Pop Culture Victim
Saturday, January 31, 2004
An Amendment.
Please note that Boobah does indeed work. It says that if the logo doesn't glow, it doesn't work, but it does. Click it anyways. And please email me if you know what's going on, because I sure don't. ¶ 9:21 p.m. 0 comments
Please note that Boobah does indeed work. It says that if the logo doesn't glow, it doesn't work, but it does. Click it anyways. And please email me if you know what's going on, because I sure don't. ¶ 9:21 p.m. 0 comments
Taco Pie, Part Deuce
My re-adventure with this mysterious dish managed to hit a peak tonight, when I... made it again. Properly this time though, without any of the synthetic cheese and mystery spice. I'll put the recipe (if you can call it that, I just kinda winged it) at the bottom so you can try it, if you're particularily insane. It is really good though, and easy to expand upon.
SO superior, part "ni"
That's 2 in Japanese, by the way. Anyways, after my little tirade about not feeling so bad that I feel superior to Americans, my pal Berry sent me this happy little piece of Canadian hate. Since I like doing silly things like this, I had originally in this space a rebuttal a bunch of the points he made (and some of them are indeed rather accurate). However, after reading it, I came to the conclusion that it was really rather petty. I'll just move on with the statement that, even if what this guy says is true, I'd still rather be a Canuck than a Yank.
We interrupt this broadcast with:
Just received by instant message (as in as I type this...) this little clip. I will definitely NOT buy those swords, since they are just far too high in quality for me.
Also received via IM, (but I got them yesterday) are these happy little spots: Boobah, Real Ultimate Sloth!, and Barcode Art. Now go waste your time.
Cars, and why you should be afraid of them
One thing I've noticed in Ontario is the total lack of fear towards automotives that the general populace seems to have. Here is a group of people, who by and large, will not hesitate to walk into traffic whenever it suits them. Even if a bus is hurtling down the road a block away or so, ready and willing to turn your nice structured-with-a-skeleton body into something resembling applesauce, and people will, if they need to be on the road opposite where they are, simply walk into the street and cross. Lights? We don't need no stinking lights. How these people are still alive is totally beyond me. Also beyond me is why this suicidal habit is starting to rub off on me. If I'm waiting with someone for the light, and they just decide to walk across, I just might go with them. I'd like to think that they're running point for me, and that I can always let them take the brunt of the impact. But I'm a nice guy, really...
Seriously though, I saw a guy walk right through a line of cars waiting to make a left turn. The driver he walked in front of was just about to move forward when suddenly there was a pedestrian in his way. The look of surprise and sheer bewilderment that he was just cut off by a person was quite humourous. Makes me wonder how Kevin is faring in Toronto...
As promised...
...here is the recipe for TACO PIE!!!, as made by me. Just now. About an hour ago. Apologies in advance for any vagueness in the following, since I really did kind of make it up as I go. I suggest that you do the same.
What you need:
- Some tortillas. How many will depend on how high you want to stack your pie, which in turn depends on how high you CAN stack your pie, which in turn depends on the height of your pan/casserole dish. I used 4 8" flour tortillas.
- Ground beef. I find that a 500g package of lean ground beef works just great.
- Cheese. How much depends on how much you like cheese, but it should be shredded regardless. I found that about 2 loose bowls was good.
- Veggies. This is to pad out the ground beef in the middle, and can be anything from beans to eggplant. I used a small can of corn niblets, about a half-dozen little sweet peppers (they were like mini Bell peppers!) and some hot peppers.
- Onion. I used about half a medium sized onion.
- Flour. To thicken the filling, so only a handful or so is needed.
- Water. To help sauceify the filling, so not much needed either.
- Tomato sauce. Again, to help sauceify the filling, so I used a small can of all-purpose tomato sauce. Bland, but works.
- Salsa. For taste when served.
- Sour Cream. The same.
What to do:
1. Dice up the onion, peppers and get the veggies and tomato sauce ready. Also, preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a large greased frying pan, cook the onions on medium heat until they're soft. Only takes about 5-10 minutes.
3. In the same pan, brown the ground beef on medium-high heat. Takes about another 10 minutes or so. Drain the beef and onions when you're done.
4. Add the veggies (corn, peppers, etc) and tomato sauce to the pan. Mix it up, and then add the water and flour. Simmer on low heat until it's kind of thick.
5. In an 8" casserole/baking pan (it should probably be circular), put a tortilla on the bottom. Fold about 1/2 the cheese into the filling in the frying pan, and spread a portion of the filling onto the tortilla. This should be pretty evenly distributed, so since I had 4 layers, I put about a 1/4 of the filling on the bottom. I should think this would be obvious.
6. Put another tortilla on top of the layer and repeat. At the end, you want to have the top layer be meat, and not tortilla.
7. Top the pie with cheese and whatever veggies you have for garnish. I used a few of the diced hot peppers.
8. Bake in the now-350F oven for about 15 minutes, or until warmed throughout and the cheese is melted on top. Serve with salsa and sour cream.
So that's it. Go make it now! It's tasty! Other than that, I really need to go crash and watch a movie or something, since I am quite exhausted. Went skating this afternoon, and I'm just bagged. ¶ 4:30 p.m. 0 comments
My re-adventure with this mysterious dish managed to hit a peak tonight, when I... made it again. Properly this time though, without any of the synthetic cheese and mystery spice. I'll put the recipe (if you can call it that, I just kinda winged it) at the bottom so you can try it, if you're particularily insane. It is really good though, and easy to expand upon.
SO superior, part "ni"
That's 2 in Japanese, by the way. Anyways, after my little tirade about not feeling so bad that I feel superior to Americans, my pal Berry sent me this happy little piece of Canadian hate. Since I like doing silly things like this, I had originally in this space a rebuttal a bunch of the points he made (and some of them are indeed rather accurate). However, after reading it, I came to the conclusion that it was really rather petty. I'll just move on with the statement that, even if what this guy says is true, I'd still rather be a Canuck than a Yank.
We interrupt this broadcast with:
Just received by instant message (as in as I type this...) this little clip. I will definitely NOT buy those swords, since they are just far too high in quality for me.
Also received via IM, (but I got them yesterday) are these happy little spots: Boobah, Real Ultimate Sloth!, and Barcode Art. Now go waste your time.
Cars, and why you should be afraid of them
One thing I've noticed in Ontario is the total lack of fear towards automotives that the general populace seems to have. Here is a group of people, who by and large, will not hesitate to walk into traffic whenever it suits them. Even if a bus is hurtling down the road a block away or so, ready and willing to turn your nice structured-with-a-skeleton body into something resembling applesauce, and people will, if they need to be on the road opposite where they are, simply walk into the street and cross. Lights? We don't need no stinking lights. How these people are still alive is totally beyond me. Also beyond me is why this suicidal habit is starting to rub off on me. If I'm waiting with someone for the light, and they just decide to walk across, I just might go with them. I'd like to think that they're running point for me, and that I can always let them take the brunt of the impact. But I'm a nice guy, really...
Seriously though, I saw a guy walk right through a line of cars waiting to make a left turn. The driver he walked in front of was just about to move forward when suddenly there was a pedestrian in his way. The look of surprise and sheer bewilderment that he was just cut off by a person was quite humourous. Makes me wonder how Kevin is faring in Toronto...
As promised...
...here is the recipe for TACO PIE!!!, as made by me. Just now. About an hour ago. Apologies in advance for any vagueness in the following, since I really did kind of make it up as I go. I suggest that you do the same.
What you need:
- Some tortillas. How many will depend on how high you want to stack your pie, which in turn depends on how high you CAN stack your pie, which in turn depends on the height of your pan/casserole dish. I used 4 8" flour tortillas.
- Ground beef. I find that a 500g package of lean ground beef works just great.
- Cheese. How much depends on how much you like cheese, but it should be shredded regardless. I found that about 2 loose bowls was good.
- Veggies. This is to pad out the ground beef in the middle, and can be anything from beans to eggplant. I used a small can of corn niblets, about a half-dozen little sweet peppers (they were like mini Bell peppers!) and some hot peppers.
- Onion. I used about half a medium sized onion.
- Flour. To thicken the filling, so only a handful or so is needed.
- Water. To help sauceify the filling, so not much needed either.
- Tomato sauce. Again, to help sauceify the filling, so I used a small can of all-purpose tomato sauce. Bland, but works.
- Salsa. For taste when served.
- Sour Cream. The same.
What to do:
1. Dice up the onion, peppers and get the veggies and tomato sauce ready. Also, preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a large greased frying pan, cook the onions on medium heat until they're soft. Only takes about 5-10 minutes.
3. In the same pan, brown the ground beef on medium-high heat. Takes about another 10 minutes or so. Drain the beef and onions when you're done.
4. Add the veggies (corn, peppers, etc) and tomato sauce to the pan. Mix it up, and then add the water and flour. Simmer on low heat until it's kind of thick.
5. In an 8" casserole/baking pan (it should probably be circular), put a tortilla on the bottom. Fold about 1/2 the cheese into the filling in the frying pan, and spread a portion of the filling onto the tortilla. This should be pretty evenly distributed, so since I had 4 layers, I put about a 1/4 of the filling on the bottom. I should think this would be obvious.
6. Put another tortilla on top of the layer and repeat. At the end, you want to have the top layer be meat, and not tortilla.
7. Top the pie with cheese and whatever veggies you have for garnish. I used a few of the diced hot peppers.
8. Bake in the now-350F oven for about 15 minutes, or until warmed throughout and the cheese is melted on top. Serve with salsa and sour cream.
So that's it. Go make it now! It's tasty! Other than that, I really need to go crash and watch a movie or something, since I am quite exhausted. Went skating this afternoon, and I'm just bagged. ¶ 4:30 p.m. 0 comments
Friday, January 30, 2004
It's Ele-egg-tric. Oh yes.
Bad puns of the world, UNITE!!!
Anyhoo, I'm having eggs for supper tonight. They're on a tortilla with some ground beef and cheese though, so it's more like nachos for breakfast. At night. Yeah, it's weird, but then again, so am I. Now I was talking to one of my fellow Force Monkeys Mods last night, and it was mentioned that all I seem to do all day (at least as can be determined from this blog) is cook and play video games. This is not true. Cooking and video games are but one aspect of my very rich, vast and deep persona. Just one of the many layers that makes up this humble little internet writer. I'm like an ogre.
Seriously though, I *do* do other things. It's just that I work for the government, so I can't talk about what I do at work, and I'm still really new in town and don't really do that much else that's worth talking about online. Stories about coming home from work and making perogies are quite high on my "interesting stuff that I wouldn't mind if the whole world knew" list. Lame, I know, but it's better than "did some stuff. ate peanuts. going to die. blah." Bear with me. (I may even be in the Lame-o-lympics!) When breaking news (like swordfighting!!!) occurs, and I feel like sharing, I will. Until then, you'll have to make due with internet news and stories about eggs.
Speaking of which...
From Mimi Smartypants... the Best. Headline. Evar. I mean really. You would have to start making up news to get something that's better.
Found an interesting quote too. I find it quite true...
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power. -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)
Lastly, I *must* own this book. It has suddenly jumped up to the top of the list of "things I must read" (a spot previously occupied by Roger Van Oech's Whack on the Side of the Head, about creative thinking).
We are SO superior...
I read an article in the news at work the other day, regarding how Canadians have an air of superiority about them with regards to Americans. The work goes on to talk about Canadian stand-up comedy and how they all seem to put the same spin on things. Canadians are calm, polite and easy-going, while Americans are loud, rude, ignorant about Canada, etc. Basically the whole thing was geared towards saying that we feel too smug about ourselves and that this was not, in general, healthy. This wasn't what my brain interpreted though. By the end of the article, I was saying "Hell yeah! We ARE superior! Suck it down USA!" I was initially struck by how brainwashed I am regarding the whole thing, and that I'm sure most Americans are the very model of North American productivity, morality and prosperity. Then the rational part of my brain snuck up on the wistful, still-struck part and kicked the little bitch's ass. I still wonder how a country can be the top of the socio-politico-economic food chain in the world, and yet be mired down by exactly what makes it "the top". A pair of ducks, er, paradox to be sure. Those puns are getting restless again. Interestingly enough, while looking for the above-mentioned article online, I found a similar one here.
More internet randomosity!
Good god, he's in print. All the Wesley Crusher you can handle, now in a 3-part pile 'o' paper format!
In line with some of the above, here's the Ben and Jerry's guy talking about Oreos and how to fix the US budget. It's kind of odd why this hasn't happened already.
And to accomodate all those who don't have enough attention span to read anything else I've posted, this is a bunch of stuff getting shot. ¶ 4:06 p.m. 0 comments
Bad puns of the world, UNITE!!!
