Crazy kitten loves to climb the christmas tree, as you can see.
Friday, December 23, 2005
J. K. Rowling suspected of wizardry by local Oxford hospital
Doctor's at John Radcliff Hospital of Oxford England have done a little statistical correlation study of Potter books and child injury, the results are predictable, but the conclusion is a little tongue-in-cheek humour suggesting that we would be so lucky to have more like Rowling who could engage the minds of our youth.
Since this is my digg submission, I won't say anything more then this.
read more | digg story
Since this is my digg submission, I won't say anything more then this.
read more | digg story
"This is my wife, she is hilarious, Erin say something funny. . ."
When I thought about my topic d'jour on my walk to the train, I didn't intend to pick on my wife, it's just she complains of the very thing I'm about to comment on. The topic today is expectations, can you say expectations? Very good, have a cookie. (I think my site tracker tool will be the one providing your session cookie today :)
Erin is hilarious, she really is, but her comedy is very situational, she doesn't have a repository of jokes ready to call up and amuse, but when the situation is right she will have you in stitches. Don't get me wrong, its not that she doesn't have jokes in the traditional sense (I'm so about to end up sleeping on the sofa) but her repertoire includes:
This is probably only topped by Scott Kurtz of PVP bad strip in his upcoming 25th book.
This isn't to say Erin is dull most of the time, far from it, she can usually make most situations funny, the only time she runs a fowl of the comedy duck is when she is explicitly asked to be funny.
Who wouldn't be intimidated by such a build up, what she really needs is a story like this to carry straight from the 'Be funny' comment into being funny. Honey I recommended you tell the story about the time I wrote a blog entry on the subject and then you kicked my ass (okay, I might have redeemed myself from the sofa tonight. :)
Well that was a pretty big build up, and where does it get me? Well recently I apparently set the bar high for blogging, insofar as my sister was concerned. The discussion from there got very waxy, but it left me in a posting pickle. Now that I am a blogger of asperatable (Is there a good word that is a conjugation of aspire which means one who has character to which one would aspire too? I'm sure there is an entirely different word all together, but Newspeak demands a double-minus number of words, so I want to double-plus conjugate! (Okay I am really really really digressing.)
(There is a thought, a line graph going through a post of topic threads that lets you ignore my tangents. I wonder if such a graphing algorithm could be produced, and if I could sell the art derived from the graphing of my personal blog as a form of income?)
So boggling for a topic that would meet the standards of my literary critics, I will admit to floundering, so I offer this copout, an entire entry on me copping out :)
Hmmm I seem to have reached a climax, and I'm not sure where to go from here, dammit!
Well how about I talk about my attempts to steal traffic? So I have posted what half-a-dozen times in the last 24 hours? Maybe less, not sure, but most of those posts were done with the add of digg.com. I will admit there was a multifaceted purpose in this.
First and foremost I blog things that are interesting to me, while it is sometimes a little ADD it is also just sort of how I use my blog. I'm like hey that is interesting, then I write an article about "hey this is interesting."
Secondly, I am trying to drive traffic to my blog? Why, I don't really know, it is mildly ego stroking to have traffic read my tripe, so to encourage the reading of said tripe, I post about what s hip/popular/current (Also known, as of now as Hipocur, famed land mammalian predecessor of the Hippo, well known for enjoying the New York Times editorial cartoon) in the news. The theory here is that other people are also interested in what is hipocur. The "people" will search for this mythical beast on google, and what will they find, but my inane blathering. There is a secondary effect which makes me crack up, and that is using my traffic tracker to find out exactly how people got to my site and the search terms they used. Man people find my place by accident more then on purpose, as noted in my Araska entry many moons ago. While I am rambling about effects, the other thing that makes me laugh is reading the ads google has added to my page. Most people don't see them because they are way down at the bottom, but everyone in a while google sticks something bizarre in there. *meta*Topic refocus re tangential art comment, see above*/meta*
Third, I'm trying to increase my google page rank (also for some form of self aggrandizement.) This is actually pretty easy to accomplish, simply get references from sites that have a high page rank, and then you get a high page rank. How do I get said links? A couple ways, put my URL in any forum signatures I may use, and use crazy link back mechanisms when I blog. "What you say? ...make your Time Ha Ha Ha" What I say is that I use a site like Digg, with high page rank and a lot of traffic, to get my stories of interest, and instead of just posting the stories of interest, I use the "blog this" command to post. That gets me 1) something I am interested in, 2) something popular that someone might search for, 3) A link saying "this guy blogged this story here" from a popular site. It is so evil it just might work. :)
Well I have wasted too much of everyone's times, and it is nearly Christmas, which means, Food, food, food, presents, food, presents, food, cottage (important emphasis on the last one, because that is when I get to decompress from December, which is a month I often handle poorly, this one being no exception.)
So if you don't hear from me, it is because I am at the cottage, and quietly enjoying myself. So Merry Christmas all, and Happy Chanukah! Have I mentioned I get to double dip on holidays?
ps kitten is doing great, the Christmas could use a little less attention from the kitten. Pictures to follow, but for a brief synopsis, kitten vs tree resulted in all the ornaments in the lower half of the tree relocating to the upper half of the tree. Note this does not prevent kitten access to them, but it seems to slow the rate at which ornaments are detached from the tree. Except tinsel, that stuff leaps from the kitten's path.
Erin is hilarious, she really is, but her comedy is very situational, she doesn't have a repository of jokes ready to call up and amuse, but when the situation is right she will have you in stitches. Don't get me wrong, its not that she doesn't have jokes in the traditional sense (I'm so about to end up sleeping on the sofa) but her repertoire includes:
Q: What is Brown and Sticky
*dramatic pause*
A: A stick
This is probably only topped by Scott Kurtz of PVP bad strip in his upcoming 25th book.
This isn't to say Erin is dull most of the time, far from it, she can usually make most situations funny, the only time she runs a fowl of the comedy duck is when she is explicitly asked to be funny.
Who wouldn't be intimidated by such a build up, what she really needs is a story like this to carry straight from the 'Be funny' comment into being funny. Honey I recommended you tell the story about the time I wrote a blog entry on the subject and then you kicked my ass (okay, I might have redeemed myself from the sofa tonight. :)
Well that was a pretty big build up, and where does it get me? Well recently I apparently set the bar high for blogging, insofar as my sister was concerned. The discussion from there got very waxy, but it left me in a posting pickle. Now that I am a blogger of asperatable (Is there a good word that is a conjugation of aspire which means one who has character to which one would aspire too? I'm sure there is an entirely different word all together, but Newspeak demands a double-minus number of words, so I want to double-plus conjugate! (Okay I am really really really digressing.)
(There is a thought, a line graph going through a post of topic threads that lets you ignore my tangents. I wonder if such a graphing algorithm could be produced, and if I could sell the art derived from the graphing of my personal blog as a form of income?)
So boggling for a topic that would meet the standards of my literary critics, I will admit to floundering, so I offer this copout, an entire entry on me copping out :)
Hmmm I seem to have reached a climax, and I'm not sure where to go from here, dammit!
Well how about I talk about my attempts to steal traffic? So I have posted what half-a-dozen times in the last 24 hours? Maybe less, not sure, but most of those posts were done with the add of digg.com. I will admit there was a multifaceted purpose in this.
First and foremost I blog things that are interesting to me, while it is sometimes a little ADD it is also just sort of how I use my blog. I'm like hey that is interesting, then I write an article about "hey this is interesting."
Secondly, I am trying to drive traffic to my blog? Why, I don't really know, it is mildly ego stroking to have traffic read my tripe, so to encourage the reading of said tripe, I post about what s hip/popular/current (Also known, as of now as Hipocur, famed land mammalian predecessor of the Hippo, well known for enjoying the New York Times editorial cartoon) in the news. The theory here is that other people are also interested in what is hipocur. The "people" will search for this mythical beast on google, and what will they find, but my inane blathering. There is a secondary effect which makes me crack up, and that is using my traffic tracker to find out exactly how people got to my site and the search terms they used. Man people find my place by accident more then on purpose, as noted in my Araska entry many moons ago. While I am rambling about effects, the other thing that makes me laugh is reading the ads google has added to my page. Most people don't see them because they are way down at the bottom, but everyone in a while google sticks something bizarre in there. *meta*Topic refocus re tangential art comment, see above*/meta*
Third, I'm trying to increase my google page rank (also for some form of self aggrandizement.) This is actually pretty easy to accomplish, simply get references from sites that have a high page rank, and then you get a high page rank. How do I get said links? A couple ways, put my URL in any forum signatures I may use, and use crazy link back mechanisms when I blog. "What you say? ...make your Time Ha Ha Ha" What I say is that I use a site like Digg, with high page rank and a lot of traffic, to get my stories of interest, and instead of just posting the stories of interest, I use the "blog this" command to post. That gets me 1) something I am interested in, 2) something popular that someone might search for, 3) A link saying "this guy blogged this story here" from a popular site. It is so evil it just might work. :)
Well I have wasted too much of everyone's times, and it is nearly Christmas, which means, Food, food, food, presents, food, presents, food, cottage (important emphasis on the last one, because that is when I get to decompress from December, which is a month I often handle poorly, this one being no exception.)
So if you don't hear from me, it is because I am at the cottage, and quietly enjoying myself. So Merry Christmas all, and Happy Chanukah! Have I mentioned I get to double dip on holidays?
ps kitten is doing great, the Christmas could use a little less attention from the kitten. Pictures to follow, but for a brief synopsis, kitten vs tree resulted in all the ornaments in the lower half of the tree relocating to the upper half of the tree. Note this does not prevent kitten access to them, but it seems to slow the rate at which ornaments are detached from the tree. Except tinsel, that stuff leaps from the kitten's path.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
"why you should continue to date me"
charts included!
Digg, digg, digg, what do you have for us today.
Truely this person who choose to not continue dating this fellow has passed over one who is truely awesome... Graphics designer, and Zombie actor all in one package!
Its worth a hearty laugh, all though it is circa 2004, so I'm sure this has already been around the internet and back.
read more | digg story
Merry Christmas Go Transit style
Changes for Friday, December 23 and Friday, December 30
We will run regular morning service. The afternoon schedule will be adjusted.
Milton GO Train & Bus service
* Please see the special holiday westbound timetable [pdf]to find out when train and bus trips are running. Any normally scheduled trips that do not appear in these timetables have been cancelled for December 23 and 30.
Those friendly folks at go transit have given me a 12:30 pm train home tommorow! That is very nice in my books, so Merry Christmas right back at you Go Transit!
Dark chocolate "good for the heart"
"Only a small daily treat of dark chocolate may substantially increase the amount of antioxidant intake and beneficially affect vascular health," the report's authors said.
I love these stories when I see them, they give me an excuse to go out and get a good peice of dark chocolate! In fact as I have aged, I find my tastes tend toward the dark chocolate more and more.
In my youth, only milk/white chocolate would do, and I still have a soft spot for white chocolate, especially in the hot drink format. Now, I'm older and wiser, and when it comes time for a treat I'm inclined to either pay a premium, or accept a small portion size and take a truely delectable peice of dark chocolate over the mass marked sugar willed waxy chocolate bars.
Maybe I'm becoming a chocolate snob, but if I am going to eat something so filled with calories, I want it to be worth it. I think I might go get me some dark chocolate!
read more | digg story
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Natures Rubik Cube - worlds oldest puzzle?
This amazing seed pod comes from the cannon ball mangrove in east africa and southeast asia, the puzzle balls consist of up to 16 seeds that interlock like a puzzle and could possibly have been around 2 million years ago!
...
First time I have Blogged a Digg, just wanted to see how it works, and this is cool
read more | digg story
...
First time I have Blogged a Digg, just wanted to see how it works, and this is cool
read more | digg story
Sinking feeling
As expected our driveway has been sinking recently. I say expected because it is a brand new house (this was said for the infrequent/random visitors) and a brand new driveway. In truth the driveway isn't even finished yet, it has its first coat of asphalt, but the second was due until this spring. Back to my story, the driveway is sinking, this wouldn't have been an issue if we left the car on the driveway, but we are garage users.
Well I have heard differing stories about warm garages and rust, I would still rather not scrape the car in the morning if it can be avoided. With the driveway sinking the car was having more and more trouble getting into the garage. I became worried that one of two things would happen. The first is that in trying to get into the garage we would overshoot, and park in the kitchen. The second was that the high difference would be insurmountable, and the vehicle would suffer for it. Either case was not a desirable situation.
