Random Encounters

Termite swarm

2009-04-22T13:54:00.000-05:00

Termites are now swarming in my basement. Dang it! I find bugs in programs - not in my office!!!

Uncle Dennis's Pond

2009-04-18T14:58:00.000-05:00

At long last enough rain has come to GA to fill up my Uncle's pond. He says the fish are biting. I didn't bring my rod because last time I was here fishing would mean climbing down into a mudhole to catch minnows. Not so anymore, it seems.

Waiting for Sedaris

2009-04-15T23:11:00.001-05:00

Oh this is a nice venue. Smells like wine and old spice. We saw David signing but they said only 20 folks because he was running late. So super-K and I started upstairs and then they let in 5 more people. Now super-K is mad that we didn't loiter more effectively near Mr. S. Oh well. I will sneak out near end and go stand in line for her...

Yellow air.

2009-04-03T08:34:00.001-05:00

That yellow smoke is pine pollen. I'm not allergic, but that crap is like Silver Surfer heralding the arrival of allergy-Galactus.

Pine Pollen Pond

2009-04-01T08:25:00.001-05:00

The first big April Shower leaves a yellow scummy pine pollen mess on the nearby drain pond.

BSG BOARD GAME.

2009-03-29T18:24:00.000-05:00

Neat game. Full of intrigue and surprisingly easy to play.

Ted williams

2009-03-23T11:35:00.000-05:00

Does Ted Williams look like newscaster Brian Williams or is it just me?

Not a dog

2009-03-01T11:53:00.000-05:00

This is what my mother has in lieu of an 'actual' dog.

Circus pt 2

2009-02-22T13:59:00.001-05:00

More circus

circus

2009-02-22T12:16:00.001-05:00

Pancake party

2009-02-21T17:58:00.001-05:00

Mmm.

What lurks beneath...

2009-02-21T12:30:00.001-05:00

We had movie-night last night and I thought I saw some popcorn under the coffee table. Moved it to vacuum - and found this.. Bizarre.

Good food

2009-01-31T11:32:00.001-05:00

Ross's Diner - Cartersville GA.

Enjoying the comedy...

2009-01-23T19:36:00.001-05:00

Here we are being entertained by the classic comedy riffs of The Invisible Man. But seriously, Greg Proops should be out soon. He is so funny, although with his arrival Bob the Builder took a turn for the Hippy/Green that im still reeling from.

The Prime Directive?

2009-01-17T20:45:00.004-05:00

OK - So, in just a few days the U. S. is going to have a historic new president. Sure we get a new president every four to eight years, but in the history of our country this will be the first time we've ever been led by a president put into power by Star Trek.

Huh? How's that? Are you out of your Vulcan mind?

It's true. If it weren't for Star Trek, Barak Obama would not be our president elect. And I'm not just saying that because he looks like more like Tuvok than Tupac.

No, in this case the weakest (IMHO) of the Star Trek series, Voyager, is the culprit. It all goes back to Seven-of-Nine. In real life, she was played by actress Jeri Ryan. She used to be Jeri Zimmerman but then she married politician Jack Ryan. Jack, a very popular candidate, was poised to take the open senate seat of Illinois. Then it was revealed that Jack and Jeri's divorce had involved, according to Jeri, his wish for her to engage in public sex acts. Technically, there were many adolecent boys across America at the time with the same wish, but Jack was in a position to actually ASK her to do the stuff.

Seven-of-Nine's allegations went public and destroyed Jack Ryan's political chances, despite his obvious Tom Clancy cache', and instead of Ryan, the democrats faced Alan Keyes. Nothing against Mr. Keyes, but he was no Jack Ryan. And the democrat who beat Keyes to become the new senator from Illinois? It was none other than Barak Obama.

So, though I hear that Obama is something of a techy-nerd, he's got better reasons for liking Star Trek than most folks do. After all, Star Trek just beamed him into the white house!

