ah, how I love Calvin & Hobbes

I subscribe to the Calvin and Hobbes archive and enjoy reliving the numerous strips that I laughed to in days past. Here's one that was sent to me today that made me laugh like it did before...

3… 2… 1… let's jam!

If you're a fan of anime and somehow haven't heard of this title yet, do yourself a huge favor and check this out. I can't remember when I first heard about Cowboy Bebop, but I do remember the name sticking with me. What the hell is it???

In short, it's a jazz scored, space cowboy bounty hunter noir action cartoon. The characters and environments are ultra rich and add a lot of complexity to the already interesting tapestry that the main characters weave with their various storylines. Not every episode hits the mark, but almost every single one has an amazing shot in it.

I'm catching up on all the episodes on Netflix. Hooray for them! For they have the 5.1 remixed versions and the surround sound is used wonderfully for both atmospheric effects as well as the soundtrack (though I'd skip Vol. 3 - zzzzzz....)

As usual, S Adams is spot on!

Tee hee :)

(you might need to click on the comic to read it).

mind the gap...

The other day a coworker of mine told me that her cell phone dropped down an elevator shaft. My first thought was, "Oh my god!!! Are you okay??? What were you doing in an elevator shaft???" But then it gets funny, because cell phones are so thin these days, as improbable as it is, her phone fell right into that gap between the elevator and the floor. Who woulda thunk it? Ha!

hooray for Icon Factory!

Check out a bunch of cool FREE icons there....

If you're like me, you'll head straight for the Futurama ones :D

Sweet and sentimental, or a cry for help?

Personally, it feels nice and sweet. But that's only because I live in Schmoopytown.

to know me is to know that I love cheating

Thanks to Julienne, playing Scrabble has become A LOT easier! No more making up words and then looking them up to see if they're real. Anagrammer™ does all the work for you! Actually, I think you'd learn more words faster than if you're just using a dictionary. Because after all, it's hard to find all combinations if you don't even know what you're looking for. Not that I'll always remember, but it helped me place two 7 letter words: bornite, and regulus (both words relating to metal oddly enough).

Did Julienne and I get together to play Scrabble you might ask? Technically, nope! I was really avoiding it for as long as possible, but I recently made a profile on yet ANOTHER web 2.0 social network called Facebook. Julienne found me there and introduced me to a Facebook "application" called Scrabulous. It's loads of fun and you can play your turn whenever you like, so it's really easy to have a game. Anyone want to play?

futuramarama

I've been hearing about a Futurama movie forever it seems, but on Nov 27, it's going to become a reality. Huzzah!!! Read all about it in this article in Wikipedia.

rok-en-bok! rok-en-bok! rok-en-bok!

Long ago while happening upon the Games of Berkeley, I saw a Rokenbok display and was instantly enthralled! But alas they were too expensive and I was too shy to play for very long while other people stood around me.

Fast forward like 15 years later and after playing with Legos at Haydee's reception, the memory of Rokenbok returns. But now there's buying online and of course buying used on eBay! So I'm hoping to get a nice used set at a decent price.

In the meantime, I'm amusing my self with the ultra cheesy Rokenbok promo videos. Get a load of this one advertising their Emergency Speedster. Notice how quickly it finds a person pinned under a truck, proceeds to place emergency cones and barricades, and then leaves the guy to die while it drives away. The 70's action theme music really completes it.

eBay dismay

GAH!

I swear, every time I'm just dying to get something on eBay, I see the item with the following times left:

6d 11h 43m
5d 5h 12m
2d 6h 4m
1d 20h 39m
8h 4m
3h 19m
and…
ENDED

I think I need to buy one of them sniping programs :(

after shots :)

Hey hey! Everything is mostly sealed up now and all I need to do is finish putting on the primer and then it's on to painting (and other projects).

photobooth fun

Here's the Warhol filter. It's ART, baby!

Hmmm... when I first took this, I thought, "Ooooo, headless!! Scary!"
Now it just looks like the back of a chair.

It doesn't look like too much work, does it?

Here are some shots of all the damage caused by water and a few termites (that I hope are all dead). Of course, what you're seeing is the damaged wood removed. There should be pieces of wood running along the house, connecting the floor beams you see that are perpendicular to the wall. The wood I removed had water damage on the top and termite damage on the bottom.

I don't know why, but termites with their puffy white squirming bodies *really* give me the willies. But other things, like maggots, worms, and most bugs don't bother me at all, and I have no idea why!

The good news is that after a marathon repair day, this damage was repaired ('after' photos coming soon!). It was 8 hours of using scary power tools and crawling around under the house. I really can't decide which is worse.

The power tools are cool and all, but they really freak me out. When I'm using them, I'm all business and I try to be as careful as possible. I always have in the back of my mind that I'm a blink of an eye from a gruesome fate of some sort. I guess you get used to what they can do like any other tool, and I think have both a healthy respect and healthy fear of my table saw, circular saw, and reciprocating saw. After each use, I always feel grateful that I'm still in one piece.

Crawling around under the house I think could qualify as torture. It's dark and cramped, has areas filled with creepy spider egg sacks slung upon equally creepy dusty, thick spider webs, lifting yourself up higher than a crawling stance results in bumping painfully into beams or nails protruding from the floor boards above, and the dirt you're crawling upon consists of fine, powdery dirt for penetrating clothing and breathing protection, mixed with medium to large hunks of concrete or hardened dirt for you to lay on. There's also the fact that the 6 inches from every wall and pillar has been treated with chemicals to kill termites.

Have I painted a sucky enough picture? Read on!

Of course, you just know that at one point I had to do both at the same time, right? I had to drag the reciprocating saw with me under the house to cut off some rusty nails so I would have a clean space to put in new pieces of wood. The saw weighs about 10 pounds and when it fires up in that small space, let me tell you, it's LOUD and kicks up a huge cloud of dust that doesn't have anywhere to dissipate. You know what's even better? I had to do it twice :)

alwayz into somethin'

Today started like any other day. I have all these chores that I can do, but not really the willingness to do any of them. It's kind of like the gym though, once I actually get started, lots can happen! So I decided to check out the main electrical panel in the garage to see why the dryer keeps tripping the main switch.

After removing the metal door and checking out the wiring (no burns, hooray!), I noticed that the patched walls were still in need of painting. So I started sanding everything down and then thought, "Oh yeah! There's that door sill that's rotted out that I've been meaning to check out for about 4 or 5 years." About 4 hours later, I had ripped out about 3 feet of rotted and termite infested wood. I then had to crawl under the house (always a pleasant trip) to look for more termite damage.

The good news is that the colony seems to have been local to just that area, and also consisted of only 2 termites (caught one, crushed the other). While my 'expert' assessment of the situation seems rather optimistic, I think I'll look for some boric acid ASAP. Photos to come!

havin' some fun with Photo Booth

So on the new mac, there's this fun app called Photo Booth were you take pictures with the web cam. The screen goes white for the "flash" and you get this fun little images. Perhaps I should have this sitting out at the next party, awaiting untold photographic abuse by my good friends...