Chopstork

If you work where I work (to remane unnamed),
And you are a Beck fan,
And you are unable to see Beck tomorrow at the Download Festival,
And you are up for infiltrating our neighbor company,

Then you may be interested to know that Beck is playing at Yahoo! tonight as the entertainment for Yahoo! Hack Day—a massive geek fest, according to the squid who laughs.

Our company’s events: Order catering from Armadillo Willy’s, and if you’re lucky you get a cup of beer.
Yahoo!’s events: A big slumber party, and if you’re lucky Beck plays a private concert.

I should have gone into software and been geekier.

The Mainichi Daily News (translated: The Every Day Daily News) reports an Imperial Guard for the Japanese royal family shot himself in the palace.

An Imperial Guard officer was found dead Thursday in the grounds of the Tokyo palace where Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako live, in an apparent suicide, a spokesman for the guards said.

The lifeless body of the 19-year-old officer was found in a bathroom at Akasaka Palace with a gunshot wound to his head, said Imperial Guard spokesman Mitsuo Koibuchi.

All those American otaku out there must be ripping their hair out. That’s gotta be their dream job. You get to live out a Star Wars fantasy and be Japanese all at the same time.

This is us meeting the royal family a couple years ago at New Years. They’re there. In the middle of the building. Behind the glass. The Emperor even spoke to us. Anyone who looked at him was shot on the spot by the Imperial Guard. Not really.

Found the article through Tokyo Mango.

Mommy, I want one!!! The new Tickle Me Elmo.

I gotta admit, it made me laugh. On a dorky note, that’s pretty cool how he can roll around and get up on his own.

If you’re into classical music, I came across an article from uninnovate.com and found out about the new Philadelphia Orchestra online music store. They sell their music as unprotected MP3 or FLAC (lossless) files, so you can play them on any music player you want. And for a limited time they have Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony available as MP3 for free. I didn’t know what that was till I just listened to it—it’s the one that goes da da da duuuuuh…da da da duuuuh (hear it).

If you’re into “jam bands,” the article talks about a site Dom and Mark had showed me a couple years ago, but that I’d forgotten about recently—Nugs.net. They have a bunch of live recordings for sale, and a selection of free downloads in their free stash section. The free stuff’s good listening when you’re slaving away in the cube.

Mondays are a horrible way to spend 1/7th of your life. Fortunately, this document always helps me put things in the right perspective. See section 3.2.5.

MIL-C-44072C - COOKIES, OATMEAL AND BROWNIES, CHOCOLATE COVERED

Also, check out other MRE spec’s here.

From my dad: “Mom and I went to the old style market in Naha [Okinawa] yesterday and I took the attached picture. It reminded us of Hong Kong 25 years ago. But he looks cool.”

On the way home from the Sunset, Laura and I always pass by Uranus. Last night we went up Uranus. Just to see what’s up Uranus. Uranus is pretty nice. Uranus is narrow. Uranus is a two-way street. Be careful going up Uranus. Uranus is open on both ends. The view from Uranus must be nice.

We’re so immature.

The new YouTube controls are ugly. And really intrusive. Especially that big red bar. Maybe it changes color while I’m watching the video. Nope.

And while I’m on the subject, they’re turning too MySpace-ish with their special accounts for musicians and customizable backgrounds. Customizable backgrounds just means I can’t see the words on half the pages that are customized. And since I mentioned MySpace, I may as well include a link to this delicious article saying that MySpace is one giant hunk of Spam…or something like that. (If you cook it right, Spam can be quite delicious, actually). Not that I care—I’ve been lucky enough not to discover the addiction (I have maybe three or four friends in my space).