Moonage Webdream

I keep bragging about where I live, this is why:

More pics here.

Technorati Tags: Personal Pictures

Elton John Ready to Apologize to Madonna
Friday, October 29, 2004

NEW YORK — Elton John is ready to apologize to Madonna after recently accusing the pop star of lip-synching. “I don’t want to escalate it because I like Madonna,” the 57-year-old singer-songwriter tells Entertainment Weekly. “She’s been to my house for dinner. It was something that was said in the heat of the moment, and probably should not have been said.”

“Would I apologize to her if I saw her?” said John. “Yeah, because I don’t want to hurt any artist’s feelings. It was my fault. I instigated the whole thing. But it applies to all those bloody teenage singers.”

Yes, it apparently does.

Glad to see Elton is learning how to behave as a true Southern gentleman. He doesn’t have it down quite right just yet, but he’s obviously trying.

Technorati Tags: People

10/15/04

The Scott Peterson murder has dragged on forever. The media has hounded every single move as if it were important. I only one detail, the verdict.

However, we’ve got a new scandal brewing that promises to be more than the media can even handle:

O’Reilly, Accuser Wage Air War

Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly made a TV talk show appearance on what he said was the worst day of his life, vowing to fight sexual harassment charges by one of his producers.

Accuser Andrea Mackris spoke publicly for the first time on Thursday, saying she felt threatened by her former boss, who filed a lawsuit charging the woman and her lawyer with extortion.

O’Reilly “threatened” her by making obscene phone calls and the like, that’s all the evidence I’ve heard so far.

Actually, the way this has played out so far is that O’Reilly sued first for extortion, she counter-sued for sexual harassment. She’s got a point, he’s got a point. Her point is he broke a law. His point is she wanted $60 million not to file charges. I for one, want to know, is how you place a value of $60 million on obscene phone calls. I think his bad behavior has gotten him in trouble, I think her greed is getting her in trouble.

This one should be fun to follow.

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10/28/04 update

Well, dang. For $2 million she decided O’Reilly never did anything wrong. This coulda been a contendah.

Technorati Tags: People

I have a friend that for as long as I’ve known him, has had very strange dreams. The strangest part is that I could repeat every single one of them here. None are perverse, they’re just weird. Here’s the latest, names have been changed to protect the guilty and innocent alike:

Hey, had another one of those goofy dreams about us. This time you wanted to take to this new coffee house that you were raving about the coffee. Everyone loved their coffee. You drove us there and then once inside everyone got a little scooter like you see old people at Wal Mart ride around on. You picked a scooter with a side car. So I got in the side car and you scooted us up to the counter to order our coffees. I could see that just before they served the coffee to anyone they would pour out a little syrup looking stuff from a bottle. I have seen those flavored syrups before but everyone wanted this particular flavor. It was the secret ingredient that made everyone rave about this coffee. I don’t remember drinking the coffee but I did pull one of the employees to the side and asked them what was the flavor in that secret bottle. Guess what it was……. it was coffee flavored syrup…. go figure…. Then I woke up.

When we were younger, we would work very hard interpreting these dreams. Now, as we’ve both gotten busier and moved apart, we can’t do it that much any more.

Anyone want to take a crack at this one? I personally have no clue.

Technorati Tags: Tales

Good catch by my friend Hedonistix ( OK, I’m not hip with the young crowd, I prefer to hole up pre-1990 ).

That boys and girls, is the Ashlee Simpson Ipod. Now you too can lip sync like a semi-pro.

However, since Ashlee is now the icon of lip-syncing gone wrong, it kinda makes me wonder how well this will be received in lieu of others offering their version? I think I would prefer to sing along to Bono’s Ipod than to have people think I was emulating Ashlee. I mean, lip syncing to lip syncing sounds kinda cheesy and a little dirty.

