Taken from Alcatraz Island

So, today is a cheat day. Sarah and I spent 3/4 of the day flying back from San Francisco, and the last quarter of the day with the kids and preparing for work and I didn’t have photograph time. So I cheated on my self-imposed rules. But you get a bonus San Francisco shot.

The infographics after the jump.

It started when Rev Tom e-mailed me via flickr with the following:

Your photos have smashingly rich EXIF metadata! And Flickr seems to respect it, too, amazingly. What do you use? I take it you add XMP tags because some of them look remarkably unlike standard EXIF tags. Is that right?

(A good example is the metadata on my recent moon photo as seen on flickr.) Some of the following I’ve shared here before, but it was in the mail to Tom so I’ll reuse it here:

I’m using Aperture on my Mac to handle my photos these days. I have 16,382 photos, so I was out-growing “directories of images,” so I moved to iPhoto, which gave me the added bonus of being able to sync photos to my iOS devices and AppleTV.  I then outgrew iPhoto for keeping them straight once I got the Canon T2i and started doing 18 megapixel RAW images, iPhoto was just choking on editing them.  (And it looks like I’ve added 3,153 of those since I got the T2i according to a quick search I did.)  In either case, I had to move to Aperture or Lightroom, and since there was a direct upgrade path to Aperture from iPhoto, and I’m drinking Cupertino Kool-aid these days, Aperture was an easy choice.

So, the answer on richer metadata is that I’m filling out the IPTC set for my personal information.  It looks like some of the standard metadata like caption is also tossed in there.  XMP is a super-set of IPTC (due to some collaboration) and looks like that’s how it ends up being shared when I expose it.  (Check out this about.com article that quickly overviews EXIF, IPTC, and XMP and its relationships.) Aperture also directly is uploading into flickr for me, so it might be using some other stuff in the flickr API to fill it in.

The following images are screenshots of what Aperture lets me fill in when I select the “IPTC Core” metadata.

The next image shows the large amount of metadata subsets that Aperture will expose to me.  Most of those screens have a few pieces of redundant data that can be found on the other, but each tab has a few unique things to fill in.

One of the things you can do on Aperture is have some automatic actions performed at import time.  The next image is what I’ve got automatically done when I import photos.

I mostly add the IPTC bits, but I also rename the photos on import to the YYYY-MM-DD_HH:MM:SS that I’ve been using since I got a digital camera in ’97. That also becomes the default title, but I generally override that in images I share, or at least I try to.

Once I discovered that some of that stuff was exposed in flickr, I started filling in photos I KNEW I was gonna share with as much data as I’d ever used or added to the flickr experience.

Awesome sushi I had for lunch at TL’s Four Seasons.  To quote @grimm26: “enjoy your phallic mound of wasabi”

Dad is great…

Possible the greatest food created by man.

Sarah and I ate lunch at Cooper’s Hawk today, it was yummy.  I think the red wine made a better photo than the white wine. At the same time, I like the clarity of the image projected through the white wine. And who doesn’t love an endless field of chocolate-covered strawberries.

This is the my second version of this post.  The first one I was using a flickr plugin for wordpress, but that experiment went no where. Anyone have a flickr plugin they like?  Bonus points if it integrates with the wordpress featured image functionality.

(BTW, the above if a flash based slideshow from flickr…sorry iPad users, but I’m experimenting with flickr.)

Ave Caesar!

Today I went with some people to The Meddlesome Moth in Dallas.  Its a damn shame I discovered this place on my last night here instead of my first, otherwise I would have just been there every day as much as possible.  The image for today is of the first flight I ordered which was called “Captain Keith.” The flight is named after their Beer Guru Keith Schlabs, but I had to order it for obvious reasons.

As a beer lover, the place is fantastic.  The beer selection is large with 25 or so on tap and 100 or so for a selection of bottles. (I’m doing those numbers from memory, but if I’m wrong, I’m pretty close.)  Keith Schlabs came out and talked to us for bit. They have contacts all over the country so they’ve got a lot of the great microbrews from Stone to Dogfish Head to Allagash to everything in between. They also work hard to represent great microbrews made in Texas. In fact, they have a flight of Texas beers which lead us to discover (512)’s Peacan Porter from Austin which tasted great and I consider the beer find of the day.

