A series of Buffy music videos
Posted on 2007-03-31 at 21:03
This is Your Life: Here's a music video recap of the whole series
Bitch: Buffy kicks a little ass
End of the World: A music video montage of Willow and Oz's relationship
She's My Everything: a music video montage tribute to the relationship between Willow and Tara
Anything but Ordinary: A musicial montage of the life of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Mad World: A music video of a few important Buffy moments
Take me back to the start: A music video montage of the beginnings of the series
Fear of the Dark: A music video montage of some of the scarier and more serious moments from the series
Walk Through the Fire: A snippet from the Buffy Musical (a sort of gag episode that turned out much cooler than a gag episode has any right to be)
If the above doesn't squelch your thrist for all things Buffy at this moment (or at least your will to live) then you are insatiable.
I walk as a god among men
Posted on 2007-03-30 at 23:53
My last entry talked about a cool new stripe generator and how I was "hankering" (oh god, am I really on record as having used the word "hankering"?!?) to redo my blog site design.
Well, as you can see, that was today at 2pm. Now at just-before-midnight I'm rolling out a new site design. I'm pleased with the new look. Let me talk a bit about some of the design decisions.
- I wanted a clean and light look---hence all the white space and light colors.
- I needed to unclutter the page, so I moved the archive links to their own sub pages (see the tabs at the top of the screen) an out of the left and right sidebars.
- I wanted a link to the home page. See, um, for like the last 3 years, I've had like the only site on this here Internet that had no link to take you back to the front page. If you were on some obscure corner of my blog, you just had to change the url in your web browser's addess bar to get back to my home page. Lame. That is fixed now with the "Recent Entries" tab at the top.
- I added a google search to the right side bar. I had no real reason for this, but it looks nice there, so I did it.
- Coolest Neat Thing On The Planet Times Infinity Plus One: The image that is displayed in the masthead (that big header thingy near the top of the page) is a picture I took in China. I spend some time making about 20 different masthead graphics from my trip to China and I'll be rotating them periodically just to keep things visually interesting for those who visit the site. The current image is of a statue of General Guan Yu that I spied through the foliage whilst climbing up the Great Wall. There was one guy at the statue's feet (it was about 15 feet tall) practicing his martial arts. Really just a picturesque scene. It's one I won't likely forget.
Stripe Generator
Posted on 2007-03-30 at 14:58
This is a niche item, but if you have need to create a striped pattern (web design work, mostly, I'd guess), then this site will make a striped pattern to your specifications quite easily.
And, yes, the header graphic on this page was generated using this tool. Not that it matters, as I am hankering to do a redesign of the site soon. I'm bored with this one. I want to go snazzy next time, I think.
Say hello to the future of community
Posted on 2007-03-30 at 14:20
Gravitas
Posted on 2007-03-26 at 20:54
I've been told my blog lacks that certain sense of gravitas needed to be considered real social commentary.
To those doubters, I say "I'm rubber and you're glue, what you say bounces off me and gets you a pick ax in your spinal column, bitch! Bring it! I'll kick yer doubtin' ass!"
Ooo, I just remembered I have Take the Lead upstairs to watch. Antonio Banderas dances for the kids. How can this be bad? It's like Dead Poet's Society had sex with Flashdance and this movie was its illegitimate love child.
Thanks, Ms. Rice
Posted on 2007-03-25 at 14:01
Man, this whole Middle East thing has been a horrid mess for thousands of years. People have tried to alleviate the situation, but to no avail.
That is, til now. Surely now that Ms. Rice has stepped up and "urged" them to stop, there will be peace in the Middle East. I mean, what else need be done. Sure she could upgrade her urging to a suggestion, and possibly to a stern-faced finger wag accompanied by a sarcastically-toned "Dudes!" but none of that should be needed, as I suspect this urging should be plenty to straighten things out.
Man, I wish we'd have thought of this one way back! Thanks, Ms. Rice, for showing us the clear path to success. FYI, I urge you and the rest of your worthless administration to step down and let the adults run the country for a while.
From the Department of Redundency Department
Posted on 2007-03-24 at 21:09
I was in a book store and saw this. I thought, "Sure, I mean , who else is looking for it?" I had to take a picture. I'm not really sure what pathos drove me to do so.
