If Any Nintendo Executives Are Reading My Blog...

... the new name for the next generation console is really, really bad.

As you may or may not have heard, Nintendo was producing their next gen console under the working name Revolution which was really cool. Now that they are getting into the selling aspect of the product, they picked a new name. Wii. That's not a type. They are calling it the Nintendo Wii. Pronouched "Whee".

I have to ask what marketing genius thought up that name and how bad were the alternative names they were looking at for Wii to be the best one of the bunch? Waa? Woo? Crashbox? Moronocube? I don't know, but they must have been real stinkers.

Ah well, what's in a name? The important thing for me, and this will determine if I purchase a Wii (sigh) or not, is whether or not it is backwards compatible with Gamecube games. If its not, I won't bother with it and might consider some other console in the future.

Sigh. Wii.

No, You May NOT Have My Postal Code

I don't like it when stores ask for my information than they need for the transaction to be complete. Postal Codes, complete addresses, full name if you are paying with cash, its all unneccessary to purchase an item legally in almost all cases. They do it so that they can get marketing information on your buying habits, or mail you catalogs or offers.

Its the same deal with Airmiles or any rewards program. They keep track of your buying habits and perform research and analysis on what products sell well in households that buy certain other products. Amoung other private details. If you use Airmiles cards religously, then there is a marketing firm that knows more about your buying habits than you do. And they are using it to sell you and people like you more stuff.

I don't like it.

In the age of increasing communications, privacy is going to be eroded more and more. I feel a need to protect my privacy as much as possible, so when a store asks for my postal code I refuse to give it or I give a false one. One time at a grocery store I had the cashier get mad at me for not giving my postal code. Strange.

Anyways, what brought all this on is the www.tsn.ca website. I wanted to watch video clips of last nights 5-2 win for Ottawa over Tampa Bay and they forced me to register to do so. The registration form wanted my full name and personal info, in fact required it. This pissed me off so I filled in all false info except my email. Take that TSN! *evil laughter*

(BTW, my \fFavourite fake postal codes are k0k0k0 and h0h0h0)

Jiu Jitsu Progress

Well, as expected I easily acheived my second stripe for my white belt last night. Now another six classes before I can go for my thrid stripe which I hope to do in the May 22nd week. That should set me up nicely to get my Yellow Belt in June as planned.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things About Vancouver

1. Third largest city in Canada. Top 5 are Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary.

2. Tim Horton's is not as popular as in Ontario. Starbucks more frequent, but I swear there were 7-11 stores everywhere.

3. The cities immediately ajacent to Vancouver are Richmond, Burnaby, and North Vanvcouver.

4. Main drag is called Granville Street.

5. They are in the process of adding a new subway line.

6. Stanely Park is huge!

7. All of the plant life is massive. Not only trees, but the hedges and bushes seemed more lush and massive.

8. Lot of homeless people downtown.

9. Everything, from houses to bottles of pop, is more expensive.

10. It can be cheaper to go across the border into the states to get gas and drive back than to buy it in Vancouver.

11. Vancouver Aquarium was not huge but was very pleasant to visit.

12. A daypass for the transit system is $8.

13. I knew Vancouver had a large population of people from Asia or with ancestors from Asia, but it didn't sink in until I was there. It seemed every second person I saw if not more were of Asian descent. Very cool.

Back from the West Coast

I finally got back from my business trip to Vancouver last night. What an exhausting trip from BC to Toronto and then to Ottawa. I left the ground in Vancouver at 8:20am and didn't get to Ottawa until 5:45pm! Of course, there is a 3 hour time difference but still it was a long day.

I was in Vancouver all Monday and Tuesday, but only got free to check out the city on Tuesday afternoon. I went to the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park and had a nice time. Pictures, pictures, pictures! Loved seeing the mountains. ;)

The plane ride back went through Toronto for a short layover but the landing and takeoff in that city was freaky. The turbulence was intense and quite nervewracking! But I survived.

Now I just have to get used to the time zone again.

Fundamentalism Gone Wild

Read this article about a Arabian journalist who was temporariliy arrested because authorities had doubt about his belief in Islam from postings he had made on the internet. It makes me so glad I live in a country where I can believe or not and say what I want about it without fear of what my government will do to me.

(Hat tip Colby Cosh)

Whoopsie!