Keith also shared they’ve been open for about a year and are really serious about exposing people to good beer.  That’s something I can really get behind.  It helps that their wait staff was also extremely knowledgeable about the beer they were serving and could make excellent suggestions. Also, in talking to the staff they were knowledge about about the beer world in general even if they don’t have it on the menu. I love that sign of passion about what they are doing.

They also have an amazing menu which I think would make many foodies join the dance of joy the beer lovers were already doing.  Since we were just snacking we had two small things: The Hungry Farmer, which was a fantastic cheese and meat plate, and the Sweet Fennel Meatballs, which were out of this world.  If the rest of their food is even half as good as what we had you can do no wrong.

As I mentioned on Twitter earlier today: If you love beer and you are in Dallas and you do not go to The Meddlesome Moth, I loath you.

Bonus images because, hey, the place was that awesome and worth it.

When I went in, it was for one final “do I still want this” before Sarah and the kids got it for me for my birthday. I decided I still wanted it, and the next week, I got it. What is this it I keep talking about? Its the Giant Halfway folding bike.

I was back in the store a few weeks ago to get a minor part replaced, and Greg said I should post on the store’s FaceBook wall about my experiences. Since I don’t do FaceBook, I told him I’d write a blog post and get him the link. So, here it is!

Let’s start with the bike itself: The Giant Halfway is a folding bike that folds down to 32″x30″x14″ which is pretty close to as small as you’re going to get. When assembled, it feels like an adult version of a kids BMXish bike. The ride is nice and quick, and thanks to the small tires, it feels very responsive and nimble on turns. The bike seat is a standard bike seat, so the first few weeks hurt a bit as my doughy ass got used to it. The bike is only about 30 pounds, so its very easy for me to carry with one arm. It fits nicely into the trunk of my Ford Fusion with some room left over for other cargo.

The bike also comes with soft carrying case with a shoulder strap. Its good for storing the bike, but for my and my 5’7″ frame, its actually more cumbersome to carry in the bag. I’ve managed to rip a hole in the bag already where the seat meets the ground in the folded position. It happened about three weeks in, and it may be a combination of the bike not fully being on the reinforced bottom along with the gritty ground it was on, but I was disappointed that happened so fast. (And really, that’s been my only disappointment really.)

As I mentioned earlier, my main goal for this bike is for my commute. I take Metra Milwaukee District West Line from Bartlett to Union Station. Before I had the bike, to get from Union Station to work I would take either the Chicago Water Taxi or CTA Bus 121. My goal is to replace waiting for and then sitting on the vehicle for a total of 15 to 20 minutes with 10 minutes or so of exercise. And if gets me to/from work faster than the vehicles, all the better.

What one should do before they take a bike on the train is something I hadn’t done until I was writing this, review Metra’s rules for taking bikes on the train. I took it on faith that the Spin Doctor people knew what they were talking about (and they did) but I still should have read it myself. Anyway, there is one specific rule that applies to the folding bikes:

16. Folding bicycles in protective covers are permitted on all trains at all times but should not block train aisles or doorways.

Reality has shown that you can often get away sometimes with it not being covered. In my experience it depends on who the conductor is and what their general mood is that day and how much they care. But by the letter of the law you need the bag. Experimentation has shown that if I drape a cover over it, they’ll let that pass, so I’m thinking about making a “quick-release” cover for it since I want to be ready to ride when I hit downtown or I have to walk 2 blocks to my car in Bartlett.

The biggest trick I’ve learned is to just go to the handicap cars and try to get on either end of the 4 person bench or the two person bench. Those usually have enough room to sneak the bike in. At worst, you have to put it in front of you. As long as the aisle is clear and everyone else around you is comfortable, you’re usually left alone. I’ve been lucky enough to fit into those spaces, I haven’t yet had to come up with a backup plan for when I’m not there. In any case, though, those cars are your best bet.

