Really Hulu?

Hulu asks if its ads are relevant to you. Why? This isn't hard. Here's my real life example:

I'm watching Dr. Who vs The Daleks on the Internet. Yes on smartphones. No on eyelash enhancement cream. DUH!

Chloe can haz moar apples now?

BG got a hold of another apple off the table today. We now have 2 somewhat gnawed apples to get through. I'm gonna get some cut up for her to take in her lunches. Its a shame she doesn't usually eat them cut. Its the novelty of chewing up a big fruit she likes.

She actually made some nice headway on this one :)

Dragonforce in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

I know some of you really want to see this:

She's no TtFaF, but its still 7 minutes of Dragonforce. If stuff looks crazy (star power, multipliers), its from the Quest mode. This is All Powerful (all maxed powers).

Busted

Elizabeth just scared the crap out of me. Just after lunch and I'm waiting on the laundry to finish so I fired up Stalker (excuse me S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) to play for a bit. Sneaking into a mercenary camp in a thunderstorm over a 100ft bridge littered with anomalies (invisible firebombs). I've really gotten into it and Elizabeth burst through the front door! Seems she had the car in for maint. this morning which is just down the street.

Still freaking shaking :)

You Have To Burn The Rope...Again!

Its been a while. Long enough for memories to fade; for generations to change; for mold to grow; for semi-colons to be on sale 10 for $1.

Let us return together to the past. Again. While there is still time. For the first time. Amen.

Huh? I don't know. Anyway,

You Have To Burn The Rope

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/432872

Don't forget the little song at the end :)

Moving Up In The World

Just had my first bit of comment spam. Packed full of porn sounding links that probably download malware.

Civilization 5 Video Review

Growing Up Otaku presents a Civilization 5 Video Review wherein our American player sits down with Civ5's AI Queen Elizabeth for a brief chat.

Aliens Saved Humanity

Superman IV was a terrible movie.

(redacted tangent about how Rrichard Pryor should only be in movies with Gene Wilder, how Hollywood sucks, how awesome Gene Wilder is, and why Batman is a punk) So then they made Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.There is one line in that movie that I still quote today:

"I have done that which your leaders have been unwilling or unable to do."

Superman took it upon himself to rid the Earth of nuclear weapons. Then he snorted a bunch of red Kryptonite an hit on his old girlfriend, but that's not the important part. This is:

An alien saved mankind from itself.

Pretty awesome, huh? Psyched? Go read this:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/09/tinfoil-tuesdays-ufos-neutered-nukes-air-force-officers-claim/

Edited this 3 times. Certain punctuation now doesn't show in blogger.

Eureka 4 in 1 Stick Vacuum

http://www.amazon.com/Eureka-166F-Stick-Vacuum/dp/B002HFVECO/ref=sr_1_2?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285616033&sr=8-2

This thing is great. Its a large, high powered dustbuster with a pop on head and telescoping neck to be a upright vacuum. This is the only way I've been able to keep the dining intact during Tropical Storm Baby Girl. Its a high powered dustbuster and a low powered bare floor vac.

Cord is a little short. Maybe 6ft. 3 prong plug makes using a small extension cord tough. No beater bar, so it can't do much for high pile carpet.

Got this at Big Lots for $18. Walmart has 'em for $20. I'd say its worth $25.

I Made an Internet Cartoon!

Creative Commons Licencing - Video Report

Since we have visually impaired readers I wanted to make sure no one missed our Special Report

I just had the first comment on my last TWO blog posts. I feel like such a douche.

Comments on Creative Commons Licensing - Special Report

Creative Commons is such a beautiful license. Do what you want with it, just give credit and don't sell it. Its the way of The Internet. Of The Future.

Managing Editor Krutzler of Growing Up Otaku would like to take a moment to remind you that none of the original content here at Growing Up Otaku is available under such licensing conditions. If you reprint my material I will find you. I will sue you. I will take your house and dog and I will track mud all over your carpet. The legal staff of Growing Up Otaku live only to see my enemies broken and hear the lamenting of their women. Post it on Facebook? Gimme. Use that email button down there? Dolla Dolla Bill, Ya'll. Print it out? You owe me. Mention the URL to someone? Royalties time. You bookmark this site? What's the name of the bookmark? Nickel please. Once I have the technology to track it, you'll pay two cents everytime you type the address into your address bar. Five cents for a bookmark is a better deal. Here, try this:

Say "growing up otaku" out loud.

Go ahead. Its okay. See, no capital letters. Say "growing up otaku".

Okay, and add the bookmark, referal, both written and oral use of... Hmm... Ya know, why don't I just cut you some slack. Let's make all this mess go away for $12,000. Whadya say?

I was getting a giggle out of reading an article about playing Dungeons & Dragons with a 4 year old. Linky.

So far Baby Girl is much more of a "kiss the duck" than a "slay the dragon" type of person. Still pretty sure I can adapt some form of tabletop wargame ruleset to "pick the flowers"

Amazon Mom Gives Free Amazon Prime Accounts to Parents [Dealhacker]

Amazon Mom Gives Free Amazon Prime Accounts to Parents [Dealhacker]: "

We've highlighted how Amazon Student offers a free year of Amazon Prime—the mega-retailer's free two-day shipping program—to anyone with an EDU address. If it's been a while since you've been a student but you've got a young one running around, reader spcomputing points out the Amazon Mom program:

You can get a free 3-month Amazon Prime membership if you are the primary caregiver of your children. For every $25 you spend on baby stuff per order, you extend your membership 1 month, up to a maximum of 1 year free. Plus up to 30% off on select diapers.

