I've been slowly making my way through this list of the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business for 2006, which has been pretty entertaining during scattered spare moments. In addition to some hilarious blunders, there's six appearances by Wal-Mart on the list, a case of two different groups of Microsoft Employees naming completely different products the same, and an appearance by my former sworn enemy Bob Nardelli, from back in my GE days.

Everything is else is pretty much rollin'. Time with the lady. Some rock-n-roll. Lots of work at work.. but good work, which I'm cool with.

On the near horizon: going back to the gym, signing up to take and preparing for the GMATs, and reading more than I have since my commute went from an hour and half to eight minutes. Bigger things beyond. --

And The Saints prevail! It was enjoyable watching the Eagles/Saints game in South Jersey last weekend. The bar Marissa and I were in was split about 50/50 amongst Eagles lovers and loathers, so watching the happiness drain from the faces of the Philadelphia faithful in (arguably) their own territory was priceless. This is less priceless, but still a little bit funny in that humor-blog kind of way.

Last weekend provided some much needed relaxation. Marissa and I took it easy on Friday night... casual dinner with the recently married Paul and Christy followed up with viewings of Season 2 The Office episodes and an early bedtime. On Saturday we finished building the furniture for my new entertainment center and then headed down to my aunt's shore house in Seaside Park, NJ. We always try to get down there a few times during the off-season. No cell phone service, no one around.. it' s a nice way to really relax for a few days. Aside from the supermarket, Klee's for some football and bar food, and one trek under and over the boardwalk we just spent our time cooking food, watching cheesy TV, and drifting in and out of sleep. Some pics:

Jersey Stinks. Oh well. Looks like I'm going to have a hard time blaming foul Jersey odors on Staten Island for awhile.

I know I wasn't imagining things because Marissa heard it, too... but no one else I've talked to noticed one of the announcer's of the Giants/Eagles game on Sunday noting in the fourth quarter that if the Giants were going to win they'd have to play "balls out". It was quite possibly the best thing that happened in either horrid NY football game this weekend. Yuck. Let's go Saints!

Ron & Fez are back on regular radio (92.3 Free FM, 6-9pm), which is pretty cool. Somewhere on the Free FM site exists podcasts of past shows... but I can't seem to find the link at the moment. It's hands down the most entertaining thing I've ever heard on the radio. I haven't listened to music in my car for quite some time.. lately it's been all talk via my iPod or the old fashioned FM air waves. I remember driving around with my father when I was younger and being completely bored by him listening to talk all day (Imus, Mike & the Mad Dog).. but with more or less no new music that I'm interested in these days, it seems to be the only way to keep me occupied while driving. Maybe I'm getting old. --

"One day man will connect his apparatus to the very wheelwork of the universe... and the very forces that motivate the planets in their orbits and cause them to rotate will rotate his own machinery" -tesla

simon norfolk

I figured that switching over to the new Blogger might respark my interest in writing on this thing.. but as far as I can tell right now there's not a whole lot of differences, other than the fact that I'm now logging in through Google. Truth be told, I didn't even know that Google purchased Blogger, so shame on me for not being up on things.

It's been awhile. How are we? Good? Good. Christmas / New Years were both excellent. The former was spent down here in good ole Wayne, NJ and the latter up in Marissa's neck of the woods in Mass. Both allowed me a lot of great food, company, and relaxation. I was hoping to walk back into work this morning completely refreshed, but I've unfortunately come down with my first cold of the winter and it's hitting me pretty hard. If I had felt like this at my old job I definitely would've spent the day at home.. but since I'm trying to be a dedicated professional here at new job central, I'm going to suck it up. I can't imagine that starting off the first day of the year with a sick day is a good thing, anyway.

So, we've got both New York football teams in the playoffs this weekend. It's an all east coast brawl and I'm excited for both games. I don't mind the Patriots at all, in fact when I'm not watching NY football I always seek out the Pats, but seeing Big Boy Bell getting his ass handed to him by his former protege Mangini would make for a great story and a nice new reason to bicker with my New England born friends. The Giants have disappointed me (and everyone) so much this season that I honestly have a hard time caring about them winning... but my hate for all things Philadelphia is stronger than those apathetic feelings, so let's hope Eli turns into a big boy and Tiki gives us another performance worth remembering. --

lol, limewire

SNL has never been funny, ever. Argue all you want, it's 90% shite. ok, here's 5% funny.

Did you donate to Child's Play yet? If not, DO IT. Those guys do great things and have kept me entertained for more years than I've ever been entertained by anything. --

Probable song cover: Unicorn

Bob Ross, the video game

I feel like sometimes we should ask more scientists what they think of things. Little fucking cuties.

