Hello
Download the Metropolis Yearbook #3 here.
The CBZ version will be available soon.
Overdosing on Star Trek: The Next Generation
Good things can be bad things if taken in excess.
I learned this recently from re-watching all the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. All 178 of them. It took me about two years. That might sound like a relaxed schedule, but that is one ST:TNG every 4 days.
Watching so much ST:TNG is not good for you; especially if you like Star Trek and you want to continue liking Star Trek. When you watch so much Star Trek close together you begin to notice certain things.
1) There seems far too many omnipotent or near-omnipotent alien species in the universe; Q, the Douwd, Nagilum, the Traveler, and those big space jellyfish from pilot, just to name a few.
The Enterprise is always running into super-powerful aliens. How many can one universe hold? And for beings so powerful they never seem to know about each other.
2) Holodecks seem to cause more trouble than they are worth.
The safeties on that sucker get compromised a lot! For goodness sake! Never turn on your holodeck if you happen to be crossing some weird celestial phenomena. You could lose control of your ship or do something totally wacky like create a new life form. Both of which might kill you during the glitch.
Even Chief O'Brien makes fun of how many times the holodeck malfunctioned in a conversation with Worf in season four of Star Trek: Deep Space 9.
3) Their technology is far too advanced.
Does that sound weird? Think about it. There's nothing they can't do. Between the transporter and the replicator and the limitless times they combine the two, they can do anything. Watch the episodes and you'll notice that they keep coming up with stuff to limit their limitless technology for the sake of the episode's plot line. This planet has a field where we can't use transporters. We can't replicate that thingy because it's made of some special material.
Despite these minor annoyances I still enjoy watching Star Trek. I'll probably watch them all over again in a few year so my son and daughter can get hooked.
In some respects my "minor annoyances" made me glad about the J.J. Abrams "reboot". It seemed like a perfect opportunity to start fresh and not "paint themselves into a corner" with too much super-technology... Hmmm. Let's see there is "Scotty's super-long-distance-transporter" and the "Khan death-reversing-super-blood-serum". (Sigh.)
PS: I've started re-watching Star Trek: Deep Space 9.
Have a great day.
Hello
The Metropolis Yearbook #3 was supposed to be out already. Sorry about that. I hope to put it out in the next two weeks... I hope.
The reason I haven't released it yet gives me a reason to talk about Linux; which I have wanted to do on this blog for some time.
I currently have no working computers. (I'm creating this post on my ipad.) Here's what happened. I was ready to take the plunge. I was ready to cast off Windows operating systems forever in favour of Linux. I was sick to death of viruses and hijackers posing as really interesting freeware.
In defense of Windows. I grew up on Windows and one of the things I always liked about it was the community of home developers. Whatever type of software you wanted there was always someone out there somewhere who was programming what you needed and offered it to the world as freeware. Very commendable.
Nowadays, downloading freeware is a sure way to harm your computer, unless you know how to discern trustworthy sources.
My wife was totally behind the switch to Linux. She's on maternity leave and she was willing to take on a new learning curve provided she could "do all the things she could in Windows". No problem.
I spent some time researching which distro I wanted to use. I had it down to Linux Minut, Zorin and LXLE. I thought about Ubuntu; why not use the originator? But I wanted more of a "out of the box" ready to run distro. Mint proved to cumbersome. Zorin and LXLE rocked all my boxes; all of which were not state of the art. One of the boxes is more than six years old. I chose Zorin because I thought it was kinder in its presentation to former Windows users.
I had two weeks and three computers to convert. Again; no problem. That should have been more than enough time.
Problem number one: YUMI. Yumi is "Your Universal Multiboot Installer". It's great. I loaded a single usb thumb drive with six different distros with this program. I was able to try them all out without having to recreate usb iso images all the time.
My problem was that I used YUMI to install Zorin to the hard drive. When I did that Zorin seemed buggy. It stalled a lot. Sometimes the OS even froze. I tried diagnosing it but in the end I gave up and tried LXLE instead. That's when I finally got around to reading the YUMI webpage where it said "Installing Linux from the YUMI created USB Drive to a Hard Drive is not officially supported".
Darn. I should have installed it using Universal USB Installer. It's the same as YUMI, but it can only do one OS at a time. I was so far into install LXLE that I didn't bother going back to Zorin. It wasn't Zorin's fault. It was mine.
I installed LXLE on all three computers. I had all three computers ready to run in just a few hours. I had XBMC installed on the living room box. And all the stuff I like installed on the two computers in the office. Then...
Problem number two: I couldn't successfully network them all together. I worked on them for days. Don't ask me what went wrong. Yes, I followed all the directions mentioned on the hundreds of website dealing with Ubuntu based distro networking problems. I will fully admit that someone with more computer knowledge than me could have solved the problem. I'm no slouch mind you, but I know I have my limitations.
By the end of the two weeks I was burnt out. I needed my computers working again and I had no more time to spend on it. I went dejectedly back to Windows.
Someday, I do plan to make that switch to Linux. It's been a long time coming. I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way. Mint, Zorin and LXLE will all still be high on my list of distros. I recommend you have a peek at them.
Let me make one final point about Linux. IT'S BEAUTIFUL! The install is quick and clean. It looks so good on big screens and small monitors. The OS runs smooth on old and new computers no problem. Boot and shutdown times are quick. Tons of great programs all for free. I didn't have to install drivers or extra programs. It was all there and ready to go in under a 20 minute install. And best of all it's virus-free, worry-free computing. Don't let me mislead you, there is such a thing as Linux virus. But it's totally manageable. Google it and you'll see what I mean. Start here.
PS: It's been a few days and I only have Windows installed on 2 computers. That's just Windows the OS. I don't have any drivers, antivirus programs, office programs or web browsers installed yet (not MS, the ones I like to use).
PPS: Yes, I have heard of Macs. I have nothing against them, but if I had the money for a Mac I wouldn't be holding on to a six year old computer now would I?
Have a great day.
Hello
Click image to enlarge.
Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.
A Nice Treat for a Kid with Allergies - Mini Banana Muffins
So here I go again diverting from my usual topic of comics and Sci-Fi. Sorry. I felt like I really had to share this.
Max has some allergies. Not a lot, but he can't have eggs, milk, apples or strawberries. That doesn't sound like much be it can be very hard to find food he likes without at least one of these.
For example: he loves loved President's Choice Organic Cereal bars. He can no longer have them.
We used to make him these cute little banana muffins. But we had to stop because there was egg in the recipe. (I got the recipe from my friend Carmel) I really liked these muffins because we controlled what went into them. I really loved that they used maple syrup to sweeten them instead of sugar.
I found a way to modify the recipe so Max could still eat them. In fact, they came out even better than normal. The magic substitute: dessert tofu!
I use Sunrise Dessert tofu. It comes in a variety of flavours including plain. I've tried it with their banana flavour and the maple carmel flavour. The former just adds to the banana flavour of the muffins. The latter is good too but the muffins comes out the slightest bit sweeter.
You can see for yourself that it's a pretty healthy ingredient list. You can try mixing the ratios of all-purpose and whole wheat flours. I use margarine because Max and my wife can eat dairy, but you could use butter if you prefer.
Here's the recipe for the all-together-not-wholly-egregious, allergy-friendly mini-banana muffins for kids and dads and moms:
Dry
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cinnamon
1/4 tsp of salt
Wet
1 and 1/4 cup ripe bananas (about 2 or 3 bananas)
1/3 cup of maple syrup
2 tblsp of melted margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1 pkg of dessert tofu
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Mix all the wet ingredients together. (I drain the water out of the dessert tofu but not completely. It's OK to let some into the mix.)
- Mix all the dry ingredients together.
- Combine the wet and dry.
- Spoon the batter into your mini-muffin tin. Careful how much. These things puff up large. (Spray them with non-stick spray if necessary. I do.)
- Bake for 14-16 minutes. (Leave them a touch longer if you like a slight crispiness to the outside. I do.)
- Let them cool.
I don't know how long to leave them in the oven if you are doing full sized muffins.
Good luck.
Enjoy.
UPDATE (9/7/14): After you combine the wet and dry ingredients, let is sit for about an hour in the fridge. The muffins come out less spongy; if you like them that way. I don't know yet what happens if you leave it for longer. I'm tempted to see what happens if you leave it over night.
Hello
Click image to enlarge.
Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.
I forgot to post it!!
You'll notice that the release date on this chapter is April 4th. I finished it but completely forgot to post it.
No one should be surprised. My wife and I are still not getting enough sleep. Our little baby girl is a screecher! She screeches! A lot. And very, very loudly!
But we found out why! She has acid reflux. I didn't even know babies could get that! It means that eating is a difficult and painful because of stomach acid damage to her esophagus. The doctor put her on some form of "Baby Zantac".
She should be better soon.
Chapter 42 is ready too! I'll post it in a few days. After that I'll be working on Metropolis Yearbook #3
Thanks for hanging in there with me. I appreciate it.
Have a great day.
Hello
Click image to enlarge.
Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.
This chapter is very, very late.
Chapter 39 came out in January, 2014. This chapter is released in late March.
Sorry.
The short answer is that I have two kids now; a toddler named Max and a brand new baby girl named Zoey. If you're a parent then that's all that need be said.
But let me go on anyway. My wife and I are all alone out here in British Columbia, Canada. Our closest family is four provinces away. We're still trying to stabilize our schedule. I'm happy to report that Zoey is sometimes letting us get a whole 6 hours of sleep at night. Sometimes.
I'm also working a lot more now that my wife is home on maternity leave.
I don't thing I'm going to be able to keep up my release schedule of two chapters a month. I might get back up to that closer to the end of the year but not now.
I hope you can bare with me. I hope that the introduction of Tuck E. Rogers will whet your appetite for more Metropolis. By the way; Tucky is a homage to one of my favourite golden-age science-fiction heroes. Can you guess which one?
Thank you for your continued support.
Have a great day.
