infrequent delusions of grandeur
Archive for March, 2006
Solomon Grundy. Born on a Monday.
Mar 23rd
Its funny the things that pop into your head. Last night I watched a friend play in the Australian Poker League Semi-Finals. He lost. Quite badly actually. But to be fair my presence usually has a negative impact on these things.
I recently purchased Batman: The Long Halloween for this person’s birthday present. Man, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale are a magic combo.
The character Solomon Grundy features in this story. And though I was aware of his appearance and general existence, didn’t really know much else. Checking him out led me to the nursery rhyme that has been repeating in my mind for the last hour.
Solomon Grundy.
Born on a Monday.
Christened on a Tuesday.
Married on a Wednesday.
Took ill on a Thursday.
Worse on a Friday.
Died on a Saturday.
Buried on a Sunday.
That was the end of Solomon Grundy.
Nursery rhymes are always such cheery things. Anyway, as improper as reading someone’s birthday present before you give it to them is (my reasoning being that I had to make sure it was good) I only got through to about Valentine’s Day. I really have to remember to grab that TPB for myself and finish reading it.
Grow
Mar 21st
I’ve re-discovered the Grow series of games recently. Well in truth I think I completed Version 3.0 but never went back to do the Cube or RPG. Here is the result of the former.
These things look so cool, I almost had to put them in the Graphics & Design category. I love the isometric pixel art in the one above. The RPG one is, however, the most rewarding.
GB-PVR
Mar 3rd
I’ve been wanting to get a digital tv tuner for a while now. Especially since the Inspiron 9300 I purchased recently has a UXGA screen that would be perfect to watch HDTV on. Unfortunately the cost of the laptop precluded getting any add-ons. So I am living vicariously through my brother who recently obtained a DViCO Fusion DVB-T USB tuner.
The thing looks pretty cool, emitting a futuristic blue glow from underneath when its powered up and its a USB device meaning it sits externally. A big plus for myself when it comes to the laptop and all. Unfortunately he’s been having trouble with it from day one in the way of excessive crashing when changing channels and scheduled recordings ignoring his commands.
I thought it was probably the fault of the shoddy application that the manufacturer ships with their product. So since the device has BDA drivers I recommended he try a third-party app called GB-PVR. When I say “recommended”, I mean I hadn’t actually tried it but since its free its what I would be using as opposed to Microsoft’s MCE.