I swear, I’m finding more amusing YouTube videos than anything else to post up here, but it’s very difficult to resist! If you don’t watch Battlestar Galactica, you probably won’t find it all that amusing…but if you do…you will… 🙂
And because it’s amusing…
Katie visited Ted Drewes while she was in town recently…and it’s on YouTube… She doesn’t know what Crab Rangoon is… And we also get to find out why they “call it a concrete”…
Find the Difference
One of these things is not like the other… And it amuses me greatly… 🙂 Hint: One difference is “3,000” and the other is “90,000+”…
Dunno ’bout this…
Don’t get me wrong: I’m going to see it when it premieres next May, and most of the pictures that have been released recently look pretty sweet…but this one of the bridge is kinda worrisome…
The crew itself looks good in the parts…but that bridge…is…a bit bright…? And…colorful?
Here’s another picture, while we’re at it:
Fun with 3D animation!
So, back in the old days of high school (10 years ago…sigh…), I had a great deal of fun in the CASA program. Most of what I did during that time, as I don’t know the first thing about building things, was to work with animation software like Bryce3D and 3D Studio Max. We set up some animations of the space shuttle docking with the International Space Station, of the shuttle landing on the tarmack, and of explosions in space for when the ISS would be invaded by aliens (it’s true…it happened nearly every day… :-P).
Anyway, Slickdeals.net had highlighted the free version of Bryce 5 a few months back and I grabbed it, but didn’t have much to use it for…until now…
Brooke and I are now quite involved at Webster Hills UMC getting our church service “revitalized,” which entails some changes in format, but perhaps more importantly, atmosphere and environment for the service. We’re trying to get people to buy new chairs for the service, mostly for comfort but also to absorb sound, as part of this “change in atmosphere.” We’ve got some money raised, but haven’t progressed as far as we’d like to if we’re going to get this moving by Christmas Eve.
Anyway, Brooke is setting up a Powerpoint presentation that will hopefully be played this weekend. Originally, we were going to Photoshop in some of the new chairs with a change in paint job, etc. into an image of the gym. Mostly, it looked terrible when I tried it…
…so I gave Bryce 5 a go…and had a great deal of fun messing with 3D animation again!
…and it’s now up on Youtube… 🙂
Old people are funny!
This was on last night’s Daily Show… One of the commentators, Wyatt Cenac, shows clips from the debate with some old people and gets their comments… Cenac doesn’t have much to say, as the old people are plenty willing to give their opinions.
But yeah, either way, some striking insights!
Top 10 McCain “Hail Mary” stunts…
Slate.com has predicted the next 10 “Hail Mary” campaign stunts to follow suspension of his campaign:
1. Returns to Vietnam and jails himself.
2. Offers the post of “vice vice president” to Warren Buffett.
3. Challenges Obama to suspend campaign so they both can go and personally drill for oil offshore.
4. Learns to use computer.
5. Does bombing run over Taliban-controlled tribal areas of Pakistan.
6. Offers to forgo salary, sell one house.
7. Sex-change operation.
8. Suspends campaign until Nov. 4, offers to start being president right now.
9. Sells Alaska to Russia for $700 billion.
10. Pledges to serve only one term. OK, half a term.
Bigotry and the new frontier…
So, I don’t have an Xbox 360…nor do I really want one…but this is one of the reasons why Nintendo has been so slow to get voice chat features in its games: the company wants to protect children from hearing the other idiots that frequently populate these games.
I’ve only listened in on some of these chats on the Xbox a few times, but I do remember specifically playing the Halo 3 Beta at Josh’s place and hearing what these kids are saying. Not to say that I was any different at the age of 13 (although I hope I was!), but seriously, there are a lot of kids out there playing games (chatting online, posting on Facebook, etc.) that really don’t think about what they’re saying and thinking they’re “cool” for using language (“colorful metaphors,” for the “Star Trek” fans out there) that is somewhat unbecoming. Personally, I find the language part to be more of an annoyance than anything else, but making fun of people and uttering racist and homophobic comments online or while gaming because you are an anonymous person on the internet is pretty unacceptable.
Arguably, were I a parent with a 13-year-old, I’d be more likely to let them play violent video games than to actually talk to these other kids while they play them. I know a few people that don’t even turn their chat feature on so they don’t have to listen to some of these people.
Anyway, this video is from Current TV (w00t, Al Gore!) and is discussing gays and video gaming, and more specifically the “new frontier” of bigotry when a person can be even more anonymous than they used to be (wearing a KKK hood, for example).
I found it interesting, at least…
On being Pro-Life for Obama…
Obama has made the point a few times, but it tends to fly over the heads of many that consider themselves to be “pro-life”… Obama has consistently said that he wants to limit the need for abortion by providing good health care and education to the masses, which tends to be the prevailing strategy of Western Europe (most of which has a lower abortion rate than the U.S.). Regardless, Sister Mary Jude Jun made an editorial comment in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch that gets this point across very well. Keep in mind that she makes no mention of who she’ll vote for in November, but she still makes the point effectively.
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Web of life
The view of pro-life is distorted when only the birth of children is considered instead of the entire web of life. Abortion is not the underlying problem. Poverty and other difficult situations lead women to this extreme way out. What can be done to make abortions fewer and the entire web of life more respected?
If, with billions to spend on space research, we rejoice to find water on Mars, do we have funds for the untold numbers of children dying each day for lack of clean water on this planet?
New mothers often work several jobs to survive. They need child care when they are at work, healthy food for their children and insurance for sickness. Are we pro-life when we forget about mothers and their babies after they are born?
Countless women die in childbirth because they lack prenatal care; sometimes, the babies die, too. Can we be pro-life and not be concerned?
Jails are a multi-billion dollar business; we fill them with our youth. Could we use those funds to give them the help they need before the cycle of violence begins on our streets and in our schools?
Life is precious from the womb to the tomb; in identifying only one part as important while neglecting the entire web of life issues, we lose our values as citizens and the respect of others.
Sister Mary Jude Jun | St. Louis
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Point is: people should realize that there is a clear distinction between “pro-life” and “pro-birth,” and this distinction is frequently lost in the nuance of political campaigning and speeches.
If you’re truly pro-life, you need to look at all the policies being put forward instead of looking for “ban abortion” in a political platform, and then writing off everything else that individual or party stands for.
Send Revival
Recently, there has been what is called a “retro revival” in video gaming: old properties that are being reproduced in nearly the same fashion as when they first came out, from Bionic Commando Rearmed to Space Invaders Extreme. Most of these include generally similar gameplay, but beefed up, modern graphics.
Mega Man 9, on the other hand, isn’t going that route. The first Mega Man game was released in 1987 for the NES by Capcom and, since then, the character has appeared in over 100 video games. Many fans of the originals have stated that the franchise has been diluted over the years, with many of the past few iterations being less than impressive.
Anyway, Capcom decided to make Mega Man 9, and all indications are that the game will be awesome. The game will be released for all three console platforms and are made in the original 8-bit graphics with the original sound. The Mega Man series is one I never played, personally, but now that they’ve released the original Mega Man and, arguable the best in the series, Mega Man 2 to Nintendo’s Virtual Console, I’ve been playing and loving them. The attractive part about the games is that they aren’t linear – you can go after any of the levels in any order you want, using whichever power ups from each level to help you with the next one. So, if you can’t beat the first one, you can go on to the seventh boss instead.
Anyway, Mega Man 9 releases in Japan next week and, hopefully, North America shortly thereafter. Until then, I’ve still got to fight through the rest of Mega Man 2…