The Red and the Black ½ Done

I'm halfway through The Red and the Black.

Munkeh. He may live on after ITV dies.

Dab nab it! My car key broke off in the lock! The locksmith came out in a timely enough way and made a new key. He didn't use the usual grinding wheel - he eyeballed it and used a fancy pair of pliers to cut it to the original configuration. Nifty.



New CDs! Event Horizon, The Whisperers, Dinosaur, Mission to Mars and Unbreakable. Kamen & Orbital, Bernstein, Morricone, Howard and Howard. All used.

Alexander, my neighbor to the north, told me today that he had been praying for me to find a job. I am touched. Then we went on to mow our respective lawns.

I amuse myself here. My favorite bit:

Listen to me, Tim T! The law says that twelve CDs enter and six CDs leave. There ain't no seven and there ain't no three! Let there be no mistaking, Nighty-nightwing. Twelve will enter and six will leave! Twelve will enter and six will leave! Twelve will enter and six will leave!

Dear old pal Jeff Bond has written a piece about a subject both near and dear here. I actually haven't read the whole piece because I am trying to give Attack of the Clones as little possibility of failure as possible. So I am only letting myself be exposed to trailers that I see incidentally - as God intended. After I see the movie I'll see what Jeff had to say about John Williams' score.

I'm on a Sluggy kick tonight. Anyway, here's a pic of a mystery Sluggite and a vectory (but not really, alas) rendition of same. I'm afraid I didn't capture the strength of her smile or her very slight shy embarrassment. Hey, it's my first attempt!

 

More fun with Photoshop (actually I use Ulead PhotoImpact, but close enough.)


 
 
 


It's fun to draw inside the lines.

Fun with Photoshop. Well, the color anyway. I drew the lines myself! With a pen!

now with links in chronological order! (chronological order credit must go to imdb and startrek.com's databases.)

Intolerance
Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
Kriemhilde's Revenge
Siegfried
Frankenstein
Mummy (1932)
Murders in the Rue Morgue / Island of Lost Souls
Invisible Man
King Kong
Bride of Frankenstein
Lost Horizon
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Adventures of Robin Hood
Gunga Din
Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
Wizard of Oz
Wuthering Heights
Fantasia
Pinocchio
Westerner
Maltese Falcon
Wolf Man
Casablanca
Fallen Sparrow
Cornered
Big Sleep
Cloak and Dagger
It's a Wonderful Life
Postman Always Rings Twice
Dark Passage
Pitfall
Day the Earth Stood Still
Here Comes the Groom
When Worlds Collide
20,000 Leagues under the Sea
Desperate Hours
To Catch a Thief
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
Forbidden Planet
Forbidden Planet
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Ben Hur
Mummy (1959)
North by Northwest
Tingler
Deadly Companions
Dr. No
Five Weeks in a Balloon
Dr. Strangelove
From Russia with Love
Jonny Quest 1
Jonny Quest 2
Jonny Quest 3
Jonny Quest 4
Goldfinger
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
How the Grinch Stole Christmas / Horton Hears a Who
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
Star Trek: Cage, The
Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before / The Naked Time
Star Trek: Enemy Within / Mudd's Women
Star Trek: Man Trap / Charlie X
Star Trek: What Are Little Girls Made Of? / Miri
Star Trek: Dagger of the Mind / The Corbomite Maneuver
Star Trek: Conscience of the King / Balance of Terror
Star Trek: Shore Leave / The Galileo Seven
Star Trek: Squire of Gothos / Arena
Star Trek: Alternative Factor / The City on the Edge of Forever
Star Trek: Tomorrow is Yesterday / Court-Martial
Star Trek: Return of the Archons / Space Seed
Star Trek: Taste of Armageddon / This Side of Paradise
Star Trek: Devil in the Dark / Errand of Mercy
Star Trek: Operation - Annihilate / Amok Time
Star Trek: Ultimate Computer / Bread and Circuses
2001: A Space Odyssey
Once Upon a Time in the West
Patton
Slaughterhouse Five
Star Trek: Animated Adventures
Soylent Green
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Young Frankenstein
Man Who Would Be King
Wind and the Lion
Omen, The
Robin and Marian
Star Wars
Capricorn One
Mad Max
Empire Strikes Back
Time Bandits
Excalibur
Raggedy Man
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Blade Runner
Brainstorm
Return of the Jedi
Star Trek 2: Search for Spock
Terminator
Brazil
Dead, The
Wings of Desire
Batman
Star Trek 5:Final Frontier
Treasure Island
Matinee
Toy Story
---
Bingo Miki and Inner Galaxy Orchestra
NOVA: Signs of the Apes / Songs of the Whales
--
Catalog disc

