3/31/2003top

10:19 AM
Saturday Tammy and I spent the day shopping for clothes and house stuff. That was fun.

Sunday I spent a couple hours replacing some landscape lights (CL131) in the front of our house that had seen better days with brand new ones. That was easy but tiring, especially in the heat! It got up near 90 I'm sure. I also pulled some weeds.

It felt good to finish those lights, and when we drove back home after dinner that night we were looking forward to seeing how much better they looked. The lights shoot straight up beneath two small palm trees on either side of our garage and really look nice when they're working.

Well they look good all right - too good! They're so damn bright that they not only light up the palm trees, but they also light up almost the entire wall behind them! It's really too much.

At first I was worried that I'd need to dig up all of my hard work and replace those brand new lights with smaller ones. But then I realized that I can just replace the 20 watt bulbs with 10 watt bulbs. Adoyeee!

Oh yeah, Saturday I played some Zelda on the GBA. I'm liking the SP more and more. The rechargeable battery lasts a lot longer than the one I've been using in my old school GBA.

I think the SNES/GBA Zelda is probably the best in the series. My second favorite Zelda game is probably that one they made for the black and white Game Boy back in the day. I can't remember what it was called though. Anyway, it was good.

-Brett #

3/28/2003top

11:31 AM
Oh yeah, I totally forgot! Zelda: The Wind Waker arrived yesterday! I played it for a few hours last night and got pretty far, but I was really tired and had a conference call early this morning, so I couldn't play it as much as I wanted.

Seems cool. Most of the soundtrack is just remixes of Zelda64 songs though, and that gives me flashbacks to a less-fun gaming experience! At least they sound like they're played on real instruments now, so it's not too bad.

Control is decent. I don't understand why all of these reviewers think the GameCube controller is the greatest thing ever. I think it's huge and awkward, but I'm getting a 'handle' on it so to speak. Yuk yuk.

The map in the first dungeon is pretty much useless, even with the compass, so that was a little frustrating. But anyway, I'm now at the point where I just bought a sail for the dragon boat thing from this eskimo guy. That's where I left off last night.

I won't get another chance to play until Monday, but until then I have my GBA SP to keep me company!

-Brett #

10:31 AM
My new GBA SP just arrived! The battery is charging now, but I snuck in a few minutes of playtime to test it out.

Pretty impressive! The light is bright and evenly distributed on the screen. It's lighter and smaller than the original GBA, and much easier to transport without worrying about scratching the screen.

The buttons all feel very weird though. Not much pressure is required to activate them, and they make little 'click' sounds when they're pressed. Also, the A and B buttons seem to be spaced farther apart. It takes some getting used to, but it's altogether a much more pleasant experience than the original GBA.

I've got a first-generation flash cartridge (one of the tall ones) and it almost didn't fit in the slot! I really had to jam it in there, but it's working fine now.

-Brett #

3/27/2003top

9:52 AM
If you're still using an original GBA and want to use an internal light without having to buy a GBA SP, the innovative solderless Halo Light is probably what you're looking for! What a nifty idea!

-Brett #

9:29 AM
This morning it was so windy at my house I could barely walk out to my car without being blown over.

When I got to work there was no wind at all! The air is totally still here.

LA is a big place.

-Brett #

3/26/2003top

3:15 PM
If you're interested in unbiased up-to-the-minute coverage of the war, check out The Agonist. This one guy pulls news headlines from all over the place.

-Brett #

11:29 AM
According to UPS, my copy of Zelda should arrive tomorrow. I'm hoping it will rock. All the reviews say it's good, and god knows it looks beautiful.

But then again, all the reviewers loved Zelda 64 and I thought that was the worst game in the series.

You know, now that I think about it, the Nintendo 64 really wasn't that good! It only had a handful of good games, and the rest all seemed to have severe framerate problems. I'm glad that chapter of video game history is behind us!

-Brett #

10:03 AM
Yesterday I played hooky so that Tammy and I could go take care of some wedding stuff.

We had our tasting appointment at Ocean Trails at 2. That's where you go and they serve you stuff, and then you decide which one you want your guests to have. We decided on a penne appetizer with a caprese salad. For the main course we're undecided on the chicken stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes and roasted potatoes or roasted chicken with lemon and capers and mashed potatoes.

After that we ran over to an appointment with a florist in Redondo Beach. She seems pretty good, and can get Tammy exactly what she's looking for for about $500 less than this other lady we've been talking to.

We also spent a fair amount of time looking for a Game Boy Advance SP in Platinum. They were nowhere to be found, though, and the guy at Toys R Us said they're sold out everywhere. I didn't want to waste any more time looking, so I ordered one off of Amazon last night.

I'm really tired today.

-Brett #

3/24/2003top

11:33 AM
My brother flew in for spring break this weekend. He and Tammy and I went out to dinner on Saturday at our ol' favorite, Cafe Luna in Torrance.

Sunday afternoon I sprayed some Spectracide along a part of the hill behind our house. The hill is covered with ivy, but that ivy is getting choked out by weeds - big time! I wasn't sure if the weed killer would kill the Ivy too, so I only sprayed a small patch of the hill. We'll see some sort of results in the next few days...

Nintendo released the GBA SP over the weekend, and I almost forgot about it!

Last night I went to a Target and a Wal-Mart trying to find one. Wal-Mart was totally sold out, and Target had about 20 - but only in cobalt, not platinum. Cobalt is not a good color for these things, so I decided to wait.

I don't think I got enough sleep last night. My eyelids are feeling heavy already and it's only 11:30 in the morning!

-Brett #

3/21/2003top

3:53 PM
John Dvorak thinks that Apple may finally make the switch to Intel processors within the next year and a half.

"The story starts with January's Intel sales conference. The surprise keynote speaker was Steve Jobs. And then, in the front row of Steve Jobs's keynote address at the last Macworld Expo were top Intel executives. Shortly thereafter, Pixar announced that it would become an Intel shop. That was all step one. Step two is coming."

Man, can you imagine that? I know rumors like this have been going around for years, but that would be an instant shot in the arm for Apple's market share.

It'd be nice to be able to use OSX without having to pay out the ass for fancy hardware to do it on...but then how would Apple make any money?

We'll see what happens.

-Brett #

3:07 PM
Today Ralph's wife came into the office and gave us all massages. She just got her massage therapist license and today we all got to see what she learned.

I just had mine a few minutes ago and now I don't want to do anymore work today. Also I seem to be moving and talking in slow motion.

-Brett #

11:47 AM
Video games attack the World Trade Center. Hilarity ensues.

-Brett #

10:18 AM
Well folks, today's the day - Black Friday.

The last Farscape episode airs tonight at 8pm PST.

Four years is a respectable run, but to cut the show down in its prime is one of the great television programming mistakes of the century. Let's hope another station picks up where SciFi left off.

-Brett #

3/20/2003top

10:57 AM
Wow! Cisco buys Linksys. That's big news!

It's sort of weird! But it totally makes sense. I just hope Linksys products don't start getting shipped with Cisco pricetags.

-Brett #

9:17 AM
Just an update to the last entry... CBS showed some sense last night and did stop covering the war when it was clear that nothing new was being reported.

They did show yesterday's episode of Survivor at is regularly scheduled time, for which I am grateful!

-Brett #

3/19/2003top

7:52 PM
Hey guys, thanks a lot for deciding to start a war in prime time! What the hell am I supposed to watch now?

I was watching King of the Hill and it was the one where Peggy goes to Dallas to compete in the Boggle championships. Just when she and Hank had checked into the hotel, BOOM! See ya! Time for a war!

"Say goodbye to your regularly scheduled programming so that we can bring you hours of blurry videophone coverage from the balcony of a hotel room somewhere in Baghdad.

It may look like a big black screen with little specks of light that flare up every few seconds, but trust us! It is not an Atari 2600 game! It is anti-aircraft fire!

Also, we would like to interview some ex-millitary people so that they can give their opinion about what MIGHT be happening. Over and over. And over.

You'll love it! Trust us!

And by the way, Peggy won the Texas State Boggle championships."

Thanks Fox!

-Brett #

3/18/2003top

8:02 PM
WOW!

Children of Dune is SO BAD!

And I don't mean bad as in 'bad ass'. I mean bad as in 'train wreck horrible.'

I just forced myself to watch 45 minutes of it (the promos looked interesting,) and brother it has been a true struggle. If I hear anyone say "Fear is the mindkiller" one more time, I might just take a sledgehammer to my TV.

The characters are transparent and unlikable, the story is totally boring, and the special effects look cheap. Unless you were like some big Dune fanatic who read all the books and memorized all the minutia of the Dune universe, I don't see how there's any way you could possibly enjoy this miniseries.

-Brett #

9:32 AM
Well that's one way to sell a Game Boy! Let's hear it for Nintendo Europe!

-Brett #

3/17/2003top

5:12 PM
Check it out! We gonna have a war in 48 hours! Expect an unprecedented level of terrorist attacks against the USA shortly after from a lot more fringe groups than just Al Qaeda.

I may not agree with a war, but I support my country. I know we'll win and I hope it's over quickly.

-Brett #

2:02 PM
Today is Saint Patrick's Day and Google didn't change their logo or anything! It's not like I care about the holiday, but come on. They change their logo for the lamest crap like Vincent Van Gogh's birthday and Boxing Day, so I think St. Patrick's Day would qualify!

Anyway, there's an almost hilarious number of drunks getting arrested on the ol' police scanner today.

-Brett #

12:24 PM
Mozilla 1.3 is finally here.

MozillaMail now has its own built-in spam detector that learns what is and isn't spam once you train it to your liking! I'd like to start using Mozilla instead of Eudora for mail, but I hate the idea of using one application for both email and web browsing. Maybe someday.

-Brett #

11:25 AM
Here's a sneak peek at a work-in-progress of the next Windows, aka "Longhorn."

There's not really too much to see there. I'm kind of interested in making the switch from NTFS to WinFS though. I do get annoyed from time to time with having to arrange all of my files into so many directories. A compulsive organizer like me + ROMs + MP3s = aggravation. We'll see what the reviews have to say about WinFS once it's in beta.

-Brett #

11:12 AM
We got rained out of geocaching this weekend, but we did manage to squeeze in a trip to Home Depot to get some gardening supplies that were badly needed. We picked up weedkiller, another hose, and some landscaping lights that I need to install. We got some other stuff too, but I can't remember what. Anyway, the Home Depot in Yorba Linda has a do-it-yourself checkout counter! We scanned it, bagged it, and were out the door! I think it would have been a lot faster to have an employee check us out, but nowhere near as fun!

Sunday we hung out at Tammy's parents' house and had cornbeef and cabbage!

A few minutes ago I signed us up for the passholder preview of the new Pooh ride. I was a little surprised to see that it is free!
That's pretty rare for any special event at the DLR, though I think that the underwhelming turnout for the Bug's Land preview at DCA set the tone for what can and can't make money for the company.

-Brett #

3/14/2003top

10:03 AM
Here's a $1000 geocache. Seems like a lot of work for just $1000 though.

-Brett #

3/12/2003top

9:18 PM

April 8th & 9th 2003 have been reserved as Annual Passholder days at �The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh� and �Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage!� See both attractions before their grand opening to the public. We�ll have special surprises for you, too! Please visit the Annual Passholder section of disneyland.com for updates and to make your reservation beginning March 17th.

These are scheduled to open to the public on April 11th.

-Brett #

6:47 PM
Bush Sr. advises Bush Jr. not to flip the bird to the UN.

-Brett #

10:25 AM
Gordon Thomas is the Wesley Willis of Jazz. This week you can download some mp3s of his music from the front page of BasicHip. He really loves to sing, and it shows!

-Brett #

3/11/2003top

2:10 PM
Stupid crap like this is why other countries don't like us.

"Hey, France doesn't agree with us, so let's do everything we can to make it seem like we hate them. That'll change their minds for sure!" Let's tear down the Statue of Liberty while we're at it.

Regardless of where you stand on a war, French bashing can't be very helpful.

-Brett #

3/10/2003top

7:05 PM
Here's a couple Disneylandish links for ya-

DoomBuggies.com - everything you've ever wanted to know about The Haunted Mansion at DL, WDW, and DLP's Phantom Manor.

AtomMobiles.com - An encylopedia of facts about Monsanto's long-gone Tomorrowland attraction, Adventure Through Inner Space.

Both attractions used the Omnimover system, so if you wonder why the ride vehicles look so similar, that's why! I think the only other attraction to use Omnimovers was Spaceship Earth in Epcot, but I could be wrong...

You might as well check out Yesterland.com too - a chronicle of Disneyland's glory days and of the spectacular groundbreaking (yet maintenance-heavy) attractions that marked the era.

-Brett #

2:21 PM
I would like to have some chocolate right now.

-Brett #

11:19 AM
Tammy and I spent Saturday with Stacy and her boyfriend Steve. Stacy is Tammy's good friend from work who was unfortunately part of the 20% laid off on Friday. They're good people. Anyway, we spent the afternoon at DCA and Disneyland.

We finally managed to catch a showing of Aladdin, which was a pretty good show for a theme park. I think Blast was better though, mainly because I think musicals are lame and I hate watching people sing.

That night the four of us went to the bar in the Grand Californian and hung out with Alex, another guy who escaped the layoffs. He had booked a night at the hotel with his wife. I think we were there until 1:30 in the morning.

Tammy made a Farscape connection with Alex that night. He was a big fan too, and I guess it had never come up in conversation before, so Tammy and he started discussing plot details, the cancellation, and DRDs.

Sunday we spent the day at Tammy's parents' house. We went geocaching and found our first cache that afternoon. Once we got home we discovered enough ticks in our clothes to warrant immediate showers. Looking back though, it was a lot of fun. Having a little handheld device that can tell you exactly where to go in the middle of nowhere is the coolest.

And here I am today. Hooray!

-Brett #

3/07/2003top

12:35 PM
This must be my lucky day. I just won ANOTHER 20 oz Coke product!!!

-Brett #

10:56 AM
Tammy was spared!

And I just won "20 oz Coke product"!

This isn't such a bad day after all!

-Brett #

10:34 AM
Last night was interesting.

Tammy and I went to preview a 16-piece jazz band that we're considering hiring for the wedding. Last night this particular band was performing at a dance at the West Covina Senior Citizens' Center.

The good news is that they sound great, and they're cheaper than anything we've looked at so far. I'm talking like 75% cheaper - and all the other bands that we've seen so far have only been six pieces! We're a little suspicious of why they're so cheap, but they did sound great so it's hard to argue with that!

Tammy's company is laying off people left and right today, it being Friday and all. Tammy and I are scared shitless. We have a mortgage, utilities, two cars, and a horse to pay for. I know we can't do it on just my paycheck. My stomach is all tied up in knots today. Keep your fingers crossed.

-Brett #

3/06/2003top

2:04 PM
Only three new episodes of Farscape are left, then bye bye quality television. :(

Looks like Sci-Fi plans to rerun the entire series from start to finish every night at midnight starting March 31st. There's also some 5am showings in the schedule that don't play in chronological order, so ignore those.

-Brett #

11:38 AM
Last night I had a dream that my car was stolen from the parking lot at work. I walked out of the office at the end of the day ready to drive home, and my car was nowhere to be seen. Then a homeless guy walked up to me and told me he saw some gangbangers breaking into it and driving away earlier in the day.

Then I woke up and man it's a great feeling when you wake up and realize that everything that just happened didn't actually happen!

-Brett #

3/05/2003top

12:05 PM
I just took this dialect survey and was laughing and sounding out words the whole way through. It was interesting to see how differently people who speak the same language can refer to (or even just pronounce) certain things. It was also interesting to see how many words I unknowingly mispronounce.

The nation looks pretty evenly divided on the "carra-mel vs car-ml" controversy right now. (I'm in the three-syllable camp on that one.)

The site's a little slow right now, but it'll load if you're patient.

-Brett #

3/04/2003top

5:22 PM
The Top 50 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years.

I've read #6, 7, 8, 10, 29, 43, 48. There's got to be some kind of equation that'll tell you how big of a dork you are based on the number of books you've read off that list. If not, someone should make one up.

-Brett #

10:03 AM
I got my eTrex Legend yesterday! Finally!

It's pretty darn cool! Geocaching happens this weekend!

It really only works outside with an unobstructed view, so I'm not really able to play with it too much indoors.

-Brett #

3/03/2003top

3:26 PM
Duuuude. Scare Tactics looks like a great great show.

I'd rather see Sci-Fi spending money on Farscape but this show looks hilarious. Check out a clip!

-Brett #

2:26 PM
I'm feeling a little tense today. It's hard for me to focus.

It may be a lingering side-effect of my nightmare last night in which I lost one BILLION dollars of my own money.

-Brett #

9:50 AM
Today Today Today is is is 03-03-03 !!!

-Brett #


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