Here's a shot of Garrett looking at one of the chimps at the zoo... or was it an orangutan? I forget... 

FSM!

I've been watching the Evolution, Schmevolution series of shows on The Daily Show this past week and it's been a very funny look at the debate between teaching evolution and creationism, er, Intelligent Design in US schools.

Little did I know that this whole debate has opened up a new school of thought. Yup. I'm talking about the FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER!

'But while the "theory" [of intelligent design] relies on the existence of a god, it does not specify which god. It was only when the state of Kansas announced earlier this year that its schools could teach ID in science classes that the Flying Spaghetti Monster made Himself widely known.

In an open letter to the Kansas Board of Education in July, Mr Henderson wrote: "I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.

"I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster."'

I think it's awesome, if for no other reason than the following:

"...According to the creed of Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, every Friday is a religious holiday, while true believers are urged to dress as pirates because of their founder's discovery of a causal relationship between global warming and a decline in the number of buccaneers in the past 200 years."

I dare anyone to prove otherwise!



---
What I'm Reading: Death Sentences, Minnow Trap
What I'm Playing: Radiata Stories, WoW
What I'm Watching: My ears bleed as I listen to Canadian Idol

I'm not dead yet!

Just a quick blurb here to say that yes, I am alive.

If you were wondering about the lack of updates over the last week, I was up on Manitoulin Island with the guys from work at a resort for 6 days. Yup, I have a tough job sometimes. Getting up and going fishing every morning AND getting paid for it was nice. We saw a lot of gorgeous views and while it wasn't a vacation, it did have its moments (see the above fishing statement).

Unfortunately, I seem to have contracted the rare Manitoulin Mumps which bear a strong resemblance to my yearly death cold. I'm not sure if it was just the crazy long drives back and forth or the fact that I was sleeping in a really cold cabin and sitting on a boat in the middle of the lake for a chunk of the week. Suffice it to say, I'm sick today. It could be this stupid heat blast too.

I'll post a bigger blurb (hopefully) tomorrow as my only real plans are to go to Guelph and pick up We Love Katamari. That seems to be a bust as the EB site now says it's not shipping until Sept. 20 (this despite the EB guys saying that it's in transit to the store and should be there on Tuesday).

As long as I'm not popping Tylenol Sinus tablets like I have been today I should be good to blather tomorrow.

I'm going to go curl up on the couch now.

---
What I'm Reading: Minnow Trap
What I'm Playing: Radiata Stories
What I'm Watching: Prison Break

let's gobble on that infant. infants are useless.
also very soft, which is good, 'cause I'm toothless.

Straight Talk

I'm sure most of you have heard or seen coverage of the insanity in New Orleans over the last few days. If you haven't, I'm sure you're enjoying the bottom of the rock you've been living under :)

One of the most heartfelt pleas for help that I've heard is this interview with the Mayor of New Orleans.

I'd recommend listening to the uncensored version here on the net as it really conveys how desperate things are.

And that's that with that.

There isn't a cure for what I have...

I think I've got Ludditis.

Between my computer locking up last night and giving me some kind of hardware power warning in the BIOS when I rebooted (I never did find out what the warning actually was for), my internet being down subsequent to that and then my DVD player acting all wonky when I went to watch a movie later on...

Yup. I've got Ludditis.

If the Xbox had belched flames after I turned it on, it would have just been another symptom.

---
What I'm Reading: Night Watch
What I'm Playing: DS2, WoW, Darkwatch
What I'm Watching: Something on TV. My next 3 days whiz by far too fast...

It's Your Birthday, Hey Davey, Get Busy...

Today marks my widdle brudder Dave's foray into his 28th trip around the sun (yes, that means he just turned 27).

To celebrate, I shall put his favourite piece of art up on my site.

Dave, feast your eyes upon...



TUBCAT!!!

Enjoy what's left of your birthday, bro.
---
What I'm Reading: Night Watch
What I'm Playing: Sudoku (EVIL!), WoW, DS2
What I'm Watching: Suspect Zero

I'm not having a good day...

Computer-wise, at least.

I was checking my e-mail last night just before bed and as I closed Outlook Express it started to compact the folders automatically. I have no idea why it does this every so often as I have no task schedulers active nor do I have any options checked in OE to do this. It just does it sometimes when I close the program down.

ANYWAY, I decided to check a website or two while this was going on and as I was looking at one site, the computer just froze. Sometimes my system kind of slows down but it usually is only for a couple seconds while something like a game is closing down.

So I wait... and wait... and wait... nothing. I don't hear any noise from the tower (aside from the incessant grinding of the loose bearing in my video card fan) and the mouse and keyboard are unresponsive.

So I just rebooted the computer, waited for the login screen for XP to show up and went to bed.

This morning I wake up before work and check my e-mail... only there's only 8 messages in my inbox. I had about 2500 in there last night. Funny enough, the deleted messages from the night before which are permanently deleted whenever I shut down OE were still in the folder, leading me to believe that OE was actually busy compacting my mail and that my computer was just really bogged down, not locked up.

