Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Do you Digg Bacon?

Bacon. That wonderfully delicious breakfast...anytime of day...food. I also like surfing Digg. It takes up the hours I spend at work when I should be working. I've noticed lately that there are a lot of stories on Digg relating to bacon. Which, given how good bacon is, isn't really surprising. I'm certainly not complaining!

The other day, I got to thinking. I was wondering how far a Digg submission would get if it was just a link to a blog post about how common bacon was on Digg. So, here it is! I know, I know. Is this guy crazy or what? I live in northern Michigan. We have like 10 feet of snow, so there isn't a whole lot to do other than think about stupid things. So anyway, this is my blog post about how awesome bacon is. I'm going to submit it to Digg. If you think bacon is awesome too, Digg it! Let's see how far it goes!

Mmm, bacon...
Image courtesy of IHEARTBACON.COM.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

SSD and Me!

I just read about some SSD goodness. I love me some SSD. What is SSD you ask? Well, the hard drive that you probably have in your computer is made up of many moving parts. All must work perfectly in tandem to read and write things to and from large metal platters. They have a reasonably long operating life, but once something gets out of whack, your hard drive is most likely kaput. SSD stands for Solid State Drive. Basically, a data storage device with no moving parts.

Yes, I know, solid state storage has been around for a while (in computer terms), but mostly in small devices like media players (Ipod, Zune, etc) and thumb drives. Until recently, the tech was not refined enough to provide storage capacity large enough to be a feasible desktop/laptop hard drive. Just in the last year or two have we started seeing SSDs with storage comparable to small hard drives, around 30 or 40 GB. And while they are not yet approaching the storage capacity of standard hard drives, they are closing the gap in leaps and bounds.

Enter Intel, who has just released a 160 GB SSD. That's bigger than the 145 GB drive I have in my desktop PC, and a doubling of capacity from just a few months ago (the article mentions Intel announcing an 80 GB drive in August). Holy crap! If anything close to that trend keeps up, we're looking at SSD catching standard hard drives within a year or two. Now I don't know what technical or engineering issues could stand in the way of ever increasing capacity, but still, that's pretty sweet.

Of course, price is a big factor. Standard hard drives are pretty inexpensive. A friend of mine at work is fond of saying "storage is cheap." With SSD, that's not the case. Intel has not mentioned a price for this 160 GB drive, but the 80 GB that I mentioned above is going for about $500 on Newegg.com. That's probably on the lower end of the price spectrum. On the same site, I can get a traditional Western Digital hard drive with a storage capacity of 1 TB for $120. That's a pretty big difference, and because of that, I don't see a mass exodus towards SSD. Yet.

As the technology matures, the capacity increases, and the price decreases (which is the natural flow of computer hardware), I think you will see the traditional hard drives being steadily replaced by SSD. They are faster and more reliable. There really isn't a downside, so I think the switch will be inevitable. Once the price comes down, maybe late 2009, I might look at getting one to at least play around with. I mean, I couldn't call myself a geek if I didn't get excited about things like new hard drive technology. Right?

Friday, December 12, 2008

Dragonforce

Okay, so if you've been around in the past week or two, you may have seem my post about my brother taking me to a Dragonforce concert. Well, the concert was this past Saturday, the 6th. I can only describe it as E.....P.....I.....C!!!! That's right. EPIC. In caps. With four exclamation points. Yep.

Luckily, the weather stayed okay, and we left about 2 PM on Saturday. We dropped my brothers wife at a friends house, in Troy, MI, and continued on to Royal Oak. The tickets we had were printed online, and allowed us entrance without having to wait in line. We parked about a block up the street right at 7, and basically walked right in. It was sweet. Totally worth the extra $6.

The Royal Oak Music Theatre holds about 750 people. That means there isn't a bad seat in the house. Regardless, we went and stood right near the front. We were about six or eight feet from the stage! Nice. We had about an hour until the opening acts came on, but there was a waitress coming around, so that was nice. Oh, and the bathroom had an attendant! You may be thinking that that is a little highbrow, but he was just a big dude, not dressed up or anything, and he also sold candy. But still, a nice touch that made for a clean bathroom.

The first opening band was called Powerglove. I got grabbed two of their albums the week before hand, so I knew their songs. If you read this blog, you know I like the 8-bit metal, and that's exactly what these guys are. Metal interpretations of video game music. They are amazing! They wear these big foam(?) props that look straight out of a D&D game. I recommend going to see them if you have a chance, or at least pick up their albums. If you like metal, video game music, or both, you won't be disappointed.

