July 30, 2003
Angel City
I was trying to remember the name of a band I used to listen to like a million years ago. I would probably have been driven completely insane trying to remember anything about them, other than the fact that they were very good and Australian, but for this neato Internet thingy. Now I dismember that they were called The Angels [well, Angel City in North America] and they had a cool song called Face the Day from the album Face to Face. Yippee! Now I just have to track down a copy...
Killer Crows
Went to the park behind the old MacDougall School today, as there wasn't much happening work-wise in these dog days of summer. Sat on a bench, began to surf the web using my blackberry. [a sure way to get Stephen King eyes before long] A male pigeon was courting a female pigeon, puffing himself up, cooing and doing the funky chicken. Soon a bunch of pigeons and sparrows were congragating on the grass by my bench, like I was going to feed them or something. Ha! I just went back to giving myself cateracts.
And that's when something really strange happened. There was suddenly a loud commotion by my bench. I look over and there's this giant crow pinning a sparrow under its talons. The little bird is screaming [? well, bird screaming-like ¿] and trying to fight back, but the crow just crunched it with its talons and pecked at it a few times till it stopped fighting. Then it flew off into a tree, to enjoy its meal I presume. A guy and girl nearby saw the whole thing and they were totally freaked out. I've seen crows eat dead squirrels that were run over by cars, but I've never seen one go out and kill something like that. Very freaky.
July 29, 2003
RSS News Feeds
I started messing around with rss news feeds and I'm working on building a page with a few feeds on it. It's definately a work in progress but check it out if you want. [it only has MetaFilter on it so far...]
July 28, 2003
Equifax
Today I got a rejection from a credit card company for a card but I'm not really upset about it because I think I know why. But I think I will check with Equifax online just to make sure my credit is ok. I fill out the form and it kicks me to a page with a phone number it wants me to call. It wont let me do anything else on their website until I call this number so I break down and call it. When I finally get through their damn voicemail system, the lady at the other end tries to bring up my info, but her computer freezes and she has to reboot. After awhile she informs me that my phone number in on a banned list or some such thing. I'm like what? This my phone, what do you mean its banned? She said it's because it's a cell phone and I can't access their website unless I give them a land-line number instead. I don't have a land-line so I guess that means I'm fucked.
So she gives me a number I can call to get a credit report mailed to me. I call the number, it's one of those automated things and for some reason it never offers me the option of getting my report mailed to me. Then it says goodbye and hangs up on me.
I think Charles Starkweather had a day like this once.
Anyway, I found an address where you can send away to get a credit report on yourself for free, so I'm doing that instead.
July 27, 2003
July 24, 2003
Oh my Brain!
They stop moving when I look at them! I'm feaking out, man!
This one is higher res, more paranoia inducing.
via Metafilter
Damn Floats
Messed around with foating DIVs, trying to get them to work in Mozilla. I give up. They work fine in IE, but Mozilla seems to want to drop to the next line no matter what you do. Bogus. I changed the way my last five thingy is displayed. It uses one div and the contents change by replacing its node via the DOM thingy. Much better than the hiding/unhiding thing I was doing before with Javascript and stylesheets. The div stays in the same position all the time, where before I had to guess with negative positioning, and that would get all screwed up every time the content changed. The only problem with this solution is that it seems to take longer to load. And I ran into a weird thing where when you use the DOM to insert text, it inserts exactly what you enter without parsing HTML tags. It makes sense to me now, but it was suprising when I first saw the raw HTML pop up on my screen.
July 23, 2003
Mozilla
Ricardo told me my page looked screwed up in Netscape, the bastard. So I downloaded Mozilla 1.4 and checked it out. It's not too bad. The sidebar kicks down to the bottom instead of staying on the side. That might have something to do with the comment thingy in the sidebar. Or the size ratios. Dunno. And my last five thingy at the top doesn't display right either. I think I know how to fix that, but it would take a lot of work because of the way it gets updated using a script. Too much work for right now. And then there's the i-frame at the bottom of the sidebar that seems to disappear in Mozilla. I think it's there somewhere, there are two sets of scrollbars on the left-side and bottom of the page. Weird. Oh well, I'll try to check compatability with Mozilla in the future, Ricardo you little whiner. ♠
July 20, 2003
Officer, I'd like to report some stolen marijuana
York Regional Police say they are taking the case seriously and will do their best to retrieve the 18-year-old's stolen property.
This is so cool. I bet a lot of cops are just hating this. Ha ha tough shit baby.
July 19, 2003
Cool Dude
I came across this picture on the net today and it just cracked me up. [yes, I'm easily amused]
Make him go away.
Bring him back.
July 18, 2003
Norway's mystery man
the man they have nicknamed "Dodo"
They better hope he doesn't turn out to be a secret agent, cause he's gonna kick their asses. Jesus Christ, haven't they seen The Bourne Identity?
well, that's Laurina
"Here's a mother who by all accounts was a decent mother, kills her child and then consumes her. Doesn't that sound like mentally ill to you?"
Hey, you convinced me.
Big Brother 4
Was watching Big Brother 4 today [hangs head in shame] and the young, sweet Michelle got put up on the chopping block. Her response?
He put me up because I'm the young, sweet innocent one. Well, I'm gonna take a full 360° turn and show him!
Ha, too funny. You go get him, einstein grrrl!
