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Hello Chocolate, My Old Friend

Here, for your disinterest, is a list of my favourite foods:

Licorice, Bubble tea (taro milkshake), Chocolate (especially dark chocolate), Pizza (particularly Mediterranean with feta cheese and kalamata olives), Ice cream, Butter tarts, Butter chicken, Roast potatoes, “Home fries,” Chicken shawarma, Miss Vickie’s sea salt and malt vinegar chips, Hardbite honey mustard chips & Rold Gold honey mustard pretzel chunks, Count Chocula, Golden Grahams & Reese Peanut Butter Puffs, Four cheese tortellini, Syrupy ball desert found in Indian restaurants, Henry Weinhardt’s Premium Draft root beer, Yams with brown sugar, Wasabi peas, Peanut M&Ms, Bridge Mix, Chai tea.

From that list, here’s what I was able to eat/drink on the MediFlat diet: Chai tea (after a fashion).

However the MediFarce thang is pretty much at an end. I’ll still be eating differently than I used to, but I won’t be denying myself anything anymore, just trying to make sure I don’t overdo it. When Stewie asked me if I wanted anything from Germany, I asked him to look out for exotic Ritter Sport (good quality chocolate) flavours. He totally came through for me with a package of tiny bars featuring three new flavours. I’ve been enjoying one of the tiny bars each night for the past few nights. The old me would have the package done in an evening. Tonight is the drawing class for Slackademics and there’s no way I could partake in a potluck while sticking to the MediFool regimen.

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Open Minds – How Open is Too Open?

After Mutants & Masterminds on Monday we sat around for over an hour talking about ghosts, UFOs, hypnotism, science and religion. Ken and Caleb believe (to some extent) in…well let’s call it the supernatural (lumping little grey almond eyed aliens in there) just to give it a grossly broad label…while Joe and I do not. Ken’s told the story of his father experiencing a UFO, and why his dad would have no reason to make it up. We countered with “that doesn’t mean there are greys visiting Earth – it could be weather balloons or secret govt experiments etc etc.” That led to discussion on Occam’s razor, how we can’t understand reality we can only observe it with the 5 senses given us, and how science is telling us that we change reality by our very observation. But on the subjects of ghosts and god and whatnot, my question was “what is the value in believing in this that have no proof?” to which Caleb’s reply was “for the experience.” And I can’t deny that for some that would have value. However, it is a very short leap from that kind of thinking to anyone calling himself a doctor and conning sick people out of their money, and to people being burnt at the stake for witchcraft. Which, I will point out, still happens to this very day in many places.

Speaking of science, here’s a very interesting article on the recently discovered ‘bug’ that causes ulcers, and how it can help track the origins of mankind, and both cause and prevent cancer (yes, I’m being deliberately imprecise, read the article) http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2005/10/03/a_prize_bug.php

 

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Su – the Element of Surprise

What happens when you mix thorium, oxygen, rhenium and nitrogen? You get ThOReN, which is as close as you can get to my name by using the symbols from the periodic table of elements. I wonder what that terrible concoction would look and smell like, and what other properties it would have? Thorium is a metallic actinoid, “a source of nuclear power. There is probably more untapped energy available from thorium in the mineral’s of the earth’s crust than from combined uranium and fossil fuels.” It’s named for the god Thor is found in thorite and thorianite in New England. I’m off to a good start. Oxygen, obvious. Rhenium is another metal, with a density “exceeded only by that of platinum, iridium and osmium” and a melting point exceeded only by tungsten and carbon. Nitrogen, again, obvious. I went through my phone list and here are some others. Basically, if your name starts with a J, you are out of luck until they find some more elements.

Boron, Oxygen, Boron (B2O?) – BOB

Neon, Aluminum – NeAl

Sulfur, Americium — SAm

Lanthium, Nickel—LaNi

Taylor comes close with TaYLr (Tantalum, Yttrium, Lawrencium). I think everyone whose name creates a compound should get a sample of that compound free from either the government or the scientific community.

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Venture Bros + Rocket Robin Hood

I bought the 3rd season of Superman: The Animated Series and the first season of The Venture Bros on DVD this week. The Venture Brothers is really damn good. My only complaint is that it could use just a bit better animation, and a few more actors on the voiceover roster.

I also received the very last two episodes of Rocket Robin Hood that I needed to make my collection complete. These two were, to quote a trader friend of mine, the Holy Grail for RRH collectors, and I got them from some guy who emailed me out of the blue! So that makes me happy. RRH takes a lot of flack, and it does have the crappiest animation ever, and extremely spotty writing, but the characters are solid and it’s generally pretty fun.

