DIX Daily June 2005

Thursday, June 30.
Link: Shopping with chicks Penny Arcade style.Sunday, June 26.
Jay Kay: Summer Solstice party 2005 is now over and a small but skillful selection of the best photos from this years' events DIX Gang enjoyed over their road trip celebration on the route Riga-Sigulda-Ledurga-Vidrizhi-Limbazhi-Umurga-Riga is now available online. Check out Visions. Feedback and your best experiences are welcome.

Saturday, June 25.
Link: Playboy Philosphy. Read it. Also - the world on drugs. Well, the world itself is not neccessarily on drugs, but the creator of this piece has definetely been under some kind of influence. Top ranked baby names over time. Find the perfect name for your newborn. How to behave on Summer Solstice party - by Mako.

Thursday, June 23.
Quote: A good discussion is like a miniskirt: short enough to pertain interest and long enough to cover the subject.
Link: Whoa. A trip to the adult section at the video store is about to get spicier. Vivid Entertainment, one of the leading suppliers of adult entertainment, has licensed a system that will let shoppers preview racy trailers on their camera phones just by scanning the bar code on the box. Now that's handheld entertainment.

Tuesday, June 21.
Link: A comic for golfers, Life In The Trap.
Quote: There are so many things in life you can't learn until you've actually done them. Rob Svedberg, Ozo Golf Club court architect.

Monday, June 20.
Jay Kay: The world's quest towards ultimate stupidity has gone even further - now mobile ringtone person Crazy Frog has received its entry on Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, along with lyrics (!) to the sound clip. Schnappi is there as well. The world has gone wrong. I guess one day The Crazy Frog will team up with Pharell Williams and buy the whole world. Infinitus est numerus stultorum. I give up all the hope.
In other news, new pictures from the weekend in country style. Gran Venta just turned 75.

Sunday, June 19.
Link: A visit to a kindergarten class by Penny Arcade.

Friday, June 17.
Quote: from an article on ESPN on basketball player Emanuel Ginobili. Funny:
In 2002, after the third game of the World Championships in Indianapolis, I ran around the arena asking anyone I could find from Argentina how to say something in Spanish. The word I wanted can't be printed, not here, but it starts with "mother," if that helps any. In context, I meant that the man I'd just watched on the court that day had played like one.

Wednesday, June 15.
Jay Kay: On the conquest of creating a concept for one of my projects at my workplace I roamed through some old documents from the time before DIX began, back in 2000, when there were only a handful of websites around the web. And I found a surprisingly short list of possible domain names I would choose from to use as the title of the webpage: jay-kay.lv, jaykay.lv, jk.lv, nik.lv, dix.lv, jan-ka.lv, truth.lv. The choice was wise.
Link: Webcams. And more.

Tuesday, June 14.
Pinx: I was surfing sports portal espn.com and found another column from our favourite sports guy Bill Simmons. In this one, he takes on NBA Finals. Mostly it's meant for people interested in sports, but especially I liked one part about music during games TV coverage. Have a good laugh! And, while I'm at it - here's something for the ladies.
“And since I need a new cause, I'm making it my mission to convince sports TV execs that music has actually been released since 1985. You may remember my starting this crusade back in the 2004 ALCS when Fox kicked off Game 1 with Billy Squier's Rock Me Tonight, which came out a good 20 years ago. And ever since then, I've been noticing how nobody can ever kick off a telecast with a recent song. For instance, during the Suns-Spurs series, ESPN actually dragged out Phil Collins' In The Air Tonight as the running background music for the opener and commercial breaks in Game 3. Are you kidding me? You could almost picture them breaking out of the final production meeting right before the game:
Some 22-year-old intern: "Wait, wait, did we pick a song for the game?"
Middle-aged boss (heading to another meeting): "Oh, crap, I almost forgot … um … just use that Phil Collins song again, the one from Miami Vice."
Intern (as boss is rushing off): "Didn't we already use that one?"
Boss (shouting over his shoulder): "Who cares, just use it again!"
Anyway, I'm making it a personal crusade – there have been plenty of songs (both new and old) that would work for those opening sequences. If you wanted something more upbeat and current, Time Is Running Out by Muse, Sweet Harmony by The Beloved, Honest Mistake by The Bravery, Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand, Extreme Ways by Moby and Y Control by Yeah Yeah Yeahs would all work. If you wanted something slower that could generate some goose bumps, go with Clocks by Coldplay or Last Goodbye by Jeff Buckley, or even go way back for Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat, Reptile by The Church or The Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen. If you want a prolonged instrumental with a kick, use the second half of Uncertain Smile by The The. If you want a less-known '80s song out of the In the Air Tonight mold, go with Don't Give Up by Peter Gabriel. And those are just the ones I that popped in my head in the last five minutes.
Here's the point: Music has been released in the last 20 years. I know it's impossible to believe. So just for the hell of it, give me Muse heading into one of these games. I don't ask for much.
(By the way, if I was in charge of ABC, I would hire Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake to reenact their Barry Gibb Show skit from SNL, have them dress like the Bee Gees and then reconfigure the words to Nights on Broadway for the NBA Finals pregame show. Livin' it up… in the NBA Finals… talking 'bout deee-fense… talking 'bout shot selection at crunch time… yeahhhhhh livin' it up." Was that the most underrated sketch of this decade or am I crazy?)

