danklife: March 2002 Archives

March 28, 2002

"Always dream and shoot higher

"Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. An artist is a creature driven by demons. He doesn't know why they choose him and he's usually too busy to wonder why. He is completely amoral in that he will rob, borrow, beg, or steal from anybody and everybody to get the work done. The writer's only responsibility is to his art."
- William Faulkner

Via Whiskey River.

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Sweet, my "Superdrive" just started

Sweet, my "Superdrive" just started scratching the hell out of disks. That is so cool. It's nice that a $1,000.00 product has such a cool bonus feature. Well, I'm off to the Apple store to hopefully get this resolved. This drive has been a pain in the ass since I got it: buffer underrun errors, hanging on music CD's, copying data at about 5x to the desktop and now this. Stick with a CD drive folks......

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March 24, 2002

"All results come from causes

"All results come from causes that have the ability to create them. If we plant apple seeds, an apple tree will grow, not chili. If chili seeds are planted, chili will grow, not apples. In the same way, if we act constructively, happiness will ensue; if we act destructively, problems will result. Whatever happiness and fortune we experience in our lives comes from our own positive actions, while our problems result from our own destructive actions."
Daily Dharma.

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Past few days: Thursday went

Past few days:
Thursday went to work on someone's computer. He was changing the meeting time alot and then when I showed up he said he only had 15 minutes, so I switched into"this guy is a idiot / pain in the ass mode". Pretty much nothing can be done on a computer in 15 minutes. Having gotten nothing done, he said he'd call when he got back from his tour. Turns out he was a guitar player. I asked him what band he played in thinking it was some local band. "Paul McCartney" was his reply. Only in L.A.
I drive a 1985 Camero. Today when I was leaving my house a blond driving a similar model of Camero stopped, honked her horn and said, "Wanna go?!". Honked again and sped of around the corner leaving me laughing my ass off in the morning sun. It was a lovley "Camero Moment (TM)".

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"You know, it occurs to

"You know, it occurs to me that any number of people I 'think' I encounter in my life, could, also, be demons having this same hallucination - the collective consciousness of demons, dreaming they are living human lives, among unsuspecting human beings."
Over at Whiskey River.

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March 21, 2002

Google has relisted all the

Google has relisted all the xenu.net links after hoards of people supported them or protested against it. The story is on Slashdot. Yea us.

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Congratulations James, on being

Congratulations James, on being part of "blip...blah...blog" an exhibition about the "weblogging phenomena". Yea James! He introduced me (as you all know) to weblogging about a year or so ago and got me hooked. Actually, it goes even deeper then that now that I think about it. I believe I brought in a MacMall catalog to work when I was shopping for my first computer and asked him what he would get and then ordered it all the next day. Now-a-days, if you google "danklife" you'll see my site, then his right below. We are joined by google now James, who would have thought? But working with photoshop all day is way better then coming home from work smelling like darkroom chemistry. Yeech. My roomate would bitch that he could smell the formaldahyde (sp?) from the color chemistry when I walked in the door.
I miss certain things about the chemical process of photography though. Nothing is as cool as watching a print appear in a tray of developer or that feeling when you pull a roll of black and white off your reel and see some good shots all small, wet and negitive. That build up of excitement from the time you press the shutter: "Wow, this could be a really good shot, I hope the film turns out." "Wow, the negs have great density. Hey, that shot DOES looks good. I hope the print turns out." "Hey this print looks great AFTER dry down! Yeah, I RULE!" Little dance ensues...
And that whole process could take weeks.
Now with the digicam it's: "Click .Yep, got it."
Which makes for a whole lot of great photos, no more shooting one scene with a whole roll "just to be sure". But it does takes some of the mystery and hope away from the whole photgraphic process. Me and James both worked at a custom photo printing lab where we printed evidence photographs all day long. Dead people all day long. But we would print up alot of our own stuff, so we had some creative stuff going on. Ahhh, memories......
I found alot of memories of my geeky, no cares, imagination filled childhood at yesterdayland the other night. And I realized I grew up as a total geek. I must have had some wicked denial going on. I used to wear glasses so thick that my friends would make fun of me and asked if I had the lens ground by NASA. Anyways, check out the loves of my childhood:
Micronauts!
Shogun Warriors!!
The Dungeons and Dragons cartoon!!!
In high school me and my buddy spent a month trying to remember the name of this cartoon. "Dude, remember the "Phoenix" and that evil dude "Zoltar"?! Shit, what was the name of that show?!" "Oh yeah, G-Force!!!!"
Incidentally, we would have these intellectual chats over trays of photo chemisty as we were the main darkroom techs for our high school. Yes, we would hang out in the darkroom and talk about cartoons. What? You didn't? I have alot of funny stories about those days...locking people in the darkroom door, harrassing the writers everytime they needed a photo, etc... but I digress.
Every morning when I was in 6th -7th grade at 5:30 and 6 am channel 50 in Indiana would play the "bestest" geek cartoon of all time, Robotech!!!!!
Ahh, the sweet innocence of youth. It was right around 7th- 8th grade when this world slipped away from me and girls, skating, drinking and (gasp) drugs (just pot, settle down) took over. Remember those magical moments as a child where you were wrapped up in a imaginary world all you own for hours and hours? Running through the corn fields and playing along the railroad tracks? Well, those are the feelings I try get when I take photos and now also when I blog. That is how I measure my success.......

This is the "Remembrance of things past" post....

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Like to videotape your favorite

Like to videotape your favorite TV shows? How about making a tape of a CD you bought so you can listen to it in your car? How about not having to wait a year for a govenmental agency to "approve" of a new cd / MP3 / video and yes even a computer? If these fucking bozo'z have their way you will. What technologies are covered you ask? Well, it ONLY applies to technologies ".. that reproduces, displays or "retrieves or accesses" any kind of copyrighted work." And to all those people who say,"Well, I think it's good for the artists to get the money they deserve. So I'm all for it." I say "wake the fuck up". Remember how the DMCA was gonna help all these writers protect themselves from being ripped off by the internet and all that? Has it helped anyone besides huge corporations? NO. Check out this from BoingBoing.
"Google censored by the Church of Scientology and the DMCA
1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act - the DMCA -- was enacted to protect rights-holders from infringment online. It allows for massive civil and punishing criminal penalties against infringers and those who abet them.

This awful, draconian law has not been used to safeguard copyright, however. Instead, the DMCA is used as a club to threaten competitors (i.e., Vivendi's Blizzard gaming division suing the open-source hackers who implemented their own version of the Blizzard gameserver), to stop innovation (i.e., the action against the people who wrote the Linux DVD player, DeCSS), and, of course, to silence critics.

The Church of Scientology, notorious for its campaigns to silence former Church members who speak out against the Church's practices has served a DMCA notice on Google. They have forced Google to remove from its database links to materials that the Church claims are infringing.

The implications are staggering. Any yahoo (no pun intended) can now have other people's materials removed from any search tool, just by writing a spurious poison-pen letter.

Sez Google: "We removed certain specific URLs in response to a notification submitted by the Religious Technology Center and Bridge Publications under section 512(c)(3) of the the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Had we not removed these URLs, we would be subject to a claim for copyright infringement, regardless of its merits." (emphasis mine ( that be boing boing)).

Here are the allegedly infringing links:

If lawyers can do this bullshit stuff with the DMCA, just imagine what they will do with this here "Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act". Combine alittle "Patriot Act" in there and maybe we could all get sent to a military tribunal for burning a CD to keep in the car, no questions asked. I can only ask, "What the Hell Happened?(tm)."

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March 19, 2002

Oh yeah, I saw this

Oh yeah, I saw this hideously beautiful sight on Friday night. A missle defense test over L.A. really puts my worries at ease.

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March 17, 2002

"You're not drunk if you

"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on."
---Dean Martin

White Trash Haiku
Desire
Damn, in that tube-top
You make me almost forget
You are my cousin

Computer Haiku
Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

strange, strange japanese products including:
Japanese high school girls wear outrageously oversized socks called "loose socks." How do they keep their socks from falling down? You guesses it -- they use "socks glue." Here's some authentic socks glue for you, straight from Japan.
Japanese T-shirt "Hen na gaijin" (I'm a strange foreigner).
And of course,
Hello Kitty Vibrator ~ Shoulder massage

Pistol
Revolver

Zen Paintings.

"The clean-up portion of the ground war in Afghanistan heated up yesterday when the Allies revealed plans to airdrop a platoon of crack French existentialist philosophers into the country to destroy the morale of the remaining Taliban zealots by proving the non-existence of God.

Elements from the feared Jean-Paul Sartre Brigade, or ’Black Berets’, will be parachuted into the combat zones to spread doubt, despondency and existential anomie among the enemy. Hardened by numerous intellectual battles fought during their long occupation of Paris’s Left Bank, their first action will be to establish a number of sidewalk cafes at strategic points near the front lines.

There they will drink coffee and talk animatedly about the absurd nature of life and man's lonely isolation in the universe. They will be accompanied by a number of heartbreakingly beautiful girlfriends who will further spread dismay by sticking their tongues in the philosophers' ears every five minutes and looking remote and unattainable to everyone else."

