Minimalist Stick Figure Theater

Minimalist Stick Figure TheaterI stumbled on this web comic a few months ago and have been slowly working my way through the archives. There is a little philosophy, a little insight, some playfulness and a whole lack of detail in these comics that make them very appealing to me.

The main character is a quasi-cynical quasi-loser – to over-use the “quasi” thing – who shall remain nameless (really!) encountering a rich array of secondary characters. There is continuity of experience from comic to comic which I greatly appreciate and which lends a sophistication to it that has me always anticipating the next offering.

Be sure you read the author’s note at the bottom of each comic. Often the insights are as amusing or revealing as the comics themselves.

Check it out – Minimalist Stick Figure Theater

Renovation update 06/04/2007

Arrrgh! I can’t *believe* that I forgot to take a “before” picture of the guest bathroom before we started work on it today!!!

We are not going to be nearly so bold with this aspect of our renovations as with the other bathroom. But we are removing the false ceiling, replacing the flourescent lights with can lights, updating to a better bathroom fan and replacing the counter, sink, faucets and medicine chest.

Add a little new wallpaper and paint and the project is nearly done 🙂

Here is the project just after Larry pulled out the ceiling and medicine cabinet

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Larry is sporting his camera-inspired “The Shining” look… 🙂

You can see the framework for the fan and light support over the counter here.

By the end of the day, much of the wallpaper was gone

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Here’s a nice view into the attic (above where the mirror used to be)

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A slightly more oblique view

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And here is the ceiling over the back of the bathtub (soon to receive a can light)

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and finally a view back toward the door (before it gets painted)

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Also, Sue from Atlanta Kitchen called and asked if we wouldn’t mind taking some pictures of our new master bathroom counter for them to keep in an album so I obliged and sent Hi res versions of the four shots below.

This one shows off the newly installed medicine cabinet cover that Tommy put in today. It needs a bit more work to protect the back of the mirror but it looks very attractive already.

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Pretty much all that’s left to do in the master vanity area is those medicine cabinets and to putty and stain a few nail holes in the mirror frame. Of course there are ALWAYS some other little touch-ups that need to be done but the end of the road is near.

It turns out that the mirror company ended up charging nearly 3 times what they quoted for the mirrors. Tommy will be contacting them to get that sorted out. I’ll need to get their name anyway just for my own records. I’ll let you know how that works out.

Here are the remaining pictures of the counter

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and

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and

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In my update from May 18th I mentioned that one of the Acrylic handles for the shower doors had arrived slightly mal-formed. I’m pleased to report that they (the company Maax) had a new pair of handles out to us within a week and the doors look great. Interestingly they sent us two handles which is good since one of them was slightly scratched. The other one was pristine.

Amateur Animal Kingdom

When I watched this I wasn’t really expecting much. Unless you have a LOT of time to wait or you go ahead and stage some kind of confrontation (or maybe just edit a bunch of unrelated scenes together) you are seldom lucky enough to capture this kind of footage.

It’s a little long at 8 minutes, but take my word for it, this is well worth watching to the end. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anything this socially complex before in a safari-style video.

It’s kind of like “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” meets “Animal Kingdom” only with a Hollywood ending… of course I suppose that depends on who you’re rooting for… I won’t give it away.

**Updated 2009-10-10 **
The CollegeHumor version of the video mysteriously disappeared so I’ve “rediscovered” it on Youtube:


** End Update **

Trying OpenDNS

If you use the Internet, you’re using DNS (Domain Name System).

I heard about this listening to the Slashdotreview podcast a couple of days ago. OpenDNS claims that they can perform faster DNS lookups than can your ISP. They further claim they can correct typos (i.e. you type wikipedia.og instead of wikipedia.org) as well as protect you from known Phishing pages.

So I’m giving them a whirl. I’ve added the OpenDNS IP addresses to the formerly empty static DNS IP address section in my WRT54G router and am using it now.

Given the vagaries of the Internet, it’s not really possible to say immediately whether DNS resolution is faster than it used to be. I suppose that will end up being a qualitative judgment on my part after a few more days of use.

