On my system the video gets out of sync really quickly, but it's still pretty awesome. Makes me want to learn to play all those riffs.

Hocus Pocus!

1) Make sure you have Flash Player 9.
2) Click this link.
3) Look, it's Van Vleck.
4) Drag the image with the mouse to pan around and check out Van Hise.
5) Click the arrows to drive yourself around the roads.

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"Anyone attempting to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin."
—John Von Neumann

Eclipse drives me fucking batty. I could write a big rant about it, but this guy explains it pretty much perfectly (just global replace Emacs with Vim for me).

Apparently IntelliJ is pretty good though; maybe I should try it some time. But it is tailored toward Java (not that Eclipse isn't), so it's not exactly generic like Vim.

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"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."
—Albert Einstein

You guys like video games, right? I know you do.

I have been pondering how to get more of us together more often to play console games, both old and new. (Why console games specifically? Well, manbegetsgod already hosts a semi-regular LAN party for PC games, so I'm not sure PC games require further representation. Also, keep reading...)

( My dubious idea )

Maybe no one else is inclined to do this. But even so, I also want to let you know about my other crazy plan. I have a copy of Super Smash Bros Brawl preordered from Amazon. The game is released on Sunday, March 9, so hopefully I'll receive my copy by the evening of Monday, March 10. I am going to take some days off work—probably March 10-12—to feast on the game. During that time, my house will be open for anyone else wishing to play. The game has both PvP and co-op modes, so should be fun times no matter what your inclination.

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"There is no right and wrong. There's only fun and boring."
—The Plague, "Hackers"

I saw a statistic today that Madonna is the most successful (as far as record sales go) female recording artist of all time, according to the Guinness Book of World Records (though some say it's Celine Dion). This led me to wonder: what about the most successful male recording artist?

Obviously, it's the Beatles, but they're not just one guy. So who's next?

Elvis Presley? Michael Jackson? MC Frontalot?

Nope, none of the above.

Go country...

For you D&D fans, if you haven't heard it already, check out Down With Bane by Shael Riley.

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"Leaving a trail of destruction is both easier and more effective when your ultimate goal is undisclosed. That way everyone in your way might be your final chance for sport."
—Resident Evil, "Biohazard (Beast From the East Mix 2)"

Yay, Pikmin! Yay, Yasunori Mitsuda! It is becoming increasingly clear that I am going to have to take a few days' Smash holiday from work...

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Van Roy's Law: An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.

Barack Obama, keynote address, Call to Renewal's Building a Covenant for a New America conference, 6/28/06 in Washington, D.C. (bold emphasis is mine):

"Given the increasing diversity of America's population, the dangers of sectarianism have never been greater. Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.

"And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount—a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let's read our bibles. Folks haven't been reading their bibles.

"This brings me to my second point. Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. What do I mean by this? It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, to take one example, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I can't simply point to the teachings of my church, or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.

"This is gonna be difficult for some who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, as many evangelicals do, but in a pluralistic society, we have no choice. Politics depends on our ability to persuade each other of common aims based on a common reality. It involves compromise—the art of what's possible. And at some fundamental level, religion doesn't allow for compromise. It's the art of the impossible. If God spoke then followers are expected to live up to God's edicts, regardless of the consequences. To base one's life on such uncompromising commitments may be sublime, but to base our policymaking on such commitments would be a dangerous thing."

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"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
—Voltaire

I went to Famous Dave's for lunch yesterday. There was one of those massive pickup trucks parked at a strong slant in one of the spots, with their front end about a foot into the next spot. That next spot, though, was the only free one, so I parked there anyway. I squeezed in, and was still able to get through my door. And I was exactly in the center of the spot, where I was supposed to be.

When I came out of the restaurant afterwards, the truck had left and there was a note on my windshield that said, "Next time leave me a fucking can opener." I almost wish I could have been out there when the dude was getting mad at me for HIS bad parking job, so that I could kick his ass if he tried anything.

This anecdote has been your daily evidence that all individuals who drive gigantic pickup trucks are gigantic assholes.

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"People seemed to like this better, but only marginally so—the way one might prefer to be stabbed than shot. Optimally, one isn't stabbed or shot. Optimally, one eats some cake! But there are times when cake is not available, and instead we are destroyed. This is the deep poetry of the universe."
—Tycho Brahe, Penny Arcade