Reverend Darkness's blog

Election 2006 Observation

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 09:50:54 -0800

So... the Democrats have won the majority of seats in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. As I was flipping around the talk radio stations, listening to the various stuffed shirts and talking heads bemoan or celebrate the election results, I happened across the local classic rock station playing "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who... -------------------------------------------------- [i]There's nothing in the street Looks any different to me And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye And the parting on the left Is now the parting on the right And the beards have all grown longer overnight[/i] [i]I'll tip my hat to the new constitution Take a bow for the new revolution Smile and grin at the change all around Pick up my guitar and play Just like yesterday Then I'll get on my knees and pray We don't get fooled again Don't get fooled again No, no![/i] [i]Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah![/i] [i]Meet the new boss Same as the old boss[/i] -------------------------------------------------- Just a little musical food for thought.

Rest in Peace, Frodo...

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:56:09 -0700

Frodo passed on October 24, 2006. He lived a long rat life... the equivalent of 100 human years. He will be missed. [img]http://www.applefritter.com/files/frodo-shoulder.jpg[/img]

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How and Why Canon fixed my PowerShot A60

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 09:11:37 -0700

So, a coupla years ago, my wife and I bought our first real digital camera. The PowerShot A60 was within our price range, had the image quality and features we liked, and came with free 128 MB CompactFlash card if we bought that weekend. So we did. After about a year or so, we noticed that the display on the back of the camera was distorted by some lines, and that it got worse and worse as time went on. When lines started appearing on the images themselves, I went into hyper-research mode. I found a page that discussed the CCD image sensors that were used in a number of digital camera makes and models, and that they simply went bad after a time. This page (which I cannot find anymore) referenced a page on Canon's site, which stated that they would fix - free of charge - any camera exhibiting this problem. I called them about the issue, and it was really quite simple. I gave them the info, and they sent me a UPS shipping label, so I could ship it to them free of charge. Then they would fix it free of charge and ship it back to me free of charge. I only spent about $0.85 on tape to package the thing. It was exactly two weeks from the day that I shipped them the camera that I got it back, all free of charge, and it works wonderfully. There was a noticable 2 second delay when taking pictures before, and now it is just less than a second. It seems that the faulty CCD Image Sensor was causing a problem with the way the images were processed. I just wanted to post this little bit about Canon, because you rarely see people go on and on about something GOOD that a company has done. Canon has treated us very well. I like my PowerShot A60 and can now continue to use it. I'm sure that there was many a customer that simply bought a new camera, but hopefully, this will help someone else who might need to get theirs fixed.

Merry Unbirthday To Me!

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 11:26:44 -0800

(slightly changed) Statistics prove, prove that I've one birthday, one birthday every four years. But there are fourteen hundred and sixty unbirthdays. That is why we're gathered here to cheer. A very merry unbirthday to me, to me. A very merry unbirthday to me, It's great to drink to someone and I guess that I will do. A very merry unbirthday to me (For those who don't know, I was born on Feb. 29)

Dallas ComicCon

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 15:09:17 -0800

Today was a pretty cool day... Last week, my wonderful wife found out that the Dallas Comic Con and SciFi Expo folks were having a con with free admission. The guest of honor was Anthony Daniels (a.k.a C3-PO), but also in attendance were supposed to be Jaime Mendoza and James O'Barr... JAMES O'BARR?!?!? The guy who wrote/illustrated/created "The Crow"! Oh yeah... we were going to this, and I was going to get him to sign my book. By that I mean the graphic novel that I purchased after the movie had come out. See, it was the late 80's when I came across this black & white indie comic that really grabbed me. I hunted and dug and found every issue, and read most of them to tatters. It was in the early 90's that I sold the rest. I first dressed as "The Crow" for Halloween in 1991. I had exactly one person know what the make-up, leather pants, and black wig were all about. Then I found out about the movie, and had to go and find the comics again. I lucked out and found all of them in one anthology, one giant graphic novel, that I read again and again. When I heard that the man who created this... this work of art... was going to be at this con, I had to go. He signed my book. He was cool about it too... He was sitting there, working on an original sketch, when he looked up and saw me standing there like the ultimate fanboy and asked if I was waiting for an autograph. I said "Yeah, but I don't want to interrupt..." He smiled a gracious - and almost embarrassed - smile, took my book and signed. I nearly pissed myself. Later, as we continued to walk the con, my wife and I saw him walking around. He was looking at comics, action figures, memorabilia... He was being a geek, and that was really cool. Also, as we are walking around, I saw a guy that I used to go to school with at the Art Institute, Mark Walters. After I got my book signed, I saw him behind one of the tables, and asked if it was really him. It turns out that this guy RUNS the cons. He is the cons. I found out that a guy that I used to hang out and smoke with is in charge of organizing one of the coolest things that happens on a regular basis in D/FW. Today was a pretty cool day...

