Spandox's Stupid Blog http://blog.spandox.com A place for Michael Sandler to exist on the web. en-us Michael Sandler 2008-11-21 <![CDATA[Heroes]]> http://blog.spandox.com/?message=693 //www.nbc.com/Heroes/ and how to make it cool again.
  1. Heroes has fallen into a standard trap that has made many a sci-fi show //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark Time travel. Time travel ruins pretty much any show that tries to play with it (except //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who, but he doesn’t use it as a tool, just a device to get from plot to plot). The worst part is once you start using time travel it becomes the cause and solution to all of your problems.

    Here is what I suggest: find some way (no matter how contrived and silly) to remove all backward time travel. ALL OF IT. Ok, Hiro becomes a little less cool – he now can teleport (still cool) and slow down or speed up his (any maybe a few others in close proximity) transit through time (ie the world isn’t stopping – he is just moving more slowly through it).

    If you want to do big apocalyptic episodes you can always use oracles (Isaac Menendez style – they have predictions that are never quite clear).

  2. Characters who get powers only get one power with maybe a couple of corollary powers (some people never get them ...see //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xander_Harris from //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_(TV_series)).
    Examples:
    • Clair can heal any non-head traumas – her blood can do the same to others.
    • Nikki is strong and tough
    • Nathan can fly
    • Cop-Guy can read minds
    • Annoying girl can cause disease (maybe she learns to cure them too).

    That leaves Peter and Sylar .... They just can’t exist; they are too powerful. Their power level is completely unbounded - anything you want them to be able to do, they can. They are not only walking //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina they overshadow everyone else; it is no longer an ensemble cast it is the Sylar and Peter show. It is akin to putting //www.imdb.com/name/nm0000093/ in a //wdl.org production. No matter how good Mich Gruberman is, if he is on stage with Brad he will only get noticed if he screws up.

    Peter is fixable – make him an empathic (yes, give him the new power to read emotions, but not minds) and make him able to emulate any power he is around...but make the powers fade after a time. Powers that he is around more and more often he gets to keep longer – leave him alone in a cell for a month and he only gets empathy.

    Sylar – sorry, I love the actor and the way the character is constructed but he had his season. I would love to see him broken back into all of the awesome characters that got only one episode: Memory girl (that Hiro fell in love with), Super-Hearing chick, Melty guy.

    Everyone has to be obviously killable or it is no fun. This also means people have to work together to do cool things. //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman was never as cool as the //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclops_(comics)+//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_(comics) //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastball_Special.

  3. Limit the use of duplicated powers. Only use it as a foil to the main character. Nathan can fly, we don’t need Clair’s BF to fly too. Yes, the writers need to work harder – poor writers. I can see using it to show how the same power can be used for good or evil; maybe to give somebody a “if not for the grace of god” moment, but a lot of that can be done by the actually character turning evil or being possessed.

  4. Bring back the paltry mundane lives of the characters. They all have to make rent, have lovers, and do stuff outside of the heroic world. Hiro is a true hero, the others should get back to just trying to make it in the world. This way when everyone converges on <location> for the season finally it is special.

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    ]]> Michael Sandler msandler@spandox.com 2008-09-29T13:18:07 <![CDATA[DO NOT TOUCH Not only will this kill you, it will hurt the whole time you’re dying.]]> http://blog.spandox.com/?message=692 This is almost as good as the “Robots will kill you.” sign.

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    ]]>     Michael Sandler msandler@spandox.com 2008-09-16T11:48:09     <![CDATA[September]]> http://blog.spandox.com/?message=691 I am in the house. I have replaced almost every fixture in the place (lights and some plumbing).

    Today’s big adventures:
    Buy a dining room table, replace the ceiling fan in the kitchen, replace the hall hanging light, replace the switch in the closet, and frame and hang some photographs in the frames I got at half price yesterday.

    Pretty exciting huh?

    A house eats money – every aspect of it. A house eats time.

    That being said – it feels very comfortable and homey.

    --Spandox

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    ]]>     Michael Sandler msandler@spandox.com 2008-09-07T21:20:45     <![CDATA[August]]> http://blog.spandox.com/?message=690 Today is August first and it is for me time reflect on the year that was.

    Some people measure years from January 1rst to January 1rst of the next year, but not me. My schedule of measuring a year is a little bit more juvenile. My measure of a year is still tied to a school year.

    My birthday (August 26th) is the terminus of my year. By this time I was always done //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Tockwogh (or //www.pennsicwar.org/, my modern version of summer camp). With all summer activities done (swim team etc) all energy went to preparing for the next school year. Now there isn’t as a sharp dividing line — but it still reminds me of the missed opportunities of summer…and the year……and the lifetime.

    Did I hit the beach this year? Did I go anywhere fun? Did I get to the pool? Did I ride my bike much? Do I have tan?

    This year there are a few really big things going on. But the biggest of the big is that I am buying a house in //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington,_Delaware //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware.

    This is big, not for the reason that I am finally moving out of the Madison Drive ghetto, but because it ties me to //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington,_Delaware //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware. Until now moving would have been a pain in the arse but I always opened myself up to moving to some //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupertino,_California if a opportunity should present itself. Not I have an investment of pretty much any spare money I may have thought I had right here.

    There is just so much going on with and so much that will have to go on with it after I close (August 15th) that I sometimes feel overwhelmed. Other times, however, it doesn’t feel that way, it doesn’t even creep into my consciousness.

    This weekend’s goals:

    • Choose insurance
    • Perhaps choose carpet
    • Figure out what else I need before August 15th

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      ]]> Michael Sandler msandler@spandox.com 2008-08-01T10:23:05 <![CDATA[Bluewater wind]]> http://blog.spandox.com/?message=688 windpark//visitdelaware.com is going to be the site of the first offshore wind park in the USA. I have to say I am a little proud. Delaware doesn’t always do a lot of stuff I really like. Wind power I can sortta get behind.

      //www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/06/23/wind.turbines/index.html
      //www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080622/OPINION11/806220320/1004/OPINION

      //www.bluewaterwind.com (an Archer-Group Site - made while I was still there)

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      ]]>       Michael Sandler msandler@spandox.com 2008-06-24T15:54:24       <![CDATA[Depth of field]]> http://blog.spandox.com/?message=687 I was at a work-related picnic event on Thursday and took some pictures with my camera. As people who know me know me already realize, before I “release” a photo for consumption it spends some time in Photoshop™. The odd thing is what people have been asked about. They do not comment that they look thinner or are missing acne and moles. Instead I get comments on things I did not change.

      The conversation that I have had three times today goes something like this:

      Them:Did you work some of your Photoshop magic on the picture?
      Me:Of course.
      Them:I love how you blurred the background.

      People really? Do they think I extricated the main subject and then put a blur filter on the background? Or maybe think I took a blur brush and did it by hand?

      I really want to explain all about //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture and //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field, but I also know that these people will neither understand the explanation nor care.

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      ]]>       Michael Sandler msandler@spandox.com 2008-05-23T13:41:55       <![CDATA[Mike’s Diet Theories]]> http://blog.spandox.com/?message=686 As many of you know I have been back on the diet train (next stop: Slimsvillie) for a couple of months now. I have been slowly losing weight - but slow and steady is the way to win the race (for the limited set of really long races where speed doesn’t matter). Like many aspects of life I have a set of “crazy” theories about how to do it.

      Mike’s dieting theories

      1. Stay on the diet
      2. Realize that you are going to break the diet
        1. When you break the diet it - do it small (just enough to satisfy craving)
        2. It is okay to schedule a break for a special occasion
          1. It is okay to have a nice dinner and dessert on your birthday
          2. Find excuses to NOT break the diet - special occasions don’t have to be fattening
        3. Forgive yourself and move on; hop back on the wagon
      3. Which diet you are on doesn’t matter - feel free to switch up every now and then. (Bored with Slim-Fast? Try low-carb for a few weeks)
      4. Bring your lunch
      5. Try not to be annoying about being on a diet - you don’t have to tell people what you are not eating and why

