My Favorite Painter Strikes Again

Jeremiah Palecek posted this fantastic painting called BLAST a few weeks back, and I hadn't posted it. I've said it before, I'll say it again: he's me if I painted instead of wrote songs.
- posted by Mason @ 12:37 PM (0) comments

I'm in love with this picture


This is from my new favorite site, The GUI Gallery.

It's BeOS madness over there, I tell you what.
- posted by Mason @ 11:53 AM (0) comments

The Command Line Browser is Back!

I don't know if you've heard, but text is the new picture, and command line is the new GUI.

Ladies and Gentelmen, may I reintroduce you to: LYNX, the open source, text only, command line browser with an attitude.

All this Web 2.0/ajax/internet-sitting-on-a-shiny-table business falls apart if you can't find what you were looking for, and even the fastest system running Firefox (or Swiftfox, if you're in the club) doesn't touch how fast LYNX is. Don't you ever want to cut through all the formatting and slick interfaces to just get the information you were looking for?

After spending four hours on Saturday reading every post since January on Mark Cuban's blog, and the last several months on Jeopardy! winner Ken Jennings' blog, my eyes were pretty sore. Black text+white background= HEADACHE. I remembered how much I had like using LYNX with the old Powerbook Duo 520c because Netscape 2.0 was far to slow.

So I opened my terminal, i ran "smart install lynx" and there it was. It sets pictures as links and it just opens them in a seperate window, it downloads files easily, and the bookmarks, history and cookie managment are great. I'm not suggesting you switch or anything, but it makes a fantastic addition to your internet experience.
- posted by Mason @ 10:51 AM (0) comments

Leonard Nimoy's Not a Bad Photographer


I like this self portrait a lot. I think Nimoy's composition is excellent. I'm not really a fan of the B&W art nudes or the pictures of monstorously fat women cavorting around in an all-white room, but I think it's nice that The Amazing Paris has found something to do with his spare time.

On the other hand, his poetry is TERRIBLE, he's an excerpt:

In my heart
Is the seed of the tree
Which will be me.
Nourished by understanding
Warmed by friends
Fed by loved ones
Matured by wisdom
Tempered by tears.

In light of that, I find it interesting that he and Leonard Cohen look so similar now:


See, because they're both named Leonard and they're both non-practicing Jews and they're both not very good poets and neither of them have really done much of anything worth while in quite a long time. Get it? It's sort of a joke.

To Nimoy's credit, however, his semi-retirement and inactivity are much better than all that filthy garbage Cohen's been putting out for the last decade. Yuk. Double Yuk.

FYI, Lenny, just because you go into hiding for five years, doesn't make you a shadowy mystic, it makes you a guy who ran out of ideas. Just because you're back, doesn't give you carte blanche to soil our ears whith whatever crap you want and still be taken seriously.

I love "New Skin", but that doesn't make it OK for you to let this dumb bitch, or this dumb bitch ruin what could contribute in the few years you have left.
- posted by Mason @ 1:06 AM (0) comments

a USED thinkcentre that is...
Last night I forgot to mention that I was thinking of buying a USED thinkcentre of "that fee-bay". Bear in mind that I had NO intention of buying anything actually from IBM.
- posted by Mason @ 8:43 AM (0) comments

IBM ThinkCentre is my Jesus

I've finally made up my mind. I'm not buying a Wireless Media Center, I'm not buying an overpriced MacMini. I'm buying the jesus of enterprise small form-factors, the IBM/LEVONO THINKCENTRE. I'll slap a PCI DVI card in that bad boy, a 400 gig HD, an open source media center app, and a remote, and I'll be fucking rocking out, straight up HiDef style.

I'm pretty excited about making a decision finally... and I'm pretty brand loyal, being a diehard thinkpad user (and having used the NetVista line at the old bad job). Let me know if you have any thoughts on this.
- posted by Mason @ 12:59 AM (0) comments

I have a KameraFone, and I'm not afraid to use it
Here's a short series of things I snapped randomly on my new camera phone (I know, I'm lame for it taking me this long, but I'm finally free of Sprint, so give me a break).


