Below are the 12 most recent journal entries recorded in popened's LiveJournal:

Thursday, October 6th, 2005
12:03 pm	ACL and stuff Went to the Austin City Limits festival a couple of weeks ago, which rocked my lame ass. Once the hurricane stuff was clearly not going to hit Austin, we drove like mad down to Austin to see some kick ass music. Random thoughts about the festival, Theivery Corporation is a really great band, Kaiser Chiefs rock my lame ass even in 107 degree heat, and the sound guy at the Arcade Fire performance should not be allowed to reproduce. I really hate it when the guitar is so loud and over driven when there are so many more melodic instruments in a band that need to be heard, and Arcade Fire has some really nice violin and accordian parts that were just lost because of the shitty sound guy. Now that I have done my music geek bit, next week its up to Montana to buy a truck from my parents. Nothing scrambles your brains better than driving 1200 miles across some of the most desolate parts of the US. The combination of Wyoming, Eastern Colorado and Kansas in one long distance drive is enough to make your eyes bleed. I'm not sure my ipod has enough music to make the trip even reasonably bearable. Still I'm not gonna get an XM radio for one trip. Well, until I get a bug up my ass to write again, see ya later. Current Mood: nerdy Current Music: Welcome To The Jungle (Comment on this)
Friday, September 16th, 2005
11:29 am	Arrrrr! In the eternal battle between pirates and ninjas, I have chosen a side. I am a pirate. The decision was made for me today, as I now have a gold tooth. But in retrospect, I have always shown pirate behavior. Until recently, I wore earrings. I travel the world with particular emphasis on port cites, like Singapore and Hong Kong. My love of booty is world renowned. I love hookers. Sure I had my flirtations with the ninja lifestyle such as the kanji tattoo on my ankle, and my love of asian women. But only pirates have tattoos and earrings. Ninjas are too damned secretive too. I love wine, women and song. Who has ever heard of a ninja getting piss drunk and singing? It just doesn't happen. How are the ladies supposed to find you when you're being silent and hiding in the shadows? Sure, ninjas may kill more people, but pirates get laid more. Current Mood: Piratey Current Music: Mr. Self Destruct (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
4:46 pm	Back to Reality and Class Well, I have been back from SE Asia for almost two weeks now, and am well into my second week of class, so I had better update my blog and let everyone know how the rest of my trip went. Soon after my last update, I went to Bangkok with Soo Ping. We had a good time, but I don't think I would take the same sort of trip again. We had a fully guided tour with meals included, which meant we got watered down Thai food. I was kinda worried that this would happen as the travel agencies in Singapore just about shit a gold brick when they see a caucasian name on the travel list. The temples however are absolutely beautiful. The intricacy of the patterns and statues is really something amazing. I have figured out why they have legalized prostitution in Thailand as well. After watching the cabaret shows, which feature men with better tits than your last girlfriend, its necessary to reaffirm your heterosexuality by nailing an underage thai prostitute. I also found a t-shirt that was so offensive that Soo Ping forbid me from buying it. It said "Eat More Rice, Bitch". To get even with her for that, I just placed an order for a t-shirt that says "Bitches and Sake". For those of you that read my post about Singaporean politics, the story has the expected conclusion. The committee only certified the incumbent, so there was no election. Soo Ping was steamed about it, which is funny because the last time they had an election she could barely even tell me who the major parties in Singapore were. The flight back was tortuous as usual. At least Tokyo Narita Airport has shower rooms that you can use on the layover. I'm sure sitting by me was a more pleasant experience because of that. They didn't have a duty free booze and smoke shop however, which prevented me from snagging a cheaper bottle of Irish whiskey, and some smokes for our friends. I made up for that by purchasing a Japanese nudie magazine. Since I am spending over a month with out Soo Ping, I have to get my big asian tittie fix somewhere. Bought a new phone while I was over there as well. Yeah I'm one of those trendy little fuckers with a Razr phone. The black one to be exact. I know its horribly trendy, but the reception is awesome, it works great with iSync, and its a quad band phone, which means it gets reception almost everywhere in the world except Japan and Korea, and it has bluetooth for my wireless headset. I bought mine in Singapore because its unlocked, so if T-Mobile starts to piss me off, I can switch to Cingular, and if I move overseas, I can keep the phone and just get a new sim card. Class started here last week, and its looking like the math will be pretty heavy this semester. Two of my classes look like they will test my calculator skills pretty heavily, Data Comm and Management Science Methods. My plans for the weekend are pretty simple, watch some of the people from my home town get their ass beat in football (Sorry Bobcats, you don't have a chance) and go up to watch The Aristocrats in Tulsa. See ya later. Current Mood: Filthy Current Music: Atomic (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 11th, 2005
9:12 am	Walking sideways through the airport turnstyle As you can tell by the headline, I am heading to Bangkok tomorrow. It should be alot of fun, I am going to see several buddhist temples, and some thai kickboxing. Probably going to get a massage too. No happy ending though ;). So much for daily updates while I was in Singapore, I keep forgetting to login and write. It was Singapore's national day on Tuesday. It was kinda cool to watch, but it was very manufactured and fake. Typical symbols of state power, and reassuring the public that the state can protect you from the bad guys. Watched an interview of Singapore's Prime Minister as well. It was almost as bad as watching Tim Russert interview Bush, the softball questions were ridiculous. There is a presidential race here as well. Not quite sure how the power sharing between the President and Prime Minister work, but the President is directly elected. However, the candidates must be approved by a three man qualification committee. Also one of the people who is trying to run is being sued for libel. Its a common tactic by the main party here, the Peoples Action Party. You can't run if you are in debt, so they sue you into submission. Of course that didn't stop the prime minister from bad mouthing several of the candidates on tv the other day. The media here is pretty well controlled by the state, and the telecoms are all run by family members of people high up in government. Reminds me of home ;) We went to Malaysia over the weekend, it was fun. The sky was really hazy though, there are fires in Indonesia that are blowing smoke into Kuala Lumpur. Soo Ping and I went up the Petronas Towers as well, which was the tallest building in the world until recently. Now there is one on Taiwan that is the tallest. I kinda like the idea of that. Its like a big ass middle finger to the mainland saying "We are still here you bastards". Today we are planning to go down to Orchard Road, and around the downtown area in Singapore. I am taking the video cam with us, so I will have lots to show all of you when I get back. Well, I will write more when I get back from Thailand. Sayonara. Current Mood: hot Current Music: ALL CAPS (Comment on this)
Friday, August 5th, 2005
9:27 am	Hanging in Sinagpore It's 9am here in Singapore, the start of the 3rd day of my vacation. I'm finally starting to recover from the jet lag, going close to 26 hours with out sleep on a plane is not something I recommend to anyone, even when you have as many electronic devices as I have to amuse yourself with. Sound isolating headphones helped keep the annoyance from screaming babies and squeaky voiced giggling japanese school girls to a minimum. I even got a few races in with a fellow PSP owner on Wipeout Pure. We have spent most of the time so far just mousing around SIngapore, and spending time with the family. I think my mother in law is starting to take to me. She's put me to work testing and hooking up her electronic equipment. Her apartment is a graveyard of electronic. Two dead LaserDisc players, 3 dead boomboxes, and a dead vcd player. She can't bear to throw them away because she paid so much for them when she bought them, but alot of them are well over 10 years old. When she is out, Soo Ping and I are going to do some house cleaning, and disposed of them. This trip I don't feel as self conscious here in Singapore. I know I stick out like a sore thumb, so I just don't give a fuck anymore. Got mistaken for a Dane last night. Not sure where that came from, Soo Ping and I are going to Johor Bahru today, the Malaysian city right across the Causeway from Singapore. The singaporeans say its like going back in time 15 years, it looks like their city did before the boom years of the 80's and 90's. Basically what people go there for now is cheap food, cheap clothes and bootleg dvds and games. Tomorrow we might be taking a bus to Kuala Lumpur. Well, I dont have much else to say right now, so I will head out. I'm going to try to update daily, if I can find wifi service. Current Mood: awake Current Music: Paint It Black (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 26th, 2005
