Booyor's BLOGgh!

We have a firefighter in the library talking to our students. Two pieces of superhero wisdom from him:

1. All fires eventually die out; it’s just how much damage they do we try and prevent.
2. All cats eventually come down from trees.

You should see one of the .asf (who uses .asf?) movies I converted for a HazMat specialist today. A silo caught on fire and rocketed hundreds of feet in the air. At first I joined the students with, “Whoa! That was awesome!” and then realized: this is one of our student’s dads. Imagine if that’s your dad running into the giant explosion.

Timothy, you have my respect.

So when NBC debuts The Cape, about an angst-ridden ex-cop who turns to the superhero lifestyle, I will probably view it more like SuperBabies(and does NBC really need more angsty heroes? Because Sylar’s doing so well, I hear (only rumor, since I haven’t watched that whinefest for a season now)).

I’m assuming you’ve seen TV Tropes. This has replaced wii.ign.com as my “type it into the browser immediately”. Should make it easier to save money and I might even have some fun playing with this for the next novel. It’s pretty funny that the next book I’ve been thinking about is to make fun of fantasy cliches (Eragon, anyone?) and then this site walks into my life.

The trouble is I may not be able to tear myself away from the reference joke geek tractor beam that it is.

You may recall my obsession with Toto’s Africa after the Jeffster episode of Chuck. This has now been exploded by a combination of my friend Lauren and my Howard Shore/Vangelis Pandora station.

I present to you an a capella group singing Africa (mixed with an elementary school rain-finger-snaps-thing):

This video should tide you over until Glee this fall:

“Well you can tell by the way I use my walk…”

I read the rumor mill that Heroes has a new villain. A guy named Simon with a British accent. Really? Should we expect tight black T-shirts? He’s said to be very manipulative.

Accent + Manipulative = Linderman
Sorry, writers. You have exhausted your own trope.

Have you seen these? I could have sworn that I’ve seen them on software boxes. They’re uber-barcodes, which is pretty funny for a librarian. In one fell swoop one family upgraded my geek status to “more geeky than before”, which is pretty impressive. “Impressive” Hmmm…what geek quote can I put there?

Ah, yes.

No matter where you go, there you are.

These QR uber-barcodes are increasingly popular with mobile phone crowds, like in Switzerland, Japan, and Australia. Augmented Reality through QR Codes, I guess. You point your phone at the box, phone program converts the box, funny message (or usually advertisement) comes across. I tried running a couple of barcode programs on my phone, but they wanted me to have data access. I don’t have data on my phone; if you want to read what my shirt says, try putting the image URL into this site.

Chuck was awesome tonight. I loved the drive-in movie theater from Back to the Future III.

One thing about Heroes that my wife noticed that some might not – Baby Matt Parkman was facing his car seat backwards last time, now he’s facing forward. That’s a big change for a baby.

I worked on setting up barcode readers on my phone while I semi-watched Heroes. I think I still got the gist – this Sylar guy has issues and kills people.

Here are some quick photos from the birthday extravaganza:

I received two shirts. One is the QR code, the other shall make its world premiere on Saturday for La Noche de la Guerra de las Estrellas. World premiere? Cine Capri for the win. Gambit and Sabretooth will be hanging out in Scottsdale on the red carpet.

Some quick news blurbs:
Twitter now works for Charles Xavier’s Exceptionally Gifted students:

Seriously. Tweeting with your brain. That would be a first for Twitter, in all connotations.

3D camera for the semi-consumer market.

Have you seen the “similar images” search in Google? It looks useful if you want a different resolution of the same photo or if you want clip art that’s a little bit different from the previous images. It’s not like iPhoto’s new trick, where it can recognize facial colors and contours. Similar Images uses the metadata attached to image search results.

If you want Google image results to improve, you can check out the game that they set up so that you’ll whitewash their fences for them.

All of the Fallout fans with Blackberrys (berries?) can turn their phone into a working Pip Boy. Nuclear residue with style.

The gifts didn’t end with donuts and geek shirts. More photos to come throughout the week.

Here’s a shirt that made me laugh, even though I don’t have it. Wash would be proud:


And what post isn’t improved with a samurai?

I must admit that after finally watching Chuck last night, I may be the only one stuck in the loop right now. But did anyone else have “that 80s song about Africa” stuck in their head?

My brain: Something something down in Africa…

Well, to help your brain and mine, here are the lyrics:

I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She’s coming in 12:30 flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say, Hurry boy, it’s waiting there for you
Chorus:
It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what’s right
Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
I seek to cure what’s deep inside, frightened of this thing that I’ve become
Chorus
(Instrumental break)
Hurry boy, she’s waiting there for you
It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa, I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa, I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

Kari, you’re welcome.