Monday, June 13.
Link: PvPOnline, with tongue.

Sunday, June 12.
Link: Sports people and actors. You really do look like...
Quote: From The Playboy Interview with Hunter S. Thompson, by Craig Vetter.
This interview was hammered and stitched together over seven months, on the road, mostly, in Mexico and Washington, San Clemente and Colorado, and as I write this, we are in Chicago, where tornado warnings are out, and we are up against a hell-fire deadline that has me seeing ghosts and has Dr. Thompson locked in a penthouse full of mirrors on the 20th floor of an Astor Street high-rise. (..) We are trying to salvage this interview, making changes, corrections, additions -- all of them unnecessary until nine days ago, when Richard Nixon quit. (..) We might have finished this thing like gentlemen, except for Richard Nixon, who might as well have sent the plumbers' unit to torch the entire second half, the political half, of the manuscript we have worked on so long. All of it has had to be redone in the past few sleepless days and it has broken the spirit of nearly everyone even vaguely involved. (..)
The first time I turned on the tape recorder, we were sitting on a sea wall, in damp, salty bathing suits, under palm trees. It was warm, Nixon was still our President and Thompson was sucking up bloody marys, vegetables and all, and he had just paid a young newsboy bandit almost one dollar American for a paper that would have cost a straighter, more sober person 24 cents.
PLAYBOY: You just paid as much for your morning paper as you might for a good hit of mescaline. Are you a news junkie, too?
THOMPSON: Yeah, I must have the news. One of these mornings, I'm gonna buy a paper with a big black headline that says, "Richard Nixon Committed Suicide Last Night." Jesus...can you imagine that rush?
(..)
PLAYBOY: (..) Already this morning you've had two bloody marys, three beers and about four spoons of some white substance and you've been up for only an hour. You don't deny that you're heavily into drugs, do you?
THOMPSON: No, why should I deny it? I like drugs. Somebody gave me this white powder last night. I suspect it's cocaine, but there's only one way to find out -- look at this shit! It's already crystallized in this goddamn humidity. I can't even cut it up with the scissors in my Swiss-army knife. Actually, coke is a worthless drug, anyway. It has no edge. Dollar for dollar, it's probably the most inefficient drug on the market. It's not worth the effort or the risk or the money -- at least not to me. It's a social drug; it's more important to offer it than it is to use it. But the world is full of cocamaniacs these days and they have a tendency to pass the stuff around, and this morning I'm a little tired and I have this stuff, so....
PLAYBOY: What do you like best?
THOMPSON: Probably mescaline and mushrooms: That's a genuine high. It's not just an up -- you know, like speed, which is really just a motor high. When you get into psychedelics like mescaline and mushrooms, it's a very clear kind of high, an interior high. But really, when you're dealing with psychedelics, there's only one king drug, when you get down to it, and that's acid. About twice a year you should blow your fucking tubes out with a tremendous hit of really good acid. Take 72 hours and just go completely amuck, break it all down.
(..)
PLAYBOY: You drink a little, too, don't you?
THOMPSON: Yeah...obviously, but I drink this stuff like I smoke cigarettes; I don't even notice it. You know -- a bird flies, a fish swims, I drink. But you notice I very rarely sit down and say, "Now I'm going to get wasted." I never eat a tremendous amount of any one thing. I rarely get drunk and I use drugs pretty much the same way.
PLAYBOY: Do you like marijuana?
THOMPSON: Not much. It doesn't mix well with alcohol. I don't like to get stoned and stupid.
PLAYBOY: What would you estimate you spend on drugs in a year?
THOMPSON: Oh, Jesus....
PLAYBOY: What the average American family spends on an automobile, say?
THOMPSON: Yeah, at least that much. I don't know what the total is; I don't even want to know. It's frightening, but I'll tell you that on a story I just did, one of the sections took me 17 days of research and $1400 worth of cocaine. And that's just what I spent. On one section of one story.
PLAYBOY: What do you think the drugs are doing to your body?
THOMPSON: Well, I just had a physical, the first one in my life. People got worried about my health, so I went to a very serious doctor and told him I wanted every fucking test known to man: EEG, heart, everything. And he asked me questions for three hours to start with, and I thought, "What the hell, tell the truth, that's why you're here". So I told him exactly what I'd been doing for the past 10 years. He couldn't believe it. He said, "Jesus, Hunter, you're a goddamn mess" -- that's an exact quote. Then he ran all the tests and found I was in perfect health. He called it a "genetic miracle."
(..)
PLAYBOY: What part of the Watergate were you in?
THOMPSON: I was in the bar.
PLAYBOY: What kind of a reporter are you, anyway, in the bar?
THOMPSON: I'm not a reporter, I'm a writer. (..) I've never tried to pose as a goddamn reporter. I don't defend what I do in the context of straight journalism, and if some people regard me as a reporter who's gone bad rather than a writer who's just doing his job.
(..)
PLAYBOY: When you actually sit down to start writing, can you use drugs like mushrooms or other psychedelics?
THOMPSON: No. It's impossible to write with anything like that in my head. Wild Turkey and tobacco are the only drugs I use regularly when I write. But I tend to work at night, so when the wheels slow down, I occasionally indulge in a little speed -- which I deplore and do not advocate -- but you know, when the car runs out of gas, you have to use something. The only drug I really count on is adrenaline. I'm basically an adrenaline junkie. I'm addicted to the rush of the stuff in my own blood and of all the drugs I've ever used, I think it's the most powerful. [Coughing] Mother of God, here I go. [More coughing] Creeping Jesus, this is it...choked to death by a fucking...poisoned Marlboro....
PLAYBOY: Do you ever wonder how you have survived this long?
THOMPSON: Yes. Nobody expected me to get much past 20. Least of all me. I just assume, "Well, I got through today, but tomorrow might be different." This is a very weird and twisted world; you can't afford to get careless; don't fuck around. You want to keep your affairs in order at all times.
From When War Drums Roll, by Hunter S. Thompson.
Sooner or later, I will hit something Evil, and feel no Guilt. It might be Osama Bin Laden. Who knows? And where is Adolf Hitler, now that we finally need him?
From The Hunter S. Thompson Interview, by Adam Bulger.
(To Answering Machine) I had an interview scheduled with Hunter Thompson--
(Explosion of music over the telephone.) Hey hey hey hi. Sorry, this thing is just dragging on longer than I thought. I'll call you, I'd imagine in like ten minutes.
OK. Sure.
(TWENTY MINUTES LATER.) Hello?
I got caught up in some goddamn weird old English romance of some kind.
(..)
OK, then. What is the state of the American dream today?
Oh, god. That's a pretty pre-thought out, written on a list kind of question. Not very good. Yeah I would say not. The American Dream ran out with the American century. I'm still figuring it out. That's a pretty strong statement. I'm still putting the pieces together right now.
(..)
What do you think the think of how the Bush Administration is cracking down on civil rights?
The Bush administration is a heap of Nazi shit. Bullshit. Yeah, you can put it that way. I don't know what your audience is ready for. What kind of target.
(..)
What do you think of the state of political journalism?
Very bad. Very lazy and almost cowardly in its obsequiousness.
What important questions are they not asking?
God damn, man. Who wrote these questions for you?
I did.
Well, they're all kind of pertinent, but let's take a break and kind of work up to some of these.
(..)
You're the last public figure to use a cigarette holder. What's the deal?
For one thing, it is not a holder. It is a filter. A big difference. A filter clears a full ounce of scum and tar a day, keeps it from ruining my lungs. The first time I used it, I saw what came out of a filter and I never stopped.
(..)
What's the best drug to write on?
You've got dumb questions.
Um, sorry. Have you ever done ecstasy?
Yeah. It seemed kind of mild and talky. I didn't mind it. It's not in the nature of the kind of drug I am normally accustomed to, it was a quasi-drug, I guess.
What kind of music are you listening to?
Let's see. I just got the new Bob Dylan box set from the Rolling Thunder tour from 1975. It's kind of a big package with a book and several CDs in there. It's maybe the best rock and roll album I've ever heard.
You don't think that was after his peak?
Shit. You really are dumb. You have to listen to it and find out. If you think that, you really are ignorant. What do you want to talk about, Eminem?
Is writing still fun for you?
Yes.
What's the best firearm for home security?
Twelve gauge short barrel shotgun.
And what's the best for just fucking around?
Machine guns are kind of nice. You can have a lot of fun with them. It's like watering the lawn. I don't get to play them very often.
(..)
Do you ever watch Fox News?
Very rarely.
What do you think of their level of discourse?
I think it's low and dumb.
I heard that you and Allen Ginsberg had the same weed dealer in the 60s.
That's an obscure and arcane story, isn't it? But yeah, yeah. I had met him before in New York during his poetry readings and things. In San fransicisco, it turned out that we did have the same weed dealer. That's when you bought weed in tins, tabacco tins. Ten dollars, fifteen. I lived in an apartment right next store to the guy he was buying it from.
(..)
You think people are just dumb?
Well, the education [in this] country, the patriotism, the boom boom boom drum, and the propaganda, and the cooperative media, yeah. That, well come to think of it, the Germans were economically stricken, weren't they?
(..)
I'm curious about why you're doing the kinda sports-centric thing with ESPN. I know you started as a sports journalist but...
I got a soft spot in my heart for sports and what the hell, I bet on it, I'm into it all the time, I might as well make some money on it. One of the things I think I've learned over time is I have to make movie on, excuse me, money on, I have to get paid for my vices somehow, or else its gonna be destructive. If you're paid for being crazy, then you're not crazy, is that right?
And when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
I think the real difference is functional and dysfunctional rather than sane or insane. And John Walsh at ESPN is an old friend. And I like it, it keeps me, the column kept me kinda sane, a regular deadline every week. I gotta finish it and read it the next day. I like the regularity of it. I grew up in newspapers. And it just gives me a nice little break every week.
Well that was my last question.
Well that's, uh, good luck! And you're gonna need it.

