Spaceship Go Into Space

I tuned into the NASA live feed and watched a spaceship take-off. Yes live. LIVE! You can see my tweets about it. You probably missed it. Oh boo hoo, you missed it. I took screenshots though, just for you! Look, here's NASA's giant countdown digital clock though.

Seriously. Look at the size of that clock. That is one sexy-ass clock. I want that clock in my backyard. Look at the size compared to the crowd. No mean feat, cos man did they draw a crowd. Lots of people like watching around to see six astrodudes/engineers get rocketed at towards the International Space Station with a high chance of explosions.

Hell, I think one of them is crossing their fingers for an explosion.

(Or for their safety. Meh.)

So the spaceship was in space, and it went pretty fast. Like TWELVE THOUSAND MILES PER HOUR fast. Which is some speed in kilometres I can't even figure out. It's that fast. At Movie World, Superman the Ride goes from 0 to 200mph in 2 seconds - apparently "Superman Fast". This spaceship when from 0 to 3700mph in 20 seconds. All in all, an interesting use of my evening - watching stuff get thrown into space with rockets. Only streamed LIVE. I'm willing to bet this is a mind-blowing spectacle no matter where you watch it - right there, or across the other side of the world.

Comix Inc Sneak Peak!: "Le Adventure Grande - avec des Robots!"

Hello y'all! Here's the first half of the plot synopsis for the upcoming 2010 Comix, Inc. comic: "Le Adventure Grande". It's exciting! And cliffhanger-y! Enjoy! :D

The crew of Comix Inc try to do justice to the perfect comic script. Unfortunately, with only two artists on hand, Andy and Joe, it seems as if their only option is to sell the script to the highest bidder – and there are very few bidders. So Dr Robazoid, not eager to see money disappear like that, decides to create a reality-bending machine that turns words into art. Unfortunately, rather than turning the script into a comic, it turns the characters of the comic into real life people, and they escape the Comix Inc office and start a non-contained fire fight throughout the city, causing havoc and mayhem. When Cam suggests using the machine to create a solution, Robazoid tells him that the machine is already completely burned out. Comix Inc, helpless in time of crisis, attempt to round up the warring comic book factions, but when it seems no non-threatening and non-violent solutions are working – Gun-Man decides it’s time to join the fight. And so, disguised as members of the two opposing factions, the Comix Inc crew uses real-life weapons and slaughters (essentially teamkilling the two factions) until none are left. None, except for a 50 foot tall half-robot half-slug half-octopus that grabs and eats people, smashes cars, crushes buildings, and groans “brraaaaiiinnsss” a lot...

Pretty cool, eh? Well the second half is going to be exciting too! But I won't post that! Because that would be a spoiler! And I enforce a strict "No spoilers cos otherwise people will be sad like when Bruce Willis was a ghost in Six Sense and then people will be angry, too" policy.

The Theory of the Amazing Time-Proof Andy

In 1984, a film was released called Ghostbusters. It was a comedy sci-fi horror about parapsychologists capturing ghosts for money. It was wickedly funny, iconic, and as a result - insanely popular, becoming (technically) the highest grossing film of 1984 (if you account for the 1985 re-screenings), with the mere theme song spawning many, many iconic quotes, such as, "who ya gonna call?" and "I ain't 'fraid of no ghosts." In the years subsequent, it spawned sequels, animated series, comics, mugs, shirts, video games, posters, novels - and about 40 million fans per item sold. It was insanely good.

In 2010, that's 26 years after the film's initial release and pop culture impact - Andy got his hands on the DVD and watched the film for the first time. This is what I'd like to call, the "Amazing Time Proof Andy." The theory is, even though Ghostbusters Mania occurred in 1984, there has been a 26 year trans-dimensional time gap that has caused Andy to view the film and partake in Ghostbusters Mania, 26 years after its prime. So Andy is in the Ghostbusters craze as if the rest of the world was in 1984 - Andy is, in heart mind and soul, stuck in 1984. Even though to those around him he is a lowly loser watching a classic film 26 years too late, to him, it is 1984, and the film is new and fresh just as it was to our 26 years ago.