These African ladies at wal-mart were buying mostly diapers and coconut water. I didn't know what coconut water was until I looked it up. It's gross.


"THE TV MADE A BAD NOISE DADDY." While the man was installing the cable my tv went crazy with the wavy lines. This is one of about twenty five I took. It makes a great desktop all stretched out.


We have to go to the laundry mat now. It's very hot and boring there, but I like the fact that I can put two weeks worth of dirty clothes in one machine and have it all be done in an hour.
- posted by Mason @ 8:21 AM (0) comments

Back with a Vengeance
Ok, so I haven't updated in 3 weeks. Moving was INSANE. Starting a new job was INSANE. Unpacking and buying new furniture was INSANE. Things have pretty well settled down now, we have the internet, finally after YEARS of being without.


Here's a pic of our new apt about a week ago without anything in it. This is our new expensive vintage swedish couch and matching chair (chair not pictured). We've since unpacked everything. Also not pictured: new 32" LCD tv, 400 disc jukebox, homeless shelter across the street from our building.


In other news, I've dumped WINBLOWS (that's just for you Daniel) and switched to SuSE 10.1 and I love it. 100% open source for me, friends. I love it.



This is where I work, the Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, TX, the home of the Dallas Symphony, I'm a box office manager. I work in an I.M. Pei building, and you don't.

Anyway, now that I'm back, check everyday because I'll be posting like mad.
- posted by Mason @ 9:01 PM (0) comments

My House is Empty
Well, it's done. Finshed. Everything is packed. My parents are bringing out the U-Haul at 6pm. I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 9am sharp. This will be my last post as an American. From now on, I'm a Texan first and everything else is secondary. I'm very much a Texas Seperatist and believe that the Republic of Texas will rise again. I realize that's a little silly, but Article 1 Section 2 of the Texas State Constitution provides Texans the right to ceceede from the union.

Article 1 - BILL OF RIGHTS
Section 2 - INHERENT POLITICAL POWER; REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT
All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their benefit. The faith of the people of Texas stands pledged to the preservation of a republican form of government, and, subject to this limitation only, they have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient.

It's too bad other Texas seperatists are such right wing gun nuts.

Anyway, I get the internet at the apartment on Tuesday. See you then.
- posted by Mason @ 4:00 PM (0) comments

Volvo Car

My mom and dad have traded me my beat up maroon '82 240 sedan for this crushingly beautiful '83 wagon with mag wheels, A/C, CD player, brown leather interior, power locks, power windows and a luggage rack. I am in heaven.

That car just keeps getting passed around, which I think is wonderful. My brother had it... wrecked it. My parents got more out of the insurance than they paid for it, and bought it back for $60. My grandpa Weaver took a junk car of the same color and patched the two together. Then my cousin Ashley drove it, then Megan and I drove it, now my Mom's driving it until my dad buys a new Civic, and then my uncle Mark's going to drive it after he gets out of the slammer.

I'm moving Friday, we made a ton of money at the garage sale, we found homes for the dog and cat... things are actually looking up in my life.
- posted by Mason @ 3:05 PM (0) comments

dontdatehimgirl.com
Check this posting from my new favorite website of all time.

This nigga be cheating on every lady--- I didn't put in occupation or any other info because trust that he tells you ALL a different story. He got a couple baby mamas, don't pay child support, likes to beat chicks down, is an inet "thug". Controlling, cheating, selfish, rude... just to name a few. Oh yea and he's really in his LATE 30's living with his grandparents. Supposed Columbia University graduate but really a Kinko's alumni LOL He goes around the net & the city tryna pick up underage and barely legal chicks to fall in line for him. Ladies STAY AWAY! (PS the dick aint that great)

This is comedy gold.
- posted by Mason @ 8:14 AM (0) comments