I so wish you were a real person.

Someone who thinks and feels-- but you're not.

You're so close-- react and feel.

Your thoughts, as they are-- a maze with but one convoluted path to the cheese.

Oblivious, or at least willfully ignorant to the lab, the forces, that act on-- that surround you.

Ignorance is bliss and you are so beautifully blissful.

I so wish you were a real person, someone who thinks and feels.

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Are you Lonely ?

Don't like working on your own ? Hate Making Decisions ?

Then Call a Meeting !!!!

YOU CAN...
SEE people
DRAW Flowcharts
FEEL Important
IMPRESS your colleagues
FORM subcommittees
MAKE meaningless recommendations
All on Company Time

MEETINGS

The pratical alternative to work.

(The above isn't mine, it's one of those internet things that makes the rounds everyso often)

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Comic Picks for 7/23/08

AMBUSH BUG YEAR NONE #1 (OF 6) $2.99
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #26 $2.99
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #23 $2.99
LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #44 $2.99
ROBIN #175 RIP $2.99
SUPERMAN #678 $2.99
TRINITY #8 $2.99

According to Diamond Comics Shipping List?

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Random Non-Sequiters

Twitters and the lols • The Twitter appears to completely down this afternoon. The fail whale says it will be down for a couple hours. How sad.

You can still use search.twitter.com (formerly called Summize) and search on your user name to see if you missed any comments or anything. I very much like that those two services are seperate, here's hoping that even though they've merged, they stay that way.

I saw that a twitter friend was making sure I made good on my promise to put up a lol picture of my cat. So here's one:

Oh sure, it's not terribly original, but there's something to be said for the classics, and at least I went to the trouble of microwaving up a mini-cheeseburger :)

Computer Woes • Now with less woe! As mentioned earlier, my main desktop computer died on Monday. I found myself a nice refurbished Dell with Windows XP Pro (Didn't want to make the change to Vista yet.) online Tuesday and it was delivered last night. I put my basic graphics suite of software on it all ready, added Firefox etc. It'll be awhile before I get it fully tricked out, but at least I have basic functionality back!

Meanwhile • Pretty straightforward weekend planned beyond that. Off to get a haircut right now. Then tackling a little organization project in my home studio. After that, we'll see what the night brings.

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Movie thoughts

Note: this is a reprint of an email I sent some co-workers in response to the New Christian Bale Terminator Teaser trailer that was being sent around

I’m cool with Batman now being John Conner, but isn’t there a TV series going on simultaneously with this right now?

Feels a little like prequels within rebooted prequels.

Some of that constant “retelling reboot” un-originality that has been plaguing comics for years seems to be creeping into the movies now too.

On it’s own merits the movie looks good enough. But I’m getting burned out somewhat on retreads.

(Along those lines, even though I’m looking forward to seeing the Dark Knight tonight, there’s still a little edge missing because, It’ll probably be similar to comics I’ve seen, plus I’ve seen the Joker on screen before and I’m so familiar with the characters that there are some beats, even having avoided the previews that I know they’ll have to hit.)

Pixar seems to be the only studio making original films now, and only every-other-one of those is targeted beyond the toddler set.

blah

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Honesty and Openness

I sort of find myself in a world lately where everyone seems to be obscuring their feelings on even the smallest topics. It seems that honesty and directness are seen as negatives in all regards.

Has that been how it's always been? I've had that sense before of course (I've also always felt more of that current undertow in Grand Rapids than Metro Detroit.), but the last couple years it seems to have gotten even more prominent. Is it a regional thing. Is it a shift in the political climate. Is it just me?

If one has to avoid people-- or tighten your circle down to a triangle or a single individual or no one at all-- If you have to obfuscate-- If one has to abandon all honesty, directness and openness in pursuit of ones ends? What does that say more about? The environment? The circumstances or the individual?

And are the gains worth what has been given up?

It's not a thing. I can deal. But it's a little sad. I feel bad for these people that live that way.

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New Comic Picks for 7/16/08

FINAL CRISIS ROGUES REVENGE #1 (OF 3) $3.99
FLASH #242 $2.99
TRINITY #7 $2.99
TINY TITANS #6 $2.25

According to Diamond Shiiping Schedule

Wow, small week.

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Computer Woes

I mentioned on Twitter yesterday that my main PC died. At first I thought it was the power supply, but after trying a second power supply, it doesn't look like that is the problem. The computer had been randomly restarting, and various random programs would just quit for the last few weeks. It was enough to be annoying but infrequent enough not to cause major problems as long as I hit the save button regularly. I ran multiple virus checkers, etc. but didn't come up with anything. No errors out of the ordinary when running defrag or chkdsk or any of that sort.

My running hypothesis is that having several extra cards inserted and keeping the USB ports maxed out and the box powered on 24/7 for a few years may have just been too taxing for some part of the power system or something along those lines.

Fortunately, I still have a half dozen computers-- most of which are at various stages of antiquity and have been given new life with Linux distros-- that can get on the net.

While adding a couple needed apps to one of the most recent of those "backups" I had another interesting failure. The keyboard didn't work. Random letters and cntrl keys etc, would show up on the screen when typing on it.

I plugged in a newer keyboard and no problems.

So for those keeping track at home. Minus one computer, and now strangely enough, minus one keyboard. I don't think I've ever had an entire keyboard fail before. That's a new one.

Hopefully these things don't die in threes.

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Attention, Channels and Twitter

I've been really enjoying Twitter. You can find some very interesting random people on it. However, some people use it differently, than I do, I have found.

Case in point, I have been following a fairly interesting young designer. Lots of enthusiam, lots of interesting links. Increasingly, lots has become the keyword. Over a dozen posts an hour. Most of them links.

I find Twitter is nice for "breaking news" and keeping in touch with how people's days unfold, but those that use Twitter as a link blog, I quickly find just annoying. I'm guessing from these Twitter link-bloggers there is an intoxication to seeing over 100 people in your follow list and knowing that when you publish a sentence it will be forced in front of 100 people. But Twitter has icons, and after awhile if someone publishes too many micro interuptions of non-urgent information in an urgent attention channel like Twitter, you start to ignore their icon. If you are busy you don't have time to click on someone's 10/12 links an hour, and it becomes annoying that your other Twitter friends have been scrolled out of the window by these "Twitter-Time-Hogs".

There comes a certain point, where you get tired of seing your Twitter scroll dominated by one person's icon too.

Basically I reached that point with a Twitter Link Blogger today and saddly I "unfollowed" her. She has some good content, and because of that I subscribed to the RSS feed of her Twitter instead. Since she was treating Twitter like a blog, I put her into the attention channel I read blogs in-- Google Reader. I can still see her content now, in my Google Reader, but unfortunately there will no longer be any of the real time conversation. And that's too bad, but really that's the best thing to do for Twitter abusers, as there is only so much attention to parse out in a day.

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Let's Go Surfing

» Symfony looks like a very cool way to develop PHP web apps.

» Aware A-Pad $300 Convertible Tablet PC? This could be very very cool.

If this isn't vaporware, then this could very well be ideal. processor is very light, but with linux, it should still run a web browser and GIMP very easily, and that's really all I'm interested in primarily with a device like this. (PDFs and CBZs as well but that should be easy enough to run too.)

This is supposed to be out in two months. I'll mark my calendar for this one.

From Engadget:

Aware Electronics now looks set to somewhat rectify. It's apparently now set to jump into the game with this 7-inch number, which packs an Aday5G 800MHz X86 processor (all bets are off on that one), 4GB of NAND Flash, built-in WiFi and Bluetooth (with optional 3G and GPS), an integrated webcam, dual USB ports, an SD card slot, and the LINOS Linux distribution for an OS.

» Linux Media Center Edition Demo video Slick.

» 5 minute G.I. Joe Cartoons ala Clone Wars, aimed at adults. Now you Know, and Knowing is half the battle.

» Very good analysis of Hancock on io9. Don't read it unless you've seen the movie though, as spoilers abound.

» simplynoise.com is a flashbased, configurable white noise generator. Cool.

