And You Thought 42 Was The Answer

Here's a fun read. It's "the 25 most important questions in the history of the universe".

Check it out here.

Once More Into the Breach

Ok, several months ago I posted about my new diet I was doing with the wife. We were doing the whole Weight Watchers "point counting" thing. That didn't go so well because for me, I don't have time to count the point and measure the food. Breakfast and dinners were fine, but the lunches were killers.

So while this is going on, I notice a guy at work who's freakin' melting away. In something like the past 4 months, he's lost 50 pounds! So I finally ask him how he's doing it and he tells me about this diet he's on. The basic point of the diet is that you take calories in from either carbs or proteisn. Other diets pick one or the other and your body figures out what's going on and adjusts your metabolism accordingly. With this diet, you keep changing up the source (carbs or proteins) every couple of days so your metabolism doesn't have a chance to change. It's 11 days on, three days off, lather, rinse, repeat.

Yesterday, was an "all fruit day" which damn near killed me. Today, I ate a plate of bacon for breakfast. Translation: Yesterday was a carbs day, today is a protein day.

THe promise is that you can lose up to 9 pounds in that 11 day period. Yikes. It sounds really dangerous if you read the Weight Watchers materials but for right now I'd like to get about 30 pounds off. It also stresses doing nothing more than brisk walking for 45 minutes a day and drinking about 10 glasses of water. The best part of it, is that I choose 30 of my favorite things to eat (within reason) from a list and makes me an 11-day menu. No points, weighing, etc. Plus, you can eat as much as you want at each meal as long as you walk away from the table just shy of being "full".

Lastly, it only cost me $27. Scott told me it was the best $27 he ever spent at .50 cents per pound.

The link is Fat Loss For Idiots. I did some research on it before I started Friday night and most reviewers begrudgingly said they didn't see much problem with it as a short term, quick weight loss.

So, I'm on Day 3 and have lost 2 pounds already. I'll let you know how it goes.

Stop the (Electronic) Presses

The thing that makes the Net exciting is also what makes it a tiring exercise. For several years now, I have worked in an industry that has very passionate fans AND detractors. No matter what you do, there's some asshole that is willing to spend his whole day trashing it. Now, I'm not referring to the occassional blog post (which we've all done) that decries something we dislike. Rather, I'm talking about guys (and gals, I suppose) that will commandeer a website's forum and do nothing but make it their life to trash everyone and everything. It's frustrating especially when this person isn't even a customer and just has nothing positive to say.

Back at The Company, we had a guy who was pissed at us because he submitted a computer program to us once and we rejected it. Since then, any product, any program and in fact, ANY post he felt necessary to respond to, dragging the entire forum down. We've got the issue at my new company where there's a guy on the forums who doesn't work, has no money, can't afford gaming, and thus doesn't want anyone to enjoy anything because he's a loser. It's just freaking infuriating.

I write this, because of the comment thread on the following story about Battlestar Galactica's third season on Sci-Fi channel. For those of you who wish to stay spoiler-free, don't read the story. Rather, read the three pages of comments by "spider987" and you'll know exactly what I'm referring to. It's one thing to dislike a show, but it's another do this crap.

Check it out here.

I'm A Doctor, Not A Digital Producer Jim

A friend of mine told me about this file on youtube.com today. Essentially, some has taken Classic Star Trek and redone the SFX shots using digital techniques. Hell, Lucas did it so why not Rodenberry? :)

It's very cool, and they used one of my favorite episodes. Check it out here.

Superman Returns of the King

Ok, someone pointed out to me that after weeks of blathering on about Superman Returns, I haven't actually reviewed it. So, I'll do this as spoiler-free as possible.

I hated it. Then I enjoyed it. It was too long. But it wasn't long enough.

How's that for bi-polar?

When I walked out of the theater, I thought "man, that was way too long". It reminded me of the multiple endings of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King". It just didn't stop. Further, it was really similar to Smallville whereas the weekly plot ends about :45 minutes into the hour and the remaining :15 minutes furthers the serial plot. I knew where they were trying to go but it took a long time to get there.

Good:
- The plane sequence
- The piano scene
- Lois. Finally, a love interest that is...interesting. Much better than the fluff piece in Batman Begins
- Perry White, Richard White and Jimmy Olsen. These guys were great.
- Brandon Routh did a fine job as Superman
- The ending speech ("the son becomes the father and the father, the son")

Bad:
- Metropolis never felt like more than a set
- Parker Posey (when will Lex learn? "Miss Tesmacher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!")
- Three shots of dog cannibalism (we're not stupid Singer, we got it the first time)
- Tell the "Death of Superman" story in it's own movie
- In fact, stop trying to be Spider-man and stringing together a dozen comic book stories in one movie. (I'll list them out if you wish.)
- The music. You use John Williams' opening theme and then ruin it with stupid sound effects? WTF Singer?
- The bank robbery. There was NO action in that scene. And the effects were no better than what they did on Lois and Clark. The entire scene was a waste of film.

Neutral:
- I was SOOOOOOOOO hoping they would avoid the camera smirk at the end but they did it anyway. Man, that pissed me off. That was Christopher Reeve's trademark. There was no reason for Routh and Singer to do that. Do something original next time.

So that's it. I'm probably seeing it again tomorrow at work. Now that the expectations are off, I'll probably like it more.

July 4th Rocked!

As much as I despise the sewer I live in now, I do have to say that July 4th here was pretty cool. Turns out, I live in an unincorporated area between two cities. That means pretty much all fireworks are legal! Woot!! I got to go to a fireworks trailer and buy all kinds of good stuff! Man, you thought the candy store was bad. At least I was aware of the limitations of my property line. Since I didn't want to burn down the neighbor's house, I kept it to mostly things that stayed on the ground. (Damn.)

We went to the Renton fireworks first over Lake Washington. The cool thing here is that you could not only see the Renton show, but also Seattle's a couple of other cities and the hundreds of roman candles and flares from the Mercer island skyline of homes. It was literally one of the largest total shows I've ever seen.

Then, we came back home and lit stuff. We let the kids stay up til after midnight but had a blast. Hope all of you had as much fun.

By the way, I still have 10 fingers. Success!

Why AOL Sucks

This is a great video, and this has actually happened to me TWICE. Once, I was trying to cancel my AOL account (this was YEARS ago) and then again when I was trying to get my mom's account cancelled. You simply cannot do it in a quick manner.

Pass this link to anyone who is still using that crap service.


Vincent tries to cancel AOL.

Good For The Soul

I can honestly say that last week was good for my soul.

I got a chance to get back to Central Ohio for the Origins Gaming Expo. I flew out two days early to try and see some old friends. I got to see some, but not everyone unfortunately. Two days seems like a lot on an itinerary, but in reality, it goes very fast. Still, it was wonderful. Seeing the old sights, chatting with old friends and co-workers and just taking in the last place I was truly happy in my life is really hard to describe. I don't know when I'll get back, so I hope this feeling lasts for a while.