The second band was awesome too. They were called Turisas. They hail from Finland. Everyone knows I like me some Euro-metal! Now, american bands seem to be stuck on having just guitars and drums. European bands seem to be willing to try things you might not expect. Turisas has a fiddle player. He was cool. They also have a very beautiful woman who plays the accordion. Yes, I said the accordion. You know what, it works. They would definitely fall under the Power Metal heading. They were all dressed up in viking/barbarian type garb. Animal skins, the lead singer wore a piece of shoulder armore, and they were all in war paint. It also happened to be Finland's Independance Day. So in the middle of their set, they stopped and did their national anthem. They seemed very proud of that, and that was cool. I would also go see them again in a heartbeat.

Then came the big show, the main attraction, the band known as Dragonforce. My god. They were unbelievable. They played an awesome mix of stuff from their new album, Ultimate Beatdown, and their previous albums. Yes, they did Though the Fire and Flames during their encore. I mean, c'mon, it's a staple, and an all around face melting song. I screamed until my abs hurt, and I headbanged until my neck hurt, and it was completely worth it. Before the show, I'd read so many places that they either weren't as good live, or that they couldn't be as good because their songs are so fast an technical. Well, I can tell you from experience. Those people are as wrong as you could possibly be. In fact, in my opinion, they may have been better live than their recorded albums. I'm sure they missed notes here and there, but you know what, with everyone yelling and the general noise of the concert, you couldn't possibly notice a missed note here and there. Plus, their energy, their presence, and the fun they seemed to be having on stage brought something that couldn't possibly be on a recorded album. I haven't been to many concerts in my life, but I couldn't see another concert being better than this one. It was just epic!

No cameras were allowed in the venue, but thankfully, the theatre has people come in and take pictures during the concerts, and then puts a slideshow of them up online. You can see the pics from this concert here. There is one picture of two girls, one wearing a red Weezer T-Shirt. I'm the glasses, forhead, and hair peeking over the tops of their heads. :-)

The coolest thing about the whole concert? I GOT A PICK! Yes, a guitar pick. A Dragonforce guitar pick. With Sam Totman's signature printed on it. Below are a couple of pictures. This is not my actual pick. I swiped these photos from ebay of someone selling a neclace made with this pick, hence the hole and little metal ring at the top. Otherwise, this is identical to mine.


I mean, how cool is that?

Scotty, beam us up.....to Detroit!

What am I talking about? Well, I ran across an article today that made me very excited! I was very bummed about "Star Trek: The Experience," located in Las Vegas, closing. However, I didn't know that there was an exhibit, "Star Trek: The Exhibition", making it's way around the country. In February, February 14th to be exact, it's coming to Detroit, Michigan! I live in Michigan! I'm only about four hours from Detroit! I could actually go! Woot!

From the article:

"The 9,000-square-foot exhibit features re-creations of the bridge of the famed Starship Enterprise, Capt. Jean-Luc Picard's quarters, the command chair and the transporter room.

It includes two flight simulators, a model of the USS Enterprise used for shooting starship scenes and a collection of authentic props and uniforms used throughout the five "Star Trek" TV series, a cartoon show and 10 feature films."

That is freaking awesome! It's not just a short week long thing either. It runs from Feb. 14th to Sept. 7th. Almost 8 months! I imaging that I'd have to be able to work it in somewhere. Maybe a birthday present or something (hint hint.) To be able to walk the sets, touch panels, and (hopefully) sit in the captains chair would be so exciting. And to see props and other items that were actually used in production of the shows and movies. Epic. It's like a piece of history coming to my backwater state!

I'll be sure to remember this and make plans to go down and see it next summer. If the wife doesn't want to go, I'm sure I could find someone to go. I have Trekker friends. Hell, my daughter would probably enjoy it. And if I can't find anyone who wants to go? Screw it, I'll go myself. Oh yeah!

Have you seen this person?

Yeah, I know I haven't posted in a while. It's not all my fault though. Someone neglected to pay the cable bill (not me), and the Internet got shut off for a while. It was like four or five days. I know! It was terrible! It was turned back on on Tuesday, and I still didn't get around to it until today. Whatever. In any case, I'll leave this short and get on with some of the specific things I have to talk about. Trust me, they're awesome!