And yes, I can joke people who get a GED. I'm one of them. I hereby invoke the "Joke your own kind" rule.
Is that legal in Virginia?
Posted on 2007-03-24 at 20:58
While at the zoo with my daughter and wife today, I spied this scene:
So, what exactly is that frog doing to that elephant and aren't their laws (of nature) against it?
Beauty that lasts til the next rain
Posted on 2007-03-23 at 08:16
My description will not do his work justice, but this guy draws pictures in the windshields of dirty cars that are just stunningly cool.
The Land Ironclads
Posted on 2007-03-21 at 20:15
I recently read an old science fiction work by H.G. Wells called "The Land Ironclads". While it suffers from a dated perspective (being published in 1903 does that to science fiction), it is a remarkable work nonetheless.
Rather than waste your time with my extended opinion of the work, it suffices to say I think that those who enjoy science fiction will enjoy this work. Moreover, you can read "The Land Ironclad" for free.
Five things that need correcting
Posted on 2007-03-21 at 18:38
- The White House thinks it's above the law. Karl Rove should be forced to testify...and do so under oath. So should the rest of them. They've been treated as untouchable for too long. I am dusgusted and embarrassed to have them leading my country. Plus, being unwilling to testify under oath is just pussy. Be a fucking man about it, George. If you wanna claim all this unprecedented power, at least have the cahones to step up and say it loudly. Nothing worse than a dictator without the guts to actually, you know, dictate.
- The FBI is abusing it's power (insert faux shocked look here). They have a history of it. Just look up all the stuff they did under that one cross-dressing dude. People should lose jobs over this. Some jail time would be nice, too. Let's end this debate over whther they did or didn't. Of course they did it. They are the FBI, for God's sake. They take power like a sponge takes water. It's time to squeeze some of the excess back out.
- I'm still working...at a job...in an office...with people. Seriously, who thought that was a good idea?!? The fact that I get up and go to work is like a daily miracle on the order of the loaves and fishes.
- Google hosted mail service does not yet itegrate all of Google's apps. Get it together, guys! I want to have one interface for my hosted mail service, docs and spreadsheets, reader, and web analytics. You offer them all, but I need a different log in for each service. Laaaaame. This atrocity of inefficiency is made all the more glaringly sinful by its having been perpetrated by Google, who wrote the Gospel of Efficiency. Shine that halo up and reclaim your saint-status soon.
- Television is still delivered in channel-sized chunks to my home via the airwaves. OK, one last time: I want my tv à la carte. I want to subscribe to a show, not a channel, let alone a channel "package" of 150 stations of crap. Moreover, TV is cheap now. Where are the really good tv shows produced independant of the hollywood machine and delivered to me via the Internet? Any kid with a Mac can make a sci fi show. Joss Whedon, I'm talking to you! You don't like TV. I get that. They stabbed Firefly and spit on the corpse. 'Nuff said. But why not take some of that bankroll you got and innovate the medium. Do a good show. Answer only to yourself and deliver it via a method that make you beholden to noone. Produce it so long as it's profitable. Do it. Do it now. I demand you do my bidding. And stuff. Please. Pretty please? Grovelling can be a part of the package as needed.
Buffy Season 8
Posted on 2007-03-21 at 08:09
So, BtVS has been off the air for a couple of years, but Joss Whedon (series mastermind) has brought it back for an "8th season" via the medium of comic books. I have issue #1. It's a great book---solid art, and wonderful writing---but it is a very different medium. The difference in medium is evident in the story and the "feel" of the work itself as distinct from the tv series it follows.
So it you are a fan, go yourself a favor is get a copy (if you can find one!). You will be pleased, but don't expect the same audience experience you had watching the show. It goes without saying that it may be as good, but it's quite changed.
What you want, what you need: fans and endings, and narrative satisfactions
Posted on 2007-03-20 at 08:41
I had the pleasure of reading this blog entry elsewhere that was ostensibly about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but far more about the nature of being a fan, of fiction, and of the needs of the reader. It's one of the few blog entries on the Internet worth reading. PEriodically, these come into my field of view and I feel bad about just how wastefully dumb my own blog is. Go. Read. Be Edified.
