Monthly Archives: September 2006

A Funny Thing Happened in my Pants

Posted on by
2

I finally started to dig through all the shaky video I took at Disney World, finally taking advantage of all the iMovie and iDVD and iWhateverElse I’ve been paying for with every OS X update. It’s reasonably fun, but it [...]

I finally started to dig through all the shaky video I took at Disney World, finally taking advantage of all the iMovie and iDVD and iWhateverElse I’ve been paying for with every OS X update.

It’s reasonably fun, but it sure takes a hell of a lot of time. And I’ve learned it’s crucial to save early and save often — the files are so huge it took 30-45 minutes just to make a back-up, and one crash of iMovie wiped out everything.

I started with the video I took of the Team Possible game at Epcot. I somehow managed to make it seem a lot more dull than it really was — I suppose I’d gotten numb to all the sights around Epcot by that time, so I ended up just videotaping the phone’s screen. You didn’t spend as much time staring at the screen in the real game, I swear.

Another funny thing: when I was looking through the video, right at a really cool point in the game, it cuts to an extended shot of my stomach. Then it cuts to the inside of my pants pocket. For like 10 minutes. I’d managed to get the record/don’t record mixed up, and missed a big chunk of the game. I could say that I finally know what it’s like to be in my pocket when I’m walking around, but I don’t know that that’s such a good thing.

Anyway, here are the videos I’ve put up so far. I can put up the others if anyone’s interested.

  • Prologue: Head to Canada, get your Kimmunicator, watch the briefing video.

  • UK Briefing: Head to the UK and find your secret contact in the window of the Toy Soldier store.
  • UK Plans Phone Booth: Receive a mysterious call from the Ministry of Meterology, who’ll help you’ll find the secret plans to Duff Killigan’s weather machine.
  • France Hideout Gargoyle: Plant a tiny bug on the gargoyle inside the lobby of the cinema in France, use it to eavesdrop on Senor Senior, Sr. and Senor Senior, Jr.
  • Finale: Final showdown with Dr. Drakken.

The Honeymoon's Over

Posted on by
Reply

I remember when a new announcement from Apple would have me visibly excited and reaching for my wallet. I even waited around today for Pacific Time to catch up so I could see what all the hoopla was about. And [...]

Bleh.I remember when a new announcement from Apple would have me visibly excited and reaching for my wallet.

I even waited around today for Pacific Time to catch up so I could see what all the hoopla was about. And the experience was like when you have to go see that distant cousin who’s a straight C+/B- average student perform in her school production of Singin’ in the Rain and the kids do a passable job, and the parents are genuinely enthused about it, but you’re just sitting there thinking you’ve got the DVD of Singin’ in the Rain at home and they do a much better job and you’d be better off not wasting your time watching a half-rate production of it.

The original iPod nano was just bad-ass. I never got one for myself because even I couldn’t rationalize it, but I was sorely tempted. And Apple had finally gotten their whole line from desktops to laptops to MP3 players all consistent and looking classy. The new ones are ugly aluminum all tarted up in iPod mini colors.

The “real” iPod has been improved, supposedly, but nothing groundbreaking going on there. It’s still just an MP3 player, and it’s still way inadequate for watching video.

And the whole new “iTV” thing; what’s up with that? A video server that apparently only connects to iTunes running on a different machine. So you can pay $15 and wait 30-45 minutes to download High School Musical in a format only playable via iTunes, and stream it at 640×480 resolution with plenty of compression artifacts visible on your living room TV.

Whee.

iTunes has been genuinely improved. In particular:

  • The really cool freeware app CoverFlow got bought by Apple and incorporated into iTunes. It’s one of the coolest Mac-only apps out there, but never made sense as a separate app, and Apple integrated it just about perfectly.
  • iTunes will download cover art for you, another thing that there’ve been about a billion freeware apps written to do. I haven’t had a lot of luck with it so far, but I assume it works.
  • You can finally back up your library to disc right from iTunes. Even better, you can choose to backup only what you’ve bought from the iTunes (no longer Music) Store, and you can do incremental backups.
  • It’s got an album cover/song list hybrid view that makes a lot more sense for browsing.
  • Reportedly, it’s a lot better at handling iPod synching, but I haven’t yet tried it.

On the downside, it’s got the “new look” that Apple’s going towards with Leopard, and it’s all muted and ugly as sin. Or, ugly as the new iPod nano.

They’re going to get my money with the new Leopard point release, but I’ve got to say I’m not that impressed with that, either. Nice try, Steve. Wake me up when you come out with the iPod phone.

Hoist up the John B sails

Posted on by
3

I finally got back to Georgia from Orlando on Friday night. Even after a month and a half in Orlando and being very ready to leave, it still ended kind of abruptly. It would’ve even been nice to have one [...]

Pirate Ship Waterslide on FlickrI finally got back to Georgia from Orlando on Friday night. Even after a month and a half in Orlando and being very ready to leave, it still ended kind of abruptly. It would’ve even been nice to have one more day there as a non-working guest, instead of just one minute being at Epcot and then the next being at the decidedly non-magical Orlando airport.

