New Year's Eve! Uh... does that mean I'm supposed to go out or something? Just a night at home with the visiting cousins. Fun day out today, though. Ice skating, rock climbing (two firsts for me) and some pretty cool arcade NASCAR racing.

So now I sit, ringing in the '02 with a little bit of Matrix. Somebody hit me with some chat-luv. I might be around to answer.
posted by Gray at 11:40 PM | | link

I can't express in words now wrong this is. I really shouldn't link it, but, well, sometimes you just can't resist. NKOTB must be rolling in their graves.
posted by Gray at 2:19 AM | | link

I think you all need to click this link and watch a Korean Pizza Hut commercial. Now.
posted by Gray at 1:58 AM | | link

I am posting this from Windows XP. Not sure what I think of that... We'll see. It would help if I could actually see all of this new hard drive I just put in.
posted by Gray at 7:58 PM | | link

We just finished watching Untitled. I believe they made Almost Famous even better. A great movie to begin with... throw in a few more cool scenes that flesh out and explain a certain points, and it's even cooler.

A new favorite quote: "The only currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone when you’re uncool.”

Spoken by Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs. I think that's a pretty clever string of words. I guess I identify with it. I tend to hold trivial things in such high regard while others might think of them as something an adult shouldn't concern himself with. If you're not worried about the things that make you happiest, what ARE you spending all your time worrying about? "The Real World" and "Issues" -- I suppose I would be given these answers. Well... yes, those have to be addressed, but if you don't put some time and effort into finding the very best of what you enjoy -- if you just go along with the 'cool' stuff and accept the lowest common denominator -- well... you're just destined for a mediocre level of happiness, aren't you? Cool or not.

Uncool forever, yo.
posted by Gray at 1:06 AM | | link

Just keep reminding yourself, "I enjoy tweaking computer hardware...I ENJOY tweaking computer hardware..."

(it just gets old when things don't work the first time.)
posted by Gray at 5:31 PM | | link

Ocean's 11 has been viewed. The new one, that is. I watched the old one on TCM a couple of weeks ago. This one was much more entertaining, without a doubt. That Danny Ocean is one smoove mofo. Now I'm all hyped up to watch my brand new Out of Sight DVD. That Soderburgh does know how to make a cool movie.

Mmmmkay....time to take down the Christmas tree, it would appear.

Oh yeah... it's worth going back for a 2nd viewing of Monsters Inc. if you already saw it. The new stuff that runs during the closing credits is lots of fun.
posted by Gray at 7:52 PM | | link

The day after Christmas and no one wants to be on the talk shows. Conan has Al Roker, the usual fill-in. Both Craig and Conan have comedians on to wrap up the show... and this is not a bad thing. Not as many comedians on the talk shows lately, it seems... and as an added bonus, these two are actually funny.

[note: an hour or two elapsed here while I chatted with people and downloaded stuff]

I hope none of you use AOL or believe their commercials. AOL IS NOT THE INTERNET. It's so easy, no wonder you're suckers!
posted by Gray at 2:19 AM | | link

Look! K has revealed her blog to the world again!
posted by Gray at 8:52 PM | | link

NewsRadio must have been the best NBC sitcom ever. Phil Hartman, wacky fun and eyecandy in one neat little package.
posted by Gray at 6:31 PM | | link

Wow. This is too good to pass up. "Eat my shorts, man!"
posted by Gray at 4:34 PM | | link

I do not see how we will digest all the cheese that my sister and I just put in the mac & cheese pan. More details to follow...
posted by Gray at 4:24 PM | | link

It's 3am on Christmas morning, and it's suddenly hitting me that I'm pretty tired. A change of tradition for the first time...ever, I guess, in our home. We opened everything tonight... nothing saved for morning. Everyone seemed happy enough with that. It was okay by me. We'll have a nice day tomorrow with a bit more rest in the morning.

Why am I up later than the rest of the Whitten clan? Well I just had to finish putting together my Imperial Shuttle, didn't I? Thank you mom, for playing along with my yearly request for toys. It's a really cool set, by the way. I recommend it if you've got $30 and an hour to spend.

New movies, always a good thing. Pee-Wee, Out of Sight and Princess Bride. High quality all around. Ugh... stomach doesn't feel great. Maybe sleep isn't the worst idea in the world. Someone write me an email and tell me how your Christmas went, please.
posted by Gray at 3:19 AM | | link

Late night TV viewing...always fun. Oh look...it's Three's Company. It's the one where there's a MISUNDERSTANDING of some sort! HA!

