Pardon me while I ramble geek

Soon, I promise!

2008-05-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

OK, so nothing new today, sorry. Too tired. I am working on the reviews, they just aren't ready yet. I'll have them finished by tomorrow, I hope. Until then, feel free to head over to the movie reviews and check out some random YouTube videos.

About those reviews...

2008-05-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

OK, I lied about getting them all done tonight. Something came up, and anyway, they take longer than you'd think. Got one movie review up tonight, and that's better than nothing, so I'm going to bed. Narnia tomorrow in movies. As for music, we've got Death Cab, 3 Doors Down, Carolina Liar, The Foxboro Hot Tubs, and Scarlett Johansson of all things. After that, I'll look into deciding which book to do first. Night, all.

Review pages going live soon!

2008-05-21T19:15:00.000-07:00

Just a quick blurb while I get everything together. Pages are up now for my reviews of music, movies, and books. Check the links to the right. Everything will be rated from 1 to 5 stars, with 5 being the most awesome, and 1 being total suck. Half-stars are totally possible. Books will be the most infrequent, as many things tend to eat in to my reading time. Movies will be on an as-I-see-them basis. At the moment, this means more DVD reviews than theater reviews. Music will be at least once a week, as I will try to cover several major album releases weekly, as well as new music I pick up.

First reviews will be going up as soon as I can get them typed up. I've got 5 albums and 2 movies for you, and I will be getting those up tonight, even if I have to miss out on a little sleep to do it. That stuff's overrated anyway.

Oregon - Copyrighting the law?

2008-05-19T13:09:00.000-07:00

This isn't exactly new news, but it's still interesting. Apparently the State of Oregon - my state of residence - has decided that its Oregon Revised Statutes are subject to copyright. They even went so far as to file a Cease and Desist against Justia on April 7th. Justia, with the support of public.resource.org are fighting it, but it's pretty easy to see that this is far from over. The documents that have been sent back and forth can be viewed here.

Seriously, Oregon. We've all heard of copyright law, but copyrighting the law? You've got to be kidding.

Apparently, the State of Oregon sells official copies of its revised statutes for something like $390 a pop as a means of reclaiming he cost of compiling and publishing them every couple of years. They aren't foolish enough to claim that the law itself if copyrighted, but what they are claiming is that the extra materials present in the revised statutes is what is copyrighted. Now, I'm no lawyer, and it may be that I have a limited and overly-cynical view of things, but it seems to me that if Oregon succeeds in blocking the publication of its statutes for free through strong-arm enforcement of copyright law, it could be setting a dangerous precedent.

Think about it. You, the public, no longer have free public access to the law. You are not able to research, read about, or even really know any but the most obvious laws (e.g. those regarding murder, property crime, jaywalking, etc.). You break a law, but you don't know it. You weren't trying to, didn't mean to, but there are the police knocking on your door anyway.

Admittedly this is a very extreme example, but I think you can see where I'm going with this. Just the thought of blocking public access to the law defeats the purpose of open government, which is a very necessary thing. More and more we see the government trying to hide things, keep it a secret, while society itself becomes more open.

Seriously, we have things like blogs (yes, I know, this is a blog), MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, and a whole slew of other "Social Networking" sites where people post their innermost thoughts, feelings, desires, etc. Things that used to be written into a diary by flashlight under the blanket, then locked, stuffed into a pillowcase and hidden under the bed, are now out there for the world to see. It's a disturbing trend. If you're not on MySpace, you're nobody. (Oh, look, I'm not on MySpace...) We who refuse to turn the internet into our public diary are becoming the outcasts, and I expect soon we will be regarded with suspicion by many. "What's he hiding? He must be a bad person with some dirty secret, because he doesn't spill his guts to the masses!"

Not to say that everyone on these sites is this way, it just seems to be a trend I'm noticing is all. Also, I don't mean to pick almost exclusively on MySpace, it's just that they're still top dog on the scene, so it's a somewhat arbitrary selection.

Anyway, I found an old microphone headset for a cordless phone laying around, and after determining that it actually works (and surprisingly, doesn't sound half bad), I plan on kicking up a (possibly) weekly podcast sometime this summer, so stay tuned for that. Plus, more news, more tech, more gaming, and more of my unsolicited opinions yet to come, so stay tuned!

Seriously, you could do worse.

2008-05-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

OK people, time to launch my political career. Now, I don't believe in doing anything halfway, so I'm starting off aiming for the bit time: President of the United States of America! Here is a list of 50 reasons why you should vote for me instead of those other guys, mostly provided by Bill. A few came from me, and a few others from Jess. Enjoy, and vote for me.

