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  • hell has frozen over?

    Star Wars: Episode IV | This September: Original Unaltered Trilogy on DVD

    when lucas said he never would, i believed him and patted my laserdisc box set, swearing it would be the only way you would ever see the theatrical cuts (uh, vhs doesn’t count!)…

    yet, from the announcement on starwars.com:

    “In response to overwhelming demand, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release attractively priced individual two-disc releases of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Each release includes the 2004 digitally remastered version of the movie and, as bonus material, the theatrical edition of the film. That means you’ll be able to enjoy Star Wars as it first appeared in 1977, Empire in 1980, and Jedi in 1983.”

    i am really low on sleep lately, but, i don’t think this is dream nor hallucination…
    i’ll believe it in the morning…

    and continue patting my criterion laserdisc of close encounters of the third kind, the only way to see the original theatrical cut… even if vhs DID count, it was never released on vhs, you can only get this treasure on laserdisc 🙂

  • Google Video – Super Mario Bros., Live

    Mario – Live – Google Video
    [via waxy]

    a good chuckle or two (or three)

  • [UPDATED] disc golf season!

    first, a big thanks to those i’ve already gotten games with, it was a blast every time!
    now, time to start bugging the rest of you 🙂

    the weather is finally agreeable and, in my experience, this place is not without decent playing spots…
    here is a site that has allegedly all the new mexico courses: nmdgc.org (new mexico disc golf courses dot org)… and here is a little thing i put together on windows live local, showing the abq courses: well, all but roosevelt 😛… you might also have a look at pdga.com’s new mexico course page…
    vista hills on rockaway is the obvious quick-game choice, centrally located for most people i know, just a couple minutes from the church… a really simple 9-hole course that can easily be played in under an hour…

    i’m able, ready, and more than willing after work (4:30, 5-ish) on mondays, thursdays, and fridays… i’m always up for grabbing a quick round at rockaway (the earlier the better on mondays or else the third hole has to be skipped because of the soccer kids) and, if time permits, ladera would be great… i’d love to play the baca, but when is a huge question mark… (weekends are not exactly ideal…)
    just gimme’ a call me on my cell – 328.1406

    i have enough discs for two people… if you want to buy, it has been too long, i don’t know where to go except online or try ‘head shops (ya’ know, where you used to buy incense, pipes, and tie-dye)… over at Big 5 sporting goods on coors near paseo, i bumped into a very small, basic selection of drivers and putters (no mid-ranges) for $10 a piece, but, maybe some local players will read this and post a comment letting us know where to go for the good stuff… i’m looking your direction, matthew bohnsack 🙂

    and, for that matter, anyone interested in getting a game can hit the comments and make it known… never played? no problem, i play like i’ve never played, so, it’s all good… just a nice way to waste a bit of time after work and maybe get hardcore on the weekends or something…
    it’s free and it’s fun, so, let’s get out there…

    .

    UPDATE – April 9
    forget what i said about weekends not being ideal… we have had a couple great saturdays out at Ladera and it looks like i/we will be doing it every saturday, hopefully getting there about 10am, 11am, somewhere in there and counting on spending 3 hours or so to play the 18 holes… yesterday, i was on the course EIGHT hours, so, i think the window of opportunity is pretty much all day if anyone else wants to join me/us…

  • exchanging money via cell phones is coming

    Lifehacker just posted about PayPal starting a service for this:
    PayPal via your cell phone – Lifehacker
    and a commenter gives credit where credit is due, noting that TextPayMe.com was doing it first…

    this is a trend i am really excited about… a logical step in technology… i never have cash on me anymore, just plastic, and there are so many times cash would come in handy, but, not enough of them to bother with carrying cash at all times… this would solve the whole thing…

    i titled this entry “exchanging money via cell phones is coming” rather than “is here” because i doubt anyone i know, nor the majority of the population, is signed up for either service, so, let me be a voice shouting to everyone i know that reads my blog, encouraging you to sign up for one service or the other… at this point, pretty much EVERYONE has more than one reason to have a paypal account, and most people could find a reason or two to have text messaging…

    so, please… do it…
    and if you do, i promise no more excuses next time it comes to splitting the bill at starbucks 😛

  • Bird’s Eye Tourist

    if you have been too busy playing with google earth to explore windows live local’s “bird’s eye” views, here’s a very cool way to get acquainted with it…

    Bird’s Eye Tourist

    From the site:

    First Google brought us Google Local and Google Earth. Then Microsoft followed suit with Windows Live Local, featuring stunning new imagery. Bird’s Eye images provide a high-resolution, low-angle aerial view of a small area.

    This website is the definitive guide and repository for the coolest Windows Live Local locations.

    with a blog format and links divided into locations (where i found the sandia peak tramway) and categories (DO NOT miss “our favorites“), this is a very cool site…

    at the moment the front page includes “the bat cave from the old TV show Batman“, “the Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park in Buena Park, CA”, “numerous hovercraft at the Little Creek Amphibious Base in Virginia, “The Simpsons mural at Fox Studios”, and “the fake McDonalds”…

    oh, and they also have a list of all the cities covered by windows live local…  very cool – even microsoft doesn’t offer that anywhere, as far as i know…

    this is one to keep an eye on…  (btw, they DO have an rss feed!)

  • the whole “Ebert on games” thing

    just a few links, not a comprehensive list… i was just going to add these links to the sidebar “looking at” list, but, they are scattered and there seems to be no one gateway point to get to all of them, so, i’ll put them together here…

    most people know what i have to say on this subject, but, i will point out that it is important to remember that “video games” (i prefer something more like “the current generation of popular interactive entertainment“) are still growing up and the truly great artists are yet to emerge, even if we see a few pioneers… this is much like film was in the 40s and 50s, where many movies out there were trying to capture the stage experience on film, bringing broadway shows to those who could not go to broadway shows, for example… few people yet knew what to do with this “new artform”… but, flash forward to the late 1970s and we enter the age of the blockbuster… and today, there is no shortage of cinematic visionaries…
    we will someday be at this point with interactive entertainment… and, even in the present, if one hears the phrase “video game” and think of a joystick, some bleeping, shooting aliens, or maybe munching blinking dots, they are at least twenty years behind in their understanding of the subject…

    and i am now going to digress and move onto the links before i start getting into lists of examples 😛

    04 December 2005 – Next Generation – Why Ebert Was Right

    rogerebert.com :: commentary
    Dec6,2005 :: Gamers fire flaming posts, e-mails…
    Dec8, 2005 :: The Art of the Game 2
    Dec14, 2005 :: The Game of Art 3

    blog: scanners :: Jim Emerson / January 23, 2006 > Kojima: ‘Games are not art’

  • Duke City Fix » Hiking to the TWA Wreck

    Duke City Fix » Hiking to the TWA Wreck

    Anyone who has taken the tram up to Sandia Crest has probably overheard a passenger or two asking about the ‘crash site.’ They are referring to the wreck of TWA flight 206; a twin engine Martin 404 that slammed in to the west face of Sandia Peak on February 19, 1955. Sixteen passengers and crew were killed. While all of the bodies were removed, the remote location and rugged terrain necessitated leaving the bulk of the aircraft on the mountain in the upper portion of Domingo Baca Canyon in area that has since become known as TWA Canyon. A hike to the site makes for a memorable, if tiring, day trip.

  • wow, the end of Ch@b

    karl sent me the news…

    99% of the readers of this post have no idea what i’m talking about, but, to those of you that do, this is truly the end of an era, even if that era ended for us long ago…
    no more Ch@bTalk, URL Chat, and, if i read it right, no more MyRooms… all those things we spent so many late frustrating hours for months trying to figure out… i remember clearly Curtis announcing he had finally figured out how to get it to work, even making a long-distance phone call to japan (jeez, that was almost five years ago)… then, months later, after everyone had given up on it, Vegitto figured out the way to open Ch@bTalk to the masses… the controversy over the selling of ISAO ID’s, people stumbling through the programs to create them for everyone… and, speaking of frustrating, trying to teach people how to use it… they were certainly our most used guides… then came DreamPassport Premier Ch@bTalk and all the amazing features and having to feel around in the dark all over again to work out all the buttons (the definitive exhaustive guide created by the guy at this keyboard)… JavaCh@b and then DPPC and no one believing Danny that he got it to work until he finally posted a screenshot of it running on his machine… hours spent on the URL Chat at ISAO, trying to get someone who could translate for our guides… months of trying to carry on conversations with people who spoke little to no english, but, needing their knowledge so continuing to try… and several times that it was declared that it was now impossible to create new ID’s, yet, someone always found a way… and, of course, several Ch@b directories, just so you could actually find people to chat with…
    Drobb was the first person to Ch@b us… minutes after posting our number in the original DCBG Ch@b listing…
    when i installed ICQ on my psion, i even switched out all the sound files with Ch@b sounds… and, here a few months ago, i dusted off my old generation 0 dreamcast and logged into Ch@b to check my messages and just see who might be on…
    man, i can hear that god-awful music that played on DP3 when the client would open and close when you went in and out of the email client… sometimes blaringly loud because you turned the volume way up to hear the quiet VoiceCh@b someone sent you…
    and who can forget “HALLO! HALLO!”, no matter how bad we want to…

    those glory days were great while they lasted… and now, one more piece of those days is about to expire…
    glad i was there for it… we really did make a bit of history, even if no one knows but us…

  • wow, i think my inner child is wounded

    ‘Burque Babble: Ten Reasons I Don’t Heart the Balloon Fiesta

    but, he clearly loves movies so he can’t be all bad…

    and, speaking of movies, he points out that he teaches “Humanities and Film at a local middle school“… WHAT?!! how come they didn’t have that in MY day? i’d be hangin’ with Aronofsky right now!
    or something…

    anyway, after reading a few posts, i like his writing, i deem him interesting, i’ll add him to my “Looking At” list and keep an eye on him for awhile…

  • random email to the future

    F u t u r e M e . o r g » Public » Random

    in my links on the sidebar, i have a special section just for random links… click on them to visit a random weblog, a random homepage, a random webcam, even a random page on wikipedia… i love random links and don’t come across them too often, but, now i have a new addition to the list…

    do you know FutureMe?
    it is a site that lets you send an email to the future… the link at the top of this post and soon to be on my randoms list allows you to see emails people have sent (they have been anonymized), with the date they wrote it and the date it will be sent…
    i hit it a few times and there is some fascinating stuff… a parent’s email to their daughter for her 18th birthday, a guy entering medical school sending himself a message to be received after he graduates, someone on their first day quitting smoking, a wife on her 5-year wedding anniversary sending a message to her hubby for their 10-year anniversary, and of course, mundane things like reminders for a doctor’s appointment, and many many many that are not easily described…

    they are small pieces of stories of dreams and wishes, hope after regret, breaking of cycles, escapes from the past, beginnings and endings and new beginnings… and you can’t help but imagine these people and their situations, and the more vague the message, the more interesting it is…

    so, go check it out, and btw, this is the best kind of random link, the url itself has the command to randomize, so, you can go there and just keep hitting reload…