Not for me, but for ultrace! Swing by his LJ and leave him a comment (in a post that is probably in no way related to birthdays) or send him an email at ultrace [at] ultrace [dotcom].

How was my 4th of July? Pretty good for a "holiday" that I usually just spend pissed at a world that causes my dog such distress. Went over to Amy and Scott's for a very nice afternoon. Most of which was spent chatting, looking at pictures, and playing Rock Band. But I did interrupt my fun to play around with my iPhone some.

You can check out my results here.

I hope everyone made it through alright with no doggie heart attacks and all limbs retaining at least 87% functionality.

So it looks like Michael Jackson has died. I'm still not sure if that's 100% accurate yet, but at best, it's not looking good. I was just this morning joking about who would be the third (after Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett this morning). But geez, I didn't expect a) an answer so quickly, and b) for it to be Michael Jackson.

I haven't listened to his music in ages. I mean, probably not really much since Thriller, which was one of the first albums I bought. You can't have been a child of the 80s and not have some affection for Michael Jackson.

Then he started getting a little weird, then a LOT weird, and then the child thing ... and I dunno.

But still, somehow this news just really makes me sad.

ETA: Top reports are bouncing between "he died" and "he's in a coma". We probably won't know which way for sure until the hospital or his family release an official statement.

ETA2: And obviously by this point, everyone knows which way it went. Still mulling over my sad, somber reaction to the news.

I'm impressed by the amount of Photoshop shit I've forgotten.

Morning ElJay. Tell me of your ElDay thus far. I want things to read when I return to the computer on my lunch break.

As for me, I woke up from a very happy sleep, which usually wrings the "happy" right from everything. I then whined and waffled a bit in my mind but decided to go ahead and have a productive morning anyway.

But good god I need to get back on this video tape transfer project because I am bloody sick of not being able to walk anywhere. It's like the 80s media revolution came to my house and threw up all over it.

Anyone know if there's a way to get AudioBoo to crosspost to LJ yet? I've got it working to my Twitter but it'd be nice if it posted here as well.

And to cap it? After I finally have lunch, I don't even feel like the orange.

All I wanted was an orange!

ETA: To clarify that, I went to the store "right quick" for an orange to have with lunch. An hour and a half later and I was only JUST on my way home.

Apparently I got two more codes sent to me like a month ago. Whoops. Anyone want? First two replies.

Testing out a Livejournal app for the iPhone. Since I absolutely must be in constant contact for the thrilling adventures of being me.

So far, this iPhone thing? Kinda loving it.

ETA: Okay the location tracking thing is a little creepy but will be less so if I don't gratuitously use it when I'm at home next to my perfectly-able-to-post computer. That aside, pretty cool. I am pleased.

This has been a pretty busy week, all plotting and writing aside. I'll elaborate in greater detail later, but the highlights:

* The Crap Neighbors threw a huge party. Things escalated to the point where they're on final notice from the office and I get a discount on next month's rent.

* Had some great times with Mike, including but not limited to finally completing the solo drum career in Rock Band 1, thus making it the first 360 game for all achievements.

* Almost completed the base formatting for an OSB book. It should be published and ready for purchase within the next couple weeks. This has led to me rereading and damn, I'd forgotten how funny/pathetic so many of those were. I'm still sort of amazed I lasted as long there as I did.

* Our first weekly movie night was excellent. Thinking about catching The Hangover tomorrow.

* Today I managed to successfully fulfill my day's goal: Get iPhone(!!). (does happy gadget dance)

I'm now up to my eyebrows in awesome in a day that's been filled with running around and feels like it should be about three hours later than it is. Also, I have many contacts. Many. Which is funny considering that I talk to maybe five people on the phone in any given six month period.

ETA: Also, I know that jetwolf.com is down. I've reported the problem, and will get on them more hardcore if I don't have any results in a couple of hours. My email is still fine though, and of course there's always jetwolfv1 at gmail (always a sure bet to reach me if needed).

As anticipated, this is a Warped Tour Pack (the tour being partially sponsored by Rock Band). This comes along with a Maroon 5 3-pack, which makes my mother very happy indeed.

Warped Tour Pack
- "The Downfall of Us All" by A Day to Remember
- "21st Century Digital Boy" by Bad Religion
- "I Didn’t Say I Was Powerful, I Said I Was a Wizard" by Chiodos [Love that title.]
- "The Flood" by Escape the Fate
- "Reinventing Your Exit" by Underoath

Maroon 5 Pack
- "Little of Your Time"
- "Makes Me Wonder"
- "Wake Up Call"

$1.99/MS160 each.
$5.49/MS440 for the Maroon 5 pack.
$8.49/MS680 for the Warped Tour pack.

Internet! Sweet bless'd Internet! You have returned to me after our cruel 17 hour parting.

Never leave me.

Enjoy these on-my-lunch-break thoughts.

( I'm hip-deep into my first... )

Mike and I have, of late, taken to randomly recording chunks of public access cable and the next morning, seeing what we caught.

We just finished watching a song-singing lobster-headed guy. Currently we're watching someone talking about codes hidden within the Smurfs. And something about reindeer urine.

I think he may be serious. In fact, I believe this is very likely.

I love public access cable.

Wow. I've never been quite so excited, only to be let down moments later. This has been an interesting DLC announcement for me.

So yeah. Spinal Tap. You'd think I'd be yaying all over the place. I thought I'd be yaying all over the place. But sadly, this four-pack contains three off of their upcoming album, and the fourth track is the full from-their-web-site version of "Saucy Jack". You know, the Jack the Ripper rock musical they were talking about working on.

No "Hellhole". No "Big Bottom". No "Rock and Roll Creation". No "Stonehenge". No "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight".

I am sad.

I wouldn't've minded the new releases three-pack so much (I get how the process works by now) if the fourth "pacifier" track (as I always refer to it in my head) was something that actually, you know ... pacified. I'm sort of sitting there, blinking, at how they'd take a cult band from a cult movie but give you none of the cult music from them. My disappointment in that has, sadly, soured me on any of the four (as I can very easily now see myself unable to not compare them to "what should've been"), and to be pretty meh on the other releases this week by extension.

Oh yeah, getting an Evanescence three-pack too.

But Tap, man! I mean, I'm not angry, I'm not boycotting, I'm just really, really disappointed. The best I can say is that maybe we'll get another Tap Pack in the future. One that really does go to 11.

The track listings:
- "Back from the Dead" by Spinal Tap
- "Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare" by Spinal Tap
- "Warmer Than Hell" by Spinal Tap
- "Saucy Jack" by Spinal Tap
- "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence
- "Call Me When You're Sober" by Evanescence
- "Weight of the World" by Evanescence

$1.99/MS160 each. $5.49/MS440 for the Evanescence pack. $6.99/MS560 for the Spinal Tap pack.

This morning we pronounced Denby as also departed. I'm still not entirely sure what happened, but clearly something got into the water. I was trying to think on when their behaviours changed and they became extremely sluggish. It was when we had the first big heat spike, but also the night before, I had given them a fresh piece of cucumber. Now they've had cucumber before, and utterly love it, so it's not that in and of itself. But I'm wondering now if I didn't clean it well enough and some pesticide or something was left behind.

Also, we had just come back from a trip out of town, and while I was gone the water quality dipped sharply. They were still active though, and no troubles arose until a week or more later, so I don't know if that was a cause or contributing factor, or nothing to do with anything.

The trouble with snails is that, save for trying to keep their water clean and good, there's bugger all you can do for them. Fish have medicine, at least, but nothing for snails. All you're left to do is watch and wait and hope.

It's been a very ... unpleasant experience these past two weeks, essentially sitting there and watching them die. I'm trying hard not to dwell on it too much, but it's also very hard to not shoulder all the blame. I mean, something happened. They were fine. In the case of Nibblet, I'd even say exceptional, given his massive growth and raging activity levels. But something changed, something happened, and by process of elimination, it had to be something that I did (or didn't do). Not intentionally of course, not maliciously, but all the same. So yeah, that's sort of hard.

I just finished draining the snail tank. I'm not sure what to do with it next. I'm thinking about trying another snail, maybe snag a little bit of mollusky redemption. Just the one. He'll get the whole tank to himself, and only the finest, well-washed, organic veggies.

Perhaps.

For now, I'll just be a little sad.

( Have two pics. )

Just checked my stats for jetwolf.com. I do that sometimes. Despite my not updating in, like, forever, the site does a fairly steady, if low, bit of traffic.

So imagine my surprise when I check just now and see that I've scored over 1000 unique hits. TODAY.

Looks like Operators Standing By was linked in the comments of a post on Fark.

That'd probably do it then.

It's somehow satisfying to know that some eight years after its final update, OSB still manages to find relevance.

(OSB ... now there's a collection I should market.)