Toren Atkinson

Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is up on imdb.com now http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0384057/combined
If you’ve seen it – vote!

Matrix vs. Frenchies

Based on some of the reviews I’ve read and heard of Matrix: Revolutions, I probably won’t see it in the theater. However, starting next week at the Pacific Cinematheque there’s a French animation festivule. I intend on seeing as much as possible. But oh – the seats! Maybe I’ll bring my own.

More computer animation, please.

I watched a lot of TV today while I was sketching. I am really disappointed in TLC and the Discovery Channel. I thought the idea was supposed to be educational programs. What’s educational about watching mechanics trick out a SUV on Monster Garage, or teams of insipid yuppies redecorating other people’s houses on Trading Spaces? Just tell me why sharks don’t get cancer, and what the moons of Jupiter are composed of. Is that too much to ask?

More TV Reflections

For reasons too ethereal to speculate, I had a hankerin’ for sleestaks and incredibly un-PC racial stereotypes, so I put in some Land of the Lost and Tex Avery cartoons, respectively. Funny for different reasons, and all the wrong ones….

Thank you for your kind offer.

Stewey offered to treat me to a matinee of Matrix: Revolutions today. I declined. Not because I’m boycotting it – that’s Kill Bill. You know all aboot that. They (he & Darcy) went to Burnaby to see it. I had stuff to get done; phone calls to make during the day. Also: I generally avoid seeing movies on opening day. Too crowded, oftentimes. I like to wait a week or two for the noisy bastards to get it through their system, then I’ll take in a matinee where it’s just me, whoever I’m with, and the other scant misanthropes. (Also, waiting a week for others to see it increases the chance of being warned away from a crap film.) Scant Misanthropes, that’s a good name for a band. Digressor, I. Lastly, since I was planning on seeing Valerie and Her Week of Wonders in the evening, I figured one movie out was enough. Unfortunately, Valerie was a mess. I’m glad I couldn’t find anyone to drag to it because I would have felt bad. Also I would have felt bad for keeping them in those wicked, inhumane Pacific Cinematheque seats for 2 hours. Speaking of feeling bad…

I got a kid sent to prison during college because when I called the police about a noise violation, they showed up and found him dealing cocaine in his room. So I’ve ruined at least one person’s life.

when i was in 6th grade, i used to go to the bus stop early everyday so i could go to the store, steal candy, and then sell it on the bus…i made a lot of money

Last year I went on my friend’s PC while he was in the shower. Ebay and Paypal were still logged in, as he had just been paying for some auctions. I decided to buy him some worn panties, which only had a few minutes left on the auction. I paid through Paypal, and deleted as much evidence of the transaction as I could. A week or so later he told me that some woman had posted her underwear to him, along with a saucy note which his girlfriend of 18 months had opened and read to him. Being the faithful type, he had no idea how this came about, but she got her stuff and left him anyway. To this day I have never told another soul, and he never figured out how this came about.

Once i said that the BeeGees were not the best band ever, when clearly they are

Newsvember:

President Bush denied that his political operatives had been responsible for the erection of the “Mission Accomplished” banner that flew behind him on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln on May 1, when he dressed up like a fighter pilot and declared victory in Iraq. He said that his advance men “weren’t that ingenious” and that the banner was put up by crew members, “saying that their mission was accomplished.” Scott McClellan, the president’s press secretary, later admitted that the banner was in fact created by the White House. American scientists deliberately engineered a new extra-deadly form of mousepox; much the same thing has been done with cowpox and rabbitpox. Historians were upset that the Smithsonian Institution’s new exhibit of the Enola Gay bomber fails to mention that the B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The CIA celebrated the 40th anniversary of its Directorate of Science and Technology by exhibiting such devices as a mechanical dragonfly listening device and a 24-inch-long artificial catfish; the exhibit was not open to the public. The French government unveiled a plan to make the French more European. A gang of Catholic schoolgirls chased down and pummeled a flasher in Philadelphia. A clown robbed a bank in Virginia. A new study from the Center for Public Integrity revealed that the 70 companies that have benefited the most from $8 billion in government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan collectively contributed more than $500,000 to President Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign. The Food and Drug Administration issued a preliminary conclusion that clones are safe to eat; it was noted that some companies plan to use clones’ milk to manufacture pharmaceuticals. The Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop. Neuroscientists determined that motherhood makes female rats smarter, calmer, and more courageous.

I’ve added new links to the left. Chris and Nicole are Green Ronin Publishing. They pay my rent. They are the unapologetic shit-disturbing consciences of the RPG world, and I love them dearly. I don’t see them often enough. Nicole’s kid is cute when I’m not making her cry.

Uh…so…you’ve seen the commercial for Pepsi Vanilla? If not:

A Vanilla Coke truck pulls up to a stop light.
A Pepsi Vanilla (Notice they put the Vanilla after the Pepsi in this case) truck pulls up beside it.
The Coke truck driver turns his stereo up.
The Pepsi driver presses a button, and doors on the side of his truck slide up to reveal big speakers, and then the truck does that thing where it bounces on the front wheels – I’m sure there’s a name for that but I’m not cool enough to know what it is. And all the homies on the sidewalk say “woo” and “yeah” in approval. And that’s the commercial.

So, if I understand this correctly, the message is I am supposed to choose Pepsi over Coke because the truck has a better sound system? Is that right?

Chris Gibbins gets the honor of being called “Chris” because he took these photos.
I finally saw Finding Nemo last night, with Anghold.
I got her a Scrabble Board of her very own. Soon I will have mine, too. I feel it in the wind.

My hard drive became full today. All 4 gigs. Yup.
I put up my review of Forbidden Planet in the writing section of my web page. That will alleviate a few kb.

Do you ever have those experiences, in which you come across something that seems to define a time of your life? Seeing & holding an object, or experiencing a smell, that just washes a wave of nostalgia over you – and sometimes it may be specific memories, while other times it is just a feeling that you haven’t felt for years and years. The pretentious word being, perhaps, zeitgeist?

I came across an audio cassette tonight–a memorex 90 minute tape with a very 80’s design of yellow, pink and blue geometric shapes–while I was going through some old crap, Christ I’m handling it right now and it just flashes bits and pieces of my life from the late 80’s and early 90’s through my head. John Burton. Soundgarden. Cultus Lake. The wooden walls of my room in Chilliwack, books & cassettes stacked along the wainscotting. Listening to the radio late at night – something I never ever do now. These things mean very little to you, but to me – they signify a very particular chapter of my life. It puts my mind in a very unusual place.

I think we all want that magic mirror – that genie who will bring us back to a time in our past. Not necessarily a simpler time, but certainly different. Yeah, genie, show me that magic video tape that will encapsulate the entire summer of 1989. What stupid mistakes was I making? What was I taking for granted?

And I say to myself “hey, idiot: you’re living life right now – in 10 years you’ll be doing the same thing, reminiscing about sitting in your room on Oak & 13th, spending a lot of time on your computer. Your cat, Kodos – remember him? He was sitting on your bed. You collected cartoons and had cartoon parties every year. Chris Stewart, the best roommate you ever had, was asleep in his room as you typed noisily. You were drawing for D&D back then. Hallowe’en was fun. You just watched The Impostors with Yvonne, Darcy & Chris. You were writing dialogues for an ESL book. Your acting career was just getting off the ground. You needed a haircut. It was before you met Penelope and you still had your left arm.”

Good thing I’ve got this blog so I’ll never forget.

NEVER FORGET.

I haven’t figured out what’s going on with my archives yet, but I have figured out that if you click on, it will link to this:

http://mypage.uniserve.ca/~thickets/2003_09_01_archive.htm

but the archives actually are here:

http://mypage.uniserve.ca/~thickets/archives/2003_09_01_archive.htm

I can’t figure out why it’s not linking to the proper directory.