Stoked, Swiss and Space

Dec 6 – Stoked?

Have you ever wondered about what's happened previously today, in history? Check out today's date at Brainy History.com – sadly, today is the 20^th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, but I'm sure there are far more happier events lurking in the lists than that. Though if we fail to learn the lessons of history, we're screwed – to paraphrase things a bit.

Last week was a long, long week at work getting my new employee up to speed with things – three days clocked in around 11 hours on average, with phone calls off-shift adding to the total. Still, I'm pleased with their progress – I am confident the details will follow as they get more experience with the open-concept branch operations. Tiring though - very tiring.

I'm still waiting for the rest of Stoked to become available on iTunes... my Season's Pass seems rather worthless to me, with only TWO episodes available for the ENTIRE 'season' for download. Very, very frustrating. For now, I'm going to cruise through all the shows that MetaCafe.com has to offer( for free! )since they're not US-based and so don't deny most everything to people outside of their borders.

Dec 7 – Northward Travel

Today I worked a shift at our Duncan store, which is less than an hour away( on a good day )from Langford on the Trans-Canada Highway. It was a nice drive up during the day... on dry roads( and signs are up now stating cars in winter on the Malahat MUST have snow tires or chains ). It was a different story on the way home: the scenic Malahat is a twisting, curving ribbon of road that is extremely hazardous to your health in bad weather, or at night in good weather. Here in BC there are far fewer guardrails on major roadways – as I've mentioned before, it seems that all these trees are meant to subsitutute for said safety features. It's still not nearly as dangerous as the Yungas Road in Brazil – I saw a TV special on that earlier this year that made my hair stand on end.

Tm Horton's was in the news again today, this time in the town of Kingston ON, which has it in for the franchise's drive-thrus. Seems that Kingston doesn't want all those idling cars polluting, and is battling Timmy's over it. Weird, eh?

Maybe they should flip a coin to settle the matter – or not! Today a study was released that showed the traditional coin-toss is far less impartial than you might think. According to researchers, only a few minutes of training with a person was necessary to adversely affect the results of coin tosses, so much so that some people could achieve incredibly skewed results. Darn it.

Dec 8 – Spaceship 'splosions!

What's with all the rebooting? According to io9.com, these last ten years could very well be called the Decade of the Reboot, with the huge number of old shows and movies that were mined to create new profit and further the franchises therein.

Space battles... ever since the days of colour television, they've steadily improved along with visual effects technology. Io9.com has a great article( with video examples! )of some of the best space battles of all time, and why we love them so. I've been playing Gratuitous Space Battles on and off a few times a week, as new ship design ideas come to me – so far I've beaten most of the battles and am concentrating now on the 'infinite' scenarios to try and get my fleet to survive a little longer each time.

With my recent discovery that my eyes are changing focus( again ), I found my thoughts turning to other aspects of the inevitable aging process, including memory. Ironically, I remembered a site I bookmarked a long while back, called MindTools.com, which has a great set of articles on how to improve your memory. Worth a look, so don't forget to check them out – you can also try this interesting flash game designed to test your ability to separate words from colours; it's harder than you think.

Dec 9 – Touch The Apple

News came down the pipe today that Apple is launching a handheld touchscreen computer in Spring 2010, looking to compete with the recent e-book readers that have come out from Amazon and Sony. So instead of an iPhone, you will get a much more functional machine... that is less portable. Kind of like an Apple Netbook, but with a touchscreen instead.

Here's something else that is quite portable: the Swiss Bike. Over the years, I've often wished I could just toss my bike into the back of the car some days, whenever the situation warranted my needing to use the car and not the bicycle – like driving to a great park for an afternoon of trail riding, for example. With the Swiss Bike, the whole thing folds up to stow neatly away in the trunk... and for a not-unreasonable price, compared to quality bikes costing thousands that are frankly more than I'll ever need.

This one's for you Mike: collectable fast-food glass sets from yesteryear. Ah, the glory days of Star Wars, when Vader was evil AND cool, and not a whiny teenager gone bad...

Dec 10 – Mechs? Bricks? Aliens?

Who doesn't like giant robots? I mean, they're just... cool. Nothing But Mech is a great blog that has lots of amazing mech / robot material posted on it all the time – check out some of the designs there! Those robots may be running on batteries though, as to date nobody's been able to figure out a way to power them. For about ten years now, I've been using rechargeable batteries for most of my electronic gear, starting with Pure Energy AA and AAA's from Walmart. Unfortunately, Pure Energy products tended to fizzle, fade and even explode messily after a few years, so after moving to BC I switched to the Hybrid Rechargable batteries from Rayovac. These Hybrids are unique in several ways: they can be recharged in any battery charger, can be charged thousands of times, have no memory effect and most importantly retain their charge over periods of 6 months or more between charges! So far, the last claim has proven to be quite true, as I have flashlights that I use once every few weeks or so that take many months before needing to be charged again.

A blast from the past today too: it seems that an old Amiga gaming favourite of mine, Alien Breed, is being brought to Xbox Live Arcade on Dec 16^th. Called Alien Breed: Evolution, the game is from the same folks who made the original back in 1991: Team 17. Check out this short video comparing the two – the quantum leaps video game technology have made in twenty years are quite apparent.

And what's with this? Apparently someone stole a brick from an art gallery in the UK ... an ordinary brick that's worth thousands of pounds, accoding to the artist. Reminds me of the hubbub about Voice of Fire back in 1989, when the National Gallery of Canada bought it for $1.8 million... your tax dollars at work.

Dec 11 – Mall Fallout

This wouldn't fit into the news from yesterday, so I'll mention it here: Natalie Portman( a fave actress of mine )will be starring in, and producing Pride and Prejudice and Zombies which is exactly what it sounds like. I mean, Portman and zombies? Excellent... too bad I had to hear about it from Variety magazine – I feel like I was standing in line at the grocery store for too long and picked over the mags on the rack at the checkout. Ick.

Fallout3: Game of the Year Edition went on sale today at Future Shop for $29.99 – an incredible price! Which explains why they were immediately sold out, offline and on... of course. I'll see if I can pick it up later in the week, which means I'll have to check daily to see if any stock comes in – no rainchecks and no competitors will price-match if there's none in stock. Of course.

Part of the apocalyptic theme today: Ghost Malls of America. Yes, you read it right... creepy, and they'd make a zombie feel right at home.

Dec 12 – To the Moon, Alice!

Tonight I finally got around to watching Stargate: Continuum, which was the second of the Stargate SG-1 made-for-DVD movies to come out( the first being The Ark of Truth ). Overall, I thought the special effects were good, the story so-so, and the acting excellent.

Closer to reality: the first commercial space flight service was announced yesterday by Virgin Galactic. Slated to start in 2011, the one-hour flight has a ticket cost of $200,000 USD, which is incredibly cheap compared to the millions previously paid to date by private citizens to get into space. I'll add it to my 'Things to Do When I Win The Lottery' list.

Christmas this year is going to be a quiet affair; my sister is unable to visit and we are not going anywhere ourselves as all our relatives and friends are back east. WE're not big on gift-giving, and if anything have scaled down even more after moving out west. Still, a few small somethings will change hands, and I've been looking at digital picture frames as one of the things to get for my parents – they have literally thousands of pictures that they don't look at as often as they'd like to. What better way than to have a digital display? My own television can display pictures via a USB key, but it's wasteful of power to leave it on all day displaying images in a room they don't usually go into. Some of those frames are rather pricey, and the cheaper ones have so-so resolution, so I'll have to shop carefully to avoid getting a dud... not to mention TEST it first to find out of there are any stuck pixels.

