raleighnet.org

I’ve posted an ad for my massage chair on craig’s list. If you live in the LA area, and you’d like to buy it off me let me know. I may be able to offer a slight friends and family discount.

ChessGames.com is a fantastic resource for people looking to get better at chess. You can select players and watch as the games unfold move by move.

I never could get the hang of algebraic chess notation. I understand it, but I can’t hold all those moves in my head and imagine the pieces on the board past a few moves. With this though you just step right through the game. Very cool.

I only wish it also had commentary by chess masters. I constantly find myself backing up to see if I can figure out why the players are making moves that don’t seem to make any sense to me. And, when the player resigns, I’m left looking at the board, mentally screaming wait, what did I miss? It looked like the other guy was losing. Via

The Rules of Attraction has been hanging out on my TiVo for a week or so. I woke up early without much to do, so I watched it. The movie tries so hard to be edgy and cool. I’d like to say that it fails spectacularly, but there’s nothing spectacular about it. Mostly it’s just contrived and boring.

Victor’s travelogue was OK. That’s only like 5 minutes though, and really, it probably should have been 2 1/2.

I can’t wait to see this Nano Exhibit. It sounds and looks wickedly cool. Via

Coolest Site Ever:

Make toys at home with common household materials, often in only a few minutes, that demonstrate fascinating scientific principles.

Via

Why do some people get all the luck while others never get the breaks they deserve? A psychologist says he has discovered the answer.

I wish I could appreciate Johnny Cash. So many people cite him as being this monumentally influential and talented guy. I guess he is an original, but I just don’t get it.

However Johnny Cash, doing a cover of Desperado with animated monkeys riding horses, well now you’d have to be a cold hearted fool not to see the magic of that equation. Very funny. Via

After 2 months of slogging through it, I finally finished reading The Eye of the World. It’s about 800 pages, so I guess that isn’t a horrible pace (even though it felt like I was moving pretty slow with it). I did the last 300 or so this week, so obviously it was pretty tough getting into it to start.

I guess it was enjoyable enough. I could see myself picking up book two of the Wheel of Time series, but I’m certainly not going to be rushing out to read it.

Not much of it suck with me. Towards the end of the book, they were speaking about characters who were introduced earlier in the story, and I honestly couldn’t remember any of them. This may say more about me and my memory. Most books don’t stay with me for the most part.

Part of the problem too was that I saw so many influences from so many other books. The whole think felt very derivative and formulaic. I guess if you’re looking for that kind of story (quest with strong fantasy elements), then this will fit the bill. There are probably other, better examples of that kind of thing out there — but then if you’re looking for a story like this, you’ve probably already read all of those anyway.

Next up: The Lovely Bones.

I was all ready to dismiss James Hering’s column, No More “Visits,” Please!. I could see where he was going, and I was pretty sure he was wrong (or just desperate for a column idea to fill inches). But, by the time I got to the end of the piece, I have to say, he’s probably right. We probably do need stronger call to actions.

I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. The past few times I’ve gone in for a hair cut, the “stylist” tries to give me a new style. I wouldn’t mind so much except that I’m concerned they’re cutting with their intended style in mind instead of cutting so that the style I’m going to force my hair back into will look as good as possible.

I can understand that my goofy hairstyle is so out of date, that these people feel compelled to do me the favor of bringing me into the current millennium. I can understand that people need to feel creative and fulfilled at work and that they’re trying to do the best job possible.

But the thing is, I didn’t ask for a new style. In fact I typically say something along the lines of pretty much exactly like it is now but trim up the layers a little bit. Also, if I was going to experiment with a new style, I wouldn’t be going to some random stranger who may or may not actually have a license to cut hair, and I wouldn’t be paying the absolute minimum possible for a haircut without resorting implements that I could buy myself off some late night infomercial.

Also, I think that stupid Queer Eye for the Straight guy show has totally undermined my ability to shave. I used to know how to shave, but a friend got me watching that stupid show, and they go on and on about how to shave and how not to shave, and even though I don’t want to think about it, it’s like saying don’t think of a pink elephant. I can’t get them out of my head in the morning. So, I’m over aware of what I’m doing, so of course I cut and scrape myself to no end. Who knew TV could be so dangerous?