fingers

A rare update.

2009-10-19T15:53:20Z

Ugh, I can't remember the last time I updated -- sorry about that, folks! I've been reading LJ, even if I haven't been posting.

Life with a baby is (predictably) a bit more hectic than life pre-baby. Mister Baby is doing well, though has been sleeping & napping so-so for the past few days, as he currently has four teeth working their way through. My parents/his grandparents came up for a visit yesterday, and we tried to go out to lunch, but once we were seated at the restaurant a bunch of tables around us erupted with cheering and applause as a touchdown was scored in the football game on the TVs. This was too much for MB, and he had a meltdown. We wound up leaving, and going back home, where we ordered delivery.

In work related news, I just received a delivery that took nine years to get to me. It seems a box with a power cord and a mouse (Logitech 3-button, pre-scroll wheel) that was part of a server we got in 2000 must have fallen behind something in receiving or the mail room, where it languished until this year, when someone found it and finally delivered it to me.

In toy news, I picked up a WDTV box and an external USB one-terabyte hard drive (both refurbished, with coupons cutting down the cost further). The box is a little thing that has two USB ports and will play most any music & video files you throw at it, though I haven't had oodles of time to play with it. The box runs linux, and there are custom firmwares you can load, though I am waiting to get my wireless USB adapter back from my nephew before I try one of them.

Musically, I've been listening to a lot of WWII era swing & big band. I'm not sure exactly why, but I'm really digging it recently.

Family wise, I found high-res scans of old maps of some NJ areas, and on a 1872 map, located my paternal great-great-grandfather's residence, and what I suspect was his wheelwright's shop next door. He lived about 5 miles from where my parents live now. I know he was born in 1820, and his parents were both born in NJ, but I still don't know who his parents were. I'm descended from his 2nd wife, and I found where she grew up and where her parents lived [about 7 miles from my folks], and possibly where her father was buried (who would be my one of my great-great-great grandfathers, b. 1808 - d. 1885;).

That's good enough for now. I will be trying to update more often, I hope.

Sponge Rob Triangle Shirt

2009-09-12T23:41:26Z

So, here is one of those bits where yolen and I have a difference of opinion, which I learned one day while working in the kitchen.

After washing some dishes, I took the sponge and wiped off the countertop. She reacted negatively. She thinks using the same sponge used on dishes to wipe off the counters and the table is gross. I argue it doesn't matter; I rinse out the sponge after I use it in either case, and while we don't eat directly off the counters/table, it is the same food residue that is on the plates. In deference to her, I have adopted her way, even though I think she's being crazy on this issue (which she acknowledges may be, but doesn't care). So out of curiosity we ask those of you out in LJ land:

View Poll: #1456744

Oots-style me, take one.

2009-09-08T02:20:11Z

I found this nifty tutorial for making an Order of the Stick style avatar using Inkscape.

Here's my first attempt at an Oots style self-portrait.

I'm not satisfied with it, but I guess it is ok for a first attempt.

Thinking about cats.

2009-08-17T19:33:15Z

This article about an owner getting his back his 50-pound pet African wild cat lead me to wikipedia to read about Serval Cats, which can evidently run 65 miles an hour and jump 15 feet in the air, but nonetheless make good pets, expressing dog-like loyalty to their owner.

That lead me to the wikipedia article on Serval/domestic cat hybrids, called Savannah Cats. Oh my, the cat in the lead photo is so cute; reading about the cats, I see they can be trained walk on a leash, fetch, and come you call their name.

If I wanted a cat and had a few thousand to drop, I'd seriously think about it.

This gave me a laugh.

2009-08-01T12:17:37Z

Dracula's drycleaner must die! *Snort*

Via metafilter.

I think I have a new favorite radio show.

2009-07-29T02:52:45Z

Hot Jazz Saturday Night.

I don't know why, but lately I've found myself listening to a fair amount of 1920s/30s/40s music, mostly jazz and swing.

The world is depressing.

2009-07-06T03:11:19Z

1/3 of the world's sharks facing extinction.

And Wave of Marine Species Extinctions Feared and bees and frogs and more.

Freaks and Geeks.

2009-07-01T04:45:05Z

Just finished the 6th and final disk. What a good show. I am sad they didn't get picked up for a second season. I understand why -- because people like me weren't watching the show 10 years ago when it was on -- but still, some very nice television.

Next up on the netflix queue: Undeclared.

Still here.

2009-06-08T01:26:46Z

Still reading LJ, even if I'm not posting much.

Kiddo is keeping us busy. He's sleeping right now, and yolen is doing laundry at the laundromat while I watch over him. When she gets back, I'm going to put together a mac-n-cheese to bake tomorrow.

