Arcade Memories

I used to go to the arcade.
About 10 years ago I started playing Virtua Fighter 2 with a friend who had also done martial arts.
While I never became great at the game, or went into amazing amounts of studious activity on the number of frames in a movement, I was ok and it was fun.
So when I see that they are releasing it for PS2 in Japan, I earnestly hope they carry through and release it here as well.
Great game, great fun.
Please stop button mashing with Pai...

Today

It's Munin's Birthday!
Yup, everybody celebrate as Munin has gained another year's worth of experience in this world.

May her every future day hold wonders for her.
And to be a little selfish, may I be there beside her.

May you have many flowers.
Listen to sappy songs that remind you of us.
Enjoy the breeze on warm days; enjoy warm blankets and fireplaces when cold.

I give you the best gift I can: love in every look I give you. And my everything.

Yours freely, every day, every moment.

Home sweet home

Back. After 10 days and three courses. Back home to my love, happiness and snuggliness and I ain't going anywhere for a while. No way, no how. [please let these not be famous last words] Tonight. Snuggles, and luxuriating in the yummy feeling of being at home. Details on the trip, its ups and downs later in this week. Right now am just happy to be home, in my own office sitting on my own chair next to my love!

Return of Munin

Well she's coming back tonight, so everybody can expect the posting ratio to go back to normal; which means about 8:1 in favour of her posts over mine.

Cheers.

Return of the King:EE

So, the scoop.

Bad news, no scouring of the Shire. But I knew that wouldn't be there.

Good news, we get to have our very own Minis Tirith and for about the same price as the entire set you'll be able to get Minus Morgul.

Cool. That'll make up for the second boxed set which had a IMHO rather poor version of Gollum.

All in all, it is looking very precious.

Back and Back Again

Well, you know you aren't completely awake when you leave home and remember you have to go back and get something. Then you go farther and remember you forgot to bring something and have to go back and get it. Finally you walk out again only to remember something else you should do; at this point you really just want to say `forget it'. But once more unto the breach.

Am I there yet?
Is it 5 o'clock yet?

Their Back

Yes!

Of course I chose this article primarily for the picture, because Marg is rather cute...

Weekend Edition

Weekend went by rather quickly.
Here's the summation.

Woke up early, for me, on Saturday to go catch a bus and visit Munin; she's off for work reasons since the beginning of last week and it was an opportune time to visit and wander around our nation's capital - O-tauwa. OK, fine it's Ottawa, but for those people who have seen the SCTV Canadian Conspiracy, you're right there with me.

That was quite enjoyable. Wandering around, doing some shopping, enjoying time together, that sort of thing. Oh, let's not forget watching bad cable TV, including this show which sucked us both in for a little while - don't ask.
But it definitely brought home the entertainment value that exists with English TV shows. And made cable an almost interesting possibility, certainly for a couple channels and the olympics coming up it would be nice to subscribe to a few channels at least. Sadly, we don't have a cable provider that offers the ability to choose individual channels, so pfft on them.

Other than that, picked up some new shoes. Hmm, an interesting thing from their site on lacing. Always wondered what the different benefits were.

Then ran into my sister! That was pretty wild as she doesn't live there. Pretty good, we gave her a ride, got some food, you know - stuff.

Eventually I had to go. Bus ride was kind of cramped, and my backpack was full of stuff so I couldn't even store it overhead. Blah.

Anyways, safe and sound back home, well at work right now. It's good to be back, will be nicer when Munin returns as well.

Of course in the meantime I should do some cleaning up. Tonight have to do laundry, general cleanup, wash dishes, wash floors. At least that's the plan...

Final Fantasy VII

So I tried to get Munin to play this classic RPG from the Playstation 1. Instead I played it a lot and she didn't.

All of which to say that I am excited by the thought of a sequel; granted the sequel is in the form of a movie, but it's cool nonetheless.

Trailer

Marijuana

I don't understand this logic:

Opponents of looser marijuana laws say it could promote usage of harder drugs.

How does that work?

I can see if it were similar to a speed limit. The limit is 100kph and people will do 110-120kph; if the limit were 120kph, people would do 130-140kph.

But this is a different thing, this isn't a matter of quantity, this is a question of quality. It's more akin to saying that there are people who want to drive at 110kph and if the limit were put there people would all go out and get more expensive and faster cars.

It's akin to saying you can drink coffee, but we don't want to let you have espresso because next thing we know you'll be injecting caffeine into your veins.

Or we won't let you use any spices hotter than black pepper, because you might then go out and get habanero peppers.

I don't think anyone who is in favor of decriminalizing marijuana would say that they are interested in these things.

Are the people saying that decriminalization would be tantamount to saying that all drugs are good? I don't think you'd find many marijuana users or users of harder drugs saying that the two are in any way alike.

Anyways, here's another link I found: http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0503-09.htm

I won't link to the hempfiles, because I imagine that would be considered a bit too biased, but pretty much the same info was found there, just older.

Oh, for the record I've never used anything outside of alcohol and a painkiller when I had a tooth removed. No plans for becoming a heroin junkie if marijuana is decriminalized. For that matter, I don't have any plans for taking up marijuana either.

CSI Part 2: Anatomy of an excuse

Well, it seems we might not lose out on this one.

As the given reasons for not being there on the first day turn out to be not about money; instead we hear the letter is in the mail and I slept in.

That's cool by me, I've slept in and I've had things held up in the mail.
Personally, I wouldn't care one way or another.

I didn't like the whole blackmail for money thing of not showing up. I also don't want to lose out on two great CSI characters.

So hopefully they will make it back. I'm already dreading losing Grissom at the end of this season.

I can't stand CSI: Miami; just don't like the characters - although Emily Proctor...
Because of that we missed the episode that tied in the new CSI:NY; not to fear, I'm downloading it. Looking forward to it, see what kind of character Gary Sinise plays.

Because that's one reason I don't like CSI:M. Horatio. Sometimes he's fine, but generally I find him to simply be inhuman. He lacks a certain quality that Grissom has. Because while Grissom may be a very odd fellow with his bugs and all, he is very human. To quote a character from a good movie, he's `like an onion.' As I find most of the original CSI characters are. Maybe it's the writing, it just seems that we've had more opportunity to get to know them. With CSI:M, those occasions simply don't stick as well.

Maybe it's because when something happens to Horatio, we forget about it because he seems to as well, back to being Mr Stern and Serious. But when something happens to Grissom, you feel it. Unless this is just all me, since I'm sure there are a great number of Horatio fans out there.

To put it another way, when we get the little asides in CSI, they are like insights to the characters. In CSI:M, I feel that the asides are more blemishes on the outside of the character.

Looks Fake

If I didn't see it in many places, I'd be positive that this was some terrible quality fake.

And it just goes to show that perhaps humans are brain damaged.

Good Stuff

Well, pretty good news despite the fact that Munin is away for the next week.

Got back the PDA from Viewsonic; actually I should say that they sent me an entirely new unit. So that's very cool indeed. Configured, installed and I am reading books again.

What was also very nice was the neighbour in the apartment next to ours was kind enough to accept the package FedEx person for me. Very nice indeed.

On the other hand is does seem that Munin is a phone message packrat and I am going through the requisite (skip, replay, erase, save) options to get to the new messages - none of which were for me.

sleepy good

Five hours on a train, three hours waiting at a bus terminal followed by four hours on a bus makes for a very sleepy Munin. Going to bed at 1:00 only to wake up at 6:45 makes for a very groggy woozy Munin. So tonight, it's room service, a hot shower, a soft bathrobe, a quick review, some mindless TV and an early nights sleep.

Nini. Sweet dreams to you all.
[squishes]
m.

CSI

Uh-oh.

I stopped watching West Wing after Rob Lowe and Aaron Sorkin left. Quite often in the past a change in characters has ruined a show. The chemistry that was enjoyed vanishes and you are left remembering what was without being able to enjoy what remains.

Hope that doesn't happen here.

Garlic

Piquant. Spicy. Savoury. A little zing. Adding hint of flavour to what would be a dull meal. Alas, if taken in large quantity leaves you sitting in a corner, hand over mouth as you try not to breathe in anyones direction. Unless of course it is shared.

Change

I'm staring at the site and thinking maybe it's time for a redesign.
Not the whole thing, but that title with the red no blue just bugs my eyes something harsh.
I'll have to fiddle around and see if I can come up with anything. I'm sure Munin can. Anyways, just wondered if anyone else thought a change was in order?

Ah I see!

So this is how the ruling is seen:
Sharing music on an online network did not appear to violate Canadian copyright law, Judge Konrad von Finckenstein wrote in a March decision.

"The mere fact of placing a copy on a shared directory in a computer where that copy can be accessed via a P2P service does not amount to distribution," Finckenstein wrote. "Before it constitutes distribution, there must be a positive act by the owner of the shared directory, such as sending out the copies or advertising that they are available for copying."

Various Stuff

I can't believe I forgot to press Save again.

Something about that Logout button that compels me to press it instead of pressing Save first. Alas, there goes my last entry. I am compelled to write again.

Spiderman 2. Better than the first one in some ways, just as good in others and basically quite good. I hope the powers that be use this as an continuing example of how to produce a comic book movie and its sequels.

On the topic of movies, I've been reading articles quoting a study in which 1 in 4 people are pirating movies from the internet. Being one of those individuals, I must laugh at the suggested reasons and impact on my movie habits.

I download movies that I am not willing to spend full price on in the theatre, because the prices in the theatre are so high. If they were lower, it wouldn't be as big a reason because it would be worth it.

That's the critical part, `worth'.

Movies that appear worth the time and expense, we go out and see. Even if they are cheesy movies. Certainly while Spiderman 2 was good, I wouldn't call Chronicles of Riddick anything but cheese. We still went to see it and enjoyed it. Of course I downloaded Pitch Black; I hadn't seen it and we don't rent movies due to our difficulty in returning them on time. Then I deleted it.

