Friday, October 29, 2004
The movie situation |11:25 AM| I've spent the last couple of days trying to Video Capture this damn movie. Unfortunately, despite several hours of wrangling, I can't get the movie to look good for less than 130 megs of disk space. I can get it to 30-60, but it looks like ass.
Since it's not Oscar award winning, would you, the readers, like to see this movie sooner rather than later at the cost of quality, or do you want to wait until I learn a bit more about video compression and get something reasonable?
Edit:
I just spoke to Vid, and he pointed out that most Divx movies, and all DVD movies have about half the resolution of the movie I'm trying to convert. That'd explain just about every issue I've been having thus far. Hell, I could get that movie fixed and uploaded by 6pm, if I hurry.
(0) comments
Thursday, July 01, 2004
What if he DID have them in stock?! |6:41 PM| I was calling around town, trying to find those genetically modified fish, the zebras they made glow in the dark with some gene tinkering. The ones that are banned from being sold or brought into California (They fear science). I've aquired a big goddamn fish tank and I plan on (eventually) owning said fish. I'll probably get one (1) goldfish and see how long I can keep him alive. I hope he's not agoraphobic, as it will be the only thing inside of a 45 gallon monster. Anyhow, on to the story, in which I am seeking the strange GloFish(tm) modified zebra.
I called Herpeton's, which is the weird pet shop here in Austin, according to sources named Vid. A slowly speaking man picked up.
Cecil: "Hi there! I'm looking for those genetically modified zebras, the ones that glow?"
Guy: "No, sorry, we don't have any"
I hung up. Vid, who had heard the conversation, spoke up.
Vid: "You know, you didn't say 'fish'."
Cecil: "Eh?"
Vid: "You asked for 'Genetically modified glowing zebras'. He thought you were prank calling him."
I called back, and got the same slow-voiced employee.
Cecil: "Hi! I just called, and I was looking for the glow in the dark fish, the modified zebra fish. Not glow in the dark zebras."
Guy: "Uh huh, no, we don't carry any fish."
Cecil: "Oh, okay. I just didn't want you to think I was a lunatic"
Guy: "Uh huh."
I guess I should have been less worried about him being shocked. He works at an exotic pet store, half of his customers are probably killed 2 days after they buy their poisonous electric flying eels or whatever. I'm sure he's getting much stranger calls than a guy asking for psuedo-horses that give off light.
Herpeton's guy: "Herpetons, how may I help you?"
Caller: "Yeah, uh, I'm looking for uh, some vicious pirahna, you know, that could eat about 170, maybe 190 pounds of meat? Dead meat? That's in a bathtub?"
Guy: "Sorry, we don't carry any fish."
Or...
Caller: "I'm looking for a toothless lamprey, something that would be able to latch onto an object about 6-7 inches long, about an inch or so in diameter?"
H. Guy: "Sorry. No fish."
(0) comments
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Dumber Conversations |9:14 AM| I'd say that conversations about the weather are among the most pointless topics we currently rely on to make small talk. Though I myself am more guilty of forcing conversations than I'd like to admit, I do my best to stay the fuck away from weather, sports, and TV shows.
I think I have finally heard a dumber conversation than "Howabout this heat?". I was making breakfast at the office this morning...
Videodrome's Iron Will Bagels:
Lenders Plain Medium Sliced Bagels
Single Scrambled Egg Patty
Single Sausage patty
Create sandwich, wrap in 2 paper towels, heat for 90 seconds in microwave. Weep about your current tasks.
3 women, who I assume were admins*, were standing around the snack machine discussing their air conditioners and heaters.
Okay, I can understand discussing the huge energy and cost savings that a properly sealed A/C system or digital schedule thermostat can offer. These women were nodding and "Uh-huh"-ing to descriptions of space heaters and how nice the A/C in their house is.
Admin1: "And we have this nice ceramic heater that sits near the couch..."
Admins 2 and 3: "Uh huh, yeah, mmmm"
Admin1: And it just warms up the place and the air moves around the room and bah blah hosewater...moo mooo
Fuck. Indoor Weather. From "Howabout this heat" to "howabout this space heater" I was hoping that one of them would wake up and say "Holy shit that was the dumbest conversation I have ever had. I am a weaker person if I don't learn from this and never repeat it again."
I know this can't happen. I'm sure at some point I'll hear people discussing the plots to TV shows that all participants had missed.
Side notes:
*Admin is a name for secretary that is less degrading, allegedly.
Threat I wanted to yell at a driver last week:
"Women will weep at the mention of your name when the world learns what I have done to you."
