I'm writing this up on the all-new (albeit refurbished) Munin, which is the name I give to my secondary computer, as my main computer is named Hugin.
(In Norse mythology, Odin, King of the Gods, had two ravens, Hugin and Munin, or "Thought" and "Memory")
I don't really have time for much of an entry, as I'm still going through and tweaking Munin to get it the way I want it.
That's always the hassle with getting a new computer: by default, nothing is the way you want it.
Of course, XP does include the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard," which makes this sort of thing easier...provided you actually remember to copy the the files and settings you want to transfer to your new computer from the old one.
Oops.
Sure, I could hook up the old Munin for a bit and copy the files, but honestly, there's not that much I need to transfer, as I didn't do much on Munin, and I mostly have things the way I want them at this point anyway.
The one thing that I'm just astounded by, though, is all of the crap that you're bombarded with the first time you turn on a new computer. I spent an hour uninstalling all of the useless programs Dell bundled with it, and every time I tried to do something I was hit by a prompt from some program demanding attention.
Microsoft and/or OEMs like Dell ought to have some organized, orderly set up that will carefully walk new users through everything rather than hitting them from all sides all at once. I can't imagine how overwhelmed someone who's not as computer-savvy as I am would feel being hit by all of the "Register Now" windows and all of the other detritus that hits you the first few times you boot up until you finally get everything sorted out.
In any case, I should get back to it. If I don't post another entry, have a good weekend everybody.
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Finally!
So I finally finished the picture of Scott's D&D group.
Good thing I wasn't working under any sort of deadline.
Then again, I'm not getting anything out of drawing it beyond their gratitude, and gratitude doesn't finance my impulsive electronics purchases, does it? So screw them; they'll accept that it took a long time and they'll like it!
All seriousness...I mean, kidding aside, I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out (as was Scott), though given how long it took I might have expected a little bit more of a masterpiece.
Then again, I drew it, so, timely or not, there are going to be limits to my expectations.
As with most anything I draw, I have a hard time looking at it and seeing anything other than the flaws, or the places where I got lazy, but I do think it's a reasonably good piece.
I think that the bald-pated, red-bearded Dungeon Master looming ominously over them is an especially nice touch, and, in some fashion, it's a feeling that's oddly familiar...
Good thing I wasn't working under any sort of deadline.
Then again, I'm not getting anything out of drawing it beyond their gratitude, and gratitude doesn't finance my impulsive electronics purchases, does it? So screw them; they'll accept that it took a long time and they'll like it!
All seriousness...I mean, kidding aside, I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out (as was Scott), though given how long it took I might have expected a little bit more of a masterpiece.
Then again, I drew it, so, timely or not, there are going to be limits to my expectations.
As with most anything I draw, I have a hard time looking at it and seeing anything other than the flaws, or the places where I got lazy, but I do think it's a reasonably good piece.
I think that the bald-pated, red-bearded Dungeon Master looming ominously over them is an especially nice touch, and, in some fashion, it's a feeling that's oddly familiar...
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Takes One To Know One
Along with the fact the overwhelming majority of them are male, there are various problems associated with working with a bunch of nerds.
For example, there are the gamers, the people who play games like “Everquest,” or “World of Warcraft,” or any one (or more than one) of the multitudes of online, multiplayer, immersive games.
These games have a tendency to completely take over the lives of many of the people who play them, and nerds, quite naturally, are especially susceptible to the allure of these virtual worlds, devoting every available minute to playing the games, foregoing real live human contact for the simple elegance of packets sent over data networks and on-screen avatars.
That people are dropping out of society and neglecting their friends and family would be a real concern…but we’re talking about nerds here, so they can pretty much drop off the face of the earth without causing any sort of shockwaves within the various social circles that make up the community at large.
I mean, we’re not talking about social butterflies suddenly becoming pinned to the wall. Even when they’re not escaping into fantasy worlds - which they’ve been doing for a long time anyway; it’s just that the technology has improved – nerds pretty much might as well not be around anyway. The only people who are really likely to notice that they’re not around are other nerds, who are just as likely to be off playing one of the nerdish high-tech versions of heroin themselves.
So really, that nerds are playing these game in and of itself wouldn’t be a problem.
Except that they can’t play them 24 hours a day. Every so often they have to come up for air and go to work in order to make the money they need to replenish their supplies of Jolt Cola and Twinkies.
That’s where the problem arises.
Almost as much as they like playing these games, nerds like talking about them.
They’re especially inclined to talk about their latest Orc Raid or whatever to fellow players, and they will do so loudly in discussions that can become quite heated, particularly if the people they are talking to are from a different guild, or believe that a particular server is better than another.
However, total ignorance of the game will not save you. They will just as happily talk, at length, about how many charisma points their Mercenary earned when they were up until 6 am playing the game to anyone.
In fact, people who don’t play the game make better audiences because they give the nerds the opportunity to provide a “history lesson,” explaining the intricate background details of whatever game they happen to be talking about.
You can come right out and tell them, “I don’t give two shits about your stupid-ass game; stop talking to me about it,” and most nerds will just shrug it off and continue talking to you about it and sending you links to screen shots and “funny” videos that they don’t realize have no humorous value outside of the context of the game.
In a sort of “open room” setting like the one I work in, which is full of nerds and weird acoustics, I end up hearing this stuff all of the time, though the anti-social “vibe” I give off prevents most of the people from talking directly to me, so I generally only catch the fallout.
