I finally had the chance to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug the other day, and when Bilbo found himself inside the Dwaft kingdom in the Lonely Mountain staring at the dragon Smaug and his horde of gold, all I could think was, “My god. If all that gold is released back into the economy the inflation will be catastrophic.” So that’s a big change from when I was a kid reading The Hobbit and thinking, “Just put the damn ring on, Bilbo!”
The nieces wanted to make paper snowflake holiday ornaments, so I broke out my slightly rusty hand crafting skills and we got busy. When I shared a photo of one of our finished ornaments n Twitter, er Instagram, I was surprised at how many people wanted to know how to make their own. No problem, gang; I’m happy to share.
OK, so Curiosity is on Mars and sending back high resolution images to Earth and holy crap is that frakking amazing, or what? Of course, I can’t leave well enough alone, so I just had to add my own special touch to Curiosity’s panorama shot of Mount Sharp.
You know what the Star Trek franchise needed? A good kick in the pants. You know what JJ Abrams gave it? Yeah, a good kick in the pants. If you haven’t seen Abram’s re-imagined take on the original Star Trek series yet, go get in line right now. It’s OK. I’ll still be here when you get back.
February 17, 2009, came and went without anyone freaking out because their TV channels mysteriously went away. That was the day that TV broadcasters in the United States had originally been mandated to switch to digital over-the-air signals from the analog signals they’ve been using for over 50 years. That date was pushed out to June 12 by Congress, and as best as I can tell, they did that primarily because it turns out that U.S. citizens are really good at procrastinating.
I know what you’re thinking: “Jeff, this whole digital TV thing totally snuck up on everyone. It was so frakking sneaky that it could have slit our throats in our sleep! We’re lucky to still be alive!” Continue reading
