The problem with playing video games, watching movies, television, even reading books - you’re having someone else’s adventures. You’re not making up your own, you’re not experiencing your own life. You subsume yourself in the world someone else has created, following rules someone else has written, seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. It’ ( Read more... )

This is the wrong time of year for this, I know, but I claim three extenuating circumstances:

1. bzoppa reminded me of it
2. I have my list at work, and I can't guarantee it won't be left on/in/around my desk when I leave
3. I feel like it

That being said, I proffer my list of books read so far this year. I went into the year shooting for 50, because that seems to ( Read more... )

Yes, well.
Hi.

Wow. Just took a look at FixedOrbit.com's statistics page, and saw the top 10 networks list, by number of IP addresses controlled. The results are somewhat interesting. Tops on the list is DISA CONUS, or (effectively) the US military. Makes sense. The next four are the Tier 1s (owners of the backbone, essentially): Level 3, AT&T WorldNet, Cogent, ( Read more... )

Well, don't that just beet awl.
I'm pretty much preaching to the converted, here, I suppose, but if there's anyone who reads this and doesn't think there are serious and fundamental problems with the legal edifice surrounding the music industry, try this on for size:
According to #100 in this BBC News Magazine article, "[m]usical instrument shops ( Read more... )

Poll Please think for me, I can't bear to
*And mad phat props to anyone who recognizes that particular reference

I have made the following decisions:

1. I need to get my old, essentially all-manual (it's got a built-in light meter that will run the camera in aperture-priority if you leave the shutter speed set to auto) camera fixed.
2. When travelling, I need to bring both my repaired old camera and my newer one. Also a tripod. The old camera to be loaded with slow ( Read more... )

Hrmph.
I seem to have been premature with my earlier post regarding books I've read this year. While I expected to read a couple more books between then and the actual end of the year, I didn't expect it to be more than one or two. I was wrong. So here's an update to the list:
The first timers

Baroque Cycle
1. Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson
2. The ( Read more... )

Nice.*:
BAKER LAKE, Wash. (AP) - Rain-eeeeer .... Bear? When state Fish and Wildlife agents recently found a black bear passed out on the lawn of Baker Lake Resort, there were some clues scattered nearby - dozens of empty cans of Rainier Beer ( Read more... )

H'okay, so: on the off chance you like Firefly and/or Serenity, it's possible you've run across a certain article on EW that rings the death knell for the characters and the universe. Further research, however, indicates that the outlook is not that bleak.
Upshot: Whedon feels he achieved a sense of closure with the movie, that nothing more needs ( Read more... )