If you're bristling a little at the bad name, Amazon emphasizes that:

Despite the name, Amazon Mom is open to anyone who is responsible for caring for a baby or young child—"Amazon Primary Caregiver" just didn't have the same ring to it.

[Amazon Mom]

Yaaaaawwn

Civilization. One of the greatest game series of all time. Been playing this one since I was a kid.

I WISH CIV5'S AI FELT THE SAME WAY!!!!

Seriously! I mean I wasn't expecting Civ4's AI (Soren Johnson is probably the best AI programmer today), but COME ON! Seems like it should do something. I'm even playing on a harder difficulty than I usually do. Sadness :(

We Love The Webmaster Day

Aww. Katherine's boyfriend Sean sent me a game on Steam (Serious Sam 1:HD).

In other love related news, Mom is sponsoring a new video card. Actually that happened earlier this week, but I haven't had a line on a sweet deal. There's also a price war going on I'm waiting to stabilize.

Poor little thing still coughing so much when she lies down. Still taking it all in stride tho. This whole baby thing sucks, but I really couldn't have gotten a better one.

Poop Everywhere

BG had a big, mushy poop in the highchair. We trailed it all the way back to the bedroom. Both of us had to be changed at that point. Had to wash floors, highchair, changing table, baby, and myself. Pfft. One day home and I get this.

Culture Time

Courtesy of the Mrs:

Here is Chloe's holiday for today - Sukkot. When I was a little girl, I always thought the idea of eating all my meals in a Sukkah would be exciting and glamorous.    I am not sure how many Jewish families actually build a Sukkah for this holiday - who has time or carpentry skills?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukkot

Personal Update

Everyone is nearly over the Jewish cold. There is still some sniffling and coughing, but its pretty much done here. Finally.

Really didn't want to work on the blog today. Think I've forgotten how to relax
BG is home tomorrow. The keeps with her perfect record of not ever attending day care for a full week. Fine by me :)
Again, I really appreciate the help with Dropbox. Since I'm most folks tech support guy, this service will be invaluable to all of us. Google Docs is nice, but the 1GB file limit has its problems. Besides, now everyone has a 2.2GB backup drive in the sky and that is always a good thing.

Also gonna pimp On Site Movie Nite again. Hopefully someone will get a chuckle. It wasn't exactly hard, but none of this stuff is "just click that" easy either. You wouldn't believe a pain it is to change that baby pic ;)

Love,
The Management

Operation Payback Continues

4Chan is still DOSing anti-copyright lawyers at the behest of Anonymous. Once you get the masses riled up its hard to stop all the raping and looting. As usual, Torrentfreak has the best article that will ever be written on this. Link at bottom.

I feel a bit better about this is A)It has stopped when it was supposed to and B) Anonymous wasn't involved. I'm not a fan. Any group formed by a shared hatred is not really... dunno. I'm frequently shocked at how much anti-Scientology talk I've heard out of otherwise open minded people (like anyone reading). Its like any other religion. Just let 'em do their thing. They aren't hurting anyone who doesn't want to be hurt.

Also, basing you image on a movie as bad a V for Vendetta? Bleh. Yeah, it was visually striking but...bleh.

Finally, read at least the last third of the article. I think our "contact" is a writer for Torrentfreak and is testing using the news to co-ordinate attacks.

http://torrentfreak.com/new-4chan-ddos-targets-hated-anti-piracy-law-firm-100922/

Also, this is why  the 'net's been running so bad the past few days. In case you were wondering

Foxconn's Suicide Nets

You know you've been dying to see this:
 

New D&D Red Box

D&D. Who doesn't have fuzzy memories of it. Mom bought me the original D&D Red Box in a clearance bin of a department store that no longer exists. Can't remember the name. Mom got her first CD player there too. It was whatever was before Luria's. Anyway, the joy this box brought was huge. It wasn't long before my sister and I would be chopping up owlbears and setting slime on fire with our babysitter. I would go on to play D&D for nearly 10 years from there. I guess that's nothing. Elizabeth has been playing D&D with her family since (at least) Katherine was born. Such a great hobby. The socal, math, logic, and reading skills needed to play are wonderfully integrated into the system. And the dice! How I still love polyhedral dice! Ah the nostalgia! I can't believe they brought the box back with the exact same artwork. Make me feel fuzzy just looking at it :)

Here's a blurb from Geekdad:

The new Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set is the most unique and engaging way to introduce someone to a roleplaying game I think I’ve ever seen.

OK. Let’s back up for a second. The new Starter Set was designed to mimic the appearance — and to an extent, the purpose — of the 1983 D&D set. The ‘83 set was designed to contain all of the Basic D&D rules in one location, and unless you wanted to buy another adventure, you were good to go.

But that was a more innocent time. These days there are decades of rules. Countless races, more monsters than would even fit in three books, entire worlds, and dozens of adventures ranging from slim booklets to hardbound campaigns. The Player’s Handbook could easily be the size of a phone book, with players howling over all the important rules that didn’t make the cut.

So, one might ask, what could Wizards of the Coast possibly put in the new Red Box that could meaningfully prepare someone for playing D&D? The idea that Wizards of the Coast could cram a relevant portion of the rules into a boxed set is absurd.

Instead of serving as a rulebook, the D&D Starter Set has a different purpose — to lure n00bs into becoming D&D fans. The set consists of two booklets, one for players and one for Dungeon Masters, as well as dice, character sheets, power cards, a battle map and character tokens.

The player’s book downright fascinates me. You remember the classic Choose Your Own Adventure books? Well, that’s what the player’s book is. Give the book to a n00b and he or she can self-direct through a simple adventure and learn the basic terms and rules.

The DM’s book presents like a more traditional basic rulebook. It begins where the player’s book leaves off — OK, you basically like what you’re seeing, now what? The DM’s book guides the reader through game terminology, gives gamemastering tips, and includes adventures, monster listings and other classic staples. The group can make a small number of archetypal characters, and battle a small number of archetypal monsters.

Best of all, a group of neophytes can get a handle on the game without a huge investment in time. Nor of money — the suggested retail is a non-allowance-busting $19.99 ($13.59 on Amazon!) so it really isn’t a major gamble for kids to buy.

Like any product, it’s not for everyone. Experienced players will find little of value in the set. However, if you or someone you know wants to dip their toe onto the vast and turbulent D&D swimming pool, this is the set you’ll want.

Build-A-Bear Workshops Now Doing The Star Wars Thing

Build-A-Bear Workshops Now Doing The Star Wars Thing: "

Build-A-Bear: a place where parents pay out of the nose to allow their children the pleasure of stuffing and dressing their own stuffed animal. At least now, overzealous parents can force their love of Star Wars onto their offspring at a younger age with the addition of Star Wars-themed outfits and a limited edition bear. Right now there’s Darth Vader, Jedi Knight and Clone Trooper outfits, but soon C-3P0, Princess Leia and even Han Solo outfits will be available for $15 each

Easy CPU Waterblock

Taked to Elizabeth about this last night after hearing it mentioned on PCper podcast:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=6610144&amp

Just mount the heatsink & plop the radiator down and done. Watercooling. Better late than never. Water cooling is not really worth it these days considering how good air cooling has gotten.

Timing

No kidding: Just last night I was thinking to myself that there hasn't been any new crazy Michael Jackson stories lately. Then I thought "Oh, that's right". (Tangent: I guess the Plants vs Zombies thing would count)

This morning I found this in my news reader:

Thank you for your prompt attention Jacko!

Its a tough call, but babies either have no sense of time or perfect sense of time.

Surprisingly, I'm leaning towards the later.

Free Booty from me matey Trent

Gots me an email from Cap'n Reznor and he's gots more free music fer ye:

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have scored David Fincher's new film "The Social Network".  You can download a FREE five-track EP of music from the film RIGHT HERE.  Various configurations of the complete soundtrack are also available for pre-order at the above link.

Thanks to a special arrangement with Amazon, US customers can purchase the entire 19 track download for only $2.99.  This is a special offer only good for two days - 9/28 and 9/29.  We will send a reminder when this goes into effect.

The film opens October 1st - be sure to check it out.

All Swedes on Deck!

Yar! Walk da plank!

The Swedish Pirate Party has failed to replicate last year's massive victory in the European elections. The Party, which promised it would host Wikileaks and The Pirate Bay inside the Swedish Parliament if it was voted in, lost the majority of last year's support and won't reach the threshold that would allow it to enter Parliament.

pirate party2009 was a breakthrough year for the Swedish Pirate Party movement. With more than 7 percent of the vote, the Swedish Pirate Party secured two seats in the European Parliament.

Dey'z be needin' 4% o da vote. Dey gots %1. Dis 'ere golden age be nearin' an end. Davey Jones be gettin' company soon.

"Operation Payback"

Da degenerate masses o 4chan hast put 2 through the powder magazine of da RIAA sinking both RIAA.COM and RIAA.ORG Arr, dems dar be a right ole site ta dis pirate's eye! Aye?

Dis 'ere be a jolly good time ta post dis again!

Arrr!

Dis 'ere be Talk Like A Pirate Day! Be ye chests full o gold, ye bellies full o grog, and ye eye socket full o spiders!

WTF WERE YOU THINKING?! DOS TPB?

Last week an anti-piracy group Aiplex Software admited to using DOS (Denial of Service) attacks against torrent sites including The Pirate Bay to knock them off the 'net. Lawyers resorted to the most basic of hacker tricks.

People were pissed. Not just people but People. Anti-Scientology group Anonymous teamed with the notorious meme spewing community of 4chan and supporters of The Pirate Bay. Aiplex disappeared from the web even before the attack was supposed to start by supporters with itchy trigger fingers. Ready yet lacking a target the Perfect Storm of geeks turned their Death Star at the source of all this mess: MPAA.ORG

THIS IS INTERNET!

Your organization only exists so long and THE PEOPLE allow it. Well, except for the telecom industry. They kinda own the whole thing ;)

Seriously though, TPB, 4chan, and Anonymous working together? This much power, properly directed, could shut down countries. No exaggeration.

http://torrentfreak.com/4chan-ddos-takes-down-mpaa-and-anti-piracy-websites-100918/ 

*Update: Watch me investigate. Quality Blogging! Deserving of video cards! Anyway, MPAA is back online after 18hrs and has moved to a new IP. It seems that the RIAA was also attacked. Here is a post from a member of Anon I found in the comments:

It was started 55 minutes ahead of schedule. Our main target was MPAA but later but later Anons became self aware and attacked the RIAA website too. At that point we couldn’t do anything, so we had to carry on with both sites. The massive plot was per-planned all over the world with our bot nets and anons. We are anonymous, we don’t forget, we don’t forgive. We are legion. *update 2* magin's messed up under new editor and I can't seem to fix. Anyway, not over. Round 2 begins 3PM EST aimed at the RIAA.

Movie Premieres In Theaters... and Pirate Bay?

from Torrentfreak:

Tonight the film premiered offline at the Bio Rio theater in Stockholm, Sweden. However, the filmmakers didn’t want to limit the release to an offline venue. With that in mind they are quite possibly the first to have also arranged a premiere on the largest BitTorrent site on the Internet – The Pirate Bay.

A dual premiere is quite unusual, and The Pirate Bay fully support the idea as they are actively promoting the release of Die Beauty on their homepage. Obviously, the filmmakers don’t mind being in the spotlight at all.

“For me a release on The Pirate Bay was an obvious thing to do because I believe that it, without competition, is the best way to promote a film today,” director Skina Bergman told TorrentFreak commenting on her unusual move.

http://torrentfreak.com/filmmaker-premieres-movie-in-theaters-and-on-the-pirate-bay-100917/

Brandon Scores the President's Award for Educational Excelence!

Egad, that was hard to type! Good job buddy!

Ameriface Onbook

You know what Facebookers are? AOL users. Sitting in a little walled off garden oblivious to the network around them. Facebook clocks as much time as all the Google services combined (Gmail, Youtube, Google, etc). Major corporations report vastly more traffic via their Facebook pages than main corporate sites (Coca-Cola, Victoria’s Secret, and Oreo).

And Facebook fan pages aren’t even search engine optimized.

Blog Reboot?

Having some issues with the blog template after the move. MAY decide to start over on  template. If there is anything you don't like here or a feature missing, this is a VERY good time to make that known. Of course if anyone feels like redesigning the site, I'm all ears too ;)

Jim Henson on Making Muppets 1969

The things you need to study as Granpop never ceases to amaze me.

See how Internet piracy works

Torentfreak has an interesting article up about those big raids vs The Scene in Europe last week. This article also has some info on how The Scene works as a whole interesting stuff.

Mind you, The Scene is very old a secret. Some of these groups (at least some version of Razor) were already started before I connected my first 1200baud modem to a phone line.

http://torrentfreak.com/the-significance-of-the-huge-european-warez-scene-raids-100917/

Cthulhu for Great Old Spice

Priceless

Here are the 1973 plans from the BBC for making a Dalek.

http://dvice.com/archives/2010/09/official-bbc-bl.php

Welcome to WWW.GrowingUpOtaku.com

Yep. I own it. We are now http://www.growingupotaku.com/ Update your bookmarks if you want, the old Blogger address will continue to forward just fine. This is so cool! I'm pretty sure I can make and email address and forward it back to ya if anyone want one too. I'll look into it.

I really like the title of the blog. Its a private inside joke that runs through the blog and helps prod my brain when I don't really feel like keeping in contact. It also gives me an excuse to cram my own interests down everyone's throat ;)

Did you ever wonder who was really growing up? I like that. Its why I love the name.

...and now we have bills to pay! Pay up cheapskates! Next stop Selling Out Otaku!

These Jewish colds are nothing to sneeze at ;)

Onlive!

#Onlive starting to deliver the goods! WiFi now in beta. I just played Dirt 2 on a netbook over WiFI. A little floaty, but so very amazing!

Star Wars: Solo Adventures

So awesome! THIS is how you advertise! Made by Dave's School for Star Wars Celebration V.

I put this here so you can make fun ;)

Spink Cup Holder protects your computer from spills: "

Whenever you’re really into what you’re doing, it seems like that’s the moment you forget about that hot cup of coffee that’s conveniently placed just a little too close to an elbow. Of course this always happens around sensitive material like important paperwork and electronics. If you were to pick up Spink it’ll keep your drinks from spilling when you happen to knock into them.

This is probably the most simple yet brilliant device. You already use cup holders in your car, so you might as well have one for your desk as well. This allows for your glass or coffee cup to just slip inside. Then underneath is a strong lever-powered suction that won’t let the holder be tipped over. With Spink you can not only choose between red, black or white, but you can also customize it by slipping in a photograph. You can purchase one of these for $19.95 online or find a store that sells Dreamfarm products.

Can't Quit You, Firefox

Firefox is slow, bloated, bad with memory, and her looks are 10 years old.

But... Ad-Block!

I just can't stand to see the 'net like it truely is. Its not safe to surf the web without it! You can't even use the web efficiently on older systems. Why can't someone get that plug in ported. Okay, maybe not to Google Chrome ;)

Layaway!

I just realized that Kmart still has layaway! It also seems that Sears does too! Furthermore, it seems that via Sears.com you can put stuff on layaway! Don't know how it works in practice, but food for thought.

I scream, U scream, We all scream for:

Crunky Ball Nude!

Tyroid Results In: Place your bets!

You lose! Levels are "fine" :P

The Road Movie Not Review

I had intended to complete my post apocalyptic movie double feature today, but I don't think I'm going to finish The Road. I'm 20 mins in while I'm typing this, so we'll see.

Hmm? Sorry, got busy playing with Win7's desktop stuff.

Yep. Movie going that well.

Here we have another desaturated grey movie that ripped off its look from a video game. This time its Stalker (or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to be correct. Stupid name. Its not even an abbreviation in the game). Its also got that oddball soft filter on it they use on those 7-80's horror film remakes. There are only a few bad CG shots at least. In fact you can almost never see more than 50ft in front of the cast due to fog or windows covered in grey smudges. Its one of those films that spends a lot of money on looking low budget.

So why can't I sit through this? I hate this kind of movie. Its an Oscar grab. Its the Machine's version of art. This was a popular book so let just throw in an underrated cast, show a lot of crying and hugging, add sepia filter, shake until bored. Oh and add narration of the lead actor reading from the book while hopped up on cough syrup. Seriously, if you can't get Morgan Freeman, you should not have a narrator. This is especially true when your lead actor narrates in a different accent than he uses in the movie.

You still here? Good. Here's the real problem w/The Road: It leads nowhere. I am now 1hr in. There is no goal, plot, and barely even a setting. It is just a series of overly emotional vinigets designed to play with your emotions for 10 minutes before resetting and moving on. Nothing changed, nothing learned, nothing gained, and no harm done. Its like watching a whole season of a TV show in one go. Ya know, this would have been epic if it was released as a series of 12 minute episodes. But as it is now, I didn't want to sit through more than 3 episodes, let alone 10.

I guess if you want to see a chick-flick post apoc movie, go for it. Just don't try to watch it all at once.

Lego Carnage

I noticed that the new Emperor's Shuttle from LEgo comes with the bite-sized and extra-crispy remain of Anikin Skywalker. I had to get a look at how all that gruesome would carry over to a Lego Minifig:

So cute!

Puzzle Quest 2 Review

So good the Puzzle Quest.
With the Puzzles!
And the Questing!
And the Questing for Puzzles in Puzzle Quest! 2.

The Book of Eli Movie Review

This is a long, ultra-violent hard sci-fi tale of Denzel Washington who has to take his book West through the post atomic wasteland of America. Gary Oldman wants his book.

Loved:
The look. Yeah, they ripped off the entire visual style of Fallout 3. Blatantly. The terrain, the lighting, the film filters. You name it. Very striking

The Silence. Book of Eli is the quietest Mad Max movie ever. Everything is still and dead. There is no dialog for the first 20mins of the movie. You feel that its all gone

Gary Oldman as a bad guy. He's always sooo good. He disappears into some of the most despicable monsters in cinema and just when you unreservedly hate this guy, there's a little wink to the audience. He always slips in in. A tick or line of dialog that says "Hey, calm down. We're just having fun kids". And such a variety of bad guys! He's not just Gary Oldman. The guy can actually ACT.

Denzel Washington's performance at the end of the second act is wonderful. I'm not gonna say too much, but... yeah. Not your usual Hollywood breakdown. So much more suited to his character.

Good story and dialog. Great hand-2-hand fights, fair gunplay. Good gore.

Hated:
Sound design! The lead sound engineer... guy person... should to torn apart by syphilitic monkeys (on crack). Yeah, the silence was great, but not in a bar scene! I get what they were going for, but when I have to check the video to see if I accidentally downloaded an unfinished work print you screwed up. Because the movie is so quiet, the producers felt the need to make anything remotely action oriented TOO LOUD. In the 3rd act, the sound guy tries to copy Blade Runner. Sigh...

Video compositing on wide shots is amateurish. Even under a grey filter. BluRay won't do this any favors.

The Look. They stole everything from Fallout 3. Including the desire to desaturate the entire movie. Maybe even more so than Fallout. This movie has one color: Grey. You get a break in the 3rd act where we change from grey to sepia filters. Yay.

Mila Kunis can act, just not consistently. I also hate hearing her voice. She is hoplessly outclassed by the rest of that cast and pulls me out of the movie. Obviously included to catch the attentions of young males.

The ending's ending. There are a couple of quick scenes in the epilog that ruin that movie. Well, not really, but they made me scream "Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong". I'm not gonna rant here. If your interested, drop me a comment. I'll try to keep spoiler's light. Okay, I'll rant a little (skip to avoid possbile (not really) spoilers. Its supposed to be a , NOT A @#$*ING IPOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And does not the say a little something about vengeance?! You'd know that if you weren't taking the iPod instead! Horrible! Tragic! Makes the whole thing seems worthless...


I liked The Book of Eli and wanted to love it. It is takes its time and really allows you to sink into the world they've created (Stolen!). The plot is good and offers a fun and thoughtful ride through the wasteland.

The Book of Eli: Now playing on Opera Unite at Video Sharing\Movies-R

Guest Blogger: Elizabeth

The Mrs. has your baby report for the day:

am thinking we will have gorditas tonight - I need one of the ground beef packages thawed.

*ed* Er, um. Not that part. No Tacos for you!

Chloe was excited as usual for school - she had a big breakfast too. She still has sniffles and a cough - but mucus is still clear and no fever.

Her teacher says that all of the boys in the class have moved onto the 2 year old class. So Chloe's class is all girls right now. The teacher says this is good too. The older boys were more active and it was harder to do alot of hands on activities with them. So the teachers are going to take this opportunity to have more complex activities with Chloe's class so that the girls can get to do more crafts and hands on activities.

