ThisBoyIsToast V4 >> February 2007 Archives

I for one love the idea of re-envisioning the original series in a new Star Trek movie. But will they re-envision the continuity and re-do the costuming and set design? Will they connect it more strongly to Enterprise? Will there be tribbles? Oh I could go all meta all day !!!

OK, who was humming the theme music to Superman??? Its in my head now... February 28 07

I don't know if many of you, you who know the real me not the virtual me, know this but I have this weird affectation where my mood is directly connected to my intestinal tract. If I am feeling anything other than OK in the tummy / bowels / intestinal area then I am in a crappy mood, pardon the pun. It's annoying as it affects my interactions with people, ruins events and causes me to cancel on things I would really rather be doing. The worst thing is that I know I am the direct cause of this, having a rather irresponsible attitude with food and eating. It is also very possible that this is why I was such a cranky kid, as I know I spent most of my childhood with an upset stomach. Now, what I am not sure about is whether it's a chicken or an egg thing. February 28 07

When I was a kid I had a ton of those "learn to draw" books that spawned from popular franchises. They always started with circles and wire-drawings and in 5 steps magically turned into superb sketches of characters. That pissed off the younger me -- how the fuck did they go from bare bones circles with a few detail lines to finished work?!?! But I think I could have handled the LEGO Han Solo and Stormtrooper. In fact, I might just...

I have noticed in years recent that more and more people are becoming "lactose intolerant" or just plain upset by drinking milk. I have always said that it is the choice of hormones and antibiotics that they put in regional milk -- marmy can drink milk from Alberta but not from Ontario. So, could it be that something we are doing to cows is suppressing the lactase gene?

I was wondering. I imagine this has been wondered before. But it's my turn to wonder. I am allowed that. Do other people see The Web as a big glossy magazine, no, a glossy magazine store? Or at least a dentist's office table of offerings. Think about it, you browse through the selection getting caught by pretty pictures, jokes at the bottoms of articles, sidebars and sections dedicated to blurbs. Occasionally, depending on your personality, you might dig deeply into a meaty article about Environmentalist Heretics (i do imagine we are going to have to soon change our mind on environmentalism from stop doing this to start adapting this) or Diversity at Web Tech Conferences (is it just me or are all these conferences the new weekly meeting that exist for themselves not for the possibilty of contributing to the tech community). Some people go for mainly entertainment and pop culture magazines while others like light news & technology mags. Then there was Wired, the magazine that seemed to invent the overuse of blurbs, reducing columns to paragraph bites. Now, who brings The Web into the toilet with them? February 28 07

I was browsing through the ancient archives of blork blog circa 2001. Yes, anything over 2 years ago is ancient. It is formatted as a few lines of text and then a "click title for more" navigation scheme. But I didn't notice the navigation and assumed it was just a daily post of a thought or two. I like that. I like the idea of abandoning the link-posting and 2000+ words aspects of blogging and embracing the concise aspect of short posts. But can I abandon such? Not likely so it might mean a backwards sideblog with short no-links entries :D February 27 07

I got a hillarious email that was unintentionally funny. A vendour / sales rep was apologizing for something not being quite ready and while I believe he meant to say, "I apologize for the inconvenience, " he said, "I apologize for the incontinence..."

I hope my request didn't make him piss himself. February 26 07

Somebody call the Fantastic Four or the Silver Surfer cuz I think a giant green dragon in purple underpants (no relation to the Hulk) is gonna come out of that hole !!

Personal aside: I really hate biting into apple seeds. I also hate the tough part that surrounds them. February 26 07

Hey Kent, and yeah i will post to your manga blog in a sec, remember that lunchtime dindin where we listened to the other hockey types talk about backyard rinks? I thought they may like this shot.

The category might be "snicker" but this was more of a "guffaw". Remember those black hiphop musicians a few years ago who wore standard white-skinned bandaids? I think vegans should buy and wear bacon bandages. Not on my wishlist but they might end up on Nood's.

Drunk kid on subway last night, "Man those are a lot of pins on that bag." I ignore him. "MAN THOSE ARE A LOT OF PINS ON THAT BAG !!" I ignore him. "I SAID, THOSE..." Drunk Kid's Drunk Buddy, "SHUT UP MAN, you're drunk !!" Yeah shut up or buy me more pins.

