Tom's Mad Blog
August 14th, 2007 | Posted in General
Well, the problems with the blog have been solved. Nothing is ever as easy as it’s supposed to be. Last night I did a routine upgrade to my WordPress blog software. It’s a simple procedure where I download the new files, delete the old from my website and upload the new ones to replace them. You have to be careful not to delete the files containing your uploaded posts, images and settings, or your customized theme if you have one. I’ve done it a half dozen times at least since I started this blog. This was supposed to be a simple upgrade that just patched… READ MORE
August 13th, 2007 | Posted in General
After an upgrade my blog is having serious problems and I may be “off the air” for a while. READ MORE
August 13th, 2007 | Posted in General
Here’s a few I did this weekend while working at the park. Sorry, some of the pictures are pretty bad: READ MORE
August 12th, 2007 | Posted in Freelancing
Q: Have you ever turned down an assignment for MAD, and if so, why? A: Only once. Several years ago I was driving to Massachusetts to open my theme park operation at Six Flags New England for the first time. I received a call from MAD to do a parody of a movie called “Panic Room” starring Jodie Foster and Forrest Whitaker. Much as I would have loved to do it, I was about to spend almost two weeks setting up and working at the theme park, plus the drive home to Minnesota from Massachusetts. The deadline was too tight, so I had to turn… READ MORE
August 11th, 2007 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
After the endless hype and press coverage, I promised it would be some time before I wrote again about the Apple iPhone. The frenzy has died down now so I thought I’d relate my final assessment of the gadget now that I’ve used one for going on two months in the “real world”. When people see me with the phone I invariably get asked one question… does it live up to the hype? The answer is not cut and dried. In certain ways the phone exceeds the hype, in some it is good but not exceptional, and in some it is woefully inadequate. A lot… READ MORE
August 10th, 2007 | Posted in General
I’m a pretty big baseball fan. While the sport has taken it’s lumps the last decade or so, it’s still the best sport in the U.S. Pro football is full of monstrous egos and grossly overpaid showoffs that play for a whopping 60 minutes every week. Every time I see a player crawling around on the ground and barking like a dog after making a routine tackle I get sick to my stomach. The ridiculous hype and endless rehashing of that 60 minutes of play time is even worse. Pro basketball is full of thugs and criminals, and players who whine and quit playing hard… READ MORE
August 9th, 2007 | Posted in General
I’m on my way today for a very brief visit to my park operation at Six Flags New England, so little time to blog. However, here’s something I’ve been meaning to mention: The newly released Popeye DVD. I’m not a big animation afficinado, but I regcognize good stuff when I see it. The early Popeye animated shorts from Max Fleischer studios are good stuff. Warner Brothers just released the first of several volumes of Popeye cartoons on DVD: “Popeye the Sailor: 1933-1938 Vol.1“. This is something special for Popeye fans… the first 60 Fleischer shorts all remastered from the original negatives, uncut, shown in chronological… READ MORE
August 8th, 2007 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Sketchbook doodle of Robin Williams with a very unlikely expression. I did a quick ink job and added some values with some old gray design markers. READ MORE
