Month: May 2006

Categories
Critters

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy.

2:00 am
I’m writing this at almost 2:00 in the morning, standing outside and looking at our new colt. Hannah finally had her baby, at about 9:30 last night, and it was no free ride – the vet had to be called in to “tow” the baby out with special chains that, believe it or not, are intended for precisely that purpose. Hannah was in quite a bit of pain, and was trembling for some time after delivering her first baby. Like I said, he’s a baby boy, and quite a determined young buck too – he stood up on his own and walked around within half an hour of coming into the world. Right now I’m patiently waiting to see if Hannah is going to let the little guy nurse within 6 hours, which is vital. The colt seems to be approaching her with that intention, but she isn’t letting him get in there just yet; it wouldn’t be completely unprecedented for her to reject him, as his birth caused her a lot of pain.
The birth of Hannah's baby… Read more

Categories
Critters

More tails of Olivia.

OliviaRemember some time back when I said that my wife had vetoed Shakespeare names when we were naming our kitten? It turns out you just can’t shake Shakespeare, because in the end, the kitty got a Shakespeare character name anyway – like it or not! Olivia happens to be a character in Twelfth Night (and I had forgotten this until just recently), a “countess of high social standing and great beauty” according to absoluteshakespeare.com – well, that much fits.
Nyah nyah! You just can’t beat the Bard. Now, since it’s Friday and we could all use a big goofy grin, enjoy this new video of Olivia playing Galaga.… Read more

Categories
Gaming Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Good gnus or great gnus?

What do you want first, the good news or the great news?
The good news: the cover artwork I was working on for an upcoming new Odyssey2 homebrew is approved, everyone’s OK with it, and I’ve handed in the full-size, ready-to-print 300dpi graphics files. Keep an eye out at Packrat Video Games…
The great news: this year’s Oklahoma Video Gaming Exhibition has been announced – it’s still in Tulsa and it’s taking place on Saturday, August 19th. With no CGE to go to this year, this is the year for the smaller shows to shine, and I’ve been looking forward to this news. As usual, I’ll be bringing plenty of forgotten classics to the show, and I think I’ve talked Charles Pearson (a.k.a. ubikuberalles) into toting an Altair computer with him. A working one. (I’ll let him tell you more about that himself if he likes – it’s cool stuff provided you’re of a certain age, or just an afficionado of classic computers.) I always enjoy completely blowing the minds of the younger set with the old analog Magnavox Odyssey game console, and I think those two things together would succeed admirably in completely frying the brains of the younger generation. Remember, kids – this is what the future used to look like! … Read more

Categories
Television & Movies

Adios, Invasion.

InvasionOh, damn it. Talk about an unresolved cliffhanger!! ABC’s Invasion came to an end tonight with an episode appropriately titled The Last Wave Goodbye, with no concessions or last-minute changes made to the fact that the show had been cancelled mere days ago. As such, we wind up with a monumental cliffhanger, leaving one major character’s life hanging in the balance – and really no clues from which to interpolate her fate. Egads!
All of this would probably be better if the show had ever found an audience, but it didn’t; it seems to be common knowledge that Invasion was the favorite new 2005-06 show of the network’s president, and that’s probably the only thing that kept the show on the air for its entire season, and kept the network from yanking the promotional rug out from under the show’s feet. But it’s hard to argue with the bean counters when you can’t get the Lost audience to stick around for the show right after it. (And in terms of its serialized storylines, over-arching mysteries, and breathtaking tightening of just about every dangling plot thread at the end of the season, Invasion was not dissimilar from Lost – to be truthful, I just don’t understand why this show couldn’t hold Lost’s viewers, unless you’re asking me to believe that a huge chunk of that audience abandoned their TVs immediately after Lost to go hit their chat rooms, instant messengers and The Fuselage to talk about the episode of Lost they’d just seen.)
Anyway, with talk of the CW rescuing Invasion fading away faster than the life of that character, I suppose a post-mortem wouldn’t be too premature. I’d love to be proven wrong. … Read more

Categories
Critters

Kitties’ night out!

Othello and OliviaOur pregnant mare, Hannah, has been showing signs that she’s about to foal, so my wife is spending the night at the farm. Actually, no, to be more precise, she’s spending the night in the barn with Hannah. We love our critters.
In the meantime, I’ve declared it Kitties’ Night Out here at the house, and both Othello and Olivia are moving about freely. They’ve been playing quite a bit, though I think Othello’s feeling his age around this nutty kid who considers any moving limb – even a human ankle – something viable to play with. Any twitch of the tail, any paw moved, is likely to earn to poor guy a kitten pounce. He’s put her in her place a couple of times too, without hurting her. (He doesn’t have front claws, so there really isn’t much he can do. She, on the other hand…) The one thing that has calmed Olivia down has been letting Xena in for a bit, but Xena’s so much bigger than her that it just completely terrifies the kitten, which she then expresses by climbing up my bare legs with her little kitten claws. My favorite part of the evening has been going to bed (a bit early for me, especially on a Saturday night), and waking up with two sleeping cats next to me. It’s been a long time since I’ve woken up with two sleeping cats – the last time that happened, it was Othello and Iago.
Othello and OliviaAnyway, as of about 2:30am, I’ve put Olivia in the bedroom – with the door closed – so she can get some sleep. As long as I’m awake and there are lights on, she can’t/won’t sleep, even though her sleepy little kitten eyes tell a completely different story. She’s also discovered how to reach the top of my desk (after evicting Othello from his “co-pilot’s chair” next to the desk!).
One of Hannah’s stablemates gave birth to another filly this week, but did so unexpectedly (apparently the approaching thunderstorms didn’t do her any favors) and the filly was literally born in a less than clean environment (well, okay, a pile of manure); as a result, both are at the vet because an infection has set in. At last report, though, everyone will pull through just fine. So now that we’ve put the baby down, Othello’s sitting across my arms – a helpful talent shared by all cats – as I listen to some Mike Oldfield and work on the cover illustration for an upcoming new Odyssey2 cartridge from Packrat Video Games called … Read more

Categories
Television & Movies

Just seems appropriate somehow.

Scorpio’s alarm sounds.
TARRANT: Slave, what’s wrong?!
SLAVE: Well, nothing is actually wrong, sir. Yet.
ScorpioAVON: Explain the alarm, Slave.
The alarm goes quiet.
SLAVE: I had to get your attention, Master, and I was forbidden to speak unless spoken to.
AVON: All right, you’re spoken to. What is it?
SLAVE: I beg to advise you, Master, that we’re approaching the planet Gauda Prime.
Everyone relaxes for a moment.
SLAVE: And Scorpio is under attack!
An explosion rocks the flight deck.

(from Blake’s 7, episode 52: Blake (1981), written by Chris Boucher.)
Try not to read too much into it, I just thought it was strangely appropriate. I’ll get back to posting kitten pics soon – I’ve a feeling I’ll soon have no end of free time in which to do that sort of thing. Olivia went to the vet on Thursday to be tested for various kitty illnesses and to get her first round of shots. The good news is: she’s a perfectly healthy kitty! We already knew she was a perfectly lovely kitty.… Read more