Battles, Bueller and Blockbuster

A busy, busy week at work... which is really boring to relate, so I've refrained. Mail in your thanks!

Sept 13 - Mondaze

A part of today was relaxing, another part stressful... the third part was busy, as I clambered carefully up onto to the roof today to clean off a lot of the accumulated crap that had built up in the gutters. Annoying, as it caused water to flow into places not intended, despite the excellent gutter-covers that the place has installed - when those are themselves covered in crap, the water just sluices off the roof willy-nilly. It was surprisingly hot up there with the sun today, leading me again to respect the many roofers who come in to cash their cheques every week at work, burned brown by the sun and wrinkled by the wind. Those shingles were scorching!

Ah, progress... sometimes good, sometimes bad. In the case of the Wheel of Time series, the next book is still being written, but in the meantime a large resource has shut down: WOTmania.com has closed as of Aug. 31st of this year. Thankfully, DragonMount.com has taken over the link and has news that some of the data will be integrated into their site, but for those looking to backtrack all the nooks and crannies of the series, it's a setback. Which means that it's time to re-read the thing again... but not until after Christmas, I think. I'm just too busy with other projects, and it requires a fair commitment of time.

io9.com has been running a great series called Future Metro, which examines cities of the future in all their glory. Lots of good reading there, I mean it: there's at least 2 dozen articles about all the aspects of what it will be like to be living urban in the future... both good and bad, most of them quite solidly scifi.

Sept 14 - Golden Showers

Did I mention that we're now buying gold at MMart? Yep... haul in your old jewelery or whatnot made of real gold, and we'll hand over cash for it - a competitive amount, believe it or not. Today I had tangible proof of that: a guy came in to sell a heavy gold-link bracelet he'd bought in Korea years ago, and after all was said and done he got back nearly $600.0 CAN. Now THAT is a solid bit of change in your pocket... and it also gives me an idea on how I might be able to turn the current market for gold to my advantage, if I can determine how a few other bits might fit into a - puzzle. More on that next week.

This is kind of useful: you can look up just about anyone on the 'net using 123people.com, but I found it more entertaining to look myself up and see how many more people out there shared my name. What they do, where they are, that sort of thing - kind of like tracking down a few clones you didn't know about.

Other things you may not know about: shower heads harbouring germs? Yep, that's just one more thing to worry about... I still remember from when I was a little kid being irrationally worried about spiders in the shower head( no idea why )but now it's apparently true that showers MAY be bad for you. Only if you're not in the greatest of health, mind you, but sometimes I get a little sick of hearing how many things are bad for you these days. Maybe hermits had it right: live simply, live away from civilization, and be happy?

Sept 15 - Games and Books

In the world of videogames, there are quite a lot of tried-and-true formulas... which is good, as most work fairly well, but after a while people tend to yawn and go "Sure, it LOOKS nice, but it's the same ol' shooter/side-scroller/rpg that's been done to death already." Which is why when a game like Scribblenauts comes along, gamers sit up and take notice, because, well... it's fun! Like BrainAge and similar games for the DS, it's the unique style of gameplay that sets Scibblenauts apart: it's text-based action. While that may seem like a misnomer, it sounds like a blast and promises hours of entertainment; if you have a DS, I'd check it out... as for me, I'll have to wait for it to come out for another platform, if that happens. Darn the luck. I'm still waiting for the re-release of Mechwarrior4, which has had a recent bit of news assuring people that it IS coming... can't wait!

Oh, and this is one game I have to get: Gratuitous Space Battles, which "aims to bring the over-the-top explodiness( sic. )back into space games" - how cool is that? Stuff all that hours-long resource-gathering, the tedious buildup and the too-brief battles - this one is all about Big Explosions, as that's where all the fun is, right? I can't wait 'till it's out! Though I still miss Earth & Beyond... thankfully, a Canadian site has kept hope alive.

