(15:06:18) ben[at]thelocust: i’ve got the Jurassic 5 album on my share
(15:06:22) ben[at]thelocust: “Power in Numbers”
(15:06:26) ben[at]thelocust: it rocks
(15:06:34) ben[at]thelocust: from track one to the edge of the disc
(15:06:56) ben[at]thelocust: simple in instruction like it was powered by RISC
(15:07:09) ben[at]thelocust: your welcome for that
(15:07:24) MrCoffeemonk: they actually worked that into a rap? awesome.
(15:07:30) ben[at]thelocust: no
(15:07:33) ben[at]thelocust: i just made that up
(15:07:59) MrCoffeemonk: well, that was pretty damned good.

What constitutes a “Rock Jam”? If you think like I think, without prior instruction or clarification — i’m thinking “Mississippi Queen” by Mountain or perhaps “Paradise City” by Guns n’ Roses. Songs that both rock AND jam at the same time. However, a more loose interpretation of “rock jam” is any song that is good.

While “good” may be extremely relative, I give unto you hunter’s double-live rock jam compilation volume one. Please note that this was a group effort on the part of hunter’s B&N brethren (and sistren), and he was posed the task of making clean segues and a proper tracklisting.
{more}
Volume One:

1. Jolene (live)- The White Stripes
2. Satisfaction (live)- PJ Harvey and Bjork
3. Mr Bojangles (live)- Jerry Jeff Walker
4. Pancho and Lefty- Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson
5. Ring of Fire- Johnny Cash
6. Angry Anymore- Ani DiFranco
7. A Minha Menina- The Bees
8. Sweet Jane- The Velvet Underground
9. 19th Nervous Breakdown- The Rolling Stones
10. Go Your Own Way- Seaweed
11. Sliver- Nirvana
12. El Scorcho- Weezer
13. Muzzle- Smashing Pumpkins
14. The Tears of a Clown- Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
15. Man in the Mirror- Michael Jackson
16. Around the World- Daft Punk
17. Like a Friend- Pulp

Volume Two:

1. Introduction- Mr. Jack White (this is “we pose this musical question…”)
2. Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (live)- The White Stripes
3. This is Love- PJ Harvey
4. You’re No Rock N Roll Fun- Sleater-Kinney
5. Walk This Way- Run DMC and Aerosmith
6. Hey Ma- Cam’ron
7. Cock Mobster- MC Paul Barman
8. Work It- Missy Elliot
9. The Rockafeller Skank- Fatboy Slim
10. Block Rockin Beats- Chemical Brothers
11. Run’s House- Run DMC
12. Girls- Beastie Boys
13. Tainted Love- Soft Cell
14. It’s the End of the World As We Know It- REM
15. Superstition- Stevie Wonder
16. Paradise City- Guns N Roses
17. Volcano Girls- Veruca Salt
18. Stutter- Elastica

My initial impressions? First off, that “Satisfaction” cover by Bjork and PJ Harvey, as much as I love them both, well, I could do with out. Kudos to the “double-shot” of the White Stripes and Superstition by Stevie. Also, indie props to “You’re No Rock N Roll Fun” by Sleater-Kinney and “Volcano Girls” by Veruca Salt. Girl-rawk always jams in my book.

Excellent segues include “Mr Bojangles” to “Pancho and Lefty” to “Ring of Fire”. Also, the Sleater-Kinney to rap/rock forefathers Run DMC deserves some credit.

Insight Broadband are the true bastards. We ordered some changes to our service (Cable TV) last weekend. Tuesday they came out to “untrap” HBO, and summarily knocked my cable modem off-line. I called that night, and they said that they’d be out to check the line on Wednesday — they did, and it seemed that the signal was good enough. However, that didn’t allay my problems in the least. Snow was falling heavily, and my weary heart called up Insight once again to get them out here — “it will be either Thursday or Saturday”, neither of which were true in the least. So, this morning I called them up once again, had to replay the WHOLE SCENARIO once again (despite the fact that they have a system that tracks notes for issues), and now they tell me it will be Monday. Yeesh.

workin’ early, too, I am. I saw the “Future Self” episode of South Park last night — oh my lordy, that is some funny stuff. While they may not have the coverage they used to, they are if anything, MORE funny. Adults acting like children, children acting like adults. And that’s always funny.

Oh yeah, the bastards — Burger King — forgot my hash-rounds with my French Toast Stix. No Domo Arigato, BK!

there are plenty of people workin’ late, and I’m one of them.

i’ve been messing around with this little javascript snow-thing today whilst at work (it’s been a bit stop-and-go today, and I’m frazzled). I went to sleep late last night, and have been drinking coffee. While I feel great because I’ve been doing good work today, and there is snow outside, things are getting hectic on this project i’m on.

In that spirit, when you clicky on the snowflakes that are falling on this page, they explode.

You can pause them with the “pause snow” link over here –>

yes, it’s snowing in louisville. the troops – rallied, the salt – dispersed, the snowplows – everpresent, the news – chock-full of at least three feet of pap about our two inches of snow.

in other news, i love little javascript snowflake thing.

Today at lunch, we had a short conversation about gift-buying and gift-giving, and sara (who has no website, p’shaw!) mentioned that matt dislikes malls. I said that I would have to agree, in the context of gift-finding. I tend to regard — at least in my own mind — malls as the last refuge for gift-buying. My favorite gifts are those that, while they may not have been expensive, I know that the person who gave it to me put some thought and care into choosing it. For instance, the green and white muffler that Kelly made for me is one of my most prized possessions. The lamp that Hunter and Eve chose for us from the Swanson-Cralle gallery for our wedding I love because they chose it for us, independently (we didn’t ask for it from the wedding registry). Sara also gave us a beautiful vase from Brown County that I believe to be hand-crafted, or at least I’ll operate under that assumption.

In short, it’s the thought that counts to me. You could give me a napkin that said “Happy Birthday” on it, and I’d probably keep it forever.

Question: Can you prosecute homosexuals for having sex?

Answer: Well, I certainly hope so! What if they start to reproduce — oh wait…

To quote the article: “Texas prosecutors argue government can and has the right to enforce public morality.” Well, frankly I find it immoral to even suggest such a notion!

Way to go Texas, you ass! (which is right next to Louisiana)

There has been a story about cell-phone related deaths floating around. This estimation that 2,600 people died last year in cell-phone related car accidents comes from a mathematical model from the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. Their summary of the report can be found here.

It seems to me that we, as a people are more terrible than the most terrible terrorist. Our culture is own terrorism. We live sedentary lives, we eat until we die, we smoke too much, we war against drugs while we advise that everyone “have a designated driver” (btw, alcohol caused 12,000+ deaths last year in car accidents). Our government speaks of peace in the same breath that they threaten war. Jail journalists that leak information, but would you mind printing this threat to Sadaam? Thanks.

Sheesh. I can’t help but think that the same moral ambiguity that started the anti-slavery abolotionist movement in the 1800′s is being manifested now. A nation, birthed in the ideas of freedom allowed for the continuance of slaver. How do we, a nation that prides itself on freedom, cope with being so contradictory — not only to other countries, but to ourselves?

update: this just in! eat up, fatties! Meanwhile, when will White Castle make soy-burgers?

Kelly and I have quite a few driveway moments. NPR is great.

Finally, I’d like to give a shout out to Jessica for chipping in some of her no-doubt precious time to the Distributed Proofreading project. She did five pages yesterday! “It’s fun!” she said, I think.