While the rest of the console kids are butchering their morals on GTA IV, my wife and I have been playing Mario Kart Wii. None the less, I don't think it matters whether cut each other down with a Mac-10 or knock each other off the road with a Winged Koopa-Shell. We still yell and swear just as much. Good times.

Labels: Art, day to day, pop culture

I once noticed a girl pass me in the mall while i was using my laptop. My laptop noticed her own laptop's open wifi signal came and went at the same time. It was oddly poetic.

Labels: day to day

I upgrade my Flickr to Flickr Pro today and I've decided to move all my photos and artwork over to Flickr from my previous image gallery backbone which has been Gallery.

After attempting to upgrade my Gallery with no success and getting repetitively spammed in the comments section of the Gallery, I've deicided to just ditch the whole thing. I'm also pretty certain based on what I have on Flickr already that more people will see my art and photos on Flickr.

Unfortunately, it's going to be a long and tedious project but I'm in need of a project like this to kill some time.

Labels: Art, day to day, tech stuff

One of the best things about living on this acreage is the short period of time it takes to make an idea into reality. While feeding the horse this morning, my wife looked at an old oil drum full of junk and decided we should burn it. Ten minutes later I had the drum rolled over closer to the house and the drum's contents were ablaze. We've never had a fire like this before but by the end, most of the old patio railing was torn down and burned away; a much needed head start on rebuilding the patio this spring.

Joey basked in the sun all day and lounged around the fire. My wife and I did a lot of the same.

The temperature today was well above zero; possibly in the double digits. The snow is almost gone from the yard and the snowman is a foot shorter.

It's going to be a long summer.

Labels: day to day

The father of the turn based role playing game died yesterday. Gary Gygax created Dungeons & Dragons in 1974, the year before I was born. His death got me thinking about the old game again and the pen and my pen and paper RPG days.

For as long as I can remember, I always knew about the game. There was always a collection of kids in my neighborhood who played. It was like their secret club. I never got my hands on a D&D book until I changed neighborhoods and started hanging around with my old friend Jeremy.
Jeremy also treated the game like it was a secret club. Until I came along, I think he was in a secret club of one. He was almost obsessively protective of his Dungeon Master's Guide though we weren't even playing the game at the time. Before long we had a late night sleepover campaign going though it's a pretty limited game with only two people playing but none the less it was still fun and dark.

On the other side of the neighborhood, I was involved in a more organized RPG called M.U.S.C.L.E.S. Wrestling. Credit to some pretty clever kids, this game was drawn from the ground up on pad and paper. We had dozens of wrestling moves and managers and hit points and even cage matches. The creators were big fans of WWF wrestling at the time. It was a pretty fun game and a safe distance from the darker D&D that I was involved in with Jeremy. At least half of my friends were quite forbidden from the likes of D&D, aka "Satan's Game".


Unfortunately, late night games of D&D with Jeremy began to infringe on my afternoons of Muscles Wrestling. Word got out that I was missing the MW game to play this darker evil that they were all forbidden to touch. Before long I received a phone call from the MW club. I was collectively "kicked out" of the MW club. It was like they rehearsed the phone call ahead of time as they all shouted it over the phone together. I wasn't really hurt. D&D was more fun anyway, even with two people.

Before long the Nintendo Entertainment System brought the pen and paper RPG phenomenon to a close. A few of us still dabbled in Battletech and Robotech RPG games. We never did get the rules right playing Battletech but it too was still pretty fun.

I still have a bunch of Battletech and Robotech books boxed away somewhere. I can't bring myself to part with them yet.

Labels: day to day, pop culture

My wife first alerted me to a Coyote she spotted out on the pasture. They're very impressive looking this time of year with their this gray coats like small wolves. This particular lone coyote was quickly making his way past Regal, our huge black thoroughbred. Regal made his presence and might quite obvious to the coyote, frolicking and darting around. Smart enough to know the consequences of confronting such a horse, the coyote crossed the fence line and disappeared into the woods.

People seem to always associate spotting a coyote with shooting a coyote. Personally I gauge their threat level of a coyote to be quite a bit lower than a porcupine or even a skunk. Even my dear wife would shoot me before I ever got a round off at any animal. She has a gift for handling animals and that just goes with the territory. I could only ever shoot an animal with my camera anyway.

My biggest worry above and beyond any wildlife on the property is the traffic on the road at the edge of the property. Joey, our 6 month old lab is pretty new to the concept traffic and she's recently found out about the road and where it is.

Yesterday, I parked the car on the edge of the property as the recent snow made the driveway much too slippery to drive all the way to the house. Of course that means hiking all the way down the 200 yard stretch in the dark to get to the car again to go to work.

Last night on my hike to the car, I noticed dog tracks. At first I was infuriated to find out that damn dog was wandering down to the road by herself. I got to the car and realized the tracks were fresh and there wasn't any leading back to the house. Joey was sound asleep in bed when I left anyway. The tracks led to the car and then they disappeared into the darkness of the woods.

It occurred to me that I was probably tracking the same coyote that I had seen earlier. This time, I'm a little relieved that the animal wasn't waiting there at the car for me. I'm sure we'd have scared the crap out of each other.

Labels: day to day

It came sooner than expected actually. I thought I'd be waiting until early April for the first ride of the season. Me being without a mountain bike and all right now, I'm in favor of dry roads with the racing tires on the Trek Fx hybrid. I like to get out early as the first ride on the bike is also the diagnostic ride where I find out what all has to be repaired and replaced in time for spring and often times it requires a little saving up for parts.

I headed out Sunday from my office near Whyte Ave on a 39Km trek Stony Plain, west of the city. I'd been watching the Environment Canada website like a hawk waiting for that burst of warm air that was supposed to bring the morning's -21 up to the forecast high of -6. By the time work was over at 4pm the high had barely reached -14. My spirits were hardly crushed as I'm quite familiar with riding in temperatures as cold as -30 just not for 39Kms.

I donned my long sleeve jersey, hoodie, and wind-proof shell; toque, face-mask, and helmet; lined cargo-pants and luxurious alpaca socks (best socks I've ever owned); in short, my standard winter riding outfit. Keeping the body warm is relatively easy compared to breathing in all that cold air. The lungs work hard to warm it and push it back out again.

Rolling at last at 3:55pm, less than a block down the road I already knew my rear sprocket cassette was worn out and my derailers needed needed a good long bath in some degreaser. This aside, it felt damn good to be back on the bike after 3 or 4 months of driving. My limbs got cold quickly but warmed just as quickly as the blood got pumping. I hustled west down Whyte Ave. I don't think I'm at home on the bike anywhere like I am on Whyte Ave. It's funnest little stretch of road in this city with a good mixture of doors, peds, cabs, and cops all mixed in a in a 10 block stretch of chaos. The only reason I haven't been mowed down on Whyte Ave yet is because I'm so familiar with it.

With the Ave behind me I rolled slowly thought the University which I am not so familiar with. Two or three dead ends later I cleared the university and was headed down the cold fast hill towards Hawerlack Park and the queen Elizabeth Park Trail heading west to 156st. The trail was exactly as I expected. Much of it was lightly snow covered but lots of sand and a few of those ice patches that you just pray that you're slick wheels don't fall victim to. There's a new bicycle path heading west down 100st where the valley trail ends. It was more of the same but with even bigger slick ice patches.

Eventually, I made it to Stony Plain Road and the western edge of the city in a respectable half an hour. I pulled in to the Tim Horton's for a coffee and a quick call to the wife to let her know I wasn't dead. She knows me better than that anyway.

The highway west to Stony Plain was the same boring highway it is in the car just colder but with a tiny bit of a tail wind to keep me going. I found myself focusing on the sun sinking ahead of me as I knew riding after dark on any highway is miserable. At the final bend before Spruce Grove with about 10Kms to go I stopped on an overpass and called my wife again. This time I was calling her to come meet me in Spruce Grove. As I said, she knows me hell enough to refuse to come get me. Instead she told me to get my ass going. I complied and pushed for Stony.

We did meet up in Stony and had dinner. The sun was still floating above the tree line. I was sore that's nothing new.

As for the bike, a new rear cassette, new tires, and a whole lot of grease are in order.

It's going to be an early spring.

