Another Day, Another Year, Another Post

Good Bye 2003, Hello 2004

MMIV
That is Roman Numerals folks.

When I first started to work in this cubicle jungle, I saw a little mantra on one of the Cubicle Monger’s (Salesperson/Marketeer) desks.

A Day without a sale, is like a day without sunshine

I guess that could be true, especially if you lived and breathed off of commissions. But then again, I’m a salaried geek; when I hear the words commission and overtime, I pick up the dictionary.

So anyways, Today is January 2, 2004. For the next 3 months (especially the next 2-3 weeks) I’m going to be working close to 14 hour days (and some weekends), as this is the “busy season” for my organization.

• We’ve launched new product
• As I have a hand in people’s financial lives, the tax season has officially begun.
• As I work in Product Support, I’ll have a lot more bugs to fix.
• As I work as an analyst, I’ll have a lot more data to sift through.

And since its wintertime, the sun will not be out when I drive to and from the cubicle jungle.

Starlight and Florescent Lights, they will guide my way.
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This is a reprint of a previous post which appeared on another website. Edits were made to place the text into the First Person

Once upon a time, I had an internet alter-ego who went by the name of “Carlos”. There is a great story about this, and maybe I’ll tell it again. However, after watching the movie, The Bourne Identity, I was curious as to the details of the movie, and I went to Amazon-dot-com, to investigate and possibly purchase the novel. I found three, and unlike the movie, all three books were centered around, or had something to do with “Carlos”.

So I had to get it.
I’m currently reading the second book in the series now, but I thought that I would share my first review of the first book, before I reviewed the second:

I’ve noticed a disturbing trend, and I found that Robert Ludlam, and his creative genius used the lore of the real Carlos to construct a work of fiction called, “The Bourne Identity”. It was made into a motion picture, with Matt Damon (who portrays Jason Bourne, very well, from his description in the book), however, the plot in the movie is almost completely unlike the book.

SPOILERS BELOW
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Readers of this site have asked about what basis I use to tell if a movie is good or not.

So I figure, since MovieLens is batting 19 out of 20. I can safely say that the computer knows my movie rating system. So I might as well be a little more consistent.
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And to close out the year, Jeremy-Gilby-Dot-Com presents the December edition of Searchy Fun!

For those of you who came in late, these are the top 20 search strings used to find Jeremy-Gilby-Dot-Com on various search engines around the world wide web.

Let’s get to checking!
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I came across This Article over at h-t-t-p-colon-foward-slash-forward-slash slash dot dot-org.
His Thesis explores examples of “What you cannot say” in history, and tries to examine modern Western Culture for those same clues.

It’s tantalizing to think we believe things that people in the future will find ridiculous. What would someone coming back to visit us in a time machine have to be careful not to say? That’s what I want to study here. But I want to do more than just shock everyone with the heresy du jour. I want to find general recipes for discovering what you can’t say, in any era.

Its a very iconoclastic article (and I like iconoclasts, they like to think outside the box, and GOOD iconoclasts encourage other people to think in those dimensions as well.)
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Guess what? The Political Left thinks YOU are stupid if you support/voted/contribute/pander to George W. Bush. (Or Republicans for that matter).

Well, at least Neal Starkman thinks so.

Here is the funny thing. Lets take HIS article and just change a few names around:
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There is a small mumor of grumbling about this article:
How the Secret Service Protects Bush from Free Speech – From S-F-Gate-dot-com

So, hey geniuses, do you REALLY think this is Bush’s idea?
The Secret Service is NON-Political. They have ONE job to do.
One Job!
(and I do not evny that job, not in this day in age.)
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Is there life on Mars? (David Bowie asked that question in the song title of the same name)
Personally, I don’t believe so.

But with all this excitement about the latest Mission to Mars, there’s been more talk about the possibility of life on the planet.

Personally, I don’t believe so.

I think Scientists are forgetting a MAJOR principle of Physics and Chemistry when they suggest that Water once existed on the planet from the evidence of sedimentary flows from their satelite images.

But why are they only considering DiHydrogen MonOxide as the fluid which made those channels in the geology?
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When I was studying Calculus in College, my Calc II Professior was a huge fan of the movie, Stand and Deliver, the story of Jamie Escalante in Garfield High School in LA.

Ten years later, (After I’ve forgotten more math then most people learn in thier lifetime) I’ve finally gotten around to see it, and it was pretty good.

———=======Spoilers Below=======———-
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The Primary PC was begging for some more attention (As “Morden” was given an upgrade from Windows 98 to Windows XP Pro). So since I had the afternoon to kill, I downloaded Mandrake 9.2 and installed that on “Kosh” (The Primary Linux Box in my Geek-O-Sphere at home).