For the past week or so, I’ve had “Sloop John B” going through my head non-stop from the moment I wake up. And I’m sure that as soon as I get back to San Francisco, it’ll seem like Georgia went by in a blur, and I’ll go back to missing my family, and wishing that I could help out more around here.

But dammit, I want to go home.

It’s been over two months now; I think I’m entitled to sleep in my own bed. I always imagined I’d make a great World Traveler, but I think to do that, you have to be able to stay away from home for more than a few weeks without panicking.

I’m headed back to SF this Sunday. Technically, this would be a perfect opportunity to fulfill my plan to drive cross country — I had a one-way ticket out here, no job waiting for me back home, and some extra cash from having other people pay for my meals for the past two months. But driving from Atlanta to SF would take at least a week to do it right, and as I’ve mentioned, I want to go home.

Our President Has Stones

Posted on by
Reply

Say what you will about George W Bush, the guy’s got balls. After invoking the memory of the brave dead, he described our enemies: We have learned that they are evil and kill without mercy, but not without purpose. We [...]

Say what you will about George W Bush, the guy’s got balls. After invoking the memory of the brave dead, he described our enemies:

We have learned that they are evil and kill without mercy, but not without purpose. We have learned that they form a global network of extremists who are driven by a perverted vision of Islam, a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom, rejects tolerance, and despises all dissent.

Mixed in with the frequent Fox News-like warnings of enemies “determined to bring death and suffering into our homes,” he has the stones to mention “tolerance” and “moderation” so many times you’d think it was the Democratic National Convention.

Even though his administration and its policy of Rule By Fear has emboldened the extremists driven by their own perverted vision of Christianity. The ones who have been working around the clock since September 2001 to turn “tolerance” and “moderation” into dirty words. Words that are spit out as insults, terms almost as profane and stomach-turning as “liberal.”

The key is moderation, we learn. You can’t achieve a real totalitarian ideology that despises all dissent by flying planes into buildings. You have to work at it over time. Chip away at civil liberties. Turn your citizens against each other. Make sure there are plenty of groups left within the populace to foment fear and distrust — if Muslims aren’t available, there’s always the homos and atheists and liberals.

And make absolutely certain there’s always a nebulous enemy out there in case anyone has the temerity to point out that you’re destroying your country’s scientific development and notions of personal privacy. Just point at the Middle East, shout “Booga Booga! Bin Laden! Homeland Security!” and you’ve turned a concerned citizen into an Unpatriotic Enemy of Freedom.

Even after building his speech on the bodies of the victims of the World Trade Center attack, he has the nerve to admit that Hussein had no direct connection to 9/11 but still insists that the invasion was essential to keeping al Qaeda at bay.

So the question is whether it actually takes balls to go on national television and lie to your constituency, or whether it’s just evil.

Wet

Posted on by
2

I got this weekend off, so I’m cramming into two days all the stuff I imagined I’d be doing when I first heard I was going to be spending a month at Disney World. Even though I’ve been to Disney [...]

Castaway Creek image stolen from the Mousekingdom BlogI got this weekend off, so I’m cramming into two days all the stuff I imagined I’d be doing when I first heard I was going to be spending a month at Disney World.

Even though I’ve been to Disney World more times than a normal person would admit to, I still see something new every trip. This time (as a guest, anyway), it’s been the water parks. Today I started at Typhoon Lagoon and found my new hands-down favorite thing to do in the entire resort. It’s called Castaway Creek, and it’s a river that runs around the entire park with various places you can get in or out. You get on one of the inner tubes and let the current take you gradually around the entire length of the river, under bridges, past waterfalls, through caves, and into a misty rain forest area.

It’s awesome. From now on, whenever anyone asks what I’d rather be doing, my answer is “lying and floating.” I intentionally left my watch and cell phone back at the hotel, but I estimate that an entire circuit around the river takes thirty minutes, and I must’ve gone around two and a half times at least.

I also rode the new “Crush’n Gusher” water coaster they’ve installed, and it was fun enough but no big deal. I would’ve hit the other slides and then taken another couple of hours in the river, but they closed the park on account of approaching thunderstorms.

The thunderstorms finally hit once I was on Big Thunder Mountain at the Magic Kingdom. (I’d stopped by Epcot and rode Mission: Space, and it was every bit as headache-inducing and uncomfortable and anti-climactic as I’d remembered). The rain washed out any hope of riding anything else, since it drove all the people into the ride queues and I didn’t feel like waiting, but it cleared up long enough for the fireworks. All totaled it was a pretty good day. Still not as fun as going to the parks with other people, but there’s something to be said for doing whatever you feel like doing on your own schedule without having to wait (or make them wait for you to finish smoking).

Tomorrow I’m planning on riding Expedition Everest again, then heading to the other water park Blizzard Beach. At the moment, I’ve got the kind of tired that comes only after a day filled with age-inappropriate activities, so I’m going to dream about fireworks and inner tubes and Gary Sinise spinning me at 4Gs.