Shut Up And Go Away!

2006.06.30 - Friday

Priest: Buffett is 'Dr. Mengele of philanthropists'

Al Gore skirts over the problem in "An Inconvenient Truth". Western societies forget about it because, for the most part, we aren't responsible for it anymore. What is it? Over-population. The single biggest cause of all of humanity's ails. The end of our civilization won't be caused by Gay people, pro-lifers, terrorists, nuclear war, global warming, or disease. It will be caused by those who go blindly forth, multiplying like rabbits, with absolutely no concern for the consequences to their own offspring, because they believe God told them to do so.

He's Back!

2006.06.27 - Tuesday

Tonight at 10:00pm marks the first public screenings of "Superman Returns". I bought tickets yesterday, though I expect it will take an early appearance to get any kind of decent seating. Trailers look good, clips of the released score sound good, and most of the reviews have been glowingly positive. I'm expecting a lot, but I don't expect to be disappointed.

Stupid

2006.06.22 - Thursday

Only CARHA approved masks are allowed

Ridiculous. I wish some of these recreational hockey leagues, and the companies that insure them, would get their heads out of their asses when it comes to hockey safety. The first line of their little PDF says "CARHA playing rules were adapted to provide the maximum possible amount of safety when enjoying recreational hockey". The "cat-eye" cage that almost all NHL or professional level goaltenders wear is designed to allow for the best possible vision considering your head it completely protected, front to back. The reason these cages aren't CSA approved is that while the eye openings are too small for a puck to enter, the butt-end of a stick is another matter. Personally, I've never seen it happen, but I've heard of it happening. It's a risk to be sure, but one that goaltenders should be able to take if they so choose.

The reason this particular rule is so ridiculous is that while the leagues can be incredibly strict about requiring goalies to wear an approved cage, they have no such rules for players. I regularly play with and against guys who wear half face shields, no face protection at all, no neck guard, no mouth guard, and even no shoulder pads. Yet somehow insurance companies, league officials, and referees either don't see the insanity of the situation, or refuse to do anything about it. Every season of hockey that comes and goes has me witness cut faces, bleeding eyes, missing teeth, or separated shoulders. Every one of those injuries was to a forward, yet the goalies are the only ones who are put under the microscope and told that they must wear CSA approved equipment. "Maximum possible amount of safety"? Please, spare me.

Just get everyone to sign a waiver at the beginning of the season, and let them wear what they want. The current system makes absolutely no sense at all.

Cars

2006.06.20 - Tuesday

With this summer's release of "Cars", Pixar has proven that they are once again the undisputed king of the modern animated feature film. I can't think of any other studio who could take a bunch of 3D car models and animated them to the point where you care more about these characters than the ones you'll find in over 90% of all live action films ever made. It's almost like a slap in the face to all of the smaller 3D animation houses who keep trying to make waves in the animated feature market. Pixar's stuff is that much better.

"Cars" has that same Pixar art style we're so used to seeing now, with the cartoony, exaggerated characters and the hyper-realistic environments. Some of the environments and backdrops in this film are so gorgeous that it became almost a regular occurrence for me to look at them instead of the characters in the foreground. The cars themselves are pretty good as well, right down to the flawless rendering of that "car paint" look. Everything in this movie, just like all of the other Pixar films, has a tangible quality to it, as if it's actually solid, and not just a paper thin surface covered with convincing texture.

I still wish they could get out from under Disney, which isn't going to happen now of course, with Disney buying the studio. I'd love to see Pixar change their trademark style a little and mix things up. For now, the formula is obviously working for them, so I suppose they don't see much reason to make too many changes. Pixar maintains their perfect record with "Cars", as if there was any doubt.

Oily Contradictions

2006.06.16 - Friday

Pretty lazy week for posts, so I figured I might as well cap it off with a cop-out post, the trusty video link:

DS Lite

2006.06.12 - Monday

I walked into Toys R' Us yesterday and picked up one of the new DS Lites from Nintendo. It's basically just a redesign of the original Nintendo DS which was released a while back. I've never been big on the portable gaming thing, but it's a pretty neat gadget, and that sort of thing always has appeal. Aesthetically, the new unit is head and shoulders above the original hardware. The glossy white plastic is obviously meant to evoke Apple's iPod and other line of products, but it works. The new DS Lite should fit nicely with the glossy white Wii when it's released later this year.

