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Karaoka and aftermath

The plan last night was to go to Jackfish Dundees with my brother's girlfriend (for the summer, it must be emphasized) and the female population and engage in the ancient Japanese art of karaoke. That was the plan. I convinced Stephen to give me a ride to Jackfish's selling him on the idea of girls, drunken single girls, with shaved legs, the shaved part being important to my bush addled brain. I met up with Christopher's girlfriend (for the summer) Megan Brooks, the sister of Joe, a guy that I hung out in junior high, Andrew West and his sister, Nicole. Apperently, there was trivia of obscure, for me, at least, country music and late 70s musical anthems mixed with geographical trivia. I ordered myself a picture of beer knowing that my tree planting given abilities of holding my liquor would come in handy. And lo, I wasn't a belligerent drunk. *snark alert* This will come as a suprise to some. *snark alert off* With liquor oiling the wheels of conversation, we talked of many things: Victoria, Issaiah Bell, my brother Christopher, movies, Grand Theft Auto, a shitty new wave band that came to FSJ (whose name escapes me) et cetra. We also hatched a plan to get my brother drunk as no one has seen him under the influence. I've never seen Christopher drink a drip of alcohol in my life, mainly due to a weird quirk of his that says that he doesn't want anyone in the family to see him stumble and vomit. Or so he says. I think he can't hold his liquor. The evening ended with the girls singing a Dixie Chicks song and Stephen and I heading to McDo's to get my drunken hamburger fix. I found out this morning that Megan got kicked out of Loony Tunes. It was best described as a post emptive manuver as they should have done it on her birthday.


If it didn't rain this morning, I'd be out in the field today "working" instead of in the office, doing paper work. This is bad because I have a rare hangover. Why's the field better? I dig it because the work is mostly setup. Since we're pumping water, most of the work takes place in the first hour that we arrive at a site moving pumps. After that, you spend most of the day in the truck reading books, listening to CDs, eating snacks and bullshitting all while raking in tall dollars. Working in the office isn't hard physical work, but it's steady and you don't get breaks like you would in the field. Instead of spending 2-3 hours driving from our place and back in the John out to PJ or Mile, you gotta be ready to work in the basement at 7 onwards. Mornings, like this, where I got less than 5 hours of sleep, it's nice to work in the field since it allows the opportunities to sleep. No such luck in the office.

I've never been keen on the fact that my dad runs his business at home. Business bleeds into family affairs more than it should. It's not something that you can turn off when you leave the office, since the difference between the office and the house is a set of stairs. My dad's not the greatest communicator (like me!), so when he gets pissed off, or is having a shitty day, he'll take it out on everyone. It sucks, because you have no clue what'll set him off. Like today, out of the blue, my dad went "You know, I make mistakes too! Everyone is always on top of me", totally without warning. That said, he's a great boss and I like working for him.
Classified under:personal,

Kickass new Korean flicks

If you're into the international film scene, like myself, you probably know that Korea (and to a lesser degree, Japan) is producing some of the world's best cinema. From the stylized ultra violence of Chan Wok Park's Vengeance trilogy to Kim Ki Duk's more contemplative fare like 3-Iron, the Korean film scene is bringing out imagry and action that harkens back to the heyday of late 80s, early 90s Hong Kong cinema. Adi Tantimedh is a comic writer and critic overseas who is incredibly fond of the Asian film scene. I usually trust his judgement of what's shit and what' good. Recently he released his thoughts on three new Korean movies, all of which, I want to see badly now. He says:

im Ji-Won is probably one of the top five directors in Korea right now, with only four movies to his credit. He has never made the same type of film twice. His first, the deadpan black comedy THE QUIET FAMILY, has the dubious honour of being remade into a hysterical DIY musical by Takeshi Miike, THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS.

His second, THE FOUL KING, was a comedy about an office worker who becomes a masked wrestler and loses himself in the fantasy life.

