Oscars 2001

Posted on March 25 2001 by Mickey
    It’s Oscar night tonight. This is one of my favorite days. I’m one of the few people I know that truly enjoys the Academy Awards. Not the fashions, not the glitz, not the showy production numbers. The awards themselves. I’m not brave enough to make any predictions, mainly because my hunches keep changing. I’m tired of hearing about Gladiator and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon so one of those will probably win.
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(Boy Was I Naïf)

Posted on March 22 2001 by Mickey
    A little facelift, but hardly the massive one I would like to do [back on my old page]. I just wanted to get some use out of my latest webcam, which I bought from a company called x10. It’s a wireless camera, which I found intriguing. Now I can keep my USB webcam close to my computer, but can also set up my wireless camera around the house — and, when the weather gets better, even outside. For now, it’s in the window of the upstairs bedroom.
    Don’t forget to check out the college diary in my Photo Gallery.
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Comment Commentary

Posted on March 1 2001 by Mickey
    Did a few administrative changes around the site. For one thing I got rid of the fairly pointless Message Board [the old Ultraboard, that is; not the new YaBB SE board]. I knew it would never really take off and I only started it because my web service offered it. But it was fairly redundant since most people were posting comments to my guestbook and I have my Diary page for my own posts. So I killed off the Forum today.
    For those people who did post to the Forum — thank you, and — your messages have been transferred to the Guestbook.
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The Pine Reassessed

Posted on March 1 2001 by Mickey
    I’ve since done a complete about-face regarding my Pine SM200C MP3 CD player, as reviewed below. I still love the concept of an MP3 CD player (much more than a hard drive or memory-card player), but the Pine still leaves too much to be desired. Other players from Rio and TDK and Memorex are already surpassing it, as well. So it’s time to reassess.
    My greatest problem with my Pine is its paltry skip protection. It supposedly has five seconds of skip protection, but this is more like “skip delay” since your music will still skip albeit a couple seconds after you hit that pothole. The audio seems to “splinter” or “shred” or crackle more than skip, which is almost more annoying.
    Equally annoying is the flimsy lid. Though not as flimsy as the MPTrip, the Pine lid is easy to wiggle, especially when trying to place the player down. This is due to the player being constructed like a clamshell, joining at the sides, rather than the lid closing into the top. It’s difficult to hold the player in your palm without your fingertips touching the join, but this will seriously interfere with playback, causing the Pine to either skip or in some cases completely freeze.
    Further, the SM200C has a tough time with AC power if batteries are also in the player. Say you’re in your car, you stop to get gas, you leave the Pine connected to your cigarette-lighter adapter but you shut off the power in your car. If you’ve also got batteries in your player, you’ll invariably discover the SM200-C has completely frozen. The only way to clear the LCD and get control of the buttons again is to pull the power and pop the batteries out.
    The Pine was a good player for its time. The LCD was a welcome addition. But it still needs better navigation, better shock protection, and better construction — especially with superior players on the horizon.
The Pine D’Music SM200C
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Scandalous

Posted on February 17 2001 by Mickey
    “A little gris-gris keeps you safe from harm”
    I’ve been meaning to make this available for a while, so I might as well do it now before I forget about it completely. A long while back someone on the Buffett listserv called our attention to a song called “Kole Sere”, which was available on an album called Planete Zouk (Volume 1). The writer said there were marked similarities with Buffett’s song “Love & Luck”, which uses the same phrase in its chorus.
    I was fresh from my first Caribbean trip and was eager to hear some more zouk music (much like a little tune called “Who Let the Dogs Out?” which I heard on a tape sold to me on a beach in Nevis, three years ago — and which I much prefer to the remake that grew so popular in the US). So I ordered the album. And yes, the similarities are striking. Jimmy’s song is definitely built from the same blueprint, but I wouldn’t want to go so far as to start crying plagiarism. (I’d need a translator for starters.)
    Anyway…you can hear the original for yourself via this MP3 (4.2 MBs) [no longer available]. And if interested, you might possibly buy Planete Zouk here. (Please don’t infer that this link is an endorsement of that site, though, since I’ve never shopped there. I bought the CD originally from a site called IMVS, but I can’t remember what their new URL is; and Afromix.org was what I found on Google.) By the way, the album isn’t quite as peppy and energetic as I expected; it mainly sounds like French pop.
    And, what the hell, while I’m at it, here’s a live version of Love & Luck (5.2 MBs) recorded at Pine Knob in 1999. Download it quick, since it’s a limited edition; but I feel like I owe it to you guys since I’ve been so remiss in updating this page!
    [Archivist’s Note: since posting this we’ve learned Jimmy’s song isn’t quite a scandal, seeing as he includes the song’s original writers in the credits of his remake.
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W2K Bug

