1:43:03

One hour, forty three minutes. That was my official time on for the Santa Clarita Half Marathon that I ran on Sunday. I ran the 13 miles with Karl (my bro in law), and my dad. It was a lot of fun, and I think it may turn into a family annual event.

The night before (Sat.), band competed (well, maybe "played" is a better word) at the annual Heart Rampage at College of the Canyons. Although it was fun as it always is, we did pretty badly. Actually, we did really bad. Oh well, there's always next time.

I feel like ranting, so here goes:
I hate sitting in the front row. Not only is it in the front (which sucks for obvious reasons), but your right there where the teacher can see, breathe, spit, cough, sneeze, or whatever else they might do on you. Especially when they are sick. Thanks to a certain English teacher (who's really not all that bad as a teacher), I've been battling this cold for a week. Fun.

Happy 1st birthday, Firefox! May you live long, prosper, and continue to take back the web.

Just FYI- Clarkville is down for some odd reason. I'll get around to fixing whatever the problem is this weekend.

Well, off to prepare for my 15 hour day tomorrow. It's the last football game and everybody is riding the whole day out. Three day weekend coming up!

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

The fear of long words.

How ironic is that???

Overall, last week was a pretty decent week. No complaints besides the usual (school, hw, etc). A good weekend, too. Andi and Karl came up, and Karl and I ran (almost) 11 miles on Saturday. Oh the wonderful feeling of sore legs and crunching hips. Then my other sister had a pumpkin carving thing last night, so that was fun.

Next week is the Santa Clarita half! I'm running with Karl, so that's why I'll be a walking corpse on next Monday. That is, if I'm walking.

Dodger owner Frank McCourt decided to dump the guy responsible for purging practically the whole team last year providing for this year's pathetic close. That's right folks, Paul DePodesta is gone. It's about time.

In the spirit of Halloween, check out the Pumpkin PC. Some guy had way too much time on his hands.

Check out the first laptop ever. I gotta get a hold of one of those.

That's it for now.

100th Post

Yep, it's TCF number 100.
I think...I didn't actually count; I'm trusting blogger on this one.

We took 1st in our division the Apple Valley band competition yesterday, but no sweepstakes. Barstow was nice enough to take care of those for us. It was a very long (try 11 hours), yet fun, day.

Everything else in my life is pretty much the same, that is: busy. Very busy, but I'm still here, every Sunday and the occasional Wednesday. I'm really looking forward to a weekend...oh wait...we just had one. Oh well, there's always next week.

Mandriva Linux 2006 came out a few days ago. It's their latest big update to the OS since 10.0 came out a few years ago. I'll probably get around to installing it over Thanksgiving break.

For those you still in Redmond, check out the top ten reasons to switch to Linux.

On that note, happy 20th birthday, Windows! PC Mag had a special this month...it was really interesting (for some of us at least) to see how it all developed from Windows 1.0 to the upcoming release of Vista.

Well, that wraps up the 100th post.

The Video Ipod

It happened. Apple released a video ipod. Only 5 weeks after the nano, here comes the fifth generation ipod. Check out all of the new specs.

I went to Vegas last weekend to see Andi and Karl (my sister and bro in-law). It was a lot of fun...we went to a renaissance fair, Fremont Street, and of course, Fry's. I ran with Karl on Sunday and was actually able to keep up; we did 7 miles in under an hour, which is pretty cool.

Check out the 100 most requested/downloaded fonts. Pretty awesome.

I'm beat, so that's about it for now...while you run out to buy your $50 1gig flash drive, I think I'll take a nap.

Wednesday's Wanderings

Time for a quick Wednesday update/break in the middle of conjugating 50 verbs (in three tenses each, folks) for Spanish. Argh. It would have been nice to know it was due tomorrow.

Band played at homecoming last Friday. It was pretty fun, minus playing "When you wish upon a star" 20 times at half-time. Of course I was as close as you could get to the court thing, so I'm in the background of all the stupid pictures. Joy. I also got to loan my clarinet to some guy named Clark who graduated in 02 so he could play with pep band...so that was cool.

Is there a video ipod coming soon? According to Engadget and a BBC slip there is. I think it's sort of stupid for Apple to come out with a video ipod while the regular ipods still so successful. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

If anybody watched Tuesday's "My Name is Earl", did you catch the easter egg? Too bad if you like me and don't have HDTV. It's pretty cool/funny. Check it out.

MIT's $100 Laptop

This thing is absolutly amazing. Not only is this laptop insanely cheap, but its design is very well thought out. The battery doubles as a handle and the shoulder strap is the power supply and plug. When you run low on battery, you can even hand crank power. And that's not all...check out the article for more info. When these things come out in late 06, I'll be first in line.

The Zombies are Attacking...

Another uneventful week in the can. It actually rained on Tuesday to the great surprise and celebration of everybody. That was nice...I could go for more, but it doesn’t look like it too soon. Although, Thursday was the first official day of fall, so off we plunge into that time of year.

We had our field exhibition show last night at QHHS. It was pretty fun, and we actually did half-way decent. Only one more drill left to learn and a massive amount of cleanup and we might actually know the show.

Hope I didn't freak you out with the title, because it actually does tie in. A high school student was arrested Tuesday for plotting a scheme to "raise a zombie army and attack his high school." Wonderful.

If that wasn't enough Zombie news for you, here's a simulation of what would happen if the world was suddenly attacked by zombies. Shouldn't we be putting our recorces in to planning naturl disasters, instead 'zombie attacks'???

Even though it looks like it, apparently you can’t snap the new ipod nano in half, but you can apparently scratch the screen up pretty good. Check out the chronicles of the screen scratch truama.

Microsoft's goal with the upcoming Windows Vista is for the system to "start and shut down as quickly and reliably as a television, typically within 2 to 3 seconds." Wow. That's fast.

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Ayyy Matey

Avast, me hearties-
Tomorrow is International Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Arrr...just letting you know early, so you can greet everyone correctly.
Avast- I'm off.

Driving School and 16 gig Flash Drives

Sounds like some sort of twisted horror movie.

Not too much new in my world. I had my first driving lesson last week. No casualties yet, so I guess I'm doing pretty good so far. My instructor guy was good ol' Bud at Adrian’s Driving School- the biggest dump on that side of Lancaster, but I'd never have it any other way. That place is pretty awesome (especially to a junk hoard like me).

School continues to play the wonderful part of Dante's Inferno on this rotating spherical habitat on which we reside. Homework arrives by the craploads, but it's all good. Not really, but oh well.

We had our first field show performance last week. "They" said it looked "good". There's room for improvement...trust me. I think our next performance is the exhibition show on the 24th.

