Q: How do you spend five hours conveying five minutes worth of information?

A: Get a dozen people in a room, gather around a conference table, and call it a "meeting".

Ha haha hahahaha! Ok, I realize it isn't really that funny, but at times, laughter can be the only thing standing between us and the insanity, right? :)

So anyway, after work today, I was feeling rather... in need of diversion, and I remembered that this is the release date of A Perfect Circle's new album. So, like the good little consumer, I headed out to Best Buy to grab my copy. After all, who wouldn't want to miss a chance at hearing the Reverend Maynard's latest sermon? ;)

(I still am considering biting the bullet and paying the exorbitant ticket fees to go to that concert. It's not often that one gets a chance to see two such cool acts in a one evening event. I dunno.)

I then did the customary ritual of wandering around the store to examine various items. Getting my hands on a DVD player has never looked more attractive. So much cool stuff available. Rationalizing it into not seriously violating my ethical dilemma is going to be a fun trick though. (Not to mention my sure-to-be shattered credibility in the eyes of readers of this web page, given all the ranting I've done about it. ;)

So anyway, after my tour of the store, I made my way to the checkout, and got the latest Rolling Stone featuring SMG on the cover. A POS item. (That's Point Of Sale, not Piece of Sh*t, for all you non-marketing buzzword types.) To paraphrase someone I know, unlike most people who buy such items, I was well aware that I was the target of a cheap marketing stunt when I made the purchase. But I bought it anyway. Well aren't we the superior ones? Reveling in our great awareness as we march into the ocean, fully cognizant of the destination to which our herd of lemmings plunges? ;)

This music is pretty wacked. It does have that Maynard touch. What I'm having trouble figuring out is the insert. When I first opened it, I thought I had been the victim of some bizarre mixup, and somehow obtained a Chinese import version. Upon closer examination, those characters look more like a dingbats style font. Perhaps some cipher cracking will be in order. Although, given my track record after spending several unsuccessful hours attempting to solve Jaeger's contest, I'm not terribly optimistic.

Well, I'm off to watch the season finales. Enjoy the fall, all ye pathetic lemmings. :)