Ultranormal

  • Ok, I Have a Secret

    The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. I have a problem. I’m addicted to Crash Team Racing. I’m so bad, I let my son act as my enabler. He likes watching me race, especially on the CTR Token races because the CTR gets really big and he yells out, “CTR! CTR! CTR!!” The game is my crack. It’s almost worse than my Civ3 addiction. It’s much worse than my Final Fantasy jones ever was.

    I have my son now racing around the house making kart noises. Whenever he stops, he makes a cute “Squeeeee” braking noise. He vrooms around the house, a little imaginary steering wheel in his hands, leaning into corners, jumping over things on the floor and doing fantastic donuts.

    What have I done?!

  • Goldmaybe

    I got a free ticket to see a early screening of Austin Powers: Goldmember today. So, if you were planning on plunking down hard earned cash to see it this weekend, hold on a minute. It was hugely disappointing. This is coming from someone who loved the first two and has worked on his Fat Bastard impression since the second one came out.

    It has moments of brilliance, but they’re all rental moments. There’s nothing in it worth seeing in the theaters or that you’ll be talking about the next day at work.

    Goldmember is the worst character Mike Myers has ever attempted. The accent wasn’t done with any attempt at humor, or even accuracy at all. The Goldmember lines were lame at best. Mike Myers couldn’t hold the Dr. Evil voice at times. It varied from scene to scene wildly. Sometimes it was a parody of the original and sometimes he didn’t even try. The same with Austin. He kept dropping the acccent. Beyonce was annoying. She giggled like a 12 year-old through the whole thing and added nothing to the film. Now, if they had gotten Wanda Sykes, THAT would have been funny.

    I won’t spoil the opening sequence, but it was actually entertaining. I can’t believe I’m writing this much on this movie, but here are some things I actually did like in the film. Seth Green was good as Scott. Fat Bastard had a few good lines, and Michael Caine was awesome. He and Seth Green did the only real acting jobs in the whole movie. The rest was almost like everyone slept through making it.

    Go see it only if you’re a die-hard fan, can’t find anything better to do, and neeeeeed to eat popcorn in the dark.

  • It Wasn’t Me! I Was… Dead at the Time!

    Much too tired to say anything of much worth. But, if you want to see what I’ve been working on for the past two months (well, you won’t see most of it, but it’s there), check it out.

    It’s been a hellacious month and a half, with three major projects coming to a head at the same time, 70 frontends (not all done by me, but using stuff I wrote), 12 API’s, and a crapload of last minute fixes happening in the space of one week. I’m not sure how I’ve survived. A few more things in QA that don’t amount to anywhere near the stress of the first 65 and a couple major launches and I’m all done. Then… my vacation. I think I’m going to spend it in a “hospital” recovering from my ever-growing addiction to Code Red, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Fila Brazillia and Loop Guru.

  • Look, They’re a Pair!

    The Other Side and Whim & Vinegar, another blogging couple to go with Dean and Gail and Kottke and Meg. They’re new to me, having just found them this morning, but it’s always interesting to me when couples blog. Dean and Gail are a lot of fun because they’re excellent writers and sometimes discuss their relationship, which is just fascinating to see from both sides.

    Are there other blogging couples I’ve missed? I’m sure there are… there HAVE to be!

  • Movable Type: Oh How I Love Thee

    If someone really had it together, I mean if someone really had it together, they’d build a message board module for Movable Type. Then, Movable Type would be pretty much the perfect Intranet system. Everyone in the group could have a blog, and you could create message boards where everyone could collaborate, ask questions, etc. Wouldn’t that be cool? Now, if someone would just get off their butts and learn Perl, it could happen. Yeah, sure.

  • Does This Make Kieth a Terrorist, GW?

    I guess the shine is off then, huh? I didn’t vote for him. I voted for Ralph Nader because I couldn’t stomach voting for either Gore or Bush. I’m constantly amazed at the fumblings of this administration. It just gets worse and worse, and I don’t see it getting better. From Bush’s constant manglings of the language to the whole secret Energy Commission to now all of the questions about Business Deals and our constant goofups in international affairs, I’ve just lost hope that the administration can really get it together enough to do anything worthwhile.

    If I really wanted to get into it, it would be really depressing. For all of the bad things you can say about Clinton, he was never this bad. Maybe the healthcare thing at the beginning, but outside of personal problems, and his sexual harrassment (Monica, it wasn’t personal. He was her boss, and he did “favors” for her to keep her quiet about their affair. That’s sexual harrassment and unfair to all the other interns who worked there) stuff, he was a great administrator and leader. When he talked, people on the global stage listened. Now, they snicker.

  • Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho It’s Off to Work I Go

    It’s 8:30pm and I’m still at work. That makes a 12 hour work day for me. Do I get some kind of badge, maybe a cookie?

  • In a Boat Without a Paddle

    Not the title I would have given it, but I’ve never seen a picture that more accurate reflects my mood. Remove the paddle, and it’s exactly how I fee.

    Have you ever been stuck in emergency mode so long that nothing at all feels important? Work has been maddening, with everyone claiming top priority and not allowing time for rational thought before the problem must be solved in the shortest amount of time and with little to no testing. It’s a hideous way to work, and I’ve finally gotten so sick of it that today I refused to make a fix until someone had a list of problems longer than 1. I won’t go in and touch anymore code with justification and a real list of goals. I give up. My patience is at an end. I’m out of emergency juice.

  • It’s The JC Adventure Hour!

    I don’t know, I think Jesus would be flattered. I mean, who hasn’t wanted to be cartoon character or video game hero?

  • Down To…

    The Wire is the second coming of Homicide: Life on the Street. The show is really coming along. The characters are great. I keep trying to compare them to the old crew of Homicide, but it’s hard. There are only a couple that really match up well. Bunk is Meldrick Lewis. The old guy who makes doll house furniture is kind of Pembleton, but only of Pembleton had hung around to retirement age. Avon Barksdale is Luthor Mahoney without the flair (the flair being in Omar, who I think is one of the best bad guys on TV). On the surface, the show seems almost cliche. Dig a little deeper, watch a little closer, and the nuances jump out and give the show a depth unlike any cop show I’ve seen in a long time. For instance, in last night’s episode, Bunk and Jimmy go out drinking. The next day in the office, they’re all bleary without actually mentioning a hangover.

    So, if you have HBO, and you’re not watching, shame on you. It’s a great show, and I hope it comes back for many seasons to come.

    In other TV news, last night’s Sex and the City was kind of disappointing. I hate to say it, but I think they’ve run out of steam. Didn’t it feel like a rerun?

    And to counter the point of the show, I don’t think you get a set number of great loves in your life. You get as many as you go out and find, and as many as you need to find the one that will last. It’s a struggle, and sometimes it’s not fun. But, if you stop looking, you’ve shut out the possibility that you’ll find your next great love.

    And still more… Trey was not Charlotte’s great love. He was the great placeholder for love. Aiden may have been a great love, but Big certainly wasn’t. He was a protracted fling.

    I’ll keep watching because there really isn’t anything else on. But, I’m almost hoping this is the last season. I’d hate to see the show limp into obscurity. Go out near the top.