16GB flash drives? Yup, Samsung is going to start shipping them next year.

The new i-pod nano is shipping. It's thinner than a pencil with 4GB of flash memory and a color screen. Not that I'm endorsing it or anything. Now with our 16GB flash drive (see above) we may see something every interesting in the future...

An 85 year old grandmother in Nebraska leapt out of a plane the other day. She kept her promise to sky dive on her 85th birthday. Wow. Let's just hope my grandma doesn’t get any ideas (those in my family are now cringing at the thought).

That's all for now folks.

I'm Street Legal

Well, folks, it's happened. I passed the written DMV test. I have a learner's permit. I can legally operate a motor vehicle (under supervision). If that's not a scary thought, I don't know what is.

The test had 46 questions, and you can miss up to 8. I was shooting for a perfect score (just to annoy everybody), but missed two. Darn those freeway exit lanes and marked extended cargo regulations.

I go for my first behind the wheel training thing on Sunday. Quite frankly, I'm dreading it.

A big happy birthday is in order for one of my best friends:
Google is 7 years old!!!
If Google were a person, they would have started elementary school late last summer (around August 19), and today would have just finished the first grade. Awesome indeed.

Give Katrina Victims $1 for Free

It might not be much, but I'm sure every little bit counts. Since I know a lot of us can't really do much, this is kind of neat. Click here, look in the lower right corner, check the box and click donate. Way to go, Clorox for sponsoring something like this. Spread the word!

Back to Reality...

School started last Monday.
Need I say more?
Back to annoying teachers, long days and homework. Joy.

We're making slow, painful progress on the show in band. It's a pretty hard show, but we've got some of it. I think the first game we play at is on the 9th.

The new Walmart Super-Center opened today. Louis and I had a plan: we were going to wait in line to get in opening day, run in, grab a stick of gum, buy it, and become their first customers ever. Too bad school started so early this year.

Ever wonder what happens when some guy with too much time on his hands buys a chunk of pure sodium off ebay and attempts to blow it up any way possible? Check it out.

Microsoft released beta 1 of Windows Vista (the next version of Windows). It looks to have some cool new features, but doesn't quite look like the original Longhorn was supposed to. You can watch a video review by Patrick Norton here, or read the PC Mag review here.

The Worlds Largest tomato fight started in Spain. Every year tens of thousands of people hurl thousands if tomatoes at each other. Sounds pretty fun.

Three day weekend coming up! I'll try to update then

The Dreaded Return to School

Not to depress you or anything, but only one (half by now) day of freedom left. I guess it’s back to it tomorrow. Oh well. Only 180 days of school left till summer again.

QHHS band camp was last week. Hot and hectic as usual, though it was nice seeing everybody again. This year we’re doing the Incredibles field show. The music is fun, sorry to say I can’t quite say that much for the actual show. I’m sure it will get better once we actually get it down (which, at the rate we’re going, will be a while yet).

Here’s a scary prospect for you: I could be driving in a few weeks. I’ve been taking an online driver’s ed class the past few weeks (not by choice, mind you) and just passed the final. I should get the certificate in a few days, and within a week or two take the DMV test. I find the whole idea very disturbing at this point.

Google Earth came out with a new version a few days ago. It has updated images and improved resolution for most major cities (and Area 51…go figure).

Obsure site for the week: Facts on Farts: “Everything you ever wanted to know about farting. From where the gas comes from to why it stinks. It is quite a technical explanation and is sure to answer almost every question you've ever had about flatulence.”

Great.

That’s all for now. If I’m not plagued with HW (argh), I’ll try to get on next week.

396306

http://counter.li.org/

I'm Still Alive...

Sorry folks, I didn't die. The starvation almost took me, but I survived the vegetarian diet. I just got back from a week at the Wildwood Music Institute thing. It was a lot of fun; I got to play in a bunch of ensembles, a woodwind quintet, and an orchestra among many other things (try 8 hours of playing each day). It was especially nice to be with others who were serious when playing, but geekishly dorky like me when they're not. It was a really cool experience, and I'm looking forward to going again. If I ever get around to it, I might post some mp3's.

Back here in reality, there's not much going on. LCLC Productions is announcing Re-Revolution coming soon. More details to come when we figure them out.

Just in case you were worried about the slowing of the earth's rotation, have no fear because an extra second will be added to 2005 to accommodate for that. I can just see the y2k mess starting all over again...

Depressed because there's not more Star Wars? Don't worry, not one, but two, Star Wars TV spin-offs are on the way.

This is the coolest pop-up you'll ever see. I'm still trying to figure how they made the window resize. You might have to do it in IE, and make sure you enable pop-ups temporarily if you have SP2 installed.

That's it for now...more shall come as soon as I'm bored enough to feel obligated to update.

Coming Soon...

Nice work, Mitsch
Check out the LCLC Blog

Google Earth

For those who haven't already found it, you have to try Google Earth. It's one of the coolest little apps I've ever seen. It is a satalite imagry program based off of Google Maps, but the images and interface are amazing. So, give it a try.

Of course with every new application comes hacks, too. Be sure to check out Google Earth Hacks, you can find almost anything from Donald Trump's house to in flight cruise missiles in the middle east. You can eaisly burn hours finding anything and everything.

In case you happen to be wondering, Google Moon exists also. Be sure to zoom in all the way to discover what the moon is really made out of.

I'm Back

We got back from Colorado a few days ago, and no, I did not go skiing. It was nice to relax, enjoy the sky and enjoy the music of the Aspen Music Festival. I got to hear Josh Bell play, and got him to sign a program, so that was pretty cool. Well, only 5 more months before more Colorado sky (and Grandma's food)...I can't wait.

Driving past Death Valley on the way home was a tad warm to say the least. Try 126° F. I have proof if you need it.

I picked up my copy of the 6th Harry Potter on Sunday and just finished reading it today. It was good, but definitely not my favorite. It was a little darker and had more "undesired fluff" than the previous five. I still can't believe what happened towards the end. For those yet to/still reading, prepare for some mourning. Overall I'd say it was pretty good.

On the LCLC front, we are, ah-hem, still working out some kinks. Stay tuned for more.

That’s it for now, but I'm dead bored so expect more soon.

Off to Colorado

We'll be starting off to Colorado later today for a week. I'll try to get online and maybe post some pics. See ya'll later.
`Clark

Happy 4th

New Movie Coming Soon

LCLC met at Barns & Noble on Saturday to organize our next movie. Production on our next film will begin on Tuesday. I'm not sure if I can relase too many details now, but stay tuned to the LCLC Blog for more to come.