Vote for Richard!
Why should you vote for Richard?
You should vote for Richard because…

1) He will survive to fight against SkyNET.

2) He will Free us from the Matrix.

3) He is not a Lich.

4) IF elected he will not invoke the name of Hastur

5) He will not ‘Make it’ with the Gatekeeper even if he should become the Keymaster.

6) He promises to ‘Keep it secret. Keep it safe.’

7) He knows that he is not allowed to interfere with Human history.

8) IF elected he will not take the easy path to power and join the Dark Side.

9) Unlike HAL, Richard can and will open the Pod Bay Doors!

10) He will never reveal the identity of the shooter on The Grassy Knoll.

11) He knows that the good of the many outweighs the good of the few. Or the one.

12) He will share with the world exactly where he gets those wonderful toys.

13) He will not reveal the identity of the masked man.

14) He will not feed the Mogwai after midnight or allow it to get wet.

15) He will see to it that those who need a bigger boat will get a bigger boat.

16) He is not the final Cylon.

17) He wields the Master Sword.

18) He rolls an uncanny number of natural 20s.

19) He proudly joined the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada.

20) He's for every one of us. Stands for every one of us. He'll save with a mighty hand every man every woman every child – with a mighty flash.

21) IF elected he will work tirelessly to ***** Dragonforce on Expert!

22) He will rename New Jersey to Liberty City.

23) He’s never gonna give you up.

24) He’s never gonna let you down.

25) He’s never gonna run around and hurt you.

26) He will allow you to skip the cinematics on Materia Summons.

27) He is down with O.P.P.

28) He is okay with the fact that the Princess is in another castle, and will not give up until she is rescued.

29) You can believe him when he says he is not a Super Sayan because he doesn't have the hair for it.

30) He knows that with Great Power comes Great Responsibility.

31) He can go all the way to 9,000 when it’s needed.

32) His goes to 11.

33) He knows what makes the rockin’ world go ‘round.

34) He graduated from Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (Magna Cum LOUD)

35) He will never put goatse on the national flag…

36) …or tubgirl.

37) He will still respect you in the morning.

38) He will let U Haz Cheezburger.

39) He will form a committee to find the truth behind ‘the cake’.

40) He is the eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son and has the luggage to prove it.

41) He will get rid of that thing about your neighbor’s wife.

42) He is a Hoopy Frood that knows where his towel is.

43) He is not a furry.

44) He is fully aware that Nihilism just doesn’t matter.

45) He will finally open the box and show everyone the cat.

46) He knows that sometimes, the needs of the few or the one outweigh the needs of the many.

47) He will never wear spandex under any circumstances.

48) He will not eat the yellow snow.

49) He will never cancel a TV show on a cliff hanger.

50) He will not use his powers for good…he will use them for AWESOME.

Keep an eye out for the youtube video campaign we plan on rolling out later this summer.

"Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty." - Stanislaw J. Lec

First Post

2008-05-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

Blogging. The final frontier.

OK, that's not technically true. I haven't joined Myspace, Facebook, or any of those other social networking sites yet. Maybe next week. Looking over the features available here, I suppose it's not bad. Hell, who knows how long I'll even keep this up. I have an innate resistance toward the completely open society our culture seems to be aiming for. More on this later, maybe.

It occurs to me at this moment that first posts are somewhat like the first strip of a new webcomic. That is to say, it sucks. Your only options are to dive right in to the story, leaving people clueless until some details can be filled in, or to introduce the cast by means of text-heavy monologuing. I'm going to shoot for the latter.

That being said, here's a list of what we can (hopefully) expect here: My opinions on things that I find interesting. That's it. It may be movies, technology, music, gaming, or what have you. Don't expect too much in the way of video game coverage though. If you want that, there are a million other blogs out there by people who are way more into them than I am. I'll probably highlight interesting activities/hobbies I'm currently hooked on as well, and expect a Sunday report of my weekly D&D game.

Now, more importantly, here is a list of things that will not be covered here: "Dear Diary" crap. The purpose of this experiment is not to expose my most personal feelings, experiences or desires to the world, and as I have already stated, I don't like the completely open society concept. Also, I won't be posting anything about stuff I don't give a crap about. Deal with it. Finally, if it isn't at least a little bit geeky, don't expect much coverage here. Exceptions may be made, but if so, it will be on an individual basis and with good reason.

Well, I guess that about sums up my "First Post". Moderate me -1 offtopic and call it a day.

"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever." ---Napoleon Bonaparte