(Just) Popped in My Head

Apr 29, 2009

Going down on Idol Wednesday

It's Idol Wednesday, and my laptop was in the truck during the show because for the first time all week, we actually DID get the rain everyone has been telling us was coming our way.

So, I am writing this from memory...

Bottom three:

Adam, Kris, and Matt. That was a bit of a surprise. I didn't expect Allison to make top two! Fortunately, Kris was the first to be allowed to sit down.

Say what!? Adam is in the bottom two? Wow. Really? Is his fan base finally getting tired of all the screaming he does? Are they growing weary of the "sultry" way he tries to look at the camera? Are they just sick of him?

Regardless, the person getting the boot this time was no surprise. Matt leaves the show, only to wait around for the Top Ten Tour.

And, referring to the title of the post, someone please explain something to me. Why is it that Saving Abel's "Addicted" has to have a 'radio-friendly' version, yet Flo-Rida's "RightRound" does not? Both songs openly refer to oral sex, yet only Saving Abel had to change their song to 'when you're loving me' instead of 'when you're going down on me.' Flo-Rida's song clearly says "You spin me right round when you go down, down..."

Is it because Saving Abel plainly says "in between the sheets" in their song? Is it because Flo-Rida's is a remix/mashup of a classic dance hit and Saving Abel is more rock?

Seriously, someone explain this to me.

For the record, I was making fun of all the people wearing masks long before Leno made the crack about Michael Jackson. I wish I had said something on here for proof, but you'll have to take my word or ask my wife. Or not, whatever.

I spent the day Tuesday at one of my area schools going through all of their technology in order to create a report for the incoming Superintendent. I think it went very well, and the district is actually more up-to-date than I think anyone thought. I have a feeling other districts will start to request the same kind of site survey.

Today, I worked at a district switching everyone's computer on campus to Office 2007. I'll be back there on Thursday and Friday to try and finish the job. It's not going as quickly as I had hoped, but I would rather get it done right than have it done wrong poste haste... ("poste" may not be spelled correctly. I have no idea, nor any desire to check my spelling on it. Yeah, I'm that lazy tonight...)

Referring back to Michael Jackson, I think everyone needs to take a moment and just relax. According to several newscasts I have seen, wearing the masks does very little to protect one from the Flying Pig Flu (that's what I'm calling it, thanks). The best thing we can do is wash our hands and cover our mouths - you know, the two things your mother has been telling you since you were three years old...

I absolutely HATE how the government, media, and freaky-deekies try to rule the world through fear and intimidation. Keep everyone afraid of everything, and you can get them to do just about anything.

Please, if you are someone who is freaking out over this whole Flying Pig Flu, quit freaking out. Take common sense precautions. If you think you have the symptoms, go to the doctor to be tested. But ONLY if you have the symptoms. If you're not sick, don't go to the doctor to be tested. It's a waste of time and money. If you end up with the Flying Pig Flu, take the medicine, monitor your status, work with your doctor. But, most of all, chill out.

Oh brother, and speaking of fear and intimidation - HOLY CRAP, foreigners are building the windmill turbine things that no one is even really using yet! OMG! The world is coming to an end because Americans aren't building them, or buying them, or whatever it is we're not doing... Puh-leaze...

Apr 28, 2009

Idol Tuesday - Top 5


NAME----SHAN---DAVE---
Kris-----Y------Y-----
Allison--Y------Y-----
Matt-----N------N-----
Danny----Y------Y-----
Adam-----N------N-----

standards from the rat pack era... Okay, why does AI insist on making their contestants sing songs that no one has heard in 40-50 years!?

Kris looks a lot like Ryan tonight - that's funny! "The way you look tonight" - Very smooth and nice. Shan said she is voting yes for him no matter what - well, "unless he comes out looking like Sanjaya or somethin..."

Allison - "someone to watch over me" - Man, she is good. She really is talented beyond her years. Let her rock, let her do ballads, let her sing. She is great. Shan likes her singing, but thinks she or Matt may be going home.

Matt - "my funny valentine" - I don't understand how Matt even made it this far. This is very Vegas, and not very good at all. Shan says he just bought Allison a one-way ticket through to the next round. I agree completely. He should go home.

Danny - "come rain or come shine" - Wow, very nicely done. I have to admit, these folks are doing some very good things to these very old songs. Man, he's got some Joe Cocker in him...

Adam - "feeling good" - LOL, this is like a bad 'rocky horror picture show' spoof or something. Shan think he'll win the whole thing just because people will keep picking him. I don't give the voters that much credit, or maybe I give them more credit than that. Please, dear voters, send Matt home this week and Adam home next week. Seriously. Save us.

Apr 27, 2009

Time Travel

What you see above is one of the coolest things I have ever seen done with a Commodore 64. Yes, you remember those, right? Well, if you grew up in and around the 80's, you probably do. Well, Ben took a Commodore 64 (technically it's a C-64C) and built a custom-made laptop out of it with an LCD screen. The whole story is here. And, I have to say, it is a stroke of genius and beauty as a kid who not only owned a Commodore 64, but who grew up and got into the technology field because of it. At one point, I even had a 'custom' Commodore 64 that I labeled the "XTC" because it was housed in an old IBM-XT case. It was ugly. Ben's finished project is a true testament to the computer that changed 'personal computing' in the 80's. Oh, I know, a lot of folks say it was IBM and their "PC jr" that did it, but I say "nay-nay" (heh-heh). The C-64 made personal computing AFFORDABLE in the 80's.

The influence of that computer is so great that Nintendo recently announced that the Commodore 64 will be available for download on the Wii's virtual console. Frankly, I'm puzzled by that whole thing, but hey if it brings a new generation of kids along for the ride, why not? Of course, I'm sure it's aimed at the parents who had a Commodore as a kid. that, of course begs the question: Why not just go to www.c64.com and download nearly everything made for the Commodore 64 on your own computer? I don't have an answer for that. Frankly, I'd rather play C64 on my PC than on my Wii...

Now, I have also seen people go in the OPPOSITE direction:

What you see above is a Commodore 64 that is now a modern-day PC. The guts were stripped out, and a very small system board (called mini-itx) was used on the inside, along with a CD drive and more. So, here is a computer you could use right now, running Windows XP, dressed up in a Commodore 64 casing. Brilliant!

Amazingly, people are still very interested in what the Commodore 64 could do in the past, and what it can still do today. While poking around for material to be included in this post, I came across a live web server being hosted ON a working Commodore 64 computer:

The web site has an entry page (found here) that lets you know if the C-64 is up and running at the time. But, once you're in, you are sitting on a website hosted on a Commodore 64 that first showed up in 1982! I find that remarkable, and an enduring testament to just how well the main units were put together.

Now, i did say "main units" here. Having owned several Commodore 64's throughout my younger days, I can attest to the horrid power supplies those things came with. in fact, at one point (this is when I was living in Virginia), I hunted down a company that manufactured power supplies for the C-64 and bought two on the spot. One of those ended up in my custom XTC in fact. And, if you read the laptop article, you'll notice Ben opts for a GameCube power supply himself. That says a lot right there!

The original computer ran at 1Mhz. that's 1 Megahertz. A Megahertz is the number of cycles per second a computer can perform tasks. By comparison, today's mini netbooks (like the EeePC) run at approximately 2.2 Ghz (that GIGAhertz). Most 'regular' computers these days run at 3+ Ghz and often sport more than one processor handling things. But, for the sake of argument, let's stick with the 2.2Ghz EeePC. This little laptop is 2.2 THOUSAND TIMES faster than the Commodore 64 was!

I also came across the Jac64 project, which lets you play certain Commodore 64 games in your web browser! Holy Crap! Here is the list of games. What's great about this project? You don't have to download anything special, other than Java! And, most folks have Java anyway, so there ya go! The controls can be alittle hard to get used to, but I had a blast playing the old "Lode Runner" game for a bit (once I figured out how to move!).

What's cool about the emulators today is that most of them allow you to bump the speed of the C-64 up to hundreds of times faster than the original. An emulator is a program that 'pretends' (hence, emulates) to be the original device. I've talked about this before somewhat in relation to my own kids 'discovering' certain games and programs that were out on the Commodore 64, but still create enjoyable playtime (such as "Little Computer People" and "M.U.L.E.") today. Frankly, no one wants to wait while the slow Commodore loads up a game - heck we didn't even want to wait back then! So, like I said, most emulators let you speed things up (and then slow then back down, too).

