Archives: June 2003
Monday, June 30, 2003
Here are some end-of-the-world type movies: Deep Impact, The Stand, Reign of Fire, and 12 Monkeys.
Deep Impact was a pretty good film, but I felt that the movie ended where things were starting to get interesting. The film shows us the end of the world with a large number of people being put safely away in underground tunnels. The lives of those who are saved is what I think would make a good film, to see how they adapt to subterranean life and, eventually, how they would restart society with most of humanity destroyed.
The Stand showed quite a bit of post-apocalyptic reconstruction but it was all very shallow and dumbed-down. The whole God vs. The Devil plot I found very uninteresting, cheesy, and silly. More on the workings of how people cope with the loss of 99% of the world’s population would have made it a better film (never read the book).
On the other hand, we have Reign of Fire which did a great job of showing what a small band of humans would be reduced to to survive after the end of the world. Star Wars becoming oral tradition is incredibly forward thinking in contrast to Star Trek where only stuff from the 30’s is “classic”. My problem with Reign of Fire though is that the whole concept of Dragons becoming the Top of the food chain is so cool that the movie sorta falls flat cause I was really really really really wanted to see Dragons battling tanks and helicopters to take over the world instead of seeing what the world would be like after Dragons took it over.
Anyways, so that’s where I stand on movies about post-apocalyptic life. I want to see one where rebuilding human society is given some serious thought and is the main focus of the film. This brings us to 28 Days Later. I didn’t know much about this movie, just that it’s about some guy who wakes up 28 days after some virus kills most of the people in England (and maybe the world). I was pretty hopeful that this would be a good film about coping with such drastic things. Then I heard it was a “scary movie” and had zombies in it. So I was all “oh my god… another Resident Evil… great”, so I wasn’t too enthusiastic about it anymore.
Turns out the movie is more about people than zombies! YEESSS! The people in this movie are in such an extreme situation that some of things they do are vicious, completely repulsive, and yet…they basically have no choice. What’s nice is that we see 3 sorts of people in this world, those who just wander around trying to get by on a day-to-day basis, those who’ve hunkered down waiting for something to happen, and those that have a plan to start over and have a society again. That’s what I wanted to see: methods of survival, people pushed to limits, survival instincts kicking in.
So ya, this movie isn’t really about zombies…they’re there but more because they’re necessary as part of the environment these people are in. These zombies aren’t really zombies in the living-dead kind of sense, they’re people infected with a Rage Virus. The zombie effects are pretty cool too; they’re not overdone in the Resident Evil way, but they’re more like very angry, feral looking people. One thing I don’t understand about zombies, especially these ones, is why they never attack each other. Meh.
The film has an interesting look to it; it’s a very grainy, blurry look. This is very different from the highly polished gloss of tradition Hollywood movies. Maybe the look is to convey the degradation of society. You know… like…they live in low tech world now so we’ll use a low tech look for the film. The action scenes are even MORE blurry! They’re shot so up close and the camera spins around so quickly that the confusion in all the action is shot so confusingly that I ended up pretty confused by what was going on. Maybe that’s what they were going for?
For being smarter than most zombie movies, I give 28 Days Later 8/10
Posted by Rayne @ 01:44 PM EST [Link] [4 comments]
Sunday, June 29, 2003
Saw HULK for the second time. Compared to the first viewing the desert fight was just as cool, the ending was a little less surreal, Jennifer Connelly was as beautiful (though she started to look like Amy Jo Johnson (the original Pink Power Ranger, accept no substitutes!)), and the Hulk was just as realistic.
Speaking of HULK, Marvel Comics recently published Marvel Encyclopedia: The Incredible Hulk. The book, oddly, deals with The Hulk as a cultural icon. It looks, in detail, at the new Hulk movie, the old Lou Ferrigno TV series, animated series, and Hulk memorabilia while giving a very cursory look at the actual Hulk comic book. The comic book section deals mostly with the current writer’s stories and shines a pretty negative light on past writers, including Peter David’s illustrious 11 year run as the writer of the comic.
Meanwhile, Universal’s site for the Hulk Movie has a pretty thorough rundown of all the events of the Hulk’s life in the comic book series. I find it interesting that Marvel’s “encyclopedia” is almost self-deprecating towards its own comics while the more “mainstream” Universal site embraces the comic book origins of the character.
