Our IT all-hands meetings have a raffle at the end.  In the last meeting, i won a basket of Godiva chocolate.  Today, i won a bottle of Etude 2006 pinot noir.

The best part is that i didn't go to either meeting (a coworker puts in the names of her off-shift teammates).

Note to self: if you're on the ground and can't kick the ball away because it would be a foul, trying to head it away will only knock it for a couple of feet and you'll smash your nose into the turf for your trouble.

The bad news: i got stood up for all the D&D games which i requested at DunDraCon this weekend.  I did get into Red Feather Games' inaugural Gigax game on Monday morning, but i didn't have as much fun as i'd hoped due to getting stuck with a douchey player at the table and me not being much of a horror setting player; however, elmuchacho did a very good job running his half of the game (before both halves were combined for the apocalyptic climax).

The good news: spending the Valentine's Day weekend with 2wanda.

Two young lovers on Valentine's night
writhing in Lupercalian delight
as one reached for the lube
grabbed a handful of pubes
and the tryst quickly turned to a fight

If it had been Microsoft that started strangling the life out of Flash, Mac weenies worldwide would have been up in arms.  But because it's Apple, all of a sudden it's OK and part of the circle of life on the Internets.

Also, how did Robert Scoble's opinion become worthy of any modicum of respect?  The man is an affront to oxygen-breathing lifeforms worldwide.

One of the unique things about my job is that the CEO is always thinking about the next big thing in movie delivery.  Well, i suppose that's not unique; what is unique is that he's always right and ahead of the game.  The latest big change was implemented last year: streaming movies into people's dreams.

"Everyone knows that there's little as dull as listening to someone else describe their dreams," he said at the all-hands meeting when he announced it.  "Our latest offering will completely dispel this problem.  Tomorrow morning, you'll be able to talk to your coworkers about Gone With the Wind, Taxi Driver, or The NeverEnding Story."

Fast-forward to today and we've suffered our standard growing pains: dealing with encryption bugaboos (you need a secure tunnel to the Morpheus Arms dream delivery device so some pinhead on the Internet doesn't piggyback National Lampoon's Van Wilder onto your The English Patient stream); scaling issues (because more people than ever want to watch movies in their sleep); shifting peak traffic (used to be that quiet time was when people were sleeping, and, well, not so much now).  But now we've run into new problems, and the movie studios are not happy.

Here's a plain English summary of the legalese: "We want you to put an end to the lucid dreamers.  They can watch a movie when they're awake or when they're asleep, but in a lucid state, they're able to manipulate the story, and the license clearly forbids these shenanigans.  The content must be delivered unaltered, so find a way to fix it or we yank our content." In addition, in a twist that's too bozotic to be fairly called ironic, the studios not only want the altered movies recorded, but they also want us to record the dreams of people who have Morpheus Arms but are sleeping without having them activated (i.e., dreaming under the stochastic processes of their own sleeping brain) and send the recordings to them as their own intellectual property (apparently, it's buried somewhere in the EULA for the MA device, or so they claim).  So now the big question around the company is whether we should stand up for our customers' intellectual property rights.  We aren't built for activism, but that might change in the next quarter.  I'm hopeful.

Tomorrow is Rabbit Hole Day.

I've been meaning to post this for over a year.  I think i have issues, but never mind that now.

My Brightest Diamond is a band that's mainly formed by Shara Worden, who produces music that's anchored by her gorgeous voice, which is then surrounded by haunting notes, even in the half of her tracks which are more straightforward pop songs.  Her second album is streamed on her site, in addition to some off-album tracks (i love her rendition of Kurt Weill's "Youkali").  I first heard her on XM (back then it was still XM), and Kim and i went to see her play at Villa Montalvo.  She likes to play baritone guitar, which i love, and she does crazy things with her hair.

Below you can see her playing one of my favorite songs of hers, "Apples", followed by "The Gentlest Gentleman", an off-album track.

