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[ 12-25-01 ][ 6:52 p.m. pst ][ By Rice ]

A long, long time ago in the small village of Bethlehem, a child was born on this very date. He lived a perfect, sin-free life, and performed unexplainable miracles helping the poor and rich alike. Despite it all, he was mocked by the religious and political leaders of his land, because he claimed to be the King of Jews and the Son of God. They arrested him and tortured him, and put a crown of thorns on his forehead in ridicule. They taunted, "If you are who you say you are, why don't you free yourself?"

He was sentenced to a crucification, and hoisted onto a cross, like the two common criminals beside him. The guards hammered 6-inch nails into his wrists and feet, and broke his legs with their spears. As he hung there, one criminal next to him croaked, "Please forgive me for my sins. Remember me when you are in heaven," to which he replied, "I tell you the truth, today, you will be with me in paradise!" And on the cross he hung from dawn to dusk, until he finally died.

But on the third day, he was ressurected. Hundreds of people witnessed it, friends and enemies alike. Word of this miracle spread like wildfire. His most devout followers were tortured and martyred by those leaders who orchestrated his death, but they could not stop the movement. With his life, death, and subsequent resurection, he changed the world. He gave hope to those who had none. He gave life to those who are dead. He is Jesus, the reason for the season.

...

Christmas is undoubtly the single most celebrated season in the world. People take time off from daily rigors to enjoy the company of their friends and family. Elaborate decorations everywhere are setup to promote the cheer of the holiday. Can you imagine how dull a year would go by without this tradition? Yet amongst the craziness of shopping for gifts and writing Hallmark cards, the true meaning of the Christmas gets lost now and then. For some people, they never really know why they celebrate December 25th.

To put it simply, it's to observe the birth of our savior. Whether you believe in God or not, the life, death, and resurection of Jesus Christ is a true, historical fact, not a fairy tale made up as an excuse to give students 2-3 week break in Winter. Not only is it recounted vividly in the New Testament, which has never been proven fictitious archaeologically or otherwise, it has been cross checked by secular historians of the 1st century. Jesus gave us the present of eternal life 2000 years ago through his sacrifice on the cross.

That's why the Christmas tradition is still going strong today.... to honor Christ's gift to us. God was willing to send his only son to death by crucifixion to give all humans (Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Atheists... it doesn't matter) a simple bridge to paradise, even a lifelong criminal because he repented with a single sentence at the end. So next time you say 'Merry Christmas', think about why you say it. It's immensly profound.

Merry Christmas, everybody. Enjoy a brand new Song of the Week.

Happy 22nd Birthday
[ 12-19-01 ][ 11:30 a.m. pst ][ By Rice ]

I hope you all will join me in wishing our very own Gerry Wang a happy 22nd birthday! I believe he'll be celebrating it by watching Lord Of The Rings. Man, I still remember we were just kids playing catch in the front yard w/out a care in the world. Now, all significant age milestones have now been passed, meaning it's time to grow old now for the rest of your life. Enjoy it!

...

Looks like Operation Infinite Justice is just about over. The Taliban has been overrun, Osama is on the run, and al-Qaeda is being slowly lassoed up by our allies. Yeah, that's what you get for messing with the U.S., you evil bastards! If it were up to me, I'd roast bin Laden over a weak fire once we catch him. Then again, he'll be roasting in the deepest, grimiest place in hell w/ Hitler for eternity anyway, so I'd be content to just shoot him on sight. On third thought (I'm just an indecisive ranter, aren't I?), life imprisonment sounds the best to me. Life imprisonment with the biggest, baddest, horniest mofo's in Los Angeles. Heh heh. Ah yeah, I've decided. Plus I'm following what the gospel says, too:

"Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. -- Romans 12:19-20

Excellent. The slammer sounds like it satisfies all of that.

...

M.J. and the Wizards near .500 after winning 6 straight and are in the playoff race! L.A. Clippers 3rd in the division after spectacular wins at home vs. Detroit (of which I was in attendance... in the lower section!) and on the road at Phoenix! I've gone exclaimation mark happy and I can't help it! I love this game!

Q over Ben Wallace; VC can't defend MJ

Sick Of Spam?
[ 12-18-01 ][ 11:38 a.m. pst ][ By Rice ]

My UCLA inbox recently became a HUGE target for spammers for some reason. Everybody from real estate salesman to Naughty Cindy's webcam has flooded my account with SPAM. And I hate it. It's driving me insane, not to mention how annoying it is to have some guy using the terminal next to you in the library wink in a "heh heh, I surf for porn too" manner.

- I was not surfing for pr0n! I was checking my e-mail!!
- Whoa, you get porn in your e-mail too? Nice...
- Not by choice!!

Before, I used to do this really knuckleheaded thing and click their 'unsubscribe' link, which takes me to some site where I punch in the e-mail addy I want to unsubscribe. Big mistake. I think it was that which opened the floodgates for me. All I did was confirm my account was live, and thus inadvertedly gave the green light to Cindy and her nekkid pals hungry for my credit card. That's it. Enough is enough. I decided to fight back.

Enter SpamCop.net. My new inbox PI of unwanted mail. All I do is copy the complete message and headers into SpamCop's site, and it'll do a bunch of reverse IP lookups to trace the origin of the stinking spam. Not only that, it'll also look up the host(s) from which the spam was sent, and give you the option of notifying the postmaster(s) to eradicate the spammer. YES! Death to bulk mailers! Since I began waging my war, my spam count has decreased dramatically--down to maybe one or two at most per day. Try out SpamCop if your situation is like mine. It's free!

...

