It's just an ordinary day - Recent Entries

On a different but also work-related note, for giggles and grins, I've tried to set up a VMWare virtual machine install of Ubuntu's latest build. This is for two reasons: 1) we occasionally get user-reported issues about pages being broken when viewed in Linux, and it's nice to have a way to test these, and 2) I just wanted to look at Ubuntu anyway because I never had before.

So I borrowed a Live CD of the latest build, Hardy Heron, from one of our engineers and set the thing up. Followed the expected install process, got it all up and running...

Only now, the VM won't load unless the Live CD is still in the drive. If I try to run the VM without it, it hangs VMWare hardcore and I can't kill it. I wind up having to reboot the box.

I've Googled around a bit and have seen pages that talk about issues getting Hardy Heron up and running as a Virtual PC VM. However, the advice I saw giving for fixing those issues didn't seem pertinent to my install, possibly because it's a different VM system.

Anybody got any experience with getting Ubuntu running as a VMWare VM and know what sort of problem I may be having here, and if so how to fix it? Thanks in advance.

Hey folks,

We're getting Webmaster emails at work about users having issues printing off the two crossword puzzles we're running on our Comics & Games page--the New York Times crossword as well as the Newsday one. We've had one user report that when he tries to print the NY Times one, he gets a dialog asking what he wants to print, and when he makes his selection and clicks okay, nothing happens. Another user is having issues where when he tries to print the puzzles, they come out as garbage characters along half the page.

I can't repro either of these issues on our internal LAN. Can anybody out there repro them? Here's what you need to do:

1. You have to have Java running on your system to load the puzzle applets to begin with.
   
2. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to print the puzzles.
   
3. Go here and click on either of the puzzles partway down the page.
   
4. Once the puzzle loads, you should see a little toolbar running across the top of the puzzle. One of the buttons on it is a button to print the puzzle. Click that.
   
5. A dialog should pop up asking you exactly what you want to print, a blank grid, a solution with clues, etc. Make a selection and click OK.
   
6. An Adobe Acrobat Reader window should load with the thing you're going to print. You need to print said thing from within Reader.
   

If this process doesn't work for you, sing out, and please to let me know what puzzle you tried, what browser you're using, what OS, and what version of Acrobat Reader. Thanks in advance, all. :)

Dude, I am severely behind on my Battlestar review posts! Part of this, I have to admit, is that to some degree BSG is just not engaging me as heavily this season; the unremitting grim of the show is no longer adequately offset by likable aspects of the characters. I'm not feeling the Roslin love this season (with the exception, I grant, of episode 4.06), Lee has become a lot less interesting to me now that he's gone off to join the Quorum of Twelve, and even my and solarbird's TV Girlfriend Starbuck has gotten just a touch too crazy for me to really like as much anymore. In fact, the only character I'm still rather liking is Sam.

All that said, though, I'm still definitely intrigued by the overall events going on. The last three episodes have given us some tasty WTFery, and the whole building Cylon civil war? Booya. BRING IT.

( 4.04: Escape Velocity... )

( 4.05: The Road Less Traveled... )

( 4.06: Faith )

And, that'll do me for quick and dirty review comments. We'll see if I can do a full post for next week's episode; now, I gotta go edit something!

Well now, that was fun, and isn't this a new and interesting wrinkle thrown into the universe, eh?

( Spoiler samples in the machine... )

The lesson I learned from reading The Witches' Hammer is this: just because it says 'Hitchcock' on the cover, no matter how much I may want it to, this does not mean I'm about to read a deliciously complicated mystery worthy of old Alfred. And this is my own damn fault, because a big part of why I bought this book is because the name 'Hitchcock' grabbed me. Sure, not Alfred. But once the name got my attention, I read the blurb and saw a review snippet that called the thing 'elegant', so I thought, okay, I'll give this a shot.

On the surface, the core of the plot is sound. We've got a youngish heroine whose book collector father is murdered when he acquires a notorious grimoire, and the blurb promises intrigue as she and her ex-husband and an occultist book collector track down what the deal is with this grimoire. We've got the obligatory Secret Society that's an offshoot of fundamentalist Catholicism. We've got the heroine wandering all over the world as she tries to put all the pieces together.

