October 31, 2005

RuneScape Halloween Events

RuneScape has several neat, limited time Halloween events this year. One is little kids trick-or-treating in Lumbridge, the first town. Here's my photo album of pictures of that.



Ah, the kids love me...


It's amazing what the little buggers say...


...particularly when the treat you give em is 100 gold! :)


Another Halloween event is the Grim Reaper appearing when you die. I did on purpose just to see 'im. I saw 'im. Whoop te doo! I actually was able to right click and examine him before respawing in Lumbridge. The result is above in all its glory.


Finally, on a somewhat related, somewhat not note, I like Google Doodles...

TorT Complete!

We've just returned from taking Bren trick-or-treating. We had a good time. About 3/4 of the way thru he finally "got it" I think, and was anxious to go from door to door. We told him "OK, Bren, go push the button!" and that really worked for him. He loves pushing buttons. In this case doorbells. It was fun. He petted some friendly dogs and a really nice cat. At the same house as the really nice cat, no one was home and he said "Trick-or-Treat" like 3 times at the closed door. Doh!!! He wouldn't say it to anyone all night, and he finally did, and only we heard it. Oh well, it was still worth it.

Pitchers! :


A giant and small pumpkin at one house.


Jen and Bren. He loved the light saber.


Bren pets the really nice kitty.


I also had a fun day. I was Shaggy and Scooby Doo today. Won 2nd prize in the costume contest at work!!!


The Halloween contest results from work. (Cesar was really "Dr Oops, The Mad Dentist, by the way!)


Me and my pal


More pictures from today:


Bren at lunch at South garden Chinese Restaurant. Yummy!


A soap I saw at family dollar. Just too weird for words...

All in all, a good Halloween 05!

Happy Halloween!!!




Happy Halloween, particularly to Jen and Brendan, my two favorite hallow-spooks, and to you softball players and medical students!!! :)

October 28, 2005

250!

This is my 250th post! Woo Hoo! It should be something significant, but it isn't.

It's just a note to myself about a game that I don't want to forget. It's called Fate. It's a Diablo clone apparently. I'd like to play this some time. Maybe I can find it on good ole eBay. Here's another review - http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/fate/review.html



How interesting...I just learned that it is from WildTangent, who are known for their online games. So, it is downloadable and only 20 bucks. That's why I can't find it on eBay...

I need to catch up on sleep again. I've been grumpy lately. Sorry... :+

October 26, 2005

The what?!?!?

From The Daily Yomiuri



I've never heard of the Yahoo! Japan dome before. I think that's where the Catfish are playing their next game though. Unfortunately, they all have to drive to Japan, so the game may be delayed... :)

And yes, I read a Japanese newspaper online. But only for the articles!

Morning Sun

This is what I saw driving to work the other morning. How pretty!

Chibi Quadruplets



I really like this little Chibi girl animated character. She's sooo cuuuuuute!

Pumpkins!!!

Now I LIKE this!!! Zoom it!

Whose broad stripes and bright stars

This is a kinda cool picture. It's supposedly real and un-retouched. I'll choose to believe that I guess, though I'm just the type of person who would go out on the net and try to find out otherwise...

Mick Dungle Burger

Another McDonald's visit for us. Bren likes it there!



This IS scary!



I have nightmares about my garden plants turning into ethernet cables and coming after me...

And by the way, whoever told them that IT jobs are growing is being "very optimistic" I think. I don't think we'll ever be back to the IT boom that we had a few years ago.

Wired Article

Here's a good article from Wired Magazine.



Update: I originally said "good", but what I really meant was "racy." Add "for adults only" and that pretty much covers it. The truth is that I had emailed it to myself and when I was posting, I didn't have Acrobat to view it, so I just slapped it up here. Oops on me! Nonetheless, it is still worth reading...you've been warned though! Hehe

TWO of em?



The woman with two bottom lips.
The graphic designer ought to be kicked in the mouse for this one. What a bad photo-mod!

High Cost



Gee, the cost of kids these days!!!

FHEC Info

On a totally different and a bit funnier note:



I don't want to be sent here when I'm old...good thing it's in Japan!

DHMO info



I saw this in the science department at the university and I felt that it was so important that I wanted to share it with the Blog readers of the world. I'm sorry the picture is so fuzzy, but you can read this info and more at http://www.dhmo.org/ Please contact your elected officials regarding this. It's a life or death issue.

New Zoom Code

I think I'm really going to like the new zoom code I've added. I originally got it from Daan on this thread http://www.jsworkshop.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=118, but I've modified it a little since then. For use in Blogger, you edit your template, and add this to the HEAD area near the top.

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript">

function PicWindow(piclink)
{
pic = new Image();
pic.src = (piclink);
PicWindow_GetSize(piclink,1);
}

function PicWindow_GetSize(piclink,attempt)
{
if (attempt == 20)
{
PicWindow_Open(piclink,580,580);
}
else if (pic.width != 0)
{
PicWindow_Open(piclink,pic.width,pic.height);
}
else
{
attempt += 1;
timeoutfunction = 'PicWindow_GetSize("' + piclink + '",' + attempt + ')'
setTimeout(timeoutfunction,50);
}
}

function PicWindow_Open(piclink,width,height)
{
width = width + 20;
height = height + 20;
win = window.open(piclink,'','width=' + width + ',height=' + height);
}

</SCRIPT>



Then to make the link where a person clicks, you use this code:

<a onMouseOver="window.status='Zoom in!'; return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=' '; return true;" onclick="javascript:PicWindow(this.href);return false;" href="MyPicture.jpg" target="_blank"> <img src="MyPicture.jpg"> </a>

Instead of "Zoom in!" you can put any text you want. Also replace MyPicture.jpg with your filename. You can even use http://www.server.com/MyPicture.jpg if you need to. Just mind your quotation marks!