Check out this test of the Air Force's workshop fire supression system...

This and That

1) I'm going for my second white belt stripe next Thursday. Won't be difficult.

2) I'm going on a business trip from Sunday until Wednesday so don't expect any updates next week until Thursday or Friday.

3) Some idiot on ESPN choose Tampa Bay over Ottawa in the first round. Sigh. Some people shouldn't be allowed on the internet.

Yeah, that's all. Carry on.

Well That Sucks

My mother got canned yesterday. After working for J.B Kelly Insurance in Brockville for about twenty years, they terminated her employment due to "business restructuring" although mom says it was because of age descrimination. Its a small company with lots of people working there because they are related to the bosses or know someone in the company, but a lot of them have poor work ethics and no skills.

The good news is that the severence package was a year's worth of salary so she won't be suffering while she decides what to do with herself. And I have to find a new Insurance Broker because there is no way I'm staying with those losers.

Bill's Totally Unqualified NHL Playoff First Round Predictions

For Andrew's playoff challenge:

East:

Ottawa (113pts) versus Tampa Bay (92pts) -> Ottawa in 6

Carolina (112pts) versus Montreal (93pts) -> Montreal in 7

New Jersey (101pts) versus NY Rangers (100pts) -> New York in 6

Buffalo (110pts) versus Philadelphia (101 pts) -> Buffalo in 5

West:

Detroit (124pts) versus Edmonton (95pts) -> Detroit in 4

Dallas (112pts) versus Colorado (95pts) -> Dallas in 5

Calgary (103pts) versus Anaheim (98pts) -> Calgary in 6

Nashville (106pts) versus San Jose (99pts) -> San Jose in 7

 

Feds Capture Nija, Pirates Rejoice!

Title says it all...

Long Weekend

Sorry for the lack of updates, this week has been very busy so far. In the meantime, enjoy this article on the Perfect Bum.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things I Like About Long Weekends

1. Less work.

2. More relax time.

3. Often means family gatherings.

4. Can stay up late one extra night.

5. Can sleep in an extra day.

6. More time to do the things that need to be done like housework.

7. Good food on the middle day.

8. People are always happy just before it.

9. Work tends to quiet down around it.

10. Still get paid.

11. The amusement that comes from realizing stores aren't open on the day off and we forgot to get things. What did people do before sunday shopping!?

12. Asking people what they are planning for the long weekend.

13. Better chances of getting some loving from the significant other.

Stupid Teenagers

Last night I went out to practice my tennis against the gym wall at the local school. I have to be ready to take on Andrew don't you know? Well, I get down there and don't you know it but a bunch of teenagers and a couple cars are parked right where I want to practise. There are hockey nets and sticks but they are all just standing around smoking and yapping. Hmmph!

Fortunately, I went to the Catholic school down the street and found a nice unoccupied wall to hit some balls against.

Supporting Our Troops

A plague on modern political discourse is the fear of appearing as if one does not "support the troops". Every politician, political blogger, media pundit seems to say "I support our troops!". This is particularily prevalent in the US but recently with the increased danger our soldiers are facing in Afghanistan it is spreading up here too.

To all you troop-supporting talking heads: get your head out of your ass.

Only the fringe actually don't support the soldiers putting their lives on the line for their job and duty to their country. Everyone else wants our men and women in the military to succeed and come home alive.

Questioning the wisdom of going into Iraq or Afghanistan should be acceptable and should have no question of loyalty or patriotism. To do otherwise is to turn a rational opposition to an action into a us-versus-them duality that is overly simplistic and disingenuous.

I'm not sure we are doing what needs to be done for Afghanistan. I'm not convinced we are helping the country moved towards a democracy. I'm on the fence about whether or not we should pull out. I want to see from our political leaders reasons for staying or going.

Weekend Report

It was the weekend of heavy lifting for me.

On Saturday, we travelled to Brockville to help Kim's parents move from one house to another just down the road. Easy enough, one would think, with three strong men. We had a small moving truck so filled it up loosely with furniture and got it into the new place. Then went back for a second load of furniture. Ok, still managing. Then the third load of miscellaneous stuff like filing cabinet drawers and boxes of stuff from the kitchen. Whew, ok, getting tired.

