August 2005

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Tuesday August 30, 2005 5:04:26 PM #

No diminishment of the New Orleans hurricane tragety intended by the earlier post. Bad probably doesn't begin to describe what those down there are going through. But that's all the more reason for being annoyed with the Cable News Media, who still focus on this event primarily to spin ratings, and not inform or report the problem.

Monday August 29, 2005 5:52:05 PM #

THIS JUST IN-- Hurricanes are particularly devestating to people and towns located near the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Still, residents in locations as varied as Michigan, Kansas and Arizona are glued to their sets. "It could happen here!" one Toledo, Ohio resident was heard to say.

These storms also provide facinating imagery for cable news. "Sure there are other things going on in the world, but nothing at the moment this visually exciting. We're talking hollywood blockbuster level special effects! Cha, Ching... that's ratings gold Baby! And it costs nothing more than sending down a camera crew that we were going to otherwise pay to stand outside a courthouse and shoot boring video anyway. I mean really, the only way this gets better is if we could find a way to work in a terrorist weather machine of mass distruction. Seriously, do you know what kindof ratings we could get if we could show the huricane weather on the main screen and then those terrorist training camp videos in an inset at the same time? Or maybe some of that green night vision anti-aircraft fire That would really be awesome!"

Also in the News, Hurricane likely to raise gas prices. An unnamed oil executive commented: "We were actually looking for a way to tie-in the missing girl in Aruba to rising gas prices, but we thought people would be much more likely to buy-in to this Huricane connection. So that's what we are going with."

All kidding aside people... Wolf Blitzer is on TV right now literly calling this Huricane "Armageddon" Not, like Armageddon... but actually Armageddon. CNN is actually trying to spin this Hurricane as the Biblical end of the world. Wow.

Saturday August 27, 2005 12:13:38 PM #

» I've installed Google Talk Google's new IM and voice chat program. user name: ckarath. Haven't tried it yet. If there's anyone out there that has done the same, feel free to look me up.

» Saw last nights episode of Battlestar Galactica, real good ep yadda yadda yadda.

» The simple fun that is Toothpaste for Dinner

» Pimp my Big Wheel
via MAKE

» Cheap DIY Kitty Condo
via MAKE

Friday August 26, 2005 6:20:10 PM #

» Ever stand in the middle of a room, look around and see the 404 errors flashing behind everyone's eyes? Ever wonder if you're typing out the right url?

That was a large portion of my day. There was a point however where I got to see a 404 error in someone change to a "loading" bar. That was pretty cool.

As far as other workday highlights go, I think there are some linkbacks between sites that I didn't know existed.

Overall, the day was a 56k connection with a javaless, flashless browser.

» I saw the 40 Year Old Virgin movie last night. Split thoughts on the whole thing, When it comes out on DVD, I think I'd like to try my hand at remixing it into two different movies-- One pure sketch comedy and the other, something more serious, along the lines of Garden State.

Monday August 22, 2005 9:10:51 PM #

» Obituarys for the Six Feet Under Characters on HBO's site. FARK comment thread

» Dilbert Commentary on the News via FARK

» Funny Toothpaste for Dinner Cartoon

Sunday August 21, 2005 11:58:21 PM #

» How about that Six Feet Under series of Flashforward endings? Neat Stuff.

Also saw a little bit more of the Lisa Kudrow show The Comback. It really is horrible, and the voice she does for that character.... oh my g-- absolutely terrible.

Noticed during a commercial that HBO will be airing the Ricky Gervaise show Extras. Although I'm interested to see what the original The Office star has next on his call sheet, does HBO really need another show about Hollywood?

Good night internets.

Sunday August 21, 2005 8:32:21 PM #

» The whole Crisis stuff at DC has pretty much sucked me into buying their entire line. It's all very good superhero stuff. And the presentation of the universe as a whole has been extremely well done. One observation about DC right now: I don't think it is really necessary to follow any one book at the moment. Ideally you should just pick your favorite DC characters and then stay on top of the Solicitations to find out what various issues they are appearing in. With everything tieing into everything else and the characters being rendered so consistently from book to book, well you wouldn't want to miss anything with your favorite characters now would you?

» Every weekend I post how great Friday's episode of Battlestar Galactica was. This week is no exception. It was. Positive fanboy post accomplished.

» I may have posted about this before, but if you're not already a regular reader of Make Blog You're missing out on a very interesting site.

» Furniture from vacuum cleaner dust

» So a couple different people were talking about one of these friend networking sites... and I checked out these couple people I know on this one particular site. Eh. If it's something all your friends are doing and it entertains you, and there is some sense of shared community or something, I suppose, it's an ok deal. To me the question comes down to why would you want a central database that complete strangers can go to and find contact information for all your friends? I mean I don't mind putting myself out there a bit, I've got this blog afterall... but that part's a little odd to me. Plus there's people out there with a hundred "friends". Man, the friend title is really getting dilluted in this modern age isn't it? Chris Rock's Columbine joke comes to mind, but I digress. It was kindof interesting to view a couple of these "friends" but the only thing I learned from the experience is that people I know are apparently two degrees of seperation, Kevin Bacon Style, from some really freaky peeps. Not my deal, the resume aspect of it throws me off mostly.

» So final episode of Six Feet Under coming up soon. Bummer huh? Lot's of good drama/comedy stuff still out there right now, however, like Rescue Me, 4400, Battlestar Galactica, Entourage (Just started watching Always Sunny in Philedelphia and that's not too bad either.) Plus the new fall tv season kicks in soon. I have yet to take a look at the Network Fall Lineups. I'm open to reccomendations if there's stuff out there people are looking forward to.

Sunday August 14, 2005 11:41:05 PM #

» Y'know I just took a tour around some blogs... there's one blog I went to that hasn't been updated in awhile, makes me wonder what's been up with that blogger. Another blog has an interesting story about a very rude customer who with a handful of words really seemed to throw a cloud over the day. Another blog had an earnest story on not wanting to go out drinking with his friends anymore. Yet another blogger was apologizing to her blog friends for not being around much lately since she started a 9to5 job without LJ access. Another blog waxed philosophically about how long you have to have quit something before you say you don't do it anymore. Another blog simply had a very odd drawing of Batman.

I also just watched the second to last episode of Six Feet Under tonight. Man that's a seriously disturbed messed up show. I'm going to miss it :)

I had watched the first episode of Over There a few weeks ago and had accumulated a handful of additional episodes on the DVR. I sat down to watch those today and after about five minutes just deleted them all. It seems to be a very good show, but I just can't watch something like that as entertainment. Unless you are defending an immediate danger to a family member or something, it's hard for me to relate to somebody that would kill someone else in all the different ways represented in that show. I'm fine watching and desensitizing myself to alot of stuff, but turning an ongoing war into entertainment? The sad thing is, I got more of a feel for the situation over there in that one episode than I have in 2 years of watching CNN.

Also saw The City on the Edge of Forever episode of Star Trek this weekend which came on the heels of watching Breakfast at Tiffany's (yeah... I can't believe I'm admitting watching that either.) Sometimes I get a false sense of nostalgia for the early 20th century, not that I was around for it, but in the movies it often looks simpler. But in those two stories, even with Star Trek's sci-fi overtones, you realize that things probably weren't any simpler. Completely unrelated, or maybe not, one of the discussions in the Star Trek episode centered on an idea the that phrase "Let Me Help" is more important than "I love You". Paul in Breakfast seems to hinge his love for Holly on the idea that he "can help her", I'm not sure that's the best idea, but I thought it was interesting to see the syncronicity in what otherwise one would think would be two very different types of stories.

Every now and then I come across a quote somehere that rolls around in my head for awhile. One of the more recent ones was "You hold onto your pain like it means something." I think it was on this quote of the day thing awhile back. The more recent one to ponder however: "They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world. Someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for." That one turns out to be from the same guy who said "We'll leave the light on for you". Go figure.

Well that's probably enough rambling. Go night internets.

Saturday August 13, 2005 6:36:59 PM #

» Watched last weeks and last night's Battlestar Galactica last night Back to Back. Great way to watch the show. This season so far feels like one big story... Very little episodic feel as each show tends to start up immediately after the previous one ends. Good Stuff.

» Newsarama's Joe Friday column with Marvel EIC Joe Quesada had an interesting remark. He contrasted Marvel and DC calling the differences in their respective current approaches: "Creatively driven comics vs. corporately driven comics." Sure there's nothing inherently negative in those loaded words :)

Thursday August 11, 2005 9:20:04 PM #

RANT! Jump off the deep end and swim in the dark waters.

The future is just over the horizon, its almost here.... just push the rock up the hill a little longer and you'll get there. Did I say this hill? I meant that hill. Can't you see it though the sunrise? Won't it be great?

My fnckin' catnip. Get you own.

Look at me! Over here, over there... what the fnck, where'd you go?

A good pillow never disappoints.

Who took the Hershey chocolate from the can and put it in the squirt bottle? That's genius.

Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

Objects in mirror may be larger than they appear.

I run with scissors, they're just the blunt tipped left handed ones.

What's your FLAIR count?

Sunday August 7, 2005 9:06:26 PM #

» This is my favorite picture I took at Wizard World Chicago 2005! While waiting for the Wizard Fan Awards to Start Friday Evening, a friend sitting next to me nudged me while pointing to the guy right in front of us and said "Do you know who that is? That's Alex Ross!" And it Was! Pretty exciting if you are a comic fan. Taking this great Kids in the Hall style photo of my fingers in the 'I'm squishing your head' pose over Mr. Ross' head made the whole trip to Chicago for me! Good Times!

But of course it's not all just about Comic Book Creator Celebrity. There's the Publisher's Booths (DC Rocks!), Shopping (bought a bunch of toys) Artist Alley (The good, bad and the ugly) Seeing fandom live and in person (also the good the bad and the ugly) Prototype Toys (DC Direct Booth Rocks!) and the Panels (My personal faves)

On the topic of panels, I took in the DCU New World Order panel. Fun, but not terribly informative. My friends and I did enjoy parroting, in parody, Dido's, said with a light touch: "It'll all make sense" mantra which was the catchall answer to the questions that he didn't want to reveal the answers too.

On Saturday, I went to the Lucas Film Star Wars presentation, which included a deleted scene from Sith that will be included on the upcoming DVD. The Scene included Padme, Organa, Mon Mothra (sp?) and others discussing the formation of the rebellion. Good Stuff! There were several other clip videos, as well as a short on Lucas' new headquarders located at San Fransisco's Presidio base. This is my second year attending a Lucas Film Panel. They do a fantastic job at these panels. Great Stuff!

The best event however was Saturday afternoon's Kevin Smith Q&A. Three Hours of Kevin Smith taking questions and telling stories, as well as mocking the various audience attendees. If you've seen the DVD: An Evening with Kevin Smith then you know that this isn't an opportunity to miss. In person, Smith delivers. It would take a better summarist than me (and a coarser blog than mine) to really do the event justice but I'll just list some of the more amusing moments and let you wonder about the rest: "Conan's back?" "On your Chair" "I am your god!" "I fncked her mouth!" "hit him with a chair" "Hold the b@lls and work the sh@ft" and a follow up to the 'Prince World Story'. If a chance avails itself to see Kevin Smith in person. Do so, it's Great Stuff. Highlight of the Con.

Other thoughts: DC's Booth was a little smaller this year, I've heard that it is due to Wizard adding aditional cons? But it seems to me that Wizard should just give DC and Marvel a large fixed square footage space each year. 80% of the fans are there to interact in some way with the big two anyway.

Overall, if you are a comic fan and you are within a few hours drive, Wizard World Chicago is a must attend. Very good time.

» Anybody else who attended Wizard World Chicago want to take a stab at explaining this booth to me? In the sea of hundreds of comic, toy, sci-fi, fantasy, publisher and artist booths. This one booth really stood out as a WTF moment for me. A chinese lady selling hair extensions and handbags. Really... WTF?

Tuesday August 2, 2005 6:44:03 PM #

» So just had the electricity go out for a few hours necessitating the need to read the Superman/Wonder Woman Sacrifice story and OMAC #4 via flashlight and boy was that appropriate because that's a pretty dark story.

"KRK"

Oh my Lord... no wonder DeMateis and Giffen have went over to Marvel.

Tuesday August 2, 2005 6:44:03 PM #

Random Non-Sequiters

» How about that episode of Six Feet Under last Sunday. Good Stuff. I'm going to miss that show after this season.

» I'm off from work this week. (Just spent the last couple days sleeping off a summer cold... bummer for me.) I have read quite a few comics in the past week. I'm only Two Weeks behind on my DC's now! (Marvels-- forget about it.... I'm way way behind). In any case, I'll probably do a big post of commentary on that stack soon.

» Disappointed to see how baddly Sky High did at the box office last week. It wasn't that bad as family films go. I still think comic fans and parents with kids should go see the matinee on that one.

» So is the Spirit Movie going to be set in the past or modern times? Does anyone really want to see this? I might get the comic but only because Darwyn Cooke is writing/drawing and the character and the creator do seem like a good match. If Warner Bros. wants to do a detective in a trenchcoat movie, I think it would be much more fun to see Martian Manhunter up on the big screen as a detective for the majority of the movie and then morphing into his green skinned self at the very end of the movie. Take a look at Darwyn Cooke's treatment of the character in New Frontiers for the take my inner fanboy would like to see.

Monday August 1, 2005 5:33:42 PM #

» Early 1960's SS Kresges Musak MP3's off an old record complete with the pops and scratches of the original recording. Good Stuff.
via Boing Boing I think.

I don't spell check and my grammar, sentence and paragraph structure on this site leave alot to be desired. Most times I forget to go back and reread a post to see if it makes sense. Sometimes I type the word "Fnck". Flip the "n" over... I don't have a problem with the word myself, I just type it that way to slip it past overzealous work censorship programs and for the benefit of those that are sensitive to that sort of thing.