XMen 3

Verdict... *sigh*.

I know you have to make changes to make a genre work hang together on the big screen, but excising its soul is a Bad Thing.

I was happy enough with the explanation for Phoenix, but you've got this powerful being who is composed of rage and passion sitting about, and standing there looking morose, and occasionally, absently killing things with her mind. She should have been the emotional core of the film, but she wasn't, because she was played like a zombie (everyone else bored with depictions of 'possesion' in genre films? Yup) and because they lost a great opportunity when they *spoilered* *spoiler*.
And they also have her kill *spoiler*. Who really is the soul of the films, I guess, but if there'd been more emotional payoff or something I could have dealt with that, because various writers have *spoilered* *spoiler* over the years and it hasn't stuck yet.


Sigh.


At least Hugh Jackman was relatively impervious. His Wolverine is still pretty good. I liked the new additions like Beast, Angel and Shadowcat. (I think I saw Psylocke but she sort of blended into the BrotherHood Of Angry Goff Mutants).

Its not a complete waste of time, but it's not up to the previous two.

ValleySchwag On The Way

Waiting on your ValleySchwag? Not to worry! The guys and girls at Ruby Red labs are on it.


The vid is in response to "Alterion"'s post here.

Hehehe very funny response. I love teh Internets!

(Yes, I subscribed. I got tired of hearing about Conference X and the Conference X shwag via podcasts and blogs, and feeling left out because my great-great-great(etc) grandparents emigrated to the wrong colony).

It has a great personality

After (well after) the initial buzz, here's my thoughts on the MBP's baby brother, the MacBook.

I'm in the market for a replacement for my rock-solid but ageing iBook G4 800. It's held out this long because the RAM is maxed out. Its not a good games machine though, no Quartz special effects, and the hard drive is small and hard to extricate. So after the Intel switch, its time for an upgrade.

After seeing the MacBook in real life (http://www.mymac.com.au), it definitely more resembles the 14" iBook than the 12". I was tempted to take a picture of it next to my iBook but fortunately Ars Technica did it for me.
The MacBook is no lightweight.


(From http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/macbook.ars )

It's bigger than I expected. One of my criteria for choosing a new laptop, between the MacBook and MacBook Pro, was whether I would need a new bag for it or not, as I really like the Crumpler Sheep Scarer backpack I currently use. But even with the extra inch or so clearance in that backpack, the MacBook likely wouldn't fit.
So if I end up buying a new bag either way, I may as well get the MacBook Pro. At 15.4", the MBP is in real life, not that much bigger, and not much heavier.

Another concern is gaming performance. I'm no ubergamer but I like WarCrack and Sims 2. Now according to my research (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-mac-tech-support&T=24746&P=1 among others) the MacBook gets about 15 fps. My iBook gets 15 fps. This is not a win for me. So that's a point for the MacBook Pro, underclocked GPU and all (and I suspect that issue will be addressed next rev).

In every other respect though the MacBook blows the doors off my current laptop. It gives the MacBook Pro a run for its money too. I so wish it had a real GPU. But it doesn't, so to MacBook Pro I'll go.

I'm going to buy whatever MacBook Pro is available after the WWDC keynote in early August. My budget says I can afford one in July, but I'd hate to buy one and then for there to be a Merom-based MBP a couple of weeks later, so I'm holding out. And I'm not feeling so bad about hanging onto my iBook until then, because Apple don't make compact notebooks like that anymore.


The other thing I did recently was dip my (healed) toe in Media Center computers. I started with http://geexbox.org/en/index.html , which is nice but with a few rough edges. I'd like an installable version of this so I can at least save some settings, like DVD playback mode (menus please).

I then installed KnoppMyth but I don't need most of the features, and I haven't been able to get the DVD drive working with it yet. I just want a DVD and media-file playing setup. This was prompted by our Xbox crapping out on DVD playback (I think it's trying to say it's time for a 360, but we're not interested).

Brack Toe!

Brack Toe!
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac.

Yes, this is the most interesting thing that happened to me this week. I don't think its actually broken, but its a bit disconcerting that all the bruising is around the joint and not the point of impact (end of toe vs metal escalator step, with rapid deceleration).
Can't bend it. Well, good excuse for wearing sneakers during business hours next week...

Fruity Boots

http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

Dear Apple, this is why you are Shiny. Great 'birthday' present. Windows without the EFI twiddling. Probably wouldn't be much of a hack to boot Linux in the same way.

P.S. Please release a 12" or 13" MBP or MacBook without a castrated graphics card. Please.

You know you're adjusting to shiftwork when...

-You set your Casio watch to run in dual-time mode so you know roughly what time in your work 'day' it is, and what you should be doing then... It's about Virtual Lunchtime for me now. I'm not hungry though so I don't know what I should be doing.

-You create a character on the US-based WoW servers so you have someone to play with.

-You start looking for live webcams in 'your' timezone, to remind yourself that it is, in fact, actually afternoon somewhere, just not exactly here.

-You lose touch with your day-shift workmates... the ones in the *same* building.

-You don't know what meal you should eat when... breakfast at the end of the 'day' feels wrong. And what do you eat in the middle? Does that meal have a name?

-You feel you've comfortably determined which girls in the phone sex ads are in fact transvestites or similar.

-You start refering to your SO as a 'Daywalker'

-You actually secretly or not so secretly appreciate the quiet and the time to yourself.

-You suddenly have a lot of time to write or study .... except you find yourself blogging instead because your brain won't make it out of first gear.

Yeah I've started shiftwork as part of my Shiny New Job. Its not completely horrible for a Night Owl like myself (and lets just say absence has made things... sparkier... between D and myself).

April Fools!

april1
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac.

My thoughts turn again to Cupertino... it's quiet. Too quiet.

Transaction Complete

Transaction Complete
Originally uploaded by analog_chainsaw.

*Look* how happy this man is. I want to be that happy, dammit.

Not wild about Larry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Cyclone_Larry

Sparing a thought today for the friends and family around Cairns who
will be
losing roofs and the like. I've heard of two lost roller doors and a
skylight so far and this is in town, not even getting the brunt of the
storm.
A lot of people have lost power, there's been evacuations, and it's not
over
yet...

Goodbyeeeeee

Have you seen those irritating flash ads with the talking smileys?  Well, more likely you've heard them bellow out 'Hellooooo' ,after being loaded as the banner ad on a normally pleasantly *silent* web page.
Having reassured myself that my computer was not, in fact, emulating the one from Electric Dreams (I'm old, so there), I loaded Adblock into Firefox... specifically for this ad.  RIP, f**king smilies.  +1 nomination for Most Annoying Flash Ad ever. 
Yes, I've seen the crazy frog ones. 

Changing gears on the weekend

I've caught up with some much needed sleep, come up with strategies for dealing with the new challenges of my job, and importantly, I've pencilled (iCal'ed?) some time in today to work on the webcomic.
Most things are either archived in VoodooPad or my sketchbooks, I'm going through those at present and getting a grip on where things are. You tend to know your characters pretty well but I need to pick up all the threads of plot I've written down but not woven in yet.

If I get some time after that (I'm on dinner duty tonight) I've got a Cisco PIX manual to read over. Which is easier when you've had enough sleep and your eyes focus. I think I need new glasses though, my eye fatigue plus these current glasses are giving me this weird sort of tunnel vision where I don't see and note things in the immediate periphery of the small area I'm focused on, in emails and stuff.

Maybe I need bigger frames as well. I definitely need some distance vision assistance for reading projectors and stuff.  

New Mac Mini, integrated graphics

Hmmm, I dunno. Intel Integrated GMA950 ? I just hope thats not what ends up in the MacBook, though the Mini and the iBook ran very similar hardware previously. 
And the Hifi box, I've seen better. And cheaper. This event rates a big 'meh' from me.

MacBook P0rn

Oh hell YES.

I really, really want one of these babies. But unless I can somehow make it pay for itself, I can't afford one. *deep sigh*

I've adjusted my expectations, and my next laptop will be a iMacBook 13", or whatever the next iBook equivalent will be (I wouldn't mess with 'iBook' as a name, but it'll probably get Steved). Even the 13" MacBook Pro, should the make such a creature. In fact please do, it will probably fit in my existing (and much-loved) laptop backpack.

Spreading stupid

So in my final weeks of tech support, front-line sh*t-filtering tech support, I’ve had phone calls from some characters of amazing density. I mean ‘IT Managers’ who need step by step guides *with pictures* to do routine tasks. It’s a stupidity so refined and intense that I’d have no problem using Balefire on them, I mean if I went far enough back and wiped out their ancestors too, I’d probably prevent the low-fat diet craze, the RIAA, and ‘Dancing with the Stars’. (Yes, they probably are getting paid more than me. Why do you ask?)

And that’s a couple of generations ago, with the reading writing and ‘rithmetic. I probably won’t retire in time to avoid dealing with the next generation’s ‘business leaders’.

Retrocomputing

Feeling the need for a PDA, I dragged my Palm iiic out of mothballs. I bought it a USB adapter and dug some OSX drivers up from an obscure but *thorough* Taiwanese manufacturer’s site (Linux drivers too. Warm fuzzies) . I hooked it up to my iBook.

 

The Palm desktop is set up and works like a charm. iSync talks to the Palm and my muuuuch newer phone. Avantgo is up and running via a third party conduit. Mail.app won’t sync and crashes but I think that may have more to do with my colossal email archives than the plugin.

 

 They really don’t make stuff like the Palm iiic anymore. The battery is still fine after lying in a drawer for a couple of years. The UI is fast and straightforward. Theoretically I could have used my phone as a PDA but the interface is awkward and the software is slightly sluggy.

 

I really think Palm peaked with the Palm V and the iiic, I see a lot of them around still. The Treos that periodically emit their peeping alarms around our office, really don’t compel me to upgrade.  The news that Palm are moving to a Linux OS sounds really interesting though, I’ll keep an eye on that development. Palm might get interesting again.

 

 

Not all together..

Having trouble getting going this morning. Its another birthday (yay, I’m not dead!) . So far scored a few things, like the Serenity DVD (better the second time around).  Instead of having a nice relaxing unemployed day today I’m off to $other things, but it’s still 2 weeks until I get to transfer out of here. (I checked out, but I didn’t leave).

 

 

 

Clan HoldTheFries

Today’s Earworm – ‘Queen Of The World’, Tina Cousins

 

Thinking of starting a WoW clan called ‘HoldTheFries’. We would not be exclusively low-carb, though we would be low carb friendly.  We probably would be banninated under current management though.

 

I’ve an internal interview today for another department so wish me luck. Damn I wish I could let on the real reasons I think I’ll perform better in a different department…. But you know, if you have nothing nice to say… etc.

 

I’m hopeful but I’m also wary of things falling through, so come Monday I could have those glorious few days-to-weeks off I’ve been fantasizing about since I transitioned here from $old_werk with no time in between. Except of course, for the problem of actually being unemployed, and the longer you’re out of the game, the harder it is to get back in.   

 

I need to line something else up before D starts sending filled application forms to fast-food joints on my behalf.

 

At least I’m at that point where lack of experience is no longer a problem, just lack of paperwork.

Wiped out

I was doing so well, I'd gotten the morning off ex-werk and had an interview with a recruiter scheduled for today. Then I got freaking *dysentry*. It's 50/50 as to whether I get to work tomorrow.
All I really feel like eating is bananas, an apple, or peanut butter, weirdly enough, and not available in our carb-avoidant household. If it means I can get through work tomorrow though I'll eat a bit off-plan.

The TroppoBook

iBook_dark
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac.

Here's my iBook after I applied a flower decal over the Apple logo. My iBook's getting on a bit so I've been on the lookout for stickers for it, and I couldn't find anything that wouldn't get peeled off in a couple of days. But this is nice. Sort of a tropical theme to reflect the hot, hot summer days Melbourne has been having lately.

I've switched from coffee to tea or iced tea (mostly). It seems too hot for coffee, and tea doesn't rattle my nerves as much. And even at McDonalds, tea is served in a teapot with a jug of milk. It's a more deliberate, civilized sort of experience. The only problem is I can't drink tea without some sort of sweetener. I'll have to buy some more Stevia to carry around with me.

On that topic, weight loss continues, doing very well thank you very much.

On the job front, I'm encouraged by interest from recruiters and I'm applying for more jobs, in the likely event that the current roles I'm pursuing with them fall through.

The other thing I'm working on is swotting for my MCSE exams, I've been putting those off for an embarrassingly long time. At this stage, I have experience but not the certs, and those certs could mean the difference of about 10k in the job market. It means more flexibility too. I'd like to be able to *avoid* the sorts of jobs I've had up until now.

One could argue that doing the certifications once you *have* experience means you'll get more out of them, and God knows I need more confidence.

Without the certs, I'm doing the work of people who *did* get the certs and are getting paid more than me, and who needs that?

Gaming it

Listening to ‘Landed, Ben Folds’

 

Playing phone tag with recruiters today. Actually I’m fairly chuffed considering how many applications it took to get *one* phone call the last few times I’ve been down this road. Feeling hopeful. Which is good because once the buzz from my impulsive Recovery had worn off and I was starting to feel a bit silly.

 

 

Treating the process like an RPG as much as possible, in terms of strategy and trying vs failing. Seems to be working out so far.