Michael Hutchison: October 2006 Archives

I don't often come blegging (that's "using a blog for begging" for you newbies) to you guys. Well, okay, I'll beg for you guys to click on that ad banner up above, but the term usually means begging for someone in our wide audience to come up with an answer to a question.

Put simply, how do I move a program from one location to another within my computer without going through the rigamarole of uninstalling and reinstalling? Is there some Freeware/Shareware program which will take a program currently located on Drive x and move it to a new location on Drive y, moving all the settings so that it runs just as if I'd installed it on Drive y in the first place? Years ago, I vaguely recall having a McAfee uninstaller program on an ancient version of McAfee utilities which would do that; I never used it, but that tells me that it is possible.

My current computer was set up at the outset as having a 15 Gig drive C and an 80 gig Drive D. (I believe that's just a partition on the same drive.) This was a really sucky way to set it up, because with modern Windows computers, they use a "Documents and Settings" directory to retain the data for all of your programs as well as documents, image files, the default location for iTunes music, etc. No matter how hard I try to avoid using the C drive where Windows is installed, it fills up pretty fast. I'm now out of room.

I wish I could move some files over to the D drive to alleviate my space problems. If I could move "Documents and Settings" to the D drive, even better!

Anyone have any answers for me? Any replies are appreciated. Well, Mac people can just shut up.

UPDATE!
This is why blegging works! in less than half a day, with only four replies, I have several different but all useful answers!

Brian Murray's answer below is such a simple solution, and yet I had no idea it was possible. I long ago built a second "My Documents" directory on my larger drive, but all of my programs (printer, scanner, camera, iTunes, etc.) point by default to the Windows-established directory on the small C drive. I didn't know you could move it. I've done so, and moved all of my files from the old "My Documents" to the new location on the D drive. For some reason, my C Drive doesn't appear to have gained any space; I'm still investigating that as I write this.

Jeroen Mostert found a tutorial for moving the "Documents and Settings" as well, and "BC" points me to Application Mover.

So, between these three answers, I've moved "My Documents" to the bigger D drive, I may be able to move "Documents and Settings", and I'll be able to move many of my programs from the "Program Files" folder on the C drive to the "Program Files" folder on D. This should alleviate my problem.

And now this blog post will be up for years to help anyone else who has the same problem. I'll have to flag it with some helpful keywords so that others can find it in Google.

Thank you very much, everyone. If you still have further helpful hints, please continue to post. And if you found this post useful, please reply!

Sorry to say this, but this year's Halloween cartoon isn't all that funny. It's not bad, it's just not as ingeniously hilarious as some past entries. That element is offset by the costumes, and this year's Bubs costume is abso-freaking-wonderful.

Homestar Runner vs. Little Girl 2 is worth a giggle, too.

This is the day
Your love has made.
We're all here to watch the
Butterfly King give her the ring.
Joining hands and hearts, 'cause...
--- From "Henchman 21 and 24's Wedding Song"

I love The Venture Brothers. It's a quality cartoon and every episode is a gem. They've just concluded their second season and I can't wait for the Season 2 box set. The Season 1 box set is so exellent I'd run back into my burning house to save it. OK, that's not true, I'd just make sure the replacement cost is counted in the insurance claim since it's only $23 at Amazon. I'm not an imbecile.

But their web site is a little on the shabby side. It's been under construction for years.

For one thing, they've got some great downloads but they're all over the place. Sure you can download Brock's workout music ("Revv Me Up") and the boys' death theme ("Look Away") from the main page, but if you want to hear the Monarch's phone calls from prison you STILL have to go to IGN's site even though it's been two years since they debuted. And the beautiful song that the henchmen sang in the Monarch's wedding episode three weeks ago is also available for download...but that's over at Quick Stop Entertainment (a/k/a "Moviepoopshoot.com" a/k/a Kevin Smith's merchandising site) and I wouldn't even know it if I hadn't been reading the Wikipedia entry.

SO!

For your convenience, here are the links to all the MP3s all in one place. You know, like the Venture Brothers web site should be doing.

Revv Me Up
Look Away
The Monarch calls his Henchmen from prison
The Monarch calls Dr. Girlfriend from prison
Henchmen 21 and 24's wedding song

UPDATE: Two more courtesy of Doug P. (Thanks Doug!)
Songs From The Yard: "Hard Candy Xmas"
Sing with the Monarch and Friend: "Monarch Drummer Boy"

Another update!
"MItre Storm," the love theme of Myra and Dr. Venture, is on Doc Hammer's MySpace.

Now, anyone know where I can find "Hobbit Ride", Brock's Zep-esque jock rock from the pilot episode?

Oh my god, South Park mocks Irwin

A few things need to be said:
A) In South Park EVERYONE goes to Hell but Mormons.
B) South Park's episodes about Hell ALWAYS show a celebrity who has passed away only weeks earlier. Gene Siskel, Walter Mathau, JFK Jr., Lady Di... all have appeared "too soon". That's the joke here. Satan actually is concerned that someone has come dressed as Irwin and he thinks it's insensitive.
C) For that matter, anyone who really knows their South Park would know that Steve Irwin was killed off in the show 8 years ago when he was fighting the defrosted iceman from 1996, was thrown from a train and turned to smithereens by the blades of a helicopter. So really, it's not "too soon".

I realize you're tempted to say, "One is an essential and riotously funny character in one of the all-time great office satires and the other is a dumb cat who has somehow mined comic gold out of endless jokes about the same few topics: hating Mondays, loving lasagne, being fat and lazy, cruelty to dogs and sarcasm about his lame owner." But no, seriously, what is the BIG difference between Garfield and Dogbert if you examine them within the context of their own worlds?

Dogbert talks. Garfield does not.

When Dilbert, the rather sad and pathetic engineer bachelor, comes home to complain about his lousy job and poor social life to his pet, Dogbert belittles him vocally and they hold conversations.

When Jon Arbuckle, the rather sad and pathetic cartoonist bachelor, comes home to complain about his lousy job and poor social life to his pet, Garfield thinks up witty sarcastic responses in thought balloons. Jon doesn't hear Garfield, although often he can tell what Garfield is thinking due to body language or he responds to Garfield's inattentiveness. (And sometimes, the strip strays off concept for a while and Jon seems to understand Garfield as though he were talking.)

In other words, Jon is coming home and holding one-sided conversations with his cat. He isn't hearing anything. To see what Jon is seeing, you'd have to remove his thought balloons.

The folks over at Truth and Beauty Bombs started doing that in a forum thread. The originator was "MackJ" who stated that Garfield becomes a "surrealist" comic, although really it's becoming far more real. This is Jon's reality, and he is a sad schmuck. A cat who loves lasagne? That's surrealist!

Here's just a sample of the strips, culled from the thread which goes on for 19 pages. To see more, check out the full thread. Neil Gaiman himself enjoys the TBB versions of Garfield.

You may also like Ted Mills' "Farfield", in which the silent Garfield is replaced with a realistic cat.

Here's the trailer for "24" Season Six! (Thanks to Libertas which pointed me to Dark Horizons.)

This choppy, seizure-inducing trailer goes by pretty quick, so I couldn't tell which character is played by Alexander Siddig nee Siddig El Fadil a/k/a "Dr. Julian Bashir". You'd think seven years of Star Trek would have ingrained his appearance in my memory, but Siddig seems to lean towards character roles where he changes his appearance each time. (I've watched "Vertical Limit" a couple times and it still baffles me that the Muslim mountain climber Kareem is the same guy who played Julian Bashir.) So, he MIGHT be the muscular bald terrorist leader in the promo; I can't be sure.

I'm going to talk about the rough outline of "Day Six" of 24, so if you don't want to know ANYTHING going in and are skipping the trailer, you'll want to skip the extended entry for this post.

RADAR Online has a new look at those handbags that are selling for over $1000: Handbags of Horror.

This article took some real time and creativity to put together, so salut! (Hat tip to Lucianne.com)

Christopher Guest has made another ensemble picture with his usual suspects called For Your Consideration. This one is about an offbeat movie which is up for consideration for Best Picture and the reaction the stars have to this possibility.

I just realized, this may be the first movie in ages that didn't star people in their 20s. Heck, a lot of these folks are pushing 60! That's pretty cool.

"You great, big, wonderful schnook!" (Does ANYONE get that quote?)

Set your Tivos, DVRs and VCRs, people! B.C. Schnook posted the following on Dixonverse:

Ultimate Avengers 2---October 21 at 9:30pm EST
The Hellboy animated movie---October 28 at 9:30pm EST

I decided to wait on buying Ultimate Avengers 1 due to so-so reviews and found it on the Cartoon Network 3 months later. Even though Ultimates 2 got better reviews, I decided to take a chance and a little over two months later it pays off again and saves me some cash. The Hellboy animated movie was another pleasent surprise.

Having failed in my bid to get Sol's newest hard-to-classify planet named "Procrustes", I'm going to aim BIGGER! I think these Antennae Galaxies should be called "Cheng" and "Eng".

Come on. Who doesn't love that?

By the way, I love these Hubble shots. Remember when "the Hubble Telescope" was first launched and its pictures were so blurry that it became synonymous with "colossal expensive failure"? For, like, a solid year, Johnny Carson and David Letterman had a guaranteed laugh just by referencing it somehow, because everyone agreed it was a big joke. Then the shuttle went up, fixed it, and it's become the saving grace of the space program.

The Bunnies reenact Fight Club in 30 seconds.

Just noticed: the page name reads "flight club".

UPDATED -- Campaign over, links removed.

I'll be back in a few days. You all behave yourselves.

I was up late last night working on something new for the site, but it will have to wait until next week to debut, along with my FallCon report.

These are the last few days here for the Acura campaign, and I have a request. If you haven't checked out the Club RDX link and the MySpace page (and I KNOW you all haven't, unless there are only 8 people reading this site), could you just check them out once? If I could get just 150 more UNIQUE clicks total before the end of the campaign, it'll bring in enough money to pay for the whole site for six months! It's not enough to feed my family or my expensive nose candy habit (WHAT? It's a jawbreaker shaped like a nose! So I like novelty candy. Sue me.), but it's one of the few sources of income I've got right now. Please check them both out if you haven't already. Club RDX is a Flash game.

Enough of me whining. I'm off to relax.

(Those of you who hate politics, please note: this post is more about cartooning than it is about politics.)

Last year, a few newspapers around the world ran cartoons depicting Mohammed... in defiance of some Muslim strictures against showing Mohammed * ... as a test to see whether free speech and journalism still trumped sensitivity to PC concerns (as well as fear of assassination and fatwas). The cartoonists now live in fear for their lives.

* The "some" is because it has not always been so, or has not been enforced, or has been a rule restricted only to Muslims. Images of Mohammed have appeared all throughout history in the Muslim world, as this archive shows. A year before 9/11, South Park even had an episode that depicted Muhammed without any particular controversy, though later a far more innocuous portrayal was censored.

Iran's biggest newspaper had an interesting response to this controversy. They claimed, in essence, that European boasts about "free speech" were only because it wasn't their ox being gored, and so let's just see if their free speech lasts when it comes to running cartoons denying the Holocaust. (In some nations, particularly Germany, it is against the law to deny the Holocaust.) They launched a Holocaust cartoon contest, and have so far received hundreds of odious entries.

So American political cartoonists Cox and Forkum decided to enter to see if they could sneak in a Trojan Horse cartoon that was actually a denunciation of Iran's President Ahmadinejad. Rather than explain it any more here, I'd encourage you to check out the link which explains it in profuse details. All politics aside, I'm fascinated by the artistry of the hidden image.

See if you can spot the trick before it is revealed.

This was too good to leave buried in the comments section of the previous post.

"I don't use locations. I have computers."

Hilarious. Erik Burnham was just today telling me about this cartoon when we were at FallCon. I come home and find that Blue Spider has linked to the site, which saved me a whole lot of web searching.

So here it is: How Superman Should Have Ended. This requires a DIVX player plugin.

They also have endings for Weird Science, the Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Blair Witch and a bunch of others.

See you guys at FallCon!

And if I DON'T see you this weekend, put it on your calendars for 2007. It's always the first weekend in October.

Earlier this week, I saw that Skull the Troll, followed by Brent Sienna and Francis Ottoman all had MySpace pages. It bugged me so much that I left that tab open in my browser to remind me to post a rant about it.

I finally did. Today. And I completely forgot to mention Skull, Brent and Francis.

Where's my noggin? I think I'm losing brain cells from looking at interminable personality quizzes.

UPDATED -- Campaign over, links removed.

Enough comics for the day. I'll be back with more tomorrow. Now, for a bit of personal ranting.

As most of you know, I lost my job at the end of July and I'm still unemployed. Here's hoping that FallCon brings in a few bucks. I've been making some comic book sales, which is always a good thing.

I'm trying to look for a job, too. For years, I've lamented that when applying for a job, everyone wants you to use THEIR application form. Even though it's the same info on every single fricking application ... name, address, school, jobs, can you supply three references, willing to take a drug test, sign and date ... you can't just come in with a pre-filled form, drop it off and go. No, you have to sit down, hand-write the dang thing in pen, trying to remember the phone number of a place you worked four years ago ... all too often, referring to a form you've brought with you for that information but having to rewrite it so that it has their logo at the top of the form. I don't know what kind of supreme executive power I'd need to change society, but if it were up to me there'd be a Standardized Form for all jobs and you'd be allowed to drop off your copy.

Well, that may have been true before. NOW every retail franchise now wants you to ONLY apply online. If you stop by Office Depot and ask for an application, they tell you to go to their web site. There's something odd about all the modest-paying jobs requiring you to have Internet access to apply! (How you like that, all you people who hate my politics? My first kneejerk reaction is concern for the poor! Remember that!)

The nice thing about online applications is that Roboform will fill in all the basic fields for you. Saves a tiny bit of time.

But, off-setting that time savings is that every company now has a personality test that they make you take. It goes on for pages and pages asking you variations on the same question. Staples seems convinced that I'm a thief and asks me 20 different variations about how much in-store theft is OK. Best Buy has a 100-question survey, all of them about whether I get into fistfights and arguments with other employees and whether I'm a leader or a follower.

The worst part of the Best Buy application is that it only allows you to apply for two jobs total. I have no clue what positions are available, whether they need full time or part time help, etc. If I were applying in the store, I could just ASK them what people they're looking for. How stupid is it to spend an hour filling out an application for a cashier position if they need help in computers and I'm willing and able to work in that section? What's worse...if I want to apply for that department, do I have to take that fricking 100-question survey all over again? It won't even let me apply for both full-time and part-time.

I've been applying for jobs, but at the rate these forms take to fill out, it's very slow going. I've got to find something to help bring in some serious cash.

Which reminds me: The Acura campaign is ending in a week, and they just e-mailed me that I'll get a nice bonus if I can round up only about 100 more UNIQUE clicks. That means it's pointless to click the add over and over again, though I appreciate the sentiments. However, if you would all kindly tell your friends on AIM and ICQ and e-mail and... God help me ... MySpace to just stop by and click on this link in this post, I would be ever so grateful.

I must admit... if I had the money for a new car, the Acura does seem cool. Here I put this Flash ad at the top of my web site to make money and all it's doing is making me want the car.

Seriously, Beau Smith has worked in marketing for years and knows his stuff. Regarding my Myspace rant, he e-mailed me with this to say:

As far as MySpace....it's it yet another marketing tool, but one that a guy like me has to hit and hit hard now while it's still in the news and new people...that don't read comics....are getting on it.

It's worked rather well for me so far. I've made some very good connections with new film makers and folks in the music biz. It's giving me a braid base of new people to add to my rolodex of power.

You find with your main domain that after a while the same people come by, but if you go out and troll for new ones it makes a difference.I look at things like MySpace as a steering wheel to get em' to my main page.

OK, Beau convinced me. I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a central spot to gather all of my many sinister soups into one spot. I'll start a MySpace page when I have time. I imagine that'll be around 2008.

What is this, Marvel day?

Beau Smith is on about Marvel again.

Oh...and Beau is on MySpace. Of course he is.

!!!!!!!

I just DON'T GET IT! What is the big deal about MySpace? It's like people have discovered web pages all over again. For crying out loud, HTML isn't that hard, people!

Everybody has a MySpace page! The Midwest Comic Book Association has one. Luann the comic character has one, as does her enemy. I've seen MOVIES announcing their MySpace page instead of having a domain. Everyone wants to get their list of friends up to an amazing number. I don't know what happens if you do. Is there some sort of cyber-popular table that the winners get to sit at?

Remember back when web sites first came out and every advertisement on TV was shouting their "double-u-double-u-double-u-dot-com" at the end? It got really annoying. Hearing and reading "MySpace" is getting to be the same way.

There. Got that off my chest.

Now I can get in on this trend late and begin giving out my MySpace URL relentlessly in the hopes of being super-popular like the rest of you.

UPDATE:
Geoff Johns, Brad Meltzer and Brian Posehn, too. I just don't get it. If you're a superstar who could (and does) have his own domain and customized site, why would you want some stupid little page that an 11-year-old can make? Or is that why people like it, because it's the great equalizer?

What am I missing, here?

I'll be appearing at FallCon in St. Paul, Minnesota, this weekend. I owe the Midwest Comic Book Association an apology for not plugging this incessantly for the last month or two. I love FallCon. Attending other conventions is nothing but bother and expense, but the MCBA goes out of their way to treat every creator like a king (or queen). It doesn't matter if you're Gene Ha or just some guy who has a badly mimeographed mini-book about stick figures, they love all creators and treat them right.

(Unlike some conventions where Insane Clown Posse is a featured guest but the creator of Green Lantern has to buy his own table and isn't allowed into the break room. Just saying.)

This year, the Batmobile is going to be there. Wow.

For me, it's a chance to see buddies like Tom Nguyen (who this year has a lecture about getting getting gorgeous women to model for you, which probably boils down to "be a funny weight lifter"), Erik Burnham, Bob Lipski, Gordon Purcell and Professor James Kakalios. I get to sell some books, plug Metro Med ("I'm WORKING on it! Geez!") and I'm considering selling really bad sketches. I mean, really bad.

I'm hoping to find the person who last year bought a piece of artwork by Erik Burnham from me and then lost it. (It was found on the road outside, complete with tire tread.)

I do wonder how packed it's going to be. Last time I saw the guest list, it looked like there were about 150 people! I think it's wonderful that the con continues to grow...so long as they can continue to find spaces to hold it in.

I also have to reign myself in on the charity auction. Last year I went a little overboard on the spending. That reminds me, I need to sell that super-rare poster and the Spawn artwork that I bought a year ago. Guess I'll be hitting eBay soon. I need the cash.

I hope to see some Monitor Duty readers there. Be sure to stop on by if you can.

Now, my goal for 2007: Try to convince all the comic pros I have ties to (especially Chuck Dixon, Beau Smith and Scott Beatty) to attend FallCon next year. I know it's a longer trip than usual, but FallCon's like a vacation compared to the corporate conventions.

For the full announcement, including lectures, read on:

Some of Monitor Duty's readers may be new and unfamiliar with my standing re: Marvel.

I don't read Marvel. I've never read Marvel. I'm such a NON-Marvel reader that I can list herewith the total, er, list of my Marvel reading from childhood to today.

Beau Smith sent me this:

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Wally Wood, Don Heck and the rest of the "nutty Marvel Bullpen" cut a record.

Jeez, I don't know who this "Flo" was, but she sure is reading that script. There aren't any real actors here...Stan included...but it is interesting.

Thanks for the tip, Beau!

UPDATE: No, I don't know that Flo Steinberg is Stan Lee's secretary. I don't read Marvel, remember?

You will enjoy issue #4 of Civil War now that it has been re-captioned!

Scott at Polite Dissent offers the Dr. Doom caption contest, wherein you take this empty word balloon and put in your own dialogue.

I just had to try!

Star Trek Vs. Batman, Part 1

Great job on the costumes and production, but how is it that they fail at two of the easiest imitations in the world, namely William Shatner and Adam West?

Here is the official site. Hat tip: Progressive Ruin (again!).

What's that? You want Part Two? OK.

I hadn't visited Progressive Ruin before, so I was not familiar with a running gag that they apparently do called "The End of Civilization". What's that?

Mike Sterling makes fun of items and announcements in Diamond Previews.

Hilarious. Now I'll have to read all the earlier installments of that series. Way to blow all my free time.