Friday, November 28, 2008

Most Epic Rick Roll EVAR!

Holy crap, so I'm watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Things are going along as expected, and then up rolls a float for Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends. It's a kids cartoon on Cartoon Network. My daughter used to watch it when we had cable TV. It was a pretty funny show. Anyway, the float rolls up, the TV people announce it, and the camera bounces around as the characters on the float begin to sing some kiddie song. Then, the music suddenly stops. New music starts, and within a few notes, I realize what is coming. Out comes Rick Astley singing Never Gonna Give You Up. Oh my god, this is possibly the greatest Rick Roll in all of recorded human history! Freaking Cartoon Network owns! Whoever came up with this idea is genius. Completely out of the blue. And that's what it's all about! Below is a YouTube video of the epicness. Enjoy!

OMG! OMG! OMG!

Okay, so at Thanksgiving dinner today (or yesterday technically as it's just after midnight), we also did Christmas with my grandparents, my brother and his wife and one of my sisters and her fiance. Got some gift cards and other good stuff, but my brother got me something awesome. He got me a ticket to a Dragonforce concert! Freaking awesome! He's going too, and anyone else we can find that wants to go, and it's going to be awesome! I'm a metal fan, and I absolutely love Dragonforce. A friend of mine turned me on to them three or four years ago. Yes, before they were on Guitar Hero III. Anyway, I'm really excited. That's a really different gift. I don't get to go to very many concerts. It's been a few years, so this is really cool. I can't wait to go!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Video Update!

Yeah, I've been lazy again. I want to get on here and share stuff, but I just can't seem to get up the gumption! Oh well, I'm here now. On today's episode, I'll be sharing a couple of videos I ran across today.

Up first, you may have heard about the meteor spotted coming down over Canada last week. It was big and bright. Some people think it may have made it to the ground. Unfortunately, Canada is a vast, and largely unpopulated chunk of land. This video was taken by a police cruiser dash cam. It is easily the best of the videos I've seen. It's pretty awesome. Just watch.



Pretty sweet huh?

Up next is a pretty funny video. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but I'm a big metal fan. I've taught my daughter the pinkie and index finger up while sticking your tongue out, and of course she can do some air guitar. After seeing this video, I guess I need to get on it! The little girl is at her best during the first minute or so, but if you like your Iron Maiden, stick around for the rest. These kids sure aren't half bad!



Rock on!!!!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Want to be a Quadrillionaire?

Move to Zimbabwe. A friend of mine sent me this article yesterday. Basically, Zimbabwean currency has been devalued by so much that the effective exchange rate is 642 quadrillion to one. In the timeless words of Frank Barone, "Holy Crap!" Everyone thinks our currency is worthless. It isn't great, but it's a lot better than that! According to the article, a single egg would cost about $35 billion Zimbabwean dollars. That had better be a damned good omelette!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Waiting

I posted earlier about the new WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Well, it is freaking awesome! The only problem is that because it's so awesome, all 11 million subscribers and all their friends are playing. That means LOOOOOOOOONG queues to log in. When I first logged into Burning Blade, my server, I was 1054 in the queue. I'm approching 45 minutes waiting, and have another 10 to 15 to go. Almost there!

A lot of people like to complain about it. Yeah, it sucks, but in a couple of weeks, most of the people just trying it out, or coming back to see what it was, will lose interest and the queues will get shorter or non-existent. In the meantime, I'll just do my best to actually log in an hour before I want to play.

Well, it might be getting close, and I don't want to miss any of my small amount of play time!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

The Taking

Well, I promised a review of the Dean Koontz book, The Taking, when I was done. I finished it a few days ago. I must say, it was a VERY suspenseful book. I swear, I spent the whole time thinking "what the hell does that mean, and what does it have to do with the story!?" Basically, I was guessing, incorrectly, for the entire book. Which believe me, is not a bad thing!

The story centers on a couple, and their struggle to survive in what is turning out to be a new world. It's hard to really say much about it without giving things away. One of the first scenes in the book involved a mysterious downpour and some very strange behaviour in the local fauna. Of course, this leads to an incredibly eerie encounter on the main characters front porch. Koontz is good at completely sucking you into a scene. I almost felt like I was there.

The unexpected ending did well to tie up the loose ends too. I'm sure not everyone will like what he did with it, but if you can get past the "theme" he used and just take it as fiction, you'll be just fine.

I also like how this book was setup. It had normal chapters, but it was also broken up into seven sections (I think it was 7). Each section proved to be just about perfect for an evenings reading. I hate it when chapters are so long that you have to read for an extra half hour just to get to a good stopping point. Yes, I always stop on the chapters. I know some people who don't, and I just couldn't stand that.

Anyway, I would definitely recommend this book. It's an interesting blend of drama, mystery, horror, with some sci-fi mixed in for good measure. All in all, a good read that kept me wondering what would happen next!

Wrath of the Lich King

Well, I finally talked my wife into letting me get the new expansion for World of Warcraft. I installed it last night after we got back from Traverse City at around 11pm. Once installed and upgraded, I waited in a queue of about 700 to log in. Took about a half hour. Then I played for around 3 hours. So far, a lot of fun!

The server that I play on is Burning Blade. We had our first player to reach level 80 last night. Players name was Veloxis. He is a Night Elf Druid. He hit level 80 at around Midnight, Eastern time. He claims it took him about 46 straight hours of playing. So pretty much the second he got the game, he started playing and didn't sleep until he hit 80 yesterday (this morning). There were a lot of upset people. I don' t really get that. I probably won't be in the first 100,000 to reach 80, LOL. Anyway, congratz to Veloxis!

He wasn't the first to reach 80 worldwide. It was someone in Europe I believe (that's what I heard). Not sure what their name was. Really, I just want to hit 80 on one of my characters before my game time expires in two months. I'm about halfway through level 70 (between 70 and 71). I should be able to reach 71 tonight. I might try to snag a group, maybe even some Ðwntrddn, for one of the new instances after that. I want to get my fingers into everything! I do plan to take my time and enjoy it, unlike some others....Veloxis

The new continent is really cool. Blizzard improved the graphics of the game. Nothing photo-realistic or anything, just a step up. It's nice. I'm playing in the Borean Tundra right now. A nicely varied zone, but picturesque in places. I haven't explored all of it yet, but a pretty good chunk so far. Seems like more thought was put into the quests in this expansion. Yes, there are still the "go kill 20 of these things", but they mix them up a bit too. There were a couple I did that involved baiting traps, and releasing baby mammoths from traps. Still a go do something so many times, but it's nice to collect and release instead of just killing.

So far, the tentative truce between the horde and alliance seems to be holding. I only ran into one group of horde who were ganking everything in sight. Otherwise, everyone was pretty much leaving everyone else alone to quest. That's another thing, the area isn't nearly as congested with players as Hellfire Peninsula was when The Burning Crusade came out. I think the new Death Knight class is helping with that. A lot of people are starting a DK, which starts at 50 in a new zone in the Eastern Kingdoms. Probably cutting the number of people in Northrend by at least a quarter. I can't say if it was intentional, but good job Blizzard! I may also play around with a DK tonight as well. Lots of new things to try, and not enough time to try them!

Well, hope to see you in Northrend. Hopefully I don't pwn you!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

How very Odd

I read quite a bit. Just about every day actually. I recently finished reading the Odd Thomas series, written by Dean Koontz. It's a series starting with Odd Thomas, then Forever Odd, and finally Brother Odd. These were some of the best books I have read in a very long time. They are funny, intense, exciting and dark all at the same time.

Basically, it's the story of Odd Thomas. A seemingly normal guy living in a small town. However, he has a unique gift. He is able to see the lingering dead. He takes it upon himself to try and help these spirits move on, or to help them get justice. I must say, the books were not what I was expecting when they were loaned to me by a friend. Odd is such a human character that it's hard not to connect with him in some way. I must say, the ending of the first book hit me like a ton of bricks. Yes, I'll admit, I cried a little. I like to get into my books, so sometimes it happens. In any case, I would highly recommend this series to anyone.

I just discovered that the fourth book in the series, Odd Hours, is out. I really need to get it or borrow it. From what I see, Koontz plans on writing at least six or seven books in the series. That's awesome. If the rest of the books are half as good as the first three, I'll be very happy. I also see that the website for these books has a series of webisodes that make up another Odd Thomas story. Believe me, I'll be checking them out as soon as I have some free time.

I'm currently reading another Dean Koontz book called The Taken. I'll probably finish tonight, so look for a review of it in the next few days. Later!

Antarctica

The Boston Globe has a web project called The Big Picture. Every few days they post a series of pictures covering some theme. These series often contain stunning and powerful images. A few days ago, they posted a picture series from Antarctica. It is a dangerous, but immensely beautiful place. Below are a couple of pictures from the picture series.

I've always been a big space fan. Not just sci-fi, but astronomy in general. Space can be a beautiful place. This is a spectacular picture of one of the manned stations in Antarctica with an amazing view of the night sky overhead. Just wow!


This is just a picture of an iceberg. An absolutely awesome picture. The rich color combined with the starkness of the surroundings makes it look unreal. Again, wow!


I highly recommend keeping an eye on The Big Picture site. You never know what you might find.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Where did he go?

Yeah, I haven't posted in a few weeks. No excuse really. Just been too lazy to get on the computer. How bad is that? Anyway, here I am.

Gas! Yes, that liquid that you pump into your car that costs an arm and a leg. Well, now it only costs an arm! A few days ago, gas dropped below that $2 a gallon mark here. Today, it was $1.97. How sweet is that. I do remember back in high school when gas was about 90 cents. Not quite back there yet, but after $4.25, I'll take it!

What else has been going on around here. Oh yeah, the Iceman Cometh! The Iceman Cometh (or Iceman for short) is a mountain bike race held the first Saturday of November (unless the first Saturday is November 1st). It's a 27 mile point to point race starting here in Kalkaska and ending in Traverse City. Obviously, being in northern Michigan, there is no guessing what the weather will be like. I've ridden the race four or five times now. My first year the weather was sunny and 60 degrees. Other years we've had a couple feet of snow. I haven't done it in the last few years. One year because I was busy with family, and a couple because I've missed the sign up. I know, no excuse. I'm planning on going for it again next year. I love riding, and this is a great race just to finish. There are several thousand riders, and you meet some interesting people on the trail. Maybe I'll use this blog to track my training progress for the race. First up, drop 50 pounds! LOL!

Speaking of losing weight, I really need to get healthy. Just a few years ago, I was down to about 220. I'm 6'1", so that's not much over what I want to be. I've managed to put on about 70 pounds since then. It's really depressing when you think about it. I really want to get back into shape. My daughter has endless energy, and it's all I can do just to play with her for an hour after work. Leaves me exhausted. That's not how I want to live. I'd love to get it down to about 200 pounds. That's not as low as "The Man" says I should be, but for me, that's pretty skinny. Plus, I'd like to actually have some muscle. If I was at the 180 the government recommends, I'd be a fraking twig. I've been trying to eat more reasonably the last few weeks, so if I can keep that going and start working in some exercise, I should be able to get some weight off. Maybe I'll do a weekly weight post to track my progress. I seem to do better when I know that someone might be checking on me!

One more event from this past week, SNOW! Yes, that dirty little four letter word. Yes, there are some things I like to do in the winter. I used to cross country ski a lot. Actually, that's about it. Tubing is fun, but I almost never go. I also like downhill skiing, but I do that even less than tubing. I do get to do a lot of shoveling. Yay......not. I hate shoveling. I know, it is some exercise, but it takes away from the little bit of time I have with my family during the week. I know it's a necessity. Better that losing my house to a hurricane, earthquake, or tornado if I lived most anywhere else in the country. I still don't like it! LOL

Well, I suppose that's enough for tonight. However, I'll leave you with something really cool. I saw this in my Uncle's blog. Not sure where he got it, but....WANT!!!

Friday, October 24, 2008

The Savage Beast

Myth Busted! Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. The Mythbusters is one of the greatest science shows on TV. Each week they have various theme's or groupings of myths. They take a skeptical look at the myth, and them put it to the test. It's a great show, and I would highly recommend it as something to watch as a family (if it wasn't on so late.). Anyway, the entire cast is awesome. Kari Byron is hot! Anyway, Adam Savage (get the title now?) is my favorite. He is just awesome. Hilarious, and excellent at what he does. He's a prankster, and is not afraid to use science to his advantage. Below would be an excellent trick to play on someone for Halloween, well, except sulfur hexafluoride is quite expensive. Anyway, enjoy.

8 Bit Metal

There are two things I love. Okay, there are a lot of things that I love, but two of them are video games and music. I've played many different video games over the years, but some of my best memories are from when I was a kid playing my old NES games. I also like most different kinds of music, but my favorite genre is probably hard rock/metal. What do you get when you combine the two? 8 Bit Metal! Below are some my favorite 8 bit game songs done with a metal flair.

First up, almost everyone has played one version or another of Tetris. You know, little blocks of varying geometry fall at increasing speeds and you have to stack them properly. Very addicting. Of course, if you've spent many hours playing this game, you'll recognize this first tune.



Another of my favorite games growing up was the Megaman series. They are still making them, and most of the old ones are available. WiiWare anyone? Anyway, the best song in the game, in my opinion, is Dr. Wily's theme. Here it is in an awesome arrangement.



That brings us to my all time favorite video game theme song. I played this game for hours a day, weeks at a time as a kid. I borrowed it from a friend, and I had it for well over a year before returning it. I beat both the first "world" as well as the alternate "world" that comes after that. What can I say? It's an awesome game. The overworld theme may be one of the most recognized theme songs in video game history, possibly even more so that Mario! Below is an awesome metal rendition of the Overworld Theme from The Legend of Zelda.



And there it is. Some of my favorite 8 Bit metal. Rock on, and game on!

Friday, October 17, 2008

To Boldly Go...

It's no big secret that I'm a huge Star Trek fan. My favorite series will always be The Next Generation. It's the series I grew up on. However, I like them all. I was a big fan of Enterprise too, and was very disappointed when it was canceled.

Regardless of my favorite, I know it all started with Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the original NCC 1701 crew from TOS. Imagine my excitement when I first heard that they were going to "reboot" the series with a prequel TOS movie. It's directed by J.J. Abrams, and is slated to release on May 8th, 2009. The teaser trailer first came out early this year, and the first full trailer is showing before the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, in November. Gonna have to go see that!

I think the casting looks very good. Lots of names I don't know, but several I do know. Most notably Zach Quinto, who most may know as Sylar from Heroes, as Spock. I think that could be spot on. It looks like a very fresh look at the franchise, which admittedly could use it.

Below, are a couple of my favorite images that have been released so far. First is a pic of the crew, minus Spock.


The next is a shot of the new bridge. It's very bright and Shiny. Not in complete contrast to any of the other series, but much brighter and shinier than anything we've seen before.


I'm very, VERY excited about this movie, and I can't wait to go see it. I'm not sure if my wife is nearly excited, but I've made her watch it before and while she'll deny it, she does like it. And if she doesn't, I'll just go without her! I'm not missing this!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Blasphemy!

That's probably what my grandma would tell me. About what? Why, my religion of course. I am fully committed as a member of The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or a Pastafarian as we are known. Since becoming a member of the church in late 2005, I have enjoyed many happy times with fellow worshipers. If you are interested and want to learn more about my faith, visit the link below. Everything you need to know is available there, as well as many testimonies. Who knows, maybe you too will be touched by his noodly appendage!


RabbitHoles?

Could this be the future of movie posters? I ran across this on Digg the other day, and it is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. It was created by a company called RabbitHoles. It's basically just a hologram, but it incorporates over 1200 individual frames. There are some really cool graphics. There are many possible uses, but the article states that James Cameron has expressed interest in the technology in the past. With some non-documentary movies coming soon (he's been a fan of documentaries lately), maybe he's looking to incorporate this into his advertising campaign. Check out the video below, also available in the original article. Pretty sweet!



RabbitHoles 3D Motion Holograms: Gnomon Gallery, SIGGRAPH, and Pixologic / Gnomon Party from douglas johnson on Vimeo.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Turtle! Turtle!

So I'm at work today, and I get an email from my wife saying that her mom found a baby turtle in front of our porch. Not really surprising since we live about 100 yards from a river. I remember seeing turtles all the time when I was growing up here.

It's a tiny little snapper turtle. She has it in a small tote in our kitchen right now. Her and our daughter were going to take it back to the river tonight, but it got dark before we finished with dinner. (Sucks, seems like just yesterday it was light until 10 O'clock at night!) Anyway, they will have to take it back tomorrow and set it free.

I told her, my wife, that she couldn't keep it. She's a sucker for pets, and would own a zoo if I let her! Hey, I have to draw the line somewhere! We already have a dog, two cats, two newts and two kids. She used to have two birds, a prairie dog, and two frogs as well. Not to mention the other two cats that ran away after we moved. See what I mean?