We took him to my folks last weekend so he could meet several relatives, mostly great-aunts and uncles, as well as extended cousins. He slept through a bunch of it, and we've been slowly trying to get him back on a sleeping at night schedule again.

Just finished In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, the second of S.M. Stirling's "Lords of Creation" books (the first is The Sky People). Both books were fun, retro-SF pulp, with a bit of alternate-history semi-hard SF twist. The basic idea is that 200 million years back, someone (presumably aliens), terraformed Venus and Mars, and transplanted Earth life to them. More recently, about 200,000 years ago, they transplanted hominids. The end result? Venus has swamps, dinosaurs, and cavemen. Mars has a 40,000 year old world civilization (based on bio-tech and genetic engineering) that peaked 20,000 years ago. I'll recommend them for those of you who like this sort of thing.

This weekend was spent taking care of Mister Baby, taking naps, and watch season 3 of the Venture Bros. Hope you are all doing well.

Ganked from yendi

2009-04-22T17:58:26Z

Henson's 11. Good editing mixing Muppets to fit the trailer.

Something to thank kiddo for.

2009-04-08T15:36:55Z

While home taking care of Mister Baby, there are times holding the baby on the couch that I would turn on the TV and using the shiny new DTV converter box, surf between the various PBS & independent channels we get (Thirteen, NJN, and WNYE -- sadly, no WLIW with the current antenna). As such, I caught a local-artists music video program on WNYE, and that introduced me to "Daylight" by Matt and Kim. Looking around the blog-world, I see I am a few months behind the curve on picking up on them, but I figured I'd help spread the word to you other late-comers.

This song is 100% infectious power-pop; those of you who don't like that kind of thing, feel free to skip.

You can also download the song at their label's site.

In other news, it feels weird having short hair. Hmm, maybe I should change my icon...

Simple, but kinda fun timewaster

2009-03-21T22:09:22Z

For my wargaming friends, Hex Empire is a simple "Empire"-like game. Advice: you probably want to play as Red, because Red goes first. If the map isn't favorable for red, hit "random map" to get a new one.

The results are in!

2009-03-20T21:42:46Z

First, the answers.

Question 1: Name a Superhero who has *not* appeared in a major motion picture.
The winner here was AquaMan! Green Lantern was a close 2nd. (Are you listening, Hollywood?)

 #  Answer
--- -------------------
 8  Aquaman
 7  Green Lantern
 4  Wonder Woman
 2  Black Lightning
 2  Blue Beetle
 2  Green Arrow
1 each: Bluntman, Hothead Paisan, Mighty Mouse, Power Girl, Preacher, Raven, 
The Badger, The Flash, The Tick

Question 2: Name a Batman villian who isn't the Joker.
No big surprises here; Catwoman and The Penguin tie for first, at 10 votes each.

 #  Answer
--- -------------------
10  Catwoman
10  The Penguin
 7  The Riddler
 2  Two-Face
1 each: Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Sandman, Scarecrow

Question 3: Name a comic book company that is neither Marvel nor DC.
This was the make-or-break question for this Group Think. Either you got it, or you missed out on being a top scorer.

 #  Answer
--- -------------------
22  Dark Horse
 5  Image
1 each: AC, Angry Viking, Archie Comics, Charlton, Fantagraphics, Midnight Comics

Question 4: Name a song about a Super Hero that is not "Iron Man".
This was the hard-to-grade question; not everyone gave me a full enough description for me to categorize everything. Perhaps I should have asked for the Super Hero's name, rather than naming the song. Superman was the winner by that criterion, but since his votes are split among different songs, Spider-Man takes it.

 #  Answer
--- -------------------
 8  Spider-Man Theme Song
 6  (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman, by The Kinks
 5  (I am) Superman, R.E.M.
 3  Superman (It's not easy), 5 for Fighting
 2  Superman [no other explanation, so I was unable to place it as one of the above three songs.]
 2  Flash, by Queen
 2  Kryptonite, by 3 Doors Down
1 each: Aquaman's Lament, Believe it or Not (Greatest American Hero), Don't Mess Around With Jim, 
Pocket Full of Kryptonite, Hero by Chad Kroeger, "Na na na na na na Batman"

Question 5: Name a movie based on an Alan Moore story that isn't Watchmen.
Interestingly, the #3 answer (300) isn't even an Alan Moore story (that was by Frank Miller), but a few people responded likely due to advertising ("director of 300"). One person knew that was wrong, but couldn't think of anything else.

