Are You Scared?

Imagery from Halloween in Oklahoma:

Warthog Jump: A Halo Physics Experiment

Here's a very cool physics experiment using the game Halo. I dig the perspective changes.

In case you haven't seen it, check this link out:

http://www2.mythica.org/halo/

Since this is a FTP site, scroll down the list and find the following file:

halo_warthog_jump_high.mov

Click to play or right-click to save.

Boo

I've been overdosing on scary movies lately. Tonight, as I'm sitting here writing this, I'm watching Stephen King's Dreamcatcher which really isn't that good, but I have a weakness for his movies. I think it's because I love the books. The damn movies, though, just tend to suck out loud. The movie It was pretty good...well, it swore me off enjoying clowns the rest of my life. Not a bad thing, really. Pet Sematary was relatively creepy, though, once again, the damn book was better.

Tonight, the wife was begging me to watch the new version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. She wants me to watch it so she can delete it from the Tivo in the living room. But, maybe I'll save that for tomorrow night after the Spawn and I go trick-or-treating and hand out some candy to some ghouls and goblins. And, then, when I finally put him to bed for the evening, I'll settle in and tune into the gorefest. It would be a good way to wrap up the scary season for this year.

But, for tonight, I'm gonna watch Jonesy and Duddits save the world from the aliens.

The Italian Job

Last night some friends paid a visit to Casa del Armenia to drop off a gift for the new arrival. The friends are headed to the left coast for a conference in SanFran and aren't going to be able to make the nasty little soiree that will be the couples baby shower this Friday eve.

As I was coming up the stairs from my lair (where I secretly plot to control the universe) I heard my wife exclaim, "Hey, they got a new car!" I flicked on the outside lights and went outside. There, in front of the house were my friends extricating themselves from a Mini Cooper.

When I first saw a Mini (before the Italian Job...the remake, not the original film) my initial reaction was that they were this small European auto driven by people who wanted act like they were living in Europe. Most likely in the outskirts of Paris, France.

But, as my friend told me more about the car, showed me how it was designed, and, especially after he took me for a ride in it, I suddenly wanted to own one. I felt a mid-life crisis coming on.

He bought the car for his wife, but he drives it more than she does, I suspect. And, they tricked it out with most of the options. This was one of the ragtop models, with heated seats, and the tres chic European styling that is slick. And yes, it made me feel like I was flying through narrow streets of Tuscany or in Pisa by the Campa dei Miracoli with the Leaning Tower in my rear view, my hair (or lack of) blowing in the warm summer breeze coming off the Tyrrhenian Sea.

It was the turbo model, too, which was VERY apparent when he pulled out on the main road and went from 0 to 60 in about 4 seconds. Then, suddenly, I was in the Italian Job, helping Marky Mark thwart the bad guys.

All of this in about a 5 minute ride. Just think of what it would be like to own one!

After the ride was over and our guests left for the evening, I rambled on about the car to my wife for about another 20 minutes. I think she was just humoring me, but she did say that if I was going to go get one, to let her know so that she could go with me to pick out the color.

Yes, we have a baby on the way. Is this practical? No, not really. But, man, it sure was a fun ride. Maybe when my mid-life crisis really hits, it's the Mini I'll go for and not the Corvette, like I have always planned.

-la

Update: My beautiful wife pointed out that I misspelled soiree, so I had to make that correction. My apologies to those with RSS readers.

"Help Me, Obi Wan..."

I came across this today:

Which Fantasy/Sci-Fi Character Are You? and damn, if I'm not Obi-Wan Kenobi. The cool thing, is that I'm the young Ewan McGregor Obi-Wan and not the old Alec Guiness Obi-Wan. I guess that plays into me still being in the under-40 demographic.

So, which Fantasy/Sci-Fi character are you? Inquiring minds wanna know, so drop me a note.

-la

Damn Cool Illusion

Freaky deaky, kids.

http://www.patmedia.net/marklevinson/cool/cool_illusion.html

Teddy Scares

Another October weekend has come and gone around the Armenia household. The Spawn won his basketball game, I knocked back a few shots of ouzo at the local Greek Festival along with a pretty damn good gyro, and I watched a pretty wretched remake of The
Amityville Horror. It just wasn't scary. And, this time of year, I like to watch stuff that is scary, being the month in which we have the famous All Hallow's Eve.

I did get a chuckle out of the Mrs. when I walked into her office and she was watching her small TV with aplomb. She looked up at me and said, "Do you know what I'm watching? I hate to confess I've never seen this before...Friday the 13th!" Of course, I don't know what shocked me more....the fact that she was watching it or that she had never seen it before.

I had Tivo'd (when did that become a verb?) several episodes of Ghost Hunters and went to watch those while she finished her TPS reports or whatever she was doing. I figured I'd let her sit with her horrorfest for awhile.

When she emerged, she ranted about how shlocky the movie was. I told her, "Of course, it's shlocky now...that's a movie you have to watch in context. Contect being, oh, 25 years ago!" By the way, did you know that this is the 25th anniversary of Friday the 13th? And, do you remember that this was one of Kevin Bacon's first roles? And, for all you movie buffs out there, did you know that the movie studios are planning a Freddy vs. Jason vs. Michael Myers hackfest to be delivered to a movie screen near you sometime in the not-too-distant future? On top of it all, I heard that they are planning to remake the original Friday the 13th and then start remaking all of the FT13th movies. Gotta love it. Or not.

Keeping in the spirit (ahem) of the upcoming holiday, I thought it might be fun to get my, as yet, unborn son a present. I thought I'd get him a teddy bear. You might be thinking, "Aww...gee that's so cute!"

http://www.teddyscares.com/index.shtml

I think it's a cool idea. I could give it to the kid when he's being bad. "Ok, insert future baby name here, if you don't behave, you'll be sleepin' with Rita Mortis tonight!"

Hey, parenting is tough. You gotta be creative sometimes.

-la

First Person Shooter Level Name Generator

Having been an aficionado of first person shooters, this name generator appealed to me. Check out the link:

http://www.corknut.org/toys/levelname/

-la

Other Places Jimmy Buffett Wasted Away*

• Slipperynippleberg


• Jelloshootersdale


• Bloodymarysfield


• Jägermeisterplatz


• Frozendaiquiriland


• Cubalibratown


• Boilermakerstad

and, courtesy of my sister-in-law,


• eastmojitoham

*In honor of my sister-in-law, the Buffett fan.

-la

Entropy

"A tendency towards disorder within a closed system, as potential energy gets "spent".
Sounds about right for what happened last night. I had hung a picture in the dining room that the wife had just had beautifully framed. Originally, she started to put it up on just a nail, and I'm thinking, "Um, no."

So, I told her to get some of those picture hanger things. With the size of the picture and just by
"eyeballin'" it, I figured it can't weigh more than 20-30lbs.

She got the hanger and I dutifully banged it into the wall and hung the picture.

Then, at 2am this morning, I hear a loud "CRASH!" I thought at first that it was something cat-related because A) I woke out of a hard sleep, B) I couldn't determine if it was upstairs or downstairs, and C) it usually is.

She beat me to it, but I heard her say as I leapt up the stairs that it was the *&#$!&$ picture, and to watch the glass!

The new frame was pretty much toast, and the picture itself got a good scratch on it too. We made short work out of cleaning it up and no cats were harmed during the process. Jack tried to check it out, but got immediately booted. Which in his mind likely translates as, "Hmm...he must mean business..." So, he scampered off.

When it was all said and done, I looked up at the hanger, expecting the sheet rock to have crumbled away. But, it hadn't. The damn hanger had just bent under the weight and let the picture crash to the ground. They were rated for up to 40lbs. You can bet I'm gonna weigh that thing tonight to see how heavy it is. Well, minus all the glass.

Entropy? I got yer entropy right here...

-la

The Bubble Project

This is cool. This guy took empty "thought bubble" stickers and placed them all over NYC, then he went back and photographed the results of what people had scribbled on them. Funny and interesting. It's also a great social commentary on what people are thinking.

Click da' link:
http://www.thebubbleproject.com/

animals have problems too

This is really funny in an animal self-actualized sort of way. Check out the Archive and make suggestions for new and improved animals.

animals have problems too

P-whipped

Yep, I knew it would happen. See what I had to deal with when I got home last night:

Ok, to her credit, the thing has a ton of personality. And, it scares the hell out of Teekers, who, by the way is almost 4 times her size. For some reason, he just does not like the thing.

Mango is indifferent, as I suspected he would be.

Jack (because he's SO DAMN COOL) has taken a shine to the wee one. Either that or he's waiting for an opportunity to eat her whole. I haven't decided yet.

-la

The Zoo

We had beautiful fall weather in OKC this past weekend. Got out and communed with nature for awhile (read: the wife made Spawn and I go dig weeds out of the flower beds and dig holes to plant mums, etc.)

Still, it was good to be outside. After following the many orders of the getting-to-be-very-pregnant wifey, we ordered some Mexicano food from Ted's. Spawn and I went to fetch and deliver. Good stuff, of course. Can't do better than Ted's for Mexican around here. About an hour of resting and digesting, Spawn and I decided to go for our occassional nightly run. We took another route this time, which was nice for me. I think he just saw it as harder work because instead of running the familiar neighborhood loop, we did a straight run down a side run. The problem with this is you can look way ahead to see how far you have to go, and mentally, it might seem like you have ALL THAT WAY to go. When, in reality, it's about the same distance. But, he did it and didn't complain too much, so I was proud of him for the effort.

While waiting for Spawn to take his shower before bed, the phone rang. I answered and it was the wife's sister. She told me that they had rescued a 4-6 week old kitten and that it would make a great addition to our family. Um, no. I handed the phone to the wife. I'm opposed to it, but I can tell from the look on her face when she hung up that we may own a new cat by the time I get home from work tonight. That would make four cats, people. Four. Three is tolerable. Four makes you those crazy cat people down the street. Oh, and don't forget the new baby that is due on December 1st. See, the issue here is that the wife is VERY pregnant and is nesting. She's been reading all these baby magazines, too. Anything that is baby-like (re: kittens) makes her judgement, well, not what it should be. Of course, this is the same woman who has been known to cry at commercials if they are sappy enough. I've seen it. Honest.

After Spawn went to bed, I sat down and watched a C-movie from the SciFi channel. Watching movies on SciFi is like opening Forrest Gump's box of chocolate...you're just never sure of what the hell you're going to get. Most times, it's something you don't like even though you thought you might. I guess there was a time about 20 years ago when I was a teenager that I might have found Dungeons and Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God a compelling movie. Apparently, my tastes have matured somewhat. All I can say is that Tivo = a good thing.

While in the middle of the this epic film (sic), Teekers started chasing a moth that had gotten in the house. Well, it was about 10 seconds later that Jack apparated out of nowhere ('cause he's SO DAMN COOL) and took to the task. He needed assistance to get to higher ground, but once he had that, he was in full-on hunt mode. It was less than 5 minutes later and he had bagged himself a moth.

Gulp.

Wake Me Up Before You Cocoa

It's cold here in OKC tonight. A cold front has moved on down from the north and it dropped damn near 30 degrees in about an hour yesterday. I've got the fireplace going and the heat is cranked up. It's nice and cozy in the house.

So, I'm sitting here writing. Where should I be instead? Well, I should be out running and, as a co-worker of mine says, "gettin' my sweat on". But I have no motivation. A cup of hot chocolate and bed sounds really good, too. Yet, all I wanna do is sit and surf das internets and read about how Donald Trump and Regis Philbin sing duet on some new CD. Lovely. (insert sarcasm here...)

On a completely unrelated note:

Hey, how many Wallace & Gromit fans are out there? Are you as excited as me that the Curse of the Were-Rabbit is finally here? Nick Park sure knows how to entertain. The guy must be constructed of nothing but patience to make a claymation film. Spawn and I will likely be going to see that one together. I got him hooked on W&G when he was but a wee lad. And, maybe we'll take along some cheese to snack on, too.

