Several sites (spymac, etc) are reporting that there may be gigahertz iMacs on the front at next month’s MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. I’ll be there, giving a report on Thursday night of what I saw, what I didn’t see, what was hot and what was not!

I’m guessing the hot new machines will be announced in July and shipping by October.

Had a fun time at Pat’s party – Thanks pat! Frank, Steve and Mark were there, along with Matt and I.

We watched Star Warped again, which is a pretty funny claymation spoof on all things sci-fi. “What is a tape recorder, Captain?”

Spent the morning shopping with matt for telescope items, now going to rest and try and kick this cold!

I spent the weekend with my friends Scott and Jeanie and their two children. I had a great time, despite the air of tension, as Scott’s dad had just come out of heart surgery the week before. Our prayers are with them for a speedy recovery!

I got to give Christie many piggy back rides – I need to work out more often, this is for sure! William and I played games on his GameCube and set up his hot wheels test track.

We had In N Out for dinner (thanks, guys!) which I had not had in such a long time (no In n Out’s in Portland!). Coupled with the several hot dog on a stick mall runs this week, I have met my quota of California quisine I miss in Portland. (Any single females reading this must be shaking their heads haha)

Tonight Matt and I are off to Pat’s party. That should be a lot of fun!

My Dad is having breathing issues again also, so our prayers are with him and Mom, too. I guess these times help remind us what is important in life – Family, truth, love, honesty and good will.

All things considered, I am truly blessed in life and I hope someday I can help others so they are as blessed as I am.

On top of a vintage Microvision, Matt also ordered three old baseball games off EBAY, two of which I used to have (I think, one for sure), Entex games, and one Coleco head to head! They came yesterday. I’ll definitely be turning the kitchen into a game museum!

The older Entex didn’t work. It is all mechanical! So we took it apart (of course) and re-soldered on a wire for the pitcher’s LED. Then batting didn’t work. So we looked at it, and looked at it. We figured out how it was supposed to work, then matt guessed the spring tooth was supposed to press the rocker on the moving arm. I looked and sure enough, the end of the spring was sheared. So some pliers and unravelling the spring one round, we had the game back up and running.

Very cool, essentially it is a spinning wheel with three white LEDs, one every third. When you cock the game, it loads a spring. “Pitching” unloads the spring, causing the batting arm to move forwards. This causes the pitching mechanism to come down the plate. It also spins the wheel with the three lights. If the pitch was to be a strike (pitcher chooses) and the batter bats at the right time, the rocker on the batting arm is thrown, which causes the lights on the wheel to illuminate.

These lights, as they spin, match up with little glass tubes that are curved upwards to the game surface. Hence the players see flashing lights. The fielder, when he presses his button, causes the wheel to stop prematurely. Whatever tube the light was aligned with when the wheel stopped determines the outcome of the play, an out or some sort of hit.

You then slide switches manually to score that, like an out, or if it was a hit, three switches illuminate people on first, second or third to mark their positions.

So a totally mechanical game, with lights, from 1979. Rock on!

Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays to all of my avid readers!

I had a wonderful Christmas. I spent xmas eve with the inlaws. That was for a 40th bday party for Marc. Had a lot of fun and got some really cool gifts!

My brother made me a couple of DVDs of video from a trip to Disneyland in 2001. Am so glad I no longer have hair!

He also got a complete Milton Bradley Microvision set for me, including 6 games! I had not seen one of these since the early 80s! Added to the list were clothes, toys, movies and more games! Even Dragon’s Lair on DVD!

I saw Two Towers for the second time today. We went to the swank new “Bridge” theater. The Director’s theater is $14 (ouch), $11.50 matenee. Check this out – Full leather plush seats, and you get assigned seating. I guess that makes you get your tickets sooner? We got Row A. First row. Mark had to move to row 2, they should angle those seats up a tad!

I also got that Atari 10 in 1 game system. An entire atari/pong built into a joystick run off batteries. Plug into tv and play!

Tonight is the first time TK3 has never been able to run from an immutable directory. I am so excited! This is one aspect of the application that always bothered me. While working on the OS X port, I got a bug up my ass to fix this problem once and for all.

It now stores it’s files in the user’s application support hierarchy. TK3 can actually run from a CD-ROM now!

(For reference, I am porting the product my previous company did to OS X. You can find info on it at Night Kitchen

Did I say “Hunting?” I meant shopping! Close to being done. Went to Disneyland to find a gift but they were sold out! It is only available at the park. Called this morning, they have ONE in the back, and can’t hold it. I guess we’re heading out later, so will see what the gift gods have in store for me.

I have been pretty lucky in finding gifts so far. Some really fit, some I think fit. Some have been very impromtu, some well thought out.

“Lookout, it’s comin right for us!”

I saw Two Towers last night with Lia and her new hubby, Brian. Congratulations, guys!

I loved the movie. Only one scene I cannot recall in the book, so I’m going to have to investigate that!.

Much symbolism abounds – When I moved here 16 months ago, I had two towers of friends here, Lia and Maggie. In the movie, Two towers (evil, quite unlike my friends!) fell, and now both towers have moved away and are no longer in sight.

I have tossed my project into Mount Doom and it is time for my Middle Earth to recover, to regrow and to begin a new age.

Kat and I saw Spirited Away tonight. I really, really enjoyed it. I am not sure I understand the symbolism, but we had a good time talking about it.

I will have to add it alongside Princess Mononoke…..

P.S. Thanks for the calendar, Kat

I delivered the first working build of TK3/OSX to Night Kitchen tonight. It is buggy and uses too much CPU, but those changes will come in due time. It opens books, plays most annotations but is pretty quick and seems stable.

Finally! The monkey is not off the shoulder, but it has changed shoulders for the first time in a long, long time.

Ok all you OS X users who love the Unix shell, be sure to check out:

iTerm

Well I have 2 gifts down now. Sigh. I had another fun date. Anyone who can hit crowded malls with me and not stress out, but rather make it fun is ok in my book!

I am still battling the effects of this flu (mainly just poor sleeping patterns and overtiredness) I feel pretty confident that I am closing in on some of my previous work commitments. I am having odd dreams (one involved taking my ex to an Army surplus store where she bought back all of the old furniture we had, then I helped bust the store owner’s drug ring, the other was meeting up with old high school friends in some church while some guy gave a 12 hour lecture. Whacky stuff heh)

Well I guess it is back to napping, and then more coding later!

If you use Fire, be sure to grab the new version!

I had a blast talking about our iMovie class with Terry tonight. There were a ton of great questions. Mac users are so unique! I reenforced this idea that has been forming in my head that I actually do enjoy teaching, or at least helping others in some fashion. I don’t know what will come of that, but it is good to pay attention to it.

Looking in the mirror, the dark image becomes a little clearer. Day by day, the bathroom fog lifts.

Sometimes it is meeting someone online that sparks, Sparks a thought that makes me think “Why not?” Sometimes it is a horoscope, so random but so apropos.

Reflecting on one’s own soul is useful, But if the mirror is dirty, I could see an incorrect image. Though I try, everyday, every shower, looking in the mirror, Knowing what I need to do, what I need to improve, The image is still there, still dark, still difficult to shake.

I write poetry, if I can call it that, for my own benefit. I share it for my benefit as well, to expose myself, I think it keeps me more honest. Honesty, after all, is the best mirror of all.

Tonight I will be talking, along with Terry, about the iMovie class we taught in October at MacCamp. The usual multimedia issues apply – Charles called asking how we’ll present the audio. He came through with a banana plug adaptor. Hopefully that works. Steve singing “A little less conversation” with a slightly sore throat could be interesting!

I am sick, picked the flu up somewhere. Just got back from the store (took tylenol so I could drive, 100+ fever sucks) Got soup, water, gatorade and Gollllllddddmember! Yeah, baby yeah!

Trying to be upbeat in a downbeat world

Burton is now selling a $1000 ski jacket with a built in iPod. The left sleeve has a control panel that can be used through gloves, which plugs into the ipod in it’s own pocket inside the jacket.

Very cool!

I put on weight, I’m hungry, I want cookies, but I have to resist. That sucks! As easy as my life has been the last year, why has it seemed so tough?

I am easily amused! As seen on The Screensavers….

Poke the Penguin!