In case you haven’t seen it mentioned on ABC TV commercials yet, Barbara Walters is putting on a rediculous “reality show” where she is — and I’m not kidding — giving away a baby to the couple deemed most deserving. How fucking sick is that?

OK, first I watch The Sixth Sense, then I decide to top things off and watch The Eye in the same night. As if caffine wasn’t enough to keep me awake tonight.

Holy christ, I just spit apple all over my screen while watching this: Kill Bill meets Star Wars Kid.

In case anyone who reads this cares, I was catching up with a friend I have over at Valve and we got to talking Half-Life 2. He initially told me to expect it “soon”. When I asked to elaborate:

“Soon” is abso-freaking-lutely this year. We’re in final playtesting &
polishing right now. We have high standards so it doesn’t mean that it’s
a month away, but it’s close!

I just hope the system I bought last summer can handle the game’s system req’s.

And the award for “Most Appropriate Product Name” goes to ShitBegone Paper. Congrats guys.

On this unusually warm April afternoon in New England, I sat in the shade of an umbrella out on my deck, watching my dog Guinness go-to-town on the marrow bone I had given him. I sipped on a beer from the bottle and took in the warm fresh air, listening to the birds sing wildly as if they too thought it best to make the most of what was sure to turn cold in a few days.

I smiled slightly watching my dog enjoy the rare treat, and for some reason something occured to me just then, and this wasn’t the first time I’d thought it. Guinness was going to die some day, and no matter what I did about it, I’d have to see it happen.
(more…)

So I go to the local Sam’s club today to grab a 32-pack of bottled Poland Spring for a party we’re having Monday (Boston Marathon-Monday). While I’m waiting in line to check-out, I notice above each counter is a sign:

GET MY $5 IF I DON’T THANK YOU BY NAME OR ASK YOU TO PAY WITH A SAM’S CREDIT CARD

So I start to wonder, “what kind of dick would actually say something if they weren’t thanked by name?” Then it occured to me: “Wait a minute — I’m that kind of dick!”

It’s my turn in line, and the cashier looks half-asleep as she scans my club card and the pack of water. She doesn’t ask me to pay with any special card. I proceed to pay with my regular Visa card, and she hands me my receipt.

“Thank you, sir.”

(Awkward pause as an evil grin creeps on my face)

“So, um, do you hand me five bucks now for not saying my name?”

She looks defeated. “Oh, I said thank you ’sir’.”

“That’s not my name.”

“Oh, well go ahead over to the desk over there and tell them.”

Did I bother to go over and persue the issue? Hell yeah. Although I think I was the only one ever to have the balls to call them on it, since they had to call a manager over to confirm the $5 deal being in effect (they all looked at me like I was out of my mind thinking they owed me $5 for someone not saying my name), and the manager initially thought I was crazy for thinking it was $5 and not $1.

After all that confusion and then trying to figure out where to take the money from, they just gave up, opened up a register and handed me a nice, crisp sawbuck.

Was it all worth looking like an ass to the entire Sam’s team? Ask me if I care while I down this Starbucks Venti Mocha it bought.

A saw mention over on Gizmodo about a new service from AT&T Wireless, where you can place your cellphone up to a radio speaker and have it SMS a message back to you with the song’s artist and title. I happen to have an AT&T phone that we use at work as a spare, so I tried this service out. I connected to a RealAudio station and played whatever song they had through the cellphone, and it actually F’ing worked!

UPDATE: I didn’t know about this before, but here is a very cool site for pretty much doing the same thing.
I wonder how well this would work in a concert or what happens if you play a tribute band’s tunes through it. Hell, what if you actually sang into the phone? I’m frightened at the possibilities.