Memories, Movies and Morals

Last year at this time, I was incredibly busy with settling into our temporary home over on Douglas St. So much so, that I had to catch up the blog some weeks later, based on my notes and what I could recall. How useful then, that the first thing I set up was my PC, to record such things... *grin* As it is, we broke 500 hits this week for the blog... wowsa!

Nov 10 - Spam and Urban Legends

All of us dislike spam email, and I daresay most of us dislike chain-letter emails. Myself, I find those various warnings 'passed on to your friends' to be VERY annoying, as I have often received the same warning year after year after year... about the same fictional topic, like Bill Gates giving away free money. One way to cut down on this waste of 'net bandwidth is to check with places like Snopes.com first, before forwarding something onwards... a common theme among these Urban Legend emails is to tug at emotional heartstrings or religious beliefs, like the 'Professor and the Dropped Chalk' legend. Which is why I like Snopes; it debunks a LOT of common urban legends, along the lines of the great Mythbusters show... one of the few things I miss about cable TV of late.

Bonus: What YOU can do to help Kill Spam Dead.

Nov 11 - Remember



Ninety years.

Nine decades since the end of the First World War, called the Great War, the War to End All Wars.

Yet it was followed only twenty years later by the Second World War. Did we learn anything?

Both wars saw horrific loss of life. Great evil was performed by mankind, in ways that still shock in the telling today.

The Veteran's Affairs website has simple, touching information about all the reasons we should never forget the sacrifices of the few, for the many. How the world came to be the way it is today, when ordinary men and women stood against tyrrany, often giving their lives so that we future generations could live in peace and never know the horrors of gobal war.

Here you can read about an American woman's visit to Belgium during the war, in 1916, with photos.

Perhaps this is why I am so fascinated with post-apocolyptic themes; I see the world as it could have been if history had taken a different turn... as it could have at any point in both wars, or before.

I am pleased to see television taking a less-glorious view of war in the last few decades; shows like Tour of Duty and even Space: Above and Beyond pulled no punches when it came to looking at the moral and visual horrors war brings to the human condition.

Never forget.

Nov 12 - Watch the Movies

Though it has been some time since I last saw a movie, I sill enjoy looking at what is coming out soon. Plus, there are some things that all of us can relate to when it comes to movies. For example, movie endings. Some movies end in ways that leave a lot of questions unanswered, or in a way that the viewer thinks is odd compared to the rest of the film. One place that looks at how movies SHOULD have ended is, well.. How It Should Have Ended.com - check out how Lord of the Rings and the original Star Wars should have ended.

Speaking of Star Wars... being the cultural icon that it is, for the last thirty years, much has been made about it, by many people. Some of it funny, some of it bad... some of it just silly. For your viewing pleasure: Darth Vader does the Muppet's Mahanamahana song. And here is the original too. Heck, if you remember Cops from the early Fox Network days, then you'll love... Star Wars Cops!

As for movies coming up... check out The Watchmen, based on the famous graphical novel of the same name by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons some twenty years ago. Amazing stuff... as is the new Terminator movie concept art.

Nov 13 - Who is Harlan?

I have a lot of books on the shelves here, too many according to some people - I try not to listen to those folks. Other than living in an actual library, I cannot imagine any home of mine without a few shelves full of books. I remember reading an article a few years back about illiteracy in America, written by a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman who wrote that in 9 out of 10 homes he went to, the most 'literary' thing he saw in terms of reading materials were a few scattered magazines, in all the homes he was invited into over the years. He said it amazed him how few books he saw, in homes from all walks of life, which disturbed me, especially when he said that the TV was always in a prominent spot.

In a roundabout way then, this brings me to one of my favourite authors: Harlan Ellison. Famous not only for his works but also his acerbic attitude, I recently stumbled across a piece about Harlan's creative process. This article talks about how Harlan and a Polish surrealist artist combined their talents in a unique book; have a look at the article, as the paintings are incredible in their detail. Incidentally, he was the technical consultant on Babylon 5... another feather in that show's cap, in my opinion. Damn good writing.

Nov 14 - Wasted Tech

Ahem: GeekSpeak warning for those of you who avoid such... skip the below paragraph, and instead bemuse yourself with: CrazyThoughts.com - lots there to cogitate on!

Before I left Ontario, I had to divest myself of many old pieces of electronic and computer hardware that I had kept for various reasons. Mostly, I wanted to see if I could save or recycle moot of it instead of consigning it to the dump for the simple crime of being obsolete. In fact, I managed to salvage three PC systems which I gave to friends, after reformatting them with Ubuntu, a simple form of Linux that makes even old PC's run like new again... at least as basic email, media and web terminals. Thanks to Arthur for putting me onto Ubuntu; he was( and likely still is )a big Debian Linux fan. I like Linux for its flexibility and low overhead, but it still does not like to play with Windows...

Back to the old tech: a recent C|Net article tells how 60Minutes examines the awful human suffering that is behind a lot of the current efforts to recycle high-tech garbage, a lot of it going on in China. While some North American programs are in place, they are small and find it hard to turn any sort of profit with the current tech sector slump - not good news for my tech career aspirations for that matter either.

Nov 15 - My company is doing what?

A busy day at work, which is good; no customers means hours get cut, and too much of that would mean serious consideration put towards closing the branch. Not that it is anywhere close to that, but traffic this month has been light, given the economic downturn and the pre-holiday lull.

Along the lines of last week's cubicle blogging, anyone who has worked for a large company knows of the inevitable charts, graphs and other organizational clutter that evolves as management from many levels try to justify their salaries. A thought-provoking website, City of Work, looks at this with unique charts of their own, like this Productivity chart that makes sense to me in a very cynical way.

A somewhat dated Report on the 14 most Evil Corporations is an educating read. I remember hearing about some of this back in my first year of university, when I attended a world conference on corporate crimes held at McMaster University, as a reporter for The Brock Press. For me, it was eye-opening to learn about all the evil things that were being done by companies on a global scale, those same companies who sold their products in Canada with a squeaky-clean image that is blissfully unattached to their other activities.

Nov 16 - Fall Leaving

Yet another Sunday spent working, earning a wage instead of idling playing XboxLive games with my friends. Hardly fair, really, but I suppose we all cannot have every Sunday off... being the Day of Rest and all that. At least today was less busy than yesterday, so I had rest of a sort... and as an added plus, Crazy Lady was absent all week - something I was heartily grateful for. My last day of six in a row is tomorrow, a Monday( of course ); working all week by myself has been educational, in some ways. I've realized I work well on my own, don't need all that much company, and I don't have to close the door to the washroom when I feel the nature call. The last bit is nice, but unnecessary.

Cycling to work in the fall weather here is a change from what I am used to as well. There are tons of leaves on the roadside, literally piles and piles of them. What with all the trees around here, I am surprised that we are not knee-deep in leaves by now - rakes must be as common as dirt here to keep the piles in check. Which makes cycling around corners a little tricky in spots, as the windblown leaves tend to get smeared in a slippery layer sometimes. Yet the visuals here are spectacular... and me without my camera to get my own pictures, of course.



Fall in Victoria, B.C.

Coming home today, I could really smell the sea's salt tang in the air, as a light fog had rolled in. Just enough to flavour the air and give a tiny halo to each passing light, as well as bring out the rich, damp smell of the masses of leaves piled all along the roads... the smell brought back memories of times from my youth, when I would adventure in the ravine that ran along behind Westgate Park Drive in St. Catharines. The rich, damp earth and tall trees still echo with me today, in my love of forests and wild places... but not so much with the unpleasant aspects of camping and hiking. More of an abstract, wanna-hug-a-tree but don't want the mess of the bark, or the long trek to get there...


Damn, it's hot in here - ten degrees outside at 11pmPST, and twenty-five inside with the heat off. Great for the gas bill, though TerasenGas must hate me. Until next week folks, take care...

Luggage, Lunch and Links

The week just sped by... it's suddenly Sunday evening, and Blog Time!

Sept 22 - SciFi

I ran across several sites today worth noting, at least if you like SF/F. If not, scroll down...

So, for those of you still with me, here are a few gems: The first is The SF Site, where you can find more on SF than most anyone can read up on in years. Of course there is always SciFi.com, where you can find all the latest media SciFi info. Then there's the bad SciFi, which you can now buy on DVD from Amazon - Harlan Ellision must be gnashing his teeth with this news of an upcoming DVD release.

Some folk manage to combine hobbies and SF in fascinating ways. Take this fellow for example; his woodworking skills have caught the eye of notables such as Stephen Hawking! But if you want hobbies, have a look at my friend Bob's blog, Ruined Niagara... he's got an amazing photographer's eye!

