Originally written .

dreamt that i was playing in some bizarre golf tournament. it was like golf mixed with extreme sports where there was this crazy wall climbing/rope swinging obstacle course before you even got to the green. the tournament was in some weird hotel, and i remember being bummed because i had to eat a pork chop in the hotel restaurant as part of the tournament.

Originally written 05.23.2002.

the crisp wretch of a dry heave followed by the splash of a more successful attempt. rolled over and hoped it was just a nightmare. it wasn't. it was nat from downstairs. i wrote a haiku:

sound breaks silent night

dry cough then stomach empties

puddle of vomit

Originally written 05.23.2002.

what i really want to say, but will never get a chance: "that kid has more issues than a compiler for a vliw architecture". hehe. revision delerium setting in.

wasted valueable revision time playing guitar last night. getting things sorted out for our 06.10 gig @ tron in the 'burgh. almost have a set together which, surprisingly, is mostly original songs. it's cool to write songs just for fun for a project that you take seriously but don't care deeply about. you can just make up characters, or use someone else's voice rather than trying to write something sincere. helped marco pen the line: "and i know that it's time i get over it. in my mind, but my heart just won't let it quit". finalized the lyrics for a song i wrote about trading sexual favors for drugs and roles in hollywood (see above comment about making up characters), self-penned a misogynistic little rock ditty titled "you've got a pretty face (so i'm gone)", and worked on some hilarious drop-d nu-metal tunes. haha.

media check. tim is like a music pusher or something. he uploads albums to an ftp drop and i get hooked. so here's what i've been listening to lately: alec empire's intelligence and sacrifice, superchunk's art class, the fucking champs' v, and belle and sebastian's if you're feeling sinister. i've never really liked electronic music other than as background chill out music, to support my friend's gigs, or for the cultural experience of going to a party. i guess what i often don't like about electronic music is that the music seems so seperated from the person making the music (though artists like moby, matmos, and fat boy slim and probably some others that are too cool to be on my radar are able to overcome this to a large degree). alec empire's take on electronica, however, has a certain directness that is lacking in a lot of electronic music. it combines breaks, beats, general noise, punk rock, and politics to create an end product that isn't so much genre defining as it is genre defying. that is, it plays by the rules of electronic music, or punk rock, but creates something that is only vaguely discernable as either. i don't always find it enjoyable, but there's something about it that's irresistable. alec empire's solo stuff will at times remind one of his old band, atari teenage riot, but it goes beyond the old musical formulas and the "fight, destroy, fuck, riot" vocabulary to create something that is generally much more satisfying. i think that alec empire represents in a lot of ways, the cutting edge of music - combining styles of music that themselves are on the fringes of pop culture to create something that stays one step ahead of mass media. so alec empire is important, but perhaps not as influential as superchunk. listening to the art school single (or ep or whatever - actually, i later found out it's a single. the title track is on the full length here's to shutting up) you realize what the better bands of the recent onslaught of pop-punk grew up on, but are also so far away from capturing. the titular track is just a great pop/rock song, filled with melody, hooks, and power, but also that quirkiness, even nerdiness ("welcome art class, so get your acid free paper and glass ... welcome to art class and yes it does involve shaking your ass"), that for me puts the "indie" in "indie rock". this is what gets lost in the translation when i see the latest jimmy eat world video on viva+ (though the older video for lucky denver mint comes a lot closer). the song is pure bliss and it's been running through my head since i've heard it. i give props to anyone who includes the lyric "everybody dance now" in any song, and i'd almost say that's the feeling that is purveyed by this track. i highly anticipate their 06.30 show in dc. v is the fucking champs' highly anticipated follow-up to the rocking iv. the album is more of the same - indie rockers playing what i call "viking metal" (soaring, clean, technical guitar solos), and i still can't get enough of it (though iain will surely strongly disagree - he prefers more 'heavy' in his metal). i haven't listened to iv in a long time, but the new album seems to be more unabashed about it's cheesiness which is fine by me. actually, i take that back. this album seems to have a distinctly math rocky feeling to it. make your devil signs with your hands and rock out. if you're feeling sinister is essentially belle & sebastian's first release and i'm giving it another listen because peter is really stoked on the record. it's definitive belle & sebastian, and sets the groundwork for the sound of all their subsequent albums - 60's folk-rock melodies layered on top of a killer string section. the instrumentation is beutiful, but the lyrics have an intelligence and humor that make the band irresistable. i wrote last month about seeing them live, and listening to this record brings back happy memories of everything that was so great about the show. the album is worth checking out if only for the excellent judy and the dream of horses which is just an amazing song. period. (note to self: make a copy of this for my dad. this might be one of the few contemporary records that he'll listen to)

without fail, the second i walk out the door to go skate, it starts raining.

Originally written 05.23.2002.

"I don't care if [college] ruins my career ... I'd rather be smart than a movie star."

