No Business Naming Things

If you’re at all on the fence about seeing this movie (as I was - I still haven’t gotten over Cars) you need to go see it ASAP.  Not only is it the best Pixar film, it’s the best film period I’ve seen in a very long time.  The first half of the movie with its 5-6 words of dialog were absolutely fantastic and while it swapped out a bit of charm in favour of message once the humans arrived it still ended very strong.

So, the Canadian iPhone price plans have been announced. I’m not surprised in the slightest that Rogers once again decided to fleece their customers - 450MB cap? No unlimited plans? Three year contract?

Behold the power of the monopoly, folks. Sigh. Unfortunately, it’s JUST within the realm of tolerable for me. I need to find a way to talk myself out of it.

Ganymede is out the door! Hooray to everyone who helped make this happen!

Now get to work on Io(?) you slackers. It isn’t going to write itself.

I have to admit, my brain doesn’t work in a fashion that’s helpful in navigating legalese. That doesn’t stop the hair on the back of my neck raising at the prospect of bill C-61, however. Along with the regular battery of concerns a new one popped into my head this morning thanks to the forth part of Michael Geists “A Week in the Life of the Canadian DMCA” series. Keep in mind what I said above - I’m not the person to go to for answers to questions like this, but Michael seems to have his head on straight. And what he says in that posting makes me worry about the following should bill C-61 come to pass.

Who will own my tattoos? Currently any custom work I have done is arguably done on commission and I’m free to use photos of them as I see fit. Given the changes Michael suggests in C-61, would this still be the case? Would I be prohibited to use photographs of my own body because copyright on the image is held by the artist that applied it? Of course, this concern is not limited to photographs. Were I to somehow profit from my appearance (not likely) by virtue of celebrity would this be in violation of the act? For instance, would my appearance on television to promote a product be in violation of their copyright?  I can’t help but imagine the fledgling rock starlet who is forced to cover her beautiful sleeves for her first magazine cover shot because she doesn’t own the copyright to her own arms…

It sounds far fetched, but given the change with regard to commissioned photographs I have to wonder.  I’d love to hear analysis of this from someone who knows what they’re talking about.

I just saw the most exciting Facebook status update of all time:

Ken Tizzard is not really surprised that word is getting out … Winnipeg’s Watchmen are back together and will be at the Horseshoe on September 26.

Ken Tizzard was the bassist for The Watchmen.

I am so excited. I don’t even know what to do with myself. If September 26th wasn’t our wedding day I would fly to Winnipeg to see them.

Update: I am going to cry. It’s for one night only.

We picked up Boom Blox the other day and it hadn’t occurred to me just how much we’ve been playing it. Reflecting on that, it occurs to me that I Really Like It.  It looks like kaka, but it’s just so bloody fun.  But then, how could exploding Jenga with cute cows NOT be fun?

Lexy and I hopped aboard a train mid day Thursday and headed off to Montreal to meet up with a friend so that we could all go and see Rush play at the Bell Center.  I saw them in Ottawa last year and they were excellent and this show was as good or better.  The seats weren’t nearly as good (no 12th row floor this time) but the sound quality was much better and there was an added vignette that was both funny and creepy.  The highlight for  me was once again Natural Science with Subdivisions as a close second.

It wasn’t all good  though. Once again we had to deal with That Drunk.  You know, the one who slops beer on you and elbows you in the head?  Yeah, him.  He was sitting directly behind Lexy and was knocking her chair around quite a bit.  He must’ve realized what he was doing because he eventually leaned over and put both his arms around her neck.  Apparently he was apologizing to her but of course, to me, I see a drunk man strangling my wife-to-be, so I haul off and smack him and push him off of her.  He gets this “oh shit, I’m so drunk and sorry look” about him and backs off.  From here on out I’m watching him out of the corner of my eye waiting for it to happen again, but I think he decided to bug his neighbor instead.

Still, an excellent show and I’ll definitely go see them again if they’re close by.

I may have mentioned before that I don’t often finish games. My attention span is remarkably short so if a game fails to introduce anything new or interesting for a period of time I tend not to go back to it. In fact, if I had to put a number to it, I would say that I finish 1 out of every 10 games I play (and even that might be generous).

Last night I somehow managed to finish the 20+ hour beast that is Half Life 2. I’m not sure how I did it. For a shooter, the game is monstrous - if I played less than 20 hours I’d be surprised. What’s more, I’d actually seen the game play to the end before in a speed run so there weren’t exactly any new surprises for me as far as settings/plot were concerned. I loved it all the same. The game offered some of the best level design I’d ever experienced in a game (behind Resident Evil 4) and managed to mix the styles of play up often enough to make it feel that I was playing a bunch of different games. I think that’s perhaps how it kept my interest. Just as I was beginning to tire with a particular gameplay mechanic it would change things up and I’d be doing something different (be it driving boats/buggies/swarms of insects).

It wasn’t all positive, of course. The PS3 port of The Orange Box deserves all of criticism it received for slowdowns, jitters, and abominable load times. It’s a monstrous cock-up of a port if there ever was one. I’m looking forward to playing through Episodes 1 and 2 all the same.  The quality of the game itself has won it a great deal of leeway in my mind.

I’ve been reading a lot of feminist blogs lately and I have to admit I’m reconnecting with a lot of anger and resentment I’ve buried for the last ten years. See, to work in a male dominated industry I’ve come to accept certain behaviour is inevitable. I don’t want to get into specifics here because frankly I’m not sure it’d be fair if I did - I remained silent when these certain things occurred and hashing them up now wouldn’t serve any purpose other than allowing me to vent. Bottom line, I’ve developed a shell that deflects most of the crap I hear.  Reading the things I’ve been reading however has damaged those shells considerably and it’s getting much harder for me to bite my tongue. A therapist would almost certainly say this is a healthy thing, but I cant help but feel the shell is what’s kept me going in this industry for so long.

Anyway, I’m rambling. I only bring this up just to give context to the venom I’m feeling towards an episode of Most Outrageous Moments that aired tonight (yes, I am lowbrow - I like fart jokes too). There was a clip of this woman chasing around a bunch of ducks. Unknown to her there was a goose chasing her around. Overdubbed you hear a man say “leave the pig alone.” An overdub for the woman responds “it’s a duck.” The man responds with “that’s who I was talking to.”

As near as I can tell this is a family show or what passes for one these days at any rate. Am I crazy for thinking that’s not a very appropriate thing to say AT ALL, much less on a bloody family show?

Complaints may be directed here.  I know I did.

Just over a year ago I saw a friend of mine contact juggle for the first time. The sight of it immediately got my mind a-twitching and I HAD to learn how to do it myself. With his help I got myself a few balls (some acrylic, some rubber) and got to work. I’ve never had any formal training (I’m not sure it exists for contact juggling) but he has helped me pretty much every time I’ve seen him since. While I’ve progressed quite a bit, I can’t say I’m actually very GOOD at it - I’m certainly nowhere near as good as he is. All the same, I plug on, hoping to one day be competent.

And then I see videos of this guy which has the double effect of getting me inspired to do SO much better and at the same time making me afraid I can never come close. Not only can he put together some wicked tricks but he’s a very entertaining performer. Most of all I find myself impressed with how regulated he keeps the ball movement. A ball that size moves like a cannonball when it gets rolling. If I were to try some of the stuff he’s doing there I’d put it through a wall or possibly someones head. Guh. So awesome.