His short film HOME, in the pan-Asian horror anthology THREE, is a hallucinatory nightmare about limbo in a housing estate. That whetted his appetite for A TALE OF TWO SISTERS, a gothic ghost story that takes the key Korean folktale about the evil stepmother and the revenge of the dead girl she persecuted and reimagines it into a labyrinthine maze of psychological trauma, and is probably the most stylish ghost story in the current cycle of Asian horror films.

A BITTERSWEET LIFE is Kim's entry in the gangster genre. It has more in common with Cocteau, French existential movies and Michael Mann. The hero is a gangland enforcer who has never been in love, who doesn't have a life outside of his work. He's a coiled spring of precise, efficient violence and highly valued by his boss. He's given an assignement: to watch his boss' young mistress, and if she's unfaithful, to kill her.

He chooses not to kill her, and unleashes an avalanche of Hell and Retribution upon himself. But when a hard man's heart melts for the first time in his life, and he's made to pay for it, he's apt to return some Hell and Retribution of his own.

It's not the originality of the plot, but the oblique and unexpected approach Kim Ji-Won takes to tell his story here. He goes all out with the hyperreal, ultrastylish Cinemascope compositions of cool, sleek surfaces that mirror his hero's melting glacial exterior. The setpieces are amazing, but it's the moments of silence that punctuate them that make the movie surprisingly contemplative, the camera dwelling on the star's face, after the torture sequences, the fights, and the apocalyptic shoot-out. The film becomes increasingly off-beat as it goes along, my favourite moments being a bunch of bumbling Russian-Siberian arms dealers. And Kim withholds the emotional pay-off and the revelations for the final moments of the movie, making it a gangster movie that plays to the rhythm of a heart breaking in slow motion.

This is one of the of the best films of the year.

ARAHAN is the Korean martial arts-superhero comedy hit of 2004.

A nerdish traffic cop is accidentally zapped by a shopgirl with Chi powers when she was trying to stop a purse-snatcher. He discovers that her father and the friends who trained her are Secret Masters of martial arts who who has stayed hidden in ordinary life for decades, waiting for the right pupil to pass their teachings to. And they in turn discover that with his extraordinary Chi potential, that student is him. When an old enemy escapes from his prison, intent on taking over the world, they suddenly have a deadline to turn him into a Master to save the day.

Again, the premise isn't original, but it's the execution and incidental details that carry the show. The wittiest touch is the story's location of superpowered sages hiding among the bickering urban working class of modern-day Seoul, working as shopkeepers, labourers and small businessmen. The cute superpowered girl works as a convenience store who uses her breaks to run across rooftops and down the sides of buildings to fight crime. The supervillain is unleashed from a secret tomb by workmen drilling to extend some roadworks. The martial arts wire-fu is as slick and accomplished as anything from Hong Kong, but takes the movie one-ups CROUCHING TIGER by being totally irreverent and taking the piss at every opportunity. As a superhero movie, it shares a lot in common with Raimi's Spider-man films, but is a lot more exuberant and much funnier.

Director Ryu Seung-Wan is one of the other top five directors in Korea. He's got all the savvy and inventive wit of Sam Raimi, and casts his brother, the talented Ryu Seung-Bum as his lead.

CRYING FIST

So yes, Ryu Seung-Wan is practically the Korean Sam Raimi, and here he takes a completely different tack after ARAHAN.

The story is simple: an aging boxer and a juvenile delinquent separately use the sport to claw their way back to a life worth living, and eventually face each other in a lightweight championship bout where both has everything to lose and everything to gain.

Boxing movies are underdog redemption stories, not to mention weepies for men. Guys feel better about being emotional after having the snot pounded after them, because they feel less girly about it, and CRYING FIST lays it on in spades. It subverts the conventions by making both its main characters sympathetic underdogs fighting to regain their dignity.

Choi Min-Sik from OLD BOY is the older guy, a former Silver Medalist boxer whose life has gone to shit after years of bad investments and fair-weather friends who took his money and never came back. His wife has thrown him out and his son is embarrassed by him. He has brain damage from all those blows to the head and he makes money by offering himself as a punching bag to passers-by to take out their frustrations on.

