Iterating toward perfection
I love it when a band rerecords one of its old songs (sometimes with a co-artist) after improving and refining their style: Green Day’s “Welcome to Paradise”; Megadeth’s “A Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free)”; The Offspring’s “Dirty Magic”; Mumford & Sons’s “The Boxer” (with Paul Simon & Jerry Douglas); and let’s not forget the entire S&M album by Metallica & the San Francisco Symphony.
Resistance is futile
I am giving up on trying to multitask with a toddler around. It is too stressful for both of us. Easier and happier if home time is kid time. No more video games, no more programming, and no more Internets unless toddler is unconscious.
And it’s time for more child-proofing, too. Gotta create some more space that he can’t reach. And every low shelf and table is for toys only! Otherwise it’s just inviting disaster.
Unfilmability
In some ways, the Watchmen movie was really good. I think it actually improved on the novel in some ways. Unfortunately, as I feared going in, any Watchmen film is fundamentally incapable of delivering what the novel did. James Berardinelli, my favorite film critic, writes a spot-on review, in which he eloquently explains: “A movie, by its nature, moves forward relentlessly, allowing little time for introspection, review, or consideration. These elements are necessary for Watchmen. They give it power and depth. By not being able to study a panel, turn back a page and re-explore something, or pause to consider the moral implications of what’s being stated, too much has been lost.”
Death Magnetic
For those who care, Metallica’s new album is streamable from their site in its entirety. People like Metallica for very different reasons so I won’t comment on whether it’s “good”—you’ll have to decide for yourself.
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt
Computer stuff for sale
Anybody want to buy a computer?
- Athlon XP 3000+, ~2.17 GHz
- 512 MB RAM
- 150 GB RAID 0 disk space
- 16x DVD burner
- 3.5” and 5.25” floppy disk drives
- 500 watt Antec power supply
- 17” CRT monitor
- Wireless keyboard and mouse
- Very quiet operation
- $200 (negotiable)
Feel free to comment for more details.
I also have a somewhat noisy (due to one of the fans being off-balance) BFG GeForce 6600GT OC AGP graphics card that I’d sell for $30.
“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.”
—President Harry S Truman
Chess + Boxing = Fantastic
Slashdot posted a story about the best sport ever today. I am only half kidding—I would love to try it!
“To kill a man in a paroxysm of passion is understandable, but to have him killed by someone else after calm and serious meditation and on the pretext of duty honourably discharged is incomprehensible.”
—The Marquis deSade
James Wyatt on D&D 4E and WoW
For those of you saying D&D 4E is too much like WoW, James Wyatt has written a rebuttal to justify a lot of the choices they made when designing the system: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1044100
Wyatt’s comments after the post are also worth reading, particularly his comments on character roles—he implies that four clerics is the “best party in the game” in 3E :-)—and product maturity:
You’re comparing the PH of 4e with the mature product line of 3.5. Just with the PH, you can build different fighters with very different feels. When you add Martial Power to the mix, those options will expand dramatically. When you add PH2 and its eight new classes, the game expands greatly again.
“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
—Oscar Wilde
“One does not get better but different and older and that is always a pleasure.”
—Gertrude Stein
I love Dragon Warrior
On my system the video gets out of sync really quickly, but it’s still pretty awesome. Makes me want to learn to play all those riffs.
Focus!
Another incredibly cool thing from Google
- Make sure you have Flash Player 9.
- Click this link.
- Look, it’s Van Vleck.
- Drag the image with the mouse to pan around and check out Van Hise.
- Click the arrows to drive yourself around the roads.
“Anyone attempting to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin.”
—John Von Neumann
Eclipse
Eclipse drives me fucking batty. I could write a big rant about it, but this guy explains it pretty much perfectly (just global replace Emacs with Vim for me).
Apparently IntelliJ is pretty good though; maybe I should try it some time. But it is tailored toward Java (not that Eclipse isn’t), so it’s not exactly generic like Vim.
“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
—Albert Einstein
Video games + Smash Bros Brawl
You guys like video games, right? I know you do.
Most successful male recording artist
I saw a statistic today that Madonna is the most successful (as far as record sales go) female recording artist of all time, according to the Guinness Book of World Records (though some say it’s Celine Dion). This led me to wonder: what about the most successful male recording artist?
Obviously, it’s the Beatles, but they’re not just one guy. So who’s next?
Elvis Presley? Michael Jackson? MC Frontalot?
Nope, none of the above.
Go country…
Nerdcore!
For you D&D fans, if you haven’t heard it already, check out Down With Bane by Shael Riley.
“Leaving a trail of destruction is both easier and more effective when your ultimate goal is undisclosed. That way everyone in your way might be your final chance for sport.”
—Resident Evil, “Biohazard (Beast From the East Mix 2)”
Pikmin!
Yay, Pikmin! Yay, Yasunori Mitsuda! It is becoming increasingly clear that I am going to have to take a few days’ Smash holiday from work…
Van Roy’s Law: An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.
Obama on church and state
Barack Obama, keynote address, Call to Renewal’s Building a Covenant for a New America conference, 6/28/06 in Washington, D.C. (bold emphasis is mine):
Can openers
I went to Famous Dave’s for lunch yesterday. There was one of those massive pickup trucks parked at a strong slant in one of the spots, with their front end about a foot into the next spot. That next spot, though, was the only free one, so I parked there anyway. I squeezed in, and was still able to get through my door. And I was exactly in the center of the spot, where I was supposed to be.
When I came out of the restaurant afterwards, the truck had left and there was a note on my windshield that said, “Next time leave me a fucking can opener.” I almost wish I could have been out there when the dude was getting mad at me for HIS bad parking job, so that I could kick his ass if he tried anything.
This anecdote has been your daily evidence that all individuals who drive gigantic pickup trucks are gigantic assholes.
“People seemed to like this better, but only marginally so—the way one might prefer to be stabbed than shot. Optimally, one isn’t stabbed or shot. Optimally, one eats some cake! But there are times when cake is not available, and instead we are destroyed. This is the deep poetry of the universe.”
—Tycho Brahe, Penny Arcade
No more NetInfo
Hey, Leopard got rid of NetInfo in favor of XML and LDAP! I am shocked, but titillated. Now if only Windows would ditch the registry. At least there’s PowerShell now.
“XML is a giant step in no direction at all.”
—Erik Naggum
Still Annoyed
For those of you who have beaten Portal and/or watched the VG Cats Still Alive video: Rob Balder of the Funny Music Project has parodied the Jonathan Coulton original with Still Annoyed, sung by Bowser. SO AWESOME.
Also linked from VG Cats, for you D&D and/or MMO fans: IM IN UR MANGER KILLING UR SAVIOR. Funny, but not quite what I was hoping for from the title.
“If you’re not scared or angry at the thought of a human brain being controlled remotely, then it could be this prototype of mine is finally starting to work.”
—John Alejandro King, “My War On Terror!”
Movie quotes meme
Stolen from noonereally: