2005 March

GeekFury

GeekFury are doing something interesting to promote their new company, which sells merchandise oriented towards computer geeks.

They’re asking bloggers to market about their store, in exchange for free stickers, in hopes of getting their name out. I’m not sure if it’s even been directly requested before, but the results should prove intriguing.

Not only am I interested in seeing how it works out for them, but I could use a sticker too. My desk has this thin material that makes it look like wood, when it really is not, and it scratches off easily. Thus, I use neat stickers to cover up the mess. Plus, it makes a statement, I think, when people look at my desk.

Not A Healthy Discussion

Talking to A.L.I.C.E. (Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity), an internet robot, is certainly not a very healthy thing to do on a regular basis. Here’s my first conversation:

Me: Sleepy?
ALICE: what is your favorite movie
Me: Avoiding the question?
ALICE: I’ve never seen it. Is that a good movie for children?
Me: No, it’s not a good thing to teach them either, avoiding questions, that is.
ALICE: Are you serious? Give me an example of a good thing to teach them either avoiding questions that is.
Me: That is avoiding the question, when you avoid the question, the question avoids itself.
ALICE: Thanks for explaining it.

See? The robot understands my cryptic “pearls of wisdom”, why can’t anyone else? There’s no hope for me.

3DGPU Down (Again)

3DGPU is now back online.

Not sure what is up this time, but 3DGPU is down again. The errors indicate that it’s a database issue, and since the site’s control panel doesn’t seem to have a repair database function, which is odd, I have to wait for the server administrator to get ahold of me, and tell me what the problem is, or wait for them to fix it.

Song of the Week - Be Still My Heart

EriK offered me his free song promotional code for the iTunes Music Store that he got from a Pepsi. He’s trying to quit Pepsi, and I guess he doesn’t want to be rewarded for trying to avoid the stuff. He wanted me to get something awful like Yanni. Instead, I got a remix of The Postal Service’s excellent “Be Still My Heart.” The song of the week is the original, non-remix version, from their CD Single (4 tracks on it) We Will Become Silhouettes, so you can see how great it is.

The Postal Service (Bio) can be best described as indie rock meets electronic, fusing the two best elements together into a catchy twist.

Back to High School

I am 26 years old, yet I still have dreams about high school. The vast majority of them are nightmares, usually I misbehave in the dream, and sometimes I end up fighting for my life. I have developed a habit of waking up forcefully when these dreams tend to get too unbearable, and I’d end up starting my day on a bad note.

For example, last night I had a dream about this one teacher I had in high school. I knew for a fact she disliked me, and she made no effort to hide her distaste for me. I was popular in her class, everyone liked me, and I tended to be a class clown as a result. She didn’t like that.

In the dream, she still disliked me, and she even called some security guys, who turned out to be the alien robots from Battlestar Galactica, and they hunted me down long hallways, shooting me with machine guns and laser guns. When I got outside to the parking lot, I tried to find my car, but couldn’t find it. So I had to duck behind cars, and ended up running back in the school, back into the classroom, and killing the teacher that put me in that predicament in the first place. That’s when I woke up.

I never disliked her, in fact, I just didn’t pay her much attention at all. However, in the dream, she annoyed me purposely. These kind of dreams happen multiple times a week, and you’d think after being out of high school for over 8 years, I would forget about high school, but that’s not the case. My high school experience wasn’t a great one, I really hated it, but if I knew it would end up haunting me for the rest of my life, I would’ve made more of an effort to make it a better experience.

Dreamhost Rewards A Lot

Dreamhost has upped the ante by giving out a huge reward for anyone that refers to their hosting service, $97 worth for each direct referral (or 10% for as long as your referral stays on board, your choice.) I just referred someone tonight, and got $97 for it, which is pretty sweet, for both me and Dreamhost.

It also helps that Dreamhost has great pricing, one of the best, if not the best, customer support, and all the features that even a jaded web designer like me can feel good about. I remember when 75GB a month used to cost 3DGPU.com $75-$100+ a month just to keep alive. Now it’s just $8 a month. That’s just a killer deal. Check out Dreamhost if you need a great website host, and don’t forget to refer people to earn money too.

Song of the Week - I’m Not Okay (I Promise)

A little late, but better late than never. This week’s Song of the Week is from punk-rock outfit, My Chemical Romance (Bio). The song, from their Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge album, is a great taste of what this band puts out, and it’s excellent punk. Kind of ironic because I had recently told someone I was bored with punk, and then I discover this band and realize that I just needed something new and refreshing. You’ll find some great guitar solo work through the album, and even a hint of metal can be found along with some touch of emo. Glad to see punk isn’t just reserved to Green Day and Sum 41, and I for one, welcome our new Punk Overlords.