… and your mom too!
Don’t know what the frell I’m talking about? I direct you thusly.
Now smeg off you zarqing fardwarks! I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle.
Month: January 2008
Ahhh, Home
Warning: This post probably won’t make any sense at all to you North Americans and I suspect you won’t see the relevance or humour in it but for me it’s a slice of home, albeit a morbidly funny slice.
Still with me? Very well.
So my dad sent me this link today and I had a bit of an amusing giggle at Northern Irish ingenuity (or the lack thereof) after watching the video. Two boats and a helicopter and still the boat is stranded along with the rescue boat as well. Absolutely brilliant if you ask me. You have to be Irish to really appreciate the humour in that.
What shocked me though was something I wasn’t expecting at all. While I watched I was almost overcome with a wave of homesickness and nostalgia. I’ve been to Portrush. I spent many childhood summers there. I suddenly had a deep yearning to go back and watch the waves pound against the beach. Of course the accents of all the people in the video didn’t help either. I mean I hear that broad accent all the time with my family but I’m almost deaf to it and it’s only when I hear non family members talking that I smile and recognize it and long to hear more.
Hrrm. I guess this means it’s time for me to start planning another trip home pretty soon.
If you want to come along you’re going to have to be able to answer a pretty rigorous pre-trip interrogation in the following three questions:
Who am I?
Where am I?
And where the hell are my pants?
You’ve Been Down That Road Before Neo…
Discuss
Sunday Night Serenade
Aha! I’m back.
Before you gasp in amazement and awe that I’ve I actually managed to follow through on this silly little music review idea, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I am in fact writing this post barely 5 minutes after I posted the last one.
*gasp*
Yes, I’m cheating and working ahead. I don’t feel bad about it at all. Magazines do it all the time as they publish a month in advance, as to most webcomic artists. It’s called building a buffer and working ahead of your deadline. It’s probably a good habit to get into but for the moment, for me at least, it’s still just an amusing trompe-l’œil. Am I live or am I Memorex? Yeah, I’m easily amused. Does it show?
Alright, on with the show before you all decide to travel back in time and lynch me.
Minor Gaming Update
For those of you who’ve been wondering what all I’ve been doing with regards to my little game world I have two very minor updates for you. The rest of you can probably just go ahead and skip this post… or better yet, just get bent. 😛
First up, I’ve updated the temporary world map in the section to the right. It’s still just a photo of the map rather than a proper scan but through the miracle of photoshop, I was able to overlay and roughly label some of the landmarks, countries and notable features which will hopefully flesh it out somewhat until such time as I can get a proper scan done.
As I’ve commented on before, I’ve had a living bitch of a time getting the individual sheets scanned and ported properly due to the previously mentioned scanner limitations, so much so that I’ve essentially given up on the project and will get them professionally scanned only when I finish the map itself.
The second item is somewhat impressive. I’ve been writing up the history of the world, from the mythical birth of the universe through to modern day, briefly touching on all the notable points in between. Now when I say writing, I do mean the handwritten, ink on paper deal. I’ve written about 30 pages to date and I’m still not quite done. I have a short laundry list containing the last thousand years or so to flesh out and then I’ll be “done”. Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to type it all up yet so those of you who’re interested in it will have to wait just a little while longer. I’m only about a quarter of the way through that part yet and my “editor” still needs to sign off on it (he really only claims this title because it gives him first dibs at reading stuff) but it should be up within the week but because I love putting the cart before the horse, you will shortly find the page framework already laid out in the right hand menu.
Enjoy
In Six Words…
Awhile ago (Nov 06), Wired magazine ran an article how Hemmingway had written a story in six words and they then challenged a number of modern authors to do the same. The results were amusing but I never bothered trying one myself… or if I did, I’ve long since forgotten it.
Tonight, while randomly link hopping I came across the article again and since I should be in bed and sleeping as I work in… oh less than 6 hours from now, I decided what better way to waste my time than to write a story.
Here goes.
On trial. Evidence lost. Case dismissed.
Now it’s your turn.
Random Burblings…
It’s been awhile since I geeked out with some LEGO paraphernalia so without further ado, I bring you a guy who spent nine months building a scale model of the Invisible Hand, General Grievous’ flagship from Star Wars Episode III (Return of the Revenge of The Send In The Clones… or as I like to call it… Is that whiny bitch Anakin dead yet?) The last pic in the series, way down at the bottom will give you a sense of scale.
I’m impressed… but then again I geek out easily.
Speaking of geeking out, for those of you with Trek addiction, here’s a teaser for the new Trek film. When I say TEASER, I mean it. It shows nothing. I’m always baffled at why studios release such drivel. I mean I can understand the whole “whet their appetite” mentality, but honestly, if you’re going to show me something to whet my appetite, show me something more than a bunch of welders making a ship that we already know what it looks like. Hell! It’s not that good looking of a ship to begin with. Show us some actors actually acting in character, some scantily clad alien women for Kirk to score with and possibly some shit blowing up and maybe, just maybe I’ll be appeased.
Meh, what do I know. I’m not a huge Trek fan to begin with. I think the only reason I’m going to watch this is because it has Simon Pegg as Scotty and John Cho as Sulu. I have images of the control room getting turned into one big hotbox and the engine room as a dingy pub. In my mind it’ll be great, but as we’ve already determined, I’m easily amused.
Anyway, I believe that’s all she wrote for tonight.
Pax
Sunday Night Serenade
On a bit of a whim I’ve decided to start a semi-regular feature here in the Chronicles. I’ve decided to burble randomly about the songs and music that I’m currently grooving to. I plan to run the gamut here and post both old stuff that I’m still obsessing over after all these years (expect a fair bit of early Hip), as well as new stuff that I’ve stumbled across or have been introduced to recently. The plan is to try and post actual songs when and where I can and YouTube videos where that isn’t possible and then to sound off with my usual acerbically humble opinion about the song(s)/artist or whatever crosses my mind while listening.
I can’t promise it’ll be legible, critically useful or even newsworthy and you’ll even take your chances with how regularly I end up posting but I figure I’ll give it a try for a couple of weeks and see how it goes. Who knows, my rabid gerbil brain may pull a Kiki and get distracted by something shiny before I even get around to a second post and we’ll never… err where was I?
Oh yeah…
The plan is to post every Sunday, or possibly Saturday, night as indicated by the title of this entry but we all know how I am with deadlines. I subscribe to the Douglas Adams worldview on them.
“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”
A Little Less Mystery In The World
Apparently German researchers have finally confirmed the identity of the Mona Lisa as Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, the wife of the wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. While this had been speculated on prior to this, there was little or no evidence to corroborate the statement.
I really don’t know how I feel about this. I’m all for academic achievement and discovery and the news doesn’t lessen the immense impact the painting has had but there’s a fairly large part of me that is saddened by this news. It’s one less mystery in the world. One less speculative dream that inspires conversation and thought. Now all that is left is one more hardened fact, one more pillar of Science strengthened.
*sigh* I guess I’m just a dreamer and romantic at heart and always will be.
…
On a completely random aside, I must say that the name Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo just looks and sounds extremely cool to me. So I guess that redeems the news somewhat in my eyes.