WoW Patch

Well, the last patch for World of Warcraft before Wrath of the Lich King drops tomorrow, and boy is it a doozie! I downloaded most of it tonight. It's in three parts and is about one gig in size. A buddy of mine uses satellite internet, which has a daily download limit, so I was getting it for both of us. Tomorrow, that last small piece of the patch will be available.

This patch will contain most of the stuff that everyone needs for the expansion, which comes out next month. Basically, it's because if you don't buy the expansion, you still need to be able to "see" the gear and such that other people who do get expansion will have. It won't contain the new continent of Northrend, but just about everything else is most likely in this patch.

I haven't been playing WoW since I've picked up Warhammer. I plan to get WotLK, but I'll probably wait for a month or two after it comes out. Then things won't be so crowded, and they'll have worked out most of the bugs. Until then I'll keep cracking on Warhammer. I'm certainly having a lot of fun with it!

I would recommend either game to anyone in a heartbeat. WoW was my first MMO, so it will probably always be the best to me. But I certainly won't hold that against any new games that come along.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Party

We had my daughter's B-day party today. All her grandparents and aunts and uncles. Shot got lots of good loot. She's playing with some of her toys and watching Nim's Island right now. She's been going non-stop, so she should sleep really well tonight. Yay!

After most of the family left, my brother and his wife stayed, and we went out to the back yard, got a fire going, and had S'mores. Gotta love them! Then we came in and ordered a pizza for dinner. First real food I'd had all day.

Well, that was pretty much our entire day. Just gonna chill until the kid's bedtime, and then play me some Warhammer before bed. Woot!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Plink! Plink!

One thing I remember doing from a very young age is shooting guns. I used to go hunting with my dad, and it was always fun. I didn't really stick with the hunting, mostly because if you kill it, you have to clean it. Cleaning animals never really struck me as fun. I was more a fan of just the shooting. We used to go out to my great-grandparents house and just shoot at various things like pears, pine cones, pop cans, or anything else that made a decent little target.

My daughter just turned 5 on Wednesday. Today, while working on the "Honey Do" list I mentioned earlier, I ran across my old Daisy BB gun. I got that gun as a gift when I was 5, so I figured it was the perfect time to take my daughter out in the back yard and have her give it a shot. She watched me shoot it for a little while, and then she finally decided to try it. I had to help her with holding and working the safety the first few times, but within about 10 minutes, she could do everything but cock it. She had a huge grin on her face. Her grandpa will be so proud. We got some pictures of her shooting it and will be sending them to him.

I look forward to many years of going out and plunking things. Hopefully when she grows up, she'll look back on it with the same fond memories that I do. And if she decides that it's just not her thing, that's cool too. I just want her to at least try and experience everything she can. You never know what you might find that you really like.

Saturday

Yep, it's Saturday. Got up with the kids. Made breakfast. Watched TV and played with the kids. Made lunch. Put the boy to bed for a nap. Hopped on the computer. Yeah, that about covers most Saturdays. I can't complain though. I'm not at work!

Of course, that doesn't mean I don't have work to do. As usual, there's the "Honey Do" list. It's not too bad this weekend. We're are having my daughters birthday party tomorrow, so I have to clean up the front and back porches. I also have some old end/coffee tables I need to put under the house. Those are currently in the family room which we are turning into an apartment for my mother-in-law. I also have some of my parents stuff to pack up into totes and put into the shed.

That's the long (short) term project that I'm working on. Getting that room all cleaned up so we can paint and have the carpets cleaned. I also have some finishing work to do in a few places. My sister and her fiance are taking the piano, table and chairs, and the love seat that are all currently out there. At that point, most everything will be gone and we can really get to getting everything fixed up. My wife is actually bribing me to get it done quicker. She told me that when I got it done, she would get me Rock Band 2, or maybe GH: World Tour. I haven't decided yet. Sweet.

What do I think about my mother-in-law moving in? I've got no problem with it. We get along just fine, and she'll be a built in cook and baby-sitter! I certainly can't complain about that!

Well, the "Honey Do" list isn't getting any shorter. Might as well get on it and get it done. Later!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Back.......yet again!

Well, it's been a while. A long while. Not like anyone reads this anyway.

My wife has been getting into the blog thing pretty heavy lately, so I figured I'd give it another go. I'll be working on getting everything updated so it doesn't look like total crap. Then we'll just see where it goes!