Things I Am Thankful For.

1. Family
I truly have a wonderful, loving family. And although I am about 1000 miles away from them at the moment, I love them, and cherish them always in my heart.

2 Friends  

I have quite a few friends, but not many who read this, I think. Although I know a few who do read this, I don't think a lot of them realize how much they are loved by me.

3. Good Entertainment
You ever have a Book, Movie, piece of Art or Song/Album really hit you? Like actually mean something to you? Not just something mainstream that you are told to like, but something you have an 'AH-HA!' moment, and it strikes something inside you. It may not even be a song you like, but you get it and understand it on some emotional level. It's more than entertainment, at that point, if it can move you. And not a cheap emotional payoff of having the good guy win, or the two lovers finally after a series of mishaps, hook up. But real emotional catharsis of laughter, tears, happyness, cynicism, irony, anger, rage.... That kind of creativity, that's what I crave in my entertainment.

Songs/Albums -

Saul Williams - Coded Language
Tool - Parabol/a 

Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero

Nine Inch Nails - The Four of Us are Dying

Films-

SLAM.
Constant Gardner
Fight Club
The Giver

Books-
House of Leaves
Stranger Than Fiction
The Dead Emcee Scrolls
God Dilusion

4. The Series of Tubes
The internets. A series of tubes that allows us to communicate, exchange ideas and gross porn, that allows us to troll on the net looking to start fights or to have meaningful discussion. Sometimes the tubes get clogged (like the last post), or sometimes we have so much tube space there's not enough torrents to clog your tube.

The internets, to me, is probably the greatest thing since sliced bread. Although, sliced bread isn't all that special. I mean, you have bread, you have a knife.... slice it yourself.

But the internet has brought me a lot of good and bad things. But mostly good. 

Good

Love- I met Jen online. Through TDT/Campdoc. And without her, my life would be very different. 

Friends- Most of the people I am on a first (or second and third) name basis online I consider friends. Camp and a few other websites have provided me with some amazing people from all over the country. And if I was ever stranded close to them, I am sure I'd have a place to crash.

Creativity- Places like Flickr, Blogger, remix.nin, Deviant Art, Photobucket serve a higher purpose than just documenting our own products on the net, but can show us other people's work, and inspire us to create something ourselves.

Weird Porn to laugh at.

Bad

Furries.
Stalkers.
Weird Porn

I have a lot to be thankful for, and I need to remember that even though I'm sarcastic and use this blog for creative ranting, and/or typing stuff to amuse you all, I can't take it too seriously. My rants are just that, rants. And I am greatful to be alive and surrounded by people who love me. And an Internets that provides me with cool people, fun stupid youtube videos, a plethora of weird porn, and a good outlet for my ranting from time to time.

Happy Day of Gluttony, Americans.
Pig out with your thing out.

Trying to post this again

things that are pissing me off, again.

1. Television

TV, you had a GREAT good medocre run. I am going to give you Pros and Cons in various categories then decide if you're worth having around, TV.

1. Technology
Thanks to TV, we do have higher definition, remotes, portable movie players, Video on Demand, HDMI, and various ways of pirating TV and Movies. Howerver, with highdefinition comes great responcibilities. Who here has a Blu-ray Disc burner? Who has a HDMI ready computer monitor? Who really wants porn in high-def? For me, the answers are no, sort of, and Oh Dear Sweet Buddah NO!

2. Programming
With the exception of some brilliant programs, TV in the past 10, no 20 years have been shit. America loves (according to the Neilson Raitings) American Idol (2005-2008), CSI (2003-04), Friends (2002), Survivor (2001) and Who Wants to be A Millionaire (2000). So for half of the current decade we are living in, we've spend time watching idiots on gameshows trying to win either a million dollars(Survivor, Millionare, Idol), cars (Survivor, Idol) or a recording contract/souless existance (American Idol).

11 of the top 20 prime time telecasts from 1964-present have been sporting events. The only really redeaming quality of that list is that the series finale of MASH tops the list and the finale of Roots is at number 3.

So we watch reality TV and sports, programming in my opinion, that makes us docile and complacent, and does not teach us anything. Even the most basic sitcom has the basic premise of Good v. Bad or Idocy v. Intellegence. Sometimes they get the message right (M*A*S*H), sometimes they get it wrong (Seinfeld), sometimes they just leave us confused (LOST).

Programming on the History, Discovery, Investigation and A&E have much more intellegent programming than most of the other channels. Discovery Channel has MythBusters; FOX has Family Guy, need I say more

3. Storytelling

In case you haven't noticed, TV isn't about this anymore, it's about getting you to BUY BUY BUY shit that you do not need. Average half hour programs are actually 22 minuits, to allow for 8 minutes of commercials. Over the course of 10 hours, American viewers will see approximately 3 hours of advertisements. They are now thinking of using embedded ads to annoy people like me. Kind of like popup adds, or the annoying topper bars on old geocities webpages.