When I hit downtown, I then walk to the Madison Ave exit of my platform and carry the bike up the long stairs. This is where the bike only weighting 30 pounds really pays off. If it was any heaver, I don’t think I’d really be able to make it up because I’m weak. Luckily, my children are around 30 pounds, so I’m used to it. If I had gotten the bike pre-children, I might have a tougher go. Doughy computer guy here, remember?

Once I hit the street I unfold the bike, snap on the helmet, and head off to work. The google map below has the route I take from the train to work and back again. Its only about 1.3 miles, but its 1.3 miles where I wasn’t exercising before.

Canal is a nice street because it has an official bike lane for most of it. Kinzie doesn’t a bike lane, but is known to be a bike friendly route. Usually in the morning on Kinzie if I’m stopped at a light, I’m usually one of at least 5 bikes waiting to go, if that doesn’t say its the way to go, I’m not sure what is.

View Morning Bike Route in a larger map

Once I get to work, I go in via the loading dock, fold my bike up, and take the elevator up to my floor. I keep the bike in my office as I’ve got space to do so, and its also makes a nice conversation piece.

Due to travel, weather, and some other misc. stuffas, I’ve been averaging about 4 days a week riding the bike in. I’ve been doing it for 5 weeks or so now, which tells me I must like it to be keeping it up like this.

On days when I don’t have to drop the kids off I also bike from home to the train station. That gives me another 2 miles in the morning and evening. Again, a small distance, but exercise and fun riding.

All in all, I’ve been terrifically happy with the bike and with biking to work. I’m getting to work earlier then I would have, I’m a bit more awake from the brief exercise, and I’m feeling better over all. A win all around.

Story said the bear was probably drawn to a peanut butter sandwich left inside by his 17-year-old son Ben. He said the family didn’t realize what was going on until deputies arrived and the neighbor came back and called them. By then the car was no longer in the driveway.

Incredulous, Story, his wife and three teen children — who have lived in Larkspur for 17 years — rushed outside to see the red Toyota down the hill and near a tree.

Somehow, the bear had either opened the unlocked back door or pushed a window down to get inside. Understandably agitated, it bumped into the horn repeatedly and eventually knocked the car’s gear into neutral. The Toyota rolled down the hill. The door added to the bear’s indignity by closing at some point during the ordeal.

Previously on Clerks the Animated Series:

photo credit: jquiz

In news that disrupts major portions of my life, there’s this happening:

Robots in disguise will likely alter your commute for the next few days as filming for the third installment of the Transformers film franchise takes over the Magnificent Mile.

Michigan Avenue between Wacker Drive and Ontario Street will close Thursday night and will remain shut down through 5 a.m. on Monday, July 19.

But that’s okay, because that’s a pretty cool thing to have the filming of Transformers 3 in town.  Even cooler is what’s on Michigan Avenue between Wacker and Ontario:  my office.

Because I don’t intend to sit in the office all weekend, I’ve set up a web cam pointed down at the street.  On Friday I’ll aim it better, but for now, you can watch the traffic on Michigan Ave.

Free video chat by Ustream

Also, here’s a bonus photo of my buddy Chris with an Autobot he found in the loop last weekend. (Click for the full size.)

• Duration is no longer hard-coded to 32:00 and actually reflects the duration of the show
• The script will attempt to find the TiVo via Bonjour/mDNS/ZeroConf/DNS-SD/whatever unless passed a -t flag with the TiVo’s IP address. If you have more than one TiVo, it will go with the first one it finds.
• Moved the stuff in lib to lib/tivo so the package is more easier sucked in by something like encap or stow

Download: tivoscripts-20100314.tar.gz

When I get some motivation later in the week, I’ll put the git archive online, incase anyone wants to clone it and do some development on it.

After two years of saying I was going to fully automate the process of downloading and transcoding shows for my iPhone, I finally got off my ass and did it.  The script is called TiVo2Podcast and it not only does the downloading and transcoding, but it stuffs the resultant video into a an RSS feed for easy consumption/playback by a podcatcher such as iTunes. I’m now automatically getting the shows off my TiVo and onto my iPhone for easy commute-time consumption. (I commute by train, I do not recommend commute-time consumption if you are driving.)

The ruby script wraps tivodecode, HandbrakeCLI, and AtomicParsley and is intended to be run from cron.  I’ve tested this on Linux, but it should run on any UNIX-alike, but it won’t run on windows since I make liberal use of the system() call. Also, this is intended for PERSONAL USE ONLY, do not set up podcast feeds and violate the ethics (and also the laws) of copyright left and right.

This is a very early version and can certainly use some tweaks and enhancements, primarily in configuring the shows you want to capture.  Right now, configuration is in the form of doing INSERT statements in SQLite.  Not very friendly, but it gets the job done until I can make a quick and dirty question based TUI. Here’s an example of setting up getting the best fucking news team on the planet:

insert into configs (config_name, show_name, rss_filename, rss_link,
                     rss_baseurl, rss_ownername, rss_owneremail, ep_to_keep, encode_decomb)
            values ('tds', 'The Daily Show', 'tds.xml', 'http://www.thedailyshow.com/', 
                    'http://example.com/podcasts/', 'Keith T. Garner', 'kgarner@example.com', 4, 1);

Download tivoscripts-20100304.tar.gz and let me know what you think. Make sure you read the README!

[Update 3/5: Forgot to add that all the code I wrote is under the Simplified BSD License, so have at it.]

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
After thoroughly enjoying the HBO series True Blood for two seasons I decieded to give the Sookie Stackhouse books a try. (This worked well for me in reading Kathy Reich’s Temperance Brennan books after watching Bones.)

The first season of the show is incredibly faithful to the book so most of the major plot points were not the surprises they could have been. However, lots of little details are just different enough to add to the experience of both the show and the books.

You follow the story of Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress in Bon Temps, LA. A Vampire named Bill moves into town in the process of mainstreaming. Sookie is taken with Bill since she can’t read him. Then, women who seem to be assocated with vampires start dying around town. Was it Bill? Is it Sookie’s brother? And the mystery is on…

It seem to fall somewhere between a mystery with supernatural elements and a bodice ripper. At times it almost felt “too girly” but the supernatural characters and happenings allow me to accept the material where usually only Fabio dares to tread.

The writing style and my interest made it an incredibly quick read. All in all, if you liked the shows, you’ll like the books. If you haven’t seen the show, you’ll still like the books if you’re looking for what I’d venture to call “a girly Harry Dresden.”

View all my reviews >>

Last week the 3.0 software update for the AppleTV came out.  On-line there was a lot of grousing about it, and that has inspired this post.

The Roku SoundBridge that we had in the family room was taken out by Thor.  We didn’t realize how much we liked having a digital music player there until it was gone.  We let it go for a few months, but it felt like something was missing.  In the meantime, my buddy JD was talking about how much he liked his AppleTV and was going as far as dropping cable due to it.  While out visiting, I got to see Evo and Sheila‘s AppleTV playing music with the photo montage screensaver gliding by as we chatted.  All that together, plus some reading up, planted the seeds for my purchase of an AppleTV with the 160GB drive earlier in the year.

Upfront I should make it very clear, what I was looking for initially was a replacement digital music player, and the AppleTV provided that.  I considered it a bonus that it had the ability to show photos, youtube, and video content on a screen more conducive to group watching that any of our laptops or monitors, our 42″ DLP HDTV.  Overall, we’ve been extremely happy with it.

Maybe its because we came into it with the proper expectations.  It is in a really weird product space that not many consumers understand.  Many companies have entered it with similar (and even less featureful) products and left the space.  An example would be my once beloved Turtle Beach Audiotron.  Others keep plugging along like Logitech’s Squeezebox line.  Apple has called it their hobby, and I think that may be because its difficult to tell consumers why they might want one.  Or it could be I’m just the weird person who wants it and consumers in general don’t want one.  I do think its poorly named, though.  The name implies, to me, you can watch TV on it, instead of purchased/downloaded/sycned content.  I can see people thinking its a DVR based on the name.

A lot of the bitching I’ve seen about the AppleTV has been about what its not.  Its not a Media Center PC, it isn’t a DVR, it can’t play every format under the sun, its underpowered, it can’t play DVDs, it can’t do better than 720p, it has to be slaved to iTunes, etc.  Except for the format issue, I don’t care about any of the rest of them.  In fact, the fact it syncs to iTunes like any other device is one thing I like about it.  When I’m modifying playlists, etc, for my iPhone and other iPods, its reflected in the home media player.  Anyway, how it is now, works for me and my family, and we get a lot of use and enjoyment out of it¹.

