Spooooon!

12.19.2003

I came across a great find yesterday at Best Buy, The Tick Live Action Series on sweet binary flow. I only watched maybe 2 episodes when it originally aired (like most people who knew who The Tick was, I bet), so finding all of the episodes was like finding a little treasure chest.

I've been a Tick fan for years. The Tick started out as a black and white comic from an independant publisher and would come out... occasionally. I think quarterly would be a good way to put it, except for the year that nothing came out due to the author/artists mother dying. Popularity grew, and the comic evolved into a cartoon. The cartoon primarily rehashed the old comic scripts, merging some, cutting out parts of others, and evolving into something new. After a couple of years, the cartoon morphed into a live action series (of 8 episodes).

The best part of The Tick, in any incarnation, has always been The Ticks dialog. There's just a way the words sound coming out of his mouth (whether written or spoken). After watching the live action series last night, I noticed that Patrick Warburton does a good job delivering his lines. I don't know if it's intentional, but his voice carries an Adam West-like tone, and nothing says super hero dialogue like Adam West. I think that's what makes me like the series. The other actors, the action, the setting, all of it fades to the back as I just listen to words of wisdom that come from The Tick. My favorite is after hitting the ground from a falling elevator, The Tick looks to his fallen foe and says "Gravity is a harsh mistress." Thinking back to the times I've tripped and fallen, I can concur that she is, indeed, a harsh mistress.

And now I'll have the coolest internal dialogue going on all day...

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Photo Printer Happiness

12.18.2003

Last night Gina came over to print Christmas pictures she had taken with her new/my old Olympus digital camera. She had managed about 90 pictures of Jacob and the dog (mostly the dog - that's why she's Crazy Dog Lady), and had settled on 3 to send out. 1 of Jacob and the dog, 2 of just the dog.

This was my first real use of the ne HP photo printer, and along the way I had to dig out the instructions. Instructions! For a printer! I'm gettin' old.

My first problemwas how to clear a paper jam (there's a big door on the back that says "Remove to clear paper jam"). Evidently the glossy, cardboard separator for some Epson photo paper I had wasn't printer friendly. I was printing 4x6 pictures, so Ihad to learn how the 4x6 paper tray works - it's a lot like loading a magazine into a gun, so I thought that part was cool.

I ended up loading the memory card into the printer and printing straight from there. The quality was very good, although the cropping could have used a little tweaking. Between test prints and keepers, I think I ended up printing 45 4x6 sized pictures last night. After the last one finished, the printer flashed a warning that it was time to replace the black ink cartridge (which is really a photo black ink cartridge with 3 shades of grey). The pictures were fairly dark, so I think getting 45 pictures out of a cartidge is actually pretty good, especially for the quality of pictures I got.

For now, I'm going to say that my HP 7960 is a keeper. Now I've just got to go see how much that ink cartridge is going to cost me.

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Home Ownership Fun 102

12.17.2003

While at work yesterday I noticed how dark and dreary it looked outside. The onset of a cold, wet rain. One thing stood out in my mind.

I wonder if I planted the mailbox deep enough? I wonder if I'll get home and find the stupid thing laying down in the ground?

Well, I made it home to not only find my newly self-installed mailbox upright, but holding mail. Granted, it was 75% bills, but I had a functioning mailbox yet again.

Obviously, my key to life is being easily overimpressed by the little things.

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Home Ownership Fun 101

12.16.2003

Since losing my mailbox last week, I hadn't been getting any mail (duh!). As such, it was time to replace the mailbox. I went to my local Home Depot and got the proper tools and items I would need:

Mailbox ($9)

Mailbox Stand ($19), on which to mount the mailbox.

Post Hole Digger ($20), with which to dig a hole to place the post upon which the mailbox was mounted.
I'm a programmer. Web pages are my specialty. I can sit for 8, 10, sometimes 12 to 16 hours in front of a computer. Typing. Thinking. Thinking about what to type. I've attended 4 colleges/universities over the course of 10 years to get my degree. It's a bachelors that most people can get in 4 years, somein 3, but for me it was 10 years. With all of that, I've learned something very important.

Digging post holes is hard.

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Fly Like An Eagle

12.15.2003

Saturday was our company Christmas party, in which I learned that I have the best boss in the world. Thanks to a suggestion from longtime personal friend Jer, the boss got me one of those things I've always wanted - no, this is legal - in this case a radio controlled helicopter! Luckily he had picked out a beginner copter for me - an Eco Piccolo.

Part of me wanting a helicopter for so long is that along the way I've heard how hard these things are to fly. I've been flying flight sims on the PC for years and have gotten the hang of how a helicopter is supposed to work, but actually trying to fly an RC one can suddenly be a little intimidating, especially considering how I tend to fly RC planes into trees. Repeatedly. With that in mind, I've been trying to track down some online flying tutorials for the Piccolo before I fly/crash mine. I wonder ifthese tutorials are going to help? I'll let you know after I give actual flught a try.

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