Fun Advent Calender

Nintendo of Europe has a fun Advent Calendar online

It is Super Mario Brothers, but with a Snowman as your avatar. For each day that you complete, you get ringtones and wallpapers based on Nintendo games that you can download.

XNA Party

I went to the Microsoft XNA release party last night. XNA is a plug-in for Visual Studios that simplifies the programming of games for the X-box 360. Microsoft's goal is to add a shot in the arm for the home brew crew. Most of the time was spent watching some of the developers showing some sample code which was cool, but the sound system blew so I could not hear much of what they were saying.

They also had some of the games that were made by during the Beta testing of XNA. My favorite was a four player Asteroids rip-off. It was very pretty and fast paced.

There was no swag, but they did give away some raffle prizes. 527604 got a four month subscription to XNA Creator's Club. 527606 got a Premium X-Box 360. I was of course 527605. Bet you wish you had come now Ian/Jim.

Wii came Wii Saw Wii had fun

Spent last night playing Wii with the gang. Spent most of the night playing Trauma Center: Second Edition.
It is a fun game that really ratchets up the difficulty level. I was checking out the gamefaq when I saw this:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ending
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adam: "As it is written in Revelations 9:6. 'During those days men will seek
death, but will not find it -- they will long to die, but death will elude
them.' Just as the prophecy states, I have set a plague upon mankind to torment
those who have betrayed natural law. ...At the end of all life, I alone will
stand as an angel before the gaping abyss... I, who have become the great
destroyer Apollyon! ...Your medicine is deceit, and you are nothing but a false
prophet..."

"Derek Stiles and Naomi Kimishima overcame Adam's ordeals and triumphed over
GUILT. But, what does the future hold for these two gifted surgeons...?"

"Congratulations! You've completed the most difficult surgeries ever devised.
However, remember that you're not actually a doctor, so you shouldn't perform
surgery in real life. ...Unless, of course, you are a doctor. In which case,
we would advise you not to tell your patients how many tries it took you to
complete a game about surgery."

The Ultimate Rejection Letter

Herbert A. Millington
Chair - Search Committee
412A Clarkson Hall, Whitson University
College Hill, MA 34109

Dear Professor Millington,

Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I
regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me
an assistant professor position in your department.

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually
large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field
of candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.

Despite Whitson's outstanding qualifications and previous experience in
rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at
this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor
in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.

Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.

Sincerely,
Chris L. Jensen

This was "stolen" from here, but in reality he stole it from me since that is how I got my last two jobs.

Animation vs Animator

Return of Me

It is been a while but I have returned.... At least for today.

I am typing this a Lynnwood Honda. I can't believe I am back after the shit from last time but I am all about the momentum.

Anyway the thing that made me post today happened here in the waiting room. When I arrived there was a lady talking alone in the room. My assumption was that she was talking on a cell phone. I really wasn't paying attention but it sounded like she was talking to her daughter. Well it turns out she was NOT talking on a cell phone she was talking to a ghost. I found this out when she was explaining this to the police officer that arrived to take her away.

There are sometimes bothers me that I don't notice what is going around me.

Hurricane Paul

I hope I don't kill anyone.

I find your lack of pants disturbing.

Top 176 Star Wars Lines Improved By Replacing A Word With "Pants"

Lego Batman gets a place to hang out.

I have been really busy lately but thought I would share this when I saw this:



More here.

The Secrets Behind the Numbers on Lost

This summer the Producers of Lost have been running an On-Line Information Hunt. Well the game is over and this video is the results.



Kind of interesting, but disappointing as well since it really answers little. For more information go to the Lost Experience.

Cool Video

We used to have one of these in Billings when I was growing up. I even got to go up in the American Mud balloon a couple of times.

Just Four Words

LEGO Batman Video Game

'Nuff Said

TiVo is from Aliens

Funny but not 4 minute funny

Best Movie of the Year

Went and saw a movie last night and it RULED. You should all drop everything and run out and see Little Miss Sunshine

It is a comedy but it is a independent movie comedy not a Hollywood comedy. I have not laughed out loud so much in forever. This movie is a must buy when it comes out on DVD.

10 Freakin' Years

So on last Thursday, the company that I work for celebrated my tenth anniversary. My actual anniversary was on the 22nd, but I am not complaining. So as part of the celebration they gave me a cool plaque
and an X-box 360. I have been totally digging the 360. So far I have purchased Dead Rising and downloaded Geometry Wars: Evolved and a bunch of game demos. Here is my x-bow 360 gamers tag if you are interested.




One of the cool things about the X-box 360 is Achievements. If you look at the line with the G in the circle you will see my Achievement points, these are earned by doing different tasks in the games you play. It adds a new level to games when you have new goals to meet.

Link Blogging about Lock Bumping

This Article from Engadget is fascinating. I simultaneously want to run out and change my locks and to get one of those "bump keys" so that I can try it.

You Will Believe In Magic

P33 vs Wii

I know everyone is linking to this but...

One Humdinger of a Story

This is a long one so you may want to go to the restroom first...

It's OK I'll wait...

I hope you washed your hands.

So about 6 months ago the SRS light came on in my Honda. I looked it up and discovered it was the Supplementary Restraint System light and since I will never die, I knew it could wait until my next tune up. So fast forward 4 months until the Service Engine Light comes on. BTW I like the light system, it make me so lazy. I wish I could get a navigation system to tie into the turning signals so that I could just follow the lights. But anyway I went in to the Dealer where I bought my car, and got my service done. It turns out the light was because the seat built had a faulty sensor. Unfortunately they did not stock the part so they would need to order. I told them I was going to be traveling a BUNCH over the next few months so that it would be difficult to get our schedules to match. Well after 3 + weeks I was finally able to make an apointment that worked with my schedule, so I went in at 1 pm to get this work done. Since the work was only supposed to take an hour or so I decided to wait in the waiting area. And wait is what I did... Two hours later my service dude comes to get he tells me there was a problem with the part and I would have to come back. As I was getting in the car I asked what the problem was and he told me that the part had been sent back to the factory!!!! Now had they told me this after I had been there after 15 minutes, I would not have been upset since mistakes happen, but after 2 hours!!!!

So last week I got a call from the research firm that Honda uses to figure out how they are doing and I laid in to them. I don't think I gave them higher than a two and my score was so low that they wanted me to complete a more detailed survey to get to the root of the problem. In the spirit of honesty I guess I should mention that I was waiting at the airport and that my flight had been delayed an hour, so I was already not in a happy place.

Jumping ahead to the present. I got a call from Glenn at the dealer and they have my part. Since I have short timer's, what with my trip the San Diego Comic Con starting tomorrow, I adjusted my schedule so that I could drop it if. In compensation for the inconveniences they offered a rental car for the day and a detailing of my car at a latter date.