But here's where the book falls down: the vast majority of it is just people talking to one another. There's hardly any interesting action, and most of this is at the end, far too late to keep me from wishing that the characters would stop yapping to one another and get into a good ol' fashioned shootout or car chase or brawl in a dark alley.

Right in the wake of this is the other issue I have with this novel, which is to say, a lot of the aforementioned character dialogue is caught up with gender politics--as personified by the heroine and her ex-husband sniping at one another about how "you guys want this" and "you gals feel that". This got pretty tiresome to read after a while, and wasn't helped much by the description of how the grimoire equated women with evil, ravening succubi. Don't get me wrong, this is potentially powerful stuff to write about; for me as a reader, though, this particular story didn't handle it well. It came across more heavy-handed to me than anything else.

Now, all this said, I should also give this book credit for doing a few unusual things. It is unabashed in giving us a heroine who plain flat out does not care for sex, and the experiences she has towards the beginning of the plot don't particularly resolve this question for her. Neither do either of the main male characters, which surprised me, and which I rather respect--"I don't know if I like sex, but I certainly didn't like it with you" is a refreshing attitude to see in a novel. I was also rather startled by the final fates of the main characters, on which I won't elaborate here, since that involves spoilers.

All in all this was ultimately unsatisfying to me, though there's enough here that it could work for a different reader. For me, two and a half stars.

spazzkat, solarbird, and I just got back from seeing Iron Man. And okay, yeah, sure, we're a week late to the party... but now at least I can join my voice to the chorus of DUDE THAT TOTALLY ROCKED.

( Spoilers at 10 percent... )

There are times when I read a book so well-put together, so deliciously complex, and so generally OH-MY-inducing that I despair of ever trying to write anything as good, much less sell it. The Queen's Bastard, latest offering from the redoubtable mizkit, is one of those times.

For starters, the setting is quite unusual for a fantasy novel. This thing is basically alternate history fantasy--all the names have been changed, but any reader will definitely recognize Europe of the 16th century here, complete with a queen on one of the pertinent thrones that we all should find very, very familiar. ;) And there's magic--or rather, I should say, very interesting telepathic and telekinetic abilities possessed by the most major characters, the source of which is hinted at to be something rather more appropriate to a science fiction novel.

And the sex... oh my yes, there's sex. But I am quite satisfied (aheh) to note that this novel has, hands down, the most effective use of sex I have read in quite some time. Our heroine cuts a swath through any number of men through this novel, from a lowly coachman clear up to a prince who turns out to share her secret abilities--and yet, every single sexual encounter is a means to an end, propelling Belinda through a web of increasingly complicated intrigue, and some of them come back to haunt her and hard. One scene in particular--you'll know it when you get to it--was quite intense, almost alarming, enough that I found myself genuinely challenged about whether I actually liked the heroine. (I'm still pondering that! Belinda is extremely effective as a character, but all throughout the book I was rather torn between cheering her on and muttering "Bitch!" at the page.)

It amused me, too--and this may well amuse Kit when she reads this--that I got a big Elfquest vibe off of this story. And in particular, a vibe of Belinda as a very young Winnowill. Particularly in that aforementioned intense and alarming scene.

I finished this thing up this afternoon, and am in awe. Awe, I tell you. Four stars!

For those of you who are registered members of GreatBigSea.com, they just put Fortune's Favour up for pre-sale. If you order through the site, you ALSO get extra bonus download links for not only "Walk On The Moon" but two extra songs as well that aren't on the album!

Go! Order! Purchase the shiny new Great Big Goodness!

Okay! Not quite as awesome as part 1, but part 2 held up pretty well nonetheless. And, extra bonus WTF-ery in the teaser for next week!

( Spoilers in the transmat... )

This came in over my RSS subscription to indianajones.com last night: Trailer #2 for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!

( Spoilers! )

Oh yeah. This is starting to feel like a proper Jones film. Even with this old Indy running around in it. ;) I am eying the 22nd now with great enthusiasm--and thoughts of attending a midnight showing! 'Cause who am I kidding, I know I'm going to be there!

Mad props to otoselkie for pointing this out: the shiny new revamped greatbigsea.com, if you haven't noticed it already, has a new version of a song player clickable on the front page. It's got not one, not two, but three new songs off the new album on it: "Walk On The Moon", "Here and Now", and "Love Me Tonight".

Picoreview: this is GBS getting back to a more pop-type sound, which I don't like as much as their trad, and yet, I certainly like this just fine. ;) Interesting too that these songs have a bit more musical muscle behind them than past pop-flavored GBS; if you compare the style here against oh, say, the lighter touch on Something Beautiful*, it's pretty noticeable. And ooh--of note on both "Here and Now" and "Love Me Tonight", we have a bit of a departure from older style here in how they're doing the bridges. Some ear-catching stuff here on the part of The Doyle. Oh yeah. Bring me this album now.

It is also worth mentioning that this new player on the site also has three older Great Big Sea songs which are very worth listening to if you're not familiar with them: "Consequence Free", "Feel It Turn", and the holiest of holy Great Big Sea songs, the one for which this journal is named... "Ordinary Day".

Go! Listen! Enjoy!

I was just waiting for this: the fine folks at GreatBigSea.com have overhauled the site again in honor of the forthcoming Fortune's Favor. It is gorgeous. Very nice figures of Fortune herself here and there all over the place, and plus, there seems to be some new stuff to look at as well--there's a new journal that's apparently going to be all about Séan's dog.

Best of all though is that they have a page up now for the album, including a complete track list, though I don't see cover art up yet or any lyrics. The liner notes however are HY-LARIOUS and remind me yet again exactly why I love my B'ys:

We honestly can't remember who played each track on each song. Somebody played the strumstick on "Banks of Newfoundland". We suspect it was Bob, but we can't find it to dust for prints. Hawksley and Kris played the drums, but Alan swears some his can be found on "Oh Yeah". Sean figures he played guitar on several tracks but couldn't, for the life of him, discern which ones. Hawksley insists that Sean played banjo on "Heart of Stone". Sean insists he does not know how. There are no bag pipes in the studio, but there are some on "Heart of Stone". We suspect Bob is responsible. Alan is a terrible piano player, yet he may very well have played the piano on "Walk on the Moon". Murray has a vague recollection that Kris hit one of the bouzoukis like a hammered dulcimer on "England". There is a cheap Casio keyboard part on "Long Lost Love" that no one will own up to. It would be impossible to count the number of passersby that sang the gang vocal on "Oh Yeah". We do know for certain that the lovely gal you hear sweetly singing in "Dance Dance" and "Hard Case" is Jeen O’Brien. She's an awesome writer and singer.

Looking forward to this album more and more. And to the TOUR that should be coming shortly thereafter!

This is a bit early yet given that I've only begun to scratch the surface of my second draft revisions--but I wanted to start playing with a proper pitch for Queen of Souls. I'm putting this out on this journal rather than annathewriter for maximum potential replies, and also because some of y'all who made noises about beta reading for me don't read that journal.

If you were interested in beta reading before but wound up not having the time, or heck, if you just want to, take a peek and let me know if you think the pitch works. And if not, what I should do to it! This'll be a quick and easy way for you to contribute to the care and feeding of this novel.

( So would you buy this book or what? )

Dude! So far, hands down, best episode this season. Excellent Donna mileage, some truly superb lines from the Doctor, the return of yet another classic Who alien race and the first serious appearance of UNIT in the entire New Who series--and Martha! Yay, Martha!

( Turn right for your spoiler destination... )

So, um, yeah. When you're scheduled to have a biopsy and they tell you not to have aspirin or ibuprofen for five days beforehand, do yourself a favor: obey that instruction.

