With affection beaming out of one eye

Probably my favorite artist and possibly the only noted pop artist, if I were of means, I would be interested enough in to buy an original of. Roy Lichtenstein. I was goofing off trying to find a desktop of an interesting piece when I found this site, Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein. I had seen some of the "original" panels that he based a piece on before, but I have never seen so many side by side. I'm going to put a little comment about which I like better, "Original" or "original", just because its fun to think about. These 3 are, some of my favorites represented on Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein.

This had always been one if my favorites, I loved the detail on the eye, and the muzzle flare leading off the edge of the image. I think without context, I really feel whats happening in the Lichtenstein. The original has 2 people, so not a "lone gunman" theres less courage, cowardice, or calculation implied. And the cloud around the "CRAK!" being the same color as the earth makes it look like shes surrounded, or at the very least so concealed that the dust has been kicked up from the flare. Pretty cool stuff. Lichtenstein +1

This is another I liked because Lichtenstein frames the picture frame prominently but the woman is looking past it, like shes speaking to someone, always struck me like a honeymoon morning. Just that whatever is important enough to be framed on the bed stand is of less value than the focus of her attention. The original is sad to me. Waking up first thing and saying, Good Morning, Darling, to a photo. Like they are dead, or so far away that normal means of communication is impossible. So lonely. For me both are very successful. Draw!

I had never seen this original and I think it communicates terror, and urgency. Its terrifying in a way. He looks like a boy, prominent knuckles, theres a mine in the foreground, and seemingly surrounded by explosions. Furiously digging an mine from the earth with a knife. The tension is built from every angle. The Lichtenstein, I just thought it was interesting, because it made me wonder what's he doing? Clouds, maybe dawn or dusk, belly down and sweating. I used to think crawling under the wire for some sort of escape, or recon mission. With no weapon featured I immediately assume a non-combat or non-confrontation situation. Now having seen the original, this looses so much for me. Weird how it can change my mind; its so shapeless having seen the source. I can only compare its faults with the successes of the original. Though Lichtenstein's unseen, and unstated tension is well done. Original +1

IPR : Redux

Last week at a meeting at work, I was placed on the sub-laptop "team". It was weird because I didn't even know that we were looking into it formally for work, so that was a nice surprise. Our basic tenants for choice are, low price, XP/Vista capable. Which is nice. Basically one of the guys had seen this link on Engadget, and we're really using it as a map of whats available. After looking around and really the Asus Eee 701 pc is not ideal. I think if I had my druthers I think the Dreambook Light IL1 looks pretty nice, but the HP 2133, with the larger screen, and nice price point of 599$ for the version that I think would fit our "professional" needs perfectly, the Express card slot, built in wireless, and itsa nice and cheap. Its sweet like candy, and hot like fire. So, I guess that makes it RedHots.

Heres some vids I found on Hong Kong Phooey: a tech junkie from Hong Kong blog.

An overdose of awesome!

I was bumming around the nerd and I saw this link from Gizomondo, via Fark... its a Nerf Rifle, steampunked up. Its hot. But it brings my lack of progress to light. I'm going to start on my gun this weekend. A little Plastikote, a little krylon, some sandpaper, and a beer. At the end I hope to have a sweet gun that will be worthy of the web. Or at least cool enough to convince a few of my lazier friends to make one to.

Bela Lugosi is...

I was just goofing off on the YouTube and I wanted to hear Bela Lugosi is dead, and I found this awesome live, TV on the radio, NiN, Peter Murphy one. Its great.

Cache, Color, and Cable or Prizes, not both

Well it has been done. I picked up a xbox360 last weekend and I think I've made the right choice. While I was at the game shop, I plopped down a few bills on a GTA4 and Wii Fit preorders. I figure when I get GTA4 I'll have a good reason to need Live. One thing that kinda had me comfused was the actual differences between the versions. Elite, Pro, and Arcade respectively. The Elite is Elite for very quantifiable reason, back when 2/3rds of all 360s were fucking garbage. They were the shining example of quality control, and it comes in black, and a bigger drive, and a HDMI cable, and thats fucking it for an extra 150$. The Pro which is the basic, entry level time waster. At this point in its genesis it has "the good heat sink" a respectable HD capacity, and identical specs otherwise to the Elite. And the other side is the "Arcade" which to me sounds like a boon! The Arcade version of any game system should be the fucking bomb. Instead, its stripped down and shitty. Really if it wasnt for the crazy prices of accessories its the best deal, but M$ can set the goddamn price. So we went with the Pro, solid, does everything, I have an HDMI cable, and dont give a shit otherwise. We picked up Rock Band when we got the machine. I've played before and its cool. Fucking cool. The tattoo system is time well spent. The instrument customization is awesome. The clothes are a little shitty, but really just a style that I'm not a fan of but again the color choices make it good. But the hair looks like fucking play-do fun factory. There is no redemption for that. This game is awesome though, I was a big fan of Guitar Hero 3 on my Wii, but the wife... the wife loves her some fucking Rock Band. She is getting pretty good at the singing. We started a band called "Rhymenocerous", just straight bit from The Flight of the Conchords. I think they're cool with it. I play guitar IRL, but I'm decent because of GH, but this fucking game keeps telling us to raise our level or we wont get fans; when we do bump the level we suck dick, hard. Bad. Now shes gone from easy to medium to hard in 2 days singing, and Ive gone from medium to expert... fucking expert. Bullshit. The weirdest part was we were failing at a significant percentage at the lower levels so I'm not sure where the impetus comes from to force advancement. But thats ok, its fun to play games with my wife so, sink or swim motherfucker.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