Rest in Peace, Samwise...

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 13:44:08 -0800

Samwise passed away Jan 4 2006. He was a bit of a nibbler, but he was a cute lil bugger. He will be missed. [img]http://www.applefritter.com/images/samwise-10075_640x480.jpg[/img]

"You'll shoot your eye out..."

Sat, 24 Dec 2005 21:44:32 -0800

Those words of warning to young Ralphie Parker in "A Christmas Story" flashed through my mind today... It was the Christmas Eve get-together for my in-laws. I like my in-laws, which is probably weird to begin with, but the other weird thing is that they like me, too. They think I'm this nice, clean-cut, witty guy whose great with kids and a real shark at 42. So basically, they see exactly what I want them to see. But I digress... I was playing with the children of my wife's cousin, one of whom had received a Nerf gun that shoot darts with Velcro on the tips. We made up a type of dodge-ball/dart kinda game, and I was teaching them the finer points of dodging... ...when I shot my eye out... sorta... I had pulled the trigger, but my thumb was blocking the plunger that shot the dart. I was confused, so I turned the gun to look at the barrel. By doing so, I moved my thumb from its inhibitive position, thereby freeing the dart (tipped with Velcro, remember?) to complete its destiny and hit me dead on in the left eye. "Ow... damn...", I thought. "I just shot my eye out..." Well, my eye is still there, really, but I lost a nice chunk of eyeball skin to the Velcro. About 1/4 inch square, right above my pupil, still in the brown part of my iris. The bad part is that I shot myself in the eye, but the good part is that I missed the pupil and can still see out of it. But... Ow... Now I have a patch over my eye to keep me from messing with it until it heals. My depth perception is way off, which makes for great fun when reaching for my beer. It takes me two or three tries before I actually grab it, so then I hang onto it for a while... not wanting to go back through the hassle of figuring out where it is, exactly. The moral of the story is: Don't freakin aim any freakin gun at your freakin face!