Threat used jokingly in response to patent infringement and intellectual property theft:
"...I'd hate to have to turn your life story into a lesson children learn for centuries to come."
(0) comments
Monday, April 19, 2004
|2:54 AM| Dick is a killer: Tape loop parody song of George W. Bush speech. Fairly amusing in parts. I put it here because I wanted to download it at home, and found that the original host had taken it down. I assume other people might have had a similar problem, so here it is.
Sold books
I went to Half Price books on Sunday, carrying two big boxes of books. I was paid more cash than I expected, I bought some pulpish novels to read at work, and got rid of a whole lot of stuff that I won't have to carry when I move.
So why did I feel bad about it? Some of the books were gifts, some of them I'd had for years and years. I'd read my fill of them, though, and if I need them again I know where I can find them. I still felt kind of guilty about selling them, but I knew it to be an unreasonable feeling.
I told PortalStar that a couple of them were some of the best books-as-gifts I'd received as a child, and she replied that now hopefully some other child will get them and be just as excited.
I'll probably end up selling several more boxes of books, and that reminds me, I need to send Sinclair back his Dylan books. Speaking of Sinclair, let's all congratulate him on getting a job. HUZZAH.
Portal, Vid and I went Geocaching on Sunday. That was a fine outing, it's been a while since we've gone. The caches we found weren't all the exciting, but getting to them was very interesting. At one point, we had to construct a primitive bridge to cross a river that I estimated to be "Eh, looks like a foot or so deep." As it turned out, that was just how far down I could see, as when the bridge collapsed Vid found the actual depth to be several feet. We scared off a herd of turtles, and found a color changing lizard called an...oh crap. Annul? Anuol? I'll ask Vid.
At one point I had the choice of being educational or being a smart ass when the question of pollution and its effect on scenic areas.
Cecil: Speaking of, did you know that you can't read that Egyptian relic, Cleopatra's Needle they have in New York?
Portal: Oh? Why is that?
Cecil: Because it's written in fuckin' Egyptian!
But you don't have to take my word for it, take a look at this link!
bought robot
feel better
Linux machine STILL FUCKING DOWN
Buying that vase
Fark linked to pictoz.com again
Need to move the T-shirts
(0) comments
Thursday, July 10, 2003
Geocaching is the new littering/Homepage |10:32 AM| I was reading a troll's thread on SA and at some point he said "I'm going Geocaching." I said out loud "What the hell is geocaching?" and the person behind me (kitten, from the AZ trip), said "It's a hobby".
Geocaching Faq
I took a look at the website and exclaimed "This is the coolest fucking thing ever". Alright, maybe I cursed a bit more. I showed it to Videodrome and he shared my "This is fucking awesome".
He has now already purchased a GPS unit and has run out on a couple. Thread on TPL forums
Vid managed to walk to directly into a thorn bush while staring at the GPS display. I wonder how many Geocachers have met an unfortunate end at the bottom of a cliff?
"You are 10 meters from target."
"You are 5 meters from target."
"You are 2 meters from target."
"Cool, I'm almost the..AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
*THUD*
I'm so excited to be a part of this.
(0) comments
Thursday, June 05, 2003
Understanding the yellow lighter. |9:12 AM|
This lighter is terrifying to a pair of gamblers with whom I play poker. I have no idea, but they both seem quite afraid of it, and told me to get rid of it as soon as possible. Also, one of them specified "Whatever you do, just don't throw it onto your bed". Seeing as I don't have a bed at the moment, I'll avoid throwing it onto my couch. Wait, what am I saying? I'm going to try hiding it around one of these guy's houses. Actually, since my roommate is dating one of them, I may hide it on her bed before the two of them get home. I'll get to the bottom of this one way or another.
If you happen to know why the heck I should be afraid of a yellow lighter, please let me know.
The damn webcam portal is broken. Here is an exciting image of me.
13 days until International Vampire Meetup day. I'm abandoning Vid's axe murder idea in favor of going undercover. I'm thinking of investing in a digital camcorder. The Sony that my uncle just bought rules an inordinate amount of ass, and even has the nightshot feature. Very cool if I start creeping around places at night. If I do purchase a digital camcorder, I'll be taking it to this "Meetup Day" for documentation purposes. It should be amusing, and I wonder if I should wear plastic fangs?
What are the rules of vampire etiquette? Should I be excited by the movie "Underworld" or offended by it? Do I bring my own blood, or do I bring cash to pay the person who does? If I brought a hip flask of pig's blood, how many people could I get to drink it?
Ruffles, how many ruffles should I have on my shirt?