Oh, and to whet your appetite:
And there's the painful part: fans tend (here's the broad brush for you) to have a hard time making distinctions between what amplifies the story's dramatic impact or meaning, and what would satisfy them as fans. Get the difference? A fan isn't just a heavy reader: 'fan' is a social category. Wanting the story to continue isn't the same as wanting to know what happens next - one desire takes the text itself (the edifice, the mechanism) as its object, one takes the world of the narrative, the series of (unfortunate) fictional events. One frustrating feature of fan discourse is just this: a lot of the time fans fail to make this distinction.
Hiatus (or "The Long Drought Is Over")
Posted on 2007-03-20 at 07:51
You may have noticed (and if so, may I offer you a suggestion: get a hobby) that my blog was unchanging for the last two weeks or so. This is not by choice, but rather, I performed a wipe-n-reinstall on my primary home system and have only recently gotten the system where it needs to be to do more blogging (restoring files from backup and all that jazz). So...
...I'm back. Sorry to ruin your day thusly. I had a few things I wanted to blog about in the interim and I'll get to that now.
10 Weird Things About Me
Posted on 2007-03-07 at 08:22
Some of you know me (1 or 2 of the 3 people who read this blog?). Some don't (at least according to the mail I get). To that end, let me introduce myself.
I'm Tom Caudron. I'm weird. Everyone is weird in some way, so in that respect I think I'm perfectly normal. It's the ways in which a person is weird that makes them unique and (sometimes but rarely) interesting. Here are ten things about me that you may or may not know already that make me weird, unique, but probably not interesting.
- I can't store my shoes on the floor. If I find they have been sitting about on the floor unattended, I have a ritual that makes them OK again.
- I used to be a Sous Chef. I quite nearly made the cooking arts my life, then I got smart.
- I first made a hash oil block at the age of 12. I knew how before that, but never really had a reason til then. If you are law enforcement, then this was a lie designed to impress my druggy readers.
- I read upwards of 30 blogs a day. Obsessively. If I miss an entry, I just...oh who am I kidding? I NEVER miss an entry. I just criticize some as boring.
- I've published poetry.
- My degree is in Religious Studies and Literature (dual major) and my profession is Software Developer.
- I used to teach Aikijutsu.
- When I lock doors at night, I have a compulsion that requires that I check it...three times...then one more time in case the third check unlocked it. When I'm done, I worry that it's still unlocked. I also have a compulsion about shutting and locking doors behind me whenever I walk into a room. This has concerned many people who have wondered why I locked us in a room together.
- People can't touch my food or plate. It's not a germ thing. It's a possessive thing. It's my food. You can't touch it. If you do, then it's now your food. Congrats on being a touchy jerk. This is my hang up, I know, therefore I try not to say anything to people when they've destroyed my meal. It's usually not intentional and they should have to feel guilt over my insanity.
- I like all kung fu flicks. I beleive that any film could be improved with the addition of a solid kung fu fight. Schindler's List was good, but if he'd ended it with a kung fu fight with the Nazi's, all the better. Gone With The Wind was good, but when Rhett slapped Scarlet, it would've been even better had she blocked and countered with a Shadowless Kick.
What? I said I was weird! What's your weird? If you have a blog post it there. If you want to post it here, feel free to send it along and I'll add it as an entry. No takers? Cowards!
The hand of death creeps
Posted on 2007-03-05 at 08:47
So, last week I had some flu that put me down, then my wife got ill, then cadence got ill, the I had eye surgery, then I got better, then Cadence got better, then Denise got better, then Friday afternoon, I got ill again (stomach bug), then it goes away by Sunday only to have me with a sore throat Sunday night and this morning.
Damn you Bryan! You've poisoned me, haven't you?!? What is it? Polonium? Cianide? Crack and Tide? I hate you!
If I should die in the next week or so, let it be known that I point my (middle) finger Bryan-ward It was him. I know it. He did this to me---may he rot in that special hell reserved for child molesters and people who talk in the theater.
Your Moment of Zen
Posted on 2007-03-01 at 08:45
"People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil."
~ Kahlil Gibran (Essayist, Novelist and Poet. 1883-1931)
Meditate on that as you watch the accompanying movie I've selected: