I love a good glitch. There’s something special in the aesthetics of a corrupted image, broken renderer, data to audio conversion, or messed up video codec. It’s only annoying when it occurs when you least want it. A video I made yesterday, uploaded to YouTube with odd results (what was converted into Flash is different from what I see when I play it locally,) is one such case. It was my first attempt at recording the weekly Grand Theft Auto IV multiplayer sessions. It didn’t go so well.
The action on the weekend wasn’t restricted to the screens of the theatres. I came across this scene on my walk home today. Commentary provided by some local slack-jawed bystander.
I have no idea what instigated this but the police swarmed in seconds. Pretty quick response time if you ask me. Later, walking through the scene I notice a considerable pool of blood on the sidewalk. And yes, the cop does kick the dude when he’s stuffed into the backseat of their car…
The best part of this “63 billion billion” dollar lawsuit isn’t the attached hand writtenfiling [pdf] (due to restrictions on typewriters), though that’s good. The best part is the separate 57 page list of defendants [pdf] (for another case?) that, apart from all the top officials of the US government, names James Hoffa, Hugo Chavez, Steven Spielberg, Tony Danza, the Magna Carta, the Roman Empire, Plato, the Ming Dynasty, Mount Rushmore, WKRP In Cincinnati, the Garden of Eden, the Holy Grail, Tara Reid, J.K. Rowling and the entirety of the Hubble Space Telescope.
I had to return a bunch of movies to my favourite rental place tonight, Bay Street Video, which just happened to be right smack in the middle of Harry Potter book launch central for Canada. Holy hell, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a larger congregation of nerds in my life and I say this having been to E3. The eight year olds I was expecting; the fully grown men and women in full wizard attire I was not. I think that every single cloak that’s been bought in the city over the last year could be found in that one block tonight.
The thought of screaming out the spoilers for the book, which I’ve seen online, crossed my mind but I’m not an asshole. Still, the attacks and defenses against these spoilers, by the fans and the publishers, are a little ridiculous. Some act as though those spoiling a book are nazi cannibals denying them their one earthly pleasure. It’s a book, people. Get over yourselves. I’m sure you want to be surprised, and that’s fine, but one or two sentence plot points shouldn’t affect your enjoyment of the whole story. When I hear the complaints that a spoiler ruins everything I wonder whether those same people are enjoying the book for its actual literary merits.
One of the movies that I returned to Bay St. Video tonight was Grave of the Fireflies. That is a movie that I knew the end to years before I finally saw it. It didn’t matter. The film was still highly enjoyable and deeply moving. It’s not the what that counts, it’s the how and why. That is why books are written. Otherwise, we would only bother reading single page summaries.
I’m going on vacation tomorrow. I don’t know where. There’s a rental car waiting for me at noon and that’s the full extent of my planning. My belief is that the cost of excess planning and preparation is the loss of any sense of discovery and, for me, the fun part of a trip is the exploration. A road trip is pretty much entirely that and I find that extremely appealing to my soul.
While I definitely have no plans as to where I’m going or how I’m getting there, I do still need to pack and anticipate my needs and wants. The necessary provisions and changes of clothes are coming. Numerous bottles of water and granola bars and other such nourishments. My cameras, especially the new toy. Around two dozen CDs, including several mix CDs like this one (grab it before it’s gone). A couple books and, naturally, my DS (now with the awesome Planet Puzzle League.) I might not use it much, but it’s great to have in case I ever find myself on a boring ferry crossing, as I did last time.
And much like the last roadtrip, I am taking along a journal to document the trip. During that maritime excursion I wrote some twenty five pages of observations and logs. I hope to better that this time. Not so that I have a useful travelogue but, rather, so that I have a means of expressing my thoughts and observations in a timely manner. Driving on roads where you’re the only human for miles, enclosed in the tight confines of an automobile, will be a lonely venture.
But it will be great to get off the grid for a while, even if my refurbished XBox 360 is sitting and waiting for me to pick it up.
Monday was moving day. The movers I hired were pretty great. The cable guy came at 2:10pm during his 2 to 5 window (that’s a first!) Everything was going smooth until… that new sofa didn’t fit into my new place. sigh. SOFA FOR SALE.
Tuesday I was sick. Sick of unpacking, but also physically sick. Welcome to your new home.
Wednesday was a continuation of the flu. I did go to work because, despite being sick, it was now an eight minute commute. On foot. After work, picked up Guitar Hero II for the 360. Went home and rocked out while hitting the sauce (aka. NyQuil).
Thursday was feeling better. After work and after a brief stopover at the company spring party (free booze), I went home to watch the Leafs blow their fucking chance (again!) against the Islanders. Tried to watch a bit of the Rangers/Habs game but, for reasons of idiocy, my Centre Ice package was canceled despite the fact that I paid the one time fee to get the entire season. What I did request to be canceled before the move, RaptorsTV and LeafsTV, I still had. After nearly 40 minutes of back and forth on the phone — including several transfers and disconnections (thank you Rogers, you fucks) — I finally was able to have what I paid for.
Friday was a day of rest and of ROCK. I was supposed to see “Small Town” at Cinematheque Ontario as a part of their “films of Nuri Bilge Ceylan” programme, but early in the day I received a call informing me that the print they received had no English translation, but if I wanted to I could still watch the movie in its original Turkish. Yeah, no. More time to rock.
Then one of the staff members from the bar below my new pad came up to my place. Not to greet me but to inform me that there was a leak! Yes.
Saturday, I finally set up the computer. The plumber came and patched up the broken radiator pipe as we watched the end of the Islanders/Flyers game. The Islanders won and we were in agreement that even if, by some chance, the Leafs won their big game against the Habs that evening, the Islanders were going to knock them out anyway. Went to see Clouds of May and got home in time for the third period. Perfect timing as that was when the Leafs mounted their comeback and won the game in dramatic fashion. Leaf fans could be heard on the streets. It didn’t matter.
Sunday, went to the suburbs for Easter to watch the Islanders beat the Devils as expected (in a cliched Hollywood script, supremely dramatic way), thereby knocking the Leafs out of the post-season. As I wrote elsewhere:
Before the start of the season, I wasn’t a fan of three things: the shootout, Raycroft, and Ferguson. The last few days didn’t assuage me one bit.
Overall, a lousy week! I think I am going through a sort of renters postpartum.
I am convinced that there is a conspiracy amongst barbers and hairdressers to purposely give random, off-the-street customers horrible haircuts. I can imagine them at their holiday parties mingling and socializing and laughing amongst themselves about all those awful doos they doled out that year.
Venting is about all I can do at this point. Once you realize what’s going on — that the guy with the scissors heard “short” when you said “shorter” — it’s already too late. Unless you want to look like a reject from The Cure, you have to see it through and find a way to deal with it. I’m not dealing well right now.
XBox 360 – Call of Duty 3 (a Canadian campaign and a Polish campaign!? They know how to push my buttons!)
Playstation 2 – Sega Genesis Collection
PSP – Every Extend Extra
PSP – Lumines 2
XBox 360 – Tony Hawk’s Project 8
NDS – Elite Beat Agents
NDS – Yoshi’s Island DS
The week after? Even fucking worse. These publishers obviously do not want any of my money because when I had plenty in the middle of the summer, they gave me nothing.
Oh, fuck off Toronto Sun, you worthless rag. Stuff your sensationalist bullshit up your ass. I don’t read your trash, but now I will pledge to read it even less.
By comparison, the Toronto Star had this matter-of-fact headline:
I spent the majority of my life growing up in the wasteland suburbs of Mississauga. A massive, sprawling city with absolutely no distinguishing characteristics or any charm. Such was my adolescence.
The city is going through a major boom right now. It has changed drastically in the two years that I’ve been out of it, and the change wasn’t just more sprawl; a lot of it is centralized. Condo tower after condo tower is going up in the city centre, all of which are engulfing and overshadowing Mississauga’s iconic city centre. Soon, they too will be overshadowed by this massive thing.
While the now obscured civic centre might be the public face of Mississauga, the real icon, to me, always was Lakeview Generating Station. An old coal power station along the lake that, with its four massive smoke stacks, was visible from nearly anywhere in the city. Most of my school years were spent on a street almost directly north of it, so with the slope of the road, Lakeview was a daily (and prominent) site. For me it was the ultimate symbol of the city: giant, ugly, dirty, and unescapable.
On June 12th, the four smoke stacks will be demolished. I, for one, will miss them. Unfortunately, the demolition is on a Monday in the morning, so I won’t be able to see it firsthand. On the plus side, since they are so conspicuous I can see them from my apartment. Sort of. It won’t be an impressive show from this distance, but at least I’ll get one last look.
There’s a multitude of social-economic effects of this, mostly involving cross-border business, tourism and all that other fun stuff. Whatever. The important question is: what does it matter to me? And with the kinds of products that I buy, small media things, it means a potential for a lot of savings.
The higher the dollar rises, the cheaper and cheaper importing from the US (or anywhere else abroad that charges by USD) becomes. And with relatively low shipping costs (for books, DVDs, games, etc), it is becoming increasingly cost-effective to just order stuff from abroad.
“Budget” games, which go for $19.99 USD, have always been exactly ten dollars more expensive here. This price is always fixed, so no matter how much the dollar fluctuates, they stay at $29.99 CAD. It’s sort of like when books have a price tag printed on them in USD and CAD. No matter how much the dollar changes, the price will remain as it was when it was printed (barring sales and all that). Now, if I order that same $19.99 budget game from the US, all I have to pay is $22.38. 25% savings!
Of course, there’s shipping too, but for small items it doesn’t affect things too much. If I go by Amazon’s rates, for three budget games shipping would cost me about $11.06. The games would be $66.60. In total three games with shipping would cost $77.66 CAD.
Meanwhile, if I were to walk into a local store and buy the exact same games with cash and, obviously, no shipping, I’d be paying $89.97
I save twelve dollars, get it delivered to my door and I don’t have to go and deal with game store employees. This rising Canadian dollar is going to be a boon for online shopping.
Drove home on my Prius™ while listening to my Muvo™ today. Then I got on my Viiv™-enabled Vaio™ and Google™d for info about Roku™ while IMing with Meebo and exploring the Podcasts on Odeo. Sync’ed some mp3s with my Oqo™ and my Zire™ before playing with Ning a bit. By then I was already getting tired, so I turned on the Aquos™, cranked up the Jamos™, and started up my Wii™.
About
This is the weblog of Mike Nowak, a freelance web nerd and digital nomad. I write mostly about games, music, film and tv, the web, and anything else I find of interest. This weblog has existed in some form or another since 1999.
