Gno Schitt

I just about lost it when I saw this video! It's full of many, many truths about working for an ad agency.

(note: I'm pretty sure capitalizing the "N" in the game title is just silly)

The Setup
This pocketbook style indie-RPG was recently gifted to me by a gaming aficionado close to me. Since I'm on vacation, and enjoying myself with a little reading, I decided to give this one a full read and post my thoughts about it hoping to spark a little discussion.

In keeping with this strange little RPG's setting mission statement: "Picture if you will the Old West.", I've decided to break my comments up as follows*:

* if you've never heard of the film of which I speak, stop reading this blog post right now and do one of two things: shoot yourself in the head or go rent the film and watch it

The Good

• The "Whiff" - the most annoying part of 4e, is that crucial moment when you decide to use your dramatically appropriate daily ability only to have the d20 come up as a 2, and your ability to basically be a fizzle. octaNe has a mechanism to avoid this
• Characters are highly 'stylized' as opposed to a collection of stats. Do octaNe characters have a Str, Dex, Int, Fort, PE, Comliness, etc... nope. Throw that 'bean counter' stuff away and instead have cool styles: Daring, Ingenuity, Craft and Charm. For those 'special abilities' toss in Might and Magic and voila! you have a bunch of vague categories to govern doing pretty much anything - none of which is particularily well described **
• Flexible game mode - three interesting game modes are described to fit your play style and they are easy enough to understand and implement.
• No complex polyhedrons required, the game uses a handful of d6s and in such a way that the action narrative should proceed swiftly enabling any gaming group to craft exciting plot driven stories that don't slow down to a crawl for combats.
• Soundtrack - the game literally insists that you put together a mix of rock, metal, punk and classic to listen to while you play. Suggested artists include: Alien Sex Fiend, DEVO, Judas Priest, Parliment Funkadelic, Sex Pistols, and Rob/White Zombie. The author erroneously stipulates that you should NOT include any nu-metal (Linkin Park, et. al.) and he completely misses how appropriate most pre-futurist industrial would be (early Ministry, Nitzer Ebb, NIN's first album) - I would make sure that we include that in our gameplay soundtrack.
  

• Remember that "Stylized stuff" from The Good, well, it's so different from your typical stats based RPG that players who really thrive on that sort of thing are going to feel awfully displaced. Game is really meant for: people who've played their fair share of conventional RPGs and are seriously looking to get outside of that box (or people who've never played and wouldn't know the diff). If your players really like the current set of "boxes", they are going to hate this game.
• Success of this game depends on nobody taking advantage of it's narrative structure. If you have a power-gamer among you (aka "the munchkin"), the entire premise on which the game mechanic is based will completely fail.
  

WHAT THE FUCK $@&%?

Aside: I said I was on board here for the whole indie-RPG, but he is clearly fucking batshit crazy. Babe 2? Are you shitting me? You can check IMDB if you want, where you'll find that although it carries a 6.2/10 (in itself a very scary statistic), the public comments speak pretty clearly on how terrible the film was as it was intended: as a children's film.

• Character Sheet - not just an abysmal waste of ink on a page, it manages to simultaneously add nothing and clearly highlight how little game mechanic the game has to offer. I would have omitted it and let people figure out what they wanted to write down on their own. An individual certainly couldn't come up with something worse.

1. don't normally play RPGs because there is too much stat/dice/crunchiness
2. don't normally play RPGs because sword and sorcery (the 'standard fare') is for chumps
3. play RPGs but have grown tired of the long combats associated with detailed combat systems/miniatures/grid maps/tactical blah blah blah
4. play RPGs but hate "the whiff" (see above)
5. play RPGs but wish there was a way to have more narrative control over what was happening beyond: "I hit with my sword"

Oh dear god, I'm still giggling! Fun little song with a Killer W.H.A.L.E. full of celebs. You can see Alan Tudyk from Firefly and Dollhouse fame in the above picture. There is a cast list on the attached page, but see if you can spot them all yourself. Destro is my fav!

YO JOE!

As If Humanity Actually Mattered

I am most definitely a child of the 80's. I think that I was in grade 4 when the first Tron came out and I was blown away by it. I remember playing the light bikes game on the old Vic 20 we had at the time and loving every second of it. Seeing this trailer just brought it all back to me. I know it isn't the best movie ever made, (I believe that honor goes to Maid In Manhattan), but I still enjoy it whenever I catch clips while channel surfing. Haven't seen the whole thing in ages, though. Hmmmm... Perhaps I do that sometime soon.

