Chapel Perilous

I'm sorry, I meant to post that at Black Shiny Bug. Everything works over there, and that's where new posts are supposed to go.
And I know it's kind of a hassle, but could you maybe bookmark that instead of this? 
posted by Bsti @ 7:44 PM ¶ comments

Your Comments are Broken

Welcome back,
Felicitations to everyone. I hope you a profitable Xmas.

Yarrrr. 
posted by Cap'n Marrrrk @ 12:56 PM ¶ comments

My computer died last week, but I got a spanking new laptop yesterday, with Vista.
So far, I see no problems with Vista and the laptop rocks moltencore.
I obviously am not yet able to transfer files from the deceased, so I have to find and bookmark all of my old favorites (except those in the blogroll).
No Big Deal.

Of course, the first thing I must do is set my homepage to Chapel Perilous, so I google it and find that it's on top.
Oh noes. This means that there must be an inherent responsibility to provide fresh content, something I'd rather lost interest in of late.
The good news is that I feel refreshed enough to get back to it. Let's pretend the archives aren't broken; that's all old news anyway. I only use archives for reference anyway.
The bad news is that, since CP hasn't been really active over the last several months, I've probably lost the majority of regular readers as a result.
Also, Blog This! doesn't want to work on the newest version of Firefox, so entries will have to be more manual until that's fixed, so that means batch entries.
But let's see if I can recover something of a sense of humor again.

The first item of interest is this gem:


The shiny thing is, it actually works. I think the Beatnix are onto a niche market; converting many popular songs into Beatle-esque versions.

LOST returns tonight!
Let us all prey to the FSM that the writers get back to work before the season window closes and leaves us with only 8 episodes.
We watched S3 Season finale last night and, while the "pop-up video" application was distracting, it was also humorous, written independantly by a couple of guys who work for an insurance firm, I think.
For all things LOST, I go to Dark UFO.


After watching both the Republican and Democratic debats recently, I can confidently predict that a Democrat will occupy the White House once King George The Stoopid drags his knuckles back to his ranch to end his years clearing brush and golfing.
The question is not who will be a better president, but who will put a new face on the presidency for the world to appreciate. I like both Obama and Clinton, so I don't know yet who to endorse. They seem to have the same basic ideals, maybe they should run on the same ticket after one is chosen to run for the Primary.

Let's call this the "Hey, I'm back" post.
I'll try to be somewhat relevant again. 
posted by Bsti @ 5:45 PM ¶ comments

Flickr: Photos from niqkita
Please go see new photos of Lola as well as other goodies.
This one is a personal favorite:
 
posted by Bsti @ 8:36 PM ¶ comments

Quick Review

Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles
TV Series, Fox

I initially snorted at the idea of a series based on the Terminator movie franchise because, really, how far can you take that storyline?
But because I enjoy the Sci-Fi, we decided to give the pilot a whirl and see it lives up to the hype of the commercials.
One point of curiosity, Summer Glau from the an excellent sci-fi series that died far too early, Firefly.

It's soon established that this series picks up some years after Terminator 2 left off, with the destruction of Skynet before it's created when the scientist involved martyrs himself to save the world.

So John Conner and his mother are hiding in plain sight in some hick town where John now goes to high school.
Now, you'd think that John grew some balls after the carnage and destruction that was T2, but noooooo. He's pathetic, whiny, and a real loser.

"MoooOOOm, you can stop Skynet. You did it before! Pleeeeaaase??"

The writing of this series is beyond bad, it's lazy, drawing on every dialog cliche they could come up with.

And Summer Glau's symapthetic terminator character, meant to protect the two, is vastly unconvincing. Sure, she's got her action chops via what she learned training for the movie Serenity, but the acting, gah.
The only convincing actor so far is the machine that's chasing them down.

We get another shot tonight. Hopefully, as with almost all new shows, the dialog and storyline will improve, but I have serious doubts.

At the end, I found myself saying "another victim of the writer's strike."
At least, I hope that's their excuse. 
posted by Bsti @ 7:29 PM ¶ comments

An announcement: I’ve moved, sorta

I finally caught the bug enough that I decided to resume blogging regularly, for now in the most hassle-free environment I could find — namely Blogspot. I’ll still be posting the really Chapel-friendly stuff over here when I find it, though.

The new digs, as such, are at the impulsively-titled MumbleMumbleCoffee.

Drop on by and say howdy if I’ve seemed in the past to display any erudition at all.

 
posted by ben @ 8:38 AM ¶ comments

And sometimes, I make good decisions

[Note: I lived with my father and brothers within a stone’s throw of the 15/78 interchange from August ’97 until December ’98, and that family unit still calls the area home.]

I often question the wisdom I expressed in my decision to move back to Portland when I did.

However, for the umpteenth time since leaving San Diego, I’m glad I was decisive about leaving.

It stands to reason that classes at CSUSM will be cancelled all week if not longer, but neither the campus (which was briefly threatened by the Witch fire) nor Dad’s apartment (which is well north of the 78) are currently in danger.

My stepmom’s place, which was skirted by two fires in ’03, is likewise out of harm’s way for now.

I get into a nailbiting mood when I remember that the Santa Anas will go on for a while yet. Damn. It.

When things are fine down there they’re REALLY fine, but I still sometimes wonder how people can stand to live in the shadow of the telegenic drama currently being played out.

In Dad’s case it’s easy — he’s tenured faculty, and there’s nothing else to discuss.

But still…

On review

I suppose there’s a cadre of class warriors gleeful that a sizable swath of RB got burned to the ground, but then I think of all the retirees from Carlsbad, San Marcos, and Escondido undergoing the stress of evacuation. I’m certain, even without proof, that there are strivers from the burned areas whose mortgages exposed them greatly to the risk of financial ruin. And for all the credit I might give to my intuition that San Diego (or even Southern California) was not the place for me, I consider myself lucky to be watching all of this from a safe distance after a summer during which there were only two tornado warnings within easy driving distance of my apartment.

Surely there will be another year, soon enough, that will be entirely different.

On further review

Seems I forgot how to read a map (go me!) in the midst of trying to figure out what's going on. Crap. So I'm more worried. But I'll just hafta go to sleep and find out in the morning how things are shaking out.

 
posted by ben @ 11:27 PM ¶ comments