I finally got around to changing the way comments appear in my journal. Instead of clicking a link below a post to open a window containing comments, the list of comments now appear below posts when viewed individually. It's a bit cleaner and without the fuss of opening a new browser window.

I've also been pondering the issue of recording listening statistics for my iPod. This has been an ongoing deliberation, as the scripts i use to monitor iTunes can't be extended to a portable player since the portable isn't connected to a network and therefore can't upload information to my web server. After much thought, i've come up with a script that will glean the necessary information from the played data stored by the iPod whenever tracks are played. This can be done whenever the iPod is plugged into my computer for the occasional update, and uploaded to my MySQL database. Not a real-time solution, but perfectly valid for retrospective statistics.

I am a jaded old f@$# these days. Aaron played the fantastic "Munich" by Editors at Popscene last week, and despite this being one of my favorite songs in recent memory, i refused to join the dancing masses because ... well ... they don't appreciate Editors like i do. Something about the commonness of the masses. Going back to that ever-useful Men in Black quote: "A person is smart. People are stupid.".

The time with Splinter Cell: Double Agent promised me last Saturday didn't materialize, both because i ended up spending almost six hours at Veronica's work that afternoon (slightly more than the advertised "two"), and also because by the time 9pm rolled around i was wiped. I arose at 9am Sunday morning to check it out, and found my stealth skills have mostly deteriorated. It took me much failure and reloading to get past the introductory Iceland and prison levels, and then more trial-and-error once inside John Brown's Army to grasp the mechanics of playing as a double agent, with relationships to two organizations to maintain. However, a few more hours on Monday and Tuesday have reacquainted me with the joys of creeping past unsuspecting enemies and ducking into the shadows. Your torn allegiance is central to the game's plot, and creates some fantastic gameplay that forces you to make real choices that will affect how the story evolves. A brilliant injection of real-life gravity into the typically linear and rigid world of adventure games. Well done again, Sam Fisher.

I downloaded a demo of the new FIFA 2007 from Xbox Live the other day. Preliminary reviews indicate that EA has completely redesigned the gameplay for the next generation systems, trying to get away from the arcadey baloney of previous FIFAs in favor of a Winning Eleven-like focus on realistic player movement and ball control. The demo suggests as much, but to my eye still suffers from a level of inorganicness (not a word, yes, but it conveys what i'm thinking). That is after playing it for a bit you get the impression that you've seen all the possible scenarios, unlike WE where i still encounter fresh situations with every match. FIFA is apparently still not as deep as its Konami competition. The full version is released on Halloween, i'm undecided as to whether i'm going to plunk down $60 to see if it can convince me.

I awoke this morning to the not-so-comforting sounds of George W., as V had left the TV on and Bush was in the middle of his press conference when my alarm i went off. I hit the snooze for another fifteen minutes, but found it difficult to relax and catch a few more z's listening to Dubya trot out the same tired parade of clichés. According to CNN, the White House will no longer use the phrase "stay the course" to describe our philosophy in Iraq, but that didn't stop Bush from using every other euphemism for it. It's very worrying when our government's response to a very real crisis is to alter their semantics. Wonderful. When the economy craps out because of the increasing U.S. investment in foreign wars (hello, North Korea!), Bush and co. can call it a "self-correction" and we'll all feel much better. The most annoying thing about watching his press conferences is that he never answers the questions put to him. Dubya just launches off on some tangent, spewing forth a lot of meaningless catch phrases, until the audience's memory of the original query is gone. Don't take this as a pro-democrat rant, because i'm just as annoyed with the complete ineptness of democratic party these days. Lou Dobbs had an interesting editorial recently where he suggested the only way to get politicians to recognize the fact that they've alienated the public is for voters to register as independents en masse. That's making more and more sense to me.