Upon recommendation, I picked up this graphic novel from the local library on Saturday and finished it Sunday evening. In short, I totally dig it!!!

The images are incredibly textural in nature and concept, and the story very dark and engaging. Pre-photoshop... pre-digital even, the novel was published in 1983 -- vintage! (squee)


I will definitely look for more graphic novels of this nature. Also, methinks I need my own copy =D. If you haven't already, you should most definitely check out this book!

What are your recommendations?

Good to see schitt-heds everywhere!

I rented this movie on Wednesday night in an attempt to forget the soul crushing day I'd just had at work. I was pleasantly surprised upon viewing it; not only did I forget my day (well, mostly) I was really engaged by this story of revenge and redemption.

You see, the movie's hero Kainen (the Outlander, as he comes from another world) must wrestle with the monster of the movie (a very well designed dragon creature) and his own demons (which intertwine with said creature).

The very convincing performance by John Hurt and brief but enjoyable appearance by Ron Perlman add a level of professionalism to this sci-fi/fantasy, that left without, might have left this film seeming like it had not realized it's potential. Instead, it was a very engaging story that had me sucked in right to the end.

I can't comment on the ending without spoiling it other than to say that I'm happy with how it was delivered. James Caviezel (whom I'd previously very much enjoyed in The Count of Monte Cristo with Guy Pierce) turned in a very grim brooding performance that fit his character perfectly.

I'm not going to do something crazy like give this movie a 9.5 out of 10, but I will recommend that you rent it (or check it out using whatever mechanism best suits you). I watched it on BD at 720p, and I noticed that some of the black scenes didn't live up to a hi-def experience - individual mileage may vary.

I finally put the nail in the coffin for Dead Space last night and I can honestly say that this was yet another fantastic game from EA. I know there are tons of haters out there and I guess they can keep hating, but I'd like to fly through this one for anybody who's interested.


1. I Wasn't Sick This Weekend
First, I'd like to point out that I'm doing some writing about games without being deathly sick or down for the count. Usually when I write about a game it's because I've been at home for 3 or more days sick, but this time, it's just because the game was great. I usually also roll two games into a single post but this time around it's just a single with no witty comparrisons (sorry).

2. 4 zombies out of 5
Zombies and gore games are all the rage these days - to wit: Left4Dead, Resident Evil, Dead Rising... and while those games are all neato, I really enjoyed the specific touches in this game that gave me the sense that I was playing some realtime interactive version of Event Horizon mixed with Aliens/Alien Resurrection.

3. If it's Plot or Underwear, I'll take Plot
The story in Dead Space was full of good plot. A decent intro gets you liking the few crew members that are out there with you pretty easily, and you're presented with fragments of some woman that you should ostensibly be able to rescue if you make it in time. Things start to go a bit circus side-ways when, about 3/4 of the way through the game, you start talking to said missing girlfriend (and by the time she shows up, you're already convinced that you didn't make it in time to actually save her). It was very creepy and very interesting.

4. Zero-Grav = 23 Kinds of Awesome
One of the most suprisingly fun parts of hte game was the mix of zero-g and airless zones that you have to cross or explore with the help of your environment suit. Being able to push off of any flat surface and land and re-orient on any number of other surfaces (including a meteor chunk at one point) was super fun. I remember thinking to myself at one point, that a whole game could be based on that movement principle where you'd explore the outside of various ships and bodies of matter - but I digress.

5. Back to that Plot (spoiler warning)...
Right, so, as the game draws to a close you realize that this setup throughout the game of zealots vs. corporate whores is really just a ruse. During the reveal you find out who the real evil is - and while it's definitely unexpected (I bought the 'zealots are the bad guys' bit a little too easily I guess) it was a bit disappointing.

6. A Huge Finish
The final fight is great fun - and not every game can honestly boast that as a selling feature. Often great games have lack luster finales (Uncharted) or repetitive boss fights (Heavenly Sword) or bosses that are just plain too difficult (Lost Planet) - but Dead Space has none of these problems. The end cinematic is short but really catches you off guard in a good way.

