I’m doing a little tweaking to the appearance of my blog. I’m changing a few things, and trying to work in more images so the entire setup isn’t as bland. With a little effort, I’ll link to a picture gallery and lug my digital camera along with me everywhere.

The biggest and most satisfying change was the expansion of the text area, so now it is more like a text page and less like a newspaper column. It makes it so my blog doesn’t stretch downwards into oblivion simply because I talk a lot.

Anyway, I am at work. So…I should be a responsible worker. Busy as a bee.

I’m also thinking of opening up a secondary and tertiary blog.

The secondary will serve as a writing outlet, rather than a journal. We shall see if it gets off the ground. The tertiary one will simply become the Warrior Student Council Blog. I’m going to have to tweak an existing template to acquire one that looks good with our school colours. I’ll need my five loyal readers (Binks, Melissa, Caleb, Josh and Brian) to give me their opinions about the whole shebang.

I’m also going to be trying out the InvisionPowerBoards package I downloaded (legally…ahem). I’ll probably set up a little test forum for us to dink around with. This may happen before or after my trip to the cottage.

The photo postings will be set up after, and the first pictures up will be of my vacation to the cottage.

Peace out, ya’ll.

When I was looking for the picture of Claire Redfield that I linked to in my previous “brief update”, I stumbled upon a very cool internet site.

Pixie Kitty

She’s a girl who makes costumes of video game characters. She’s got some pretty cool ones up there from Resident Evil and Final Fantasy. Some might be familiar (Caleb has the better chance of recognizing some, Andreas and Dean moreso), others will tilt their head and say “Huh?” The potential for “Zuh?” also exists.

There is some pretty awesome stuff there. I’m assuming “cosplay” is widespread (they made a word for it). I’ll have to look into this stuff. It’s pretty damn awesome.

NOTE: Her Resident Evil 4 costumes were featured on a TV show called Obsessed. I find that absolutely hilarious…and cool.

Stay tuned for a full-assed update about friend-dating relationship taboos…things…

All the jerks over at Capcom.com have shunned me because my ideas for future storylines are based within the realm of Resident Evil games, and aren’t delusional fairy tales where Chris beats the shit out of Wesker for two hours and Claire, Jill and Rebecca have a three-way lesbian orgy with a Tyrant.

God, I hate those unintelligent bastards.

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Act Only: Wilder vs. Depp

After seeing Tim Burton’s adaptation of ”Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, I must say I am impressed with another fantastic Burton picture. The entire film was hilarious (in a grim way, during some instances). Johnny Depp was able to portray the perfect image of a madman/chocolatier.

When compared with the original 1971 film adaptation starring Gene Wilder and Peter Ostrum, this modern version of the classic Roald Dahl tale vanquishes its predecessor in a furious battle. Chocolate stained the walls and the carcasses of Oompa-Loompas littered the ground as Burton defeated the Mel Stuart directed smut.

Gene Wilder was a fantastic actor in his day, but his portrayal of Willy Wonka was too child friendly. Again, Gene Wilder was an amazing actor. I’ve loved some of his other films, and I do like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It is certainly a shame that Wilder has cancer, and lost his wife (Gilda Radner of SNL) to cancer as well. Gene Wilder is great.

But Johnny Depp made a fantastic Willy Wonka. He brought a new life to the character.

Tim Burton has made another gem. The actors are all talented, although not necessarily big names. Most might recognize Freddie Highmore from Finding Neverland, a film in which he co-starred with Johnny Depp. I recognized Noah Taylor (playing Mr. Bucket) from his distinguished role as David in Shine, and his less distinguished role as Bryce in the two Tomb Raider films…

Three cast members I recognized from another Tim Burton film:

Helena Bonham Carter played Mrs. Bucket. She has previously appeared in Big Fish as Jenny (and the Witch). I question if she is Burton’s good luck charm. She has been in a few other films directed by him, such as “Planet of the Apes” and “Corpse Bride”. Who can say, eh?

Missi Pyle played Mrs. Beauregarde. She also appeared in Big Fish, playing Mildred. Binkle, you’d probably recognize Missi Pyle as the female Thermian from Galaxy Quest…

Deep Roy played the Oompa Loompas. In Big Fish, he played the role of Mr. Soggybottom.

And of course, EVERYONE knows Christopher Lee, unless you are mentally handicapped or you live under a rock. It is possible that the former might lead to the latter.

Overall, the film was absolutely stupendous. The children were all expertly cast. The role of Mike Teavee and Veruca Salt were exactly how I pictured them. Augustus Gloop isn’t a difficult role to play. Obesity is the name of the game for that part, and he makes his undignified exit so early you hardly care about him. Excellent film.

I’m buying it when it comes out on DVD. I’ll also be awaiting the release of ”Corpse Bride”, another Burton flick.

P.S. Apparently, Veruca Salt is also the name of an alternative rock band.

Dictaudialogue: A word describing a situation whereupon something is spoken, and heard, but not fully understood. In laymen’s terms, it is a conversation where neither party seems to understand the other. It is also the miraculous result of combining Greek root words together.

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Act One: Point A to Point B, with a Detour Through Point W, T, and F

The word above was created because, on a regular basis, I see a bulk of conversations/debates/disagreements/etc. what occur where neither side is listening to their “opponent”.

On CFRB 1010, a popular talk radio station in Toronto, John Moore was discussing how the religion of Islam “breeds” suicide bombers. A woman phoned in to say that this wasn’t the case, and John Moore ignored what she was saying, and spun words around to confuse her. As she was confused, she tried to explain. I knew what she meant, but John Moore said that she was confusing the issue, and then he cut her off.

In debates on Legends Alliance (no link will be provided to this most sinful of realms), many debates would take place where no side listened to anything. The debate would be about the effects of religion in the past, and someone would chime in with a point. Someone of the opposing opinion would completely disregard that post, and say something irrelevant. Eventually, it would degrade down to the point where they were saying the same point.

“Jesus could walk on water.” “But the Bible has the potential to be historically inaccurate!” “But Jesus could walk on water. This proves his miracles.” “But they are written in a potentially inaccurate book.” “But the fact that we have written documentation is proof.” “The documentation is flawwed.” “But this fallacy can be brushed away by the properly documented accounts in the Bible.”

And so on…

And I’m not joking.

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Act Two: It’s A Living…But Not A Very Good One…

Work sucks.

Work sucks.

My job is SUPPOSED to be simply imaging and configuring computers in 29 schools in the Tri-City area. Instead, we received the image TWO WEEKS late. Now, in addition to imaging the computers, we have to PM (Preventative Maintenance) all of the machines. This consists of scrubbing all the stickers off of the monitors, cleaning the screens, cleaning the keys, cleaning between the keys, blowing out under the keys with an air compressor, cleaning the mouse and mouse balls, and cleaning all the cords.

Today, 7 technicians (3 staff members and four summer students) were out at Westmount (Waterloo, I think), and it took us the entire day to image and PM. It takes 20 minutes to PM a computer, and each school has 45-60 computers. With SEVEN people, we managed to finish a school in a day (barely, I might add). Tomorrow, we will divide into teams of two. I can’t see us imaging all the schools by the end of the summer.

I’m looking forward to going to Elizabeth Ziegler (sarcasm). It is a big, drafty old school building with flights of stairs going from the top floor directly to the basement through some back secret passage. The building would be cool as a house, but it is retarded as a school. Westvale would be interesting to go to. It is near the old Hulbert residence. Last year, we drove by Holy Rosary (a massive school compared to the timid Westvale), and it was then that I realised we were in the ex-neighbourhood of the Hulberts. I am tempted to track down their house and take a picture of it with my digital camera. Oh well…although, bringing the camera to work would certainly help entertain me (and anger my co-worker, who is a professional photographer).

The job would be easier to accept if PM’ing wasn’t part of the job description. Wait, it isn’t! I didn’t sign up for custodial work, but unfortunately, the WRDSB is so fucked up that their departments mesh and spew all over eachother in an orgasm of bureaucracy.

Damn the government…

Later y’all.

Jordan

PS - Happy Birthday Binkle. A salute to 18 years of uninterupted immortality.

EDIT: It turns out, I have repeatedly been using the link tags wrong on this damn thing. It seems the link provides an internal link which is monumentally useless to me.

They’ve made new shirts.

I want the Tycho one, but it isn’t on sale in their store. I don’t know if it ever will be. But I must have it. My mouth salivates at the thought. His commentary for the comics has become one of the reasons I attend Penny-Arcade (sure, Gabe’s drawing is good, but let’s face it, he’s the second act).

Go TYCHO!