Kojubatania

This One Goes Out To All The Lil' Bones Out There

2007-10-23T15:58:00.001-04:00

Happy now?

Just saw The Kingdom. Good flick.

Slacker

2006-09-21T10:52:00.000-04:00

Yeah, that's me.

Obviously, my attempt on daily posting failed miserably. Something came up on the 15th, so I couldn't make a post. So I figured I'd make two on the 16th, and something else came up. One thing leads to another, and here we are three months later.

Bah.

So anyway, I don't have anything exciting to report at the moment.

...Oh yeah, last week I totally sucked at my football picks.

Link of the Moment: Since I'm not providing anything to read, head on over an see what this guy and his girlfriend argue about.

Bugs

2006-06-14T10:32:00.000-04:00

Pixar Week Wednesday: A Bug's Life

(Note that the following article includes plot spoilers. You have been warned.)

A Bug's Life is the sophomore film effort by Pixar. Having had plenty of success with Toy Story, the computer animation studio was more than happy to make another film. Unfortunately, what they came up with was a movie about bugs that wasn't as strong as the first story.

I'm not alone in believing A Bug's Life is the weakest movie in the Pixar library, but I am aware there are those who disagree. I should note that I don't think it's a bad movie, just that their other work is stronger. They would follow up with a sequel to Toy Story that restored faith in the studio for strong and unique storytelling, and go on to other great movies.

So why wasn't it as good? Well, at the time, I'm sure the release conditions had something to do with it. Toy Story was almost universally loved (despite some rather disturbing elements in Sid's house), and was easy to relate to - nearly every kid has toys of some kind that they pretended were alive to some degree, and the adults who took them to the theater had fond memories of the same. The new movie was about the crawling things you try to whack with a shoe. Your pre-existing condition influenced the expectation of the movie. It also suffered from a bit of the Second Movie Syndrome. People will generally forgive the first movie of little quirks if the overall movie is good. That forgiveness disappears for subsequent movies, and in fact, tends to lead to overcritical responses for a second movie.

And in a supreme bout of poor planning, they released the movie in the same year as Antz, a competitor's movie with the same general setting. I personally haven't gotten around to seeing Antz, but it engendered a sort of "didn't we already see this" feeling in moviegoers. And oddly, that's really one of my problems with the movie, too.

I have two main dislikes of the film. One of them is sort of trivial, but you'd be amazed how it affects a movie. I really didn't like Dave Foley's voice as Flik. The funny part is that I was a huge Kid's In The Hall fan, so I really don't have a problem with Foley himself. It's not so much that you can identify the main character from the voice (that's always been an issue with every Pixar movie), but rather, I think his voice is somewhat grating without the context of his physical presence. As a minor character, that's not a big deal. But on the main character who appears in most of the scenes - it can get annoying whenever I notice it.

The biggest problem, though, is that there isn't really anything significantly new brought to the plot of the movie. This is essentially The Seven Samurai or The Dirty Dozen redone in animated insect form. While other Pixar films fit into certain storytelling categories, the story itself is typically unique. Not so much in A Bug's Life - since this style of story has been adapted to other settings, it feels like we've already seen this before and know where it's going. Even though we know Hopper cannot possibly win the day by the end of the movie, there is no point where we are surprised by what happens. If anything, it's almost a disappointment that the villain is defeated by Deus Ex Machina (the appearance of the real bird), not the direct actions of the heroes themselves. In both Toy Story films, the toys rescue themselves, in Monsters, Inc. Sully and Mike defeat Randall and Waternoose, and in The Incredibles, it's the actions of the Parrs and Frozone that defeat the robot and Syndrome. In A Bug's Life, though, we are left wondering what would have happened if the bird hadn't shown up to save the day.

I've spent a lot of time the last two days discussing messages in the Pixar films. It would be remiss of me not to at least cover the ones in A Bug's Life. The most obvious message is a suggestion to be yourself and not be afraid to try something new. It's a good message for kids as they enter the world of peer pressure and conformity. There's nothing wrong with marching to your own drummer, or thinking outside the box when you get to the 'adult world'.

There's another strong message in the film - namely, to stand up for yourself and your family/friends. I've never been the target of a bully (in itself, that's pretty weird - an overweight kid who never got picked on?), but I did have a friend who was constantly picked on in elementary school. At one point, I had had about enough of it, and exploded in rage on the playground at the bully. I didn't lay a hand on him, but I don't think he (or anyone else in the radius of the school, to be honest) was confused as to my meaning. He left my friend alone from that point on. I think it's an important message for kids - we constantly tell our kids to stand up for themselves. But we generally tell our kids to not get involved in the squabbles of others. There is a certain train of thought that suggests this is a good directive, but I think we end up fostering a sort of isolationism and selfish behavior. Now, that isn't to say we want our kids to be vigilantes - but we do want them to value their friends and to speak up when something isn't right.

(Humorous aside - the bully I screamed at later talked to me and pretty much told me that if I ever needed something taken care of, to just let him know. I never did take him up on the offer, but it was a nice trump card to have up my sleeve.)

So, while A Bug's Life isn't really a bad movie, it's more that Pixar has made better movies before and since. Interestingly, the previews before Cars has a short advertisement for their next film, Ratatouille. I have some reservations on this one, but I'll give it a chance. Cars exceeded my expectations. I wonder, though, if Pixar movies about animals just don't work as well?

If it wasn't already obvious, I rate A Bug's Life as my least favorite Pixar film.

Link of the moment: Wanna kill some bug-like aliens in a side scrolling action game? Then maybe you should click here.

Nemo

2006-06-13T10:10:00.001-04:00

Pixar Week Tuesday: Finding Nemo

(Note that the following article includes plot spoilers. You have been warned.)

Finding Nemo is a beautiful film, any way you look at it. If you'd like to just settle down and zone out to all the pretty colors, you'll get that. If you'd like to watch a moving story about a man and his missing son, and their ultimate reunion, you'll get that. And if you want to indulge in a little introspective as either a child or a parent, you'll... well, you get the idea.

Nemo is in the tradition of Great Quest stories that have been told since the dawn of time. Interestingly, it's also the only Pixar film so far to follow the odd Disney tradition of killing off at least one parent of a major character either before or during the film. (Did Walt have some kind of grudge, or what?) Additionally, it's also one of only a few children's films that has a main child character who has an actual physical disability - and the main point of the story isn't about them trying to fit in with the 'regular folks'.

In fact, this is probably the best film I have ever seen featuring a physically challenged character that doesn't coddle anyone on either side of the equation. Even the one character who does have an issue - his father, Marlin - is not so much concerned about Nemo's disability, but more concerned that the ocean is a mean and nasty place for any fish. I would posit that Marlin's personality would have found some other reason to keep Nemo close to home, and the 'lucky fin' is simply an excuse.

With Finding Nemo, Pixar nearly overloaded the movie with meaning. And yet, none of it feels shoved down your throat. There is a narrative similarity to Toy Story 2 in the plot - namely, someone is stolen away by someone who doesn't realize they are actually participating in a kidnapping. The difference between them is that while Buzz knows where to find Woody (the conflict is not how to rescue him but rather whether he wants to be rescued at all), Marlin must discover the location of Nemo before planning any sort of rescue. Marlin's conflict is the hopelessness of the situation. Obviously, since this is technically a movie for children, we know it's all going to work out in the end - Marlin will somehow reunite with Nemo. The journey itself is the story, and that is the strength of the narrative.

Now, while Marlin's journey is the bulk of the story, the titular Nemo has his own journey to travel. Not only must he somehow overcome the loss of his father and home, but he needs to overcome his own feelings of inadequacy brought on by the way his well-meaning father has protected him. Obviously, Gil's plan to escape is an attractive one, but what Nemo needed to do was to show he could do a job only he was suited to do. It's tempting to tie it back to his fin, but Gil clearly demonstrates that it's irrelevant - you can do anything you think you can do. By the time Nemo finds a way to escape, he has found the confidence he has been searching for, which serves him well in the next hurdle.

Back to Marlin. I found it rather easy to relate to Marlin as a father. Many of the lessons that get passed along through this movie are through Marlin's experiences with the various sea life he encounters, especially Dory. Dory is an interesting foil - while mostly there as comic relief to offset the surly and depressed Marlin, she has some insights into life that are all the more keen thanks to the source.

So what lessons do we have here? Perhaps the most blatant and important one is to let go and trust other people. Dory clearly states the lesson while in the mouth of the whale, but it is communicated throughout the movie. Marlin is constantly trying to part ways with Dory because he doesn't realize the help she is providing, but he finally learns that he can't make this journey alone. It is not coincidence that as soon as he "gets" the message, his physical journey to Australia has nearly completed.

We also clearly have a message of perseverance - again, clearly stated by Dory in her impromptu song, "Just Keep Swimming". Throughout the story, it is clear that giving up is not an option. Even if it looks hard or impossible, you can muscle through - whether it's a sea of jellyfish or escaping the tank.

Beyond that, there are lessons of peer pressure ("I'm gonna touch the butt!"), racism (the sharks), teaching your children to survive the real world, and the responsibilities of leadership (Gil and stop-the-filter plan).

But all in all, this is a fun movie. I've seen it a number of times, and each time there is something new I take away from it. Sometimes it's a lesson, sometimes it's a laugh. And sometimes, I just like watching the pretty fishies.

I rate Finding Nemo as my second favorite Pixar film.

As an aside, I forgot to mention the weight loss progress yesterday. I dropped another pound and a half, bringing the total to 11.5 pounds lost. We're planning on changing the weigh-in day to Friday, and I think that will work better. Under the Weight Watchers plan, you get a fixed set of points you can use at your discretion each week. They don't roll over, so as you get to the end of the week, you sort of feel entitled to the extra points and burn them on the day before weigh-in. This is a little tougher to avoid when the last day is a weekend - the opportunity for some guiltless spending is higher. By switching it to Friday, we can still have a nice meal or a special event (like movie popcorn) by using the bonus points, but we aren't bulking up for the weigh-in.

Link of the moment: Take your own journey through the skies with the Fly Guy.

Nemo

2006-06-13T10:10:00.000-04:00

Link of the moment: Take your own journey through the skies with the Fly Guy.

Monsters

2006-06-12T09:13:00.000-04:00

Pixar Week Monday: Monsters, Inc.

(Note that the following article includes plot spoilers. You have been warned.)

Kind of an odd movie to start with, eh? Monsters, Inc. is one of the middle releases for the Pixar group, and in general tends to not be as prevalent as some of the bigger titles like Toy Story. However, I consider this movie to be part of the cream in Pixar's milk, and an excellent example of their storytelling craft.

Oddly enough, Monsters is the only true feature-length buddy movie Pixar has made. Toy Story and its sequel don't really count - in the first film, it's more about opposites finding common ground, and in the second, the buddies are rarely in the same scenes. Nemo is more of the Great Quest. But in Mike and Sully, you have two buddies who are friends at the beginning and the end of the movie. Sure, there is some conflict in the middle (a staple of the buddy genre), but ultimately, they stand together.

