the lovely practice employed by, say, ISPs– who charge twice the price for the same services if you’re a “business customer” rather than a “residential customer”.

Sheesh.

Well, it’s official. The extended edition of The Return of the King, to be released in December, will be 250 minutes long. Holy ringwraiths, that’s just over four hours!

Back in college Nat and I hosted several Star Wars movie nights where we showed the whole trilogy. Those were fun, but after six hours even the die-hard fans (and there were a lot of them, believe me!) were pretty worn out. Imagine the Lord of the Rings trilogy showing– it would approach eleven hours if my math is right. Wow.

Still, I’m excited to see almost an hour of new footage. Yessssss, my preciousssss…

… So I see today that the House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday that would bar federal courts from striking the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. This seems pretty weird to me, as the point of the legislative branch of the government is NOT to tell the judicial branch what they can (or can’t, in this case) do. What happened to the separation of powers in the government we all learned about in fifth grade?

It’s sad to watch as this separation of power is being eroded a bit at a time– with minor things like this to major things like suspension of trials and due process in certain situations. While I typically gripe about how the executive branch is overstepping its bounds, it’s clear the legislative branch is following.

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the House Minority Leader, said it well:

“I love the pledge. But this bill … violates the spirit of pledge by professing a lack of faith in the constitutional framework.”

In a way, one wonders if this sort of thing is really just a thinly-veiled attempt to win votes. That’s the worst kind of lawmaking, if you ask me, because it’s so painfully short-sighted.

Sigh.

As I drove to ultimate today, I was following a car and watching with great amusement as the driver battled a balloon floating around the car. He had a silver helium-filled balloon in the car (the “happy birthday” type), and the window down– so the wind was whipping that thing all over the place. It kept attacking him, and he’d take a swing and punch it to the back seat, where it would lurk for a few seconds before lunging forward again. Another punch, another defeat, another pause and jump for the kill.

I wonder if the balloon made it to his little girl’s party or wherever it was destined, or if it finally succumbed to relentless pummelling when he got so mad that he turned on it at a stoplight and beat the helium right out of it.

I was reading a news article talking about file sharing and the music industry and yada yada. This was in a reputable news journal, and I just about choked on my glass of milk when I read this portion of a sentence:

“… Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) …”

One wonders how intentional that abbreviation was…

There’s big news in the world of science fiction movie-making: William Shatner is teaming up with Leonard Nimoy to make a new flick.

Basically, imagine all of the following:

1) Riverside, Iowa.
2) Captain Kirk.
3) A small budget.
4) The working title “Invasion Iowa”.

Man, it just doesn’t get any better than that!

Well, it’s the last day of summer, forty degrees outside, and raining. There’s a chance of snow tonight, which means it’s business as usual in Colorado.

Today on Slashdot there’s a discussion about a web log authored by a guy who found a digital camera memory card in a New York City taxi. There are 277 pictures on the card, spanning the course of exactly one year. So, in a fit of creativity, this guy decided to create an online photo album with the pictures, including fictional stories about the people and places shown. From the beginning, the web log is clear that the project is pure fiction, and even discusses its roots.

However, in this age of copyright fascism, there are of course legal issues surrounding the project. By posting photographs taken by someone else, this guy is technically violating copyright law. Any pictures you take or words you write are immediately and automatically copyrighted by you– and this is no exception. So, is he liable for damages under copyright law? Moreover, could he be charged with libel or slander because he’s inventing the people in the pictures (“This is Susan, from Amsterdam…”)?

Two points of interest have arisen: first, at least a few of the people in the pictures have been positively identified; second, no one has come forward to say they’re the owner of the card. It’ll be interesting if and when that happens.

In the meantime, it’s a pretty funny idea. Too bad we can’t just enjoy a good joke sometimes.