Current Configuration

  • Dear Spam Jackholes

    In the coming weeks, I will try to stop the comment spammer-bots from advertising their illicit and irrelevant crap on my site, but in the meantime:

    Dear Spam-bot writers,

    I hope you all get cancer of the eyeballs and die.

    Sincerely,
    Chris

    PS: And so does everyone else.

  • The Truth Fairy

    Alisa and I recently saw an ad on TV wherein a child gets $1 for their tooth from the Tooth Fairy, and then the punchline comes when the kid points out to the parents that their sibling (I assume) got $2.

    I don’t know about you, but I got 50 cents from the tooth fairy. I did not go through childhood believing that I had a mouthful of cash, and it really wasn’t a big deal. I know some kids who got five bucks. Five bucks!? When we have kids, the Tooth Fairy’s middle name is going to be ‘Cold Dose of Reality’:

    Future Child: “Daddy, daddy! The Tooth Fairy came and left me a note!”

    Me: “What does it say?”

    FC: “It says: ‘Dear Child, congrats on the tooth. I give you permission to grow another one to replace it, so you can chew your food… for which you should be very thankful. Love, Tooth Fairy’. I thought the Tooth Fairy gave money, Daddy.”

    Me: “See how wrong you were? Eat your breakfast… if you still can.”

    I see this working out well for us. Don’t you?

  • I Need Boxes, Lots of Boxes

    I realize that Current Config’s been a bit dead lately. I’ve been hit with 3 freelance jobs (on top of my full-time one) and, most importantly, we’re moving!!

    Woo hoo! Boxes! (yay!) Dust! (cough) Scary bugs! (eeek!) No more crappy apartment that costs too much! (ka-ching!)

    We’re not moving too far, but it’s a good move. Unfortunately, it’s both further from my job and the city, but it’s a great area and the apartment is A) bigger B) better C) cheaper. What more could you want?

    This weekend, alisa and I, along with family and friend(s) will move our crap (which appears to be mainly CDs, books, comics, computers and boxes) in a frenzy of sweating, lifting, and groaning.

    The relevant parties will be contacted with the address of our new domicile next week. ‘Til then, I’ll probably be hard to reach.

  • You Have Chosen… Wisely

    I grow more confident in my bio-pairing decision every day. Today I received yet another confirmation:

    Me: So I was thinking that it’d be cool to get some Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD…

    Alisa: ::gasp:: Awesome!

    I am so totally awesome at spouse-choosing.

    Now all I need to figure out is how I’m going to afford seven seasons of TNG at about $120 a pop. This stuff should be free. This is the manual for utopia, people. Everyone should have a Natasha Yar.

  • Four Tet – Rounds

    I picked up Four Tet‘s Rounds, and it’s really good.

    After multiple listens, the best description I can give is the following: this is the sound you’d expect if DJ Shadow and Aphex Twin sat down on a Sunday afternoon to make an album together. Every track has the quirky, sometimes blippy, emotive-in-its-abstraction feel of Aphex Twin, but it also has the beat-minded feel of Shadow’s work. Any time I think a track sounds overwhelmingly like one of them, I can imagine the other leaning over their shoulder and saying, “Why don’t you add this?”

    The end result is defintely worth a listen.

  • Alisa: 1, Me: 0

    Conversation ‘twixt Alisa and I, while spending an evening at home with the Eternal Philadelphia Rainstorm going on outside:

    Me: Y’know Alisa, if you want, you can stop the rain. I mean, I think we’ve had enough already.

    Alisa: (frowning) I’m not making it rain…

    Me: …

    Alisa: Maybe it’s the kitty that wants to come live with us. It’s going to rain until we get a kitty.

    Now that’s working the conversation. How can I keep up? In the distant future, when I’m out-voted (Alisa and Child vs. Me), I will not hold any cards in my own household.

  • Borders Gives Comics the Nod

    I was in Borders today and I was perusing their Graphic Novels section when it dawned on me that they’ve actually taken the time to give them their own discrete location in the store. They are no longer the graphic lackies for Sci Fi or Horror or Fantasy. That’s a good sign, in my eyes. Comics (or ‘graphic novels’ if you’re still to in-the-closet about it, or don’t read the single issues) certainly deserve the respect of any other type of book, and it’s right and good that a larger bookseller like Borders recognizes this… or perhaps that they recognize that many people of many ages read comics and will buy them (they are a corporation, after all).

    I tip my hat to you Borders, and to you Comics. May your children be fecund and your harvests overflow their silos.

  • Love Actually

    I’ve watched about 98% of this movie as I write this. A few thoughts:

    1) Now I know what ‘feel good film’ means to British people: Tell America to piss off, eliminate centuries of intense classist culture, and get your romantic mush with a spike of shagging.

    2) Not too bad for a laugh (I’m big on Brit humor), but it’s mostly pretty silly and ridiculous.

    3) It’s movies like this that encourage men to do creepy things in the name of love, because in the movies it all works out OK.

    That’s all.

  • I Am Lame, Even In My Dreams, Which Are Also Lame

    I recently (a few days ago) had a dream about Half-Life 2. I dreamt that I had a copy of the game (only in my dreams is this game released yet) and was playing the opening parts of the game.

    The specifics of the dream are unimportant, what’s important is that I was dream-playing it on our current PC, which is far too under-powered to play this game. So, in my dream, I stopped playing the game in order not to spoil it for myself, in anticipation of upgrading the PC for the full experience.

    So, to review: I have lame videogame dreams in which I am so lame that I can’t even dream myself a decent system, and, in a bid for lamest man alive, I stop playing it because I don’t want to see the game with less-than-optimal graphics…

    In my dream.

    ,

  • Doom 3 Has Gone Gold

    Apparently, Doom 3 is ready to go for shipping, the week of August 2.

    Prepare for large-scale productivity slow-down, particularly in the tech sector.

    Doom 3 will require some serious horse-power, which will limit its immediate impact, but this title will definitely move hardware. Hopefully, id Software’s latest release can compete with the Earth-crushing hype.

    Update 7.22.04
    With their exclusive review, PC Gamer gave Doom 3 a 94% and pretty much foamed at the mouth about how great it is. Sounds pretty good. Keep an eye on the Game Rankings page to get a good aggregate impression as others get their hands on it.