Friday, December 31, 2004

Nifty Banner

Okay, shameless plug time.

I made this today and I'm trying to figure out a way to make it fit at the top of the page:

Visit Dave's Blog

I can't do it just yet. But in the meantime, if you think this place is worth advertising, you can copy-and-paste this code into your own page and link to me:

[a href="http://moreno91.blogspot.com" target="_blank"][img src="http://img103.exs.cx/img103/7843/blogbanner0ap.gif" width="468" height="60" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" /][/a]

Just replace these [] with these <> and you have it!

I'll make more later.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

When The Lights Go Down in the City...

It's been raining here in Long Beach since Monday. But that's okay - I like it.

Last night, however, we got hit by a weak tornado that ripped out trees like crazy. Many came down near our neighborhood and we also lost power for about 3 hours.

It was strange, though. I was asleep when this all happened but was awakened by Ann poking me and saying, "We lost power." But it's not like we were watching TV or anything. It happened about 12am or so, and I noticed it back on at 3am. Of course, Anthony slept through it all.

We figured something was going on. Our cat Ozzie, who recently decided not to sleep in the bed with us, suddenly decided to join us shortly after this happened. They always seem to know...

Here are some of the fallen trees:

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I also noticed that Heartwell Golf Course was closed because the tornado had ripped off the nets on the driving range, as well as uprooting one of the wooden poles.

The plus side of all this?

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A really cool rainbow.

More rain's a-comin', too.

Thursday, December 23, 2004

BAH!

I made the mistake of using PhotoBucket.com to host my images for a Fark Photoshop contest. By doing so, I exceeded my alotted bandwidth - so my blog pictures are gone!

They will return when I will switch hosts later today. Kinda busy at work right now.

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Happy Holidays...?

Even before we moved in, we have had problems with our neighbor. I won't get into details, but let's just say we haven't gotten along - ever.

Today they did something that my wife and I have repeatedly requested they not do. We've called downtown, the health department, everybody short of the Governator to help us out. Our calls never get returned, our e-mails ignored.

Our neighbor recently put this sign on his roof. This surprises us, considering how nasty they have been to us. Kind of defies the whole "love thy neighbor" thing.

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Tired of his idiocy, I did this:

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I did it in Photoshop to calm my nerves down. I was pretty much ready to explode after dealing with their crap today.

Here are some alternate versions, also done in Photoshop:

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Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

I feel better.

Sort of.

Friday, December 10, 2004

All Hail Lukket, You Gullible Fools!

Of the millions of web sites that are out there, I can say with pride that I’ve been an active member for 2 over years at one that has been instrumental in fooling a lot of people, as well as melting servers by giving them more traffic than they can handle.

Fark.com is not your ordinary place on the web. It’s humor, politics, and Photoshop contests all rolled into one. Users submit stories from various online sources and, if lucky, they get approved for the main board – sort of a gold star on their user profile. Speaking of which, here’s mine.

The Power of Fark has duped many people, including those bought the story of the Kenny Rogers riot, and those of you who may have gotten this image e-mailed to them recently:

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It may have come with some text about how “this is how scientists in 1954 envisioned the computer of the future! OMG!!! LOL!!! ROTFLMAO!!!!111!” or something like that. But this image was actually created for a Fark Photoshop contest back in September, 2004. While us Farkers knew it was a fake and never meant it to become a hoax, it got into the hands of someone who thought it was real – obviously a non-Farker. Well, that or it was a lurker who thought it would be funny to start something.

So it made the rounds. Maybe you even got it in your inbox. And it eventually made its way to Snopes.com, where it was debunked 19 days after being posted on Fark. Since the debunking, various outlets such as Popular Mechanics, About.com, and a host of other web sites have been examining the image. Even uber-dork Moby posted the image on his web site's main page, and Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy also fell victim to the image.

While technogeeks on message boards and English majors around the world are always quick to point out the technical inaccuracies and grammatical errors of the image, one thing is clear: It fooled one hell of a lot of people.

And while all websites are quick to dismiss it is a hoax, most never mention the creator. All hail Farker Lukket, who was the genius behind the image.

So to the technogeeks who bitched about how inaccurate the image was: The joke’s on you. It was never intended to be accurate, or to become a hoax. It’s a submarine, for God’s sake! It’s got a freakin’ steering wheel! The contest was called "Photoshop this mock-up of a submarine's maneuvering Room", not "Let's start a new urban legend by Photoshopping this submarine room into a computer". If you can’t tell a "1954 computer" from a submarine control panel, you need help. That, and you're pissed because you probably thought it was real or meant to be real at first. Bow the the mind of Lukket, infidels!

To those picking on the grammar: Fark off. English is not Lukket’s native language but it was still good enough for people around the world to believe for it, making it an urban legend in no time flat.

And to those of you who fell for it and forwarded this to as many people you could: Behold, the Power of Fark.

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Bonus Entry for December 7, 2004

Yay! Today you get 2 entries!

A few years ago I bought an Archos Jukebox MP3 FM Recorder (no link - it's outdated) to store my downloaded and ripped music. With 20GB of storage, the thing's outstanding. It's been dropped many times and still manages to play. It can also be used as a hard drive, which has come in handy when transferring files.

