they’ve struck again! unfortunately, the first post from a few months back got accidentally pruned (ie deleted from the server) from inactivity. I disabled it this time around, so it’s here to stay, baby.

I for one welcome our new friends, though their catalog system is flawed. it should be more like a vending machine. put in your money, press B-3, and the coil rotates and drops your bride.

they probably wouldn’t accept coins, though. I wonder if there’s some kind of installment plan? maybe a rent-to-own russian internet bride? or ukrainian… I don’t know.

I’ve tweaked the layout a bit. I think it’s a bit cleaner, and I switched the old logo’s Trajan with Clarendon to fit the new look. it either adds class or sass, and either one is fine by me.

realnetworks sucks. what a bunch of losers, pandering to the uninformed, who think they’re “locked in” to one format.

why are they competing against apple? give this article a read.

real has had a long history of sucking in the past. ever since they started including spyware in the installation process, I have refused to use their software. I don’t care if they’re using it for so-called ‘marketing’ purposes; I don’t want anything I didn’t install myself, much less companies peeping over my shoulder.

so… obviously this site looks kinda different. I was going to upgrade to wordpress 1.2, but with 1.3 just around the corner, I figured I’d just wait a bit and do a minor facelift.

I’m still not 100% settled on the colors yet. especially the tan/orange sidebar. not sure I like it. the photo gallery and forum are still in their old boring color schemes, so once I finalize this layout, I’ll update those… probably.

for those of you viewing with internet explorer, this site works, but there may be some issues with spacing. this is because internet explorer sucks, and doesn’t support web standards completely. if you haven’t switched to firefox by now, you probably never will, and you’re a loser. i curse you and your children, and your children’s children. but not your children’s children’s children, because they’re cool.

this site has been tested in firefox, camino, shiira, and safari without any issues. those are the ones I use, so screw the other browsers.

[edit 10:16 am] the more I look at it, the less I like the peachy color on the right. it’s definitely got to go.

it’s kind of lame how the media is claiming the loss of the us basketball team to the puerto ricans as a ‘stunning upset’. why is it a surprise, or even an upset? the global game has gotten better every year; just look at the number of foreign players in the nba. not only that, but other nations actually train in teams specifically for the olympics; to us, it’s basically one big pickup game.

the nba hasn’t been a team sport for at least 10 years now (last season’s pistons excluded). half the stars asked didn’t even want to play for fear of injury. why risk a multimillion-dollar contract for a game that doesn’t pay you anything?

there’s really no easy solution; ask pro players, and they probably won’t have the dedication and teamwork that you’re looking for. form a team of amateur players, and they probably won’t be able to compete on the same level. so how about something in the middle? well, any team made up of sub-nba players is going to think “hey, I’m good enough for the olympics, so why waste my time when I can get a contract with the pros?” the easiest way around this issue is to find an existing team structure, and build on it. say, for example, the and 1 team. or my solution: hire the globetrotters.

just think about it. how could they possibly lose? there’s so many pros, and virtually no cons. they’re already a member of team usa basketball, they had their own cartoon show, not to mention teaming up with scooby doo and defeating the ghost of paul revere (which doesn’t make much sense; you’d think it would be the ghost of benedict arnold or something). best of all, they defeated the evil™ washington generals so soundly that the team folded.

the gold medal would be a drop in the bucket.