Web Comic

Doing a little house keeping around here, might even do an overhaul soon to make it look purty. First up the easy stuff, dumped Get Fuzzy and Pet Pro from the linkage. PetPro I think is dead, or near enough, and Get Fuzzy stopped being funny, both of them leave me so apathetic as to not bother linking either.

Next up I reordered some junk since periodic seems more frequent than weekly, I swapped sections, Fox Trot got moved down to Weekly, and XKCD got added. XKCD bills its self as: A web comic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. All true, and all funny, its light on art, but even in its stickily way its better then what I can do. So I enjoy its clean sharp lines. :)

Also my Penny Arcade swag arrived, including John Gabriel's famous theorem, and 'the code.' I also highly recommend you listen to Wil Wheaton's keynote from PAX07. One year, when I'm old and curmudgeonly like Wil (at somewhere between 35-40) I hope to have the same kind of relationship with my kids as he has with his. I suppose I had better get to having those kids sooner or later.

Speaking of swag, I'm giddy with the power of fitting now that I have lost all this weight, suddenly the world of internet wit pasted on to t's is at my power. So I will proceed with prudence, but I may furnish myself with yet more witty Internet t's. Perhaps my old time favorite "ale's and whore's."

Erin and I have been enjoying Bioshock and Guitar Hero 2, Erin is a spectator more to Bioshock, but is quickly becoming a guitar virtuoso. To setup some context for those who haven't a) played Bioshock, or its demo, b) don't troll in internet circles about video games, Bioshock is a game set in a McCarthy era earth, in an underwater utopia, gone wrong. The founder of this city an Andrew Ryan believes in unfettered science and a meritocracy, at least that is what it appears, unfortunately the definition of merit slips as science gives individuals the power to rewrite their own DNA to give them powers (usually shooting forth from the left arm.)

Such powers may include lightening, telekinesis, frost, or fire.

All that being said, this mornings Ctrl-Alt-Del is pleasantly amusing, if not potty humour.



Well thats all this train has time for, I have a post in the pipe I may wrap on lunch, or perhaps on the ride home.

Cheers

ps yes more stuff is coming from Italy, I did spend more then 4 days there.

Sales Copy worthy of Strong Bad

I was cruising Future Shop's site when I saw Lair, a Dragon combat game for the PS3. Anyways the sales copy caught my eyes, and for those who are fans of Strong Bad, and Trogdar, enjoy:

Saddle up your wyverns for some serious Dragon on Dragon combat. It's up to you to burninate your enemies. Loop, circle, drop, dash, chomp and inspire the fear worthy of your consummate V's. Prove you're more than a wing-a-ling dragon in Lair!

Yet Another Victory in the Format War

Michael Bay "drinks the Kool Aid," now supports HD DVD
Amazing what a little cash can do...

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While I am generally opposed to hypocrisy, and a fan of integrity, as and HD-DVD'r and firmly in the anti-Sony camp (please disregard my new cell phone) I will take what I can get. So Hooray Micheal Bay, Hooray HD, and perhaps Hooray Kool-AID

Yar Har! Another Win of the Format War

Paramount to blu-ray: Bu Bye!

Okay, I only have a vested interest in this because I bought an HD-DVD contrary to many of my key DVD sources, and now I need HD to win.

So a mighty victory for my format!

Huzzah!

What do they think about?

From the good folks over at The Joy of Tech

Shipp Family Picnic

Hey all, just posting the first of the images from the Shipp picnic around the internet. I was having some export problems this morning that I know how to resolve, so all you get is the descendants of Nancy Emigh, also known as my more direct in laws, aka the outlaws :)

And yes, that is a pig being held in the front middle.

Erin Batters Waterlogged Texas...

Erin's in a surly mood it seems...


(okay I'm just posting for sensational headlines now.)

John Gabriel, Master of the Interwebs

This is a t-shirt that I must have, I am oft quoting his original less wearable theorem, and shall now ware it proudly.

Dragon Backpack

. . .Well then, I think I want one, curse these one of a kind crafts from crazy guys with mad skills.

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July 3rd (Written July 5th, on a train, somewhere)

We woke to an ocean swim, the water was cool, but not cold and the sand soft between our toes. The same could not be said about the wall of rocks piled by the high tide. All of it was dark black from its volcanic origins. We floated about until we were good and pruny before heading up for showers and breakfast.



Breakfast was a combo of highs and lows. It was, for Erin, the first breakfast in a while with something other then "a bun," yogurt to be exact. On the down side, the coffee was terrible, that may have been an operator malfunction, but the button's were not labeled in Italian, never mind English.

We left our luggage with the desk and walked into the city, we shopped the quaint stores in search of beach towels but failed (little did we know we wouldn't find anyone selling beach towels until our last day in Italy.) Around noon we hired a boat to take us around the Island of Stromboli to see "the scar of flame."




Our ride was really nice, we didn't see any liquid lava, but we got a hot gas geyser and a rock slide, and a lot of smoke.


Our Captain/Guide spoke no English, but he had the universal gestures for eruption, explosion and lava flow down pat. Erin was regaled with my standard lecture of Hawaiian lava types and why the names are backwards.


The boat took us all the way around the Island and out to the lighthouse Island of Strombolicio, where we swam from the boat. The water was crystal clear, and it seemed like it was only feet deep, but it was really tens of feet or more.


The swim was great until one of the snorkellers who we met out there said "Jellyfish" which put me off, and out of the water.



We made shore in the heat of the day and sought out lunch. All the restaurants were closed for a siesta, but we found a nice bar, with a great view. Italian bars are more like small cafeterias; you can get pre-made food, like sandwiches and pizza, which can be reheated, as well as drinks and deserts.


A Biera, and a hotdog roll, and a gelato later and we made for the beach where we idled the day away.

At 5 we boarded our ferry for Naples, sad to leave that smoking gem of the Aeolian Islands.

The boat to Naples was hard on Erin, rough water, higher speeds, and no fresh air and no clean windows made her queasy. Even I was affected, but mostly I was just hot and sticky. It was a grueling 4 hours, but it was still a great day.

We scurried away from the port by taxi and found our hotel. It was in a sketchy alley; from the outside we were worried, but wonderful on the inside. Our first order of business was showers, and then dinner. Knowing we would be late, we purchased rolls, prosciutto and pecorino from Stromboli and made our own sandwiches.

We ate, and then like every other night, we slept the sleep of the dead.

It Rhymes with Blue...

So my sweetie got me a phenomenal present for my birthday, and I shall share the clue with you I pondered for much of the morning.

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Your present today,
is a _____________.

And the answer is...


LC-37D62U

For those out of the know:

That's the Sharp Aquos 37' 1080p LCD HD TV, weeeeeeeeee :)

Stardust mini review

Erin and I just got back from Stardust, and I'm a little tired, so I may write more later, but I wanted to give a mini review.

So here goes


OMG! WTBEAR, Awesome Sauce!

Not the most articulate, but seriously, go see this movie. In fact take your life savings put it in an envelope and mail it to Neil Gaiman so he can make more awesomeness.

Night all

Geoffrey

I seem to not be the only one

Another gmail 9gb report.

*EDIT*

Mystery solved (by a digg commenter)

So apparently google is sharing my purchased space. So I have 3 gigs for gmail and 1 gig for photo's and 6 gigs shared that both services can access. Confusing, but I understand now.

Google bumped gmail space?

Not sure if this is because I paid for extra Picasa space and google merged my space, or because google is striking back at .Mac.

Extremly limited research says the fcrmer not the later.

To bad.

Apple puts on a good show

Well I'm glad I got my prediction in on time, I was 2/3. I guess Leopard was a forgone conclusion, they have announced October, so they are going to ship October, no further comment required.

iMacs? Check, two nice refreshes, nice styling, nice price, nothing more to say here, they are iMacs, my MacPro is a better machine, but they are a great computer for lay users.

iLife and iWork? I feel I was a rare predictor, and I was more right then I could have imagined. Announced? check, release date? Today! Not bad, not bad at all.

They look spiffy, so I'm sure I will stack up on them once they are actually physically available so Eri can buy them with her education discount.

Back to work

g

Hype and Fuss

Well there is an Apple Press Conference starting shortly, and for the last week there has been a lot of fuss on the interwebs about what Steve will announce. Since this isn't a fully blown mega-nouncement, and they have already put down rumors of a new ipod or iphone and everyone is flapping about this thats or the other thing. I want to go on record with my prediction:

1) A final release date for Leopard with either new demoed features, or no demo, gawd don't need to see the same demo again.
2) A speculative time frame for iWork and iLife Rev's with possible demo
3) iMac update.

The last one I say, just cuz thats what everyone else is saying and I don't want to be left out of the party if they are right :P

A heretical idea

Well the traditional family birthday cake is of course Strawberry Shortcake. So traditional that it has transcended the great ocean's of Saskatchewan, and Manitoba (the wheat ocean that is, or is it canola these days?) To be served at other recent birthdays.

Now, historically, August is a cottage month, and cottages have neither consistent temperature stoves necessary for baking angel food, nor do they have kitchen temperatures conducive to making stable whip cream. As such, I have had the pleasure of the most odd birthday cakes over my life. This even extended to my in laws who once prepared a Sulfur cake by launching two rockets atop a mousse cake. A cake to thick to allow the rockets to reach escape, instead they lay mired in raspberry, and vented their exhaust gases.

In light of the rather unusual circumstances of my birthday falling on my birthday, I propose a heretical cake transformation, as Strawberries are now firmly out of season, but raspberries and blue berries remain ripe and plump. Let us garnish the Angel food and whip cream with these berries instead.

I know, its madness, plain and simple, but I'm crazy like that.

G

July 2 (written July 5th, 2007 while on the train in Stazione Central in Napoli)

This was a strange day, we spent it mostly waiting and sweating. We started by checking out and then stowing our luggage at the hotel. We then walked basically all the way to the port to get a "no fee" Traveler's Cheque Exchange location, Banque de Costa. We entered through the man trap, past the armed guard, and the signs warning of kerchief clad gun toting bandits. Taking a number (117) we took a seat, and read the sign. "Now serving 90," we were in for a wait, ten minutes later "now serving 91" a long wait. . .

About two hours later I was at the counter, and I stayed there for about 20 minutes carefully stringing together from my Italian phrase book "Thank you, and sorry about the problem with the phone." While in the meantime my teller yelled at American Express over the phone. Once every thing was sorted out she handed me my cash and smiled appreciatively as Italian syllables crashed over my lips like a storm tossed ship against the rocky shoals.

We made a swift departure nearly three hours after we arrived, and headed back to the hotel, grabbed our luggage, and a bus back to the port. We grabbed a quick bite, and then boarded our hydrofoil.


Much to our dismay, the windows of the hydrofoil were encrusted with salt, but some of them were open so we got a little view, and a nice breeze.

We transferred at the Island of Salina, with a long enough pause to enjoy a gelato, all be it a very melty one, before on to Stromboli.



We arrived near dusk on the smoking island, the sun reaching the horizon beyond the volcano, it cast its long shadow over the town. We took a taxi from the port and were glad of it. The taxi was more of a pickup truck the size of a Smart Car with a bench in the flat bed. The rocky volcanic flow the town was build on was hilly, and the roads winding and narrow. More then once our taxi bounced off retaining walls of the building's foundations.


Our hotel, which had the distinction of being the only one I booked through, and booked through the use of pigeon English, turned out to be a lovely place. The Villagio Stromboli was a stucco clad Escher painting, of stairs and bridges built into the ancient lava flows (as opposed to over them.)


It had a fine view of the volcano and was perched over a black sand beach, accessible from stairs descending on pillows of magma.

We ended the day with , I daresay too much wine (I need to learn how to say one glass, as I keep getting one bottle) shellfish with eyes, and a canoli.



That night, when our heads hit the pillow, we were already asleep...

July 1?!?

Yes, yes I know it is missing. I'm trying to back fill the ones I didn't journal, while transcribing the ones that I did. I am also taking my sweet time about it. I will probably do a lot of typing catch up at the cottage. July 1 was a good one, I got pick pocketed, or groped by a stranger... Wait and see!

Spider-Cat

Does whatever a spider can!I have no additional comment, none is needed.

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