K...Site

Running behind. May be an all-nighter as I have an hour presentation to give in the morning on a subject I know little about and I have yet to start. Why am I here? Good question!

Halloween was nice - fun to have so many little trick or treaters come by for the first time as a home-owner. Though I was surprised of the number of toddler/babies (ie. Momma wanted some candy!) as well as undressed teenagers - or maybe it wasn't the number as much as these just stood out. I watched the Muppet Show (family friendly fare for kids to see in the window) for a bit, but still have too much leftover candy!

I'm obsessed with getting a nice metal DDR pad for my xbox 360 - hoping to get one made for it, or better yet, one made for PS/2 with an adapter for the 360 (I know, M$ would never agree to this, but thank goodness for the mod-crowd). Here's where I've been looking... mymybox, cobalt flux, bunker project (may be my best bet), and possible PS/2 adapter XFPS 360. Yes, I miss my 360 while it's being repaired, but even more I miss my DDR exercise (especially with so many sweets this past week!!!). Anyone have advice or want to help me mod one?

There have been lots of Halo3 videos this past month, this bug cracked me up.

Fan video of Batman, Joker and a little bit of AVP thrown in for spice (from 2003).

Looks like I'll have my hands full with GH3 & Rock Band this holiday season. My living room will look like a garage with so many "musical" instruments! Well, that's what I have a big closet for, I guess.

Impressive and expensive joystick for Xbox360. There are so many good new games for the Xbox 360! Mine got the 3-red rings of death last week and is being repaired down in Texas. If I wasn't leaving again so soon, I'd rent one for a temporary spell. Instead, got the old xbox working to watch dvds and maybe even try some old unplayed games... (ok, still only a thought, not a reality).

Something I've been "suffering" from for years now - phantom vibrations in my leg where my cell phone is. Sadly, it's gotten to the point where I can't tell if it's the real thing or fake and just put my hand down to see. I also hear my phantom ringing, too... ack!

This week is when the new Mac OS arrives - I get my copy tomorrow. Exciting! Leopard vs Vista and some impressions. Here's the main review, though, on ars tehcnica.

A friend showed me this interesting safari battle between water buffalo and lions and...

And this one, of Matt, dancing around the world. If I could be like Matt...

Impressive transformation of an old missile silo in Kansas to a new-age tourist site/home. I could live there (though I may transform it slightly differently).

Oh yeah, and an amazing finish to a football game - never seen so many laterals!

We'll start and end with comedy. First, something that if you watched the show during the day, you'd probably do a triple take on this very short clip after The People's Court.

Myths and falsehoods about global warming

Make your xbox into a great media center (I collect this as I still have yet to do it with mine, but from my friends who have done it, it's amazing!)

On xbox theme, I did purchase more than my fair share of Halo 3 Mountain Dew, pre-ordered the game (comes out next week or so), but this is still another leap in great licensing. The Halo3 Pontiac G6.

The last take on computer games in humor form - the ultimate MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) - Outside! Which goes along nicely with the South Park episode, Make Love Not Warcraft, which won an Emmy last week for best animated short show.

Was in DC last week for a couple days (it's official and final). Was sick with a horrible sinus headache/infection/allergies this past weekend. First time I've been incapacitated with this in NE. No fun! Got new tennis shoes on Monday which made a world of difference in ultimate (I could run!) - though still need much work in stamina department. Can't believe I haven't owned tennis shoes in almost a decade! And football is here (which was perfect for being out of commission at home on weekend ) though my Chefs lost badly and Nebraska won.

This week's links to share (more techy theme):

Funny video review of main 3 video game consoles

Keeping the theme, amazing video of completion of the most difficult tetris level on arcade (invisible!)

Appropriate commentary on the iPhone early adopters (referencing the Apple Lisa!) who complained enough to get Apple to give them credit (I'll get mine next year or so)

On how to write a research paper (for students)

I played Uno online (xbox live) this past week as a very late break from work and kittens before bed. Had lots of foul language voiced my way (playing a "Draw Two" definitely isn't worthy of what I got) and it really turned me off, again, of playing online with people I don't know. My friend at MS, Ben, recommended this site, geezergamers, for a community of 30+ game players. It's really sad to consider myself a "geezer", but nice to have such a community. Mind you, I've had more positive experiences than bad, but the bad ones really stand out.

I won't go into all the details as to why France doesn't deserve all the disdain we have given it since 9/11 (as sometimes it's just fun to make fun of), but this nice story seemed to miss the newsfeeds.

In many ways I understand why it's not good to have a true democracy (ie. the will of the people is rule), but here's an interesting top 10 list of items most Americans want, but aren't getting through our government (and peace and pie aren't on the list, but universal health care is).

On the lighter fair, I'm a big fan of Christian Bale, and here's an article giving him some fun, macho praise (don't click on the first video link if you're faint of heart as American Psycho is very violent though it was his breakout role).

Lastly, a hilarious Japanese game show - human tetris.

Some cool links/articles to share.

Voice Coaching

Traveler's Dilemma (like Prisoner's)

Why Bush hasn't been impeached

Something funny and useless and requires speakers

Wonderful science news site, physorg.com, that a parent hooked me up with today. Best one I've seen so far!

Been very busy with work. Took a bit of a break over the weekend that was long overdue and has me in a crazy good mood, but still so crazy tired (can't you tell with the duplicate adverb?). Only 9 days until the ACR abstract deadline is here and then I can move on to other work. so it goes! Oh, and in more tech news, got my computer at the office today - at last! It's very nice and everyone is envious of the 30" screen. Thank you Apple.

A great mind of our time passed away today. Kurt Vonnegut. Nice article on him. I recall reading "The Sirens of Titan" in high school. Taught me to question what is fully meant by and justified in the name of "progress" - may even be linked to my strong interest in studying evolution of systems as well as trying to determine what's really important to me & us. So it goes...


(and to fully justify the tech tag, I have an Apple bluetooth keyboard and mighty mouse that I don't use - let me know if you'd like to try or buy them!)

Wonderful radio program out of NYC. They don't have any new shows, but they've been playing shows from 2005 all this week on my local NPR station and I'm enjoying each one completely. Yesterday was about how we know who we are. Today's was about stress. Here's their home page. Enjoy! (I have!) (tech note, unfortunately Season 1 is only on RealPlayer, which I despise, but Season 2 is available as mp3)

So, buy a new house... what comes next? (if you ignore the washer and dryer and garbage disposal and furniture and vacuum and ... ack!)

I told myself I couldn't get a new car until I graduated. I kept my deep amethyst 97 Dodge Neon for almost 10 years and it's been fabulous, but I'm excited to announce the newest member of the gadget family: 07 Lexus IS 250! (Hau predicted this a month ago) It's currently learning the tricks of the trade in the garage with said Neon - it's a black saphire pearl color (ie. looks black, but the right light shows its deep blue insides). It's being leased for now so not too much to modify, though the first things are to get the windows tinted & get a true ipod adapter (aux audio is NOT the same!). It was frustrating that I had to educate the salesman and the manager of the dealership that I couldn't control my ipod from the car through the headphone jack (they didn't believe me until 2 days later when they spoke with their tech guy).

But it's almost max'ed out for an AWD. It's green in that it burns very cleanly, but it's a far cry from my original plan of Camry or Civic hybrid - hence the lease to wait for one like that in 3 yrs from now.

Here are the pics. Quite the presentation - I'm so excited!