So, if you're feeling a bit nostalgic, check out the links I posted and each of those sites will lead you further down the road to checking out what serves as the foundation for many of the computer geeks, er gurus, you know and love today...

Apr 26, 2009

Showing Dedication

This weekend, the whole family headed to Little Rock for my nephew's dedication. Shan, Tyler, Emily, Mom, and I opted to stay at the Hampton Inn and get a suite. I love staying there!

Here are pictures from the weekend (in no particular order):

A note Emily wrote for me:

Casey, Vanessa, Samuel and the pastor:

Kensley enjoys a free ride:

The outside of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock:

The inside of Immanuel Baptist:

Emily brought her John Deere bear:

Apr 23, 2009

40 Favorite Movies

In honor of this being my 40th year of existence, I am going to randomly choose 40 things and write about them. Today's 40 things: my favorite movies. No particular order, just out there for your enjoyment and/or bewilderment:

Stand By Me - my all-time favorite movie. Period.
Arthur - used to be all-time favorite until "Stand By Me" came out.
Major League - baseball, Indians, what else do you need?
Pretty Woman - First movie Shan and I ever saw together.
Grease - Yes, I like it. I'm a guy. Get over it.
Saw movies - All of them. They're great fun, in a sick sorta way.
A Pure Formality - one of the best independent films I've seen. I know a lot of people hated it, but I loved it. I'm weird like that.
Candleshoe - I was very young when this came out and it gave me an instant crush on Jodie Foster. What can I say?
Embryo - The scariest movie I saw as a 4th grader on HBO or something. I watched it every time it came on, and it freaked the crap out of me. I loved it.
Field of Dreams - hands-down one of the best baseball movies ever.
The Jackal - I am a huge Bruce Willis fan.
Die Hard series - see note above
Hudson Hawk - see note above the note above
The Sixth Sense - one of the first DVD's I ever owned.
Risky Business - probably the first "R" movie i remember - I stayed up late to watch it without my parents knowing. It was worth it.
The Matrix - Amazing story and incredible action!
Toy Story - the best animated film in history as far as I'm concerned.
Cars - tied for the best animated film in history
Heavy Metal - the strangest animated movie I have ever seen, but was young enough that it gave my libido fits.
Armageddon - I shouldn't admit this, but the end gets me every time I watch it, and I know exactly what's going to happen.
Con Air - Lots of my favorite actors all on one crazy ride!
1408 - I love Stephen King and John Cusak - this movie brings them together wonderfully.
The Great Gatsby - I loved the book and thought the movie was well done.
Funny Games - the original 1997 version. Man, a couple kids kidnap a family in their own house - talk about nutjobs! Great movie.
Airplane - classic slapstick humor. Great!
Princess Bride - I almost forgot about this one! DUH! One of the best comedies EVER!
Spaceballs - Nothing like a movie that pokes fun of sci-fi!
Star Wars series - okay, I don't know why this did not pop into my head until way down here, but DUH - it's friggin STAR WARS!! Personally, I think "The Empire Strikes Back" is the best of the whole series.
Smokey and the Bandit - It was either this movie or "Close Encounters" that I specifically remember seeing first in a theater with my Uncle Bill.
Close Encounters - potato mountain. What else is there to say?
A League of Their Own - women playing baseball. And based on real life. That's what I'm talking about!
Saving Private Ryan - The greatest World War II movie of my generation.
Big - Zoltar, Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Montgomery, and toys. Yeah, buddy!
The Breakfast Club - High school angst at its peak!
Ghostbusters - one-liner after one-liner
Strange Brew - My brother and I must have watched that goofy movie hundreds of times, and I could pop it in right now and laugh my rear end off, you hoser!
Ferris Bueller's Day Off - The way I wish I could have skipped school!
Dream a Little Dream - Corey Feldman's Michael Jackson routine - priceless
Moonwalker - I was a massive MiJac fan when this came out and I have (or had) the VHS tape to watch over and over - Smooth Criminal was great!
Save the Last Dance - Julia Stiles, DUH!