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Funny Stuff Gadgetology ToyBox

You. are. kidding. me.

Oh, Facebook sidebar ads, now I know you’re screwing with me.

In other news, the Avid lives! I’ll be picking it up this weekend, in what will almost certainly be the least stressful thing I do all weekend. I’m looking forward to having it back home and working – especially since we’re having more cold nights and I could use some heat in my room. 🙄

One other thing – admittedly very geeky – that has brought a smile to my face is this prop replica made by a friend who usually turns his talents to customizing action figures and the like:

…give up? This is, of course, a shockingly good replica of an original Blake’s 7 teleport bracelet. About 23 years ago, I would’ve proudly worn this thing out in public. 😆 For now, I’ll settle on displaying it next to my HAL-9000 prop… at least until Jump Cut City goes back into production (oh, the screen time this thing would have gotten back then). Many thanks to Hoosier Whovian.… Read more

Categories
Gaming Toiling In The Pixel Mines

The one about the gaming expos

This was originally part of my previous post, but on going back and re-reading that post, I thought maybe it’d be a tasteful thing to split the two topics apart.

As I’ve got a funeral to attend on April 10th, I’m obviously not going to Oklahoma City for the OEGE (Oklahoma Electronic Gaming Expo) show on the same day, which I had been planning on doing. As an admittedly slightly weak way of compensating for that, I’ve revived the Christmas special pricing – and the amusingly Christmas-y graphics! – on my documentary DVDs; the special ordering page can be found here. Feel free to spread that link around anywhere you think it might be welcome and relevant (i.e. don’t spam the world with it). These bundles are actually a hell of a price break on these if you’re looking to get the whole collection(s) in one short, sharp shot.

At this point I’m uncertain if I’ll be able to make it to CGE in July/August or not. I put in for the time off from work months ago, but still haven’t heard back on that request. Given the recent string of bad luck at home, not the least of which is an entire heating/air conditioning unit which has to be completely replaced, and my wife replacing the car she wrecked in January with a similar car that, ahem, Needs A Little Work, I’m just not sure that funds can be freed up for something as relatively “frivolous” as CGE. Sales of the existing DVDs haven’t been spectacular for several months. One might think “Hey, taking a chance on shooting material for a new DVD will result in a new product that everyone’ll want to buy,” but given the relatively low adoption rate of the CGE ’03 and ’05 DVDs (neither of which has been out for a full year), I’m not sure I can afford a blind gamble on going in the hopes that a new CGE DVD would sell. I’m also still waiting to hear back on whether or not I have a machine on which I could theoretically edit a new DVD project; I may not have gotten out of that incident as unscathed as I thought. (While I’m at it, let me give a huge shout-out to Karl Luedke for sending me a new power supply for the aforementioned editing system; I’m biting my nails and hoping that’s the only thing that needs replacing.)

Everyone take lotsa pics at OEGE this weekend. Oh, and tell Ralph Baer I said hi. For the record, the inventor of home video games remains awesome, and I heartily recommend going to see his presentation via Skype at the show.… Read more

Categories
Funny Stuff Home Base Serious Stuff

A blog post in which I go on at great length about not having much to say

Sorry about the complete and utter silence here lately – I haven’t had a lot to say. For those who weren’t aware, my dad passed away on March 29th and the wind has been let out of my sails a bit. I’m not going to claim any kind of great emotional trauma here – this is something that had been on the horizon for something like the last six months or so. And honestly, on a great many levels… I’m glad for him. Relieved. He’s free of a body that was increasingly trying to betray him, he’s free of pain, and he’s free of a situation that he was only going to escape feet-first. (Those who know what I’m referring to there will know what I’m referring to there; those who don’t… well, just understand it’s not something I’m going to blab or blog about out in the open.) … Read more

Categories
Gadgetology Home Base

Enjoy this photograph of my dongle

Remember all the fun I had in 2006 with the mystery of the missing Avid dongle? And what Avid said to me about replacing said dongle? (and how I was able to give ’em the finger anyway? $10,000 my ass!) Well, I’m not losing the Avid dongle again; seen at right is my simple solution for that problem. (To be fair, Kent reminded me not to lose the dongle again; it’s just possible that I was a little bit less than… erm… diplomatic when I panic-called him in 2006 looking for it…)

I’ve had a few leads on a replacement power supply; thanks to everyone who’s responded. I’ll be following up extra-soonishly.

Arkansas Valley Electric Co-op is sending someone out to look at the wiring tomorrow; the thought occurred to me that, only a couple of weeks ago, someone from Cox was out here and had to restring our entire cable run from the tap to the pole to the house to my room. It’s just possible that he might have bumped or jarred something along the way (don’t cross the streams, man!). Given that there have been three electrical incidents in the past 9 days (so far…), a wiring check would seem to be called for. Almost everyone looked at the power supply photos in yesterday’s post and said “massive power surge,” but I’m not sure if that theory sticks. The fuse on the surge protector (and yes, for a multi-thousand-buck editing workstation and its multitudes of outboard gear, I have a really robust pair of surge protectors, not just a power strip) was not fried, and nothing else on that surge protector (which also powers about half of the outboard SCSI drives) fried. While I think a wiring check is probably warranted from last week’s frying-of-the-central-heat-and-air-system alone, I have a feeling this may not necessarily be related. I’m no expert in pushing electrons through copper wiring, but that’s what my electrical physics gut-check is telling me: a power surge big enough to do that would’ve done that to more than just one component. Then again, my gut-checks have bounced before due to insufficient funds, worm attacks and whatnot.

Still, I’m hoping to have a fix in place soon – not being able to power my Avid up and edit something, even if it’s just something goofy using someone else’s footage for a laugh, is like having an arm cut off. I’m so used to firing the thing up about once a day and just… doing… something, you know? It may be that it bugs me more now because I don’t have access to an Avid at work. To me, not being able to edit video is like not being able to walk. It’s just something I do.

My electrical wiring will be checked out tomorrow. In a moment, the results of that trial.… Read more

Categories
Gaming Television & Movies

Who are Wii [or, Be still my heart(s)]

The announcement has hit the UK tabloids: supposedly Nintendo has signed on the dotted line with the BBC’s merchandising wing to make Doctor Who video games for the Wii and DS. I’ll blither on endlessly about why this has been a long time coming – and why it’s always been bad news before now – after the jump. … Read more