Year: 2009

Categories
Critters

It’s Labor Day weekend…

…so why not spend the weekend in labor? That’s what Taxi the cat is doing – finally. She’s in the early stages, her water has broken, and I think she just wants to run away and let some other cat handle this.

Why Taxi is still at our house when she’s not even our cat: Taxi is one of my sister-in-law’s “barn kitties.” She got knocked up by another barn kitty, and her people want on vacation a couple of weeks ago, out of state for the week. Her people are back, but she’s still here. This is Taxi’s second litter of kittens, and the reason she’s having her second litter here is because her previous litter was…well, I’m gonna warn you, it’s not pretty. … Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3

Welcome to Evan’s kitchen! It’s time to kick it up a notch! BOOM, BABY!

So it’s a Friday morning here at Casa Green, and Evan’s had his morning pancakes and now he’s wolfing down some apple slices he failed to eat rather spectacularly a couple of nights ago when we were having “boys only!” night. In recent weeks, my wife has been whipping up pancakes and other yummies in advance on Sundays, and Evan’s runaway favorite has clearly emerged: home-made banana bread. (I have to give him points for good taste, literally – it’s good stuff. I have to fight my natural urge to join him in wolfing it down, or else that week’s supply of banana bread might get us through 48 hours.)

But apparently the concept of banana-plus-bread had given Evan the impression that any combination of food is possible. And indeed, I suppose it is, but just because one can do a thing does not mean that one should. Case in point: this morning’s request for apple cheese. Apple cheese? Why not? We’ve got banana bread, don’t we? This reminds me of the time several years ago when Chloe the cat accidentally invented “lemonade chicken” (don’t ask).

Anyway, while I’m trying to figure out a viable recipe for apple cheese, Evan’s dancing around my room like he’s on fire (in the mornings, the TV absolutely does not come on – we listen to music instead; I’m not sure how much cultural enlightenment is really getting in there when this morning’s selections have included Best Of Nintendo Game Boy and Katamari Fortissimo Damacy). See? It’s just an apple cheese kind of day.… Read more

Categories
Gadgetology Gaming

More randomness and shenanigans

This was e-mailed to me tonight via theLogBook.com Media’s contact form (hey, it works!), and while it’s just a little bit on the late side for me to even round up some DVDs to send there (what with the 10 days until the event and all…) I thought I’d pass it along for any retro-computing folks in New Jersey:

This year’s Vintage Computer Festival East will be held September 12-13 at the InfoAge Science Center located in Wall, New Jersey.

VCF is a public event celebrating the history of computers from the 1940s – 1980s. The morning schedule is for lectures and workshops; the afternoons are an open exhibit hall where everything is turned on and working.

Among this year’s highlights are the keynote address about RCA computers in the 1950s, an 8-bit musical concert, BASIC programming challenge, and the build-your-own terminal workshop.

Details are posted at https://www.vintage.org/2009/east/ where you’ll also find the latest VCF news. A 2-minute video montage of last year’s show is on YouTube. Or refer to the simple event brochure. Tickets are $10 for one day or $15 for both days; 17 and younger get in free.

The event benefits the InfoAge Science Center, which is a 501c3 non-profit.

RCA computers from the ’50s? Does that include the Studio II? Oh…wait. Studio II was the ’70s. Not that you could tell by looking.

I also wanted to draw everyone’s attention to the August edition of Le Geek – Ben may not get his site updated as often as he’d like, but it’s always worth the read. I also like the fact that the site is now in gamma – screw being in beta, we’re going straight to gamma! I look forward to the delta and epsilon editions.

With a not-even-remotely-heavy heart, I’ve decided to close my long-dormant MySpace account. I think tonight was the first time I’d logged into it in 2-3 months. Since almost everyone in my friend list over there is in my Facebook friends, I doubt anyone will be too disappointed (in fact, I’ll be surprised if anyone even noticed without me mentioning it here).

