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Delicious Wackyness

2009-12-14T14:22:23Z

I think this is really cool - it has an incredibly strange aesthetic. Somewhat not safe for work, just fyi. I didn't know much about electric six, but I'm quickly becoming a fan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a4gyJsY0mc&feature=player_embedded
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Edit: Also this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTN6Du3MCgI&feature=player_embedded#
Watch at least up until 1:30 from the beginning - you'll see why.

Who's your big daddy?

2009-11-29T05:35:22Z

Folks may have already seen this, but what the hey.

http://volpinprops.blogspot.com/2009/09/big-daddy-bioshock.html

The Matrix circa 1920?

2009-11-11T10:14:39Z

The Matrix - if it was shot in the silent film era.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nok_mfFVFkM&feature=player_embedded

Jesus and the Constitution

2009-10-08T08:58:53Z

So yeah... if you haven't seen this - you really oughta. I'm loathe to give the website more traffic, still...

http://www.mcnaughtonart.com/artwork/view_zoom/?artpiece_id=353

Make sure to mouse over the figures in the painting itself - the artist (I'm assuming?) explains what he meant by the various folks depicted.

Then when you're done with that debacle, take a look at this version. Exactly the same, until you start mousing over the figures. It makes me laugh much. F-16 Pilot! Boom boom rat-a-tat-tat!

http://www.shortpacked.com/McNaughton%20Fine%20Art.htm

Robot Fast!

2009-08-24T13:04:15Z

Did anyone ever see the 'Not Quite Human' movie series? I think there were three movies, following Jonas Brown and his android 'son'. They were Disney movies I believe, and I remember really loving them when I was younger.

The point I wanted to make - in most movies these days - indeed in most movies - Robots move a little faster than a man could, or are much more ponderous and slow. Even in the terminator movies, the terminators aren't really that much quicker on reaction time than a person would be. In the real future, this will -not- be the case, droids will be lightning-flash quick - i.e. slit your throat and put the knife away before anyone knows what's going on - or pummeling you the point of jelly in under a second. Looking at this is truly cool/terrifying.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/22/video-robot-hand-shows-off-amazing-dexterity-speed/

Wither gives you a +3.

2009-07-15T22:44:21Z

I have two things to report.

First - this game gave me a few solid hours of enjoyment. I've learned I get particular enjoyment out of any game where you can earn xp and enhance your character. That's really the biggest draw for me, I've discovered. This game is entirely about upgrading... in fact that's kind of all it's about!
'Upgrade' at armor games - http://armorgames.com/play/3955/upgrade-complete

Secondly - my awesome girlfriend got me a MAGIC BULLET - which, if you haven't heard of it, is a super convenient blender thingy that I have been wanting. I have made tasty drinks. It is good,.

That is all.

Buffy

2009-01-23T09:22:24Z

This may be a long shot, but does anyone know somewhere or someone from whom I might be able to borrow/rent/buy-real-cheap Season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Season 4 just ended so nicely, and I've got a yen.

Cthulu 4 u-lu

2008-12-01T18:38:11Z

http://www.spookysquid.com/notc/index.htm

Thought someone might get a kick out of this. ANDY?

Make sure you lose the game at least once.

The NEXT Election

2008-11-05T18:49:08Z

Who will you vote for in the next presidential election? Of course I'm speaking of the Obama-Robama-Adama election of 2012. You'll have three choices in this one.

A.) Obama (Democratic) - The democratic candidate we all know and love, up for re-election.

B.) Robama (Android Party) - An android made in the likeness of the new president elect. Robama's policies are extremely close to Obama's, plus there's the added bonus of his metal body withstanding most casual assasination attempts. Robama has no soul however, and only a mimicry of emotions.

C.) Adama (Colonial) - The Admiral himself from the Battlestar Galactica, bearing a striking resemblance to Edward James Olmos. He will be running with a peaceful cylon vice-president.

Alert! No Battlestar Season 4 spoilers please - I'm waiting for the dvd set before watching it!

They're coming

2008-10-24T07:06:01Z

Mmm... robo-wolves

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2008/10/packs-of-robots-will-hunt-down.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=specrt10_head_Pack%20hunting%20robots

Invader Palin

2008-10-07T10:26:29Z

Sigh. And I'm trying so hard to be objective when it comes to her. SO HARD. WHY DOES SHE MAKE IT SO HARD FOR ME?!?

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/06/in_fla_palin_goes_for_the_roug.html

image_vapor @ 2008-10-04T03:24:00

2008-10-04T07:24:16Z

Because of my love of flowcharts, and because I think it'll make a few people giggle.

End of the world.

2008-09-10T17:29:23Z

This made me chuckle.

Has the large hadron collider destroyed the world yet?

More Squiddity fun

2008-09-02T16:29:12Z

It looks like we're doing well! Check out this article... from the philadelphia inquirer

and this one, somewhat complimentary... from the city paper

also, this trailer for the show is a lot of fun...

and if you want to check the site out again, it's here, complete with showtimes.

The Giant Squid!

2008-08-28T09:04:12Z

Hello folks. Come see our fringe show!

Not only did I do a bunch of the script-work, this puppy also has my lighting design.

So you should come see it!

The Giant Squid

Philadelphia Fringe Festival

Disque Hall, Drexel University
32nd + Chestnut Streets

Aug 29 & 30, Sept 5 & 6, Sept 10 - 13

@ 10pm

Tickets $10

Website: http://thegiantsquid.org/index.html

to order tickets click here!

The Humans Are Dead

2008-07-19T03:10:01Z

This is for Amy because I heard she had a bad day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGoi1MSGu64

Dragons!

2008-03-29T17:32:58Z

'There is some minuscule probability, he said, “the Large Hadron Collider might make dragons that might eat us up.”'

Ahhh!

Taken out of context from here

Oh Danny Boy, Oh Boy Oh Boy

2008-03-19T00:16:41Z

Yes, it's belated, but still so good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA_D3KU

Also... I now realize I totally missed the boat with my default icon by not posting on the one day it would be perfectly relevant. Maybe next year.

Whee

2008-03-13T03:11:47Z

--Saddam's government, for example, had a program for the "development, construction, certification and training for car bombs and suicide vests in 1999 and 2000." --

Suicide vest development? Definitely. Construction? Of course. Training? Sure.

Certification? For what would one need certification in suicide vest use? Were they worried that an uncertified user might hurt themselves - or other people?

More publication news

2008-03-03T23:06:02Z

Ugh!

As I posted earlier, I've recently been published, which is super-great. I just received notification today that another magazine had received that same story (it was a simultaneous submission to a few different magazines) and they -also- had accepted the story for publication! Unfortunately my notification of the story's publication in the first magazine had not yet reached them.

This second magazine would have paid me - $25 only, most likely - but it's not about the money. It just kills me that I'm having such luck and can't accept it.

I guess this just means I need to keep submitting, and no slacking off!

Published!

2008-02-28T01:36:09Z

After many years of trying, I finally snagged my first publishing credit in this magazine. The link is not working for me right now - which isn't the most comforting thing in the world - but hopefully by the time anyone clicks it, it'll be back up.

Now I'm not sure if it's an online publication or a physical magazine, but I don't really care at the moment. Celebrate, celebrate, dance to the music.

I'm extremely happy. There's no money involved, but the publishing credit is worth more to me right now.

Now, granted this isn't -technically- the first time my work has been published, but it -is- the first time I've been published not-in-Flemish.

For the record I have nothing against Flemish.

Sci-Fi Gripes

2008-01-30T13:17:17Z

It bothers me when science fiction isn't thought out to all ends (or practically at all). The most frequent transgressors are television shows, undoubtedly due to the need to a.) keep the plot moving and b.) stick to a half-hour/hour format with appropriately spaced commercial breaks.

All the same, it would be nice if writers on sci-fi shows made a bit of extra effort. For hoopla-sakes here, we're talking about -sci-fi-, the genre that birthed an uncountable nerd-dom who can recite to you such minutiae as 'how many shuttle-bays does the next-gen Enterprise have (three) or why does Sam Beckett have a strand of white hair (supercomputer-donated brain cells). These are people that will pick up on inconsistencies!

My specific irritants of late are the latest seasons of Dr. Who, and only because I'm growing to love the show so dearly. It is my feeling that on such shows, one should really employ a 'scientific consultant' who checks all your sci-fi for you while you write your script. Heck, Star Trek had one (for a time at least [fuck you warp-ten-DNA-regressing Voyager] ) and in my humble opinion, the show benefited from it.

In short, all I'm saying, is that many sci-fi fans get tossed out of the wonderful world being created (if only for a moment) when there's an implausible element of science-fiction. It's much akin to realizing that the extra that died in the last scene is in the background of this one. It just makes you unhappy.

image_vapor @ 2008-01-17T00:29:00

2008-01-17T05:31:23Z

An Observation:

Folks seem to get weirded out over bugs touching their food, and yet honey, a substance that has been stored within a hive -infested- by insects, is a popular consumable.

.exe ... i see you watching me

2008-01-03T08:16:40Z

I recently downloaded some new software onto my computer: a program to run the slide and negative scanner I've been lent to help my parents archive some of their old slides.

All goes well, then i notice an advertisement for the company that made the program (arcsoft in this case) hanging out on the bottom of my screen.

AN ADVERTISEMENT!?!?

How dare it appear on my hallowed desktop? How dare it!

If there's one thing I can't abide, it's advertising that invades one's personal space. What the hell makes this program -so- special that it feels it needs to display itself on one's DESKTOP of all places? Heck, why don't we let ALL programs do that? I mean... we may want to know about all the helpful features we can buy from them! We may want to make sure we're reminded constantly so that we can NEVER POSSIBLY FORGET how HELPFUL this company can be! Whee-fucking-ha!!

First I look in the program itself for an easy way of turning this perky little feature off. No dice. This causes my anger to grow.

Luckily, I am long past the point of this sort of intrusion being a real problem. I haven't used my copy of 'hijack_this' in quite a while, but it didn't take long to unearth it. With a couple of informed deletions, this little problem should be slowly, horribly dying in a pool of ones and zeroes by now.

Damn my binary animism... that imagery has brought me to feel for the little bugger. *sniff*

But no! We must remain strong! Down with programs feeling they must check for updates, check for updates, check for updates until the sheer flabby weight of them suffocate poor defenseless operating systems! We have seen too many noble compys quicksand to death in this fashion!

Yes, Virginia, quicksand -is- a verb.

Talk More Gooder

2007-12-28T09:36:59Z

The other day I was on the phone with a prospective employer. I'd attempted to get a hold of this person for the past week and a half, and this was the second time I'd called that day. I was finally about to reach the culmination of my efforts and actually speak to this individual for the first time - success!

So what happens? He gets on the phone, I begin to speak, and I say something like "Hi, my name is Tim Sawicki, I'm just calling to check on the status of my application.'

Only, I don't say the word application. In fact, I completely forget the word 'application' and simply say nothing for a period of about seven seconds.

I find myself fascinated with the workings of my own mind, and how things seem to drastically short-circuit from time to time. Speech has always been a potential quagmire for me, with periods of intelligent verbosity punctuated by moments of absolute oral failure. I often wonder if, as I age, ease of speaking will be one of the first things to go.