Ceci n'est pas une Blog

I've MOVED!

2008-03-03T23:03:00.000-08:00

Update your bookmarks/RSS!

After a good, long run at this location...
I've decided to move the blog to a brand new home at Wordpress. I've been playing around with WP for a while and decided once and for all I like it better. Besides, nothing like a little change to spice things up, right? So yeah, I won't be posting here anymore, which is sad in a way, but I'm super-excited about my new location and I hope you enjoy it too. Everything, (posts, comments) from the Blogger version has been imported to the Wordpress blog.

Once again, here's the link:
http://nestpasblog.wordpress.com/

Hasta la vista, Blogger!

Out with the Old, In with the Blu

2008-02-28T11:36:00.000-08:00

This is now very old news, but I realized today I never made a post announcing or sharing my thoughts on the end of the format war. In case you live underground and haven't heard, Sony's Blu-ray has triumphed over HD-DVD as the next-generation entertainment/storage medium. I can't say I'm surprised. With a better storage capacity and a name with less than half the syllables of its adversary, Blu-ray has always been the better product in my mind. The final nail in HD-DVD's coffin was when Wal-Mart announced they'd only be carrying Blu-ray and DVDs henceforth. At that point, Toshiba threw in the towel and said they wouldn't be manufacturing any more HD-DVDs.

Do you think Blu-ray discs will be the last physical medium for the Blockbusters of the world to stand on, before Hollywood goes the way of the music industry? (That is, before it dies, slowly and painfully.) This year I've been renting movies a whole lot less than I did last year, despite living even closer to the video store. Although, the pitiful selection at Rogers Video doesn't exactly help. (In the last few weeks they've failed to have: Grosse Pointe Blank, Il Postino, America's Sweethearts, and Equilibrium, among others. Yeah. Shame shame shame!) Still, no matter where you go, nothing quite beats the savory flavor of freeness, something that March's issue of Wired says is going to be the new golden standard in the future of business. Indeed, more and more people are discovering the magic of Bittorrent, and sharing proliferates now more than it ever has. It's becoming difficult to keep track of everything.

Just a few days ago, for example, I discovered the amazing Stage6, which is YouTube-like in what it does and Torrent-like in what it delivers. The site offers full TV episodes of just about anything you want, but forget fiddling around with trackers and seeding, and all that other torrent nonsense. A whole episode of, say, Heroes, takes just a few minutes to buffer before it's ready for your viewing pleasure in full DVD-quality. Not bad for a video-hosting site! However, for reasons pertaining to its dubious legality, Stage6 is being shut down tomorrow, probably around midnight. So if you're like me and didn't know about it until now, you missed your chance! Still, we seem to be going through the same motions with movies today as we did with music back in the early 2000s. If you ask me, it's probably just a matter of time. Maybe one day we'll see a model in place where all films and TV are pay-what-you-want, a la Radiohead.

But, back to Blu-ray. One thing that's interesting about it is the fact that the PS3's power to groove with the format du jour is now more enticing. Also, if I remember correctly, they've scored a couple more exclusive and noteworthy titles since I last wrote about it. After all this time, I still want a friggin' Xbox 360. (And it might not be so far off - when I get a job this summer I should be able to meet this price as advertised on Newegg.) But perhaps now the PS3 will start getting some more, well, play. Back in the summer of '07, I got it straight from the horse's mouth that Sony intends for the PS3 to be a general entertainment unit, which seemed risky at the time since the format war was still in full-swing. Also, many gamers feel that software support is ultimately more important than the versatility of the medium. I cautiously count myself among those gamers, but I do see where Sony is coming from. I mean, let's face it: getting a two-for-one is sweet, because electronics are hella expensive. Especially when you're a student who will pay $500 for a course that teaches you how to transcribe English words into the phonetic alphabet, fork over another $100 for the textbook containing this worthwhile information, and then drop the course because, frankly, it kinda sucks. Ahem.

What's your take on the blu-ray takeover? Are you still mourning the passing of HD-DVD, (or thinking of buying a bunch of movies and a player for dirt cheap) or are you dancing on its grave, all decked out in your Sony memorabilia? How long will Blu-ray last, or will it have a lasting effect at all?

The Shiny Guy Always Worries

2008-02-26T08:04:00.001-08:00

A few people I know have been posting this in various places in the last couple days. This video is awesome.

Why NN is Important

2008-02-21T10:46:00.000-08:00

One of my friends dugg this image and I liked it so much I just had to post it here. (By "like", I mean it terrifies me.) Click to enlarge.

Sorry for the lack of content on this blog lately. Most of the stuff I'd post here always makes me think, "actually that'd be a good one for my class blog!" so I end up doing it there...since I get marks for it, and stuff. On the subject of net neutrality, though, here's a post I wrote recently explaining it since it came up in class and I was pretty sure a lot of my peers would be unfamiliar with the issue.

New Indie Trailer is Out

2008-02-20T00:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.indianajones.com/site/index.html

Can't wait. Though I didn't see Karen Allen's face anywhere in there, which makes me sad. I was hoping she'd make a comeback.

Disgusting

2008-02-18T19:45:00.000-08:00

You know what, Jack? Forget about giving this struggling new medium a hard time at every turn. That's bad, but it doesn't even come close to using a tragedy, a disaster in which young people lose their lives to further your own twisted agenda. It makes me sick. And then you threaten to sue the school if they don't humor you by sending you some information to support your little argument, which everyone knows is absurd in the first place. Let the people grieve, you twit.

Holy Fat Blue Text, Batman

2008-02-15T14:00:00.000-08:00

Edit: It's fixed itself now.

I did not manually change my list of del.icio.us links to a link cloud. Don't know why it's doing that. In fact, I don't even know if it's appearing that way for anyone other than me.

In any case, I'll fix it when I feel like it. I think my blog's earned enough cred looking super-sexy for long enough to hold me over for a couple days.

My reading week starts today. Cool, huh? I'm taking the bus home tonight. More posts and stuff coming soon.

Jeff Han's Amazing Multi-Touch UI

2008-02-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

Check. This. Out. My media prof emailed this TED Talk vid to my whole class. I think this is spectacular:

Told you so. For those saying this is just what the iPhone does, note that this was recorded a year ago. Also, the iPhone doesn't support more than 2 points of contact to be computed at a time, whereas this device can handle at least 20 according to Han. (He does not give an exact number but demonstrates using all 10 of his fingers, and says somebody else could be there manipulating objects as well.) In any case, the potential for this technology is nigh unfathomable. The photo exploring and object sculpting are fun, but what really struck me was the demonstration he gave near the end involving animated characters. I've been excited to watch the nascent stages of Mo-Capping over the last few years, and now similar human life can be injected into objects to create a puppet-like medium. Plus, unlike super-high-budget Peter Jackson movies that can afford to Mo-Cap, the average artist with average resources can take this on easily. (Assuming this technology is to be made attainable by that demographic.)

Imagine the potential for video games, too. The possibilities are endless.

This is all especially interesting to me because it's a perfect example of the aspect of my class I've taken the most interest in: that is, the notion of moving toward interfaceless-interaction in various media, as discussed in one of our texts, Remediation by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin.

The TED Talks

2008-01-27T22:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Rockwell for the heads-up on this. I haven't actually gotten the chance to look at this very closely yet, but I plan to.

TED Talks is a yearly event that invites many of the world's most renowned thinkers and doers to give an 18-minute lecture on something they feel is really important. And you get to watch for free. Pretty sweet deal.

Apologies for the lack in posting again. I've been busy in the last couple of days working on this mammoth of a post for my class blog that goes into further detail about my seminar topic which I presented to the class a week ago. It's been a struggle because I wanted to use iMovie to spruce up the home-made media I planned to include, but in one way or another iLife's been very elusive. I couldn't use Kat's copy because our computer models are different, and my own install DVDs with iLife 06 are damaged beyond use. This means I'll most likely have to make a trip to Yorkdale Mall's Apple Store sooner rather than later. Fortunately, replacements are apparently free.

Don't know about you, but the news about ol' Heath bummed me out. Beware evil sleeping pills. RIP.

Saturday

2008-01-19T11:56:00.000-08:00

Just a note, the sidebar link to my class blog, "Dave Studies Media" is now functional. The opportunity to keep a blog for big marks is a welcome novelty, and I'm really enjoying the community-aspect of it. Remember, the class blog is not an exclusive club! Feel free to jump in on the discussion. I'm moderating comments on it so as to keep the quality up.

My dad bought this laptop recently. Another one to add to the growing trend of laptops and portability in general becoming more mainstream. I think we'll see laptops become dominant, at least in the realm of computers for personal use, especially now that they've become so much more affordable. More discussion on this is going on over at my Apple Anorexia post.

This weekend is a pretty low key one for me. Preparing my seminar presentation for Monday is at the top of the priority list but pretty easy to do. The window in this room faces west and it's that time of day when the sun streaks in here and lights up my white microwave like a magic cube that contains the secrets of the universe. You know...a la 80s sci-fi flick? Not referencing anything in particular, just blabbing. Incidentally, all my microwave actually contains is some dried up tomato sauce that spattered out when I didn't bother putting a cover on the mini ravioli.

Stevenote in 60 Seconds

2008-01-17T00:16:00.000-08:00

From Monday's Macworld '08. Steve's 90 minute keynote is presented here in 60 seconds, with all the important points covered. The new kid on the block, the MacBook Air, has got everyone talking. Here's the synopsis:

Pros:
-Smallest.notebook.ever.
-sexy minimalist design

Cons:
-price
-cannot get extra battery
-cannot replace/upgrade any hardware, (and what you start with isn't all that great - 2gb RAM for example)
-no ethernet or optical drive (dongle and external USB drive sold seperately), and only 1 built-in USB port

Basically, I'd say it's one of those things to get if you have money to burn and want to look hot, but getting a MBA as a primary laptop is probably not such a wise idea.

Speechless (Except Not)

2008-01-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

Attention, everyone! Journalism has hit a new low. Meet Kevin McCullough. This writeup, "The 'Sex-Box' Race for President" is probably the most reprehensible article I've ever read. We're all used to journalists using creative rhetoric and omitting key details to be misleading. This, on the other hand, is downright slander based on a bunch of bold-faced lies.

You can read the article for yourself, and the (currently just shy of 700) comments responding to it are more than enough of a supply of counters to McCullough's inane statements. The corresponding GP article also highlights the important parts.

That said, here's the rundown: BioWare's Mass Effect is a recent sci-fi adventure title for the Xbox 360.
There's been a fair bit of hype about it, and it lived up to the hype when it was met with very favorable reviews. (Praise for the game emphasizes excellent story-telling, among other things.) Mass Effect's ESRB rating is M for Mature, meaning that retailers agree to refuse sale of the game to persons under seventeen. It's about the same as a movie being rated R, although this particular example has nowhere near the mature content of a contemporary R-rated film. Note that games that are exceptionally violent/course/explicit are shunned by mainstream platforms and consumers.

Mass Effect contains a controversial "sex scene" between the player-controlled character and another character in the story. Which two characters are involved varies depending on what character the player chooses to control at the start of the game, and what choices they make up to this point. In the scene, two characters are seen kissing, and what follows is some very dark footage of the characters' faces close together, a hand running down a back, and, oh yes, a glimpse of some buttocks for all of one second. Raunchy stuff. The sequence is less than a minute long, and the rest of the single-player content takes around 35 hours to complete.

Mr. McCullough's article claims that Mass Effect targets teenage boys around the age of 15. He calls it a sex game, a porn game, wherein players customize and control a graphic sex sequence for nearly 3 minutes. He even goes so far as to say, referring to the 360's internet connectivity,

"With it’s [sic] 'over the net' capabilities virtual orgasmic rape is just the push of a button away."

And there's a lot more where that came from. Frankly, that statement alone is far more perverse than anything I've ever seen or heard of in a video game. McCullough goes on to challenge the American presidential candidates to address this pressing issue, and expresses the wish that constitution would bring down the hammer on seedy, unsavory firms like BioWare.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what's the big deal? I'll tell you. As far as I can remember, I've never given a thorough explanation on this blog of my philosophy around video games as emerging media. And when I say "my philosophy", I actually mean a widely shared opinion that is basically considered fact by people who study or think about media. This incident of slandering an awesome game is a great example of what gets under my skin.

The fact is, video/computer games are an artistic medium just like books, radio, TV, film, et al. They are the new kid on the block, so it's easy to point our fingers at them and accuse them of being the root of all kinds of problems. TV, comic books, etc. endured the same criticisms in their infancy.

The biggest misconception that a lot of people are still operating under is that video games are for children. Video games, as a whole, are not for children. Pulled straight from the Entertainment Software Association's (ESA) website, the average gamer is 33 years old. Think of it this way: some movies are for children, but most of them aren't. Instead of assuming, "Oh, it's just a video game," when they buy video games for their kids despite being rated T or M, they need to realize that's no different from letting your kid watch Restricted movies - because things get rated a certain way for a reason.

It's upsetting to gaming enthusiasts, or media enthusiasts in general like myself, when the public, politicians, and other groups set unfair double standards for games versus other media, or otherwise target games for non-legitimate reasons. The attacks and restrictions not only impede the growth of the medium, but overstep the boundaries that protect civil liberties like freedom of expression. Additionally, it should go without saying that the medium does more good for people than stereotypes would have you believe. (Consider, for example, all the heart-warming stories that come out of a highly social game like WoW.)

That's why Kevin McCullough's article is infuriating to people. He slanders a perfectly legitimate and well-respected project, and then suggests the government step in and punish the artists. Why get angry if some idiot is flapping his mouth? Because a lot of people will listen to that idiot, not knowing any better themselves. McCullough's failure as a journalist was completed when he tried to defend his statements, summed up well in this interview-style post from popular game news blog Kotaku. The defense includes resorting to ad hominem attacks, (many times), dismissing the effectiveness of ESRB ratings, and other tomfoolery.

That's not to say all critics of games and gaming culture reason and argue like children. However, I think it's reasonable to ask that people refrain from dressing up speculation as discovery. Do your research, please.

Oh, by the way, want to see what all the fuss was about? A 57-second video clip of that attention-mongering sex scene is right on YouTube. Here it is.
Warning: The following footage contains some heavy breathing and a bum. Feint of heart, weak of mind - avert your eyes!!

Links

The ESA
Top 10 Facts About the Gaming Industry (Things you probably don't know)
The ESRB Rating Guide
What They Play A new site for parents that gives an informed, honest, and unbiased look at popular video games
The Daedalus Project An ongoing research project conducted by Stanford University's Dr. Nick Yee into the various psychological aspects of MMORPGs.

Le Grand Content

2008-01-08T17:43:00.000-08:00

This is a very smart and well-put together video I ran across today. Credit for the concepts belongs to the brilliant Jessica Hagy of Indexed.

Radical Pedagogy: The Slump-Killer

2008-01-07T22:53:00.001-08:00

I went to three classes today. My profs all seemed to be taking the attitude that, "This is probably the most difficult/most work-intensive course you've ever done. We're not kidding. This is serious business."

Anyway, for my Media class I've been asked to keep an academic blog for the purpose of reflecting on course content, (readings and lectures alike). It's no small potatoes-task, weighing in at 50% of my final mark. The idea is to have the class maintaining our own little blogosphere. Posts on the academic blogs are expected to be done in academic way, with formal citation and the like. It's going to be a time-consuming project that I expect to take away from my posting here, but I'll maintain both as much as I can afford to. In fact, I predict the posting I do over there will fuel my fire to update here more often than I have been lately.

Important note: I specifically asked my professor if it'd be alright to link to the class blog from here, with the idea to get more people in on the conversation. He said it would be great to get some voices from outside the ivory tower, and by all means everyone is welcome so long as I'm vigilant at moderating incoming comments. The content will probably be difficult to relate to for people unfamiliar with our course material, but I'll do my best to make it accessible.

As of now there isn't much there, but more is on the way. Here it is.

Panthera Pardus

2008-01-05T09:13:00.000-08:00

My situation right now reminds me of that old adage about a wooden ship in which you replace every part of it over time, until none of the original parts actually make up the ship. Is it still the same boat?

I'm typing on my MacBook - whether or not it's my "new" MacBook is up to you I guess. This puppy's sporting 2gb of RAM (667mhz) and a 160gb drive (5400 rpm). In English, that means I now have triple the temporary memory I had. That temporary memory is what allows the machine to handle more commands at once and "remember" more. Additionally my storage capacity has doubled.

But here's the feature that didn't occur to me: as you may have guessed from the title, my new hard drive has Leopard on it. This makes a lot of sense, since Apple's new OS comes standard on their computers now, but for some reason it didn't occur to me that a new hard drive would come bearing it as well.

So yeah, it's a pretty sweet deal, but I've got a lot of learning to do. For some odd reason I take pride in maximizing everything my computers offer - from using features that improve my own efficiency, to maintaining a healthy system. (Cough.) I haven't read excessively about Leopard since I had no plans on ever getting it, so I feel like I've got a lot of catching up to do.

An aside: in an ironic twist of fate, my old PC, which I'd been using exclusively in this computer's absence, decided to do a faceplant last night itself. Interestingly, it happened as I was plugging in my iPod to charge it - poof, the computer shut down. Permanently. No, it's not unplugged, and yes, my peripheral hardware works fine. The best news about it is that I don't think my hard drive in that rig will be effected. After thinking about it and talking it over with a couple people, I think the most likely culprit is the PSU or the motherboard. In that case I'd scrap the old system, keeping the drive in a safe place and whatever else is useful, and eventually building myself a new rig from parts I'd probably pick up online. (So much cheaper than retail.)

Jolt

2007-12-28T10:42:00.000-08:00

I'm going to cut to the chase. This morning I found out that the harddrive in my laptop is fried. Despite the fact that I'm usually the guy encouraging people to back up their files, and take advantage of the all the other life-saver resources out there, I have barely anything saved elsewhere. I fell into the infamous, "it won't happen to me" mindset. "After all, I'm a Mac user now. Mac users don't get stupid computer problems. My laptop is invincible. It could beat up your laptop." So yeah. Hypocracy-overwhelming.

Hopefully I should be able to get my music back, since it's on my iPod. Also, some of my better photography, and my friends' photography, is still on Flickr. The main loss I'll suffer is all the writing I've done in the past year and a half, minus blog entries. I also had a boatload of resources bookmarked and a lot of customized settings in my web browser. That stuff isn't such a big deal though, I'm just moping about the time and effort it'll take to restore everything. Speaking of restoration, I should probably mention that yes, it is almost certainly unrepairable and yes, I'm having a new drive put in (upgrading to 160gb) as soon as the new year hits and my local Mac place re-opens. While I'm at it I may spend some of my Christmas money on upgrading its RAM (520mhz to 2ghz) as well, which would make it seem like a brand new computer, but with a dirtier screen. Still considering this.

As to my absence from writing, that's a whole other can o' worms. Actually I have nothing to say, except that I didn't feel like saying anything until now. However, I think there'll be less of a gap between now and the next time I feel like saying something, so there ya go.

Edit: Got these for Christmas after witnessing their power and handsomeness in Peter's and Paul's setup. The sound out of these things is remarkable. Click the pic for specs.

Blactivision is the new Squeenix

2007-12-02T23:47:00.000-08:00

Blizzard and Activision are merging.

This announcement is pretty much sending shock waves through the gaming industry. This post on the WoW general forums promises that nothing is changing.

This post has the details. (FAQ)

The new company is going to be called Activision Blizzard, which is about the most unexciting thing I've ever heard. Why not Blactivision? Or...Activizzard? (Ok, maybe not.)

The general consensus on the internet right now is, there are going to be some unfavorable changes thanks to the almighty dollar, no matter what they're saying now.

PS: Activision Blizzard will be on the NASDAQ. I'll probably buy some.

