julian strikes again:

FIJA DEMONSTRATION OF 11/23/09

I arrived at he U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan at 11:45 am on Monday, November 23, 2009. The weather was cold and windy. I stood in the middle of the plaza in front of the courthouse.

I passed out 10 of the FIJA pamphlet entitled “True or False: Factual Information about Jury Service” along with my flyer (see below). At 12:10 pm three Homeland Security police officers approached me. I asked them to identify themselves, but they did not. Instead they asked me who I was. I responded that I did not have to identify myself, but that they did. One of them grabbed my arm and placed me under arrest. I fell to the ground and lay still on the cold ground for about 1/2 hour and said nothing. I was not handcuffed.

The police confiscated my ‘JURY INFO” sign and my pen, but not my remaining pamphlets.. I was not issued a property receipt or a citation.

While on the ground, some individuals were taking pictures of me. They were informed by the police that they could not take pictures on federal property, but at least one of them continued. I do not know what happened to them. I overheard one of the police officers say that he saw my web site and himself on youtube.

Medics from the fire department arrived. They asked me questions, but I did not respond. They pounded on my chest and shoulders to try to get me to respond, but to no avail. Then they searched me for identification, which I do not carry. While doing this they put a 3-inch rip in my pants.

Soon an ambulance arrived, I was lifted onto a gurney, and placed in the ambulance. The ambulance attendants also punched me in the chest and shoulders to get me to talk, which did not work. They also gave me a medical exam.

I arrived at New York Downtown Hospital and was treated by 4 nurses, who stripped me naked and gave me the most thorough medical exam of my life. This included two intravenous injection, blood withdrawal, an electrocardiogram, stethoscope, blood pressure, pulse, eyes, and temperature. I was found to be in excellent health. However they did not give me a colorectal exam. Fortunately, my urologist had done that on November 11, 2009.

The nurses called two people listed in my cell phone to identify me, but they refused to identify me or themselves, as I had instructed them. Finally Dr. Cho came to see me at about 2:15 pm. I asked her if I was still under arrest. She said no and did not know why I asked. The hospital was told that the police found a man lying unconscious in the street. I talked to her, which greatly relieved everyone else. She tried to learn my identity, but I would not give it to her. I asked to be released, and she agreed.

The hospital wanted my name, address, and medical insurance information. I refused to give any information. I was released at 2:35 pm and signed the release form “John Galt.”

new julian info, this guy will not quit:

FIJA DEMONSTRATION OF 11/16/09

I arrived at he U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan at 11:45 am on Monday, November 16, 2009. The weather was perfect: warm and sunny. I stood in the middle of the plaza in front of the courthouse.

I started to pass out the FIJA pamphlet entitled “A Primer for Prospective Jurors” along with my handout (see below). Two photographers, whom I do not know, were present At 11:48 am, I was approached by two federal marshals, who informed me that I had to leave. I demurred. They said that they would have to report me and left.

I passed out about 8 flyers, when three police officers from the Department of Homeland Security approached me at about 11:58 am. The leader was my friend Officer Barnes from previous encounters. After we exchanged the usual pleasantries, he placed me under arrest, and I fell to the ground. He confiscated my remaining brochures and my JURY INFO sign. He left a receipt and a citation 41 CFR, Sub C Section 102 #74.415(c), the same as previously (see below). He unarrested me at 12:05 pm, and the police left the scene.

The Homeland Security Police also approached the photographers. Apparently one left, but the other would not. He was taking pictures of my arrest. He was placed under arrest. However, he apparently had a permit to photograph a trial, which was the reason he was there. He identified himself as a photographer for the “Post.” He was not cited nor any of his property confiscated.

Another pedestrian was standing about 20 feet away observing events. The police approached him nd told him that he had to leave. Apparently standing on federal property is also an offense. However, apparently he left and was not cited.

After spending a week doing wine tastings, this Wall St. Journal article served as a nice reinforcement of my hunches about some of the snobbishness around wine drinking. Luckily, I know little about which varietals yield which kinds of wines or which regions are better than others, etc. I simply know what I taste, which so far has served me well.

Didn't make it to Gamespot early enough yesterday to pick up my copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Not sure what their policy on holding games is, but hopefully it'll still be waiting for me when I get there after work today.

I'll try to write-up a California vacation wrap-up and post it up over the next few days, but otherwise I'll probably be pretty quiet as I try to catch-up on a week of being out of the office and skipping class.

happen to catch the atmosphere the other day? after years of bugging dr. tony from spaceweather he has finally featured me in a news item. check the nov. 11 post

the latest from julian:

FIJA DEMONSTRATION OF 11/09/09

I arrived at he U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan at 11:45 am on Monday, November 9, 2009. The weather was perfect: warm and sunny. I stood in the middle of the plaza in front of the courthouse.

I started to pass out the FIJA pamphlet entitled “A Primer for Prospective Jurors” along with my handout (see below). A freelance reporter form Free Talk Live was present. At 11:48, I was approached by two federal marshals, who identified themselves as Musumeci and Sullivan. They would not give first names and said that they had no badge numbers. They informed me that I had to leave. I demurred. They said that they would have to report me and left.

I passed out about 15 flyers, when three police from the Department of Homeland Security approached me at about 12:20 pm. The leader was my friend Officer Barnes from two weeks ago. After we exchanged the usual pleasantries, he placed me under arrest, and I fell to the ground. He confiscated my remaining five brochures and my JURY INFO sign. He left a receipt and a citation 41 CFR, Sub C Section 102 #74.415(c), the same as two weeks earlier.

During the exchange with the police, the Free Talk Live reporter videotaped the event and interviewed me until he was stopped and cited by the police under 41 CFR, Subsection C, §102–74.420 for photographing without a permit. They confiscated his film.

At about 12:30 pm, while I was still on the ground, Joel Kupferman, a lawyer and Executive Director of the New York Environmental & Justice Project appeared and observed. Then the police left at 12:35 pm. I stood up and the event was over.

We noticed that an NBC reporter was present, but we did not interact with him. Joel and I went to a Chinese soup shop and had hot and sour soup. I arrived home at about 3:15 pm.

Julian's latest email:

My Fellow Americans:

I love my country very much, but I am ashamed of it, very ashamed. It was the best country that was ever created on this earth. It is a federated constitutional republic with separate branches of government and a Bill of Rights intended to guarantee personal freedom. People from all over the world came here and were absorbed into the body politic.

Our country was imperfect at first, but we continued to improve. The institution of slavery was abolished in 1865. Peace was made with the Native American population. Workplace conditions were improved. Women suffrage was introduced with the 19th Amendment. Racial segregation was ended in the 1960s. Women's’ rights have been expanded continually. We are making progress on opportunities for the disabled and rights for homosexual persons.

In the foreign sphere, we saved the world from Nazi fascism, Japanese imperialism, and Soviet communism. We have led the human struggle against poverty, hunger, and disease.

We became the richest and most powerful nation the world has ever known. We had many reasons to be proud.

But about 30 years ago, we began to lose our way. We decided to become the world’s number one prison state. Harmless people were imprisoned for owning plants, vegetables, and flowers. Our prison population expanded enormously. Now we have 25% of the world’s prisoners, but less than 5% of the world’ population. Our prisons have become hellholes. About one in every 25 adult males currently is on probation or parole. 1.6 million of our children have a parent incarcerated.

On September 11, 2001, our country suffered the most devastating attack on its soil in our history. Two of our spectacular buildings were destroyed. Thousands of people died, including my next door neighbor.

We undertook the noble task of ridding the world of Jihad and restructuring Afghanistan and Iraq. Instead we just have killed and maimed thousands of our young men and women. We incarcerated suspected enemies without trials and introduced human torture. We established our own Gestapo with the pseudonym of Department of Homeland Security.

The Gestapo, in collusion with our courts, has stripped away our constitutional rights. We have lost the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 14th Amendments to the U. S. Constitution. We have become a subservient population.

Our economic system collapsed in 2007 because of the greed and recklessness of the business community. We elected Messiah Barack Obama as our President in 2008, because he promised us change we can live with. This change amounted to hiring the people who destroyed our economy to fix it. Their solution has been to indebt the American people of its remaining money and giving the money to the culprits who caused the problem. It is the largest Ponzi scheme in human history, and our progeny will pay dearly.

If this is the legacy you do not want to leave for your children, then join me in the struggle to recover the great country we once had. Otherwise your progeny will hate you forever.

Come stand with me on the U. S. District Courtyard at 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan!

THE PRICE OF LIBERTY IS ETERNAL VIGILANCE

THE PRICE OF JUSTICE IS ETERNAL PUBLICITY

julian will be going back to the US District Court of Manhattan on Nov. 9, monday. if anyone would like to join me i plan on going. the festivities start around noon, so keep that in mind. i am really shocked after being kidnapped and drugged the last time that julian is returning yet again. that is why this next time should be very interesting. i plan on bringing my camera and taking some video. but i would also like to take pictures and cannot do both. so someone to be there to help would be nice. let a brotha know asap. be real. love.

FIJA DEMONSTRATION OF 11/02/09

I arrived at he U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan at 11:45 am on Monday, November 2, 2009. The weather was sunny, but a little cooler than the wo precious weeks. I stood in the middle of the plaza in front of the courthouse. I did not have my JURY INFO sign, because I did not have the time to replace the one that was seized the previous week.

I started to pass out the FIJA pamphlet entitled “A Primer for Prospective Jurors” along with my handout (see below). At 12:00 noon, a Homeland Security police officer approached me and asked for a copy of the brochure, which I gave to him. He informed me that I could not pass out literature on federal property. I assured him that I could. He left without identifying himself.

At 12:21 pm, two other Homeland Security police officers approached me. I requested them to identify themselves, but they refused. We had a disagreement about my right to pass out literature. they ordered me to stop, but I continued. Then one of them said that I was under arrest, get his hands behind his back and handcuff him. Immediately, I fell to the ground face down. I remained in that position for over an hour, before I was lifted onto a gurney and strapped securely. I was never handcuffed nor received a citation or summons. It was an out and out kidnapping.

I was taken to Bellevue Psychiaytric hospital and arrived at about 2:00 pm. Again I gave no response to any questions of either the police or the hospital personnel. All my personal belongs including sneaks and a belt were taken from me.

At about 3:00 pm, I received a telephone call from Chris Goldstein, a radio reporter, who said that he would start the publicity rolling.

After about 4:00 pm, I made a fuss to see someone in charge, so that I could either be released or brought in front of a magistrate. My requests were ignored, and became more persistent. Against my wishes four attendants grabbed me and gave me a shot of thorazine to calm me down. It worked, I got an excellent night’s sleep.

Dr. Lowe is the head psychiatrist for the Bellevue unit in charge. He made it a point to see that I ws not interviewed the first day. On Tuesday morning I was interviewed by psychiatrist Dr. Striker and social worker Kari Wolf. After a calm discussion with them, I was released at 11:55 am. A set of follow-up instructions was given to me.

During my stay, I was treated well by the staff, received 3 full meals, and extensive medical tests of the usual variety were done. It was a thorough medical exam.

On Tuesday morning, I was given a NOTICE OF STATUS AND RIGHTS C.P.E.P. EMERGENCY ADMISSION. In principle I had rights, But it would not be convenient to exercise them.

I signed all documents John Galt. I was released at 11:55 am and voted for Ken Kaplan for Governor of NJ on my way home.

Warning:You should know that The Federal Protective Service is intercepting my e-mails. Another violation of our civil liberties.

Picked Final Fantasy: Dissidia for PSP up over the weekend. Had read about it a bit prior to buying it, but I'm still not really sure I know what it is yet. It had the words "Final" and "Fantasy" next to each other on the cover, though, so that was enough for me. I used the visual search app SnapTell for the first time to dig up some reviews and competitive pricing while deciding whether to purchase it or not. What a great experience. Definitely a game changing app. Much respect to the fact that the folks that make SnapTell are confusingly owned by Amazon,but still prominently display competitor pricing, as well.

Although I'm pretty well-taken care of games-wise for awhile, I'll probably be giving iPhone Doom a download within the next few days, as well. I thoroughly enjoyed (and still continue to enjoy) the Wolfenstein 3D port that id did for iPhone, and expect that Doom will be even better. I'm now reminded that id was kind enough to add Spear of Destiny to the Wolf 3D app for free over the weekend. I've gotta check that out, as well.

hello kids. find myself struggling to find sleep, here in the afterglow of daylight savings and 6mg of buprenorphine.

gorgeous full moon tonight. bathes everything in a blinding wintry light. cool clear sky. orion a hunter among the stars. what else could you want? something you ask as you grow older, what more could i possibly want?

looking forward to hearing of julian's antics tomorrow. would really like to make it into the city by 11:45 am, the time he plans to be protesting. i really enjoyed the video of the last protest, what little of it there actually is. i think derek did a really good job of handling his nerves in front of uniformed federal marshals. its easy to forget you actually have certain rights when there is someone waving a razor sharp hunting knife in your eye.

mummy returns and the mummy variants seem to be all over encore and starz recently. and goddamn if rachel weisz is not one of those women that just have that super feminine energy. source type shit. and it is trivial but how about the movies she is in? there is the mentioned mummies, the fountain, constantine... well i havent seen constantine but you could go to imdb yourself. i guess the will to create some mystique overrides actuality. either way, she really is gangbusters. certain chicks have it, right rosie?

so curious if artie lange will make it into work tomorrow if he watched all of the yankee game. what a boringly spectacular game 4. philly had the right idea to throw at a-rod. there is no better way to get in the head of a team. especially if you are at home and have rowdy, raving fans behind you. makes you feel strong. but nothing makes you feel stronger than overcoming those loud listless lunatics. and when the yankees went up 7-4 or some shit in the top of the 9th, and that whole fucking stadium sounded like a mortuary, it was the sound of the series ending. it was the sound of a beaten city. i dont want to get ahead of myself so thats all i will say. at least you fucked the giants right in the A, eh! eh!? ... oh

i forgot this link. if you remember back in the day of PC gaming there was a game called trespasser. it was super ambitious but a mega failure. this is some sort of "lets play" series where they play entire games with interesting commentary. this ones dang good.

derek's video of the event.

here is a good article about the monday oct. 26 julian heicklen incident that goes into way more detail than i was able to provide here. good read, you should also check out his website!

if you live in nj this should be your vote for governor. lets get the government out of our lives and learn how to be responsible for ourselves. learned helplessness, people.

edit: at first i embedded it but it broke the layout and the audio is horrible and goddamn who does an interview in an office out of 1992? oh well, this is why the libertarian party struggles, they shoot themselves in the foot so often. you're not getting flashy wall art and twittering here folks, this is about properly run government, not gimmicks.

this sunspot seriously tickles my loins. it is about to rotate over the western limb, but i have a sneaking suspicion it may return in 33 days. it is absolutely enormous and a trifle unusual in terms of shape as far as sunspots go. they say cosmic rays are at an all time high, and sunspots are at an all time low. believe it or not these two sets of data may be linked. the last time we had this few sunspots in a solar maximum it was called the maunder minimum and during this time was something called the little ice age. could be interesting. i know people like toe yell about their carbon footprint and all this shit, but climate change may be happening in the whole solar system. its a fact jack.

check out some of these pictures. meditate on them a bit. see what you think.

one of my fellow political activists has been demonstrating recently because "[he] know[s] for a fact that it is the policy of [us district court of manhattan] to instruct the jurors that they must uphold the law as the judge gives it to them."

he has been passing out FIJA literature at the US District Court of Manhattan. he recently did this again on monday the 26th. here is how it went.

FIJA DEMONSTRATION OF 10/26/09

I arrived at he U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan at 11:45 am on Monday, October 26, 2009. The weather was perfect: about 60*F and sunny. I stood in the middle of the plaza in front of the courthouse.

I started to pass out the FIJA pamphlet entitled “A Primer for Prospective Jurors” along with my handout (see below). Immediately the three Department of Homeland Security Officers of last week approached me and told me that I could not pass out that material. I informed them that I could. They said that I could not and that I had quoted the wrong law in my e-mail distribution of last week. They had checked the FBI records to find my identity and accessed my web page. They said that if I distributed the FIJA pamphlets, I would be put under arrest.

I asked for the statute that they use. They said 41 CFR Sec 102–74.415(c). I asked them to identify themselves and they did. The officer in charge was C. Barnes #245. The other two were Wong #213 and Roomnd #234. They work for the Federal Protection Service of he Department of Homeland Security.

I started to distribute a pamphlet, but they seized it and my sign which read JURY INFO and placed me under arrest. I fell to the ground and remained motionless for several minutes. Nothing happened, so I got up and started to distribute literature again. They had called the ambulance. They and the ambulance personnel approached me and I read to them the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution. I asked them what part of “Congress shall make no law” they did not understand. They said that I should take it up with the judge. They were arresting me under the rule that they had stated.

I started to pass out literature again, but they seized all of my pamphlets and placed me under arrest again. I fell to the ground. Officer C. Barnes #245 gave me two citations, one for Unlawful Distribution of Fliers on Federal Property 410 CFR, sub C Section 102–74.415(c) and one for Impeding/Opposing Federal Officer, 18 U.S.C. §111(A). Officer C. Barnes also gave me a property receipt for my two signs and the pamphlets that they had seized.

I was placed on a gurney and put in the ambulance. I was taken to Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital. I did not talk to any of the personnel, including the psychiatrist. They left me alone for awhile. The police left. After awhile the psychiatrist returned and read a copy of my flyer. His comment was that this was a free speech case and he agreed with me. He ordered that I be discharged.

I was fed lunch and after some paper work was released at 3:10 pm.

Below are the citations that were given. 18 U.S.C §111(a) deals with forcible resistance. It does not apply to me. I used no force whatever. Title 41 C.F.R. §102 is not a law. It is a regulation that applies only to employees of the GSA, not to the public. Failure to comply with those provisions is a violation of these regulations. Big deal. It is not a violation of law. The GSA cannot make laws. Only Congress can do that.

he will be doing the same thing on monday Nov. 2 if anyone is interested in going. derek demarco was at the one on monday and had this to say.