Ryu Seung-Bum, the director's brother again, plays a completely different role from the well-meaning nerd in ARAHAN. Here he's a sullen tearaway with a mountain of pent-up rage and a way with his fists. He starts to find an outlet in the boxing program in jail, and after his father dies, feels the need to atone for the grief he caused his ailing grandmother.

By the time the two men meet in the ring at the film's climax, we're rooting for both of them and watching the tragedy of two men trying to find redemption by pummelling the shit out of each other.

Unlike the cartoon stylisation of ARAHAN, director Ryu goes for a sharp, high-contrast look and the use of long lenses to draw you into the characters' world. And unlike namby-pamby Hollywood fights, he shoots the fights in long uninterrupted mastershots without the use of stunt doubles. It's the dynamism of both style and story that reinvents the boxing movie.

Sounds like Korea is aping HK's strongest genres: the wire fu flick and the heroic blood shed gangster movie. Hopefully these movies (and Sympathy for Lady Vegeance) will be in Chinatown next time I visit Vancouver
Classified under:Korea,movies

Site overhaul almost finito

Well, it took me a good couple of hours, but the site redesign is almost finished. Thoughts, anyone?

Deeds and memes.

Well, as of a couple of hours ago, I finished my good deeds for the week and phoned up Pearl. Today's her birthday, you see, and I give her my annual phone call today. I can honestly say that this year was better than my call last year since this time she was actually home and I didn't have to talk to her Englishly challenged mother. We didn't chat that much, since I had woke her up, something that tends to happen when I give my exes a ring (this also happened when I called up Miwako on her birthday, earlier this week). Since she was so sleepy, I told her that I'd phone her up in a couple of days, most likely later in the day so I could talk to her in a more concrete state.

Had she been awake, I doubt that we'd have that much to say. For the last week, we've been emailing each other quite a bit; an email per day. It's like the old days, brain picking with a dash of inuendo. It's good to know that she's still the same person, inspite of the fact that she's getting married.

Tangently, I've shamelessly stolen another meme from Heather. Shameless, I tell you!

1. Reply with your name and I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. Unless I got it from your journal, or you've already posted it on your journal.

I usually don't do this, but I'm up for the interaction. Indulge me, once again. This, I command.
Classified under:personal,memes

Books that I want to read

Coming up later this year is a new comic by Vertigo comics called Testament. The premise is intriguing, as it's an alogorical comic about the Bible. Much like how cinema often reinterprets the Dracula myth for each generation, Testament reimagines the Old Testament in a world much like our own. Seeing as Vertigo usually trades their comics 6 months after the end of an arc, I'll be waiting until next October to pick the series up.

My buddy from tree planting recommended a book to me called the Dice Man. He assures me that it's one of the greatest novels that he's ever read. Considering how much reading material digested, I'll take his word for it. He tells me that it's a book about a psychologist that, in a fit of boredom, decides to make all his life choices based on a roll of the dice. Denis urged me to go into the book clean, knowing no more than that, so thats what I have planned.

The collected edition of Demo is coming out later this year, the critically acclaimed comic by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. Originally sold as "what if kids had powers in the real world", it looks to be much better than that.

Also published by AiT-Planet Lar, the guys that brought out Demo is Tales From Fish Camp. It involves tales of hard drinking and hard work, which sounds like tree planting.

The first two trades of Scott Pilgrim will be waiting for me in PG when I get back. I look forward to this more than anything else.

