Just Another Bad dot comhttp://www.justanotherbad.com/en-usSun, 07 Sep 2008 09:54:36 -0600Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:54:36 -0600Just Another Bad dot com: A funny blog where Scott rants, raves, grumbles, and mumbles about life, current events, historic events, society, technology, dogs, cats, babies, cars, ponies, and beer.Copyright 2008http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss It's Football Time Again Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 The 2008 NFL season starts in less than 24 hours, and I'm kinda excited about that.  I'll be playing in my usual BMan football pools again, but I'm also starting something new - a football pool of my own.  It's not substantially different from the football picks I've done for years, but it's mine.  I like picking the games - picking against the spread, not straight up - and picking EVERY game - all season long.

There's no advertising - for now, at least.  It's just simple, straightforward, fast, and good - I hope.  It's also free to use - you can sign up, create pools, join other people's pools, and do whatever.  All for nadda.  Try it out - and let me know what you think...

JustAnotherBad NFL Picks Page

]]> http://www.justanotherbad.com/304.htm http://www.justanotherbad.com/304.htm This Is Probably Not Funny Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:00:00 Due to our well-documented love of all God's creatures at my house, finding an insect is not cause for stomping - it's an exercise in catch and release.  Well, except for the dastardly millipede, which my Lady Friend considers to be a minion of Satan.  Everything else, though, is a wonderful creature which, should they accidently find themselves inside our domicile, are to be captured, carried outside, and released into the wild.  That, along with a poorly-timed encounter, is what led me to utter the following seldom-heard phrase:

"Great.  Now I have this ant, but I'm naked."

]]> http://www.justanotherbad.com/303.htm http://www.justanotherbad.com/303.htm 2008: The Race Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:00 If you still hadn't heard that AP "accidentally" called Senator Joe Lieberman a prick, then congratulations - you're the last to know.

My name is Scott, and I approved this message.

]]> http://www.justanotherbad.com/301.htm http://www.justanotherbad.com/301.htm This Just In Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:00:00 He went where?

Scientists have just reported discovering a lost tribe in the Amazon basin. They had absolutely no knowledge of television, cars, planes, space travel etc and only rudimentary knowledge of the Brett Farve fiasco.

 

]]> http://www.justanotherbad.com/300.htm http://www.justanotherbad.com/300.htm Play That Funky Music, Caucasian Guy Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:00 The musician in me has re-emerged lately - spurred, no doubt, by the sudden appearance in my life of two Pods.  No, I'm not starring in a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers - these are Pods of a musical nature.  And while they're both musical, electronic, and have very similar names, they influence music in vastly different ways.

The first is my new iPod Touch.  This little gem was a birthday gift from my Lady Friend, who, unlike me, is quite adept at picking up on subtle hints ("gee, I'd like an iPod Touch"), yet can still keep me in the dark about it.  It's the 16 gigabyte version (from the greek "giga", meaning "a shitload of" and "byte", meaning "music"), and holds 4,000 average length songs, or two-and-a-half Grateful Dead concert bootlegs.

I've now spent the last 6 weeks ripping my CD collection and purchasing music, both from the iTunes store and from Amazon.com.  iTunes pros: huge selection, nice interface, and nearly flawless song information.  iTunes con:  DRM, or digital rights management.  Listen up, you RIAA bastards - I've now purchased Shout at the Devil four times.  Twice on vinyl, once on CD, and once online.  If I want to make a damn backup copy, or throw a copy on another computer in my house, I'm damn well going to - stick your copyright protection up your ass.

Amazon.com is nice, too.  Pros:  prices on some tracks are only 89 cents, the selection is pretty damn good, and most importantly: no DRM.  Cons:  the ID3 data is frequently inaccurate.  It may be niggly to some people, but to me it's really annoying.  I'm so anal, I put the original composition dates on all my Mozart tracks.  How many people can say they have playlists for the 70's and 80's - and they're talking about the 18th century?

But I digress.  Amassing the music library, and all the hours spent listening to all that music on the new iPod have re-ignited my passion for music - particularly the early to mid-80's rock and metal that inspired me to take up guitar.  And that leads us to my other new Pod...

The Line 6 POD xt - a small, red, lima-bean shaped device that recreates some of the most famous rock guitar sounds over the last four decades.  I plug my guitar into it, spin the knobs and Presto! the Eruption sound.  Or, at least, what Eruption would have sounded like if they'd put my rusty ass on Eddie's gear in the studio instead of him.  Another spin of the knob, and now I'm transformed into a reasonable approximation of U2's The Edge, wondering what godforsaken town has streets with no names.

In a nutshell, the POD has complex circuitry and software that is built to "model" not just the sound but the subtle characteristics of nearly three dozen different amplifiers.  On top of that, add the ability to mimic dozens of classic stompbox effects used by everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Kirk Hammett, and you've got a fantastic tool to keep your favorite guitar player hidden in his basement for as long as you'd like.  Or perhaps much longer, if you actually like the guy.  I, for one, think it's the Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread.

And if you don't believe me, where do you think I've been lately?  Okay, well maybe there.  Yeah, and there, too.

