Favorite Comic Strips

I very much enjoy a good comic strip. Some of them are lame, some just not funny. But SOME really cross the line from just okay into classic. Here are a couple examples (with help from GoComics.com):

Big Top
A screwball set of characters including a poodle/pop-star wannabe with a chapstick addiction, a trick bear with a crush on Katie Couric bordering on unhealthy, a clown demented beyond description, and a 10-year-old boy growing up in a circus and trying not to wind up too damaged in the process. Unfortunately, the creator Rob Harrell stopped writing the strip in 2007, but the reruns are still posted on GoComics' site daily. My favorite character is Stucco the clown, who manages with no dialog to be the ultimate combination of cute and creepy you'd expect in a proper clown.

Dog Eat Doug
Alternatively, we have Dog Eat Doug, which explores the antics of Sophie the dog and Doug the baby, two completely typical creatures trying to learn to co-exist to each other's advantage. There is no snark here, no cynicism. This is just the demonstration of how two non-verbal creatures find ways to communicate. That's not to say the strip doesn't have dialog - Sophie thinks at Doug, mom, and dad all the time. It's just you know mom and dad don't understand - and Doug does when he chooses to. Lock up the cheese, and prepare for significant drool!


And of course, everyone's favorite Calvin & Hobbes. I don't need to wax eloquent here. I merely mention it to put a button on the end of this post:




I know, Calvin. I feel the same way sometimes.

Dr. Horrible - Conclusions

So, I've had the opportunity to watch Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. And as usual, the man drives me nuts. X{

There was SO much potential here. But it was ruined by two elements. One, the unnecessary crass sexual references. And two, an unsatisfying ending. The third act just didn't resolve with the same tone presented in the first two. I LOVE Whedon's cleverness, his musical composition & songwriting skills, and his sense of humor. I just wish he'd use his powers for more good and less - icky. :p

Still and all, I don't feel like I wasted my time. It was mostly cute. Everyone did a good job. Call it a B-minus.

Vacation!

Hooray! At last I have made it back to the beach for the first time in years! Norma and I are having a big time bumming around the Florida coast, beaching, antiquing, and generally relaxing. Norma bought a cute t-shirt that read: "I come to the sea to breathe." That's the way we both feel - just relaxy & comfortable. There's no rush, no obligation - just salt air and ocean waves.


Oh, and hey - check out the pictures from the new camera - pretty snazzy!

New camera!

Well, after nearly a decade of fighting it, I've given in and purchased a digital camera. I'm finally getting a vacation that's completely recreational, and I decided I wanted to be able to take pictures without having to borrow my mom's camera or fiddle with 35mm film.

Yes, I've been living in the dark ages. ;-)

Anyway, here's a review of the camera I bought. I think I'm going to be really pleased with it. It's very small, yet has a seemingly huge screen and plenty of features.

New GACS Office

I needed a spot to test my embedded slide show of pictures of the new GACS Office building, so here it is - TEST!

Office 2007

Okay, I know I'm turning into a crotchety old stick-in-the-mud. I don't like change. But I've always wanted to be the type of computer user who's up on the latest software, gadgetry, widgets, etc. So, when our office was given access to the latest version of MS Office (2007), I was determined to give it a go.

I checked out the reviews when this thing hit the market last year, and I was not impressed by what I saw. The interface had been completely redesigned, and the things that had been added were features I had little or no use for. From what I could see, the new version of Office would be a lot of re-learning with very little payoff.

Now that I've had the time to play with the new Word a little bit, I'm finding it's just as bad as I feared. This version might work for someone just learning the ropes, though even then functionality is reduced as far as I can see. And for someone like me who has been using the Office suite for a decade or more, the "improvements" make this new version practically unusable.

My biggest complaint with this software is that the menus and toolbars are practically uncustomizable. Any practiced user of Word has custom buttons, custom toolbars, even custom menus that contain features they've discovered and found useful enough to warrant putting "out front" - in easy reach. With Office 2007, the only thing you can customize is the Quick Access Toolbar, and that is limited.

To test out this new toy, I opened a fillable form I use on a regular basis. But wait, where are the form commands? Where's the form toolbar? Those five or six convenient commands that allow me to add fields, protect and un-protect the form depending on if I want to fill it or revise it - where did they go? Apparently, the ONLY way I can access these commands is to add them to the Quick Access Bar, and I still haven't found a protect/un-protect toggle command.

I honestly don't have the time or inclination to completely re-customize a new piece of software, especially when my current version works so well and is already set up for my needs. For now, I will have to give Office 2007 a pass, and hope that maybe the next upgrade will bring back a lot of the flexibility available in the previous version.

Today's Obsession - Hulu

I LOVE Hulu! This site is just so cool. Streaming episodes of over 100 new & classic TV shows. I've tried out several old shows I'd always been curious about, not to mention cancelled-too-soon gems like Firefly, Journeyman, etc.



Most of the shows do not have their complete episode catalogs available yet, and this I can understand. It's not commercial-free either, although 2-5 30-second interruptions by one sponsor is more than manageable in my book. Some of the commercials are only 15-seconds, and some disappear completely thanks to the AdBlock extension on Firefox. (Those that disappear get replaced by a 30-second ad for advertising on Hulu, but it's a silent splash screen and easily ignored.)

Hulu and Tivo need to put their heads together and connect. If the two communicated, it would almost convince me to get a Tivo. Because fun as free online streaming content is, it's still a pill to sit at your desk to watch shows, and most of us aren't quite there yet in the tech-head department to be able to hook up our computers to our TVs, though admittedly the technology is getting easier by the day.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

Okay, so I confess. I'm a bit of a Whedonite. That is to say, I like Joss Whedon's creative endeavors. Sort of. Somewhat. Sometimes. He's funny, he makes me mad, and I both enjoy him and disagree with two-thirds of what the man stands for.

Still and all, he gave us Firefly and Serenity, which pretty much turned me into a Browncoat for life, so oh well.

ANYWAY, Dr. Horrible was born of the writer's strike last fall, and the thing looks pretty typically Joss. And it stars Nathan Fillion, THE world's most charming hottie. I can't believe I just typed the word "hottie." I need some brain soap. *shudder*

Wordle - Great tool!

Found a NEAT online tool today - Wordle. Enter text, or the address of a blog or .rss feed, and Wordle will make a neat display of the source text. Here's one I made with the lyrics from "In Christ Alone" by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend.