Today I passed the certification exam for Apple’s xSAN solution, software, whatever. I did better than I expected too, a 72.6% so I easily passed (the passing grade on this is 62%, still a D- back in school). I thought I would fail because this product isn’t something I’m fond of nor familiar with.
I’ll take it though, it looks better on the resume and annual review. Makes my weekend kick off to a nicer start too.
Well, if Fox got away with showing The Simpsons and their infamous “Treehouse of Horror” episode after Halloween, why can’t I show my quickly whipped together costume.
Actually, I only received the photo from my co-workers with the Quality of Life committee yesterday. They chose to triplicate me to enhance the joke. Too bad they couldn’t fix my hair to match theirs. Quick clarification too, the hockey mullet doesn’t appear until the Eighties-Nineties, they played in the Seventies so they had long, stringy hair.
The joke? I’m the Hanson Brothers, goons extraordinaire from the movie Slap Shot. I knew it was rather a hurry and I didn’t plan on winning. Just that I’m a member of the QOL committee so it doesn’t reflect well on me or the team if I don’t make an effort.
This also shows that there is a downside to cloning.
I can only hope that the officials will grow tired of enforcing all their obstruction/interference penalties. Offense is definitely up thanks to the ridiculous amount of time special teams are getting. Even though the Flyers won against the Senators and totally blew it with the Hurricanes, both games had almost half the goals come from power plays.
I’m with Don Cherry, this isn’t hockey. To me, the 8-6 drubbing and 5-3 victory are softball game scores. Maybe all the offense will bring in the fair-weathered hockey fans (I’m looking in your direction Tampa Bay), but it won’t keep them.
Meanwhile, let’s hear it for Simon Gagne & Peter Forsberg for being in the NHL’s top 3 scoring categories!
Well, so far the only correlation I can find of why the page isn’t looking as spiffy as it has in the past must be due to 10.4.3. I have been playing around with the .css file that drives all the little details but not much luck.
However, what do you think of the color scheme this time? I know I let the Vegas scheme stay a month too long but I was still out there when it was due for a change. I decided to pursue something for the anniversary of the Ice Bats coming to Austin, the only team in its league to survive so long (from what I’ve read and seen). Sure the White Sox won the World Series but I’m not keen on baseball nor did I ever like their owner whining for a new park or he’d take them to Florida. The Sox fans won out and had everyone in Illinois pay for it.
Anyway, tell me what you think and be patient, I’ll be messing with the .css files on the back end until I get it right to how I want it since downgrading from 10.4.3 to 10.4.2 isn’t happening.
Yesterday, Somara snapped a picture of our four cats sharing the bed, WITHOUT FIGHTING. As you can see, Wicca (the black cat) is wary and hoping that the others don’t see her. Molly (the tiger cat) is the boss therefore she doesn’t care as long as her nap isn’t disturbed. Nemo (the white and orange cat) is grooming while Miette (the gray cat) is just hanging out since she is on the bed the least. Maybe in 10 years, they’ll actually groom each other or huddle together for warmth in the Winter.
Let’s face it. All the major science-fiction franchises of the last 30 years are wounded. Star Wars was ruined by three stilted movies directed by its creator. Star Trek is on life support thanks to two mediocre movies and Enterprise having a Bobby-Ewing ending. Even pitting Alien v. Predator proved to be career blunders for both species. The opportunity is ripe for something else to fill the void left by these former successes.
Serenity is Joss Whedon’s attempt to unseat the washed-up franchises, at least that’s the impression you receive from the fan base. Fox had its chance with the TV series Firefly in 2002 and cancelled it with a major plot arc left unresolved. The show lived on in syndication through the Sci-Fi Channel and DVD sales which generated enough interest from Universal to back a movie. Let’s just say that Fox and Paramount have little to worry about with their cash cows.
The plot involves some crewmember’s sister being a psychic wanted by the Alliance (the villains of the storyline) and the horrible secret she is carrying. Much like the X-Files and Star Trek movies, you need to be familiar with the TV series or you will be puzzled. Maybe if I watched the whole DVD set, I wouldn’t see the characters as just archetypes on 3 x 5 cards too. The crew has to solve the mystery of what the Alliance is hiding because there’s an assassin following them and he’s killing everyone they know to get their attention. When the crew does discover the awful truth, it is pretty damning of the Alliance.
I will readily admit, I am prejudiced with Whedon. Buffy didn’t pique my interest since I am always skeptical of TV series based upon movies. Alien: Resurrection was disappointing yet he doesn’t bear all the blame there. Toy Story was wonderful, yet again, he doesn’t deserve all the credit. There has been all this hype and buzz about Serenity coming but it has the quality of a made-for-TV movie, especially with the Buffy-meets-Dawn of the Dead-based sequence near the end. He must have an obsession with female teenage martial artists. Also, as a fan of science fiction for years, I was disappointed that the universe of Serenity takes place all in one solar system filled with numerous habitable planets thanks to terraforming. The distance of the system’s sun doesn’t matter? That’s just bad Astronomy. Sure it’s nitpicking for a movie but the average person’s understanding of the galaxy and the expectations which come with it have evolved since Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. The only silver lining I can hope for is that this overrated movie will inspire Warner Brothers to reconsider making The Memory of Shadows, the Babylon 5-based film which was scrapped recently or find a way to tie the loose ends from Crusade which had the Earth Alliance hiding a more sinister secret than Whedon’s Alliance.
Thankfully the week-long break on the Flyers didn’t make them soft when they returned to the ice and face the Leafs in Toronto. At first, it looked like they were going to dilly dally around, give up goals on special teams (an ongoing weakness, still) and once again let Big E (Eric Lindros) have some satisfying revenge on his former team.
It did look that way with the Leafs scoring first on a power play, as expected. Then they jumped back in with their power play goal courtesy of Rico (Eric Desjardins). When the Second Period came around, the Flyers failed to capitalize on a four-minute power play courtesy of Wade Belak having a tantrum. This was followed by the Flyers being stuck on a one-minute 5-3 penalty kill six minutes later. If an NHL team can’t score on this, they should be playing in the ECHL. So it looked like the Leafs would score and probably kill the Flyers’ chances of regaining momentum. But remember that cliché you keep hearing this season, this is the new NHL. Scoring sensation Simon Gagne knocked the puck offsides forcing the Leafs to reset their attack. No big deal right? Nope, this encouraged Michal Handzus and Mike Richards to push their luck. Handzus made the Leafs turn over the puck, then Richards stole it, hustled up ice and nailed a short-handed goal on Crazy Eddie (Ed Belfour). First short-handed goal on a 5-3 penalty kill for the Flyers in 14 years! First I’ve ever seen outside of a PS2 game.
Let’s see if they can extend their winning streak beyond three games.
Way back in 1987, the original Leisure Suit Larry appeared for personal computers in all its 320 x 240, 256-color glory. I remember it was the first R-rated game that emulated the gross-out/sex comedies of the Eighties. There had been X-rated games for the Atari 2600 but the graphics were crude and the game play was even cruder (see Custer’s Revenge courtesy of the Video Game Museum).
Larry was different though. It played like many of the adventure games Sierra published yet the goal was to score instead of saving the kingdom. The other revolutionary elements to it were the responses it would give to certain four-letter words, the consequences to unsafe sex, the hazards of being broke in Lost Wages and the game breaking the fourth wall with the players. Even if the cheesecake was insipid, Larry was still a hiliarious, amusing and challenging game. Four sequels followed and then the franchise died away in the Nineties as it had become an MS compatible-PC-only title. Thanks to the technical advancements in consoles and the Grand Theft Auto franchise, the libidinous adventure continues through Larry’s nephew, Larry. The premise is the same, score with women that normally wouldn’t give a schlub like Larry the time of day. All this trouble just to be a contestant on the Swingles game show taping at his college campus.
As a game, this pretty much flows like GTA with the wandering mode. You can interact with the various inhabitants of the campus and connecting town but instead of mugging them for cash, Larry hits on the women and receives hostile replies to his rather dated pick-up lines. The non-females and non-living objects elicit different answers, most of them are rude too. Due to the limitations of my PS2 the game is frequently bogged down with numerous loading screens. The publisher tries to keep the player’s interest with loading screens of cheescake. These would be interesting if I were 16 and dying to watch Showgirls. Otherwise, they’re annoying and make me hope that the PS3 will have a built-in hard drive. When it comes to the task parts of the game—how Larry will woo the various co-eds—the execution is funny but the means are redundant. For example, when he converses with the women, you can control the outcome by navigating a sperm cell through traffic. Hitting the green objects elicits a positive response from the lady; hitting red objects makes Larry say something negative, stare at their chests or fart; hitting beers/martinis makes him drunker, thus navigating through the obstacles becomes more difficult; but hitting cups of coffee sobers him up. There are other redundant games representing the tasks needed for him to have his way; making drinks, giving someone a make over, playing strip quarters for money, strip trampoline contests, etc. You get the idea. If you buy the special unlock codes from a guy named Nigel, you can see some of the women topless or in their underwear when Larry wanders around. Again, this would be exciting if I were 16.
Don’t let these criticisms about which audience will be excited over this game be the deciding factor. It is still an amusing, humorous game in the same vein as Beavis & Butt-Head, South Park and Tripping the Rift. It is more forgiving than challenging though. If you fail at a certain sub-game three times in a row (in one session), such as beating Analisa at strip quarters, it will ask you if you need the difficulty reduced. Why not. The game is paid for and this isn’t a title you can rent at Blockbuster. Besides, there’s more free and nastier pornographic material on the Internet.
The Bottom Line: If you can get this game cheaper than $30 or less (as I did) and you enjoy the vulgar humor, it’s worth buying. If you’re nostalgic for the games portraying the misadventures of Larry’s infamous uncle (who has a cameo in this), definitely buy it, it’s a worthy successor to the franchise. If you’re looking for perverse thrills, go to the Internet or buy the uncensored PC-only version. If you’re looking for a challenging platform game, you’ll be disappointed. Overall, I think it’s a great game despite it being easy.
Nov. 2, 2005 Update: I got a bit farther in the game and there was a hilarious sequence of Larry explaining why Ione is now gay, set to the Grease song “Summer Nights.”
Well, it seems the landlord is a bigger jerk than anticipated. Instead of my shop being closed on Halloween, its final day will be this Friday so that Kenny, Scott and the rest of the gang can move the equipment out before Halloween.
What will become of me, my morning co-workers and my regular customers? Well, I think I will be sleeping in after I’ve fed the cats. Mike is the only co-worker I have left. Alex is moving to California at the end of the month. Marie will be pursuing other interests. My regular customers will be transplanting themselves to the larger WB (Wells Branch Parkway) Store which serves an awesome breakfast menu. I will be joining most of them. Others who say the commute is too far, I have referred to the Cafe Java in RR because the people who own that place are our allies in the Coffee Wars (basically, the little shops v. Starbucks).
I think I will be a regular Sunday fixture of the WB store in a while because attrition has been a constant with Kenny’s. What can you do, sometimes teenagers and college students find out that working at a coffee shop isn’t as easy as it looks on Friends, Cheers or Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
The latest upgrade to Apple’s easiest music playing/ripping/online buying software came out last week but there was a tweaking this week.
What the tweaking covered isn’t a big deal, mainly fine tuning is what I could make out from the Read Me file.
The bigger features are what sell it.
– Videos
– TV Shows (feature or flaw, your pick)
– and a beta of music store’s “Just for You” which is like a recommendation segment based upon your past purchases
I think the video part could become more impressive in time as the catalog grows. Upon my first glance of it, I saw an old Oingo Boingo one. There was only one for them, but it’s a start. Watch out VH-1 Classics, the channel that actually shows music videos now.
Several weeks ago, my friend José and I were counting or spotting how many bullseyes we saw in Las Vegas.
For a couple weeks now, I’ve noticied this dispenser at HEB alongside the other trendy junk and candy. You definitely can tell when a “hip” trend is over when you can buy it at a “mainstream” location.
Actually, I think this is better since a real one is permanent and you can’t ditch it like a body piercing.
Hopefully, my friend Helen will grace us all with her explanation of why she would never have a tattoo.
Philly was off to an ugly start with their loss to Toronto that shouldn’t have happened, yet they blew it like their loss to the Rangers.
Then they repeated the mistakes against the winless Penguins by surrendering a fantastic lead and being forced into winning in OverTime. Nittymaki not paying attention and allowing that 89-foot goal from a face off better not happen again or he’ll be lucky to be playing for the Phantoms.
With their thrashing of the Islanders, I think they finally got the message from Coach Hitchcock, the new NHL is a race and you don’t coast anymore. You run as hard as you can until the finish line.
I would stick with that strategy since the results are in, scoring is up over 40%. Let’s hope they don’t get soft having a week off.
It’s official after all the rumors, hearsay and half truths, a decision has been made and a sign posted. The landlord believes that the property is worth more rent despite the highway construction being scheduled for another two years. I side with Kenny and Scott because I have worked there for five years and the construction has eaten away the shop’s traffic to just our diehards.
What will happen to me? I don’t really know. I’ll bug the bosses, see if I can make the hop over to the other store near Wells Branch, which is closer to my house.
I was rather shocked to catch the news during the Flyers thrashing of the Islanders (finally and is it should be with the line-up) about Brett retiring just five games into the season. He still had another year with his deal in Phoenix and they had a ceremony to un-retire his father’s number for him. Too bad though. Thanks to the lockout, so many other great players didn’t have the opportunity to retire on a high note; Mark Messier and Ron Francis namely.
However, despite his reputation for being a cancer on the team (rumored reasons for being dumped by Dallas and Detroit) and his alcoholism (something Bobby has battled too), I salute and applaud his years in the NHL. He is the third highest goal scorer in NHL history. He has two Stanley Cup rings. He is pretty witty like my personal hockey hero Jeremy Roenick. And he has his own legacy in hockey without having to fall back on his father’s reputation as the Golden Jet.
Good luck Brett and thanks!
Last night I was all stoked to see the UT Hockey Team play Baylor. It’s a great, cheap entertaining evening. The game is only $5 to see, the rink allows you to bring in your Whataburger food and UT has new uniforms. No dice. Baylor bailed and the box office person said that Rice cancelled next week too. I forgot to ask if that meant UT won by default.
Well, there’s always some Icebats games soon and plans to make road trips for the Dallas Stars or San Antonio Rampage.
I am also trying recruit a handful of people to form our own club team for the rink or around Austin. The rink near my house has an awesome offer of Bauer-branded equipment that’s the whole kit and kaboodle but excluding socks and jersey for $300! The skates are almost half that price tag. So far, I only have my friend Jeremy convinced. Now all we need are probably another nine people for line changes and a really fun name. Sorry, Iceholes and Puck You are already taken. Please feel free to leave other suggestions.