» Colorpic is a nice freeware color picker pallet maker.

» According to this MakeUseOf article, Microsoft has some new software called SteadyState that locks down and restores your Windows PC after each reboot. Looks like a slick way to combat malware and damaged program files/settings. I might try this the next time I get a new Windows PC.

» gifmake.com, Making animated gifs couldn't be easier. This is a slick and easy to use web app.

» I haven't tried this, but supposedly you can emulate/run Windows on a Mac using this freeware program.

Video

» Eee PC modified with a touchscreen. Nice.

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Videos

I'm a Marvel, I'm a DC, I'm Hellboy, by Justsomerandomguy.

I'll probably see a matinee Hellboy II this Sunday.

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Movies

Some quick movie thoughts on some recent catches.

Wall-E - Very sweet movie. Also terribly subversive pro-environment, anti-consumer economy for a movie produced by Disney that will be sold in Wal-marts. The opening of the movie is a little like Wil Smith's I am Legend, but if it starred the son of R2D2 and Johnny No. 5. Not a movie I'd reccomend people take little kids to, not that there is anything objectionable in it, but mostly because I think it's near-silent-film nature might be challenging for the pre-school set. I highly reccomend it to teens and adults that like good science fiction or (and I hate to use this word again) sweet movies- It's just such a sweet little movie, you can't describe it without that word. (I mean Wall-E and Eve, how cute are they *aww* ) Good Stuff Go See.

"Red's the new Blue!"

Batman Gotham Knight DVD - this is the direct to DVD anime compilation disk. It's very similiar in execution to the Animatrix DVD that came out with the Matrix sequels. It's a series of Anime shorts by different animation houses. All the shorts more or less tie-in together. Some are more complete than others. All have interesting looks, but overall, I was a little underwhelmed. The opening animation has 4 kids in a skatepark tell their interpretations of an encounter with Batman, this first short is so similiar to the famous "Dark Knight" episode of the Batman Animated Series that it just threw me off for the rest of the "film". Kevin Conroy the "Batman Animated" voice of Batman ties all the various different shorts together somewhat with his awesome vocal delivery, but there are some styles in this film that hearing Kevin Conroys' voice matched with the wildly (at times) non-traditional Batman depictions threw me off as well.

I'd reccomend this one to Batman die-hards, or fans of Animation. Casual Bat-fans might just want to rent it or skip it all together. Interesting flick, but best if you are already a fanboy.

Blood Diamonds - Flipping through the channels last night and I stumbled on the opening of this movie, it grabbed me and (once Jennifer Connlley stepped on screen) held my interest through to the end. Leo DiCaprio as a believable very awesome tough guy mans man action hero-- seriously who would have thought?

Rich backgrounds, and settings: visually, politically, and emotionally. This is a movie that manages to be both highly engaging and highly educational at the same time, no easy feat.

And then of course there's Jennifer Conlley who gives a great performance in this film too. (But take that with a grain of salt, because really-- I'd watch a sequel to Career Opportunities with Jennifer Conlley, even if it was just her dressed and riding the Penny Pony for 90 minutes.)

Anyway, Blood Diamonds, if you're like me and somehow managed to miss this one. Rent or seek it out on your premium cable channels, it's good stuff.

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New Comic Picks for 7/10/08

ACTION COMICS #867 $2.99
BOOSTER GOLD #1000000 $2.99
DETECTIVE COMICS #846 RIP $2.99
GREEN ARROW BLACK CANARY #10 $2.99
FINAL CRISIS REQUIEM #1 $3.99
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #17 $2.99
TRINITY #6 $2.99
WONDER WOMAN #22 $2.99
TOYFARE #133 MARVEL SECRET INVASION CVR $4.99

GREEN LANTERN SER 3 CYBORG SUPERMAN AF
GREEN LANTERN SER 3 GREEN LANTERN BATMAN AF
GREEN LANTERN SER 3 SINESTRO AF
GREEN LANTERN SER 3 STAR SAPPHIRE AF

According to Diamond Comics Shipping List

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Good Morning Monday

Let's start the week off with a Techno Chicken.

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College Class Social Networking Documentary.

Saw the below documentary on Boing Boing. It's not intentionally funny... but it is slightly amusing in it's delivery. Two parts, each are a 5 to 6 min long.

I want to hear your

My friends Adam and Comfort had some B&W sketches commisioned of their Uniques Comic characters by: Ryan Ottley, Taki Soma, Mike Oeming, and Franchesco. Comfort also really enjoyed coloring the pieces. If you are a fan of those artists. Go give the sketches a look.

I want to hear your

Why so... complicated?

Is it just the toy makers that require that the batsuit get progressively more intricate with each sequel?

As to the costume Batman... Why so... complicated?

Batman Begins compared to The Dark Knight

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McCainiacs

The news stations seem to be working very hard to prop up McCain right now. I don't see that as a vast right wing conspiracy however. I do see it as a desperate attempt to keep this presidential race feeling like more of a neck and neck contest, so that they can continue to milk the cheap news programing drama it contains for them.

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Random Babbling about Comics

Just read DC's Trinity Issues 3, 4 and 5 and also Final Crisis #2.

Both series are pretty bad.

Trinity's first couple issues were ok, but that multi-week brawl, seemed stretched out abit didn't it? And the back-up Tarot story? Blah.

Final Crisis #2. Seems like a book set in Grant Morrison's own distorted DCU shouldn't have got a Crisis label. Gives it more weight than it should have. I'm almost a year behind on most DC books, but seriously, the GL's have really been F'd up. GL's are not cops, that metaphor looks like it's been applied way to strongly the past year. It's disappointing to see an interesting mythology get trivialized to the level it appears to have gotten to from the sampling I've gotten in Final Crisis.

Bla Bla Bla, I know only comics etc. etc. but for DC's two big flagship series, these do disappoint.

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I saw the 7pm "day before" screening of Hancock Tuesday night. Overall I liked the movie, but as I've seen elsewhere on the net, the movie didn't quite seem to know what it wanted to be Drama or Comedy. Basically the premise is Drunk, Asshole Superman who saves the day while generally making it even worse. He meets a do-gooder suburban PR dad type, and together they set out to reform Hancock.

There are some serious bits in this movie but they are overshadowed by the "My Ex Girlfriend is a Superhero" style gags. In a lot of ways this movie is the male version of that one.

There's also a twist toward the end that seems interesting at first but ultimately doesn't seem to go where I thought it should. The movie also suffers from a lack of a good villain.

As far as summer popcorn fare goes, this is a good movie. As cinema, probably not so much. If you are on the fence and are feeling the wallet pinch from a summer glut of Superhero movies, I'd say wait and watch this one on DVD.

The Onion Movie

I watched The Onion Movie this morning. Some friends brought it over and lent it to me last night. Liked it overall. It was a smarter Scary Movie style flick. Not as smart or snarky as the website is generally, but in a week without Stewart or Colbert, I liked it.

Let's Go Surfing

» There's a new eVite type service that the net is buzzing about. Anyvite.com. I tried it, it was dead easy simple. I liked it. I also like the way you can upload pictures, link to videos, and leave comments. I'll probably use it on the next get-together that I'll need something like that for.

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New Comic Picks for 7/2/08

BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM #1 $2.25
BATMAN #678 RIP $2.99
MANHUNTER #32 $2.99
NIGHTWING #146 $2.99
SUPERGIRL #31 $2.99
TOR #3 (OF 6) $2.99
TRINITY #5 $2.99

FX #5 (OF 6) $3.99
STEPHEN COLBERTS TEK JANSEN #2 (OF 5) $3.99

According To Diamond Comics Shipping List

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Middleman

I wanted to like ABC Family's Middleman. Sadly I didn't. Couldn't really even make all the way through the first episode. Sort of Men in Black meets My Name is Earl. It just didn't work. Cast, dialogue, pretty much everything, while earnest just fell flat for me.

It's too bad really, I was hoping to have it fill an open slot on my Summer TV night schedule. *sigh*

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