Keep pushing the limits.

Floating in the ocean, watching some boats jump ramps, the first boat was a light white rubber raft with dual motors, one of which had shifted over to the right, so it went all sideways in the air; we tried to get it balanced out to jump again, but a van like Mr Van (*) was ready to jump. It had a great jump and landed upside down, and then righted itself like a duck and was floating perfectly on its four wheels. I thought that was way cool, but no one else seemed impressed.

Thanks to Gene for asking if I enjoyed the latest NIN work. I thought, this sounds like I'm missing something... and sure enough, I was, until now, when I'm listening to the album available at ghosts.nin.com. I dunno why neither my Spiral membership nor remix.nin.com membership seemed to help me be aware of this new album.

10:03 AM Gene: So Rob, what do you think of the new NiN?

me: which one is "the new" one?

10:04 AM Gene: Ghosts I-IV of course

me: I ain't heard it

but I'm sure I'll like it.

For me, new is Year Zero and http://remix.nin.com/

10:05 AM Gene: I figured you read /. or the Reg or something where you would have heard of it by now

10:06 AM I know I've been waiting for an instrumental album for a while now....

me: I do read /., but I guess I missed that.

I am in the NIN fanclub "The Spiral," but I guess they didn't email us

instrumental? hmmm

Gene: shit, really? their website got overloaded

me: hang on; I'm reading about it / downloading / ordering now.

10:07 AM Gene: I figured some folks had to know

10:10 AM me: I'm getting the $75 version

10:11 AM I dunno if I woulda bought the $300 version; I wonder what was in it.

10:12 AM Gene: Signed stuff, cds plus vinyl, goodies, I think....

10:15 AM me: fuck

the shipping is $50

10:16 AM Gene: It's probably a lot of stuff, and you are in japan, but yeah man fuckin' hell....

10:21 AM me: aight I ordered it.

Gene: I think I'll do the $10 or the $5 d/l. I'm not in great financial shape, but I'd like to pay for what I get.

10:22 AM me: My credit card balance has been overpaid by $150, so it will cover the shipping as well.

Gene: cool

me: yah; don't pay more than you can afford, but I appreciate your desire to help the artists

10:23 AM Gene: Yeah, I'm going d/l only. the CDs + shipping is probably 2-3 meals for me

10:24 AM me: yes. good choice.

10:25 AM Or you can fast while listening to the CDs in meditative bliss

10:26 AM Gene: lol. never was much of a faster.

7 minutes

10:34 AM me: thank you muchly for inquiring as to my NIN awareness!

I'll be listening to it today and let you know how I like it.

Gene: cool

The guy who doesn't work in this office seems to know different aspects of unix than I. He was able to get mysql installed when I couldn't, and told me a bit about run levels in unix, about which I knew nothing.

Unfortunately, even with the new mysql installed, I don't yet know how to upgrade the PHP portion of it. I've gotten a bit sidetracked with reading news and such.