Had a weekend of rebuilding computers, music, beer and games. Not a bad weekend at all, but where did it go. I don't wanna be at work! Wah! Wanted to find some humor today, so all links are garunteed (say with a cajun accent) funny haha. I'm working on getting my photo page up and running, really I am. Please don't hit me again, I'll have it up soon I promise. My brain is totally drained of anything to write, my eyes glaze over as I stare at the monitor so I'll just ramble on like a lunatic...blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah....Goodnight all

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March 14, 2002

Howdy, work had a keg

Howdy, work had a keg of beer tonight for St. Pattys day. They brought it in for 6pm, forgetting that the drunk ass night shift still has 6 hours of work to do. Hehehehehe. Plus they cleaned up everything and left half a keg for us and the graveyard shift. Yahoo! Dumb corporate screws. What a bunch of fucknozzles. If only instead of 16 feet of sandwhich we had this treat:
"i really wish i could show you a picture of this. imagine a wheel of thin crust with radiating chorizo-esque hot dog spokes laying on a bed of salsa, mayonaise and shredded cabbage and sprinkled with a garnish of minced onions and dill pickle chips. i'm assured, in english, that '"it's good." the thing is, stuff like this, here in japan, somehow does taste good."

Salsa and mayonaise?! I can only stare in wonder.

So now starts all the randomness of my mind and blogging. A Old Friend of Mine (tm) named Rob_O sent me a email tonight that was the best compliment I"ve gotten in years and he probablly doesn't even know it! Here's his email:

"I looked at your blog but it was freaky. I could here your voice in the ramblings and it was like you were here reading it all to me out loud. It was too much. I do remember the 2.4 million you loaned me, but it is tied up in Enron stock right now."

I think he's just trying to butter me up since he owes me a couple million, but my monkeys will get the money. Don't you worry about that. Its not my fault he invested it all in Enron. I know Ken Lay is a good fuck and all but 2 million is a good sized yacht and my sailbot is getting boring so I have to do what I have to do. Don't answer your door or leave the house for a few days Rob.

Pretty cool stories over here. Even though I'm a social / relationship moron this statement somehow makes sense to me:
"I have a theory. My theory is that the parting is contained in the greeting. Is this a theory? No, it is an observation. My observation is that one knows from the beginning why a relationship will fail, that the problem is plain and yet one pretends not to see it; or perhaps one admits to seeing it but downplays its significance. The flush of love, or attraction, or simply of hope, is a powerful hallucinogen, one that causes us to see things that are not there and to fail to see things that are. A relationship does not begin in earnest until the effects of this drug have worn off."

If anyone has any hints / tips for meeting intelligent women in L.A. please send them to me. Any responses saying things like "GET OFF YOUR DAMN COMPUTER!" will be answered with angry gunfire in the night. Plus, I'll shave your pets.

Ahhhhh, just got a refill of sweet, sweet beer.
Good article on all the big medias fight against everything on the net, heres a outtake:
"what's strange is that every technology that makes it easier for us to consume media inevitably benefits the content producers. when the technology creates new distribution channels (as in the case with radio, television, and cable), content must be provided to fill those channels. when technology makes it easier for us to listen/watch/play when and where we want (as did the the VCR, audio compact cassette, compact disc, and Walkman-style personal stereo) we always created an upswing in the sales of "prerecorded" media"

Many thanks to BoingBoing for so many great links today. You get the "Attaboy" award for today.

And if you look to your left over the wing you will see a lovely article praising the allmighty MAC computer:
"It was approachable, understandable and through the intricate, well thought out interface, it told us that its creators cared about us, they wanted to help us, to empower us, they wanted this little machine to be our friend."

I love my mac, even if I have yet to find a use for OSX. From what I "hear" OSX is great, it runs the server that has all my MP3's at home. But it's SLOW AS ALL FUCKING HELL IN A SNOWSTORM IN ALASKA!!!!!! Ahem....sorry. Geez, must be some kind of mood modifier in this here "Beer" stuff.

My notes say this is a interesting blog, but I don't remember why I thought it was interesting......
I have a co worker yapping my ear off..... Later.....

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"The average American wakes up,

"The average American wakes up, gets into the car alone, drives to work alone, sits in a cube for eight or nine hours with a computer and a telephone for company, drives back alone, and spends the evening at home pursuing one of the many lifestyles available commercially (hundreds are available, from Christian suburban conservative Walgreen's clerk to rural lesbian separatist rock and roll singer-- in the interest of full disclosure, I'd have to include my own urban pan-Bohemianism as being in the catalog somewhere), or maybe just watch others make such choices on television, which has hundreds of channels available to suit any (there's that word again) lifestyle."
From The Spleen

Redefine your telecommute today!