Classified under:books,comics

Why Rogers is pissing me off

A couple of days ago, I was pretty stoked to find out that I could send email to my Rogers cell account. Seeing as I'm now spending most of my day away from the computer *gasp*, I figured that getting my e-mail would make things easier. Since I have an utterly kickass gmail account, I knew that anything that came into my mail box would easily be forwarded to my cell, unlike my shitty hotmail one. I had all this cool shit planned out for my cell. I was going to use one of those RSS subscription services to send feeds to my e-mail account, allowing me to pretty much have all the web access that I'd need on my phone. Pretty cool, eh? Unfortunately for me, Rogers has this bullshit policy of billing me for emails received as text messages. To receive a message, I have to text Rogers to authorize it, a 15 cent fee each time. To make matters worse, there's a 160 character limit per message, which means that depending on the length of the message, you'll be shelling out more money. Pretty shitty. I heard that this policy is a relatively new, just added last month. , so I'm not the only one being burned. Hopefully Rogers realizes the error of their ways and reinstitues their old system, but seeing as they're a money hungry corporation, it's quite doubtful.

Le sigh!
Classified under:rogers,cell phones

Rob needs help badly!

If someone could get all the tracks from the Go! Team's album, Thunder, Ligthening Strike and put them on the internet via You Send It, I would be *very* grateful.

Classified under:personal,the Go! Team

Memegasm!

If you're on Heather's friend list on her livejournal (and chance are, you're not, because you're not fucking cool), you might have noticed that she posted a meme. I'm not one to do memetic stuff, usually, but for my push for content, I'm taking the plunge. Prepare yourselves!

The meme goes as follows:
Ask me for my "Top 5" of pretty much anything & I will give you my list.

Then copy this in your journal and let everyone else ask you for lists
Pretty pushy, eh? I have followed her orders, as I am a weak willed man. Aras, she didn't answer my question. Unlike her, however, I WILL! Isn't the internet wild and utterly mad?
Classified under:memes,lists

Tone Twilight Zone

One of my weirder experiences tree planting was one of the e-mails that I received when I got back. It was from my lady friend from Japan, Miwa. She had e-mailed and told me that I had phoned her while I was tree planting and wanted to thank me for the phone call. This is odd for a couple of reasons. First of all, I had no access to telephones while I was planting trees. This makes it pretty much impossible as it is to talk to her. Secondly, even if I did have telephone access, she never gave me her telephone number. Thirdly, assuming that I *did* call her, using my cell, there was no signal where I was, and, even if I did have signal, I have to contact Rogers before I makes calls overseas lest someone has stolen my cell. So yeah, it was pretty disconcerting. I'm almost of the opinion that there's a Rob from a parallel universe. It's *very* weird. That said, judging from her sheer joy in the e-mail, she was pleased as punch that I called. Today, Miwako returned the favour and called me this morning. It was great to hear her trademarke "Harro, Rob!" once again and catch up on each other's lives, despite me not having called her before. Her birthday is coming up soon, which means I'll have to give her a phone call. For real, this time
Classified under:weird,Miwako+Takabe

Spin's Greatest Albums of the Last 20 Years

Classified under:music,lists
Last month's issue featured a top 100 list of the greatest CDs of the last 20 years. I, being a list whore, had no choice but to pick it up. Since Spin
isn't on par with Blender or Rolling Stone, there's a lot of suspect choices on the list. That said, I figured that I'd save you all some money and give you

the top 20 albums of the last 20 years.

Note, the albums bolded are ones that I own, bootlegged or otherwise. Gasp in shock and horror as we see the horrible holes in my musical library. My commentary will be in brackets. Without further ado...

