Time, Talking and Trade-ins

This week's blog was delayed due to family - my sister is visiting this week, and darn it if I just did not have time yesterday to finish things up. So there. :)


April 20 - Wheel of Time(-lieness)

The news back in 2007 that Robert Jordan( nee James Oliver Rigney, Jr. )had died shocked a lot of Wheel of Time fans. The massive series, which I have been following since its inception back in 1990( wow, has it been THAT long? )has had some exciting news last month: the announcement that the final book A Memory of Light will be broken up into THREE books, totalling nearly 1 million words. Finally, an end is in sight, and it looks like one that will satisfy the many WOT fans out there. Well, most of them, anyway... those who haven't become dazed and confused somewhere along the massive journey that is the WOT series.

Thankfully, legions of fans out there have managed to create concise Plot Summaries for every chapter of every book, which you can peruse in case you haven't read any of the books in recent years. Another good place is the WOT FAQ, which has sections on almost every question you can think of regarding plot or character. You can also visit the official DragonMount Forums, where quite a few ideas are posted and being chewed over on a daily basis. The best place to go for following plot threads is Encyclopaedia WOT, where a visual 'plot thread tree' at the bottom of each book chapter list shows WHICH chapter in each book touches on a particular thread. This amazing feature means you can follow a particular plot thread through EACH chapter from book to book, start to finish... which is damned handy considering the sheer size and scope of the series.

April 21 - Mucho MMO's

Those of you who peruse this blog on a regular basis( love ya folks! Stay the course! )know that I am a fan of MMORPG's... but that I do not subscribe to any. Which is odd, as subscriptions are the basis for any successful online gaming community to succeed, making money for the company releasing it. Many an MMO has fallen by the wayside over the years, while a few such as WoW have continued to remain successful - it's a numbers game, and there aren't THAT many people out there with tons of free time to kill every week playing an elf running around collecting l00t.

MMORPG.com is a good place to go to get an idea of what's already out there and what's slated to come down the pipe in the near future. It also has a ton of info about less mainstream MMO's, of which of course I love any that are free to play. The site also contains some good blogs concerning MMO's, like Vicarious Existence, which has recently looked at how hype helps sell new MMO's. One little game I may jump into is Galaxy Online, which looks to be in the style of the old Star Control series of games for the PC, with the added strategic depth of an MMO - looks cool, may stink, in other words. Ever since the days of Tradewars( which is still online in various forms adapted for the internet )there has been a deluge of space strategy games - the most recent contenders for the crown are Jumpgate: Evolution and Eve: Online... neither of which is big on actually stepping OUT of your cool spaceship to get your feet dirty. In fact, despite its popularity, Eve is NOT a game for those who enjoy space combat - it is more about corporate trading, as this great little article explains.

April 22 - Red Versus Blue... bacon?

All right, all right... I chose the losing side in the HD-DVD( red box )vs Blue-Ray( blue box )war, I admit it. While I still believe HD-DVD was the better technology, the market decided otherwise and I have to live with my decision... and my collection that cost me some fair change. Now, there comes news that Warner has started a trade-in program for HD-DVD owners who want to go Blue-Ray - great news for people who want to jump the fence to the 'winning' side.

Not to be confused with Red Vs. Blue, which is a long-running machinima series based on a dysfunctional squad of troopers from the Halo universe. Damned funny too - you can find almost all the episodes here at Machima.com, all of which can be viewed full-screen.

Speaking of good ideas, how about this one: wrapping your iPhone in bacon. No, it's not real bacon, but a very realistic facsimile of our Fave Food in case form. Perhaps if you combined it with Bacon Spray, you could get a little closer to a non-greasy, preservative-free non-organic bacon case. Yum!

Can you tell I like bacon? *grin*

April 23 - On Blogging

Previously, I have written in this blog about, well... blogs. Coming up with new and timely postings every week is not easy without falling into a retreading rut. Unless you live a life on the run, Twittering your way though your day, getting new material for your blog is not all that easy.

ProBlogger.com has an article on how to come up with new material for your blog, so you can aspire to appearing on the Top 100 Blog List. While you may not be as popular as Neil Gaimon's blog, you can perhaps steal some eyeballs from Icanhazcheeseburger.com... and in the process give a few of them grammar lessons.

Myself, I am writing for my friends who might want to know what I am up to way out here, as well as my thoughts on various subjects near and dear to my daily life. When nothing much comes up in regards to Daily Life, I put in some Near and Dear. Which has worked fairly well, so far!

April 24 - Yo Joe!

Something of note today though: the creators of Bacon Salt appeared on Oprah today, via Skype. Talk about major celebrity endorsements... Oprah's audience of millions are already shooting the sales of Bacon Salt through the roof. I wonder if those millions know they ALSO make Baconaise?

Towards midnight, I watched G.I. Joe: Resolute on Teletoon, which was a totally new take on the much-beloved toy-driven Hasbro series from the 80's. This was not for kids however: the guns in this version missed a lot less, and the blood was front and center when they hit. I imagine it was aimed squarely at the grown-up kids from the 80's, such as myself... and I liked what I saw. Considering the long history of G.I. Joe, I hope that Resolute brings things to a new level and keeps the theme alive - considering that almost every north american male has at one time owned a G.I. Joe toy, it's a huge market.

April 25 - Ubuntu!

Another Not-Much-Save-Working Saturday, most of which I spent working the evening shift at the Colwood branch. Despite some annoyances, it was a good shift, especially since I had no last-minute doorcrashers like last week to delay me.

It seems that my old PC is not quite up to the task of running a NWN server within the parameters my project group is setting. So I spent a little time tonight putting in a spare hard drive and installing the latest version of Ubuntu, which in case you were not aware is a very popular easy-to-use version of the Linux operating system. Linux, besides being free( and open-source, meaning thousands of people around the world work on improving it on their own time )makes far better use of computer resources than any other OS, including Windows. Hopefully that extra 'leanness' will make the difference in getting things going for the project in the next few months, once it is all set up. And once I learn how to run Ubuntu... which won't be TOO long, thanks to this excellent FREE guide!

April 26 - Yard Talkin'

More yardwork today, in the lovely sunny weather. The lawn had been begging to be cut the last few weeks, but the weather had not co-operated until today. I despaired of using the massive gas-powered mower in the garage, as the fumes and noise from those things really bother me. So I went down to the local Canadian Tire and bought a reel mower, after doing some research at the LawnMowerGuide.com about some other alternatives. The mower( by Yardworks )was inexpensive and it was assembled in only a few minutes. It took me only a few passes to get the hang of it, so from there it went rather smoothly despite the bumpy nature of the lawn and was no harder to push than a regular heavy cordless or gas-powered mower. The cut was excellent too: the scissoring action is kinder to the grass tips than a duller powered blade would be, keeping the grass healthier.

I used the new version of Dragon Naturally Speaking again tonight, and really enjoyed it - it runs VERY well on my new laptop, compared to the old Blue Frankenstein of a PC I had run the previous version on. The speed is incredible, though the accuracy is still around 98% but training and correction will improve that considerably. There are a ton of other things you can do with it as well, depending on the application - I like the voice commands the best: tell your PC what to do, and off it goes! I love new tech. :-)


Well, my sister is visiting us this week all the way from Banff, AB, so I should really finish this off and close down the laptop for the evening. TTYL all!

TC3, TDI and TNG

After fighting with my PC yesterday, I spent today( Mon )doing a ton of necessary handy-fixy things around the house today, which took up far too $%#@! much of my day off. Hence the late-evening blog.


March 23 - Say, wasn't that whatshername...?

Apparently my previous Destroy the World with Science blog section wasn't up to some ppl's standards. So, this week I present their choice on how to go about it, as well as a rather more in-depth list of 11 items, 6 fall-back methods and 8 not-so-probable alternatives. Take that, mother earth! And for those of you not wanting to wait for one of the methods listed above, you can always destroy the earth... with a coffee can. Who knew?

On a lighter note: just in case you missed it from last week, here's the Code Monkey video by Jonathan Coulton - I've had the tune in my head for the past 7 days, so you've been warned.

Now that I have cable TV again, I've been noticing some things while watching it. Have you ever wondered "Hey, haven't I seen that person before?" when watching a commercial? Obviously actors will work on as many jobs as they can get, and I found it funny that the first time I remember seeing Carrie Dobro was dressed up as Wonder Woman in one of the first Listerine commercials with Christian Potenza, of Total Drama Island fame, whom I mention later on in this blog. Another one that was hard to track down was Kate Kelton, the TicTac girl... whom I haven't seen in anything else.

March 24 - Hanging Out

It's been some time since I last attended a WorldCon, but I've been giving serious thought to attending this year's, which is being held in Montreal. Called Anticipation, it has quite a few top names on the attendee list, including Neil Gaiman and Julie Czerneda, both of whom I last saw at TorCon in 2003 in Toronto.

Among some of the site's I've StumbledUpon, there was GeekStreet.ca. Although not the prettiest site out there, it IS Canadian which I like. There's also EarthAndBeyond.ca, which I talk about a little more below.

I spent the evening out with a friend, part of it just people-watching from the second-floor Starbuck's at Chapters in downtown Victoria. Kind of a blah afternoon weather-wise, but it was enjoyable to sip some tea while watching other people scurry about their business for a change. I had dinner down the road at The Sticky Wicket, which looks to be quite the summer hangout spot coming up. Too bad I live outside of town in Langford... but hey, this town has quite a few of its own charms too, most of them being outdoor activities, which is fine by me.

March 25 - MMO... what?

Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures is a recently-released MMORPG that's proven quite popular this past year, mainly because it finds new ways to make chopping people into bits more fun.

Quite different from one of my favourite classic multiplayer games of yesteryear: Battlefield 1942. While it had no roleplaying to speak of, the fun lay in the then-new concept of teamwork with other people: even today, AI has still not developed to the point where your squadmates won't get stuck on a wall, wander around in the open to get killed, or even kill you... by mistake, of course.

A spiritual sequel is coming out this summer: Battlefield 1943. While not in the same vein as the 1st-person shooter that BF: 1942 was, the same addictive gameplay and quick jump-in to make it a fun and fast experience.

Another game I am keeping an eye on is Jumpgate: Evolution, which is a space sim with vast potential... if it catches on. While games such as World of Warcraft and Everquest seem destined for longevity, the MMO world is littered with failed starts, such as Tabula Rasa and my own lamented choice: Earth & Beyond( which is actually being revived in stages here by a small, dedicated community - way to go! ). I happen to LOVE the concept of exploring a vast and complicated universe set in a sci-fi space sim; too many MMO's these days are focused on combat, not exploration.

March 26 - Routing Work

So far, my new Dlink-655 router seems to be living up to my expectations, both for speed and configurability. Which is good, as just this very night I've started a rebel roleplaying group on my long-term NWN server... as a good many of us are dissatisfied with how that particular world is turning out. I've enjoyed my time there, but a lack of focus, rules enforcement and regular story / plot progression has seen quite a few people stop gaming there. Tonight, I was asked by one former DM if I would lead a group of the top players in a new direction: creating our OWN place to game, with our own rules, focus and so forth. Needless to say, I was floored as well as flattered, to be chosen by a group of what amounts to to the top gamers on the server... most of whom are my friends already. A dozen of us had an hours-long chat tonight, and you could feel the excitement as we aired out our ideas and tossed around plans for the future. It will be a lot of work, but I am proud to have been chosen by acclaim to lead such a talented, energized group of fun folk towards our common goal.

