click click click click

I do love me some stop-frame animation.

ouch, my slinky bit me!

Ah, those dangerous toys of our youth. Here's a recent article of 'The 10 most dangerous play things of all time'. I feel ripped off; I never got my own Atomic Energy Lab (now with U-238!).

Also, in defense of fanboys and 10 good UNIX usage habits. (thanks /.)

Onward to Eternia

Sniff, sniff. Poor Skeletor.

Kicking it old school

I'm still in Athens on a contract job. Enjoying the unnecessarily cold weather and comfortably hilly countryside. Trying to keep in touch with everybody. Back to eating like a college student. Ramen noodle peanut butter sandwiches can be tasty.

working the wall

Back in Athens. Things look pretty much how I left 'em, scuff marks and all. I am looking forward to seeing old friends and re-meeting old acquaintances. Already went places I have never gone before (as my grand-nephew, and strangely I, would say: 'to infinity and beyond').

footloose and fancy free

Looks like I've joined the part of America that work for themselves. And do a lot more taxes. I have entered the individual contractor market, which is something quite new for me. It should prove to be a fun new experience. I'll be staying in Las Vegas for now, but can now work anywhere where there is work to work.

Myomigodmyeye

oh, and about Myspace...

don't download this blog

Back in Vegas. Things are as exciting as ever.

It's a little late, but be sure to give a listen to Weird Al's new album Straight Outta Lynnwood (itunes). To get you prepped, check out the video that was leaked to YouTube before its premiere on yahoo (http://youtube.com/watch?v=GkhMcyuYroA).

Moving right along

Well, I'm back in SFO this week, this time for IDF2006. I like a break from the NOC routine every now and then to catch up on events and tech that I miss.

beh

Well, may as well post now since I'm not getting anywhere with the little something I was working on.

Seems the company I was working for got sold to another company. Long story short, I am one of the few that moved into a position in the other company, so now I have similar but different work duties.

Sorry for the late late late post, but I have not really been able to focus on something entertaining enough for an update. This wasn't very entertaining. But, as is always the case in life, You can't have your 6 dollars back either.


I'll have something neat next time, I promise. And it won't take so durned long. Will it?





I remember paying less than 5 dollars for a feature film. When did I start allowing myself to pay 10? Holy Frak.

...

sorryhavenotpostedinamonthlottastuffhappeningworkingonsomethingipromise.

meanwhile, check my pal DarG's link to somethin' awful fun:

http://www.tatteredcoat.com/archives/2005/09/28/the-shining-redux/

bork

Last week I came back a little redder from Joshua Tree National Forest. It was quite amazing. Wonderful geological structures and desert plant life out here in the desert. The difference of eleveationin this area allows you to visit 5,000 ft to 1,500 feet and examine all that occurs in between. The transition between the Mojave (high desert) to the Coloarado desert (low desert).

Also, Mork

psst. Don't call him a Mendicant.

Here's a sample of something I had been working on before I came out here to the Land of the Retiring Stars. Conventions are interesting in their diversity.

Ever since I was a kid, I've been big fan of Sergio Aragonés (best known for his work in Mad Magazine and Groo comics, and known as the fastest cartoonist in the world). I can only dream of cranking out the kind of detailed doodles at the rate that man does.

I'll finish filling this drawing up eventually.

When all you care about is here, this is a good place to be.

Just some fun stuff for you today.

Mr. Rogers learns to breakdance, baby, but he never got to breakdance for the Pope.

Also, those crazy Nipponese prank shows get away with so much crazy stuff.

Hanging it out

Just went through the MSF Basic Rider Course this weekend. Fun times. The first day of range I wore my armor. It averaged 104 degrees. The next day on the range I wore a cotton long sleeve shirt. Did not have to pour the sweat out of my shoes that day. Got mildly sunburnt. Had a great time. There were all ages there, including a nice German gentleman in his late 60s who has been riding since the 50s and has had a much more interesting life than I probably will.

A great book that Darrell turned me onto is Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well by David L. Hough. This book has a lot of great information and examples, and it helped me breeze through the course. It's a great read.

Note to any of you scooterist and motorcyclists out there: No DOT/Snell headgear, no armor, then your brain and your skin don't mean much to you. Take your chances if you will, but as the adage goes, most chicks don't date dead riders.

Slumbertown, USA

Sorry America, I loves ya, but I'll be sleeping through the fireworks. God Bless.


<zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz>

You know what They say

I hate They.




So I am a scooter dude now. I ride a scooter all around town. It's fun. Damn Fun.

Sure, I could get there faster. The landscape could blur before me, just before I get to the 711 to get my slurpee. I could zip around the SUVs to get to the Albertson's before them to get the deal on ribeyes before those unworthy folks. But you know, I don't care. I like to sit, and I like to ride. Combine the two and you have up-front seating for the adventure that is modern american life.

Of course I wear goggles when I ride. The dust and wind is pretty bad out here. And don't forget your armor. From what i can tell, I'm one of the most well equipped 49ccs on the road, buddy.

90MPG ain't bad.


(note: There is not a single building in this town like the one in that picture)

huh? huh?

Huh? Eh?

Aw, we know it's all true. Staring at the monitor (and typing) is all we know.

Off-roadin'

I realized, while looking over maps.google.com, that one major difference with this city and most others is terrain (no duh). In Florida and in Georgia (places I've spent a significant time), it was always fun figuring out the shortcuts and places that you could cut through, especially if you had the right equipment and the balls. In this town, it's a little more hazardous. A dead end will most probably lead to a 20ft drop upon jagged rocks. If you want to cut through a lawn, you'll have to battle desert landscaping, and friendly neighbors. A coydog is always chasing you, hungry for the moisture of your flesh.

Man, this heat is getting to me....

Vegemite sammiches

Be sure to get your daily dose of 80's music videos

In other news, I've been having fun trying out some php and perl RSS libraries to make things that will hopefully be useful at work. If not, at least it's fun stuff.




Made a homebrew recently that is still working its way out of the green-zone. A nice Anchor Steam-style brew. If you're ever in Las Vegas and you like good beer, please check out Gordon Biersch (there's one in ATL), the Hofbrauhaus (endorsed by der Sigfreid und Roy), the Crown and Anchor(a wall of taps), and a local favorite, the Freakin Frog.

If you see a ninja, he is not a ninja

Man O man. I know I'm terribly out of touch with most things (TV, music, my own needs etc) but I have to mention how much I've been enjoying Ask A Ninja. Ninja exterminators beware, this guy is gonna start a trend.

Flock this!

A friend of mine just sent me to http://flock.com to try out this neat new swiss army browser for linux. Looks pretty neat. I'm posting with it now, so I guess it ain't all that bad. Drag and drop pics, neat. We'll see how this works out...

Don't foget to listen to Weird Al's latest song: You're Pitiful

Blogged with Flock

I am ... Sancho.

Here's a drawing I made, obviously while insane.


Well, I must say that traveling N/S across the U.S. is much more interesting than poking across Longitude-wise. I guess it depends. Either way, covering all of I75 is something every good East coaster should do at least once in their life. I'm still hanging with the family on the East coast for today until I fly back, but I'm not too excited about going back to Las Vegas just yet.

I'm still excited about the Sony eReader. The two things that always stop me from embracing any eBook technology is the cost of the device, and the fact that most eBooks retail for just $1 under the cost of a paperback. This offering, however, does not relieve any of these deterrents but it is super-cool tech.

Light switch rave

It's true, anybody can make crappy techno music. Here's something I made with Gungirl sequencer and some samples. Enjoy, and then seek medical attention.

By order of Baron Strucker

Well, L.A. was a blast. At least the time not spent in downtown L.A. was a blast. I'd have to say that the drive from Vegas to L.A. is quite a unique one. Never a boring moment.

The show went without a hitch and I got to work with some really great people.

Beverley Hills? It's a dump.

Wua?

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/27/1625208&from=rss

Wii?

Wii.


Dammit, Nintendo.

Monkey Shines, $2 a chimp

Well, all the visitors have come and gone. I just have to get ready to make my own trips.

I'm going to E3! We'll be covering the network install at 3 different locations for one particular publisher. It's gonna rock! Hard.

not in the face!

Whew, what a crazy bunch of days strung together and called a month this has been. I've had visitors from everywhere and are expecting more.

I've been hitting the Make Magazine blog pretty hard

7 Ups

Has it really been that long since I last posted? Wow.

Well not much has changed. It's windy (hailed last week), work is working. I'm keeping myself busy with personal projects when I'm not working on keeping up at the office. I discovered a magnificent Asian market on the other side of town. So much meat! And you can pay 2 bucks to arm wrestle with Totoyami the Giant sea crab (Pseudocarcinus Gigas to his friends). Too bad most good grocers are located in the most congested areas of the city.

I just discovered (from slashdot) that one of the breweries that has a big influence here, Fat Tire from Brooklyn Brewery, uses some pretty neat environmentally friendly conservation methods, such as using 'a cogeneration process that involves anaerobic bacteria turning wastewater into methane gas for power'. There's an even closer one that is doing neat things too, New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado. Bottoms up, tree huggers!

Oh, BTW My Name is Earl rocks. I'm making a list, but it's of all the automobiles I've been bad to. I'm working on my Car-ma. hyuk!

Serenity

Looks like I've been tagged. I blame Darrell.

(Darrell would be perfect for the Blue Man group, doncha think?)

Four jobs I've had
* Computer Store retail and repairs
* Dish washer at a Marriott Convention center
* Code monkey in the College of Education at UGA
* Sysadmin and all-around nice guy (Not mutually exclusive)

Four movies I can watch over and over
* Groundhog day (1993)
* Cabin Boy (1994)
* Kwai tsan tseh (1984) aka Wheels on Meals
* Blues Brothers (1980)
(only four? Such constraints!)