Now that the back ground is done, I can now get to the punchline :)

So the dealer uses Enterprise as their loaner car program, and when I went in to the office there are two hotties and one guy. So as par for the course I ended up getting a Hummer from the guy and not one of the hotties. Sometime life is just not fair.

BTW I am not at all impressed with the H3. While it drives OK, it seams really small inside but still too large for any sort of normal parking.

Someone has moved Lynnwood

I was driving to Work from Lynnwood, but that is another story that I may share if I can find the time, when I noticed that my old apartment went Condo. I will know quote from Website since it is not easy to link to:

Life at WildWood Townhomes is picture perfect. Come visit our Sales Gallery and model home!

Situated in one of America’s most desirable, thriving communities, life at WildWood Townhomes has everything you’re looking for! These spacious, well-appointed, and affordable homes are set against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains, sparkling water, and spectacular sunsets. WildWood Townhomes is ideal: a peaceful place you can call home.

This ideal location is convenient to work, the University of Washington, to SeaTac International Airport and beyond. Vancouver BC is only a short drive away. And nearby ferry service carries you quickly to the Olympic peninsula. WildWood Townhomes is located just 15 miles north of downtown Seattle, known worldwide for its natural beauty, cultural diversity, vitality and innovation. From the historic Pike Place Market on Elliot Bay, to cutting edge art galleries and museums, and state-of-the-art professional sports stadiums, Seattle is the cosmopolitan hub of the Northwest. Easy access to mountain biking, sailing, hiking, and skiing completes the picture of the active lifestyle awaiting you at

WildWood Townhomes.

On the quieter side, enjoy a dip in the private swimming pool. Relax in the Jacuzzi. Entertain friends in the club house. Or, stretch your legs in the on-site fitness center and serene nature preserve. WildWood Townhomes delivers comfort, convenience and provides a quiet refuge from the world outside. And with the region’s premier shopping, dining and movie-going experience (Alderwood Mall) only minutes away, life at WildWood Townhomes has it all.

The only thing missing is you.

The funniest thing for me is the fact that they are convenient to Sea-Tac Airport. I am not sure if this company has every been to this sight because travel to Sea-Tac Airport is NOT convenient at all.

I am glad that this did not happen when I was still there because I would have bought my unit with very little thought. I guess I would not of been sad, but even with the Pending Litigation on my current place I am very happy with the move.

Now this is Just Plain Wrong

I will never look at "The Hoff" the same way.

So I've been busy

I have not been updating so sue me :)

The real reason is that a couple of months ago I joined eHarmony, and I have been seeing someone that I met there for a couple of weeks. Her name is Casey and she is 30 years old and lives in West Seattle. So far we have been having a great time and I can only hope it continues.

One of the cool things we did was on the 4th we went to Alki Beach and watched the fireworks. It is really cool place to watch the fireworks because you can see two different shows. We could see both the Forth of Jul-Ivars show and the WaMu Family Forth over Lake Union. While the Ivars's show was closer the WaMu show was much cooler. They had fireworks that made Smilies, Hearts and even Cubes. I wish I had thought to bring my camera :)

The Pilots are 1-0 in 2006

Went to a Seattle Pilots game this weekend. Actually it was a Turn Back the Clock Game for the Seattle Mariners.
Here is the 1st pitch to Ichiro.
Hard to see but a closer picture of the uniforms.
They put all kinds of little touches on stadium to show that it was a Pilot game instead of a Mariners game.
Check it out the Pilots beat the Tigers 3-2. Go Pilots!!!

Futball

Went to a Soccer game with Beau, Maryanne, 2.0, Jason and George.

The Sounders were beaten by Club America. Club America (in Yellow) is from the Mexican League.

While I was not very excited by the game it was kind of cool to be surrounded by people in love with the game. So that was a cool feeling. You can see in the below picture the fun that they were having.

Yet Another Template

I don't like as well as the last but I can read it...

May not last long

The Scary Thing is he is Better Than Me

New Camera

In preparation for my trip to the San Diego Comic-con, I bought a new digital camera. The old one was really slow at taking pictures and did not have much room or battery life. I picked up a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T9

I wanted to make sure it worked so I finally got around to taking pictures of my condo. They can be found here.

New Template

Found a site with a bunch of new templates for Blogger... I am not sold on the look but at least it is different than the standard templates.

UPDATE - I found one I like better... Now I just need to figure out how to boost the font up a notch.

Cool places to visit

I love the Internet. I love looking for cool stuff. I like it even more if people go through all the bad stuff and put the good stuff in one place so I don't have to look very hard. Here is a list of some aggregation sites I have discovered. A word of warning some of these sites may not be safe for work

• Cool Images from Flikr. Same amazing pictures.
  
• Bits and Pieces from around the web.
• Beautiful women found on photo sharing sites. Used to be more safe for work but has become more and more unsafe as time has progressed
• Newspaper Comic Strips
• Comic book news
• Tech news
• Video game news and here.
  

Enjoy

Another baseball game

I got a new laptop at work. Not the Superman one DAMN IT!!!! This new one has built in Bluetooth so it is much easier to get pictures out of my camera phone. I mean I used to have to find the dongle in my back pack and stick in the USB slot. That was hard work.

So here are the pictures from the June 6th Mariner's game. They actually one one while I was in the stands. They beat the Minnesota Twins 4 to 1.



In the bad news column, my streak of one game for every home stand is technically broken. So last weekend the M's at a very short three game home stand against the San Fransisco Giants. Not only where the games "sell outs", I was not even in town for the first of the games. So I am calling this a rain-out and I will just have to make up this game at a later date.

This is how Lego should have done Spider-man

For more go to this site.

Teamwork In Action

I have been super swamped here in LA, but I found this in my break time surfing and had to share.

Holy Chrysler

Work has been silly crazy here in LA. I did get the chance to hang with Ford this trip. We went to an Argentine Steak House and then went to see Cars.

This movie was sweet. I can't wait for the DVD so I can watch it again.

Dave Is Back

Check it out.

Look at the Kitty

Fun with Action Figures

Found this site through my weekend surfing... Don't forget Part II.



Make sure you click on the continue to see the rest of the story.

My Next Laptop

OK, It is just wishful thinking but this is cool.

Let Me Watch Cake

As typical on a slow startup I am plowing through the DVDs. So far, I've watched the entire 1st Season of the Gilmore Girls, a Lupin III anime movie, and Layer Cake. This movie was quite entertaining. It was directed by Matthew Vaughn, who was the original replacement director for X-men 3 and stars Daniel Craig, who is going to be the new James Bond in Casino Royale.

The basic premises of story is that the main character of the story is getting ready to retire from the drug business. The only problem is that everyone is trying to get him to take the fall for deal gone wrong. So he has to play everyone against each other while keeping his skin intact.

