TurtleHead

Well, despite kneecarrot's suggestion, Firefox 3.01 didn't fix my problem. In fact, it blue-screen-of-deathed me about 5 minutes after installing it.

However, thanks to everyone who suggested Opera. It has a lot of configuration options, and I've got it set up now almost exactly the way I had Firefox set up.



The address bar acts as a google search immediately if it doesn't detect the text as a URL. The buttons are small and reload is the same button as stop. And I've even managed to get my "give me something good" button going the way I want it (that star over there on the right).

~sillysocks

What with the election on in the states, I really wish they could take things a little less seriously. Like we do in Canada. Remember this?



Words don't describe the joy of seeing Sheila Copps singing Trooper. Not even Jon Stewart could accomplish a video like this.

By the way, PvP officially jumped the shark for me today. It was nearing the jump with the ridiculous panda storyline, but there was still some brief hope that fonzie would steer his skies to the side before going over. But with today's utterly humourless and poorly-scripted strip, I can't take it anymore.

Gone.

So I'm officially using Safari as my default browser on my work computer. Not because I want to, mind you. But firefox kept blue-screen-of-deathing me. At first it was only once or twice a week, but for some reason this week it started happening once an hour. It seemed to happen if I ALT-TAB'd back and forth between Firefox and something else too quickly. Downgrading to Firefox 2 didn't make a difference. Perhaps Firefox 3 left something crazy on my computer that uninstalling couldn't remove? I don't know. I'm sure the problem is unique to my computer, but that doesn't make it any easier for me to solve.

Anyway, I won't use IE.

Safari annoys me in many ways, not the least of which is how un-customizeable it is. In firefox, I had all of my toolbars compacted into one at the very top of the screen, and I had configured my address bar to act as both address and search bar. Oh man, it was sweet. None of this is possible in Safari, which ticks me off.

Okay, so pieman was upset that I thought sinnick was a bigger space marine fan than him (even though he totally is).

So today I present pieman this peace offering: the hip hop version of Predator. (You only wish I was joking.)



(The best videotape I ever made had three movies on it: Robocop, Predator, and Aliens. That says much about me.)

I know penguins can't fly or anything, but I thought everyone knew they were birds.

This gaffe reminded me of something. I remember reading an argument that birds were cold-blooded on a message board once, way back in highschool. It went something like this:

1. Mammals are warm-blooded
2. Birds aren't mammals
3. Therefore birds are cold-blooded.

I heard another argument that birds are cold-blooded from some (intelligent!) colleagues at Microsoft once. This one is more vaguely acceptable:

Well, they descended from dinosaurs, didn't they?

Neither make any logical sense, but it's amazing what the human mind will convince itself of, isn't it? If something seems like it should be cold-blooded, well then it just must be!

Of course, NBC went too far. Perhaps someone told them that birds are warm-blooded and they just assumed that meant they were mammals? Who knows.

Okay, so I make it no secret that I really like Starship Troopers. Whatever you think of the politics, the novel's still a really fun read. The movie kind of pulls a bait and switch, satirizing what in the novel is rather earnest.

But that's not the thing that the movie misses. What it misses is the mobile part of the mobile infantry.

I am of course talking about the power armour.

I get it, though. The power armour makes humans too strong. And it reduces the opportunity for gore. Both of which are integral parts of the film.

I mean, adapting the book more closely would've made for a much more boring movie. It's all about living on the ship and stuff. So they had to change the book. I get that, but I still lament that Rico's not dropping down in a capsule then hopping around on powered thrusters flaming and nuking the skinnies.

The reason why I bring this up is that I just watched Starship Troopers 3.

:)

Lookit this chubby old midget! He's loaded!


Baby Trying To Stay Awake - Watch more free videos

At first I was just going to email this to sinnick, since it is a link made for him and him alone.

But maybe there are other fans of space marines and aliens who might also enjoy it, so here: Aliens, the board game, as a video game.

Look, I know these things don't follow a set schedule or anything, but seriously: let's get going with this baby, eh?

Now two days after the due date, and no sign of labour. Mother-to-be is getting bored of being at home with nothing to do, and I'm getting there too.

I mean, the house is all clean and ready. All the chores are done, and everything is as ready as it will ever be.

I'm even doing dishes by hand immediately after use instead of shoving them in the dishwasher for later. Partly this is because I don't want to leave shit in the dishwasher if we're in the hospital for a few days, but mostly it's Something To Do. Plus it feels nice having everything clean.

And I really like when the cupboards are full of clean dishes. It's like that feeling when you've just been shopping and the fridge is full. Or when you're playing a video game and you're at full health, you're inventory's fully stocked with health potions, and your ammo is fully charged. It just feels good.

And I have a feeling it won't be like this again for a very long time after the baby arrives.

If she ever arrives.

Come on, baby. Come.

Not only is Felcia Day singing in a Joss Whedon internet show (Dr. Horrible), but she's also part of a independent YouTube series about gaming (The Guild), has a blog about video games. She has a lvl64 Warlock in WoW.

Oh my god, this girl is about to get the internet fire hose in a bad way.