Laser Disc title

Adventures of Robin Hood
Batman
Ben Hur
Big Sleep
Blade Runner
Brainstorm
Brazil
Bride of Frankenstein
Capricorn One
Casablanca
Cloak and Dagger
Cornered
Dark Passage
Day the Earth Stood Still
Dead, The
Deadly Companions
Desperate Hours
Dr. No
Dr. Strangelove
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
Empire Strikes Back
Excalibur
Fallen Sparrow
Fantasia
Five Weeks in a Balloon
Forbidden Planet
Forbidden Planet
Frankenstein
From Russia with Love
Goldfinger
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
Gunga Din
Here Comes the Groom
How the Grinch Stole Christmas / Horton Hears a Who
Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
Intolerance
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Invisible Man
It's a Wonderful Life
Jonny Quest 1
Jonny Quest 2
Jonny Quest 3
Jonny Quest 4
King Kong
Kriemhilde's Revenge
Lost Horizon
Mad Ma
Maltese Falcon
Man Who Would Be King
Matinee
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Mummy (1932)
Mummy (1959)
Murders in the Rue Morgue / Island of Lost Souls
North by Northwest
Omen, The
Once Upon a Time in the West
Patton
Pinocchio
Pitfall
Postman Always Rings Twice
Raggedy Man
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Return of the Jedi
Robin and Marian
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
Siegfried
Slaughterhouse Five
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Soylent Green
Star Trek 2: Search for Spock
Star Trek 5: Final Frontier
Star Trek: Animated Adventures
Star Trek: Alternative Factor / The City on the Edge of Forever
Star Trek: Cage, The
Star Trek: Conscience of the King / Balance of Terror
Star Trek: Dagger of the Mind / The Corbomite Maneuver
Star Trek: Devil in the Dark / Errand of Mercy
Star Trek: Enemy Within / Mudd's Women
Star Trek: Man Trap / Charlie X
Star Trek: Operation - Annihilate / Amok Time
Star Trek: Return of the Archons / Space Seed
Star Trek: Shore Leave / The Galileo Seven
Star Trek: Squire of Gothos / Arena
Star Trek: Taste of Armageddon / This Side of Paradise
Star Trek: Tomorrow is Yesterday / Court-Martial
Star Trek: Ultimate Computer / Bread and Circuses
Star Trek: What Are Little Girls Made Of? / Miri
Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before / The Naked Time
Star Wars
Terminator
Time Bandits
Tingler
To Catch a Thief
Toy Story
Treasure Island
20,000 Leagues under the Sea
2001: A Space Odyssey
Westerner
When Worlds Collide
Wind and the Lion
Wings of Desire
Wizard of Oz
Wolf Man
Wuthering Heights
Young Frankenstein
---
Bingo Miki and Inner Galaxy Orchestra
NOVA: Signs of the Apes / Songs of the Whales
--
Catalog disc

from the guestbook --

you can leave your name : ~.::][])a ][ yte::.~
you can leave a link : http://zap.to/nfhcam
you can leave a comment : Hi, there, Kyle! We had a good laugh, huh, this morning! Do you perhaps know how to get that JavaCamPush applet (that works with WebCam32) through a proxy. I mean from the client side (the viewer). Bye! Remko R. aka Da Byte

Fun == hiding from the webcam!
I'm sorry to say that I have no answer for this. Others report problems that are probably proxy issues. I'll look into it next weekend.