I recently upgraded to an Archos AV140 and gave my wife the old one. She doesn't have as much music as I do so it suits her fine. The AV140 has 40GB of storage and can record videos as well. Sort of like a mini-TiVo, minus the $4.95 monthly fee.

I'd been thinking about one of these for quite some time now, and I'd considered all manufacturers (iRiver, Creative, etc.) My old Archos gave me such good luck that I thought I'd stay loyal to the brand. I don't regret it. These things, called anything from Portable Media Centers to Personal Video Players, are going to be hot. They have to be if Apple is upgrading their iPods to playback photos.

Speaking of which...

iPod Photo - 40GB, no video playback or recording, stores photos: $499.
Archos AV140 - 40GB, video playback/recording, portable HD, remote control, digital camera capable, FM-radio capable: $299.

Hmmm.

Anyway, I've ripped some DVDs to it and have recently been recording The Venture Brothers with it.

I thought I'd try some screencaps with the thing, so here's a sample:


Dr. Orpheus offers Hank and Dean some pizza rolls in "Return to Spider-Skull Island"

This was all I was able to do because my dumb ass forgot the charger for the MP3 player at work, so it only had enough juice to record the show and playback for only a few minutes. I can try some more tomorrow.

I think it looks damn good myself!

From the set of American Dreams

My brother Raul sent me some digital image goodness from his stint on "American Dreams".


With Sarah Ramos, who plays Patty Prior.


With Sean Marquette, who plays Lloyd Cutler.


The location: Loyola High School in Los Angeles, CA.


Production equipment.


WLAI news truck, a 1957 Ford.


The not-so-glamorous dressing room.

All in all, he said he had a great time and the people were incredibly nice. He had some lines, he's a cast member, he can join SAG. Not bad for a guy who once worked at The Wherehouse, eh?

Monday, December 06, 2004

What's With All the Crap?

Bravenet.com offers some great free junk for websites. And since maintaining a blog is easier than maintaining a website, I've added some of the features here.

Believe me - there's more than that.

Hope you like 'em!

Anthony Visits Santa

Ann wanted to take Anthony to visit Santa today, so here are some captured shots from my DV camera.

I missed out on this - I had to work.


Is it over yet?


Who is this guy?


Now it's time to go home.

There is an actual picture that was taken after all this, but I've decided that these are much more amusing.

Friday, December 03, 2004

My Brother - The Actor?

People fly from all over the world to make it in Hollywood. They work to make ends meet, go to auditions, struggle in general.

But just what does it take to become an actor in Hollywood? For my brother, all it took was a penchant for wearing loud shirts, a healthy appetite, and frequent visits to one particular restaurant.

It turns out that he and some of his co-workers eat at a place called Cafe 50s quite often. They had been going there for some time now and recently, it has become a hangout for actors on the NBC show “American Dreams” - which honestly, I’ve never seen.

When the actors’ lunch break is up, they are rounded up by an assistant and told to head back to the studio. On a few occasions my brother was mistakenly herded up as part of the cattle because of the shirt he was wearing – some sort of loud 60s-style bowling shirt. He had to tell the assistant that he wasn’t part of the cast.

So time goes by he begins to chat with the actors and producers, befriends some of the cast, and gets to go on the set to see where it all takes place.

Then, lo and behold, I get a call from him today. He tells me that they needed someone to play the part of a TV reporter and someone [from the show] suggested that he was a good match for the role. He sent some pictures and – what do you know – he gets the job.

He says shooting begins on Monday, December 6. He has three lines and will get paid union scale. And because he has a speaking role, he earns his SAG card...or so I understand from the screenwriting class I took in college.

While this is his first appearance as an actor, it is not his first TV appearance. His vast knowledge in all things Hollywood got him interviewed for a documentary about the William Desmond Taylor murder, a show that aired on a cable channel (I forget which one) way back in 2000. He’s also done some voiceover work for radio commercials at some of the radio stations where he’s worked. But even that brief cable TV appearance made him recognizable to fellow Blue Line passengers, who asked if he “was that guy on The Biography Channel last night.”

I'm not really sure if that’s a compliment or not. After all, they do air shows about Hitler.

I told him to ask if the show needed extra writers. What have I got to lose? Well, I guess I could watch it now and then.

Check back for updates, pics, screenshots, etc.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

To Spit or Not to Spit...?

I was faced with an interesting dilemma the other morning.

During the course of our morning ritual, aka "packing up the kid", I found I had an incredible urge to spit. I had just eaten a bowl of cereal and the milk was beginning to mix with the saliva and...well, I had to get rid of it.

But I thought of something: When?

I hadn't yet kissed Ann or Anthony. If I spit beforehand, that would seem kind of nasty - hock a big loogie, wipe my mouth, kiss the loved ones goodbye? Nah.

Then I thought of the alternative: Kiss them and then spit. Yeah, that would have gone over really well with the wife I'm sure. Granted, she probably wouldn't have said anything but at least that shows I had some consideration for her.

I opted to wait until nobody was looking and then hurl it into the lawn.

Anthony didn't care either way.