Groo, Games and Grand Openings

This week's word: enervated. It's not what you think.

Oct 12 - Searchables

Ah'm feeling rather beat this week, hence the lack of "This is what I did" info here... to be honest, what I wanted to do most days was take a nap when the day was only half-done. I'm glad I picked up a nice 'sunlamp' before I moved out here, as I think the lack of sunshine is putting me to sleep of late.

While I missed seeing the new Star Trek on the IMAX, I did come across this gag reel from the film... and not a tribble in sight. That's about it; thoughts of Tribble Bacon danced through my head...

Here's a test of your internet search skills: try to find out the name of the brunette model from the latest Special K commercials. With the internet being what it is these days, I'm sure we'll be seeing more of here. Candy commercials gave a big boost to the TicTac girl's career, whose name turned out to be Kate Kelton - though I haven't seen her anywhere around lately, but she does have a nice website. Things have come a long way since 1993, when the Osbourne Complete Internet Reference was selling like hotcakes - now it's available for a penny on Amazon.com. Who knew my copy would be so worthless now?

Oct 13 - Zombie TV

While I was off today, I spent a few hours in Victoria looking around a few places for some bargains... I managed to pick up a small portable B&W TV for $4.99 at the Value Village downtown. It was lacking a power supply, but handily I had a universal one squirreled away for just such occasions. Powered up, it will serve as a 'monitor' for when I'm recording shows while using the big flatscreen for other purposes... because most TV's these day's don't come with Picture in Picture. I miss that feature... so handy, but cost-savings mean that TV's are cheaper to make without it by a few dollars.

What do you get when you combine Lego and Zombies? Why, Zombie Apocafest of course! Check out the massive amounts of work and creativity that has gone into this display of plastic and the living dead. Or, if cakes are your thing, this picture gallery has a ton of great creative cakes, a lot of them are sci-fi!

Tonight I sent around my 6-month update for my NWN Project, which was both upbeat and truthful about the current state of the whole thing. I am hopeful that we will have a working system running by the new year, but with everyone so busy it's going to be a task to keep things on track.

Oct 14 - Sandman

Today I read Neil Gaiman's first Sandman comic Preludes and Nocturnes( collecting issues 1-8 )and it was stellar - of course! Odd as it may seem, I never got around to reading them when they first came out back in early 1989. I'll be checking out the whole series from the local library as time permits; they have a great selection of sci-fi and fantasy there, quite impressive and not too far away - most days. Not as close as the Port Dalhousie branch library was ,but nothing's perfect.

A long while ago, a few of my good friends put together a site for me, called Ctrl-Alt-Pete. It was meant to accompany my articles I was writing at the time for Cyberwalker.com, but that didn't pan out. Neither did Ctrl-Alt-Pete, though I still have hopes of reviving it in the near future. Ironically, C|net.com just posted an article about Five Great Tech sites... popping the thought into my head "Hey, mine could have been on there..." Something to think about, on top of all the other stuff.

New tech still catches my eye, especially if it adds value to some tech I already have. Such seems to be the case with this item, which lets you copy files to and from your Xbox360 drive a lot more easily than you might think. For those folk who use their Xbox360 as their main media player, it makes sense to have all their media files on it, especially as Microsoft doesn't make it too easy to hook up any old drive as a storage device - 'Plug and Pray' all over again.

Oct 15 - Lucky Windows

One week from now and Windows 7 will hit the streets. Considering that the majority of computers out there running windows are still using XP and Vista was a sales flop, there's high hopes that W7 will be a hit. As always, there are misunderstandings when something new for Windows hits the market, and in W7's case one of these is a thing called virtualization - a really neat thing, too. Remember I mentioned XP a moment ago? Well, Windows 7 Business Edition has a feature that allows it to run a perfect copy of XP inside itself, to allow older programs to run flawlessly. All the while, your new laptop / PC / whatever is running Windows 7 on the outside - WinXP is just another program within it. The confusing part? Quite a lot of CPU's, even new ones, don't support virtualization. Fortunately, my laptop is upgradable, and the X9000 CPU that's on my Xmas wishlist does support virtualization, according to this handy site. So that's made me a happy guy today.

On the way home from work I stopped in at Future Shop( as it's just across the street along with an EB Games - how tempting each day! )for my usual game of "What's on sale that I don't need?" Today I found something: a networkable external hard drive case that someone had returned, so it was 1/2 price. I'd seen it before, but didn't spring as the price was more than I thought it was worth. For 50% off though, I decided it was time. I was amazed that the setup went as easily as it did, as my experience with networkable drives is that they generally just... don't... work. For whatever reason, it liked my network layout, and I soon had it copying files willy-nilly - great to have an easy way to back things up without tripping over wires from the laptop. Falling's bad for tech, in general.

More good news today for Star Wars fans: the Tauntaun Sleeping Bag is one step closer to reality! Soon... and hopefully there are both small and adult sizes in the works.

Oct 16 - I'm moving... later.

I got a call at work today with some startling news: the house we're in has been sold. So that means that the not-so-nice landlord is out, and the unknown landlords are taking over by the end of November. This doesn't affect us due to our lease until early 2011, but it also means that my days in this lakeside house are numbered. I have one more summer to take my ease by its gentle shores, then I'll have to pack things up... again. I'm rather tired of moving, and I hope that when the time comes next year I'll be able to find the energy again that got me through the last 2 moves.

Homes as one's castle: I haven't seen more than one episode of Castle, which stars Nathan Fillion of Serenity fame, but from the little I've seen it's quite good. As it's getting rave reviews, I've put it on my 'See Later' list... and not just for the fact that they keep doing cool things like this. Anyone out there have any good shows they're watching right now?

On the topic of space, I'm still debating on buying a beta copy of Gratuitous Space Battles... which would give the developer more cash to finish the game. Seeing as there's just the one guy coding it, I think I may treat myself next paycheque. We'll see if I can find... space... in my budget.

Oct 17 - Mulch!

The arbutus trees in the backyard have shed most of their bark, which has left them looking oddly bare, with a soft olive colour that's in stark contrast to the dark bronze colour that the old bark had. All in all, I like the effect - it's as though Mama Nature decided to go all designer-style with the Arbutus, and I heartily approve.

Ah, Groo. The tales of the Bumbling Barbarian are the antithesis of his peer Conan, whom the character was created to mock. I found the first issue of Groo at an Avondale store( now a drycleaner )on Geneva St. back in May of 1985... I was hooked. For those of you unfamiliar with Groo and his world, have a browse through his Wiki entry here. Groo appeals to me for many reasons: aside from the humour, he knows where his skills are( his swords ), he is honest, has a good heart and he has interesting things happen to him. Crazy, zany, laugh-out-loud things. If you can find a copy of Groo The Wanderer at your local comic shop, pick it up - it's work the read!

It was busy, busy day at work: the sun was fleeting, but it seemed that anytime it stayed out for more than a few minutes, people scrambled to get things done. After I closed up, I had more than a dozen people pull at the door before I left myself - far more than usual, which I attribute to the sun. Strange, but that's people for you.

Oct 18 - Lineups

Up and out the door in the mid-morning today to line up at the local Best Buy for day three of their Grand Opening celebrations, for which the weather co-operated for a pleasantly sunny experience. Once I was in the door, I was disappointed to find out that the two Xbox360 games I had lined up for had sold out... yesterday. Apparently they were one of the items that they didn't 'limit daily quantities' on. Ah well, money saved and only my free time was spent.

News close to home: a ship full of potential refugees sailed into local waters early today. It was escorted into a Victoria berth while the 76 men aboard were offloaded for processing and possible refugee status. Things like that never happen on the Great Lakes back east, eh?

While playing COD4 today, I was impressed all over again by the LG TV I purchased almost 2 years ago now. It's performed almost flawlessly for nearly 24 months straight of daily use. For an LCD TV, it's gone the distance and more... though it and its rival plasma have a new contender on the market now: LED TV's. There's a nice guide on C|net called 10 Things You Need to Know about LED TV's which is worth reading, as the new tech will inevitably show up in stores very soon. Unlike the oft-promised but rarely seen OLED TV, the new LED TV's are cheaper to make and so easier on the wallet - plus they'll be in stores sooner rather than later.

In case anyone's noticed, I try to put at least 3 things in each day's entry. So that's 21 things a week that I come up with that are interesting to me... and hopefully to you. Until next entry then...