A video production in three parts, from one Joss Whedon. Sounds like a punk kid who'll never get anywhere in life. However, it does continue to add to the oeuvre of "things NPH would or would not do."
http://www.drhorrible.com/act_I.html
Update: web version only available until the 20th according to Wikipedia; next few parts to be posted on 17th and 19th. I imagine I'll be purchasing the DVD when it comes out.
I've been replaying Mass Effect on the PC; I'm almost caught up to my XBox 360 save.
Misc notes:
* It's amazing how I'm pretty much playing the game in the same order. I wasn't even able to successfully make a different looking character. I'm not sure what that means. I'll probably try it again later as a Renegade, though -- hopefully that'll help me mix it up some.
* I had vowed to not to do the side-quest planet missions; this is a vow I did not keep. Now that I'm almost up to where I was, though, I'm remembering *why* I made the vow. I'd thought it was because I found the travel & quest log system irritating. These turns out to be minor inconveniences. What wears on you is yet another planet where you have to listen to your buggy go "wrrrrrrr" while you try to get over this really large mountain that your FREAKING SPACESHIP could have dropped you on THE OTHER SIDE OF.
* And then, once you get over the mountain, you get to either see the Cave Dungeon, the Installation Dungeon, or the Spaceship Dungeon. Seriously, guys -- 5-6 more stock dungeons for your side quests wouldn't have killed you.
On the plus side, the PC combat is more fun than the XBox combat, if for no other reason then you can hotkey abilities and not be pausing all the time. Also, the load times are way better, and I'm not in constant fear that the XBox will decide to stop reading my disc and effectively lose my progress.
I need to remember to make a sniper/tech class next time though.
I'm definitely digging it as much the second time through, though -- I think I might actually finish it this time.
...and the 20 minutes of Rock Band we tried before bed last night were pretty awesome. The hour of unpacking and setting up Rock Band -- less awesome. But hey, that part is done now!
I'm not sure what compels me make these postcards from an apocalyptic alternate land of struggle and magic, but make them I must. All for you, the home viewer. I imagine Cynne traveling on her many journeys, and thinking -- say, I bet the folks would really enjoy the scenery that underscores our impending struggle between good and evil.
She's more considerate than I am, in many ways. Odd and crazy... but true.
Here, by the way, is what I needed a working copy of Photoshop for:
My various alts don't really have a chance to hang out together much, you see.
PE 2.0 doesn't work in Leopard. This sucks.
So I go to Adobe's online store. PE 4.0 is available! It can be bought online and downloaded! Yay!
Weirdness number 1: PE6 is the current Windows version. PE4 isn't even really "supported" for Leopard (but some Googling indicates it'll work, so whatever.)
Weirdness number 2: The full price for PE4 -- today, at least -- is $5 less than the upgrade price. Oh, Adobe. Why are you so crazy about your upgrade prices? Whatever -- full version emboughtened.
Weirdness number 3: I literally just bought this 10 minutes ago -- why did you let me download 4.0 instead of 4.0.1? Why am I going through an updating process that's taking as long as the original download?
Oh, the hate -- it makes me powerful.
I woulda used Pixelmator, but it (a) crashed when I tried to open several images and (b) doesn't seem to have a magnetic lasso. The magnetic lasso is all I care about people. It's. All. I. Care. About.
We had some time on Monday before our flight out of the Twin Cities, so we went to an ur-greasy spoon that runs out of an old railroad car: Mickey's Diner. I didn't quite grasp that if you wanted veggies on your burger, you had to order it wussy "California Style," but it was still quite delicious.
Then we attempted to go the Minnehaha Falls, but they turn out to be a popular destination on Labor Day, and there was no parking to be found. So, with terror held in our hearts, we approached something that was -- in fact -- no moon, but rather the Mall (all-all-all) of America (erica-erica-erica).
Fun fact: From the outside it doesn't look so big. What makes it terrifying is the density inside -- four levels and lots of replication. The core is taken up with, no joke, an amusement park:
...but we didn't come for that. We came for the Lego Store, which is both a hoot AND a holler, which I'm sure you'll all be delighted to learn.