Movie Review: Serenity

Sat, 15 Oct 2005 21:32:57 -0700

Scott Kurtz has T-shirts for sale that state: "JOSS WHEDON IS MY MASTER NOW"... and for good reason. I wasn't on board the "[i]Serenity[/i]" until recently. I had see half of one episode back in '02 when they first ran. But when I heard that there was a movie coming out and that the series "[i]Firefly[/i]" was going to be run on Sci-Fi again, I decided I would check out the series and see if it was worth my time. I mean, the geek world had been all a-buzz about this series for three years... as a geek, I was obligated to at least check it out. After seeing the first episode (or two episodes: Serenity Parts 1 & 2), I was hooked. I'm a Texan, so Westerns are just a part of existence around here. This TV show was a Western. Just because it's set 500 years in the future in another solar system on a spaceship doesn't mean that it's not a Western. It's just a Western set 500 years in the future in another solar system on a spaceship. But it's not what it is... it's who is in it... The characters are real... the dialog is real... and the characters deliver the dialog so as to make it seem real. This is what first draws you in. You hear these people interact, and you decide to give it another five minutes... then there's the gunfight, so you give it another five minutes... then there's more dialog, and you sit down and watch the whole thing. I'll say this... my wife and I are only half-way through the original series, but we had to go see "[i]Serenity[/i]" in a theatre. Anything below this may be a spoiler... so if you haven't seen the movie... stop now. So... you're still reading, so maybe you've seen it. If not.. it's your own damned fault. I laughed. I cried. I nearly pissed myself. This movie opens with brief description of the universe as it is, and then trouble. "This is your Captain speaking... we may encounter some turbulence and then... explode." The don't explode, though, as that would make the movie all of five and a half minutes long... which would be a total waste of $6. The villian(s) in this movie are extremely well done. On one hand, you have the Reavers... psychotic, canibalistic, rapist savages from the very edge of inhabited space. On the other hand, you have "The Operative", a person without identity except that he exists in that moment. He is evil, he is bad, and he knows that there is no place in Heaven for him, so he will do his bad things as well as they can possibly be done... preferably with a Katana. On the gripping hand, you have the Serenity itself, and the luck of it's captain, Malcom Reynolds. Mal doesn't have the best luck, unless you consider walking away from a gunfight with only three bullet wounds good luck, 'cuz you actually walked away.... People die in this movie... some people that I wish would not have... but I understand why they had to. This is the part that is total, 100% spoiler... if you haven't seen the movie, this is your last chance to stop... "I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar." Sadly, a leaf on the wind would be a dead leaf... Hoban Washburn had his "great ride"... There are legends of bikers who will be chased by cops across three states, only to stop, get off their Harley, say "Good ride!" and drop dead. There are legends of surfers who, upon catching that perfect wave, will stagger into a bit of coral, cut their head open, and die on the beach. Wash had his greatest, most skillful flight - maneuvering through two different enemies - only to crash land the ship he was flying... but no one was hurt. He was a leaf on the wind... I will say that I teared up. What? You have a problem with that? Go rut yourself, you gorram heartless wang-ba-dan. Serenity is probably the best sci-fi western political drama love story that I have ever seen. Spaceships. Explosions. Grenades. No breasts (but plenty of sex talk). Kung-Fu. Reaver-Fu. River-Fu. Revenge. Jim-Bob sez check it out. (also covered at [url="http://jim-darkness.blogspot.com"][i]The [b]Light[/b] of [b]Darkness[/b][/i][/url]...)

Screaming Bridge

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 21:58:06 -0700

I've decided to post some local Texas ghost/paranormal/weird stories... There's a haunted place in Arlington - the city where I grew up - that is still haunting people to this day... Screaming Bridge. Here is the story as it was told to me... The year is 1961. The month is February. Six young women ages 16 - 17, all students at Arlington High (Arlington's only high school at the time) piled into one of their parents' car and went to a drive-in movie (Butterfield 8). Afterwards, they drove out on Greenbelt to bounce over the dirt road. Greenbelt (Arlington-Bedford) Road was a little-used dirt road at the time. There were wooden bridges that sloped upward on the north and south sides of the railroad tracks. In December of the previous year, some pranksters had set fire to the bridge on the south side of the tracks. It has been assumed that the same pranksters (young men from Arlington High School) thought it would be funny to remove the barricades that had been placed in front of the burned-out bridge. A young man and his girlfriend drove northward up Greenbelt, stopping at the foot of the burned out bridge. The young man had passed the girl's car, which was stopped on the side of the road, facing north, about a quarter mile south of the railroad. He decided to go back and warn the people in the car that the bridge was out and the barricades were down. When he approached the girls' car, the driver apparently got spooked and drove off at high speed, sailing straight off the burned out bridge, landing upside-down in the creek bed. The story goes that if you hang out near the spot that the accident happened, at midnight (the time that the accident was supposed to have happened), you will hear girls screaming. There is no bridge there now, but the screams still echo...

Blogs...

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 14:32:00 -0700

Not that there's anything wrong with the Applefritter Blog setup, but I am trying to determine if I am going to keep up with a blog on a regular basis. My wife has a LiveJournal, and I have set up a Blogger account. I'm kinda diggin it, especially since I can customize the look and layout of the blog. Anyway, if anyone knows of a good blog setup, let me know. But for now, check out [url=http://jim-darkness.blogspot.com]The Light of Darkness[/url] and let me know what you think...