got no love for politicians, or that crazy scene in d.c. it's just a power mad town but the time is ripe for changes, there's a growing feeling that taking a chance on a new kind of vision is due i used to trust the media to tell me the truth tell us the truth but now i see the payoffs everywhere i look who do you trust when everyone's a crook? revolution calling revolution calling revolution calling you gotta make a change gotta push, gotta push it on through i'm tired of all this bullshit they keep selling me on t.v. about the communist plan and all the shady preachers begging for my cash swiss bank accounts while giving their secretaries the slam they're all in Penthouse now, or Playboy magazine million dollar stories to tell i guess Warhol wasn't wrong, fame fifteen minutes long everyone's using everybody, making the sale i used to think that only America's way way was right but now the holy dollar rules everybody's lives gotta make a million, doesn't matter who dies revolution calling revolution calling revolution calling you gotta make a change gotta push, gotta push it on through

I just found a bug in Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP SP2 that causes problems with the way my scripts run on fac13. You can find a quick fix involving creating a new registry key here. Or you can go here and download the much superior Firefox. Now in version 2.0. Yeah. Do that second one.

After our youthful night show-hopping on Thursday, V and returned home to the ever-welcoming Tara dog around 2am. I managed six hours of sleep before arising and heading off to work. Over the last week or two i've had renewed interest in developing RT_Image, the 3D image display and analysis tool i've been writing over the last three years. This interest has arisen because i casually mentioned the program to my friend Sandip, and he's siezed upon it as a great way to facilitate some clinical PET studies he's had in mind. While i do enjoy software development, the downside of increased usage is an increase in the frequency at which bugs are found, and correspondingly the frequency with which i have to fix them in order to keep my collaborators' work moving forward. I spent more time doing this on Friday, with a brief interlude for our now-weekly Radiation Physics literature review. After a quiet afternoon in my office, i met up with friends Jennifer and Frank and, after returning home briefly to feed the dog, Caltrained up to the city to meet Veronica. We had a typically delectable meal at Chai Yo with Naomi and Raffi, then rendez-voused with Gary at the Metreon for the 10:05pm showing of Marie Antoinette.

I'll give Sofia Coppola all the credit in the world for trying to infuse modern elements and personal reflection into a period piece. I still think the juxtaposition of punk iconography and post-punk music with 18th century French royalty is brilliant. The problem with Marie Antoinette is in the execution. While i love the soundtrack, its usage in the film just does not flow. The sequence moving from Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy" to the Cure's "Plainsong" to New Order's "Ceremony" feels like a string of music videos. I can see what mood Coppola was trying to capture, particularly with "Ceremony", but it just doesn't fit. "Plainsong" is especially out of place, draped poorly over scenes of Louis XVI's coronation. I don't condemn Coppola for trying ... i still think the concept has wings ... but she failed, plain and simple. I'm not sure i grasp the message she was trying to deliver with the plot either, depicting Antoinette as an innocent Austrian princess thrust into the protocol and politics of the French court through an arranged marriage to Louis XVI. There's some interesting comments on the insanity of rigidly adhering to procedure, including Antoinette shivering naked while her entourage decides who has the proper rank to assume the honor of dressing her. I don't know much about her, so i can't comment on the liberties Coppola did or did not take with history. But as she's admitted this is less a biopic than a tale of loneliness and isolation, i would've preferred that Coppola didn't go through the motions of including historical events. Such as the death of Louis XV, or particularly the death of Antoinette's mother, which is dispensed with and forgotten in about a minute.

Final verdict: Lots of possibilities. But lacking the cohesiveness of the vastly superior character study Lost in Translation.

Veronica is really into Wolfmother all of the sudden. For some reason this really amuses me. I expect her to get a Zoso tattoo before long. I'm at Veronica's work at the moment, killing time while she finishes up a project. Prior to hopping onto fac13, i finished reading Why Darwin Matters, Michael Shermer's critical analysis of the Intelligent Design movement. It's a quite readable summary of the arguments of Intelligent Design proponents, which fail on basic scientific grounds. I particularly liked Shermer's comparison of the basic ID theory to the famous cartoon in which a scientist requests more detail regarding a colleague's theory. I'm now switching back to reading Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, which i picked up in the Washington D.C. airport on a recent trip. Maybe then i'll delve into the multiple recent films documenting Capote's experiences writing the novel. I'm not quite sure why we needed two versions (last year's Oscar-winning Capote and the recently released Infamous), but then we did get To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar right after Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

V and i decided to remove the carpet in our bedroom this weekend, revealing the hardwood underneath. Of course that decision entailed removing all the furniture from the bedroom, which then raised the question of where it would go. Pondering locations for the computer, we identified the table in the kitchen, but then that means we need to finish painting that area. So one planned step forward has made us back up three or four steps, and i primed the kitchen this morning. Of course removing the carpet in the bedroom means priming the kitchen. Duh!

I picked up the new Splinter Cell: Double Agent for the 360 as soon as EB received it last week. Unfortunately my busy schedule has precluded giving it a preliminary whirl. V has promised me that i will have uninterrupted time to do so once we get home, in gratitude for accompanying her to work. I read an article about the forthcoming Gears of War in the latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly that has me jonesing.

To complete a good week, Chelsea did me proud on Wednesday by defeating European rivals Barcelona in the Champions League. A feel-good win all around, with Didier Drogba producing another classy goal to continue his fine form, third string keeper Hilario putting in a memorable performance in relief of the injured Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini, and an absence of the mind games and accusations that have peppered our encounters over the last two years. And just as the pronouncements that high profile Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko is washed up came out, he scored his first home Premiership goal against Portsmouth today in a 2-1 win that takes Chelsea to the top of the table. I've contended all year that Shevchenko has been quite effective in our offense, facilitating attacks but just not getting goals himself. Naturally he does need to score, and i had every reason to think he would eventually. It's a much different case than Mateja Kezman, who was essentially useless in the Chelsea attack and left after one dismal year. The other goal in today's win came from another summer signing, German midfielder Michael Ballack. I'm liking how our team is shaping up, although the goalkeeping crisis is worrisome and as Matthew pointed out, we're one injury in defense from being undermanned there too.

We had a Tara dog weekend. On Saturday we had agreed to participate in our friend Jenz's photo project, a collection consisting of a variety of bathtub shots. While i was initially worried i was going to photographed in some compromising positions, we instead decided to complement Jenz's spread with shots of Tara in the tub. So we packed her into the car and drove up to Jenz's friend's apartment in the Richmond. Tara got a little stir crazy after about 40 minutes in the car, while we were driving up Sunset and across the park. But she made it and immediately acquainted herself with the new people at the photo shoot. And set about eating any errant food she could find on the floor, which was not uncommon in the college apartment. She was a bit peeved when the time to be photographed came, as to her knowledge she hadn't agreed to be bathed when she hopped into the car. But she came out smelling much better. As the rest of us relaxed watching Rat Race on Comedy Central, Tara decided she wanted to explore this strange new city. So i hooked up her leash and took her out for a walk. We started walking towards the ocean from the apartment on 40th and Geary, and decided to cut into Sutro Heights Park. The dog was thrilled to mark new territory, and i got to wander around the beautiful seaside haven. We returned to Veronica forty minutes later and drove our trio over to Naomi's boyfriend Phil's apartment in the slightly-less-outer Richmond. He graciously put up with our canine companion, and we whiled away the evening having Indian takeout and watching movies. We viewed Phil's DVD of Mirrormask, the very entertaining and visually enthralling fantasy film by the late Jim Henson's production company. It bears a lot of thematic similarities to Henson's puppet-centric Labyrinth, although without freaky David Bowie villains. We then switched over to cable and watched Rob Zombie's horror tribute House of 1000 Corpses on the Independent Film Channel. It wasn't bad, although i didn't find myself (a notorious scaredy cat) particularly frightened. Perhaps it was the presence of Office loon Dwight K. Schrute.