Good vid called Tongues and Taxis. Makes me miss my cats.

O.K. Feeling better now, still freaked out though. But I blew off most my steam at work. As for all the freaks saying a truck bomb blew up the Pentagon look here. There is no truck anywhere. So thats done with, plus all the claims that there is no photos I might add. Boy, there sure is a shitload of images on this site though, I had no idea till I actually started poking around and I work there! Our marketers / advertising must suck really bad or something. I'm burned out and tired, sorry this is such a lame ass post, I'll make it up to you soon. I promise.

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March 13, 2002

"Quick George get another splashy

"Quick George get another splashy terrorist attack going on before those darned liberals start realizing what we're up too!!"

Yes, I'm scared now. I would post about all the nuke / Iraq stuff too, but I can't deal with that yet. Fuck the goverment and what it has become:
Via Follow Me Here

"Dear FBI, be sure to read my entire web sites to make sure I'm not a terrorist,"
says Mark Perkel on his site www.overthrowthegovernment.org, which he describes as
attention-getting rather than frankly revolutionary. "Can I actually overthrow the government?
No I can't, for one simple reason. The government has already been overthrown. George W. Bush
and his right wing Republican Bible thumping jesus freak cronies have already overthrown the
government." A message to Declan McCullagh's Politech mailing list today says that Perkel was
arrested returning to the US from a trip to Australia this morning and is being held without
bail; the LA Sheriff's Dept booking record is here. "Perkel is also the owner of the web-site
behind BartCop.com, a daily political humour site which is sometimes critical of the current
federal administration. Updates of Perkel's situation will probably be posted first at , or
(on online chat forum) if the police pull the plug on Perkel's server," says the poster to
McCullagh's list. It is not clear to what extent Perkel's arrest relates to the political
views he espouses, or teases us with. "

And from Fucked Company, of all places.

When the House Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health held
an oversight hearing probing the increasing threat of ecoterrorism on
National Forest lands last month, evidence was submitted by one of the
Subcommittee's witnesses showing that the People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA) contributed to the Earth Liberation Front, the public
face of an organization described by the FBI as America's single
largest domestic terrorism threat.

Howdy Big Brother and a big all "fuck you" too you. It's not that I'm unamerican, it's just that Bush and his cronies are so goddamn unamerican. Remember free speech? Seperation of church and State? Privacy? Or all all these fundemental American rights gonna turn into stories we tell our grandkids? I remember my grandad saying "When I was your age a beer cost a nickle!", I'm gonna be telling my kids, "When I was your age we didn't have GPS tracked chips implanted in our heads that reported our thoughts to the government. Boy, those were good times!"
Maybe I should just start drinking heavily again and make it all go away.

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March 10, 2002

Played music with my friend

Played music with my friend Sippi this mornig for a couple hours then went and skated a pool with Ryan and I have no photos / web stuff Chris Harmon. Beautiful day. Some younger guys were skating the pool with total disregard for their bodies. One of them was shirtless and covered in white dust / paint from the pool and brusies from slamming. And he kept at the whole time. One of his slams would have taken me out for a week. Ahhh....to be young again. But then I got home and got a migrain headache and fell into a fog of depression. Tried watching "Ghost in the Shell", opted for a nap. So now I'm wide awake and hopelessly sober. Oh well, at least the headache is gone.

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Took me awhile to figure

Took me awhile to figure this out. See how long it takes you to see whats wrong. Heres the quote :
Things aren't always as they appear. Our field of vision and perception of the reality around us can be misleading. Subtle changes are sometimes hard to detect. Our mind plays tricks on us.
hehehehehehehe......

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March 07, 2002

I could sit here and

I could sit here and read this for hours. Wait, replace "could" with "will" and you get a better idea. Insomnia hits hardest when your trying to sleep, why is that? Was up till almost 6 am last night, it's 2:51 am right now and I'm wide awake searching the net. If I lose my mind somewhere out there tonight I'll be sure to let you all know.

