Monthly Archives: March 2006

Progress

Our cats Templeton and Scout sleeping on our guest bed

Templeton has been almost his normal self the past few days after we switched him to a different type of kidney-friendly food, so I’m guardedly optimistic that he’s finally getting back to normal, 3 months after swallowing the sewing needle before Christmas. I’m not ready to declare victory quite yet, but I’m breathing a little easier.

This picture is from 2002 when we were living in Keizer. Scout loves to curl up with Templeton but he usually prefers to sleep on his own. If she’d catch him when he was tired enough, he’d decide it was better to let her snuggle than to have to get up and move somewhere else.

The Final Countdown

I like computer roleplaying games.

There. I said it.

I realize any hope of ever being cool just went out the window, but it’s true.

I’ve been playing Neverwinter Nights on my Powerbook for quite some time, there are a ton of user created modules that are a lot of fun and have provided me with a great deal of stress relief. I’ve probably played this game more than any other computer game in the past couple of decades.

I didn’t play The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind quite as much, but I still played it a ton. In fact it’s one of the reasons I got an Xbox, I didn’t have a PC capable of gaming back then and the Xbox was the cheapest way to play the game.

The sequel (The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion) comes out this week, and I’ve been salivating at the promo videos they’ve been releasing as part of their countdown towards release. I don’t have an Xbox 360 and my PC falls between the minimum and recommended settings, so I’ll be getting the PC version. I’ll have to turn off some of the fancy graphics, but I can live with that.

Jean-Luc Picard and Boromir are lending their voice talents to the game. Even better, we get Wonder Woman! We’re a David Hasselhoff away from sending me into a gaming frenzy from which there’d be no return.

But if my blogging levels and updates to racphoto start dropping off, well, don’t call Missing Persons quite yet, I’m just off slaying beast and vampires. Hmm, perhaps I’ll name my character “Starsky Hutch” …

Since “Funkytown” just came up in iTunes, it’s time for Templeton and I to dance. He does an incredible robot …

Maybe The Ol’ Brain Is Just Fine After All

I wrote in an entry called I Need a New Brain that I have always associated an ABBA song with a Starsky and Hutch episode about vampires, but that I seriously doubted they ever used the song or had a show about vampires.

I think I was wrong about the ABBA aspect of it (nevertheless, searching on Google for “Starsky Hutch Vampire ABBA” brought up 16,000 references!), but there was a Starsky and Hutch episode about vampires.

Part of me is a little relieved, part of me is a little sad. How quickly did they run out of ideas? You didn’t see Knight Rider fighting the abominable snowman did you?

Did you?

Hmm, typing “Knight Rider abominable snowman” into Google shows 41,200 pages. That doesn’t prove anything except that there are some really strange web pages out there.

OK, how about this, did the A-team ever fight the chupacabra? 18,600 references? Alright, Google has gone insane.

But at least my brain is good.

Messing Up the Timeline

No matter what they say, hindsight isn’t 20/20.

I don’t have as many pictures from when Scout was a kitten as you might think. The biggest problem was that she wanted to be close to me and play on me, so if I’d set her down a little ways away so I could get a picture, she’d run back towards me before I could even trip the shutter. It was then that I started thinking about a camera like Canon’s G series, which had a flip-out LCD and a remote control, perfect for taking pictures of yourself when you were playing with your kitten.

Looking back, I really wish I had gotten one of the G series. They had some drawbacks that I didn’t like, and in the end I couldn’t justify spending that much money for a limited number of pictures. But they were pictures I’d highly treasure, opportunities that are now gone forever. Canon never really evolved the G series where I wanted so I never bought one, and now they appear to have abandoned it and focused on simpler digicams.

So if I could go back in time, would I buy the G series right before we got Scout?

It’s not that simple.

My wife had gotten me the D30 the previous Christmas, a far more expensive camera than the G series, and I used that for years as my main camera. I took a ton of pictures with it (and more than a few were of the cats). At the time we got Scout, I was still saving up for Canon’s wonderful 100-400mm lens. If I had bought the G series, I would have had to delay getting that lens for quite a while, and the combination of the D30 and the 100-400 changed my photography more than anything else ever has. I love this lens and it’s still the lens I use for the majority of my photography.

So in that respect, I don’t regret not getting the digicam.

In the end, I think I made the right decision. But if I had gotten the digicam, I could have taken it to China instead of the little pocket cam. And so on and so on …

The thing is, even with perfect hindsight, I don’t know if the decision was the right one.

I used to enjoy plotting out these decisions, researching each option and mapping out which path would likely bring me the most benefits. But sometime over the past few years that’s changed and I now despise that process. I don’t enjoy wrestling with decisions about cameras and camcorders and computers, knowing that none of the products completely satisfy me, but if I’m going to get some kind of video capability, I need to make a decision and relatively soon.

I just keep hoping some future self will risk screwing up the timeline and come back in time to hand me a high-def camcorder that won’t come out for a few years.

I won’t tell anyone about it.

Honestly.

I promise.

Problem is, what if my future self doesn’t read my blog?

Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em

I really need to replace my iPod mini soon. Which I’m sad to do since I don’t think Apple properly replaced the iPod mini. I was leaning towards the Shuffle, partially because they’re pretty cheap and partially because there are times when it’d be convenient to use as a USB stick.

However, after watching my iPod usage the past couple of weeks, I don’t think I could get by without a screen. Both the Nano and video iPod have color screens that display the album art of the song that’s currently playing, which I think is pretty cool.

But then it dawned on me. One of my favorite things about the iTunes Music Store is that I’ve been able to buy all kinds of cheesy 80′s pop songs.

The kind that you’re embarrassed you even like.

The kind that, when your wife comes into the room and hears what you’re listening to, in that brief unguarded moment you can tell she’s sorry she married you.

And once summer comes and I’m no longer wearing coats, my iPod will be out in the open and my secret shame will be secret no more. I’ll be minding my own business riding MAX to work when some young punks will notice my album art. “He’s listening to Air Supply, let’s get ‘em!” The blows come fast and furious.

I try to fast forward quickly to U2 or REM but get MC Hammer instead. The blows rain down harder and harder. I fast forward again and the Bee Gees smile back from the screen. The punks are in a blind rage now. I fast forward again and drift into unconsciousness as ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” begins to play.

So, to avoid this, I decided I need a little program that will leave your embarrassing songs intact but cover up their artwork with hep young bands from today, so that the iPod will be playing Duran Duran but show the White Stripes.

There is a potential problem, though, in that this may encourage people to talk to me about what I’m listening to. Or at least what they think I’m listening to. And then the game will be up.

“Do you like the White Stripes?”
“The who now?”
“The White Stripes.”
“Whosie-whats-its?”
“The White Stripes!” They point furiously at my iPod. It’s hard to hear them, my headphones attenuate sound. But I’d better say something.

“Oh, the Mighty Stripes. I love the Mighty Stripes.”

The blows rain down …