LCLC Productions Update

From the LCLC Productions Blog:

I'm speaking on behalf of myself and Louis. All of the "witty" stuff that I could never come up with in here is...you guessed it: his.

We had previous arrangements for a cinematic mental collaboration at a much overrated coffeehouse earlier this week, but Louis had to pull out like a Sophomore nerd in a barf green woody station wagon going to prom pulling out of his driveway. He was apparently "forced" out of the house on a rendezvous to Primo, thus expending his one allotted public outing for the week (albeit unintentionally) as mandated by his mother.
To add to this lamentably deplorable situation, good 'ol Mitsch-wad (Casey) is leaving on vacation for a month. Sans our quiet Asian cameraguy, we can't film very much. Make that: we can't film at all. This is where you people come in. We need your help. Without Casey (and his camera, which btw, is going with him), we'll be forced to go a month with out making any progress. Although we sound like the novice rookie filmmakers we are, if anybody has a DV camera (Digital8 or MiniDV), we need to borrow it. If you can part with your fine piece of filming equipment (which, may I add, will be in very good hands), please email us at lclcproductions@gmail.com.

I thought I'd just give you a little update and plea for help. Thanks for your support.

`Clark

Interactive Buddy

This will keep you entertained for hours (at least it did for me). It takes a little while to figure out, but once you get it, it's a lot of fun. The goal is to terrorize your "buddy" as much as possible using the weapons and modes provided. The more damage you do the more items (flame thrower, missiles, stun gun, etc), people (George Bush, Teletubbies, etc) and modes (anti gravity, no ceiling, earthquake, blood and gore, etc) you can "buy" with your earned “money”. So if your bored (like me), give it a try.

Yup. I know...I'm a sick human being with way too much time on my hands.
Oh well.
`Clark

Dr. Seuss Explains Why Computers Crash

If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted at a very last resort,
and the access of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report.

If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash
and the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash;
and your data is corrupted 'cause the index doesn't hash,
then your situation's hopeless and your system's gonna crash!

If the label on the cable on the table at your house
says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,
but your packets want to tunnel to another protocol,
that's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall,
and your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss,
til your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse;
then you may as well reboot and go out with a big bang,
'cuz sure as I'm a poet, the thing is gonna hang!

When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy in the disk
and the macrocode instructions cause unnecessary risk,
then you'll have to flash the memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM,
quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your Mom!

1000 Hits

Clarkville reached 1000 hits a few days ago. Too bad it came at a time near the end. I think its days are numbered. Stay tuned for somthing new (and ad free) coming soon, or if you have any ideas just drop me an email: clarkcrane@gmail.com.

School's Out!

School finally let out on Friday. It was a real relief, but of course a little bittersweet at the same time. Finals weren't as bad as expected, and for The Smoot's sake, I'll try not to kill myself this summer.

Sorry for not posting in a while...I got pretty lazy. Last week piratically my whole family went down to the Dodgers-Twins game. My bro in law, Karl, is a big Twins fan, and his dad came out from Minnesota to go to the game. It was a lot of fun. The Dodgers won the series (or course), 2-1, winning Friday, stumbling on Saturday, and winning again on Sunday. Unfortunately at this point, that's the last game the Dodgers have won.

LCLC Productions is planning some activity this summer, so stay tuned to our new blog. Beware, it's still in beta.

I'll be sure to update more over the summer, and probably redo (or scrap) Clarkville (sorry for the ads). That's it for now.

Anti-Myspace

I'm still alive- just busy.
More tk...

Counting Down the Days...

Only 10 left to go. Wow, this year has gone really fast.
Not much new this week, just same old stuff.

I'm loving my new H10 20gig. I have about 1600 songs on it, for now. The feature set is really amazing; overall the player is great. I'd definitely recommend it to anybody.

Believe it or not, LCLC productions is still around, and there just might be some activity this is summer. Stay tuned.

I saw the first episode of Systm a few days ago, and needless to say, I was kind of amazed. It's actually really good; Kevin Rose did an excellent job.

Did you hear? Neil Armstrong wants his hair back. He's pretty POed at the barber who saved and sold it. I guess I would be too.

No good IM quotes this week, so desperate times call for Smarterchild:

(20:16:07) freqofnature1***: what do you think about bill gates?
(20:16:09) SmarterChild: I really don't like Bill Gates.
(20:16:17) freqofnature1***: why not?
(20:16:17) SmarterChild: Actually come to think of it, I can't think of too many reasons why not.

Yep, it twas a pretty boring week. Maybe next time.

I'm an Internet Junkie

Here are my internet addiction test results (I was completly honest, btw): Are you Addicted to the Internet? 63% Hardcore Junkie (61% - 80%) While you do get a bit of sleep every night and sometimes leave the house, you spend as much time as you can online. You usually have a browser, chat clients, server consoles, and your email on auto check open at all times. Phone? What's that? You plan your social events by contacting your friends online. Just be careful you don't get a chronic wrist injury... The Are you Addicted to the Internet?

H10 Picture

The iRiver H10 (20GB). Blogger has a problem
with formating text and photos, so to read about
it, click here or scroll down.

The iRiver H10 (20GB)

Well, I finally did it. I bought the iRiver H10 20 gig. It wasn't the cheapest in the world, but I couldn't be happier so far. I can't wait for it to charge up so I can start using it. I've been wanting a good player for a long time, and I think I made the right choice.

Eailer today, I finally saw Star Wars Episode III. It was pretty awesome...execpt for the front row seats. We were in theater 11 (the biggest of course) and got there kind of late, so we got stuck with front and center. I think I need a few more Tylonol for my neck.

Last Moday, Systm debueted. It is basically a weekly 10 minute tech show for hardcore geeks. Check it out.

This is great. The CEO of Intel, the largets chip company for Windows basted PCs says he spends an hour a week cleaning up spyware on his home computer. He was quoted recomending Macs. lol. Forget the Mac thing people, just install Linux.

And I know you all dieing for the IM convo of the week:

(14:32:36) Crayola0***: But she goes up to hug me (in her USC shirt) and SHE'S SHORTER THAN JAMIE.
(14:33:03) Crayola0***: So I sez to myself, "Self, WTF goes on here?"

So there you have it...I'm off to mess with my new gadget.

20 Days to Go

Another Sunday afternoon with nothing to do but dread the coming Monday. This week won't be to bad; Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we get out early. But there's still 20 more days of School left.

Star Wars Episode III came out Thursday at midnight. I haven't seen it yet, I'm probably going to wait a week or two for the hype to die down. After all, I'm not a huge fan. My bro in law, Karl saw it at midnight on DLP in Vegas, and Louis took part of Thrusday off to see it. Casey had front row seats down in LA on Friday.

I'm still on an Mp3 player hunt. I think I've actually decided which one I'm going to get: the iriver H320. I'm just waiting for a good deal, or ebay to come along.

This is the most awesome thing I've seen in a long time. It's a personalized Google homepage, you have to try it out (if you need a gmail invite, just let me know).

Yahoo has started offering unlimited Mp3 downloads for $5 a month. There are more freedoms than most services, but it is still a "rent" type thing. It 's a pretty good deal, I wonder how iTunes is going to react.

Ever feel confined by the limitations of web pages? Not here. You can finally get ultimate freedom.

That's all for now.

Creative Zen Touch

The last couple of months I've been looking at the Creative Zen Micro. When I saw that Best Buy had it on sale for $189 last week, I decided to go for it. Nothing is ever that easy. Apparently the online price and in-store price are two very different things. And you can't use gift cards online. So long, Best Buy.

Then it hit me. Why should I buy the 5GB, 12 hour Zen Micro for about $200 when I can get the 20 GB, 24 hour Zen Touch for $20 bucks more? So that's my latest thing. I'm now waiting for a decent one to come along on eBay. If you’re interested in buying a few Best Buy gift cards, I have a few $25's for sale.

Oh, and no, I am NOT going to buy an iPod.

Otherwise, life has been pretty normal lately. I doubled my Mp3 collection this weekend since Karl happened to bring along his gigs upon gigs of Mp3s.
Wow.
My life must be pretty boring if I'm sitting here bragging about Mp3s. I apologize; I'm in a sarcastic mood.

Since I have nothing else to talk about, I'm going to give TWIT another plug. thisWEEKinTECH- check it out.

Be sure to check out how nerdy you are. I'm nerdier (is that a word?) than 74% of people who have taken the test. Along with my "supergeek" rating, that’s pretty good.

And finally, the random quote of the week:
(18:12:35)farmerbob***: one time i yawned and spit went flying all over my keyboard and touchpad and it pissed me off

That's it for now- check back later.

Feliz Seis de Mayo

I'm a day late, but oh well. I finally have a spare moment (weekend) to actually sit down and write something. Today in Spanish we made salsa to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. It was really fun until my face and hands swelled up and turned red, not to mention the burning. I guess my skin has a little issue with jalapeños.

We got back from Vegas on Monday. It was a lot of fun. We did ok in the band stuff on Sat, and on Sunday and Monday we got a chance to check out the different hotels on the Strip. On Sunday night we went up the Stratosphere, an awesome view, and saw the show on Fremont Street. It was cool to see Andi and Karl there...as well as my whole family. It was a pretty awesome trip.

The Revenge of the Screen Savers (see last post) has changed their name to TWIT: thisWEEKinTECH. TWIT is a weekly tech (and other random stuff) podcast produced by the old Screen Savers. Check it out.

In case you’re interested, Pope Benedict XVI's six-year-old Volkswagen Golf sold on Ebay last Thursday. The winner spent about $305,000 for the Pope's old car.

That's it for now...enjoy the rest of you Seis de Mayo.

The Revenge of the Screen Savers

All of the old Screen Savers are back in a weekly podcast here. They don't have an official name yet, so they are going by the Revenge of the *bleep* (It's a copyrighted name). Tune in each week as the classic Screen Savers talk about tech or whatever. You can get more info on Leo's blog.

STAR testing started today. Not fun. It’s pretty easy, though. Tomorrow is a regular day, and there is more testing on Thursday :( But on Friday it's off to Vegas!

My brother in law, Karl, is getting into the eBay business, so if you have any need for running shoes, check out here and here.

The woman who found a finger in her chili at Wendy's in San Jose (see earlier post) was arrested a few days ago. She apparently planted it there and is being charged with Grand Theft. And get this, Wendy's is offering a $100,000 reward for the owner of the finger.

This is pretty funny. It's not really a prank call, but has to do a fast food guy repeating an order to another restaurant taking an order...just listen, it's pretty funny.

That’s it for now...hasta luego.

Modern Day Abbott and Costello

If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their infamous sketch,
"Who's on first?" might have turned out something like this:
COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking
about buying a computer.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.
ABBOTT: Your computer?
COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: I told you! , my name's Lou.
ABBOTT: What about Windows?
COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?
ABBOTT: Wallpaper.
COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
ABBOTT: Software for Windows?
COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write
proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
ABBOTT: I just did.
COSTELLO: You just did what?
ABBOTT: Recommend something.
COSTELLO: You recommended something?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: For my office?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!
ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.
COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm
sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?
ABBOTT: Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: Word in Office.
COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?
ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W."
COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue "w" if you don't start with some
straight answers. OK, forget that. Can I watch movies on the Internet?
ABBOTT: Yes, you want Real One.
COSTELLO: Maybe a real one, maybe a cartoon. What I watch is none of
your business. Just tell me what I need!
ABBOTT: Real One.
COSTELLO: If it's a long movie, I also want to watch reels 2, 3 and 4.
Can I watch them?
ABBOTT: Of course.
COSTELLO: Great! With what?
ABBOTT: Real One.
COSTELLO: OK, I'm at my computer and I want to watch a movie. What do I do?
ABBOTT: You click the blue "1."
COSTELLO: I click the blue one what?
ABBOTT: The blue "1."
COSTELLO: Is that different from the blue w?
ABBOTT: The blue "1" is Real One and the blue "W" is Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: But there are three words in "office for windows"!
ABBOTT: No, just one. But it's the most popular Word in the world.
COSTELLO: It is?
ABBOTT: Yes, but to be fair, there aren't many other Words left. It
pretty much wiped out all the other Words out there.
COSTELLO: And that word is real one?
ABBOTT: Real One has nothing to do with Word. Real One isn't even part
of Office.
COSTELLO: STOP! Don't start that again. What about financial
bookkeeping? You have anyt! hing I can track my money with?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?
ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.
COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?
ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.
COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?
ABBOTT: One copy.
COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?
ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.
COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?
ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!
(A few days later)
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?
ABBOTT: Click on "START"......
------------------------------------------------------------------------
lol...thanks to Tani for passing it along.

Back to School

It's back to school...spring break is over :(

I got back from Colorado last Saturday after staying overnight with Andi and Karl in Vegas. It was a lot of fun. Although here was no skiing, we went on a few mountainous bike rides, snow shoeing, and relaxed a lot. It was a nice Colorado getaway.

Before break I did my first full partition and install of Mandrake Linux 10.1 on my main notebook. I have it set up as a duel boot, so I can boot Linux or XP. Its pretty cool; I've messed around with Linux on my sister's old computer and some live-cd versions on this one, but this is my first duel boot, and it's running great!

PC magazine had there annual "100 best undiscovered sites" issue this month. My favorite new find is www.boreme.com. It will keep you entertained for hours.

There was an awesome finish to yesterday's Dodger game. Bottom of the 9th, 2 out with bases load and Bradley hits a single. It was bobbled by Giant left fielder Jason Ellison and brought in three runs to win the LA home opener.

Thats it for now...stay tuned for more.

Off to Colorado

Finally!!! Spring break at last.
Just FYI, I'll be in Colorado this next week, so don't expect too many updates.
Enjoy the break (if you have one)!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everybody. Hope you all enjoying your homemade Easter Peeps.

In the Easter spirit, check out the Easter Egg Archive. I haven’t mentioned it in a while, it’s a pretty cool site.

Only one more week to go until break...

To keep you busy in the meantime, here are some links:

• A woman in San Jose was eating Wendy's Chile and found a nice surprise. She bit right into a finger. Here's the story, and there's pics too!
• There’s still 4 days left to bid on your evil turkey on eBay. Be careful, the seller claims he scares kids.
• This is broken- A list of website bloopers and other weird stuff.
• Get this, Microsoft is claiming that Internet Explorer is safer than Firefox. LOL, wow that's great.
• On the subject of stupid Microsoft moves, they are offering funding for an article saying Windows is more secure than Linux. lol, that'll be the day.

More Rain

And we are once again plagued with rain. I don’t know about you, but I kind of like it for the first day or so, after that it gets kind of old.

I got contacts last week, and personally I hate them. I'm pretty ashamed to show myself in front of the geek community. I do have to admit, they are a bit easier. You just pop them in and forget them, but alas I'm still a bit ashamed to call myself a geek.

Spring break in one and a half weeks...I'm counting down. Can't wait to get up to Colorado and see the cabin again.

Happy birthday to my sisters and mom. Andi and Weeze are on the 24th and my mom’s is on the 28th.

Hi to Andi and Karl (my sis and bro in law) in Europe. It’s cool to hear your having a good time...I'm jealous!

Welp, that’s about it...I'll update someday in the future.

CP's and Atomic Watches

Yesterday (sat) was solo/ensemble at qhhs. I guess I nailed my solo and was able to pull a CP (command performance...a superior where you get to come back and play again), and our ensemble got a superior. So, it was a pretty good day for me. Julian got a superior on his solo, even though he thought he jacked it up pretty bad. Tani got stuck with a stupid judge and got an excellent when she obviously deserved a superior. But it was still a fun day.

Saturday morning I emptied my wallet and finally got an atomic watch. This thing will do anything. Check out the features, its awesome.

Last Monday I had my shoulder appointment, and learned that I dislocated my sternoclavicular joint (whatever that means) and there's nothing we can do about it. So, either this thing heals up or I'm stuck with a popping clavicle for life. It sucks.

First duel core, and now quad core Macs??? What’s next?

Link of the week- You know when you should disconnect when...

Until next week-

`C

Marathon XX

The twentieth LA Marathon was today. My sister and brother in law ran it. They completed the 26.2 miles in 3 hours and 38 minutes, good enough to qualify my sister for Boston.

Not much new exciting this past week. We went to band festival at Littlerock HS and pulled a superior in performance and an excellent in sight reading. Casey, Louis and I are doing an ensemble thing for solo/ensamble on Saturday. We're at 4:20 if you want to hear how bad we are. Btw, if you do come, it would be really handy if you could bring a pic of Sean Connery (don't ask).

I get to see my shoulder doc tomorrow. If Willie permits, I'll be back skiing soon.

And finally with our link of the week, provided by Karl, we have one of David Letterman's top ten lists with special guest Napoleon Dynamite.

Birthdays and Star Wars

Happy Friday everybody, and sorry for not posting for a while.

My birthday was the 22nd for those of you who didn't see me carrying around the giant Napoleon Dynamite poster that said "Happy Birthday!" on it from Louis. He never lets you down.
I raked in a nice pile of cash and Best Buy gift cards, not to mention the 200 or so Jolly Ranchers, so I'm set for a while.

My Dad's birthday was the 15th, my grandmas the 23rd, and my uncles the 21st so happy late b-day to them, too (sorry if I missed anyone). Yes, we are a February family.

Some Star Wars Episode III pictures were leaked a few days ago (either that or someone has a lot of photoshop talent). Heres the link, they look like some pretty heavy spoilers, so you might not want to check it out.

For some odd reason, I have about 50 gmail invites so if you want one, drop me an email: clarkcrane@gmail.com

Welp, I'm out to blow some birthday money on an atomic watch, I'll update later.

Rainy Friday

A Friday with no school and rain. What more could you ask for?

Disneyland Tuesday was a lot of fun. Almost no lines (longest wait was 20min for Indiana Jones) and we got to do everything we came for except Splash Mountain, which was closed. My shoulder is still in it's socket and the Clam Chowder was great.

This is the coolest thing I've seen in a while. Just click on 'Launch NameVoyager', wait, then type in your name (or any name) and it will come up with some awesome stats for the name.

This is a little late, but ...wow, that's a lot of money.

Got any movie plot ideas? Cause we need them! Drop me an email (clarkcrane@gmail.com) if you have any ideas and I'll give you a free Gmail invite whether we use your idea or not!

UPDATE: I just realized that Blogger changed the way that comments worked, so you can now leave them without having to sign up for a blogger account...check it out.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Phil has spoken: Six more weeks of winter.

The Mark Mathis Weather Report

LOL

This will leave you laughing for a while. A professional weather guy making a complete fool out of himself. I give you Mark Mathis:
Clip 1
Clip 2
Clip 3

At times its more painful than funny.

This guy was actually a pro for a while...a while being about two weeks before he was canned. If he's looking for work, I'm sure AV3 could use him.

Happy Friday!

Finally...finals are over. They weren’t as bad as I thought, and even Doc Smoot had a fairly easy test. Last Saturday my sister got married, she is now Louise Fitch. When they have a kid, I'm going to try to get them to name it Abercrombie (get it: Abercrombie Fitch!....I have way too much time on my hands). There is the pic on the post below and I'll get some up on their webiste by next week.

In a few hours, I'm off to Van Nuys to get an MRI of my shoulder. From there, I'm going to stay at my sister's place and head up to visit some relatives in the morning.

Click here and fill this out! It will help get some decent tech programming on TV in the US. CFH is a really cool show that's only in Canada, and it would be awesome to see it down here.