The surface story of the film - finding Boo in the monster world and the ramifications of that discovery - is interesting on its own. There is a very clear villain, a big twist in the midstory with Mr. Waternoose, and a secondary twist with Roz and the CDA in the dénouement. The characters are well defined and deep. Despite being just relegated to the comic relief, Mike has a fierce loyal streak, a deep love for Celia, and an amazing lack of jealousy - he's really the backbone of the relationship with Sully. Sully, while being the muscle and the star scarer of the factory, also has a huge heart and deep sense of what's right. Even the secondary characters are textured - Randall isn't just a bully, he's actually found a way to solve the energy crisis (the methods are questionable, but not so unthinkable from their point of few); Mr. Waternoose isn't necessarily a bad guy, he's just a stubborn and prideful leader in a loosing position who took one wrong step and can't see how to turn it around.

What I find fascinating, though, is the story beneath the surface. Namely, the whole concept of using scream as a power source. There are plenty of evidence to suggest that the monsters have always been able to visit the human world - check your local library under 'folklore'. The question is, though, how did they determine screams generate power? Is there some other less efficient power source native to the monster world, or have they completely exhausted whatever native resources were available? It seems unlikely that a monster scientist discovered the energy characteristics of scream independent of an industrial society, but I suppose it's possible that whatever method was used to travel between the worlds allowed a human through and happenstance caused the discovery.

So we then turn energy management heads towards creating an industry in harvesting scream from the human world using controlled entry points and scheduled screams. For an outside observer, it seems rather exploitative. But for a world in an energy crisis, this was probably an attractive option.

Which begs the question - why hasn't Randall's invention been invented before this (assuming scream isn't a recent discovery - the implications are that it has been going on long enough to have comments like "kids aren't afraid like they used to be" from a veteran scarer)? And secondary to that, why is there an entire framework built around the erroneous concept that humans are too dangerous to even touch? Why the conspiracy?

Scream is technically a renewable resource with diminishing returns - why not abduct children and use them up before sending them back to breed?

There's a couple of theories I can envision:

Theory 1: War. Not necessarily a full blown war between the worlds (that tends to show up in history books), but rather a violent confrontation in the past. If this theory is true, either the monsters got too greedy, didn't spread the scaring around, or chose the wrong child at the wrong time. Something happened where the humans fought back and refused to allow the monsters to scare their children - likely through violence. At some point, the gains are outweighed by the costs, and abduction is deemed to be not worth the effort. So there is a sort of dark period where scream collection is limited and eventually codified and regulated. At some point, all that remains is the societal norm and a 'truth' that humans are dangerous.

Theory 2: Activism. Instead of human resistance, there is instead a 'humanitarian' movement in the early days of scream collection. This seems most likely for a kid's movie, since it doesn't involve a lot of violence. Essentially, the monsters in charge decide that while they need the power, they cannot condone the exploitation of human children. It might be driven by a sense of honor, or they simply couldn't stomach it. Knowing that not everyone will necessarily feel the way they do, they concoct a story about the deadly nature of the human race and erect the precursor to the CDA - contain and cover up any contact. And hoo-boy, you sure were lucky you didn't die when that kid touched you - sorry about the shaving.

Theory 3: Capitalism. This is a strictly economic theory. Scream power is a resource. Selling scream power is an industry. Providing that power drives profits (note that Waternoose references a board of directors - energy is big business even in the monster world). But you don't want just any old monster hopping into the human world to collect some home-grown scream. So you cultivate an image of danger, and create a buy-in barrier by implementing regulations and laws. You monopolize the creation or discovery of transit doors. So the common group-think lines right up, and nobody has any interest in dealing with humans as long as there is a company doing all of the hard work for you.

There's even further twists to the puzzle as we consider the banishment angle. Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman are well-known expatriates - we never meet Bigfoot (though we are led to believe he is of questionable sanity), but Abominable seems pretty amicable. In fact, Abominable isn't really his name, according to his comments to Mike and Sully - it's a label given by others. So why were they banished to such a "dangerous" locale? It doesn't appear to be a common punishment - Waternoose is incarcerated, not banished, as far as we know. (Randall was banished by Mike and Sully, not by way of civil punishment.) The most likely answer is that the banished monsters probably found out about something they shouldn't - namely, that humans aren't particularly dangerous without cause. And if you don't want someone to talk and you can't just kill them, you put them somewhere where nobody can hear them. Which suggests the conspiracy was active to some degree, whether the conspirators know the origins of the conspiracy or not.

With the advent of laugh energy, it would seem the conspiracy serves no purpose in the future of the monster world. There will still be a social stigma, but eventually that will fade. With a government agency (the CDA) that has nothing to protect against, one would hope that instead turns into a CPA - protecting the resource from the populace instead of protecting the populace from the resource.

Is this a lesson on managing limited resources and seeking less exploitive sources of energy? Probably. Nearly every Pixar movie has at least one secondary message in the plot. It's a positive message too - instead of lambasting the existing structure, it instead shows that we can find new resources that do not harm and still turn a profit.

All in all, it's a great film. If you haven't seen it, do so (though I fear that I have likely ruined some of the surprises). If you have seen it, watch it again when you get the chance.

I rate Monsters, Inc. as my third favorite Pixar film.

Link of the moment: Sing along with some other monsters!

Pixar

2006-06-11T23:35:00.000-04:00

Today we took the kids to go see Cars. My biggest concern was that this was going to be the Pixar movie where they finally misstep and actually make a subpar movie. Without going into too much detail, there isn't anything to worry about. Now, while the story was pretty predicatable (there is one twist that I didn't quite expect, but nowhere on the scale of say, the twist in Monsters, Inc.). There isn't nearly the amount of NASCAR as I expected, either.

The animation was crisp and detailed, much like the characters themselves. The message is your typical fare of 'family/friends is more important than fame/fortune', but that's not a bad message to repeat. There's also a secondary message encouraging a return to the family vacation of crossing the country on the pre-interstate highway system. If you stay for the credits - and if you don't stay for the credits of a Pixar movie, you're dead to me - you'll see a significant list of source material from the real Route 66.

Is it the best movie ever, or even the best Pixar movie? Not in my opinion - The Incredibles still holds that position. However, it certainly isn't the worst, either. Definitely worth seeing on the big screen.

So, in celebration of the new movie, this special Sunday edition of the blog is kicking off Pixar week. Each day, I'm going to look at a different Pixar movie and jot down a few ideas that pop into my head for each title.

Link of the moment: Do you ever wonder how some cartoons could ever be considered children's entertainment? Maybe what you've seen was censored before being released - it could have been worse!

Eloquence

2006-06-09T08:38:00.000-04:00

I've been making a conscious effort to blog every weekday for the past two weeks. So far, it hasn't been all that difficult to come up with things to talk about. I just imagine it's not all that interesting to read.

One of the secondary goals of this renewed effort is to force myself to write more. My job tends to deal more in numbers and technical descriptions. I haven't really written anything 'normal' in quite a while - probably not since the days of text-based online RPGs. What most writers will tell you when you ask for advice on improving your writing skills is to just keep writing. So here I am.

I'm not looking to publish anything, nor do I expect this blog to suddenly gain a rabid following hanging on my every turn of phrase and clever wit. (Although, I've never had a rabid following. Maybe I need to get one.) I'm just generally dissatisfied with my writing skills. I read other blogs of people whose tongues contain more than the trace elements of silver that mine does, and while I am not jealous, I feel stirrings of inadequacy. So I'll write and I'll write, and perhaps improve my style.

Vocabulary is not an issue, really. I'm a bit of a voracious reader. Compulsive, even - I have trouble not reading words when I see them. There's one bit of folklore that says vampires have a sort of OCD - if you are being chased by one, toss a large number of something in their path and they will stop to count it before continuing the pursuit.* I'm kind of that way with words. Toss a full-page treatise in my way, and you'll probably escape easily.

Oh, and this isn't a blog to garner sympathy or encouragement - it's appreciated but not necessary. It's just what I wanted to write about today.

* Neither this site nor its representatives are responsible if you are eaten by the undead due to the failure of this theory.

Link of the moment: Enough about me, what about you? Specifically, go see what your IP Address says about you, and how interesting it is compared to other addresses.

Invincible

2006-06-08T09:16:00.000-04:00

Recently, my county decided to revamp every library to make it more open-air and less bookstackish. Yes, I just made that word up. If you're familiar with the old configuration, the first thing you think when you walk into a redesigned library is "what the heck happened to all the books?" As far as I can tell, though, they haven't really reduced inventory beyond a typical spring cleaning of unrepairable or unborrowed titles. Honestly, I'm rather happy with the whole redesign. There is a sort of entrance island that highlights new releases and acquisitions, and rotates theme titles. The children's area has been completely redone to include some kind of wacky floor recliners instead of stoic tables and chairs - an encouragement to sit and read for a while. They've also expanded their computer section, letting more people have the opportunity to freely use broadband-connected PCs that perhaps might not have that opportunity otherwise.

All this, and they don't charge late fees, either. Good to know my tax dollars are going towards something worthwhile!

Last time I stopped by, I swung by the teen section of the library. (It's where they keep the graphic novels, you perv.) They had recently restocked with some new titles, and I picked up three. Star Wars Tales was decent, but not all that overwhelming. The Peter David story was fairly amusing. Flash: Crossfire was sorta 'eh'. Since I'm not exactly a Flash aficionado, there wasn't much meat for me here. It pretty much expected you to already be well-knowledgeable of Wally West, because there was very little going on with the Flash - most of the panel time focused on the supporting characters and villains.

The gem of the lot, though, was the first volume of Invincible. I have no idea if they still put out issues (I'm too lazy to look right now), but I know there were other volumes on the shelf. This is modern superhero done right. It's a light read, in general, but not necessarily a speed read. I'm looking forward to picking up the next volume when I go back.

It sums up the first couple of issues of the series, detailing the acquisition of the titular character's powers, his family life, an already existing teen team of super heroes, an extra-dimensional invasion, and kids getting blown to smithereens in the middle of malls. Good times!

Link of the moment: Don't have Edna Mode on your payroll? Then head over to the Hero Machine to create your costume!

Loyalty

2006-06-07T09:16:00.000-04:00

I theoretically subscribe to the epitome of video game journalism, Electronics Gaming Monthly (EGM). I don't actually pay for the subscription (there are enough free subscription sites out there, I rarely pay for any of the magazines I get), so I don't really have any sort of investment in the content. However, while I was reading the most recent issue with Link and the pre-Wii Revolution on the cover, I could help but notice a bias in the coverage. Obviously, they would deny it vehemently - it's a common response for gaming news sources to label themselves as universal and objective observers. I can understand the pro-Playstation bias - whether you like the system/company or not, there is no denying that there is an audience of readers who would like to have their single console choice vindicated. That audience outnumbers the ranks of those committed to the other platforms, so it makes editorial sense to prefer that platform.

(Although, I continue to be confused by the constant digs at the cost of Xbox Live. Do these people not have other bills like cable, cell phones, or broadband? $50 a year isn't such a bad deal to pay for a unified online infrastructure. Just because Sony and Nintendo don't plan to charge doesn't mean you won't get dinged some other way, nor does it say anything about how robust it will be. The Microsoft camp has problems to deal with, but the cost of Live isn't one of them.)

What always amazes me, though, is the outright devotion to whatever Nintendo does. It isn't even unique to the news sources - pick a typical gaming community and you will find slaves to the Nintendo brand name. I'm not knocking the Nintendo fans out there - everyone has different tastes, and your palate prefers their brand of delicacies. The amazing part is the almost rabid brand loyalty people will show to a Nintendo product, simply based on the name or the franchise.

Take a step back for a moment. Let's say Sega decided to get back into the hardware market, and they are the ones who came up with the whole idea for the Wii. Remote, nunchaku, backwards compatibility at a per-title premium, and even the silly name. They'd get laughed all the way out of E3. But because the Nintendo brand is attached to the project, and it's the only hardware that plays Mario, Zelda and Pokémon, it's heralded as amazing and innovative.

Why? Sure, Nintendo was pretty much synonymous with video game in the 80s, has done some really great things in the handheld market, and has juggernaut first-party franchises. But like any other mortal company, they have made some equally amazing blunders - Virtual Boy, the snubbing of Sony that lead to the Playstation, and almost the entire implementation of the Gamecube (except for a few stand-out exclusive games and the price, it's a bust as a console compared to the other two options). Heck, they even misstep with their franchises - everyone can name a Zelda game they didn't like, and the Gamecube never really got a good Mario platform game (I'm sure someone liked Sunshine, but I don't know who they are).

I was reading the articles on Zelda and the Wiimote, and bemusement befell me. So, um, Link can travel to another world and do things there. Didn't we already cover this in Metroid and a number of other games? Why is this amazing? I'm sure it will be done well, but getting to play part of the game in a washed-out mirror world as a different type of character isn't exactly heaven-sent innovation. How long has this game been delayed? Why isn't anyone crying for bloody decapitation like every other company that delays a game release?

And seriously, the guy showing off how you could use the Wiimote nunchaku like a bow and arrow just looked uncomfortable. Having actually earned the Archery merit badge, what that guy was doing was only slightly similar to using an actual bow. Not to mention, the cord looks too short for derring-do. The speaker-in-the-controller bit is a neat way to emulate three-dimensional sounds, but most of the people showing what you can do with this thing just look kind of silly to me. Then again, people like spazzing out in front of the Eye Toy, so what do I know?

Does Nintendo stay afloat as a company simply based on the fanaticism of their loyal fan base? I doubt there would be a way to accurately report the data, but I think you could easily measure this by comparing the user bases between iterations of their handheld devices. The DS Lite launches this month. How many of the people purchasing a Lite in the first thirty days already own a perfectly functional first-generation DS? I would hazard to guess that the percentage is not trivial.

I'm not anti-Nintendo. Heck, we have a Super Nintendo, a Nintendo 64 and a Gamecube in the house, with a decent library for each. I'd probably buy a DS this month if I had a reason to own one (I don't use public transportation, and my gaming time is usually at home, the place where I can play full-blown console games on an HDTV).

The mystery to me is the Nintendo mindshare - a sales and marketing wet dream made real. I just don't understand how they manage to keep an image of infallibility.

Link of the moment: In celebration of devotion, why not vote for your favorite deity? (Not for those intolerant of good-natured deity ribbing.)

Found

2006-06-06T09:33:00.000-04:00

A while back, I managed to lose my iPod. Since I mostly use it to listen to podcasts, and I didn't actually pay any money to acquire it, I wasn't exactly tearing up the house to find it. (It did, however, get me to do a deep cleaning of my car.) I knew it had to be in the house somewhere - the day I lost it was a day I had off from work to watch my youngest son while my father was in Virginia. Barring falling out of the car somewhere, I figured it would eventually show up in the house. At the very least, when we eventually move I'd have a "how did it get there" moment to cherish.

Well, apparently the little lady is concerned that I need some kind of gift for Father's Day, and she keeps looking at prices for a Nano. Which probably meant she was looking to replace my iPod for a hefty chunk of change. (I know it wasn't for her - she has a full-blown iPod Video. Our major Christmas gifts to each other was to allow usage of the Best Buy credit card to buy ourselves something we wanted. She got the Video, I got an LCD HDTV.) So, I felt inspired to look again around the house.

I found it. Annoyingly, it was somewhere I knew I had looked - in the cushions of my gaming couch. I have no idea why I didn't find it the last time I looked there. Barring the origin of an iPod AI attempting to win its freedom, I suspect it was somewhere else during my initial search. Some other force (such as my children or the machinations of gravity) caused it to get into the couch, where I found it.

I think I'm now qualified to be a bounty hunter, assuming there isn't a written portion of the licensing process.

(And yes, I realize that turning down a technology upgrade is worth at least two demerits on my permanent tech record.)

Oh, and I finished King Kong last night. Once you get to New York, the game pretty much plays itself. Got kind of boring, but it went fast. Cheap 1000 points for your gamerscore if that matters to you. Definitely don't buy it, though, stick to renting.

Link of the moment: Did you lose something - like, say, the map to where you buried Aunt Martha? Perhaps the Find A Grave website can help. If you don't have anyone in mind to look for, I've linked to a Real American Hero to get you started.

Ten

2006-06-05T08:56:00.000-04:00

Well, according to the bathroom scale, after two weeks I have lost ten pounds. I'm good with that, especially since I haven't really been doing much in the way of extra activity. As long as the number decreases, this will be worth it.

Oddly, it isn't anything specific that I crave. Mostly, it affects eating at restaurants. It's amazing how many chain restaurants don't provide nutritional information through their websites or menus. For some reason they think the "everything is made to order, so we can't give you accurate information" isn't obviously a way of saying "we can't be bothered". I tend to want a restaurant more than a particular food - I could really go for a trip to CiCi's, but there is no way I'm going there just to eat three slices of pizza.

In other news: King Kong the movie was okay. I think I had trouble suspending my disbelief, so I didn't enjoy it as much as I probably would have. It wasn't the giant animal thing that got me, though. I mean, Ann's back should have been broken into about a billion pieces based on how Kong carried her. And it seriously suffered from Saving Private Ryan syndrome - how many people had to die to rescue one moderately attractive unsuccessful actress?

I had the King Kong game out on Gamefly, so anyone who bothers to look at my gamercard can see I've been playing it lately. I'll probably finish it tonight or tomorrow. It's... well, not a bad game, per se. It's just not a good game. I'd definitely prefer to spend more time as Kong and less time as Jack. It's funny, though, how the game is programmed. Everyone thinks you're the hero of the story, even the people who probably know more about combat than a screenwriter. Including Hayes, the man who apparently has supernatural vision - somehow he can see that there is a fire about a mile down the canyon through a herd of migrating brontosauri. But hey, don't have the guy who actually saw the fire go get it (you know, to burn yet another bush), send out the guy whose weapon of choice is a typewriter.

Maybe it's a conspiracy. I'm the Skull Island Mikey - give the quest to Jack, he'll do anything! And if he gets munched by a dinosaur, well, then I guess we'll know which way not to go.

In any case, I want to finish it up so I can send it back and get something else. (Especially since I can't seem to locate the other game I have out.)

Link of the moment: Speaking of the natives in King Kong (okay, we weren't, but does it really matter?), have fun tossing a spear.

Royalty

2006-06-02T10:22:00.000-04:00

Not much to say today. I'm supposed to be on vacation, but I'm working from home while watching King Kong on DVD. I'm only about thirty minutes in. Not too bad, considering.

I think I'm going to go Target-hopping and see what I can find on the clearance racks. Some of the Voyager class Transformers are on clearance for 50% or more. Might even stop by Walmart to pick up some discount McFarlane dragons.

Like I need more toys.

Link of the Moment: Speaking of strange things on an island, head on over to Hawaii and learn how to cook with lava.

Complexity

2006-06-01T08:20:00.000-04:00

Today is the busiest day of a normal month for me. It's full of month-end reporting and other assorted glee. Today should be even more exciting than ever before, because now I have to integrate another source of data in an incompatible format. Whee!

Previously, I was working with three sources of data, two of which were different instances of the same product. However, in the infinite wisdom of contract logic, one of those sites was moved to the corporate offices and placed on a different product altogether.

It gets interesting from there. Normally, I don't mind learning something new. Heck, the promise of learning tends to keep me occupied when I would have otherwise moved on. Typically, I mine data through direct connections to the databases in question, then use my own custom tools to blend that data together into something meaningful. If you aren't an IT sort of person, you may not realize that this opens the door to automation - the holy grail of periodic reporting.

Now, for this third data set, I have to run manual stock reports out of that system, then figure out a way to import it into something meaningful. And yes, as my narrative suggests, this removes all ability to automate this process. It becomes a manual and cumbersome procedure.

But it gets better - due to network protocols at my site, no VPN connections may traverse the firewall in an outbound vector originating from a network computer. Since the new site is now off the customer network, I can't even connect to the reporting tool! The only way to do it is by using an external internet solution to harvest the data, then switch network cables to import that data.

And the coup de grace - apparently the DSL connection that has been routed into my office is tenuous at best. Periodically, the router has to be reset to restore connection. The best part of this situation? It is located in a network room that nobody seems to have access to! Brilliant!

So sometime today, I have to go home and run some reports on my personal internet connection just so I can get this nonsense done with.

It's a good thing we're an IT company and know what we're doing.

Link of the Moment: Since I shared my drudgery, how about some imagination? Head on over to GE's Imagination At Work and draw some pictures by yourself or with some friends.

Swiss

2006-05-31T08:20:00.000-04:00

The software in my brain that references memory is faulty. It's not that I don't remember things, it's more that I don't know that I remember them. I think the pointers to all those variables are just miswired. It causes all sorts of consternation with my family when I can't remember anything from a phone conversation I had earlier in the day, but I can remember the words of a song I haven't sung in a dozen years.

I don't think it's that I actually forget the information, I just forget that I know it. If someone asks me a very specific question about something, I can typically dredge it up without too much trouble. Sometimes things are gone for good, but it's typically the incidentals - the name of the waitress after leaving a restaurant or the color of the ball a kid was tossing.

In any case, since I couldn't remember what I wanted to put in this thing - and I had a bunch of topics, honest - I figured I'd write this out in hopes of jogging my memory.

No such luck.

Link of the Moment: I haven't completely ruled out the possibility of mind-control as a leading cause of my memory issues. I am seriously considering constructing one of these fine products.

You know, when I remember to do it.

Heavy

2006-05-30T08:48:00.000-04:00

You'd think I could find time to post here a little more often, eh? I'm going to try to make this a regular routine by posting something first thing in the morning. Maybe it will work.

In any case, the most recent development is that the Ms. and I have started a weight loss program. We've gone back to Weight Watchers, which worked pretty well for us the last time we tried it a few years ago. We just fell off the wagon. We're doing the online version, though. More tools at our disposal, and we don't have to pay for a weekly meeting.

