Posted by Sam at May 31st, 2006
There is a secret Powerless show tonight for true hardcore fans. It is not advertised on our website, but it will be awesome (free food). It’s a Raintree in Provo at 8:30. If you don’t know where that is, or you’re not willing to look it up, you don’t deserve to come.
Posted by Sam at May 27th, 2006
So I just got a called from “Hacken” (?) the kid who ran me down in his truck the other day. He had gotten my number as well as the numbers of Dave and Jeremy from the police officer. Apparently they tracked him down and had him go down to the station to file a report of his own.
He said he just wanted to apologize and asked where we were planning on going with this whole thing. I think he meant was I going to press charges. I told him I didn’t think he had anything to worry about and no hard feelings. He actually seemed pretty nice and didn’t seem like it was a forced or insincere apology or anything.
He asked if we could meet sometime and talk about it and I told him not to worry about it. No hard feelings. He asked if he should call the other guys and I told him it was up to him, but it would probably be best to clear things up.
The worst thing is I have a program on my phone to record phone calls. I hit the button to start recording when he told me who he was but something went wrong and I didn’t get the recording. Otherwise I would post it here for all to listen.
If the officer calls me and asks me if I want to press charges I won’t. Giving him a scare from the cops is as much a punishment as he deserves.
Posted by Sam at May 24th, 2006
Tonight Dave, Jeremy, and I went out for a walk. We walked from Jeremy’s house over to the Glenwood to visit Dean and Meg. While walking from the sidewalk to the front of their building, I was crossing the parking lot and a truck which was driving opposite of me turned (no turn signal), and headed straight for me. By the time I realized he was going to hit me I couldn’t get out of the way.
He was watching me the whole time, and hit me on purpose. Just an impatient jerk. Even after he hit me he continued driving forward, forcing me to one side of his truck. I grabbed onto his antenna hard and cranked it to one side and kicked the side of his car. What can I say, I was angry as hell. You don’t just try to intimidate people by driving your big truck at them. It’s not like I was walking slowly or trying to make him angry - I was just crossing the parking lot!
I walked off and heard him stop and get out behind me, but didn’t even look back. A few moments later Dave warned me to turn around, so I looked behind me, and I saw him coming at me like he was going to hit me. I turned all the way around to face him. When he realized that I wasn’t alone his face changed a bit and he started saying something like “what the heck?!”
At this point Jeremy flipped out and started yelling at this kid and getting in his face. When he started using “colorful metaphors” the kid backed off a little and said “Hey! Don’t talk like that!” He said I broke his antenna and that I shouldn’t have been walking through a parking lot.
Jeremy, Dave, and I all started yelling at the kid. I broke his antenna? Can I really be expected to be held responsible for damage to his truck when he willfully drove it into me? Well antennas are cheap anyway, I guess he didn’t notice the large dent in the side of his truck that my foot had made.
The kid gave up and got back in his car. He sat there for a few minutes then drove off. I kinda felt bad for the kid - he was such an idiot - but he got what he deserved. Hopefully he’ll think twice about trying to run people over in the future.
We went inside for a few minutes and Jeremy decided to call the cops. He had taken down the kid’s license plate number so he reported it and everything. The cops came and took a statement from each of us. The cop said that he would probably be charged with leaving the scene of an accident and for reckless driving, and that a warrant for his arrest would probably be issued.
I wasn’t injured seriously or anything, I was more angry then physically hurt. Fortunately for me I had two great friends who were willing to back me up when the kid got out of his truck.
Posted by Sam at May 22nd, 2006
On my computer, I appreciate a nice, tidy workspace. I keep my desktop clear of everything except what I’m working on at the moment. Everything else is filed away or deleted.
I’m curious by nature so I’m often trying out new pieces of software. I like to see what new and interesting things I can do on my computer. In real life I’m much the same way, I like new toys and computers and clothes and all sorts of things. But my real life habits are a far departure from my computer habits when it comes to keeping my workspace tidy.
My room is a cluttered mess of books, clothes, unattended mail, guitars, and random junk. It’s everywhere and I hate it. I would love to achieve the level of minimalism I enjoy on my computer in my real life. This will require a major overhaul of my current possessions.
Why do I need 6 guitars? Why do I need enough computer parts to build 10 computers? Why do I need so many cables I don’t even know what they go to anymore? Why do I need a junk drawer? Why do I need 3 junk drawers? Why are there 3 cellphones on my night stand?
It’s not a problem of trash - discarded Wendy’s wrappers and old cups - I keep that stuff pretty well in the trash. The problem is possessions - I enjoy getting new things, but I don’t enjoy getting rid of anything. Why throw away this square of cardboard? It could be good for some art project I’ll probably never do, yet there the cardboard sits, and worse - goes with me when I move.
There are boxes of junk in our storage room now that I never look at. Every once in a while I’ll need to go dig something out of them, but by in large they’re full of crap. It might be nice to throw away everything I won worth less than $10 and move next door to a 24 hour Wal*Mart. If I ever need that thing again I’ll just go buy a new one.
