bought a computer this weekend

so I finally decided on what I wanted from dell and ordered some new phatness...I got a great price and it's supposed to get to me early next week...yeehaw! here's my specs ya shizz:

Dimension 4700 Series,Intel Pentium 4 Processor 520 with HT Technology (2.8GHz)
1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 400MHz
Dell Quiet Key Keyboard
19 in (19 in viewable) E193FP Flat Panel Display
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelator 900
160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
No Floppy Drive Requested
Microsoft Windows XP Professional,Service Pack 2, English
Dell USB Optical Mouse
Intel Pro 100M Integrated PCI NIC Card
56K PCI Data Fax Modem
16X DVD+/-RW Drive
Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit ADVANCED HD Audio,100dB/Dolby Digital/96KHz/7.1
Dell A215 Speakers

whoohoo! I'll be working from home the day that it arrives in total freakin' anticipation, like drooling and shit...

mew

my buddy introduced me to this band named mew...they're freakin' amazing...I have to go out and buy their CD as soon as I can!...new reviews have been posted...I made a new section (that's not live yet) for Smother called Essentials, which lives up to its name...I hope that it'll be rad...

Italian roots reggae rules

right now I'm rocking out to Giops' latest album "Face the Music" as I go through the mass amounts of albums I need to write up reviews for...damn if it's not good...Italy surprisingly has a very vibrant reggae scene and they do it quite well...yesterday's band practice was tight though again we were plagued with a singer who didn't show up until an hour after she was supposed to...but luckily Exit 67 didn't globbe up this one...she wasn't too bad hitting all her notes and staying on key but I just hope we're able to find someone that fits in well with our dynamic because I truly think that's our best strength...an old school buddy of mine called me yesterday so I need to give him a call back, I haven't had an opportunity to call him back since I got back from Seattle though he's left me several messages and even paged me a text message!...this morning I went ahead and bought a new computer from dell...I'm quite excited and got hooked up with some pretty sweet Memorial Day sales including free 2-day shipping, a 19" flat panel monitor, and a free printer (not that I needed one)...this computer lasted me a good five years and actually is more or less fine, it's just slow and running out of hard drive space...did I mention that iTunes is a crummy ass program...figures...Apple sucks--no I'm not one of those people that swear up and down that Apple can do no wrong, they actually can do a lot of wrong, it's exactly why their market share hasn't increased as much as it should have noting Microsoft's issues with their various OS's and platforms...alright off the soapbox with me and back to work...

does Wind-Up Records have the patent on comic-book movie soundtracks?

because that's all they apparantly put out when not putting out lame albums by Creed wannabes...yes they're doing the Fantastic Four soundtrack, which when I saw the preview I joked "soundtrack available on Wind-Up Records"...honestly I had no idea I'd be right!

band practice and more, oh my!

yesterday I was allowed to leave work early but still didn't get home till about 3:30 or so...ugh...I drank some much deserved beer and had corn on the cob and shrimp for dinner (I'm still thinking I may give up fish too and be a full-on veggie) both were quite yummy...watched the Red Sox and Yankees game which was fun and also managed to finally beat Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, which was damn tight...today I have band practice in the afternoon and we're auditioning a singer (who better show up!)...should be fun...and yes it's a Saturday and I woke up at 6:30am...UGH...but now I can write a bunch of reviews before practice!...taste it!

now this is why the Internet was invented

to read vulgar blogs from New York Asians and to restrain yourself from saying anything about a mustache ride...and then there's the things that just appear to be gay "brawny" porn...and to watch David Lynch give the weather report...tee to the motherfucking hee

and while I hate five bucks (not as much as the ladies do), I certainly don't hate dimes...but pennies (and Good Charlotte), can taste it...

