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.
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