Peter Decker Jr., one of Virginia's outstanding citizens has passed away at 76. He came from nothing, growing up in a small house in Lambert's Point (If you're not familiar with Norfolk that area  is "the docks"; a cargo terminal).Decker founded a law firm which became one of the most respected in the state. He was also instrumental in the revival of Norfolk's downtown. 30 years ago there were rats running down Granby Street, now there are cafes, malls, shops and...mermaids, which were actually his idea.

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Posting will remain light to nil for at least the rest of the week.
Reasons are rather graphic and as a courtesy to our readers are below the fold.


In the meantime, here is your Edith Hamilton fix.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:53 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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So...today I went to buy some stuff of of iTunes.
They've changed the terms of use, which I cut and pasted below the fold.
(emphasis is mine). Let's see what one of our resident experts thinks about this...

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1 I've never purchased anything from iTunes. I buy my music downloads at amazon.com. They're just plain, ordinary, DRM-free mp3 files.

Posted by: Don at Sun Jan 22 20:44:20 2012 (yNG5l)

2 I usually buy mp3 albums on Amazon.com rather than iTunes; they're usually a buck or two cheaper.
I doubt that bit (requiring that you play their mp3s on apple devices) would be enforceable; I think a reasonable person would expect the mp3s he purchased to be usable on any device capable of playing them. 

Posted by: wfgodbold at Sun Jan 22 20:45:14 2012 (DbD8R)

3 Cool. Thanks!
"plain, ordinary, DRM-free mp3 files" is what iTunes used to be. I've been listening to them on the blackberry for about a year now...then suddenly this.
Feh.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Jan 22 20:47:38 2012 (EJaOX)

4 I don't think you're reading this right. I THINK you're mistaking "iTunes Services" for "mp3 files", instead of "iTunes Store". Or is there something else buried in there? I'd have thought if Apple was bringing back DRM, a quick Google search would verify it.

Posted by: Uncle Willie at Sun Jan 22 22:09:35 2012 (xZueN)

5 I don't believe there's any actual DRM software. That would be a PR disaster.  I think it's signing an agreement that you'll only use Apple hardware. This is easily ignored, of course but it might open one up for complications down the road. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Jan 22 22:41:39 2012 (EJaOX)

6 Where are you seeing this?

Posted by: Uncle Willie at Sun Jan 22 22:46:09 2012 (xZueN)

7 Amazon.  Simple.

Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Jan 22 22:47:55 2012 (f/6aJ)

8 Item vi of Usage Rules removes the Apple-device-only rules for iTunes Plus (DRM-free) music, and they no longer sell any other kind. The clause only applies to music purchased before they stopped adding DRM, most of which was upgradeable to iTunes Plus for a small fee.

Many people still own substantial DRMed libraries, though, either because they didn't want to pay, or because those exact tracks were no longer available in the store, removing the upgrade option.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at Mon Jan 23 00:07:29 2012 (ar1+v)

9 I paid the 39 cents and upgraded my iTunes library to DRM-free.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Mon Jan 23 05:27:01 2012 (PiXy!)

10 And yes, while the iBook license is utter crap, the endless list of restrictions don't apply to the DRM-free music.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Mon Jan 23 05:28:42 2012 (PiXy!)

11 OK after rereading that, not only are my eyes bleeding but I think I was conflating the iTunes rental service with iTunes proper. The rental service really is like DIVX and the iBook thing is just obnoxious.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Jan 23 15:53:31 2012 (EJaOX)

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Of course even if I had time to spare, I couldn't do anything about the recent release of Katawa Shoujo, as I don't do torrents, and 4-Leaf is not yet offering direct downloads.  However, Brickmuppet Blog, fortuitously,  still retains the services of an EBP* for these situations. He sends us this screen cap from the game.

Not much to go on, but, I'm intrigued.
More on this looming atrocity here.
UPDATE: There is greater detail and inexplicable synchronicity here.
UPDATE: 2 Emi's dialog provides some tangential synchronicity  here.

_{*Emergency Backup Pervert}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:57 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Mom is home and doing better. She starts therapy tomorrow. It is still quite hectic here between that and school starting.

Other than belatedly remembering to pull my endorsement post out of "draft", posting is light. 
Here is Nodoka Manabe as compensation.

^{Art by Ikari Manatsu.. Now go buy K-ON!}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:24 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Yesterday I was still recovering from the Norwalk / food poisoning or whatever the hell it was.  My digestive tract seemed quite empty. More importantly, I was no longer wretching bile and drinking water did not immediately precipitate further wretching.  I got up and tried to get my act together to get to school and buy my books, but it was a chore just to get to the bathroom. Nevertheless, I got into the shower and got a stark lesson in perspective...

Because at that point things went south, way south...

My mom was going to go see my sister, to oogle at her granddaughter and help out around the house. She went into the bedroom to get something and got lost...
...in her bedroom.
My dad found her and after realizing that she was utterly incoherent he called for me in a voice that could chill fire. I staggered out of the shower, threw on some pants and we got her to the car. He took her to the hospital.
A few hours later he called.
She has had strokes...
plural...

It seems now that she has had a series of mini strokes over the last month or so which she had presumably written off as holiday stress. 

I've talked to her twice since then via phone. The first time she was quite incoherent but the second time, her speech, while slurred, was understandable.

I'm taking care of my grandmother who currently cannot go to the loo unassisted and Dad is with Mom. He stopped by last night  to get some of her things. As one can imagine he is quite despondent.

Last night they moved her to a specialist facility at a Hospital way out in Suffolk and although visiting hours had passed they provided my father a bench to spend the night with his wife...which does not bode well.

This morning there was no word but they were still conducting tests.

That is all I know at this time.

I'm rather beside myself at the moment

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:45 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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16 pounds in 24 hours.
A couple more quesadeas and I''l be downright svelte.

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I haven't opined on politics in a while. With this being an election year, it seems like a good idea to put my cards on the table and weigh in on various current issues.

^{"Oh God NO!" " PLEASE don't. We were almost making friends and EVERYTHING!"}

OK! OK! !t's below the fold.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:13 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Banality is below the fold.
Picture is unrelated.

^{It's from Yotuba@! Go buy Yotsuba@!}

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This is an interesting piece on the travails faced by borderline autistics.

This is the associated correction:

An article on Monday about Jack Robison and Kirsten Lindsmith, two college students with Asperger syndrome who are navigating the perils of an intimate relationship, misidentified the character from the animated children’s TV show "My Little Pony” that Ms. Lindsmith said she visualized to cheer herself up. It is Twilight Sparkle, the nerdy intellectual, not Fluttershy, the kind animal lover.

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For some time experts have known that the answer is 42.
Considerable effort has since been put in finding out what the question is.
Now, due to a unique confluence of events, this problem has been solved, albeit only temporarily.
For the next 366 days the question is "How old is the Brickmuppet?"
Now those experts have this brief window of opportunity to find out what all of this means.

^{An expert, hard at work on the problem.}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:10 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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^{Art by Simosi He currently works for Type Moon.  His Doujinshi list is here.}

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas or (whatever holiday you celebrate). Thank you all for stopping by.

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^{K-On! Art by Landlot Tamaki}

Tomorrow is the day that those of us on the UPS morning shift do not leave until the building is completely empty and the drivers don't return until their trucks are as well.

On the home front, my sister is supposed to be providing me with a niece Sunday. This has increased the domestic pandemonium somewhat.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:45 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This XKCD  strip jogged a memory.

Back in the 80's there was (at least in Virginia) a fad for some years where there were generic foods on store shelves. By generic I don't mean store brands..I mean GENERIC..

^{How generic? This generic.}

One of my teachers was really enthusiastic about these as they did away with brand names and consumerism. I was too young to realize that this probably meant she was a commie. She gave me the impression that these were government products, but I don't think that was the case. At the time, we were not well off and my folks did buy them. I remember the green beans being decent. A quick search though brings up very little info other than the above pic (which was without context) and a painful reminiscence about generic beer.

So...what was the deal with these? Was it a government program? Was it a short lived company trying to save on advertising costs? What?
Does anyone know?

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:53 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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It looks that way.

The head troll of the long suffering hermit kingdom reportedly has passed away.

One can certainly hope that some good comes out of this monsters passing, but at the moment its looking like even with his death rattle he is sowing fear.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:46 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Over at Jerry Pournelles place there is commentary on an extended missive he received via mail on the subject of the Dean Drive and how to fix the problems in that system by adding a cat to the mechanism.

A brief excerpt:

Orient the vehicle so the driving (cat) end of the cradle is pointed AWAY from the intended post-cat-activation direction of flight. Using the vessel’s ordinary means of propulsion (assumed for this experiment to be either a rocket, ion thruster, or similar reaction engine), place the vessel under a sufficient amount of acceleration that the cat does not experience microgravity. This initial baseline acceleration should be along the line between the astronaut station and the cat station, towards the cat.

Place the astronaut in the chair and the cat in the harness. While the astronaut holds the cat at arms’ length, attach the hook to the cat’s harness and inspect all fastenings for proper attachment and locking.

  I did not originate this proposal, but this concept, despite being on the internet,  has inexplicably not been acted upon.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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  Saturday night I went to a friends house and watched the second volume of Media Blasters DVD release of Squid Girl. I'd been impressed with the first volume and was curious as to whether this show would maintain its quality or flounder...I felt that the fish puns alone were likely to wear quite fin.

However, the second set is just as good if not better. Squid girl continues her career as a seaside noodle shop waitress while plotting (occasionally) to conquer the surface world and liberate the seas from pollution. Along the way she has to deal with making friends, creepy fan-girls, art appreciation and bears. The show is a schizoprenic mash-up of a sitcom, Looney Tunes sketch comedy and Mad Magazine, yet it all works surprisingly well. The show drifts between the sentimental and the hilarious.  I laughed so hard at one point I nearly pulled a mussel.

One theme of the show really speaks to me. Even if one is stuck in a dead end service job and is stymied by the demands of provincial  academics who look down at you, your beliefs and your goals like you are some sort of alien....

I really enjoyed this show and I highly recommend it. Go out, buy it, gift it. As I type this you have six days till Christmas.

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Well, it's been hectic. I think this young lady is prepared for and understands the season better than most.

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