I’ve now got two weeks off. I’ve finished my Christmas Shopping. And I had a great time unplugging with the guys last night. Comedy Clubs do wonders for getting my stress out.

I’ve been doing as much reading as the internet allows on the ill-conceived Altamont Free Concert held by The Rolling Stones on 6 December, 1969, and the whole Meredith Hunter thing isn’t adding up. I’m not arguing the symbolic significance of the whole event, that it’s regarded as the demise of the 60’s (funny that happening at the end of the 60’s…) or anything like that. My problem is the weight of it all is put on Meredith Hunter being stabbed and kicked to death by Alan Passaro and his Hell’s Angels’ buddies for drawing a gun and pointing it at Mick Jagger. Now call me a cynic, but when you’re staring down twenty Hell’s Angels within arm’s reach, how fucking stupid have you gotta be to draw a revolver with six shots? Loaded up on amphetamines stupid, I guess.

The other three deaths at Altamont were chalked up to stupidity, two people died in a vehicular incident of some kind. One account claims a car drove over then while they slept, another is that they hit a burning structure, and yet another claims they were just part of a hit-and-run. The other death was some drugged-out schmuck suffocating after stumbling into an irrigation ditch. Personally, I’m thinking all four death were stupidity, Meredith’s just got caught on film and everyone was already justifiably pissed at the Hell’s Angels already. A day of random beatings with lead-filled pool-queues will do that.

The articles and bLog entire I’ve read seem to be pretty much split on the issue numerically, but the “innocent victim” camp has a lot more press and media backing it up, including Rolling Stone Magazine. You’ll never get the Angels to admit that they drew first blood, as is claimed in the stories of one of their number cutting him as they brushed past. All the footage shows is a guy in a bright green suit tweaking checking his side, and there happens to be bikers standing nearby. However, toxicology tests showed he was high, and while high he produced a firearm while among a large group of agitated people armed with nothing more than sawed-off pool queues, hippy beads, and a knife. Technically self-defense ended once he was disarmed, but who really was ratinoal anymore at that point?

Let Will or me know if you’re in this year. Don’t be afraid, the more the merrier!

The premise is simple: You send Will the ante (he’ll decide shortly) and a list of 30 celebrities (basically anyone famous enough to make the news if they die). If one of your picks buys it, you get 100 point minus their age.

I’ll give you a couple pointers: Put Ariel Sharon and Fidel Castro on your list, and maybe Saddam.

I’m getting to really like Heckler and Koch.

One of the slick new projects of theirs in the States is the H&K 416, a “refit” of the ubiquious AR-15 design. While internally it quite a workover (for the better, all around) it’s ready to accept the huge range of AR modifications already on the market.

I’m still reading up on this little bugger, but suffice to say: I’m interested if something civillian comes along, assuming it makes to Canada as a Restricted weapon. An H&K like this will finally convince to get a car and range membership again.

“…even a hurt little boy…”

They played the “Hurt Child” card in the latest serious of anti-console websites, this time in reference to a kid who -I assume- got clocked by a flying Wiimote when the wrist-strap broke. Nintendo has not so much ordered a recall as agreed to eat the cost of replacing the straps, since they realsied too late the sound advice of their first Wiimote campaign failed:

Try actually holding on to the fucking thing.

Stories of cracked windows, televisions, Wiis, children, dogs and even a dislocated knee fill the pages of Wii Have a Problem, a valiant webpage laying bare all the foolish unnecessary violence that has resulted from people who got just a little too over zealous in their use of the Wiimote. They call these klutzes fanboys right on the front page, making it clear they are not so much dedicated to the idea that stupidity should be blamed on Nintendo. It makes me wonder, with dread, how many incidents are not being reported on the site because the “victims” honestly believe they’ve done no wrong in a)putting their pathetic all into spazzing out like Cruise on Oprah and b)getting sweaty from all the activity they (as gamers) aren’t used to to and losing their grip on the Wiimote (not to mention the shortnes of breath, heart palpitations and muscle tremors).

Before you tell me I shouldn’t be surprised, know this: I’m not. Between this, the lighting issue I wrote of yesterday and having Teddy as an older brother I know people are stupid. So don’t try to console me, join me in laughing at the mooks.

There’s two kinds of people in this world:

Those that get it and those that don’t.

To elaborate: One of the great little examples of how comically a person can be both smart and stupid is the lights here at work. When commanded off, they blink once, then stay on another five minutes. This is old workings, as Mom told me they did that when she was cooped up in office buildings in the 80’s. Lord knows this is probably going back before then, as in theory it makes sense.

This means I get two sets of calls when the lighting schedules kick in. On the hour, I get a call or two from tenants who noticed the blink the and ask for the lights to stay on for however long they need. However, I also get calls from a couple people who happily observe in my ear that the lights came right back on, and promptly hang up before I can explain the warning blink. For generalisation, I put them in category 2.

Category 2 calls five minutes later after the lights actually turn off and stay off. Sometimes calmly, more often in a sort of panic, 3 or 4 times as many as on the hour call at 5 after the hour for lights to stay on. Some are calling back in a huff that the lights turned back off, and make a very familiar noise when I explain (calmly and condescendingly, as always) how the warning blink works:

“Oooooooooooohhhhhh.” You know the noise. That long, drawn-out “oh” that implies the lights have been an enigma all their lives, and now, thanks to the sage knowledge of Mike, the Operator, all is understood, and white is once again white. We hear it as a long drawn out declaration of the typical ignorance flooding society at large.

An ignorance only proven the next night when it all happens with the same players. Not new people who need the lights explained, the same sheep who last night said, “Oooooooooooohhhhhh.” It seems the lighting enigma is a slippery one and escapes their mind like a angry snake.

I wasn’t going to write this until the end came, but I’ll be distracted by the world around me. Will and myself are currently 8 shifts over 7 days away from finishing a stretch of 39 straight days worked, broken occasionally by only a little less than 24 hours off two times. It’s a result of politics at work I’m not going to explain as I’ll just get worked up again, but hopefully it can be taken as a lesson learned and won’t happen again. I know I certainly won’t volunteer like I did at the beginning of this mess.

This is easily the most stressed I’ve been since I started working instead of going to school, which is being demostrated in a variety of ways. Food tastes bland and functional, no matter what I eat, no sleep is enough, coffee or tea makes me sleepy instead of giving me any kind of boost, and I can’t concentrate on any task for more than a brief amount of time. Warcraft, Rainbow Six: Vegas, work, reading, planning a PnP game or prepping any of my characters for the games we’ve got planned all just grow stale fast, but when I stop I just sit like a lump. Considering the effort I put into regarding myself from otuside, it’s a real drag to fall to pessimism. Suffice to say I will be getting the guys (as many as I can) on Friday, and going out for beers and laughs. You read that guys: LAUGHS!!! Allister: Prep your best gay jokes.

In the very near future Blizzard will be unleashing The Burning Crusade on the unsuspecting player base, bring two new races, a new profession, a whole new continent to kill things in and 10 more levels. There will be new gear, new dungeons, and a new life breathed into the two year old MMORPG. Of course, the players seem to be viewing it as the grim spectre of Doom approaching with steady, inevitable purpose.

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I have discovered Pandora recently, which is the last horse crossing the finish-line. Creating radio stations in the manner it does is kinda cool, but when they’re as broad as mine it gets confused easily.

Otherwise, I stand by SomaFM being a great radio station otherwise.