1)Radiohead-OK Computer
2)Public Enemy-It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
3)Nirvana-Nevermind
4)Pavement-Slanted and Enchanted
5)the Smiths-the Queen is Dead
6)Pixies-Surfer Rosa (I listened to this CD over and over again while I was planting at Blue River. It took a while to get into, but now I *really* love their sound. Frank Black's scratchy guitar bat screeches are phenomenal)
7)De La Soul-3 Fee High and Rising
8)Prince-Sign 'o' the Times
9)PJ Harvey-Rid of Me (Anyone ever listen to PJ Harvey? There was a lot of buzz on her new album but I've seemed to have completely missed out. Last summer, the CBC decried that Alanis Morriset had fucked her career over and had killed the riot grrl movement that she started. Note: this might be bull)
10)N.W.A.-Straight Outta Compton (I get merciless ribbing from Anson for liking this album)
11)U2-Achtung Baby
12)Beastie Boys-Paul's Boutique (This is the only Beastie Boys album that I own)
13)Husker Du-New Day Rising (Husker Du always sounded like a wannabe hippie icecream company)
14)Sonic Youth-Daydream Nation'
15)Liz Phair-Exile in Guyville
16)Beck-Odelay (Shame alert! I never heard this album until I started planting trees this summer. Very impressive. You could hear the Dust Brother's fingerprints all over it)
17)Nas-Illmatic
18)Guns 'N' Roses-Appetite for Destruction (I've been meaning to buy this for ages. Welcome to the Jungle and Sweet Child o' Mine are both very ace)
19)Hole-Live Through This (When my friend from Ireland, Denis, say this, he called the whole list a load of bollocks. He doesn't dig Hole)
20)Wu-tang Clan-Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
21)Public Enemy-Fear of a Black Planet
22)My Bloody Valentine-Loveless (The WEF used to rave about My Bloody Valentine. Am I missing out?)
23)Outkast-Skankonia (I should pick this one up to, as it has Ms Jackson and Gasoline Dreams. Great songs, those)
24)Sleater-Kinney-Dig Me Out ( I have it on good authority that Sleater Kinney is pretty good too)
25)Nine Inch Nails-The Downward Spiral
26)Bjork-Post (Bjork has a huge queer following. Why? This is something that I don't understand, as I am a straight man)
27)the Cure-The Head on the Door (I have a copy of the Cure's set from Coachella 2004 that I've probably listened to twice now. I wasn't that impressed.)
28)Oasis-Definatelu Maybe
29)Fugazi-13 Songs
30)the Notorious B.I.G.-Ready to Die (I had a chance to listen to this album this summer. Halfway through, I said "Fuck this", and switched to Dre 2001.)
31)Dinosaur Jr.-You're Living All Over Me
32)the Replacements-Tim (I bought this when I bought DJ Shadow's Pre-emptive strike for my love of Can't Hardly Wait and Alex Chilton, which aren't on this album. Since it's on the list, I guess it's time to re-examine.
33)Ice Cube-AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (I still say that Ice Cube is our generation's Bill Cosby)
34)Elliot SMith-Either/Or
35)Dr. Dre-the Chronic (Thanks to San Andreas, I'd probably pick this up for Dre Day and Nothin' But a G Thang)
36)Pixies-Doolite
37)Guided By Voices-Bee Thousand
38)A Tribe Called Quest-The Low End Theory
39)Lucinda Williams-Lucinda Williams
40)Run-D.M.C.-Raising Hell
41)Smashing Pumpkins-Siamese Dreams
42)Jane's Addiction-Nothing's Shocking (And yes, I am aware that I'm missing out hardcore by not having picked up the Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addiction.
Truth be told, I didn't start picking up CD's until the late 90s. FACT!)
43)Boogie Down Productions-Criminal Minded
44)Green Day-Dookie
45)Kanye West-College Dropout (I probably wouldn't have picked this up if I didn't hear Lyndsey glorify Kanye almost every fucking day on the block. It's an excellent rap album that takes the piss out of most of the rap that you hear on the radio. Great lyrics and fantastic beats. I picked it up for 10 bucks at CD Plus. You can't go wrong with that.
46)The Fall-This Nation's Saving Grace
47)Eric B & Rakim-Paid in Full
48)Radiohead-Kid A (Has one of my favourite opening tracks of all time. I was so impressed with their sound on this, I picked up Hail to the Thief. I thought Kid A was better)
49)Lauryn Hill-The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
50)New Order-Low-Life
51)Nirvana-In Utero
52)Beastie Boys-Licensed to Ill
53)Rage Against the Machine-The Battle of Los Angeles (Both this and Licensed to Ill, my brother Simon owns and loves)
54)the Breeders-Last Splash
55)The Chemical Brothers-Dig Your Own Hole
56)PJ Harvey=To Bring You My Love
57)White Stripes-White Blood Cells (Yeah, I know, I should own this album. Blah, blah, blah)
58)Metalica-Master of Puppets
59)Modest Mouse-The Lonesome Crowded West
60)De La Soul-De La Soul Is Dead
61)Weezer-Pinkerton (I have a feeling that hard-core Weezer fans, Mike, I'm talking to you, will dispute this being on the list)
62)Missy Elliot-Supa Dupa Fly
63)Pavement-Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
64)Eminem-The Marshal Matthers LP
65)Basement Jaxx-Remedy
66)Outkast-Aquemini
67)Slayer-Reign in Blood
68)Tricky-Maxiquaye
69)DJ Shadow-Entroducing (Being a huge Shadow fan, I'm glad to see him on the list. Entroducing is an awesome album)
70)Jay-Z-the Blueprint
71)The Jesus and Mary Chain-Psychocandy
72)Raekwon-Onlu Built 4 Cuban Linx
73)Pulp-Different Class (The coolest girl that I worked with this summer, Angela, was a huge Pulp fan. She, Denis and I would spend our evenings in the truck listening to this CD belting out Common People almost every night. Besides staring at the ass of Candance, IMO, the cutest girl at camp, this was my favourite part of my downtime)
74)Portishead-Dummy
75)Le Tigre-Le Tigre
76)Belle and Sebastian-If You're Feeling Sinister
77)Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (I have the feeling that Mike will sell me on this one)
78)the Stone Roses-the Stone Roses
79)Moby-Everything is Wrong
80)D'Angelo-Voodoo
81)Beck-Mellow Gold
82)Jeff Buckley-Grace
83)At the Drive-In-Relationship of Command
84)Soundgarden-Superunknown
85)R.E.M.-Automatic for the People
86)Meat Puppers-Up on the Sun
87)Blur Parklife
88)Stereolab-Emperor Tomato Ketchup (Didn't Stereolab do that infectious song for that Voltzwagon commercial?)
89)Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Fever to Tell
90)Sonic Youth-Sister
91)XTC-Skylarking
92)Big Black-Atomizer
93)Pearl Jam-Ten
94)Slint-Spiderland
95)Elastica-Elastica
96)the Pogues-Rum, Sodomy & the Lash
97)Neutral Milk Hotel-In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
98)Cornershop-When I was Born for the 7th Time
99)Afgan Wings-Gentlemen
100)the Strokes-Is This It (More like This is shit. After listening to this album treeplanting, for the love of me, I couldn't figure out what all the fuss
was about)

