livingtech

So tonight, prompted by riotdorrrk, I’m going to try and fire up a Commodore 64 emulator, and play Wasteland. While I was at it, I downloaded a few more of the C64 games from my list of sci-fi video games I haven’t yet played.

I was surfing around looking at pictures from the con (and new-to-me blogs of people who went to con), and ran into this guy Dan’s website. I used to know Dan back when I called BBSes regularly. Admittedly he was mostly just a friend of a friend, but it was a long time ago, and brought back some hazy nostalgic moments. Anyway, part of his site has this list of old NES games that have hidden (nasty) eastereggs! I wonder if you can do the nude metroid thing with the version you can unlock on the Metroid Prime disk.

Surfing around in someone else’s group of friends/links is a weird deal. I think I probably have serious voyeuristic issues here that need to be worked out.

What is it about looking at other people’s lives from the outside that makes me want to befriend them? On a probably related note, I sent a bunch of old friends emails today. Dan wasn’t even one of them. (Although I’m tempted to write and ask whatever happened to the genesis page he briefly mentions.)

I had a friend send this video to me today. It’s long, but it is an amazing watch. Gave me chills.

It feels like it’s been a month since I was at work… but it’s only been three days that felt like a month.

Friday Laura and I did a parade at like 10 in the morning. Then Friday afternoon we spent about 2 hours or so on the greenway looking at art cars and listening to live music, after which we headed immediately over to the con.

After taking a dip in the pool and hot tub, grabbing our badges, and doing a minimum of walking around, we found ourselves in the hotel room relaxing for a few minutes. Suddenly there were loud booming noises… I thought they were somehow coming from inside the building, but Laura and I quickly realized they were fireworks. From our fifth-floor east-facing room, we had an excellent view of some display (in Edina or wherever the Radison South is located) but we also, amazingly, could see about 6 or 7 other fireworks displays. I’m certain that we could see the one for Minneapolis, and another LONG display that was probably the Mall of America’s. We may have even seen the tail end of the one in St. Paul. Some of them we could only see the tops of their highest explosions, but we sat there for a good half-an-hour watching off into the distance. It was quite the experience, and maybe worth the $99/night just for the fireworks alone.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the night exploring con parties and other fun stuff.

If I hadn’t had a sticker on the back of my badge to remind me, I might have forgotten that I was scheduled Saturday afternoon to take sit in on my first ever panels. Their titles were Can Nintendo make a Video Game without Mario in it?, and Sci-fi narratives in Video Games. The first one generated a lively discussion about sequels versus “new” games, and innovation in the industry in general. The second was the panel that I suggested to the event organizers, and unfortunately, it sort of became less a panel and more a free-for-all discussion, straying quite a bit from the topic–but was nonetheless quite enjoyable. I handed out a printout of marty’s top sci-fi video games list on it. I got a lot of feedback, and have some more titles to add to the list.

Saturday night I watched savage aural hotbed play in the main con ballroom… I’ve seen them play dozens of times over the years, and they are never disappointing. This time was no exception, and they seemed especially happy to be playing for the con, which was cool. I should really get around to buying some of their CDs one of these days.

I also won a “Dystopia 2003” party t-shirt by getting sci-fi video bingo before everyone else in the room. (They were giving one away each hour, and I won on my 4th try.) The back of the shirt reads “Freedom is Slavery”.

Sunday we slept in, packed up, and watched Cowboy Beebop the movie before leaving the con. I’d never seen the series at all, so I don’t know how it compares, but the movie was quite good. I also sat through about half a panel on science fiction films made outside the US, and as a result went on ebay when I got home and picked up Shaolin Soccer, The Legend of Zu, and Legend of the Sacred Stone all for about $10 each!

On a nearly unrelated note: I want one of these chess sets for my back yard.

Well, now that it feels like I’ve been writing this entry for a month… I should get back to work.

Astute readers will notice that I’ve added two heretofore unprecedented changes to this site. First, I have added an image to the main template. Secondly, that image is linked to another offsite page.