Still. No. Kittens.… Read more

Categories
Critters Funny Stuff Television & Movies

The disassociated association

Random rants and ramblings from the rumbling runt (that’d be me):

Some really interesting concept art and pitch material from a proposed post-Enterprise Star Trek animated series that didn’t make it. This was actually being pitched as something for startrek.com, so it would’ve been at least borderline official. The fact that it didn’t fly is pretty telling: I’ll be surprised if Paramount ever bothers with the post-TOS universe (I’m tempted to call it the Bermanverse) again outside of ancillary media such as novels, comics, gaming, etc.; the studio was clearly already focused on going back to basics, the same year that they canned Enterprise.

At the same time, we’re gearing up for a new animated Doctor Who before the end of the year (supposedly); it’s called Dreamland. From the stills that are floating around out there, I have to say that I have a better “vibe” for the artwork style this time around than I did for Infinite Quest.

The other night I went through a local Braum’s drive-thru at about 10pm (long story); the guy who was taking my order asked me “Is this for here or to go?” Well, yeah, dude, let’s go for “here.” I can just pull up to the window, give you my money, get my food, and I’ll put in park and you can keep me company while I eat.

Actually, scratch that, I know that there are people who would pay for that service…and knowing that, I don’t think I’d wanna be the guy in the window. … Read more

Categories
Gaming Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Books and DVDs, DVDs and books…

A few announcements, since I’ve been asked…

  • I am planning on having copies of my DVDs available at the CCAG show in Cleveland this October. There won’t be a huge number of copies on hand, because frankly, CCAG falls on exactly the same day as OVGE in Tulsa, and I just don’t have it in my budget to do a build-up of a huge number of copies for two simultaneous shows, but there will be some there. These will be at Tim Snider’s table, and all of the DVDs I’ve done so far (PDF, CGE 2K7, Best of CGE ’03 and Best of CGE ’05) will be available there.
  • Did he say Best of CGE ’05? Yes he did. I’m editing Best of CGE ’05 right now, it’s looking good, and although it’s not true HD, it’ll filler yer HDTV with a great big widescreen picture. Best of CGE ’05 will be a two-disc set, however it’ll be a buck or two more than Best of CGE ’03 because one of those discs will need to be dual-layer, and dual-layer Lightscribe discs aren’t cheap (see also: CGE 2K7). This set will be ready in time for both OVGE and CCAG, with online ordering beginning after both shows.
  • What about that book? I had been crazily trying to get VWORP! together in time for October as well, but I have to announce that it’ll be delayed until the beginning of 2010 now. There are several reasons for this: with the OVGE/CCAG weekend being the target date for Best of CGE ’05, that’s the item that needs my attention most right now. Putting VWORP! out anytime before the end of 2009 is kind of like writing a book on everything you need to know about the New World in 1491. There’s a heap of interesting stuff happening right as VWORP! would have to cut off for an October publication date: the tenth Doctor’s final episodes, Sarah Jane season 3, the Hornet’s Nest audios with Tom Baker… it just seemed like the least desirable cut-off point possible. VWORP! will wait until January 2010, where it’ll make a hell of a lot more sense to release it.
  • And the next book after that? A little thing that we around here like to call Phosphor Dot Fossils. Like I was gonna leave that off the list! Hopefully no later than late summer 2010. After the book, I’d think that the next step for PDF – aside from it being the cool web archive that we all know and love – would either be as a TV project somewhat grander than the existing DVDs, or maybe as a brand name for a line of fine cat care products. Between you and me, I’m holding out for TV.

That’s all for now. Whether you’re in Cleveland or Tulsa on October 24th, in a way, I’ll see you there!

Oh, and one other thing – today is the absolute last day for Summer Byte Bundles! Those ordering links will stop working in the wee hours of the morning. Last call!… Read more

Categories
Serious Stuff

Web 2.0: fail?

Not ready for the monolithA friend of mine sent me a link to an article about a group of scientists from Zurich using unusual means to actually obtain an image of a molecule. The story is fascinating stuff.

The comments…less so. It’s just the latest in a long line of incidents I’ve witnesses that has convinced me that the much-vaunted “Web 2.0” paradigm has fallen short of the sales pitch on the outside of the box. Perhaps it’s less than democratic of me to take a big number two all over Web 2.0, whose underlying mantras seem to have been “let everyone comment on everything” and “rely on users to generate new content,” but from what I’ve been able to tell, the experiment has not yielded a resounding success. … Read more