Michael Lee's Train of Thought

Oh, and in the mikespotting category, I'm one of the billion names that Marillion Online is listing as a pre-order supporting name for Anoraknophobia, the next album from Marillion.

(And I find that title more amusing then ever. Geek Pride!)

Why can't I sleep?

One of the reasons for this page is to gripe a bit when I'm feeling a bit out-of-sorts. No one actually reads the page, after all, so it's more for my own personal release, but it still has some more permenance than if I did it in a private journal. And I just don't feel good right now; my whole body is rebelling against me with discomfort. (Though I can't sleep because I'm not tired, really, that's all, even though I haven't felt all that well today.)

I listened to Genesis's Duke album earlier today, and while I've listened to it many, many times, it was particularly good this time. I suppose it was my way to celebrate Phil Collins's 50th birthday. Of course, that's not really the sort of thing that's all that cool to be interested in, but I don't care, it's still a good album.

Missing Pieces, a Doctor Who chairity anthology, is now taking pre-orders. I've got a number of friends working on it, so I hope it goes well for them.

Labels: doctorwho

I wrote some thoughts on what is going on in Buffy and Angel for the MISFITS site.

Labels: buffy

If you wasted your time seeing Batman and Robin at some point, redeem yourself by reading this.

I just got Lenses of Contact an EP by Mary Fahl, former lead singer for October Project -- right I don't think it is quite as good as the October Project albums, but then, those have been a major part of my life over the last five or six years, and that's almost inevitable, and I still like it a great deal and am sure it will grow on me more.

I also got Heavy Construkction a 3 CD set of live King Crimson recordings from some of their 2000 shows. I'm not sure if a three disc live set is really necessary, but then, I think many cult artists are releasing more and more of their live work, eliminating the demand for bootleg recordings and getting a cut of it themselves, and so I didn't have to get it, I suppose. But it's interesting, with lots more improv work than I think a lot of previous live albums have. But it's one of those items for fans only, I think...

A Strategy For The Wilderness is an interesting article about what the Democrats should do now that they are out of power.

I'm more interested in seeing what Bill Clinton does in the upcoming months than what the man who was selected President does, really. But I agree with the point that if he has too big of a role in the party now that he's done, there won't be any new leaders that can succesfully take the White House back from those it was given to.

(I'd like to get away from politics a bit at some point...new Buffy and Angel tomorrow! yeah!)

Brainbench - The Skills Authority -- so I can show off how smart I am.

Part of me has wanted to take some of the other tests as well, but I haven't gotten around to it.

This is one of the scariest things I've ever seen

And it's not for kids, so be good!

Sometimes, the Onion is brilliant beyond words.

Out of VH1's 100 greatest I own:

> 1. The Beatles - Revolver
> 2. Nirvana - Nevermind
> 5. Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced?
> 8. The Beatles - Abbey Road
> 10. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
> 11. The Beatles - The Beatles (aka The White Album)
> 15. U2 - The Joshua Tree
> 16. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
> 43. Led Zeppelin -Led Zeppelin
> 44. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II
> 48. David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust
> 50. Police - Synchronicity
> 51. Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
> 66. Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue
> 71. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffitti
> 79. Pearl Jam - Ten
> 91. Peter Gabriel - So
> 94. Radiohead - OK Computer

(but who knows if I'll actually watch the program...It's a new Angel tonight!)

Tim Wick's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Review is up there now. It's definitely a movie worth seeing!

Sadly, as we all know, next to "choke" in the dictionary is a picture of the Minnesota Vikings.

I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon over the weekend. Definitely go see it, it's fantastic! (I've got a review from Tim Wick that I'll be putting up on the MISFITS site within the next day or so, and I'll probably link to it from here as well.

and I also had a column from JMS about his run on The Spiderman Comic --- and I think he's coming to the title at the right time, in that he can raise the profile of the comic as the movie comes around, something I think Marvel failed to do with the X-Men last year. (It'll rock this year, I'm sure.)

Very cool picture of Spiderman (from the movie) on Coming Attractions

Fifteen Years ago today, I first got involved in some facet of Science Fiction fandom, and so I wrote something up about it it for the MISFITS site as a tribute, of sorts.

More information about the latest X-Men creative teams shows up (on comicbookresources)

I'm afraid I'm going to have to check out all of the titles -- for the first time in probably over ten years!

I just picked up my ticket to see Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon this weekend -- it looks fantastic based on the trailers, and it looks like it'll carry over to foreign audiences fairly well. I've wanted to see this since I saw a trailer for it a month or so ago.

Henry Potts : Home Page has some reviews of interest, including some prog-rock ones and Doctor Who ones.

Labels: doctorwho

Salon.com Technology | Java: Slow, ugly and irrelevant

While I do my work in Java now, I'm not particularly partisan about computer issues anymore; and while I like some elements of Java, it's not a perfect language. (Neither are any of the other languages I've worked with over the years, from BASIC in all of its forms or C, or C++, or the statistical languages I worked on in college. So I think looking at its strengths and weaknesses are interesting.

(And I haven't written a lot of heavy-duty UI intensive applications in Java, most of my work has been primarily UI free or servlet based. )

This is (at the moment) my favorite King Crimson song -- it should be obvious what my reasoning is once you see what the title is...

I haven't been able to get to sleep tonight, nor was I able to on Thursday night (or Friday Morning)

Toonville! Comics looks like it's carrying a completly up to date issue of The Norm, one of my favorite comic strips.

I had a very strange Brazil-like dream last night, where people all went to some gigantic school to take tests. It was a beuracratic nightmare; somehow I was late for it and missed the orientation. But the tests were administered in some massive indoor stadium-like structure, sectioned off into testing farms; this wasn't quite college or high school exams, but something darker and more sinister.

# posted by Michael @ 1/07/2001 0 Comments

Sampling tastes online? It's not pie in the sky

Oh my....I remember people making jokes about downloadable scents when I was in college...to see that someone might seriously try it is incredible.

It looks like the Doctor Who DVDs will be out this fall instead of this spring in the US....ah well, I'm waiting for the Buffy ones as well.

Labels: doctorwho

Doctor Who DVD NOW is reporting that the first Doctor Who DVD, The Five Doctors, will be released for Region 1 (USA) in May. I'll believe it when I see it, but I definitely hope so -- I think that would be fantastic.

Labels: doctorwho

Good thing I checked the Upcoming Episodes at BuffyGuide.com -- there's a new Buffy, but not a new Angel next Tuesday.

Labels: buffy