Something I know I shouldn't care about but still...

So Oprah's pissed because a Hermes store in Paris wouldn't let her in. First off she says that she heard them say "Oh, lock the door, you know the trouble we've had with these North Africans" which doesn't sound particularily likely to me, then the story changed to them locking the door and saying "We know who you are" which makes even less sense, it's a high end store, she is rich, why would they lock her out if they knew who she was, none of it makes any sense at all until you realize the truth: THEY WERE CLOSED, that's right, the great and wise O is pissed because a store wouldn't reopen just for her, calling it a racial issueand saying she's never felt so embarrased or hurt in her life, does anyone else in the world expect a store to reopen 15 minutes after they've locked up and headed home for them, I sure don't. FUCK YOU OPRAH!

This song is for people who know what rock and roll is about

Ok, been away for a while I know, if anyone has a graph of the average drop-off in peoples blog postings over time I’d love to see it. I’ll try to make up for things with a few quick posts.

Went to see Sloan a couple weeks ago at the Commodore, God they’re good, I’ve seen then a couple times and knew it would be a good show but it was actually different from how I’ve seen them before. The previous couple times they’ve been great but very much a goofy/fun/sloppy show, not this time however, they were aggressive and rocking and very tight. Part of the energy was thanks to the crowd, the place was pretty full and easily the most positive vibe I’ve felt at the Commodore before. They played almost entirely well known, rocking hits, didn’t talk too much and seemed very appreciative of the good crowd. Andrew’s songs fell a little flat, they’re not really the type that work live though, especially at a high-energy show, not enough Jay songs but the ones he did sounded great, it was the Chris and Patrick ones that kept bringing the place to a boil again and again: ‘She says what she means’, ‘The Good in Everyone’, ‘Money City Maniacs’, ‘Iggy & Angus’, etc, all sounded amazing. They dispenced with ‘Underwhelmed’ right away, which is understandable but still too bad. Opening act “Magneta Lane” were ok, scrappy 3 piece girl group, somewhere between The Donnas and Sleater-Kinney, pretty simplistic but they did win the crowd over eventually.

▲ - Chris’s high-kicks, guy with Tom Waits gravel-growl voice selling yummy hotdogs outside after.

▼ - The too-tall guys in front of me blocking my view (not to mention Parker’s) stay home too-tall people! (except me, of course)

Top Ten Shows on TV 2004

1. The Daily Show - Jon's kicked so much ass in his own time slot he's now having to step into others and kick ass there too. Easily the funniest show on TV, probably the smartest too, plus the rest of the cast don't get the credit they deserve.

2. Six Feet Under - Great cast, complex characters, original storylines, HBO produces winner after winner.

3. Late Show with David Letterman - The most consistantly good show on TV, easily. Still pretty funny, still not ultra-softball dumbed down (just turn the dial a couple for that)

4. Good Eats - At first the show looks hopelessly hokey and corny but Alton Brown's wit and brain push through the sometimes stupid scripting and gimics to remain the best, most informative food show around.

5. Penn & Teller's Bullshit - Ok, some of their topics ar way way WAY too easy a target (the alien abduction episode) and some of their opinions are just wrong (The bottled water episode) but depsite those failings the show is honest, real and funny. (I would put a link to the show's homepage but I can't Showtime has actually set it up so the page can only be viewed from the US, you even get a message telling you so.)

6. Jeopardy - After years of ho-hum ratings someone changed the rules and this most dull (but smart) of old time quiz shows came roaring back thanks to KenJen the RoboMormonAnswerMan.

7. Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Most, but not all, of the time ATHF manages to stay on the good side of the weird-funny/weird for weird's sake line, plus it's weird. Plus Frylock is about the coolest guy on TV, and he floats.

8. Trailer Park Boys - Those of you who don't watch it don't know what you're missing, some of you who do don't know either.

9. Canada Now - The best news programming I have found so far. Any bias that does appear is fairly balanced (if they lean one way slightly on one issue they often lean the other way slightly on the next)

10. Hockey Night In Canada - Let's all remember that before the hockey stopped the focus was on my awesomely gritty Flames fighting there way to within one win of the cup and CBC's HNIC is still so far superior to any other network's hockey coverage that it's like watching a different sport.

THE WORLD'S TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2004

I have compiled the ultimate Top Ten Albums of 2004 list, by scanning all the other lists of top albums of the year and assigning each album points based on where they appear on the list (10 points for a 1st place, 9 for second and so on) I will certainly end up with the one true list of the best music of the year.

The lists:

http://us.gq.com/culture/general/articles/041123plco_01
http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archives/002879.html#002879
http://matos-04.blogspot.com/
http://best-music-of-the-year.blogspot.com/
http://katesilver.blogspot.com/2004/10/2004-favorite-records.html
http://www.scaruffi.com/ratings/2004.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/10499521/fimoculouscom-20/103-3189627-5800662
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/10709691/fimoculouscom-20/103-3189627-5800662
http://travelersdiagram.com/archive/2004_11_28_archive.html
http://www.exclaim.ca/index.asp?layid=22&csid1=3171
Plus a few others



THE RESULTS, in extra long format

1. Arcade Fire - Funeral - 39 points

I didn't even hear the name Arcade Fire until about a month ago and wasn't really aware of them at all until I started compiling this list, turns out that 12 months ago no one outside of their native Montreal had heard of them either. In the past two months though they have become the kings of New York, with 5 star reviews all over the place, guess I'll have to pick it up, at least for national pride's sake, they blew everyone else out of the water. update: been listening lots, it's good, maybe really good.

2. Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat - 26 points

I know nothing about FF except that they are brothers and that those who like them, like them a lot.

2. Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose - 26 points

This has been on my list of albums to listen to since it came out, I'll be picking it up or downloading it asap, I can pretty much guarantee I'll love it.

2. The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free - 26 points

It's emo-Tricky! Tricky with all the accent and none of the menace, now with extra emotion. Only been listening to this one for a bit but a few songs stand out as pretty good, a few as pretty annoying.

3. Kayne West - College Dropout - 24 points

Ummm… s'up homey? Not sure if I'm "down" enough to "groove" to this "rapping" all the "kids" are "talking" about these days, I think I'll "pass".

3. AC Newman - The Slow Wonder - 24 points

Local boy made good! I like, not love, all the bands on the New Pornographers family tree, haven't heard this cd but saw AC Newman open for Wilco, the sound was pretty muddy and he was pretty nervous but a few parts sounded promising.

4. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand - 23 points

This fire is outta control. It's as great as everyone says it is.

5. Norah Jones - Feels Like Home - 20 points

This is what I get for adding the Customer's Picks from Amazon onto my list of lists.

6. Ray Charles - Genius Loves Company - 17 points

See above.

7. Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News - 16 points

I've had this downloaded ever since it came out but have only listened to it once, could be great but I'll have to wait for more listens. update: 'Float On' is amazing, rest of the album is pretty good too.

8. Mclusky - Difference Between Me & You Is That I'm Not on Fire - 15 points

Welsh art-punk noisemakers… worth a listen based on album titles alone.

9. Brian Wilson - Smile - 14 points

Were these all pity votes? I doubt I'll hear this album, could have some cool stuff on it though.

9. Interpol - Antics - 14 points

Yup, they're good too

9. Diana Krall - The Girl In The Other Room - 14 points

You know lady, some people liked him A LOT MORE before you came along.

9. Madvillain - Madwillainy - 14 points

No idea whatsoever,

10. Morrissey - You Are The Quarry - 13 points

Score one for the old dude, great album, I was never much of a Smiths fan but I do like the guy and this album is pretty good.

10. Wilco - A Ghost Is Born - 13 points

I'm new to the Wilco club but this one likely has some of my favorites on it

10. Devendra Banhart - two albums - 13 points

No idea, I've read a bit about her but haven't heard anything yet.

10. Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters - 13 points

You go girl! Took me a while to give in and like this but once I did I really liked it.

