Categories
Cooking With Code Serious Stuff

Arrrgh

My apologies for not getting theLogBook updated on time – I’ve literally spent most of my weekend filling PDF DVD orders (!!). Hopefully everyone who’s gotten one has liked ’em. So help me God, I’m going to go get a new office chair in the next couple of days, so I thank everyone from the bottom of my…well…bottom. It’s a little unnerving to sit down and feel the seat start to slide down to its lowest altitude like someone’s let the air out of the tires. I look forward to not experiencing that anymore very soon! Seriously though, the response to the PDF DVD has blown me away. At this point, my biggest fear is that I’m not going to have duplication nailed down for the second run while the orders keep coming in. I honestly was not expecting it to blast off like it has. I’ve also learned a few things (the hard way) along the way, including how to generate Paypal links that actually do something helpful. I think you guys would be stunned to know just how much I’m making this whole thing up as I go.

Turbo Turtle, a.k.a. Gamera, has disappeared from the yard – hopefully to go kick back in a body of water somewhere. Turns out he was a humongous snapping turtle…not good for Zathras. I really don’t need to step out my door and have one of my toes eaten by a cranky and huge turtle.

Another thing that’s occurred to me today is that everything I’ve been doing pales in significance next to the loss of life in China and Myanmar. I can barely even begin to process the kind of numbers of dead we’re talking about there, much less what can be done about it. Perhaps it’s just as well that I’ve got all these distractions.… Read more

Categories
ToyBox

Torchwood action figures

I’d been saying since the beginning of the year that, since Character Options didn’t get the Torchwood license, whoever did would win me or lose me based on the action figure of Gwen. Looks like they win.
Torchwood action figures
That’ll do nicely until I can have a full-sized Gwen sitting on my desk.

The first wave is Jack, Gwen, a Weevil and the Cyberwoman, and yes, they are scaled the same as the CO Doctor Who figures; the part that bites is that you have to order the entire first wave. I don’t need a Weevil or Lisa to make my life (or my increasingly British toy shelf) complete, but I don’t get a choice in the matter. All I can say is that the other three main characters better be in wave two so I can tie off this collection; I’ve heard rumors that wave two will indeed be Ianto, Owen and Tosh, with Captain John, so that would suit me just fine.

You can get ’em here. On a completely unrelated note, I’m going to have some Who figures for sale at OVGE, so make sure your wallet’s bigger on the inside than on the outside!… Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3 Should We Talk About The Weather? Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Mother’s Day musings

More nasty storms rolled through tonight. No damage on our end, but it wouldn’t have been the first damage of the year if there had been; we finally got the write-up from our insurance company on the work to be done on the house, as well as the check to do it with. It’s not what I’d describe as a small check, and not what I’d describe as small work: new roof, new windows all around, new back door, refinish the deck…I’ll admit that I look forward to having screen windows (the paperwork actually specifies screen windows), as well as a new back door, but I was a little surprised by the new roof thing. That’ll be fun. 🙄

In other news, another round of PDF DVDs goes out the door on Monday, due in no small part to me finally openly promoting it on Digital Press and AtariAge. Both communities have a bit of a history of suddenly getting their backs up when someone starts trying to sell them stuff from within, but ya know, I think both communities also know me well enough to know that I’m not a fly-by-night spammer. (Though considering how little I’ve been on AtariAge for the past few years, they might think I am. 😆 What can I say? I just don’t quite have the hardcore Atari tunnel vision that some of the folks there do, and I feel a little out of place.) I’ll admit that over the past couple of weeks since the OKC show, it’s been kind of fun to see where I got with just word-of-mouth and a banner about the DVD in my message board signatures, but it’s time to get down to business – I need a new office chair stat. Mine’s broken and it’s driving me nuts to sit on it. :-p

Speaking of video work, I’ve been amused lately by a TV promo about a grocery giveaway that looks like something I would’ve done with the on-screen text being “printed” on “receipts” that scroll up the screen. The really funny thing? This promo is not running on a station I used to work for – it’s running on a station that’s, technically speaking, the competition. 😆 Maybe I’m having delusions of grandeur, but permit me a moment to laugh out loud at channel 5 aping some of my old 40/29 promo tricks. (Please don’t mistake this for me pining away for the old job though – one thing I’ve enjoyed about the wild weather this year is being home to take care of my family, rather than getting called in or having to stay hellishly late to wipe someone’s butt and worry my head off about my kid.)

Finally, speaking of my kid, some pictures that only a mother could love: … Read more

Categories
Critters Gaming Toiling In The Pixel Mines

The Othello Report

FISH!Othello is home from the vet, and as I type this he’s enthusiastically chowing down on some Fancy Feast – of which I have quite a bit that I never intended to feed anyone after the Great Wet Cat Food Scare of a year or two ago. All these cans o’ Fancy Feast came as little samplers packed in with cat litter. Right now, they seem to be hitting the spot just fine, which is exactly what we need; due to the same aforementioned Cat Food Scare, we switched off to a regionally-produced brand of dry food – i.e. something that didn’t come from the same mills as 90% of the commercial brands – which Othello now shows no interest in. He now happily chows down on canned food while the other two are locked away temporarily, which drives the kitty kids nuts. Especially when I put his food away and he happily struts back into the baby’s room to lay down on my bed, smelling like canned cat food…which the other two can’t find. Good to be king, eh? But it’s even better that he’s eating. Now let’s see you pack on some pounds, skinny boy.

Got an Avid drive cable in yesterday, so I was able to try out the new Avid drives I got from eBay – remember, the ones that came clanking against each other in a priority mail box with absolutely no packing material whatsoever except for one flimsy piece of bubble wrap between the drives? – and to my astonishment, one of them was not DOA. The other one’s media was so damaged that it couldn’t even get one minute into a low level format. Say it again with me: dumbass! I wouldn’t even be going to the ‘bay for these except that I’m dealing with a slightly older generation of Avid gear. I’d have to buy a completely new setup to get the generation of Avid that uses firewire for everything, and I can guarantee you that I wouldn’t be getting that one for under $425 and a trip to Illinois. (To date, despite a motherboard replacement, three new drives, and new drive cables – which are all kinds of not cheap – I still have yet to sink $1,000 into my Avid.)

Neat stuff comes out of though. I’ll be sending out the next round of PDF DVD orders today or tomorrow, including the first international order (!) and orders from folks who I have no idea who in the world they are. As much as I appreciate my circle of friends picking up copies, the whole “total strangers buying my little DVD that I made” thing is kind of exciting.

Speaking of video games, I finally got Daphne working last night, and played my first game of Astron Belt in ages. I wish I’d accomplished that before the PDF DVD went out the door. 🙄 Ah well.… Read more