 #  Answer
--- -------------------
13  V for Vendetta
 8  The League of Extrordinary Gentlemen
 4  300
 3  From Hell
 3  Who is Alan Moore/never heard of him/drawing a blank
 1  Constantine

Question 6: Name a Superhero who does not have a secret identity.
Surprising to me, no one used a member of the Fantastic Four! This also turned out to be the least important question, with a max score of 4 points.

 #  Answer
--- -------------------
 4  Dr. Manhattan
 4  Dr. Strange
 3  Aquaman
 2  Hellboy
 2  Cannot think of one
 2  Iron Man
 2  The Tick
1 each: Buckaroo Banzai, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Danger Mouse, Fings, Green Lantern, Hancock, Hothead Paisan, 
Mermaid Man, Prince Namor (the Sub-Mariner), She-Hulk, The Elongated Man, Thor, Wolverine

And finally, your scores:
61 rose727
59 wishiwasnt
58 n_decisive
58 mizerychick
57 yolen
56 yendi
54 everfound
53 trish_punch
51 skitty
50 weswilson
49 willofgod
49 thudthwacker
48 1cmf
46 onecrazymother
46 catwithbell
44 elflord2112
43 stoopidfresh
42 indieb0i
41 alyxyn
40 justhuman
39 misterrain
39 jayspec
38 _chandra
32 king_duncan
32 ishldgetoutmore
31 dragonvpm
30 tsc_girl
30 media_junkie
30 eafm
30 buzz
23 jfitz
21 paulisdead
17 kissmythistle
17 inner_linbo

Congratulations, one and all! High scorers, rejoice in your predictive ability! Low scorers, rejoice in your individuality! Those in the middle... uh... thanks for playing! Hope you had fun!

Last day for poll!

2009-03-19T16:30:24Z

I'll be close the poll sometime tonight, so can tally up results tomorrow.

Cool short film.

2009-03-17T17:04:18Z

Jasper Morello and the Lost Airship, from The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello.

You still have until Thursday!

2009-03-16T15:10:27Z

To compete in this round of Group Think.

After that, I'm closing the poll and tallying up votes.

Mini-Group Think

2009-03-13T16:47:45Z

Last night, I saw Watchmen (which I enjoyed), and I've been thinking a bit about Superheroes. So I decided it was time for a Superhero themed round of Group Think. [You may remember it, Group Think was very popular last time, back in 2007.]

Explaining the rules again:

It is a game-in-a-poll. The rules are basically like Family Feud, though you are both survey taker and question answerer.

Basically, you answer the questions. When all is said and done, next Friday (the 20th), I'll tally up the answers. You get one point for every answer that matches yours (including your own). Blank answers are worth zero points. Since there are six questions, the minimum score for answering all the questions will be 6, and the max will be 6xNumber of poll takers -- but in order for that to happen, everyone would have to answer everything the same.

Most all the poll questions exclude one or more popular answers -- an "isn't". You'll see what I mean in a moment.

Last time I did a bunch more questions and a number of rounds, but that made scoring a pain. This time, I'm just going to do one short round, but if this is as popular as last time, I may do another a few months down the line.

Here we go:

View Poll: Superheroes Group Think

We have a winner.

2009-03-12T14:51:05Z

trish_punch was the first one to post the right answer to my math puzzle. paulisdead also posted the correct solution. catwithbell and ishldgetoutmore get partial credit.

Comments on the entry have been unscreened.

Thanks to all.

Math Puzzle

2009-03-11T02:14:48Z

You have 5 bags each containing 20 marbles. The marbles are supposed to be 10 grams each, but you suspect that some of the bags are filled with cheaper 9 gram marbles. (Note, all marbles in a single bag are the same weight.) You have a scale, but it is one of those pay-scales that you have to pay a nickel to use, and you only have one nickel. How can you pick out which bag(s) contain cheaper marbles with only one use of the scale?

Comments screened to avoid giving away the answer! Clues available if people request.

Edit: if you care, you can consider the bags effectively massless.

Sita Sings the Blues

2009-03-06T22:12:38Z

For those of you in the NY area, PBS channel 13 is showing a charming little film called "Sita Sings the Blues" tomorrow night (Saturday, 10:45PM). If that's too late night for you, it's also available on line at Thirteen.org or also at The Internet Archive.

It's a cartoon retelling of the Ramayana, set to 1920s/30s Blues/Jazz, sung by Annette Hanshaw. For those of you with kids, I'd rate it PG, mostly for dialog of the three shadow-puppet narrators, who while *very* funny, occasionally talk about adult topics. There is some violence, but it's all cartoon-y. The story is also intertwined with an autobiographical break-up story.

If you like cartoons, 1920s Jazz&Blues, and/or are interested in Indian mythology, I will recommend it.

DTV Converter first impressions.