Speaking of comics (see how well this whole entry is flowing?), I was putting away the pseudo-random piles (I’m one of those “organized-messes” kind of people) of comics on my closet floor today and came across two things. First, as I put away my recently acquired Black Widow mini-series I saw that I already owned it. So I’ve bought and read that story twice now without noticing. I must be getting old; this has never happened before. Second, I got curious as to the price of some of the comics I was looking at. I haven’t cared about comic book value since I started working at Bay Used Books (a book store that also sold comics) because I realized the futility of such things. Anyways, I had been buying Amazing Spider-Man for a friend ever since J. Michael Straczynski (the friend is a big fan of Straczynski, creator of the excellent Babylon 5) started writing it. I was aware that his run was pretty popular and that the books were worth SOMETHING. So I looked up the “value” of Amazing Spider-Man 32-36 (which were just lying randomly in my closet) on the Internet and found them to be worth 110$ U.S. collectively. WHOA. The first two Straczynski issues of Amazing Spider-Man that I did hand to him are now, together, worth 60$ U.S.
A few questions then: do I just hand the guy the rest of the comics at cover price like I was supposed to months ago or do I just keep them and pretend like I never bought them? And is he reading this?
Posted by Rayne @ 04:38 AM EST [Link] [5 comments]
Friday, June 27, 2003
After 6 dilusion enducing days of 30+ degrees of heat, we've finally received some reprieve (am I using that word correctly?)! I don't know how anyone can enjoy heat like this, it's so oppresive. Today was 20-ish degrees of grey overcast with a cool breeze. Just the way I like it.
I was very truly sick of the scorching heat. Had to buy a fan so that I could actually sleep at night. And I realized that this is my second of three summers I will have to spend without Air Conditioning. Makes me very sad, very sad indeed.
Summer is the most uncomfortable season! In winter you can wear nice, warm, large sweatshirts which feel so very good. But in the heat all you can wear are t-shirts or tank tops and they're not nearly as comfortable - especially if you're also sweating! Someone else said this: "In winter you can wear as many layers as you want, but in the summer there is only so much you can take off".
Posted by Rayne @ 06:59 PM EST [Link] [14 comments]
Thursday, June 26, 2003
J’ai appris le Français avant l’anglais, beaucoup de ceux qui me connaissent ne sache pas ça a propos de moi. J’était toujours fier du fait que je peut converser avec quelqu’un de Québec sans qu’il pense que je vient de l’Ontario. Plus récemment, après l’école secondaire, je trouve que mon Français deviens de plus en plus faible. C’est, sûrement, a cause que je n’ai pas beaucoup de chance de le pratiquer.
Quelle merveille, d’abord, de rencontre Etienne et Sarah, deux Francophone, cette été! C’est intéressant quand je parle avec eux parce que ça me montre que mon Français a souffert beaucoup en trois ans. J’ai hâte de converser en Français mais, en même temps, c’est intimidant de parlez avec deux personnes qui parlent si biens.
Quand même, quel joie de finalement connaître quelqu’un d’autre qui peut chanter la chanson qui suit. Je suis maintenant en "top mot" pour finir "Les Trois Mousquetaires" d'Alexandre Dumas.
[more]
Posted by Rayne @ 06:35 PM EST [Link] [43 comments]
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
My taste in music has always been pretty eclectic. I will listen to anything, from classical to hard rock. I think I tend to judge songs for themselves and not based on who it’s by or what genre it is. You'd probably have been hard pressed to find a dominant genre on my hard drive.
Lately though, my preferences have developped more of an Alternative bent. Maybe it's because I have a housemate that constantly tells me everything on my playlist sucks (even if ½ of it comes from his hard drive), or that I only hear EDGE FM in Waterloo, and XFM (since the fall of KOOL) here in Ottawa but the music I listen to now is pretty different from before. I’ll still like Pop, Dance, Techno and Countries tunes; but I’m exposed to them much less now so I have fewer of those songs to be attracted to.
With all that in mind, here's the list of songs for the CD I just burnt. My 3rd ever music compilation disc.