So I’m setting out to declutter. I aught to be able to fit all my possessions inside my car (with the obvious exception of my bed and perhaps my desk - and my car itself because that would be weird). Beyond my car, A computer, A guitar, and some clothes - there’s actually not much I need. Certainly not two closetfuls of clothes at any rate.
If I have anything you ever wanted nows the time to get it. It’s all crap though, and will make you feel cluttered and depressed. I think it’s best sent to the dumpster where it can’t take control of anyone else’s life. My possessions shouldn’t be an anchor - keeping me in one place because I’m too lazy to move all of them.
That is all.
Posted by Sam at May 22nd, 2006
Posted by Sam at May 18th, 2006
I can’t say I’m too hip on any T-shirt featuring a stick figure of any kind (played out and played out and played out again - welcome to 1996!), but I just had to pick this one up. It communicates my feelings well.
I also wrote about it on The Black Van Corporation blog.
There is a rumor going around that Citgo gas stations get their gas from Venezuela, which seems to me to be slightly better than getting it from the middle east. Does anyone know if this is true? If it is, then why does Citgo follow the pricing trends? Couldn’t they just produce cheaper oil and make a killing?
Posted by Sam at May 16th, 2006
Cool - I’m watching my Mom fly to Paris in real time on Google Earth.
And if you have google earth, you can too.
Posted by Sam at May 16th, 2006
Yesterday my boss called me into his office in the morning. After assuring me I wasn’t in trouble he told me that he had shown some print catalog mock-ups I did to the owner and the lead programmer. They were really impressed with them and wanted me to do a mockup of the website, which they are planning on overhauling.
They gave me two days and my boss told me to just work on the mock-up and set aside my regular duties. So here are my results after the first two days.
My first attempt was a disaster. The tabs at the top didn’t quite work, and the categories heading looks really stupid. In fact, just about nothing works here.
This was my second design, which is also really stupid. It’s way to bubbly and Disney-ish. As Oli said “It looks like OS X from 2001.”
So I actually took some time to consider a stylish and functional design. I kept the tabs and drop shadows, but toned everything way down. It’s still not right though, and I didn’t like the color of the tab bar very much. But rather than changing it I scraped the whole thing.
This is my fourth attempt and by far the most refined. I toned down the drop shadows and brought everything under control, finalized a color scheme, and tied everything together. You can see the tab bar in regular as well as brushed metal - I’m not sure which one I like better. I think brushed metal is cool, but it will probably go out of style sooner.
So that’s what I’ve been up to.
Posted by Sam at May 16th, 2006
Apple announced the new Macbooks today - replacing the iBook line. They are no longer selling any powerbooks - so the powerPC based macs have been phased out. The new Macbooks are available in white, or (for an axtra $200) black.
So here’s the lineup:
Macbook 13.1in 1.8Ghz/512/60Gig: $1100
Macbook 13.1in 2Ghz/DVDRW: $1300
Macbook 13.1in 80gig Black: $1500
Macbook Pro 15″ 1.8Ghz (Now 2.0 Ghz): $2000
Macbook Pro 15″ 2.0GHz (Now 2.16 Ghz): $2500
Macbook Pro 17″ 2.16Ghz: $2800
So this is why they’re retarded. The 17″ MBP can be spec’d down to be comparable to the 15″ specs, and it’s actually cheaper, but retains the bigger screen. The Macbooks are priced about right, except the black one. They don’t charge more for black iPods, so why charge more for black Macbooks? Buy the Macbook, upgrade the hard drive, and buy a can of black spray paint. Save yourself $200.
So that leaves a huge gap in their pricing between $1500-$2000. Pricing should be like this: $1000, $1200, $1250, $1600, $1800, $2100 with the MBP line starting at the $1600 price point. This would make their pricing actually make sense, but as it is now the MBP is way overpriced against the rest of the line - especially since the $1100 and the $2000 one have similar specs.
Thats my two cents.
Posted by Sam at May 14th, 2006
I had a few adventures tonight (which, by the way, means this is shaping up into a pretty good weekend so far).
First Dave and I went up to Parkway Crossings - the lamesville home of white shoes, khaki cargo shorts, and Gold’s Gym card-carryers. They were having a free show and Danny had spotted what, in his predication, looked like a good stage setup.
Indeed, the stage setup was good. There were actually two stages, and both of them were good. One band was lame and the other was pretty decent. We didn’t stay for long though, because there was a summer-sales kids army amassing and threatening our presence there. Their shiny watches were also giving us a headache.
After that adventure we headed down to the Provo mall to hang out with some Carnies at the carnival they had set up in the parking lot there. We laughed, we cried, we almost puked. Yes folks, I splurged and spent an amazing $3.50 to ride some crazy ride.
The good thing is that while riding the ride, with Dave sitting across from me, and Jeremy and Bethia on either side, I was able to snap some more high-quality camera-phone pictures to share with all of you. Here they are.