Saturday, June 11.
Jay Kay: Received a message from long lost Marex Dude: Czesc! Since I was the last time here, on dix.lv, everything seems to have been going uphill a lot! Respect to the guys who spoiled their eyes creating everything here like it is now! How's Jay Kay doing? P.S. How do I register in your rotten page? Hail! Marex.
Link: The various and interesting definitions of the abbreviation TLC. Check out Tender Loving Care, Total Lung Capacity, Teaching and Learning Center and Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes. Then, Google takes over the world in a way world doesn't suspect anything. You know, what manko means in Japanese?

Wednesday, June 8.
Jay Kay: While I was doing a gonzo journalistic research on topic The biography of Dr. Hunter S Thompson for my newspaper, I stumbled upon this great question of chemical nature - The nature of Hell. Read it, it has some interesting insight.

Monday, June 6.
Jay Kay: New pics from last sauna at Leecha, the wood gathering and soccer. In other news, this weekend me and Pinx we're just off visiting Tomass and his Līga for bringing a beautiful baby boy Alan to this world [I even was steering the baby carriage on the road, across the street and through the shopping mall - and I must say I liked it], we received a message about our good friend Linda (right). While we were nurturing one baby, on 15.37 she was giving birth to another beautiful baby boy Hugo weighing in at 2.9 kg and proudly standing at 49 cm. Congratulations and welcome to the club of sexy MILFs, Linda!
Quotes: Some Latin stuff to spice up the beginning of your working week.
Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur - Even a god finds it hard to love and be wise at the same time.
Amicus verus est rara avis - A true friend is a rare bird.
Apudne te vel me? - Your place or mine?
Aqua vitae - Water of life (brandy).
Aquila non captat muscas - The eagle doesn't capture flies (don't sweat the small things).
Asinus asinum fricat - The ass rubs the ass. (Conceited people flatter each other about qualities they do not possess).
Aspice, officio fungeris sine spe honoris amplioris - Face it, you're stuck in a dead end job.
Audentes fortuna juvat - Fortune favors the bold. (Virgil).
Audere est facere - To dare is to do. (Motto of Tottenham Hotspur).
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam - I will either find a way or make one.
Brevior saltare cum deformibus mulieribus est vita - Life is too short to dance with ugly women.
Brevis ipsa vita est sed malis fit longior - Our life is short but is made longer by misfortunes. (Publilius Syrus).
Caeci caecos ducentes - Blind are led by the blind. Leaders are not more knowledgeable than the ones they lead.
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris - If Caesar were alive, you'd be chained to an oar.
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam - I have a catapult. Give me all your money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.
Cave canem, te necet lingendo - Beware of the dog, he may lick you to death.
Certe, toto, sentio nos in kansate non iam adesse - You know, Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
Cogito ergo doleo - I think therefore I am depressed.
Contra felicem vix deus vires habet - Against a lucky man a god scarcely has power.
Cui peccare licet peccat minus - One who is allowed to sin, sins less. (Ovid).
Damnant quod non intellegunt - They condemn what they do not understand.
Dixi - I have spoken. (I will say no more on the matter, and no one else may speak further)