I got my hair cut to day by Mr Ranger, who’s no stranger to danger. He really enjoyed Hypnopotamus. I showed him my three newest drawings (which you can see in the usual place) for Elephantom, Micronewt and Dark Horse. I also thought of some new ones. Vote now!

Warhog (like Warthog but without the T)

Komodo Dragonfly

Uberbite (German Shepherd, of course)

Moondrake

Datalynx or Weblynx (or The Missing Lynx?)
Red Rover (yeah I don’t know either, I just like it for some reason).

Karate Kid (a goat of course)

The Platinum Marmoset (the joke here being that there really is such a thing as a golden marmoset, but platinum is superior)

Cardinal Sin (yes, the bird)

Grisly Bear

I wonder if there’s some sort of grant out there that would pay for me to write and draw a WWFJ comic book. I’ll have to look into that. Maybe I’d have to throw in a beaver as the main character for Canadian content. I don’t know what his name or powers would be, but his secret base would be The Beaver Lodge.

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I don't know…

…probably a big waste of time, but anyway…

Hi,

I just took a movie quiz at Flixster.com.  If you come take it too we can see if we like the same movies.

http://www.flixster.com/servlet/invite/252315327qajABCm

Toren

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Superman Returns, and he's a Voyeur and a Homewrecker

Okay, it’s been out for a week now, so if you haven’t seen it yet, that’s your own lookout.

Dr Plait at the Bad Astronomy blog points out some gaffs about some things portrayed in the new flick, such as Krypton exploding and launching a shuttle off the back of a jet liner. Ici.

I posted a few of my own comments but I’ll also list them here:

CGI cape aside…. when Supes’ spaceship came tumbling down to Earth, I had to wonder what his power levels were (i.e. how much yellow sun energy can he soak up through his ship) and how much out of control does the ship have to be for him to have crash landed. The question really is, was it just luck that he survived the crash?

How Supes gets his suit, and its degree of invulnerability is a constant point of contention with me. I’ve come to accept that it can never be explained realistically so I just ignore it.

Safely catching people who are falling off buildings is something that superheroes always goof up on. Watching this in Batman or Superman the animated series is even worse, because often Supes will be traveling at super speed to snatch Lois from the jaws of death. Ouch!

My big problem was with Lex’s plan. I enjoyed the fact that he still is going on with the real estate get-rich-quick scheme. However, what happens after he grows the new continent? He relies (and expects us to rely) on a throwaway line that he can defend it from the rest of the world with a Kryptonian arsenal. Huh? What? How? Please to explain.

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Night of the Living Podcast

If you’ve got 42 minutes to kill you can listen to me being interviewed by the gents at Night of the Living Podcast. We talk about HPL (of course) in film and gaming, Nomeansno, the origins of the band, Thickets vs They Might Be Giants/Gwar, math, acting, and Albert Finney.
http://nightofthelivingpodcast.podomatic.com/entry/2006-07-03T08_59_34-07_00

Sorry Stewie, I forgot to mention Sword of the Stars by name. I’ll make it up to you by linking to your new SotS site right now!

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Tinseltown Has Just Been Trumped…

I love movies! And for comfort Tinseltown can’t be beat. Plus it’s got that food court right outside with Indian food and bubble tea.

On the other hand…

I called Taytay up to see if he wanted to go see Superman Returns (7/10 by the way) with me for a matinee. He suggested the Rio Theater on Broadway and Commercial and I said “sure.” When I went to see Sophie Scholl with Stephane we passed it on the way and he pointed out that he wanted to try it, so I was doubly interested. Imagine my surprise and delight to find out that I only had to pay $5. Then imagine my surprise to find the guy behind the concession was the owner (Mukesh Goyal) and asked us what kind of movies he should show. We talked about Pixar and how Cars was popular in the suburbs (he cited Surrey) and in the States more so than Vancouver proper because it’s about, well, cars, and specifically Nascar. I told him that the films that normally get me out to the theater are the big blockbusters or something that falls squarely in my interests. Other things I usually wait for DVD (and to my shame I still haven’t seen Owning Mahowny or Capote). Then imagine my further surpise when I noticed they sold wasabi peas and other Dan-D-Pack snacks and Coke Zero in the bottle. Then imagine my further further surprise to find super comfy seating with armrests that can be folded back out of the way. Then imagine…etc etc to find the answer to Toren’s be all and end all Toren’s theater complaint–just before the show, the projectionist came on the PA to say hello, point out that the theater has 20 digital Dobly speakers, that it’s independently owned, and that they don’t show ads. That bears repeating.

They

DON’T

SHOW

ADS.

I ejaculated (verbally). Friends, help me support this wonderful, wonderful theater. Go see Superman Returns there. They also have a balcony and regular pricing is $8. Also it’s got authentic red curtains (no ads includes no slides – the curtain is closed until the trailers start), Chris Woods would approve.