Dec 13 – Let the Renovations... continue!

The new landlords got to work early today, getting the renovations running downstairs at 8:45am. On their list today? Knocking a hole in the east foundation wall to make room for a window, allowing a second bedroom to be added in the apartment. According to local bylaws, bedrooms in any addition HAVE to have a window, or cannot be used as such. So for most of the day, there was banging, jackhammering and generally loud goings-on down there, which drove my parents out of the house. As for me, I was too busy all day playing MW2 to really notice, save for the jackhammer vibrations every so often, and the few times that power had to be shut off while they checked connections in the wall.

On the weather side, it snowed here for the first time today – until now, it's only been a layer of frost on the coldest mornings for the last few weeks that's vanished as the morning warmed up. Today it took until noon for the snow to say goodbye, and the skies remained leaden grey all day long – a sign that we may have a white Christmas here after all. I hope that we don't get as much as we did last year around this time as I mentioned in my blog then – we'll see. It might mean I'll be spending more time indoors – but not as much as today, when I spent around 12 hours sitting on my couch overall – yikes!

Overall? This week was over before I noticed – quite a few days had me going solid from sunup to snooze-time and everywhere in between. My energy levels have held fairly steady, though I've noticed that my lack of cycling( it's cold out there! )has brought things down a bit for me. I'm still exploring various food options, and may even look into a more balanced alkai diet, depending on my consultations with my doctor. For now, it's sleep, de-stressing and some sunlamp time for the winter.

zzzzZZZzzzZzzz

Meat, Maps and MW2

Nov 30 – Cool Math

Most of you know I am not a mathematician, but a wordsmith instead. So when I saw that a few mathematicians had put together a study on how bad a zombie outbreak would be, I did feel a little twinge of regret that my numbers game isn't better. I suppose that's some of what math geeks do for fun?

The rain has abated here, to be replaced with sunny skies and low temperatures. Coming from Ontario, the cold here isn't really all that bad, as I'm used to lake effect snow and temperatures. To hear people talk around here though is to expect things to stay around ten degrees all winter, and for this 'cold spell' of low single-digit days to dissipate fairly soon. Depending on how quickly the arctic air mass that's slamming the Prairies decides to move on, the frost may soon leave the flowers here alone once more.

Work on my NWN project has slowed to a crawl, which is sad but not at all unexpected. Everyone involved is massively busy, with one friend now in China – with his new bride! We're all still passing messages back and forth, but for those who are still in school the workload is quite heavy – both for the ones who are students and the ones who are teachers. Still, nothing is forever, so I am hopeful that the New Year will see an easing of time constraints

Dec 1 – Meat Jars

Another month, another reason to avoid the Christmas Craze. As I mentioned a few blog entries ago, I don't step foot in a shopping mall as of today, Dec 1^st – I can't stand it. Used to be when I was a lot younger( and the malls thusly seemed bigger )that I loved Christmastime, heading to the Big Malls of Hamilton or Toronto on special shopping trips to see all the holiday store displays at Eaton's or Simpsons. My favourites were the Lego displays, vast and fanciful creations that for a few years made me itch to return for the next one, bigger and grander than the last. Reminds me now of the FAO Schwarz Toy Store in New York city, that I had wanted to visit when I was there in the early 90's for a school trip but just couldn't manage to fit it in.

Being a new month we also have the I09 December SciFi Guide, which has shows like V and FlashForward on it – neither of which I've found time to follow. Since I don't have a PVR anymore( it's keeping my parents quite happy )it's harder to catch up on shows. I'm tempted to dust off the VCR and wire it back into my setup, which would work as the Shaw digital cable box has the ability to change channels on a timer to allow a VCR( or computer? )to record properly. Since I have a ton of old tapes, that may be an idea – I'll try it out when I have some time.

Closer to reality: scientists have succeeded in growing live pork in a jar. Why is this important, you ask? Well, aside from eliminating the slaughter of animals for meat( insert cheering vegans here )it means that resources will be saved from the rather inefficient process of raising animals for the table. And of course it means you could also grow all the bacon you want!

Which may also be important if you are planning to survive a disaster / apocalypse / world-ending event. I recently read "Not Your Ordinary Survival Checklist" in the Oct. 2009 Popular Mechanics issue, which is by no means a comprehensive guide – instead, you can find one here, courtesy of FEMA.

Dec 2 - Technology

Nowadays, you can buy computers with as many as 8 CPU cores inside – eight processors packed onto a single chip. Mind-boggling. Yet we've not begun to see the limits of this tech... for news of a 48-core chip has come down the pipe. Issues with rising heat and power consumption has forced companies like Intel to move down the parallel computing path, inevitably leading to computers in the near future having thousands of processing cores inside. Whoa.

Still, no matter how many cores you have inside a PC, there's still the operating system to contend with. So far, Windows 7 has been fairly decent, but it's still quirky in some ways. Aside from programs not wanting to start, the only major glitch I've experienced is the so –called "Black Screen of Death." Twice so far, the laptop has simply turned into a black screen with a blinking cursor, reminding me of the old DOS days when that meant it was time to search for your data on those backup floppy disks you made last month... you DID remember to make them, right? Hopefully it's a patch or two away from being fixed, but since it's Microsoft, we may never know just how prevalent the problem actually is – much like the Xbox360's Red Ring Of Death issue. Which is often fixable by wrapping it in a towel – go figure!

Sometimes technology has the capacity to some real good, for fairly low cost. I've just learned that it may soon be possible to detect depression over the phone via software. Very cool and very useful; imagine if a warning light started flashing when someone was calling a HelpLine( or even a doctor's or police phone )that the person on the other end was in need of depression assistance? Vital clues that may soon be part of our ever-changing social fabric. But we do still have to worry about technology being used for evil...

Dec 3 – The Third Dimension

This week has been a heavy one at work, as one of our employees has returned after a two-month absence due to an injury. I've been easing them back into the routine, as well as introducing them to several major products that have come online since they left. It's meant ten or eleven hour days for the most part this week, but I've also been impressed with the way they've picked things up again so quickly after several months off. So much so that I am hopeful that they'll be totally back into the swing of things by the end of January... just in time for tax season to start.

Google StreetView came to my area recently, which led to mixed reception per the norm from locals. For those of you who are interested, fire up Google Maps and have a look. My address should be in most of your hands by now, so you can take a browse around my neighbourhood – I've already checked, and my house is plainly visible, as the Google StreetView Van passed right by on my road. It's pretty cool, overall – I went for a virtual tour of my town of Langford, along with a few of the other places I've been, and I like the concept.

3D scanning with ordinary webcam is another thing altogether – this is pretty cool stuff, folks. Up until now, 3d object scanners have been horrifically expensive, clumsy or both. Now you can do it with a simple webcam and an ordinary PC. While not quite at the commercially viable stage yet, the video on this website is really impressive. I'd love to be able to scan in objects for use in game design, saving hours of design time – to be sure, details would still need to be refined and tweaked, but it would sure save time over building things from scratch.

Dec 4 – Lego and Left4Dead2

Though I haven't dragged out the old suitcase full of Lego in years, I still credit the little plastic blocks with firing my imagination as a child. I've posted before in this blog about the various levels of Legomania that people retain over the years, but so far it's all been benign. Now that's changed: a man in Toronto was recently taken down( unhurt )by a SWAT team as he showed off the Lego gun he had just received by mail order... at the office. Kinda dumb, but then it's nice to know that Canadian Police forces are on the ball... this sort of thing might have gone unnoticed south of the border.

