Auld Lang Syne

"My whole life, I have no idea what this song means. Should I remember my friends in order to forget them?"

The end of When Harry Met Sally has a big party with dancing and music and smooching. There are a couple parties we've been invited to this evening, but due to the weather and some sort of sinus malfunction, we're staying home.

I will try not to dwell on the lost opportunities of this year or how disappointing certain aspects of it were. November, I am looking in your direction. Instead, I have already pinky swore to write more next year. Maybe I'll do the Artist's Way or figure out just what I want to do with my spare time. Spending some of my vacation time on organization--found some stuff to sell on eBay, organized some books, revised my address book.

I think there's a game called... football on tomorrow, but I will be looking for donuts instead. Maybe they can take the sting out of the awfulness that was Identity Crisis.

Well said

Bob Harris says it better than I could.

$35 million. Swell.

The death toll is rapidly approaching six digits -- imagine 30 September 11ths, if you wish, with all the sudden speed, chaos, and complete wreckage of human life that entails -- with the number of affected people surely ten times that high. And the richest country in the world, the one which believes itself to be singular among nations (thus ironically fulfilling the notion before the neurons have even cooled), can only muster a few dollars per life destroyed.

What's $35 million?

The amount it takes to fix up one park in Pittsburgh.

It's exactly one new school in Montclair, New Jersey.

It's what Dick Cheney put in his own back pocket by ditching his Halliburton stock.

And it's one four-thousandth of what the U.S. has spent invading and occupying Iraq.

Tens of thousands of dead in a dozen countries on two continents, after a disaster so large it literally changed the map of Indonesia and completely obliterated the southernmost tip of India.

Survival infrastructures are simply gone now in many places. Famine and pestilence are likely to take at least as many lives if the rest of us fellow humans don't do enough to help right now.

$35 million. George W. Bush is telling the largest Muslim nation on Earth that the massive destruction in Aceh is worth less than the United States spends on occupying Iraq every day.

Obscenity.

I would add that it's really fucking sad when the re-elected President can't get off his ass on his ranch for four days except to give a lame-ass press-conference. I'm a little surprised he wasn't choking on a pretzel again. Or falling off a Segway. Or whatever excuse they're using this time.

Four more years of this shit, even. Unless the Plame indictments come down. Or the Abu Ghraib memos get traced back. Or the press does its damn job. Exactly when will America realize the emperor has no clothes? From where I sit, blood-stained hands and the bloated filth of crony capitalism doesn't look much like fine silks.

On vacation

Posting has been light since I'm taking the week off.

The news from the Boxing Day Tsunami has just been depressing as hell. Every time I look, the number of casualties has increased. Again. If you want to help, there's a link to the Red Cross on Amazon, or a series of charities that Benjamin Rosenbaum has researched.

How am I spending vacation? Watching TV, playing some Front Mission 4, adding items to Delicious Library. It's weird--either people get why the program is cool right away, or no amount of explanation will convince them. Oh well. Their loss.

The day the world exploded

Bob Harris gives a nice rundown of how to help people in Sri Lanka and Sumatra. Words escape me on this one.

• Doctors Without Borders
• Mercy Corps
• International Red Cross

Spent the day looking for vacuum cleaner bags and some other stuff, but it seems a bit mundane at the moment.

Gimli, Son of Gloin, KGB

Instead of watching A Christmas Story, we're watching The Living Daylights. I'd forgotten that John Rhys-Davies is in this as a KGB General. I keep expecting him to shout something about his axe or whatever.

The holidays have been good to us. Last night we spent with friends watching movies, including Napoleon Dynamite. Sweet. I totally want a Vote for Pedro shirt.

Merry Christmas, Brass Rail Bar!

NPR demonstrates how the liberal media works by deleting "sensitive" portions of David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries.

What a fine, fine way to celebrate the holiday. By censoring, for many people, a holiday tradition because it might offend the Jebus-lovers. I hope that NPR enjoys that money from the Kroc family, as they will be getting no more of mine.

I should go out and get some lunch, though I am really not thrilled with the idea of fighting the crowds.

Naughty or nice?

Fred Hembeck has a fabulous collection of Santas up on his site.

My favorite may be the Bizarro Santa at the bottom of the page, though. "Me give presents to bad children! Good children get coal! Bizarro Santa eat Rudolph for dinner!"

Spent last night moving heavy printing equipment with a friend. He was trying to talk me into getting a press myself, but there's no place in the house for one. We could barely fit the washer and dryer down--I don't think an industrial typesetter will make it either.

Santa...

If you're reading this, bring me one of these.

A guy in Alaska is building his own mecha. Combining this with the Toyota story of a few weeks ago, things are looking up on the giant robot front.

Trying to hammer out a problem at work and then I think I am heading home. Must move some heavy things this evening--it's a pity I don't have a mech for assistance.

Oh, and I would also settle for one of these paintings if the mech won't fit in the sleigh.

Trials of life

This morning, on the new solar year marked by yesterday's solstice, I walked into work to spy a young sharp-shinned hawk attacking a sea gull. He managed to shear off the back feathers from the gull, but not much else. Feathers drifted through the air as the gull escaped in a panic.

The hawk looked at me as if to say, "Shit! I nearly had him!" After a moment he flew up to a branch to hop around nervously. I took a picture with my phone camera, but since there's no telephoto you can barely make the hawk out at all. However, there are some nice feathers decorating the park blocks now.

The days are getting longer, light is increasing. I'm tempted to read something into this but experience warns against it.

The fish was delish

And UN representatives reported that it made quite a dish.

Woke up this morning to Richard Perle giving a self-serving interview to NPR. Ah, NPR, how I miss when you didn't suck.

Then I come to work and find this story about another attack in Iraq and I get the feeling the next two weeks are going to suck there. It's not like they're not sucking now, but I'm getting a whole Tet vibe.

I seem to have misplaced a boot disk for Ghost. Anybody know where I put it? It's got the drivers for a Toshiba A10 ethernet card, which I thought was an integrated Intel Pro100 V/E card but now may not be.

Oy. Can I go back to bed now?

I have a scanner gun and I know how to use it

Ah, Deepak Chopra. Here is his message from his as channeled by My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable:

CHIN UP.
We're smarter than those motherfuckers.
We can learn more quickly than those motherfuckers.
We can be more ruthless than those motherfuckers.
We can be some six-million-dollar motherfuckers ourselves.

Chin up.
We're more American than those motherfuckers.
We're more responsible than those motherfuckers.
We're more compassionate than those motherfuckers.
Hell, our atheists are more Christian than their Bible-thumpin' motherfuckers.

There's an election in two years.
There's nothing we can't do.

Chin up.
Because it's on, motherfuckers.
It is on.

I'm gonna go blow shit up on the PlayStation 2 because it's been that kind of a day.

Rented both Baten Kaitos and San Andreas, but neither is doing much for me. The former is pretty but dull. The latter is not terribly engaging and seems more interested in racking up occurrences of the word "fuck" than gameplay, at least for the amount I've played.

It reminds me of the idiots I saw in Pho Van wearing John Deere hats with the pricetags on still. Poseurs. It's almost as if Rockstar is trying to beat the cutscenes in Xenosaga.

Camel Clutch of Forgiveness

This holiday season, what could be more entertaining than an Alien loving a Predator?

Unless it's this Last Kiss comic.

Spent part of the morning driving in--there was a nice accident blocking 2 lanes of Broadway where somebody had plowed into another person, and rather than move to the side of the road, they just blocked almost all the traffic. Woo! It was more pleasant than listening to the Bush press conference, though. Now I know why he avoids them--he sounds like a complete idiot all the time.

How can I get through another four years of this? Grrr.

Pho and Vietnamese iced coffee

I discovered this as one of the finest meals in existence a few years ago. The sweet, icy goodness of the coffee is a nice complement to the glasses-steaming deliciousness of the pho.

I'm not sure there are many dishes as customizable as pho. While you're eating, the same bowl can take on multiple characteristics. My usual progression is this: I start out with a stock bowl--one of these days I'll get the one with tripe and meatballs in it but I usually stick with the brisket, flank steak, and other goodies. Then after a baseline has been established, I start to mess with it by adding the basil, chiles, sprouts, and as many limes as they will give me.

Hoisin, chili paste, and fish sauce also make guest appearances. By the end, the once-pale broth is several shades darker and much more spicy. But the temperature has cooled enough that my lenses don't steam over anymore.

I also tend to save most of my iced coffee to the end. It's sweet with a lovely coffee finish, cutting through the fire left by the chiles. If you're lucky, the restaurant will give it to you with the grounds straining over your cup and you can make it yourself. The only way that it could be better is if it had booze in it.