Linkin Park - Faint
Avril Lavigne - Losing Grip
Evanescense - Bring Me To Life
Fuel - Wont Back Down
Hilary Duff - Why Not
Michelle Branch - Everywhere
White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
Nickelback - How You Remind Me
Evanescense - My Immortal
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Can't Stop
Remy Zero - Save Me
Santana /w Michelle Branch - Game of Love
Walker's Line - Give You Anything
Nickelback - Never Again
AFI - Girl's Not Grey
Fuel - Shimmer
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dosed
Sum 41 - Hellsong
Snow - Legal
Tatu - Everything She Said (in Russian)
Posted by Rayne @ 07:31 PM EST [Link] [11 comments]
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Back in grade 11 chem class, Corina and I did our independent study on hair dye. We were going to both dye our hair; hers green, mine blonde. After making her hair a nice shade of summer trees we set off to do mine. An hour later, no colour had developed. Out of frustration Corina snipped some of my hair and threw it in a bowl of bleach. Nothing happened! So we ended up doing our presentation with green hair on her and black hair on me.
This passed Sunday, Anne came over to colour my hair. I got a box of Feria Red with colour intensifier (or whatever that’s called). It’s clearly marked on the box “visible even on darkest hair” so I was expecting some results! Guess what? NOTHING. The only thing that shows up is the red stains that my hair leaves on my towel after a shower. No one can even tell that I tried to colour it. So futile. I might get frustrated enough to use a bottle of blondissma next time.
Posted by Rayne @ 11:36 AM EST [Link] [11 comments]
Monday, June 23, 2003
Have a young boy as your protagonist (because boys won’t read about a girl but girls will read about a boy). Throw in a couple of sidekicks that help the hero out but never fight the final battle. Add mysterious omens of a great destiny. Make the villain absolutely villainous. Blend in some spicy prose and voila, instant hit!
Posted by Rayne @ 03:40 PM EST [Link] [25 comments]
Friday, June 20, 2003
You know when people do “actions” while chatting by using the “/me” on irc or some kind of symbol? Shawn’s notorious for these, you know…it’s like:
*ducks for cover*
*squashes bug*
*falls asleep*
*shakes fist*
*puts his hands to his face and sobs loudly*
Anyways, I pretty much always find these actions really cute and funny no matter what the action is because I’m always picturing SuperDeformed versions of the person performing said action. The actions are always accelerated, exaggerated and sometimes accompanied by some kind of fast-paced music.
Don’t know what I mean by SuperDeformed? Here are SuperDeformed versions of
The Barenaked Ladies, Sailor Moon, Star Wars Characters.
Don't you wish you had an imagination like mine?
Posted by Rayne @ 04:22 PM EST [Link] [6 comments]
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Why I Want to See a Movie About Fish (ie: Finding Nemo)
First of all, I’m a huge fan of animation, especially animated movies, Japanese AND North American. There is a clear distinction between the two. Japanese animation tends to deal with much more mature subject matters while North American animated movies (and tv) tend to be aimed at children, this is mostly due to the fact that North American audiences think of animation as something only for kids. The view that animation is a child’s domain is almost singularly a North American fallacy. The rest of the world has accepted and embraced animation not as a genre but a medium.
Animation allows filmmakers to do things that would not be possible in a live action movie. This includes impossible camera angles and stories that could never be told convincingly using real actors.
All movies transport us to a different world but there is an explicit unreality in animation. Animation allows for a greater suspension of disbelief. When you watch the upcoming Sinbad movie and see a giant sea creature attack the ship, it will look awesome and frightening. Though you know it is fake because you’re watching an animated movie, you don’t question the reality of it; you accept, without thinking about it, that this is a creature the protagonists have to fight, that the creature exists in the same world as the characters do. If you were to do the same thing in a live movie, you would have to expend a ridiculously larger amount of time and money just to try to make the creature look REAL, to make it work seamlessly with live actors so that the audience is not reminded that they are sitting in a movie theater. This is very often unsuccessful.
The thing about animation that impresses me the most is the painstaking amount of detail that is put into most movies. With the advent of computers and computer animation, animated movies began to look better and better. Computer rendered animation was initially used to put incredibly rich backgrounds into traditionally animated movies. Watch “Metropolis” and tell me that your eyes don’t bleed from the infinitely detailed landscapes. After sitting for a while in the background, computer animation became a style all its own as entire productions were made without using the traditional method. Pixar, along with Square and Mainframe are the Holy Trinity of computer generated animation.
Mainframe is the pioneer of CG teevee series. Reboot, Beast Wars, and Shadow Raiders are some of the highest quality television series ever put on air. Square’s cinematics for Final Fantasy VII almost single-handedly made Playstation the video gaming powerhouse that it is today; no one will ever forget that “you can always press the reset button”. I even own the horrible, horrible Final Fantasy movie on DVD just because it was so amazingly well rendered.
Pixar has made 4 movies before Finding Nemo: Toy Story 1 & 2, A Bug’s Life, and Monster’s Inc. I’ve seen them all and they are wonderfully funny, well animated, and emotionally rewarding. I doubt that I’ve ever laughed as hard at a movie as I did when I saw Toy Story 2. With all the accumulated experience and technology of the last 4 films, there is every reason to expect that Nemo will be just as good as Pixar’s previous movies.
Finding Nemo is about fishes, so what? If I were shown a video of real looking rendered fish swimming around, I’d probably be enthralled by it for minutes. I’d be impressed with the technological and creative ingenuity required to have a computer render something so realistically. On the other hand, if you showed me a video of REAL fish swimming around I’d be disinterested pretty quickly. Yes, real fish can be interesting, but rendered fish are an achievement.
So um…yeah, I sort of digressed from the question at hand. Why do I want to see a movie about some fish? The answer is that it doesn’t matter what the movie is about. The fact that it is computer animated and that it is by the amazing folks at Pixar make it more than worthwhile to see.
Posted by Rayne @ 08:17 PM EST [Link] [16 comments]
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Do your dreams affect your reality? Mine do sometimes.
Last night, I had a dream where a friend of mine did something I thought was incredibly disgusting and stupid. I haven’t yet decided if the act was totally in character or not, but I’m leading towards the positive. So now if this person were to present their opinion about anything today, I’d totally just dismiss it. If they were to do anything remotely stupid, I’d notice it and be disgusted at them for it. But fear not! This has happened before and this state of mind is usually just temporary.
I think I just tend to let my imagination get the best of me once in a while.
Posted by Rayne @ 11:50 AM EST [Link] [8 comments]
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Flying cars seem to be everyone’s de facto future replacement for ‘normal’ cars as a means of everyday transportation. But I think that it can never be.
The first thing that people think about when they picture flying cars is absolute freedom to “drive” around wherever they want. Wrong. If there were only 1 flying car in the world then maybe, but if they’re the replacement for modern cars then we’re stuck with a Back to the Future 2 style system where cars HAVE to fly on certain paths in the sky. Or else you’d have chaos. There are a much fewer planes in the world than cars in a city and planes have the entire sky, yet all flight paths are carefully controlled to avoid mid air collisions. If you have thousands of cars flying around in a city with obstacles (ie: buildings) everywhere, you would most definitely need controlled routes.
Here are my real issues though.
The Ford Model T was introduced in 1908, so cars have been mass produced for about 95 years. We’ve been building cars for a long time. But even with all these years of building behind us, cars still break down. Your car breaks down, its ok, you’re stuck on the road for a bit until the tow truck comes along; not a big deal. Imagine a flying car breaking down. You plummet tens of meters in freefall through the air. Certain death for you, your passengers and whoever you happen to land on.
Let’s assume then that we have a perfect car that will never break down. You still have to deal with human drivers. I have no numbers to back this up, but it’s probably safe to say that “human error” causes most car accidents. I would NOT trust humans to be flying thousands of cars above my head on a daily basis. Midair collision between two cars; they tumble down through layers of traffic taking others with them until we have a huge flaming ball of wreckage screaming towards the ground and pedestrians. Not a pretty picture. The solution then would be a perfect computer program that will drive flawlessly and never crash (also in the software sense). As a CS student, I wouldn’t bet money on something like that ever happening. The odds of that are about as good as having a car that never breaks down.
