I saw the new Lord of the Rings movie last night. It was pretty good. However, I advise against going to the 10:00pm showing if you have to get up in the morning. It's three hours long. While I normally don't go to bed till 2:00am anyway, I ended up going to bed around 3:30am instead, trying to make up lost home time. My brain wakes up after dark. I hate mornings.

My head feels heavy.

I would choose music over sex.

So I wake up around 11:30am and it's snowing. Kept snowing for an hour or two. Ended up not going to Maryland, as they got 16" up there. Show-offs.

Well, it's 5:11am, Christmas day. It stopped snowing last night, now it's raining. At least for a few hours, I had a white Christmas. I looked over at Weather.com, and it looks like we've got ice on the way, followed by a chance of more snow. The snow might not make it, but it's likely the ice will. Doesn't look like I'll be going to Maryland today. I guess there's only one way to find out for sure, and that's to wait.

I got one Christmas gift about two weeks early, and the rest are coming after Christmas. Of course, everyone's getting their gifts from me after Christmas, too, because they're all moving around, and no one could think of what they wanted. I should've asked for a Studio Sleeper, but I just ordered one instead. Sometimes you just don't make mental connections like that. By "you", I mean "me". Stop looking at me like that. I tell you, being able to afford most everything you want takes the fun out of Christmas. Makes the rest of the year more fun, though.

I guess since everyone else is talking about Haibane Renmei, I may as well. Of course, I have to mix in some sort of complaint about life and society in there with it somewhere.

My favorite English title for the show is "Charcoal Feather Federation". I don't know what my favorite aspect of the show is, as it all comes together very well. Everything's high-quality. If you've read anything about it anywhere, you've probably read "It's not for everyone." While this is true, I think everyone should watch it.

Okay, here's my complaint. They've got this great song during the end credits, but sung by this horrible singer. I'm familiar with her works, she sang for the Azumanga Daioh opening and ending songs, which she also ruined. I don't actually know her name, though, but I can't help but wonder who keeps hiring her to ruin songs. I've noticed a lot of good Japanese songs fall victim to bad singers. Makes me glad Maaya Sakamoto gets along with Yoko Kanno so well.

Show's got an otherwise good soundtrack. It's not out yet in full, just a single. I'm trying to get it. Damn 140 queues. The Ghost in the Shell TV soundtrack comes out next month. Good stuff.

Update 4/25/02: First update to an old post. So, I got the single, and it had three songs on it, all sung by that damn woman. Fortunately, it had off-vocal versions of Blue Flow and Dream of Glass, but it's just not right without vocals. Song I wanted wasn't there.

There's something coming out when the day ends, but I can't remember what.

Computer Game - $49.99
Hint Guide - $19.95
Gaming Magazine - $4.95
Online article with a giant anner bad obstructing your view of any content...

WORTHLESS

I've been reading lately about how internet advertising doesn't really work, and how it's all going under. Well, with ads like "Click OK to make your computer run faster" with an image that looks like a Windows button, who would've guessed? It helps that most of the products advertised are shady. I don't win jack shit if I shock the monkey. Computerized Internet casino? No, I'm sure it's fair and properly randomized. I'm sure your javascript ad has detected a virus on my computer. I'm sure that this porn is free, and that you only want my credit card number for verification of my age. No, really, I believe all of you fuckers.

Gabe over at Penny Arcade recently posted about how they handle advertising, and how their ads are more effective than those at actual gaming sites like IGN who require you to see ads before you can even get to the content. PA has this great policy of non-animated, approved ads. They actually have to approve of the product (almost always a game) or service before they'll allow it to be advertised on their site. The ad is also off to the side and out of the way, and doesn't distract from the content on the site. Quite honestly, I've probably clicked on the ads at PA more than any other website, and that counts the accidentals.

If Internet advertising is going under, it's the fault of the advertisers. Gabe said that getting a non-animated ad out of some of these people was like pulling teeth. Yet, obviously it's what people would prefer. Take a look at Google. Everyone decided that a search engine just couldn't make money. Then Google went and made a fortune. Has anyone ever seen an ad in the form of an image there? I can't remember ever seeing one. No, they have text ads. Little spots on the side where things related to what you searched for show up. They're usually stores, but I find them useful sometimes. How about that? Useful ads.

They're also saying that spam is going to kill email. Well, maybe if everyone wasn't running fucking Microsoft Exchange servers, there wouldn't be so much spam. M$ should retire from the internet business, because I don't think they can get it right. Hell, they can't even make an operating system that works. If they weren't organized like a Mafia, they wouldn't even be successful. When a software company starts bribing senators, you know some foul shit's going down.

I just read at a reliable source that the top selling single of all time is Elton John's Candle In The Wind 1997. This was the one released right after Princess Diana's death. You remember Princess Diana, right? Everyone used to make fun of her until she died, then suddenly she was the greatest hero of all time. Amazing what a little premature death can do for one's reputation.

Anyway, I was working at a music store at the time this came out. It was near Christmas. I am not kidding you, we got crates of it in. I am also not kidding you that very few people actually bought it. At least, not intentionally. You see, we started selling it for $0.01 with every purchase at some point, just to be able to get rid of them. Many people tried to refuse them, as if they were those AOL CDs. However, we managed to force the singles down their throats. I do believe many other music stores were doing the same. The only reason we charged $0.01 was for tax purposes. We weren't allowed to actually give them out for free. Now, around Christmas time, people buy a lot of CDs. That means a lot of $0.01 copies of it were sold. Even so, after Christmas, we still had probably a box of them.

Now, my point is, does it really count as the best-selling single of all time if they were practically given out for free? Just because they manufactured half a billion of them, and they were used more for coasters than listening pleasure, does that justify naming it the best-selling single of all time? I think not. Well, that's the RIAA for you.

My car still smells like gasoline. Not as strong as it did a couple days ago, but still irritating. I'm glad it's not making me woozy.

Not work related, but at work there was a problem with one of the toilets, and now the bathroom smells like sewage. I've started going downstairs to use their bathroom. I guess it's not enough I have to deal with strange odors during lunch. At least those come from food.

I don't know where it came from, but here is where it's going.

Today I had the new life experience of running out of gas while in the third lane of a busy highway during rush hour. I swear that needle is out to get me. Nothing quite like trying to pull off the highway while steadily decelerating with a whole bunch of assholes trying to pass you on the right. Why do people insist on passing me on the right, anyway? It wasn't incredibly cold and windy, but I did lose feeling in both ears while walking to the nearest gas station (only a 15 minute walk) to get a gas can and gas. I'm now the proud owner of a gas can. Yay. Underpasses are not easy for pedestrians to get to.

This was the height of things that went wrong. Some of those things were work related, so I won't talk about them, but they did manage to prevent me from leaving early to go pick up a replacement pair of contact lenses. I'm sure they haven't gotten my 6-month supply in yet. It always takes them an extra month. I get free contacts out of the deal.

Driving home while reeking of gasoline was fun too. Good thing I can't wash my leather gloves or crappy suede jacket. I need a new jacket any damn way. I hate that thing.