Monday, July 7th, 2008
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12:01 pm - Dance
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Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
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11:09 pm
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Your result for The Commonly Confused Words Test... English Genius
You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!
Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!
For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.
Take The Commonly Confused Words Test at HelloQuizzy
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
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7:56 pm - Worst friend Ever!!
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Saturday, April 5th, 2008
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6:03 pm - Slam-sanity!!!
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A few days ago I belated realised that the April slam poetry competition in Ottawa is tonight! I've written two insane rambling poems and am just about to head out to deliver one (and likely only one) of them to the world! Wish me luck. I promise a full report tomorrow.
Must try not to feel guilt over writing poems this afternoon instead of reading the Manual Of Patent Office Procedure for the exams!
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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Friday, April 4th, 2008
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11:56 am - Dennis, Lord of Menacing House
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I think my favourite part about our networked society is how quickly derivative and narrowly focused humour can arise. In the old days, you'd have to wait ages for things to be amusingly satirized. Unless you count 17th century subversive pamphlets, I suppose, but that only worked if you lived in London or Edinburgh and even then it was mostly just trash talk about the whigs or the pope.
The Comics Curmudgeon, on the other hand, is an odd website that provides amusingly ill-tempered critiques of daily newspaper comics like Mary Worth and For Better or Worse. It's surprisingly addictive reading. Last summer, they posted this critique of a Dennis the Menace comic. Shortly thereafter, this blog arises, taking the joke one step further and mixing characters from Dennis the Menace with Regency-era bodice-ripping prose. Yes, it's lots of effort for a rather obscure joke but I'm just blown away at how quickly the idea took shape and reached fruition.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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Friday, March 21st, 2008
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10:51 am - Psychonauts
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I'd just like to take a moment to extol the virtues of the video game Psychonauts. Basically, it's a game set in a summer camp for psychics where you control the actions of Raz, a child-acrobat who runs away from the circus to become a psychonaut, or psychic secret agent. The team behind it are the same people who created the fabulous Monkey Island series before they broke away from Lucasarts. It was consistently critically acclaimed and won several awards even though it was apparently a commercial failure. I think the problem was that it doesn't really fit in to any easily describable category, and so was difficult to market. Currently, you can download it via Steam for $20, which is how I got ahold of it..
The game itself is pretty crazy. Basically the levels take place inside the subconscious minds of the people around you. Every world is completely different and reflects the personality of the person whose mind you're in. Since some of the people are certified lunatics, this results in some pretty messed up level design. I just finished playing a level set in a black-light velvet painting version of a Spanish town, with a crazy bull rampaging through the streets. It was eerily beautiful. I can't say enough good things about the art and creativity put into the design of the game. Also, it abounds with original concepts, which is rare in video games these days.
The gameplay does have a few issues, but overall it's a beautiful and fun game to play. I mean, where else will you find a game that will let you set things on fire with your mind?
Don't take my word for it, though. There's a very good review of it online that I would recommend watching for entertainment value alone.
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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Thursday, February 14th, 2008
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9:21 am - Sherry
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One of the best online lawyer magazines, Precedent has a wine column that is often amusing. Here is a quote from the latest article.
"Although chiefly drunk today by little old ladies and toxicologists, Bristol Cream seems to enjoy enough notoriety that it has coloured the popular view of what sherry is (Coors Lite for bridge players) and what it's good for (euthanasia)."
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(comment on this)
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Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
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1:17 pm - By Popular Request II
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1:11 pm - By Popular Request
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8:37 am - I have written poems before, but never until now was I a poet
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First of all, let me say happy first birthday to the Drama Prince, my namesake and ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dramaqueen_23 and cryptophile's lovely baby boy!! You have grown from a strange little goblin of a newborn to a handsome and curious little guy. I absolutely cannot wait to hear you start talking and find out what's going on behind those big eyes of yours. Happy birthday and all the best!
So, the big news of my weekend occurred last night. As some of you know, Brainslie and I have recently been attending tinkerspink's excellent slam poetry workshop. The workshop ended this past Tuesday with a performance of our poems in the picturesque town of Almonte. Three of the five of us went up to perform (Brainslie was going to but felt that her poem needed more work) and the audience was very receptive. So much so that we were encouraged to come out and perform at the Capital Poetry Collective's poetry slam on Saturday. For those of you who have never been, slam poetry is a poetry form that is more performance oriented and is scored by judges picked from the audience. I had been to a few before but had never had the guts to get up in front of the audience.
Brainslie's poem, which she elected to perform in the open mike section, was about her experiences as a pre-school teacher, and the 4 year old girls she sees who equate their self worth with pretty dresses and lovely hair and why that is bullshit and what should be done about it. It was sassy and clever and it went over extremely well and brought tears to the eyes of a fellow teacher in the audience who was moved enough to seek Brainslie out after the show to tell her how much she'd liked it. Brainslie is normally extremely shy and I was immensely proud to see her up there, telling people how it was.
