Blog update?...Blog update!!!

It is currently May 28th. Here's a post I started writting in August that I never finished nor published.
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Well, not *quite* a month since I last updated.

I'm kinda hung over right now....Why are you hung over at 9:30 in the afternoon you ask? That's because I've been drinking since noon today. You see, Snowbear, which is the company I work for, has this annual golf "tournament". And by "tournament" I mean let's drink a shitload of bear since the company's paying for it and "try" to hit the ball. Considering that Susan and I have about oh, about ZERO experiencing in golfing, "try" is an over estimation. Anyway, the highlight of golfing is driving those golfing carts while being drunk. Personally, I like zigzagin between the trees as if they were pilons in a driving test. It's quite entertaining. They have this "refreshment" cart that goes around the course once in a while, so you're never short of drinks. At the end of the day, we even had a steak supper paid for by the company. I had mine medium rare. They had a well done left over and no one wanted it so I had that one as well. At the very end of the evening, they were drawing prizes. I won a $50 cash card for Rogers and Susan one 2 tickets for the Blue Jays / Indian Games. First row seats. I think we got pretty good prizes. Especially since we were being paid our regular salary during the afternoon. Here are some pictures...

Links

I know I know. It's been more than a week, and I said I would finish up my SW Concert review and I still haven't. The thing is, I'd have to sit down and spend time writting down a well thought out post, which I don't feel like doing right now. So the conclusion of the SW Concert review will be delayed until I have time to kill.

In the meantime, I highly recommend the following links:

http://www.kimdutoit.com/ee/index.php/rant/single/moron_of_the_year/

http://www.entertainment.news.com.au/story/0,10221,15912361-7485,00.html

http://www.eskimo.com/~spban/bread.html

http://www.nata2.info/humor/flash/bowman.swf
http://nata2.info/?path=humor


And I figure I should throw in an actual interesting link in here as well:

http://www.numberspiral.com/

Batman Begins

Susan got back from Miami on Saturday which means I get to go to movies again, among other things. So we saw Batman Begins.

I have to admit that most of my Batman knowledge comes from watching Batman: The Animated Series when I was a kid. I loved that show! So I was pleasantly suprised to find Dr. Crane as one of the characters in the movie.

The car chase scene was enjoyable, but this is all I could think about while watching it! :P

Also, what's the deal with Liam Neeson playing all these mentor/father roles lately??

I could have done without the whole love thing with Rachel. It didn't really bring anything to the movie, but I guess you have to expect that of Holywood.

Overall, it was a good movie. he best the franchise has yet to offer in my opinion.

Star Wars Concert Review - Part I

The show was pretty good! There's nothing quite like Stars Wars music being performed by an orchestra of 50+ musicians accompanied by a choir of at least 40 people.

The lights go out. To everyone's delight, the orchestra starts off by playing the Fox Fanfare. I have to say I would have been disappointed had they not. There's just something nostalgic about it. It gives me shivers almost every time I hear it.

Anthony Daniels then walks in, talks about Star Wars. We chuckle at his C-3P0 impressions. You have to wonder what the man is thinking. Does he think: "Man I hate my life, but hey, it pays the bills". Or does he do it because he enjoys it. I'm guessing it's the latter but who knows. Anthony's normal voice doesn't sound much like C-3P0's. To play the droid, he makes his voice higher. It's also modulated in the movies.

The remainder of the show consists of Anthony Daniels narrating the Star Wars movies from Episode 1 through Episode 6. At certain points in the story he will stop his narration to let the orchestra play. The narration is very general since it's only a two hour show, most of which is taken up by the orchestra. That being said, you still get a good feel for the story for all six movies

Lighting effects were also effectively used. The stage would be splashed in a specific colour, depending on the theme of the song. E.G., Tatooine = Yellow, Yoda = Green, etc. Nothing really flashy, but it really adds to the atmosphere

The orchestra was conducted by Erich Kunzel. He will also be conducting a repeat of the Star Wars concert in Cincinnati next week. I have to say that the Cincinnati version looks a lot more fun with lightsaber battles and aerial stunts. Although there's a bit of trade-off with the narrator I guess. Instead of Anthony Daniels they have Daniel Logan who plays the young Boba Fett in Episode II.