4. News
General Electric owns NBC, MSNBC, CNBC and Court TV.
Westinghouse is partners with CBS including 48 Hours and 60 Minutes.
Newscorp owns FOX and it's subsidearies.

Time Warner owns CNN.
Disney owns ABC.

We have no real news any more, Edward R. Murrow would be ashamed.

I say let's leave TV for now, watch and watch it all you want people. I'll continue to remain behind the times, and pirate the shows I like. And I'll gladly get my news from the internets.

2. l33tsp33k and or CaPaTaLiZiNg RandOM LETTErS

Okay, unless you are writing in a code (house of leaves), lolspeek and the aboved mentioned typography issues piss me the fuck off. I mean, internet culture is amusing to a degree, and I do use it, mostly in an ironic or sarcastic sense. Hell, this WebLog (figure it out kids) is an accidental reference to internet culture, and since I am posting this in them thar series of tubes I feel that I have a right to mock the idocy of the internet from time to time.

Lolcode, a programing language that mimics the speech patterns of captioned felines. An example follows.

HAI

CAN HAS STDIO?

PLZ OPEN FILE "LOLCATS.TXT"?

AWSUM THX

VISIBLE FILE

O NOES

INVISIBLE "ERROR!"

KTHXBYE

What the fuck, guys? Does this really DO anything? What are you trying to acomplish 

beside amusing me for 20 seconds?

3.Blogger.com

Okay, this is biting the hand that feeds you, but why the fuck did this post decide to not connect to 

blogger.com, then refuckingformat the post like 3 times. shit was going out of the edges, and I couldn't read 

what i typed origionaly.

EDIT: this is still fucked up in my little blogger.com window, text overlapping picture of the internets 

is all covered in text....  It pissed me off that all of this shit looks like crap on the entry page, and then 

crap on the page because somehow my html formatting got royaly fucked in the ass with a big rubber 

dildo with a mickymouse head on the end...

EDIT 2: trying to get this reformatted is pissing me off more and more. so, it's going up as is. eat my shit blogger.com

Lights In the Sky 2008

Nine Inch Nails - Lights In The Sky 2008 tour ad from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

Things That are (currently) Pissing Me Off

1. Axl Rose and Guns 'n' Roses

So I take it we all know that Axl Rose is releasing the 15+ years in the making album Chinese Democracy. Har har, cute name because it's an oxymoron. And psudo-ironic.

I enjoy old GnR, Lies and Appetite were both solidly good recordings, and to me, bring back
a nostalgia of childhood/early teenage years when I really got into 'Rock'.

But if you are like me, you've grown sick of the hype surrounding this upcoming release. Axl is the only origional member from GNR to appear on the album, so why not call it a solo album or something else. Dizzy Reed joined GnR when it was at it's peak, and for touring reasons. He did appear on UYI 1&2, and is the only tie that Rose has with the peak the band experienced in the early 1990's.



I expect this album to be top of the charts the week it's released. A lot of fans remember GnR, and will buy anything that has it's name on it. And they have made a lot more fans since they've been inactive since 1993-4. I don't deny that this is fricking awesome, because I'll get a free Dr. Pepper, but it's just a damn album. There will be ups, and there will be downs; prepare to be disappointed, GnR fans.



2. People Magazine: Hugh Jackman
I don't know; maybe I'm a little little fucked up in the head, but Hugh Jackman, right? Wolverine-Hugh Jackman? Van Helsing-Hugh Jackman?



3. George Lucas
Thank you George Lucas for raping my childhood once again. First it was Star Wars, which you started raping back in 1999 with making The Force be about fucking microbiology! I like microbio, it's cool and interesting, but little parasitic bacterium cannot make you be able to choke someone with your mind! Strike 1.

Then, I saw a trailer of EP 2: ATTACK OF THE CONES! (worst subtitle in the history of film making; even more so than Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky). Then I saw the movie.

Let me spell this out for you George...
Y-o-d-a- -w-a-s- -a- -p-u-p-p-e-t-!
And it was fucking awesome! You had him all CGI floating around on a fucking wok pan, and generally raping one of the saddest deaths I ever witnessed in film (when i was 5).

Strike fucking 2.

So onto episode III, the revenge of George's really bad ham fisted comments on politics and giving things really silly names.

Look, man. You started out so good, and you had a wonderful little universe. You had a good story with A New Hope. You had a great story with Empire. Then you had a well rounded conclusion with Jedi (except for the fucking muppets). And, because you wanted to add a personal spa to pamper your aging scrotum, with bubble jets, mineral baths and daily de-wrinkling, you decided to tell more of the story.

There's a reason why Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost is more popular and well known than Paradise Regained.

I'll now briefly list other travesties bestowed upon humanity by you,you hack of a filmmaker.
The Clone Wars, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Willow (fucking hobbit +bible+gulliver's travles ripoff), The Land Before Time (you killed littlefoot's MOM, you fucking bastard; and it has 13 sequels), Howard the Duck, and More American Graffiti. NOT to mention The StarWars Holiday Special (BEA ARTHUR!!!!!)

