Due to a Lack of Pictures Here

Here's some nice fungus I found in the cemetery behind our house sometime last fall-ish.

No Time At All

Aah! The end of semester rush is in full swing -- I have two major projects, some minor ones, and an exam coming up next week. And I'm getting the new About PSP site ready to go live, AND I'm still maintaining the About Teenwriting site until PSP goes live. Talk about no time! I'm still managing to play games (I have to for work now), but I'm not getting much time to read or watch movies, or write to people who probably think I am dead.

So, I'm not dead. I feel like it some mornings, but I seem to still have a pulse. I am still ambulatory and consuming too many chips and too much chocolate. I got my hair cut (Deva's mom Judy cut it, as I am too cheap and have too little time to go to a salon). I seem to resemble my driver's license photo again. Other than that, there is not much happening. School. Work. Haircut. Oh, and it's decided to be spring. I saw crocuses nearly two weeks ago (I think; time does strange things at the end of semester).

Also, I am finding it difficult to not change my major to photography. I really like design, but it is photo class that infallibly puts me in a good mood and makes me happy that I am in art school. Must . . . be . . . practical. I got my summer course schedule (note to self: hurry up and apply for a student loan, you git). I'll have Intro Photo (in case you are confused, I am currently taking Foundation Photo, which is the first year course) and Survey of 20th Century Art (which I am mainly taking as it is a prerequisite for History of Photography which I have registered for in the fall) all summer long. In the first half of the summer, I'm taking Book Arts, and in the second half, I'm taking Computer Image Making. I've ended up with 8:30 classes at least one day a week all summer (yuck) and also one day a week that's really long, but I only have classes 3 days out of 7. So, I guess there was some news. Now I go back to work. Or maybe I'll play Daxter for a while first.

Anime night tonight. Yay!

PSP Updates

So, I am working madly away to get the new psp.about.com site ready to go live. It's a lot of fun, too. Anyway, I broke down and bought Daxter yesterday. I think it's the first time I've ever bought a new release game for any system. I did trade in a PS2 game, though, so it was slightly cheaper.

Also, I found a place that has PSPs with version 1.5 firmware, brand new in the box. Version 1.5 is the highest version that will run all homebrew programs, which is what I want a second PSP for (because homebrew is probably going to be a significant aspect of the new job, and I can't really report on it without a machine that runs it).

Birthday Ideas

Yes, I know my birthday isn't for well over two months . . .

Since I'm going to be the PSP Guide at About.com, I'm going to need a few things, and it would be cool to get some of them for my birthday (I thought to myself). The things I'll need include PlayStation magazines, PSP accessories, PSP movies and PSP games. And maybe another PSP.

Even though I get all the latest news online, magazines are still a good source of information, ideas for articles, and so on. The magazines I'd like subscriptions to for work are (roughly in order of importance):

• OPM (aka the Official PlayStation Magazine)
  
• PSM (aka PlayStation Monthly)
  
• Pocket Games
  
• Game Informer
  
• Electronic Gaming Monthly (aka EGM)
  
• GamePro

Yeah, there are quite a few. I probably missed some (I purposely left out a really cool, but very pricey, English game culture mag). The top three on the list are the most important -- the first two are PlayStation and PSP specific, and the third is handheld gaming specific. The other three are also useful but not as vital.

Accessories. I'm coveting this case/stand, but essentially, anything other than Pelican's Face Armor and Disc Jackets, Intec's leather case, and the Sony items that came in the value pack woud be useful for reviewing. Things I actually need would include some kind of screen protector (those stick-on fim things) and Logitech's PlayGear Pocket. Oh, and a bigger Memory Stick (Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick Pro Duo) -- say 1 GB or larger.

As for games and movies, anything on UMD (that's the PSP format tiny discs that come in a case like a DVD case but narrower) would be great (except for Lumines and Death Junior for games, and Hellboy and Van Hellsing for movies). I will probably have to scrape together the cash to buy a few before my birthday, but I'll keep anyone interested up to date. I don't own any music videos on UMD -- those would be useful for reviews.

And I've been thinking a second PSP would be a good idea. I'm going to be doing extensive coverage of PSP Homebrews, and running homebrew requires some clever hacks. It would be nice to have a clean system for playing approved games and movies, and another for messing around with the frowned-upon-by-Sony stuff. Ideally, I'd either like a ceramic white Japanese system, which would let me review both a different colour and a different version, or an older system running firmware version 1.50 (but not 1.51 or 1.52), which would be much harder to find -- eBay, probably -- but which would let me run every homebrew ever made.

Of course, there are rumours of a slimmed-down version of the PSP coming out around Christmas, but so far they are only rumours, and Christmas is a long way off.

There are always non-PSP things, too, like photography books and anime DVDs, but until I establish good press/pr relationships with companies that make stuff for PSP, I'm going to have to buy things to review and write about, and I can't quite justify so many magazine subscriptions on a limited budget. Sigh.

Early birthday presents are always welcome, of course. (heh heh heh)

Painting

Quite some time ago I had an idea to do paintings on wood in such a way that the wood grain showed through and formed part of the composition. I actually painted one -- a selkie -- but my skills as a painter were not exactly astounding. I also had glued on a sheet of parchment with calligraphy on it, then sanded down the surface so most of the wood grain was visible again before painting on it. I liked the way it turned out, even if it was a bit shaky, and used to have it hanging on my wall. I keep meaning to try that again, but when do I have time to paint? Geh.

Anyway, I was browsing blogs this morning, and came across a link to this artist, who paints lovely people on wood with the wood grain showing through (or else it's very convincing faux grain, but I think it's real). I especially like the one with the coelacanth. And the bug one. Lovely stuff, anyway. (Link via Fabulist.)

Coolest Geek Ever!

I think I mentioned that I'd applied to do the PSP (that is, Playstation Portable) site for About (for whom I currently do the CW for Teens site). Well, I went through prep (that is training that also helps the staff evaluate your ability to do the job). I was almost two weeks long, but I had a blast! So, anyway, I found out Wednesday that I got the job! Yay! So I have another week or two to build up the site, and then it goes live and I am the About Guide to PSP. Of course, I also have to give up teenwriting, but that's okay. I haven't been so enthusiastic about it lately. It's hard to write about writing when the only writing you're doing is writing about writing. I think this will be a good change.

Quoth the . . . Cat?

I realized I hadn't posted any pics of the kittens. Sam (aka Captain Samuel Morgan), who has thumbs, now lives next door with Deva's mum, so I don't have any recent shots of him. Poe, on the other hand, has become a huge furry black beast (alas, his brain doesn't seem to have grown along with his body) who likes to occupy empty shelves.



And yes, he talks. A lot, and loudly. He doesn't say "Nevermore," though. Just variations of "Meeeeoowwww!" (usually sounding like he's been abandoned and will never know companionship again, even if he happens to be standing right next to you).

Fey! Update! (Sort Of!)

Actually, all I did is finally move the web pages I did as a project for Computer class last semester over to their proper place. I still need to work on the calligraphy. Possibly re-doing the letters in Illustrator would help, but I haven't got time right now, so they'll just have to stay as-is for now. Now I just need to actually update the comic . . .

Ego-Boost

Yeah, okay, so I googled myself again. This time I found my Computer Games as Storytelling article linked in a list of references for a course on Introduction to Narrative at the National University of Singapore. Kinda cool.

Which Sci-Fi Crew Would You Best Fit In?

You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and donâ??t enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you. Serenity (Firefly) 88% Moya (Farscape) 81% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 81% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 75% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 69% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 63% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 63% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 50% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 50% SG-1 (Stargate) 50% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 50% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 25% Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

We Have Wireless! And Snow!

I'm on my "spring" break right now, which means there's nobody else home--a perfect time to set up that wireless router I blogged about not long ago. You know, in case I mess up and it takes me all day to fix it. Well . . . I did not mess up. Even with all the fiddling and testing and playing around I did, it only took a couple of hours. The actual plug-it-in-and-make-it-work time was about ten minutes. If I'd know it was going to be that easy, I'd have done it right away. Oh well.

So now we have two PCs (Deva and Ryan's Dell and my Crap Machine) and a Mac (my Siog) plugged in the old-fashioned wired way, and I can connect wirelessly with the PSP. All for $3.99. Now I have a wired broadband router I don't need anymore, but Deva's mom has been talking about getting internet service again, so maybe she'll need it. Anyway.

One of the reasons I wanted to get a wireless router was for the PSP. I've applied to do the brand-new, does-not-exist-yet, About.com PSP site. It would mean giving up Creative Writing for Teens, of course. Two reasons why that will probably be a good thing: 1. I find that all my creative-writing energy seems to be going into that site, with not much left over for my own work; and 2. I've been wanting to get back into game reviewing for quite a while now (does anyone even remember that I used to review for the Electric Playground website?). This way, I get to review PSP games, gadgets and peripherals of various sorts. I think it'll be cool. Plus, I'll have a perfectly valid reason for why playing games needs to get equal time with doing art school homework.

Anyway, I feel very high-tech. (Yeah, yeah, wireless is not exactly cutting-edge. I'll be cutting edge when I'm rich.)

And now I am babbling, so on the the second thing in the title: snow. At the moment, there are just a few tiny flakes drifting down, and the sun is actually glaring out from some gap in the clouds and lighting up my keyboard, but half an hour ago there was a flurry of big, fluffy flakes. I tried to get a good photo showing the flakes; here's what it looked like from our balcony:



Click the image for a bigger version where you might actually be able to see the snowflakes.