We own both extended editions of Lord of the Rings that have been released. Of course, before they released the extended edition, I downloaded the movie in order to watch it again. We weren't about to purchase the theatrical version, and after that I deleted it.

There are also occasions when I might like a movie so we download it and watch it. If it's good and we liked it, we'll go get it; Catch Me if You Can, Cast Away, for example.

Some movies are difficult to find, especially foreign films in the original language. So, I have copies of a few HK movies; if I could find them for a reasonable amount I'd also buy them.

If what is being said is that I should be spending more money on lousy movies, they should also start complaining that movie reviewers are cutting into their profits and get them stopped as well.

Come to think of it, I also dl TV shows and watch them. Mainly because either I missed episodes, or don't have cable. I missed a lot of the West Wing and so caught up on the episodes by downloading them, watched the show faithfully until Aaron Sorkin left. I watched the latest season of Enterprise, downloaded, because I don't have cable.

I could just get cable, but it's too expensive for what you get, and quite honestly there are only maybe 4 shows we would watch. Not worth it.

It's all about that return on investment.

Strawberries, Asian pears and a lazy saturday afternoon

We spent the late afternoon lazy about house, reading, listening/watching movies and playing with fruit. Oldish nearly fuzzy strawberries and firm Asian pears to be exact. After snapping twenty shots of strawberries in black and white I can say, with authority, that they look better in colour. Here are a few snaps from this afternoon endeavour:

Strawberries...

... & Asian Pears

And, can I say for the record, thank the gods for digital. I don't think I would be willing to shoot 104 pictures of fruit if I was playing with film.

Mood music.

Sad music makes for a very melancholy workday. I should really find more upbeat stuff to listen to at work. Anyone got any suggestions?

Querry: Yo! Oz boy, do you know where my Hacker CD disappeared to? Do you have it? Or am I completely senile, and it is in fact sitting right under my nose.

Update: Listening to the Top Gun soundtrack. It makes for very silly work music and leaves one with the irrational desire to watch the movie over and over again.

One of THOSE days.

Definitely this is one of those days.

So on Sunday I hurt my back a bit at the gym, enough so that I was doing that old man shuffle. Yesterday, I get to work and the first thing I have to do is move a number of boxes full of paper. Funny.

Today wasn't so bad, but on my way to the bus after work, jauntily swinging my arms as I went down a small slope, my PDA went flying out of the case and landed on the ground rather hard. After an appropriate if hastily chosen epithet, I retrieved it and discovered that it would no longer turn on, or the screen wouldn't work, whatever the case it would only blink a mournful red LED at me.

I soon after discovered again just how boring a bus ride and metro ride can be.

Upon getting home and finding zero information on how to fix whatever might be wrong with my ineffectually signalling PDA, my computer started to act up. Stalling and basically not behaving itself, requiring reboot after reboot.

I felt the need for some Advil. I took some with me to work, wrapped in saran wrap, pulled that out and couldn't unwrap it. So Munin to the rescue. A little work with an Xacto later, and the protective wrapping has been sliced open. Pop, one into my palm. Pop, two bouncing out of my hand, into the darkness under my desk with a small rebound off the side of my computer.

I went looking for it, Munin went for the bottle. I found it, checked it for suspiciously obvious to the eye reasons for not ingesting it and not finding any, swallowed it. Munin put the bottle down, and while sitting down herself, banged her elbow.

Sigh.

One of those days.

By the by, as I tried to save this entry, I hit the logout button at the top of the screen instead of the save... Brilliant.

Disillusioned.

Not sure if it is due to the fact that I need a vacation, that I am just a little bone tired or if the rose tinted glasses have finally fallen off, but work no longer holds it’s allure. In short, I am fed up with the lack of communication, the last minute notice, the miscommunication, the last minute layoffs and the lack of common courtesy or basic recognition that employees are human too from those who call themselves upper, upper management*.

A friend told me months ago, when the whinging began, that I should find a better job. Close to 11 months later I am at the point where I see the wisdom of his words. So anyone out there looking for an engineer/trainer/designer, who’s afraid to fly and thus won’t travel for the company unless it’s by train, but who’s willing to work hard, and will occasionally give up a Saturday to make sure that projects are delivered on time?

Sodium Free

How can a drink claim to be sodium free, when they list sodium at 2.3mg/200ml in their ingredients list? It boggles the mind it does.

Photo Friday: Clouds

Fluffy white. Dark Grey. Golden. Sunset red. Wispy fairies in the sky. Streaks across a canvas, painted in water vapour. Whatever their consistency, shape or colour, clouds are one of my favourite things to photograph.

Happy Canada Day!

To all ye Kunucks, whether ye be in Canada or in other remote/not so remote regions of the world. Happy Canada day! Hope you all have a wonderful one!

Cheers!

Stolen from Steve, 'cause we love it so much. "I am a Canadian, eh!"