Haven't blathered on a random manner for a while now, sooo.......

• Does anyone care who wins the Superbowl?

Didn't think so....I really couldn't give a toss.....but as long as New England loses, I'll be happy.

• What DOES this mean???

For a couple years, after finally completing an Odysseus-like journey from being bound captive in the depths of hell for more than two years, I finally made it safely back to my homeland (where things weren't in anywhere near disarray that Odysseus found his homeland in upon his return). So, for the next couple years after my return, I had seen these stickers on cars with ever increasing frequency.

WTF??

I HAD made it my mission to find out what the hell this is.....and what does it mean....

......then I forgot all about that and had another Drop Top.

Whilst at The Portland Saturday Hippy Market one Sunday afternoon, I had noticed a booth with a big green heart in the outline of the State of Oregon emblem. I walked up, said "hi" to the guy, and grabbed a card real quick and took off (I was in a huge rush). Got home later that night, and plugged in the web site. Found out what it was, what it stands for, and ordered one offa the website. It goes on the trunk of my skooter in about three months....

Today, The bOregonian wrote a pretty interesting piece on it here....the guy who came up with this idea can be found here.....

• Too much fun....

A friend of mine dragged me and a bunch of our friends to the roller derby last Saturday Night ('cause her BoyToy is one of the referees). Now, I didn't know what to expect....I was thinking it was gonna be like what I had seen on TV growing up....with the big ole' padded rail surrounding this banked oval and girls clawing, punching, scratching and generally beating the hell outta each other like in the 70's!

Well, no. They actually made it a legitimate game (really dunno if I can call it a "sport" yet).....where you can jostle, shove, push and what have you. But, if you fight, you actually get tossed from the match!! And they cut off the beer sales at halftime (which would normally piss me off....but who wants to drop $5.25 for a 12 ounce PBR anyways?).....then went to the after match party at some bar in SouthEast......probably one of the more overall fun nights I've had in a while....and besides: ANY event where we beat Seattle (be it soccer, roller derby, or tiddlywinks) is usually worth the price of admission.....














More later....

-E-

Well....passed the first trial run.....

The EEE pc (which I'm using to post this right now).
















Welp....works just as well as almost literally all neutral reviews have advertised. Ran it to Buffalo this past weekend. Colder than fuck (like, 5 degrees above zero.....AMAZING how quickly one becomes de-acclimated after a while), but the EEE pc had no worries!

• 3 easy-access USB ports? Niiiccce..........takes mouse, camera and USB toaster

• Wi-Fi? Shhhiiiiit! Can't even TELL you what it picks up!!! Dead ZERO issues connecting to anything at any one of my family members houses, any friends houses, and at Greater Buffalo (non)International Airport, I jus' sat in the bar (wondering if my plane was ever gonna come in) directly across from the US Scareways mega-platinum high-flyers lounge. NO worries! Snagged a T-Mobile Wi-Fi signal from there ('cause it's part of my cell fone plan) and away I went surfing! Errrmmm......WHY have I lugged that DELL Inspiron 1150 heap O' shite around all over the place again (where I had to almost be physically touching a router in order to get a signal)? And yet, for some reason, the EEE pc STILL has a standard RJ-11 jack in it (which is a standard fone landline).....THAT is handy......broadband ain't everywhere YET....
  

• LINUX?? Christ.....you don't even have to THINK about it...it just fucking DOES IT!!! Fifteen seconds to fire it up and you're going!! Weird.....I always wait in anticipation for the Blue Screen Of Death to pop up.....or I start WinBlows VISTA and read five chapters of War and Peace in addition to three issues of VIZ and two issues of Planning Magazine....by then you usually get the "VISTA welcome screen" to fire up......

• Thunderbird MailClient?? Works just as well as Outlook does, far as I can tell....

Well....trial run #2 comes up for this thing in less than three weeks in The Big Easy.....

....that will be followed eventually by Enduro Run From Hell, which NO laptop/notebook should be put through....but I DO have confidence in this little thing.....

Spent just about all of last weekend working on various computers of friends and family (where, I found out, one of said friends/family is a serious bandwidth hog....good thing they don't have Comcast as a provider in Western New York), but still, found a little bit of time to catch up briefly with my friend Ivanna, whom I hadn't seen in over ten years, and I caught a free night in a suite at Seneca Niagara....
















More later.....


-E-

Zen Weekend.....

Couple random pics from my hotel room at Rockaway Beach, Oregon.

Fireplace, Internet, Export A Greens and a few bottles of vino......































And it's warmer here today in mid-January than it was here last June......



More later.....I'm off to Western New York next weekend, I'll write something mildly amusing from there......


-E-

Twist and shout.....

WTF??


An actual tornado struck Vancouver, Washington (basically a suburb of Portland, OR) a few hours ago. I used to live in Vancouver in 2001 and 2002. Just too bizarre....I mean, the Pacific Northwest just doesn't have tornadoes!! We just DON'T! Between 1960 and 1995, ALL of Washington State got a grand total of 55 tornadoes! I mean, that number also includes non-events, where a 45MPH funnel cloud actually touches the ground!

Windstorms.....yeah....OK....about one really nasty one a year.....and I felt one minor earfquake in 2002 whilst at work in Downtown Portland....


.....but not tornadoes! Nuh-uh.......


Like a kick in the shin.......


This story was weird (look at the headline: ONLY The bOregonian would use a term like "dust-up").

I'm not terribly familiar with this band, but apparently they're from Portlandia. At least the Sacramento, Calf. police got it right and hauled them BOTH in.....usually it's just the male who gets hauled off to the clink.

This is from what I hear anyways.....I've never had cops called on me for domestic violence, nor have I been what I'd consider a victim of domestic violence (worst that ever happened to me was one ex-girlfriend threw me into a wall, but I wasn't physically harmed at all, just shocked to no end....though believe me, I DO bring that side out in certain individuals), but from what people tell me, it's usually the guy who gets sent off with the red card.

This was smart, I say.....drag 'em both in and sort it all out.....


The title of The Shins latest album?


"Wincing the night away"


Errrmm-hum....I'll bet....









And, ending on yet another music video note.........

Goddamm!! I NEVER knew that he made a video. You really have to read the hyperlink directly below to understand....

Wesley Willis was one of my heroes! I actually have a picture of me head-butting with him at the 15th Street Tavern in Denver. I'd seen him live twice, and was going forra third time, flying from PDX to BUF to catch him at Mohawk Place in January, 2003. I flew United Airlines, and I remember it being one of thee worst headaches CAUSED by an airline in my life (and I fly A LOT)....shortly after finally landing in BUF at 2:00am (plane was supposed to leave Chicago at 9PM Central Time - left at 11:45pm Central Time) I totally missed the show. I wrote a Wesley Willis-style song about United Airlines the next night after about, like, ten Labatt Bleues at The Old Pink......I THINK I still have it written down somewhere.

It's not very complimentary towards the friendly skies.

Rest in peace, Wesley....we will always love you like a milkshake.....

Wesley Willis - Alanis Morrisette

Emmmmm-Kay.....

Test Post.


JUST installed something I bought at my local Fry's store called Xandros LINUX on my heap 'o steaming shit DELL Inspiron 1150......

Interesting.....seems to work just fine......actually......SLIGHTLY better....

Hmmm......

The EEE pc arrives tomorrow....but enuff rubbish for now about new techie toys......I'll get back to some more interesting stuff next post, and let you know what I think about this $399 alledged Wunder-micro-notebook pc later on down the road ....

-E-

Happy New Year....

• WAS gonna spend a 4-day weekend at The Oregon Coast last weekend, but given that everything that I needed for the weekend in the hotel room (smoking, Internet access, a fireplace, and an Ocean view out the window) had places charging (at the lowest) $165-plus per night......thought better of that idea....




• MIGHT have something to do wiff the fact that I tried to book this three days before the New Year's Weekend......




• So.....went on Priceline forra laff, and tried to book a flight to Western New York to see my family. The flight sticker priced on all travel websites at $810 for Saturday through Tuesday (the 29th through the 1st). On Friday Night the 28th of December, I tossed Priceline $330 grand total (incd. taxes, fees and all that shit)........




• ...they fell for it. Eight hours later, I was on a plane departing PDX.

Was nice to see my family and friends again, and I was a bit too generous to myself this holiday season....

• Was getting pretty tired of Cingular's (AT&T?) shit, and saw a killer offer from T-Mobile that cost the same as my monthly Cingular bill.....YET, ALSO INCLUDED unlimited Internet access, and free Wi-Fi for my laptop at T-Mobile hotspots (like, most airports, Starbucks, and about 9,000 other places around the United States, etc. etc.). So I go to AT&T/Cingular CORPORATE stores in both Portland and Buffalo....
  

"Yeah, I've been a Cingular customer for five-plus years now........T-Mobile's offering me this shit. What can you do for me??"

"Uhhh.....well...uhhh.....let's look at out pamphlet and see our plans and......"