Jack Black is Charles Darwin

2009-01-13T07:37:00.005-05:00

Well, I guess I can see it. I think I hoped that for the 200th birthday of Darwin there would be some kind of serious biopic - perhaps along the lines of PBS's "Evolution" series. Instead we get Jack Black and Adam Sandler in "Bulldog - the Huxley Chronicles." Based on Ivan P. Tatterson's comic series of novels Sandler will play Bulldog Huxley, the gruff but well meaning vocal advocate of Evolution who keeps getting the somber Darwin (Black) into a variety of uncomfortable social situations.

The publicity stills leaked so far include Darwin and Huxley dressed as ladies running from a mob of what look to be Puritans or Pilgrims. I think this is supposed to be a version of the scene in the book where the Anglicans get after the pair, but this looks very over the top.

And casting Harvey Keitel as Archbishop Wilberforce seems a bit odd to me. Couldn't SOME of the cast actually be British? Is this some strange reversal of the "House Syndrome" where British comic actors play serious roles in American TV? It should be interesting.

I know the shots of the balloon-fight-over-London look exactly like I'd imagined them, and the set design of Darwin's lab (including all of the little finch heads mounted like trophies of a game-hunter) are probably the most fetching steam-punk images since the regrettable "Wild, Wild West" film.

Cleopatra

2009-01-11T19:01:00.002-05:00

A game of building, politics and corruption. Gameplay is pretty neat, with lots of elements that can change values. Most corrupt individual gets thrown to the crocodles.

Sadly, I was the most corrupt.

Maddie's Boo-boo

2009-01-09T23:42:00.001-05:00

Doc thinks it'll be around 7 stitches.

Update (following day): Turned out to be 8 stitches. This photo is after the "zap" was applied to stop the bleeding. That stuff is pretty neat - 2 pain relievers + a vaso-congester to stop bleeding. I think Madd was more upset that we held her arms while they stitched her than she was scared or in pain. She didn't even cry until it was almost over and she wanted to get up.

She's braver than she looks.

When Darkness Comes

2009-01-06T23:33:00.003-05:00

After a year (or five) sitting in my basement, I'm getting ready to try "When Darkness Comes."
At first reading the dice system made no sense, but then after visiting the Twilight Creations website and reading their "updated" rules, it makes perfect sense.

I think the big difference is that in the new PDF rules, the dice system is actually explained. Whereas in my original rules, there is just a table that doesn't actually tell you how to score the target number rolls. (Answer: You use multiple dice and the rolls match out like card hands. 3 of a kind, a full house, 2 pair, etc...)

http://www.twilightcreationsinc.com/wdc is the website.
The game supports up to 6 players + a GM (optional).

I may try the no-GM version where it plays out like a board game, just to see how it goes. Seems like it might be a pretty fast game, and like most of TC's work, the minis and the board are beautiful.

New Years Gaming

2009-01-01T22:40:00.001-05:00

We did Uno, Dino Hunt, Arkham Horror (classic version), Give me the brain (deluxe), Jenga, Family Business, and Carcassonne. Neat.

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Shelves shelves shelves

2008-12-23T01:42:00.000-05:00

Spent a few hours today knocking these together. They don't look like much, but that's over 300 pounds of books.

Halloween was bad on my teeth...

2008-12-16T18:08:00.001-05:00

The big whiteboard

2008-12-15T07:07:00.002-05:00

After a year and a half in my garage, I finally got the 12' x 4' whiteboard hung up in the basement!

Waiting on Santa

2008-12-09T18:02:00.002-05:00

Skeptics against H8.

2008-11-15T15:10:00.001-05:00

Testing my new Treo 800.

2008-11-03T16:35:00.001-05:00

Arkham Horror Halloween

2008-10-31T23:25:00.000-05:00

Will this become a new tradition? Probably not. Need sleep too much...

Dead raccoon.

2008-10-22T15:42:00.001-05:00

Well it is...

Totally sweet

2008-10-17T15:34:00.000-05:00

Bigfoot?

2008-10-17T14:42:00.001-05:00

I thought he was in my freezer?

ORLY?

2008-10-17T14:41:00.001-05:00

Is this the best way to represent NM? What about Billy the Kid? Or Smokey?

How to speak like you're Welsh: Lesson 1

2008-10-01T09:14:00.003-05:00

I was watching Fireman Sam on the PBS. And in this episode a little girl had a squirrel in her room, and it caused a fire. All through the episode she kept talking about her Squee-doo. I thought that was the name of the squirrel. But it isn't.

Lesson1: Squirrel = Squee-doo (Say it fast and put the accent on the second syllable.)

SteamPunk @ DC08

2008-09-30T19:36:00.003-05:00

I noticed it too. Tons of people dressed as Victorian era adventurers, only armed with fantasticly improbable weaponry. And welding goggles. You can't forget those...

And women in corsets and dresses with what we used to call "Granny Boots" in highschool. And welding goggles.

Apparently in the Steam-Punk aesthetic there is no occasion in which it isn't appropriate to be prepared to do some welding. And who can blame them? In a world where giant robots and aliens from mars can attack your city while you're trying to hold your own in a game of billiards at the gentlemen's club - who's to say you won't need to pause and do some welding?

Weird Tales's website has an interesting article about the rising popularity of this genre/aesthetic.
Enjoy.

Spring is Near...

2008-09-03T14:20:00.001-05:00

DragonCon is over, new friendships have been forged and as the calendar rolls on toward autumn, these maples begin to show red at their fringes. To a fly a year would be generations, to a tree it must seem a moment. Here's to a year like a tree...

Party on Groethe

2008-08-31T21:14:00.001-05:00

That's a weak Wayne's World joke.

Randi looks amazing!

2008-08-31T19:32:00.001-05:00

Derek and Randi loitering outside the 'future of skepticim' track.

Beneath the Hilton

2008-08-31T19:18:00.001-05:00

That is no dead which doth game
And after strange aeons this poem's still lame.

Starcraft anyone?

2008-08-31T18:13:00.001-05:00

Looks interesting, but I prefer the PC version.

Actually

2008-08-31T17:07:00.001-05:00

1, 4, and 5. Dang it!

My guess

2008-08-31T16:54:00.001-05:00

Without dowsing, my guess is 2, 5, and 8.

Can they do it?

2008-08-31T16:40:00.001-05:00

LOL. The challenge is to find water in cans.

JREF million dollar challenge

2008-08-31T16:22:00.001-05:00

Some kind of dowsing test? We shall see.

Where in the hell is Carmen SanDiego?

2008-08-31T15:16:00.000-05:00

At DragonCon of course! Duh.

Petticoat Junction

2008-08-31T15:13:00.001-05:00

LOL.

dragonCon foodcourt haiku

2008-08-31T14:43:00.000-05:00

A sea of strangeness
Fairies and Jedi eating
Voices merged to song

At 2:27 nearly capacity

2008-08-31T13:29:00.001-05:00

Neat. Ben Radford's talk on Psychic Defectives -er, I mean "detectives" is at near room capcity.

The debate is on - round 2

2008-08-30T15:17:00.001-05:00

It begins HOT with Graham having to explain the comment he made last year where he said, "James Randi is a fraud." He retracted that to state he meant to say that the Million Dollar Challenge is a fraud. I don't think he backed it up too well - but obviously believed what he was saying.

Ben Radford vs. The Devil

2008-08-30T11:46:00.000-05:00

The two designers of 'Playing Gods' face off.

Skeptical Podcasting Track

2008-08-30T11:31:00.000-05:00

Dr. Novella, Derek Colanduno, Dr. Pamela Gay, D. J. Grothe, Richard Saunders, Ginger Cambell MD.

Skepticism 101

2008-08-29T12:06:00.001-05:00

Wow! Close to 200 people in here!

Waiting for Randi's first panel

2008-08-29T11:45:00.001-05:00

DragonCon 08 has begun.

Busy workers

2008-08-12T14:14:00.001-05:00

Another "Separated at Birth?"

