After seeing American Psycho at least a dozen times, it was hard to keep a straight face while watching Batman Begins. The two characters were incredibly similar (spoiled neurotic yuppies). I hope the latest Batman sequel is the same way. It was hysterical.

Labels: comics, Movie Review

The best cereal ever meets the best movie ever!

Labels: comics, Movie Review

It's too bad Steve Irwin is dead cause this would have been a much better movie had he at least made a cameo appearance.

The premise is three tourists and their tour guide go fishing in the outback. A sinister crocodile flips the boat, eats the tour guide, and plucks the tourists off one by one as they remain stuck in a tree for an hour and a half. The audience is left with one exciting action sequence every half hour. It's a little better than that but not much.

I did enjoy the sound of one of the victim's bones crushing as Mr Croc ate him for dinner. Great sequence.

It's one of those movies that you can get away with fast forwarding to the good parts and know that you aren't missing anything in between.

Verdict Pass

Labels: Movie Review

I Am The Last Omega Man On Earth

Another remake. This time, a remake of a remake an adaptation of a novel. Anyway...
"I Am Legend" with will smith is more like the original "The Last Man On Earth" with Vincent Price but with some of the religious undertones of "The Omega Man" with Charlton Heston.

When I was a kid, I used fantasize about how cool it'd be to be the only person left alive on the planet. The theme's been used a number of times on TV shows in the 80s though I can't recall which ones. It was always something to do with the hydrogen bomb. You get to drive whatever you want and do whatever you want and eat whatever you want. It's pretty awesome really.

Poor old Will Smith's problem as with all version of Legend is all the damn zombies. Zombies are pretty cool too though. These zombies were more like the ones from 28 Days/Weeks later. Really fast and noisy and crazy. The great part of Legend is that our survivor in question didn't seem to be having that much of a hard time with being all by himself either. I couldn't handle this movie if all he did was cry about being so lonely and so all alone for two hours. Besides, he had a K9 companion to talk to, and mannequins! I find mannequins to be more creepy than zombies but that's just me.

Verdict: A Rent

Update: My wife insists that the crazies in the film are not zombies. I disagree. What do you think?

Labels: Movie Review

I don't ask for much from network television shows but at the same time, I don't watch that many either. I wasn't expecting anything amazing from this new take on the Terminator story so maybe that's why I'm still watching. I'm really hooked.

The story really focuses largely on the consequences of the first movie which I think is perfect. It bypasses all the liquid metal effects of the T-1000 which I thought were extremely far fetched to begin with. It does however take place after T2 so I'm not sure how or if they're going to incorporate the T-1000.

I always wanted more from the story and less of the Arnold and so far Terminator: SCC has delivered.

Labels: pop culture

It's 5am and I'm about to read the Walking Dead #46. I'm almost afraid to. It's a story I've followed closely since the very first issue. It's the best comic I've read in ages. All I know about this one is that it's a devastating issue. For anyone who hasn't read this story, I strongly suggest reading it from issue #1. In short, zombies are backdrop to a survival story where the real horror is in the survivors themselves.

I go read now.

*reading*
*reading*
*reading*

Finished reading.
The suspense is so high right now. I'll die if I have to wait another four weeks for until the next issue.

Labels: comics, pop culture

Labels: Art, day to day

So yea, the installer from Xplornet came to hook us up with internet via a dish pointed at a tower about five kms away. He's on the roof and pointed out where the tower was. Somewhere through the dense woods was the tower in question. Unfortunately those dense woods were in the way of the signal. This was where the chainsaw came into play. We discussed which trees would have to come down. I went at it the next morning sawing open a cut line through the trees. I'll have to cut even more in the spring when the leaves come out but those can wait.

Happy Tenth Birthday Hackcanada!

Labels: day to day, tech stuff

I've brought back the old Petty Theft Bicycle design to my cafepress store. Have a look and tell me what you think. I tweaked it slightly to suit the darker t-shirts but I still like the white t-shirts the best.

Labels: Art

Such a strange week. I'm glad it's almost over.

It started out fine. I had tea and a nice long chat with one of my landlords while paying rent.

Things dipped when the car repair bill turned out to be much much higher than expected to fix what I had hoped was just a leaky fuel line. Following that, the ABS failed on the car.

Things dipped even lower when I found out late Monday night that Phlux had killed himself. That one's still grinding in the back of my mind. I think it's griding at a lot of people right now.

The week climbed up a little for the better when the wireless internet installer showed up a week sooner than planned.

Today I had a meeting with my boss which ended with a small raise and a promotion. (Note to self: update resume)

I guess it's still early Friday so who know what will happen in the next 48 hours. Hopefully nothing.

Labels: day to day

His technical writing on bicycle repair was worth it's weight in gold. I can't count how many times I consulted SheldonBrown.org for bicycle repair tips. I really hope his site stays online because I know that I'll be consulting it again.

I had no idea until tonight how active a member he was of bikeforums.net. His final posting on there was even a word of advice which according to the time must not have been long before his passing. It's good that he was always able to do what he loved right up until the end.

Thanks for the help Sheldon.
Rest in Peace

Labels: cycling, day to day

So the installer came this morning and attempted an install. He lined the antenna up with the tower to the west of us and pointed out the trees that were in the way. There was genuine disappointment in my wife's face at that news. Of course I do own a chainsaw. This afternoon I was out there cutting a 6 foot gap in the trees to make way for the feed from the tower. By tomorrow afternoon the project should be done. My wife already called and booked an appointment even before I started cutting. She wants that connection more than I do but I have a good DSL connection at work to use. She's got nothing for the time being unless she comes to work with me.

Labels: day to day, tech stuff

I'm back from the gathering at the Metro Billiards. Skipped sleeping this evening to attend which meant for lots of coffee.

I felt I had to go just to drive home the fact that he's really gone. IRC is was just too disconnecting to really grasp what happened. I'm glad I went.

It was good to see all the people who showed. I wasn't expecting so many. It's funny how it takes a death to bring people together. My extended family is the same way.

Keep an eye and ear open for tributes and such at 2600 and k-l1ne magazine.

Here's to you Phlux.

Labels: day to day

Clint "Phlux" Haller died Saturday night. I only got news of his death a couple hours ago (at the time of writing this entry). Details are sketchy. Not even an obituary can be found yet. Hell, it's not even 100% confirmed that he's actually dead but somehow I just know. I don't like the feeling that I'm not surprised that he's dead either. The Phlux I knew lived a very unbalanced existence.

The kinder side was that of an idea guy. He was never short of an idea to bounce off someone, including myself. He dreamed of a career in fashion with a very hard edge. Don't get the wrong idea from his suicidehackers.com domain. It was conceived to the best of my understanding as a hacker fashion site in the spirit of the suicide girls which too has nothing to do with suicide. I'll miss his ideas even if they never had the chance to become anything more.

He had his demons to contend with. The more I hear about his death, the more prevalent they've become. It's pointless to try and cling to some kind of simplistic reason for him taking his own life. It's all very strange but at the same time it's life.

A few of us at Hackcanada are going to get together Tuesday night to figure this all out. There are a lot of unanswered questions. There always are with something like thing. I don't think anyone will ever really understand the whole story but it'll be nice to attempt to fill in a few of the blanks and share a few memories too, I hope. Tuesday night at 6pm, Metro Billiards - 10250 106 St.

Labels: day to day

In other news, the installer is coming Tuesday from Xplornet to test and hopefully install wireless rf broadband. I hope to god it works. The ISP contact seems confident it will but I'll remain skeptical as she was also a salesperson. I know never to believe anything a salesperson ever has to say. At the same time, Google doesn't always offer the 100% truth either but it's always good to research an ISP or any company ahead of time before doing business with them.
This brings me to Xplornetsucks which is more about the satellite service but still an interesting read. A lot of it is just crying over the same thing everyone cries about with any ISP. That being the ever coveted bandwidth.

Labels: day to day, tech stuff

The past week has been nothing less than exhausting. Work has been insanely busy with the phone lines jammed up with desperate motorists and their frozen cars. It's been stupid, annoying, insane, hysterical, and aggravating all at once. I'm going home for some much needed sleep this weekend.

Labels: day to day