Happy birthday Tani, and happy (very) late birthday Aaron.
Gmail invites available just email me at clarkcrane@gmail.com
I'll update later, and have a happy Friday!

Louise and Jonathan

Louise & Jonathan
January 15, 2005

Let it Snow

It's been 4 years since we had a decent snow in the Valley...it's about time if you ask me.
It's been 8 years since school was called in the middle of the day due to snow. The sad thing is, I remember the first time.

My shoulder is hanging in there. Literally. It's still pretty sore, and I don't know for sure, but it looks like I have a 90% chance of re-dislocating it and a 95% chance of surgery later this year. Joy.

Well, not much is new. Go out and have some fun in the quickly melting snow (now rain), I’ll update later.

Happy New Year!

2005!

Clarkville is Back up

Just an update-
The new Clarkville is back up and running.
Check it out: www.clarkville.tk

`C

Website Problems...

Clarkville is temporarily down due to some server problems. Hopefully it will be back up and fully functioning tomorrow.

Details on my little shoulder mishap (see post below) are coming soon.

My Painful Christmas Present

Yep...it's dislocated (click on the pic above for a bigger one).

Merry Christmas!

I'll be in Colorado this next week skiing and visting relitives. I should be back next week, so have a great Christmas!

I'm a Supergeek!!!

This is awesome-

Geektest result for Clark Crane:

54.24063% Geek...Classified as Supergeek

Dang! Only 0.75937% away from being a ExremeGeek.
Oh well, I guess I need to lean a few more programing lanugages.

Take your own comprehensive Geek Test!

`C

Dognose Heaven

I do sometimes wonder about what this world is coming to.

Need a timewaster? Try this one out and don't have too much fun.

Those who have noticed the decaying of Clarkville in recent months, I will do a renivation over winter break if I'm not to busy stragling myself trying to install Mandrake 10.1.

LCLC Productions (dont worry, new site coming soon...I hope) is in dire need of a plot. If you have any ideas, PLEASE let me know.

I got another batch of gmail invites if anybody is interestind, just drop me an email.

Not much else to talk about. Hasta luego-

`C

Jeopardy!

Ken Jennings fianlly lost. It had to happen sometime, and as predicted, it was last night. 74 Consecutive won games totaling $2.52 Million....I don't think he's comlaining too much.

Tounight is Tom Brokaw's last night as anchor of NBC Nightly News. Brokaw started here in LA and has been around forever...it's too bad to see him go.

This is pretty awesome. Thanks, Karl for the link.

Got any plot ideas for a movie? LCLC Productions wants to hear from you! Drop me an email if you have any ideas.

Not much else to say...I'll update soon.

`C

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Why did the Turkey Cross the Road?

Because it was the chicken's day off, of course.

Time to get in the Thanksgiving spirit by shooting some turkeys. That’s right, here is a screensaver that lets you shoot out those wild turkeys. There's even sound effects.

Did you see that wild Pistons-Paces fight? If not, here's a video. Pretty gnarly if you ask me. They got some pretty stern suspensions (I crack myself up). There's already two lawsuits filed by fans, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see more.

Ready for Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving) sales? Check out this site to stay posted on the slick deals.

That's about it for now.

`C

btw- For those simpletons out there who didn't get the "stern" thing, David Stern is the commissioner of the NBA.

Time Wasting Links

Wow....this is pretty awesome. The stick figure olympics...it can't get much better than that.

Or can it?

Don't forget to get your soda from the Virtual Soda Machine.

Or, virtual bubble wrap, for that matter.

And we have to break Bill Gates's darkest secret.

Yep, you guessed it, I'm pretty bored.

`C

4 Days of Freedom!

Wow....It's kind of nice to sit down and write a post not having to worry about a bunch of other stuff I have to get done. Its been a while since I've been able to sit down, relax, install a new GUI X-System enviroment on Slackware 10, and watch the Lakers lose pittafully.

Firefox 1.0 Final Release is out. Download the "browser you can trust" NOW! Quit using IE, your just asking for a crapload of spyware and trojans.

Check it out....It's still under construction and really bad right now. JLouCrew (Jonathon and Louise's (my sister's) wedding site) will be fully comopleted by Sunday (I hope).

Halo 2 came out yesterday. Have you pirated your copy yet?

Check this site out, it's pretty awesome. Oh, and be sure to watch the Powerbook Paintball.

The Star Wars Episode III trailer can be seen for free on the Star Wars website. It's pretty cool.

Now, this is just plain awesome.

Thats if for now-

`C

Saturday's Links

Here are a few links for you to kill some time with-

Halloween's scariest costumes- What is this world coming to?
The President's one-fingered victory salute- Hmmm...
Does God hate Bush? Interesting...
John Edward's hair fiasco- He just can't seem to get it the way he wants it.
Words to live by- Something to always remember.
Which OS fits your personality best? I was OS X, Casey was Windows 95...go figure.
Snowflake Wedding- My sister and future bro in law's wedding Blog (Note- Still under construction)

Hope you had fun killing time.

`C

I'm Back

For those of you wondering if (1) I died or (2) I gave up on all of this internet stuff. Sorry to say that I did neither. I'm still alive and well (I hope) and still continuing to flourish in my geekish ways.
Last week we (finally) moved to our new house in Lancaster and weren’t able to get phone, TV, or internet (cable) for A WEEK. As my dad put it so well, "It's those stupid bureaucrats."
That was a pretty deadly week...I was forced to sit here, teach myself Flash, and brush up on my "mad programin' skillz".

Well, that’s it for now, I'll update later, and always remember...

Good to be in DC!

Check it out...It's the new Jibjab Election 2004 parody. Not quite as funny as This Land, but still, a pretty good follow-up.

The Debates just finished. Intesting debate...It'll take me a while to get a good opinion formed, but I can tell you for sure that I'm on a No-Carb diet:
No Cheney Ashcroft Rumsfeld Bush.

There are a few Gmail invites left (stupid Gmail keeps giving me more), just drop me an email if you want one.

LCLC Prodctions is still accepting donations, see eailer post.

Band goes on their first field show competition tomarow...that should be interesting.

Dodgers need some help. They better win at home tomarow, or else...well, lets not go there.

Welp, thats it for now...ttyl, or mabye ttml (talk to myslef later) fits better.

Thursday's Tech News

Thursday's tech news brought to you by Leo Laporte:

Listen to The Laporte Report on podcast. Mp3 version, click here.

The dark side of Moon was seen for first time on this day in 1959. American Bandstand premiered in 1957. The MPAA adopted the film rating system in 1968. Adam Rich was arrested for stealing hypodermic needles in 1991.

Happy Birthday physicist Neils Bohr, 1885 and Bishop Desmond Tutu, 1931. John Cougar Mellencamp is 53.

1. The Senate Judiciary Committe votes on the Induce Act this afternoon. The highly controversial bill, created by and for the RIAA, makes fundamental changes to the copyright law, making it illegal to distribute any product that can be used to steal music or movies - that means Kazaa and Morpheus, of course, but also DVD recorders, CD burners, and even the iPod. This bill would jeopardize the entire consumer electronic industry. If it’s voted out of committee the Senate is expected to take it up after the November election recess. Contact your member of Congress today.
2. Stern’s doing it. As expected, the syndicated radio shock jock announced Wednesday that he’s moving the lucrative program to satellite radio provider Sirius starting January 1, 2006. The five year, multimillion dollar deal is a big blow to Infinity broadcasting, Stern’s current employer, and an even bigger boost for Sirius. There’s a giant ad for Sirius on Stern’s site saying “some things should be censored, just not your radio.” Sirius says the show will cost $100 million a year to produce.
3. Microsoft has released a patch and a scan tool for TV Media, a piece of spyware that was causing Service Pack 2 to blue screen. Spyware seems to be the number one cause of SP-2 issues and Microsoft is recommending scanning for spyware before attempting the upgrade.
4. Microsoft also warned webmasters this morning of a flaw in ASP.NET that could give attackers access to password protected areas of web sites. There is no fix as yet for the bug which affects 2.9 million active sites.
5. Vice President Cheney slipped when he sent debate viewers to factcheck.com Tuesday night. It’s Factcheck.org for one thing. For another, the dot-com site now sends surfers to financier George Soros’s anti-Bush site. Frankly, factcheck.org is not much better. It does point out some inaccuracies in John Edwards’s debate claims, but it’s harder on the Vice President.
6. Amazon launched Google competitor A9 last week. Turnabout is fair play. Google is putting book pages online, ala Amazon. print.google.com lets you search through the handful of books they now have online, but they’re soliciting publishers for more.
7. Netscape founder Marc Andreesen told the Web 2.0 conference yesterday that he expects Microsoft to take aim at Mozilla and Apple’s Safari real soon now. “If I were them I’d take another look, and I would see how I could screw with other people’s businesses with this monopoly (I) have,” he said.
8. Just when you thought the DVD camcorder was dead, Sony, Sharp, and Panasonic have announced they’ll offer camcorders with 15GB Blu-ray DVD recorders built-in some time next year. The cameras would likely be aimed at the HD prosumer crowd. Give me a hard drive instead.
9. Skype says it’s going to target businesses next with its free peer-to-peer Internet telephony software. Skype for Business will include expanded conference calling, SkypePlus voice mail and SkypeIn, for receiving calls from POTS phones.
10. Jib Jab’s new video, Dixie, premieres on Leno tonight then will be available online at jibjab.com. In addition to this years presidential candidates, the 80 second animated film features John Ashcroft, Dan Rather, Michael Moore, Rush Limbaugh and Jane Fonda. Atom films is stocking up on bandwidth even as we speak. [Awesone!!!]

--------------------------------------------------------------
I'll update later, but for now I'm out like Bush in November :)

Happy Birthday!

Happy belated 1st birthday, Emma!

-From Uncle Clark

Help out LCLC Productions

Want to help LCLC Productions movies be even better? You can! All you have to do is make a small donation.

A problem we've struggled with on all of our movies is audio quality. So we decided to take action, and are planning on purchasing an overhead filming microphone. The mic we are going to get is can be seen here. It is a great mic at a great price, and you can help us out. Just email me, and we'll work out the details.

But wait...that's not all! (I've always wanted to say that) If you donate within the next two weeks, I can [almost] guarantee you a reduced price on past, present, and future LCLC Productions movie purchases, so donate today!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gmail invites are still avalible; let me know if you want one!

Clarkville should be ad-free soon...it turns out 100Webspace's servers are in Florida and I guess they didn't hold up so well against the hurricanes.

It's a little late, but at least I got it up. 

Yo

Clarkville is temporarily back. By temporarily I mean the ads and unfinished new pages will be gone and finished when I get a better host.

I still have Gmail Invites and need to get rid of them. So, please, ask me for one.

Not much is new. School has been your normal busy, boring school, and life has been your normal busy, semi-boring life.
I'm really tired now, so I'll sign off for now, and update later.

ARGHH!

Clarkville is down again.

Free hosts just ain't what they used to be.

I'm a Big Fat Liar

Not really, I’m just a very confused person right now.

Forget everything I said in the last post (about the host situation). My host is still 100WebSpace. I spoke before I acted and then signed up under FR&T, and it didn't work and....yeah, you get the picture. So, I know nothing about FR&T hosting except that they are supposed to be good.

Please don't ask because you are confused. I am just as, if not more, confused as you are.

Gmail Invites from me are still available. Just let me know if you are yearning for Gmail. (Sorry, I'm a bit link happy today)

Well, as soon as I "un-confuse" myself, I'll be sure to update.

Another Day, Another Host...

Clarkville has a new host (again). I’ve gone through four in the past two days. It’s amazing how much you have to search and fight to find a decent free host that fits your needs. My new favorite is FR&T hosting (Click on “Free Trials” to sign up for a free account. It makes no sense, but trust me, it works). I know- it’s a really stupid name, but from what I hear, they are a really good host (of course that’s what I heard about the past three, so we’ll see). If you don’t like FR&T and still want a free host, check out this site. It has some pretty good reviews on free web hosts.
Clarkville has been updated and is up and running perfectly (I hope).

Last night was marching band’s first [attempt at a] field show. Let’s just say that there is room for improvement.

If anybody wants a Gmail invite, let me know. I have a few left, and feel the need to be nice and get rid of them.

That’s about it for now. I’ll update later.

I really need to find a new closing line.

Clarkville is Back

Clarkville is finally back. It's been updated and is up and running perfectly.

My old host (000k) wasn't cooperating with me very well, so I decided to change hosts (yes...again). My new host is 100Freewebspace, and so far they've been great.

School started today. Joy.
Since I don't feel much like typing tonight, you'll get my spiel on that tomorrow.

Clarkville...Where are you?

Clarkville is still down. It was up for about an hour yesterday, but I couldn't update it, and it disappeared again soon after. I guess they are still trying to relocate (see below post). Well, I guess all we can do is wait until my host gets themselves together again. I'll be sure to let you know when Clarkville is back up for good.

Clarkville Status Update

"Unfortunately for 000k and our users, our server provider Angelnetworkz went under, taking off our servers. We are rushing to set up the servers once again at another datacenter with full backups of user sites. This downtime is much regretted."
-Ashwin Sanghi, 000k

So thats it. Hopefully Clarkville will be back soon.