Daniel is an interesting choice for James Bond. He is not very sexy, but he does have a strong sense of menace that hides behind his eyes. It is kind of like the choice of George Lazenby where he matches the actual character of the books not the movie version. There is one scene in the movie when a "friend" gives him a gun for protection and he starts to pretend that he is a Secret Agent as he moves through the apartment. If someone was to play that clip of that scene, they would instantly know that is James Bond. So in other words I think MGN has chosen wisely.

I know that most people think that Lazenby was the second Bond but they are WRONG!!! It was David Niven in the original Casino Royale.

Holy Crap!!! It is a small world

I am often amazed at the interconnections between people and places.

• I am a fan of the comic book writer and Star Trek Novelist Peter David. From an interview I discovered that Peter wrote a weekly column in the Comics Buyer's Guide.
• One of his fellow columnist turned out to be a man named Mark Evanier, who's work I have also enjoyed. After leaving the Comics Buyer's Guide, Mark started a Blog.
• From Mark's Blog I discovered Ken Levine has a blog. Ken was probably my favorite Mariner's announcer that is not named Dave. He is also a television writer and was the voice of the announcer in Simpsons episode with all the Baseball players.
• While sitting in my Hotel room in La Mirada, California wishing I had something fun to do. I read the first comment about a new play opening that very night at the La Mirada Theater called: Johnny Guitar.

This would have been so much better of a story if I had actually gotten off my ass and gone. I blame Lorelai and Rory.

A Day in the Life

Video Link Blogging Again.

District Bingo

After Jim's point out, I decided check out District B13. I don't know why I can not say that name without following it up with Bingo. Actually I do know why, and if you are reading this you know too.

This movie was damn cool. I am a sucker for the impossible looking stunts that are filmed in one take and this film has tons. It also has subtitles because the movie is in French.

The story takes place in the near future Paris, where the worst part of town has been walled off to keep all the riff-raff in. Well the Tattooed Hero is trying to keep his building safe from the bad guy when he get jailed for doing the right thing. The Non-Tattooed Hero (a cop) breaks the Tattooed Hero out of jail so that they can recover a stolen Nuke and rescue the Tattooed Hero's Hot Sister. If you can't tell it the two main characters are kind of generic what with the shaved headed white guys.

M's Games Update

Unloaded the pictures from my phone, so I should catch up on my home stand project.

May 5th Seattle loses to the Indians 4-9. Went with my Mother, Steve, Ken and Barb, and their kid and his kid. This game was also train car night. I would have put up a picture of it as well but I gave it to Beau to give to his Mom.

Overall a crummy game.


May 23 Seattle loses to the O's 4-14. Got free tickets from work but Mark canceled so I called Jason. This was 8/9th of a fun game since we were in the game until the 9th inning. Jason and I left after the 3rd run in the inning, but the pain did not stop there they ended up scoring SIX more times.

I am beginning to see a trend here so far the M's are 0-5 when I attend the game. They better watch out cause I'm not done yet.

"When I'm with you I want to Laugh, and Yell and...

Roll Bums?"

And that was the only good line from Date Move.


As I've said before that I LOVE genre parody movies, but unfortunately this was a scene parody movie. Alyson Hannigan is very cute and was funny but this movie just did not work.

I Feel Unwanted

So this Summer is my 20th High School Reunion. I had already planned on going to the San Diego Comic-Con, so another trip in July was not in the cards. I had been checking out the MyEvent site to see if any one I knew was going.

Some things I discovered:

• That the foreign kid is making soft core porn in Finland.
• John/Wes Pannell has finally desided to go full time with the John and is now doing Web Stuff. As are a LOT of our former classmates.
• Matt Opalka, the dude that I was always next to alphabetically, now works on Indy Cars.

Now for the reason that I feel unwanted. They just added a Missing Bears Page to the site. I know for a fact they have not contacted me, but I am not on the list. Tom Hale on the list. Shawn Morrison he is there too. So are Eric Larsen and Lee Hicks. Even the Master of Socialization, Mr Steve Bradley is there. The only absences of note is Chris Woolston and that is because he actually signed up.

Maybe I'm dead and no one told me.

L + R + A

Was a standard 8 hour day on Saturday, so I got some free time. Stopped at Best Buy and picked up New Super Mario Bros. I tend to forget that I kind of suck at platformers. I am still enjoying the game but it is frustrating when I lose my brother in the same place over and over again.

The best thing is that you can as the Luigi when you use the secret code to start a saved game.

Better Than The Current President

Last night I finished watching the first Season of the West Wing on DVD. I will worn anyone reading this that I will be spoiling plot points from this and future seasons in this review.

When this show first came on I only watched the first episode but according to this site, it was up against Star Trek Voyager and Roswell and at that time I only had the ability record two programs at once and two genera shows won out. I did give up on Roswell after a few months, but I did not get back into the show until the second season after the glowing recommendation of my friend Drew.

I really enjoyed this season, it was kind of cool seeing some of the back stories of the characters I have been following for the last six years. One of my favorite things about this season was the foreshadowing they were setting up for future seasons. Two of my favorites were the President talking to his daughter Zoey about his worst nightmare of her going to a club and being kidnapped by outside forces which is exactly what happens at the end of season four and Donna telling Josh that a good boss would take her to Hawaii which is exactly what happens in Season 7.

This show was created by Aaron Sorkin, who also created Sports Night. The good news is that his new show Studio 60 was picked up by NBC, so I can look forward to some of the best dialog on TV again.

Game Set and Match Point

Trying to catch up on my back log of blogging. I few weeks ago, while I was in LA, I watched the movie Match Point.
This movie is written and directed by Woody Allen, but is not the standard Woody Allen. For one thing it takes place in London instead of New York. It also co-stars Beau's current Lust Bunny, Scarlett Johansson.

This is one of those movies that after it was done, I thought it was really cool but I am sure it will not stand up to repeated viewings. This is because it took 2/3 rd of the movie before the thriller part of the movie kicked in. Once it did I totally got into it.

Hello is anyone still here?

Tonight I am in Nevada again. No horrible things have happened... Yet.

I have been spending my free computer time working on my DVD and Magic websites. I just finished re-entering all of my DVDs. Now I need to perform an inventory check and make down all the update all the Watched DVDs.

On the Magic site, I need to redo the Select function. Currently it works by creating a temporary table with all of the options that match the criteria selected and then pick one at random. Unfortunately the populating of the temporary table can take longer than a standard browser timeout. When I next get some free time I am going to implement an idea that I think will work better.

But before I get back to that I am going hit a bunch of topics:

• West Wing Season 1
• My 3rd M's game
• MI - 3
• E3
• Allergy Update
• Mother's Day
• New Lego Sets
• The new TV Season
  

This Looks Hella Fun

I'm sure a lot of this is just cut scenes but it still looks like fun.

Tonight on the IC

Yesterday I picked up the final issue of Infinite Crisis. Today I read a review from a dude that hated it. While I personally did not hate Infinite Crisis, I do have mixed feelings about it.

First lets talk about the antagonists.

Superman of Earth 2: His motivations were two fold - he wanted to save his wife and he felt that the heroes that he left behind were not doing a very good job. He was told by Alexander Luthor that bringing back Earth-2 would save his wife and if the smartest man I know told me that I would probably believe them, so I will buy motivation one. Even at 37, I look at the youth of today and all I can see are screw-ups, so I can totally buy this one two. Verdict - I'm OK with this character.

Superboy of Earth Prime: Have you ever spent a long time locked in a confined space with your Grandparents and a dude that is way smarter than you? If you had you would be a little crackers too. Verdict - I'm OK with this character.

Alexander Luthor: This is my problem character. I know he is just the Son of the Greatest Hero of his Universe but it seams that the story keeps painting him with the same brush as his father. Maybe if he had been a little more "I'm not my father", I would have bought into his shift to villainy. And yes he is a villain. No hero would form the Society, no matter how pure the motivations were. Maybe this points to Lex Luthor's child would grow up to be a great hero. Verdict - Not buying it.

Problems with the series:

• Superboy Prime can blow colder than the coldness of deep space and Green Lantern rings can't protect them
• Superman can spend any amount of time around Kryptonite.
• Wonder Woman can break a sword by throwing it in the air.
• How did Nightwing survive a blast to the chest?
• Is Lex Luthor a Metahuman or is just Alexander? - {Villains United Special}

My biggest issue with the whole Infinite Crisis is not with the comics but with the Crisis Counseling. I guess I now know what the older readers felt like after the original Crisis. Just a few of the things that have been retconned out of existence:

• Peter David's Supergirl series
• Poison Ivy's, Doomsday's and Bane's death. I will admit that Bane was the only one that I knew was dead.
  
• Hippolyta's time as Wonder Woman during World War II

I am still looking forward to 52 and have by in large enjoyed the One Year Later titles, I just wish they could have done it without invalidating the past again.

Hell Has Frozen Over

And Jim will finally buy Star Wars on DVD.

I must say that I prefer the Special Editions on these films in every way except the fact that Han does not shoot first like God intended.

I have nothing clever to say.

It has been a long two weeks with a lot of hours. Started yesterday at 5:30 AM and got back to the hotel room at 9 PM. Plus I was back on site at 5:30 again. But at least I got out of there at a reasonable time tonight.

Tonight I spent my free time watching the movie Hoodwinked!
I have to be honest, I don't remember this film even coming out in the theaters but I saw a good review at DVDTalk and I love animation so I thought I would give it a spin. The basic premise of the film is the Little Red Riding Hood story told Rashomon Style. While the animation is sub-par the story itself was very entertaining.

Player Hating Redux

So my good friend Jim was talking about Luigi over in his blog. He expressed his Love for the Man in Green and I agreed that he is the cooler of the Mario Brothers. His post got me thinking about Luigi that I started playing Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for my Nintendo DS. This is the sequel to the GBA game Mario & Luigi: The Superstar Saga. I had forgotten what a pussy they have made Luigi.

You see, most of Luigi's appearances have been as just one of the many characters in the Mario branded Multi Player Games like Mario Cart and Mario Golf. So I was allowed to make up my own personality for Luigi. In my world, he was the younger brother to the greatest Hero the Mushroom Kingdom has ever known. But what the kingdom does not know is that the reason Mario is so successful is that Luigi has got his back but does not crave the glory. But what do I get in the M&L games? A PUSSY!!! Luigi is basically scared of everything. He's a klutz that is more likely to get in to an adventure through misfortune instead of bravery. Not my idea of a Hero.

And what was up with their parents?!?!? Who in their right name would name their first born Mario Mario? That's just stupid.

Quick Stopover

I am back in Seattle again but only for two days, since I am off to LA on Monday.

So it is no secret that I like TV...

I thought it might be interesting to go over what order I would watch the programs I had sitting on my DVRs. While I was away I did not watch anything, so this is kind of a blank slate.


1) Veronica Mars
I like this show a lot. It is well written and well acted. I am not that interested in this years "Big Mystery", but since most episodes A-plot is stand-alone I don't mind.

2) Smallville
This show should not be so high on this list as it is, but I did not want to get out of bed and this was the "best" show on the upstairs DVR. This show is so hit and miss. This episode was a miss.

3) Doctor Who
This show rocks. Had this show been available when I started watching I probably would have chosen this one as my Number 1.

4) Amazing Race.
I really enjoy this show. This is the only reality show that I would ever want to be on. This is another show that would not be as high on the list without ulterior motives. Amazing Race is one of the show that I can watch without paying attention so it is perfect for surfing the web, playing City of..., or writing this blog.

5) Survivor
Same reason as Amazing Race. Plus both of these programs are on the Comcast DVR which has the smallest hard drive and I am unsure how log this stretch of Road Trips will last, so I want to make as much room as possible. If things fall a certain way I may not spend more than 3 nights at home in a row next month.

6) Prison Break
Over the Top Fun. And still more plausible than..

7) 24
I could not believe it when I read in USA Today say that they think this is the best season ever. I am still enjoying the ride but it is all over the place this year.

8) House
Not sure why I like this show. Every show they almost kill someone while they are trying to cure them, and yet somehow they keep me coming back.

9) Alias
Had I noticed the new episode I probably would have watched this earlier. But then I would have been disappointed earlier too.

10) That '70s Show (x2)
I wanted to watch a comedy to get the taste of Alias out of my brain and this is the only one on the downstairs Tivo. Shame this show blows now. I mean come on Jackie and Fez. That chick is such a slut.

I Hate Nevada

So I started today with one personal goal. Watch Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
So at 6 PM, I am ready to go, when I get asked nicely to stay until this one last thing is complete. Forty-five minutes later they are done (without needing my help) and I am out the door.

First stop Target Since I needed some more Poptarts. After picking up my pastries, I head to the DVD section and find they are SOLD OUT of Advent Children.

Next stop Best Buy. As I'm walking in I see a young man holding a copy of this now Grail like DVD. Well it turns out that he apparently grab the last copy. I find this out after waiting 15 minutes for the "idiots that are to stupid to work in the casinos" to tell me they to were SOLD OUT. My options are quickly running out.

Next Stop Wal-mart. If you know me you know I am not fond of Wal-mart. I think they have t strong of a grip on what I get to watch and listen to, so you know if I am shopping there you know it is important for me. After a massive hunt I am able to find the slot were the movie was located at but it has a tag listing the price as $21.97. Which is seven dollars more than Best Buy had it. Luckily it actually WAS on sale for $14.99, so I don't have to live with the guilt of paying full retail at Wal-mart.

