Please feed the animals

Sherri sent me this and Shadowdragon had it on his blog.

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New X Comic : X-Force

I used to buy every title that came out with an X on the cover or one of the X-Men in it. After years of crappy miniseries, I've finally been broken of this habit.

So why will I buy the first issue of this new X-Force?

Probably because I like all of the characters and I'm intrigued by the concept (but I'm hoping some of that concept art never sees printed page). I'm hoping it will bring Wolverine into what he should be... the best there is a what he does... being a bad-ass. None of this metaphysical crap they've been pulling in the main Wolverine book, none of the ridiculous even for a comic book super-duper healing factor where the flesh is burnt off his bones and two minutes later he's up and killing. That kind of shitty writing takes out any illusion of suspense.

A lot of people hate X-23, I think in part because they hate Wolverine, and X-23 is a "clone" of Wolverine. They also hate anyone who has a World of Warcraft character with better loot or that has a bigger action figure collection. But X-23 isn't a true clone of Logan, she's more akin to a genetically-engineered daughter. If you don't believe, read the origin material and compare her to her "mother"... Sarah Kinney provided more than just a womb, she also provided some of the genetic material despite what the "plan" was.

Warpath, I just like because he's such a no nonsense character. Wolfsbane is an interesting choice as you'd think her beliefs would be diametrically opposed to a black-ops situation. Hopefully there's a story behind the change (as opposed to the change between her appearance in New X-Men and X-Factor).

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Exo-skeletons for soldiers?

My friend Marik sent me this article.


Besides military applications, I wonder how useful this could be made to people with limited mobility? Of course, I doubt that Medicare covers exo-skeletons.

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Searson coming to Fionn MacCool's

OK, it's not until January 31, but I normally only get to see this band at Irish Fest. And my enthusiasm has nothing to do with the fiddler. Nope. Not one bit.

http://www.myspace.com/searson

WWW.SEARSON.ORG

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Star Trek Home Theater

"Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not Netflix"

Check out this Star Trek home theater. Someone hit the Lotto!


This looks like two rooms actually (and of course it's a Klingon viewscreen behind the bar).

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Struggling Guinness launching Red

Evidently Guinness has been on a slide, especially back "home" in Ireland and England. To battle the downturn in sales, Guinness is launching a major ad campaign along with the roll-out of a red stout.

Check out the article.


I'm also amused by the fact that Guinness has fewer calories than milk.

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4th Edition leak

Found some info on another blog regarding 4th edition monster stats. Check out the the blog entry as well as the source which includes the image of the card with the stats.


I'm still chewing on this. The biggest change is the change to attribute bonuses. If it is indeed changing to +1 per 3 starting at 0 rather than +1 per 2 starting at 10, that will take a touch more mental acrobatics for conversion and reduce the impact of stat changes.

Why couldn't they have left the interval 2 instead of 3? Gar.

***update***
Looks like the stat mod could also be the regular stat mod that we are currently familiar with plus 1/2 level, which would also jive with what another source told me today.

It also seems like the defenses will be much like SW:Saga, a small base plus stat modifier plus level. I'm still chewing on that one. I also heard that we'll be able to choose which stat to use for Defenses: INT or DEX for Reflexes, WIS or CHA for Willpower, and CON or STR for Fortitude.

Also, check out EN World's 4th ed info.

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204!

Just in time for Turkey Day! I had to check twice to make sure this was right. I guess not succumbing to the stress munchies (I had them baaaad last night) paid off.


Now hopefully I don't undo it too badly today.

Last week I got some good encouragement in the form of compliments from a (cute) former co-worker who I don't see often (she still works for the company, but not the same location).

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Zombie Apocalypse quiz

62%

Got this one from Miss E.

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The Sarah Connor Chronicles

I am looking forward to this series. Terminator bad-assery... check. Not just one but two hot chicks... check. Time-travel/alternate future/chrono-paradoxes... check. Lots of stuff that goes *boom*... check.

Here are a few posters for the series also. Hopefully it has plenty of episodes in the can already in case the writers' strike continues.

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China saying "no" to Wal-Mart

It has finally happened... the Beast from Bentonville has gotten too cheap for the Chinese. Check out this article and this Blogging Stocks post.



Vendors have long said that they can't be profitable if too much of their business comes from Wal-Mart, and now the Chinese are finding that out as well. I would have loved to have a video the first time one of the Chinese companies turned down Wal-Mart.

Flight to China - $3995
Wrecking small town business for years - $300,000,000,000
Wal-Mart told to take logn walk of of pier that is short - priceless

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Withdrawal?

I guess I get to find out if I really am addicted to LOTRO, as my gaming computer somehow got infected by a really nasty malware that defies everything I've done to try to get rid of it. I finally had to break down and take in to the Geek Squad. The good news is there scan picked up stuff everything I used missed. The bad news is that it could be a couple of days until they can get it fixed, and hopefully we won't need to use the "nuclear option", which is to wipe the whole drive. At least it's not the computer with all of my RPG documents.


In a way, this will be good for me, as LOTRO has turned into quite the chronovore and a few days away from it will hopefully prompt me to get some other stuff done.

That being said, I think we should be allowed to take anyone that puts out malware and viruses, stuff them full of candy and use them as a human pinata.