I'm surprised nobody is mentioning Aaron Eckhardt's performance in The Dark Knight as Harvey Dent. He has just as much screen time as either Batman or the Joker, and he's better than both of them. The role could have been written better, but it was acted superbly. Heath Ledger is one-note, and that note is a caricature, and Christian Bale has nothing but grunts and one-liners.

I give the film a 6. It can't quite find that balance between dark drama and melodrama that a good Batman movie needs. The first one had it, but this one tries to push into "serious drama" and in doing so it goes too far. You can't have serious drama when the guy is riding around in the batmobile, even if it does look like a tank. The comic books understand this - especially the books which Christopher Nolan is drawing inspiration from (Year One and The Dark Knight Returns).

The plot hangs together fine, but I wish more character development had been saved for Batman. Bale is probably on my top five list of best actors of this generation, but I think he must have realized early on that there was nothing for him to do. He seems checked out.

As for the Joker, it's the same scenery-chewing we saw in the first Tim Burton movie, only tweaked towards psychological thriller instead of camp. Personally, I've never really cared much for the Joker as a villain. There's nothing to him. He has no well-defined origin, no powers, no explanation for how he is able to pull off such elaborate crimes. His personality changes depending on the writer. He exists purely to be a very obvious dramatic foil for Batman - chaos vs. order, insane vs sane, etc. But he never moves past that point, and he doesn't in this movie either. He's watchable, but from a narrative point of view the character is a dead zone. In twenty years, no one has been able to improve on Alan Moore's portrayal of the relationship between Batman and The Joker. Twenty Years. Let's please be done with him.

By the way, I saw a trailer for Watchmen at the movies. Over a year before it comes out, but I'll admit it, I got excited.

Charlie Wilson's War is a surprisingly good movie.

Be Kind Rewind is surprisingly not.

Well, that's not fair. Be Kind Rewind is just one of those movies that you think is one thing, but turns out to be another thing entirely, and ends up doing neither as well as it ought to.

Whereas Charlie Wilson's War is one movie, all the way through. And it's all good. But then you look at its pedigree, the people involved, and you realize: oh yeah, that's why. These people know how to make movies. Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin. Direction: Mike Nichols. Tom Hanks, Amy Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julia Roberts. Say what you want, but these people are at the top of their games.

Good movie.

One of my favourites.

                OTTO
        How do you do Mrs. Leach? I'm Harvey Manfred..jen...sin...jen... 
        I'm, uh..with the CIA.

                WENDY
        The CIA?

                OTTO
        That's correct Ma'am. I was, uh, just telling your husband here
        before I had to use your beautiful bathroom that uh,
        we've got a high-ranking KGB defector in safe-house near
        here. We're debriefing him as of now and just ... checking the
        houses in the neighbourhood. 

                WENDY
        For what?

                OTTO
        For KGB

                WENDY
        Is there any danger?

                OTTO
        No, no, no, no, no. No, uh...no, no, not now. We uh, we just 
        want to keep everyone informed. Mm. So, Archie, thanks for 
        the drink. Sorry to have troubled you folks, I'll see myself out...

                WENDY
        Keep everyone informed?

                OTTO
        So there's no panic ma'am.

                WENDY
        But isn't it a secret?

                OTTO
        You have no idea how secret.

                WENDY
        Well why are you telling everyone?

                OTTO
        It's a smokescreen?

                WENDY
        What?

                OTTO
        Double bluff?
                (beat)
        Look, you obviously don't know anything about 
        intelligence work lady. It's an ... XK-Red-27 ... technique.
        
                WENDY
        My father was in the secret service, Mr. Manfredjensinjen, and
        I know perfectly well that you don't keep the general 
        public informed when you are debriefing KGB defectors 
        in safe house.

                OTTO
        Oh you don't, huh?

                WENDY
        Not unless you're congenitally insane, or irretrievably stupid, no.

                OTTO
        Don't call me stupid.

                WENDY
        Why on earth not?

                OTTO
        Oh, you English are so superior, aren't you? Well would you 
        like to know where you'd be without us, the old US of A to 
        protect you? I'll tell you. The smallest fucking province in 
        the russian empire, that's what! So don't call me stupid lady, 
        just thank me!

                WENDY
        Well thank you for popping in and protecting us!

My favourite quote from Dr. Horrible is:

                PENNY
        He's a really good-looking guy, and I thought he was kind of cheesy at first...

                DR. HORRIBLE
        ...trust your instincts...

                PENNY
        ...but he turned out to be totally sweet. 
                (beat)
        Sometimes people are layered like that. They're totally different underneath
        than what's on the surface

                DR. HORRIBLE
        And sometimes there's a third, even deeper, level. And that one's the same
        as the top, surface one.

So, since the odds are less than poor that we'll make it out to see the new Batman movie, what with Project Baby 1.0 due for beta release any day now, I figure this will just have to hold me for now.

The goddamn Batman. Damn straight.

Mirror's Edge looks to be, finally, a first-person-perspective game that I haven't seen before.

It's not a shooter, but a parkour game. You are a courier in a dystopian society where there is no privacy, and you have to find your way across rooftops, along catwalks and through buildings to deliver your message. Looks awesome.

I love Bob the Angry Flower as much as a man can love a web comic.

It is so, so great. I wish he posted more frequently.