Anyhoo, I'm having eggs for supper tonight. They're on a tortilla with some ground beef and cheese though, so it's more like nachos for breakfast. At night. Yeah, it's weird, but then again, so am I. Now I was talking to one of my fellow Force Monkeys Mods last night, and it was mentioned that all I seem to do all day (at least as can be determined from this blog) is cook and play video games. This is not true. Cooking and video games are but one aspect of my very rich, vast and deep persona. Just one of the many layers that makes up this humble little internet writer. I'm like an ogre.
Seriously though, I *do* do other things. It's just that I work for the government, so I can't talk about what I do at work, and I'm still really new in town and don't really do that much else that's worth talking about online. Stories about coming home from work and making perogies are quite high on my "interesting stuff that I wouldn't mind if the whole world knew" list. Lame, I know, but it's better than "did some stuff. ate peanuts. going to die. blah." Bear with me. (I may even be in the Lame-o-lympics!) When breaking news (like swordfighting!!!) occurs, and I feel like sharing, I will. Until then, you'll have to make due with internet news and stories about eggs.
Speaking of which...
From Mimi Smartypants... the Best. Headline. Evar. I mean really. You would have to start making up news to get something that's better.
Found an interesting quote too. I find it quite true...
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power. -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)
Lastly, I *must* own this book. It has suddenly jumped up to the top of the list of "things I must read" (a spot previously occupied by Roger Van Oech's Whack on the Side of the Head, about creative thinking).
We are SO superior...
I read an article in the news at work the other day, regarding how Canadians have an air of superiority about them with regards to Americans. The work goes on to talk about Canadian stand-up comedy and how they all seem to put the same spin on things. Canadians are calm, polite and easy-going, while Americans are loud, rude, ignorant about Canada, etc. Basically the whole thing was geared towards saying that we feel too smug about ourselves and that this was not, in general, healthy. This wasn't what my brain interpreted though. By the end of the article, I was saying "Hell yeah! We ARE superior! Suck it down USA!" I was initially struck by how brainwashed I am regarding the whole thing, and that I'm sure most Americans are the very model of North American productivity, morality and prosperity. Then the rational part of my brain snuck up on the wistful, still-struck part and kicked the little bitch's ass. I still wonder how a country can be the top of the socio-politico-economic food chain in the world, and yet be mired down by exactly what makes it "the top". A pair of ducks, er, paradox to be sure. Those puns are getting restless again. Interestingly enough, while looking for the above-mentioned article online, I found a similar one here.
More internet randomosity!
Good god, he's in print. All the Wesley Crusher you can handle, now in a 3-part pile 'o' paper format!
In line with some of the above, here's the Ben and Jerry's guy talking about Oreos and how to fix the US budget. It's kind of odd why this hasn't happened already.
And to accomodate all those who don't have enough attention span to read anything else I've posted, this is a bunch of stuff getting shot. ¶ 4:06 p.m. 0 comments
Thursday, January 29, 2004
Chuck Palahniuk ate my spleen.
Some of you may have seen a movie called Fight Club. Some may have also read the book it was based on. I have done both, and I share the sentiment that both of these works are good. What I have not done, however, is read more of Chuck's stuff. From Choke to Diary: A Novel, many of his works are still on my "to read" list. His short story "GUTS" however, is not. This is because I managed to hear it via a bootlegged mp3 last night. My opinion of it can be summed up in one very cliche, very used phrase.
FUBAR.
I'm really hoping that you know what that acronym stands for, since it's probably one of the most concise descriptions of "GUTS" that I can think of. Seriously, this story manages to top every embarrassing story you've ever heard about anyone. I would be very hard pressed to think of something that could happen to you that could be worse than this, and so, I would hope, should you be. Alternately disgustingly revolting and gut-bustingly hilarious, this is basically a twisted little romp on the topic of masturbation that only someone like Mr. Palahniuk could come up with. The weak of stomach need not apply. (literally, as some people have been reported to faint and vomit during his live readings) The truly brave can listen to the same mp3 I heard by clicking the above, and the more cautious can find out what this is all about by highlighting the below. If you are at all wanting to hear (or read, as the print version will be published in the March 2004 issue of Playboy) the story first-hand, I highly discourage checking out the little spoilers, as it will totally ruin it for you.
It's about a guy (well, several really, but the meat of the story is about one) who manages to get his large intestine sucked out of his asshole while jerking off at the bottom of a pool. He has to chew it off to get free. And it's told in the first person. You need to know this like you need teeth in your asshole. Glad to know?
And now the interesting news...
Beware Nokia phones... They can make you explode!
Cut your cheese, LASER STYLE!!! I would kill for one of those things, as I have much difficulty slicing cheese with my current slicer, and I am too cheap to buy a better one. You can send your pity in denominations of 10s and 20s, in paper envelopes please.
Call the French what you will, but not even Americans have the balls to pass this kind of thing. From what I hear though, they're already starting to pass the initial legislation or something...
Also, from BoingBoing.net,
The idea was originally from this article.
Boogaboogabooga! I'm the Phaaaaaaaantom!!
So turns out the Phantom game system may not be totally bogus after all. It's an interesting concept, and one that I think, quite frankly, shows a lot of promise. The idea of having broadband streamed games direct on demand to your TV is pretty cool, but from the sounds of it, they have a lot of work to get through first. Hopefully at E3 there will be something more meaty for people to dig into and make better judgements on. At least the whole thing isn't a hoax though...
Totally unrelated, (isn't everything though?) but today's Real Life is really really good, particularily if you've ever seen the Clerks! animated series. If you haven't, then I highly recommend you go rent/buy it immediately, especially if you liked the Clerks! movie. A combination of random mayhem with the unique perspectives of the two main characters, the only thing wrong with the series is that it was made for prime-time. Had it been produced for HBO or some other more ballsy network, as was South Park, it might still air today. At it stood, Kevin Smith couldn't use his grand repertoire of dick and fart jokes. Still, between the celebrity cameos, all the original actors reprising their roles, and a really kickin' visual style, it's a great watch. The DVD comes with a buttload of special features (commentary for all 6 episodes!!!) so you get even more bang for your bucks.
Last little thing to touch on, is that as I said before, Sympatico's news server blows chunks. The solution to all this lies in the little detail of me having unlimited bandwidth. Bring on the Torrents!! Ain't DSL wicked? ¶ 5:46 p.m. 0 comments
Some of you may have seen a movie called Fight Club. Some may have also read the book it was based on. I have done both, and I share the sentiment that both of these works are good. What I have not done, however, is read more of Chuck's stuff. From Choke to Diary: A Novel, many of his works are still on my "to read" list. His short story "GUTS" however, is not. This is because I managed to hear it via a bootlegged mp3 last night. My opinion of it can be summed up in one very cliche, very used phrase.
FUBAR.
I'm really hoping that you know what that acronym stands for, since it's probably one of the most concise descriptions of "GUTS" that I can think of. Seriously, this story manages to top every embarrassing story you've ever heard about anyone. I would be very hard pressed to think of something that could happen to you that could be worse than this, and so, I would hope, should you be. Alternately disgustingly revolting and gut-bustingly hilarious, this is basically a twisted little romp on the topic of masturbation that only someone like Mr. Palahniuk could come up with. The weak of stomach need not apply. (literally, as some people have been reported to faint and vomit during his live readings) The truly brave can listen to the same mp3 I heard by clicking the above, and the more cautious can find out what this is all about by highlighting the below. If you are at all wanting to hear (or read, as the print version will be published in the March 2004 issue of Playboy) the story first-hand, I highly discourage checking out the little spoilers, as it will totally ruin it for you.
It's about a guy (well, several really, but the meat of the story is about one) who manages to get his large intestine sucked out of his asshole while jerking off at the bottom of a pool. He has to chew it off to get free. And it's told in the first person. You need to know this like you need teeth in your asshole. Glad to know?
And now the interesting news...
Beware Nokia phones... They can make you explode!
Cut your cheese, LASER STYLE!!! I would kill for one of those things, as I have much difficulty slicing cheese with my current slicer, and I am too cheap to buy a better one. You can send your pity in denominations of 10s and 20s, in paper envelopes please.
Call the French what you will, but not even Americans have the balls to pass this kind of thing. From what I hear though, they're already starting to pass the initial legislation or something...
Also, from BoingBoing.net,
Actual piracy on rise, response orthagonal to RIAA's response to "piracy"
------
Actual piracy is on the rise. That is to say, more people are boarding more ships with more guns and shooting more people and taking more cargo, all the while uttering more horrible cries of "ARRRRR."
Strangely, the shipping industry's response isn't to keelhaul passengers who don't tip well on ocean cruises, or to hull random pleasure boats, or to demand special bow-mounted lasers that vaporize any ship that gets within a hundred miles.
The idea was originally from this article.
Boogaboogabooga! I'm the Phaaaaaaaantom!!
So turns out the Phantom game system may not be totally bogus after all. It's an interesting concept, and one that I think, quite frankly, shows a lot of promise. The idea of having broadband streamed games direct on demand to your TV is pretty cool, but from the sounds of it, they have a lot of work to get through first. Hopefully at E3 there will be something more meaty for people to dig into and make better judgements on. At least the whole thing isn't a hoax though...
Totally unrelated, (isn't everything though?) but today's Real Life is really really good, particularily if you've ever seen the Clerks! animated series. If you haven't, then I highly recommend you go rent/buy it immediately, especially if you liked the Clerks! movie. A combination of random mayhem with the unique perspectives of the two main characters, the only thing wrong with the series is that it was made for prime-time. Had it been produced for HBO or some other more ballsy network, as was South Park, it might still air today. At it stood, Kevin Smith couldn't use his grand repertoire of dick and fart jokes. Still, between the celebrity cameos, all the original actors reprising their roles, and a really kickin' visual style, it's a great watch. The DVD comes with a buttload of special features (commentary for all 6 episodes!!!) so you get even more bang for your bucks.
Last little thing to touch on, is that as I said before, Sympatico's news server blows chunks. The solution to all this lies in the little detail of me having unlimited bandwidth. Bring on the Torrents!! Ain't DSL wicked? ¶ 5:46 p.m. 0 comments
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Phoque! Phoque! Phoque!
Isn't French grand? The title, loosely translated mean "Seal! Seal! Seal!" (as in "arf arf", doing trick, water mammal seal, not "stamp" seal) But I digress.
First on the menu is that I should probably make an apology for my mocking of Edmonton before. This is an entirely genuine apology too, not done just because the weather got shitty today and I want it to get better for tomorrow. Really. Second up is the sheer happiness due to the fact that Red Vs. Blue season 2 is coming out!!! Turns out the medic requested when Church was shot in the first run arrives in the Galaxy's most strategic box canyon and attempts to help. Anyways, go download! It's funny!
Why lots of music is good
Having a large music collection is like having a minor form of Christmas every day, all day! The reason for this is that you can just flip idly through the pages of your CD binder (or scroll your list of pirated albums) and find music that you've totally forgotten about for the longest time. For example, the other day I was feeling like hearing something new, but for whatever reason my newsgroup server sucks goat and I can't find any complete files and I was stuck with what I had. So I scroll down the list and I find this album by a group called Unwritten Law. "Guh?" I think, completely wondering why I have this music. Turns out it's some not too bad punk music that Berry gave me some time ago, and I had just not listened to it. All of a sudden, I'm all "yay! I have new music to listen to!" even though I don't, really. Essentially, I'm just saying that since the volume is so high, the rotation is low enough that you don't hear stuff for long enough for it to be new again. Or something... I suppose the same can be true about movies and TV as well, but people tend not to stockpile that to the same extent as music.
Interestingly enough, the January issue of Wired published this interesting article about piracy and Hollywood and how Hollywood still has time (but not much) to not go the way RIAA went. Which is to say, not well liked and perceived as a tyrannous, paranoid, greedy organization. Interesting read to say the least.
Warning: Excessive ranting ahead
Now those of you that know me probably know what this next bit is all about, and are probably scrolling down frantically past this. Go right ahead. If you keep reading, please bear with me. Now first of all, know that I really don't like stupid people, and I happen to lump "people that refuse to listen" and "people that make gross assumptions with little to no thought" in with the stupid people category. Perfect example that really gets me riled is the assumption made when people see certain products. Based on whatever reason, they can and will immediately take a stab at who the product is marketed to without actually thinking about it. What I'm getting at is the "video games and comics are for kids" idea. Maybe I'm just sensitive, but that pisses me off to no end. When I hear about comic book stores having to close down for selling adult comics to adults, or people blaming games for just about anything, it gets very irritating. Anyways, you can probably guess what I thought when I read about the "award" given to Rockstar and Take Two for selling the GTA and Manhunt games. Now I don't disagree that these are bad games, because they are indeed made to simulate crime and all that nasty stuff. My beef is that Common Sense Media gave this award partially (I don't know what all the criteria are) due to a statistic that said that 71% of boys aged 13-17 have played these games. First of all, you might as well say that Universal or Paramount are to blame because those same kids have probably watched a couple of movies not rated for them, and second, none of this is marketed at kids! GTA3, GTA: Vice City and Manhunt are all rated "M for Mature", meaning they're not supposed to be played by people under 17! Since said young'uns did play them, it must have been because their parents bought the game for them after carefully checking it out and knowing what the game was about and giving their consent, right?