Too User Friendly?

Need for Speed World gave the error "an unspecified error has occurred. Please try again later. If problem persists, contact customer support."

Really?

Unspecified error? Your cheap ass server is down or busy. Own up to it!

Elizabeth's mom is sick with something pneumonia-like and BG has a sore throat (but slightly better nose finally). Always so dull around here.

We Welcome Our New Giant Fire Breathing Baby Overlord!

To celebrate our new logo, I though I'd see just how long I've had this blog now. The answer will shock and amaze! I have reprinted my very first blog entry for your convenience below:

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Blog started.
Listening to: Buckethead&Friends: Enter the Chicken
Playing: Resident Evil 4 Wii; Google apps

Even then we can see the precedent that would be set for years of Quality Blogging that would put $0 in my pocket towards a new video card.

Inside Foxconn

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_38/b4195058423479.htm

and here's a juicy quote:

The interview took place at Longhua, the entrance to which looks like a border crossing, with seven toll-booth-like lanes and uniformed guards. Although drab and utilitarian, the campus is a fully functioning city, with fast-food joints, ATMs, Olympic-size swimming pools, huge LED screens that flash public-service announcements and cartoons, and a bookstore that sells, among other things, the Chinese-language translation of the Harvard Business Review. Prominent on display are biographies of Gou, one of which collects his many aphorisms, including “work itself is a type of joy,” “a harsh environment is a good thing,” “hungry people have especially clear minds,” and “an army of one thousand is easy to get, one general is tough to find.”

Need for Speed World More Free!

More than a million users have signed up to drive around in massively multiplayer online racer Need for Speed World, and EA shows its appreciation by removing level restrictions for non-paying customers, making all current and future content free-to-play.

Too Many Systems or Crap Software?

With 4 PCs in the house (2 on 24/7) + the iPod, Wii, PS3, and cable box, I feel like I spend MUCH more time updating and maintaining all these machines than I do using them.

BTW, my PC is still stable after the lowering the video clock. Not even any boot problems. Maybe heatsink loose or crap thermal paste on VRAM. WAY too much work the verify if thats the problem. Of course I might just have cooked it a little too much over the years too.

Er, I mean... System totally unstable and driving me to the brink! Someone better get me a shiny new video card soon!!!!!

Just looked over the blog. I almost never do that. I can tell thyroid is up this week. Well, that plus that weird shaky-feeling hot flashes at night. Need to put more work into my self control. Probably posting too much too. Comments are low. On the upside, everything is crystal clear. No more scatterbrain. Problems are easy to identify and solutions usually obvious. Typing speed is even up.

Brandon just called. KotOR crashing while loading the first level after character creation. Gonna have to check into that. No good deed goes unpunished ;)

Anonymous in the Spotlight

So much stuff I want to talk about today (thyroid starting to crank too high), but not enough time. I also don't think anyone really wants to read quite that much of my rhetoric, so I'm gonna talk about talking about stuff.

I'm no stranger to a journal. I am very new to having people read it however. As I've covered before, most of the time I jot stuff down here I still don't feel like I'm talking to anyone. I've always preferred a low profile. I don't want a large social circle or even Internet Fame. Being a hermit was a nice lifetime goal ;) I'm not even much of a picture or memories guy. I'm still not quite sure how this went from "help" to "hi" to the monolithic tower of text you see before you now.

I don't really know where I'm going with this... Maybe I should just go back to Twitter to learn some restraint. That 140 character limit does wonders for streamlining thoughts.

Die Netbook Die

From CrunchGear:
"My problem with netbooks is that they promised far more than they delivered. When you opened a netbook your initial thoughts were “Oh, I can get lots done on this.” Then you tried to run anything. In the end, users were frustrated, reviewers were angry, and the netbook became a doorstop. Our implicit expectations of tablets, however, forgo these problems. In fact, a tablet is supposed to look disappointing and then, when it doesn’t, we become enamored. The Dell Streak and the iPad fall into this category – they’re not supposed to be good, but they are."

Amen.

It took MONTHS to turn my netbook into the Internet appliance it is today. I went through no less (and probably a few more) than 4 operating systems. Mom asked what kind of netbook she should buy for her vacation down here. My response was "None." I love my netbook but wouldn't wish it on anyone.

A Great Way to Start the Day

The baby threw a rubber duck at me and knocked the bowl of oatmeal all over the floor because she wanted to eat her baby junk food. I then proceeded to smash up the garbage can (and my hand) pretty good. She can sit in her playpen and we'll try brunch. Wife still seems pissed from last night. I was the one being interrupted and she's pissed? Probably just means I'll have more bloody pants to scrub. The demeaning shit I do. Jimmy cracked corn and I don't care.

"Patience of a school teacher and the skill of a surgeon." It was the first Thank You letter (by mail!) I had received. We've come a long way from there. I can't believe that this kind of life is rewarding for some.

I guess others would say that about my old life too. Hmm. Perspective.
Not perspective. More different strokes. Just rambling now. Gonna -
Nevermind

Sharing is Caring

I LOLed at this comment on a PS1 game torrent and wanted to share:

Computer-smart daughter has PS2 w/Swap Magic. Want to surprise her---she loves VP!! What kind of files should I end up with on the discs? I'm not puter smart, but I know how to Magic ISO, Power ISO, & Nero (mostly.) Sorry for stupid question, but thank you. --Mom

Roll On Beautiful Katamari

Keita Takahashi has quit. The man behind the most colorful, strange, and gentle games I've ever played (Katamari Damacy, Noby Noby Boy) is moving on.

And I am glad.

I loved this guy's work and believe that his artistic contributions would be great for a future filled with gray colored shooters and sterile match-3s, but its no secret that Takahashi really didn't like making games much. This is a guy who should be out making toddler toys. He has already completed work on a "next gen" children's playground and recently been contracted to help restore an amusement park in the UK.

*Edit to add quote*
In an August interview with the Official PlayStation Magazine, the game designer said, "At E3 I saw people putting on speeches but I thought the future seemed a bit dark. The 3D games didn't spark my interest. I think motion control's a bit old now."

On the Piracy Raids

If you've been following the newsfeed, you know about the huge multinational European raids that went down. Looks like they struck at The Scene itself this time. Just in time for the fall season :( Good news is that they seem to have just taken down the Topsites listings and most groups should be unaffected (but probably scared shitless). Hard to tell yet. There is no doubt that this is a major victory for the MAFIAA (MPAA & RIAA) against our brothers fighting for the freedom of art and culture.

The Pirate Bay is still sailing :)

Torentfreak has the details as they are being discovered. I'll link 'em here in case anyone wants the nitty-gritty:

http://torrentfreak.com/

Free Time?

Everyone wants to know how my child free time has gone. The answer: not well.

Day 1 was last Thursday. Chloe was here until about 10:30AM. I spent the rest of the day on the verge on tears from the time she left 'till she came home. I was pretty useless. Day 2 was okay. Just felt numb and didn't do much of anything but wander around the house. Elizabeth was home early.

Then came a 3 day weekend. Business as usual then. Today I spent 4 #@&%ing hours cleaning the bathroom. Then 2 loads of dishes, some laundry, and still need to get the grill cleaned. And a shower. I hope.

Tomorrow is Jewish New Year (you spell it!), so only 1/2 day there.

Maybe either Thurs or Fri will be a good slack day then back to a weekend schedule.

I've got HIGH hopes for next week tho ;)

Liz was up @ 3:30AM last night due to a call from work. Don't know if she made it back to bed. Both she and BG were gone when I got up @ 7:30.

*edit* Nope. She never made it back to bed. Food for thought before you complain about anything today.

Sonic Screwdriver!

That Dr.Who adventure game put out by the BBC is getting ported to the Wii. Also being made is a sonic screwdriver Wiimote. THIS IS NOT A SHELL! This is an actual Wiimote!

On Being Grandpop

Listen, its like when you drink too much tea during the day and wake up in the middle of night to go to the bathroom. But its cold outside and you don't want to leave to comfort of the comforter. But the urge to pee get stronger and stronger!

Anguish! Worry! Trouble!

You make up your mind to go to the bathroom. You stand in front of the john. You let loose! Man, that feeling of release! All that pent up feeling being released! But then you realize... You're not in front of the toilet! You're still under the covers! That warm feeling spreads between your thighs, but it won't stop! You can't stop!

That's what it is all about. That is the true nature of Grandpop! Understand?!

Grandpop! Grandpop! Grandpop!

The Symbolic End of Summer

Labor Day. Time to stick a fork in summer.

Had a very good experience grilling tonight. Dogs, buns, and shrimp skewers done in less than 40 mins. Zero swearing! A new record on both fronts. Even beat the rain.

No one offered to buy my trees this year. Usually I have at least 2 offers on the trees out front every summer. Knew they weren't looking good :(

Chloe is still leaking snot, but not feeling bad at all. In fact, she was very, VERY active today.

What Do We Call These People?

Haven't highlighted a Hero for a while (damn Chinamen stopped dropping dead playing WoW).

A WHITE House correspondent tweeted today that he was having a heart attack - and continued to post updates even as medics attended to him.

Tommy Christopher, who writes for mediate.com, posted the first message on Twitter overnight.

"I gotta be me. Livetweeting my heart attack. Beat that!" he wrote.

He followed with: "Paramedics think I will live. Gonna get a cardiac cat. Jeez, I'm old. This is depressing," referencing a viral video where a cat gives a cardiac massage to another cat that has been hit by a car.

Christopher continued to tweet about his condition for the next hour.

"This is not like the movies. Most deadpan heart attack evar," he wrote. "Still hurts even after the morphine."

Finally the reporter, whose condition was unknown, tweeted: "Ok, taking a break now."

The Less You Know

I feel like I know every sound this house can possibly make. I've just spent so much of my life here. The new roof threw me off a good deal when I first moved in but I'm used to it now. New sounds still pop up and startle me. A tile gets worn out or a rug has a little too much sand under it. Its funny because the only reason I'm startled is because I think I know it all. Video Card.

Slow Blog Day

We're all fine but covered in baby snot so here's a LOLcat:

Looting the Inbox

From Elizabeth:

After Chloe had breakfast today, I told her we were going to get her dressed for school - she smiled a big smile and walked eagerly to her room and actually cooperated while I got her dressed. Then I put her down on the floor - she quickly walked over to her lunchbox and blanket which I had set on the couch and picked up her blanket and grabbed my hand and started pulling me to the door. I barely had time to grab her cup and lunchbox! She was so excited I couldn't believe it.

When we got to the school she waved at her teacher Miss Jessica while I signed her in. She seemed very comfortable in the classroom and immediately spotted a wooden jigsaw puzzle of shapes which she began to work on. I put her lunch and cup in the refrigerator. She did not seem the least bit concerned that I might be leaving soon. Miss Jessica said that Chloe was very calm yesterday and played well with the class. Chloe asks "What's that?" about everything and is curious and interested in everything. She gets to have her blanket whenever she wants it.

Love,
Elizabeth

Possible iTunes problem

Had lot of odd problems w/apps crashing, settings not saving, and installs erroring out. Finally tracked it down (by accident). Last iTunes update has a chance of wiping the permissions on your user folder. Can not believe this is not widely reported.

If you've been having odd problems like this Mom, let me know. I can walk you through a solution. Seems to have been last week or 2.

Perspective

I am currently using 145 MB (1%) of 7493 MB in my Gmail account. I could fill my Gmail to %100 and fit it MicroSD card half the size of my thumb.

My first hard drive was 30MB, 5.5"x3.5"x8".
Less than 30 years have passed.

BG seems to have had a good day. She was tired and hungry as hell, but way over excited. Day Care said she did very well with no crying and that she was very huggy.

‘Wookiee The Chew – The House at Chew Corner’ Is Star Wars & Winnie The Pooh Mashed Up In A Children’s Book

‘Wookiee The Chew – The House at Chew Corner’ Is Star Wars & Winnie The Pooh Mashed Up In A Children’s Book: "

I’m in awe. There’s something wonderfully simple but yet appropriate about this concept from author James Hance. Star Wars should be as important as Winnie The Pooh in a child’s development and it’s probably best to introduce them to the lore as early as possible.

From Hance’s website,

I’m ridiculously proud to announce the release of my first actual, proper, real book! It’s a tribute to the combined genius of George Lucas, A.A.Milne and E.H.Sheppard.

‘Wookiee The Chew’, in the style of the original Pooh books tells the adorkable tale of the little biped that belonged to Chrisolo Robin (and Chrisolo Robin belonged to him). 24 pages of affectionately crafted adventure, brand new illustrations and sneaky Star Wars references.

Order one. It’s only $5 with $5 for shipping and this man clearly deserves our support. I’m sure you and your kids will love it. Best of all, it seems this is just the first one and there will be more on the way later. [via Boing-Boing]

Read and Bookmark to Read Again

This is a wonderful page:
http://lifehacker.com/5628396/the-basic-guide-to-troubleshooting-common-windows-pc-problems
and I also liked this graphic:


But you should have already seen that since you read, bookmarked, and plan to read again that page.

Liz says the baby aclimated just fine. No crying or screaming, just lots getting into new toys. And a table. She said something about a table. Dunno. Hard to listen. Very upset.

She's off. With not enough juice and the wrong shoes. Elizabeth is going in to work after all. Probably for the best. Ask me about baby provisions then ignore it. Pfft. Could not be more emotionally charged. At least I got a big breakfast into BG.

Was thinking about how much Mom always yelled at Diane for day care. Made me fell a bit better. That was before BG headed out with wrong shoes and too little juice.

She was hard to get to sleep tonight. I don't think I'd feel quite so bad if she hadn't gotten all "Wha! Don't leave me in bed" tonight. Its actually the first time she's had something like 2 outbursts about going to bed this month! I've definitely cranked out one heck of a happy, health child.

*edit* I hope this whole day care thing doesn't totally fuck that up...

Next time on Growing Up Otaku

Elizabeth is gonna call in sick tomorrow I think. That'll help. Gotta cut the lawn. Mornings have been nice this week, hopefully that will hold. Friday should be easy. Got a year's worth of sleep to catch up on ;) Pull a normal weekend. Then Monday. Monday's gonna be really fucking weird.

Chloe is off to school tomorrow and I feel like a total failure for not handling her myself.

Got to play BFH w/Lou on the same team today. More fun against each other without VoIP

America?

So HP was being investigated for paying kickbacks to secure government contracts. The Department of Justice started looking into this. Results are in today. Guess what? HP has apparently paid the DoJ $55 million and the case is now closed.

Democrats are too smart to know they're dumb

Obama:
“I think it’s important to lay down a marker about how the Obama administration views this issue,” he said of online copyright infringement. “As Vice President Biden has said on more than one occasion, ‘Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft,’ and it should be dealt with accordingly.”

Obviously with Biden as VP, this was just a matter of time. Maybe even without Biden. The Democratic party would collapse under the weight of its 2 faces without Hollywood to prop it up. Who else can make you believe that these politicians aren't really politicians. Between Hollywood and their death grip on education's professionals, its shocking the other parties even still win elections! Maybe its good that old people are the only ones who vote. They seem to know better.

Normally I'd just blame all of you but, honestly, not voting for the black guy would have been so very wrong.

Found Lou on Battlefield Heroes last night. There was much Teabagging of his corpse ;) Oh, and that time I hit him with a tank. You'd think the bastard was blind or something LOL

I'm not usually a teabag kinda player, but there is just something in BFH that makes it irresistible. Maybe its the bright, bouncy nature of the game. Its just... more fun.

*ed note* Teabagging came from the Halo players. This is the ultimate insult. Once someone is down, the killer will stand on their corpse and alternate between crouching and standing. This give the illusion of rubbing your crotch in their face.