The guitar hero factor

Have you noticed that ever since the Guitar Hero games have become popular the playlists on local radio stations have subtly changed to include most of the songs that you can play in the game?
Not that I'm complaining...it's kind of funny - songs that I would never listen to I actually find myself enjoying now that I've 'played' them. Please - no guff from real musicians out there. Guitar Hero (and soon to be Rock Band) are about as far as my musical talents extend.

Dirty Cheese Lickers!

Some blog titles just write themselves.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1847441289

First off - this is another example of why british bookstores are vastly superior to our own.
Why is this not available at amazon.ca? Is there such a big difference between british and canadian humour?

Second off - who doesn't have a good housemate story?

I can't tell you how glad I am that when I go home now, I can be reasonably sure that everything that was in the fridge in the morning will be there in the evening.
Plus not having to play the 'how high can I stack the dirty dishes' game.
Have I mentioned that I love my new place?

Memories

Why is it that you can't choose what you want to remember? I have an innate talent for remembering useless Simpsons quotes, for example - but I can walk to the other side of the office and forget what I was going over there for.

Take reading. Read a book - five minutes later, you don't remember the words you've just read. Sure - you might have a general idea - you might have the gist of what was written (unless of course you've got a test on it - in which case it all seems to evaporate to somewhere) - but the specifics are gone.

How about this blog? What was the second sentence I wrote? (no looking!). Already it's probably gone. You had that knowledge, but somehow your brain decided it was unimportant - chucked it in some dusty corner and shut the door.

Stupid brain...I think I'm going to go back to killing you with alcohol.

Sssshhhhh - Cookie was right

Don't tell my friend Cookie - but...I think she might have been right about something.

I'm just contemplating starting my christmas shopping and got to thinking about Cookie's last rant. (http://titacookie.blogspot.com/2007/11/cant-buy-me-love.html)
Why do people give gift certificates as presents? I mean - I give you $50 you can spend at this store and you give me $50 I can spend at some other store. What's the point? That's it - this christmas will be a gift certificate free zone!
Some of my family is harder to shop for than others, but damn it - if I can't think of something to get them, I'm just going to give them something I want and assume they have the same taste as me.

This is just going straight to Cookie's head, though - I'm going to have to find 3 or 4 other things that she's wrong about...

I've been playing my game this week - Mass Effect.

It's pretty cool to go into a store and see it actually there for sale. 3 years of work by 150 people encapsulated in one little package.
What's a good sign is that I'm playing it at all. It's the first game of ours that I've actually played after it's been released. Usually I'm so sick of a game after playing it continuously for the last month of production that I don't even break the cellophane on my own copy when I get it. But for whatever reason, I'm still finding the fun in ME. (the main reason is that it's a freaking awesome game!)
Hopefully we get some good sales from those turkey-eating americans this weekend and we'll all have some nice big bonus checks coming next year.

Happy thanksgiving my american brothers - now put down that drumstick and get down to the store.

The planets are in alignment

What is going on lately?

I have this theory that there are maybe a dozen women who will really stand out in your life. Being a guy, I can't say if this theory holds true in reverse if you're a woman, but anyway...
I'm not just talking about a beautiful woman you spot at random or something, I'm talking about women who actually touch your life in some way. Someone who if you spotted them in a crowd years later - they would stand out as if they were the only one in the room. Someone who immediately sucks you in - mind and body.
I have no idea why - but over the last month - I've bumped into/hung out with 4 of the women that have this effect on my life - some of whom I haven't seen in years. One of them is getting married, one is dating someone. The others are fresh out of relationships and just trying to figure out life again. All of them make my heart ache when I see them. Needless to say, it's been kind of a surreal month.
So why is the universe doing this to me? Is there some message I'm supposed to be getting. Is karma paying me back or something?
That's my goal for the rest of the year - to figure out what it is that is going on and what I can do about it.

It's rare that I'm thankful for our own politicians, but it's stories like this that remind me that we could have it worse....much much worse.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071116/mugabe_rocks_071116/20071116?hub=TopStories

That is unless you happen to be a witch doctor...

A pox on the late left turners

Being from Edmonton, I'm used to bad drivers. But lately, one thing has really been pissing me off. People who run a red light to turn left.

Sure, maybe one guy - who is already sitting in the intersection is fine to turn left, but when two or three drivers after him go through as well, my roge starts to come out. (Roge is my friend Alex's term for road rage - patent pending)

Seriously though - WTF! Those 2 or 3 dum-dums interrupt the left turn signal for people coming through the other way so that maybe only half the cars that should get to use the left turn signal - thus increasing everyone's roge. (dum-dums is my term for fucking idiots - patent pending)

Every time it happens, I curse the fact that my car doesn't have any vehicular mounted weaponry.

