Diary of a Network Geek

I know some of my hobbies and obsessions seem rather more costly than is reasonable.

I’ll bet most of my readers thought it was a little crazy to even contemplate bidding on ephemera and, well, junk from the Battlestar Galactica set. I suppose, in a way, it is. And, I would imagine that more than a few people who are drawn in by the gravity well of time and energy I like to call The Diary of a Network Geek would find my semisecret urge to create my own props for my own, internal, unpublished science-fiction world, well, a bit odd, to say the least. Well, for those of you who doubt, I share with you Weta Collectibles: Original Rayguns. Look at them. Look at them closely. Now, look at the prices. There’s money in those rayguns!

Who’s crazy now?

So, yeah, I bid on some Battlestar Galactica items this week.

You know that part of being a full-on network geek like me is being into science fiction, right? Well, it is. And some of the best science fiction on television in the past couple years has been Battlestar Galactica. They’re almost done with the series, which, wisely, has a definite story arc and a planned ending. Naturally, they decided to whip up a little frenzy about all this with an auction of genuine, screen-used, props from the show. Only, I think things may not have turned out quite the way they hoped…

Apparently, the recession has hit BSG fans pretty hard. So, I don’t feel quite so bad for getting aced out of a couple super-geeky, background props that I really can’t afford to spend money on in the first place. Besides, in keeping with the only thing resembling a “New Year’s Resolution” I made this year, that I want to produce more than I consume, I should be making stuff like this. In fact, with my latest obsession, photography, I think it might be fun to create “props” for a science-fiction setting of my very own. Between watching all the seasons of Battlestar Galactica out on DVD and watching my Space: Above and Beyond DVDs, well, I’m finding myself inspired to think of some good, old-fashioned science-fiction stories to tell with the camera. Surely, the world could handle a little old school, gritty, space opera complete with photographic illustrations.

Well, we’ll see how that goes as things warm up and my garage gets more usable again. If I were to clean it out and make a little room, I could easily have a photography studio and a prop workshop out there.
It would keep me off the streets at night!

Leave it to crazy kids to beat the system.

No, seriously, high school students have found a way to make those pesky red-light ticket cameras work for them. Or, rather, work against their “enemies”. According to the Montgomery County Sentinel, some enterprising kids have figured out how to print fake license plates that are good enough to fool the cameras. Armed with those, they borrow cars that look like their target’s cars, apply the fake “plate” with their target’s information on it, and speed past the cameras. Bingo! Their target gets hit with the speeding ticket. Do it enough times and, well, it gets to be a problem worthy of the Internet news. (And, yeah, I called them “red-light cameras” instead of “speeding cameras” because that’s how they use them in Texas.)

Clever kids!

Oh, also, after having Thai curry for lunch yesterday, I’m feeling much better. And, I checked on my peanut butter via the toll-free number on the side of the jar. The nice recorded voice assured me that my precious peanut butter was salmonella-free, so I’m all good. Physically, at least.

No, this is not a plea.

Really, I have a giant stack of books to read, so all I need to do is reach randomly into the stack and pull out something miraculous. No, this is to help you, dear reader, pick out something new to read.
As a computer geek, I love anything that programatically generates something new based on previous information. Markov Chains, for instance, are fascinating to me, even if I barely understand them. So, when I saw this website, What should I read next?, I had to share it with you. To use it, go, enter the last good book you read and its author, then clikc the big button. In a few seconds, the page will refresh with a link to what it thinks you meant, which will hopefully be the book you had in mind. Then, click on that link and you’ll be taken to a list of suggestions for what you should read next.

I’m not sure I entirely trust it, though, since when I used Choke by Chuck Palahnuik, it returned a bunch of Photoshop books. Still, it’s a fun way to get shoved out of your little reading rut! So, go ahead and try it!

I cannot make this stuff up.

So, the military is concerned about their image. I get that. Blogs and other on-line media are incredibly popular and a source of information and opinion that may influence readers. I get that, too. But, the Air Force is so worried about this they apparently have a flowchart to help counter-bloggers do their work. At least, if Wired is to be believed, they do.

Actually? It’s not a bad suggestion for how anyone might respond to a blog post or a comment on a blog post that they don’t like or with which they disagree. Seriously. Check it out.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"When I'm working on a problem I never think about beauty. I think only of how to solve the problem. But, when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."
   --R. Buckminster Fuller

You knew someone was going to do this, right?

Okay, given my obsession with the ultimate Nerf weapon, the Vulcan EBF-25, I’m sure many of my readers thought I would be the first person to make super modifications to it. I’m proud to say that I am not. I may be a geek, but I’m not that big of a geek! Those guys are here: Nerf Chaingun Modifications.

