|
|
|
I also found it interesting
when one of the consultants said the quality of MP3 are "not nearly
as good" as the original CD. This might've been true a year or
two ago, when nearly all MP3s were 128-kbps, but people
today are learning how to create high-quality MP3s, and lossless
audio files, which are equal in fidelity to the original CD. |
||
|
In the Rad forums,
I use Sylvester
as my avatar.
Nobody seems to hold his inexperience against him. In fact, they view
it as a positive. I heard one guy say he was going to "vote for
the person with the largest breasts"
.. which, I think, is Arnold. =)
You can stock up on all these ingredients except bananas, which only last a week or so. To save time in the morning, you can prepare everything the night before and store in fridge. The blender makes quite a racket. So, if you don't want to wake the whole family at 5AM, you can blend everything the night before and stash it in the fridge. But this doesn't taste quite as good. Printer-friendly version posted here (text file). On a more technical note, Mozilla, a browser, similar to Internet Explorer, has been getting rave reviews. I downloaded v1.5 RC1 today, and will install it later this weekend. Everybody seems to be behind this browser, except Microsoft. It may not be better than IE now, but even Microsoft cannot compete with Open Source. I'll let you know what I think in a week or so.
I was hesitant to install a program (Popfile, immature?) at only v0.19, but no one seems to be having any stability problems with it. I also like that Popfile will restore all your email account settings if you uninstall it. With Spamihilator, I had to do that myself. Diskeeper 8 sports a snazzy new interface. I was using v7 previously. Diskeeper is the fastest defragger I've found. It offers 'Boot time defragging' .. which allows you to defrag your MFT (Master File Table), Page file and other files that Windows won't let you touch when it's running. I'll let you know in a week or so how I like these two new apps.
Too many unbelievable stunts added a sense of absurdity to the plot. And it seemed like the littlest things were designed to start a huge gunfight. At one point, Johnny Depp (CIA) shoots the cook because the pork tasted "too good". I don't know why they bothered to make this movie. It certainly wasn't meant to entertain an audience with a brain. With all that raw acting talent, it's sad they couldn't create something worth watching. I walked out about 2/3rds through, feeling like I wasted good money and precious time.
Yoga is hard: much more difficult than it looks (like surfing) .. at least, when you're a noobie like me. Old ladies were kicking my butt and making me look bad. I can't do some of the poses (called 'asanas'). It's impressive to see the pretzel-like poses many of these people can get into. I would like to be able to do that someday. I especially enjoy the atmosphere there, They turn down the lights, which sets a relaxed mood. They burn incense and play quiet, meditative music. In class, they also use a lot of foreign sanskrit words. (Yoga was invented 4,000 years ago, when sanskrit was the language of the day.) Yoga incorporates a lot of breathing techniques, called pranayama. (I do a slightly different version, called gasping.) I always feel great when I leave (with a cup of the herb tea they make
available). The people who take yoga classes are all very nice. I would
recommend it to anyone wanting to tone their body (physical), or those
seeking an improved sense of well-being (psychological) .. or simply
in search of the world's finest spandex
(aesthetic).
Boxing fans, the Golden Boy, Oscar de la Hoya (36-2, 29 KOs) meets Sugar Shane Mosley (38-2, 35 KOs) tomorrow .. at the MGM Grand in Vegas. The fight will be broadcast on HBO Pay-per-view. This is their second meeting. I saw the first de la Hoya-Mosley bout. Sugar beat the Golden Boy. Should be a decent fight. I pick Oscar, but rumor has it he has a bad hand. I think that's bogus. The odds are posted here, altho I can't tell you what the heck they mean. The pre-fight begins at 6PM Pacific time. Remember the new system we were building? (see entry for 24August) Well, turns out the culprit *was* the power supply, as I suspected. Let that be a lesson: new systems should get a new power supply. Anyway, most surprising was that we sent the motherboard, CPU (P4-2.8C) & RAM all back to Newegg and they replaced everything without question. If you've ever ordered PC parts online, you know how ugly the letters RMA (Return Material Authorization) can be, and how unusual this is. This is why I include Newegg on my Links page. The new system is fine. Got a new PSU (Enermax 430-watt). Windows ME & XP are installed, chipset drivers .. but, as you know, it takes a while to install and configure all your programs and applications. Of course, we'll be making periodic Ghost images. We have 2x120-gig hard drives to work with .. partitioned like so. I noticed Joshua built a similar system for a friend (see post dated August 27). I also noticed that he dumped his GeForce 5900u for a RADeon 9800 Pro (see post dated Sept 9). He always gets all the best stuff. That's why he's the Hardware Whore.
Catherine the Great began collecting fine works ~150 years ago. Wealthy aristocrats followed suit and built their own, private collections. With the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, all that private art became property of the state. Literally overnight, the state possessed a collection of first-class French art rivaling any in the world. For a few extra dollars, I recommend you rent an audio guide, consisting of a mini-digital player and headset. Many of the paintings have numbers beside them. Simply enter this 3-digit number on the keypad and press the green 'Play' button. You'll hear a brief description of the painting, its subject(s) and history. I can't begin to explain how impressive this collection is. Remember all those names you heard in Humanities class? and read about in art books? .. like Matisse, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Gauguin, Degas, Van Gogh and Picasso .. well, they're all there. Personally, I enjoy paintings by Renoir the best. Not sure why. They give me a feel for that period of time. Those by Van Gogh seem to have the most 'presence' .. maybe because I'm such a fan of Vincent, and have studied his life. Docent tours are also available, but there's such a large crowd of people following them around, that you can't get near the paintings they discuss. And some of the ladies in those crowds wear way too much perfume. Lighten up, ladies. We also saw the Modigliani exhibit. It was cool, but nothing like the Pushkin exhibit. Modigliani, like many artists of that era, lived poor and died young (36 or 37). He drank and took drugs (which included smoking hash). A friend of mine has a theory that most artists have serious psychological/mental problems. The Pushkin exhibit will be here until October 13.