Ask CBS: WoW Will Kill Your Baby

2007-11-29T01:10:00.000-08:00

[click me I'm delicious]

I find it very interesting that, aside from that sorry excuse for a journalist trying to subtly demonize something she knows nothing about, the editors actually chose to (exclusively) use footage from the Black Temple trailer, which depicts children in a hazardous situation. Can you say, oh I don't know, obvious desire to influence? Good lord. I mean, it's no secret that mainstream media outlets put big slants on things all the time, but when, like me, you understand just how misleading this is, it makes them look pretty darn unprofessional. Or, maybe professional is what they are, since that's what professional media does.

This is all in relation to the story about Baby Grace, if you didn't know. The details are in that link, but basically some really screwed up parents tortured and killed their young daughter. As it so happened, they met on WoW. Dun-dun-dun! The whole point I'm representing here is: look at the numbers, people. Blizzard's got close to 10 million subscribers right now. Is it so surprising that, in a social game, two people met up and hit it off because they're both extremely screwy individuals?

There are 6.2 million teachers across all levels in the United States, (source) which is a lot less than the amount of WoW subscribers world-wide. If two teachers got married and did something horrendous like this, would people start pointing fingers at US Teachers' Colleges for instilling baby-killing tendencies?

Sorry that it's been almost a month since I last posted anything. The blog's not dead, I'll be coming back to it. I've just been busy, and sidetracked. And slightly disenchanted with the media industry in general, but this was just too juicy to pass up.

Bad News Bears

2007-11-08T23:32:00.000-08:00

Bell Sympatico openly admits to throttling P2P traffic at peak hours.

Two show nights left. More coming eventually.

This is nice to see: Amber MacArthur's parents launched bestofpei.com, which showcases and sells goods 100% crafted by Prince Edward Islanders. Everything from paintings to cabinets to toys and other stuff. I was impressed with the design of the site. It's well-spaced out, clean, and very intuitive. Throw it a bookmark if you think you might ever want to support some PEI artists.

The Indian Medicine Shows

2007-11-03T10:55:00.000-07:00

They're playing at U of G at the George Luscomb Theatre, which is in the MacKinnon building, every night next week from Monday to Friday. The nights I'll be on Sound Crew are officially Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, but I'm sure I'll be there more than that. The admittance cost is currently unknown, at least to me, but I'm sure it will be five dollars or less. Starting time? I don't know yet, pretty sure it'll be 8pm though. Contact me and ask if you need to know.

Warning: If anyone is actually interested in coming, you should come in the spirit of watching a good production and supporting me, but not seeing me. Most times we have a gajillion things to do before and after the shows. This especially applies to Saturday night, which will probably take us into Sunday morning as we have to strike, (tear down) the set after the closing show. And sorry for the short notice, but the same thing applies, I've been pretty busy with this and everything else I've got going on. Always having fun though. Stressed-out fun. Good times.

It's Go-Go, Not Cry Crisis

2007-11-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

I watched Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror the other night. It was pretty awesome, but I think I liked Tarantino's Death Proof a little more. I think I'll buy the Grindhouse DVD when it comes out. My main criticism of Planet Terror is that it made zombies less zombie-like, in my opinion. Maybe it's partly because Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake, my favouritest zombie flick, actually moved away from the traditional slow-moving, moaning model. The replacement is an olympic-sprinting, shrieking breed of undead which is way cooler to me. So I guess my perception is off. I'm sure he did a good job paying homage to cheap exploitation flicks of the seventies. One of the best lines in the film, which I paid my own homage to in this post's title is, "It's Go-Go, not...cry-cry." Uttered by a slimy character portrayed by Rodriguez's realtor, it's best said with a thick Texan accent. Also, it's probably only funny when you know the context. Go see the Grindhouse movies. They're awesome.

I'm experiencing a bit of a crisis right now. It has to do with school, and I'll probably make a full-fledged post about it once everything is sorted out. Until then.

Today's Student

2007-10-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

I want to share this thought-provoking video posted recently by Paul Stamatiou. It's from Professor Michael Wesch from Kansas State University, and is called "A Vision of Students Today". I'd like to say that a lot of the points this video brings to the table are very true, while some are questionable. I'll post the video first, and then say what I think. If you're going to read the rest of the entry, please watch the short video first. Otherwise you'll just ruin it, and this is worth looking at.

First of all, the whole "boo hoo I only get 7 hours of sleep a night" is completely ludicrous. Seven hours of sleep for me and everyone I know is a very good night. In reality, most students hit the hay somewhere between 2 and 3am, and start the day somewhere between 7 and 8. Also, in the point about being $20 000 in debt post-graduation, it's very important to note the following point, which was, "I'm one of the lucky ones". That is to say, you'd be lucky to finish owing only that much. Most people will be stuck with quite a bit more.

Most importantly, the attention they bring to to abusing laptops in the classroom seems to point a blaming finger at the technology itself. There's no doubt that there are lots of people Facebooking in class or doing other unrelated things. (On some campuses I know it's common to see people playing WoW in class.) But there's an equal number of people, at least in my classes, who are earnestly taking notes, following along with PDFs, using Wikipedia to quickly look up an unfamiliar term, etc. I use my laptop for all of these things in class on a daily basis, in addition to keeping my schedule straight and up to date using applications like iCal. I wish more people at Guelph were savvy enough to use Google docs to create collaborative notes like we saw at the start of that movie. Maybe I should get on my high horse and encourage this.

The point is, you're the one to blame if you don't have the self-discipline to pay attention and take notes instead of throwing a sheep at somebody on Facebook. I've made a concerted effort this year in a bunch of my classes to sit closer to the front, where the hard workers are most prominent and distractions from chattering bozos are at a minimum. And yes, you might end up sitting next to that annoying guy who puts his hand up in lecture every week to share an anecdote about his cat which he thinks is somehow relevant, but hey, it's not like you're going to (most) lectures to make friends.

One more comment - on the multitasking point - how true it is. While perusing the WoW forums the other day, I read an amusing story about a Hunter, (big surprise there!) that made their group wipe during a menial dungeon encounter. (For the uninitiated, that means the group all "died" and lost real time and game money.) Their reason? "Sorry guys, I'm trying to do a little studying for my exam in the morning and I stopped paying attention for a moment." Classic.

Now I want to segue to something else. In that video, we saw a fair number of Macs, which, culturally speaking, is a noteworthy part of the "vision of students today". I think it's a fair assessment that probably about a third of the laptops I see around campus nowadays are MacBooks, (or MBPs). To tell the truth, I'm a little irked that they're gaining popularity so quickly. And I can't honestly say if that's more because of the materialistic desire to stand out, or the sense of deflowered elitism I get when I meet more and more new Mac converts who don't know who "the Woz" is, but are happy to be looking hip. Windows Vista is the new Paris Hilton - the thing everyone loves to hate. And, honestly, I don't think there's that much to hate about it. Yet even if there is, it bothers me when people are all over the Hate-Vista-Love-Mac bandwagon but can't tell you a thing about either one of them, aside from "Macs are just so cool."

Am I far too elitist for my own good? Probably.

The other, more legitimate reason to be concerned with Mac Mania is the realization that the popularization of Macs will compromise the sweet, easy, Norton-less world we've come to know and love. By the way, it's not just me giving my unprofessional opinion - I'm getting this straight from Tech otaku Leo Lapporte's mouth. It's not as if Apple products have strong-like-bull security features built in. (Just look at Apple TV and the iPhone.) The reason Macs don't have virus problems is because - who uses a Mac? Yeah, nobody. Oh wait, no. Scratch that. It's all changing now. If everyone and their mother starts running OS X, you can be sure people will start writing viruses and other malware for it, and the next thing I know I'll have some abomination of software called iNorton going, "IM IN UR MENU BAR, HOGGIN UR RESOURCES"

Oh, and congratulations to Kat on her new MacBook. I won't pretend I'm not jealous of its Core 2 Duo-ness and the fact that she's running Leopard, but goodness knows she's probably the most deserving new Mac convert I know. May the Force be with you, may the RAM behoove you. Namaste!

Acquisition of Facebook Good for Upstart Networks?

2007-10-26T01:27:00.000-07:00

So, as I said, the midterm season's kept me extremely busy, and now that that's over I've got a fair bit of catching up to do with reading, assignments, and so on. But probably the biggest news of the day (or the week) is Microsoft's deal with Facebook to purchase 1.6 percent of the company for 240 milllion dollars, which gives Facebook as a whole a valuation of like 15 billion. Whoah. For those of you who are unaware or forgot, this is the same Facebook that was invented by Harvard undergrad Mark Zuckerberg, in his dorm room, when he was my age. That's pretty good.

But hold the phone, sister. This article from the Associated Press hints that this whole arrangement could spell trouble for the social networking site down the road. If Facebook becomes too burdened with advertising, social networking addicts, (ie. every 14 to 23 year-old North American), may begin seeking more open alternatives such as the likes of Ning. This kind of jump doesn't seem unreasonable at this point either, especially now that Facebookers are used to higher levels of of customization thanks to the Applications platform. One way or another, what goes up must come down. Just like ol' Faceberg probably stayed down the day after this kegger at Facebook HQ celebrating the $15 billion valuation. Yeah, that's him doing the kegstand. (Photo courtesy of FSJ.)

Random: That new Radiohead album is fantabulous! My favourite In Rainbows track, currently, is "House of Cards". If you haven't checked this album out yet, do it. It's good for you.

Midterms Ahoy

2007-10-15T07:11:00.000-07:00

Hence the lack in posting.

In the meantime, why not check out this funny clip from Family Guy that gives a little background on the timeless flaw of the Death Star. Found on Gizmodo.

Project Blank Page

2007-10-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

One of my friends here at school has just shared a project with me that she's starting work on. It's called Project Blank Page. Before you visit the site, the hope is that people see this promotional video. Visit the website here.

The idea of Project Blank Page is to combat the accusation that the young generation is "the apathetic generation". It challenges university-aged people to create a small project, (video, photographic, or otherwise) that sends a message about how you plan to better yourself and the world. All the work will be showcased at a "Project Blank Page" film festival in January.

Although this is mainly directed at U of G students, any and all students are encouraged to participate. I am officially encouraging everyone to submit something because my friend Sarah's worked hard at this and the project will flop if no one contributes. I believe a Facebook group is coming soon.

Vote - College Scholarship Blogs

2007-10-08T11:52:00.000-07:00

I voted for Paul Stamatiou, one of my favourite bloggers, in favor of him winning the 2007 Blogging Scholarship from collegescolarships.org. I'm not going to ask that you vote for Paul if you don't read his blog, but I'll at least encourage you to support a young person's hard work and further education by voting for someone from this list. Their blogs are definitely worth checking out.

Radiohead Gets It Right

2007-10-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows, is coming out this Wednesday October 10th. Since Radiohead is no longer affiliated with any record label, they've got the freedom to try something very interesting. The In Rainbows website gives you the option to pre-order the album in digital downloadable format, or as a discbox which contains the album on CDs and vinyl records. Here's the interesting part: pre-ordering the download presents you with a blank field where you can type in any amount of pounds you'd like to donate for the mp3s - you decide the value yourself. If you want to, leave the field blank, and you'll get the tracks - straight from the band - for free. It's really nice to see something like this that doesn't involve the RIAA and normal folks getting slammed for downloading music, like the single mom from Minnesota who's now up to half a million dollars in the hole.

This is a battle that's been raging for a long time, and I must say I'm glad it's not such an issue in Canada. Maybe it's because I've grown up with it and become a pseudo-audiophile, but I'm a big supporter of digital distribution of music. I think Apple's got the right idea making people pay a minimal charge for a track or an album, and I think Radiohead's free will donation idea is even better. If I had that MasterCard I'd probably donate a good 10 pounds for the mp3s and I'd feel good about it, because I love Radiohead, especially for taking this approach. I predict it will bring them success, and you'll see other artists start using the same or a similar strategy for their releases.

Here's a fun music video for Weird Al's "Don't Download This Song". Gotta love satire.

Note: The In Rainbows discbox will put you out 40 pounds, and a standard in-store CD release is scheduled for early 2008, according to Wikipedia.

"Surrounded", Draft 1

2007-10-06T01:33:00.000-07:00

I spent painstaking hours today creating this one-minute sound file in GarageBand. (Started around 8pm, finished at 4am. Wish I'd started earlier.) It's basically just background noise for a specific part of a climatic scene, which I won't describe, because you should come and see the play! I'll post dates and stuff when I know.

There may or may not be further drafts - it all depends on the group consensus. This may not even be used in the final show, but I suspect it will be, or at least parts of it. Subsequent drafts might be created by other people working on Sound who go in on different days than me.

I decided to use YouTube to host it and just throw a static picture up there, because it actually proved to be much less of a hassle than uploading to Fandalism and other audio sharing sites. So, the picture was a fairly random choice, don't sit there wondering what the deep meaning behind it is. I know I haven't explained what this audio track is a backdrop to, but feedback is appreciated all the same.

Botnets and the Attack on Estonia

2007-10-04T15:09:00.000-07:00

This video from Wired Science is super interesting.

Ignorant with Our Hearts in the Right Place

2007-10-02T22:11:00.000-07:00

A poll conducted by Canadian research firm Leger Marketing found that a vast majority of Canadians don't know what Net Neutrality is - but they agree with the principle once it is explained. There are some interesting statistics in that first link, although I must admit that the survey seems to have a bit of a bias. Poll neutrality anyone?

A good discussion on this poll can be found on Dr. Michael Geist's blog, here.

Absolutely no disrespect to George. He's a good guy.

< Refactor:my="code" >

2007-10-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

Ok don't ask what that ugly monstrosity in the title is supposed to be. The point is, I found a promising site for sharing & discussing/evaluating your code-creations in a (small but growing) coding community. It's called Refactor my Code. Posting this mainly for Rockwell, (although I haven't seen much discussion there about ActionScript), and also for anyone else who's interested.

To Be Too Honest

2007-10-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

I recently applied for a MasterCard with my bank, (you can do it all online), and got brutally shot down for being too honest. Let's take a step back. As soon as people hear that a young person wants a credit card, they start shaking their heads as they envision the kid lining up at a checkout counter, armed with their magic plastic, to put themselves in debt and make their parents' hair fall out. And I say to you: Please. Haven't you more faith in me than that?

The reason I'd like a credit card has nothing to do with wanting more money, and has everything to do with wanting more access to the money I already have. Why? Because the internet doesn't do debit. That's right, the internet. I'm sick and tired of not being able to shop or do anything online because I don't have a magic number to feed those little white input fields. I'd like to be able to conveniently buy tickets to a local show, or a birthday gift for a friend, or order a pizza.

((BY THE WAY: This will seem very random right now but it'll become clear in a moment why I brought this up now. Something kind of big that happened in my life that I totally forgot to mention on this blog is that I quit my job at Sears last month. The only real reason is that it was going to be way too inconvenient and expensive to commute every weekend, and it also conflicted with my Technical Theatre course which requires my presence on Saturdays. I left on good terms though, so it's all good.))

Now, if I ever want internet liberty, I guess I'll have to try a different angle. Here's a little synopsis of the digital dialogue with my bank. I guess I can see why they'd be concerned.

What is your occupation?
Student.

If Student, are you studying something practical?
No, B.A.

Are you currently employed?
Nope.

What is your current living situation? (Own/Rent/Live with parents?)
Rent.

If renting, what is the monthly rate?
$425.00

What is your current yearly income?
Well...like, nothing.

Calculating....

Response: Thanks but no thanks!

---------------------------------------------------

Yes I fabricated the bit about what I'm studying, but I'm pretty sure there might have been some question to that effect.

Hail the Brilliance of Dan Lyons

2007-10-01T14:52:00.001-07:00

Daniel Lyons, the senior editor at Forbes magazine, was uncovered last August to be the true identity of popular blogger "Fake Steve Jobs". I've been reading The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs for several weeks now, but only today did I venture backward in time to look at some postings in Fake Steve's archive. I absolutely love Lyons' writing style, and this post in particular kills me every time I read it. The best thing? You don't even have to be well read on the Silicon Valley technocracy to get it. This post is actually about a fake conversation with Stephen Spielberg. Priceless.

Assignment: Jumping to Conclusions

2007-09-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Posting schoolwork 'cause I'm cool. This assignment for Zoology asked me to define the term "jumping to conclusions" in a scientific context, and then to provide an example of a time when I jumped to conclusions. Then I had to list 3 competing hypotheses as alternatives that, if proven correct, would disprove the conclusion that I immediately jumped to. Finally, I had to list 3 ways of investigating or gathering evidence that would help me determine which hypothesis would be correct in the given situation.

Basically, we're talking about making simple things complex. One girl's whole assignment, (these were posted online as a basis for discussion topics in a class forum), was about being intimidated by a barking dog, which is jumping to a conclusion since there are lots of reasons dogs bark. I chose to take things in a slightly unusual direction, and hopefully don't lose marks for doing so: I discussed the preference at my job at Sears to treat every customer as if they are going to buy something that day. It seems like a legitimate example since it is jumping to a conclusion, (albeit warranted for the sake of selling), that is often not correct. Anyhoo, here's my post:

----------------------------------------------------

1. “Jumping to conclusions” is simply an immediate assumption made about something. While the assumption is possible, and often the most likely conclusion, it has not been proven and therefore should not be considered a fact. The word “jumping” refers to skipping over multiple steps that are necessary for ascertaining the truth about something.

2. My personal tale of jumping to conclusions goes like this. Over the summer I worked for a major retailer as a sales associate in the home electronics department. As part of my sales training, I was taught to assume that every person who set two feet in my department was there to buy something – most likely a TV, the primary cash cow of electronics. For this reason I jumped to the conclusion over and over again that guests in my area were going to buy something, and treated them accordingly. Needless to say, this assumption was proven wrong more than once.

3. There are several reasons people could enter a certain department at a retail store. Here are three of them:
a) The Generic Customer Hypothesis
The position I took for the sake of being a good salesman, this hypothesis states that a person appears in my department because they are planning on purchasing something right then and there.

b) The Planning Ahead Hypothesis
People might decide to come in and look at prices, as well as ask questions about the merchandise because they are planning on purchasing something eventually, for a new home or an addition to their current one. They could easily be coming in just to compare our prices with those of our competitors so that they can make a better buying decision in the future.

c) The Bored Spouse Hypothesis
Another reason people might come to electronics is that, with special thanks to our three walls of TVs showing high definition signals, our department was simply the most interesting-looking part of the store. People could be coming over to simply gaze at the pretty pictures while their spouse looks at mattresses in another department, and kill time by having me explain the difference between interlaced and progressive signals.

4. The predictions that would provide evidence to support any of these 3 hypotheses are all fairly similar and straightforward. Usually, when I jumped to the conclusion that The Generic Customer Hypothesis was true, a visitor would communicate right away whether my or not my behaviour was appropriate for their situation. In most cases, the solution lies in communication.

a) Generic Customer Prediction
If this was correct, then the customer would usually indicate that they wanted a certain kind of product, (a new flat screen TV around 36 inches, for example), or something in particular, (like a 52 inch Sony XBR with a silver frame and one bonus HDMI cable)*. Aside from straightforward communication, further evidence to support the Generic Customer Hypothesis is a confident attitude in customers displayed through body language.

b) Planning Ahead Prediction:
Again, visitors in Electronics would regularly explain their situation, providing immediate confirmation or rejection of the Planning Ahead Hypothesis. In addition to verbal communication, a strong indicator of this hypothesis is a couple investigating names and numbers without employee help, and keeping track of things on a list they brought with them. This sort of behaviour would provide a strong likelihood that the people are “shopping around” and not intending to make a purchase right away.

c) Bored Spouse Prediction
Once again, communication is always the best tool. However, another effective method of prediction is, if I happened to see the customer come into the store I would know who they were with, if anyone. If the customer is with whom appears to be a spouse, goes to a certain department and then shows up alone later in my department, it is likely that they are “just browsing”. Typically, one spouse will not be seriously considering a purchase without their other half present – this is especially true of men.

*Click here to see that I'm not making this stuff up.