So I get back to the hotel room and slap that bad boy in to the old laptop. The first thing I see is that there is a Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII Story Digest. This is cool because while I remember that the game was really cool and I remember most of the characters and important plot points, I don't remember what the actual story was about. Well apparently it is about crap!!! I can not believe how shitty the story of FFVII actually is. By the way I am not alone this guy agrees with me.

Thankfully, the movie was a lot of fun. While the story was still laking I really enjoyed the action scenes. There is one battle that has all the original FFVII characters teaming up against a giant monster just like in the video game. The problem is that this scene just reinforces how impossible these kind of fights would be in a "real" setting but somehow they pulled it of through sheer bravado where I just went along for the ride.

In Square's last attempt at a CGI movie, I felt that they made the characters look very real in still shots but as they strong the shots together they became unreal. They were missing the subtle things that we don't even notice normally like the rising of the chest as you take a breath. I did not feel that the character were plastic in this movie, so I enjoyed the movie more.

Which comes first having a slow story that gives you a chance to notice the imperfections in the animation or having the imperfections that drag you out of the flow of the story?

In Carson City Every Day Is a Gamble

So I am in Nevada this week. So far it has been loads of fun.

On Monday, after a long day I was heading to the Hotel to check in. I was driving by the State House building when I ran over this:

At the time I just recognized that I had ran over something but did not think twice. It was a mile or two later when I was able to get over 25 that I started to hear a thump-thump. So instead of making the wise move and pushing on to the hotel, because after all "It's just a rental". I pulled in to the Wendys' parking lot. I called Avis Roadside assistance and was assured it would only be a half an hour. So I went in to Wendys' and had one of the worst Spicy Chicken Sandwiches ever. After 45 minutes I get an automated call from Roadside Assistance asking if help had arrived. Turns out that the tow driver got a call from the police and that takes priority... Apparently over even calling me to letting me know they were going to be delayed. I know they had my number from later events.

So RA finds another tow driver and he was there in 15 minutes. He takes one look at the wimpy ass jack and lug wrench and makes the same call I made No Fucking Way. He pulls out his fancy ass shit and gets the job done in 15 minutes.

The tow driver also repeats the same warning that the RA guy gave "don't drive this tire over 55". Figures I finally get what could be called a "sporty" car and I can't drive sporty-ish-ly. Not that I would.

So to top off the night, it had been a Long day so I went to bed at 9:45 and had just fallen asleep when the asshole from the 1st towing company called saying he could not find my car. A mere 3 hours late. He then wanted my credit card number so that he could bill me for the false call. I did not comply.

New DVD List

I have been spending a lot of my free time working on a new project. An updated version of my old DVD list.

Well after much work it is done. Now I just need to reenter the data. :)

Another One For the List

So I officially adding a new item to 101 things in 1001 days list that I have not posted or even finished yet.

• Go to at least one game every Mariners' homestand.
  

Game 1 -
I did not think to take a picture at the game but I still have the picture. The M's lost the the A's (0-3). Not a very good game the M's could not get anyone across the plate.

Attendees: Steve C., Jim H., Jason B., Jim H.'s Dad

Game 2 -


Got some GREAT seats from work. M's still lose (3-4 against Texas) but it was a fun game. They were in the game until the last pitch.

Attendees: Jason B., Thor B., Marc L.

When Good Control Systems Go Bad

Thankfully myself or anyone I know had anything to do with this. I have managed in my work life to make some mistakes of this nature but nothing to this scale.

Odama You Say

I picked up a new game the other day: Odama.

In short this is a Voice Commanded Tactical Medieval Japanese Combat game crossed with Pinball game. It is even stranger than it sounds. I recommend clicking on the link and watching the video.

The Sky is Falling

Watched a movie last night: Chicken Little

I am of two minds on this movie. The animation was first rate and the story was fun but it was lacking any of the heart that is usually found in Pixar films. I just did not care for any of the characters. Hopefully the Disney-Pixar merger will bring up the quality of the Disney movies and the Quantity of the Pixar movies.

What I've Been Doin'

can be summed up in two words and a Roman Numeral.

Kingdom Hearts II

Kingdom Hearts is a series of Video Games that are in a crossroads between different Disney and Final Fantasy Worlds. The first game had an original character named Sora teaming with Donald Duck and Goofy as he visits different worlds to use the magical Keyblade (Sora's weapon) to seal of the world's so that they are protected for the evil Heartless. Most of the world's that he visits are taken right from Disney movies like Never-Never Land, Beast's Castle, Halloween Town, and Wonderland. Along the way you meet various characters from Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and X. It was a really fun game with some cool twists.

The second game was on the Game Boy Advance and was called Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memory. While this is a sequel to the first game, it felt like I was playing the same game again since you go back to the same worlds. The twist is that everyone has lost their memories, so nobody remembers Sora and Sora has forgot them too. I did not find the game that fun, so I never got around to finishing it.

So in a great marketing movie, they named the third game Kingdom Hearts II. This is definitely the third game in the series, since apparently the KH: CoM ended in a cliffhanger that this game eventually picks up. This game has the same problem as the first one in that it is billed as a Disney/FF crossover but it takes a long time for the story to start. In this game I spent 4 hours before I even got to play as the main character!!! The highlights of this game were visits to Port Royal from Pirates of the Caribbean, the Computer World of Tron, and the Disney Past of Steamboat Willey. I really enjoyed the game which is why I spent more than 40 hours playing it over a week and a half.

Moving on up

From Convention Co-Organizer to Convention Co-Guest of Honor, lets give Jim Demonakos a big well deserved round of applause. And to think I knew him when...

Sell your Stock

As part of my 101 things in 1001 days project (you know the one that I only have 20 things picked out and have not published at all), I am planning on giving up Pepsi for at least one month. So starting April 1st, No Pepsi For Me. Since I only drink Pepsi at work and I am not working the rest of the month, this is my last Pepsi:


As a type this it is half gone. I miss it already.

Wizard World LAme - Aftermath

So today I find this press release announcing the attendance at Wizard World LA at 27,000 fans. My first response is Hell No! My second response is Hell No!! Lets say for arguments sake that they are counting three day passes as separate people. Even with this boost I got to say Hell No!!

I would put the line at the start of the show on Friday at say 750 people. I am feeling generous so lets put it at an even 1,000. The crowd never seemed to increase through out the day. Lets assume a 20% turnover every hour. The show was open 6 hours so that would put that days attendance at 2,200.

I only attended the last two hours of the show on Saturday. I would say that the show felt half again as busy compared to the last two hours the day before. Since I am still feeling generous I will give them twice the attendance or 4,400. A small number and a cool show that returns this summer.

Now I did not attend the show on Sunday because of the LA Marathon. And as I understand it no one else did either. Lets take a wild guess and say 2,400 for a total three day attendance of 9,000.

