Archives: November 2005
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Some gift ideas for the geek in your life.
Gargoyles DVD Box Sets: Epic adventure combining Arthurian legend, Shakespearian fiction, mythology and the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. This was one of the very best animated series ever. I haven’t watched any of it since it aired originally and would love the chance to see it again.
Beast Wars DVD Box Sets: I own all 5 sets of the original Transformers, but Beast Wars just blows those away. In comparison, it had a continuity that made sense, character depth and development, transformations that actually looked good, and season 2 was one long story arc that tickled all the right spots. Beast Wars was just prime.
Batman Begins, Spider-Man 2: Two of the best superhero adaptations ever and good movies in general. I preferred Spider-Man 2 but I’d gladly own either of these.
The Complete Chronicles of Narnia: I find that it always takes me much longer to read a book that I’ve already seen the movie of (probably has to do with the extra thoughts that go into how it differs between the two versions) so I’d like to read the first part of this before the film comes out.
Comics: The most obvious choice. Although it’s very inefficient for others to get comics for me since I get them cheaper than anyone could possibly find them for. However, I really do want to get my hands on The Fountain by Darren Aranofky and The Peanuts Complete Collection. The Fountain graphic novel is the aborted, epic, big-budget version of the smaller-scale movie that’s coming out next year. The Peanuts books are beautifully designed and produced 2 year collections of the greatest comic strip of all time. They come in 4 year box sets which are slightly cheaper but still very heavy.
Bedsheets: My current ones are starting to pill and it’s keeping me up at night. I’m thinking I should get really, really expensive ones or go back to those olden days where I bought sheets from Zellers that don’t even mention their threadcount. Those sheets never pilled!
Posted by Rayne @ 12:55 PM EST [Link] [10 comments]
Monday, November 28, 2005
Poker is fun. That's why we play it every week. It's a good excuse for people to get together to have a good time in each other's company. The money is purely secondary. 20-30$ isn't too bad, it falls in line with the cost of an average night out. Losing should not be a big deal to anyone who has a job, although winning does make a significant difference since we're talking at least 60$/game. It could cover the cost of new pants, or a motorola razr, or perhaps even some bad poker nights.
That said, I definately don't want to see anyone losing every week as that tends to get expensive. Similarily, I hate the thought of 1 person winning every week. As I've said, it's not about the money, but over the large period of time we've been playing losing/winning every week would certainly add up to a lot of moolah.
Our group at least doesn't have 1 dominant player (instead we have a small group of dominant players), but I'm generally happy with the mix of skillz to be found. But imagine the dynamics of a group wherein only 1 person always won, no one would want to continue playing in such a situation. Gambling means at least some chance of winning. The worse though are dominant players who aren't gracious winners. No one wants to give money to an asshole week in, week out, do they? There's simply no fun in poker games between friends where there is only a cut throat atmosphere and an "I only came to take your money" attitude.
Personally, I would be happy to win just enough times to cover my poker losses. If I break even over the long run, I have no problems with that. I'd love to see everyone win at least once so that they are encouraged to continue playing, and hopefully improve their game, than seeing people lose constantly to a point of discouragement and quitting.
Posted by Rayne @ 01:46 PM EST [Link] [19 comments]
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Having recently gone back for a weekend, that is my assessment. It doesn’t have anything to do with the city itself. Sure, I feel that it’s way too small and lacks variety in terms of things to do and see; its physical existence doesn’t cause me injury, it just doesn’t provoke adoration. There are some things I like about the place. For instance, it has an all you can eat hot pot and all you can eat sushi place, both of which don’t exist yet in Ottawa. Waterloo was also the only place where I could go to a bar (Bomber or Phil’s) and know at least a dozen people there that I didn’t show up with.
What I dislike about Waterloo is a bit difficult to put into words. It probably has to do with the memories. Obviously, there are a lot of good ones (like the time we spent 15hrs at Bomber) but it’s all the “other” memories and emotions that they evoke which overwhelm. First of all, the last 4-5 girls were there and that definitely has some kind of impact. I think dating students in your own field is weird; along with everything else, you end up studying together.