Power of the blog

As an addendum - it seems that Singapore has caved in.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STIStory_177468.html

Of course, I'm sure I can take at least some of the credit for making them see the error of their ways. Power to the Bloggers!

Unexpected pleasures

Unexpected pleasures are the best ones.
Like going to see a band you've never heard before and seeing a fantastic show.
I went to see Travis last night and had just such an experience.
It always makes me wonder what else is out there that I'm missing out on.

Pissing off Singapore

Apparantly we've angered a whole nation with our shocking new game...

http://gamepolitics.com/2007/11/14/report-singapore-bans-mass-effect-over-lesbian-love-scene/

I've never had a whole country mad at me before. Significant parts of one, sure - but the whole thing? It's a new experience.

The Sound of Silence

How many people are you comfortable sharing silence with?

I got thinking about this yesterday at the remembrance day service. A large crowd of people (much larger that usual which was nice to see, by the way) standing together in silence.

Single people must be more used to spending time in silence - being by themselves so much. The problem that you come to is that silence is never silent. There is always some noise in the background that sucks your concentration to it. Even your very thoughts become louder. Maybe hearing those thoughts is what some find uncomfortable and need to drown out - with the TV, or radio or iPod or whatever.

Have you ever been in a sporting event where you lost badly - or maybe you've had a fight with the person you're dating? And then the long car ride home. No one wants to speak. The silence is like another person - an angry person who doesn't want to be disturbed. You're even afraid to blink, thinking that the sound of your eyelids would be too loud.

Ever heard of John Cage? He was a composer who wrote a piece of music called 4' 33'' - A piece consisting of a pianist not playing anything - just sitting in silence. I'm sure much of the audience hearing it would not have known how to take it. Was it music? Was it avant-garde art taken too far? What would you have heard if you had been in that theatre?

http://www.classicalnotes.net/columns/silence.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%2733%22


If you ever find someone that you can share silence with comfortably - you know you've found someone rare.

Brain = cool

Have you ever woken yourself up from a dream?
This month - I seem to be dreaming a lot - or at least I seem to be remembering the dreams I'm having.
I had one where a large spider was dropping towards my head. I remember telling myself to 'wake up' and jerking my head up and away. I did that three times and the weird part was that I was still in the dream, but I could also feel myself actually moving my head. Then I woke up and I was half sitting up, trying to jerk my head up and away. It didn't even take me a minute to realize that I had been dreaming - I had already figured that out while I was still asleep.
Some days, dreams really do fascinate me.

Two for the price of one

Lately, it seems that I've seen a lot of bands that have two drummers. I'm not sure what started this trend, but I've decided I kind of like it. There's something about a good drum beat that appeals to my primal side.

I remember being at a club in Vegas and they had two live drummers keeping up with the beat of the DJ's music. I'm not a big club guy, but that was pretty cool. What are those Japanese drummers called? You see them down at heritage days every year - also very cool.

That's it - I know my calling in life now...Who needs Guitar Hero - when Rock Band comes out, I'm all over the drum part.

Yay for us!

The Mass Effect release party was last night and a great chance it was to meet up with everyone away from the office. I am always amazed when I step back and look at the number of really nice (and incredibly talented) people I work with. Makes me remember another reason why I don't want to work anyplace else.

Mass hits the shelves on November 20th - and as positive as everyone is about the game, I still get some butterflies in my stomach when I think about it. Will people see the little faults I do? Will people like the characters and the story? Will people buy it (and buy lots of it)?

I almost want to go down to the game store on the 20th and just spy on people and see what happens. Openning night is almost here...

Most favorite time of the year

Today is my favorite day of the year - extra hour day!

But the question is - is it better to set your clock back the night before, or is it better to wake up in the morning and realize that your clock is wrong and that you actually have an extra hour of sleep to go?

Good things come to those who wait

Are you a good things first or good things last kind of person?

Like when you get the paper - do you save your favorite section to read last or do you pull it out and devour it straight away? Or with your favorite food - do you eat everything else on your plate first or do you dive in and eat the good stuff first?

Me - I always try to save the best for last. Sure I rush through the rest of it just to get to my favorite, but then... the pure delight as you slowly relish what you are consuming - either with your eyes or your mouth or your ears. There's something to be said for getting all distractions out of the way and then concentrating on pure enjoyment.

Ghosts and Goblins...best of

A couple of selections from our costume contest - there were lots of good ones this year.
Not sure who won yet (and the one I voted for I haven't even put on here - that's how many good ones there were)

Every Halloween needs a ghost

And something from ghost busters

The Mask of Vulcan (from that old Hercules cartoon)

The obligatory cross-dresser

Skeletor

Not to be confused with the Mask

SNLs ambiguously gay duo

what a blockhead

a pretty good Bruce Lee


Anyone else see some good halloween costumes this year?