So, Amie and I saw the Breeders last night. I debated going... I haven't really been into them in a long time... never followed their post-Last Splash projects (the Amps, the Kelly Deal 6000), but Pod is one of my all-time faves. We went knowing it'd be smoky, and overcrowded.... but they won me over. A few Pod songs made me happy, as did their cover of the Buffy theme song (which we covered first!... but they played better). The new songs sound catchy as all hell... the new album (out in May) should be a good one. I couldn't see all that well, and the smoke drove us away before the end, but I got enough to satisfy.

Today is the first day I've felt myself in a week or two. I've been a little off, and I'm not sure why. Maybe the rock and roll weekend threw me... or the lingering cold (which yet lingers)... a combination of that and the frigid temps and not eating as well as I should be. Not to mention the dentist appointment from hades that shook me to my very soul. But I think I'm back.

The strangest thing happened to Amie and I last night. We got back from the Breeders and decided to watch '24', which we had taped on our living room VCR. We brought the tape into the bedroom, pressed play, and 24 started... with audio from some disturbingly freaky kids show! It was so surreal... high pitched cartoon voices screaming "Cookie! Cookie! Cookie!" and singing "We diiiid it! We diiiiiiid it!" over Keifer Sutherland's gun-toting CIA moves. Huh? It made no sense... it was on the tape itself.

So I brought the tape back out to the living room... guess what? Perfect sound. There it was... the 24 audio. We eventually discovered that the freaky kids crap was from something on Sunday morning, before Ebert and Roeper (which I taped). So somehow our VCR left that audio track on the tape while taping 24, and the one in the bedroom happened to be able to play it. We were so confused.

Pet peeve of the day...
People that stand on long escalators, with no one in front of them, and don't take a single step. Yes, I know... they are moving stairs... but you could at least put a little effort into it, you lazy freak! Come on, get moving!

Personal pleasure of the day...
Brooklyn Lager

I discovered this beer over the weekend at the Metropolis restaurant in the South End. My taste buds were quite pleased. I decided to hunt it down and see if the at-home experience could measure up (which my previous experiment with Red Tail Ale did not). I must say, Brooklyn Lager did not disappoint. I may very well have found a new favorite beer... at least until the next one comes along.

Now that I've bored you to death, I supposed I'll pummel your corpse with lots and lots of links. I've got some catching up to do...

Message to Microsoft: Trustworthy, Indeed
Check out this article in the Regsiter, which details the hijacking of the Microsoft-related "trustworthycomputing.com" domain. It points to a search result of dozens of Microsoft Security flaw articles. Ouch.

Survivor 4 is coming.
Yes, I still watch it. It's silly, generally a waste of time, but it amuses me. Last season certainly wasn't as entertaining as the first couple seasons, but hey, I'll take that chance.

Virtual Sales Lawsuit
An interesting case indeed. Do online fantasy game roleplayers have the right to buy and sell items they've collected in the game? Do they own these items? Mythic, the gaming company, says no. The Camelot Exchange says yes. The courts will decide.

The Cancer Conspiracy
My vermont-based friends have completely revamped their band website, and it's a site to behold. With an audio player (preview their entire record) and a smooth layout... go there.

EO News: NASA Olympics Blue Marble Release; February 6, 2002
You must see this. Awe-inspiring shots of the earth from space... up to 1km resolution. It's unprecedented, and beyond beautiful. Wow.

Brain in the Wire compilation
Quick! Go to this site and check out the compilation they're releasing in a couple months. And get this... you can only order it until friday. After that, it only gets sold to distributors, and for the same price (so they'll end up charging more). And once they are gone, they are gone. So if you dig any of the bands, it's worth it.

Halted Firewalls
A fairly interesting article (well, if you care about firewalls and network security) about creating a truly secure, virtually unhackable, firewall setup on a Linux box.

100 Bullets
Ah yes, 100 Bullets. So many good things have been said about this series, and I've yet to read it. People who's opinions I generally agree with have been talking it up, so it might be time to, uh, bite the bullet? (i apologize for that). I've decided to bookmark it to motivate myself to pick up the first trade paperback. We'll see.

Figures.com - Toy And Action Figure News
I didn't know such a site even existed. But should I be surprised? I want this. Oh, and I want this, too. Ok, and maybe one of these.

Jedi Knight 2 trailer
Check out this very cool (and very large) downloadable trailer for the upcoming pc-game sequel to Jedi Knight. Looks like I might get it... and it might get me.

Rubric Records
the Takers and Mary Lou Lord? An intriguing couple of acts on this label, surrounded by lots of bands I haven't heard, but might investigate given their fine labelmates.

Lego Death!
Ah, I love it when people with free time get their hands on a big pile of legos. Reminds me of Calvin's experiments with snowmen. Kill! Kill!

heath's media diet
Haven't I linked this yet? If I haven't, shame on me. Visit heath's blog, will ya?

How to Fix Blogger's BlogThis! for IE6
I am indebted to the oh-so-smart gentleman who came up with this little hack/fix for the 'BlogThis' feature in Internet Explorer 6. For those not 'in-the-know', BlogThis is a neat little feature that allows people with Blogs to simply right-click on a web page they find interesting, and make one click to save it to their Blog. It's basically how I end up with some many damn links in my entries... because it's too easy. I decided to upgrade my home machine to Windows XP (so far, a good decision), and therefore IE6... which broke my BlogThis feature. Sad Brad. Then I found this little hack and within minutes, I was good to go. Thank you, mr. smarter-than-me, for your anonymous help.

the 'Lone Wolf and Cub' Samurai Films at AnimEigo
Ahhh... I can't wait until these come out on DVD so I can check them out. I've heard they are very different from the comic of the same name, but I cannot stop my desire to see them come to life in any form. Gimme.

Broken Saints
Heard about this site on NPR. Beautiful stuff. Lots of depth and story... exisiting only to exist. Not a tie-in, not pimping a product... just web-art for the sake of it. Dive in.

My Cat Hates You
Yes, she does. With the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. Can't stand you. Go away.

mary's dad pad
Yea! Another happy by-product of Mary's unemployment is a blog redesign and more frequent updates! You go, Miss Mary.

Teach Yourself TCP/IP
Really, go ahead. Teach yourself. It's all right there. And you've got a nasty case of insomnia to take care of anyway. But seriously, this is a good resource that also includes sample tests. If you've ever been curious about how internet communication works, now might be a good time to find out.

Alright, that's about enough of that!