Greatest Combination Ever
TGFRACW (Thank God For Ruffles And Cheez Whiz)
Heaven on Earth. Heat the Cheez Whiz till just the edges in your bowl are barely burnt. Perfection. Oh, and get the reduced fat Ruffles. They taste better anyway.
Cake - Friend Is A Four-Letter Word
It’s decided. Our first track will be a cover of Cake’s “Friend is a Four-Letter Word.” It has banjo, guitar, and trumpet parts. And they’re fairly easy. Now we just need a bass and a drummer. Any takers? Also a songwriter would be good; might be hard to earn a living on covers. And I’ll really need a new guitar… my cheap Fender isn’t gonna cut it. Neither will my 10-watt amp. Mmmm amps.
New Career Path
It’s official. I’m quitting my job with Gestalt to play guitar and sing in an indie rock band. I’ll have to sell my computers for a decent guitar, and start an exercise regimen so I don’t drive away the fans. Anybody want to be in my band? My circle of friends is somewhat lacking in instrumentalists. I have a trumpet/guitar player, and a banjo/harmonica. Not a lot to work with there.
This:
I want.
Science Fiction Short Stories
I have a secret love of short stories, especially science fiction. High on my list of favorite books are compilations of little-known authors’ short stories. I like novels, as well, but short stories have so much more freedom to explore. A novel has to appeal to a large enough audience to be worth the sometimes huge investment of the author (writers have to eat, too, you know), but a short story might be dashed out in a day or two. This means that the ideas that never quite make it, the ones even the author can’t imagine enough of to make a full-length novel, show up in short stories.
Then there are the stories that would tick you off if you spent a few hours reading, but a few minutes delight you. The Last-But-One Question
Disney
College-age people generally have a like for Disney and Pixar movies, but I’ve noticed a much higher love in computer nerds. For some reason, the post-modern antics of anthropomorphic animals excites the computationally scientific mind (say that three times fast). I don’t know what it is, but I like it. And since I am getting tired at this point, I’m going to stop being academic and list off my favorite animated films.
Lilo & Stitch
Aladdin
The Lion King
Toy Story
Happy Feet
Monsters, Inc.
Ice Age
The Jungle Book (1967)
Open Season
Nerdiness and Cards
So I’m trying to work up a couple of new Magic: The Gathering decks for Monday night (about five of my friends get together and play for a few hours every Monday). Problem is, my collection is somewhat lacking, as is my imagination 
I have a mildly decent Saproling deck. It’s won a couple of games, mainly because nobody was paying attention to me, and picked each other off. I’m building a red DX deck as well as a Goblin deck, but I think I’ll be scrapping those by the morning. Neither looks overly promising.
I need to put together a good decklist, and spend $40 on Star City Games for the cards. Just shove myself a level higher, instead of relying on random draws and charity.
Imagination… not sure how I’ll boost that.
Ooops. Half Life consumed too much of my attention… almost forgot this blog1
Why is it that all science fiction first-person shooters MUST have zombies? Half Life has the headcrab zombies (which get even worse in Half Life 2). Halo has the Flood (so, zombies). Far Cry I had high hopes for. No hint of zombification about it, but it seemed mildly scifi-ish. But no. The mad scientist was making gorilla zombies.
Sometimes, I’d just like to shoot a HUMAN with a laser. Is that so hard to comprehend? I’d even take a modern (not futuristic) FPS…. tired of choosing between zombies and Nazis. But all the take-place-in-this-decade games shooters I can find are squad-based. I just want to be a soldier, not necessarily a commander. :-/ Any suggestions?
Webcomics
Anyone read any decent webcomics? I’ve got a couple dozen I read regularly, but I’m always on the lookout for more good ones. My current favorites are:
Irregular Webcomic!
Ctrl-Alt-Del
XKCD
Order of the Stick
Questionable Content
Mac Hall (Discontinued, but still funny)
Any you like?
What is important in a phone?
Looking at phones and contemplating actually picking one I want raises the question: what do i actually want from a phone?
I mean, obviously I want to make calls. Since I have no land line, my cell phone needs to be reliable, preferably on the best network (currently, this seems to be 3G). I want Bluetooth capability, as it would be nice to have a hands-free device. I drive a stick, so you can imagine how much fun it is. Music playing would be wonderful, as my current iPod is my laptop. I definitely want to be able to load mp3 ringtones; sick of paying for crappy 2-bar tones over the network. A camera phone would be a plus, but definitely not required. As I get into higher-end phones, I definitely want to be able to run video game emulators on it (NES and MAME for sure, SNES/Genesis if the phone has enough power). I even have a use for Exchange calendar reminders now.
What do you look for in a phone? Just a phone, or a true multi-purpose device? And what do you do with it? I have a coworker who runs a Palm emulator on his WM5 phone, just so he can run an insulin-calculator he has (he has diabetes).