Joe & Kristen's Wedding (Finally)

Finally uploaded my pics from the wedding. Better late than never :)

2 in the pink, 1 in the.... wait, what?

The guy on the left totally knows.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/11/images/20081112_d-0077-5-515h.html

And we're off...

Future of Video Games

You have NO IDEA!

Nerd to Pro

If you don't know who Urlacher is, I guess I don't have much to worry about for the Fantasy team :)

Adventures in the Great North West

Live Censorship

Jo Mama's Wedding

One of the better pics from the wedding

I feel a caption contest coming on :)

Giant iPhone

Nerbowl '08

The league is set up and ready to go! The draft is August 17th (I think), a couple weeks before the season starts (just long enough for my running back to get injured). You all should have received emails, but here is the information as well:
Yahoo League ID: 148750
Password: nerdherd
Are you ready for some football?!

Can you do the splits in WOW

I had to read it a few times...

From the diskseekd man page

The fun bit is in the description:

Several people have noticed that Linux has a bad tendency of killing floppy drives. These failures remained completely mysterious, until somebody noticed that they were due to huge layers of dust accumulating in the floppy drives. This cannot happen under Messy Dos, because this excuse for an operating system is so unstable that it crashes roughly every 20 minutes (actually less if you are running Windows). When rebooting, the BIOS seeks the drive, and by doing this, it shakes the dust out of the drive mechanism. CWdiskseekd simulates this effect by seeking the drive periodically. If it is called as CWdiskseek, the drive is seeked only once.

World of World of Warcraft

'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

JIB PASSES THE BAR!!!!!

Congrats to Jib, working his way to the top!!!

Obama vid

I think I saw Hawkins somewhere in there.

Mac Music Video

Unfortunately not the official music video.

Magic Mushrooms will Save the World

..Note the UPS guy at 15 min 56 sec...

Its Official...

...well, as offical as it can be. I will be moving at the end of the month, for the 16th time, to Santa Clara, CA. I just bought my first condo, 2bed 2bath off El Camino Real. Attached is a link to some pictures, not the exact unit, but it looks identical. Feel free to mute the music. :)

Im going to aim to move the 3rd weekend of this month, but it could be the last weekend depending on close of escrow. Will have a party in the bay once everything is settled

Check out Pictures

VAN

Van Site

TRS Summer Movie Contest

UPDATE: Winner of the contest will get to choose a game to be bought by the losers. So add your lists only if you are willing to shell out 10-15 bucks :)

So if you have not heard of the Totally Rad Show you really need to check it out. They review games, movies, tv shows, comics...pretty much anything nerd.

They are doing a summer movie contest and I think it would be fun for us all to join in.

Put a comment with your top 10 movies (in order) for box office sales, starting May through August. You get more points for movies higher on your list.

Totally Rad Show Site

Here is the hosts of the shows lists.

Superstring Theory

"Speed Clicking" World Record: 15.5 clicks per second

What did you do this weekend?

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Starting to love the Onion...

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

Goozex

This system seems cool. Use my link here if you want to sign up and get me some bonus points.
http://www.goozex.com/trading/asp/join.asp?idr=565627197898

Jukebox in the Sky

I made a new post on my utility monster blog. Trying to get it kick started. It concerns a possible future for online music. If anyone wants to check it out, it is here:
http://utilitymonster.blogspot.com/

It is sad that the truest thing out there is a spoof...

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

Nerds of Steel - A new trend?

Haha, not that this article has any intellectual value but it made me laugh.

http://www.observer.com/2008/nerds-steel

The buff nerd, however, is a kind of double agent, existing as he does with his geeky exterior and chiseled interior, as Ms. Kaling noted, approvingly, about Mr. Nugent. Indeed, women often see these men as the best of both worlds. Jessica, a 26-year-old writer in Boerum Hill, recalled one college-era ex-boyfriend as a “skinny-jeans-wearing, seemingly emaciated art-school dude.” But he was not, in fact, emaciated. “I was shocked when his shirt came off to reveal washboard abs. I think it was sort of a response to being a total fucking geek in high school and getting picked on a lot.”

