Ex Bibliotheca

The life and times of Zack Weinberg.

Friday, 19 July 2002

# 6:20 PM

More reviews of the TMBG concert: Leonard, Seth (scroll down), Benjy (Tuesday and Wednesday), Adam (metareview). I have to applaud Benjy's dedication in going both days and writing down the complete set list both times.

Leonard and Seth both pointed out the excessive volume of the concert. It was loud enough that I worry a little about (gradual, cumulative) damage to the audience members' hearing. Also, even if you don't care about going deaf, some of the songs were totally incomprehensible because of massive distortion. Jamie Zawinski, with his nightclub-owner hat on, has some comments on show volume (down at the bottom: look for the bit that starts "Oh, and we're also giving away free earplugs at coat-check now...").

Leonard: Yes, Nethack does give you okonomiyaki instead of pancakes when you play a samurai; as I understand it, it is the closest that traditional Japanese cuisine comes to pancakes. It is difficult to find web pages on the history of this dish, because of the flood of Ranma ½ fan pages that come up. It seems one of the more popular characters on that show, Ukyō, owns a okonomiyaki restaurant. The best I can offer on the history front is the paragraph near the bottom of the Otafuku Foods corporate webpage.

# 2:35 AM

funniest spam in some time

Subject: FREE TICKET TO HEAVEN!
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 20:45:08

GUARANTEED! NO RISK! NO GIMMICKS! NO OBLIGATION! ABSOLUTELY FREE & ALREADY PAID FOR! To receive your FREE TICKET TO HEAVEN delivered by the U. S. Postal Service, simply contact us and give us your name and complete mailing address including ZIP CODE & COUNTRY.

  1. CALL OUR TOLL FREE NUMBER: 877-655-4557--OPEN 24 HOURS! or
  2. EMAIL IT TO: Free_Ticket_2002@lycos.com, OR
  3. WRITE US AT: P. O. BOX 720791, Orlando, Florida, 32872, USA, or
  4. FAX IT TOLL FREE TO: 888-299-7532, OR
  5. IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE USA, CALL US AT 407-207-7971.

(1,000,000 SENT IN MEMORY OF ETTA CAYWOOD (1917-2002))

I am almost tempted to arrange a postal dropbox and send it to them, just to see what happens.

music

Bought from both Amoeba and Rasputin, this time. They have near-complementary used CD collections.

  1. The Alarm: Standards and Eye of the Hurricane.
  2. The Art of Noise: Daft.
  3. Big Country: Live in Cologne.
  4. Blue Öyster Cult: Heaven Forbid.

I'm listening to the Big Country album right now; it's good.

# 12:05 AM

John Gilmore is suing the government for the right to travel anonymously. Good for him. I wish I could help.

Bank of America has finally developed enough clue to realize that they should offer their online bill payment service for free. This comes just in time for this month's cycle of bills.