I have not checked up on you for like ages.

The problem is time. I just don't have enuf time of the day to do all I want... and I need an hour a day to watch TV so I can unwind and deprogram, think about life, and other problems relating to my job. Sorry folx, I really wanted to keep up.

Ugh.
posted by asiliat at 6:16 PM

duh, ok i just did. i wonder why the archives went away. does that normally happen from time to time?

anyway, continuum may be evil, but its fun. what kind of ship did you use, Lawrence? i find myself always going back to the Warbid. i like how the Lancaster can fire multiple bullets, but its not very responsive. oh well, its probably been too long since you've played, and the rest of you probably think im crazy.
posted by yodaslap at 2:20 AM

Duh Dan, you should republish all your old posts on oh uh hi. I can't read any of the recent ones. And stop playing Subspace! It's very evil.
posted by Larry at 12:19 AM

yes i know im lazy. below is a post i made on the DU blog:

---

I had an Italian-style cooking adventure of sorts earlier this evening with Yidiot, Mah Ko, rchao, and jdeen. Well, maybe not so much jdeen since he didn't cook but he helped out by buying garlic, a tomato, and some fennel seeds. Speaking of which, Yidiot and I had the daunting task of picking up the most obscure ingredients. Included in the shopping list were items such as "orange zest", "ziti", and the aforementioned "fennal seeds". There were actually some other stuff on the list I've never heard of, but alas I can't recall the names. Now before anyone begins to think I'm a complete cooking idiot, it turns out I did know what fennel seeds were, I just didn't know the name (okay, so that doesn't help my case, but moving on). Our shopping list was so cryptic that we even stumped one of the employees at the supermarket, who retreated to the back of the store for further assistance upon being asked. I don't blame him. "Orange zest" sounds like some kind of failed soap idea, "ziti" sounded like it was more likely to be found on a world map than at a supermarket, and we had no idea what the other things were. Eventually we ended up ditching over half the spices we were supposed to get, as they averaged about $5 apiece for a puny little container that probably wouldn't be used again anytime soon. "Ziti" turned out to be a somewhat oversized version of macaroni elbows, except it wasn't nearly as bent. In fact, it was almost perfectly straight, save a slight dip in the middle. Think of the lead pipe from Clue and you'll get a rough idea. We ended up taking the liberty of substituing the "orange zest" with crushed orange peel (I think, I'll have to doublecheck on that) since we never figured out exactly what it was supposed to be. Despite our struggles at the supermarket, the actual cooking part went rather smoothly, and the food turned out great. Only thing is, even now I still had no idea where the fennel seeds or orange zest replacement was used in, or if it was even used at all. Oh well, whatever happened, a great meal was had by all.

posted by yodaslap at 10:42 PM

"underwhelmed". ha ha ha ha. whats funny was my friend (who forced me to watch it) even told me that it was SUPPOSED to look kinda old and discolored, for artsy effect or what not. i cant believe i fell for it. oh, and i guess i cant believe she purposely tricked me. anyway....

the reason why i missed the first hour of Pearl Harbor:

first, some background info: the theatre we went to has 2 imax screens, and a bunch of "normal" ones (dont remember how many, but its not important). sometimes when there arent any imax shows, regular screenings are held in the imax theatres. of course, its the regular size/format, just projected onto the larger physical screen. we bought tickets for the 10pm showing, for "imax 1". however, the ticket ripper person incorrectly directed us to "theatre 1" (subtle yet fatal difference, as we later discovered), which was a 9pm show. since we were 'running late', we kind of expected to miss the previews so it didnt come to any surprise to us when we walked in during movie... we just had no idea just how much of it we've already missed. just in case theres anyone who hasnt seen it, i wont specify which scene was playing when we walked in, but it was a logical enough of a "beginning" to fool us. ignorance once again proved itself to be bliss, as we ended up watching the rest of the movie not suspecting a thing, until the credits began to roll and i glanced down at my watch. 2 hours have passed. waaaaaaait a minute... i thought the movie was supposed to be 3 hours! i looked at my friend, who seemed equally confused. we stood in the lobby scratching our heads, and then pulled out our ticket stubs again. it wasnt until closer inspectiont that we realized what had happened. now i suppose its partially our fault for not paying attention, but really, if the ticket ripper directs you to a theatre, your first instinct certainly wouldnt be to doubt them. plus, i wonder if that person was new or drunk or something. did it not occur to him that its been over an hour since the last person was directed to theatre 1?? or do people routinely choose to watch a movie an hour after it started? oh well, we eventually got free tickets for their part of the mistake, so i guess i cant complain... too much, that is.

sorry if that was long-winded and difficult to read. i stink at storytelling.
posted by yodaslap at 4:05 AM

Oh! MR on a computer screen? I probably would have been underwhelmed, too :-) There are a number of swooping/overhead scenes that just don't work when shrunk, and most of the imagery is on a grand scale. I've even seen it on a big-screen tv and it still doesn't cut it. But oh well, until I win the lottery and build myself a private theater...

Trips are always shorter for me on the return leg (barring incident). Now I'm wondering why that is. My theory: time flies when I don't want it to. So, a new "journey" (whether a physical one or figurative, such as sitting through a movie) with an unknown ending generates ambivalent feelings in me, so that I am neither looking forward to nor dreading the ending. But if it's a route I know, then I will either like it (in which case I want the journey to last a while so that I can enjoy it), or dislike it (in which case I want the journey to last a while so I don't get there)...both of which make the time fly.

Or maybe it's something else entirely, ha ha...

Daniel, how did you miss the first hour of PH? What movie did you wind up in?
posted by Roberta at 1:41 PM

tough luck with the posts :( i guess ive had my share of disappearing posts, but i guess lately its been better. great, i better cut/paste a copy, just in case.

well, kinda late and tired, so ill make it quick. i guess movies tend to go slower for me the second time around overall, just because its predictable and i know whats ahead. its kind of the same when it comes to travel too. not knowing how far off you are from somewhere makes the trip shorter, just because im spending brain power wondering how far away the destination is. if im going somewhere im familiar with, all i can do is count down the amount of time itll take before i reach there. ok im guessing that made close to no sense. i am tired, sue me.

ha, the first and only time ive seen moulin rouge was on a friend's computer on VCD. very shabby quality, so im guessing my moulin rouge experience has been tainted. oh well, i guess not as tainted as my pearl harbor experience, where we were directed to the wrong theatre and ended up missing the first hour. i think ive posted about that before. oh well, if not then ill tell the story again later. time for bed.
posted by yodaslap at 3:25 AM

Ooops. I just made a long post, ending with "see I can post now so I'll be here more often!" and for once not bothering to cut&paste a copy...and what happens? No post.

Anyway...I was following up on Daniel's entry, and saying how when I watch something I've seen before, it goes faster. If it's something I've practically memorized, it's over in seconds. The first time I saw "Matrix," it seemd to go on forever (in a good way), but now, it's like, "That's it? Did I accidentally skip some scenes?"

Also, Daniel...I think we may be a little more than 20 mins. apart but...I know, I know, that's not the point. But I'm very glad we're still in touch.

Anyway, I'm debating about going to see LOTR again. I bought "Moulin Rouge" on DVD and it's driven home to me just how much of an experience you lose when it's not on the big screen. It's still fabulous, but the sense of scale and immersion are greatly diminished. Plus you have to get up real close to the screen to see all innumerable details that some films are so good at employing.

The other part of me says, "Oh come on dear, it's just a movie!"
posted by Roberta at 3:12 PM

heh, funny how you guys are talking about it now. i watched LOTR for the second time just earlier this evening. well, not that early, i guess. i watched the 9:15 show and didnt get home til past 12:30. unfortunately, i dont really remember the music (being the musically-challenged dud that i am), but ill have to check it out sometime. perhaps ill download a scrappy mp3 sometime? well, i ended up watching it a second time because my friend still hasnt seen it yet, so i said id watch it with him since just about everyone else we knew has already seen it. i must say it was a bit slower the second time around just because i knew what was going to happen, but i was also a bit on the tired side today (which doesnt explain why im still up right now). anyway, good to see Roberta posting. for someone who lives less than a 20-minute drive away, i dont see or hear from her much, so i guess thats what this blog is for. anyway, i should probably try sleeping soon. my goal is to fix my sleep schedule, and its doesnt help that im still awake right now. good night all.
posted by yodaslap at 1:55 AM

No question I'm getting the DVD when it comes out! I still stand by my saying that I have seen better movies than it, but I have to admit it improves with viewing (yes I went and paid cash to see it again). 4.5 hours? Hadn't heard that. Cool.

The song by Enya is the one over the closing credits, "May It Be," which I didn't hear the first time because everyone was so anxious to leave (it was just after 11 p.m. by then). Both it and the score won Critics' Choice Awards and Golden Globe nominations (though no wins with the Globe). Enya also does another song (in Elvish) when Arwen and Aragorn talk on the bridge. It's funny, the first time I watched the movie I remembered nothing of the music afterwards, so I have to agree with the saying that "if you watched a movie and didn't notice the score, then the score has done its job."

Hey, did I tell you guys (Lawrence knows) how I came to see "Rings" in the first place? I wasn't really interested, but our church rented out an entire theater at a nearby cinema on opening night. in other words, it was pretty much getting to watch a movie with 100 of your friends. (Well, more or less. I didn't know everyone, of course. And there were guests. But you get the idea.) They even made arrangements with the cinema to allow us to bring our own food in! So ice cream and juice boxes were passed around...although the previews were so incredibly long that we finished our snacks before the movie even started. I hadn't seen a good movie with a responsive crowd for so long I'd forgotten how much fun it is.