-la

The Great Kid Race

Feast or famine. That seems to be the way things usually work out these days. And, of course, today was no different. I was offsite working on an issue and in an attempt to "do the right thing", I made an appearance back at the office at damn near 4:30. I should have just gone then and picked up the spawn at the Y. I knew I should have. But, I always think I'm freakin' Superman and can always fit in just one more thing. It damn near came back and bit me in the ass today because of course, someone called and said they were coming over to discuss building plans, and of course, I got three phone calls, and of course people stopped by my desk to talk, and of course...well, you get the idea.

I normally pick up spawn around 5:15. I didn't even leave work today until 5:20. It's at least 30 minutes with no traffic. And, of course, today traffic seemed to be going backwards. At one point, the traffic got so damn bad I was going a mere 5mph.

So, at this point I'm thinking there's no way I'll ever make it there before 6pm, which in aftercare speak translates into "happy hour has begun". So, I "get on the horn" as my dad used to say, pick up the phone and call the Mrs. She's at her parent's house, which is a lot closer than I am. She said she's just leaving so I tell her the situation and she says, "Of course, dear, anything for you!" (Well, ok, maybe it didn't quite come that way, but that was the gist of it...honest!)

I relax a bit, knowing she's on the case. About 5 minutes later, for no apparent reason, traffic starts moving and within mere seconds, I'm up to a comfortable cruising speed of 70mph. This is great...but I wait to call the Mrs. back because I know this is too good to be true.

But, I was wrong. So I called her, and ask where she is. It turns out, I've passed her and now I'm in the lead to get the kid. So, off I go. I cross the finish line with about 30 seconds to spare. The aftercare workers were packing up and ready to head out for other 3-martini playdates, I suspect.

Just another day in the life.

Now we're home and the wife is serving me what she claims is soup. It was previously frozen in an I-just-sunk-the-Titanic looking soup iceberg, but she she says it will be good. We'll see. Anyway, gotta run. Soup's on.

-la

Update: The soup turned out to be pretty damn tasty. She even had rolls and honey to go with it.

Peace and Serenity

This past weekend, I was the King of Slugdom. Every once in awhile, I need this kind of complete and utter downtime. The slugdom started Saturday, because Friday night the wife and I went to see the Broadway hit Movin' Out. Yep, the one where the story is woven through the clever use of Billy Joel songs. The faux piano man and his backup band were spot on and never missed a beat. The performers uttered maybe ten words during the course of the performance. It was like a rock ballet of sorts and the athleticism of the dancers was amazing. It also helped that the female dancers were incredibly hot (it sure kept my attention).

As I mentioned, I really got into that ol' slug groove Saturday when I finally woke up around 11am. From that point, the wife and I commenced to spend the next 12 or so hours doing little other than watch the Firefly series. In between, we checked football scores.

See, a co-worker let me borrow the series and I knew that the follow-up movie was coming out this past weekend. So, I wanted to watch the series on DVD before seeing Serenity. So, we watched all the episodes. There are about 14 at about 42 minutes a shot. You do the math.

So, Sunday late afternoon, we found ourselves having to get back in action after having assumed the Way of the Slug for the past day and half. We managed to get ready, and head to the in-laws for a BBQ with the rest of the fam. Great food, good company, great wine.

Then, after we left, we still had time to catch the late showing of Serenity before heading back to bed to start another week. We finally got home around midnight.

Was it worth it? Let's put it this way: my lovely wife, who is an avid sci-fi fan, and can quote Aliens line for freakin' line (yes, it makes it difficult to watch the movie with her) rated "Serenity up there with Aliens..." I shit you not.

Yes, it's that good. Go see it. Spread the word. It's awesome. Better than any of the recent three George Lucas offerings on a fraction of the budget. Anyone interested in this from an FX point of view, will appreciate it immensely. Lots of VERY cool eye candy tastefully done. Any Battlestar Galactica fans out there will recognize the effects because the same FX house, Zoic Studios created the FX for Serenity and BG (among otherss you'd recognize). Since I'm not qualified to geek out on this subject, check out this article from a guy who is an animator and writes for About.com.

Anyway, even though I got only a few hours sleep last night, I felt relaxed and recharged all day and even ran an extra lap around the neighborhood tonight. A little peace and Serenity goes a long way sometimes.