Yes, it’s a crappy photo, but that was the scene near the town square. I swear, I’ve moved to freaking Stars Hollow or something. I’m going to say this, not for the first time in my life and not for the last, but East Coasters are weird. Sure, we West Coasters don’t have any history, and that’s a shame sometimes. Then again, we’re not burdened with having to reenact a Revolutionary War-era fife-and-drum corps and serenade cars in a parking lot.
Here’s a glorious 1920×1200 image of Sean Bean as Eddard Stark, holding the greatsword, Ice. I tell you it looks great on my dual 24-inch LCDs. Click for the full-size, wallpaper-ready image.
Arghhhhh…. 2011, get here already! Hearing Sean Bean utter the words “Winter is Coming” (with some dark laughter) just made the wait go nuclear. And I know they’re called teasers for a reason, but goddamn HBO! Show more!
Oh, Apple, you’ve built a pipeline to my wallet. Let’s see, I’m a Day One’r with the iPad, and on Tuesday I’m going to pre-order an iPhone 4. I had an original iPhone, and when I upgraded to the iPhone 3G I gave that one to my brother. Well, the 3G is two years old (I never upgraded to the 3GS), and it’s time to upgrade. The 3G is just pokey slow; good old dad got a 3GS last year, and it was just snappy in terms of performance. Of course, it had a higher-clocked processor and double the RAM. I need the speed, and the iPhone 4 is a big leap up in performance, not to mention the damn thing looks sleek as hell. Only Apple can make your cutting edge-only-yesterday device and make it feel old and frumpy overnight. I should note that my 3G is also developing cracks all along its back, and the battery doesn’t hold a charge like it used to. Ah, planned obsolescence, you’re a wonderful thing to Apple’s shareholders.
Ya know, Microsoft, those Windows 7 phones might actually tempt me, but the thing is you actually have to have them on the market. It’s insane how long it’s taken for MS to respond to the iPhone. What MS showed of Windows Phone 7 at Barcelona in January looked good, but actual phones don’t go on sale until the 4th quarter!!!! By the time Win7 phones hit the market, the 4th generation iPhone will have been out for 5-6 months. That’s just crazy.
Meet Hazelnut, one of my two new cats. (Syren gets her own post later.) I adopted them from the shelter last month. I got two because they were in the same cage together, and they were friends. That, and they can keep each other company while I’m at work. They’re both female and young. Hazelnut is about 3. She’s small for an adult, but she’s the softest cat I’ve ever encountered, and the most vocal. Hazy constantly trills. If she’s alone, it’s more of an inquisitive trill, like “Are you there?” It’s almost like echolocation. If you pet her, she trills. And I swear that she practically cheers when I get out of bed in the morning. She’s a total sweetheart, but still a bit on the nervous side.
I became a big fan of Sunset Rubdown late last year, having picked up Dragonslayer and pretty much falling in love with Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh! I finally (and belatedly) picked up their 2007 album, Random Spirit Lover, and I’m captivated by the manic flailing about of the opening track, The Mending of the Gown.
MS posted an updated version of its superb Image Composite Editor and I recently upgraded to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3. So I dug up a bunch of photos taken three years ago on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, moored in Alameda, just across the bay from San Francisco. Stitched them together, and voila. Click to zoom!
And, in a bit of trivia, the balcony of my old place is barely visible in this photo.