For a while I was working on changing the window title of the popup to something like "Zoomed Picture", but I just didn't have the kind of success I wanted. http://www.javascripter.net/faq/writingt.htm helped me a lot, but I ended up not using it anyway. All this is useful practice for my javascript skills, so none of it is wasted effort really.

October 25, 2005

Happy Birthday, Jen!

Happy Birthday, Jen! Please go to her site and wish her a happy birthday with a comment! That'll help make her day. :)

http://www.jenh.org

October 24, 2005

A picture of a painting

I took this picture of a painting while I was in the university president's office. I like it a lot. I work in that building.





I'm experimenting with a new type of zoom tonight. The first picture is the old way, and the new one uses a snazzy piece of Javascript that I found. If I'd just use Blogger's photo upload, it'd do this automatically, but I'm stubborn and want to do things my own way... :)

I have to refine it slightly, but I think I like it. I may go back and redo my prior pics. Haha, let's face reality - I'm too lazy to do that! Well, maybe I really will. We'll see.

Brendan and Scoop

"Itza Scoop!"

That's what Brendan said when he saw this Scoop ride-on from Bob the Builder at a Wal-Mart. I think he enjoyed the ride, but he didn't want me to take his picture. Sorry son!















Here's a good happy-boy picture. I'm not sure what I did to make him laugh...what a cute little rat. :)

Mom, Jen, & Bren

Here's a picture of Mom, Jen, & Brendan at a Chinese restaurant called China Sea. It's really good. It has a blue-lit fish aquarium at the front that B just had to absorb. He's not in a posing mood, though Jen obviously is...



And here he is "boxed in" at the dinner table.

A different building

Here's a picture I took back in June. I went to this building to take a Microsoft Exchange certification exam(and passed it, by the way). It's a beautiful building, the air is clean, and it's coolly tropical inside.

I'd like to live in there, except for the fact that it's an office building.

Bren meet Pudding



That's Mr Puddin Face to you, pops!



Tee Hee!

Where's the good stuff?

I just realized this morning that I haven't written anything useful in a looooong time. I have just been putting up pictures and links and stuff. Well, that's not really going to change until something interesting to write about happens, but at least I can post more of that kind of stuff! I have several things that I have neglected to post so here they come!

Jen always has something interesting, but I'm just a bum when I'm at home. I play RuneScape, fiddle with the computers, play with the kiddo, etc. Hey, I did actually load up ALL of our recycle paper last night to bring to the bin at work! Woo Hoo! Kudos to me! No, not really...Jen was asking me for weeks to do it and I finally did only when I could con Dobie into helping me. Bum-ness slips back in from a moment's respite. Phhhhtttt.

I did something interesting on Saturday, though. I went to the Japan Matsuri at the Central Library. It's a festival with lots of interesting info and displays on Japan. I took the Anime Club members and we had a "Learn About Anime" table. It was cool. I ate Vegetable Chirashi - which is a scattered rice dish. Normally you would put a portion of sushi on top, but this was just veggies - I think. It has some shredded ginger on top that was really good. I hope they put pictures up on their website. Maybe they will.

October 19, 2005

Shake

I made a great milkshake a couple of nights ago.

Vanilla ice cream
Milk
Homemade Cheesecake chunks (frozen)
Chocolate Syrup
and
Chocolate Fudge

Could've used a few ice cubes...but our ice maker is not working and I don't know why. Doh! :]

October 17, 2005

My First Million

I've made my first Million at the age of thirty.



(Too bad it's just RuneScape)

Know what's internesting? If you search on eBay, you can purchase RuneScape gold with greenbacks. For the really lazy or really desperate, I guess.

Audacity

I just found out that the guys at TWiT use Audacity for their recordings. I might find that useful someday, so I'm making a note to myself about the URL: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Pumpkins!

Check this out: http://www.pumpkingutter.com

It's really cool. And here's one for you AA: http://www.pumpkingutter.com/dynamitejol.html

October 10, 2005

Statisticos!

I just got my latest stat report:



Thanks to whoever out there is reading me! I wish some of you would comment so that I could get back to your blogs, or at least know that there was some interest. LC and DH, ya'll are exempt from this since you comment so frequently. TY! TY! TY!

Oh, and you spam-bots just stay away!, ya hear?

{Smile} It's a great day in SA...

Today's music

I'm listening to music via Yahoo Messenger (which I've recently warmed up to thanks to my friend AA) and I just heard a song called Cool by Gwen Stefani. I really like it because it has pitch bends. I wish I could find a list of songs with pitch bends in them. Looking at some of the songs that I really like and can listen to over and over, that is a characteristic that comes out again and again. Hmmm...a little self-analysis there - that's a rare thing!

October 8, 2005

Why I don't smoke

Well, that's one reason. The other is that it's gross. :p

Friggin Expensive!

This was a messed up sign at my Diamond Shamrock corner store, and I just had to take a picture of it...

October 3, 2005

Amazing development in Europe

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-Year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling be expected to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the language is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords Containing "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

(From von ov my two gut spam sending friends...)

October 2, 2005

TWiT

http://twit.tv I enjoy these guys. I listened to about 6 episodes over the weekend.

Podcasts are cool. This is the funny part...I actually listened to a podcast on my iPod. That's a first for me!

Two good podcast sites are http://www.odeo.com/listen/top-40 and http://www.podnova.com/index_top40.srf, but I really get TWiT via iTunes (it's lovely). :) You don't have to have an MP3 player to listen; you can also download them to your computer.