The IT Crowd: Series 1 & 2

You.. he said… she… STRESS! *blink* British humor about a small IT department that lives in the basement? Really? “Hello, IT, have you tried turning it off and on? You have? Is it plugged in? *pause* Yeah, you’re welcome.” *click* Did I mention the melodramatic goth that’s behind the red door? No? Wow. :) Cradle of Filth, indeed. Five stars!

Second season! Yes! When did the furniture in the office start changing every episode? Death of the big boss, taken over by his even crazier son. I think I’ve worked for some of these people. :) Is Reynholm Industries hiring? I’ll jump across the pond to join this IT team. Five stars!

Wow, Drivel (a blogging tool for Gnome) has come a really long way. It’s gotten so user friendly that I’m having no problem playing with the new options even while Cian tries to eat my hand.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Your education is about to take a curious and interesting turn. During the coming weeks, I expect that you’ll upgrade your street smarts and explore a whole new meaning for the term “hands-on experience.” You’ll find out about an area of ignorance that was so deep and dark you didn’t even know about it, and you’ll take aggressive steps to get it the teaching it needs. Congratulations in advance for being brave enough to open your mind so wide, Taurus. I’m glad you’ll be hunting for a fresh set of questions.

The Prophecy: Uprising and The Prophecy 5: Forsaken

Without the fifth movie, the fourth simply isn’t worth the time to watch it. At the end, I wanted my 88 minutes back. 90% setup, 10% depressing conclusion. There wasn’t even a climax in this movie. It’s like I turned on the vacuum while I was watching the movie… sucking was happening all the way through. The only thing that earned this movie its second star was the acting. There’s only so much you can do when you’re handed a bucket of poop labeled “Script”, and these guys did it.

This one is a sequel to the fourth movie. Neither of them really belong in the Prophecy franchise. Blessedly, this one was only 75 minutes of suckage. The dark angel Stark, played by the same dude that shows up in every horror movie EVAR, was easily defeated by paper. I was reminded of the aliens that were burned by water in Signs… just ridiculous. Once again, two stars due to mostly good acting. All in all, do yourself a favor and avoid these movies.

ORLY?

Cannot partition a hard drive, in Linux, that’s mounted. Duhr. On a completely unrelated note:

Aradia: Or Gospel of the Witches Aradia: Or Gospel of the Witches by Charles Godfrey Leland

My review


rating: 1 of 5 stars
There’s a problem with 19th century religious studies texts is the blatant “my research is better, and oh by the way, read this other work I’ve written.” Not only that, he admits that he’s rewritten a lot of the translated texts, to keep with his “feeling” of what the “intent” of the Italian was. His bias is basically shoveled into the work.

I have to admit that there’s some useful stuff in there, but I can’t really recommend it.

View all my reviews.

GoodReads – Goblin War

Goblin War Goblin War by Jim C. Hines

My review


rating: 4 of 5 stars
Jim Hines closes off the trilogy with another winner. The tone is changed in this one, of necessity. When it comes to getting in trouble, Jig has nowhere to go but up. Oh, and he does.

I kept imagining a God slap-fest every time Jig’s deity started explaining how the pantheons worked. I found myself chuckling and laughing throughout the entire thing, which earned me plenty of quizzical glances from my wife.

If you like the funny, read these books!

View all my reviews.

Holy Birthday, Batman!


Zi6_9541
Originally uploaded by Childe

This year, my birthday fell on the last day of PenguiCon. I’ll go into that in more detail in my con report… I can’t possibly fit all of the awesome of my birthday AND the con into one post. :)

So, last weekend (24,25,26 Apr) some friends brought over a cake -again-. And I didn’t even realize it -again-. It had little Transformers on it -again-. I giggled like a madman, AGAIN. Here, you see Rodimus, Warpath, and Wheelie in their new modes. And let me tell you, the improvement in their vehicle modes is even more impressive than the improvement in their robot modes. It’s only been, what, twenty-five years?

Early in the week, my Mom and Dad brought over my Grandparents’ grill. It hadn’t seen use in years, and was practically new. Well, Dad cleaned it up, disassembled it, and brought it over. We put it back together, fired it up, and grilled some tasty burgers on it. It’s not technically a birthday gift, but it sure felt like one!

After the con, (1,2,3 May) I stopped by my parents’ place for a bit in the TWP. They handed me a Transformers movie gift bag, and I was all like “You didn’t have to get me anything, you know.” They gave me The Look, and so I smiled and opened the card and gift. Mom made me an awesome card, and I’m now the proud owner of a Kodak Zi6 Pocket video camera. I may have even used it to film this and then place it on YouTube. Hee!

I got the last (at least, I think so) of my gifts yesterday. The Pampered Chef order came in from Nikki’s sister’s party, and I now have some high-quality tools (heh) to go with the grill:

BBQ Tongs
Barbecue Turner
Grill Cleaning Brush
Great Grilling! Seasoning & Recipe Collection

To bring my birthday awesome to a close, I’ll be grilling Johnsonville cheese brats on the grill tonight, and will be using my new hotness!

Animal Shelter

From a friend of mine:

“I heard on the radio this morning that 70 Australian Shepards were seized from a home in Mason, Mi. due to neglect and filthy conditions. They are at the Ingham County Animal Shelter, and, its over full! They are going to have to put down lots of dogs if these Aussies don’t get adopted soon. I know I want to help. I’d even take one myself. Please tell everyone you know about this situation, its crazy! At least the woman got her kennel license taken away, and she’s going to court now.”

PenguiCon 7.0

I can’t tell you guys how excited I am right now. I’ve got materials out for making swag, I’m printing out CD labels and business cards, and I’m trying really, really hard not to squee out loud.

I’m making it back to PenguiCon this year. I’ll have ribbons – purple Rebuilder ribbons – to hand out with business cards that reference the web page, where there’ll be an answer to the question on the ribbon. I’ll have teaser CDs to hand out to people that attend the panels I’m on. And this year, I’ll have HAIR!

Heh.

Here’s a list of the panels that I’ll be on:

May 2, 2009
– 9:00 am Sci-Fi/Fantasy – Perception or Prescience?
– 10:00 am Short Stories : What’s the Story?
– 11:00 am Sci-Fi /Fantasy – What Really Works?
– 12:00 pm Self-Publishing – How to Not Get Totally Screwed
– 1:00 pm The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
– 3:00 pm Johnny Can’t Read and Nobody Thinks It’s a Problem
– 4:00 pm What’s So Funny?!
– 6:00 pm Future Crash – What If We Lose the Knowledge?

May 3, 2009
– 8:00 am National Novel Writing Month
– 1:00 pm Selling Your Soul – Marketing Your Work on a Limited Budget

If you’re going to be there, say hi! :) I may be vibrating from the High Octane coffee, so if I slip out of space-time, just give me a sec, I’ll be back.