I showed up a little late, at 12:10, and Julian was already limp on the ground and I started to shoot video. I was approached and questioned by several officials and was told I cannot shooot video on ferderal property. I was questioned further and asked what information I knew about the "unnamed" man laying on the ground. I procceeded to answer their questions with vauge answers and avoided naming Julian. I told them i heard about a jury nullification protest and voluniteer to video and be a witness to this protest. I was asked to show my ID, which i did, and they vertified I was no threat and was asked to leave, my battery died after about 7 minutes anfter i arrived and I left. What should I do with the video? I created a youtube account to post this video, but iI don't want to post it until I hear from Julian.

One of the eleven American soldiers who died in yesterday's helicopter crashes was a good friend during the five years that I spent in Boston. Thinking about anyone from that period of my life being dead is difficult. Hell, most times I feel like that portion of my life is still the current portion of my life.

I'd recently snapped a photo of the house that he lived in for four years, along with many of my other good friends, on a trip to Boston. When I posted it on Facebook it became a bit of an online reunion hub, with thinly veiled references posted by many about the debauchery that went on there. We half-heartedly talked about renting it out for the weekend and recreating a typical day there just for the hell of it. It probably never would have been the same had we actually done it, but now is there no question that it could never, ever be the same.

This article from TechCrunch says everything that I've been thinking about mobile platforms since leaving CES last year. An environment in which RIM, Apple, Android, Palm, Symbian, and WinMo all exist together is too dysfunctional and can't be sustained forever. Fast-forward 6-8 years and I think you'll find this being a two, maybe three cart race in the US, with Apple and Android leading the pack. Quick reasoning?

- Does anyone even care about WinMo 7.0 anymore? I can't think of anyone who does this mobile thing more back asswards.
- RIM's heyday is over; their hardware is uninspiring (and in the case of the Storm straight-up terrible) and the "we do corporate email" well thing will lose its luster eventually.
- Symbian... hrmm, do you know anyone that has a Nokia phone in the US? Didn't think so.
- Palm is cute, and might find a niche as the cuddly third place platform for awhile, but as much as I'd like to root for them and think the Pre is a great device, I just don't seem them being able to fight back. They might be able to hang on the longest, but as mobile application development continues to become a major industry, the need to consolidate will eventually win out, and with that WebOS will disappear.

Good/bad. PC/MAC. Republican/Democrat. The world has a tendency to narrow ideologies down to as few alternatives as possible. I see mobile platforms going the same way.
--

Also, I want the 16-Bit Genesis one very badly.

Ga-damn it feels good to be strapped to the back of a beast.

The Get Up Kids and Braid, 3.1.98 vs. 10.21.09

Bob Nanna and Damon Atkinson of Braid and Hey Mercedes apparently have a new band called Certain People I Know that has posted four tunes up on their website. Only listened to the first one so far. It sounds very Hey Mercedesish to me, which is a-ok by me. Get listenin'.

I found newsmap the other day and think it's a pretty cool way to browse news. When I envisioned the newspaper of the future back when the intarnetz was young, it certainly looked more like newsmap than it did CNN.com, or even Google News, for that matter. While I like iGoogle for making some sense out of all of the stuff that I care about each day, I find that its limited to the amount of screen real-estate available, and that because I have to make choices about what information I want to see, I generally end up only seeing the stuff that I'd probably find trapsing around the web anyway. I like that newsmap displays news in a way that the world seems to be caring about. Combine it with the likes of Digg and Reddit, and you're able to dive into a lot of shit that's happening without having to, umm, trapse.

Yankees in 6.

Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12.2 MP Digital SLR ordered. Got it for $560 with employee discount. Psyched to take some ga-damn photos.

Baseball fan sites are generally pretty terrible. This one is no different, but it does contain the video of Mariano Rivera's alleged spitball. I watched the video twice, and I'm pretty sure there's nothing to it at all.

Owen's New Leaves showed up at my office today, which is exciting. Polyvinyl ships media mail. I'll forgive them for that. It's pretty much impossible to make any money off of vinyl since the price increase as it is. The good thing about waiting for something to ship is that I've usually forgotten ordering it by the time it arrives. I enjoy intentionally setting myself up for sorta-surprises. I also enjoy "Good Friends, Bad Habits", the best song from the album, as well as the accompanying video. Although that Wilde and Hemingway line is pretty cringe-inducing.

Machinarium looks beautiful. At first glance it looks like a playable version of the first half of Wall-E, although I'm sure it's not like that at all. I peeped the forums for the game and the creators sound like nice, humble guys. I'm not sure my PC is powerful enough to play any games other than Solitaire, but I'd like to give it a try at some point.

I wish I could have been able to easily click-thru to finish the rest of the article that Paul posted yesterday.