Labels: cycling, day to day

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

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

Ok, no. It's not the day after the day after tomorrow (Such a bad movie). It's -29 outside right now with that oh so sensational sounding -39 wind chill. Really, though it's pretty normal for it to get like this once a year, maybe twice. The same old week long cold snap.
What was interesting this morning on the drive home was the fog. It's was thicker than anything I've seen. I snapped a few photos while on the freeway. Traffic was just crawling anyway.

Labels: day to day

Retro Junk Playgrounds
This is a great read is you've ever played on a playground as a child. It got me thinking back to those giant play structures built entirely out of old tires bolted together. I remember one specifically in Fort Saskatchewan. There's also the wooden wall made up of pillars that I fell off of and broke my nose. I got stitches in my forehead from riding down a metal slide in a big old oil drum too. Oh the memories.

Labels: day to day, pop culture

Finally, winter is here for real this time. Blizzard conditions with temperatures creeping towards -30. It hasn't been like this since last winter. I don't know if I'm happy to see it or not. I knew it'd come eventually so I'll be happy to get it over with.
I gave myself an extra 10 minutes to get to work this morning. Funny thing is, I got to work 10 minutes early. I almost felt guilty. The roads were largely snow covered and with drifting snow to go along with it. It should have taken longer.
Of course knowing me, I snapped a few photos on the highway on the way in.

West of the City Limits

Inside the City Limits

Labels: day to day

*Ring*
Call display has some domain on it.
I pick up...
Me: "Thank You for choosing blah blah" (the usual phone jingle)
Caller: Silence
Me: Hello?
Caller: Hello?
Me: I think you have the wrong number.
Caller: Yes, I think you do.
*Hangs up*

Labels: day to day

Oh look, he's blogging more than every six months!

This year I've resolved to start blogging again. It's largely the result of my 45 minute drive to work and the 60 minute drive back home to the acreage. I get a lot of thinking done during this time. A lot of ideas come and go from my mind and many of them I'd like to keep.

Labels: day to day

Best

1. Got Married. This includes the ceremony and the reception and everything in between that all went off without a hitch.
2. The fact that the wedding was in Las Vegas on top of the Stratosphere.
3. Finally moved out of Edmonton to a beautiful acreage on the west side of Stony Plain.
4. Blade Runner 5 disc ultimate edition box set is on my DVD shelf.
5. Brought home a little black lab puppy from the SPCA. Her name is Joey.
6. Got my hands on a Nintendo Wii right before the Christmas crunch. I gave it to my wife for her birthday but she lets me use it sometimes.
7. Got a very cool Cheshire Cat tattoo.
8. My wife's horse, Regal, is living with us on the acreage instead of boarding 100kms away. When the wife's at work and the cats are sleeping and dog is insane, you can always hang around with Regal. He'll even follow you around the pasture.
9. After 2 long years of constantly fighting in the old apartment downtown, my cats have finally called a truce since moving to the acreage. They actually tolerate being in the same room together now. Getting along with the dog is another story.
10. The driveway aka The Sidewinder. They warned us early on that we'd need a 4x4 truck just to get up our driveway in the winter. Thankfully that was an exaggeration. With a bit of wood ash and a sidewalk ice scraper type thing the road's just fine for the little old Sunfire. It's actually pretty fun to drive up cause you have to take a run at it. The ruts keep you from going flying into the trees at 40-50kph.

Worst

1. Grandma, the last of my grandparents died.
2. Pet bunny died a couple days before Christmas.
3. Costs me $200 a month in gas to drive 40 minutes each way to work where it cost me nothing to bike 20 minutes to work before.
4. Still haven't found a decent internet provider since moving out of town but we're working on that.
5. Telus! After 8 or 9 long phone calls to Telus call centers, we're left with no telephone and a phone company who thinks me live on the moon and wants $500 to themselves wrong. Thank Jebus for cell phones. This should almost be on the BEST list since I'm thankfully still not a Telus customer.
6. Sold my mountain bike last spring and haven't bought a new one yet.
7. Moved out of Shaw Cable's service area.
8. Adopted a beautiful Shepperd Colly Dog from the SPCA but had to return him because he would not stop trying to attack the cats and bunny. I'm fairly certain he was adopted again right away as someone in the waiting room at the SPCA looked pretty serious about taking him home.
9. Labor Market. Not since working as a security guard in college have I had the displeasure of working with so many unreliable, unqualified, not present, genuinely idiotic office staff. I know it's because of the labor shortage. The turnover rate has been insane.
10. Rent. Thankfully we got out of Edmonton before we got screwed.

