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Yesterday was Groundhog Day.

…that makes The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets 13 years old.

Last night I had a dream that I was in New Zealand, visiting Peter Jackson. He had a new baby and I held it for a short while, trying desperately not to break its neck (its head was huge!) by holding it incorrectly. When I gave it back to Peter or his wife, there was a big stain on my shirt – and it was the only shirt I brought to New Zealand. So I asked Peter if he had any shirts I could borrow. He showed me a line of shirts that promoted one of his movies, but he expected me to buy one and I had no money.

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Well why did you keep it a secret?!?

So they’re cancelling Enterprise…just when they’re getting to the stuff that I always hoped they’d do – the formation of the Federation. True, Archer sucked, and so did T’Pol with her pouty collagen lips and refusal to be Vulcan. In fact the only characters that I really like are Phlox and Hoshi, in that order. And let’s not forget Jeffrey Combs. It seems such a shame that my wish to see a Star Trek series that used space suits was finally granted, and I only got 4 seasons. Yet Voyager got 7.

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Weathertop

So this coming weekend is the big fat gaming convention that we like to call Weathertop. A great deal of my free time has been spent in preparation for this weekend of fun and frivolity. Unlike the last couple of conventions, I will actually be PLAYING some games, rather than just running games, and watching the door. So I’m pretty excited about that. I’m going to run a new scenario of Spaceship Zero on Saturday, which I am testing out with Taylor and Nathan and others on Thursday. Wednesday night will probably be the last night I can just chill out and relax before the weekend.

The rest of February looks to be full of exciting things. I’m having a Miniature Painting Potluck Party on…the 10th I think. And it’s Janet’s birthday on the 12th. Maybe the 18th or 19th would be a good night for a movie night with the usual suspects, and maybe the 16th or 23rd for another game night at Sherane’s. And the 8th is Nirvana Day so I’ll be sure to listen to “Love Buzz.”

Then in March – the Saturday Morning Cartoon Party. Awwwww yeahhhhh.

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Short haired girls

Marlo asked me the other day why I prefer girls with short hair. I haven’t thought about this for a while, so here we go:

1. I can see the neck. I like the female neck. It’s one of my favourite bits.

2. This may be complete bullshit, but my observations over my adult life is that women with short hair are more independent, and I find that attractive.

3. Short hair is low-maintenance. Are girls with short hair also low-maintenance? The thought occurred to me. See note regarding bullshit (above).

4. Especially in the 80’s when I became less of a boy and more of a man, short hair was quite uncommon, and so I think I found it just a little exotic. Or at least, not mainstream. And that appeals to me too, what with me being a freak and an outcast.

5. Maybe I’m a dyke trapped in a man’s body?

I wanted to blog more, but this confounded mouse is making it really frustrating to work on the computer, so I’m just going to go make dinner. Hey, that’s a good name for a convention: Con-Founded

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Because Mbeck asked for it

Ripped off by the government. Marlo got a tax return of several hundred dollars last year, but recently she got a letter from the government saying there was a mistake, and she owes them $400. My story is weak by comparison, but it still riles me.

I bought a pair of converse on ebay. I got them for $15.75 US plus postage for a total of about 21 American bucks. Cons go for about $60 Canadian in stores, so after you convert US$21 to Cdn$25, that’s a pretty good deal. But the other day I got a note from the post office saying there was a package with $17.60 due on it. I knew it was the shoes. I went to the post office to find out what the deal was. The guy who sent it wrote $15 for the value on the customs declaration form, but his one looks like a seven, so they charged me $12.60 in tax on what they thought was an item valued at $75 US ($90 Canadian) plus the standard $5 “handling fee.” Naturally the lady at the 7-11 postal outlet can’t do anything, but she told me about all the bureaucratic hoops I have to jump through to get my $17 back (and the handling fee is probably exempt). So I filled out the form, included a copy of the invoice from ebay, and even scanned in the package and printed out the scan so they could see buddy boy’s writing. I know it’s only $17 bucks, but it kind of defeats the purpose of searching for a good deal, plus I hate what it was “spent” on. Spending $17 on a friend or myself – great. Giving it to a government that already charges me for services that I rarely or cannot use – crap.

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Space

Since my Disney’s Tomorrowland DVD showed up, my thoughts for the cartoon party have all been spacey. I’m pretty excited. That tomorrowland DVD is really cool. Educational and the art is fantastic. I can watch those things while I draw, and there’s 8 hours of stuff. I sought it out after I saw the Mars animation at “The Animation Show” put on by Don Hertzfeldt and Mike Judge last year. It’s fantastic in the true sense of the word. There’s lots of Werner von Braun, too, the guy who developed the V2 rockets for nazi Germany. He has a huge segment talking about a space station and the rocket that would launch from it to see the dark side of the moon. Keep in mind this is all post-war, pre-moon landing. Taylor and I were making bad jokes at work about “zis is der space ztation, vhich is vhere ve send all ze ‘spezial’ people. Iz zhere air up zhere? Ve don’t know?” But in reality von Braun was pretty crummy at being a nazi.

So, cartoons. Rocket Robin Hood obviously. Star Trek. Maybe the Heavy Metalesque Star Wars cartoon from the holiday special (1st appearance of Boba Fett). The ghostbusters in space. Duckman’s sendup of Star Trek. Galaxy Trio. 1960’s Spider-Man (there is a space one). Fantastic Four (have you seen the trailer for the movie? I don’t like it). Big Guy & Rusty the Boy Robot (the one that spoofs HAL). Justice League, clearly. Herculoids, Freakazoid, Aqua Teen Hunger Force (Mooninites, anyone?). Jonny Quest and the Venture Brothers. Ren and Stimpy (“Space Madness”). Maybe Thundarr the Barbarian & Reboot. Ripping Friends. There is a spacey Samurai Jack episode but it’s not my favourite. I can’t think of a spacey Powerpuff Girls episode. Oh yes – The Tick (Omnipitus!).

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Interesting music stats

I got this from Palle today:

Over 58% of the 44,476 albums released in 2004 didn’t scan 100 units.
82% of all records released didn’t scan 1000 units.
95% of all records released scanned less than 10,000 units.
Only 58 albums scanned 500,000 or more, accounting for 15% of overall business.
Only 42 albums scanned 1,000,000 or more, accounting for 31.65% of overall business.
This includes compilations.