CDs are too short these days... or too long... or something's not right

Mike, 9/26/2005 10:45:45 PM

I only listen to one CD a day. This may seem surprising considering the 80+ CDs I have strewn around my car, but in fact I only listen to one CD a day on average. This is probably because I get in my car in the morning, pop an appropriate CD in, and rock out on my way to work. Then as I park my car, I'm still not done the CD. So I go into work thinking, "Man that CD rocks," and eagerly await to reclaim that feeling that only comes from getting in my car at the end of the day and picking up where I left off in the song 8 hours earlier. Herein lies the problem though: most CDs are 45 minutes and my drive to work is about 25 minutes each way. So I invariably end up wrapping around back to the first song as I get into the final stretch. But, at this point, it seems too late to start another CD fresh so I sit there listening to the beginning of the album yet again. Where am I going with all this nonsense? Oh yes, a good friend has given me Coheed and Cambria's new album, Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness, and I was amazed to see it weighing in at 66 minutes. I thought this warranted a review, but it won't be possible for me to complete even one listening in a day's commute. So coming up later I'll review this CD and the experience of listening to a CD that took more than a day's worth of driving to work to complete!

From Justin on 9/27/2005:

A good friend motherfucker? I'm co proprietor of this fucking website! And as I post this I'm in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on one of the most boring cruise ships ever created. Seriously. where is everybody? The dance club was practically empty for a vessel carrying over 2000 people. I land at Bermuda tomorrow, more beer soaked updates to follow.

From Mike on 9/27/2005:

Well, I listened to CC:GAIBS4VOFFTTEOM to and fro work twice but that's still not enough to review an album of this magnitude. I will digest further tomorrow.

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America's slackers aren't limited to our generation

Mike, 9/19/2005 11:23:01 PM

I make my glorious return to posting on this website to bring you a new rant...

The top science news in the New York Times tonight was that NASA unveiled a 13 year plan to return man to the moon by 2018. Ooooh wow, we've truly outdone ourselves! Consider this: JFK unveiled his initiative to put an American on the moon on September 12, 1962. This might have seemed like the ravings of a crazy man considering that NASA had only just launched a man into space for the first time on May 5th, 1961! However, by July 20th, 1969, NASA had accomplished this goal. In just a little more than 8 years of American spaceflight, NASA went from nothing to landing a man on the moon.

Flash forward to the science-friendly administration of George Bush Jr, some 43 years after JFK announced his space initiative. We want to basically mimic the same feat (plus 1-2 more astronauts) except this time it will take 13 years and accomplish precisely nothing in the name of science. The moon has been explored, it's a rock, deal with it. Nowhere in the brief description of the mission is any indication of how this technology will be applicable to a long-duration manned flight to Mars. If anything, this goal (if ever reached) will serve as a monument to the backward thinking Republican administration that now strangles all credible science, the science that once formed the backbone of American innovation.

Whether you believe that manned space travel is useful or just a PR stunt, I think we can all agree that this is just silly and slightly embarrassing. Why stop there? Why not set a goal to sail to the New World via a westernly route. The promise of silks and spices is far too tantalizing to let go!

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The Rules Of Wedding Crashing

Justin, 9/18/2005 04:53:24 PM

Looking around The Wedding Crashers website, I've now found an offshot website, the "official" website of Chazz Reingold, the patron saint of Wedding Crashing (or Will Ferrell if you saw the movie). Check it out here:
http://www.iamchazz.com/
Its here you can find the 50 Rules For Wedding Crashing, including:

Rule #35 – Breakfast is for closers.

I'll have the french toast.

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Penguin Baseball

Justin, 9/14/2005 08:02:29 PM

Have you ever wanted to be a Polar Bear? Have you ever wanted to hit a Penguin with a Baseball bat? Have you ever wanted to play a repetitive semi-game ad naseum to stave off boredom at work? Well now you can do all 3 at once here:
http://n.ethz.ch/student/mkos/pinguin.swf
enjoy!