Month: August 2007

Categories
Home Base

For the record(s)

So Gapporin was the latest member of the DP forums to converge on the ol’ Greenhouse, all for a good cause – I was desperate to get rid of a good chunk of the ol’ record collection. The thing was, I had two rather sizeable boxes full of LPs, and a few singles, that I had been hauling around with me since I moved out of my parents’ house. These boxes basically encompassed my record collection, my brother’s, and my mom’s. So there’s quite a bizarre mix of stuff – Disney educational records, soundtracks (ranging from the Star Wars movies to a musical production of Cromwell with Alec Guinness [!!]), and any number of things in between, including Foghat Live (SLOW RIDE!), Kiss, and the Concert for Bangladesh. There’s probably some good stuff in there, but I’m already scrambling to archive VHS tapes to DVDs so I can toss the tapes to save space; I’m just not going to have the time to also do records-to-CDs at the same time, and the records were taking up a hell of a lot of space. So I hope he likes his haul – at the very least, for him, I hope it was worth ten bucks and the drive from Joplin and back. A lot of it may be trade bait for something much cooler, and I’m okay with that. The stuff I couldn’t part with, I kept, in a larger-than-I-really-wanted-it-to-be pile outside the ridiculously heavy box I handed off to him; I’m sure I’ll hear about that pile in due course.

Happy birthday to Flack, by the way – I’ve been talking to him quite a bit lately because I’ve been bitten by the book-writing bug. Actually I’m bitten by the book-writing bug fairly regularly, but I enjoyed “Commodork” so much that I’ve found myself asking “Is there a book I could write that Rob couldn’t just write himself?”, because Rob and I could each write a bunch of books on the same topics. Someone appeared out of the blue recently and suggested something to me that would indeed be a book that practically requires me to be the one to write it. I’m not going to tell you what it is just yet, because for pete’s sake, I need to research and write the thing, and then I need to get it published. But once you know what it’s about, you too will say “Yeah, that’s a book that only Earl would bother to write.” I know it’s a great idea to say “Hey! You know what? I think I’m suddenly going to start a major undertaking right before I have a baby to take care of!”, but this is something that will take some time. Like some time next year. But for all those who think I need to write a book, I’m working on it. Now it’ll just be a question of who in the world will want to read it.… Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3 Home Base

Some people’s kids

We went to visit with an old friend of both of ours this weekend, who neither of us had seen since…I think it had to be my 10-year class reunion for Jan, and about five years ago for me. (She doesn’t live around here, thus the long gap.) She now has a five-year-old son (the last time I saw her, the kid was t-i-n-y!), and once he was finally coaxed out of bed with the promise of ice cream and Doritos 😆 , I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him. We’re about to have one of those. Holy cow. What’s really funny is that Jan didn’t meet this friend of ours until around college age; I’d known her since second grade and she was one of my best friends all the way through graduation. She stuck with me even when I went through a phase in high school where I was being incredibly stupid, selfish and hurtful to those around me. It just all reminded me of how much I want to make sure Evan has better, happier childhood than I had, and that he grows up to be a better person than I was at that age. My primary impulse anytime I run into someone from my high school days is, quite frankly, to apologize. I know teenagers are a hormonal mess as a rule, but I was a “special case”, with all that that phrase implies. Even what I was going through at home didn’t cover it and didn’t excuse it. I wouldn’t go back to those years for anything.

Speaking of hormonal messes, I was asked this morning if my wife had rounded the corner from Miserable and if she was now headed toward Really Miserable. Without really thinking about it long enough to censor myself, I said “She’s past Miserable and she’s well on her way to Make Everyone Around Her Miserable.” ‘Nuff said.… Read more

Categories
Serious Stuff

I started out laughing heartily at this…

…and then grew quite a bit more somber. Wired Magazine has started a “watchdog” page that shows who’s been editing Wikipedia entries to suit their own agendas. Before you go there, though, I strongly recommend getting a stiff drink, sitting down, and calming the beef min. I was laughing long and hard at a few of them, and then the smile faded from my face as I faced yet another sobering reminder that political discourse in this country is dead. Okay, if it’s not dead, it’s barely twitching and rasping Pee-Wee Herman’s “I know you are, but what am I?” line over and over again in a ghastly, barely-audible back-of-the-throat rattle. The Wired page reveals no angels: Democrats are just as guilty of cowardly, pin-“kick me”-signs-on-someone’s-back tactics as Republicans. And then you get into corporate smear jobs and whitewashes that are just as disturbing. By the time I see yet another instance of the Church of Scientology editing its own entries, it’s not even startling anymore. Just coldly numbing.

