Marvel, Mickey and Muttering

A week ahead of... rain? Clouds? Sun? Who can tell?

Aug 31 - Four Billion for Marvel?

The entertainment news of the day: Marvel Comics is being purchased by Disney! Yes, you heard it right... Wolverine and Daffy Duck are going to be roommates. The news has spawned a legion of crossover ideas, but I think the most exciting of these are not related to the news at all. Instead, recently released dystopian visions of Disney icons make you brain spin in new directions - the Zombie Clockwork Goofy is especially chilling with its trademark smile. The folks over at Topless Robot have thoughtfully compiled a Top 5 Best and Worst of the Marvel/Disney merger, with some valid points.

Ouch... seems I overdid things this weekend playing COD4 for so long yesterday: my underarms are sore in ways I've not experienced since spending time on crutches when I broke my leg at 8 years of age. It's weird, but apparently not unheard of( especially Wii owners ) - trust me to find a way to injure myself doing nothing more strenuous than blasting away online with my friends. Dang... feels like I spent a few hours leaning on the ends of broomsticks, very uncomfortable.

What do do today when you're done your work? Why, check out IamBored.com - they have tons of things to do, and not a one of them work-related! 

Sept 1st - Not a Holiday

Up early today to head to the walk-in clinic... of which I ended up at the third choice, as the 1st was not( as listed online )a clinic but a doctor's practice and the second choice was closed today due to a doctor shortage - go figure. Anyway, after a nicely brief wait at the third place, the doctor told me that the swellings were most likely irritations from keeping my arms at my side all day Sunday - again, just as I had surmised. It was good to get a professional opinion, especially as he said they'd likely go away in a few day's time and had nothing to do with lymph nodes or other health worries - phew!

I've had cats for all my life, so discovering that being scratched by one can cause a disease is news to me - I can't recall how many scratches I've had over the years. But, like the song of the same name, Cat Scratch Fever is a real disease and one that you don't want to get; creepy, eh?

What's even creepier is the commercialization of MMO's: no longer are people safe from exploitation inside the fantasy world of places like World of Warcraft. Teams of spammers are now trying to make a buck within these worlds by trying to entice players to buy virtual goods or property using real cash. Strange or not, this is apparently a big enough problem that detective teams have been formed, closing hundreds of thousands of accounts - this article is rather surprising, and disappointing in that yet another venue has been found to exploit the public while they are trying to relax and have fun.

Sept 2 - 7 days until 9 - Borg?

In one week's time, the movie 9 opens, and I hope it's around long enough for me to find time to see it locally. As a matter of fact, since there's an IMAX theater in Victoria, I hope it makes it big and therefore translates to the IMAX screen - heck, if the recent Star Trek release can do it, why not an even cooler tale about creatures made of string, canvas and buttons?

While I haven't had the chance to talk to Telus yet about the extra charges on my bill, I did find this bit of interesting news courtesy of Pierre about cell phone contracts. I don't have one myself, but apparently Canadian cell phone users now have the right to refuse any changes to their contracts. Which I like, as they charge FAR too much if you decide that things aren't to your liking.

Work today was fairly long, as we switched over some parts of the computer system that runs our TCR machine - not that exciting really, but it means more work for us at the front counter and less for those at Head Office; not a great trade. Fortunately it doesn't seem to be that hard to grasp, so as we get used to it things should become second nature. Just one more thing to remember during what have become some very busy and very complicated days of late.

I also watched what will be the last broadcast of the local TV station, CHEK TV - they are being shut down by the money-losing CanWest owners, and tonight was a long farewell by staff on-screen, in the form of recalling their favourite stories. I really enjoyed watching them talk about all of the wonderful human tales they covered over the years, especially the one about the 86-year-old water skier who lives just down the road; inspiring! I hope that the employees of the CHEK station can make good on their plan to buy the station instead of having it closed, as it would leave quite a gap for local news on the Island.

Sept 3 - Comics and Books

I like comics... especially webcomics. From Angels 2200 to Dr. McNinja, there's a TON of talent out there that now has the 'net available as a distribution medium - you never know what you'll find. I'm still going to be headed down to the local comic shop to collect a few things this fall though, among them the new Farscape comic series, which purports to continue the storyline thanks to the talents of series writer Rourke O'Bannon - sweet! November 1st, baby!

Which neatly brings me to: Neil Gaiman's library! Finally we can see what the inside of a top writer's library looks like - and I cannot imagine any top writer in the world not having a library of some kind at least worthy of the name. I love that even the one chair visible in the room is covered in books; a classic sign of a true book collector.