So apparently there is a subculture of NERF customization. I sensed it like Ol'Ben when I saw a custom NERF Maverick on Brass Goggles. It seemed like it was too good of an idea not to have spread wider than the extremely focused Steampunk Contingent. And wow did I stumble into an awesome hobby. I started looking around for Mavericks to customize and I got my first at Target for 7$. I've been bumming around the nerd looking for paint scheme inspiration. I love black, and just a black gun would look hot, but I want to do something a little more flamboyant. Gold and silver? Black and Gold? Not sure yet but damn this guy has some nice ones.
Ive been looking for a new hobby recently and this really appeals to my sense of "I can shoot my cat with this".

V is for Videogame

Videogames are something I hate and love. I love console games because I rarely like to get involved for more than 30 min at a time. I have a Wii, and its great. Loads of fun, the games I have are kinda duds but its ok, Virtual Console has saved the day. Increasingly Xbox360 seems to have the games I want to play, at the resolution my tv supports. Rock band, DLC is only on 360. Halo, obviously. Loads of other games, even Burnout is better. That sort of leads me to, buy a Xbox360 and be happy with videogames. On the other hand I'm opposed to Sony on principle. You know theres a problem when Microsoft represents the "little guy"...

On the PC front I more or less gave up. I'm tired of being forced to upgrade my computer ad infinitum just to play games. I want to play another deep MMO like Star Wars Galaxies but I just dont think its going to happen. I want a depth that just doesnt exist it seems outside of that game, So I quit. I stopped upgrading my computer, and stopped buying games. Overall its worked out great with one glaring exception, fucking Orange Box. I want it so bad. But then I heard it was on 360, but not as good? But I dont have a 360, I have a PC, and its going to cost more than the price of a 360 to get up to task... you see my predicament. Do I upgrade and participate or do I buy a 360 and player hate. Turns out I'm one of the most diabolical haters.
This game Battlefield Heroes, and Penny Arcade - Rainslick*, have made my decision. Cheap, non-computer intensive fun games for PC. This way I can play a game that is fun without upgrading my computer and get a 360. I really think this is the best solution for a number of reasons. My wife wants Rock Band in a bad way. And this might be the best way for me to talk my wife into buying an Xbox. Shit if only the decision to have kids was this easy. I guess this is the equivalence of playing with someone else's kids until they shit their pants, handing them back and driving off in my Ferarri. Shit yeah. Ferarri! I think it will work out well. Now if only Micr$oft would get their head out of their ass and just bundle wireless with the damn thing. Assholes. 100$ for a 30$ part. I'll show them, I'll buy a linksys and set it up as a ap and just bump network wireless back to my router for 50$ and have network in my living room. Diabolical.

*Penny Arcade - On the Rainslick Precipice of Darkness

Rice is great if you're hungry and want 2000 of something.

I love Mitch Hedberg. My friend got me a few of his comedy albums a few years back. I had seen him on Comedy Central but I didn't know his name. You know when your listening to the radio and manage to miss the beginning and end of a song so you don't know who it is? Or worse you hear 6 band names and song titles, all together. Well that shit happened to me every time I caught Dr. Katz or Home Movies, or whatever else he was on at the time. Well short story, my buddy got me a few albums and they are great. Then he died. Mitch, not my friend. I get bummed out everytime I listen to them. I crack up and then remember, thats it. No more. God God Damn it Damn it. Then I get ok when I hear him say "Im not going to stop doing something because of what happens at the end.". I think thats kind of a cool way to go about things. Its pretty damn brave.

Well speaking of rice, I'm on a diet. My wife and I are trying not to be fatties so our kids will have a good example. We don't actually have kids, these are our theoretical children, who deserve a better example. I kinda like it, its making me cook and I like cooking. This week Ive made bomb ass chicken tacos, some aiight chili, and something else. I cant remember everything.

My chicken recipe:
-chicken
-green salsa
-red salsa
simmer the chicken in a little red salsa and water until its at about 50% less water than you started with, then replace that missing water with green salsa. Simmer until it reduces to about 50% again, then serve. Its easy, good, and you dont have to measure.

You want some homemade sprite?

