Sorry.

Dear Diary,

I've changed a lot in the last two years, and my priorities are a little more centered, I would say. So, I had to tell someone, and I am deeply truly sorry to have purchased the latest Modest Mouse album. I know, I went to RIAA radar and everything. But it just happened. And it was on sale, so they got maybe, what, a dollar at most from my purchase, but it is still vile, disgusting, and wrong. They've done more wrong to MY life in this country, affecting MY rights, to allow it to happen. Just look at this.


Anyway, I didn't know what to do, the artist didn't make it available anywhere online, except iTunes, which is wrong in its own way. And I didn't ask them to sign on with the major label they did, but the worst part: I listen differently now to what they say. It's like there is some filter over the music. It's RIAA music now, and quite different.



So, these things become more and more important to me, and many others, and I'm not as involved in advertisting as I was. In fact, I don't typically see ANY local ads through radio, tv, or newspaper in a day, and it is a surprise when I catch the random auto dealer ad on radio, or a local community paper or something. With this demographic that I'm in (25-30 male), I should be getting BOMBARDED. So, the only way for the big companies to reach out to a responsible twenty something these days is to take over a band, a brand, a store that I previously thought was "mine". Well, ok, but it might be the beginning of the end.

It's worth writing about, sure...

Who the f*** decided that sentences on the Internet shall no longer be formatted with two spaces after a period?!

This is a signature from slashdot. But it is true, and I'll tell you all the little things that this statement means to me. It's more than meets the eye.

Yes, the internet is powerful, everywhere, tempting, all encompassing, and defining. What happens on the internet, whether it be 1337 speak, punctuation, or humor (itsatrap!) tends to latch on to us, because it represents the most democratic medium - everyone's voice is there, and the conscience tends to fall toward the center of the bell curve of the participants, hence, society.

The lack of a second space after the period may be the future, and, like the comment says, it might be just one guy who decided when writing html standards. That is the power, and social leveller of the web.

Any english teacher will tell you that the language is constantly evolving. Merriam webster doesn't decide what new words are available. And, the increasing rate of change of things like this on the web are really telling. Who would have thought?

lottery followup

So, two people picked the numbers correctly in that huge mega millions jackpot. I, myself, bought a ticket for the most picked numbers. I also tried one for the least picked. My source was the official database, from megamillions.com. They had 1019 draws over 6 years available to me, so I put together a quick chart. The distribution was as follows:



For those interested, here is the
chart for the "mega" ball.


So, 5,22,32,42,47, and I used the megaball of 3. I had to pick one to leave out, and that was 17.

For the least picked numbers, I used (discarding the numbers above 51 inserted in the past year to lower odds for all of us.

2,19,33,34,41, and 51

Well, the actual picks were

16,22,29,39,42	Mega Ball = 20

So, I matched one number, which wins nothing.