whew… busy! busy! busy! not many posts, i know. too busy. turned 30 last thursday (the 20th) – no big deal really. been dealing with a ms isa server issue and our application – damn proxies! anyway… i’m sure there’s more to say, but i’m tired. maybe later…
no, not the guy moby, my laptop! that’s what i named the viao laptop – moby, as in mobility! i thought it was clever. anyway… the thing is kicking ass! i’m amazed how much i can stay in linux! mozilla 1.0 is quite nice and doesn’t cause any of the problems i had with .99. (since galeon uses the mozilla gecko engine, i use it mainly.) ximian’s red carpet installer/updater works great too! i do wish i’d have made the windows partition a little bigger – 6 gigs just doesn’t cut it. i did load it down with photoshop 6 (my usb scanner works like a charm with it!), office xp, visio 2002, flash mx and acid pro 3.0. but mostly i’m in linux – now i’m playing around with ethereal and snort – to get an intrusion detection system up as well as double check our web application for security. the downside is, is that this thing is becoming attached to me!
the honeynet project is very cool stuff. i had checked out some docs on the site a few weeks ago from a link i stumbled upon via google, but today i found out they’ve got cool challenges going on as well – so head on over and show off your snort skills and tcp/ip packet prowess!
a few weeks ago i posted that i finished the book about a boy. well, one reason to finish the book, was to check out the movie. since the conversion of nick norby’s high fidelity from book to movie was so great, i had high hopes for about a boy. well, last sunday my sister and i got to find out… and it’s not too bad. the book is much better than the movie, but the movie isn’t too bad. most of my complaints are in the updating of the content – for example, the book makes reference to kurt cobain and nirvana which is changed to rap crap. but still, the movie’s not too bad.
last week was rough. my grandma (grandma lucy, hence the over-the-rhine song quote title) passed away. she fell last sunday night and due to complications, couldn’t stop the bleeding in her lung. eventually her kindneys shut down and her heart couldn’t take it. she died tuesday morning around 11:30am. the family did the stuff a family needs to do in these situations. after the mourning and tears, we celebrated my grandma’s life – us osterday’s are known for “celebrating”! i’m still exhausted. anyway… life goes on…
again, a paris concert dvd! i saw diana krall at the aronoff center back in march and it was great. she’s an amazing performer, so i figured i’d pick up the dvd. first, the sound is awesome! there’s the normal dolby 2.0 and 5.1 options, but also wonderful dts. maybe you can’t tell the difference, but i think dts sounds the best, and this dvd shows it well. the performance is very good, but i thought the show i saw was better – better vocal reflections or something – but it’s still a great performance. (note: “peel me a grape” was not performed at either show.) the show at the aronoff was more personal since she left the orchestra at home. i prefer my jazz small – four or five pieces is all you need. the dvd extras are nice – a couple videos and some rehersal footage – but nothing to write home about. worth the 20 bucks, though!
if you’ve got a dts player and decoder, i highly recommend the dts version of diana’s love scenes album – superb! “peel me a grape” – indeed!
last june i saw depeche mode in cleveland. it was my fifth depeche mode concert. (see below for list.) the concert rocked! (althought it was quite a fiasco because i left the tickets back at my house in cincinnati! thanks to erin and sarah for making the trip down and back in record time!) anyway, a few months ago, depeche mode showed the paris show on pay-per-view. although a bit hesitant to fork out 20 bucks for the show, it is dM so i had to. the concert was great… then i learned that it would be released on dvd – i was a bit pissed that i’d have to fork out another 20 bucks, but hey, it is dM! well, the dvd is worth it. it’s in glorious 5.1 surround (no dts, though)! and the quality is great. i was a little disappointed with the sound on the pay-per-view showing – even with digital cable going to my digital reciever, the highs were dull, but not the dvd! i haven’t watched all the extras on the 2nd dvd, but so far it’s very cool. well worth the 20 bucks.
dM concerts i’ve attended:
Music For The Masses Tour
1988 May 22nd Sun Cincinnati, OH, Riverbend Music Center
World Violation Tour
1990 June 25th Mon Cincinnati, OH, Riverbend Music Center
Exotic Tour (Second leg of “The Devotional Tour”)
1994 July 6th Wed Cincinnati, OH, Riverbend Music Center
The Singles Tour
1998 November 8th Sun Cleveland, OH, Gund Arena
The Exciter Tour
2001 June 24th Sun Cleveland, OH, Blossom Music Center
i just finished watching the pbs show american experience. the episode was a brilliant madness. it was the story of john nash, the mathemetcian that invented the “nash equilibrium” – basically modern “game theory” which revolutionalized economics – and his life with paranoid schizophrenia.
John Nash:One time, somebody suggested that I was a prodigy. Another time it was suggested that I should be called “bug brains,” because I had ideas, but they were sort of buggy or not perfectly sound.
it’s a fascinating story. it is interesting to me how many people classified as “genius” also had a “mental disorder”. what also is interesting to me is that we try to lock up these people with “mental disorders” – who have a natural way to escape reality or look at reality from a very different perspective – yet we spend an exhorbant amount of time trying to escape reality ourselves. let’s tune in to see how our “friends” are doing every thursday night! we read, watch tv, go to the movies… you get my drift.
don’t get me wrong, i’m all for entertainment and escaping reality for a bit, but it just seems to be odd and i wanted to mention it here to get it out. (also, i’m not saying that i’m limiting these devices as “entertainment” – they can have creative value and can help improve thought.) i’ve been thinking about this for a while, but finally got a topic to help to put it down into words… even though it’s only a few.
i’m turning 30 this month and i guess that’s brought on some existential thoughts and ideas, meaning of life, blah… all that crap. what the f*ck is “reality” anyway? well, anyway… i’m blabbering on now, so maybe i’ll post more later…
i know a lot of people don’t like the new album cos it’s so much like play, but i like it. yes, it is very similar to play, but i really liked play – one of my favs actually. i’m really into down tempo electronica or whatever you want to call it, which is sort of how i’d describe 18 (well mostly), but more poppy in a way. (maybe it’s just poppy sounding now that moby’s “pop”?) the first single, “we are all made of stars” is way catchy, poppy but enjoyable.