I think I've written about all the X-Men movies in my blog

X-Men: The Last Stand is dramatic in its violence and willful disregard for the sacred nature of franchise characters. In this, the movie is well done. The plot is thin, and it jumps quickly from one setting to the next, but this is expected for an action flick, and this really is an action flick, much more so than the previous two X-Men movies. But what this allows for the franchise is something that has been missing...the massive mutant on mutant battle were an outnumbered force of good faces off with massive forces of evil. Why am I discussing the movie in this manner? Cuz there's a crap load of hardcore X-Men fans that will hate this movie, not for its qualities or perceived lack thereof, but for the fact that this movie takes the story of the X-Men to a place that their precious comic books could not. This movie goes for broke with the characters, exploring their dark sides with no remorse. This makes the movie all the more fun, and brings life to the characters despite the movie's very simple plot. Yes, the movie coulda fleshed out the X-Men characters more, but it doesn't really need to. If you are into the comic books, then you know the characters already. If you aren't, then the characters are taken at face value when they fulfill their purpose in the story. This is a fun movie that moves the X-Men franchise forward. How does a "final installment" move a franchise forward? hmmm. :)

Busy

I can't remember when I started being really really busy in my daily life. I seems it started sometime late in 2004 and hasn't let up. It's nice to have stuff to do; stuff that isn't just something to do. Just sometimes it does start to wear one down. I was looking over my Outlook calendar the other day. A long time ago, I didn't even have use for it. Now, I'm glad to have a day here or there that is free from appointments, duties, scheduled fun time, etc. Some people are hella busier than me. I'm glad I'm not too busy.

No Trouble with Earthquakes

I just realized that I haven't been in a major quake in a long time, like 17 years. huh.

Trouble with Crucifixion

People really do treat each other extremely poorly. The more I hear experts talk about the crucifixion, the more it becomes apparent just how little human well being was regarded in the ancient world. Even for criminals, this treatment was horrific. No matter what one believes about Jesus death, the fact that anyone (be it son of God or lowly criminal) was nailed to anything through their hands and feet is repulsive.
Make no underestimate, these people suffered. Some of the most sensitive nerves in the body where pierced with a large nail and then used to hang up a the body upon a tree, stake or cross, left to suffer agonizing convulsions and nerve shattering pain throughout the body while onlookers gawked. How inhuman does one have to be in order to condone this?
I know this sentiment regarding crucifixion is two thousand years too late, but people still do engage in similar activities in modern times. Even with recent American torture embarrassment, it is not a normal thought for us to accept the inflictation of real torture on the scale of the crucifixion. The guilt of those particular U.S. soldiers in the recent cases amounts to taking hazing a bit too far. There are people in our current world that not only feel real torture is acceptable, they take joy in committing the heinous acts and are rewarded for them. This posting isn’t as random as it may seem.

Sometimes too cleaver

Some websites can be a bit too cleaver. I was going to post a link to an article that appeared in the Feb 1-8, 2006 Seattle Weekly which detailed the fall from grace experienced by the Discovery Institute in their efforts to combat reality with the highly fictional "Intelligent Design" notion. Well, Seattle Weekly does have their back issues on their website, but in the form of an Active X controlled pseudo-PDF format. Not so easy to link to, though it does store the exact pages as they appeared in the periodical when printed. I still recommend reading the article entitled Discovery's Creation. Goto Seattle Weekly and click on the Print Edition link under the Home tab. The browse for the Feb 1-8 issue under the back issue folder in the left menu, then goto page 19. It's not as hard as it sounds, but still is way too many steps when all would be needed is a direct link.
Anyways, the article does a good job of laying waste those nut-jobs at the Discovery Institute in light of recent Federal Court decisions reaffirming the lunacy of "Intelligent Design". It's a good read, and worth the time it takes to click through all those steps.

Anyone can be a Guru

You will find your answer at the end of your search.

Your quest begins with an answer and ends with a question.

When answers are given by others instead of by self

discovery, the lesson has not been learned.

Why walk upon hot coals if you can walk around them?

Ol'gang

Friday night was back to the ol' instigations by Miriam, Ronie and I at Chevy's, then back at Miriam's place. It's been too long. We cracked up about all kinds of shit all night.

Random Bonds

I ran across this message on a bulletin board on myspace at 5:00pm. The title was like "available Giants tickets for tonight" and the body was "anyone interested?" The message was left at almost 4:00pm.

Well, Barry Bonds just might've met and even broke Babe Ruth's home run tonight, so I figured that this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. At first, I tried to just send a reply message via myspace, but then figured that was not the best way. I didn't have this person's direct info, but I know who did, her cuzins. So I called up one cuzin. No answer. I called up another, yes, Kim answered. The funny thang is that Kim has just moved to San Diego and was in the middle of unpacking, so I did feel a little funny about asking a favor to contact her cuzin and find out about the tickets, but hey, I did it anyway. hehe

So after about 1/2 hr's worth of phone tag (from Silicon Valley to San Diego to San Francisco and around again a couple of times), I finally was in direct contact with Kate who had the extra tickets. Note the plural. Time was ticking. The game was set to begin at 7:15pm, and it's already like past 6pm. My first choice: I call up Allie and (with really explaining what was so important about this game) I head over to her place. Unfortunately, I made a bad request to take her car instead of mine. Well...

...she was almost out of gas. Arg. So, we had to go to the gas station. tick tick. Ok, guess what? The attendant had put someone's cash payment on our gas pump! Allie and I always use credit cards, so when the pump stopped at 10 dollars, we both got a bit confused. It took like 10 minutes for the attendant to sort out the mess!! tick tick tick ARG!!!!!

Hey, we made it to the game just at 8:00pm. The seats where about 10 rows up, in field and near 1st base. GREAT SEATS, especially for the price Kate offered!!! Allie and I did miss a couple of Bond's at bats, but no homers yet. The score was Cubs 3, Giants 1. Allie and I went to the food court. When we came back, the score was Cubs 6, Giants 1. I went to get a beer refill. When I came back, the score was Cubs 8, Giants 1. Pattern here? LOL Hmmm... I did get to watch Bonds at bat twice. Let me give Kate a big thank you for making these tickets available!

Kate her b/f headed out at the end of the 8th after Bond's popped out. Allie and I stuck around to the end of the nineth. I don't like leaving games early. We waited for traffic to die down at the nearby Borders and then at Amici's Pizzeria, then headed back to Silicon Valley. ::yawn:: I did some work online and now here I am at 2am thinking why didn't I post the story when I didn't have to get some sleep. :) It has been awhile since I've been so completely random, but I'm glad I did, even if Bonds didn't get this record when I was there.

Focus Keyboard FK-8200

I am dependant upon an extremely rare keyboard. This keyboard is the Focus Electronic FK-8200. It is special for several reasons.

First, it has an extra top row of PF key’s above the function keys. This top row is programmable on the keyboard itself; no special drivers or software. Some other vintage programmable keyboards also have extra keys, but they are on the left side of the keyboard which makes the keyboard too long for most keyboard trays. Other programmable keyboards require computer software or drivers to work, which means that if the company stops supporting the product, the keyboard will become obsolete. I couldn’t do without these PF keys for my CAD work.

Second, it has a built-in calculator that can send results directly to the computer. This is a function that is unique to an extremely few number of keyboards. I think there’s a patent on it or sumfin, otherwise I’m sure this would be a more common feature. As it stands, only two Focus keyboards and a few their predecessor Omni keyboards have this feature; and only the Focus keyboards have the “Send” function.

Once a person gets to using this features, they become addicted to them.

The fact that makes all of this frustrating is that no new FK-8200’s have been made in several years, and the company that used to make them appears to no longer be in business. Finding these keyboards is becoming increasing more difficult as time goes by. I’m becoming dismayed at the prospect of breaking mine and not being able to find another to replace. They are good quality keyboards that take frequent use in stride, unless you happen to spill the slightest bit of liquid on it, then they fry. I’ve already destroyed two this way.

[UPDATE April 2024]

So this article gets a far amount of attention from time to time.  There seems to be interest in the feel of the FK-8200, its programmable keys and also the calculator function.  As noted in the comments, I'm also using a G910 keyboard, which has a mechanical-feel keyboard and nine programmable keys. It works well, though software is needed for the programmable keys. Additionally, I'm considering something like a modern numeric keypad that doubles as a calculator, which appears to have a function to send calculated values to your computer, similar to the FK-8200.

MI:III

Mission Impossible III is a good movie. It's better than II, and definitely different that I. At the beginning, after the opening scene, I did get a little fearful about the movie getting bogged down in story, but the action picks up a just the right moment, and keeps going to the end. There are the normal set of twists in the plot, so no surprizes there, but the action was incredible and intense. It's a fun movie.
Now, I'm looking forward to Da Vinci Code, X-Men 3 and kinda interested in Poseidon (mostly cuz of the g/f's interest), all coming out this month. It’s not often that Hollywood has (at the least) a promising lineup of movies in a single year, but this is all within a single month!

Cinco de Mayo

uAnother friday night spent out, for Cinco de Mayo. Yes I celebrated of the day of the great battle in which the locals mexicans pulled together a militia to take on the French, but lost, however the French were so annoyed they left on there own anyways! lol It's funny how this day has grown in popularity in the U.S., but is pretty much not even noticed in Mexico. Anyways, Miriam, Allie, Stevo and I meet up at Compadres in Palo Alto for after work drinks. It was hella crowded. After that, we tried to go to a couple of other places, but ended at St. Stevens Green in Mt. View. Later Miriam's new interest came out later and she scared him with her dancing abilities. He was a trooper though, but he did drop her on the floor once. lol
Apparently, after Stevo, Allie and I left, Miriam and her date had enough fun where she ended up barfing at some point.

Selfsexual Part II

My definition to selfsexual has officially been added to Urban Dictionary. I've got a few words up on Urban Dictionary now. Check it out.

The Cellar in SF

Well...it looks like I discovered a new place in SF Friday. Kimi and I meet up with her younger sister in SF and headed down to The Cellar with some other friends, to meet up with even more friends that were celebrating another friend's BD. It was a crazy night! The DJ sucked, and the music was mostly Eighties with some random Ninties thrown in from time to time, but the atmosphere was fun. For example, it's been awhile since I've watched girls making out with each other.
This picture Kimi's little sister, her b/f, and me. This is my second night out in SF within two weeks. I haven't been in a club up there in years, and now all of a sudden, it seems like I've never stopped. hehe