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Archive for November 2004 In an effort to provide exciting new content, here is LA traffic. This map is way better than the one I used to use. http://www.sigalert.com/map.asp?Region=Greater+Los+Angeles http://www.jfkreloaded.com/start/ A JFK assassination simulator. At first, I was astounded that anyone would make such a thing, but there is more to it than just "hey, you can kill JFK." They are trying to see if anyone can duplicate Oswald's shooting and prove that it was a lone gunman. (Of course, they are doing it in a "hey, you can kill JFK" way.) Kurt and I thought of the greatest idea ever -- Grand Theft Auto: River City. Explore the dirty underbelly of "Ioway" as Professor Harold Hill, working your way up from small-time band instruments con man to criminal overlord. - Take gun-running missions from Marcellus Washburn at the Livery Stables. - Assist gang leader Tommy Djilas in his attempts to blow up Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn, the Mayor's wife, and create anarchy. - Make sure the Ladies' Auxiliary Dance Committee never performs another "Grecian Urn." - Form a tenuous alliance with arch-rival Charlie Cowell, anvil salesman, only to betray him for a slice of the anvil pie. - Hijack the Wells Fargo Wagon. All while dodging the members of the school board, who will stop at nothing to get your credentials! Another ELO newsgroup member decides to drop some science on the rest of us. In some liner notes, Jeff Lynne remarks that in order to write their hit Don't Bring Me Down, he needed "two crates of Newcastle Brown Ale" to "get the ball rolling." Also he mentions something about a cement mixer. The response from a fan: "I assumed the ale went into Jeff and not the cement mixer. I should like to see how someone with Jeff's frame could down two crates of ale, unless a crate is not the same as what we Americans call a case. Probably just a jest/exaggeration on Jeff's part." Whew, I was worried for a minute there. I thought that Jeff had actually drank forty-eight beers or whatever. It's been how long since the last incident? Earlier this evening, my computer died once more, without warning. It locked up solid, and doesn't even POST. That thing... has a new motherboard, a new power supply, and a new hard drive. What does that leave to break down? Old RAM (how could both sticks fail in so short a time?) and the old chip (I doubt it). Or maybe something like the USB controller, I had a lot of problems with that before. Possibly related to the inputs on the case. Even this sounds like nonsense, but I know that machine. I "feel" it. I will try to fix it in the morning, but I think what I'm going to do is just go buy a desktop. My data should still be on the old drive. It kills me, because I've had to reinstall everything twice this month. I want to finish my book, but I have to redo the macros each time I lose Photoshop. This has been a great year.  Here is something I have been trying. The folds in the shirt are kind of sloppy, but if I can manage something like this consistently, I would be happy. This is only taken from a reference picture of me, and I'm fudging the other anatomy. A while ago I was thinking of using reference photos and "actors" for a more real-looking product, which would include manipulating pictures for backgrounds too. This is probably... more linear than I would want for a scary story (it should be scratchier in my mind), but I think it's pretty good. I wasn't the biggest fan of Kerry. Electing someone on the basis that he was not someone else is a lousy way to run an election, but what can be done? Kerry won me over a little after the debates. I voted for Nader in 2000. At the time, I believed that for the system to really work, you have to vote for the candidate you truly believe in, and if everyone did that, the system will do what it should. Luckily I live in a state where my vote wasn't going to sway anything. I don't really believe in that system anymore, that you can vote for your ideal candidate. Particularly since it's not a Republican candidate that suffers from the one or two percent a third-party candidate takes away. The Democrat suffers. (Are there even any more-conservative-than-Republican parties in existence?) I feel like we let the world down. This was our chance to show that Bush was foisted upon us, that we didn't like where this was going. Now we're going that way for another four years. Do I think Kerry would have been a great President? Not really, no. But it's terrible when you've got an unknown on one side, a failure on the other, and you end up choosing the failure because you know him. |