Been acquiring a lot of media lately. The last doubleplus special edition of LotR movies, three (yes, THREE!) Eddie Izzard concert films, and now a package from Kevin arrived with the first two Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex DVDs. Sweet.

As an added bonus, he threw in Arrested Development as a loan. I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

My library is delicious

Spent a good chunk of time last night adding things to my Delicious Library. I'm fairly OCD about stuff like this, so I suspect this is going to be a very long-term project.

The Delicious Library looks at Amazon for a lot of its ISBN and UPC data. Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff I have isn't going to be in Amazon at all--particularly the HK films and a lot of the bonus discs. I have also been sidetracked by finding the right cover art. For example:



There are a couple of edits I need to make to this entry: the rating is no longer pending. That game is... Teen, I think. And they're showing the Greatest Hits cover when we have the original one.

I'm really hoping that the DM folks figure out a way for us to make a clearinghouse of alternative covers--I'm halfway tempted to start my own video game database at this point. There needs to be one like the CDDB, I swear.

Warp Factor Love

Kevin pointed this out to me and I must admit that it's pretty damn catchy. Now watch Paramount ruin it. JUST WATCH.

He also pulls a daily double by mentioning this great rant about old-school Republicans.

My original point was -- Republicans used to be the guys who put the brakes on this shit. A sad chuckle, a little head shake. "Who's going to pay for this?" they'd say, frowning over national budgets. "Where are the facts? The research?" They'd take out their little red pens and buzzkill our little dreams of nationalized health care or solar-powered windmills or maglev trains, and then go back to banning pornography while secretly screwing around on their wives.

Genius stuff. Not as genius as Warp Factor Love or Beppo the Space Monkey, though.

Wow.

There's liking beer and then there's liking beer.

I dunno about you, but I'm not sure any beer is worth ripping a hole in your gut. Not even the bottle of Fred I had aging for a couple years. Speaking of Fred, this is new: a guide to vintages.

Kevin says that man is his hero, but I would beg to differ.

It is this guy. Lighting a gas grill with liquid oxygen? BAM.

The Czechs live in paradise, mate

Once upon a time there was a company called Turnpike Films. They made what is perhaps the best commercial ever: an ad for NutriGrain bars about how they made you feel GREAT. The ad itself is locked behind a password screen now, alas, but you might be able to find it online elsewhere.

Their new one is all about how the Czech people live in paradise. It's also really good.

Currently trying to get back into the swing of things at work. I think this week I'll be upgrading a ton of machines to XP Service Pack 2. Well, OK, maybe a quarter ton of machines. They're not THAT heavy, though they did give me a nasty bruise once.

No discussion of Superpets would be complete without the Gone and Forgotten look at them.

1.5MB down, 384k up

Finally got the DSL installed. The old wiring in the house gave the installation guy a case of nerves. Our house was built in 1927 and there were some wires for princess telephones, I guess. Something about a second pair being used as a power/ground instead of just the phone line. Eventually they put in a new set of wires and the bedroom is now wired for DSL.

Anyway, it's all taken care of now, and the graphite AirPort base station is getting the job done. At some point I'll be adding another firewall of some sort, possibly a hardware firewall/bridge combo, if such a thing exists. I'm already running one firewall, why not two? Defense in depth and all that.

Tomorrow the new Lord of the Rings DVD set comes out, but I'll be too busy helping a friend test some 3D monitor for his MBA project. Should be interesting. I might get to watching the extended version eventually, but this weekend is the... um... impromptu Holiday Beer Festival. It's totally impromptu, even though we've been planning it since September or so. And we've done it for three years now. (Basically, we head to the Horse Brass and see what's on tap in terms of holiday ales.)

Now that I have a decent connection, it's time to start updating some references, think about hosting some websites, etc. Decisions, decisions. But, first, some Homestar Runner. It's dot-com!

Sequels I'd like to see

IGN has a story about PC games that cry out for sequels. I totally hear them on Grim Fandango. This is one of the games I associate with people from an old job--with Ian it was Homeworld, with Greg it was Grim Fandango. Great game, well done, totally ignored by most of the public.

There are a few games that I always wanted to play more of. Starflight, for example. Starflight was OK, but its sequel, Starflight 2, took everything that was great about the first game and turned it up to 11. Josh and I used to spend hours researching the puzzles in that game, trying to figure out what in the past had made the Cloud Nebula what it was. And it had the Humna Humna, one of the best alien races ever. They'd sell you fun stuff and they were funny to boot.

RoboSport was one of the early titles of Maxis. One of their only non-Sim games, perhaps their only non-Sim game. Unless you count SimAnt, which... um... had a good manual but was not much of a game.

Maxis sorta didn't know what to do with Robosport, despite it being one of the first networkable multiplayer games ever. TCP/IP, Modem, or AppleTalk. It's a pity that it was 16-color only, or I'd still be playing it now. (I gather there's a patch to make it 256-color, at least, but I've never been able to get it to work.)

You could have five separate types of robots on your team, and the art style was fairly fun. (I once worked with the lead artist on this title on a bunch of projects. She was amused that I had such fondness for this game.) Back in the day, I sat down and plotted all sorts of things for a possible sequel, though Maxis returned and said, "We're never developing anything else along these lines." Now that they are all-Sims, all the time, they'll probably stay that way.

Some titles that I liked may eventually see a sequel. One of these days Blizzard will get around to StarCraft 2. I'd settle for Total Annihilation 2, actually. But Cavedog is no longer a company. Square has turned Final Fantasy 7 into its own franchise, but what I'd like from that is a remake with better graphics, maybe not a sequel.

Note that I am ignoring the games that don't need sequels, as they have too many or never really needed one in the first place. The infinite supply of Army Men games speak to the former, and Ico is one of the latter. Well, I would have liked that game to never end, so it is good the team is still working.

DSL through Speakeasy arrives tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it.

Shire.... Baggins......

Watching the pan-and-scan version of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. I'm wondering if I should have grabbed a beer to play the "drink when you see The Ring" game. I'd probably be reeling, even now, and we're barely 30 minutes in.

Our tradition for the past few years has been to spend Christmas day watching the latest LotR movie, then going for dim sum. Now that Peter Jackson, et al., have chosen to not make The Hobbit, I have no idea what we'll be doing this year.

I'm thinking of selling some of my old comics and converting long runs of single issues into trade paperbacks. I've got a complete run of Morrison's run on New X-Men that might fit well like that. Just as an example.

It's Saturday night, and that means its time for The Venture Brothers. Looks like it's Tag Sale: You're It! Monarch's been arching Dr. Venture now.

This needs to be out on DVD. Now.

You know what would make this month better?

My own personal Fuchikoma tank.

Luckily, this dream is closer than ever thanks to the fine people of Toyota. Many thanks to Binder for the heads-up on this.



When I was a kid, I was promised a flying car and living on the moon. I don't have either yet, though a giant walking robot is a pretty good step towards that.

In other news, Generalissimo Fransisco Franco is still dead.

Scannity Scan-scan

Delicious Library is one of the coolest, shinest things I've seen in a long time.

If I weren't already a Mac afficiando, I'd be thinking of buying one just for this application. It's that cool. I forsee doing a lot with this once I buy the license.

In other news, there appears to be a general malaise wandering around for everybody I know. Me included, kinda. Not quite sure the source of it, other than its the enforced cheerfulness of the holidays, etc. I had all the holiday spirit alloted to me for a lifetime burned out of me when I was young and in show choir. Jazz hands, people.

And in yet still more news: I'm chalk.

The good doctor's prescription

Dean gave a speech today and it's the kind of thing we want in a DNC chairman.

I'll give this to Republicans. They know the America they want. They want a government so small that, in the words of one prominent Republican, it can be drowned in a bathtub.

They want a government that runs big deficits, but is small enough to fit into your bedroom.
They want a government that is of, by, and for their special interest friends.

They want a government that preaches compassion but practices division.

They want wealth rewarded over work.

And they are willing to use any means to get there.

...

We believe that every single American has a voice and that it should be heard in the halls of power everyday. And it most certainly must be heard on Election Day. Democracies around the world look to us as a model. How can we be worthy of their aspirations when we have done enough to guarantee accurate elections for our own citizens.

We believe in a strong and secure America... And we believe we will be stronger by having a moral foreign policy.

We need to embrace real political reform -- because only real reform will pry government from the grasp of the special interests who have made a mockery of reform and progress for far too long.

Write your local DNC elector and tell them we need this man to run the party. Forget the Beltway idiots. We've run the show their way for far too long.

TinyGod

I've been reading the Ars Technica forums on how to build a decent gaming computer. I also found their review of a program called Delicious Library. I really want the latter--since it looks a little like the project I dreamt up one summer when I had a lot of books to organize and a lot of time on my hands. I was originally planning on building a database of books, but Delicious Library blows that right out of the water.

