Holgrams, Humour and Hunger

Well, we went from 5 comments the week before, to 0 comments for last week; kinda like the yo-yo stock market. Which may be good, as things go, so maybe no news is good news, in these turbulent(-ish) times. So this week's and next week's blog: minimalist. Cue applause.

Jan 12th - Sunshine and Vikings

Just a gorgeous Monday here in Victoria; sunny all day, highs around ten degrees with no snow. Of course, the lovely weather means lots of people out, and I get to see a lot of foot traffic from where I am, stuck in a glass box. Which is nicer than being stuck in a back office with no view on a sunny day, though less cruel in some ways. I really, really like the lack of snow here... makes me smile.

I almost didn't have an entry for Monday, apart from that, until I read about this movie: Outlander. It's a story that took 18 years to bring to the screen, it has vikings in it... and aliens. Looks like quite a film, as it has a ton of solid names attached to it, including John Hurt and Ron Perlman of Hellboy fame. Watch for it!

Jan 13 - Superpower Boxes

The apartment is stacked with boxes now, some of them higher than I am, due to the extreme lack of extra space. Having learned from my last moving experience, the boxes are now simply numbered with a master list kept by yours truly so as to avoid temptations for boxes labelled 'camera' to disappear en route. Fortunately it is a short move, as such things go, so I hope that the two days off I've booked will be more than adequate for everything needed to be accomplished.

No superhuman moving efforts from me this time around, as I've not the energy. Though I could wish for superpowers, sometimes having them is not all it is cracked up to be, as this blog shows us. I have a few books on second-string superheroes, which are great reading; not to be confused with sidekicks, these heroes are stand-alones whose powers are not quite up to playing in the big leagues.

I've always been a fan of the Wild Cards series, edited by George R.R. Martin, which takes the superhero and plunks the concept right down into a universe very similar to our own. If you've never read it, you owe it to yourself to pick up at least the first book in the series and have a read. S'good.

Jan 14 - 7 of 9? I wish...

Existence is a fragile thing, but usually you can get a handle on reality even if you need a few supplements to make the picture sharp. However, a new theory may blow the socks off that: researchers at a German facility studying gravity have found data that suggests the universe is in fact a supermassive hologram - no, I'm not kidding.

Maybe those researchers should call up the writers from Star Trek: The Next Generation... nobody else has greater experience with the ways of holographic life as those guys. Especially how it can go wrong.

Or maybe it doesn't matter, in a world where people are more than willing to escape to such places as Second Life, where they can craft a better reality much more appealing than their dull daily existence here.

Still, life is what you make it( heh - still life! ). Eventually you'll end up surrounded by family as you pass from this mortal coil, or the other extreme: alone in your vast mansion, surrounded by sycophants who are only there to ensure a place in your will for a piece of your vast fortune.

Either way is better than a lot of other alternatives... well, except for immortality, but nobody's quite got that figured out. Yet.

Jan 15 - Day 9 of 9 and a Visitor

Today just rolled by, as I was feeling rather beat on this, the last day of 9 in a row working. I was glad to go home and relax, despite the chaos of boxes all around. Most of my plates and cutlery are packed, with a few left for daily use, along with all my books and DVD's so entertainment is limited to the 'net and the Xbox... which will also be packed shortly.

I had an unexpected visitor at the door today, one who has been by to see me several times already. More on this next week, I hope, when I have pictures.

One nice thing is that the NWN group I game with has seen a rise in numbers since the holidays, with a surprising number of new players dropping in to see the server. I've been stunned to encounter several folk who had actually read some of my Nichneven stories, which tickled me no end, I tells ya. It's good to be 'established' in that regard, in that people arrive fresh to the server and already have a sense of 'place' when they wander around to explore. Warms m'heart, it does.

Jan 16 - Lunch on the Prairie

I was up early today( my 1st of 3 days off )to fill in my passport renewal application, which was a nice change from having to go through all the rigmarole of getting one in the first place. The office was right here in Victoria, which was also nice; it moved into the top level of the Bay Center, which makes it quite convenient to get to and as an added bonus for the employees, it is set next to the food court - lunch breaks!

I didn't have lunch there though; instead, I wound up at the Prairie Inn, a place out in East Saanich that was established back in 1859... which perhaps explains why there is no website for it. The pub decor is eclectic, the ceilings are low and the whole place has that ramshackle feel of rooms added one by one as the space ran out. But the food: that's what has kept this place open. I had a large turkey pot pie that was baked to a perfect golden brown, with just the right amount of thick gravy and a huge side Caesar salad. The chunks of turkey inside the pie were thumb-thick, perfect white meat... my parent's meals were equally generous in portions and equally perfectly cooked. We all left with take-home boxes and the feeling of being quite full.

I spent the afternoon and evening packing more boxes, thankful that I had kept all the old bubblewrap and other moving materials from the last move in my storage locker here. Makes the job easier in some ways, though as always it comes down to fill box, tape, label and repeat. When all is said and done, I expect to have over a hundred boxes all told, plus furniture and bags of various soft items like linens. One can only imagine how much easier this would be if every book I had was an eBook... fifty boxes right there, give or take.

Oh, and Battlestar Galactica had its season premiere tonight... which I didn't see, and don't plan to until after the move. For now, I will content myself with a few BSG webisodes, which may be the wave of the future: smaller, less expensive side-plots to the main show that fill in unanswered questions and such.

Jan 17 - Star Wars Nerds love bacon?

While g33k culture has flourished, the stereotypes of the geeky cousin, the nerd living in his parent's basement, remains strong in today's society. While I don't normally endorse ridicule of such unfortunates, I did come across a hilarious mockumentary of the D&D gaming nerd called Fear Of Girls, which oddly has a very spartan companion website - odd, given the series' popularity. The comic writing is spot-on, and the production quality is rather high overall, given the medium. Go have a laugh.

If you liked that, you'll snort milk from your nose when you see this: The first Star Wars Trilogy as told by someone who hasn't actually seen it... in less than 4 minutes.

And what would this blog be without mention of bacon? This week, for those of you with a BBQ gleam in your eye for the first day of spring( months hence )I present: the Bacon Explosion!

Jan 18 - Half-Life 2

While I was out yesterday, I picked up The Orange Box fairly cheaply at EB Games. I've been waiting a while to get this compilation set, simply because my old PC couldn't handle it: it contains HalfLife2, both expansion Episodes, Team Fortress2 and the award-winning Portal... well, HL2 won a bunch of awards too, you know. I played it on and off all day, in between packing various things, and eventually played it well into the late hours of the night. I have to say I loved the graphics for the characters, but the background objects left something to be desired: often ladders and such appeared, well, flat... which is bad for a 3-D game. The story is decent, and the gameplay itself is solid... there are even such notable actors as Lou Gosset Jr and Michelle Forbes, who is also voicing a character in the upcoming Chronicles of Riddick videogame. Eventually I stopped playing, due to a combination of fatigue and the onset of a headache... the high pressure system here is still hanging around, which is great for the weather bu lousy for my constitution.


More cardboardy goodness next week, as I discover where I hid those missing parts for my computer... plus tell you about my visitor. Don't forget, you can always review my past blogs from the menu on the left, by year and by month - click on the triangle / arrows to see a month-by-month listing, etc.

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!