Sean's 'blog for 2008

[ 2007 Blog | Long Lost Twins ]

Our Anniversary
Dec 28, 2008

I'm dating us when I say this is our 18th anniversary tomorrow, but Carol and I gave each other our gifts one day early, as we intend to spend the whole day tomorrow in Boston. She gave me this: (Which is quite cool, and very useful!)

(Click for larger image) | (Read GeekSugar's review) | (Pottery Barn's item page)

It's an iPod dock with speakers, as well as a charging station for several devices (a power bar in the back allows you to plug in 4 chargers, with space to power the iPod speakers.) It also has a few cubbies for storing stuff. In a nice gree lacquer, it's an admirable piece.

This is what I gave her:

(Click for larger image)

This is a lovely work by a local artist that I found at a local art gallery/framing shop. I saw this in the window last spring and loved it. From a distance it caught my eye like a powerful magnet. I wanted it so badly. And when I showed it to my wife (we went in to look at it) she just loved it. But it was a bit pricey. It is, after all, an original mixed media work. It is a photograph transferred to canvas, then overpainted. A gorgeous impressionistic work.

About three weeks ago I was at the shop getting a piece of art we've owned for a while (from a Newfoundland craftswoman) framed for my wife for Christmas, and there it was - this piece was once again in the front window, taunting me, teasing me. I had to have it. I saw the price and bargained it down a bit, and bought it using the exact amount of money I got from a co-worker for a Sideshow figure I was selling. So I got it as an even trade, and I'm ecstatic.

I gave it to Carol a day early, and she was blown away by it. So 'nuff said, I think.

Our Christmas
Dec 25, 2008

A great Christmas this year. We had our friend Sean come over, and we played games and chatted and watched some episodes of "MiddleMan". My daughter thinks we are absolutely the best gift givers ever, and she may be right. She got a laptop this year, a nice, green Dell, which was her fondest dream, but she didn't for a second expect it. She also got a replacement camera for one I bought her before that she lost. She loved that thing. So I found a duplicate on eBay and bought it for a fraction of what I bought the original for, and she's ecstatic. The lappy has a built-in memory reader that reads the SD card her camera uses. And she can now sync to iTunes without my computer, and hopefully soon learn to edit video and stuff. Hopefully too she can use it to interface with her piano keyboard, which is a very nice Yamaha we got her several years ago for Christmas.

I got some Doctor Who figures, a tin Zeppelin, and some other very nice stuff including a Studio In A Box, for properly lighting and photographing miniatures that my daughter picked out.

My wife got a kitchen torch for making Creme Brulee and a fantastic cook book as well as a lovely camel-hair coat she idolized.

All in all a great Christmas. Not just the presents, but the company, the movies, the together time. It was awesome. One for the books!

My 2008 Doctor Who Christmas Card
Dec 21, 2008

As is almost an annual tradition (last year flew by so fast I never got around to it) today I shot and published my Doctor Who action figure Christmas Card:

Click image to enlarge

Here's my previous efforts:

mm m
Click any image to enlarge

And this was a Doctor Who story I came up with a couple of years back for Christmas:

Cartoon References Sinistar!
Dec 18, 2008

Someone at work posted this cartoon recently:

This is cartoon gold for me, as Sinistar is still one of my all-time favorite arcade games.

Tree Decoration day
Dec 14, 2008

Yesterday we went out and got our Christmas tree. Traditionally we get the tree the first available free day after Carol's birthday. This weekend, however, she's suffering from a bad cold, but that didn't stop us from going to get the tree. It did prevent us, however, from decorating it. So today, Sunday, the 14th, with some help from an ailing Carol, Charlotte and I did most of the tree decorating. Usually, it's my job and privilege to watch as Carol does it, as it makes her very happy.

Here's the results. While we listened to some great Christmas music, Charlotte and I did the tree. And it looks lovely.

Charlotte, proudly standing next to her work.	Lit up nice!

(Click any image to see it larger)

This tree is covered with memories. From the first tree we had together, back in the late 1980s, when we invited friends to come to our "Tree Decorating Party" and each brought a deocration. We have a lot of those still, (having split some with another room-mate) and from then on, each decoration has attached some nice memory, whether it be ones created by our daughter out of egg cartons or baking clay, or crocheted decorations from friends, or ones we bought at craft fairs or at craft shops during our various vacation trips, each one means something.

Perhaps most impressive are the 23 or so Hallmark House decorations, which we began collecting before we got married, though we have a few gaps, from the early years when we couldn't scrape together the $15.00 or so to buy one of the houses.

Each year the tree decorating is the official Huxter/Hobbs kickoff to Christmas. So Merry Christmas to all my friends out there. Wish you were here.

Best Picture Ever!
Nov 30, 2008

Found this on an archive CD of photos I was browsing through tonight. Wow.

New England Fan Experience
Nov 24, 2008

On Saturday, Nov 22, I attended the New England Fan Experience in Cambridge, MA. At the Hyett Regency Hotel. I wore my new suit jacket, burgundy shirt, black tie, jeans and my Deckard Trench. It was damned cold, and the train was 10 minutes late - a rarity. But I got to South Station, jumped in a cab and a $20.00 cab fare later was at the Hyett Regency on the Cambridge side of the Charles. I was in line nearly a half-hour just to process less than 20 people into the place. Talk about a completely disorganized person on the table. $25.00 later and I was sitting in the room where Peter Davison, my favorite Doctor Who, spent an hour regaling us with his opinions on everything from his time as the Doctor, his pride in his daughter for continuing the tradition, how he felt about the Tomorrow People episode, and how he absolutely hates the new trends in UK TV. Normally British TV has been superior to American TV, but he's noting that a lot of the new good shows are American. But he absolutely abhors the Reality TV trend, and how America is stealing the worst crap from British TV now, to call their own. And I agree. He wonders why Simon Cowell is ever allowed into this country. And he's ticked about the trend in American television to pull the plug on a show after it gets mediocre ratings, as if the person in charge of creating the show has no real commitment to the show - and if he didn't think it was good enough, why produce it in the first place? It shows a true gutlessness on the part of producers who commission shows but don't have the guts to stick up for it.

Anyway, he was great. I recorded some of what he said, but my camera only allowed 12 minute clips, and I ran out of memory a few times, and had to replace the card. Then I temporarily lost my camera as it rolled under a chair after I stood to give Davison a standing ovation. Found it, thanks to a nice woman sitting next to me.

Then by the time I had found it, Robert Picardo came onstage and entertained us for a good, solid hour. Morena Baccarin came after that, but I had to leave, to find Louis and Ken from Podshock.

I found them and chatted for a bit, but my aim at that point was to get to Kendall Square to see "Slumdog Millionaire" which was a great film. A long, frigid walk along the Charles got me to Kendall, but damn if I could find the cinema. It took me nearly an hour of aimless walking before I could find anyone in a bizarrely deserted Saturday afternoon Cambridge where I found less than a dozen people, most of which were oriental women asking me for directions to various MIT buildings. I found a service station owner who showed me the way. Got there, sat in the deserted cinema, dozed for 45 minutes, woke up to a crowded room, and people asking me to move to make room for them. WTF? Cold as I was, it was worth it. Good movie.

But I had to skip eating anything before the film, due to the time it took finding the damn place, and skip eating after the film because there wasn't time before my train out.

Whew. What a busy day.

14th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition
Nov 16, 2008

On November 16 the results of the 14th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition were announced, and my game, Piracy 2.0, came in fifth! Wow!

My first time entering this competition, with my first game written in Inform 6.0, and I came in fifth! It's amazing.

I got some mediocre reviews during the six weeks of judging, but also some really good ones. Without reiterating it all here, I point you to my IF COMP page, which talks much more about my game, its reception, and my feelings about the results.

It's a whole new world.
Nov 4, 2008

Sure, it's an oversimplification. And I've heard people say it's a whole new world. But really it's just a whole new country. I've even heard the avarice of "Only in the USA". Well, the USA might be somewhat surprised that black people actually have run other countries for a long, long time. I guess what is meant is "Only in the USA would electing a black man be unusual." Of course that's not true either. There has yet to be a Prime Minister of Canada, or of Britain, who's black. But then their populations don't come close to the sheer numbers, with the black and white populations being so massive. But what it really means is that other countries don't have the stigma of slavery to recover from, (and the recovery is only beginning now, 150 years after it ended.)

