Let us speak no more of this.
(Yes, that’s what my kid is actually sleeping on/under right now. I had them in my game room for quite a while, took them down to clean them and realized they didn’t need to go back up, and the rest is history.)… Read more
The first weekend of August saw my first attempt at running a vendor table at anything other than a video game convention (next year marks ten years of OVGE and ten years of me having a table at OVGE). The convention in question was heavy on anime and steampunk, though there was also a healthy science fiction contingent there, including authors such as Kevin J. Anderson (of Star Wars and Dune spinoff novel fame). A few days before the show, while looking over the vendor room layout, a light bulb went off over my head and I started looking up the other vendors online. Nobody with general sci-fi swag. I pretty much leaped into my closet and started hauling stuff out that could be sold.
While I was sitting at my table, I had my trusty MobilePro plugged in and charged, and was writing one of two things: a hasty “GlitchCon diary” of my observation and in-the-moment impressions, or slices and pieces of WARP!1 and/or VWORP!2. … Read more
I haven’t been blogging very regularly, for which I apologize. Many things have been occurring.
Konsplosion was the weekend of August 17th/18th/19th in Fort Smith, and while I was there (in my first gig as a guest speaker) for all of two hours, it seemed pretty packed. In the weeks leading up to Konsplosion, I had a bit of difficulty getting the show’s organizers to respond to my multiple attempts to pitch myself as a guest speaker; I literally didn’t know until about 72 hours out if I was going or not. My presentations were outlined but not practiced in any way (every speech or drama teacher I’ve ever studied under will no doubt be revving up to about 3,000 RPM in their grave right about now), and then, to my horror, I got up in front of a crowded room and discovered that the outline I’d printed at home about 10 minutes before leaving the house… … Read more
A while back I asked for help in rounding up some classic Mario and Zelda related carts for the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance for my own game boy, who’s turning five in less than a month. I want to thank everyone who responded and had stuff on the list that they were willing to part with – the list really got whittled down significantly, much faster than I was expecting, and with much less expenditure on my part than expected. … Read more
Launched on this date 50 years ago today: Mariner 2, the first man-made probe to successfully reach another planet (in this case, Venus, after a three-and-a-half-month cruise during which Mariner 2 kept trying to fall apart). … Read more
Let us know what you find on the other side, Neil.
“Go for descent” – click for full-sized version
Apologies to my readers who are expecting to, you know, actually find something to read here of late. I’ve been trying recently to recapture my sense of childhood wonder of learning about the universe around us through some artistic dabblings, and this was just the first thing that came to mind upon digesting the news of the death of Neil Armstrong. What sense of wonder was he feeling at this moment? … Read more
Well hello, stock photo lady. 😆 Seriously, how does the stock photo in this Facebook ad connect to the subject matter at any two points?… Read more
You can see it in almost every picture here. More caffiene is required!
From the boy who didn’t want to stop wallowing all over his cat to get dressed…
…to the dog who couldn’t be bothered to wake up in the guard shack…
…to …this. For some strange reason I decided to pay in cash today. If the little PIN pad thing is so sleepy that it shows us this, I’m worried that it’s going to try to charge me elebenty zillion quatloos*.
You know we’re going downhill when the car manufacturers give up on poetic names for their products and just put phonetic spellings on them instead. (But I kid the owner of this unfortunate Mountaineer…)
* again.… Read more
Today marks 35 years since Voyager 2 lifted off, embarking on the trip through the solar system on which it’s still undertaking.
Just for fun, because I’ve got a decent model of it and happen to love space imagery, I thought I’d recreate glimpses of Voyager 2 on the various stops along its journey, as seen through the eyes of some external observer nearby. You can click on them for a somewhat larger render.
Jupiter – 1979 … Read more
Variety.com has a gift for understatement:
…many viewers were upset when the network left the ceremony — highlighted by Brit bands such as the Spice Girls and the Who — to go to “Animal Practice.”
Variety, did you watch any Twitter traffic last night? I think “upset” may be the understatement of the century. That’s like saying people are Somewhat Concerned with this year’s election, or that someone’s Mildly Dismayed that there’s an asteroid headed straight for the Earth. 🙄 😆
As programming and scheduling ideas go, to be sure, jamming Animal Practice into the middle of the Olympic closing ceremonies has to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard of anyone doing. Way to go, NBC. You’re actually supposed to be trying not to piss off your viewers (“the more you know,” right?). That’s right up there with “keep our wall-to-wall news coverage going for six and a half hours! I want to be on the air five minutes longer than the other station!”… Read more