Tick... tick... tick. No, that's not the sound of a clock in Neil's library, but you're half right. News that men's biological clocks are ticking too is not really news to me, as I've suspected as much for years. Which means that if you're really paranoid about mutations to your man-juice, then you'd better go see these guys - fast. And bring some cash... or you may end up with offspring like this. I wouldn't complain though.

Sept 4 - Lego my Ego!

Today was a busy day at work, which was very gratifying to see as it means that our branch's business is picking up: a sign of better times ahead? I hope so - we did double our projected business today, which was fantastic as there's no calendar reason for people to be jamming themselves into the lobby. I also received a performance review today that was very favorable, so that made me perk up somewhat under the mountains of paperwork that keep ambushing me at my desk.

From work to play: where would a lot of us be today without Lego? Well, aside from the folks employed by LegoLands the world over, that is. For two guys whose fascination with coloured plastic building bricks never really ended, the answer is simple: build some really cool stuff and put it online on their website! The Brothers Brick have a gallery of some amazing things they've built, helped no doubt in a large part by all the specialized bits and parts that Lego has released in the last 20 years, a far cry from the simpler bricks I remember having at my disposal as a kid. They're still with me, though they've not seen the light of day in many years unfortunately... and from what I've seen, the sets have only become more expensive over the years. Especially if you want one of these! Or you could just build an 11-foot long Lego version of the Space Battleship Yamato...

But on the other hand, it seems Mega Blocks got the rights to Halo... two years ago, I was looking at this nice list of toy stores for cube dwellers, whose limited space means they can't spare the space for a decent collection of building bricks, or a 1/6 scale replica of the Eiffel Tower.

Sept 5 - Windy Weekend Weather

Today was a fairly steady day at work, enough so that by the time the afternoon was well on its way to evening, I was feeling rather tuckered. Which was the perfect time for my DM to show up for an audit; she must have heard my eyelids scraping closer to being closed. Thankfully I run a tight ship, and we fairly well flew through the audit in a few hour's time. I was tired enough that when I headed home, I walked my bike up the hill to the halfway point, grateful that the rain had paused and the winds had died down completely - it was howling up to 65 kph here at times but thankfully little in the way of debris or branches were loosened due to the brevity of the gusts.

In the evening I played a little of the Batman: Arkham Asylum demo, and I liked what I saw. It was dark, moody and atmospheric - everything that a Batman game should be. Yet there are always dissenters, as this guy seems to be - is he being critical just to write an article, or does he have some good points? Have a look.

Saturday night: traditionally, it's the evening where you go out and enjoy yourself, free to entertain and imbibe until the beer goggles give the world around you a much more pleasing glow... and fuzzy outline. Along the same lines, there is also The Beer Goggler, which focuses more on curvy outlines attributed to imbibing - any night of the week.

Sept 6 - Feeling Slow, friend?

I spent the earlier part of the day trying to resolve some network issues( insert yawn here )at home. Seems that I didn't notice when I first set things up here, that I hadn't thought out how things would work to get the best speed out of my hardware... oops. So my parent's PC was happily connecting using a slower speed... which meant that my nice super-fast router was slowing itself down to accommodate them - doh! Today I dug out their 'old' router( brand new in mid-2008 )to hook it up and configure things better. Once I get the bugs out, it should mean that they connect to their router at their own pace, while my own hardware should sing along at a faster pace - we'll see how it works this week, after I run some daily tests. Here's hoping... at least the soreness under my arms has gone away, like the doctor said it would.

It rained on and off for most of today, whilst I divided my time between COD4 and writing, as well as a little Halo3 with the downstairs neighbour( he's extremely skill3d, by the way ). It was heartening to hear the rain coming down steadily; although it likely spoiled a few people's long weekend plans, the area around here has been so extremely dry that even people's discarded cigarettes had been worrisome in some rural areas. Soon enough, lawns around here may be green again, instead of the bright, dead brown that they have been all summer long thanks to the heat and water restrictions. Still, Australia's apparently had it worse than anyone this year.

To finish off the blog for the week, here's... the Oracle of Bacon! You can probably figure out how it works.

See the above link for Bacon-related goodness, and good-bye for now!

Animation, Alias and Assh... er, Jerks

I hope everyone had a good Christmas, be it family-oriented or materially satisfying! I never did develop a taste for eggnog, so I'll settle for some hot chocolate while I write up this week's blog:


Dec 22 - Star Wars is Toast

For those of you out there who always have that one impossible-to-buy-for person on your lists, I present the perfect gift: the Star Wars Toaster. Yes, your loved one or friend can greet the day with the image of Darth Vader seared into their bread of choice, feeling the power of the Dark Side flowing through them to give them the energy they need to face any challenge. You can complement this amazing piece of kitchen technology with the only logical choice of knives to slice your bread: the Jedi Ginsu Knife! Indeed, the Jedi Ginsu slices through almost anything, bread included, and stores easily in the smallest of kitchen drawers.

Considering that my menu of food choices keeps shrinking due to my recent plumbing problems, toast is still a good standby choice. Not to mention a cheap one too... and some people have raised it to an art form. Apart from the occasional grape jelly, I tend to go plain.

I hope most of you have forgotten about it, but in case you haven't.... the Star Wars Holiday Special is still out there, lurking... 1978's contribution to some of the worst TV schlock ever. So bad it's good, akin to some of those great B-movies
like Plan 9 From Outer Space or After the Fall of New York. Only this one has wookies... which are infinitely better than the ewoks, imho.

Dec 23 - Alias Flash

Though it's been a while, I've started re-watching the Alias TV series with Jennifer Garner. The layer plots, slick production values and eminent watch-ability of its cast have drawn me back, with a few sites such as Alias Season.com to fill in the blank spots when I don't quite catch all the plot points flying around.

I purchased another one of only a few XboxLive! games today, as I find most of their content rather lacking... but I have a soft spot for Bomberman. It is one of the original 'party games' the first of which caused a craze in Japan back in the early 90's, and I first played it on my venerable TurboGrafx-16, which was designed as a 5-player party machine itself - the two fit perfectly, and more than a few parties were enlivened by exploding bombs and trash-talking amongst friends.

On the topic of good games, go check out The Ten Most Addictive Flash Games Ever... see if you agree. There are so many sites out there nowadays with free flash games, that you could feasibly dispense with console games or PC games altogether... though you have to beware of some really awful games.

Dec 24 - Holiday Movies

I spent part of my day relaxing, as it is only one of two days off for the holidays.

In the early afternoon, I headed over to my parents place to spend the holiday with them. My sister was not able to make it, though that was itself a good thing given the horrible weather that had stranded thousands of people and canceled flights in B.C. Why not skip the travel insanity during the holidays, and use things like Skype instead, you might ask? Somehow I think that being with family during Christmas will always win over even just seeing family, though you'd cut out things like your uncle's halitosis and the vicious pinching fingers of well-meaning aunts seeking your cheeks like hawk talons... *ahem* Love my family, but I am glad in some ways that I am an adult now, at Christmas. Only some.

We watched Elf in the evening, which seems to be the new holiday movie of choice, though I am still partial to Scrooged along with A Christmas Story and Its A Wonderful Life. Wil Farrell playing Buddy the elf works perfectly with his talents as a lovable innocent adult in an unfamiliar world, and I was also impressed with the low-key performance of Zooey Deschanel, who also happens to have an incredible voice.

One thing I miss about Christmas eves of yesteryear is a roaring fire. I grew up in a house that had a large, wood-burning fireplace and I remember many a Christmas was spent in front of that fire, with the warmth from the crackling logs spreading throughout the room and the Christmas tree standing tall nearby... but not too close, as we usually had a real tree in those days, as fake ones were too darn expensive still. Today, most fireplaces I have seen are of the gas or even electric variety, relegating the old open hearth and wooden logs to homes that have easy access to wood supplies and folk who don't mind clearing away ash.

I think it's worth it; I especially enjoyed the time I spent living in Fonthill, in a home that had TWO wall-to-wall wood burning fireplaces, one on each floor.

Now that was cozy at Christmas!

Dec 25 - Earthquake, or digesting dinner?

Apparently there was a small earthquake at 12:11am far offshore, a 5.9 that was too small to be felt. Still, it is a reminder that I am living in an area that is exposed to such things, unlike Niagara which only has to worry about smog, thunderstorm-spawned tornadoes and bad winter weather. Who remembers the 1996 tornado that struck the drive-in theater in Thorold, which was scheduled to show Twister ? It made it to Letterman and Bob Saget, so apparently a few people took note. Not a bad film either.

I watched both Shrek the Halls and the not-so-seasonal Arthur and the Invisibles, which was the made-in-france super-expensive 3D animated film that didn't do so well over on this side of the pond, perhaps due to its rather lackluster and nonsensical story. Mind you, the animation itself was incredible, showing just how far the graphical movie arts have come since the days of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I was disappointed, as the direction was Luc Besson, who made one of my favourite films, The Fifth Element... which starred Mila Jovovitch, who seems to have a penchant for making bad movies too. Guess that's why she and Besson married each other and soon called it quits.

It was a good day, spent relaxing in the company of my family and far from the worries of current events. My plumbing behaved itself, thanks perhaps in part to the enzyme supplements I am taking... I was worried that the turkey dinner would prove to be a problem, but apparently my holiday gift was to be able to enjoy it AND not see it again in any improper manner. Joy!

Finally, what would Christmas be without... zombies? The Twelve Days of Zombie Christmas will give you the answers you need - brains. Arrgh.

Dec 26 - Nien, it is 9 !

I heard about the latest Time Burton animated film over at i09.com which is a great place to peruse the many facets of SciFi goodness. They ran an eye-popping( ow! )article about the film, which is currently under development for a near-future release. The feature film is based off a short film by creator Shane Acker, which is a tale about a post-apocalyptic world devoid of humans, but not all life... you can see the feature film's trailer at his official website. His is an interesting story about the leap from short film to feature, definately worth the read in this recent interview.

On the track of creating fiction, sometimes you get stuck. For those times when the blank page is a black hole staring you in the face, there is 911: Writer's Block, where you can turn to for inspiration when all else fails. The site is part of WeBook.com, where writers can gather to create stories together. Sounds like a virtual group hug to me, but it looks intriguing enough to try.

Oh, and since it was Boxing Day, I headed out to make only one stop to pick up some inexpensive DVD's at London Drugs - more seasons of The Simpsons, Stargate: SG-1 and all three seasons of Arrested Development, a series that Rene put me onto some time ago and I have been looking for since... on the cheap, of course! I was in and gone in less than 10 minutes at 9am, the most civilized Boxing Day sale I have ever been to, especially compared to last year's zoo at Future Shop that I lined up at 5:30am for... never again. Considering the current economic downturn, I would not be surprised to see sales continue well into the new year as retailers struggle to stay afloat. Some higher-end ones have already gone under and more are sure to fall as consumers close their wallets and strive to save.

Which means gift cards are a bad idea, given that if a company goes under, any cards outstanding will not be honoured as they are considered part of debt. Good luck going to court for your $25.00 card!

Dec 27 - Weary Weekend

While waiting for many a film to arrive in the coming year, some folk get a little impatient... like this fellow, whose obvious ardour for all things Thundercat shows in his spectacular fan-made movie trailer, which skillyfully blends clips of actors from dozens of movies, adding special effects and overlays. It is quite convincing, along the lines of the fake Phantom Menace trailer from the late 1990's, of which I still have a copy floating around somewhere... surprisingly, it is nowhere to be found on YouTube!

Work today was steady but unremarkable, which is the way I like it - the fewer emotionally-twisted children masquerading as adults that I have to deal with, the better. Sometimes I wish I had the ability to move one of my eyes independandly of the other... I can only imagine how well that would work to defuse and confuse tense situations, when one eye keeps drifting off-center. Surely it would work better than an eye-twitch, that keeps getting worse as the person keeps being a jerk... hint, hint? Too bad that the rule holds that the worse a jerk the person is, the more oblivious they are to other people. just do not confuse the oblivious ones with the real serial jerks out there....

Dec 28 - Sunday Games

Unsurprisingly, I am going to mention... the sun. Since it was out and shining today, the snow piles melted considerably, leaving the streets far more navigable than they have been for the past week. It was nice to return home on relatively dry pavement, instead of picking one's way down hills mostly covered in ice. Victoria has quite a few hills to it, if you travel around the city a bit, which only adds to its charm, I think - the Niagara Escarpment is lovely, but can't hold a patch to the mountains here.

Feeling sheepish? Fatigue getting the better of your reflexes? Then test your reaction time with a little virtual sheep-herding... with a tranquilizer gun. Go on, you know it sounds like fun... or are you still feeling a little baaa-humbug from the holiday craze? *grin*

As most of you know, I am not a sports fan... nor is proficiency with a golf club high on my list. However, when I find a game called Medieval Golf online, my interest is perked... especially since you play it with arrows. Ah, to have time time to indulge that particular one of my hobbies... soon, I hope.


All for now... more news as I trip over it - see last week's blog for some major news of mine, the entry is highlighted in red.