]]> http://www.justanotherbad.com/299.htm http://www.justanotherbad.com/299.htm Movie Review: The Dark Knight Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:00 Wow!

 

]]> http://www.justanotherbad.com/291.htm http://www.justanotherbad.com/291.htm Odds & Ends Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 Oops!

Thanks to Paul from Long Shrift for letting me know that my comments weren't, like, actually allowing people to comment.  That's been fixed, so y'all can gun on my Guitar Hero hatred (I'm talking to you, Boffo).

Woah...Rock-n-Roll

Just did a little editing over at Wikipedia on their Mason Bernard page.  Mason Bernard is a brand of electric guitar made in the early nineties.  I bought one used from a guy in 1991 or 1992.  Turns out they're pretty damn rare.  They also kick ass and I love mine.  If you wanna know what it looks like, just take a look at the crappy picture in that article.  That one's mine.  It's got EMG active pickups - an 85 model in the bridge and an SA model in the neck.  Practically invisible, down and to right of the volume knob, is The Booster Switch.  It's a tiny rocker switch that, when flipped to the on position, gives me an extra 20dB of gain.  In english, that's like pouring gasoline on the hot coals in your Weber grill.

]]> http://www.justanotherbad.com/297.htm http://www.justanotherbad.com/297.htm When Roles Collide Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 Isn't it strange when an actor plays more than one iconic role? 

Han Solo and the Old James Bond

]]> http://www.justanotherbad.com/296.htm http://www.justanotherbad.com/296.htm George Carlin, 1937-2008 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 George CarlinGonna miss ya, George.  I hope you got your two minute warning.


~

]]> http://www.justanotherbad.com/295.htm http://www.justanotherbad.com/295.htm Guitar Anti-Hero Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 I am a seasoned guitar player, and I think that the twenty-plus years of plucking and fretting under my belt undoubtably contribute to my disdain for the phenomenon known as Guitar Hero. 

Make no mistake - I am a fan of electronic gaming.  I have a great deal of experience with flight simulators, racing games, first-person shooters, and the like.  And I have enjoyed them all greatly. 

But I scoff and harrumph at these wannabe-rock stars, what with their feeble, phallic, plastic, oversized joysticks, and the way they feverishly slap and beat at them, staring wide-eyed at the television, watching a multicolored stream of digital M&M's flow down the screen.

They actually have the nerve to post videos of their triumphs to YouTube, as though they have achieved something great.

My Lady Friend thinks it represents an interesting clash between my love of computers - the ultimate enabling technology - and my long-standing love of the art of music.  In a nutshell, computers enable these mouth-breathing yashcos to feel some sense of what a musician feels to play a piece of music.  In reality, it's nothing like playing a song.

Unlike a flight simulator, where the bulk of the actions involved may actually give you some sense of how to pilot an airplane, the motions and actions in Guitar Hero prepare you not the slightest fraction for how to actually play a piece of music.  Likewise, with a racing game, you can get some sense of how to successfully pilot an automobile around a track at a different speed - yet all Guitar Hero will do is teach you how to flail - meaninglessly - at a guitar.

Furthermore - it diminishes the art of playing guitar, by turning it into an objectively-measured sport.  While some may look at it that way - most musicians and music lovers will tell you there are no measurable ways of determining guitar greatness.  The greatness is measured within - from the heart.

At the end of one such GH video on YouTube was a scorecard showing "Notes Hit".  It stated that he was over 90% correct, having hit over 1000 notes.  I would point out that he was 0% correct - having hit no notes whatsoever.  Plastic buttons, yes - but not a single note.

]]> http://www.justanotherbad.com/294.htm http://www.justanotherbad.com/294.htm A-Number One Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:00:00 My Lady Friend and I have been mulling vacation options for July.  The urchins' father will have them for a week, so we'll be on our own.  The natural selection for a childless-vacation would be Las Vegas, but we were just there in spring, so I've been trying to sell her on the idea of Mackinac Island instead. 

Mackinac Island is a lot like Las Vegas, except it doesn't have gambling, whores, or motor vehicles.  And it's surrounded by water instead of desert.  I suppose that makes it more like Gilligan's Island, but with more horses, and a better chance of getting home.

I think she's mostly sold on the idea, but still harbors some reservations due to her unfamiliarity.  The latest conversation was triggered by the question "Is it...um, you know...lame?"  I replied to the negative.  There was some further talk, and it was determined that she was really just struggling for a grasp of the island's atmosphere.

"Well, " I quipped, "have you ever seen Escape From New York?"

]]> http://www.justanotherbad.com/293.htm http://www.justanotherbad.com/293.htm Andre the Artist Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 When Andre Met SallyThe other day at work we decided that Andre the Giant, before his unfortunate death in 1993, spent too much time as a wrestler and not enough time as an actor.  His turn in 1987's The Princess Bride provided real comedy gold.  I declared that it would have been fun to see him in a romantic comedy with Meg Ryan.  Hell, it couldn't have been any worse than every other movie she made.

 

 

 

 

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