July 17, 2003
Individual Archive Template
The single entry pages were having problems with the pop-up windows used for full sized images. I figured it out, it was because the javascript file wasn't being loaded in the archives. I edited the template and everything works again. Boy, I'm good.
A Matter of Family
They're filming a TV-movie in Calgary called A Matter of Family. It must be set in New Hampshire as the police car on the sidewalk has New Hampshire State Police written on the door and a New Hampshire Department of Justice plaque is afixed to the old City Hall. Our 'new' City Hall is a big, ugly glass building and it ain't that new, I think it was built in the '80s before I came to Calgary. The 'old' City Hall is adjacent to the new one, in fact they are totally attached like one happy building and the mayor, aldermen and clerks have their offices in there. It's a cool old sandstone building. Anyway, here's some pictures of the set. Not much to see, and the camera was pointing away from the street so I couldn't sneak in there. Damn.
Kill Bill
Looks like Tarantino's new movie is now going to be two movies. I don't mind, as long as they're good. I loved Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction was pretty good, although I didn't care for Jackie Brown.
Several have been disappointments this summer, including "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," which received heavy publicity and generally favorable reviews as an enjoyable romp but which still failed to attract crowds.
Favorable reviews? I hated the first one. Hated.
Bill Would Put Internet Song Swappers in Jail
"While existing laws have been useful in stemming this problem, they simply do not go far enough," said Conyers, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
Millions of people swap songs over the internet every fucking day. They'd better get building a whole lotta jails if they're serious about this. But they're not serious about this, right? This is like the Metallica thing, no?
Is this a joke?
Metallica are taking legal action against independant Canadian rock band Unfaith over what they feel is unsanctioned usage of two chords the band has been using since 1982 : E and F.
Are these guys serious? WTF? First their hystrionics over the Napster affair and now this. I think we should gather up all their CDs at a stadium and blow them up like at the end of disco. This is pathetic. I will never buy another Metallica disc for as long as I live. And they can take their precious E and F chords and shove them up their asses.
Update: ok, it is a prank, apparently. I still hate Metallicaca.
July 15, 2003
Alderman Darlene Heatherington
I heard this lady on the radio this morning. What a wacko! Will she eventually relent and step down, or have a massive, psychotic breakdown in public? Personally, I'm hoping for the latter. [Yeah, I know, I'm evil]
"I will not be bullied by this mayor or by members of this council or by any citizens of this city," she shouted.
Rob Halford reunites with Judas Prist
Judas Priest is one of my favorite bands, although their later albums kinda lost their edge. Can't wait to see what they might come up with after all these years.
July 14, 2003
Mike's Pets
[click on thumbnail for full sized image in a new window]
[click on image in new window to close popup]
Hunting Bambis
This has got to be one of the strangest things I've ever heard of, next to those people who pay to get kidnapped off the street. Hunting naked women out in the desert with paintball guns? I've done the paintball thing before and it was fun, but the other side got to shoot back. This is just fucking bent. And paying $5000 to $10,000 to do this? The money would be better spent on therapy.
Update: Most likely just a publicity stunt to sell videos. Everything on the internet is a lie. And that's the truth.
July 11, 2003
Airzooka
Went to this site->Airzooka.com via a Metafilter post. Airzooka toy shoots a blast of air up to fifty feet away! Sounds cool, but this caught my eye: Airzooka comes in green (looks like yelllow)... You know, my eyes are blue (looks like brown)...
Postal Strike
Looks like there could be a postal strike next week. Cool! Courier business always picks up during a strike, especially if it's a reasonably long one. And summer is usually a really slow time of year, so this could save the day. Go for it, buddies, take the summer off!
July 06, 2003
Sim Mafia
The couple say they have ransacked apartments, sent out their "troops" to urinate on others' lawns and once drove another player from the game.
This is a mature, social crowd...
The online version of The Sims seems to have attracted the usual miscreants trying to ruin the game for everybody else. To tell you the truth, I can't blame them, that damn game can get pretty freaking boring.
You can't produce something that's this potent or powerful psychologically and not have some accountability for it.
Oh brother...
July 05, 2003
Damn Bike!
My tire had a bad gash in it for the last little while and I could see the tube was slowly working its way out through it from the tire pressure. Yesterday I went to MEC to check out what tires they had, but they didn't have the type I wanted so I didn't buy any. Today I go to ride my bike to 7-11, and the tire is flat! Aeiii! I guess the tube blew out through the gash overnight. Today it rained pretty well all day so I guess I will head out tomorrow and get a new tire, and tube. My road bike's brakes aren't working, so I will have to fix them first before I head out, and then I will have to do all the installation and shit when I get back. Egads, what a pain.
When I Am King
I read this online comic this morning and I thought it was pretty damn hilarious. Good stuff.
July 04, 2003
Damn Bike
Well, I figured out why my bike was behaving so messed up. One of the bolts that holds the hanger for my derailler fell out, leaving my derailler hanging there loosely from one bolt. Argh! I got it all bolted up nice and tight, but now I get an awful squeak whenever I shift gears. It never ends. ♠
July 03, 2003
Grind
I haven't been blogging anything here for awhile! It's been rather boring lately, just going to work everyday, grinding away. Yesterday it rained, and then today my bike's gearing was all screwed up. It was going in one gear, then dropping into the next and back up again, like ten times! It was driving me crazy! I hate that. Guess I should clean the chain and shit, get it back in ride-able shape again. I hate working on my bike. I hate working. I hate this world! Ugh!