A little note for my no-cable thread: there is Fancast.com, a site which lists full episodes of TV as well as movies for watching... free! They do not have a complete database by any means, but you are almost certain to find a few things you'd like to watch,

Sept 23 - Need a favour?

I sat outside on a patio this afternoon, which was bright and sunny - for a few minutes. I was at the Starbuck's at the Bay Center, which has a great outdoor raised patio, perfect for watching the busy traffic pass by on the street. Pedestrians and cars alike wander past at slower speeds, with many a rubbernecker taking in the sights. I can attest that there were quite a few things worth looking at too; the sunshine seems to bring out the beauties, or at least so it seems to me. A surprising percentage of them seem welded to their cell phones, which does not bode well for phone radiation dosages...

While I was cogitating on the scenery and enjoying the remaining sunshine, a website I had visited years ago popped into my brain again. Curious, I typed in a close analogue of the name... and lo, there it was: FavorVille.com. Imagine a website where you can post your needs, or your offerings, to your community... to connect favours with those who need them. Simple, yet the idea of neighbour helping neighbour seems to have been forgotten in the last few decades... I blame it on several things, including the shift from cozy suburbs with front porches to locked doors in apartment buildings with only a door number to differentiate one dwelling from another. When was the last time you went to borrow a cup of sugar from your neighbour? Or they from you? Some things should never have been let dwindle... or be changed for the worse.

Sept 24 - Movies

I realized today that I have not been out to see a movie at a theater since I arrived in Victoria... and for some time before I left, for that matter. I think it is mainly because I dislike having to share my enjoyment of new entertainment with the general public, who by and large are not nearly as respectful of each other as I am of them. Cell phones, crinkly wrappers of food snuck into the theater, heads in my line of sight... there are many distractions to the 'theater experience' that I can do without. Especially the idiots with cell phones, who simply cannot turn them OFF. *ahem* In any case, I much prefer to wait and see movies in my own 'theatre' setup... which is good enough to really enjoy the experience - how many theaters have a fridge at hand, and will pause the movie when nature calls?

Looking forward to upcoming movie releases, I can honestly say the only ones I am interested in are ones like Transformers2, Venom and yes, Wolverine. There's even a prequel in the works for I Am Legend, which would feed my need for post-apocalyptic films quite nicely, thank you - the release of Death Race 2008 on DVD may entice me to pick it up, being a Car Wars fan of long standing. I have no desire to see the badly-titled new Bond film 'Quantum Solace' ... sounds like a documentary on the Large Hadron Collider that's sparked such an unneeded internet-fueled debate about the end of the world. It's just science, people.

Sept 25 - Exercise Plans

Outdoor activities for me in Victoria have been limited to my riding my bike around the city; sad, but that's what happens when everyone's so darn busy. I'd like to try activities such as kayaking, or even hiking a nearby trail. Since I've recently found out the waiting list for gallstone surgery will be up to 18 months, I can start my plans to get into shape now, so I'll have a shorter recovery time from the operation - which itself is not as massively invasive as in years past. So it looks like I will be cracking out the exercise guides, shopping for some free-weights and eying a gym membership with necessary distaste. I'd prefer to avoid the gym altogether, as I begrudge the time spent to get there and back; I could be doing other things. Still, we'll see what I can find that's decent within riding distance.

I still have not found a local (or Canadian, for that matter) vendor for the X-Wing Kite. Sadly, I will likely forego looking for it until the spring, as the cool factor will be severely diminished if one is flying it on cold, cloudy days by the ocean side. Joggers and dog-walkers wrapped in many layers might find a kite-flying amusing, if out of place, in the cold winter months here in Victoria.

Sept 26 - Cheap Cooking and Cars

I discovered a cook today after my own heart, one whose menus are 100% influenced by their cost: the 99-cent Chef. Yes, that's right: this chef only uses ingredients that list for 99cents or less... and he doesn't use expire-the-next-day items either. Some of his receipies are really good, and have inspired me to shop with a new viewpoint, somewhat similar to the "Shop the Perimeter" theory of grocery-store purchases; by staying OUT of the center of the store, you avoid all the high-ticket low-nutrition items that the store wants to sell you to boost their profits and lower your life expectancy.

