WoW: Mists of Pandaria
The big news around these parts, of course, is that the pandas are coming. You know, I have to say, this trailer makes it look awesome. Two races that hate each other land in a strange place, start up their fight, and then discover the locals can kick their butt? It looks cool. I would play that game. Unfortunately though, I’ve played WoW and I know that instead it’s more like, “Kill 47 rats and then take this message somewhere” over and over until I get bored. The Snook is looking forward to it though…

“Elegant and Fine” – another short story written from the point of Susan from the Narnia books. Lots of people have trouble with Susan, myself included. And I don’t think it’s Susan’s fault. I can’t find it in the archives, but I’m sure I’ve talked about Neil Gaiman’s “The Problem of Susan” before as well… (Link courtesy of John.)

The New New Girl: Mindy Kaling Promotes Herself Out of The Office and Into The Mindy Project – I really hope The Mindy Project airs here. LOVE HER. Also, the bit about her Mom passing away made me tear up…

“Throw Like a Girl? You Can Do Better.” – That’s fascinating. I expected the research involving Australian Aboriginal children to show that it’s completely an issue of practice and strength, but it seems there’s more to it than that. I totally throw like a girl, and it’s something I’ve always wished I could do better. I wonder if somebody could teach me properly?

Chibi Game of Thrones figures – I like Khal Drogo and the Hound the best. (They should’ve made Ned’s head detachable.)

How to 3D Print Your Own Plastic Records for a Fisher Price Record Player – My jaw dropped open. This is super cool. I had one of those record players!

Since I’ve been using the new Mac-native GIMP 2.8, the only major annoyance has been the fact that Save and Export are now separate functions. Save can only save GIMP .xcf files, and for anything else you have to export (and click through extra dialogs). HOWEVER – today I found out how to fix this! Check out this article and follow the instructions for reassigning the CMD-S keyboard shortcut. Voila! My workflow is restored. (The stuff about the new single-window mode is great too. I set that up as soon as I figured it out. Love it.)

Woohoo! In case you missed my tweet, the GIMP is now available as a native Mac application. I downloaded and installed this morning, and I’m thrilled to report that it fixes every one of my complaints about the old version (which required X11). It looks nicer and more Mac-like; the shortcuts all use CMD instead of CTRL; and you don’t have to click on each window to change focus. If you use GIMP on a Mac, I highly recommend installing this one.

For those who don’t know, the GIMP is an Open Source image editing program. Basically, it’s Photoshop but it’s free instead of hundreds of dollars.

Gender Differences in Fat Metabolism – Interesting. I have noted several times now that when I lose weight, it tends to come off my upper body (around the rib cage) first. And no matter what I do, I can’t seem to slim down my chunky thighs. It’s also very evident that my body tends to hold on to weight in general a lot more than the Snook’s. (His belly is almost gone!) MDA makes the case that this is natural and, if anything, means that my body is probably pretty healthy.

Two weeks from tonight Popcorn Taxi are showing a remastered print of Raiders of the Lost Ark followed by a Q&A with John Rhys-Davies! And we’re going. YAY!