Next time on Star Wars Concert Review: An overview of the songs that were played.

RIP Google Theme

Well it was a neat theme at first, but got old fast.
I'm changing over to this for a little while.
RIP Google Theme.

Star Wars Concert Review - The Preshow

The concert was held at the Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto. I guess this is usually where they usually hold these type of concerts. The building is pretty neat. It's a huge circular building. The lobby basically forms a ring around the actual auditorium. It's great to keep things from becoming too crowded during intermissions as people don't tend to pool in any particular place.

There were lots of people dressed up. I think most of them were part of the event but there were some fans too. The costumes were really good. I felt like I was at a Star Wars convention.

We had lots of Storm Troopers, Clone Troopers, and TIE Fighter pilots. Someone was dressed as Jek Porkins. Well ok, it could have been any Rebel Pilot, but his physique suggested this is what he was going for :P. There were some Imperial Officers and of course there was Darth Vader himself. They even had Artoo rolling about, beeping about and chasing kids. I think that was the coolest of the characters.

I've got to say I'm pretty proud of myself. I kept my composure and the SW nerd in me under control. I could feel it though. I know it's just people in costumes, but I couldn't help but being excited being surrounded by all these characters from the movies. It's a good thing I didn't have my camera I guess, I would have ended up with many embarrasing pictures.

Back from Toronto

Well, I just got back from seeing the Star Wars concert. It was pretty good! I'll post something a bit more lengthy tomorrow...

In the meantime, take a look at the teaser for Peter Jackson's King Kong! It looks pretty good!

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Doctors 'find dead foetus in boy'

I find myself compelled to report this.

I wonder if I had a twin....

I'm a mid-rank nerd

Not bad. High enough to show good intellect, but low enough to imply that I might retain at least some social skills.

Speaking of nerds, has anyone watched Beauty and the Geek? (What the hell? TVTome changed their site? I liked the old one better...) Anyway it's pretty funny show...poor guys. Poor girls too!

So on Friday I had to ask my supervisor if I could leave work early on Tuesday to attend the Star Wars Concert. I didn't mention the exact reason of course, I just said I was attending a concert in Toronto. Of course she was curious as to who was playing. So I say it's some classical symphony music. "Oh yea? What kind". To which I reply:" Um... Star Wars...?". One person burst out laughing. I'm sure they were thinking: "Wow, what a nerd" :P I don't think any of them have even seen Star Wars.

Hehe oh well, at least I don't go to country music concerts :P

Eye of Sauron?

What is this picture? Although it looks like the Eye of Sauron, it's actually something real.



Nope, it's a newly formed solar system. Neat, huh?

The New Look

Welcome to look! I didn't really like the old skin and whatever changed I had made to it didn't translate over well to Firefox, which a lot of people use. So I decided to look for a new one. When choosing a skin, you are not limited by what's offered by Blogger. You can of course make your own, but there are plenty of websites out there with already made skins that you just need to copy/paste into the dashboard template. I think I'll keep this one for a little while.

Warning!

If you are updating your template and you suddenly hit ESC (just because you hadn't used the button in a while so you thought you'd give it some attention), all changes made will be lost! In my case this mean I'm going to go get another beer or two and start over....grrr....

YELLOW

The colour yellow has been brought to you by:

Dave

and

Ali

YELLOW You are very perceptive and smart. You are clear and to the point and have a great sense of humor. You are always learning and searching for understanding. Find out your color at Quiz Me!

Ha! Told you it wouldn't be purple!

This is what you should see when you look at my blog!

Sidebar

I've updated some of my links on the sidebar, and I've added a list of blogs that I regularly check. I wasn't going to add Dave's, but I kinda have to now since he's added me on his.... j/k ;) Anyway if you want your blog listed, let me know!

omygodomygodomygod!