9:57 am	Warning PLUG!!! http://www.skepticality.com/ This is an excellent podcast, about skeptical thought, and scientific inquiry. It kicks ass. Its on iTunes podcast list as well. Current Music: The Good Times Are Killing Me (Comment on this)
9:50 am	Haven't written in awhile Well, I haven't written a damned thing in months. so I figured I would fire off a quick blog post. I just moved to a smaller apartment last week. Soo PIng's assistantship is over this Friday, and the apartment we were in costs over $900 a month, so we moved to a much cheaper one. Also we are headed to Singapore on Monday. Its a long ass flight that sucks the life out of you, but now that I know what to expect, I will be better prepared. The air is so dry on those flights that eye drops are mandatory. On top of that, I usually read alot on those long flights which kills my eyes even more. Carrying batteries is also necessary. I have a battery pack for my iPod that uses a 9 volt battery to keep it running past 6 hours. Unfortunately we can only get about 3 hours out of the laptop, so we will probably be stuck watching what ever crap movie is on the plane. Once we are in Singapore, we are probably going to Kuala Lumpur, Phuket and Bangkok. Its not set in stone yet, mainly because an old friend of Soo Ping's is going to be in Singapore when we were planning to go, so alot of the travel stuff is up in the air. Even if we don't go, I am looking forward to just spending time in Singapore and doing some more exploration. Its so foreign, but its also familiar. I know the place well enough now to go exploring. We will be videotaping our trip to show everyone what its like in Singapore as well. Besides moving, I've been playing alot of video games. World of Warcraft is my main addiction. I have a paladin on the Hyljal server. NCAA Football 2006 is the other game I am playing alot of. The Race for the Heisman mode is alot of fun, and a nice add on to the dynasty mode. Soo Ping got me some Shure sound isolating headphones for the trip as well, and they rock, big time. I can't believe how good they sound, and these are the low end ones. It takes a little while to get used to them being inside your ears, but damn they sound clear. Well, I will write again soon when Current Mood: peaceful Current Music: 真っ赤なバラとジントニック (Comment on this)
Monday, June 6th, 2005
10:03 am	Random Thoughts from Vacation I made it back from a week and a half long vacation to Montana yesterday. For the most part it was a great trip. Got to see both my brothers, meet my niece for the first time, and take my wife to Yellowstone park. WARNING: ANNOYINGLY CUTE KID STORY APPROACHING. My niece Bailey, likes to wake up early, like 5-6 am early. It wasn't too bad of a problem because my parents like to be up early, but one morning she got bored with them and stood at the entrance of our bedroom, saying "Hello!" in the cute way only a 2 year little girl can. After cussing her out under our breath, we got up and played with her, after which she decided she was tired again, and fell asleep on my shoulder at about 9 am. More proof that kids are cute, solely to keep you from killing them. We went camping in Yellowstone with my parents as well. They have one of those camper trailers that pops up and has tent walls for the sides. It was surprisingly comfortable despite the fact that it was well below freezing most nights, and we got snowed on 3 of the 4 days in Yellowstone. We saw lots of buffalo, some elk, and even a female moose with its calf. No bears, except at the grizzly exhibit at West Yellowstone. While on this trip, on one night that was particularly rainy and cold we watched some TV in the tent camper. I don't watch much TV that isn't on Comedy Central, Adult Swim, or the History Channel, so I didn't realize the shit that has invaded prime time TV lately. The steaming pile that is the George Lopez Show left the biggest impression. The plot line involved the 16 year old daughter trying to get birth control pills. Typical "Very Special Episode" material. The parents say no, the grand parents take her to get them instead. The parents solution? They bribe their daughter with a car, saying she can have it as long as she stays a virgin till she is 18. This was offensive as hell. They basically turned their daughter into a whore, buying off her sexuality. Welcome to Disney Family Values, where your daughter's chastity can be guaranteed, if you earn enough to buy her a car to bribe her with. This was followed by "According to Jim". a reminder that the only Belushi brother with talent died long ago. The dumbing of America continues. Got three CD's since I last posted. First was System of a Down's Mezmerize. Not bad, basically what I would expect from them, really weird heavy metal with 5 million things going on at once. Second was the Katamary Damacy Soundtrack. This is really fun, weird music. Plop it in your cd player and anyone around will suddenly say "DUDE, WTF?" . The last one was the White Stripes "Get Behind Me Satan". This is excellent, they are are adding little bits to stripped down sound, and its filling out the music perfectly. Well, thats all I have for now. Current Music: The Observer (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 17th, 2005