To say I have been distractedly and out of sorts this month would be an understatement. So with all the best intentions of doing something, I have in fact done nothing about it. Well until this Monday, the story really begins Sunday night. Coming home Sunday, we decided to park outside, the weather looked fine, and the bump looked extra bumpy, so we decided park outside, and call Mattamy to see if they would fill the drive. Well I fully expected myself to forget again, but Monday morning gave the harsh reminder as it was blisteringly cold, and Erin was scraping while I was cleaning up an inverted coffee cup in the kitchen (elaborate but tangential story there, maybe some other time.) I came out to relieve her of her scrapping duties, but they were all but finished, but I was used as a hand warmer, and her hands were coooooooold! So as my personal failing had caused suffering to my lovely wife, I could procrastinate no longer, I MUST DO SOMETHING!
Part of my failure was due in fact to uncertainty over what should be done. As this is a new home, in an active construction site, I wasn't sure if this was my problem or the builders. Also Mattamy has been great to us, but that was before they got our money, I was mildly expecting either a polite up yours, or at best a differential "we will get to fixed soon(tm)."
In spite of my unfounded apprehension, I was met with delightful customer service. I'm not sure who answered the phone because I have a terrible memory for names, and it definitely wasn't the person who used to answer that number, but who ever she was, she took our information down lickity split, reminded me that we would be getting a complete driveway overhaul in the spring, and promised that she would contact the construction guys to come take a look at it, and that they would do what was needed.
At this point I was really happy, and figured I had a few more days of parking on the driveway and then my garage would be restored to me. Again I was wrong. When Erin I got home that night, it was done. A nice little ramp right up to the lip of the garage, hooray!
This has taught me two things, one Mattamy is still an awesome company to have purchased a house from! Second is that I should stop being a lazy dumb ass and when something needs fixing, get on it!
Well I have heard differing stories about warm garages and rust, I would still rather not scrape the car in the morning if it can be avoided. With the driveway sinking the car was having more and more trouble getting into the garage. I became worried that one of two things would happen. The first is that in trying to get into the garage we would overshoot, and park in the kitchen. The second was that the high difference would be insurmountable, and the vehicle would suffer for it. Either case was not a desirable situation.
To say I have been distractedly and out of sorts this month would be an understatement. So with all the best intentions of doing something, I have in fact done nothing about it. Well until this Monday, the story really begins Sunday night. Coming home Sunday, we decided to park outside, the weather looked fine, and the bump looked extra bumpy, so we decided park outside, and call Mattamy to see if they would fill the drive. Well I fully expected myself to forget again, but Monday morning gave the harsh reminder as it was blisteringly cold, and Erin was scraping while I was cleaning up an inverted coffee cup in the kitchen (elaborate but tangential story there, maybe some other time.) I came out to relieve her of her scrapping duties, but they were all but finished, but I was used as a hand warmer, and her hands were coooooooold! So as my personal failing had caused suffering to my lovely wife, I could procrastinate no longer, I MUST DO SOMETHING!
Part of my failure was due in fact to uncertainty over what should be done. As this is a new home, in an active construction site, I wasn't sure if this was my problem or the builders. Also Mattamy has been great to us, but that was before they got our money, I was mildly expecting either a polite up yours, or at best a differential "we will get to fixed soon(tm)."
In spite of my unfounded apprehension, I was met with delightful customer service. I'm not sure who answered the phone because I have a terrible memory for names, and it definitely wasn't the person who used to answer that number, but who ever she was, she took our information down lickity split, reminded me that we would be getting a complete driveway overhaul in the spring, and promised that she would contact the construction guys to come take a look at it, and that they would do what was needed.
At this point I was really happy, and figured I had a few more days of parking on the driveway and then my garage would be restored to me. Again I was wrong. When Erin I got home that night, it was done. A nice little ramp right up to the lip of the garage, hooray!
This has taught me two things, one Mattamy is still an awesome company to have purchased a house from! Second is that I should stop being a lazy dumb ass and when something needs fixing, get on it!
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Damn Artsies and their English language skills
Linked article is a well written piece on linguistic stuff (see my engineering vocabulary at work.)
Let me be the millionth to make the cliche Jurassic Park reference
News bite from the papers, and my alma mata, looks like we got some fun research going on to try and resurrect the old woolly mammoth from a frozen jaw bone. I for one welcome our new mammoth overlords.
Here is the news right from the elephants trunk.
Here is the news right from the elephants trunk.
Monday, December 19, 2005
The Dead Duck
I have previously spoken of the Devil Ducky collection manufactured by Accoutrements (previously Accoutrements of Evil.) By random chance I stumbled upon a new Duckie this morning, the Dead Duck this living impaired ducky created by Duckcetera (site unknown) so accurately portrays death. How you say? Well it is a long standing joke between my wife and I that when things die they get x's for eye balls, and so when mocking each others cuisine, or just playing dead, we will exclaim that we have x's for eye balls clearly indicating that we are dead.... Okay that sounds really odd when I type it out, but really its light hearted fun... Stop looking at me like that I'm not crazy, at least not totally crazy... Well with now that I have scared you all away, please enjoy this image of a dead duck...
Friday, December 16, 2005
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Allow the Green Party into the national debate.
Please understand, I am an undecided voter, and I have never voted Green before, nor do I anticipate doing so. I also realize that this posting is about as foolish, as playing lawn darts in a mine field, because it might be construed as my personal intention to vote Green, and sway your vote that way.
This however is not why I feel compelled to post, instead I am posting because I honestly feel a fifth podium should be placed on the stage for the National Debate. Jim Harris should have his opportunity to sink or swim with the big dogs.
Why do I feel this way? Well Jim managed to pull enough votes in the previous election to earn Federal funding for this election. It is also my understanding that the Green party is truly a National party, with candidates in all ridings (at least in the '04 election.) In fact in a number of ridings those candidates received more votes then other national party candidates in their ridings (clearly not all the candidates, but some.)
Further, the party has a complete platform, and offers an opportunity for Canadians to support an alternative view point. In addition the party claims to resonate with the alienated young voters, in some respect I agree with this, as many students at my wife's university are/were gaga for Green in the last election.
I used to think that the Canadian political landscape was static, you had three parties, Liberal, PC, and NDP. I also used to be a naive child, our landscape is about as dynamic as can be, with the PC, CCRAP, Reform, BQ, and those are just some of the parties in that I have seen since I have started voting, if you look back historically the landscape has always fluctuated. So give Green a chance to at least present itself, as it has clearly gone through a lot of growth, and belongs a tier above the Marijuana, Marxist, and Communist parties.
This however is not why I feel compelled to post, instead I am posting because I honestly feel a fifth podium should be placed on the stage for the National Debate. Jim Harris should have his opportunity to sink or swim with the big dogs.
Why do I feel this way? Well Jim managed to pull enough votes in the previous election to earn Federal funding for this election. It is also my understanding that the Green party is truly a National party, with candidates in all ridings (at least in the '04 election.) In fact in a number of ridings those candidates received more votes then other national party candidates in their ridings (clearly not all the candidates, but some.)
Further, the party has a complete platform, and offers an opportunity for Canadians to support an alternative view point. In addition the party claims to resonate with the alienated young voters, in some respect I agree with this, as many students at my wife's university are/were gaga for Green in the last election.
I used to think that the Canadian political landscape was static, you had three parties, Liberal, PC, and NDP. I also used to be a naive child, our landscape is about as dynamic as can be, with the PC, CCRAP, Reform, BQ, and those are just some of the parties in that I have seen since I have started voting, if you look back historically the landscape has always fluctuated. So give Green a chance to at least present itself, as it has clearly gone through a lot of growth, and belongs a tier above the Marijuana, Marxist, and Communist parties.
Ahhh the internet...
Found this waste of time quiz on the internet, and it has suggested my eternal fate, alas, I'm a bit embaressed with the results, but here they are:
The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test
The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
| Level | Score |
|---|---|
| Purgatory (Repenting Believers) | Very Low |
| Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers) | High |
| Level 2 (Lustful) | High |
| Level 3 (Gluttonous) | Moderate |
| Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious) | Very Low |
| Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy) | Low |
| Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics) | Low |
| Level 7 (Violent) | Moderate |
| Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers) | Moderate |
| Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous) | Low |
Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Fashion to die for?
What I am about to say is neither ground break, nor particularly interesting, I just felt like saying it.
Fashion... I have never been fashionable, just ask my mom, she can tell you of the times I wore my clothes shirts inside out, and my pants backwards to school. In fact the pants may have been both inside out and backwards, it doesn't matter which, it just goes to show that I have very little awareness of my outward appearance. That isn't to say I am unhygienic, or intentionally dressed poorly, its just means I tend to grab the first thing out of my wardrobe in the morning, and in some respect rely on my wife to emulate barfing noises and to usher me back into the closet to change. This is just one of the many reason I love and respect her, otherwise I would probably end up at work distinctly less professional looking then the narrow margin of professionalism I eke out now.
Now there was a brief period in history where I was hip, this was the grunge era in the 90's, but I can honestly say that I was merely 'posing.' Regrettably my pretensions to peer acceptance outlasted my rational thought, and I have the ear pierce scars to prove it!
Without further dwelling in my sorted fashion past, I hope I have established my credentials as a fashion outsider. That being said, I really hope I have matured to the point where I can recognize good fashion trends and bad ones, and identify the truly ridiculous from quirky conventions.
That brings me to what I wanted to talk about, and that is fashion of the day, and specifically TODAY, which happens to be the first cold weather warning of the year. I would argue that no one is foolish enough to jump off a bridge if there friends all jumped off, or say adapt a fashion trend that said "being as thin as an emaciated starving child." Time, and time again reality has proven that argument to be wrong. Also, reality would invalidate my argument that no one would be crazy enough to expose flesh unnecessarily to blisteringly chill winds. One might have guess by now that this drivel has in fact been inspired by one such occurrence of foolish fashion, so I shall now rant briefly about one specific fashion plague that is regrettably visited upon our youth.
-- Aside, my own linguistic twisting has invoked imagery of a biblical Poses of our time who came to the fashion pharos beseeching the freedom of his enslaved people at fashion factories, and promised a blight of fashion plagues to descend upon the hipsters until his people were freed, but I digress...--
The plague with which I speak is a pant plague, and it is not the plague of the descending waistline, which can be alluring or hoochey , or in the case of guys stupid, that's a rant for another day. I speak of "The rolling of the one leg up to the knee." I'm sorry that is just flipping idiotic, here you are a perfectly symmetrical pair of pants, even and well tailored (probably a fallacious assumption) and you got them all bunched up on one side. Sure in the fall you do that and you just look like an idiot, but come winter, strutting about in ankle deep snow, one lag brazenly exposed to the world. It's not like you made a poor choice of clothes when you left the house that morning, your pants are not irrevocably rolled. So here you are wading through snow, gust of wind clearly chilling you, and your legs a dimple with goose bumps, and yet fashion dictates you preen about like a peacock. If one is to believe social scientist, this fashion behaviour is all some complicated mating ritual, and mating rituals are there to show your superiority over others in the gene pool to your prospective mates. So here is my impassioned plea to women of the next generation, please weed these fools from world, the less one pant legged freaks the better. To not beget there scion, and actively reject their advances. Fashion and Mother Nature will take there course, the wise will adapt to the new trends, the weak will go pant-legless into celibate solitude, and the world will be a better place.
In writing this, I know my plea will fall on deaf ears for a number of reasons, the first and foremost is my lack of readership, I reconcile that with knowing that as our world descends into pant-legless madness, eventually resulting in a second hominid species to rise up and assert dominance, and Charleston Hesston cursing our ill decisions, our new overlords will look back on the historic record and upon my behalf proclaim my assertions were correct, which is as close to an "I told you so" my long deceased body will be allowed. The second reason is that I any readers in the offending demographic who read this will dismiss me out of hand as an "old fuddy duddy" which at my seasoned age of 25 is probably accurate enough from their point of view. The third and least obvious reason is that I am "the man." I am not literally thee man, but I am a part of the machine affectionately known as the man. I am closer to being the man then most, as I work for the largest financial institution in Canada, and financial institutions of Canada being the largest Institutions of Canada beyond the government, and intuitions in general being the essence of "the man." How does being "the man" invalidate my opinion? Simply most aspects of fashion especially in the youth are just rebellious attempts to assert ones self identity from "the man" by doing exactly what "the man" says you shouldn't (No supporting evidence provided, "the man" won't let me.)
To sooth my ego until my prognostications are revered by our simian overlords, I will laugh, mock, and irritate those offenders which I should encounter, or my young brother by proxy. Here that Alex, your friends dress like ninnies! Ha!
