a cesspool of interwebness

World Clock

Posted by Selbonaut On 2007-08-30 3 comments

This does not tell time, but it does count. I watched it go for about a minute, then I couldn't watch anymore. The only word I really have for it is alarming.

Cycle Trip - MOVED

Posted by Unknown On 2007-08-24 5 comments

The wet conditions and other time constraints that have been imposed on this weekend make it ill suited to attempt the planned cycle trip. I know there was some interested parties planning on joining me in the wee hours of Sunday morning, but I think we will be looking at a date in September to 'fall' back on (pun intended).

So, my short list is of "pretty sure I'm coming" is:
- Kurt Saunders
- Dawn Ophiem
- Mike Diakuw

I know there were some others that showed interest, but haven't gotten back to me. Does anybody have a date in Sept. that they think works well? What about the long weekend Monday September the 3rd? If the weather stays relatively dry most of the mud should be passable by then.

Please post here with your preference.

Tracking Books

Posted by ScrewLoose On 2007-08-22 3 comments

These days I'm finding it harder and harder to keep track of the books/authors I have read in the past as well as my "to read" list. I know that among us there are plenty of avid readers as well as internet junkies. Have any of you found a decent website for tracking your reading habits?

At a glance I found http://www.goodreads.com and while it mostly fits what I'm looking for. I don't quite feel that its interface is very good. It also seems to be missing an easy way to track favorite authors.

Any suggestions?

Take It Up With The Committee

Posted by Unknown On 2007-08-20 2 comments

The month of August has been absolutely nuts.

Most bizarre is certainly the machinations of the Vanscoy Highway Committee, of which I am the last (and youngest) member of NINE persons!

For those who do not know, allow me to quickly summarize...

The Dept. of Highways (federal?) has decided that it should complete the twin highway segment from where the highway merges (at the first mine) through to Delisle. Since my town lies along the highway, one of the chief project problems is what to do with us. (BTW - when asked in the provincial house this week about it, our minister for highway development said he had no knowledge of any plan to develop this highway.)

In early July, the engineers office contracted to design the stretch presented three alternative plans for how it could work (really only two as you shall see). At the end of the open presentation, they distributed forms asking for community feedback.

Options 1 & 2 were through Vanscoy where the road is now, with option 2 designed to gobble up the property along the edge of town (i.e. my house). Option 3 called for the new high-speed highway to go north of town - and was clearly the preferred option that the designers wanted to go with. Nobody likes Option 1 (the road through town, narrow, with a lower speed limit). But from my point of view, both option 2 and 3 are great! Allow me to explain...

Option 2: the highway goes through town, they buy my property and I'm forced to move. So, I would buy a lot in the north end of town, and either build a new house, or move my existing house onto a new foundation. This results in no more road noise and a new basement*. I win.

Option 3: the highway goes north around town. I stay where I live. Because of my hugely increased property value, I go ahead with planned reno's in the basement*. This results in no more road noise. I win.

For the last two months I've been meeting with this committee listing to their arguments on how best to convince the Dept. of Highways (and contracted engineers office) that Option 2 (through town, gobble property) is the way to go. We've constructed a clear set of compelling reasons to put the highway through town (there is of course a clear set of compelling reasons to go around town also but the committee isn't really interested in that for the most part, and like I said, I'm okay either way).

After all the wrangling and gnashing of teeth, it looks like the Dept. of Highways plans to go ahead with their original plan anyway - pretty obviously - to go north around town regardless of what us local folks had to say about it.

Now begins the long protracted experience of having no idea what is ultimately going to happen with the project, preventing me from moving ahead with any planned renovations OR relocating. The only bad possible outcome! A perfect situation for preventing me from being able to do anything! I guess I'll keep looking at the same terrible carpet downstairs and putting up with shoddy bathrooms for another FIVE TO EIGHT years while this shakes out.

What kills me about this is, I was in a win/win position, which was a pleasant change. But no, instead we have a conspiracy to make it into a total bummer. You can gag me with an vx missile.