But LCD's suck... trust me

Big, heavy, old-school CRT monitor's are better than new-fangled flat screen LCD ones in almost every way, so then why the hell is everyone buying LCD's?
Where I work employees have the choice of getting a 17" LCD or a 19" CRT when they order a new system, I am completely baffled by the fact that, time after time, they choose the smaller LCD over the CRT so I've decided to do a little head to head comparison test and see either I am missing something or if I can educate a few people on the facts. I'll give the winner of each category 1 point if it's a stat that matters at all and 1/2 point if it's a moot point. Let's see what we get…

CONTRAST:

Constrast is a measure of the amount of difference between the dark and light parts of the screen. CRT monitors easily have the edge here though LCD's are improving, LCD monitors quote their contrast ratio (250:1, 500:1, 600:1, etc) front and centre and it's usually a key selling point for choosing one LCD over another. CRT's are so much better at contrasting the light and dark portions of the screen that their stats are rarely even quoted. Winner: CRT (easily) 1 point.

BRIGHTNESS:

Brightness is, um, it's brightness. LCD's are signifigantly brighter than old CRT's but it's pretty much a moot point because all that extra brightness is needed to offset the poor contrast ratio's of an LCD, CRT's don't have the same brightness because they don't need it. Winner: LCD, but seeing as it doesn't really matter 1/2 point.

COLOUR:

Both in colour purity and in colour quality the CRT monitor wins again, they are far more acurate (especially in games and video) than any LCD, which is why you'd have to pry that huge old 22" CRT out of the cold, dead hands of 99% of web designers, animators or CAD users before they would consider using an LCD. Winner: CRT, 1 point.

BULK:

Bulk means how big and heavy is it. No getting around this one, the LCD kicks ass, it's lack of bulk is, I think, it's main selling point. CRT's are getting smaller and smaller and new "short-tube" tech will make then less deep but they'll never get to LCD size, not even close. Winner: LCD, 1 point.

SCREEN BURN:

By now everyone has seen old monochrome monitors at their local library or DMV that have the same thing on the screen whether the monitor is on or not. When LCD's first came out it was reported that they were immune to burn but the recent move to LCD tv's and a much wider sampling amount have shown that burn in is possible on any screen. Burn in was a problem for CRT's for a long time but for at least the last 5-10 years pretty much any decent CRT is nearly immune to burn in, not as good as an LCD likely but still below the threshhold of mattering: Winner: LCD, 1/2 point.

VIEWING ANGLE:

The image on an LCD used to disappear as you moved off-axis, (once you were no longer looking at the monitor dead-on) but this problem is nearly gone, LCD's still look best dead-on but the image problems associated with moving off-axis have been reduced a lot. CRT's do not really have this problem. Winner: CRT, 1 point.

RESPONSE TIME:

Response time refers to the time the screen takes to update the colour of each spot on the screen. This is important in gaming and other fast moving images like video watching. A slow response time will leave a 'trailing effect' where certain images seem to lag behind the action. The very best LCD monitors now offer sub 20 millisecond response times, which makes them generally acceptable for gaming. CRTs response time is not noticable. Winner: CRT, 1 point.

SCREEN FLICKER:

The image on a CRT is redrawn a certain number of times per second, the high quality the monitor and video card are the faster this redraw can happen at, but even a low end system allows this setting to be adjusted. Windows XP stupidly sets the default refresh rate to 60Hz, which can be seen by most people as a noticable flicker that is very hard on the eyes after a time, sometimes in just seconds, 60Hz also is the same frequency as power in North American so a 60Hz is just inviting interference. If the refresh rate is set to 85Hz or higher nearly all users will stop notcing the flicker. LCD's do nto have this problem. Winner: LCD, 1/2 point because the problem is fixable with one setting.

INTERFERENCE:

CRT's are suseptable to magnetic interference, just hold your phone's receiver up to the screen. This can make the placement of the montior, speakers, lights, amp, etc tricky. LCD's do not have this problem. Winner: LCD, 1 point.