Then we started on the fourth load. I tell you, I was getting slow moving by this time. We finally get the fourth load done and I'm done too. Exhausted.

Sunday I felt ok. Pretty good in fact, and decided to take in a Jiu Jitsu class since Friday is a holiday this week. During the warmup for class they had us do this one exercise where you laid on your belly on the mat and held on to another person's ankles. They would step forward and you were supposed to pull yourself forward using only your arms. Well, my gi was a little damp from a quick laundry and dry so it stuck to the mat after a couple pulls. The last couple meters I was working against my own weight and the uniform stuck to the damn floor.

Then we did a lot of escapes, restraints, and after throws such that I was stiff for the rest of the day. Today I still feel it. Glad I have a couple days to recuperate at work.

I Know Why They Feel They Have To Do It, I Just Don't Understand Why They DO Do It

I got a new computer at wrok about a month ago and recently went to install a Microsoft Product that had been installed on my old machine. Its a legitimate copy, holographic sticker and CD and all that jazz, so I figured it would be easy.

Well, after installation I run the application and it informs me that I need to register to fully activate the product. I choose the internet option and it goes off, queries some mysterious database, and comes back to tell me "This product has already been installed on another machine. Please register using the telephone" and then gives a bunch of numbers to call.

I ignore the registration warning for the first few times I use the application, but it keeps warning me I only have X number of uses left. Very annoying. So I bite the bullet today and call the number.

I'd have an easier time trying to break into a Swiss Bank Account. First I had to navigate the automated attendent. Then I had to give it a 50 digit code the application gives out doing 6 at a time (and getting trite encouragements from the attendent the whole time). After I finished that, it has the nerve to tell me "can't find it, please wait while I transfer you to support." Sigh.

Finally I get a person on the other end (in India I'm sure of it), and he asks a couple questions I could have lied through my teeth for, and then gives me the 50 digit activation code.

I could have been pirating software and simply lied through my teeth ("Yeah, my other computer was stolen, yeah, that's the ticket.") so this form of piracy protection seems like a big waste of time and money.

If you're gonna complain, at least get your facts right

Driving in this morning I hear Stuntman Stu complaining (and you know with a name like that, it was high brow lamenting :P  ) about the announcement that the province of Ontario made that this summer electricity prices will be hiked.

"I'm Dalton McGuinty, I won't raise your taxes" in a really moronic voice. He does this of course, multiple times. Just like the lame jackasses in high school make the same stupid jokes over and over again.

First of all, removing a price fix for a service provided is not raising taxes by any stretch of the imagination. The Health Care Premium? Yeah, that was a tax. This is not.

Secondly, I don't like Dalton McGuinty and his Liberals but one thing I have agreed with since he was elected was the idea that fixing electricity prices at an artificially low level is a bad idea. If it costs X dollars to produce the current amount of electricity and develop new sources for our growing province, and we pay Y dollars for that service, and X > Y then we have an immediate problem. In the land of intelligent people, Stu, we call this a deficit.

Do you know who pays for this deficit, Stu? In your great wisdom, you ass of the airwaves, can you conceive of what happens when a government sponsored monopoly runs a deficit? I'll give you a hint. The government pays for it. From our taxes. (I'm not making this up.) Of course, I can almost guarantee you that the round-about way of paying for our electricity is less efficient and has areas of waste so in fact we are probably paying more overall.

The simple fact of the matter is that to make people want to conserve electricity, you have to show them what it costs to run their appliances like mad men all summer. In order to develop new generating plants, we need to start paying now so our children do not grow up with rolling blackouts as a fact of life.

Dalton McGuinty has done a lot of things I don't like but this is not one of them. And morons like Stuntman Stu don't change that.

Thursday Thirteen

My Thirteen All Time Favourite Computer Games

1. War of the Lance - My first ever PC computer game and I played it for hours on my 386 with its keyboard only interface and 16 colours.

2. Shogun - A role-playing strategy game, also EGA graphics, it was a ton of fun.

3. Master of Orion &...

4. Master of Orion II - Amazing games, and while MOOIII was ok, it let me down.

5. Civilzation - The ultimate empire building game. Very adictive, my favourite part was watching the territory growth minimap at the end of the game.

6. Civ II - Only improved upon the first.

7. Civ - Call to Power - This was an offshoot of Civilization II and was a very good game.

8. Silent Hunter - A WWII submarine simulation game, it was very intense when the Japanese destroyers were looking for you and you were trying oh so hard to slip away. Then the dreaded splash of depth charges. Yikes!

9. Doom & Doom II - I consider this one game since the sequel was almost the same as the original. It was the first FPS game I got addicted too and totally love it. My favourite weapon was the double-barrled shotgun.

10. Panzer General II - I still play the game every once in a while. It is without a doubt one of the best WWII games ever.

11. Diablo & ...

12. Diablo II - Calling it role playing is a stretch, but no denying that they are great fun to play.

13. Starcraft - This game was amazing in so many ways and I love it still.

 

Very Funny

I found a new blog to add to my reading list, My Mean Girl. I reccomend it to anyone who has ever been in a relationship.

I Wonder If the Bug is Dead?

 I saw this and had a good laugh over at SEB:

Here’s another would be Darwin Award winner, but he only managed to blow off part of his hand:

VENTURA, Calif.  — A teacher who kept a 40 mm shell on his desk as a paperweight blew off part of his hand when he apparently used the object to try to squash a bug, authorities say.

The 5-inch-long shell exploded Monday while Robert Colla was teaching 20 to 25 students at an adult education class.

Part of Colla’s right hand was severed and he suffered severe burns and minor shrapnel wounds to his forearms and torso, fire Capt. Tom Weinell said. No one else was injured. He was reported in stable condition at a hospital.

Remember kids: 40MM shells don’t make good fly swatters, though they are handy if you need to amputate part of your hand in a hurry.

 

Things That Piss Me Off

I'm watching CNN news on the TV yesterday morning while eating my breakfast. A quick blurb comes up about caffine in drinks (a topic very near and dear to my heart, natch) and I am curious about more details. So later at work I bring up CNN.com and do a quick website search for the word caffine. Nothing comes up. What's the point of having a website for your tv channel if you don't have the same stories in both places? Pisses me off.

Update: Realizing as I typed this that I was spelling caffeine wrong, I went back and did a search. Sure enough, lots of articles come up but none related directly to the story I was interested in the first place which noted the milligrams of caffeine in different beverages. On the upside, I did find this article on the fact that although soft drink producers claim they add caffeine to enhance the taste most consumer can taste no difference. I can attest to that fact as I have tried both regular Diet Pepsi and Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi as well as Coke and Caffeine-Free Coke and there is no taste difference whatsoever.

Slimey Corporate weasels trying to get people addicted to their drinks. That reminds me, I'm thirsty...

Time to Celebrate!

Via a friend at work:

On Wednesday of this week, at exactly two minutes and three seconds after 1 AM, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.  That will never happen again.  Just thought you'd want to know so you can celebrate.

Woo hoo, break out the party mix!

Nerd Post

If your a math nerd, or vaguely interested in math, read this fascinating article about prime numbers and equations. If you have to ask what a prime number is, don't bother clicking the link. ;)

(Hat tip Unscrewing the Inscrutable)

This and That

THIS:

An annoucement: this blog is going back to being Obsidian Tempest. Kim is having such a fun time writing for her own blog, Nothing Heavy, that I'm mostly the only one posting over here anyway. Kim is still welcome as a guest poster whenever she has a funny story about us or me of course.

My posting will be mostly thoughts and events, comments on what's going on. Much like I do now.

THAT:

I was successful in my 1st Stripe review for my white belt yesterday (sidebar graphic updated). There was a couple of items that I thought I knew by heart but was slightly off, but the things I practiced I nailed perfectly. I had one panic attack though. Sensi Allison asked me to do the escapes I needed to do and then asked me to do one I knew wasn't on the 1st stripe test. I nailed it because my old training kicked in even though I hadn't reviewed it here yet. Then she asked me another escape that wasn't on the 1st stripe and I asked "I didn't think these were on the 1str stripe?" and she laughs and says "I know, we just have lots of time and I wanted to see what you knew." That was a relief cause I totally didn't have a clue what to do in the escape.

So now I have to start practicing for my next white belt stripe which I'm hoping to get by the end of the month.

Funny story: during the warmup the Sensi told us to get the medicine balls out and remembering back to Friday I just about fainted. Fortunately it was a different exercise that was not as painful. Whew!