http://staplercalledlove.ytmnd.com/ (IE6 required, Firefox won't play sounds)

ytmnd.com is quite possibly the most hilarious site ever. For new people, a primer:

yourethemannowdog.com is the original site.
ytmnd.com lets you make your own site by replacing the text, background, and looping sound. Hilarity ensues. The one above is one of the best ones so far.

Attention ladies:
Winky faces are, in fact, sexy. Feel free to use them when you're in such a mood.

Attention fellas:
Winky faces are not kosher. I'm wondering if I'm alone on this, but I tend to get very creeped out when winky'd by a dude.

Big props to aroon for pointing me in the direction of the new Zero 7 album, When It Falls. Highly recommended for fans of Z7 or anyone looking for some melodic yet mellow music.

Hell yes:


You are WILD AND CRAZY KIDS. You couldn't get
through life without a little fun... or a neon
colored t-shirt. You are a team player and
really into Omar Gooding. GO YOU!


Which old school Nickelodeon show are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

So CNN's Game Over column was updated today and it's very, very interesting. Microsoft is looking into, but not yet confirming, the idea of releasing a system that would combine an Xbox2 and a fully functional Windows Longhorn PC after the XB2 release. The skinny, from CNN:

One slide describes the unit, which would require a PC monitor or high definition television, as being backward compatible with current and next-generation Xbox titles. It would also play PC games and include a fully functional version of Windows, CD burner, DVD player (with remote control), built-in access to Xbox Live and a hard drive. Control-wise, the system would come with both a keyboard and mouse and a standard Xbox controller. The price point this particular study tested was $599.

At $600, that sounds like a hell of a deal, especially considering MS's drivers for the graphics hardware would likely let it run current PC games very well. Some people have worried about upgrades, but I don't think that would be a problem as MS could release some spec parts (for too much money, I'm sure) that would upgrade the PC-gaming capabilities without interfering with Xbox gaming.

One problem: Digital Rights Management (DRM). Everyone's in a mess about this tech called Paladium that's going to be in the next Windows that will promise "secure computing." Knowing that MS was an early adopter in music DRM technology is really kind of unnerving when it comes to buying a media center from them - who knows if the damned thing will let you play your music? So long as it's truly a fully-functional PC, I see no problem with loading up Winamp and tweaking the bundled remote to function with it at the same time.

Either way, sounds like a damn sweet deal to me - a backwards compatible XB2 and media center for $600? Sign me up.

owned up last night. I was totally with it the whole show. What was even more amusing were the reactions I got over IM from the UT crowd that would always come in at 8:00 to watch on my TV [warning: spoilers from last episode are below]:

soph: Chase = straight thuggin'

syed: damn
blake: yeah dude
syed: fer shizzle
blake: i was hoping to see more resolution in the tony/michelle realm tho
syed: he's goin to jail!
blake: they werent 100% about it...
blake: but damn, 20 years
blake: whats michelle gonna do?
syed: find another mexican

adam: DOUCHE BAG
adam: THEY CUT HIS ARM OFF
adam: YEEEEEEEEEES

tim: OMG WTF his hand
blake: holy hell that was crazy
tim: yeah
tim: ...and i was hoping all the middle schoolers were going to eat it...

I love you, 24 kids. Looking forward to season 4. Especially since....

They're writing Chloe out!

So my summer's been officially planned: I'm taking two classes, five weeks each, at UTA, and working on the Worthington competition again (the P2 essay contest I was a winner in last year). The rest of my time will be free, so I'm very happy about a relaxing summer. The classes are scheduled really well: first one's like 12:30-3:00, four days a week, and the second one is 10:30-1:00.

Classes start next Tuesday, so I've got nearly a full week of vacation. There's a Smash tourney and a LAN coming up, so I'm spending lots of time playing games in preparation for those two on top of my own personal gaming. I'm almost done with the GT4 School Mode, so then I'll go back and go after all the silver medals. I think I'm very close to finishing Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow (my objective right now is to capture Sadono alive), and I finally finished Deus Ex 2 a couple nights ago. The ending I got really made me think, so I might go back and get the other endings just to see if they treat the player the same way. Throw in Smash and Counter-Strike practice, and I'm doing a hell of a lot of gaming.

But it gets better! I'm spending my nights being social and talking to a lot of people. Hell, I managed to drain a full cell battery charge last night talking. That made me happy enough, but then I got in touch with Claire Potter (who I was really close with in high school - she was practically like a sister to me). After not seeing her for a year, I've got a lunch date with her later this week and since that conversation I've been thinking how I've managed to let some really special people slip by me. So, dear amigos, amigas and readers, please forgive me if I haven't been close enough with you over the last year. My bad. But I'm always willing to fix it over a cup of coffee, if you are.

