Category: Uncategorized

Unbelievable. Jason Allen, a Zeeland native (working as a counselor at a Christian youth camp; surprise), was found shot in the head next to his fiance (or girlfriend, the papers are still working that one out) on a beach, apparently in their sleep. No motive, no leads, just two dead people laying on the beach killed in their sleep.

“This is a very disturbing case. It appears to be a terrible crime and absent of any motive. It’s a cause of great concern to us. The victims, from all indications, from all sources that we have, were very up-standing citizens, very honorable people who had an absolute absence of enemies,” says Lt. Dave Edmonds of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department.

I hope there’s nothing else going on here; and I hope whoever did this fries. I don’t know the family, but this kid is my brother’s age…

Link
Article published before their bodies were discovered, with family information (Link)

UPDATE: The Fark discussion on this turned up an interesting missive. User RosevilleDan mentioned the Zodiac Killer (Google search), a 60’s-era serial killer that is apparently still on the loose. He linked to a page describing similar killings linked to the Zodiac Killer. Interesting theory, especially since dormant serial killers coming out of hiding usually have reasons for doing so, and reasons can lead to clues. Why has the killer (if it is The killer) been dormant? Why come back now? Of course, it could be someone completely different, but it makes one stroke their chin just the same.

Interesting perspective on gaming in general. I don’t know if the anecdotal evidence is as solid as I would like, bu the theotry is something that intrigues.

Personally, I can see some rationla in the theory put forth here. I myself have become pretty disenfrachised with the gaming world, although I ofiten chalked that up to a falling out I had with a solid team (to be fair, it was with one particular meglomaniac, but…)

Of course, in five years what will gaming look like. With the coming advances in computing, (2) gaming would be the obvious choice to capitilize on the new-found tech that will burst on the scene. Imagine what you could play on your 80 GHZ, 5 G RAM, 1 Terrabyte desktop PC in a few years. Kind of makes DOOM 3 seem like, well, DOOM.

Link [Props to my better half]

I can hear the boo-ing and hissing through the internet.

I figured since I’d had a glut of laziness, I’d put something decent up once.

This is a trace I did in Illustrator of a hand sketch. I have another once I’m working on, but it’s considerably bigger and more complex (plus, I don’t care for some things in the sketch and will probably fix those in the digital version).

You can click for a full-sized PNG. (106 KB; pops)

So, it’s obvious that my posting and care of this web site have been lacking. I wish that I could say I was busy or out of the country or, you know, something witty. Wit escapes me currently.

Anyway, the Olympics are on, I guess. Is anyone watching this? I see lots of press about the small crowds and having to give away tickets. The only reason I’ve seen anything is that it’s on high-def and the local NBC station is actually broadcasting it that way. Well, sort of. Comcast’s box for high-def is a little screwy, so it doesn’t detect what format is being broadcast and let your monitor adjust to that aspect ratio. Instead they always broadcast based on a setting inside the box, which, conveniently, you can’t get to from the remote and they didn’t leave instructions for. I saw the installer configure a couple channels, but didn’t pay attention. Wish I had.

Speaking of which, don’t EVER let them run co-ax through any type of surge protector. Apparently, it completely screws the signal. Of course, when we had it for a couple months in Grand Rapids, the installer there insisted that it was fine and a good idea. No wonder we were so underwhelmed with the service; their installer was a freakin’ moron.

But now that’s installed properly, it looks great. Really great. Really, REALLY great. Discovery HD has some of the coolest programs ever, and I can’t even remember the content. We sit there with it on in the background and about once every 5 minutes, one of us pokes the other, jaw agape, pointing at the television.

The Olympic broadcasts aren’t quite that good, either because of the ratio issue (sometimes people look fat and squat from the ratio being off) or something else I haven’t configured properly. I just imagine in 5 years when everything on television will be like that. It’ll be like moving from black and white to color.

More later, if I get motivated.

I can only hope for the day that some politico says something like this. Maybe then I’d give a crap about politics. Or at least be able to tell them apart.

Link

Well, maybe not ever, but certainly today. Sing this little ditty to the tune of Gilligan’s Island.

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Cartoons are one of those things that I occasionally touch base with just to make sure I still don’t get it. I always had these visions of being an artist or cartoonist (or, god forbid, a professional illustrator). Reality set in when the best I could do was a wonderfully egg-shaped duck in colored pencil. I like to draw on occasion (actually, I should post something once), but my youth was able to kill any burning desire and relegate it more to a passing interest; it’s one of those things I truly regret in my life.

However, there are many people who kept the artistic side of themselves alive and nurtured. My friend John Auchter is one of them. He’s got a classic style and a sense of humor that, while I don’t always agree, I still get a chuckle. (I hope you read this John, I’m officially a one man Google bomb for Auchtoon.)

I also ran across this little tale via this Boing Boing article today. PvP is the rival cartoon to Penny Arcade, two cartoons for those in the know about online gaming, fan boys, and fruit-raping critters. They are odd cartoons indeed, but insightful in their own ways. Basically, the creator of PvP got noticed and got an offer to become a syndicated ‘toon in a lot of newspapers; the pinnacle for a lot of comic strip creators. Unfortunately, newspapers and syndicates still think the world belongs to them and wanted not just the strip, but everything; all rights and all the money that could come from those rights.

He told them to take a walk. Now, he’s trying to get syndicated for free. He’s offering newspapers a chance to publish his comics for a year for free. Here’s hoping; he could change a lot of rules if he succeeds.

Trust me, I’m as surprised as the next person. After getting linked to The Suburbs Are Killing Us (likely via The Mystical Beast), I wound up on Chumbawamba’s web site. They have a ton of music available for download (around 35 songs) and, listen to this, it doesn’t suck. If you were burned out on Tubthumping, I completely understand (it wasn’t that bad of a song, really). But, as many people say, Chumbawamba is a great pub band and actually have something to say.

Be sure to at least get the MP3 Mix of Pass It Along, We Don’t Go to God’s House Anymore, and Get Off My Cloud.

Aw, hell, since the song literally begs to be shared, I’ll post Pass It Along (the F U Metallica version).

James van Allen, who discovered the radiation belt (and then had them named after him by the scientific community), posed a question to Issues in Science and Technology: Why do we keep exploring space?

His big concern (at least from the linked article) is that we may just be doing it for the adventure, climbing the mountain because it’s there, so to speak. My question is, what’s wrong with that? How man wonderful or essential things have been discovered in the world because someone was just doing something for the hell of it? Never mind that often the point of further our abilities in one area (say, space exploration) leads to huge advances in other areas (like aerospace or Velcro).

I know he’s a very well-respected scientist, and deservedly so, but he’s off on this one. Even if we never find anything more than a microbe on Mars, getting there and back will have brought so many more things to the everyday person, the benefits will far outweigh the costs.

Link [via Slashdot]

Media Mouse has mapped the surveilence cameras being used to track the people of Grand Rapids. Big Brother comes to the Heartland.

Link to article. Link to 1.4MB PDF [via Arbor Update]