Woohoo! Joel, Tom Servo and Crooooow are back

Yes friends and fans of MST3K, (or Mystery Science Theater 3000 for you yokels) Joel Hodgson, Josh Weinstein (original Tom Servo), Trace Beaulieu (original Crooow!), TV's Frank and Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester) are coming back in Cinematic Titanic. The info on the website is rather thin, but you can sign up for the newsletter to be kept informed.

Mike was OK, but Joel rulez.

Nightwish's new album r0xx0rs!

Dark Passion Play is out!

Check out this video of the song "Amaranth". This is my favorite song on the album, and though their new vocalist isn't quite on the level of Tarja Turunen (their old vocalist), she's certainly not embarrassing either herself or the band.



Nightwish, need I say, truly rocks. I guess, either you dig them (and think they're the best) or you do not. Regardless, they are true master musicians and song writers.

I give them a full 5 head-bangs.

Life with a Logitech G7 mouse

OK. I have used the Logitech G7 gaming mouse for some time, now. Though I don't use it for gaming, I have done quite a bit of CAD work (CAD design is a "TLA acronym"), and I thought this super-sleek mouse would do the trick.

Wonderful mouse. Horrible, terrible, abominable battery design. (OK, John, tell us how you really feel!)

Logitech equipped this mouse with a flat, rectangular battery "pack" that slips quickly and easily into the mouse underbelly. Hah! But it lasts about 6-8 hours under continuous "Spider Solitaire" use. I have wondered if the battery was designed to last just as long as it takes to recharge it. Because this mouse comes with 2 batteries: one to live in the combination charger/2.4Ghz wireless port (that connects via USB cable to the computer), and one to live in the mouse. You definitely want to turn it off when not in use. That extends the battery life considerably. But the experience of having to continually and frequently replace the freaking mouse battery pack is incredibly annoying. Because it goes dead red right in the middle of whatever you're working on. And one battery doesn't like to connect to the charger without futzing with it, so that's annoying, as well. You would really hate not having a charged battery ready, wouldn't you? See?

OK (I said that already). I did a quick search on Logitech's web site for their latest and greatest in mouses, and noticed this mouse isn't listed anymore. No surprise, there. I'm sure my experience is reflected (and amplified, as well) 1000 times over by all those disappointed gamers out there who probably now despise this badly-designed contraption.

Don't misunderstand. I love the mouse as a pointing device. Comfortable, balanced, and with enough buttons to keep the most ardent mouse geek occupied for days.

So, what replaces the G7 as the ultimate mouse? This Star Wars spacecraft-looking thing. Of course there's also the wired G9. I already have a G5, but the left-click button fails to click about 50% of the time. I won't risk buying another one of those. I also have both the VX and MX Revolutions. I gave the MX to my wife. She seems to like it, but it hurt my hand to use. The VX I use with my notebook at work. Nice mouse. Compact, comfortable. Battery (single conventional AA battery) lasts about 3 months, and it's wireless, too. The NiMH rechargeable batteries I have don't last as long, for some strange reason.

I should buy Logitech stock.

To summarize: I hate my current mouse; must seek another, one more worthy; desire a wireless mouse; forever fan of Logitech. What to do? What to do? Maybe I should go back to my trusty MX1000. Of course, it needed feeding (via docking station) on a regular basis, as well. That was why I "upgraded" to start with.

I can see I won't be pleased, at least anytime soon.

Computer geek humor

This is all, like, ZOMG!, I was like, ROFL and CSOMN, and all that!!11eleventy1!!!

I would only add insurance companies to list of those reviving COBOL. If you're big, and you're old (and if you're also slow) you have COBOL. (Some disinfectant and a stiff scrub brush should remove it, however. (Hehehe, he said "stiff"!))

That is all.

Follow me to Live Journal

If anyone is interested in following my new writing project, a web comic/graphic novel called A Far Sun (the working title), please come join us on Live Journal. I am very excited by this new project, since the writing will be a screenplay, and will be visualized by my step-daughter, a very talented artist.

My blog there is called Art Fish, All Intransigence. Name not entirely creative. You may remember a similar blog I began about 3 years ago. Then again, maybe not. That other blog isn't quite dead, yet, but I'm not quite sure what to do with it.

However and regardless, on this new blog I have already begun posting various notes and synopses, as well as other writings (that is, not specifically related to A Far Sun). I may also decide to pick up The Midlife Crisis of Reagan Wilcox and continue it there (from Fish All Intransigence--a Blogspot blog), and I will certainly post entries from my novel My Soul Up There. I have already posted 2 "pages" of that.

Come on over if you're interested. If not, then the door is always open.

Here's the deal ...

Lately I've become a regular reader of about ... ten web comics. I have also been mulling over a story idea I've resurrected from something I started back in 1979. And by started, I mean I wrote about 30 typewritten pages and let it drop. That said, I really like the characters. The story, though not terribly well thought out before, is coming along quite nicely, now. I even have an idea for an interesting twist that, of course, I can't reveal (because that would be giving it away, you know).

So, here's the deal. (I guess I said that, already.) I think my story idea, which is SF (and perhaps fantasy, as well) would make a really cool and interesting web comic. It has humor, likable main characters, action, adventure, danger, heroism and failure (you need both), and a pretty satisfactory ending. Shoot, it could even be a furry-themed story, which in a way could be an interesting counter twist, when the time comes. Of course it doesn't have to be furry, but even if not I can easily see it being done in a nice, clean manga style.

Yes, it's full of your standard tropes. No reason to deviate from the standard patterns. One thing it probably won't be, though, is some kind of episodic cartoon (a never-ending series of short episodes, like most sit-coms). This story will have a beginning, a middle, and an end. And then we will go on to other things.

But there's a small problem, here. I am not an artist. I can draw, sort of, but I am not someone who would/could draw this web comic. Writing it is no problem. That's something I can do, but to make this whole web comic thing work means having a collaborator. So the problem is finding someone to draw this thing. I have an artist in the family, but I'm not sure I should ask her.

There are lots of people out there who can draw. Maybe one of them would like to volunteer. Regardless, I am going to start writing the "screenplay" and sketching storyboards. Then we'll see.

Something about online dating

I found this article on Techdirt interesting. Why? Well, I met my spouse online.

I dated online for about 4 years before finding someone eminently worthwhile. Well, I may have met a couple others in that time who could have been worthwhile, but since I had only me to satisfy during the selection process, we'll have to go with the possibility I could have made a mistake or two. I'm certain a few women who ran for the hills after a few conversations and/or dates made similar mistakes.

I have sometimes bragged (or complained, you choose) that at one point I went on 7 consecutive first dates. You could look at that as a low point in the cycle, but I did learn some valuable things in the process. One thing is not to give up and settle for less. Another thing is that there are a lot of "unusual" people out there, and you are bound to run into a few of them from time to time.

To more or less reiterate parts from the above-cited article, online dating is not a substitute for real dating. It's simply a way to meet people. It's also a somewhat less risky way to get acquainted, since you can talk at length with someone before actually deciding to meet them in person. If during your online "conversations" (chat, email exchange, etc.) you decide it isn't going to go anywhere--for whatever reason--you can simply break it off quickly and cleanly and move on to something else.

One danger I would mention is the unfortunate tendency for two lonely people to let an initial good impression get carried away. Before meeting someone for the first time, you should not become infatuated with them. If you do, it won't be very much fun when they turn out to be ... er, less than you had hoped. Yes, even knowing this (and I did) I had this happen a couple of times. I don't lead with my heart, but I do have one (heart, that is). I think this happened a few times with women I met. One I actually liked a lot, but she evidently felt my reality wasn't up to her standards. Yeah, don't let your imagination get carried away. You'll be disappointed.

I don't see online video speed dating as a problem. In fact, I can imagine it sorta ... speeds up the process. Duh. In the "good old days" of online dating, you actually had to use a chat client or maybe the--gasp!--telephone to get better acquainted. It wasn't visual, which could be the reason we allow our imaginations to get out. I'd think getting acquainted with both audio and video would much more quickly weed out the undesirables.

Having the other person show you things you don't want to see is only a small, temporary issue, since if they violate the dating service's terms of service you can quite easily have them banned. In any event, as the article points out, the whole purpose of online dating is to find a long-term partner, so if seeing some guy's naughty bits isn't your idea of appropriate behavior, then at least you know this guy isn't for you. Conversely, if you meet a woman and she proceeds to act in a way non-inducive to her long-term success with you, well, at least you know. And more quickly, as well.

I am surprised that some seem to think that online dating eliminates the need for more conventional methods. I find an analogy to this in how some online retailers have seemed to think that it (being online, that is) eliminates the need to have a sound business plan and sound business practices. At some point, online or not, you have to deliver the goods. Since finding a partner/mate is a person-to-person endeavor, you really do need to get into that squishy aspect at some point. And quite frankly, sooner rather than later. Meeting the person you are considering for a relationship is sound "business" practice. In fact, you need to invest oodles and oodles of time in that person before things can get around to working out.

No surprise, there.

I chose to meet women online because I had little opportunity to meet them via other avenues. Sure, I could have gone to bars, but I deemed the probability of meeting my "one and only" to be so very much less likely. People go to bars primarily for one thing. While that part may be nice, it's not the most important thing. Unless I got lucky and met someone nice at work, if I wanted to find someone, it was probably going to be outside of work. The Spockian logic was impeccable--online was a very good way to find women.

Since I am now married and since we met online, I can definitely say that it can work. But like anything else, it's not guaranteed to work. It just gets you in the door. What happens after that is purely up to you.