compiling pr0gr4m

How did you create your username for VOX? What influenced your decision?
Submitted by Strive2Be.

My username for VOX is also my gaming username.  Way back in the early 90s I was playing Doom and Descent and use the name 88keys, taken from Mandy Patinkin's character in Dick Tracy.  He was the piano player for Madonna's character. 

Not being a piano player, at least not a really good one I wanted something a little bit cooler, a little more exotic.  A quick glance at the time and I had it...Xemit.  Actually many of the quality timepiece makers have neat gamer names when you use their name backwards...Oisac, Xelor, Okies, Avolub, etc.  Very other worldly sounding if you ask me. 

I stuck with that name for a long while.  I bored of it and explaining it and changed my name to AdroNesn.  This is a jumble of my last name and something I used to tag all my school property when in middle and high school. 

Eventually it came time for a change.  This time I looked back into my past to pick a name that I thought had a lot of meaning: pr0gr4m.  This name is taken from and inspired by the movie Tron.  The "characters" in Tron referred to each other as program e.g. "Greetings program".  In the movie, the programs were forced by the MCP to compete in games often to their eventual death or de-rezzing.  

The 0 and the 4 in the name are just some l337 speak thrown in there for fun and "coolness". 

And that's the story of pr0gr4m and I think I'm going to stay with this one. 

What's your favorite hangover cure? 
Submitted by Soup.

This ain't actually a cure but some good preventative maintence...two bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches from Waffle House and as much water and you can suck down before you go to bed.  If you wake up and still feel like crap a super big gulp (Coke of course) and some cold fried chicken will do the trick.

I read this joke today on Craigslist and had to put it here.  It's the funniest thing I've heard/read in a week. 

Heard the one about the insomniac agostic dyslexic?

He stayed up all night wondering if there was a dog.

Someone's writing a biography of your life (to date).  What is the best/worst chapter of the book? 
Submitted by Ross.

Best:

In the beginning there was much hope.  He was new to the world with every opportunity awaiting him.  His body and mind in perfect rhythm with nothing to stop him from reaching any goal imaginable.  He can dream.  He can love.  He can live.

Worst:

Sure, he had dreams...pipe dreams.  Did he love? Hardly.  Did he live?  Barely.  Plus he got fat.

The End

Policies Schmolicies.  I want to know they think about the problems of our nation.  We all know that the Democratic Party stands for X and the Republican Party stands for Y.  What I want to know is what they think this country needs to do to better itself, its people and its place in the world.     

Question #1 

What single thing do you think Amercans view as the biggest problem/concern in the US today?  Now we know that this can be different state to state, county to county and even house to house.  If you want to be president, you need to be able to step back and look at the country as a whole.  You travel the country and talk to people.  What concern do you hear about more than others?  It could be ending the war, not ending the war, the economy, health care, the environment, education, etc.   

Question #2

What do you think is the single largest problem/concern in America?  This is different from question #1 in that it asks what you personally think the biggest problem is.  That very well may be different from what you think that America thinks...and that's not necessarily a bad problem. 

Question #3

Of the large problems/concerns in this country, which one is the biggest for you personally?  This question differs from the previous two in that it asks what problem affects you the most.  It could be taxes, jobs, national infrastructure, whatever. 

Question #4

Every day we hear "I can fix the economy" or "I can fix health care".  There is no "I" in Government.  It's a team effort.  What are your plans for getting the ideas you have to fix or address the problems/concerns of the nation passed through Congress?

Question #5

Do you forsee being able to complete good work as a president in the next 4 years or do you think you would need to be in office for 8 to "get things done"?

The guy died.  I liked him.  I thought he was a good actor and I liked the roles he played.  He died.  That sucks.  Does it need nationwide media coverage?  Do we need any more coverage other than "Heath Ledger, 28 year old oscar nominated actor, was found dead in his room today."?  Do we have to have all the talking heads on TV with their speculation.  Why the hell can't we just wait for the facts.  The guy died.  They are going to find out why.  If it turns out to be drugs, then you all can get up on your soap boxes and tell us how bad drugs are.  But give the guy, his family and the rest of America some peace already. 

There is no justification for the amount of coverage this has gotten and it hasn't even been 12 hours...the body is still warm. 

If you want to report some news, tell us how many 28 year old people died in America today.  Show us a pie chart of how they died?  You know, 28% drug related, 37% auto accidents...that sort of stuff. 

Then tell us how many people were murdered in America today.  Break it down by state.  Show a nice graphic of the US with a number on top of each state showing how many murders (or suspected murders) there were that day.  This should be a daily segment on the national networks.  America has no clue.  Do the same for rape and kidnapping.  THAT'S NEWS!  Not Heath Ledger. 

R.I.P. Heath. 

P.S.  I love A Knights Tale and I don't care who knows it!

