If only we'd caught them in the act, we would have had a nice candidate for a LOLCATS submission to icanhascheezburger.com
A google search on the topic did produce this humorous webpage which detailed one families adventures in Cat/Christmas Tree intermixing (Be sure to check the before and after at the end) So when I got home from work lastnight, I noticed Ryan was in the bedroom with the door closed. I could instantly tell he wasn't happy and was directed to go downstairs and view the Christmas tree which I initially walked right past without noticing anything. The cats had done quite a number on it. Many of the branches were off the tree, the ones that weren't were flattened, and the lights were disheveled beyond repair. Although kitties know not what they are doing (After all, a weird tree just sprung up in the middle of their play area from their perspective), I did not think Ryan could take another Christmas Cat-astrophe. I had to build a better tree; a cat-proof tree. After dis-assembling the whole tree, I tried experimenting with various ways of keeping the branches where they belonged, and eventually went out and got some zip-ties and carefully zip-tied each branch tightly into the middle metal pole thingy. I also got some new gold lights instead of the white ones we had, and got those fastened to the tree, as well as the ornaments and the star. The whole tree is weighted down with our DVD holder book things too. Now, the worst they can do is just smoosh some branches down, and maybe open a few presents that aren't theres (They opened the corner of a present) ,but hopefully the tree will survive the remainder of the holiday season upright and intact.
I know, I know. Posting part of a song lyric in your blog is cheating, and generally may not be considered all that interesting, and I'm even treading on an old post, since I already discussed this album, but here I go. My favorite song from Serj Tankian's 'Elect The Dead' is a song called 'Sky is Over'. As is the case with most of his songs, it is a very powerful song, while remaining vague and cryptic enough to make you wonder exactly what it means. I think he is referring to the dangers both politically/economically and environmentally of a nuclear bomb or nuclear attack.
"Even though we can't afford The sky is over Even though we can't afford The sky is over I don't want to see you go The sky is over Even though we can't afford The sky is over
Behind closed eyes lie The minds ready to awaken you Are you at war with land And all of its creatures Your not-so-gentle persuasion Has been known to wreck economies Of countries, of empires, the sky is over"
What are your thoughts on this songs meaning? Hmmmm?
So Ryan and I just got back from seeing The Mist. I had never read the short story, and I thought the movie was very very good, while the ending is going to be an appreciate or deplore it for many I think. While trying not to give anything away, I must tell you a valuable lesson I learned from this movie:
If you find yourself trapped in a situation with a group of people, be it zombie invasion, alien attack, vampire army, creatures from another dimension, or even a natural disaster, please, PLEASE for the love of God dispatch of the religous fundamentalists in the group STRAIGHT AWAY!
I'm sure most everyone is familiar with the band System of a Down, whether you like them or hate them(Ryan). You may not be as familiar with Serj Tankian, the front man for the band.While S.O.A.D. is on an indefinite hiatus, Serj recently embarked on a mission to release a solo album titled "Elect The Dead". The entire album was written, performed, orchestrated, and produced by Serj in his home studio. My review: Frickin' awesome. I've always been a fan of music that does more than make me want to tap my toes or hum. I like my music to really make me think or to give me new perspectives or paradigms. Granted, I think we all gave our guilty pleasures , or 'fluff' music (Leslie and the LY's) that we enjoy, but my list of true favorites either makes me think deeper or tap into some primal emotions. Korn, Marilyn Manson, System of a Down, Linkin Park (especially their recent album); all of these bands have an exterior that many people never see beyond. Once you get past that and listen to what these people are saying, it is fascinating. Getting back to Serj's new album, even the title has a profound meaning. He is saying that our current leaders do not have the strength or will to run this country and care for it's best interests. He is saying we need to elect the living, functioning ideas of dead leaders from our past instead of going with the dead, broken ideas of our living leaders. The underlying message which runs throughout "Elect The Dead" is also very, very eye opening. Our civilization is failing. Every day, our population grows at a more rapid rate and our resources to survive decrease at an equal pace. Human Society is not sustainable and will eventually collapse. We as a species need to decide what to do to survive. We, as intelligent creatures need to look at ourselves and say, "Okay, this whole civilization thing didn't work out. What do we have to live for. What do we have to do to continue on?" Serj elaborated in a recent interview that 'civilization' has existed for about 10,000 years. Before that time, humanity still existed indigenously and was in touch with the Earth. They had relationship with it. Once civilizations blossomed and began rapidly expanding the relationship became all about taking from and exploiting the planet and losing that relationship with it. This behavior is scientifically destined to fail. I have been chastised for taking an interest in 'doom and gloom' scenarios, but I truly find Serj's message frightening and astounding all at the same time. The problem is so immense and far-reaching that it seems like all one can do is just watch the events unfold. Below is Serj's video for "Empty Walls", the first single from the album. The video carries some very interesting messages about our (George Bush's) current war. I think the 'empty walls' has several meanings in the context of the song. I think it signifies the ignorance of our administration to see what is really happening. They're living behind safe comfortable walls apart from the turmoil. I think it also signifies the American peoples (lack of) understanding of the war and how it's only shown to us through the filters (walls) of the media. I think it signifies how we all tend to not see the bigger picture because we spend most of our time trapped inside the walls of our own minds.