2008-07-25T20:12:00.004-05:00

Well, it was time for another deep bout of Nostalgia. Just a week after watching the new Batman movie, I finally had the opportunity to sit back and start watching Manimal. Yeah. See when Manimal came on I was in the Band in high school. And we had games on Friday nights. So while the rest of America missed Manimal by choice, I missed it because we didn't have a VCR back then. (Not that my mother would have let me record it if we had...)

So I get about as far as the credits on the first episode when I see This Guy:

http://simon.helenheart.com/images/hello95_susan_simon-01.jpg
That's Simon MacCorkindale and his wife actress Susan George.

And I got really confused because Manimal stalked the airwaves back in 1983, and yet the host of the show looked so much like Harvey Dent that I had to do some research. Yeah. They favor.

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/shared/contentbinaries/publish/2770455.jpg
That's actor Aaron Eckhart, the actor playing Harvey Dent in the new Batman movie.

Wow. Their age is far apart, but not their look...

The moon's full.

2008-07-18T02:04:00.001-05:00

Very gotham. I'm stuck here for a while it seems.

No, seriously

2008-07-18T02:03:00.001-05:00

Its 3 in the morning and the parking lot is totally full - and stagnant...

3:00 AM

2008-07-18T01:57:00.000-05:00

The movie is over and all I can say is WOW!

Spoiler alert: Bruce Wayne is the Batman...

Forget Harry Potter

2008-07-17T22:28:00.001-05:00

Midnight. 16 theatres. All sold out. Holy mega-boxoffice, batman! They may make their loot back tonight!!!

Gasoline - twas cheaper before.

2008-07-15T11:44:00.000-05:00

I remember when I could drive my escort home on $2. That wouldn't do much today...

Escape Claws

2008-07-12T08:13:00.003-05:00

Well here's a bit of followup on the parking lot incident. First of all, one of my alert readers went out to the google maps and got an arial photo of the site. Turns out there's a pond just out of sight past a little fence and some kudzu & grass.

Then I got to looking for info on crawfish migration - and found this article describing a mass migration across a highway in Louisiana.

And here's a link to an article about catching crawfish which includes a paragraph about their migratory behavior. (And also indicates that if you get a good mix of small & large that it indicates a healthy population - which is what I saw here.) LINK TO ARTICLE

All that stuff indicates that they do leave the water to migrate, there was a large freshwater supply nearby (with elevated water levels due to large quantities of rain) and that they can at least walk the distance between two sides of a highway if people leave them alone... so it is plausible that they could have come out of that pond to wander the parking lot at 2:00 am.

I think I'll still followup with an expert...

Attack of the Crawfish!

2008-07-11T09:13:00.002-05:00

A woman's scream filled the movie theatre parking lot and I bounded over to help. She and her date were confounded by an enormous bug - which turned out to be a huge crawfish. It rained a lot these past two days - but I think 'twas sexual displays I was seeing out there as the crawfish snipped at each other. (Or at least some kind of territorial display...)

I easily picked up five lively specimens and saw many more squished throughout the parking lot.

I must do some research on this... I've never seen so many crawfish out of water before. The other obvious solution to this is that someone had a bucket of crawfish in their truck and they either crawled out during the movie, or the person dumped them out in the parking lot. But the distribution of the crawfish was over the entire length of the parking lot - which makes me think it was a natural display, not a result of human action.

Want to Write Like Lovecraft?

2008-06-30T09:47:00.004-05:00

Now you can with these awesome fonts based on his own handwriting.

http://www.cthulhulives.org/toybox/PROPDOCS/PropFonts.html

And who doesn't want to write like HPL?

See you later, John Phillip Law

2008-05-15T23:53:00.003-05:00

Oh, there goes another one. John Phillip Law - the angel from Barbarella, Sinbad from the Golden Voyage and of course Diabolik from the last episode of MST3K. His stunning physique, piercing eyes and imposing presence have not been equaled on screen. (And that sounded kind of gay, but I'm just saying the man was born to play Hermes and never got to...)

Oh, well. We all die - but few of us get to be remembered as icons of 70's cinema. (Yeah, his career didn't end in the 70's - I'm just saying...)

Oh boy. Filled up with gas...

2008-04-20T21:17:00.001-05:00

Can't wait for summer!

Expelled was boring...

2008-04-18T20:41:00.001-05:00

....and full of lies. Check www.expelledexposed.com For more details...

Evolution?

2008-03-31T16:50:00.004-05:00

There is a hilarious new movie coming out called "Expelled" where Ben Stein plays this creationist who tries to prove that there is a massive atheist conspiracy to push something called "Darwinism" into schools despite the fact that "Big Science" knows that evolution isn't real.

What's that? Huh? It's not a comedy?

Seriously? Ben Stein thinks that there is an atheist conspiracy to promote evolution?

He doesn't think fossil evidence, molecular evidence, the fact that every animal on earth is related by DNA, the obvious mutation and change observed in microorganisms, and the thousands and thousands of biologists who not only work based on evolution but also study nuances and mechanisms in ways that directly demonstrate its effects mean anything?

Oh my goodness. That's sad.

I recommend going to www.expelledexposed.com and finding out what is up with this strange and misguided film.

And if you want to see an amusing example of what kind of folks the Expelled filmmakers are, check out this link: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/03/expelled.php

Dundjinni - Finally some progress?

2008-03-30T11:34:00.003-05:00

I love the mapping program Dundjinni. It is probably the easiest to use mapping software for D&D (or other) RPGs. The newest patch, version 1.07, comes with some great fixes and terrific news. They've updated their EULA and now you can use Dundjinni to make commercial products! Of course there are rules, but according to the announcement they want a credit in the product.

If I ever get around to making such products I certainly would credit them. I need to read the EULA, but in the mean time here is the announcement from their site:

NEW PATCH + NEW EULA AT DUNDJINNI!

Helping a customer.

2008-03-26T11:03:00.000-05:00

Arthur C. Clarke - I can feel my mind going.

2008-03-18T18:59:00.002-05:00

Well, once again I tried to catch up on the classics only to see it all end in despair. -SIGH- I got my TV working using HiDef finally after 3 years of having a big-screen without a tuner to drive the signal.

So after getting the DirecTV HD receiver (with the dvr - it's no TiVo sadly) I started cruising the channels looking for stuff to see with HD resolution. And what should I find but 2001: A Space Odyssey.

"Hmmm, 2001. I haven't seen that since I was just a kid," I thought to myself. "I bet that would look sweet on HD." So I recorded it and watched about 20 minutes of it on Sunday and then sat down last night and finished it over some popcorn.

And somewhere on the other side of the world Arthur C. Clarke, age 90, picked up his list of people who had not seen his movie in HD, put a tick by my name, and died content that he'd given my eyes something to do while my mouth chewed puffed corn.

What can I seriously say about Clarke and his work? A few things:

1) I have only read one of his short stories, but I remember liking it.
2) I enjoyed 2001 and despite the psychedelic ending think it is still one of the best hard sci-fi movies ever made.
3) I absolutely adored Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World and Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe.

The quote from Clarke (possibly) that I always hear is that "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That's good. Not sure if he originated it, but I like it.

He also said of UFOs: "They tell us absolutely nothing about intelligence elsewhere in the universe, but they do prove how rare it is on Earth." Amusing.

The coincidence of my having just finished watching 2001 only to discover that he died less than 24 hours later is disappointing. I was thinking of writing him, and hear that he did answer e-mails regularly. Not so now, I suppose. Not so now.

X-Ray Delta One, end transmission. Over and out.

Spring?

2008-03-10T13:13:00.001-05:00

It certainly isn't officially Spring yet, but this buds for you.

The love between a monkey and a bear

2008-03-05T10:47:00.000-05:00

Why do these toys do this stuff? Don't they know this crap is destroying America?

