Week 14: It would seem the symptoms weren't psychosomatic after all.

G: IT HAS A FACE!

H: And it looks like Gabe :)

G: Hi there, little guy. We don't know what you're favorite food is, or what you like to do for fun, or even what you're gender is, but we love you already. Welcome aboard.

SONICS!

Somebody put together a youTube movie of every single use of the Sonic Screwdriver.

Also, mad bonus points for the musical selection.

Words to Live By

“A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history-with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.”

--Mitch Ratcliffe


(Sidebar: while typing this in, I tried to find the correct Mitch Ratcliffe to attribute the quote to; I assume this is the right guy, but I'm still a little shaky.)

Volcanoes are Awesome

Recap: astronauts on the space station have taken a picture of an exploding volcano from orbit. My 10 year old self is FREAKING OUT.

(Via BoingBoing and NASA)

Week 13: Hello Second Trimester! :)

This week, it is a bitty little peach :) ADORABLE! We find out more facts this Thursday with ultrasound photos, will post soon...

The Beatles: Rock Band.

Alert readers of this space will have noted that we're both fans of Rock Band and The Beatles. So, Harmonix's new game is less a potential purchase as much as it is a lifestyle fine.

In case you missed it, check out the promo movies over at the official site. The opening cinematic is definitely the one to watch. To quote my Mother, "It's like they were actually THERE."

Oh by the way...

In case you missed the subtext in the last post, it turns out we're having a baby.

PREGGO REPORT: 12 weeks and steady as she goes...

So I am 12 weeks and 1 day today! I feel relieved and not ill at the moment; great feelings I haven't experienced much in the past 12 weeks :)

The baby is 2+ inches long and the size of a plum. How adorable is that!? I love the websites that equate fetal size to fruit, too cute.

The statistics took an exciting shift in our favor over the weekend, for those of you who don't know, 12 weeks is a marker all preg women wait for. Chances of the baby taking off at this point are significantly lower and we have moved into the wonderful territory of "90% Chance of Awesomeness!"

Thanks for all the well wishes and support!

Once again, YouTube brings the funny

It's a regular topic of horrified conversation in Doctor Who fan circles: what would the show look like in american hands (besides that mid-90s TV movie we don't talk about.)

As usual, YouTube has the answer:

Doctor Who opening in the styles of both Dallas and Arron Spelling.

This post inspired by the rumor that for next season, new show-runner Stephen Moffat is going to be replacing the existing opening credits with one that has a classic show style "face in space". As long as they get rid of that awful remix of the theme with something better, they can do whatever they want as far as I'm concerned.

(There's actually a very easy test to tell if a version of the Doctor Who theme is good or not: if you can identify a single instrument being used, they screwed up.)

Also, to wash that down with, check out Star Trek as the A-Team (whomever made that gets a FONTS WEEK thumbs up for the font in the title there.)

Forms!

I am so using these forms from here on out: bureauofcommunication.com

Wait, what?

One fifth of the world's population can't see the Milky Way?

I refuse to believe that this is a real thing.

The world doesn't work this way. If this was real it would be TOO SPECIAL.

The hotel vending machine could not be more ready to party.

MORNING. THUNDER.

Chico: where they install bottle openers INSIDE THE BATHROOM

It's midnight! Time to eat a burrito the size of my head!

Note: Yes, I ate the whole thing.

Heidi says: It was AMAZINGLY huge. I was impressed :)

Back at the scene of the crime

Happy Anniversary, Us.

Fact: Breakfast is delicious.

Remember, if it's the first meal of the day, it's still breakfast - even at 1pm.

Potstickers, check!

For the night before our one year anniversary, we figured we'd eat dinner at the place we had the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding.

(Spoiler Alert: This is also just about our favorite restaurant in Chico; House of Bamboo, which doesn't seem to have a website. It's this amazing "asian fusion" restaurant, and it's always empty whenever we go. If you're in the north-state, and want the best pot-stickers this side of the Three Gorges Dam, stop in and give House of Bamboo a try.)

Heidi has only one speed in Hotel Rooms

Why yes, Heidi did pack both a tablecloth and a vase for the hotel room.

This was not a responsible trip to the store

Human Languages: Not Type Safe

My new favorite programming blog, secrectGeek, has an excellent article about how the better you are at programming, the worse you are at talking to people.

The executive summary: programming languages reward terse clarity, something that human languages do not reward in any way.

Here's the bit I think is funny: everybody except programmers already knows all this. This is why job requirements for programming positions always list "good communication skills" as a requirement. Pretty much everywhere else that's assumed. With programmers you have to list it as a seperate job requirement.

It's a FONTS WEEK BONUS

After fonts week closed down, XKCD just happened to come out with a perfect postscript:





(and the requisite wiki link)

As long as we're talking about Adventure Games...

LucasArts has a new Indiana Jones action game coming out for the Wii: Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings. That's not real big news, in-and-of itself. What is interesting is that apparently the classic SCUMM game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis will be included as an unlockable bonus feature.

Hmmmmm.

So, LucasArts now has a SCUMM interpreter that natively runs on Wii hardware. (There's no word, as yet, as to whether ScummVM's code got used for any of this.) That seems like an awful lot of work for a single bonus feature.

On the other hand, as proof of concept piece as a prelude to releasing their old SCUMM games on the Wii's Virtual Console, that DOES seem worth the effort...

Look behind you! A Three-Headed Monkey!

Well, the unthinkable has happened: they're actually making a new Monkey Island game.

It's okay, I'll wait for you to glue your brain back together again just in time for me to BLOW IT APART: Tales of Monkey Island is being made by Telltale games, the dudes that made, among other things, the new Sam n' Max and the Strongbad Games. ALSO: they were the group of people who used to be the Adventure Game unit back at LucasArts in the old days when LucasArts made really good games, not highly questionable Star Wars shooters.

For example: the lead guy on the new Monkey Island is Dave Grossman, who was one-third of the team on the original Secret of Monkey Island along with Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer, not to mention the co-designer of Day of the Tentacle. And, they've brought a whole stack of the old team along as well, including Michael Land (the guy who wrote the music for the Monkey Island games and just about every other LucasArts game) and Dominic Armato (who played Guybrush in Monkey Island 3 & 4).

But wait, why stop there? At the same time, LucasArts is also releasing a remake of the original Secrect of Monkey Island, all tricked out for modern systems - but with the ability to switch back and forth to the old version.

Before you ask, Ron Gilbert has some awesome things to say about the situation.

Towards the end, he makes an excellent point. By the end of the year, he, Dave Grossman, and Tim Schafer will all have new games out. IS THIS THE END OF THE WORLD?


Its the end of the world for SUCKY GAMES, I can tell you that.