Remember my Heathrow experience?

So if you recall, I had some experiences in Heathrow on my way back from Chennai with regards to some lost luggage. Fortunately it all was returned within a week of my getting back to the US. At the time I was slightly annoyed. Now, after reading this, I've decided to thank my lucky stars...

Meanwhile, Project Blue Box continues in the planning stage. I spent some time this week working on the materials list to start the budget process. I also noticed that I'll want to make some alterations to the final product based on guides I have seen. More progress as it happens.

It's also been a while since I posted some YouTube goodness...so I leave you with this:

I just turned 50 (posts)!

I just noticed this as I logged in and saw that I have finally done 50 (mostly comprehensible) posts. Thanks to all who are reading this iteration that mainly started as a method to report back from India on my trip.

I've also started to look at my stats page as well. This isn't the busiest site on the Internets, but I did notice yesterday that someone visited this page from a link on wilwheaton.net. Hello there! I was genuinely puzzled how this could have happened until I did a little web-fu and remembered that I did post a comment there a while back with a link back to my domain, which then was completely different from what it is now. Anyway, thanks for looking at my page, Wil Wheaton's blog reader-person!

But this week has actually been fairly busy and I've been away from my desk at work with training - which means of course, no time for things like working on Project Blue Box. I'll be able to get back to that next week. But since I'm in training, there isn't any real down time for doing things like that article re-write on the Four Celebutards. So that will have to come later.

Stay tuned for updates!

There is ONE thing I don't like about the Fantastic Four movies...

It's been bugging me for a while, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but although I've defended the Fantastic Four movies for a while now, there is one tiny little flaw. Or one huge flaw, really...

Doctor Doom.

Victor VonDoom doesn't talk like Victor VonDoom historically should. In the movies he's all about the charm, the quips and the one-liners. Doom's dialog should be bombastic and over the top, but still with some air of menace. Something along the lines of "The accursed Richards and his clan have interfered with my plans time and again...now comes the day of reckoning!"

So that probably doesn't translate well when read aloud, but it sure it more fun than generic snarkiness. Plus Doom stays in his armor always and doesn't remove it just for vanity's sake.

Doom's morality also doesn't come across in the films. In the movies, he's just selfish, but in the comics, he's on a quest for power because he honestly feels that he's in the right and is born to lead. The only thing in his way is in his eyes are the Fantastic Four and his own rivalry with Reed Richards. That's the simplistic view of the Doom character...but you get the idea. It's a bit different in the comics than in the movies. Especially if you go back and look at the classic Kirby and Lee run from the 1960s.

But that said, I still find the movies enjoyable...

Meanwhile, the Ingredients website is uploaded. More changes to be made, as always, but we've got a solid foundation to work with now. Time to concentrate on the home base and get some changes done here to give a more consistent look to the site. That'll be in the next few days and weeks as I decide how best to do this.

Back to work...

I share my podcasts with YOU!

As mentioned earlier, here are the podcasts that I currently subscribe to. Maybe there's something in here that you'd find interesting. Oh, and by "web page" that generally means a link right to their RSS feed page:

The Comicology Podcast iTunes link | web page
The Penny Arcade Podcast iTunes link | web page
Fanboy Radio iTunes link | web page
Filmspotting iTunes link | web page
GreekBrief.TV iTunes link | web page
GeeksOn iTunes link | web page
The Golden Age of Comic Books iTunes link | web page
Hidden Universe HD: NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope iTunes link | web page
iCali iTunes link | web page
JETSET iTunes link | web page
Macintosh Folklore Radio iTunes link | web page
MAKE Podcast iTunes link | web page
Movies You Should See iTunes link | web page
Seen Unseen Movie Reviews iTunes link | web page
Tiki Bar TV iTunes link | web page
The Totally Rad Show iTunes link | web page

Right now I'm getting caught up on The Golden Age of Comic Books so I'm listening to them one episode after another. That's pretty much the only podcast I went back to get every episode of to listen to. So once I get caught up on that (which should be by the end of the week) I'll be able to get caught up on the other podcasts that I've only got an episode or two to listen to.

OK, Comicology also has a huge backlog of episodes for me to listen to as well...thank goodness I can listen in the car driving into work...

I should tidy that last post up a bit...