Of course, Slade, this is already in your working knowledge.

I thought Chuck was great. Jeffster, because Jester would be associated with fools? That’s funny. And then Morgan’s lie to the triads about being level 60 was appreciated.

The one that I expect more from is Heroes. I feel like I’m at the zoo standing around, waiting for the lion to do something crazy, but instead he’s just laying on his side staring at the sky. I know he has the potential for so much more, and I don’t see him every day, but I spend a lot of time waiting. It’s not many shows that offer gritty characters with superpowers shot in non-CW film quality. Here’s hoping for tonight.

I could act like the “get back” coach on the field, yelling for the lion to hustle and “get back, get back!” I just need a cap, shorts, and a pair of tube socks. A whistle is not necessary because I wouldn’t really offer any insightful coaching, just mass encouragement.

This man sat on me in high school. He is not a “get back” coach.

1. Senator Kelly will be blackmailed by someone who knows his mutant secret.
2. The pseudo-protagonists will have to work with the Brotherhood of Mutants after the plane crash.
3. Being the son of a clock repairperson will continue to hinder anyone’s social life.

I love watching Heroes with Seth Green and That Guy from Kate and Leopold. I will miss them in the following episodes.

But I shall still tune in to see the potential that a Super Soldier army brings.

Mike, you need to watch this week’s episode of Chuck:

1. Missile Command
2. You Got the Touch/Transformers theme song
3. An action montage choreographed to Rush

And I enjoyed Heroes tonight. Finally, a supervillain. “I don’t think I’m better than everyone. I am.”

I’m curious to see next Monday night. Ruing? I think so. SNL advertisements for/against candidates the night before the election. I’d be interested in a slam tally. I wish I could say that the American people aren’t influenced by media, but…

Go find the dog in the backyard. Ever see Chevy Chase’s Funny Farm?
Yep. And there’s also a distinct lack of stucco/adobe/mud houses.

We’re staying in a basement that is larger than our original apartment my wife and I had when we first got married. It’s been a great retreat for me. Lots of journaling/Vanguarding going on.

And the notorious uncle is still Lord of Catan. His citadel (blue) was mighty. My sheep empire (yellow) was just in its infancy when the Ore Baron crushed my wife’s Road to Nowhere (red).
I’m starting to develop a twang. My oldest is developing other rogue-ish abilities:

Lots of fun in the outdoors:

My youngest has a fun cousin to play with, too:

Being entertained by my oldest
Although we should cut back before the flight on her General MacArthur corncob pipe:

Just so you know, North Carolina has Princess Parking:

Her cousin and her are having fun dressing up in frilly dresses and driving monster trucks. Did I mention that we’re in the South?

Other nerd news:
I will be watching Heroes hours before you mere West Coasters even dream of the show. I should make some “predictions”. And then next Monday I, too, shall have my powers stripped. But I will say this: our basement apartment has an HD big screen TV.

And the iQ, the 56 mpg Toyota? Yeah, it’ll be a Scion.

Peter checks his iPhone for LOLcatz. iPhone refuses and sends him into the future to fight his scarred, Evil Peter self. Present Peter kills Future Peter. Present Peter becomes Future Peter. Future Peter holds it together until he realizes that we’re recording Kathy and Kim for later viewing.

Petrelli? Who’s that?

Did you see that Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper are voices in a game about snakes and spiders?

Eagle Eye = Enemy of the State + I, Robot
Want to watch Eagle Eye at home?
Switch the two DVDs every ten minutes and every so often look at a screenshot from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I liked the movie. It was fun, even if it did borrow heavily from my favorite stories.

Now, the Heroes stream of consciousness (like Mohinder, except with less pheremones):

Rafiki’s rock paintings about Parkman are awesome.

Yes, villains! That fire guy has some of the coolest fire effects I’ve seen on a super. And the Haitian is in Germany, I guess. Villainy 101. They totally killed off Magneto too quickly, though.

“I was being awesome.” Boo to the bad sound effects in the Buster Keaton movie theater.

So sad, painting over Parkman’s happy family. And white eyes! Detective Sylar and his coffee. Decaf.

Nikki in the casket? Ah. Clones. i knew it!

“And then I’m gonna kill him.” Woot. Since we hated /got bored with Sylar, it’s intriguing how they’re re-inventing him.

Mike – with bringing down the Star Destroyer in Force Unleashed – it’s just a cutscene in the Wii version. I’ll bring the game over next time before you buy it. I enjoy the game.