7. Other Mentionables
Time to complete: 12 hours, 32 minutes on difficulty setting Easy.
I'm going to replay it on "Impossible" now that it's unlocked (you get to start with lots of stuff, so I think I should be able to do it). Oh, and the weapons are fantastic in this game, a good mix of standard shooter stuff (the pulse cannon) and unique weapons that are really 'tools' repurposed to be weapons. Variable fire modes for weapons expands the limited selection set nicely.

Anyway, I'm done with this one now for a bit, so if you'd like to check it out, just ask and I'll gladly hand it off to you - it's definitely worth the look.

As most of you guys know I'm getting married soon. We've run out of invitations so I'm simply posting a mass invite on here for any of you guys that want to come. The wedding is pirate themed and it sounds like a ton of people are dressing up. Further details can be found at http://wedding.technoplunk.com, or you can simply harass me if you have any questions.

So, I'm well past the deadline when I found this, but I LOVE the title track from this game, so I'm going to start working on a remix and see how it goes.



I'll post around here somewhere when it's done ;)

Hey, anybody around here interested in seeing me and Terry absolutely RIP IT UP on May 29th? We'll be using 8 sources in the mix - 2 vinyl, 2 mp3/digital (serato+ableton), 3 CDJs and 1 drum machine (that's right - that just happened).

This mix won't make it in time, but my Technologic one will be played for sure, and maybe some other surprises.

I do believe that this image says it all...

But you can read Wil Wheaton's (pronounced Weat-on, not Whee-ton) initial thoughts at his most excellent blog.

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

The advice on how to recognize toxic people really grabbed me but there are some other interesting thoughts in here as well. Worth a read.

And no one cares...
Universal Soldier 3... Return of the Has-Beens
And yes, that really is Dolph Lundgren and JCVD - dressed to kill at this years Masochist Mash-Up!

After fighting with a corporate inbox chock full of junk (500+ messages) all the time, I've come to the conclusion that the only useful inbox is an empty inbox*. So, I took the bold move yesterday of archiving everything in my inbox to a local trash, and clearing my todo list.

The thinking is this: if any of those items are super critical, I'll get pinged again. If any of those items were actually no-ops or low priority, then they shouldn't be competing for my time with the other stuff that is higher priority.

This all works fine as long as the inbox does not get out of control again. To that end, I've decided to implement a personal policy that my inbox MUST be totally empty when I leave the office each night**.

For EVERY inbox item:
1) Is this high priority? Does it need to be dealt with immediately? FLAG IT AS RED, immediately take action to complete it. If I can't complete it by the end of the day preserve the message in my HIGH PRIORITY folder.
2) Is this informational or of medium to long term consideration? Immediately archive it using the appropriate mechanism (sometimes, this will be the trash). If a follow-up item is needed, immediately schedule it.
3) Is it irrelevant? Immediately delete such messages after reading.

Rules of Thumb***
- don't let messages sit unread, process them all when they arrive
- keep the items todo well organized, clear them when they complete, review regularly
- respect the awesomeness of the empty inbox
- be ruthless about deleting the chaff
- if I can't keep up to my inbox, it means I might need help, monitor this and inform my immediate report that the workload might be too high

A valid question here is: why the hell is Kyro bothering to write about this? I'm glad you asked. The answer, is that it is much easier to make a habit out of something that you write down. Now I can refer back to this and refine my process, to hone the skill of effective email communcation management.

Anybody else out there in big corporate email land have tips for fighting the ever growing inbox?


* unless we're talking about your gmail inbox, in which case, it's best to just leave everything where it is and use the searching...
** or if a few build up during the week, I must at least have it sorted by Friday before I leave my desk
*** and no, that has nothing to do with a stick the width of your thumb that you can use to beat... that's just urban myth

Right now my entire creative team is thinking up ways to reintroduce some of this drek into a current ad...

I just saw that both Liam Neeson and Raf Finnes are slated to be in the upcoming remake of that classic 80's Greek fantasy flick Clash of the Titans.

I guess if they are going to continue to rape all of the films of my childhood, they might as well use good talent. I'm betting this remake can't suck as much as the new Transformers did.

Since these games are clearly in the same genre, I felt that this would be a perfectly valid comparison. A completely reasonable, totally neutral set of categories will be used for this assessment. I'll be abbrv. in the artcl. so I don't have to type words lngr. than 5 ltrs; ME = Mirror's Edge, NFSU = you get the point...

Hotness of Main Character
In ME, you get to play Faith. She's got this cute Eurasian look going for her and a twin sister. In NFSU you're you. That's right, you never actually see yourself in the cut-scenes so you can suspend your disbelief of the fact that you'd never be caught dead in any of the situations the game puts you in. In NFSU's defence though, you do get to work with an attractive undercover policewoman played by Maggie Q, none-the-less, advantage ME.

Cut-scene Wickedness
In NFSU the cut-scenes drag you through this plot about gangs of master auto-thieves and illegal car smugglers etc... It's straightforward and comes across very dryly, especially compared to the actual driving which is very exciting and rip roaring (like a good NFS game should be). ME is unfortunately pretty similar, predictable story with an obvious double cross you see coming from about 24 miles away - maybe from those vantage points you can see everything coming... hm.. What ME has going for it though, is a neat delivery using a cel animation style that sets is apart. Maybe the next NFS game should have cel animation cut-scenes (ironically, the characters might seem a little less cardboard). Advantage ME.

Longness of Section That I Wish Was Shorter
This always happens to me in every video game, a section of the game that I feel has been made long or difficult just to lengthen the game play (okay, maybe not every game, Heavenly Sword had no such section, nor did Little Big Planet, but those are exceptions). In NFSU, somewhere around driver level 10 or 11, I was sorta wishing I magically had more game money so I could advance quicker and buy some faster wheels and bloody beat the game already. Thankfully this was a very short lived feeling in NFSU (around an hour or so of play), and quickly I was into a decent Lamborghini and on the way to wrapping up. Sadly, in ME, there were two such sections (SPOILER ALERT). The first was the atrium in Chapter 8. I must have fallen 30 times trying to figure out the intricacies of how to get up to the top. To make it worse, sometimes I'd fall and NOT die by catching some piece of girder when trying to grasp an edge. This would result in my having to re-do sections I had JUST completed. This went on for hours. The second section was one of the very last bits of Chapter 9 - where you must dodge an assault team AND a sniper team to reach the objective which is itself one of the smallest ledges you have to jump a distance to in the whole game. Again, this took me over 90 minutes and replaying the same section of a level 20 times to get and by the end I was pretty frustrated. Advantage NFSU.

Tag Line Bizarreness
ME: Once, this city used to pulse with energy... blah blah.... can you get any more pretentious?
NSFU: You're not good, and you're not bad, you blend and you listen... WTF does this crap even mean? I had imagined this section being a longer diatribe about the senseless little bits of text that end up in games, but I don't feel like it. As long as my complaint about that weird shit in NFSU about "you're not good, and you're not bad..." is out in the open, I'm good.
Okay, the lines in both games have issues, PUSH.

Music (or, What Really Makes Any Game/Movie)
I'm sure it's no surprise to anybody who knows me that music makes a huge difference to me. I've often found that my opinion of entertainment properties is strongly influenced by the quality of the music (and the amount of fromage/action content vis a vis Bruce Willis/Liv Tyler scenes, which I also go for). Okay, enough pre-amble, onto our competitors. In ME the music is a completely original score complete with fully developed character themes (the city even has it's own theme and is treated like a character, how cool is that?). The music is deeply engaging and feels strongly influenced by modern electronic scoring (Mark Snow, etc...). NFSU has some original background music, but what stands out is the cleverly inserted cuts by (wait for it!): Nine Inch Nails, Recoil, Puscifer (the legendary Maynard from Tool) and Pendulum. The cuts used are not the standard radio edits, but super wicked (rare) remixes and b-side cuts that stand tall above the bland typical use of pop music in movies and games these days. Wow, this is a super tough one because ME was so well scored, but I'm going to have to say advantage NFSU.

(hey, it's got NIN -AND- the main guy from Tool, what am I supposed to do?)

Relative Fun Index on the Latex Scale
Jeez, what am I supposed to put here? First of all, I LOVE racing games, and NFS:III was one the first 3-D games I was ever able to run on my old 16MB Voodoo Banshee AGP card (wow, talk about ancient history). NFSU has all the thing that made NFS games of yore great - sweeping courses through awesome looking locales, cop chases, thin plots. I knew what I expected with NFSU, and I got what I wanted. ME took me to new gaming heights (literally) even making my balls ache in parts when I was dropping from high areas to other less high areas. It was thrilling in ways I didn't think games could be - dodging bullets (seriously, I'd be ducking in my chair when the shots would start going off in 5.1 Dolby Surround cranked up) while vaulting over obstac... okay, you get the point. All my bullshit criticisms aside, both of these games were fantastic to play and I loved them each a shit-ton. I can't pick, PUSH.


