I love the crazy things people do with old Macs. This guy put the guts of a bondi-blue iMac (the original iMac) into a wooden box, and it’s used as a server! (The site is served from that wooden Mac. Cool.)

Another fun link! Here’s a stop-motion video of a car trip from L.A. to NYC. (Don’t worry. It’s only a couple minutes long.)

Thanks go to Darren for posting this link at his site:

Abusive Jesus

Over the years, I have received many notices in the mail, all printed on Bible-thin paper and telling me that, on behalf of someone-or-other, I am part of a class-action suit. The only thing that has ever come from any of these suits is a discount voucher for a Carnival cruise. It went unused.

But this week I got a notice that a suit against Fleet Bank has ben settled, and as part of the settlement, I get money!

How thrilling!

So I’m sending in my form today to be sure I receive whatever it is I’m supposedly entitled to. I’ll bet you it’s at least $40,000!

Back in July, I said I would not go look at a blog that I had found out was written by an ex of mine. However, after getting regular updates and direct quotes from it through others, and after hearing about a particularly vitriolic post regarding me, I decided to hell with it and visited to see it all for myself.

It is so painful to realize that I not only lost who I thought was a good friend, but lost him for good. It’s painful to know that I should have tried harder to be kinder to him. What’s most painful, though, is realizing that now he actually finds me repulsive. I’m “socially inept.” I’m a passive-aggressive “pussy.” Even my dislike of sushi and my choice to not drink alcohol are branded as pathetic.

I’m now an official Boyfriend from Hell.

I know it’s good to vent about an ex, and it’s good to get things off one’s chest. I’ve done it here myself. But to do it with such cruelty in public, even if anonymous…

It’s also okay for someone to cheat events in their favor. But there are some inaccuracies that make me look like a monster.

Worst of all, though, is he attacked three of my friends. I was shocked reading it in full for the first time today. I couldn’t help but wonder who was being a passive-aggressive pussy now.

I will never go to the site again. I saw what I needed to. I want desperately to apologize, but I also don’t want to be friends with such a vengeful guy. If he ever wanted to hurt me, he has. And in a devastating way.

I’ll see him again at volleyball this Sunday, and he’ll be friendly in a “Hi there” sort of way. But I’ll know what he really thinks of me now. How will I handle it? Hmm. What will happen?

Great stuff from your mom … apparently you taught her how to be witty!

Hmmmm … there seem to be some reviews MISSING, Steven.

My mom was in the local paper again (The Daily Sentinel)! This time, it was an article about tattoo removal. Here’s an excerpt:

Another local medical practice, operated by Dr. William Merkel, has been using lasers to remove tattoos for about nine years, said Barbara Lekowicz, manager of Merkel’s practice. Lekowicz said people have tattoos removed for a variety of reasons.

She said many people want to have names or others removed after relationships end, and people going into military service can’t have tattoos that extend below the wrist or above the collar.

Tattoos also change as the skin stretches and wrinkles with age.

“Body art is often applied when people are young and have firm skin,” she said.

“‘But when they start getting older, the lovely rose becomes a long-stemmed rose,” Lekowicz said.

Some folks want older tattoos removed so that they can get new ones applied.

“‘We’ve had some tattoos that we’ve been able to fade, and the people have gone back to get another design put over it,” she said.

Heard on a voice menu this morning:

“Using your touch tone phone, enter your account number one digit at a time.”

That’s like saying “Please tell me about your day saying one word at a time.”

On a much lighter note, here’s a wacky link!

German Radio Starts Klingon Service.

I made a huge mistake in Quicken somewhere recently and I have no idea where. I did not know until today that I have miraculously overdrawn my checking account, and I will not know why until I’m back home on Friday. What happened? When? What did I forget? How can I think I have hundreds available and not have any?

I discovered the problem at the ATM this morning, when it told me I had insufficient funds. It decided, probably out of greed, to give me the cash I asked for anyway just so Wells Fargo could charge me another fee.

I talked to the people inside the bank (yes, they still exist!) and they said there was nothing to be done yet. I could just re-deposit the ATM money as a sign of good intentions, then MAYBE after the fees show up in a day or two, they can be waived. Maybe. My God, I hope so!

So how much in fees is this latest snafu gonna set me back? $132. $132! That’s $33 per overdrawn transaction, making my $7.69 lunch yesterday $40.69. The $7.40 I spent on stamps was actually $40.40. And the $12.00 to get the weeks of grime off my car will now be $45.00.

I try to put all this financial stuff into perspective, and while someone like Matt would call me an idiot, this latest bungle comes from me trying to be responsible. If I had not paid a HUGE amount of money to my credit card this month in an ongoing Herculean effort to get rid of the damn thing altogether, this wouldn’t have happened. Though, of course, if I didn’t have the credit card debt in the first place, I wouldn’t be in this situation. No, I’d be living in a luxurious $500,000 one-bedroom basement condo in West L.A.

I am so incredibly anal about keeping track of everything that happens with my checking account that this sort of thing really makes me angry. What makes me angrier is knowing that there is no way of knowing when I’ve actually made a mistake until I find out the evil way. Had I not gone to the ATM today, I would have only known about this through a form letter sent through snail mail to my home, alerting me, many days too late, of the problem. The bank does not offer a service, for instance, where they can SMS my cell phone to alert me about an overdraft situation. Doesn’t that sound like a great idea? It’s doable, for sure. But then, such a service would not get them the other fees I rack up by being ignorant of the situation.

I know. It’s all my fault. I know how the banks work. I know I have to be careful. But could the system work in my favor just once in a while? Boy, would that be nice! For the customer to actually be the reason businesses do business would be a shocking novelty. Bush should work to restore those kinds of lost values.

My God, this sucks! Can you believe it? Can you believe people love this man so much that they would dare put him in a painting like this? Poor Lincoln. Poor Washington. Poor my eyes.

Here’s a link to the “artist’s” page: Ron DiCianni is a Horrible Painter

9:25pm Addendum: What I just realized is this painting’s called “Praying for Peace.” This could mean two things: That Bush is praying for peace because he’s made a horrible error and actually realizes it–unlikely in the extreme–or that this ignorant dumb-ass painter thinks Bush really wants peace! Oh, I’m so mad. Bush could care less about peace. GRRRR!

I guess this is as close to “walking the red carpet” as I am destined to come. (It was incredibly hot and humid during setup, thanks to the last vestiges of former Hurricane Frances.)

At the Guggenheim event, Ronnee Sass of Warner Bros. surprised us all by having the catering staff shave their heads and dress like THX 1138 — a stroke of genius!

Poor Wil Wheaton. I feel sorry for him. So misunderstood.

Arrived in Tokyo a few hours ago after a 14 1/2 hour flight from NYC. Why is it that no matter how much sleep you get on an airplane, you’re still tired when you arrive?

We’re staying at the Four Seasons at Chinzan-so, which is the nice Four Seasons but not the right Four Seasons, I’m told — its location is not central enough to make it hip. It is popular, though — there were 30 weddings here today.

My friend Matthew and his boyfriend Ronaldo just took my colleague Tom and me out for dinner at a yakitori restaurant, then for a quick drink (which is what I still call it when I drink Sprite, after all, liquid is being consumed). Tomorrow, Tom is going to see the city on his own while Matthew, Ronaldo and I go to Tokyo DisneySea. This will complete my Disney theme-park experience: As of tomorrow evening, I will have been to every Disney theme park in the world. That’s something that even THX himself could be proud of accomplishing.

Which is a brilliant segue (right? RIGHT?) to THX 1138. Thought I would share one of the highlights of the evening — having some of the most famous directors of the 1970s and 1980s attend our event. In the photo are, from left to right: Milos Forman, Martin Scorcese, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola and Paul Schrader.

The battery in my camera gave out before I could get a shot of me talking to Caviezel and Vincent Gallo, who were both incredibly nice and friendly and genuinely interesting.

The whole thing makes this Star Wars junket kind of anti-climactic.

Speaking of Patrick Stewart, I was checking out Wil Wheaton’s website (I smack anyone who makes fun!), and I read something that made me realize how bad a magazine Entertainment Weekly really has become.

Greetings from NYC. All I can say is … I shook the hand of Jesus Christ tonight! Jim Caviezel was at the event at the Guggenheim, completely bonkers over “THX 1138” (seriously). Spent time dissecting it with him and talking with Vincent Gallo about how important “THX” has been to him. A really fun evening … and, of course, my camera’s battery ran out just as things were getting underway. Hopefully you’ll see full coverage online or on TV! Just wanted to check in before I journey off to Tokyo.

This is Marcy and Patrick. She got to sit in on a recording session he did today for Bambi and Bambi II.

Could I be more jealous? Could I? No. I could not.

Hark! What is that blue streak in the sky? Could it be Superman? Could it be Booberry? Could it be Pantone 286M? NO! It’s SuperMacGuy!