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I really enjoy Zoology. I'm enrolled in it because it's a science credit, which I need two of for my degree. Despite it being something that I probably wouldn't have taken otherwise, I'm very pleased with it. It's the best kind of post-secondary education: the kind that says, "Everything they taught you in high school was wrong. Here's the real deal." To unlearn what we have learned. It's like we're all Luke Skywalker, minus Jedi powers and bad hair.

The Three-Sixty Dream

2007-09-29T18:53:00.000-07:00

Check out the newest gameplay video for Assassin's Creed. I will own and play this game....somehow.

Sorry for the lack of interesting posting recently. I haven't read about much interesting stuff going on, aside from the release of Halo 3, which the mainstream media has covered. It seems like just about everyone I know has at least tried the new Halo, and after talking with my buddies tonight and watching some game trailers, I think the sleeping gamer in me is awake again - and he's hungry. Some day I'll have a 360....you know, in about 20 years, when people are talking about Halo3 like they talk about Space Invaders today.

The other reason I've been relatively quiet on here is because, for the last couple days, I've been suffering from an intolerable cold that I was bound to catch with everyone around me being sick. So far my free time this weekend has consisted of sleeping, napping, catching some Z's, and snoozing. Being sick takes the vigor right out of me, which is why I'm unable to attend either of the two things I was invited to tonight. One of those things is "Nuit Blanche" in Toronto - some kind of tour which takes groups around to different venues to look at modern art. The venues are everything from regular galleries, to alley ways, to Squash courts. Tomorrow sometime I'll probably use Technorati to search the blogosphere for any info about what I'm missing.

Pop Star Video Spoof

2007-09-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

Stumbled across this great video today and thought I'd share.

I Wanna Be A Pop Star - Watch more free videos

Snape Kills Master Chief!

2007-09-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

Halo 3 comes out today. I know of a few people who will be skipping classes to stand in lines waiting to buy it.

The cover story in the September issue of Wired magazine is a fascinating article. It describes the intricate scientific process Bungie employed when designing and fine-tuning the newest edition to the most popular series in next-gen gaming. Unfortunately it was only available online for a limited time, but it's worth a read if you can get your hands on it. Fascinating stuff. The reviews so far are singing Halo 3's praises. Hopefully one day I'll have enough savings to find out for myself, and the weather man will be saying, "Pack your parka if you're heading south to Hell today because it's freezing over."

Go go global warming.

Shooting the Messenger

2007-09-24T15:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I clued into some very old news that I've been waiting to hear for years. If you're completely out of the loop like I apparently am, then this could be the best piece of news you've heard since they announced the next Zelda game for the Wii. When are they going to release that, anyway? Sheesh.

I think it was a few years ago that I first thought to myself, "Y'know, some computer genius could make a killing off a program that could integrate contacts from all the main chat clients. Then there would never be the need for multiple accounts and running multiple programs to be in touch with all your people at once. When I grow up, I'm going to get a patent on that idea and hire a computer wiz to design it for me - and then I'll retire."

Well, a bunch of people beat me to it - probably before I'd even had that lovely inner monologue in its most primitive form. What's comforting is that those people probably aren't sipping pina coladas in Aruba just yet. Why? Because the applications in question are freeware. What could be more awesome? Last night I stumbled across Adium, immediately closed Messenger and removed it from my Dock, and haven't looked back. Before I talk about Adium, which is only compatible with OS X, there are three Windows-friendly apps that do the same thing: Trillian, Pidgin and Meebo. I'd be lying if I said I'd done more than a tiny amount of research on these programs, but I believe the general consensus is that Trillian is the most popular, while Pidgin is probably the most reputable. I was planning to say that I highly recommend giving one of these programs a try, but after I thought about it, I realized that there isn't nearly as much benefit for the average Canadian Windows user as there is for me. Unless you're sick and tired of Messenger like I was, or it's giving you problems that can't seem to be remedied, it probably makes more sense to stick with Messenger for now.

The reason I'm so happy about switching to Adium basically revolves around Mac-Messenger being terrible. It only provides the most essential features, and also sports a bland, Safari-like interface that resembles the inside of a tin can. And I can't neglect to mention the biggest problem, which was that you would not receive any kind of alerts while being set to "Busy". Countless times I left people hanging because I forgot I was talking to them, or didn't realize they were there at all.

Anyway, hopefully my friends have been subjected to that kind of treatment for the last time. Adium always lets you know when somebody's talking, but not with the blaring ba-dunk-a-dunka of Messenger that I still hear sounding off someplace in the room at least once during every lecture. Adium's default setting is to display names of people messaging you right on the Dock icon, as well as how many unread messages are waiting for you. It also features tabbed conversations, which I understand is an option on newer Windows Messenger versions, but of course, coming from Mac Messenger this is all new to me. Another key feature of Adium is the massive amount of customization it allows. You can change just about everything about how the program works, as well as all the cosmetic qualities.

The only major hitch I've had with Adium so far, aside from the fact that it sounds like a medication drug, is that there doesn't seem to be a way to invite more contacts to an existing conversation, although you can take part in multi-person conversations if you're invited. I tried to register on the official forums to ask about this but apparently their servers are temporarily down.

By the way, I read about Adium while perusing an old post on Paul S's blog, entitled "10 Apps Every New Mac User Should Download". Although it was published nearly 2 years ago it's still an excellent resource. Some of the other programs listed there like CyberDuck, Text Wrangler and VLC Player are still in wide usage. A definite bookmark for current or future Mac owners. (Looking at you Kat.)

In other interesting news, I got my little entertainment unit all set up today. The table I bought at IKEA was weirdly difficult to assemble, at least until I got a better screwdriver. I also went for a 20 minute run tonight. Hooray for healthy lifestyle and such.

Titles are for Sissies

2007-09-23T09:16:00.000-07:00

Me as a South Park character. Newest meme out there, I know.

After a long day in crew call, I hopped on a bus to Hamilton last night so that I could spend today buying things for my place. The big one being a table to put my TV on. I'll be keeping busy this week using GarageBand to put together some audio files for the production, on top of all the regular school readings/writings. By the way, the play we're putting on is actually 2 one-acts that go together, collectively called The Indian Medicine Shows. I'll post up dates of shows and such very soon.

EDIT: Got bored while waiting for the car, so...

Sorry guys.

Hero Journalist of the Day

2007-09-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

Actually, no name is given with the source article from the Montgomery Advertiser. But this nameless hero journalist is deserving of such a moniker for his or her wisdom on the subject of the effects of violence in video games on people - a topic close to my heart. One of the most uplifting stories I've seen on GamePolitics in a while, Dennis quotes the important parts and tells you what you need to know. I'm going to post the same excerpt, for emphasis, love and justice, and all that's true and good in the world. Hooray!

The notion that the courts should take into account whether someone was exposed to violent video games as a reason for that person murdering someone has no real place in the criminal judicial process…

If courts started routinely to allow exposure to fictional violence in such things as video games and movies as a way to avoid or minimize punishment for violent acts, it could have a huge, negative effect on the nation’s entire criminal process. Every violent criminal has been exposed to fictional violence in some form…

Millions of people, young and old, choose to watch violent movies and play violent video games and never harm anyone because of it.

Parents should monitor what their children watch… Consumer groups should campaign to minimize violent content… But those arguments belong in the court of public opinion, not in a criminal courtroom where a murder trial is being conducted.

G2

2007-09-20T07:28:00.001-07:00

Got it, finally.

Stay off the sidewalks and such.

Why Facebook will Go the Way of the Dodo

2007-09-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

This is a post I've had rolling around in my head for several weeks now, and while it may be a little behind the times I'm going to get it out of my system anyway.

On May 24th of this year, the social network sensation Facebook introduced the ability to create applications for use on on the site. They range from useful things like a feed to del.icio.us links, to pointless, fun things like gifts, plants, pets, and one of my favourites, The Honesty Box. ("What do you really think of me? Answers are completely anonymous!")

At first these things seemed like a fun way to jazz up the uniform Facebook UI and give each profile its own unique look, as well as provide a way, if you're a developer, to share your creativity with your friends. That's all fine and good, until the sheer amount of clutter starts to overwhelm the core features of the site.

I've seen quite a few complaints about "application invite/request spam". A good example, large screenshot included, is a recent post from Paul S's blog. It clearly demonstrates how out of hand things can get when you have a lot of friends enthusiastically using and sharing their favourite applications. Personally, I don't have this problem - I guess because a lot of my closest friends are of the same mind as me, and maybe partly because I've never replied or sent requests to anyone else.

While I'm sure application spam is a legitimate concern for a lot of people, my main beef comes from a design perspective. (Not that I have any sort of qualification, other than being a 12-year-or-so veteran of internet browsing.) To put it simply, a lot of people's Facebook profiles are ugly now. Myspace-ugly. The reason a lot of college/university students embraced Facebook in the beginning was because it was a welcome change from the loud, obnoxious Myspace pages with background music and colour schemes that look like my sister's bedroom in the early 90's. Let's compare, shall we? Here's what profile pages looked like back in the day; ie. when I joined about 14 months ago:

By the way, I don't know this guy. The image is from Google. But it demonstrates how nice and clean things used to be. Nowadays you're more likely to see something like this:

It's not that I have some grudge against colours. This particular example isn't really too bad. (Again, from Google.) None of the apps pictured here are stupid or pointless, nor do they even look that bad. With this guy we'd be looking at a functionality issue, where the information you're looking for could easily get lost in all the other data that's there.

Here are two beliefs that I hold:

Number One: Mainstream trends are leaning more and more toward sleekness and minimalism. I'm sure we can all agree that Apple has been at the forefront of this revolution. Just look at the iPhone or the iPod Touch to witness the ultimate example of minimalist design in consumer electronics. It's what appeals to people these days. We see the same abstract themes in the design of cars and other material things. This might be a bit of a stretch for some people, but if you think about it, the same or similar elements of design are often present in everything from web browsers to electric shavers. (You may snicker at me for putting so much emphasis on fashion, but I would challenge you to provide a convincing argument that aesthetics aren't an enormous part of secular culture.)

Number Two: Convenience is a hugely important factor in our day to day lives, especially when it comes to computer usage. Well-designed websites make data access as easy as possible, with more information readily available. It's organized and uncluttered. Period.

Facebook is moving away from both these things. It has taken two steps backward in allowing users to transform its look into something reminiscent of the chaotic Myspace era, while simultaneously making it harder to access information. Which leads me to my next point: Facebook also gives users a huge amount of privacy settings, so that they can modify their page in almost any way imaginable to hide or limit certain aspects from the world, or just certain people - like parents. Maybe it's because I'm more willing to police my own content, but I can't identify with people who feel that they need to block access to their profile page from folks they don't have listed as friends. While it's possible that there are some people who only want their friends to know that they like watching The Hills, (understandable) I think the major concern is with items like contact information and Wall posts.

I say, if it's something you'd be worried about somebody knowing, then don't post it at all. If your friend needs your new address, that's what private messages are for. Back in April, the cover story from Wired magazine talked about how transparency is the best policy for business and social interaction these days, and increasingly so in the coming years. I won't spend time going into that, but in a nut shell, just think of it in terms of: "Nothing To Hide = Trust". Make sense? I think so. It's a better idea to not publicly share things in the first place and be prepared to put forward the tiny bit of effort required to moderate content, rather than bluntly hide information and make people wonder.

So, in the end, what we're seeing is Facebook making 3 major mistakes. Still, its popularity is on the rise even now, and I'm sure its success isn't near its end yet. I'm just saying we've seen the beginning of the end. I think Google's on the same page as me, considering that some information's recently leaked about a few web apps they'll be putting out that will challenge Facebook head-on.

Anyhoo. Time will tell. Right now time's telling me it's time to pack up and book it to Zoology.

Anyone Want 20 Million Bucks?

2007-09-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

Google has put out a challenge to send a robot to the moon, have it travel around taking pictures and video, and then beam the media back to Earth. The first person to pull this off wins twenty million dollars, or up to thirty million if they pull off some extra stuff like lasting longer. The whole story is here from Wired.

Upon first reading this, I was like WOW COOL!!!! And I guess I'm still saying that. In addition, as part of a fundraising campaign, the NPO X Prize Foundation is initiating something called the Lunar Legacy Program. Anyone who donates 10 dollars to the program can upload a photograph to the X Prize Foundation's website, along with a message. The money is being used to fund the project, which I'm guessing involves paying the international panel of judges that are watching for under-the-table government handouts.

All those photos and messages are being put on DVDs and rocketed to the moon to be left as artifacts of human exploration. Pretty cool, actually. I think I'll do it. Here's the Wired article with more info.

However, after that "Wow Cool!" factor subsides a bit, I start thinking to myself, "wouldn't a more productive use of Google's money be some kind of donation to refugees out of Darfur or something?" Truthfully, being the world issues-ignorant son of a gun that I am, I don't even know if there are Darfurian refugees. But my point is hopefully clear: how important is this robotic space race? They say they hope to ignite innovation through holding the contest - innovation whose results will hopefully benefit humankind...somehow. Any ideas on how this might lead up to something beneficial? I'm worn out from a full day of school.

Oh, and for past 20 minutes or so, this random asian girl a few feet away from me has been snapping photo after photo of pages from a huge book. I can't be sure from this distance, but I think that camera is a Sony. She is taking some high quality pictures. Is that even legal? Maybe it is. I should read up on this stuff. For now I have to get back home because my buddy Stefan is coming over tonight to help me move furniture. Hey Google dudes, can I have 20 million if I get a chest of drawers down two flights of stairs without scratching anything? Please?

Hooray For Lack of Lame

2007-09-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

The mayor of NYC wants to put a ban on cellphones in public schools. Guess he had an insatiable craving for Public Outcry?
(Big kudo-rama to Kat for sending me this story!)

I'm so glad things here in Guelph aren't so ridiculous. All I have to do is worry about keeping my phone charged and on vibrate. Half the reason for Bloomberg's crusade is that ringing phones are a distraction in class. Gimme a break, man! I mean, ok; I realize things are a little different in a university setting, but phones definitely go off all the time in lectures, and it's no big deal. Like Kat said in our conversation, profs tend to make a joke about it, ("Ok now tell the truth! Is that a girl calling to invite you to a party on saturday or your mom calling to make sure you have clean underwear?") or they just keep right on going without a word.

Take a page from our book, Bloomie. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Everyone knows there's no serious issues with phones in schools. You can stab somebody with one of those compasses for drawing pretty circles just as easily as you can stick your phone under a stall door to snap a classy 1 megapixel photo. Punish the fools who do this, not everyone.

Moving goes well. I'm almost finished. I love my BRITA filter, and my cozy new zip-hoodie.

Underachiever Blog

2007-09-10T14:36:00.000-07:00

Look what I could be getting if I worked harder at my blog! And were American!

First day of classes today. It's fun getting back into the swing of things. Three hour Political Science lecture tonight. Boo. New room still under heavy construction. Pictures and such coming when it's done.

A Few Things

2007-09-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

Rockwell's website is up and running. The main Flash intro page is here, and the blog is here.

Apple announced the iPod Touch today. The video iPod will now be called the Classic, and the Nano has received a complete design overhaul. I can't figure out whether I think this is a good change or not. Apple also reduced the price of the iPhone by a third, much to the chagrin of early buyers.

I was in Chapters today looking around for a recipe book, since I'll be preparing a lot more of my own food this year. I wasn't having much luck, but as I was browsing through the stacks I was listening to the latest CommandN podcast on my iPod and Will Pate recommended Chow.com for exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

Speaking of podcasts, the ones I'm currently subscribed to are:
Amber MacArthur's CommandN and Webnation
Leo Laporte's This Week in Tech (TWiT), The Tech Guy, and MacBreak Weekly
Attack of the Show's The Daily Feed
Morgan Webb's WebbAlert

Remember when I wrote about Mahalo, the human-powered search engine slash encyclopedia? Well, I'm now a part-time employee with the Panasonic result page reserved for myself. If the results pages I write for them, (which are more HTML-oriented than anything else) get enough hits, I'll start getting royalty checks in the mail. Awesome.

Highly-regarded blogger Paul Stamatiou published an excellent article about a month ago that's meant to be a realistic back to school guide for college/university students. It was in direct response to all the articles put out by folks like Wired who seem to feel that our schools are paying us for enrolling. Yeah, right. After reading Paul's guide I feel like I'm doing pretty well, but I learned a few really handy things such as the ultra-cheap price of an HP laser printer available on Newegg.com. If you're a student, read it. If you're not a student, read it anyway.

Yes, I am moved into my new place in Guelph, and no, I won't be posting about it until later. I plan on posting photos and such once everything is in place. Aiming for next week sometime. That's it for now.

Exploding Phones and China's Spot at the Lunch Table

2007-09-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

By now everyone knows that the iPhone's been hacked so that it's no longer bound only to the powers of AT&T. (Seventeen year-old hacker George Hotz is practically set for life.) But what you might not know is that Apple's new darling is set to self-destruct when tampered with!

Ok, so that's completely untrue. But it did happen - not because of Apple or the iPhone itself, but because of the dangers of lithium-ion batteries. Here's the Wired article, and here's an image of the wreckage:

iSore

This story reminded me of something my dad told me he read in a magazine yesterday about another exploding phone incident. As it turns out, the above-linked article also links to that story which Wired covered back in July. Basically what happened in that case is that a 22 year-old welder named Xiao Jingpeh was killed when his Motorola exploded last June. The handset was in his shirt pocket when it happened, and the concussion sent fragments of his ribs into his heart. It's believed that the heated environment of the factory Xiao worked in is what set the phone off.

Incidents like this have brought scrutiny to those cheap knock-off batteries in particular, as well as other imitations of potentially dangerous products. It's no secret that walking down the street in a Chinese city like Beijing will present you with numerous opportunities to purchase cheap goods like DVDs, video games, and any manner of electronics in addition to other products. I own a Japanese Wakizashi that my brother bought for me as a gift on one of his travels to China - probably from a street vendor. The widespread knowledge of these products, and now, the growing awareness and concern about their under-par quality will probably spur China into some house-cleaning action. It's in their best interest after all, considering the whole 2008 Olympics situation. The adventures of Canadian/Tibetan blogger Lhadon Tethong, who was kicked out of China in August for trying to uncover evidence that China was using the Olympics to conceal their occupation of Tibet, are proof that the communist nation is already worried about her reputation with the rest of us.

So basically, if you want your one dollar copy of Transformers, better board a plane, (or find a really big shovel!) and get it now.

As you can see I'm working really hard packing for my big move. I'm able to do this because I stole Dr. Octopus's omnipotent arms.

Moving is Hectic

2007-09-02T23:05:00.000-07:00

Oh yes it is. I'm back and forth to Guelph this week like the pendulum of a grandfather clock on Ritalin. Uploading photos and stuff of my place soon.

I actually just wanted to post something.

Arrogance Disappearing Act

2007-08-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

Today I attended a conference at the national Sears HQ in Toronto with two co-workers and my boss. The day's events consisted of several presentations made by representatives from major manufacturers such as Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, and Monster Cable. Because I'm not a (real) journalist (yet) and this was not a press conference, I could not conduct a proper interview with the representatives from Sony. Why would I want to do that? To see the looks on their proud faces when I confronted them with difficult facts, of course. Also, however unlikely this was, I hoped I'd get some insider information which I'd later spread via this blog to attain fame and glory. It did not turn out like that, but my attempt to challenge them didn't exactly fall flat on its face. Intrigued?

All recording was prohibited for the duration of the meeting, but here, pulled from my memory and a smattering of hastily-taken notes, is a fairly accurate transcript of the brief interview:

--------------------

Dave: I have a question regarding the PS3. For the record, my store doesn't carry them yet, but in view of the fact that we got some Nintendo Wiis in last night, it seems likely that we'll be carrying PS3s in the near future. Now, if I had to sell somebody a PS3 today, I don't think I could do it. Personally, I'm more sold on the 360 for a few reasons: the big one being that it's got all the exclusive titles. The PS3 is obviously lacking exclusive titles and big names, (with the exception of Metal Gear Solid 4) and that's a huge issue for most people. So, if a savvy costumer came to you with this argument, what selling points would you hit them with, aside from the PS3's slight graphical advantage and its Blu-ray capability? Is there something good coming up that I don't know about?

Rebecca Grant, Sony Retail Support Specialist: (Coughs.) That's a good question, really, and to be honest with you, my associates and I aren't really equipped with the kind of product knowledge to give you a full answer. We're more specialized in TVs, home theatre, that sort of thing. Playstation is really more of a unit all on their own. But yeah, if you find that you are going to be selling PS3s then I would definitely look into that more if I were you. (nods encouragingly) But our understanding - Sony's general perspective - is not looking at the PS3 so much as a pure gaming machine, but as an overall entertainment system with Blu-ray capability and so on. So as far as selling them to people I'd go with that selling point, highlighting those kinds of features is probably your best angle. As far as the other details go, I'm sorry, but there's really not much we can tell you because it's just not really our area. Ok?

Sony Employee 'B', (real name withheld): Actually I can answer some of those questions, I'll talk to you after.

'B', (privately): Yeah, man, I'm gonna be honest with you: I own both systems, the PS3 and the 360, and I love them both. They're both great consoles. And it's true what she said about the Blu-ray capability being a really nice feature - with the big hard drive in the Playstation's gut the whole thing makes for a really nice little media centre. Plus there's the compatibility with the PSP, which is also a really nice feature that just makes everything feel more connected and mobile. Know what I mean?

Dave: Yeah, you create perks for owning multiple Sony products.

'B': Haha, yeah. And like you said, the one thing that is lacking is decent software support. It's an issue we're aware of and, you know, we're working on it and doing everything we can.

Dave: Right. Yeah.

'B': That clear things up?

Dave: Absolutely. Thanks.

'B': No problem. Take care.

----------------------

I'm still processing what I learned today, but my overall opinion of Sony, the most obnoxious group since the Sophists of ancient Greece, might be due for a change. I live in my world, and today I got to play briefly in theirs.

Deathlips Dancing

2007-08-20T13:22:00.000-07:00

I want to share these three awesome videos I discovered while blog-surfing today.

The first is a hilarious "death metal" spoof of the Red Rings of Death fiasco done by the good people on G4's Attack of the Show! It's popped up on several blogs today, including GamePolitics and The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. (I just found this blog recently. An often-funny news blog by a guy pretending to be Steve Jobs and looking and employing lots of satire to make points.)

The second is a fun lip dub of Harvey Danger's famous song "Flagpole Sitta", created by the lucky employees at Connected Ventures. Saw this on Amber Mac's blog, and I have to agree with her that I wish either of my workplaces were this much fun.

The third video is just this weirdly entrancing dance routine done to one of Daft Punk's classic tracks. This girl has some sweet moves! Found this on Ask Pud.

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri and Vimeo.

Tales of Shelters and Other Things

2007-08-18T10:44:00.000-07:00

I blame that prissy-sounding title on the fact that the main theme from Return of the King just came on my iTunes. Not my fault! (But who am I kidding...I'm still in love with Howard Shore's soundtrack to this day.) Once you're done reading this post, the title should at least make sense.

Part One: Rondeau
Last weekend my crew went camping at Rondeau, which is, I guess, an hour or so outside of London. I drove down with Paul and Alex, and we met up with Jeremy, Pete, Beth and boyfriend Andrew in London for a bite to eat and a trip to the LCBO. We arrived at our campsite around dusk, just a hop and a skip away from Lake Erie's shoreline. For some reason we decided it would be a good idea to cram 5 of us who were not accompanied by significant others into Peter's 4-person tent. Fun times. Sara and her new boyfriend Ryan showed up later on in the evening. The next day we spent a lot of time at the beach and got significantly cooked while fooling around in the water and building sandcastles, (read: sand empires). We also took a lot of fantabulous pictures that day. I'll post a couple of my favourites here, but if you've got any brains you should definitely check out Peter's whole set, because some of them are really nice! Each and every one of those has been carefully retouched in Photoshop with Pete's skilled hand, but I actually took several of the original shots with his camera. Man, I love what that thing is capable of! Also, make sure you view the pictures in their full-sized glory because it's just not the same otherwise.

Aren't these gorgeous?! These are probably my favourite two of the whole set, and not just because I took them. It's pictures like these that send me into starvation mode for a quality camera of my own so I can take shots like this all the time.

So anyway, later on that afternoon Katelin showed up, (legitimately late due to a piano exam) and joined us for a scrumptious dinner of spider-dogs around the campfire. She also became the sixth member of our 4-man tent party. Tip for sleeping in overcrowded tents: Never get suckered into The Edge. That is, unless you want to be awake all night.

Sunday was overcast, and we spent the morning slowly cleaning up our site and then driving the packed cars over to the lake to soak up that last bit of beachy-goodness. After a last lunch together we went our separate ways, Alex and I in Jer's standard transmission car of Awesome. (You guessed it, I've been inspired to learn how to drive stick, even if I'll have no occasion to do so.)

Part Two: Pad
The very next day, Monday, my dad and I drove up to Guelph to start looking for an apartment for me. Unfortunately, all the places that you could actually call apartments were way out of our budget. Out of our league. Like the kids from The Sandlot versus Barry Bonds. Not cool.

But the good news is, after a few hours of pouring over the listings, making several phone calls, snooping around in people's basements and my dad trying to set me up with the ridiculously pretty grad-student secretary at the Off-Campus housing office, I actually found a place. Yeah that's right! I have a place to move to in Guelph next month, woo!

My home for the next 8 months is an upstairs apartment-type-thing in a semi-detached home in a small survey called Wilsonview. This little nook is just around the corner from Edinburgh plaza and Stone Road Mall. Suh-weet! Everything I need is a short walk away, including the grocery store and Rogers video. (I like Blockbuster better on principle, but meh, can't have everything.) The bus stop is about 80 meters from my doorstep, and about 3 or 4 stops from campus. Solid.

The place itself is nice. My new landlords...erm, lord and lady? Haven't decided what I'll call them. "Land dudes" will suffice for now. My new land dudes are a retired couple named Doug and Mary Tonner. They seem especially nice, and are great about keeping a clean house. They have one small dog that will be leaving with them anyway when they go on vacation. "Vacation?" you say, eyebrows raised in sincere interest, "you didn't mention this before!" I know, I've been saving it. Doug and Mary travel a lot. They're planning to be in Florida for a good part of the time I'm living there. So, aside from occasional, (probably bi-weekly) check-ins from their grown son and daughter also living in Guelph, I am going to have this whole place basically to myself. I have access to their kitchen, which is neither ruled by angry felines nor located in a cold dungeon overrun with small children and clashing bright hues. Thank God! I didn't bother to look at the laundry room, but I have no expectation that it'll turn out to be a swamp that smells like a graveyard of soggy sleeping bags. Also, shouldn't forget to mention that I have a bathroom (again, so far shiny and hairless) to myself regardless of whether the owners are present or not. Wonderful! Last fall I promised I'd take pictures of my place and never got around to it. This time around, please, hold me to it. (Because I know you all care so much.)

Part Three: Whatev
The rest of the week wasn't that eventful, although in between working I did get up to some things that I'll talk about in another post. And speaking of work, I've arranged to keep my post at Sears - but, alas, it's going to involve coming home every weekend. That's actually a pretty huge "alas". Doesn't quite do the dilemma justice. I mean, I like my job a lot, but I'm trying to detach myself here. Well, we'll see what happens over the course of the year, won't we?

Last night Pete and Paul and I attended a charity fundraising event at Quarters, McMaster University's bar that is both pit and patio, to hear some live music performed by doctors, professors, and even Spectator journalist Jeff Mahoney. Most importantly was Katelin's performances with her dad and brother, which was the real reason we were there. It was a good night though, we had fun.

Tune in next time for more awesome stuff about my life! Hint: It involves RAM. Don't miss it.

BC: The Untold Story

2007-08-08T22:04:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me while writing the entry about Blizzard's announcement of the new expansion for WoW that I never gave proper coverage of the first one. Suddenly, I had this overwhelming need to give it justice. The result is this post.

The reason I didn't say much about The Burning Crusade (BC) expansion, which was an enormous deal in the gaming community at the time, is that I wanted to keep the knowledge that I was actually playing on the down-low. Certain people I know, (namely my parents) had issues with me playing a game - that, for some people, can be very addictive - while I was in school, and paying a hefty price to be there. All secrets have been divulged, so now, a whooping eight months after the fact, here's the previously untold tale of WoW's first expansion.

The night before the game was to launch, (which was at some point in January, a date that doesn't matter) stores like EB Games were open at midnight across North America. I didn't really expect there to be anything like this in Guelph. At the time my new town seemed like the last place you'd expect there to be a healthy WoW fanbase. So, when I found out about a midnight launch at the EB Games in Stone Road Mall, (not more than a 20 minute walk from the animal palace where I was living) Pete and I were all over it. We got there fairly early and snagged a good spot in line, with about 8 people in front of us. By midnight a line had formed behind us that stretched about halfway across the mall. This event was a big thing for us, not only due to the excitement of the game coming out, but the very line we stood in betrayed all kinds of negative stereotypes that people apply to gamers every day. In the video clip I posted earlier from the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert makes statements in his usual satirical style that reflect what are still the masses' opinions about games. (He himself, of course, is not so ignorant, thank goodness.) Such opinions are that most people who enjoy videogames are young, socially awkward teenagers, (and some comment about their complexion is always tossed in) or jobless, sexless adults who live in their mothers' basements or garage-apartments. Anyone who has done minimal research, as I have, knows better. For example, the average gamer-age is currently 33, and 67% of American heads-of-households play games. (Source.)

It's one thing to read such things on the ESA's website, or read tales on the WoW forums about whole families who play together and married couples who met ingame. It's another thing to see those people in real life, standing around with you in a mall in the middle of the night because they're just as excited as you. I had a conversation with a forty-something asian man who said he was taking the following day off sick so he and his son could start exploring the new content together. We wondered what the server stability would be like once everyone got home and logged on, all flocking to the same hot locations in the game world. (As it turned out, there were no significant server issues - my first night playing went off without a hitch.) Also in the crowd was a bearded late-twenty-something fellow who boasted loudly for the entire waiting period about his ingame exploits, such as how he kicked a 12 year old out of his guild for being 12. If I'd met him in game, I'd have probably thought he was the 12 year old. And as for the fairer sex? First in line were two girls about my age - I think I heard them say they arrived three hours early.

I was going to write a brief rundown of the game itself, but that seems completely irrelevant now as the newly-announced second expansion is what's got everyone ticking. On a personal note, I played BC a lot for just under two months. I leveled my main character, the druid, to 66, and in doing so experienced much of the exotic Outland. I also started a Blood Elf mage to play as a sidekick to Peter's new character, a Blood Elf paladin. They were fun days, but a combination of playing so much and suffering drastic game-balancing changes to my druid, (what MMO players call "nerfs") made the novelty wear off by the time my subscription ran out in March. I have not played WoW since.

For more statistics and other research-obtained data about MMORPGs, from demographics to potential psychological effects, everyone should check out Nick Yee's thesis work, called the Daedalus Project. It is by far the most comprehensive and unbiased database dedicated to MMOs on the web. Such is the quality of Yee's work that he was recently featured in an hour-long segment on CNN (click for 8-minute cut) about the future of virtual worlds.

Ian Bogost on The Colbert Report

2007-08-08T09:12:00.000-07:00

Kudos to Mr. Bogost, author of Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames, for getting in front of a mainstream audience and trumpeting the right things. Actually, I can't say I'm totally on-board with some of his interests. Maybe this is a naive opinion, but I don't think these unheard of games with blaring political themes are very important to the changing landscape of media. But by golly, to what he says in the beginning about acceptance as a mainstream medium - hear hear!

B-Day Beatts

2007-08-06T16:23:00.000-07:00

On Sunday July 29th, my friends took me out for my birthday. We went to the Thirsty Cactus in Dundas. Upon finding out it was my birthday, the waitress brought me free shots and was especially friendly. It was a good night. We took some good photos too. I'm going to post the current versions here, but I'm planning to put them through some heavy editing, so more fun versions might pop up later on, we'll see.

Superior-content posts under construction.

You Can't Say "Music" Without Saying "Muse"

2007-08-06T14:07:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, August 1st, Rockwell, Kat and I went to see Muse in concert at Arrow Hall (International Centre) in Mississauga. Words in my vocabulary can't describe how mind-blowingly awesome this night was. This was the first event I've ever been to that would be considered an official rock concert, but apparently other bands' live shows simply pale in comparison. They played most of our favourite songs, as well as upping appreciation for certain others. One outstanding feature was the heat. I likened it to being in an oven - albeit a very wet and crowded one - and we all left the hall that night soaking wet and totally exhausted. One of the best surprises was running into our friend from school, Stefan Herda, and some of his chums with whom we went back to Union Station.

Here's the official setlist for the show, as well as some media:

Setlist
Knights of Cydonia
Map of the Problematique
Hysteria
Supermassive Black Hole
Butterflies and Hurricanes
Hoodoo
Apocalypse Please (short)
Feeling Good
Sunburn
Invincible
Starlight
Man of Mystery
Time Is Running Out
Newborn
--------------
Soldier's Poem
Unintended
Plug In Baby
--------------
Take a Bow
Stockholm Syndrome

kudos to muse4fans.com

RAWK ON!!!!!!!!11
don't we look delightfully sinister?

In the Waiting Line

Photos courtesy of Pete, who declined to take out his camera more than a couple times for fear of losing it.

Some video clips
courtesy of other dudes and ladies

This is some footage somebody took of the opening number, and needless to say, the video and audio quality are likely to give you a headache. All the jumping people make just about everyone's camera work look like a Paul Greengrass film, but I think this one does a pretty good job of capturing the madness that ensues when the crowd gets excited. This is also pretty close to where we were standing - just a little further back. The back of my head is probably in this clip someplace.

A brief clip recorded during "Starlight", (a big audience favourite) showing the mass of people clapping simultaneously.

If anyone's interested, there's a lot more where these came from on YouTube - search "muse august 1".

A Finale to the Game that Never Ends?

2007-08-03T22:32:00.000-07:00

Blizzard has announced World of Warcraft's next expansion title: Wrath of the Lich King.

I won't go into a lot of specifics. For those interested, all the information is can be found here. The biggest news bits are the fact that they're introducing the "Death Knight Hero Class" and adding the continent of Northrend. This is a very exciting development for veterans of the series, because it will be picking up the story of the main character from the last story-based game.

Because of that, I have a strong gut feeling that this expansion will spell the end for the Warcraft franchise. Blizzard can, (and may) release another expansion after this, but as far as the plot's concerned, the main struggle will be over. I can certainly think of ways to create more content inspired by existing plot material, but the material's flimsy. Maybe I'm wrong - the game does after all have over 9 million subscribers - it just seems to me that trying to take WoW another step further after this would be trying to milk it one too many times. If I'm right, than this announcement could be the beginning of the end of WoW.

Interesting Dave-related updates coming as soon as I get my media together - aka when Peter feels like uploading photos.

Crack the Stone Tablets

2007-07-27T20:14:00.000-07:00

Today was fun. I spontaneously went out for what would be best defined as brunch with Kat, her mom, and her sister Erika. We washed down our pancakes and eggs with a tall glass of Guitar Hero. Work today was uneventful, except for an old man who struck up a conversation with me about my studies and imparted on me his relevant wisdom. I'm working for several hours tomorrow, and again during the afternoon on Sunday - which also happens to be my birthday. The rest of the week was fairly flat, with the exception of my big adventure in Toronto on Wednesday, (subways are so cool!!). I also attended a seminar over at Mac on Tuesday evening about teaching English in foreign countries.

I'm immensely looking forward to some of the things I have planned for the near future. Most immediately is the Muse concert this coming Wednesday. Then on the weekend of the 10/11/12th, my friends and I are going camping at a place called Rondeau. Awesome. I'm also hoping to get out to see the Queen musical in August, probably with Alex who needs to see it almost as badly as me. Nothing's set in stone yet, but the coming week will likely also involve me staying in Guelph for a couple of days while I look for a place to live. There's more, but I'll save talking about it until it happens.

I decided I was going to stop making so many posts like this, but I gave in, hence this entry's title. I'm going to cautiously promise that regular posting will resume shortly, as soon as I get my thoughts gathered up and find the time to write 'em down.

And We'll All Float On Alright

2007-07-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

Hung out with Sarah in Toronto today! Got too lazy to take many photos, but:

(Clicky to enlarge)

Dave for Dummies: A Glossary

2007-07-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

No offense intended, of course. The fact is, I'm a bit of a geek, and while most of my friends know what I'm talking about, I want this blog to be accessible to anyone. So I decided to write a glossary of terms I use all the time when writing about the topics I enjoy, and hopefully that will make some of my posts less cryptic. Cool? Cool.

(3rd Party) App || Short for Application, refers to computer software. A third party application is software compatible with a device or other software, that was written by an outside contributor.

Beta || A term given to the testing-stage/version of a game or service. The same goes for "Alpha", an even earlier stage of completeness.

Browser || Software, (usually free) for browsing the world wide web. Examples include Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Camino, and Internet Explorer (IE).

CGI || Computer-generated imagery. In this blog it is usually in reference to cinematic sequences in video games which have superior 3D graphics than regular gameplay.

E3 || The Electronic Entertainment Expo - now renamed the "E3 Media and Business Summit" - is an annual convention in which companies in the gaming and entertainment industry showcase their upcoming products.

Flash || Refers to either Adobe Flash, which is software for building animations, or Macromedia Flash Player - a feature now standard in most browsers that allows for viewing of Flash-created content and other media.

FPS || First Person Shooter; a video game genre.

Freeware || Short for free software, usually available online for download. May or may not be a trial version of purchasable software.

HTML || Hypertext Markup Language - one of many coding languages, (and by far the most prominent of them) that is used in the design in most sites on the world wide web, including this one.

ISP || Internet Service Provider...speaks for itself. Big players in Canada are Rogers and Bell.

Leopard || See OS X.

Linux || An open-source operating system with countless different versions, usually called "distributions" or "distros". Examples of popular distros are Ubuntu, Debian and Red Hat.

MMO(RPG) || Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game - usually abbreviated to MMO - is a video game genre where players are charged for access, often on a per-month basis.

Net Neutrality || See my post on Net Neutrality.

Next-Gen Console || One of the newest line of gaming consoles that currently represents the epitome of non-PC electronic entertainment. The consoles are Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, and Sony's Playstation 3 (PS3). Any mention of "the console wars" is a reference to the sales and overall popularity of these products.

Open-Source || Hardware or software whose defining source code is openly available for viewing and editing by its users (sometimes called "modding"), often for the purpose of multi-version distribution.

OS || Operating System - the essential program usually included by default in certain hardware such as computers and phones. The OS is the middleman between user and machine that makes it easy to use the machine's features and run other software. Windows (XP, Vista, etc.) are operating systems, as are Mac OS X and Sun Solaris.

OS X || The current default OS on all Apple's computers. The most recent version is OS 10.4, otherwise known as "Tiger". In October 2007, Apple is releasing OS 10.5, called "Leopard". It will become the new standard bundled OS on all Macs.

RTS || Real-Time Strategy - a genre of video game. Notable examples include the and the Warcraft and the Starcraft games.

Tiger || See OS X.

UI || User Interface - any setup of buttons and other interactive tools that provide usability within an application.

WoW || World of Warcraft - the immensely popular MMO from Blizzard Entertainment.

Blogs, Sites, People

Amber MacArthur || A Torontonian tech journalist, blogger, podcaster and net neutrality activist - a celebrity of sorts, at least in the Canadian tech scene.

del.icio.us || A social bookmarking site - frequently used in conjunction with external lists, as seen in this blog, to list links to items of interest.

