Sue Is Sick of John's Ass

I have no time to blog. I haven't had time to read blogs either.

Headed for NY on Wednesday for the Bingham Cup. Then SJ and I do the whirlwind tour of the east coast. I hope to post something soon.

I miss Tunesdays...

Saturday's Song

Marc is still not feeling up to par. He's on mega drugs. I told him I'd post a Flashback Friday song for him and never got around to it, so I will today... just a day late and a dollar short.

But I wanted to post a little sumthin' sumthin' about John Sterling. Sterling is the token straight boy (actually we've had some come and go but he's a stalwart) on our gay rugby team.

He's very funny and constantly has tequila or beer in his hand (I suspect that vodka and not water is in the sports bottle he brings to practice). Anyway, he joined the team right around the same time as I did, so we've kind of learned this whole crazy game together. He joined because his brother (who is gay) plays on the team. His brother has kind of floated in and out all year but Sterling has been at just about every practice. Not only that but he's become a vital asset -- becoming a member of the board, going from Back's captain to team captain.

Not only is he an amazing athlete, but he's got a great sense of humor. He handles the whole gay thing with aplomb. Here he is at the gay rodeo. Pussy LeHoot just LOVED him (she can smell straight a mile away). BTW -- isn't Joe fucking hot in this pic???

At the Sevens tournament he took a hard hit. It was so hard that his entire body turned black and blue. I tried to take a pic with my phone but the sun was shining too bright. So I e-mailed him the pic and told him it didn't turn out. This was his reply (Jacque is his wife):

No prob- we can take another one tomorrow. You should see it today- omg! It is kinda scaring me- I woke up today and my ball sack and wiener are almost black (we won’t be taking any pictures of those though-lol). I asked Jacque if she wanted some black cock- she declined. Thanks anyway and see you Wednesday.

I'm not sure if it reads as funny as it was when I initially read it, but I cracked up.

Anyway... he and his wife are expecting a child so I'm not sure how much time he'll be able to dedicate to rugby next year. Hopefully he'll be able to stay with the team. In honor of Sterling and of Marc (send him good vibes), the Flashback Friday (or Saturday's Song) is Don't Go by Yaz (or Yazoo-depending on which side of the pond you live). Coach Phill will like this song because it's straight up dance/pop -- none of that drug-induced haze rock music I listen to. :-P

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I HATE MACS...

getamac
Originally uploaded by veryapeaz.

... an ongoing saga.

OK. There are so many reasons for my hatred to this stupid operating system. Hear my rant:

I went online at 2:45 to watch Pearl Jam's live Web cast from the David Letterman show. They taped a song for the show. Immediately after they were going to perform a 45 minute set for the audience, to be broadcast over the Internet.

Guess what? I can't watch the fucking thing because I've got a stupid Mac at work. I tried three different browsers (unlike my PC at home, I need three browsers to view Web sites and that STILL doesn't guarantee I'll be able to view a page). Safari and Internet Explorer just showed an empty box where the video should have been. Firefox told me a script couldn't run. So, I'm praying some fan is capturing the video on his PC and uploading it for me to see later this week.

So, I figured this would be a good time to watch the "Get a Mac" ad. Coach Phill sent me the link in a previous comment. I read about the ads and thought it would probably cheer me up. I needed a laugh--CUZ I'M PISSED I MISSED PJ!

Well, guess what... I can't watch the Get a Mac, on a fucking Mac computer. I went on Apple's site, but it gave me an error. My version of QuickTime can't run the ads. The error message said that the QuickTime server didn't have the necessary file to display the commercial properly.

So, I went to download a newer version of QuickTime. As I tried to install it, the computer gave me another error message. Apparently, I need Mac OS X 10.3.9 to run the newer version of QuickTime and I only have 10.2.8.

Does anyone else see the irony here????? I can't view an ad on why I should own a Mac on a fucking Mac computer (granted, they're targetted towards a PC owner but still...).

From what I read about the ads (cuz I can't view them until I get home and watch it on my WINDOWS XP computer) it tells you to get a Mac because there are less viruses. Well no shit sherlock. If I'm a virus writer, I want to fuck up as many people as possible. Considering that less than 5% of computer owners use the Mac OS, I'm going to write a virus for a Windows machine. Why bother screwing up the lives of thousands when I can fuck over billions of people? Macs aren't built more secure--give a hacker time and he'll find any hole he wants--they're just less likely to be attacked.

Mac's operating system pisses me off so much. Every year, Mac comes out with a newer version of an operating system. It costs $130 or so to upgrade each time. So every year, it wants me to pay $130 to use my computer. If I don't pay, then I might not be able to run certain programs (and the programs cost four times the amount you'd pay on a Windows machine--if they have it. Often, there are no Windows equivalent programs on a Mac).

At least Microsoft waits a couple of years to come out with a new operating system. And in between major updates, it gives free updates and tweaks. And most Windows operating systems are backward compatible. So that older programs and equipment generally (not always) will work.

I get tired of hearing about how ELEGANT the operating system is and how beautiful Apple's computers are. Here's my eMac at work. How fucking elegant is this? It's a big box. It's a big white piece of shit that can't display a Pearl Jam Web cast or a fucking commercial telling me to buy a Mac.

The other day I installed a newer version of Firefox. I double-clicked the file and it brought up this funky hieroglyphic. I dragged the icon onto my dock. It worked fine. Great! The next day--Firefox wasn't there. I double-clicked the file again and looked closely at the hieroglyphic. I guess I was supposed to DRAG the icon to the Applications folder. How intuitive is that?

When I load a program in Windows, it does everything for me. I click Next. Next. Next, etc.. It does everything for me and I don't have to understand hieroglyphics for programs to load and be where they are supposed to be.

Now as I end this I don't want you to think I'm some Microsoft fanboy. I'm not. But there is a HUGE reason why Apple controls less than 5% of the computing market. It's an overpriced piece of shit.

I just took a deep breath. I feel a little better. Not much but a little.

Ladies Who Lunch

company2
Originally uploaded by veryapeaz.

Random Thoughts:

The Ladies Who Lunch is a popular gay saying. How do I know this? I hear it a lot at Echo. It's referenced a lot in various conversations.

Finally, I looked it up on Wikipedia and found it's a song from Company by Stephen Sondheim. I really love Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods so I read about Company.

It sounds like an interesting musical. So I found the song "Ladies Who Lunch" sung by Elaine Stritch. The guy who used this computer before me, had it on iTunes. I think I've heard it before. So I listened to it again.

Then I read the lyrics and listened again. I don't get it. Why is it such a popular song or phrase? (Usually said with a knowing wink.)

It's an okay song but as Richard would say, "Damn, Gina. It ain't all that."

....

I'm lunching a lot this week. I normally go out to lunch maybe every other week. For some reason, everybody I need to interview this week HAS TO DO IT AT LUNCH CUZ THEY'RE SO BUSY.

Yesterday was my only day I got to eat in the office.

I'm not a big fan of eating out at lunch. It's expensive. The food is generally no better than my sandwiches or lean cuisines. And it's difficult to take notes amidst a sea of Splenda wrappers and condiments.

Plus, I like the quiet time of lunch--reading a book or the paper.

....

I was chatting online with SJ the other day and he told me about a conversation he had when trying to cancel his AOL. He doesn't have a computer at home and only kept it so he could have the same e-mail address (he didn't realize he could keep his AOL e-mail address for free).

When he told me he was going to cancel I told him to be aware that they will say or do anything to keep him. I also warned that they will offer to give him three months free, but he'll just have to call back again.

Last year I had to sign up for a 3-month membership for a computer column I was writing. Cancelling was murder. They kept extending me. Finally, I faked tears and sobbed on the phone to PLEASE CANCEL THIS ACCOUNT!

Anyway, I thought his story was funny and asked if I could repost it here. It's not cleaned up, so excuse any grammar or spelling errors.