Chatting with the ex

Classified under:personal,
I chatted with Pearl for the first time in probably three odd months last night. Normally, I don't mind chatting with her. She's a smart, funny gal who knows me better than any other woman that I've dated. And, unlike my other exes, it never feels ackward or weird chatting with her. She always gives me her full undivided attention and never makes me feel like I'm chatting to myself.

I found out that her fiancé is moving to Leithbridge this fall, which causes me much glee. Knowing of her high libido and her distaste of long distance relationships, it'll be intersting to see if she lasts it out. Yeah, I'm being malicious, and yeah, I'm aware that they have a fantastic relationship, but it would great for the guy to get his just deserts for cheating on me with her. There shall be no sympathy for mister vengeance.

She also sent me a picture of her and her fiance and I have to say, that she's one of those women that gets hotter as she gets older. Fah! To make matters worse, she insinuated that she had a threesome with the guy and has been wolfing down pussy hardcore. This pisses me off to no end, as I've told her numerous times that under no circumstances that I want to know of her sex life. Case closed. She figured that it was kosher since it involved a women. No dice. It really irks me that she fucking lacks respect about how I feel about that shit. I really wish that she'd lay off. Knowing her, she probably will.

Her birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, which means that I'll have to give her my annual phone call. If it's like anything like last year, she'll gab my ear off like nothing ever happened between us. Near the end of our relationship, it got to be annoying, listening to her babble on and on about others for 15 minutes before she asked me how my day was, but I can handle it once a year.