I've been getting into playing Left 4 Dead 2 on and off all this week, which I've really enjoyed. The game is a really enjoyable experience, which brings you into the whole survival-horror experience: fighting against hopeless odds, blasting zombie hordes with your comrades at your side. Unlike a lot of other online games, the whole experience depends on how well everyone works as a team. I've never had as satisfying team experience as I have with L4D2 when pulling pals back from the brink of death and stumbling along with them towards the safety of the end of the level. The same goes when I am incapacitated, and the warm glow when your buddies come back for you and drag you to safety is hard to describe, other than it's lacking in so many other multiplayer games.

I've been back driving on the streets for about a week now, having renewed my licence after being on hiatus since my birthday last summer – what can I say? I'm cheap: between riding my bike, getting dropped off and taking the occasional bus, I haven't needed to drive much this year, at all. Sure, it's nice to have the freedom to just hop in the car and go, but I've made a conscious decision since moving to Victoria to minimize my 'fooprint' so to speak – maybe some of the West Coast environmental mindset has rubbed off on me? Hopefully not too much; I don't want to start wearing wooden shoes or clothes made from seaweed.

Dec 5 – Cardboard Clashing

This morning I headed into Victoria for a few reasons, but we stopped first for breakfast at Kitty's Hideaway. The portions were generous, the price was right and the decor was perfect: it hadn't been updated in at least a decade, which means the money was being spent on the food, not the paint. After checking out most of the places to eat breakfast at in Niagara with Brian years ago, I've become somewhat of an authority on the matter. Good food, unpretentious surroundings and a great price are the three things to look for, anywhere you decide to eat.

Years ago, I was part of the SCA, which had within it's ranks those who fought in armour, with rattan swords. While I didn't end up taking that path( I went for the archery instead )there was always the thought in my head to pursue it at a later date – and here it is closing on fifteen years later when I discovered BoxWars. Now don't take this the wrong way: I enjoyed my time in the SCA, but a lot of folks there took things a little too seriously... whereas it's obvious that those people who are involved in BoxWars take nothing seriously. Take a look at the Toronto chapter's website and you'll see what I mean – looks like fun in those videos!

Shockingly, I hopped onto XboxLive and found a few friends playing MW2... so I joined in. There went the evening, which wasn't half-bad, though I faded towards the end. We had some really enjoyable games in there, where everyone on both sides were in good moods – no griefers, goof-offs or general 'neer-do-wells to be found. It was a thoroughly enjoyable four-to-five hours. Woof! I've enjoyed unlocking some of the perks as I play – my fave to date is Cold-Blooded, which helps enormously in remaining undetected by enemy players, and fits right in with my low-profile playing style.

Dec 6 – New Landlords

Today started out slowly enough: we had the new landlords over at 11am to discuss a few things, do a walkthrough and sign a new lease for the year... which ended up taking over three hours! The new couple( who have a young son )are great, worlds better than the previous landwitch – every issue we discussed looks to be resolved positively. They plan on doing renovations to the lower apartment to improve the space in several ways, making it far more sound-isolative as well as improving the property in other ways. By the end of the meeting, we could tell that everyone was feeling very good about the change.

Once the power was back on. I unsurprisingly spent the remainder of the day playing MW2 – when so many of your friends are on at the same time each week, it's great to be able to game with them. I do miss the LAN-party Halo Days we had at Simon's, but this is better in some ways, apart from the need to haul Xboxes, wires, TV's and sundry food supplies over to his place once a week. Yet though I spent the same amount of time back then gaming, my eyes didn't hurt after eight solid hours – I must be getting older, or need to take more breaks.

Also, it was Lucas' birthday today, so I was happy to 'see' him online( and very happy )later in the evening in MW2. One of the things that's been hard about moving out west is not being able to celebrate events like birthdays in person, and sending gifts just isn't my style – I'd rather be there in person. Moreso for the company, less for the beer – but both are good in combination, as well as moderation. So happy birthday, Lucas... one of these days I'll be @ the Kilt at the right time to hoist a cold one to ye.

 

Monday updates seem to be a trend of late, with my being busy. Or tired. Or something.

Credit, Canvas and Consumerism

Word of the week? Nihilistic - just try to say it five times fast! 

Nov 23 - Cool( or geeky? )news

Some great news from JMS, creator of Babylon5: he's drafting a screenplay to reboot Forbidden Planet, that 1956 scifi classic that laid the foundation for so much of today's works. It's mechanical star, Robby The Robot, came in at Spot #4 on Wired's Top Fifty Robots Of All Time List – not bad for a robot over fifty! JMS is also working on an adaptation of World War Z, which I have yet to pick up. Robots and zombies both – keep it going, JMS!

Even better news: Samurai Jack is becoming a movie! Thanks Brian – can't wait for that to hit the big screen! This link to World of Warcraft papercraft is also cool.

But not as cool as this – too bad it costs so much. And is only available in the USA. Maybe I should wait for the Nerf version and cross-border shop?

Concrete canvas? What the heck is that? Check out these seven amazing materials – you can build a bunker with just a garden hose!

Nov 24 - Sizable ships

As some of you know, I like Free Things – especially games. Which is why I enjoy browsing this massive list of free online games – they bill themselves as the largest list in the world, in fact, but I always take that with a grain of salt. But... yowza... that's a BIG list!

I also like ships... well, more the design aspect than any other. Show me a good comparison chart, and my brain goes all a-whirl. This one is especially cool – the largest ships in the world compared. You'll never guess how much real estate the biggest one on there takes up.

It's been a while since I last checked, but the Earth & Beyond Emulator Project is still going, which is great to see. I still miss that game – there's still no decent scifi MMO out there. Sometimes playing in a beta can be a bad thing, if it doesn't make it to the big time.

Nov 25 - New Landlords

There's been lots of hoopla about the forthcoming 'Smart Grid' from south of border, where energy costs vary by the hour in many a state. I've enjoyed reading about how things are developing, especially in light( pun intended )of the massive summer Blackout of 2003 – cascading failures of 'dumb' power grids, in effect.

If there's one thing I'm terrible at( insert mile-long joke list here )it's making models. I've tried my hand it at over the years, and the results have been... deplorable. The best was a model of Airwolf, and that had a tragic early accident with flammable substances – the world is better off, believe me. The opposite is true of this guy's talent – models are obviously his thing. Nice work!

We've talked to the new owners of the place we're in, and it's like night and day from the old landlord. The people downstairs are moving out by the end of the month, which means the new owners will be renovating the place, adding sound insulation, among other things. So far, I'm impressed with how well they've listened to what we've had to say, as it bodes well for the near future. First thing on the to-do list? Fixing the hottub – they're in my good books already!

Nov 26 - Raising Dead Tech

If you haven't dropped by lately, you should head on over to Instructables.com – you can find instructions for doing almost anything, with pictures! I just found one today about replacing the CMOS battery in the same laptop model as my parent's old unit that's been dead for 2 years now. I'll give it a try after Christmas and see if I can't resurrect the thing as an alternative to taking along my cherished GatewayFX unit – now that it's out of warranty, I don't want to expose it to danger outside the house, at least not on a daily basis. Hence the Dell X50v PDA comes back into the picture as a lovely little handheld media player... must resist .... getting... iPhone...

I've had no reaction to the H1N1 vaccine, which means that within a week I'll have built up enough antibodies to not worry about it anymore. I still have to get my regular flu shot, which I think will be available to the general public in quantity by early December

For now, I am not going to be bidding on Swoopo.ca until the holidays are over as it's getting crazy there. People are bidding incredible amounts in very stupid ways just to get items before Christmas, so I'm bowing out of that irrational game until things calm down in the new year.

Nov 27 - Ready, Set... Consume!

