My day started with a visit from the eBay stork! The red walking spaceman robot that I've been searching (and bidding) for finally arrived. There was some...um..delivery...complications, but all ended well. Now my menagerie of little bots are just about ready for a massive photo project - the end result, being a gallery show somewhere in Portland. Just need to find a white one....

The rest of the day:
I spent the entire day driving around taking pictures of people stranded in the snow, or putting on snow chains. The worst was a poor guy who went around a corner WAY too fast, hit a patch of the oft-rumored, "black ice", and the crashed upside-down in a ditch. I don't speak Spanish, but I think he was telling me that he's "lucky" - and so was his car stereo, which he managed to remove before getting out of the crushed car.

Um..so my ATV quicktime movie isn't working on any other computer but mine. Until I can get it fixed - let me just tell you, "It's fabulous."

Well, it snowed late last night and I couldn't sleep because it was fun watching from my 4th floor balcony as everything turned white . So, at around 2 am I decided to take the robots out for a walk in the untouched snow. Adorable, aren't they?

On a related note: This all means that I'll (hopefully won't) be driving in this slushy crap all night to bring you wall-to-wall 'team coverage' of the big storm in Portland (and I don't think I'm allowed to bring the robots with me).

I was perusing Tower Records today and came across one of the greatest marketing achievements in recent memory. Sitting by the counter, in the same place where the Red Bull knock-off, 'Nelly Pimp Juice' used be, was the most infernal candy sensation of the year (and it came in quite late, don't you think?).
I'm talking about Mars Candy's Overload cups. They take their widely popular chocolate brands like Oreo, M&M, and Butterfinger, and place them on top of a peanut-butter cup. Let me give your brain a second to process this, as I repeat: An Oreo on top of a peanut butter cup! This isn't the brilliant-yet-crappy thing that Taco Bell does by taking the same 6 ingredients that go in a taco or burrito and then magically coming up with a "Gordita" or "Chalupa" (or any other marginally-weird-cute Mexican name) to make a new brand.
This is taking two kick-ass candies and fusing them together into a mega-Voltron-candy-mouth-assasin.
Simple.
Brilliant.
I've bought two pack and ate them both. Without a doubt, the sugar rush is to blame for me even taking the time to write about this. Now, If you'll excuse me...I have to go online and vote for my favorite one.

"Happy Holidays with Ninja Swords and ATV's!"



Well, the holidays at my parent's house was nothing short of fun (and unusual). I spent my two days down there tearing through their orchards with my brother, Tater on my PARENT's ATVS. It was some much-needed mayhem after all the running around I've been doing - between shopping and going to non-stop holiday parties. It's been such a relaxing little vacation with my girl. Here's a highlight of some of this years gifts: alcohol, robots, elvis memorabilia, DVDs, alcohol, and....wait for it...NINJA SWORDS! Truly, a year to remember.

For fun, I snapped some little movies with my canon elph and made a little (5.3mb) quicktime ATV video. Enjoy!

My girlfriend and I are too lazy to go to the store and recycle the cans and bottles, so we've decided to 'award' them to a random homeless person/can recycler sometime this week. We've amassed quite a collection - so much, in fact, that it would take several trips to get it all down the stairs. But how do we choose? There are so many eligible candidates with carts pasing by each day. Obviously, I can't just announce the contest - it's being done in secret, and the winner will be "tapped" and given his/her prize.

I think it comes down to (not necessarily in this order): mobility, need, timing, and something I like to call 'personality'. That's right. This thing is coming down to the wire, and I think the deciding factor will be based on the charm of each person considered. I plan to start conducting informal interviews sometime this week, and maybe I'll even post the winner (that is, if I can take a photo in good taste - well see).

My friend, Hasser informed me that they raised the Nation's homeland alert-thing to orange today. Much like they raised the nation's refreshement level to "Sunny Orange" this past summer.