The thing with Serj is, while he has his own messages and thoughts to convey in his songs, he likes to leave everything open to interpretation from the listener. I've heard other people say that the song is actually about the Armenian genocide and the Turkish government's attempts to cover it up for all these years (Serj is of Armenian descent), though the video would suggest otherwise. I've also heard that he doesn't necessarily always make his video pertinent to the song. What do you think the song means?
I'm going to guess that unless you've heard me talk about her previously, you probably don't know who Leslie Hall is, or her band, Leslie and the LY's. The band started at an open mic night in the little town of Ames, Iowa in 2004, and since then has gained an immense following on the interwebs. While Leslie produces most of her songs using Apples Garage Band program, when she goes on tour she is accompanied by band mates to play various instruments. I find the whole concept of Leslie and the Ly's strangely intriguing. The songs are totally unique and off the wall, but I think half of the charm is the quirky fashion of Leslie. She always performs wearing various incarnations of the gold spandex cat suit pictured above. If you visit her official site, you'll find she has a fascination with gem sweaters, and thusly has created a gem sweater mobile museum (which also doubles as her tour bus). Below is an early music video for my favorite song (though not the studio version) from Leslie and the LY's, "Zombie Killer" Enjoy!
I watched the Project Runway season premier tonight. Though you can't really see it from the picture above, this dress had a big wad of colorful fabric shooting out of the back of it. Here is how Heidi Klum described it: "Her model looked like she was pooing fabric." Best. Quote. Ever.
I have been a customer of Mediacom for several years now, so I think I've earned the right to say that they suck monkey ass. They don't suck monkey ass in a customer-service kind of way, but in the product they offer. I've actually had nothing but good experiences with their customer service, but damn, are they sucking ass with their product. I, as you know, am a High-Def junkie. When we were getting ready to move, I decided to do a little research on other options besides Mediacom. I looked up Dish Network and DirecTV, and was astonished at the leaps and bounds they had made in their HD programming over the last couple of years. Both offer 70'ish plus channels of high definition programming, with the promise of more on the way. This made my less-than-a-dozen HD channels on Mediacom look downright embarrassing. Not for me, for Mediacom. I gave them a call, and told them I was incredibly dis-satisfied with their HD package, and they gave me a 25% service discount plus free DVR service for a year. Yeah, that's great and all, but it doesn't increase my HD viewing experience. Their explanation was something to do with the bandwidth for delivering HD (yank yank) versus what satellite can do. Anyway, when we moved to the townhouse, we spoke with some third party for-hire maintenance man who said that they really didn't like us having satellite, and it would only be tolerated if some equipment was already on the premises, which it didn't look like, so I gave good old Mediacom a call and scheduled to have it transferred to the new place. When the Mediacom guy came to get everything set up at the townhouse, he commented on what a nice job someone did setting the place up for satellite in terms of wiring and even noted there was a DirecTV on the roof already. I was pretty shocked. Anyway, to make a long story longer, I made an appointment to have a Mid-America Wireless satellite installer come out tomorrow and look at the wiring to see if the place is indeed satellite ready. If it is, I then have to choose between Dish Network and DirecTV. I know some of you have one or the other. Which one should I get? Either way, Mediacom are shetbags and I can't wait to get rid of them.
Okay. Now I'm pissed off. Not only is my whole blog displaying like clown vomit, and it has been all week, but I cant even add a page element. I've been trying to add a links list with links to my friends blogs and each time I get it all set up and hit save, it says that there was some kind of error. Blogspot, why are you a big piece of feces?
