(This might interest) Maybe Just Me…

What’s the Lure of the Edge? - New York Times

or whatever the lyrics are. but this isn’t a post about michael jackson, but an article about men who thrill seek and why. i don’t exactly know where i fall in the spectrum. i’ve not really done “extreme” things, more for lack of funds than lack of desire. i enjoy things that are “thrilling,” but on the other hand almost completely refuse to do things where i’m not at least reasonably certain of the outcome. so i either tend to live in the middle or on the extremes.

But the big surprise is that some of the largest clients are corporations and that many participants are men well into their 50’s and 60’s. “Instead of a golf holiday, they are sending their employees for an extreme sports adventure and they love it,

i don’t know why this is surprising. intuitively i think there are two kinds of men (well more than that, but in this context 2) at that age: (1) the kind who loves the golf because it’s relaxing after years of hard charged work in the office or (2) the kind for whom golfing isn’t enough so they need the thrill to try to recapture some vitality after decades of doing a job sitting at a desk (as opposed to some “masculine” active work, e.g. i dunno, lumberjack or something)

CNN.com - Cracking the code - Jun 19, 2005

what was it? mercury rising or something? where the retarded kid breaks the code planted by the cia or whatever in the wordfind or whatever. don’t remember as i’ve seen maybe 15 minutes of it on usa at like 3am or something. but wouldn’t it be neat if the cia gave a job or some kind of cool prize to the person that cracked the code?

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech
audio (and according to the site, only full audio available) of the speech. which is nice because as nice as it is to read good speeches, it’s better to hear because speeches are written to be spoken and oratory has a certain amount of skill required to pull it off. and based on past performance, i’d say steve is a decent public speaker. i’ve not listened to it, but as soon as i get home i’m downloading it. maybe i’ll make it part of my “wake up” playlist or my “running” playlist. something to motivate me.

YouTube - Your Digital Video Repository
Vimeo - Share Your Video Clips

two similar services, like flickr but for video. i don’t use flickr but it’s wildly popular.

Wisconsin State Journal - Lawyers fear the CSI effect

i can’t understand how people are so stupid as to think what they see on tv has ANY bearing to reality. the possibility that jurors demand forensic evidence because of csi’s influence sounds crazy, but it’s a legit fear. these people think grey’s anatomy and er are really what hospitals are like. or la law, ally mcbeal, the practice, boston legal are really what being a lawyer is all about. SO MORONIC. ugh.

Personal Tech Pipeline | iPod Users Hate Cell Phones - Survey

Bull found IPod owners love the ability to live and work uninterrupted with a personalized soundtrack for their ears only.

“It’s not that they don’t want to know about things, but they want to define the terms and conditions” under which they are disturbed, said Bull

“A world where everyone has their headphones on may not be a very pleasant world,” he said, considering the potential ramifications of IPod culture.

“What happens to the person I’m sitting next to on the bus? Or the person I buy groceries from? Or one’s own family?”

Bull says the desire to use technology to withdraw from the constant barrage of noise and interruption indicates, to some extent, the death of “public space.” But don’t blame IPods.

“In some cases these technologies are an antidote,” he said. “Your IPod user, as they walk down the street in their own sound world, doesn’t have to be disturbed by mobile phone users or anyone else.”

when i’m out of the house, i have my ipod with me and on about 95% of the time. does it isolate me from others? yes, but only to the degree i want. hell, sometimes it doesn’t help. i don’t know if it’s everyone in this ipod world, but people feel more than comfortable talking to me while i have my headphones in my ears! so of course i have to pop one out and ask them to repeat the whole thing. it’s a matter of being not alone, but like away from all the other crap that is going on. plus, it’s a nice way to kind of have running soundtrack during your life. it’s a weird thing. it used to be a specific song would take you back to a certain time, but now with the ipod and other DAPs it’s a whole new ballgame.

oh and fwiw, i’m an ipod user/lover but i LOVE cell phones too (well any consumer electronic really)

When the ball leaves Robert Horry’s hands in a playoff game, there’s really only one thing you can say: “It’s pretty. It’s so, so pretty.”

that is the caption to the pic on espn. now yes, admittedly the pose is VERY wesley snipes in white men can’t jump. but this is horry, couldn’t they come up with some sort of will smith quote? it’s like they were separated at birth. that’s one reason i WISH the finals was spurs-heat. if only we could have more horry as will smith “miami” jokes.

1. while i want the spurs to win, i don’t have a vested interest in either team so take this how you want, but in watching the game i think the spurs have gotten jobbed by the refs the past 3 games. yes, there is a certain amount of “let them play” mentality that should be allowed in the playoffs, but it’s ridiculous what the pistons were getting away with. and in watching the game, yes there were non-calls on both ends, but seriously it seemed to go against the spurs more often than not.

2. everyone this morning is talking about how sheed made a mistake in trapping on manu and leaving horry open. well first off, i think there should be at least a side story about the last regulation possession, decent shot, GREAT tip opportunity by duncan missed, sheed gets the rebound and tries to pull a chris webber (btw LOVED that al michaels’s was like “and chris webber is in the building). regardless, i think sheed has to double onto manu. manu had been driving pretty effectively, especially 4th quarter. yes you don’t leave horry open, but with all the time outs that were being called back and forth why not have wallace, wallace, and mcdyess out there. then you have one of the wallaces trap, and the other’s rotate?

3. i’ve only read one thing about it this morning because it’s lost in all the big shot rob/bob/bobby talk, but seriously in detroit, outside of like a 17 minute span, horry has played like absolute crap. don’t know if i’ve EVER seen anyone miss so many driving layups.

4. while it wasn’t as bad as the past two games, the spurs still don’t take of the ball as well as they should.

5. i don’t understand duncan’s FT problems. when he first came into the league he was a decent free throw shooter. i’d like to blame his ankles for his late game suckiness at the line, but he really doesn’t use his legs like other players do at the line. (btw, worse than that is parker’s crap FT%, he’s a guard!)

non-sports thoughts
6. studying for the bar is horrible

7. ever notice how the only people who tell you not to go to law school/be a lawyer are people in law school or who are lawyers? trust me, we’re not trying to discourage you to keep you out and protect our jobs/money/etc. it really does suck.

8. studying for the bar makes me feel like i’m not done with school though i really am.