Yankee game starts at 4:17.. or 13, or some other weird time today. Safe to say that my mind will be checking out around then, and my body will be angled to the LCD screen that's about 25 feet to my right from there until packing up for the day.

Yo, Falcon. I'm really happy for you, and imma let you finish... but Anne Frank was the best kid hiding in an attic of all time!

Sonuvabitch. I basically picked PRX out of thin air based on its industry and its beta, and Barclays goes and upgrades the motherfucker a few days after I buy. Nice.

Taken from the iPhone Saturday night in Bristol, RI. Skies are always awesome this time of year:





Click-click.

Amazon has a Buy 2 Get 1 Free video game promo going on until Saturday, the 17th. Not a terrible selection at all...

I was jolted awake by an idiotic dream this morning around 4:15AM. Unfortunately I was unable to fall back asleep, so I headed upstairs to research electronic drum applications (decided on EZDrummer). Then I watched Baseball Tonight (kinda dull since there are no games until Thursday.. I mean, there was a segment on Curt Schilling when he was with the Phillies) and Sports Center, which had too much college football coveragefor my taste. Once the sun came up I headed to the gym and listened to loud music. I’m a little groggy now, but so far, it’s been a pretty good morning.

My idiotic dream involved a friend of mine telling me that he had Trent Reznor’s phone number, and that I should call him. He was saying that they were talking about my new songs and that Trent wanted to hear them. So I called. And Trent was mean… like “why the hell are you bothering me?” mean. I didn’t really know why I was bothering him, other than the fact that my friend had told me to call him, so I didn’t have much to say. When I woke up, I couldn’t stop going through all of the ways I should have approached the phone call but didn’t. I really just wanted to go back to sleep, though. At least the Trent Reznor thing reminded me what I’ve wanted to learn digital drum software for awhile.

Have an Aggregrate Economics midterm tomorrow night that I’m medium-stressing about. Professor is a bit whacky… he emailed last semester’s exam to us to use while studying and closed it with the following: “I would give you the answers, but they are too hard for me.”

Super.

Birds of a feather...

Now for something that’s not stupid bands and stupid video games. I’ve started day trading a little bit of stock. Backstory:

When you’re negotiating an initial salary or a raise at my current job the powers that be will always heavily harp on stock awards being the most fruitful part of your compensation. It was tough for me to get comfortable with at first. I was used to the standard “paycheck comes twice-per-month and by the end of the year we’ll have paid you your entire salary” thing. The occasional bonus was always nice, but it was never guaranteed (well, it sorta was when I was in investment banking, but we all know the problems that those practices have caused in the last 15 months …). Anyway, you get a whole fuck-ton of shares, which sounds great, but you don’t get them all at once. There’s a schedule. Each “award” you get is on a different schedule. When I was first hired, I got a schedule of 10% the first year, 15% the second year, and 75% the third year. When I got my first bonus I got a new award that was 50/50 over two years. When we got purchased by a large company I got a new award that was 33/33/33 over three years. I got another award last year that was 20/20/60. It’s a little bit confusing, but ultimately pretty cool to get an email every once in awhile that a whole bunch of stock was available for you to do whatever you wanted with. The effect of this kinda sucked at the beginning, because it generally came at the expense of a better salary and the awards weren't super substantial at the beginning. But now that they're becoming more significant, it’s great. I’ve essentially pretended that this stuff didn’t exist for awhile, and have learned how to live on the budget that my salary alone pays me. Now it’s like I have this whole other thing that makes me feel good about not saving as much as I would’ve liked to over the last few years.

Lots of boring details, I guess. But I’m in a place now in which I have this stock in a Schwab account with some cizash in it, don’t really need the money for anything, know enough about portfolio management to know that I need to diversify it, and have a little bit of free time at work. I’ve started small with some buys of GE and PRX, and am going to see how that goes before diving in much more. But it’s sort-of exciting. You know, like gambling is. I’d like to get to a place where I have long positions in about 30 companies, with a little extra cash to fuck around with some short stuff. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll put what’s left in a Bodog account and start betting on Football. My picks is naztee when there’s no real money on the line.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's Higher Than the Stars showed up at work this morning, which is great because I'd forgotten ordering it in the first place. I've been listening to it pretty regularly since I snagged a downloadable copy a few weeks back and think it's an awesome accompaniment to the self-titled and makes me super psyched for the follow-up, even if that's a bit pre-mature.

Doh, looks like blogger's been misinterpreting the links in my posts when I copy/paste them from outlook. I've fixed the last few posts and it shouldn't happen anymore.

I’ve been married for one year to the day. Hard to reflect back on much as it’s gone incredibly quickly. Having lived together for two years before being married, and having gone through a lot of the crap that other couples go through even before that, I’d say that Year 1 was pretty damn smooth. To reward ourselves for being awesome we’ll be picking up the Canon Digital Rebel XSi just in time for our early-November trip out to LA, Santa Barbara, and Paso Robles. Anniversaries rule!

Tracks 1 and 2 off of A Place to Bury Strangers’ Exploding Head are pretty bad ass. I’ve had the rest of it on in the background this morning and haven’t been as impressed, but it’s great to hear folks making this kind of music still. They’re a bit too influences-on-sleeve to be truly great, and they wouldn’t be the first ones to do that in 2009, but it’s still enjoyable.

Beneath a Steel Sky for iPhone seems interesting, but mostly just fuels my desire to have the old 90s Sierra games officially ported to the iPhone. Lucas Arts has already done it with Monkey Island… get with it Activision! For better or worse, there are few memories from my childhood that I remember as fondly as spending hours with games like King’s Quest and Space Quest. And while I’ve replayed them via the Collection re-issues a few years back, I’d absolutely love to be able to have them in my pocket. I can’t think of a better way to spend time at the airport than hitting up Daventry for a little King’s Quest 6 action.

Speaking of iPhone games, I’ve been playing a lot of Peggle lately, and I’ve really enjoyed it. Well worth the $5 price tag. It’s super addictive, and really easy to pick up and play when you have a few extra minutes. Not so easy to put down, though.

So, people still make music videos, apparently. That’s neat, although I must admit that my first two thoughts upon watching the new Modest Mouse video for “Whale Song” were “Man, Isaac sure has gotten larger than I remember him being” and “Where the hell is Johnny Marr?” Petty stuff. My less petty side thinks that it’s a cool video for a song that is super awkward to listen to, by design. It’s guitar parts like that that make Pandora liken Modest Mouse to bands like Les Savy Fav and Cursive, although most listeners that aren’t computers would probably not agree with the comparison.

Two of my favorite bands that happen to be on major labels (the same label, in fact) have new releases spaced out by a few days from each other, Built to Spill and the Flaming Lips. After a few days of listening, I declare BTS’ There is No Enemy to be wonderful. I’ve been describing it as the album that should have followed up Keep It Like a Secret for a few days now, and stick by that assessment. Ancient Melodies of the Future was fine enough, I guess, and Secret would be tough for anyone to follow-up… but I’m fairly confident that over-time this will be the 00s BTS album that I pick more than any other. The other album, the Lips’, Embryonic, is insane. F’real. Blips, noises, weird samples. Not Kid-A shit, though. These songs sound even less like songs than those did. It sounds more like the soundtrack to the sequel to Christmas on Mars than it does a new record. But that said, I think I like it. I’m just not sure I’ve found the appropriate time and place to listen to it yet. (too distracting for work, too jarring for relaxing at home, too polarizing to listen to with someone else, too disorienting for the gym). The next time I take a solitary car ride at night should be ideal. Wayne Coyne talks a little bit about the record here, and essentially confirms that its creation was appropriately as weird as you’d guess upon listening to it.

”Expert Herder” by Lemuria is probably the best song you’ve heard this year. And if you’re not listening to Lemuria yet, they’re probably the best band you’ve heard in the last three years. And also, get fucking with it, man! Alex Kearns from Lemuria put up some demos of his solo stuff here, which is pretty damn good, too. I don’t think it’ll sell you on Lemuria, but if you’re clamoring for more, it might help you get through. Goddamn is that dude’s voice amazing.

One cup of rich hot chocolate. About 2 oz. of steamed skim milk. One shot of espresso. And one extremely loud listen through of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Automatic. I’m good to go this morning. Now that I’ve made the official transition from cold, caffeinated morning drinks to warm ones I’m ready to fully accept the end of summer and embrace the fall. I’ve got a thermal shirt on today. It’s comfortable, and I’d like to think that it’s happy to see me after 5 months of neglect. We’re friends again, and that means that the sweaters are soon to follow. I’m sure they’ve missed me, too.

I’d like to talk about the caffeinated beverages thing for a moment, though – not because there’s much of a point to it, but because I just glanced over at my office’s setup and thought to myself, “you are super fucking spoiled”. We have a great selection of beverages here at the office to choose from. We have a Starbucks machine that brews up two different blends and the aforementioned rich hot chocolate. We have a pod maker and a selection of at least 12 different blends, not including teas. We have a fridge filled with all kinds of fizzy drinks, both caffeinated and uncaffeinated. Orange Juice. Apple Juice. Milk. And then we have the espresso maker. She is my baby. I pet her softly and whisper sweet nothings into her ear as she brews me up delicious espresso every morning. We’ve had a rather large influx of new employees lately, and I’ve become the resident teacher on how to properly use it. Since I’m sort-of in between projects at work right now, I guess it’s better to be known as the guy who knows how to make a kick-ass cappuccino than the guy who wants to hook up the Wiis that we have for a lil’ afternoon bowling match, right? (oh yeah, I’m that guy, too). It’s cool, though. My period of calm here at work is only temporary and I’ve been informed that a rip-roaring project is coming my way in about two weeks.