Today is Black Friday in the USA, the day when most companies' accounts go from the red into the black – hence the name. It's become an important economic indicator for the holiday season, rising in importance year after year for the last decade. This year, NPD Group released their first-ever study that gathered Black Friday results – take a look, and you may plan a cross-border trip next year.!

How many credit cards should you have? I was surprised at the answer here – given that most people have at least two, and some far more than that, you may be surprised too.

Work today was a busy, busy time – the evenings are MUCH busier now due to changes with our payday product. That's good in some ways, bad in others, and I'm hoping it means that we'll be getting busier over the next while. My schedule for December is rather full, and I'm sure the workload isn't going to lighten up anytime soon.

Nov 28 - Um, is that spam?

I like a good pancake, especially with a snack-size cup of apple sauce mixed in – yum! Some people take making pancakes to the next level though, creating works of art from the simple combination of batter and a frying pan. Check some of them out here – now that is good eating!

New Year's Eve is almost upon us, and before that we have the many, many gatherings of friends, family and co-workers at holiday parties ad nauseum. Which is why you should have iDrink.com bookmarked, as it will let you enter the ingredients you have on hand to instantly list every possible drink you can create from said bar stock. Isn't the internet a wonderful thing?

Well, that was effective – I sent off an email today to an e-commerce site informing them that their database had been compromised by a hacker. My mother received an email purporting to be from Scotiabank, but the html link led back to the e-commerce site. Wouldn't you know that an hour after I sent the email this morning, the site was offline, and still is 24 hours later?

Nov 29 - Birthday 4 Dad

It was my dad's birthday today, and I managed to surprise him with a new PS2 Slim: that thing is just tiny compared to the original! He was thrilled, and I've added a wireless controller so he can sit back and relax on the couch whilst gaming. We went out to celebrate by having lunch at the local WhiteSpot, which was excellent save for a very soupy chicken/broccoli/cheese dish I ordered. Apparently the blanched broocoli was too watery and the chef couldn't do anything, so I packed it up for some tweaking at home later, as it was otherwise delicious. We had a nice time there, helped by the very attentive waitress Larissa - we just won't order the broccoli when we come back next time.

Today was a decent MW2 day, with a 14-2 kill streak as a result of not moving around too much and staying stealthy. Seems to work, and I enjoy that aspect of the game far more than the run-and-gun-and-die-quickly style. I'm used to playing with a mouse( or trackball )and I just can't fine-tune the Xbox controller to dial in the shots.

I'm feeling a lot less stressed this week, which is good in many ways. The knots in my back have loosened their grip for the most part, enough so that I've gotten though the last few days without having to resort to calling on massage therapy. I also found that I've lost about 10 pounds in the last few months, which is not a good thing. I don't weigh myself all that often, so it was a bit of a shock to see where I'm at – I can only surmise the stress has been taking its toll, as I've not been feeling unwell otherwise, getting my exercise, etc.

Ah, television... it can display so many things, and what better to cheer oneself with on long winter nights than a holiday fireplace? Shaw's ch.17 is carrying the warm, flickering image of fireplace flames 24/7, which I have to say looks great on the big screen. For added authenticity, you can plunk down a small space heater in front of the TV to toast your toes to the crackle of the logs. Sweet! Now I can write up my Christmas list and mail it off to Santa in a bacon-flavoured envelope... ah, good times.

 

The rain here is tapering off for this week, according to forecasts – we'll see how right the weatherfolk are by week's end: sun or scudding cloud?

Games, Geeks and Guns

Thanks for the editing tips Lucas! The word of the week is 'observant' just for that!

Nov 16 - Castle Battles

Yes, I know... I mentioned it last week, and I'll plug it good here again: Go watch Duncebucket, and vote! Crazy, crude and creepy all at the same time, this is comedic fun at the frenzied level of Jim Carey just after he's downed a dozen Super Slurpees and a package of PopRocks. Zowee!!!

I'm also watching Castle on Monday nights, which has Nathan Fillion at his best with a great dynamic playing off the other cast. Quite a few people like it, which is good to see as it means there may even be a third season after this one's done it's run.

Ah, Gratuitous Space Battles... how you taunt me. I've managed to win most of the battles on all three levels of difficulty, but I keep going back with new designs to see if I can do better. Plus, there's quite a few people on the GSB Forums who are modding the game, adding improvements to it and even creating total conversions to make it possible to battle with ships from the Stargate or Babylon 5. Check out this great( and brief )video review of GSB here – it's now available as of today on the Steam Network, from the same folks who brought us great games like Defence Grid and of course, Half-Life. Valve, we luv ya! I have yet to try the multiplayer aspect, as I want to tune some of my designs still...

Shhh.... I'm going to tell you a secret about online gaming, one that seems to be most prevalent in the massively popular shooter games like MW2: racism, predudice and worse. As the article link will tell you, if you've played online long enough, chances are you've experienced it firsthand. People are very quick to become emotional over voice chat, far more so than they would when face to face... and it's far easier for people to be nasty when hiding behind a video screen-name. I'm not talking about the squeaky-voiced teenager who disses yer' mama or calls you names that wouldn't make a nun blush; no, it's the hardcore jerks, whose foul mouths spout racist epithets like there's no tomorrow. Sure, you can mute them, report them and the like... but does that really solve the problem? How little effort does it take to be courteous to people, to have a modicum of sportsmanship or even just respect for other people? I find it fascinating that if you give some people the chance to be anonymous, it brings out the worst parts of their nature, rather quickly. Mayhaps it is a sign that the nEt PoLiCe are not all that far away from becoming reality; the thin edge is how it begins.

Nov 17 - What the frell were they thinking?

Hooray! Today is the day that Farscape: The Complete Series Megaset is released! For years I've had to content myself with the shows I've managed to hoard on VHS or my PC taped from on-air broadcasts, but no longer. I'll be watching for the series to come on sale in the new year, as I have a thing about rushing out to buy things, even things I really like, at full price right off the bat. Future Shop's "Get it First" slogan is an anathema to me, as I've come to like the "Get it for a bargain price" a lot more.

Speaking of cool TV series, I watched my first episode of the new 'V' series tonight, which stars Morena Baccarin of Firefly fame. The show had some interesting vibes to it, and the tech was definitely more 'real ' in its look, rather than the sanitized look of the 80's original. I still have all the novels I collected from the same time period, and just found out that there's a few more out there that I wasn't aware of. Time for a 'net search and a bit of eBay checking, I think.

I went into the BCAA for my local merchant meeting tonight, which was fairly well attended. It was a lively meeting too, with quite a few ideas flying around about how to make the open-air shopping centre more attractive to shoppers for the holidays. I'm really enjoying meeting with the other merchants in the plaza, as they're all very savvy folks and have quite a lot to share about the business world. Sure beats some of the dull reading I've done over the years from business texts – doing my research on various topics that way was like trying a game demo: great start, but I was left wanting more.

Nov 18 - Google gathering

I have a thing for bunkers, perhaps due to my love of all things apocalyptic. Which is why when I heard about the city-sized superbunker that Chairman Mao built under the city of Beijing starting back in 1969, I was intrigued. Check out some of the pictures here – there's not much left in use now, but just imagine the effort of housing nearly six million people underground . Also be sure to check out this great series of disaster-inspired works of art here – the artist has quite a range of topics, all of them rather spooky.

Did you know that Google Books is back on track? They've drafted a new version of their copyright agreement with various trade associations of publishers and authors. It's interesting in that it deals with orphan works, which include books that are out of print and whose authors are dead, leaving them in limbo. But until Google takes over the publishing world, you can get a free book fix at the places on this list of free online book resources, including Tor and Baen Books, two of my fave publishing houses.