So I figured I would put together a list of ways that Wizard got the numbers they are reporting:

• They counted everybody that entered the main hall every time they entered. They helped boost attendance since they held the panels outside the main hall.
• They took the three day attendance and multiplied that number by the number of days to get the Wizard Three Day Attendance (patent pending)
• They ordered 27,000 hand fans for giving away at the show. These did not show up in time to make it in the freebie bags so they instead were given to the local homeless shelters.
• The 27,000 count is accumulative for the three years of the show. By the way this would put the attendance at 2,700. If you had told me that was the attendance I would have believed it.
• They flat out lied their asses off.

I am guessing the last one is correct.

Strange Lunch Conversations

WARNING - This post is not in good taste!!! If you are looking for tasteful insight look elsewhere.

This weekend here in Seattle there was a tragic shooting at a rave where a gunman killed six people and himself. The gunman's name is being reported as Aaron Kyle Huff. The first time I heard this was on one of those annoying news teasers that the local stations do. Because I was not paying attention, I only heard the Aaron Kyle portion of the name. As some of you may know, I have a very good friend that uses that name on all legal documents. Well after a quick Internet search I discovered the Huff and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Today at lunch I reveled my co-workers with the story that I just told you, and we started talking about the stories that always come out after incidents like one here. So we started a little game of what would they tell the media after I went on a Rampage.

Dan B. - "I knew all along"

Greg S. - "I wish I would have known... We could of hung out more."

Scott W. - "Son Of A Bitch. He stole my idea."

I can just feel the love in this room. :)

I also have to wonder - Why is everyone referring to Aaron as Aaron Kyle Huff? Did everyone call him Aaron Kyle in conversation all the time? Sometimes I just focus on the strangest stuff.

Update - Someone pointed out that he probably went by the name Kyle Huff and that is why they use his full name in the reports.

I said I was Sorry

Here we go again with another apology blog entry. It has been a really busy month and next month looks just as bad, so my blog entries have been far and few between. Since I am of the mindset that a little is better than nothing, I have decided that I am going to go back to the quickie blog entries until my work and personal life gets under control.

So in other words...

NEVER

Damn You ME!

I blame this rash of Video Link Bloging on Mark Evanier. This clip contains 5 and 1/2 of the most famous trailer voice actors.

Wizard World LAme - Pictures

I forgot to put a link to the Hasbro pictures. They were taken with my phone and are generally all around lame.

Wizard World LAme - Day 3

I had such a great time going to Wizard World the last two days that I decided to go to a movie instead.

There were other reasons to help make up my mind. The biggest one was that Jim was going to a concert that night so I would not be able to hang with him much and the LA Marathon was basically started and finished at the Convention Center. Because of this most of the roads to the area would be closed. Not my idea of a good time.

So I went to see V for Vendetta.


This movie rocks. It is based on a comic by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. I had decided to not reread the book until after seeing the film so that I could experience the film was a fresher eye. But now that I have seen it I am looking forward to pulling out the old series so that I can see if Alan is the Nostradamus of our times or if the Wackowski Brothers were able to craft the premise in to the allegory of Bush's America. The central theme of the movie is so spot on to America of today that it is scary.

Wizard World LAme - Day 2

Since I had so much fun at Day 1 of Wizard World LA, I decided to spend Day 2 working.

I showed up at the Convention site at about 4:30 PM. Did a quick walk through the floor and realized that there were a few more people but not many. At 5 pm I decided to go see my first panel of the show: Marvel's Civil War. I kind of got the feeling that even the audience did not want to be there. I really enjoy Mark Millar's writing so I am sure that I will pick it up, but this whole crossover sounds so stupid. Marvel has a poor track record of crossovers that are going to "Change the Face of the Marvel Universe" that don't. The last big crossover was House of M. It reduced the number of Mutants in the Marvel Universe but increased the number of titles covering them. It is hard to miss them if they don't freaking go away.

I did actually spend some of that HARD earned cash that I acquired. I picked up the Fantastic Four Omnibus for $60. A very good deal for a difficult book to find. Plus it had the Kirby cover.

After the show most of the same gang went to dinner again. This time is was much less of an adventure since we went to the Farmer's Market. I had very dry Schwarma. I was kicking my self because after eating I found a Cajun joint that looked really good.

After dinner we went to the Figarowa Bar (The Un-Official Bar of the Con) and hung out for a couple of hours. Had a good time talking comics with people that do it for a living.

Wizard World LAme

So this weekend is the Wizard World LA show. Since I am in town for work I thought it would be fun to go to the show. Little did I know.

My day started at 4:45 AM when my phone alarm woke me up. I showered and headed in to the plant. It was their Friday off so I had the production area to myself. I made a ton of progress. At 10:30 AM, I packed up my stuff and headed to the con. Traffic kind of sucked but I made it to the show a little before noon. I had purchased advanced tickets, so I went to the advanced ticket line. Which is hard to describe. So imagine one of those rope corrals that are the staple of the long line, but without the ropes or poles or anything associated with proper line-age. So instead of a nice ordered line we had a bunch of people in a big group.

About 10 minutes before the doors opened one of the Wizard World Staff members walked up and down the line telling us that if we wanted our freebie bag we needed to stay in this line. Well I am not one to turn down free shit so I stayed. After about 30 minutes, a different Wizard World Staff member walked up and down the line telling us that we did NOT need to stand in line we could pick them up later. I could tell it was going to be another 15 minutes so I headed in.

Before I get in to details a bit about the show itself. It sucked!!! OK more details. The space itself was fairly large but they were only using 2/3 rd of it. There was a large publishers area with huge booths for Hasbro Toys, Wizkids, DC Comics and Marvel Comics. There was also a Huge gaming area that I never saw more then 1/3 rd full and a respectfully large artist alley, that was also only 2/3 rd full and had a TON of space between the rows. The saddest part was the dealer's area. It was probably only half again as big as the publisher's area but even that was not full. I am pretty sure that we had more dealers last year at the Emerald City ComicCon. The one thing that was kind of cool about how they had the dealer area was small islands instead of long rows of tables. It made it really easy to get around and made almost every booth a corner booth. I realize that they were able to do this because of the few dealers, but it was still nice. Overall i would guess that the overall attendance will be around 12,000 over the three days.

So the first thing I did was to get in the HeroClix Spectre raffle line. This was not actually raffling off of the GIANT Spectre Heroclix but was actually raffling off the right to buy one. Not to spoil the surprise but I did not end up spending any money at the Wizkids booth. Sorry Jim. The Fat Bastard in front of me and the Bad Parent behind me did but not me.

So after getting the soon to be worthless tickets, I did a quick walk through the con. I realized that I was going to need some cash if I was going to buy anything. So I searched around and found the one cash machine in the convention center. I put card in, went through the whole process only to have it tell me that it was an Invalid Transaction. After trying 4 or 5 times, I moved on. I decided to head up the street to find another cash machine. After about seven blocks, I found a Washington Mutual Cash Machine. Well I had no more luck there. So I called WaMu to find out what was going on. Apparently a business had reported that my card had been "compromised". Whatever the Fuck that means. It sure would have been nice if they had freakin' called me. So I tried to have the call center lackey find me a near by branch. Well that was worthless. So I headed back to the Con when I noticed down a side street a large Washington Mutual sign. Only 10 blocks away. Yippee!! So I get there and asked if they could help me get some cash. Well they were no longer able to find out my account number because my card had been "compromised". Whatever the Fuck that means. They were also unable to find out my account from any other means. I pretty sure this was because they were incompetent. I ended up calling my office and getting my account number from my direct deposit information. I got my cash and headed out the door. I figured that I would take the shortest path and head directly to where the convention center is. Problem was that the streets did not run parallel to each other so I ended up going in the wrong direction. Overall it took me over two hours to get cash.

When I made it back to the con I had already missed all of the panels I was interested in, so I just wandered around killing time waiting for the show to end. When it did I went with Jim and some of his workmates on an Odyssey-ish like adventure to get some food. We ended at a Bob's Big Boy. I had not been to one in over 20 years and Eric L. had never been. It was a shame that they no longer have the giant Bob outside anymore. They have him in the lobby now. No one lets there kids out any more.

Restroom Behavior

This post won't mean as much since Beau went and Deleted most of his blog posts. Early in his blogging he brought up the issue of restroom behavior. His post was about the fact that people thought he was gay because he washed his hands after using the restroom.

So not that I spend a lot of time watching others bathroom habits, but I saw a new one this week. This young man did his business, then instead of washing his hands he went to the paper towel rack and fed out the required amount for a through drying. Then he washed his hands and used the newly fed towels.

I have two thoughts about this:

1. This is a very efficient way to get your paper towels.
2. This is very unsanitary. I mean what the hell!!!
   

Downloading Podcasts

A little Tech lessen here. There are two ways to download podcasts to your computer.

The first way is to simple go to the Podcast's website and simple save the file to you computer and listen to it with any mp3 player that you prefer.

The second and recommended way is to use a Podcast Aggregator. The one that I use is iTunes but Juice is also highly rated by others. With iTunes it is simple to goto the Music Store and select Podcasts. This opens up a window where you can search and select the Podcasts you want to listen to. Then every time you open the Aggregator it will download any new episodes. Quick and easy.

Podcast Review 2 - Word Balloon

Welcome to the second in a series of Podcast reviews. Tonight I am going to talk about Word Balloon.

Where Comic Geek Speak is centered around guys talking about comics, so when they bring in a guest he is part of the gang. Word Balloon on the other hand, is all about the interview. The host of the Podcast (John Siutres) is an actual professional interviewer, so all of his conversations are informative and entertaining.

John is also a huge fan of comics in general with a deep knowledge of the people and history of industry. He does a great job being respectful of his guests, while still being able get answers to the tough questions. I have not listened to an episode yet that did not increase my knowledge with something cool.

Overall I would say that Word Balloon is the comic related Podcast out there. It is not my favorite but it is the best.

Rant Attack

Taking a break, so I thought I would break out a Rant Attack. This weeks target: Cell Phone Downloads.

While I can understand (while I do not agree with them) why they charge for ringtone downloads. The Record Companies need to pay their Police Force (RIAA) somehow. What I don't understand is how "they" can expect to get money for Wallpapers. Especially if they are advertisements. How can anyone be stupid enough to pay for the privilege to advertise someone else's product. I guess that is why the cell phone downloads are a billion dollar a year business and I have to work on a Sunday.

Podcast Review 1 - Comic Geek Speak

When I started this blog one of the things that I wanted to do was to make public some of my feeling on some of the many podcasts that I listen to. Well I've been busy... Anyway Jim asked me to recommended some comic book related podcasts, so that is what I am going to do while I sit in my hotel room.

The first Podcast I am going to review is Comic Geek Speak. This is my favorite comic related Podcast. The basic theme of the show is six guys sitting around talking comics. I am most amazed that they are able to have this conversation without stepping over each other all the time. As I have been experimenting with others Podcasts, I have discovered that this is a common issue.

As CGS has been getting more popular they have been able to attract industry guests to join the show. I have found that the guys are respectful of their guests without being to "Fanboy"-ish, a problem found in many of their peers.

Since there are six geeks, they have different points of view, which makes the conversations very lively. Although they all tend to be Marvel Zombies or DC FanBoys, they are willing to explore Independent Comics. As a matter of fact, I have found myself buying many of their discoveries based on their recommendations.

Every month they have a special show called book of the month where they do an in-depth analysis on a pre-selected trade collection.

Since the start of Infinite Crisis they have been doing special shows that discuss the latest issue. These shows have been a fun way to get new opinions on this great series.

The group goes out of their way to be spoiler free on the standard shows. Since the special shows are in-depth evaluations, they are spoiler heavy.

My only problem with the geeks is that they put out WAY too many episodes. An episode usually runs an hour and a half in length. And they tend to put out 3 or more episodes a week. With this output it is really easy to get behind. It is really amazing that they are able to find that much time to all be together.

Real Life Grand Theft Auto

I am suddenly becoming a link-blogger. Well I guess there is a theme... Live action versions of animated things.

When a Cartoon Jumps the Shark?

This post has two purposes.. to figure out how to add YouTube videos to my blog and to share this damn funny video. Enjoy.

I've Been Busy Give Me a Break

OK, I'm a worthless piece of shoe.

I started this blog with the stated purpose of working in non-concise verbiage, since my natural state of writing is to be concise to the point of not getting my point across. Well at first I was doing OK, but I noticed that I was slipping into old habits and promised myself I was going to stop cheating.

Well I guess I can see where that got me.

My problems have been two fold. I have been working more and my allergies have been so bad that I have had no energy. In the past I have gotten over the allergy-caused energy shortage by drinking lots of Pepsi. Since I have sharply cut down on my intake it has been very tough to get the required motivation to do anything other than not move. Which surprisingly requires some motivation and pre-planning to pull off.

The first step in solving a problem is to identify it. Since I can't cut back on work, I needed to fix the allergy problem. This meant that I needed to get rid of Gracie. :(

So on Saturday, Beau and Maryanne once again inherited a cat. The last report I got was that she is doing well and does not seem bothered by their GIANT dog they have. I for one miss having her around but I am noticing a marked improvement on my general health. I can wear my contacts again and my nose is not stuffed up any more. My chest is still congested but it took some time to get this bad so I'm guessing it will take a week or so to clear up.