But I'm ecstatic. I clung to the TV with the apprehension of someone waiting outside a maternity room waiting to hear if he's just had a son or daughter - or twins. I was on tenterhooks. On one hand I had absolutely no faith that the American population would do the right thing. Normally I'd say yeah, no problem, they'd do the right thing, but since they didn't twice in a row, I had zero faith they'd do it now. But damn, they did. And how.

I have to wonder how John McCain is ever going to live down the scummiest, dirtiest campaign I've ever seen. Ever. And I've been paying attention for well over 30 years.

But this outcome prompted this cartoon from me:

I now feel that when a black mother looks at her son (or daughter) and says "You can be anything you want to be, sweetheart", she can now do so with fingers uncrossed.

And what I find astounding is how many other countries were just as ecstatic as I was about this outcome.

(I have a confession to make - I'm actually writing this on November 24th, as I'm very lazy about updating my blog.) This past weekend I attended the New England Fan Experience, a fan convention. I went to see Peter Davison, my favorite Doctor Who. And one story he told was how he waited up until about 4:00am the night of the American election, so he could see the first black man elected as American president. The hopes of not only this country, but truly, the world, were lifted that night, and for once, the hope was satisfied.

The last two times, this country elected and re-elected a complete moron. An insecure, effete, entitled bully whose only fear was that Daddy didn't approve of him. A weak coward who hid behind blustery talk and the bullies he put in place to hide him from actually having to think for himself. And the first time, he wasn't elected, he was corronated by his cronies, especially Barbara Harris, in a country that actually allowed its state (Florida) Head of Elections to be a partisan pro-Bush Campaign Organizer!!! (WTF?)

I have been an angry, angry person for the past 8 years, and while I'm sure it's affected me permanently in some ways, and my family, it is now time that absolute anger can abate and turn into something hopeful and positive. I can already feel it.

And so I say this not just for the United States of America: It's a whole new world.

McCain Palin'
Oct 12, 2008

I like this slogan better:

Nerf Vulcan
Oct 8, 2008

Since my trip to Toy Fair this past winter I've been anticpating getting one of these:

This is the Nerf Vulcan. Costing a mere $40.00 at Target (more elsewhere) and the package I got came with two belts with room for 25 darts each, and 50 sonic darts that make a cool whistling sound as they whip by your ear. And it costs less than $10.00 for an extra belt with 25 more darts. That alone is amazing considering it usually costs about $4.00 for 10 sonic darts.

This thing takes six D-cell batteries, and fires three darts per second. It comes with spring-loaded tripod, lifting handle, and power button. It also allows Nerf modules to be attached, such as a TAC light or sight. It also comes with a heavy-duty carrying strap.

At Turbine, in the Tech Art Pit, it is now all-out war. We have three of them locked and loaded at all times.

Debates aren't debates anymore
Oct 7, 2008

I've been watching the debates lately. And they're not. A premise isn't given the candidate to let him talk about, and then let the opponent rebut. It's just a question and answer period. And the only thing that seems to matter anymore is not the answers given, or evaded, but the gaffe that inevitably happens that is the focus of the next week's news cycle.

Debates are now merely gaffe quests.

Skeuomorphs
Oct 7, 2008

I get the Word of the Day in my inbox at work, daily. Today I got this one:

Now here's the weird thing. The previous evening I was in Boston to attend a talk at MIT by Steve Meretzky. While standing in South Station I noticed that the big board that keeps track of the train schedules and tracks has been replaced. The original was made using small plastic cards for letters and numbers. Whenever the board was updated, all of the plastic letters would flip over and over until reacing the correct letter. During the update, the thing made a clicking sound for about 10 seconds. Rather noisy. Everyone knew it was being updated because it was loud.

The new board is digital. Yellow LEDs now spell out the train schedules and tracks. But of course digital readout doesn't make a noise. So the new board makes a synthesized, digital version of that 10-second clicking sound to let people know it's being updated.