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March 05, 2002

I've been on the run

I've been on the run for the past couple of days trying to stay ahead of the Grammer Police. I'm one of their top ten "Most Wanted" bloggers and I guess that last post was just too out of bounds and they have really turned up the heat. It's a joint effort to catch me too, I guess The Department of Spelling has had it up to here with me too. I've been hanging out in desert towns and checking the net VIA cyber cafes and wireless LANS, which is all good because it's helping me stay off the computer. I tell ya, the resolution of a sunset must be at least 1920x1440, the detail is amazing. Just think of all the polygons to render!
Actually, I have been doing better with my computer habits. Had a Descent bender on Friday night though and I have been hitting Baldurs Gate 2 for the past two days. Besides those innocent transgressions though I've been good. Got some of my friends pics all ready to post on the site and a story by my buddy Vince called "The Gun" that I'm hoping I'll put up on Friday. I have to start editing my own writing and art next, though I really dread the idea. I found a great quote today that sums up my thought about my personal work:

"No crowd means no temptation."

No-one sees your work, no-one can comment on it and therefor effect it. It's a pretty good article on painting and modern art, but the guy has his head up his ass when it comes to photography. Here's the quote that belongs back in 1875:

"Photographers have produced brilliant and memorable pictures. But no great photograph has ever had anything like the power of a great painting. Why? Because you cannot knock a man down with a potato chip no matter how hard you throw it, or power an aircraft carrier with a rubber band no matter how tight you wind it-or load up a photograph with enough energy to make it great art."

Get over it dipwad. I personally think live theater is about as interesting as pond scum and I always feel embarrassed for the people on stage. It does not diminish the value of theater as a art form simply because it does not move me. I have been floored by countless photos, just because you have not does not mean it packs the power of a potato chip, fuckstick. Ok, ok, ok, I'm done, this attitude just pisses me off. Brings me right back to art school debates with trustfunders. I could go on and on here for hours.... Whew, deep breath..... Ok. I like his article though. Just exchange the word "painting" with "art" and it's gets alot better. Here's another good quote where he almost compliments photography:

"The big event in the modern history of visual art was the invention of photography. A paradox: photography (which competes with painting) was the loveliest gift painting ever got. The invention of photography meant that painting hit the jackpot-won a billion dollars in the lottery, quit its job and was free to do whatever it felt like for the rest of history."

Art is such a fascinating thing to me. It can means all things to all people. I have a friend James that is really into found photography. I lost his email (damnit!) where he explains it to me, but I was wondering if he ever just did image searches on google for what he wanted or if it was the act of "discovering" a photo abandoned somewhere and reusing it that fascinated him. To me, art is about the act of creating something myself to James it's (I'm generalizing / guessing here so don't kill me James) about wonderous and beautiful things. And here is where art gets to be art, because it's all opinion. Except if your talking to me, then you must realize that I am the God of All Things Good and if you disagree you will be flayed alive by headless monkeys and strung above a alter to rot for ages. No exceptions, sorry.

And on a side topic, heres a bunch of strange shit I found while surfing.

The magical word fuck.
Eggs are somehow cute.
Kung Fu madness!!!!!
Man on a string
and I stil think this is a cool site. I don't care if I go to blogger hell for reposting. I noticed the other day it's in perfect sync with the Apple clocks you set your time to.
Got links a plenty from a good blog I stumbled upon called Memepool. A great blend of funny and serious stuff. I think "wood s lot" and "Follow Me Here" (winner of the ugliest site redesign contest. For the love of god man, learn to properly compress a JPEG!) has been making me depressed with all the war / Enron stuff. I'm developing a "stick my head in the sand" view on the world.
"So, you say Nuclear test fall-out killed thousands in US?
Really? It didn't? It did? It didn't? It DID!? Well, I'll be. Nice sunset tonight huh?"

I just can't take it right now. The "Gob-ment" (urban slang for "government) has swung so far to the right I think 85% of Washington must have a gnarly case of wiplash. Which almost brings me to my last link on my favorite political cartoonistTom Tomorrow author of "This Modern World". his blog is really getting good and he summed up why I blog better then anyone else to date:
"and (I) ultimately realized that I, too, could spend endless hours engaged in a running monologue with myself, like any sad delusional soul shambling down the street alone at night talking to his invisible friends--but in a socially acceptable fashion!"

Ahmen brother, ahmen. Now where did that bottle opener go..........

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danklife

pixel rust .... home

March 28, 2002

"Always dream and shoot higher

Sweet, my "Superdrive" just started

March 24, 2002

"All results come from causes

Past few days: Thursday went

"You know, it occurs to

March 21, 2002

Google has relisted all the

Congratulations James, on being

Like to videotape your favorite

March 19, 2002

Oh yeah, I saw this

March 17, 2002

"You're not drunk if you

March 14, 2002

Howdy, work had a keg

"The average American wakes up,

March 13, 2002

"Quick George get another splashy

March 10, 2002

Played music with my friend

Took me awhile to figure

March 07, 2002

I could sit here and

March 05, 2002

I've been on the run