The screens are incredibly bright. I haven't tried using it in direct sunlight yet, as that sort of thing is usually the achilles heel of LCD technology, but there are a few brightness settings to play with. The whole unit is quite small as well, being about the same length as my outstretched hand, and, when closed, about the same thickness as an older iPod. The small size takes a little getting used to while actually playing games, or at least games that use the traditional buttons and not the stylus.

I picked up "New Super Mario Bros" and "Brain Age" to go with the system. "Brain Age" is a surprising amount of fun, even though it's basically just a bunch of memorization, math, and other brain twisting puzzles. Both the handwriting and voice recognition in the game is pretty good, but never perfect. I think once you discover the quirks, it could come close to 100% accuracy. "New Super Mario Bros" is a fairly traditional Mario game, which is by no means a bad thing. Good fun so far.

One thing I would have liked to see in the hardware is a slot for storing a second game card. It would be nice to be able to keep a second game with you, without having to keep it in a pocket or resort to buying one of those carrying cases. I imagine the inside of the DS case is pretty crowded, but it would have been a handy feature. Other than that I can't complain about the system so far. Now, the real question has yet to be answered. Will I keep playing it?

The Daily Show Kicks Ass

2006.06.07 - Wednesday

Jon Stewart is probably one of the best political comedians around these days, and "The Daily Show" is probably one of the only programs on the air that makes me wish I had cable. Here are some classics:

Bush "answers" questions
Bush on gas, the finite resource
The log of war
Fake news in the real news
Donald Rumsfeld caught in a lie
Gaywatch
The Daily Show gets the Bananas
Katrina

That last one isn't completely done by "The Daily Show", but there's still some good stuff in there. Most of the time I get the biggest kicks out of the segments which focus on the media, and their seemingly chronic inability to connect even the most obvious of dots, whether by choice or by sheer incompetence. It's a shame we don't demand more of them.

Stanley Cup Playoffs

2006.06.06 - Tuesday

Well, after last night's disaster for the Edmonton Oilers, it doesn't look like they have much chance left of winning it all. Roloson is out for the rest of the playoffs, and I just can't see either Ty Conklin or Jussi Markkanen stepping up and outplaying Cam Ward right now. Ward is on fire, and made more than one unbelievable save last night. I suppose the only consolation for the Oilers is that Ward basically won that game for Carolina, and stuff like that doesn't usually last forever.

Still, after that "goal" which gave Carolina the win, I can't see what little goaltending Edmonton now has taking them to a championship. It's such a shame.

The More Things Change...

2006.06.05 - Monday

Volpe returns controversial campaign donations

Ridiculous. If $5400 political donations by teenagers, as well as a pair of 11-year old twins, all children of corporate executives, don't constitute campaign finance fraud, then I don't know what does. Seriously, what is the point of having these laws if they're basically impossible to enforce, or even agree that they've been broken? Anyone who thought the Liberal party has trying to clean itself up got a rude awakening when Mr. Volpe's campaign financing tactics were revealed. They were then treated to a resounding slap in the face as Mr. Volpe and what seems like the rest of the Liberal party insisted these donations were perfectly above board, and threatened to sue anyone who says otherwise. Don't kid yourselves folks, this party hasn't changed, not one bit.

I'm getting sick of posting stories like this. Seriously, where is the justice in Canada? How is this guy not being forced to resign? How is he not being charged with violating the Elections Canada Act? Why is he even still being allowed to run for the Liberal leadership? Disgraceful! We're basically teaching our children there are no consequences to breaking the law, so long as you apologize when caught, or return anything you've stolen. People everywhere, including in the media, are shrugging this off as "a good laugh". "Ha, ha, ha! Those crazy Liberals, they never change." Isn't anyone angry about this sort of thing anymore? Why do people put up with it? It's totally insane.

Stop voting Liberal, Jesus Christ!

George Lucas: Sad, Pathetic, Piddling Old Man

2006.06.03 - Saturday

AICN Down Under

Read the first section of this write up. It wouldn't surprise me if it were true. Lucas is a narrow-minded, bitter shell of his former self.