Pretty Things

For an assignment in Design class, I went to talk to Andrew Kirk, a violin maker here in Halifax. It was an interesting visit, and I learned all kinds of cool things about violins and working with wood (the object of the assignment is to familiarize us with wood and woodworking, as we are designing wooden toys). Also, I took this picture:



(Click the image for a larger version.) Pretty, no? I took it with my little HP digital camera, which is turning out to be a pretty useful little device. I admit, I did crop it down a bit; I was thinking more about snapping pics of everything in the workshop than I was about composition when I shot it. I didn't realize how striking the reddish colour of the maple wood would look against the bright blue walls. I think I might even change the ink cartridge in my inkjet printer and see if I can get a decent print to put on my wall.

Ah!

(That was a Homer Simpson-esque "ah!" in case you were wondering).

I sort of knew this was coming, but now I know for sure: there's going to be a sequel to The Dark Crystal! Scroll down for a lovely picture. (Link via PuppetVision Blog.)

Going Wireless . . . Sort Of

When we set up our internet connection here, I had originally thought of getting a wireless router. No cables snaking all over the place, etc. But wireless routers cost more than wired ones, and nobody here has wireless machines, so we'd have had to buy adapters as well as the router (even my Mac isn't wireless, because I was cheap).

Except I didn't know that most wireless routers also have ports for wired machines.

Anyway, I've been wanting to play with my PSP online (the updated firmware includes a little web browser--is that not cool?). And when I get a DS, I'll want to try it out online, too. Both PSPs and DSs are wireless, with no way to access a wired network (well, you can buy a USB device from Nintendo that turns your PC into a wireless access point, but since my primary machine is not an XP box, and since the adapter *only* works with DS, well . . .)

So, just out of curiousity, I went to the Futureshop website to look at wireless routers. And I found this one. As I write this (and until the 9th of this month) it's on sale for $63.99. With a $60 mail-in rebate. For those of you who can't quite compute this, it means the thing will cost $3.99 (not including the tax on the whole $63.99, of course). $3.99!!! That's less that five bucks (less than fifteen if you count the tax). They're out of stock online, but they have a nifty feature where you can order online and pick up in-store. They are in stock in Halifax (and Dartmouth). So, yeah, I ordered one online and will find out tomorrow (probably) if/when i can go pick it up. $3.99! I'm still amazed.

So if you're thinking of picking up a wireless router, this might be a good time.

Now That's Halifax Winter

Here's what's on the NSCAD homepage this morning:

All daytime and evening classes are cancelled and the university is closed today, due to the snowstorm.

SNOW DAY! I haven't had a snow day since I was in elementary school.

Very Cool Art

Check this out. I'd love to have some of these lurking in my house. I'd love to make something like these. I tried once, with some fish bones, but it didn't work very well. Maybe it's time to try again. (Link via Neil Gaiman.)

You Know You're a Geek When

. . . your design class is looking at monograms and your teacher asks "What do the initials D.M. remind you of?" and you say "Dungeon Master."

Forget Heaven, I'm Going to Valhalla!

Do you deserve a seat in Valhalla? (15 Questions)
brought to you by Quizilla

Why I Love Value Village

(There's also a "Why I Hate Value Village" category that begins with insane pricing, but that's irrelevant for the moment.)

I love Value Village because you can still find very cool stuff there for relatively cheap (possibly that is especially so for the Atlantic provinces). Today, I found a Rolleiflex SL26 camera there. It's a "classic" camera from the late 60s/early 70s, made in Germany and sporting a Zeiss lens (Zeiss makes really good lenses for large format cameras). Anyway, they're not hugely expensive cameras these days, but they do cost more than the $25 I paid for mine. Now I just have to find some 126 film cartridges (I could swear I saw them at a Lawton's drug store a few months ago, but it might have been 110).

And I also found an old Nintendo NES game system. It's a bit cheesy, but how could I resist? It desperately needs cleaning, so I'll be off to WalMart for cleaning items (and junkfood for anime night). Woo hoo!

Bestsellers

According to the Lulu Titlescorer,

• The Coming of the Fairies has a 63.7% chance of becoming a bestseller
  
• The Secret Common-Wealth has a 69% chance
  
• The Madness of Kentaurs has a 35.9% chance
  
• The Stolen Child has a 41.4% chance
  
• Three Sisters has a 14.6% chance
  
• and Bunk has a 31.7% chance.

Of course, only the first three have actually been written (and only the first one revised). Scientific bestseller projection for books not even written yet! Amazing!

(Link via Neil Gaiman.)