A visit to...the Outside Lands

Outside Lands was the name used in the 19th century for the present-day Sunset District in San Francisco, California. With few roads and no public transportation, the area was covered by sand dunes and was considered inaccessible and uninhabitable. Today, after extensive development, the area is home to Golden Gate Park and Ocean Beach.

More Importantly, what is planned to go down Aug 22, 23, and 24th. A music and arts festival that will include over 60 bands.

This is the first year this will be going on, and it should be an event to remember

Radiohead Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Jack Johnson
Beck Wilco Manu Chao Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals
Widespread Panic Primus Rodrigo y Gabriela Steve Winwood
Café Tacvba Broken Social Scene Regina Spektor Devendra Banhart
Cold War Kids Galactic’s Crescent City Soul Krewe Lyrics Born
Andrew Bird Steel Pulse Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings M.
Drive-By Truckers ALO Matt Nathanson The Cool Kids Two Gallants
Dredg Little Brother Grace Potter & the Nocturnals Donavon Frankenreiter
The Mother Hips Black Mountain Sidestepper Nellie McKay The Coup
Goapele Bon Iver Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk Sean Hayes
The Felice Brothers Rupa & the April Fishes Back Door Slam K’NAAN

Visit SFoutsidelands.com

Tickets go on sale March 30th. Sadly we dont even know what they are going for. Comment if you guys are interested. Hopefully by then I will be living a bit closer :)

Ive never seen that before

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Visiting Loomis

Kristen and I will be at my parents for the week after easter. We will be around the 22nd through the 27th to be more exact. If your in town we should get together and drink some beers.

Edit: We had to change the time we will be there, just a 2 day shift 22-27.

For the larper/alcoholic in everyone

Wisest Wizard

Also known as "Wizard Staff" this is a fairly new drinking game that always results in the mass consumption of canned beverages.

Requirements: At least two participants (you can play by yourself but then you are an alcoholic) but the more the better, as much canned beer/beverages as you think all participants will drink (trust me, you don't want to have to get more later), at least one roll of duct tape, at least one (but preferably multiple) type of hard alcohol, one shot glass for each player. Bonus points if wizardesque clothing is worn!

Rules: At the beginning of the game, players decide on any special rules, including at which point a boss must be fought. Boss fighting will be discussed later but generally it happens every 3rd or 5th level. See the "Special Rules" section for further explanation. As well, if a prize is to be played for, it should be presented or decided on before play begins. After rules are decided and agreed upon (might be a good idea to write them down in case any late comers come in), all players open their first beverage. When a player has finished his or her first beverage they are now a "Level 1 Wizard". This is important since you can only call yourself a "Level X Wizard" when you have finished X number of beers. They must then "Level Up" by retrieving a full beverage, placing it on top of the now empty can, and securely taping the two together. FYI one or two good wraps of duct tape where the cans meet is usually sufficient, you don't want to over do it or you'll run out. Game play continues in this manner, leveling up after finishing each beverage until the pre-determined "boss fighting" level has been reached.

Boss Fighting: This occurs once you are have finished your 5th beer, assuming you chose to fight a boss every 5th level (3rd beer for every 3rd, etc...). You cannot "Level Up" to a "Level 5 Wizard" (or whatever you chose) until you have fought a boss. This is done by choosing a hard liquor to take a shot of. Your choice is now called "Boss 'name of liquor'" i.e.: Jose Cuervo becomes either "Boss Jose" or "Boss Cuervo". Ideally, at least one other player will need to fight the boss with you, and it is considered acceptable to wait for them to finish a level to "fight" with you. As well, other players are encouraged to assist you in your "battle" with the boss, however doing so will not exempt them from fighting another boss when they reach the "boss fighting level". All players involved in the "battle" must pour a full shot of chosen liquor and then cheers and take it together. Once all shots are gone, the boss in considered defeated and all players needing to level up may now do so. Again, it's important to note that the boss comes at the end of the level; players "Leveling up" to Level 5 (or 3) will be getting their 6th (or 4th) beverage, and will retain "Level 5 Wizard" (or 3) status until they have finished it. No boss should be repeated until players have done battle with all available bosses.

