Brad Kozlek

Angel

Okay. what is going on? May it is because I lack a certain type of intelligence, but I don't understand why Angel is being such a hardass Wolfram & Hart guy. I thought after the events of the episode, he would have swung the opposite way. Plus, again, like in the final season of Buffy, we have a great big giant big bad, but no one really knows what it is. It is just some vague thing that is out there. Doesn't make for the most interesting television. Plus, didn't it take them over 30 minutes into the episode to actually get to the story. oh well. I still enjoyed it. I actually like Illyria. Although we will have to see what happens to her now.

I can hear the colors....

For a good time with your Mac, go into the Universal access preference pane, and switch white to black, while making sure you keep your display set to color.

Visit your favorite webpages this way.

Notice how the inverted window shadow creates a wonderful white glow.

Go to cnn.com and notice just how truly evil Larry king looks this way.

Watch a clip of your favorite animated tv show.

The joy is endless.

Xcode and moving your project: An oddity

I came across some strange xcode behavior. I have a certain webobjects app that I always check out of cvs into the same directory. Every thing is fine. One day, I decide to check it out into a different directory. When I went to build the app, I got a mess of errors ("Missing File or Directory: ") about a whole bunch of java files not being found. (not all of them, mind you, just some) It was looking for them in the place I used to check the files out. I cleaned the project. I rm -r the whole build directory and the xcode/WO files in /tmp. I grepped throught the whole project looking from some reference to the old file path. Nothing. I knew xcode had to be remembering something independent of my project, because I could checkout the project on another computer, and it would build just fine.

Eventually I changed the location of the build results to a new directory. BAM, it worked just fine. Somehow whatever it was remembering was tied to the build location. Selecting the option to put the build results in the same directory as your project would probably fix this, since if you checkout to a new location, it will be building in a new location.

For now, since I really don't like putting the build results in my project folder, I just change the location of the build folder from ~/tmp to ~/tmp2, and build. If I ever checkout to a new location again, I change the build folder back to ~/tmp. (Once you change the folder, changing it back doesn't seem to create a problem.)

Perhaps there is a very obvious reason for this behavior. But if there is, I do not know it.

In a Strange Land

As I was drifting to sleep, the wife and I were talking about Angel. This inspired one of those near-dreams that I am prone to having - the kind where I am only half asleep, yet having a dream, even though I am also aware I am in bed falling asleep. So recently it was as if I was in the Angel universe, slaying vampires and demons, yet when I would fight them, there would be a Final Fantasy-esque menu with all these stats. Lots of stats. But here is where it gets rather strange, the interface in which these stats would be presented to me was very similar to that of EOModeler. For some reason, that is very unsettling as I think back on it.

The Adventure Continues....

Well, I have done it. Final Fantasy X-2 is in effect. I am finding my opposition to FF XI fading. This is a bad thing if I want to have a life. Soon, I will be caught up and ready for Final Fantasy XII, whenever that will be released in the US.

I am still trying to get fully used to the Active Time Battle system. It is just difficult for me to be choosing options from the menu and playing attention to what is going in the battle to see the results of my actions at same time. But after about 8 hours of play, I think I have mostly adjusted to it.

Angel

Since there are only four more episodes of Angel, one would think they wouldn't be so scared of doing something to seriously screw up the series. I guess I was just overcome by how at the end of the episode, things mostly went back to the status quo. Well, at least we have Wes. We will have to see if this plays any part in the remaining four episodes. It is becoming apparent that the strategy of stand alone episodes is still in effect, even for these final episodes.

It would have been an excellent mind fuck if it ended up that Angel was the only one changed. Reality was never altered, only Angel was. Granted, I know this was impossible given the Cordelia episode. But still an idea that may have had some potential to open up a crazy final story arc? I wonder if they ever considered it?

RSS Comments

Hey, I just added a RSS feed for the comments on this blog. Check it out. I grabbed the template from here.

Do the shuffle

Wired talks about the random shuffling of large music libraries. I have been embracing the randomness for a while now. I have even invented wacky schemes to support my habit.

I agree with the comment in the wired piece : "I like the sensation though."

Yes, I definitely like the sensation. This is not to say I don't listen to albums all the way through sometimes.

I think one part of it is that I have hard time finding the motivation to listen to specific pieces of music, even though I enjoy them. The computer makes the hard choices for me.

Belkin Bluetooth adapter and Mac OS X

Since the wife got a T616, I felt the need to get her a bluetooth adapter for her imac. I picked up A Belkin Bluetooth Adapter (F8T003). All I did was plug it in and poof, she now had a bluetooth enabled computer. Worked flawlessly with Panther. With a few clicked I paired the phone with the computer. Then, with the glory of iSync all her contacts on her palm, mac, and phone are synchronized. Very nice, ladies. Very nice.

I really like wireless peripherals. Hopefully they can hurry up and roll out Wireless USB. (Bluetooth is pretty durn slow). I can't wait not to have to bother connecting my digital camera to my computer with an archaic cable every time I want get the pictures from it.

Angel

So, how about that Angel? I thought the humor was a quite a bit off. I think it was a combination of too much, and bad delivery. I also had a hard time believing that being gunned down with a barrage of machine gun fire didn't even slow Angel or Spike down. I was happy to see Lorne given something to do. Scenes with Illyria and Wes? - long and bizarre. I hope and I suspect that the remaining episodes will be better.

Barbarism

I keep hearing right-wing-types talking about barbarism and the brutality of the methods of killing by our enemies. It really sounds like some ancient way of speaking. We kill in a civilized manner, but they are so uncouth when it comes to murder. Have they no manners? I accidentally saw a little of The O'Reilly Factor and Newt and Bill were categorizing this fight in Iraq as civilization versus barbarism. "We have to wipe them out", Bill said. Can these people even hear themselves?

I think the President let a little something slip last night. Speaking of the Iraqis he said:

they're not happy they're occupied. I wouldn't be happy if I were occupied either.

Ouch! I think he slipped a little off message there.

Presidential press conference or dada performance art

I was not sure. From the non-TV-safe tie to the complete inability to organize ideas whatsoever before/while speaking, it was truly a gem. The part where the press simply laughed at his repeated non-answers to the question of why he and Cheney must testify at the same time was pretty choice.

I feel like I am Worf in that episode where he was passing through different quantum realities. (This episode just so happened to be on Spike at the same time as Bush's conference - coincidence? I think not.) Somehow we have all ended up in a universe gone horribly wrong. Technically, I guess everyone is the President in at least one quantum universe. Somewhere I am the president, and GWB is watching from his apartment in stunned disbelief at my inarticulate and bumbling manner. He thinks for a moment, "I could probably do better, how did this joker ever become president? I mean, if I was president, I would probably be better, because I would probably prepare, and actually have more experience speaking in publlic" Oh, If only you knew, sir.

Tom Delay's Money Shot

It is just a minor curiosity, but I found this picture on Tom Delay's photo album. Interesting file name.

A conversation

Christine: The 70's were gross.

Brad: It was just the film stock they used.

New Wallpaper

Got the wife a T616 today. Now I need distinct wallpaper so I can easily tell my T616 from hers. Which of the following did I choose for my wallpaper on my Sony Ericsson T616?

a)

b)

c)

d)

If you answered c - then you are correct! The nerdiness of the Starfleet Academy logo was hard to pass up. Although if I wanted to go all out in that direction I would use the Tantalus Colony Emblem

Hellboy

I saw Hellboy on friday night. I enjoyed it. For most of it, I thought I was watching an "Angel" movie, just without any of the characters from "Angel".

Love.... From.... TSUHAN-MAN!

I finally am done watching Shopping Hero - All eleven fun filled episodes. I have to say this series was highly enjoyable. How about that shot of accupressure man with his face covered with little wasabi packets? I will always have fond memories of shopping hero running down the halls of Shopping Paradise, his cape flowing behind him.