Gno Schitt

Cool Obama

The important take away is actually from a comment:

"...the Democratic party is now America's conservative party, fighting more often than not to defend a status quo against the radical, perhaps revolutionary, changes proposed/enacted by the Republican party, which has ceased to be 'conservative' in any meaningful sense of the word and must now be considered the party of fundamentalist Friedmanite corporatism and reactionary Robertsonian theocracy. We have reached the point in our political culture at which liberals are the true conservatives and many who call themselves 'conservatives' can probably best be described as 'Right Leninists,' a vanguard party of reactionary revolutionary change."

So really, what the person is saying is that black is the new white or maybe that black is the new black. I couldn't have said that better myself.

So some of you may or may not know that lately I've been super busy. So when I've had the opportunity to try to relax with my family or friends, the topic always boils down to this "Well what do you want to do?"

Since moving back to Saskatoon, I have had the pleasure of meeting many people. Most of you reading this are those people. First let me say Kudos :) As without you life would be boring.

What I've been able to take away has been a renewed passion for games of sorts. People do not realize nowadays with all the technology we have at our fingertips what they are missing with the interaction of just sitting and playing a game with those around you.

With the power going out on the Westside a few times the past week, and while waiting for it come back on, I have had the opportunity to play a few games with my family whilst waiting.

SO far the games of choice we have been playing are:
Apples to Apples as our social game
Pandemic as our group objective game
Monopoly as our classic game
and recently I picked up 7 wonders as our card based game.

I subjected my family to learning to play 7 wonders the other week. They were not so enthused as it seemed daunting to learn the game. After a few rounds the game started to go smoother as we learnt it. And after we finished the first game my sister-in-law immediately demanded a rematch.

I've since just picked up the expansion for it called leaders, and for my brother's birthday I bought him "The Manhattan Project" which was originally a Kickstarter. I'm hoping that we get as much enjoyment out of it as all the others we have learnt.

What this boils down to is:

Thanks for reintroducing me to board games again. And if I can make a suggesttion, get a few people together to have a round or two of a new game, you never know what will happen.

Bairen

As most people here have an interest in copyrights I thought you would all love this TED Talk. Its a short 5 minute one so it won't take long to watch, the link also has a blog post that goes with it for a bit more detail. To sum it up, if I did math like that in school I would have failed.

Click here to see the true power of the force!* 


* or in this case, the real order you should watch the StarWars films, I plan to try this on Morgan when she finally capitulates and agrees to watch these culturally significant films (I expect that will be when she is like 28 or something)

For reasons that don't matter to anybody but me, the moniker "Kyro" is headed for an end. It was a fine alias for 10 years, but I'm ready to switch to something a little closer to the vest, namely Djaii which is phonically identical to my actual name, but employs a silent 'D' like in Djinni and implies 'DJ' which I (used to) do.

Right, so, what about that music stuff? What about the film work?

Well, there are two aliases that I'll be using for music, one that will follow my new primary moniker "Djaii" and one that is... well even more unconventional.

The Kyro identities on SoundCloud and CCMixter are gone, in favor of this identity on SoundCloud:

Latest tracks by Djaii

Also on SoundCloud, I'll maintain a new Möbius Entendre identity which is for the weird stuff, like Exploration #4 and my newer ambient productions. When doing sound for video (other than actual sound foley work for my film group HALF DAMAGE) I'll post it here also:

Latest tracks by möbius entendre

You will also notice that my email address is going to change. You'll still be able to email me at my kyro address, but replies will start coming from 23 djaii (again a gmail addy). Finally, I'll have a unified identity across SoundCloud, Twitter and our Blog. Email me if you've got questions, the old email address will work for a while yet).

Don't go to the Grand Sirenis in the Riviera Maya.

Please read the post here.

... and then go vote on TripAdvisor here.

(just please click the YES button beside the "was this helpful?" indicator)

Two things about this situation really piss me off:
1 - I don't care what country it is, you don't treat women like this, and you fucking follow up with major repercussions if it does. Like jail for the asshole, let alone the fact he should be fired on the spot.
2 - Shit like this makes those of us that had a good time in Mexico question our experience and wonder if we can go back. We had a great time there, could this have happened to my daughter?

I'm willing to bet most of us have some form of caffeine addiction. Now there is an option for the laziest caffeine addict. Screw drinking caffeinated beverages like a chump, no more swallowing caffeine pills for that late night cram session, no more gnashing at caffeinated gum, begone with the sucking of caffeinated mints. BEHOLD THE FUTURE IS HERE AEROSHOTS. Yes now all you need to get your buzz on is the ability to BREATHE.

I have no doubt some kid will die huffing 50 of these but we need to thin the herd somehow.

This one requires some reading, but it's an important object lesson. It's got an angle featuring one of the Penny Arcade dudes (Gabe specifically) which is why I think it ties into our content here.

1. Start here on 1up
2. To see some of the original email content with come commentary, you can read it here
3. To wrap it up, please read the article here on Forbes

The lovely lady and I went to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo yesterday and I have to say that I found the experience to be 90% enjoyable. And that's not to say that any part of the show was bad, but there were a few parts where I found myself not just shifting in my seat but the best way to put it would be writhing.

Having not read the books before hand, I found much of the story-line to be twisted and unexpected. My fiance absolutely loved the show despite knowing the entire plot beforehand. I attribute this to the movie being a very accurate portrayal of the book itself, as attested by her, and from a stellar performance from both of the lead characters Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.

Another big thing I noticed during this show that I haven't seen in any movie for quite some time is pace change and not just between scenes. I've been shown the graph of what makes a good story. You may have seen it being discussed on Extra Credits and I found, when examining the movie afterwards that it was very similar to this. That may be an over-evaluation but here's the bottom line. I was never bored once. I refuse to say anything specific about the show in case you, like me, haven't read the books(I plan to now). I was worried that they would ruin the story by making it 'Hollywood' and the inclusion of Daniel Craig, I'll admit, was initially a worry for me. Thankfully, it appears as if Mr. Bond can convincingly play a helpless down on his luck victim just as well as an untouchable secret agent. And I won't spoil a thing about Rooney Mara's performance.

This one is definitely a theater watch recommend. A warning though, the sex/violence in this one is well balanced but extremely graphic at times. By balanced, I mean there are many opportunities for it to be gratuitous, but it only is when it needs to be. I praise the director, David Fincher for deciding that it was enough to hear teeth hitting the ground rather than showing them(in slow motion or something foolish like that). Great respect for the material and the overall tone.

for shit like this


I'm a little sick that this exists.

you understand all these references. :)

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,

If you have been talking to me lately, you know I'm looking forward to Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Well Launch day approaches and I would like to invite all those that are wanting to play this join up on the same server.

I am a part of Midnight Squadron. You can sign up and become part of our gaming clan at : http://www.midnightsquadron.com

We will be launching into the game on the server: Port Nowhere
It is a PvP server.

I haven't picked a character name yet, but contact me and we can all join up. Playing with Friends is the best option in an MMO.

Looking foward to seeing you in game!

This is a very interesting article about a tech firm called Atos that is banning internal emails by the end of 2012. I really like the logic that they are using for why they are doing it. I am not sure how it is going to work out for them, but best of luck to them.

There are still cool things coming out of Star Wars fan stuff. I know you are thinking Cello's are lame, but you really should check out the video, the sound is great, and the video is clever.



This might be old, but it is new to me.

Checkout this great post on a blog I follow, "The Reaction".