Rob's blog of posts

I guess some spammer screwed something up, because I just received an email from roysonic@roysonic.com.tw consisting of a list of 1,306 email addresses. I found my own, #1,036 in the list, and got a kick out of the fact that directly beneath mine was that of hacker icon Loyd “The Mentor” Blankenship.

Spending tomorrow in Manhattan. I’m going to do some museums and stuff which I’ve been wanting to for a while.

Comment by Grey – January 31, 2003 – 2:51 PM
If the beans are cool, they must be
Cool Beans.

Comment by Matt – January 31, 2003 – 7:49 PM
Hey Rob if you didn’t already know the new 2600 mag . is out and your in it again….And one more thing….Penis. Ok just wanted to get that out of the way.

Today at work, I handled a quarter from 1977, my birth year. It was bent, scratched, and mangled worse than any quarter I’ve seen in recent memory, and anything that looks that lousy at my age grabs my interest. In any case, I switched it for a new quarter I had, and kept it. Maybe it’ll be my new lucky coin or something. If nothing else, it serves as a nice reminder that things are never as bad as they could have turned out.

I also found out that the place in Connecticut my job involves was once, in a past retail life, a major hangout of my friend Venadium! Neat!

Ellis Henican’s column in today’s Newsday dealt with last night’s speech by the President. I suggest everyone read it.

I’m off until Sunday! Woo!

The mall arcade I managed is officially a distant memory, like whatever it was I had for breakfast today.

I did some work in an arcade in Connecticut today. Lots of the games which have been in my place over the years ended up here, and I was happy to note that my name is still all over the scoreboards on an “NBA Showtime” I played all the time a couple of years ago.

Another thing I noticed about that place.. the staff is one of the nicest staffs (staves?) I’ve ever seen in a place like that. They all seem amazingly happy with their jobs, which makes me wonder if they’ve been there long. Very nice people, in any case.

It got me thinking.. remember when you were young, and travelling to a different state was a major deal? “Wow, I’m going all the way to Connecticut today! All the TV and radio stations are even different!” Now, in bleary old age, it’s just another border of dubious value. And the broadcasting monopolies have made extremely difficult to find a “different” TV or radio station broadcast anywhere.

Tomorrow – the Bronx.

Mood – Tired
Music – Freezepop! You’ve got to give
these crazies a listen!

Going to work after all. Yay! Wait, I mean “Damn!”

I finally got around to implementing Copyleft terms for all my original material on this site, for whatever that might be worth.

Also, I’ve learned that I may not work at all today, despite clearing my schedule and being ready for it. And I may work all day tomorrow, despite having something scheduled. These are the joys of being filed under “misc.” on the staff lists.

Fark held a photoshop contest on Kevin Mitnick’s return to the Internet. Fun!

Under a new District Court decision, any copyright holder can force your ISP to turn over your identity simply by claiming you’re doing something illegal. Verizon Internet Services were ordered by a judge to divulge the name of a Verizon subscriber to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) because the subscriber allegedly used KaZaA peer-to-peer software to share music online.

Read the EFF’s press release here.

Say.. I own copyrights here and there. Now I can track down that one jerk on KaZaA who keeps cutting off my download of “Sukiyaki!”

They broke the Internet!! Why, Ma, why??

I’m feeling much better. Thanks to all who emailed me ruthlessly ordering me to heal! I’m a few pounds lighter, but none the worse for wear.

More good news – I’ve finally got Grey’s and my pictures from the January 2600 meeting up right here. I usually hate photos of me, but I’m actually liking how I looked in this set!

That’s the page on which I’ll keep my most recent set of meeting photos from now on, rather than cluttering up my main photo page, which is getting unwieldy. As I replace the recent ones, I’ll throw the coolest past ones onto the main photo page.

I also revised my newbies’ guide to the New York City 2600 meetings. Please throw me all your suggestions, and I’ll try and make this thing as comprehensive as it can get. Eventually, I hope to have something put together that anyone can point a newbie curious about the NYC 2600 meetings to.

I have so many updates for other areas of my site just sitting around uncompleted, and I will get to them soon, Scouts’ Honor. (I was never a scout.)

On the UPL message board, we were commenting on RBCP’s webcam. I decided to use my Hollywood-style image hacking and enhancing skills to find out what Arbie’s lovely daughter Emily was writing…

RBCP showed this to Emily, and her official response was “That’s not really what I was writing. I was doing math.” Later that night a Police Chopper hovered above my block for about 20 minutes. (You can read about that in Fina’s journal.) Coincidence?

Last but certainly not least.. my pal Murd0c wasted an entire blog entry on how cool Grey and I are. Man, we sure have him foo- I mean, you rock, Murd0c! See you at the next 2600!

Music – Freezepop – “Plastic Stars”
Mood – Better than recently

More sci-fi stuff.. There’s a new issue of Tachyon TV out. One of my favorite sci-fi / tv / whatever zines, it’s fast becoming my #1 source for any sort of information whatsoever.

A California company called Evolution Robotics recently unveiled their new security robot at the Consumer Electronics Show, which looks for all the world like a Dalek from Dr Who. I’m very frightened.

Actual robot in production in California

Merciless killing machines from the planet Skaro

| News Story on MSN | Official site for the gadget | More info on Daleks |

From a spam I just received in my email..

According To The F.B.I.
1 MURDER occurs every 24 minutes
1 ROBBERY every 54 seconds
1 ASSAULT every 29 seconds
1 MISSING CHILD every 24 seconds
1 AUTO THEFT every 21 seconds
1 LARCENY every 4 seconds

I say we find that guy and stop him!

Hi! I’m sick as a dog. Provided that the dog in question is very sick.

I caught a stomach virus thing which had been going around my family. I thought I was off the hook since both my mom and sister got over it a few days ago, but evidently not. I really hate vomiting. I don’t know how those bulimic types can stand doing it over and over, on purpose. Maybe their lack of intelligence somehow grants them a stamina bonus.

At any rate, my apologies go out to anyone who hung around with me recently who comes down with a case of acute egestion.

As always happens when I’m ill, I had one of the freakiest dreams last night I’ve had in a long time, to the point where it’s still bothering me. But it wasn’t nearly as freaky as throwing up after my only breakfast had been a bottle of that bright pinkish-orange V8 Splash stuff.

Anyway, the arcade is officially closed. It just so happens that yesterday was the final day for the joint. When I called my district manager explaining that I’ve come down with a stomach virus and asking to send a replacement, I stressed the fact that I wasn’t simply freaking out because the place was closing. Anyway, I still have a job with the company as soon as this bug runs its course. However, it’s a job I held some time ago, and am not looking forward to going back to. I need to find other work ASAP.

A plus side to all of this.. I’m finally getting up to the really hard parts of Metal Gear Solid 2! Woo!

Quizzes abound. Lots of “Lord of the Rings” ones.

Music – the Electronica channel
Mood – resting