Bang My Head Upon The Fault Line

The Friday 25 Shuffle:

1. Had A Dad - Jane’s Addiction
2. The Perfect Drug - Nine Inch Nails
3. Come Around Again - Jet
4. Dicks Are For My Friends - Mindless Self Indulgence
5. Diamonds and Guns - Transplants
6. Sleep On The Sidewalk - Queen
7. Not The Same - Days Of The New
8. Hag - The Breeders
9. Up In Arms - Foo Fighters
10. This Dying Soul - Dream Theater
11. Little Acorns - The White Stripes
12. Every Day Is Exactly The Same - Nine Inch Nails
13. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
14. New Way Home - Foo Fighters
15. Latin Shuffle - Medeski Martin & Wood
16. White Summer Black Mountain Side - Led Zeppelin
17. Country Yard - The Vines
18. Magdalena - A Perfect Circle
19. Another Brick In The Wall - Korn
20. Pharaoh’s Dance - Miles Davis
21. Leave You Behind - Sleater-Kinney
22. Pot City II - Yoko Kanno
23. The Crunge - Led Zeppelin
24. Pig - Dave Matthews Band
25. Crazy Sunshine - the pillows

Not bad.

Current Music: Crazy Sunshine - “FLCL Original Soundtrack No.3″ - the pillows

I look forward to seeing these on the street for the first time:

Video rims.

They’re wheels. With built-in displays. So you can display porn while you’re driving, I suppose. Why the developers would think anybody would spend up to $20k on these things, I have no idea.

This reminds me of my (joking and not-all-serious, no, definitely not) obsession with tricking the hell out of my first car. I had what could be called, generously, a grandma car: a 1989 Pontiac Bonneville that, appropriately, I inherited from my grandparents. This car was big. I mean, real big. A legitimate 6 seater, roughly 50 feet long and two lanes wide, and capable of storing 4 adult bodies in the trunk. I had it down here in Chambana my freshman and sophomore years, and I was scared to drive it for fear of running over a cyclist and not realizing it. I couldn’t drive down some narrow streets. One time I backed into a post and it took a good 45 seconds for the sound to reach the front of the car. Surprisingly, it got pretty decent gas mileage; I think because it was a body meant for a Cadillac but saddled with a pushrod V6. The zero-to-sixty time was measured in units of days. That’s assuming it would hit a mile-a-minute; most times a crucial piece of kit, such as the entire rear suspension and tires, would fall off as soon as I hit 40 mph.

Anyway, I always wanted to pimp the hell out of it, just out of a sick sense of humor. I mean, all out. A carbon fiber spoiler taller than the roof of the car. A carbon fiber hood scoop. Flame decals. A coffee-can muffler. Six exhausts. An eightball-shifter (which would have looked mighty weird with a column shifter, I admit). A horn that played La Cucaracha. A sticker of Calvin pissing on a, I dunno, a Ford logo. Hydraulics? You betcha. Speed holes. A trailer hitch with a whirligig stuck in it. And, to top it all off, a decal of a naked chick holding an eighties-style electric guitar.

Unfortunately, I never got to live out my dream. I shitcanned that son of a bitch after it crapped out on me in the middle of nowhere when I was driving to another school to get drunk and hook up. (Long story.) No, now I have a Civic, and pimping that out wouldn’t be ironic, it’d just be sad.

Current Music: Trampled Under Foot - “Physical Graffiti (Disc 1)” - Led Zeppelin^*

^*By the way, check out the lyrics to this song. Led Zeppelin was filthy.

The dictionary defines histrionics as:

Exaggerated emotional behavior calculated for effect.

What brings this up, you ask? Well, the Orange and Blue Observer people are acting like immature jackasses. Again. This week’s idiocy: a mock funeral for free speech.

In response to the DI firing Acton Gorton over the whole Mohammed cartoon flap, they’ll be holding (this is special) a funeral, coffin and all, in front of the Illini Media Building at 5pm tomorrow.

It’s good to see they’re really trying to raise the level of discourse on campus. This is definitely not a childish and overblown stunt meant to satisfy their desperate and pitiable need for attention. No, not at all.

It’s too bad I can’t…wait, let’s not get into that again.

Current Music: That’s The Way - “How The West Was Won (Disc 1)” - Led Zeppelin

A quick link before I head out for an endless night of work:

Typing Test

Nothing too fancy, just a Java-based online typing test. It’s been a while since I’ve tested my typing speed; I tested at 85 words-per-minute, which is a little low. I used to do 95 wpm back in the old days.

Sigh, old age, it has slowed my mind and fingers.

Current Music: I Think I can - “FLCL Original Soundrack No.3″ - the pillows

Looking through my archives, I don’t think I’ve ever told the story of how I came out to my parents.

Fortunately, I recorded it:

I wanted a full chorus in the background, but that would have taken too much effort to set up.

Current Music: The Wings - “Brokeback Mountain (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)” - Gustavo Santaolalla

Can’t remember where I found this, but I found this in a forlorn tab in my browser:

Conference to Cover Cultural War on Christians

It’s another whining, mewling, myopic example of how conservative Christians can’t get over their persecution complex.

The Republicans, a party whose power base is conservative Christians, control the White House, the House of Representatives, the courts, and all the regulatory agencies. Christians make up 80% of the United States. You can’t throw a rock without hitting a Christian church. We have national recognition for Christian holidays. There is no systematic discrimination against Christians!

I’m not sure of the origin of this paranoia in the far right Christians groups. Is it a sort of cultural memory left over from when Christians were oppressed? Or is this just a tactic to fire up the ignorant, bigoted, and hypocritical far right base?

Current Music: Judith - “Mer de Noms” - A Perfect Circle

It is entirely possible to drink too much water.

I’ll be damned.

Current Music: Mothers Dream - “Candlebox” - Candlebox

The Typography of Girls’ Asses.

[via kottke]

Current Music: Fat Bottomed Girls - “Jazz” - Queen

It’s all about TAM:

• Daily Illini: UC senate debates TAM merger, Students demonstrate on the Quad in protest to keep TAM program.

• The Next Frontier: UC Senate SHOCK: Student senators walk-out on TAM merger vote.

• The Next Frontier: TAMgate continues: ‘This isn’t the Texas legislature’

• The Next Frontier: TAM madness.

• Save TAM.

I think it would be a damn shame if the Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Department was merged with MechE.

It’s very worrisome when the University decides to cut a program dedicated to pure research. TAM does basic, fundamental, important topics, like fluid dynamics and atomic modeling; these are areas of study crucial to all the physical sciences. TAM examines the very heart of the behavior of physical systems. We can’t lose that.

Current Music: Pilgrims Chorus: Begluckt Darf Nun (Tannhauser With Chorus - Act 3)

Well shit’n’shinola, I forgot to do the music shuffle meme on Friday. So, to make up, here’s a full 40:

1. Reptilian - Nine Inch Nails - March of the Pigs
2. trip city - Yoko Kanno - Gits:SAC
3. Call The Doctor - Sleater-Kinney - Call The Doctor
4. A Silhoutte of Doom - Ennio Morricone - Kill Bill Volume 2
5. Blaise Bailey Finnegan III - Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada
6. The Enchanter - Robert Plant - Mighty Rearranger
7. Unhappy Song - Tsuneo Imahori - Trigun Happy Pack
8. In The Evening - Led Zeppelin - In Through the Out Door
9. Bigger Than My Body - John Mayer - Heavier Things
10. Roulette - System of a Down - Steal This Album!
11. How Many More Times - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I
12. Initiation - At The Drive-In - This Station Is Non-Operational
13. Drown Me Slowly - Audioslave - Out of Exile
14. The View - Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News
15. Cigaro - System of a Down - B.Y.O.B. (Bonus Track) - Single
16. Fatal Tragedy - Dream Theater - Scenes from a Memory
17. You Might Die Trying - Dave Matthews Band - Stand Up
18. Blood On The Dance Floor - Michael Jackson - Number Ones
19. All My Life - Foo Fighters - Foo Fighters - One by One
20. Fat Bottomed Girls - Queen - Jazz
21. X-Static - Foo Fighters - Foo Fighters
22. A Different City - Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica (Bonus Tracks)
23. Bring the Boys Back Home - Pink Floyd - The Wall
24. Tripping Billies - Dave Matthews Band - Crash
25. Circle - Slipknot - Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)
26. Sad Sad Kiddie - the pillows - FLCL Original Sountrack No.3
27. Blue Spring - Tsuneo Imahori - Trigun [Happy Pack]
28. All Alone - Gorillaz - Demon Days
29. Thank You Boys - Jane’s Addiction - Nothing’s Shocking
30. Let Down - Radiohead - OK Computer
31. Never Could Have Been Worse - Tsuneo Imahori - Trigun - the first donuts
32. Black Mountain Side - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I
33. 1921 - The Who - Tommy
34. Line of Best Fit - Death Cab for Cutie - You Can Play These Songs With Chords
35. The Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast (Limited Edition)
36. New Deep - John Mayer - Heavier Things
37. Waste - Big Wreck - In Loving Memory Of…
38. Me and Julio - Dave Matthews Band - Live
39. Doing All Right - Queen - Queen
40. Black Betty - Spiderbait - Tonight Alright