I'm encouraged to listen to my iPod at my new job, which is pretty sweet. Definitely one of a few pretty great perks of working for a Web 2.0 company / company whose well-being rides on portable audio. I have a hard time listening to most music at work lately because it's sort of distracting.. but the new Califone album has been a huge exception. It's the perfect soundtrack for background listening. There are quite a few parts that are so awesome that they do distract me... but that's a good thing, I think. ***

Here's my top whatever of 2006, in no order:

* Beezewax - Who to Salute
* Beezewax - Music to the Life of the Late Olivia Mordecai
* Jon Auer - In The Year of Our Demise
* Maritime - We, the Vehicles
* Appleseed Cast - Peregrine
* Mogwai - Mr. Beast
* Lemonheads - s/t
* Califone - Roots & Crowns
* Tattle Tales - Hearts in Tune
* Islands - Return to the Sea
* Thermals - the Body, the Blood, the Machine
* Steinways - Missed the Boat
* Portastatic - Be Still Please
* AV Club - s/t --

I think there's a few I missed, if I remember 'em I'll update the list.

here are some sky pictures of note, all have been hit liberally with gimp's unsharp mask feature.

a
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ayeeeee

find ourselves a new place to haunt.

so three planets were recently visible in the dawn sky. jupiter, mercury and mars. i found that out by stumbling across this site. after reading through most of the archives and clicking around pretty much everywhere i have discovered that i am fully devoted to plasma physics research.

what started it all was a curiosity piqued by this nasty bastard. weatherman turned paranoid by observing unusual variations in what he thought he understood. bitter by the reluctance of anyone else in his field to make a comment. currently sitting on a wealth of information dangerously technical for approachable awareness. and of course his influence has spread.

so through known manipulation of the ionosphere a gaggle of different outlets here on earth are toying with forces until now only ignored. we are indeed entering a new era.

so plasma physics concerns our atmosphere and most of the material sustaining our universe. nothing big. for me, it's largely the effect of the sun on these physices that hold my interest. solar wind caused by coronal ejections send particles careening towards earth at high speeds (millions of miles an hour) only to be deflected by our magnetosphere. this activity is responsible for causing simultaneous and matching auroras at the north and south poles. recently, during a period of solar minimum, we have had a significant amount of activity. specifically sunspot 930. attentive to this hole, spaceweather.com notes

"One week ago today, sunspot 930 unleashed an X9-class solar flare--one of the strongest flares in years...The sunspot's tangled magnetic field still harbors energy for X-flares"

if you click on that link for strongest flares, it will take you to a list of the 20 strongest x-class flares since there has been equipment to measure such a thing ('80?). the one we experienced on the 5th of december is #15. not too shabby. what does this mean? i do not know. it means lucky bastards near the poles get some enjoyment.

edit: i cant give you enough links. an article on this recent flare and a video of japan's hinode.

jumpin at shadows.

how we doing today? i pass VLA's near every day. this one happens to be off of astropix. for the unfamiliar, it is a daily astronomy related picture website. i tend to go as often as i can. oh, a VLA is a very large array. array of satellites. the ones i happen across are in vernon, nj. and their purpose is for all manner of things, i assume. i saw some big fuckers in alaska, when i went. still paying for that. but yeah, this astropix brought something to my attention the other day. yesterday. yesterdays astropix really got my attention. it was a vid of the surface of the sun taken by the japanese hinode satellite. im pretty much in love with soho, its in my bookmarks under blogs. but soho is aging, and nasa runs all sorts of blurs over the photos, because there is something they either dont want you to see, or they are being selfish with the higher resolution photos. either way, what you see on that site, and what the equipment is capable of, is a very large rift (capable and current). i wish i knew why. but you see this hinode business. when they posted this i wish they had a channel on tv i could just tune into. oh, you can find that video here, by the way.

im getting really into the sun. i get up early to see it come up on the horizon. i study what the changing light conditions do to the appearance of the clouds. i buy these powerful magnets and run hypotheticals and conditions on them. to me it does not get much better. magnets people, magnets. magnetosphere? i really dont know. but i have this video i borrowed from derek called solar max. what a ride this sucker is.

speaking of rides, or lack there of, i got to retry the fountain experience. to me, this is an enjoyable film, if only slightly. i just cant help but feeling there could be more. the story could have moved in a direction it did not. i left feeling just a little cheated, or something. maybe this is how i feel, maybe i feel that im on the level with the content here; to me, it is approachable. therefore there are things id like to think i know which are rich in lore and legend to take and pull this sucker up and over the top. there was too much cheese. these days a movie has to have some sort of romantic plot line. basically it has to have a plot line. maybe i felt a documentary would have suited this topic a little better?

its hard to grasp what im feeling. which is the reason i traded away two of the superstar names i was so in love with on my fantasy hockey team. todd bertuzzi and peter forsberg now belong to de best. i set up a condition i thought was fair and probably ended up ripping myself off. gotta look forward tho. and yall really dont care. do you care that every time a dry leaf blows in front of my car i think its a critter which results in me swerving all over the road and an elevated heart rate? it has happened so many times youd think id be over it. its happened repeated seasons. yet no matter what i take the bait and bite. speaking of sympathy for critters, i lost isaac yesterday. its kinda sad. i liked that bird. maybe ill catch up with you later, isaac.

so yeah, if youre looking for something new to listen to try out the gotan project, i got lunatico and i really like it.