Clarkville Servers Down

Just FYI-
My host for Clarkville (000k) is currently down. They have been for the past 19 hours or so and I have no idea when they'll get their servers back up. So, if you found your way here, you know why you can't get on Clarkville. I'll update when it's back up.

The Internet Turns 35

Thirty-five years after computer scientists at UCLA linked two bulky computers using a 15-foot gray cable, testing a new way for exchanging data over networks, what would ultimately become the Internet remains a work in progress. Read More

Thursday's Straightaway

Sorry I haven't updated in a while....I've been pretty lazy, and there's really nothing to talk about. After all, its summer, what do you expect?

Band Camp started on Monday. It's pretty hot, painful (sunburns), and can be considered enjoyable when you know what your doing (which, for freshmen, is not very often).

I recently installed SP2 for XP. It works great on my systems with no conflicts with any apps (yet). It has a lot of new security features and some other cool stuff, so I recommend that you update today.

Like I said, there's not much to talk about, so I'll leave you with some "weird news" storis of the day:

St. Louis consultant fired after claims of supernatural powers, CEO says
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Maybe David Levin should have seen it coming: An economic development group fired him as a consultant over concern that his self-professed psychic powers were interfering with his work. Full Story

Pennsylvania legislator hosptalized for hiccups
UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Some politicians can't stop talking; one Pennsylvania pol couldn't stop hiccuping. But the state lawmaker has now beaten the affliction after weeks in the hospital. Full Story

Police find missing truck driver

WOODSTOCK, N.B. (CP) - More than a week after thieves in New Brunswick made off with about 50,000 cans of Moosehead Beer from the back of a transport trailer, police have tracked down the truck's driver in Ontario. Full Story

Vampire flies to the rescue

AFTER STRUGGLING to take down a suspect, Police Chief Julian Fantino was thankful at least one Toronto vampire doesn't sleep during the day. Self-described vampire Baron Marcus did his best Buffy the Vampire Slayer imitation Sunday, jumping in to help the chief and another officer as they struggled to secure a man who was allegedly taking pictures of small children. Full Story

350-year-old pear tree falls to ground

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - It stood for 350 years, bearing fruit for a dozen generations, but strong winds finally brought down what is believed to be the oldest pear tree in Scandinavia. Full Story

lol....that's Google's best yet. 

Wow...is that a view or what? (This pic is acout 6 mo. old...there's no snow on the ground now) 

G'day from Colorado

Howdee doo, I'm in Colorado in a cabin setteled in the beuatiful mountians of the Grand Mesa. Wow...this is an awesome view, I'll try to post some pictures later.

On Friday "Karl and the Nearly Barenaked Ladies" came in as a runner-up in the Karaoke finals. He sung "One Week", and if you think about his group name and the who the artist of "One Week" is for a little while, you might get it. I'll post some pics as soon as I get them. He one a cash prize of $50...enough to cover an IMAX viewing of Harry Potter 3 in Vegas on Sun.

Watching the Olympics? The US is actually doing halfway decent, which is pretty cool.

Not much else to say right now, I might update later and might not...depends on how stable my connection is :)

Tuesday's Tech News

+There's a serious security flaw in AOL's Instant Messenger (AIM) that could give a hacker access to an unknowing user's computer. AOL has yet to patch the bug.

+Not to be left out of all of the SP2 buzz for Windows, Apple is shipping a 43 megabyte update to OS X today along with a separate security update that patches handling of PNG images. Mac OS 10.3.5 improves Bluetooth performance and updates video drivers. Software update will pull down the updates automatically.

+A nasty virus has been spreading fast since yesterday. The Bagel variant usually has the words price or price quote in the body of the message, the attached file contains the virus and will infect your machine if you open it.

+Can't wait until the 25th for SP2? It's now being distributed on the peer-to-peer file sharing networks, like Kaaza, BearShare and Grokster. It's probably better to wait until it's available on Windows Update later this month. It's a 272 meg download from the file sharing networks and will be much smaller from Windows Update because you will only download the parts of the update that you need. If you must, the full version is now available from Microsoft directly.

+Intel has pushed the launch date for the 4GHz Pentium IV ahead to early 2005. Meanwhile, there are severe shortages for the 3.6GHz Prescott.

That's about it for today...check back later!

Windows XP SP2: Coming to a PC Near You

After many delays, today Microsoft finally wrapped up development on a long-awaited security update to Windows XP, dubbed Service Pack 2 (SP2). You can read the full CNET News story here.

On Monday, I finally got my braces off (a year later than expected, but hey, they're off...I'm not complaining). It was pretty nice for the first 24 hours, but then they slapped some retainers on me and the joy wore off pretty fast.

I found this pretty entertaining and funny. It'll keep you busy for a while.

I updated the “Photo Gallery” on Clarkville. It now has thumbnails, which are probably helpful, and some new and updated pics. Also, you can get a seek peak of "Where's the Cream Filling?" with some exclusive snapshots.

Well, there's not much else to talk about, except for the fact that I'm extremely bored and there is nothing to talk about. When I find something, I'll be sure to let you know.

Ain't Going Down 'til The Sun Comes Up

That was the song that earned Karl Stutelberg (my Bro-in-law) a third place in the semi-finals and qualification for the Route 66 Bar and Grill karaoke finals. To answer the most prevalent question on your mind right now, yes my brother-in-law sings karaoke (and he's pretty good, too). So, if you want to watch him in the finals for a chance to win $500, come on down to the Route 66 Bar and Grill in Canyon Country (Santa Clarita) on Friday, August 13. The competition starts at 11pm.

What does the first place team in the NL West do when they are playing great ball and in first place? They hall off and trade half of their star players on the team. That's exactly what the Dodgers did.
Lo Duca, Mota, Encarnacion, Martin, and Roberts are gone. I'll say it again for you secluded folks who haven’t herd yet: the Dodgers traded Lo Duca, Mota, Encarnacion, Martin, and Roberts.
That was a real smart move.
Why? Nobody knows. (Well, except De Poesta...maybe)
The Dodgers acquired Brad Penny and Hee-Seop Choi from the Marlins and Steve Finley and Brent Mayne from Arizona.

We finally finalized a trailer for "Where's The Cream Filling?" You can find a link on the Clarkville homepage.

On Saturday Louis, Casey, Karl (my bro in law) and Jon (my future bro in law) saw Napoleon Dynamite. All I can say is, "Heck Yes!" (You had to see the movie). It was mega low budget, and equally awesome.

That’s about it for now.