Now, I’m aware that one edit coming from a place that may have hundreds of people in the building doesn’t mean the whole building participated. But that doesn’t change the “disturbing” factor significantly for me. Those whose interests are threatened by the public being able to distribute information are trying to find the closest things that the internet has to a “hub” for that information, and they’re trying to bend it to their own will. This points out a great weakness in the whole “social media” movement. I hope there will always be at least some people who have enough time to take on the thankless task of fighting for the integrity of the user-content-driven side of the web.

In the meantime, marvel at what government officials are doing with their on-the-clock time, and what those who would have that power are doing with theirs in the meantime. This kind of stuff makes me lean a little more libertarian every day.… Read more

Categories
Television & Movies

Argh of Infinity

TVshowsonDVD.com unveils the next two region 1 Doctor Who DVD releases, and my Lord, if Arc Of Infinity isn’t about the crappiest cover I’ve yet to see Warner Home Video stick on one of these – and that’s actually saying something there – I don’t know what is. Dudes. Seriously. Can you afford to put cover art that craptastic on something you’re actually hoping will sell? Simon Holub and Thomas Evans and Lee Johnson and Kurz are Photoshopping circles around your art department. “Sure,” I hear you argue, “they have the free time to do that sort of thing.” Maybe so…but they also clearly have the talent too.

I had held out hope that maybe Robot and Survival marked the beginning of the region 1 releases using more or less the same artwork as region 2, but I guess that was wishful thinking.

It’s a good thing that I already “re-cover” all of the Who DVDs I buy anyway; I’ve got quite a few actual region 2 releases, and truth be told, I just like their cover style better – more stylish, understated, classy, and better artwork by miles and miles. (Okay, actually, better artwork by Clayton Hicks and Lee Binding, but you get the idea.) But man…this is a new low for the region 1 covers. Yeesh.… Read more

Categories
Funny Stuff Television & Movies

Treasures from the attic

More loot from the housecleaning wars. Long-lost goodies for your amusement.


Oh yeah, baby. I was 18, and I was gonna go straight from Fort Smith to Hollywood to be a scriptwriter. (Nobody told me that this spec script wasn’t going to be a viable ticket for that trip.) Getting stuck in local TV never occurred to me.


Quite why there was a whole box of this children’s magazine that I’d been hauling around with me for 14+ years, I’ll never know. But it was worth it just for this. 😆

More to come.… Read more

Categories
Cooking With Code Gaming Home Base Music ToyBox

Random, irregularly-shaped chunks of thoughts

Burchuss. Now compatible with your Atari VCS.Oh man. I love the Atari 2600 Labelmaker site, but it’s gonna put label fetishists like me out of business. Doesn’t even pay to think about what it’ll do to the next AtariAge label contest to come down the pike. Just between you, me, and the entirely metaphorical lamppost, I had to resist a momentary (and utterly mad) geeky urge to do “Atari cartridges” for, oh, everyfreakinthing on the whole site. I’ll keep that option in my back pocket if the site ever undergoes some kind of radical rethink. 😆 Anyway, it’s an awesome idea, a neat (and rather alarmingly versatile and powerful) site to have some fun with, and I sincerely hope that its maker will consider expanding the repertoire to include such things as the “silver label” style, 5200 cartridges, and so on.

The DVD review section of theLogBook has now been rolled out, WordPress-style, and I think it’s lookin’ mighty sleek ‘n’ foxy. But then I guess I would, wouldn’t I? If anyone thinks they’re detecting a mad dash to get as much of the WordPress-ification of theLogBook done before the baby gets here, they are about 1000% right on the money. There are only three sections left to be WP’ed, and we’re already deep into the work on one of those, so perhaps we can whittle that down to two sections remaining by the end of the year.

