Categories
Cooking With Code Music

Just a little regeneration

Scribblings version......whatever version it is nowAfter a little bit of tinkering with a woefully crippled but otherwise very attractive theme (I think the idea was, though I didn’t see this explicitly stated anywhere, that you’d pay for an uncrippled version), I’m happy to unveil the latest regeneration of Scribblings Of The Public Restroom Stalls Of The Gods.

If you’re reading this on Livejournal or Myspace…this won’t affect you a bit. Carry on. (My wayward son.) Those who do occasionally drop in on the point of origin of all of this blithering that I do, go have a look – I think it’s pretty cool, and I’m happy with the job I did of excising the not-quite-expert job of hobbling the original theme. I can live with the results. There are still a few very minor bugs to work out, but not game-killers.

I’m still picking out stuff for the end-of-year favorite-music podcast-o-rama. How’s three hours sound to you? No?… Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3 Critters Music

The opposite of cold dog

We have our first freeze warning of the season tonight, and the wind is positively fierce into the bargain, so Xena’s spending a rare night inside with us. Too bad Evan was already in bed – he’d be delighted to see her. As much as he loves kitties (and he even says “kit-ty!” when he sees one of the cats), he gets so excited and forgets to be gentle. Olivia bears it up to a certain point and runs away; Oberon takes a lot more abuse, probably because he’s bigger and obviously not as “fragile” as Olivia, and will make a token “I’m gonna bite you” gesture before taking off and hiding. (He never actually bites. He just tries to psych the kid out.) With Xena, Evan’s not-so-gentle pats are par for the course. And since he’s learned to say “dog-gie” too, she’s perfectly happy. If he gets too overbearing, she just asks to be let outside – problem solved.

Doctor Who: Series 4I gave the 30-second track-by-track previews for the Doctor Who series 4 soundtrack a listen today, and I’m much more excited about it than I already was – it’ll certainly be better than the series 3 soundtrack, which was heavy on stuff from Human Nature, which, while it was based on my all-time favorite Doctor Who novel, turned out to be far from my favorite episode. Now, the flipside of that is that there seems to be a notable lack of action music from the Sontaran 2-parter on the series 4 CD – at least if the track samples are anything to go by – including the repeated build-up to (and avoidance of) the nuclear launch, but I’m waiting for the CD itself to see if any of that stuff is tucked away somewhere. You can pretty much bet on a couple of selections from this working their way into what’s looking like it’ll be an epic-length year-end favorite-music podcast. With my recent lucky find of a very, very cheap (i.e. less than $3 – yay eBay) copy of Levinhurst’s House By The Sea album, as well as the final trio of Alan Parsons Project remasters, the Doctor Who CD is the last thing on my music want list for this year. At least soundtrack-wise, this has been a dandy year for music (Lost Season 3, Torchwood, Prince Caspian, Wargames, the Stargate direct-to-DVD movies, and new Indiana Jones and Batman music); I’m not complaining too much on the non-soundtrack front either.

How I made the leap from Evan and the dog to soundtrack music, I have no idea. Which probably means I need sleep.… Read more

Categories
Gadgetology

NOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo!

you can cut my arm off, but leave my goddamn wi-fi card alone!ARGH. Daddy is not happy. Daddy is, in fact, pissed. Something bad has happened to daddy’s little portable computer thingie. Actually, I don’t think Evan did this, because I’m pretty careful about not letting him get his grubby little paws on my Mobilepro, so I’m really perplexed as to how this happened to the wi-fi card that accounts for, oh, 99% of the little machine’s usefulness to me:

fire will rain down from the sky...oh, and yeah, almost forgot, Earl's wi-fi card will almost be bent in half.

As you can see, the antenna end of the wi-fi card has been physically bent upward, to the point that the casing is actually buckled. I don’t think Evan could’ve done that unless he got hold of the machine and hit a home run with it – and to the best of my knowledge this hasn’t happened. … Read more

Categories
Gaming

And the sand will run red with strawberry kiwi Diet Rite.

Okay, finally got it outta my system. Played a complete game of Dune 2000 without the machine crashing – well, okay, not quite true. I got better about game saves and finished a complete game despite the crashes. Obviously there’s a conflict somewhere – it probably explains why I had to reinstall and re-patch Dune 2000 from scratch.

Anyway, I looked up at the clock and it was after 4am. Actually, almost 5. I think now I remember the other reason I uninstalled Dune 2000 at some point. It eats my whole life. Like a big freakin’ sandworm.

Martian ThreatNow that I’ve conquered the world, I think it’s time to tuck the disk away again and get back to a life where I’m occasionally able to be productive. Or at least look like it. Maybe it’s for the best that Dune 2000 online play isn’t supported anymore…

Speaking of games, the picture you’re seeing here is the debut of the new Odyssey2/Videopac game Martian Threat, with cover artwork by yours truly, at Eurocon ’08 last weekend in Karlsruhe. If you’ve got an O2 (or a Videopac), get it from Dieter Koenig at Classic Consoles Center. Fun secret: I threw together the artwork more on a lark than anything. I’ve never played the game before, not even in emulation. 😆 But hey, it gets me a complimentary copy of the game, which I probably couldn’t have cobbled together than money for otherwise, so hopefully everyone’s happy with it.

I still find it incredibly amusing that, after spending my childhood being so attached to the cover art on the Odyssey2 games, I seem to have almost become the de facto Odyssey2 cover artist myself – and yet for all that adoration of the original style they used in the ’70s and ’80s, my stuff looks nothing like that. 😆 (Well, okay, maybe Calculator…)… Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3 Critters

Welcome to Evan’s Man Cave (formerly Daddy’s Man Cave)

Evan has figured out how to open and close the door to my game room; the only thing he hasn’t quite gotten his head (or his height) around is the operation of the doorknob (or, for that matter, the lock – daddy senses a bit of doorknob surgery in the near future before that happens…), but other than that, he’s likely to open the door, greet you and welcome you in. I don’t even think this is my game room anymore. :shocked:

He’s also taken on another bizarre habit. He has a blankie horse, you see, and it’s become clear over time that this is his “comfort animal” – his security blanket with a horsie head, if you like. But lately, he’s taken to walking through the house with blankie horse’s head clamped in his teeth, “hands-free.” It took me a moment, and then I realize where he had seen this behavior, and it wasn’t from either of his parents.

PUFFBALL!

My son’s being raised by cats.… Read more

Categories
Gaming

Not always a boom tomorrow

Dune 2000So I had a little bit of frustration worked up tonight and decided that I’d take care of it the only way that seemed reasonable: it was time to blow shit up, and it was time to blow shit up Dune 2000 style. Even though it’s about ten years old (roughly the same age as its Westwood stable mate, Command & Conquer: Red Alert), no matter how much shiny new stuff I have gaming-wise, Dune 2000 is always the game of choice for me to take out major frustration on. I picked out some appropriate music (time to crank the Alias soundtracks), put on my headphones, and declared war. … Read more

Categories
Music

That annual thing I do with music and crap.

They're on instruments....GET IT???!??So, I’m sitting here doing some stuff, and listening to some music I’ve gotten this year, thinking about carving stuff up for the annual “best music I discovered this year” compilation that I make available for a couple of weeks around Christmas before “disappearing” it to placate the copyright gods. I thought I’d ask a couple of questions before I even bother to start on this year’s, though:

  1. Does anyone even listen to it? (If you’re scratching your head and going “What compilation?” I’m gonna take that as a no.)
  2. What’s your preference: a continuous running compilation with brief excerpts of each selection, or a longer radio-style podcast with introductions/comments/etc. between full-length selections? Or something else entirely?

One is actually much easier to do than the other – and it’s probably not the one you’re thinking, either. The compilation has become my own little mini-tradition that 2.8 people probably pay attention to, combining my personal favorites from the mainstream (and, more often, from way the hell outside the mainstream – it’s not like I really bother with radio or music video channels, or, for that matter, music videos anymore) and from various film/TV scores I’ve really dug.

But I thought I’d ask before taking the plunge. I’m picking music. That’s the easy part (almost). Putting it all together, that’s the tough stuff. Since you’re the poor sods who would, in theory, actually be listening to it (and perhaps I’m assuming too much there), I thought I’d ask.… Read more