Archive for May, 2006

new music wednesday!

Published at May 31, 2006 in Misc..

Well, I just wanted to briefly post about my current music obsession, a little band called Stars, specifically their album Set Yourself on Fire. OMG! Such a good album. If anyone decides to check them out on iTunes or maybe download it illegally (whatever), I suggest Your Ex-Lover is Dead, The Calendar Girl, Soft Revolution, One More Night, and Ageless Beauty. Yes, those are all iTunes Music Store links. Your Ex-Lover is Dead is perhaps the best song I’ve heard in a long time.

Ok, I’m done gushing, just check it out dammit! =P

-Tom

I’m baaaaaack…

Published at May 22, 2006 in Misc..

Well, two weeks have passed and now I’m safe and sound back in Baltimore. California was great, the weather was fuckin’ awesome the entire time I was there. I got to hang out with Oki for a few days and we partied it up in San Francisco (aka: “The City”) and I got to meet some of his friends. I also got to see Emily while there, which was cool, since my trip coincided with her birthday. All in all, it was fun times. I didn’t get to do the trip through the Redwood forests, but I had a great time none-the-less. Of course, I got to visit the mothership (ie: Apple’s campus). I also geeked out by visiting Pixar and Google… I was in nerd-heaven! Whooo!

I’ll perhaps have some pics up from my adventures on the Left Coast, but until then, here is a moment of Zen (yes, I’m the goof-ball on the left):

Well shit…

Published at May 19, 2006 in Misc..

Well, the MacBook came out this week, and dammit, it is teh SEX. Man, I suck. Time to go drool…

-Tom

If they keep saying it, it will eventually happen…

Published at May 11, 2006 in Random Thoughts and Announcements.

This is just a quick rant…

Earlier this week, all of the Mac rumor sites were a-buzz with the news that Apple will be announcing the new iBook replacements (aka: the MacBook) this Tuesday. Well, Tuesday has come and gone, but Apple did not follow through with the rumors. Now, the rumor sites are saying that the announcement will come next week instead (on Tuesday).

I have the feeling that next week may come to pass with no announcement, and then the sites will just say that it will be in another week. Still Apple tends to announce new products at either special events, or on Tuesdays, and the fact that Apple has stated that they will come out with Intel iBooks before year’s end… I think the sites will ultimately be right. So, rock on rumor sites, rock on =P Maybe if we’re lucky, the second guess will be right. Hahaha.

-Tom

SGI

Published at May 11, 2006 in Random Thoughts.

I had this really long post partially written that was gonna detail my flight to California and all that rot… but I scrapped it in favor of this post. No one really wants to hear me brag about livin’ it up in sunny California, eh?

Anyway, on the second leg of my flight to Cali, I was seated next to this older woman who was fascinating and told me all of these stories about living in the Valley during the tech boom. In particular, she was telling me how she was employed at SGI before moving on to Netscape when they were founded. We chatted about the fall of SGI, and she was ruminating that SGI used to be the top dog, but she was disappointed to see SGI’s stock be so low (sub-dollar) and that they were de-listed from NASDAQ and all that crap. SGI (and later Apple, once she discovered I was a Mac geek) became the focus of our conversation, along with management philosophies and other related things. To be honest, I had not given much thought to SGI in the last few years, but I remember their hardware being, quite literally, the shit. My school had quite a few of their workstations, and I even knew a guy who had his own personal O2 box that made him the envy of others.

Yesterday, I open up my web browser and started looking through news sites, and what do I see but the fact that SGI filed for Chapter 11. Wow. It is really quite sad. I mention this mainly because the timing of this chance encounter on my flight strikes me as … odd. Not odd, but I can’t think of the right word for it at the moment. Anyway, just thought I’d share.

-Tom

haha

Published at May 5, 2006 in Misc..

So I went out to deposit my paycheck and whilst doing so, I picked up some food. I ate it in the car, and when I got home, I collected all the trash and deposited it in the large trash bin outside my hose. Not too long after, I realized I was missing my phone! As you can probably guess, I accidentally threw my phone out with the trash. Good thing I caught it when I did. My trash was the only thing in there, and right after I retrieved my phone, Hope came home and immediately took out a LOT of trash that had been piling up for the last few days (years, actually, since she was throwing out some old things she did not want anymore ;). Needless to say, my phone was rescued in the nick of time.

-Tom

brain dump…

Published at May 3, 2006 in Misc..

I have nothing in particular to write about, but that’s just as well. I figured I’d start writing and let the things fall in to place.

Firstly, I just picked up a book called House of Leaves and while I am not quite done with it, it is pretty damn awesome! I’ve heard it be described as “post-post-modern” fiction, which really tells me nothing, but alas, it is good, and complex, and I like that.

I leave for sunny California in a few days! I plan to bring my camera with me, and if luck holds out, I’ll be taking a ride up the Redwood Highway and perhaps will visit where my dad was born and raised. Aside from taking pictures of trees and maybe driving through a few of them, I also plan to take part of my trip through the coastal highway and get some good shots of Pacific Ocean. I hope the weather is good the weekend I plan to make my trip.

Oh yeah, I lost my iPod nano. I took that thing with me everywhere I went, so I guess it was bound to happen. Alas, I will miss thee, but I do have a third generation iPod that I can use in the meantime.

Speaking of iPods, and more specifically, music, I am currently on an indie rock kick. I’ve also supplemented my library with some odd Cocteau Twins, New Order, and the random Paul McCartney and Mary Prankster. Odd, I know, but ohh soo gooood.

In other news, my parents bought a new house today. It’s really sweet, and there is a slight chance I’ll be living there, in some fashion or another. We’ll have to see. It’s pretty sweet though.

I think I could take a moment to mention that there is a girl I’ve been hanging out with recently that I like, but… I don’t like talking about those things on a public forum. So yeah, blah.

Recently, there has been a flood of friend requests on MySpace from camgirls wanting to… be my “friend.” Of course, I deny the friend requests, but it’s really funny to see the guys who comment on these camgirls’ MySpace pages: “oh! thanks for the add! how are you?” Like these girls really care, it’s just advertising for them. Speaking of MySpace, my brother has set up a group to combat the plague that is BMPS (Bad MySpace Page Syndrome), I encourage anyone with a sense of style, or at least decency, to join us in our cause! =P

I still love me my pr0n!

Ok, I think with that final sentiment, my brain dump is pretty much over. =D

-Tom

P.S. - at work, I go by the name “Thom”… just thought you’d all wanna know that.