99% of the time we’re playing music and enjoying the mosaic of photos that goes by.  Actually, the photo montage screensaver has increased the enjoyment we get out of our digital photos.  Every once in while we see a photo we’ve almost forgotten about and its a pleasant surprise. The other 1% of our usage time is playing back video that I’m slowing ripping from our DVDs library for the kids. Having whatever they might want to watch without switching DVDs or getting them scratched or forgetting them in the car, etc, is pretty nice. I ripped all the Disney Classic Cartoon Favorites we have so far, and the kids can easily watch any one of those in any order.  Its playback is good enough for what I’ll use it to play back, despite people’s wanting of more.  Maybe in the future we’ll want more, but it does what we need, again.

Anything could be better, so what could be better for me?

• Mostly supporting a wider array of formats.  It plays MP3s and AACs fine, so I’m good on audio, but the video is kinda limiting.  However, I can rip right to the MP4/M4V/h.264 format it wants but random longer non-youtube things off the web require conversion.
• Maybe some better cooling.  That box runs hotter than hell when its playing back video.

Just a couple of general thoughts on the 3.0 upgrade:

• The 2.x software had some quirks and slowness, and I’ve noticed in the past 5 days a lot of that are cleared up.  It still stutters when iTunes connects to it, but the going catatonic while you sync when is playing has gone away.  Overall, syncing is more pleasant.
• The menus seem to be MUCH faster
• The menu placement of “My Music/Movies/Etc” being first is much better. I’ve got the AppleTV to play my stuff, not always rent stuff.
• I’ve been loving the Genius Mixes on my iPhone and iTunes, I’m so glad to have them on the AppleTV

The Remote app that Apple released for the iPhone and iPod Touch is also a great addition.  You can use it to follow control the AppleTV with an interface similar to the iPod app on the iPhone/Touch.  It also will pop up a keyboard for when you want to enter text into things like the YouTube search box.  This is really useful when using it with the next thing I talk about…

There is one other feature I’ve set up, but I haven’t had a chance to fully use is the fact that the AppleTV can act as an AirTunes host.  When paired with my Airport Express (and it is in turn paired with some speakers) we can have the start of whole house music.  Next party we have I’m going to put this to a practical test.  Walking around controlling the tunes from my phone through the whole house… It doesn’t take much to excite me these days.

In any case, my main point here was to address that the AppleTV does work as it is for some people.  It’s not a media center, and that was okay for me as I wasn’t looking for one.

[1] And…because of my nature, I have hacked it to run boxee, but I didn’t use that all that often. So there is some under the cover upgradability that isn’t too bad.

206 Bones by Kathy Reichs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Kathy Reichs’s Temperance Brennan is back again. This time starting out in a well described Chicago. She ends up back in Canada, but I did appreciate how well represented Chicago geography was represented.

I ripped through the book in a few days, due to Reichs’s writing which gels well with me as a reader. There were a few things I didn’t see coming, or at least not in the form they did, which is what I want in a mystery. That said, the only weakness to Reichs’s books is that many of them feel formulaic. Many of these motions I felt like I had gone through with Tempe before.

All in all I still largely enjoyed the book.

View all my reviews >>

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Some of the reviews I read of this book lead me to believe it would be more focused on the business side than the technology side. I was presently surprised that I felt it was 70% or greater about the technology. Having had a C=128 and using the heck out of it and having admired Amigas and their uses (but never having owned one,) my look at this book may be a bit biased.

From the technology side: for those who think they know how the personal computer space started, this book provides a different point a view from the very Apple and MS-centric stories you normally here. Commodore definitely deserves our praise every time we use cheap PCs at home, as they were the progenitor of “computers for the masses.” I was really entertained learning about the personalities that come up and developed the technology behind commodore and in the amazing amount of time they did it. Because I am the geek I am, I did easily identify with many of the people and I fondly remember using the technology they came up with.

From the business side: Its really illustrative of what someone with a vision can drive people towards. It also clearly illustrates how when the vision goes away how the waters get muddied quickly. There’s also lessons to be learned in not screwing people you need to succeed and maintaining a good relationship with them.

View all my reviews >>

It turns out the problems were broken id3 tags.  Now, if you ask me how they were broken, I honestly have no idea.  What I ended up doing is for mp3s that still had v1 tags, I removed the v1 tags.  My first thought was it was mp3s where v1 tags didn’t match v2 tags.  I used the excellent command line tool id3v2 to strip off the v1 tags, and then revisited the songs in iTunes information panel to make sure iTunes’s database matched what the songs now looked like.  Sync the iPhone, disconnect the iPhone, reconnect the iPhone, sync again, and boom, those files weren’t synced again.  Rinse and repeat until all were fixed until…

I ended up finding that a few of the 44 only had v2 tags, so it wasn’t the v1 tags alone.  On a whim I tried this fix which seemed to work: In iTunes I converted the v2 tags from say, version 2.3 to 2.2 and back, do the sync, rinse and repeat dance from above and that seemed to fix it.

On a related note, I found an excellent OS X only iTunes utility that does two very cool things I had been doing by hand: adding album art and lyrics.  Actually, I hadn’t been adding lyrics, but I’m considering it now that there is an easy way to do it.  The cool it called GimmieSomeTune.  What makes its album art gathering go above and beyond the iTunes’s native searching of the iTunes store is that if its not in the iTunes store, it’ll try to gather the album art from Amazon.  Amazon’s art has been hit and miss in terms of quality, but I prefer to have something there rather than the empty music symbol.  (You can also create your own default that will be put in place if iTunes can’t find it in either place.)  It also has some interesting features like last.fm integration, but I haven’t had a chance to play with that yet.

1. Thanking people for following you. Stop it, right now, everyone.  Just freaking stop it.  If over 1% of your tweets are thanking people for following you, I will smack you when next I see you.  Maybe I’m bucking the etiquette, but this annoys me more than anything else.
2. Feeling that you need to follow the people that follow you. No, you don’t.  Its a broadcast medium, and while it can be used for chat, it doesn’t mean you have to.  The closer your following:follower ratio is to 1:1 the less I think you actually have to say and thought you put into Twitter.  If you’re reading the whole world, how to you have time to create your own thoughts?
3. Changing your avatar more often then you change underwear. You’re not that pretty nor witty, knock it off.
4. Tweeting only that you have a new blog post. Stop it! I already have an RSS reader, kthx.

That’s my top four.  I’m sure I’m guilty of some from time to time, but damn it, stop it! I try to.  And I’m sure I’ll come up with more, maybe I’ll make this a series.

But I am always up for a game of strip specifications.

Thanks to David Harris for pointing out my doppelganger on twitter.

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Great read, worth reading for anyone who likes to get their science geek. Gets as deep as it needs to into what it covers, but not deeper. Light fun science reading

Princeps’ Fury: Book Five of the Codex Alera by Jim Butcher

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
My favorite of the books so far. Sarah argues that it doesn’t advance the story far enough for her, but the characters are well fleshed out including Tavi growing into his own. The bad part is now I have to wait a month for the next book.

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
A great breakdown and examination of how comics work and their place among other works of art. It gave me a much deeper appreciation for the language of comics that I had subconsciously learned.


View all my reviews.

First, the games I’ve spent the most time playing:

Buzz Quiz TV – The name pretty much sums up what it is, a multi-player trivia quiz show for your PS3 and a very welcome addition to our house.  There are numerous versions of this game for the PS2 and PSP with different question slants and this is the series first entrance onto the PS3.  It comes with 4 wireless “buzz” controllers for the players.  Its a nice little interface that works well with the game.  A common complaint online, and one that I have as well, is that for a game called “Buzz” you hardly ever use the big red buzzer at the top, most of the time you’re using the multi-color answer buttons.  We’re enjoying it a lot, especially when you have more than 2 people playing.  At least two of the multi-player rounds work better when you have more than one competitor to pick on.  If you don’t have any friends with you, you can also play ‘sofa vs sofa’ online.  The game is also easily expanded through additional categories purchased via the Playstation Store or via user-content quizzes created at MyBuzzQuiz.com.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe – One day the people at Midway’s video game division said “Keith Garner does not own enough of our stuff, how can we make a game JUST FOR HIM.  Let’s see, he’s a big DC comics dork and he’s always been fond of Mortal Kombat, while not always being that good at it.  Hey!  Let’s make him a video game peanut butter cup.”  Honestly, I like this game too much so I don’t know if I can honestly say if its a good game or not.  The gameplay has gone back to more classic Mortal Kombat mostly 2D fighting compared to the last two PS2 games, which is good for me as a player.  (You can still move in a 3rd dimension usefully, but its not a huge requirement.)  The characters from both universes look really good (thanks, Unreal engine!) and the DC characters special moves are pretty good and in-line with what they should be.  For example, Captain Marvel does have the awesome Shazam lightening attack that’s been popular post-Kingdom Come.  It just makes me giddy as a school girl to hear things like “Kitana vs. Green Lantern…FIGHT!”  This game sets the fan-boy in me to 11.  Even if you don’t like DC comics, its a pretty good fighter.  You can also go online to get embarrassed with how bad you are.

The games I’ve played a bit, but not enough:

Fallout 3 – I’ve always been a big fan of the Fallout series, despite not completing the first two.  Come to think of it, I was a fan of Wastland way back in the day, which was done by a lot of the same people.  I think I’ll be firing up Parallels just to play those first two again and actually try to finish them.  I’ve played about an hour of Fallout 3, which means I’ve just barely scratched the surface.  To be fair, I played the first hour twice as I was working to understand the UI and combat the first time.  Its not that its bad, I’m just rusty with these games.  In fact, I find the interface really nice now that I’ve gotten the hang of it.  I do find myself being a little too goody-too-shoes, but that’s my nature, I guess.  In any case, the feel, the voice acting, and the concepts so far are stellar.  I just need to find time to lock the kids away and play it.  Looks like lots of late nights coming up.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – I downloaded the demo on the PS3 and liked it enough to request it as a potential Christmas gift.  So far, I’ve only played the first mission.  You get to play a Jedi in full control of his powers in a 3D environment, how can you go wrong?  So far, I’m liking it.  Again, I’m still getting the hang of the interface and powers, but I’ve done the first mission (or 2 if you consider the prologue) and am looking forward to playing more.  My only complaint with this game is load time.  Despite loading 2.5 gig of stuff onto the hard drive, it seems to take forever to leave the game environment and go to the options screens and then to move around in the options screens.  I’m not sure if that’s a bug in the current version of the game, or if its just being hampered by the PS3′s “measly” 256MB of RAM.  In either case, that’s been an annoyance.  As long as you stay in the game, its a non-issue though.  I just had too much Evan messing with the remote, jumping on my lap, etc when last I played so I really noticed it then.

I should also mention I got the Sony PS3 Wireless Keypad.  For the PS3′s browser, Sony Home, or any game that has some text input/chat, this keypad isn’t too bad.  It can snap onto a sixaxis controller or you can use it separately, as it has its own battery.  It reminded me of typing on a Hiptop/Sidekick so I was right into it.  Not sure if its a good value at $50, but its been a good accessory to have.

The episode I was on clocks in at about 25 minutes and I didn’t make too much of an ass of myself.  A lot of random talk, and a heck of a good time.

After the podcast we went to Sheila and Evo’s place to continue the conversation and drink a bit more.  Awesome people, awesome hospitality.  Whenever I’m in AZ again, I’ll definately try to visit them.  Hopefully they do the same when they are out this way.

photo credit: CC Chapman

I ended up picking Hurrican Reef Raspberry Wheat Ale form the Florida Beer Company.  Its pretty good, I’d drink more of it especially in warmer weather.  It reminded me a bit of Sam Adam’s Cherry Wheat, but less sweet and Raspberry and not Cherry of course.  I think it had to do with the finish pronouncing the flavor of the fruit.

The beer was excellent and I highly recommend a visit.  Just don’t be too scared off by the exterier and neighborhood.

