If I am ever a vegetable, please confirm that I have irreveresible brain damage before the autopsy. Maybe even before you decide to pull the feeding tube. Sometime while I'm still alive, preferrably.

This article brought to light a legal document which can be used by, what I like to call, people who write on the internet (AKA web writers, journalists [technically they are writing in a journal], 'bloggers', webloggers, etc). This legal document is interesting. It includes sections that guide you on actually securing a "Press Pass", so you could like, go in the conference room and interview Andy Reid after the game, and when he says "Time's yours", it's actually yours, which would just tickle my fancy. Since some of these "personal journalists" are reporters, just not working for an established, official press outfit, it makes perfect sense.

The article that introduces the legal document has some disturbing pieces of literature in it though. It has a whole section on "how to blog anonymously". There's some validity in the argument about future or current coworkers/employers finding your journal and finding you insane. That I can see being a problem. However, it also uses family, friends, etc, as an example of people who you wouldn't want to know about your journal. I come from the complete opposite point of view I guess. If you have really dark secrets or crazy stuff going on, wouldn't you feel better just letting everyone know? Hi, I'm Jason and I love Jennifer Connelly.

I can't help it. She's gorgeous. And we have the same initials. And nearly the same last name. We could get married and she'd just shave a "y" off her name. That's enough incentive, I think, she may just marry me for that reason alone. Although, with some awful luck, we're probably related. Sorry Jennifer, it's probably not going to happen.

Another thing about this. People love to slander people anonymously. Whatever happened to people like John Hancock who would put it all on the line. Not like he signed where he would be when you read his signature, but he put a lot on the line there, signing in 20 point "Independence" font. Some people can't have an opinion unless they are anonymous about it.

To bring philosophy more heavily into it... what is Anonymous? If you have a name that you use consistently that is not necessarily your own real name, is it anonymous? Probably not. You have an identity, and that identity is your "moniker". It doesn't tie to your real life identity, per se, but it's an identity. So while it is anonymous in the fact that you aren't tying your two identities together, you are consistently using an identity for online purposes. If you walk down the street, and see a guy in pink pants, he's the guy in pink pants, to you right now. You may later learn his name, his real identity, but for the meantime he has an identity, one which he may regret later. So, going by this, first names are an identity, so they are not anonymous. However, if you use different names every time, it's anonymous, or your identity becomes the guy who uses different identities, which to me is anonymous since, with the nature of online, you cannot tie any of those two random identities to one person, making them anonymous. You might ask, with this definition, is anyone on the internet anonymous? I'd say there are degrees of it then. Actually, degrees of non-anonymity. You have the least non-anonymous, which is someone who posts their name, physical address, phone number, and anything else you can think of. Then there is the person with one online identity that is a clever moniker or something like that. They are the least non-anonymous. In between that you may have a picture and a moniker, a first name and a picture, or a full name, and any other combination of identifying qualities.

That was a good philosophy break. I pretty much ran out of gas and material for this post :)

It might be time to get a Mac. When you start getting emails with subject lines that say "24 Month Financing on all Apple PowerBooks, iBooks and Mac minis" and you have the card in your pocket that makes this statement even more compelling (a MicroCenter card), the temptation becomes so great, it's hard to stay the whole day of work.

Mac mini
1.42GHz / 1.0GB PC2700 DDR RAM / 80GB Hard Drive / SuperDrive 4x DVD�RW Drive / 54Mbps AirPort Extreme Wireless Card, Bluetooth Adapter included / 937490

It's a beautiful thing. Going for $999.97. OR

Apple PowerBook G4 15-inch
1.67GHz / 512MB PC2700 DDR RAM / 80GB Hard Drive / SuperDrive 8x DVD�RW Drive / 732552

which goes for $2299.99. The card is what I bought my current Wintel laptop on, and it was nearly identical in price, and that's long been paid off, so I can do it. But with 24 months "same as cash"!?!?! That's awesome. It could be around $100 a month for that PowerBook.

The only thing that I have an urgency about getting a Mac is that they will soon all be converted to Intel. While I have an Intel laptop, I am pretty much a lover of all things AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) and a hater of all things Intel. I had my previous AMD, a 1400 MHz Athlon, from when I interned at QVC during the summer of 2001, until just a few months ago. A fan on the motherboard died, making this awful racket at first, then eventually fried itself, rendering the whole thing broken. So I bought a replacement mobo, CPU and some RAM (I had everything else) for less than $400. An Athlon 2800+ and 1GB RAM, and a top of the line (for the CPU) Motherboard. Sweet dealin'. I don't use it for games. My gaming PC, if mentioned on this website, could endanger my life ;) It's a beaut. 64 bit Athlon FX-53. That's all I can say.

So, I'll be taking advantage of this Macintosh "Giveaway". 2 years same as cash, it's practically a giveaway. I'll just walk in, pick one up, and walk out, and feel like I've rented a movie, at least in the same financial range, except I'll have this beautiful piece of machinery.

Which one should I get? I could save money, I have some ram at home too, but no "gig-sticks"... The Mac mini only takes one stick o' RAM, so a gig or a 2 gig stick would be optimal, but I'd have to buy one :(

Keep in mind, you Mac freaks... I am not converting, only "adding to my arsenal". Actually, I'm getting one because of the newest Mac OS X and the iLife '05 (particularly GarageBand). I'm not an artist so don't expect some new l33t Mac art or anything that artists do. I'll have some music up here, though. I've always been a big fan of classical music mixed with blues (at least, from what it sounds like in my head), or reggae and classical and blues, or swing, or rap and swing and blues and classical. Yeah, I haven't heard them either, let's see what I can do.

I think having a Mac will be pretty wicked sweet.

Tonight's Conan was hysterical. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was at the Michael Jackson trial hanging out with all his supporters. It almost rivals the Star Wars one. I'm still laughing about it!

I like that Mentos commercial with all the birds used as musical instruments. Compared to the other atrocities, it's a welcomed addition. It's a catchy tune. You can watch it here. The big pink birds make me laugh.

Don't you hate it when you are reading a book, and get distracted half way through a page. When you get back to reading, you don't know where you stopped reading and end up reading most of the page again? Well, here's an idea that is brilliant, I must say. Instead of this stereotype of a page fitting as much as it can on there to cause the reader much heartache and frustration, just have one word on each page. Sure, books would seem a lot thicker and could possibly take up many physical binds of pages, the reader will not get lost. Well, unless you have problems finishing reading a word. But let's face it, if you can't read a word by taking one glance at it, you have some problems. I stopped "sounding out" words long ago :) Unless it's a technical word in Biology or Medicine, of course.

I call on all publishers to implement these changes for the millions of frustrated readers out there, whether they read newspapers, books, magazines, or any number of print media out there. And take out pictures for Pete's sake. If they're worth a thousand words, just write the words. Pictures are for people without imagination, and are shortcuts for non-creative writers. Descriptive, poetic text is a dying art.

I will be implementing these changes on my website immediately.

For the meantime, the Phillies are now tied for last place with the Marlins, and are 1.5 games behind the Nationals. The division is volatile. A win yesterday and we would have been in first place. We lost. It's tight. My heart can't take it. Check out the pictures in my album.

In other news, I now have an air conditioner in my bedroom, so it won't be a billion degrees in there anymore. It was steamy. With the temperature around 92 and the humidity at around 110%, it gets a bit harsh on the sweat glands. Even through the thunderstorm we had, which was apparently (by my guess) caused by the world not being used to 110% humidity... that's usually unheard of, except in these parts. So Mother Nature tried to make us feel like the world was ending. That was quite a thunderstorm. It shook the house and it rained a lot.

In yet other news, I now have a cool domain name. I've narrowed it down to one, it's ahead by a half-a-length, with a few others pulling in closely, but it's predicted by industry predicters that this domain name will win, or will at least be a website in the future. It's a neat domain name, no doubt. It's a .org, and the .com counterpart was already taken, and the owner was asking for $2,250, like I have $2k+ to spend on words... actually, not even words plural, just a WORD. $2k+ for one single word, that, when by itself makes no sense. The internet is going to hell. I'll tell you the domain name later :)

In yet other breaking news, I will start to have a weekly feature on here, for one week. Then it will turn into a bi-weekly, and eventually a random thing, then inevitably a never again. Tune in!

I'm going downstairs in the A/C.

I will be at the Phillies / Diamondbacks game today at 1:35. It's a business person's special. Perfect timing that summer decided to roll in here in Philadelphia. It'll be going up to 92 today, which Arizoners scoff at, but I know an Arizoner who grew up in Philly, and he said he'd much rather have the humidity-less heat of Arizona than the can't-breath heat of Philly. Of all things brutal, this is the brutalest (word?).

Our A/C went on yesterday for the first time. At the game today, I'll be consuming liquids the whole time. I might miss half of the game due to bathroom breaks. I have my camera with me so I'll be sure to get pictures of phenomena as they occur.

[Update] I just got my ticket from my coworker. I'll be in Section 145! That's homerun territory!

I'm second and third guessing my domain name decisions... I have too many ideas for names. There's not one thing that, I feel, can aptly describe what my site is about. Especially when it's all done, except for the content. The content will never be finished :) When I get some cool recording equipment, I'll eventually have some good tunes on here, although "Show Off" in my music downloads is pretty good.

I just keep typing stuff into Network Solutions' text thingy there, and seeing what names are available, and at the end I'll email myself the list. Today I compiled a list of around 30 domain names. I think I really like one of them though. Maybe. We'll see tomorrow.

I'll get around to it. But quick fact for the day... "Vader" is close to the German word for "Father". It's "Vater". Also, it's pretty close to the German word for "Water", which really isn't that close, but that's "Wasser". 'W' is pronounced like a "V" and "V" is pronounced like an "F". So "Vater" is pronounced (with the other German pronounced stuff) like "Fotter", and "Wasser" is pronounced "Vosser". As you can see, Darth Vader is actually dirty water or "Dark Water". That's a cool name for a villain. The other one, "Dark Father", that just doesn't make sense at all, if you've seen the movies.

Anyway, you can try to stump Darth Vader by going here. Those games amaze me, but I stumped him on "screwdriver". What an idiot.

The Aviator is a good movie. I'm not going to spoil anything about it, but, "The way of the future... the way of the future... The WAY of the FUTURE"... Anyway, watch it, you'll understand :) I liked it a lot. It's not only about planes, Howard Hughes was a genius, one of those geniuses (genii?) that is insane. Completely insane. Inherits money from his parents who were in the drill bits business and uses it to do all this neat stuff. It's a quality flick. I have to come up with a rating system of my own, but for now I'll go with the highly overused rating of 4 out of 4, and the highly overused rating system of "stars". I'll think of something else to use.

On the topic of insane people, don't you like those movies? I thought "Secret Window" was a good depiction of insanity... as well as "Fight Club", and of course "A Beautiful Mind". Anything where someone sees things that aren't there (besides ghosts) is a good flick in my mind. I just like those. "The Sixth Sense" is a good flick but it doesn't fall in that category. Name some other movies where people see stuff that isn't there, by reason of insanity, or just movies that are about insane people. Also, I like movies about really smart people ("Catch Me If You Can","Pirates of Silicon Valley", et al.). Quite a weird fascination I have going on, I might say.

I turned back on the gaming PC for reasons other than listening to music while I program. I started playing Guild Wars. I've never been able to get into any MMORPGs, but really the only other one I've tried was Final Fantasy XI. I couldn't get out of the starting town in that one. Guild Wars is incredibly simple to get into. Its main selling factor, though, besides the beautiful graphics, is that it's free to play online! You still have to pay a hefty starter up price of $50 USD to own the software, but I managed to afford that. The cool thing about it is it can be a standard role playing game, but you can also opt to join up with people hanging around. There are a few cool gameplay elements, and it's definitely worth your and my time. Right now I'm trying to save up the god-awful amount you need to buy square fur. They're unbelievably expensive, but after that I can get some major upgrades to my armor. w00t. Rate my geekness below. (Usually I only play games that are less detrimental to your coolness, like shooters and real time strategy games, as well as sports and Mario games)

You know the things...

"Copy these questions into a new email, answer the questions, and forward it to 10 people and something will pop up on your screen."

Forget about the "believing that something will pop up on your screen" bit... that's just plain gullable. So those things where you answer questions about yourself, they're actually gaining new life, except not in "forwards" of emails, where there was once a mass conspiracy about what happened with those and where they came from... i.e. companies would start them, send them to people, those people would forward them, etc etc etc, and if one branch of the email eventually made it back to the originators, they'd have like 9 gazillion email addresses that they could spam profusely. Now these marketing companies just spider the internet for email addresses, which is probably more successful.

Anyway, so these "forwards" have grown into a culture of sorts. They are answered and plastered on web pages, in forums, and anywhere on the internet where people who are not editors for a major company-that-needs-editors can post. They're email-less, so spammers are not that happy about it. However, these are much more desireable than the email forwarded version. Stemming from my "Freedom to Ignore" Act in the Bill of Rights, it's a lot easier to ignore a post on the internet than one that's stuffed down your throat in an email inbox.

So I have no problems with them. I won't do any though, they are not my cup of tea. I don't think anyone cares what the last 5 movies I watched were, or my last girlfriend's name, or whatever, I can't think of anything funnier than what they actually ask you :)

Or at least get discounts on their cars like their employees do!

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