I Love my job, and the place I work - whcih makes the holidays really suck when they didn't return the love. At least there was this weekend's annual company holiday party. To ensure that most people won't enjoy it, they took the following measures:
1) Held the party in the office building, but still allowed drinking (around people still trying to work) - how weird is that?
2) Made sure that it was scheduled when a large number of people were working, and thus, could not attend.
3) Kept the party firmly to only one specific religious denomination (Merry Christmas!).
4) Made no mention of a holiday bonus, whatsoever.
The holiday party comitte did do one thing to liven spirits. Volumes of overstock books were left on the tables as parting gifts! Well, actually only one book was scattered about in the hundreds: "Bountiful Blessings for Busy Women." I'm told that even though I'm neither a woman, nor religious, I can still find inspiration in the book. Allow me to read an inspirational passage....Hold on....Let me find one that doesn't talk about God.....um...hold on...ok, here we go: "Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."

Excellent. I wish they just gave us a the option for fist to the groin instead. All of this must've affected me deeply becuase I went agrro at a bar later for a guy tring to steal one of our vacant chairs. Maybe I should've got right to reading that book instead of accidently losing it.

What have I have I done on my 2 days off? Pay bills? Clean my apartment? No.
Worse.
I totally geeked out.
The only thing more geeky than spending most of the day Tuesday playing Everquest: Scheduling a day off to play Everquest.
Pretty bad, eh? And then on Wednesday I got up at 8:30 am (!!!) and went and saw "Lord of the Rings: The Third Movie" (which was 3 hours of non-stop action, and 30 minutes of all the characters hugging each other goodbye). After all of this, I played Everquest the rest of the day. 2 days, trapped in my apartment in front of my computer, pretending to be trapped in a dungeon and fighting skeletons. That, and I play a hot Dark Elf chick [see left photo].
And even after all of this geek guilt, I can still feel at least a small bit normal. Why? Because I wasn't one of the fucking retards wearing a Frodo costume to the movie today. I would've taken a picture, but they were all twitched-up on Mountain Dew and carrying swords and wooden staffs. And then, even they were making fun of the guy in the kilt with cargo pockets sewn on the side.

So, yesterday I began my day by watching a scruffy Saddam getting a medical exam, and laughing. I like big news days, so I went to work early and spent the entire time editing Saddam footage for the newscasts. When there's a big event like that, I like the fact that I can sit in a room and access dozens of satellite and digital feeds and watch tons of footage. And on each one of them feeds: Saddam getting a medical exam.

When I saw all the video of his little sheep farm and the so-called, 'spider hole', it made me think of a funny little movie/book premise. I picture this cute little family of Iraqi sheep herders and on one fateful day their adorable little boy, "Aki" finds Saddam living in their shed. And through some sitcom hilarity they help hide him from the US troops because he's giving them money (and was thier larger-than-life dictator). And over the course of the next few months, he grows a beard, helps "Aki" with his self-esteem issues, lends a hand on the farm, and becomes a member of their family. And by the end "Uncle Saddam" not only teaches them about life, but he learns a valuable lesson himself. And then when he's captured he jokes and is freindly with the troops becuase it isn't the same Saddam who did all those things, he's changed and feels a new love of humanity.

However, the only problem with that idea: He's a ruthless, murdering dictator who led his country into ruin, and ordered the slaughter of thousands of people. So, not so much on the uncle Saddam movie.

Oh man, what a busy weekend. Two things of note (other than all the obvious Saddam stuff).

1. Friday was a day of snacking and drinking yummy drinks. My favorite new place to go In Portland is Bartini. It's a quaint, new little martini bar down the street from me. They boast over a hundred different martini drinks - like the "Christmas Martini" (see above-left photo). The bartender is a really nice guy and he lets us sit at the bar and ask him about a million questions about every drink he's making. It's a cool place, check it out.

2. Saturday was Dan and Kara's wedding.( see above-right photo). It was really awesome, and Dan (or "Danger" as we call him at work) sang some accoustic Ween song to her during the ceremony. I saw it in the program and said to Angelo, "Oh man, something like that can go either way." But, It was amazing, I have to admit. Their reception was at the WTC downtown on the skybridge, I looked just like a movie set.
The wedding videographers ran around like a bunch of dorks, and I was making fun of them, but then it came time for me to 'look into the camera and say something to the wedding couple' and I was a total nervous dork. It was kinda annoying to get a 'taste of my own medicine', since my job is sticking a camera in people's faces for a living.