My bedtime reading this last week has been to dig into the rare book I found at Booksmart in Niagara, the oft-sought( and recently available on Amazon )Malevil. Originally published in 1972, the book is rather a slow-starter, as it often dives into the intricacies of French cultural mores or describing the rather indelicate familial relations of the main characters. Which in themselves are fine, for the author( Robert Merle )plainly has great knowledge of such matters - being French. Still, it is slow going; I am already 243 pages in, while finding the survivors just starting to get about the business of thinking about the necessities of such survival - no Hollywood-style action novel, this one. It is along the lines of what I find fascinating about the post-apocalyptic genre though( akin to the survival-horror zombie genre too ): what would you do if it happened to you?

Sept 16 - No More Songs

Woof, a long day. Hopped onto the bus( at the new terminal 10 minutes walk from my house )running to Victoria at 9am, and arrived a mere 20 minutes later. Plenty of time to grab a coffee and settle in for the manager's meeting, which zoomed along nicely until about 4pm... then it was back to Millstream to work the remainder of the shift. Which was deja-vu all over again, as I got a call whilst on the bus in the AM that the water cooler had leaked AGAIN, so the place was soaked. The cleanup guys had been there already, so I walked into a roaring den of noise as high-flow fans blasted air across the soaked carpets while a fridge-sized dehumidifier pulled gallons of water from the air.

I was saddened to learn today that the lady third of the popular trio Peter, Paul and Mary has passed away due to cancer today. All my life, people usually made one joke or another whenever a Paul or a Mary was around, asking where the 'third person' of the trio was hiding. How sad that now there are only 2 of those 3 singers left.

News today as well about the emergence of the internet as a movie medium: Blockbuster is closing over 1500 stores. Which isn't news to me, as it's probably been ten years since I last rented a movie - seriously. I'd rather buy the movie( on sale of course ) and take the time to enjoy it at my leisure more than a few times. While I'm not the person to talk about buying instead of renting per se in most things, I don't think that there's much of a difference between renting a new movie twice and buying it on sale at a later date. It all depends on when you want to see it( apart from the theater )and in my case, I can usually wait for some time without issue.

Going out to a movie is a nice way to spend the evening... especially if you had someone like Natalie Portman on your arm. Wow, talk about dressed to die for! Though from what I hear, the G.I.Joe movie is NOT one you want to take a date to... or see by yourself. Or rent on DVD. Maybe they should have made it an animated feature? If so, they should have done it in this style - very similar to one of my favourite animated shows, Samurai Jack, which tore down quite a few walls in animation when it came out - brilliant.

Sept 17 - Breaking the Wall

Going out to a movie is a nice way to spend the evening... especially if you had someone like Natalie Portman on your arm. Wow, talk about dressed to die for! Though from what I hear, the G.I.Joe movie is NOT one you want to take a date to... or see by yourself. Or rent on DVD. Maybe they should have made it an animated feature? If so, they should have done it in this style - very similar to one of my favourite animated shows, Samurai Jack, which tore down quite a few walls in animation when it came out - brilliant.

On walls: what the heck? I know I've made a few jokes about the Berlin Wall construction zone in St. Catharines( QEW work cutting the city in half )but get this: 1 in 7 Germans WANT the Berlin Wall BACK. How crazy is that? They'd probably say so in Copenhagen, where the car is NOT king, but the bicycle is: more than half the population rides a bicycle every day. The city has just announced plans to create a network of 'bike highways' where commuters can ride from the suburbs to the city core without crossing paths with cars in dangerous ways. Fantastic - check it out here, another victory for the two-wheeled pedal commuter, of which I'm one.

Everyone likes to think that their works will live on beyond them, that their memory will linger in the minds of those who have known of them or even their work. But what happens when tragedy or disaster strikes, leaving things undone or unsaid to those who matter most to us? I've wondered about this myself, having just begun to fill out a will( all those DVD's have to go somewhere, right? )and made out a few words for everyone who matters in my life. Yet what if I don't have a chance to leave those words in the right location? Thanks to FromBeyond2U.com, this no longer has to worry some folk - but you still have to set those words down in the first place, or they will go unsaid.

Sept 18 - Bill Me, don't Salt Me

Ah, payday at last - that day when you breathe a sigh of relief, pay some( or most, if you're lucky )of your current bills, then grab what money remains on either end and try to stretch it until the next payday. I was surprised to learn from a recent article that close to 3 in 5 Canadians live paycheque to paycheque these days, having little in the way of savings, even RRSP's. That's a lot of people with no safety net, which these days is a stinky way to live... not that most( if not all )of those 3 in 5 people would rather put away money, but living beyond our means seems to be the name of the game in modern society.

Reduction would seem to be in order, as I did( somewhat )when I divested myself of a portion of my poesessions in moving out here. Not enough, mind you, and I'm not living in a one-room basement bachelor pad either - which seems to be the problem, more or less. How can you enjoy a huge home of your own with a massive mortgage( and taxes, and utilities )which is filled with a lot of expensive things that you likely got on credit and are now slowly paying back at ruinous rates? Makes you want to change a few things, including your diet - 1 in 6 people worldwide have hypertension, of which up to 1/3 of those can be related to too much salt in their diet. Yep, that's right: too much time at McDonald's or eating pre-made meals, all loaded with sodium for 'taste and preservation' purposes. Ick.

Bacon Salt is something I have to try though - I mean, it's bacon. And salt. In moderation, it's probably part of some corner of a food group, somewhere, if you squint at it correctly. Plus, they have a great blog entry on how to start a food company for less than 5K - worth the read, as I had no idea of the ins and outs involved in getting a product to market, despite my extensive reading on entrepranuership in the last few years.

Sept 19 - Aaarrrrr, Matey! Thar be monsters in that lake!

It was International Talk Like A Pirate Day today, but I'd forgotten... so I could have spent a good portion of today Talking Pirate to people, which would have been cool. Here's a nice piratical pictoral summary from the fine folks at SuperPunch - I especially like the Pirate Squirrels, very tasteful.

Tasty fish too: a local woman spotted some kind of unusual creature in Cameron Lake, which isn't too far from here on Vancouver Island. Local mystery - I love it!

Unlike work, which was an exercise in futility where one unusual problem after another cropped up needing immediate solutions. I managed to find one each time, but before I knew it closing time had arrived and all the things I had wanted to accomplish today were only half-done. We are redoing all of our office paperwork, reorganizing it to standardize all systems across canada so that every branch has the exact same setup - a great idea, but a ton of work to enable if there's just one person doing it.

Late in the evening, I watched an interesting documentary called 'Gun Nation' about the proliferation of guns in American and its effect on their society. The cuplrit is their Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which enshrines as an unalterable right the ability of any US citizen to bear arms. What they do with those arms is the focus of the documentary, which did a credible job of looking at both the pros and cons of living in a nation with millions of guns in the hands of criminals and honest citizens alike. A good site for further information about the gun control issue in the US is GunCite.com, which has a lot of excellent material and further links.

Sept 20 - Call of TV

A beautiful day, if a bit cold in the morning( heck, that's the fall, who cares? )but it warmed up nicely by the afternoon. I spent most of the hours around lunch gaming online with Dave, Simon and later on Matt, in COD4 - with a few good games and more than a few stinkers by session's end. There was even a Griefer in one of the later games, who delighted in teamkilling people - myself and a few others reported his behaviour, but sadly there's no specific category for rampant teamkilling or just being a jackass. I just don't understand people who delight in making life miserable for others, though perhaps it arises from some twisted need for attention of any kind, even derision and scorn.

There's the usual assortment of new shows premiering this fall on TV, mostly bad, but some good. One of the more unexpected ones is The Cleveland Show, which has the character of the same name being spun off from The Family Guy into his own sitcom - different, and possible interesting. Other series I'm going to try to catch are Flash Forward( based on the novel by fave Robert Sawyer )and the remake of 'V' with those lizardly aliens we love to hate. Even Fringe is starting to grow on me, though I've not caught more than a few episodes.

