Jan 29 2010

Discoveries

1) Google Chrome is wayyyy faster than Firefox.

1a) But my life depends on search-as-you-type, and that’s presently only available via an extremely jittery alpha plugin.

2) It’s actually pretty easy to write a Second Life bot.

3) I like Metaplace’s aesthetics enough that I’m actually playing the Facebook time-waster game they set up when Metaplace went down.

ETA: 4) CVS house-brand cold cream is scented with something absolutely vile. It’s like citronella mixed with camphor and death. I’m sure they were trying to mimic the rose scent in the Ponds, but they… I actually have no idea how they could have ended up with this. Perhaps someone accidentally hired the mad doctor Jizabel Disraeli from Count Cain as a perfumist.

Anyway, the discovery is that in the future I’m going to have to remember to spend the extra two bucks on the Ponds. Also, try to return this stuff.


Jan 26 2010

I am in Washington, DC.

Tag: personal — 9:18 pm

Technically, Maryland, but there’s a subway station. What should I do in Washington, DC? Aside from go to the Freer and Sackler galleries and wish I were a master thief, probably from a manga with peculiar ideas about either Catholics or consent. Because I can only do that so much.

(Restaurants and used book stores count as things to do. Also, protests.)


Jan 21 2010

Things That Got Licensed Somehow.

Tag: a: himekawa akira, manga — 5:10 pm

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords manga. Four Swords is the one where Link gets split into five Links with different-colored hats, and the one in the black hat is evil! In the game, they basically just fight, but the manga felt that this situation would be improved by a little Linkslash. I guess Link/Link is officially canon now? There’s also Link/Link/Link(?)/Zelda if you own goggles.

You guys should read it, it’s pretty crazy.

Please everyone thank thegeekgene for pointing out to me that it had actually been licensed. For some reason I had thought the eventuality unlikely.


Jan 19 2010

ARGH EBAY

Tag: consumption, hate, i am such a jerk — 9:08 pm

Bring back negative feedback for buyers RIGHT NOW.

Auction Title: Pokemon The Movie 2000 DVD - No Box

Gray Feedback Left By Stupid Stupid Stupid Idiot Buyer: i didnt know that it was only the cd with no box

(I am very petty.)


Jan 19 2010

I have an unfortunate announcement to make.

Tag: a: gleason colleen, books — 3:27 am

I regret to inform you that the Regency Buffy book - aka, The Rest Falls Away, by Colleen Gleason, #1 in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles series - just is not very good. At all. The prose is clunky, and there’s no pacing, and the love triangle has so little chemistry from any angle that I fear that in the vicinity of these three characters matter is actually continuous and not particulate in nature. The hilarious presence of magical protective Catholic navel piercing talismans does not make up for these problems.

With that understood, please go now about your business.


Jan 15 2010

One-to-two sentence reviews again

Neither Darkover Nor Manga

  • Fool Moon (Dresden Files 1), Jim Butcher

    I heard somewhere that Jim Butcher and the Ah! My Goddess guy can combine to form a bigger misogynist.

  • Dawn (Xenogenesis 1), Octavia Butler

    Octavia Butler punches you repeatedly in the stomach.

  • Adulthood Rites and Imago (Xenogenesis 2, 3), Octavia Butler

    Octavia Butler punches you in the stomach more lightly, provides gender-bendy but oddly heteronormative tentacle sex utopia, repeats.

Darkover

  • The Spell Sword, Marion Zimmer Bradley

    Guy from earth lands on the planet of the red-haired sorceresses and goes native (he doesn’t turn into a red-haired sorceress, ’cause that would be, like, weird). Disney could make the movie of this without changing it too much.

  • The Forbidden Tower, Marion Zimmer Bradley

    Guy from earth’s adjustment to his new psychic family life is hampered by his wife’s psychic powers accidentally zapping his testicles and his attraction to his sister- and brother-in-law. Maybe orgies will solve these problems?

  • Heritage of Hastur, Marion Zimmer Bradley

    Being gay is wrong and bad, but Regis Hastur thinks he might be gay! Betraying the Comyn is wrong and bad, but Lew Alton thinks he might betray the Comyn! OH NOES

    (I would argue that “OH NOES” does not constitute a sentence.)

  • Stormqueen!, Marion Zimmer Bradley

    People have terrifying uncontrollable psychic powers that may destroy them and EVERYONE THEY LOVE, and pregnancy is TERRIFYING, and everyone’s family is trying to KILL THEM, and so is the WEATHER.

Manga

  • Yotsuba&!, volumes 1-3, Kiyohiko Azuma

    cannot form sentence dying of cute

  • Crimson Spell, volume 1, Ayano Yamane

    Ridiculous high fantasy comedy/porn. Why is it that transforming into your demon form always seems to involve stripes these days?


Jan 15 2010

TODAY I AM A DARKOVER BOOK

Tag: a: bradley marion zimmer, books — 1:31 am

COMYN LORD: I am so angry and celibate! It has something to do with my psychic powers.

HIS DAD: Cry moar. You are going to be a warrior and awesome and give me millions of awesome grandchildren because I have inadequacy issues.

COMYN LORD: I hate you, father! I fantasize about killing you with such eerie vividness that I must flee the room to rest my burning forehead against the cool stones of the corridor wall, terrified by how near I have come to patricide this day.

HIS DAD: (That is normal on Darkover.)

COMYN LADY: HI I’M HERE FOR THE ARRANGED MARRIAGE

Continue reading “TODAY I AM A DARKOVER BOOK”


Jan 13 2010

Miso Ramen

Tag: food, recipes — 3:33 pm

4 cups water
2 tsp instant hon dashi powder
4 tbsp miso (red/akadashi)
3 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced/ground/powdered ginger
2 slices bacon, sliced up into squares
1 scallion
2-6 packets instant ramen (depending on how much broth you feel like using with each block of noodles)

Continue reading “Miso Ramen”


Jan 09 2010

I’m A Terrible Human Being, Part 515

Tag: t: scribblenauts, video games — 10:25 pm

I googled “Scribblenauts walkthrough.”

It strikes me as unfair that you can only summon Judeo-Christian and Egyptian religious figures. There are all sorts of situations in the game which I think Thor’s presence would improve.


Jan 05 2010

ESL Comics

Continue reading “ESL Comics”


Jan 04 2010

Photo Essay

What Mee and Conan (’s Parents) Sent Me

IMG_7985 (800x600)

Continue reading “Photo Essay”


Jan 01 2010

What you do on New Years Day.

Tag: computer — 11:39 pm

You cuss at Game Maker for having no mechanism for stepping through your code when something goes horrifically wrong with a script containing multiple layers of nested loops.

AND OH WAIT I THINK I KNOW WHAT’S WRONG HANG ON

(this is what the blog is for)

ETA: HAHAHAHA YES I am in charge of A* pathfinding!

“what the blog is for” = getting my brain into critical mode and out of “my code isn’t wrong yours is” mode. See, that’s why I mostly only post about books I didn’t like! It’s not just because I’m a jerk!

In general, it is not constructive when I convince myself that my code is perfect and there is clearly something wrong with the interpreter/compiler. I am sure that people have existed who have found that there was a bug in the interpreter/compiler, which just happened to affect the long piece of code they’d written in one inspired sprint without any testing. However, given my habits, the odds that that will be the source of my problems are not high.