Looking over yesterday's "item" dare I say about the Not-So-Fantastic Four, I'm thinking it needs to be re-written slightly to tighten it up a bit. I'll be up for the challenge this evening I hope to re-write and drive the point home even more.

I'll also get up that list of podcasts that I listen to or watch tonight as well with links (I hope) to the iTunes subscription and/or the podcast's home page.

The Ingredients revamp is near completion, just a few changes that need to be made and it's good to go.

Another project in front of me is another mass eBaying of Things I No Longer Need. The overwhelming bulk of "things" I have is starting to get to me again. Fortunately in a few months the holidays will be once again among us and that's the best time to be an eBayer.

Enough rambling...back to work.

The Four Celebutards of the Apocalypse...

First and last in a non-continuing series - for extra points, spot the one that hasn't gone to jail and the one that hasn't been in rehab. All of them know each other, all of them are connected to each other through at least Paris Hilton. No wiki links in this one...because frankly...who cares?

First up: Death as embodied by Lindsay Lohan. Her latest movie is "I Know Who Killed Me" or some prattle like that. Not so much killed her, per se, but her career certainly... She's always been such a charmer and Long Island sophisticate. Her mother certainly is looking out for her best interests on the party circuit in Los Angeles to insure that her daughter can get into Hyde every evening to see and be seen. It certainly helped with her denials of underage drinking. She was just dancing with her friends! Then of course, the source of this charming mug shot is the result of the infamous chase in the Denali with cocaine in her pants pockets. Observe the amazing level of self-awareness that her employment and red carpet prospects are (hopefully) gone for good. Our first runner up was Anna Nicole Smith - but she doesn't have any connection to these four darling BFFs/sworn enemies/whatever, and well...it'd be a bit tasteless, even for Anna Nicole.

Secondly, Famine in the form of Nicole Richie, who at last reports was actually pregnant, yet still confused with the puzzling streets of Glendale, California. Note the sassy look in her eyes in this mugshot. Our girl Nicole fears nothing, except calories and before becoming a baby-mama would vanish before our very eyes if she turned sideways in front of a camera. Now that she's with child and therefore having food forced into her system to support said unborn baby, we may have to drop Ms. Richie off the list and replace her with a suitable, underweight substitute. Our first runner up - Mischa Barton, everyone's favorite underweight stick of wood from The OC.

Our third Celebutard is Pestilence. Who better could personify this than Paris Hilton? She certainly has the most glamorous of the mugshot gal-pals. Star of music, movies and night-vision home video, Ms. Hilton has certainly done them all...and even managed to serve some semi-hard time in the LA County jail. All while holding her head up high - as a kite mind you - with pride while demonstrating to all of us that you shouldn't do the crime if you can't do the time. Unless you're really rich and the county sheriff wants to put you in house arrest, but the presiding judge has other plans. No runners up necessary here...

Last, but certainly not least in our tangled web of fate is Britney Spears as War. Let's not say anything along the lines of "Remember when she was hot?" Let's keep it simple and not tax our minds with "Remember when she was relatively sane?" Yeah...it still makes the cranium ache. No mug shots - yet - but there is this lovely shot of Bald Britney taking a swing at an SUV with an umbrella. She later claimed to be getting in character to try out for a movie. If true, someone forgot to tell her that the role of Lex Luthor has already been taken by Kevin Spacey... A runner up? None that I could think of...Girlfriend is plain nuts.

Happy Birthday to...Meh...

I have somehow managed to survive another 365 days on this planet without going totally mad. This definition of clinical insanity is left open to the interpretation of the individual reader. However, my nice, relaxed 4 days off in a row had a somewhat rocky start as I completely forgot that I had arranged to take Thursday off, so I left at lunch and returned again on Friday...which I had also arranged to take off.

Two days that I could have slept in and yet didn't. This failed to put a smile on my face. However, on Friday I decided to do a little Wii hunting and was successful.

Now what do I do with it? It hasn't been opened and the only title I'm remotely interested in was Wii Sports. Most of the existing games out there I am interested in, frankly, are on the XBOX 360 which has it's own reliability issues that won't be resolved in any ideal fashion until the 65 nm processor chips are put into use later this year. So in other words, I want an XBOX 360, XBOX 360 systems are plentiful, but I wouldn't own one right now to save my life. If I had to, I'd probably go for the newer Elite systems, or the Premium system if it had the HDMI port on it. These systems have newer motherboard designs that allegedly have an additional heat sink to avoid the Red Ring of Death that plague early units.