(0) comments
The movie situation |11:25 AM| I've spent the last couple of days trying to Video Capture this damn movie. Unfortunately, despite several hours of wrangling, I can't get the movie to look good for less than 130 megs of disk space. I can get it to 30-60, but it looks like ass.
Since it's not Oscar award winning, would you, the readers, like to see this movie sooner rather than later at the cost of quality, or do you want to wait until I learn a bit more about video compression and get something reasonable?
Edit:
I just spoke to Vid, and he pointed out that most Divx movies, and all DVD movies have about half the resolution of the movie I'm trying to convert. That'd explain just about every issue I've been having thus far. Hell, I could get that movie fixed and uploaded by 6pm, if I hurry.
(0) comments
Thursday, July 01, 2004
What if he DID have them in stock?! |6:41 PM| I was calling around town, trying to find those genetically modified fish, the zebras they made glow in the dark with some gene tinkering. The ones that are banned from being sold or brought into California (They fear science). I've aquired a big goddamn fish tank and I plan on (eventually) owning said fish. I'll probably get one (1) goldfish and see how long I can keep him alive. I hope he's not agoraphobic, as it will be the only thing inside of a 45 gallon monster. Anyhow, on to the story, in which I am seeking the strange GloFish(tm) modified zebra.
I called Herpeton's, which is the weird pet shop here in Austin, according to sources named Vid. A slowly speaking man picked up.
Cecil: "Hi there! I'm looking for those genetically modified zebras, the ones that glow?"
Guy: "No, sorry, we don't have any"
I hung up. Vid, who had heard the conversation, spoke up.
Vid: "You know, you didn't say 'fish'."
Cecil: "Eh?"
Vid: "You asked for 'Genetically modified glowing zebras'. He thought you were prank calling him."
I called back, and got the same slow-voiced employee.
Cecil: "Hi! I just called, and I was looking for the glow in the dark fish, the modified zebra fish. Not glow in the dark zebras."
Guy: "Uh huh, no, we don't carry any fish."
Cecil: "Oh, okay. I just didn't want you to think I was a lunatic"
Guy: "Uh huh."
I guess I should have been less worried about him being shocked. He works at an exotic pet store, half of his customers are probably killed 2 days after they buy their poisonous electric flying eels or whatever. I'm sure he's getting much stranger calls than a guy asking for psuedo-horses that give off light.
Herpeton's guy: "Herpetons, how may I help you?"
Caller: "Yeah, uh, I'm looking for uh, some vicious pirahna, you know, that could eat about 170, maybe 190 pounds of meat? Dead meat? That's in a bathtub?"
Guy: "Sorry, we don't carry any fish."
Or...
Caller: "I'm looking for a toothless lamprey, something that would be able to latch onto an object about 6-7 inches long, about an inch or so in diameter?"
H. Guy: "Sorry. No fish."
(0) comments
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Dumber Conversations |9:14 AM| I'd say that conversations about the weather are among the most pointless topics we currently rely on to make small talk. Though I myself am more guilty of forcing conversations than I'd like to admit, I do my best to stay the fuck away from weather, sports, and TV shows.
I think I have finally heard a dumber conversation than "Howabout this heat?". I was making breakfast at the office this morning...
Videodrome's Iron Will Bagels:
Lenders Plain Medium Sliced Bagels
Single Scrambled Egg Patty
Single Sausage patty
Create sandwich, wrap in 2 paper towels, heat for 90 seconds in microwave. Weep about your current tasks.
3 women, who I assume were admins*, were standing around the snack machine discussing their air conditioners and heaters.
Okay, I can understand discussing the huge energy and cost savings that a properly sealed A/C system or digital schedule thermostat can offer. These women were nodding and "Uh-huh"-ing to descriptions of space heaters and how nice the A/C in their house is.
Admin1: "And we have this nice ceramic heater that sits near the couch..."
Admins 2 and 3: "Uh huh, yeah, mmmm"
Admin1: And it just warms up the place and the air moves around the room and bah blah hosewater...moo mooo
Fuck. Indoor Weather. From "Howabout this heat" to "howabout this space heater" I was hoping that one of them would wake up and say "Holy shit that was the dumbest conversation I have ever had. I am a weaker person if I don't learn from this and never repeat it again."
I know this can't happen. I'm sure at some point I'll hear people discussing the plots to TV shows that all participants had missed.
Side notes:
*Admin is a name for secretary that is less degrading, allegedly.
Threat I wanted to yell at a driver last week:
"Women will weep at the mention of your name when the world learns what I have done to you."
Threat used jokingly in response to patent infringement and intellectual property theft:
"...I'd hate to have to turn your life story into a lesson children learn for centuries to come."