Ah well. I didn't really need any of those e-mails anyway. All of the pictures and such were saved elsewhere on my drive and none of the account information on there was of such importance that I couldn't get the information from the website it was from.

Still, it was kind of annoying and didn't put me in a terribly good mood for the rest of the day. Couple this with a possible catastrophe awaiting me at work (which thankfully had been resolved before I got there) and my annoyance at having my journalistic integrity impugned on Evil Avatar yesterday... well, I just wasn't in a good mood in the morning.

Actually, I'm still in kind of a funky mood, and not the disco kind of funky. It's probably just the weather or something. I just want to have supper, curl up in front of a hot monitor and play some Dungeon Siege before going to bed early. I think my months, nay, years of getting far less than the recommended daily dose of vitamin sleep are finally catching up.

Stupid Outlook Express...

If anyone has a copy of the letter we sent out when Garrett was born, could you please send it to us? That's the one piece of mail we lost that we hadn't saved otherwise and would like to receive again. Also, if you sent any mail to Garrett's account, please re-send it so I can save that. We lost ALL of my and Garrett's e-mail. Julie still has her's though... lucky devil...

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What I'm Reading:
What I'm Playing:
What I'm Watching:

What to play when the hurricane hits...

After an aborted attempt to visit the local wading pool, Garrett & I hit the Milton Mall for some retail therapy. Thankfully, that consisted of getting some munchies for our upcoming vacation at Bulk Barn and a Sudoku book to take on my trip to Manitoulin Island next week.

A new game & miniatures store opened up in the mall so I had to pop in. They had a pretty decent selection of RPG's but there were too many figurines. Ah well.

I did pick up the Munchkin card game. I figure that I've already shown my friends all of my videogames and I'm even starting to get sick of them sometimes (the games, not my friends) so now we have something else to play.

"Go down in the dungeon. Kill everything you meet. Backstab your friends and steal their stuff. Grab the treasure and run.

[Munchkin] captures the essence of the dungeon experience . . . with none of that stupid roleplaying stuff. You and your friends compete to kill monsters and grab magic items. And what magic items! Don the Horny Helmet and the Boots of Butt-Kicking. Wield the Staff of Napalm . . . or maybe the Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment. Start by slaughtering the Potted Plant and the Drooling Slime, and work your way up to the Plutonium Dragon . . ."



Plus you can play cards when the power goes out, as it inevitably will on Wednesday when Hurricane Katrina hits.

---
What I'm Reading: Night Watch (Yay! Pratchett!)
What I'm Playing: WoW, Dungeon Siege 2, Pandora's Box, Geist
What I'm Watching: UHF

Jolty

It's probably banned in most developed countries, but it turns out that there is a Jolt gum. Yup, twice the caffeine, all the flavour of your average gum.

I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not.

Save Our Squids

It's a little known fact, but the Northwestern Tree Octopus is almost extinct.

Check out that site for more information.

Here's a picture from the site, in case you aren't convinced it's a worthy cause.



---
What I'm Reading: Stormchaser
What I'm Playing: Dungeon Siege 2, Geist
What I'm Watching: Trading Spaces: Home Improv (way too funny)

This is in American Dollars too!

As if I didn't already have little hope of getting an Xbox 360, check out the bundles being offered at Gamestop for the November release of the system.

Then check out The OMEGA bundle.

Yup. That's $2000 US. Granted, you get every single game slated for release on it for the launch and probably the next 6 months, but still... $2000? Yeesh.

Unless I win the lottery, I'm not getting any of the new systems until well into the next generation. I've got too many games for this round.

See Ya, Dereth The New

This is interesting news for those of us who played Asheron's Call.

Asheron's Call 2 is being shut down as of the end of this year.

I love the Asheron's Call IP. Very cool take on fantasy without dealing with the usual dragon & elf template.

AC2, however, was a very broken game that I could never play without having horrendous lag. It's interesting to note that the first game is still chugging along and being played while the sequel is now dead and will be unplugged after Christmas.

Just thought those of you from the GoG would be interested to see this.

---
What I'm Reading: Stormchaser
What I'm Playing: WoW, Geist
What I'm Watching: Stevie (aka the documentary that essentially chronicles my job)

Fire Hall Trip

I want to get this on a mug or a t-shirt. 

Garrett loved looking at the fire trucks today. He was pretty much dragging me around the bay while the rest of the group stood around by the one pumper. 

Garrett & Sparky look on as they load up this 40 pound kid with about 60 pounds of safety gear. I was ready for him to collapse in on himself and create a black hole. Thankfully that didn't happen. 

Garrett went to the fire hall today and got to meet Sparky, the world's creepiest safety mascot.  

What I learned on my summer vacation.

When the temperature is hovering around 17 degrees Celcius, there's a chilly north wind blowing and the sky looks like it's about to burst open and usher in Armageddon; that, my friend, is not the time to be standing knee deep in a lake for an hour while wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

Of course, I found that out the hard way last night. Stupid fishing expeditions I knew nothing about... The worst part was that I did the lake experiment after spending upwards of 9 hours driving people to and from bank machines. I was a little bit tired at the end of my twelve-hour shift last night :P

---
What I'm Reading: Aquainted With The Night, Skychaser
What I'm Playing: Brothers In Arms: Road To Hill 40
What I'm Watching: Angels In America (yawn)

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY?