Of course, my ultimate movie-viewing experience remains the special showing of "Star Wars" in college. I'll blather on about that some other time.
posted by Roberta at 3:16 PM

What song by enya? I can't believe that CD is selling so well though. You'd think a score-oriented CD would be shunned by the public. Just goes to show you how much people liked the movie. I hear there's a 4.5 hour cut coming out on DVD this summer. We should get it. No word on what scenes will be restored, though.
posted by Larry at 1:16 PM

Hi all,

Let's see if I can post!

Lawrence, yeah, now you can see why I spent time standing in bookstores flipping through the LOTR movie books despite the fact that I don't think it's necessarily the best movie I've ever seen. It's still very impressive. One can't help but want to find out just how they did it. Ian McKellen was on "The Daily Show" the other night; he was pretty cool.

I bought the soundtrack today, mostly because I really, really wanted that song by Enya and I couldn't download a good copy to save my life. Liquid Audio caused AOL to crash repeatedly (and it still crashes now, even though I dumped Liquid Audio like a flaming potato) and the *one* site I could find that actually had an mp3 of it (somewhere in Spain; wouldn't my high school French teacher be proud that I used my French background to sort-of translate the Spanish on that site just enough to let me figure out the instructions?) had such a static-y copy that I couldn't stand to listen to it after the 4th or 5th time. So I broke down and shelled out the cash.

Speaking of shelling out cash for media, if you're in the market for DVDs you can try deepdiscount. I ordered 3 DVDs from them last week and they arrived promptly, much more cheaply than other sites I used to order from (Best Buy, CDNow).
posted by Roberta at 4:11 PM

tip of the day: off-string yoyoing is impossible when youre incoherent.
posted by yodaslap at 1:21 PM

larry, for a guy so bright, you sure messed up big time!! When you burn MP3s, it' just like regular data, mate. Oh well, a good leason learned.

Only 1 CD? Sheesh, I have like 9 CDs worth of MP3, and that's before I stopped saving them.. :D

Yes I check this still, but not as frequent, since I'm having enough trouble keeping up with real life and work.
posted by asiliat at 5:41 PM

yeah, CD-burning software can be a bit confusing if youre new to it. what software do you have anyway, Lawrence? anyway, not much has gone on lately. Eric, do you check this anymore? hmmm ok, i guess not too much activity. i will post something interesting here as soon as umm, something interesting comes up. ok getting late and tired, good night all.
posted by yodaslap at 3:29 AM

So I burned all my mp3s (about 600 Mb) on a CD to save space on my computer. Well, the burner thought that I was burning it to make an audio CD, not individual mp3s. Now I've lost all my mp3s and have to download them again. Argh! Never choose "finish CD" when you're burning mp3s.
posted by Larry at 11:19 AM

Yeah, I could have probably watched 9 straight hours if they had released all three movies together.

I'll check out Eric's page when I get home.
posted by Larry at 9:19 AM

sorry, i meant Eric's site redesign.

yeah, i watched LOTR too. i cant believe ill have to wait another 2 years to finish watching both sequels. its kinda neat to know that theyve already been filmed. something different, i guess. i was surprised that it actually lasted 3 hours, since i was so captivated by it that i didnt notice the time going by. i thought the movie was only halfway done with the credits started rolling.

ok sorry for the lame post. im tired and i need to wake up super early tomorrow. two 12-hour days ahead....
posted by yodaslap at 11:20 PM

What site redesign?
posted by Larry at 5:00 PM

Oh yeah, I watched lord of the rings last week. It was probably the best movie ever. The rest of my life looks so boring compared to all the fantastic stuff in the movie, even though I've been out of the fantasy loop for years. Dan, you have to see it.
posted by Larry at 5:00 PM

yoo hoo, anyone here? anyway, Eric, not sure if you saw, but Justin posted the URL for this blog on the 4th. nice site redesign, BTW.

ok i just finished eating a cold polish sausage, but it was still good. im sure everyone wanted to know that.

so im not very good with this "school" thing. today i got up at 11:30am for my noon class (yes i have class on saturday). i was running slightly behind, but not too bad. plus parking on saturdays is a breeze. anyway, so i walked towards my class and im about 3 minutes late at that point. no big deal, i thought. a lot of ppl are late on the first day anyway. i finally found my classroom, and i peeked in the window. there was no one inside except for the teacher! now i know ppl tend to be late the first time, but not EVERYONE. plus, the door was closed. i looked to see if there was a notice of cancellation, since my other class was cancelled the first day as well so it wasnt too far-fetched of a possibility. nothing. at this point, i was thoroughly confused, so i pulled out my schedule printout (yes the same one i almost lost), and suddently understood. my class doesnt begin until 12:30! ugh! oh well, i am dumb, what can i say.
posted by yodaslap at 3:19 AM

hi all. sitting in vb class. *sigh*
posted by yodaslap at 7:19 PM

Someone from high school I haven't talked to since '96 turned up here at UW. He shouted to me in the parking lot when Dan and I were going to eat dinner before winter break, and I turned around. I thought it was him, but it didn't really look like him at the same time (different haircut, I guess), so we kept walking. Then he emailed me yesterday that it was him, after all. Pretty small world.
posted by Larry at 4:35 PM

duh, i left my ear thingys in Lawrence's car on the way down, and havent seen them since. i have to go pick them up sometime. my ears are cold :(

anyway, im dead tired now so ill post more later.
posted by yodaslap at 2:25 AM

the url for this blog is as listed on the settings: http://www.geocities.com/jy1o/cc/index.html
btw, dan, i saw those ear thingys for $12 at walgreens. i think i'm going to return mine and get another pair. a friend of mine saw them and liked them so i'll probably get him a pair as a belated christmas present.
posted by jylo at 10:58 PM

Haha, I was addicted to Continuum about 5 years ago (when it was called Subspace). It ruined about two months of my freshman year because it would be the first thing I'd do when I got back from class. Luckily, I cut it cold turkey. But back then there were 1000s of people playing, now I hear it's like 100.

() A tear for Eric

Well I'm back in school. Not much to say, other than the garbage smelled really bad when I got back and had to dump it right away. I'm at work right now, supposedly looking up papers. I should get back to that...
posted by Larry at 11:03 AM

I've pretty much stopped playing games. Okay not really, but I haven't had time to do it anymore. THere were so many supposedly good games I never experienced.

Shed a tear for me. Don't cry for me Argentina. :)
posted by asiliat at 10:48 AM

interesting bit about USSR. i think Justin knows the real URL, so ill ask him next time i see him online.

man, my dumb friends (the DU guys, actually) addicted to this game called continuum. its an online space dogfighting game between two teams, and you can choose from a bunch of premade "battle fields" to play on. im not much of a fan of computer games (in fact, i sort of hate most of them) but man, theres something about this one that makes me keep going back.

anyway, not much really going on lately. school starts up again for me next week, blah. other than that, not really much else to update on.
posted by yodaslap at 6:58 PM

well I know that back in the USSR days, people celebrated big time on new yrs b/c Christmas wasn't allowed. And that's kinda carried over to now, at least that's what I heard the other day.
posted by asiliat at 10:24 AM

happy belated new yrs peeps.

Sorry I've been too lazy to read this blog lately.....

Fanx for the compliments Dan about "Tai poh"

I STILL need the REAL URL of where this page is being hosted, b/c um, my cc.losir.com still points to the old page... sigh.
posted by asiliat at 10:20 AM

message to Lawrence: argh! ok im not so sure what the chances are of you checking this before you leave, but id like to try getting ahold of my earmuffs before you take off. oh well, guess ill try calling or something tomorrow and hope to catch you before you leave. anyway, hows everyone else doing? does anyone else check this anymore?
posted by yodaslap at 2:29 AM

Well I'm going back to school tomorrow. We'll have to do something spring break then, end of March or so.

Well, I think that months are just such a big part of the daily routine that we just get caught up in names and stuff. That's why it resets the year, just because we have to write 2002 now instead of 2001 on so many important things that it feels like the change in numbers is also important too. Or something.
posted by Larry at 3:42 PM

duh, happy new year to all too. Lawrence, are you busy friday during the day? thats probably the only time im free, besides maybe a very small time slot tomorrow (later on today, i should say). im working all day thursday (free after 8 or 9), and leaving for my church's winter retreat friday afternoonish or something. oh well, i guess ill just talk to you about it over the phone sometime or something.

anyway, heres my post from my other blog. i guess it kinda sums up how i feel about the new year:

---
well happy new year, to whoever reads this and i guess to myself, since ill probably be reading this later. another year has come and gone. maybe im weird, but i sometimes wonder why ppl make such a huge deal out of new years. i mean, its a new year, granted, but sometimes it seems like its supposed to be some kind of portal into a new "unit" of time or something. besides calendars, nothing really resets or starts over for me because of a new year. i still look the same, have the same interests, have the same problems, live in the same place, drive the same car, you get the idea. to me, its not terribly different from any other day, besides the fact that i wont feel as guilty about sleeping way past midnight. of course, this is just another one of my personal warped opinions, so dont mind me. keep in mind this is coming from someone who also dreads his own birthday.
---
posted by yodaslap at 3:17 AM