upcoming weekend of fun

I'm definitely looking forward to this weekend...tomorrow my company is allowing folks to leave early as part of our "Summer Hours" program in which we can jet at 2pm every other Friday...that'll be nice so I can hopefully avoid some of the shitty Memorial Day Weekend traffic...this Saturday we'll be trying out another singer...hopefully this girl actually SHOWS UP...last Sunday we were supposed to try out "k2 kpower!" (this is how she signed her emails when she's not being stalked) but unfortunately she does not know how to leave DC and drive onto 66 without exiting and re-entering the same exit ramp...yes that's right, she was leaving FROM DC, we call her 10 minutes before she's supposed to get there, she says "be there in 20 mins, running a little late", an hour later, we call again, "yeah I'm just passing exit 67, I got turned around on 66"...now for those of you not familiar with where my house is (where practice is) it's in Manassas, a bit off of exit 44 OR 47 on 66...exit 67 is almost IN DC (where she was coming from)...so for a good hour or so I'm thinking she was just exiting 66 turning around and getting on the other side, then exiting at the same exit and getting back on 66 on the other side...now usually that's pretty metal to say the least, but this is an audition! you can't be that late to your audition...that's crazy talk...anyways, we're trying out another female singer this Saturday afternoon...hopefully it goes well...if not, I will force Corpsegrinder the Bassist to belt out gnarly squeals...Sunday I got to do some work around the house and write up some reviews and then Monday we're going to the Nationals/Braves game up at the other Dead Kennedy Center...radical...last night I actually got some sleep though I woke up at 5am...the night before I got three or four hours of sleep...stupid work. I swear. ugh.

I think I might have to go up to DC one day and check out this bar

myspace spam is funny

honestly how can you not guffaw at this:

" message 6 Hey sexy you are so youngwoman241 i loved your profile. I thought maybe we could chat some more on aim or msn. my aim is good looking and my msn is ally21125@hotmail.com. Message me on those and lets talk. $4$ "

I mean "$4$" ??? dude spam doesn't get better than that...even with mustard!

delighted with trickery

I'm so delighted with my personalized Google homepage! I have a "word of the day" widget set up and today's word was (drum roll please...blast beat please?):

artifice
artifice: an artful trick, stratagem or device; also, cleverness, skill.

now that's wicked sick smart ya shizz...or is it sudsy?

Chewbacca would play bass

couldn't agree more...all bass players are tall and lanky...much like the Wookie...

do the wave

not only does Norway boast some rad metal bands but they also can do the wave like nobody's business...ooh it's almost time for band practice...last night's boxing match was awesome...it was sick to see Winky Wright beat the hell out of Felix "Tito" Trinidad and then be followed by a 1-minute knockout of Andre Golota by Lamon Brewster...I just wish the heavyweight division wasn't controlled by Don King...he's such a douche bag...

Darth Bush?

After seeing Star Wars twice (once with my team from work on Thursday and then last night with my wife) and hearing all the rumors that the Dark Side is Republicans (hey I couldn't agree more)...I'd have to agree that there are some slight digs in the direction of our current state of affairs...and you know what? I think the conservatives that whine about this are just big babies...they can't handle ANYONE criticizing them one bit...it's pretty weak when you think about...after all they do "control the Senate and the courts"...they've helped turn sporting events into these moralistic nuisances meanwhile the guys still bash each other in the freakin' heads...but back on Star Wars...it was a great movie, certainly the best of the new ones...people that whine about the poor acting or dialogue are just lame...you could easily criticize ANY movie for that if you want to...I mean after all this movie inspired some, well, interesting fan fiction finding Darth Maul learning to program or Darth Maul at a rave...how fun it all truly is.

looks like I might be changing my homepage

I might just have to change my homepage to the new google personal portal page...

I have no aim

at work they have banned AIM because of morons that click AND download virii through instant messenger...I swear for as much anti-virus stuff as there is out there, there's no muzzle on stupid.

so if you're looking to contact me, use yahoo messenger under the same name ya shizz

would you like some honey with your monkeys?

It seems as if the evil empire (which isn't nearly as evil as all the eLiTeS would have you believe) is doing something pretty nifty called the honey net project by using a bunch of various WinXP cloned virtual machines to traverse through the bad neck of the woods in the internet to see what vulnerabilities they get hammered with...I think it's pretty awesome...so does some security folks...I tell you, Microsoft always gets a bad rep but they treat their employees damn decently (exception is the recent stupid ass problem with the crazy Christian preacher who demonized them for supporting a gay rights bill)

and yes even the crazies get Mac's

oh and you thought Mac's were resigned to some trendy cool nu-nerd or something...sorry you're sadly mistaken

but Solaris on the other hand...

public secrets!