Thanks to being sick again this past week, and coughing my damn fool head off, and giving myself a big ol' headache as a result, there I was popping the ibuprofen because that's what I usually take when I'm in pain... and completely spacing on the fact that I'd been told not to do that.

Showed up for the biopsy this morning and was told that yeah, that messed me up for having the procedure today--'cause significantly increased risk of bleeding, especially on tissue that has received radiation treatment, is generally Not Fun. I was, as you might guess, mightily irritated at myself as a result of this. But oh well, life's like that, and I am at least pleased that the staff at the Evergreen Breast Center continue to be on top of things.

I am now rescheduled to try this again on the 13th. Note to self: NO IBUPROFEN. Guess I better stock up on some Tylenol tomorrow.

Elizabeth Lowell's thriller Innocent as Sin continues her recent series of books featuring St. Kilda Consulting--her latest plot device for having studly, competent heroes run around with whip-smart, brave heroines, while things and people get shot at and other things explode and pasts get angsted over and crosses and double-crosses happen and oh yeah there's passionate smooching and sex, too.

In short, pretty much the perfect thing to read when you're sick. ;)

This installment has the studly competent hero embodied by Rand McCree, whose obligatory angsted-over-past is the death of his twin brother Reed five years before. The heroine is Kayla Shaw, a private banker set up to take the fall for laundered funds by her gun-running employer--who, of course, is the same person who caused the death of Rand's brother. Kayla throws her lot in with Rand, and they both throw in with St. Kilda to take the bad guy down.

Nothing terribly new or unusual here, not even for Elizabeth Lowell, but a well-executed and diverting read nonetheless. Three stars.

I gotta admit, I love me a good ol' skiffy novel with a hefty dose of romance on the side. And Ann Aguirre's first, Grimspace, fills that bill nicely. Linnea Sinclair blurbs it--and if you like Linnea Sinclair's books at all, this is a ringing good thing, because Grimspace is of the same ilk.

Sirantha Jax is a jumper, one of the few humans capable of taking a ship through "grimspace", working in mental concert with that ship's pilot. But she's accused of causing the crash of the last ship she worked on and the deaths of everyone else on board, and her very own Corps is seemingly bent on breaking down her mind. Before they can, she's sprung from incarceration by a small group of mercenaries who want to establish a new breed of jumper not bound to the Corps. She must decide if she trusts her new benefactors, even as she struggles to figure out exactly what happened with the destruction of her ship.

Grimspace is written in first person, present tense, which for me always lends a certain extra immediacy to what I'm reading. It's a style choice that works extremely well for Jax, who's quite brash and forthright, a prime graduate of the Han Solo School of Action Before Thought. ;) Her love interest March is suitably swoonable, complete with a psionic gift that gives Jax repeated strong immersions into his psyche, and this too works very well in first person, present tense. The only place the book falls down for me is towards the ending, where there's an unexpected interlude that knocks the pacing off--but fortunately, that interlude is short. Definitely looking forward to reading the next one in the series. For this one, three and a half stars.

Since this weekend, I've had either a relapse of the previous Martian Death Flu, or an entirely new bug invading my system. I've got some deep coughing going on. I've got occasional chills (though I'm not sure whether this is due to this bug or due to the Tamoxifen I've been taking). I've got general fatigue. I've got watery eyes and a congested nose.

And I'm really, really tired of this.

Staying home from work today because I feel like crap, and taking the earliest available appointment at the clinic this afternoon to see if I can get this figured out and dealt with. Let's see if they give me something more useful than the albuterol inhaler this time.

And, super-quick before we watch tonight's episode, my post for last week's! Hoo boy, that was one of the most depressing episode endings we've had on the show.

( Spoilers on the brink of civil war... )

Yeah, I know I'm a week late getting this one posted, but hey, it's been a busy week, what can I say? And I want to get this one posted before we watch this week's, with the return of Martha!

Picoreview: so far the weakest of the season; its primary virtues are some pretty stunning scenery, a nice bit of character development from Donna, and a little bit of character development for the Doctor, for that matter. But ooh ow the ending...

( Beware the red-eyed spoilers... )