Ugh...laugh track. If not for Suzanne Somers and the genius facial antics of Don Knotts, this would be intolerable.

...and what are YOU doing this evening?
posted by Gray at 2:31 AM | | link

Quite a late night out....and therefore, quite a late wake-up today. Later than I'd expected, but oh well...it was fun for all. Hard to go wrong when the evening starts out with an amazing meal of seafood prepared by a born-to-cook culinary genius/natural beauty from Veracruz. Mmmm....little shrimp.

Word up to our little multinational party posse, if anyone is reading this. And now...back to the video games.
posted by Gray at 3:05 PM | | link

24 :: Awww, tick tock and they don't stop! The show is still highly compelling and entertaining, in the opinion of this media magnet. Be sure to watch one of the three airings each week for your RDA of real-time goodness.
posted by Gray at 10:40 PM | | link

Fellowship Of The Rings = good movie. There are certainly several worthy choices at the theater right now, all vying for your valuable moviegoing dollars, but book one of the Lord of the Rings is going to be hard to beat. Of course, The Royal Tenenbaums opens today (at a mere ONE theater in Atlanta, it seems) so it will definitely have some competition for cool points there.

Despite all competition, however, Fellowship of the Rings is probably the most amazing fantasy film ever made. You just have to see it in person. The sprawling world -- teeming with life and motion -- will astound you, and the buttocks-rocking sound mix will make you feel as if you're in the middle(-Earth) of it all. Yes, this is a hearty recommendation from Gray. Two funky thumbs up.

Ash and I caught it at 10:30 last night, and the three hours flew by pretty speedily. Always a good sign when something joins HEAT in the group of "3 Hour movies that don't seem too long".
posted by Gray at 9:54 AM | | link

If any of you cats and kitties out there are feeling a bit weary in the Luv Department, perhaps you should pay a visit to Dan the Automator and get some Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By.
posted by Gray at 1:56 PM | | link

It's friggin' cold, Mr. Bigglesworth!
posted by Gray at 9:12 AM | | link

They were playing The Strokes on all the TVs in Target today. Still a cool band and all, but I doubt the early-adopter hipsters have quite so much to brag about they're getting played alongside of Pink and uh...let's just say Nickelback.
posted by Gray at 7:02 PM | | link

Well look-a-there... AdCritic has shut down. Not much money to be made from bleeding off a ton of bandwidth every day with no apparent means of profit? Huh...who knew? Time to update the sidebar links...
posted by Gray at 11:40 PM | | link

From the "Asking for Trouble" department... [ story ]
posted by Gray at 5:17 PM | | link

'We're not killing off floppy drives' - Intel :: [ story ]
posted by Gray at 4:56 PM | | link

Oh, and here's the picture of Mark and I flanking Dick Dale, The King of the Surf Guitar. That was a really great show.
posted by Gray at 4:27 PM | | link

As long as I draw breath, James Brown's Funky Christmas will get played in my house every year.
posted by Gray at 2:25 PM | | link

Webwords.
posted by Gray at 2:22 PM | | link

Obviously we've all had the wool pulled over our eyes. [ 9-11 conspiracy theories / facts ]
posted by Gray at 2:16 PM | | link

Go Harold! Nice story.
posted by Gray at 1:48 PM | | link

Saw a girl outside the gym tonight talking on a light-up phone. When I say "light-up phone", I don't just mean that the LCD screen was glowing yellow... No... The body of the phone was going off like a strobe light. As if someone had stolen the lightbar off the top of a Louisiana highway patrolman and turned Rick Moranis loose on it for some wacky shrunken hijinks...and that somehow became attached to this young lady's phone. THAT kind of light-up phone...apparently going off during the entire conversation.

The point of the story being, she looked really silly. Don't buy a light-up phone, folks.
posted by Gray at 9:56 PM | | link

I need some GO POWER! (at Christmastime)

(can you tell everyone to get it on IN there?)
posted by Gray at 11:19 AM | | link

Heh... It's good to see that a few people were thinking ahead back in 1985. [ googlelink ]
posted by Gray at 11:08 AM | | link

Oops...almost forgot. Here ya go, Sophie.
posted by Gray at 5:16 PM | | link

Well, the cool list of Friends at left continues to dwindle. Emily and K have deleted their blog-like things. Just use your imagination and play along with their stories in your heads from now on. Or go buy some cookies.

