Krav Maga, 1st Class

I just got back from my first Krav Maga class. OMG was that tiring! It was a lot harder than I remember. We didn't even do the same moves. It ended with this very complicated like 8-step way to take out someone choking you from behind. I only got about half of it down.

(chugs large water) Man, I need to work-out more.

Link to full post.

A Concise Summary of Fall TV

Below cut are my reactions to this week’s season premieres: Heroes, Bones and Stargate:Atlantis (with mention of Supernatural). Spoilers are present.

Heroes: YAY! (Except for the thing growing on Nathan’s face) Best part: Hiro’s expression when he saw Kensei was white. And the fact that Claire & her dad (HRG-version) are utterly incapable of being “unextraordinary”.

Bones: YAY! EW! (for the cannibalism storyline). “Bones” Public Service Announcement: “Babies taste like fish. Caveat Emptor.” And Zack’s back from Iraq!* I do like that they aren’t solving their bigger cases in one hermetically-sealed episode.

Stargate: Atlantis: YAY! UH-OH! for Dr. Weir. I adored how just when they fixed something, another thing went horribly wrong. And the new doctor while not particularly doctorly (IMHO) did hold her own with Rodney which is not easy to do.

Next week: Supernatural premiere on Thursday. To get in the mood, I’ve watched these two promos (the second uses AC/DC's “Hell’s Bells”!) several (hundred) times. I love that this show turns the CW’s promo department into giddy fanvidders.

* Can I just say how much I love how “Bones” is handling the Iraq War and the War of Terror? Reasons:
1) It’s actually handling them.
2) The show is doing so in a way that shows a real diversity of viewpoints on the war and how it’s being fought.
3) Everyone’s motivations for their opinions on the subject are very in-character (ie – no one goes OOC to push a message).
It’s impressive to me that a show only tangentially about geopolitics (when it impacts a murder case) has managed to do such a good job presenting the conflict.

Link to full post.

Most Amazing Lecture Ever

I have been quite fortunate in my lifetime to have excellent (if sometimes terrifying) teachers. But none of them top the performance given by Dr. Randy Pausch in his "Last Lecture". This is a series sponsored by several universities inviting a professor to lecture as if for the last time. Sadly, for Dr. Pausch it is almost the last time. He has pancreatic cancer.

Please go watch all ten parts of this series on YouTube. He gives great advice based on a life well lived.

Link to full post.

On the Road to Ciudad Acuna

I spent the last couple of days in Acuna working on a build. During my stay, I had a very interesting conversation regarding the GM/UAW strike. Granted, it’s already over but as of Monday, there was some concern. The perspective from across-the-border suppliers (like our plant employees) isn’t usually mentioned in any reporting on strikes. Somewhat educational for me.

Also, I managed to snap a several photos of Acuna. Here’s the main tourist district (“zona historico”). This is right past the border crossing:


And, the view across the road from our plant. That poor lonely school bus:


From my hotel, I have the following two additions to my “Eye-Watering Pattern Collection” (Realizes I never uploaded the collection to Photobucket. Scrambles frantically for several minutes, uploading like an uploading fiend before continuing).

(ahem) The hallway carpet:

And my bedspread:

In all other respects, the hotel was satisfactory.

For the full collection of eye-catching patterns found while traveling, see here and enjoy.

Link to full post.

Your Morals.org: My Results

Ok, I'm taking a whole bunch of the tests over at yourmorals.org. I have a thing for personality tests like this, so I'm just going through as many as possible tonight. I'm testing as not liberal and not conservative but all over the place. I also have a very low "collectivism" rank (big fat DUH there).

Anyway, they have this test where you say how much money you would have to receive before you do something "unsacred". Here's a summary of my results:

* It would take an average of $3333.3333333333 to get you to violate the HARM foundation.
* It would take an average of $505 to get you to violate the FAIRNESS foundation.o
* It would take an average of $420200 to get you to violate the INGROUP foundation.
* It would take an average of $0 to get you to violate the AUTHORITY foundation.
* It would take an average of $1000000 to get you to violate the PURITY foundation.

I didn't think I placed quite that much importance on loyalty and purity (especially given my low collectivism score). Also, I'm a cheap date for cheating because it only takes about $500 for me act unfairly. But what's no surprise is that I don't even need to be paid to buck authority. Interesting....

Another surprise is that I'm supposedly less sensitive to disgust than the average of other test takers. I'm always thought of myself as rather picky about such things.

If you're also a on-line test junkie, you can go to the site & register. Once you do, you can access your scores & results at any time. Very cool.

Link to full post.

Improving Last.fm Experience, part 3

See part 1 here.
See part 2 here.

This is the last part of my review of 15 Last.fm Tweaks (link). Items 1-5 were covered in part 1. Items 6-10 were covered in part 2. The final part discusses items 11-15, including mashes and widgets.

Results & opinions shown below the cut.

11) Integrate with iTunes: I do not use iTunes so this is not applicable.

12) Combine with Pandora: Like I stated last time, I don't think I'll use more than one service.

13) AutoHotKey It: This appears to be for Windows so it also doesn't apply to me.

14) Mash It Up: The LifeHacker article provided 2 sites for mash-ups with Last.fm.
a) Last.tv is actually pretty cool. It plays music videos for any Last.fm username you input. Using myself, it started with a couple duds (instruction videos?) but with the third video it began showing music videos of bands on my playlist. Nice little feature.
b) Mainstream-o-Meter: Found here, measures how mainstream your music tastes are. My results:
Last.fm-Mainstream-O-Meter result
jal4568's top artists:

1 - The Doors: 55% mainstream
2 - Creedence Clearwater Revival: 34% mainstream
3 - The Beatles: 101% mainstream
4 - Eric Clapton: 43% mainstream
5 - Led Zeppelin: 71% mainstream
6 - Pink Floyd: 77% mainstream
7 - The Who: 49% mainstream
8 - Jimi Hendrix: 52% mainstream
9 - Queen: 75% mainstream
10 - The Beach Boys: 45% mainstream
11 - Deep Purple: 33% mainstream
12 - The Allman Brothers Band: 15% mainstream
13 - Muddy Waters: 9% mainstream
14 - The Kinks: 33% mainstream
15 - Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: 6% mainstream

jal4568 is 49.40 % mainstream
c) Another good one: Snapradio (shows pictures to go with your music)

15) Extensions, Widgets, Etc: I really like these. The ones linked to in the article weren't very interesting to me. However, Last.fm has an official widget page that lets you generate your own. Some examples are below.
My music quilt:


My top artists music chart:


Plays Songs Under my 'Surf Classic' tag:



Overall, this groups of tweaks didn't really apply to me. The widgets are awesome however. I can definitely see myself playing with those in the near future. The Last.tv mash-up is also nice. I am quite glad I went through and tried these tweaks. I've already noticed an improvement in music quality and variety.