- natalie portman as quoted in a fox news article discussing actors and actresses (including math nerd danica mckeller, winnie cooper from the wonder years, and mayim bialik, from blossom) who gave up the silver screen for academia

Originally written 05.21.2002.

by the promise ring is perhaps the best pop song ever. well, maybe that's an overstatement, but it's pure pop bliss and i think it's rad. i wanted an album that was just cheesy and pure pleasure so i grabbed the very emergency album off audiogalaxy and have been in a good mood ever since. by no means their best stuff, but it's good stuff nonetheless.

this album is so wussy. iain's going to make fun of me and then turn on guns and roses or motorhead or something and make fun of me some more, but i don't care. i love it. simple happy songs. a good prelude to the summer, and a good way to get my mind off of impending exams. i'm getting stuff sorted out for this summer, seeing lights at the ends of tunnels (and being pretty sure that they're not trains) and this record offers a perfect soundtrack for that. i don't care what iain will think. besides, there's no way i'm going to take shit from a guy who bought the new korn single. sucka!

Originally written 05.21.2002.

so i'm pretty sure i'm going to go see tguk and superchunk on 06.30 in dc and i'm heading down to ky (that's loo-a-vil to you sucka) to kick it with the youth crews and scenesters at krazyfest from 06.21-06.23. if anyone's reading this is going to be at either show, drop me a line at ghing at pa dot net and we'll hang out.

Originally written 05.21.2002.

my friend yon's computer is totally brain fscked. she has a couple of viruses
and from the fact that she says that her computer mysteriously types "national
rifle association" every once in awhile, she might have a cracker getting
in through a back door. so, to help her out and to help anyone else who wants
to make use of basic windows xp security features, i'm writing this little howto.

enabling the internet connection firewall (icf)

most computers on the network (including yours) run programs that open up various network ports which allow incoming connections to your computer. while this can provide useful functionality, it can also open up vulnerabilities to system intrusions. a firewall is a program which prevents or restricts connections to your computer. windows xp has a built-in firewall that can be used for this purpose. it's probably a good idea to run it though it might cause some network software (e.g. peer-to-peer file sharing applications like morpheus or kazaa) to be unable to work properly. no worries, you can configure the firewall to allow these connections, but first, let's just start with enabling the basic firewall.

1. open the network connections control panel (start->control
   panel->network and internet connections->network connections)


2. open the settings for your internet connection by clicking the icon under
   lan or high-speed internet. the connection will probably be labled local area connection this should open a window titled local
   area connection properties.
   
3. 
   
4. click on the advanced tab.


5. check the box labeled protect my computer and network by limiting or preventing access to this computer from the internet.
   
6. click the ok button.

enabling firewall logging

this is useful if you want to keep track of the network address of who connects or tries to connect to your computer. you'll need this if you want to report would-be crackers to your isp.

1. open the network connections control panel (start->control
   panel->network and internet connections->network connections)


2. open the settings for your internet connection by clicking the icon under
   lan or high-speed internet. the connection will probably be labled local area connection this should open a window titled local
   area connection properties.
   
3. click on the advanced tab.


4. click the settings button (at the bottom of the window).


5. click on the security logging tab.


6. check the log dropped packets and log successful connections.


7. click the ok button.

viewing the firewall log

so you want to see who's been trying to acces your computer. here's how.

1. unless you changed the log file in the log settings (as described above), the firewall log should be in the file C:\WINDOWS\pfirewall.log.
   
2. open notepad (start->all programs->accessories->notepad)


3. click on the file menu and select open.
   
4. in the field labled file name: type the log file name (this should be C:\WINDOWS\pfirewall.log).


5. click the open button

Originally written 05.21.2002.

why i'm straightedge. fire safety. last night, i had just finished having a really nice phone conversation with erin and was about to go to bed when the fire alarm went off. i ran into iain in the hall and he asked me if i smelled the noxious smoke that had been seeping into our rooms. i said i had,and was a bit relieved because i had initially thought that i smoked some electriconics somehow. so we evacuated the building, and the firefighters came, as is a pretty common occurence here due to numerous false alarms, but this time, we thought, it must be the real deal, because, as the old adage goes, where there's smoke, there's fire. so this senior resident comes across the street looking for people in flat 2. flat 2, we thought, that can only mean one thing. nat! our suspicions were confirmed when we saw a sheepish, and smoky nat emerge from the building shortly before the firefighters arrived. once the firefighters entered the building, we saw them throw nat's dustbin into the street, fetch buckets of water and fire extinguishers and throw half of nat's room's contents out his window. we're not sure what the whole story is, but what i gathered is that somehow a lit cigarette was either thrown in a dustbin or on the floor and quickly ignited a bunch of clothes and whatever other shit nat had lying around his warzone-like room. i can only imagine nat trying to put out the fire. that kid's a liability and a half.

Originally written 05.21.2002.

are a bitch. left over antics from the weekend. saturday night iain, marco, and i were sitting down in our common room watching dvds when we realized that the flat next to ours was having a rather loud party. the following tactics of inter-flat warfare may sound really lame, but to contextualize things, at least one member of the the flat had indicted at least one member of our flat in various wrongdoings, bringing the full pressure of the man down on the inhabitants of 29/5. now my flatmates are certainly no angels, but iain and i have never done anything wrong, and lately, even marco has been really, really, good. so getting the finger pointed at you for things you haven't done, by people who commit the same damn offences is lame. besides, we were trying to watch dvds, and given the poor quality of iain's computer speakers, we couldn't hear it very well.

so, iain placed a call into the local police department reporting a noise disturbance. address? "i'm not sure, i think it might be 29. i know it's a student flat" identity? "i'd rather not say if that's alright". i told him that he should have said that he feared reprisal by the vicious, out of control students. haha. so, the cops took forever, but when they arrived, they couldn't have come at a more perfect time. the partiers had just finished throwing bottles from their windows and were starting fights with people on the street. the cops came in, and by the time they left, the snobby american girl from across the hall was in tears and saying things like "i don't want a criminal record". sucka. i think the incident spawned a bit of intra-flat infighting as well. so our psy-ops strike was successful. we may have our differences, but dammit, 29/5 sticks together. represent.

Originally written 05.21.2002.

so lately, despite the fact i live in scotland, i've become everyone's it bitch back in columbus. first it was my girlfriend's house's windows xp cablemodem nat setup, and now it's my friend yon's poor little virus-ridden laptop. luckily, they both had windows xp which has a feature that is actually useful and doesn't just make the os crash and die a horrible death. remote assistant allows someone to connect to and control your computer a la vnc. i'm positive the feature was added because windows crashes so much that ms thought it would be clever to add a feature that would cause people to go to their friends for help rather than calling support. i'm also sure that the thing is a huge security risk, but in the end, it makes my job easier. it was surprisingly easy for people on the other end to set up, and despite the transatlantic connection, the interface was fast enough to be useable. rad. summer project that will probably never happen would be to set up a wrapper for vnc that would allow users of older versions of windows and linux to have similar funtionality.

Originally written 05.20.2002.

so i'm reading the latest big brother (#85) which iain graciously let me borrow, and i'm struck by the fact that despite this magazine is published by porn king larry flynt and the fact that it has been decryed by parents everywhere and serupticiously been hidden under beds by kids everywhere, it's the best mainstream skate magazine out there. i remember it as being the 'zine where the mystery girl from the next town over posed in her underwear and bra while stratling a skateboard, but how the times have changed. sort of. the letters page has a letter discussing the finer points of pre-socratic philosphers with respect to mike vallely?!? preceding a letter accomonied by a photo of a gargantuan turd. further on in the issue, there's a 16 page article about the all girl's gallaz australian tour (which, in my knowledge is the most print and photos that has ever been dedicated to female skaters anywhere) followed shortly by an article depicting the punk-as-fuck hollywood tour that features numerous pictures of very drunk women exposing their breasts to also very drunk hollywood pros.

some people think i'm a zealot. i don't drink and i don't particularly like porn. i don't go to keg parties and i don't go to the meatmarket dance clubs. i come off as a film snob and a record snob (though i'm not really knowledgeable about either enough to be cool enough to be a genuine snob) and i'm allegedly far too serious. the truth is, all i want is a little balance in this world. it would be a hell of a lot easier to walk past the frat parties without bursting into a rant if i could convince myself that the world will be only partially run by people like them, and might even be remotely influenced by people like me. and i might be vastly more tolerent of girls in backless shirts if they weren't typically accompanied by guys who treat everyone like shit. i really don't care what people do except for the times when i feel like everything i find beautiful in the world is under constant attack by everything i think is horrible. so, i guess what i'm trying to say is that it's cool every once in a while when i see some things i think are really great happily coexisting with things that i don't particularly agree with or like. maybe there's hope for me after all.

Originally written 05.20.2002.

"That's a very good question. I think the obvious choice would be somebody who I won't name, but I'll try and give you a few hints. He is probably one of the most powerful men in the world. He's been in the news a lot lately. He seems to be doing the right thing in the eyes of many Americans; howerver, to most people in the rest of the world, he is acting in a completely random and irrational manner and is threatening the safety of most of the peace-loving people in the world. And this very powerful person does not run Microsoft."

- josh the scientist in response to the question "is there anyone on this planet who you think might be a robot under their skin?" as asked by russell bongard in an interview in the aforementioned issue of big brother

Originally written .

a skate tour dubbed "the biggest skateboard tour in history" and sponsored by g-thug shoe company osiris among a bunch of others is skating it's way to columbust, oh on 06.18.2002 @ the flow. chances to crawl over 12 year olds for free stuff if nothing else.