I saw the Italian Job last night. It wasn’t bad, although I would have been just as happy seeing it on TV instead of in the theater. There was one part of it that bothered me a little bit when it first came up, but by the end, I thought it was pretty funny. The computer guy claimed he really invented Napster, and was Shawn Fanning’s roommate in college. They showed a scene from a dorm room where he was sleeping (napping) at his computer and Fanning steals a disk from it and supposedly stole Napster from him. Later in the movie, he wants to be known as “The Napster”. By the end of the movie, it didn’t bother me at all, and then when I saw the credits, it was all worth it. Worth it because Shawn Fanning played himself in that scene. For some reason, I just think that’s really cool.

They’re back. I was hoping to miss them this year. At least I’m getting out of here soon.

It hardly seems like a year ago that I started this thing, but that’s when it happened. Of course, at that time, it was still called alanpenner.com.

I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for a year. This will be the 122nd entry, which means on average one every three days. I guess that’s not too bad.

Everyone should go congratulate Jon for passing! Unfortunately, you have to create a Xanga account to leave a comment.

I’m gonna go finish watching the Mets lose to the Phillies now…

I posted something about this a while back. I feel like posting it again.

My terror level page is the first result on Google when you search for terror alert. It comes up ahead of the Dept. of Homeland Security.

That page is also the second result when you search for just the word terror. The second result, for a single word that’s all over the place these days. That’s just nuts.

I went bowling today, not so much because I wanted to bowl (although I always do), but because I didn’t want to be in my apartment when it was being shown to prospective tenants. While I was there, I finally signed up for that Monday night scratch league. So, assuming softball doesn’t conflict with either one, I’ll be bowling Monday nights and Wednesday nights. A little excessive, maybe, but I think it’ll be fun.

Hopefully, softball will be on Tuesday or Thursday. If not, at least I’ll be able to pick one bowling league, and not have to decide between bowling and softball.

I broke two glasses doing dishes tonight. I can’t wait to move to my new place with a dishwasher.

Steve Trachsel had another solid outing, allowing 5 hits and no runs over 7 1/3 innings… and I got to see it. I finally managed to get to another Mets game today, and the bullpen didn’t even blow it. Mets won, 4-0. They now have a .750 winning percentage for games I go to. I should go to more, I suppose, though this season is lost even if they could do that for the rest of their games.

On the way down to LA, I stopped at Wil’s book signing at Ralph’s Comic Corner. I already have a signed copy of Dancing Barefoot, so I got a signed copy for a friend of mine, and a shirt. I stayed there for a couple of hours just hanging around and talking, and then headed south towards LA.

Slowly. It took almost 2 hours for what should have been a 45 minute drive, and to top it off, I ended up in the wrong place because Mapquest screwed up, and gave me bad directions to Andrew’s place. I did eventually get where I needed to be, and then to the stadium, before the game started, though I did miss batting practice. In case I haven’t mentioned it before, the parking situation at Dodger Stadium sucks. For unreserved, general parking, you have to drive in circles for 15 minutes after you get into the parking lot before you can park, and the signs telling you where you’re allowed to park aren’t very clear. It almost makes it not worth driving to the games. Well, not really.

After the game, I drove right back to Santa Barbara. On the way back, I noticed something weird on the … highway.

<tangent>
People in California call highways that are numbered “the [highway number]” as opposed to just “[highway number]“. Like, “the 101″, and “the 405″ instead of just 101 and 405. Despite my best efforts to not pick that up, I seem to be failing.
</tangent>

So, on (the) 101, I noticed at the Carpenteria exit that there was an exit number! One of the biggest complaints I’ve had with the highways in California (besides the LA traffic, of course), is that the exits aren’t numbered. You can never tell if you’ve gone too far and missed an exit, and it’s really annoying. Well, it seems they’ve finally caught on with the rest of the world and started numbering them. I only saw numbers from just south of Santa Barbara to the exit before I got off the highway, but it’s a start. Hopefully, they’re actually planning to do this everywhere. That’d kick ass. Then of course, people (and Mapquest) will have to start giving directions with exit numbers for it to be useful. It could happen.

Well, if by “fun” I mean “charges that aren’t mine showing up on my statement.” Almost $500 worth. One of the places let me put in some info (credit card number and the amount) and see what the charge was for:

Web site: http://www.adbuytraffic.com
Product Description: 10,000 Premium Targeted Traffic Visitors – 30 Day Campaign. Once payment is processed you will be contacted via email to provide your website URL, traffic target type you selected (Example: Shopping) and Geotarget (Example: US Traffic).

and the billing address used: James Brue, at my address.

How odd.

I’ve called American Express, am not liable for the charges, and have a new card on the way. American Express is good about that (the same thing happened to my father recently.)

Now I have to wait 7-10 business days for the new card. Luckily, it’s not one I use much, and it won’t be a problem to be without it.

If nothing else, this gave me something vaguely interesting to write about.

I almost forgot… Michael has set up an anonymous blog. It’s pretty good. Anyone can post, and the logs are deleted often. Seems like a good idea to me.

It can be found at anonyblog.

I haven’t really had anything to talk about lately. Sorry.

I threw an awful 123 today, and then followed it up with a decent 176 and a good 204. I’m considering joining a scratch league (meaning, no handicap: my score vs someone else’s score, no weight based on our averages). What do you think… good idea, bad idea? Leave a comment, or something.

Today was Jonathan’s birthday… and I forgot to call. I did send a card though. Hopefully, he got it. I guess I’ll find out soon enough.

I’m going to a Mets/Dodgers game this weekend, and the Mets have been playing much better lately. They still have no chance to make the postseason, but they’ve won six in a row now. Of course, today was Floyd’s last game before he goes down for season ending surgery. Better now than having it mess up part of next year, I guess. At least they have Piazza back.

Days left until I move: 26.

Apparently, news organizations have no obligation to tell the truth. And (some) people wonder why media consolidation is a bad thing.