I’m making tons more money than I have for years. It’s weird to be able to afford to eat out for every meal, to be able to afford to buy a DVD when I want to buy a DVD, to go to the gym whenever I want, to go to the dentist, to get my passport, to pay off my library overdue fines. I can finally patronize the game stores that I tell everyone else to patronize. I actually bought a game book new off the shelf at Drexoll’s. It’s nice. And I don’t mind my job at all. That’s double nice.
Don't go see Narnia.
Narnia was terrible. Awful. I felt closer to walking out on that film than I have for a long time. Drippy. Pointless. Infantile. Trite. Plus, the music was bad. The acting was uninspired and I felt sorry for the kids who were given the joyless task of being forced to speak the lacklustre dialogue. The only inspired thing in the film was some of the monsters.
King Kong however, was great, as I mentioned. It too was overly dramatic at times, but for a monster-fighting-monster flick it met my expectations. You could really see that they put a lot of time and attention into studying the natural movements and expressions of a gorilla (it seemed to me). There were some problems, which I will delineate below.
I still want to see Capote. Has anyone seen it yet? And Syriana? Anything else?
(if you haven’t seen King Kong, you may want to stop reading):
There was too much humans outrunning animals. Of all the animals in the world, humans are pretty slow. And many dinosaurs are built for speed, just like birds. Look at the ostrich. Same deal with velociraptor-type dinosaurs. And for the dinosaurs that aren’t built for speed, they often have incredible stride (brontosaur-types). Even quicker are insects (generally). If you have ever watched a nature documentary on predatory insects, they strike faster than the eye can see. Granted in the film they are giant bugs that in real life wouldn’t be able to walk under their own weight, but if they’re going to move exactly like small bugs in every other respect, they should be able to kill with lightning speed.
There were some other things but I guess I’ll add them when I remember them.
Merry Christmas Architeuthis Dux
25% of the fish caught in the world is thrown back. My other Christmas gift to the world is going to be a donation to the World Wildlife Fund to stop bad fishing practices. And to save alien-looking species we havent even discovered yet (not to mention the giant squid)
Tis the Season
My gift to everyone this year is to not make them wait in line at the post office. Gadzooks! I waited in line for at least a half hour. The poor sap a couple people ahead of me didn’t even get the package he went to pick up. Yes, he had his slip – but the girl couldn’t find it and sent him away. The guy behind me asked “what the hell are they doing up there?” after one couple took 10 minutes. I replied “I think they’re trying to ship a corpse stuffed with cocaine.” Nobody laughed. It was like waiting in line for Star Wars but without the Star Wars.
Mo Betta News
Iraq’s Victorious Army Group was holding a contest to see who could design the best website to promote their message of jihad. The contest winner will receive Allah’s blessings and be allowed to fire three rockets at an American military base.
The probe into the U.S. policy of paying Iraqi newspapers for positive coverage widened to include the Baghdad Press Club, a military-created P.R. organization;
Pakistan extended its ban on kites due to the deadliness of kiteflying; in February, 19 people died and over 200 were injured during a kite festival.
Condoleezza Rice made a deal with Romania that will allow the United States to use military bases there.
A religious studies professor at the University of Kansas was beaten up on a roadside after he mocked creationism in an email, Christmas activists were upset to receive White House greeting cards that wished them a happy holiday season instead of a Merry Christmas.
Police in Guangdong, China, fired into a crowd of demonstrators who were protesting the sale of government land for a wind-power plant; villagers said that at least ten people had been killed.
The supreme court of Italy ruled that it is not necessarily racist to call someone a dirty negro.
In the rainforests of Borneo, scientists were attempting to trap a newly discovered carnivorous cat-fox creature.
Adam and his Package
I had the good fortune of being contacted by a student at Vancouver Film School who is working on his final project for his term. That final project is to provide a total media package for a band. He sent out emails to a few bands he liked and after meeting with him at The Grind on Main St (the Italian soda was weak and the service wasnt the jewel in their crown either) were going to be working together. This is good news because weve been needing a bit of injection into the old output department for some time and boy, am I lazy. For a few YEARS now Stephane and I have been working on a DVD of our live stuff, videos, and whatnot and part of the project was to put together a video for one of our songs that was just live footage. Not to be our grand masterpiece but at least its something we can put out there. Anyway, this new development opens up the possibilities. As always the biggest hurdle for any band endeavor is getting all the band members together, but if we rely on Adams computer wizardry that may not be a worry. Any suggestions on what youd like to see for a video or other media? At the end of the deal we should have a bouquet of stuff to look at, with nothing out-of-pocket apart from time. Time in my pocket.
Working in the Coal Mine
For those of you who have been wondering just where the hell I’ve been, I’ll tell you. I’ve got a new job working for a temp agency and they have me out at RBC Financial Group card services (aka VISA) doing address updates (phone & data entry). Oh the things I’m learning about the banking and VISA world would make your head spin! It’s by no means my ideal job but it sure beats the mind-numbing drudgery of the book warehouse. At least at this job I can sit down for more than an hour a day. And when I haven’t been at work I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn at Marlo’s and working out at the gym and learning Mandarin (so far I’ve learned two words – at this rate I’ll be able to find out where the bathroom is by the time I get to China.
Also, the new trailer for Stewie’s video game Sword of the Stars is finished and available for download. I did two voices on it. Can you tell which ones?
Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it. -Shaw
I am not patriotic. I think Canada is, comparatively, an excellent country in which to live and work. But I don’t feel I owe anything to a region of the planet that is marked by abstract boundaries from other such regions, that is governed by a bunch of rich white people who don’t care about me or millions of others like (or unlike) me, and that is founded on the blood of many people of all sorts of races and creeds, but particularly the aborigines.
Patriotism actually irks me. It seems such a backward, outdated idea. Why can’t we get past it? I’m sure different people have different reasons to feel patriotic, but quite often my sense is that it’s just a team spirit mentality – no different than being on a sports team whose motto is, essentially, “we’re better than you.” People around the world are pretty much the same. People of every skin colour, every religion, every nationality can be nice and can be jerks; can be humanitarians and can be rapists. I’ve known Asians and Native Americans and East Indians and they all laugh and say ‘good morning’ and jerk off and have their crabby days (presumably not all at the same time). Now if none of those groups of people are any better or worse than the rest of us, how silly is it to think that a group separated by an imaginary line on a map is any better or worse?
The other reason patriotism bugs me is its association with war. I don’t like war. I am against war. War is hell. And whenever war pops up, people start waving flags around. I guess my logic is a little flawed with this criticism of patriotism – it’s like being against hats because I don’t like the heads they’re on. Except hats keep people’s heads warm – patriotism has no practical purpose that I can see.
To be patriotic is to have pride. Now, I have pride in certain things – I’m proud of the book I wrote, of some paintings and drawings I’ve done. (I’m also critical of these things but that’s beside the point.) But to have pride in your association with a geographical location, or a body of people of whom you actually know only the most minute percentage? That doesn’t make much sense to me. But I have patriotic friends. You know who you are. You have your reasons, I’m sure, which I assume make sense to you and maybe someday they’ll make sense to me. I’m not expecting everyone to have the same beliefs as I. If you’ve got a good reason to be patriotic, besides “because Canada ROCKS!”, I’ll respect that. But for the time being I just wanted you to know that even though my birth certificate and driver’s license say I’m on the same team as you, I won’t be waving the “where I was born is important” flag. I am proud to associate with you for reasons that have nothing to do with nationality. And you’ll find I can be just as much a friend to Americans (and presumably others, should I get to know them).
What is that saying that I like to quote all the time? “There can be no world peace while patriotism exists.”
The World Hates Music (and Vans)
My band went on tour across Canada two times. Our van was broken into and things were stolen from it two times (one per tour). I lost one of my favourite shirts in Regina. (It was a Cthulhu shirt designed and printed by a UK artist.) I also lost a lot of the drawings for the Spaceship Zero roleplaying game. The drawings had to be started from scratch.
Today I found out that our brand new satyr-leg costumes were all stolen – along with the van that they were in.
I really, really hate theft.
The good news is, the costumes are being remade.
Wish List
Well Marlo posted her wish list, now it’s my turn! For those who care:
CDs:
Muppet Show 25th Anniversary
DVDs/VHS:
Spider-Man – The ’67 Collection
Home Movies Season 2
Complete Superman Cartoons: Diamond Anniversary Edition
Jonny Quest Season 1
My Neighbor Totoro
BOOKS (not to be purchased at Chapters please!):
Dungeon magazine subscription
Your Call Is Important to Us
When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?
Misc:
Practically any miniatures that look cool – especially of monsters that I dont already have and rare minis like female gnome monks, that sort of thing.
D&D Miniatures:
ABERRATIONS SET
Hook Horror
ARCHFIENDS SET
Ochre Jelly
Gauth!!!
DRAGONEYE SET
Carrion Crawler
HARBINGER SET
Displacer Beast
Those black plastic VHS tape cases
Stripey socks (not sports socks)