Dennis McCauley || Member of the ECA and writer behind GamePolitics.com.

Digg || A community website in which items submitted by users are listed in a certain order, depending on popularity. Popularity is determined through a democratic voting system. Technology and science are the most emphasized content.

GamePolitics || Blog presented by the ECA that reports stories pertaining to political aspects of the gaming industry.

Jack Thompson || A controversial attorney from Miami whose anti-game activism has garnered widespread attention.

Paul Stamatiou || A student at Georgia Tech who maintains a popular tech blog.

Pete/Rockwell/Spunk Maestro || All the same guy.

The Sarahs || I have 3 close friends named Sara(h). There's Sarah Palaković, frequently referred to as her internet pseudonym and potential legal name "Kat", whose own blog inspired this one and who comments here frequently. Sara Pytka-Jones is my lifelong friend since days of yore. And finally, Sarah Lavine is my friend whom I met in Acting at Guelph.

Rotten Tomatoes || A website whose database of film reviews averages out final "scores" for hundreds of films.

Technorati || A blog-ranking site and searchable blog database.

Disclaimer: All of the above definitions are original.

Note: Want something added? Need additional explanation? Just want to say Hi? Comment!

Cool New Features

2007-07-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

I've decided to make a few changes to the way things get blogged around here. I'm going to try and keep the personal anecdotes to a minimum, and any little asides, like this one, will show up in italics. I'm going to try writing more film reviews, but don't expect them to be on whatever's currently playing. Last night I rented Letters From Iwo Jima and Little Children and plan to review them both. Of course, I'll try and get out to see more movies on their premier weekends as well.

I also think I'll make write some entries that explicitly outline what my (evolving) philosophies around films and gaming are, and anything else that comes to mind. That way I can discuss them further instead of just vaguely alluding to things like I usually do. And finally, I'm going to start labeling my posts. I know, scandalous! It'll be fun to see how this turns out.

Me Know Miro

2007-07-18T23:41:00.000-07:00

A lot of people are talking about this new "Miro" thing, so I thought I'd better have a look.

After doing a bit of reading over at Ars Technica, (see their slightly more in depth story here) I found out that Miro is open-source freeware that's a new and improved version of an older app called Democracy Player. Developed by the Participatory Culture Foundation, (PCF) Miro strives to be an "open, mass medium of online television". Interestingly, PCF is a non-profit organization that survives on donations from people, especially the good folks at Mozilla who donated a hundred grand for their cause.

Anyway, what Miro offers is first and foremost a video media library interface, whose Mac version looks just like another addition to the iLife suite. The cool thing that it does is act like a search engine encompassing many video hosting sites like YouTube, Google Video, Veoh, etc. Then it downloads stuff automatically, (as many as you want at a time) and lets you create playlists and channels. It also supposedly has access to more HD material than anything else, but as you'd expect from something that's free, there's no real standard for quality.

Like most video hosts, Miro gives you a main page with typical random goodies, including what's hot and what's brand new. See also the organizational pane on the left, set up much like iTunes. This arrangement probably varies by version.

PCF's philosophy is based on the idea that companies are scrambling to have control over video distribution, and that that's dangerous for the future of media. I have to agree. In fact, I've decided that I like these people - and their software - a lot. So much that I think I'll support them with a new sidebar button. Miro is available across all major Windows platforms, Mac OS X, and the major Linux distributions, so there's no reason not to check it out. It's also worth noting that they don't feel it's reached a "1.0 release stage" yet, so we'll probably see plenty of improvements to it yet. If you do give it a shot, or even if you don't, drop a comment here and share your thoughts!

Teevee

2007-07-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

I sold my first TV today, wahoo! It was a Samsung LCD, 32". One small screen for man (and wife), one giant step for Dave. Or...maybe not so giant. Whatever, it was cool.

I also went back to Guelph on Tuesday to meet with my program councilor, who was extremely helpful and gave me a truckload of information regarding future course choices and stuff like that. I'm all enlightened. A step closer to the mouth of Plato's cave, even. Tonight after work I hung out with Rose and Huxley again. They are awesome.

So I've got tons of exciting plans for the upcoming weeks. Next week on wednesday I'm going to see my fabulous school chum Sarah in Toronto, and in the next couple days after that I'll probably be in Guelph staying with friend Sharon while I apartment-hunt. Then it'll be my birthday, hooray hooray, and then Muse. August 1st. With Kat. Will be amazing. And after that, my posse is planning a camping trip - destination currently undecided, possibly someplace on Lake Huron - probably for the weekend of August 11/12.

Life rocks.

PS: I really want to update that mopey, fakely artistic picture for "About Me" in my sidebar there. I hate it now. I need to get a good picture taken of me, fast. Any takers?

PPS: I want this book badly.

Optimist Primed! Transformers Review

2007-07-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

Just over a year ago I posted about a live action Transformers movie on the horizon. Well, last night I went to see it with Pete, Katelin and Luke. It was an awesome time! Here's my review.

If you watch Transformers on the big screen this summer, it will probably be the biggest and loudest action flick you've ever seen - unless you're a time traveler from the future. As far as I know, there's been nothing else that even compares to a film of this overwhelming magnitude and pandemonium, with the conceivable exception of Jackson's King Kong. I couldn't help but laugh when another review I read compared this movie to two of director Michael Bay's previous big flicks - he said it had better acting than Armageddon, and was probably more historically accurate than Pearl Harbor. This time around, the explosiveness is back in full force with the addition of a couple heartthrobs and an avalanche of product placement. (That's putting it lightly - GM probably paid for half the movie, with smaller contributions coming from Apple and Hasbro.)

Featured in this film is up-and-comer Shia Labeouf, who is just beginning to get widespread attention, especially since his unexpected involvement in the upcoming Indiana Jones 4 has earned him Spielberg's affection. He's being hailed as the next Tom Hanks for his boyish good looks and apparent lack of gut-turning vanity. Oh yeah, and he can act. When the behemoth robots aren't body-slamming each other through skyscrapers and blowing stuff up, we're treated to Labeouf's entertaining, (no really, he's hilarious!) performance as the young man, Sam Witwicky, whose precious new car turns out to be a futuristic transforming space robot. He's a typical kid who loves his dog and lusts for the archetypal popular girl, played by the elegant Megan Fox. These two stars go nicely together, and their story, tied in with their guardian car-transformer "Bumblebee", create the heart of the movie that the audience can connect with.

Labeouf and Fox, pictured separately and in the middle of mayhem in Transformers, will probably be popping up more often.

Of course, to loyal fans of the old school cartoons, the real stars of the show are the astonishing robots such as Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, and the villainous Megatron and co. These and a host of other robots, who transform into everything from fighter jets to CD players, have found their way to Earth in an effort to reclaim a powerful artifact that will spell humanity's extinction if it falls into the hands of Megatron, (voiced by a computer-enhanced Hugo Weaving.) This violent struggle is brought to the downtown core of L.A., where the Autobots, Decepticons, and the federal army have an epic rumble that, for all its visual effect-grandeur, manages to stay centralized on Sam Witwicky. Transformers' triumph is that it makes no attempt to take its ridiculous and dorky-to-the-extreme premise seriously. Instead, it revels in this and takes it as far as it can. Another noteworthy upside is that this movie's pretty funny in those few moments when it's not rocking your socks off and blowing your mind.

It's tough finding decent screencaps, but this is one of Sam's first encounter with one of the Decepticons, named Barricade.

It'd be a shame to write a review without mentioning the awesome cinematography in this movie. I'm a fan of Bay's visual style, whose lighting techniques and colours and tones you might recognize from The Island. Extensively mobile cameras suck you into the action and almost throw you out of your seat. I also enjoyed the appropriately heavy soundtrack, whose frequent cocky electric guitar outbursts felt perfectly matched to the visuals. The big recognizable track from the film is Linkin Park's hit single "What I've Done". The attitude of the song helps them hit the nail on the head at the movie's finale. It's one of those things that gives you a juvenile thrill and makes you say, "Wow! Awesome!"

So here's the final verdict:

Transformers is the kind of movie that's supposed to bring out the teenager in you; that young buck who loves cars, planes, girls, explosions, and robot aliens. If you're thinking, "there's no way I'd ever find that appealing," then chances are you're right. It's probably not the kind of thing you take your mother to, but then again, I hope those old enough to get in to see this have stopped seeing movies with their moms anyway. But any guy with a pulse should love this, or any girl with a jones for Shia Labeouf. Here I go making stereotypical gender and age assumptions. So hey, prove me wrong. Go see this! Oh, by the way, don't even think about waiting until it comes out on video. The honest truth is, this will probably be a crappy movie from the perspective of your living room La-Z-Boy. All Hollywood films are meant to be seen in the theatre, and some, like this one, are actually not compatible at all with your average home entertainment system. If you don't catch this one on the big screen, you're missing out. I'm glad I didn't!

Holy Coolsauce!

2007-07-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, check out all the uber-shweet links I've added to my del.icio.us list! First and foremost, Konami released a new Metal Gear Solid 4 video at E3 and it's AMAAAAAZING. Check it out here! There's also a lot of news pertaining to the video game industry cropping up all over the place, and GamePolitics' Dennis McCauley, (my hero) is keeping on top of it all. From a study claiming ultra-violent video games may be healthy, to an article from Newsweek suggesting Microsoft recall the 360, to Take Two's chairman's comments regarding the evisceration of Manhunt 2 - Dennis keeps me up to date. Man, I love this stuff.

Also, Hamilton city council members gave themselves a raise today. Because...that's important. What about all the stuff that needs funding? Ah well.

Same Shenanigans

2007-07-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

Just posting some random photos from recently, for the sake of posting them. And because I like 'em. So there!

Masquerading as a Man with a Reason

2007-07-10T19:50:00.000-07:00

Yikes, almost a week since my last post! Well, there's not much to report. I've been fairly busy with work, working the odd shift here and there at both my jobs. I almost sold a guy a TV the other day, but then his wife came along and gave him heck. (They were supposed to be looking at tables. I said to him, "Wife knows best, eh?" He laughed.)

As I probably already mentioned somewhere, my cousin Mel is away camping this week and I'm going in to her apartment everyday to feed their cat, Tigger. She's very shy and hisses if you get to close, but she's eating her food so everything seems fine. I'm taking the opportunity to practice my guitar hero skills, plus I tried out Final Fantasy XII - I wouldn't buy it, but it's pretty cool. Mel has a neat action figure of the main character up on display in the living room.

Guh, I can't think of anything else to say. I'm 19 in 19 days. Cool.

All Kinds of Heroics

2007-07-04T12:54:00.000-07:00

Lordy. Summer's already more than half-over. The bizarre thing is, when you're in public school, two months of summer seems like this massive gap. When you return to the next grade in the fall, everyone always looks older than you remember. (And usually darker.) But this time around, with about 5 months off, it seems like no time at all. Maybe it's just being busier that does it. Ah well.

So, this weekend fell a little short of my expectations due to some unforseen things. On Friday I was hoping to go to Toronto with Pete and Jer to this little show, but then I realized it was fruitless to even try since it was likely a 19+ event. (I think they decided to go someplace else since it was super-busy anyway.) I also called Rose and asked her to see Pirates 3 with me that night instead, but she "doesn't watch those movies". For shame, Rose, for shame. So Friday night was basically this huge waste of a weekend night. Saturday night I had work, but Paul, Pete and Sara picked me up after my shift and a bigger group of us met at Alex's. It was just a short visit, enough to see Sara's slideshow that she put together for Pete's birthday a while back. Sunday night the plan was to go see a Canada Day show at Niagra. Sara being our driver, I showed up at her house to find that her poor mum had fallen and hit her head on the corner of the stove. Paramedics were soon en route, and Sara of course accompanied her mom to the hospital. (She's fine, by the way.) But yeah, I spent the rest of the night at Pete's just hanging out.

Monday was pure awesome though. The usual gang (sans Alex, Katelin and Beth) met at Paul's for a games night featuring all Kat's nifty stuff. Guitar Hero was, as always, a big hit. I want to own it more than ever now. I also want another games night soon...or hell, maybe just a guitar hero night. Speaking of which, that reminds me that I'm sort of baby-sitting my cousin Mel's apartment, (read: feeding the cat) next week while she and partner Adam are off camping. I'm also allowed to use their stuff, which is so cool of them. So hooray.

The other so-called "heroics" item is this: recently I downloaded the entire first season of the TV show Heroes. It was a pretty random choice, and I had no idea what I was getting into. Anyway, I love it.
I don't get sucked into really far-fetched fantasy stories anymore as a rule, but this, for some reason, is just so compelling - and I'm not even sure why. It's not very original, and mainly thrives on cliff-hangers and ever-so-frequent story-twists. The plot formula is so familiar you could swear you've seen this show before. Because, yeah, wait a second...ordinary people discover they have super-human abilities...which are caused by the fact that they're the beginning of the next stage in human evolution...yes, that's it! This has X-Men written all over it. Except these guys have no Patrick Stewart to tell them what's what, and teach them to use their powers correctly. They get along okay though. Heroes is carried by a strong cast, with special mention to Jack Coleman, who consistently presents one of creepiest television characters I've ever seen. I also enjoy Ali Larter's (pictured above) multiple personality character(s) whose complications she handles very seamlessly. There's also minimal use of stock characters, which is a nice change. Probably the most unoriginal character is Masi Oka's "Hiro Nakamura", (pictured right) the pencil pusher from Tokyo who can bend space and time to his will. That said, he's also one of the most lovable characters and I can't wait to see him in more stuff. The soundtrack is pretty nice and often appropriately haunting, although sometimes the rest of the show doesn't quite keep up to the "epic level" of the music.

In any case, I can hardly tear myself away from the show long enough to write this or do anything else. I'm about to start episode 14 out of 23, and I started out yesterday morning. I've only stopped to go to work last night at Baranga's and today at Sears - which, by the way, is my only Sears shift this week. Thumbs down to that, but one of my bosses assured me today that more hours are on the horizon.

iPhone Madness

2007-06-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

Apple's new baby is taking the US by storm. There are, and have been for some time, plenty of flash videos over on the Apple site to demonstrate the iPhone's magnificent architecture and usability. I've been anxious to see some consumer reviews, though. So far it's been all speculation. I found this review on Technorati and it seems honest and well-thought out.

I might consider getting an iPhone at some point in the future, if I can afford it. I'd hope for more compatibility with 3rd party apps though, and a second or third generation release that's more polished on the whole.

Two other miscellaneous things: rumor has it that Metal Gear Solid 4 and EA's Guitar-Hero-knockoff, Rock Band, will both be available on the '360. In other words, any inkling I ever had toward buying a PS3 is completely gone. I didn't think I'd say it, but I actually feel sorry for Sony.

Ron Paul's No Diamond in the Rough

2007-06-29T07:46:00.000-07:00

The internet's been all-ablaze lately with hype about one of the Republican presidential candidates, Ron Paul. His biggest flaw, from my point of view, is being against net neutrality. That's a deal-breaker for me. Obviously the whole little issue of being Canadian means I have no involvement in this, but I care what stance the US as a whole takes on net neutrality since Canada often follows in their footsteps.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting about it is because of this interview with Mr. Paul on one of my favourite TV programs, G4's Attack of the Show!. Co-host Kevin Pereira asks for details regarding Mr. Paul's stance on net neutrality, and he basically says, "Well...I don't really understand all the details." And that's the biggest problem with politicians when it comes to these issues, is that they don't really know what they're talking about. (That goes for the gaming industry especially!) That's what would set Ron Paul apart from other politicians in my mind, and what would get him my vote if I were American. Anyhow, maybe I'm being hypocritical since I don't follow American politics much and this is all I'm really going off of, but I still think it says a lot.

Here's le interview.

Edit: But you know, after watching that again, I want to say that I'm not claiming the guy has no redeeming qualities or anything like that. He might still even be the best presidential candidate, and I don't ignore the cool things he's done - especially in regard to the web. If you check out his web page, you'll see they're right on the ball. I'm just saying it's too bad that an otherwise cool guy is brought down a notch or two by certain ignorance, just like his peers.

Red Rings of Death? Aw, Rats!

2007-06-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

After browsing various 360 pricing on eBay and getting all excited, this article on GamePolitics has kind of stopped me in my tracks. Or at least slowed me down. The problem is, of course, that if I buy somebody else's console then I'll no longer fall under the grace of a life-saving warranty.

In conclusion: Arg.

Grab Life by the Nostrils

2007-06-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

That title would be better fitted to a different post, but I couldn't discard it once it popped into my brain.

Today was the first day at Sears. As per my policy, as always, I'm not going to give a lot of details. But I will say that in an amusing and potentially confusing twist of fate, both my boss and my supervisor are named Terry. (The third guy I met? Barry.) So that'll be fun. We're still setting up the department, and I've yet to undergo sales training. I'm excited for my real job to start. Electronics are awesome. I've always been pretty satisfied with my parents' bulging CRT that we bought in...oh, I don't know, 1997 maybe? But spending so much time around those sleek Plasmas today has corrupted me somewhat. I'm gonna want one. Soon. Which is just what I need - another expensive item to add to my growing list of material must-haves.

I've got a pretty exciting week planned. Tomorrow night the plan is to hang out with my long lost high school amigos Andrew and Rose. On Friday, I may be catching a bus to Toronto again to catch a live performance by turntablist Kid Kaola. To take advantage of the holiday Monday, my gang is also tossing around the idea of going to see fireworks at Niagra Falls on Sunday night.

The moderately repulsive title of this post was inspired by the way I feel about my current lifestyle. The "success" level is kind of hit and miss. It's like, ok, I have 2 jobs. Great. I'm doing lots of cool stuff with my friends. Double great. But I could still be doing more. I keep starting projects that are doomed to die. Like that thing with Alex that I told you to bug me about? Puh-lease. Died long ago. For about a week I was also practically obsessed with the idea of creating some cover versions of my favourite Muse songs in OS X's beloved GarageBand. With Kat's impressive vocal talents, I planned on making duets out of Starlight, Bliss, and possibly Time is Running Out. Never mind the cost of buying a USB microphone, the technical complexity of re-creating a song entirely with little onscreen keyboards is a more-than-daunting task to a GarageBand novice like myself. I personally hope this project can still continue on somehow, but in what form remains to be seen. There have been other projects as well, and sadly they were so briefly imagined that I've forgotten what they were. The most recent one is Pete's nostalgic mission to create an unofficial sequel to our favourite side scroller from back in the day, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure. Doing so is possible using the boundless powers of Flash, but such powers would be entirely Pete's to wield. My role in this would be to write a compelling back story that continues off of the almost non-existent plot line of the previous games. Fun stuff.

Screen cap from Pitfall. Harry Jr. is telling some croc who's boss.

Also, on a totally random note, I'm seriously considering getting an Xbox 360. The urge to be a true gamer again has been growing stronger by the day. It would be expensive, but I feel deserving of such a reward. It would be the first real compensation I've had for all the work I've done so far this summer. Saving money is good and all, but you've gotta live a little, right? If I got one, the games I'd want to get are Guitar Hero II, Gears of War, and Oblivion to start with. And when Assassin's Creed comes out: Oh baby. Please don't ask me how I'm going to afford all this AND a new PC that can run StarCraft II, AND the game itself, AND, y'know, rent. Because I haven't figured it out yet. I definitely want to work part-time during the school year though, so that's a start.

Do The Employee Discount Dance

2007-06-22T18:16:00.000-07:00

I start my first day of work for Sears on Tuesday.

Sadly, they're not going to be carrying any games, but I saw the Guitar Hero bundle on sale at Blockbuster last weekend for $89, which is $10 cheaper than most other places. I wanna buy it. Perhaps Sunday. I traded shifts at Baranga's with my coworker Raphael so I'll be working the day shift tomorrow instead of the night. Sweet deal.

All's Right With The World

2007-06-18T17:58:00.000-07:00

Today something made me remember the inscription, "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world" from the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. Its origin lies in a Robert Browning poem called "Year's at the Spring".

The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his Heaven --
All's right with the world!

In NGE, the last two lines are used as the logo of an organization in the series that is attempting to wipe clean humanity's slate and return to a Garden of Eden-like state of innocence. NGE had a powerful effect on me as an angsty and "pickup truck philosophy"*-loving teenager. I'm sure the main reason for that is the fact that most of the show was terrifyingly sad. The fictional world is exactly how the adults want it to be, and the children, the protagonists, are downright miserable. There wasn't a glimmer of hope in their future.

I think I used to look at my own life that way. Maybe not so dismal - more like I couldn't picture my own future at all. I had no idea what it would hold. But that's all changed now. It's odd, but since life's become more difficult - and I guess more full - I've been happier. I think it's a road sign standing on the threshold of adulthood, when your future is suddenly very tangible, and you're excited about it and actively taking steps on your own to shape how it will be. Life is exciting business.

So I watched The Fountain and liked it a lot. It got 50% on Rotten Tomatoes; an equal split of brilliant and abysmal. It's definitely not for everyone, and if you start to nod off whenever movies start getting unrealistic, you should probably stick to more conventional stuff. I especially loved the sountrack though, and I'd like to buy it or download it - when I get around to it. Also, my gang bussed up to Toronto this past Friday night to visit Pete in his new territory and celebrate his birthday. Good times were had. Queen Street is an amazing place and I want to go back there soon. Unfortunately, everyone assumed everyone else would bring a camera so we have no photos to document the occasion.

Everything else continues on basically as usual. I borrowed Season 2 of Numb3rs from Paul, and am working my way through that and finding other things to do in my spare time while I wait until I have enough money to start buying the things I want. Speaking of which, here's a list of the stuff I want to buy. Consider it a reference for myself, or if you prefer, a vain and childish letter to Santa that really serves no purpose except to entertain me at this moment.

Stuff Dave Wants to Buy: (No real order)

Camera
Guitar Hero 2
Next-gen console + Games
The Fountain Soundtrack
New PC
Clothes
Home Gym Equipment
Camcorder
Books
...

Uh that's all I can think of.

Last thing: I have good news. VERY good news. But, I'm not going to blog about it yet until it's really really official. In any case, you've probably already guessed. That's ok. I'll fill you in later. For now, it's time to go.

*My high school Philosophy teacher's term for any kind of philosophical musing, especially metaphysical, that is ignorant, whimsical, or otherwise devoid of scholarly merit.

Filler McFillerson

2007-06-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

My interview at Sears went well yesterday. I suppose this is how a good interviewer is supposed to make you feel, but it definitely seemed like they planned to hire me so long as my police background check goes off without a hitch, and my references speak highly of me. He asked me a lot of questions; about my personality, activities, education, work experience, and so on. "He", by the way, is my potential boss Terry , and the manager of Sears 'Home' in Ancaster. This particular outlet has never sold electronics before, and are presently building the section in their store. They plan to sell a lot of TVs and home theatre hardware like speakers and DVD players, DVR, and all that sort of thing. They'll have a limited selection of PCs as well. I hope I get the job.

There isn't much else to say really. I was holding off on talking about the interview because I planned on having more interesting stuff to blog about by now, and then doing it all in one fell swoop. But I didn't go out last night as I thought I would, and instead spent the night quietly at home watching Stephen Frears' The Queen with my parents. It was good, but you probably already know that. I'd say Helen Mirren deserves most of the credit she got, although Frears has a real knack for pulling stellar performances out of his actors. I also rented The Fountain, which didn't do well critically, but is reportedly a better experience on DVD than it was on the silver screen. (I have it for a week - will probably watch it tonight.) It's one of those far-out philosophy movies, I think. Not like Fight Club or Memento, but more like...Cube, maybe.

I have to leave in about an hour for work. Oh, and also, I just found that I've got a funeral to go to on Monday. Sadly my great aunt passed away this morning after a long, (although undiagnosed) battle with bone cancer. I'll be a pall-bearer for her. I don't mind funerals, although I wish they weren't so gloomy. But I guess that's the point.

Off the Walls and the Ceiling

2007-06-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

I've been debating about whether or not I should write this post, but I don't know why. It seems so obvious.

Right now I'm so excited it's almost ridiculous. Around noon today I got a random phone call from somebody I don't know. He said his name was Terry, and he's from the Home Electronics Department at Sears. I submitted an application with them on Friday, and they want to interview me this Wednesday afternoon at 2pm. The interesting thing is, the Sears I applied at was the one at Limeridge mall, but the one that wants to interview me is the Meadowlands Sears. I like to think this means my application was so impressive that they called up the other store and said, "Yo, you guys need this pro more than we do. Here's his info."

I'm well aware that I shouldn't get my hopes up just yet, but I can't help myself. The prospect of working there is pretty exciting for me. If you've read this blog more than once or twice, you probably know how much I love yacking it up about technical stuff; especially when I know more than the person I'm talking to. So yeah. Fingers perma-crossed until then, wish me luck!

The other big thing is Pete's birthday being this Wednesday the 13th. Our usual gang is planning on celebrating by going to see him in Toronto and hitting some local clubs. (It's a good thing my interview is right before this potential big misadventure. But don't get me wrong...I'm feeling extremely optimistic about it.) This night out on the town could get moved to Friday night...which would be fine. I don't know how much excitement I can take in one day!

Tonight I had an awesome time at Kat's house. This is something I need to talk about: Guitar Hero. The second one, that is. I don't actually hear many people call it "Guitar Hero 2", even though that's what it is. For those of you who don't know, Guitar Hero is a game for PS2 that is a lot like Dance Dance Revolution, only more accessible to the masses. Don't ask me why. Maybe it's because you look like less of a dork playing it. In fact, you look cool playing it - or at least the game has a tendency to make you think that. I guess the main key to its success is the way it makes you feel like a rock star.

I'm sure I know what you're thinking. "Dangerously high levels of Lame." Seriously, I realize how ridiculous it probably sounds, but it's so true. You have to try it yourself to understand.

Also, I should point out that GH is nothing new. I think I'm about the last person in the world to try it and realize its awesomeness. I've known about it for ages since it's basically the video game that's spearheading the emergence of all electronic entertainment into popular culture. As I said, a game for the masses. I feel somewhat ashamed that it's taken me this long to get on to it, but better late than never, right? The plan as of now is to buy my own copy of Guitar Hero, which I wanted to do after about 10 minutes of playing. But I think I'll try and stave off the urge to do so for a little while, since I'd get an employee discount (probably) if I bought it from Sears in the event that I'm hired. Isn't that awesome? Yes it is.

random screenshot inserted to mitigate massive wall o' text

The next thing: After the novelty of GH wore off a bit, Kat and I booted up her borrowed Wii. I've talked about it a lot, read just about every article on the web that talks about it, but I'd also never used one before tonight. Let me just say: awesome console. If you read this blog then you probably already know plenty about the Wii and I don't have to tell you how cool it is. I had a blast creating my smirking Mii and then putting him to work in Wii Sports and Wario Ware: Smooth Moves. The mini games are hilarious, and, if played with a little side of booze, could possibly be the best party invention since Pictionary. The only thing I didn't like was the way Wii Boxing couldn't seem to keep up with my insane lightning-fast fighting skills. Kat kicked my pyjamas by standing around, basically doing the Hokey Pokey in slow motion, but without even turning herself around. That's what it's all about, apparently. I hope the next installment of Wii Sports includes some Wii Shaolin, complete with a motion-capturing body suit with plenty of RAM...or whatever.

I can't see myself buying a Wii in the near future, despite how much I'd like to. I'm sure I'll be won over eventually though; probably when Assassin's Creed comes out.

When I started writing this post and titled it the way I did, I was honestly feeling like a rubber ball shot from a gun inside an empty closet. My heart was beating faster than a monkey on a treadmill, and I wanted to run down the street, jumping as high and yelling as loud as I could. I actually did go for an energetic walk, but managed to contain the leaping and vocalizing. Actually, I also drank a Bawls, (caffeine content = 3 cups of coffee) when I got home from Kat's, which probably didn't help things much. Apparently writing this has calmed me down though, and that's what I was hoping for. If it's not very interesting to read, I apologize. It fulfilled its purpose for me.

With that, I bid you good night.

Support Four Eyed Monsters

2007-06-10T22:36:00.000-07:00

This 71 minute indy film is up on YouTube for a limited time. I haven't found time to watch it yet myself, but I plan to soon. FEM's creators, Susan Buice and Arin Crumley are credited with being pioneers of the digital media revolution. If you want to support them, which I think you should, you can register with Spout.com. It only takes a moment, (although make sure you uncheck the two boxes if you don't want them sending you unsolicited junk) and for every member that signs up on their behalf, Spout will give Buice and Crumley one dollar toward paying off their debt.

Do it here.

This weekend was pretty sweet. We hung out at Sara's on Friday night and met her friends from school, Michelle and Mona. Cranium is an amazing party game. We already knew this, but it never ceases to blow me away. Saturday morning Pete and I went for a run, and then that night I was working. It was a nice day to be sitting outside, although it got cooler near the end of my shift. It was a slower night, so pretty non-stressful, but I was glad to go home because I didn't bring a jacket or anything. Today I went grocery shopping and bought dinner for myself and Sarah/Kat, who I hung out with tonight around here. Tomorrow the plan is to head over to her place in the evening to play some Guitar Hero and try out the Wii, which is something I'm long overdue in doing. Speaking of guitars, I lent her mine because I never use it and she's trying to learn.

I hope I can coax myself to go for another run by myself in the morning. We'll see.

Congratulations, It's a Robot

2007-06-09T07:51:00.000-07:00

I love robots.

So naturally I took a look at this Wired story today about Japanese scientists, (or whatever you call them - geeks? Roboteers?) who've created a robot that's meant to be like a toddler. It's definitely pretty cool, but also pretty creepy. Just imagine sitting in the same room with this thing as it looks around, or rolls around on the floor making its...noises.

Check it out.

Getting Artsy on You

2007-06-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

With all my recent babbling about the internets, blogs, browsers, resumes and all that jazz, you probably thought I'd strayed far away from any artistic tendencies I once had.

Well you're wrong!! Today was looking a little eneventful, so I got my dad's camera, (5 megapixel Kodak EasyShare C530 - nothing fancy) and went outside. In the course of about an hour and 20 minutes, I took like 135 pictures before the batteries gave out. I posted 52 of them on Flickr in a new Nature Set. Puh-leeeaase give me feedback, not to boost my ego but because I want to improve.

Here's a little preview.

Birthday.

2007-06-03T22:27:00.000-07:00

As of today, this blog is one year old. Happy Birthday, Blog! (I didn't plan this, but this is also my 100th post! Pretty neat.)

The name of this blog is an homage to René Magritte's famous Surrealist painting, La Trahison des Images, (The Treachery of Images). The image is of a regular pipe against a plain background, with text underneath reading "Ceci n'est pas une pipe." ("This is not a pipe.")
The explanation Magritte gives is that it really isn't a pipe, but rather an image of one.

I haven't thought of a clever way to apply that logic to my blog's own metaphysics, but I do enjoy that kind of thinking. I know that sometimes in speaking, and certainly in writing, I'll often employ more words than most people think are necessary. It's because I seem to have an unyielding desire, not only to be understood, but to be irrefutably correct. Sometimes the need to be as correct as possible overrides the need to be clear. Apparently my ramblings have, on occasion, been accused of containing contradictory statements. I think this is more likely attributed to a lack of understanding from my audience than a logical error on my part - but still, it's probably something I should work on.

Anyhow, I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for reading. Your interest in me and my eccentric interests means a great deal, and your comments still make my day every time you leave them. They're especially important to me because it feels like proof that I've provoked at least a little bit of thought from someone, and therefore affected someone else besides myself. I was going to say, "without my readers there would be no blog"...but I'm afraid that's not quite the case. It's possible that I'd go on writing even if nobody was reading, albeit less contentedly. I look back at past-postings all the time, and I think my writing's generally improved since June 4th, 2006. (Although perhaps not in this post as I'm writing it after 2 in the morning.)

I need to give a special mention to my grandparents, who have been my most consistent readers for a long time. Also, of course, a nod to Sarah who inspired me to start in the first place and whose blog remains at the top of my list to this day - even though it's been exactly one month since her last update. For shame.

My plans for the future are to continue on as always, hopefully evolving at least somewhat in both content and style. As always, I thank you for your continued support.

Special Request: Although Ceci n'est pas une Blog is mostly for my own amusement, I'd like to make a decent effort to please my readers too. Below I've listed some of my favourite posts I've made in the past year. The criteria for my choices revolved around the quality of writing, the content, and maybe most importantly, the quantity and quality of discussion the post generated. These are my favourites, but I'd really appreciate it if you took a few minutes to tell me yours. As always, my monthly archives are in the sidebar and awaiting your perusal. If you could go so far as to leave a little comment describing what was good about the post(s) you pointed out, that would be fabulous. Thanks!

My Faves From This Year:

Zidane Gives Italy Headway
Google Buys YouTube; Fate Buys Dave-like Voodoo Doll
Ding
APOCALYPT....oh.
Not O.K. Computer
Critical Muse
Massacre Chasers are Lame
Fond Farewell, Firefox
Life of a Non-Student

Neutrality.ca Makes a Comeback

2007-06-03T22:09:00.000-07:00

Some time ago, the central hub of opposition to the abolishment of Net Neutrality in Canada, Neutrality.ca, was forced to go on hiatus for legal reasons.

However, it's recently returned under new ownership, and not a moment too soon.

If you think that all content on the internet should continue to be treated equally, as it always has been, then please sign this petition - if you haven't already. We're losing the battle right now, and every bit of support helps.

Aloha Mahalo: Man vs. Algorithm

2007-05-31T21:23:00.000-07:00

Today was the launch date for the Alpha version of one of the most interesting web startups I've seen in a while. It's called Mahalo.

Mahalo is designed to be a search engine to rival Google and Yahoo. The main thing it does differently is power itself with people instead of algorithms. In this sense, many people are saying it's more like a wiki than a search engine. An information directory. If that's all Mahalo will ever be, let it be known that it's probably the most attractive one out there. I mean - that's got to count for something, right? Nevertheless, it's been met with a waterfall of dogged criticism from pretty much the entire Interweb. I wonder if the venture capitalists are sweating yet. Apparently it's got some impressive financial backing.

But you know what? I tried Mahalo out, and I happened to like it. In all fairness, even if the new search engine on the block's not going to dethrone anyone, I think the creators deserve a lot of credit. The query results page is nicely done, and little details and features are well thought-out. The amount of information on each result page is plentiful but not overwhelming.

To show you how it works, I slapped down a quick search for the movie Knocked Up, which premiers tomorrow in theatres. Here's what the results page looks like:

As you can see, the first portion of results are the top 7 most relevant links. In this case, they give you the film's official site, its Wikipedia entry, IMDb profile, and so on. After that they divvy up the results by categories such as Photo and Video. A sidebar gives you the most basic and probably most sought-after information, such as the fact that it stars Seth Rogan and the lovely Katherine Heigl of Grey's Anatomy prestige. Mahalo also places little icons next to some links, which are explained in a legend at the bottom. Hovering over one of the little yellow exlclamation icons will give you a little warning like, "this site is Flash-heavy" or "incoming popup!" This is what I was referring to earlier as "well-thought out details". Features like this are fairly common, but often more obtrusive. Another fun little addition is the inclusion of credit to the page's creator. (Amusing aside: The guy who wrote the result for Knocked Up is an actor. An actor working for a web startup. Here I thought I was one of a kind.)

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention is the fact that, since it's really new, there are plenty of things Mahalo doesn't have a hand-written page for yet. A search for "Muse", (whom I've been listening to pretty well non-stop all day today) yielded an apology for incompleteness, followed by some of the top Google results they throw in for you. Anyhow, who knows if this thing will ever fly, but I think it's pretty neat. I'll be watching its career with great interest. (First person to identify the reference gets a cookie.)

In other nooz, signups for the muchly anticipated MMO Warhammer Online's Closed Beta opened today. I applied, although I doubt they'd grant me access seeing as I have no prior experience with beta testing. Come to think of it, I could have just lied my head off and they'd probably have been none the wiser. Oh well.

Another random note, I have a whole whack of Joost invites now if anyone's interested. If you'd like one, just drop me a comment and I'll hook you up. Though, interestingly, when I was perusing Digg today I found something that could conceivably be a superior alternative to Joost. It's called MyEasyTV.com and it lets you stream content from a myriad of popular television channels...supposedly. I haven't had a lot of time to fool around with it yet, but I tried getting Fox Soccer without any luck or explanation of error.

And remember my big exodus from Firefox to everything else under the sun, and how I eventually settled on Camino? Well, I've actually had no end of problems with Camino as well recently - problems that I'd dub even worse than those that plagued me with Firefox. For instance, I almost lost this entire entry while writing it, just a couple paragraphs ago, for reasons I can't explain. Fortunately Blogger's new Auto-save feature saved me from going completely bananas from losing so much writing. If I had to be descriptive about the problems I've been having, I'd say it crashes all the time like Firefox did and also screws up web pages, especially when dealing with input fields. My diagnosis? Time for a new browser. Again. God help me.

...And I Just Can't Hide It!

2007-05-30T20:47:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited!!! After some drama ensuing from using Ticketmaster, it is now official that Sarah and I are going to see Muse on August first in Toronto!

I've been listening to Muse a lot lately, especially their latest album's big hit "Starlight". My god, it's amazing. I'm sure he won't read this, but I need to thank my friend from school Stefan Herda for allerting me of this concert.

I CAN'T WAIT.

Random: I just want to mention that the word is out about Microsoft Surface. It actually sounds ridiculously cool, although it probably won't be the type of thing the masses are using for a long time yet.
See a full article and discussion from Paul S's blog.

Life of a Non-Student, Part Deux

2007-05-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been so awesome. On Friday, Alex and I had lunch at the bagel place on Locke street. Nothing like a toasted bagel with cream cheese! It was a really nice day too. We spent the afternoon devising plans for our video project. That night, Pete was back from Toronto and, after having Chinese food for dinner here, we went over to Sara's. For the past week or so we'd been planning a surprise birthday party for Jer, so the three of us set to work baking him a cake. We were there past midnight working on it while listening to some oldies. It was good times. The next day was the party, and it went off well. In attendance were most of the usual gang, except Katelin who was out of town, and Jeremy's girlfriend Nicole. The original plan was to have a picnic at Pier 4 park, but we decided to stick around Westdale since the weather threatened rain. It was strictly an afternoon thing because Jer and Nicole were leaving to go camping that night.

That night after the party, Pete and I rented The Last King of Scotland. It was a solid film, I really liked it. Forest Whitaker's performance as the dubious Ugandan president Idi Amin was definitely deserving of the Oscar award he won. Tonight, Pete, Paul, Luke and I went to Silver City to catch a 9pm showing of new Pirates of the Carribean movie, but, tragically, all shows were sold out. At a loss, we just hung out and ordered pizza. Stuffed crust.

Oh man. As I was typing that last sentence, my Donnie Darko poster fell off the wall. You don't know how depressing that is - because, I always have trouble getting posters to stay up. But I put my new ones (acquired last fall) up over a month ago with some awesome sticky tack and they've been fine...until now. Ah well.

Before I go fix that, I want to mention that there's still been no word from any of the places I applied for work at, but I'm now just starting to look into something I've heard about. I don't want to say what it is until I've learned more about it and decided whether it's even feasible - but I can tell you that, if I decide to go for it, I think those of you who know me will be fairly surprised. This is not a typical David-move. More to come.