It's finally the weekend, and just in time. This year I get an extra week of vacation, so I've been sneaky and asked for strategic days off for the next 2 weeks. So, I'm working like 2 days, and then 2 off, and then 1 day, and 2 off....etc. Needless to say, Im going to be playing so much Everquest getting a lot done.

What's new? I've been buying robots like mad. Why? Because they're all over ebay all of a sudden. I'm going to have an insane 'robot 2000 photo gallery' after the new year. Oh! And I'm totally in love with the Tokibot (see above photo). They're cute little robot clocks. This gallery had them just sitting right out in the open. I'm surprised they didn't walk into people's pockets already. If anyone spots a blue one around PDX - let me know.

Everyone's been asking me, "Did you like Battlestar Galactica?!" Yeah. I really did. There was a little too much "giving a nod to the old series" stuff, but I guess you have to do that with TV remakes. The last scene in the mini-series: hated it. If you saw it, you know what I'm talking about.

I'm off to play Everquest to get some rest. Peace out.

"Down with Robots! Down with Gothika!"



So what exactly does my website (and Hasser's) and the recent release Gothika have in common? Well, they were both the target of Movieweb's B. Alan Orange in one of his latest film reviews. Yeah, that's right. I was slammed in a film review about a movie I had nothing to do with (it might as well have been Gothika though, that part I don't have a problem with). For my part, he said "It’s about time a new war raged across the Internet landscape, and you can blame that rubber-covered battery-f*cker over at www.littlelostrobot.com for all the dead bodies that will soon be piling up in cyberspace." Like Seanbaby, he believes that one day robots will try to enslave the human race and that somehow I'll betray my race and help them (like Baltar in Battlestar Galactica).

Although that was nothing to what he unleashed on Gothika. Here's a sample: "Even if this thing weren’t awash in drippy tones of gothic cock-swab, it would still be a hard mystery to swallow in one solid piece. The thing rips flesh from the throat like a Life Saver swallowed whole." and "I’d rather stick my d*ck in a pencil sharpener."

As I'm writing this, I realize that I really don't have a problem with any of this - except for Gothika, which was just bad. The review was actually really funny. Thanks for the shout-out Orange, and for all the good you bring to this world.

Last night not only kicked off the 2003 Holiday Ale Festival in downtown PDX, but it also kicked our asses, as well. Let me tell you, I had a lot of "tasters" (which is beer-talk for a shot) and I soon found myself way too drunk. Two things tipped me off to about how drunk I was (apart from the terrible sickness later):

1. When I called for the cab, I said, "Yeah, Hi. I'd like a cab down at Pioneer Square." but what came out was, "My barb a cabb mat pioneer scare."
2. The fact that I was passed out on my couch at 9:30pm, and woke-up at 4:30am and realized that I never said goodbye to anyone, or really remember the cab ride home.

Anyway, While we tasted quite a bit last night, It did make me thankful to live in such an awesome town with such so many local beer companies. Matter of fact, I think the new state slogan is kinda lame ("Oregon: We Are Dreamers") - maybe considering all the NW microbrews it should unofficially be "Oregon: We Are Drinkers"

I totally forgot to post this a few weeks ago. I was surfing around Wizard and came across the weirdest geek-thing I've seen in a long time: Photomanipulations.



There's a this new trend where comic book dorks find pictures of super models, porn stars, and actresses and then manipulate them into comic book superheriones. For the most part it's just airbrushing a 'costume' on a porn star who's sitting spread eagle by a jacuzzi, and then passing them off as She-hulk or Wonder Woman. I don't know why any of this even came as surprise to me. I'd love to be there when Ali Larter or Jessica Alba's managers show them this and go, "Well, I have some bad news...there are some pictures of you on the internet..." And then watch them have a sigh of relief when it's a photomanipulation of one of them as Scarlet Witch (quickly followed by sheer confusion over what the hell they're looking at).