So to have flying cars we need cars that never break down and programs that never fail. Don’t hold your breath. I think that if we ever really have flying cars that they’d be only “floating cars”, hovering off the ground at 3-or-so feet.
My favorite futuristic traffic system? The one in Minority Report; it looked tres cool.
Posted by Rayne @ 11:40 AM EST [Link] [7 comments]
Monday, June 16, 2003
As Melissa said recently, "screw anonimity!"
This is a map of the route I took while biking today, it took me about 35 minutes to do the circuit.
I somehow managed to snap the kickstand while biking. I had noticed that something was ratling but didn't look closely until I got home. Now to buy a new kickstand.
Potential stalkers can use this map to approximate very closely where I live (it's the red dot).
See here
May 21, 2003
Did some off-road biking for the first time. Or at least it was significantly more off-road than I had ever done before. I went to the Conroy Pitt (1) which Brad had told me about. Biked around on the dirt paths that were available there for a while. There were some nice man-made ramps and bridges everywhere. It was very nice to bike in 30 degree weather under a canopy of trees. I more or less just biked around aimlessly not knowing the paths at all. When I finally made it out, I crossed the street to the other forest. I found a path that was more like a footpath. The thing was very narrow and surrounded by grass that almost 3 feet high but I used it anyways. I followed the path for a while until I came to an open field where it became almost impossible to see where the path was. I used my tracking skills (“a hobbit lay here, and another”) to follow what I thought seemed like the right way to go. I ended up in a clearing full of pine needles (2). Needless to say, I could absolutely not see where the path was anymore with all the needles on the ground. I picked up my bike and walked it around trying to see if I could find a way out of the clearing. After about 10 minutes I couldn’t see anything and wasn’t sure where the path I had come in from was, I decided to walk in a straight line until I could make out something familiar. I was finally able to make it out of there after a little bit of walking. I found my way out of the forest and continued biking around on nice safe sidewalks for a bit more. I was out for about 90 minutes and got 10-ish bug bites. Very fun, except for the bug bites.
May 23, 2003
Did almost the same course as May 16th except I went around in a different direction and headed up Alta Vista thinking I might make it to Darryl's and back before it got too dark but I decided to stop at Alta Vista and Smyth since it was already pretty dark. I didn't enjoy the trip up Alta Vista too much, there were way too many traffic lights to stop at, really slowed my pace down. I was gone for about an hour, from 9 to 10.
Posted by Rayne @ 10:25 PM EST [Link] [1 Comment]
Remember Canamar? It was one of Enterprise's better episodes and aired maybe 10 episodes before this one. Remember how Archer was taken prisoner aboard an alien ship and had to peddle his piloting skills to make friends with his captors so that he could either sabotage the ship or talk the captors out of whatever they were planning to do? Well, the exact same thing happens this episode except for some Klingons and a subplot involving T'Pol in heat, trying to seduce the good Doctor.
For a supposedly honorable race of warriors the Klingons really come off as sleazy cheats.
Like the Borg, T’Pol going through Ponfar just feels like an incredibly cheap way of trying to attract attention to the show. What’s worse is though T’Pol is incredibly sexy, the camera just doesn’t seem to be able to convey that convincingly. Scenes that are supposed to be titillating are shot worse than a if a teenage boy had a video camera and a peep hole to the girls’ changeroom.
The best parts of this episode are the ones where Phlox tries to maintain some form of professional integrity with T’Pol slinking around trying to seduce him. It’s great seeing him holding on to his remaining composure while trying to swat her away. I’m certain we lesser mortals would have just caved in.
Have we ever seen forcefields yet in this show, or did this episode introduce them?
For being repetitive, this episode gets 6/10
Posted by Rayne @ 03:06 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]
Sunday, June 15, 2003
I was at a wedding reception last night for one of our family friends. There were quite a few people there, 28 tables of 10. So this led me to thinking that when (if?) I get married will I have that many people to invite?
Lets say there are 280 people total, ½ of them are from my side and the other ½ are from my other half’s. That’s 140 people, assuming that ½ of those I invite bring dates, that’s about 90 people I need to invite to make 140. So do I know 90 people to invite? I’d really have to dip into the well of “acquaintances” since I really do NOT have 90 close friends. Family makes 12, I can think of maybe 10 people from Waterloo and about 20 from Ottawa that I’d invite. Then of course, there’d be all the “family friends” that my parents would most likely invite but I don’t know if they really count since I’m not really close to any of these family friends.
Anyways, enough of this. Very strange thing to be thinking about.
Posted by Rayne @ 09:15 PM EST [Link] [8 comments]
While playing some Tennis today, I tried to demonstrate my athletic prowess by doing a running jump over the net. Bloody knuckles, wrist, knee and ankle later, I've discovered that I can't jump past a 3.5 foot high obstacle. A good lesson.
Posted by Rayne @ 07:17 PM EST [Link] [5 comments]
Saturday, June 14, 2003
I always feel like I need a hair cut every two weeks or so but when I look at other people's hair it never seems like they need trimming. Why is that? Do other guys just get hair cuts so often that I don't notice their hair getting long? At 15$ a cut, I could easily go broke just cutting my hair all the time.
Posted by Rayne @ 05:17 PM EST [Link] [5 comments]
I normally hate spending Friday nights at home. BORING! Thankfully, I’ve only had to do that once or twice so far this term but after quite a few hectic weekends I chose to stay in today. I stretched out on my couch to read Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, collected my thoughts on various things, did sit-ups till I cried, watched some TeeVee. A very nice, low key, and enjoyable evening.
Next Friday better involve lots of girls and lots of alcohol!
Posted by Rayne @ 01:43 AM EST [Link] [2 comments]
Wednesday, June 11, 2003
Like many people i know, I decided to take THREE CS courses, one math elective, and one econ elective this upcoming term. The "normal" route involves taking two non-math electives instead of just one. So I'm making this harder for myself than I have to.
I did the same thing last term too when I took only 1 non-math elective instead of 2 and I did better than any previous terms, but PMATH 330 was a relatively easy math course. Three bee will certainly be the most challenging school term yet, I think.
My courses will be:
CS 370: Numerical Computation
CS 341: Algorithms
CS 354: Operating Systems
CO 350: Linear Optimization
ECON 220: Principles of Entrepreneurship
As usual I didn't get the exact schedule I wanted but this time I'm only off by one class. Thankfully CS classes are all designed so I can go to any other section and learn the same material.
See my schedule here and my ideal schedule here.
Posted by Rayne @ 06:44 PM EST [Link] [9 comments]
Monday, June 9, 2003
I'm writing about the magic of Photoshop, Watch out for big picture files!
So I got paid over 100$ to digitally restore a picture! See the picture here. The left side is the original and the right side is what it looks like after I got through with it. The first thing I did was to desaturate the picture from the green tint of age. I then played with lighting and contrast to give it a sharp sheen. I removed all the brown stains and dirt that was around the collars of the bride and groom (you can’t see the dirt in these low-rez pictures unfortunately). The hardest part was fixing all the creases, dents and tears. The thing I’m most impressed with though, is my reconstruction of the top right corner of the picture!
I realize that this isn’t a completely professional looking job but it’s pretty good for my first ever attempt at this sort of thing.
Here is another example of a photoshop’d picture. You can see that Emma’s skin has been color corrected and all her blemishes have been digitally removed to make her seem even more perfect than she already is. No, she isn’t wearing much but that only helps to demonstrate whatever the heck it is I’m trying to say here.
Posted by Rayne @ 06:37 PM EST [Link] [5 comments]
Sunday, June 8, 2003
Last time I went to the driving range, about a year ago, I was spectacular! I was actually able to hit the ball once every 10 swings! Amazing! So today I was doing just as good and Doug suggested "why don't you try shooting left?" , so I did and maaaAAAAAn! I was doing WAY better than I already was. Hitting around 9 out of 10 swings. I was also able to get about 80 yards distance on quite a few shots. We spent about 1.5 hours there with almost 2 buckets of balls each. Had I been swinging right the whole time , I'd probably still be there now!
My hands feel like their going to be torn apart though, I should really buy some gloves for this game. I made sure to wash my hands very thoroughly after the game. Who knows where those clubs have been!
Posted by Rayne @ 06:23 PM EST [Link] [3 comments]
Saturday, June 7, 2003
Chapters has a sale on right now, 4 paperbacks for the price of 3. I went last night, bought 4 books and it cost me 110$.
So ya, the evening would have been fine even with the 15$ cover, tons of driving around, being frisked by a large black man, and the bad ratio of people met vs. not met, if only I had not received that 75$ parking ticket in front of Chapters. It ruined my night. I was seething for hours. Even last Friday's stupidity didn't cost me any money. Worst day of my life!
The books I got were American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card, Saturn Ruhk by Robert Forward and Throne of Ringworld by Larry Niven. They better be damn well worth it.
Posted by Rayne @ 06:54 PM EST [Link] [6 comments]
Thursday, June 5, 2003
You know whats better in the summer than sun, beach, BBQs, short clothes on women, and summer blockbusters? Tim Horton's strawberry tarts!
Okay, I'm exagerating a little bit but the little buggers are delicious! Best 1.49$ you can spend.
I will buy like 4 of 'em tonight and eat them all in one sitting.
mmMMMmmmm gluttony...
Posted by Rayne @ 04:25 PM EST [Link] [5 comments]
Wednesday, June 4, 2003
Here's something thats always bugged me.
You use a public washroom, after you're done your business you flush (presumeably) using the same flusher that everyone has used after they've done their business. If you're in a stall you open the door that everyone has opened after they've used the bathroom and before they washed their hands. But thats ok, you go wash your hands. You turn on the tap with your dirty hands, wash vigorously with soap and warm water and turn off the water by twisting the unclean taps with your clean hands. Then you go get some paper towel but might have to pull on a knob to get some. The same knob that a bunch of dirty hands have pulled on. Once your hands are dry you leave but before that you have to push the door that hundreds of other people have pushed, some of whom might have not washed their hands at all! GROSS!!
Time to go eat some fries!
Posted by Rayne @ 03:40 PM EST [Link] [17 comments]
Monday, June 2, 2003
On my way to meet Anne and Christine for lunch today some guy was standing at an intersection filming cars going by. It was very strange. I got to the intersection; he followed me with the camera so I made a complete stop, looked both ways and went on my merry way. Just in case.
Lunch was Dim Sum. Can you believe that Christine has never had Dim Sum before? Well she hadn’t until today when she had some, and then some, and then some. Hoho!
I asked the girls how I could get out of certain sticky situations that I always seem to find myself in. The answer was that I should find ways to avoid these situations altogether. Soddin’ Genius!
After lunch we went off to the mall where I bought a pair of pants and contemplated very seriously getting a fancy Perry Ellis watch. But I didn’t. Maybe later this week tho. Walked into a jewelry store to look at some of their watches, I picked one out and asked the woman what it cost: 1759$. OH MY GOD! Trust me to always be able to pick out the most expensive thing in the store. It was such a beautiful watch…
We then went to Bubblicity, the only dedicated bubble tea shop in Ottawa! This was my second time there; the place is not as good as Sweet Dreams but way better than any other place in Ottawa. An old high school friend happens to work there; she’s been there both times I’ve gone!
Tomorrow begins my first game of tennis! Hoo-hah!
Posted by Rayne @ 12:19 AM EST [Link] [10 comments]
Sunday, June 1, 2003
So the local generic pop station Kool FM 93.9 has now become BOB FM 93.9. WHAT?? I’m so confused. When did this happen? Why? Is it just a temporary thing? An extraordinarily long show? A high jacked signal? It was so out of the blue. No warnings or anything, and now theres not even an on-air person...its just "you're listening to BOB FM", music, ads, repeat. There isn't even anyone named Bob as far as I can tell. If someone could point me to an answer it would be greatly appreciated!
SARS has hit Ottawa!
I'll need to obtain a gas mask.
Check out these pictures of Hellboy and Abe Sapien from Guillermo (Blade 2) Del Toro’s upcoming Hellboy Movie. The two characters use the best make up effects I have ever seen, they make Nightcrawler from X-Men 2 look like something I could come up with. How can this movie possibly be bad with such great looking characters? The guy is called ABE SAPIEN for gawd's sake! It's gonna rock.
Posted by Rayne @ 11:11 PM EST [Link] [6 comments]