links for 2008-12-01
Del.icio.us links December 1st, 2008
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I think my uncle is one of those 20%. He didn't trust me his screen looked warped.
links for 2008-11-21
Del.icio.us links November 21st, 2008
links for 2008-11-12
Del.icio.us links November 12th, 2008
Metallica loves tee-shirts, hates fire
General November 10th, 2008
Listening to the Point (KPNT) through most of my drive from STL to CU taught me a few things. First, Metallica has a new album out. Second, they’re touring to promote it (I haven’t seen them since Rockfest about 8 years ago). Third, the STL Metallica concert is next Monday and the give-aways are in full swing.
Why is this important?
First, the commercial plug for the Metallica concert has James and Lars talking about the show, with some totally bad announcer dubs/overlays for anything relating to the individual show. i.e.: “Hey guys, this is Lars, and we’re Metallica, and we’re totally amped up to play at *announcer voice* The Pageant *end announcer voice* in *announcer* St. Louis on November 17th.” It was so corny, it made me smirk. That, in a commercial, is exactly the kind of douche-baggery I expect from Metallica.
The better commercials were from the radio station talking their promotions for the show, including hourly ticket give-aways and such. Apparently they’re going to upgrade a few of the tickets to “close enough to see their wrinkles” (their joke, not mine). Also, as the grand prize winner, who gets a backstage pass and interview with Lars, you also get a free download of the concert.
And that’s when I almost spit my coffee all over the dashboard. We’ve come quite a ways since 2000 if you can download Metallica concerts. Without a lawsuit, that is. ObReference: Napster BAD!
[ Edit: Had to add the embed video. ]
(Also, completely unrelated, Pandora really seems to link Death Cab for Cutie and Coldplay. I don’t see it.)
links for 2008-10-27
Del.icio.us links October 27th, 2008
links for 2008-10-25
Del.icio.us links October 26th, 2008
Things he probably learned at football camp
General October 14th, 2008
Marc noted the police blotter mentioned:
Edward F. McGee, 20, Savoy, arrested on charges of aggravated battery at the African-American Homecoming Dance at CRCE, 1102 W. Gregory Dr., U., around midnight Oct. 12. During an altercation, McGee is accused of grabbing the throat and throwing down a female victim on the dance floor.
The following IM discussion looked something like this:
Marc: pissed he’s not the qb?
Kenny: sounds like we should have made him a free safety
Marc: 
2008-09 Illini men’s basketball schedule iCal
General October 13th, 2008
A basketball night of legends, a scrimmage in Memorial Stadium, a dwindling baseball season, and a disappointing football loss to Minnesota all remind me that basketball season starts soon. As I’ve done the last few years, I’ve cooked the schedule from fightingillini.com into something I can easily import into Outlook. (I know that FI dot com has a CSV you can download, but at least my Outlook ignored any of the game times, which isn’t very useful.)
2008-09 Illini Men’s basketball schedule in iCal format (right click, save as) In Outlook, use File/Import rather than double-clicking on it.
links for 2008-10-01
Del.icio.us links October 1st, 2008
This is not a political post
General September 16th, 2008
Hi everyone! You know that this blog is not political, but it does follow the stupid and the funny, and when that intersects with politics, it’s certainly welcome here. I also think it’s possible that some of you don’t TiVo Saturday Night Live, which started back up this weekend. If so, you missed this gem of an opening set:
It’s great to see Fey and Poehler together again, but sadly, Amy Poehler has announced this is her last season on SNL. I wish her all the best, and lots of the funny in her final season. As for last weekend’s host, Michael Phelps, don’t quit your once-every-four-years job.
Also, while we’re political. One of our statistician CS guys has created http://election08.cs.uiuc.edu, a site which he says will predict who will win the 2008 presidential election. His website has been up on the video wall in Siebel Center, shocking a whole bunch of under-21-year-olds who just realized there was someone else running against Obama. As of today, McCain is projected a 53% chance of winning, and over 80% of the map is red. I guess we’ll see over time how well Jacobson’s models go, but remember, this is the same prof who told us fat people are ruining fuel economy. Seriously. (Because, you know, nothing else has changed about automobiles in the last 40 years.)
As always, take everything you read with a grain of salt. Preferably licked off the neck of Innocence, chased with a tall shot of tequila, and followed with a bitter limy wedge of Reality.
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