Well.. my old place is still standing. Wouldn’t it be fun if they were having trouble getting rid of it for some reason? Like perhaps.. a bunch of angry bees? I’d be greatly appreciative of anyone who gets me pictures (or video) of when they start tearing down my old place. And if anyone actually knows where you can get a horde of angry bees, have I got an entertaining plan for you!

On a more serious note… where did the people all go? Affordable housing was hard enough to find before. They just took out 50 of some of the cheapest places in town. And sadly the only thing the city council seemed real concerned about was the traffic problems the new development may create. But I guess that’s a small price to pay in order to be able to welcome Owen Sound’s coming influx of senior citizens to a poor-people-free haven. It won’t be long until someone builds a Country Kitchen buffet. Then you’ll know what to do…

xkcd - Pod Bay Doors
2spare.com - 10 Incredible Old Computer Ads
ThinkGeek - SnuzNLuz - Wifi Donation Alarm Clock
YouTube - Fuck your mom
YouTube - Internet Party: When Google’s parents leave town…
matthewgood.org - The Fruit Of The Defense Planning Guidance
Google Video - DefCon 15 - No-Tech Hacking
Macworld UK - Experts warn of iPod hearing loss
Ars Technica - US intel chief wants carte blanche to peep all ‘Net traffic
Wikipedia - Y2K38 Problem

[Recent Links Archive]

Tuesday January 29
10:00pm - 2:00am
The Perpetrators
@ The Dakota Tavern (map) - $5

Thursday January 31
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Corin Raymond & The Sundowners
@ The Cameron House (map) - No Cover

Friday February 1
9:30pm - 2:00am
The Perpetrators w/ Flash Lighting
@ The Silver Dollar Room (map) - $10

Saturday February 2
9:00pm - 6:00am
The Last Darkrave (see flyer for details)
@ Funhaus (map) - $5, $10 or $15

Scientology under digital assault by web vigilantes

When I got into Owen Sound last night I was overwhelmed by how quiet everything was. I stood outside Lauren’s house for a few minutes just soaking it in. The city is constantly saturated by this ambient hum. It never goes away, even when there’s nothing going on in my particular neighbourhood. Traffic in the distance. The trains meandering by. I don’t even know where all the noise comes from. It was refreshing to get away from that for a night, especially to be able to sleep a full night without the sound of crackheads hanging out in the alley.

While I was standing out on the porch just now having a smoke, and listening to all the mysterious noises of the night here, I had a strange thought: If I, through some random misforunte, happen to get shot, I desperately hope I have enough time to scrawl “The cake is a lie!” with my blood on the nearest wall before I die. (If you don’t understand, please ask someone who’s played Portal. It’s really quite funny!) I suspect when I start having thoughts like that, it’s a clear sign that it’s past a reasonable time to go to sleep.

My apologies to everyone I didn’t have time to see whle I was in Owen Sound today. It was a very short trip. Less than 24 hours. And in the middle of school too. Thank you to those few of you I did see. My next planned trip to Owen Sound is on March 15, for the anual Drunk & Bowl. I hope you can all make it! Book work off now. This is an event not to be missed! Goodnight.

So I just read this book called “JPod”. And if you have ADD or any sort of hard time paying attention to anything for more than a minute, this book is for you! I love the writing style. It’s just so all over the place. There are no real chapters, just a few parts. And the parts are usually just to indicate a few months have passed. I like the fact that it takes place in Canada, Vancouver to be more specific. The book stars 6 main characters who work in a specific area of a game development office. I found the Characters to be all quite interesting. It was definitely a quick read though. I started reading it in the afternoon on Saturday and here we are on Sunday night and I’m done. I believe I read it quickly though b/c there are a lot of weird exerpts that just seem to be space fillers, yet are definitely part of what makes the book so interesting. For example a list of 972 three-letter words allowed in Scrabble, but one non-regulation word has been added to the list; pages with words that don’t seem to make a lot of sense and are written in large and very small fonts; some Asian text; templates that were filled out by the characters where they had to sell themselves on eBay in 500 words or less… and that’s just to name a few. Though I didn’t much care how the author kind of wrote himself into the book… well that was more at first. It seemed kinda, you know, lame. But in the end even that wasn’t so bad.

4/5 stars.

If you visit the jpod.info webiste you get a visual idea of what the book is like. You can also buy it here. And apparently they’re making it into a TV series. I hope it’s not crappy. It starts on Jan 8/08, which is a tuesday.

I’m bored of the Internet, and I bet you are too.

thestar.com - Most gays ruled out as organ donors
globeandmail.com - Anti-terror fence ‘a disgrace,’ Owen Sound mayor says
Stay At Home Servers - Microsoft advertising for children
thestar.com - Gap year has little effect on success
globeandmail.com - SAC’s proposal for online music called ‘pipe dream’
Open Culture - 10 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube
Overcoming Bias - Asch’s Conformity Experiment
Bill Quigley - New Orleans: Locked Outside the Gates
Toronto Star - Toronto streetcar named among world’s best

[Recent Links Archive]

Does this fit the definition of ‘irony’? For the first 3/4 of the video I actuallyi thought I was watching some anti-American ad. Most of the ‘dangers’ listed could accurately apply to the US at the moment too.

I just watched the series “Last Exile”, which is an anime, directed by Koichi Chigira for the anime studio Gonzo Digimation. The series first aired in Tokyo in 2003. There are 26 episodes which are all about 22 minutes long. The series is wonderfully animated. It has a seeming dark feeling to most of it. With a few bright bits, which give it an occasional sunny feeling. To me the series seemed to be a mix of future and past, which created a wonderful fantasy. The story it’s self was a nice tale. It wasn’t exactly my kind of story though because I tend to like lots of twists and turns that keep you guessing. This was pretty straight forward. The story takes place in a world where the Anatoray and Disith are at war, and an organization referred to as the Guild seem to watch over said war. The story is based around the two main characters Clause and Lavie. The two are close, having lived beside each other since they were one. Their fathers drove a vanship together, which is a sort of delivery flying vessel, anyhoo on a mission in the great stream they both died. The two kids, Clasue and Lavie, receive their vanship and do what they can to get it back up in the air. They start to do work delivering messages to people and participating in races. During one race they find a broken down vanship and decide to help. Little did they know they were about to embark on the delivery of a life time. The dying man in the broken vanship asks Clause to complete his mission for him and deliver a girl. Clause accepts the mission and things get a quite crazy. They end up on a ship called the Silvana and meet many interesting people along the way.

Over all I give the series 3 1/2 stars.

www.lastexiledvd.com | iMDB

I’m awake at not-exactly-but-pretty-much 2:00am–which is entirely out of character for me. I usually go to bed at 9:00pm and sleep right through until 7:00am the next day. But somehow, I cannot sleep right now, no matter how much I will myself to. My eyes are droopy, my nose is plugged–as it often is at night, but seems to be more dominant now that I have a cold–and as a result I can’t keep my mouth closed, and I am drooling–though instead of it dripping onto my pillow, it drips onto my hand or a Kleenex, from time to time.

Yes, I have a cold. But being awake and I suppose partially delirious at this hour, I’ve come up with what I consider a nifty idea, if I do say so myself.

“Business” hours and “non-business” hours should be demolished, and therefore, “day” and “night” hours should be dissolved. People should sleep when they’re tired enough to sleep, and instead of 9-5, an equivalent number of hours should be required to be completed within a 24 hour period.

Benefits: Not only would traffic be less congested, but traffic fatalities should be at a minimum due to fewer tired drivers; people should be more cheery, thanks to more comfortable and customizable sleep patterns; and a lack of sleep, thanks to illness or “that damn racket”, could be remedied easily and painlessly, resulting in friendlier neighborhood relations, and thus community living at large.

Of course, schooling would have to be conducted online, through correspondents, tutoring, and/or selective group work, but I feel that would solve playground bullying problems. Children would be forced to make friends through activities other than–in some cases–forced group work in the early years of school, and therefore coping mechanisms for socializing should be largely improved.

And… I think I may be tired enough to sleep now.

I’ve travelled 145km since New Year’s eve, all without leaving this city (unless you count Mississauga as a seperate city). Tomorrow I plan to stay inside all day. That’s my New Year’s resolution in fact. Make ‘em short and they’re easier to keep, I reckon. -10 degrees doesn’t sound that cold, but it sure feels it.