1:01 pm	I love E3 OK, if your reading this, then you probably know me, and you probably know that I am a big video game junkie. I was like kenny, up at 6:30 am at wal mart getting a PSP (which was fortunately free of dead pixels). I have pretty much every console out with the exception of the Xbox (yeah Halo rocks, but I still can't handle letting them take over another industry. Also FPS games should be controlled with a mouse and a keyboard.) So obviously, right now I am giddy with delight at the announcements at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The Playstation 3 was unveiled, and my reaction is OMGWTFBBQ! The Killzone 2 trailer was amazing. I'm just sorry that its a console FPS, maybe since the controllers are bluetooth I can use a bluetooth mouse and keyboard with it. Along with that, Nintendo finally has announced some actual games for the Nintendo DS. Thanks, now maybe I wont sell mine at EBGames. Current Mood: dorky Current Music: Misadventures Of Shitman (Comment on this)
Monday, May 9th, 2005
2:41 pm	Semester Over Well the Semester is over, and the circus of graduation has finished. My lovely wife graduated with a masters degree on Friday, and had two ceremonies involved could not have been any different. Her hooding was wonderful. There was a tribute to her advisor, who is leaving OSU at the end of May, All of her classmates were there, as well as many of the professors who had taught her along the way. There was food and wine served, everyone was congratulating each other, and each of the graduates was made to feel special. The actual graduation ceremony was vastly different. Long, impersonal, and mind numbing. I sat there for almost 3 hours to video tape the 1 minute segment where Soo Ping gets her diploma cover, shakes the various administrators hands, and is herded back to her seat. If it weren't for the fact that Dr. Bird was on the podium, who Soo Ping absolutely adores, it would have been pretty meaningless as well. I should have brought my PSP, although after 3 hours, even playing video games can get old. Spent Saturday asleep for the most part, and then made the graduation party rounds. Sunday was spent in OKC, eating Dim Sum and watching the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It was funny, and pretty well done, but not amazing. This week will be spent resting and recuperating from the semester, and enjoying video games. Katamari Damancy is the strangest video game I have played in a very long time. We rented it this weekend, and the point of the game is to roll a sticky ball over objects to pick them up and make the ball larger. For each level, there is a size that the ball must be to pass. Oh yeah, the reason you are making these balls? Your dad, the King of all Cosmos, got plastered and destroyed all the stars in the sky. The drugs they have in Japan must really be good. Current Mood: exhausted Current Music: Gay Bar (Comment on this)
Monday, May 2nd, 2005
2:50 pm	Mac OS X 10.4 Just installed Mac OS X 10.4 on the office mac and our laptop. Dashboard is great, the widgets are easy to set up, and use. The selection is limited, but as well put together as the program is, I'm guessing there will be many more coming. The new safari webbrowser is awesome. After you set up RSS feeds, you will have no idea how you got along with out them. Its like tivo for the web, it changes how you look at webpages that month. Hell, even hillbilly heroine addicts seem to like it, judging by what my dad says. Rather funny that my dad suddenly thinks that macs are cool because a radio host says they are, but didn't when his own son who has been working in IT for almost 10 years tell him that they are easy to use. Current Mood: impressed Current Music: Bombtrack (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 28th, 2005
9:09 am	Stuff Never had a blog before so this should be interesting. For those of you wondering why I am PopeNed, its because according to the tenants of discordianism, everyone is their own pope. So I have the same rank as that Ratzinger idiot. I think I offer something's that he doesn't such as the idea that sex between consenting adults is fine even if they are the same sex, and that latin american fascism was a bad thing that should be opposed. Also, I'm dead against sex with kids. Above all, I follow the creed of "THINK FOR YOUR SELF, STUPID". Its alot simpler than trying to memorize catholic dogma. (Comment on this)