Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Karaoke Round-Up 8/6/07
Terry was awesome as always.
The karaoke girl made fun of us a lot because we never got around to asking her to let us end with "Closing Time", but figured that with how busy it was, it could have been difficult to schedule. We told her that sadly, it would be some of us's last karaoke week, but she assured us that she would be there whenever we could be back for a reunion.
In other news, I dropped fifty dollars I didn't have and had nine gin-tonicas, including two doubles. Ouch!
Three of us returned to my house where I had one more beer and talked to J Wynn, while Kiznox proceeded to promptly pass out on the futon. good times
Monday, August 6, 2007
From the UK's Independent...
Got a little couch potato?
Check out fun summer activities for kids.
Remember that woman who just had her 17th kid?

Luggage? GPS? Comic books?
Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search.
Hump 3...

Luggage? GPS? Comic books?
Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search.
Today in History...

Enola Gay is the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped "Little Boy", the first atomic bomb ever used in war, when the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) attacked Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945, just before the end of World War II. Because of its roles in the atomic bombings of Japan, its name has been synonymous with the bombings themselves. It was named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot.
On August 5, 1945, during preparation for the first atomic mission, Tibbets had the plane named after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets (18931983, who had been named for the heroine of a novel). According to Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts (Enola Gay, Stein & Day Pub, 1977), regularly assigned aircraft commander Robert Lewis was unhappy to be displaced by Tibbets for the important mission, and furious when he arrived at the aircraft on the morning of 6 August to see it painted with the now-famous nose art. Tibbets himself, interviewed on Tinian later that day by war correspondents, confessed that he was a bit embarrassed at having attached his mother's name to such a fateful mission.
The Hiroshima mission has been described as tactically flawless, and Enola Gay returned safely to its base on Tinian to great fanfare on the base.
Jenkem...
Here is a brief account:
"So I was on Wikipedia the other day checking out the stuff on hallucinogens when I discovered a popular chemical in Africa called 'Jenkem.' After reading up on the Internet about some popular recipes, a few friends of mine decided to go and produce some of this potent hallucinogen. The first part of our journey involved a trip to the local sewage treatment plant, where we filled some empty coke bottles half-full with the potent sludge we found in the cleaning tanks.
We hid the bottles behind a bush, letting them ferment for a few hours while we went to smoke some marijuana. After about 4 hours of fermentation, we went to retrieve our putrid creations.
One at a time, we all inhaled the jenkem we had created. The odor was viscious, but my god it was worth it. What came after I cannot describe. A euphoric high, not unlike coccaine, but with strong hallucinations of times past I saw dead relatives during my trip. It was almost magical.
The onset of jenkem is probably 10 seconds after inhalation, with the most severe hallucinations happening probably 20 minutes into the trip. Beware that if you try this wonderful substance that you're going to be "out of it" for several hours after inhaling, and really it will take several days for you to fully recover. One of the downsides of jenkem is that you constantly have that taste of sewage in your breathing for several days after the fact.
After subsequent trips, there were a few characteristics we felt made for better trips with Jenkem. First off, if you visited the sewage treatment plant at around mid-day on a sunny day we found we got the best highs. Secondly, make sure you have someone nearby who is not high on the substance (believe me, once you've been introduced to it, you don't want to not be high on it so find someone who isn't big into drugs to do this)."
Eye Candy of the Day...

Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's Comedy with an Edge to see what's on, when.
So I have been away...
Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows.
Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.
Alternative Eye Candy of the Day
Eye Candy of the Day
Sunday, August 5, 2007
From "The First Thousand Words"