This post-Q And Not U project seems intriguing. A little bit like the old Q, but with more palatable (male/female) vocals and a bit of 50s pop charm. Now that I'm on this post-Q kick I'm realizing that I never really gave Ris Paul Ric a chance. The two songs he has up on his myspace are pretty good...

Marissa and I almost went to see The Fountain on Friday. Well, it was slightly less than almost. Faced with a Friday night with nothing to do for the first time in what feels like (and probably was) months, we decided to use it to do just about nothing. Well, except for dinner and a movie... but, compared to the other stuff we've been doing lately it certainly seemed relaxing and nothing-like. Unfortunately our plan was ill-fated. I left my office (Wayne) at 7 o'clock to pick Marissa up (Jersey City) so that we could go to dinner (Montclair, about 3 miles from my starting point) and finally to the movies (Wayne, about 10 paces from my starting point). Although it was a sort of circular plan, the timing seemed reasonable. However, I've never once driven to Montclair coming from the east, and botched up what I remembered being a decent way to go. We didn't get our dinner on until 9:30, so we had to skip the movie. Fortunately it was a nice enough experience to make up for the fact that I'd blown our non-plans for the evening.

The few times we've had Italian food since visiting Italy, I've tried my best to recreate an order that similar to what we had over there.. but it's been tough. I think Friday night's was the best attempt yet, though. I'd forgotten the name over the weekend, but the internet helped me remember that it was called Palazzo. Pretty sure it was the best wine I'd ever tasted. ***

I remain mentally obsessed with Final Fantasy 12 but also without enough time to play it. Having Final Fantasy 3 DS in my pocket is nice... but doesn't quite satisfy the hunger that I have. I'm 15 hours in and feel like I just barely started. These games certainly have a way of skewing what I envision as normal gaming... or well, normal living in general. ***

There's a new band. Pretty sure it's way better than the old band. But of the 5 people that read this, two of them besides me are in it... so not much to talk about there. ***

I'd like to have some of that wine about now. --

Football is a 'Gentlemans'' game, played by 'thugs', Rugby is a 'thugs'' game, played by 'Gentlemen'

mornin' everybody.

not really organized today. just eager to bump chris's posts further down the page. woo, mystery job.

seriously though chris, i wish you the best of luck and i hope you're very happy, sincerely. how bout that word, sincere. cant be too careful with that one.

ah but time lurches forward. amazing, cause i feel like i am the force pressing back against it. well, life is, not me specifically. culture and counterculture.

salman rushdie, shalimar the clown. this is a book im reading. its choc full of indian lore (dot not feather). im starting to notice that rushdie enjoys creating very explicit sexual scenes in his novels. i dont know how i feel about that but it does something weird to my body. my hormonal makeup. he also is very adept at playing with indian and english words. hidden meanings and striations. i dont know what else to say. all his books have a sense of the fantastic and a courtesy to the spirit. it takes my mind off matters which wrestle to bring me down.

i went and saw the fountain the other day. before i went i got loaded on mad elf and alprazolam. senses blunted, i stumbled into the theater. not hard to imagine i dont recall a single thing. kristen, whom i saw it with, was eager to discuss it prior. how embarrassing when i had to fake like i was cogent. isnt it about time we dropped that second R from embarrassing. id like to see it again. its a movie finally worth my time. no?

what else have i been up to? im trying to make it a habit to consume grapefruit on the regular. something hunter thompson did every morning. well, his morning was around noon sometime. i remember reading somewhere his philosophy on eating. breakfast is a huge meal with a pot of dark coffee and at least two grapefruits. also drugs. he conceded that the huge breakfast, coffee and grapefruit thing came from mahamud ali. i tend to think about hunter often. specifically being trapped in ones body, it rebelling against life. i get flashes of that feeling. sends me into a meditation on purpose and intent. then ideas of sacrifice and all these "holy" sayings and church thoughts step up and demand attention. if i had to i would.

the other day the phrase, time heals all wounds, up and lumbered into my sphere. im wont to sharing company with such forces, so we played. now its easy to see how this applies, very subtly, to things right in your face. but this word time. that there is expanse. and some wounds are very large. expanse. vast.

there is a larger picture here.

I know, I know. You don't read Pitchfork. And you totally got over the Decembrists.. like.. three records ago. But the Colber / Decemberists Green Screen Battle is kinda sweet, I think. **

Added to the iPod for Friday listening:

* I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends
* McLusky - McLusky Do Dallas
* Califone - Roots & Crowns
* Yesterday's Opie & Anthony show

**

Today at 7pm I looked up at the clock and realized I was still at work. I like liking my job. Still haven't gotten that elusive much-smaller-than-at-my-old-job paycheck I've been waiting for. But shit, I know I made the right choice. It feels nice. --