One book I still have to get around to er, getting is the latest Robert Jordan novel, The Gathering Storm which was written by Brandon Sanderson based on the huge amount of material left by the late author. As it's the first of three parts, there's still quite a lot of reading ahead... and I hope they tie up the thousands of loose threads that Jordan's world ballooned into. Too... many... characters! To Jordan's credit, most of them were quite distinct and fairly memorable, but the sheer number made recalling who was doing what and when rather onerous. Anything over two dozen and they starts to blur...

As for my own work, here's a link to a few of the short stories I've written, at the archives over at FanFiction.com. For those who haven't been to my Nichneve n site either, there's quite a few stories with her character there too. I don't like to post all my stories "in the wild" as there's too many Copy/Paste Bandits out there, but what's there is more than enough for me to say I have a presence online.

Nov 19 - Thursdaze

Looks like the Christmas shopping season is starting off with a whimper, not a bang. Hence the news that retailers are chalking up deep discounts already in the hope of luring in shoppers. Not me though; I have a solid Shopping Season Rule: I do not set foot in any shopping mall after Dec. 1^st. I'll pop into the big bo retailers or the local plaza, but no incentive could lure me into the crazed insanity and parking lot mayhem that is a shopping mall in December. I remember driving by the Pen Centre some years ago about a week before Christmas, heading northbound on the 406 – the cars were lined up back onto the 406 southbound, past the train bridge overpass to exit at the mall. That's just crazy!!

Tonight I saw an episode of Flash Forward finally, and it wasn't bad. I'll have to catch up with the series as I can over the next few months, as the concept is rather intriguing: everyone in the world blacks out for 2 mins 17 seconds. When they wake up, they've had a vision of their future for that same amount of time. I had high hopes for Heroes too, but that show really jumped the shark and got away from it's original concept: ordinary people gaining superpowers and trying to discover why.

I'm a little put out that I haven't been able to fix my Vonage phone after rewiring my network a few weeks ago. It's a case of fix one thing and another breaks - my Xbox Live and the wireless connections are all working great, but not the my Vonage: there's no dial tone. When I get a chance next week I may phone tech support, though I doubt there's much they can do over the phone. Most places won't support home network troubleshooting, as there's too many variables and network techs don't come cheap.

Nov 20 - I Got The Shot

I was at the local flu clinic first thing this morning to get my H1N1 shot, as today was the first day they opened the immunizations to the general public without restriction here in BC. It was a surprisingly short wait, with only a few hundred people in total to be processed. I was in and out within half an hour, a far cry from the hours-long wait I had predicted – nice to be wrong in the right way sometimes.

It's also a good thing that I live in the southernmost part of Vancouver Island, as the heavy rains for the last 24 hours have caused severe flooding just an hour north of here. The cities of Duncan and North Cowichan were declared disaster areas today, as hundreds were evacuated in the wake of the rising waters compounded by the local tides backing up rivers. While not a disaster on a massive scale like New Orleans and Katrina was, it is still scary to think that here I sit, watching the lake waters rise to entirely cover the dock in the park next door and that only a few minutes north, people have had their homes flooded out. For an island about the size of Holland, it's surprisingly small some days.

The evening saw me play a fair bit of Borderlands, which I'd put down this week in favour of MW2 – obviously. I've yet to play co-operatively with anyone for any period of time, which is where a lot of the fun of the game is said to reside.

Nov 21 - Smatterday

Video on demand these days is still not up to snuff; I've tried out the Zune service on Xbox Live, and the bargain hunter in me cringes to 'rent' a movie for close to ten dollars, especially as the video quality is not consistent. While Zune boasts of having '1080p content' it tends to stagger, go jaggy or pause at times, which is in no way superior to a DVD. I'm the first person to propose going totally digital and to scrap the need to physically load media, but I'd much rather see things go onto a 'Home Media Server' than stream over flaky connections from a server thousands of miles away. I've got a fair number of network drives here already, albeit still without having a dedicated PC server to run them, so it's a little ad-hoc of a setup for the moment. But it's still better than Zune in 2 ways: it's free, and it works perfectly.

One show I may pick up on DVD is Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law. It's got rapid-fire quips and jokes, with a great retro visual style. I like a show that doesn't lead you by the hand, and the advantage of DVD( or video on demand! )is that you can go back with that PVR and catch the quip you thought you heard but weren't sure about. Sure beats rewinding the VHS tape until it snaps. By then I'll have probably turned my old PC into a media server thanks to guides like this. Sweet!

After work, the evening saw me play a fair bit of Borderlands, which I'd put down this week in favour of MW2 – obviously. I've yet to play co-operatively with anyone for any period of time, which is where a lot of the fun of the game is said to reside.

Nov 22 - Online Day Off

While I was at Best Buy this morning to get a copy of Left4Dead2, I also managed to finally pick up SG: Atlantis Season 5, which I've been waiting a year now to drop in price enough to be worth it. I'm pleased to see that the show made it to five seasons, and I'll have to try to check out the new Stargate: Universe that's currently playing on the airwaves in the USA. Apparently it's quite a dark show, but it's been having writing problems that see it's episodes yo-yo-ing from great to garbage. Find the middle!

How smart is a cat? Apparently researchers have created a computer model of a cat brain in order to better study how living creatures deal with reality, which is pretty cool when you think about it. Though I could have given them a few pointers: just have it ignore you when you call, sleep a lot, and scratch the furniture at every opportunity.

I played a fair bit of MW2 today until the early evening, and it wasn't half bad. We had a group of five or six for most of the day, as guys left or arrived and our overall game was pretty good. I managed to rack up a score of 15 kills one game, which is a fair bit for me – must mean I'm getting the hang of things at the faster pace the game goes at compared to COD4. I've found that I do better sneaking from cover to cover and keeping low, as it means more folk pass me by or miss me long enough to let me get in a shot.

Gold prices topped $1173.00 today on Nov. 23, which is good for many reasons. Too bad I don't have any hiding in my couch...

Rain, Pain and Gain

This week's word: exacerbate. Try to spell it, use it AND pronounce it properly!

Nov 9 - It's in the blood...

No good news in sight for H1N1: no signs that things have peaked yet. So we're still in the running for one of the more difficult flu seasons yet.

While I was at my doctor's today for a general check-up( all is well internally, by the by, though we're still working on the nausea thing )we also talked about my Thalassemia Minor. As I've yet to have any of my doctors give me a solid rundown on do's and don'ts, I have hopes that my current doctor is made of better mettle. I've done a lot of research over the years, and I have to say that the internet has allowed sufferers of all sorts of maladies the ability to connect and share their experiences far more easily. I've stumbled across quite a few forums in the last few years dedicated to Thalassemia, and I've learned a few things I'd not known before from browsing the posts. Interestingly, I discovered that people with the disorder are immune to malaria, which is perhaps a by-product of it being a Mediterranean-based disease. Neat, and more to learn as I go along.

Nov 10 - Toon Progress!

What the heck is Duncebucket, you ask? It's a show on TeleToon, one that my friends Brian and Mike put together – how cool is that? Go have a look, and if you can figure out how to vote on TeleToon.com drop me a line – I just keep going in circles.

The Grey Season is well underway here in B.C. with large grey cloudbanks playing tag across the sky night and day. Unlike in ON, the clouds here in the West come and go, with the sun making an almost daily appearance most weeks – sometimes for hours at a time! The rain is gentle, generally falling from above as though reluctantly parting from the great wide open. It rarely pours or pounds it's way down, which is remarkable; I've yet to be caught in a rainstorm here that the flick of an umbrella won't solve in a steady hand – rare is the gusty day here to whisk said umbrella away.