Check it out for yourself. Here's a gallery, or some of the better websites. [winterhawk] [heromorph] [batdude] Enjoy!

[Note: When I say comic books dorks, I say it as a man who just went a web site to read about comic books, so calm down. And as for the photomanipulations? While I think it's retarded - I looked at each and every one (especially anything Jean Gray or Dark Pheonix).]

I pray for Jodakai.

One month left to go on my Star Wars Galaxies account, and I'm feeling guilt. Not about leaving the game, but about leaving Jodakai. He's a stern, hard-working rifleman-turned-space preacher all alone in vast galaxy of wanna-be bounty hunters. I worked hard to make him look like a bad-ass, like Avery Brooks in Star Trek: Deep Space Mall. And, as much as I like preaching "the word" on Tatooine with my Tusken Raider rifle, the charm is wearing off.

Let's face it it. The game has is many thousands of good points, but it isn't Everquest. And many of the big differences that gave SWG an advantage have mostly been added to EQ since. Maybe it's because I don't have any good friends in Star Wars (they all went back to EQ). Maybe it's that there doesn't seem to be any really cool items to work for, or even casually loot from the body of a slain enemy.

I'm just not sure what it is. All I know is that Jodakai is going to need a Christmakaah miracle by the end of the month or he's all alone out there. "Jodakai, may the force be with you."

I want my Rising Stars!

While reading Sci-Fi channel's website today, I noticed this little article about how JMS is going to (possibly-most likely) make more Babylon 5 television stuff.
Now, I'm sure that there are plenty of Baylon 5 fans (and by plenty I mean eight) getting themsleves all worked-up-excited about it, but the news came as more of an omen to me.

I WILL NOW BEING SPEAKING IN "COMIC BOOK GEEK" VOICE:

Without a doubt JMS is a talented writer, and he'll probably find some way to pull this off, and keep writing Amazing Spiderman for Marvel. But, it's going to delay two of my favorite comics - and that's something I just can't handle right now. It's been MONTHS since there's been a new issue of Rising Stars, which is even more painful considering that the series is getting so close to the big finale. And, I'm totally hooked on Supreme Power now - just in time for it to be delayed, as well.
Maybe I'm just freaking out, but I remember the same thing happening to Fray when Whedon stared to make Firefly (the main difference in this scenario, I LOVED Firefly; B5, not so much).

As I'm going off here I can imagine someone who has no idea what I'm talking about reading through all this, so I'll just end this little rant right here. Thank you for your time.

JMS, get back to work. :)

I got home from work and my girlfriend surprised me with my very own robot stocking! It is probably the most coolest/sweetest/unexpected gift ever - and it's completely hand-crafted.

I love it so much I made a special page with more detailed photos.

P.S. - I'm still working on getting the bugs out of my archive system, so until then, you'll have to just load up my bandwidth-hogging index page. It should be fixed this week.

This ain't your daddy's Battlestar Galactica...

I was just kickin' around the Sci-FI Channel website, and remembered, "Oh yeah! That new Battlestar Galactica is on next week." So, I was poking around in the mini site for it, and now I'm totally excited to see it. But, I gotta tell you - it ain't the same old show.

Here's are some observations:
1. The ships and cylons look pretty similar to the old show - which is good, because they are still rad today.
2. Instead of the pansy robot, Lucifer in the old show there's a sexy femme-bot named "Number Six" (because "Seven of Nine" was probably taken).
3. The most noticeable change is obviously that Starbuck is a female characters now (so is Boomer, but let's face it - even back then Boomer was sort of a female character). I don't mind though, I think that's what they need to "mix it up" a little bit. There's no word as to whether or not "Number Six" and "The New Starbuck" will be clawing at each other this season. We can only hope.

Oh yeah! There's also a nice picture of "The Old Starbuck" and "The New Starbuck" together - drinking at Starbucks. Yeah, it's a weird marketing thing, but that got me thinking...
How many stupid kids are going to watch this show next week and say to their parents, "That is so retarded. They named her after Starbuck's coffee!" I'd pay money to watch a weird-obsessive parent smack their kid after hearing that.