Jason

I give you:

I thought I'd throw up another set of pictures that I took while gallivanting around Rocky Mountain National Park. If anyone wants hi-res versions of these go ahead and shoot me an e-mail.

Some bighorn sheep just inside the park entrance

My Twitter name is Jasonp107. What's yours?

For giving us things like this:

I realized last night that car insurance pricing is bullshit. Let me explain.

It's much cheaper to insure young women drivers than it is young men drivers. Insurance companies back this up by pointing emphatically to mountains of statistics that conclusively show that although women get in more crashes than men, they get fewer tickets, and are therefore better drivers.

The problem is that men get ticketed almost every time they are pulled over, whereas women are rarely ticketed when they are pulled over. I can prove this:

Chances are you are within 100 feet of a woman. Go ask her if she has ever gotten out of a ticket for crying, batting her eyes, or otherwise using her feminine wiles. She will say yes.

The statistics don't say that women are safer drivers. They just say that women are better at getting away with being bad drivers.

Now admit that I'm right.

I have a disproportionate amount of epiphanies in my car. This is why I have a small notepad that clips to the visor where most people keep CDs, so that when I'm barreling along the highway at 65 and I discover the secret to the universe, I can hastily scratch it down for later perusal.

It's not the safest habit, but some ideas are worth dying for, or so my country tells me. Someday I will probably die in my car either adjusting the radio, scribbling on a pad of paper, or checking out a hot woman in the next lane.

It's weird that so many of my good ideas happen in the car though. I know some of my friends have a disproportionate number of epiphanies when sitting on the toilet. That makes sense. It's good thinking time when you sit yourself in a room occupied only by yourself and something that's really better not thought about.

The shower makes sense too. It's early morning, and reality doesn't seem so real yet. Also, if you don't sing, then you've got to spend your time doing something.

Where do you have your epiphanies? I'm curious to see where people do their thinking.

Is this really news?

NEW YORK - More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past.

Whole Story.

An hour ago I typed this sentence:

"On a larger scale, the metaphor refers to eating. MMMMMMMM Steak."

And I still am no closer to finishing my paper. I want steak.

Was catching up on my favorite webcomic Questionable Content, when I read J. Jacques' post in the sidebar about this festering boil of pus on Wired's website.

I don't want to make you waste your time reading through it, so I'll sum the Wired article up here:

I heard my boss talking about a program that helps you organize really huge mp3 libraries. He was excited about it because he has 90,000 songs. That's stupid. I have 500 songs and it's all I'll ever want to listen to ever. In fact I don't even listen to all 500 of them.

Also, I heard that a graphic novel got nominated for a National Book Award. That's stupid. Graphic novels aren't on the same level as "real" novels. Oh, what has this world come to?

WTF??? (David - Maus? Pulitzer?)

[ UPDATE - Grabbed the following comment (jump-hidden) from the Wired article:

I have no doubt that this will be lost in the explosion of hate mail, and that actual comic creators have come forward with their own replies, couched both in pleasantries by some; and invectives by others, but it's such an important issue that it really should be addressed by as many feel passionate about it.

( Read more... )

Well said, sir. ]

Among the multitudes of science fiction stories I tend to read (there's something absolutely fascinating about how people imagine even the most improbable future), about half of them contain alien cultures.

As far as I can tell, there's actually been a recent trend towards *not* having aliens in popular sci-fi. Shows like Firefly and Battlestar Galactica paint the portrait of a largely empty universe for us humans to putter around in.

Given the fact that we have yet to locate another star with a planet, let alone much of anything resembling a solar system, it doesn't seem so far fetched to assume that Earth is pretty much alone (and, the little environmentalist nudges me, it's one more reason we shouldn't be so eager to destroy it).

But the other half of science fiction is filled with alien races of all kinds, shapes, and...customs. If you've ever read any of the Star Wars novels, they're full of little greeting ceremonials, traditions, and trappings of "alien" culture spread throughout the universe. Most often, it turns out that aliens have some sort of hierarchical, feudal (but harmonious) society, and, generally speaking, the human race is always the most ass-backwards disorganized jumble of the bunch.

In other words, alien societies are always extremely well structured.

So we've imagined all the possibilities (through countless novels, movies, and shows) of running into organized alien life. But I wonder what would happen if we ran into an alien race at right about our level of technological know-how and right about our level of political disorganization.

I mean...if we made "alien contact" right now, there'd be no "human embassy." There'd be one for each state that can muster it up. There'd be delegates from all sorts of nations trying to leverage alien contact into some sort of political one-up back at home.

What if we met an alien race that was exactly the same?

1. My latest batch of checks from Bank of America (in LA) that came with the free checking account cost $11, a charge that I was not informed about beforehand nor that I knowingly agreed to. I can live with that. What pisses me off is that they also carry advertisements - so not only did BofA charge me for my checks, but they charged other companies to fucking advertise on my checks.

2. An article in the Seattle Times today about how Ron Sims has been all about global warming since 1988 carries the following "response" from a Republican politician:

"It's largely symbolic, but it allows him to get on the national stage," Republican political consultant Randy Pepple said. "It gets used for partisan reasons to beat up on Republicans because [Republicans] tend to focus on the here-and-now and issues people are facing today."