I’ve got a big Stack Of Stuff piled up at the house that needs to be sold, mainly Star Trek and Babylon 5 and other sci-fi related stuff – action figures, models, Christmas ornaments, magazines by the truckload, and so on – and I’d really like to avoid eBay. If anyone out there would like some of this stuff, please drop me a line. I’m not inflating prices or charging the gross national debt for shipping – I just need the stuff out of here. I’m still drawing up a list, but I can tell you that there’s a collection of Starlog’s dedicated Star Trek: The Next Generation magazine that, if it isn’t the complete run, it’s damn close. I also have binders full of Cinefantastique’s annual ST:TNG wrap-ups – I remember around 1990-94 when Robert and I would descend upon the bookstores to find those every summer, and we’d study Mark Altman’s well-observed comments and reviews like devout Bible scholars. 😆

Over at NotNews, Dave has an in-depth after-action report from the Philadelphia Crowded House concert with Pete Yorn and Liam Finn (i.e. son of Neil) as the opening acts. Dave has also gotten to see R.E.M. live without having to venture to another state. Have I mentioned Dave lives in a real city? Heck, I bet Danny Boyle’s Sunshine is even playing in a theater up there somewhere. 😛 … Read more

Categories
Television & Movies

So let me get this straight…

Sliders + Dawson’s Creek + threadbare western mythological tropes about a young man searching for his long-lost father + a few Flash Gordon place/character names = Sci-Fi’s new Flash Gordon? 🙄

The good news is, the new Doctor Who’s still on Friday nights. 😆

Sorry I haven’t had much else to say lately. We’re just waiting for the baby. Jan’s been pulled off of work and is stuck at home going crazy. And let me tell ya, the premiere of Flash Gordon didn’t help her mood! At one point, one of the characters said “We’re looking for something,” and in an opportune MSTie moment, I said to the TV, “Yeah – an original plot!”

Feel free to write this off as me being tired and cranky, but even when I’m up and chipper, this show’s gonna have an uphill battle to win me over now.… Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3 Gaming

The Baby Scare

I’ve got to be up in about 4 hours, so there must be some reason I’m still bloody awake at 3:30. Oh yeah – must be that whole business tonight where we thought Jan was going into labor or something. She was feeling craptacular in the early afternoon, and after getting some advice from our doula she laid back down. Then she woke up feeling craptabulous, and then it was pretty obvious we were heading to the hospital, despite the lack of contractions. A few hours and some lab tests later, she was sent home, both for tonight and for tomorrow (meaning she’s not going to work). She’s gotten to sleep already, but I’m still having a hard time coming down from that scare, despite being effing exhausted at this point. So look out tomorrow: I’m going to be really effing exhausted.

I rather stupidly suggested on the DP forums that next year’s CGE could feature a live MST3K-style treatment of some classic video game movies – Tron, Joy Sticks, take your pick. I also helpfully volunteered Tim Snider and Flack to help me (for which I’m sure they’ll be eternally grateful). The realization has since hit me that I may not be able to go next year, what with a not-quite-a-year-old child and all, but now that I’ve given voice to that idea, I’m seeing visions of replacing Crow and Servo with stuff like a talking Space Invader and a talking Yar (fashioned out of the most cheap-ass chunks of flexible packing foam you can imagine). This could really work. I just may need to start to distance myself from the idea that I may necessarily be the one doing it. (Sad thing is, we’d never, ever, in a zillion years, be able to include it on the DVD, which at the very least I hope I’m able to come and shoot for 2008 even if I don’t go all MSTie-eyed.) (Maybe I should finish editing the 2007 footage first before I get into all this crazy 2008 talk.) (Sorry about all these brackets.*)

I’ll have more to say later, maybe, if I get around to the whole regaining-consciousness thing. But I’m fading pretty fast now, so I think I’m blogging myself to sleep here. Probably having the same effect on you lot. If so, let me know when you wake up, and I can start selling my blog entries as a cure for insomnia.

* an in-joke that only a very, very few people will ever even consider getting.… Read more