However I *can* say that the “type correction” feature is pretty slick. If you get the URL hopelessly wrong (i.e. leave off the extension entirely), rather than getting a “cannot be found” kind of error, you are directed to a search page that usually has the correct option very near the top.

I’ve played a little bit with the shortcut ability (i.e. I type “mb” on the address bar and it figures it out and sends me to http://marc-bourassa.com) although I *am* somewhat sketchy on how it know it’s *me* typing that shortcut. Dynamic IP addresses for home users is the norm. The FAQ doesn’t address this item.

Going to my other computers yields different results, my old Win2K laptop, when I type “mb” on Firefox’s address bar brings up wikipedia’s definition for “Megabyte”. On Mich’s laptop doing the same thing brings up the OpenDNS search results page.

Solution: It turns out that I need to be logged into OpenDNS. You have the option of remaining logged in until you explicitly log out, so that little mystery is solved.

I’ll play with this a little more and see if I have any issues.

One Care Live not updating AV and Spyware Defs

*Update 5/30/2007* Got home this evening and all appears to be well again…

I keep all of my systems up to date. This morning I noticed my One Care Live icon (in the system tray) was red and, on clicking it, I saw that I have an “urgent” warning that my virus and spyware definition files are out-of-date.

Clicking the “Update Now” button did nothing, nor did clicking the “Check for updates” hotlink to the right of the “Protection Plus” section.

Checking Microsoft’s web site (oncare.live.com) I see they have a community section where folks are discussing this issue . The last entry at the moment is the stalwart soul who has been on hold for over 104 minutes with MS’ tech support.

Interestingly, the laptop what was in standby overnight *seems* OK. I just brought it out of standby and explicitly checked for updates and it’s claiming that all is well. Maybe the issue is to do with the automated update (bad def file??)

I expect it’s a Microsoft glitch but I’ll be a little happier once the issue has been resolved…

Bottled water has its uses

I recently saw an episode of “Bullshit!” where they addressed the issue of bottled water. I have no real issues with tap water except that it occasionally picks up an odd taste the day after a rainstorm. And my refrigerator water filter eliminates that quite handily. I see no value and a rather an incredible expense in purchasing bottled water.

I am not a conspiracy theorist and can not bring myself to believe that all of the municipalities throughout North America are quietly colluding to poison or otherwise harm us through suppression of testing results on our drinking water.

That said, I do buy bottled water now and then. I find it really handy to have a disposable container that I can use for exercise or at work until I feel that it’s probably no longer really sanitary and then I can chuck it and start using a new one.

I think folks’ perception of what is sanitary vary widely and many would disagree with my take on it. But for me, I typically reuse such bottles for about 1-3 months before I feel the need to swap them out.

On my desk at work they are much better than open containers for keeping dust out of my water as it can sit there for days between sips. When I exercise the handy nozzle keeps it from sloshing water all over as I’m trying to take a swig while running or cycling (or even staggering around after X reps of free weights).

In the past I used sports bottles and those would get REALLY grimy before I’d do anything about them – but they are a nuisance to wash and I’m pretty sure that they are largely impossible to sterilize without either melting them or imparting the sterilizing agent’s taste to them. The bottled water is actually MUCH cheaper than buying new sports bottles, much more flexible so they’re easier to squeeze water into your mouth with, and you don’t feel bad discarding them after you’ve reused them 30, 60 or 100 times over.

My current exercise water bottle I started using when we had relatives over here in the middle of April. I exercise 3 out of 4 days and use that bottle every time. Maybe in another month I’ll feel the need to replace it.

All (known) Bodies in the Solar System Larger than 200 Miles in Diameter

All (known) Bodies in the Solar System Larger than 200 Miles in Diameter: Just saw this courtesy of Phil Plait’s “Bad Astronomy” blog and thought it looks AMAZING. I think it’s really worth noting exactly how sad Mars is as a contender for supporting human life unassisted. *Sniff* so much for “The Martian Chronicles”…