The Big Lebowski (aka "Conclusion")
Well, when I add it all up it's a tie. That's a damn good thing too, because I don't think there's a sane argument I could make about either game that would clearly make it better than the other. Lots of haters out there gave NFSU a really hard time about something or other (the police SUVs are an easy target). An I've heard critics of ME bitch about linear this and that (which is crazy, there is multiple ways across all the roof-top levels). I think people have just become desensitized to awesomeness in general (I could go into this, but if you know what I mean then you probably already agree to some extent).

Why oh why the head to head you ask? Well, I've been deathly sick* for most of this week and found time on my hands where I wasn't able to do anything actually productive, so instead I started writing this and today I felt well enough to finish it.

* sick enough that I wasn't able to go to D.C. this week as planned freeing me up to write bullshit video game reviews :P

PS: If you have a PS3 and want to try Mirror's Edge, I'll gladly lend it out (but I'm keeping it since I doubt they'll sequel such a unique game and I'd like to have this one to refer back to). I've already sold my copy of NFS:Undercover though and I'm excited for the next installment (hopefully they don't change too much b/c of the haters that crawled out of the woodwork for this iteration).

Are all Americans this egocentric and moronic? Or just the ones who work for Fox?

Are you tired of iTunes?
Have you been feeling blah about all the heavyweight bloated mp3 apps you have to slog through just to quickly listen to a little mp3 file?

To the rescue, comes AleNofx, with two fantastic little apps to make your quick mp3 browsing on your mac totally painless.

Toolplayer - as light as they come, this ultra small player literally plays only the mp3 you double-click on, and when you go 'next' and 'prev' the smart little thing just uses the folder that the currently playing mp3 lives in. No tricks, no playlists, no 'store' to auto-connect to, just your music playing from you directories.

VOX - the 'larger' of the two programs, work just like the toolplayer, but adds some neato little bits like AudioScrobbling (cool if you have a Last.fm account and want to output what you're listening to).

This post is the fault of the person who posted about the six-pack bit. How could I not end up trolling that site looking for something else roxxor?

OZONE IMP from OZONE on Vimeo.

Anybody can rent a trainer from EscapeSports.ca to check out kite flying and see if it's right for them. I'm going out for lessons on a 10-11 meter kite tomorrow - I'll be sure to post back very soon with some pics and a report on how it goes.

Right Here!
Have a great weekend!

Courtesy of the Onion:
By Munkarth the Lesser

I'm a man who knows what he likes. I like the hot spray of fresh blood against my face, I like the cold clasp of wrought-iron chain mail around my thighs, and, of course, I like the taste of almost anything consumed from the skull of a beheaded enemy. For me, nothing beats a crisp beverage or hearty entrée served in the bony remains of a human head. Whether I'm swilling down breakfast mush or nibbling on a light dinner salad, a skull turns any dining experience into a special event.

I don't know what it is, but food served in a hollowed-out brain pan is always delicious. My wife says it's a psychological thing, and there's definitely some truth to that. Eating from a skull stirs up memories of standing victorious upon a smoldering battlefield, the piercing shriek of a slain foe's death cry still ringing in one's ears—and that little bit of magic can really make some make fresh-picked strawberries lightly brushed with a balsamic vinegar reduction jump to life.

I'll never forget the first time I ate from the still-warm skull of an enemy. Barely 19 and returning home from a decisive victory over a sworn nemesis, I chose to celebrate with a feast of truffled lobster risotto in a shiitake mushroom garnish. My uncle Duvan the Middle suggested that, instead of eating it from a pasta bowl, I fashion a crude serving receptacle from the skull of a warrior chieftain I had slaughtered that day. A couple of bites and I was hooked. What a gastronomic revelation!

No matter what my wife says, though, I've eaten from enough skulls to know my gustatory reaction is about more than cherished reminiscences of horrifying carnage. Stews and pot roasts in particular have a way of seeping into the nooks and crannies of the bones, infusing every bite with flavor. And the lingering hint of dense connective tissue and cerebrospinal fluid can spice up any dish.

Once you've tried skulls, I guarantee you won't return to traditional dinnerware.

Most folks have a little trepidation their first time, but that's only natural if you stop to consider that the object you're eating from used to contain a mind bent on hacking you to pieces with a broadsword. You're bound to think, 'If my blade had been a fraction of a second slower, if my shield had failed to repel just one blow, then someone would be eating food out of my skull right now.' And, I suppose, my archrival Gundemar the Visigoth could one day be guzzling from my head that dish his wife so generously calls baked ziti.

But no skull in the world is going to make that edible.

If I've piqued your interest, allow me to offer a few cranial-culinary tips: First, it's very important that each skull come from a vanquished mortal adversary. Simply killing that neighbor with the yapping dog isn't going to cut it. Second, when you step into the kitchen, keep in mind that your only limits are the number of heads you've lopped off and your own creativity.

I like to throw dinner parties for my friends, each with a different theme. For example, after a successful ambush of invading Gauls, we might prepare a sumptuous bouillabaisse that we've let simmer for hours in our enemies' severed heads. And another time we might have Taco Night.

Believe me, the 22 bones of the skull aren't the only ones rife with gourmet possibilities. Back in college, we used to make beer bongs with spines we ripped from the chests of our rivals. More recently, my family has begun starting each day with a fruit smoothie spooned from a hollowed-out femur—a healthy treat that is an absolute delight after you've sucked down a few mouthfuls of marrow.

Before you start trying out your own recipes, though, I must issue a stern warning: Remember to observe the difference between the freshly decapitated skull of a long-despised opponent and that of a person you hate out of mere narrow-minded prejudice. To sup from the first is to be a warrior born, one beholden to sacred traditions and values. To sup from the latter is plain bigotry. Do not dishonor the customs of our people, or one day you might find your own skull being used to serve hummus to my in-laws!

I will use your eye sockets to hold the chips! I will use the gaps between your teeth to hold the crudités! By Odin, I will lick your skull clean when we're though snacking!

Please excuse my outburst.

The plan is: let's go Watch The Watchmen @ 6:45pm tomorrow night.

Interesting marketing piece.

I would definitely go see this!

Found this neat little video that show how the markets have gotten to where they are. It does a really god job of breaking it down.

Video 1



Video 2

Hubby stumbled onto this.... Just what the boys need, another excuse to play... with themselves
perhaps a little NSFW:

Synopsis

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains." So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton-and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers-and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Can she vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read."

Great read.

Maybe I'm just completely out of the loop (which is quite possible as I don't pay a lot of attention to American politics) but this image was such a contradiction to the image of Obama that his campaign created in my mind, I had to share. Anyone else? Was this common knowledge?

That's right suckers - I said it!
NFL/CFL/WhateverFL is like T-Ball compared to the true bone-crunching, death-dealing, viscera squirting insanity that is BLOOD BOWL!
Coming soon to everything but PS3 - you can make your team and truly crush your enemies and hear the lamentations of their women (ie. cheerleaders).

Check out the brand new trailer here.
Looking forward to giving this a try (I'm looking at you Kyro - of course in this case you have chosen the wrong console...)

Some variations of some Yoga poses that I think a number of the readers here will be interested in. I enjoyed "Downward Facing Wookie" and the "X-wing Extended". I might have to work a few of these into my routine.

Euros are, in general, way more laid back about swearing, drinking, nudity, and sex than we are in North America. Some of my favourite ads from the last year are from overseas, like the attached link to a fun commercial.
NSFW (gloriously NSWF according to the guy from Gizmodo).

Relive some of scratchy films of your youth with the National Film Board of Canada website. You can watch classics like The Log Drivers Waltz (pictured), The Cat Came Back (Oscar nominated), or The Big Snit, and so much more.

And if you haven't seen any of these classic films made right here in Canada you owe it to yourself to give 'em a watch!

Just came across this dashboard widget for OS X while searching for a good cpu and network monitor.  I've previously been using the built in CPU Tach widget, but wasn't really happy with it.  This widget is far superior.

I’m perfectly happy to defend most of his (Bush) surveillance, interrogation and counterterrorism policies against his critics.

-- Bill Kristol

It was a terrible day for football sports fans.

In Arizona at 2pm it was the battle of the birds, with the Cardinals and Eagles facing off. Unless some miracle had recently transformed Arizona into a powerhouse, I figured the Eagles would be golden. Of course, Kurt Warner (the bionic man) showed up to play today big time. Even though Donovan would be fairly productive (for a change), it was Warner to Fitzgerald all afternoon. It's a good think I like Warner, it softened the blow.