SOAD IS PLAYING IN TORONTO on SEPT 1st!!! I can honestly say that no matter what the ticket price is, I will be going to that show.

Being so close to Toronto is great, if expensive. Next week I'll be attending the Star Wars Concert, narrated by Anthony Daniels. I will be going by myself, and the ticket wasn't cheap, but who am I to pass up on seeing Star Wars music being played by a full-fledged live orchestra??

El Cheapo Camerrra

So I mentioned that I wanted to by an inexpensive camera so I could take pictures while Susan's gone. I find this one at Zeller's for like $20. It's pretty simple and I figure you can't go wrong for $20. If it would work that is. I made two mistakes here:

1. I did not read the instructions before using it
2. Had I read the instructions I would have seen the warning: "Do NOT plug camera into computer before installing drivers!".

It's kind of stupid, but whatever. So now, no matter what I do, the program won't detect my camera. I've followed the Troubleshooting, but it doesn't work. The only thing I haven't tried is this "Run Clear Registry". It makes it sounds as if it's a program that came with the package, but it's not. Regardless, I've combed through the registry and deleted any reference I could find to the camera or it's software. No results. Well, I decided I can't be the only once who's done this before, maybe I can email them and ask. So I fill out their form and send it. A few minutes later, this is what I receive in my mailbox:

Reporting-MAT: dns;BAYC1-PASMTP03.cez.ice
Received-From-MAT: dns;JASON
Arrival-Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 16:58:33 -0700

Final-Recipient: rfc822;info@sharkcamera.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.1
Diagnostic-Code: smtp;550 5.1.1 ... User unknown

Oh well, guess I got shafted. Any suggestions?

Hofstadter's comment on Godel's Theorem

Undecidable propositions run through mathematics like threads of gristle that criss-cross a steak in such a dense way that they cannot be cut out without the entire steak's being estranged.

Douglas Hofstadter

I'm not too sure what that means, but here's my take on it: There are lots of singularities in math and to try and take them out is impossible and would be a bad thing anyway because then we will have destroyed all of our steaks in the process.
So beware!

I've had to fend for myself since Susan's been gone. She usually does the groceries and cooking while I do the dishes, laundry, and other cleaning... mostly anyway. So I've been eating lots of Kraft Dinners and Lipton Sidekicks and stuff which are easy to make. About once a week or so I'll cook something a bit more complicated such as shepherd's Pie or Lasagna. This is time consuming and usually results in more dirty dishes, but I get leftovers for the better part of the week.

I've discovered the perfect ratio of Taste/Effort: steak. Now you can get some really good and tender steak's at the grocery store for $20 or so. But the $3-$5 steaks are still pretty good if you prepare them right. So yea, I've been eating steaks a few times a week since Susan's been gone. If I'm in a hurry I just slap some steak spice and I have supper within 10 minutes (I like my steak rare). If I'm not as lazy I'll experiment with some recipes and marinate the steak over night. I've found some pretty good sauce at the grocery store too.

Worse show on TV

This has got to be the absolute WORSE show on CTV's lineup.

I usually like to have the TV on in the background when I'm on the computer or reading a book. I usually don't care too much what's on, as long as it's mildly entertaining. I would rather have pretty much anything else playing in the background than Dancing with the Stars. It's some [enter nationality] Idol knock-off but with dancers instead of singers. I don't know exactly what it is about the show, but when it's on I just have to turn the TV off (I only have one channel).

Cold Front

Well the warm spell is finally over, with dewpoints going back below 15-20 degrees. There actually was a tornado warning for Guelph yesterday. I was on the bus to the mall to do some groceries and I hear on the radio that people should go inside and take shelter because a Tornado has been reported not too far from Guelph. It was bright and sunny out at the time. I was wondering whether I should head home or not. Meh, I figured it'll be a bit before the storm gets here yet. I should be safe enough in the mall. When I got there, I could see far away this HUGE Cumulonimbus. By the time I got back out of the mall it was overcast but not raining yet. There were no tornadoes. Quite a bit of thunder and lightning though. I love that!

New Cat

Since we're away for most of the day, we figured that Artemis could use a playmate. We read that taking care of two cats is not much more work than taking care of one. So on Saturday we decided to adopt another cat from the Guelph Humane Society.

1 - Friend in a box

2- Artemis Investigates

She was quite angry on the walk home. She was meowing furiously, wanting out. She would stick her paw out of her carrier and try to swat me. She also tried to chewing her way out, as seen in picture #1. Artemis was immediately curious. Once it was discovered that the newcomer was also a cat and possible contender for her ressources, Artemis proceeded to defend her territory. A lot of hissing and swatting ensued.

We named her Nike. We were going to go with Athena, but you should see the weird look people give us when we say one of our cat's name is Artemis (you wouldn't believe how so few people(none) know who Artemis is) and we'd figure we go with something simpler. Now people just assume we named her after the shoe company, which is fine by me since it requires less wasting of my time explaining something that people don't care about in the first place. Besides, the shoe company is actually named after the goddess of victory. That "swoosh" logo represents Nike's wing. I just learned that today while reading wikipedia.

3- Say "cheese" for the camera!

4 - The Shoe: A cat's best friend!

The hissing continued for a day or two. Artemis spent those days chasing and stalking Nike. Nike never really defended herself, appart from hissing. Artemis would pounce on her back and bite a bit. Nike would wiggle her way out and run away.

5 - Cats in shock after a forced bath

This is about the only time on the weekend that they didn't fight. I think a pure hatred of water is about the only thing the cats agreed upon that day.

As Artemis started accepting the fact the Nike was here to stay, things started getting a bit better. By the end of the day yesterday, Artemis would still pounce on Nike but she would lick more than bite...mostly. The hissing had ceased. By the time I got home from work today, things were even better. I took a break from playing Insaniquarium earlier this evening to find them both cuddling on the window sill in the spare bedroom. I had left the window opened a bit and so cooler air was blowing in. I guess they decided on a non-agression pact so they could share the spot. I would have taken pictures, but Susan took the camera with her to Miami. I think I may go and buy a real cheap one that I can use as a spare in times like these.

Actually now that they get along, it's even less work taking care of two cats than one since they entertain each other.

Insaniquarium!

I don't think I've ever played such an addicting game. I've been playing the web version on and off over the past few years. Yesterday I decide to download the Deluxe version. You have like an hour of play. I DARE you to get the deluxe version and not pay the $20 afte your time is up. I couldn't resist, and it's well worth it. You get 2 more aquariums than the web version and the graphics are much better. I started playing at 3pm today and it's now midnight and I'm pulling myself away from the computer because I have to get up in 6 hours for work...

In other news, Susan left for her 3 week trip to Miami this morning. I'm somewhat of a loner, so I'll adapt fairly easy. I get to read a bit more, play a bit more video games, more time for my blog... I'll still miss her though :(

I've got tonnes of stuff to say but I guess I should spread it out over the week instead of making one big post and then not post for 2 weeks.

Hot Day!

Finally nice weather is here! It's been warm all week, but today's been the best: 30C and 35C Humidex. I love it! I prefer cool nights though. I sleep best in a cold room with lots of blankets!

I've been having an uneventful week. Susan's been in Iowa for the past two weeks. She gets back tonight. I've spent most of the day cleaning the apartment so it's nice and tidy when she gets here.

We don't have cable so I just have one channel, CTV. They tend to mostly play Law and Order and CSI. It's not that I don't like the shows, but I'm starting to get pretty saturated with them. I think there's what, 4 different Law and Order s now? Add 3 CSIs to that and other cop shows such as Cold Squad, Cold Case, Sue Thomas FBEye. And these are only the ones that air on CTV.

A lot of the shows I normally watch I didn't because I normally follow them with Susan (Doctor Who, and anime such as: Tsubasa Chronicle, Sosei no Aquarion, Basilisk, and Naruto). Instead I've been watching old (and new) episodes of The Family Guy, The Daily Show, Conan O'Brian, and Bullshit(great show by the way).