We're going to rest on this for a few days and ponder our next move. I'd hate to think that I got this Wii to really just flip it on eBay for a quick profit...

I was also out and about this weekend after getting some precious sleep in time and found that the new Madman action figures are now out and about for sale. With this, the Biggs figure and news of the past Doctors coming out in action figure form, I guess I'm out of toy retirement. Now to try to find somewhere to put them. I guess I'll have to eBay older items I have no further need for.

But this new Madman figure is pretty nice. Mike should be very proud and I very quickly snapped this picture to put in the gallery on his site. Later this week I'll get some pictures of the older Big Blast version of Madman taken and uploaded as well. I'll try to get a more neutral background at that time instead of my coffee table with it's assorted stuff piled on it. At that time I'll get a new picture of this figure taken as well. Apparently there is a variant of this figure in the black jumpsuit with the yellow bolt available as well - but I haven't found it yet. This newer figure is pretty well articulated when compared to it's bigger brother from the Big Blast line. Almost like the super-articulated Spider-Man figures that can be put in almost any pose imaginable. But it is smaller than the Big Blast figure, by almost a half I'd say without being in front of them right now. Still, that means it'll look pretty good next to the Cyberman I got a couple weeks ago for the desk at work ("Which desk is Brian's?" "The one with the toys...").

So this week I've also got to scan in or track down some additional covers for the gallery on Mike's site and I've got some forward momentum going on the Ingredients site. Hopefully that'll be ready to go by mid-week and then I can fancy that up a bit more post-launch with keen CSS.

My new sketchbook

Almost forgot to mention that I did get my Alex Ross sketchbook yesterday from ML. Thank you again for standing in line and getting this for me! Apparently some are flipping them on eBay and are getting upwards of $100 for them. Like I'd ever do that with mine... It's a small book, but worth it and has a new Red Sonja cover. Very keen and apparently an immediate sell out at the San Diego Comic Con with a print run of only 500.

I really need to get back down there next year...

In which Mr. Jobs makes the .Mac service useful?

Not quite. Yes, it integrates with the new iLife '08 better, I guess. A new photo gallery feature, which I am sure is actually very nice is added. But really, all they seemed to do is just throw more storage at the users. Not that more space is anything to sneeze at. But really, Steve Jobs is quite seriously missing the point with .Mac. At least at the level of the more advanced user. For the Average Joe who only wants to sync his email and contacts and bookmarks and have a (now) reasonably sized amount of online storage for his iWeb-based website, I guess .Mac fits the bill.

But lets say that Average Joe is now Somewhat Clever Joe and has been learning about PHP and/or MySQL or just wants to use something other than iWeb for his blog. Maybe he really likes WordPress or Blogger as an option. Can he use any of this with .Mac? Nope. If he wants any of that nuts and bolts type stuff he's got to look elsewhere as far as hosting. Either his own ISP, or GoDaddy, or whatever.

Now for Average Joe, that isn't a problem. For Somewhat Clever Joe who still loves him some Macintosh and the like, it's a little frustrating. Could Apple set up some sort of preference in the .Mac settings when logged into the web interface to turn on "Advanced" options like PHP and MySQL support...oh and maybe website visitor stats...that'd be nice. Something a little beyond a simple counter of the number of hits.

Yes, the .Mac situation has vexed many Somewhat Clever Joe users for some time. Give us that "Advanced" setting and retain the drag and drop uploading of files to our (now) reasonably sized online storage and we'd probably be very happy campers and shut the hell up about it finally. I'm sure there's a couple more things I'm forgetting that need to be added, but PHP and MySQL support and by extension support for installing external blogging solutions are near the top - at least for me and others.

Let's talk about the other things announced today from The Mothership - like new iMacs!

They're purdy. So shiny and purdy. And svelte I might add. I want one and will see what I can do to make that happen. Here are the obvious (to me) caveats:

1. They're (as mentioned above) shiny. That is, specifically, the display is glossy. I'm honestly not a fan of glossy displays. I can probably get around this and get used to it after some settling in and adjustment time.

