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.

Viral marketing: Greenzap

Classified under:marketing,
Normally I don't try to shill products, but this one interests me. Greenzap is the internet's new alternative to Paypal. Considering all the fuss that paypal has been experiencing, it's cool to see a company offer an alternative. Their business plan is a smart one too. For those who pre-register, they get 25 dollars in their account, plus 5 dollars for a referal. So, instead of spending money on advertising, they're rewarding word of mouth. Very clever, if you ask me. It'll be interesting to see if it pays off. Reguardless, if anyone is intersted in getting an account, click here and use the referal code flyingautobus.

And thus ends the shilling.

Music Track of the Day: Apparat Organ Quartet

Classified under:music,mp3,Apparat Organ Quartet
Hey kids, you remember when all the cool bands were coming out of Iceland? Remember how most of them were ethereal examinations of space whales fucking? Forget about it. Some Icelandic music actually rock. How so? You do it by bringing together four crazy -ass organists and tell them to go full bore on refurbished organs. The Apparat Organ Quartet does Sunday mass could never do. They make organ music sound cool and not draconian.

RIP BassWolf

Classified under:tagname,Guitar Wolf
Pitfork reported today that the beloved bass player of Guitar Wolf, Billy aka Hideaki Sekiguchi died from a heart attack.

Rock 'n Roll is NOT over, baby! Rock 'n Roll NEVER DIES!

Japanese love hotel report

Classified under:Japan,sex

Outside, the price list. There are some "shifts" to bear in mind. It's not as simple as "3 p.m. check-in, noon check-out". You can go with the "Stay" rate, which means "all night", but check-in for this rate is 9-10 p.m. It's the most expensive.

"Rest" means 1-3 hours. It can be done any time, but the rooms will probably fill for the night soon after 10!

The last, "Free Time" is available during the day, essentially "all you can screw" during set periods.

Notice that the prices end in "~". That means that the price is for the cheapest room in the house, which may already be occupied!

Music Track Of The Day: the Futureheads-Hounds of Love

Classified under:music,mp3,the Futureheads
When you breed above average capela with the renaissance of New Wave, you get UK's Futureheads. Their cover of Kate Bush's Hounds of Love is infectious. The pulse of guitars with the "ooh oooh" blips sounds like the musical equivilent of sonar pigning through a school of fish. This is fantastic head bopping dance rock recommended to me by Mike. It's easily one of my favourite singles so far this year.

Useful tools: CDisplay Comic Reader

Classified under:comics,software
For those of you who have been downloading comics torrents and have been fustrated with the .cbr file extension, I bring you good news. CDisplay is a program that allows you view .cbr files, comic style. It's pretty flexible too, allowing you to fit the pages on the screen without scrolling, and, if my memory serves, allows you to see double spreads on one page too. Go forth and download it. This is my good deed for the week, no doubt.

Aeon Flux movie website is up!

Classified under:movies,Aeon Flux
One of my favourite cartoons from the '90s, Aeon Flux is being adapted to the screen by Paramount Pictures. Juding by the website it looks to be a *very* faithful adaptation. Charlize Theron catching a fly with her eyelashes? Pitch perfect, baby.

More Mix Cd Goodness

Classified under:music,mix Cds
I found another website dedicated to mix Cds today. Judging by the fact that she puts enough time to create covers for the CDs with track listings and what appears to be back covering, this woman looks to have skills comparable to xtop's fantastic mix tapes. Her website hasn't been updated in almost a year, so it's hard to say if she'll respond with an e-mail and send me CD, but I'm crossing my fingers.

Audiopost: Grant Morrison on his alien abduction experience

Classified under:Grant Morrison,mp3
I've been a fan of Grant Morrison's work for a long time and listening to him speak is a special treat. In this audio clip, he talks about his alien abduction experience, what it signified to him and how it related to the Invisibles.

Time Traveling With Tesuya Mizuguchi

Classified under:video games,music
If you're not familiar with Mizuguchi's work, you're missing out one of gaming's most innovative creators, best known for his innovative use of music in games. He's the brains behind Sega's Space Channel 5 and the mind altering cult classic rez. Instead of doing the regular question and answer that most interviews stick with, 1.com opted to reanimate the music from Mizuguchi's gameography and used it to jump start old memories. It's a fantastic interview it's strongly recommended that you watch the video clips to get the full effect. Ace reporting.

Creepy new Burger King commercial (Windows Media)

Classified under:advertising,Burger King
It only seems like yesterday that Burget King was using subversion to sell burgers. Thakfully (or not, depending on your sensibilities), the King has once again has dipped into the well of well of post modern marketing with the help of famed music video director David LaChapelle. Although the new commercial lacks the creepy undertones of having the Burger King wake up next to a man pimping his new burger, there is something disturbing about women playing with buckets of secret sauce.