I've got the rest of the pictures up on Flickr in a set for your enjoyment, as well.
Carrie and I spent the Labor Day weekend up in the Minneapolis/St Paul area, to attend the wedding of Florence and Marty. Florence is an old friend of ours from our Carnegie Mellon days (are we old enough to have old friends? The answer, apparently, is yes). We met Marty for the first time this weekend, and it was wonderful to see how how well they were matched for each other.
I was incredibly charmed by the children attending, especially this young stinker:
Carrie generally ran around being awesome and making things go, but she also engaged in some craftiness, making the table runner for the head table:
Some detail:
One small bit of trivia: the bride & groom met playing boardgames, and the groom is a big boardgame geek. So he designed a game as part of the party favors for the guests to take home:
Kotaku continues to demonstrate they have no cognitive ability whatsoever in the conclusion to widescreen-gate.
So, yeah. I'll paraphrase the game developer's response: yeah we designed to the widescreen experience, and set up all of our assets with that in mind. But we had to deal with 4:3, right? So we had two choices -- letterbox, or just render the top & bottom portions you wouldn't otherwise see. We decided not to screw with the field of view, because you know what? The screen would look funny and pinched if we did that. We decided not to design to the 4:3 screen and then just add extra crap to the left and right because then you'd... feel like you were in a fishbowl.
I mean, guys, guys? You did notice that those TVs are different shapes, right?
My favorite response in the comments from the above link:
"The arm in the comparison screenshot keeps going in the 4:3 version. This would only make sense of the widescreen was cropped down from the full image."
Seriously, wow. That's brilliant, man. The man really stuck it to you by continuing to render the rest of the arm model so that it wouldn't look COMPLETELY STUPID in 4:3.
I hate people. Just wait until I release "I hate people episodes 1-3 -- a prequilogy."
For what it's worth, the claustrophobic feel of wandering around BioShock on a 16:9 screen is pitch-perfect. It's like some game designers, like, designed it.
If forum posters really behaved that way in real life: Internet Commenter Business Meeting (audio contains swearing and is probably NSFW without a headset).
(from kill ten rats)
In other news, I played BioShock some last night. I really like what I've seen so far. The introductory sequence is beautiful -- put me right back onto that tram in Half-Life, but even better. If you like System Shock 2, this will feel very familiar. I confess I was a little surprised they finally got away from their obscurely sophisticated leaning system though :).
So, get this. Apparently BioShock's widescreen support is "screwed up". Go ahead, click the link, look at the example.
Yeah, that's right. People are pissed off because the camera they control is showing a view that's wider than it is tall on their widescreen TVs. Let's stay focused on that core issue -- the camera that THEY CONTROL.
Seriously, reading the comments is like bad comedy. This isn't a freaking movie where shots are all carefully framed. This is an FPS. If you play an FPS on a widescreen TV? The top and bottom aren't there. The viewport is a different shape. Maybe you noticed this when you bought the TV.
we shipped. Woot!
Went to go see Ocean's 13 at the Alamo for my birthday tonight; afterwards we went to Amy's for ice cream. One of their specials was "Candy Mountain," which of course caused our entire group to utter "Candy Mountain, Charlie!" which gasted the flabber of the kids behind the counter. "You old folks know about the internets!?" So they comped us for my Candy Mountain. Then I nerded out and dialed up the video on YouTube on the iPhone. It was a good birthday.
The Newsgator Mobile Edition returns an iPhone-friendly version. And NetNewsWire seamlessly synchs with Newsgator. This is unbelievably cool.
I guess I'm supposed to be upset I can't download and install apps that work, like, on my phone. But I've been there. I've done that. I kind of hated it. Web 2.0, baby. People have even figured out freaky usages of data: URLs to bookmark local copies of "apps" onto your phone.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-07-10-voa19.cfm
I confess I have mixed feelings about this.
Has anyone done some kind of app that looks at publicly available weather data, specifically average rainfall in an area, to estimate, say, when you should water your lawn?
Yes, I'm a big nerd.
Through happy coincidence, I find myself with a chance to catch my breath and catch up on things I haven't had a chance to read or watch, including various podcasts on technical and other topics. I find the TEDTalks to be intriguing, as a sizable subset show off some interesting UI thinking.
However, I have one complaint -- the titles! The damn things are all titled by person, not by topic, indicating that it's more important WHO is talking rather than what they are discussing. This should perhaps not be surprising, as the E in TED is entertainment, but as I've become enamored of using my iPhone to watch these things, it can be frustrating -- since I can only browse by the title, not by the description. Argh.
While I will be getting a second iPhone in a month (which will be Carrie's), my enthusiasm could not be contained and I decided to go get in a line today in order to obtain my long-awaited phone. I confess, I have been eager for a phone from Apple for years now -- I have always hated the phone experience, while at the same time feeling the phone is the only gadget I can realistically carry around at all times (as much as I love my teeny weenie camera). So, the idea of a phone with a user interface that didn't, well, completely suck is undeniably appealing.
I started to go off on a tangent about phones that suck, but that's not what we're here for today. Instead, let's talk about the iPhone buying experience. In a word: amazing.
I thought about going to an AT&T store, as had been hinted broadly was the right move, but instead, I decided to head to The Domain's Apple store here in north Austin. I figured if the line was impossible, I'd change gears, but the idea of buying the phone in an actual Apple store was too compelling. I got there at 4 -- two hours before they were to re-open. I figured that was my max time I was willing to wait, and if it was too nuts, well, at worst I'd order one online.
The line was long when I got there, but not crazy long. I reckon I was #200 or so in the line. The Domain is an outdoor mall, but with plenty of shade, so it was nice to be in this strange outdoor world for a while. It was hot and humid, but there was a nice breeze, and I ran down my poor old RAZR's battery talking to my Mom for an hour or so. After that, I listened to my current audiobook and crowd watched. It was a pretty fully line -- by the time the store opened at 6, I was probably at the 2/3 mark. By the time I bought my phone, the line was back to where it was when I started. So... I suspect we're going to report good sales numbers today :).
Everyone was polite and enthusiastic, and there was a definite energy to the crowd. Once the store opened, the line moved pretty fast -- it probably took 30 minutes for me to actually get in the door, so that was two and a half hours spent total in wait. Inside, they'd set up like they do for the holiday iPod sales, with a very fast path for people who just wanted iPhones. Once you got an iPhone, you were welcome to keep shopping and make a second purchase if you chose. They had different queues for those folks buying 4Gs, 8Gs, and 1 or 2. There were still quite a few stacked up even when I got mine, so I suspect first-day demand will be well met, unlike, say, the Wii (I finally obtained a Wii two weeks ago through a lucky accident, even though it's been out for half a year).
The actual phone is super slick looking -- just a little taller than an iPod, but about the same width. The screen is bright and sharp. The web browsing is all I've tried so far, but it seems to work great -- the double click enlarging is very fast and smooth, and seems to use the web layout itself to inform the resizing. Yes, folks, it's the VERY FIRST EVER use of the semantic web. I already posted my first twitter from the phone -- using the web browser, not SMS. Woo!
And now that I've finished synching and setting it up, I'm gonna go mess with it. I'm pretty stoked!
You can look at yesterday's announcement like this: No iPhone SDK Means No Killer iPhone Apps.
Or you can look at it like this: suddenly there will be a full pocket-size Web 2.0+Ajax environment in 10 million pockets. That actually seems way cooler to me than yet another SDK.
Do I know anyone who knows anyone who has an in with the audio recording industry in Austin? My brother Chris is thinking about job options, and if it turns out I can shamelessly exploit a connection to get him some work here in audio production and recording (film & TV kinda stuff) then I'm all fer it.
How ya doin'?
Wassup.
Edit: Ironically, in re-installing my web apps on the new laptop, the "comments on" default was turned off.