Ha. I'm not even going to bother outlining what the reality of the situation was, since it's probably obvious to most. To make matters worse, they claim in the press release that,
I'm confused, and maybe you can help. Does putting an ad on TV mean that you're marketing in a manner that reaches millions of kids? What about putting an ad in a magazine? Or word of mouth? What I'm saying is that the above statement is pretty vague and blankety for my tastes, and that you could condemn just about anything you (and a lot of concerned parents) don't like under that cause.
*takes breath*
I guess I don't really know where I'm going with this, but really, it doesn't matter. This is my little soapbox for venting steam, and that's exactly what I'm doing. I don't claim to know why kids seem to have a very tenuous grasp on reality and will snap and do stupid things, but apparantly nobody else does and it's very easy to blame things that seem to cause such things by glorifying it in a visual and interactive manner. Doesn't mean I have to like it. I know that CSM has the best of intentions and they're trying to represent the interests of parents and children, but I can't help but get a little angry when I see something I happen to like get slammed for not being something it isn't.
Don't even get me started on the whole "comics are for kids" thing. That's for another day.
You can start reading again...
Don't really have any decent links today, so I'll try to scrounge something real quick. You just wait right there.
...
Tree pulp, all 007 style!
Missed the holidays, but I'm sure you can pray to the Elder Gods in January too...
Need a hug?
There. Links on demand. I can cook too! ¶ 3:22 p.m. 0 comments
Isn't French grand? The title, loosely translated mean "Seal! Seal! Seal!" (as in "arf arf", doing trick, water mammal seal, not "stamp" seal) But I digress.
First on the menu is that I should probably make an apology for my mocking of Edmonton before. This is an entirely genuine apology too, not done just because the weather got shitty today and I want it to get better for tomorrow. Really. Second up is the sheer happiness due to the fact that Red Vs. Blue season 2 is coming out!!! Turns out the medic requested when Church was shot in the first run arrives in the Galaxy's most strategic box canyon and attempts to help. Anyways, go download! It's funny!
Why lots of music is good
Having a large music collection is like having a minor form of Christmas every day, all day! The reason for this is that you can just flip idly through the pages of your CD binder (or scroll your list of pirated albums) and find music that you've totally forgotten about for the longest time. For example, the other day I was feeling like hearing something new, but for whatever reason my newsgroup server sucks goat and I can't find any complete files and I was stuck with what I had. So I scroll down the list and I find this album by a group called Unwritten Law. "Guh?" I think, completely wondering why I have this music. Turns out it's some not too bad punk music that Berry gave me some time ago, and I had just not listened to it. All of a sudden, I'm all "yay! I have new music to listen to!" even though I don't, really. Essentially, I'm just saying that since the volume is so high, the rotation is low enough that you don't hear stuff for long enough for it to be new again. Or something... I suppose the same can be true about movies and TV as well, but people tend not to stockpile that to the same extent as music.
Interestingly enough, the January issue of Wired published this interesting article about piracy and Hollywood and how Hollywood still has time (but not much) to not go the way RIAA went. Which is to say, not well liked and perceived as a tyrannous, paranoid, greedy organization. Interesting read to say the least.
Warning: Excessive ranting ahead
Now those of you that know me probably know what this next bit is all about, and are probably scrolling down frantically past this. Go right ahead. If you keep reading, please bear with me. Now first of all, know that I really don't like stupid people, and I happen to lump "people that refuse to listen" and "people that make gross assumptions with little to no thought" in with the stupid people category. Perfect example that really gets me riled is the assumption made when people see certain products. Based on whatever reason, they can and will immediately take a stab at who the product is marketed to without actually thinking about it. What I'm getting at is the "video games and comics are for kids" idea. Maybe I'm just sensitive, but that pisses me off to no end. When I hear about comic book stores having to close down for selling adult comics to adults, or people blaming games for just about anything, it gets very irritating. Anyways, you can probably guess what I thought when I read about the "award" given to Rockstar and Take Two for selling the GTA and Manhunt games. Now I don't disagree that these are bad games, because they are indeed made to simulate crime and all that nasty stuff. My beef is that Common Sense Media gave this award partially (I don't know what all the criteria are) due to a statistic that said that 71% of boys aged 13-17 have played these games. First of all, you might as well say that Universal or Paramount are to blame because those same kids have probably watched a couple of movies not rated for them, and second, none of this is marketed at kids! GTA3, GTA: Vice City and Manhunt are all rated "M for Mature", meaning they're not supposed to be played by people under 17! Since said young'uns did play them, it must have been because their parents bought the game for them after carefully checking it out and knowing what the game was about and giving their consent, right?
Ha. I'm not even going to bother outlining what the reality of the situation was, since it's probably obvious to most. To make matters worse, they claim in the press release that,
Even though some of this entertainment was theoretically aimed at adults, all of the losers marketed and distributed their products either at a time or in a manner that reached millions of kids.
I'm confused, and maybe you can help. Does putting an ad on TV mean that you're marketing in a manner that reaches millions of kids? What about putting an ad in a magazine? Or word of mouth? What I'm saying is that the above statement is pretty vague and blankety for my tastes, and that you could condemn just about anything you (and a lot of concerned parents) don't like under that cause.
*takes breath*
I guess I don't really know where I'm going with this, but really, it doesn't matter. This is my little soapbox for venting steam, and that's exactly what I'm doing. I don't claim to know why kids seem to have a very tenuous grasp on reality and will snap and do stupid things, but apparantly nobody else does and it's very easy to blame things that seem to cause such things by glorifying it in a visual and interactive manner. Doesn't mean I have to like it. I know that CSM has the best of intentions and they're trying to represent the interests of parents and children, but I can't help but get a little angry when I see something I happen to like get slammed for not being something it isn't.
Don't even get me started on the whole "comics are for kids" thing. That's for another day.
You can start reading again...
Don't really have any decent links today, so I'll try to scrounge something real quick. You just wait right there.
...
Tree pulp, all 007 style!
Missed the holidays, but I'm sure you can pray to the Elder Gods in January too...
Need a hug?
There. Links on demand. I can cook too! ¶ 3:22 p.m. 0 comments
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
I am hungry, but my Mac and Chee is not heated yet.
Feel the sadness therein... I was originally going to do an ode to my macaroni, but that would be stupid. What is considerably cooler is the fact that I'm going to be taking SWORDFIGHTING!!! Yessir, I'm on the waiting list for a course at Algonquin College to learn broadsword handling (and I think they cover some samurai stuff too). This causes such glee in me that I may explode. To reiterate: SWORDFIGHTING!!!! I don't care what you say, it's just cool.
Also cool, but nowhere close to the same degree is the kung-fu I might start taking. It was a tough choice (not really) between jiu-jistu/kickboxing (they're always done by clubs together for some reason) and kung-fu, but Fang Shen Do (yes, that's the name of the place, almost as silly as Fin Fang Foom, isn't it?) is closer to my apartment, so that's where I'll try first. Hopefully I'll end up with some new tricks to take home with me, and maybe even a sword to boot! (The people who do the class also run an armory...)
More gaming stuff
I've always wondered why there is no remote power button for consoles. I mean, your TV, VCR, DVD, stereo, home theater and every other bloody electronic thingamajig have remotes, and they all can be turned on from the couch, why not game systems? You wouldn't even need batteries, because the controllers are on a bloody cord! I think that the next wave of consoles should have remotes, and if they don't, we go hunt down the executives of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Oh yes, open season should be declared. Any and all weaponry allowed. It'd be fun!
More on the topic of actual games, I tried the demo of Far Cry last night. I say tried, because I couldn't actually play the stupid thing. Either this game's system requirements are far too much for my system, or there's something wrong with either my computer or the game. I have had a game run that badly since I tried to play Quake 1 online with a 14.4kbps modem. I mean, we're talking slideshow here. I could barely get to the menu to fix stuff. I'll try it again tonight, but my hopes are not high. The one thing I did see in the game looked pretty good though.
Ha, ha, and ha again
I'd just like to take this moment and make fun of Edmonton for having such cold weather. We've been dealing with that for roughly the past two weeks (and by "that" I mean the -30C, -40 with wind chill stuff). Be glad you're only supposed to freeze until the end of the week.
Punk music was never so easy to make
You don't even need a guitar to do it now! Check out the Punk 'o' Matic. Also, you can listen to my fellow mod Harrm's track by using this little code:
Just get rid of the line breaks (it has to be all one word) and input it when you click "load".
Fee Fie Fo Fum! Some people's interests are just too weird for words.
I want one of these! Maybe it would heat my macaroni faster... (also, FYI, I'm talking about real cheese, oven-baked macaroni, not KD.) ¶ 4:07 p.m. 0 comments
Feel the sadness therein... I was originally going to do an ode to my macaroni, but that would be stupid. What is considerably cooler is the fact that I'm going to be taking SWORDFIGHTING!!! Yessir, I'm on the waiting list for a course at Algonquin College to learn broadsword handling (and I think they cover some samurai stuff too). This causes such glee in me that I may explode. To reiterate: SWORDFIGHTING!!!! I don't care what you say, it's just cool.
Also cool, but nowhere close to the same degree is the kung-fu I might start taking. It was a tough choice (not really) between jiu-jistu/kickboxing (they're always done by clubs together for some reason) and kung-fu, but Fang Shen Do (yes, that's the name of the place, almost as silly as Fin Fang Foom, isn't it?) is closer to my apartment, so that's where I'll try first. Hopefully I'll end up with some new tricks to take home with me, and maybe even a sword to boot! (The people who do the class also run an armory...)
More gaming stuff
I've always wondered why there is no remote power button for consoles. I mean, your TV, VCR, DVD, stereo, home theater and every other bloody electronic thingamajig have remotes, and they all can be turned on from the couch, why not game systems? You wouldn't even need batteries, because the controllers are on a bloody cord! I think that the next wave of consoles should have remotes, and if they don't, we go hunt down the executives of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Oh yes, open season should be declared. Any and all weaponry allowed. It'd be fun!
More on the topic of actual games, I tried the demo of Far Cry last night. I say tried, because I couldn't actually play the stupid thing. Either this game's system requirements are far too much for my system, or there's something wrong with either my computer or the game. I have had a game run that badly since I tried to play Quake 1 online with a 14.4kbps modem. I mean, we're talking slideshow here. I could barely get to the menu to fix stuff. I'll try it again tonight, but my hopes are not high. The one thing I did see in the game looked pretty good though.
Ha, ha, and ha again
I'd just like to take this moment and make fun of Edmonton for having such cold weather. We've been dealing with that for roughly the past two weeks (and by "that" I mean the -30C, -40 with wind chill stuff). Be glad you're only supposed to freeze until the end of the week.
Punk music was never so easy to make
You don't even need a guitar to do it now! Check out the Punk 'o' Matic. Also, you can listen to my fellow mod Harrm's track by using this little code:
900-1-0-6-4-4-9-------9---9-9-88889---5-5-0---0---0---0-----0---0---0---0---77789----c---0---2
---6-4---5-5-8---8---8---4---3---0---0---1---2-----0---1---2---0---7-7-c----a---2-4-3-2-10-1---1--0-----
4-1---3-3-3-3-0---0---1---2-2-0-0---1---2-3-0---a---a----
Just get rid of the line breaks (it has to be all one word) and input it when you click "load".
Fee Fie Fo Fum! Some people's interests are just too weird for words.
I want one of these! Maybe it would heat my macaroni faster... (also, FYI, I'm talking about real cheese, oven-baked macaroni, not KD.) ¶ 4:07 p.m. 0 comments
Monday, January 26, 2004
Dodge the monkey!
Yes, Dodge the Monkey. Not just a game or a movie, but a phenomenon!! Sweeping the world by storm!
Ok, so I made that up. You think of a better way to start a random blog entry. It was better than my original plan of just starting with my latest crepe story. See, I may or may not have posted before that I had made these wonderful potato blintzes last week (or the week before...), but I did, and they were quite good. I tried another crepe variant tonight, and it wasn't quite as spectacular: one with cheese, and the other with meat. Now one would normally think "cheese and meat? sign me up!", but it's not that simple. See, I tried for more of a dessert type of blintze with the cheese, and ended up with a sweetened cottage cheese concoction. With raisins. I thought they would add a bit of flavour to the cheese, and don't get wrong, because they did. Unfortunately the raisins kind of overpowered the cheese and they didn't live up to expectations. The meat one was slightly better, but not by much, since it was basically just ground beef with some Tex-Mex seasoning. A little bland, but definitely didn't go with the cheese ones. So now I have about 5 or so meat blintzes that need a sidedish, and some cheese ones that I'm not sure I want to eat. I'll probably work up the courage to eat them, but not with the meat ones, and definitely not warm. Still working on the sidedish for the meat ones though... maybe the potato ones?
Be vewy, vewy quiet... I'm hunting laundwy...
I don't know what that's supposed to mean either, but I did do laundry today. I was simultaneously struck by how long the average wash takes to complete (and how many times one can die in Mario during that time), and by the cost of said load. Took $1.75 for a wash, and $1.50 for a dry. I'm no connoisseur on the appropriate charges for laundromat services, but it strikes me that that's a little steep. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but it's not like it matters anyways since I'm not prepared to hike it with my dirty clothes in this weather.
On a related note, I also forgot to put a fabric softener in the dryer. People need to put labels on those things... (the dryers, not the fabric sheets)
Click me, for I am full of sugar!
Do go over and check out Rob Cockerham's site, Cockeyed.com. He does this quite spastic feature called "How Much Is Inside?", where him and his friends try to figure out how much [insert something here] is in a [that something]. They do everything from salsa to rolling tobacco, with a bunch of other neat stuff Rob's done. (especially of note is the "How Much is a Gallon?" page, and some of the paper-mache projects)
More twisted is Wulffmorgenthaler. I don't know what that means, but it's probably not good. Basically a very weird single-panel comic where everyone's naked for some reason, it does have some good moments. (Like the above comic)
If you have any interest in electronic music, I highly suggest you download this neat little program. It gives samples of just about every kind of electronically generated music you can get, from Happy Hardcore (one of my faves) to Anthem House (also good) to Disco and Dub. It also gives a quick rundown on the characteristics of various music types, and is quite handy the next time your friend just says "Do you have any techno?" and you say "What kind of techno?" and he says "There's different kinds?".
So that's that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some dishes to do, and then I have to lead a weird pale girl that doesn't speak English around an empty castle. ¶ 7:08 p.m. 0 comments
Yes, Dodge the Monkey. Not just a game or a movie, but a phenomenon!! Sweeping the world by storm!
Ok, so I made that up. You think of a better way to start a random blog entry. It was better than my original plan of just starting with my latest crepe story. See, I may or may not have posted before that I had made these wonderful potato blintzes last week (or the week before...), but I did, and they were quite good. I tried another crepe variant tonight, and it wasn't quite as spectacular: one with cheese, and the other with meat. Now one would normally think "cheese and meat? sign me up!", but it's not that simple. See, I tried for more of a dessert type of blintze with the cheese, and ended up with a sweetened cottage cheese concoction. With raisins. I thought they would add a bit of flavour to the cheese, and don't get wrong, because they did. Unfortunately the raisins kind of overpowered the cheese and they didn't live up to expectations. The meat one was slightly better, but not by much, since it was basically just ground beef with some Tex-Mex seasoning. A little bland, but definitely didn't go with the cheese ones. So now I have about 5 or so meat blintzes that need a sidedish, and some cheese ones that I'm not sure I want to eat. I'll probably work up the courage to eat them, but not with the meat ones, and definitely not warm. Still working on the sidedish for the meat ones though... maybe the potato ones?
Be vewy, vewy quiet... I'm hunting laundwy...
I don't know what that's supposed to mean either, but I did do laundry today. I was simultaneously struck by how long the average wash takes to complete (and how many times one can die in Mario during that time), and by the cost of said load. Took $1.75 for a wash, and $1.50 for a dry. I'm no connoisseur on the appropriate charges for laundromat services, but it strikes me that that's a little steep. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but it's not like it matters anyways since I'm not prepared to hike it with my dirty clothes in this weather.
On a related note, I also forgot to put a fabric softener in the dryer. People need to put labels on those things... (the dryers, not the fabric sheets)
Click me, for I am full of sugar!
Do go over and check out Rob Cockerham's site, Cockeyed.com. He does this quite spastic feature called "How Much Is Inside?", where him and his friends try to figure out how much [insert something here] is in a [that something]. They do everything from salsa to rolling tobacco, with a bunch of other neat stuff Rob's done. (especially of note is the "How Much is a Gallon?" page, and some of the paper-mache projects)
More twisted is Wulffmorgenthaler. I don't know what that means, but it's probably not good. Basically a very weird single-panel comic where everyone's naked for some reason, it does have some good moments. (Like the above comic)
If you have any interest in electronic music, I highly suggest you download this neat little program. It gives samples of just about every kind of electronically generated music you can get, from Happy Hardcore (one of my faves) to Anthem House (also good) to Disco and Dub. It also gives a quick rundown on the characteristics of various music types, and is quite handy the next time your friend just says "Do you have any techno?" and you say "What kind of techno?" and he says "There's different kinds?".
So that's that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some dishes to do, and then I have to lead a weird pale girl that doesn't speak English around an empty castle. ¶ 7:08 p.m. 0 comments
Sunday, January 25, 2004
Drapes, TV and ICO, oh my!
My apartment is pretty much complete now, methinks. I'm no longer in a giant echo box thanks to my "new" (relatively speaking) drapes, and I'm no longer tormented by having games I can't play, thanks to my new (actually new this time) TV and DVD player. I was pleasantly surprised that I could get a rather nice DVD machine for only 70 bucks at Costco. Seventy dollars... I can't even buy some DVDs for that cheap! True, it probably isn't the most feature-laden model on the market, but it does support Dolby, DTS, MP3 cds, Windows Media, and it even has progressive scan! Now I just need the home theater to go with it. Anyone wanna spot me a couple hundred bucks?
ICO & Mario
I've just started playing this one, and for all the 30-40 minutes I've done so far, it's really quite nice. Very unconventional presentation, seeing as how there's not really any music during the game (lots of exaggerated ambient sounds though), and you can't even talk to your sidekick. The puzzles are quite good so far, and the level design is quite superlative. The castle (what I've seen of it so far) is like what a real castle would be like, y'know, if it were the abandoned place that little kids with horns are sent to.
On the other hand, I think I'm nearing the end of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. This is easily the second best console RPG I've ever played (the best being Chrono Trigger). Basically the 3rd Mario RPG, this one has both really strong RPG elements as well as some pretty slick partner puzzles and jumping stuff. The story is also quite entertaining, not to mention freaking hilarious. If you don't laugh the first time you fight Fawful, I think there might be something wrong with your humor gland.
Vanilla Tea & Ayreon
So I picked up a box of this Lipton French Vanilla tea, and it's very very odd. I don't think I'm going to recommend it, but it's not entirely without merit. It's like there's vanilla in there somewhere, but it's being masked by some other flavor that I don't recognize. In contrast, the Apple Cinnamon tea from Tetley's is quite tasty.
Ayreon, conversely isn't tea at all. He's a person. (Well, technically Ayreon is the name Arjen goes by when he does projects of a particular nature, but whatever). Kind of a one-man-band deal in that he plays a crapload of different instruments, but the Ayreon projects tend to be these huge collaborative projects that involve some of the best names in European metal and prog-rock. Very very cool stuff. I highly recommend the rock operas Into the Electric Castle and The Universal Migrator. The former is about a bunch of stereotypical sci-fi and historical characters that get transported by this alien intelligence to some place out in space and they have to find the Electric Castle, and the Universal Migrator is about this colonist on Mars that travels via a dream machine and goes back in time to the beginning of the universe. I highly recommend both, but it's definitely different music from what we hear over here. Best comparison I can think of is to Pink Floyd. I have copies of all his stuff if you want it, so lemme know.
Links & ... more links
Why can't people just get over this whole copywrite thing and just share? None of this silly lawsuit business.
If you've been following internet news lately, you've probably heard the Dean Scream. If I could draw a parallel with anything, it would be to Zim. This is probably the human equivalent of Dib or Gir going ballistic. I hear remixes are already in the works...
I must own an iPod Mini. 4 gigs of music in a player only slightly larger than the one I have already! ¶ 2:24 p.m. 0 comments
My apartment is pretty much complete now, methinks. I'm no longer in a giant echo box thanks to my "new" (relatively speaking) drapes, and I'm no longer tormented by having games I can't play, thanks to my new (actually new this time) TV and DVD player. I was pleasantly surprised that I could get a rather nice DVD machine for only 70 bucks at Costco. Seventy dollars... I can't even buy some DVDs for that cheap! True, it probably isn't the most feature-laden model on the market, but it does support Dolby, DTS, MP3 cds, Windows Media, and it even has progressive scan! Now I just need the home theater to go with it. Anyone wanna spot me a couple hundred bucks?
ICO & Mario
I've just started playing this one, and for all the 30-40 minutes I've done so far, it's really quite nice. Very unconventional presentation, seeing as how there's not really any music during the game (lots of exaggerated ambient sounds though), and you can't even talk to your sidekick. The puzzles are quite good so far, and the level design is quite superlative. The castle (what I've seen of it so far) is like what a real castle would be like, y'know, if it were the abandoned place that little kids with horns are sent to.
On the other hand, I think I'm nearing the end of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. This is easily the second best console RPG I've ever played (the best being Chrono Trigger). Basically the 3rd Mario RPG, this one has both really strong RPG elements as well as some pretty slick partner puzzles and jumping stuff. The story is also quite entertaining, not to mention freaking hilarious. If you don't laugh the first time you fight Fawful, I think there might be something wrong with your humor gland.
Vanilla Tea & Ayreon
So I picked up a box of this Lipton French Vanilla tea, and it's very very odd. I don't think I'm going to recommend it, but it's not entirely without merit. It's like there's vanilla in there somewhere, but it's being masked by some other flavor that I don't recognize. In contrast, the Apple Cinnamon tea from Tetley's is quite tasty.
Ayreon, conversely isn't tea at all. He's a person. (Well, technically Ayreon is the name Arjen goes by when he does projects of a particular nature, but whatever). Kind of a one-man-band deal in that he plays a crapload of different instruments, but the Ayreon projects tend to be these huge collaborative projects that involve some of the best names in European metal and prog-rock. Very very cool stuff. I highly recommend the rock operas Into the Electric Castle and The Universal Migrator. The former is about a bunch of stereotypical sci-fi and historical characters that get transported by this alien intelligence to some place out in space and they have to find the Electric Castle, and the Universal Migrator is about this colonist on Mars that travels via a dream machine and goes back in time to the beginning of the universe. I highly recommend both, but it's definitely different music from what we hear over here. Best comparison I can think of is to Pink Floyd. I have copies of all his stuff if you want it, so lemme know.
Links & ... more links
Why can't people just get over this whole copywrite thing and just share? None of this silly lawsuit business.
If you've been following internet news lately, you've probably heard the Dean Scream. If I could draw a parallel with anything, it would be to Zim. This is probably the human equivalent of Dib or Gir going ballistic. I hear remixes are already in the works...
I must own an iPod Mini. 4 gigs of music in a player only slightly larger than the one I have already! ¶ 2:24 p.m. 0 comments
Saturday, January 24, 2004
One more thing...
Well, a few things, really.
- Mike Rowe settled. I can't find a link, but apparantly he got a whole bunch of swag and stuff.
- Rearranged the archiving stuff, and set it so that only the last 2 days are shown on the front page
- I think I forgot the last thing, so never mind... ¶ 11:03 a.m. 0 comments
Well, a few things, really.
- Mike Rowe settled. I can't find a link, but apparantly he got a whole bunch of swag and stuff.
- Rearranged the archiving stuff, and set it so that only the last 2 days are shown on the front page
- I think I forgot the last thing, so never mind... ¶ 11:03 a.m. 0 comments
Housekeeping
Added some more links on the right, specifically in the comics area. They're more or less almost all the comics I keep up with now, with a couple of dead-but-still-great ones to boot. They are...
Road Waffles - the result of putting U-Turn, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Quentin Tarantino in a blender and making a comic soup.
Mac Hall - easily one of the best drawn comics out there. Period. End.
Death World - one of the former Gateway comics, this site is the reason they never made sense in the paper. Turns out there's a little thing called continuity that kept popping up.
Elf Only Inn - one of the weirder (and funnier!) comics, this one just came back from a 4 month hiatus. It's a comic depicting the visualization of an IRC channel, complete with the AOL lamers and the roleplayers.
Cigarro and Cerveja - another former Gateway comic, this one was that "rabbit and goose" one that was actually both well written and well drawn!
8-Bit Theater - if Final Fantasy 1 had kids and they were raised by gamers, they would be the light warriors.
Queen of Wands - like Three's Company, but with more porn references.
Least I Could Do - about a ladies-killer and his roommates. More entertaining than it sounds.
Homestar Runner - if you don't know what this is, you haven't been on the Internet enough. Strong Bad's Email forever!!!!
Red Meat - twisted little strips about evil milkmen, little girls, crazy preachers and kids under the porch. All done in a 50's clipart style.
Life of Riley - just plain out there. In theory, about a bunch of gamers, but with succubi, angels and vampires thrown in for very little reason.
Megatokyo - the story about a semi-depressed guy living with his neurotic friend in Japan.
The dead ones are Force Monkeys and Floyd!. FM is one of the smaller but really well done strips that has been defunct since the middle of last year. The creators are working on another strip called The Indomitable Mr. Stick, and apparantly it's been started, but hasn't been released or launched or anything. (I know this because I'm a mod on the forums...) Floyd! is a strip that was found in Dragon magazine for a while. It's done by the superbly talented Aaron Williams who also does Nodwick and PS238, and manages to make a really cool fantasy story with pop culture references. I was also going to post a link to Warp 9 To Hell, which was a hilariously twisted comic that really just kinda vanished off the face of the earth. It's too bad, really...
I'd type more, but it hurts.
Nursing a hangover today since there was a little co-op get together at the Heart and Crown / Mother Murphy's / Black Rose / a whole crapload of bars. The place is so cool! It's like if you took a bunch of places similar to Squire's? (the one on Whytes where Berry got hammered on his birthday (the one I actually attended...)) and clumped them all together. You can go from pub to pub without going outside. Also, (in case Alex is reading) they have a whole crapload of stuff on tap, from Guiness to Stella Arnois to Boddington's, to all the other weird British beers that nobody drinks over here.
Also, I hear tell that there's brewery in Ottawa that makes beer in stubby bottles!
On chess
Because I was so bored at work (for various reasons), I was doing silly things like trying to solve chess puzzles. Without further ado, here is both a solution to the 8 Queens problem and the Knight's Tour problem that I worked out.
28|15|44|03|30|13|46|01
43|04|29|14|45|02|31|50
16|27|64|61|52|49|12|47
05|42|53|58|55|62|51|32
26|17|56|63|60|33|48|11
41|06|59|54|57|36|21|34
18|25|08|39|20|23|10|37
07|40|19|24|09|38|35|22
-|*|-|-|-|-|-|-
-|-|-|*|-|-|-|-
-|-|-|-|-|*|-|-
-|-|-|-|-|-|-|*
-|-|*|-|-|-|-|-
*|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
-|-|-|-|-|-|*|-
-|-|-|-|*|-|-|-
The first is a way (starting at 1) to jump a knight onto every square on the chessboard without repeating a step, and the second is a way to place 8 queens on the board without any of them being able to take another. Amazing what one can come up with when deprived of stuff to do for 8 hours a day for 2 weeks.
Why can't they ever pick me for these things?
Cool experiment about drugs. Yes, I got the link from mimi smartypants' front page, but a) it's too good not to spread and b) you probably haven't cared enough to check it out already.
So old they fart dust. I wonder if GSN still shows them?
Also, not really a "link" per se, but has anyone seen this movie? I really really want to, but I still haven't found out if it's playing in Ottawa. (This town is devoid of theaters... I've found 3 so far, one second-run and one French/artsy. Makes me sad...) ¶ 10:02 a.m. 0 comments
Added some more links on the right, specifically in the comics area. They're more or less almost all the comics I keep up with now, with a couple of dead-but-still-great ones to boot. They are...
Road Waffles - the result of putting U-Turn, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Quentin Tarantino in a blender and making a comic soup.
Mac Hall - easily one of the best drawn comics out there. Period. End.
Death World - one of the former Gateway comics, this site is the reason they never made sense in the paper. Turns out there's a little thing called continuity that kept popping up.
Elf Only Inn - one of the weirder (and funnier!) comics, this one just came back from a 4 month hiatus. It's a comic depicting the visualization of an IRC channel, complete with the AOL lamers and the roleplayers.
Cigarro and Cerveja - another former Gateway comic, this one was that "rabbit and goose" one that was actually both well written and well drawn!
8-Bit Theater - if Final Fantasy 1 had kids and they were raised by gamers, they would be the light warriors.
Queen of Wands - like Three's Company, but with more porn references.
Least I Could Do - about a ladies-killer and his roommates. More entertaining than it sounds.
Homestar Runner - if you don't know what this is, you haven't been on the Internet enough. Strong Bad's Email forever!!!!
Red Meat - twisted little strips about evil milkmen, little girls, crazy preachers and kids under the porch. All done in a 50's clipart style.
Life of Riley - just plain out there. In theory, about a bunch of gamers, but with succubi, angels and vampires thrown in for very little reason.
Megatokyo - the story about a semi-depressed guy living with his neurotic friend in Japan.
The dead ones are Force Monkeys and Floyd!. FM is one of the smaller but really well done strips that has been defunct since the middle of last year. The creators are working on another strip called The Indomitable Mr. Stick, and apparantly it's been started, but hasn't been released or launched or anything. (I know this because I'm a mod on the forums...) Floyd! is a strip that was found in Dragon magazine for a while. It's done by the superbly talented Aaron Williams who also does Nodwick and PS238, and manages to make a really cool fantasy story with pop culture references. I was also going to post a link to Warp 9 To Hell, which was a hilariously twisted comic that really just kinda vanished off the face of the earth. It's too bad, really...
I'd type more, but it hurts.
Nursing a hangover today since there was a little co-op get together at the Heart and Crown / Mother Murphy's / Black Rose / a whole crapload of bars. The place is so cool! It's like if you took a bunch of places similar to Squire's? (the one on Whytes where Berry got hammered on his birthday (the one I actually attended...)) and clumped them all together. You can go from pub to pub without going outside. Also, (in case Alex is reading) they have a whole crapload of stuff on tap, from Guiness to Stella Arnois to Boddington's, to all the other weird British beers that nobody drinks over here.
Also, I hear tell that there's brewery in Ottawa that makes beer in stubby bottles!
On chess
Because I was so bored at work (for various reasons), I was doing silly things like trying to solve chess puzzles. Without further ado, here is both a solution to the 8 Queens problem and the Knight's Tour problem that I worked out.
28|15|44|03|30|13|46|01
43|04|29|14|45|02|31|50
16|27|64|61|52|49|12|47
05|42|53|58|55|62|51|32
26|17|56|63|60|33|48|11
41|06|59|54|57|36|21|34
18|25|08|39|20|23|10|37
07|40|19|24|09|38|35|22
-|*|-|-|-|-|-|-
-|-|-|*|-|-|-|-
-|-|-|-|-|*|-|-
-|-|-|-|-|-|-|*
-|-|*|-|-|-|-|-
*|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
-|-|-|-|-|-|*|-
-|-|-|-|*|-|-|-
The first is a way (starting at 1) to jump a knight onto every square on the chessboard without repeating a step, and the second is a way to place 8 queens on the board without any of them being able to take another. Amazing what one can come up with when deprived of stuff to do for 8 hours a day for 2 weeks.
Why can't they ever pick me for these things?
Cool experiment about drugs. Yes, I got the link from mimi smartypants' front page, but a) it's too good not to spread and b) you probably haven't cared enough to check it out already.
So old they fart dust. I wonder if GSN still shows them?
Also, not really a "link" per se, but has anyone seen this movie? I really really want to, but I still haven't found out if it's playing in Ottawa. (This town is devoid of theaters... I've found 3 so far, one second-run and one French/artsy. Makes me sad...) ¶ 10:02 a.m. 0 comments
Friday, January 23, 2004
Please God, help me cleanse the computer of viruses and evil photographs which disturb and ruin my work, so I may be able to cleanse myself (of sin)
That was a Jewish prayer against email spam and Internet porn, apparantly. In related news...
I'm not sure what's funnier, that Microsoft took offense at someone's name, that they offered him 10 measly dollars to ditch the domain, or that they got angry when he asked for 10 gees.
My floor lamp has a first name, it's N-O-T!
Seriously, the IKEA people sure can come up with names for stuff. From the Poang chair to the Not lamp, there's everything from the "definitely Swedish" to "downright silly". I mean c'mon! The "Not" lamp?
Name notwithstanding though, it is in fact a very handy lamp. Manages to illuminate almost all of my apartment, and it has a handy little reading lamp on the side to boot. Of course, finding a bulb for that lamp took me a while, but it works now. Slightly more comfy to sit in, however, is my chair. I believe the name is... well, I can't remember the name, nor is it in the catalog, nor is it on the website, but it's just like the Poang, but starts with a "B" and is half the price. What they don't tell you in the store though, is that despite it's very comfy nature and good lookingness, it is a total pain to put together. See, the chair is basically an upholstered metal frame with wooden arms/legs (it's a cantilever chair, so they're the U-shaped things). But the trick is that the upholstry over the metal frame is tight as a freaking kettle drum, and when you do finally manage to pull both layers onto the frame, all the little holes need to line up, or you don't get to screw the rest of the chair on. This angered Calculon to no degree, until Calculon integrated some beer and calmed down. Once assembled though, the chair is simply mah-vellous to sit in. You can play Game Boy really good in it too!
That last GBA line is significiant, since that's how I've been getting all my gaming in so far. My PS2 has sat neglected in either a suitcase or a drawer like a lost little puppy since I -
er... I mean like a lost little puppy would if you were the kind of monster who keeps puppies in drawers and suitcases which I am not. Anyways, I have been SSX3 and SoulCalibur 2 deprived for the past 3 weeks. What's worse, is that the magnificance of ICO and Jak 2 were bestowed on me for Christmas, and I have not been able to play them. The reason for all this videogame abuse is that I have no TV. This should be remedied by tomorrow though, since I am going to Costco to get a TV with my aunt (since she has a car and I do not). The voices from the closet will soon be quieted and appeased like a Mexican blood-god.
Eraserhead
Some of you know I like weird movies. Some of you also know that I like really weird movies that make other people want to recoil in terror, like Brazil. Now Eraserhead is indeed a weird movie, but to leave it at that would be total understatement. Eraserhead is the product of David Lynch, and this is the guy that came up with Mulholland Drive and the red room from Twin Peaks (well, all of Twin Peaks really, but that was the big highlight), so it stands to reason that the movie would make no sense. Again, that is an understatement, since this movie actually manages to lap reason. What does that mean, you ask? Well, in a race, when you lap someone, you pass them, and then proceed to go all the way around the track and pass them again to make yourself a full lap ahead. To lap reason then, would mean to start at "normality" (the opening credits), go completely to "insane as all madness" (approx. 5 seconds after the opening credits, when the sideways man opens his mouth and a fetus (or something... I'm not sure) comes out, and then back to "normality" only to start again. The movie mostly makes a sort of underside of sense, where things are almost normal and then something odd happens that is just a little out of place (like hearing this weird squelching noise combined with a buzzing and a whining that happens to be the puppies suckling their mom, or the way everyone seems to talk normally and then lapse into awkward silence for no reason, or Mary suddenly having a seizure and being beaten back to being normal without even a pause in the ongoing conversation). Unfortunately, just when you think you're adjusted to the way the movie-world works, something completely non-sequitur happens, like showing the "man in the planet" (still don't know who that is) struggling with the levers. Don't even ask. If you're curious, go rent the movie, or let me know and I can make you a computer copy. You really have to see the movie to believe it.
Blink!
Do yourself a favor and get a T-shirt from these folks. You won't want to wear them to school (or at all), but just knowing that you own something as shocking as this is reassuring.
Warning! I diagnose thee with IDS -- get yourself to a doctor immediately! This illness is highly contagious! Everyone around you may already be infected!
So apparantly Bush isn't a total screw-up. Sounds hard to believe, but the guy makes a strong case. Don't ask why I'm almost paying attention to American politics either... maybe I have this weird thing about watching the world go to Hell in a handbasket or something. It's also odd how I figure our country is totally faultless. Could be we're just as bad, but look good in comparison, or perhaps they've brainwashed me.
Try this. You won't be able to stop.
Also try this. Enter your favorite band and follow the trail off into new music! I managed to map from Nightwish to Michelle Branch all the way to AC/DC! ¶ 5:42 p.m. 0 comments
That was a Jewish prayer against email spam and Internet porn, apparantly. In related news...
Microsoft takes on teen's site MikeRoweSoft.com
SOURCE
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- It's Microsoft versus Mike Rowe-soft.
Rowe, a 17-year-old high school senior and Web designer from Victoria, has angered the software giant by registering an Internet site with the address www.MikeRoweSoft.com.
"Since my name is Mike Rowe, I thought it would be funny to add 'soft' to the end of it," said Rowe.
Microsoft, however, is not amused.
It has demanded that he give up his domain name. In November, Rowe received a letter from Microsoft's Canadian lawyers informing him he was committing copyright infringement.
"I didn't think they would get all their high-priced lawyers to come after me," Rowe said.
He wrote back asking to be compensated for giving up his name. Microsoft's lawyers offered him $10 in U.S. funds. Then he asked for $10,000.
On Thursday, he received a 25-page letter accusing him of trying to force Microsoft into giving him a large settlement.
"I never even thought of getting anything out of them," he said, adding that he only asked for the $10,000 because he was "sort of mad at them for only offering 10 bucks."
Microsoft company spokesman Jim Desler said Sunday, "Microsoft has been in communication with Mr. Rowe in a good faith effort to reach a mutually agreeable resolution."
Rowe is keeping his sense of humor.
"It's not their name. It's my name. I just think it's kind of funny that they'd go after a 17-year-old," Rowe said.
I'm not sure what's funnier, that Microsoft took offense at someone's name, that they offered him 10 measly dollars to ditch the domain, or that they got angry when he asked for 10 gees.
My floor lamp has a first name, it's N-O-T!
Seriously, the IKEA people sure can come up with names for stuff. From the Poang chair to the Not lamp, there's everything from the "definitely Swedish" to "downright silly". I mean c'mon! The "Not" lamp?
Name notwithstanding though, it is in fact a very handy lamp. Manages to illuminate almost all of my apartment, and it has a handy little reading lamp on the side to boot. Of course, finding a bulb for that lamp took me a while, but it works now. Slightly more comfy to sit in, however, is my chair. I believe the name is... well, I can't remember the name, nor is it in the catalog, nor is it on the website, but it's just like the Poang, but starts with a "B" and is half the price. What they don't tell you in the store though, is that despite it's very comfy nature and good lookingness, it is a total pain to put together. See, the chair is basically an upholstered metal frame with wooden arms/legs (it's a cantilever chair, so they're the U-shaped things). But the trick is that the upholstry over the metal frame is tight as a freaking kettle drum, and when you do finally manage to pull both layers onto the frame, all the little holes need to line up, or you don't get to screw the rest of the chair on. This angered Calculon to no degree, until Calculon integrated some beer and calmed down. Once assembled though, the chair is simply mah-vellous to sit in. You can play Game Boy really good in it too!
That last GBA line is significiant, since that's how I've been getting all my gaming in so far. My PS2 has sat neglected in either a suitcase or a drawer like a lost little puppy since I -
er... I mean like a lost little puppy would if you were the kind of monster who keeps puppies in drawers and suitcases which I am not. Anyways, I have been SSX3 and SoulCalibur 2 deprived for the past 3 weeks. What's worse, is that the magnificance of ICO and Jak 2 were bestowed on me for Christmas, and I have not been able to play them. The reason for all this videogame abuse is that I have no TV. This should be remedied by tomorrow though, since I am going to Costco to get a TV with my aunt (since she has a car and I do not). The voices from the closet will soon be quieted and appeased like a Mexican blood-god.
Eraserhead
Some of you know I like weird movies. Some of you also know that I like really weird movies that make other people want to recoil in terror, like Brazil. Now Eraserhead is indeed a weird movie, but to leave it at that would be total understatement. Eraserhead is the product of David Lynch, and this is the guy that came up with Mulholland Drive and the red room from Twin Peaks (well, all of Twin Peaks really, but that was the big highlight), so it stands to reason that the movie would make no sense. Again, that is an understatement, since this movie actually manages to lap reason. What does that mean, you ask? Well, in a race, when you lap someone, you pass them, and then proceed to go all the way around the track and pass them again to make yourself a full lap ahead. To lap reason then, would mean to start at "normality" (the opening credits), go completely to "insane as all madness" (approx. 5 seconds after the opening credits, when the sideways man opens his mouth and a fetus (or something... I'm not sure) comes out, and then back to "normality" only to start again. The movie mostly makes a sort of underside of sense, where things are almost normal and then something odd happens that is just a little out of place (like hearing this weird squelching noise combined with a buzzing and a whining that happens to be the puppies suckling their mom, or the way everyone seems to talk normally and then lapse into awkward silence for no reason, or Mary suddenly having a seizure and being beaten back to being normal without even a pause in the ongoing conversation). Unfortunately, just when you think you're adjusted to the way the movie-world works, something completely non-sequitur happens, like showing the "man in the planet" (still don't know who that is) struggling with the levers. Don't even ask. If you're curious, go rent the movie, or let me know and I can make you a computer copy. You really have to see the movie to believe it.
Blink!
Do yourself a favor and get a T-shirt from these folks. You won't want to wear them to school (or at all), but just knowing that you own something as shocking as this is reassuring.
Warning! I diagnose thee with IDS -- get yourself to a doctor immediately! This illness is highly contagious! Everyone around you may already be infected!
So apparantly Bush isn't a total screw-up. Sounds hard to believe, but the guy makes a strong case. Don't ask why I'm almost paying attention to American politics either... maybe I have this weird thing about watching the world go to Hell in a handbasket or something. It's also odd how I figure our country is totally faultless. Could be we're just as bad, but look good in comparison, or perhaps they've brainwashed me.
Try this. You won't be able to stop.
Also try this. Enter your favorite band and follow the trail off into new music! I managed to map from Nightwish to Michelle Branch all the way to AC/DC! ¶ 5:42 p.m. 0 comments
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Before I forget...
HAPPY YEAR OF THE MONKEY!!! YAY MONKEYS!
(Although, when you consider the information from this site, plus watching 12 Monkeys many times, it makes you wonder... ¶ 6:56 p.m. 0 comments
HAPPY YEAR OF THE MONKEY!!! YAY MONKEYS!
(Although, when you consider the information from this site, plus watching 12 Monkeys many times, it makes you wonder... ¶ 6:56 p.m. 0 comments
You people that don't eat fish don't know what you're missing...
One plus about living in Ottawa (and by that I mean Ontario) is that you get to benefit from better than average fresh food. Simply put, the produce and the fish here are really really good. Shake n bake + salmon fillet = really really good supper. I'm still recovering from how good the last one is. If you are one of the above-mentioned people that don't eat fish, for reasons that may even include possible death, then just ignore all that, since it's unlikely that either words will convey the proper sentiment, nor change your mind. Anyways, slightly more fragmented post here, but I don't care.
The last bus post. I promise.
I made a new self-help list today after I got off the bus.
Step 1: Decide to take public transit.
Step 2: Plot out several careful routes that all work on the assumption that light-rail is faster and more reliable than conventional busses.
Step 3: Take said route for almost 2 weeks, and then (on the advice of a co-worker, as well as on a whim), take the real bus along the Transitway (highway for busses).
Step 4: Kick self repeatedly when you get home in half the time.
Bus woes are over.
Links in the middle now, all say RAH!
Check out WIGU today. Possibly one of the more poignant political cartoons I've seen in a while, especially if you keep up on this strip, since it's still quite in context for "Magical Adventures In Space".
Buy this stuff or you'll go to hell. I'm still not even sure if this is a real religious group. Definitely some controversial stuff to wanna wear/endorse. If I weren't against such purchases at random over the internet (*koff* Didn't buy this *koff*) I would probably buy something right now. But I do not wish to have rocks thrown at me for wearing some of the Bible quotes found here, so my Paypal account shall remain dormant.
If the voices in my head had a body, it would be something like the ones here. New one periodically!
(Bonus link!) If you read webcomics, then you'll probably get most of the jokes found here. These guys made a rather amusing story arc out of lampooning every major strip on the 'net. If you don't follow any of them, this probably won't nearly be as funny, but of course you should consider reading lots and lots of comics because they are all so entertaining, even if they are comics.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
So I didn't have any coffee for the first week I was on my own here. That made me rather grumpy, so I ended up picking up a Melitta single-cup coffee filter holder for my mug. This thing makes potentially the best coffee in the world. I say potentially, because you are in direct control of everything in the coffee process. You can control the temperature of the water you pour in, the grind of the beans, the length of the brew, the size of the cup of coffee, everything. This is very good for coffee connoisseurs that know exactly how they like their coffee made, but it is not quite so good if you aren't very good at controlling all these things, like I am. The coffee I'm drinking in the morning is not the greatest coffee I've ever had, mainly because it's so strong. Because it's strong, it's also really bitter, and while this might be good for some people, and it is certainly good at waking you up in the morning, it's also quite unpleasant to taste at first. Maybe I'm using too fine a grind, and maybe I'm using too much coffee for the amount of coffee I'm making. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this, but without going on a caffeine bender, it may take a while. Until then, I hope I don't run out of sugar.
(I do have an alternative to all of this, and that is to make it with the electric percolator I have, but a) it would be too much hassle for my brain in its puny morning state, and b) it makes coffee for 2-4 people, which is more than just me.)
In a related note, I've found that my consumption of hot drinks has greatly increased since I've moved out. I'm up to about 2 cups of coffee in the morning (one before I leave for work, and one for the morning coffee break), and usually 2 cups of tea later in the day (tea-time after lunch when I'm ready to go comatose, and after dinner when the apartment gets chilly). I don't know if this is too much, but I don't think I'll be changing these shiny new ways right yet. Maybe when my heart explodes from too much stimulant... ¶ 4:34 p.m. 0 comments
One plus about living in Ottawa (and by that I mean Ontario) is that you get to benefit from better than average fresh food. Simply put, the produce and the fish here are really really good. Shake n bake + salmon fillet = really really good supper. I'm still recovering from how good the last one is. If you are one of the above-mentioned people that don't eat fish, for reasons that may even include possible death, then just ignore all that, since it's unlikely that either words will convey the proper sentiment, nor change your mind. Anyways, slightly more fragmented post here, but I don't care.
The last bus post. I promise.
I made a new self-help list today after I got off the bus.
Step 1: Decide to take public transit.
Step 2: Plot out several careful routes that all work on the assumption that light-rail is faster and more reliable than conventional busses.
Step 3: Take said route for almost 2 weeks, and then (on the advice of a co-worker, as well as on a whim), take the real bus along the Transitway (highway for busses).
Step 4: Kick self repeatedly when you get home in half the time.
Bus woes are over.
Links in the middle now, all say RAH!
Check out WIGU today. Possibly one of the more poignant political cartoons I've seen in a while, especially if you keep up on this strip, since it's still quite in context for "Magical Adventures In Space".
Buy this stuff or you'll go to hell. I'm still not even sure if this is a real religious group. Definitely some controversial stuff to wanna wear/endorse. If I weren't against such purchases at random over the internet (*koff* Didn't buy this *koff*) I would probably buy something right now. But I do not wish to have rocks thrown at me for wearing some of the Bible quotes found here, so my Paypal account shall remain dormant.
If the voices in my head had a body, it would be something like the ones here. New one periodically!
(Bonus link!) If you read webcomics, then you'll probably get most of the jokes found here. These guys made a rather amusing story arc out of lampooning every major strip on the 'net. If you don't follow any of them, this probably won't nearly be as funny, but of course you should consider reading lots and lots of comics because they are all so entertaining, even if they are comics.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
So I didn't have any coffee for the first week I was on my own here. That made me rather grumpy, so I ended up picking up a Melitta single-cup coffee filter holder for my mug. This thing makes potentially the best coffee in the world. I say potentially, because you are in direct control of everything in the coffee process. You can control the temperature of the water you pour in, the grind of the beans, the length of the brew, the size of the cup of coffee, everything. This is very good for coffee connoisseurs that know exactly how they like their coffee made, but it is not quite so good if you aren't very good at controlling all these things, like I am. The coffee I'm drinking in the morning is not the greatest coffee I've ever had, mainly because it's so strong. Because it's strong, it's also really bitter, and while this might be good for some people, and it is certainly good at waking you up in the morning, it's also quite unpleasant to taste at first. Maybe I'm using too fine a grind, and maybe I'm using too much coffee for the amount of coffee I'm making. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this, but without going on a caffeine bender, it may take a while. Until then, I hope I don't run out of sugar.
(I do have an alternative to all of this, and that is to make it with the electric percolator I have, but a) it would be too much hassle for my brain in its puny morning state, and b) it makes coffee for 2-4 people, which is more than just me.)
In a related note, I've found that my consumption of hot drinks has greatly increased since I've moved out. I'm up to about 2 cups of coffee in the morning (one before I leave for work, and one for the morning coffee break), and usually 2 cups of tea later in the day (tea-time after lunch when I'm ready to go comatose, and after dinner when the apartment gets chilly). I don't know if this is too much, but I don't think I'll be changing these shiny new ways right yet. Maybe when my heart explodes from too much stimulant... ¶ 4:34 p.m. 0 comments
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Taco + Pie = Yum.
If I think of Mexico, chances are that I think of their best export: the taco. Views on the soft vs. hard vs. fajita (prounounced fah-hee-tah vs. pronounced fah-j-eye-tah will not be covered...) notwithstanding, tacos rock. They're meaty, spicy, cover most food groups (including salt) and are tasty. So when I was at Loblaws yesterday and I saw this Old El Paso "Soft Taco Bake", I was initially confused. "Tacos don't come in a pan," I thought, confused. But lo, I have been converted. This "taco pie" as it were, is really really really good. Basically it's just layers of tortilla with beef + the packaged seasoning mix + packaged cheese goo stacked on top of each other and then baked. Quite simply, this is amazing. My only caveats are that a) it tastes a lot like Hamburger Helper, and b) the cheese is basically that vaseline-y stuff that everyone knows Chris and I like on our nachos, but everyone else abhors. To work around this, I will attempt to make a "from scratch" taco pie. I'm gonna do basically the same thing, but use real cheese (with my handy dandy rotary cheese grater that grates cheese like a mofo but is a pain to clean without a dishwasher) and real spices. I am as of yet unsure as to which spices to use right now though. Possibly I'll check the 'net and see if there's anything worthwhile out there to spark my creativity. I'll likely end up dumping a bunch of money on spices that will never see the light of day, but whatever. To reiterate: try this taco pie now. Either make it yourself if you're on your own (it feeds about 2, provided you like it, plus it's easy to make. if you can handle the aforementioned hamburger helper, you can make taco pie) or get your mom to make it for you (provided she will ignore all the probably-not-so-good chemicals that are likely present in the cheese) if you don't.
On games, books and things.
On games, I have a couple of things to say. One, I really hope the Far Cry demo is worth it, because I'm trying to download it over BitTorrent and it's going dismally slow. Only about 500MB, but that's still a long time when it's only moving at 13Kb/s. Two, Zuma ate my soul. Seriously, I was playing this last week until the trial period ended, and after I uninstalled it I felt all weird. Kind of empty on the inside... Well, not really, but that game is far too good to be one of those Popcap games. It's like Bejewelled, only replace the jewels with a marble-snorting stone frog. You have to shoot the marbles at other marbles that are rolling towards the sun-god's mouth. I realize that might sound odd, but it's really deceptively fun. Also, it's not just me. Tycho over at Penny Arcade! was saying how good Zuma was a while ago, so if you trust him more than you trust me with regards to game taste, you can feel more easy about wanting to try it. Give it about 5 minutes, and if you're ever going to be hooked, you will be.
On books, on the other hand, I'm currently reading Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan. It's really quite interesting, provided you don't mind books that make you (GASP!) learn!!!. It chronicles the evolution of human intelligence, and consists of a lot of talk about what the brain does and how it came to do that. Some interesting things posed so far (I'm only less than halfway through):
- Dolphins might be able to "spell" in sonic shapes. It's theorized that the clicks and whistles they make and that we don't understand may be shaping out what the dolphin/whale is referring to with sound. So if a dolphin sees a shark on his sonar, he can tell other dolphins about the shark by making the same sonar pattern that a dolphin would see if they saw the shark. Like rebusses in sound or something.
- The condition the dude from Memento has actually exists. There has been specifically a patient who has said his life is like living a new day from next to next, as if in a fog. He can't remember anything at all though, as opposed to knowing everything up to the start of his condition. Another patient had brain damage and could neither smell nor feel pain. Apparantly he walked across the superheated metal deck of a cruise ship and had to be told that his feet were charring because he literally didn't notice.
- If you wonder why there aren't any intelligent non-human primates (ie. Bobo the super-genius chimpanzee), it's thought that we killed them. Not now, but back when there were still Neanderthals, Cro-magnon, Homo habilis and the like. I guess paleantological (sp??) evidence is showing that we might have killed them off in some form of natural selection.
Do not support Apple.
You might come to the conclusion that the Earth is several billion years old (and so spherical!) and that man might have actually evolved. I mean really!
Do people really believe this stuff? Full article.
Also, I don't know how many of you liked LEGO as a kid, but I really did. Which is why this site kicks so much ass. Almost every LEGO blueprint ever made, especially all the really tricky space ones. My personal favorite is the "Deep Freeze Defender" - an ice planet spaceship that had about a kajillion parts, had hidden components and could break apart and reform like Voltron or something. Friend of mine had it, but his Mom threw out the instructions and that was the end of it. Not anymore! Also, most of the plans let you search Ebay.com and other sites for that LEGO set, so if you feel all weepy and nostalgic and want to build the Space Police Space Snooper or the Ninja Fortress again, you can see if you can buy it for dirt cheap!
Lastly, check out this guy. He has a show on Food Network called "Good Eats" and it's really cool. Combination of pop culture, decent cooking, kitchen trivia and tasty food! Not for everyone, but I like it. If only I could afford his cookbook and his book on kitchen tools... ¶ 4:57 p.m. 0 comments
If I think of Mexico, chances are that I think of their best export: the taco. Views on the soft vs. hard vs. fajita (prounounced fah-hee-tah vs. pronounced fah-j-eye-tah will not be covered...) notwithstanding, tacos rock. They're meaty, spicy, cover most food groups (including salt) and are tasty. So when I was at Loblaws yesterday and I saw this Old El Paso "Soft Taco Bake", I was initially confused. "Tacos don't come in a pan," I thought, confused. But lo, I have been converted. This "taco pie" as it were, is really really really good. Basically it's just layers of tortilla with beef + the packaged seasoning mix + packaged cheese goo stacked on top of each other and then baked. Quite simply, this is amazing. My only caveats are that a) it tastes a lot like Hamburger Helper, and b) the cheese is basically that vaseline-y stuff that everyone knows Chris and I like on our nachos, but everyone else abhors. To work around this, I will attempt to make a "from scratch" taco pie. I'm gonna do basically the same thing, but use real cheese (with my handy dandy rotary cheese grater that grates cheese like a mofo but is a pain to clean without a dishwasher) and real spices. I am as of yet unsure as to which spices to use right now though. Possibly I'll check the 'net and see if there's anything worthwhile out there to spark my creativity. I'll likely end up dumping a bunch of money on spices that will never see the light of day, but whatever. To reiterate: try this taco pie now. Either make it yourself if you're on your own (it feeds about 2, provided you like it, plus it's easy to make. if you can handle the aforementioned hamburger helper, you can make taco pie) or get your mom to make it for you (provided she will ignore all the probably-not-so-good chemicals that are likely present in the cheese) if you don't.
On games, books and things.
On games, I have a couple of things to say. One, I really hope the Far Cry demo is worth it, because I'm trying to download it over BitTorrent and it's going dismally slow. Only about 500MB, but that's still a long time when it's only moving at 13Kb/s. Two, Zuma ate my soul. Seriously, I was playing this last week until the trial period ended, and after I uninstalled it I felt all weird. Kind of empty on the inside... Well, not really, but that game is far too good to be one of those Popcap games. It's like Bejewelled, only replace the jewels with a marble-snorting stone frog. You have to shoot the marbles at other marbles that are rolling towards the sun-god's mouth. I realize that might sound odd, but it's really deceptively fun. Also, it's not just me. Tycho over at Penny Arcade! was saying how good Zuma was a while ago, so if you trust him more than you trust me with regards to game taste, you can feel more easy about wanting to try it. Give it about 5 minutes, and if you're ever going to be hooked, you will be.
On books, on the other hand, I'm currently reading Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan. It's really quite interesting, provided you don't mind books that make you (GASP!) learn!!!. It chronicles the evolution of human intelligence, and consists of a lot of talk about what the brain does and how it came to do that. Some interesting things posed so far (I'm only less than halfway through):
- Dolphins might be able to "spell" in sonic shapes. It's theorized that the clicks and whistles they make and that we don't understand may be shaping out what the dolphin/whale is referring to with sound. So if a dolphin sees a shark on his sonar, he can tell other dolphins about the shark by making the same sonar pattern that a dolphin would see if they saw the shark. Like rebusses in sound or something.
- The condition the dude from Memento has actually exists. There has been specifically a patient who has said his life is like living a new day from next to next, as if in a fog. He can't remember anything at all though, as opposed to knowing everything up to the start of his condition. Another patient had brain damage and could neither smell nor feel pain. Apparantly he walked across the superheated metal deck of a cruise ship and had to be told that his feet were charring because he literally didn't notice.
- If you wonder why there aren't any intelligent non-human primates (ie. Bobo the super-genius chimpanzee), it's thought that we killed them. Not now, but back when there were still Neanderthals, Cro-magnon, Homo habilis and the like. I guess paleantological (sp??) evidence is showing that we might have killed them off in some form of natural selection.
Do not support Apple.
You might come to the conclusion that the Earth is several billion years old (and so spherical!) and that man might have actually evolved. I mean really!
The real operating system hiding under the newest version of the Macintosh operating system (MacOS X) is called... Darwin! That's right, new Macs are based on Darwinism! While they currently don't advertise this fact to consumers, it is well known among the computer elite, who are mostly Atheists and Pagans. Furthermore, the Darwin OS is released under an "Open Source" license, which is just another name for Communism. They try to hide all of this under a facade of shiny, "lickable" buttons, but the truth has finally come out: Apple Computers promote Godless Darwinism and Communism.
Do people really believe this stuff? Full article.
Also, I don't know how many of you liked LEGO as a kid, but I really did. Which is why this site kicks so much ass. Almost every LEGO blueprint ever made, especially all the really tricky space ones. My personal favorite is the "Deep Freeze Defender" - an ice planet spaceship that had about a kajillion parts, had hidden components and could break apart and reform like Voltron or something. Friend of mine had it, but his Mom threw out the instructions and that was the end of it. Not anymore! Also, most of the plans let you search Ebay.com and other sites for that LEGO set, so if you feel all weepy and nostalgic and want to build the Space Police Space Snooper or the Ninja Fortress again, you can see if you can buy it for dirt cheap!
Lastly, check out this guy. He has a show on Food Network called "Good Eats" and it's really cool. Combination of pop culture, decent cooking, kitchen trivia and tasty food! Not for everyone, but I like it. If only I could afford his cookbook and his book on kitchen tools... ¶ 4:57 p.m. 0 comments
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
I'm networking!
So there is now slightly more content to enjoy at the moment. I've added links to what I consider to be some of the better webcomics out there (since I do read a LOT of them...), and I highly recommend all of them. I'll probably add more links later on, but these will do for now. They are... (in the same order they appear on the page, for your convenience. (and I do mean for your convenience*)).
Goats! -- a comic about a couple of guys in New York, their pub, their goat and their chicken. Funny stuff, and now in color!
Penny Arcade -- do I really need to tell you? THE webcomic if you like games.
PVP -- the other gaming comic out there. Actually, it's not really about games at all. Funny how that works.
Men In Hats -- a comic about some men. In hats. Wandering around in a desert talking about stuff. Lots of rather biting societal and religious commentary in this one, but immensely funny for that reason.
Real Life -- one of the more novel concepts out there, this one's about the real life people who make it. Includes such realisms as shirt-ninjas,
Scary Go Round -- the story of a few lads and lasses in Tackleford, England (I think...). Great art style on this one, and fun characters.
Sam and Fuzzy -- the story of an ordinary taxi driver and his psychopathic stuffed bear compatriot. (Don't even ask me about Fuzzy's eyebrows... I don't get it either.)
RPG World -- a great parody of almost every console RPG out there. Best to start from the beginning though.
Wigu -- the author himself puts it best: "Wigu is this story comic about a little boy and his weird family and his friend who is a Space Potato and his friend who is a Space Pony."
VG Cats -- one of the craziest ones on this list, and also one of the funniest, this is just your average making fun of video games. (Also, it's educational. I learned not to let hobos have knives from reading this.)
White Ninja Comics -- if you don't get it, don't worry. White Ninja is a very peculiar comic in that it's either the funniest thing you will read twice a week, or it is the stupidest, most lame thing you won't read twice a week. I happen to be of the former opinion. The concepts are just too simple and obtuse not to think is funny.
Sluggy Freelance -- alright folks, this is it. If I told you to read one and only one of these great quasi-publications, this one would be it. Sluggy has been around forever (like 1997! The internet barely existed then!) and has some of the best storylines, characters, art (just read Fire and Rain...) and humor out there. Go read it now, lest ye head ignite.
Sinfest -- gets the award for "Most like newspaper comic". The artist of this puppy has apparantly been rejected by the syndicates 11 times...
Something*Positive -- if biting sarcasm could be distilled, made into moonshine and fed to an artist, this is the result. Checkitout.
Chopping Block -- one of the most uniquely "drawn" and most morbidly funny comics I've read. Black comedy at it's finest.
Scott McCloud.com -- not really a webcomic at all, but if you like comics in general, check out what this guy has to say. His book Understanding Comics is a work of genius.
Next, I got the less comicy, more linky links:
In4mador! -- this is just a bunch of weird, interesting spots to click.
WOTD -- see last post.
How Stuff Works -- I think the title pretty much describes it pretty good.
Lastly, the other blogs I read. All 2 of them. Alas, a blog is very political-commentary and liberal rights oriented. They have some very thought provoking links about stuff going on in the States though. Mimi Smartypants on the other hand, is simply the day to day life of the author and her daughter (mostly). I'm not sure why I read either of them.
So yeah. Click away, or something. I will distract myself with more thoughts on busses.
The driver on the bus goes "glare, glare, glare"!
Seriously, if yesterday I had the best driver ever, I had his evil Bizarro twin today. This guy was cold, mean and hateful, in the most literal way. Didn't talk to people, and the most you got was a glare and (maybe) a nod. Most of the time, I probably wouldn't mind, since I tend to ignore bus drivers on the best of days, but the contrast from yesterday was large enough for me to take notice.
Anyways, I'm still trying to figure out a better way to get home from work. As it stands now, everything I've tried has resulted, for one reason or another, in a commute of an hour. Too bad my building is literally in the middle of nowhere. The O-Train helps, but no matter which station I get off at, I don't get home until 5 or so. My quest will continue, but I'm starting to just accept it and try to work around it.
For your linking pleasure...
Running out of stuff to say, and rather just put some sparse comments like "toes were cold today", or "really tired...", (despite how true those statements might be) I'll slap up some links.
Armageddon thoughts at their finest.
I *dare* you to get married in this!
You've probably gotten this in your email already, but it's still funny. ¶ 4:03 p.m. 0 comments
So there is now slightly more content to enjoy at the moment. I've added links to what I consider to be some of the better webcomics out there (since I do read a LOT of them...), and I highly recommend all of them. I'll probably add more links later on, but these will do for now. They are... (in the same order they appear on the page, for your convenience. (and I do mean for your convenience*)).
Goats! -- a comic about a couple of guys in New York, their pub, their goat and their chicken. Funny stuff, and now in color!
Penny Arcade -- do I really need to tell you? THE webcomic if you like games.
PVP -- the other gaming comic out there. Actually, it's not really about games at all. Funny how that works.
Men In Hats -- a comic about some men. In hats. Wandering around in a desert talking about stuff. Lots of rather biting societal and religious commentary in this one, but immensely funny for that reason.
Real Life -- one of the more novel concepts out there, this one's about the real life people who make it. Includes such realisms as shirt-ninjas,
Scary Go Round -- the story of a few lads and lasses in Tackleford, England (I think...). Great art style on this one, and fun characters.
Sam and Fuzzy -- the story of an ordinary taxi driver and his psychopathic stuffed bear compatriot. (Don't even ask me about Fuzzy's eyebrows... I don't get it either.)
RPG World -- a great parody of almost every console RPG out there. Best to start from the beginning though.
Wigu -- the author himself puts it best: "Wigu is this story comic about a little boy and his weird family and his friend who is a Space Potato and his friend who is a Space Pony."
VG Cats -- one of the craziest ones on this list, and also one of the funniest, this is just your average making fun of video games. (Also, it's educational. I learned not to let hobos have knives from reading this.)
White Ninja Comics -- if you don't get it, don't worry. White Ninja is a very peculiar comic in that it's either the funniest thing you will read twice a week, or it is the stupidest, most lame thing you won't read twice a week. I happen to be of the former opinion. The concepts are just too simple and obtuse not to think is funny.
Sluggy Freelance -- alright folks, this is it. If I told you to read one and only one of these great quasi-publications, this one would be it. Sluggy has been around forever (like 1997! The internet barely existed then!) and has some of the best storylines, characters, art (just read Fire and Rain...) and humor out there. Go read it now, lest ye head ignite.
Sinfest -- gets the award for "Most like newspaper comic". The artist of this puppy has apparantly been rejected by the syndicates 11 times...
Something*Positive -- if biting sarcasm could be distilled, made into moonshine and fed to an artist, this is the result. Checkitout.
Chopping Block -- one of the most uniquely "drawn" and most morbidly funny comics I've read. Black comedy at it's finest.
Scott McCloud.com -- not really a webcomic at all, but if you like comics in general, check out what this guy has to say. His book Understanding Comics is a work of genius.
Next, I got the less comicy, more linky links:
In4mador! -- this is just a bunch of weird, interesting spots to click.
WOTD -- see last post.
How Stuff Works -- I think the title pretty much describes it pretty good.
Lastly, the other blogs I read. All 2 of them. Alas, a blog is very political-commentary and liberal rights oriented. They have some very thought provoking links about stuff going on in the States though. Mimi Smartypants on the other hand, is simply the day to day life of the author and her daughter (mostly). I'm not sure why I read either of them.
So yeah. Click away, or something. I will distract myself with more thoughts on busses.
The driver on the bus goes "glare, glare, glare"!
Seriously, if yesterday I had the best driver ever, I had his evil Bizarro twin today. This guy was cold, mean and hateful, in the most literal way. Didn't talk to people, and the most you got was a glare and (maybe) a nod. Most of the time, I probably wouldn't mind, since I tend to ignore bus drivers on the best of days, but the contrast from yesterday was large enough for me to take notice.
Anyways, I'm still trying to figure out a better way to get home from work. As it stands now, everything I've tried has resulted, for one reason or another, in a commute of an hour. Too bad my building is literally in the middle of nowhere. The O-Train helps, but no matter which station I get off at, I don't get home until 5 or so. My quest will continue, but I'm starting to just accept it and try to work around it.
For your linking pleasure...
Running out of stuff to say, and rather just put some sparse comments like "toes were cold today", or "really tired...", (despite how true those statements might be) I'll slap up some links.
Armageddon thoughts at their finest.
I *dare* you to get married in this!
You've probably gotten this in your email already, but it's still funny. ¶ 4:03 p.m. 0 comments
Monday, January 19, 2004
Broadcasting now from Ottawa!
So yeah. Like I said, I've been meaning to set up a blog for some time now. (Ever since summer!) Always meant to host it myself though, but since I don't think I can afford a second computer presently (even a dismal server - such are the costs of silly things like food and rent) I've decided to go with blogger.com. Anyways, things are rather sparse right now with regards to content on the front page here. I'll probably add most of the webcomics I read as links here, and probably a few of the other sites I visit. Also, any unusual or random links I find will likely join my little diatribes here.
Most of this however, will be after the aforementioned mouse difficulties. Damn those batteries take a long time to charge.
Anyways, for those paying attention, the title of this web publication is Cornix vagus. It's latin, and means "the aimless Crow(e)". I was going to make it something silly and irrelevant like "Crowe's thing" or "Crowe's blog" or "I bought a hat today", but those were all taken. And I didn't buy a hat. Regardless, as it says in the little description, quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur, or "anything in latin sounds profound". I think that's true for the most part. People tend to doubt things less if they don't know what it means.
State of the Union
So after just over 2 weeks of being in Ottawa, I've almost settled into some form of regime/habit/life, such as it is for now. I'm still looking for somewhere to train while I'm here, but seeing as how there is a definite lack of ITF Taekwon-do schools (only a couple of instructors), I'm starting to lean towards jiu-jistu or kickboxing. I was going to go for traditional boxing, but haven't found anything at all in that deparment. Guess the sport isn't really a Canadian thing.
Skating, on the other hand, definitely is an Ottawa thing, and I think I might just end up taking it up whether I should like to or not. Unfortunately, I suspect many an intimate encounter between my face and the ice may be lying in wait for me in the coming weekends, especially as how Winterlude is around the corner in February. (I'm still not sure what that is, but it has to do with winter, skating, snow, etc. and is a very big festival thing of some sort.)
One thing that is rather odd about living out East though, is the very wide range of people you meet. From bitter stereotypical francophones, to incredibly cheerful bus drivers, (I'm telling you, this guy tops any bus driver I have ever met! He made not only a point of greeting everyone who came on, wishing everyone who got off a good evening, but he announced each major street as he came to it, told stories about driving a bus, asked people for feedback regarding which side of the intersection was better for them to get off at, and cracked jokes about the areas of town we were going through. It was surreal...) Ontario definitely is more varied than Edmonton is. Don't trust the drivers though... the cases of brainus misplacus while driving are about a billion times more frequent. Back home, you were doing alright if every other person on the road maintained their sanity. Here though, it seems that you can't walk for a minute without hearing some horn going or having somebody speed by doing many, many kph over the limit. Add to the fact that they still salt the roads out here, so anything with wheels is covered with white scuzz within moments of driving, and you have a just plain miserable road experience.
And the busses are just as bad here as there.
Current Affairs
I picked up a copy of Once Upon A Time In The West yesterday, purely on impulse. (It was only like 16 bucks at HMV for a pretty decent 2-disc special edition! C'mon!) Actually turned out to be a pretty good movie. Very very slow though. Personally, I didn't mind it at all (seems I enjoy what's known as "tension", "atmosphere" and "ambience" in movies...) but I could definitely see more ADD-ish compatriots of mine struggling and fidgeting to get through it. Many many shots of landscapes and eyes (they tend to look around a LOT in this one), but overall, especially plot and character wise, this is one great flick. (Even more surprising when you consider that the director was Italian and didn't speak English) If you like Unforgiven and wouldn't mind another unconventional western, give it a try.
One more thing. Crepes are really good when stuffed with potato. They're like big, tankish perogies...
Anyways, I'll leave with a few links I found yesterday:
--Good old-fashioned Bush-bashing. And by that I mean the US Prez.
--The word of the day. Best vocabulary booster there is! (Where else you gonna find out what "laputan" means?)
--Webcomic-y fun. Check out this guy's hypercomics, or even better, the story of Mr. Nile. He's got some really cool thoughts on how to progress comics online using an interactive medium. (The time-travel stuff is the coolest!) ¶ 8:05 p.m. 0 comments
So yeah. Like I said, I've been meaning to set up a blog for some time now. (Ever since summer!) Always meant to host it myself though, but since I don't think I can afford a second computer presently (even a dismal server - such are the costs of silly things like food and rent) I've decided to go with blogger.com. Anyways, things are rather sparse right now with regards to content on the front page here. I'll probably add most of the webcomics I read as links here, and probably a few of the other sites I visit. Also, any unusual or random links I find will likely join my little diatribes here.
Most of this however, will be after the aforementioned mouse difficulties. Damn those batteries take a long time to charge.
Anyways, for those paying attention, the title of this web publication is Cornix vagus. It's latin, and means "the aimless Crow(e)". I was going to make it something silly and irrelevant like "Crowe's thing" or "Crowe's blog" or "I bought a hat today", but those were all taken. And I didn't buy a hat. Regardless, as it says in the little description, quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur, or "anything in latin sounds profound". I think that's true for the most part. People tend to doubt things less if they don't know what it means.
State of the Union
So after just over 2 weeks of being in Ottawa, I've almost settled into some form of regime/habit/life, such as it is for now. I'm still looking for somewhere to train while I'm here, but seeing as how there is a definite lack of ITF Taekwon-do schools (only a couple of instructors), I'm starting to lean towards jiu-jistu or kickboxing. I was going to go for traditional boxing, but haven't found anything at all in that deparment. Guess the sport isn't really a Canadian thing.
Skating, on the other hand, definitely is an Ottawa thing, and I think I might just end up taking it up whether I should like to or not. Unfortunately, I suspect many an intimate encounter between my face and the ice may be lying in wait for me in the coming weekends, especially as how Winterlude is around the corner in February. (I'm still not sure what that is, but it has to do with winter, skating, snow, etc. and is a very big festival thing of some sort.)
One thing that is rather odd about living out East though, is the very wide range of people you meet. From bitter stereotypical francophones, to incredibly cheerful bus drivers, (I'm telling you, this guy tops any bus driver I have ever met! He made not only a point of greeting everyone who came on, wishing everyone who got off a good evening, but he announced each major street as he came to it, told stories about driving a bus, asked people for feedback regarding which side of the intersection was better for them to get off at, and cracked jokes about the areas of town we were going through. It was surreal...) Ontario definitely is more varied than Edmonton is. Don't trust the drivers though... the cases of brainus misplacus while driving are about a billion times more frequent. Back home, you were doing alright if every other person on the road maintained their sanity. Here though, it seems that you can't walk for a minute without hearing some horn going or having somebody speed by doing many, many kph over the limit. Add to the fact that they still salt the roads out here, so anything with wheels is covered with white scuzz within moments of driving, and you have a just plain miserable road experience.
And the busses are just as bad here as there.
Current Affairs
I picked up a copy of Once Upon A Time In The West yesterday, purely on impulse. (It was only like 16 bucks at HMV for a pretty decent 2-disc special edition! C'mon!) Actually turned out to be a pretty good movie. Very very slow though. Personally, I didn't mind it at all (seems I enjoy what's known as "tension", "atmosphere" and "ambience" in movies...) but I could definitely see more ADD-ish compatriots of mine struggling and fidgeting to get through it. Many many shots of landscapes and eyes (they tend to look around a LOT in this one), but overall, especially plot and character wise, this is one great flick. (Even more surprising when you consider that the director was Italian and didn't speak English) If you like Unforgiven and wouldn't mind another unconventional western, give it a try.
One more thing. Crepes are really good when stuffed with potato. They're like big, tankish perogies...
Anyways, I'll leave with a few links I found yesterday:
--Good old-fashioned Bush-bashing. And by that I mean the US Prez.
--The word of the day. Best vocabulary booster there is! (Where else you gonna find out what "laputan" means?)
--Webcomic-y fun. Check out this guy's hypercomics, or even better, the story of Mr. Nile. He's got some really cool thoughts on how to progress comics online using an interactive medium. (The time-travel stuff is the coolest!) ¶ 8:05 p.m. 0 comments
Attention Citizens! This is a test. Panic!
So the blog is going. Took me a while, but it is. Still messing around with settings at this point, plus my mouse batteries are dead, so a more in depth intro post will follow.
Stay tuned. ¶ 8:00 p.m. 0 comments
So the blog is going. Took me a while, but it is. Still messing around with settings at this point, plus my mouse batteries are dead, so a more in depth intro post will follow.
Stay tuned. ¶ 8:00 p.m. 0 comments