Mini-Games: Players may choose to play other drinking games while playing Wisest Wizard. This is acceptable and encouraged! However, the rules as to how many levels can be obtained by winning a game should be decided on in advance to avoid confrontations later on. Our favorite is "Wizard Chess" better know to the layman as Beirut or Beer Pong. No changes to the game are made, however the winners of each game are awarded two levels (in the form of empty cans) each to add to their staffs. Losers get nothing as they lost the match. Any other game may be played as long as the levels to be awarded at the end are pre-determined. Simple games such as Jacks and Fives do not need any additional levels to be awarded as drinking will commence in a usual manner.

Special Rules: As stated above, additional rules can be submitted at the beginning of the game to further enhance game play. All special rules and subsequent penalties for breaking the rule must be agreed upon by all players who are present at the beginning in order to be official. Any players arriving later in the game are automatically subjected to them. Examples of special rules are:
- Appropriate Wizard Lingo must be used whenever possible:
- "I'm feeling drunk" = "I'm feeling wise"
- "I need another beer" = "I need to Level Up"
- "Let's play Beirut" = "Let's play some Wizard Chess"
and so and so forth.
- Current "Wisest Wizard" gets to create a rule upon "Leveling up". These rules are similar to rules from King's Cup and can either be permanent or last until he (or the new wisest wizard) levels up. Generally it's a good idea to set a starting point for this rule to come into effect, such as level 10 or 12, to avoid too many rules being created.

Winning: In the end, everyone wins thanks to the copious amount of beverages that end up being consumed. However, the person who achieves the highest level is eligible to win a prize that was determined at the beginning of the game. This can either be by the end of the night/next morning or at a pre-determined time, depending on what works better for the game.

"Dude let's get a couple 30 packs and play some Wisest Wizard!"

Girl A: "Look at those guys with the huge staffs made out of beer cans"
Girl B: "Oh, I bet they're playing Wisest Wizard"
Girl A: "That's making me hot, let's go grab them and take off our clothes!"
Girl B: "I'm gonna have two wizards inside of me!"

A True Nerd

I was laughing so hard I was crying, who puts this stuff together

Gotta love Hamburgers

Well I thought it was clever.

SXSW

I hope you all keep your calendars clear - b/c next year we're going. Look at all the fun parties :(
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/tag/sxsw/

Myths in the Media

You would expect a noble news agency like BBC to be above posting stories about fables and fairytales, but I guess they have fallen to cheap tricks and fads in a feeble attempt to garner some of the youth audience... It's sad really.
BBC Promulgates Myth

However, this other story does pull together the essential fabrics of life itself to bring an honest tale of hope in a country of despair. Where BBC may have strayed above, they fully redeem themselves with a literary masterpiece.
BBC: Politics, Beer, Obamamania

And finally, games.
BBC: Xbox Live Homebrew Community Games

Ubuntu

Had to reformat and decided to go Linux. Anyone out there using Linux and preferably Ubuntu? I have a couple questions and figure I'll have some more as time goes on. Initially I'm having trouble figuring out how to install gnash (linux version of Adobe/Macromedia Flash). For that matter, I can't seem to load anything through Firefox like I should be able to... maybe I just need a reboot.

[Update: Had to change some settings to allow the installation of 3rd party software, etc. Everything working pretty well now except my laptop doesn't like to "sleep" anymore. If anyone has suggestions on things to do with Ubuntu or Linux in general, let me know.]

Keep on Keepin' on Keepon

Embedding no longer available

Mesh Networks

What do you guys think about the last big idea

Mass Erect

I don't know if any of you have played mass effect yet, but I figured all of you would get a good kick out of this:




For a REAL review I suggest Zero Punctuation - definitely worth watching if you haven't seen any of his reviews yet.

