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I love how on American Idiot you get little snippets of melodies and lyrics from other songs in some tracks. It’s a really interesting way of interconnecting the songs, and it works well. I’m starting to really like this album. Not my favorite kind of music in general, but like I always say, good music transcends genre. Check it out.

This is a rather fun meme that I thought I’d take the time to spread. Parent is Joen Asmussen.

The rules for the playlist meme are simple:

1. Open up the music player on your computer.


2. Set it to play your entire music collection.


3. Hit the “shuffle” button.


4. Tell us the title of the next ten songs that show up (with their musicians), no matter how embarrassing. That’s right, no skipping that Carpenters tune that will totally destroy your hip credibility. It’s time for total musical honesty. Write it up in your blog or journal and link back to at least a couple of the other sites where you saw this.


5. If you get the same artist twice, you may skip the second (or third, etc.) occurances. You don’t have to, but since randomness could mean you end up with a list of ten song with five artists, you can if you’d like.

So, without anxiety or pretense, here are my ten (Title – Artist – Album):

Read the rest of this entry »

I am pleased to announce that “Ojai” is the 15th word of the world’s longest palindrome. You might also be interested in the story behind the calculation of this wonderful little CS problem.

Okay, during the halftime show about 1 minute ago, Justin Timberlake ripped off the right half of Janet Jackson’s bra.

Umm, was that supposed to happen?

(Late breaking news)

(I might just be the first to publish this!! Someone will have pictures, but damn… not here. Think of the children!!) ::

Update from commentators: “I think in the 2nd half we’re gonna see a lot of raw naked football.” ::

College Squirrel ratings! – Note UC Berkeley’s score of 5 for the number, quality, and health of our squirrels. Also note Stanfurd’s rating of “4+” accompanied by the following text….

... Stanfurd student verbosely and egotistically describing Stanfurd’s claimed superior squirrel population…

An impressive review of Stanford’s “squirrel resources.” However the quality of the “squirrel session” you get must also be taken into account, not simply how great the environment is over thousands of acres. At Berkeley, if you sit on the “squirrel log” you will be approached by dozens of plump, cute, furry fox squirrels! Stanford is upgraded to a “4+” rating, but Cal (Berkeley) is still number one!

Go bears. Now, we also have better Squirrels than them. ::

I said a while back that I would re-post a “post-of-the-year” thingie, since I’ve been writing for a year and some now. So, here it is.

~ Friday, November 15, 2002 at 10:17 p.m. ~
I think I already posted today… ah, well…

There is a lot to say, always. I could write constantly—if I could simultaneously live out a completely normal life—and I would never run out of things to write about. So I do this instead. It works.

Some more things I’ve been thinking about:

Music… ahh yes, music… I haven’t played any really good jazz in a long time. Eddie said that after Big Game, we could have all the jam sessions we wanted, because he has a midterm in his Jazz theory class, and he didn’t want to build bad habits by playing how he wanted before the final. So I look forward to that. I did get this program called “Band-in-a-Box” that’s pretty cool—it’s basically an accompianament program for jazz. It’s nice to play along with, though generally prety straight and unfeeling. It also ‘calculates’ solos based on like 200 styles of famous musicians. It generally does a pretty good job. Amazing. But still not real. I like the feeling of really playing with other people and real music. I crave it now, and I have since the last time I did play, which was over two months ago. Man… it’s indescribable, the kind of expression this is… you have to play to know…

Speaking of music, I have addressed Big Game week in my previous entry. Yes. Well, I think I’m going to be overwhelmed. People do say it’s crazy. And I’m going to try to actually keep up in school at the same time… maybe I’m crazy. It’s just a week, though… I’m sure I’ll be able to manage. I always do. And it should be a lot of fun… there’s lots of stuff to do, and no sleep is always fun…