Four places I've lived
* Athens, Georgia
* Florida
* Las Vegas, NV
* (That's it. I don't get around much)

Four TV shows I love
* Family Guy
* Simpsons
* Good Eats
* The new Battlestar Galactica

Four places I've vacationed
* Poland
* Seattle
* Montreal/Toronto
* Bahamas Islands

Four of my favorite dishes
* The Udon noodle bowl at Vivian's
* A thick Ribeye steak; salted, peppered, seared, and broiled medium rare
* Can't go wrong with fried chicken from KFC
* All 'I' can eat sushi != All 'you' can eat sushi

Four sites I visit daily
* Slashdot
* Blank Label Comics
* Slickdeals
* Our RT system

Four places I would rather be right now
* Sleeping
* Camping
* With all of my friends and family at a huge crab-boil
* Mastering Space and Time from an intergalactic mind-powered spacepod, with flame decals

Four bloggers I am tagging
* Carey
* Naomi
* Rick
* Sam

google thyself

Like all good people, I googled myself. You never know what you'll get. This is from google images. I should probably google myself more often...

Try it yourself for full results. (i know it's vain, but what's a blog if not e-vanity?)

Of course this has to do with a photographer with my name, but it's still a little surreal...and sexy.

Want a Blue Man For Less Green?

My brother and his wife got Monday off so they decided to make a trip to Vegas. We went to see the
Blue Man Group; first time I've ever seen that, second time for them. It's a great show, and I'm always amazed that they can pull off 2 shows every night. I read that Spamalot is coming to the Wynn here in Las Vegas, and will be here for the next 10 years. I can't wait to see it! I don't think it ever made it's way to Atlanta, otherwise I would have caught it there.

Oh, and here's a picture of one Michael regarding one 'Blue Man'.
----
The sad truth is I rarely get my butt to the drawing desk, instead choosing to recreate with a book or with World of Warcraft and a movie. I hope to get my ink in gear and try to work on improving myself beyond a 5th grade drawing level.
---
At work on my Linux laptop I am iTunes impaired, however I like to use this super-simple tool to pull down my favorite NPR and various other podcasts: bashpodder. All command-line and super easy to configure. NPR Podcast list.

missin' the fishin'

If there's one thing I do miss out here, it's the fish. You can't just stop off on the way back from work to drop a line in, and Caesar's Palace doesn't take kindly to trolling the fountains. This picture here's as close as I get to fishing these days.

Think I'll start my own fish hatchery in the tub...

Also, I found this great video of a large touch-screen being used as a digital work surface:
http://www.badacetechshow.com/video/multitouchreel.mpg

Chief Runs with Scissors

Well, back to the same'ol. How you doin? Seen any good movies lately? Which is your favorite Baldwin brother? My favorite is the one with no nipples.

White people smell like lemons and Pledge

I'm hanging out at the World Market Center today. Fun stuff. Huge furniture convention; Biggest one in the country I think. Three huge permanent tents and a 10 story building full of furniture. I haven't seen this many sofas since the Great Sofa Glut of '63 (not to be confused with the Fondue Explosion of '78). Dangerous place, I saw a chased lounge looking pretty ragged. hyuk!

Watch it mate.

Hey, bicycle thieves. Stop messin with my friends.
You best watch yourselves, I'm sending my best man George here to find ya.



On the positive side, my chocolate porter is a resounding success, at least to MY tastebuds. You can't really feel the cocoa, but it's in there. Very good carbonation. Another victory.

Back in Black

Back to work, you cur!




Think I should go for a Van Dyke? Maybe a Deluxe Van Dyke? hmmmm.

BTW, that cocoa Pockey is the bomb! Like a swissmiss party in my mouth.

Mikey Say Relax

Taking some time off to relax with my Sister and the family in Texas. I do love a grilled cheese sammich.

Let loose the throngs

Showtime!

Well, the Macworld 2006 show floor actually opened on Tuesday, but there are still plenty of people here. I really don't think there are enough accesories for the iPod, do you? hm.

Keeping busy busy and enjoying talking to people and playing with stuff. Consumerism Conshmoomerism!

Weather is foggy and cold most of the time, but the food is still great. A few brewpubs are nearby, doing my best to sample each. I still need to get out further than 2 blocks from the convention center.

tag that vlan

San Francisco is smaller than it looks on TV. Tiny.

Enjoying my work here and enjoying putting around a nice big city with lots of folks and interesting architecture.

smoove

Things are running pretty smoothly out here in SanFran. Cold and wet. Tall buildings. Good Phood.

Here's not a picture from SanFran.

achoo

Well, I got my annual Christmas malady. This year's pick was what I will call Mucus Avalanche; I think it's some kind of sinus infection. I have not been able to shake it all week. I'll see a doc soon. I'll be working Macworld 2006, so I'll have to pick up some iShades to block the iGlare of all the white iProducts. This year Jobs' big reveal should be intel Macs and home media whatchamahookies. It's 2006 and I'm still waiting for my flying car. Today my pal at work gave me a pack of Glico Fuyu (Winter) Pocky w/Cocoa Powder that he got from some visiting friends. Sweet! Special winter edition Pocky for Mikey! http://www.jlist.com/SEARCH/pocky/1 Ernest Hemingway once boasted that he could write an entire short story in just six words, and then sat down and did it: "For sale. Baby shoes. Never used."