"No. What MORE can you offer me for the rate that I'm paying you now....or can you not offer me anything additional, but chop my bill a fair bit?"
.

"Uhhh....naw, sorry. I'm not authorised to do that. But we can look at our plans that we offer, and....."

"OK....cool...let's hava look....."

"Errmm......dude?? The plans in this Cingular pamphlet are more expensive than what I pay Cingular now.....????????"

"Oh. Oh well...."

"OK, well, I'll cancel my account and go with T-Mobile and......"

"Cool....whatever. But, I mean, like, I've worked for all the carriers, and, like, there isn't much difference, and....."

"Errmm....OK.....I'll see ya."

• Funny shit...and at T-Mobile CORPORATE stores (not an "authorised reseller" or some shit like that) in both, Portlandia and Buffalo, they were overjoyed that I was signing up! Shit, Cingular didn't even try to fight to keep me as a 5-year+ customer! PLUS, T-Mobile knocked off a hundred bucks and gave me this thing for free!!!!!
  


• It launches space shuttles!! It makes cookies!! It's gotta 192-page tech manual.....I don't even yet know how to do HALF of the things it's capable of...



• STILL trying to figure out all the things I can do wiff this device........
  
  

Bought a new laptop the other day. Did this forra couple of reasons....

• Now, about four years ago (an ice age ago in terms of laptop technology), the Seneca Nation made a Governmental Purchase contract wiff DELL Computers, Inc. to supply all Nation members who are attending college with a free laptop. One Laptop Per Injun', I guess......



• Cool, I'm not bitching (free laptop? Wahay!), but man, could the Nation have shopped around.......



• I knew I HAD TO replace or supplement said DELL antique laptop. It's an Inspiron 1150, which, literally and seriously, was a steaming piece of shit directly when it left the factory assembly line. Now, four years on, it is just intolerable! Between the built-in Wi-Fi 801.11 b/g antenna that can't (nor ever could) latch onto a Wi-Fi network more than 150 feet from the laptop, the fact that it has KNOWN motherboard design flaws (I had my mainboard replaced TWICE) and the pure rubbish customer service....all factors put together, it pretty much sealed the deal that I'll never buy another DELL ever again.



• Was gonna get a cheap laptop that was on sale for about $499 (NOW at $599) that could launch space shuttles (the one that was on sale for $499 had an AMD Turion dual-core [FUCK Intel], TWO gigs of RAM, etc.) but after I had found out about this ultra-portable (literally 'bout the dimensions of a hardcover book) that came out on the U.S market about five minutes ago (OK....two months ago) that came with upgrades, and one-year replacement warranty, yet ended up going for less than five bills, and especially after I had had enuff after just ONE SINGLE EXPERIENCE working on Windows Vista (can’t even count how many bad things I’ve read and heard from other people about Vista), all of those factors sealed the deal for what I ended up buying that is gonna be shipped to me on Tuesday.



• I mean, when traveling, this Inspiron 1150 I have now is as large as a briefcase, and it weighs a fucking TON!! That Acer I mentioned above that WorstBuy offered doesn't look much more convenient to carry around......

So I got this.....

(what I got was the Asus EEE PC, NOT the girl on the beach).

Weird......

• WTF?????? NO hard drive??

Nope....got 4 gigs internal memory, and a slot to add a 4 gig SD card (think the thing you stuck into your digital camera), and you have 8-gig storage laptop.

• Uhhhhh........what's "LINUX"? Is that a skin disease found in sub-Saharan Africa?

Errmmm....I've NEVER played with LINUX in my life. So to learn, I got a $25 setup of Xandros LINUX (the same exact one my EEE pc uses).....gonna set it up on my home desktop computer and try to learn it (Christ....wish me luck!). This EEE pc CAN and DOES take an installation of Windows XP......but, hey.....change is good! I'll try the LINUX forra laff.....

• Mozilla?? Huh....? Whassat?? Didn't Mothra kick his ass?

.....and it took Internet Explorer HOW long to discover the novel idea of "tabbed browsing"??


According to several actual user reviews, it has a wi-fi internal antenna that locks onto a wi-fi signal a football field (900 feet) away from the source. And it's fairly difficult to find (and, seriously, you've HAVE to click this link) anything negative written about this laptop anywhere on the Web, soooo......

Well, I is running away to the Ocean next weekend with all four prerequisites (smoking, Internet access, Ocean view windows and a fireplace) for eighty buxx a night. The EEE pc is going wiff me.....I'll let you know how it goes.....

-E-