Basically, these guys made the EBF-25 four times more awesome by adding a better battery pack and a cooler paint job. The paint job is, I think, self-explanatory. The battery pack, however, is what makes it a chaingun. The bigger, better batteries give the motor which drives the belt more power, which means this already incredible weapon can fire up to four times faster.
I think I may start counting the days until it’s warm enough to paint in my garage again…

Speaking of frivolous lawsuits…

Oh, well, I guess I haven’t really mentioned that, but, well, this suit being threatened by a group identifying themselves as Knights Templar are doing just that. According to the article in the Register, this group is trying to get the Pope and Vatican to acknowledge that the Catholic Church was politically motivated when they suppressed the Knights Templar back in 1307. Obviously the “threat” is that they’ll drag the Holy See through the court system unless this, well, sort of silly, demand is met.

Well, I guess it’s nice to know that America isn’t the only place that’s gotten a little lawyer happy!

Well, specifically, rooftop gardens in New York City.

Actually, the set of photos on Flickr is called Rich People Rooftops NYC, but it’s mostly gardens.
I’ve always loved the idea of private gardens hidden away on the roofs of buildings in big cities like this. Don’t know a thing about the set or the photographer, but the pictures look almost like an impossible fantasy to me. Very fun, well worth a look, and, hopefully, something to help you feel a little warmer this cold, cold month.

YesMan

Originally uploaded by Network Geek

I saw Yes Man on Christmas Day.

Being away from family on Christmas, and being single so, therefore, not entangled with someone else’s family, I’m often and odds with what to do. Last year, and now, this year, too, I connected with a friend who’s also away from family and single to see a movie. This year, we went to a Thai buffet, which was one of the few things open on Christmas Day, before heading out to the theater.
This year, we were both in the mood for a comedy, so, after looking at the possibilities, we opted for the Jim Carrey vehicle, Yes Man. The premise is nothing new, really. A lonely, single man, who’s nursing a hurt over his divorce, four years prior, Jim Carrey’s character has withdrawn from the world. He’s shut his life down to the bare minimum of going to work, renting videos and ignoring his cell phone so that he can avoid going out and doing more with his friends. Also, he’s avoiding the possibility of running into his ex-wife. Naturally, when his best friend finally drags him out to a bar for a few drinks, and to announce his engagement, the first person he runs into is his ex-wife and her new boyfriend. Naturally, he’s mortified and scuttles off back to his apartment. His friends check on him later and brow-beat him into promising to attend his best friend’s engagement party.
Unfortunately, after getting some bad news about being passed over for a promotion at work, his depression gets worse. Seeing an old acquaintance who’s somehow managed to change his life, for the better, via a self-help seminar that’s all about embracing the power of “yes”. Things reach a peak, or rather a bottom, when his depression leads him to miss his best friend’s party.
So, at his wit’s end, ready to try anything to change, he goes to the “yes” seminar that he heard about. The leader/guru focuses in on this poor soul who agrees to give into the power of “yes” and say “yes” to all of life’s opportunities.

Right, so about now you’re picturing Jim Carrey and all the comedic places that not being able to say “no” can take him. And, you’d probably be about right, too! The movie goes to all those socially uncomfortable places that you’d expect it to go. Saying yes to spam e-mail, the needy neighbor, the street person asking for a ride, the guy on the corner handing out fliers, and so on. And, yes, the movie is as funny as you would think Jim Carrey could be with this situation. In fact, this is the funniest Carrey has been for quite some time.
The other thing about this movie is that it’s actually romantic, too. The main character is the typical “lonely guy”, so it’s not a big surprise that he finds romance when he starts saying “yes” to everything life has to offer. And, yes, he gets into some trouble, too. Trouble enough that you’re not sure it’s going to be a happy ending. But, trust me, it is. I won’t say how it’s happy, because you should go see for yourself, but it is a happy ending.

In short, this is a funny movie that includes some romance, a good story, a moral lesson, and a happy ending. I loved this movie. It had me laughing all the way through. I’m not a huge Jim Carrey fan, but this is a great vehicle for him. It’s funny, crazy and unpredictable. Oh, and all the stuff that seems random and unconnected at first? It all ties together eventually, if you just stick with it. Uh, there is one slightly uncomfortable scene with dentures and oral sex off camera, but that’s how they got their PG-13 rating, I think. It’s in context and funny. Wrong, but funny.

It’s a good movie, so go see it.

Well, it’s that time of year again.

Yep, it’s time to start figuring out what resolution you’re going to fail miserably at for the coming year. What? C’mon, you know you never really manage to follow through on your New Year’s Resolutions. But, if you’d like to at least have some fun coming up with one, why not try my very own, home-made New Year’s Resolution Generator? You can choose whether or not to start something or stop something and leave the rest up to drunken, sexy chance! (Well, that sounds better than leaving it up to my feeble programming skills and a pseudo-random number generator, doesn’t it?)
It’s loads of fun and was picked by a Comedy Central blog as a fun toy of the season several years back. So, hey, if the comedy establishment loves it, you know it can’t be bad.

Give it a whirl and start warming up for your New Year’s Eve Party now!