Time to leave for work came too quickly today, just as the weather changed - again. Sunshine mocked me for a few hours until clouds rolled in suddenly in the late afternoon; amazing how the changes happen so quickly here. I did amuse myself during the inevitable lulls with some arts and crafts at work - yes, a pair of scissors cut a swath through some paper cars as part of an internal contest we're having. I found a whole bunch of great car designs at Papercars.net, all printable, as well as other printable items at this site. There was even a great site devoted to one of the many Hanna-Barbera cartoons, the Wacky Racers - you can download printable designs at this site, though be warned they will take quite a bit of time to build.

Sept 27 - Inventions and Lunch

I've had quite a few ideas over the years for new (and sometimes even useful!) inventions. One such was my idea for a GPS luggage-tracking system, way back in the 90's when cell phones were just coming into general use. I envisioned a tracker that would lock onto local cell towers, wherever it was in the world, to determine its postion and then send a txt msg with the lattitude and longitude of its position, Imagine: much like the VISA commercial where a remote pops out wheels on some lost luggage and zooms it across the world to its owner, this would enable one to locate luggage anywhere.

Unfortunately, someone has already created the device of my fervent imagination. The folks at MicroTrakGPS have developed a device that does just what I mentioned above, and is even halfway affordable. I have thought of several refinements though, that would make it more airline-friendly... nobody wants a GPS activating at 30,000 feet to cheerfully cause interference with a jet's controls. Unlikely, but you don't want to take that risk.

I had lunch today at the Oak Bay Marina Restaurant with my parents, which was a very pleasant culinary and visual experience. The restaurant is circular, with a commanding view of the marina and the bay itself though floor-to-ceiling windows. We were seated in a curved booth in the middle of the restaurant's inner circle, whose elevated height swept our eyes across the other diners to the vista beyond; the sunny skies made the view a spectacular one. The food was excellent as well; I had the Chef's Special, which was a seared sole fillet with tomatoes, potatoes and goat's cheese. The taste was subtle and varied, depending on how one combined the cheese with the other elements. Expensive though, as expected, but a treat nonetheless.

Afterward, I trotted down to the Cook St. Village Starbuck's and spent a pleasant few hours on the patio outside, which I discovered has a heating system akin to that of the Kilt's in Port Dalhousie. Winters at Steebs are on the schedule now, especially given the mild climate here. I was amused by dozens of Green Party supporters canvassing the Village as well; many people stopped to chat with them, all of them friendly, which again jut blows my mind... where else would you see people HAPPY to slow their cars down to shout encouragement, or even pull over to talk? The weather likely helps, as everyone loves a sunny weekend. Sadly, I forgot half of the power ensemble for my laptop, so my work was cut short by a flashing power warning... but the sun still shone, regardless.

The rest of the evening blurred, as I fought off a migraine whilst getting caught up on various neglected tasks around the homestead. Tidying turned out to be its own reward: I finally located my long-lost Futurama DVD's! Seasons 1-4 had vanished in the move, and I had feared they had been stolen along with my Olympus camera by those charming thieves at Multicities Moving.

Sept 28 - Ancient Internet

Way, way, WAY back in the day, in the heady days of 1994 when the Internet was just a few hundred machines linked together by string and tin cans, the Cool Site Of The Day debuted. Racking up an electic mix of sites offered, yes, daily, the CSOTD continues to THIS day to be a great browse. Surprisingly, some of the sites listed from back in the early 90's are still online, including the Lurker's Guide to B5, as well as the Mystical Head of Bob. One of the first dozen sites listed was.... the CIA main site. People STILL wonder if back then the CIA logged and investigated each hit on their site... despite the occasional hack attempt, they may still be doing so.

Along with that, may I present: The Acronym Generator! No longer do you need to struggle to come up with an appropriate acronym for your world-dominating organization - the AG does it for you! Before l33t-speak, acronyms were quite common in internet chat rooms, where slow typists would make up for their lack in, er, speed... with phrases like the ubiquitous LOL, UR2COOL and GMAFB.

A working sunday... so I sleep in and get home in time for dinner - not a bad deal overall. I suppose I won't be going on any tours of Victoria's interesting places in the next month, unless I am able to wrangle a free Saturday to nab a vehicle. Touring on bicycle is only good in the good weather; something about being rained on takes some of the shine off being a tourist, though in Niagara Falls that just meant you were standing too close to the Gorge.


Well, that about sums things up, for now. I have a few vacation days coming up before the end of the year, so I will be madly sorting through my photos and updating my blog, finally. There's just so many, I have to just finish searching while comparing them to each blog entry... but since ImageShack seems to be doing the trick, I can include photos more easily in the future - if I manage to take any good ones, that is.