Now he’s a lot more streamlined.
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You know what they call a close win in football?
A win!

And thus, the Philadelphia Eagles eliminated the Green Bay Packers in an Overtime Victory.

And then there were four.

Updated (01/12/2004)
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So last night, Chris, Andrew and I were invited out to dinner, with a large group of our friends, and the unspoken question was asked: “What would be appropriate to wear?”

It was a Sunday Evening, one of the McMahon’s Retaurants which are some of the finer in Tucson.

So doing my research, I found the page for the location of our get together, The Metropolitan Grill, and low and behold, I find the following:

I came across this Article over at h-t-t-p-colon-forward-slash-forward-slash slash-dot dot-org.

Those Ivy Leaguers over at Princeton build a Map of the Universe from the recent Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

I took a look at the map and, in my limited understanding of Astronomy and Astrophysics, I was able to understand it.

Note: On this map, the Earth is the central reference point. (Usually we use the Sun.) This map does NOT endorse the GeoCentric Universal Model.

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Pholph’s Scrabble Generator My Scrabble Score is: 30. What is your score? Get it here.

But what about the Tripple Word Score?
Huh?
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My Aunt Georgia (who is a North Carolina resident) e-mailed me an article from The Charlotte Observer. (See Article Below)

This article response to an article that appeared in the Philadelphia Rag Mag: The Philadelphia Daily News by Will Bunch (in which he describes Charlotte North Carolina as a City of Nothing). It seems that Philadelphia is still a bit steamed that they fell to Pheonix for title of 5th Largest City. But that doesn’t stop the City of Brotherly Love (a.k.a. The City with the Most Attitude)
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With a nod to “The Jeffersons“.

Carol Moseley Braun is leaving the Presidential Race

And the Fellowship of the Nine Dwarves is broken.
And then there were eight.

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Recently, in my 29+ years of existence, I’ve observed a very disturbing behavior in people, and western society. I hesitate to mention it, as I fear that as people read this, more people will feel the urge to do it.

But it bothers me SO MUCH, I can’t NOT respond to it.

Why is it, that certain people find pleasure in intentionally annoying people?
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Earlier this week (I think It was monday) Matt made a comment that that last time I saw the sun, during a work day, was LAST Year.

I’m posting this today, because for the first time in a week, I’ve seen the sun. It was bright, big, yellow and warm (At least in the desert it is. I know you New England Types are at sub-zero temperatures right now: Better you then me.)

If the weather allows, tomorrow I will see the sun again.
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Something odd, happened today.
It was odd because it was completely unexpected.

Today, as the Band was meeting in the morning, a few of us were joking around and talking about the versatility of the word “dude”.
Like, the astonished: “dude”
or the rebuking: “dude”
Really, its all in the delivery.
Then, one of the string section made one, while almost singing, then she replied with an explanation: “That’s just a cry for help.”

I laughed. I laughed out loud. As I was laughing, I thought to myself, “Why am I laughing?”
Then I asked, “When was the last time I had an ‘honest’ laugh like this?”
I purposely used the word “honest”.

And I answered myself, “I don’t remember.”
I don’t remember the last time I laughed like that.
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Okay, it hurts to say it, but there is 11 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, and the Philadelphia Eagles are losing, 14 to 3.

The Carolina Panthers are punishing my Eagles at every position. The hits are hard, and unrelentless.
McNabb is out of the game. (In fact, he was out of the second half) The Eagles were simply overpowered.

I have to respect such play (I love good, and tough defenese.)

So the good news is that I’ll shut up about the Eagles.

Until next year!
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Howard Dean was smoked in the Iowa today, as the Haughty French Looking Massachusetts Democrat who by-the-way also served in Vietnam, took the plurailty of the decision in Iowa today.
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Today is the 2 year Anniversary of Jeremy-Gilby-Dot-Com.
While the domain name itself has been active for almost 4 years, it was on January 20, 2002, I launched Greymatter on the cgi-bin directory, and entered My First Articles.

And today this is entry 370, thus suggesting that I’ve entered an article just slightly more frequently then every 2 days.
An interesting fact: The first year, I entered 120 articles, the second year I entered over twice as many and entered 250 articles.

One thing that people often ask me is:
Why do you have a website?
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Last night I was able to watch some of the State of the Union Address, I should have watched more, but I came in late.

As usual, Bush held himself in a good light. (It was a prepared speech, after all) And he spoke clearly and distinctly (A halmark of his public speaking appearances.)

There were some excerpts of the speech that caught my attention, (and reactions of the gathered political figures that caught my attention too.)
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Yes!