Now this data collection project would have been interesting but sadly most of my projects in college were tedious and boring..the best part was that they exposed our voting system for how lame it is by proving that 50 dead people voted in the last election in Baltimore city alone...gee I wonder how many dead people voted in Ohio or Florida?...and those dead people sure are getting what they wanted with a Republican government bent on destroying American values and turning over government to the radical Christian right who want to make sure that YOU have no real entertainment and abide by their strict (and WRONG) intrepretation of the bible while disavowing and reinventing the word "science" (note: they did not read the MAJORITY report)...so yes, maybe they're satanists favoring the uber-rich and powerful and make us all into some twisted form of Texan...hey, maybe not everyone can see the big picture when the glint of platinum starts spinning off of teeth or maybe they just have to adjust their ID cards accordingly but damn if we don't fix the direction this country has turned towards, we'll all teaching our children that "c" is for celery and that there's no darn tootin' way that Jesus would have Mir on his iPod...and on an even sadder note, the riddler died

what a day.

new video for Desert City Soundtrack!

cool, it's awesome that they made a video I love the piano part in the beginning...

my band has a website now

if you want to sing for us, that'd be awesome...if not, you're probably like my wife (just kidding honey, don't derail the booty train please!)...honestly my wife has the sweetest voice in the world and I would blush every second if she sang for my undeserving band Mir...I know I'm laying it on thick aren't I?...well I'm just trying to be brawny and all...

so yeah, check out my band's website at:

mir-rock.com

If you don't you'll be sorry...yeah we have some rough tracks up there and they rule, mostly because I am not on them...taste it ya shizzes!

why the music industry is fucking stupid

with my site, Smother.Net I'm often asked to post banners, host (or more often link to) videos, music, streams, MP3's, etc., write reviews, conduct interviews, etc. etc. etc....I do my best to accommodate as many artists as possible and help out even the biggest labels...I started my site because I thought it would be fun plus it was a pain in the ass for my little band to get any press feedback (save for our rad comparison to Voivod in the UK's Metal Hammer haha)...so it frustrates me to no end to get bullshit emails like this from the big wigs in the music industry...and yes, I'm posting the FULL E-MAIL with no names stricken out save for the poor schlub at the promotional company (it's not they're fault and they're frustrated with this lack of common sense):

"http://www.jrecords.com/newsletters/fowler/051205.html

May 12, 2005

IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ

Dear Partner,

As a result of a new policy implemented on behalf of J Records and Arista Records by our parent company Sony BMG, all video streams of J Records and Arista Records artists must be removed from your website or on-line distribution platform. I have provided a complete list of affected artists below. Please review carefully. A formal notification from Sony BMG Business Affairs setting forth the end-date on which the videos need to be removed is forthcoming, along with information on how to license our videos for use in the future. Your immediate attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Jennifer Fowler

ARTISTS:
Abra Moore
Alicia Keys
Angie Stone
Annie Lennox
Aretha Franklin
Babyface
Boo
Busta Rhymes
Cassidy
Dido
Eric Sermon
Fantasia
Flipmode Squad
Gavin DeGraw
Havana Nights
Kenny G
LFO
Love Actually
Luther Vandross
Lyric
Maroon 5
Mario
Mashonda
Monica
OTown
Product G and B
Rah Digga
Rhymefest
Rod Stewart
Ruben Studdard
Santana
Sarah McLachlan
Shawn Kane
Silvertide

SOiL
Whitney Houston
Wyclef Jean
Yung Wun"

Now obviously plenty of these artists aren't as worried about getting free publicity as the others but still, it's pretty ridiculous for a Sony/BMG imprint to whine about such nonsense...you know why they're doing this? because people are converting streams into something they can put on their iPod and in addition people are actually VIEWING them or STREAMING them, and get this--they want to lower their bandwidth and storage costs!...can you fucking believe these assholes?...all of the Sony imprints are following suit, which is several thousand artists...how dumb. fuck them.

Race for the Cure

With all these "Race for the Cure" stuff coming out, I'm glad to help support it myself:



go grab your black ribbons...

seattle's best

now that I'm back from the West Coast (pacific northwest to be exact--seattle to be as precise as a neutrino's mass) I'm ready to go back to work and tackle the day-to-day grind of corporate whoring...