Link to full post.

3:10 To Yuma: WOW

I went to see "3:10 to Yuma" last night with some friends. My opinion: Movie of the year. It's that damn good.

[It not just me & fancy critics that think it. The movie has been out for weeks, right? Our show was sold out! And it wasn't the only showing of this film that sold out last night.]

Details of the awesomeness below the cut.

Everyone in it is superb. Peter Fonda, Ben Foster, Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are especially stunning. ALL of them are fantastic. Of the four, Ben Foster is the biggest surprise. I vaguely remembered him from his days on "Flash Forward" with Jewel Staite. He was such an astonishingly convincing bad-ass here, it took me several scenes to even recognize him. Peter Fonda played a bounty hunter. His role wasn't as large as I expected but every minute he was on screen was gold. Russell Crowe played a bad guy that was mesmerizing. You were simultaneously repulsed and intrigued by him. And Christian Bale as "Dan Evans"....Where a lesser actor would yell and flail to convey this man's frustrations, he was contained and quiet as the put-down rancher. Paired with Crowe, WOW.

The action is excellent and very realistic. The gun fights especially were staged wonderfully. And the horse chases are filmed in a jarring hand-held style that while dizzying, puts you right there in the saddle. Also, the movie is surprisingly laced with great one-liners. There were several laugh-out-loud moments. The film is also good at setting up this world in a very elegant manner. The West is so far away for most of us culturally and historically that I think it's difficult for us to really understand how hard life was back then. With a line here, a shot of a town there, the audience is reintroduced to a world of stagecoach robberies, railroad agents and defiant Apaches. The Old West is shown as this hard, beautiful and unforgiving place.

This movie is everything an excellent Western should be. Gritty, sparse, unflinching and wonderful. Definitely a must-see. Definitely buy this on DVD. You cannot miss this movie.

Link to full post.

Personal Enrichment Update: Education

As part of my PE goals, I’m signing up for some Fall Adult Education courses. My goal is 1 self-defense class & two additional classes. What I plan to take:

1) “Self-Defense: Krav Maga” – On Saturday!
2) “First Aid: CPR” - Also on Saturday.
3) “HTML Introduction” – Maybe

On a whim, I checked out what was available for Adult Education through the UT-SA system (most info found here). This intially looked impressive but upon further examination, it’s a bust. UT-SA offers several different types of extended education courses (good).

However, Most classes in the price range of the NISD classes were very obviously commercial sponsered. If I’d received these class descriptions in an e-mail, I would delete them as spam. The classes that appeared to have actual academic content were INSANELY expensive. UT-SA does offer a special enrollment program where non-students can sign up for select UT-SA classes. Unfortunately, they don’t provide a list of classes on-line. I suppose they don’t want extension students to overwhelm the classes but still. Good idea UT-SA but poor execution.

The only class I might consider signing up for is a 2-part GRE prep class.

Link to full post.

Jena, LA Is Messed UP

The more I hear about Jena, LA, the more I am disturbed. While there are many aspects to the story that warrant censure, do you know what started this whole thing?

It appears that several black Jena high school students beat-up someone in response to long-term harrassment from white students. This harrassment started because a black students asked to sit under the “white people only” tree at the local school....A WHITE PEOPLE ONLY TREE?! Aside from the fact this is the 21st frickin’ century and not the 1930’s, how insanely ridiculous is the idea of racially-restricted shade trees?

In summary,
Racists = TROGLODYTE LOSERS
“White People Only” Tree = Mind is thoroughly boggled.

Link to full post.

Supernatural Season 2 DVD

Third on my DVD watching spree is Season Two of "Supernatural". This is one of my favorite shows and the only one I watch live (as opposed to playback via TiVo).

The episodes for Season Two were just as good as I remembered. They really did some interesting things with changing the tone/style from episode-to-episode in this season. It’s possible to find this a bit jarring when watching in blocks. But that’s the only downside. I thought "Supernatural" was a very good show until the last three episodes of Season One. Those three episodes convinced me it was an excellent show. For the most part, Season Two maintained the excellent quality and built upon the Supernatural universe with good success. My favorites of the season were “Bloodlust”, “Nightshifter”, “Born Under a Bad Sign” and “What Is and What Should Never Be”.

Spoilers for the extras below the cut (gag reel, commentaries and a lot more!)

Season One of “Supernatural” had loads features including two easter eggs. The “Supernatural” cast & crew have demonstrated that they know how to promote the show in a very entertaining fashion. So I was excited about Season Two. Unfortunately, the extras got leaked to the Internet a couple weeks before the DVD release. I had to avoid some fansites in order to not be tempted by spoilers. But it was worth the wait because there's tons of stuff!

1) “The Devil's Road Map” - What a Fantastic Idea! There's a United States map with dots where each episode was set. Each episode dot leads to a feature. There's two categories of features, videos (“Urban Legends/Makingof..”) and sound recordings/cards “Episode Factoids”.

a) “Urban Legends” – Cool idea. They got academics & folklorists to speak about some of the urban legends discussed in the episodes. Only 4-5 episodes are covered but they are pretty interesting. The weakest one for me was the Hollywood ghosts segment. I thought the ghost hunter sounded flaky. The other experts gave off a more scholarly vibe. My favorite was the one discussing the “Crossroads” legend of blues guitarist Robert Jordan.

b) “The Making of All Hell Breaks Loose pt 2” – I didn’t expect to like this as much as I did. Apparently, this episode was written on a much grander scale but it had to be parred down into a feasible length. I think the final product is better. They also had a bit of drama involving the cemetery they planned to film at. All in all, this is an interesting look in how to get something from the page to the screen.

c) “Episode Factoids” - Some of these were sound recordings, others just a card with a fun fact from a crew member about that episode. For the recordings, they had a great mix of people with differing perspectives. Seriously, their Visual Effects Supervisor is quite articulate about the work in a specific episode. His focus is narrow but his insights are pretty cool. Also, Jared Padalecki (Sam) and Kim Manners (director/producer) have no problem telling embarrassing stories. Eric Krike surprised me talking about what didn't work in an episode and how they had to try to correct for it. Very informative and entertaining feature.