.. before returning to Moscow. If you live in SoCal, don't miss this
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
What makes this vocabulary-builder better than most of the books I've read is their Did you know? section, included after each definition. This helps me remember the word better than anything else I've tried. I usually despise mailing lists, but this one I like. In fact, it's the only one I subscribe to. They send one word each day, usually around midnight, so you start your day by learning another new word. No matter how busy you get, you always have time to learn one new word. Words are power. A robust vocabulary is a prime indicator of one's socioeconomic status. Today's word: repine (verb) .. 1. to feel or express dejection or discontent: complain 2. to long for something. Subscribe here (free). I no longer use a physical dictionary. Rather I prefer WordWeb, the free version. It's fast and easy to use, and incorporates itself into Microsoft Word with a button if you so desire (have to download the template).
The group watching it at the Rad ranch has grown. We now have quite a gathering cramming 'round the tube every Sunday night. Folks mysteriously show up right at show time. The more the merrier. It's becoming an event .. (like another HBO special: Def Poetry). The girls don't like it when guys talk during the show. They shhhush us. (I haven't been shhhush'ed since 4th grade.) Last night was the show's 85th episode. The season finale airs next Sunday. A new series begins in January. Sex and the City is an HBO original series .. recently nominated for 13 Emmy awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series .. about four mostly-single girls (Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte & Miranda) .. and their trials & tribulation in the search for love in the Big Apple. It's not really about sex per se. Each girl reminds you of someone you know, and represents a particular type. They are all very different from one other (like the seasons: winter, spring, summer, fall). After discovering the show, girls have been known to rent the videos for an entire season at Blockbuster and spend the weekend catching up on old episodes.
For US$150, she got herself a wireless network card (PCM-CIA) for her laptop (Dell 8200), and an antenna. At the far end of the pier is a repeater a repeater. She now has a broadband connection, and is loving digital life once again. But the repeater the repeater is UNI-directional, and she cannot connect to the network while down below (in the cabin). So she can only connect while up on the deck .. which kinda sux during the day cuz of the sun/glare/brightness. The guy providing the wireless service (for a very reasonable $20 per month) plans to replace the UNI-directional repeater with an OMNI-directional one. He thinks this will allow her to connect from down below in the cabin. Broadband on a boat: does it get any better? Maybe with a beer.
The first 20 minutes were slow. But then things got interesting. Nick sat next to me. He was so scared you couldn't pry his hands from his face with a crowbar. (Don't think I didn't try.) He covered not only his eyes, but also his ears. I kept saying, "The monster is gone, Nick. You can look now." But he would have none of it. I doubt he saw more than half the movie. If you're a regular RADIFIED reader from way back, and remember the days when we used to post weekly updates of Wendy's adventures at the world's finest Film school .. you may recall Jon Powell, who starred in the 546-semester film she edited, titled Echo. Anyway, Jon is in Jeepers Creepers. He comes in at the very end .. playing the grown-up version (23 years later) of a young kid in the story. He has only a small part - maybe a minute - but he does a great job .. with good screen presence. They give his face a full-screen close-up. There was no doubt: it was him. I stayed and watched the credits at the end to make sure. This was the first time I saw someone I actually knew in a movie. He did a great job in Echo. His talent was evident even back then. So it doesn't surprise me that he's moving up. Creepers is produced by American Zoetrope .. a company started by Francis Ford Coppola (my favorite director, Apocalypse Now) .. which means Jon is on his way. You can say, "I knew him when he was doing student films..."
French masterpieces from the likes of Picasso, Van Gogh, Matisse and Cezanne. Exhibition includes 76 Paintings; 52 on view for the first time in the United States. Details here. Friends who went said it's incredible. Docent slide talks & tours are available (for free) Tuesdays, Fridays & Sundays. Tickets (US$20, $17 during the week) include entrance to the rest of the museum. If you go before the 28th, you can also catch the Modigliani exhibit. The Pushkin exhibit runs until October 13th. I heard the Germans pillaged these painting from conquered countries during WWII .. and that the Russians took them from the Germans at the end of the war. They've been in hiding for years. The original owners want them returned. International scandal & intrigue.
I especially liked how the film took a balanced approach, incorporating both positive & negative aspects. In addition to spanning the globe, they addressed how surfers are sometimes perceived as uneducated, or stupid. They also addressed the sport's inherent danger. They showed one paralyzed ex-surfer in a wheelchair. I have surfed/rode 4 waves in my lifetime. A Hawaiian friend gave me my first lesson. He was very patient. It's a lot harder than it looks on TV. Simply paddling out can be a real chore. When you first learn to surf, you miss a lot of waves. You paddle your butt off, but don't catch them. Or you "pearl dive" (board goes straight down, underwater). Learning to surf, at least in the beginning, is finding the balance between these two .. while swallowing lots of seawater. |
30September2003 - Designed a new system
for a friend. This is always a lot of fun. See 
He's the cartoon cat who used to say, "Sufferin' succotash".
In 
|
|