update? and the poetry of SPAM

I've falled out of the blog habit again. I think partly it's because I have so many other blogs/journals (as part of the other sites I'm on) that I forget to take the extra effort to blog here. Besides, I don't think anyone actually reads these, except Alex, and then only to censor the media.

I never wrote about my relaxing 4th of July trip to Florida, or about yesterday's smoke fiasco, or my exciting upcoming trip to NYC. Deal with it.

To change topics, e-mail spam used to be crass and embarrassing to open ("enlarge your penis by 30%" or "hot young chicks want to f*** you all night"). But the "new spam" is intruiging, almost poetic. If I ever used drugs, it would be a lot of fun to read it on a high.

I've added line breaks for effect, the punctuation is original. It is called "sole purpoise," enjoy:

pawn an shutter a!
sheen the holy that nippy calcium
geologist faucet was dork odor
advance willfully a wares topic
sentence of courageous hurrah
the evangelist pay phone.
uncommon the cave with score was yes
populace that conspicuous icebox
incorrigible afflict pagoda,
a surf stifling of reliance,
as refill

There was of course much more to this particular poem. In a few hundred years when technological architects (or perhaps aliens) dig up archived email, they will find mostly spam (as it probably outnumbers normal email) and they will try to decipher what they say. They will be baffled how we were able to communicate and build technology since we never rose above gibberish. Or maybe they'll assign new meaning to words and think that language must've really evolved.

Link: Ted Steven's comments

27B Stroke 6

then go here: Ted Steven's Internet Fan Club

dinner and a movie, in style!

I didn't see the first Pirates of the Caribbean till a few weeks ago (netflix). When it first came out, I didn't see the appeal of a pirate movie. I don't like pirates. After seeing it though, Alex and I both thought it was fun and entertaining so we decided to see the second movie.

We decided to try out the Lowes Club - VIP seating and dinner at the Lowes restaurant. It may sound cheesy, but it was actually a lot of fun. The tickets are $5.50 more than regular seating, but we got 2 $3.50 coupons for dinner at the Lowes Club restaurant. The food at the Lowes Club restaurant was cheaper than any of the restaurants at the shopping center (most dishes ~$10), the menu had good variety, and the food was delicious. We got a quesedilla for an appetizer, I had an artichoke pesto pizza, Alex had some beer battered chicken fingers with really good fries and a really good honey mustard sauce, and we split a delicious dessert of vanilla ice cream with oreo cookie crust and crumbles of Snickers. Alex also had an alcoholic Oreo Mudslide and I had an iced tea - which with the coupons came to $31! You can also pick up beer and other drinks from the bar at the Club and take it into the theater with you (we didn't do that).

We then went through the upstairs restaurant into the theater. There were 4 rows of "VIP" seating. Since it was opening weekend, normally we would've waited in a long line outside the theater for 40 mins to get in and scramble for some good seats. But yesterday, we came in 10 mins before the show and sat in our reserved seats - really wide leather chairs, wooden floors (instead of sticky nasty carpet), wide ailes, and wide leather armrests. It was awesome!

If there's a theater near you with the Lowes Club, I highly recommend it for a special movie you've been looking forward to.

Update on my country

Civil Rights: Very Good
Economy: Good
Political Freedoms: Good

The Federation of Vitaaborg is a huge, socially progressive nation, renowned for its burgeoning Droid population. Its compassionate, hard-working population of 406 million have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Education, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 44%. A substantial private sector is led by the Cheese Exports industry, followed by Gambling and Basket Weaving.

All major public areas are watched by police surveillance cameras, government-run screening operations remove embryos with severe genetic disorders, the nation has opened its arms to an influx of refugees, and pharmacies close down as medicinal drugs are sold freely by the government. Crime is well under control, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Vitaaborg's national animal is the Droid, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Virtual Borg.

Vitaaborg is ranked 132nd in the region and 47,892nd in the world for Largest Public Sector.