Archive for July, 2007

2007.07.14

Battlestar Galactica Razor Preview

Though the fourth -and final- season of Battlestar Galactica won’t air until January 2008, SciFi Channel will show a two hour “movie” called Razor that will fill out some of the missing details in the series. Here’s a 30 second preview of Razor. Too bad we still have to wait until November for it to air!

2007.07.13

European Union on YouTube

Who knew the European Commission had a channel on YouTube? They are there promoting all things Europe, from history to hot button issues to culture. Most of the videos are dead boring but as this video on European film shows, they are more into sex than violence (probably NSFW), as opposed to America, which seems to have these priorities reversed. The linked video would cause an immense ruckus in prudish America. I like the European response to that notion, though.

“Let us for once also have a good sense of humour and let us not start the old wars of the fifties about what is sex, what is pornography and what is simply normal to watch on television,” spokesman Martin Selmayr appealed.

I like the idea and wish our government did something similar (and no, C-SPAN is not the same). Even better, I wish we had a few people like Mr. Selmayr here to take the attempted stoning the Religious Right would start if, say, I released a similar video promoting American art house sex scenes.

2007.07.13

Anyone Do a Blog Carnival?

Has anyone participated in a Blog Carnival? They look like they’d be interesting if the topics changed, kind of like our old blog challenges (that have once again fallen by the way side).

I’ve been looking at a few of the Carnival listings and chose these: carnival of cinema, bookworms carnival, funny days (because we all have odd stories to tell), the comic book carnival, harry potter carnival, and the anime carnival (which also covers manga). The thing is that I don’t know anything about these things. It seems I just submit material and see how it goes. If anyone’s done anything like this let me know how it went!

2007.07.11

Mac or PC

It’s one of the weirdest, long running gun battles in the computer world. Mac versus PC. And by PC we mean Microsoft Windows. There are many views of how it came about, why it continues, and no two agree.

What I love are people who can make fun of both sides equally, which is why when my Dad sent me this video I just had to share. The group responsible for this has a homepage where you can download this gem and play it on your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV. The music and video production is so good, it just had to be made on a Mac, right?

2007.07.10

How Sore These Muscles Are

I like to swim. Not that I’m great at it but I try to go twice a week at the North Beach Pool. I keep telling myself it’s “training” for surfing and the one thing I do for exercise. Unfortunately I haven’t been in a bit over a month due to other obligations.

I went tonight and did a few laps and now, just a few hours later, I am sore. Other people would take an aspirin or something stronger (see fourth paragraph), but except for extreme circumstances I tend to avoid such things. So I’ll just stretch it out tomorrow and get myself back in shape.

Ouch.

2007.07.09

Who Wants Steampunk Watches?

I know I just bought a Nixon watch recently (specifically this one) but seeing these watches linked to from bOING bOING gets me quite excited. Talk about imagination and creativity! I mean, look at this! And this! And this and this and these and those! Nice. And the creator, Haruo Suekichi, sounds like a really awesome guy. Double nice!

2007.07.08

New Goggles

I was out in the Haight yesterday questing for a few replacement clothes. I stopped by the Best of California Surplus. While there I perused the awesome bits and bobs they have like patches, knives, spats, etc. and there on the counter were these awesome goggles. This was the only picture I found online.

The frame is aluminum and the bands are fabric ribbons. They have to be tied on! I’m sure I’ll be using them for costumes in the near future.

2007.07.07

Secession and Supporting Troops

No, the two concepts have nothing to do with the other. It’s been a while since I wrote extensively about political thoughts. Though not the longest spot of writing, I know it bores a few of you to death. So instead of filling the page with it, please click the link to read on.

Read the rest of this entry…

2007.07.02

Warm and Scratchy

Fans of Adult Swim rejoice! They have released a free collection of music with the lovely title of Warm & Scratchy. Here’s the track listing:

01. Me-I – TV On The Radio
02. Dead Sound – The Raveonettes
03. The Equestrian – Les Savy Fav
04. Crimson Red – The Rapture
05. Justine – 120 Days
06. Canada Vs. America – Broken Social Scene
07. Color of the Love You Have – SOUND Team
08. The Bunting Song (acoustic version) – The Good, The Bad and The Queen
09. Half Century – The Brother Kite
10. Silver (Original Beats) – Jesu
11. Back to Flash – Amusement Parks on Fire
12. Stay Awake – Asobi Seksu
13. Winter – Fennesz
14. Sunset Rodeo – Liars

I don’t know half of these bands, but the ones I know are quite nice. I’m particularly fond of Asobi Seksu after Annemone introduced them to me. If you’re interested you can download the entire set and cover art here. Warning! The page will play music at you…

2007.07.02

Square Dance

It’s funny thinking about how the trauma of a childhood event affects behaviour even into adulthood.

In sixth grade we had a school event for the parents and teachers of the school. There were literally hundreds of people in the crowd and as most of them were parents they were watching us very intently. The part I played, along with several others, was a country dance called a square dance.

In my group was a girl I liked named Lisa. I was very excited to be in the group dancing with her. Once the music started I could see she was trying to tell me something but I couldn’t hear her. I fantasied that she was super impressed with my dancing skills and was trying to let me know. I had a huge grin on my face.

Afterwards I went into the hallway with some friends to cool off. Square dancing is quite invigorating. I saw Lisa coming down the hallway and was hoping she would compliment me on my dancing skills. Remember, I’m only about 11 or 12 at this time.

“Hi, Lisa.”

“Hi, Doug.”

“What did you think of the dance?” I asked.

“It was a lot of fun. Did you hear me yelling at you?”

“No, it was too loud.”

“I was trying to tell you your zipper was down the whole time.”

I looked down and sure enough, my zipper was completely open. Not just a little but a lot, as it can only happen on a comedy TV show. Only this was for real and this was me. I was so embarrassed that I ran away into the bathroom and hid. For years afterwards I didn’t wear pants with zippers and for extra measure I stopped tucking in my shirt. To this day I don’t like tucking in my shirt (though I will) and I still compulsively check my zipper.