Posts wherein I let my mind spill out all over the page. Usually lacking focus and quite possibly whiny.
There are 164 posts filed in Ramblings (this is page 15 of 17).
From LISnews.com
Utah’s governor is considering forcing the state’s ISPs to provide optional internet filters akin to what libraries are required to have now. An official state list of sites deemed bannable would be created.
What business is it of the government what people do in their own homes?
The time and effort to create this filter could be much better spent elsewhere.
Lesson of the day: Being away from your news aggregator for a mere 14 hours leaves an insane amount of catchup to do.
I’m on spring break, and posting may slow down a bit. I’ll try to get at least a couple things up each day though.
Oh and I crossed 1000 hits since I began yesterday! I actually probably passed that mark long ago, but I just discovered recently I was counting page hits incorrectly. Oh well!
I’ve talked before about ideas of alternate distribution methods for TV shows. Today I noticed that one show is making steps in the right direction.
Battlestar Galactica’s first episode is available to watch in its entirety, commercial free, on scifi.com!
Granted its only available in RealPlayer, and not as downloadable for repeat viewings, but this is a huge step in the right direction.
Also from show runner Ron Moore’s Q&A entry on his Battlestar blog:
“was this the first show to ever show a Bathroom on a space ship?”
It’s ground-breaking TV, baby. Talk about reinventing the genre.
Roughly 25% of my Digital Libraries class (10 people or so) think that there is “too much computer stuff” in the class, according to the informal poll tonight. I’m honestly very curious as to what else they expected.
I’m also finally noticing just how large my classes are, particularly for grad level. Out of my eight classes since I arrived, just one has had less than 15 people. The largest was around 150. Average is probably closer to 35. It doesn’t bother me too much or I would have noticed before now. But in retrospect, aren’t grad classes generally supposed to be small?
Happy V-Day all. I’m remarkably upbeat this year, somehow I’m just not bothered being single. Probably cause its not a weekend and I had class in the evening anyway. Or maybe I’m maturing. naaah 🙂
I’m more upset about my penguin exploding really.
Apologies to those of you who have been trying to Skype me the last couple days, either my headset has been buried or I’ve been away from the computer.
This has been a pointless post.
Survey: I’m looking for good, moderately priced restaurants on Mt. Washington to visit with my parents this weekend. Any tips? So far the Grandview Saloon and Georgetown Inn are looking good.
For the third year in a row, I have attended a monster truck really.
Yes yes, laugh if you must. But they’re strangely entertaining, and quite affordable ($12 this year, less than in the past). The audience is often more entertaining than the show itself.
This is the same monster truck show I’ve seen each year. I think they really do fancy themselves as a companion to pro wrestling. There are ‘Quad Wars’ in between monster truck events; 4 wheeler races between two opposing teams. The team names magically change depending on the city you’re in. Last night we were treated to Pittsburgh vs. Boston. I guess since the Patriots beat the Steelers, we have a rivalry or something.
Despite some scripted fights, Pittsburgh’s captain getting run over, and dramtic Boston comebacks, Pittsburgh managed to eek out a victory in a special overtime challenge. Yes, it is as ridiculous as it sounds.
Oh, and we also got to see a ‘battle’ between the two worst transformers ever.
Some pictures of the whole “Monster Jam” are here. I might put up some of the videos I took later.
And check out the year in pictures for the highlight of the show: The Safe Auto truck flipping over. Take that, annoying car insurance commercials!
Here’s some cool stuff I’ve been grooving on recently:
Mario flash movies!
These things are simply jaw droppingly amazing. The guy who made the short films did it all in flash, using spirtes from Mario 1 waaaay back on the NES. The music, editing, everything is perfectly crafted. The end result is far more epic and grand than Mario probably has any right to be. Now if he’d only finish part V…
Free Speculative Fiction!
It’s a fancy name for Sci-Fi and Fantasy. The site archives freely (and legitimately) available Sci-Fi/Fantasy writings on the web. There’s a good mix of known and lesser known authors available.
D-Lib Magazine!
Good scholarly reading in the digital library arena. Probably not for everyone obviously, but I like it.
Watchmen: The Movie!
Nothing more than a logo at this point, but I’m anxious to see this on the big screen. If only to see what they were forced to cut out. I still think the graphic novel would be better converted to a TV miniseries than a single feature film – The length alone is prohibitive.
2005 (almost) In Pictures!
My year-long opus in picture taking continues. I haven’t missed a day yet, though I’ve come close once or twice. I’m starting to run out of easy picture ideas too, so I’m gonna have to start getting creative…
I know I’m forgetting something. That’s all for now though.
Word on the street is that Arrested Development is cancelled. David Cross was apparently on one of the evening talk shows last night and said that production stopped yesterday. I’d expect an official announcement soon.
What’s the show getting replaced with? American Dad, which had possibly the least funny pilot episode I’ve ever seen. Fox is jumping on its bandwagon just because ratings for it were good. News Flash: Any show right after the super bowl is going to have huge ratings. Not every show has the quality to back it up.
I suppose I should have expected this, every show I watch gets cancelled. Both Enterprise and Arrested Development in the last week. At least AD got more than one season I suppose, and the critical acclaim is worth something.
I’m so angry about this decision that I can’t even get up the energy to properly rant about it.
edit: GetArrested.com is an official Fox site with a petition to keep the show!