TODAY!

AS SEEN ON GRANT'S BLOG!

YOU CAN BECOME A SUPERHERO!!!

Just sign here, here and here.

Thank you, come again.

The James Hayward Documentary

Julie & I went out today to see The 40-Year Old Virgin.

It was absolutely hilarious. I don't think I've laughed so hard in a movie theatre in quite some time. Julie was even laughing her head off too. If any movie deserves to be seen this summer, this was it.

I will warn everyone that it is somewhat crude, especially at the beginning, but it really doesn't seem gratuitously so. I think that's why it works. Everything seems rather realistic which helps keep the movie from becoming a total farce.

Frankly, it's American Pie for adults. With 75% less Stifler.

Can't think of anything more to say except that Julie actually liked it a lot!

Oh wait. I remembered the thing that drove me nuts in the flick.

Andy, the title character, has "more videogames than a teenage Asian kid". Videogames are a big part of his life. Heck, there's a whole scene that takes place around two of his buddies destroying each other in a game of either Mortal Kombat: Deception or Dark Alliance.

It's kind of cool to see them playing the game and doing fatalities and such... except that one of the guys is somehow playing a current generation fighting game WITH AN N64 CONTROL PAD!!!

If you're going to have a whole scene revolving around two guys playing videogames, why can't you at least give them the proper controllers? Sigh...

---
What I'm Reading: The Corporation
What I'm Playing: Pandora's Box (woo! Puzzles!), THIS close to finishing Atelier Iris.
What I'm Watching: The 40 Year Old Virginian.

Sanctimonious Twaddle Indeed...

Ever since the CBC locked out the people who actually make the magic happen on-air, I've essentially been forced to listen to CFRB as I loathe most of the commercial music radio stations. What they call the 'new CBC' is impossible to listen to. It's nice to hear reruns of Bill Richardson doing the Roundup (I'm not a huge Tetsuro fan) and I hear that there are rumours of Grooveshinny reruns *yay* so it's not ALL bad, but I really can't stand to listen to the amateur hour when they have the managers running the show.

CFRB has an amusing little ad that plays every so often to welcome in the 'refugees of public broadcasting' to their land of 'the same insight and information with 50% less pompous bluster'.

Of course, that 50% is filled with annoying commercials, so it's still not that great.

It is a pretty big switch in styles. I know that the CFRB guys are pushing buttons on purpose to drive up ratings and create a buzz for the nutjobs that call in. It's amusing although I do want to put my fist through the radio sometimes because they're so stupid. Thank God I only have a 5 minute drive to and from work now...

As for the TV stuff, I miss The National but I'll get by. It's the Radio One stuff (and CBC.ca) that is hitting me the hardest.

That said, there's an amusing, albeit skewed, article by Lynwood Barclay on how the CBC's programming has changed.

My favourite lines:

"12 p.m. The Midday News With Knowlton Nash.

12:59-1 p.m., 1-1:01 p.m., 1:01-1:02 p.m., 1:02-1:03 p.m., 1:03-1:04 p.m., 1:04-1:05 p.m., 1:05-1:06 p.m., 1:06-1:07 p.m., 1:07-1:08 p.m., 1:08-1:09 p.m., 1:09-1:10 p.m.

Borrowed from the archives of CBC Radio, the Best of Time Signal.
Relive some of the best beeps and pauses over the last 40 years."

I also got a comment down there on my "CBC vs. the CBC" post from a few days ago, this time by Jennifer Quesnel, an actual CBC reporter! I'm trying to figure out if she's praising my little post or slagging it... Regardless, it led me over to her blog which is very interesting insider's view of what's going on and how it's affecting the workers who are locked out.
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What I'm Reading: The Corporation
What I'm Playing: Atelier Iris
What I'm Watching: Clouds blow across the sky

A-Maiz-ing

I'm putting out the call for all interested parties to come down to the GGA (Greater Guelph Area) during the last weekend of October for a run through the HAUNTED MAZE.

Make that HAUNTED MAIZE. There's this really cool cornfield maze just outside of Guelph that we took the guys from the house to yesterday for an outing. It's actually quite tricky to find your way through in the middle of a bright sunny day. It would be awesome to do it at night with all sorts of cool spooky things happening.

I think it's really an elaborate ruse to lure suckers in to be sacrificed to the crop gods. Either way it'd be pretty cool to do.

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What I'm Reading: Dead Beat (almost done)
What I'm Playing: Atelier Iris (hopefully almost done too), WoW
What I'm Watching: Nothing much.

August Picture Dump!

Garrett simulates what happens if you are to get into a collision and aren't wearing your seatbelt. Notice the steering wheel crushing his chest as he flies out the windshield? That's quality work there. It's the details that really matter in this business... 

One of Garrett's recent aquisitions during the last Junk Day in Acton was this sporty little number. It's got a few dents and scrapes, but the price was right. Garrett uses it to practice whatever wierd dance step he's in the middle of there... 

Due to a shortage of qualified firefighters in the Halton Hills region, the HHFD has had to lower the age qualifications significantly. Thankfully pay is significantly lower for the new recruits as their union has only demanded 2 naps a day and a clean diaper every shift. 

It's Garrett, the Acton Sheep Yodeler. 

Garrett contemplates how to ride into action given that he just recently mastered walking...

Garrett meets up with the ugliest baby in all of Caledon. 

Don't work at EB

There's a great series of articles over at Gamers With Jobs by a former EB store manager. The first one is about how it warped his psyche and the rest are more to do with how EB does business and why it does it that way.

As much as I love videogames, the more I learn about the actual industry itself, the more I want to stay on the consumer side of things.

---
What I'm Reading: Dead Beat
What I'm Playing: Atelier Iris, maybe some Warrior Within, trying out the DC I bought a week or so ago (fishing rod controllers are awesome!)
What I'm Watching: Not much.

A WoW World

This is an amusing article about how MMORPG's will someday be as commonplace as e-mail and mobile phones.

"Even now, much of the satisfaction for WoW gamers is in the very real sense of accomplishment they get, a person glowing with a burst of golden light when they gain a level in experience and strength. How can the real world compete with that? Wouldn't those long Calculus lectures have been easier to sit through if, every time you learned something important, gold light shot out from your body?"

I wish. I also like this arguement about why theft of items in an online game should be punishable by jail time.

"...Let's say our friend John has his Bonebiter (one of countless powerful weapons in WoW) and a man steals it somehow. Should the thief be convicted of a crime and punished in the real world? Did you snort with laughter at that question?

Why?

The victim worked many hours to 'earn' the object. The victim used it daily and depended on it. He derived happiness and satisfaction from it. So why shouldn't depriving him of it be punishable by law? If you say, 'but it's just something he used in a game,' I'll say that golf is also just a game. Want to see what happens to me when I steal a new set of golf clubs?"

---
What I'm Reading: Dead Beat
What I'm Playing: WoW, FFVII, JSRF
What I'm Watching: Constantine

More craziness

In an example of privacy laws gone berserk, the killer of Lynda Shaw has finally been identified... sort of...

On Friday, police told a news conference in London, Ont., that privacy laws are protecting the man's identity, even though he's been dead since 1994. OPP Det. Supt. Ross Bingley told reporters: "We now know without question" the man's identity.

"We now have learned that this person was a convicted killer," he said adding that the man was on parole after serving 12 years for two other homicides.

First off, the guy's dead.

Secondly, if you are a convicted killer AND the police have evidence which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are responsible for a person's death, you should have no privacy rights where that's concerned.

If he were alive he'd be named. Why is this different because he's dead? Maybe there's a logical, although stupid, reason for this. I just can't see it.

Use Neutron Bombs

This is an excellent article rebutting historical revisionists on the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

"We might have gotten a negotiated peace if we had dropped the “unconditional surrender” demand. But at what cost? Seeing a militaristic Japan arise again in a few years, this time armed with nuclear weapons that they would not have hesitated for one minute to drop on Americans.

As it was, the unconditional surrender of Japan enabled General Douglas MacArthur to engineer one of the great historic transformations of a nation from militarism to pacifism, to the relief of hundreds of millions of their neighbors, who had suffered horribly at the hands of their Japanese conquerors."

[Edit: OH MY GOD! I just agreed, nay, linked to a site for fans of Ayn Rand. NOOO!!!]

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What I'm Reading: Dead Beat
What I'm Playing: Killer 7 (almost finished)
What I'm Watching: Dark Water (original Japanese version), Time Bandits, Constantine

The CBC vs. The CBC

According to the CBC, the CBC may be locked out in 72 hours if the CBC doesn't agree to let the CBC hire new CBC staff on a temporary contract basis.

The CBC doesn't like this arrangment, stating that the CBC is trying to turn the CBC into a bunch of temps.

Of course, the CBC didn't like the CBC's attitude and is now threatening to lock the CBC out. This means that the CBC won't be able to run the CBC and many CBC programs, both on CBC and CBC, as well as CBC, will be cut back or cancelled completely for the duration.

I guess I'll just have to go to my emergency source of Fair & Balanced News.

[Ever have a word (or in this case, the CBC) look wrong, even though it's spelled right? That just happened. I'm not sure if that means I'm tired or just wierd.]

Garrett: Wild Turtle Hunter

We stopped in at the library today to pick up some books and noticed that we had to park a particularly far distance from the bridge to the library. And yes, you have to cross a bridge to get to the library in Acton. That's what makes it so cool.

Anyway, we went inside to pick up the books and the librarians asked us if Garrett was there to see Franklin the Turtle. We didn't know there was a turtle due to arrive at the library in mere minutes, so we went downstairs to see him.

Franklin arrived and while he was answering questions from the kids, Garrett started bulling his way up through the throng. The next thing I know he's standing there a foot away from Franklin. Seeing how he was the first kid to get up there, the guy from the newspaper took a few pictures but by that time Garrett was more interested in the camera than the turtle. Ah well. He did stay up at the front for a while until there were too many kids. I'll let you know if he made it into the local paper or not.

Not bad for a random visit to the library.

A dirty haXXor that Anakin punk is.

Grant sent me the link to a funny video.

If Gamers Subtitled Star Wars

ALL JEDI ARE K.O.S.!

Thank god the crew I play with on WoW are not those kind of gamers... I stay as far away from the AOL kiddy crowd as possible. I like my chats to bear some resemblence to inglush.

---
What I'm Reading: Dead Beat
What I'm Playing: Killer 7
What I'm Watching: Kung Fu Hustle, some random TV

I know where Survivorman lives...

A week or two ago I was watching what was probably the final episode of Survivorman for this season and thought to myself, "Self, you should e-mail Les Stroud's company and ask them if they are ever going to make a DVD set."

So I took my own advice and did so. I hadn't heard anything back for the last little while and figured the e-mail got lost in the ether.

Lo and behold, I come home from work tonight and there's an e-mail from no less than Suvivorman himself, Les Stroud, sitting in my inbox.

According to him, "The Survivorman DVD series wont be available until the summer or fall, when it is finished, however 3 other videos available are - Snowshoes and Solitude an award winning film about the year my wife and I spent living in the bush - as if it were five hundred years ago....and - Stranded - winter, Stranded - summer......the two original pilot versions of Survivorman which did so very well for the Discovery Channel."

Unfortunately, they're all on VHS. Ew... I'll just wait for the DVD's for now.

He also included his home address. I wish I could live up where he does... sigh.

I bet he was playing Lineage or Starcraft...

To any and all who think I play to many videogames, I once again point to the mighty nation of South Korea and say, "I'm nowhere near as bad as them!!!"

'A South Korean man who recently quit his job to play more video games died after playing almost non-stop for 50 hours at an internet café.'

The sad thing is that as an avid game news junkie, the first thing I thought when I saw the headline Man Dies After Marathon Videogame Session was, "Hmm... I bet it's a story from South Korea."

They actually have televised gaming tournaments overthere that put our professional sports coverage to shame. But for me, that's taking your games WAAAY too seriously. I like games for the fun and/or storytelling that takes place in an interactive medium. The obsession of that whole country scares me!

Check out The Escapist's great article on South Korea for more info.

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What I'm Reading: Dead Beat
What I'm Playing: Killer 7
What I'm Watching: DANGER: 50,000 Volts!

Idiot

I don't know what's worse. That she left the kid in the truck to begin with or that her only excuse was, "I didn't know my kid was in my truck."

So you're going to argue that rather than endangering your child's life on purpose, you just don't care where your kid is.

Idiot.

We're in a new jam bracket

We went out to the annual Acton Leathertown Festival yesterday to see if we could get Garrett on a pony. After we got there, we realized that he's a wee bit small for a pony ride. We'll hold off until next year.

He did pet a few goats, sheep and one horse, but that was the extent of his wilderness exposure. The day before we'd gone to Erin for their annual sidewalk sale and Garrett found a miniature horse that was just his height. I've got some great pictures. You'll just have to wait until the morning for me to upload them.

Anyway, at the festival on Sunday we were on our way out when we passed a booth with all sorts of gourmet jams and spreads. Seeing how they had samples, we tried some and they were delicious. Unfortunately they were $8/jar or 3 for $20.

So we now have three jars of what I call my 'Corner Gas Marmalade'.

We have a jar of blueberry and black currant spread (mmm), one of sherried cherries in raspberry jam (double mmmm!) and the coup de grace is the Irish Caramel spread, which is a rich butterscotch with Bailey's Irish Cream mixed in (*faint*). We spoil ourselves about once a year with some kind of expensive jam, usually bought at a local fair or craft show. The nice thing is that these will last at least a year.

Mmm...

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What I'm Reading: Dead Beat
What I'm Playing: FF VII (and loving it), Killer 7
What I'm Watching: Steamboy, the FFVII: Advent Children trailer and Deadwood

A few pictures I found while looking through my Picasa collection

This is why I'm not buying any of the new consoles right off the bat :) 

Why? Because I'm mean. 

A Really Big Ad

This ad for Carlsberg Draught is probably the best one I've seen in a while.

Best Trunk Sale Ever

We went to the Trunk Sale this morning as I had to find some kind of trinket to barter with Codeboy for the aquisition of Serenity #2. I found an awesome framed advertisement that must be seen to be believed.

But wait, that's not all!

I also saw an awesome antique typewriter going by the manufacturer's name Fox. It was a lot closer to what I've been looking for (ie. the old Underwood style typewriters as opposed to the 1960-style Smith-Corona's) but the guy wanted $20. Julie has already put up with two big typewriters... a third would not be welcome.

So I found my other Trunk Sale Treasure.

A Dreamcast with 4 controllers, the FISHING ROD CONTROLLER and a CD book full of games. Not bad at all! Never hurts to have a backup Dreamcast, the best system ever made.

Of course, Julie has banned me from going to the Trunk Sale for the next few weeks as I keep finding cool stuff and dragging it home with me. Ah well.

It's sad because it's true

One of the staff didn't show up for work the other day which lead to one of the guys living at the home to go up to our manager and say, "You know, if this was a real job, he'd be in trouble."

We couldn't stop laughing... or were we crying?

Suffice it to say, whenever any problems or conflicts came up after that, we'd say, "Well, if this was a real job..."

From the mouths of babes, as it were...

Brock: Killer of Fish

This week has seen me returning somewhat to my roots as an outdoorsy type. I know, most of you are either calling me a liar or have fallen off your chairs, but it's true. I love doing stuff outside so long as it's interesting. Interesting to me means hunting down bugs and snakes and other wigglie-wogglies, not running along a road or other excercisey stuff. If I happen to have to walk for a while through a nice forest to see a cool rock outcropping or waterfall, that's fine. I just don't care to do the walk for the walk itself.

That said, I spent a lot of time this week outside. We went hiking on Monday at Hilton Falls and that was fun. The best thing about the trip, aside from the awesome reference photos I took of the terrain, was the giant millipede I found on the ground. It was about as long as my index finger and seemed to have a lot of fun running around on my hand. Unlike most of my invertebrate aquaintences, this guy was set free and does not reside in my freezer.

This week also saw my return to the land of the mighty angler. I got my rod and tacklebox back from my Dad and proceeded to get my fishing license. On Friday I went out with one of the guys at work to his favourite fishing hole and caught a rock bass and another, non-lithic, bass. Not bad for someone who hasn't really been fishing in more than, oh, 10 years. I just wish that the two fish hadn't been killed in the process. I was trying to catch and release but I doubt either fish survived my ministrations. Well, one might have gotten away. The other was last seen splashing around near the surface on its side surrounded by a school of minnows who looked out for revenge. Ah well.

They're all going to be following this guy's lead soon.



Today I caught a great big beetle on the side of a building on the way to the Trunk Sale. That was another unexpected catch. Julie even let me keep it, however begrudgingly.

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What I'm Reading: Dead Beat: Harry Dresden Book 6
What I'm Playing: Atelier Iris, WoW, Fire Emblem 2, maybe Final Fantasy VII
What I'm Watching: Deadwood: Season 1, Steamboy

"They don't know it yet, but I've replaced their lettuce with fresh oak leaves picked on our way up here. Let's see if they can tell the difference." So begins Garrett's career as a TV spokesman and ambush journalist. 

And here's a nice shot with Grandma & Grandpa at the end of our hike. 

Here's another shot of the falls. Garrett didn't know what to make of them. He'd reach out for the water and then yank his hand away when he touched it. Strange stuff, those fluid dynamics. 

King Garrett surveys his realm. 

Here we are on our way down to the waterfalls. Always practice the buddy system when hiking! 

We went for a hike down at Hilton Falls today. Garrett didn't believe me that there was treasure behind the waterfall so we had to go check. 

Garrett was wandering around like the Grand Vizier Of Ducktown after his bath yesterday. 

I WON! I WON!!!

I can't believe I actually won something, and on Simcoe Day of all days!

Granted, it's nothing THAT special. Every month the folks over at Evil Avatar have a draw for 5-6 comics and you can put your name in every week during that month.

Somehow my one entry was picked this month and I am da winna!

The reason I'm so happy about it is that the Serenity #1 comic is part of that winning package. I've been trying to hunt down that issue for the past 3 weeks, to no avail. I even had Codeboy scouring the shops in Toronto for me. I'd ask James, but he's too busy eating tasty and delicious bomb treats.

So it's a happy day for me. I get 5 comics at no cost to me and one of them is the comic I've been trying to find for over a fortnight!
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What I'm Reading: Beyond The Deepwoods
What I'm Playing: WoW, Fire Emblem 2 (so bloody addictive!)
What I'm Watching: Nothing! Went for a few hikes lately though. Neato!

The Halflife & Death of Gordon Frohman

If you've played Half-Life 2 or the first HL game and want to bust a gut laughing, check out Concerned: The Half-Life & Death of Gordon Frohman.

Read the notes accompanying the comics too. It's hilarious so far.

A Nice Firm Rebuttal

I have wanted to read the book, "Everything Bad Is Good For You", ever since I saw an interview with the author on The Daily Show a few months back.

Now Steven Johnson has responded to all of the caterwauling by politicians and pundits in the states with an awesome letter in the LA Times.

"I'm writing to commend you for calling for a $90-million study on the effects of video games on children, and in particular the courageous stand you have taken in recent weeks against the notorious "Grand Theft Auto" series.

I'd like to draw your attention to another game whose nonstop violence and hostility has captured the attention of millions of kids — a game that instills aggressive thoughts in the minds of its players, some of whom have gone on to commit real-world acts of violence and sexual assault after playing.

I'm talking, of course, about high school football.

I know a congressional investigation into football won't play so well with those crucial swing voters, but it makes about as much sense as an investigation into the pressing issue that is Xbox and PlayStation 2.

Your current concern is over explicit sex in "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas." Yet there's not much to investigate, is there? It should get rated appropriately, and that's that. But there's more to your proposed study: You want to examine how video games shape children's values and cognitive development.

Kids have always played games. A hundred years ago they were playing stickball and kick the can; now they're playing "World of Warcraft," "Halo 2" and "Madden 2005." And parents have to drag their kids away from the games to get them to do their algebra homework, but parents have been dragging kids away from whatever the kids were into since the dawn of civilization.

So any sensible investigation into video games must ask the "compared to what" question. If the alternative to playing "Halo 2" is reading "The Portrait of a Lady," then of course "The Portrait of a Lady" is better for you. But it's not as though kids have been reading Henry James for 100 years and then suddenly dropped him for Pokemon."

There's more, but that's a taste.

It was a dark and stormy night...

...when the intrepid blogger noticed the e-mail from his friend containing a link to the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest which tries to find the worst possible opening sentence for a fictional novel, a link which he had meant to put up on his blog but didn't get around to, much like the half-baked soufflé currently deflating on the counter like so many wilted dreams.

And if you thought that was bad, check out the winner of the contest!

"As he stared at her ample bosom, he daydreamed of the dual Stromberg carburetors in his vintage Triumph Spitfire, highly functional yet pleasingly formed, perched prominently on top of the intake manifold, aching for experienced hands, the small knurled caps of the oil dampeners begging to be inspected and adjusted as described in chapter seven of the shop manual."

The others aren't much better.

"India, which hangs like a wet washcloth from the towel rack of Asia, presented itself to Tex as he landed in Delhi (or was it Bombay?), as if it mattered because Tex finally had an idea to make his mark and fortune and that idea was a chain of steak houses to serve the millions and he wondered, as he deplaned down the steep, shiny, steel steps, why no one had thought of it before." My personal favourite :)

Or...

"Sphincter, the gladiator, girded his loins in preparation for today's games, glad to be part of the season opener since he hadn't been sure until yesterday that his contract would be renewed, given his slump during the Germans-versus-lions series but he knew that swatting Germans into the lion's pit was trickier than it looked and he told the officials that they should look at his other stats, not just Huns batted in."

And...

"Patricia wrote out the phrase 'It was a dark and stormy night' exactly seventy-two times, which was the same number of times she stabbed her now quickly-rotting husband, and the same number of pages she ripped out of 'He's Just Not That Into You' by Greg Behrendt to scatter around the room -- not because she was obsessive compulsive, or had any sentimental attachment to the number seventy-two, but because she'd always wanted to give those quacks at CSI a hard time."

Make sure you check out the Purple Prose section :)

Most annoying Web trends

Here's a neat little survey of the most annoying web trends.

I really can't disagree with any of the selections.

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What I'm Reading: Beyond The Deepwoods
What I'm Playing: Fire Emblem 2
What I'm Watching: Nothing much

The West Wing: Season 2

I finished watching the second season of The West Wing last night and man, is that show ever amazing. I almost wish I'd watched it since the start, but I do enjoy having it on DVD, even if it's the library's.

It's up there with Buffy, Angel and Firefly with regards to the quality of the storylines, writing and characters. Don't laugh. I dare you to find shows that are better written than those by Joss Whedon of Buffy fame and Aaron Sorkin of The West Wing. Both are able to create very real characters in very extraordinary circumstances and walk the line between comedy and drama like a funambulist.

The final episode of Season 2 ended perfectly. Why? They played the entire song (with one minor edit) of Dire Strait's "Brothers In Arms" over a very dramatic scene. Anything with "Brothers In Arms" playing overtop of it automatically gets better, in my humble opinion.

The tragic death of Neville Longbottom

I just finished reading Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince. I promise I won't give away any spoilers.

I will say that it was easily my favourite of the series. The plot was much tighter than Goblet of Fire and The Order Of The Phoenix. It also set up the final book magnificently. We, the reader, actually have a pretty good idea as to what the basic plot of the next book will be this time instead of coming in and having to wonder what wackiness will ensue. This is a good thing as we can speculate more on exactly what the characters will have to do and how they'll have to do it.

I'll say that in retrospect I should have been able to figure out who the Half-Blood Prince was much earlier than I did. It wasn't for lack of clues. And even though the little girl next door did ruin the surprise of exactly who died in the book, the manner of the death and the reasons behind it were still a surprise when I got to that part.

My only complaint: Not enough Hedwig The Owl. And where were the killer squids? Ah well.

I just hope that J.K. Rowling doesn't get hit by a train or a boulder until she's finished the final book.

I want my Gameboy Games (as sung by Sting)

I recently unearthed the bag that I keep my GBA games in so I could try out some of the older ones in my new GBA SP. As I was sorting through them I came to the realization that a few of them have wandered off somewhere.

So I'm putting out the call to help me retrieve my missing GBA games.

They are:

Advance Wars
Klonoa: Empire of Dreams
Metroid: Zero Mission
WarioWare

If you happen to have one of these, let me know so I can stop trying to figure out where they got off to.

Busting out of my cel

Disney is closing their last hand-drawn animation studio next year.

Granted, the last batch of traditional animated films from Disney have been mediocre at best but I still think it's a shame that the company that more or less paved the way for North American animation is going to be focusing on 3D films instead. Now, I'm sure they're still doing 2D-hand-drawn TV series and such, but it looks like the next batch of Disney 'cartoons' will be done on computer instead.

I miss having a big Disney cartoon movie come out once a year or so. The last big 2D film was Lilo & Stitch... at least, the last one that was worth watching. Now Disney's falling into the same rut as the rest of Hollywood; look through your library, find a popular movie and crank out the sequels, only NOW IN 3D!

I guess that since Disney bought the rights to Miyazaki's films and has shown North American audiences what a real master can do with 2D, they don't need to bother doing anything on their own. Ah well.
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What I'm Reading: Beyond The Deepwoods
What I'm Playing: The Try To Stay Awake game.
What I'm Watching: Survivorman Behind The Scenes special

Walka walka walka!

In the last 2-3 days, Garrett has become VERY steady on his feet. He spent most of today walking around the house. I'm scared... very scared!!!

While I'm happy that he's able to walk now, I wish he'd stop thinking he can actually go down stairs facing forwards. He's giving us heart attacks everytime he gets to the top of the stairs. Thankfully he will sit down after a few tentative tries to put his foot down on the stair and will slide down on his tummy instead, giggling all the way.

Hooray! OUch...

Hooray! The shuttle launched. I'm kind of ticked though. I'd planned to watch it live today and then totally forgot until about 5 minutes after the fact. It was still nice to see but I wish I could have seen it live.

If I ever get the chance, I'd love to go down to see a shuttle launch in person. Read the latest Callahan book by Spider Robinson for what amounts to a love letter to NASA and the most romantic view of a shuttle launch ever put on paper.

As for the ouch, I was at work today and there was what looked to me to be a crane fly sitting on the ceiling. Crane flies, also known as mosquito hawks, are really neat insects that I try to shepherd outside whenever possible so they can continue eating mosquitos.

Anyway, I was at work and was going about my normal routine of gently getting the crane fly into my hand so I could put it outside. The second I got it in my hand I felt a sharp burning sensation on my little finger. I was either stung or bitten by the bloody thing.

Thankfully the guys ended up destroying the bugger (after they finished laughing at me) but now I can't figure out what it was. It was actually a little different than a crane fly and was a kind of bright red colour, but I just thought it was a different species. So far I haven't turned up anything but I'll bust out my field guide tomorrow and see what I can find.

Last time I try to save a mutant bloodsucking wasp-fly!

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What I'm Reading: Harry Potter (~500 pages in now)
What I'm Playing: WoW, Atelier Iris
What I'm Watching: The West Wing: Season 2

Stupid Fox

Well, it looks as though The Inside has fallen victim to standard Fox stupidity. It was a dark, complex thriller that was just starting to establish its main characters as real human beings. It hasn't officially been cancelled but the actors haven't had their contracts renewed so it looks like that's that.

Good thing they have top quality shows like "So You Think You Can Dance." to fill the void.

Stupid Fox.

It's one thing if they're going to go and make these boundary pushing shows. At least give them some time to grow a la X-Files. They just don't seem to get it. If it were to be left on for another season it could have built enough of a following to make it the next X-files as it was a lot more believable than The X-Files but still out there. Sigh.

It's so wierd that Fox the TV station puts out shows like The X-Files, The Inside and so forth that really push the envelope. Then you have Fox News which is where the people who hate the boundary pushing shows go to complain about them.

Actually, that sounds like a recipe for money...

Oh, and speaking of people complaining about stupid things, I was in EB today and they have actually sent back all of their copies of San Andreas (aside from used ones) due to the whole AO rating. Sigh.

Garrett's Adventures with Static Electricity.

We keep telling Garrett not to play with the toaster in the bathtub or his hair will go all VanDegraffy... But does he listen? Noooo... 

The only way to discharge his crazy hair was to stick him in the Holodeck for a few hours. Kids... 

Talking To Americans

My friend Deborah in Seattle sent me a link today and confessed that sometimes it's embarassing to be American.

Turns out the link is to a site that has a bunch of Talking To Americans segments on it. Take a look back at how silly and gullible people can be when they have a microphone stuffed in their face by someone who looks like a newscaster :)

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What I'm Reading: Harry Potter
What I'm Playing: Killer 7, some Atelier Iris
What I'm Watching: The West Wing: Season 2

Mmm... Poison

Here's a fun quiz.

Mountain Dew Code Red Ingredients Or Poison?

I got 9 out of 13.

Some WoW pics

Sorry about the huge blather in the post below. Here are some uplifting game screenshots to compensate.

Last week I hit a milestone in World of Warcraft and was finally able to get my mount. It's technically a Mechanostrider, but I call it my Robo-Chicken. My war-cry is "BU-CAW!!" Beware the Robo-Chicken.