COOO CHELLL AAAAAAAA

Lineup is Announced. Get ready

Live Drinks

Hey Everyone

I wanted to shoot this survey out to my friends. Im trying to get some good data for my final project for my Masters. It is a topic that is near and dear to all of us.. Drinking. :)

Feel free to fill it out and if you have any feedback, please key it in to the textbox along the bottom of the survey. Thanks for the help everyone.

LiveDrinks

Laith

free xbox live game

Just a heads up: because of all the live downtime, apparently MS is giving a free xbox game... you don't get to choose the game, and you have to download between next wednesday afternoon and sunday.

More info: http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2008/01/18/UndertowFreeofCharge.aspx

More Cowbell?

New wedding date

Sorry for the confusion but the place we had reserved emailed us that it could only go so late and we have changed the date.

August 1st 2008

Olympia Washington

NerdBowl 07 Wrap-up

I wanted to thank everybody who participated in the NerdBowl this year. It was a tough year for some but great for others; a year of upsets and surprises.

Coming in 1st place.... Evil E!
She didn't seem to have too great of a handle on who the hell she was picking at first, but once she got going she kept up a good team that was strong enough to take the win. Her star performer might have to be Adrian Peterson, the very last pick in the draft who turned out to be a week-winner when healthy.

2nd place... Rox the Sox
The stranger from another land met with bad luck in the start. Despite consistently being a contender for the 2nd most points, she had a knack of losing high-scoring affairs. However, she persevered and blasted by the commish with confidence to make the battle for first a high-octane, high-estrogen affair.

3rd place... Commissioner Jib
Early on I appeared to be unstoppable, losing my first game with Cooley's bye and then my next with Brady's bye, but the magic of those two couldn't keep me invincible forever. I maintained the longest winning streak during the season but slipped to second place in the last week and fell in the first round of the playoffs.

4th place... The Bastards
Notable for their amazing comeback at the end of the season. Going into week 10 The Bastards were in dead last without any hint of coming back but then staged a miraculous playoff drive that netted them a berth on week 15.

Honorable Mention... Red Devils
I don't know what happened to Red but his team just tanked on him. He went from battling for third to not even making the playoffs and then losing to Fisher's unmanned ship of a team in the consolation playoffs. In fact, yahoo doesn't even register Red as finishing the season in 6th place, he just falls off the chart.

Dishonorable Mention... Fisher's Favorites
Somewhere throughout the season we seem to have lost Fisher. At least, I hope so, because I don't know who would consistently play a team stocked with injured players and players on bye. Despite this, however, he still managed to beat Red...

See you all next year in NerdBowl '08!!!1!w00t!!pwn!!1!

We have a NEW date!

Not certain everyone got the save the date emails so I will post it here too. Kristen and I will be getting married on August 8th 1st, 2008 in Seattle Washington. Laith posting plans for 2008 made me realize I need to let everyone know to block that weekend out.

2008 Vacation & Day off Plans

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

I dont know if people are still checking this thing, but I thought I would throw up some ideas for 2008. Maybe you dont know, but UPS really pushes us to schedule these things early, just trying to get a head start

- April 25-27 Coachella Music Festival
www.coachella.com
Pretty sure Hawkins is going, as am I.
We were talking about an RV last year from LA, but I am probably carpool down, then camp there. I will be buying several tickets as extras if anyone is interested

- Summertime Cruise - June - Aug?
Cancun?
Red and I were talking about going to Mexico while we were in Tahoe
Moody is also interested
Extended Weekend would work best

- Pangea Day, Stanford University
May 10th
http://www.pangeaday.org/
If we get a big group we can hit up a pretty crazy sake place in Palo Alto afterward
http://www.jatbar.com/reviews/Palo_Alto/Miyake.asp

- Las Vegas?
I may not be able to do more then two $$ trips as I am trying to buy a place this year. I thought it would be at least worth posting for the Scarab.

- Tahoe Cabin
Had a blast last time with Red, Elise, and Jib. This should really happen again if possible.

Feel free to post comments, or maybe we can setup the gmail file that Hawkins had going last year and all vote and comment in a single place.