4. LOST
Okay, I watched the first season when it was on, and then due to various reasons, I stopped watching it. Now, I've been re-watching it with Jen, and now progressed to the third season.

J.J. Abrams is a genius. I watched Alias quite often, I liked Cloverfield as a monster movie, and his remake on Star Trek (which I haven't watched since I was a very young child) is looking promising.

You got me hooked, again. And to top it off, not ONLY is there the show, there is the ARG stuff that you seem to do after every season is done/leading up to the next season.

I am a sucker for ARGs. Year Zero, Why So Serious/The Dark Knight, Iris. And I didn't even buy Iris/Halo 3

Something to think about

In the United States, the most privatized, capitalist country on the planet, it should come as no surprise that it also has the largest prison population in the world 2 million people, and growing every year. Statistically, most of these people are uneducated and come from poor, deprived societies. And contrary to propaganda, it's this environmental conditioning which lures them into criminal and violent behavior. However, society looks the other way in regard to this point.

The legal and prison systems are just more examples of how our society avoids examining the root causes of behavior. Billions are spent each year on prisons and police, while only a fraction is spent on programs for poverty, which is one of the most fundamental variables responsible for crime to begin with.

And, as long as we have an economic system, which prefers and in fact creates scarcity and deprivation, crime will never go away.

Blags I read (part 1.)

So, I think i finally got the hang of doing the blog-thing. I am liking it so far, but I just wanted to make a few comments on the other Blogs I'm following.

Change.gov is Barack Obama's transitory website to show transparency during the transition from President GWB and President-Elect BHO and inauguration and information about his agenda. Regardless of whom you voted for, I think (as long as this isn't a PR stunt) this is a good step forward and a large distinction between 43rd Presidential Administration and the 44th President-Elect's Administration.

Rob Sheridan's Sketch blag blog - Rob is the Art Director of Nine Inch Nails a popular band I like love obsess over. His sketches border on the surreal, and always make me a little uneasy.

The Fargus Report maintained by my good friend Fargus, is part political discussion, part amusing stories, and as always, 100% Fargus.

Evertime Realms by Blake M. Petit is a Blog of compelling sci-fi/ fantasy/ superhero fiction with the on going story with the unfortunate title Summer Love which, sadly, I have been slacking on reading recently. Also contained are his articles on comics, TV /Movies/Books reviews, and my personal favorite, his Think About It rants.

Erin Patrica is a friend from Pittsburgh, and is a self described I'm a Clumsy, Snarky, Vat of Useless Pop Culture Information. I'm a Beer Snob. I'm a Geek. I'm a Zombie,Horror,Bad Movie Fan. I'm a Steelers Fan. I'm a Bibliophile. I'm an Aunt, Girlfriend, Friend, Sister and Daughter. I have a Ph.D. in Horriblenes. sometimes I can't say it better than the girl herself.

nin.com photoblog archive is an archive of nin.com's tour photoblog and news posts. very 'interesting' photos at times.

This is all, for the time being. I plan to cover other blogs as I add them. I also plan to cover movies, music and books that i think you should read/view/listen to.

Read the movies, view the music and listen to the books.

By the way: stay warm, and stuffs. I currently have a stomach bug, and on top of that, it snowed last night.

Updates to come soon.

I just ordered a new laptop, and I signed up for mobile updates via my iPod Touch.

So, I should be updating this soon.

Also, for those people who are reading this who may not know me, I have recently moved from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


Pittsburgh is one of my favorite cities in the US, having traveled a bit in my youth.

But having lived in the SW PA area for the past few years, I grew weary, and some things in my life needed changing.




So I moved to Presque Isle, ME.
Quite a difference, but it has a very slow paced vibe to the whole area.

Northern Maine, reminds me in some aspects, of West Virginia, mostly the Pocahontas County Area. It's beautiful, full of farms, nature and a lot of wildlife.


However it is missing a few things I. I'll get into that

in a later post.

Anyway, Scrubs is on.

Goodnight and Good luck.

Obviously I cannot figure out how to make a post from my iPod touch

Read at your own risk.

Hello.
I am AJ.
I can't say I am please to meet you because, well, I have not met you. Nor am I pleased very often.

I created this blog out of necessity and a desire to express the random stuff that goes through my head more effectively.

Or at least attempt to. I may get sick of this in a week, or a day. I don't know, usually my mind is busily chugging out ideas, random facts, various stories and thoughts, other times it's sluggish and sticky and full of gray-matter.

There are no rules to this blog. Really. No big secrets of life, the universe, or anything to unveil here (42). No topics i will cover on a post to post basis.

I may post links to other blogs/websites i find interesting, or appropriate to what is going on in my mind; I may just do a direct
stream-of-consciousness posting; I may do a well reason argument on why Ryan Seacrest is the reincarnation of Caligula; I may just babble nonsensically like I have for the entirety of this post.

On this trivial note, I bid you adieu until next postings.