That's about all I have for today. Work is going well; I'm getting the hang of the manager thing, despite some expected snags. Nice that I've managed to move along as well as I have on my own, which is the usual way I've learned things with this company after my initial training. It also looks like I'll be moving branches in the next few weeks, closer to my new home here in Langford. Yay!

March 27 - TV and DVD

While watching the not-so-good movie Van Helsing, I discovered that Kate Beckinsale is a mere 1 week younger than me... which is interesting, when one considers where each of us is in life. More interesting in that I can say I've never made a bad movie... or any major motion picture, at that.

It has been a while since I followed the Family Guy TV show, but I found something today about an upcoming show that may make me tune in. io9.com has a clip here about it - the entire cast of Star Trek: Next Gen is reuniting for the Family Guy episode this Sunday the 29th.

I also popped my Venture Brothers DVD series back in for viewing this week - the show is a sendup of the old Johnny Quest cartoon show from the 1960's with modern twists and a TON of satirical and black humour. Just my thing, really, and it's just so darn funny at times too.

Total Drama Action is the sequel to the cartoon hit Total Drama Island, which followed the antics of 22 animated young adults competing for a million-dollar grand prize. It has some great voice actors, as well as a fast-paced story and eye-pleasing animation - flash, of course, as everyone's doing these days.

March 28 - Earth Hour

At 8:30pm PST tonight, we turned off all our nonessential lighting and electrical gear, to participate in Earth Hour. I was heartened to see that it was an event participated in globally, that shows people are interested in DOING something, however small to start with.

Driving along the highway, I can't help but notice all the streetlights as I pass by... especially one just outside of Victoria. Located below the highway, between two bridges over an underpass below. This solitary light has a cover, a shield over it that blocks light from blinding drivers on the highway, who are at the same height as the top of the streetlight. While the shield was obviously placed there for this purpose, it also serves to block stray light from rising up, contributing to light pollution in the city. Too bad it's only one light.

Just a block away from my place here in Langford is a recycling centre, that takes practically anything that can be recycled. Here in BC there is an Environmental Handling Fee charged on ALL new electronics sold, 100% of which goes towards the Return-It Electronics program, disposing of the old stuff that has reached end-of-life, like floppy disk-based computers( won't miss those, really ). Anyway, it's incredibly convenient to be able to recycle some of the stuff I've dragged around instead of throwing out; the landfills are too full of things that could have been recycled. I remember being rather put out during a Hazardous Waste Day in Niagara, when I was told the 50+ fluorescent tubes I'd collected from work were not on the 'accepted' list... I was annoyed because nobody could tell me where TO dispose of them properly, apart from dumping them. Nice to see they've got their heads together here in BC on the topic.

March 29th - Beer Can Fishing

Sundays... lovely days to relax, to do what is needed and not worry about things too much.

That was the plan anyway, and I managed to stick to it for some of the day. Some morning cartoons after sleeping in, a nice breakfast and some quality Me Time - though I don't drink coffee.

I did have to politely remind some fishermen to keep off the dock down the end of the yard; the fence doesn't quite reach the shore of Langford Lake, and we're right next to a small park with its own fishing dock. I guess it was a little crowded on the public side, so some folks decided to use our dock too. I've no problem with that... except when one smart alec decided to start crushing beer cans on the wooden deck. They left quickly once I stood in view on the back deck, coughed loudly once and waited with crossed arms for them to pack up and move. Smarter than your average bear, they were, as I didn't have to say anything... which was appreciated, as I was trying to relax today and didn't want to see it develop into a "get off mah land" conversation. Nice that people around here are so relaxed and accommodating... too bad they had to bring the beer along, or they could have stayed.


I'm writing this late Monday night, after a last-minute invite to attend a friend's birthday party in Victoria. Now that I'm back home, I'm listening to the wind howl outside again... seems to do that a LOT here on the south shore of Langford Lake.