It's been hard to focus at work this week, as my back's been knotting up – from stress, I believe. Once I dig up the benefits booklet I'll be able to confirm that massage therapy is covered, and then I'll be a happier camper. For now my back massager is letting me sleep at night, but it's a daily thing. I'm sure a few of you can relate.

Oh, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 came out at midnight tonight. Lots of people went out to get it, mine's in the mail... so I get a good night's sleep( -ish )whilst others play. 

Nov 11 - 60 Seconds

Remembrance Day – one minute of your year to remember, is it too much to ask? I've hear comments from people that they are "sick of seeing WWII specials" and other such drek. I'll also not repeat my own rebuttals, save that if WWII had gone the other way, we'd all be in a much different world. One minute: not too much to ask. Not at all.

On a lighter point, here's a different flash from the( more recent )past: Clash of the Titans is being remade! Check out the trailer here – lots of boom, but where is Bubo the Owl?

One reason I've never bothered with a wireless connection for the Xbox is the cost, with Microsoft never budging an inch on the $129.99 pricetag. Now, news has come that the new 'N' speed adaptor is here, which has finally lowered the price on the old adaptors. Who's going to want them though, as most people HAVE the 'N' routers by now? Thanks for nothing, Microsoft.

Today I watched other people play MW2 online all day, and wasn't bothered much. I didn't feel the burning need to be among the first to get the game, as that feeling passes soon enough once you begin playing. 

Nov 12 - Fry who?

Ah, Futurama: the show with a fan following that won't die. Which is good, as it got the show renewed recently! Message boards like this one show how intelligent, chatty and fun fans can be.

Ever since seeing Ferris Bueller's Day Off, I've always felt the urge to stay until the movie's final post credits are run – just in case there's something 'after' tucked in there! Much like the often lively end credits of The Simpsons TV series, more and more shows and movies these days have extras tucked in. Plus with the advent of the DVD, 'extras' take on the form of easter eggs beyond the regular trappings usually packed onto the disc. Even games are part and parcel of the fold now, including MW2. A good place to check out if your fave media has anything hidden in it is WhatsAfterTheCredits.com.

Not much else going on here. Work, sleep, eat and repeat seems the order of the day of late. I'm keeping the lights on and the bills paid, so aside from that it's status quo for the most part. I am worried about the new owners of the place, as we've had little contact and it's only a few weeks until the end of the month. Who gets paid the rent, and when, still have yet to be revealed...

Nov 13 - Lucky

Has anyone seen The Navigator? It came out in 1988, and is rated rather highly over at RottenTomatoes.com.

Today was lucky Friday the 13^th for me, as my copy of MW2 arrived in the mail. I wasted no time when getting home from work in unpacking it and popping it into the Xbox. There went the evening, revelling in the glorious gameplay... which seems to be geared to dying a LOT faster than in the COD4. More later – have to play now.

Unlucky for Microsoft today: an article on C|net today broke the news that hackers have managed to bypass the Windows7 activation system. This should come as no surprise to people these days, as it seems the pirates and hackers have the upper hand compared to business. Bummer.

Thank goodness I don't suffer from Paraskevidekatriaphobia! Maybe Bruce Springsteen suffers from this malady? He had a rather oops-worthy slip today...

Nov 14 - Bravo, Kim!

A friend of mine was featured on Bravo! tonight: Kim Van Stygeren Medland, whose artwork is becoming known worldwide. Plus she also has a few videos on YouTube, which I hadn't known about until Lucas told me about her Bravo debut. Kim's website is well worth checking out too – lots of great art and articles there!

What the heck is this? A Guide to Appearing More Attractive? Where do people come up with these things? I like the Roomba Pac-Man video on the same site though!

Today was split between games: MW2 and Borderlands. That about covers things for the day, timewise – great for stress relief. Also happily I managed to reconnect with a few of my online NWN friends, whom I had not managed to talk to for some weeks( and in one case, months )due to all of us being busy. Tonight the stars were aligned, or something, for everyone kept popping in and out of MSN. It was great to catch up in real-time, something that email just can't manage to capture.

Nov 15 - MW2, pretty much.

The hours spent playing MW2 today were amazingly fun, even though our team struggled to make even a few wins. The maps in MW2 are huge and varied, so much so that just finding the other team can be a challenge, and sticking close while supporting your teammates just as difficult. There is a larger variety of maps and environments, as well as a greater degree of game types. And the massive number of perks, weapons and other unlockables shows that the design team put a lot of effort into the playability and flexibility of the game. From what I can see, the long-term prospects of MW2 will hold it in good stead... as long as the patches for the little technical glitches keep coming down the pipe quickly.

Later in the evening, I had a soak in the hottub which had been heating all day. It did my back some good, relaxing in the steamy waters. Unfortunately it looks like a valve has cracked, and the landlord has stated that since our use of the tub was 'optional' in the lease, she's not going to fix it. Which only confirms that she's a rotten human being, and that quite a few nasty euphamisms I have thought up apply quite aptly to her. Dealing with people whose moral and personal goals are so divergent from my own makes me see red, in only that for the most part these same people end up with a disproportionate amount of the wealth and power in society. How does one live a 'good life' knowing that the rewards are few and intangible?

Oh, that's right – become a monk. How could I have forgotten from my D&D days...

That's it - I'm feeling tired, grumpy and stressed this week so I've been hard-pressed to do naught but talk about such in the blog. Next week I'll have had more time under my sunlamp...

Gunpowder, Google and Godzilla

The clocks are back, the sun is less apparent and the winter blahs begin...

Nov 2 – Flu Terminations

Here’s a good opener: it seems the Terminator franchise is in trouble... and Joss Whedon is offering to save it! How wow would that be? Terminators... Buffy... Serenity... all in one mind. Mind you, since the owner Halcyon Entertainment wants $60-million for it, Whedon’s $11K offer is a little... low.

Now this is a scary thought: the internet we all know and love, brought down by the flu bug? I'm serious. The internet, which was designed to survive even a limited nuclear exchange( if there can ever be such a thing )intact, may be humbled by massive numbers of flu victims. Weird!

Why do banks need assets? Have a look at that link, there are some very interesting points. Especially in the light of the recent upswing of the gold market, which has led some to speculate that economies may swing back towards a gold standard. Which would be the wrong thing to do in today's world. There’s an interesting video over at IOUSAtheMovie.com, which is 30 minutes of great insight and hard questions about the current economic crisis. Well worth watching!

Nov 3 - Zombies vs Godzilla

At last! Someone at Forbes.com, of all places, has hit the nail on the head: Zombies are (North)America's Godzilla! Incredibly, we may share a social bug with the Japanese, who are crazed about all things to do with the giant atomic lizard. Really cool, and it explains a lot.

Is anyone out there even a little excited about the upcoming MMO Star Trek: Online? I’m not a fan, though I do like some aspects of Trek, but we’ll see how long the franchise can keep going after the Feb 2010 launch date for ST:O – monthly subscriptions are what it’s all about, and I’m not sure that one can keep up an ‘authentic’ Star Trek experience online for very long. I mean, how often can you chase down Tribbles or phaser a few Klingons before it gets old?

With MMO’s, you’re also lacking physical human contact – much like those who play WOW too much and never leave their house, or in years past they played ‘EverCrack’ too much. Now along comes ‘Funktionide’ to take care of that missing human contact... with a computerized huggable white blob. Shades of The Prisoner, anyone? Creepy!

Nov 4 - Character

I’ve discovered the BBC remake series Survivors on BBCCA channel here, with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it’s a series about a post-apocalyptic world where a virus kills millions, leaving survivors scattered around the world. Nice idea for human drama. On the other hand, it’s your typical low-budget BBC drama, with shiny-clean homes and vehicles looking out of place in a world gone crazy. At least there’s been a few good TV series and movies on the topic – this list showcases some of the better ones, including The Stand from a few years ago – the literal Hand Of God notwithstanding. I much prefer to browse this massive list of movies dealing with the end of the world – it has reviews attached, always a good thing! I just wish I could recall the name of the miniseries from the 80’s that BBC had, it had the most depressing ending I’ve ever seen, and that’s all that stuck with me. More on that next week, if I can find it!

As a writer, designing characters can be a task sometimes, especially making them both memorable and unique. When working with just the written word, you have to keep every aspect of a character in mind, especially the way they speak. With dialogue being a weak part of my portfolio, I was thrilled to find this article on io9.com about how to give your characters unique voices.

I had my usual 6-month dental appointment this morning, with a new hygienist... who was old-school, and never stopped talking during the entire 45-minute checkup. Which wasn’t so bad, as I learned a few things that hadn’t been brought to my attention in all the past years of visits. She also gave me some cool dental floss( yes, I just said that... )which is made out of GoreTex, allowing it to be a flat, tape-like strip that fits better for people with tight teeth like myself.

Nov 5 – Gunpowder and Google

“Remember, remember, the 5^th of November...” begins the famous rhyme, which saw Guy Fawkes and his treason immortalized in infamy on this day, for over 3400 years now – a remarkable thing to celebrate for such a long period of time. I meant to watch my HD copy of V for Vendetta today, but I was too busy in the evening playing Borderlands to remember, it arrived today in the mail. Oops...

For almost 8 years now, I have been using Mozilla Thunderbird as my email client. I mention this because I've used quite a few email programs as they came onto the scene, but once I had Thunderbird in my hands I never looked back. This month should see the release of Thunderbird 3, which has a few features I am excited to use, including an improved search function. I don’t like entrusting my email to servers outside of my control, hence my great attachment( heh )to Thunderbird.

On that same topic of software, C|Net has a great article today: 7 Great Freeware Utilities. They have a few of my faves in there, like CCleaner, as well as 7zip - who needs WinZip any more? I’m all about the freeware, as most of you will know by now... my experience with buggy, PAID software has somewhat soured me on utilities in general. Games are another matter... patches for those are inevitable, but they won’t usually kill your PC if they muck up.

Big Brother is out there.... and it's name is Google. But he's friendly! Google today announced public access to the Google Dashboard, where you can look at all the information that the massive info conglomerate has gathered on you. Scary?

Nov 6 – Aim for the sky!

Whoa... how big is the biggest picture of the sky that’s out there, do you think? 100 megapixels? 500? Nope – try a 648 megapixel one on for size! The work of years, this thing is amazing... which means that any current video monitor cannot do it justice. Still, nice to be able to see the entire sky at once, as well as have the data for use by various scientific projects the world over. And it’d make a killer t-shirt!

How about a spot of afternoon tea on a lovely Saturday? Why not serve it in a really cool-looking teapot? My fave is the Sorapot, it's rather chic. Though I wonder: does anyone have a list of teapots that don't dribble when you pour? Anyone?

Maybe take that spot of tea... in space? It was announced today that the first space hotel is on track to open in 2012. For only $200K US a pop, you can spend a few days in a cramped rocket and a cramped, no-frills pod in orbit. Thanks, but I’ll wait for the first Super8 to open up there before I book my ticket – right after my lottery win, that is.

In the evening, I watched Bender’s Game, the Futurama movie about RPG’s that has a lot of Gary Gygax references alluded to in the movie. Seems the creators of Futurama are long-time D&D players, which makes me like them all the more. Smart folks, they be – verily!

Nov 7 - Scatterday

Ah, the Seventh Day.... actually, over a week now since I’ve been using Windows 7. So far, it’s been a fun experience, though some things aren’t working perfectly – hence my need to get the ‘XP Mode’ up and running in the new year. Hopefully, the new processor won’t strain my laptop with too much heat – the FX is designed to be a gaming laptop, so with proper cooling it should be able to keep things within tolerances.

Boy, did it rain here today. When it rains in BC, it really rains – a lot like Florida in that regard, but more frequent and with better breaks. Unlike rain in Ontario which can last for a week or longer before the sun shines, BC can go from rain, to sun, to rain again here on Vancouver Island several times an hour. Which is hell on drivers, as the sun is blinding on wet roads.

Better that than snow, though. We’ll see how much we get here in Langford in the West Shore; we’re not in Victoria itself, where snow is very rare and magically disappears the next day. Here, it may stay a while, but that’s still fine in small quantities – I don’t plan on any snow days outside.

So I’m happy I didn’t have to work today – I needed the decompression time, and thankfully I had a brand-spanking-new copy of Borderlands to play with. I spent a good part of the day checking the game out, taking breaks to get a few things done around the house. It was a good day to relax, and I even managed to fit in the rare afternoon nap, despite the noise of the rain as it waxed and waned. It was... nice.

Nov 8 – Not-so-Sun-day

After a few unsuccessful auction attempts on Swoopo, I gave up and made myself a pancake breakfast before diving into playing Borderlands. The rich visuals are lovely to watch, the gameplay is simple and there is a ton to do and see. I actually had to tear myself away from it in the early afternoon to take a break. It’s odd too, in that three great games are all coming out within the space of the last few weeks: Borderlands first, then Dragon Age last week and COD: MW2 on Nov. 10^th – this Tuesday!

A few hours of COD4 showed that my successes in Borderlands had not translated to online play, where the human opponents don’t stay in the same spot... or shoot you from across the map with a pistol. Or knife you from behind. Or get you with a randomly-tossed grenade... you get the picture. While AI opponents may make you grind your teeth sometimes with the “That’s not fair!” caught in your throat, it will always be the human opponent who makes you really howl and throw things. Some things never change, really.


I've edited this week's blog post with MS Word 2007, as I've managed to get the blog posting function working. The text seems a little large and the spacing's off, but I'll work on that for next week. Ta'!

Paper, Plagues and Puns

And the word of the week is: jackass. Glad I could help educate! ;-)

Oct 26 - Monday Madness

Ah, boardgames - they're becoming a somewhat lost pasttime, what with the advent of home video game systems. Remember the classics you played as a kid, and perhaps still do? Well, here's a twist on some of those games: the original box art, with the titles changed to perfectly sum up the game in only a few words. I think the one at the end for the game of 'Diplomacy' is totally apt...

Ye gods! What are people thinking when it comes to custom collectables these days? I like a good sci-fi spaceship model as much as the next person, even moreso when it is one of Serenity.... but this takes the cake! Who out there can even afford one of those things?

Work today saw us launch a new payday loan product, which has been a pain to prepare for. Overall, I think it's a good thing for the business as it levels the playing field for everyone in the business, but the transition is going to be a bumpy one for a little while. Which means longer hours and more stress at work - what else is new? I don't find it depressing though: I'm too tired.

Oct 27 - Windows 7 arrives!

Guess what arrived in the mail today? Windows 7! Considering I was expecting it by Friday at the earliest, I was thrilled - as today was my day off, I spent most of the afternoon and evening getting it installed on my laptop. It went really, really smoothly - the most time spent was copying files and re-installing programs after Win7 was done. Which highlights the need for a fast file system not hampered by slow wireless speeds or sluggish USB cords - next on my upgrade list is an eSATA drive and connector card, both of which I should be able to get on the cheap nowadays from various sources, being fairly common current tech out there. I hate waiting... for... things... to... copy!