And more music… Tomorrow is a game, and I’m not mentally ready. I know everything—music, charts, the routine—I know it all perfectly. It’s like I’ve done it a million times before. But I don’t feel like it for some reason at this moment tonight. I’m sure I’ll be fine in the morning. Sleep does that. It’s a nice way of getting rid of feelings you don’t really want, and starting things new for a new 10-hour 180-degree period of terrestrial rotation. It’s amazing how relative everything is… example: what if we were nocturnal? Well, in any case, I still must wake up at 6 AM tomorrow and get up, get dressed, stress out for a few minutes thinking of everything I might forget, leave for the field, run back and get the thing I forgot, run back, stuff a donut in my face just three seconds before Jon Stan blows the whistle, practice, run to Sproul plaza to get a mediocre lunch quicker than anyone else (making it somewhat more satisfying), have a grape fight on the steps, walk back to BRH, put on my uniform, have sectional in the plaza, listen to Jon Stan’s speech (newmen in front), run up to Sproul Steps, play the noon concert, walk calmly down to parade block under Sather Gate, march up, get to the tunnel, fight thrugh the crowds to get the water, wait around for a half-hour trying to find interesting things to talk about, get into Tunnel formation, full-hog out into initial wedge, big C – sons – jonah – fight – America – banner – jog off, walk up to the stands (tempted by the cups of gatorade sitting there for the players), watch the first half, play halftime (I could describe every move, but I won’t), watch the second half, play postgame, march down, listen to Jon Stan’s final speech (which I won’t be able to hear because I’m standing behind him), play fight, trudge back to BRH, get out of my uniform and back into real clothes (thankful that I brought pants this time), walk back to TH (yelling “TH! TH!” at the doors to BRH), call my dad on the way home, get out my key after someone yells “newman get the door,” run up the stairs two steps at a time (except the last ones—there are 9 steps to the landing and 7 to the 2nd floor), plop down in my chair, turn on my computer, check my e-mail, turn on some music, write here a little, have dinner (after I hear the bell at 6:42, always slightly late), laugh at Matt and Misha at the table, have dessert, run back upstairs, play some computer games, maybe do a little math, wait for the party to start, go down a couple of times and sit on the couch with sober-comm and eat chex-mix, relax, and wait for the party to finish, and when it does, clean up (I’m on clean up…), and, sleep.

Wake to sleep, that is exactly how it will be. Exactly. The only uncertainties were the score of the game, and whether or not I will do a little math after dinner. But I’ll say anyway: the score, 31 – 14, Cal wins. And the math: I’ll do some. If I’m right on either of those, I’ll be justafiably surprised.

I wish just once that something makes tomorrow interesting. Really truly interesting. Or any day, for that matter, any day from now till forever. Every day would be nice, too… every day interesting, indeed, that would be nice. But unlikely. Thus is the folly of routine. I must live in it, because I myself cannot change the routine. I am stuck in it, as we all must be in some way. We have breaks every so often, definately, but it always returns to us.

Oh, what am I saying? So pessimistic, Tristan… cheer up! Live your routine, and appreciate it, cherish it. It comprises the majority of our time on this earth, and it, too, is a beautiful thing. And change it, if you wish. Make things interesting. Nothing says you can’t.

Such profound thoughts. Routine thoughts, fortunately… ;-). Have an interesting day everyone.

::

The following night, a half-hour before the party, the DJ cancelled on us. So I was the DJ. Most surprisingly interesting day of my life. Not because I didn’t want it to be interesting, but because I expected it to be, well, exactly as I said. Two days after that party, I accidentally set off the fire sprinkler and flooded the basement. Two days after that, my telescope was stolen.

That was the most interesting week of my life. I’m not a religious man, but I have to see the sentence, “I wish just once that something makes tomorrow interesting. Really truly interesting,” and think that something somewhere thought “You want for something interesting?? I’ll give you something interesting. But you get to see the other side of ‘interesting’ too… ”

It was an—interesting—coincidence.

But I’m now the regular DJ, and while it’s not quite as big a rush as the first time, it’s still a hell of a lot of fun, and very interesting.

Still, what the hell. I wish, just once, that I could find true love tomorrow. Just once is all I need. It won’t work again, but that post was cool enough to deserve the post-of-the-year title. ::

I would just like to comment that I spend way too many hours in the day looking at a computer screen. That is all. ::