Global Frequency pilot

Classified under:Global Frequency,:television,

I wrote *way* back in 2003 that the Global Frequency comics was "the most expensive television pilot never made". Judging what John Rogers, one of the brains behind the series has to say, this is quite true and is one of the reasons that the show never got picked up. Thanks to my buddy, Stephen, I got a chance to see the shit canned pilot for the television series. The verdict? Well, for starters, it lacks the balls to the walls urgency of the comic book. Where the comic was densely packed action barely contained in 22 pages, the pilot for the Global Frequency had lots of room to breathe, even allowing time for *gasp* character development. And that's fine and dandy. The comic medium is much different than what you can do in television. My other gripe was that the acting wasn't that great, with the exception of Michelle Forbes as the hardass Miranda Zero. Like all television series', I'm sure that this would have improved had the show went on. What's good about the series? Thankfully, it captures the esscence of the comic, which is a bunch of orindary people working together for the greater good of humanity. And the pilot had some great pieces of meat for comic fans, foreshadowing the cyborg that they encounter in the second issue.

But that's all peas and carrots. Check out the pilot yourself and see how it compares to the comic.

I don't understand Kotex

I don't understand commercials about feminine products. I just saw a commercial by Kotex that declared that there's nothing plain about "plain janes", then segueways into how their new symbol is going to be an orchid. Am I missing something here? Is different menstrual symptons make a woman less plain than others? And why the orchid? Somehow, I don't see the co-relation between that and the moon blood. Is this because I am male?

Rob versus the employement agency

I fear for the future of Canadian youth using job finding services. Lets take my experiences yesterday, for example. I met with his guy called Francis, who I thought would help me find a job resource center, basically a place where I could print off resumes without having to be charged tall dollars. He, on the other hand, was an overzelous social worker with dubious mental facilities. I became susipicious of his abilities when he started to show me how to use the internet.
"Well, Robert, this website can show us how to find work. Lets look up counsellor, for example, that's my job."
He types it up and the screen for various counselling jobs appears on the screen.
"Ineresting," he mutters, and studies the job requirements for a couple of minutes before I politely cough.

He showed his true incompetence when he phoned me up today.
"Is this Robert?"
"Yes?"
"This is Francis, I have good news for you!"
"Uh... okay?"
"You have been approved for EI! Congratulations! There is a snag, however. Because of this, we can not process your claim through us. You must go through CorPro."
"I'm a little confused here. I didn't apply for EI. Are you sure?"
"Yes, positive. So, you know where Corpro is, correct? We need to schedule an apoinment as soon as possible"
"Wait, wait... I didn't go there for EI. I just wanted a printer, remember."
And then Francis gets a little beligerent.
"Robert, this is a good thing, I explained this to you, you *have* EI! You can get subsidized for a job!" He pauses for a minute. Silence.
"Wait, you are Robert, correct?"
"Yeah, this is Rob."
"I'm so sorry. I thought that you were Steve."
"Steve? You called me Robert all throughout the conversation. What's going on?"
"I'm so sorry about this." A rueful pause. "I'm so sorry." He then hangs up.

Rob nerds out on Kinja

Classified under:RSS,
I've always liked the idea of an RSS feed, but I've never liked the execution of RSS feeders. Yeah, it's handy to see all your favourite blogs updated in one place, but I never dug having to click through a bunch of tabs, like a message board to read someone's blog. I like reading everything in one fell swoop, like what livejournal offers. Thankfully, kinja offers does this, and offers RSS feeds in one webpage using a digets format. It's far from perfect, tho'. Unlike a service such as bloglines, kinja offers ads. It's not a huge distraction, but the ads are tad oversized and distrupt reading flow. I wish that the page would offer an RSS feed as well, so I could combine it with RSS Digest so that I could add a side bar either here or to MKZ so that I can keep all my webpages centralized. Gripes aside, I recommend it to anyone that hasn't used an RSS reader. If you're interested, you can read my daily blogs and give it a shot. I'd be interested in checking out everyone's list or bloglines, if they have one.

Interesting Nintendo Revolutions rumours

Classified under:rumours,Nintendo Revolution
Here's the juicy stuff from the forum, and I don't think that you guys deserve the pain of having to register for scant info.

The controller will be wireless; he’s right about that. As you also know, the Xbox 360’s controllers will be wireless as well. Where do you think they got this idea? That’s why Nintendo is still trying to determine what to show at E3. From what I’ve heard, they will show the design of the system as well as games. I’ll tell you about the software later though.

The controller will also be pressure sensitive. The pressure you put into it will determine certain things, such as movement. This is another optional capibility. Someone on Nintendo’s board mentioned this months ago. They said that “touching is good, but feeling is better.” This may sound strange, but it provides great controls. Racing games will really be helped by this control setting.

The Nintendo Revolution will also include voice control more advanced than anything seen so far. Nintendogs is just the beginning. To achieve this, Nintendo sent us headsets (similar to ones you can use for Xbox Live) that are wirelessless communicating with the console. Imagine being able to merely call for an airstrike or reload your gun by giving out commands orally. So far, we have put this feature to the test the most; as you can see, I’m excited over this feature.

...As Nintendo has stated before, the system will be online. In my eyes, the online system they have set up is the most revolutionary part of the system. While Sony and Microsoft are busy turning their systems into trojan horses for their other electronic devices, Nintendo is going to use the Revolution for direct communication with gamers. The only way I can describe it is as an internet service. Imagine turning it on and checking your mail on the system. You see previews and demos of DS and Revolution games that you can download. A magazine similar to Nintendo Power will be exclusive to the system, and you will be able to access it on the Revolution’s homepage. As you check you mail, you will also see various invitations from gamers on your buddy list who want to play you. There are so many other ways this is going to be used. Once the Revolution comes out, there will be no reason to hang out on message boards. Message boards as well as chat rooms will be available on the Revolution so that gamers can discuss and challenge each other all day. And the best thing is that the entire thing is totally free and easy to use. Why play Madden on Xbox Live when you’ll be able to play it for free on the Revolution with much better services?

IGN dimisses this as bullshit, but it sounds interesting to me. Hopefully Nintendo reveals some stuff at this year's E3.

Why I love Miwako

Classified under:personal,
I e-mailed my good friend Miwako a couple of weeks ago, the first time since she moved back to Japan. In the e-mail I told her of Anson's habit of having to have me go with him *everywhere*, even if it's a short trip to the store that's literally outside the door. Miwako, replied with her usual wit.

From your story, I felt Anson is like Japanese girls because most Japanese girls go everywhere with friends. Even though when they go to washroom. ha ha

Thankfully, Anson doesn't require to hold his dick when he takes a piss.

Why I don't watch movies with Anson

After having Anson fall asleep during Sin City and cutting our screening of Oldboy short (in Chinese subtitles, no less) to get some sleep, I have officially vowed never to watch a movie with Anson again. I have no clue how he couldn't be enthralled by Oldboy. For one hour, I had to listen to him say, over and over again, "I don't understand, Rob". Sometimes I wonder why I bother introducing my friends to cinema.

The Flaming Lips: Live @ Coachella

Classified under:Flaming Lips,music
Those who know me are undoubtably aware that I really dig recordings of live music. Be it small venues or super crowds, there's nothing quite like listening to the band interacting with the audience and making subtle changes to their music to fit the venue and situation. I'm also a huge fan of the Flaming Lips who are famous for putting on fantastic live shows as well. Thanks to the power of soulseek, the heir apparent to audiogalaxy, I've managed to get a fantastic live track of the Lips live at Coachella. Not only is the recording fantastically clean, but manages to capture the fun and playfulness of Wayne Coyne rocking it up with the audience. Listening to the call and answer portion of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots gives me goosebumps everytime that I listen to it.