2) Webisodes Featurettes - Three are included: Visual Effects, The Writer's Room and Props. All are good. The Visual Effects Supervisor, man, I could just listen to him talk for hours. He presents some rather technical stuff interestingly with a little bit of humour. Toward the end, he does this great little impersonation of Eric Kripke. The Writer's shown were John Shiban, Eric Kripke and Robert Singer. They all talked about how they research the urban legends and then try to find the "Supernatural"-specific twist. Shiban & Kripke were all "Monsters!YAH!" and Singer was more character development centered. You can definitely see where they get their shifting tones, which Kripke called "hopscotching genres". The propsmaster certainly knew what the fans liked. He focused mainly on the ghost-hunting equipment/weapons. Very interesting but it seemed shorter than the other two. Overall, good.

3) Jared Padalecki's Screen Test - Well, I can definitely see why he was hired. It's a bit longer than I thought it would be. You get to see him do the same scene twice and he gets better. Supposedly, Jensen Ackles was already selected to play Sam when Jared tried out. They liked Jared so much, they switched Sam to him and hired Jensen to play Dean.

4) Commentaries – Three are included. Each had a very different tone.

“In My Time of Dying”: OK. Not a lot of talking from the series stars. I get the impression they don’t usually watch their own show (likely because they are too busy spending 14+hrs a day shooting). And when the actors did talk, it was interesting. These guys appear to be really interested in their work and not at all full of themselves. The few tidbits on the production side were all interesting. This episode presented some challenges because one of the characters is invisible to the other characters. They talked a great deal about how they used camera tricks, etc to show that.

“What Is and What Should Never Be”: Excellent. Eric Kripke is a great commentator. He never shuts up, he’s amusing and he covers a good variety of topics. He spent a fair portion talking about what it was like to direct his first episode. He mentions getting sun in rainy Vancouver for the shot of Dean mowing the lawn. Apparently, some people didn't want Dean & Sam to be estranged in this alternate world. But Kripke stuck to his guns on that (I think correctly). Like in a recent "Heroes" commentary, he also mentioned BroYay! Although it’s a bit less surprising for "Supernatural". Brothers or not, with only two main characters who are both male, a larger than usual portion of fans are slashers.

“All Hell Breaks Loose, pt1”: Very Good. Eric Kripke again, joined by writer Sera Gamble and producer Robert Singer. Sera Gamble is especially cool to listen to because she kinda talks like a fan. She gave a Public Service Announcement against spoilers. Also, Kripke only compliments the first draft of an episode when it is really bad. If she gets a draft back with notes & no compliment, he likes it. The best stuff was on the writing process and how they got the location for “Frontierland”. This was an actual ruined amusement park and they re-wrote the episode to include it. But Singer (who directed) emphasizes that it was difficult to shoot because of bad weather. Again, Kripke & Singer are such an effective foil. Kripke is a horror-loving fangirl and Singer is more interested in character drama.

5) The Gag Reel – HILARIOUS. Apparently, the series stars handle the exceedingly long work-days by being complete loons. There’s a good mix of mess-ups, visual gags, low humor, etc. Definitely worth multiple viewings just because you miss things laughing so hard. Season One’s gag reel was also excellent so the bar was set pretty high. They definitely out-did themselves here. Also, several of the pranks & incidents shown here are mentioned in other places on the DVD features.

6) The Deleted Scenes – Deserved deletion. Unlike a show like "Heroes" where juggling 10+ characters can lead to some characters getting short-changed because of time, "Supernatural" has only two major characters (three if you count the car). There’s not much room to "lose" somebody. They may be interesting to some hard-core purists but not really for me.

Overall, Supernatural Season 2 is an excellent DVD release. Tons of features, presented in a cool way. Only a few OK ones but when the features are good, they are really good. Come On Season Three!

Link to full post.

Bones: Season 2 DVD

My next DVD review for this month is Season 2 of "Bones". I spent Thanksgiving weekend last year watching Season One DVDs with my parents so I have lots of good memories of this show.

Now, Season Two involved some casting changes that were controversial but I was overall happy with the finished product. Bones is best when it lets it’s characters shine and this season certainly allowed that. Re-watching I am always so happy as how funny and un-abashedly geeky this show is. It would be really easy for a show about solving murders to be dour (CSI) but they manage to preserve a fun tone while still showing the humanity of the characters. The mysteries are also good in that there’s always a bit of a twist so it’s not as easy to predict.

Spoilers for special features below the cut....

Now, Bones Season One didn’t have many extras so I didn’t have high expectations here. The main features were:

1) “Memories of the Season” – Very good. Although, obviously spoiler rich so don’t watch these until you’ve seen all the episodes. Ryan O’Neal appeared quite impressed with Emily Deschanel (Dr. Brennan). Also, the new cast member? She was hired the night before her first day of shooting! Some on-line fans really lit into her work this season and I thought she did a good job. The best part was when the actors each described what type of show “Bones” is..They all gave completely different answers.

2) “Visceral Effects” - Also very good. They talk about several of the more complicated effects they've done like the zero-g shots from "Spaceman in a Crater". Several of the actors and producers talk about their favorite effect shots. Interesting fact: most of the bugs, ants, rats, on the dead bodies are CGI. They showed a split screen of several effects shots with as-filmed on one side and the final shot with effects. Nice little feature talking about some of the more subtle effect-work of the show.

3) The Commentaries – There are two of them. Unfortunately, none are from the pair of series leads Emily Deschenal & David Boreanz. Their commentary on Season One episode “Two Bodies in a Lab” was brilliant. But what’s here is also good, if not as better.

“The Glowing Bones in the Old Stone House” – This is a surprise. Emily Deschanel with producer Stephen Nathan and her father Caleb who is the director of this episode. Very good commentary. They included lots of funs facts about the show and little behind the scenes tidbits. One really endearing thing is they would occasionally MST3K their own show a bit. Also, you get to hear Stephen Nathan sing his version of the "Bones" theme music. The three of them keep a good flow to the conversation and are overall enjoyable.

“Stargazer in a Puddle” – Includes series creator Hart Hanson and excutive producers Barry Josephson and Stephen Nathan (again). Thsi was great. These guys clearly enjoy their work and can talk endlessly about it without sounding pretentious or boring. They also riffed on the show a bit (occasionally replacing dialogue, etc). The funniest moment for me was when Barry Josephson cheered when his name appeared. Actually, these guys were so "on", by the end of the credits I was shocked at the amount of topics they'd already covered.