...and Jordan got to see The Royal Tenenbaums yesterday, the lucky bastid.
posted by Gray at 3:45 PM | | link

Playing Bjork in honor of K's aurally painful working conditions down in Austin this morning. Word to my peeps, yo. Whoot whoot!
posted by Gray at 11:54 AM | | link

The television's incessant inquiry as to whether or not I am 'READY FOR A COLD ONE?' makes me all the more certain that I am NOT, nor shall I ever be, 'READY FOR A COLD COORS LIGHT!' I don't care if it WAS a key plot device of Smokey & The Bandit, they're not getting my money.

Funniest moment of the evening: The Tick listing off a series of villains, one of which was named "The A-Hole".
Most awkward TV moment of the evening: Watching the inventor of "IT" insist on holding Russell Crowe and Sting by the elbow as they try out his new toy. He seems to be quite the little worrywart. The guys were having a good time, though.
posted by Gray at 12:35 AM | | link

Live rendition of "Retablo" loops nicely...exxxcellent... It's been too long since my last dose of Ian Moore. When will someone tell me what the Spanish part in this song says? I mean, I know some of that language, and I can't make heads or tails of it. I guess you're supposed to pay attention to words in songs or something? I'll have to look into that later.

Note to self: don't forget to go to free movie next week.

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a giant TV?
posted by Gray at 10:53 PM | | link

Dang...the Snorcomments deal is officially dead, as you can see by clicking the 'comments' link below. Why can't anything free and useful last more than a month? On a brighter note, I ordered a snazzy set of PC speakers for really cheap. Now my command chair will be even more all-powerful! *grunt*
posted by Gray at 3:15 PM | | link

Hockey game tonight. Free Thrashers tickets are always fun. Thanks to Shooy-ler and his connections, he, Marc, Tor and I got to freeload like celebrities a little bit. We didn't win, but it was a tie game with overtime. 3-3 is a lot more interesting than 1-0 or 0-0. Anyway, good time for all. Note to self: Philips Arena hot dogs = WORST HOT DOG EVER EATEN.... and it was about $5.00 -- something's not right here. At least my Sprite didn't have any poison in it as far as I could tell.

I think I need to do other things now. Oh, and I note that ANOTHER commenting system seems to have bitten the dust. We'll give this one a few days to work as well, then remove it if there's no solution.
posted by Gray at 12:18 AM | | link

Google seems to have a cached copy of a favorable review of Ash's 'Something Wicked' from the Commercial Appeal.

Random, yes, but she's my sister...siblings have to promote each other whenever possible.
posted by Gray at 2:48 PM | | link

Oh how I love the USENET. They've done something very cool over at Google Groups. 20 years' worth, baby!
posted by Gray at 10:19 PM | | link

Q : What has the potential to sap all of my free time next year?
A : Star Wars Galaxies

This is a game similar to Everquest, but based in the Star Wars universe. It sounds neato-keeno, and although I've avoided this type of game so far, I am interested in trying this one. It's the geek in me.

Geek in me...I say that as if there's a tiny sliver of geekiness hiding inside Biff Tannen or something. Not so. I'm pretty much geek to the bone. Not that there's anything wrong with that. *geek pride*
posted by Gray at 5:53 PM | | link

Alrighty...thanks to the kind proprietor of SnorComments, you may now again leave words for me to read. Please. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
posted by Gray at 4:03 PM | | link

The Lodge makes one fine breakfast burrito. And a good bigass biscuit. Recommended!
posted by Gray at 1:32 PM | | link

Rain, rain, go away. Come again, but don't fall on Gray.

Thank you folks. I'll be here all week. Be sure to tip your waitstaff.

np: "Selling Jesus" - Skunk Anansie
posted by Gray at 11:02 AM | | link

Did I mention that I'm now one of those people who only goes to church on Easter and Christmas? That would seem to be the case. I would never have predicted it.

Well, at least I'm not out knocking over banks or shooting endangered tigers or anything. I'm not a full-fledged pagan -- just a somewhat lazy boy (and I ain't talkin' chairs, baby).
posted by Gray at 10:38 PM | | link

Jordan made a movie. Check it out.
posted by Gray at 10:31 PM | | link

Well, so much for the RE:blogger. It never fixed itself, so I yoinked it.