So there you go. A new category called Wishlist. No longer do you have to wonder what to buy me for my birthday or Xmas or Valentines Day or World Gaming Day. These will be affordable, online-buyable products that can be mailed to me. Yes, I want you to give me stuff. To find it, you just go to the Archives link to the left and then from LinkFodder choose Wishlist. OK? Ok. February 23 07

Ooo, I like both the music of Dead Can Dance and I love the jewelboxing packaging. I am adding this to my own wishlist. Hey, there's a category idea. Wishlist !

Speaking of The Onion, this lil widget is kind of neat.

We Must Expand Our Nuclear Power Program If We're To Realize Our Dream Of Superhero Mutants

As the search for alternative energy sources continues, many decry nuclear energy as an unsafe and irresponsible option. Admittedly, dangers...

I used to think that fiction would sooner or later start writing chilling things that would eventually happen. Now I know that it will be the sole control of comedy.

As Maria said, it was snowing heavily this morning. It was gone by the time I was out of the subway. Poo. But, weird -- I have never seen lightning & snow at the same time, and I even heard the crack of thunder !! Update: The Geekent has some nice shots of it !!

My mom did something called paper tole, where she took multiple stock victorian pictures and cut them up, reassembling them with dots of glue into layered almost 3D images. I was always wondering what it would be like to do something similar with photos.

Holey moley, it's two years old and it's still an incredible example of the wonders you can do on the web. Dunstan's blog has a weather based panoramic header. The images are displayed depending on the XML data gleaned from weather.com. The image accurately depicts a photo of his parents' place as a live info graphic. Astounding.

Kewl. It seems that Trent Reznor has an "alternate reality game" going on for the release of his new album. It's being tracked at this this discussion group. An ARG is a real world based game, previously seen in the marketing of Spielburg's A.I. that leaves hints on movie posters and websites and tshirts and whatever other media they can use to get your interest. Little clues are scattered about leading you hither and yon. This one sounds perfectly scary.

Hmm, if I had my druthers I would have a Customer Service category and rant on a regular basis about the lack of it in most industries. Be thankful I don't. But occasionally that imaginary category would have links to good articles like Seven steps to remarkable customer service and the Vox post about Nintendo.

Kewl !! I gots me an invite to Dungeon Runners ! UPDATE: Bleah, it tanked on my machine. Even with the suggested lowest settings it looks like crap and barely runs. Obviously not made for Radeon video cards as of yet. It runs fine on Marmy's pooter but that's not the point, it it?

When I used to come down to TO, from Ottawa, for business trips, my persian coworker would take us to a hamburger joint and order us meals Off-the-Menu. Kebabs done all traditional style with a mound of buttered rice, grilled tomato and onion and spicy yummy meat. I never heard or saw the items but I believe it was koobideh.

When I read the gist of Printer as social letterbox which is talking about Web 2.0 possibly dropping off letters to your printer instead of your Inbox. Actually its talking about someone else talking about this idea. I envision this idea in my technlogically overwhelming Dark Urban Future full of gagets where you walk to a box on a lampost, access your ONE email address and grab printouts of personal stuff, excerpts from newspapers & magazines you are subscribed to and any personal notes sent your way. You grab this quickly printed and indestructible broadsheet and shove it in your bag to be read at your leisure on the maglevl train to work. It's considered the passe way of reading but some still like it.

if:book is a weblog or site about a think tank that is thinking (in a tank of course) about the furture of books and written word and technology. I think.

Mmmmmm, a poutine tour. While there is not all that much poutine in the tour (2) it is easily forgiven when reminded that is southern california. I wanted to do a similar tour here in TO when I first arrived from Montreal. But alas, there are toooo many canned-gravy, shoestring fries and cheddar cheese poutines to make it palatable.

Two things come to mind when I see the post about a Magnetic Floating Bed or maglev bed. They are: if you are... vigorous in your ... activities, would you possibly unbalance the bed and roll out? And, what if the cat runs under the bed, will he be irrevocably altered by the magnetic forces?

I realize this is a viral marketing (saying the phrase makes me wanna gag these days) campaign for sneakers but I still got a kick out of human skateboarding.

Most times, these days, when I encounter a Flash based site I click close before I give it a chance. Fully Flash based sites have their place in portfolio design and marketting but I don't have the "...45%...50%" patience anymore. And if I do wait, the first thing I am hunting is the MUTE button. Usually the navigation is boring and familiar. But the occasional one is a joy to use.

We used to buy books for the sake of buying books. Having books was an accomplishment as well as the massive shelves we had. We have been paring down of the years condensing and adding less and less. But still, it would be lovely to display all the books we have on shelves such as these.

I started here at the Lala love you set on Flickr. He tags his CD cases from La La, a place to trade CDs for about a buck. And it sort of spread around. I like that.