I didn't have the stomach to watch the 'original', but this video contains a funny spoof of 2 Girls 1 Cup by John Mayer (naturally?)
PS: It beats the piss out of me why my blog displays like a train wreck in Firefox all-of-the-sudden. It works in Safari and Internet Explorer just fine. Anybody else have this problem? -Kody
I'm pretty excited about it, and I cant wait to see it December 14.
And Lastly, I would like to offer a calm, fanboy free analysis as an alternative to my ranting and raving on recent posts.
Over the weekend, I read several reports of folks who rushed to Wal-Mart stores to pick up ther bargain bin HD DVD players, and the majority of them purchased standard definition DVD's to go along with it.
Lets think about this for a minute. We have 2 formats, Blu-Ray and HD DVD. Both of them are just over a year old, and for the most part fall squarely into the realm of tech enthusiasts and early adopters.
Disney and Panasonic, two very outspoken proponents of Blu-Ray have spent the past several months putting on a 'roadshow' to educate consumers about the benefits and experiences of Blu-Ray versus standard definition DVD's. They have reached tens of thousands of people.
This is a crucial step. People are hesitant to buy into a new technology, especially when some don't even notice the difference between Blu-Ray/HD DVD and standard DVD's. Those people are mainly those who do not yet have high definition displays. This battle for market share is indeed two-fold. You first have to get people into HDTV, then HD discs. The fact that there are 2 HD disc options really throws a wrench into the machine.
The other thing to consider is that this is all new technology. Both formats are new. Does it really speak well of a new technology if you can get it for less than some DVD players, DVD having been around for a decade at this point? For me this is one of the most telling signs that HD DVD is in serious trouble. As I stated previously, more expensive hardware is only natural for new technologies. Not only is this an accepted fact of consumer electronics, but it stimulates the whole tech industry, infuses it with new sources of income, and drives funding for further research and development of said technology.
Now, referring back to my first sentence, it makes perfect sense to me why this whole cheap player scheme seems destined to backfire for Toshiba. Not only is the average joe not expecting to get his hands on this new technology for bargain basement prices, he doesn't know enough about the technology to appreciate it or even know to pick up the appropriate discs. Not to mention, this price slashing over and over is not going to win any trusted consumer electronics brands into the HD DVD camp. Not when Toshiba is single-handily going against accepted industry moves on pricing and treatment of new technologies.
I think that the true picture is that A) Toshiba has a huge excess of these last-generation players and they need to clear them out and B) Warner Brothers has made it pretty clear that the 4th quarter of 2007 will determine where they will align themselves, as being format neutral is something they are no longer keen on doing. Toshiba and HD DVD knowing that they have been outsold by more than 2:1 by Blu-Ray all year thus far is making a last dithced desperate move to saturate the market with cheap HD DVD players to try to boost their software sales. I think Warner leaning one way or the other would be a devastating blow to the opposite team.
This move would more than likely boost Blu-Ray to an untouchable level, with them already controlling two thirds of all HD software being sold and having support of virtually all trusted electronics brands, as well as having more studio support already.
If HD DVD were to bag Warner Brothers (fortunately they have said they will not succumb to bribery unlike Paramount ) this would mean that the Studio support would be nearly an even split, though most agree Warner holds a huge stake in this format battle whoever they choose.
Lets get this 4th quarter over quickly in hopes that we may soon have a resolution to the whole debacle
Jim Goldman, a technology journalist for CNBC wrote what I thought was an incredibly inaccurate and biased article about Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD, so I wrote him about it. I guess you can't blame him for being biased. NBC is in bed with Microsoft and Universal, part of the HD DVD axis of evil.
Fun :)
Also, check out this audio interview with Blu-Ray Disc association's director Bill Sheppard regarding the BDA's response to Toshiba practically now giving their players away with the purchase of an Egg McMuffin (just watch, I bet thats their next move)
UPDATE: It's just too bad Jim Goldman used the word 'uniformed' when referring to my e-mail, when I clearly wrote 'uninformed'
Here was my original e-mail:
Hello, I just wanted to tell you that your article titled "Blu-ray: Picture Gets Dimmer for Entertainment Format" has to be one of the most biased, inaccurate, and uninformed articles regarding this high-definition format war that I've read in the past 12 months. One glaring example would be your implication that Time Warner is exclusive to HD DVD, which is most definately not the case.