Labels: day to day

Sot down again by cafepress.
Oh well, was just testing the waters with that DRM code anyway.
Buy More Wiirdo Shirts!

Labels: day to day

I decided to celebrate Earth Day on Sunday by taking the bike out on the highway for the first time this spring. The weather was overcast and still pretty chilly but there was no rain in site so I decided to go for it. I had to meet my parents in Ponoka which is almost exactly 105kms south of Edmonton. Unfortunately, I had to be there by noon.
I left Edmonton at 630am and fought the insanely timed Sunday morning traffic lights until I was out of the city.
Everything was ok until I past Leduc where I noticed there was more and more snow around. The wind was stronger and colder too. I actually had to stop once or twice to get the blood moving back in my feet. The monotony of highway 2 is the hardest part. I've ridden the highway many times and it never really gets very interesting visually. There's hawks and car wreck debris here and there but that's about it. The rest is little more than five and a half hours of sensory deprivation.

Labels: cycling, day to day

So I'm out running errands this afternoon, taking it easy after yesterday long ride out of town. I'm just leaving the bridge path and heading into busy traffic. I clutched my brake for whatever reason and there was no brakes to be found other than a gentle rubbing against the rim. (BTW, I haven't had rear brakes installed for a couple years now. They're usually not very useful.) Anyway, I managed to coast to a halt without destroying my shoes or slamming into anything or anyone.

The real lesson to this short little tale is to make sure when using replaceable brake pads, to make sure the pins are securely in place.

I've found myself without brakes a few times over the years for one stupid reason or another. My usual reaction is to either make a hard right turn at the first available instance which slowed me significantly or perform a Flintstones style foot grinding stop which is really bad for the shoes and cleats. I was one told by a passing motorist that he could see sparks coming off my cleats during one such stop.

Labels: cycling, day to day

If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or fight like hell. ~Lance Armstrong

Labels: day to day

Been pushing out a couple of t-shirts for cafepress in time for Valentine's. I'm pretty impressed with my Bicycle Love print. I hope it sells. I also threw together an I Love My Wii.
Check out my MadCatX Shop and my Bike Shop too.

Labels: day to day

I've decided to stop posting the picture of the day on the main blog.
Instead it'll all be in it's own gallery page.

Labels: Art, day to day

Back when BCPlace was brand new, a show called Switchback on CBC ran the footage of them inflating the dome in reverse and joked that it was deflating. Now the damn thing finally did really deflate.

Labels: day to day

I finally got my first ever real attempt at video editing with adobe premiere.

Labels: day to day

The free contact form generator I used on my contact page from telepro.co.uk created a minor crisis when some lunatic found a way to use the script to send twenty-thousand spam messages via that very script and this server. Crazy bastards.
So anyway, most people who visit this site already know how to reach me on irc.
IRC Server: Undernet
Channel: #edmonton
I've said it dozens of times. Email is evil, second only to the telephone.
*Shakes head*

Labels: day to day

My only resolution is to get married in October.
Video of the fireworks in downtown Edmonton to come.

Labels: day to day

I've decided that I'm going back to blogging again. I used to keep an online journal even before there was things like blogger and such. I lost the archives to my last journal which crushed my spirit and made me quit writing but what the hell. It's time to start over and move on with MadCatX.com.

Labels: day to day

Ok, I'm back from crashing on my bed suddenly. Through the magic of the Internet, I'm at work now but that shouldn't make any difference to you folks at home. God knows I don't have anything better to do tonight than spend quality time blogging my favorite Christmas shows.

So anyway, let's get on with our third cartoon of the evening. This little gem is a little more modern than the last couple but I'm sure it'll be a Christmas Classic in the years to come. I'm happy to give you...