Oh, by the way, I have a Serious Sam review posted. I actually had it done a week or so ago, but due to time constraints and a terrible memory, I forgot to plug it here. So, uh, plug!

Around The Rice
[ 12-15-01 ][ 2:27 p.m. pst ][ By Rice ]

Two words: Winter Break. Yeehaw!

This Fall quarter has really been a trial by fire for me. Along with the increasing demands of Computer Science courses, I've had to juggle work (which isn't all that bad, actually), cooking, and living with three other guys in a small apartment. On top of that, Verizon DSL decided to play impossible to get, leaving us with no internet at home, and TV reception is atrocious, because none of my roomies were willing to split a cable bill. So for the first time in 3 years, I went home every weekend to escape that desolate environment. On Finals week when I was forced to stay because of a Saturday exam, I felt like dementors were draining the life out of me.

Alas, I've got nobody to blame but me for being a spoiled little slacker who's been getting rude awakenings to how college students are really supposed to live. I was lavished with a AC/heater room in posh Sunset Village as a freshman, and it's been going downhill ever since. The icing on the cake was my severely sprained ankle Wednesday night before Finals week. After getting x-rayed and all the works at the student health center, I had to hobble to the last couple of classes on crutches, and limp to my final exams thereafter. Pox to it all!

But it's all over now. A nice, long, winter break awaits me. Internet connection, no more cooking, cable TV for all the TNT basketball games featuring MJ and the Wiz, and my brand spanking new NINTENDO GAMECUBE!

$400 bucks poorer, I now have the GameCube and all the accessories pictured above plus an extra controller. Best $400 I'll spend this Christmas season though, I tell ya. I finally arrived home last night and wasted no time popping in Wave Race: Blue Storm. I'll do reviews for them, definitely. Preliminary evaluation for the GameCube itself, my first console since the original NES, is of course an emphatic thumb's up.

Alright. Thanks for reading my latest laments guys. I'm going to go decorate our Christmas tree now, and then indulge in some more Wave Race later. Home sweet home. Cheers.

Link of the Day
[ 12-3-01 ][ 5:01 p.m. pst ][ By Rice ]

On a quiet Sunday morning in Silicon Valley, I am standing atop a machine code-named Ginger--a machine that may be the most eagerly awaited and wildly, if inadvertently, hyped high-tech product since the Apple Macintosh. Fifty feet away, Ginger's diminutive inventor, Dean Kamen, is offering instruction on how to use it, which in this case means waving his hands and barking out orders.

"Just lean forward," Kamen commands, so I do, and instantly I start rolling across the concrete right at him.

"Now, stop," Kamen says. How? This thing has no brakes. "Just think about stopping." Staring into the middle distance, I conjure an image of a red stop sign--and just like that, Ginger and I come to a halt.

"Now think about backing up." Once again, I follow instructions, and soon I glide in reverse to where I started. With a twist of the wrist, I pirouette in place, and no matter which way I lean or how hard, Ginger refuses to let me fall over. What's going on here is all perfectly explicable--the machine is sensing and reacting to subtle shifts in my balance--but for the moment I am slack-jawed, baffled.

Say hello to Segway. Its goal? To change the world. Read more at TIME.com: Reinventing the Wheel.

...

What an absolutely fascinating gadget! I do fear, though, that if Segway becomes mainstream, people might forget how to walk...

Weezer @ Long Beach
[ 11-26-01 ][ 4:51 p.m. pst ][ By Rice ]

Sigh. Thanksgiving weekend is never long enough.

On the other hand, my first rock concert was a smashing experience. Even though our seats were bordering on the nose-bleed, I had no problems hearing Weezer blow the roof off of Long Beach Arena. The evening started out with a quick dinner at a nearby Subway, followed by waiting in a (almost literally) mile-long line. Jimmy Eat World came on from 7:30 to 8 followed by Tenacious D from 8:30 to 9:15 or so. JEW rocked pretty hard, but I only knew a third of the songs they played, and The 'D' was more like a big goofy musical duet replete with the F word rather than a rock band. However, I thought they did a good job setting up the atmosphere.

When the Weezer quartet walked rather nondescriptly on stage, the entire arena exploded with cheers. They played a nice mixture of old and new songs, all of which I sang along to until I was hoarse (you try hearing yourself when 100+ decibals are pumping out of amps the size of Suburbans). Highlights include:

Island in the Sun: Possibly the most TRL of all their songs on the Green album, and the reason why half of the total audience attended.
In The Garage: One of my favorite tracks from their debut Blue album.
Tired of Sex: Unfortunately, the only song they played from their Pinkerton album. Only Weezer's hardcore fans know this one, but they (including me) were cheering the loudest when it came on.
My Name is Jonas: This song has such a great intro riff.
Undone (The Sweater Song): Weezer's first single! The intro faked me out, as I thought it was El Scorcho, only to realize Rivers would never play that. Nonetheless, Undone was great. I loved the guitar solo. It rocks so hard.
Say It Ain't So: I nearly died when this song came on. It's my absolute favorite Weezer track of all time. I think at the end of this song was when I started to lose my voice.
Hash Pipe: My favorite from the Green album. It was also during this one when they unveiled their glittering neon 'W' logo.
Only In Dreams: This song closed the main set with a bang! First, the stage was shrouded in blue smoke when the intro bass line came on. Then during the guitar outro, the lights flashed and confetti poured from the top of the stage. What an awesome sight. This song has the best outro guitar riff ever.
Buddy Holly & Surfwax USA: ...were the songs they played in the encore. Several people had already uprooted and left by then. Suckers.

Rock is alive and well. It's all about the music, baby.