And if it isn’t some game that the nerds are talking about it can be any kind of obsession: TV shows, movies, books, comics, anything. There are even some “faux-cool” nerds who are obsessed with seemingly non-nerdy things like cars or motorcycles, but the fact that the obsession is all-consuming and that they can’t stop talking about it pretty much marks them as nerds despite their lack of pocket protectors.
For the record, yes, I do recognize that I myself am a nerd, and that I will talk, at length, about the things that interest me. Really, that’s what gives me the ability to provide such insight into the habits of nerds. As they say, “it takes one to know one.”
However, my generally anti-social nature prevents me from deliberately subjecting uninterested people to never-ending anecdotes and lectures on my particular obsession.
Sure, there are the victims of “drive-by nerdings” who get caught in the crossfire when Scott and I talk about comics, or the shows on Adult Swim, but that’s a far cry from me going up to, say, Brian, and trying to tell him all about what happened in “Crisis on Infinite Earths” and all of its crossovers, along with a lengthy explanation of the fifty years of comic book history that led up to it.
That’s what distinguishes me from the nerds I’m talking about; I have enough sense to know better than to think that every random person I see cares about what I care about.
And it’s not just an awareness of the fact that Brian will insult me or, quite possibly, take a swing at me if I were to try something like that, it’s an awareness of the simple fact that he’s not interested and that it would be rude for me to try to force my interests onto him.
Of course, nerds tend not to be too big on social graces, hence the inability to see (or care) that no one is as interested in…well, anything as they are.
But hearing about gaming, cars, movies, and whatnot isn’t the most irritating part of being surrounded by nerds.
The thing is that most nerds are pretty smart. They know a lot of stuff, and despite the fact that their looks and social awkwardness might lead to low self-esteem issues, the fact that they are so smart can make them kind of arrogant.
Because they do know so much they tend to think that they know everything, and that, with the proper application of their intellects they can, while at work, solve all of the world’s problems.
That’s the part that kills me: their endless yammering about politics, religion, economics, and whatever other issues happen to pop up in the course of a day, or over the course of months (they will endlessly revisit various issues from the past as well).
Basically, nerds have opinions about everything, and they’re not shy about sharing them, because they’re convinced that they’re right.
After all, they must be right because they’re so smart.
I posted a link to Slashdot earlier today. If you’ve never checked it out before, try it sometime and you’ll see what I mean.
Just look at Slashdot’s tagline: “News for nerds. Stuff that matters.”
That’s the kind of arrogance I’m talking about.
Honestly, listening to them babble on endlessly as if they were Nobel Prize-winning economists, experts in sociology, or Constitutional scholars rather than just a bunch of nerds killing time at a rather boring job isn’t all that different from sitting in a bar and listening to a bunch of drunk construction workers talk about what they’d do if they were in charge. Most of the differences stem from the differences in vocabulary.
However, listening to the nerds is more annoying mostly because, as I most likely would be if I were sitting in said bar listening to the construction workers, I’m not drunk, but also because, as the extremely cliché saying goes, “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”
These nerds are considerably more well-informed than our hypothetical construction workers, but they’re not the experts they believe themselves to be, which makes their arrogant assertions that much more irritating to hear.
I don’t know everything, but at least I know enough to know that I don’t.
Unfortunately, that’s a lesson many of these nerds have yet to learn.
What makes things even more irritating, though, is that these are nerds who are my age and older, making decent salaries, many of whom, have – inexplicably – managed to mate, and so they’re making the rapid transition to Conservatism that so frequently accompanies the process of aging, having kids, and settling into the upper echelons of the Middle Class.
Basically, it can be like being forced to listen to Rush Limbaugh for twelve and a half hours (after all, at his core, Limbaugh is just a nerdy fat kid who embraced Conservatism and radio as his obsessions rather than D&D and computers).
Most of the time I can just tune it out, but sometimes it gets to be a bit much.
The main reason it annoys me so much, though, is that it all hits kind of close to home. There are still times when I’m convinced that, because I’m so smart, I know how the world ought to be run.
I suppose that’s a natural way of thinking, for nerds and non-nerds alike, but it’s bothersome to me. After all, I don’t want anyone telling me how to live, so I have no business telling anyone else how to live either.
In any case, there’s no real point to any of this. I just wanted to vent a little about one of the more irritating aspects of my job.
Though the fact that my workplace is such a total sausage fest is probably the most irritating one…
Today was largely uneventful. I stayed up pretty late last night watching this documentary about burlesque called “Pretty Things,” which I had recorded a bit ago, so I ended up sleeping in fairly late (for me) today.
Once I got up I didn’t do much. I basically sat around until it was time for me to go in for a dentist appointment.
The appointment involved taking impressions for making my partial plates. I don’t know when they’ll actually be done; he told me they’d call when they come in.
I’m maxed out on my insurance for the year, but he’s going ahead with making them anyway and deferring billing until after January 1st.
As for paying for my out-of-pocket costs, he told me that could wait as well, saying, “You’ve been coming here for a while, so I trust you.”
Sucker!
It’ll be nice to get the partials, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the shape of the new crown coupled with all of the missing teeth leads me to keep biting my cheek.
It’s getting really damned irritating. I’ll be very carefully chewing, mindful of my cheek, and then I’ll let my guard down for a second and suddenly there’s a painful crunch followed by the taste of my own blood.
The best part, though, will be that I won’t have to be so self-conscious about my teeth any longer, allowing my bright, cheerful disposition, which I’ve kept hidden for so long, to finally shine through in the form of a brilliant, happy smile! No more “Mr. Negative” for me. Everything will be rainbows and kittens and unicorns and half-full glasses!