Or, it could be that Ghostbusters is just timeless and the quality and likability of the film has not diminished one bit since the 80's. This is most likely the case, since trans-dimensional time gaps would probably, and preferably, cause more drastic effects. Like, horses, with hooves for eyes. And fat men vomiting wormholes. And old women's faces melting into themselves. And, most entertaining, dogs walking into walls, possibly because they see in their minds the views of 20 years before the building was built. Oh, and entire cities sinking into trans-dimensional time portals and coming out in the mid 1860s.

Andy on Music: "We Choose To Go To the Moon"

My new favourite band, Dumb Blonde, Dead. has released their new, free album, We Choose To Go to the Moon. And it is awesome. I heartily recommend that you download and listen, if not for the heartfelt lyrics and musicianship, but for the obvious time and effort put in to improving every song to the point of sheer professionalism. I've seen fucking non-Indie bands perform worse than this. This mix of acoustic folk and electronica really hits a spot from Track 1, and despite a few dips in quality around the middle (mostly cos they're flanked by songs like Silver Screen, which is just... wow. Just wow), this is probably a perfect album for any price, let alone for free. You can also choose to donate to the band a price of your choosing, which isn't a bad idea at all, considering the quality of what's up for grabs here. We want this band to be making music for a long time to come, so, Dumb Blonde, Dead., I salute you.

Desking of the Top

Settle down, folks, Vault Boy wants us to watch the television.

Today, I'd like to talk to you all about desktops. Well, not just desktops in general - computer desktop backgrounds. I've been struggling for so long to find the "perfect" desktop background. Windows 7, luckily, has a slideshow function for rotating through lots of images in the background randomly. But even with a different new and exciting picture every half an hour - I still can't enjoy my time in the desktop.

So what's the solution folks? How does Andy confront his desktop issues? Does he continue his search for a great image, raping Google's image search engine over and over? Does he use a blank desktop, boring as batshit yet functional? Or does he just prevent using the desktop at all my layering program windows over the desktop part of the screen? Comment in the comments, or reply to my Twitter or Facebook feeds. Thanks in advance y'all!

ALSO

Check out my cool Xbox Live avatar. Yeah. He's so cool. He wears glasses like me, he has a beard like me, and he likes wearing cool hats and coats like me. (I don't wear cool hats or coats - I just like wearing them. I don't own any *sadface*). How's he look? Pretty cool hey?

...well you do better. Also, no doubt you've noticed my Raptr feed, clogging up my otherwise clean news posts. It tracks my achievements and stats, so maybe you could hit me up for a game! I'm Andy of Comix on Xbox Live. Add me, chumps!

I Fell Out

About a year ago today, I bought Fallout 3 for PC. It cost me and my brother $50 each. I regarded it as the time as one of the greatest RPGs ever made, a classic. However, I did not enjoy playing it. Not one bit. I knew it was a great game, I even thought so, but I could not get into it. Not at all.

Mind blown.

Well about a year has passed, and after many vain attempts at trying to "get in" to Fallout 3, I've finally started playing it - and kept playing it. And I'm enjoying it a lot. Probably thanks to the cool new addons. I've played through Operation: Anchorage and Mothership Zeta, and greatly appreciated the changes of scenery. I'd also like to think, probably because I've matured. Pfft, maturity, that's not true. Maybe my taste in games has changed, but that isn't true either, I'm still playing Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead like I was a year ago. I think, I probably just finally saw in Fallout 3 what everyone else was - an expansive post-apoc RPG, with lashings of gore.

It took me a year, but dear god, it was worth it.

TWO THOUSAND AND TEN

Is it "two thousand and ten" or "twenty-ten"? I prefer twenty-ten, personally, but TWO THOUSAND AND TEN is more epic as a blog post. I figured it'd get your attention.

But yes, it's the new year! Holy crap! 2009 is now history! Here's hoping celebrities die this year that we want to die (Keanu Reeves - we're coming for you). Here's hoping celebrities have sex with people we want them to have sex with. And furthermore, let us not usher in the new decade without an announcement of Half-Life 2: Episode Three, Valve. If we don't get a release date by E3 '10, myself and all other PC gaming nerds can say, with gusto, that you are really really bad at finishing trilogies. Even worse than George Lucas is at starting trilogies.