2. The keyboard - oh the much vaunted, oh-so sexy, very much an obvious Apple-designed keyboard. It certainly does look good, doesn't it? I hate it. No. I HATE it. Wait...I HATE IT! It looks good, but is one of those form over function mistakes that Apple has been known to make (original iMac hockey puck mouse, anyone?). My major issue isn't that it's a metal keyboard (the IBM XT keyboard was metal, and it's amazingly my all-time favorite keyboard - you could drive a truck over it and it still worked), or that it does look like you could cut yourself on it (I'm sure you can't), is that the keys are right from the Macbooks and with the complete lack of travel that you get with a laptop's keyboard. The previous Apple keyboard was actually pretty good, and I might try to get another one to have as a backup down the road.

iLife '08 was shown off as well. The new iMovie looks good as does iPhoto, and I would like to play around with iDVD once I get my hands on it, but Garageband does nothing for me and the .Mac Web Gallery, while I am sure is very cool, well...if it's tied down to .Mac and I can't upload it to say, my own domain...well...

iWork is Apple's quiet little way to say "sit and spin" to Microsoft now that they added the spreadsheet, Numbers to the mix alongside Pages and Keynote. I haven't been able to look at the iLife section of the Apple website in detail, but it does look like Pages and Numbers, while never going to be the feature-laden applications that Word and Excel are, will probably be able to hold their own against them. They will also be more than enough for Average Joe (and Somewhat Clever Joe) and just one more reason to not upgrade to Office 2008. If you don't need all the bloat and the files are interchangeable... Keynote as always makes Powerpoint look like an Etch-a-Sketch, so no need to belabor that point.

The forlorn Mac mini also got a slight update in the form of a processor bump. The only mention of that was after a direct question from the audience. No love for the mini...

So, today's announcements, they were cool, and there was some neat stuff. Not overwhelming, and no, certainly not 100% perfect. But this also wasn't a regular MacWorld or WWDC-type keynote, so the Whiz-Bang levels aren't expected to be as high as they are on Holy Keynote Day.

But now I do need to figure out how to justify changing my perfectly good and useful iMac in towards this new, lovely, aluminum model...

Simpsonize me...

I finally got the Simpsonizer to work for me...so here is my new official portrait:

Fantastic Four 2

Finally got to see Fantastic Four 2 yesterday. Hot Fuzz was sadly pulled from the cheap theater, and I just can't bring myself to watch Spidey 3 for some reason. Fatigue? Bad buzz keeping me away? Dunno. Don't care right at this moment. So...Fantastic Four 2...based on Fantastic Four Annual #3 (The wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm), Fantastic Four #48-#50 (the first appearance of the Silver Surfer and Galactus) and Fantastic Four #57-60 (Doctor Doom acquires the Power Cosmic from the Surfer). How does it work? Nicely I'd say. I don't quite understand all the hating that goes on with the two Fantastic Four movies. The big arguments seem to be that it doesn't take itself seriously enough and that it doesn't stay true to the comics. Well, here's our major deviations, taking into account that we're bunching up three different storylines - Victor Von Doom doesn't put back on his armor until then end of the film and Galactus manifests him/its-self as a giant cloudlike structure.

For those who prefer to see Doom in the armor, I'll concur that point and, very likely it's a concession to Julian McMahon so he could appear in at least part of the film without the faceplate of Doctor Doom (the same could be said for the plot point of the FF swapping powers after Johnny's first encounter with the Silver Surfer to allow Michael Chiklis to appear as Ben Grimm without the rocky skin of the Thing). However, if you fanboys REALLY wanted an Ultraman-sized man with a giant purple hat and a "G" on his belt buckle...some things that work great in the comics and even translate to animation just would not work in a live action film. Sorry.

But the film works for what it is and I think at a very basic level it DOES stay true to the spirit of the Fantastic Four. They are a family and they DO squabble and they DO have problems and at the end of the day they will come together and do what they do best. Johnny and Ben pick on each other, Reed is always caught up in work and Susan is there to pick up the pieces. Sue has traditionally been a fairly underwritten character, and here the tradition does continue on a bit, but they do try to include her fairly and make sure that the is seen as an important member of the team.