I spent some time thinking of this very concept - the synthesizing of sounds in new technology to simulate old technology just because it makes people more comfortable. One example I thought of is the electric car. When we finally get these going, the engines will be quiet. Probably even silent. But we're not used to silent cars, so we will probably have to play a car's engine noise out front of the car using a speaker in the grill or something, so people don't get run over.

- Oct 18, Update:

This morning's Boston Globe had a front-page story about the old board being sold on eBay. The original, noisy, clicking board is being sold, hopefully. Note in the comments section, the first commenter hopes the new, digital board makes the same clicky-clacky sounds. It does.

The Biden/Palin Debate
Oct 2, 2008

After a vitally embarrassing set of interviews with Katie Couric, Sarah Palin showed that she's as ditzy as she appears. Couldn't name a single news source that she reads, except "Uhm. All of them, you know, whatever is put in front of me." - Come on, Palin, even a moron has "Time Magazine", "Newsweek" and "The New York Times" handy, and hey, we would also have accepted "The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman", the Wasilla local paper. But nooo... and being asked about any Supreme Court rulings you particularly disagreed with (what with you being on the side that says they legislate from the bench, and all) all you could come up with was "Wade vs. Roe"? Srsly? Wade vs. Roe???

So in the wake of this disasterous outing, comes the Biden debate. Senator Joe Biden, who has been known to have room in his mouth for at least one of his feet, but is a very serious orator. The debate was on. People expected her to fall flat on her ass, or her face, as if there was much difference, but she didn't.

So here's a tale of how America saw and judged two different debates, and how Joe Biden, competent, experienced, word-savvy senior Senator is juged on one set of criteria, while Governor Palin, hot but airheaded newcomer idiot is judged on a whole different set, to wit:

- Biden had to be completely calm and respectful and world-knowledgable.
- Palin could say anything she wanted, and be as insulting as she wanted (and she took advantage of that.) and not say anything of substance, she just had to avoid serious gaffes.

And how ridiculous was it, that the first words out of her mouth were "Can I call ya Joe?" See Tina Fey's sketch of the debate where she responds to Biden's friendly agreement with: "Good, cause I practised some zingers where I call ya Joe." And she did. Using "Say it isn't so, Joe" more than once (in a bad reference to the 1919 Black Sox Shoeless Joe Jackson scandal).

Anyway, the expectations of Palin were so lowered nationally that she appeared to have done a great job at the debate, (despite the obvious self-contradictions and outright lies - one self-contradiction that came up frequently was to accuse Biden of looking backwards when discussing the failed policies of the Bush Republican Administration, but then doing it herself whenever it was convenient) but hey, that's what lowered expectations means. There is a fantastic political cartoon that explains perfectly:

(copyright 2008, Steve Breen)

The story of the Palin debate is like the story of the amazing talking dog. It's not what the dog has to say, it's the fact that it speaks at all.

Faux Does It Again
Aug 28, 2008

Can you believe Faux did this?

Srsly???

www.huxter.ca
July 30, 2008

YAY! I finally got huxter.ca, the Canadian domain!

www.colinfirthpenis.org
July 30, 2008

Funny: Colin Firth appeared on The Daily Show a while back. I watched it on my new DVR, an hour or so after it aired.

Jon Stewart asked Colin about his current trip to New York, and Colin told a funny story. He went to a public bathroom, was at a urinal when a man stepped up to the adjacent urinal. He glances to the side, and the newcomer had a cel phone out and photographed Firth's penis. Astonishing!

Jon said "I bet it's already up on the internet at colinfirthpenis.com."

So naturally I rushed to my computer to register colinfirthpenis.com.

Funnier: It was already taken! Curse me for not watching the show on its first run! I could have had colinfirthpenis.com!

But I settled with colinfirthpenis.org.

And that's not the funny part of this story.

Today I had to call up my registry company because of a problem with my incoming e-mail at huxter.org. We eventually got it straightened out, but then the rep I was talking to said, "It looks like one of your domain names doesn't have security turned on, like the other two."

"Oh?" I ask. "Which one?"

Funniest: "Uh... colinfirthpenis.org???"

"Uh... yeah... funny story there..." and so I had to relate this same story to the rep on the other side of the phone.