One thing I would like to say on the commentaries. On both, the series people mentioned "Hey, we've got to talk about good stuff, people paid for this DVD set." They definitely conveyed the fact they wanted people to feel like they were getting something valuable for supporting the show. As someone who spends quite a bit on DVDs, this was good to hear.

4) Gag Reel – Just OK. It’s mainly line mess-ups, etc. Which isn’t surprising considering some of the scientific lingo they have to get out. Also, David Boreanaz cusses like a sailor.

Overvall for the DVD, very good. "Bones" doesn't have tons of extras but what they have (for the most part) provides great additions to the already entertaining Season Two episodes.

Link to full post.

Out of Control Fashion

Check out here for even more pictures of absolutely insane outfits (and some truly applicable snark). Those poor models. Seriously, what were these guys thinking?!

This wouldn't be happening if Season 4 of Project Runway had already started. As a public service, we must get Heidi & Tim Gunn back on the air ASAP!

Link to full post.

Music in the Mail

Due to my recent explorations of Last.fm, last night I purchased a bunch of CDs from Amazon. I focused mainly on the bands that I "discovered" through Last.fm, ones that I hadn't previously knew existed. My purchases:

The Ultimate Collection by Poco

Jools Holland's Big Band Rhythm & Blues by Jools Holland

The Essential Clash by The Clash

Lunatico by The Gotan Project

Piece by Piece by Katie Melua

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Limited Edition Bonus Disc) by Spoon

Since I am forking out the $$$$ for 6 CDs, I decided to pass on the quickie shipping. Come on, October 12th!

Link to full post.

WOW: Iron Man Trailer

With the wave of comic book movies, there's been some hit-or-miss. For "Iron Man", I figured on a miss. I mean, Robert Downey Jr. as a superhero? Please.

Well, I was totally wrong. Check out the "Iron Man" trailer because it is fantastic! And Robert owns. I'm unexpectedly excited here.

Link to full post.

Improving Last.fm Experience, part 2

See part 1 here.

This is a continued review of a recent LifeHacker article on Last.fm tweaks. Items 1-5 were covered in part one. Part two covers items 6-10. Results & opinions shown below the cut.


6) Add Music to Facebook: I'm not a part of Facebook, so this one doesn't really apply to me.

7) Rip Tracks: "theLastRipper" application was very easy to install from the link provided by the article. You have to set preferences & login to your Last.fm account before you begin. But, I was up and running within about ten minutes. Very easy to do. This was especially helpful for some of the music types that I can't find easily in local stores.

8) Eclectify Your Playlist: If you go here & enter your Last.fm username, they provide you with 5 similar artists for your top twenty artists. Sounds confusing but it's a snap. For the eclectic rating, anything below 80 is considered "limited". My output is below (bold = artist I'm not familiar with):
My eclectic score is currently 51/100

The 51 related artists for my profile are AC/DC, AFX, Aerosmith, Autechre, B.B. King (2), B.B. King & Eric Clapton, Basement Jaxx, Boards of Canada, Buddy Guy (2), Cream (3), Creedence Clearwater Revival, Daft Punk, David Bowie, Eagles (2), Elmore James, Elton John, Eric Clapton (2), Faithless, Fatboy Slim (2), Four Tet, Grateful Dead, Guns N' Roses, Howlin' Wolf, Jimi Hendrix (4), John Lee Hooker (2), John Lennon, LCD Soundsystem, Led Zeppelin (9), Leftfield, Lynyrd Skynyrd (2), Moby, Muddy Waters, Pink Floyd (2), Queen (3), Rainbow, Robert Johnson, Squarepusher, Stevie Ray Vaughan (2), The Beatles (6), The Chemical Brothers (3), The Doors (3), The Future Sound of London, The Kinks (2), The Orb, The Prodigy, The Rolling Stones (10), The Vaughan Brothers, The Velvet Underground, The Who (7), Underworld, Van Halen

I will be investigating the bold artists in the near future. I do like this feature.

9) Give Your Music Time to Develop: Obviously, this isn't a quick step to improve my experience. But I can say that tagging, classifying as "Loved", etc do improve the experience. Although I've only been a member for a month or so, there has been real improvement. I think if I apply the other tweaks and keep up with the tagging, my experience will greatly improve. So, tagging = time-consuming but worth the effort.

10) Use Other Services to Further Seed Your Playlists: Looking at the other options provided, I don't really want to join something else at this time. My main motivation for Last.fm was the "Supernatural" station that other fans of the TV show have created. While I'm sure the other services are fine enough, I am very unlikely to use two or more services. I greatly prefer to go one place and be done with it.

So, these five weren't as interesting to me as the first five. But items 7 & 8, I wholeheartedly recommend. They are useful ways to expand your listening experience.

See part 3 here.

Link to full post.

My Do-It-Yourself Long-Term Goals

Thinking about my previous post on Popular Mechanics 25 skills, I would like to acquire several hands-on skills which aren’t on the PM list but that I think are important for me to eventually learn. The main five are:

1) How to safely handle & shoot handguns and rifles. I used to shoot about 2-3 times a year with my family but that hasn’t happened in a long while. I think it’s important to know even if you never plan to own a gun. You may get into a dangerous situation involving guns and this knowledge could help you handle it.

Goals 2-5 below cut.

2) How to defend self (hands only). Notice a theme of self-defense? I’m a smaller-build woman living alone. I don’t want to ever be mistaken for a ready-made victim. Knowing self-defense is a good way for me to prepare myself just in case. That way anyone who attacks me gets some rather unpleasant surprises. And at this point, I’m not ready to purchase a gun so hand-to-hand self-defense is a more comfortable starting point.

3) How to preserve my own food. I’ve been gardening since I moved out on my own but apartment kitchens aren’t really a good size or layout to do preserving. And my family has always done things like make their own salsa, jellies and preserved vegetables. It would help me waste less of what I grow and I can indulge in the hands-on activities I most like: cooking and gardening.

4) How to Sew. I’ve tried it but it always looks terrible. My sole attempts to sew have involved repairing ripped seams on backpacks and making lame pillows for Girl Scouts (waaaaayyy back). I’d like to be able to at the very least repair my own buttons. Possibly learn how to use a sewing machine.

5) How to remodel your own kitchen. I know, it sounds a bit odd. But the number of home-repair skills required to remodel a kitchen is huge (plumbing, electrical work, cabinetry, tiling/flooring, appliance selection/install, lighting). So if I can remodel my kitchen, I can also do a whole bunch of other stuff around the house. Of course, right now I can barely keep my kitchen clean much less attempt a remodeling.

