Recently in Miscellaneous Category

I've lived in Washington since June 2003. When I arrived, I was a bit shocked to find in my new home, without any curtains or blinds, that it was 10 p.m. and still quite bright outside.

Still, I've been mostly shielded from the drastic swings of sunlight, caused by our northerly location and perpetually cloudy weather, due to my full-time telecommuting. The worst part about it for me has always been for stargazing: I either have to brave the elements in the winter, or stay up past midnight, to catch some stars. The Pacific Northwest is terrible for stargazing.

But now I am commuting four days a week to Seattle, and this morning, for the first time, the sun was out as I was waiting for the bus. A month or so ago it started being sunny on the way home. But in most of my six-plus months on this route, it's been dark when I leave and dark when I get home. This being a particularly unsunny winter and spring hasn't helped, since it's mostly been dark and wet even throughout the days.

I'm going to listen to some Beatles now.

Doo doo doo doo. It's alright.

Skip this if you haven't watched the finale and care.

But the final season of Lost is one of the most remarkable achievements in television history. They took one of the most popular shows of all time, in which every moment of the show had meaning and purpose toward the end ... until the final season, in which they literally wasted half the season in some afterlife that, when all was said and done, added precisely nothing to the story.

It's remarkable in its wastefulness, its gratuitousness, its decadence, and in its disrespect of its audience. I can't think of anything similar in television history, with the exception of the final moments of Newhart, except that was a comedy, and the ending was intended as a joke.

I suspect someone will, at some point, make a cut of the final season that completely obliterates this afterlife plotline, and with the exception of the Desmond episode, no one will miss it.

Cover of the song by Randy Stonehill. One of his many classics. Chad reminded me of it the other night.

Cover of the song by the short-lived superband Chagall Guevara. Used a Les Paul Standard bridge model on the Variax in honor of the late great man himself.

I am selling a brand new, unopened, Logitech Driving Force GT steering wheel and a mostly new set of all five seasons of Babylon 5 on DVD.

As to the latter, it is "mostly new" because it was a replacement set because one of my discs -- the first disc in Season 5 -- was scratched. Amazon apparently didn't want the set back. It's been sitting in a corner of my closet since last year. It's in completely new condition except for that disc.

As to the former, I won it in the Logitech Challenge and I already have that wheel, so I figure I'll sell it.

If you're interested in either let me know.

I like to play Gran Turismo 5 Prologue on my PS3, and so I got a steering wheel for it: a Logitech Driving Force GT, designed for use with the game. Well several weeks ago, Logitech held an online contest and the fastest times got free steering wheels.

I didn't get one of the fastest times, but I won one of the weekly random drawings.

Hooray! A random (or pseudorandom) number generator picked me!

But I won the steering wheel I already own. Craigslist awaits ...

An original song I wrote today, inspired by the Tax Day Tea Parties.

MP3 version: http://pudge.net/tunes/tracks/Liberty%20Man.mp3

Lyrics:

I am alive
I have my freedom
I work my hands to the bone
And I, I build a home

Chorus:
Don't take what I have what I built away from me
Don't deny that I am a man with liberty
Don't stomp on a life that was created to make choices
To live free

I have my land
But you have power
And you will take what I have
Because you can

Chorus

Many cry out, "Power to the people"
I am a person,. so where is mine?

I watch my back
I watch my brother's
And I don't need to be told what to do

Chorus

This is the Longest Concert Evar, starring Pudge. Send requests to concertrequest@pudge.net, or post them here.

My neck has been hurting recently when I wake up. I need a new pillow. I have no idea where to begin looking. Suggestions?

You can now log in to the Criterion Games Network outside of Burnout Paradise. In the game there's a number of icons to unlock. I have everything in the game, but a bunch of icons were still locked for me. I found them, and here they are. As you can see, they are mostly stuff for the Island, Party Pack, Toy Cars. I think the money bag is for cops and robbers. Then there's a few others. I wonder if "Criterion Games" is only for employees of the company?

And here's the one's I've already unlocked.

The classic song by Jackie Wilson.

This is the Longest Concert Evar, starring Pudge. Send requests to concertrequest@pudge.net, or post them here.

An original song I recorded tonight. My voice is kinda thrashed but I wanted to record it anyway.

This is the Longest Concert Evar, starring Pudge. Send requests to concertrequest@pudge.net, or post them here.

The great 80s song by Stephen Colbert and the Colberts. I am playing bass and singing on Expert in Rock Band 2. I got 100% on the bass. Maybe he'll hire me for his next tour.

I created a "Stephen" character to sing lead for me. He looks a lot like the real Stephen does in the original video, except here he's shirtless. Wooo.

(OK, it's not a Christmas song, but I couldn't resist.)

This is the Longest Concert Evar, starring Pudge. Send requests to concertrequest@pudge.net, or post them here.

Silent Night. By request.

This is the Longest Concert Evar, starring Pudge. Send requests to concertrequest@pudge.net, or post them here.

Away in a Manger. By request.

This is the Longest Concert Evar, starring Pudge. Send requests to concertrequest@pudge.net, or post them here.

Vince Guaraldi's classic from "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Sung as a chipmunk.

This is the Longest Concert Evar, starring Pudge. Send requests to concertrequest@pudge.net, or post them here.

Some of you have met Banjo. We got him around 1996. We're putting him down today. We have a few good pictures of him. He was a good'un.

Last year we lost George to cancer, and last winter we lost Fester. We have Tubbs, Fred, and Thornton (the latter being the only WA native) remaining.

This is an original arrangment of "Big Bottom" by Spinal Tap. It's sort of a jazz-blues -- or blues-jazz, really -- version, with layers upon layers of bass (as many as seven bass parts simultaneously).

I think this arrangement really captures the true soul of the original composition, expressing the theme as words never could; hence, the bass guitar does all of the singing.

Created using a BOSS RC-2 LoopStation pedal, Variax Bass, and PODxt Live. The guitar models used (in order) are MiniMoog synth, Fender Jazz, Fender Fretless Jazz, Hagstrom H8 8-string, and Hamer B12A 12-string.

This is the Longest Concert Evar, starring Pudge. Send requests to concertrequest@pudge.net, or post them here.

From the movie "Bob Roberts," here is a cover of the song "Complain." Lyrics below. Enjoy!

Some people must have
Some people have not
And they complain and complain and complain and complain and complain

Some people will work
Some simply will not
But they'll complain and complain and complain and complain and complain

Like this:
It's society's fault
I don't have a job
It's society's fault
I am a slob
I got potential
No one can see
Give me welfare
Let me be me

Hey bud you're livin' in the land of the free
No one's gonna hand you opportunity

Some people must have
Some never will
But they'll complain and complain and complain and complain and complain

Like this:
I don't have a house
I don't have a car
I spend all my time
Drunk in a bar
I wanna be rich
I don't have a brain
Give me a handout
While I complain

Or this:
I wanna stay in bed
And watch TV
And go out weekends in a limousine
And dance all night taking lots of drugs
And wake up
When I wanna

Hey bud you're livin' in the land of the free
No one's gonna hand you opportunity

Some people must have
Some never will
But they'll complain and complain and complain and complain and complain
Yeah they'll complain and complain and complain and complain and complain

This is the Longest Concert Evar, starring Pudge. Send requests to concertrequest@pudge.net, or post them here.

As a non-drummer, which drum set is better: Guitar Hero World Tour, or Rock Band 2? I'll probably get both games, so the question is not so much "which game is better?" but "which drum set is better?," and implied is also "which drum set is better for playing with either game?"

I know the Guitar Hero game's not out yet. And neither is Rock Band 2, since I am on PlayStation 3.

I am leaning toward Rock Band 2, because a. it looks like it will be better at making sure the pedal doesn't move, b. I think four pads is probably better for me than five. But GHWT's drums look more compact, and they have cool cymbals.

I'm watching the latest episode of The Office and I see the name of Michael Schur as a "co-executive producer." I enjoy Schur's writing at Fire Joe Morgan (as "Ken Tremendous") so it caught my eye.

Then I saw several other producers named after him. So I rewound.

