Having my birthday on April 1 has given me a unique appreciation of April Fools jokes. Namely, I hate them with a deep and unfathomable passion. Which is funny, since I enjoy the rest of the wackyness that comes with the April 1 birthday - it's just the pranks that get to me.
Also, at some point about 10 years ago, the Internet decided to put all kinds of wacky stuff up for April 1. This was really funny in 1996. Now, it's just Internet Jackass day. Usually, I leave the PC off on April 1.
However, I did think these we're pretty funny:
Witchaloks!
Gmail Autopilot!
New Fark Experience!
New Think Geek Products! (With the bonus game of "guess which of these will become real. Me, I want one of those sleeping bags.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
New Play Control!
Gamecube games rewired to use the Wii Controls. I finally get to play Metroid Prime 1 & 2.
(I'm loving the way that the Wii really is in many ways a GameCube do-over. And I mean that in the best way possible. Great hardware with great games that no-one played - because everyone bought a PS2 with GTA3 instead.)
(I'm loving the way that the Wii really is in many ways a GameCube do-over. And I mean that in the best way possible. Great hardware with great games that no-one played - because everyone bought a PS2 with GTA3 instead.)
Monday, March 23, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
It's always good news / Bad news with The Internet
Signing up for Facebook and Twitter in the same week have got me thinking alot about the web as a communications medium. The way it does.
Let's recap. I've got a blog with a feed. A Facebook page. Twitter. A Gmail account. Google Calendar. Google Reader. And an iPhone, with a whole mess of apps that tie into the above, along with mobile safari. Not to mention things like Yahoo Pipes and FeedBurner, which are sitting in the back row going "pick me, pick me!"
My response to this is to think that there must be a way to lash all that together to make my life easier. No, scratch that - by "easier", I really mean "more organized." Instead, "checking my email" now takes half an hour and uses a dozen services instead of ten minutes with Thunderbird like it used to.
I feel like you do about ten moves into working on a rubix cube. It's still all just a mess of different colors, and you're kinda still thrashing around, but the shape of the big picture is starting to form. You don't know the right moves to get there yet, but you're starting to be able to see the final shape down at the end of the hallway.
Let's recap. I've got a blog with a feed. A Facebook page. Twitter. A Gmail account. Google Calendar. Google Reader. And an iPhone, with a whole mess of apps that tie into the above, along with mobile safari. Not to mention things like Yahoo Pipes and FeedBurner, which are sitting in the back row going "pick me, pick me!"
My response to this is to think that there must be a way to lash all that together to make my life easier. No, scratch that - by "easier", I really mean "more organized." Instead, "checking my email" now takes half an hour and uses a dozen services instead of ten minutes with Thunderbird like it used to.
I feel like you do about ten moves into working on a rubix cube. It's still all just a mess of different colors, and you're kinda still thrashing around, but the shape of the big picture is starting to form. You don't know the right moves to get there yet, but you're starting to be able to see the final shape down at the end of the hallway.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Book Review: Henry IV, Part 2
For those of you just joining us, I decided to spend the fourth quarter of 2008 reading books without robots - the "sci-fi free fourth quarter." Figuring I'd jump in the deep end, I started with The Histories. Now, I'm writing reviews.
So, it turns out that on top of all of his other contributions to world literature, Shakespeare also invented crappy sequels. Because make no mistake, Henry IV part 2 is bad. Really bad.
It starts of promisingly, just moments after the end of part 1, with the Percy family receiving word of the rebels defeat and Hotspur's death. And then - nothing happens. For five acts.
The rebels get ready for one last battle - which never takes place. Henry IV's health continues to wane along with his faith in Prince Hal - whereupon the king dies off stage in an oddly perfunctory manner. Worst of all, though, is the Falstaff - Hal dynamic. The relationship between those two is what keeps Part 1 running (even though I didn't think Falstaff was funny,) and so, in the sequel, they spend the entire play apart, doing nothing of consequence.
The only part of the play worth talking about, really, is the final scene where Hal becomes king and rejects Falstaff and his other companions. It's epic and fantastic and everything a Shakespeare play should be. Tack that scene on to the end of Part 1, and you really have something. As it stands in Part 2, it still carries some weight, but due to the fact that it's the character's only scene together, even that doesn't have the punch it should.
It's hard, really, to come up with something to say. The play is dull - amazingly so. It feels like 4 and a half acts of padding, before we get to the final scene that should have ended the previous play. There's numerous theories about why there are two Henry IVs - one is that Part 2 was written to cash in on the success of Part 1, particularly the Falstaff character, and the other is that they were both one play originally, and then expanded to two for the same reason. I'm not sure which theory (if either) has the backing of the historical record, but having read them, it sure feels like that second theory is correct.
The closest we'll ever get to Shakespeare DVD deleted scenes.
So, it turns out that on top of all of his other contributions to world literature, Shakespeare also invented crappy sequels. Because make no mistake, Henry IV part 2 is bad. Really bad.
It starts of promisingly, just moments after the end of part 1, with the Percy family receiving word of the rebels defeat and Hotspur's death. And then - nothing happens. For five acts.
The rebels get ready for one last battle - which never takes place. Henry IV's health continues to wane along with his faith in Prince Hal - whereupon the king dies off stage in an oddly perfunctory manner. Worst of all, though, is the Falstaff - Hal dynamic. The relationship between those two is what keeps Part 1 running (even though I didn't think Falstaff was funny,) and so, in the sequel, they spend the entire play apart, doing nothing of consequence.
The only part of the play worth talking about, really, is the final scene where Hal becomes king and rejects Falstaff and his other companions. It's epic and fantastic and everything a Shakespeare play should be. Tack that scene on to the end of Part 1, and you really have something. As it stands in Part 2, it still carries some weight, but due to the fact that it's the character's only scene together, even that doesn't have the punch it should.
It's hard, really, to come up with something to say. The play is dull - amazingly so. It feels like 4 and a half acts of padding, before we get to the final scene that should have ended the previous play. There's numerous theories about why there are two Henry IVs - one is that Part 2 was written to cash in on the success of Part 1, particularly the Falstaff character, and the other is that they were both one play originally, and then expanded to two for the same reason. I'm not sure which theory (if either) has the backing of the historical record, but having read them, it sure feels like that second theory is correct.
The closest we'll ever get to Shakespeare DVD deleted scenes.
Friday, March 20, 2009
minor update to www.GabrielHelman.com
I finally got the style-switching widget working. (Among other nips and tweaks.) Yay me?
So long, Battlestar
The last ever episode of the New Battlestar Galactica is tonight. I've stayed as spoiler free as I possibly can, so I have no idea what's going to happen.
I'll just say this: Guys, please don't screw this up.
I'll just say this: Guys, please don't screw this up.
Where I am on the Internet, March 2009
This Blog
www.GabrielHelman.com
Twitter as ghelman
I seem to be on facebook now, as well.
I now have many, many ways to ignore all of you.
www.GabrielHelman.com
Twitter as ghelman
I seem to be on facebook now, as well.
I now have many, many ways to ignore all of you.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
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