Timberlake and Samberg earn an Emmy nomination for their SNL song…

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/330795_emmy08.html

LOS ANGELES — There are dozens of surprises among the more than 400 Emmy nominees, but none quite like the one we can’t name in this story.

It’s in the Original Music and Lyrics category, a holiday-themed music video that aired last December on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” with an off-color title. Performed by Justin Timberlake and “SNL” cast member Andy Samberg, the fake music video describes packaging a certain part of the male anatomy in a gift box and presenting it to a loved one.

We’ll just call it “(Blank) in a Box.”

Given the subject matter, little wonder some of those involved were caught off guard by the TV academy’s acknowledgment.

“I was not aware until this year that there was (such) a category at the Emmys, and I’m not sure whether it’s in the big Emmys or the little Emmys,” observed longtime “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels, “but we were thrilled.”

Actually, the Original Music and Lyrics category is in the “little Emmys,” aka Creative Arts Emmys, to be presented Saturday night and airing Sept. 15 on E!, the night before the Primetime Emmy Awards on Fox.

“I was just super excited that somebody important at some point will have to say (the title) at an otherwise classy broadcast,” said skit co-writer Akiva Schaffer.

“(Blank) in a Box” is up against two songs from “Scrubs,” one from “MADtv” and one from “Family Guy.” If “Box” wins, six co-writers will go home with Emmy gold: Timberlake, Samberg, Schaffer, plus “SNL” mates Katreese Barnes and brothers Jorma and Asa Taccone.

I’ve actually linked to the video in a previous entry, and I have to say it’s a pretty catchy song, if a bit silly. I’m hoping it wins. :-)

EDIT – September 16 10:28 PM – Guess what? It won.

With apologies to A Few Good Men

I saw this on Slashdot a few minutes ago, and just had to share it. The funny thing is, I can fully agree with this version of Jessup’s famous speech…

http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=291431&cid=20517087

YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!

Son, we live in a world that has firewalls, and those firewalls have to be maintained by men with root access. Whose gonna do it? You? You, with your blogging buddies? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You whine about port blocking and you curse the administrators. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: That blocking ports, while frustrating, probably saves bandwidth… And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves packets. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at LAN parties, you want me on that firewall, you need me on that firewall. We use words like source address, port 80, destination… We use these words as the backbone of an access control list. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain why I block access to YouTube to a man who points and clicks on the very network that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a whitepaper, and create your own web 2.0 app. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.

This almost sounds more like something the Adeptus Mechanicus would do…

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/appease-sky-god-airline-sacrifices-goats…

KATHMANDU (Sept. 4) – Officials at Nepal’s state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday.

Nepal Airlines, which has two Boeing aircraft, has had to suspend some services in recent weeks due to the problem.

The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal’s only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said.

“The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights,” said Raju K.C., a senior airline official, without explaining what the problem had been.

I have to admit, when I read about stuff like this, I think more along the lines of the Adeptus Mechanicus from Warhammer 40,000 than anything else. I mean, I’ve made jokes about making blood sacrifices to appease the computer gods when cutting my finger on PC cases during computer assembly, but this is just a tad ridiculous… :-)

Post-Labor Day and all that rot…

You know, it’s kind of hard for me to believe that we’re already past Labor Day. Damn… time really does fly. Now I’m two months away from my birthday… heh. It’s around the two month mark that my family’s tradition kicks in, and we start making our birthday lists. I haven’t started mine yet, though; it’s more out of laziness, truth be told, but there is another reason for it that I will get into in a bit. First, though…

On Friday, I took the time to listen to some of the Jack FM station that I mentioned in the previous post. I think I’ve found a keeper, as the station’s eclectic style is suiting me to a T. I could do without the commercials, but the lack of DJs is nice. The selection of music has been pretty good as well. Hopefully it’ll stick around for a while…

This weekend was actually more or less uneventful. On Saturday, the parents and I made our way to the Woodlands Mall for some shopping. I needed to get a few new pairs of underpants, so we made our way over to JC Penney. After buying them, I decided to splurge for dinner, so we went to the Cheesecake Factory. Even without ordering an appetizer I managed to stuff myself… heh. After dinner, we went back through the mall (Dad had parked at Dillard’s), and I stopped back by Penney’s to get a pair of boxers I saw there as a “what the hell” type purchase. Those friends who have seen the pic of them (no, I wasn’t wearing them) were highly amused. :-) While there, Dad pointed out that they had black leather blazers on sale. I used to have one before I accidentally tore the pocket badly when it got caught on an chair’s armrest. I always thought of it as my “Ninth Doctor” jacket, except it was single-breasted instead of double-breasted. Justin, on the other hand, referred to it as my “Shang Tsung” jacket. The one at Penney’s was made of thicker material and definitely seemed more durable, so I went ahead and bought one. Needless to say, I spent more than I was intending that evening, but it was worth it…

