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… so I’m probably not entitled to make fun of Texas A&M for this, but this video is pretty hilarious. It pretty much speaks for itself:

Texas A&M UCLA Game – Truth Revealed

One of my only complaints of Wordpress (since I started using it) was the god-awful admin interface that just seemed unfitting of such a high-quality product. Not only was it incredibly difficult to navigate (every task that I wanted to complete seemed like it could logically reside in four different places), but the thing was just straight up ugly to look at.

Today I updated to the newest release (Wordpress 2.5) and I was happy to see a drastically-improved admin/writer interface. It delivers on all the pretty pictures from the sneak peek a few weeks ago and (more importantly) it’s greatly streamlined.

There goes any thoughts of switching over to Movable Type!

It was at some moment late in the second half of the UCLA-WKU game tonight when I came to the (fairly easy) decision: I’m going to watch the Stanford-Texas game tomorrow in the silence of my own house.

It’s not that I dislike loud sports bars, because that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s just that if I hear one more basketball “fan/expert/follower” mutter something really idiotic behind me during MY team’s game, I will probably lose my mind and commit a felony. (Seriously, to the UCLA “fan” who announced with confidence, and without sarcasm, in the second half that, “Maybe Ben Howland needs to hire an offensive coordinator” to focus on the team’s ‘lack of motion’: please just quit on life.)

Sometimes a game is serious enough that you need to be able to utter the words, “Nice hedge,” in the middle of a game and expect that all individuals in the room (even if it’s just you) will understand what you mean. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

A few weeks ago, on a random Thursday, I found myself inexplicably wide awake at 6:30am in the morning. With nothing else to do, I naturally headed into work early to get a headstart on the day.

Here I am, three weeks later, still coming in early to work on Thursdays (around 7am) every week.

In addition to all of the random benefits (i.e., I can actually justify leaving work to catch the 4:30 Pacific start time of the UNC game today), coming in early to work is actually something that I find myself looking forward to during the week. The opportunity for a few hours of complete quiet before the constant shuffle of the day is remarkably important to my week now.

I’m a big believer in the need to anchor your life around a few constants and pillars of consistency. For me, they currently happen to be: 7am Thursdays, Monday-Wednesday-Friday workouts, monk-like healthy eating, and beer… roughly in reverse order of importance.

the MEAT

Originally uploaded by poisoniivy

Thank goodness for the reasonably-healthy nature of chicken. I’m pretty sure it will save my life this year.

As I noted to a couple of folks the past few weeks, I believe BBQ chicken qualifies as my favorite food item that is still edible on a regular basis based on my new eating regimine.

From Warren Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway (best website design ever, by the way) shareholders:

Some major financial institutions have, however, experienced staggering problems because they engaged in the “weakened lending practices” I described in last year’s letter. John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo, aptly dissected the recent behavior of many lenders: “It is interesting that the industry has invented new ways to lose money when the old ways seemed to work just fine.”

You may recall a 2003 Silicon Valley bumper sticker that implored, “Please, God, Just One More Bubble.” Unfortunately, this wish was promptly granted, as just about all Americans came to believe that house prices would forever rise. That conviction made a borrower’s income and cash equity seem unimportant to lenders, who shoveled out money, confident that HPA – house price appreciation – would cure all problems. Today, our country is experiencing widespread pain because of that erroneous belief. As house prices fall, a huge amount of financial folly is being exposed. You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out – and what we are witnessing at some of our largest financial institutions is an ugly sight.

- Berkshire Hathaway, 2007 Annual Report

I’ve been saying this for years, but every Linkin Park song I’ve ever heard sounds the exact same. Additionally, I happen to have a really unhealthy dislike of that one song. Imagine that for a second.

I can’t even come up with a really accurate parallel here, for fear of offending every Linkin Park fan, but I’ll try. It’s kind of like if you really hated cats and every time you walked out on the street, people were pointing out every single cat within sight, saying: “Hey, look at that cat! She’s ssssoooooo cute!! Friend, isn’t that cat so adorable??!!! She’s so talented, with such amazing instrumentals. And that guy’s lyrics are amazing! [well, you know what I mean].” And you’re thinking in your head, “I would really love to pick that cat up by its tail and hammer throw it across the street.” Yes, kind of like this guy, maybe with wifebeater, but probably not with kilt:

</soapbox>

Anyway, funny link from Reddit today that really makes me feel validated: “All Linkin Park songs sound the same: Two separate songs, one played in each speaker [MP3]. Apparently somebody layered two Linkin Park son–… whoops, sorry, so easy to do that. What I meant to say was: Apparently somebody took two of the “versions” of the same Linkin Park song, layered them on top of each other, and voila! The newest single from Linkin Park.

Seriously, before they put this mp3 up, I felt like Mugatu in Zoolander: “They’re the same [song]! Doesn’t anybody notice this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!” Now I can finally live in peace. I’m filing this under ‘Life’ because this is really a seminal moment in my 26 years.

Hallelujah.

I might be biased, but I’m pretty sure Lawrence Hill’s “foul” on Darren Collison is the worst call ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQucR0hGSV8

Kids, remember: that’s what it looks like to get screwed by referees.

Thanks,
Jack

Probably the best justification I’ve ever heard for why someone should spend the extra $200 on the black color of the Macbook over the white version (I have the white version):

Ben Silbermann
  the black one is 200 dollars more
  for 100 GB of hard drive space
  which probably warrents a 50 dollar price hike
  so yeah, it’s about 150 extra dollars to look nice.
Jack Chou
  yeah
  which would make you a <>
Ben Silbermann
  maybe
  but man, a white laptop
  that’s just a joke
Jack Chou
  haha
  asshole
Ben Silbermann
  i mean
  i already drive a prius