Monday, July 05, 2004
Meaty O's - Now with Sheep Paste!
(Baaaaaa.)
And with this post, this blog shall change titles and be henceforth known as Pop Culture Victim. Reasons for changing? Well, for one, it's a better title and definitely more blog-like IMHO. For another, it was bestowed on me a few times in the past couple of months, and I think it fits me rather well. (And I never could decide on how to pronounce "vagus".) I shall still use cornixvagus as a handle, so that title shall not be forgotten. Also, I am using popculturevictim as my handle for Yahoo Messenger, so one can now bother me via that avenue as well. All that aside, business continues as usual.
From Neil Gaiman's blog, regarding his next book, Anansi Boys:
I cannot wait for this book to come out. It just sounds more and more interesting the more I hear about it. Funny thing is, I haven't the faintest clue what it's about. I'm also really stoked about Dave McKean's upcoming film, MirrorMask, which was written by Gaiman.
If you build it, they will come. (I suppose "knit" is more appropriate than "build", but I couldn't resist. I don't put smileys in my postings, but if I did, I would put one here. Probably a mischevious one.)
If I had a HIND, I would paint it up like this too.
So what did y'all do on the weekend? I went rafting with my family! It wasn't my first time rafting in general, and it was not even my first time on the Ottawa River with Owl Rafting, but it was nonetheless quite awesome. The weather couldn't have been beaten with a large pointy stick, and the water level was high enough for some pretty great rapids. In particular, the doozie called Coliseum (replete with a wave called Big Kahuna) was pretty huge, resulting in the near-flipping of our raft. We were heading into the hole, and our guide gave the Hold On command, so everyone grabbed the raft, except that it seems that I was able to grab it better than the rest, since everyone on my side with the exception of myself (the one that was highest in tipping) got tossed to the middle of the raft. Three of the rafters on the low side got tossed, two of which being my cousins. I was rather surprised that the raft tipped, but I suppose I shouldn't have been, since the Ottawa River's holes and waves are really quite large, much more so than those in the rivers of the Rockies. The downside, however, is that being a larger, broader, older river, the Ottawa has much longer flat parts that need to be traversed in between the moments of excitement. In contrast, mountain rivers are much colder, but also much more snakey and turbulent, being younger and going downhill almost constantly. I think that in terms of rafting, I prefer the mountain rivers, being more exciting, but in terms of comfort, the Ottawa has the Rockies beat like Ivan vs. Apollo in Rocky IV.
If I am allowed to indulge a bit and spout off on gaming stuff, I have been re-hooked on City of Heroes. I have created a new character though, since my last one just wasn't working out. The new concept I came up with is that... well, I have no concept. Rather, my inspiration for Eclectica, was that she is the result of mashing several concepts I had come up with yesterday together in one big, eclectic (hence her name) heap. From one idea, I had the robot Generitron, who was essentially a droid in a generic superhero outfit (primary colors, chest emblems, tights, etc) with generic superhero powers (flight, beats up criminals, laser-beam eyes, etc) and generic superhero catchphrases (For Justice!). Essentially the bland vanilla of heroes. In another camp, I had Boost Man, who was a hyperactive, sugarcharged speedster whose battle cry was "Charge with glucose!!!", as lifted straight from the Boost Bars they sell at Sugar Mountain. What I ended up with was a technology origin* urban Valkyrie that has power blasts and electro-punches. My back story is along the lines of "Back story? We don't need no stinkin' backstory!"
* Don't ask me how the tech origin fits into the concept. If anything, it was an indulgence in min-maxing, since there are relatively few tech origin heroes out there, which means more origin-specific enhancements for me.
Lastly, some music stuff: First is a new album, this time from Therion. If you've heard Secret of the Runes, then you already have a small idea of what their new double album, Lemuria / Sirius B is like, which is to say not easily described. Very grandiose, with lots of chanting-type vocals and some orchestral accompanyment, but not having lost touch with their death metal roots. Therion does, however, get kudos for making a positively HAPPY death metal song. I mean, you hear it, and it has this incredibly upbeat, jovial, "prancing along through the forest on a grand march" sort of feel to it, and yet in the background you can still hear these harsh guitar riffs that, on their own, would no doubt be quite oppressive. I suppose the orchestra really tips the balance in favor of the "JOY" team. The second bit of music-related stuff I have to share is that I now have a keyboard. Belonged to my grandfather, and since my parents were visiting Toronto last week, they were helping my grandmother throw out stuff (and she has a lot of STUFF to throw out). As a result, I ended up with possession of a Casio keyboard. It has about 36-40 keys, which isn't bad, and it has a decent number of features. You never know, I might just bust out a groove or something and make some music. Don't hold me to that though.
¶ 11:02 a.m.
(Baaaaaa.)
And with this post, this blog shall change titles and be henceforth known as Pop Culture Victim. Reasons for changing? Well, for one, it's a better title and definitely more blog-like IMHO. For another, it was bestowed on me a few times in the past couple of months, and I think it fits me rather well. (And I never could decide on how to pronounce "vagus".) I shall still use cornixvagus as a handle, so that title shall not be forgotten. Also, I am using popculturevictim as my handle for Yahoo Messenger, so one can now bother me via that avenue as well. All that aside, business continues as usual.
From Neil Gaiman's blog, regarding his next book, Anansi Boys:
The weirdest thing about the book is that it begins as a comedy, then slowly shades into something a bit like horror, and I realised a couple of days ago that the rules of fiction mean you have to tread slightly warily as you go, if you're going to do something like this. In a comedy, part of the underlying agreement is that good people and bad people will get what they deserve, and that happy endings will be earned, and the universe rewards nice people and sensible ones. In horror the underlying agreement is that there is no justice and that good people may be fed to the lions at authorial whim. Which realisation induced a moment or two of panic, and then I shrugged and figured it would all come out in the wash.
I cannot wait for this book to come out. It just sounds more and more interesting the more I hear about it. Funny thing is, I haven't the faintest clue what it's about. I'm also really stoked about Dave McKean's upcoming film, MirrorMask, which was written by Gaiman.
If you build it, they will come. (I suppose "knit" is more appropriate than "build", but I couldn't resist. I don't put smileys in my postings, but if I did, I would put one here. Probably a mischevious one.)
If I had a HIND, I would paint it up like this too.
So what did y'all do on the weekend? I went rafting with my family! It wasn't my first time rafting in general, and it was not even my first time on the Ottawa River with Owl Rafting, but it was nonetheless quite awesome. The weather couldn't have been beaten with a large pointy stick, and the water level was high enough for some pretty great rapids. In particular, the doozie called Coliseum (replete with a wave called Big Kahuna) was pretty huge, resulting in the near-flipping of our raft. We were heading into the hole, and our guide gave the Hold On command, so everyone grabbed the raft, except that it seems that I was able to grab it better than the rest, since everyone on my side with the exception of myself (the one that was highest in tipping) got tossed to the middle of the raft. Three of the rafters on the low side got tossed, two of which being my cousins. I was rather surprised that the raft tipped, but I suppose I shouldn't have been, since the Ottawa River's holes and waves are really quite large, much more so than those in the rivers of the Rockies. The downside, however, is that being a larger, broader, older river, the Ottawa has much longer flat parts that need to be traversed in between the moments of excitement. In contrast, mountain rivers are much colder, but also much more snakey and turbulent, being younger and going downhill almost constantly. I think that in terms of rafting, I prefer the mountain rivers, being more exciting, but in terms of comfort, the Ottawa has the Rockies beat like Ivan vs. Apollo in Rocky IV.
If I am allowed to indulge a bit and spout off on gaming stuff, I have been re-hooked on City of Heroes. I have created a new character though, since my last one just wasn't working out. The new concept I came up with is that... well, I have no concept. Rather, my inspiration for Eclectica, was that she is the result of mashing several concepts I had come up with yesterday together in one big, eclectic (hence her name) heap. From one idea, I had the robot Generitron, who was essentially a droid in a generic superhero outfit (primary colors, chest emblems, tights, etc) with generic superhero powers (flight, beats up criminals, laser-beam eyes, etc) and generic superhero catchphrases (For Justice!). Essentially the bland vanilla of heroes. In another camp, I had Boost Man, who was a hyperactive, sugarcharged speedster whose battle cry was "Charge with glucose!!!", as lifted straight from the Boost Bars they sell at Sugar Mountain. What I ended up with was a technology origin* urban Valkyrie that has power blasts and electro-punches. My back story is along the lines of "Back story? We don't need no stinkin' backstory!"
* Don't ask me how the tech origin fits into the concept. If anything, it was an indulgence in min-maxing, since there are relatively few tech origin heroes out there, which means more origin-specific enhancements for me.
Lastly, some music stuff: First is a new album, this time from Therion. If you've heard Secret of the Runes, then you already have a small idea of what their new double album, Lemuria / Sirius B is like, which is to say not easily described. Very grandiose, with lots of chanting-type vocals and some orchestral accompanyment, but not having lost touch with their death metal roots. Therion does, however, get kudos for making a positively HAPPY death metal song. I mean, you hear it, and it has this incredibly upbeat, jovial, "prancing along through the forest on a grand march" sort of feel to it, and yet in the background you can still hear these harsh guitar riffs that, on their own, would no doubt be quite oppressive. I suppose the orchestra really tips the balance in favor of the "JOY" team. The second bit of music-related stuff I have to share is that I now have a keyboard. Belonged to my grandfather, and since my parents were visiting Toronto last week, they were helping my grandmother throw out stuff (and she has a lot of STUFF to throw out). As a result, I ended up with possession of a Casio keyboard. It has about 36-40 keys, which isn't bad, and it has a decent number of features. You never know, I might just bust out a groove or something and make some music. Don't hold me to that though.
¶ 11:02 a.m.
