And another interesting software license find.. Dad got me the dvd edition re-releases of the first three Myst games \0/ (which I've had a craving for for about a month now..you will so not see me next week, I'll be sototally absorbed), and in the license for Myst I found that the user is not allowed:

- To use it contrary to morality or the laws in force.

 
The greatest liscence agreement ever (with the possible exception of Apple's paragraph on not being responsible for nuclear disasters):

COPYRIGHT LICENSE - KOPIO-OIKEUSLISENSSI

"This material" (hereafter D6y893) is not freeware. It is owned by "the
author" (hereafter L6kld8j4). "You" (hereafter 8q39ys) are allowed to copy
it without restrictions for non-commercial use.

No payment of any kind may be charged for D6y893 or any combination
of products or services including D6y893 without L6kld8j4's authorization
and official written license.

Commercial use, especially the industrial manufacturing on any data
storage media and their distribution without the expressed permission of
the producer, is strictly prohibited.

D6y893 or the data files contained therein may not be altered or
modified without the permission of L6kld8j4.

8q39ys take full responsibility for the operation of D6y893 and any
consequences thereof. L6kld8j4 can not accept liability for damages
or failures arising from the use of D6y893.

In case of dispute arbitration the place of arbitration shall be Helsinki,
Finland. The language of arbitration shall be Finnish.

..for the game Stair Dismount, which looks like great fun. *G*

 
sototally meant to link this yesterday but forgot, this is THE greatest thing EVER. (well for this week, anyway, heh.)

MIT BUILDING GETS TURNED INTO A MARIO LEVEL.

I kid you not. It is amazing. Gogo.

 
So, after a few days of madness.. COOKIES ARE DONE!!! Well mostly. Still have sugar cokies to do, but I've decided those will be for family consumption, that way Mel and I can take our time and enjoy ourselves later this week and do them. Five varied types, all of which are fantastically delicious, and took far too long to make, not one of them ended up being quite straightforward. Because those that would have been, I decided to decorate with lil tubes of coloured frosting. Which took forever cos there were like 3, 4 dozen of the silly lil things. But they're really pretty now. *G*

Work has been fantastic, it's SO much fun, I'd really want to be doing this even were I not to be paid. (I am, not much, but I am.) I'm in with the kindergarteners and first graders in the after-school program at Pearce, there's like 20-30 of them total, and three other counselours besides me. So things get a little crazy now and again, but much less than you'd expect, really - no worse than ten 2-year olds with three or four teachers. ^^;; And the fun thing is is that they're old enough to have conversations with and play with. And you can reason with them when they're doing things they shouldn't - not remotely possible with 2-year olds. *giggles*
And oh but they're too sweet - I have been clung to, said goodbye to, bragged over when I go off with one group rather than another, asked to be read to, asked to play with, hugged, hand-held, had my lap sat in.. I am very very happy. ^_________^ Today especially I got clung to an awful lot, and it was wonderful. They're so sweet. <3

Christmas cards are in progress as I type this.. so they may be a tad late arriving places. Megs and Zinni, you will have packages on the way hopefully tomorrow, your cards will be in those. ^_^ Daf and Laur, I need to touch base with you guys at some point and give you cookies and cards. *giggles* And anyone know what end of the planet Erik fell off of?

And the main reason I wandered over here - I have things to link.

First off, check out Protopage if you're looking for a random amusement. Not a new concept, but unlike setting up a google or yahoo page or whatever else, you can set your own background and move things around completely. (Yes, hotlinking to Geocities images works - so I have one of my newer desktops as a background, hehe.) And while the colour system is a little weird, it works, and you've a fair bit of control. Hint: head into the Google Labs to use their rss reader to search for new ones to add. Accessible from anywhere, you can make it public or private, as well as set up a series of multiple pages. I've wound up playing with it a good bit the past few days in spite of myself (as well as snuck onto Tom's to leave notes - it's set as private, but he tends to use the same password for things, and I know it by now *cackle*).

