Anyone out there using Liferea as an RSS reader? Ever had it lose your back list of unread entires? Is it too much to ask for a feed reader to handle more than three thousand back entries? And how come the Twitter feed entries aren’t saved? *flails* Google Reader cuts you off at a thousand entries, and won’t pass user names and passwords for protected entries (such as LJ). Am I demanding too much of RSS? Shouldn’t this be local archiving so I can catch up at my leisure?

I’d forgotten that Rhythmbox has Last.fm integration. Looks like I’m back on that horse again. Once I entered my data, the copy of my playlist that I’d allowed it to keep was uploaded with the quickness. One part awesome, one part scary. My profile. I’ve embedded the Big Brother Music List into my user profile. :)

Anybody have an example of typical LLC bylaws that I could have or borrow for a while?

We completely cleaned Aidan’s and Hunter’s rooms yesterday. and Matt did most of the work, while I distracted the baby and kept him company. We moved Aidan’s bed to eliminate a hiding spot used for nefarious diaper activities, and have our fingers crossed. Hunter’s room has been completely revamped. His desk now faces a wall, instead of a window, for decreased distraction potential. His television is not viewable from his desk, either. Now, if only he can keep it in a state where everything he owns is not destroyed.

Ha, I was right! The voice for Wreck-Gar in Transformers: Animated is Weird Al! Definitely a good follow-up to Eric Idle (1986 movie)… not to mention he got to say “Dare to be stupid!” I giggled a lot when I heard that. There’s so many wonderful nods to the original series.

This is my kind of craftiness.

The first time I printed out the Hávamál, I hadn’t thought things through. It’s a 164-verse Norse poem, and it’s part of the Poetic Edda. I didn’t scale the font or anything. Twenty-five pages churned out of the printer. Um, yeah. This wasn’t going to work.

See, had given me a blank, lineless, hardcover bound notebook with “Book of Shadows” emblazoned in gold on the cover. She’d had it for a few years, and had never used it. A little bit cheesy for my spiritual tastes, but… it was perfect. I still can’t resist saving a notebook from the dump, it seems. Anyway, the thought was to affix these pages inside the notebook, and write my thoughts on the document on the facing page.

Did I mention twenty-five pages of large text?

So, I got a bug up my butt about it today. I went to the original site, I copied the document (including attributions), and I reformatted it. Ten point font, two columns. Almost biblical, when I look at it now. It’s now eleven pages, and re-printed on the backs of the original printout. It’s also been affixed to the inside of the notebook. I’m turning the Book of Shadows into an eclectic Pagan workbook of sorts.

Luckily, I like scotch tape.

Web Criticism

I’m seeing more and more signs for Virg Bernero and Carol Wood on the side of the road.  I’m wondering how much these campaigns are going to be costing the major players, and I’m wondering how much of a monkey wrench I’ll end up being.

Ms. Wood has finally established her web presence (link on the right), and… I’m searching for something nice to say.  Splash page?  Width-specific background image?  It’s put together like a Myspace page.  That is to say, designed to make one want to tear out one’s eyes with one’s fingernails.  It’s even worse once the splash page is bypassed, especially if you’re not using Internet Explorer.  Just, wow.  I really, really hope that she’s not paying anybody for that.

Mr. Bernero’s site is down right now, as far as I can tell (also linked to on the right).  My web browser is reporting “Done”, though there is no text, and nothing in my “View Source” function.  Come to think of it, the last time I tried to get to Ms. Wood’s page, I got a placeholder squatter page.  Whoop, there it goes, Bernero’s site came up.  Clean, well-designed, linked to Twitter… it takes advantage of the technologies that the web has to offer.  My guess is that he’s hired a fairly savvy web designer, and is using a PR firm that is at least vaguely familiar with technology trends.

Should I follow Virg on Twitter?  Jury is still out on that one.  I can’t wade through the overlapping text on Carol’s site to even find a Twitter link.

There’s got to be others running for this position.  Time for a bit of research.

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Lady in the Water and Frequency

I’m generally a fan of this director, despite my inability to pronounce his last name. I’ve always thought that it was nifty that he does a cameo in his movies, and that sometimes his character breaks the rules. Signs was okay, but had serious plot issues. Unbreakable was good enough to own, and I liked The Sixth Sense. With this one, the commercials put me off more than they attracted me to it.

Since it was in ‘s queue, and it’d been sitting on the shelf since February, I resigned myself to watching it. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t a horror movie, but instead was a fairy tale. The acting was good, despite the extremely odd nature of the characters. It took a bit of effort to get over the suspension of disbelief, but was worth it once I did. Three stars.

Another one of ‘s picks. I hadn’t even heard of this one before it arrived in the mail. I liked the emotional link between father and son, and I really liked how tied into each other’s actions the main characters became. The way it handled time travel was very irritating, though. No paradoxes. No consequences to remembering more than one history. Very few/limited difficulties with being outside of the time stream, after it’s been re-written. It was more of a drama/action movie with a science fiction vehicle, instead of a science fiction movie. In that sense, it was good. In any case, it was an enjoyable and emotional movie. Three stars.

Reasonable

Hi, my name is Dave Crampton, and I’m reasonable.  Well, as long as you don’t ask my wife, I’m reasonable.  And as such a person, I have compiled a list of reasons (pun!) that would bar me from such a political office.

  • I haven’t proven myself in politics.  Flip side of this coin: I haven’t been corrupted by politics.  Both reasons that I’d never get elected.
  • I actually like living in Lansing.  I think it’s a good place to be.
  • I have a family, which comes before everything else, including office.
  • The only ass that I kiss is my wife’s, and that’s rare.
  • Carol Wood?  Seriously?  (Obligatory baseless slam!  Go me!)
  • I am The Man.  I am white, male, educated, and overweight.
  • I have some conservative viewpoints. (Fascist!)
  • I have some liberal viewpoints. (Pinko commie long-hair hippie!)
  • I like riding CATA.  Bus crazy people make me smile.
  • I see infrastructure as the basic building block needed to keep residents and businesses happy.  Having a meaty ideal instead of an empty sound bite should scare you all the way down into your booties.
  • I am a nerd.  I am also proud of it.
  • I abhor waste of any kind.  I drive my wife and friends nuts talking about reuse and recycling.
  • I can use the word abhor in a sentence.

I’ll be expounding on these and others in other posts.  Anything else that you’d like to see in a Mayor but would prevent him from getting in office?

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Transformers Animated: Transform and Roll Out and WALL-E

This is the intro piece to the most recent animated Transformers series, aptly named Transformers Animated. I’ve been wanting to watch this for a while, for several reasons. The toys seem to be incredibly faithful to the cartoon, as far as robot mode, vehicle mode, and transformation between. This is something that’s been lacking from TF series over the years. Also, they seem to be recycling lots of old characters, but doing it with both respect and skill. Not only that, but it’s set in a not-too-far-off Detroit, which makes me very happy. The Ambassador Bridge shows up in the background quite a bit.

While the animation quality and frame rate leave something to be desired, the characters are great, the old transformation sound is used, and the characters hole up in an abandoned warehouse and use it as HQ. Did somebody give me roofies and have me write a TF cartoon without my knowledge? Four stars.

Once again, I had conflicting feelings about watching a kids’ movie. But I’d heard so many good things about it that I couldn’t resist. Somebody’s reading my mind again when writing cartoon scripts. I felt ridiculously uplifted and happy when this movie ended. I can’t say too much about it that you haven’t seen in the commercials without ruining it, but even the extra animated short in the DVD was made of giggles. We now own a copy, and I’ll be watching this again in the future. Four stars.

The Maxx – Volume 2

The Maxx - Volume 2 The Maxx – Volume 2 by Sam Kieth

My review


rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another sequence of mind-poking artwork and twisty storylines. I don’t remember this much being revealed so early in the animated version, so I’m definitely looking forward to reading the other volumes. Once again, I have to thank the Capital Area District Library for shelving an amazing selection of graphic novels. I’m biting my nails to read Volume 3.

View all my reviews.