So far, it's been a joy to use. My laptop performs like it should have back when I first bought it with Vista on it: fast, responsive and zippy! My 'Windows Experience' scores have all gone up by a point each, which means that the new Win7 OS is a LOT faster than Vista ever was - it's what Vista should have been, instead of ending up as a bloated design made by committee.

And: what would be a blog post without some mention of Neil Gaiman? How about this for a change: an audiobook of Good Omens by Mr. Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - for free! Go have a listen, and try not to let the narrator's voice pull you under, never to return....

Which brings me to some JMS( J. Michael Straczynski )news: the creator of Babylon 5 is currently involved in adapting a video game about a future civil war in the United States - how cool is that? Shattered Union sounds like it will be quite the commentary about life in the near future, probably with a healthy dose of commentary on the human condition and politics tossed in, if JMS is true to form. Can't wait to find out more about this update to an old classic game!

Oct 28 - Paper and People

Now THIS is just incredible: an entire miniature city... made out of paper! Turns out it is the work of an art student in Tokyo, which is just incredible - it has electric lights and even a working train built-in!

I picked up a book called Plague Year a while back, which was a good yarn about what might happen should nanotech get loose in the world and wreak it's sub-micronic havoc on people and living things. Jeff Carlson, he author of the book, posted a great article on io9.com on why he likes to write about things apocalyptic, which I found really good reading - it's all about the human condition and what we make of it. Which brings Tolkien to mind: he recently made the Forbes List of Richest Dead Celebs - though if you're dead, it's probably no biggie as you're beyond caring. But if it's nice to be remembered, is it even better to be rich on paper too?

What's with Stoked on iTunes? I've been waiting... and waiting... and waiting for the newer episodes to come out( hurry up, Apple! )as I've purchased the entire first season - nada. Two episodes, then nothing since. What gives?

Oct 29 - How DID I get so punny?

Of late, I have been giving thought as to where my... eclectic... sense of humour arose from. After extensive thought, familial interviews and some lengthly research, I believe I have come to a conclusive origin: Asterix. 

Filled with puns, satire and running gags along with stereotypes and allusions, the books are a joy to read for someone like myself... which begs the question of the chicken and the egg, really.

Seeing as today also happens to be the 50th anniversary of Asterix & Obelix, there's got to be some conspiracy or collusion at work here. The tales of the indomitable Gauls holding out against the Roman invaders captivated me as a child, especially as the stories unfolded with each new book purchased from trips to the Big City of Toronto. Classic Bookshop( now long gone )at the Eaton Centre was the source for many of my still-immaculate copies of Asterix & Obelix. As shown by the Google banner above, there are many millions of people out there who have come to love the characters created a half century ago, myself among them. Without Asterix, I don't think my sense of humour would have been nearly as sharp, and I recommend to anyone that they read a few of the Asterix books - you'll laugh out loud and always find something new that you didn't notice before. They're that good.

Also make sure you check out the November Guide to SciFi, courtesy of our friends at io9.com - lots of good things to check out.

Oct 30 - Torches and Borderlands

This morning was a busy one: I was in Victoria early today, down by the Parliment buildings to watch the lighting of the Olympic Torch... as well as hand out freebies from work in the crowd, which was as good an excuse as any to be there. The rain held off, which was great for the crowd that had gathered - you can get a sense of it all in this video here, except for the ten minutes it took to actually light the torch. Seems the flame burns continually, but not hot enough to ignite a stubborn transfer cauldron. Go figure... plus, the extreme low-altitude flight of 3 CF-18 Hornets woke up the entire city - I've never seen an entire street full of people clap their hands to their ears so fast in unison!

And YAY ME! In the interim from returning from Victoria and heading to work, I managed to win a Swoopo auction, in only 4 bids! Instead of paying $69.99 for the hot Xbox game Borderlands( which is sold out everywhere here ), I got it for... $3.24. Yep... total of just $10.22 with taxes and shipping. I'll be checking the mail all next week for it! Huzzah! Too bad it takes far more effort( and deep pockets )to win auctions most of the time on that site - when people start to bid-fight, I sit back and usually just walk away, not worth the pain to my wallet. Timing is everything!

Have you ever had the feeling when watching a TV show or movie, that you've seen someone from it before, somewhere else? IMDB.com is a great place to search for links between shows for actors, and this week I came up with a find linking The Fifth Element and new new Star Trek reboot: Sonita Henry. I suppose if you watch something often enough, eventually your subconscious brain starts to put things together and you notice details, like noticing a particular model of car that you like and suddenly picking it out of the background of vehicles passing you by in a day. In Sonita's case, her exotic looks apparently lent themselves to making her look particularly alien in Star Trek...

Has it really been 30 years since Mad Max first hit the big screen in a blast of blaring horns and burning rubber? For those fans who still watch Max take on post-apocolyptic punks, some good news: Max Max 4 is in production! 

Oct 31 - Tricky Treats!

Costumes... there's something about dressing up as What You Aren't that is key to the appeal of Halloween, I think. Much like the rise of Cosplay in recent years, being able to go out on the town in a skin other than your own is very liberating. Plus, it's just plain fun - especially when you see all the creativity that's gone into people's costumes! This year however, I did not go out, as all my plans fell through... and I didn't feel like being a lone barfly all dressed up with nobody to talk to.

One costume meme that I hope never dies out is from Return of the Jedi: what else but the Slave Leia outfit? It's been twenty years, but every year there are still a bountiful number of Leia's out here in bikinis, searching for their Jabba to deal with. What's not to like?

And what the heck? I had no idea that the economic crisis had hit Iceland so hard - apparently today was the last day to get a Big Mac there, as every McDonald's in the country is closing up shop! Whoulda thunkit? Not that I mourn the loss, as I've not eaten at a McD's in over a decade now... makes my stomach turn just to think about it, really.

Nov 1 - Two Years already? Wow...

Oh, the humanity! It seems half the Island was in my lobby today as I worked at our Colwood branch. I spent the entire 7 hours we were open standing at the counter, serving people as fast as I could... because MORE were piling through the door. By the end of the insanity, I had averaged one customer every 3.5 minutes, with no break, no lunch and no energy - I was totally knacked by day's end and had to spend even more time putting things in order. I can honestly say that it was the hardest shift since I started working here, especially since it was just me there -even the SA days were more bearable with a few co-workers to allow breaks every few hours. But I don't think anyone else there could have handled it, so that's a feather in my cap... but I do NOT want to do that again ANY time soon! Gawds...

Today marks two years that I've been living in Victoria. No pithy words today, not fond reminisences about Niagara shall you find in today's entry: I'm here to stay, barring lottery wins - even then I may simply get a nice cozy place here on the Island. As I wrote on this day last year, it's been different and though I am currently not in a place of my own, I don't see that situation lasting longer than the current economic crisis - when things start moving again, I will too. For now, I have my hands more than full dealing with incredible work stress, family stress and financial stress... I'm finding new depths of willpower to deal with such, but it's wearing. Having friends around to relax with would be fantastic, but right now the closest I get to that are COD4 days online... shooter games are VERY good for stress relief!

I do get this a lot: "Move back to Niagara..." people say to me. Right now, that's not in the cards, though from what I'm reading apartments are getting bigger, while houses are getting smaller - check it out here. Smaller IS better!

Overall, I think the choice to move to Victoria has been the right one for me despite some unforseen bumps along the way - which is almost always the case anyway. 

Well, it's actually Tuesday AM now, but the blog's done and I'm a-bed. Cyas!