Or so says MSNBC anyway. Today they reviewed a robot designed to autonomously vacuum your house for you. Sound too good to be true? That’s what I thought, but the thing actually got a decent review. Only $200 too, which is about what I paid for a vacuum cleaner earlier this year.
Month: October 2002
Battling tops…
2002 style. Remember Battling Tops when we were kids? Check em out nowadays. I almost bid on one of these on ebay just for the novelty factor. I used to love battling tops when I was young. Somehow I never ended up with a set but several of my neighbors had them and I used to battle all the time. These seem much more….robust is the word I guess. Plus complicated. Still, in concept it seems promising for kids.
The last castle
Saw this last night on HBO. This movie is not worth watching, it’s bad enough to actually be annoying. This despite having two actors I like, James Gandolfini and Robert Redford. Gandolfini in particular is extremely annoying, he affects a very precise staccato diction that will drive you nuts by the time he gets 3-4 words out of his mouth. Meanwhile the story is contrived. It’s going for ‘patriotic men of honor struggling against tyranny’ but ends up with ‘lame prison flick with no sense of character depth.’ I suppose there are a few redeeming traits to the movie – several of the action scenes are well done and the 5.1 surround sound is really well mixed. Not enough movies pay attention to this imho, though of course I’ve invested $$$ in a surround sound system so I’m biased. Anyway the redeeming traits are offset by a 2+ hour running time. I got bored an hour and a half in and washed the dishes while the last 40 minutes played out, that’s how bad the movie is. Stay away, even on tv the movie’s not worth the time.
Ol man winter threatens
This morning I woke up and saw both my breath steaming out and frost on the windows. Uh oh. Time to switch over to the storm windows, old man winter is letting us know he’s coming soon. Next up: first snow 😉
Pumpkinland
I took the day off from work and went to Pumpkinland in Poland Maine. We spent 3-4 hours checking out the attractions and taking photos. There’s a new gallery in my image gallery with photos from the day if you’re interested – use the link at the top of the page to get there. We had a great time. The weather was just about perfect and even though the thing was totally for kids there was enough there to keep adults interested – critters, a nice scenic vista at the back side of the farm, and baby pig races – that I was never bored.
I’m in love
…no, not with Lisa, though she’s cool enough. No, I’ve once again fallen in love with tech. This time it’s SnipSnap, a clever amalgamation of weblogging and wiki software. Go play around with the one linked above and see what you think. I’m thinking of adding one to my server though since it’s in early alpha I’ll probably wait a while. We have one running at work but I can’t give out that URL. I was originally planning to add either phpwiki or twiki, but now I may go with snipsnap, we’ll see.
Videogames are for kids?
Nonesense! I’m constantly telling folks that the average age of videogamers is over 25. This article talks about the 30 and 40-somethings. Don’t believe me? Go read, for once it’s in print.
Cool link of the day
Like comics? History? High art? All of the above wrapped into one? Check it out. Chinese history and fable in a graphic novel. Online, free, cool. Enjoy.
Exercise going well so far
So far I seem to be adjusting ok to the diet change and rigorous exercise. I can’t quite figure out what all I can eat but I ordered a couple of books from Amazon to help with that. I’ve stopped putting sugar in my coffee and have been eating salad and beans and veggie burgers and hot dogs (no buns, wheat bread). I can already tell that I’m going to miss pasta a lot. I still need to figure out what to do about breakfast, oatmeal is good but I don’t have time to cook it in the morning. I am thinking cheerios is the way to go.
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Our….star….blazers…
One upside to this diabetes induced lifestyle change is that I’m able to work my way through the back catalog of anime I have been collecting. I’ve been watching episodes of Star Blazers while I run each night. I loved this show when I was a little kid. It’s been a real kick watching them again as an adult. For those who don’t know of it, it’s a Japanese produced cartoon series that follows the adventures of the last hope of an embattled earth, the Star Blazers, who have to travel to the other side of the galaxy and retrieve some gear that will allow them to save the earth from destruction at the hands of an evil starfaring race. It was originally broadcast in the NYC area on (channel 11?) in the early 80’s.
At first I thought I wouldn’t be able to take it, it’s a kids show mostly after all, but I’m actually enjoying it.
Dave's Place/Metamusing 