I heard this story of Rumsfeld taking questions from the troops twice on NPR this morning, and I just get more angry the more I hear it. "You go to war with the army you have," is: 1) dodging the question, 2) an attempt to blame Clinton for the state of the army, and 3) just the kind of thing that should get you fired from your job instead of being retained for another four years.

Saying that took a hell of a lot of cojones from the soldier who asked it, and I have no doubt he will be rewarded for his love of freedom by being placed on the front lines in Falluja. Rumsfeld, meanwhile, will go back to eating caviar and having a machine sign the letters informing families of the war dead.

On a lighter note, revision two:

Hellos felis catus HAS NO MOUTH

The gallery of cartoon skeletons is back online after being slashdotted to death. I should head to the Belmont Stumptown to see how much they want for these things.

Currently listening to the Big Dog's autobiography and watching the rain. He's talking about the beginnings of his political career and how he gave his first speech when his candidate couldn't make an appearance. The refrain in that race (us vs. them) sounds really really really familiar. Red states/blue states, anyone?

Dean, we need you for DNC chair. Enough of this namby-pamby bullshit.

Fun with Photoshop

Since I had a moment after filling out some candidate feedback...


Clicking makes with the big.

Gouda-riffic

Had brunch this morning to celebrate a friend's birthday. We went to Zell's, which I haven't been to in a while, and it was worth the wait. Fresh scones, good coffee, a scramble with ham and imported gouda. Though I did feel bad since somehow I managed to knock a picture off the wall as I hung up my coat.

The rest of the day has been pretty mellow. Played a bit of Transformers (the latest Gamefly rental). It's set in the Armada universe, or something. I grew up with the G1 stuff, so anything after the movie is mostly gibberish to me. It feels a bit like most shooters, only you can transform into a vehicle, and you gotta catch all the Minicons. (Like the guys on Penny Arcade, I am not sure when the Transformers became Pokemon.)

It's not bad, though it lacks Grimlock. Grimlock am best Autobot ever.

They're blowing shit up on Mythbusters again. Good times.

Trailer mania

Courtesy of Michael and Mr. Piggs, I learn of the following trailers:

• Doctor Who teaser trailer
• Lord of the Rings: Return of the King--Extended Edition@@Popcorn Eyeglasses//Puppy Helmet

The former is pretty short. Enough to show you that they have revised the logo a bit, the TARDIS looks pretty much the same, and the sound effects are intact. But blink and you'll miss it.

The Return of the King trailer has some interesting bits, but I have to wonder: is Christopher Lee just a wee bit sarcastic when he talks about how people have been waiting for the final confrontation between Saruman and the Fellowship? Just a little, maybe. (And hey, it's not technically the final confrontation but Peter Jackson said at the outset they were not going to do the Scouring of the Shire sequence.)

The robot speaks

Reader Bill S., who appears to also work in a library, writes:

Is wanting to be a Bavarian so wrong?
Well, if you listen to Dr. Forrester in Operation Double 007, it is horribly wrong. However, as some of my ancestors are of Bavarian descent, I would disgree with the good doctor on this one.

(Finally remembered which episode that was from thanks to this page, which reminds me of the beauty that is the line, "I KILLED THAT FAT BARKEEP!")

Kevin chimes in:
Do you actually think you'll ever get your birthday present from me?
A man can dream, can't he. Which reminds me, there are still some other presents I need to both deliver and receive.

What do you think it might be? Do you think it and your Festivus present might be too much and you'll explode with joy?
I dunno. Perhaps you should space them out. If I were a betting man, I would say that at least one of them will be comics-related.

Favorite kind of pie?
When I was a kid, I think it was lemon meringue or chocolate French silk. But now I'd have to say banana cream. Though you can't go wrong with apple.

Actually, that is all a lie. It's Ryssa's pecan pie. Because it had bourbon in it.

Being Bavarian

There's a bit in one of the MST3K episodes where Frank starts wearing lederhosen and blowing an Alpine horn. "For one brief, shining moment, I wanted to be Bavarian? Is that so wrong?"

Not sure why that's in my head, but it's been more fun than some of the other stuff going around. And hey, since it worked for Kevin, now would be a good time to ask questions if there's something you want to know. Speak, puny humans.

System requirements

Looks like our ShinyBook is going to be too anemic to play World of WarCraft. Dammit.

Unless somebody wants to buy us a new laptop? Of course, there are always the Alienware models...

Any suggestions?