I'm an explosive dork:

blakerson may explode without warning

M EXPLOSIVE

Username:

From Go-Quiz.com

Am I cool or uncool? [CLICK] You are Trendy... You're a trendsetter.. well more of a trend follower. You have a few 'cool' friends who don't mind you hanging around for a laugh. It won't be long before you're climbing the ladder to cool status. Keep up the good work!! Cool quizzes at Go-Quiz.com

So north of Austin on I-35 there are some billboards put up by Prolife Across America. They are, you guessed it, pro-life. It's one thing to advocate your message like any other group, but you cross a line when you stick up a baby on the billboard and say:

I GOT MY "GENES" AT CONCEPTION!

I quote the billboard verbatim. Including the quote marks. Now, why on earth, if they really meant what they're talking about, would they put the word "GENES" in quotes? It would be one thing if the group were to essentially say: "Look. Genetics. Very well understood scientific fact, right? Well hey, your baby you're thinkin' of killin? He's already got your genes. Think about that."

Well, our lovely pro-life friends don't quite do that. Instead, they block off "GENES" as if it's some kind of joke. Yeah, I'm really pretty sure those quotation marks are in direct mockery of the science of genetics. In fact, that billboard is even mocking you, O silly plebeian genetics-believer. The billboard, by my careful interpretation, is saying, "HEY! You and your "GENES" talk aren't welcome here! Look at the baby over there! Feel sorry for his harmless self! DON'T YOU DARE THINK OF KILLING HIM, OR WE'LL SEND YOU TO HELL."

Kind of like how in the wake of the Bush administration, half the country doesn't believe in global warming anymore. But I digress.

The real point of this is that history always looks sour in retrospect upon the people who worked against the progress of science. If there were a movie made about Copernicus, Galileo, Darwin.. oh wait, there have been movies about Darwin, and the guy who's against the scientific reasoning is always the bad guy, and he always loses.

So pro-lifers, contemplate this one little point. Do you accept that when the movie is made about your kind, you'll be the bad guy?

Cowboy Bebop is still one of the most beautiful shows ever, even after seeing every episode multiple times.

Kurt Vonnegut is my new hero. He's already hero for some of you, but I've just now discovered him. I guess I'm slow or something. Anyway, he wrote an essay called Cold Turkey for a liberal magazine called In These Times (I've never heard of it either). Go read this essay now - it's not a long read at all. If you don't like this essay, well, chances are you shouldn't be reading my site. Vonnegut's a real master with his words and you better believe some of his stuff is going on my reading list right away.

Another hero: the wonderful folks behind Groove Armada. Run, don't walk, to your nearest music source and grab the single Lovebox. There aren't words to describe the swankness of this song. It's easily the best Song of the Week I've had in a long, long time.

So I finally convinced Mom that a decent router would solve our problems with our horrendously configured $30/month DSL line. $50 later for a refurbished Netgear router, my connection woes are gone *and* my laptop's on by 802.11b. So from now on I can just chill on IM and post from anywhere in my house when I feel like it. This makes me very happy.

So I spent the last week trying to settle in and wound up busy like a crazy boy. After I had barely started unpacking, it was off with me again to Austin to help my brother move out of his apartment for the summer. And I hadn't even gotten my computer set up at that point. After 48 hours and a couple well-earned meals courtesy my brother's mom (whom I'm beginning to call my second mom, Karol), I got home with a sore back from all the sitting still in my car seat for drives to and from Austin.

Back home, I managed to kick it up a notch and finally get my own computer online, get the PS2 mod working (I love Gran Turismo 4 Prologue), and relax on my own damn couch. It's the uber version of the moment when you plop down on the couch and go 'ahhhhh.'

So after 5 days I'm unpacked, somewhat starting to settle, and getting into the groove of summer. Right now I'm posting from a chill little event at Max's house where there's a handful of people playing Generals, and damn that game looks stupid fun. Tons of things blowing up. Gaming, lounging, city driving: yep, looks like I'm truly back home.

Maybe I really should make this picture into a t-shirt.

Thanks, Jason.

and it feels weird. There's been a whole lot of thoughts running through my mind about it which I don't really think would make a great huge long post. It's certainly bittersweet, to say the least. It's not fun saying adios to all my friends at UT, and the hordes upon hordes of hotties running all over campus all day. That said, I'm happy to be living in a more 'posh' environment: a room all to myself, an uber-comfortable bed, and (for the time being) no worries about how much sleep I get before I go to work/class the next day. Finally, I'm going to have time to pursue some of the smaller things I've been wanting to do lately: read some more books on my list, catch up on some car / scientific reading (read: Car&Driver and Popular Science), and work on music (my Heavier Things sheet music was here when I got here).

So A-town kids, give me a ring! I'd love to see each and every one of ya.

Frankypoo's artwork is incredible. Click the link to his site and follow it to his deviantArt page, because it completely owns.

So Andy Kaufman died of lung cancer on May 16, 1984. The legend goes that he said he would fake his own death and return in 20 years. Well, May 16, 2004 is Sunday night.

Dead, alive, anyone got a guess either way?

Well, I do this every year 'cause I'm a nerd. But I'm pretty busy since finals start tomorrow, so I'll keep it short:

Nintendo: Strong showing, but won't win. The DS system will be unveiled, it'll have wireless Bluetooth multiplayer and a few promising games, and it'll release in time for Christmas but won't be as huge as the GBA. Oh, and did someone say "New Miyamoto Zelda game?" The teaser is 100% incredible, go find it. Gamecube has a promising set of games for this year (Pikmin 2, Paper Mario 2, etc.) so they'll finish strong once more and make everyone who put $99 into their Gamecube feel like it was the best investment they ever made.

Sony: Will amaze the world with the PSP and jaws will drop with some really outrageous claims of what it'll be able to do. Don't forget, by now we were all supposed to have PS2s in the living room, downloading movies and games. When the system comes out, it'll be good competition for the NDS but nothing earth-shattering. Maybe we'll see more of Metal Gear Solid 3 or a surprise Rockstar announcement, but beyond that my expectations are low for Sony.

Microsoft: Will win the show by not surprising anyone. They'll have Xbox ports of the major PC releases coming (Doom3 and Half-Life 2), a few Xbox Live upgrades (including support for EA games), and some really good titles for Live that'll be out by Christmas. People will catch onto the buzz, and Xboxes will sell by the dozens on the appeal of Xbox Live and the release date for Halo 2. This will be the year Microsoft wins this battle of the console wars.

PC gaming: Will do the same thing it does every year: show about 3 triple-A titles and nobody will care about the rest. Doom 3, Half-Life 2, and one more might steal the show, perhaps in the form of another Valve announcement or a new Blizzard game (not likely).

1. Chose new template.
I really liked that design, but it turns out that the subtle imagery in the header was a flower. Sorry, but my masculinity won out on that one. Instead, we're running the '565' template, which may yet again change at will.
[Problem solved]

2. Comments are under testing.
I'll leave the Blogger comments on for a few more posts, but so far I don't like them. Aroon's comment about leaving site navigation really bugs me, and anonymity also annoys me. So unless those are changed in about a week, it'll be back to YACCS I go.
[YACCS is back up, rejoice! Colors are fixed, many many thanks to JasonKOK and his hot new 350Z for teaching me some CSS I didn't know before.]

3. Photo = b0rked.
The new thing has an option to put a picture of me right next to my name and location (see sidebar). Unfortunately, Blogger refuses to read it from my UT webspace, so unless I can get a host, no picture.
[got photo online thanks to aroon's hosting.]

4. Links will return.
I still have all my old sidebar data saved, so no worries amigos, your links will be back in no time.
[Screw the easily maintainable way, I just hardcoded the links into my template. Links are back.]

That's it! The site is back 100% and I'm happy to see the new look working correctly.

Just when I was starting to whine about the lack of cool templates on Blogger lately.
Just when we had all been complaining for a year about the lack of fast and stable comment systems.
Google comes through with a completely redone Blogger system. The main homepage is redone, the back office is prettier, easier, and quicker, there's a new built-in comment system, and thanks to the powers that be:

A new look, finally.

Welcome to the new snagger.org, boys and girls.

This is amusing for anyone who likes seeing people get out of traffic tickets on technicalities.

A mere second college buddy has made his way onto the list. Adam, whom I affectionately refer to on a daily basis as "DOUCHE BAG!", has started a Xanga that rips on all the emo kid Xangas out there and it's updated pretty frequently. He calls it NoLifeZone, a play on his Halo alias, and it's amusing, even for us non-emo kids. Check it out.

You're Brazil!

You're athletic, charming, and probably a good dancer.
 Unfortunatley, you don't really mind chopping down the rain forest, and you probably
consider homeless people expendable in certain circumstances.  Of course, your
personality is so diverse that it's hard to track down exactly what you're like.  You
definitely like Pele, the World Cup, and shouting "gooooal" at the
top of your lungs.
Take
the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

Remember when I offered Gmail invites? Nobody took me up on it, so I jumped on the bandwagon and took them to Ebay.

Here is the result.

I am a Death Chase Rider. I enjoy taking risks, and I get kicks from speed, danger, and death-defying stunts. I drink and drive, I bungee jump, I snowboard, with no regard for my own life, or the lives of those who stand in my way. Trees? I laugh at trees! What Video Game Character Are You?

I am 37% evil.

I could go either way. I have sinned quite a bit but I still have a bit of room for error. My life is a tug of war between good and evil.
Are you evil? find out at Hilowitz.com


In other news, I think this site needs a facelift. If anyone has any input (on things they want/don't want) then leave a comment. I'm contemplating going graphics-intensive (like Emma's blog) if I can find a suitable template.

Anyone know where I can buy a gnome?
-NOT a live, mythical creature
-NOT a linux desktop environment
-I do want a decorative garden gnome to give my mom next Sunday.

BMW drivers are apparently more sexually active than owners of any other car (including domestics).

Gmail is Google's new webmail service. Free, 1GB storage, and all the usual Google stuff: fast, easy, new features that are so good they're transparent. I can send out two invites to give you an account (it's currently in semi-closed beta). The good usernames are still available, and this thing looks like it's going to be around for a while, so give me a call or shoot me an IM and I'll hook up the first two people who sound like they can give my invited accounts a loving home.