POWER CONSUMPTION:

No nice way to say this, that big old CRT monitor on my desk that I think looks so lovely is an earth raper of the 1st degree when compared to an LCD. A CRT will use 2-10 times as much electricity as a CRT. Winner: LCD, 1 point.

DEATH OF A PIXEL:

In an LCD monitors each tiny point on the screen (pixel) has an individual light, these lights can burn out, sometimes they are burnt out right out of the box. They then appear as a tiny black dot on the screen. These cannot be repaired, and can be quite annoying if they are in the main viewing area of the monitor, and are especially noticeable in word processing and other applications where the screen background is generally white. CRT displays do not suffer from this issue, but LCD manufacturing has improved to greatly reduce the frequency of this problem. Check the warranty carefully when you are buying an LCD, lots of them don't cover dead pixels unless there are more than a few on the screen. Winner: CRT, 1 point.

PRICE:

LCD = $$$, CRT = $. Winner: CRT, 1 point.

AND YOUR WINNER IS.... THE CRT!!!

CRT = 5 points to LCD = 4.5 points, it looks like a closer score than it is because most of the points that the CRT scores are in the catagories that have to do with actual image quality, needless to say I'll be sticking with CRT's for a long while yet.

Still... None of this explains the fact that I can tell someone 'Look, you can get a bigger screen for less money with a nicer display.' and having then still choose the LCD...

All Time Top 10 Movie Roles

1. Christian Bale - Patrick Bateman - American Psycho - Yup, I honestly do think this is the best acting job I've ever seen, Christian Bale is freakishly perfect playing pseudo-psycho killer Patrick Bateman, pretty much every note in this huge part is played with amazing consistency and perfection, Bale is funny when he's supposed to be, scary when he's supposed to be, everything is just perfect. Bale is perfect in a movie where nearly every sequence could be dissected and taught in any filmmaking class. This was a case where I think the actor chosen had to be a relative unknown and had to have massive talent to make it work, name me another actor who could have even attempted this role. Kevin Spacey? Maybe, but I think it would have been too one-note creepy, Guy Pierce? Could have worked OK but I think Christian has more of what is needed in every category than Guy, anyone else? (let's all remember for a moment that for a while this was a Leonardo D vehicle, wow)
Movie: 10/10
Portrayal: 10/10
Best Line: 'I just had to kill a lot of people!' (among about 50 great lines)

2. Dwight Yoakum - Doyle Hargraves - Sling Blade - I have admit first off that I have a soft spot for Dwight, I love him in every role I've ever seen him in, this just happens to be the best one. He plays this very not nice guy like a beaten puppy who's grown up into a very dangerous dog who isn't hard at all but rather is way, way too soft, every action that could possibly be read as an act against him immediately causes him to seek to hurt and intimidate whoever is closest to him. The movie has a few faults (the small townyness feels much less real and more staged than something like 'Boys Don't Cry') but Dwight is the perfect lurker in every scene he has, promising you that he'll hurt you if you would just give him a chance.
Movie: 8/10
Portrayal: 10/10
Best Line: several; 'I'm just kidding.' 'Let's all just sit here and be a family. Until your mentally retarded friend and your homosexual friend get here.'


3. Sean Astin - Samwise Gamgee - LOTR - I have to admit that I didn't think Sean had it in him. I think this was the case of a role fitting perfectly within the somewhat narrow breadth of an actors abilities. Samwise was the only character that made me cry more than once and was easily the character I was watching for and being led by. Sean Astin has always seemed to me to be the definition of a purely good, positive, if slightly limited person, Samwise is all this is every scene.
Movie: 9/10
Portrayal:10/10
Best Line: 'I made a promise, Mr Frodo. A promise. "Don't you leave him Samwise Gamgee." And I don't mean to. I don't mean to.'

4. Guy Pierce - Leonard Shelby - Memento - Every other actor I can think of would have failed in this role. Guy juggles the huge number of things going on with his character so perfectly that the machinery of his acting is never even hinted at, if this role had been played by most any other young actor I think the groan of effort would have been all over it.
Movie: 9/10
Portrayal: 10/10
Best Line: 'OK, what am I doing? I'm chasing this guy... Nope, he's chasing me.'