Life of a Non-Student

2007-05-23T18:23:00.000-07:00

My appreciation for summer still hasn't diminished. Some of my friends are already pining for the next school year to begin, which is a sentiment I can imagine, but not indulge in. As much as I appreciate the luxuries that student life affords, such as the facilitation of intelligent thought and the opportunity to meet like-minded people, I'm really enjoying the flexibility of a non-student life. It still seems like a novelty to be able to make plans to, say, hang out with friends for hours without worrying about looming responsibilities that will haunt you until they're finished. Of course, life would probably be more like that if I were working full-time. Take from that what you will, but I won't say any more publicly about my current job.

What I will say is that this afternoon I went with Alex to a Youth Employment Centre in Jackson Square. We spent probably a good hour going through their books of job listings and filling out applications. I don't know how she did it, but Alex filled out three times the number applications that I did, and in less time. But in any case, I applied to 4 positions that I think I have a pretty good chance at. The first two are with Children's Aid - both computer-oriented jobs, one being an IT person, (whose desired expertise is pretty unintimidating, mostly just dealing with Office applications and Internet Explorer) and the other a junior accountant. The third one was a no-brainer choice for both of us: a counsellor at a Theatre day camp for kids aged 7-14. Lastly on my part, I applied for a position with the Biochemistry and Biomedical Science Department at McMaster as a junior web designer. The job description actually emphasized proficiency with Word more than proficiency with Dreamweaver, which was a pleasant surprise seeing as, well...that is certainly the case with me. Although, there's no doubt in my mind that I'm qualified for the job, especially since Rockwell's visits to Hamilton have included a little time to show me some pro tips for use with Dreamweaver and HTML in general.

In other David-news, I need to mention the awesome time my friends and I had this past Sunday night. We went to check out the Victoria Day fireworks display at Dundas Driving Park. They were pretty amazing. I kept having flashbacks to when I was a young kid, and cowering in between my parents and under a wool blanket being terrified out of my mind at the same or similar show. Don't get me wrong though. I'm glad my parents took me. In fact, I've come to think of it as a rite of passage. If I ever have a son, I'll take him to some crazy Chinese fireworks, and he'll emerge from that night a man.

I may be going camping with some high school friends during the weekend of June 9th and 10th. The destination in mind is Fifty Point, just east of Confederation Park in Stoney Creek. In addition to this, my usual gang has hopes of organising some kind of camping slash backpacking excursion, since my hopes for a cottage-excursion got knocked out by the brutal uppercut of reality saying, "You're all relatively poor." Ouch.

Lastly, but absolutely not least-excitingly, Alex and I are in the ultra-early stages of planning some kind of low-stress video project. And before you start rolling your eyes, let me say that I know what you're thinking: How many times has Dave said something like this? When will it end?

Projects such as this one that never make it off my mental drawing board seem to be doomed to fail, and it's usually because what I have planned is too elaborate or beyond my means to create. It's also because I'm something of a perfectionist when it comes to these things, and I'd never create something that couldn't live up to the ideal in my ambitious little head. (Actually, my head is kind of big, but that's not important.)

The point is, this project is not beyond our means, and Alex is hopefully less anal about these things than I am, which would dramatically increase the likelihood of something actually being produced. Expect it to appear on this blog eventually, and if it doesn't please bug me about it. Danke.

StarCraft 2 Announced in Seoul

2007-05-18T21:57:00.000-07:00

Just moments ago, Blizzard Entertainment officially unveiled their next big release title, STARCRAFT 2, on the show floor of the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea.

Note: See bottom of post for updates!

For those of you who don't know, the original StarCraft, released in 1998, is one of the most popular video games that exists. It is sometimes jokingly referred to as the national sport in Korea, for its popularity and permanent status in their culture is unprecedented. The attendance and coverage of StarCraft matches and tournaments, held in stadiums (yes, stadiums) crammed with adoring fans, are comparable to that of the Super Bowl in America. No joke! The top players, such as Lim Yo-Hwan and Lee Yun-Yeol have corporate sponsors and are recognized faces around the country, appearing on soda cans and cereal boxes and God knows what else.

The release of the sequel is something fans have been awaiting for just shy of 10 years. Blizzard's other two main franchises, Warcraft and Diablo, have each been given sequels. (Warcraft, of course, had no less than two RTS sequels and the MMO - World of Warcraft.)

As I'm typing this, internet forums around the web are exploding with threads hailing SC2's coming. The World of Warcraft Off-Topic Board in particular has been standing on its ear, keeping its fellows up-to-date within seconds of released information. I want to give a huge thank-you to Charles Onyett of IGN.com, whose tireless updates from the floor of the show have been appearing at no more than 5-minute intervals for the past hour and a half in his article covering the event in exquisite detail. My favourite part of his frantically-taken notes so far is this excerpt:

"every unit on screen destroyed - three nukes were launched at once - then zergs rush in and spell 'GG' while turning into suicidal bombs."

Here's one gamer who can't wait to play this next installment. Thank you for the sequel Blizzard! Good game indeed.

Edit 5: OFFICIAL SITE is up! Download CGI video, wallpapers, and more.

Edit 4: High-resolution screenshots now on IGN! (Thanks to Berlyntroll)

Edit 3: Digital camera-captured Gameplay screens located @ bottom of post.

Edit 2: CGI Video appears on YouTube! (Thanks to Nigma for this)

Edit: I'd also like to express my amazement at the speed with which dedicated Wikipedi-ers made a detailed (as possible) entry for SC2.

Too Good to be True

2007-05-18T10:37:00.000-07:00

Desjardins called. They gave the job to someone else.

Stage, Linguene, Code

2007-05-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

Life Update! It goes on as usual, and I mean that in the least desparaging way possible. My time in Hamilton has been really great so far. I wish I could take a whole year off school instead of just 4 months. I've done a lot with my friends in the last couple weeks, including the barbeque at Paul's, the night at the boat and Williams, as well St. Catherine's on Monday night. Jeremy, Alex, Katelin, Emmett, and I drove up to Brock University to support Westdale's Sears Drama Festival entry: The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ianesco, skillfully directed by Pete's sister Thea. We met up with Sara, Beth, and Pete who'd made the trip down from Toronto, as well as a host of other friends and former teachers from Westdale. Soprano, by the way, is an absurdist play that pokes fun of the more ridiculous points of conversational manners in the time Ianesco wrote it. It's hard to explain it in a way that makes it sound remotely amusing, but the play is honestly a riot. You'd have a good chuckle if all you did was sit and read the script to yourself, but seeing it in performance is something else. Ruthie Pytka-Jones' and Spencer Reynolds' (I think that's his last name?) highly physical and chemistry charged performances had the audience in stitches. They got a standing ovation.

Afterward we drove back to Hamilton and I met up with Pete, Sara and Emmett at East Side Marios. I had Linguene with some spicy meat sauce, plus Caesar salad and delicious garlic bread. My mouth is watering again thinking about it - it was awesome.

I'm not working much this week. In fact, my only shifts this week are on Saturday and Sunday night. I am, of course, more actively seeking an additional/replacement job. Desjardins haven't called me yet, but I happen to know they aren't finished interviewing candidates yet - so it's not a worry. In my spare time I've been trying to keep fairly busy. My mum has been considering quitting her current job for quite some time and migrate to greener pastures. Most options would require her to become more computer-literate, so I actually wrote a small course that features content I think would be relevant for most office jobs. One of the likely outcomes that we've just begun looking into is the possibility of starting a little business of selling things on eBay. We bought a book that explains how to go about it properly. According to the book, one important step in promoting your legitimacy as a seller is having your own company website. So, to help my mum out, and to educate myself in something that's worthwhile anyway, I've been re-learning HTML and teaching myself to use Dreamweaver. If my plans come to fruition, I'll build a simple website for my mum's potential company which will be good practice for my own eventual site. (I already mentioned my desire to create something more professional and independent in a previous post.)

Anyhow, I think that'll be all for tonight!

EDIT: I keep forgetting to mention that the feed from my del.icio.us is now in my sidebar. Keep an eye on the list to see what interesting articles and other items I've been looking at lately.

Fond Farewell, Firefox

2007-05-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

Update: Since writing this I've found out I'm far from being the only person who is bemoaning Firefox's decline. This article that appeared early this morning on Wired informs that a lot of folks have had the same trouble with Firefox as me - especially Mac users. It goes on to discuss how much Firefox has changed from the lightweight open source champ that it once was.

Over the past couple of weeks my frustration with Firefox has been building. It fails to load some webpages correctly, but I can live with that. The real problem is the increasingly persistant crashes I keep getting - tonight it was three in the space of a few hours. When that happened I lost my cool and resolved to ditch my old Mozillian friend for good and switch to a new browser.

Fortunately, I recalled a fairly recent post Paul Stamatiou made about abandoning Firefox himself. I don't know much about the other browsers out there, or at least I didn't, so I used this entry of Paul's as a guide to other popular browsers. I ended up downloading and sampling several, and I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk briefly about each one. Perhaps this can serve as a little guide to anyone who's also considering a change of browsers.

WebKit
This open source browser is really just a rendering engine for Apple's Safari, and was Paul Stamatiou's choice after switching from Firefox. The look of it is ok for a while, but I find the dark colours a bit depressing. It has some cool features for . sure, but it's not easy to import your data from a previous browser - which is pretty much a make or break factor for me. I love my setup.

Flock
This one's kind of neat. Probably the most visually appealing, Flock advertises itself as "the social web browser". It lets you grab a feed from Flickr or Photobucket and have access to it right in your browser UI - not that that feature's very useful, but I guess some would like it. Other than that it's pretty standard, but I found it a little clunky and hard to use.

OmniWeb (Mac Only)
I could see myself getting into this one, but sadly it's not free. That's pretty much a deal breaker right there. I'm not crazy about the interface either. The upside is that it's got lots of customization options - and therefore a steep learning curve.

Shiira (Mac Only)
This is definitely one of my favourites. In fact, probably the main reason I didn't end up choosing Shiira is because it's so different from what I'm used to - and I don't like change that much. Instead of tabs, Shiira employs graphical thumbnails in the "PageDock" at the bottom instead of the top. It's definitely a cool idea, but I find it a lot easier for all that stuff to be in one place...that is, my open tabs and my bookmark toolbar, which I use more than anything else. It also has a fullscreen mode. Why, I don't know. I guess these guys take the notion of browsers being the OS of the future pretty seriously.

Opera
Opera is insane. I guess I didn't choose it because I couldn't be bothered to figure it out. This one's even got widgets, and is also highly customizable. Not much else to say about it. I think it's a good browser, but it's not for me - at least, not now.

I have a confession to make. As of this hour, I started writing this post about 24 hours ago, (though I've only been working on it intermitantly of course) and I've lost all interest in writing little browser reviews. I'll just say that the last two I looked at were SeaMonkey and iCab, (Google 'em yourself) but the one I finally decided on was something I had all along: Camino.

Camino is made to be very similar to Firefox with a "more Mac" feel. This is mostly true, although more than anything it reminds me of the Mac version of Messenger - which I hate. After all this exploration and deliberation, I've arrived at the conclusion that Firefox rules. Sadly, it's become very unreliable for me but my hope is that I can find a fix, or that Mozilla will release a new version soon that doesn't have these problems.

Anyway! Enough about browsers already! I have more to say but I think I'll save it for a post of its own. But, while I'm thinking about it, I wanted to mention a neat little web app I found called Fidg't. This service attempts to merge many of your social tools into one. It's something I've been thinking of for a while myself: why run around checking multiple email accounts, Facebook walls and messages, Flickr photos and their comments, blog comments and all the rest if one service could bring them all to a single place? I know I'd use it if it was good. Which is why I'm not using Fidg't - not yet anyway - because it's not compatible with much yet, and frankly, kind of ugly. But one day, who knows? Something like this could change the way people use the web.

A Hard-to-Name Post

2007-05-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

Today I finished reading The Fellowship of the Ring. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people like Christopher Lee, the actor who played Saruman in Jackson's films, who has read The Lord of the Rings once every year for decades. As much as I enjoyed The Hobbit when I was younger, I never could get into the main series much. So, albeit very late in happening, I've made it my mission this summer to get them read. Needless to say, Fellowship was an exceptionally good read.

I was going to make a long and in-depth post about all the news articles I read today, from HD-DVD fiasco over at Digg that unexpectedly doubled its traffic according to Alexa, to Apple's announcement about using LED back-lighting in future computer monitors, but I think I'll skip over that part for now.

I had my interview at Desjardins yesterday, and it seemed to go fine. They didn't say they'd call me, or even when to expect contact, but that doesn't worry me - I think they're still figuring that stuff out. As I've mentioned before, I'm reluctant to publish as many details as I'd like. The last thing I need is my own dooce-effect. It's been a nice, relaxing week so far; one that will be made even better by the potluck barbeque at Paul's tomorrow night.

Also, I finally posted new photos up on Flickr and Facebook for the first time in ages - photos featuring Ava from when we had family for dinner last night. (Links to both on my sidebar, as always.)

Chocolate Life

2007-05-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

I don't have much to say tonight, but wanted to write something anyway for the sake of posting something.

Work at Baranga's is fairly nondescript. Thanks to the awesome weather we've been having, Saturday night was busy and therefore very stressful for me. Most of the time I can do my thing at a comfortable, leisurely pace and still get everything done. Not so during the dinner rush. I'd go so far as to call it "intense", as laughable as it may seem to refer to washing dishes like that.

Unexpectedly, my schedule for this week is barren. I worked a slow shift last night, and now I have the rest of the week off. (And they call it "full-time". Hmm.) Saturday and Sunday I'm scheduled to work again, for at least 9 hours each day. One really great thing about my job, probably the best thing in fact, is how much it makes me appreciate free time. Today I didn't do much, but for once that felt pretty great. I mostly just hung around reading articles online, and then in evening I met up with Alex at Second Cup. She helped me buy a surprisingly expensive Chocolate Chiller, (the new moniker for the apparently oxymoronic "frozen hot chocolate") and we just hung out for a couple hours catching up. It felt really good to hang out in such a familiar place on a warm evening with an old friend. Felt very much in the spirit of summer, if that makes sense. The song "Moi...Lolita" by Alizée has been hopelessly stuck in my head all day, and I must've played it about 30 times - maybe more. Intermittently I mix it up with "Change Your Mind" by The All-American Rejects. Both of these tracks pretty well reflect my mood today - which is good.

Otherwise when not working I've just been doing what you'd expect. We had a movie night at Alex's not long ago, (saw Brick again - better the second time around, I think) and met her boyfriend Josh from the east coast. Cool guy. Also, Pete and Jeremy and I saw Spiderman 3 at Westdale Theatre, which I really enjoyed. I may write a full-review later. Another night Jeremy and Sara and Paul and I met up for some pool at our usual hang-out. Pete has started his new job in Toronto and currently has no internet access where he lives. Our prayers go out to him.

Tomorrow morning I have an interview at Desjardins Credit Union, so I'll probably post something about that later. For now, here's a random quiz I pulled off my cousin Melissa's Facebook page and filled out (also posted on FB of course) just for fun.

1. Name one person who made you smile today?
Alex!

2. What were you doing at 8 this morning?
Sleepin'.

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
...Facebook. =(

4. What is something that happened in 1995?
I don't know, I was 7. I guess I started school.

5. What is the last thing you said aloud?
"Hey mum! Can you think of anything cool I did when I was 7? No?....Ok."

6. How many different things did you drink today?
Water, milk, OJ, pineapple juice, chocolate chiller

7. What color is your hairbrush?
Don't think I own one? Used to have a blue one, now I just have a black comb I never use.

8. What was the last thing you bought?
Chocolate chiller from second cup.

9. What was the last gift you received for your birthday?
Money I think.

10. What color is your mouse?
Don't use a mouse, but my trackpad is black.

11. Where do you keep your change?
Pockets.

12. What was the weather like today?
Amazing! Warm and sunny.

13. What is the best ice-cream flavor?
Butterscotch.

14. What is something you are excited about?
My interview in the morning!

15. When was the last time you saw a rainbow?
Don't know.

16. What's your favorite gardening tool?
Clippers, because they're like scissors except more badass.

18. Are you very random?
Absolutely.

19. Do you want to cut your hair?
Not yet.

20. Are you over the age of 25?
Thank god no.

21. Who are you talking to right now?
Nobody.

22. Do you watch the oc?
Nope. I did once though.

23. Does your screen name have an 'x' in it?
Never.

24. Do you know anyone called steve?
Sure.

26. Are you ticklish?
Exceptionally.

27. Are you typically a jealous person?
Hm, no.

28. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter 'j'
Jer

29. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter 'k'?
Katelin

30. Who's the 1st person on your received calls list?
Um, I don't know how to use my cellphone.

31. What did the last text message you received say?
See above.

32. Do you chew on your straws?
Occasionally.

33. Do you have curly frizzy hair?
Nah.

34. What is the next concert you're going to?
No plans to attend one, but I should make them.

35. Who is the most awful person in your life?
I like everyone in my life.

36. What is something you say a lot?
"Yeah, so, whatever."

37. What is the last thing you ate?
Can't remember what it was called - something weird that was in the freezer.

38. Have you seen the movie 'donnie darko'?
Only about a bajillion times or so. Amazing film.

39. Do you have work tomorrow?
As a matter of fact...I don't. Do have an interview though, hooray.

40. What about marriage?
Some day.

41. When was the last time you said 'i love you'?
Hrm, can't remember.

42. What should you be doing right now?
Nothing - should sleep soon though.

45. Are you a heavy sleeper?
Not really.

46. When was the last time you used a skateboard?
Years ago. Somebody gave me this really retro one with a skull and crossbones on it. Awesome stuff.

47. What is the best movie you've seen in the past two weeks?
Fellowship of the Ring is the most honest answer...but I saw Spider man 3 and that was wicked.

48. Is there anyone you like right now?
Yeap, I like lotsa people, hoho.

49. When was the last time you did the dishes, be honest!
RUB IT IN MY FACE WILL YOU?! lol yesterday at work.

50. Do you wish you were someWHERE else?
Nope, I'm content.

Blog Infidelity

2007-05-01T23:39:00.000-07:00

Tonight I stumbled across Squarespace, a fabulously snazzy blog and website publisher. It's a lot like Blogger, except it makes Blogger seem about a million years old. There is a lot more customization available, flashier templates, and the ability to remove any trace of Squarespace themselves from the domain name, therefore making you look better. The only downside is the monthly (or yearly) fee you pay for hosting, but the prices do seem reasonable.

I'm not planning on abandoning this blog any time soon, although at some point in the future, maybe once I'm finished my undergrad and looking for work, I'd be interested in having a website that features a blog section with research or other writing, plus a resume/portfolio section for self-promotion. (Much along the lines of Geoffrey Rockwell's site or that of Heidi Hysell.)

Not much else to report tonight. I have the day off work again tomorrow, and then I go in Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Joost!

2007-04-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

I've just become a new member of the beta Joost community. If you didn't know, Joost is relatively new interactive software that uses P2P television technology to distribute TV shows and other video content - for free. Basically, you get a very luscious UI complete with an Dashboard-like overlay of widgets, and the ability to watch about 24 TV channels in fullscreen on your computer. The channels you get depend on where you are. To be honest, I'm not all that impressed with the channels I get right now, but this is only the beginning. I think that once Joost has completed beta testing it'll be much more enticing. There are rumors circulating on the community forums of all kinds of things on the horizon: CNN, HBO, and special features like a Star Trek channel. Despite the current lack of attractive options, the program itself is very nice. I haven't looked at screenshots from the Windows version, but the OS X version is very Mac-like; pretty, intuitive, and all the rest. I predict that, if they keep up the good work, Joost is going to be a big hit, and probably more of a threat to YouTube than Sony's current Japan-based project called eyeVio. (For the Slashdot article on this, clicky.)

Also, I need to give a big shout-out to David Linsin, whose blog I came across randomly while browsing Technorati. He was cool enough to send me and three others an invite to Joost beta. Like all things that hope to generate some hype, Joost requires you to be specially invited by a current user before you can download the client. And it's not like Gmail where everyone immediately has so many invitations. I currently have none, but I think I'll probably get some eventually. If I do, I'll be happy to send them to anyone who's interested.

