Fire At Will

So in case you haven't noticed, I went off and changed my avatar from the picture of me drinking to a new hybrid of Georgia Tech's Buzz logo and various Florida State items (headdress, tomahawk, FSU logo) - it's fitting now that I'm both a Yellow Jacket [undergrad] and a Seminole [grad]. I haven't really done any real image manipulation work in a while, so instead of firing up my copy of Photoshop 8.0, I figured I'd give two other programs a chance: The Gimp and Paint.net. The GIMP [or Gnu Image Manipulation Project] is one hell of a program, but it leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to user-interface. In other words, it's ugly as shit. The new Paint.net [which as it sounds, was written in Microsoft's .NET framework] is merely MS Paint on steroids - it doesn't do everything yet, but it's still a work in progress. Both GIMP and Paint.NET are completely free, so give them a shot.

One website I've stumbled across recently is Exploding Dog. The premise is, somebody sends the artist a phrase and he creates a picture out of it. Go look through a few - they're somewhat simplistic, yet at the same time they're brilliant for their simplicity.

I don't think I ever got around to talking about the variants of one of my favorite drinks, Mountain Dew. While the original and Code Red are both easy to find, the other four lesser known variants I think are much better. Livewire is essentially Sunkist with a kick, and I have to say I like it - though I have to wait till Summer to drink it. Oh, and a Diet Livewire would be nice. Pitch Black was Mountain Dew's newest beverage, a black grape-flavored Mountain Dew. It was interesting to say the least, but probably was far and away my least favorite of the Mountain Dew brand. Mountain Dew Baja Blast (lime flavored) unfortunately is only available from the fountain at Taco Bell, but I really like it. I only say unfortunately cause I'd love to have it more often than my occasional visits to Taco Bell. Supposedly there's a new flavor coming out this spring, ElectoCution. We'll see.

I finally got off my ass and played some multi-player Halo 2, and it's the second best multiplayer FPS I've ever played. The first? Quake 3: Arena. Though maybe I should look into getting one of those SmartJoy FRAG devices that allows you to use a PS/2 mouse and keyboard on the Xbox, since I'm not overly fond of playing FPS games on a controller.

Oscar movie review:

Closer: Okay, this movie didn't really do much for me. The performances were all excellent - Clive Owen was masterful as the jilted lover who gets his revenge, and Natalie Portman stole the show as the seductive young Alice. I really can't recommend this movie to people, because there really wasn't all that much of a plot to speak of.

Hotel Rwanda: Don Cheadle is amazing in this movie. It's the story of a Rwandan hotel that is used by one rogue Hutu who shelters hundreds of Hutu and Tutsi refugees in a Belgian-run hotel. It's Shindler's List in Africa, but still powerful and worth watching. I recommend this, but it's a downer.

The Aviator: Howard Hughes sure was one crazy guy, but Leo DiCaprio sure did one hell of a job portraying him. This movie is worth seeing, but best movie of the year? Probably not.

I Wear This On My Sleeve

Rules are made to be broken - this is something that most would say I've lived my life trying to uphold. I'm a troublemaker. But there are some holy and sacred rules that absolutely can't be broken. Two good examples of this are the "Shotgun Rules" and one of my favorites, the "48 Hour Rule".

The Shotgun Rules are simple enough. In fact, some rather bored people have put up a very professional looking guide over at shotgunrules.com, and other than a few omissions, they've done a good job. They completely forgot "Blitzing" and "Bastard Rules".

Blitzing is the act of running to a car that one wants to ride shotgun in and touching the handle, thus making them the proper recipient of shotgun. If an owner calls "Blitz", then all calls of "shotgun" are negated and whomever puts their hand on the front-seat passenger's door handle first is the awarded shotgun for the ride. Though some try to prevent this by calling "shotgun no blitz", it's purely up to the disgression of the driver. Though most of the time if somebody remembers well enough to call "no blitz", it is considered courteous for the driver not to enforce blitz rules - unless they're bored and want to see people run.

If a driver calls out "Bastard Rules" after somebody calls "shotgun", then the first one to get their ass physically in the seat is the one to get shotgun. Simple as that. Usually this ensures some sort of physical struggle, which is both comical and amusing to the driver. Bastard Rules cannot be voided by any preemptive call during shotgun like Blitzing can.

Another cardinal rule that is always in place where I've lived is the 48 Hour Rule. Simply put, when somebody in a house/apartment puts an item in the refrigerator they have exactly 48 hours to consume the contents of the item, or it's fair game for everybody in the place to do whatever they want with it (eat it, throw it out, etc). Now this obviously doesn't apply to all items in the fridge. Noteable execeptions include condiments (includes cheese), beverages, bread, fruits and vegetables, lunch meat, or any other sealed package. The purpose of the 48 hour rule is to prevent people from leaving leftovers in the fridge for too long and dirtying the thing up. The freezer has no such time limitation - just keep it clean will you?

I've pretty much got my heart set on a G4 iBook, I just need to get up off my ass and buy it. In the meantime, I'm trying to ease the transition to Mac OS X [10.4] with some XP customizations:


My new desktop configuration [I'm preparing myself for the eventual move to Mac OSX - Click to zoom]

Neat looking, eh? And yes, that's Windows XP with Rainlender [the desktop calendar], Trillian [the best IM client, skinable], Object Dock [the Mac-style replacement for the Windows Toolbar], and The GIMP [image manipulation, for the screenshot] running.

Also, I've just started up on Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for the GBA. I like it so far.

And I vehemently defend my choice for 2004 Album of the Year. The more I listen to that album, the more it rocks me. What a freaking disc, even if the band that made it is a bunch of freaks. I forgot Flogging Molly and Rilo Kiley in that list, so I'll need to redo it soon.

Oh, and Georgia Tech's basketball team is driving me absolutely crazy. Three bad losses in a row [blown out at UNC, beaten at NCSU, and beaten at home by VT] and I have no idea what's gotten into the team. This is the same team that thrashed Michigan and Georgia and was pounding Kansas in Lawerence til Elder got hurt. Get well soon, B.J. - we need you.

Random Thoughts

Some points of thought:

While I'd hardly call myself a gym rat, I do try to get out and exercise at the gym more often these days. Joe the Peacock at Mentally Incontinent put up his "rules for the gym" and it makes for a good, amusing read.

I hate using computers without Mozilla Firefox. It just feels like going back to the stone age when I have to fire up Internet Explorer. IE's so bad that at a computer lab at FSU, I used ssh, cygwin, and remote X tunnelling to run Firefox off my computer at home just so I wouldn't have to use IE. Crazy, no? Oh, and every computer should have PuTTY too.

I'm sick and tired of my Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop. It weighs approximately 40,000 lbs and it has this amazing ability to corrupt an XP install in no time flat. I would love to get a new laptop (or a used one, whatever) but it's got to be tiny. A 12" 4.9 pound Apple iBook G4 would sure be nice. [Now anybody that knows me, please re-read that last sentence. One of the biggest PC zealots you'll ever meet just decided that he'd rather have an Apple laptop.] Truth be told, I would love to have an Apple laptop. Hell, then we'd just about have every OS you could think of on my network: Windows (XP, 2000, CE, XP Embedded/Xbox), Linux (Suse 9.1, Knoppix 3.7), Mac (Jaguar), and even PalmOS (Handspring Visor Edge). In reality I just need something tiny that can a) manipulate MS Office/PDF files, b) give me a solid gateway to my linux machine (ssh, sftp, x tunnelling), and c) run my engineering applications (MATLAB's the big one) - and an Apple could sure do that. But damn, they sure are expensive. You pay big bucks for a sexy machine. I also have no further interest in upgrading my desktops any time soon hardware-wise [thanks Linux, for making my old computers useful again!], save for maybe another IDE controller and new harddrives [we're up to 920 GB on the network...and we need a terabyte!]

One of the features I love most about my 40GB MP3 player [Creative Nomad Zen NX] is the "play any track" feature - which basically is just a random mode for every single song. Randomly picking the music off my player is like having a private radio station where you like every song - and if you don't want to hear it at that particular moment, you can always skip to the next song. And with a 40GB of tracks to cycle through, repeats are few and far between.

I'm now one week through grad school at Florida State, and things aren't going bad so far. The school definitely is behind the times technically [versus Georgia Tech - the computer labs are ancient in comparison] but the instructors I have both seem like pretty good professors. That pleases me. Stay tuned for the next year and a half or so and see how the whole "rebecoming a Seminole" turns out for me. One huge difference between FSU and GT: the number of women on-campus. It really is mind-blowing, coming from a school with a male population of nearly 75% to a school where the women dominate. Good times.

Finding Neverland was an excellent movie. I highly recommend that everybody get off their asses and see it. Other movies from the past year I recommend you see: Garden State, Napoleon Dynamite, Collateral, Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Incredibles, Kill Bill Vol. 2. Movies I still need to see: Closer, Sideways, Hotel Rwanda, Meet the Fockers, Ray, Kinsey, The Aviator.

In college sports, I was absolutely blown away by how good USC played in their 55-19 domination of Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl/BCS Title game. Matt Leinhart was flawless, and I can't remember seeing a team look as good as USC did for a long time - maybe back to either the 1996 UF or 2002 Miami teams.

On the hardwood, I don't know how people can say that Illinois is the #1 team in the land when clearly #4 North Carolina is playing the best ball in the country. They absolutely destroyed a good Maryland team last weekend. Wednesday's game between #9 GT and #4 UNC at the Dean Dome will be one hell of a game - I can't wait. Go Jackets.

Elise is coming this weekend and I'm stoked. She's always a blast to have around.

In other news, crushes suck. But this is universal fact - everybody knows it, everybody's been there, nothing new.

I'm on a Smashing Pumpkins kick recently. Damn, I love that band. I recently found my old VHS copy of "Vieuphoria" and converted it to DVD - only then later to realize that not only was it already released on DVD but also the sountrack "Earphoria" was released on CD back in 2002. So that bootleg of it I have is now worth NOTHING. Shit happens. Oh, and U2 still sucks. Get over yourselves already.

Best three sports games I've played in the last year: 1) NCAA College Football 2005, 2) ESPN College Hoops 2K5 [the default "quick game" is GT vs. UConn!], 3) ESPN Major League Baseball 2K4. I highly recommend all of them.

What's my 2004 game of the year? Burnout 3: Takedown. Hands down, most fun I've had in a game in a long, long time. NCAA Football's #2.

The Best Albums of 2004

2004 was a decent year for music, with some great releases hitting the shelves this year. While not quite the top-heavy musical juggernaut that 2003 was, 2004 gave us some hits. This list isn't the end-all of lists in the slightest - in fact this list will 100% get changed in some sort or fashion as I either a) hear music released this year that I have not yet listened to or b) my opinion changes towards any of the ranked albums. This list will grow and morph with time, but it should stay in this location. And before you start complaining please note that this list is obviously slanted towards my musical tastes. It's an opinion piece created only to spark discussion or to give others some ideas for new music to listen to. So stop complaining and just enjoy!

Here's a finetune playlist of some of the songs mentioned in the list below, so you can listen while you read:




Without further ado, here's my top albums of 2004 list:



20. American Idiot - Green Day
Reflections: A decade removed from releasing one of the pillars of punk rock, 1994's Dookie, Green Day puts out possibly their most critically acclaimed album since that monumentous album. What do I think of it? Well, it's good. Is it as good as Dookie? Lord no. But it's a decent listen. Listen to "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" if you want to see flashes of past Green Day brilliance.
Best Tracks: Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Jesus of Suburbia, Holiday



19. Collision Course - Jay-Z and Linkin Park
Reflections: Six tracks long, this is a collaboration effort between Jay-Z and Linkin Park to try to "mash" their styles together. Some tracks work, some don't. The ones that do however are really pretty cool to listen to. The DVD that comes with this set is the real selling point of the album - getting to see Jay-Z and LP live is much better than the studio recordings.
Best Tracks: Numb/Encore, Big Pimpin'/Papercut



18. The Grey Album - DJ DangerMouse
Reflections: The idea of mixing an acapella version of Jay-Z's The Black Album over beats and samples from The Beatles' The White Album might sound odd, but expert mixer DJ DangerMouse creates something that's both familiar and new. The songs take on a completely different character and feel than they did on The Black Album, and a couple of the mixes are better than the original. Now, the Jay-Z's original is one hell of an album, so DM had some excellent ground to start on. Anyways, the music companies don't want you to listen to this album, SO GO DOWNLOAD IT RIGHT NOW.
Best Tracks: What More Can I Say?, Encore, Public Service Announcement



17. Modern Artillery - The Living End
Reflections: This album is squandered potential. The first half of this album blew me away and then - then it just faded into "yet another bland pop-punk album" much to my dismay. The first 5 tracks were incredible, tracks 6-8 were okay, and 9-14 were sleepers. If only this had been a 5 track EP it would've been one of the best pop-punk records of all time.
Best Tracks: End of the World, Tabloid Magazine, Who's Gonna Save Us, Jimmy



16. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
Reflections: This album got great reviews from most critics, but I honestly couldn't get into it. There are some great tracks, I will admit, but the album as a whole just didn't do much for me. The best album to come out of the UK since The Coral's selftitled debut though, in my opinion.
Best Tracks: Take Me Out, Jacqueline, The Dark of the Matinee



15. Me First - The Elected
Reflections: Rilo Kiley member Blake Sennett's side project, this is indie rock with a twang of country. Some songs are really, really good - some just didn't really do anything for me. This is a good album, and I still listen to it from time to time, but the twanginess and the fact that's its overly slow and melodic means that it usually only gets listened to late at night for me.
Best Tracks: A Response To Greed, Waves



14. Cee-Lo Green is the Soul Machine - Cee-Lo
Reflections: The latest album from Cee-Lo starts off rediculously strong (the first 8 songs are mindblowingly good) but from there the album really takes a nose dive. The first half of the album I'd put up against any other hip-hop album, but when the second half rolls around I end up losing interest. I HIGHLY recommend you listen to this album, or at least the first half of it. Look at this ranking I gave this album and understand that the first half of this record is basically good enough to rank with the best of the best.
Best Tracks: The One, The Art of Noise, Childz Play, I'll Be Around



13. Get Away From Me - Nellie McKay
Reflections: Easily the most ecletic album I've ever heard in my life, this 2-CD debut from a rediculously talented 19 year old really shines on so many levels. One music critic described her style as "Doris Day crossed with Eminem" and that's got some truth to it. Her musical ability is off the charts - stellar vocals, great songwriting, and provocative lyrics. Nellie's really got everything going for her - she's young, she's beautiful, and she's got more talent than most. I'm really intrigued by her, and I look forward to following her (hopefully) long career.
Best Tracks: Waiter, Sari, David, The Dog Song, I Wanna Get Married



12. Talkie Walkie - Air
Reflections: This possibly is the most beautiful album of the year from a sound perspective, though at times it can just get kinda boring. This is a headphones-only album, as it the stereo effects and other sound tricks really only come across well when you've got a good pair of headphones on (or a killer surround system). Don't get me wrong though, I really like this album - but I can't listen to it for extended periods of time.
Best Tracks: Cherry Blossom Girl, Venus, Mike Mills



11. Garden State Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Reflections: I'm not normally huge on Soundtracks, but the soundtrack to Garden State simply blew me away. Possibly the best soundtrack since Magnolia, I really fell in love with the diverse tracks that director Zach Braff chose to use in his movie. This is possibly one of the best collections of "chill-out" songs that I've ever heard.
Best Tracks: New Slang by The Shins, Let Go by Frou Frou, Such Great Heights by Iron & Wine, Caring Is Creepy by The Shins, Don't Panic by Coldplay



10. Our Endless Numbered Days - Iron & Wine
Reflections: This album is soft, perhaps too soft for its own good (the amazing harmonies coupled with soft sounds can put you to sleep easily). But this album is no sleeper. One of the most musically incredible albums I've ever heard, this is basically a non-stop exercise on brilliant harmonies. You really should listen to this album. The only thing keeping it from being higher on this list is that from a repeated listenings standpoint, I haven't a) listened to it enough and b) it's really not upbeat enough to listen to on a daily basis for me.
Best Tracks: Cinders and Smoke, On Your Wings, Sodom South Georgia



9. Meltdown - Ash
Reflections: Irish rockers Ash were back in 2004 with Meltdown, which unfortunately never made it to the shores of the United States. This album is a really fun one though. Pop-punk isn't necessarily the best word to describe these guys, but I guess it's close enough. The songs on this album manage to create an atmosphere of carefree rock, one without heavy themes or other issues. It's not bubblegum pop-type music, but it is something great to have on when you're hanging out with friends.
Best Tracks: Orpheus, Evil Eye, Renegade Cavalcade, Vampire Love




8. Good News For People Who Like Bad News - Modest Mouse
Reflections: I'd heard of and heard songs by Modest Mouse for years, but never really paid them much attention. After hearing "Float On" earlier this year, I gave them another shot - and I really liked this album. Unorthodox vocals combined with great music might not be the most common combination in music, but nothing extraordinary was ever common. This is a very fun album, and the various moods presented in the songs takes you on a fun (albeit strange) musical journey. A good listen.
Best Tracks: Float On, Ocean Breathes Salty, Bukowski, The View



7. Chuck - Sum 41
Reflections: While not quite as good as 2002's spectacular Does This Look Infected?, Sum 41's latest album does leave me feeling very, very satisfied. This album rocks hard, just like the last one, and it proves that Sum 41 is still the best thing in punk-pop today. While there are a couple notable weak points on the album (the slower "Slipping Away" destroys the pace and character of the album, and I almost always skip it) for the most part this album stands up as one of the year's best. I still rock out to it.
Best Tracks: 88, Open Your Eyes, All To Blame



6. The Empire Strikes First - Bad Religion
Reflections: 2004 blessed us with yet another Bad Religion album, and like 2002's The Process of Belief one can see that Bad Religion truly has returned to their rocking ways. While this album isn't as good as Process, it still has some amazing tracks on it. Where does it stand in the Bad Religion pantheon? Pretty high up in my book. Still an example of punk rock at its finest.
Best Tracks: Atheist Peace, God's Love, All There Is, To Another Abyss



5. The College Dropout - Kanye West
Reflections: Every once in a while you hear a song that makes you think "holy shit, that's hot." This is basically an entire album of those songs. Easily the best hip-hop album of the year (and possibly of the last couple years) this disc represents all that is good about rap music. The hooks and samples are pure genius and Kanye's raps are solid and witty. He also does something that most rappers don't want to do - he raps about all sorts of topics [not just "bitches and ice" as he says on the disc.] After hearing "Jesus Walks" I knew I had to hear the rest of this disc, and all I got was one hell of a pleasant suprise. This is one you need to hear to believe. Only fault of this disc is too many skits, especially one stretch near the end of the album of "skit-worst song on the album-skit-skit" which is just awful. No need for crap-filler, Kanye. You've got enough talent.
Best Tracks: Jesus Walks, The New Workout Plan, Through The Wire, All Falls Down



4. Funeral - The Arcade Fire
Reflections: I found about this album through various music sites, so I gave it a whirl. I absolutely loved it. This album has such amazingly rich instrumentation that the songs just jump out at you and grab you - they sound like classics the first time you hear them. Add in vocals that I can only describe as Pixies-esque and you've got something new, something innovative, and something really good. Not the easiest album to jump right into, but really freaking good. This album reminds me a great deal of The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, and that's not a bad thing at all.
Best Tracks: Neighborhood #2 (Laika), Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), Haiti, Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)



3. Album of the Year - The Good Life
Reflections: Tim Kasher follows up his band Cursive's 2003 masterpiece The Ugly Organ with this spectacular outing from his side project, The Good Life. Choosing between this album and the eventual #1 was quite a hard pick - almost a toss-up in my mind. This album is possibly the best specimen of coherent songwriting I've ever seen and Kasher brilliantly tells the story of a year in his life and the ups and downs of relationships. The album artwork is also brilliant, as the Album of the Year concept is carried out by assigning each of the 12 songs a month, and presenting the album art as a mini-calendar. Good stuff.
Best Tracks: Album of the Year, Night and Day, Notes In His Pockets



2. Wet From Birth - The Faint
Reflections: Yet another Saddle Creek representative near the top of the list. The Faint are hard to describe - a mixture of electronica with almost punk sensibilities. The end result is music that makes you feel alive. This is the most energetic album I've ever heard, and the first four tracks are a barrage of quality.
Best Tracks: I Disappeared, Southern Belles In London Sing, Desperate Guys, Birth




1. Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge
My Chemical Romance
Reflections: This album only takes the #1 slot because it's the rockingest album I've heard since AFI's Sing The Sorrow last year. The first track is a little weak, but then the three-track barrage of "Give 'Em Hell Kid", "To The End", and "You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison" kicks in and the album takes off at a blistering pace. Loud, dark, great music - simply put. The only bad thing about this album is that now the first single has hit MTV ["I'm Not Ok (I Promise)"] I'm afraid a lot of little goth shits will start liking MCR and a horrible stigma will be attached to the band. They took away Marilyn Manson and Linkin Park from me and damned if I will let MTV win this round. Bastards. Anyway, great album. The continuity and flow on this album is rediculous.
Best Tracks: Give 'Em Hell Kid, To The End, Hang 'Em High

I would list all the albums I listened to this year in considering this list, but honestly I don't feel like listing them - there are far too many.

Go back to the main page, or on to 2005

New Year's Eve 2004

What a party, I tell you. So the greater portion of the Tallahassee crew (minus Bobby Eaton who went on a tail-chasing escapade to Boston and Allen and Mary who went to Disney World) went down to the Marders' house at Cape San Blas for a night of revelry. Was there drinking? Of course. Was there merrymaking? Very much so. Did some people get sick? Hell yes they (erm, we) did.

Some photographic evidence for you:


Drew contemplates what he's doing



Alexandria, Michelle, and Drew in the kitchen



Time ticks away on 2004



Drew, Staney, Melissa, Glenn, and Cooper live it up



Raju, Andrew, and Nick



Adam, Cooper, and Staney relax on the porch



Bo and Adam, up to usual hijinx (note that Adam's carrying chips and dip to the beach)




The NYE 2005 Peer Pressure Drink Final Tally (I'm "m jeezy")



Everybody starts their recovery the morning after

Anybody who wants the rest of the pictures (56MB in all, with a few .avi files sprinkled in for good measure) then just let me know. I'll put them up on AIM for you. 2004 was an okay year, it sure had its ups and downs. I lived in 3 states (Tennessee, Michigan, and Florida) and it ended with me enrolling at Florida State. I worked for most of the year at two different jobs, and had just about no luck at all with the ladies, save a couple instances. 2005 will be a better year, I'm sure. 2004 was very much of a transition year - there were a lot of uncertainties. Now that things have all been cleared up (and I know what I'll be doing for the next year or two: grad school) things should be a little easier.

Just don't be a bitch to me, 2005.