Gah! Sprained ankles! Work soon! Family problems! Film at 11, heh.So it’s been pretty stressful recently. First of all, my dad’s side of the family and my mum’s side were both in town for graduation, which is prob’ly the first time that’s happened since my mum and dad divorced when I was five or six. Now, the two sides of the family don’t really get along the best. So we had a lunch with everyone here the day of graduation and there was some wierd stuff going on. It seemed like everyone was getting along, but I guess not. Ah well, they won’t have to see each other again, right?

Better than that, though, I got a diploma! Yay! College, here we come! The all night party was bomb too. It was at the DAC (of course). I blew tons of money gambling, was wicked close to beating this kid that went to State in swimming in the raft event, and almost beat Koke in hoops. Too bad close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. It’s sorta sad to think about all the people I won’t get to see again from my class. I got a grip of pictures of my buds, but it’s a bit of an ending. Ah well. Lots of those in life, huh?

My record is over! I lasted 18 years and 5 months without taking any painkillers, but I sprained my ankle pretty bad in a game of hoops with TJ, Eric and a few hippies and needed a Motrin to sleep. I woke up after sleeping for two hours and it hurt so, so much. Ouch. So now I’ve sprained my left ankle twice and my right ankle once (this is the first time). At the start of summer, too! Those painkillers work pretty well. I don’t like swallowing pills, so I chewed it and then swallowed. Not recommended. It coats your tongue and tastes terrible for a half-hour, heh. It’s sorta like the taste when you pop an Altoid and then drink water right after (try it, it’s disgusting).

Jakob Nielsen is right-on on his comments about Flash. Y’know Flash - it’s that wierd plug-in that all movie sites seem to think they need to use. It’s the worst. Don’t use Flash. Those sites cut off tons of their audience and make their sites unreachable in decent time to almost all of their viewers (those with dial-up). Even worse, they don’t add much to the site. ESPN uses Flash well - that is, you can’t tell it’s being used. I’m learning Perl/cgi this summer so I can do some freelance next year - much more useful than Flash.

So when family was here, I drove sooooooooooooooo much. One day to Crescent City, CA and back. Up to Portland and back the next day. Up to Mt. St. Helens and back the next day. Gah. That’s a lot of driving. My Aunt had a GameCube in the back of her van, so I guess that third trip wasn’t all bad, mwahaha. I picked up a few cheap videogames, speaking about that. Fred Meyer has a bunch of PS2 games for 16 bucks. I got Dave Mirra 2, Dark Cloud and Midnight Club, all new. Sweetness.

Still no job. I thought I would get the one at Hollywood, but no dice. Blimpie is interviewing me tomorrow, which is tight, and I’m working for a week, breakfast lunch and dinner, at the U of O next week with TJ and Mike, so that’s at least a little bit of money. Justin’s mom might hook me up at symantec, which would be tight too.

Oh, so on one of those road trips, we were in a traffic jam and the country station said “In 5 minutes, updates on the traffic situation” so we kept it there. Damn, country music is strange. There was this song “Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” by Toby Keith (known for his hit, I kid you not, “You’re not as Much Fun Since I Quit Drinkin’”) which is one of the most strange/offensive things I’ve ever heard, heh. “We’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American Way / You’ll be sorry you messed with the US of A / And when all hell is raining down on you / You’ll know that it’s courtesy of the red, white and blue.” Hmm. Peter Jennings hates the song and it’s gotta be cuz he’s Canadian and not cuz the song is garbage.

So the State Department has set up rewardsforjustice.net. It’s sorta corny, but they do get my respect for having terrorist posters for guys with no relation to the United States (such as former Rwandan leader Felicien Kabuga) on the front page. There’s actually no mention of Al-Qaeda on the front page, but instead pictures of wanted terrorists from Rwanda and the Phillipines. My respect for that.

Actually, the Govt. has done two things I heavily agree with this week. Remember Johnny Boy Ashcroft’s missive about how a man with a nuclear weapon plan was at O’Hare (that Padilla guy) and was arrested? Ridiculous. He didn’t have the complete plans, nor the means, to construct such a complex weapon. Apparently Bush and Wolfowitz thought the scare tactic was ridiculous too, so they clarified exactly what they had, which was that a man was planning to use such a weapon if (and that’s a big if) he could figure out how to make one. And in any case, a “dirty bomb” would cause very few casualties compared to a nuke or even a truck bomb.

So the World Cup has been amazing so far. If I woulda told you before the Cup started that niether France (the holders) and Argentina (the odds-on favorite) would win, you might say “Wow, that’s a surprise.” If I told you that neither team would make the second round, you probably would have said “Kevbo, what are you smoking and may I have some of it?” So far, the two favorites are gone, Italy was inches away from being sent packing, Brazil has scored on a tremendous bicycle kick, and both my teams, Ireland and the States, are looking solid for the 2nd round. There have also been some reaaaaaaaaaaaaly bad teams in the tourney so far. Saudi Arabia went home after 3 losses, 8-0, 1-0 and 3-0. Ouch. France failed to score a goal. China lost 4-0, 2-0 and 3-0 and were sent back home. So far, Poland has 4-0 and 2-0 losses with only the US left to be played. Good times.

I think I’m gonna go do that free trial at www.emusic.com. If only the major labels had thought of this idea. For 10$ a month, you get unlimited song downloads, in mp3 formats, from the emusic server (so the songs are always great quality and quick download). They have something like 100,000 songs and editors picks to help you find new stuff. Tight, huh? I would pay 10$/m in an instant for a service like that that included all the major label and electronica songs.

“Pumpin (Alex Konrad Mix)” by Headquarter. Boomin’ rollicking fast, hands-in-the-air trance. I’m making my summer CD (I’m 42 minutes into the first draft, it’ll be like 65-70 total) and this isn’t on it b/c it’s more of a night track, but it’s tight. The CD is chill, downtempo and house for the first 20 minutes, then it goes trance for 20 minutes, then into hip-hop for 20 minutes. It’s gonna be sick. CJ Stone’s “The Sun Goes Down” is more vocal trance from this man who can do no wrong. Lots of piano interludes. “Tainted Love (Garage Edit)” by Middlerow Crew is a garage-ified remix of the classic punk song.Also “A Little Less Conversation (Junkie XL Remix)” by Elvis Presley. This is on that Nike World Cup ad. The song is absolutely off the hook. This one is on the CD. It’s got Elvis’ unique voice and Junkie XL sick scratch work. So good. In no particular order, try the hiphop hits “The Groundbreaker” by Fallacy & Fusion and “Stand Clear” by Adam F ft/ MOB, the new female vocaled, R&B ish garage hit “Dirty Cash” by El Nino and the raggae inspired hip-hop cut “Put a Cut On It” by Aphrodite ft/ Rah Digga. Finally, the house selections include the Tupac-sampling “Shake It Baby” by DJD ft/ The Hydraulic Dogs and “Backfired” by Masters at Work ft/ India.