Kit's Blog - RivalRockets.com

Windows Live Writer – A better way to publish?

Brian — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:56:14 +0000

It’s no secret that the Host of this blog and the guest writers post rather-infrequently. My pet theory is that the Wordpress editor is so piss-poor for handling images and other tasks that it’s not worth the trouble. I’ve known that Windows Live writer has been available for some time, but I’ve just now gotten around to installing it. I already did a few test posts to “my” blog: http://brnvndr.blogspot.com/, and it worked seamlessly. In no particular order, here are the qualities I’m looking for publishing:

rich text editing – I want to feel like I’m writing in a real word processor and not some crappy little widget.
Seamless drafting, publishing, editing – I don’t want to have aborted posts because of some browser timeout, or accidental posts I wasn’t ready to publish, etc
Simple image handling – It’s 2010, where is my drag-and-drop picture inserts into the text body?
Post Preview – I want to know how it looks before I publish.

So far, Live Writer has done an exemplary job of handling these tasks… I’m impressed

Music translated to ASL. It’s worth your time.

Kit — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 07:22:54 +0000

Stephen Torrence has done a great service by recording and sharing a number of his translations of songs that catch his attention into American Sign Language (ASL).

HowStuffWorks.com interviewed Stephen to get some insight into the process he goes through in writing his translations and the details may surprise you. The effort he puts into each of his translations shows, and it’s no wonder! Each one of his recordings are the result of take after take, he’s not simply taking the words of the songs and dryly regurgitating them—he’s carefully performing each phrase and verse, employing full use of his face and manner to great effect.

So, if you have even a passing interest in ASL and seeing some impressive performances, I recommend you take a look at Stephen’s collection on his YouTube page.

And with that, I leave you with the song that got me here: Stephen’s excellent performance of Jonathan Coulton’s “Still Alive,” Enjoy.

Post your toons

Brian — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:25:23 +0000

Found a cool service at warcraftid.com, and I thought I would show my current level 80’s A nice feature of this service is that the stats should update periodically with armory updates.

A Coloring Tutorial that Blizzard Still Doesn’t Get After FIVE Years

Brian — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:40:37 +0000

Another Facebook Ad Fail.

Sean — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 06:22:53 +0000

Apparently those in affiliation with the Mafia carry chain-fed Belgian FN Minimi PARAs in broad daylight, and would waste their ammunition at the drop of a hat in order to kill a homeless person.

Renaissance Fest Ho!

Kit — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 12:59:22 +0000

A staple in every nerd’s diet, I’m off to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. I’ll bring you back a turkey leg and a flagon of mead!

Update This pic summarizes my festival experience:

A Coloring Tutorial That Saved My Life.

Sean — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:28:26 +0000

Well, not really. But “Basic Color Blending” by Andantonius from Deviant Art, found here, is one of the most insightful and helpful tutorials I’ve ever seen for digital coloring.

Credit goes to Kit for finding this amazing video first. He showed it to me a while back, and I just now got to watching it since my web speed was increased.

Here’s some before/after images showing my improvement after being enlightened by Andantonius.

Before:

After:

If one looks closely, the color blending, highlights, and shading are of considerably higher quality!

Thanks to Andantonius, my future work is sure to be something I can take pride in.

AT&T, wth?

Sean — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:53:33 +0000

Found this ad on dictionary.com. I didn’t know they’d stoop to the level of ripping off Twitter’s icon. XD

Happy Father’s Day!

Kit — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:49:28 +0000

Being a dad can be taxing, but I’d definitely do it again (commit to being a dad, that is). This one goes out to my beautiful wife and daughter, thanks for making the journey an interesting one!

Also to all the other dads out there… enjoy your day and make the most of it!

Adding to the Carbon Footprint One Stride at a Time.

Sean — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:53:17 +0000

Being a Night Elf in World of Warcraft had its disadvantages in the first half of Azeroth’s mmo history. Firstly, you were part of the Alliance faction, which meant winning Battle Grounds was an extreme rarity. Secondly, you started out questing in one of the most remote corners of the world, being cut off from both mainlands, and having a virtual ghost town for a Capital City. Thirdly, you were the largest Alliance race, meaning you couldn’t ride, in my opinion, the coolest mount the Alliance had to offer: The gnome-built Mechanostrider. If you tried to buy one, the vendor would chuckle and point out your size, telling you that you would surely crush the delicate mechanics of their metallic bird.

Although the first two issues still exist after two expansions, the last one was lifted in Patch 3.0.8 . (http://www.wowhead.com/?patchnotes=3.0.8-ptr)

After this news, I jumped for joy and ran headlong into the battlegrounds to earn marks of honor for the Black Battlestrider. Mind you, the first problem mentioned was, and of course still is, in effect. I probably spent ten times longer earning those marks than ANY Horde player in WoW. By stroke of luck, my last battle was one in which the Alliance swept Warsong Gulch in a three-to-zero victory over our opponents.

I went to the war-mount dealership and purchased a fully stocked, 0% APR financed Battlestrider with no interest till 2011!

Although I can’t go around corners faster than five mph without rolling the thing, I’m still damn happy with it!