no1sunsfanted (2:05:14 PM): lol... exactly. oh so why did jen fall over the chair laughing and the girl on the phone you were trying to sell tickets too?... i saw that. i thought that was unusual.
JTapp77 (2:05:31 PM): oh because the conversation went something like this
JTapp77 (2:05:41 PM): she talked and talked and talked
JTapp77 (2:05:45 PM): and i was like, uh huh
JTapp77 (2:05:52 PM): answer i don't have a computer at home
JTapp77 (2:06:13 PM): she was like well, finally i just was getting to the point where i didn't care.
JTapp77 (2:06:55 PM): she said so when you had a computer at home, what did you use it for? I said um cybersex. She said OH well have you tried cybersex with our high speed internet
JTapp77 (2:07:05 PM): i was like, um i don't do it anymore. I like the real thing better
no1sunsfanted (2:07:14 PM): LOL
JTapp77 (2:08:00 PM): she then said well you know that AOL has the best fire wall and virus protection. I said well considering again i only have a work computer, I don't care what protection they have. If it goes down, i go home early.
JTapp77 (2:09:37 PM): then she said well would you think about using AOLs new high speed internet to see movies and videos etc. I said i don't have a home computer so i would only be using it at work. I don't care enough about that stuff. She said well how do you know if you haven't tried them. Its like if you only ate vanilla ice cream how would you know if you like chocolate. I said um that argument doesn't really work, because i could totaly tear it apart by asking you similar questions
JTapp77 (2:09:59 PM): (i was going to ask her well, have you tried sticking barb wire up your pussy to see if it feels good?)
JTapp77 (2:10:18 PM): she agreed that it wasn't a solid argument.
JTapp77 (2:11:06 PM): she said well i can give you two free months. I siad thats okay i don't need it. It would be like me paying for an OBGYN to look at my vagina every month.
JTapp77 (2:11:14 PM): thats when Jen fell over.
JTapp77 (2:12:02 PM): she said, you are definitly one of the best customer conversations i've ever had. I said, I'm just wondering how many more questions you have to go through to convience me to not cancel before you say okay.
JTapp77 (2:12:11 PM): so then I started trying to sell her a ticket to ATC

Given to Fly

Today's a good day for me. I pre-ordered Pearl Jam's new CD through the fan club. Since it won't arrive for another day or so (they won't ship until the day it's released), they allow you to download the entire CD. And there are no restrictions to the music files. So I can burn the files to a disc and take it with me to work.

The files were ready to be downloaded at 12:01am EST, so as soon as I got home from practice I started the process. The site was REALLY slow (I guess everyone had the same idea as me). So far I've only listened to two songs. I'm so sleepy, I've decided to wait to listen to it completely until tomorrow.

I had lunch with Jeffy today. We went to Pei Wei. It was good. I had the spicy chicken that was supposed to be their version of General Cho (or Tso or Chu). It was underwhelming. I did like the spring rolls though.

I'm excited because tomorrow I'm bowling with my new bowling ball. At the end of last season's league the guys pitched in and gave me a gift certificate to a local bowling shop. So last Friday Paul and I headed over there to get my ball and have it drilled. The guy who helped me is super smart in the bowling world and kind of reminds me of Gary Sinise. He's a cool cat.

I'm going at 9pm--it's only a buck a game. I'll be teaching myself how to bowl with a curve. My scores are going to be really low.

So today is Tunesday! That means CD #3 on my "Most Memorable CDs" list. In honor of Pearl Jam's new CD release, I'll write about Yield.

It's a special record for me for two reasons. One, it's the record that got me to fall in love with Pearl Jam again. I LOVED Ten and Vs. Then Vitalogy came along and I was kind of put off by their whole "we don't want fans" approach. Then they released No Code which I didn't like at all.
But as soon as I heard the first single to Yield (Given to Fly) I had to get the record. The record is like listening to someone take a spiritual journey. Most of the record is mid to slow tempo songs. And it's all about relationships, spirituality and finding oneself. It really spoke to me in 1998 and it still does. It's still my favorite Pearl Jam record.

I could write volumes on each song. I think the writing is really clever. For example, in the song Faithfull, Vedder adds the second "l" to the word--so it implies he's full of faith. But is he full of faith in a higher being? Or is he singing to his girlfriend/wife to be full of faith because he has plenty of it for their relationship?

The song Wishlist is just a series of wishes. My favorite line is, "I wish I was the verb to trust and never let you down."

There are some soaring melodies on the record and a few hard rockers. It's just a masterpiece of a record.

I took a "Which Pearl Jam record are you?" quiz and it turned out to be Yield! The result stated this:
You are YIELD. You have infinite potential, whether it's realized or not. You are a quite shy person, but are able to do what it takes to get ahead. You are the little engine that could.

If you want to take it, click here.

HAPPY TUNESDAY MOTHERFUCKERS!

This was the first single released for Yield. It's such a great song and it really comes alive when they play it live. It could be interpreted that Vedder is writing about Jesus Christ. Or he could be writing about himself. That's the fun of Pearl Jam's music. They won't talk about it because they want everyone to have their own interpretations. Listen to it and come up with your own interpretation.

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