I elected to go for broke and actually compete in the slam. The competition was extremely fierce. There were talented poets, both amateur and professional, speaking about issues both weighty and frivolous. My poems definitely fell into the second category, my first poem was about wanting just one fire after a lifetime of fire drills. I had performed it in Almonte and thought it was pretty good. Apparently, the audience thought so too because it got me into the second round, competing against my heroes, Kevin Matthews and tinkerspink, as well as one extremely angry poet and the famed Ritalin, one of the founders of the Capital Poetry Collective. This was pretty astonishing, as I figured I would be likely to get some laughs but certainly not to get to the second round.
My second poem (which I had mostly written yesterday) was about lawyers and poets and how their styles are different but their aims are the same. It was something I'd wanted to do for a while as many of the poets are extremely left wing and hate lawyers as they hate capitalism. I figured either people would either like it or absolutely hate it.
Well, it turns out they really liked it because when the dust had settled, I had won the slam.
I was absolutely stunned. There had to be over a hundred people in the audience and they all started cheering as I sat there with my jaw hanging open. Putting all modesty aside, I know that I'm a good writer and I know my way around a stage, but never in a million years would I have expected to win the first slam that I went out to. I figured I was in for a few slams to hone my craft and get audience feedback before I even made it to the second round. All the other poets were extremely gracious and awesome about it but I'm sure I ruffled a few feathers. Aside from the fact that I had an awesome time, I feel like I need to keep slamming now just to prove that the first time wasn't a fluke and to pay my dues in the community. So now I'm wandering around with a gigantic smile on my face. Absolutely crazy!
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
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10:17 am - I've got a fever and the only cure is... more dancing?!?!
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Monday, January 28th, 2008
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11:07 am - Cyberlaw(TM)!?!
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Wednesday, January 9th, 2008
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10:09 am - Ugh!
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A woman in Saskatchewan is suing her meth dealer in civil court after she overdosed on the drug he sold her. I'm having trouble deciding whether this is the best or stupidest thing ever. So far, I think it's both.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
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10:57 am - Copyright
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The Vice President of Best Buy has written a surprisingly progressive op-ed piece arguing for more consumer friendly copyright reform in Canada. Given the prominent argument that business favours more restrictive IP laws, this piece is a effective and surprising counter-argument. As many of you are aware, the government is on the brink of introducing reforms to Canada's Copyright Act. The balance to be struck between the rights of copyright owners and the public is quite likely to shift as a result.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
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3:20 pm - The good and the bad
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My world has been simulatneously rocked and saddened.
On the positive side, many thanks to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sinnick for making me aware of this caustically funny video game reviewer. While the internet has, too often, provided a soapbox for the pedantically moronic, it occasionally allows the world to giggle along with quick, tight, funny cynical reviews of something I'm interested in. Like this. Whether you love or hate video games there's something in there for everyone.
On the sad side, George MacDonald Fraser has died. He will remain one of my favourite authors for his delightful Flashman series and, of course, for his fabulous book The Pyrates, the preface of which remains one of the best things I've ever read. If you've never read anything of his then please do yourself the favour. At his best, his books are poetical and action packed and profound and funny and educational. I believe that I do not exaggerate when I say that English literature is lessened by his passing.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
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5:04 pm - Happy New Year Everybody!
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Monday, December 24th, 2007
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11:50 pm - Merry Christmas
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To all those who celebrate it. And happy turkey and mashed potatoes to all the rest!
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(comment on this)
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Friday, December 21st, 2007
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10:43 am - Taking the law to the street
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Apparently a legal action group has printed blankets with a straightforward description of people's legal rights in Canada with respect to panhandling, police, security guards and welfare. The blankets, co-designed and produced by Mountain Equipment Co-op are being distributed to the homeless in Vancouver. They also contain useful toll-free numbers for free legal services in Vancouver.
I think this is an absolutely fabulous idea. A populace who has a clear understanding of their legal rights is the best defence against abuses of power that I know of. We need more projects like this.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Thursday, December 20th, 2007
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12:24 pm - For all your jurisprudence and trivia needs
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I love chatty judges who insert their own editorial comments into their judgments. To ensure that I'm keeping up on recent developments in the law, I've been making a point of reading all the intellectual property-related cases coming out of the Federal Court. I hadn't realised it was such a potential goldmine for amusing asides, snarky comments and interesting trivia. Here is a good example from the recent decision in SOCIEDAD AGRICOLA SANTA TERESA LTDA. et al. v. VINA LEYDA LIMITADA (2007) T-1531-07 (FC), at para. 10:
If the applicants were not able to market their wines in Canada with reference to the word “Leyda”, there is a risk that their wine might be considered “plonk” and avoided (There are different legends as to the origin of the word “plonk”. The one I prefer is that a Monsieur Plonque was the purveyor of cheap wine to British Troops in World War I).
I get the feeling that this judge has had this little nugget of information tucked away for ages and has been dying to insert it into a judgment somewhere. Not quite as entertaining as the US judge who ends every decision with a rhyming couplet, but still worth reading.
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(comment on this)
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Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
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11:30 pm - Howtoons!
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Not sure if people have seen this already but if you're looking for a good Christmas or birthday present for a young and aspiring geek then look no further than Howtoons, a book of comic strip explanations of how to build cool things. Saved from the dread "educational" label by incorporating legitimately neat art (see the examples on the website) and for actually teaching kids to make desirable things like laser guided spitballs and marshmallow cannons.
A must for anyone who secretly dreamed of being a mad scientist.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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