Slideshow Refinery: bah! CSS: Yay! Taxes: bah! Refund: Yay!

The webcam doodads have been made more consistent. The actual streaming bit is a click away from the index page, which is where you are now. Probably.

The webcam is, at present surrounded by Lego monsters, aka Rahi. The only MOC-like item is the Muaka that has been broken to the saddle by the Toa Maiden. The Toa Maiden has a personality that lies somewhere on the Bride-of-Frankenstein / Nell (Not Little Nell, Jody-Foster-as-Nell Nell) / Saavik (Kirstie Alley, not that other one) continuum.

The interim answer to the slide show question is Slideshow Refinery. We'll see. I found this program while looking up something unrelated: HTML Tidy.

So. How do I make something like a slideshow with event-driven text (overlays?) and event-controlled music? I don't know but I suspect it's something along the lines of DHTML. Off to the library!

Terragen

I've been playing with a terrain-generating program called Terragen. My first tests are here.

Time ... to mow.

Time to mow the lawn.

Hard drive failed on cam server. Will take some time to be rebuilt. Sorry.

Greenlake. Once. Snow.

Bionicle comic

The current view is a recreation of this comic book panel:

Green Lake. Twice. No cats. Ducks aplenty.

See the cats

Took a bit of a hike again today and saw cats.

A cat on a bench:


A cat crossing the street:


A cat in the trees:


A cat on a piling:


A cat hunting ducks:


Where is the cat?

Dryer Vent Eden

It's not spring yet, but the bush near my dryer vent doesn't care:

Here's something basic that I learned today. A Windows computer configured for DHCP, if it cannot contact a DHCP server assigns itself an ip in the 169.254.x.x range. If it is set to share private IPs it can still contact machines on the DHCP-denied network. Hooray. The proximate reason that this became of interest to me is because my DSL machine suddenly can't see the DHCP server for some reason. AAAAAAAARGH!
During my previous Qwest-caused outages, this IP self-assignment did not occur, so there must be some other conditions holding now. Although I'll be phoning up Qwest any minute now just to cover all my ducks. My first guess is that there is something wrong with the DHCP server itself at w-link. We'll see.

Took a walk today down the nearby Burke-Gilman trail, a former railroad right-of-way.
Saw a boat from a ways away:


It came closer:


Saw a cat and some ducks:


But nothing very interesting happened:


There were actually two pairs of ducks. One pair in the water:


The other pair was wandering around the trail:

Ray asks, "What did you think of Lord of the Rings?"

LotR was great.

An amazing feat of condensing. The visuals were pretty much as good as could be expected. Sure, a couple of long shots of hobbits looked like kids in costume, but no biggie. I have a minor issue with the rather cheap-looking effects during Frodo's vision of the Evil Galadriel: strictly Buffy the Vampire Slayer grade. I expect that to be upgraded for the DVD. Did not miss Tom Bombadil, nor his wife the river's daughter. Liv Tyler has found her function in life. Sean Bean fulfilled the character perfectly: he was annoying and then he was a dead hero. Exactly my impression from the book.

I'm not completely happy that it's a bunch of white guys opening their can of whup-ass on uppity colored folks, but there ya go. (Saruman the White indeed) The realization of the wizard's duel was interesting but a tad anticlimactic. Christopher Lee was completely convincing. Completely convincing as in "Let's not go to Chris's party because I am afraid that I may be imprisoned in a high tower by artes magickal."

The characterization of Sam was an actual improvement from the original and was put to good use in the very slight deviation that ocurred at the end. The principals were given the chance to accede to Frodo's wish to go alone instead of Frodo merely running off. He did try to run away from Sam, of course.

I love Howard Shore's score (not to be confused with Howard Shore's score to The Score, d'accord) both in the movie and on CD, yet I'm not _in_ love with it. It's like a woman that you know is beautiful, but just not quite cute enough. It's confounding. The CD is perfectly satisfying, but does not create a mindscape that is more amazing than the movie itself. That is a conundrum that I haven't solved yet.

Someone else's weblog. It's amusing.

Kyle says:
<voice="bathic announcer">
In a world (pause) somewhere between Twelve Monkeys and The Time Machine, comes bizarre spam: </voice>


> --- Frank Young
>webmaster@htz.com wrote:
>Date: 26 Feb 2002
>06:04:09 -0000 To:
>dzedrick@applemax.com,
>pageguy@appleogue.net,
>jturgiss@appleone.com,
>mancow@applepie.net,
>paresi@applepie.net,
>ndrus@applescruffs.com
>From: webmaster@htz.com
>(Frank Young) Subject:
>Time Travelers PLEASE
>HELP!!!
>
>Folgende Angaben wurden
>im Web-Formular gemacht.
>Die Anfrage erfolgte
>durch: Frank Young
>(webmaster@htz.com) am
>Dienstag, 26. Februar,
>2002 at 07:04:09
>
>------------------------
>
>message: If you are a
>time traveler or alien
>disguised as human and
>or have the technology
>to travel physically
>through time I need your
>help!
>
>My life has been
>severely tampered with
>and cursed!! I have
>suffered tremendously
>and am now dying!
>
>I need to be able to:
>
>Travel back in time.
>
>Rewind my life including
>my age back to 4.
>
>Be able to remember what
>I know now so that I can
>prevent my life from
>being tampered with
>again after I go back.
>
>I am in very great
>danger and need this
>immediately!
>
>I am aware that there
>are many types of time
>travel, and that humans
>do not do well through
>certain types.
>
>I need as close to
>temporal reversion as
>possible, as safely as
>possible. To be able to
>rewind the hands of time
>in such a way that the
>universe of now will
>cease to exist. I know
>that there are some very
>powerful people out
>there with alien or
>government equipment
>capable of doing just
>that.
>
>If you can help me I
>will pay for your
>teleport or trip down
>here, Along with hotel
>stay, food and all
>expenses. I will pay top
>dollar for the
>equipment. Proof must be
>provided.
>
>Please be advised that
>any temporal device that
>you may employ must
>account for X, Y, and Z
>coordinates as well as
>the temporal location. I
>have a time machine now,
>but it has limited
>abilitys and is useless
>without a vortex.
>
>If you can provide
>information on how to
>create vortex generator
>or where I can get some
>of the blue glowing moon
>crystals this would also
>be helpful. I am however
>concerned with the high
>level of radiation these
>crystals give off, if
>you could provide a
>shielding or other
>crystals which give off
>a north polarized vortex
>field just as strong or
>strong enough to make a
>watch stop this would be
>great.
>
>I am aware of two types
>of time travel one in
>physical form and the
>other in energy form
>where a snapshot of your
>brain is taken using
>either the dimensional
>warp or an electronic
>device and then sends
>your consciousness back
>through time to part
>with your younger self.
>Please explain how safe
>and what your method
>involves.
>
>Also if you are one of
>the very, very, few
>beings with the ability
>to edit the universe
>PLEASE REPLY!!!
>
>Only if you have this
>technology and can help
>me exactly as mentioned
>please send me a
>(SEPARATE) email to:
>IneedTimeTravel@aol.com
>
>Please do not reply if
>your an evil alien!
>Thanks


Kyle again: (The originating mail server belongs to an organization called Vertical Axis, Inc. I can only assume that this was done for fun or as an especially inefficient way to farm live emails - inefficient because evil aliens are the most likely to actually pay for porn! He almost certainly netted my email (pageguy@appleogue.net) from the Irish Pipers site so he probably doesn't need another source of emails.

Toys from Goodwill

A recent visit to a Goodwill toy bin resulted in these McDonald's toys:


It rolls!


It lights up!


It kinda walks! But mostly, a monkey.


It spins. A bit.

OK, I'm back. DSL came up quietly some time today. Hooray, I guess. No thanks to the policies and systems at Qwest ... happy thoughts, happy thoughts. God, what a relief, browsing-wise and upload-wise and any other wise that I can think of. Broadband is a good thing. I wish I were not such a spoiled brat that I can actually feel good about such a non-essential.