March 31: Holy Crap, Lions!

I am unbelievably busy. I don't think I've ever been this busy. I'm so busy, in fact, that I'm not even enjoying the fact that this is my last March madness end-of-the-year rush ever. It's unreal — I've been perpetually stressed out for the past week. This weekend, I'm really hoping to finish off the big things (English essay and graphics assignment), and to that end, I've taken Saturday night off. One ancillary benefit to have Saturday night off is that I won't be crazy tired on Sunday morning. Therefore, I'm going to the flea market.

Anyway, I've got a new favourite web comic, Minimum Security. Last week, they had a fantastic comic about Bill Napoli, the anti-abortion nutbag in the states. The writing is pretty witty and I really like the drawing style.

I've also got a new favourite song, “London Beckoned Songs About Money Written By Machines” by Panic! at the Disco. It's got some really wicked lines and a pretty good hook. I've actually become pretty fond of them, even though I dismissed them as sounding too much like Fallout Boy at first (the song I'd heard was “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage”, which definitely has a FOB vibe to it).

New question: what's up with bands giving their songs really long names? Panic! at the Disco does it, My Chemical Romance does it, Artic Monkeys does it. It's the new trendy thing, and I have no idea why. Suggestions?

March 25: Sundae Bloody Sundae

Things that are a very bad idea include the following:
  • Kicking dogs
  • Drag racing up Portland Street
  • Shaving your head with a butcher's knife
  • Playing with matches
  • Watersports*
    (The gross fetish sort, not like waterskiing and stuff. Actually, I think waterskiing would probably be pretty fun.)
  • Sundae eating contests
It's the last one I'd really like to focus in on, though. Last night, Adam, Pugsley, David, Katie, Janet, and I went out to Mike's in Bedford to celebrate Adam's birthday. It's not until May, but he's going to Afghanistan in a few weeks and won't be around for his actual birthday. I guess you could say this was his proxy birthday*
(If you're a nerd, that is. Non-nerds are unlikely to use the word proxy for any reason.)
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Anyway, going to Mike's isn't the same as going to any other restaurant: it involves a pact, either implicit or explicit, to have a sundae eating contest. You see, their sundaes are huge: designed for two people, they feature 12 brownies each and a half litre of ice cream. Of course, being the morons we are, we always buy one each and see who can finish them. Pugsley is always the champion, finishing first by a longshot, so it's really just a race to second place (which went to Adam tonight).

The first time we went, I managed to finish my whole sundae, but I only made it about halfway through tonight. David beat me (just barely) and I beat Janet and Katie. Everyone felt like they were going to die afterwards, especially Adam, who was sweating up a storm during the home stretch. Clearly, this is a stupid thing to do. It's been about three hours and I'm only now starting to feel like I might like to eat again someday. It's really a collosal waste of time and money and effort — plus, I'm scared I'm going to make myself into a diabetic or something.

So, for the second time in a week, I ask you: what's wrong with me? Why do I do these stupid things?

March 22: Camo Cat

Camo CatI've stepped on my cat three times in the past few days. Why, you might ask? No, I'm not a jerk. It's because Sam, the cat, has recently discovered a new skill: camoflage.

There's a biege and brown blanket in our living room that's just there for whenever people get cold. It's usually on or around the couch. Lately, whenever it's been on the floor, Sam has been cuddling up on it, since it's so warm and cuddly. There's only one problem: Sam is beige and brown too. When he sits on this blanket, he disappears.

Now, as neat as this weird skill of his is, I think I'm obligated to do something. He doesn't really seem to care all that much, but I'm worried I'm going to squish an internal organ or something. I could just take the blanket away, but he's really gotten attached to it. It seems like an intractable problem.

What would you do? And what's wrong with me? Why do I always have the strangest issues?

March 21: Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Strange new obsesssion: peanut butter sandwiches. I don't know why, but I've been eating these things like there's no tomorrow. This doesn't really have any bearing on anything, but it was the first thing that popped into my head when I started writing.

I'm working on a new layout (again) for this site. I tossed out the last one because it was far too complex, and I really want something simple. Most of all, I want to get away from the current look, which only shows the most recent entry. It makes me feel like I have to write long rants, and that's not really my style. Flipping through the archives, most of my stuff is just short and stupid, which is how I like it. I can't wait until it's up. Actually, I might get brave and put it up when I'm done writing this. Update: Yes, obviously, I did do this. What do you think? (Yes, I know it's plain — it's supposed to be.)

New psychotic hatred: commercials for Hummers. I hate them so much that I think I'd hate any commercial they happened to use, but their “cool kids drive Hummers” angle seems really odd to me. Their most recent spot has some bangin' choons and ends with the text “Urban Techno” on screen. You know what? The techno age group probably can't afford a Hummer. They should be playing something significantly more pretentious — maybe REM.

That is all.

March 15: Distribution & Graduation

Wow, I'm the worst blog owner ever: I promised a blog entry for Monday, and here it is Wednesday before I finally get around to writing it. I have good reasons, though. On Sunday, I received an email saying that there was a problem with my graduation, and that I had better see an academic advisor as soon as humanly possible. This, obviously, caused me to panic, so I was a bit distracted on Monday. I went in to Dal and arranged a meeting with Professor Scrimger, who's teaching my graphics class and also happens to be an academic advisor. We fixed the problem on Tuesday: it turns out that I was short a second year course, but they allowed me to use one of my electives in its place. Bonus.

Anyway, the exciting news that I planned on announcing Monday was delayed until Tuesday, so I wouldn't have posted even if I wasn't so stressed. The news: something I made hit the web with a vengeance. It's called Distributed Boing Boing, and it's a piece of software that allows anyone with a web host to instantly start mirroring Boing Boing, so it's available in areas where it was previously blocked by censorware.

So far, the result has been amazing: I've received dozens and dozens of emails from people, and there are now more than seventy DBB locations around the web*
(Believe it or not, the Gmail notifier just popped up when I was writing this sentence — someone else has added DBB to his site. :))
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So, yeah. I'm really pleased — it wasn't easy to get DBB to work so seamlessly, but it really seems like it does. Anyway, I've got to go take the car to the shop to see why it's making so much noise. Stupid car.

March 12: Fliers

I'm starting to come to the conclusion that everyone needs to have an arch-nemesis. It doesn't necessarily have to be a person — it can be a thing, or even an abstract concept. Mine? Fliers.

Not your simple run-of-the-mill junk mail fliers, but the sort that masquerade as miniature newspapers: Out & About is the most notorious around here. It's put out by the Chronicle Herald and I have no idea what it contains, since we never bothered removing the pink plastic sleeve it was delivered in. After years of suffering with its weekly presence, I finally took action and figured out how to get it cancelled. Our doorstop lay peaceful and empty for the first time in memory.

However, coming home from work Saturday morning, I was horrified to see something new: a different flyer-paper, hanging from our doorknob. It was exactly the same as Out & About, but put out by the rival newspaper. What are the odds that a new flyer would start circulating a week after we finally got rid of the old one? (I called their cancellation number the instant I got in the door — 444-4444).

I don't understand these things, though. Who reads them? They're nothing more than worthless fluff, littering the doorsteps of Cole Harbour. If anyone can explain the logic, I'd love to hear it.

(Fear not, I have a real entry planned for Monday.)

March 04: Ultraviolet

Woohoo! My beloved Milla Jovovich has finally returned to theatres: Ultraviolet came out yesterday. Janet and I saw it before I went to work last night, and it's really, really good. (As you all know, I have a weird obsession with Milla that goes back to The Fifth Element. Add in some brightly coloured hair and I'm set to love a movie.)

<plotSummary>Ultraviolet takes place in a dystopian future where there are two types of humans: normal people and those infected with a plague called the hemophague that turns people, effectively, into vampires. They get super strength and fangs and light sensitivity, although you never actually see them drinking blood. The government is waging a war to eliminate all of the vampires. The nifty thing, however, is that the government is actually a crazy religious cult sort of deal. There are crucifixes and serpents everywhere. (I got a very strong “These people represent Mormons” vibe from the movie, but I could be wrong. They were creepy, either way.) Anyway, Milla is a wicked-hot genetically-engineered super-vampire hell-bent on bringing down the crazy human government.</plotSummary>

(A lot of people were comparing it to Aeon Flux before it came out, but the two movies don't have much in common (grand total: hot women in tight clothes involved in crazy fight scenes, oppressive futuristic dystopias...and that's it). They're both pretty good movies, but unrelated.)

Anyway, I've got some studying to pretend to do, so I should stop wasting time. Tune in next time for a rant about Hilary Duff's catchy new single. What's new with everyone else?

March 01: Domain Brain

What better way to ring in the new month than with an exciting announcement? I'm proud to announce that my first online project since Linkpool (which was three years ago) is ready for the world to see it. Domain Brain is a list of more than 65,000 words that you can spell using country code domain names. Why is that useful, you wonder? Well, all of the good dot coms are already taken, and besides, “harmoni.ca” looks a bit cooler than “harmonica.com”. Or at least a bit more trendy.

Domain Brain: Good Words for Good Names
Domain Brain makes use of a dictionary of more than 120,000 words (compiled from a few word lists online and /usr/share/dict/words) and compares them all to the 248 two letter country codes to see what it can spell. There are quite a few that can't spell anything (.aq, anyone?) but almost 150 that can. It turns out that there are a lot of possibilities — more than 65,000, in fact. (Even some of the swear words.)

So, if you're a geek, take a peek at it and let me know what you think. Spread the word if you like it. I've got high hopes for it, because I honestly think it's pretty neat. Wish me luck.