Friday, April 29, 2011

Penny for Your Easter.

As if talking insentiently about how long I can hold a button down isn't torture enough for my Facebook friends, I do somewhat irregular cartoon called Penny for Your Thoughts starring Cajun Bon Vivant Penelope Bell.

The usual format I have settle on is a news broadcast with host Ravy as the straight man and Penny as the sidekick wiseacre. Though when I have (steal) a good idea I go outside the norm(?) do a standard(?) Ravy type comic.

For the fan of this blog. Here's a behind the scenes look.


You should see the spelling suggestions for Facebook and blog.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

All New C64: Is it worth it?

My Mom was the real computer geek until I bought my first $1000 solitaire machine. She actually used the C64 as a computation device. She was on it all the time doing newsletters for the library and going online with Q-Link. She was downloading games and music back in the late '80's early '90's.

Me? I was just playing video games. Some of which were actually better than what was on the NES. Plus Commodore games were a helluva lot cheaper than the NES carts.

When words comes by me that the C64 is making a comeback, memories came flooding back.

Then reality set in. First off one of the major selling points is playing all the old games. Whoopee. You can do that for free now. As buggy as the emulators are, I've managed to get most of the games I want to play. Then reading further it comes with some games. Probably a select few of ones nobody liked and you probably can't add in those downloaded roms.

Then there's the C64 OS. Which is a Linux distro. What we need, another version of Linux. (A friend of mine was complaining about all the variations of Windows. One word: Linux.) On top of that when you order your very own C64, it doesn't come with the C64 OS. It's not ready. Instead you get some weird version of Ubuntu.

Now the coop de gracie: an Atom Processor. You have got to be kidding me? No? You're not? Really? Atom? That has to go. So I look up the motherboard to see what other processors will fit into it. I can't find out. It appears that the CPU is soldered into the motherboard! If I get a new C64, I'm going to have to replace the Motherboard too?

You see, I want the All New C64 not just for the nostalgia or the nerd cred. I need a compact test bed with off the shelf parts. A laptop doesn't fit this because the drivers needed are proprietary. The ones that run the motherboard and video card. I'm currently using a Compaq that I rescued from the trash. I can't get XP drivers for it, and the Win 7 drivers I don't think are working. Vista? They work, weirdly enough.

I need to be able to throw Windows 7 Ultimate 64 on the C64. Can it handle it with an Atom Processor? I'm having enough trouble with an AMD 64 Athlon X2.

Looking at the price guide, I see you can purchase a barebones system for $250. It doesn't come with the motherboard and Atom I was just bitching about. It also doesn't apparently come with a power supply. I can get all that for an additional $350.

While I wouldn't mind buying the fine craftsmanship that went into building the case, this isn't 1982. We expect more for our dollar in today's terms. I just don't know if it is worth it.



(So, how much did I spend on Rosenkreuzstilette again?)

Monday, April 25, 2011

Ravy 2011 Pg 17.

Click Here.

In a city of hundreds of thousands, Op would have to accidentally hit on the one woman that would be the absolute worst choice to sleep with Toni.

Friday, April 22, 2011

You Highness.

Rated R
(They got that one right finally.)

After years of fomenting jealousy at his older brother's exploits, Prince Thadeous is sent much against his will to help re-rescue his brother's bride after she is re-kidnapped by the evil wizard. Along the way Thadeous grows from princely playboy to all around hero.

So I got my wish, lots of boobies. Generally far away shoots, covered in mud. But plenty of close ups of severed wiener. Just what is this Hollywood obsession? Or more precisely I'm worried about me. How in the hell do I keep finding this stuff? This movie overall was not fun to watch. The only real laughs I had was at the very end with Thadeous's line to Isabel “I was just about to finish thinking of you.”

Was this supposed to be a serious movie with bits of comedy? Well, it fell far short of Princess Bride. Was it a satire on the fantasy genre? It fell far, faaaaaaaaaaaaar short of Robin Hood: Men in Tights. (There was a shout out to the Great Mel Brooks movie at the very end.)

Dollar theater for Your Heinous.



For those of you that must obviously be gluttons for punishment and stuck around, here's me adding to the review, putting it in this entry and not making a “new” post just one minute shy of this one.

I found the part where Prince Fabious's knights betraying our heroes and siding with the evil wizard very ingenious and really caught me off guard. And the fight with the hydra was kind of unique in that the hydra was actually what's his name hand in a cauldron. When one of the snakes heads was cut off, so was the bad guy's fingers. You'd figure after one was cut off, he'd stop. But no, like any bad guy he just can't help himself and lose it all.

I did find mistake: The Isabel swim scene. At one point she was in the water, then she was out of the water, dry, and then diving in. Natalie Portman in a metal thong. (Oh my!)

  By the way, this is from the trailer. In the movie she wasn't wearing this much.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Academia Waltz: Decades ahead of its time.

If you think I've I'm a fan of Rosenkreuzstilette, Bloom County is even worse for me. I got all the books, even buying the Bloom County Library editions. I got a paid subscription that delivers comics to my email, and even read it daily from a Seattle newspaper.

Now a while ago I noted that the Seattle edition had entered 1989. Isn't that when Bloom County quit? So I look it up and what do I find? Academia Waltz, the precursor. It originally ran from 1978 to 1979. It's not really all that different, from Bloom County, just has a tendency to have more raunchier nuances.

I timed it perfectly, because one of the first comics I saw was this one:


Making fun of sprite comics before anybody could possible know what one was.