Our trip was fantastic, we went to go visit our two friends that live out there and to get a break from the aforementioned corporate spreading of legs...man oh man do I love that area...it's much more relaxed there, people are friendly, and there are people who actually think that marriage between two men won't bring about the downfall of mankind...we took the train up to Vancouver on Monday and I got a stamp on my passport for Canada...whoohoo! Now I've been to the following other countries:

Dominican Republic
United Kingdom
France
Italy
Canada

Vancouver was not only beautiful but the people were awesome, friendly, and thoroughly nice to 'mericans even though we don't deserve to be treated nicely...on our way back to seattle that evening (it was like a 3-4 hour train ride one way) we were sitting next to 'mericans who fucking talked extremely LOUD the whole time back until I told them to shut up...honestly it was very rude and when the one girl who must have been a social worker decided it was perfectly within her right to spout off about the personal affairs of some of the people's encountered--parents whose meth addiction may force them to lose their children for example (mind you she mentioned them by name too!) really just annoyed me throoughly...Canada was awesome though...we went to Pike's Market of course and walked about through the city...pictures are forthcoming soon...I had some great Pad Thai at a restaurant near their place downtown...I don't normally like Thai food all that much but I love pad thai...our string of crappy (really pounding on some wood right now!) airplane travel ended which was a relief...taking a red eye back can be tough but is actually a decent way of adjusting back to normal time...

the ex-voKILList (I think it's hilarious that death metal bands do that) of Fistagon is now singing again in a band called Flesh Earth...glad to see he's playing music still...my own band Mir is really freakin' rocking out the tunes but we still need a singer, so if you're reading this and can rock out the voKILLs then by all means, hit me up...I finally got my brother-in-law's CD back too so I'll be selling that soon...I need to finish my record label start-up's website ASAP too...I want to work on some dRed stuff soon too and I need to send out CDs to get some press feedback

a co-worker suggested that I get these magical bracelets for my wife...I think I'll take the Pabst Blue Ribbon Bracelet of Poo Power + 3 don't you think?

and what ARE the possibilities for this convention?

since time travel could in theory be possible, though most likely could result in a conundrum, I'd be fascinated by this convention which is populated by folks who enjoy a little python challenge who might be miffed at the one in Perth and most certainly but not reservedly at the Time Travel Institute, meanwhile the postal service (the real one not the band) are showing their photogenic side and that they indeed miss their maude cum hasselhoff and sure parents will soon insist following that rare stabbing by a needle of their elementary age children, that disintegrators are mandatory along with armed guards and metal detectors, and of course no evolution. oh and we wouldn't want them exposed to anything nasty on cable television

but I think they'd object to any hardcode Ann Coulter love or at least, that's what Colonel Blimp tells us
so sleep tight and don't let the horseheads bite

oh for Christ's sake (yes I'm being ironic)

give me a break Kansas!...seriously what's wrong with people, how can you dispute fact?

how many licks would Mr. Owl take?

to get to the center of this lollipop?

also, be sure to tell Canucks to not club any more seals or listen to the soundtrack from Titantic...

oh darn

he's dead

obituaries in the sky

My burning question for today, is what would it sound like if Obituary's singer teamed up with Explosions in the Sky???

I think it would sound fucking rad...

yeah I disagree but this is damn funny

teehee such elitism, I swear...

lyrics that probably fit me more than anything else written

"Why are you scared to dream of god
When it’s salvation that you want?
You see stars that clear have been dead for years
But the idea just lives on"

- "We Are Nowhere and It's Now", Bright Eyes

I've always believed in a higher power and that lack of control all us humans ultimately fear most about death and tragedy but I've rejected god all too often because of his/her's many worshippers that try all too often to control and brainwash man rather than teach the fundamentals of how we all could just get along wonderfully in this world if we just strived for oneness instead of OURness...

awesome percussionist

so in writing reviews this weekend I opened, trembling, the new Raquy and the Cavemen CD "Jordan"...wow...she also has a blog...I've never heard anyone play the dumbek quite like her...I do believe this instrument is the next thing I want to buy...and I probably should get my own djembe since I'm just borrowing my brother-in-law's awesome one...the rest of the day I'm just going to kick it after I post my reviews...I mowed around 11am and spread some grass seed...I'd say planted but I just kind of spread it around, kicking seeds about with my feet...I got "Hotel Rwanda" from Blockbuster this afternoon and I'm excited to finally get to see it...