General

Well, my last concert trip didn’t turn out so well. Blue Oyster Cult was a real disappointment, a dead band. Will Jethro Tull be the same? I can’t not go. I spent five years learning to play flute like Ian Anderson, yet I’ve never seen him in concert. He used to show up occasionally at the Flute World expo, but I never got around to going to any of those. I played Bouree at one of my flute recitals (but the piano accompanist balked at doing the bass solo I had so carefully transcribed). Anderson’s technique led me to such greats as Roland Kirk and Paul Hindemith. Anderson’s solo album Divinities was on perma rotation on my car’s CD player. ...

Gosh, I need to post more… if you could see how many posts I have partially written… But! I just read on Wired that “Rock Band” – that game that lets you and three friends play fake instruments and sing to cover tunes and is similar to Guitar Hero which is REALLY FUN – is coming to the PS2 December 10th, two weeks after it debuts on the Xbox 360 and the PS3. ...

Chuck and Big Bang Theory had free previews on Yahoo! So what the heck, I watched them.  I work in the IT department of a major insurance company, so I think I qualify as a geek…. plus I read Slashdot, and if THAT doesn’t seal the deal, what can? Chuck – okay, if you’re going to make a show about a geek/nerd/whatever, would it kill you to run the script past one? The premise: a guy is running from people with guns! And they’re firing at him! If only… he… can… finish writing a quick email to his friend he hasn’t seen since college. Hey guys, could you quit it with the guns? I’m writing an email here. ...

Gaff at Trot Line tagged me with this latest meme :) I can’t think of anyone to pass it too, so it ends here, but here’s mine anyway. Four jobs I have had in my life, not including my current occupation: Short order cook at Sambo’s Office Manager at my daughter’s high school. Supermarket inventory taker Student computer consultant at UNH. Four movies I have watched over and over (and over): ...

Remember that old meme, that started “Im in ur base, killing ur dudez” back in Starcraft? Well, Wired has revived it for their Geekapedia, and they let you put in your own variations and vote on those submitted by others. It’s fun :) But then, I like lolcats… Anyway, the title is my entry, and here’s the link so you can add your own! But please… keep my mom out of it? ...

kisses ground I actually was starting another blog in case this one didn’t come back. I will probably still find another host…. I’m on Facebook now, courtesy of my sister. Look me up, add me to your friend’s list. I’m also in the LinkedIn professional network so… if you need to know my real name, lemme know.

… but then again, maybe not.

I’ve been playing around with the Linux ‘autotrace’ command – yesterday’s screenshot was a composite of a centerline and blobular tracing of an in-game screenshot…. Thought today I would try it out on some real pictures. (I cheated a little – I composited the two tracings in Photoshop on Windows. Does that make me evil?) A church near work. Autotracing rocks for pictures like this. My sister Jenn and our Uncle Lester. Not as effective, but not bad. ...

I’m not here to bash the PS3. Just that I cannot find even one game on the system that I want to play. It’s all the shooters and sports games, just like the Xbox 360 (another console that doesn’t seem to want to publish games for the non-twitch crowd). Microsoft and Sony fight over the relatively small share of twitch gamers, while Nintendo makes games for the rest of us. ...

I have (as I look) three half-written articles waiting to be finished… it’s been a busy week, and I just haven’t been able to finish anything. And so… Wish I could have gone to Penny Arcade’s PAX this past weekend… sounds like a blast to just be around gamers and… play games and stuff. Trade Pokemon, shred Guitar Hero and try Rock Band. I was struck by a note from the ars technica review of PAX 2007: ...