Dum spiramus tuebimur - While we breathe, we shall defend.
Exterioris pagina puella - Cover Girl.
Fac ut vivas - Get a life.
Facito aliquid operis, ut te semper diabolus inveniat occupatum - Always do something, so that the devil always finds you occupied. (St. Jerome).
Fortunatus sum! Pila mea de gramine horrido modo in pratum lene recta volvit! - Isn't that lucky! My ball just rolled out of the rough and onto the fairway!
Illiud latine dici non potest - You can't say that in Latin.
Infinitus est numerus stultorum - Infinite is the number of fools.
Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum europe vincendarum - Sometimes I get this urge to conquer large parts of Europe.
Laudant illa, sed ista legunt - Some (writing) is praised, but other is read. (Martialis).
Memento mori - Remember that you will die.
Memento vivere - Remember that you have to live.
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur - The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived!
Mus uni non fidit antro - A mouse does not rely on just one hole. (Plautus).
Nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit - No fort is so strong that it cannot be taken with money. (Cicero).
Nill illigitimi carborundum - Do not let the bastards get you down.
Non mihi, non tibi, sed nobis - Not for you, not for me, but for us - the foundation of a good relationship.
Nosce te ipsum - Know thyself. (Inscription at the temple of Apollo in Delphi.)
Nullus est liber tam malus ut non aliqua parte prosit - There is no book so bad that it is not profitable on some part. (Pliny the Younger).
Numquam aliud natura, aliud sapientia dicit - Never does nature say one thing and wisdom say another.
Omne trium perfectum - Everything that comes in threes is perfect.
Omnia iam fient quae posse negabam - Everything which I used to say could not happen will happen now. (Ovid).
Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim - Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you. (Ovid).
Possunt quia posse videntur - They can because they think they can.
Quam bene vivas refert, non quam diu - The important thing isn't how long you live, but how well you live. (Seneca).
Qui me amat, amet et canem meum - Who loves me, loves my dog too.
Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum videtur - Anything said in Latin sounds profound.
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes - If you can read this, you're overeducated.
Sona si latine loqueris - Honk if you speak Latin.
Struit insidias lacrimis cum femina plorat - When a woman weeps, she is setting traps with her tears. (Dionysius Cato).
Stultum est timere quod vitare non potes - It is foolish to fear that which you cannot avoid. (Publilius Syrus).
Sunt pueri pueri, puerilia tractant - Children are children, (therefore) children do childish things.
Tu fui, ego eris - What you are, I was. What I am, you will be. (This is found on graves and burial sites).
Una hirundo non facit ver - One Swallow does not make Summer. (Horace).
Vive hodie - Live today (not tomorrow).
Vos vestros servate, meos mihi linquite mores - You cling to your own ways and leave mine to me. (Petrarch).

Sunday, June 5.
Link: Respect. Everyone wants it, few get it. Däggÿs take over the world in ways you haven't imagined before.

Wednesday, June 1.
Link: Sinfest cat is still on catnip. Hilarious! Also Nichtlustig shines about a man who spent a year inside a refrigerator.
Quote: The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.