I've watched or more accurately tried to watch the "debates".  The only thing debatable about them is whether or not we should watch.  They don't debate anything.  They disagree alot but not about the issues.  Instead they argue about what this candidate said last week or what that candidate promised 2 years ago.  It's really not helpful.  It actually turns me off of politics entirely.  I watched The Real World...the first season and I catch it from time to time.  What I saw last night on CNN was very much like watching an episode of The Real World.  Annoying people talking about annoying things and making me dumber for watching them. 

Where's the substance?  Where's the information?  Where's the Debate?

With as many of these things they are having, they should simply tackle one or two issues per episode.  This way we can get a very good idea where each candidate stands on each major issue.  We see it all the time where candidates are having to cut short their explanation to move on to something else.  If the debate focused on one thing they would have all the time they need.  I believe a format like this would lead to less mudslinging and more transfer of knowledge.  It would force the candidates to know the particular issues inside and out and allow them to explain their ideas to the American people...thus educating them (us) and help us to better decide the candidate we like. 

As it is now, I hate them all.  Hate may be too strong a word.  Disgust is better.  No still too hash.  Dissappointment.  That's it.  These are supposed to be well educated people with designs on running our country and all we get is a bunch of nonsense from them. 

When I get bored of all the hard core 3d first person shooters and have dugg myself into oblivion I hit the free Microsoft internet games.  I was addicted to FreeCell for a while and enjoy playing Hearts.  I even installed Minesweeper from my old computer just because it's a good mindless timekiller.

Lately I've found myself addicted to Internet Backgammon.  I played it a lot as a teenager and for some reason stopped.  Now I'm back into it. 

If you are unfamiliar with the Microsoft games that come with the OS, basically they allow you to play with/against other people on the internet.  The people you play are anonymous...at least they are in backgammon. This isn't really a problem.  I'm just doing it for some random entertainment anyway.  

The problem is that there are some real jerks out there. These jerks are people who like to simply quit a game as soon as the other player gets the upper hand. I'll be in a game where the other player is winning and has a clear advantage.  To try and insure their victory they will offer to 'double' which means if I lose they get double the points for the win.  I do have the option to resign the game and lose just the one point...which in many cases, is the smart thing to do.  But some times I'll accept the double.  In some of those cases I can tell that the other guy is just doing it because they are scared of me having a couple lucky rolls of the dice and they really just want me to resign.  Instead I'll accept the double and then I'll roll double sixes or knock one or two of their pieces out and they'll just quit the game.  They wont try to stay in and try to win.  They won't continue the game until the end and possible lose gracefully.  They won't even offer to resign the game..acknowledging that I've won.  They simply quit the game.  That is just plain RUDE and it pisses me off to no end.  Since these games are anonymous, there's no way for me to get back at these quitters.  The fact that I did good enough to make them leave in the middle of the game is no compensation what-so-ever.  I need to find these people.  I need to berate them, scream insults at them, belittle them and do whatever I can to make them feel like the cowardly wusses they are.  But I can't.  There's no recourse and it's driving me bonkers.

I thought that typing this would make me feel better but it doesn't  I just got done playing against a guy in 6 very close games and in the last one, he was ahead, but I was able to come back and it was very close.  He was slightly ahead and decided to double the game.  I accepted and BAM I knocked one of his pieces out and he wasn't able to bring it back in through 2 turns.  This allowed me to catch up and actually pull ahead.  He continued playing right up to just before I would be able to seal the deal and he just quits.  This was a guy who I had been playing with for 30 minutes or so and I think we were well matched and he played all the other games honorably.  But then he collapsed into assoholism and simply quit.  MAN I wish I could have reached through the screen and choked him.  But alas I have to sit here and swallow my anger. 

At least in the shooters, if someone pisses you off, you can kill them...over and over again.

I have a lot of things going through my head right now and none of them are being filtered down to my fingertips. So much to say...all to fall on deaf ears.   

Back in the day hip hop (or rap as it was called back then) was loop and record based.  These days it's all about the "beats".  Big time producers get big time money for making beats.  The term beat doesn't just apply to the drum beat.  It's come to mean the entire music track behind the singer/rapper/MC. It can start out as just a simple drum beat and evolve into something musical.  It can be just a bass drum and some hand claps.  Add keyboards and marching bands and you can make all sorts of hip hop music. 

I'm not too big into the hip hop scene but I do fancy myself as a pretty good producer for other music types.  A producer is not necessarily a composer.  My talents lie in the polishing of a musical piece.  I can write something from scratch and make a song out of it.  But I don't often have that sort of ultra-creativity.  Instead I like to take something that's partially written or "complete" and tweak it here and there and see what sort of magic I can coax out of it. 

So, to work on boosting my ultra-creativity, I've decided that I will put together one new track each week.  The track may just be a simple loop or complete song, although I doubt that'll happen.  It may be acoustic or electric.  It might be hip hop or it might be techno or metal or folk.  I don't know.  It'll be whatever my mind can come up with. 

Now I've got to put together a site with an easy to use interface for uploading, downloading and listening to the tracks.  Hmmm, that ought to be fun.