My memory seems to behave in this extremely context-sensitive way. I've now walked downstairs three times, and when I get near the TiVo I remember I'm supposed to look up when The Dresden Files is going to start airing. Then I walk upstairs and poof it's out of my head. Yesterday, every time I got into my car, I remembered I was going to use Google Maps to look up the street layout near my house, so I didn't get lost going on a walk again. Every time I got back to my computer? I immediately started paying attention to whatever web browser windows I had open.
Sometimes, this is incredibly useful. It helps a lot when I'm dealing with a massive, sprawling code base. There's no way I can remember what all the code I've written over the past six years (O_o) does, but when I start working on a part of it, the details come flooding back. Sometimes, it's pretty frustrating -- I'm not very good about small talk or telling stories spontaneously, because I usually need to get some context before my memory kicks in. Once it does kick in, I'm fine, although I find I have a tendency to tell the same story over and over again for weeks once I have one in my grasp.
So, yeah. I get the impression not everybody else has a whacked-up brain indexing scheme like I do. How does your memory seem like it works to you?
P.S. It starts on January 21st, which is why the damn thing isn't look-uppable on the TiVo yet. And the last time I tried to look that info up, I got distracted finding out that the third book in his fantasy series was finally out. Which I promptly forgot until just now. BRAAAAAAIN!
So, Microsoft launched its new movie download service yesterday, and -- since I've been engrossed in Gears of War, I figured we could try it out and see how V for Vendetta looked.
My user experience? Multi-minute delays just trying to get a response from the server when attempting to buy the "Microsoft Points" that I still had yet to actually redeem to rent the movie. I hadn't even yet attempted to download the movie, and after that delay, decided not to bother. I'm glad I hadn't, considering Kotaku's experience of a 10 hour ETA on movie download. This, of course, has been downplayed by Microsoft, but it's pretty clear these guys didn't actually do any capacity testing before launching this service on -- wait for it -- the day before Thanksgiving.
I'll still try the service out, once stuff calms down, because I'm interested to see if this is a viable alternative to obtaining an HD DVD player. Still, so far I'm underwhelmed. Let's review the strikes against it, shall we?
There are two upsides: hidef, and the 360 is already connected via hidef cables to the nice TV. Frankly, though, this just whets my appetite for the iTV and for iTunes to hopefully start offering hidef content.
From the Austin Statesman: Former House member charged with assaulting man who defeated him.
To my re-elected State Representative Mark Strama and to newly elected Valinda Bolton! It's a delightfully Blue day, even here in Texas.
So, the weirdest thing on Yahoo News this morning was not, for me, the happy news that our new Speaker of the House is Democrat Nancy Pelosi. No, the weirdest thing was this familiar mug staring back at me:
(which I found about when brother Doug sent me a perplexed e-mail.)
Update: the ivoted tag.
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (reviews) came out yesterday, and I spent a fair bit of last night playing the first part of it. My short take: best fantasy FPS ever.
Things I like include:
Probably the only con is that it's an FPS, so like all good things that aren't MMO crack, it'll come to an end, sooner rather than later. But that's a strength, too. Oblivion had a lot of stuff to explore, but in the end, it was a breadth first exploration of a shallow world. This game, by virtue of focusing on linear level design, really pulls off a deeper and more interesting gameplay, since you don't get lost in the min-maxing details.
I'm pretty intrigued to try the multiplayer, though.
Download the demo. If you like the demo, you'll like the game. It's well worth the time to take a look.
Update: I'm still enjoying the game, but I'm starting to encounter random crashes on level loads. This makes me sad. Hope there's a patch soon. Also, I find myself keeping stuff in my inventory even when I'm not using it, because I keep expecting to find a merchant. I don't think there's a merchant, so I'm not sure why they bother limiting my inventory slots.
Heroes is an incredible show with a crappy advertising campaign. Three episodes aired before I discovered it was a show about superheroes, instead of, say, firefighters. The ad campaign is all grim everyday New Yorkers and a dark skyline -- is it any wonder I thought it was yet another 9/11 cash-in?
