Transformers convention today!

We're off to TFcon Toronto, “Canada's Transformers Collectors Convention” this morning:

Bunch of artists from the comics and animated shows, voice actors, toy dealers (original 1987 Sharkticons go for about $100, WTF) and cosplayers. The pic is concept art for a Transformers toy they've created for the con, Night-bird… doubt we'll pick one up, but it's still pretty cool that they do this.

Alex is practically vibrating with excitement.

Progress (sort of)

[Dammit, this was supposed to go in http://marooned.posterous.com/ and its Twitter feed, why did it go here? I need to learn to use the auto poster properly. :-( Dang!]

Finally some good progress last night!

I'm working through 3D Buzz's “Simple 2D Shooter” video tutorials, and started building the game they're working on. Sure it's not Marooned!, but it's going to get me up to speed on Unity. More importantly, I feel like I've finally done something useful on the way to ending up with a playable Marooned! game.

Yeah, it's not much, but it's a start.  Really looking forward to Unity 3 coming out soon, that's going to make this process even better.

The Gobbler; 70s architecture at its finest (via @shacker)

via lileks.com

To experience the full glory of this amazing motel, click through and look at the images (and TV commercial from its glory days!).
I am stunned. Lynette and I should have gone here for our honeymoon instead of the Pokonos.

Anyone looking for a Web Developer job?

A friend of mine has a lead on “a bunch ” of web developer jobs in Toronto, working with open source software (presumably a LAMP sort of place).

Does anyone need a job like this in Toronto? 'cause I can totally hook you up.

My company could also use some additional software QA folks; any takers?

Time to focus; a bunch of crap nobody cares about

Today my “big” project is going to be focusing on what's important in my life, so I figure out how to fit it all in.

This is important because I've been feeling a lot of conflict lately between what I want to do, and what I need to do. One of the biggest drags of being an adult is the sheer amount of need to do stuff that takes up an annoying amount of time.

I'm still pining for the days of yore when I had no responsibilities and only a few need to do things. Considering the fact that I graduated in 1993, I should probably start accepting my life changes… :-P

Rather than bore everyone with a list of things that are important to me and some thinking out loud about them, I'll just make a quick list here and then do the actual work in OmniFocus. I need to get back into the Getting Things Done discipline or this will never work, and OmniFocus really helps there. Seriously, GTD and OmniFocus really seems to match my brain well and keep me moving forward on things that need to get done.

Things that are important to me right now, in priority order:

• my Family (Lynette and Alex… even the pets, although sometimes…)
• my Day Job (after a decade of instability and insanity, I'd like things to settle down!)
• my Marooned! game (no, seriously, I still want to make games)
• Exercise (need to start again, regularly, or I won't be around to work on everything)
• Leisure (need to blow off steam!)

  

You'll probably note the lack of chores, etc. on there; the Day Job and Exercise are the only things I need to do on that list, the rest are wants.

G20 Toronto Black Block get green light to rampage?

via youtube.com

A billion for security and 20,000 police can't stop the “Black Bloc” idiots from rampaging for an hour and a half… but they can beat down the peaceful protesters later.

Police attacking non-violent protesters

And here's some video showing police attacking some non-violent protesters with bikes, batons and some sort of nasty spray (pepper? mace?):

Way to go, guys.

And conveniently Parliament is out until September 20th, so this might have all blown over by then. At least, that's what the government is hoping… they've used this sort of “wait a bit, everyone will forget” technique a bunch of times.

Toronto police crush out-of-key singers

Here's how the G20 version of the Toronto police react to some peaceful protestors mangling the Canadian national anthem. Note that this is (IIRC) Queen Street, not the “G20 Security Zone” or whatever they were calling it.

Prime Minister Harper, Premier McGuinty, Mayor Miller and Chief Blair should be ashamed and should be voted out/fired as soon as possible.

This isn't my Canada.