Waterloo reminds me of a lot of Friday or Saturday nights debating between going out or doing work and finally doing neither. In fact, I can’t remember too many weekends where any kind of work got done. It reminds me of early afternoons after class lounging with the roommates in a semi-sleepy state.
I suppose things don’t sound THAT bad, but that’s only because I haven’t been able to really capture what I was going for. Next time.
Posted by Rayne @ 02:41 PM EST [Link] [29 comments]
Monday, November 21, 2005
Absolutely terrible. Thoughts? I'll post mine when I'm feeling a bit more awake.
Posted by Rayne @ 10:49 PM EST [Link] [24 comments]
Thursday, November 17, 2005
This comic is at once funny and sad. Surprisingly, it’s been on my mind for many weeks now as I’ve been finding new layers of subtext to it. It is the best comic strip I have ever seen.
The main question I have is whether Scorpy will continue to play along in the tail touching game until this tragedy continues to its ultimate conclusion: the slaughter of all forest friends. Clearly, he is aware of the danger he represents to his 4 limbed counterparts but is unwilling to exclude himself from the game.
Perhaps he fears ostracization from the only group of friends he has been able to make since his displacement from the desert and he just wants to feel loved, to feel that he belongs. Maybe these are the only friends Scorpy has been able to make in his life and the joy of inclusion has clouded his judgement. It’s possible that he loves touching tail just a little too much and is disregarding the pain he is causing others so that he may experience the thrill of a few minutes of tail enjoyment. Lastly, Scorpy may be in denial about how dangerous he is and has convinced himself that there would be no harm in a short game of tail touch.
One also cannot discount scorpion psychology. Their nature is to sting; no matter what their upbringing might have taught them, they can never escape this undeniable truth about themselves. This leads us to the possibility that Scorpy has every intention of poisoning the forest friends, killing every last one of them until he is the lone resident of the forest, weeping at what he had no choice but to do.
No matter the cause, you can’t help but feel an outpouring of sadness for Rokie and his mammalian brethren as their naïveté and open armed acceptance of an outsider leads them all to oblivion. They too are victims of their nature. Their easy going lives and sheltered existence has left them ignorant of real world dangers; it was only a matter of time until some kind of threat came along to shatter their reality. Ignorance, as they are painfully learning, is never bliss.
The tail of Scorpy and the Forest Friends stands along with the works of G.W. Bush as one of the greatest tragedies of all time.
Posted by Rayne @ 04:03 PM EST [Link] [7 comments]
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
I didn’t know about ID when I read Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer 9 months ago but the novel is essentially a treatise on ID. The story revolves around a group of aliens in search of God; all their observations of the universe have led them to belief that there is a creator. The voice of cynicism is embodied by a human archaeologist who is slowly convinced of the aliens’ position after many lengthy discussions.
The book argues one of the other main points of ID, that the universe is finely tuned to give birth of human-sized, carbon based, water filled life forms. That life, human life, is the point of the universe. It states, as do ID proponents, that if the fundamental forces of the universe (gravity, and…other stuff) would be at different intensities, even minisculy so, then the universe would be a vastly different place and that life could not arise in such a scenario. It also goes into other points such as the unique properties of water and the frequency of supernovae.
There is a quote in Nightfall by Isaac Asimov which summarises my feelings on this line of thought perfectly. It goes something like this: “You have limited the definition of life to beings who could only possibly exist within the same parameters as you and have thus ruled out a universe of possibilities. A more ego-centric and unimaginative definition could not exist.” Okay, that’s a bit more strongly worded than in the book, but the gist of it is there. It is not surprising though that ID has taken such a strong hold in the U.S., in a recent survey on MSNBC, it was shown that a vast majority of the American populace believes that humanity is special in the universe and is here for a purpose.
Calculating God ends in an interesting way. The characters find The Creator who ends up being a huge creature of immense power and age using the universe as a “gene pool” to create an offspring. He/It is completely unconcerned with individual wants and concerns and certainly not with any kind of spiritual after life.
Posted by Rayne @ 02:55 PM EST [Link] [5 comments]
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Intelligent Design has been on my radar for a few months now. I even went to the extent of watching a pro-ID “documentary” for some extra insight. ID basically says that some things in this universe are so complex that they weren’t achieved by evolution but by design, by GOD. It is creationism wrapped in scientific language.
The fight between science and godwarriors came to some kind of head this week as the Kansas school board decided that they would teach ID in science classes. To do this “The board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.” THEY REWROTE THE DEFINITION OF SCIENCE! The supernatural is now a valid explanation for scientific problems! A bunch of politicians did this!
Some points follow.
If you stumble onto something that you can’t figure out, then Kansas says that it must be the work of god. If we start attributing more and more things to a creator, when does the search for natural explanations end?
Just because Evolution can’t explain everything right this instant doesn’t mean that it won’t explain it eventually. Real science will one day debunk ID.
Life, the universe, and everything is not so complex and beautiful because it was created by some mastermind, it is even more complex and beautiful if it all arose by chance.
I think the American south really does need to become its own country. I got actively angrier and angrier as I was reading that CNN article.
Posted by Rayne @ 01:29 PM EST [Link] [41 comments]
Monday, November 7, 2005
Christine who? That’s how the joke used to go anyways, but the truth is: once you meet Christine you can never forget her and she becomes the only Christine that matters. She is selfless, generous, hard working, and funnier than you’d think. She's a demon in poker and at 4 times my better in Bust A Move, she's the best player I know. But it doesn't matter because I can destroy her in Super Puzzle Fighter.
Posted by Rayne @ 08:55 PM EST [Link] [23 comments]
Saturday, November 5, 2005
An old high school friend has done some amateur porn. For money, probably. Did I help her down this slippery slope? Let us examine the evidence.
Circa 1997.
*phone rings*
Rayne: "hello?"
Friend: "Hi Rayne, do you have access to a car?"
Rayne: "No, but I could probably get one. Why, what's up?"
Friend: "I need to move out of my house, my mom is driving me crazy."
Rayne: "K, I'll check and call you back."
*calls S23*
S23: "Hello?"
Rayne: "Hey S23, can you get your car?"
S23: "Yeah, why?"
Rayne: "MS wants to run away from home and needs a car. You in?"
S23: "Sure, I'll come get you in a few minutes."
Rayne: "k, bye!"
Posted by Rayne @ 02:14 PM EST [Link] [10 comments]
Friday, November 4, 2005
I am looking for a song to which I don't know the artist, title, nor any of the lyrics. I can't even think of it's beat right now. It was a song that was quite a hit a few months ago (though maybe only here in Ottawa) by a young girl that had a lot to do with flying away to somewhere quiet with someone else. It was mentioned that it would be perfect for an Air Canada commercial. It's slow, smooth, and quite nice. First person to get it right gets a prize!
Posted by Rayne @ 04:07 PM EST [Link] [7 comments]
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
En ecole secondaire, la difference entre les classes de francais et englais etais la comprehension. En classe de francais, on se concentrait sur se qui se passait dans un texte au lieux d’achever une analysis des themes et personnages. Biensur, avoir apris le francais en premier, j’avais peut de difficulter a comprendre ce que je lisait.
Et biens, six ans apres le secondaire la situation est bien differente! Je suis en train de voir Un Long Dimanche des Fiancailles et de lire la traduction francaise de l’œuvre japonais Ghost in the Shell 3 : Man Machine Interface (pas en ce moment exacte, mais comme une activite dans mon temps libre). If faut dire que j’ai beaucoup de difficulte a suivre ce qui ce passe dans le Manga et ce qui est dit dans le filme. Je pense que le francais parisien est plus difficile a comprendre; j’aimerai biens avoir des sous-titre francais, en tous cas! Quand ca vient a GitS3 : MMI, je retiens presque riens de ce que je lis. Le livre est obtuse, je me trouve souvent en penser d’autre chose (en englais, meme!) quand je le lis. J’aimerai biens dire que le livre est peut etre pas biens ecrit, ou pas biens concu, mais je ne suis pas assez assurez de ma force linguistique pour passer ce jugement.
Posted by Rayne @ 03:05 PM EST [Link] [2 comments]