Link to full post.

Confessions of a Recovering Elitist

Via Physics Geek, I read this astonishing discussion at Vox Populi about intelligence versus faith and humility. What amazed me most was how much it lined up with my experiences. The faith part I've never experienced myself but the humility, I got hit by that clue-by-four multiple times.

Below the cut is a rambling remembrance of my high school experience and my (still in process) recovery from the elitism of the "nerd-herd".

I am rather smart. Not genius, change the world smart but certainly book-smart. I know how to study, how to assimilate new info, how to prioritize and complete tasks. I like doing it. So, I am smart. Or so everyone told me from the age of five onward.

With very rare exception, I was in with the smart kids. And we were never allowed to forget it. You see, smart kids are hard to teach because like most insufferable know-it-alls we took great exception to suffering fools or those we think fools (ie – everyone else). The most successful teachers teach through a skillful combination of flattery & challenge to ego. At every step you are told “You here because you are special”, “You have a duty, as a smart person, to ensure you do not waste this gift” and “Part of that duty is doing well in this class.” There was also balance of course. Teachers held us to a more rigorous, more adult standard. Because we were smarter, a greater expectation applied to us.

It's very important to understand that I was NOT an isolated loner, ostracized and left to my own devices. Not in high school anyway. I participated in theatre and worked on the literary magazine. My friends and I never faced humiliation for being nerds. Our school was very focused on academics. The "Academic Decathlon" team got more play than the Football team. And in "Honors" classes, you really only interact with the same 60 people, all carefully vetted for intelligence. We all made fun of anyone who transferred out of Honors classes. People never in Honors classes barely registered as actual students to us. They didn't really count. We all looked at the adult world around us and assumed we could do better. That the grown-ups were such losers.

My first encounter with the clue-by-four was my third year of High School. Junior year started on a high note. I enrolled in two sciences (Physics I & Chemistry II), pre-calculus, and AP US History. Having been in advanced courses since kindergarten, I thought it would be a snap. It wasn't.

Chemistry II was a class seemingly designed and taught with the express intent of rendering my ego into teeny, tiny, whimpering shards. My inclination to “interpret” procedures instead of follow them made labs unnecessarily experimental experiences. My inability to take notes or follow lectures, led to my inability to complete the homework assignments. Which led to the greatest horror of all, checking of homework, a process that occurred in class, and from which there was no escape. It didn’t matter than you got every problem but one, for my teacher had a sixth sense for knowing who to call on for which problem. I swear to this day that woman could smell anxiety. She didn’t ask you where your assignment was. No, if you hadn’t finished the problem, then it was vitally important for you to go to the blackboard and show where you got stuck. She would ask you “What next?” in that terrifyingly calm voice. And then, she would leave you dangling for sometimes ten minutes before explaining the correct answer. Can you tell I still have nightmares about this?

Combined with a poorly thought out science fair project and equal trouble in my pre-calculus class, I was constantly reminded both of my own weaknesses and the fact that I had some absolutely brilliant classmates. One clear example was a friend who suffered just as much as I in ChemII. However, when it came time to present his Science Fair project on Neural Networking, well, he blew everyone in the class away. Another example was the girl who eventually became our valedictorian. After returning to class following a car wreck, she took a test her first day back. Bruised and on pain medication, she made an eighty-eight.

This was the first time where my cohorts were vastly out-performing me. I came to the sudden realization that I would actually have to work to succeed. Combined with a few experiences from senior year, I had to learn how to study and develop a healthy respect for my own place in the ranks. I came out of high school with a good work ethic but also a very real understanding that I was most definitely not the smartest person in the room. But, in a stunning display of cognitive dissonance, I still thought that smart people were somehow "better" than non-smart people.

This absolutely ridiculous belief didn't change overnight but junior year was the first crack in the armor. Between college and working, I've learned the smartest person is sometimes NOT the best person for the job. I have met, befriended and learned countless things from people my previous self wouldn't have talked to except twist into a joke at the next study session. I have also learned that if I had to deal with who I was in 10th grade, I'd probably slap myself silly.

I think, while challenging smart kids is necessary, too much of modern education challenges them by setting them apart. It doesn't provide a sense of belonging to society. You see yourself as better than so many others. Also, critically you see yourself as not as susceptible to their faults. All those around you share the same opinion. Without quality teachers, without on-the-ball parents, without those equally humbling experiences in college and at work, I shudder to think of who I was on the path to become.

Link to full post.

Powdered Metallurgy References

One of the parts I’m developing is a sintered powdered metal component. Most of the parts I work with are injected molded plastic so this one has been learning experience for me. Due to some customer scrutiny, I’ve collected a (for me) unexpected amount of data on this part and typical sintered metal processes.

Below the cut are some on-line sources of info I've found helpful as well as a couple interesting textbooks on sintering and powder metallurgy.

For those interested, here’s some links I’ve found helpful when working on sintered/powdered metal parts:

1) “MPIF” website. The Metal Powder Industries Federation is the industry association for powdered metal (PM) parts. They write a number of useful standards (which are not free) and provide some basic education in sintering on their website (for free). Also, they have an excellent “References” section which lists several key textbooks for sintering processes and powdered metal material design.

2) Powder Metal Database. Mainly the Guidelines for Designing a powder metal part. If you click on the "Click here" button, a window pops-up with some good info on PM parts. This window also lists further references of potential use.

3) “Bainite in Steels” 2nd Edition by H.K.D. Bhadeshia. An excellent book on microstructure analysis available for free download in .pdf form (Click on "Complete Book" in the linked page). While it was a bit more detailed than I needed for my questions, it’s an excellent reference for questions on microstructure behavior and development in ferrous alloys.

Due to this part and a couple of others pending, I am considering purchasing a powdered metal specific textbook as a reference. I have narrowed the choices to two books which are reasonable priced (for textbooks) and a good focus on the topics I am interested in. The two choices are:
“Handbook of Powder Metallurgy” by H.H. Hausner
OR
“Sintering Theory & Practice” by Randall M. German
One of these will likely be on my bookshelf within the month.

Link to full post.

My Do-It-Yourself Rating

Popular Mechanics created a list of “25 Skills Every Man Should Know”. This was in response to some recent blogger discussion on the decline of hands-on skills. My brother and I have discussed several times how our father has some serious hands-on skills. He can build furniture for both of us, perform many different kinds of car repair, is handy around the house, garden (with Mom), and hunt/butcher his own deer, boar & turkey.

Both my brother and I have never been as inclined to perform hands-on work as Dad. We’ve no problem doing research in order to find the best person to do the work or to learn a skill if there’s a need. But we also rarely seek out new skills that aren’t immediately necessary to us.

Some of my motivation for my personal enrichment goals is to improve my own hands-on skills. And one of the things I like most about my job is that it forces me to take apart stuff (disassembling malfunctioning assemblies, performing function checks on components, setting up test fixtures, etc). It’s definitely improved both my intuition and confidence for do-it-yourself work.

Looking at PM’s list, I’m not as bad off in terms of handiness as I thought. But several of the skills are ones I’ve learned in the last year or so. The List & my status below the cut.

1. Patch a radiator hose - NO
2. Protect your computer - YES
3. Rescue a boater who has capsized - NO
4. Frame a wall - NO
5. Retouch digital photos - YES
6. Back up a trailer - NO
7. Build a campfire - YES
8. Fix a dead outlet - NO
9. Navigate with a map and compass - YES
10. Use a torque wrench - NO
11. Sharpen a knife - NO
12. Perform CPR - YES
13. Fillet a fish - NO
14. Maneuver a car out of a skid - YES
15. Get a car unstuck - NO
16. Back up data - YES
17. Paint a room - YES
18. Mix concrete - NO
19. Clean a bolt-action rifle - NO
20. Change oil and filter - NO
21. Hook up an HDTV - NO
22. Bleed brakes - NO
23. Paddle a canoe - YES
24. Fix a bike flat - NO
25. Extend your wireless network - NO

Overall score: 9/25 (36 %)
Still a ways to go before I acquire handy-person street cred.

Link to full post.

Friday Miscellaneous

I haven’t done one of these all week...

1) Scientists Invent Non-Stick Chewing Gum. Because they have nothing better to do. Although, maybe they’re counting on the money saved from not cleaning streets to go toward more research? Tricksy scientists.

2) User Generated Health Info. A very good article on consumer-generated health info, it’s quality and how the Internet is spurring on this activity. Interesting and somewhat useful.

3) Excellent article on the bogus claims of organic foods. With the amount of false assertions floating around about organic and genetically modified crops, it’s good to read an article written by somebody SANE.

4) Fair Use Worth More than Copyright Use. Consumer use of copyrighted content generated more wealth for the economy than use by the copyright holders. Remember THAT next time someone tells you DRM is a good idea.

5) The More Unusual Articles on Wikipedia. No comment just a good time waster.

Link to full post.

Last.fm: Improving the Experience, pt 1

This week, I ran across this article from LifeHacker on how to improve your Last.fm experience. I have greatly enjoyed this service since subscribing & installing the application in Ubuntu. But, I’m a rather conservative user of any application. I tend to have the 2-3 functions that I use all the time and only rarely tweak things after my initial post-install “playing around” phase. In an effort to be more adventurous, I’m going to try each of the 15 tweaks recommended in the article. Some of these have longer-term payoffs. For those items, I’m just going to verify they are easy to try/set-up and whether I think it’s worth the effort to keep up.

Items 1-5 are below the cut.

1) Use Your Neighbors: Definitely a cool feature. I've tried several neighbors and found several unknown songs for artists I liked and several new artists. Some of the more interesting finds are McLars (Nerdrapper), The Gotan Project (A French tango band), Tomoyasu Hotei (Japanese Rock).

2) Not Enough Content?: This has already cropped up for me. When you play the 'Surf' or 'surf rock' stations, they only have a few hours worth of content. This is a shame because I LOVE surf music. The article recommends searching neighbors' tags or global tags. But what I do is search for an artist featured in the station that has the limited content. When a song comes up that I think should be on the station but it doesn't have the tag, I tag it. It worked pretty good for a search on 'Dick Dale'. A couple of new finds were Link Wray and "Mystic Island Drums" by the Surfaris.

3) Explore Radio Modes: I had no idea this was even an option. I'm a member of two groups: BLUES! and Supernatural. Both have links to their groups radio. These were both excellent, the BLUES! radio especially. It had some very unexpected choices but they were uniformly good. Definitely a trick I have to remember in the future.

4) Explore Tags: OK, this one I found on my own. It's definitely a good thing to search tags. Also, if you search an artist note the tags of some of you favorites and search some of the more obscure ones (ie - lookup 'psychedeli' as opposed to 'classic rock'). You'll found a lot of good more off-the-beaten-path music this way.

5) Download Free Music: Knew about it but hadn't tried. After browsing the free downloads, I'm not really impressed. I listened to about thirty songs but only downloaded three. If you favor dance tracks, this is a better feature. However, there is a real dirth of blues and the rock choices aren't all that great either. I do like the very international flavor though . Overall, I'd say worth a look every 3-4 months but not a big improvement of your last.fm experience.

See part 2 here.
See part 3 here.

Link to full post.

Getting a Doctor’s Appointment

For the last 2+ weeks I’ve had a sore throat. It’s not affecting my voice or work. However, it’s also not going away and appears to be migrating toward an ear infection. My rule-of-thumb is that if I'm no better after a week of home treatment, I go to the doctor. I’m past that limit.

When I called my doctor to set-up an appointment, I got an automated message. Annoying but I get why they’d have one. I waited for the option to make an appointment.

In the meantime, I learned that this doctor’s office is open 4 days a week. They have an hour and a half lunch. They “routinely” answer the phone between 2 and 5 pm. If I have an emergency, I am supposed to hang up and call 911. If I want to make an appointment, I am unworthy of specific mention.

After sitting through the spiel, I waited to see if they would answer the phone after the message played. There was no option to leave a message for a call back (like my dentist has). Just the sound of the phone ringing over and over again. I have called 8 times in the last three days at various times during their office hours. The phone has been picked up once.

But this was not the end of my troubles. I was told I couldn’t book an appointment because the lady who does it was still at lunch (an hour past the “official” end of lunch stated in the message). According to the answering party, she didn’t know how to make appointments. For comparison, every person in the front of my dentist & orthodontist’s offices can book an appointment with their office’s software. I asked if I could leave my number for a call back. This earned me a laugh (!) and a rebuttal stating it would be better if I called them back. When I attempted to call back, the phone wasn’t picked up again!

Are you frickin’ kidding me?! What is the point of making it as difficult as possible to get an appointment? Doesn’t this doctor want patients? If they’re booked solid, wouldn’t it be easier and more considerate to just change the answering message to reflect that?

Granted, my problems are not really severe. And my insurance allows me to go to practically any doctor. But this is the doctor I’ve seen in the past. She would have the best understanding of my medical history. I’ve dealt with her and her partner in the practice previously and liked them both. Am I being ridiculous here in expecting a modicum of customer service?

(See below the cut for answer)

Answer: No, I'm not being ridiculous.

Proof: I asked a friend for her doctor’s number because I know she goes regularly. When I called, they answered on the 2nd ring (no message!) and made an appointment for the NEXT DAY! The phone call took approximately four minutes.

When I arrived this morning for my appointment, I had to fill out a couple forms but there was hardly any waiting. They called me in within five minutes of my scheduled time. The doctor was congenial and informative. My diagnosis: STREP THROAT. Which means for the last three days, I've been exposing my co-workers to a contagious disease. All because my "official" doctor has a convoluted process for making appointments.

After a quick trip to the pharmacy, I'm home for the day. According to the doctor, I'll stop being contagious after a day's worth of antibiotics. (whew)

In the future, I will be banning any doctor that I cannot make an appointment for easily. I understand busy. What I won't accept is being brushed off when I could be contagious.

Link to full post.

"Spell of Catastrophe" Review

Via Boing Boing, I checked out Mayer Alan Brenner's weblog earlier this week. He is in the middle of putting some of his out-of-print books on-line under a Creative Commons License. And the first two in a his "Dance of the Gods" series are already posted.

After my re-read of a "A Wrinkle in Time" yesterday (sniff), I felt like trying my hand at the first in the series, entitled "Spell of Catastrophe". It was pretty darn good. The characters are wonderfully interesting (Shaa especially is awesome), the plotting is first-rate and I really liked the more nuts-and-bolts approach to magic used. I had an especial fondness for stories that start with multiple threads that end up coming together in a rip-roaring climax. This book definitely delivered on that. A fun weekend read.

You can get the first two books "Spell of Catastrophe" and "Spell of Intrigue" here.

Link to full post.

Nerd Test Results

Yes, this test appears to be quite accurate.





Although, I can't believe I scored that low in the "Dumb/Dork/Awkward" category. If the test included ANY questions about junior school, it would been a different story.

Link to full post.

Why Stargate Rocks! Reason # 1,476,374

GO HERE to watch a clip of the Stargate panel at DragonCon where Christopher Judge learns what exactly furries get up to.

This was apparently one of the best convention panels in Stargate history, partly due the fact most of the castmembers showed up hungover, with plenty more alcohol in hand.

For more LOL awesomeness check out here and here.

Link to full post.

A Sad Day.

Madeline L'Engle is dead. Her "Wrinkle in Time" is one of the great works of sci-fi in the last century. It's thought-provoking without being showy, full of vivid characters who you are totally invested in and a wonderfully sparse (but powerful) study of the mindlessness of hate.

I read "A Wrinkle in Time" when I was 8 or 9. It was the first science-fiction book that meant something to me. Thanks to my Dad's book collection I'd been reading sci-fi since I could figure out how to swipe Heinlein books off the shelf. But this was the first "sci-fi" book I read that resonated, that showed me how damn good science-fiction could be.

In tribute, I think I'll be re-reading her classic work this weekend.

Farewell. (sniff)

Link to full post.

Friday Hit List

1) Much Needed Patent Reform Act. Currently in-process in Congress. Looks like a much more civil discussion then the equally-necessary copyright reform.

2) HILARIOUS op-ed on recent financial troubles in the lending markets. Don't lend money to people who can't pay it back? What a concept. The best quote of the piece:

But as I say, it was my fault, for not studying the poor more closely before I lent them the money. When the only time you've ever seen a lion is in his cage in the zoo, you start thinking of him as a pet cat. You forget that he wants to eat you.

3) Katana Sword vs. 9mm. The world would be such a crappy place without Japanese television.

4) Enable Insults in Ubuntu Command Line. Make typo, suffer the consequences.

Link to full post.

Overheard at Work, pt 5

“I’ve found an Egyptian sarcophogus!” – Co-worker cleaning his desk

Link to full post.

Wednesday Morning Miscellany

1) Robots made of Heart Muscle. Awesome.

2) Think my recent anti-DRM stance is silly? Here's Cory Doctorow explaining why DRM sucks (but 1000x more eloquently than I am capable of).

3) As if there isn't enough to worry about, what if there was an 'accidental' nuclear apocalypse?

4) Mom's words of wisdom....in song form.

5) Amazing video of a 3D hologram design. Although it's obivously a prototype, aside from the astonishing realism, the interactivity possible at this stage is fantastic.

Link to full post.

GParted - Hard Disk Partitioning for total Idiots

Before I convert to a permanent Ubuntu install, I bought myself an external hard drive to back-up my data (better safe than sorry, right?). After spending almost 2 weeks converting music file formats, I’ve transferred all my personal data and backed-up my hard drive. But in order to do all that, I had to partition the external drive into a section for my Windows files and one for my personal documents with an Ubuntu-compatible file system.

Explanation & minor computer-drama under the cut.


While I could choose a file system that both systems could recognize, I decided against it. I’m keeping Windows on my computer “just in case”. Once this install is complete, I have no intention of logging on to Windows unless absolutely necessary. (Even now when I need to get to Windows to prepare for the conversion, I have to talk myself into it because I just do not want to leave Ubuntu). Also, the Ubuntu file system allows for permissions and several other features. If I allow Windows to have read-write access to the Ubuntu partition, these features don’t work. This puts me at a minimum of 3 partitions on the external HD.

I’ve never done anything like this before but Ubuntu users have written multiple guides to explain partitioning and how to back-up your data to newbies like me. The ones I found most helpful are here and here (link).

Ubuntu has the great application called “GParted” which lets you re-size and create partitions of many different file types. Once I got it going (see next paragraph), the partitioning took no time at all. The application was very easy to figure out and understand with an exception explained below. Once the external drive was partitioned, it was just restart the computer, transfer the personal files and viola! Done.

My main sticking point was due to the fact that the instructions do not explicitly state you have to download and install a package called “ntfsprogs” through Synaptic. I know this maybe obvious to some more experienced users but for someone who’d never used a Linux system until a month ago (like me), it kind needs to be spelled out. “Ntfsprogs” allows GParted to manipulate Windows file systems (“ntfs”). If you try to do it with the plain old Gparted, the application just doesn’t let you. The “Re-size” and “Create” options are grayed out. I spun my wheels for a day or so trying to figure out why my computer wouldn’t let me do anything with windows partitions, why the instructions just assumed you could and how could I possibly be misunderstanding the seemingly easy-peasy instructions. During some on-line reading into the problem, I ran across a great table with a breakdown of what packages for GParted are needed to manipulate what file systems. After installing the extra package, shrinking the windows partition and creating the ubuntu ones took no time at all.

My second problem took much less time to figure out and I have no idea if it is typical or not. After GParted created the partitions, I attempted to transfer my personal data to the Ubuntu partition. Frustratingly, I kept getting errors stating I didn’t have permission to write data to the partitions I had just created! This is fairly easy to correct. Via the Ubuntu help forums, I found a command line instruction that opens Nautilus as the root user (read: all powerful, can-do-anything user). Then, all I had to do was go to “media/drivename” --> “Properties” --> “Permissions” tab. I changed the “Others” option to “Create & Delete Files”. Then, I got out of root as quickly as possible*. It took 5 minutes to solve and 10 to research the problem in the help forums.

The next step: Find a disk defragmenter that lets me control which folders get defragmented. Apparently, defragmenting Wubi files in Windows is a VERY BAD IDEA. Of course, the Windows-provided defragmenter does not have this option.

*If you don’t have much experience with Linux (like me), I don’t think you should access the system as root unless absolutely necessary. One of the features of Ubuntu is that you can claim temporary root permissions with the command “sudo”. My personal stance with root permissions is do what I need to do and then get out of root before I screw something up.

Link to full post.

Heroes: Season 1 DVD

This is the first of several DVDs coming out in the next month that I planned to buy. I was particularly excited about this one as I expected "Heroes" to be much better in block viewing. Its continuous storylines favor watching several episodes at once.

And I was right, "Heroes" is even better on DVD. I spent most of last week just rewatching the episodes There’s visual hints in the background that I missed the first time, off-hand remarks that have meaning now and character moments that resonate even more knowing what follows.

"Heroes" also comes with several special features including the extended cut of the pilot, lots of commentaries and deleted scenes, plus several featurettes. Spoiler for special features under the cut.


1) The Extended Pilot: While not as tight as the aired version, there’s several interesting things going on here. The radiation man was a quite different character, a Muslim ex-terrorist with an American wife. The actor playing this character is excellent but this character possessed a much more legitimate reason to be considered a terrorist which would effect how the audience accepts the whole persecution angle. I think Tim Kring made the right choice here. He mentions in the commentary he didn’t want to spend a season in the mind of actual terrorists and that’s not what he wanted the show to be about. Also, I don’t see how Issac cutting off his hand in the pilot could be recoverable without some major hand-waving. It was too excessive. The OD storyline was much more effective and in-character.
One note, this pilot does not flow with the rest of the series. Several cut scenes from this pilot were redone and placed in later episodes. Not to mention there are several of small casting changes (Suresh’s father, Sylar and Matt’s Wife) that are jarring when going from the Extended pilot to the 2nd episode.

2) Deleted Scenes: While most of these deserve to be cut, there were several interesting hints at a more-developed storylines especially for the Nikki-DL characters. Unfortunately, none of these scenes were necessary for the series major arc (stopping the explosion in NY). “Heroes” does an excellent job of being a character-driven superhero story but too much character would slow down the pace of the show. One of the best features of "Heroes" is that things happen, move forward, people learn. Interesting but understandably deleted.

3) Episode Commentaries: Ok, I’m a commentary junkie. But the number of commentaries is a bit intimidating so I’m only three-quarters of the way through them. The most interesting tidbits so far:
- Greg Grunberg, while funny, is a bit overwhelming. If he’s on the commentary he will completely take over.
- Everybody in the cast & crew loves the following
(1)DP & the shooting style of the show. At least 3-4 times a commentary someone mentions the lighting or filtering of a shot and how awesome it is.
(2) The plot twists. Half the time the actors are shutting each other up right before big reveals and then geeking out about how cool it is. This could be pretentious but comes off as quite endearing. You can hear how enthusiastic these guys are and how invested they are in where things are going.
(3) Hayden Panettiere. All the other actors just rave about her. Personally, I think it’s justified. Claire wouldn’t be a tenth as interesting in the hands of a less skilled actress.
- I kinda like how several of these were recorded during filming. Several of the actors come & go between commercial cuts resulting in a very conversation-at-a-party feel. It can be a little hard to follow but it’s a nice little tweak to the usual commentary track.
- Sendhil Ramamurthy has some interesting ideas about marriage. “Every wife has a little bit of Mom in them...(pause while other people talk) Just for the record, I’m not married to my mother.”
-Also, Sendhil has my thanks for mentioning how ridiculous the “Texas” geography is on the show. Being from San Antonio, he should know.
- Tim Kring feeds the fringe fans. Both he and Dennis Hammer mention BroYay! for the Petrelli clan and then, go “We totally watch the [BroYay!] videos on Youtube” (blinks incredulously) WHAT? I don’t think I ever heard another show creator/producer so openly acknowledging this. Since this revelation, several Live Journals have exploded with glee.

4) Featurettes: There are 5 of them.
“Making Of Heroes” is short and pretty lame. Nothing really new here except the presence of Ali Larter whom I haven’t seen much in the other features. Her comments were interesting but a little weird to watch because it appears Ali Larter is a nervous smiler.
"Special Effects" was interesting in that several things I thought were special effects weren't and several things I thought were real...weren't. Which means these guys know their business. There's also mention of the fact Masi Oka worked for ILM and how that can effect his work in a special effect shot.
“Stunts” has some pretty cool behind the scenes work and provides yet another interesting fact about Masi Oka. At one time, he had a 1st level black belt in kendo. The other actors all get their chance to talk about how much they love putting their lives in danger.
“Artist Tim Sale” is shockingly laid back. But his discussion of his background was pretty interesting. Also, HE'S COLORBLIND! He does all the art in black and white, then scans it into a computer for the color work.
"The Score" was OK. The ladies scoring "Heroes" definitely know their business but I just that interested (sorry).

All in all, definitely worth $37 at Wal-mart.

Link to full post.

Dry Spell

Apologies for disappearing for a couple weeks. Between moving forward with my Ubuntu permanent install, work getting crazy-busy and the Heroes:Season 1 DVD coming out, I really haven’t had much in the way of spare time to blog.

Although I expect to continue to be busy throughout September, I think I should be making more of an effort to keep up the blogging. More posts to follow....

Link to full post.