Skirv's LiveJournal

Furniture in C-U

2008-05-12T02:00:08Z

Anybody want some furniture? I have to clear my house in the next couple of days, and I'm nowhere near by. At the least, there's a few dressers, a couch, and probably some chairs and such.

Friends of the Palo Alto Library Book Sale

2008-05-10T19:26:38Z

I don't think I'll be going to every sale from now on. I enjoyed going last month, when Rebecca visited, but that was later in the day; today, I got there before things got started, and I got to witness the insanity. Some people had hired illegal laborers to help them buy books! Dear Gods!

Hard Drive Destruction

2008-05-05T20:02:28Z

While I've had great joy destroying hard drives in the past, it is quite time consuming. In that vein, I should note the existence of EDR's Hard Disk Crusher. Only $11,500 + shipping to destroy 60 hard drives an hour! And there's even a hand pump, in case you're trying to destroy the data before the Bad Guys Come and the power is out...

It worries me that I likely would have made somebody buy this at my own job. I don't know who yet, but it would have happened.

Iron Man - *** 1/2

2008-05-05T03:31:41Z

        As with so many others, I haven't been particularly looking
forward to this movie.  The trailers were okay and all, but really, the
only piece of really good news I'd heard until a few weeks ago was that
they'd cast Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark.  That was, indeed, inspired
casting; but would it be enough to get over my general Marvel Universe
malaise, or continued annoyance that nobody liked Ang Lee's _Hulk_, or my
general indifference towards the character of Iron Man in the first place?

        I guess so.

        The good reviews started coming in a week or so ago; everyone that
liked comics *loved* the movie, and almost everybody else liked it as
well.  Sure, it's a comic movie to the core - big bad guy show-down and
all - but it was made in the style of a popcorn flick, and it did an
excellent job of it.  And so my hopes shot up to the stratosphere.

        Were they fulfilled?  Well, almost.

        This is clearly the best Marvel movie to date.  It's a fairly
simple story, told well, with extremely good casting and, oddly, pretty
good acting.  The core character of Stark was well-done and well-adjusted
to the modern day; and the technology level was acceptably higher than
what we had now.  The special effects were, unshockingly, top-notch
(though I could have used a better sound system to hear the sound effects;
I miss you, Lorraine Theatre!).  Most interestingly to me, there was clear
interest in connecting things to the Marvel Universe, if only lightly -
we're about to hit an age of MU movies with mild cross-overs, it seems,
and that's exactly what I *want* to see.

        On the down-side... well, the villains are a bit generic, the cast
seemed fairly generic, the soundtrack was not all that memorable, and,
well, it's still a popcorn comic-book movie.  But these didn't really
bother me; it just meant that it was no _Batman Begins_ (or probably _The
Dark Knight_).

        *** 1/2 for this showing; probably *** long-term.  

        And for the Gods' sakes, stay for the end of the credits!  There's
a scene there.  Sure, it wont mean much to a lot of you non-Marvel folks,
but... just watch it.

Babylon 5

2008-05-01T05:01:00Z

The original 5-year arc bears remarkably little similarity to what eventually aired. And I like what eventually aired better.

Huh.

Free Comic Book Day

2008-04-29T23:18:01Z

I've forgotten until the last minute for the last couple of years, and I suspect I'm not alone in that, so it seems nice to remind everyone:

Free Comic Book Day is Saturday! Go get your books!

Sean and Sarah's Wedding Pictures

2008-04-29T07:09:22Z

I've actually labelled a batch of pictures!

Milliways

2008-04-19T06:52:54Z

I think this may be the most fascinating article I have ever seen from Slashdot: the proposed plot of the unmade sequel to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Infocom game. Of course, what makes it so special to me is the internal Infocom poliics...

LOLGRUES

2008-04-15T14:17:02Z

tskirvin @ 2008-04-06T02:07:00

2008-04-06T09:07:37Z

That was 16 hours of games, not 14; and I only actually played three games during that time. Still, that's a good way to spend a day - every now and then.

It's interesting seeing how my gaming style and etiquette compares to others... On the latter, I think I'm firmly middle of the road. That may be an improvement, though.

Movie Adaptations

2008-04-03T16:46:30Z

They're going to try to make movies of the Hyperion Cantos? So says this article... And as an afterthought, the story also mentions that they're doing Brin's Startide Rising.

I am scared for both cases.

Cane Toad Cull

2008-04-02T17:32:40Z

Australian lawmaker urges mass toad cull

The best quote: "Obviously we're not idiots. We understand a lot people will be highly reluctant to fill their fridges and freezers with dying cane toads, but at the moment that is the only humane way that we can recommend," said Michael Beatty, the [Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals]'s spokesman.

April Fools

2008-04-02T06:08:04Z

Telling the truth on April Fools Day is fun. In this particular case, that truth is that I'm stepping down as the Chair of the Big-8 Management Board, mostly because I simply don't have the time to handle it. But it was a whole lot more fun to post this publicly at 8am with vague reference to the time of the announcement...

sigh

2008-03-21T22:53:24Z

Goodbye, Jericho. You were an excellent show.

Science Funding

2008-03-11T18:30:52Z

"US Stands To Lose A Generation Of Young Researchers"

Since I'm not working for a research group directly anymore, I'm both less-affected and less-knowledgeable about this kind of stuff than I used to be. But it still hits home, and I agree with those complaining about the funding situation. Dammit, fund basic science! Give out those R01 grants!

Happy 2B Hardcore

2008-03-01T07:35:16Z

!!!

There's a Happy 2B Hardcore Chapter 8!!

Buy My House

2008-02-21T06:07:43Z

My house is for sale. You should buy it.

[02/21] Updated with the proper link; thanks for reminding me, anonymous!

Clue

2008-02-21T06:05:30Z

From an article on making Monopoly: the Movie:

Universal and Hasbro said they were unconcerned that a 1985 "Clue" film disappointed at the boxoffice. "Because Clue was once done badly, the right way of doing Clue would be fantastic," Shmuger said.

Damn you! Clue was an excellent movie!

tskirvin @ 2008-02-05T10:51:00

2008-02-05T18:51:48Z

Barack Obama == Senator Palmer

I didn't realize that until this morning, when I saw the rallies and realized that the primaries were today, and that therefore Jack Bauer was probably doing his thing somewhere to keep Obama from being attacked.

I voted, of course.

Never Forget

2008-01-31T19:12:54Z

Not sure who all can read it...

2008-01-17T21:19:27Z

...but hey, it's an article about Klaus in Nature! That's nothing to sneeze at.

http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080116/pdf/451240a.pdf

Sephiroth

2008-01-13T06:08:41Z

Today I saw breakdancers doing their moves to a remixed techno-version of "One Winged Angel", aka the Sephiroth theme from Final Fantasy VII.

Television Report

2008-01-08T19:43:41Z

I liked A Daily Show and The Colbert Report (regular T's). I'm not sure if they can keep doing it without writers.

American Gladiators is bloody awful.

tskirvin @ 2008-01-03T23:07:00

2008-01-04T05:07:51Z

Soundwave transformers into a Scion xB in the new Transformers: Animated series.

!!!

Mrrow.

2007-12-13T06:59:10Z

The world will eventually stop having annual Discworld books.