Well, 1 down, 1 to go; on to the night game... Steelers vs. Ravens, 5:30pm.

Pittsburg with the #1 defence and Baltimore with the #2, this was shaping up to be a low scoring D- struggle. I had visions of Ed Reed flying in as free safety making big interceptions all day, but it just wasn't so. Instead, it was a bunch of Troy Polamalu, and some huge hits that took out Hines Ward (the cheapshot king of football) and Willis McGahee. Sure enough, Flaco showed as rookie in fine style, delivering an "eye, N, tea" during the 4th quarter drive that really mattered. Nice work.

So, I'm oh for two on the weekend and my Eagles are more roast turkey and less bird of prey. In two weeks it'll be Arizona vs. Pittsburg - just like nobody predicted*. At least Warner gets another shot at the big game, I love that guy. Instead of my Eagles Jersey in two weeks, I'll be wearing #13 (but it won't be red and white it'll be blue and gold like in XXXIV).


* I really mean nobody. If you'd asked ANY 50 people in the know of the football world who was going to Tampa Bay in the post season, exactly ZERO of them would have said Arizona vs anybody.

Finally Arnold's cardboard quality acting
skills have been acknowledged.






























And in other news a poor little kitty has "rectum problems." This is a good day to not be a cop...

I thought this production was neat. Yeah, it is an old video by internet standards, and maybe some have seen it already, but a great example of "creative independent way of contributing to the public sphere".

I've been away from here for far too long (works just been insane).

Hey everyone. I know everyone has some take on what is going on with our government. Above is a link to Jon's take on our "crisis". I am sorry for the add before the clip, I couldn't find just the clip so had to go through comedy central.

It is about 8 min. long but worth it, so if you can't watch it now, come back.

Peace

This thing is amazing. Weighing in at just shy of $10 000, it's maybe a bit out of most budgets. But built in bookshelves, drawers specifically for dice, Acryllic covers, with grids already present. Wow. Just wow.

Oh! Free shipping until January 1st? You all better order fast! I wonder if it's too late to add it to my Christmas list.

I wonder if I could make something similar with a DIY approach. Hopefully remove some of the labour costs... Step 1: Move into a house big enough to support the table.

Wonderfully edited little video with the old Kirk seeing the new one (the younger version).


I'm looking forward to the new Trek!

I hate what these rhythm games have done to the joy of shopping. I used to just go and buy whatever I wanted, and plug it into my console and move along, but oh no... not anymore... now, I get the joy of assholes at Harmonix and Activision that have reduced the simple joy of shopping for periphs to an activity that is about as much fun as navigating a hoover vacuum salespersons convention schedule.

Wheee!!!

I should really shut my cake hole though, seriously, since it looks like my RB1 stuff will work with RB2 and GHWT on the PS3, and that's really enough for me. Not having the slider from the GHWT guitar is kinda weak, but it's whatevs.

I can't wait for DJ Hero... uhmm... shit, I can't even make a good joke about how sad that is :( I guess you'll just have to take my word for it that I'm crying a little bit inside.

Looks like South Korea is trying to lure gamers into its military by making a fabulous new battle suit that bears a striking similarity to the suit worn by the fictional Master Chief.

I can see it now, some angry still-pubescent South Korean soldier standing over his vanquished enemy screaming the Korean equivalent of, "I eat noobs for breakfast!"

Tripped over this list today of upcoming comic book based movies for the next few years. Most of them will likely be shit but I'm sure there will be some good ones mixed in.

As a side note, they are making a live action version in hollywood.

Oh, yeah, right... there IS NO JOE THE PLUBMER. What a pathetic excuse for a campaign they are running now. Palin... give me a break.


http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6147331

I put my phone number on the national Do-Not-Call list today.

https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/insnum-regnum-eng

I recommend that you all do the same. I'm praying to any god that will listen that Capital One / Mastercard will now have to get out of my life permanently (and to hell with those asses who want us to buy some to good to be true travel deal).

Here is the quick and dirty of how bioluminescence works. Now many of you are thinking ``Why would I want to know that``. Well watch the video and see, it is both cool and funny.



Yes I am a dork and proud of it... as should all of you... someone need`s to be the bio nerd around here.

Another notable one is the Atom Smasher

That's right; the national debt clock (setup in a magical time when nobody would have predicted the debt to surge into the 10's of trillions) has run out of digits. It would be funny if it wasn't so brutally tragic for our American brothers and sisters to the south.

And in spite of it, McPaliBush still has a sliver of hope in the election. What does THAT tell ya?

I'm just looking forward to Oct 15th.

Yeah, I can't believe they're still around either. They are a galactic plague of some kind that just won't die. To celebrate their resilience, I'm considering going to see them at the Odeon. Tickets are only $30 so that should be hella good fun.

Any takers?

C'mon, pansies!!!

I can't say enough about how much I've enjoyed reading this comic. The author is Canadian and he just quit his day job to start drawing full time. I highly recommend you start right at the beginning and read this fantastic adventure. (Note: The first few comics are in black and white but it becomes a full colour comic very quickly)

I just finished Little Brother and this article really twigged for me.

...and no-one was pushed of the edge of the world either!

Oh gawd, I hope not... hit the link for a quick video.

Google is about to release a new Browser. Take a look at the introductory comic.

My only concern is that everything I do on the net is being done through some Google service. If "they" decide to take a look at me, they've got a pretty big picture of my life and thoughts ....wait a minute, Blogger is Google property too....Damn you Google!

Google is like heroin for a privacy junkie/"conspiracy theorist" like myself...I know it's bad for me but I just can't help it...Google is just so good!

Anyways, I'm going to give Chrome a try. Anyone else?

I deleted that fucking Jib Jab clip that would intermittently auto-play.
Sorry about leaving that there for so long.

Worth a read.

I've completed a few new tracks (or versions) recently.
For those so inclined:

These are also going to be loaded into the integrated player shortly if you want to just preview them. Keep in mind that some of them have neat stuff in the middle and end, so if the first 8/16/32 bars are a bit repetitive, those are just for mixing ;)


Drumbeat Goes Like This

Bweoinwuinngh (I Get Live) Good2B Mix

No Tek Low Def (elektro trance)

Ghostheory

Frank Miller + Disney girls= FUN!

I swear you can find anything on Craigslist, Kijiji, eBay, et. al.

Parts I like the most:
* occasionally whisper in my ear, "Ahha, we meet again".
* Evil laugh/British Accent preferred

priceless...

I came across this post quite by accident on a real-estate media website, and thought I'd share. I don't think this is anything people here don't already know, but it was good for me to read this right now (Monday morning) as I set out to try and complete some stuff at work this week that is very challenging.

5 Things to Remember:
1. Let it go. Too many of us cling to negative events that happened 5, 10, 20 years ago. We paralyze ourselves when we can’t simply let it go, and begin living life now.

2. How we feel about ourselves-our esteem-affects every aspect of our lives. Crucial is trusting ourselves to create our own, best outcomes in any situation.

3. When facing great challenges, the immediate goal is to merely get through them. To do this: (1) Don’t become overwhelmed. (2) Do what you can, as much as you can. (3) Keep your focus on the now.

4. Optimism-the belief that things can get better-is the first step toward redemption when we are wallowing in misery.

5. "I believe that no matter how many mistakes we’ve made; how badly we’ve really, really screwed up; how old, worn out, or dejected we’ve become; as long as there is true, steadfast ambition, all of us have an opportunity for greatness."

I'm going to focus on 1, 2 and 4 today.

Things I wish:
1. That we could solve the energy problem.
2. That summer was longer.
3. That deadlines didn't have sharp razor blades on them. ;)

Earlier this year a fellow named Ryan Dancey suggested that d20 has four distinct quartiles of play:

Levels 1-5: Gritty fantasy
Levels 6-10: Heroic fantasy
Levels 11-15: Wuxia
Levels 16-20: Superheroes

There’s been some great discussion at EN World and elsewhere about how to define those quartiles, and how each group eventually finds the quartiles that suit them best.

You just gotta love Joss Whedon! It's quirky and funny and worth a look!

Because failure can be funny.

Tonight, Midnight at the Broadway: Dead Alive

(if you are into educational films, that is)

You know things are bad when there is a website about it. You should give this a read to be sure that you are safe, and perhaps even consider passing it on to those that you love so they too can be safe from DHMO.

I finally replaced my broken TV with a nice LCD. Not two days later I'm chatting with Kyro about PS3's and I spot one hell of a deal that I couldn't pass up. So now I have a PS3 to go with my new TV. For anyone that cares to add me to the friends list on their console my name is Technoplunk. Alternately if you hate my guts feel free to add me to your block list.