Those birds … they’re so angry!

I have been hooked on Angry Birds since I first played the lite version on my iPhone back in April (and then immediately purchased the full version). I started over from scratch when I bought the HD version for my iPad in October. The other week I finally completed all of the released levels with three stars and found 17 golden eggs! Take that, piggies!

Now, someone is trying to broker a peace agreement between the birds and pigs. You can guess how it turns out. 🙂

Rumor has it Angry Birds 2 will be told from the pigs’ point of view (Angry Pigs?) and support multi-player! It might be out by the end of the year … just what I need.

Epcot International Food & Wine Festival

My wife and I were at Disney World for our honeymoon when Epcot held the first International Food & Wine Festival back in 1996. And yet, with all the times we’ve been to Disney World since then (which also was my first time ever), we’ve never been there again during the festival … until this weekend, celebrating its 15th year.

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WIJFR: Watership Down

Set in England’s Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival follows a band of rabbits on their flight from the intrusion of men and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of brothers, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society.

It’d been a while since my daughter and I read a book together after I abandoned the Redwall series last year. I decided to introduce her to one of my favorite novels from my own childhood, “Watership Down” by Richard Adams, and we just finished it today.

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WIJFR: The Ringworld Throne

The human, Louis Wu; the puppeteer known as the Hindmost; Acolyte, son of the Kzin called Chmeee . . . legendary beings brought together once again in the defense of the Ringworld. Something is going on with the Protectors. Incoming spacecraft are being destroyed before they can reach the Ringworld. Vampires are massing. And the Ghouls have their own agenda–if anyone dares approach them to learn. Each race on the Ringworld has always had its own Protector. Now it looks as if the Ringworld itself needs a Protector. But who will sit on the Ringworld Throne?

It’s been almost two years since I read “The Ringworld Engineers” and back then I wrote here that I probably wouldn’t bother with the remaining two books in the series. I probably should have listened to myself, but I just finished “The Ringworld Throne” … the first e-book I’ve read entirely on my new iPad.

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MacBook Air(port) cleared by TSA

The original MacBook Air confused the TSA when it was introduced two years ago.

Now, CNN is reporting that the TSA has cleared the new MacBook Air so you don’t have to take it out of your bag for screening:

Apple may wish to avoid comparisons of the MacBook Air to similarly compact but underpowered netbooks. However, like netbooks, Apple’s new laptop is “smaller than a standard-size laptop,” meaning it can stay in a bag, said TSA spokesman Nicholas Kimball.

When I still had my Eee PCs I always had to remove them from my bag when going through security and they were a lot smaller than the new Macbook Air. Granted, they were thicker and that probably affected the x-ray photos, but it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out at the airport checkpoints.

The Evolution of the Geek

I found this on Flowtown via the Nerdist:

In the past, being described as a geek was considered an insult, for it reflected a certain manner of social skills or status. Today, it is used to describe someone impassioned or obsessed by a particular area or interest. This reclamation of “geek” has even gone so far as to filter into commerce, with the ever-popular “Geek Squad” from Best Buy.

I’m not sure I agree with the “ever-popular ‘Geek Squad’ from Best Buy” part, but the flowchart image is great. How many Geek branches can you identify with? I trend mostly to the middle and right side .

Happy Birthday, Dizzy Gillespie!

Famous jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie would have have been 93 today … check out Google’s cool Doodle:


Being a trumpet player myself, I was a big fan of Dizzy, primarily because of his sweet horn and the cheeks (although try as I might I could never play with my cheeks puffed out like that). When I was a freshman in high school I had an upperclassman bully (yes, they exist even in marching band!) take my cornet and bend the bell up (why he did this, I cannot remember). It kinked the bell tube though so of course it wouldn’t play that well. My parents had it repaired but that was pretty much the last straw for that old horn (which I had been playing since grade school) and I ended up getting a new silver Yamaha trumpet (which I still own and occasionally play) so it ended well. 😉

One of my favorite memories of Dizzy was his appearance on The Muppet Show:

Man, that guy could blow! Happy Birthday, Dizzy!

Manage your TiVo Season Passes online

This past week TiVo unveiled its online Season Pass Manager, available through your account on tivo.com. Adding to the existing features of being able to view your Now Playing and To Do lists online, the SPM lets you re-order, copy, and delete the Season Passes on your TiVos from your web browser.

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Apple iPad

About a month ago I got a 16gb (WiFi only) Apple iPad from work so I’ve had about 30 days to mess around with Apple’s “magical” tablet. If I had to sum the iPad up in one word?

Slick.

I’m not going to bother with the specs, or a general overview of the iPad here. It’s been out for about 8 months and you can certainly read/find all the technical details you want fairly easily (just typing ‘ipad’ into Google yields “about 123,000,000 results”). Instead, I’ll talk about how I’ve been using it, the apps I’ve installed, and my overall impressions.

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10-10-10

October 10, 2010 – 10/10/10

In addition to my little sister celebrating her 30th birthday (10 + 10 + 10 = 30, much cooler than my binary birthdays!) lots of other stuff is going on today, mainly:

  • the answer to life, the universe, and everything!
  • the new GreenPois0n jailbreak for iOS 4.1 was supposed to come out but was delayed due to the release of LimeRa1n yesterday (which apparently works on all iOS devices, including the iPad and Apple TV)
  • the Tampa Bay Rays won Game 4 of the ALDS against the Texas Rangers, staying alive and forcing a Game 5 back here in St. Pete on Tuesday
  • the release of Ubuntu Linux 10.10, Maverick Meerkat (I’ve already got the netbook edition running on my EeePC 900A but haven’t really played with it much yet. I’ll be upgrading my server later today or tomorrow).