Fashion... I have never been fashionable, just ask my mom, she can tell you of the times I wore my clothes shirts inside out, and my pants backwards to school. In fact the pants may have been both inside out and backwards, it doesn't matter which, it just goes to show that I have very little awareness of my outward appearance. That isn't to say I am unhygienic, or intentionally dressed poorly, its just means I tend to grab the first thing out of my wardrobe in the morning, and in some respect rely on my wife to emulate barfing noises and to usher me back into the closet to change. This is just one of the many reason I love and respect her, otherwise I would probably end up at work distinctly less professional looking then the narrow margin of professionalism I eke out now.
Now there was a brief period in history where I was hip, this was the grunge era in the 90's, but I can honestly say that I was merely 'posing.' Regrettably my pretensions to peer acceptance outlasted my rational thought, and I have the ear pierce scars to prove it!
Without further dwelling in my sorted fashion past, I hope I have established my credentials as a fashion outsider. That being said, I really hope I have matured to the point where I can recognize good fashion trends and bad ones, and identify the truly ridiculous from quirky conventions.
That brings me to what I wanted to talk about, and that is fashion of the day, and specifically TODAY, which happens to be the first cold weather warning of the year. I would argue that no one is foolish enough to jump off a bridge if there friends all jumped off, or say adapt a fashion trend that said "being as thin as an emaciated starving child." Time, and time again reality has proven that argument to be wrong. Also, reality would invalidate my argument that no one would be crazy enough to expose flesh unnecessarily to blisteringly chill winds. One might have guess by now that this drivel has in fact been inspired by one such occurrence of foolish fashion, so I shall now rant briefly about one specific fashion plague that is regrettably visited upon our youth.
-- Aside, my own linguistic twisting has invoked imagery of a biblical Poses of our time who came to the fashion pharos beseeching the freedom of his enslaved people at fashion factories, and promised a blight of fashion plagues to descend upon the hipsters until his people were freed, but I digress...--
The plague with which I speak is a pant plague, and it is not the plague of the descending waistline, which can be alluring or hoochey , or in the case of guys stupid, that's a rant for another day. I speak of "The rolling of the one leg up to the knee." I'm sorry that is just flipping idiotic, here you are a perfectly symmetrical pair of pants, even and well tailored (probably a fallacious assumption) and you got them all bunched up on one side. Sure in the fall you do that and you just look like an idiot, but come winter, strutting about in ankle deep snow, one lag brazenly exposed to the world. It's not like you made a poor choice of clothes when you left the house that morning, your pants are not irrevocably rolled. So here you are wading through snow, gust of wind clearly chilling you, and your legs a dimple with goose bumps, and yet fashion dictates you preen about like a peacock. If one is to believe social scientist, this fashion behaviour is all some complicated mating ritual, and mating rituals are there to show your superiority over others in the gene pool to your prospective mates. So here is my impassioned plea to women of the next generation, please weed these fools from world, the less one pant legged freaks the better. To not beget there scion, and actively reject their advances. Fashion and Mother Nature will take there course, the wise will adapt to the new trends, the weak will go pant-legless into celibate solitude, and the world will be a better place.
In writing this, I know my plea will fall on deaf ears for a number of reasons, the first and foremost is my lack of readership, I reconcile that with knowing that as our world descends into pant-legless madness, eventually resulting in a second hominid species to rise up and assert dominance, and Charleston Hesston cursing our ill decisions, our new overlords will look back on the historic record and upon my behalf proclaim my assertions were correct, which is as close to an "I told you so" my long deceased body will be allowed. The second reason is that I any readers in the offending demographic who read this will dismiss me out of hand as an "old fuddy duddy" which at my seasoned age of 25 is probably accurate enough from their point of view. The third and least obvious reason is that I am "the man." I am not literally thee man, but I am a part of the machine affectionately known as the man. I am closer to being the man then most, as I work for the largest financial institution in Canada, and financial institutions of Canada being the largest Institutions of Canada beyond the government, and intuitions in general being the essence of "the man." How does being "the man" invalidate my opinion? Simply most aspects of fashion especially in the youth are just rebellious attempts to assert ones self identity from "the man" by doing exactly what "the man" says you shouldn't (No supporting evidence provided, "the man" won't let me.)
To sooth my ego until my prognostications are revered by our simian overlords, I will laugh, mock, and irritate those offenders which I should encounter, or my young brother by proxy. Here that Alex, your friends dress like ninnies! Ha!
Vincent Gallo, a male prostitute with the worlds largest ego, and I'm not talking about his penis although he may think I am
Before I begin to use my large ego to attack another large ego, I would like to admit
that this is mostly old news, that I was not timely about learning, but was revealed over a congenial bowl of Pho soup in China Town today with some colleagues.
Vincent Gallo, who is he? IMDB can give you the general details on the fellow right here. Much of his career, controversy,
and idiocy revolves around his movie The
Brown Bunny. Which was panned by critics, and proclaimed the worst movie ever
made by Roger Ebert. This began a quite comical fight in which Gallo cast a hex against Ebert's prostate and Colon, to which Ebert replied "I am not too worried. I had a colonoscopy once, and they let me watch it on TV. It was more entertaining than The Brown Bunny." Apparently they have since reconciled, but the whole episode is worth a read.
I'm not here to talk about The Brown Bunny, and regrettably, this posting will be counter productive in deflating Vincent's ego, as it is just more publicity and linking, but some times, when you come across something as ridiculous as this, you just have to put it on your stupid backwater blog, as I am about to do.
Now I am about to imply, or have already implied that Vincent Gallo is a prostitute, has a large ego, thinks highly of his penile endowment, is racist, and believes in the Hollywood/Jewish/Minority conspiracy (make Oooooohing noise and twiddle fingers
threateningly.) I believe there is a very likely possibility that these statements could be deemed libellous, but really I'm only going to be quoting Vincent, and I will leave it to you to decide. Also, as the most difficult thing to prove is the "he is a racist" remark, I will prematurely retract that remark, and say, I believe Vincent Gallo has made remarks, which could be construed as intolerance on Vincent's behalf towards certain minority groups... Yes that does sound like legal back peddling, or journalistic squeamishness, but I just don't want to have to deal with the cost of someone getting all litigious on me.
With no further ado, and to protect myself from him changing his site, I am going to directly copy and paste a item from Vincent's personal merchandise web site (very last item.) and for
good measure, here is the google cache as it existed at the time of writing.
What I am about to quote is my initial reaction upon reading it, so strong was that reaction I neglected to hide it in 1337 internet speak.
Seriously, Vincent has made one movie that was really critically acclaimed and now
he is gods gift to the world? Who would actually pay one million dollars to be artificially inseminated by this fellow, and an extra five hundred thousand for "natural fertilization". Remember, prices waived if he thinks your hot ladies?
Don't forget, ladies of colour need not apply:
German National Socialist Party affiliates, now's your chance:
Or incongruously, Jews, oh wait, that's right, the conspiracy theorists...
Am I making a point, the man is selling his sperm to produce for you a large *insert penis euphemism here* boy, or equally benefited girl:
All for the low low price of one million dollars (*Dr Evil Pinky for those following along so far*) or for a little bit more he will do you himself. From this his immense talent will gift your progeny:
Like I'm not twisting his words, at least not intentionally, this guy is studding himself out for some dough, and doesn't mind a little prostitution on the side? I can only imagine that he is (no pun intended originally) hard up for money. Or so full of himself that he thinks that a) this is a bargain, and b) he is doing you a favour. Remember, Vincent junior isn't permitted to trade on daddy's name;
he has got to make it on his own, which judging by daddy's filmography might be
a better way to go.
Anyways, I think that is enough Vincent slagging for now, but be sure to check back latter for more, this guy writes his own bad press at every turn.
that this is mostly old news, that I was not timely about learning, but was revealed over a congenial bowl of Pho soup in China Town today with some colleagues.
Vincent Gallo, who is he? IMDB can give you the general details on the fellow right here. Much of his career, controversy,
and idiocy revolves around his movie The
Brown Bunny. Which was panned by critics, and proclaimed the worst movie ever
made by Roger Ebert. This began a quite comical fight in which Gallo cast a hex against Ebert's prostate and Colon, to which Ebert replied "I am not too worried. I had a colonoscopy once, and they let me watch it on TV. It was more entertaining than The Brown Bunny." Apparently they have since reconciled, but the whole episode is worth a read.
I'm not here to talk about The Brown Bunny, and regrettably, this posting will be counter productive in deflating Vincent's ego, as it is just more publicity and linking, but some times, when you come across something as ridiculous as this, you just have to put it on your stupid backwater blog, as I am about to do.
Now I am about to imply, or have already implied that Vincent Gallo is a prostitute, has a large ego, thinks highly of his penile endowment, is racist, and believes in the Hollywood/Jewish/Minority conspiracy (make Oooooohing noise and twiddle fingers
threateningly.) I believe there is a very likely possibility that these statements could be deemed libellous, but really I'm only going to be quoting Vincent, and I will leave it to you to decide. Also, as the most difficult thing to prove is the "he is a racist" remark, I will prematurely retract that remark, and say, I believe Vincent Gallo has made remarks, which could be construed as intolerance on Vincent's behalf towards certain minority groups... Yes that does sound like legal back peddling, or journalistic squeamishness, but I just don't want to have to deal with the cost of someone getting all litigious on me.
With no further ado, and to protect myself from him changing his site, I am going to directly copy and paste a item from Vincent's personal merchandise web site (very last item.) and for
good measure, here is the google cache as it existed at the time of writing.
Vincent Gallo's Sperm
$1 Million
Price includes all costs related to one attempt at an in-vitro
fertilization. (A $50,000 value) If the first attempt at in vitro
fertilization is unsuccessful, purchaser of sperm must pay all medical
costs related to additional attempts. Mr. Gallo will supply sperm for
as many attempts as it takes to complete a successful fertilization and
successful delivery. Sperm is 100% guaranteed to be donated by Mr.
Gallo who is drug, alcohol and disease free. If the purchaser of the
sperm chooses the option of natural insemination, there is an
additional charge of $500,000. However, if after being presented
detailed photographs of the purchaser, Mr. Gallo may be willing to
waive the natural insemination fee and charge only for the sperm
itself. Those of you who have found this merchandise page are very well
aware of Mr. Gallo's multiple talents, but to add further insight into
the value of Mr. Gallo's sperm, aside from being multi talented in all
creative fields, he was also multi talented as an athlete, winning
several awards for performing in the games of baseball, football and
hockey and making it to the professional level of grand prix motorcycle
racing. Mr. Gallo is 5'11" and has blue eyes. There are no known
genetic deformities in his ancestry (no cripples) and no history of
congenital diseases. If you have seen The Brown Bunny, you know the
potential size of the genitals if it's a boy. (8 inches if he's like
his father.) I don't know exactly how a well hung father can enhance
the physical makeup of a female baby, but it can't hurt. Mr. Gallo also
presently maintains a distinctively full head of hair and at the age of
43 has surprisingly few gray hairs. Though his features are sharp and
extreme, they would probably blend well with a softer, more subtly
featured female. Mr. Gallo maintains the right to refuse sale of his
sperm to those of extremely dark complexions. Though a fan of Franco
Harris, Derek Jeter, Lenny Kravitz and Lena Horne, Mr. Gallo does not
want to be part of that type of integration. In fact, for the next 30
days, he is offering a $50,000 discount to any potential female
purchaser who can prove she has naturally blonde hair and blue eyes.
Anyone who can prove a direct family link to any of the German soldiers
of the mid-century will also receive this discount. Under the laws of
the Jewish faith, a Jewish mother would qualify a baby to be deemed a
member of the Jewish religion. This would be added incentive for Mr.
Gallo to sell his sperm to a Jew mother, his reasoning being with the
slim chance that his child moved into the profession of motion picture
acting or became a musical performer, this connection to the Jewish
faith would guarantee his offspring a better chance at good reviews and
maybe even a prize at the Sundance Film Festival or an Oscar. To be
clear, the purchase of Mr. Gallo's sperm does not include the use of
the name Gallo. The purchaser must find another surname for the child.
What I am about to quote is my initial reaction upon reading it, so strong was that reaction I neglected to hide it in 1337 internet speak.
WHAT THE FUCK
Seriously, Vincent has made one movie that was really critically acclaimed and now
he is gods gift to the world? Who would actually pay one million dollars to be artificially inseminated by this fellow, and an extra five hundred thousand for "natural fertilization". Remember, prices waived if he thinks your hot ladies?
If the purchaser of the sperm chooses the option of natural
insemination, there is an additional charge of $500,000. However, if after being presented detailed photographs of the purchaser, Mr. Gallo may be willing to waive the natural insemination fee and charge only for the sperm itself
Don't forget, ladies of colour need not apply:
Mr. Gallo maintains the right to refuse sale of his sperm to
those of extremely dark complexions. Though a fan of Franco Harris,
Derek Jeter, Lenny Kravitz and Lena Horne, Mr. Gallo does not want to
be part of that type of integration.
German National Socialist Party affiliates, now's your chance:
In fact, for the next 30 days, he is offering a $50,000 discount
to any potential female purchaser who can prove she has naturally
blonde hair and blue eyes. Anyone who can prove a direct family link to
any of the German soldiers of the mid-century will also receive this
discount.
Or incongruously, Jews, oh wait, that's right, the conspiracy theorists...
Under the laws of the Jewish faith, a Jewish mother would
qualify a baby to be deemed a member of the Jewish religion. This would
be added incentive for Mr. Gallo to sell his sperm to a Jew mother, his
reasoning being with the slim chance that his child moved into the
profession of motion picture acting or became a musical performer, this
connection to the Jewish faith would guarantee his offspring a better
chance at good reviews and maybe even a prize at the Sundance Film
Festival or an Oscar.
Am I making a point, the man is selling his sperm to produce for you a large *insert penis euphemism here* boy, or equally benefited girl:
If you have seen The Brown Bunny, you know the potential size of
the genitals if it's a boy. (8 inches if he's like his father.) I don't
know exactly how a well hung father can enhance the physical makeup of
a female baby, but it can't hurt.
All for the low low price of one million dollars (*Dr Evil Pinky for those following along so far*) or for a little bit more he will do you himself. From this his immense talent will gift your progeny:
Those of you who have found this merchandise page are very well
aware of Mr. Gallo's multiple talents, but to add further insight into
the value of Mr. Gallo's sperm, aside from being multi talented in all
creative fields, he was also multi talented as an athlete, winning
several awards for performing in the games of baseball, football and
hockey and making it to the professional level of grand prix motorcycle
racing.
Like I'm not twisting his words, at least not intentionally, this guy is studding himself out for some dough, and doesn't mind a little prostitution on the side? I can only imagine that he is (no pun intended originally) hard up for money. Or so full of himself that he thinks that a) this is a bargain, and b) he is doing you a favour. Remember, Vincent junior isn't permitted to trade on daddy's name;
To be clear, the purchase of Mr. Gallo's sperm does not include
the use of the name Gallo. The purchaser must find another surname for
the
he has got to make it on his own, which judging by daddy's filmography might be
a better way to go.
Anyways, I think that is enough Vincent slagging for now, but be sure to check back latter for more, this guy writes his own bad press at every turn.
Cooooold, sooooo, coooooooold
When I packed up my laptop last night I figured I would blog something on the train home. Yet when I sat down and started this puppy up, I couldn't think of anything to write, so I read. This morning I presumed the writers block would persist and I would do some reading little did I know that my train would have no power.
Now there is a difference between no power, and no power, much like there is dead, and mostly dead. So the train she moves, emergency lighting works, and the PA system works, but other then that we are running without power. That means no cabin heat, and no reading lights. So I thought this was the perfect excuse to whip out the old laptop and use its light and heating effect to try and keep warm. So while I get the CPU up to temperature, and blood flowing in my legs again, let me recount to you the epic adventures of Azi toe bitter!
To start with, I wish I had my camera, as that cat has done the goofiest things in the last 48 hours, and of course my camera is not to be had. I left it at my grandparents a few weeks back, and I think it is at my parents now, but that is clearly not in my hands.
The other night, while lounging around the house, nesting myself in blankets, and nose in a book, I found that Aslan has a predisposition to pounce EVERYTHING! This was emphasized by the repeated attack on my toes. Every time they twitched, stretched, wiggled or moved, BOOM there was Azi claws and fangs a flying. Now as she has the most ineffective kitten teeth it was not in fact painful, but it certainly started to tickle, which begat more squirming on my behalf, and like all good positive feedback systems, more pouncing on her behalf. This persisted past the point of distraction until I gave up and surgically removed the cat from my toes, before she surgically removed my toes. What lesson has this taught me about cats' When you are tired they are riled up, and when you are riled up they are tired. Alas I have no pictures of Cat VS Toe!
Next up on the slate of crazy cats, if you follow PvP you will have known of the recent adventures of Kringus the tree demon. As art imitates life, and life imitates art, it wasn't long before PvP artist Scott Kurtz started getting emails from fans of their cats in the Christmas tree. Then it was Scott's turn to reveal Scratch Fury's name sake up a Christmas tree as well. All the while I am thinking, wow good thing Azi isn't interested in the tree' I should never have thought that thought, as Erin and I sat down to write Christmas cards last night, Azi, upset that all the best batting ornaments had been raised above ground level, climbed deep into the tree to attack ornaments from the inside. Paws a blazing no ornament was safe from her play, and again I without a camera. I captured something on my camera phone, but it is a poor simulacrum of a real photo, and I have no idea how to get at them without sending a $2 text message. Hopefully Azi will repeat her acrobatic tree routine again when I have my camera back.
Well I'm at Union now, and I'm still really cold, I'm for once really excited to get to work, but that is mostly just to get inside where it is heated.
GgGgGgGgGeeoooffffff
Now there is a difference between no power, and no power, much like there is dead, and mostly dead. So the train she moves, emergency lighting works, and the PA system works, but other then that we are running without power. That means no cabin heat, and no reading lights. So I thought this was the perfect excuse to whip out the old laptop and use its light and heating effect to try and keep warm. So while I get the CPU up to temperature, and blood flowing in my legs again, let me recount to you the epic adventures of Azi toe bitter!
To start with, I wish I had my camera, as that cat has done the goofiest things in the last 48 hours, and of course my camera is not to be had. I left it at my grandparents a few weeks back, and I think it is at my parents now, but that is clearly not in my hands.
The other night, while lounging around the house, nesting myself in blankets, and nose in a book, I found that Aslan has a predisposition to pounce EVERYTHING! This was emphasized by the repeated attack on my toes. Every time they twitched, stretched, wiggled or moved, BOOM there was Azi claws and fangs a flying. Now as she has the most ineffective kitten teeth it was not in fact painful, but it certainly started to tickle, which begat more squirming on my behalf, and like all good positive feedback systems, more pouncing on her behalf. This persisted past the point of distraction until I gave up and surgically removed the cat from my toes, before she surgically removed my toes. What lesson has this taught me about cats' When you are tired they are riled up, and when you are riled up they are tired. Alas I have no pictures of Cat VS Toe!
Next up on the slate of crazy cats, if you follow PvP you will have known of the recent adventures of Kringus the tree demon. As art imitates life, and life imitates art, it wasn't long before PvP artist Scott Kurtz started getting emails from fans of their cats in the Christmas tree. Then it was Scott's turn to reveal Scratch Fury's name sake up a Christmas tree as well. All the while I am thinking, wow good thing Azi isn't interested in the tree' I should never have thought that thought, as Erin and I sat down to write Christmas cards last night, Azi, upset that all the best batting ornaments had been raised above ground level, climbed deep into the tree to attack ornaments from the inside. Paws a blazing no ornament was safe from her play, and again I without a camera. I captured something on my camera phone, but it is a poor simulacrum of a real photo, and I have no idea how to get at them without sending a $2 text message. Hopefully Azi will repeat her acrobatic tree routine again when I have my camera back.
Well I'm at Union now, and I'm still really cold, I'm for once really excited to get to work, but that is mostly just to get inside where it is heated.
GgGgGgGgGeeoooffffff
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Some fun news on the gaming front
Here is some nostalga for the masses, probably my personal favorite in the Final Fantasy series dropped on to the old GB Advanced platform, can't wait!
Missed one
Forgot about Ansasi Boy's by Niel Gaiman, not much to say here as I ran out of words, I like his work, can't wait to sink my teeth into this one.
Excited for reading
And how!
I pulled this together on the train this morning, except the links I did over lunch, grammar and spelling should be in line with my standard posts :)
So many great books have either just come out, or are coming out in 2006, here is just a taste of them:
Kushiel's Scoin - Jacqueline Carey A new Trilogy from a very eloquent writer. Her first works are very deep, beautifully written stories set in a very exotic world of court intrigue, and erotica. This book is a direct continuation of that trilogy, in between she wrote a heart breaking two book series from the "bad guys" point of view.
The Thousand Fold Thought - Robert Scott Bakker the third book in an interesting and novel series by a new Canadian author. The first two books really did some neat stuff, and left you guessing on the outcome, I am really looking forward to more from this author.
Phantom - Terry Goodkind Yet another book in his Sword of Truth series, which has its ups (Faith of the Fallen) and downs (The Pillars of Creation). This book is the middle of a three part Arc starting in Chainfire, which was at or above average for a Goodkind book. While I am beginning to be a little melancholy about the whole series, I am in too deep, and quite frankly overly emotionally invested in the characters to give up until Terry has milked my wallet dry! Damn you Terry, damn you and your frightening visage.
A Feast of Crows - George R. R. Martin What can I say? I think I've ranted about this before, but can't find the reference on my blog, so to summarize. In 2003 this book was scheduled for release. If I had been more observant at the time I would have known that this date was pure fantasy of the publishers and book resellers, but Martin's site even listed a book signing date the day of the release so I figured I was gold. I re-read the 3 enormous novels in the series in anticipation only to be defeated. The book did release nearly 2 years later, and in fact is only half the book it was meant to be. Martin's story is so huge, so involving, and so interweaving that it burst the confines of the publisher paperback limits. So it was divided into two novels. Unlike some who might divide the story in half, Martin opted to divide the plot lines in half. So that the same time/story arc passes in each novel, but one novel contains one set of characters, and the other novel contains the rest. Seemingly to rejoin each other in the 6th novel, and conclude in the 7th. To be perfectly blunt about this issue, I really hope George finishes writing before he kicks it, he is getting old, and this story is amazing!
Promise of the Witchking - R A Salvatore Hey, don't knock it till you try it, everyone needs a little fluff in there reading, and my fluff is D&D novels, specifically Salvatore's. They are pretty good, although they can get jumbled in the fight sequences. Damn you Drizzt and your bracers of confusing fight sequences. I gave up on old Ed Greenwood; his books have just gone down hill. Yet Salvatore has never given me a dud, I would like to read his non-D&D novels some time...
Shaman's Crossing - Robin Hobb Robin has 9 books out that just great! The works speaks for itself, go read it! This is the first novel outside her world so I am very excited to give it a try (*** She has written a bunch under a pen name that I have also never read, but all her "Hobb" books are great.)
Shadowmarch - Tad Williams I'm just getting into Williams' work, and have been enjoying it. The Green Angle Tower series was quite good, but it had its slow spots, I want to get my head into his other work and have a good read, starting with his new book, which has received critical review it seems.
??? - Robert Sawyer I don't know what the book is called, but according to Robert's blog the first draft of his 17th book has gone to the editor, so good chance that this comes out in '06 sometime. In any respect I really like this guy's work, and he is a local boy, so local in fact that I have had 2 chance meetings with him. The second and more likely was outside the sci-fi con that happened here in Toronto a few years back, I think he was a key note speaker, so it made sense for him to be there. The first was far more unlikely, and more comical. I was thumbing a signed copy -- Chapters is big into getting local author's to sign like 1000-5000 copies of a book and slap an "autographed" sticker on the dust cover. -- of his short story anthology which had just been released. When a voice from behind me asks "so what do you think?" Without looking, or even considering who might ask such a random question in a book store (since I am apt to hover near the Sci-fi shelf and offer reading advice anyways.) In response I say, "Well it looks interesting, and Sawyer is one of my favorite authors, so I think I might just pick it up." At which point I turn around, or he responds I'm not sure, but I register his face and do a double take with the head shot on the back cover and nearly fall over dead from embarrassment. Who tells one of their favorite authors that they are their favorite author without sounding all gushy? In my defense, I didn't know. Long story short he was just passing through the book store to "use the washroom" and I suppose his ego couldn't help but be stroked by checking out his shelf of works, since it was NO WHERE NEAR THE WASHROOM. Can't fault the guy, he earned it, in any respect he personally autographed the copy in my hands so I felt obliged to buy it, and I was going to anyway, and now I have that great story I tell all the time.
Well that's all for now, hope some of you will try out some of my favorite author's, also some one go light a fire under Joanne Bertin, her first two novels kicked butt, gimmie the third!
I pulled this together on the train this morning, except the links I did over lunch, grammar and spelling should be in line with my standard posts :)
So many great books have either just come out, or are coming out in 2006, here is just a taste of them:
Kushiel's Scoin - Jacqueline Carey A new Trilogy from a very eloquent writer. Her first works are very deep, beautifully written stories set in a very exotic world of court intrigue, and erotica. This book is a direct continuation of that trilogy, in between she wrote a heart breaking two book series from the "bad guys" point of view.
The Thousand Fold Thought - Robert Scott Bakker the third book in an interesting and novel series by a new Canadian author. The first two books really did some neat stuff, and left you guessing on the outcome, I am really looking forward to more from this author.
Phantom - Terry Goodkind Yet another book in his Sword of Truth series, which has its ups (Faith of the Fallen) and downs (The Pillars of Creation). This book is the middle of a three part Arc starting in Chainfire, which was at or above average for a Goodkind book. While I am beginning to be a little melancholy about the whole series, I am in too deep, and quite frankly overly emotionally invested in the characters to give up until Terry has milked my wallet dry! Damn you Terry, damn you and your frightening visage.
A Feast of Crows - George R. R. Martin What can I say? I think I've ranted about this before, but can't find the reference on my blog, so to summarize. In 2003 this book was scheduled for release. If I had been more observant at the time I would have known that this date was pure fantasy of the publishers and book resellers, but Martin's site even listed a book signing date the day of the release so I figured I was gold. I re-read the 3 enormous novels in the series in anticipation only to be defeated. The book did release nearly 2 years later, and in fact is only half the book it was meant to be. Martin's story is so huge, so involving, and so interweaving that it burst the confines of the publisher paperback limits. So it was divided into two novels. Unlike some who might divide the story in half, Martin opted to divide the plot lines in half. So that the same time/story arc passes in each novel, but one novel contains one set of characters, and the other novel contains the rest. Seemingly to rejoin each other in the 6th novel, and conclude in the 7th. To be perfectly blunt about this issue, I really hope George finishes writing before he kicks it, he is getting old, and this story is amazing!
Promise of the Witchking - R A Salvatore Hey, don't knock it till you try it, everyone needs a little fluff in there reading, and my fluff is D&D novels, specifically Salvatore's. They are pretty good, although they can get jumbled in the fight sequences. Damn you Drizzt and your bracers of confusing fight sequences. I gave up on old Ed Greenwood; his books have just gone down hill. Yet Salvatore has never given me a dud, I would like to read his non-D&D novels some time...
Shaman's Crossing - Robin Hobb Robin has 9 books out that just great! The works speaks for itself, go read it! This is the first novel outside her world so I am very excited to give it a try (*** She has written a bunch under a pen name that I have also never read, but all her "Hobb" books are great.)
Shadowmarch - Tad Williams I'm just getting into Williams' work, and have been enjoying it. The Green Angle Tower series was quite good, but it had its slow spots, I want to get my head into his other work and have a good read, starting with his new book, which has received critical review it seems.
??? - Robert Sawyer I don't know what the book is called, but according to Robert's blog the first draft of his 17th book has gone to the editor, so good chance that this comes out in '06 sometime. In any respect I really like this guy's work, and he is a local boy, so local in fact that I have had 2 chance meetings with him. The second and more likely was outside the sci-fi con that happened here in Toronto a few years back, I think he was a key note speaker, so it made sense for him to be there. The first was far more unlikely, and more comical. I was thumbing a signed copy -- Chapters is big into getting local author's to sign like 1000-5000 copies of a book and slap an "autographed" sticker on the dust cover. -- of his short story anthology which had just been released. When a voice from behind me asks "so what do you think?" Without looking, or even considering who might ask such a random question in a book store (since I am apt to hover near the Sci-fi shelf and offer reading advice anyways.) In response I say, "Well it looks interesting, and Sawyer is one of my favorite authors, so I think I might just pick it up." At which point I turn around, or he responds I'm not sure, but I register his face and do a double take with the head shot on the back cover and nearly fall over dead from embarrassment. Who tells one of their favorite authors that they are their favorite author without sounding all gushy? In my defense, I didn't know. Long story short he was just passing through the book store to "use the washroom" and I suppose his ego couldn't help but be stroked by checking out his shelf of works, since it was NO WHERE NEAR THE WASHROOM. Can't fault the guy, he earned it, in any respect he personally autographed the copy in my hands so I felt obliged to buy it, and I was going to anyway, and now I have that great story I tell all the time.
Well that's all for now, hope some of you will try out some of my favorite author's, also some one go light a fire under Joanne Bertin, her first two novels kicked butt, gimmie the third!
Monday, December 12, 2005
The naming of Kitten-X
Needing a name, as all beasts do, we have opted to name ye old (or in this case young) kitten Aslan, Azi for short. For those fans of Mr. Lewis, or recent visitors to the Cineplex the name will have a clear source to you. "But Geoff aren't you just latching on to a pop culture bandwagon?" I say fi on you, and no! I am in fact driving said bandwagon. Erin and I rationalized that well many will name there new cats Aslan this holiday season, we are probably the first, or near enough to it. Most kitten's don't go unnamed for as long, nor will the immediate effect of tCoN: tLtWatW be to purchase a cat. Hence we feel we are on the leading edge of a generation of kitten's named Aslan, and ours has a mane to boot.
In further news, Azi is quite the pouncer, including pouncing the X-Box controller cable, which happened to be resting on my legs. She is also noted to have sharp sharp claws. We also introduced her to Willy last night; Willy is the incongruously named cat that was once Erin's but now dwells at her parents? house. The imposing Willy was intimidated by wee Azi, and sought solace in Azi's food bowl. After a good meal Willy was up to some hissing, but not much else, as such I figure the two will be fast friends, and worst Azi can out run Willy.
More mews to follow . . .
In further news, Azi is quite the pouncer, including pouncing the X-Box controller cable, which happened to be resting on my legs. She is also noted to have sharp sharp claws. We also introduced her to Willy last night; Willy is the incongruously named cat that was once Erin's but now dwells at her parents? house. The imposing Willy was intimidated by wee Azi, and sought solace in Azi's food bowl. After a good meal Willy was up to some hissing, but not much else, as such I figure the two will be fast friends, and worst Azi can out run Willy.
More mews to follow . . .
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Monday, December 05, 2005
Word of mouth
For those interested in one of these Siberian furballs, check out: http://www.siberiancatsonline.com/.
I found the breeder to be quite friendly, knowledgeable, and caring of her cats, and would recommend her to anyone interested in one.
I found the breeder to be quite friendly, knowledgeable, and caring of her cats, and would recommend her to anyone interested in one.
Kitten-X
Resplendent in cuteness, distilled into a kitten format, I present to you our new (as of yet unnamed) kitten, Kitten-X.
Kitten-X is a pure bred Siberian, she is super friendly, and dangerously cute, she was last seen pawing with futility at a bundle of feathers being dangled above her head. More to follow as the story develops.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Updateicus Sister Blogicus
Random words that indicate this template has once more been updated, the link to my sisters blog should now work, here is another link just to be sure :)
The Blog Bog of Jennith Peart
Friday, December 02, 2005
Bathroom + Border
So I don't have images of the bathroom because I left the camera at my grand parents house, but I may have left the card in Erin's laptop, but no matter, it looks like a bathroom, but nicely painted :)
The picture I am showing is the border we would like to put up. Unfortunately it comes in rolls of 5.5 yards, and we need 6, and it is 60$ a roll ): We are looking for a discount store or sale to try and get it at a more reasonable price. Even found an American one selling it for 22$ American, but they wanted 33 American for shipping. I wonder what hermetically sealed rocket propelled shipping carrier they were using for that?
G out
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Pages
I just jimmied the template to put the archive further down as it was getting long in the tooth. Also I dropped all the shtml extensions as I wasn't using shtml tags any more.
?
Been having a lot of trouble posting of late, just wanted to get this up here.
Can't wait for another election, or the one that will possibly follow quickly on its heels.
Le Sigh.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Snow!
Its snowing! Hip Hip Hooray! For once I think I am happy about snow, since this year, Erin and I are taking up Skiing.
But first things first, time to buy our first Snow Shovel :) We are also going to buy some paint and do up the powder room.
More meaningful posts to follow.
But first things first, time to buy our first Snow Shovel :) We are also going to buy some paint and do up the powder room.
More meaningful posts to follow.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Welcome
Erin's Last pumpking (yup she carved 4! :)
She actually did this as one of her first, but it worked out great. Had a near disaster as it started to dry out, but we found out you can rehydrate a pumpkin, who knew? (Clearly pumpkin masters!)
Here Kitty Kitty
This was an experimental pumpkin idea, it was really hard to photograph in the dark, so here it is in the light. I think it worked out well, I'm not sure Erin was super happy with it.
The Count
This one is mine, worked out pretty good for my first "hard pumpkin" can't get the camera to work well in the dark.
Erin's Awsome Scaryface
This is a oldie, but a favorite, Erin add a few 'mods' to pimp this pumpkin out. Definitly scary!
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
First of many pumpkins
I Have not forgotten about the stair climb pictures and video, I am just recovering.
So here is the first of the 2005 Pumpkin's
Erin's Wolf Pumpkin, designed and implemented by my lovely wife Erin :)
Sunday, October 23, 2005
CN Tower
Huzzah, I have conquered the tower, more details, pictures, video and sillyness forth coming.
Thanks everyone for donating, I raised $338 and I couldn't have done that without Erin's help.
Again thanks!
G
Thanks everyone for donating, I raised $338 and I couldn't have done that without Erin's help.
Again thanks!
G
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
One last gloaming reference
In a back track to an oldie but a goody, I want to link to my own blogging of yesteryears, to Scooby-Doo Nowhere. If you remember the definition I put forward back then of Scooby-Doo Nowhere, (as identified by my friend Trevor) I would like to further qualify Scooby-Doo Nowhere. If it is not specifically Midnight, then one always happens upon Scooby-Doo Nowhere in the gloaming. Also since moving to Milton, I have noticed that the early morning drive to Mississauga comes eerily close to being through Scooby-Doo Nowhere.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
The Duck!
Well I was at the Erin's parent's cottage this weekend, and I was inspired to capture these images for my brother, the eminent duck hunter (if you knew Colin before he moved out West that might sounds startling, I've gotten used to it, I'm just waiting to try some of wild game cooking!) Anyways, these pictures are for you Colin, beware of these specifies of duck, they have been known to be difficult to spot in the wetlands, and have unique natural defenses against hunters. While I don't know the formal genius and species, I have arbitrarily decided to name them Quackicus Turntableus.
The Screen Door
I'm not sure how much of this I already blogged about, but I will retell the story while I am on a blogging role.
So back in summer it was blisteringly hot, so hot Erin and I bought two air conditioners. The first one we bought was a central unit hooked into the main furnace/duct work. About ten minutes after we signed, and in our defense we signed while under the duress of the extreme heat, we realized there was no room in the budget for the AC, actually there was no room in the budget for food, but that was another issue. So sheepishly we called up the AC guy and had him rip up the contract, and we settled back into our sticky sofa misery. A little under a week later we purchased a used in window unit. It cost $50, and was in pretty good condition. This produced a near instant improvement in living conditions. What it didn't resolve was sleeping conditions, because it wouldn't fit in the bedroom window. The nightly routine became, come home, open all windows and doors with screens, cook dinner, retreat to AC room until bed time, crawl to bedroom and hope the house has cooled down. At this point we resolved, we should get a screen door to increase air flow through the main floor.
It took a few weeks to get organized, and when we did we priced out and made plans to buy and build from scratch a screen door. This was based on a price of about $200 for a very basic prefab unit. So first stop was my favorite store, Lee Valley, we purchased all the hardware, hinges and etc to make the screen door. Next step Revy to load up on lumber, screen, and other things not carried by Lee Valley. Now we got everything we needed from the hardware store in the cart, then we headed down the screen aisle, when what should we find… An end of line, fancy prefab door, marked down from $250+ to $50. How could we say no, it was complete and a lot nicer then what I was going to make. So we proceeded with all the returning hoo haa, and walked out with our new door. The trip home with it handing on the top of the car was a little funny, but we got it home without issue.
The following weeks saw difficult tool selection, and trimming work to be done to the door, followed by painting, and finally hanging. I still need to install an internal door knob, and a little bit of touch up fitting, and painting, but all and all it looks great! So here are some cool pictures of it, and some finished pictures of the garden. Enjoy.
The Gloaming
The gloaming is a wicked time,
Ghouls arise, and ghost wonder.
Light from suns last breath,
Give umbral glow to the beasts of night.
Shadows loom, until darkness conquers,
Minions of the night shake off sleepless slumber,
Ichor drips from putrid flesh,
Talons clack with anticipation,
Empty eyes and cavernous maws await the foolish.
Terrors walk the land,
Simulacrums carved in orange gourds
Please the beasts that they venerate.
As day looses this battle of its eternal war,
The firmament shudders as the balance shifts,
None but the foolish and the deranged brave this time,
For surely they will meet their end,
Or their end will meet them.
For in the gloaming mortals must yield,
It is not their time upon the land,
They are not the favoured; they are not the chosen;
Their time has passed, and they must flee,
Or join the fiendish in their heinous hour.
The preceding was a piece of puff poetry, it holds no window into my inner soul, nor any grand eloquence, beat, rhythm, style, or anything else of literary value. I wrote it for two reasons: With Thanksgiving behind us, and Halloween swiftly closing, it is the time for frightful stories of ghouls and beasts. Secondly, and more importantly, I have been subscribed to a word of the day email list for a while, and a word landed on my lap a few weeks ago I couldn't resist, that words was gloaming, I mean really, how can you say no to gloaming. I have been dying to drop it into sentence or prose since then, and I'm afraid my wife has suffered for it, as lame sentences like "What a lovely gloaming we are having." Or "Would you like to go for a walk in the gloaming." Neither form do justice to the word, or my wife. While I am disconnected while I right this, and you can easily look it up yourself, gloaming essentially means twilight, but with a little more olde-English (actually Scottish) oomph (Oomph was not a word of the day, but it is in the MS Word spell checker, go figure.)
For those of you who want to complain about this entry, go ahead, but realize you get this tripe over no entry at all, so it isn't all bad.
Your Blogger from the gloaming,
Gloaming Geoff
And to fully satisfy my use of the word for the time being:
Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming
Ghouls arise, and ghost wonder.
Light from suns last breath,
Give umbral glow to the beasts of night.
Shadows loom, until darkness conquers,
Minions of the night shake off sleepless slumber,
Ichor drips from putrid flesh,
Talons clack with anticipation,
Empty eyes and cavernous maws await the foolish.
Terrors walk the land,
Simulacrums carved in orange gourds
Please the beasts that they venerate.
As day looses this battle of its eternal war,
The firmament shudders as the balance shifts,
None but the foolish and the deranged brave this time,
For surely they will meet their end,
Or their end will meet them.
For in the gloaming mortals must yield,
It is not their time upon the land,
They are not the favoured; they are not the chosen;
Their time has passed, and they must flee,
Or join the fiendish in their heinous hour.
The preceding was a piece of puff poetry, it holds no window into my inner soul, nor any grand eloquence, beat, rhythm, style, or anything else of literary value. I wrote it for two reasons: With Thanksgiving behind us, and Halloween swiftly closing, it is the time for frightful stories of ghouls and beasts. Secondly, and more importantly, I have been subscribed to a word of the day email list for a while, and a word landed on my lap a few weeks ago I couldn't resist, that words was gloaming, I mean really, how can you say no to gloaming. I have been dying to drop it into sentence or prose since then, and I'm afraid my wife has suffered for it, as lame sentences like "What a lovely gloaming we are having." Or "Would you like to go for a walk in the gloaming." Neither form do justice to the word, or my wife. While I am disconnected while I right this, and you can easily look it up yourself, gloaming essentially means twilight, but with a little more olde-English (actually Scottish) oomph (Oomph was not a word of the day, but it is in the MS Word spell checker, go figure.)
For those of you who want to complain about this entry, go ahead, but realize you get this tripe over no entry at all, so it isn't all bad.
Your Blogger from the gloaming,
Gloaming Geoff
And to fully satisfy my use of the word for the time being:
Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming, Gloaming
This seems to work
Sometimes, I am to lazy to post, so it seems if I post what I am going to post about, I actully get around to posting it. So up coming posts include:
Pictures of the screen door oOooo Ahhhh
The Duck!
I will say no more
Pictures of the screen door oOooo Ahhhh
The Duck!
I will say no more
Serenity
I saw Serenity a week or so back on opening night, and I am happy to report it met and exceeded my expectations! (Truly that is a tag line they will append to the DVD sales, Geoff Peart of Coast of Araska says 'met and exceeded my expectations!') Really, it was phenomenal; I just don't have the words to articulate it. The following link will take you to the home of everyone's favorite raging Mormon, Orson Scott Card, who has the literary agility to do justice to this movie. I strongly agree with him, and can only hope (as he does) that when Ender's Game becomes a movie that it is as good as Serenity.
For those of you who don't have a clue what I am talking about, Serenity is a movie based on a TV series that was cancelled halfway through the first season. "But if it was cancelled why did they make a movie?" you might ask. Well, it is difficult to predict exactly what went through the minds of the Fox executives, I imagine it went like this:
Ex 1: How's that new Firefly show doing?
Ex 2: Okay, for a nerd show, in a bad slot?
Ex 1: Nerd show? I thought it was a gun slinging western?
Ex 2: No no no, it's a space thingy, like Star Trek Wars or whatever that is called.
Ex 1: Ewww, nerds, watching my channel, kill it!
Ex 2: You sure? We are getting tons of fan mail.
Ex 1: From NERDS! Burn that mail to, before you get tainted and I have to fire you!
Ex 2: Yes Sir.
Ex 1: That sounded a little to Star Trek Wars nerdy of you, quickly to the gold course, and then the snooty brothel, we have to make a real man of you again, and quickly!
So another great show was cancelled, and this one never had a chance to get off its feet. Really it was a rough year for director/producer Joss Wedon, Buffy came to its natural conclusion, Angel got cancelled, and while I wasn't a huge fan, I know it had a rabid following. You can tell from the last episode or two that everyone was pretty bitter about the raw deal, and so they pretty much killed everyone just for good measure. So Joss went from 3 series to 0, and all of them were really well done. Firefly of all probably was the most open to any audience, and definitely had the most potential. Buffy had run her course, and Angel was a spin-off that had very much tried to capture the same audience as Buffy. Firefly really appealed to anyone, and had a feel to it that was truly unique. It really was space cowboys, but not in a bad way.
Anyways, no more crying over spilt milk, what is done is done. What followed was a rabid word of mouth campaign that made Firefly probably the most popular cancelled show ever! The DVDs of the first/only season flew off the shelves, and people flocked to the media, and the internet to talk about it. Letter campaign after letter campaign bombarded anyone and everyone begging for the resurrection of the series. What happened, I think, was beyond anyone's imagination. Fox adamantly refused to touch Firefly with a ten foot pool, but some how, from the ashes it rose up as Serenity, the first of possibly three movies starting where the series left off. There is a comic clip floating around the internet with two of the actors chatting between scenes, the one who plays Mal, and the one who plays Jayne. One says to the other "Well it's not everyday your TV series gets cancelled and you get a multimillion dollar movie deal."
So with pomp and circumstance production began on Serenity, stalwart fans were treated to inside tidbits, and even a prescreening months before release to try and boost hype. The tragedy of the prescreening is they may have been to far out front so that the hype cooled down before the movie release. Tragically the box office numbers might not be strong enough to justify the follow up movies. We can only hope. In spite of the poor showing in numbers, it is still a phenomenal movie, I want everyone to go see it, and even those who have never see the series. You won't regret it.
When you're done, come back and read this other guys review. I don't truck with the majority of the opinions on that site, but this article (while spoiler laden) really gave me a greater appreciation for a great movie!
So get off your butts and go watch Serenity, and then tell your friends about it!
For those of you who don't have a clue what I am talking about, Serenity is a movie based on a TV series that was cancelled halfway through the first season. "But if it was cancelled why did they make a movie?" you might ask. Well, it is difficult to predict exactly what went through the minds of the Fox executives, I imagine it went like this:
Ex 1: How's that new Firefly show doing?
Ex 2: Okay, for a nerd show, in a bad slot?
Ex 1: Nerd show? I thought it was a gun slinging western?
Ex 2: No no no, it's a space thingy, like Star Trek Wars or whatever that is called.
Ex 1: Ewww, nerds, watching my channel, kill it!
Ex 2: You sure? We are getting tons of fan mail.
Ex 1: From NERDS! Burn that mail to, before you get tainted and I have to fire you!
Ex 2: Yes Sir.
Ex 1: That sounded a little to Star Trek Wars nerdy of you, quickly to the gold course, and then the snooty brothel, we have to make a real man of you again, and quickly!
So another great show was cancelled, and this one never had a chance to get off its feet. Really it was a rough year for director/producer Joss Wedon, Buffy came to its natural conclusion, Angel got cancelled, and while I wasn't a huge fan, I know it had a rabid following. You can tell from the last episode or two that everyone was pretty bitter about the raw deal, and so they pretty much killed everyone just for good measure. So Joss went from 3 series to 0, and all of them were really well done. Firefly of all probably was the most open to any audience, and definitely had the most potential. Buffy had run her course, and Angel was a spin-off that had very much tried to capture the same audience as Buffy. Firefly really appealed to anyone, and had a feel to it that was truly unique. It really was space cowboys, but not in a bad way.
Anyways, no more crying over spilt milk, what is done is done. What followed was a rabid word of mouth campaign that made Firefly probably the most popular cancelled show ever! The DVDs of the first/only season flew off the shelves, and people flocked to the media, and the internet to talk about it. Letter campaign after letter campaign bombarded anyone and everyone begging for the resurrection of the series. What happened, I think, was beyond anyone's imagination. Fox adamantly refused to touch Firefly with a ten foot pool, but some how, from the ashes it rose up as Serenity, the first of possibly three movies starting where the series left off. There is a comic clip floating around the internet with two of the actors chatting between scenes, the one who plays Mal, and the one who plays Jayne. One says to the other "Well it's not everyday your TV series gets cancelled and you get a multimillion dollar movie deal."
So with pomp and circumstance production began on Serenity, stalwart fans were treated to inside tidbits, and even a prescreening months before release to try and boost hype. The tragedy of the prescreening is they may have been to far out front so that the hype cooled down before the movie release. Tragically the box office numbers might not be strong enough to justify the follow up movies. We can only hope. In spite of the poor showing in numbers, it is still a phenomenal movie, I want everyone to go see it, and even those who have never see the series. You won't regret it.
When you're done, come back and read this other guys review. I don't truck with the majority of the opinions on that site, but this article (while spoiler laden) really gave me a greater appreciation for a great movie!
So get off your butts and go watch Serenity, and then tell your friends about it!
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Place Holder - Serenity -
Here is place holder for a coming post, on the movie Serentiy, so just hold on to your goram shorts!
http://www.reason.com/hod/js093005.shtml
http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2005-09-30-extra.shtml
http://www.reason.com/hod/js093005.shtml
http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2005-09-30-extra.shtml
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Sponsor Geoffrey to Conquer the Tower!
CN Tower,
1776 stairs of sheer maddening vertical
1 hollow, dank stairwell
1 Engineer, on a mission, to climb them all!
To my friends, and random visitors, this is my contribution to my community, I don't always have the liquid assets to support various good causes, but I can give my support by climbing this tower, and getting you to sponsor me. I have done this once before, but not with such enthusiasm, my first climb taught me to respect gravity, for she is a formidable force. So it isn't without a touch of humility that I say, THIS IS FREAKING HARD!
So please support me, and the United Way in this years CN Tower Stair Climb. For more information on the climb, you can go to there site. For more information on the local, national, and international effects of the United Way's charity efforts, you can check out their site
If you click the main link above or this one here, you can directly contribute to my Stair Climb Effort.
Now against my better judgment, my brother has convinced me to carry my .1288 kg camera, the 335.28 m up the tower with me, to document the occasion. For reference that will require me to exert an additional 423 J of superfluous energy to carry the camera with me! So those pictures had better be worth it!!!
Thanks in advance, your poster/climber Geoff
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Thanks for the Thanks
Hey America, Thanks!
What am I thanking you for, just saying thanks actually. I know there has been a lot of Canadian/American tension over the last few years, but when you guys were down and out in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina we were more then happy to send help. I know things are really hectic, and we don't expect remuneration, but we appreciate Senator Walter Boasso's praise and thanks.
So thanks Senator for your class and grace, and lets get Louisiana back on her feet together.
What am I thanking you for, just saying thanks actually. I know there has been a lot of Canadian/American tension over the last few years, but when you guys were down and out in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina we were more then happy to send help. I know things are really hectic, and we don't expect remuneration, but we appreciate Senator Walter Boasso's praise and thanks.
So thanks Senator for your class and grace, and lets get Louisiana back on her feet together.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
How this other guy failed the Turing Test
Read a great blog today, made me chuckle, but brought up old Allan Touring who needs to be recognized from time to time as the one of the fathers of modern computing. So here is the post
Monday, August 22, 2005
Shuttle's going home
The Space Shuttle Discovery hitched a ride on NASA's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the flight from the Dryden Flight Research Center in California, to Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on August 19, 2005.
Image Credit: NASA/Lori Losey
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
I am happy to repeat the announcement of the birth of:
Jack Henry Peart
A little boy
7 lbs, 11oz. 20 in.
at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Edmonton
on Monday August 1, 2005 10:24 am
Mom and Baby are both doing well as you can see in this picture.
congratulations to my brother, and his wife, and now that I am an uncle I can teach Jack about all the bad things like, poker, girls, fast cars, and that other silliness, but I might have to wait a few years.
Monday, July 25, 2005
Alaska != Araska
I have been getting more and more frequent hits to my site from people searching for Alaska, time and again the information seekers are of Asian descent. To help guide these seekers back along their proper path, I have included some tourism links below.
The official tourism site: Travel Alaska
English
Japanese
German
Korean
Hope that helps
The official tourism site: Travel Alaska
English
Japanese
German
Korean
Hope that helps
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Long time no post, but here are some fast posts. This is Erin and I's new fishes. We got the tank from my brother and his wife when they moved out of town. (Thanks guys) So here is our fishies, the two on the bottom are Red and Opal, they are our gals, and the one hiding at the top is Fireball, he is pretty funny looking. So we got them all setup this week, and I just wanted to share.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
The House
On to the topics that so clutter my mind; so the first topic, starting chronologically back in April, is the house. We did the final paperwork on a bright and sunny Wednesday evening at the lawyer?s office in Milton; no one tells you that when you buy a house that you must first complete the paperwork decathlon. There are probably over 20 documents that require signatures in triplicate when you close a house, who knew? We signed weird things, bland things, final zoning things, bylaws things, and a waiver thing that acknowledged and dismissed a perceived but non-existent conflict of interest, a what??? The whole while we were signing away we were grinning ear-to-ear for our first house. We topped the evening with dinner at one of the many Irish Pubs of Milton, I think they are about four (well English/Irish style pubs) so far we have tried two and both are great.
We closed the following day, April 21, 2005, after some hanging out in the house to be cool, sent Erin back to Guelph to finish packing, and I went to bed at my parents.
Friday of that week I hung around the house and watched a parade of Bell, and Cogeco people hook things up, I also paid this guy next to nothing to install all the phone jacks. Bell wanted something absurd like 150 + 70 per jack I think, and this guy did the whole house for $55, and he was very professional. I think his website is www.buildinghomes.ca, (see Flickr if I like you, you get a link, but I digress.)
Saturday was the big move; we started out in Guelph at about 8am (the earliest we could pickup the truck.) At Erin?s apartment we had a whole pile of people from her lab, including Karen, Erin Anderson, Homed (sp) and I think Cory, but I am not sure. Karen, and Erin A for sure were there from the start and great helps, Karen even came with us to Milton to unload, but don?t underestimate Karen, under here diminutive appearance she is surprisingly strong, heck she would be considered strong for someone twice her size, suffice it to say that Karen was awesome! We rapped up in Guelph surprisingly early, like 9:30 ? 10:00, which put us way ahead of schedule, and we were still waiting for Becky and her boyfriend Louis who were showing up around 10:00 ? 10:30. So Trevor (who had been there since 7:00 am when we left Mississauga to go pickup the truck,) and I headed to his house to pickup the BBQ. Between Trevor, Ellie, Brad, Jodi, Kevin, and Lisa they all went in together to buy me a BBQ for a wedding present which was totally awesome. It?s one of the ones with the backburner for rotisserie, and makes things sooooo good, but again I am off topic. Then we did a quick stop over at my parents to get a whole pile of junk and coordinated with them when they would drop off the rest. Then back to the house!
By the time we got to the house it was raining something awful and the 'lawn' and 'driveway' had become a giant mud pit. Also with no attempt at coordination, Trevor and I arrived at the house at the same time as Josh, and Erin with the car full of people. So Trevor and I dropped the truck ramp right into the garage, and carried things in to the garage, where we handed them off to our stocking clad movers who quickly dispersed the items into the house. Again, we got ahead of schedule so Trevor and I were off to Erin?s parents to pick up the washer, dryer and sofa that they were donating to the cause. By this point Brad had showed up, so he and Josh were going to follow in a second car and help.
Here is where we get confused and silly, Josh and Brad following a HUGE CUBE TRUCK got lost, and when they finally realized that they were lost, Trevor and I were in the process of man handling the first of the appliances out the door. So after a flurry of confused cell phone chatter we sent them on a quest to buy pizza to take back to the house. Trevor and I returned to Milton with our truck of heavy objects just in time to get some lunch, after which we carried the appliances in, it was pretty much the hardest thing we did all weekend and it hurt, a lot! They were heavy, and awkward, and we had to do strange turns to get them into place. Thanks to all my friends that helped, that weekend would have been a disaster if it wasn?t for so many hands helping out. We wound out the afternoon all flopped around on what ever makeshift furniture we could find, and then after returning the truck did dinner in Waterloo with Becky, Josh and Louis. Following that we dragged our sorry butts back to the house and collapsed into a comatose state of exhaustion.
Sunday, also known as crazy fool day, I decided in my exhausted state of physical weakness that it would be a great idea to buy office furniture, so I went to the Neoset factory outlet and purchased a great set of matching office furniture, the whole thing, which would have been over $2000 if purchased at retail, came out to about 1000, so I was happy. In my crapulence of money savings I realized the flaw in my plan, Neoset if HEAVY! So I got my office furniture in, but the cost to my body was something terrible, but in the end, I think it was worth it because my office looks great! I will get some pictures up soon.
Since moving in I think we spend as much time and money a week at Canadian Tire as we do at the grocery store, there are just so many widgets one requires for a house, Garage door opener, and Air Conditioner just for starters, but those I promise are epic tales for a post of their own. All and all we are really happy with the house, the only complaint is the quality of the builder paint, but we understand that it is universally bad across all builders. So that is the conclusion of the many months of house construction adventures, again pictures forthcoming of the various rooms and exteriors of the finished house, at the end of the day its great to come home to my wife and our house, and in the end that makes everything worthwhile.
We closed the following day, April 21, 2005, after some hanging out in the house to be cool, sent Erin back to Guelph to finish packing, and I went to bed at my parents.
Friday of that week I hung around the house and watched a parade of Bell, and Cogeco people hook things up, I also paid this guy next to nothing to install all the phone jacks. Bell wanted something absurd like 150 + 70 per jack I think, and this guy did the whole house for $55, and he was very professional. I think his website is www.buildinghomes.ca, (see Flickr if I like you, you get a link, but I digress.)
Saturday was the big move; we started out in Guelph at about 8am (the earliest we could pickup the truck.) At Erin?s apartment we had a whole pile of people from her lab, including Karen, Erin Anderson, Homed (sp) and I think Cory, but I am not sure. Karen, and Erin A for sure were there from the start and great helps, Karen even came with us to Milton to unload, but don?t underestimate Karen, under here diminutive appearance she is surprisingly strong, heck she would be considered strong for someone twice her size, suffice it to say that Karen was awesome! We rapped up in Guelph surprisingly early, like 9:30 ? 10:00, which put us way ahead of schedule, and we were still waiting for Becky and her boyfriend Louis who were showing up around 10:00 ? 10:30. So Trevor (who had been there since 7:00 am when we left Mississauga to go pickup the truck,) and I headed to his house to pickup the BBQ. Between Trevor, Ellie, Brad, Jodi, Kevin, and Lisa they all went in together to buy me a BBQ for a wedding present which was totally awesome. It?s one of the ones with the backburner for rotisserie, and makes things sooooo good, but again I am off topic. Then we did a quick stop over at my parents to get a whole pile of junk and coordinated with them when they would drop off the rest. Then back to the house!
By the time we got to the house it was raining something awful and the 'lawn' and 'driveway' had become a giant mud pit. Also with no attempt at coordination, Trevor and I arrived at the house at the same time as Josh, and Erin with the car full of people. So Trevor and I dropped the truck ramp right into the garage, and carried things in to the garage, where we handed them off to our stocking clad movers who quickly dispersed the items into the house. Again, we got ahead of schedule so Trevor and I were off to Erin?s parents to pick up the washer, dryer and sofa that they were donating to the cause. By this point Brad had showed up, so he and Josh were going to follow in a second car and help.
Here is where we get confused and silly, Josh and Brad following a HUGE CUBE TRUCK got lost, and when they finally realized that they were lost, Trevor and I were in the process of man handling the first of the appliances out the door. So after a flurry of confused cell phone chatter we sent them on a quest to buy pizza to take back to the house. Trevor and I returned to Milton with our truck of heavy objects just in time to get some lunch, after which we carried the appliances in, it was pretty much the hardest thing we did all weekend and it hurt, a lot! They were heavy, and awkward, and we had to do strange turns to get them into place. Thanks to all my friends that helped, that weekend would have been a disaster if it wasn?t for so many hands helping out. We wound out the afternoon all flopped around on what ever makeshift furniture we could find, and then after returning the truck did dinner in Waterloo with Becky, Josh and Louis. Following that we dragged our sorry butts back to the house and collapsed into a comatose state of exhaustion.
Sunday, also known as crazy fool day, I decided in my exhausted state of physical weakness that it would be a great idea to buy office furniture, so I went to the Neoset factory outlet and purchased a great set of matching office furniture, the whole thing, which would have been over $2000 if purchased at retail, came out to about 1000, so I was happy. In my crapulence of money savings I realized the flaw in my plan, Neoset if HEAVY! So I got my office furniture in, but the cost to my body was something terrible, but in the end, I think it was worth it because my office looks great! I will get some pictures up soon.
Since moving in I think we spend as much time and money a week at Canadian Tire as we do at the grocery store, there are just so many widgets one requires for a house, Garage door opener, and Air Conditioner just for starters, but those I promise are epic tales for a post of their own. All and all we are really happy with the house, the only complaint is the quality of the builder paint, but we understand that it is universally bad across all builders. So that is the conclusion of the many months of house construction adventures, again pictures forthcoming of the various rooms and exteriors of the finished house, at the end of the day its great to come home to my wife and our house, and in the end that makes everything worthwhile.
Blog Back
While short of some poorly annotated pictures, I have been excessively remiss in my blogging of late. I even gave you a run down of topics I wanted to blog about, and never did. To say that I have been busy is an understatement, but this hardly takes any time at all and makes the excuse paltry and weak. So I think my resistance to the pen came at the hands of the overwhelming subject matter backlog, so I am going to try and tackle some of that on the way to work this morning.
Finally my other excuse is that I can't post pictures.... While not 100% true, I can't post pictures in the fashion that I would like. If you look at the pictures most recently posted you can see that they are blocky, there is in fact nothing wrong with the originals, only the posting mechanism. I used Flickr to post them, and Flickr does not get a link to their site because I am mad at them, because they take a perfectly reasonable resolution image, and garble it up by re-re-sizing it. Not happy, not happy at all, but the alternative is Hello, and it doesn't support my network setup with proxy, so I am hoped, beyond manual picture posting, but really they do a better job then me. Also Blogger just updated its tools to allow picture posting, but they don't work, grumble grumble grumble.
So my catching up is going to come at the expense of pictures, I hope you are all okay with that, if not, wait a few weeks, and I will do a little bit of picture work when I can, maybe this weekend.
Finally my other excuse is that I can't post pictures.... While not 100% true, I can't post pictures in the fashion that I would like. If you look at the pictures most recently posted you can see that they are blocky, there is in fact nothing wrong with the originals, only the posting mechanism. I used Flickr to post them, and Flickr does not get a link to their site because I am mad at them, because they take a perfectly reasonable resolution image, and garble it up by re-re-sizing it. Not happy, not happy at all, but the alternative is Hello, and it doesn't support my network setup with proxy, so I am hoped, beyond manual picture posting, but really they do a better job then me. Also Blogger just updated its tools to allow picture posting, but they don't work, grumble grumble grumble.
So my catching up is going to come at the expense of pictures, I hope you are all okay with that, if not, wait a few weeks, and I will do a little bit of picture work when I can, maybe this weekend.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Friday, June 03, 2005
Phobos Entertainment's "100 Science Fiction Books You Just Have to Read"
Here is an update of an old post to see how my reading list is going.
| # | TITLE | AUTHOR | I've Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Childhood's End | Arthur C. Clarke | |
| 2 | Foundation | Isaac Asimov | |
| 3 | Dune | Frank Herbert | |
| 4 | The Man in the High Castle | Philip K. Dick | x |
| 5 | Starship Troopers | Robert A. Heinlein | |
| 6 | Valis | Philip K. Dick | |
| 7 | Frankenstein | Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley | |
| 8 | Gateway | Frederik Pohl | |
| 9 | Space Merchants | Frederik Pohl | |
| 10 | Earth Abides | George R. Stewart | |
| 11 | Cuckoo's Egg | C.J. Cherryh | |
| 12 | Star Surgeon | James White | |
| 13 | The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch | Philip K. Dick | |
| 14 | Radix | A. A. Attanasio | |
| 15 | 2001: A Space Odyssey | Arthur C. Clarke | x |
| 16 | Ringworld | Larry Niven | |
| 17 | A Case of Conscience | James Blish | |
| 18 | Last and First Man | Olaf Stapledon | |
| 19 | The Day of the Triffids | John Wyndham | x |
| 20 | Way Station | Clifford D. Simak | |
| 21 | More Than Human | Theodore Sturgeon | |
| 22 | Gray Lensman | E.E. "Doc" Smith | |
| 23 | The Gods Themselves | Isaac Asimov | |
| 24 | The Left Hand of Darkness | Ursula K. Le Guin | x |
| 25 | Behold the Man | Michael Moorcock | |
| 26 | Star Maker | Olaf Stapledon | |
| 27 | The War of the Worlds | H. G. Wells | |
| 28 | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea | Jules Verne | |
| 29 | Heritage of Hastur | Marion Zimmer Bradley | |
| 30 | The Time Machine | H. G. Wells | |
| 31 | The Stars My Destination | Alfred Bester | |
| 32 | Slan | A. E. Van Vogt | |
| 33 | Neuromancer | William Gibson | |
| 34 | Ender's Game | Orson Scott Card | x |
| 35 | In Conquest Born | C. S. Friedman | |
| 36 | Lord of Light | Roger Zelazny | |
| 37 | Eon | Greg Bear | |
| 38 | Dragonflight | Anne McCaffrey | x |
| 39 | Journey to the Center of the Earth | Jules Verne | |
| 40 | Stranger in a Strange Land | Robert A. Heinlein | x |
| 41 | Cosm | Gregory Benford | |
| 42 | The Voyage of the Space Beagle | A. E. Van Vogt | |
| 43 | Blood Music | Greg Bear | |
| 44 | Beggars in Spain | Nancy Kress | |
| 45 | Omnivore | Piers Anthony | |
| 46 | I, Robot | Isaac Asimov | |
| 47 | Mission of Gravity | Hal Clement | |
| 48 | To Your Scattered Bodies Go | Philip Jose Farmer | |
| 49 | Brave New World | Aldous Huxley | |
| 50 | The Man Who Folded Himself | David Gerrold | |
| 51 | 1984 | George Orwell | x |
| 52 | The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl And Mr. Hyde | Robert Louis Stevenson | |
| 53 | Snow Crash | Neal Stephenson | x |
| 54 | Flesh | Philip Jose Farmer | |
| 55 | Cities in Flight | James Blish | |
| 56 | Shadow of the Torturer | Gene Wolfe | |
| 57 | Startide Rising | David Brin | |
| 58 | Triton | Samuel R. Delany | |
| 59 | Stand on Zanzibar | John Brunner | |
| 60 | A Clockwork Orange | Anthony Burgess | |
| 61 | Fahrenheit 451 | Ray Bradbury | x |
| 62 | A Canticle for Leibowitz | Walter M. Miller Jr. | |
| 63 | Flowers for Algernon | Daniel Keyes | |
| 64 | No Blade of Grass | John Christopher | |
| 65 | The Postman | David Brin | |
| 66 | Dhalgren | Samuel R. Delany | |
| 67 | Berserker | Fred Saberhagen | |
| 68 | Flatland | Edwin Abbott Abbott | |
| 69 | Planiverse | A. K. Dewdney | |
| 70 | Dragon's Egg | Robert L. Forward | |
| 71 | Downbelow Station | C. J. Cherryh | |
| 72 | Dawn | Octavia E. Butler | |
| 73 | The Puppet Masters | Robert A. Heinlein | |
| 74 | The Doomsday Book | Connie Willis | |
| 75 | Forever War | Joe Haldeman | |
| 76 | Deathbird Stories | Harlan Ellison | |
| 77 | Roadside Picnic | Arkady Strugatsky | |
| 78 | The Snow Queen | Joan D. Vinge | |
| 79 | The Martian Chronicles | Ray Bradbury | |
| 80 | Drowned World | J.G. Ballard | |
| 81 | Cat's Cradle | Kurt Vonnegut | |
| 82 | Red Mars Kim | Stanley Robinson | |
| 83 | Upanishads | Various | |
| 84 | Alice in Wonderland Lewis | Carroll | x |
| 85 | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams | x |
| 86 | The Lathe of Heaven | Ursula K. Le Guin | |
| 87 | The Midwich Cuckoos | John Wyndham | |
| 88 | Mutant | Henry Kuttner | |
| 89 | Solaris | Stanislaw Lem | |
| 90 | Ralph 124C41+ | Hugo Gernsback | |
| 91 | I Am Legend | Richard Matheson | |
| 92 | Timescape | Gregory Benford | |
| 93 | The Demolished Man | Alfred Bester | |
| 94 | War with the Newts | Karl Kapek | |
| 95 | Mars | Ben Bova | |
| 96 | Brain Wave | Pozul Anderson | |
| 97 | Hyperion | Dan Simmons | |
| 98 | The Andromeda Strain | Michael Crichton | x |
| 99 | Camp Concentration | Thomas M. Disch | |
| 100 | A Princess of Mars | Edgar Rice Burroughs | |
| This list's title, description, and content copyright © 2000-2002, Phobos Entertainment Holdings, Inc.. All rights reserved. | |||
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Long time no blog
Keeping this short, I haven't posted in what feels like a millennium, and I definitely haven't blogged about anything important in at least two, so here are a run down of up coming bloggable topics:
* My new house (yes that one I rambled on and on about for ages in constructions its done.)
* My wedding
* My new wife (re: above)
* My honeymoon (re: above)
* Coordination, and my lack there of
* Stuff
* Other less organized thoughts, such that even stuff seems to organized a category for them (this category by definition falls into its own category.)
So stay tuned, and keep watching the stars
* My new house (yes that one I rambled on and on about for ages in constructions its done.)
* My wedding
* My new wife (re: above)
* My honeymoon (re: above)
* Coordination, and my lack there of
* Stuff
* Other less organized thoughts, such that even stuff seems to organized a category for them (this category by definition falls into its own category.)
So stay tuned, and keep watching the stars
Monday, May 09, 2005
A quick note
For those of you who were bemused by the Scooby-Doo post I can not claim credit for the concept, only the presentation. The original idea for Scooby-Doo nowhere (other then of course Scooby-Doo) is from my friend Trevor, who labeled this discrete set of creepy location parameters as "Scooby-Doo Nowhere." Any licensing issues/violations can be directed to him ;)
Sunday, May 08, 2005
A new location classification scheme
...
Stuck at the side of the road, the radiator smoking in the cool night air, a chill fog hung on their shoulders like a shroud of death. A thin layer of water clung to there clothes, weighing them down and chilling there bones. The GPS couldn't get a signal through the dark clouds which forewarned of a frightful storm, the cell was dead as well. Only the shill twang of country banjos could be heard through the taunting of the radio static. As night settled on the lonesome duo, shadows grew from the trees. Shadows were the only fruit that would come to ripen on these trees, if you could call them that, wizened things, all a thorn and spindly. Their twisted forms loomed like wretched curmudgeons, old and filled with malice for vitality.
"Jase, where are we" asked the driver, his voice trembled with uncertainty.
Jase folded the old map, its corners dog eared with age, is creases ripping. "Nowhere Fred, we are in the middle of fucking nowhere!" His voice cracked with panic.
In a voice filled with wisdom beyond its years, and a confidence finding slim purchase on the edge of the unknown, Fred chided his navigator. "Nowhere? Nowhere is a one horse town, with a corner store and retirees, nowhere is bland, and boring, nowhere is not here. We're in Scooby-Doo nowhere now!"
Stuck at the side of the road, the radiator smoking in the cool night air, a chill fog hung on their shoulders like a shroud of death. A thin layer of water clung to there clothes, weighing them down and chilling there bones. The GPS couldn't get a signal through the dark clouds which forewarned of a frightful storm, the cell was dead as well. Only the shill twang of country banjos could be heard through the taunting of the radio static. As night settled on the lonesome duo, shadows grew from the trees. Shadows were the only fruit that would come to ripen on these trees, if you could call them that, wizened things, all a thorn and spindly. Their twisted forms loomed like wretched curmudgeons, old and filled with malice for vitality.
"Jase, where are we" asked the driver, his voice trembled with uncertainty.
Jase folded the old map, its corners dog eared with age, is creases ripping. "Nowhere Fred, we are in the middle of fucking nowhere!" His voice cracked with panic.
In a voice filled with wisdom beyond its years, and a confidence finding slim purchase on the edge of the unknown, Fred chided his navigator. "Nowhere? Nowhere is a one horse town, with a corner store and retirees, nowhere is bland, and boring, nowhere is not here. We're in Scooby-Doo nowhere now!"
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Site Update, by reader request
As requested I have added three new comics to the comics section on the right hand nav, and I tried to reorganize the comics section to reflect their publishing schedule. The new comics are
Knights of the Dinner Table
CTRL-ALT-DEL
and
Pet Professional
Basically gaming nerds, 'hip' gaming nerds, and animal assassins. The last one might upset some readers.
All good comics, the first I used to read when it was published in Dragon Magazine (now you know which catagory I fall under.)
Enjoy, or not, your choice.
Knights of the Dinner Table
CTRL-ALT-DEL
and
Pet Professional
Basically gaming nerds, 'hip' gaming nerds, and animal assassins. The last one might upset some readers.
All good comics, the first I used to read when it was published in Dragon Magazine (now you know which catagory I fall under.)
Enjoy, or not, your choice.
Monday, May 02, 2005
Time Traveler Convention
The Time Traveler Convention
May 7, 2005, 10:00pm EDT (08 May 2005 02:00:00 UTC)
East Campus Courtyard, MIT
42:21:36.025°N, 71:05:16.332°W
(42.360007,-071.087870 in decimal degrees)
Site says it all...
May 7, 2005, 10:00pm EDT (08 May 2005 02:00:00 UTC)
East Campus Courtyard, MIT
42:21:36.025°N, 71:05:16.332°W
(42.360007,-071.087870 in decimal degrees)
Site says it all...
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Serenity
Trailer is out for Serenity, which for those of you who don't know is the Firefly movie. Great TV show by the way, never should have been cancelled, but it didn't fit with Fox's dumigraphics so out it went.
The trailer looks visual tantalizing, and the cast has already shown their mettle in the series, so I am looking forward to a great show. My favorite sound bite from the trailer had to be this conversation between Mal, and Wash.
Wash: "This is going to get pretty interesting."
Mal: "Define Interesting."
Wash:"Oh god, Oh god we are all going to die."
Anyways, I'm pretty hyped, and hopefully this makes the $$$ and Universal picks up its options for a second and third movie.
The trailer looks visual tantalizing, and the cast has already shown their mettle in the series, so I am looking forward to a great show. My favorite sound bite from the trailer had to be this conversation between Mal, and Wash.
Wash: "This is going to get pretty interesting."
Mal: "Define Interesting."
Wash:
Anyways, I'm pretty hyped, and hopefully this makes the $$$ and Universal picks up its options for a second and third movie.
Monday, April 18, 2005
"NO! Participles, why must you dangle so! I am undone by the lax writing environment I hoped to create!"
To better understand the nature of my character, you must understand that I find this comic to be uproarious. While I only wish the utterances I pontificate were as evocative as this literary pearl; I cannot constrain my uninhibited critic of the selection of the word "create" from the vast lexicon English provides. Irrefutably "engenders" is a lexeme of superior distinction then the authors selection.
Ha!
Ha!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)