I counted six "executive producers," eight "co-executive producers," two "consulting producers," one "producer," and one more person that the show was "produced by."

I have some experience adding by more than ones, so I say with confidence that the show had at least 18 producers in the credits.

I'm no Ben Silverman, or Greg Daniels, or Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant, or Howard Klein, or Paul Lieberstein, but that seems like a lot to me.

"The Merry Minuet" is a classic song by The Kingston Trio. Requested by nandorman.

This is the Longest Concert Evar, starring Pudge. Send requests to concertrequest@pudge.net, or post them here.

Showing off a "Photosynth," which can put different photos together and create this pseudo-3D space, an MS spokesthing says on my TV, "it's not actually virtual reality, it IS reality that you're experiencing. It's not a video game, it's not an artificial playground in some sense, it's REALLY the things that you had visited in the real world, but reconstructed within the confines of the computer."

Um. Actually, just so we're clear, in fact:

It is NOT REALLY the things that I had visited, it IS virtual reality, it IS a video game, it IS an artificial playground in a very true sense.

I hope that clears things up.

My question, in part in song.

I played the GOP Debate Song at the Snohomish County picnic last weekend. You can see the original here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Dz0jc1mUs

This is the Longest Concert Evar, starring Pudge. Send requests to concertrequest@pudge.net, or post them here.

I had planned on seeing a movie based on the book Prince Caspian this morning.

Instead, I saw Disney's new movie, called Prince Caspian.

An overwhelming majority of the movie is all wrong. It has to be the least faithful movie to the book of any movie I've seen, that I've also read the book for. And that includes I, Robot. OK, not really. But close.

Three words: Susan, Caspian, Romance.

The plot is basically the same -- Caspian summons the children, children help Caspian defeat Miraz -- but almost all the details have changed. It has the same characters, but that's about it. It's quite annoying, really.

From the very beginning it's all wrong. Miraz is not yet King, Caspian is much older than he should be, the children vividly remembered Narnia even before they got pulled back, Trumpkin's personality is very different, the trees attack the Telmarines, and a huge water monster destroys the bridge at Beruna.

Even one of the most well-known lines in the movie was butchered. Aslan asks of Caspian, in the book, "Do you feel yourself sufficient to take up the Kingship of Narnia?" "I--I don't think I do, Sir. I'm only a kid." "Good," said Aslan. "If you had felt yourself sufficient, if would have been proof that you were not." But in the movie, this is turned upside-down: now the fact that he doesn't feel himself sufficient is proof that he IS sufficient. By that logic, the idiot giant Wimbleweather would have been sufficient for kingship.

But don't misunderstand: the inconsistencies do not begin and end with these relatively minor elements. The battles in the movie never happened; major events happen in the wrong place and out of order; Aslan never appears to anyone but Lucy until the very end of the movie; Peter and Caspian have a conflict that nearly leads to blows; Peter is tempted by the White Witch ...

I don't mind all the changes. Making Sopespian and Glozelle larger parts of the story is fine, although I don't like what they did with them, for example. Even including Susan in more of the action isn't terribly offensive. But the whole story is just twisted inside out.

The movie is fairly decent on its own (although the sense of humor in it is quite poor ... why would Reepicheep say to Trumpkin, "I was expecting someone taller?" And who could not have predicted Trumpkin's response?). But as Prince Caspian it fails miserably because it is barely Prince Caspian at all.

An original love song to the Superdelegate.

Lyrics:

Chorus:
Superdelegate, I don't know you, but I love you
Superdelegate, you make me feel warm inside
Superdelegate, I didn't vote for you
But I really think you're super, Superdelegate

We can't trust ourselves to choose
'Coz we've got so much to lose
So we ask you, please
Protect us from ourselves

Chorus

I will use my voice
I will state my choice
I will stand up and be counted
But not as much as you

Chorus

This is the Longest Concert Evar, starring Pudge. Send requests to concertrequest@pudge.net, or post them here.

A cover of I Want You To Want Me by Cheap Trick. Requested by daviebluff.

This is the Longest Concert Evar, starring Pudge. Send requests to concertrequest@pudge.net, or post them here.