The Diatribe * net

One giant collaborative diatribe

Archive for April, 2006

Avatars Galore!

April 30th, 2006

As you’ll soon notice, I’ve made some quick updates to the Diatribe this weekend. I’ve made it so that when you are a registered user you get a handy dandy little avater just like one of the contributors. While you may not be able to post to the Diatribe, your new avatar will show up next to the comments you post, as long as you’re logged in as that user.

Click here to become a registered user. Once you’re registered, just send me an e-mail and I will promote your status, so that you can add your own avatars. You’ll be able to do this by logging in, editing your profile, and uploading a 50×50 image. If you have a photo you want to use, but don’t know how to get it to 50×50, send it to me and I’ll resize it for you.

I’ve thought about something like this for a while now, but haven’t been able to integrate it until this weekend. I hope you guys enjoy the new functionality.

No comments »

Posted in House Keeping

2008 Election

April 30th, 2006

I don’t like to get too political, but I stumbled upon this over at Rangelife and found it interesting. It’s one person’s take on the 2008 election as a blatent parallel with the NFL draft going on this weekend.

I’m not familiar enough with Seamus’ knowledge of the political field to say whether it’s 100% accurate, but I will admit that it’s an cool take on the whole political situation.

2 comments »

Posted in Haberdashery

Buzz

April 29th, 2006

I often come up with a lot of wacky and crazy stuff that i’ve found around the web. Just take a look at my Best of the Web page. Granted, it’s not been that updated recently, but you have to understand that I’ve been busy with EverQuest and the Sons of Sam Horn.

Well, maybe not.. but I did happen to find a great site that puts all of the Internet buzz at your fingertips. From the best of Flickr, Digg, Del.icio.us, and even YouTube. While you can subscribe to any one of these site’s feeds using RSS, you can now get it all at one place called PopUrls.com.

PopUrls.com considers itself to be the “popular urls to the buzz of the web.” There’s a ton of “web talk” going on out there in the Blogosphere every day that a lot of the world misses out on. For instance, right now one of the most hotly debated topic is Nintendo’s announcement of it’s new gaming system which will be called “Wii” (pronounced “We”). The project previously known as Revolution, has been renamed in expectation for its launch later this year.

The buzz factor around it, is the fact that the name is absolutely terrible. And there’s actually quite a bit of speculation going around thinking that perhaps Nintendo announced this name as a practical joke to try to stir the Internet community into a more speculation and buzz around its new product. Regardless, it seems to have worked.

While this particular example is fairly geeky/gamerish in nature, there’s things that become “the talk of the town” for a few days — that you can’t find anywhere else except on the web. It takes some time to figure out how RSS is going to work for you, but in the meantime, play around with PopUrls, and begin to explore the randomness that ensues.

No comments »

Posted in Internet

Returning a Call

April 27th, 2006

I’m here, y’all. I keep coming up with vastly intriguing subjects about which to blog (what else is new?), but then I get distracted, forget them, and curse myself out for not writing it down. I got stuck in a rut and LTJ’s calling call brought me back.

Actually, the real reason for my absence is that bastard Josh Beckett. Well, I’m most angry at Curt Schilling. He reads The Diatribe (during breaks from Everquest and Sons of Sam Horn) and he tipped off Beckett about my last entry. Josh didn’t take to kindly to my suggestions. He showed up at my house one day (with that thug Youkilis) and broke my hands. Youkilis tied my hands to a fence and Beckett kept throwing fastballs at my hands until he heard snaps. What’s really odd is that they kept referring to each other as “Thomas” and “The Cab Driver.”

2 comments »

Posted in House Keeping, Nonsense

Calling Call

April 27th, 2006

This goes out to our dear friend Cool Jesus:

Avalon. U Dead? U don’t blog no more.

1 comment »

Posted in House Keeping

A few things on baseball and something overheard

April 26th, 2006

Aaron Boone
God Bless Miss Possible. Last night I was watching the Sox-Indians game in the bedroom, and she’s coming by just as the announcer is saying “On Deck for the Indians, Aaron Boone.” She doesn’t look at me at all, and continues unphased into the kitchen when she yells “That Asshole!” I was impressed.

Barry Bonds and the Giants
Is it just me or does everyone want to see Barry Bonds in Pinstripes playing for the Yankees? This way I can get all the players I hate most in baseball (well almost all of them, Boone is now on the Indians and there’s that little scary/ugly outfielder that used to play for the yankees still running around somewhere) on one team.

It would make things so much easier. Right now, I hate the Giants. Every time Bonds hits a homerun, I know he’s getting closer to the Hank Aaron record that I don’t want to see broken by this baseball-ruining freak. Frankly, I don’t think that’s fair to hate an entire team just because I despise one guy on it — but them’s the breaks.

All this comes up because I had the pleasure to watch afternoon a little of the Mets-Giants game while at the Gym. I then see Barry Bonds come up in the bottom of the ninth and hit a game-tying two run shot.”That Asshole,” I said to myself.

And something overheard…
Walking home tonight, I happened to hear a young guy talking on his cell phone to (i’m assuming) one of his buddies. It went something like this:

“So I called that girl last night.”
[pause]
“Yeah, I kinda had to tell her everything.”
[pause]
“Yeah, so she now knows that your name isn’t Thomas, and I’m not a Cab Driver.”

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this relationship may be doomed from the start.

3 comments »

Posted in Baseball, Default, Life, Yankees

Smokin’ in the Boken

April 26th, 2006

On April 15, 2006 the State of New Jersey banned smoking from all bars and restaurants in the entire state. It’s the 11th state in the nation to impose such a ban, and let me tell you — we’re glad.

Coming from Boston just about a year ago, one thing I immediatley noticed was the number of smokers in the New York / New Jersey area. Maybe it has something to do with the youthfulness of Hoboken, but nearly every day on my way to work I would spot at least a half dozen individual smoking — not to mention that there’s a large contingent of employees at my company that smoke.

I know that my old roommate smoked, and a few other people in my circle of friends, however I feel as though I’m surrounded by more strangers that smoke cigareettes now as opposed to when I lived in the Boston area. Go figure. It’s strange, and maybe it’s all in my head — but at least it will no longer be in the bars.