Dirty Unicorn Games

More than Meets the Eye!

2007-07-13T11:28:00.001-07:00

Wow I'm just back from a trip to Ohio where I got to see my family and friends. It was a total blast and I had the excellent opportunity to attend Origins Game Expo 2007 (even if only for a few hours). During the convention I got to meet and greet my pals from Texas 12toMidnight. Also at the expo I got to meet actor Richard Hatch (who played Apollo in the original Battlestar Galactica and is in the new series as well) and Shane Hensley who heads up Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Both of them signed autographs for me the fanboy (Richard was kind and signed "Keep the Faith" while Shane wrote "With Big Sloppy Savage Hugs and Kisses"... thanks Shane now I'll never be able to hock this on eBay!?! ;)

While in Ohio we had a boys night out and all the men folk took the little guys to see Transformers the movie. I have to say that this film was absolutely incredible and easily the best summer blockbuster film of the year (oh yes WAY better than Spiderman, Shrek, or Pirates). Michael Bay did an outstanding job with this film and I sat through 2 hours with my jaw unhinged at some of the best visual effects to date.

Being a kid of the 80's I grew up with Transformers, G.I. Joe, Micronauts, etc. so I was excited about the chance to see a modern take on an eighties cartoon classic.

The film was (of course) action packed and very funny. I imagine huge fans of the classic Transformers will be a bit disappointed that some of the main characters where reimagined with different bits and pieces (Bumblebee is a yellow camero rather than a VW Bug in the cartoon series). For me though the updates looked and fit great.

The shape changing robots look absolutely amazing and move convincingly. It's easy to fall into the fantasy of the film and believe that these huge giant metal Transformers are really there moving through the sets and interacting with the human actors. In fact if you are a giant robot fan this movie will really showcase to you what Hollywood could do these days to bring those kinds of movies from cartoon to CGI (Battletech the movie sprung immediately to my mind while watching a Decepticon stomp around a military base shooting and pounding everything in sight)

There is a lot going on in the movie... maybe too much really as several different groups of humans converge together with the transformers by the end of the film. So much happens that it feels like the machines and humans don't really interact as they should. With the exception of Shia LeBeouf's character and his girlfriend the Autobots don't really communicate with the people they are on Earth to help and protect. Of course one could argue that the robots had much more pressing concerns as you see in the plot of the film (they WERE on a mission and very focused on it)

One great thing about the movie is that it doesn't paint the military as a bumbling dumb government tool. The opening scenes of the film show very sharp and by the numbers soldiers who mobilize to deal with the threat posed by the Decepticons (sorry bad guys, but just because you look like a friendly doesn't mean we will automatically treat you as such). You might detect a bit of pro-war undertones in the film, but nothing they club you over the head with and they level the field by taking a shot or two at the fearless leader of our country which is fine by me ;)

The film is mostly acceptable for kids. There is a lot of violence and explosions, but nothing my little one hasn't seen already on TV and in movies. By the end of the film several characters do fall in battle, but most are of the... non-human variety. There is no gratuitous blood, but a heck of a lot of gunfire and fast paced combat. I think kids 6 and under might be a little scared, but anyone older should find the film interesting and exciting.

This is truly a film worth catching on the big screen if you get a chance. From me it gets two big metal thumbs up!

Apple Introduces The Latest iNvention

2007-06-04T15:37:00.000-07:00

Best... Music Video... Ever!

2007-06-04T15:35:00.000-07:00

Yeah the Family Jewels haven't been stolen!

2007-05-23T07:43:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a few weeks because I have been very preoccupied with a severe pain.. in the the... uh... "nether regions"

Now I'll handle this post in the most "delicate" manner I can, but honestly I wouldn't blame ya a bit if you decided to skip it entirely. Frankly I could live without exposing my medical problems to the world (especially semi-embarrassing ones), but hell what fun would that be? Besides I am feeling REALLY relieved at the moment so heck yeah I'm gonna post about it!

About 3 weeks ago I suddenly started getting a sharp pain in one of my testicles. Now this wasn't a gentle ache or a throb, but a random sharp shooting OUCH type of pain. Being a guy this can be very distressing and you worry about all sorts of terrible evil things (don't want to end up with a Tom Green uniball). I waited a week hoping it was a sprained muscle, pulled groin or the like.

Finally I was too scared to wait any longer and saw the doc. She poked and prodded me. Let me tell you doctors can be pretty insensitive to a guys sensitive areas. She put two fingers completely inside my body and didn't use an existing hole to do it (use your imagination). Uh yeah she found the spot.

Doc said I may have an inflammation and prescribes antibiotics. She assures me it's completely normal and that I could have gotten from a cold (as opposed to that girl in Singapore, I knew she was bad stuff! ... yeah right ;)

Unfortunatly the pills didn't seem to take the pain away and I got worried again. Now it had been 2 weeks and things weren't looking a whole lot better. Researching on the internet made me more stressed. I had all but convinced myself I tangled up wires up inside my body and they would need untangling. Worse still was I had a hernia operation on that side and in that area just a little over 2 years ago so I begin to fret that something was tearing up in there. I went back to the doc and she ordered an ultrasound and x-rays. She thought it might be a good idea to check with the surgeon also to get his opinion.

Now is where my story gets off into the rant tangent. I'll save a lot of space and stress and just say that I had to do a LOT of calling, screaming, begging and threatening just to get seen by someone who knew what the hell might be going on. No one wanted to do their jobs and get me the help I needed in making sure this thing wasn't going to end up with me on an operating table. The cumulation was when I had to take 2 hours off of work, drive to my doctors office and stand there and MAKE her staff fill out the required authorizations and fax them. It was like dealing with spoiled little children who couldn't be bothered to do something. So damn frustrating... and now I'll have to switch docs, because there is no way I want her staff handling my medical records anymore.

Anyway, after all my hootin' and hollerin' I managed to get my ultrasound, 4 x-rays of my pelvis AND get into the surgeons office within a mere 10 more days.

When I see the surgeon he says "you waited over 3 weeks to get seen for this pain?" Well NOOOO I waited 1 week and then my insurance and local doctors office completely j*@$ed me around for over 2 more weeks.

The good news... no GREAT news is that my ultrasound and x-rays were clean and ruled out all of the horrible things my mind conjured up. The physical exam was good too. Nothing amiss and the mesh from the hernia is fine. The surgeon asks me about exercising and I reveal to him that I had beeen dieting for a while now and about 5 weeks ago I bought an exercise bike. Well like a chump I tired to be Lance Armstrong and rode it a lot the first week or so (like everyday intensely). So now he thinks I did pull a muscle or cramp a nerve bundle soemwhere and the pain is radiating down there. He surprised me by telling me a lot of guys suffer pains in their gear that is actually from an unrelated area and that the body is weird with transmitting pain signals. He tells me take it easy for a week or two more and see how it goes and if need be I can come back in and go for a CAT Scan.

So it looks like my panic was for naught and the jewels are safe! Huzzah!

Family Game Day II

2007-04-19T18:51:00.000-07:00

So I decided that at each family game day we need to try new games to find the ones we like and the ones we don't! Sadly Family Game Day part deux revealed two new games... that... well... we don't :(

Lost Cities turned out to be a dissappointment. It was a thinly disguised rummy type math game. Unfortunately while the cards had pretty pictures of lost civilizations, it lacked a lot of depth. My wife was not fond of the math for scoring at the end either (which I didn't have too much of a problem with). The game itself just really felt lacking. It was neither very competitive, nor cooperative. Sad, because I thought the Indiana Jones type theme looked really interesting, but nope the game just didn't deliver.

This game really needed the addition of other elements: challenges, traps, treasures or ANYTHING else to give the game some depth. Where are the crocodiles? quicksand? torches? maps? ANYTHING?!?

Ah well...

Next up was another VERY highly rated Euro game called Carcassonne:

Carcassonne is a tile laying game that has really great components including colorful thick cardboard tiles that depict countryside, roads and medieval city walls. It also comes with cute little painted wooden followers nicknamed "Meeples".

Despite the quality of the pieces the game seemed a bit boring. At first I was annoyed that my wife immediatly seemed to dislike the game, but as we played it steadly became apparent that this game was a slow paced, low impact game not at all like the American "battle fests" that companies like Hasbro and Milton Bradley put out.

There was also some initial confusion about allowable tile placement and we definately messed up scoring (all of us ended up with well over a hundred points each and the scoring board only goes to 49 points). I think that given time this game could grow on me, but honestly I don't think my wife will be willing to try it again without altering the game completely. To her it's all yawn and snores. I have to be sympathetic. This one is not in my top ten (even though I wish it could be). The kids seemed to like it alright though so I may look for games that have more painted wooden bits or games that have a cartoon/colorful style.

In the end we decided to break out Ticket to Ride again. We had some more fun with that until mr. kitty-cat jumped right into the middle of the board and caused the worlds most horrific derailment every seen!