I've also been doing some reading: Darkwitch Rising and Nameless Day both by Sara Douglass. I've also been re-reading the Shannara Series. Right now I'm in the middle of Wishsong of Shannara. I find Shannara good solid classic series. It's consistent, as opposed to Sword of Truth and Wheel of Time that start out really good with 4-5 books, but then just drag on, and on, and on...

International Readers

So, I was surprised to have found a lot of people from other country went to my Blog today. I had a hits from the US, Ireland, Philippines, New Zealand, Japan, and Australia.

I wondered "what the hell"? I looked at the pages they came from and they're all other blogspot pages. I went to those pages and I didn't see any links to mine. Then I noticed that "next blog" button on the top left of the screen. So I figure they just came to my page at random.

There was one exception though. Someone had found my page by doing a search for "Doctor Who" on this webpage called Technorati. It searches the web for your keyword, sorting the entries by date. It's great if you're looking for recent discussions on a particular subject.

Doing a similar search myself, I came upon this interesting article on Daleks censorship.

The Star Wars Concert

I'm a big fan of live orchestral music. Make that live orchestral Star Wars music and... well let's just say I might have to bring a lot of tissue.

Now normally Susan would come see this with me. The only problem is she'll be in Miami at the time. Having failed to meet any Star Wars geeks in Guelph, I'm faced with a decision: Be a true nerd and take the 1.5 hour bus ride to go see the show by myself (did I mention Anthony Daniels will be there?), or maintain some form of self-control (and perhaps dignity) and stay at home.

What do you think?

Doctor Who

I love the new Doctor Who! This show is as hilarious as it is (at times) scary. I've never watched the old series. I remember seeing on YTV when I was a kid. I remember thinking it was kind of boring. Well, maybe I was too young to appreciate them or maybe they were really boring but regardless, the new series rocks!! Even if you know nothing about the old series, you'll still love it.

Basically there's this character called "The Doctor". He's part of an alien species who call themselves Timelords. I don't know much about them. I guess they do a lot of time traveling and stuff.

Anyway, The Doctor travels through space and time in the TARDIS. The TARDIS has this kind of cloaking device which enables it to camouflage itself as an ordinary object. The only problem is it's stuck as a 50's police box.

Another important plot device is that The Doctor can "regenerate". I'm not too sure of the specifics of this, but from what I can gather whenever The Doctor dies, he regenerates into a new body and gets a different personality. The current Doctor is in fact the 9th. The first 7 Doctors stared in the TV series (1969-1989), and the 8th Doctor stared in his own movie (1996) which from what I read sucked pretty badly.

Anyway, The Doctor appears to be the last of his species, the TimeLords. I'm pretty sure this wasn't the case in the olds series. Something must have happened "in between series". They make mention of the Time Wars. The Daleks were somehow involved.

From what I've determined, other recurring bad-guys are the Cybermen, and The Master.

Make sure to watch Doctor Who on the CBC!

Doctor Who Links:
BBC's Doctor Who - The official page.
Outpost Gallifrey - The latest Doctor Who news.
A brief history of time (travel) - A list and synopsis of all the episodes. A prof. from MUN created this page.
Doctor Who Chronology - A very good read for people new to Doctor Who (like me).

HTML

I'm playing around with the blog HTML template, so things might not be aligned properly today....

New Blog!

Well everyone else seem to have a blog, so why not? I figure it's a good way to stay in touch since I hardly use MSN or email :P Like everyone else though, I imagine that I'll update my blog less and less over time until it dies. Oh well.

Well, nothing too exciting has happened to us since we've moved here. I've been to Toronto a few times. There's lots to do there.




Until a few weeks ago, I sort of let everything grow out. It was a bit warm for spring though, so I decided to go back to short.

A few weeks ago we got a cat. She is 11 weeks old and we named her Artemis after the goddess of the hunt( not the cat in Sailor Moon, even though we own all 5 seasons on DVD).



Hrm. Well that's it for this post. I'm sure I'll have something else to say later.