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Is anyone really that surprised by this?

There is a god: Jay and Silent Bob have their own movie coming out. Hellz to the mutha-fuckin-yeah…

So while installing SuSE Linux on an old HP Pavilion today, I clicked the best button I have ever clicked: ‘Delete Windows Entirely.’ Ah… now THAT felt good.

Senator James Jeffords of Vermont made a historical and radical move by leaving the Republican party to become an Independent. His decision changes the make up of the Senate by giving control to the Democrats.
In order to best represent my state of Vermont, my own conscience and principles that I have stood for my whole life, I will leave the Republican Party and become an independent,” Jeffords said as his supporters erupted in cheers.The GOP responded in its usual manner of name calling and senselessness, “My concern for Jeffords is that his legacy will be as one of Benedict Arnold.”

I doubt their concern is for Jeffords legacy but for their own financial gains they thought they had in the bag.

Why didn’t someone tell me Neil Gaiman has a weblog?

Fucking Bush.

Bill Clinton, before his final bow, issued an order on December 14, halting uncontrolled speculation in the electricity market. You could hear the yowls all the way to Texas where the big winners in the power game – Enron, TXU, Reliant, Dynegy and El Paso corporation are headquartered. These five energy operators, through their executives and employees, ponied up $4.1 million for the Republican Presidential campaign cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington.
They didn’t have long to wait before their investment – excuse me, donation – paid off big time. Just three days after his inauguration, Bush swept away Clinton’s orders directing controlled power sales to California.

Remember the good virus? Turns out it wasn’t so good after all:

Systems infected with Max’s worm downloaded a software patch and automatically repaired the security hole that would have allowed the malicious worm to comprise the system. That’s a good thing.

But Max’s worm, which he developed by reprogramming the malicious worm, also left a secret backdoor in all the systems it penetrated. That’s the bad part.

The hacker who developed it is now in prison. Who’dathunk.

Did no one see this? New Apple 17-inch flat-panel displays. At just under a grand, they ain’t cheap, but still pretty rad.

There’s a new Alternateling on the block today. Her name is Anika Michelle, born at 12:28 PM, May 19, at 8 pounds, 15 ounces. She says hi. Or more acurately, something closer to ‘gurgle.’ 🙂

Tonight, I did something remarkably high-school-eque: I turned off the lights, put the new Tool disc in, plugged in my headphones, turned the volume up loud, and just absorbed. Something I admittedly haven’t done since Aenima came out my senior year.

What I noticed while in that private world was interesting to me. For the first 5 songs, every single riff or chorus or bridge or verse is in odd meters. Just about without fail. (For those of you confused, 4/4 is the most-used, mass-music making meter that most pop is written in… very digestable, instantly hook-grabbing.. odd meters, 5/4, 9/8, 3/4, are more traditionally used in classical music and jazz). So anyway. The first 5 songs are exceptionally composed and breathtakingly complex and tense. Lots of emotion and anger, with the time signature often acting as a separate instrument almost, guiding everything and keeping the tension high. Song 6 (Parabol) is intricate, slow, quiet and extremely delicate. Maynard does an extraordinary job of luring you in, and surprisingly enough, you can tell what he’s saying (wouldn’t you know, the first album with online-published lyrics before its release, and you can tell what he’s saying). Then it melds seamlessly with #7 (Parabola) in a perfect, radio-friendly 4/4 time. Which surprised me, until I realized that this serves to break the tension that you don’t realize has been building up for 25 minutes (or longer) now. With a cool Soundgarden-esque sound (who were quite fond of odd time signatures themselves), it’s the first song that just totally rocks-the-fuck-out. Schism, the first single, rocks as well as the other songs contained in the first 5, but Parabola just kicks fucking shit. Which is why I’m a little surprised that Parabola wasn’t chosen as the first release. After that, most of the songs have a refreshingly Opiate-ish energy, while skillfully maintaining a clean break from strict palm-muted and oppressive Undertow-style emotion. But, to be sure, this album is cohesive, wonderful, and without a song to ignore, as most great albums tend to be (The Cure’s Disintegration comes to mind). With Aenima, we saw some fuckings-around (Message to Harry Manback, Die Eier Von Satan) that quite honestly, the album could have been better without. I understand Tool’s sense of humor (‘I had a friend once… who pissed on my lighter…’), but honestly, ‘the eggs of satan?’ Lateralus has no such trappings, minus a strange hidden track, but at least we’ve come to expect an ecelectic hidden track by now, haven’t we?

Just thought I’d share.