Gary Gygax - Rest in Peace

2008-03-04T21:49:00.003-05:00

Role-Playing Games. Not some lumbering beast, but a thousand thousand variants on a theme. Evolution. From strategic miniature simulations came the idea of playing a Tolkien world, developing characters and doing more than dealing with raw numbers.

The man who in most people's minds brought that whole world to the light of day and spawned an entire industry (which in turn spawned the computer gaming industry to a great degree) was E. Gary Gygax.

Last night he failed his saving throw and passed away.

Sadly, no healing potions will aid him now. No party member will be carting him off to the nearest temple for resurrection. He's gone.

But in his wake what a vista!

His game (his and Dave Arneson's) was Dungeons and Dragons. Here's just one kind of spin-off.

A guy named Richard Garriott played D&D and decided to make a version of that on his Apple computer. That game was Akalabeth, which evolved into Ultima. Ultima begat many sequels, and Garriott eventually created Ultima Online.

This was really the first successful MMORPG with a mainstream draw (not to demean all the MUD players out there - I feel ya playhuzzzz).

Effectively Garriot had evolved D&D type play into a fees-per-month monetized Internet-based community driven extravaganza.

Which really drove folks like Blizzard to make World-of-Warcraft. And if you've paused from playing WOW long enough to read this entry, then you should say a kind word in memory of E. Gary Gygax - a man who helped entertain millions even if he didn't make that much money doing it.

Diary of the Dead

2008-02-14T23:24:00.002-05:00

Lots of zombie goodness. This is classic. I liked this much more than "Land of the Dead," and I didn't hate that one. Some of the acting is a little "stiff" in the beginning. I don't know what order Romero shot in, but as the characters start out they seemed too much like they were acting and not like they were "real" people. But as soon as the s-hit the fan, they started feeling more like real folks.

Real stupid folks.

But real folks. I guess here's this one meta-complaint about zombie films. In every zombie film (except Sean of the Dead) it seems like even though we can assume everyone knows zombies aren't a natural part of the environment in their "world" - it is not reasonable to assume that their world has no zombie films or fiction. So how is it that none of the heroes know what to do when the zombie apocalypse starts? Sad.

I want to see the zombie film where the disaffected geeks and survivalists are the ones who make it. I'd like to see how their culture of extreme geek and paranoid military protectionist policies play out in a world where the dead get up and eat the living.

Yep.

I'll just sit here by the theatre door and wait....

Finally seated...

2008-02-14T18:51:00.000-05:00

Not started yet, but so far so good. :)

An unfortunate theatre worker...

2008-02-14T18:38:00.001-05:00

So many casualties.

Diary of the Dead

2008-02-14T18:34:00.001-05:00

Me and the wife watch the folks makeup as zombies for the premiere of George Romero's new zombie flick.

A book a month?

2008-02-01T08:57:00.001-05:00

Mrs. Smith has resolved to read a book a month. So far, so good... But what was she pointing at?

Clowns Protest Claims that they're "Scary"

2008-01-18T09:53:00.001-05:00

Flash! Clowns Ain't Scary!

(At least according to this article:)

LONDON (Reuters) - Unhappy clowns from around the world say a study that reported that children didn't like them has wiped the big smile from their faces, and have been falling over their large shoes to put their case.

A poll by researchers looking at what decor to put in hospital children's wards found that youngsters do not like clowns on the walls and even older ones think they are scary.READ MORE

Hmmmm. I wonder why people thought they were scary? It just doesn't make much sense...

Oh, it's probably a matter for the sociologists and psychologists. I can't for the life of me think of any social cues that might lend credence to the idea that clowns even could be scary. Can you?

Unless you count Gacy, but he's just one example - right? I mean just because one clown is a raving psycho doesn't mean they all are...

But I can see where the clowns might be offended. A bit.

We certainly don't want to see clowns out protesting. Can you imagine how disturbing that would be to see a carload of angry protesting clowns? Sure it looks like a canary-yellow Cooper Mini, but I assure you it is chock-full of White Grease-paint and the scent of meringue.

