Fab Favicons

So you think my favicon is boring, do you? Or perhaps your browser is IE6 and you haven’t even seen it, yet? Well, that’s it in the corner, and here it is magnified.

DogRat.gif

All you get to work with is 16×16=256 pixels. That’s it. I tried coming up with a representative icon, but ultimately I decided to keep it literal. Using Microsoft Paint, I clicked the pixels in one-by-one, manually.

I could have done something fancier, like the font-smoothed favicon in the corner of this paragraph that starts out scrolling, but the pixel count came out perfectly for the way I did it, so that’s what I chose. (Note: Firefox may not show the scrolling effect.)

Pulling Zimmy’s Strings

Robert Zimmerman has looked better, but he’s still out there, cranking away! Click here.

Take note that the Flash video player at that link doesn’t display a preview still frame, but it has a timer. I’d rather have the preview frame, but I’d very much like to have a timer on my Flash videos. The new version of the player I’m using still doesn’t have one, and it has technical problems besides, but I’ll find something.

Between Heaven and Haibane

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/Anime/Haibane.flv 425 240]

Honorable son Eric’s latest animé pick is a very odd offering, indeed. Odd because Haibane Renmei depicts angel-like (although not angelic) creatures who are perhaps on their way to Heaven? Seems like a rather Christian basis for a Japanese story. Without Netflix there’s no way we’d be able to see all of these animé titles.

90 Degree Ankle

Compare this scan to the MRI of my ankle at this link. Better, eh? I placed my portable light box face down behind the film during scanning. A simple and effective trick. Why didn’t I think of it before?

“Intrinsically normal posterial tibial tendon.” The previous doctor went along with this! And they were both wrong, wrong, wrong. Four months, two doctors, six weeks of physical therapy — with a $180 co-pay — and here I am, starting all over again. If my ankle had been locked in the orthotic boot at a 90° angle back in July, I would have been able to run the Boston Marathon in April! Grrr…

My wife just suggested the radiologist must have viewed the film without a backlight, so it looked liked my first scan. HA! Wouldn’t doubt it. At least the money spent on the MRI was worthwhile, now that a competent clinician is involved.

Yvonne Craig’s List

Morena Baccarin from Firefly/Serenity was a no-show at this weekend’s Super Megafest in Framingham, MA. Either a “prior commitment” situation or, as my friend Bill speculated, the promoters didn’t have the cash to pay her fee and plane fare.

But lovely Yvonne Craig is there! I missed her last Boston appearance, and I’m happy to report that, as expected, she’s a real sweetheart. That’s Yvonne in one of the two movies she made with Elvis. I had her autograph that picture for my buddy Dennis, who couldn’t attend the convention due to a prior commitment.

Eric was happy to get Billy Dee Williams’ autograph. The admission price is good for both days, so we’ll go back tomorrow. Heck, it’s only seven miles from home.