Labels: Vid
(0) comments
Monday, April 19, 2004
|2:54 AM| Dick is a killer: Tape loop parody song of George W. Bush speech. Fairly amusing in parts. I put it here because I wanted to download it at home, and found that the original host had taken it down. I assume other people might have had a similar problem, so here it is.
Sold books
I went to Half Price books on Sunday, carrying two big boxes of books. I was paid more cash than I expected, I bought some pulpish novels to read at work, and got rid of a whole lot of stuff that I won't have to carry when I move.
So why did I feel bad about it? Some of the books were gifts, some of them I'd had for years and years. I'd read my fill of them, though, and if I need them again I know where I can find them. I still felt kind of guilty about selling them, but I knew it to be an unreasonable feeling.
I told PortalStar that a couple of them were some of the best books-as-gifts I'd received as a child, and she replied that now hopefully some other child will get them and be just as excited.
I'll probably end up selling several more boxes of books, and that reminds me, I need to send Sinclair back his Dylan books. Speaking of Sinclair, let's all congratulate him on getting a job. HUZZAH.
Portal, Vid and I went Geocaching on Sunday. That was a fine outing, it's been a while since we've gone. The caches we found weren't all the exciting, but getting to them was very interesting. At one point, we had to construct a primitive bridge to cross a river that I estimated to be "Eh, looks like a foot or so deep." As it turned out, that was just how far down I could see, as when the bridge collapsed Vid found the actual depth to be several feet. We scared off a herd of turtles, and found a color changing lizard called an...oh crap. Annul? Anuol? I'll ask Vid.
At one point I had the choice of being educational or being a smart ass when the question of pollution and its effect on scenic areas.
Cecil: Speaking of, did you know that you can't read that Egyptian relic, Cleopatra's Needle they have in New York?
Portal: Oh? Why is that?
Cecil: Because it's written in fuckin' Egyptian!
But you don't have to take my word for it, take a look at this link!
bought robot
feel better
Linux machine STILL FUCKING DOWN
Buying that vase
Fark linked to pictoz.com again
Need to move the T-shirts
Labels: Broken Links, Geocaching, Mariko, Vid
(0) comments
Thursday, July 10, 2003
Geocaching is the new littering/Homepage |10:32 AM| I was reading a troll's thread on SA and at some point he said "I'm going Geocaching." I said out loud "What the hell is geocaching?" and the person behind me (kitten, from the AZ trip), said "It's a hobby".
Geocaching Faq
I took a look at the website and exclaimed "This is the coolest fucking thing ever". Alright, maybe I cursed a bit more. I showed it to Videodrome and he shared my "This is fucking awesome".
He has now already purchased a GPS unit and has run out on a couple. Thread on TPL forums
Vid managed to walk to directly into a thorn bush while staring at the GPS display. I wonder how many Geocachers have met an unfortunate end at the bottom of a cliff?
"You are 10 meters from target."
"You are 5 meters from target."
"You are 2 meters from target."
"Cool, I'm almost the..AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
*THUD*
I'm so excited to be a part of this.
Labels: Geocaching, Vid
(0) comments
Thursday, June 05, 2003
Understanding the yellow lighter. |9:12 AM|
This lighter is terrifying to a pair of gamblers with whom I play poker. I have no idea, but they both seem quite afraid of it, and told me to get rid of it as soon as possible. Also, one of them specified "Whatever you do, just don't throw it onto your bed". Seeing as I don't have a bed at the moment, I'll avoid throwing it onto my couch. Wait, what am I saying? I'm going to try hiding it around one of these guy's houses. Actually, since my roommate is dating one of them, I may hide it on her bed before the two of them get home. I'll get to the bottom of this one way or another.
If you happen to know why the heck I should be afraid of a yellow lighter, please let me know.
The damn webcam portal is broken. Here is an exciting image of me.
13 days until International Vampire Meetup day. I'm abandoning Vid's axe murder idea in favor of going undercover. I'm thinking of investing in a digital camcorder. The Sony that my uncle just bought rules an inordinate amount of ass, and even has the nightshot feature. Very cool if I start creeping around places at night. If I do purchase a digital camcorder, I'll be taking it to this "Meetup Day" for documentation purposes. It should be amusing, and I wonder if I should wear plastic fangs?
What are the rules of vampire etiquette? Should I be excited by the movie "Underworld" or offended by it? Do I bring my own blood, or do I bring cash to pay the person who does? If I brought a hip flask of pig's blood, how many people could I get to drink it?
Ruffles, how many ruffles should I have on my shirt?
Labels: Broken Links, Pictures, Vid
(0) comments
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