I generally don't have issues with being overweight. I've been that way since birth (10 pounds, 4 ounces - sorry Mom). I'd like to be in better shape, but that shape doesn't have to be beanpole. At the start of this journey, my bathroom scale said I was 264.5 pounds. Considering I don't think I've ever been over 270, I could afford to lose a few pounds. My goal is to get down to 220 (where I was prior to adding children to the house), but I haven't set any kind of time limit.

We started the beginning of last week. Over the week, I lost four pounds. Not too bad, considering we really didn't get a chance to do much in the way of exercise. However, we stopped by the store this weekend and bought a pair of bikes to ride around the development and the occasional weekend jaunt to a bike trail. We also want to get the kids away from their training wheels.

It's been a while since I've ridden a bike. As such, my posterior is quite sore today after putting in a good half hour yesterday. Perhaps I'll get additional padding for the seat instead of rely on some kind of callus to develop.

I also have some free weights lying around. The days I don't ride, I'll do some upper-body exercise while watching TV. I think I might try and find a mat of some kind to do sit-ups. We have tile floor through most of the house, and the areas that are carpeted are done thinly.

Then again, maybe I just need to make room for my DDR pad.

In other news: finally got a chance to try Moroccan food at Epcot. Good stuff. Totally blew through my bonus food points for the week, though!

Link of the Moment: Speaking of getting smaller, you can start big and go small using the Science, Optics & You web page.

Impersonal

2006-03-30T08:19:00.000-05:00

For the longest time, I always felt giving gift cards or actual money to someone as a celebratory gift (birthday, Christmas, Arbor Day, etc.) was lacking any sort of personality. Essentially it said, "I don't know you well enough to find something you'd like, so go use this to buy your groceries this week." Oddly, I generally don't mind receiving gift cards - my birthday this year was almost dominated by them outside of my household. The WalMart card my father got me went towards discount gas for a few weeks, my copy of Burnout Revenge is thanks to the Best Buy cards from my mother, and a couple of books I've been wanting is stacked curtesy of the Border's card from my sister.

Every so often, I'll give a gift card to someone who I think really could use the help with day-to-day expenditures. Everyone has rough patches in their life, and you can pretend to be inconsiderate to save their pride. If that makes any sense, you're probably in the same boat as I am. Sometimes I'll give a very specific gift card - AMC movie theaters used to do a 'movie night for two' package that was redeemable for two movie tickets and some concessions. I gave that to my sister shortly after the birth of their first child - essentially a sponsored date night for people who could use a night out.

So I find myself about to give someone cash for their birthday so that they can buy what they want at a convention this weekend. It feels so impersonal - I'd much rather give them a dust collector themed to one of their favorite things. The logic of the situation clearly favors the cash.

Oy. I get wrapped up in some of the most mundane subjects. Lets not talk about the fact that I essentially walked out of work two hours early in aggrevation yesterday, lets talk about a gift-giving hangup.

Link of the Moment: Need a unique gift? Why not buy someone a title? I bet your uncle would love to call himself Viscount Bubba!

Evidence

2006-03-21T07:41:00.000-05:00

Just a pondering I had on the way to work today:

Do procedural television shows like CSI bias real-world jurors in favor of criminals?

I think most people who think about it can agree that CSI (and other shows with similar flavor) is unrealistic. Every week, some forensic conundrum is solved and the criminal determined without a doubt. Real world forensic departments would love to have a track record like that. We also know that this style of television is extremely popular with the masses - CSI regularly appears in the top Neilson ratings, typically only beat out by popular reality shows or sports events.

But I wonder if these perfect forensic teams are ruining juror impartiality. Do they now rely on the technology to eliminate the shadow of a doubt? If there isn't any DNA evidence to match, does the case fall flat? If nobody was able to recreate the type of weapon used to break the skull 'just so', does the murderer walk free? Life isn't as black and white or perfect as television.

Or do I just not have enough faith in my fellow citizens' ability to think critically?

Anyway, hadn't posted in a while, and this was just something to pass the time in the car.

Link of the Moment: Did you ever make your own kaleidoscope? Would you like to?

Poetry

2006-02-15T17:04:00.000-05:00

Sometimes life is strange. I've found myself adding an entry on the proverbial list of 'Things Kojubat Needs to Do Before Dying', just so I can immediately check the box. That item? Win a poetry contest.

I'm not a poetry kind of guy. If I want to state 'the flower is pretty', I pretty much say 'the flower is pretty'. None of this stuff about the breath of angels, color qualities of celestial phenomena, or the industrial processes of apids. When I rhyme, it's accidental or intended for children. The only meter I use is the metric unit of distance. However, I do have a decent singing voice (with the high school awards to prove it), so I suppose if you set the poetry to music, I at least don't mind singing it.

I enjoy listening to podcasts. In fact, they are pretty much the only thing I listen to on my iPod. So, when a particular podcast on all things Whedon decided to run a Haiku contest, one almost immediately sprung to mind. I fiddled with it for a while, but couldn't make it any better than my original epiphany. So I eventually submitted it.

Oddly enough, it won. Wild. I don't want to disparage any of the other participants by suggesting it didn't deserve to win (despite my natural tendency to do so), so I'll suggest that for whatever reason, I had a fluke moment of inspiration. So I picked myself up a spiffy shirt, some wax vampire lips, and the neato graphic accompanying this entry.

In any case, here's the Haiku:

"Five by five," says she.
Without hope or charity,
I return to dust.

Link of the Moment: Since we're talking about symbolism, in a way, try to balance your life with the Levers.

Expedition

2006-01-23T11:51:00.000-05:00

One of the benefits of living with someone still employeed by Disney is being able to ride rides before they are available to the general public. So Saturday afternoon, the family journeyed all the way to the other side of the highway to Animal Kingdom - home of the new Expedition Everest attraction.

One word summary: Excellent.

Director's cut extra words summary: This ride alone should infuse Animal Kingdom with new life. Considering that Dinosaur was the biggest thrill available before this ride, the park was mostly focused on families with kids or old people. This ride goes right for the teen-to-young-adult jugular. While it doesn't actually invert (Rockin' Rollercoaster is still the only WDW ride that does that), there are a number high-gee corkscrews, backward motion, and a huge steep drop near the end.

The atmosphere is amazing. The queue area is full of things to look at and read. The ride itself is a steam train that feels more train-like than Big Thunder Mountain, and the mountain looks great. Inside the ride, the twists and turns actually feel right based on what you are experiencing. The switch to backward motion is done really well. The forwards switch is the only show-breaker, since you can see the machinery doing the work. But if you are distracted by the Yeti show, you won't notice. The Yeti is not all that scary, not even for the four and six year old boys in my family. The ride itself was a little rough on them, though. They aren't interested in riding it again anytime soon. (I thought for sure the four year old was going to be my coaster buddy, based on previous rides.)

In any case, we had a lot of fun Saturday. Most of the people in the park were Cast Members there for the new ride, so we had no waiting for any of the other rides. The kids went on Dinosaur for the first time, and absolutely loved it - oddly, I thought of the two, they would find this ride to be the scary one. But what do I know?

When it opens to the public, don't miss it on your next trip. It's just too bad Carrie and Ike won't have a chance to ride while they're down here this week.

Did you know Everest moves 10 centimeters a year to the NorthEast? Freaky.

Link of the Moment: Thin-thread linking is the name of the game, and China Junk Food Review is the result. I didn't have anything for the Nepal side of the mountain.

Insufficient

2006-01-19T11:32:00.000-05:00

I listen to the Country station every so often in the car. It's about the only radio music that gets me emotional, especially when discussing family issues. There's a new song out that goes like this:

Daddy hugs his little man
says son I’ve got to go
and he pulls out of the drive and disappears
as they walk back in the house
the young boy asks his mama
where does daddy go when he leaves here

mama tells her little man
your daddy’s got a job
and when he goes to work they pay him for his time
well the young boy gets to thinking
and he heads up to his bedroom
and comes running back with a quarter and four dimes

(chorus:)
and says mama how much time will this buy me
is it enough to take me fishing or throw a football in the street
if I’m a little short then how much more does daddy need
to spend some time with me

the young boy tells his mama
now I know daddy’s busy
cause most times when he gets home it’s dark outside
but tell him I’ve got me some pennies
saved up from the tooth fairy
and I keep ‘em in my piggy bank and I believe there’s thirty-five

(chorus:)
and mama how much time will that buy me
is it enough to take me camping in a tent down by the creek
if I’m a little short then how much more does daddy need
to spend some time with me

mama how much time will this buy me
is it enough for just an afternoon a day or a whole week
if I’m a little short then how much more does daddy need
to spend some time with me

mama takes her little man
sets him on her lap
and starts dialing up some numbers on the phone
she says daddy come home early
you don’t have to chase that dollar
cause your little man has got one here at home

-The Dollar by Jamey Johnson (Lyrics found at CowboyLyrics.com)

I see my kids every day, and usually spend at least three hours with them each day. So, I'm not as bad as that song. Still, I don't think I'm a very good father. I don't think my children hate or even dislike me. But I'm pretty sure I don't make their top five list of heroes (you've gotta leave some wiggle room to account for Superman or the Power Rangers).

My youngest son is on his way to being kicked out of a fourth day care for lashing out, and this is only his second week there. He is on his third attempt of finding a psychological medicine that will help him - until this week we thought the Risperdal was working where the Ritalin and Adderall failed. We're experimenting on our son with chemicals we don't really want him to have in the first place.

What are you supposed to do when you've tried all the options, then crossed the line you said you wouldn't cross, and still you fail?

There's more I typed here, deleted, then typed another way, then deleted again. I don't know how to write what I want to write, but I needed to type something now before I break down at my desk.

All I know is that I feel like I've been judged and found wanting.

Link of the moment: This video makes me feel a little sad - not because it's a sad song, but it makes me wish my kids saw me that way.

But then I smile, because Optimus Prime makes everything better.

Resolutions

2006-01-13T08:38:00.000-05:00

I don't do New Year Resolutions. I figure, if I need to commit to a change of some kind, why wait until some arbitrary date? Do I need to lose weight? Abso-freakin'-lutely. Should I update this thing more often? Duh. Do I need to get back into school and use all those credits to upgrade to a degree? Darn tootin'.

So why don't I do these things that I need to do? I'm generally a procrastinator, so that certainly plays a part. I know that, and I recognize when I'm doing it - you should see me when there is a phone call that I don't want to make. I'm not opposed to working hard - I regularly meet unreasonable deadlines at work.

I guess I just don't really feel invested in these goals. I should be. Other than the seven pounds I lost over the holidays, I'm weighing the most I ever have. Convenience food is just that - convenient. I don't snack very often, I just don't exercise or necessarily eat healthy meals. At thirty, I really cannot attribute my lower back aches to age, nor do I work in a warehouse lifting crates of imported sweatshop goods. Lugging this root beer belly around is taking its toll.

As far as this blog - I tend to think of things to write when I'm away from the computer. When I get to a place where I could type it up, I am nowhere near as interesting as I previously believed myself to be. Not to mention, as I find more and more evidence of people who write better than myself, my inner perfectionist suggests I should wait until my wit ratio has risen a few points. I mean, heck, I don't lack for links-of-the-moment. You could probably measure it with two bevies. I envy some of the folks over on my link list to the right - I just can't seem to update with nearly the frequency I want to.

And school? I usually hide behind the time excuse, because it's a good one. I get up by 0600, get everyone else ready and out the door by 0715, get back home at 1800 (if there are no activities for the kids), kids fed and in bed by 2000, and daily household chores done by 2100. But you know, she'd be pretty supportive of my getting a degree under my belt, and my father has clearly demonstrated his willingness to pick up and watch the kids (more on that in another entry), so things could be juggled. I'm not rich by any means, but I also don't need the newest game or what have you, and my debt is managable.

I dropped out of college the first time I tried it. After a brief hiatus, I started at the local community college. After my first son was born, money was tight, and I cut back on classes until I eventually just stopped going. Now I could probably swing it - but I'm significantly out of practice. I also know that I'd have to start over on a lot of things - I suspect a number of my credits are currently only relevant to the database they are stored in. So... yeah.

Anyway, this is going for longer than I planned.

Link of the moment: Not sure how much time you have left to do the things you always meant to? Find out!

Blackout

2005-11-03T14:23:00.000-05:00

Something weird at lunch today. Myself and two buddies are regular lunch companions, and we usually go out to get away from the office. We typically have a good time with laughs aplenty. Every so often, I laugh so hard my head hurts pretty bad. Once or twice, I've actually lost my ability to see for a few seconds.

Today I actually blacked out.

My friend was giving me a run-down on Vector Prime in the new Transformers cartoon, and it just struck me as pretty funny the way he was telling it (a grown man informing you that 'he is the guardian of the Omega Lock, which needs four cyber keys...' - read it yourself). I was laughing into the 'headache' stage when I apparently bonked the back of my head on the edge of the booth. I completely lost vision, memory, and motor control. When I came to a few seconds later, I felt pain where I hit my head (no swelling, no bleeding). My first words were, "I feel like I hit the back of my head." The friend who was telling me this said I did, and that my eyes sort of rolled back and my hand started twitching. For about five minutes, I was clammy. I think I freaked him out.

Right now, I only have a dull headache and feel a little out of it.

In any case, lunch was pretty good - five flavor chicken, wonton soup, and some sticky rice. One of our better lunch options.

Link of the moment: Since I'm feeling kind of strange, have fun with Modern Living / Neurotica Series. Sometimes, I feel like that guy.

Slacker

2005-10-06T16:53:00.000-04:00

I'm such a slacker. Can't even post on a regular basis to this thing - I get so tied up and forget to record my activities. The problem is that the point of this is to not forget everything else. Wonderful.

The quick hits:

New games: X-Men Legends 2 is excellent, Far Cry: Instincts is fun, and Marvel Nemesis is horrible. I also have recently acquired Ultimate Spidey and Otogi 2, but neither one has been opened yet. I want to try and finish up X-Men soon. I wonder if anyone would be interested in a semi-regular organized session of X-Men to go through the whole game without anyone jumping it forward on their own.

New television: I am horribly behind in my TV watching. I'm annoyed Bones is on a one-month hiatus for baseball - it's easily my favorite new show. Just Legal had a decent first episode, but I'm not sticking with it. I have to actually watch Invasion to decide whether I want to watch it. I caught up with Threshold, and it's holding my interest. Everything else is just saved on my DVR.

New movie: Serenity rocked. Go see it, if you see no other movie this year. Although, Narnia looks like it might capture the LoTR magic in December.

Camping: Last weekend, went camping with the Cub Scouts with my two sons and my father. Other than the rain, it was a fun time. I wish it would stop raining so I can set up the tent to clean and dry it before putting it back in the bag.

Hurricane damage: One year and two months later, a contractor has finally been selected. Supposedly, they were over the house today to start work on the roof, according to the person who told me yesterday of the news. We wait 14 months, and they want to start work with less than 24 hours notice - sheesh. The inside work is going to have to wait. No way are they going to be in my house when nobody else is there, and we need to seriously redistribute the contents of each room being worked on.

Me: Exhausted. More work comes in each day than I can finish. I'm getting swamped. My deliverables are getting later and later. I've got to figure out how to work in some overtime along with everything else going on in life.

Next week: Patti's birthday. I am so unprepared. Dangit.

Link of the moment: Chill with some music from the Ghetto Blaster. Just click on the users.

The Season So Far

2005-09-20T15:00:00.000-04:00

I acquired Burnout Revenge last week. Excellent game. It is the first car game I've really felt competent in since Crazy Taxi. I think I'll be spending some time unlocking cars in-between sessions of X-Men and Nemesis this week. Sheesh. Good thing these games were paid off a long time ago.

I'm thinking about trading Lockdown back in. I haven't played it since I got it, and nobody else on my friends list seems all that interested in it. Considering my considerable backlog, it does not seem likely that I'll get around to the single player missions any time soon. I'll probably want to put the trade value in towards another pre-order. Just not sure which one. Maybe Shattered Union, since it's apparently turn-based.

So, back to the tube. My thoughts so far:

Bones - I like it. They're going to have to really go downhill in future episodes to get it off my list. Both leads are easy to relate to and make for some interesting chemistry. So far, it's my favorite new series.

Supernatural - Eh. I know they are going for horror, but this show is too dark (light level, not content) for me to figure out what is going on half the time. I don't really feel any attachment to the two brothers. Overall, I'm not all that impressed. I'll give it another episode or two to keep me watching.

Threshold - Okay. I think this show is trying too hard to capture the Lost audience. Heck, they even stole Ethan! There is a lot of meat here, though, and I'll watch it. Again, it's another show where I'm not really feeling any attachment to the characters. Then again, it's hard to tell what's real and what's hallucination, so that's making it hard to figure out what exactly is happening.

Next up: Surface and Just Legal recorded last night. Probably won't get to them tonight. Second episodes of Bones and Supernatural tonight. Lost starts up again tomorrow, followed by the new show Invasion. Then Friday is the last episode of Battlestar before the hiatus.

Oh, and Serenity comes to theatres next week!

It's a good time to be a Sci Fi fan.

Link of the moment: Yesterday was Talk Like a Pirate Day. Since Ninjas are entitled to equal celebration, check out Ninjai: The Little Ninja. Excellent flash series that can get a little violent in spots. Chapter 2 is hilarious, but use headphones in a work environment.

Volley for Serve

2005-09-15T15:54:00.000-04:00

I popped Outlaw Volleyball in to the Xbox last night to try something different, and I came to one conclusion:

I suck at this game. I swear I'm standing in the red zone when the ball is coming over the net, but I miss it 75% of the time. And I hate that when I'm trying to indicate where I want to put my serve/spike, the stick is either too sensitive or snappy (it goes both ways). Bah.

Great eye candy, though.

Oh, and the movie I watched the other night: Bulletproof Monk. Eh. I know reviews weren't very good, and they weren't far off. The only interesting concept in the whole movie is what cover the Nazi's are using. I know it's based off a comic, but I've never read it. So I'm going to give the credit for the idea to the source material. So, yeah, I suggest giving it a skip. There are much better modern-day martial arts films, and there are much better supernatural & Nazi films.

Speaking of which, I still need to watch Bones and Supernatural - I haven't really gotten ahead of the curve. I need to figure out if I want to put them on the DVR rotation.

Link of the moment: On the topic of modern martial arts, read about the Meatnurse!

The Fall Season

2005-09-13T15:02:00.000-04:00

I finished Beyond Good & Evil last night. Great game, but a little short. That's okay, though - I'd rather a good game that's short over a long game that's mediocre. I'm also not thrilled with the Simon-esque final boss, but it wasn't completely aggravating. Otogi should be my next game, but I'm feeling like something else. I'll probably try and watch a movie tonight and get some early sleep. By then Burnout Revenge should be out, and I can spend some time crashing cars into things.

Regarding the aforementioned movie, I'm trying to clean out my DVR. Labor Day weekend was a free sample weekend for most of the pay channels on cable. We went and recorded a bunch of movies that are either real low on the Netflix list, or just sounded interesting. The oldest movie has been in danger of being removed for space for a while now. Other than the movies, I only have this past week's Battlestar Galactica on there, and about forty billion episodes of Oprah, Tony Danza, the View and various other shows. And no, I'm not into housewife television.

Well, I am, but the kind I like can't be shown on regular TV.

In any case, I need to clear it up for the new fall season. Compelling fiction and drama is really starting to make a comeback, and I'm so glad we're getting out of the reality TV fad. Scifi.com has their Fall SF TV Preview up, and I'm really interested in watching quite a few of them:

Invasion looks like a great show, and having it right after the new season of Lost (another show I love) is smart scheduling.

Supernatural starts tonight, and looks like it might be worth a look despite being on the WB. If they can stay smart, they might be able to pick up the Buffy crowd, but I suspect this will go more 'scary'.

Surface looks interesting, but might suffer from being too similar to Abyss. However, it appears to have no schedule conflicts.

Threshold has me concerned that it's one of the least likely to succeed. It's a Friday night show, and while that will fill the void when Sci-Fi Friday goes on hiatus, that has been a death kiss to many a show. It's also helmed by Brannon Braga, partly responsible for the recent downfall of the Star Trek franchise.

Bones starts tonight as well, and earns a first look because I like David Boreanaz of Angel fame. Hopefully if it is good it doesn't go the way of The Inside (another show linked to Angel) and vanish after seven episodes.

I want to give Ghost Whisperer a chance, but something tells me it's going to end up having the alternate name "Touched by a Ghost". I'll give it a shot, but I'm thinking it's not going to be my kind of show. Plus, Keg insists JLH already had her 15 minutes. My wager: first episode has Jennifer either in undergarments or taking a shower, or she does a Tru Calling run with bouncing frontal glands.

So, yeah. I know I'm going to get attached to something that gets cancelled. (See also: Firefly, Tru Calling, Farscape)

And I'll be keeping up with Lost, Family Guy, Smallville, the SciFi Friday block (Stargate A&B, Battlestar), and whenever new episodes of 4400, JLU, Teen Titans, and ATHF come back. And to think, just a few years ago, I only watched about two hours of TV a week.

Did I miss anything?

Link of the moment: Now that SciFi is taking off, we need more Fantasy shows. We can start with commercials - certain to be a hit with a couple of the WoW addicts who stop by.

Louisiana on My Mind

2005-09-08T22:45:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine sent me an email today. I got to know Jim through a flash game based on the X-Men before Marvel's legal beagles sent him a C & D. We haven't talked in a while, just going about our lives.

Jim lives in Louisiana. I've copied the email below. I really can't say much beyond what he writes, so I'll let you read.

-- Begin Email --

Here's the thing: we've all seen disasters happen before. We saw horrific images of the Asian tsunami, we viewed shocking video of the events in New York and Washington on September 11. We prayed for the victims, we wished them well, maybe we even sent a little money... and then we got on with our lives. It was terrible, but it was kind of unreal: after all, most of us weren't actually there in Asia when disaster struck. The number of people directly impacted by 9/11 wasn't so huge that most of us were actually at Ground Zero. We feel a disconnect from it all, because we haven't seen it with our own eyes: it's just pictures and sounds on a screen, just like what we see all the time in our prime time dramas and big-budget motion pictures... except in those motion pictures, we know the backstories of the main characters, so perhaps we have more reason to care than we do for people we'll never meet and don't know anything about.

And in the grand scheme of things... so what? So thousands of people died in Katrina, or the tsunami, or hundreds died in New York. Not to belittle that loss, but many more people than that lose their lives quite regularly in places like the war-torn Middle East, or places like Sudan in Africa. Most of us in what we laughably refer to as "the civilized world" never hear about this stuff, or if we do, we don't care that much. Not that we're terrible people (although, no doubt, some of us are): it's just that it's all a world away, we're not there, we don't see it, it's easy to convince ourselves that it doesn't exist.

Not so today for me. I live in southeast Louisiana. One week after what's being called the worst national disaster in the history of the country, tidings are still grim. I thank God that I'm luckier than most: all I've lost have been a couple of job opportunities, a really nice fence, and several days of my life to cleaning the dead branches and fallen trees from my property. I may not have a permanent job, and my lawn may still be an unholy mess, but I have a wife, savings, my possessions, a life. My family so far seems to be safe, although I still haven't managed to locate a few of them. Relatively speaking, I'm extremely lucky.

I guess I'm writing this to help people understand how very real and how very life-destroying this is. I live 30 miles from what was once the booming metropolis of New Orleans. I've driven throughout Louisiana since the storm and seen firsthand the damage here. I've visited shelters and relief distribution centers and spoken to people there. And worst of all, I've heard the spin being put out by the people in power about how much better things are, and I know enough to know how lying or clueless they truly are.

If there are any silver linings here (and I've looked desperately to find one), it's that the truly poor of New Orleans might eventually see more money than they ever have, and that more and more Louisianians are coming over to my long-held political viewpoint that both the Republicans and the Democrats of America are more interested in political infights than they are in helping their constituents.

As a technology consultant for the state government (a temporary job I was very lucky to find), I drove out to inspect storm damage today, and I saw scenes of destruction that will haunt me for a long time. I traveled to the small town of Bogalusa, in the northeast corner of souteast Louisiana (if that doesn't make any sense to you, go find it on a map and you'll see what I mean), a place many, many miles inland from where the storm struck, a beautiful little town where I used to go swimming as a boy.

On the way, I saw a huge, majestic forest of pine, each tree easily over 100 feet tall... and every single one of the hundreds of trees was standing precariously at about a 30 degree angle. It was like some twisted vision from a Tim Burton film.

I passed other forests with all kinds of trees, forests I'd loved as a kid, forests where literally every other tree, or more, lay on its side. Oaks, magnolias, you name it. It's difficult to imagine unless you see it first hand.

I saw oak trees, mighty oak trees, knocked down, crushing trees, homes, churches, and businesses. In many cases, the uprooted trees brought up with them huge sections of earth, clods of dirt and roots bigger than you, me, and every single book in my library combined. And I've got a lot of books.

I passed well-kept shacks, undoubtedly inhabited by some of the poorest elements of society (and there are a LOT of poor people in rural Louisiana, white, black, hispanic, you name it), with trees through their roofs, tearing gaping holes so big that I could clearly see into the interior of the house as I drove by. I passed middle-class homes, the kind of nice, modest place where you or I might live, torn to bits: homes with every single shingle on the roof missing, with trees through the walls, with shattered windows, with the entire roof blown off. I've never seen such devastation. I've never seen with my own eyes so many homes destroyed.

I even passed several mansions on huge, sprawling estates. With almost no exceptions, they fared extremely well and escaped almost all damage. Figures.

I was so amazed by the sheer number of leaning, broken, shattered, or just plain missing utility poles on my journey, that I tried counting the number of power lines lying on the road that my car ran over. Somewhere around 15 or 16, I lost count. I must have passed over sixty lines on the road, and many times that number of poles broken in some fashion. Small wonder that when I got to Bogalusa, they had no power, nor did they expect to for quite a long time to come.

And remember, this is all over a week AFTER the storm hit us, here in the United States of America, the richest and most technologically advanced country in the history of the world. And this is all in Bogalusa, far from the hardest-hit areas in Biloxi and New Orleans. This is the stuff they don't talk about on the national news, and there are many, many communities just like this one.

When I arrived in the city itself, I found a lot of excited people. Why? Because the Popeyes, now one of the only sources of fresh food in a 20-mile radius, had finally opened. And the lines were long. Everywhere there were signs of destruction: here, a business without a roof; there, a gas station where almost all of the fixtures, including light poles, pumps, and covered areas, lay on their side. Near the middle of town, I saw a huge shopping center with most of the roof gone. There was very little gas, and very little food. Debris littered... well, everything... everywhere you looked. A few isolated homes and businesses have power and food, but nobody has any communication with the outside world. All the cell phone towers are down, and even if you are one of the lucky ones that has phone service, you can't complete a call outside the Bogalusa area. And just like Baton Rouge and most of the rest of southeast Louisiana, it's a bit rare to find a business sign, like a grocery store sign or a Blockbuster video sign, that isn't lying on the ground instead of proclaiming its wares prominently in the sky.

The devastation in Bogalusa is terrible, but it's nowhere near as bad as New Orleans. The national news networks never cease to anger me these days with their rose-tainted glasses - the situation there is generally nowhere near as happy as some people describe. New Orleans, such a great cultural mecca for the world, is for all intents and purposes mostly destroyed. The vast majority of the city is still underwater... no... you can't really call it "water." It's a toxic sludge of all kinds of deadly chemicals - wading in the polluted water can be fatal. And thousands of homes are underneath this poisonous goo. This is so bad that not only will it all have to be bulldozed, but even the earth and soil itself is contaminated and will have to be completely removed.

And all that talk about the pumps removing thousands and thousands of cubic feet per second? Thanks to the sheer amount of water and sludge in the city, combined with the leaking levees, the water has barely receded. In areas where water was, for example, 16 feet deep, now it might be 15 feet deep. There's a long way to go.

Even in Baton Rouge, where damage was limited but still severe, life can be difficult. Helicopters constantly fly by overhead, and police, fire, and ambulance sirens now occur regularly, every few minutes. The intense traffic makes it impossible to go anywhere, roads are closed, basic supplies are sometimes in short supply, and everybody needs help. Even in my own yard, many miles from the storm's wrath, I discovered in my cleanup efforts many, many tree limbs that had been blown so hard by the storm winds that they were impaled firmly in the ground, standing straight up like twisted new growths.

As bad as the geographic devastation is, it can't compare to the human suffering. Don't believe the news bulletins about improving conditions for the New Orleans refugees - a lot of it is complete and total bull... spin, no doubt, launched by some government agency, as it focuses on a very lucky few and ignores thousands of others. As a resident, as someone who visited shelters and aid distribution centers today, as someone who listened to people calling into local radio stations begging for help all day, I can tell you that the picture is not very rosy. So many people in so very great need are not receiving help... at all. Our government has abandoned and failed us in Louisiana, Republican and Democrat alike.

Perhaps you heard about the $2,000 debit cards our dear friends at FEMA were supposed to be giving to the displaced residents today? Sure sounded like a nice start, and we were all very happy to hear about it. But then the details started to trickle out - there are only 2,000 of these cards (because, of course, the other 998,000 affected don't really need much). They're only being given away in Houston (because, of course, the federal goverment believes that the greatest need for relief after a Louisiana-Mississippi-Alabama disaster is in Texas). And even after they had these 2,000 evacuees line up to receive the cards, they changed their minds and decided not to hand them out at all, because they had neglected to figure out how they were going to track it. Now, today, they're saying that they'll hand out those cards "in a few days", and that all of the other evacuees will receive checks in the mail.

Checks. In the mail. For homeless evacuees. Think about that for a second.

Most of the government's efforts complete ignore the outlying communities and the thousands of people who were outside New Orleans who were hit just as hard, like the people in Bogalusa without power or food or gas. I visited relief stations near my constantly-mentioned and obsessively-beloved hometown of Loranger, and found piles and piles of people waiting... and waiting... and waiting... for anything. Local officials seem to be bravely trying to do their best with the (scant) resources they have. On the way to the relief station (after I'd parked my car quite a distance away and started walking, because it became obvious I wasn't going to get to park much closer), I had to duck under a very low hanging electric wire. A bit closer to the relief station, I walked by the shattered remains of another electric pole, on the ground, surrounded by some kind of waste that I was unable to identify. The smell was, to say the least, interesting.

For so many of those in need, FEMA is doing absolutely nothing, and the Red Cross struggles as well. Both organizations constantly brag about the toll-free numbers Louisiana residents can call to get quick and free help... but what they fail to mention is that calls to toll-free numbers rarely work in Louisiana anymore (in fact, most calls in Southeast Louisiana to ANYWHERE rarely go through these days), and even on the very rare occasion that the call actually does go through, the hold time is measured in hours, not minutes (or so I hear, I have to admit I haven't tried calling myself). They say you can visit their websites... fat chance for homeless residents, residents without electricity, without phone connections. Then, even if you do talk to FEMA, they promise lots of help... in about ten to fourteen days. That's not too helpful to people who are living with the clothes on their back, without a home and with one last twenty stuffed in their pocket to live on. Meanwhile, shelters and relief lines are packed and overcrowded, and human beings, American citizens, are going without the barest necessities of dignity.

I usually consider myself a proud American, so I hate to say that not only has our leadership failed us, but our leadership has killed us. Literally, without drama or exaggeration, I say to you that people have died... innocent people have DIED (think about that, think about how you would feel if it was your grandmother or your brother or your best friend)... because of political posturing, power maneuvering, and excessive red tape. From FEMA's utter incompetence and the president's hopeless and meaningless optimism to the state's refusal to let in federal forces to help in the opening days of the tragedy (for which the blame falls squarely on our governor) to the city's inexplicable refusal to prepare for the hurricane when they knew it was on the way, despite the ready availability of buses normally used to bus in voters on Election Day (among other resources), our feckless leadership has failed us. If I thought I had a monkey's shot in hell, I'd run for office somewhere, just to try to bring some common sense in somewhere. Too bad I have no political connections.

Our Democratic mayors and governor have been all over the news broadcasts crying, moaning, and exposing their lack of leadership, vision, or motivation. They have no idea what to do next, and their bawling on the airwaves doesn't exactly inspire confidence or provide strong leadership. Meanwhile, our Republican president smiles that oblivious smile, assures us that everything will be okay, and turns, with Congress, to issues far weightier than thousands of human lives and livelihoods, like whether dear Johnny should be Chief Justice or just an Associate Justice.

I'm writing this... why am I writing this? I guess I'm writing this as therapy. I'm going to e-mail it out to people as... well... I guess as a public service on behalf of the Gulf Coast residents who are in need. This tragedy is real. It's not getting much better. Thousands of innocent people, poor and middle-class (and maybe even a few rich folks), black and white (despite what the Reverend Jesse Jackson and other demagogues would like you to think), old and young, sick and healthy, are being destroyed by this event even as I type this right now. I don't think most people who haven't seen it firsthand understand how bad it is. Tell your friends and family about this stuff, I beg you. Forward this e-mail if it helps.

If there's any way you can help, please do. I can't recommend donating to FEMA, and the Red Cross isn't perfect either... but at least it's a whole heck of a lot better than FEMA. If you're the praying type, pray for all of the people affected down here. If you're not the praying type... well, heck, pray for us anyway; it can't hurt anything, can it? The people of the Gulf Coast are in desperate need, and the people we hoped we could count on have been failing us most every step of the way.

Meanwhile, I'm counting my blessings (and there are so very many), helping if I can, and hoping the tarp I attached to a friend's roof holds if it rains again. Take care.

-- End Email --

No link of the moment this time.

Swampland

2005-09-07T15:58:00.000-04:00

Just swamped, but need to brain dump if I really mean for this to be a record of my memories as a present to my future amnesiac self.

Banner above added for http://www.myfamilycanhelp.com, though I suspect most of the readers here already know about it.

Labor Day weekend was quite the annoyance. Our A/C went out while three of the four people living in the house were down with some nasty viral infection. Nobody responded to voice mails or the 'emergency' pager. We finally got someone to respond yesterday, and the repair dude fixed it. Living in this kind of humid heat without any sort of climate control is downright uncomfortable, and I really have nothing to complain about.

I started Beyond Good & Evil last week. Excellent game. I'm wondering if it is as short as it appears it will be. I suspect I will be surprised at some point with something that expands my options. I'm just getting started in the Slaughterhouse area, just to give an idea of where I am.

Saw the new niece again on Monday with my father and my less ill son. Still quite the cutie. The first niece is taking this whole 'new baby' thing very well, and I can't detect a hint of jealousy. Glad to see it. It was also good to spend some time with my father - something that just hasn't been happening very often lately.

Took the youngest son back to the psychiatrist's office yesterday. This time was with the actual doctor, not just a therapist. Since he's only showing symptoms at school, they seem willing to back off their medication stance. They are pretty much ruling out any other possible causes, though, since he doesn't show signs of anxiety, depression or such. So, good news. He has recommended some more regimented discipline (not much off what we already do) with better feedback for my son throughout the day (so he can see how he is doing with his teacher). I'm pretty positive about the whole thing.

Still pretty busy at work - it seems every week something new gets added to my plate, if not every other day. I might have to start training someone to pick up some of my more routine tasks.

So, nothing profound and nothing interesting. Man, this stuff is boring to me and it's at least personally relevant.

Link of the moment: The colors! The shapes! The Kaleidoscope Toy!

Life and Death

2005-09-01T10:02:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty busy these days, but I'm nowhere near having the same problems as the folks in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. I still consider my hurricane damage from last year more of an inconvenience than anything else, and Katrina pretty much proved it. Now, granted, if another storm comes through here, I'm probably screwed. My roof leaks in heavy rain, and it looks like I'm going to have to replace the tarp again. We had another contractor out Monday evening (that would be the fifth or sixth visit by various people to see the damage - but not so much as a screw turned in repairs), so maybe it'll be fixed up before the next storm.

Anyway, Katrina. As much as it would have caused all sorts of problems to Florida, the 'what if' part of me thinks things would have been much better if it had tacked north of Miami and hit our state full-on. It would have only been a Category 1, and would have lost a decent amount of energy as it went through. By the time it got to where it was going, perhaps it would have been weaker. I dunno. Not like I can travel in time or affect weather patterns. So, instead, I'll be sending a financial donation out tomorrow when I get paid. I hate giving blood (bad experiences as a child with incompetent nurses), but if I can get somewhere to donate soon, I will. The amount of aid and support Florida received last year demands that I return the favor in kind, even if I didn't actually need any of it.

But enough of that - not like I can say anything on the subject that hasn't been said. Cities are destroyed, people are dead, gas prices are up, and still, we carry on. And for my family, life grows.

My sister had a baby girl on Monday, making me an uncle for the second time. Cute as a button, Kylie Jade is healthy and was born with no complications. Mother and Father are doing fine, and my other neice is apparently quite proud to be a big sister. Assuming the gas prices stabilize (and they should), we'll be heading down to Tampa this weekend to visit with the newest member of the family. And yeah, since we have two boys and the factory has been closed, our trunk will be full of cute little girl outfits. I went down Monday night for a quick visit in the hospital, so we'll need some more time for adoration.

In other news, I saw the movie Sky High Friday night as part of a 'you have to watch the kids all weekend, have a night to yourself' deal with Patti. It's not great cinema, but if you're only slightly into superheroes, it's a fun flick. Essentially, it's a tip of the hat to the classic superhero genre, written in a family-friendly way. While there is a 'love story', it's a typical pre-teen thing with mistaken intentions and a romantic kiss being the biggest sign of affection. So, nothing even close to adult content, and the violence is limited to the PG level - no blood, guts, or deaths. Some of the lines are pretty cheesy, and the love story is the cliche "boy doesn't realize the girl next door is the one for him" - but there are a few plot twists that aren't completely telegraphed. The message of the movie, while obvious, isn't beaten over your head. The message is essentially one condemning 'powerism' (a Hero vs. Sidekick duality), which can be a metaphor for anything from Jocks vs. Geeks to outright racism and homophobia. So anyway, if you have a soft spot for flying women or guys who can turn into rock monsters, take a look. I didn't bring the kids, but I'll let them watch it on DVD. (My four year old might get a little bored with the mushy parts, and my six year old will likely tolerate it. Better to risk it with the DVD than a public theater I can't pause or fast-forward.)

Link of the moment: Like super heroes? Catch up with what's going on in the Incredible Hulk's life.

Brain Dump

2005-08-18T16:21:00.000-04:00

I'm beat. Stupid Zotob and all the other variants targeting the security hole. I worked straight through a ten hour shift yesterday with barely ten minutes away from my desk to use the waste facilities. And this thing only infects Win2K machines! At least twice I was asked to develop new reports and get them regularly scheduled with less than a half-hour lead time. I have never felt more like a Visual Basic MacGuyver then yesterday.

Part of me is aggravated. Part of me is pretty proud that I met every demand within the deadlines given me. And part of me really wanted some BBQ, so we had Smokey Bones for dinner. Considering it's a chain barbeque place, it's pretty good.

I was so tied up yesterday, I couldn't go to the psychiatrist appointment with my youngest son. They're saying he has early signs of ADHD and are recommending medication. For a four year old. Sheesh. However, he has been kicked out of two daycares already due to his complete lack of control in certain situations. When he's throwing chairs at two years old, you start to worry.

I hate the idea of drugging up my kid. But what if he really has ADHD, and this will help him? He's pretty smart when he puts his mind to something - he has a pretty complicated vocabulary for his age, and regularly does worksheets faster than other kids his age. And he can beat his brother at some of the games we have loaded on their computer. (He really digs the Toy Story 2 Activity Center software. Before that he liked starting Bear and the Big Blue House over and over until the video card screwed up and displayed everything wrong.) He's also cute as a button and one of the mushiest kids I know. I'm looking for a good picture as I type this. Found one - first day of school this year: youngest on the left, oldest on the right.

So if we deny him the medication when he needs it, are we any better than Head Wacko Tom Cruise? I don't know. I just know that if it turns my little boy into a listless zombie, I'll have felt that I've made a tragic mistake.

So anyway, not much else going on. I decided to play the MechAssault 2 campaign all the way through, since it was short (two nights of play and I was done). Pretty easy, and would have peeved me if the multiplayer wasn't fun, and I pretty much got it for a song. BG&E is already in the tray, ready for my next game session.

Link of the moment: Want to improve your vocabulary? Try the visual thesaurus.

Indecisive

2005-08-11T13:56:00.000-04:00

I just finished Lego Star Wars last night, unlocking everything except invinciblility without using cheat codes (I didn't feel like trying to round up the million studs just to buy God Mode, so I left it unpurchased). Fun game that I'll probably go back to every so often. If my kids can get themselves off restriction, it's probably a good one for them, too - except for that frustrating pod race. Those dang sand people are completely unwelcome in my boulder-strewn race course, thank you very much.

So now I have to figure out what to play next for my single player enjoyment. I've got twenty-five single-player experiences waiting for me to play beyond my usual selection of multiplayer Live games and City of Heroes, and I'm stumped. Do I tackle something huge like Mercenaries, GTA:SA or Gladius? Or do I go with some lighter fare like Metal Arms, BloodRayne or PoP:WW? Or should I get in gear on something critically acclaimed like Beyond Good & Evil? Then again, I could always hone my online skills by playing a single player mode on one of the Splinter Cells, MechAssault 2, or Ghost Recon 2. I know, life is rough. (Then again, if I'm worrying about this, I'm also not worrying about the hurricane damage to my house or the problems the kids are having in school.) Since I didn't pay anything close to retail price for most of them, I don't feel obligated to finish one or another for the purpose of recouping value through trades, though it would be nice.

There's family in town, so Patti is going to bingo tonight with some of them. I've got the kids - but once they go to bed I've got the house to myself. So I can play whatever I want without worrying about whether the PC or TV is in use until 2300 or so.

I think my cybernetic supercop senses are tingling, so I'll probably run a mission or two on CoH tonight unless otherwise compelled. But tomorrow, Patti will probably be working on another Pogo badge, so it's back to the Xbox for me.

Oh, and I added three more toys to my desk since that picture was taken (another Transformer and two magnetic Mega Blok knights), and the internet is sending me another seven thanks to some good deals. I should probably look for a twelve-step program for this.

Link of the moment: Speaking of interactive digital entertainment, what video game character are you?

Desk Reference

2005-08-09T11:01:00.000-04:00

So yeah, month end has been pretty busy, as mentioned before. So I didn't get this done as soon as I wanted to. But as promised, I took a picture of my desk at work. Since some of it might be unclear, I've labelled the various objects so I could point them out here. Click the picture for a larger version. (And yes, I am aware it is messy as heck.)

Mega Bloks Bunny

Super Deformed Darth Vader

Mega Bloks Nano Off Road Runner (vehicle not visible)

Technic Stormtrooper

Soundbox for Puzz3D R2-D2

Some Lego Star Wars Minis (Millenium Falcon, AT-AT, Imperial Shuttle and Star Destroyer) and a Lego Rebel Snowspeeder

Mega Bloks Wolverine Super Tech

Marvel Mini-Mates, including Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man (twice), Wolverine, Cyclops, Thing, Doc Ock, Rhino, Green Goblin, and Doctor Doom

"Cyber Chuck" Charlie Brown Figurine

Knight's Kingdom by Lego (All six of the 2004 series)

Mega Bloks Ship

Klingon Bird-of-Prey (floppy disk origami)

Starship Enterprise (floppy disk origami)

Small Snoopy stand-up

Mega Bloks Airplane

Toa Nuju Bionicle

Mega Bloks Supersonic Fighter

Mega Bloks Lobster

Lego X-Pod Robot

The rest of the Lego Star Wars Minis (two Tie Fighters, AT-ST, X-Wing, Snowspeeder, Y-Wing, Jedi Starfighter, Slave One, Anakin's Podracer, Sebulba's Podracer, Republic Gunship, AT-TE, MTT, and Sith Infiltrator)

Smokesreen (Transformers Alternator)

Silverstreak (Transformers Alternator)

Dead End (Transformers Alternator)

Windcharger (Transformers Alternator)

Side Swipe (Transformers Alternator)

Hidden at this angle under the Mouskateer hat, a stuffed Snoopy

Scattorshot (Transformers Cybertron)

Warthog with Gauss Cannon

Side Burn (Tranformers Universe)

Xevoz figures (On monitor: Razorclaw, Bone Cutter, Dune Stinger, and Moon Stalker; on cube wall: Shock Berzerker, Iron Spectre, Skull Jack, Shadow Blade, Alpha Ranger, Sledge Trooper, Hemo Goblin)

Puzz3D Helicopter

Snoopy as World War One Flying Ace

Perceptor Gestalt (Transformers Energon)

Bruticus Gestalt (Transformers G2 Alternate Paint)

Mega Bloks Spider-Man Super Tech

Snoopy candy bowl, traditionally filled with M&Ms

So there ya go. My desk.