There does seem to be a sub-plot that got cut out of the movie involving Johnny's superficial relationships and his reflecting on it on the eve of Reed and Sue's wedding and his noticing the strong relationship Ben and Alicia Masters have together. In the DVD version I wouldn't mind seeing some of this restored to see how it plays out in a longer cut of the film. Stan Lee's cameo in this outing is also pretty clever...but for me, Stan the Man is forever Willie Lumpkin in an FF movie.

Overall, I enjoyed it and I'd watch it again...oh yes I would and would very much like to see a third movie. Oh, but for the next outing, please don't put those freaky blue contact lenses on Jessica Alba's brown eyes. Thank you.

Continuing...

It looks like this week Sci-Fi also played part two of the two part Dalek story from series three of Doctor Who. I'd like to apologize for that and say that yes it was a horrifically weak story and a poor example of Doctor Who. It gets much better - especially in a couple weeks time. More Doctor Who news, it looks like they are going to expand the range of action figures to include past Doctors from the classic series. Here I thought I had gotten out of action figures for good. Shows what I know...

I've also been expanding the list of podcasts I listen too and watch. Mike had an interview with Fanboy Radio a little while back and I gave it a listen and was impressed enough to subscribe to the regular podcast feed via iTunes. It's great to get to listen to things that pretty much speak to me from, as Ben Affleck said in commentary track to Chasing Amy (I'm pretty sure it was Chasing Amy), "my sci-fi peeps." My love affair with podcasts continues unabated... For those interested I may actually write up a list of active podcasts I listen to myself to share. But for now, off to face the challenges of the day.

Project Blue Box

Announcing Project Blue Box - a group effort of myself and a couple other Technical Account Managers at Symantec. For the FAQs -

What is Project Blue Box? Well...like I just told you...a group effort of myself and a couple other Technical Account Managers at Symantec. More to the point, it's something I probably shouldn't do, but will anyway.

Any details to what it is right now? Not yet. But more details with be forthcoming. Until then, it is in the hands of the angels.

Will you post pictures? There will of course be pictures of the progress once we start in earnest.

Yes, but what is it? You'll see...

A busy little boy...

What needs to get done:

Mike's site: - Finish setting up the blog - almost done - need to get a banner image for the blog page to replace the default. I know of one picture I can use that Mike might veto, but I think is cool and just in case I have a backup image to use. Then get the downloads page set up as strictly CSS, or as strict as I can get it (remove the HTML tables at least) and get the downloads directory sorted out properly. Once that's done we can get back to the business of getting the gallery updated with covers and update the main page monthly as new issues of Madman comes out.

Ingredients: - Finish the revamp completely. Shouldn't be difficult for the most part. The main page is going to have a very clever CSS image handling if I can pull it off. That's where most of the effort is going to be as best I can tell right now. Oh, and get their DVD burned off...

ME!: Post more galleries...

AND I need a new set of headphones for the iPod... My old Philips headphones gave up the ghost, or rather, one of the wires on the left channel did. So this time I will get a set of Sony headphones. Sandeep will be happy to hear this, I'm sure.

There's more I'm sure I'm forgetting. All that to do and what feels like negative time to do it sometimes. Normally I like to space out these projects a little more, but there you have it. These things happen. This weekend is the Symantec picnic, so I'll put in an appearance there for a couple hours and then off to the cheap theater to see Hot Fuzz, Fantastic Four 2 and Spidey 3 for the rest of the weekend. Very likely in that order...and while it takes away from time in front of the keyboard, I think I need a little time away from the keyboard.

San Diego Comic Con

Just a few notes about last week's San Diego Comic Con...all dashed off at random...

I hope my Alex Ross sketchbook arrives today...fingers are crossed...and thanks again to ML for picking it up!

Three of the four official days of the show sell out? That's nuts! I can barely stand being there on Saturday when it's traditionally the most crowded...three days of that? Maybe it was for the best that I didn't go...

Wait...Jane Weidlin is working with Bill on a comic book!? Maybe I SHOULD have gone...

FRACK!

Well...there's always next year...and besides, there were some very good and unfortunate reasons that it was best I stay here and man the fort. Related to that, Rich Johnston rocks.