Got iGoogle? The Google homepage that lets you customize like mad?
Then go look at these artist’s themes. I’m using ppaper for my blogs tab and Snowcat for my tech tab.
Fun!
Bully for You!
With everyone hyped up on Grand Theft Auto IV right now I thought I’d jump back a bit and yammer on about a Wii game from the same company: Bully – The Scholarship Edition
Take the core game play concepts of the Grant Theft Auto games where the flawed lead character has to fight his way to the top to succeed, remix it into the microcosm of a run down private school and it translates surprisingly well. Our bitter, eternally scowling hero, Jimmy, is dumped at the gates of Bullworth Academy and is immediately faced with fight or flight decisions.
Graphic violence? Check. Smart alec writing? Got it. Misogynistic portrayal of women? Certainement! Minigames that take the best of Cooking Mama, Wii Sport and Big Brain Academy and tie them in seamlessly with the story/game action? Yes!Yes!Yes!*
Would I let my 14 year old kid play it? Not without a stern talk beforehand. Any younger, I’d probably balk at it. But that’s where my parenting skills come into play, I guess. Yes the game glorifies violent behaviour, but by 14 you’ve been exposed to a lot worse on TV. Let alone in the school yards we send them off to… Ultimately I don’t have kids and the average age of gamers these days is 33, so this whole argument is moot to me and how I conduct myself in public.
I’m glad they fixed the glitches found in the Xbox versions and added smart Wii controller integration (nunchuck/Wiimote combos that are unlocked as you interact with the school’s freaks and geeks), but the graphics are definitely not sumptuous. But it’s the Wii – it’s forgiven for highly interactive game play.
And take this as you may, either homophobic of homocapable, there is school boy on school boy action, nicknamed “Mild Tea” (a nod to the Hot Coffee hack in GTA San Andreas):
*Zanta reference.
OHMYGOLLYGOSH!
Of course it was sneaked in (fourth point down) in their quarterly review and actually doesn’t say anything that we’ve already know, but it’s semiformalsomewhat official!
Wireless announced it had reached an agreement with Apple to bring
the iPhone to Canada later this year. Information regarding device
availability and service plans will be announced at a later date.
My True Hip Hop Name
If kids can have a Hip Hop replacement for the big purple dinosaur, I want to replace my white bread name:
Mac N Cheez
!ntere Ess Ting
Whaka Mole
Sir Earl Greysalot
Wrinkly Belt Wrinkles (or Dr. Wrink for short)
Lazee DR
Yours…?
Happy Birthday Da!
Updated Photos:
I know these past few months haven’t been stellar, and the next few are going to be boring and dull (hey, at least you’ll have a DVD player!), but Meesh and I will be around for you! And then you’ll be able to travel again and squander our inheritance.
I love ya!
Meme Me
I’ve been tagged by Fortress of Solitude…
1) What was I doing 10 yrs ago?
In 1998, I was coming out of my first “respectable” web job with Bowne International where I updated US real estate listings for various banks. I left it for creative content developer for a host of porn sites.
2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today:
1. Gym
2. Clear out emails
3. Try not to decide on the caliber of gun I’ll be bringing to work
4. Make dinner, make it exciting, make it for my man
5. start drawing SharkBoy’s leg tattoo
3) Snacks I enjoy:
Any chip. Any corn chip. Any corn chip that I dip in “White Trash” (equal parts of fat free sour cream and hot salsa)
4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Travel. Take a nice group of friends with me through Eastern Europe, China and Japan. I’d probably invest in Apple stock now, before the 3G phones come out.
I’d give some to artistic developments and a good dose to PWA (ha!)
5) Five of my bad habits:
1. I bite my nails
2. I’m judgmental far too quickly
3. I cut corners
4. I’d rather play video games than read a book
5. I eat too much
6) 5 places I have lived:
1. Brockville, ON (blarg)
2. Brantford, ON (ugh)
3. London UK (woot!)
4. Oakville, ON (ew)
5. Ottawa, ON (brrr)
7) 5 jobs I have had:
1. Tourism Captain
2. Environmental engineer at Woolco (janitor)
3. Front Desk Reception at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall
4. Promotions Manager, Black Eagle Toronto
5. Extra on Queer As Folk (among other shows)
8) 5 peeps I wanna know more about:
1. Madonna. Is she really breaking up with Guy?
2. George Lucas. Is he really bitter about making movies these days?
3. Stone Cold Steve Austin. Still sexy?
4. That guy… over there….
Bug And Bug Eyed
Walking back from my lunchtime Starbucks visit, I saw one of those living advertisement cube vans with glass sides. Inside were about 8 people sitting in chairs while one person stood at the front of the cube with a microphone. They were all wearing X-Files Alien style masks, a veritable tour group of Grays. The side of the van was blazoned with the cellular phone company “Solo”. Have you seen this? Was I going insane?
I tried to get a picture but I managed to get a bug down my undershirt. I didn’t notice until I was sitting at my desk that there was a crawly beast on me until I tried to relate the thing I just saw to a co-worker. Suddenly I was clawing at my clothes to get this bug out.
Don’t say I never tell you interesting things.
Stone Me!
I recently saw the trailer for the movie Stone Angel (with my new honest to blog, supa-fave actress, Ellen Page) and it borked up a solid, hard memory nut with two levels:
One of the more clearer memories I have of my alcohol and pot-fogged time in high school was studying this book by Margret Lawrence. You may have noticed that my spelling and grammar is a bit poor, I blame anything other than not applying myself. I would fight with my English teacher because my brother was his golden student and English class was an annoying block of time before art class. I digress.
Stone Angel is a story of Hagar Shipley who recounts her life in shards of flashbacks and fragments of memories as she comes to the end of her proud life. Okay that’s the book in a nutshell (eat that, Mr Darling!). I remember the book not because of it’s structure (actually I did love the Tarantino-like recount of vignettes from her life) but because while we peeled back the themes and metaphors of a life fully lived, it dredged up a horror from my childhood (the second layer of that nut) that I had to deal with, and in some ways, I still haven’t come to grips with when I was a child. When I was even younger, I think in grade 4, I freaked out at a short film where a family visits their aging (grand)mother in a home. She’s so far gone into herself that all that we see on the outside is drool, yet inside, through movie magic, we see she’s lived a full and amazing life and she still has her memory. At the end of the short film, ran from the class and hid under my bed. Mom found me in tears and made me explain what had upset me so.
Dear readers, I am about to share with you something highly personal:
I am deathly afraid of getting old.
If I were ever to get trapped within my body and could not communicate my needs, I’d like notice that I have four days to live and left alone in that time so I could recount my life, a la Stone Angel. Day four would come and some pre-paid orderly would quietly enter my room and make me eat my pillow. The end.
Will I see this movie? I don’t know. Maybe. Should I stop being such a 13 year old in a 42 year old body? Maybe.
To The Front of The Line
Chap uses his iPhone’s web browser displaying his PDF’ed boarding pass to get on his flight (via TUAW).
I am so trying this next time I fly! Much to SharkBoy’s embarrassment, I’m sure
Summer Movie Predictions
Comfy Shoes A love story where a socially stunted man (Haley Joel Osment) working in a woman’s shoe store wishes to get close to one of his customers (Lily Tomlin). Wil Farrel stars as the Fairy Godfather that mistakenly transforms him into a pair of pink starkly espadrilles. Through a whacky dance contest, she comes to love him just as he is. First Weekend Box Office Gross: $15M
The Ladder James Woods takes on the suffering US economy in this rags to riches to rags to riches to rags story. Instant fame from a YouTube video drops him in fortune but he loses it all in Celebrity Poker Tournament. Can he win it all back on one last shot at the big time? Terri Garr co-stars. FWBOG: $10M
Flout It! Voice talents such as George Clooney and Muriel Hemmingway are lent to this uplifting children’s completely CGI movie about a Flute that hates lips! FWBOG: $32M
Gorgeous Car Vin Diesel is the man without a home, until he comes across a gorgeous car left in a ditch. With love and perseverance he fixes it up and enters it in local car shows, catching the attention of local car show mafioso. Can he regain his dignity and still manage to get the blue ribbon? FWBOG: $25M
Big Feet on the Ground Can a dancer (Molly Cyrus) after being expelled from the professional ballroom dance circuit, make it in the competitive world of Tap and Song Kid’s Party Characters? Will she find love? John Voit co-stars as the evil party dispatcher who is out to break her will to dance. FWBOG: $4M
The Creepy Vincent D’Onofrio finds himself in a mysterious world that haunts him in waking hours. Can he figure out how to regain a normal life while finding out the mystery of The Creepy? FWBOG: $5.00