You Must Be Pacific!
July 28, 2008

I was at McDonalds today. I saw a sign behind the counter that said:

Ketchup
Only one or two packets
Unless a Pacific # is requested

Do Not Open With Sharp Objects!
July 28, 2008

A package arrived at our offices today, not for me, thankfully. It was a mess. It looked crushed, it had openings in the corners. It had a sticker on it that said:

So I put a Post-It note next to that saying:

McCain on the War
July 26, 2008

John McCain is recently quoted as saying:

"When you win wars, troops come home." - John McCain, 2008

Wow. How the hell did he ever get back from Viet Nam? Tell me, John, how did that war go? When was the victory party?

I still do infrequent cartoons, and when I heard McCain say that, I had to write this one:

This attacks McCain's naievety while also showcasing the censorchip of the media that has resulted in a ban on photographing the flag-draped coffins that come home daily.

See more of my cartoons here.

I actually sent this by e-mail to the Boston Globe, the Huffington Post, Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times. Perhaps one of them will bite and print it. It's a tiny chance, but hey, it was worth the time sending it out.

The Most Racist Race?
July 4, 2008

It has taken over nearly 230 years for America to put forth a candidate for President who's black. And for many it's a sign of hope, a sign that perhaps 50 years after national desegregation and so-called equality among the races that perhaps it may finally be true, or at least the truth is beginning.

But when I saw the reaction of people in West Virginia, interviewed at restaurants who came right out and said that they wouldn't vote for Barack Obama because he was a black man, it was disheartening, but very very enlightening. It shows that this equal society hides its severe racism very close to the surface.

And just this past week the Detroit News published this cartoon by Henry Payne:

Its intent may have been to show that blacks and super delegates favor Obama but women don't. Which, by the way is completely false. Women are flocking to support Obama.

But oh dear.

Now where do I know that pose from?

Let me think...

Oh yeah:

Mammy. Henry Payne actually invoked Al Jolson and Mammy on Obama...

Oh dear...

Fathers' Day 2008
June 15, 2008

Today is Fathers' Day (note the appostrophe at the end, because it's the day for Fathers, not for Father.) My daughter gave me what I consider probably the coolest Fathers' Day card I've ever seen, and she picked it out herself. (She's 12 and very clever!)

Heh. I love it.

Fathers' Day Gife #1 - MediaLounge Wireless Media Viewer! A+++!
May 16, 2008

Also for Fathers' Day I got (though I took ownership of it a week earlier) a D-Link DSM-520 MediaLounge device, which is exactly what I've been hoping for for years. It's this wonderful device that sits with your entertainment system (ie: TV, stereo, etc.) and reads files off your computer by the wireless network.

When I got my FiOS connection I was promised a HDTV as well as a $50.00 Circuit City gift card. Months went by and no FiOS for my building. When it did become available, they didn't want to honor their original agreement with me but I fought the issue, showing them the signed documents, etc. They said they couldn't provide the TV because that deal was over and they had none, so they offered me a $100.00 gift check to go against my bill, and a $200.00 Circuit City Gift Card, so I accepted. It arrived in the mail last week, so I jumped onto Circuit City's online shop to see what to get. I was going to get a large external hard drive, but then I found this little beauty.

Hook it up, install a server on your computer(s) that you want shared, and then specifically share out whichever directories you want shared out. Connect the device to your wifi router (easy setup) and (provided your computer has a recent Windows Media Player - mine didn't, and I had to go install v.10) it connects to your running servers and using the convenient remote control you can browse through the media on your computer and watch it on your TV. This is great.

It works with MPEG-4-encoded video (most DivX .AVI files I have play without problem, with the exception of some I encoded myself which don't work very well.) Some formats are not supported, of course, but I do have conversion software (eRightSoft's Super) which works fairly well. I don't think it does DVD ISO files, but hey, that's what DVD players are for.

It reads music files, which I can play on my stereo because I have my TV audio piped through my stereo's Aux input. (I could also route the audio directly to the setreo for better sound if I want). It reads photos (I have thousands of family photos on my machines). It reads video files. Most of the stuff I watch comes from my computer.

Before now, I would have to burn an episode of Doctor Who or Sea Patrol (excellent Australian TV series by the way) to an individual CD or DVD and watch it in my DivX-enabled DVD player. This results in a lot of loose DVDs lying around. That's no more. I can just watch it directly.

Oh, and another super feature is a USB port, the only physical feature on the face of the device apart from the power button and a light. Plug any USB-flash drive or hard drive in there, and the machine reads directly from it, which is incredibly useful! And for some weird reason, when you're playing directly from the USB, you don't need Windows Media Player. (I guess the server uses WMP to route the video to the wireless, but why that's not necessary for the USB port is beyond me. It should be unnecessary for the Server as well. Oh well.)

Many reviews I've read talk about dodgy performance across the wireless, but I have not witnessed any issues. To be sure, obstructions in your wireless setup like how many walls between the two units, probably plays an important role here, but since I have no obstructions at all between the router and the DSM-520, I get perfect quality. No stuttering, nothing. It's 100% perfect.

I'm using it on a regular TV with Composite output. But the great thing is, this thing has HD-quality video output, and also verious output formats, including Component (much better) and S-Video, HDMI and Optical outputs, and can connect to a computer with a LAN cable if you're having trouble with your WiFi router, or have no wireless router.

Still, there are a number of issues you'll want to know before buying one of these.

This is perhaps the best piece of electronic hardware I've purchased in recent history!

REM Concert (with The National and Modest Mouse)
June 13, 2008

REM has been my favorite band for decades. They're awesome, and I've always liked them. But when "Automatic for the People" came out, it was the pinnacle of REM goodness. For a long time they've done well, but haven't quite hit that wonderful quality they had in the early 1990s, to me. Bill Berry leaving probably took a lot out of them, and it took some time to recover. But recover they did. Their most recent album "Accelerate" is excellent, and harkens back to the best sounds of REM, with short, peppy tunes and good political content.

So I got word that they were coming to the Comcast Center here in Massachusetts, and that Modest Mouse would be opening for them. I've been loving Modest Mouse's "Good News for People Who Love Bad News" album. Excellent, quirky, awesome sound.

And I'd never heard of The National.

I took my wife and daughter (who'd been asking if she could go to a rock concert. This was her first one.) As a birthday gift, I also took my friend Sean Dickinson. We got lawn tickets, and that was fine, except the lawn was soaking wet. Later, when REM began, we took seats at the back, because there were plenty of empty seats.

I have to say The National was the eye-opener. They were excellent. Great sound, and they had a guy who switched between piano and violin/viola and he even strummed the viola at times, sometimes into the bass drum's pickup. And they had a three-piece band playing trumpet, trombone and bassoon. Awesome! Their newest album is called "Boxer". I highly recommend finding it and getting it. (Their sound kind of reminded me of The Airborne Toxic Event, who I first heard on the Carson Daly show, and they blew me away.)

The bad news for people who love good news: Modest Mouse was underwhelming. I thought they'd be great, and I was seriously looking forward to them. But sadly, alas, they were not that good on that night. They may be one of those bands who produce well in a studio, but fall apart on stage. I mean they didn't exactly fall apart, but they weren't shining either.

REM, however... what can anyone say? They were absolutely fantastic. Michael Stipe spent a lot of time talking enthusiastically about his history at this venue, about his god-daughters, about life in general, and the political scene. He was up, happy, enthusiastic, eager, and a joy to watch as you could tell he was loving life at that moment. His performance was one for the record books. I am so very glad that for my daughter's first concert, this was the one we chose to take her to. It was life reaffirming. Thank you, Michael Stipe. The fact that the band didn't play some of my favorite songs was offset by the fact that they did play so many wonderful favorites from the past, and most of their new album, which is, as I said, very good.

The Set List

I was sad that they didn't play "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight", or "Nightswimming" or "End of the World", but hey, you can't have it all.

Already there are a few YouTube videos of that night's songs:

Living Well's The Best Revenge:

Orange Crush:

Don't Go Back To Rockville:

Ignoreland:

 

I am so glad I caught this show.

Is Wall•E Floyd?
May 16, 2008

1983 gave us one of the world's finest computer games in Infocom's Planetfall. It was a text adventure, or interactive fiction game. The game printed out text describing your situation, where you are, what's around you, and you told the computer what to do by typing in commands. These made for some excellent games, the best-known being Zork. But Planetfall had some amazing story elements that made it not only one of the best games ever made, but one of the most memorable. One of those elements was Floyd, a little robot that ran around after you, joking, getting into mischief, etc, and ultimately helping you at great cost to himself.

One of the things that makes Floyd so memorable is the little comments he makes at random throughout the game. If you decide to save the game, Floyd asks, "Oh boy! Are we going to try something dangerous?"

Frequently, Floyd would ask if you wanted to play paddle-ball.

Floyd has no real description, leaving the form of Floyd up to the imagination of the game player, as games like Planetfall did very well.

But the newest trailer to the new Pixar film Wall•E shows the cute little cubistic robot - playing paddleball!

Now the people at Pixar are no idiots, and they were actively involved in the computer-game world in 1983 you can bet on that. This is no coincidence!

I just bought a Wall•E action figure, and you know the first thing I'm going to do is make a paddle-ball game for him! Using a piece of gray cardboard, a small wire and a little ball, my Wall•E will have a paddleball game before tonight's out.

Cheney's Glasses - UPDATE!!!
May 14, 2008

My previous Rant, "For Godsake..." talks about the image in Cheney's sunglasses that actually got TV coverage, for no damned good reason.

Now, you can see the secret behind the picture in the sunglasses:

Dude! That was brilliant!

For Godsake, 7 News, Boston, STOP IT!!!
April 12, 2008

For the past two days at least, 7 News in Boston (WHDH) has been airing a sensationalist gossip piece showing a crudely artifacted photograph of a close-up of Dick Cheney's face with sunglasses on. In the sunglasses, an oddly blurred flesh-colored reflection that 7 News is touting as "possibly a naked woman". Reflected in Cheney's glasses.

Oh.

My

God!

So here's the letter I fired off to them:

Why No Updates?
April 5, 2008

I've been busy. Most of my recent web-site update have to do with my Cartoons page, and my C64 games pages. Most notably my page on Piracy, a text adventure I wrote in BASIC in 1985. I dug out the source code for it in VICE and printed it off on my printer. It was fun going through it again. I also made some "feelies" for the game and the web page - a game map and a ship's map, a new logo, etc. Just for fun.

Then in January or February I started investigating INFORM, a language created by Graham Nelson for writing Interactive Fiction in a way very similar to the INFOCOM games of which I've always been such a fan. My plan was to rewrite Piracy in INFORM 6 (as opposed to the very different INFORM 7) as an exercise to learn the language. I bought The Inform Designers' Manual, a great hard-cover book that covers everything INFORM has to offer, and got started.

It became clear to me immediately I couldn't write the same game - it was so simple and shallow. I opted to make this a much better game, fully fleshed out - more what I had originally intended back in 1985 before BASIC memory space showed me its limits on a C64.

The best part is, I can play this game on my Palm Pilot. Any computer with a Z-Code interpreter can. That's the beauty of it! Anyway, off to write more INFORM code. I'll try to keep this page updated as to my latest passions. And speaking of which:

Some things I hope to write about: Toy Fair 2008, Interactive Fiction (I'm getting back into it), Airships (I'm a huge fan, and recent events have gotten me back into them.)

Hilarious Marketing
January 19, 2008

Ocean State Job Lot is not a glamorous store. It's a store that sells bulk and closeout items. Most of it is not great quality, but hey, you gets what you pays for.

This entry is about a particular item. A bath mat. That's all it is. A bath mat. Not bad, a bit quirky. It looks normal. Not the best materials, but it would certainly suit the purpose.

But check out the label.

Now note that this is not a bath mat. It's a 1-Piece Bath Set.

That bears repeating. A 1-Piece Bath Set.

And again. A one-piece set.

Wow! A whole bath set! Of one piece!

Hilarious!

Is Deckard a Replicant?
January 5, 2008

Let me first say that is my favorite film of all time. I saw it the summer it came out in 1982 and loved it then and have loved it ever since. I'm a fan of the deadpan voiceover of the original releases, and not as much a fan of the Director's Cut or the Final Cut as the originals, though they're all gold!

When the DVD set came out I got mine right away. (Let me say I'm totally impressed with this set - and the Spinner that comes with it is awesome!!!)

The Work Print was an impressive surprise to me. I think it comes out as my favorite version of all 5.

Anyway, this post is to discuss something I've not yet seen in the global argument as to whether or not Deckard is a replicant, which could be hinted at in the film if you feel it is. And Ridley Scott, who has claimed that he is indeed a replicant, and points to the unicorn dream and the origami unicorn left at Deckard's door by Gaffe, as proof. Yet he doesn't mention something that could seriously bolster his claim.

First, you should know that I'm not in the "Deckard is a replicant" camp. I don't buy that it's illegal for replicants to be on Earth, but Deckard is a replicant working for the police. He's not strong, he's not fast, he gets tossed around like a rag doll. If a replicant is going to be employed to kill other replicants they're going to make darn sure he's stronger and faster than the best replicant available. And Deckard's record with Bryant seems to go back more than 3 years. Their rapport is of two men who have known each other for well over a decade. This is subjective, true. But there are other valid arguments.

However, I will bring up something I don't think anyone has brought up before in this discussion. And I mean the worldwide discussion that's been going on for 2.5 decades now.

And the fact that Ridley Scott says he is doesn't hold water if he doesn't actually PROVE it on the screen. He can say Deckard is most definitely a pink elephant too, but if it's not up on the screen, that's just HIS opinion.

Scott and others point to the unicorn dream sequence, which was not in the original releases, and appears tacked on in the Director's Cut and the Final Cut. So the idea is that Gaffe somehow has seen the scans of Deckard's implanted unicorn dream? Why? Deckard has seen Rachel's because he's investigating her. But Gaffe seems lower on the totem pole in the Blade Runner unit. Why would Bryant show him Deckard's implant scans? Still, it's possible.

So when Gaffe places an origami unicorn on the floor outside his apartment he appears to be letting Deckard know he's seen the implanted dreams.

The problem being Unicorns have had heavy symbolism throughout history, and the most common being innocence and purity. It can just as easily be argued that Gaffe put one outside Deckard's door to show that he knows Rachel is an innocent and doesn't deserve retirement, unlike the murderous replicant escapees. That's how I read it when I first saw that in 1982, and after countless viewings my opinion on that hasn't changed.

However upon viewing the Final Cut and the Work Print, I noticed something I hadn't seen before, and I have never heard used on either side of the argument, and even Ridley Scott never mentioned it when he laid out his "proof" that Deckard is a replicant. But it's fairly obvious if you notice it.

Most pro-replicant theorists point to the two unicorn scenes in this film, linking them together. They say that the unicorn dream means Deckard is a replicant because otherwise the origami unicorn left by Gaffe means nothing. (I already gave a plausible reason for Gaffe doing so above.)

However what most people don't realize is that there are actually THREE unicorn scenes in the film. And it makes no sense that TWO of them are related, while the other is irrelevant.

The third unicorn appears on J. F. Sebastian's desk when he's asleep in his room filled with toys. At the upper right of the screen is a fairly easily seen unicorn image.

So if J. F. Sebastian works on genetic development for Tyrell, it makes sense that he had something to do with the creation of the implanted memories. We don't really know what J. F.'s job is, but it could entail many things involving the creation of replicants, and Tyrell trusts him implicitly. So it could be that J. F.'s obvious interest in unicorns led him to create unicorn implants for Deckard.

And while I am not on this side of the argument, I thought it certainly strenghtens the pro-replicant side greatly if people would only notice the unicorn on J. F.'s desk.

And it seems to me that with three unicorns being in the film, more people would have used J. F.'s to help prove Deckard is a replicant, yet I've never before heard of it being used on either side of the argument.

Why not? Did people just not notice it? Or did people notice THREE unicorns and only consder TWO of them important? That's ludicrous.

And if Ridley Scott is so adamant, why did HE not bring it up as part of his "proof"?

Anyway, more food for thought.

(Above stolen from some blog or other - and I found HILARIOUS!)

Also, since I was linking around while writing this, I found this indespensible site. How to fold the unicorn.

January 1, 2008 - Visit my previous RANT page featuring rants from 2007 and earlier

 

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