What it turns out to actually be is an X-Men ripoff, but a really well done one. Instead of starting with spandexed heroes already in the batcave, we get to watch multiple characters dealing with the fact they have crazy superpowers -- and trying to hide those powers so they can keep living life as usual. And then we get to watch them rise to the occasion, and be heroes.
My favorite is Hiro, the very enthusiastic Japanese office worker/nerd. He's just so HAPPY! Seeing the contrast in how his character changes in the most recent episodes really shows off the strengths of the actor playing him.
So, yeah. If you like the superhero genre in any way, shape, or form, and you're not watching this -- you're doing yourself a disservice.
PicLens, a plugin for Safari on the Mac, is pretty darn cool. It only works with a few sites (Flickr and Google Image search, notably), but it gives you a really cool way to navigate through image search results. Basically, if you're on a page it knows how to parse, when you click on an image it'll scale up to take over your full screen. Other image results will show up as thumbnails along the bottom, and you can search through them, kind of like iPhoto's full screen mode.
The only minor annoyance (other than that it only works with a small handful of sites) is that it seems to screw up the tab highlighting in Safari, so it's hard to tell what your current tab is. Boo :(.
...because both Loco Roco and Lego Star Wars are incredibly cool and fun on it. What's the secret? Colorful, stylized, but high rez graphics, and addictive gameplay. These games really show what the PSP can do when it's not trying to be a little bitty PS2. Sorry, DS Lite, but the PSP gets to ride in the airplane bag next week.
(Yes, I'm aware Lego Star Wars is an example of a big console title that got ported to the PSP, but it still feels like it was meant for the PSP.)
So, has anyone else noticed that when Anakin goes all Darthy, it's to try to save his family? And when Darth is redeemed, it's to try to save his family? Wait, I could have sworn some pompous jackass told me the Jedi were supposed to be above this personal attachment crap.
Seriously, why did we find this guy scary?
I recently got an HP 3055 fax/scanner/copier/printer for my home office. Unlike my previous printer, this one was supported on the Mac without jumping through hoops, and even the scan functionality was supported. So, you know, cool. The install was relatively straightforward -- the only weird part was that it wanted the printer connected for the install. OK, fine.
The machine it is attached to also has Boot Camp installed, so I decided to install the printer drivers on both sides, so that printer sharing wouldn't be busted if I was using the Windows side. What surprised me was how much more irritating the install process was on the Windows side -- even though HP created both installers.
While the Mac install required my attention a couple times at the start, the Windows install was like a needy child, seeking my attention at intermittent intervals. Now, I don't object to answering questions, but the issue here was that it didn't ask all the questions up front. Instead, it would ask a question, then start a progress bar -- universal code for "you can ignore me now while I copy some files." So I'd turn my attention way, only to discover a few minutes later that it had made about 10 seconds of progress before demanding some new information.
So... why the big difference? I propose that Mac users have an expectation of straightforwardness -- Windows users are resigned to over-complication. The different teams writing the two different installers proceeded from the assumptions of their user experience expectations.
On a side note, I went to grab the latest DirectX using Firefox. I was faced with an insistence that I install the "Windows Genuine Advantage" update before it would let me proceed -- and that I actually had to get a special Firefox plugin to even do that. So -- in order to make the computer function properly -- I had to install an update whose only purpose is to make it easier for Microsoft to disable my machine if they decide I am not in compliance with their intellectual property agenda.
All I want to do is is swing a lightsaber :(. Is that so wrong?
As previously mentioned, we're watching the Star Wars DVDs. The Empire Strikes Back really stands out for having, how shall I put it, subtlety and acting. Comparing the love story between Han and Leia and the love story between Anakin and Padme -- well, there is no comparison.
On the other hand, OH MY GOD, why did we ever think Darth Vader was anything but comical as he swings around his lightsaber while dressed up in that ludicrous suit? Episodes I-III justify their existence solely by virtue of their badass lightsaber fight choreography.