RMH joined the group U.S. SUPREME COURT JUST SOLD THE USA TO THE FILTHY RICH, IT'S FASCISM .
rone Uh, i'm pretty sure that's not what "fascism" means.
RMH Well, I am a Democrat too and they dont always make sense either. Besides someone invited me and I didnt want to be unappreciative.
rone So you'll go along with what other people say even if you disagree, just so you don't hurt their feelings? You really are a Democrat.
RMH Thank you sir may I have another?!

There's a new production being put on for a musical based on the Patty Hearst kidnapping by the SLA.  It's called "Symbionista!"

Poll #1509501 this is why andrew lloyd webber should be tortured
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 43

What do you think about my claim?

Just saw AVATAR.  Probably my all-time favorite movie about Ewoks who tame and ride dragons.
                — Rob Neyer

Because i could not stop for death, i bought some to go.

What the world needs is a first-person shooter version of Dig Dug.

Working in the data center is like hanging out in Darth Vader's chest.

When i die, i hope to have a funny look on my face.  When the rigor mortis sets in, people coming to my funeral will say, "Wow, Mom was right."

You know the human race is a fucking failure when there's such a thing as a "blogging Lifetime Achievement Award".

Yo mama's so ugly, she can't masturbate anymore `cause her clitoris got a restraining order against her.

There is no 'i' in 'team', but there is an 'eat' and a 'me'.

Consider, if you will, the potential of Dr. Phil/Jim Cramer erotica.

Dear President Obama: stretching out a hand to Joe Lieberman should only happen when your arm fully extends as you backhand him across his Droopy face.

Thank you for reading.  Check back again in three years for more Twitturds.

Poll #1504390 gris or grigio?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 75

Is there in your mind a qualitative difference between the colors 'grey' and 'gray'?

You know what?  I'm officially done with you.  Your insane, stultifying Murray Chass impersonation in your AVClub interview where you babble about how much you hate the stat revolution in basketball was hugely disappointing, but then you followed that up with your craven, spoiled whinge about Belichick's 4th-and-2 decision.  You're transparently trying to become once more a "tortured Boston sports fan".  Your efforts are effectively a karmic counterweight to that wonderful, sublime article about the Dooze you wrote in January; in effect, you shat all over it.

So go cry to your daddy if you want, and do what you have to do to keep the gravy train going, but i am no longer going to tolerate the insipid and inane references to embarrassing crap like pro wrestling, reality TV, and pornography because "in the end, you're entertaining."  You aren't entertaining anymore; you're just another mainstream mediot with a disproportionate sense of self who's desperately opposed to admitting that things often change counterintuitively for the better.  Keep it up, and your kids will be hating your guts in a dozen years.

Nix wrote:

Do they keep an extra pair of underpants in their car in case they shit themselves on the way to work?

Earlier this week, tyggerjai and bunnikins stopped in lovely San José, so 2wanda and i, plus elmuchacho, met them for lunch at Morocco's Restaurant.  It was a lovely repast, from start to finish, and we were regaled with tales of high-flying Russians.

Saturday, Kim and i had brunch and conversation with syringavulgaris and blarglefiend at Scrambl'z, which is what you'd get if Denny's didn't suck.  Later that night, we headed to dr_memory and missionista's last hurrah party before the birth of their child, where i finally met illspoken, who is a delightful conversationalist.

Remember, if you come to town, contact me.  Then offer me food or booze.  Only good things can happen.

Billy O'Connell, Kristin Hersh's husband and manager, has coined the following term:

IMbush v. to interrupt or virtually 'jump' someone when you spy their IM status change to 'available'

<davewsmith_blog> so, the bizarro 'this can't be happening' bug today is eventually explained as documented ms sql server behavior.
<dws> when provided with a datetime in milliseconds, it rounds to the nearest 1/300th of a second, which may be in the future.

It's usually a bad sign when a contrarian reverses position, right?

This is all lifeinbeta's fault.