May 2008
41 posts
That’s a D&D gnome on the t-shirt, by the way.
Gnomes were pulled from 4th Edition for a bit. This really upset gnome-lovers like me (all fear Leibnitz Delarum Neb Len Venheddin Tikkchik Fen Tikktikk, my level 18 gnome sorcerer). But then Wizards of the Coast threw us a bone and put just enough info about gnomes in the 4th Edition Monster Manual to use them as monsters and player...
7? Sure it's not 6.12?
Microsoft had the chance yesterday to debut some hot new features for Windows 7 at the Wall Street Journal’s and Walt Mossberg’s All Things Digital conference.
And so Microsoft shows off Apple’s multitouch. OK, multitouch isn’t owned by Apple. Buy Apple is the only company to use it to its best effect, as shown by its use on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
How does this demo...
Mm-mmm...
The best wine I’ve ever had the pleasure to drink has to be the 2006 Casa Lapostolle Cabernet Sauvignon (that’s cah’-sah lah-poe-stell’).
Frak, this is good wine. Only $13 a bottle, too. This is how I imagine $20-$30 cabs should look: a deep ruby, but not opaque; should smell: like walking through a berry orchard in summer; should taste: some tannins and oak, but mostly...
Best & Favorite Gamecube Games
Another in my series of lists that don’t really matter.
Metroid Prime—favorite video game ever
Super Mario Sunshine—haven’t enjoyed a Mario game so much since the original Super Mario Bros. on the NES
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker—incredibly underrated; spent an embarrassing amount of time sailing aimlessly
Viewtiful Joe—terribly marketed,...
This made me laugh 'til I was crying. →
We can take her out in public!
Erika and I took Elizabeth to the Fargo South Jazz Concert last night to see her cousin Katie play.
Elizabeth—who is a few months past 2-years-old—was great: quiet during the performance, appreciative after each piece, and a trooper for putting up with a theater chair she wasn’t heavy or tall enough to completely prevent from sandwhiching her.
Of course, the experience and...
When Grilling Meat
Before throwing that steak, burger, breast, etc., on the grill you need to season the meat.
All it takes is some salt and pepper on both sides and a couple minutes to marinate while the grill heats up.
(Sea or Kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepper are preferred for the best flavor over table salt and pre-ground pepper.)
Instead of tasting flat—if you don’t season—or of...
Provigil
I’m hearing more and more tales of modafinil used off-label. I’m incredibly tempted to find some online.
Get this: it makes you smarter and more alert and the known side-effects are loss of appetite and the potential to reduce the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. It’s use is already reported to be rampant at universities, especially med school where access to...
Changing the (Wine) World →
If you have somehow not come across Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV, let me be the first.
If you like wine, or think you might like wine, or used to like wine but now find it a PITA, you need to check this guy out.
Things Younger Than John McCain →
For example: The Grapes of Wrath
How have I not seen this before today? Hilarious.
Lame.
Bush: Increase oil production.
Saudi Arabia: No.
Bush: Please?
Saudi Arabia: No.
Bush: Pretty please?
Saudi Arabia: No.
Bush: But, I have a swell personality! Right?
Saudi Arabia: No.
Bush: Do you mean no, you won’t increase oil production or you don’t think I have a swell personality?
Saudi Arabia: Yes.
Bush: If I admit I have a lame personality will you increase...
Stylish and Fun Milk Ad Disguised as a Game →
I Am Very Tempted... →
MTGO V3
I’d like to get the names of everyone involved in Magic: the Gathering Online, version Three.
I do not want to kidnap them, torture their loved ones in front of their eyes, and then torture and kill them (as they deserve).
Instead, I only want to be able to follow them five years hence to the companies they’ve fled to or founded so I can see what they can accomplish when they know...
One Laptop Per Child (a.k.a. The $100 Laptop)
I remember reading about this ambitious project way back when in Wired.
(No, that’s not right. I don’t think it made Wired until the Fall, even though it was announced in January or February of 2005. It must have been the New York Times. That’s ironic considering Negroponte was a leader behind the founding of Wired.)
I do remember at the time thinking this was a great idea,...
Life-Size Picture of a Blue Whale. →
An Ambiguous Animation Painted on Public Walls →
The Republican Convention Should Make for Great... →
My Favorite... Cookies
I cooked up a batch of oatmeal cookies on Saturday. It was cookie cooking weather, for sure: sleety, windy, and cold.
I just used the classic oatmeal cookie recipe under the lid of the minute oatmeal except for one change: There Are No Raisins in My Oatmeal Cookies!
What is the deal with people putting extra junk in their oatmeal cookies? It destroys the simple purity of the cookie.
...
I’ve got blisters on my fingers!
When Obama Wins... →
I should say, the retro, pulp style of the Penguin Paperbacks of Fleming’s Bond novels are also good.
But, still.
Fuck yeah. Casino Royale should be in the conveniently paperback-sized pocket of everyman’s briefcase.
Oh fuck yeah. →
No, I'm Not OK
I haven’t seen the last two episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
Gasp!
I know, I know.
But the third episode of the season, The Ties That Bind (Spoilers!!!), had an ending that was so wicked and painful I haven’t been able to watch the show again. The rest of the episode was pretty ugly too.
BSG is on again tomorrow night, on Hulu on Saturday, and I’m not sure if—three weeks...
If You Like Portal You Must Play Chronotron →
Prepare for your brain to melt.
Strange Little Game →
HOWTO Make Homemade Kitty Crack →
This is so awesome. I had plans for this weekend, but I may have to clear them.
Princes vs. Princesses
I was asked an interesting question a couple weekends ago: “Which is better: Dune or A Princess of Mars?”
Dune is, of course, the classic 1965 novel by Frank Herbert in which a young Paul Atreides discovers and struggles with his destiny as a pseudo-messiah.
By contrast, Princess of Mars was published almost 54 years earlier by Edgar Rice Burroughs. In it John Carter, a Civil War...
Yeah! *slap*
I was just high-fived by my regular coffee-guy at Starbucks.
He was very excited about the new blend they just recevied and sampled. It’s a Southeast Asian-Latin American-Hawaiian blend that they brewed in a french press. He was disappointed I didn’t arrive just five minutes sooner or he totally would have hooked me up behind the counter. He’s going to let me know when they get...
What’s your name?
Who’s your daddy?
Is he rich like me?
Ice Cream
Ice cream is very interesting.
I have a theory that people eat less plain vanilla ice cream than they do flavored ice cream or ice cream with toppings (the more “flavor” or toppings the more ice cream also eaten). This is different than I would expect (I expect that the more flavor relative to “vanilla” or the more toppings the less actual ice cream consumed).
But this...
End the Rain
Erika and I went to see Brenda Weiler live and in concert tonight.
She’s touring to promote her new album End the Rain and is fresh off winning the High Plains Reader’s “Best Bets of 2008” award for Best Musician.
The show was fantastic. Don’t miss her if she comes through your neck of the woods.
Wait. What?
Ben Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [i.e. biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion —...
Here's What I Don't Get
It’s being trumpeted everywhere that the major studios are going to release movies on DVD and downloads on the same day.
Why don’t they make movies available on DVD, iTunes, On-Demand, whatever the same day as they hit theaters?
You think the theaters running Iron Man this weekend wouldn’t be packed if it could be downloaded? If not the same day, I’m sure you’ll...