Statshot(s)

A look at the graphs that shape your world.

(Courtesy Graphjam)






Your ability to enjoy this movie depends entirely on your ability—once the big SF Plot Element is revealed—to accept that the movie isn't regular drama but is, in fact, SF Lite and raise your suspension of disbelief accordingly.



Seriously. I think video game graphics peaked with HL2. Everything since has just been unnecessary bling.



No, really. Am I? Because from a sheer spending viewpoint, apparently for me dead cats rate WAAAAAY above people in tsunami-prone and earthquake-stricken third-world nations.

Too Funny Not to Link

MS Paint-style pictures of dogs and a funny story.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/11/dogs-dont-understand-basic-concepts.html

Don't be drinkin' nuthin'. You have been warned.

How 'Bout Some Halloween Music?

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Does anyone remember the point of marriage? Is there a point to marriage? I really can't remember anymore. I think it's "do what feels good".

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/love-objects/article1259075/

So we have a woman who married the Eiffel Tower, a woman who married an amusement park ride, a guy who's dating a sound board, and a woman in a relationship with an archery bow.

Nothing wrong with any of it right? I mean, if sexuality is about what makes us happy, we can't object to this anymore than we can object to someone attracted to a member of his sex (I find it interesting how many of the arguments in the article mirror those made by homosexuality advocates).

Perhaps the LGBT community should be called the LGBTNPBO community? Of course, many of them probably don't want to be grouped with those other weirdos, which leads to the hilarious claim of "my sexual perversion isn't as weird as your sexual perversion" which would also be a great bumper sticker.

So if, fifty years ago, I wanted to write a SF story about how bizarre the future was, and I wrote about how in fifty years people married inanimate objects, would it be dismissed as completely implausible? And if some people still somehow found it even remotely within the realm of consideration, how could I alienate even those readers with wild and far flung imaginations?

Ah, I know!

A Taiwanese woman marries herself!

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69L3H720101022

(And spends $5675 on it, too!) Surely this is too far fetched for even the mind-bending and imaginative world of speculative fiction.

But what could possibly be wrong with this? What makes her marriage any less valid than yours?

I actually feel sorry for the woman. "Hell," Fr. McHugh would say, "is an eternity of saying 'me'."

(H/T Mike Flynn)

Pics on Teh Interwebz

So there are pics of my wife all over the interwebz.

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=10&cId=3182053

http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/blizzcon-photo-gallery/blizzcon-photo-gallery/1415399/12

http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/photogalleries/index.xml?1

So what do you think of her as a blonde?

The Six-Toed Wonder

I don't know if you knew your real mother. Yet, despite your young age, you went forth, venturing out into the world to make your presence known.

One of your first acts was to walk into a bustling office building on a busy work morning, stand in the middle of the marbled lobby, and meow at the top of your little lungs. It was easy to translate: "Hi everyone!"

Of course, everyone stopped in what they were doing and turned to find you, a tiny, barely a few weeks old, Bombay kitten standing in the middle of a sea of giants, simply looking for company; perhaps a mother to take care of you.

But, no one in that business building thought of that. Or perhaps they weren't truly listening. They simply called a rescue group to come pick you up and care for you until a proper home could be found.

Off you were whisked to a foster home, where you first met a Pastel Calico kitten about the same age as you. You became instant friends, and dare I say, sisters.

Little did I know, shortly after my husband and I made the decision to get a cat, that our paths would cross, and thusly join.

I did not know of your existence until I found your adorable picture online through a search of various cat rescue groups. I'd found several potential kittens that we could adopt, but your little eyes spoke volumes through the picture I saw. It was at that moment that I knew you were the one.

We went to visit you at the foster home, and found you tumbling and playing with your little sister. You came up to us as if you'd known us all along, and bounced and played in our laps, climbed our legs, arms, and shoulders, rough-and-tumbling about. We even discovered you had six toes on your front paws and five toes on your back paws. You were definitely special. And while we had come in with the thought of simply adopting you, we left that day deciding we would adopt both you and your sister.

A few weeks later, when your foster parents had deemed you old enough, we came to take you both to your permanent home. You and your sister frolicked in your knew abode, getting into trouble at every turn. But we didn't mind. You were our new babies.

You, we named Isis, and your sister we named Bastet.

You grew up into a beautiful and graceful cat, along with your sister. You played, you loved, you were at home. And you knew you had finally found a mother, and father, that would care for you. You, and your sister, had become our first babies.

It was very hard when you suddenly got sick. We gave you the best care we could, took you to the best doctors, and gave you the best medicines. And while the doctors said you would not live long, you still gave us an extra eight months to love and purr.

The heartache in losing you will dull over time, but it will never fully fade. That is how deep a mark you left in our lives.

Thank you for your constant company.

Thank you for being a part of the kitty-greeting-committee with loud meows when we'd come home.

Thank you for your loud purrs, and always "leaving the motor running".

Thank you for the licks, sometimes rough, sometimes tickling.

Thank you for forcing your way onto our laps and keeping them warm on cold, and hot, days.

Thank you for greeting our guests so politely.

Thank you for acting silly when we needed a good laugh.

Thank you for being underfoot and nearly tripping us.

Thank you for chewing through the small wires attached to our headphones and phone-chargers, and leaving little chew marks in the thicker ones.

Thank you for eating my husband's and son's shoe laces.

Thank you for rough-housing with us, when your sister didn't feel like rough-housing with you.

Thank you for being there when we needed comfort.

Thank you for sleeping nestled in between my husband's legs, making it impossible for him to turn over.

Thank you for curling up on our pillows and keeping our heads warm.

Thank you for keeping my feet warm at night while I slept.

Thank you for standing guard over my son's toys as you watched him play.

Thank you for being so patient with my son, and letting him "pet" you.

Thank you for loving us, no matter what.

You gave us so many years of happiness, and for that we will be eternally grateful. We will never forget you, and I promise we will look after your sister.

Rest with the Angels, my first baby. I love you. ♥

In Loving Memory of Isis

9/23/2005 - 10/13/2010

~The Resident Murloc

Sandbox

How to tell when you've written a flexible game:


Yo dawg, I heard you like computers, so I put a computer in your game so you can compute while you game.

When your game's physics engine supports building an ALU. This means that, theoretically, you could write the game within itself.

Learn more about the Minecraft phenomenon here:
Wikipedia.
Penny Arcade: Mine All Mine, Part 1 and Part 2.
Experienced Points: Mine All Minecraft.
Minecraft developer forming his own studio.
Minecraft allows you to set fire to your house.

Other things built in Minecraft:
A rollercoaster;
A giant waterslide;
Doom E1M1;
Notre Dame cathedral;
The Reichstag;
The Empire State Building;
A 1x1 scale model of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D);
The Earth (not full scale, although theoretically the game's engine would allow it);

I haven't actually played the game yet. I'm kind of scared to try it.