Tag: Code

From Pukka:

Not from Pukka

  • Scone recipe: how to make/bake/cook fruit scones
  • President Bush: Sell the Ranch
  • Reader² [Editor] It’s kind of like del.ico.us or Flickr but for books.
  • iTunes Tip: The “Perfect” equalizer setting [Editor] On the off chance that this blog is your sole source of news; Apple released a new version of iTunes this week. Along with the first iTunes enabled cellphone from Cingular/Motorola and more importantly, the iPod Mini replacement…. the iPod nano. Yum!
  • Escape Key
  • The Signal [Editor] This is a podcast by fans of the cult favorite TV show, Firefly. Firefly came out back in 2002, quickly gained a devote following but the dorks in charge of FOX killed it after showing only 11 of the 14 produced episodes had been made. The Singal’s goal is to pump up support for the movie follow-up to the tv show, Serenity. I just started listening to it this week and have nearly caught up to the current shows. Probably my favorite one so far is the one where they interview Gina Torres. Although the interviews are cool my favorite segements are the “learning chinese” bits; they lend a whole new insight into various scenes in the series. All the more I have to say about that is 易爆的大象腹泻 1.

Oh and in case you’re wondering about almost total lack of posts this week… We’re going into our next beta at work (much extra crudola to deal with). Additionally, I’ve been trying (and pretty much failing) to write an online, registration form for a local sci-fi con2 that captures the data we need and accepts payments via PayPal. *sigh*

1 Explosive elephant diarrhea (chinese translation obtained via Babelfish).
2 ICON 30

I had originally planned on attending a Pampered Chef party with my wife last Sunday. I had been thinking it would be some pleasant socializing over some tasty food with a bit of somebody trying to sell me some pricey kitchen stuff. That is to say a not entirely unpleasant to spend part of one’s afternoon. Instead about an hour before the party, our friend Bryon stopped by and mentioned that Bruce Campbell was in town giving a short talk and promotting his new book, Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way.

I thought about it for a minute, but I knew there’d be more chances for Pampered Chef parties and I doubted I’d have any better chance of getting to see Mr. Campbell in person. So after a quick shower1, Bryon and I hopped into the car and drove into Iowa City. We got to the site about 40 minutes prior to the event began. We waited around and it turned out one of my co-workers was also there2. Then about 10 minutes before Mr. Campbell was scheduled to begin speaking; they opened one set of the doors into the auditorium and let everybody in. And naturally, it wasn’t the door we’d had been waiting at. *sigh*

Eventually, everybody was inside and mostly seated but then the organizers explained how the signing procedure was supposed to work and said the new book was for sale at the back of the auditorium. So we ended up giving up our fairly good seats to go get in another line. It took a while to get through the line, but it was good that we both went to the line as Laura3 showed up looking for us. Apparently, she decided the party wasn’t her cup of tea. While we were waiting in line; she kindly thanked me for “being so god-damn tall”.

There was a considerable amount of waiting in line to get the book, but eventually we all got our copies and headed back to find new seats (the good seats we’d had were long gone). A bit after that Mr. Campbell started taking questions. It turns out he’s a very charismatic speaker. There were a number of questions about him working with Sam Raimi, but the only one that really stuck in my mind was:

Questioner: When working on Spiderman, did you hang out with Tobey Maguire?
Bruce Campbell: Why would I?

*grin*

After far too little time had passed, Mr. Campbell stopped taking questions and then made a short speech promoting B-movies as the only place that is still creative in Hollywood.

…getting bitten by a radioactive spider is a b-movie!

After the speech, they started having people come up to get their books signed. Bryon & I had relatively low numbers but when we were going up they weren’t actually checking peoples numbers. Eventually I got up there and had Mr. Campbell sign my book; but I felt like a complete twit, the entire time I was there. I mean I have enjoyed all of his movies that I’ve seen and what I read of the book while I was in line was very amusing but I didn’t really have anything to say to him. He was very polite to me, but it was a rather uncomfortable moment for me. Signed memorabilia is nice to have I suppose, but it doesn’t do much for me. To tell the truth, I’m not entirely sure why I went up to have him sign the book. Other than I’d waited in line to get the sticker saying I could do so. *shrug* Life, go figure.

After that, we took off and headed off to meet up with some other friends for some RPGing. When we got there they were still finishing up with the Pampered Chef party and I got to munch down some of the leftovers4. Then it was game time and afterwards off to Old Chicago for dinner. All in all, a very pleasant Sunday. 🙂

1 Bryon arrived before we were expecting anybody. And yes, I’m extra-specially lazy on the weekend; so if I’m not expecting company I will hang around the apartment without getting myself up and ready for the day.
2 That would be Quincy for those that are curious.
3 Another friend of ours. One who was supposed to be at the Pampered Chef party.
4 Ah, breakfast at 3pm….

Number of Books on the Shelf

Depends on the shelf and I don’t really have any good idea of how many total books I own, but I’ve cataloged a small (very, very small) portion of them and that catalog has ~200 entries.

Last Book Purchased

I bought two at the same time: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) and Make: Technology on Your Time, Vol. 2.

Book Reading Right Now

Actually, I’m reading a couple of books at the moment: The Silver Chair, and Make: Technology on Your Time, Vol. 2.

Last 5 Books Read

Books That Mean a Lot to Me

Umm, there aren’t any quickly come to mind. The closest I can think of is a Choose Your Own Adventure book that I won in a writing contest way back in elementary school.

I’d finished reading all the books and listening to the CD, I borrowed from the library during my previous visit. So last night, I went back to return all of it and get more. After dropping off my returns at the circulation desk (slightly hampered by an old lady’s cane hanging down over the return slot), I wandered over into the fiction section to look for Temple of the Winds (Sword of Truth, Book 4). I first started down the wrong aisle (Goodkind, not Jordan you dolt!) but managed to eventually get myself sorted out and going down the right one.

I got about halfway down the aisle and started to walk around a young lady looking at the shelves when I realized she was standing directly in front of the section I wanted. I excused myself and started looking for Temple of the Winds but it was not to be found. I decided to go ahead and grab a couple of the following books (SotF, FotF and tPoC). As I was turning to leave the aisle, the young lady held up a book (WFS) asked me if it was the first book in the series and if it was any good. I reassured her that it was both the first book and an entertaining read. She then asked if the rest of the series was any good. I replied that of what I’d read (the first 3 books) WFS is the best.

This seemed to disappoint her somewhat and I was going to explain that the other books weren’t bad, when a scruffy looking fellow walked up to me asking for help. He told me that he works for the carnival1 and then went on to explain that he’s not familiar with the Coralville library. I tried to tell him that I wasn’t really familiar with it either2 but he interrupted me saying that he could just tell that I knew libraries and could help him locate a book by Dean Koontz called “Fireball” (he thought). Since the young lady didn’t appear to want to talk any further and I knew Mr. Koontz’s books would just be an aisle or two over; I helped the scruffy guy to find the right section.

When I recounted this story to my wife later that night; she didn’t seem to understand how odd an experience this was for me. After all, I’m 6 foot 5 inches tall and most people don’t talk to me unless they already know me. To me the whole trip to the library had been surreal; but as I started to explain this to her, she interrupted and said…

Oh honey, you just look like a book nerd.

*sigh*

1 Coralville brings in a small carnival every year as part of our 4th of July celebrations.
2 This only being my 2nd visit to check books in probably 6 months to a year.