Posted on February 4 2001 by Mickey
    I really should know better. I was too quick to try installing Windows 2000 this weekend and I ended up hosing the hard drive. Actually, it’s not that bad since it only affected one partition, but I’ve wasted the weekend reinstalling Windows 98 (and then reinstalling some of my programs because of it).
    In the meantime, I was still able to do a few upgrades on the site. Most notably, I put up two new MP3s of our favorite blues band, Li’l Stubby and the Disappointments, recorded on Friday and Saturday, and available at the fan site.
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Super Bowl

Posted on January 25 2001 by Mickey
    Hey, see what I did? If you’re using IE5.5, you might notice I made your scrollbar change [since removed]! It’s a fairly harmless trick and I’ve seen it on other sites, so I of course needed to try it out here. Thankfully it’s quite easy to effect (and has no long-lasting side effects).
    In other news, Super Bowl Sunday is of course now upon us. This is quite the special day for SFGs, as are most days based around beer and food. Hope y’all have fun, and I hope you get the squares you want.
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“They’re Shutting Us Down, Scully”

Posted on January 17 2001 by Mickey
    How many times has word come down that the office of the X-Files is being closed. Well, the hammer finally fell a last time, as Fox announced they’re pulling the plug on the nine-year old series. Normally I’d be very upset that a favorite show has been canceled, but I stopped getting involved in the show a couple years ago…around the time the show’s creators lost interest as well. Don’t get me wrong, I still watch the show every week — even this latest incarnation — but each episode brings new levels of disappointment and missed opportunities.
    The release of the series on home video only make this more obvious. In the early years Mulder and Scully are onto something, and their search to put all the pieces together was exciting and mesmerizing. But after four of five years, it became increasingly apparent that the mystery was far too convoluted. It would take an effort to wrap things up, so it was easier to just have Mulder and Scully tread water every week; and what “answers”” were doled out were usually either dropped or contradicted further on. And the so called resolution to Mulder’s search for his missing sister so baldly flew in the face of what was shown in previous episodes as to be insulting to a loyal audience.
    (It’s not that Fox is not letting the show run out its ninth season. This should allow the producers time to build up the season to a fitting conclusion. However, I have a feeling they’ll drop the ball on this too. More and more I believe they will be unable to bring the show to a conclusion since they have no idea what they’re doing.)
    So I’m not sad about this news. I’ve already been sad, since the demise of the show already happened. The press release only made it official. Instead, I’m relieved, like after an ailing loved one finally passes away (if this analogy does not trivialize the memory of a loved one). X-Files canceled? Fine. I’m perfectly happy reveling in the show’s glory days, with my DVD boxed sets. Now, if we could only get Fox to come to its senses over its other dried up cash cow, The Simpsons.
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U2 Again

Posted on January 10 2001 by Mickey
    I’ve seen tons of complaints by people shut out from the pre-sale of U2 tickets today. Somehow I managed to sneak through and get a pair of tickets for the May 30 show. (No, they’re not for sale.) So, to commemorate the start of the Elevation Tour 2001, let’s take a look twenty years back to the band’s first shows here in Michigan, as documented in my brand new U2 section [since removed for legal reasons]. I hope you like it.
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U2

Posted on January 5 2001 by Mickey
    I was inspired to start a new section of the web site this morning. Rougly based on my Audio Island (and under the Music heading), this will be a page devoted to U2: stories, photos, and audio I’ve collected of their many Michigan appearances. Right now, I just have a placeholder page up [since removed for legal reasons], but very soon I hope to be posting some photos and audio from some of the early concerts. I hope you can find time to visit.
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