Wellerisms

2008-01-15T13:35:00.001-05:00

I've a friend who likes to say, "I see said the blind man, who didn't." As I remember it, he said he picked it up from his father - who attributed it to being an "old saying."

But thanks to my friend Internet, I learned today that these types of sayings can be narrowed down to a particular person who first made them famous through a literary character. Of course I'm speaking of one "Chuck Dickens." (edit: It seems likely that even if he made the technique famous, it predates him. Just wanted to clarify that.)

Chuck's book, "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club" was populated by a character named Wells who liked to say things with an amusing formulaic method which might roughly look like this:
OLD SAYING OR COLLOQUIAL OBSERVATION is true, as demonstrated by the following punnishly accurate but didactically contrasting example.

Here's one that amused me:

"Business first, pleasure arterwards, as King Richard the Third said wen
he stabbed t'other king in the Tower, afore he smothered the babbies."

Chuck had Wells squeeze in forty-one of these gems in that onerously titled tale.

The "I see..." example is more commonly used thus:

"I see said the blind man and he picked up his hammer and saw."

Occasionally a deaf man or dog (or even horse!) is squeezed in there too.

These kinds of ideas are variations are apparently common in the Dutch language as well and are known as "Apologetic Proverbs." Wikipedia has a nice article on the matter, but here I quote a couple that also succeeded in amusing me:

English:

"We'll have to rehearse that," said the undertaker as the coffin fell out
of the car.

Dutch:

"Het is kruis of munt" zei de non en ze trouwde met de bankier.
(English:It's cross or coin said the nun, and she married the banker.)
Explanatory note: In Dutch "Heads or Tails" is referred to as "kruis of munt", literally meaning "cross" (i.e. religion) or "coin" (i.e. money).

At any rate, it was nice to find the embarkation point for this bit of wordplay. Any number of elaborate variations may be found in common usage and in literature - but I find knowing a bit more about their historical relevance and sourcing to be intellectually satisfying.

Further Reading:
The Tom Swift books have their own amusing word play known as "Swifties." Although amusing, they are probably on the way out because most writing teachers instruct the disuse of adverbs relative to how things are quoted or said, and the Swiftie is entirely dependent on adverbially describing the observation or quote. Read about it here.

And just for fun, I decided to try my hand at one of these things. I went to my wife and asked her for a common saying.

She said, "The grass is always greener on the other side."

"The grass is always greener on the other side," said the grave digger as he
shoveled the pile of earth.

Not terrible for my first try... I like the way that "other side" could reference both death and at the same time prepositionally refer to the pile of earth.

Yahoo RSS Feed Reader

2007-12-29T10:01:00.000-05:00

I'm a longtime fan of Yahoo! and their "my yahoo" web portal. Usually they've made good advancements and I guess it makes me a bit old-fashioned that I still use it rather than jump ship to other technologies every time something new comes out.

Despite their good record in general, they still sometimes mess up when it comes to Ads. Since Ad revenue is one of their main (if not the main) source of their income, I guess it makes sense that they have ads wherever they can. And as long as that doesn't interfere with my actually reading content, that's all fine and good.

But here we have an example of ad placement ruining the content experience. When I open an RSS feed message to see the full text, a pop-up floating flash-ad obscures the text of the entry. And it has no "close" button. And if I try to mouse over it I'm assaulted by fly-out options - none of which include "close" or a handle to move the ad.

This is a terrible implementation and now that I've become accustomed to getting my RSS feeds as part of my portal experience, I'm inclined to go build my own content page elsewhere rather than deal with this. I'm going to write them a letter. In the past that has been a colossal waste of time. Finding someone helpful at Yahoo is generally far more difficult than what I expect writing my own portal page would be.

CORRECTION: It appears that the example I've shown here was a bug in the particular ad. Which just goes to show me that Yahoo! probably isn't out to kill me, and that those people in the van probably were just lost tourists, not Yahoo!-Ninja-Assassins. Good to know.

These Chiropractors are the Wurst Belchers...

2007-12-13T12:24:00.000-05:00

A sign on the square in Marietta.

Theory Shmeory

2007-12-11T13:24:00.001-05:00

Never buy any other kind!

2007-12-08T19:22:00.000-05:00

If you have to buy a rubber frog, be sure it is a magic lucky frog!

Internet Media - pshah!

2007-12-07T14:28:00.000-05:00

Headline writing is probably fun. To someone.
I remember the (possibly apocryphal) story that after Loeb (of Leopold & Loeb) was murdered by a fellow inmate, newsman Ed Lahey got out a headline that read, "Richard Loeb, despite his erudition, today ended his sentence with a proposition." Witty, in that the plea of the killer was that Loeb had propositioned him, then assaulted him, and that in order to defend himself he'd had to cut Loeb 58 times with a straight razor in the shower. (They were serious about self-defense in those days.)

Anyway, since Yahoo! apparently can't even tell a Diva from a Dude - well, I don't expect we'll be hearing about the clever web headline of 200X anytime soon. Unless you count the headlines over at The Onion. Some of those are pretty memorable.

Thanksgiving Traditions.

2007-11-21T13:11:00.001-05:00

If it is the day before Thanksgiving, we must be smoking meat at Mr. Gunn's...

Grendel/Hoggle - Seperated at Birth?

2007-11-20T15:45:00.000-05:00

Yes, perhaps they were. Or perhaps Hoggle got dropped into the deep fryer after his post-Labyrinth fame had worn out. Either way, I kept thinking that the Grendel in the new Beowulf film reminded me of someone - and I finally remembered who it was. Thanks, Internet!

Beautiful Day!

2007-09-28T13:31:00.000-05:00

Unbelievable weather out today!

Surgery set for October 10th

2007-09-13T10:37:00.000-05:00

For those of you following along from home, I'm planning to get gallbladder surgery on October 10th. If it is complication free, I could go home as early as the same day, possibly the 11th.

If it were to go poorly (not EXTREMELY poorly, but just kind of poorly) it might take a bit longer than that.

FYI.

First Draft Complete

2007-09-09T21:22:00.001-05:00

I don't know how many words the final draft will be, but I've completed the first draft and avoided the Billy-Bass.

Now I just have to flesh out some of the more encyclopedic background chapters and then I can start on my edits.

Bwah-ha-ha.

Mo is out. Now it is Kali vs. Moses.

2007-09-02T18:35:00.001-05:00

Playing gods - playtest

2007-09-02T17:26:00.000-05:00

Time for more coffeeeeeee

2007-09-02T16:38:00.000-05:00

Mmmm. Coffee - then off to see what Radford's game has that Pantheon doesnt besides a prototype...

Michael Shermer starts the day...

2007-09-02T08:49:00.000-05:00

A presentation based on his book "Why People Believe Weird Things."

Chupacabara - Pig - Dog - Idiot - Omen - this clip has it all!

2007-09-02T07:13:00.001-05:00

This is from the weekend edition of FOX & Friends. I hope somebody watches out for these poor people.

Chin chin 2 for lunch.

2007-09-01T14:04:00.001-05:00

Mmmmm. Table mustard.

I saw Michael Shermer!

2007-09-01T13:25:00.001-05:00

Neato! He signed my book.

Saturday @ DragonCon2007

2007-08-31T23:27:00.001-05:00

OK - There is so much going on at Dragon*Con - and I'm all over the place in my interests, but I've sort of narrowed things down to these choices. This of course ignores stuff like wandering around in the Dealer's room (where I got 20 D&D minis for $1 each!!!).

Jref presentation.

2007-08-31T20:15:00.001-05:00

Neat! Be a psychic and win a million dollars!

Mur Lafferty reads.

2007-08-31T18:50:00.000-05:00

I pretty much missed this entire thing trying to get across three hotels.

MBA

2007-08-31T16:34:00.000-05:00

www.miniaturebuildingauthority.com

Made of resin - not plaster!

Hey curtis!

2007-08-31T13:06:00.001-05:00