Link of the moment: When I'm not around, do my toys have a block party?

Gotta Catch 'Em All!

2005-08-02T10:52:00.000-04:00

I love end-of-month time. I get swamped at work and have so much to do, its pretty fun. I like having things to do and my monthly reports give me a staged set of goals to meet. This time around with the new company, I've also got some new requests and such inserted into the mix that is making it even more interesting. I also have about twenty back-burnered projects that I'd like to tackle. That might sound daunting to some, but it's what gets me in the door each day. Once a job is old and there's nothing new to look forward to, that is when it's time to move on.

I don't really have any pictures here at the blog. At some point, I've got to fix that. My cubicle, especially, needs to be digitally recorded. I love toys, and it shows. Despite the three computers I need to do my job, plus various paperwork and phone equipment, I have quite the collection. A quick count right now puts it at 74 different toys, and that's counting the two gestalt Transformers as one toy each. Lately, I've been collecting Xevoz figures. They're a discontinued toy line from Hasbro based off of Stikfas. These things are loads of fun to put together and play with. I could probably make some kind of cheesy stop-motion video and rake in the mad loot or something. Most of the ones I am missing are rare and expensive, so it doesn't sound like such a bad idea at the moment.

Well, while I run another report, I've got to figure out where those twenty headsets I ordered have gotten to, since they were due in last week. I've got contractors sharing headsets, and that's about one smidge below sharing toothbrushes.

Link of the moment: Pete's link back here (thanks!) reminded me of Pokethulu. I probably shouldn't even think about that.

Cruisin'

2005-08-01T14:44:00.000-04:00

The title only works if you listen with your arcade ear for the digital voice on that car racing game.

In any case, I've got a new car. Specifically a brand new electric blue 2005 PT Cruiser. It's a little over two weeks old now, with almost 1200 miles on it. I'm loving it. I was originally looking for a minivan or SUV, but wasn't really excited by anything save perhaps the overpriced Nissan Murano. Then by some strange coincidence, three different people recommended the PT within a two day period of time. That was wiggy enough to make me take a look.

I poked around the Chrysler website, checked out a few car review sites, and everything was pretty positive. Except for the fact that I've always thought it was ugly as sin. Then I checked back the next day - not so ugly. Then Chrysler decides to do the employee pricing thing, and then, it's looking pretty nice. So I figure out the best dealership in the area that has what I want and head out.

On first pass, I wasn't impressed with the salesman. I've got a pet peeve about phones and customer service - if you are assisting me (and your paycheck is dependant on my willingness to buy), answering your cell phone is a good way to annoy me, especially if it's a personal call and you don't make any attempt to excuse yourself. I knew exactly which car I wanted (dealership web developers, take note: online inventory made me pick this dealership instead of one closer to home), and he found it pretty quickly. Then he starts pointing out the features of the car - which is cool, because the whole point of the visit was to actually sit in one and see how it worked - by reading the sticker - which is not cool. Okay, red flags start going off.

But then, something changed, and I'm not sure what. Maybe it was the fact that this dealership is set up like a parking garage, and the guy trusted me to drive the slalom course of new cars down to the ground level. Maybe because he started to loosen up and realized I was probably an easy sale. Or maybe he was just a little nervous himself. When we found out he'd only had this job for the past seven weeks, I became a little more forgiving. I drove it around and it was pretty much what I wanted in a car. He had the sale.

Of course, the financing piece of the puzzle was a freakin' bear. Why does this stuff have to be so hard? When I say I don't want meteor strike coverage, give up. When I say I can get a certain rate for a certain period from my credit union, don't insult my intelligence by claiming you're giving me a better rate by increasing the period by another year and knocking two hundredths of a percentage off. I can do math.

Anyway, everything worked out fine, and I drove out of there in my new Cruiser, all of 23 miles on it. A thousand miles later, and I'm still very happy with it.

Aside #1: My previous car was a '95 Dodge Neon I bought new in May of 1994. My car was the first Neon in the Aqua paint job sold at my dealership. I put about 188,000 miles on it and drove it pretty much into the ground, and maybe put all of about a thousand dollars in repairs into it during its entire lifespan (not counting things that wear like tires and such). That car owed me nothing, and still managed to get me $1500 in trade at the dealership. I salute you, friend, and appreciate your service.

Aside #2: The salesman? His previous job was a nurse caring for babies on life support. That's a freakin' emotional job if I ever heard one. He put something like 25 years into it, and was starting to feel beat down, emotionally. I guess car sales was a little less stressful. We're cool now, though I need to get the dang survey in the mail soon so he'll stop calling me to make sure everything is alright (because his paycheck is based on how I rate the sale).

Aside #3: The whole family loves the car. Patti still thinks it's ugly, but the boys love riding in it.

Link of the moment: Tangentially related to cars, test your sanity.

In the same vein

2005-07-29T10:59:00.000-04:00

I never thought I'd blog, mostly because I'm a fairly private person when you get down to it. I suspect there will be a whole mess of things I won't post here because I won't know who stumbles across it. Likewise, I never thought I'd get a portable media player beyond a decent CD player for mowing the lawn. Never saw a need for it, and even the cheapest one would have been pretty pricey considering I'd rarely use it.

Well, I guess it doesn't get much cheaper than free.

The new company decided to kick off the start of the contract and to ease the transition, they would supply a pretty nice breakfast spread on Monday (it was rather tasty with fruit, hot beverages, juice and other various continental items - I expected a few boxes of donuts) and cookies in the afternoon. Free food is always appreciated. They also mentioned something about giving away three iPods, which my Swiss-cheese brain promptly forgot by the time Monday rolled around.

At lunch the previous week, my friends and I joked that there would be three categories of winners: People who already have one and will just eBay it, people who are completely useless and don't deserve it, and against all odds, someone who wouldn't have one and would appreciate it. The general consensus would be that the first two categories would be sufficiently represented in the results.

Wavy lines, wavy lines, it's now Monday morning. Into my inbox, what should appear? "Congratulations, {my name here}!"

Now, those who know me really well know how my mind generally works. I'm very optimistic about people and society in general. Unless you give me a reason not to, I will always hope for the best for you. I'm generally optimistic when it comes to the things I know I'm good at, so if someone disparages something I know I did well, I have no problem jumping in and defending my work. However, I'm generally pessimistic when it comes to me, personally. I don't have a very positive self image, and it's easy for me to spin into depression when things aren't going well.

Apparently, I'm also kind of long-winded.

So anyway, my first thought on seeing the email was a sense of dread. I have job applications out with the previous employer which have been generally unsuccessful (though a good friend probably holds the record with something like 20 rejections in the past month or so), but the source of the email was in the new company. Hesitant to open it, I did anyway.

Unless you're the core of Jupiter, you've gathered that the email was telling me I won an iPod. Specifically, a silver 6 gig iPod mini with an extra firewire adapter and an AC charger. Pretty spiffy. Made my day, even.

Monday night, I had too much going on, though, and by the time I had a chance to do anything, it was 2300 and I was beat. So I popped in Lego Star Wars, did the Kamino level and went to bed. Tuesday, I installed the software, charged the battery, and burned some Celtic music from my CD collection. Wednesday I listened to all that while at work, then started poking around iTunes that night. Downloaded the freebie song, which wasn't so hot. Couldn't see much point in buying individual songs - that's not how I roll, G - I like the whole CD in physical form. But something caught my eye - the Podcast section. Oh yeah, I've listened to those here and there, but never really bothered unless someone pointed on out to me.

A short time after that, I had over 24 hours of podcasts loaded up, and they make great work entertainment while I'm coding like a fool. I downloaded some more last night. I'm mostly testing the waters, but a few of them are pretty good. I might try and swing by an accessories store and see what sort of nonsense I can buy for this thing. I'm pondering an FM transmitter because I can't find my old one (purchased from SkyMall about a dozen years ago), and my new car doesn't have an input for the radio, and some kind of space-age protector thingy to prevent scratches and such.

Look at me breakin' all the rules.

I'm so street.

Link of the moment: The Lego game is great - Voltroning three childhood passions is probably more than I deserve to experience. But maybe you dig something other than Star Wars or video games. Instead, combine Lego with some of your other interests using the Mini-Mizer.

Transition!

2005-07-28T09:23:00.000-04:00

Sing it like a fiddler on a roof for maximum effect.

So anyway. I got outsourced over the weekend. Next week would have marked ten years with Disney, about nine years more than I expected to be there, and five more than I envisioned as sheer craziness. And yet, I find myself pretty saddened by the whole thing. Before I go further, I've got some good feelings on the new company, so while there is some natural hesitance, I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of this. Intellectually, this is probably a good move for me - working for an IT company is better for my career over an entertainment company. But emotionally, I invested a third of my life into working for the Mouse. I would have never have met Patti if someone else had hired me back in '95. And by natural extension, I wouldn't have the two awesome kids I feed, clothe and maintain.

Sometimes working for Disney was pretty lousy. At one point I got reassigned and had to take a third shift job to accommodate the one car we had to work with, since we no longer worked in the same building. I've had to work crazy hours to handle peak periods.

But in general, I saw my Disney career as generally positive. I started in reservations, and the number of people just so happy to be going to Disney couldn't help but rub off on you. I've learned quite a bit on the technology side - enough that I can get jobs on experience alone without having my degree. I've met a lot of really good people. I've won awards and earned benefits. I've been welcomed in places I've never been just because of the nametag I was wearing.

So yeah, last week was probably my worst bout of depression in years (and let me tell you, I was pretty bad back in the day). I was angry about having to turn in my ID last Friday. I was peeved that I can no longer get my friends and family into the park once this calendar year is up. And so much for buying discount Tink paraphernalia for Patti from the various Disney sources.

But I'm still doing the same job I did last week, just for a different company. I'm getting over it.

Well, and the iPod I won on Monday probably helped.

Link of the moment: Since I'm still feeling a little railroaded, enjoy a little train game.

Post the first

2005-07-28T08:39:00.000-04:00

*tap tap tap*

So, like, hey.