posted by Kyle Beatty at 10:36 PM

posted by Kyle Beatty at 7:04 PM

posted by Kyle Beatty at 7:14 PM

posted by Kyle Beatty at 7:36 PM

posted by Kyle Beatty at 7:37 PM

On a whim, I downloaded the Half-Life demo for some first-person shooter fun. That was fine, bit it's just Quake. I did manage to get myself gibbed in a way that allowed me to look at my own head. I guess the post-mortem period is actually more of an out-of-body sort of experience. Sorry for lack of screenshot, I was anxious to get back to playing hand-grenade catch with the extra-dimensional myrmidons. But here's something I learned: don't show mercy to the "enemy" soldiers by giving them a quick death. You need them alive to distract the ceiling monsters. Pity. posted by Kyle Beatty at 2:27 PM

During my Half-Life session, switching between game and desktop resulted in a nasty half hour wherein my desktop resolution was reduced to 320 x 240. In full color. Amusing for a moment but a bit of a bear to fix. posted by Kyle Beatty at 2:29 PM

Click on the thumbnail below for the entire screenshot. Painfully inappropriate juxtaposition.

posted by Kyle Beatty at 7:39 PM

posted by Kyle Beatty at 9:39 PM

No, but I do have a Dickel Commemorative Bottle (aka a Saurian brandy bottle).


posted by Kyle Beatty at 9:08 AM

What was I thinking? Man, it's worse than I remember. There isn't any part of it that isn't wince-inducing, except the score by Jerry Goldsmith. posted by Kyle Beatty at 9:06 PM

Traffic backed up from the intersection of Juanita Way and Market St (or whatever they call it that far north) all the way to the Fire Station. "Stupid Seafair! Stupid, stupid Seafair! Who would want such a stupid Seafair?" * Really makes it pointless to try to get around the north end of the lake. I'll do some tasks around the office and make lemonade while the sun shines behind a black cloud.

* thanks to Ray for that particular mantra posted by Kyle Beatty at 4:36 PM

Payed for the privilege, though. Through the auspices of The Warren Report, Hummie and Warren discuss some aspects of film scoring. Not earth-shattering stuff, but fun. Bill K. and Dale were also in attendance. Warren gave me a CD of the score to The Musketeer for asking a relevant question. Cool! posted by Kyle Beatty at 6:23 PM

Managed to straighten my office at home today. See it on the webcam. Unless you are seeing this post some distance into the future, like perhaps a day, and it won't seem so tidy. posted by Kyle Beatty at 6:17 PM

Thanks for the tix, Les! Thanks for the grill, Michelle! I left my bio of Roald Dahl at Michelle's. posted by Kyle Beatty at 6:15 PM

A small group of friends tasted a small selection of wines and determined that French Bordeaux is better. No one amazed!
Also ran some network cable at work. Dusty. posted by Kyle Beatty at 6:13 PM

Couldn't hear some because of the ever present and thrice-bedamned Road Noise. Also planes of all variety. Mark was a good Henry IV. Then he died. posted by Kyle Beatty at 6:11 PM

As a member of the Lego Club, I was entitled to order two of the new Toa before they arrive in stores. Dig me!
The new masks are different and by different, I mean big and reticulated. In addition to the masks they have been outfitted with armor which bulks them up a bit. Our heroes avoid being top-heavy by having slightly longer legs. They also have new weapons which pay only the merest lip service to the notion that they are also tools. Instead of a pneumatic axe, Lewa now carries a pair of scimitars, for crying out loud! Onua's really nifty claws have been replaced by chainsaws which double as skates. Lewa, I failed to to mention, is expected to augment his levitating power by using his swords as wings. As if!

posted by Kyle Beatty at 6:42 PM

When things are bright, the webcam can be dazzled:

posted by Kyle Beatty at 5:26 AM

I think it looks like he sneezed up a can of Cheez Whiz in a wind storm. Or sneezed in a cheese storm. Either way, aerodynamically sculpted cheddar-colored Swiss cheese. posted by Kyle Beatty at 7:53 PM

Ikea calls it a "TV Bench." Bench is probably more accurate and has a Swedish ring to it. The bench is well designed for easy access to masses of cables in the rear. A picture is forthcoming.


posted by Kyle Beatty at 3:33 PM

"Fun with Photoshop."


posted by Kyle Beatty at 8:27 PM

Took away some of the old links-based matter. It'll reappear somewhere soon enough. Now this page should be viewable even on screens with a resolution of 640x480. posted by Kyle Beatty at 12:31 AM

And besides, he's The Saint.

During a discussion about just how old is Britt Ekland (see this weblog entry) I posited that if she was born in 1942, she would be an old-ish Bond girl. I was wrong on both counts: She's older than I reckoned and was only a little older than the average Bond girl when she performed in The Man with the Golden Gun.

See this table and this chart to see what I based my conclusions on. Although there are multiple Bond girls per movie (usually a good girl - only sometimes dead and a bad girl - almost always dead) the Bond girl listed is generally the one with the silliest name. Not included in the table are the average ages of the various Bonds and Bond girls. (44 and 29*) The average has not been realized on screen. The chart does not display the periodic gaps between the movies. There was a long interruption at the beginning of the nineties (thanks glasnost!) which distorts the trend.

If anyone can come up with a better expression for the class of characters from these movies than "Bond girl," I would love to hear it.

* which tallies with the formula reported by Malcom X for appropriate ages between grooms and brides. Go figure. posted by Kyle Beatty at 1:13 PM