…
Sorry about that. I think my brain tumor just kicked in for a second there.
Back in reality, while I was waiting at the dentist’s office I had time to sit there and stare at this big picture of a bunch of pretty people with perfect smiles that’s hanging on the wall.
I hate that picture.
I especially hate the people in it, smiling, always smiling their perfect smiles with their perfect, even white teeth, taunting me, staring out at me with their dead eyes as they smile their endless, perfect smiles…
The junk he used to take the impressions for the partials is this really nasty-tasting gel that hardens into a kind of wax around your teeth.
The horrible taste is bad enough, but as it hardens and the dentist tries to pull it away it clings to your teeth like some sort of horrible Butterfinger candy bar, and given some of the experiences I’ve had with my teeth I’m always concerned that it’s going to pull something loose (he uses the same stuff for getting crowns made, so I’ve experienced it many times).
Another drawback to it is that it tends to drip and splatter as he puts the tray full of it into my mouth, getting all over my lips and face, then hardening and sticking to my face.
As I said, it’s extremely sticky, so it takes a lot of work to get it off of your face.
When we were all through the dentist gave me a mirror and a piece of paper towel to use to try to clean it off, but eventually I got tired of messing with it and said, “Screw it; I’m just going straight home from here, and there’s nobody there who’ll see this on my face and care.”
Still, I did get it all cleaned off once I got home.
And that was pretty much my day.
A bit ago I just made my first crack at making Chocolate Mousse. It needs to set up for a couple of hours yet, so I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out.
Last night I finally finished drawing the last of the characters from Scott’s D&D group. All that’s left is to draw a background and put them all together. Ideally I should be able to accomplish that before bedtime Thursday night.
Of course, my secondary computer hasn’t arrived yet, so if it comes tomorrow getting that set up will take up a good chunk of time, so if I want to finish the picture, I should probably do it tonight…
For example, there are the gamers, the people who play games like “Everquest,” or “World of Warcraft,” or any one (or more than one) of the multitudes of online, multiplayer, immersive games.
These games have a tendency to completely take over the lives of many of the people who play them, and nerds, quite naturally, are especially susceptible to the allure of these virtual worlds, devoting every available minute to playing the games, foregoing real live human contact for the simple elegance of packets sent over data networks and on-screen avatars.
That people are dropping out of society and neglecting their friends and family would be a real concern…but we’re talking about nerds here, so they can pretty much drop off the face of the earth without causing any sort of shockwaves within the various social circles that make up the community at large.
I mean, we’re not talking about social butterflies suddenly becoming pinned to the wall. Even when they’re not escaping into fantasy worlds - which they’ve been doing for a long time anyway; it’s just that the technology has improved – nerds pretty much might as well not be around anyway. The only people who are really likely to notice that they’re not around are other nerds, who are just as likely to be off playing one of the nerdish high-tech versions of heroin themselves.
So really, that nerds are playing these game in and of itself wouldn’t be a problem.
Except that they can’t play them 24 hours a day. Every so often they have to come up for air and go to work in order to make the money they need to replenish their supplies of Jolt Cola and Twinkies.
That’s where the problem arises.
Almost as much as they like playing these games, nerds like talking about them.
They’re especially inclined to talk about their latest Orc Raid or whatever to fellow players, and they will do so loudly in discussions that can become quite heated, particularly if the people they are talking to are from a different guild, or believe that a particular server is better than another.
However, total ignorance of the game will not save you. They will just as happily talk, at length, about how many charisma points their Mercenary earned when they were up until 6 am playing the game to anyone.
In fact, people who don’t play the game make better audiences because they give the nerds the opportunity to provide a “history lesson,” explaining the intricate background details of whatever game they happen to be talking about.
You can come right out and tell them, “I don’t give two shits about your stupid-ass game; stop talking to me about it,” and most nerds will just shrug it off and continue talking to you about it and sending you links to screen shots and “funny” videos that they don’t realize have no humorous value outside of the context of the game.
In a sort of “open room” setting like the one I work in, which is full of nerds and weird acoustics, I end up hearing this stuff all of the time, though the anti-social “vibe” I give off prevents most of the people from talking directly to me, so I generally only catch the fallout.
And if it isn’t some game that the nerds are talking about it can be any kind of obsession: TV shows, movies, books, comics, anything. There are even some “faux-cool” nerds who are obsessed with seemingly non-nerdy things like cars or motorcycles, but the fact that the obsession is all-consuming and that they can’t stop talking about it pretty much marks them as nerds despite their lack of pocket protectors.
For the record, yes, I do recognize that I myself am a nerd, and that I will talk, at length, about the things that interest me. Really, that’s what gives me the ability to provide such insight into the habits of nerds. As they say, “it takes one to know one.”
However, my generally anti-social nature prevents me from deliberately subjecting uninterested people to never-ending anecdotes and lectures on my particular obsession.
Sure, there are the victims of “drive-by nerdings” who get caught in the crossfire when Scott and I talk about comics, or the shows on Adult Swim, but that’s a far cry from me going up to, say, Brian, and trying to tell him all about what happened in “Crisis on Infinite Earths” and all of its crossovers, along with a lengthy explanation of the fifty years of comic book history that led up to it.
That’s what distinguishes me from the nerds I’m talking about; I have enough sense to know better than to think that every random person I see cares about what I care about.
And it’s not just an awareness of the fact that Brian will insult me or, quite possibly, take a swing at me if I were to try something like that, it’s an awareness of the simple fact that he’s not interested and that it would be rude for me to try to force my interests onto him.