So I spent a large chuck of time on Saturday and Sunday de-catting my place. This has just reinforced my plan to get a cleaning lady. Dan B at work has recommended his renter as someone that is in the Biz. I think when I get back from LA, I am going to set this up.

Speaking of LA, I am going. I leave on the 10th and will be returning on the 20th. What is cool about that time frame is that Wizard World's Los Angeles comic book convention happens to be the 17th - 19th. While I won't be able to spend as much time there as I would like because of the stupid work, I will be able to have some fun and will get to hang with Jim since he will be there for his work.

101 List

Many of my friends (Beau, Jim, Jim 2.0, Peach) have been working on 101 things in 1001 days lists. Well I started my list on the 1st of February, I have just been to lazy to actually complete the actual list. I wanted to get the fact that I am working on a list out there, so that when it does go online, I get less shit for having stuff crossed off on the first day.

I also want to introduce an exception that I am putting on all of the timed and quota items. I am not counting the time that I am out of town for work against myself. For example when I am in California on a startup, I won't be required to build a Lego set that week.

Things I'm working on/completed:

1. Get a cat
2. Work on at least 500 pieces of Lego a week until all of my unbuilt sets are complete.
3. Build a Lego Mosaic (included as part of 2)
   
4. Build a Lego Sculpture (included as part of 2)
5. Watch at least one more DVD then I purchase in a week
6. Buy an exercise bike
7. Use Number 6 every work night for 3 months
8. Finish Setup of Comic Room
9. Move osentowski.net to new hosting company
10. Setup Blog for Mark so that he can add pictures of Nieces easier
11. Modify Number 10 so that the Thumbnails are larger.
12. Rebuild DVD database so that it has more functionality
13. Create a Web Magic deck database for George and I.
14. To either eat at home or eat with someone else for one month.
    

Mirror Mirror on my DVD Player

Today on my DVD player: Mirrormask
I could not believe how cool this movie was. I knew it would look beautiful since it was based on Dave McKean's art, but I was not prepared for how well he would make his bizarre art make sense in the story. I had seen stills from the movie over the last two years and they were all pretty strange, but when you are watching them in contexts it does not seem bizarre at all.

It is kind of strange how life works. Last weekend I watched 3 movies that all kind of blew... This weekend I watched three movies that were all really cool.

Grey's Anatomy

Holy Crap!!!

Grey's Anatomy has really turned up the heat. I can't believe how good this show has gotten. If this was not the second season I would say that this show was Jumping the Shark. It seams like they are putting all of the fan desired storylines in all at once. First we have Izzy and Alex hooking up, then we have George and Meridith sleeping together. I am worried that they won't be able to keep this up but I am enjoying the ride.

Long Weekend

As I sit here on Monday evening, I have come to the realization that I have not left my condo since I got home from work on Friday Afternoon. I have mixed feelings about this. It was nice to get stuff done around the house but I am never going to get a women in my life if I don't have one. A life that is. :)

Things I got done:

• Finished Lego Globe
• Started DVD database rebuild
• Did Taxes (I owe 4k )
• Started Repair of Globe
• Laundry
• Clean House
• Play Axis and Allies with the guys
  
• Play Super Mario Strikers with the guys
• Watch 3 Movies of DVD and 4 disks of Highlander episodes
• Watch the last of the Masters of Horrors Episodes
• Finish sorting of Lego Plates
• Study for SQL Server Design test
  
• Burned 3 audiobooks to CD
  

I Saw II It

Got up this morning it threw in a movie instead of motivating.

This mornings film was Saw II.


I picked up the first movie off of the cheep DVD rack on a whim. I was presently surprised that it was a gory yet very entertaining thriller with some cool plot twist that I never saw coming.

The second one was great as well. Although since I was expecting twist, I was not as surprised but they still managed to pull the wool over my eyes once or twice.

Unpronounceable Name: A Space Adventure

So if you rip off your own story is it still plagiary?

Zathura: A Space Adventure is based on a book by the same guy that wrote Jumanji and has the same base plot of two boys being thrown in to an adventure by playing an old board game. I can't think of a better reason to throw those suckers out right now.

Even though the story has a familiar ring, it was a better movie than the original. There were some really cool twist that made this movie a lot of fun. Since this was a family film it is not a deep movie but it was a great adventure.

Mr President We've lost Western Europe

It's been a busy few days. Thursday night I got an emergency service call at a plant in Kent. I did not get home until 1:30 in the AM. Long night. Below you will see where I got to on my Lego globe when the call came in.
The next day I went in and organized a pizza day for the office. After the food I went home because I was tired and had already put in a bunch of time this week. I took it easy for a while and tried to take a nap but it did not stick so I worked on the globe. Here is are two pictures of the midway point.

Here is where I stopped Friday Night.
Here is a view of the inside.
It was at this point that I realized this is going to be a lot tougher that I thought. The instructions that I found on line where just a starting point. They only show the bricks that are seen from the outside. So I had to design my own support for these bricks.

My 1st failed attempt involved making a solid base of the remained of the globe. That worked great until I tried to put the two pieces together.

My second attempt was to build the last nine layers as shown on the plans, but build a support structure at the same time. This worked out much better. The toughest part was building the base for the last two rows. I had to be very carefully because until it was it was complete, if i used to much force I would push the supporting bricks into the interior of the globe and I would have to make a hole and shake them out.

Here is the finished globe:


OK not quite finished. When I was looking over the finished product I noticed that one of the pieces was not aligned well. So I tried to fix and ended up destroying Western Europe.

Looks like I've got some work to do :)

Allergy Update

Spent Tuesday night on Dust Mite eradication. I switched to a new brand of Cat Litter, gave Gary C. a bath, vacuumed the condo and changed the linens again. And after two days it looks like Gracie will be getting a reprieve on the eviction notice.

Funny story: when I first found out about this Dust Mite Issue I went out and bought a new bagless vacuum with a HEPA filter. I seem to remember it was about $75 for the Dust Devil model that seemed to fit my needs best. I liked the fact that it had a powered attachment for stairs. Well last week when I finished vacuuming I took the canister downstairs to empty it. I opened the trash can and turned my head away so I would not get a face full of dust. I though that might be a good idea with the allergies and all. But because of this I did not notice that the filter went with the dirt. So Tuesday when I went to vacuum I ended up with a cloud of dust in the spare room. I'm glad I had not got to the bedroom before I noticed or it would have invalidated the entire experiment.

It's My World and I'll Build It If I Want To

Started my next Lego project. This time it is a sculpture. I am cheating some because I found the instruction on-line. It is a 15 inch, 2,400 piece Globe. Here is a picture after my first night's work.



At this point, I have 7 of the 39 layers done and it has taken me 2 hours. Most of that time was spent sorting the pieces. It is MUCH easier to do a project of this magnitude if you are not looking for that 1 piece out of a six possible in a bucket of 2,400.