Life of Smiley

How do you measure a (half) year in the Life of Smiley? Actually, it won't take very long; I've only managed to average a paltry six posts per month, although I've logged more posts in December than I did in the first five months combined. The fact is I just don't have that much to say, which is probably why I waited as long as I did to start blogging in the first place. I had been reading and commenting on the Prizblog for a while, and in July I finally decided to start a blog of my own in order to respond to a post entitled The Best Comic Book Movie Ever????? Since comic books and movies are two subjects I'm interested in, I found I had a fair amount to say. At around the same time I happened to read an essay by Paul Graham entitled What You Can't Say . I enjoyed reading this because he managed to put into words so eloquently a feeling that has been growing inside me for some time. How can you see the wave, when you're the water? Always be questionin...

Interesting article -- here's the Reader's Digest version: The percentage of female lawyers doubled in three years (from 9.5 percent in 1971 to 20.1 percent in 1974). By 1981 it was 35.8 percent... By 1996, the percentage climbed to 44.4... Although some claims about discrimination and a salary gap between men and women in the law persist, there is no doubt that the scene has changed dramatically... The number of women in medicine and law is projected to stabilize in about a decade, at close to 50 percent. Which brings us to our profession: engineering. The participation of women in engineering, in spite of some increases in the last two decades, continues to be anemic. Between 1983 and 2000 the percentage of female engineers in the U.S. workforce rose from 5.8 percent to just 10.9 percent. .. No matter how we look at these numbers and at related statistics, the conclusion is that we are not moving toward parity; by and large, we are not moving at all. Young women are not dumb....

'Santa' arrested after beating street sign SAPULPA, Okla. --Police here know whether this particular Santa Claus has been naughty or nice. An officer responding to a call Christmas morning of a disturbance on the city's east side found James Lahl dressed as Santa Claus and hitting a street sign, according to a report. Lahl, 53, had pulled a no parking sign from the ground and was beating another street sign with it , police allege. As Officer Derrick Clayton approached the not-so-jolly St. Nick, he detected a strong odor of alcohol, and took Lahl into custody on a complaint of destruction of city property and public intoxication, according to the report. Lahl, wearing a suit, hat, beard and gloves, remained in the Creek County jail on Monday. Attempts to reach Lahl for comment were unsuccessful.

The predictable overreaction of Boston fans to the Johnny Damon deal has been well documented, as in these blog entries: @#$(%& Damon , Damon Ruins Christmas , and Just another reason not to go to Fenway . It seems foolish to point out how unreasonable fans can be in demanding loyalty from players. I expect to be chided with something like, "Duh, Bob, that's why they call them fanatics ." But apparently the Boston Sports Guy also feels the need to be the voice of reason: Anyway, if you're a Red Sox fan, I hope you learned two things this week. First, the Sox-Yankees feud matters infinitely more to us than it does to the players. That's why these guys have no problem switching sides. They just don't give a crap. Sadly, we do. And second, to paraphrase Ordway, it's almost always about the money. - Damon, dollars and you

Son of Colts coach found dead New York Jets coach Herman Edwards, one of Dungy's closest friends, called James a "very, very good kid." This is a sad tragedy, and I'm not even trying to make a joke about it. But I didn't know Tony Dungy and Herm Edwards were close friends. When they hang out, do you think they ever get confused? "Hey Herm, check this out!" "Man, I've told you, I'm Tony, you're Herm."

Survivor winner faces tax trial next year You know, this is really funny to me because I distinctly remember an interview with Richard Hatch right after the first Survivor. Someone asked him how much he had left after taxes, and he said he still had the whole million in the bank. I figured he had consulted a tax attorney and had some financial plan other than, "hope no one from the IRS watches CBS."

Heard during the broadcast of the New Orleans Bowl Tuesday night: Announcer #1: This kid was leaning against an elevator door when it opened accidentally. He fell three stories and landed on his face. Announcer #2: What a great story. ASU end fights back after smashing fall

No booze to be sold at Jets game next Monday Okay, why do people go to the stadium again? Lets look at the head-to-head matchup: Living room Stadium Advantage Admission Free Expensive Living room View Always up-close in HD Proportional to ticket price Living room Comfort Recliner (warm and dry) Cramped (cold and wet) Living room Booze Cheap and plentiful Expensive, long lines / unavailable Living room Atmosphere Relatively calm Exciting Stadium The only category the stadium has going for it is the live atmosphere. Even that's not so great when you're stuck next to a drunken idiot who's yelling incoherently and spilling beer everywhere. If I'm that guy, great, but I don't want to be stuck next to that guy. Or worse, you could be hit by a drunk driver and paralyzed on your way home. Hey kids, who wants another $5 hot dog?

Since I am about to become a father, recently I've been told I seem more sensitive and philosophical. Hmmm...sensitive and philosophical, as in this exchange? Bob : I want to break something. Merv : How about that boat? Bob : Well I don't want to break anything that someone would be upset about! Professor Hulk Professor Bob?

It looks like what I had hoped would happen is happening. In the last three games the Patriots have scored 79 points and allowed 10, with the one touchdown allowed during garbage time against the Bills. Granted, being AFC East Champs is nothing to brag about this year. But just like the Colts, they can only beat the teams they play. UPDATE : And now the Chargers just snapped the Colts' run at a perfect record by doing the same thing the Patriots did to beat the Bucs: pressure the quarterback. Very interesting.... UPDATE UPDATE : A good point is made here . I admit I was mainly focused on the defensive performance. Brady gets taken for granted, almost, and it's a tribute to his consistent greatness that a 65-percent, 258-yard, three-touchdown, no-pick performance against the NFL's No. 2 defense was barely discussed after the game. Conspiracy theorists: At one point in the third quarter when the Pats were already up 21-0, the referees took a measurement and then awarded...

Awesome Homebrew PSP Shooter Why haven't I heard about this before now? Well, I don't own a PSP and therefore don't read news about it, that's why. But still, this is big. The specter of free, open-source games is deadly serious to the console industry, which relies on the "razor blade" business model: consoles are sold at or below cost, with the expectation that those costs (and hopefully profits) will be made up through game sales. Microsoft uses the threat of withholding Live! service to prevent people from using hacked or modded games on their Xbox and Xbox360 consoles. And no free, open-source video game is likely to rival the experience of a multi-million dollar, studio-produced game any time soon. But with retail prices for next-generation titles creeping up to $60, demand for less expensive games may grow. The threat may not be imminent, but I think it is very real. Something to watch....

Woman drops her baby from burning building No way that just happened! Has anyone ever played the game Bouncing Babies ? I used to play this game all the time on my 8088 with the amber monitor. If I wanted a real challenge I would hit the turbo button and kick it up to 8 MHz! This version has been modified to run on a modern PC. Enjoy! WARNING: Sound comes from the motherboard speaker, i.e. you can't turn it down.

Jackie Chan and Arnold vs Piracy

Now you can push the Life of Smiley onto your favorite RSS client , just like with Ilana's Blog . UPDATE : If you want to publish your own blog this way, feedburner.com makes it really easy to do. Just go there and type in your blog address to get started. If you use Gmail you can add the RSS feed to the new web clips bar. Pretty soon we will do everything through Google . Like lambs to the slaughter.

Looking for baby shower gift ideas? I'm registered here .

Music Man Cracks DRM Schemes We're all well aware of the ongoing battle between digital content providers and the hackers who continuously foil whatever new Digital Rights Management (DRM) scheme the providers come up with, either because they enjoy getting something for nothing, or simply because they enjoy the game. The content providers most definitely do not enjoy the game, undoubtedly because they keep losing. Perhaps their most embarrassing loss is the well-known DeCSS fiasco, in which the decryption algorithm for all DVDs on the market was so easily distributed, it wound up on t-shirts . Content providers certainly have the right to protect their interests, and it is only natural for them to seek out new technology in preventing illegal copying of digital media. The problem arises when they cross the line between protecting their own interests, and interfering with the interests of others. In 2003, DRM-maker SunnComm International introduced a new approach to copy protec...

I didn't see R. Kelly's performance of the national anthem before the Hopkins/Taylor fight, but after reading Scoop Jackson's account , I want to (HBO rebroadcast: 12/10, 10 PM). Only in America … When Michael Buffer said his name before the fight, the room I was in grew quiet. Then it immediately got loud. Most times national anthems don't generate this type of reaction -- the fights or sporting events that follow them do. But in the words of the lil' great Huey Freeman: "Never underestimate how much n----s love R. Kelly." Then the beat came in. Then the the panic set in. Then the camera panned out. Then … the phones started ringing. OK, so my man Kells took the opportunity before the second act of Hopkins/Taylor, the second-biggest fight of the year, to Marvin Gaye the national anthem. Give it some flavor, show it some love. Cool. Wrong. When the cameras showed that he was not in the ring alone -- when it showed that he had "steppers" (class...

Monsters of Photorealism My hat is off to whoever designed the new King Kong game for the Xbox 360, because they've crafted a genuinely horrific monster. When it first lurched out of the mysterious tropical cave and fixed its cadaverous eyes on me, I could barely look at the monstrosity. I'm speaking, of course, of Naomi Watts. Not the actual Naomi Watts. She's heart-stoppingly lovely. No, I'm talking about the version of Naomi Watts that you encounter inside the game. In some ways, her avatar is an admirably good replica, with the requisite long blond hair and juicy voice-acting from Watts herself. But the problem begins when you look at her face -- and the Corpse Bride stares back. The skin on virtual Naomi is oddly slack, as if it weren't quite connected to the musculature beneath; when she speaks, her lips move with a Frankensteinian stiffness. And those eyes! My god, they're like two portholes into a soulless howling electric universe. "Great," I ...

Printing Organs on Demand Need a skin graft? A new trachea? A heart patch? Turn on your printer, and let it spit one out. A group of researchers hope printers' whirs and buzzes will soon be saving lives. Led by University of Missouri-Columbia biological physics professor Gabor Forgacs and aided by a $5 million National Science Foundation grant, researchers at three universities have developed bio-ink and bio-paper that could make so-called organ printing a reality. So far, they've made tubes similar to human blood vessels and sheets of heart muscle cells, printed in three dimensions on a special printer. "I think this is going to be a biggie," said Glenn D. Prestwich, the University of Utah professor who developed the bio-paper. "A lot of things are going to be a pain in the butt to print, but I think we can do livers and kidneys as well."