I woke up around 9am Sunday and set to work creating a long overdue user's manual for an image processing application i wrote a few years ago, which is seeing renewed use for several applications. While typing on my laptop and as Veronica slumbered, i got to watch the Seahawks/Rams game, one of few NFL games i've seen this season. A great suspenseful contest, going from the Rams dominating the first half to a complete, unexpected turnaround by the Seahawks in the second, to a final two minutes that saw two lead changes, including a game winning field goal by Seattle as the clock expired. Veronica arose later and we headed over to my parents for dinner. Again with the Tara dog in tow. We had a nice meal, catching up while watching another underwhelming Raiders performance against the Broncos in Denver. Tara spent the evening terrorizing my parents' cats, particularly the skittish grey Petri.

Speaking of Bowie, we watched the conclusion of the two part Venture Bros. season finale on Sunday night. In the first part the Monarch attempted to turn Dr. Girlfriend into Dr. Wife, despite beau Phantom Limb's objection. The climax was arguably the best Venture Bros. episode ever. Between Dean's psychotic break and fantasy trip into the Neverending Story, David Bowie's duel with Phantom Limb's goons Iggy Pop ("Now you're gonna be my dog!") and Klaus Nomi, and the less-than-impressive show of strength of the Order of the Triad, this episode had everything. Including the wittiest array of references yet. Klaus Nomi? Atreyu? "Great shot kid! That was one in a million!"? Do Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick know me?

I also got to watch another Chelsea match, this time the Premiership duel with Reading that aired live on Fox Sports World on Saturday morning. In the first 30 seconds of the game, the brilliant Czech/Blues keeper Petr Cech was stretchered off after taking a vicious knee to the head while taking a ball from the feet of Reading midfielder Stephen Hunt. I thought it looked an accident, although Hunt may be guilty of being a bit overzealous in his pursuit of a ball that was clearly Cech's. In came backup keeper Carlo Cudicini, a world-class goalminder in his own right. And in the last minute of second half stoppage time with Chelsea protecting a 1-nil lead, Cudicini was bodyslammed in midair by Reading defender Ibrahima Sonko, hitting the turf hard. He was out cold and also had to be stretchered off. With Chelsea out of substitute keepers and having used all three subs anyway, skipper John Terry came into goal for the final minute of play. What a horror show. The next day Chelsea reported Cech had a fractured skull and would be out of the squad for a while. Cudicini had a mild concussion and should return shortly, although not in time for the critical Champions League encounter with Barcelona tomorrow. The Blues management is now accusing Reading of everything short of having beaten Petr's head with a hammer. In typical Chelsea fashion. Silly. If this fosters a discussion of how to better protect goalkeepers, then fantastic. But i think it's ridiculous and vindictive of Chelsea to demand punishment against Reading for actions that were most likely freak accidents. Best wishes to Petr and his family. And let me be the first to say that having Carlo back in goal will be great. Hopefully third-choice keeper Hilario (a name that never fails to make me smile) will hold the fort against Barça.

On the positive Chelsea tip, i have to say that my new Adidas hooded sweatshirt is among my favorite articles of clothing. As Charlie Brown once said, happiness is a new sweatshirt on a cold Saturday morning.

V and i have a concert dilemma this Thursday. We've got tickets for indie giants Yo La Tengo's first of three shows at the Fillmore, but Danish noise pop outfit Mew are playing Popscene. Doh. We're trying to swap our YLT tickets for the Saturday show, but if that fails then we're hoping that the Hoboken trio will be done by 11pm, allowing us to race across the city to 330 Ritch. That would be my second trip to Popscene in as many weeks, having seen the lovely Lily Allen perform last Thursday. Is it 1995?

I'm off to Philadelphia in a few weeks for the annual ASTRO meeting, then back to the Bay Area for a few weeks and Thanksgiving, then back east to Chicago for the enormous RSNA annual conference. I'm looking forward to finally having an authentic cheesesteak in Philly, having been denied my last time there in 1999 by a stomach bug. Albeit brought on by two consecutive nights of excessive eating (including a gorging at an all-you-can-eat crab place) and, of course, drinking. And while in the windy city i will be making time to catch up with old friend and former Pete drummer Bill W. Racking up the frequent flier miles, i am. Unfortunately i'm using them up just as fast now that the lure of upgrading to first class has taken hold of me.

I find myself caring less and less what the NME has to say about bands these days. Which is why i can't explain how i came to be so enamored of the Horrors, the much-bandied Cramps-infused goth/punk UK quintet. Their debut single Sheena is a Parasite is a head-nodding organ-filled rave-up, with a disturbing video directed by Chris Cunningham. I've gobbled up their latest self-titled ep, and am now waiting impatiently for an album. Aaron Popscene, how about signing them up for a show?

By the way, i didn't really listen to two hours of the Orb the other day. The curse of "leaving iTunes playing while going out to lunch" strikes again.

my mind has changed my body's frame but god i like it my heart's aflame, my body's strained but god i like it

There's a sense of finality to watching the last vestiges of a club stamp fade from the back of your hand. Something about the nature of memory, and the inexorable march of time.

I get teary watching the montage in Goal! as Santiago rises to prominence at Newcastle. Basically because South's "Paint the Silence" is one of the most moving brit-rock anthems ever recorded.

The haunting, reverberated guitar riff, airy, almost (almost!) nonsensical vocals, and especially the slightly off-kilter beat of indie drone rock outfit Mew's "Special" make it one of the most unforgettable tracks in recent memory. "special, you're like a rocket through me, i cannot this time"

I've apparently missed a bunch of Popscene shows by up-and-coming acts, most recently ¡Forward, Russia!. I need to get on the ball. Nothing is more frustrating than finding a band you think no one has heard of, reveling in their album for a few months, then finding out they were just in town last week. You weren't the only one who'd heard of them, genius.

Henchman #21: Here is where you are wrong, my friend. This woman has killed before.
Henchman #24: Allegedly.
Henchman #21: Ok, whatever. But she was a big girl. We are talking about a large, healthy woman of questionable stability.
Henchman #24: You are totally underestimating the never-say-die scrappiness of a survivor!
The Monarch: Hey, guess what? Nobody cares who would win in a crazy fantasy fist-fight between Anne Frank and Lizzy Borden!

I'm not a huge fan of Kirsten Dunst, so Marie Antoinette has kind of snuck up on me. I suppose i should be focusing on the fact that it's directed by Sofia Coppola, who also created the mesmerizing Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides. My first viewing of the trailer caught me unaware, as i was surprised to find scenes of French aristocrats set to New Order's "Ceremony". The rest of the soundtrack is an interesting blend of post-punk, neo-shoegazing, and classical sounds. The graphic art for the production seems rooted in the Malcolm McLaren/Sex Pistols aesthetic. And you know what? It all seems to mesh beautifully. I've gone from totally disinterested to anxiously awaiting the film's October 20 release.

I'm also interested in the documentary The U.S. Vs. John Lennon, describing the government's investigation of the former Beatle while he used his status to campaign against the Vietnam war. And Martin Scorsese's latest gangster tale The Departed. I wouldn't mind seeing the U.S. punk documentary American Hardcore, although that's one i'd have to guess i won't make it out to see. Jet Li's final martial arts epic Fearless looks good, but given my latter-day consumption of movies at the theater, i'll have to keep an eye out for it on cable in 9-12 months. Idiocracy, Mike Judge's science fiction depiction of a future society based entirely on popular culture, looks to be a worthy successor to Office Space, but i have no idea where that's even playing near me.

The take-home message is that i have to ration my theater visits these days, and push for going to see films that 1) Veronica won't veto outright, 2) are playing at a reasonably convenient location so i won't have to orchestrate a field trip to go see it, and 3) i won't get to see unless i go to the theater.

I find it difficult to believe that one of the most popular shows in America features a main character named "Dr. McDreamy". Who's watching this crap, anyway?

Added a new 500GB drive to my home computer so i can fully backup my sprawling mp3 collection. My latest ID3-related OCD incident involved discovery of the "album artist" tag in the new iTunes. I'm not exactly sure what this field is intended for, but i pounced on it as a chance to embed artist sorting information in the ID3 tags. For example, i can now have the proper artist be listed as Miles Davis, but have it sorted based on "Davis, Miles" which will be hidden in the album artist field. Sweet. And it only took three hours or so to go through all 2191 artists in my collection and add the necessary information.

Off to see British popster Lily Allen at Popscene tonight. I dunno why, but her sunny indie hip hop makes me smile. Calling her the female Streets may be a bit of a misnomer as she's got her own unique viewpoint, but musically that's a decent starting point for descriptions. If anything, the backing music to "LDN" reminds me of the old theme to Match of the Day. Or the Jam's quirky "The Planner's Dream Goes Wrong" from the Gift. Allmusic notes that she grew up listening to acts like the Specials, which now that i think about it is quite insightful. A lot of Terry Hall inflection in there, particularly on tracks like "Friday Night". "I go out on Friday night, and i come home on Saturday morning"? I'm not demeaning her, god knows the world needs a Terry Hall for the 21st century.

there was a little old lady who was walkin' down the road
she was struggling with bags from Tesco
there were people from the city having lunch in the park
i believe that is called al fresco

you might laugh, you might frown
walkin' round London town
sun is in the sky, oh why oh why
would i wanna be anywhere else?
when you look with your eyes, everything seems nice
but if you look twice, you can see it's all lies

The mosaicking bug strikes again. Upon a very reasonable suggestion from Veronica that a Chelsea collage should be made up of images of Blues players/coaches/matches/history, i devised a way of grabbing stills from Chelsea videos. Then after downloading an hour and a half of movies and converting them into approximately 5000 images, i ran my mosaic program again using the Chelsea logo. A bit less clean than the collage made up of album covers ... for those math geeks out there, i think my basis functions aren't quite as effective in this case ... but nevertheless interesting.

I seem to have fallen into a posting rut. I've got lots to say, but find myself overly editing my thoughts for print. To the point where there's nothing left to type. Suffice it to say i'm in a bit of an existentialist haze at the moment. That's what a twentysomething preoccupation with Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre will get you. A sequence of introspection, illness, and uncertainty has robbed me of my verve. Temporarily, i expect, but nonetheless i'm not the most exciting companion at the moment.

Tony Wilson may have a point that Shaun Ryder is the modern Yeats. Despite his infatuation with the "destroyer of talent", as Wilson put it.

i wrote for luck, they sent me you
i sent for juice, you give me poison
i order a line, you form a queue

you used to speak the truth, but now you're clever

let it bleed let it heal, let me sleep it's no good
so let's ride, ride on ride on

V and i had big plans for the weekend, but lingering bugs denied us the requisite momentum and saw our activities significantly curtailed. We did manage to take Tara to the dog park, which is fast becoming one of her favorite pasttimes. She still doesn't play persay, but is slowly integrating herself with the rambling pack of dogs that cavorts on the dog park lawn. She's fine with both the big and little dogs, but seems to enjoy the freedom of the larger big dog area. I still see her as having a bit of a chip on her shoulder, a sort of Napoleon-esque complex that she must exercise authority over the park. Of course that attitude declines quickly when a larger dog tries to roughhouse with her and she realizes she's vastly overmatched. I haven't seen any significant fights at the park yet ... so far it's been a great place to relax and meet new doggies.

V and i also determined that Tara is indeed mostly rat terrier, thanks to a magazine we picked up at Petco. However she doesn't really fit the personality profile ... she's just Tara.

I'm getting pretty excited about the forthcoming Playstation3 release, despite the grim forecast of widespread console shortages. I'm pondering putting in an online preorder at EBGames.com, although oddly they still haven't activated that option despite launch being just over a month away.

On Sunday V and i met up with my old Boston CMIR friend Vivek, now a San Francisco resident and Xenogen employee, for brunch in Sausalito at the Lighthouse. We reminisced for a few hours on our drive across the Golden Gate and again back south, taking advantage of the gorgeous weather. We decided to drive Vivek up Twin Peaks to show him the amazing view, but our plans were thwarted by our failure to account for the Blue Angels airshow going on over the city as part of Fleet Week. As such there were a few thousand other souls atop Twin Peaks, so we decided to just drive around the summit for a few minutes. We did see and hear the aerial daredevils scream over us several times. I always enjoy that, although Veronica counters that for someone who works in the city, the Blue Angels and Fleet Week are a veritable menace.

all this frustration
i can't meet all my desires
strange conversation
self-control has just expired

i'm living in the weirdest dream
where nothing is the way it seems
where no one's who they need to be
where nothing seems that real to me
what can we build our lives upon
no wall of stone, no solid ground
the world is spinning endlessly
we're clinging to our own beliefs
born of frustration

You know, some days i'd like to live in a Jack Kerouac novel. Desolation Angels, indeed.

This one is a bit more abstract than my Chelsea collage, but i dig it. I'm still playing with some of the parameters (like how often a given image can repeat), but my little "mosaic.pro" creates some nifty images regardless.

Here's what a little programming savvy, some OCD when it comes to compiling album artwork, and a few image processing tricks will get you.

Been awol for a bit. Apologies. Various excuses ... travelling, being ill, working, etc etc etc. Yadda³.

Finished God of War just before flying off on one of my trips a few weeks ago. Brilliant. God damn bloody brilliant. The final battle with Ares drove me nuts, particularly the latter two episodes. Fighting off hordes of clones of myself from killing my family proved to be a royal pain in the butt. But (hee hee) the final confrontation with the (now former) God of War drove me nuts. To the point where i broke my DualShock controller on the floor in a fit of rage. Luckily after cooling down for a half hour or so and pulling my spare controller out of the drawer, i had more luck defeating the fire-haired giant using the near-useless blade of the gods. I'm saddened to have left the game behind, but eagerly await release of its sequel next February.

In other game news, the release schedule for the Xbox 360 is slowly ramping up. This month sees the release of Splinter Cell: Double Agent, the latest Sam Fisher adventure. The acrobatic über-spy's efforts to infiltrate an American criminal organization by befriending an imprisoned member seem typically enthralling. Another Tom Clancy heavyweight, Rainbow Six: Vegas, drops in November and should be the next great squad-based shooter. The first 360 "killer app", Gears of War, is due in November, and should provide some kickass FPS action until the epic Halo 3 drops next year. For those who enjoy a bit of Nazi-bashing in their shoot-em-ups, November will also welcome Call of Duty 3, the sequel to the belle of the 360 launch. The PlayStation family is holding its own even in the wake of continued grim forecasts regarding the PS3. Rockstar's "Columbine simulator" (as it has been labeled by conservative bulldogs who haven't even seen it yet) Bully is on deck this month. It looks like an interesting Grand Theft Auto-style romp (sans the sex and violence) through a boarding school. They haven't neglected the sex and violence completely though, as GTA: Vice City Stories is expected shortly on the PSP.

new jersey ain't the whole world

If you haven't seen it yet, go no further than last week's "¡Viva los Muertos!" for proof that the Venture Bros. is the best show on TV. Between the twisted take on Scooby Doo-like amateur sleuths, Brock blissfully riding/sexing a pink dolphin, Hank and Dean finding the repository of clones to handle their occasional fatal accidents, and Venturestein assuming Hank's Halloween role as "the bat", this was a tour-de-force.

og hér ert þú
fannst mér
glósóli

I watched my first full Chelsea match of the season last weekend ... yes, i haven't been following the footie too closely so far ... while languishing in bed with a 103° fever and hopelessly clogged sinuses. We scored in the third minute as Didier Drogba bundled home a cross, albeit after JT clattered into the Aston Villa keeper and was lucky the ref didn't stop the play. Didier is still on fire, and is showing the league that his reputation as a whiner with a horrible first touch doesn't do him justice. Chelsea should've been up by three or four in the first half, as they dominated play and created chances for Lamps, Robben, and Shevchenko. Unfortunately they went in to the locker rooms level as Villa created a goal through poor marking by the Chelsea defense. The second half? I was fairly disgusted. Passes went astray. Players didn't look interested in fighting for the ball. Michael Essien, who was a dynamo in the first half, was suddenly letting the ball roll past him and giving away possession. What the hell was going on? Needless to say we didn't manage a winner. Thank god we didn't lose ... although that may be due to more referee generosity as Claude Makelele got away with a horrible foul on a Juan Pablo Angel breakaway that could've gotten him sent off. Mysteriously the ref didn't even blow the whistle ... very weird. José Mourinho called the game our best performance of the season despite the result, which has got me very worried. Andriy Shevchenko has one goal in seven games, a paltry sum for a striker we pursued for 3 years and paid £30 million to get. Thankfully Drogba seems intent on showing who everyone who the #1 striker at Stamford Bridge really is. We're now level on points with Manchester United ... hopefully our luxury squad will begin playing up to their price tag.

I did get my birthday presents/web design payments from Arlene, Alan, and Ana. I love my new long sleeve John Terry away kit ... very nice. Way better than those bizarre home kits with the lowered collar in the front. Although while watching the Tottenham/Portsmouth match on Sunday i found out the Spurs' kits are even worse, with the drop in the back. I haven't worn my navy Adidas Chelsea hooded sweatshirt yet, but am eyeing it daily as the weather turns cold. I bought another Adidas "World Cup Moments" track top from eBay, this time the white Germany one bearing a portrait of all-time World Cup scoring leader Gerd Müller on the back along with his nickname, "Der Bomber". Very very cool.

to the LEFT! to the LEFT!

The new Killers album is out, and as one of the few who wasn't ga-ga over the first, color me bored s@$#less with this one. There's an absolutely scathing review of it on Allmusic, which i find fairly accurate. Speaking of reviews, you must have a look at Pitchfork's comments on the latest Jet record. Forget anything bad i ever said about Pitchfork. This is brilliant.

The Killers also failed to impress on last week's season premiere of Saturday Night Live. Along with horrible flavor-of-the-month comic Dane Cook, and the post-Tina Fey writers. Somebody out there must be enjoying this dreck. Am i not in the target demographic anymore? Shouldn't i have been consulted on this?

I managed to complete my Revolver collection today, a mostly-forgotten early 90's shoegazing outfit that in my opinion deserved a whole lot more attention. The new Legends album Facts and Figures is an improvement upon the drab Public Radio, but still pales in comparison to the Comet Gain-meets-Phil Spector lo-fi brilliance of Up Against the Legends. Aw shoot.

I've been pawing through the Factory Records Complete Graphic Album V bought me for our anniversary. Simply stunning ... Saville and beyond. I have a complicated affection for all things Factory, from heroes Joy Division and New Order to lesser icons like Section 25 and Miaow, and especially the admitted mythologizing of kingpin Tony Wilson. Something about the simultaneous contempt for and acknowledgement of corporate culture. A bit Fugazi-ish perhaps?

eyes wide open
naked as we came

Last but not least i must relate the excellent time i had at my old friends' Lance and Loren's wedding on Sunday afternoon. My fever broke in a pool of sweat while i was suffering through SNL, and i felt well enough to take Veronica over to Oakland for the festivities at the Dunsmuir House. There we got to catch up with BioE chums Donna, Jove, and Neel and witness L+L's lovely ceremony and reception. I was particularly keen on their excellent music selections, exiting the ceremony to the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice?" and having their first dance to the exquisite Iron and Wine version of "Such Great Heights". Congrats L², and enjoy your honeymoon in Fiji!