Cell service in Canada makes me angry

Hey cellular companies of Canada! You keep telling me how awesome your plans and rates are, and how you listen to your customers and give them what they want… here's what I want:

• a website where I can actually choose what features I want on my account; stop bundling useless crap together and forcing me to take a bunch of things I don't want
• a website where I can see what my charges will actually be; stop hiding those extra 911, “system access” and “regulatory recovery” fees (all bullshit, BTW) you like to tack on
• a store where I can walk in, tell them what I want, and have the salesdroids be able to tell me what my monthly bill will be

I'm still undecided on iPhone vs. Android, but my requirements aren't even ridiculous or (IMHO obviously) challenging:

• minimal voice minutes; 60 would cover me easily, I really don't use the phone much
• reasonable data; 500MB might be reasonable, 1GB is probably lots… I'll happily use WiFi wherever it's available
• caller ID
• minimal texts; I use maybe 5/month now, but I might do it more with a smartphone
• LET ME USE ALL THE FEATURES SUPPORTED BY THE PHONE; you shouldn't be able to advertise iPhone's Visual Voicemail feature if you're going to charge extra/month for it to be available

I'll suffer with your three year contracts, ridiculously complex bills and the spam you send to my phone (I used to get text spam from Rogers on a phone plan that didn't have texting enabled). Just give me what I want and I'll be a low-maintenance customer for three years.

Maybe even longer if you manage to give me the service you're selling me without “accidentally” over-billing me or doing other shady things.

Is giving your customers what they want and treating them with a little respect too much to ask?

Ants subterranean structures revealed!!!!?!

via youtube.com

This video of an ant colony being filled with cement and then excavated is amazing; their city is complex and well designed!

Mind mapping

I started messing with MindNode last night, doing some Marooned! brainstorming and planning; it was pretty useful, I think, and definitely works well when you're throwing down ideas as fast as possible without necessarily aiming them all in the same direction.

Here's the start of my Marooned! map in MindNode:

MindNode lets you export/import FreeMind files as well, so I grabbed it to compare. It's a Java app (ugh), but it's got a lot of additional features, and will auto-fit your items, automatically adjusting the map so nothing is overlapping. If MindNode does that, it's limited to the Pro version.

Here's the same map in FreeMind:

As much as I hate Java apps (non-native UI! klunky widgets! the horror!), I'm going to give FreeNode a fair shake. If actually using it feels fairly fluid and straight-forward, I'll go that direction. It's certainly got more features (attach icons to nodes, for example) beyond even what MindNode Pro offers.

Choosing a Java app over a similar native app is a big step for me. Maybe one day I'll overcome my Java prejudices in the name of productivity. Eclipse is the only other Java app I don't mind using…

50's Empire Strikes Back

Holy cow, this is absolutely awesome:

Doing it wrong…

Apparently I need to read some docs on Posterous.com… my last post was intended to show up only on the Marooned! blog/Twitter, but it got posted in both places. And it failed to pick up my tags.

Cure OCD via… bone marrow transplant

Hey, check this out:

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100527/full/news.2010.268.html

Info about a study that seems to have cured OCD in rats by giving them a bone marrow transplant, to compensate for the mutation causing OCD.

SCIENCE!

Spring flowers (from April)

See the full gallery on Posterous

Flickr or Picasa?

I think I have a Flickr account (for viewing stuff someone posted that was only for logged-in users), but I can never remember my Yahoo! account name. If they let me log in with, say, the email address I actually use it wouldn't be an issue.
I don't have any images up there (I think), I mostly just post them to Facebook or host them myself.
Does anybody have an opinion of Flickr or Picasa? I do have some nice photos (IMHO) that I'd be happy to share, and it's good to have a well-known spot for that sort of thing.

I'm not even sure I need to use a service like this yet. Then again, I seem to be using Posterous more than I expected…

Dexter, Season 4?

Anyone watching Dexter this year, Season 4?

I'm asking because looking on Amazon at the DVDs, there's now a baby in the show, or he's a dad now or something? Adding a baby or kid to a show that didn't start out with one is a sure sign that it's rapidly going down the tubes…

Babies don't mix with serial killers.

Today started out good…

But it sure turned out to suck. In massive FML mode right now, unfortunately.

Finally watched Dexter

Lynette and I finally watched the first episode of Dexter last night, courtesy of Zip.ca; holy crap that's awesome, why haven't we been watching this all along?! http://www.zip.ca/Browse/Title.aspx?f=clid(106365)
Instead of watching the other three episodes on the disc, we're just going to start buying Dexter seasons on DVD.
I should do the same with Farscape, but nobody will watch it with me. *sob*

Is this thing on?

I appear to have created a Posterous account ( http://taffer.posterous.com/ ) for myself, and Marooned! ( http://marooned.posterous.com/ ), although I'm not entirely sure what I'll use them for… I haven't been blogging much lately.