opinionated

i enjoy podcasts, they're the new talk radio and definitely assist in the passing of time during a work day. one that i subscribe to is Sound Opinions from American Public Media.

at the end of their shows they play messages from their hotline. check this episode out, right around 56 minutes and 36 seconds, if you want to hear me talking like a total goofball about swedish metal bands and presidential campaigns:

click for itunes (episode titled "Sound Opinions names our favorite One Note Wonders")

click to download mp3

click for streaming audio

20 yr old matt vs. 30 yr old matt

awesome.

a tale of triumph

some nights you stay up too late playing new map packs for halo 3. thus, some mornings you wake up real tired and cranky. then, as you wait for the light to change at embarcadero a kid on a fixie goes by in the direction you're headed. at that point, something in you decides you're gonna catch him, half-mile lead be damned!

and you almost do, but you have to turn up north point and he keeps going straight. suddenly, you don't feel so tired and cranky anymore.

the end,
by matt

note to self:

when the car rental agent suggests a car, don't take it.

meta

video of me shooting video yesterday:



(let me know if it doesn't play, i have no idea, my computer suuuuuuuuuuucks.)

torched

so, i spent my lunch hour today cycling around the city trying to catch a glimpse of the olympic torch. there was an impressive number of protesters down at justin herman plaza as well as quite a few supporters. i've got one brief video and a few pics on my flickr:



right after i taped the protesters marching around justin herman plaza, some dude came up to me and said "you have a bike, check out this text i just got," and told me the torch was headed down van ness towards bay st. so i sprinted back around the embarcadero to try to get a look.

by the time i arrived, the streets were super crowded, but i managed to find a spot on the median a couple minutes before the procession arrived. this is what i saw:



it was pretty surreal seeing runners in the entourage trying to help the cops defend the torch bearer. at least one of the times when my camera flails around it was because i was almost knocked over by a woman that had been hurled back by a cop. in the end, i'm glad it didn't get crazier and i'm glad i live in a place where people will protest vehemently against injustice and oppression.

for relaxing times...

...make it tomales times. molly and thomas live in tomales, hence it is now my strong belief that steph and i will live in a town called mephaniew some day.



there are some lovely country roads in that region, the kind they make car commercials on. these roads inspired several effusive utilizations of the GTI's sport mode. i was thrilled to find we can hop, skip and jump up to 110mph without redlining 4th gear. fantastic.

we also got to shoot things with a pellet gun, hike among cattle and look at junk that was for sale at the dump. a little something for everyone, as they say.

efficient

i love headlines like this. not because i'm morbid, well, i might be a little, but because the headline tells the WHOLE STORY:



what more do you need to know? you know what happened, who did it and how justice was meted out without any third-party human intervention... that's satisfying reading.

huzzah!

internets are back. backternets.

i can't wait to really check it out, but based on the five minutes i got to mess with it, the uverse tv and internet package is pretty freakin' sweet. the interface is easily the best non-tivo interface i've seen and it can record four tv shows at once!

here's to media gluttony!

offensive, therefore hilarious