Back To The Front

Posted by Unknown On 2007-08-17 5 comments

So, it looks like WotC has finally officially announced the impending release of D&D 4 (or should I say 4.0, because we can all see 4.x.x coming down the pipe already). I'm assuming this is at the behest of corporate parent Hasbro to bring the visibility of their flagship RPG system back to the market forefront after the dismal performance of D&D Online against World of Warcraft.

I would have linked this article to the WotC D&D root page, but it is currently having such a high volume of traffic that the server has failed.

There are some interesting possibilities for changes that could make 4e a good system. Less static (more flexible) character classes, the abolition of the division between arcane and divine magic, and the improvement of the usability of the wizard/sorcereous way of spell casting, just to name a few.

In other interesting news, The Gamer: Dorkness Rising will be showing at GenCon this year. Ah, to really embrace the inner Dork. How can you beat that? To wit:





It's Raining Frenchies!

Posted by Unknown On 2007-08-13 1 comments

Sometime this month (they won't say exactly when) a 62 year old French man is plunging towards Saskatchewan to attempt the world freefall record of 40 kilometers!

Somehow he's scraped together $14 million worth of funding (hello corporations - if you're looking for tax write-offs I can give you tonnes of useful way to give me your money...). He'll be taking off from Battleford and landing who knows where; so if you hear "Sacre bleu!," "Mon dieux!," or "MERDE!" from above you do not look up, but immediately start ninja-like dive rolls into cover.

Geez, if I'm 62 and looking for excitement I think I'll opt for 26 year old Redhead with scientifically enhanced boobs...

Throwbacks?

Posted by Unknown On 2007-08-12 6 comments

I'm currently trying to find the following movies on VHS or DVD. Some of you may remember these shows, or maybe not. They were pretty 'B' in their time and - from what I've recently read - may not have aged well. But see no reason why that should stop me.

Anyway,


Thursday (1998)
- stars Tom Jane (the new Punisher)
- another Mickey Rourke film



Nemesis (1993)
- is this the only Olivier Gruner film that didn't utterly blow?
- feels more New Rose HotelBurning Chrome than any direct film adaptations of William Gibsons work ever did



Down Twisted (1987)
- am I the only person with fond memories of Albert Pyun films?


If anybody remembers these shows, or believes they can be had via torrent or something somewhere, I'd love to hear about it. If Cinemax (a movie channel in the states) has these movie, doesn't that mean there has to be a digital copy around somewhere?

Movie Reviews For The Masses

Posted by Unknown On 2007-08-08 1 comments

Hi All!

I'm inviting you to visit my favorite movie review website ThatMovieSite.com

Why is it my fav?
Well for starters it's a Canadian site, and even better it's Western Canadian, based out of Calgary. Another nice element is that the reviewers are mostly regular folks, who don't get any freebies, and don't get paid for putting up these reviews. This site sprung up from a writer's collective a couple of years ago so most of the writing is of excellent quality, as well.

Oh, and I write for the site, so I am somewhat biased.

Some recent highlights for you to view:
The On-Line Film Communities Top 100 Movies of All Time
The Rush Hour Collection
Current Releases

Check it often! The site does tend to focus on theatrical releases, but I am the resident "DVD Guy" so you will see DVD reviews here and there...

More Useless Crap From The Internet

Posted by Unknown On 2007-08-07 3 comments

Say hello to another product seemingly designed to prove the wise words of carnie king Barnum: "There's a sucker born every minute."

If he was still alive you know he'd be the king of internet shopping madness and probably spend most of his time naked and surrounded by vapid supermodels with breasts designed by these cookies.

Yes, that's right, according to the info at the link the F-Cup Cookies will help girls get bigger boobs. No sane woman would but this shit, but you gotta know that thousands of well-meaning, yet selfish, men will be surreptitiously sliding these suckers into stocking at Christmas time and pretending to know nothing about it.