On the personal side of things, I had a pretty rough third day at work on Saturday, as we were hosting a wedding in the evening which meant everyone had to be on top of their game. After some relaxation on Sunday I met up with friends for some almost-soccer/step-sitting/soda-swigging, (sorry Sarah) shenanigans. At some point between 12 and 1 we stopped by the Barn in Westdale (now open 24/7!) and stocked up on candy, Ritz crackers, strawberries with whipped cream and corn nuts, and headed over to Sara's place to watch The Emporer's New Groove. Good stuff. I don't work again until Thursday, meaning I need to get some other things done in the next couple days. I think I'll take a resume (Shh!) over to Fortinos with an interest in the little Entertainment section they have in one corner of the store. I also need to call my boss again to see if I can get a day off next week so I can go to Newmarket.

Anyway that's all for now.

Technorati Luv

2007-04-27T23:57:00.000-07:00

As of tonight I'm officially listed with Technorati - a site that's basically a search engine for blogs. (I suppose it's also a social networking thing since you have profiles and stuff.) I've known about it for ages, but I never took the time to look into it carefully until now. As silly as it may sound, I think signing up with them was the most fun I've ever had registering for something online. Maybe it's because I'm just a huge Web 2.0 fan boy. (But seriously...the part where you type out a 250-character blog descriptions actually has a little character count going as you type it. How cool is that?) Plus they give you some nifty little widgets to stick in a template, and, well, fresh additions to my blog's template make my heart beat faster because I'm really cool like that.

I've been doing more thinking lately about making this blog accessible to wider audiences and so forth, but just tonight I've seriously re-considered my previous notion that it would never happen unless I made it much less personal, since my own personal life is pretty ordinary. But, just from some of the browsing around I've been doing tonight, (won't go into the details) I've seen that there are plenty of folks who enjoy reading frivolity as much as I enjoy writing it. Thus, I've done some self-promotion in blogging circles so we'll just see what happens.

Random: My work shift tomorrow got changed from afternoon to evening. In other words? RIP Weekend.

White Board Stop Motion Goodness

2007-04-26T00:09:00.000-07:00

Check out this cool video I found while browsing Break.com instead of sleeping!

So neat.

Work, Work!

2007-04-24T23:23:00.000-07:00

Today was my first day working in the kitchen at Baranga's. I plan to make this the one and only time I talk about work, (or this particular job, at least) on a personal level because the idea of this blog is that anyone's welcome to read it. I guess I'm saying there's the possibility that one of my co-workers or employers could read this, however unlikely, so I want to be sensitive to that.

The kitchen runs in a fairly orderly way. The waitresses (referred to always as "the girls") come in bearing armfuls of dirty dishes which they put in a rack on the counter. I'm responsible for making sure there is an empty rack there at all times, or at least enough space for more dishes when they come. I pull the full racks across to my side of the counter and then push them along a track to the sink. Then I spray them spotless. I have to make sure there's nothing left on them, because neglected scraps get baked onto their surfaces when I put the load in the sanitizer. Then I push the full rack into the machine and hit the switch. If there's downtime with the incoming plates and stuff, then I'm supposed to go over to the other sink and scrub the bigger items which have to be done by hand. (Pots, pans, and greasy trays.) Once the sanitizer is finished its cycle, I pull the full rack out the other side and lay the items out to dry. Eventually I have to gather them up and run around looking for their spot. Apparently my supervisor is pretty prickly about things being put away in the wrong place.

Washing dishes on its own isn't very enjoyable. It's tedious, and mind-numbingly repetitive. The only remotely fun part is spraying something clean with the high-powered nozzle. Scrubbing things is my least-favourite part - it's slow, and wet, and dirty. Stray noodles and bits of meat gather in the corners of the primary sink where they float like fetid mold on the brown water's surface. Also, the soap dispenser doesn't work properly, and the tap is too long for the narrow sink, so you can't swing it around with the water running or you'll make a big mess. (Guilty, once or twice.)

But, all complaints aside, a job is a job. The best upside to all this is that my co-workers seem very friendly. I only worked for about 3 and a half hours today, but it seemed much longer because I wasn't talking to anyone. I think this will change soon when I get to know the others in the kitchen, and then the time will go by a lot faster. I hope so, anyway - I don't know how long I'd last if every day was like today, only three times longer. Anyhow, I'm scheduled to work again on Friday and Saturday, starting at 11am.

Massacre Chasers are Lame

2007-04-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

You know, it's pretty angering to me when people like Jack Thompson and Dr. Phil take advantage of an incident like the shooting at Virginia Tech by using it to bash something they don't like - namely video games. Note, I'm not alone in my sentiments here - what I'm saying is just rehashing what's been discussed in several other articles and blogs, but here it is nonetheless.

On the eve of the VT massacre, Dr. Phil said the following on Larry King Live:

"The problem is we are programming these people as a society. You cannot tell me - common sense tells you - that if these people are playing video games where they’re on a mass killing spree in a video game, it’s glamorized on the big screen, it’s become part of the fiber of our society. You take that and mix it with a psychopath, a sociopath, or someone suffering from mental illness, add in a dose of rage, the suggestability is just too high. And we’re going to have to start dealing with that. We’re going to have to start addressing those issues and recognizing that the mass murderers of tomorrow are the children of today that are being programmed with this massive violence overdose."

Uh huh. Right. I have huge respect for Jason Della Rocca (executive director of the International Game Developers' Association) right now, because he hit the nail right on the head, summing up exactly what I was thinking quite well:

"It’s so sad. These massacre chasers — they’re worse than ambulance chasers — they’re waiting for these things to happen so they can jump on their soapbox."

Jack Thompson, for those of you who don't know, is a controversial attorney who is a wildly active opposer of violent media, particularly video games. Following the VT massacre he was interviewed on MSNBC, and was confronted with this quotation. Watch how angry he gets.

Haha. And that smoking analogy was pretty bad in my opinion. Of course not every smoker gets lung cancer - but they all get damaged lungs. That's the difference. Very few gamers are "damaged" by the games they play. Ah well. Thoughts?

Triumphant Return

2007-04-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

I'm back!!! Actually, I never really went anywhere. I've been putting off writing this post because I thought I'd have to make it really long, and, you know, good - and not to mention well-thought out, to make up for my huge lack in posting. However, I've decided to write whatever comes to me because, as we all know, something is better than nothing. So!

I'm done school. Yeah, crazy! I wrote my last exam on the 14th I believe, and moved out of my place at 661 Edinburgh (forever!) the following day. No more menagerie! I feel pretty good about how my exams went. I haven't got any marks back yet, but I'm not concerned. As you'd expect, it's strange that I'm done my first "year" of university. Those people who told me university would fly by faster than high school - they were right. Wow.

Employment: I have it! Yes, indeed. I've been hired as a kitchen person at Baranga's. My plan in applying for work there was to get a waitering job, or bar tending. I was initially devastated when my employer-to-be handed me a Kitchen manual and my original visions (of me standing on the deck giving somebody a fancy drink with a pink straw, against a backdrop of the sun setting on the lake) were replaced with me toiling in a noisy, steamy kitchen with an overbearing supervisor breathing down my neck and telling me to hurry up. Granted, I'm sure both extremes are over-exaggerated in my mind, but there they were anyway. Since then I've found out a lot more positive things about the job, such as the fact that the other kitchen folks are supposedly mostly (female) university students. That, I can live with.

But that's not all! There's another job prospect for me at the Desjardins Credit Union outlet in Hamilton's Centre Mall. (It's our very own Mos Eisley! Although, if you've seen Jackson Square lately, you might say the comparison should be made there instead. I'm on the fence.) My dad's contact with them is hopefully enough for me to get my foot in the door. I dropped off a resume with them last week, and should hopefully be hearing from them in the coming days. If I get a job there, I'd probably be a bank-teller of some sort, presumably full-time and also presumably yanking in a better wage than my dish washing gig. I've pretty much decided that I'll take the Desjardins job over Baranga's if it's offered to me, despite the fact that I wouldn't meet any young people working there. Le sigh.
UPDATE: As I was finishing up writing this entry, I got a call from Margarite Tsangarakis, my employer from Baranga's. I start work this Tuesday at noon. ...GAH! Oh well. I just hope I don't get a call in the meantime to get interviewed at the same time.

My other plans for the summer are both bounteous and ambitious. I have an extensive mental to-do list, but this list I'm about to compile will probably be somewhat incomplete:

Getting G2:
I've only done a little driving practice since I've been home, but with a little more I think I'll be confident to arrange my government test. My goal is to have it set up before the month is out. That gives me just over a week. Ack.

The Elusive Play
At some point last semester I got the bright idea to write (and possibly go on to direct) a one act play for an event at U of G called...Snow Week. I think. For some reason I'm thinking they spell the Snow without the W. Uh, details on that later when I find out. Anyway, the only problem right now is, and the reason I referred to it as being elusive, is because as of now I don't exactly have an idea. Or at least, nothing more than a couple pun-packed titles and one-liners. The other thing is, I'm pledged to work on this with my good friend from Acting I, Sarah Lavine. She lives, (for this summer, at least) with her family in Newmarket. This is one of the reasons I'm bound and determined to get my license, so that I can get myself up there to visit and compose. Hopefully one or both of us is struck by inspiration, sooner rather than later, so we can get that ball rolling.

The Muskoka Retreat
Back in high school, my youth group from Binkley Church had an esteemed yearly ritual of spending a long weekend at Lakeside Lodge on Lake Rosseau in Muskoka. Having spent quite a bit of time up north even before that, (at the fairy tale-like mansion-cottages belonging to my uncle) the area's become quite a nostalgic place for me. Thus, I've started discussing with my old gang from high school the possibility of going up there together on a long weekend. Renting a cottage is tricky in regard to the organization and cost of it all, but I'm determined to get something worked out. I've already located an excellent resource, with all the listings I could ask for. The problem is, the more people you need sleeping accommodations for, the more expensive it gets. Anyway, I'll talk more about that when more decisions are made.

Other Trips
I hope to make some other excursions as well with my friends this summer. We may go to Montreal, (which Pete has to familiarize himself with anyway since his recent acceptance to Concordia) or someplace like that. And, although it's not this summer, next summer the UEFA Euro Cup 2008 is being hosted by Austria and Switzerland. Pete, Paul and I are hoping to go. Just from looking at this site, it looks like the average cost of a ticket to a regular match is anywhere between 300 and 800 euros, and the semi-finals and final cost between 1200 and 3000. As far as I know, the conversion is one euro equals about a dollar-fifty Canadian. Ouch.

As if that plan weren't unlikely enough, we're also coddling a distant goal of attending the next FIFA World Cup in the summer after we graduate in 2010. The location? South Africa. Oh yeah.

Misc.
Obviously there are some things I want/need to be doing that are a little closer at hand than overseas soccer tournaments and so forth. For one, I'm thinking of getting into the habit of running every morning. I haven't started this yet, but it would be really excellent if I did. Cardio is gooooood. Also, as I was visiting with good old Sarah (Kat) last night, she mentioned a...well, I don't know what to call it exactly, but they're *free* (Argentinian) Tango lessons in Toronto that she took advantage of many times last year. I never went with her before, sadly, but I'd like to take that opportunity now. (You didn't think I was going to mention something that isn't beyond my personal financial means did you? Well there you go.) I don't care what people say - dancing is great fun, and especially fun to tell people you can do since not many people can. In addition to all that, I plan on asking for a camera for my birthday so I can start taking more pictures that aren't of the grainy webcam variety. Rockwell has really taken to photography over the past several months and wants me to join him in an urban-themed photo-taking quest this summer, featuring downtown Hamilton's seedy underbelly in all its squalid artistic splendor. I also have to go out and buy a wireless router for this house, because being confined to my room and the minimal reach of this old broken ethernet cord is no fun.

Anything I'm missing? Ah, my friends and I are planning some movie marathons, such as a Lord of the Rings marathon with the extended editions of each film. (It amounts to about 9 or 10 hours...at least.) That should be fun. Sort of. There's more I'm missing for sure, but I'm sure you're as tired of reading as I am of typing, especially considering what an amazing day it is.

More coming later. And no more month-long posting gaps, I swear.

I know, I know

2007-04-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

It's coming, I promise.

Special Delivery

2007-03-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

Note: Today is a beautiful day in Guelph. I'm sitting at my desk (aka my footrest) with the window open and blasting some of the happiest tunes in my library. Today I cleaned up my room some and bought groceries. Tonight I'm going to see a contemporary production of Romeo and Juliet over on campus. Tomorrow morning I'm heading back to Hamilton for awhile, which will hopefully be a quiet place to learn my Acting monologue. Anyway, last night handed in this review for the film "300". It's actually been out since March 9th, so this is a little behind the times, but here it is anyway. Because of time constraints (procrastination) I didn't get time to edit it, and still haven't done so, but upon a second reading it seems a little flowery with the language. I don't usually write with so many adjectives. Feedback appreciated.

______________________________________________________________

300 is the ultimate guys-night-out film. Dripping testosterone out of every pore, this is a flick that delivers what it promised without a lot of extras. Co-written and directed by Zack Snyder, (Dawn of the Dead remake) the movie is based on Frank Miller’s (Sin City) graphic novels of the same name. It is classified under the genre of Historical Fiction as it depicts the ancient Battle of Thermopylae with much accuracy, but also with splashes of fantasy thrown in for flare. The number 300 comes from the number of elite Spartan soldiers who step up to defend Greece from the Persian war machine over one million strong. It is the story of their sacrifice.

The film is not a “good” one in the traditional sense. That is, where other films like The Lord of the Rings Trilogy excel in many aspects of the medium, 300 selects only a few. The rest is left by the wayside, which is why not everyone can enjoy this work. The plot, for instance, is fairly simplistic and predictable. It could even be called weak at points when you consider certain details, such as the fact that these Greek people, who founded democracy and believe in honor and justice, are also throwing away babies who don’t look strong enough to grow into Spartan warriors. The character development is also extremely lacking. When one of the “good guys” is decapitated in a surprise attack, we do not feel the remorse for his death that we should – or could.

Luckily for 300, most people going to see it probably won’t care about its failings. Snyder knew exactly who his audience would be and curved every essence of the film’s being to cater to his demographic. For instance, the main feature of the piece is its exquisite visuals, manufactured with blue screen technology to mirror the colour and form of Frank Miller’s artwork. Then of course there’s the action. The film pulses with riveting fight scenes, relentless and visceral, that occupy most of the running time. That said, the gratuitous violence does not come off as being overly extreme by virtue of its highly stylized nature. Films with less killing, like Apocalypto or even Reservoir Dogs, actually leave a bloodier trail in memory than 300 does. They didn’t forget to include a generous helping of sex into the film either, further tantalizing a male audience already drooling with bloodlust.

Yet, above all its other successes, 300’s most potent feature is its steadfast, explicit sense of virility. From the very notion of going up against insurmountable odds, to recklessly ignoring warnings from the wise, to throwing a boy on the threshold of manhood into a fight for survival with a wild winter wolf – all are drenched in unabashed masculinity. It is features like these that call upon the dormant wolf in every man, satisfying some primal lust for blood and glory. Snyder understands this well, and therefore 300 is riddled with these countless virile contrivances.

This focus makes the film very strong in what it attempts to be. Given the context modern films are put in – that is, one that dictates everyone that goes to see 300 knows what to expect – it is unlikely that very many people have been or will be disappointed with it. If that is so, then it must be somewhat “good”, even if it’s only in a certain sense. The bottom line is that it’s not a film for everyone. It’s a film for a particular audience, and for them, (you all know who you are) it will surely be excellent.

Thoughts on Net Neutrality

2007-03-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

While perusing Amber's blog, I came across this article by Lee-Anne Goodman of the Canadian Press. It examines and discusses some Government documents that suggest the Tories have few objections to giving ISPs more control of the Net.

If you are unfamiliar with the issue of Network Neutrality, which I have mentioned briefly on this blog once or twice before, here's the rundown:

As long as the world wide web has existed, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have provided equal, unbiased access to all content. However, over time we have seen that certain web-based phenomena have been very successful. (Read: Google) So naturally, big telecom companies feel like they deserve a piece of the pie. (That pie isn't an easy number to pin down, but Google bought YouTube for 1.65 billion dollars - so you get the idea. They're rich.) The telecommunications guys in both Canada and the US have been pushing to be given more control of the Net. If this control was given to them, they could do just about anything they want. They could say to Yahoo, "Hey, if you pay us so much we'll make sure all Yahoo pages and queries load faster and more reliably than anything from Google." That probably wouldn't happen because Google would be able to offer more money than Yahoo for this service, which means bad things for Yahoo. So this example illustrates two problems already: the little guys will be muscled aside by the bigger players, and the rest of us effectively have one less option to choose from.

You might be wondering why an ISP would choose to give preference to anyone. Well, surprise surprise, it's the same old culprit that's always at the bottom of everything: money. Twelve years ago, internet users weren't creating a fraction of the content we are now, and all the mp3s and podcasts and online game data we're throwing around these days is eating up a lot more bandwidth - and thus it's become much more costly to keep us happy. Narrowing our options cuts their costs a lot.

In the article I linked above, it points out some of the groups such changes would affect:

Googlers and Startups, as I already explained. (Muscling out startups is particularly upsetting. YouTube marked such significant changes in media and their influence on society - because of hard work and proverbial elbow grease. You can't go from zero to hero in a non-neutral internet.)

The rest I'm just going to copy and paste because I'm lazy.

iPod listeners - Companies could slow access to iTunes, steering you to higher-priced music services that they own.

Online shoppers - Companies could pay Internet providers to guarantee their online sales process faster than their competitors with lower prices.

Small businesses - When Internet service providers favour their own services, you won't be able to choose more affordable providers for online video, teleconferencing, Internet phone calls, and software that connects your home computer to your office.

Bloggers - Costs will skyrocket to post and share video and audio clips, silencing citizen journalists and putting more power in the hands of a few corporate-owned media outlets.

I also read someplace that ISPs could start applying new fees to companies like Microsoft, (for Messenger, possibly) that would drive them to start applying new fees to us. Paying for every instant message sent, for example. (Similar to the current situation with text messaging on mobiles.) I haven't exactly been keeping track, but I'm sure the number of IMs I've sent number in the tens, if not hundreds of thousands. Something like this would be devastating.

Why would the Canadian government allow this? (Especially when the US has already passed over this issue and declared the web a neutral playing field indefinitely.) The most likely answer is that the telecom industry in Canada is far more concentrated than it is in the US, with Bell and Rogers being the two big kids on the block. I've never accessed the internet through any other provider, and I don't believe I know anyone who has either. (In contrast, the American ISPs are more numerous.) Since Bell and Rogers are so huge, they're pretty important to the economy, and according to that article, the Tories feel it's in their best interest to appease them.

Normally I'm fairly apathetic to political issues, but this one has really grabbed my attention. I've always thought I'd like to remain in Canada, aside from possibly spending brief periods in other parts of the world for the sake of experience. That said, if even a few of these things start happening, it would give me very good reason to consider leaving Canada for someplace with more democratic access to the world wide web and all its utilities. (Call me a Geek all you want, but I was practically coddled on the good ol' fashioned world wide web, and that's that.)

If you'd like to learn more or help me do something about it, follow the banner link in my sidebar (neutrality.ca) and sign the petition. There's also a lot more information there. They suggest writing to your local MP to say that you support Net Neutrality, which I'm strongly considering doing. (Possibly to David Sweet for Hamilton, and another to the Guelph guy, whoever it is.)

Edit:
Mirrored from Amber's blog: Interview with Prof. Andrew Clement of U of T; more of an explanation:

Also, this is an older episode of my favourite podcast, Ask a Ninja, in which they endorse Neutrality and explain it (albeit from an out-of-date, American perspective) in fairly every day language: