AltaVista! For several years, AltaVista was my go-to search engine. Yahoo! feels like the first I used, and I generally used Webcrawler, but for important and difficult searches, there was nothing better than AltaVista. I was resistant to Google for a long time. I have absosmurfly no idea what the Windows 95 My Briefcase folderContinue reading “In Search of Lost Time”
Tag Archives: Lego
“I Will Take the Ring to Battersea Power Station”
The more I look at this, the weirder it is and the more confused I am. Just the other day I wrote about the LEGO Guinness set that was clearly AI generated slop. (More anon.) And now Facebook serves me this… Yes, the twenty-fifth anniversary of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The FellowshipContinue reading ““I Will Take the Ring to Battersea Power Station””
Getting Pissed at the AI Slop
Given the subject matter of what I am about to write, you may wonder if I mean “pissed” in the Irish sense — getting drunk — or the American sense — irritated. You are right to wonder! Last evening, after I returned from several days in the Old Dominion, Facebook hit me up with anContinue reading “Getting Pissed at the AI Slop”
Things I Can’t Buy
Ah, Facebook, you know me! Facebook serves ads. Ads and algorithmic content are Facebook’s raison d’être, after all, not keeping up with friends, family, and things of interest. It’s vitally important that Facebook show me interesting restaurants in Memphis (never been) and concerts I’d like to see in Tulsa (also never been) instead of, oh,Continue reading “Things I Can’t Buy”
We Four Kings
“We four kings of Orient are…” Little did the fourth magus know that what the Baby Jesus really wanted was LEGO Rivendell. His failure to read the proper signs in the stars is why he has been relegated to non-canonical, apocryphal writings for two thousand years that were only accepted by a sect declared hereticalContinue reading “We Four Kings”
The New LEGO Project
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an empty USB port in good working order, must be in want of a device.”— Jane Austen, Specifications and Serial Busses I needed a USB hub. The Doctor Who TARDIS USB hub that I was given at work during the David Tennant era — so, circa 2008 —Continue reading “The New LEGO Project”
Adventures in Off-Brand LEGO: The Laser Pegs Aircraft
Friday! The end of a long week of deadline after deadline, deadlines that hurt me physically Tuesday and Wednesday, with one more deadline and one more project to do. So, I walked into the office building, stepped off the elevator, and was greeted by… At least it was National Donut Day, and even if IContinue reading “Adventures in Off-Brand LEGO: The Laser Pegs Aircraft”
Rethinking the LEGO Tower
There’s a fundamental law to building with LEGO, especially if you’re making something original, not building to blueprints. A LEGO creation isn’t right until it’s right. It may take some tinkering at the edges. It may require a teardown and rebuild. It may have to sit six weeks or six months. But it’s not rightContinue reading “Rethinking the LEGO Tower”
LEGOing Up a Webcam Tower
A few months ago at work, I built a LEGO stand for my webcam. I’d bought the camera at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet. It was supposed to clip onto the monitor, but I have a curved superwide monitor at the office and the clip, while well-intentioned, wouldn’t attach to that. I had to come up withContinue reading “LEGOing Up a Webcam Tower”
Cards in the Mail
In today’s mail, I received a package of Christmas cards from the National Cathedral. They’re asking for money. I get packages like this every year from charities like the Alzheimer’s Association and Colonial Williamsburg. This is the first year I’ve been on the National Cathedral’s list. It’s a little strange, yet also cool, that thisContinue reading “Cards in the Mail”