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      ]]>       Michael Sandler msandler@spandox.com 2008-05-21T11:12:22       <![CDATA[Woot-Off Theme Lyrics]]> http://blog.spandox.com/?message=685 The Woot-Off Song

      Transcribed by AnotherHiggins on woot community forum

      Get out the way, we got a Woot Off
      We’re pigging out down at the Woot trough
      Ain’t gonna stop until the Woot Off is done

      You figure you get one Woot per day
      And if it’s junk then that’s just the way
      But now an avalanche of Woots is released
      And where there once was famine we feast

      It’s giving me an F5 complex,
      Refreshing just to see what’s up next
      Checking back to shop for what’s new
      I don’t want it but I hope that you do

      Cause a new Item won’t come up
      Until all of these are gone.

      Those are the rules of the Woot Off
      We’re pigging out down at the Woot trough
      Ain’t gonna stop ‘till the Woot Off is done

      Now there’s another item on line
      A cell phone with a weird-ass design
      How will this thing ever sell out?
      This will start a new item drought

      Who would ever buy this dumb thing?
      The Woot Off is so frus-ter-a-ting
      I’m posting in the blog to decry
      This thing you couldn’t pay me to buy

      Well you could ridicule and signify it
      But someone’s gonna have to buy it

      Those are the rules of the Woot Off
      We’re pigging out down at the Woot trough
      Ain’t gonna stop ‘till the Woot Off is done

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      ]]>       Michael Sandler msandler@spandox.com 2008-05-09T13:09:19       <![CDATA[Started new job]]> http://blog.spandox.com/?message=684 I started my new job at a certain bank located in Wilmington. As all of the guides tell me not to talk too much about work on a blog I will not tell you which one - only it is a hip, cool, and new on the scene (relatively) one.

      What do I do? Well, using my programing and sysadmin acumen I aide in the support of the bank’s applications. What does that mean? Well, I am figuring it out myself.

      After one week I am not sure I can really tell you. I have taken some training on one third-party application and now seem to be the go-to guy for it. I will be learning the others and jumping in where I can.

      On another note I had dinner with my family (except for the brother and sister-in-law who live in Florida and don’t make it to dinner all that often) and some friends of my parents from Australia/NYC. These folks (the friends of my parents) were positively charming and interesting people (not saying my family isn’t but...). I was expecting to make some excuse to be out of there at 19:30 but instead stayed around until 20:30.

      Well, week 2 at work was supposed to contain an orientation - but that has been postponed until mid-November. It will be another couple weeks of being disoriented.

      BTW: I really like the Stafford Super-shirts (no-iron and comfort-fit collars) I got at the mall - but wish they came in more colors, bright orange for instance (HINT).

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      ]]>       Michael Sandler msandler@spandox.com 2007-10-27T18:42:01       <![CDATA[New work clothes]]> http://blog.spandox.com/?message=683

      As I may be starting a new job really soon - I decided I needed new work clothes. A certain store at the mall had a sale on Sunday.

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      ]]>       Michael Sandler msandler@spandox.com 2007-10-18T16:27:58       <![CDATA[HostMySite Fairness]]> http://blog.spandox.com/?message=682 To be fair to HMS - they did respond every time I called with a problem. They did fix the problem. They do want me on a better server.

      I, however, just don't have the discretionary income to upgrade. It isn’t the one time fees that will kill me - it is the monthly. I am not a hosting company and can’t afford a shiny new server.

      As they really would love to decommission my server - I will start looking at hosting options around. I do like HMS though; they do a very good job.

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      ]]>       Michael Sandler msandler@spandox.com 2007-10-17T15:10:03       <![CDATA[Failing Hard]]> http://blog.spandox.com/?message=681 The poor hard drive on my poor dedicated server pretty much gave up the ghost. The hosting company really wants me on more modern hardware (which I have NO problem with) but they want me to pay a lot more to get it (which I do have a problem with). I am renting the hardware from them.

      Well, with the harddrive replaced and the OS updated I should be fine on my 1.6Ghz AMD Athlon.

      The down side is that I spent all day fixing the darned thing.

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      ]]>       Michael Sandler msandler@spandox.com 2007-10-15T19:40:49