Of course, nerds tend not to be too big on social graces, hence the inability to see (or care) that no one is as interested in…well, anything as they are.
But hearing about gaming, cars, movies, and whatnot isn’t the most irritating part of being surrounded by nerds.
The thing is that most nerds are pretty smart. They know a lot of stuff, and despite the fact that their looks and social awkwardness might lead to low self-esteem issues, the fact that they are so smart can make them kind of arrogant.
Because they do know so much they tend to think that they know everything, and that, with the proper application of their intellects they can, while at work, solve all of the world’s problems.
That’s the part that kills me: their endless yammering about politics, religion, economics, and whatever other issues happen to pop up in the course of a day, or over the course of months (they will endlessly revisit various issues from the past as well).
Basically, nerds have opinions about everything, and they’re not shy about sharing them, because they’re convinced that they’re right.
After all, they must be right because they’re so smart.
I posted a link to Slashdot earlier today. If you’ve never checked it out before, try it sometime and you’ll see what I mean.
Just look at Slashdot’s tagline: “News for nerds. Stuff that matters.”
That’s the kind of arrogance I’m talking about.
Honestly, listening to them babble on endlessly as if they were Nobel Prize-winning economists, experts in sociology, or Constitutional scholars rather than just a bunch of nerds killing time at a rather boring job isn’t all that different from sitting in a bar and listening to a bunch of drunk construction workers talk about what they’d do if they were in charge. Most of the differences stem from the differences in vocabulary.
However, listening to the nerds is more annoying mostly because, as I most likely would be if I were sitting in said bar listening to the construction workers, I’m not drunk, but also because, as the extremely cliché saying goes, “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”
These nerds are considerably more well-informed than our hypothetical construction workers, but they’re not the experts they believe themselves to be, which makes their arrogant assertions that much more irritating to hear.
I don’t know everything, but at least I know enough to know that I don’t.
Unfortunately, that’s a lesson many of these nerds have yet to learn.
What makes things even more irritating, though, is that these are nerds who are my age and older, making decent salaries, many of whom, have – inexplicably – managed to mate, and so they’re making the rapid transition to Conservatism that so frequently accompanies the process of aging, having kids, and settling into the upper echelons of the Middle Class.
Basically, it can be like being forced to listen to Rush Limbaugh for twelve and a half hours (after all, at his core, Limbaugh is just a nerdy fat kid who embraced Conservatism and radio as his obsessions rather than D&D and computers).
Most of the time I can just tune it out, but sometimes it gets to be a bit much.
The main reason it annoys me so much, though, is that it all hits kind of close to home. There are still times when I’m convinced that, because I’m so smart, I know how the world ought to be run.
I suppose that’s a natural way of thinking, for nerds and non-nerds alike, but it’s bothersome to me. After all, I don’t want anyone telling me how to live, so I have no business telling anyone else how to live either.
In any case, there’s no real point to any of this. I just wanted to vent a little about one of the more irritating aspects of my job.
Though the fact that my workplace is such a total sausage fest is probably the most irritating one…
Today was largely uneventful. I stayed up pretty late last night watching this documentary about burlesque called “Pretty Things,” which I had recorded a bit ago, so I ended up sleeping in fairly late (for me) today.
Once I got up I didn’t do much. I basically sat around until it was time for me to go in for a dentist appointment.
The appointment involved taking impressions for making my partial plates. I don’t know when they’ll actually be done; he told me they’d call when they come in.
I’m maxed out on my insurance for the year, but he’s going ahead with making them anyway and deferring billing until after January 1st.
As for paying for my out-of-pocket costs, he told me that could wait as well, saying, “You’ve been coming here for a while, so I trust you.”
Sucker!
It’ll be nice to get the partials, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the shape of the new crown coupled with all of the missing teeth leads me to keep biting my cheek.
It’s getting really damned irritating. I’ll be very carefully chewing, mindful of my cheek, and then I’ll let my guard down for a second and suddenly there’s a painful crunch followed by the taste of my own blood.
The best part, though, will be that I won’t have to be so self-conscious about my teeth any longer, allowing my bright, cheerful disposition, which I’ve kept hidden for so long, to finally shine through in the form of a brilliant, happy smile! No more “Mr. Negative” for me. Everything will be rainbows and kittens and unicorns and half-full glasses!
…
Sorry about that. I think my brain tumor just kicked in for a second there.
Back in reality, while I was waiting at the dentist’s office I had time to sit there and stare at this big picture of a bunch of pretty people with perfect smiles that’s hanging on the wall.
I hate that picture.
I especially hate the people in it, smiling, always smiling their perfect smiles with their perfect, even white teeth, taunting me, staring out at me with their dead eyes as they smile their endless, perfect smiles…
The junk he used to take the impressions for the partials is this really nasty-tasting gel that hardens into a kind of wax around your teeth.
The horrible taste is bad enough, but as it hardens and the dentist tries to pull it away it clings to your teeth like some sort of horrible Butterfinger candy bar, and given some of the experiences I’ve had with my teeth I’m always concerned that it’s going to pull something loose (he uses the same stuff for getting crowns made, so I’ve experienced it many times).
Another drawback to it is that it tends to drip and splatter as he puts the tray full of it into my mouth, getting all over my lips and face, then hardening and sticking to my face.
As I said, it’s extremely sticky, so it takes a lot of work to get it off of your face.
When we were all through the dentist gave me a mirror and a piece of paper towel to use to try to clean it off, but eventually I got tired of messing with it and said, “Screw it; I’m just going straight home from here, and there’s nobody there who’ll see this on my face and care.”
Still, I did get it all cleaned off once I got home.
And that was pretty much my day.
A bit ago I just made my first crack at making Chocolate Mousse. It needs to set up for a couple of hours yet, so I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out.
Last night I finally finished drawing the last of the characters from Scott’s D&D group. All that’s left is to draw a background and put them all together. Ideally I should be able to accomplish that before bedtime Thursday night.
Of course, my secondary computer hasn’t arrived yet, so if it comes tomorrow getting that set up will take up a good chunk of time, so if I want to finish the picture, I should probably do it tonight…
Quick Nerd Joke Culled From A "Slashdot" Comment
Heisenberg was driving down a highway going much faster than the speed limit.
A police officer pulls him over and asks him, "Do you know how fast you were going?"
Heisenberg replies, "No, but I know exactly where I am!"
I'm not going to explain why that's funny, but it is.
Well, kind of, anyway...
I'm also not going to take the time to point to the exact comment, but it was posted in the replies to a news post by someone over at Slashdot.
A police officer pulls him over and asks him, "Do you know how fast you were going?"
Heisenberg replies, "No, but I know exactly where I am!"
I'm not going to explain why that's funny, but it is.
Well, kind of, anyway...
I'm also not going to take the time to point to the exact comment, but it was posted in the replies to a news post by someone over at Slashdot.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Briefly Venturing Out Into The World
This morning, after a little over 4 hours’ worth of sleep, I woke up.
I decided that, based on the fact that I’d only gone to bed a little over 4 hours earlier, I would go back to sleep.
That got me a little over another hour’s worth, at which point I said the hell with it and got up.
After going through standard morning rituals it was late enough that I could consider heading out into the world to pick up “Sin City” at Best Buy, which is what I did.
I have to confess that I really don’t understand why there’s as much traffic as there is so close to ten in the morning. I mean, it’s kind of late to be going in to work, and early to be heading for lunch, so who are all of these people?
In any case, once I got to Best Buy I grabbed my copy of the DVD (I went with the Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba cover), and confirmed that the free comic would be presented to me at check-out.
Then I took a look at the mp3 CD player. One thing that really made it interesting to me was the fact that it has a USB port on it, designed to allow you to connect external flash drives, and presumably external mp3 players, and play any audio files the flash drive or external mp3 player has on it directly through the in-dash receiver.
I found that idea intriguing enough to start reconsidering my decision not to buy it.
However, once some fat nerdy guy in a blue shirt came by to ask if I needed assistance and let me know that they have no openings for installation until Saturday, my decision was made for me, and I walked out without buying it.
Once I got home I determined that, as I suspected it might be, the free comic was only the first issue of “A Dame to Kill For,” not the entire story. Ah well.
Then, of course, I watched the movie, and was just as pleased with it as I was when I saw it the first time.
And while I have to say that Jessica Alba is extremely hot, especially when she’s up on stage grinding her hips, and Jaime King, Rosario Dawson, and most of the other women in the movie are also extremely hot, it’s really Carla Gugino, walking around in nothing but her thong, that steals the show for me. Damn! I know she didn’t look that good as the mom in the “Spy Kids” movies (though I imagine she still looked pretty good - despite an overabundance of clothing).
Another suspicion I had about the DVD was confirmed by the overall lack of special features. All it includes is a “behind the scenes” feature, which is no doubt the same one that was made available on the Web prior to the movie’s theatrical release.
Given the dearth of special features, and the fact that a lot of scenes from the books were not included in the book, even though I know that every scene was filmed, the absence of “deleted scenes” leads me to believe that sometime around Christmas another version of the DVD will be released.
For most movies I wouldn’t bother buying the special edition DVD if I’d already bought a “regular” copy of it, but “Sin City” isn’t most movies, so I will no doubt buy the other version if and when it’s released.
Along with “Sin City” I picked up a copy of “Kill Bill: Vol. 2,” as it was on sale in honor of Tarantino’s “Guest Director” status on “Sin City.” As I have Vol. 1, it only made sense to finally get around to picking up the second part.
Not that I was all that impressed by the first part, but I figured I might as well complete the set.
After my surprisingly brief journey to Best Buy I went over to Wal Mart to kill a little time, as it had been my intention, since I was already out in the world, to see if Kathleen wanted to have lunch. However, she had a “working lunch” scheduled, so I opted to just hit the grocery store and head home.
While I was at the grocery store I found myself behind a vaguely Middle-Eastern-looking (she looked to be Middle-Eastern, but she was dressed in a decidedly Western fashion)woman, roughly my age or a little younger, wearing an extremely form-fitting skirt that served to positively accentuate the contours of the junk she had in her trunk.
Said junk was further accentuated by the great walk she had, which made her hips sway very nicely as she moved forward self-assuredly on her well-toned legs.
She was, of course, married, but I have to say that she provided the best view I’ve had at that particular store in quite some time.
Once I had my groceries I made my way home, and the rest you know.
So, while not necessarily in sequential order, that’s pretty much been my day so far.
I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with the rest of it, but I suppose I have a few options open, so…
I decided that, based on the fact that I’d only gone to bed a little over 4 hours earlier, I would go back to sleep.
That got me a little over another hour’s worth, at which point I said the hell with it and got up.
After going through standard morning rituals it was late enough that I could consider heading out into the world to pick up “Sin City” at Best Buy, which is what I did.
I have to confess that I really don’t understand why there’s as much traffic as there is so close to ten in the morning. I mean, it’s kind of late to be going in to work, and early to be heading for lunch, so who are all of these people?
In any case, once I got to Best Buy I grabbed my copy of the DVD (I went with the Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba cover), and confirmed that the free comic would be presented to me at check-out.
Then I took a look at the mp3 CD player. One thing that really made it interesting to me was the fact that it has a USB port on it, designed to allow you to connect external flash drives, and presumably external mp3 players, and play any audio files the flash drive or external mp3 player has on it directly through the in-dash receiver.
I found that idea intriguing enough to start reconsidering my decision not to buy it.
However, once some fat nerdy guy in a blue shirt came by to ask if I needed assistance and let me know that they have no openings for installation until Saturday, my decision was made for me, and I walked out without buying it.
Once I got home I determined that, as I suspected it might be, the free comic was only the first issue of “A Dame to Kill For,” not the entire story. Ah well.
Then, of course, I watched the movie, and was just as pleased with it as I was when I saw it the first time.
And while I have to say that Jessica Alba is extremely hot, especially when she’s up on stage grinding her hips, and Jaime King, Rosario Dawson, and most of the other women in the movie are also extremely hot, it’s really Carla Gugino, walking around in nothing but her thong, that steals the show for me. Damn! I know she didn’t look that good as the mom in the “Spy Kids” movies (though I imagine she still looked pretty good - despite an overabundance of clothing).
Another suspicion I had about the DVD was confirmed by the overall lack of special features. All it includes is a “behind the scenes” feature, which is no doubt the same one that was made available on the Web prior to the movie’s theatrical release.
Given the dearth of special features, and the fact that a lot of scenes from the books were not included in the book, even though I know that every scene was filmed, the absence of “deleted scenes” leads me to believe that sometime around Christmas another version of the DVD will be released.
For most movies I wouldn’t bother buying the special edition DVD if I’d already bought a “regular” copy of it, but “Sin City” isn’t most movies, so I will no doubt buy the other version if and when it’s released.
Along with “Sin City” I picked up a copy of “Kill Bill: Vol. 2,” as it was on sale in honor of Tarantino’s “Guest Director” status on “Sin City.” As I have Vol. 1, it only made sense to finally get around to picking up the second part.
Not that I was all that impressed by the first part, but I figured I might as well complete the set.
After my surprisingly brief journey to Best Buy I went over to Wal Mart to kill a little time, as it had been my intention, since I was already out in the world, to see if Kathleen wanted to have lunch. However, she had a “working lunch” scheduled, so I opted to just hit the grocery store and head home.
While I was at the grocery store I found myself behind a vaguely Middle-Eastern-looking (she looked to be Middle-Eastern, but she was dressed in a decidedly Western fashion)woman, roughly my age or a little younger, wearing an extremely form-fitting skirt that served to positively accentuate the contours of the junk she had in her trunk.
Said junk was further accentuated by the great walk she had, which made her hips sway very nicely as she moved forward self-assuredly on her well-toned legs.
She was, of course, married, but I have to say that she provided the best view I’ve had at that particular store in quite some time.
Once I had my groceries I made my way home, and the rest you know.
So, while not necessarily in sequential order, that’s pretty much been my day so far.
I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with the rest of it, but I suppose I have a few options open, so…
Not Much More Motivation
Those of you (all three of you) who subscribe to Threshold may have noticed that you haven’t been receiving updates lately.
That’s due to the fact that Bloglet, the service I use for subscriptions, has been unable to communicate with Blogger for the past few days.
There’s nothing I can do about that, beyond go to Bloglet periodically, test the connection, and re-enable it if it’s working again.
So in the meantime you’ll just have to read Threshold the old-fashioned way…
I never did manage to get any kind of motivation today, beyond getting up and going into the bedroom to take a nap, at least.
As I mentioned, tomorrow (or, at this point, today) the “Sin City” DVD goes on sale.
On Sunday I’d checked out the weekly ads for various places to figure out which one would have the best price. Like I figured, Circuit City had it the cheapest at $14.99. As a bonus, the DVD comes with lithographs of the different poster images for the movie.
So that looked cool.
However, while Best Buy was selling it for $2 more, they’re including a free “A Dame to Kill For” comic with purchase of the DVD.
I don’t know if that means a full copy of the entire “A Dame to Kill For” trade paperback, (which is actually the story that will serve as the basis for the “Sin City 2” movie) some kind of low-cost “ashcan” version, or just an individual issue of the limited series, but at the very least I’m going to hit Best Buy first to find out. As long as it’s at least an ashcan (which basically just means printed on low-quality paper) version of the full story, I’ll be willing to pay the extra $2.
While I was at it, it had been my intention to pick up an in-dash mp3 CD player for my car, as Best Buy has one on sale that will actually fit in my car. I don’t see that very often.
However, since first seeing the CD player, I’ve decided that I probably won’t bother getting it. Sure, it’s only $100 (which as far as Brian is concerned is a reason not to buy it, in part because that would indicate questionable quality, but mostly because he’s just a snob), and I can afford it, but honestly, I don’t feel like investing any more money in my car at this point, particularly since I really don’t even listen to regular CDs in my car half the time.
Still, I’ll probably take a look at it while I’m there.
I did spend some money over the weekend, though.
Last week I was sitting on the couch watching TV when I heard a high-pitched whine.
Quite reasonably, I think, I concluded that hearing a high-pitched whine probably wasn’t a good thing, so I got up to try to locate the source.
My biggest concern was that it was coming from my main computer, which, fortunately, it wasn’t.