I got my church on tonight with my mom and some friends of the family. The annual Christmas musicfest at Johns Creek. A really odd first half full of secular favorites featuring the always humorous feature, "150 white Southern Baptists trying to sway in rhythm". I enjoyed the more traditional orchestral segment much more...except for the mandatory soprano. Why must there always be a soprano? Always?

Oh, and there were dancing girls.

Hmm...okay, so one of the 4 girls from the GAP spot gets her own commercial. When do I get a full 15 second spot of just Sheryl or Liz? Thee weemen! Geev them to me!

And in closing, ALIAS RULES TONIGHT.
posted by Gray at 9:40 PM | | link

Fitty Dolla Dreamcast + Cable Modem + shady FTP sites = INSTANT FUN. Man, Capcom vs. SNK 2 is one high-powered 2D fighter. I am enjoying it immensely. With that in mind, I should probably purchase the game. Perhaps someday. For now, I'm too close to poor for that kind of luxury. Anyway, if you have the opportunity, it is great fun to pit Haohmaru of Samurai Showdown fame against the een-famous Ken and/or Ryu of Street Fighter 2.
posted by Gray at 4:46 PM | | link

A new trailer from Mr. Spielberg. Cool.
posted by Gray at 10:49 AM | | link

Paul and the band are playing a TOOL song on Letterman. Weird.

...and really, how many times a day do I have to hear the Nickelback song? HOW MANY? Decent pop rock song, sure, fine, okay...but GIVE ME RESPITE!


friggin' uncreative music directors.
posted by Gray at 12:00 AM | | link

Oh BABY... Star Wars in ASCII. Someone's been readin' my mind!
posted by Gray at 9:24 AM | | link

The RE:blog comment system seems to be busted at the moment. I am assuming that's the reason for the minor javascript errors on this page. I'll give it a day or so to see if things clear up, then I suppose I'll remove the comment system. Sorry 'bout that.
posted by Gray at 8:38 PM | | link

Half-a-day sick days make the 2nd half of the day go by pretty quickly. Didn't get much done, but that new CD burner is pretty snazzy. My fears that it would be troublesome have been allayed. I think it's just a matter of making sure you upgrade the software properly, which I did. Thank you Google Groups! Search engines are the best thing ever, I'm pretty sure. Why doesn't everyone use them?

Godspeed, You Black Emperor! in the mp3 queue, and I think I'm gonna do some reading.
posted by Gray at 8:14 PM | | link

(and yeah, I know the header is missing. I have to fix that when I get home. I'll also add a November archive at that point.)
posted by Gray at 2:29 PM | | link

Feel my congestion! ...and check out the new picture page.
posted by Gray at 9:20 AM | | link

Run Lola Run soundtrack + Leaving an hour late = FASTEST COMMUTE EVER. QUE BUENO!
posted by Gray at 10:15 AM | | link

Well, now we know what "It" is. Woo.
posted by Gray at 12:54 AM | | link

Let's fill in the blanks of the past weekend, in no particular order:

a) I was in the general vicinity of Greensboro, NC for the weekend. My cohorts and I drove up for our company's Christmas party.
b) We drove there in a rental minivan dubbed "The Silver Bullet".
c) I am most definitely allergic to duck, in the worst possible way.
d) There is a club in Greensboro where one can hear a cover band end a show with a rousing Skynyrd tribute, and then be treated (immediately) to a window-shaking dance mix of Bootylicious.
e) Even I can find my way around Greensboro after midnight. Even if Kyle can't.
f) Rock radio stations in the ATL > NC corridor seem to be allocated only 4 CDs this week: Creed, Linkin Park, Nickelback and Fuel. God bless that station that played Faith No More for me in SC, and the old school rap request show as we approached Atlanta. ("Friends...how many of us have them?")
g) ATL rules over GSO in the stealth attack category. BOO YAH!
posted by Gray at 11:08 PM | | link

Public Service Announcement for those who enjoy fine carbonated beverages: The Coca-Cola Company now makes Mello Yello Cherry. Apparently, there's also a Mello Yello Melon, but I have not yet seen that variation.

Unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed by my first 20oz of Mello Yello Cherry. Mtn. Dew Code Red leaves it in the dust.

Speaking of Code Red, I got a REALLY COOL Christmas present. I'll have to post a picture of that, as words would not do it justice. Time to eat now.
posted by Gray at 8:01 PM | | link