After a few pleasant hours out on the deck( the sun was brillant on the lake )I finished the evening working on the blog whilst watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off, quite appropriate for today, all in all. The parade scene is one of my faves( Twist and Shout! )as is the scene where Ferris and Cameron are trying to reverse the mileage on the Ferrari...


We broke 2800 hits on the 19th - Tah-rah!

Heroes, Homes and Halitosis

I'll refrain from further mention about whatever's wrong with me, as it resulted in some lengthy comments last week - not my intent. So instead I will continue to focus on events and things of interest here, along with the positive changes about life in BC. Happy thoughts.


Jan 5 - Real World Superheroes

The TV show Heroes was a smash hit when it started out, and despite a rocky road of uneven writing, it still remains a vibrant idea that seems to have struck a chord with the general public. Ordinary people whose everyday lives are changed forever by the discovery of untapped powers within themselves; heady stuff.

Apparently that sort of thinking has rubbed off a little, in unexpected ways. Amateur crimefighters have sprung up here and there around the world, taking upon themselves the burden of fighting crime and injustice in the streets. One of the most colourful is Citizen Prime, who keeps a blog of his activities that makes for some fascinating reading, as does the site for The League of Citizen Heroes( though the flag background is overdoing things a bit, from my Canadian perspective ).

One has to wonder what motivates some of these folk, though I suspect it is simple empathy for their fellow (wo)man, that they care what happens to others enough to do something about it. Their decision to do something, aside from joining civil services such as their local police or action groups, speaks to me of a desire to make something better out of society's mess. If we as individuals cannot empathize with one another, then we start to slide down that slippery slope towards the anathema of disinterest, where people become objects with names attached and so we lose a big part of what we call being human. Being a superhero can bring new perspective to one's sense of community involvement, to become a participant of solutions and not a spectator to the problems one sees daily. Kudos, heroes... too all of you who can get close to others.

Makes me want to go all civil-minded, but then I remembered I work in customer service. *sigh* Still, one wonders what would happen if a superhero had to hold down a day job... while in costume. My fave is the anger management counsellor; see if you can guess which hero it is.

Jan 6 - Death and Gaming

A sad day for gaming enthusiasts today: Electronic Gaming Monthly has bit the dust, just shy of its twenty-year anniversary. Companion magazine Computer Gaming World died early last year, after nearly 27 years tuning gamers into their needed hobby. I really liked CGW, even moreso than EGM; I still have some amazing issues, the crowning glory of which was their Dec.1996 issue, which gave you 425 pages of gaming goodness for a mere $4.99 CAN... how can you beat that in a monthly magazine?

And who wants to die, really? I mean, there's very little to recommend it, and as far as anyone knows, its both permanent and very boring. Apart from Terry Pratchett's amusing take on the character, Death has always been, well, unexciting and sinister. I did enjoy A Disagreement with Death, which is going for the bargain price of $0.01 on Amazon.ca - grab a copy while you can as it's out of print.

Two architects have come up with a novel life-prolonging idea: design a house that forces you to be active to live within its walls. While their idea has merit, I really do not think that living in their concept house would be all that safe on a daily basis; sleepwalkers would injure themselves in moments. It reminds me of a zoo habitat for monkeys, or a playground challenge area for really agile and active kids.

I suppose it all comes down to living; if you're a sloth, you move slowly though life and likely will end it early. If you run at high speed, you might crash and burn. I'm more of the moderate type; keep moving but watch where you're going, so as to avoid some of the bumps. Plus, it's better to travel with company than alone; who's going to take the scenic pictures and check the maps while driving life's highway? Oh wait, that's why I bought a GPS... though they don't have one with a camera too. Yet.

For those of you who wait every year for it, wait no longer: the 2008 Darwin Awards are out! Yep, now you can read about those intrepid souls who have managed to improve the gene pool of the human race... by removing themselves from it in acts of utter stupidity, though some get a lucky break.

Jan 7 - More Jerking

Just another day at work, though I did manage to have another oddball story to add to the list of Odd Things I've Witnessed at MMart. A perfectly normal-looking fellow came in to load some money to his Mastercard, using debit. As it is wont to do sometimes, my computer told me that the transaction failed to process, so I backed out and restarted the transaction from scratch. At the end of the second attempt, things worked fine, and I handed the receipt to the customer to have them sign it. At which point things took a 90-degree bend towards Weirdsville. On the receipt, the total showed the amount had been loaded twice( despite my PC telling me it had failed )and I opened my mouth to tell the customer that I would fix the error... but he beat me to it by demanding that I not charge him for the error. As well as demanding that I put it in writing; he was instantly rude and derisive towards me, not giving me any opportunity to interject my willingness to HELP and correct the problem, at all. Weird. In addition, when I was in the back calling the CSC, I could hear him berating customer service reps in general to another customer, being a total jerk about something over which I obviously had no control and was immediately going to fix for him( at no charge, no less ). Which I did, and when he had the gall to point out a single spelling mistake in the letter I wrote at breakneck speed, I instantly replied "Well sir, I did not want to make you wait further by running a spellcheck." Picky, mean-spirited bastard, I tell you... I refer you to my earlier link to The Serial Jerk, and would also add that when I read stories like this one, I am glad that I work at a place with armoured glass.

My opinion? Some people are nice most of the time, but can be jerks on occasion... then there are people who are jerks most of the time, but can be nice when needed. Telling the difference is always fun, as the jerks usually try to be nice when dealing with you for the first time... then when your guard is lowered somewhat, they let their true nature out with a bang - ouch. It's really too bad there's not some sort of licencing system in place; if people could just take a test to see if they are a jerk, then we may see more people taking a closer look at bumper stickers like this one. Which would result in some interesting stories. Maybe Steve Martin will star in a film about such jerks: oh wait, he already did.

Though one wonders... how can you tell if you are a jerk? I wish I could leave pamphlets on the subject strewn on the counter at work..

Jan 8 - Space Pressure

Battlestar Galactica has its final episodes coming up, and theories abound as to what will unfold. I've really enjoyed the show, even the 'break' season where they ended up on New Caprica for a too-long while, which was intended to reflect the USA's occupation of Iraq - nice, but it doesn't make for the same TV experience as a space-based show, despite the gritty character situations and writing.

I guess what it comes down to is trust: do we trust the producers of BSG not to screw their audience, who like that of Lost have followed the show along, enjoying the roller coaster of intelligent writing? Not that I expect BSG to jump the shark, but one worries, with some justification, that the writers have painted themselves into a corner at some point and have been desperately trying to figure a way out. No pressure: just millions of fans ready to jump all over you when that shark gets footprints on it...

I am also under pressure this week, though of a different sort: barometric pressure. The barometer has skyrocketed here in the last few days, rising to hover around the 104.00 kPa mark. Why is this significant you ask? Two words: weather sensitive. When the barometer rises, my head starts to pound; it's a trigger that many people seem to share in common, sadly. While theories are many as to the exact causes of barometric headaches, my personal research is leaning towards the reaction of blood vessel diameters towards exterior pressure. Given that the human skull is a series of closed chambers under various pressures and lined with many blood vessels going in and out, it stands to reason that some individuals will have a higher sensitivity to external pressure changes than others. The vast numbers of forums and blogs out there on the subject shows that for many, being able to predict the weather comes at too high a price.

Oh, on the note of Cylons: this is just the coolest. Well, when it's not on, that is. Mmm... chromy.

Jan 9 - Voices and the Doctor

A while back I wrote about cell phone watches, and the current lack thereof on the market. Well, the recent 2009 CES had a lot of great new tech, including a wristwatch cell phone from LG Electronics. Much like the Dick Tracy Wristwatch Radiophone of yesteryear, this new cell may( of course )herald the direction of things to come. We'll see how bulky it ends up being, as well as how actually useful it is, though with the advent of Bluetooth headsets, some of the drawbacks of having to talk AND listen with something strapped to your wrist are negated. The part I loved about it all? You can see it in this video... the phone used to call the wristwatch cell is my very own LG Shine! Sweet synchronicity! Though if I am honest with myself, my current phone will meet all my cell needs for some time to come.

Some news about Doctor Who; the new Doctor Who has been chosen! While this is a Big Thing for some people, I always wonder how far away from the Tom Baker standard the show can get before fan backlash snaps things back into line. Here is a bit about the various people considered for the role of the current Doctor, as well as some suggestions therein. One request: we need more scenes with the sonic screwdriver! And less with Daleks, especially if they are singing...

While singing is usually part and parcel of most Disney productions, thankfully their cartoon series have for the most part lacked musical numbers. One series I enjoyed immensely was the too-brief Dave The Barbarian, which was a parodied take on fantasy adventures. The show featured the voice of Jeff Bennett as the Narrator, and had some great writing with spot-on comedic timing. Bennett appears in many of my favourite old-school shows, such as Johnny Bravo, Freakazoid! and Earthworm Jim, and even appeared in several of the Baldur's Gate series of video games. He has quite the voice acting career which I find inspiring, especially as he is able to do so many different voices. Truly talented, Bennett... though I wonder if bad breath might make or break such a career? I know that Billy West, one of the most famous voice actors in the world today, had a lot to overcome to land at the top: he speaks about it here, a great read.

Jan 10 - Shared Plumbing

One of those things about sharing, be it bills, lunch or even bathrooms, is that you have to adjust to the habits of others. Nowhere is this more instantly apparent than while showering... and someone else runs water. The blast of scalding water or shattering cold jolts you out of your comfortable reverie; how many great ideas have been lost while in the shower to the inconsideration of others? One thing I will not miss about shared plumbing is all the other people using it at the same time. If I ever decide to build a home of my own, or renovate one, it will definitely have one of these to eliminate that pesky shower issue. And some of these. And one of these... and heck, while I am at it, one of these for good measure. Though we'll likely never see anything like it, the House of the Future still resonates today, as future homes are looking good, albeit still too darn large... and lacking fireplaces?

Going further along the concept of shared living, this site shows how modern ideas of living spaces have begun to change in the last decade. Given the huge housing problems that have struck the US from the sub-prime mortgage debacle, these ideas of smaller, shared spaces make a lot of sense. The days of vast sprawling suburbs, of huge isolated and individual expensive homes, may go by the wayside. While I am not a proponent of living in the huddled mass of giant apartment complexes, I am certainly open to new ideas for old concepts to make better use of space in already developed urban zones.

Jan 11 - Almost put my foot in it...

Today was day 5 of 9 in a row, not a bad stretch of working and not the longest I have ever worked in a row... but it still wears on you a little depending on other factors. One bit of news, good or bad as you take it: due to the general slowdown, we are closing on Sundays for the next while. Which will be a nice change, as I have worked almost every Sunday since the summer; I even have a three-day weekend coming up. Though I will be spending most of it packing. The place now looks like I am moving: packed boxes sit on shelves instead of books, and everything has that shambled, forlorn look as if to say "this is no longer home, so just get on with it."

After work, I was out shopping with my dad for a bit before heading home... and near disaster. While unloading my groceries from the back seat of the car, my dad put the car into park and took his foot off the brake... causing the car to roll forward downhill a significant distance. I moved instantly with it, whipping my foot out from in front of the rear wheel and so narrowly avoiding getting my foot trapped under the wheel. After some spirited reassurances that such would not happen again, I headed upstairs, relieved that my upcoming move would not be further complicated by any foot injuries - last thing I need. Kinda makes me wish I'd invested in a pair of steel-toed sneakers a few years back.


About all I've got for this week. It's just work and packing, rinse and repeat until month end... though next week, a surprise visitor!