5. Frances McDormond - Marge Gunderson - Fargo - Holy crap is she good! Hilarious, touching, smart, caring, determined, all while being very, very pregnant, Frances makes the character more like a real person than perhaps any other I can think of. I'd rather have Perry Mason on my case than Marge Gunderson any day.
Movie: 7.5/10
Portrayal: 9/10
Best Line: 'I'm not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work, there, Lou.'

6. Orson Wells - Police Captain Hank Quinlan - Touch of Evil - I mean come on! It's big fat Orson in a bigger, fatter fat suit, he's simply amazing, intimidating as hell as a completely believable hard, hard sheriff. In a movie too smart to have a real 'bad' guy he's the closest thing, but the movie has enough brains to take even the sheriff aside for a few scenes to show he's not really all that bad a guy. Orson left Hollywood for good when they wouldn't, or couldn't accept a movie as far ahead of it's time as Touch of Evil.
Movie: 9/10
Portrayal: 9/10
Best Line: commenting on his weight 'It's either the candy or the hooch. I must say, I wish it was your chili I was gettin' fat on. Anyway, you're sure lookin' good.'

7. Mark Ruffalo - Terry Prescott - You Can Count On Me - As an actor Mark Ruffalo rumbles with emotion, this performance is the only one on the list that is possibly above Frances McDormond's Marge as a believable 'real world' character. The list of adjectives that apply to the Terry is so long, there are hardly any that don't fit; from pathetic to caring to petty to sweet they are all shown in perfect balance by Ruffalo. I cannot believe that this role didn't get Oscar attention, oh wait, yes I can. You know that Ruffalo knows how bad, and even dangerous, Terry's great ideas are but he skillfully never lets so much as a wink show through to the audience, this is a selfless actor playing a selfish character who wants to be better so long as it doesn't require much effort, sacrifice or discipline from him.
Movie: 8/10
Portrayal: 8.5/10
Best Line: 'We're going fishing.'

8. Adam Sandler - Barry Egan - Punch Drunk Love - I know I know, don't take my head off, it's a sloppy, goofy role, it's also completely believable, when Barry ducks back around the corner of his warehouse after meeting Emily Watson because his OCD is going into overload, or when he snaps and starts smashing windows or when he trashes a bathroom or when he calls a phone sex line it's all stunningly realized by Sandler's choice of how to play the role. The scene of him stomping around the warehouse with Jon Brion's amazing score reduced to pounding drums as Barry edges closer and closer to who knows what is one of my favorite scenes in any movie ever. Yes, most of his comedies are stupid wastes of time and no, I am not the least bit surprised that he had this in him.
Movie: 9/10
Portrayal: 9/10
Best Line: tie; 'I beat up the bathroom.' 'I have a love in my life, it makes me stronger than anything you can imagine.'

9. Sigourney Weaver - Ellen Ripley - Aliens - In Aliens, much more so than in Alien, or those other two similar but awful movies that followed, Sigourney's stunningly tough but human portrayal of a regular person forced to become extraordinary or die is a serious cut above every other action movie hero I have ever seen. She's not playing an action hero doing flips and hyper-fast fighting to beat the bad guys, she's a normal person backing away from trouble, gun ready, checking her instruments and looking for a way out. The chills in my back the first time I saw the film when I first realized she was going back for Newt stick with me to this day.
Movie: 8/10
Portrayal: 8/10
Best Line: 'Get away from her, you BITCH!'

10. Hilary Swank - Teena Brandon/Brandon Teena - Boys Don't Cry - I know it's a big tear jerking sad role, it's also true and riveting and horrifying, if it were fiction it would be dismissed on any number of faults, as a true story it has all it needs to. I have never seen so much pain on the screen in any other movie. This spot should almost go to Hilary Swank and Chloe Sevengy as a team as they continually one-up each other revealing depths to the characters.
Movie: 7/10
Portrayal: 8/10
Best Line: 'I hate your life too.'

All Time Top 20 Movies

1. Star Wars (all three originals)
2. LOTR (all three)
3. Memento
4. Ghost World
5. Punch Drunk Love
6. Touch of Evil
7. Big Trouble in Little China
8. Dazed and Confused
9. Donnie Darko
10. Pulp Fiction
11. Annie Hall/Manhattan
12. Fargo
13. Blood Simple
14. Run Lola Run
15. Full Metal Jacket
16. Monsters Inc
17. Dark City
18. American Psycho
19. Brass Monkey
20. The Outsiders

Neko! Ready, Steady, Go!

Saw my super fav Neko Case the other night with Parker (who rocks). About the 5th or 6th time I've seen her (Neko, not Parker), pretty good show but could have been better. She's often backed up by The Sadies (who also rock) but this was the first time I've seen her play with them. They sounded great but only played for a bit more than an hour and only did about 4 songs that actually appear on any Neko cd's so that was also a bit of a letdown.

Best Bashes

OK, here's today's plagarized comic relief, these are the top five funniest posts on bash.org

1.

#376790 +(2763)- [X]

Mike3285: wtf is a palindrome
MaroonSand: no its not dude

2.

#4780 +(2761)- [X]

do you know of any major organizations that are similar the CDC?
who?
center for disease control
i said WHO
what? i'm asking you
World Health Organization

3.

#214810 +(2525)- [X]

whats the complement to a 43 degree angle?
My you're looking "acute" today
fuck you

4.

#229070 +(2028)- [X]

Jesus Saves
pases to moses, SCOOOOORE

5.

#172869 +(1925)- [X]

* veganzombie has joined #uc
Graaaaaaaiiiiinnssss.....
* veganzombie has quit IRC (Quit: Graaaaaaaiiiiinnssss.....)

ROFL! LOVE THAT ONE!

TWO PACKS!

4 orange
1 cherry
5 srawberry
1 citrus

85% New High Score... I need to buy a trophey or something

3 orange
3 cherry
3 strawberry
3 citrus

79%

I like Chiclets!

New pack:

3 Orange
2 Cherry
5 Strawberry
2 Citrus

76%

A NEW HIGH SCORE!

Alt wall of sound

Went to see Wilco last week with Parker, I'm not the hugest Wilco fan but I like them, Parker loves them and we lucked into some tickets so we went. They sounded great, like they've been playing together forever, some stuff seemed a little to deliberately weird but a lot of it just sounded great, heard almost all the songs I like; "I am trying to break your heart', 'Shot in the arm' but not my all-time super fav 'Heavy Metal Drummer'. The band seemed to be having a pretty good time too, witty banter and all.

AC Newman were the supporting band, featuring local uberoverrated but still good Carl Newman, of Zumpano, Destroyers, New Pornographers fame, they kinda sounded like mud but seemed sweetly nervous and a couple songs almost broke through.

'I sincerely miss those heavy metal bands...'

New Pack (from Parker)

New Chiclets Pack:

3 Citrus
1 Orange
1 Strawberry
7 Cherry

72% Not a bad pack of gum at all!

Shaw starting to suck as bad as Telus

OK Shaw, I've defended you and recommended you instead of Evil Telus many times now but no more! For the past month or so Bitorrent speeds have been unbearably slow, averaging out to about 60k down and 20k up. I had suspected it might be my old router or just my account but this morning I found this article which answers the mystery, not that there's anything I can do about it. You suck Shaw.

Looking for the perfect pack

Chiclets now come in a blister pack, 12 pieces to a package. You get at least one piece each of cherry, orange, strawberry and citrus (mostly lemony tasting, and yucky). I have a scoring system for these packages based on a perfect package, in my opinion, consisting of 5 orange, 4 cherry, 2 strawberry and 1 citrus (I'd rather it was 0 citrus but that's not an option here).