We've been re-watching the Star Wars movies lately, which inspired me to pick KOTOR2 back up and finish it. (Here's a link to my initial impressions.) I'd originally given up on the game about 10 hours in, because the promised lightsaber was nowhere in sight. It turned out I was still a good 2-3 hours away from the lightsaber, but I stuck it out.
Allow me to recant everything I said in my initial impressions. Upon further play, I found:
So, yeah. It had some good moments -- enough to keep me playing and to finish it. But it was much more deeply flawed than I originally thought.
Today was all about debugging. We had an insane outbreak of fire ants last week -- the exterminator came today. Also, I quashed the last two bugs for our current milestone -- hooray, now I get to move on the giant backlog for the next milestone.
Dear universe, fuck off, this kind of metaphor/reality shit isn't funny any more. Srsly.
Yesterday's Scary Go Round is kind of charming, although I don't know how entertaining it will be to non-followers of the strip. But who wouldn't follow this strip? It's grrreat.
Brother Chris and I went down to the Congress Avenue Bridge to see the bats.
After that, we took some arty shots of downtown lights on long exposures.
We concluded by rocking, and not bothering knocking.
Boing boing points us to The Amazing Screw-On Head, a pilot that the SciFi channel is airing on the web. It's brilliant. If you like Mike Mignola (of Hellboy), you'll like this.
Also found -- Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series of books, which I like immensely, appears to finally be being turned into a TV series. You can find a promo on the SCIFI web site. I'm not superthrilled about the casting, but... we'll see.
Dreamhost, our hosting provider, has posted a very informative account of the recent hosting woes that have been fallout from record heat in CA and various power issues.
The issues have been frustrating, but DH's frankness in describing the problems and what steps are being taken to remedy them are what I like to see out of a company. Hopefully we'll see the rest of the lingering issues cleaned up soon, if they haven't been already.
We just got back from an overlapping work trip -- Carrie was in San Jose for BlogHer (as was Skye), and I was in Cupertino catching up on some long overdue meetings. Then we both kicked around for the weekend in sunny CA and met up with folks, including Nigel (who was also in town on work!) and large chunks of my family who drove down from Sacramento and met us in Oakland.
Before finally heading for the airport, we did sneak off to see the ocean, at bee-yoo-tiful Half Moon Bay. I finally indulged myself and picked up a Canon SD700 IS ELPH for the occasion; I love my SLR, but it's bulky enough that I don't want to take it for casual photography. So, after two years of pining, we decided it counted as a birthday present :). It's ideal for casual photography -- I couldn't be happier.
This past month or so, I've been feeling the Warcraft Player vs Player love again. Way back when, we all chose to get ourselves onto a PVP server to give the virtual world that little extra frisson of risk. It's been a mixed bag -- bored and decently-geared children (this includes adult children) can "grief" or harass lower leveled players who are just trying to have a little fun. On the other hand, engaging in the defense of towns, or even just turning the tables on an ambusher when set upon out in the world, can be an incredibly fun experience.
About a year ago, Blizzard introduced "battlegrounds," which were specific areas designed for team vs team PVP content. There's a big 40 vs 40 map that -- to some extent -- emulates an actual Warcraft III map. It's interesting, but too impersonal for me (not to mention a multi-hour game). There's also Arathi Basin, a 15 vs 15 map that's sort of like Battlefield 2 -- control nodes to get resources to win. That's a lot more fun, as even 2-4 organized players can make a difference at a node, and the game goes quickly one way or another.
My heart, however, will always belong to Warsong Gulch. This map is straight up capture the flag, 10 on 10. It can be incredibly frustrating compared to Arathi Basin, since it's easier to get into a stalemate (or just get steamrolled). But, but... my DRUID can turn into a CHEETAH and RUN REALLY FAST.
Even if I inevitably die because our defense can't keep or retrieve our flag... there's still nothing like the rush of dodging obstacles and dashing across the field to home base.
This last few months, I've been slowly but surely moving up the PVP ranks. Just this week, I got the superior-grade druid PVP set, which has a speed boost as part of the bonuses, making me as speedy as most mounted characters in the game. Oh yeah, that's right -- that's my dust you're eating.