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LARP video

More videos from the "Contagious" channel at Heavy.com

It can't get too mocky... I've LARPed, and I've enjoyed it. Though I've never done the "fantasy" style shown in the video.

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Pastafarianism studied

It seems that the "followers" of the Flying Spaghetti Monster are garnering some scholarly attention.


Dear FSM-
For Alfredo Solstice I want a plastic rocket and a winning Powerball ticket. And the hacks currently wrecking most of my comics fired. And George Lucas to not direct anymore Star Wars projects.

Signed-
Oz

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Harry Potter 6 sneak peeks

Look here for some behind-the-scenes stuff for HP:HBP.


THis seems to me to be the hardest of the movies to translate to film. It's mostly a set-up for Deathly Hallows and ends on a real downer. Then again, it could be like Empire.

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Geico vs. lolcat

From Icanhascheeseburger.

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Comic about my cat

I think Ryoga is the source for this Two Lumps comic.


Anyone that's been at my house when 'Ogi decided to set off the WMD detectors can vouch. If they can breathe, that is.

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Odd commercial

Things that make you go "huh?"

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Seven Meme

This was "tagged" to me by Nicole.

Share seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.

1. I had a childhood ailment that was never diagnosed. I learned how to spell "blood test" when I was in kindergarten and was paralyzed to the point that I was unable to walk and lost use of one of my hands. The doctors never figured out what it was and it cleared up on it's own. I had to relearn how to climb stairs and skip.


2. Because of my childhood paralysis I ended up polydextrous. I originally wrote and colored with both hands (as well as forwards and backwards) when I was little. I ended up writing left-handed (except on large surface like chalkboards... still ambi), throwing right, pistol left, swords right, bows left, rifles/shotgun right (I think), mouse right, paint ambi, bowl left, bat ambi, pool right (but can left if needed), tennis ambi. Overall, my right is stronger but my left is more precise.

3. I was known as "the guy with the cross" for a year at college. I even appeared in a cartoon strip in the school newspaper with the cross on.

4. When I first met my ex-wife, I asked a friend of mine "Why can't I find a woman like her?"

5. I originally wanted to be an architect, but I didn't do very good at drafting because I would drag my hand across the paper as I worked (watch a southpaw write and you'll understand.)

6. I ended up with a journalism degree because of a crush I had in 9th grade. I signed up for yearbook because I thought that the girl I had a crush on signed up, got recruited for the newspaper my first day at the yearbook, got a scholarship because of the newspaper, etc..

7. In first grade my best friend and I decided we would both change our name to Henry. Our teacher convinced us this would be a bad idea because then she wouldn't be able to tell us apart.

Who to tag?
Carlton, because I can't believe Nicole didn't tag him.
Jason and S.W.C.K..
Marik, of this means he'd have to check his blog.
Liz, because her regular blog is getting jealous of her fiber-blog.
Melissa, because I'm sure she'll have something interesting.
Lisa, because it's her fault that I have a MySpace page.

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New Iron Man trailer

International Iron Man Teaser Movie Trailer
Uploaded by www_geek_be

Too bad they pulled out most of the Sabbath. :(

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Wal-Mart's "green" PC

Wal-Mart has added a $200 CPU to its line-up that it touts as being "green". Mainly, it's called green because it is designed for low power consumption. Sounds like a good thing, right?

There's a reason why it has a low power consumption... it's a low-powered PC.


I expect this to be off the shelves soon. The typical person that would buy their cheapest PC possible at a Wal-Mart isn't going to understand why it won't do a lot of things. It runs on a version of Linux, it only has 512mb of ram and a 1.5ghz processor. It can't even run World of Warcraft. Given their other estimations of the typical customers TechQ, I'm surprised they can't see the problems coming.

This PC might be good for the tech savvy person who wants a machine on the cheap to do a project with, or just wants it for limited applications and understands it's limitations. It won't be good for Joe-Bob Cheapskate thinking he's get a PC for his kids at a bargain.

I forsee many returns of this product. Many returns.

*chuckle*

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Trick or Treat

My Halloween tradition has been to dress up as a pirate to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters, and this year was no different. The kids get a kick out of it, and having trick-or-treaters show up at my door lets me relive my childhood Halloween memories. Besides... amusing the kids is a good way to score points with the single moms. ;)


I was smart this year and stocked up on Almond Joy bars for the evening. Why is this smart? Because I don't like coconut, so candy full of coconut means no munching for Captain Oz between trick-or-treaters.

One thing that was sad was there didn't seem to be as many trick-or-treaters this year. The MegaChurch near me had a "Trunk or Treat" event that they plastered fliers about all over, and whoever organizes events for our neighborhood must go to that church because the flier was written like going to the MegaChurch replaced regular trick-or-treating.

And the picture was taken using the timer on my camera. Unfortunately, it focused on the tv behind me since I wasn't standing there when I set it up.

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RPG Superstar

If I could ever get around to finishing a project, I should enter this.


The death of Dragon Magazine has snuffed a good channel for aspiring designers to make their break into the RPG industry as well as make it harder for RPG publishers to find new talent.

I really should enter it... but that means actually finishing something I start, and with my luck I'd win a round which means that I have to finish something else, and so on.

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