I’ll make no mention of chiming in with a new blog post like I’d never stopped blogging in the first place. I’m missing something lately (I’d guessed it was a modern video game console that wasn’t the Wii, no time to read fiction like I used to, and the inability to loudly write songs in my super-quiet apartment building). But maybe it’s this.

Someone in my Marketing Communications class last night had a SlingBox stream for the Yankees game playing on his laptop. He was kind enough to turn his machine towards me, which pretty much meant that I got absolutely nothing out of the lecture. I used to take school very seriously, but lately I don’t care all that much. I’m just over two years removed from embarking down the MBA path, and with still over a year left, I’m just completely bored with it. I show up. Half-heartedly do my homework. Roll my eyes at my idiotic classmates. And occasionally buy the text book three days before the midterm. But that’s about all I’m giving these days. Le sigh.

I’ve been reading lots of Brendan Kelly’s Bad Sandwich Chronicles lately. It’s a shame I took a break from it for awhile, he’s hilarious.

Let’s do this again sometime.

10 years ago today I called in sick to work, headed to Electronics Boutique, and stood in line to pay the $180 balance of my Dreamcast pre-order. I’d also pre-ordered Soul Calibur, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, Sonic Adventure, and NFL 2K. I tacked on an extra joystick and two VMUs. I think the whole shi-bang cost about $600, which at the time was the most money that I’d ever spent at once. For whatever reason, 9.9.99 is one of the most memorable days of the last 10 years, which is strange because roughly ten million things have happened that should be more memorable since.

congratulations in.circles on reaching post 666. numerologists eat my heart out.

i do not know about you peeps. but i am finding it really hard to be enthusiastic about anything anymore. there is a heavy sense of spiritual dread and physical malaise. no motivation. i guess i have always felt like that. it is only recently i am keen to the impressions this world had on my beings. bee boo bop fiddly tiddly dop titties in a nickel cop.well i guess consumption is always an option. i mean, maybe not, cause you do not really have a choice in that matter. basically your choice is what you will consume, but you will consume fat batty, their lives depend on it.

unfortunate because the harvest has come in the uk. the cereal crops are machined and ready to be processed. this means the end of the crop circle season. something i have been looking at recently. i have been told by someone who lives and visits the area that this is something done by very sneaky individuals. two doods, doug and dave. mates. they go to a pub nearby wiltshire. personally i think doug and dave are not capable of doing some of the things i have seen this season. in the uk there has been roughly 70 formations. all presumed to be done at night. and no one has never seen hide nor hair of doug and dave. and there are people over there who take crop circles very seriously. staying up observing fields and setting up cameras. not a wink of one of these chaps.

i seen signs in my folks dvd collection. so because of the wonder and energy i put into the fuckers i watched the entirety of it. the only thing i really enjoyed was thinking about river phoenix's name. because you see joaquin is in this shit and he has some interesting lines.

Morgan, this crop stuff is just about a bunch of nerds who never had a girlfriend their whole lives. They're like thirty now. They make up secret codes and analyze Greek mythology and make secret societies where other guys who never had girlfriends can join in. They do stupid crap like this to feel special. It's a scam. Nerds were doin' it twenty five years ago and new nerds are doing it again.

alright so that is one line. but i enjoyed it more than i enjoyed the movie. unusual name, river phoenix. two very heavy words. m night shamalyan is kind of odd. this movie was very low budget low rent. hard acting. rough. i would be curious to see village or lady in the lake. my curiosity is piqued. but i am not expecting much.

nuts on nuts. how bout music. going to see battles. couple of weeks from now in sept. peeps should go. other than that how many times can you listen to lady gaga. what are you freaks listening to these days? where is the talent and inspiration. this is it, we are at our worst. no one can channel this pain behind their eyes into something for my aural consumption? dur hurrr.

I'm buying the fuck out of this if I win my $450 Fantasy Baseball league this year.

Rage and Final Fantasy XIII will make it worth the price of admission alone!

All I’m saying is that New Jersey is emblematic of a culture that’s given up on progression. Historical or cultural or technological. We’re cannibalizing the 20th century, the last time it looked like we might mean shit.