Here's my obligatory plug for The Vitamen. I haven't listened to this album for a while (a month), but I just popped it in and started giving it another listen. I have to say, the song Coward is really good -- asking the age old question, am I a coward because I'm not ready to die yet? Perhaps it's not age old. Perhaps it's not even old at all. But the fact remains that for some reason, this is a band that I can relate to. That could be because I know them -- but it also definitely has something to do with the fact that they're awesome.

Sorry to be such a bore about this band, but I can't help myself. I'm totally sick of the working thing and really, it'd be nice to be in a band . . . so I fantasize by listening to them. And working at an entertainment company makes you understand exactly how much it sucks to have worthless shits sucking up to you all the time . . . It would be wonderful to have the worthless motherfuckers here having to suck my ass because I had some stupid fucking album come out. And the thing that drives me even more crazy is that these assholes think that they're creative because they suck up to famous people. Blows my motherfucking mind.

This is a Chimera -- this animal could be created soon! Isn't that swell? Why not create a Gryphon. That'd be infintely cooler.

Animal-Human Hybrids Spark Controversy

This is fantastic. I'm so glad that I'm alive right now, and I'm not even sarcastic. Who gives a shit if Howard Stern moves to Satellite Radio or if Janet Jackson showed her breast intentionally on TV -- this is awesomely cutting edge. Pigs with human blood? Mice with human brains? Rabbits with human legs? This is ultimately much, much cooler than the internet.

This is an angry me. An "army of me" if you would. Now that I can post pictures to my blog, you'll be seeing a bit more of them. This was a test. There will be no more tests. Only the real thing. And no more stupid pictures of me.
Posted by Brock

San Francisco May Charge for Grocery Bags

They've been charging for grocery bags in Germany for years and it definitely encouraged me and my mom to bring our own bags -- or to buy one set of bags from the store and use them again and again. Germany was definitely not suffering from the same level of plastic bag pollution I see in New York on a daily basis. But, then again, the culture there is more "practical" in the sense that they're more willing to engage in behaviours that suck in the short term for pay-off in the long term (such as complex recycling laws in general, very high taxes, and extremely articulate and exhaustive laws).

Inauguration: Lifestyles of the Rich and Heartless
By Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin with Nico Pitney and Mipe Okunseinde

The Progress Report

Thursday 20 January 2005 -- Due to $17 million worth of inaugural security - paid for by the city of Washington, D.C. - the Progress Report is unable to access its office. Never fear - it takes a lot more than that to keep us down. We put this list together for you ahead of time. Your regularly scheduled Progress Report returns tomorrow.

A look at this week's festivities by the numbers:

$40 million: Cost of Bush inaugural ball festivities, not counting security costs.

$2,000: Amount FDR spent on the inaugural in 1945 - about $20,000 in today's dollars.

$20,000: Cost of yellow roses purchased for inaugural festivities by D.C.'s Ritz Carlton.

200: Number of Humvees outfitted with top-of-the-line armor for troops in Iraq that could have been purchased with the amount of money blown on the inauguration.

$10,000: Price of an inaugural package at the Fairmont Hotel, which includes a Beluga caviar and Dom Perignon reception, a chauffeured Rolls Royce and two actors posing as "faux" Secret Service agents, complete with black sunglasses and cufflink walkie-talkies.

400: Pounds of lobster provided for "inaugural feeding frenzy" at the exclusive Mandarin Oriental hotel.

3,000: Number of "Laura Bush Cowboy cookies" provided for "inaugural feeding frenzy" at the Mandarin hotel.

$1: Amount per guest President Carter spent on snacks for guests at his inaugural parties. To stick to a tight budget, he served pretzels, peanuts, crackers and cheese and had cash bars.

22 million: Number of children in regions devastated by the tsunami who could have received vaccinations and preventive health care with the amount of money spent on the inauguration.

1,160,000: Number of girls who could be sent to school for a year in Afghanistan with the amount of money lavished on the inauguration.

$15,000: The down payment to rent a fur coat paid by one gala attendee who didn't want the hassle of schlepping her own through the airport.

$200,500: Price of a room package at D.C.'s Mandarin Oriental, including presidential suite, chauffeured Mercedes limo and outfits from Neiman Marcus.

2,500: Number of U.S. troops used to stand guard as President Bush takes his oath of office

26,000: Number of Kevlar vests for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan that could be purchased for $40 million.

$290: Bonus that could go to each American solider serving in Iraq, if inauguration funds were used for that purpose.

$6.3 million: Amount contributed by the finance and investment industry, which works out to be 25 percent of all the money collected.

$17 million: Amount of money the White House is forcing the cash-strapped city of Washington, D.C., to pony up for inauguration security.

9: Percentage of D.C. residents who voted for Bush in 2004.

66: Percentage of Americans who think this over-the-top inauguration should have been scaled back.

The Strangerhood


My god, this is demented. So Someone has gone so far beyond the pale with "The Sims" that he's found someone else as obsessed with "The Sims" as he is and partnered to create a virtual TV show of the characters he has created in the game. I don't know exaclty why I find this horrifying, but I really can't see it any other way. Click the link above to learn why you should run the other way if you ever happen uopn one of the creators.