almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea

So here it is, my new car!  (and by "new", I mean "NEW!")  It's an '09 Ford Fusion, in "tuxedo black" (it might not show up in the pictures, but it sparkles in direct sunlight).  It has a dark grey interior, is quite spacious inside, and came with 6 free months of Sirius satellite radio!  I am quite happy to report that it has an auxiliary audio jack, so I no longer need a cassette adapter to listen to my mp3 player!  And of course, it has power windows, locks, power drivers seat, etc... Take a look for yourself, here it is! :-) And to answer your question: you can see it/ride in it whenever I see you next (whoever happens to be asking).  And no, you can't drive it (at least, not yet).

me? i got in an accident!  (but both people involved are fine!) for the record, it was totally not my fault (the police even say so), and my car's totaled (just got the semi-official word on that tonight, so not sure on what value they will offer me yet) summary: i was driving down Rt 138 in raynham, and another driver tried to cross over from a side-street on the right, to a gas station on the left.... and didn't see me right in the way, so they nailed the side of my car! so basically, i've spent the week on the phone a million times, and 3 stops at the police station! /me has to go car shopping now!

So now that my computer is rebuilt and better than ever (tm), I was finally able to empty out the memory card that had been sitting around, waiting for a computer to put the pictures on. However, i realized something, that i had taken for granted before: i used to use Canon ZoomBrowser EX for copying my pictures from the memory card, even after i had lost my canon camera and have been using my wife's sony; ZoomBrowser EX, by default, creates folders based on the date each picture was TAKEN, in the format "YYYY_MM_DD", which is instantly sorted chronologically (unlike "MM_DD_YYYY", which sorts by MONTH and date, but not by year). However, i could no longer find the CD with ZoomBrowser EX on it. (and in truth, it's a kinda slow and bulky program, and i far more enjoy using Google's Picasa 3 for looking at my pictures, plus it has great editing features, like simply red eye removal). So, i went in search of another program to import my pictures from m...

Click to see the graph I made! (it's kinda lame, but hey i tried) Fine print: Please note that this graph should in no way be taken to indicate the actual, expected, or possible levels of my own personal productivity during holiday seasons, which is just as high then as during the rest of the year.

Astute observers (or people who follow me on twitter , or via my twitter rss feed ) saw that I said, back on Monday, that I would be posting a played-once review, that evening, on Pocket Civ. The astute observer would also have noted, I didn't do so! However, it is not because I failed to play... I just haven't finished the game yet! I played for about 30-45 minutes monday evening (my first attempt at the game)... my first few turns were spent flipping back and forth through the rules, and trying to figure out what manner of advancements/actions (very few of which are available at first) would actually progress my civilization (example: my last turn before stopping for the evening, I finally built my first city :-P). I do plan on continuing that game (perhaps tonight), and even after just that bit of time playing, I was starting to get more of a hang of how it was going... my first few turns were all rules-flipping and record-keeping, and not all that fun, but building so...

I added a new list to the side-bar, "Games I Distinctly Recall Finishing"... which seems weird, I know, but I NEVER finish video games (that's obviously an exaggeration, or else the list would be blank)... anyway, in an effort to uhh ok I don't know why, I have decided to list the ones I can definitely recall finishing (please note that I do not mean I "completed" it... I might not have gone back to get all the little extra awards, or whatever crap certain games had... I simply made it to the end, and beat it) there are only 2 games in the list right now (HL1 and Halo1), tho I expect to add Lock's Quest (NDS) soon... I always get distracted by some new game, so I never actually finish them... I am working to be better about that, though. If you (by which I mean DP) can recall others that I should have put on the list, please let me know :)

Seriously, you need to go watch this! It's free, but only for a limited time! (Acts 1 & 2 are already up, 3 goes up THIS SATURDAY, and then on SUNDAY, JULY 20th, they come down (at midnight). SO GO WATCH, it's super funny and awesome! (and it's by Joss Whedon, which should really be the only reason you need) GO GO GO NOW NOW WATCH IT!

So I thought up this character this morning... I doubt I'll ever use him in a story (but you never know!), so I wanted him to at least be recorded somewhere. Name: The Engineer (true identity to be determined!) Appearance: A fairly large, well-built man (I see him as looking something like Mr. T, but without all the gold chains). He wears a railroad Conductor's cap (and yet he is called the Engineer! can't you already see the fans getting into huge arguments about why this doesn't match?? :-D ) Age: Probably upper 30s or so. Catchy-slogan-that-he-uses-way-too-often: "Who wants a ticket to the pain train?" I am not sure if he's a "good guy" or a "bad guy" (perhaps he borders the line? I have no idea, it was early in the morning, and I wasn't thinking straight). Anyway, that's it... I just felt like sharing!

So Ficlets is this site where you write tiny little stories, and then everyone can write pre/sequels to them... and I just wrote my first (original) story, so you should go read it, then sign-up and write some yourself! (Bonus: the story involves monkeys!) http://ficlets.com/stories/29641

Confused? Start here: Story: SM-7536: Part 1 (Click the image for full-size!)

this is the pic i made last night, after about 5 minutes setting up the tablet, a couple more to install GIMP (which i somehow didn't already have on here!), and then like THREE MINUTES of actual drawing (pretty much all, if not completely all, was done with the "airbrush" tool in GIMP)

finished this one yesterday, forgot to post it until now. i think it came out much better than my first desk, don't you? (this one is my desk at work... i sketched out the shape/dimensions at work, and made the model at home) the "black" sections are supposed to be a shiny-looking metal, but there was no matching material in SketchUp (even after adding the materials bonus pack)... and since i was neither motivated, nor properly equipped, to attempt to take a picture of the surface of the desk to make at texture with, i cropped out a piece of another picture (the back of a PSP, actually), to use instead

watching a few video tutorials, plus one hour playing with Google SketchUp, gave me this: it was SOOO much simpler than when i tried to learn Blender, and i am very proud of my desk! (yes, that's a model of my actual computer desk!) WOOP! ps: bill, i told you i would try the software! :-D

Actual e-mail conversation, which occurred earlier today: Thursday, December 20, 2007 10:07 AM From: SP Subject: thursday how is everyone today? Thursday, December 20, 2007 10:35 AM From: Me Subject: RE: thursday like yesterday, only slightly older Thursday, December 20, 2007 10:43 AM From: SP Subject: RE: thursday and how were you yesterday? Thursday, December 20, 2007 10:57 AM From: Me Subject: RE: thursday a lot like today, only slightly younger Thursday, December 20, 2007 11:29 AM From: SP Subject: RE: thursday so i guess you are feeling lame then! Thursday, December 20, 2007 11:41 AM From: Me Subject: RE: thursday hey, when am i not? :-D Thursday, December 20, 2007 11:44 AM From: SP Subject: RE: thursday you have an excellent point Thursday, December 20, 2007 12:25 PM From: DP Subject: RE: thursday lol, this is the best email thread ever

Duke Nukem: Forever trailer! http://youtube.com/watch?v=7txp0QTvVPk Go check it out!

As posted by myself previously , with the sad passing of author Robert Jordan , the Wheel of Time series has been left without an ending. I am happy to pass along, that an author has been chosen to finish the last book (based on the many notes/drafts/etc already created by Jordan), with an expected release of Fall, 2009. This is good news! ...of course, now we all have to wait 2 years... Official news post: http://www.tor-forge.com/NewsArticle.aspx?articleId=647

Confused? Start here: Story: SM-7536: Part 1 Another report, this one by a policeman helping with the emergency evacuations, gives some of the details of the final approach of the object. So I was out there, ya see, helping to direct traffic for the evacuees, and things was going pretty smooth-like. And everyone was a little panicky, driving a little crazy-like, but that's to be expected, what with the impending doom and all. So anyway there I was, out directing traffic, like I says, and off in the distance I see a strange glowing kinda thing, up in the sky... at first I didn't pay it no mind, because everyone knows that meteors burn up in the air and all, so I didn't think it was nothing to worry about. But it kept getting closer and closer, and and bigger and bigger, and pretty soon everyone started seeing it too, even in their cars, and folks was getting mighty desperate to get out of there, cuz it looked like it was headin' right for us. Now, I won't say I ...

Confused? Start here: Story: SM-7536: Part 1 From a report filed by an officer of the National Guard, regarding the events she witnessed in the early morning of Friday, June 12th, 2015. My unit approached the most populated area in our designated target zone, bringing with us as many empty troop-carrier trucks as we managed to find before heading out. We went in as fast as possible, with the desperate hope that we would be able to load up our trucks with anyone and everyone we came across, and then rush them back out of the area as quickly as possible, hopefully getting them out of the area about to be destroyed by the incoming meteor. En route to our destination, we received radio communications, indicating that the meteor was beginning to slow down as it approached the surface. This made very little sense to us, however it did mean we had that much more time to save as many people as possible. We had fully loaded two of our trucks, and sent them heading out of the risk-area. On ...