2009-03-03T22:56:08Z

I picked up two of the better reviewed DTV converter units; a Zenith DTT901, and a Channel Master 7000. I figured I had two coupons, why not?

Physically, the Zenith is the nicer looking of the two. I think the remote is also a bit simpler.
The Channel Master has an S-Video connector, which would be nice if I could find my S-Video cable.

The Channel Master picked up one more station than the Zenith (Channel 58, NJN); however its reception of that station, as well as 50 and 63, were marginal. The Zenith didn't find 58, but its reception of 50 was better, as was 63 -- but as 63 was mostly Korean programming, that's largely moot.

The Channel Master has a longer program guide, up to 12 hours, whereas the Zenith only shows what's on and what's next. On the other hand, the Zenith lets you flip through the various channels' on/next while remaining on the current channel, whereas the CM forces a channel change when you want to look at another channel's guide.

Of the "extra" stations we get via digital broadcast, at least three were Spanish language (LATV, V-Me, and something else on 63 in between the Korean stations). Two were kids' programming (PBS Kids and Qubo). Two were weather channels (NBC & ABC). Annoyingly, Rupert Murdock has standard def Fox as a subchannel of My9, and SD My9 as a subchannel of Fox.

I think we're likely to go with the Zenith for our TV, as it seems to get a bit better reception on the marginal channels.

Snow Day

2009-03-02T16:01:43Z

So: yay, a day off from work!
Boo: I just had to shovel the sidewalk.
Also boo: my dentist appointment for 2pm is still on.
Yay: the TV convert boxes I ordered from Amazon are waiting at my PO Box. New toys!

Airships and related steampunk links.

2009-02-11T05:38:52Z

I have a bunch of things I've been hold on to, so I figured I'd do a link-dump post.

Flash Games:
Dirk Valentine and the Fortress of Steam I've managed to get to level 23; then I got stuck.

Stormwinds Had this one recommended to me, but only played it a little.

Real world:

Poster for Zeppelin travel from Germany to South America, from before WWII. Wikipedia on the Graf Zeppelin.

Here's a flight schedule for the above Graf Zeppelin flight. The 5 day flight from Friedrichshafen to Rio de Janeiro was 1500 R.M. in 1934. Based on this historical currency data and an inflation calculator, I figure that was about $600 US in 1934, or about $9000 in today's money.

A very cool book in the public domain, Zeppelin: The Story of a Great Achievement (Harry Vissering, 1922). Apparently a P.R. puff piece to try and get investors, it is great in that every other page is filled with photos and illustrations, like these:

Steampunk:
Brass Goggles, a blog I should check more often.

I also had some Library of Congress links, but I seem to have misplaced them for the moment. I should be getting a-bed now, so maybe tomorrow I can find them.

Ugh. Tired.

2009-01-25T23:42:02Z

My FiL, nephew, and I spent today painting. yolen wanted kiddo's room repainted before he/she gets here.

It's a nice desert tan color now. Still need to touch up the top in one corner, but it has to wait for the windowsill to dry so I can reach it.

The Saga of the Tooth.

2008-12-31T19:53:15Z

Back in October, I noticed that I had a spot on my cheek that felt tender, probably due to the tooth underneath.

As I hadn't been to the dentist in about 3 years, I decided to make an appointment. The tenderness went away, and I was hopeful, but a few weeks later when the dentist checked things out, she said there was some infection up behind my tooth, and that she'd send me to a fellow to get the root canal in that tooth re-done.

So in November, I went to the other fellow. He took the crown off the tooth, and worked at removing the post. The problem is this tooth had an extra-long post in it. He wanted to try at his facility in Paramus, so I trekked up there a week later, and had him go at it again. He worked at it for an hour, and said it was a no-go. The post was just too stubborn, so he could not re-do the root canal. This left two options: cutting through the bone of the gum and going in to clear the infection, or pulling the tooth. Cutting in through the gum wasn't really a good option, because in order to do that, they'd have to cut the other root, too to get through. I would be left with a tooth with no top and no roots.

So I made an appointment with a third Dr, this time an oral surgeon, to check out the tooth. My appointment was for the Wednesday December 17th, but on my way there, I got a call that the Dr. was running later from the hospital, and they needed to reschedule.

Which is how I wound up going to the Dr today, December 31st, last calendar day of the year, to get my tooth checked out. He agreed it should go, and after numbing me up, popped it out in what felt like all of five minutes. After that, he sewed me up, and sent me off to the pharmacy to get some antibiotics, motrin, and if I need it, percocet. So I'm going to be staying home tonight for New Years, eating soft foods and watching movies. Next week, I get to go back for him to check on it, and in 6-10 weeks, once it is healed, decide what next (implant or bridge).