Technorati Tags: Hmmmmm

Police in Sarasota, Florida, arrested a man accused of trying to run down Rep. Katherine Harris and her supporters with a car Tuesday, a police spokesman said….

“I was exercising my political expression,” Seltzer told police, according to the report.

Excuse me, but attempted murder with a deadly instrument is not considered “political expression”. This guy gives politics a bad name.

Technorati Tags: Idiot of the day, Jerk of the Day

The date was October 19, 1992. President George H. W. Bush was enjoying leads in the polls in his re-election campaign. The Mall of America had just opened. WTC had never been attacked. Bill Clinton had yet to be president. The war with Iraq was a fading memory. Terrorism was still a nuisance. The Bengals were on their way to a second consecutive losing season after appearing in the Super Bowl three years before.

What is so significant about October 19, 1992? It was the last time the Bengals would be on Monday Night Football until last night. It was such an odd event that I didn’t even THINK to watch it. They won too. I know MNF is concerned with ratings, but, for a team to go 12 years without the naional exposure MNF brings isn’t right.

Technorati Tags: Media, Sports

I predate computers, especially PC’s. PC’s evolved during my teen and young adult years from a gadget geeks like me could only operate, to something geeks like me could only operate. By the time I was in my 30’s, plug and play sucked all the challenge out and I’ve been bored with the technological side since.

However, in the early days, everything was written in code. Usually simple code, with not a lot of it. The key to good coding was to get the job done with as little code as possible since you had very little memory to work with. One game changed that philosophy almost single handedly. Everyone programming in rudimentery basic got hooked on it. Suddenly, the concept that PC’s could introduce an entirely novel form of entertainment was created. No one had thought that way before then. PC’s were for bookkeeping and solving complex math. It wasn’t a toy. It wasn’t a video game. It wasn’t kid’s play. It was serious stuff for serious minds. XYZZY changed all that. It used no graphics. All you did was type rudimentery commands like “open mailbox”, “lantern on”, “kill gnome”. You had to envision the rest. Suddenly, fantasy met the computer and the whole new genre of interactive fiction was born. Zork took the XYZZY game to a new, more complicated, and much more descriptive level and the whole programming world was hooked. Suddenly, rather than trying to come up with the ultimate code for calculating mortgages, programmers were immersed in programming games. Before too long video was introduced to the gaming world via Wolfenstein and PC gaming once again evolved to a new level.

However, nothing was more exciting than the text interactive fiction games IMO. Your mind is more descriptive and imaginative than any game will ever be.

Technorati Tags: Tales

Took Brendan out looking for punkins this weekend. These are the two he picked out:

He couldn’t carry them, but he tried real hard.

Technorati Tags: Parenting

In case you don’t know by now, Jessica Simpson’s little sister, Ashlee, who happens to have the No. 1 album in the country, had a career malfunction on Saturday night that may end her singing career. Simpson, the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live,” was the victim of a snafu when someone in the control room pushed the wrong button and the same song she’d sung in her first segment began playing again.

Dunno how many saw this performance, but it was memorable. I missed the show, but saw a rerun. When it was obvious the tape was playing the wrong song, she started tap dancing and doing something like a hop and skip routine. Finally, she gave up and walked off. Later, she blamed it on the band playing the wrong song. Sorry Ashlee, but the entire planet knows the band wasn’t playing any song at all. Of all the hundreds of bands that have played on SNL, she probably took the prize as the worst performance. Even if they’re going to lip sync, at the very least do that right. I mean, how hard is it to press play on song one, then song two? She looked like some kid straight out of high school doing a talent show. As a survivor from the days when all shows I watched were live, I demand that they at least sing their own songs during the show. I can lip sync, I want to see people that are more talented than I am on the stage. Elton accused Madonna, he would have had some sympathy now if he had accused the right person.

OK, now that that rant’s over with, I’m sure we’ll have another lip sync faux pas next week on Saturday Night “Live”.

Technorati Tags: Idiot of the day, Music