"It was designed and built in the UK in response to tightening animal-welfare laws intended to protect crustaceans from torture." So they say when talking about the CrustaStun over at The Lobster Blog. I thought people only cared about the welfare of cute food. I wonder how my uncle, a lobster fisherman out east, would react to this sort of thing.

You might call it photos of dancers caught in mid-move, as they are suspended in air by high speed film. I call it people who threw themselves at the ground and missed. Gravity's a bastiche.

I really appreciate this Questionable Content tutorial that outlines the simple process he uses to create his comics. It wasn't until I saw the part about the shading that I saw how integral it is to his strips; I guess if you don't notice them thyey are doing a great job. And I only thought about doing my own webcomic for about 2.3 seconds.

OMFG, this trailer for Black Sheep kept having me ask, "Are they really doing it or is this some obscure viral video?" I stil really don't know. (thanks craig)

Man, everyone and their "don't read all of it" brother is freaking out because of this post at Engadget saying Jack Tretton wants to give you $1,200. They don't seem to play attention to the "in early january" part of the post. Yes, most stores have plenty of stock now but not in early January. Most stores now still don' t have Wii's.

As if I need another project with all the other ones I have in my brain but not started, but I like the idea of Digitize Your Attic and I might steal it's core and digitize everything paper related I have in those boxes scattered about the room. It's about time I actively used my scanner and put something new on guest.thisboyistoast.nu.

When I was a kid my grandfather had a bag of comics, not superhero comics like superman and batman, but the odd titles like Gold Key Turok Son of Stone and the mess load of horror comics that inspired Gaiman's Sandman. Some of them were so obscure I don't even remember anything but my anachronistic WTF? reaction. These Stupid Comics reminded me of sitting on the floor of my uncle's bedroom and reading the afternoon away. P.S. Wasn't The Prez re-made in the last decade or so?

Ooooo, speaking of remakes of asian horror flicks by american studios (we are going to see The Messengers tomorrow; not a remake but made by The Pang Bros), Jessica Alba will be in The Eye.

While I have nothing against Black Power, I find it strange that I came to this link via the google links to side of this comic. Now I understand that young black men who are militant (look at the tees before your yell at me) for the equality of their people might also enjoy the hijinx of a middleclass white guy into WoW and computers, I just don't see it as an obvious marketing connection. Maybe it's just me.

Quite a while ago, the Count and I would play a flash based game of lil spaceships. It was massively multiplayer in that everyone was connected via the Internet. Here is a whole crapload of flash based internet multiplayer games. (note: not for Firefox, poooooooo)

An update on the pain in my side.

it's been about 2 weeks and it is just starting to feel better. i can breathe normally and stand and sit without much strain but touching it still hurts like the bejeesus and don't even talk about the rolling over in my sleep.

I did a bit more reading and found out that it is quite possible to fracture a rib with a muscle spasm. Albeit the internet is not the best diagnosis tool but the fact that it is getting better probably shows it is not a nasty kidney stone thing. The funny thing is that if it is a fractured rib then I have done exactly what can be done for it -- nothing but TLC.

I look forward to the day it is better so I can go back to rolling over in the middle of the night and wrapping around Marmy after her nightmares with sleepy murmuring demands of, "Hug !!" February 07 07

Call me a dolt but I didn't think they would have regional Mac ads. The british Mac doesn't seem as smarmy as the US one. We should do a Canadian version with Joey DeVilla and that guy from Dotto's Cafe.

Out east I believe we called it General Chow's Chicken and here in Ontario I most often called it General Tao's Chicken. I am starting to see General Tso's Chicken on most menus these days. It's one of my favourite dishes.

When someone asks me why I called my blog ThisBoyIsToast or explain what it means, I may just say, "Because this is how I feel most days, " and direct them to this lil comic.

While I would terrified to contribute to Toronto Transit Camp (shy 17 year old in body of almost 40 guy) I love the idea of an un-conference for the TTC website and the TTC in general. Imagine a bunch of people sitting around discussing solution having made a pledge not to complain. Imagine if town meetings about troubles in the community took on this group thing instead of the usual grumpy people in seats yelling at distraught community leader on podium.

Marmy and I had a royal weekend at the movies: The Queen and Last King of Scotland back to back.

Both of these movies are getting rave reviews and both are heading lines for the Oscars. One is about Queen Elizabeth and the royal family as they deal with the death of ex-Princess Diana, the People's Princess. The other is about Idi Amin, an infamous general leader of Uganda who made headlines with his slaughter of thousands and thousands of his countryfolk and his charismatic antics. This particular story focuses on the scottish doctor who ended up on his staff by sheer circumstance and folly.

I remember the death of Diana but more with the air of the age it happened in and my age. I was pretty ho-hum about the whole thing. The only thing that I really remember from the period was developing my conspiracy theory that she was assasinated by the Royal Family because she was about to marry a muslim. Seeing a movie that takes a much more personal view of those days and makes the people involved seem real, makes me want to slap that kid in the face.

As for Uganda and Amin, I know only what I have seen in the media. I know very little but that he was one of many African dictators but had somehow gained notoriety with his actions involving an Israeli / Palestinian hijacking and hostage standoff. I had never heard of Nicholas Garrigan, which is not surprising as he is fictional. The movie is based on a book.

The main thing that affected me with both movies is that they star a very well known actor who at first dominates the figure they play but very soon become the figure so much that the character overwhelms them. I always saw Queen Elizabeth as one of the ladies of my father's sisters ilk. So, I had a fear of her cold collected nature but a slight affection for the smile in her eyes. My aunts could be nice when they were giving me cookies and I often thought the Queen would be a nice grandmother. I saw this look in Helen Mirren's eyes. As for Forrest Whitaker and Amin, well it was more in the forgetting the sleepy eyed, usually quiet and collected nature of Whitaker and seeing the raving madman dictator. He was frickin' scary.

What I liked about The Queen is the sympathy it had with all involved. It acknowledged that Diana may have been a prissy bitch when dealing with her inlaws and husband (him having a longtime mistress might just encourage that) but she was a figure that the people loved. I don't know much about Tony Blair but the movie loved him at the beginning of his career, being a staunch reformer as well as truly respecting and caring for the woman who had dedicated her entire life to being his Queen. Charles is only slightly a buffoon flinching at every motor backfiring. But our star is the Queen who steadfastly wants to hold to her ideals of being a rigid queen while learning she has to alter things slightly for the modern era. Things are not as her mother's time were. People need their queen less and she needs the people moreso. But she is dignified through it all.

I like the character portrayed in the nation of Uganda. Most movies of Africa show pretty countryside, dancing locals, superstitious old people, quaint and rundown villages and the occasional bare breast. But every nation is going to have a 20th century city and the trappings of adapted western lifestyles. Much of the movie takes place in the capital city of Kampala, a modern city for the 70s. We see lavish houses, clean streets and swinging parties with gogo dancers. It is a proud nation that wants to stand on it's own free of British domination with the trappings of the modern world made by it's own economy. Unfortunately they are more idealistic then observative and still wrapped in the detritus of ethnic violence.

I liked both these movies for the element of something I am unfamiliar with, that they gave me a glimpse into, and for the wonderful performances of their leading actors. February 05 07

I have mentioned it before but the only time I actively actually did the collagey notebookey stuff I love so much was when I did Friendship books, during my penner (penpal) phase. It was fun and I always wonder how many of my stuff might be sitting under a pile of someone else's momentos.

I guess it was only a matter of time before someone named those pictures of cats with funny catch phrases attached to them. But do we need a blog dedicated to lolcats ?

OK, this is just a little brilliant. It's a command line blog and it makes me think of my first days on internet connected computers using HPs with email and newsgroups and that was about it.

So, Vista is out there and I am not even thinking about it. To be honest, I might even be able to cheaply and legally upgrade my legal copy of XP. But I don't want to and in fact that is not even the copy I have installed. A single install disk which desires boatloads of patches and a smaller tugload of added on applications is time consuming. I have a less-than-legal DVD copy of XP Prof which has it's own custom install sequence that can format your HD, setup the partition info, install the SP2 version of XP, install a handful of useful aps like Firefox and a robust media player plus tons of accessories. So, I will wait my usual year and see what the inventive nerd community comes up with and after a thousand or so patches have been installed.

But with that said I like some of the things I have seen about Vista. For example, the whole idea of a built-in media centre that even connects to your xBox 360. the 360 stole one of the best hacks from the old xBox mods by adding a media centre and adding that to the network with Vista is a really neat idea. These are things that were already available as add-ons to XP (which I am just finding out) and for the xBox but I like the fact that it is in there.

And yeah, Microsoft should give me a copy of Vista installed on a media ready PC and I will be ready to test-drive it into the ground. February 01 07

Watching Heroes last week I crooked my head and said, "Is that Christopher Eccleston?" Marmy perked up and sat down. I think she is now going to watch the show with me. But did you know why he really didn't stay with Doctor Who ?