Doncha hate it?

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 10:45:55 -0700

Don't you hate it when you have a nose hair tickling the inside of your nostril, so you reach in there and pull it out, but it hurts real bad and makes your eyes water and then you figure out that you pulled the wrong nose hair and you have to go back in there again? Man... I hate that...

My toe (update)

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 22:52:59 -0700

Well, my toe is pretty much healed. About the time of my last post, I was told that it was a bad break. I mean, it was almost snapped clean off. X-rays were taken, and the Doc had another look at it. He said that everything was healing nicely, everything (ever-thang, as he says) was in place. I looked at the film, and was sure that it looked worse than it did the first time I had x-rays taken. He assured me that it takes 6-8 weeks to heal a broken bone. I said, "...but I'm supposed to heal fast, Doc, that's my thing." He looked up at me as if trying to figure out if I was still sneaking a Vicodin here or there, and said, "You broke your toe... and your over thirty..." He just left that last sentence hanging there... Two weeks later (almost a month ago now), I go back and get some more of those magical pics taken of my foot. This time, when the Doc walks in, the film wasn't ready yet, so he just starts going over things. He asks if it hurts any more, so I tell him that it only hurts when I do something like drop a chair on it. He says, "Well DUH!" (I like this guy) When the X-rays are ready, he takes a look and says, "Wow... that's purt near healed up, thar." I explain that I've been taking calcium suplements, eating a coupla cows worth of dairy, and that I heal fast. Now... I ain't no medical type doctor... I ain't trained to read no X-rays or nuthin'... but that bone looked fine to me. He points and says, "This part here's still got a little healin' to do, but you can start weanin' yerself off the boot." This is what I've been wanting to hear. My right calf is HUGE now. See, while wearing [url=http://darkness.atspace.org/images/boot.html]"The Boot"[/url] on my left foot, I had to use my right leg more for walking, balance, standing, etc. This means that the muscles in my right leg have been worked about three times as much as the ones in my left leg. Also, it's hot here. Damn hot. So hot I saw a little man in an orange robe burst into flames, it's that hot. This means that while wearing an INSULATED boot on my left leg, I'm losing muscle mass simply to sweat. I decided to wear "The Boot" for another week, but only made it four days before I started wearing shoes again. The weird part was getting used to using my ankle again. I had immobilized everything from my knee down for a month and a half. Now, it's physical therapy time... Which, in Texas, means it's time to mow the lawn. If I haven't mentioned it before, I live on an acre and a quarter. The house takes up about a quarter acre (yeah, you say small... I say 'cozy'). That means that there is an acre of yard. I have it sectioned into the Front, the Back, and then the North, East, and South points.... The South point is the biggest and is where the [url=http://www.applefritter.com/node/2187]bluebonnets[/url] are in the spring. I do not have a riding mower. I do not beleive that I should have a riding mower until I do not have legs. I have a self-propelled push mower that I walk around that whole damned yard, one section at a time. The South Point means about a 5 mile walk. And that is how I got my ankle to work again. The toe is healed, but since it was immobile for a month and a half, I'm still trying to get it to bend all the way again. Y'know, where you can pick a sock up off the floor? Yeah, I still can't do that yet. ... but I heal fast.

Ow...