Good to know we're teaching kids the important aspects of life from an early age :)
ARGs and the World of Year Zero
Alternate reality games (henceforth referred to as ARGs) have become the new marketing for the communications age - they have been used successfully for TV Shows, Software, Video Games, Movies, and most recently, Music, with the release of Nine Inch Nails' new album "Year Zero." The premise for an ARG is relatively simple: usually they involve websites, generally found by some sort of hidden message (the first for Year Zero came from placing highlighted letters on a tour t-shirt into order, spelling a url "IAmTryingToBelieve.com") on which people can look for clues to other sites, find hidden messages, and become immersed in a new world, essentially. Recently, though, since the release of Halo 2's massively popular ARG "I Love Bees", the experience has become something far more wild altogether. For instance, participants in the I Love Bees game would be instructed to wait at a certain intersection near a pay phone and wait for it to ring, in order to receive further instructions as to a meeting place, or new information that could be used to dive deeper into the story. Year Zero took it even one step further - subscribers to a certain site found through the album's booklet received information for the whereabouts of a giant mural, which in itself held clues, and eventually led them to a specific meeting spot, where they were led through the woods into a big warehouse and were treated to a short staged NIN concert, that was later "broken up by the feds" after only six songs.
er... perhaps I should explain the Year Zero premise a little better...
It all began with the t-shirt, and slowly spread to new methods of finding clues. Flash drives were planted in bathrooms at concerts, containing new songs, and often at the end of the track, static could be heard, which when fed through a spectrograph produced a picture, or a piece of text. Crazy eh? So through those sites, followers of the game learned that this album was much more than it seemed to be. Year Zero actually refers to a date approximately fifteen years in the future, where mass paranoia and government control has turned the world into an 1984-esque nightmare, where the U.S. Bureau of Morality strives to control exactly what US citizens are reading, seeing, listening to, etc. In this future as well, the government has implanted nanochips in people's wrists to prevent them from getting certain jobs, or leaving their country of residence without permission, and they have introduced a drug into the water that keeps people lethargic and disconnected with the violence and depression occurring around them (this all began after a dirty bomb attack on Hollywood during the oscars. Equally disturbing is the appearance of a ghostly figure referred to as "The Presence" which generally appears as a giant spectral hand reaching down from the sky, and with increasing numbers of appearances up to a certain date (February of 2022, or now February of 0000) the point after which no dated information can be found. The websites that the search led to are actually sent back from the future to prevent it from happening in the first place (it's almost eerie how realistic it all is... the sites often have somewhat distorted imagery, or letters missing from words, or what looks like someone smeared static across the pages). The album and music video for survivalism are also purported to be from this future world themelves. Other clues have been found by decoding subtle morse code in a track from the album, picking apart tracks to recognize distorted voices that end up saying urls backwards, and probably most exciting, coating the cd itself in black thermochrome that when heated, turns white and produces a string of binary code. The website http://www.ninwiki.com has the most comprehensive listing of every site involved (in total, it's probably over one hundred pages).
The really interesting part about the whole process is the attention to tiny details, and the amount it adds to the experience of listening to the album. As I said, it's truly eerie how realistic it feels, and the deeper you dig into the story, the more it almost infects you - in honesty, Year Zero was not one of my favorite NIN albums until I read all of this - now not only is it far higher ranking in my book, but everything by the band has been taken to a new level of urgency (it's funny how even if it was not planned, past NIN releases almost seem to fit in with the story now).
So the real question is, is it all worth it? Of course it adds to the drama of the impending release for those involved, but some have argued that it's just another, albeit more complex, form of viral marketing, simply intended to create buzz and hype and to convince more people to buy. Although I do agree with this TO A POINT, it's obviously that this was not the intention here. In an article in Game Informer, a correspondent from 42 Entertainment (the company behind "I Love Bees" "Year Zero" and "Iris", a similar campaign for Halo 3) said that they are so serious about their dedication to the story that there is a rule against using the word viral in the office (you actually get fined if someone hears you) and apparently they're trying to outlaw "marketing" as well.
The fact of the matter is, as I said before, the amount that these ARGs add to the game, album or movie they accompany is huge. I have often complained that iPods and iTunes were going to lead to the death of all albums, but it is nice to see that some artists out there have found a new way to get their fans excited.
And come on... deep down in all of us there's that little Indiana Jones that wants to solve clues and decipher complex codes to reach the final buried treasure.
And even more exciting? NIN fans are happy to discover that Year Zero is only the beginning, and another album is expected at some point next year. To quote frontman Trent Reznor:
"This record began as an experiment with noise on a laptop in a bus on tour somewhere. That sound led to a daydream about the end of the world. That daydream stuck with me and over time revealed itself to be much more. I believe sometimes you have a choice in what inspiration you choose to follow and other times you really don't. This record is the latter. Once I tuned into it, everything fell into place ... as if it were meant to be. ... The record turned out to be more than a just a record in scale, as you will see over time.
"Part one is Year Zero. Concept record. Sixteen tracks. What's it about? Well, it takes place about 15 years in the future. Things are not good. If you imagine a world where greed and power continue to run their likely course, you'll have an idea of the backdrop," he continued. "The world has reached the breaking point — politically, spiritually and ecologically. Written from various perspectives of people in this world, Year Zero examines various viewpoints set against an impending moment of truth.
Pictures:
One of the involved websites - hollywoodinmemoriam.com

"The Presence"

The logo for the site "uswiretap.com" - even scarier given what Bush is trying to do right now...
So...
I'm moving this friday - it's a little nuts. I'll be sure to post pics of my new place once I get it all decorated and such.
I'm really broke right now and it's kinda scary. I need to put together a budget once I figure out how much I have left from loans after paying for school so I don't completely run out of money over the next year.
I think (to sound uber-cliche) that a change is going to do me good. It's not that I don't like my life here, and god knows it's pretty agonizing that I am leaving all of my friends in MI, but sometimes I think it's just good to remind yourself that there is a world outside the one you know. Being in the Roch this summer, I've seen tons of old friends, as well as countless numbers of people I knew that I really didn't care to see again. And the majority of the ones I run into haven't changed basically at all (except a lot of the popular kids got fat - suck on that, you bastards!). It's scary to see how some people never really advance with their lives. Now that most of my high school graduating class are out in the world going to grad school or getting big people jobs, you start thinking about things like that.
I'm really exhausted so I'm off to bed. I know I haven't been posting much, but it's been pretty busy.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Are You Kidding Me? Movie Review of the Week: Hot Rod
Sweet Video of the Day
And Now Kill Someone
Brace Yourself!
Original recordings:
- Miss Murder (by AFI)
- Through Fire and Flames (by Dragonforce)
- Number of the Beast (by Iron Maiden)
- 3's and 7's (by Queens of the Stone Age)
- Suck My Kiss (by Red Hot Chili Peppers)
- Raining Blood (by Slayer)
- Reptillia (by The Strokes)
"As Made Famous By" tracks:
- Cities on Flame (as made famous by Blue Oyster Cult)
- Mississippi Queen (as made famous by Mountain)
- La Grange (as made famous by ZZ Top)
- Paranoid (as made famous by Black Sabbath)
Previously announced tracks:
· Slash's Original Boss Battle Recording
· Welcome to The Jungle (by Guns N' Roses)
· Paint It Black (by The Rolling Stones)
· Cherub Rock (by Smashing Pumpkins)
· Sabotage (by Beastie Boys)
· The Metal (by Tenacious D)
· My Name is Jonas (by Weezer)
· Knights of Cydonia (by Muse)
· Even Flow (by Pearl Jam)
· Lay Down (by Priestess)
· Cult of Personality (by Living Colour)
· Rock and Roll All Nite (as made famous by Kiss)
· School's Out (as made famous by Alice Cooper)
· Rock You Like a Hurricane (as made famous by Scorpions)
· Slow Ride (as made famous by Foghat)
· Barracuda (as made famous by Heart)
Oh my God this game is gonna rock! (pun intended) I am so glad that there are so many master tracks in this game...along with Mississippi Queen and Paranoid. Drool.
In case you guys haven't figured this out...
Thursday, August 2, 2007
These are the Comic Series That I Want to Read...

Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell.
And just in case you aren't already sick of it...

Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows.
Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.
So I found a Couple of really Weird things...
So yeah, congrats go out to her. That is quite an accomplishment. Oh yeah, she got Crazy Hot over time:
Looking for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels with Yahoo! FareChase.
I Want to work for Durex...

Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story.
Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games.
Cutest Little Hitler Cat Ever...

Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's Comedy with an Edge to see what's on, when.
Hooray, Megan Seling!!!
Choose the right car based on your needs. Check out Yahoo! Autos new Car Finder tool.
American Graffiti...

Got a little couch potato?
Check out fun summer activities for kids.
Today in History...

Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the Internet in your pocket: mail, news, photos & more.
Quick Correction...

Luggage? GPS? Comic books?
Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search.
You know, we dont have enough of this...



Ready for the edge of your seat? Check out tonight's top picks on Yahoo! TV.







