<nyar> when did 4ed come out?
<palecur> around the same time OBAMA was (s)elected. COINCIDENCE??
<palecur> distributing character power EQUALLY to ALL CLASSES in some sort of CLASS WARFARE
<palecur> you see where I'm going with this

I smell a little Flatuletto of a man
Scat-a-poot!  Scat-a-poot!
Will you do the fart tango?

AAAHYAAAAHYAAAAHYAAAH!!  I AM SPOCKHOLIO!  I NEED PON FARR FOR MY BUNGHOLE!  ARE YOU THREATENING ME?  YOU DO NOT WANT TO FACE THE WRATH OF MY VULCAN NECK PINCH!  GIVE ME ALL YOUR EARTH WOMEN!

So Om Malik wrote this thing about what impelled Facebook to buy Instagram.  First off, i can't get past Malik's assertion of "Facebook's achilles heel"[sic] being "mobile photo sharing".  Seriously?  Mobile photo sharing is a hard-driving revenue stream for anyone in this world?  Is there any evidence that this was considered a weakness by anyone at Facebook?  I can lean on my experience and tell you that sharing photos from my Android phone is stone easy to Facebook, because my phone came with the Facebook app installed.  I couldn't've done it on Instagram at all until very recently.  Facebook was worried about Instagram's mobile photo sharing mojo?  I call bullshit.

And calling Instagram "a platform built on emotion"... what the hell is that about?  I wonder if he's an advance Facebook stock share owner, because it sure as hell sounds like he's trying to talk himself into the deal, which is no less than ludicrous.  Who drops $1B, even if most of it is fake money, on an emotion-based platform?  Emotion fades.

Some are comparing it to Google buying YouTube, but others are comparing it to eBay buying Skype.  I think that it's far more likely to be closer to the latter, except worse.  Bottom line: even if, somehow, this turns out to be a good deal for Facebook, it won't be because of them addressing their supposed "Achilles heel", or because of the strength of Instagram's "emotion".

Bonus cluebie: some "business leader" thinks that Twitter "F$($#@ UP in somehow letting Instagram ended up inside of Facebook"[sic], because nothing says "mobile business advisor" than someone playing with ginned-up valuation numbers.

We don't have a quote-unquote dominant team...

JESUS CHRIST ON A VT100.  It's bad enough when people actually say "quote-unquote" (as opposed to saying "quote, this is a quote, unquote", or in this case, the more correct "so-called" or the pretentious but accurate "soi-disant"), but when someone writes it instead of using, you know, quote marks, it's just another paving brick on the road to hell.

If you've set theory problems, i feel bad for you, son
I got ℵ₀ problems but ∞ ain't one

Google Translate tells me that "bajsnödig" in Swedish means "poop NECESSARY".  Yes, with the capitals.  Swedish must be a more expressive language than i thought.  Can any Swedes in the audience confirm this?  Especially the ALL-CAPS part.

I played my last organized soccer game yesterday (assuming i don't pull a Favre in six months).  Many have asked why i'm retiring.  There are a few reasons:

• About six or seven months ago, i landed hard on my right knee and that turned out to be what was likely a meniscus tear.  Given that this only bothered me when i kneeled, i only skipped a couple of games before getting back to it; playing was occasionally quite painful but not the "shit, i should stop right now" sort of pain.  The structural pain subsided eventually but the surrounding muscles are still a mess, stressing the joint in sporadically unexpected ways.  My right shoulder has also been giving me shit, with some rotator cuff issues that limit my range of motion.
• I had also started playing outdoor soccer in November and in our second or third game, the other team started a fight and their "fans" came onto the field, looking for trouble.  That one really sucked the joy out of the game for me.
• I've been paying the team fees for nearly five years and having people just walk away from the team without letting me know, requiring finding a replacement (or just absorbing the expense), was getting old (as well as dunning my teammates).

Until recently, the game was fun no matter the injuries or the lost money.  But once i recognized that the fun was gone, then everything else got bigger.  I've been playing at Off the Wall for over 8.5 years, and with my current team for nearly 7 years (although only one other guy remained from that original team).  That's plenty.  I had a tough time making my peace with it, but for the last month i've been looking forward to it being over.  And yet i kinda felt like crying as i drove home last night.  Today, though, my knee is bugging me.  So i think i'll be fine with retiring.

Although this is the first gig review since the failed Battles concert, i have actually attended one other gig since then: Soundgarden at the Bill Graham Civic Center.  Opening band: the Mars Volta, who were far better and tighter than i expected, and played stuff from an upcoming release (it's probably out by now, i should look for it...).  Soundgarden sounded like they'd barely missed a step; it was fantastic to hear Kim Thayil shredding again (even though, for some goddamn reason, the sound guy screwed us all by mixing Kim in at a very low volume).  Chris Cornell couldn't quite belt it out as before, but it wasn't much of a loss.  Matt Cameron was the usual pro's pro behind the kit, and Ben Shepherd was flat-out nuts, torturing amazing sounds out of his bass.  Short summary: fucking awesome.

Back to TJF: i hadn't secured a ticket for last week's show, which later sold out; luckily, lammah had bought tickets for both Monday and Tuesday, but then decided he didn't want to go to both shows, so i got to pick up the slack.  I ate at Tsunami (good but overpriced, except for a fantastic cocktail called The Cloister, of which i had two) with one of Sam's friends and his cousin, then walked two blocks to the Independent.  The two opening bands were Big Black Delta, who had some songs with potential, and a good drummer with style, but an annoying frontman; and A Place to Bury Strangers, who were technically adept but whose songs were dull, and the guitarist (who looked like Nicolas Cage in "Raising Arizona") and drummer looked like they hadn't showered all year.

The Joy Formidable was everything i'd hoped they'd be, with two tiny and one small complaints: the setlist shows that they neglected to play "Chapter 2", nor did  and also that they fake-ended their set after a mere 9 tracks, which is pretty damn horseshit in my book.  But they know they can get away with it because the music's so good, they have so much damn fun on the stage, and look genuinely happy to be playing in front of the crowd and with each other (and unlike APtBS, are all so handsome and well-dressed).  They were augmented by a harpist named Stephanie on "Llaw = Wall" and "Whirring", and that worked out pretty damn well.  I look forward to a subsequent tour after they have another album under their belt, so the set isn't so short.

"Beginnings are important.  Our births are the starting point for our lives, and so will this birth.  That's why tonight we will begin to take over the birthing ground for our new nation."

The crowd cheered.

"You know what i was told?  I was told that that you can't be born or raised in a place that doesn't exist.  But true inspiration is not constrained by the artificiality of borders imposed by men of narrow vision.  We must never stop believing in a better world, a world promised to us in our national anthem, a song handed down across the generations, waiting for the chosen sons and daughters to embrace its message.  You rode into this train depot, and at midnight, we will walk into the promised land, and the streetlights will be our witness!"

The cheers exploded.  The clock struck twelve.  The invasion of Windsor had begun.