Each pack starts with 100 points and loses points for every chiclet that is over or under the desired threshold. Points are deducted at a rate of:

Orange = -1 point for each piece above or below the desired total of 5
Cherry = -2 points for each piece above or below the desired total of 4
Strawberry = -4 points for each piece above or below the desired total of 2
Citrus = -6 points for each piece above or below the desired total of 1

Therefor this pack, which consisted of 1 orange, 1 cherry, 6 strawberry and 4 citrus, would score:

1 Orange
1 Cherry
6 Strawberry
4 Citrus

55% - Not exactly a stellar pack.

When Cosine was young and stupid

OK, so a little over a year ago, when I started at my present job, I began using Standford's Folding project to stress test PC's at work. After a while I added folding to several work PC's in my rack full time, a bit after that I started adding it to every PC I could get my grubby hands on, soon it was on dozens... hundreds even. The way I saw it the folding was good cancer research, the folding was a background operation that would only run when the PC was idle and the whole thing was transparent and would never affect the end user in any way. Meanwhile my ranking grew and grew. Soon I was the fastest rising star on my folding team and was putting up some major production numbers.

Then I got caught.

Actually my bosses were pretty ok about it, they weren't happy that I had done it but figured that as long as I tracked down all the machines that were folding and removed the software and didn't do it again then no harm done.

So I have spent the past 8 months tracking down machines that are folding and removing the software, the reason I am writing this post now is that I have managed to track down every PC except one, one little PC somewhere around here is still folding it's little heart out and I cannot find it. It has become the bane of my existance, the thorn in my side, every PC I come accross at work I sit down at and check for the telltale signs but nope, nada, nothing, nil.

What games are missing.

Why can't I play the same game on more than one PC? What I mean is why can't I continue the same game on ANY PC that has the game installed. If I install a game at home and am working my way through it why can't I install it at work or anywhere else and continue the same saved game there, keeping the two versions synced to each other? There has been the occasional game that offered an import/export saved game feature or other games that allowed for the moving of saved games just by copying the save game files around but none of these is a REAL solution, webspace is cheap, saved games are small... why can't I use something like gmail's gig of space to store saved games that I could access from wherever?

I give up

You had your chance, America, no more. I give up.

...but the movie kinda sucks

I know this is a bit of a late review but for some reason it took a while to get a good torrent of it, here goes:

Spiderman 2 is the latest offering from Sam "Way fucking overrated" Raimi and his brother, writer Ted "Happy Nepotism Day" Raimi. Spiderman 2 sucks ass. What a horrible movie, I cannot believe this thing got good reviews, nearly every aspect of it falls totally flat, from the action scenes to the plot to the script it's all just awful.

Ok so, Dr. Otto Octobvious has developed a way to control nuclear fusion so the reaction doesn’t get away (funny, I thought the problem with fusion on earth was too little power return not too much). He decides to demonstrate this in front of a room full of unprotected visitors and reporters (ooooo, I bet something bad will happen). Apparently the problem with fusion was not enough arms… luckily the Doctor has four extra arms that strap on when needed to "control the fusion reaction" (How do they do this? Who knows!). Now at this point you must all be worried about his higher brain function with those arms strapped on (I know I was), luckily a perfectly placed reporter asks this very question, the Doctor kindly explains that his "Neural Inhibitor Chip" protects higher brain function while wearing the arms (Phew, I guess he's safe then). The Doctor also randomly volunteers the fact that that arms are not affected by magnetism (Anyone see a big magnet coming? I know I do!). The doctor starts the reactor and… it gets out of hand! And it turns into…. A BIG MAGNET! (shocker) which destroys the Doctors' inhibitor chip and of course renders him insane (the logic here is air-tight). People get killed, Spiderman jumps in, that's about it.

