June 29, 2001
Here’s a damn funny flash movie. It brings back memories of the old school mario, although they aren’t far away. I’ve had an old school nintendo revival of sorts in recent months. I’ve been playing games like tetris and mario brothers as well as games like mario world and nba jam on the snes.
Here’s a little side note before I goto bed: today I witnessed some of the worst driving I have every seen in my lifetime. I haven’t been driving that much this year because i’ve been away at school, so it could possibly be me not being used to it. Still, all of these events occured within a short period of time in my hometown. Between old people driving way under the speed limit, a bunch of people cutting me off and other idiots doing wild u-turns in front of me, it was quite the ridiculus charade. Once again, that generalization that people are inherently stupid popped into my head.
There’s not a whole lot going on. I worked today, did some work yesterday, haven’t been on the internet that much. I’m back in kingston for a couple days now. I have to come up with some lesson plans or cirriculum or something like that for what i’m going to be teaching next week. They’ve screwed it up by not having any internet access for the first day or two, which means that i’ll have to switch some of the things i’d normally do around.
I got paid for one of my jobs today. So i’ll have some money to spend on things. I also have to go out and hunt down some of my money from other jobs that i’ve finished up in the last week or so. Beyond that, i’m tired and should probably go to bed.
June 25, 2001
I ended up seeing the fast and the furious tonite. It was a decent movie. The plot was as could be expected, it’s essentially a b movie. The action sequences were pretty damn cool. If you like to drive, a good chunk of the movie is a hardcore adreline rush. As could be expected, the ending was just about as happy as you can get for a movie involving an undercover cop that becomes friends with the guy he’s supposed to catch. Enough of that, i’m surprised that it did so well at the box office over the weekend. I don’t like dial-up internet, too damn slow.
I was supposed to work from 7am to 3pm today, then they asked me to stay until 5. So, I did. I’m tired now. I’m going to head home shortly, although i’ll probably catch a movie before leaving kingston. That’s it.
June 24, 2001
I’ve been working more hours recently and haven’t found as much time to post things. I’ll be heading back to brockville for a couple days this week. I have to do some orientation at one of the locations of the summer computer camp. I don’t have to do as much training because i was an assitant counsellor last year. One thing that’s kind of odd is that I go down on record as an unqualified teacher at the school board. Unqualified teachers are required to have a police background check and either a tuberculosis test or chest x-ray. I’ll take care of those when i’m home. I’ll be back in kingston towards the end of the week, doing a bit of work at tim horton’s over the long weekend. After that, i’ll be back to brockville for most of the summer.
June 21, 2001
An interesting article regarding google, well form a computer science standpoint at least. They didn’t go into any of the technical aspects like the storage space and computing power required to index over a billion pages. The article broaches the topics of the dot com failures and how the search engine actually works from a coding standpoint (without really talking about code).
I guess people have become really stupid and over the top concerning politically correctness and not wanting to hurt people’s feelings. If it weren’t for the law and politics, these people probably would have been killed off long ago. If human-beings had been such a bunch of wusses 50000 years ago, the race never would’ve survived.
June 20, 2001
I’ve started doing some work on a new website that i’m going to setup with one of my housemates. I imagine the other two will come on board if it works out. More details as they come.
I just spent probably an hour and trying to install a keyboard tray on my bloody desk. The desk is kind of high, so the tray makes for better ergonomics. It was a pain in the ass to install by myself, mainly because it involved laying on by back drilling and trying to put in screws that really didn’t want to go in right, as well as making sure it all aligned properly so the drawer actually slides out.
June 19, 2001
I need to do some more writing, not blogging, some actual writing. I haven’t written anything since before exams, even then they were all humour pieces for the campus paper. I don’t think i’ve written anything since highschool. My plan write now is to take an english course next year, maybe that will help me out.
There have been two new images added to conform today. Every once in awhile, I manage to get two people finishing their work on the same day. I like it, the project would just fly along if it went like this all the time.
The day itself was pretty uneventful. I worked a couple of hours at my carney job and then travelled downtown. I picked up a copy of the new guided by voices album, called isolation drills. It’s one of the earlier pressings of the cd that has a case made out of cardboard and access to a hidden website. I’ve seen the other version, it just comes in a standard jewel case. I also stopped by indigo and read two more short stories by Brian Aldiss. They’re both an extension of the Supertoys story that I mentioned yesterday, bringing the collected works to a grand total of 35 pages. I want to read more. Oh, and I did some laundry tonite too, how’s that for exciting?