I’m not alone!

Other people think so too!

According to this FOX News Article, a recent MIT Survey showed that Cell phones are the most annoying, but also the most must-have technology.

I disagree with the must have. But I definitely agree with the most hated.

That is what I call “Good Science!”

Link E-mailed to me by Allison.

From the IMDB.com Top 100 movies

The rules: Bold the ones you’ve seen. Italicize the ones you want to see. Put an asterisk by your favorites. And underline the ones you own.

Idea from Jen Speaks.

Here’s my list:
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Tis a slow “news day” at Jeremy-Gilby-Dot-Com.

So talk amongst yourselves.

Here’s a topic:
If abortions were illegal in this country, how many more votors would Howard Dean have at his disposal?
(Assuming that people 18-31 (the Anniversay of Roe v. Wade) can vote, and would most likely vote for this angry, yet politcally attractive, liberal candidate.)

Food for thought.

Some people have complained that I’m not using my new Digital Camera enough.

Well, here is a glimpse of the exiting life of Jeremy R. Gilby, at home.

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In my Sunday Browsing, I found this article over a h-t-t-p-colon-forward-slash-forward-slash-slash-dot-dot-org”.

The Queen of England is honoring Bill Gates, as he is to be Knighted.
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Last year’s Super Bowl did not just only show the fans of the world that Defense wins games. It also allowed Reebok to introduce their new marketing giant.

Now, this is what I’m talking about.
Marketing that is fun, and has enough violence for the whole family.

And this Superbowl Sunday, Terry returns with his newest SuperBowl commericial.
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Today is a day of victory.
A Day of great celebration.
A day to remember (at least for me) for many years.

Today is the last day that I pay the Credit Card company for the mistakes of my youth.

Today, I wrote the last check to the Credit Card compnay, and I’m officially out of debt.
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Rick sent me this link yesterday, and I feel lead to talk about it.

From Yahoo News: Clinton’s Gift to Internet Age – Only 2 E-Mails

To summarize: Of the 40 million E-mails sent via the White House Staff (and Cabinet), President Clinton sent a whopping 2.

No, not two million.
2.
Just two.
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On Monday, Al Franken “Hulked Up” and body slammed a heckler at a Howard Dean Rally, at or near Exeter, New Hampshire.

To his defense:

Franken said he’s not backing Dean but merely wanted to protect the right of people to speak freely. “I would have done it if he was a Dean supporter at a Kerry rally,” he said.

“I’m neutral in this race but I’m for freedom of speech, which means people should be able to assemble and speak without being shouted down.”

No, that is not what Freedom of Speech means.
In fact, Mr. Frankin, I would argue that YOU infringed on the Heckler’s Free Speech rights by assulting him.

I hope you go to jail. That kind of behavior is uncalled for.
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Its been awhile since I last reported on the positions and statuses of the twelve Carrier Strike Groups of the United States Navy. (That’s because not much has changed since last month.)

But now, we have another boat in the water in the Atlantic Fleet.

Sources: Navy.mil, GlobalSecurity.org

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Found this via my daily reading, but you can blame The Accidental Jedi.

Where have you visited?

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

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Stinkin’ Rick sent me this wonderful link today, I thought I’d share it with you guys!
The 213 Things Skippy is No Longer Allowed to Do in the U.S. Army
From the looks of things, Skippy is/was a very bad and extremely creative boy.
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As some of you know, after I posted this article on Bud Lights Salute to Real Men of Genius, Jeremy-Gilby-Dot-Com became a target for a plethora of search hits for “Real Men of Genius” (and other quasi-simmilar search strings).
And for the “Searchy Fun” results for October, November, and December, I’ve rewarded my readership with my own parodies of the commercials. Like Mr. Former-Iraqi-Dictator, or Mr. L.A. County Lawsuit Guy, or even Mr. Down-and-Out Panhandler Guy.

As some of you may also know Stinkin’ Rick, my coworker, is pretty much a genius in electronic music. (See his website), and he started putting my words to music, mimicking these popular beer commercials.
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I was leisurly reading h-t-t-p colon forward-slash forward-slash slash-dot-dot-org, and found this article from Buisiness 2.0.
The 101 dumbest moments in Business for 2003.

This is a well written article, you have to read the whole thing. Quite funny.
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I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Jeremy-Gilby-Dot-Com has had at least one new post every day for the month of January.

Not only that, but currently there is a streak since December 26th.

In Just January alone there were 37 articles (including this one) in 31 days.
This is currently both the longest streak, and the most articles ever posted in a single month.

I’m quite proud of myself!