Now the Doc is nice enough to have a big conversation with himself to fill us stupid viewers in on what he plans to do, I mean seriously read this, it's the funniest part in the movie:

Doc Ock : My Rosie's dead. My dream is dead.
Doc Ock : And these... monstrous things should be at the bottom of the river... along with me.
Doc Ock : Something... in my head. Something talking... The inhibitor chip!
[He turns to find the chip destroyed]
Doc Ock : Gone.
Doc Ock : [arms click and whir] Rebuild? No. Peter was right. I miscalculated.
Doc Ock : [Ock whirls, madness setting in] I couldn't have miscalculated. It was working, wasn't it?
[arms click and whir]
Doc Ock : Yes. We can rebuild. Enlarge the containment field. Make it bigger and stronger than ever! But we need money.
[arms click and whir]
Doc Ock : Steal it? No, no, no, I'm not a criminal.
[arms click and whir]
Doc Ock : That's right... the real crime would be not to finish what we started.
Doc Ock : [arms carry him into his hideout] We'll do it here. The power of the sun in the palm of my hand.
[arms lift him high]
Doc Ock : Nothing will stand in our way! NOTHING!


So now Doc Ock goes on a rampage collecting money to build a bigger reactor to help mankind (???). As he is never shown actually building this bigger reactor I assume he just picked it up at his local Bigger Fusion Reactor Depot. Spiderman doesn’t do much to stop him because he's lost his powers (How? Who the fuck knows, wait I know; because it's what is needed at this point in the movie) after a while he gets his powers back (Why? Because it's almost time to wrap up this piece of shit movie).

The comic relief scene of Spidey taking the elevator down because his webs aren't working is also wrong and clunky, at this point only his webs are affected yet he takes the elevator down from the roof of a building rather than any of ten other ways he could have gotten down with the remainder of his powers. (Why? Because it was time for the funny scene so logic be damned!)

Another scene that makes no sense is when Doc Ock dangles Harry Osbourne off the balcony of his penthouse and demands more Tritium (ok, now I'm cracking open my Chem textbooks..) Harry, proving his great head for business, agrees to supply the Tritium rather than die (Hey, Bigger Fusion Reactor Depot can't carry everything) so Doc sets his back down, at which point he demands Spiderman in return for the Tritium, now in the real world this would be the point where Doc holds Harry back over the edge and says 'Now, where were we?' but instead of that he says 'Okie Doke, you want fries with that?'

In their big fight scene Spidey appear to use exactly the same fighting techniques that did absolutely nothing to the Doc before only now they knock the piss out of him (Why? Because it's what the lazy ass writers needed to have happen at this point). He stops the Doc but not before the Doc starts the Even Bigger Reactor, once he is beaten the Doc goes back to being sane and helps Spidey stop the reaction by dropping the reactor in the river (Ok… let me just crack open my high school copy of Fusion 101 here…) which stops the reactor without so much as a spec of steam or any other apparent effects.

The physics of the fight scenes and Spidey's movements/swinging doesn’t ring true either and constantly pulled me out of the movie. When he's falling his webs take time to shoot and reach a surface and they are bungee-springy, when he is swinging however his webs shoot out to the rooftops instantly and are taut. I also watched 'I, Robot' this weekend and while it had it's flaws as well the action sequences used physics in a much more consistent and believable way. Watch the fight scenes from both movies back to back and try to tell me Spiderman's are better, or even good. The CG of Spidey's movements is just as bad as in the first film too, he still moves and looks like a cartoon rubber-man inserted into the picture Roger Rabbit style.

Spiderman's powers at least make sense and are consistent, Doc Ock's aren't; exactly how do these arms make him super-strong? Spidey punches him in the face 20 times and does no damage. They're just arms, why doesn't someone just shoot him and we can all go home?

The romantic subplot is actually better than the rest of the movie but not by much, here a sampling of Mary Jane talking to her new fiance:

Mary Jane Watson : Could you lean your head back for me?
John Jameson : Sure...
[Leans his head back. M.J gives him an upside down kiss]
John Jameson : Wow... I'm back on the moon
[looks up at M.J]
John Jameson : You up there with me?

Who the fuck talks like this? And since when do 18 year old snots go to the moon? Who's this guy supposed to be, Lance Bass?

I should add here that I LOVE COMICS and I liked the first movie quite a bit… so it's not like I just hate action movies or anything like that.

Also a special thanks to the REAL Parker for noticing all the shit I didn't.