The Inverse Penis Relation

I'm a bit of a nerd but the computer gadget rarely grabs my attention. When someone creates a coffee pot that makes a more perfect cup of coffee, or an autonomous robot vacuum cleaner, rarely does it get more than the casual "huh, thats kinda neat" from me. I've just never had a mind for that level of granularity in my products. I almost never shop for a minute improvement, of a product that I own, if it already performs well. My Dyson vacuum is the exception its unbelievable. Nor have I really been anal about any sort of esoteric detail. Audiophiles piss me off when they refuse to listen to CD's, and Overclockers will go out of their way to buy a cheap CPU, then spend money to watercool it to make it perform better. I've flirted with overclocking, I've created a subwoofer enclosure. But the multiple tweaks for the minuscule gains have never felt worth it. They call it a hobby but I call it a fetish. Spending time and money to make the ordinary item, extraordinary, has never held much allure for me.

One area withstanding, Sub-Laptops. I call it the "Inverse Penis Relation". The theory of the IPR is that as certain products reach "palm size" or "as big as my hand" the more desirable they become. Cell phones went through this in the late 80's early 90's, television remotes, external hard disk recently, and of course in laptops you cant get too thin, too small, too light. This market that is finally making a splash here in the states and it is really exciting to me. In some meetings and conference's Ive been to, too often do I have laptop envy. I met a Korean lady with a TINY laptop, it was brand new, and glistened. Built in camera, high res, large (for its size) screen, full keyboard. Ive been quietly watching the OLPC develop with high hopes of it sparking an interest in large companies to release a tiny sub 500$ laptop for me to run Linux on... I think the Asus eeepc is winning this leg of the race but I don't know if it will be the one I buy. Unless everything else is way more expensive.

A public display of the sentance of the day

My friend and I chat on the google most of the day, everyday. As we're waiting on the bar to hit the end for whatever reason, usually money. And we also surf the web and shoot each other links. Lately his have all been lolcats, I cant complain they are great. But every so often one of us will come across the "sentence of the day". It usually comes across as a statement because rarely is it a complete sentence. For example yesterday the "SotD" was, "...mechanically attached a liquid fuel rocket to a solid axle...".

I liked it because in and of itself it makes you reread it and try and put it together. "...mechanically attached a liquid fuel rocket to a solid axle..." What could it mean, is it some random snip it from some steampunk related commentary? Could it be some random oddly translated specification for the Turkish space program? What about just some good ol' science fiction?

I know where it came from, I found it yesterday for our little tête-à-tête. But when I read it I hear the words, in the voice of Tom Waits, "Whats he building in there..."

Turns out its a mid 60s harebrained scheme to make a fast car faster. As luck would have it, too much of a good thing is usually the best way to go out.

Mac's only get easier

Today while I was working on migrating a users data from one Windows PC to another, I began reminiscing about migrating my last Mac user. Apple really can't make it much easier. Its a tad slow in the start but its really working well from Tiger -> Leopard. A helluva lot better than it did from |X| -> Tiger. Anyways while this is going on and I'm reading disjointed conflicting opinions on Fark, I get a call from one of my users. She wants me to go to her house and help her set up some new Mac stuff she just bought. A cinema display, laptop, and a "Time Capsule". I was intrigued by the "Time Capsule" when I first heard about it. But I haven't played with one yet. I look at the documentation and it looks pretty goddamned easy to setup. So I told my user how I think it works and to try just, plugging it in. If I'm right, I think she'll be ok, until she needs to get data out.

On a side note, fuck Windows PC's are hard to migrate users from. Nothing automated, nothing universal, nothing simple. Just about anyone who can read the prompt can migrate a mac in a matter of minutes and it would "just work". My mom's tried to migrate Windows laptops, and lets just say, it didn't go so well.

The perils of living in 2d

So Ive been dicking around with flickr's "Blog This" command and its kinda cool, but kinda retarded... I really wish I could find a job doing UI consultation because I swear most good ideas are spoiled by bad implementation.

They give you default layouts, but different ones than blogger provides, and automagically insert a bunch of bullshit. And if you want to unfuck it you need to go play with code... I don't have a problem with editing code, but what if my wife who is honestly scared of code wants to change something. SOL? Shits Creek?

I work IT. Its a decent job if you like people and computers but a fucking grind if you cant stand other IT professionals.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

And the test post button is misleading. Also sucks.

First in a string of some, on no topic of importance

This is the first of possibly a few posts on The Wooden Bullet. I thought since everyone thinks blogging is so ubiquitous I should get on the wagon, at least just before it stops...

This isnt my first blog, I had a xanga page when I first started college, I used it mostly to vent about my classmates, coworkers, and various grocery store worker strikes. I was never a grocery store employee. I was just angry they put me in the position of having to cross a damn picket line to buy food. It was a while ago but, I guess I still have an opinion, fuck them.