Thu, 14 Jul 2005 10:09:17 -0700

Ow... See, two weeks ago (31 June 2005) I tripped and slammed the big toe of my left foot into my deck almost as hard as I possibly could have. Result: I broke the end of the bone of my big toe off. I broke it so bad that the orthopedic physician said "Wayull, now... that thar's a break, idnit?" Lemme back up a little... we were washing the dogs in the yard (as is normal for us during the summer months - cools them and us off), and I was going into the house to grab the other bottle of shampoo. I tripped. When you trip, you immediately throw your other foot forward to catch yourself (try it... you'll see). When I tried to throw my left foot forward, my big toe met the top edge of the deck. Hard. I fell down. Hard. I crawled three feet to just inside the sliding glass door, closed it with my right foot, and let out a primal scream that caused nieghbors to look up from their yardwork. That's right, I was inside my house - a full two acres from my nearest neighbor - and they still heard me. The wife comes in trying to figure out what the hell I did [i][b]this time[/b][/i], as it is normal for me to fall down. This time, though, she could see that all the color had drained from my face and I was very near passing out. She consoled me and asked if it was broken (she's smart). I said "I'm not sure yet, it hurts to bad to tell." (I'm not smart) After a couple of minutes of going "Ergh... cchhsssssshhhhhhh... ergh... cchhsssssshhhhhhh..." I went back out and finished washing the dogs. The rest of the day was spent in a chair on the back deck with my foot propped up and a beer in my hand. I drank myself numb and decided that if it still hurt as bad the next day, then it was probably broken. Sunday - the next day - I decided it was broken. Pain. "Oh my GOD!" kinda pain. Anyhoo, as the doc I usually see is 40 miles from home, but only 10 miles from my work, I decided that I would go in on Monday... I drank myself numb again. Monday: I go see the doc. I get X-Rays. The doc says, "You need to go see and orthopedic physician right now," writes a scrip for Ultracet and T3 (Tylenol with Codine), and sends me off with a list of orthopedic docs to contact. I search the list for a name and location I like, and call. Nope, can't see me for a week. Try again... Nope, don't look at toes (wtf?) Try again... Dr. Wong will see me today. Alright! Nothin' beats a little asian doctor when it comes to bones, right? We (the wife is driving as I am now on hard core pain killers) get to Dr. Wong's office and are led to an exam room. After getting my history, the nurse says that the Dr. will be right in. Not even two minutes go by before this little asian guy walks in and says "Wayull, how y'all doon?" This moment is so surreal that I immediately decide this guy is my orthopedic physician forever more... He looks at everything, says that the x-rays show the bones to be in alignment, and it's a clean break. I tell him that I don't want any hardware in my toe that I was not born with. He tells me that as long as I wear "the boot" and stay off of it and let the Good Lord and my body heal it, then I won't need a screw. Then, an assistant brings in "the boot". This thing is 5 pounds, goes almost up to me knee, and is padded (in Texas, that means 'insulated') That means that it's awkward, heavy, and freakin' hot all at the same time! So I have to wear the boot for maybe two months while my big toe (which you cannot balance without, FYI) heals. Oh, and we're getting afternoon thunderstorms now... It's usually hot and dry this time of year, but Dennis is making sure that inclement weather sticks around. The reason this is a bad thing is that I know about 20 minutes before it's gonna rain cuz my toe freakin' [b]HURTS[/b]! so... Ow.

ERGH!

Mon, 16 May 2005 13:22:27 -0700

Ok, so my boss/buddy and I go in on an ebay auction together. We end up with 8 or 9 9600's w/G3 upgrades, 3 or 4 7500's, a lot of monitors, Zip and Jaz drives and disks, external HD's, and associated crap... The pride and joy of the haul were the two (count'em two) NEC MultiXync XM37 Plus 37 inch monitors. That's right, thirty-freakin-seven inches of multimedia monitor. One for him, one for me. Groovy-groovy... Well, the one that I was going to take was blurry at resolutions higher than 800x600, so we pop the case open and find the focus controls and start to fix that. Then we see the "reset" switch... I tell him to click the reset (cuz it might help)... Now, there's no picture at all. None. Nada. Zilch. Zero. This... is an Ex-monitor. ERGH!

Dorothy Redfield, 1910 - 2005

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 23:03:58 -0700

Grandma passed on today... Too worked up to do anything but quote this: -------------------------------------------------- As I stand on a mountain top, as the great bird approaches, she is small in my sight but grows larger on approach until I am blessed with the full sight of her graceful wings, proud countenance and good company. All too quickly, she grows small again on the horizon and disappears from view, and I call out, "There, she’s gone." But there are other mountain tops, beyond me, and at the precise moment when I note the great bird’s departure from my view, I know there are new eyes, taking up the sight of her, and fresh voices calling out, "Here she comes." --------------------------------------------------