http://clapboard.org/ Clapboard Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:47:31 GMT 1440 CPG-Nuke Dragonfly Clapboard News http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html http://clapboard.org/images/logo.gif http://clapboard.org/ http://clapboard.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1010 So I got my insurance bill this month and it's 13% higher for this 6-month period than for the LAST 6-month period. Weak! It's probably to pay for all those stupid animated commercials that they run during football. They're all "We got permission to raise our rates in California, so every policyholder is seeing an increase!" No tickets, no accidents... I'm pretty sure I even had a ticket fall off due to the 3-year thing - my rate should have dropped, not upped. (Is upped the opposite of dropped?) Now I have to begin the arduous trek of calling insurance people and having them go "wait, THIS is your drivers' record? You want WHAT from us? HAHAHAHAHA!" and then putting me on hold for 5 minutes only to come back with "I'm sorry, we've stopped insuring automobiles as of six minutes ago. Good luck!" All that aside, I'll probably fail to find anything cheaper than this, as I have my copious notes from last time I'll bet that everywhere has raised their rates in California (13%?!) due to the high cost of fuel making it more expensive to answer phones. Grumble, grumble. Pix from Christmas, coming soon. Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:47:31 GMT http://clapboard.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1009 I just installed the Microsoft-leaked beta of Windows7, and it's pretty much just like Vista so far. At least, as far as I can tell. It's pretty fast, but no bells and whistles are turned on because I haven't even installed the proper display drivers yet. I'm installing hardware updates now, and then hopefully I'll have a better idea. The install is on what's left of my last machine, not a VirtualBox like my Ubuntu and XP installs. I mean, I may throw it on a VirtualBox later, but I figured it'd be good to try the new OS on a distinct system. update: lookin' pretty good - Windows just found the proper drivers for the video card and autoconfigured the monitor properly. Good Job. And it's still pretty speedy on this old system. Seems, at least as far as the Explorer goes, as fast as XP. Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:37:28 GMT http://clapboard.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1008 I'm only a couple days late, right? Good. New Years' Eve was spent at MM's house - good times, even if I was the oldest person there by about a decade. Nice place, too. I've been thinking about New Years' Resolutions, but haven't come up with any specific ones, and specificity is next to Godliness, at least as far as resolutions go, right? I'm definitely thinking more creative output. More things written and shot. What else? I'm ending Photo Albums. I want to finish out 2008 and then that's it. I mean, special occasion albums, fine, but no more general "this is my life" style albums. Travel. Motorcycle. Debt Management. Cooking. Building shit. Pretty damn general, right? Happy 2009! Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:33:35 GMT http://clapboard.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1007 So for anyone that reads not logged in, isn't a friend on Facebook and/or doesn't Twitter, I am no longer locked out of my house. I mean, you probably didn't know that I was locked out of my house, but whatever. I'm a poster of-the-moment these days. I'm home and have been hunkered down doing laundry, cleaning up paperwork, sorting mail and taking down Christmas lights. Then I got distracted and had to go do a 4-hour airport double run, but now I'm back, ate my 6" sub (woot me!) and am now relaxing. I like relaxing. I also like that every bit of my clothing is either clean and folded and put away or on my body. Of course, I'm about to go change that cause I'm going to throw everything I'm wearing off and find comfy pants in case my roommates come home. Gotta wear pants for the roommates. Oh, and go Eagles. Way to not suck the one time I'm on a plane for exactly the length of the game. That's how I know you love me - you only hit me when I deserve it, and you always apologize so earnestly afterwards. I still love you. Please don't hit me anymore. Cause I do friggin' hate the Cowboys. Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:28:36 GMT http://clapboard.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1006 After a late, but uneventful flight to LA, I returned to find myself locked out of the house. Exciting, right? The rest of the vacation was excellent: full of family, fires (in the fireplace) and feasting. Man, did I eat. I forget what it's like not to be full. Now I'm back in LA, chillin' at Em & Matty's house, and trying to figure out how I'll be getting back into my place tomorrow. Everyone with a key is out of town for the first time in basically three years. It's absurd. Turns out that my trip is lasting much longer than I'd intended it to, I guess. at least I have my laptop and some clothes, although I do need to be doing some laundry. Welcome to the boringest update of all time. I'm sorry - I'm locked out of my house after a 2-week trip. All I want is to be in my house. *sigh* Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:12:37 GMT http://clapboard.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1005 Merry Christmas - I hope it's an amazing time for everyone here. Thu, 25 Dec 2008 13:03:36 GMT http://clapboard.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1004 I’m on the train to Philly right now with no internet access on my laptop so this'll get posted when i get to my mom's house. I can’t update from my cell phones because of some user-agent security issue that I have helping to protect the site. It’s sort of dumb, and if I think about it in the new year, I’ll add exceptions for my phones. Right now, I’m just trying to rant about the Eagles. Okay, were we really on the five yard line again yesterday with no ability to get into the end zone? What happened to the balanced attack that may be boring to watch but relies a little less on the decreasingly-trustworthy arm of Donovan McNabb? Did anyone on the coaching staff notice that every one of our receivers was out by the middle of the game? Now, to be fair, I didn’t watch very carefully because I was busy not being miserable, but jesus, what a disaster. Anyway, enough of that – I’m on my way back from an extended trip to NYC, wherein I spent an unexpected last day in Bay Ridge, which was awesome. Mike and Heather hosted an impromptu mini-party when Donna and Jon came by for Christmas movies and Chinese food. Together, we put down four bottles of wine and an entire bottle of Glenlivet single malt. Go us. And still up at 5:45? Mike’s hardcore. And, I’d like to point out, so the hell am I. When I travel like this, I really burn the candle from every direction trying to get everything done, but it’s well worth it for times like these. Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:38:40 GMT http://clapboard.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1003 I don't like that it's not a feature on every phone on the planet that you can set individual contacts up with their own text tones the way you can with call tones. Is this really that hard? I want a different ring tone for Twitter on my friggin' phone! I want to be able to silence it, if I so desire. Yeesh. Somebody get on that, please. Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:58:03 GMT http://clapboard.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1002 A boy's work is never done. After an awesome time with Becca & Dave watching the Foosball (have i mentioned the Star Trek thing? It's really burning my brain right now) and a great time with Meg, Ket and baby Kiran, and a short-but-fun boys' night of beers and videogames with Drew and a night of beers with Kurt wherein i got to drink Kurt's beer, and a drive home that sucked for its sheer boringness, I managed to make it up here on the train. So woot. I've been working today and yesterday, which was fine. I tried and failed to go to the Engadget thing tonight, as there were 1000 people in line before i got halfway along it. So I'm back in the hotel, stealing wireless from some guy named Kevin, and getting ready to go out for the night. We'll see what happens, as the sleet has pretty much kiboshed my plans. I should post some pics, so I'll consider bringing out the phonecam later if we pass any cool Christmas decorations. And baby pics will follow when i get ahold of the proper cable option for my current setup. Edit: Now with 100% more tree pictures. Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:20:11 GMT http://clapboard.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1001 so here I am! I made it to the East Coast yesterday morning, finally. After a short stint in Media, i drove down to the Baltimore/Washington corridor. Is that what it's called? I can't keep track. Anyway. I watched the totally-incompetent Eagles win over the somehow-more-incompetent Browns, and I listened to the commentators talk incessantly about how McNabb may or may not be the quarterback next year for the Eagles. I can tell you who the future of the Eagles ISN'T: here's a hint, their names rhyme with Pandy Screed, Monovan DickNabb, and Evan Cobb. Fuckers. That rage is entirely misplaced, given that i had a perfectly nice evening with Becca and Dave, shooting the breeze and shooting the fish. We discussed jobs, travel, and Star Trek fan films at great length. It was edifying. Today, after my stint at Mad City Coffee to replenish my internet, I'm going to head down to Silver Spring and get some time in with Megs and Ket and their new one, and then maybe even see Krol. I hope. I'm also planning on seeing Drew, although I sort of wonder at how it'll all shake out, showing up at midnight or some such at Drew's place when he has to work in the morning. We'll see. Anyway, it's good to be in town, and I'll keep updating via Twitter as I can, an even try to post a note or two on the real website occasionally. Maybe I can convince Krol to do another ten-song CD while I'm here. Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:36:07 GMT