11:45 PM | !!
Requiem for a Dream is such a good movie. I've never seen anything like it before. It has a really unique visual style, with split screens, fast motion, slow motion, fisheye lens, and lighting quick montages of extreme closeups. The story is really bleak and downbeat, as it deals with drug addiction and what it can make people do. I hear the director, Darren Aronofsky, is going to direct the next Batman movie. Wonder what that's gonna be like.

3:05 PM | !!
Conan O'Brien is hosting Saturday Night Live tonight. Also tonight we're going to see Requiem for a Dream. I actually have stuff to look forward to on a Saturday, for once.

3.9.2001

5:28 PM | !!
Despite its name, Jesus Christ Superstore sells action figures for all religions. Jesus himself comes with Ninja-Messiah throwing nails and a Death Killer-Cross pump action over-under shotgun, while Buddha is armed with a Magnum66 automatic Nirvana pistol and the Invincible Holy Orange Cape of Enlightenment. Collect 'em all!

See, that's the problem with being an atheist: we don't have any cool action figures.

5:16 PM | !!
Net Advertising Opponents Say Online Ads Too Intrusive Save 10% On Your First Purchase Right Now At Egghead.

"I have no idea what these naysayers are talking about," said SatireWire editor Treat Warland, who, as an avid reader of The Wall Street Journal, was blown away by its free, 2-week trial offer.

2:43 PM | !!
I walked into the cafeteria at work today and saw 50 pizza boxes from Pizza Hut. Man, I love free food. I feel bad for the delivery guy though, my company's kind of cheap so they probably tipped the guy like 2 bucks.

3.8.2001

10:11 PM | !!
One of the movies I missed in theaters is Almost Famous. I heard so much good stuff about it, that by the time I decided to see it, it wasn't playing in theaters anymore. Well, the DVD is coming out soon and DVD File has a review. Apparently, there's also a longer cut of the movie that'll be released later this year.

5:16 PM | !!
Robber Loses Keys to Getaway Car. Sounds like something from a Guy Ritchie movie.

"Jeffrey T. Anaya, 35, walked into a Chevron station Sunday and threatened the clerk with a screwdriver."

5:08 PM | !!
DVDs can now be descrambled with just 7 lines of Perl code. In fact, it's short enough that I can just include the whole thing in this post.

$_='while(read+STDIN,$_,2048){$a=29;$b=73; $c=142;$t=255;@t=map{$_%16or$t^=$c^=($m=(1 1,10,116,100,11,122,20,100)[$_/16%8])&110;$t^=(72, @z=(64,72,$a^=12*($_%16-2?0:$m&17)),$b^=$_% 64?12:0,@z)[$_%8]}(16..271);if((@a=unx"C*",$_)[20] &48){$h=5;$_=unxb24,join"",@b=map{xB8,unxb8,chr( $_^$a[--$h+84])}@ARGV;s/...$/1$&/;$d=unxV,xb25, $_;$e=256|(ord$b[4])<<9|ord$b[3];$d=$d8^($f=$t& ($d12^$d4^$d^$d/8))<<17,$e=$e8^($t&($g= ($q=$e14&7^$e)^$q*8^$q<<6))<<9,$_=$t[$_]^( ($h=8)+=$f+(~$g& $t))for@a[128..$#a]}print+ x"C*",@a}';s/x/pack+/g;eval

I dare you to try to understand that.

3.7.2001

10:57 PM | !!
Nuts, slow day for blogging. I can't find any news stories to make fun of. Maybe something exciting will happen tomorrow.

5:16 PM | !!
So the David Carson lecture was a dud. It's postponed till next week and nobody bothered to post signs or anything. Luckily some guy found out it was moved and came to the room to tell the 6 of us that were there.

12:57 AM | !!
Poor Spelling Children Pay Dearly for "Letters to Satan"

"Ten-year-old Sally Ryder mistakenly asked Satan for a pony and was trampled to death by the Budweiser Clydesdales at a football game."

3.6.2001

9:25 PM | !!
I picked up an application for graduation at the ICS office today. It needs to be TYPED (their emphasis). What? Computer science requires the application to be typed? I'm surprised they don't have online applications.

Anyway, Irving has a typewriter so I took it to his place. As I was filling it out I came across an optional question: "Plans for the year after graduation." I'm really tempted to write "Use my skills for evil."

5:26 PM | !!
House of 1000 Corpses, written and directed by Rob Zombie, isn't going to be released by Universal. The initial version of the movie received a NC-17 rating. What was Universal expecting? It's directed by Rob Zombie, you know it's gonna be a fucked up movie. Hopefully a small film company will distribute it.

3:54 PM | !!
So, is this the end of Napster? Maybe not. A Canadian wants to set up a new version of Napster located on an offshore data haven, where governments and corporations can't touch it. He needs to raise $15,000, though.
[ From Geeknews ]

3:25 PM | !!
Police Nab 'Fake Doctor' -- After 22 Years.

"The man, who was not named, had, however, qualified in alternative medicine. He was also a trained hairdresser."

3:16 PM | !!
Guillotine Trap Severs Girl's Hand. I realy have to applaud the guy who set up the trap. After being repeatedly robbed, with police unable to catch the robbers, he took the law into his own hands. Charles Bronson would be proud.

2:38 PM | !!
GameSpot previewed the Final Fantasy movie. They say the graphics and animation are good, but the lip synching is a little off.

3.5.2001

10:09 PM | !!
It was supposed to rain yesterday and today. All over the news I heard about the storm that's "pounding the southland." Right. The closest I came to rain was when I wet my bed last night.

10:00 PM | !!
You gotta love people who riot over Air Jordans: Shoe stampede shuts Florin Mall -- Crowds swarm store for $140 Nike sneakers.

9:26 PM | !!
All of the archives are back on line now.

4:30 PM | !!
When I was into the zine scene, my favorite zine was Science Geek. It was written by Doug Larkin, a high school science teacher/peace corps volunteer in Kenya. It had great articles about science, music, and life in Kenya. It also had great illustrations and comics by Steve Spatucci. I haven't heard anything about Science Geek for a few years now. I didn't know if they're still putting out issues, or if they stopped making it completely. Anyway, today I came across Steve Spatucci's website, Plasmic Studio. There's lots of examples of his art, and there's also some illustrations from various issues of Science Geek.

2:59 PM | !!
David Carson is giving a speech about "Grafik Design After the End of Print" here at UCI on Wednesday night. He's the guy who designed the album art for Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile. He also has 2 books, The End of Print and Fotografiks. Finally we get somebody cool speaking here.

1:01 PM | !!
Yep, another school shooting. They're a tired cliché now. People! It's time for church shootings!