*Note: There is no proof that HD DVD will give you gonorrhea. This is an unsubstantiated claim from myself, a proven Blu-Ray fanboy.
Okay people. I have HAD it! As most of you know, I have become increasingly obsessed with the HD format war. I have pertinent-to-the-subject websites open all day at work, and frequently check them for news. I guess you could say I have an addiction. Why HD media? I can't really answer that. I'm a big movie buff, and a big technology and HD geek, and it all just coalesced into being obsessed with HD optical media. The problem is, there are 2 of them, when there really only should be one. Movie studios are divided, potential customers are confused, and the whole thing is just crawling along at a snails pace. In the past, I have stated that I just want one format to prevail regardless and stamp this thing out, and that remains true, but I am on Blu-Rays side here, and I am so fed up, I'm going to come right out and say it. I think HD DVD needs to hurry up and fucking die. I'm through pretending to be compassionate about HD in general, I'm on a side, and I want them to win. To me, Toshiba and their HD DVD flunkies are like a bug that you keep stepping on and it just wont die. You need to find something big and heavy and just smash it. Come on Blu-Ray. Lets get this done. What prompted this rant? Toshiba, in what I look at as a last gasp of desperation to me, has started selling their low end (no 1080p support, long load times, last years model) HD DVD player at Wal-Mart for $198, with a one day fire sale today of $98. Now there is NO WAY that Toshiba is making a profit on this. You can't tell me they can manufacture this thing for less than 100 or even 200 dollars, considering it was being sold for $500 initially just months ago. I believe they have effectively cut out ANY chances that ANY other manufacturer is going to want to make players for their HD DVD brand. Not when they know Toshiba will undercut them. Toshiba is fucking up the system. New technology costs more. It always has. It always will. When some new format is introduced, players are going to cost more than what its predecessor was. Manufacturers know this, and that is why they have all flocked behind Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray will re-vitalize their income with new technology being sold at new technology prices, also helping to fund further innovations in that technology. Toshiba knows this, and knows that most Americans are cheapskates, so they are trying now to appeal to people who don't like to spend money on cutting edge products. People with the 'walmart' mentality. Well, I have news for you Toshiba. People who walk into Wal-Mart and cream their pants over a 98 dollar HD DVD player are probably going to go into sticker shock when they see that HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs usually cost over 30 dollars. They are used to buying $5.00 DVD's for their $60 DVD player. I personally think your plan is going to backfire when most undeucated masses buy these low end HD DVD players and buy regular DVD's for them, because your name, "HD DVD" is stupid and confusing. People will think it's sole purpose is to make DVD's look HD. At least Blu-Ray clearly gets the point across that its something completely different than 'DVD'. Now someone might say to me, "Hey Kody, if you are so upset about all this, why not just support both?" Well, I tried that, and had a horrible experience with HD DVD. I got the XBOX 360 add on and the Matrix Trilogy for HD DVD, and the discs would not play. I don't know who is at fault there, Warner Brothers for the discs or Microsoft/Toshiba for the HD DVD drive, but it all went back to the store. After that, I decided that if I really cared about Blu-Ray winning, all I would accomplish by supporting both formats is prolonging the war. Every HD DVD disc I bought would cancel out a Blu-Ray I already owned or would purchase. Speaking of Warner Brothers, eliminating HD DVD, or them picking Blu-Ray exclusively(which is in consideration) would make me so happy. They currently release on both formats, but they encode films to the least common denominator (HD DVD) Basically, HD DVD has 20 gigs less storage capacity, a lower audio bit-rate and a lower video bit-rate than Blu-Ray. Warner scales down and compresses the film to fit on a HD DVD, then they port it over to Blu-Ray, where it could be done to a higher quality if they really wanted to, or didnt have to worry about making it fit on an HD DVD. I now have 34 Blu-Ray movies. I am confident that with Blu-Ray leading in sales, technical superiority, studio support, and electronics manufacturer support, they will prevail. They just need to finish eradicating the virus that is HD DVD. Wow. I haven't bitched this much in a long time. It felt good to get that off my chest. And remember kids, Paramount are sell-out whores, and Toshiba are filthy taints. Have a great day, and go buy some Blu-Rays! :) -Kody
PS: On a positive note, after Paramount (Whoramount) took the bribe to go exclusively HD DVD, everyone was banking on HD DVD FINALLY winning a sales week over Blu-Ray when Transformers was released. Oops. Didn't happen. HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!
