2009.03.18

I suppose it's the Mecca-equivalent for U2 fans: seeing them perform live in their hometown. So that's what I get to do in July as I travel to Dublin for the U2360 tour. This will be my 12th time seeing them live, and I'm expecting nothing short of a brilliant time! The new album rocks, by the way. update 2009.04.06: I'll be at two shows in Dublin (July 24, 25), and two back in the states (Charlottesville, VA and DC).

2009.01.05

On March 2nd U2 will be releasing their new album! It's only been over FOUR YEARS since their last - not that I'm impatient or anything. Here's hoping for another great one from them. The album will be titled No Line On The Horizon and will be available in five different release formats (including books, DVDs, etc, etc). Time to start saving up for the tour.

2008.11.03

Well, tomorrow's the big day, where people in the United States think they are being all democratic by voting based on nothing more than sound bites, attack ads, and soothing words of a demagogue. In some small way I wish we could be visited by zombie Jefferson and Madison to give us a collective slap in the face so we wake up to the laughable situation we're in as a republic. A democracy only works when the voting citizenry is educated. In other words, have actually read the Constitution that sets up and restricts the power of the Federal government. We've slowly traded away our freedoms for more government control, and the next four years will only see that getting much worse, no matter which of the two major candidates find their way into office. I'm certainly not an optimistic person by nature, but I'm feeling downright hopeless for the United States of America.

2008.09.11

The Large Hadron Collider recently had a successful test of its proton beam, and the first collisions will probably start in October. With all the hoopla about black holes and runaway antimatter annihilation, this website will help everyone keep an eye on the status of the earth and whether or not it's been destroyed yet by the LHC:

2008.05.22

I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opening day at a 12:01 midnight showing. I'll try to avoid spoilers, but be forewarned some hints may be given. I've been a huge fan since 1981, right along side my Star Wars fascination. As a kid I would swing on my whip in a tree in the backyard, want to find a perfect fedora, and basically loved everything about the Indiana Jones mythos, so it was with much anticipation that I went to see the new film; after all it's been 19 years since the third installment. Having read some the of the plot details beforehand, I realized that Lucas was taking the story into 1957, which also meant taking the film style away from the 30's adventure serials of the first three into a new era with the Red Scare, the atomic bomb, and all sorts of new science fiction mysteries. Given this, I loved the movie. Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf did amazing jobs (Mutt's lines were some of the best - particularly early on in his introduction), and I really enjoyed the production of this film. There were some silly points, sure, but so were there in all the films. The script was a bit weak in parts, but the story was great for the era, the characters were fun to watch, and the sets/production were exceptional. The editing was tight (especially in the jungle jeep chase). I'll be going back to watch it again shortly, but my initial review is that it's a 3.5 out of 5. I think it fits with the rest of the movies, but is sufficiently different to make it impossible to rank (kinda like Temple of Doom).

2008.03.04

Nine Inch Nails released a new album Ghosts I-IV. What's interesting about this collection of 36 instrumental tracks is not so much the music itself (which is fantastic), but the method of distribution. Trent Reznor recently split with his record label, so this new album is being released online and in CD format, with the first 9 tracks available for free. He even uploaded them to torrent sites himself. If you want to buy all the tracks you can get them in DRM-free MP3, flac, or Apple lossless formats for only $5. If this doesn't scare the record labels, I don't know what will. It's obvious that the RIAA and the old model of music distribution is dead. There's also a $10 option to download files and get physical CDs, along with a $75 and $300 set of deluxe formats (printed book, blu-ray, etc). I've been a fan for a while, and this just takes it up a notch.

2008.01.22

After watching the incredible documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, I've gotten back into playing Donkey Kong on the MAME arcade at work. The perfect game? Close. It's pretty addictive, that's for sure. The documentary follows Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell as rivals for the world record score in Donkey Kong (currently held by Mitchell with 1,050,200). My top score right now is 29,000, so I have quite a way to go as I try to master this incredibly difficult game from 1981. Update 2008.01.30: My new high score is 58,600!

2008.01.14

I miss Reagan. Just watch this incredible video from 1964 and see what a great orator he was.

2007.11.29

The Republican debates last night just go to show, on so many levels, how broken the entire system is. First, CNN has apparently decided that Romney and Guiliani are the only candidates they want, since they got 95% of the air time. Second, the questions were so stupid and vacuuous that they did nothing but enforce the notion that politicians need not reply with substance, but just say what the morons want to hear. Third, the only candidate that has any hope of fixing our country was marginalized and ignored because the media is scared of him. When you look at the issues that actually matter, Ron Paul is the only hope for our country, but I'm afraid the general population doesn't want to realize it because it means upsetting the apple cart.

2007.08.27

The most anticipated game for the Nintendo Wii has been released today! Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is the game that I've been looking forward to ever since I got the Wii last year. This is a continuation of the first two in the Prime series which were released on the Gamecube - taking the epic 2D adventure platformer into the 3D realm. This newest addition to the Metroid franchise takes advantage of the Wii controls using the remote to aim while the analog stick moves Samus around. I still remember in 1986 paying the original Metroid on my NES and being quite frightened while battling the final boss at midnight in a dark room. The whole series has been a brilliant use of mystery, adventure, music, and mood, and it looks like the last entry into the series will be best ever. Here's to a week of Metroid on my big screen!