I hate that people apparently can't get over their petty differences to deal with a situation. This idea that we shouldn't worry about the glowing embers in the dry grass because they're not yet on fire is silly and stupid.

Folks, atmosphere cancer is a problem. Let's stop yelling at each other and fix it.

1. For the first time that I can remember, I really saw smog in Seattle today. That pretty much goes against everything Seattle stands for in my mind.

2. We've set at least three heat records in the past few days, and the temperature is only supposed to go up. I talked to someone today who doesn't believe in global warming.

3. Long-festering conflict in the Middle East still shows no signs of stopping.

4. Taxpayers have lost nearly $2 billion dollars on scams and corrupt Katrina aid programs.

5. It's not "cool" to be environmentally conscious, which means there's very little social pressure for change. That sucks, because I want to have a livable planet in 40 years, but it's not going to happen unless more people start caring.

Just yesterday I went to see An Invonvenient Truth. In my book, this is the most important movie you can see right now.

I don't exactly sit on the fence when it comes to issues of global warming - but I've never before seen such a solid presentation of the data, the facts, and the issues at stake.

Up until tonight, I've been willing to accept the idea that "global warming" as an issue is not something primarily affected or caused by human activity. It is.

In many ways, it's a thoroughly depressing film. A lot of it is somewhat introspective, and a lot of it is basically a souped-up version of Gore's traveling slide-show presentation. But don't let that fool you - I think he's toting a very important message.

It frustrates me that it's an issue of coolness. One of the reasons I think that higher gas prices are the first step in a direction we must go to start taking global warming seriously is that it can never be uncool to want to save money. It's most certainly uncool to see An Inconvenient Truth.

Why do I care so much? Because this is my lifetime. Everything this movie talks about affects me in very direct ways. I think it's not only cowardly but also morally negligent to dismiss the dangers ahead of us because they aren't understood.

I don't think that anyone who really looks at the data and the existing trends in environmental data and real world tangible effects of climate change can seriously discount global warming. And if you go that far, then it becomes a matter of laziness, obstinance, and childish politics that prevents you from actively helping to reverse the trends.

The movie plays more to liberals than it will to conservatices, but I think it should be seen by everyone. If you don't believe me, ask Roger Ebert.

Embedded video has never worked in Livejournal so I can't give the cool presentation.

But here's a link to Jacob's speech:

DING

• Flicker Gaming is officially live and open for business.


• The site had problems this morning for (hopefully not more than) an hour, for, as far as I can tell, no reason whatsoever. I managed to find the problem and fix it after shitting my pants. Hopefully that didn't hurt us too much, but since it probably had to happen sometime I'm glad it's out of the way.


• Jason Calacanis says that Joystiq hit 1M page views recently with its E3 coverage. That's great! I'm glad to see game blogs with such wonderful numbers - Congratulations.


• Sent out a number of "press release" and "we just launched" related materials, probably get about one or two of them actually posted. Anyone with actual pageviews is usually loathe to link away to brand new sites


• All our ads seem to be successfully running except for the Overture ads - not sure what the deal with Yahoo! is


• Wrote my first two posts for today - the launch post and one on the rumored Wii pricing. Now I'm off to Disneyland to reward myself / so I don't obsessively watch the stats all day.

I am rooting for Nintendo so hard. Amidst the ridiculous "console wars" between Microsoft and Sony, it's so wonderful to see Nintendo putter along misnaming its consoles and introducing by far the coolest shit.

They just announced at E3 that the new-style motion sensor controller has a speaker and mic built in for ambience and voice-activated gameplay. They also announced a classic version of the controller for the less adventurous gamer.

So right now, here's my list of why I'm buying a Wii:

1. It's gonna be waaaay cheaper than the other consoles


2. It will sport, in my opinion, the best games catalogue: every nintento title ever


3. It has a sweet new motion-sensitive, voice-activating, ambient-sound-producing controller


4. It's comparatively tiny, and it doesn't try to be a computer

I've never been able to create lengthy self-reflection on demand. The last time I posted on my birthday was in 2004, and it's not really even three sentences long. I guess the problem is that I don't really see my birthday as an event in and of itself, so it's hard to write about.

Today I'm 21, which is pretty much the last landmark birthday.

The Onion:

You are the sun, the moon, the Cinderhide Armsplints of the Monkey. There is so much we have to offer one another. Unfailing loyalty, a Strength of 250, someone who can go out for snacks in the heat of battle. Can't you see we're made for each other?

Darling, no orc can keep me from you. I would make my way into the heart of Moonglade and fight an army of trolls just to be by your side. I would go up against Varimathras, the ruler of the Undead himself, if he so much as hinted that he was a danger to you. Make no mistake, I would get aggro on anyone who would threaten you.

This is, of course, provided the system is not down due to a faulty patch.

Stolen from BB.

Stole this link from Theferret, 'tis hilarious (yes David, that means you should click on it. You especially. Trust me.):

http://siln.livejournal.com/235478.html

Google's choice for today: