Currently...

  My Head

  Reviews

  Scribbles

  Olden Times

  Nutshell

  Feed me

Man, I should really start using a blogging service or something.   Until that happens, here's a quick list of stuff that's happened since the last post:

• The bat boy and E3 story made it into print just fine, thank you.
• The AP tests were pwn3d.
• All non-final school days finished.
• I received $2,000 in scholarship funds for being such a stud for the RJ, as well as a smattering of awards for school newspaper work which is detailed here.
• Using the $35 gift certificate I received, I bought a Pelican Universal Arcade Joystick, an X-Arcade caliber joystick that pushes me off the deep end of video-game fanatacism.
• Or Lack Thereof was found by merit of being the one and only result for the search thread lock haired pillick.  This is far beyond a googlewhack, this trumps a googlewhack.  This is, like, an überwhack.

May 30, 2003 9:36 PM

I think that's long enough between posts.  This past few weeks have been busy considering we're currently at the climax of the school year.  Since this year's Thoroughly Significant English Essay™ is merely awaiting a final revision, I'm pretty much in the clear after that.  Yeah AP tests are coming up, but I'm not all that concerned with them since A) They take roughly 3 hours to do B) I'm quite certain I'll pass all of them, and C) USC doesn't give you a whole lot of credit for passing them.

Oh yeah, I guess I'm going to the University of Southern California in sunny Los Angeles.  Sent in the papers and everything.  Already visited the campus.  Pretty much the final word on the matter.

A few points that popped up when swallowing the idea of going to USC:

• I'm going to be able to go with my best friend Brandon Murray, though he has to attend UNLV for the fall semester.  Brandon and I are actually Bizarro versions of each other.  In reality we're quite a lot alike yet totally opposite in every way.  I'm black haired, he's blonde.  I've lived in a myriad of cities primarily on the west coast, he's lived in a myriad of cities on the east coast.  I'm majoring in Cinema and minoring in 3D animation, he's majoring in 3D animation and minoring in Cinema.  My best classes in school are his worst, and vise versa.  Our parents are complete opposites (his mom spends most of the day playing Star Wars Galaxies, my mom is a bike mechanic who can't go hours without exercising).  The list goes on.  Somebody should really do a Psycho-social study on us or something.  I'd be all for it.
• My dreams of playing for a Division 1-A college basketball team are essentially squashed.  I kept telling I'd have a chance at a small, academic school like Columbia or Dartmouth (the worst two teams in the Ivy League) but now it's out of the question.  Not that USC is known for it's basketball program, but still.  Speaking of sports:
• I'm happy about being in the Pac-10 somehow.  Stanford, Cal Berkeley, Washington, Oregon U and State, Arizona U and State; this sounds like a good list to me.  Don't ask me to defend all of these schools, I just like the sound of it.  One school I definitely won't defend is:
• UCLA.  My official rival from this point on.  I don't know about you, but I could totally get on board for hating the Bruins.  If I went to Berkeley or something I'd have to hate Stanford, and I really couldn't get behind that.  I'm having no qualms right now.  It's actually quite convenient.
• Apparently the graduate film program there is the exact same thing that the undergraduate film program, meaning I don't have to spend two more years in college, or at least having to pay to do so.  Even better, apparently they take 48 or so kids from within USC into the program every semester.  It just keeps getting better!

So anyway, that's most of that.  Right now I'm also getting excited about getting involved in the exciting field of

PARTICIPATORY JOURNALISM!

over the next few weeks.  Next Tuesday, I'll be in the dugout of the Las Vegas 51s, the Triple A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, as the most marginal of sports figures: the bat boy.  You'll eventually get the full story when the story goes up the the Review Journal, but I might pop in and give you a few details before then.

Also, E³ looms ever nearer.  We've just entered the eerie netherworld of gaming news that always proceeds the Electronic Entertainment Expo when companies remain totally silent except to release strange, non-sequitur tidbits about anticipated games, formally announce games three weeks too early, and release news that would have been significant a couple of years ago.  It's a weird, anxious time.  Of course, I'm now the envy of every video game playing male at school, but I aught to bring back enough swag and video footage to keep them happy.

So things are looking up generally.  Then again, I'm clinically unable to stay depressed longer than a quarter of an hour, but now I've got plenty of tangible reasons for my chipper mood.

And that was my very long journal entry.
April 23, 2003 11:00 PM

There's a new joke goin' around, have you heard it?

Amusing text inputs into AT&T's Text to Speech demo can return amusing speech results.  Go ahead and have fun with that for a while.

If you don't get the reference, proceed here to be edified.
April 8, 2003 1:33 PM

This is what pops up every time I empty my junk mail folder in Hotmail using Opera:

Question mark indeed...
April 3, 2003 1:33 PM

I've always wondered when something like this would come along.  I've always considered an English accent database would be a commendable endeavor, and I'm just glad someone with an actual grasp on phonetics has undertaken one.  If I had done the same thing, it just would have been a clickable map with people who claim to be from that geographic area  saying random quotes.  So legitimacy is a good thing.

I am in the midst of a storm of colligate admissions and denials.  I'll give you the final score when the proverbial smoke clears.

I obtained a sword, which is long and made of metal.  It can be used to skewer things.

I have begun each of the paragraphs in this post with a first person pronoun.
April 1, 2003 9:14 PM

I enjoy the music of Barenaked Ladies, and went to concert featuring them as a result.  It was an enjoyable experience.  Especially interesting was the fact that the folks over at Red vs. Blue provided a few video clips interceding the night's events, which was an unexpected sample of media convergence.  If that's the right word that is.
March 11, 2003 6:21 PM

Is the topic of my latest piece in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
March 11, 2003 6:21 PM

So hey I'm back.

I sort of was without computer for quite a while, and am only now able to converse with you, whoever you might be.  Instead of trying to fill you in with everything that happened in the past few months, I'll just try and fill you in from here on out.

However, I will direct you to the following review that I wrote for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.  Mostly it's part of my nefarious scheme to enter E³.
March 11, 2003 6:21 PM

I was on the TV.

Well, I was at a taping for a television program that will air on television in the near future.  I was a member of my school's Varsity Quiz team this year, which is basically a high school competitive game show-esque contest.  The play-offs are actually on PBS in an actual game show set up, but my team didn't make the play-offs.  However, there is an All-Star Match at the end of the season, and I was nominated to represent the school.

My team won, which doesn't mean anything, but I had a good time.  When asked what the first names of the four Beatles were, I decided to respond in the most technical manner possible, and identified Ringo as Richard, figuring his given name would be acceptable.  It wasn't, but the judges at least acknowledged I was correct at the end of the round.  I scored a respectable 30 points, and you can all check out the show if you live in the Las Vegas Metropolitan area and tune into Channel 10 at 5:30 on the 28th.
February 9, 2003 6:21 PM

Here's that review of The Perfect Score I promised you.  You can rest assured that you now know my opinion on some movie you probably won't see that came out more than a week ago. 
February 8, 2003 6:21 PM

My former history teacher has a rap group called Big Beat Battalion.  That link will take you their recently redesigned web page, which I recently redesigned for them.  This marks the first time I've designed a web-page for a person other than myself, so that's a kudo for me.

I highly recommend the aforementioned  duo, as they provide a brand of Nerdcore Hip-Hop quite different from it's patriarch, the great MC Frotalot.  I put a sideways reference to him on the front page, but I don't think Smooth J nor Grammar G will mind.

I also saw The Perfect Score at an advance screening for the R-J.  You'll get your review Tuesday.
January 27, 2003 9:57 PM

I've decided the Me talking section could use some reorganizing, so get there using whichever one of the available links you'd like.

If you want direct links to the new content, you'll want to direct your mouse towards this general area.
January 20, 2003 7:19 PM

Hey, I was sort of in the paper yesterday.  Astute readers will notice I already have pretty much the exact same article in the Me talking section, but now with the aid of professional editing!

I think I've only mentioned I write for R-Jeneration in a sideways manner, so here's the formal notification.  I've had two different things published beforehand, but I didn't find them terribly relevant to the site, so I neglected to mention them.

I suppose these should go into the Me talking section, so once I scrape together a few things I'm missing, I'll rearrange that page.
January 7, 2003 5:52 PM

Does posting an IM conversation on my web-site make me a bad person? Probably.  Oh well:

Friend: ok
Friend: so
Friend: green eggs and ham 
Friend: i dont like this title
Friend: its almost misleading
Friend: because the ham is green too
Friend: and, seuss goes against convention and lists the ham and eggs opposite from their normal order
Friend: possibly making one think that there are green eggs
Friend: and then just regular ham
Friend: but no, there are green eggs and green ham
Friend: which, should be called green ham and eggs
Me: It's to make the rhyme
Me: Sam I am
Me: Eggs and ham
Friend: well
Friend: its misleading and i dont like it
Friend: and i demand justice!
Me: He's dead
Friend: o
Friend: well
Friend: as he should be for that crime against the english language
Friend: not to mention all the other ones
Me: This is so going on my web-site
Friend: good
Friend: i need the game
January 4, 2003 11:54 PM

Several things happened in the interim since my last post:

• Christmas occurred, bringing tidings of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus on DVD.
• I received The Zelda Compellation disc containing the first, second, fifth, and sixth chapters in the series.  A feature on the games might be in the future, but don't count on it.
• I read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, which I'm pretty sure holds the record for most incestuous relationships in a novel.
• I attended The Duel in the Desert with the intent to participate in the tournament, but was foiled at the last moment when I discovered I would not be able to compete without the proper knickers.  I say knickers not in an attempt to sound amusing by using an antiquated term, but because that's the technical term for the pants you wear when you fence. Anyway, I'm going to go tonight and watch the exhibition matches.
• I finally got around to creating the alternate header images for the site.  Dan and Iori should look different each time you visit the page, at least until you've seen all nine different poses. 

January 3, 2004 5:33 PM

The desperate need for a new computer is perfectly evidenced by my old one's current behavior.  Apparently, the simple act of minimizing and maximizing windows taxes the processor, and each time this occurs, the bar representing each window slowly glides towards its eventual destination, like a migrating goose.

Christmas, you could not possibly come at a better time. 
December 13, 2003 5:33 PM

If you've ever played Candy Land, you might remember Lord Licorice and his castle bearing his name.  Lad Licorice was presented as a villain, curled mustache and all.  He's the arch rival of King Kandy or somesuch and his castle is located on the board.  If you remember correctly, Candy Land had a number of "bridges," and when a player landed on an adjacent square, they could take a shortcut farther up the trail.

Such a bridge existed near LL's castle.  Players could (presumably) take the bridge to the castle and be nefarious or something.  The castle wasn't mentioned in the rules, and actually crossing the bridge didn't actually do anything.  Still, players could dance with the chocolate-coated devil should they choose to do so.

Until recently that is.

Turns out recent versions omit the path to the confection-based castle. Were kids tempted off the strait and narrow by Lord's two varieties of Licorice?  Whether they airbrushed out the trail due to moral revisionism or phone calls on what you're supposed to do when you land on the corresponding square may never be known.
December 8, 2003 5:33 PM

I was on the radio.

KLUC 98.5 to be exact.  Honest truth, I wasn't really aware of the station's existence until today.  I keep my dial on the local jazz station, you see.  In any case, a fine time was to be had by at the recording studio, where señor Bo Jaxon (if that is his real name) DJed the show with some input from some other R-Jeneration staff members.

Being a hip-hop station, I was somewhat out of my element; Outkast was the only performer with whom I had actual knowledge of.  Despite that, I think I avoided making myself look like a total boob.

So, good stuff all around.
November 22, 2003 9:20 PM

You know what?  There is absolutely no good answer to the question "Who is your favorite Beatle?"

If you say John, then you're a middle-class, whiny, pretentious pillick who thinks reading few paragraphs of Kant makes you a bleeding philosopher.

If you say Paul, you're a bubble-gum musical philistine, who's sole measurement of merit in music is whether you can play it in your car with your friends and pretend to dance.

If you say George, you're a snobbish musical elitist, who maintains that vinyl sounds better than CD and spends your time in used record stores pontificating on the merits of various indie rock bands you're not even sure exist.

If you say Pete Best, you're a insufferable smart-alec who uses  knowledge of insignificant facts in an effort to make other people look stupid.

If you say Ringo, well, the less said about that the better.

*sigh* 

Anyway, my favorite is Paul.
November 22, 2003 9:20 PM

While going over "The 50 Greatest Movies, According to John Duffy," I asked myself if I had the physical capacity to name 50 movies which I personally found to be my favorites.  I've already established I like lists, but I was just wondering what percent of the movies that I've even seen would make such a list.

That's why I've produced this, a list of every movie I've ever seen.  This is a work in progress of course; a number of times each day I'll be stricken with yet another film I neglected to include in my list.  This is in no way a vehicle for film bragging rights, the inclusion of such classics as "Surf Ninjas" should make that apparent.  Rather, it's an honest tabulation of the movies I've seen in my lifetime.

If the list proves anything, it's that I've seen an unhealthy amount of children's movies.  Whether from my own youth ("Bedknobs and Broomsticks", "Richie Rich") from living with younger siblings ("Rugrats", "Jimmy Neutron") or from working at summer camps ("Osmosis Jones", "G.I. Joe: The Movie") I've seen enough kids flicks to write a book.  Mostly, this has convinced me I need to increase the zeal with which I view films, to counteract the deluge of kiddie films that make up my cinema experience.

News of this endeavor amounts my friends have ranged from accusations concerning the amount of free time I have to chastisement for not having viewed Movie X to fascination and the subsequent establishment of their own lists.

So, whatever it's worth, here you go.
November 8, 2003 10:52 PM

"In this program we'll be making a just lovely apple crumble with graham topping and a nice vanilla bean cream sauce. Now let's pre-heat our ovens to 350 degrees and begin. " 
November 8, 2003 10:52 PM

This week was generally busy, since I was doing the whole college application thang.  Hopefully the blokes over in New Haven will see what a phenomenally awesome person I am and realize their incoming class would be tragically incomplete with me.  Yep, that's exactly what will happen.

This week was also closely related to national news, which is odd considering the isolated nature of living in Vegas.  Turns out the California fires were so big the smoke made its way over to southern Nevada.  All of Wednesday the yellow-gray blanket fell over the valley carrying with it the smells associated with burning homes.  Then again, considering the fires were from California, I wouldn't be surprised if our good friend Mary Jane was mixed in with the fumes.  I know I was certainly hungrier than usual that day.

We've got two articles on the way for you today.  First, a double header of Cowboy Bebop CD reviews, these two for the movie soundtrack and the remix album.  Second, a list of the 50 Greatest Movies will come shortly from John over there.  I took the liberty of reviewing it, and all I'm going to say is that it contains Dare Devil.  That's all I'm going to say.
November 2, 2003 9:43 PM

Greetings, readers, I'm John Duffy. I have been under the influence of Driggs since the fifth grade, and now my addiction has spiraled to the point where I have latched myself onto his site. So you'll be hearing a lot from me, as my portion of Or Lack There Of shall grow like a tumor; a witty all-singing all-dancing tumor. Joy! 

As of now, I'm a Junior at Lake Oswego High School, a ritzy suburb of Portland, Oregon. I do some high school theater, but I'd have to say my true passion is that of an avid movie-goer. The cinema experience is one that I savor every second of. Big fan of M. Night Shyamalan, Tarantino, and the Coen Brothers. I suppose that's enough for me to get started. 

My column of links should be fully operational soon enough but don't hold your breath.
October 28, 2003 10:24 PM

In addition to this being the first post of said person, this is also the maiden voyage of the new site design.  I'm pretty happy with it myself, so I'll just have to assume it's awesome.

Well, I hope we're all looking forward to rigorous debates on such pressing topics as why The Green Lantern is cooler than The Flash and which Yoplait Yogurt is the best.
October 28, 2003 10:31 PM

Home  

  Me talking  

  Media  

  Works  

  Log  

  About  

  e-mail