Archive for October, 2006

Now, where to hang them?

Tuesday, October 31st, 2006

MileHiCon 38 was this past weekend. I spent too much at the art show, but I got a few very nice pieces. They’re by an artist named David Fisher. I was unable to find him in a web search, although I found a few other artists by that name.

I got three originals of his (not prints). Two I got on bids, one by purchase. The way the art show works is this: each piece has a bid sheet attached, marked with a minimum bid price and a quick sale price (or NFS, not for sale, if the artist wants to keep it). One or two bids by the close of the show, and the high bidder gets it. Three bids, and it goes to voice auction. If the first bidder goes for the quick sale price, no other bids are accepted.

As I said, I bought one at the quick sale price. I did it Friday evening about half an hour after the art show opened – I didn’t want to chance being outbid for it. It’s a marvelous pen-and-ink drawing called The Syndicate. There’s a city skyline in the background. In the foreground, there’s the boss in the center, being clung to by two slinky beauties. There’s a tall goon in wifebeater t-shirt, hat, and trenchcoat, a fat cook, someone with an enormous grin and a striped shirt, and the whole grouping flanked on each end by a gunman with flowing trenchcoat and fedora. Just absolutely marvelous.

Another one, Splinter in the Wind, is effectively a multi-panel comic of a vaguely-human ninja thing leaping from a cliff to attack a dragon. I outbid someone for that one.

For the third, Shodoku and Shodoka, I was the only bidder. It shows two of the vaguely-human ninja things, who appear to be searching for something from a high vantage point with purplish evening light behind them. When my daughter saw that one, she said that if she’d made it to the convention in time, she’d have tried to outbid me for it.

I guess I’ll have to contact the convention art show staff (luckily, I know them) to track Mr. Fisher down – I’d like the option of acquiring more of his work in future.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, BANG!

Tuesday, October 31st, 2006

Last Monday (the 23rd), I replaced my desktop with an iMac – it had locked up about four times in the preceding week. I invited my daughter along on the trip to pick the iMac up, because I figured that she’d enjoy the trip. She did, partly because I indulged her request to look for the boxed set of season one of the new Dr. Who series. Apparently, she has a crush on the Doctor.

Well, Tower Records by Cherry Creek Mall is going out of business, so she got it at a discount, and was so excited that she was “blushing so hard it hurts.” (She’ll be embarrassed that I’ve quoted her on this, but it’s part of the job requirements for parents.)

A few days later, she asked, “Did I tell you the universe hates me?”

I got the explanation from her, and you have to know some of the backstory of Dr. Who to understand. Basically, the Doctor is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. One of his capabilities is to regenerate into a new body and new personality when near death (conveniently allowing replacement of the lead actor). She had done a marathon session to view the entire boxed set, and, unfortunately, the Doctor on whom she is crushing is not the one featured in season one; he appears at the end of the last episode and has exactly one line of dialog. Season two is not yet available on DVD.

Ah, well. Points to anyone who can identify where the post title comes from (you’re disqualified, Paul).

A cat in a goldfish bowl

Wednesday, October 18th, 2006

This is pretty strange.

via Alan K. Henderson 

Oooh! What a toy!

Wednesday, October 18th, 2006

I think I want one of these.

via A Voyage to Arcturus

I love snarky reviews

Wednesday, October 18th, 2006

… particularly of movies. The reviews of this book aren’t snarky, but they’re certainly fun.

via Bruce Schneier.

Then again, maybe this is a knife

Monday, October 16th, 2006

Lileks mentions the new Denver Art Museum building today. I got the impression he didn’t care much for it. I also got the impression he doesn’t care for much contemporary art.

That’s fine; neither do I. I prefer representative art that looks as though the artist has skills beyond knowing which end of the brush to hold.

As for the new building, to me, it makes the statement, “Look at me – I’m making a statement here!” Unless it’s “Who cares about efficiency, or having enough room to add exhibit displays in future” or “Can I make people nervous when they go into the pointy end?” I’m not certain I know what it is.

They say bad things come in threes

Monday, October 16th, 2006

If so, then I’m caught up for the moment. I have two independent heating systems in my house: a regular gas furnace and a solar system. I’m home from work at the moment while a repairman works on the solar system. I was home for an afternoon last Thursday while a repairman fixed my furnace. Not what I was hoping to discover when we had our first overnight freezes about a week or so ago.

I wasn’t the only one to have such problems, of course. That’s why I had to wait this long to get appointments for the repairs. But, I’ll have working heat, which will be a load off my mind.

The third thing? I got sick of seeing the “This USB 2.0 peripheral can run faster” message, and put a USB 2.0 card into my desktop over the weekend. Normally, I leave the system on, because it’s occasionally been cranky about booting. It was particularly cranky after I put the card in, and this time it told me why. I have a hardware problem, and it told me I should consider replacing one of the following: the power supply, the RAM, the CPU, or the motherboard.

Maybe now is the time to consider getting a Mac.

That was different

Friday, October 13th, 2006

There’s a tapas bar that opened near me recently, and I’m starting to get friendly with the owners. Last night, I took in my remaining bottle of Samuel Adams Triple Bock, which I’ve been aging (read: neglecting) for eleven years now.

Very different. No head, very dark, and with noticeable viscosity when poured. My first comment after tasting was, “That’s pretty black.” There was also a strong burnt caramel aftertaste. We liked it though, and we liked it better when a strongly-flavored sharp Swiss cheese (I forget the name) was brought out – the combination mellowed both of them and it became quite nice.

Now I regret only purchasing the two bottles when this stuff was available. It would be interesting to see how it continued to age.

Everybody, listen up!

Friday, October 13th, 2006

Laura at Ace of Spades sends notice of this little gem.

That’s not a knife … this is a knife!

Thursday, October 12th, 2006

Impressive, but unwieldy. I don’t believe I’d take this thing camping.