June 18, 2001
After a long day working yesterday, i decided that i wanted to be entertained, so i went and saw Tomb Raider. Now I have to admit that I read a couple of the negative reviews, but i went and saw it anyway. It got panned by critics, but it was never intended to be a deep and complex movie. I agree with ebert, it was a popcorn movie and good for it’s entertainment value. I wasn’t really in the mood to think excessively last night, so it was perfect. It was fast-paced, much like playing a videogame and it had some pretty cool action sequences and amazing sets. All in all, i enjoyed it.
A.I is based on a short story by Brian Aldiss called Supertoys Las All Summer Long. I found a transcript of the story in an old issue of Wired. There’s also an article about the movie and some of Kubrick’s plans. I probably came accross this stuff a couple years ago when I was doing a project on Kubrick, I remember reading about A.I. back then.
Time magazine has one of the first reviews of A.I., one of the movies I want to see this summer. It’s a combined effort by Spielberg and Kubrick (well, it was kubrick’s vision).
June 15, 2001
Scientists successfully place a fish in suspended animation. That means we’re step closer to shooting outselves into space to colonize distant worlds.
Sad people do their jobs better.
June 14, 2001
I watched Galaxy Quest this evening. If you are a fan of star trek or have ever been a fan, you’ll find that it’s a pretty damn funny movie. Otherwise, I’m not really sure. Suffice it to say that as a computer geek, i’m an obligatory fan, so I found the movie quite entertaining.
The new issue is up at suffocate. The topic is chaos/insanity, go check it out, it’s pretty good. I might try to get a piece in if I have some time.
Notes notes notes. I got a call back today and was hired for the job i had an interview for on tuesday. It’s essentially the same job I had last summer as an assistant computer camp counsellor, although this time I will be the lead. In other job related info, I started training for my job at tim horton’s today. I’ll have to talk them tomorrow and see if they want to keep me on to do some weekends over the summer, if not, there’s no really point in me finishing my training. The new job also means that i’ll be moving back to brockville for the rest of the summer. I’m going to have to get my parents to invest in some highspeed internet.
I received a copy of amnesiac by radiohead and a copy of the first weezer album through the mail today. I picked them both up from the future shop for under $10 each. I also picked up a new trackball yesterday. I ended up shelling out the couple extra bucks for the logitech cordless trackman, which I got for $30 less than they have listed on their site.
Miniputt online is pretty damn cool.
June 13, 2001
Well, i’m back in kingston right now and i imagine i’ll be here for a little while. It all depends on the job I had an interview for in brockville this week. If i get accepted for that, i’ll probably be moving back. Beyond that, I have to get to bed so i can be up early tomorrow.
I just read an interesting article about some of the processes involved in converting movies to various television sizes. A lot of people never stop to think about the parts of the picture that they’re losing when they watch a movie at home.
June 11, 2001
My skin has been posted at winamp. The picture that was generated is ugly, for some reason it didn’t include the background for the equalizer.
Perhaps i’ll buy myself a trackball. I’ve thought about getting one before. If you use a trackball or have some thoughts on the matter, feel free to drop me a line. I might be able to find some better pricing, perhaps a bit more expensive, although it would be for the newer model.
June 10, 2001
I think I might need to buy a new mouse, the one I have now keeps freezing up on me and sometimes it will just start scrolling through webpages. I’ve had an mp3 player for a year or two and found that I didn’t get much use out of it during the school year. The truth of it is, I forgot about the thing after I moved in. At some point during the school year, I installed windows 2000 and have no plans to go back to 98. Now, creative labs, the makers of the nomad have moved onto bigger and brighter things, in terms of the jukebox and the nomad II and have totally neglected any support of their older products. They don’t have any drivers for the nomad that will work under 2000, which is really a dissapointment. I could have gone with the Rio 500 at the time I got it, and probably should have.
I called the police tonite and gave them some information about my bike. I guess there’s a chance that I might get it back. However, I lack the optimism and lack faith in humanity. There’s some sort of double standard that exists inside my head. In general, it’s supposed to be wrong to steal. If someone steals from a large multinational corporation, it doesn’t affect me. Now someone steals from a student, a half-broke student, that pisses me off. Go to a store and steal a bike, don’t go ripping off people who live in the student ghetto. I suppose this is just a place to vent, humanity isn’t all that bad.
June 9, 2001
Decided to watch Rules of Engagement tonite, one of the movies i downloaded off the network before i left residence. Overall, it was an alright movie, nothing absolutely stunning that stands out, it reads like a lot of other military court drama movies that you’ve seen. Plus, there’s some action thrown in as well. Off course, Samuel L Jackson is in the movie, so it’s gets bonus points.
I decided to go downtown this afternoon to pick up some contact solution. On my way out the door, I realized that my bike was no longer on the front porch. Some asshole stole my bike within the last 24 hours. I’m not too impressed, that was my mode of transportation around town. I had the thing locked to the front porch because my lease says that we’re not allowed to bring bikes inside the house. My housemate’s bike wasn’t stolen, i guess it wasn’t really that appealing. A giant pain in the ass, it will take me 45 minutes to walk to work tomorrow instead of a 10 minute bike ride.
June 8, 2001
Personally, i think you would have to be a complete moron to drive 5000 miles out of the way because you couldn’t find a place to turn around. When people drive around drunk (as well as doing stuff like that), it has to be a solid indication that there is something wrong with the process through which they obtain liscenses.
June 7, 2001
I watched the last of three dvd’s that i rented, this one was Ravenous. It’s a movie about cannabilism and moral struggles between right and wrong. Parts of the movie are enough to turn you off eating meat, although i can’t see it detering me. The violence is graphic and some what disturbing, but probably could have been a lot worse. Overall, I thought it was a well done movie and worth watching.
I just finished watching The Deer Hunter. It’s a three hour movie, but really didn’t seem that long. It’s different than a lot of the vietnam war movies you see, with very little of the razzle dazzle fighting and explosions that go on. For the most part, all you see of their war experience was a pow camp and saigon. It’s probably not my favourite vietnam movie, but it deffinitely ranks up there, deserving it’s best picture oscar.
I have to decide what course electives I want to take next year. I’ve preregisterd for all of the courses i’m required to take, but I haven’t figured the rest out yet. I have a bunch of ideas floating about it my head, I have to decide by friday. Most likely what I end up taking will be away from the math/computer side of things. I think I have to give my brain a break and do something that involves some essay writing or something along those lines.
June 5, 2001
I need a digital camera that I can bring along with me wherever I go and take pictures. I don’t need a real camera, i need a digital one, so I can post images on the internet, or use them for making crazy graphics when I need them. Instant results, something our generation craves.
I just finished watching Kids. It’s kind of fucked up and not for the faint of heart. I imagine that some people were probably disturbed by the thought of kids actually being like this. Personally, i don’t find that it’s that far off the mark. While not all kids are like the ones portrayed in the movie, many of the younger people (myself included) have a part of this inside them. Whether it be the drugs, sex or alcohol, they are there in the high schools and teenage life, whether parents want to admit it or not.
Well, I now have some sort of part time job, that will probably turn into full time at Tim Horton’s. That’ll be alright, I need the money. I start on thursday with a training session. On an unrelated note, grab the track Glad Girls by Guided by Voices, it’s a good song.
You know the world is starting to hitt hard times when the Russians are facing a vodka shortage and the Irish close down a guinness factory.
I just spent the last hour or two reorganizing my room. Not so much that I didn’t like the previous setup, it was that the desk area was prone to glare from the window. Hopefully, this setup won’t yield as much. Other than that I didn’t really accomplish much today.
June 4, 2001
I’ve been waiting for a while for someone to finish up their conform image, so I could launch the new design and new series. I got fed up with waiting and did the second image myself. I just launched the redesigned site, go check it out.
June 1, 2001
I finished reading microserfs by douglas coupland this evening. I thought it was a great book, especially in light of the fact that I’m headed off into the same world that these people belong to. The novel is essentially the story of a couple computer programmers trying to find lives beyond work. The story is told by a young geek named dan in the form of a journal on his computer. I thought it was well written and I had trouble putting it down. Welcome to the world of geek culture, maybe i liked the book because I can relate to parts of it.
For some reason or another I never did mention Memento. It was a really good movie, i recommend you see it, if you haven’t already. It’s somewhat difficult to wrap your head around and as soon as it’s finished you’ll attempt to poke holes in the plot. I watched the movie with a couple friends and we started pointing out various things afterwards, but people would bring up another point and invalidate the supposed plot hole. At any rate, i really enjoyed it.