CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
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Monday, February 28, 2011

this entry brought to you by how to destroy angels, "the space in between"


THE GOOD

Video chatting When I wrote my entry on Chatroulette last year, I was on the old computer and, thus, didn't have a webcam. Just a few days ago I was using Stumbleupon on this, the new computer, and stumbled onto something called Camzap. When I used Chatroulette on the old computer it asked me if I would allow the website to access my webcam and microphone, and, not having them, when I clicked "yes", nothing happened, but it activated the site. When I stumbled onto this new cam-chat site, it asked, and I sighed, clicking yes. And there was a picture of my in real time at the bottom. For a fraction of a second I thought, gasp, that guy looks exactly like me! And when I moved he moved with me! Turns out the new computer has a webcam installed in it. Well, of course it does, pretty much all computers do, you might say, but as I said when we got it, I didn't exactly do any research into it or read any specs when I bought the new computer, so it was quite a shock. I immediately cam chatted with one of my oldest friends for about two hours, and, over the course of that (non nudity-filled) chat, showed both of my kids. It was like a commercial for Microsoft circa 2006. Welcome to the future!

Gabrielle Giffords surviving her assassination attempt I lost Internet access on January 9th, 2011-- the day after Giffords' attack-- and didn't get it back until February 11th. We hadn't paid the cable bill, so for that month we were Internet-less and, because we don't own one of those HD converter boxes for the TV, we were also without television. I was literally checking the newspapers every day, and especially during the weekend edition, to see how Giffords was doing. Not only was I immensely happy that she had not only survived but, over the weeks, was doing better and better, on a personal level, I found it to be a triumph. She seemed to be winning not just because she needed to live and living is the only thing people ultimately do, she seemed to be defeating adversity, she seemed to be a symbol of all that was beautiful and right in the world. Without going on and on about it, I can't explain how happy I am that she's alive right now.

Trent Reznor wins and Oscar for The Social Network I haven't seen the movie-- I am going to try my best to do that real soon, though-- and I haven't heard the soundtrack, but I can't express how happy I am for Trent Reznor. I remember reading an interview with him-- actually, the first interview I'd ever read with him, if I remember correctly, back in 1996-- and he said that he wasn't sure if he could keep Nine Inch Nails going in in its current incarnation, and that he saw himself scoring movies in the future. It took him fifteen years and four Nine Inch Nails albums later, but he's doing exactly that. And winning Oscars.

Olivia Munn on the cover of Maxim last month After she had something to do with the Spike Video Game Awards I was aware that there was some sort of blow-back concerning Olivia Munn and I was seeing some Internet hate for her. But you know what? I didn't watch it, and I still love her, and my goodness, she looked good on the cover of Maxim.

The Dead Island teaser trailer Nobody knows much about the game it's advertising, in fact, the actual game isn't showed at all in this all-CGI trailer. But I have a sort of rule about not talking about video games here in my blog, and I only break that rule if I feel like casual people reading this would be interested in this. And trust me, if you ever thought a zombie looked cool, then you will be interested in this trailer. It's as much of a piece of artwork as I've ever seen from an advertisement for anything, let alone video games.


THE BAD

The Union Busting in Madison, WI It's difficult to explain my outrage at what's going on in Wisconsin without echoing exactly the outrage that's been said in detail from shows that I listen to like Rachel Maddow and The Young Turks. They've been talking about it for fourteen days now, I think, so anything I would have to say has already been said better. Suffice it to say that I think the Republican party has shown its true colors, and this isn't going to be isolated to Wisconsin if they win there. This is what they want the entire country to look like.

No David Fincher Oscar Now, I haven't seen The Social Network, which was nominated for Best Movie, and I haven't seen The King's Speech, which won Best Picture, but I was annoyed that Fincher's movie didn't win. A few years ago Benjamin Button was the far-and-away clear front winner of the Best Picture nominations, but then Slumdog Millionaire, which was an inferior movie, swept in at the last minute, got a shitload of nominations, and bum-rushed Button. I was disappointed, but two years later, when Fincher was up again for The Social Network and everyone said it was a shoo-in, I am yet again disappointed that another unexpected movie came in and bum rushed it. Again, I haven't seen the movies, and for all I know, The King's Speech is a better movie. Still, how disappointing for one of my favorite directors.

Keith Olbermann having quit MSNBC This came as quite a shock to me-- and, I suppose, everyone, but especially as I did not have cable at the time, and when I logged back on-- what the fuck? Why did this happen? I had always hated the "MSNBC is the liberal version of Fox" equation, because it didn't make sense. How did three hours of programming headed off by Keith Olbermann make the station the equivalent of Fox? So it made sense to me that he'd been having problems with them, and I was very disappointed in the bullshit suspension they gave him a few months ago during the election. I know he's got to have offers at his doorstep-- hell, I'll bet even Fox News offered him a deal-- so I don't expect he'll be gone for good. Still, this interim period is making me uneasy. I miss Olbermann.

Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album art Now, the argument can be made that people don't buy albums the way the used to, as a physical thing, so who gives a shit what the album art looks like? Why should a musician pay an expensive artist to make something expensive when nobody's going to see it larger than that little icon on their Ipods? Well, because if you don't, your album artwork looks like this.

Radiohead on a label Yes, I know that they're on an independent record label, and yes, I know that they weren't trying to become the savior of the music universe, and never claimed they couldn't work within the label construct anymore. Still, after they released In Rainbows with that pay-what-you-want experiment, and it was established that they made a shitload of money off of it, that they made more from it than they would have from a label, it is disappointing to see them release The King of Limbs, which came out a week ago, on a major label.
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with love from CRS @ 9:42 PM 

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