Sunday, on the other hand, was very slow other than meeting Louie for drinks and dinner. He’s going to Tokyo and Hong Kong next month on vacation, so this was very likely going to be our last night to meet up before he left. Hopefully he enjoys himself; I’d be jealous if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m facing the slight possibility of going to Shanghai for work at some point…

Monday was more or less quiet as well, other than talking to Misty. At least, it was until the late afternoon… when Dad and I booked our trip. A bit of backstory is in order: Dad had been saying he wanted to go to Vegas for several months, and when he learned Mom and Aunt Norma were going in December, he offered to go with them. He wasn’t happy when they turned him down, as it would mean the dogs would need to be boarded. (They listen to Mom. They listen to Dad. They DON’T listen to me.) However, Mom and I came up with an alternative solution: I would go with Dad on a separate trip. Dad and I scheduled our trip for the first full week in November, from Sunday to Thursday. Dad booked the hotel room, while I came up with the idea of using our frequent flier miles to pay for the flights. So, the trip is booked, and I’ve already arranged for the time off. So I can be ready, I’ve already been practicing playing Texas Hold Em on my Xbox 360 and on my PC. Hopefully I’ll do as well this time as I did the last time… :-)

As for the rest of this week… eh. It’s not been a good start so far. I figure any week that starts with encountering a busted coffee machine (delivering weak and lukewarm coffee) is not a good week. The rest of the day followed suit, and will probably end up with a couple of engineers being angry at me. *sigh* Ah, well… I’ll deal with it as it comes. Hopefully the rest of the week won’t be as bad.

For now, though, I’m going to grab a bottle of water and play another round of Texas Hold Em on the Xbox 360. I plan to be well practiced before the trip. :-)

So long, KIOL…

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/entertainment/5096189.html

The eclectic, iPod shuffle-like music format known as Jack FM makes its Houston debut at 10:37 a.m. Friday at 103.7 FM.

The Cumulus Media station, now known as KIOL or Rock 103.7 FM, will be reformatted as KHJK, said Pat Fant, Cumulus’ Houston market manager.

Houston will be the seventh market in Texas and the fifth top 10 market in the country to add Jack FM, which formats about a thousand songs by 500 artists in 18 genres of music dating from the late 1960s through today.

Jack FM operates without live DJs, so Cumulus will attempt to find positions elsewhere in the company for Rock 103.7’s current on-air personalities.

While I have to say I’m kind of sad to see KIOL die, I do have to admit I haven’t listened to it in a while. The last couple of times that I tried to, I found it had become almost purely classic rock, and not the mix of classic and current rock you might find on stations such as Rock 93.9. Still, I’ll check it out on the drive home tomorrow, provided I’m not on the phone with Misty. I used to listen to an eclectic playlist on my iPod when driving to and from work, so this might be interesting to try.

A Monopoly movie by Ridley Scott? WTF?!

http://movies.ign.com/articles/810/810783p1.html

August 6, 2007 – Ridley Scott, the brilliant filmmaking mind behind such extraordinary films as Alien and Gladiator, is venturing into rather new territory for an upcoming movie based on the classic Parker Brothers board game Monopoly. … And the universe let out a thunderous, collective “WTF!?” This is the guy who is rumored to have turned down Halo because he didn’t see enough potential for a story.

The news first broke back in June that Scott was interested in directing a comedy-thriller based on the game. Now, Scott has dished a little to the Los Angeles Times about his thoughts on the film.

Monopoly is still the most popular board game — I might be misquoting! — in the world. So it’s really finding the universe for that game,” he explains. “Because clearly it ought to be humorous and for the family — the funny way it brings out, particularly when your uncle suddenly gets Park Lane and — in England, we have Park Lane, Mayfair and Barclay Square, what’s it in America? Park and Madison? So you watch people change. You’re witness to Jekyll and Hyde. Somewhere in that is a hysterically amusing and I think rather exciting film.” Oh, boy.

“Oh, boy” is right. If it was anyone other than Ridley Scott, I’d be very very frightened. Instead, I’m just very frightened… heh.

“You SURE I can’t kidnap you?” “Yes, I’m sure.” “… grumble grumble grumble…”

So, I’m back from Jackson.

I have to say, it was good to get away from it all for a week. Of course, it also goes without saying that it was VERY good to spend an entire week with Misty. The fact that I had to leave was not an easy thing for either of us. Still, it was a good week, and we enjoyed ourselves. I’ll put what happened on the trip behind a cut so that those who are not interested can skip past. :-)
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