Mainly for Megs in case she hadn't heard (though I doubt it, hee; warning to you though, Billie has the hair of doom in the accompanying pic): legal dispute about the mash-up tracks that've been floating around, Warner got pissed off cos of the Green Day tracks - and Billie thinks they're awesome. *giggles* I hadn't realised these were all the same guy, I've heard (thanks to Megs *G*) all of the songs they mention in the article..
But what *really* impressed me was this, which I hadn't heard about (though I'd heard about the legal end):
[...] he put out the call to have a Grey Tuesday protest, modeled after what people did with DJ Danger Mouse's Grey Album back in 2004 (when more than 170 sites posted the album for download after music conglomerate EMI served Danger Mouse with a cease-and-desist order; see "Grey Tuesday Group Says 100,000 Downloaded Jay-Z/Beatles Mix").
*That*, is fanfuckingtastic. That's the greatest thing I've heard in awhile. That, my dears, is what the internet is all about.
<3

Apparently, NYC is working on making broadband accessible to everyone who lives there. This seems reasonable enough, I was just sort of skimming the article.. until I hit upon this:
"Broadband is a fundamental civil right and human right," Bill de Blasio, a city council member, said during the session on Wednesday. "This legislation will start us down this road."
...
...now, I am a technogeek through and through, and I would suffer greatly without my at-least-cable connection. But...
*WHAT*?!?!?!??!!???!?
...right, broadband internet is a fundamental human right, when there are how many people dying each day from lack of clean water? from mosquito bites? good freaking lord.
(I feel like I should and could rant on that for days. But I think the quote says enough on its own.)

On a related, but nicer note, I found a rather nice older article on a meeting between Bono and Jesse Helms. Was looking at a newer article, which linked to another, which linked to this one, and y'know, I thought it was really sweet. I liked it.
And this.. really, really caught at me:
"I don't believe in preaching at people," he told me, back in 1982. A constant theme in his music, he added, is the soul-spinning confusion that results when spirituality, sensuality, ego and sin form a potion that is both intoxicating and toxic. "The truth is that we are all sinners. I always include myself in the 'we.' ... I'm not telling everybody that I have the answers. I'm trying to get across the difficulty that I have being what I am."


..and I wanted to leave it on that nice, cheery note, but instead you get left on a random one: by 2009, all tv transmissions will be digital. So if you're on cable or dish you're just fine, but antennae - like I fiddled with through the majority of my life - will no longer do a thing.
That's so strange to me.

 
so, two things.

1) O. MG. Narnia blew me away. I.. had tears from sheer joy a few times, I was so, so happy, at how absolutely perfect it was. I mean ok not absolutely, there were some changes and things made up, but really? I didn't mind a single one of them, they were either minor things (shorter time span when the wolves are hunting down the pevensies and the beavers) or things that pulled out character things (peter's uncertainty about leading in a battle), things like that, which I really didn't mind.

Debating a little on the White Witch's dreadlocks *giggles* but aside from that.. And I want to go check back on the stone table scene, I mean some things were left out and that was fine, but.. they kinda didn't really show the stone knife, which struck me as odd. And I don't recall there being that much structure around the table, but that I'm really not sure on. But again, very minor things.

It was absolutely gorgeously done, the cinematography was just beautiful, the music was nicely done, the acting and effects all perfect - which I'd worried about a little. I didn't catch a single bad note in the digital effects, which's rare. *dancing* I'm so happy. ^____________^

Tumnus was darling, I love him more than ever. And the kids they had playing the main roles were perfect - not quite how I'd pictured them when reading, but that's because the characters got older as I did each time I re-read. *g*

So yeah. Deeefinitely gets my highest recommendations.



2) Bono is one of Time's people of the year, him and the Gateses, for all their work on world poverty and things. ^_______________________^ Article here. That made me so, so happy to see this morning...

...only it was really, really odd at the same time, and I felt all the closer to it somehow - I dreamed about Bono last night, first time in a long while. Only.. I dreamed that he was sad, *really* sad, almost to despair.. I was sitting down and he was kneeling on the ground, his head in my lap, holding onto me, and I onto him, there were a few other people around.. and all that they said hurt him more, I could see it.. they were saying things about all of his outside work, his work for charity and debt relief and how much politics he'd gotten into, and I don't remember if they were mocking him or saying that they expected more.. but I knew he was upset because he felt the burden was so heavy, and that people saw him as much more than he felt he was.. he kept saying he was just a singer.. and they expected so much more of him, and he couldn't live up to it.. and my heart broke for him, I could see.. it had broken him as well... so I held him near and tried to tell the others to stop, to leave him alone...

...so his grim expression on the cover of Time really struck me this morning. I really don't know..it was just strange.