Yes, my name is Cynne, and I'm a flag ninja.
Valve has released a trailer for an upcoming game called Portal. Holy crap.
Kevin's been talking up Titan Quest this last week, so I finally broke down and picked up. It's pretty fun!
Here's the short version: did you enjoy Diablo 2? Do you ever find yourself wanting to re-install it to relive its joys, and then when you do, discovering to your horror that graphics didn't age worth a damn? Do you want a version of Diablo 2 that has an extremely shiny 3D graphical upgrade, but is otherwise exactly the same game, ripped off with loving care?
THIS IS YOUR GAME.
It's totally Diablo 3, with Greek Gods instead of Christian ones. The animations are even eerily reminiscent. It's crack-tastic.
Salvage Vanguard Theater is a local indy theater group Skye turned me onto that puts on a variety of interesting shows. I've only been a few times, but they've always been enjoyable. (Flawed sometimes, but enjoyable and interesting.)
My fave show of all time, though, was The Intergalactic Nemesis. It's a live show done in the style of a radio serial, replete with sound effects by genuine foley artists. It's space opera cheeseball-tastic. I still need to see part 3; I suspect a CD purchase is in my future.
(Thanks, Ben, for the link!)
Ed Felten better expresses what was bugging me about this whole thing: Freedom to Tinker » Blog Archive » Taking Stevens Seriously. He also does an excellent analysis of how Stevens was probably trying to defend big telcos with his argument, a subtlety which I confess completely passed me by in my rush to try to comprehend at all.
Superman Returns: a lot of fun. I'm not a huge fan of the buffoonish Lex Luthor as set up by the original movies, but Spacey does a good job of taking what Hackman did and giving it depth. I prefer the comic book evolution of Superman into a kind of elder statesman of heroing, but the movie still filled me with a sense of wonder and teared me up on occasion.
Pirates 2: also a lot of fun, if more sloppily paced. Both movies push the three hour mark, but you notice it more with Pirates. Still, Cap'n Jack Sparrow is fun regardless, and Bill Nighy as Cthulhu Davy Jones is a suprise treat. Swashes are buckled in fine campy style.
A Scanner Darkly: Linklater's Waking Life techniques shine in this movie, which acts like a visually administered drug. This is easily the best PKD adaptation going. I expected to hate Keanu Reeves -- to find his presence jarring -- but his slack-jawed performance was perfectly appropriate. The real standout, though, is Robert Downey, Jr., who makes this movie worth seeing all by himself.
Now, I'm no fan of Senator Ted Stevens. But Boing Boing's continued mocking of him for saying the Internet is made of tubes -- well, it just sums up the smarmy schoolyard bully attitude of Boing Boing that I find so frequently offputting.
You know what? It is made of tubes. Steven's description is a little loopy, but it's a pretty accurate description of the way a packet switched network works (splitting up the data into little pieces that might be split through a variety of pipes on its away across the network) versus the way a dedicated circuit network works (loading it on a truck). So it comes across as pretty snotty for Boing Boing -- which is more than happy to re-spout such meaningless aphorisms as "the network routes around damage" -- to resort to argument by authority against something that in the final analysis, isn't wrong.
I picked up Brain Age for the DS, since hey, everybody's doing it. It's interesting. I have no idea if it's doing any good or not, but my brain is back to its "normal age" after just a few sessions, so I guess it's at least training me to take its tests.
It also includes Sudoku, the logic puzzle number grid game. I'm surprised by how much I enjoy this. It's eerily like debugging -- it's all about eliminating possibilities until you have proof about how the system is supposed to work.
I knew about the Wookieepedia, but as we were re-watching some fine quality Buffy season 4 last night, I found myself googling for Wiccapedia. Sadly, the site seems to have gone defunct -- that link goes to the Internet Wayback Machine's archive of the page.
Of course, then there's also Wackypedia and Wickedpedia.
Lately, I've noticed the very tip of my head gets cold. T_T
That's about it.
Maybe I need to start wearing a little cap, like in Firefly.