It was, however, coming from my secondary computer.
My secondary computer is more than four years old, and, despite the fact that I’ve upgraded it considerably, it was already an extremely low-end system when I bought it.
One of the main functions of the system since I set up my network has been to allow me to watch DVDs in the kitchen.
However, recently the DVD drive has pretty much crapped out, which has been leading me to consider replacing the whole thing.
Sure, it’d be much cheaper to just buy a new DVD drive, but as I said, the system is old and extremely obsolete, so, with this new, unpleasant noise that had developed, my decision was made for me.
I had planned to just build my own system, and because it didn’t really need to be a high-performance machine, I figured I could build something decent for around $300.
Still, I figured it would be worth checking out some retail sites to see if I could find a good deal on a ready-made system.
I did, at Dell.
It’s actually a lot more high-end than I needed, but hey, at $324, it was a bargain I couldn’t pass up.
The reason it’s so cheap is that it’s refurbished, but so far I’ve had pretty good luck with refurbished stuff, so here’s hoping it continues.
For those of you interested in such things, here are the system’s specs:
2.66 GHz Celeron processor
512 MB of RAM
Double Layer 16x DVD +/- RW (the double layer part is what’s really cool)
80 GB Hard Drive
All in all, not bad for under $350, or for a secondary computer.
The final storage capacity will actually be higher, as one of the few things that I’ll be salvaging from the old computer is its 40 GB hard drive.
Now I could have just spent some more money and replaced my main system, which itself is almost two years old, making my current main system my secondary by default, but I want to hold off on doing that. For one thing, as things stand, my current computer holds its own pretty well in the performance arena, so there’s the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” factor.
For another, I want to give dual-core processors (from Intel and AMD) a chance to mature a little before I invest in a system based around one.
And finally, the longer I wait, the more I can save, and the cooler the system I can buy.
Of course, there is still a good chance that somewhere within the next few months I’ll be picking up a Tablet PC, which itself could have served as my secondary PC.
Ah well, it’s not like I wouldn’t have a use for a third computer (fourth if you count my PDA).
In any case, that’ll do it for this entry. For any of you who think you’d appreciate it, pick up the “Sin City” DVD and make sure that it sells really well. Pick up Seasons One and Two of “Dead Like Me” while you’re at it.
That’s due to the fact that Bloglet, the service I use for subscriptions, has been unable to communicate with Blogger for the past few days.
There’s nothing I can do about that, beyond go to Bloglet periodically, test the connection, and re-enable it if it’s working again.
So in the meantime you’ll just have to read Threshold the old-fashioned way…
I never did manage to get any kind of motivation today, beyond getting up and going into the bedroom to take a nap, at least.
As I mentioned, tomorrow (or, at this point, today) the “Sin City” DVD goes on sale.
On Sunday I’d checked out the weekly ads for various places to figure out which one would have the best price. Like I figured, Circuit City had it the cheapest at $14.99. As a bonus, the DVD comes with lithographs of the different poster images for the movie.
So that looked cool.
However, while Best Buy was selling it for $2 more, they’re including a free “A Dame to Kill For” comic with purchase of the DVD.
I don’t know if that means a full copy of the entire “A Dame to Kill For” trade paperback, (which is actually the story that will serve as the basis for the “Sin City 2” movie) some kind of low-cost “ashcan” version, or just an individual issue of the limited series, but at the very least I’m going to hit Best Buy first to find out. As long as it’s at least an ashcan (which basically just means printed on low-quality paper) version of the full story, I’ll be willing to pay the extra $2.
While I was at it, it had been my intention to pick up an in-dash mp3 CD player for my car, as Best Buy has one on sale that will actually fit in my car. I don’t see that very often.
However, since first seeing the CD player, I’ve decided that I probably won’t bother getting it. Sure, it’s only $100 (which as far as Brian is concerned is a reason not to buy it, in part because that would indicate questionable quality, but mostly because he’s just a snob), and I can afford it, but honestly, I don’t feel like investing any more money in my car at this point, particularly since I really don’t even listen to regular CDs in my car half the time.
Still, I’ll probably take a look at it while I’m there.
I did spend some money over the weekend, though.
Last week I was sitting on the couch watching TV when I heard a high-pitched whine.
Quite reasonably, I think, I concluded that hearing a high-pitched whine probably wasn’t a good thing, so I got up to try to locate the source.
My biggest concern was that it was coming from my main computer, which, fortunately, it wasn’t.
It was, however, coming from my secondary computer.
My secondary computer is more than four years old, and, despite the fact that I’ve upgraded it considerably, it was already an extremely low-end system when I bought it.
One of the main functions of the system since I set up my network has been to allow me to watch DVDs in the kitchen.
However, recently the DVD drive has pretty much crapped out, which has been leading me to consider replacing the whole thing.
Sure, it’d be much cheaper to just buy a new DVD drive, but as I said, the system is old and extremely obsolete, so, with this new, unpleasant noise that had developed, my decision was made for me.
I had planned to just build my own system, and because it didn’t really need to be a high-performance machine, I figured I could build something decent for around $300.
Still, I figured it would be worth checking out some retail sites to see if I could find a good deal on a ready-made system.
I did, at Dell.
It’s actually a lot more high-end than I needed, but hey, at $324, it was a bargain I couldn’t pass up.
The reason it’s so cheap is that it’s refurbished, but so far I’ve had pretty good luck with refurbished stuff, so here’s hoping it continues.
