First Widget

While on my horribly long road trip last week, I started playing with Apple's developer environment, Xcode. Included in this package is a program called Dashcode which gives developers the ability to create nifty little widgets for OS X's Dashboard. Shown here is a widget I built using the tutorial:


It's a countdown to my birthday! The button on the bottom, when clicked, takes you to my Amazon.com Wishlist so you can buy me a nice present. If you want a copy of my widget for you computer, you can get it here (ZIP file, 3.9 MB).

Disclaimer: Use my widget at your own risk. As I said, I built it using a modification of a tutorial from Apple, and therefore I do not know what I'm doing.

That's Bullshit!

If you are a console gaming enthusiast and you've never seen the Angry Video Game Nerd on YouTube, you'd better go watch his videos right now! In addition to his reviews of old, shitty games, AVGN also has a segment called "You Know What's Bullshit?" in which he rants on about whatever happens to make him upset at that particular moment. His second episode on the penny was featured on CNN.

Shown here is episode 8. Its about printers, so it fits with my intended technical gizmo blog theme. Enjoy!

On the Road, Again...with my Mac!

I'm back on the road! I'm on my way to Atchison, Kansas for a Steel Founder's Society meeting.

Also, since my last post, I got a Mac. A MacBook Pro, to be exact. I had an iMac a few years ago, but it died in an involuntarily, self-inflicted incident (I think there's still a blog entry about it here). Now I'm back in Mac, and it's good to be back.

So, I saw Blogger has a Dashboard widget for quick blog entries. I'm trying it out now. If you can read this, the widget is operational.

New Blog

My wife just started her first blog. Click here to check it out. We can only hope she'll post to her blog more often than I to mine.

Lights

I'm back. I was pretty sick a week or so ago. I had the flu and an ear infection. Then I got a stomach virus. I think I'm all better and back to normal now.

The fluorescent lights over my cubicle are particularly oppressive today. I can hear them buzzing... no, talking. They're mocking me. I'm stuck in this cubicle with half a window while the sun is shining outside. I've gotta get outta here!

Day 02 - Whatever

Ok, so I didn't post as religiously to my blog as I had planned. So, here's a brief summary of what you missed:

I played World of Warcraft, put some new light fixtures in my kitchen, played Wii, ate lots of junk food, played D&D while eating lots of junk food, played more WoW, and didn't post to my blog.

That's about it. Oh, and I'm also starting to catch up on design and layout for new Tricky Owlbear products, so get your money ready to buy a copy of "Behind the Monsters: Skeleton" in the next day or two.

Day 01

My first day alone was less productive than I had originally intended. I went to work in the morning as usual (my messy cubicle desk shown here). When I got home, I considered a short nap since I had not slept well the night before, but I still couldn't sleep. Instead I laid in a zombie-like state in front of the TV for most of the evening.

Lunch

This is today's lunch: an unusually large bread bowl full of beef stew. Yum!

Day 00

Last night my wife left to visit her relatives in Bulgaria. That leaves me all alone for the next 28 days. So, I have decided to use this time to complete some home improvement projects. I picked up a few supplies at IKEA on the way home from the airport. I will post details of my progress here, including pictures from my new Sony Cyber-shot camera (DSC-W80, a very excellent camera so far).