One of the parts of the beer that really warmed my heart was the handle on one of the urinals.  It really showed what I feel to be the true heart of good old American macrobrew light beer…  See for yourself…

If you look at this image closely, you’ll see the size for this costume is for 8 to 10 year olds.  And maybe I’m just become a grumpy old man, but should an 8 to 10 year old really be dressing as a pimp?  Don’t get me wrong, my pimp hand is strong, but I am not 8 to 10 years old.

I could survive for 1 minute, 13 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I became interested in the book after hearing an interview with the author on Slice of SciFi. Its an easy read and goes into just enough depth on the physics you need to know to discuss why certain science fiction stables are possible and why others are impossible.



Fun and educational read.


View all my reviews.

Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I started with the Podcast but ended with the paper edition that was just printed. A fun read playing with the superhero genre. The creativity of the “useless” powers and their use in the story by the author made this an enjoyable read.


View all my reviews.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 146 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 240 people with Sarah’s name in the U.S.A.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 3 people with Dinah’s name in the U.S.A.

Dinah’s the clear winner here. However, I was suprised to learn that there are 10,677 people in the U.S. with the first name Dinah. The last name is what makes her stand out.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 21 people with Evan’s name in the U.S.A.

I was really shocked that Evan clocked in so low.

Every weekday at 5:17 p.m., the bar car on Metra‘s Milwaukee District West line becomes the place where everybody knows your name and they’re always glad you came.

With beer and wine cups in hand, a cast of characters that seems straight out of “Cheers” tries to make the daily commute home as merry as the sitcom.

“It’s happy hour on the rails,” said Kevin McHone, 40, an information technology engineer from Gilberts and a bar car regular.

But just as every TV show eventually ends its run, this Friday will be last call aboard what Metra officially calls its “refreshment cars.”

I never took advantage of the bar cars, but I might have to this week before they are gone forever.  I suppose you can still beer up in the station and bring it onboard, but something about buying in the bar car is different.

Of course, living around Chicago for most of my life seeing Buddy Guy is almost a requirement.  I’ve seem him at his place at least twice, and I keep meaning to make it more.  In the Tribune today was Buddy Guy helps Yahoo! music make its mark talking about Guy’s concert as part of a Yahoo! Music series.  In the article they talked about what Guy brought to the show such as walking around and interacting with the crowd as he plays.  This should be no surpise to anyone who’s seen him perform.

What spured me into writing a blog post was the last paragraph of the article.  For me, it really is a perfect example of what I think every passionate musician feels about his craft.  Really, I think it can be expanded to fit every person who is passtionate about whatever craft they do.

When Guy was asked to cite the best solo he’d ever played, he turned the question back on the fan: “What’s the best love affair you ever had?”

This reminds me of a post on usenet my friend Anne made in 1998.  To quote:

So I am left not bitter just tired of this whole meeting people, emotional ties, finding a compatible person and then having them yank away.

It is just an emptiness right now.

From what I have observed from my male friends, though, this is exactly the climate required to learn Linux. Without a full and happy lovelife or distraction of soft lips and a reason to kiss them, there is enough room to grasp the intricacies and nuances of such a fine operating system.

It has already begun to happen. As I walk down the street I am not thinking of emptiness, kising, nathan or any other previous SO’s, I am thinking of penguins, rm -rf / and lilo.

I am already convinved that linux will dull the pain better than heroin.

I still loves me some linux hardcore, though.

Inspired by the Wingin’ It beer photo stream and my visit to the Brickskeller last night, I’ve decided to start doing a similar thing here. I forgot to get a picture of the Orval Trappist Ale I had last night, but luckily, I can snag one off their web site.

I also had an Oskar Blues Ten Fidy again, mostly because I thought I’d never get that awesomeness again. The guys at the table next to us suggested a Maredsous Dubbel or Triple. I went with the Dubbel. It was awesome.

On a geek note, right now I’m just uploading this into wordpress. I’m not sold on using flickr, but I’m not sure why.

16:23 <@spruance> what the hell is PFOTQ? even google does not know

PFOTQ stands for People Fucking On The Quad.

This post brought to you by the UIUC Quad Cam.