Next week I'm going to try some interesting fantasy games and see how they do:

Citadels - a card game of building districts in a fantasy city

and

Quest for the Heros - a cooperative RPG style fantasy game somewhat akin to Heroquest & Talisman (both great old fantasy games from years gone by)

Wish us luck!

Journey to the Dark Side has begun!

2007-04-12T22:32:00.000-07:00

What can I say? I love games! Always have. Back in the day my pop and I would play Risk, Axis & Allies and Fortress America (I love that game!) When we were a lot younger (and shorter on children) my wifey and I would play roleplaying games, card games and board games all the time. Now as a daddy and a worker-bot I miss those fun times so very much. We just never seem to have enough time to sit down and play those great games from our youth...

In an effort to get my wife back into gaming (or at the very least to letting me push little plastic heroscape pieces around a board with her) I decided to "trick her" into the fun. I did some diligent reseach into terms like "gateway games" and "spouse approved games" to find just the right sneaky kind of games that are both fun enough and interesting enough to creep up on you and get you wanting to try even more games... sort of like crack for gamers haha!

What I ended up deciding on was 2 games: Ticket to Ride and Lost Cities, both of which I grabbed from a great online store called Thought Hammer that offers 35% off on board and card games (no I'm not an affiliate, but I really was impressed by thier speedy service, large selection and low prices)

Ticket to Ride has got to be hands down the perfect game for suckering in non-gamers or just casual gamers.

It's a fun board game where you plunk down rows of colorful plastic trains all across the Umited State. It has pretty simple rules and though it says ages 10 and up, my six year old had no problem catching on to laying down sets of cards and putting his trains on the board (albiet he missed the finer details of connecting long routes together, but he did understand the basics and more importantly he had a lot of fun doing it!). I highly recommend it as a family game. It seems very insidious too because I can see you developing lots of strategy as you play the game more and more (you could gobble up lots of short routes, go for super long routes, focus on connecting lots of destinations, block your competition out, etc. etc.)

All in all a great game and my wife who initially thought she wouldn't like it at all insisted on playing twice and I can see the glimmer in her eye for a future rematch (since I won the second game we played hehe ;)

Lost Cities on the other hand is a 2 player card game about archeological expeditions. I have read from many other guy gamers that it's the perfect game for playing with your wife or girlfriend and that they get quite good at it so watch out!

Sadly we didn't have time to try it out tonight, but I'm sure it will be fun to play as well.

Hopefully these games will lead not only to more family game nights for all of us, but also to more elaborate and interesting games to play like Carcassone, Alhambra & Settlers of Catan and maybe into the really neato stuff with lots of little plastic monster and character pieces like Runebound, Arkham Horror & Twilight Empire. Oh and of course maybe back to my old love roleplaying (Hey killing orcs, zombies and dragons is fun too! Honest! ;)

So the only time I blog is???

2007-04-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

When I have a silly meme to post of course! My friend Simple American posted his and I was intrigued... so here's my visual DNA!

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Arrrrr!

2007-03-06T06:23:00.000-08:00

Well so much for my new years resolution of keeping my blog updated timely (*sigh*).

Let's see how about a quick recap of recent goings on:

(1) I have a new product (yea!) out: Standup Doors for roleplaying games. Very interesting new idea. We'll see if it catches on. I'm already planning a follow up version with more modern and sci-fi type doors & portals.

I'm also privy to a REALLY cool adventure coming out this year by 12toMidnight and I hope to be doing a super cool new set of tiles and tokens for it. Finger crossed.

(2) Lost sucks. I love it. I hate it. Secretly I'm tired of it dragging on and I hope this is the last season (sorry!). With it moving to a late night 10:00 PM time slot I don't see it lasting. My current prediction is it all ends with another key being turned and everyone back on the plane... with strange memories intact only this time Desmond enters the code and the flight 815 doesn't crash. There will be some over-arcing message about fate and choosing your own destiny... well at least thats what I think. Who knows??

(3) In less than 3 weeks I turn 38. Yuck! I'm really feeling my age :P

In light of that I thought the results of this quiz Preston pointed out on his blog were pretty funny (and prolly accurate har!):

You scored as Captain Jack Sparrow. Roguish,quick-witted, and incredibly lucky, Jack Sparrow is a pirate who sometimes ends up being a hero, against his better judgement. Captain Jack looks out for #1, but he can be counted on (usually) to do the right thing. He has an incredibly persuasive tongue, a mind that borders on genius or insanity, and an incredible talent for getting into trouble and getting out of it. Maybe its brains, maybe its genius, or maybe its just plain luck. Or maybe a mixture of all three.

Captain Jack Sparrow

67%

Neo, the "One"

67%

Maximus

63%

William Wallace

63%

Batman, the Dark Knight

58%

Lara Croft

54%

The Terminator

46%

The Amazing Spider-Man

46%

El Zorro

42%

Indiana Jones

38%

James Bond, Agent 007

25%

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

Later Mateys!

Holy Sh1t Batman!

2007-01-31T04:46:00.000-08:00

I took a whole month off of posting, so let me start off with a good one:

How about the cure to cancer?

O.k. it may be a pipedream, but even if this drug doesn't work it opens up doors to a lot of interesting research. The real question is what the hell took so long?

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn10971

The Martians Have Landed!

2006-12-27T08:41:00.000-08:00

Well not really. More like the Googlians have landed... on Mars!

Sorry if this is old news to you dear reader, but I just found it and thought it twas neat.

Google Mars:
http://www.google.com/mars/

(click visible, elevation or infrared for different views). Pretty cool.
Now where is that face at....

Peace On Earth & Goodwill Towards Men

2006-12-24T11:40:00.000-08:00

Like the title says.

Peace brothers and may God bless your family this Christmas and in the years to come.

Danni doesn't do Mechwarrior

2006-12-07T18:19:00.000-08:00

After that last depressing post I really needed something to cheer me up. the holidays are always a stressful time and I need something to smile about. Unfortunately this is *just* juvenile enough to make me laugh... and laugh... and laugh.

Transcript of an "interview" with Danni Ashe of Danni.com (adult) fame:

Zack: Hello and thank you for taking the time to talk with me!

DAINC: You're very welcome.

Zack: The 2000 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records certified you as "Most downloaded woman on the Internet", do you think it's really possible to download a woman?

DAINC: I'm not sure I follow.

Zack: Looking back from the post-9/11 world, do you really feel it is literally possible to download a woman?

DAINC: I'm pretty sure they meant images of me, not actually me.

Zack: No, they didn't mean that at all.

DAINC: Okay...

DAINC: Anything else?

Zack: Have you ever played Mechwarrior 3?

DAINC has disconnected****
__________________________________________

these were pretty good too:

Pr0n Starlet Jill Kelly:
Zack: I'm a huge fan of your work! Thanks for talking with me!
Jlklly: Aw, that's sweet, thank you!
Zack: I have dropped a lot of monster loads down the hatch of the lovedoll modeled after you.
Jlklly: Okay...
Zack: Her hair comes out very easily, does your hair come out very easily?
Jlklly: No, it's pretty firmly stuck into my head.
Zack: FANTASY DESTROYED. Can you give me my money back for this unrealistic piece of junk?
Jlklly: This is ridiculous.
Zack: I'm glad you share in my outrage. I think together we can fight this.
Jlklly has disconnected****

Ava Devine:
Zack: I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me.
Dveyenn: no probs
Zack: As a cyborg, do you feel that humanity's fear of your kind may lead to infringements on your civil liberties?
Dveyenn: what?
Zack: Within your community do you differentiate between voluntary cyborgs and medically necessitated cyborgs?
Dveyenn: a cyborg?
Zack: Have you ever been having sex in one of your movies and received a positronic brain signal to crush the pitiful man-thing into a meat paste?
Dveyenn: youre f**king crazy
Zack: What's the hardest thing you can bite through?
Dveyenn: bye bye
Zack: WWWWWAAAAUGH can you bite through this stone cutter? Can you see how I'm shaking it at my computer using your infrared matrix-interfaced cyborg eyes?!
Dveyenn has disconnected****

Yes sadly I am easily amused... ;)

Sudden Impact

2006-11-22T13:57:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I took the family to Busch Gardens. We had a fun time with the rides and animals. Jack Hannah was there for the weekend only and he presented a lot of very rare and unusual animals. Great show. When we arrived they had some people from the audience up on the stage to keep the crowd entertained until the show started. The audience member nearest to us was an ex co-worker. A guy I really don't care for... a really smarmy type of weasel. I thought "Oh of all the people to see here today... this guy... man what a small world."

A few hours later as we were leaving the park and coming home somewhere nearby in Tampa was another ex co-worker. She died somewhere on the back roads probably less than 20 miles from where I was driving. The car she was riding in hit a tree head on and she was ejected into it. I don't know the precise details, but I get the impression that she died instantly. And no she was not wearing her seatbelt.

I went to her funeral today with several other co-workers who knew her. She worked with us about 4 or 5 years ago. She was a lot younger then, but it sounds like she was still a lot like we remembered her. She was an exceptionally tall girl and pretty in her own way. Many people would tell her she should be a model because of her height, thin build and striking features. She probably could have been too.

I liked her and disliked her if a thing such is possible. She had a way of making everyone laugh or gasp in shock with just about everything she did. She could be pretty hot headed and she would speak her mind about EVERYTHING and she often did it just to get a rise out of people. I think though that a lot of what she did was just her way of being funny. A sharp wit (maybe too sharp at times). She did have a ton of energy and she loved to talk. I remember she dubbed me Control-Alt-Delete boy because I was in IT (information & technology) and whenever a persons computer needed looking after we almost invariably would start by bringing up the task manager (by of course pressing those 3 buttons). I think it got under my skin back then, but I actually laugh at it now. I also once changed her tire for her while she stood huffing over me and never uttered a thanks, but her father who showed up thanked me profusly while she sped off to her next adventure, late for something I'm sure. I remember think of Bill Murray in Ground Hogs Day as he caught the little kid falling out of the tree only to have the young boy run off without saying thanks. Most her behavior actually tended to bemuse me more than iritate. She was the kind of girl that would moon a passing motorist or complain loudly at a resteraunt. She liked to be the center of attention, but I think once she got there she thrived in it. I'm sure her family will miss that most of all about her.

Apparently in the years since we worked with her she had done some remarkable things. She had gotten married (though I don't think I would ever say she "settled down" ;) She was working with the corrections system to help counsel at risk youth. A noble thing and one I found quite surprising for her.

I have a lot of confused feelings at the moment. Finding out someone I knew who was so young died so suddenly has made a bit of an impact on me. I keep thinking of the finality of things and how fragile life is. I worry about things undone. Not for myself, but for my family. I feel like 10,000 years wouldn't be enough to make up for all the lost time between us. I'm always so busy with work or with things I'm working on... there just feels like so many things are left undone and left unsaid. I struggle to make a better life for my wife and children, but in the process I let so much of myself dissappear. Hopefully I can take away from this terrible thing that happened to this young girl a renewed sense of how important love and laughter is over everything else.

POP Goes The... Cyst???

2006-11-06T08:54:00.000-08:00

I have this thing on my wrist. The doctors call it a ganglion cyst. It's like a hard round bump. Kind of like a have a bone out of place, but it's not really a bone. Apparently I got from years of cramping my hand around a mouse. It's my "tennis elbow" if you will.

pic shamelessly lifted from Wikipedia

After reading about Simple American's misadventures with a baker's cyst I resolved to not mess with mine. The doc had told me quite seriously that if it bothered me to bang it with a book or against a wall and it would break (unfortunately that high tech solution won't last long as the cyst will reform)

For some reason the cyst has gone drastically down. I don't think I bumped it, but maybe I did accidently. Right now it's just a small hard hump barely visible under the skin. Maybe it is clearing up on it's own... or maybe it will come back as the docs said it would.

Well if it does leave I won't miss mr. protrusion very much ;)
People with random bumps... weird. :P

Happy Howloween!

2006-10-31T12:28:00.000-08:00

Another year and more spooky fun this scarey night ;)

At the office we all dressed up as we always do and although I didn't post about it last year properly I thought I would share this year.

Last year I was the "redneck boyscout" complete with a six pack canteen, ill fitting uniform and a slew of merit badges you can only get here in the deep south like drinkin' , huntin' (Bambi with with cross hairs superimposed) and raisin' hell (anarchy symbol). I even had Nascar and Jack Daniels logos. My favorite was the breast exam merit badge, but sadly no one would take me up on it.

Don't feel too bad for the scouts however as my boss pulled the ultimate prank and got me back by coming as me (a caricature of my real life persona). She was eight months pregnant so she certainly had the belly for it. There were a lot of very inside jokes to her costume that most people didn't get (like my hiking shoes coming untied all the time and a brush in my back pocket). I had a good laugh. If you can't laugh at yourself then who can you laugh at?

This year I donned the guise of the International Man of Mystery. It got a lot of good laughs too. I love Mike Myers. Now if only I could someone to play Wayne I could make a pretty good go at Garth haha ;)

Happy Halloween Baby! Have a Shag-tastic Time!

And you thought roaches would inherit the Earth...

2006-10-11T22:21:00.000-07:00

I don't actually know if this 100% true. It's making it's way around the fringe news sites and I haven't seen it being reported on any "big name" news websites (not that it would really matter as I know they don't validate anything either), but if it is true then it is FRIGGIN SCAREY

Apparently they have discoverd a strain of mice that can regenerate lost organs:

"Studies in the MRL mouse have demonstrated a unique capacity to heal wounds through a process of regeneration. This has been shown in multiple tissue types including muscle, cartilage, and connective tissue and in organs such as the ear, heart, and digits. The concept that life extension may be mediated by regeneration and its associated processes is a reasonable proposal. We will present molecular and cellular evidence from the MRL which examines this possibility. "

Here's one version of the report from wired.com (largest link I could find)
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/medtech/0,68962-0.html

Worse this ability seems to be genetically passed on and worse than that in some reports they are saying can be transferrred in limited capacity to other mice via injections of spinal fluid from the MRL mice.

How long until we have breed of indestructable mice that traps and poison aren't going to stop?

Q: What do you call an indestructable man injected with super rat DNA?
A: Ever what any of George Romero's movies? (shudder)
hint: braaaiiinnnsss

If you build it they will buy it

2006-10-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

All this machinery making modern music
Can still be open-hearted.
Not so coldly charted, it's really just a question
Of your honesty, yeah, your honesty.

Google buys YouTube (there's some weird twisted irony in there)
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127436-page,1/article.html

They only paid 1.6 billion in stock shares (are you kidding me... dot com stocks... even Google ones... yesh)

Bottom line is corporate America is all to happy to buy out anything that seems cool or grass roots... provided thousands of people are using it.

Wow can't wait for CocaCola billboards in my next first person shooter that I play... oh wait they already do that too!? meh

Lost again...

2006-10-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

I meant to post about Lost the other day, but really got caught up in a lot of other stuff. No spoilers, but I will say that it was an unbelievable first 3 minutes to start the season. Totally blew all of my theories out of the water to be sure (I actually thought it was a flashback at first). Great first episode and it really sucked me back in for another season.

Also watching Jericho which is very good and looking forward to BSG season 3 on the sci-fi channel. Everything else I am kind of trying here and there as I have time to watch it. Overall a so-so season of TV, but in the long run that will be a good thing for me as I turned into a real couch potatoe last year!?! ;)

POOF!

2006-10-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

And now for some teleportation. Apparently scientists in England teleported... err... something about 18 inches long a distance of a half meter. O.k. so it's not like Wonkavision, but if you can teleport one atom of anything even the smallest distance that is pretty badass!

This may well turn out to be how my insurance company grabs me 500 years from now (if they don't spend my 38 billion on robot women first):

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/10/04/teleportation.reut/index.html

Securing my future

2006-10-05T07:23:00.000-07:00

I think this is a pretty good deal. For just $10 they guarantee that 500 years from now they will come and get me and take me back to the future (sans DeLorean).

Of course they do not cover the unforseeable such as the Earth being destroyed or time travel being illegal, but every insurance policy has it's stipulations I suppose:

http://www.timetravelfund.com/

The List

2006-10-03T07:23:00.000-07:00

O.k. so I catch a lot of flak about this at work, but oh well. With tounge firmly planted in cheek - This is my official TOP 10 GAYEST musicians EV-VER list. Sure it's not politically correct and allegedley I may have listened to some of them secretly (cough Asia cough), but no man worth his heavy metal, head banging, ripped jeans and Metallica concert tee would admit to having these guys qued up on the play list.

* note that a band member doesn't have to actually BE homosexual to appear on my list (I mean come on Freddy Mercury was one of the greastest singers of all time and well I'm just not sure about Rob Halford, but I'm never gonna give up on Judas Priest)

** note that having said that some members of the list are pretty blatently homosexual (you know who you are)

And without further ado:

10. Loverboy
9. Culture Club (o.k. mostly Boy George)
8. Clay Aiken (sorry not a gay-niac oops I mean clayniac)
7. Hall and Oates
6. Barry Manilow (I can't stand Copa, I just... can't)
5. 'N Sync (they made boy band popular... greatttt)
4. The Village People
3. George Michael (with or without WHAM!)
2. Chicago

and the number one GAYEST MUSICAL GROUP OF ALL TIME is...

1. The Bee Gees

Honrable mentions go out to David Hasselhoff, Asia, Night Ranger & Lionel Richie.

Comes in 5 new bloated colors

2006-10-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

Meant to post this last month, but eh.

For those who care (and most of us don't really) Windows Vista starts shipping next month in November. It comes in 5 exciting new flavors... maybe I should say Xciting... nah lets not go down that path about what a WONDERFUL experience using Windows will be for you.

The 5 versions are: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate (ohhh ahhh)

SRP Pricing ranges from $100.00 for the barest minimum upgrade version to somewhere around $400 for a full blown "ultimate" version.

The system requirements are 1 Ghz processor, 1 gig RAM and 15 GB of harddrive space (good lord!). Not surprisingly it only comes on DVD. We'll see if they break down and offer it on multiple CD's... anybody rember installing Windows when it came on like 12 floppy disks?!?

Pretty much feature wise it's as a typical Microsoft OS - few worthy new features, lots of shiny graphics and some horrendously bloated sounding bits (instant search, superfetch, etc.) that will probably put a choke hold on your system (no wonder it needs a gig of RAM). The only really good stuff would of course been better as an upgrade to the current OS, but that's pretty much the way it's been since 95.

Some of the very things that I found at least interesting on the surface:

* Explorer has a "live" thumbnail showing the actual document as a tiny icon instead of a generic icon which is pretty cool if you were looking through lot sof text documents, .html pages, adobe .pdfs etc. Of course generating all those thumbnails comes at a price in speed.

* Same thing with the task switcher (alt+tab) you get little thumbnails (of course mine already does that thanks to the Microsoft power toys, but hey it's something they should have doen to begin with)

* A better system restore which actually saves copies of the original system files if they are changed. Again this comes at an obvious price - eats up harddrive space.

and my favorite

* You can plug in jump drives and use them to as extra RAM. This is a pretty keen idea and with USB 2.0 I imagine that it actually will work decently enough making it an easy and cheap way to boost your RAM. Everything is becoming more component-ized which makes it easier and cheaper to repair and upgrade PCs. Obviously it's better to add actual high speed RAM right into the motherboard, but I like the idea for it's simplicity.

Other features are hype and outright lies like better security, IE 7.0 (meh), pretty "Windows Aero" graphics fluff, desktop gadgets, easier networking, better security, blah blah blah.

One last thing that I think is... interesting in it's implication is SideShow (not slideshow). It's hard to describe, but basically you could check your email without opening up your laptop LOL. Not sure how useful it is, but it's a unique concept. Wonder if it will be the next MS white elephant. See the concept here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/foreveryone/sideshow.mspx

It goes without saying that anyone worth his salt would recommend never switching to a new version of Microsoft until after the first and optimally the second service pack has been released.

Incidently the REAL purpose of this post is to let you know that Microsoft is getting MUCH more agressive about checking to see if you have an authentic copy of Windows XP installed. Do if you don't, well shame on you and don't be expecting to update your OS again EVER, because if you do your copy will stop working thanks to the "genuine advantage" program which gets rather stealthly installed on your PC. Not that I don't think they are entitled to protect their products... I'm just not keen on the methodology.

Not quite nanotechnology

2006-09-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

...but pretty damn close. Imagine thousands of micro-robots that could work together to form solid 3D models. It's like a live version of Autocad. A huge jump in technology when it gets sorted out. Definately the first steps in fictional "nanotechnology"

(PS - the emphasis of the article is on smart cloth, but it's obvious to see that there are many other applications)

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6121092.html?tag=nl.e589

Poke in the eye

2006-09-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

Ouch! being all thumbs I managed to injure my eye last week.

The wifey has been on a home improvement kick and doing LOTS of work (while I do a lot of standing around grumbling she is kicking butt and making our home look really, really nice). The latest big project was taking up old carpeting in the kitchen and laying down new tiles. Yeah I know carpeting in a kitchen is pretty strange. Even stranger was underneath were a lot of old tiles, but just around the edges and corners of the room. We didn't want to try and lay the new tile over the old especially since it wasn't a full flat layer so the old had to come up first.

I guess I'm even less of the handyman then I thought I was because while taking up the old vinyl tile with a flat chisel and hammer I caught myself dead square in the eye with a bit of muck and sharp tile. Let me tell you folks, you really do not want 30 year old tile in your eye. As foriegn bodies go, it's up there with rusty nails and summy pond water. Uhhhh yuck!?!

I immediatly flushed the eye, but could tell I had scratched it pretty good. The worst part was the feeling of having something in your eye when there really isn't anything. It's worse than Chinese water torture. My eye kept watering and I wanted to rub it soooo bad. 24 hours later and 2 different doctors and I had the (good?) news that it was a bad scratch called a corneal abrasion, but it would heal fairly quickly. The bad news was I had to put this antibiotic ointement in my eye 4 times a day that had the look and feel of vaseline. Not fun. Lesson learned - WEAR GOGGLES YA DUMMY!

Fortunately the healing is almost 100% now and I'm back to being able to see again and can actually stay on my side of the road when I drive for a change ;)

Unfortunately for my wife I acted like a big baby and mopped around for the rest of the week all squinty eyed and irritable so she ended up doing like 99% of the work on the floor herself. I suck.

Oh well I will make up for it with public humiliation and lots of small gifts. That *usually* works. Either that or I could let her punch me, but I just got full use of my vision back so I better stick with the gifts.

I guess it goes without saying that I pretty much got zero artwork done all of last week and that really DID suck.

New Post, New Blog (sort of)

2006-09-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

Wow! Took some time away from bloggo-land. Finally things are starting to settle down (or else I am just getting used to the insanity, not sure which). So to celebrate I decided to take the beta version of blogger out for a spin. Not too bad. Still wayyy underpowered when compared to wordpress, but when you use it as infrequently as I do you can afford to trade power for ease of use ;)

In other news I am happy to report that I am once again climbing into the art saddle and starting to do work towards more and interesting DUG products. Expect to find some new stuff in the coming months.

Credit where it's due

2006-06-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

Still not a proper post, but at least I *AM* posting so that's an improvement :P

I have been pretty down on Val Kilmer lately. His roles in movies are strange to say the least. Heck the last good Val Kilmer movie I saw and liked him in was Top Secret so that should tell you something (and no I didn't like him in Batman).

Last night we watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and it was really funny and entertaining. I thought Mr. Kilmer did a great job as a gay P.I. The movie was a quirky comedy/murder mystery. I guess you would call it a "dark comedy" although I usually hate those. Not quite film noir, but definately inspired by that (lot of refrences in the movie to film noir as well). The movie also starred Robert Downey Jr. who did a remarkable job as well (though to be honest it wasn't a terribly difficult stretch for him). Fast paced plot, weird characters and even weirder events. Check it out if you get a chance.

Maybe Val should stick with comedy. :O

Too busy to post, too busy to think

2006-05-31T11:08:00.000-07:00

I have been crazy busy lately and haven't had a whole lot of time to devote to my blog (or my company either). I hope to do something bigger with Dirty Unicorn Games, but I don't have it all worked out yet in my head so who knows... also trying to help the missus launch a new line of cool fantasy art-ish things. Stay tuned. Like MacArthur I shall return! (unlike him I won't leave anyone behind eh? :O )

Still LOST

2006-05-25T07:07:00.000-07:00

Well surprise, surprise, surprise. I was as wrong about as many things as I was right. They certainly fooled me good.

.
.
.
.
Spoilers WARNING!!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Michael didn't die (at least not yet). Does look like he will be out of the picture with Walt for a while (I knew they had to take those 2 characters out of the story for a while)

The others camp was a big sham. That surprised me a lot and the fake hatch doors really blew me away. Did not expect that.

Eko and John went head to head. Lo and behold something bad really DOES happen when you don't push the button (like planes dropping out the sky)

The main thing that pisses me off is they gave us so little. They explained a few minor things, but introduced a host of new mysterys without explaining any of the current ones (the monster, the others, the whispers, the black rock, Rossueaus team, the "illness", the numbers etc etc)

Then to leave so many characters up in the air for the season was a little much.

This show needs to ramp up. Being spoon fed so little is really not fun anymore.

Ah well on to other things for the summer and beyond!

Company loves Misery

2006-05-19T05:41:00.000-07:00

Man do I feel blah! I think I picked up a flu bug (so I have that icky-stuffy headed-so-you-can't-sleep feeling). It is draining my mojo. ugh.

To make matters worse (or maybe BECAUSE of) I am starting on some diet meds which make me nervous, irritable and give me mild insomonia at night (yea!)

So if I seem out sorts please forgive me. I'm just fighting my own body. Should get it all sorted out soon.

Guess I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing felt markers!

Back to Safari

2006-05-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

The wifey (oh so beautiful) has convinced me to make a weekend out of it and we are returning to the dark continent (or at least Busch Gardens - yea season passes) for Mothers Day. So I'm pulling the plug in my head outr of computer land for the weekend. Have fun m8s and see you Monday!!

Lost Part Deux

2006-05-11T08:36:00.000-07:00

So my DVR decided to screw up and I missed the bulk of the latest episode (nooooo!). I can say judging form the last 12 minutes that I caught I would have been wrong about a few things. Fortunately they also confirmed a few things in my mind.

In a stroke of luck and genius ABC.com has the last episode up available for free viewing this week so I was able to watch the entire episode. :D

So here we go
(spoilers abound.... turn back ye who would not want to know):

The Dharma Experiment: well I had hoped that Dharma wasn't just a mind game. I was actually surpised that the mind game involved more than just the button. I really wanted them to be a cool late 70's / early 80's science complex. Ah well. Regardless I feel strongly on 2 things about this.

1) Dharma is dead. The experiment is long since over and "abandoned" for whatever reasons. The others are NOT a part of Dharma. We should find this out by the finale.

2) The Experiment is not ongoing. Whatever is happening to the losties is not an experiment. Whatever Dharma was doing has nothing to do with we are seeing now.

Desmond: makes a return for the finale. Biggest surprise here is that Clancy Brown who is a really cool actor (loved him in Earth 2) is tied in. If you remember Clancy played a CIA specialist named Joe Inman who taught Sayid how to torture in the Gulf War. Well guess what? Our mysterious CIA spook ends up on the island only now his name is Kelvin Inman... the same Kelvin who came running out of the jungle to grab Desmond and bring him back to the hatch.
Now what is a CIA operative doing here hmmm....

Speaking of Desmond it was his boat that brought that snazzy new washer to the island along with himself of course (well that's my theory anyways ;))

Michael: still gonna die. Sorry folks, but I just don't see him living out the season. In fact I'm rasing my death toll up to four by the end of finale (4 graves next to Ekos church):
Ana-Lucia
Libby
Michael
Desmond

Walt: gone, gone, gone. The Others have taken off with Walt. We won't see Walt until next season. Sucks I know.

The thing to remember folks is that this story is actually about the island NOT the Losties. Don't grow fond of anyone in particular (and though Jack is the "hero" he was originally scripted to be bumped off in the pilot episode... would have been played by Michael Keaton too, now that would have been cool!)

The Others Camp: well I can admit when I'm wrong. Turns out the Otehrs don't exactly have a fort / town. At least not how I envisioned it. They have a coastal camp made up of rather elaborate tent like huts (better than canvas tents or Gilligan grass huts however).

They also do have a "hatch" of sorts. There's a really big set of doors set into a cliff wall where they are - bunker doors. If you listen carefully to the new orientation video this is the bunker mentioned in it. PS - the ferry mentioned in it is the small boat the others used to grab Walt in.

The Others have broke camp however and are gone. They are good at running away.

Sayid may find that sea cable here and follow it out into the ocean. I think it's for a hydro generator under the sea. This more than likely also powers the radio broadcasting tower as well.

Locke: will NOT want to push the button. In fact I think he wants to blast the computer into bits, but Eko won't stand for that at all. In the end Eko and Locke must battle over the button. The results of which we will see when the button doesn't get pushed. No matter what Dharma says NOT pushing that button IS going to create an effect in a big way.

Vincent: I wonder what Vincent (yes the dog) will see in the hold of the airplane right before the crash. Hmmm...

Plenty to keep us guessing! Only 2 airings and 3 hours of LOST left!!!

LOST Predictions

2006-05-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

I love LOST. I mean I think it is just absolutely addicting and my hat is off to the writers and producers. I have never seen a story so unpredictable and tantalizing. Every episode leaves you thinking WTF!?

Tonight we will resume new episodes of LOST as we head to the finale of this season. Since I have managed to peg a few things in the past that have turned out to be true I thought I would write this down for posterity before the new shows air.

O.k. let's see how wrong I cna be. Here are MY predictions for LOST:

Sawyer: Sleeps with Ana-Lucia (o.k. that's not really a prediction, it's insider information).
Gives up the guns to Jack and the other losties which leads to:

Michael: Is going to lead the Losties into a trap. This is a way to remove the guns from the story line. The Others will take the guns. And this leads to:

Deaths: 2 people will die. My thinking is it will be Ana and Michael.
Ana is too strong of a character. She's a cop. She can use a gun. She has killed 2 people already. The story needs to remove Ana to prevent the losties from becoming too organized and actually forming "an army"
Poor Michael may be removed just to wrap up the Mike wants to get Walt back story arc. I don't think the show is ready to give up the secrets of Walt and even if they do, they won't put Walt back into the hands of the heroes. PS - Mike may be the one that shoots Ana Lucia (or Ana may be the one who shoots Mike for that matter, him being a "traitor" hmmm)

Other random thoughts:

Locke: hmmm... I think John's condition is psychosomatic and that he can walk. Not saying the island isn't special, just that Locke's condition might not be physical.

Libby: She's a compulsive liar. She never skied in Aspen. She's not a clinical psychologist. Though I do think she honestly has a thing for Hurley. Speaking of Hurley...

Hurley: I don't think the numbers are cursed. I think Hurley's good luck/bad luck is his special gift (more about this later). Like an entropic field that protects Hurley, but causes bad luck to the folks around him (like I dunno... a plane crash)

The Others: They may not be the bad guys they appear to be. I know they are a little off and they have seemingly done some "evil" things, but they might have a reason they feel is necessary for the greater good (sic).
I also think they are trapped on the island as well. I think thye have a small town or fort on the island. I don't think it will necessarily be another hatch.

The food drop: I don't think this actually came from the air. I know, I know it had a parachute and flashing light, but I think there is more to the island then what we see above ground.

The "Monster": Like a lot of people I'm going to jump on the nanite band wagon and say there isn't much else technologically speaking it could be. Of course it could be a supernatural phenomena... maybe even a living creature.
I think that if it is indeed a security system (implying technology) then it's composed of more than one "part" and the smoke we see is a recon/sensor mechanism and the larger bulk is subterranean like a subway train.

The Sickness: The mysterious illness is a mental disease not a physical one.

As for the big picture I am still as LOST as everyone else. Maybe the finale will close a lot of doors and give us a glimpse at the bigger picture of the what and why of this show.

This one's for Flametoad!

2006-04-28T11:45:00.000-07:00

A friend I know is always spotting really great ads on his blog. I couldn't contain myself when I saw this one. I simply had to share. This could very well be the best commercial I ever saw (I wonder if it has actually aired?):

Australian Toyota Rav4 Commercial (work safe-ish, but requires sound)

Damn! Missed my deadline!

2006-04-14T06:16:00.000-07:00

So close I can taste it! I am almost finsihed with secret project code named "Infinite Art" (ohhh ahhh). Unfortunately I missed my self-imposed Wed. deadline then I missed my self-imposed Thursday deadline. Friday is looking dicey. Everytime I think I can just be done with it I find 2 more things I should have made!? Now I am staring at a blank page that needs cover art and I need some kind of splashy sales page for my demo... oh and somewhere in here I really need to send this to the guy that is letting me create this for HIS game so I can get his support and input on it... aye yi yi.

This weekend is really booked too... Easter, Busch Garden tickets and my 12th year wedding aniversary (has it really been that long!?!)

Wow I need to get hoppin! :)

So that's what happened to Michael Jackson's chimp!

2006-04-13T17:53:00.000-07:00

This is hilarious! I wasted a lot of corporate time with this today thanks to career builder. If U R lame like me then you like those commercials with the guy who works with an office full of primates. Now you can send your own monk-e-mail(dot com). Here I prepared one just for YOU!

To arms Tars Tharkas! We must defend Barsoom!

2006-04-07T08:22:00.000-07:00

Now here's something I can sink my teeth into. ERB doomed me to a life of gamer geekhood with his wonderful tales. After Narnia & LOTR these stories are among my fondest memories. No cast yet, but it's sure to be a good movie as Burroughs estate has been historically very reserved about licensing his stories.

JOHN CARTER OF MARS FACTS
John Carter, an American Civil War vet, stumbles into a time portal while hiding from Apache Indians and winds up on a planet called Barsoom. Carter thinks the planet is Mars, and he's taken prisoner by the proverbial little green men. Only the green men aren't that little — they're 12 feet tall.
Director(s): Jon Favreau
Writer(s): Mark Protosevich, Ehren Kruger
Status: Upcoming (wide)
Genre(s): Science Fiction, Adventure, Action
Release Date: TBA 2006/2007

Dungeon Siege! ...the movie???

2006-04-05T08:36:00.000-07:00

Oh man this sounds bad (and not in the good way)
Check out the cast... wtf???

DUNGEON SIEGE FACTS
A small town is attacked by evil creatures known as "krugs," and a young man has to help get rid of the beasties. Lots of monsters die. Lots.
Cast: Burt Reynolds, Ron Perlman, John Rhys-Davies, Matthew Lillard, Kristanna Loken Director(s): Uwe Boll
Status: Upcoming (wide)
Genre(s): Fantasy
Release Date: Summer 2006

Best Worst Birthday Ever!

2006-03-24T16:13:00.000-08:00

Day started out bad. Me already in a foul mood about turning 37.
Each year drags me kicking, screaming and clawing my way towards the venerable badge of "old fart". Had a misunderstanding (o.k., o.k. a fight) with the missus and got very little sleep (which REALLY makes me unbareable to be around). Work decided to start the day with poking fun at my age with lots of signs pasted about saying "37 yeah right!" and my desk and computers were COVERED in black balloons and confetti... I thought "oh boy this is going to be the worst birthday ever"

I couldn't have been more wrong. Everbody lifted my spirits with lots of laughs, some great gifts, a paid lunch and the boss even sent my to the movies with pay (wahoo!). Saw V for Vendetta and had a blast. Sometimes my job's not so bad heh.

When I got home the kids and missus had lots of cards and happy birthdays for me as well. Even my family, who is all up north, dropped me some e-cards.

So it all turned out real sweet. Now I jsut wonder if I can finagle a "happy unbirthday" as well haha ;)

Party in the Swamp

2006-03-05T14:36:00.000-08:00

We had a busy weekend. Our local area throws a festival apptly named Swamp Fest (as it's out in... well you can guess it - a swamp!). Fortunately it's held in a nice dry park and the nearby swamp is more Florida wetlands than say Cajun Bayou. ;)

Dawna, my beautiful, talented and incredibly smart wife (who reads this blog! :P) setup a nice display of her hand painted Whimstones. She got a lot of compliments and even sold a few "rocks". I'm proud of her work and time again people proved me wrong about my preconceived notions about what kinds and styles of animals they like.

I also tried gator tail for the first time and found it too be... well.. kind of greasy, a little rubbery, and surprisingly bland... of course what was I expecting from the arse end of an alligator? For the record it does not taste like chicken!

Overall it was "fun"... or at least as much fun as one can have spending the entire weekend under a plastic awning selling to the public. I realize now that I am woefully unfit from spending to0 time behind a desk under florescent lighting. I feel exhausted from 2 days of sitting and standing!?! Talk about a low impact workout. We really didn't get a whole lot of sun either as there was ample shade. I need to commune with nature a little more before I turn into a pasty doughboy!

Well time to kick back and relax after a hard day of holding my chair to the ground!

Better late than never!

2006-02-21T05:07:00.000-08:00

Work, Taxes and "Real life" have kept me on my feet this last week so the DUG website is just now being made officially live. I will continue to work on it and tweak it so I can make an official announcement on the RPG boards by this weekend (fingers crossed). Just need to finish up a few bits and pieces, but for now it's up and running. :)

... Almost ready for Prime Time

2006-02-10T09:23:00.000-08:00

Work on the official Dirty Unicorn Games website has begun! We have needed a web presence for a long time and 12toMidnight.com has been more than accomodating by letting Dirty Unicorn sort of piggyback off them with forums and lots of great product showcasing. They are a great group of guys and Dirty Unicorn wouldn't be anything right now without all of their help!

Needless to say we really have to create our own internet identity that showcases what Dirty Unicorn is all about and what they have to offer. I hope this look will fit the bill for us.

The design looks great and it's tight, but I fear that we may quickly outgrow it the coming year. We shall have to see. Maybe I should HOPE we outgrow it eh? Small RPG companies live by the rule of sink or swim so if we are going to swim we better get in the water!

Be on the lookout for the site to go live next week at www.DirtyUnicorn.com

The Tritanium AH-VEN-GERRRR

2006-02-05T15:25:00.000-08:00

I have had a wild hair lately for things superhero-ish. I dug out all my old notes for a really cool game idea I had and to do "research" I recently tried out City of Hereos. Fun game, but it really lacks any roleplaying element. You can pretty much create any kind of classic superhero that you like however (which is prolly why Marvel is suing them right now). Tons and tons of costume options and good selection of powers as well.

My favorite childhood hero is Iron Man so I created a hulking suit of power armor called the Tritanium Avenger. Actually he wasn't originally called Tritanium Avenger, but much like AOL screen names and Yahoo e-mail addresses nearly EVERY name ever thought of has been taken. You have to get clever with 2 and 3 word names to create a character... or really dumb like ray-mond, buttrcheeks, or DuCkWaD (actual names I have seen - ugh)

I'm not sure if I will actually play it after my free month is up, but for now it's an interesting diversion. Not that I NEED diversions right now (nor wild hairs).

I was never into online games, but now with newer computers and high speed access they seem to have all the lag issues worked out that used to plague games 5 and 6 years ago. Too bad they can't work out the social problems which still do plague them.

In one funny / embarassing experience I teamed up with another player and we fought for a while side by side until he announced "I have to go to bed now" followed by "I'm only 9"
You can imagine how lame that makes a 30-something year old guy like me feel. :O

I also had a teen tell me "cool you're as old as my pops"
I took that as a compliment. My poor ego just couldn't have handled two old-fart incidents ;)

If you happen to play this game and you see a big guy named Tritanium Avenger flying by be sure to give him a shout. :)

Super Bowl Sunday

2006-02-05T14:52:00.000-08:00

It's Super Bowl Sunday and I could care less. Not that I was ever a huge football fan, but Pittsburgh vs. Seattle??? Meh.
I won't even be watching for the commercials or the half time show this year *shrug*

Darn you... Darn you all to heck!

2006-01-30T10:13:00.000-08:00

Well it was only a matter of time before I was TAGGED (thanks Ed, no really).

Ugh. I hate talking about myself, but hey here is everything you never wanted to know about the Jeffro:

4 Jobs I have Had in My Life:

* Lifeguard (never saved anyone, had 3 close calls though)
* U.S.D.A. Food Commodities Outreach Coordinator for Marion County (i.e. I was the free government cheese man)
* Assitant Manager for a Sam's Club (I have since had my Walmart Implanttm removed from my skull)
* Production Supervisor for a classified ad agency (what I do now :)

4 Movies I Could Watch Over and Over:

* Highlander, the original (before it got weird/stupid)
* Star Wars (the first i.e. "episode IV" - Empire is my fav though)
* Sixth Sense
* Matrix

4 TV Shows I Love (d) To Watch:

* Lost
* Earth 2
* Battlestar Galactica (old AND new)
* Myth Busters

4 Places I’ve Lived (I have to list 4???):

* Floral City, Florida
* Dayton, Ohio
* Chester, Massachusetts
* Spring Hill, Florida (in roughly that order - I don't get out much)

4 Places I’ve Been On Vacation To:

* Dallas, Texas (too bad I was too young to remember most of it :-/)
* Washington D.C. (Honeymoon!)
* Disney World in Orlando, Florida
* Down the Weeki Wachi river in a canoe (last week and it was a blast ;)

4 Places I Would Rather Be In:

* In bed dreaming.
* In a deck chair on a tropical beach with my feet up and a cold drink in a coconut shell resting in the palm of my hand.
* In a hammock in the back yard sipping a cold drink and listening to the sounds of summer.
* In a fast sports car crusing at 80+ mph with good music and the road grinding under my wheels.

4 Of My Favorite Foods:

* Italian pasta (espicially Lasagna!)
* Pizza
* Burgers
* Dark Chocolate (mmm... choc-o-lateeee)

4 Websites I Visit Daily:

www.12tomidnight.com
12tomidnighted.blogspot.com
www.flametoad.com
simpleamerican.blogspot.com

4 Unfortunate Souls Tagged:
Well all of my blogland friends have been tagged so I'm coming up a bit short here... I guess I'll tag 4 folks who I would love to read thier answers, but undoubtably will never respond (well in theory anyway)

* God
* Leonardo da Vinci
* MC Escher
* Albert Einstein

Gee that wasn't so painful after all.. ack! L8R M8S :)

.. as a dog.

2006-01-09T19:18:00.000-08:00

Well not really, but sick enough to mope around and not get any work (or posting done) Why do they say that anyways? Dogs don't get sick very often... do they???

Well I do. That is for sure. I always come down with the latest and greatest bug. Bonus of having children and working with lots of folks who have children. We all get to exchange germs and try out the seasonal flus and colds early.

Between holidays and colds I just haven't felt like posting so time to do a quick catch up with my online friends and such.

Also we have been house hunting... of a sort. We learned lots of great stuff while looking for our first home. Like for example we don't qualify for a whole lot and what we do qualify for we have to finance at a stiff rate (10.52%). I decided to give LendingTree.com a whirl and for better or worse see if the banks actually do compete for my business ;)

We have been staying near my in-laws for far too long. We need to get out and I just can't swallow paying someone else rent when I could be putting money into my own pocket. We're not in a super rush, so we can take our time and do whatever needs to be done to geta home, but I would like to be a new place and out of here by summer time (another year in this window air-conditioned tin can and I will loose it! :O)

Florida's real estate market has simply BOOMED over the last two years and prices are pretty hefty now, but that also means property is holding a good value. Fortunately for us the market seems to be stabilizing so we might do better at the bartering table when we put in offers on our home-to-be.

In RPG news DirtyUnicorn is gearing up for a good start in the new year. Should have 2 products out for Februaury and a website sooner then that. Of course the best laid plans of mice and men and all that, but I've got my fingers crossed and my mind set so we shall see what the new year brings! (or at least what I bring to the new year!)

Einstein's Brain

2005-12-17T17:43:00.000-08:00

Found this while looking for this picture to tease my friend Simple American about. Pretty deep stuff actually and a little disturbing.

In the next 30 years or so I predict that the sanctity of life will be lost. That is to say that a person will be defined legally by their personality not their form. Assisted suicide, cloning, brain transplants, and genetic conditioning... it will all come to be. Eugenics at it's most base. And I know this because humans are depressingly vain beings who as a whole are less than their combined parts.

From Driving Mr. Albert : A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain:

"Even now there are doctors who claim in our lifetimes we will see the first brain transplant or that cloning will become an everyday occurrence. In essence, they predict that science, not religion, will guarantee us an afterlife. And yet I can't help but wonder what Einstein would make of America if he sat in the backseat now -- or, perhaps, what he will make of it when he sits in the backseat again. And I wonder if this kind of afterlife would be so great after all. Einstein's brain in the body of Fabio? Or Einstein regenerated, living a life on top of the life he's already led, doomed by the accomplishments of his former self. A life already confined, categorized, and collated before it's even begun again. What would it feel like to be born with an FBI file already open on you? Or to know you had once revolutionized the world with your work, but then never found true love? Might you try to trade one for the other? Or would you just sit around smoking pot all day, rebelling againt yourself?"

Where am I going... and where the hell have I been?

2005-12-16T22:26:00.000-08:00

Wow! I cannot believe I went this long without blogging a post! Yikes. I have been super busy and I have been trying to sort out all sorts of things in my professional and personal life. I'm taking a long hard look at what I want out of life and what I am getting out of it. Life is too damn short to waste it - and I have wasted plenty!

As the end of the year approaches I have a lot of ideas and energy for January. First and foremost is finishing up my 2 RPG projects. That will land me some backend sales on Flatlands and more importantly get my shoddy work back in the public eye ;)
Flatlands is great, but now it's time to build the brand. Which is exactly what I intend to do next year :)

The other big thing I want to do ASAP is get an nice website going. It's just pathetic that my site consists of this blog and a link to my publishers page! I need some proper virtual real estate so I dun look like such a dweeb lol! Not that my publishers have a bad site or that they don't work thier collective a$$ off to promote my stuff. In fact it's the complete opposite (go there now! buy lots of stuff! ;) It's just that I need to be a *little* vain if I'm going to expect anyone to take my work seriously. It's just smart business to have a website (and like I kind of do that for a living soooo... it's pretty dumb for me not to do it for myself!)

Finally I need to start really exploring my art and getting a hell of a lot better at it. I want to grow and learn and start creating really exquisite pieces. I also need to get out more and start spending less time on the computer and more time in the "real" (sic) world.

Missed me by thissss much :P

2005-10-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

Well Hurricane Wilma landed well south of us, but she still pounded the heck out of my neighborhood with heavy winds. We live in a mobile (one constructed back in 1959 to boot) so it was a bit harrowing. Fortunately we escaped without damage (again). My new years resolution is to get the heck out of here and into a block home. My in-laws were kind enough to let us use this place to save money, but it's time to move on.

Despite the hurricane I have made some decent progress on my latest project. Not as much as I would have liked, but much more than I expected. All misc images, land vehicles and helicopters are done. Just have airplanes, infantry, and some terrains to do. This project has taught me some valuable lessons about time management and estimating. It has taken more than 3 times longer than expected. Of course this is due largely to my inability to make cuts where needed and to keep piling work onto myself. The current project is at a staggering 198 images with another estimated 140-150 images to complete. Nobody can say I don't provide a good value to my customers!

In related news my external hard drive case arrived. It's not much to look at, but it seems to be working nifty and it puts my backup drive back into commission which is a relief. I am still worried that the drive may have physical problems or sector errors so I need to dig out some diagnostic software (or find some online) and put my mind at piece. Until I do I am not using it as my primary backup. I may grab another case as an early Christmas gift to myself and double up on redundancy which would definitely put my mind at ease (God I'm such a packrat!)

Oh and saw the doctor again. She was quite perturbed that I had not gotten my blood tests done yet. What can I say I've been busy and I hate needles. I do need to get it done though in the next 2 weeks. She upped my prescription to Advair 250mg. I gotta say it's good stuff for people who are suffering from any kind of asthma type malady.

Well that's it for now...
until Halloween! Muwahahaha!!!!

The volume in drive H:\ is Dirty...

2005-10-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

When it rains, it pours.

I had no sooner lamented about how hard it was to keep up with everything, when my computer's UPS ("uninterruptible" power supply - sic) quit out on me.

Not only did it die, but it died hard. It did so without any warning and completely cut the power to the PC and all the external devices.

I couldn't get it back up so had to scrounge a power strip from some long forgotten dusty corner under a desk in the kids room. When the system came back up I was horrified to find my external USB drive failed. It was making sick grinding noises - never a good sign for electronic equipment.

This to me is bad. Really, really bad. I keep all of my flatlands stuff on there.

Now like a good boy I do keep backups. I have some old CD burns I made a few months ago, but more importantly I have a backup that is more recent on another drive (thank you ThinkSync!), but it still meant several halfway decent days worth of work were gone... flushed out into the ethereal toilet. :(

Talk about feeling like you were kicked while being down. I'm working hard to get ahead and all that work just gets wiped out. uggg. I momentarily contemplated giving up and taking a leave of absence from the computer for a while.

Then I got my senses and second wind back. I Rolled up my sleeves and dived in.

Even after removing every screw I could find, I still had to tear the damn plastic casing apart to get at the drive. Hooked it directly into the PC in true Frankenstein fashion. Crossed my fingers, toes and every other flexible appendage and rebooted the machine.

Uh oh! Blue screen-of-death. This could be bad.

"The volume in drive H:\ is Dirty"

That's a first for me. Never saw that message in 20 some years of tinkering with computers. It looked ominous. I tried to decide if there was pr0n stored on that drive and if so how dirty it was, but before I could come to a conclusion Windows began crunching numbers and doing... well... something. I'm still not sure what it did, but it ground through the drive 1 painful percentage point at a time. 10 minutes later there were no other messages and I could explore the drive.

Needless to say I spent a great deal of time (until 2 AM) getting the most critical bits and pieces forklifted off that drive and tucked in other places. It was a setback, but thank goodness not a horrible one.

Today I have a new UPS (from a DIFFERENT manufacturer) and thanks to eBay a new external case is on it's way so I can try and rebuild my lovely H:\ drive and put here back up on top of the PC where she belongs and not dangling around inside held willy-nilly by cables and power wires. If things go well I may invest in another external shell and put one of these old harddrives I have laying around to good use as well ;)

In the mean time I have got to get my steam back and figure out what karmic deed I need to do to get the scales back in my favor so I can get some work done!

Out to Sea...

2005-10-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

Not sure what they call the effect, but I remember reading about how the tide can pull a swimmer out to sea even though they think they are swimming closer to the shore. Each cresting wave actually pulls the person further away as they struggle to swim closer.

That's how my life feels right now. No matter how much I get done I turn around and there's twice as much more to do... at work and at home. It's just not all coming together as I hoped.

In a few days it will be a full month since I started working on my next project which I thought would take two weeks. Right now I'm at maybe 50% even after banging away all weekend. I'll try working hard this week as well and hopefully I can tip the scales in my favor. Two weeks ago I jokingly told Preston on the phone "I should have it done this week, which means more like three weeks". Sadly I couldn't have been closer to the truth. The part that gets under my craw is how I mismanaged my time. I *should* have focused on a nice Halloween themed Flatlands set last month to go with the holiday instead of spinning my wheels. I can picture a sheet of classic horror monsters - ghosts, frankensteins, mummies, werewolves, skeletons... *sigh* Ah well there's always next year. Instead I'm working on tanks and helicopters. Feels a bit unseasonal heh ;)

At this rate I may end up strapping AIM-9D's and afterburners on a certain stealth black painted sleigh cause if I don't get the lead out that's when my project will finally be completed!?!

Get Stoned!

2005-09-25T16:20:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I started back at work on one project and got drafted into another!?! How do these things always happen to me? Oh the humanity :P

She has always been an artist at heart, but a much more hands on artist than I. No digital for her. No sir. She prefers the feel of a brush in her hands over of a mouse. The past few weeks she has been learning how to paint her art onto rock... Mexican black river rock to be exact. She has gotten quite good at it I think and so far it has been some of her best work to date.

What started as a hobby has turned into a small business for her. She has sold 17 rocks with different critters on them. Everything from cats, dogs and racoons to dragons & polar bears. Very cool stuff.

So of course she needs a website... hey listen I need a web site too!?! Ah well. Some how the ladies always win. So I started putting together something for her. It's a work in progress, but at least the main frame is together with a few bells & whistles. The rest should go live over the next few days.

Take a look and tell me what you think. These "Whimstones" as she calls them make great gifts. (hint hint). Oh and if you like them tell a friend for me would ya? We artist live by word of mouth. Thanks :)

Whimstone.com ~ Tell a Friend! ;)

Super Secret Project

2005-09-16T06:18:00.000-07:00

Spent too many late hours last night working on a new super secret project. If all goes well I can kill 2 or more birds with about 150 well placed digital stones :O Wait didn't I say I needed to create a website?? Ah well maybe later :P

shhh! It's a see-crete ;)

Hackin' Up a Lung

2005-09-15T11:20:00.000-07:00

I've always had a productive cough. That's a nice way of saying when I cough it sounds like I'm "hawking up a luggie" ewww. I wake up most mornings and sound like a heavy cougher. Nasty stuff. I don't smoke, but I do joke about second hand smoke, because I live with a smoker. Living with someone who smokes in the house is tough for a non-smoker. You never really get used to it.

Anyway I've lived with this problem since I was a kid, but lately I have had some scary bouts of feeling like a heavy weight was on my chest. Whenever I would get like that I could usually use Primatine Mist (over the counter) to clear out my lungs, but this weekend it didn't seem to help much.

Then I read about CF (Cystic Fibrosis) and got scared enough to go see the Doc and ask for some real answers as to why I have this chronic problem. She doesn't feel I'm a candidate for that terrible disease as unfortunately it kills most afflicted with it before they reach their mid-thirties. I also lack a history of it in my family. She took a listen to my chest and told me that I do have some rattling going on in there. She ordered a whole battery of x-rays, blood tests and put me on some antibiotics and a weird disc shaped inhaler called advair. I like her. She gets right down to business ;) Hopefully it's just allergies and a mild case of asthma.

I blame the cat... he's shifty eyed and I think he wants me out of the picture (probably laying on my face at night trying to smother me - lil bastard :P

My pixel kingdom for a digital horse!

2005-09-13T18:14:00.000-07:00

A fellow publisher tried to email me and he had to dig through about 4 different websites to get ahold of me. Man that is just embarassing. I really need to find time to plop down at least a basic website. As much as I enjoy blogging, it's overdue for Dirty Unicorn Games to have a place to call home. (now if I can just get my head out of the clouds, put my feet on the ground and BUILD it then things will be peachy ;)

In related news I managed to spend a whole lot of time and money to increase my productivity just a little... funny how that works *sigh*

I grabbed some more super useful progs from Stardock. They are a suite of tools collectively called ThinkDesk and if you do a lot of work on the computer you may want to at least give them a glance. ThinkDesk consists of 4 utilites:

Multiplicity - not just a funny Michael Keaton film, but also an interesting program (albiet one I personally may not use very much at home). It allows you to control multiple PC's with one keyboard and mouse. This may sound rather dry and surely there are other programs that do this (remote desktop springs to mind), but this one is cool in that you can apparently run your mouse off of one screen and onto the next. Imagine dragging and dropping files from one PC screen to another. Want your son or daughter to turn off the computer and come to dinner? Grab the mouse and roll over to thier screen and shut it down for them muwahaha. Play multiple characters in an online game by jumping back and forth. Lots of intersting ideas here. It's sort of a super "micro-network" between your computers.

KeepSafe - extremely useful for artists or writers. KeepSafe will make backup copies of file seach time you save them. So say you mess up and delete a chapter of your manuscript you can go back to an older version and retrieve it. It's a nice and simple backup utility that works on individual files, file types or whole folders. Good stuff for lazy people like me that always wait to backup important stuff.

ThinkSync - this program lets you synchronize 2 folders so that they contain the same files. I'm using it for a backup tool that runs every few days. The nice thing here is that it can work like an incremental backup and just save files that have changed. I use this to backup my art folders that I dump most of my work in.

SecureProcess - the last utility may be the best for just about all users. You train SecureProcess over the course of a week (or longer if you like) so that it gets used to what programs you use regularly. After that it becomes kind of an internal firewall as it protects against unrecognized processes from installing or running. This is really sweet because it works at the system level instead of looking for programs that are trying to send or recieve in and out of the computer. Combine this with Startup Monitor, Spyware Guard, and Spyware Blaster and you have a really good chance of keeping that spam and virus crap off of your system!

T.G.I.S.

2005-09-11T07:10:00.000-07:00

Well the week is over and I made it through alive. Wish I could say that I was able to clean out my workload and not have to go back to a mountain on Monday, but C'est la vie.

At least my art batteries are starting to fill up a little. I can always tell when I'm getting "too" artsy with the computer - I begin by trying to replace my Windows shell. If you're not sure what this is check out sites like Customize.org, Wincustomize.com and Shell City.

Basically there is a whole grass roots movement out there of artists and programmers that are creating all manner of replacements and improvements to Windows from nice icons and wallpaper to wholesale replacements of the windows GUI.

In the past I have used many shell replacements like LiteStep, Talisman and Hoverdesk to completely change how my system looks and works. To get what I mean imagine if your desktop had almost no icons on it, but it had a clock whose hands moved and kept the actual time... or a silver sphere in the center of your screen that when you click on it, your most recently used program icons whirled out around it for your use. Shell customizing allows you to do all kinds of crazy stuff that Windows was never really designed to do. Not that it can't... it just doesn't (thanks Microsoft)

I decided to err on the side of caution thsi time and not complete slag my system (as I have done many times in the past - it can be quite addicting onc eyou start tweaking windows ;))
So I am sticking with a great little utility called Object Dock. Object dock can replace or work with your task bar. It has a lot of cool little features and allows me to organize a lot of programs along the bottom of my computer for quick access. I am loving it. There's a free version available or for $20 you can have the full featured thing which includes many cool features.

The upside is that I should get to working on an actual website now for Dirty Unciorn Games (yeah!). The downside is I spend a lot of time creating little icons and organinzing shortcuts. Productivity sure does take a lot of work! :D

My ObjectDock - if you look close you can see little Flatlands and 12 to Midnight links hehe ;)

Gaming slump...

2005-09-07T13:32:00.000-07:00

Ugh work can drain the life out of you!

Over the weekend I was bursting with creativity. Overflowing with enthusism. As the long weekend faded so did my hope.

When I finally settled down into my chair on Tuesday morning, two hours late for work, the inevitable began... Like a salt-sucking monster from Star Trek, work began to drain the creative life force from me. It squeezed me like a lemon until I was a dried out crusty, rusty, discarded automaton at the end of the day.

It didn't help that every nice time extension I had received BEFORE the holiday weekend was suddenly yanked out from underneath me when I returned. Now I need to send four huge magazine columns much sooner than anticipated. On top of a mountain of other work. In fact in order to get everything done I will require a time machine or some other device for warping space & time. :P

When everything was said and done I was ready to blow off some mental steam and I was craving some gaming (something I dearly miss) . It was sheer luck that I stumbled across Temple of Elemental Evil at the local bargain-mart. I remembered playing a 100 time limit demo if this game last year and it was a lot of fun. Put out by Troika games, this is one of the few computer RPGs that uses turn based combat instead of click-fest mania. Best $10 I could spend right now as it affords me some pseudo-roleplaying (although roleplaying by yourself feels a bit like mental masturbation, pleasurable but short lived. Hope I don't go blind ;)

Of course playing computer isn't very productive, but sometimes you just have say phuck it and recharge the batteries.

I think everybody "self medicates" in some form or another to kill their doldrums. Some people smoke, some people drink, some take drugs (legal and illicit)... for me it's computer games. I like to unplug from real life for a while and let a pixel fantasy world keep stress and boredom at bay.

If I can just make it through this week I know there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

Alright enough talk. Kromm the Barbarian decrees that the blood God needs more Orc sacrifices to sate his fury so I'm off to save the world... or at least Hommlet.

If you blog it they will come...

2005-09-06T19:12:00.000-07:00

O.k. so a friend kindly pointed out that I'm not really updating my blog.

Now who in the world would want to read the rants, ravings and incessant droning of an old, nearly senile misanthrope like me???

Originally I created my blog so I could post on another friends blog. Now it just sort of functions as a pseudo-website for me... until I could get my lazy butt around to designing a real website (which when done someday will be parked at DirtyUnicorn.com )

I mean if I post my assorted daily drivel who would even read it?

I do admit a certain strange fascination with reading other blogs. It's fascinating (and a bit voyeristic) to peek into other peoples lives. To compare lifestyles and interests with people on the other side of the country and even the globe! So maybe... just maybe someone as demented as me is out there in the vast electronic ethereal who will find something I write here interesting.

Well I guess I've resigned myself to give it a shot.

If nothing else it's gotta be good for the psyche... or the id... or the karma... or something!?!

Oh God I'm Blogged

2005-08-21T05:25:00.000-07:00

Heaven help me now I have a Blog... as if my mouth wasn't big enough now I have a virtual foot to stick in it as well.

*sigh*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2005-08-21T04:19:00.000-07:00

My first published work! Awww it's so adorable ;)

Now go buy many copies and save a poor starving artist today!!!

Flatlands Cover

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2005-08-21T04:17:00.001-07:00

The new logo - it's wip.
Probably always will be :-/

Dirty Unicorn Logo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2005-08-20T04:33:00.000-07:00

Me ugly mug

(I can never take a good picture. This is about as good as it gets folks. yeesh)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~ Dirty Unicorn Games ~~