but that's another story.

i see your point(s). and you make some sense. the scarce commodity of discretionary income is harder to come by these days with gas prices where they are. i'm not one to throw my money to the alternatives unless they are competitive, but when a discussion about the environment is driven towards a discussion about money, the two are considered similar. it's easy to mix them together. but sometimes doing the right thing costs more.

good dialogue.

boring, i know.

just because it's green doesn't mean it's more economical.

"my computer is slow..."
"my itunes won't work over the network...."
"my screen resolution just went weird on me...."
"i can't print...."
"how do i view a text message on my phone..."
"our phone doesn't work..."
"my ipod is frozen..."

and THEN...go into sordid detail (either on voicemail or with me on the phone) as if i have nothing better to do than to 1) listen to their problem in excruciating minutia, and 2) actually have the time to fix it OVER THE PHONE on a tuesday night at 10:15PM. i stopped answering my phone. i used to enjoy it. then in-laws started asking me tech stuff every time i walked in their door. it was just too much. i now have typical one liners that i use as canned responses. my favorite is...

"if i come over there, i'm starting from scratch and wiping your hard drive and installing the operating system. so by the time i get there, have all of your files that you need backed up."

that's much easier than trying to fix it over the phone.

but now i'm moving to southern california where i won't know anyone. so i'm looking forward to the distance decay model. but i do feel sorry for my mom and dad. they're pretty much innocent and they appreciate every little thing i do.

i love you mom and dad.

bah! i'm too late as well as too lame for this comment thread.

stand up for each other america. we're on the downward spiral towards violence and disrespect.

in the beginning (2001), i started using bearshare to acquire music that i didn't have. in reality, i stopped using bearshare (2004) because the files were of questionable quality. enter www.allofmp3.com. when that folded, i went to www.gomusic.ru. aside from my collection of about 100 cd's that got ripped, absolutely NONE of my music is from the "99 cents per song" conduit(s). i hate DRM. i hate the RIAA. but i love music.

go figure.

it's worth a lot of money these days in the original box. but damn, i've only shot it a few times a few years ago and my ears are still ringing even after wearing hearing protection.

tinitus anyone?

Anyone have any idea?

*moving to southern cali*

it's nice to be in the know, but it's nicer to partake in the gadget lot.

good show.

oh...that's what dreams are made of.

captain cunnilingus.

society never lets me down.

first of all, because the technology represents a step forward for the environment does not automatically mean it's going to be cheaper in the long run.

for example. a gallon of ethanol (don't get me started about corn and world food prices) contains much less energy than a gallon of gasoline. so it's not more energy efficient. however, it oxygenates the gasoline to make it burn cleaner, therefore reducing greenhouse gas emissions. what you have in the end in a more expensive solution, but are working towards a smaller production of pollutants.

although hybrids may be more expensive or fugly, the long term goal is where the solution lies. use less fuel. or use energy from renewable sources such as ethanol (switchgrass would be a much better resource than corn) or wind or solar.

one day we might all come home and plug our car into the battery pack that is charged by our personal windmill. it would be very expensive, but it would be the socially correct thing. it doesn't save any money, it saves the planet.

for what it's worth.

however, he invited me over for a "rock band" beer and we both noticed the burn-in effect after about an hour. it went away, but we both immediately wondered about our purchase.

my advice is if you're a gamer, go LCD. if you watch movies or regular tv, go plasma. and try to minimize gaming or using black bars on 4:3 pictures. populate as much of the screen real estate as possible.

my parents just bought a 52" sony 120Hz. it is nice, but for picture quality, i really like my plasma set.

to each his own.

cavey.

3G-20GB w/click-wheel (that's the one that got sent back and returned)

1st gen silver mini that i bought for my girlfriend and mysteriously stopped working for her. then i bought her a

2nd gen shuffle (orange) that she really likes (but the not having a display sometimes isn't convenient)

i've since inherited her mini and it works flawlessly (user error?) but the battery doesn't last very long. i mostly charge it all the time.

my 3g was awesome while it worked, but there towards the end i had to frequently pry the two sides apart and disconnect the disk drive and reconnect to fix some kind of problem. (???) it worked for a while like that and then just died altogether. i liked having all of my music with me, but after "suffering" the loss of 3/4 of my pocketable music, i actually find it refreshing to not have to scroll through so much bullshit to get to a song i want.

i'm in the market for a new one. if it weren't for the iTunes playlists i already have set up, i'd go zune or creative just to mix it up. frickin' dealer lock in. it's all about convenience and work already accomplished.

peace. out.

NEATO! vroom...FWIP...aaaawwwwww!

what i do find disturbing however are the number of people who suffer from their/they're/there, to/too, receipt/reciept syndrome. i blame it on them for being ignorant and on their teachers and the education system for not having the balls to fail people when they don't really deserve to pass.

*shoulder shrug* whatever...

???

so where is that choice on your list?

no vote for me.

captain caveman.

actually i love this idea, but with leds of maybe different colors to represent hours and minutes only. that second hand would be annoying. not too disco-ey, but different.

i'd buy it if it was efficient, didn't make any noise, and lasted more than two years without the motors taking a dive.

time for bed.....obviously.

out.

for lcd screens (the old fashioned type...not the glass covered glossy screens), i typically moisten a paper towel and apply a single drop of detergent. a single drop...no more. then make sure to spread the detergent onto the full surface of the moistened rag to reduce any saturated points. also, grab a single dry paper towel as well to dry it QUICKLY after rubbing down the screen with the damp cloth. i clean the screen in every direction to the point that i know the screen has been thoroughly cleaned with the damp cloth (avoiding edges mostly). i IMMEDIATELY dry the screen to prevent any kind of residue from the detergent-dampened cloth. maybe i'm in the minority here because my girlfriend's family thinks it's positively necessary to touch the computer screen any time they point at anything on the screen. even though i've complained endlessly not to touch the screen. (drives me nuts.) regardless, this has worked for me 100% of the times for oily and greasy fingerprints.

now my new anti-glare plasma is another story. my two-year-old gets close to that thing, but she's learning that daddy's mad when she gets close. and i had to tell my girlfriend never ever ever to clean the plasma display. i take care of that. from the panasonic owner's manual verbatim...

"The front of the display panel has been specially treated. Wipe the panel surface gently using only a cleaning cloth or a soft, lint-free cloth.

If the surface is particularly dirty, soak a soft, lint-free cloth in diluted neutral detergent (1 part detergent diluted by 100 times the amount of water) and then wring the cloth to remove excess liquid. Use this cloth to wipe the surface of the display pane, then wipe it evenly with a dry cloth of the same type until the surface is dry.

Avoid contact with volatile substances such as insect sprays, solvents, and thinner; otherwise the quality of the surface may be adversely affected."

/two cents

/bowing

i just realized i'm wasting my time.

how do you spell hypocrite?

Yeah. I know. That's sort of my point. You can drink yourself to death. You can OD on heroin and many other substances, but you can smoke as much weed as you want with very little return. I know guys who smoke every ten minutes. I look at them like they're crazy because, after all, how high can you get once you're high? Higher? Pretty soon it's about the ritual...the community...than it is about getting high. That's the addiction. The acquaintance of it all. That and the psychological effect of "gotta have it or I'm gonna be edgy for a while."

As LSD may not be addictive, it also shouldn't be taken lightly. From experience (perhaps I'm chemically averse to the shit), I can attest to being curious and then realizing that it's frickin' nasty and could cause serious trouble.

Weed? Legalize it and get it over with already. Perhaps our government should legalize it and then give themselves a bunch of bongs for the holidays. Unless every single one of them turned into a paranoid freak, perhaps it would provide a little perspective and we'd be a little bit more mellow in this country. I don't see a lot of people overdosing on weed and becoming violent or agressive. In fact they become lethargic and complacent. But I've seen dudes drunk as hell fighting over absolutely nothing. The high guys were in the back looking at each other like, "whoa...dude..."

In the end, some drugs should be illegal because of the eventual demise of societies based upon it or its generic replacement. But I'm with you that it's a person's choice and not the local sheriff's who is driving way too fast in a gas-guzzling dodge charger that taxpayers pay for. If a hit of MDMA makes your girlfriend bi-curious, then go for it in the comfort of your own hotel room.

Keep it all away from our kids until they have the ability to realize the consequences of their actions. Once a person is of a good age (that also varies), then they have the right to make their own mistakes and learn from them. I don't need some punk-ass trying to sell my youthfully innocent relatives a bunch of shit that's going to make them chemically dependent enough to start going down the wrong path.

/book