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So, remember this?

No?

Well, I didn't expect you to.

Anyway, so here's the entry.

And sorry Dave... it's not about "Top Gear".

However, it is about cars driving really fast. Just without the wacky British humor.

It's about rallying.

Oops... okay, before you leave - those of you in the United States - stick with me a minute. Yes, rallying is pretty-much a non-entity in the U.S., but unlike say... soccer... rallying is actually interesting.

(And before soccer...

You know, adventure... excitement...



...16 more Homebreviews.

I hated to cover up Dave Dries' nifty Dungeon poster like that, but when I put it on top, I could no longer see the games.

I've already reviewed Juno First, but since I had some extra store credit, I figured I'd get the spiffy box Marc Oberhäuser made for it (available in the AtariAge store).

I've also already reviewed Conquest of Mars, but that was before John tweaked the game to make it easier to see where the laser gates are at. So I also picked that up. But since I didn't downgrade the game because of the laser gates the first time (unlike some people ) I won't be updating my review.


First up: Asking that musical question...

What, you need more than just "Tron in HD!"? Isn't that enough!?

Oh right... "when".

Tomorrow night. Specifically, Wednesday night, on HD Net. 9 PM ET, or 6 PM PT, repeating again 3 hours later at 12 Midnight ET/ 9 PM PT.

This is why it's a good thing to read Tron-Sector from time-to-time.

Otherwise, I would have been seriously tweaked if I'd missed it.

This one is going to be a keeper on the DVR. (At least until the Blu-Ray version comes out.)

Also, the Flynn Lives website has been updated, and Encom also lives! Things are afoot!

Awhile ago, I went over the process for coming up with the Harmony cart logo, and the pre-production label. I assumed at the time that there wouldn't be much of a change from that label to the final.

Hoo... boy!

Fred (batari) was interested in having a new label for the final cart (now available for purchase), although he wanted to keep the same sort of color scheme (green and white) as the previous one. The green and white, incidentally, comes from the color of the circuit board and the silkscreened logo on it. He also wanted to incorporate a yin yang symbol into it, since that's what the Harmony cart uses for a "wait" icon on screen. Plus, it ties into the whole Harmony theme nicely as well.

He'd dug around on the internet, and found this:

...

Wow... it's been four years already since I last blogged about the Winter Olympics!

I guess though, that's because it's been four years since the last Winter Olympics.

Anyway... I watched (actually recorded, then watched) the opening ceremonies tonight. I thought they were nicely done. The use of the floor with the video projectors was pretty cool, especially the parts where it "broke apart" into an ice floe, and then some whales swam through, shooting off their blowholes.

Actually, that last part sounds kind-of like an afternoon of watching CSPAN...

Here's why I like label contests...

They allow me to just do whatever I want, and not worry about someone else liking it or not.

Now that's not to say I don't want the programmer to like it, or that I don't get to do what I want with labels-for-hire. Quite the contrary. Of course I'd like to win the contest, and as for the other, I'm generally given pretty-much free reign when asked to design labels.

Mostly...

But contests just let me play around without any pressure. I can try out new things, just for the sake of having fun with art. This goes back to childhood, where drawing was part of playing. I drew because it was fun to do. I still scribble the occasional cartoon during meetings or whenever, just for fun (I need to do that more... we have a lot more meetings now). I find that I have more fun with contests if I focus more on creating artwork I...

Well, Apple's non-big announcement today was of their jumbo-sized iPhone.

I mean... the iPad. (Although several times during the keynote, Steve called it the iPod. I'm surprised they didn't go back in and fix that. )

Now, this would have been a technological marvel a few years ago... before the iPhone. But now, it's just a bigger iPhone. Not all that impressive - despite Steve continually mentioning during his keynote how impressive it was. It's like making a DVD the size of a laserdisc. Big whoop.

I half-hoped it would be a real OS X capable machine, that could run real-world Mac apps (Photoshop, etc). But I can see why Apple did what they did. There are some 58 million iPhone OS devices out there, and over 140,000 apps for them. Go with what the market will support, I guess.

Some disappointing "features":

• ...

Today is National Popcorn Day!

I'm ashamed to admit, I wasn't aware of this until a couple of hours ago.

There are few things I like better than good popcorn. All of that fake-butter-soaked microwave crud is not good popcorn. About the only microwave stuff I like is Jolly Time's Crispy 'n' White Light. It actually tastes like popcorn... not chemicals.

No sir... I like my popcorn soaked in real butter. (Well, not soaked... but certainly well-drizzled.) Hey - indulge in moderation, right?

The best popcorn I've found (outside of movie theaters) are the Real Theater Popcorn packs, made by Wabash Farms. They use coconut oil, which is both really, really bad for you, but it tastes really, really good. This is what the movie theaters use.

The trick is, you have to have a real...

Finally! Someone found a way to make Garfield funny...

Garfield minus Garfield













The kicker to this, is that not only did Jim Davis not sue, but he liked the idea so much, he had them published in a book.

(And yes, for those observant blog readers, originally this entry's title referenced Jay Leno, since his humor is just as stale and repetitive as Garfield's. But I thought people might get confused since the entry doesn't have anything to do with the current late-night brouhaha, so I changed it.)

I went and saw Avatar the other week. I probably wouldn't have bothered, since I rarely go to movies anymore, but I was on vacation and my friends and I wanted something to go do. So we figured we'd catch an Imax 3-D showing, and hope the spectacle of the whole thing was worth the price.

I really didn't have any idea what to expect with Avatar, since I hadn't really been paying much attention to the trailers. I had a basic idea of the plot, and had heard the effects were amazing, but people who don't have any idea what they're talking about often call something "amazing" when it really isn't.

My issue with Avatar - before seeing the film - was the use of motion capture for creating the main alien characters in the film. Motion capture generally produces awful results. Usually because it's used as a substitute for real...