The Boondocks Christmas Special Season 1

Shows like that really bring out the true meaning of Christmas. Happy Birthday Santa Clause!
And now...

The News.

Godfather of soul, James Brown died Christmas morning at the age of 73 of heart failure. OOOOWW!
Ethiopia and Somalia are at war. I guess they still don't know it's Christmas time at all.
The Space Shuttle returned to earth Friday narrowly avoiding what would have been a tragic collision with Santa's Sleigh during a Pre-Christmas Eve test flight.

Ok, enough boring news. Let's have a look at one more Christmas show. This one's called...

The Robot Chicken Episode Speason 1

Well folks that's it for the show. My illegal movie download is done so I'm off to watch... "Dark Remains". I chilling little film about ghosts and butchered kids and who knows what else. I'll lat you know when I've actually finished watching it.

Labels: day to day

It's Christmas boys and girls. It's almost 4pm here. Presents have all been torn open; toys are broken; everyone's over eaten and on their after dinner walk to the couch. I'm back home already found the comfort and security behind my beloved PC. So I thought I'd begin a tradition this year with the

Labels: day to day

Been working a lot on my cafepress designs. People seem to be getting a kick out of my Wiirdo design so I decided to poke fun at XBox this time. Credit my fiance for the idea.

Labels: Art, day to day

I hadn't realized it's been so long since I've posted here. I've been busy with a website for work that's yet to be unveiled and taking photographs on my flickr page. See the flashy little flickr link to the bottom right.
I did find this fantastic tutorial site by Melissa Clifton that I've been taking ideas from.
Here's a quick peek at what I've been playing with. She calls it the Roy Lichtenstein look for obvious reasons.
This is far from perfect but since it's been so long since I've showed off anything at all, something is better than nothing.

Labels: day to day

I'm slamming the patio door shut as yet another flurry of noisy airport jet traffic interupts my television pleasure. I pause for a moment realizing the roar is far too loud for the usual commuter jet packed with greedy suits from Calgary. I step out onto the balcony to have a boo and look there! It's the airborn invasion that they warned me about in elementary school in the early 80s. Soviets! A closer observation reveals that they're friendlies and the only friendlies who can fly in that tight of a formation are those ever loved Snowbirds!!

Labels: Art, day to day

It's been a busy couple of weeks to say the least. For anyone who hasn't heard, I've been on holidays in Fort Nelson, BC at my sister's house. I've got dozens of photos and video clips of jet boating in the river and other stuff that I can't even think of right now. Now I get to learn video and dvd editing.
BTW I'm also officially engaged now.:)

Labels: day to day

I park my bike ouside mcdicks to get some breakfast to go and they take too long cause for some reason they have no hashbrowns made so 10 minutes later i get outside and there's some kid trying to steal my headlight with futile effort.
However, he cut my cork tape which pisses me off cause that stuff's a bitch to fix.
I didn't even notice he cut the shit until i was a block away.
At least i got a damn good look at the little f**k on a BMX bike of course.
Freaking meth-heads.
I just had to get that out.

Labels: cycling, day to day

The smell from it sitting over night is the worst part of it. Pwned!

Labels: day to day

The Ultimate in Ultimate Evil!!

Labels: day to day

May marks the beginning of that long awaited camping season that I love so much. My girlfriend and I have this little campground near Edson that we like to visit called Willmore Park. There's no rv park or even a lake for annoying jetboats; just a big gorgeous river and a ton of free firewood. The best part of this trip may very well have been the abundance of squirrels visiting us.
It took four packs of french fries to get the following movie clip but it was well worth it in the end. I believe this squirrel's name was Token. His parner in crime was Butters. Credit my girlfriend for naming the squirrels and for holding the fry.

Labels: day to day

April 4th, 2006 at 01:02:03 am.

Labels: day to day

This isn't MadCatX. It's actually his girlfriend.
It is my deepest regret to inform you that MadCatX was killed today riding his bicycle down Walterdale Hill. Details are sketchy but it looks like he hit an icy patch and slid under a car that he was passing on the hill. He died doing what he loved.
I can't really say much more right now... I'll post a link to the obituary when it comes out.
I have to go now.:(

Labels: day to day