What incredible event has transpired that brought this change about? I discovered Howard Dean’s campaign for presidency. Firstly, Dean is only a “contender” in the upcoming political war because of the support of people on the internet. When I first read that he’d raised $7 million dollars in campaign funds, and that most of that money came from individuals, not corporations, and largely through his website, I thought it was some kind of elaborate hoax. I’d never even heard of Howard Dean, even though I realized later that I did see his float in the recent Pride parade downtown Minneapolis.

Blogs are a big part of Dean’s campaign, and (in my opinion) you don’t get much more grassroots than blogs. http://www.blogforamerica.com/ is the main one, and I’ll probably also be following http://www.minnesotafordean.org/ too. (Where I read about the pride parade.)

I more or less agree with Dean on every issue. His state (Vermont) was the one that recently passed the same-sex marriage law. He stood against the war on Iraq, and isn’t afraid to say so. But I’m not going to say anything else. You should read his take “On the Issues” for yourself.

A while back I ranted a bunch about jealousy as it applies to open relationships, (and Mopsa said I should write a book about it). Today Laura sent me an article that says a bunch of stuff that I agree with. MANAGING JEALOUSY IN OPEN RELATIONSHIPS, by Kathy Labriola. I agree with the entire thing. She very plainly explains what I think are generally considered to be very complicated issues. (But I agree with her that they’re not!)

The only part I might not agree with is in the beginning of her article, when she says that “most of us experience jealousy if our spouse or lover has a sexual relationship with someone else. A few rare individuals never experience jealousy. They are either more highly evolved than the rest of us mortals, or else they are pathologically out of touch with their feelings.” (OK, maybe a bit of jealousy, (a manageable amount for some of us, yes, I’d agree.) But then she goes on to rightly blame various core beliefs for the jealousy that we experience. Core beliefs that I would argue are ridiculous. So, if I have basically already “worked through” these core beliefs, (or dissolved them, as she says we can do), then why does she assert that we all still feel jealous? Where does that jealousy come from if it’s no longer from these core beliefs?

My question doesn’t invalidate any of what she says. It’s a great article, and one that I’m sure I will be discussing in-depth with Laura very soon.

UPDATE: Added link to the original post I was talking about. The rant is in the comments though.

Some guy’s fucked up cybersex log, and an asian commercial for a Zelda game. (The latter you may have to right click and “save as�”)

I don’t know when this started, but recently I’ve been lusting after one of those phones that have a built-in camera. I know the quality is going to suck on the pictures, but for blogging, who cares? Some folks over at blogplanet.com have already written a java program (for the Nokia 3650) to upload your blog entry and picture at the same time, so moblogging is merely a $150 purchase away. (Plus whatever fees AT&T would add on the top for the data transfer charges. Hmm, looks like itÂ’d only be $0.02 or $0.03 max!)

Another quick search reveals that someone is even looking at porting an SSH client over. Now that would be sweet. Hell, I could work from my phone! It would be that much more perfect if I could just plug one of those Palm foldable keyboards up to it.

I try and stay out of politics. Generally they just disgust me. And this is no different, but it is a glimpse into the wonderful world of the International Juggler’s Association. For those of you who have no idea how anyone could spend two or three nights a week doing that whole “juggling thing”, this should be an enlightening read.

http://www.takebacktheija.org/

Just shows how a relatively good-natured and fun-loving tiny-microcosmic society like the “juggling community” can still be split into warring factions.

If you’re really getting into it, read the Reclamation Projects’s response to the IJA’s Open letter to the Membership. The IJA’s letter seems so close to propaganda it’s silly.

My sister has some kind of weird poop fascination, don’t ask me why. She is 15. Anyway, she and I had this hilarious email exchange today. I had to post it. (You’ve got to read from the bottom up to get the order right.)

======

Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 13:01:53 -0500
From: Christy
To: marty
Subject: Re: to my smellie poopie brother-ie

Ewww
that is the grossest thing i have ever read.
no more
christy
oh and by the way, if youre gonna make me look something up, spell it the correcct way! its viscera not
vicera. smart one.

—– Original Message —–
From: marty
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 12:40:08 -0500 (CDT)
To: Christy
Subject: Re: to my smellie poopie brother-ie

> That description was so disgusting that it could only have been thought of
> by someone who was looking at that very thing… IN THE MIRROR!!!
>
> Not only are you that gross and vile, but you have open sores oozing puss
> and bloody vicera (look it up!) on your hands and feet, so that when you
> try and type on the keyboard, you have to keep wiping it off so you can
> see the letters (because of course you don’t know how to type without
> looking) and when you walk, every step you leave a puddle of red and white
> slime behind you. Yes, you are a walking zombie of the dead, and your
> brain is rotting too, that is, the part of it that hasn’t been eaten by
> spiders and maggots already!
>
> good luck finding the delete key when you read this,
> -marty
>
>
>
> On Thu, 26 Jun 2003, Christy wrote:
>
> > Oh really!?!
> > Well, every time I look at you, you remind me of a yummy popsicle…
> > Gone bad…that was turned into a lumpy and brown hump with fumes
> > escaping the cracks, while bubbles thick and gooey escape the large
> > crevice that a rotted stick got jammed into.
> > That’s what i think of you!
> > christy the prinncess
> > (top that!)
> >
> > —– Original Message —–
> > From: marty
> > Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 11:54:54 -0500 (CDT)
> > To: Christy
> > Subject: to my brown-brain sister
> >
> > > Hello poop-monger,
> > >
> > > You obviously have poop-on-the-brain. Your thoughts are poop-a-licious.
> > > You are a pooptastic plastic poop-thinking-machine, with poop oozing out
> > > your ears and hair follicles.
> > >
> > > -marty
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Thu, 26 Jun 2003, Christy wrote:
> > >
> > > > hi poopie head!
> > > > hey big poop momma!
> > > > what’s happinin’ poo brains!
> > > > wazup ‘large and in charge’ poop!
> > > >
> > > > write me back you ho!
> > > > christy
> > > >
> > >
> >

I read blogs mostly at work. You know, in the five minutes here and there–between projects, between bathroom breaks, lunch breaks, games of chess. Yeah, ok, so it’s just one of the many ways I procrastinate at work. I’ve stopped reading them at home almost entirely. I can’t remember the last time I had a late-night session with my laptop and fifty blog-tabs open. (OK, it wasn’t that long ago that I can’t remember it, but I can’t remember when it happened.)

There are blogs I read regularly, some I read semi-regularly, and then there are the rest. To be honest, I only read 4 or 5 blogs more than once a week. But, as you can see if you’ve looked at the list of blogs I read (a category in my bookmarks), there are quite a few that I think are decent. That is to say, there are a lot of them that I’ve read more than once, and found interesting more than once. (I don’t add them to the list the first time I read ’em.)

I almost never shut down my computer at work. So most of the time when I find a blog I have enjoyed, I leave the tab open to come back to it later. Then when I come back to that particular tab, a day or two later, I hit refresh, and read the new posts. In the last couple of days I’ve added a few more to the list. I will never read that list on any regular basis. There’s just too many good blogs out there… but occasionally, I spend an hour or two going back through some of the blogs I’ve linked, reading the latest stuff, finding out what people are doing, what technologies are hot, what blogs are still going strong.

Well, aside from slow blog updates, here’s the skinny: It rained hard last night, and my roof still leaks. I’m starting to get all the ebay items I ordered last weekend in the mail. I also had a gameboy player on pre-order, and Laura was kind enough to pick it up for me last night. I’m on page 55 of the new Harry Potter book, even though I don’t own a copy. I have been gaga over the new G5s announced over at apple, and will be installing Safari 1.0 later today. I’m swamped at work. I’m double booked for tonight’s evening of fun and entertainment, and will probably have to call Merlin to cancel.