For those of you interested in such things, here are the system’s specs:
2.66 GHz Celeron processor
512 MB of RAM
Double Layer 16x DVD +/- RW (the double layer part is what’s really cool)
80 GB Hard Drive
All in all, not bad for under $350, or for a secondary computer.
The final storage capacity will actually be higher, as one of the few things that I’ll be salvaging from the old computer is its 40 GB hard drive.
Now I could have just spent some more money and replaced my main system, which itself is almost two years old, making my current main system my secondary by default, but I want to hold off on doing that. For one thing, as things stand, my current computer holds its own pretty well in the performance arena, so there’s the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” factor.
For another, I want to give dual-core processors (from Intel and AMD) a chance to mature a little before I invest in a system based around one.
And finally, the longer I wait, the more I can save, and the cooler the system I can buy.
Of course, there is still a good chance that somewhere within the next few months I’ll be picking up a Tablet PC, which itself could have served as my secondary PC.
Ah well, it’s not like I wouldn’t have a use for a third computer (fourth if you count my PDA).
In any case, that’ll do it for this entry. For any of you who think you’d appreciate it, pick up the “Sin City” DVD and make sure that it sells really well. Pick up Seasons One and Two of “Dead Like Me” while you’re at it.
Monday, August 15, 2005
Can I Borrow A Cup Of Motivation?
It’s a shame that it isn’t possible to borrow intangible and abstract items from other people, such as memories, or feelings, or beliefs, in the way that you can borrow tangible and concrete items like books, tools, or cooking ingredients.
How cool would it be if you could borrow someone’s confidence, or math skills, or pretty much anything you happen to need?
You could knock on your neighbors door, and along with borrowing a cup of sugar, you could borrow the baking skills needed to actually do something with the sugar.
In my case, I’d be borrowing motivation.
That’s something that’s always in short supply for me, but it seems especially deficient today.
Basically, I can’t even muster up the motivation to do nothing.
That’s what I’d intended to do today: nothing.
I was going to sleep in, then just sit on my ass and watch all of the stuff that’s piled up on my DVR’s hard drive over the past few days.
Instead, I got up after only getting about six and a half hours of sleep and went for a walk.
More than anything I wanted to just stay in bed, and yet, oddly enough, I couldn’t muster up the motivation to not do anything.
Of course, once I committed to walking I soon lost motivation for that, putting in a mere three miles.
When I got home I was not surprised to find that I had no Internet connectivity, as when I was walking I noticed a lot of work that involved tearing up big chunks of dirt and pavement being done, and no doubt somebody managed to cut some kind cable.
So, not being able to idly surf the Web, I decided to watch some of the stuff on the DVR. Instead, I sat at my computer, dug out a CD with some old TV shows burned onto it and watched that for a while.
And now that my Internet connection is working again I’m doing this rather than watching the shows on the DVR, and in the meantime there’s a desire to take a nap building, yet as much as I don’t feel motivated to sit here and write this, I also don’t feel motivated to get up, take my contacts out, and climb into bed.
I’m too lazy to even be lazy. At least lazy the way I want to be lazy.
Honestly, while I do have some food around here, I really ought to go out and do some grocery shopping, but I think I’ll just save that for tomorrow. I have to go out into the world tomorrow, as “Sin City” is coming out on DVD.
So, since I know that I’ll definitely be motivated to go out tomorrow I figure I can do my grocery shopping then.
Anyway, I think that’ll do it for now. I’ll most likely be back later.
In the meantime, I’m going to see if I can go knock on my neighbor’s door and borrow a cup of motivation.
Nah; that would take too much effort.
How cool would it be if you could borrow someone’s confidence, or math skills, or pretty much anything you happen to need?
You could knock on your neighbors door, and along with borrowing a cup of sugar, you could borrow the baking skills needed to actually do something with the sugar.
In my case, I’d be borrowing motivation.
That’s something that’s always in short supply for me, but it seems especially deficient today.
Basically, I can’t even muster up the motivation to do nothing.
That’s what I’d intended to do today: nothing.
I was going to sleep in, then just sit on my ass and watch all of the stuff that’s piled up on my DVR’s hard drive over the past few days.
Instead, I got up after only getting about six and a half hours of sleep and went for a walk.
More than anything I wanted to just stay in bed, and yet, oddly enough, I couldn’t muster up the motivation to not do anything.
Of course, once I committed to walking I soon lost motivation for that, putting in a mere three miles.
When I got home I was not surprised to find that I had no Internet connectivity, as when I was walking I noticed a lot of work that involved tearing up big chunks of dirt and pavement being done, and no doubt somebody managed to cut some kind cable.
So, not being able to idly surf the Web, I decided to watch some of the stuff on the DVR. Instead, I sat at my computer, dug out a CD with some old TV shows burned onto it and watched that for a while.
And now that my Internet connection is working again I’m doing this rather than watching the shows on the DVR, and in the meantime there’s a desire to take a nap building, yet as much as I don’t feel motivated to sit here and write this, I also don’t feel motivated to get up, take my contacts out, and climb into bed.
I’m too lazy to even be lazy. At least lazy the way I want to be lazy.
Honestly, while I do have some food around here, I really ought to go out and do some grocery shopping, but I think I’ll just save that for tomorrow. I have to go out into the world tomorrow, as “Sin City” is coming out on DVD.
So, since I know that I’ll definitely be motivated to go out tomorrow I figure I can do my grocery shopping then.
Anyway, I think that’ll do it for now. I’ll most likely be back later.
In the meantime, I’m going to see if I can go knock on my neighbor’s door and borrow a cup of motivation.
Nah; that would take too much effort.
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