| Looking for office space in Toronto |
[May. 7th, 2008|11:28 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Jason & the Scorchers - Take Me Home, Country Roads | ] |
Hello! I am looking for office space in Toronto. NORMALLY in these situations I look up "office space toronto" but holy crap, apparently "office space" is the same sort of keyword that "Romanian bride" is, in that there are twenty-thousand bottom feeders with generic out-of-a-box websites promising me "office space office lease office renting office rental office opportunities office make money online NOT A SCAM office spaaaaaace".
Thanks, INTERNET.
So does anyone have any hot tips or things along those lines for Toronto office space? I don't need much: room for 3-5 people, internet, and so on. Maybe a phone, I don't know.
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| ROFLCon |
[May. 6th, 2008|04:26 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Jurassic Park Soundtrack - Theme | ] |
So - ROFLCon! It was a fun time.
It was different from most comics conventions, probably because it wasn't a comic convention. It was an Internet Convention, and what that meant was a big focus on the panels and only a few tables with people selling stuff - I didn't bring anything to sell anyway! It was also unusual in that all these webcomics people were invited (Joey, Rich, Jeph, Jeff, and more!) but only me and Randall and the Cyanide and Happiness guys were on panels talking. I got the impression they did this with a lot of other niches too, so the overall experience was more of a peer-to-peer convention, where walking around you were bound to run into someone awesome.
It was pretty surreal. Jay Tron Guy Maynard was a big hit, and very easy to photograph. I didn't end up getting a chance to talk to him, but I did listen in on his panel, and I wanted to tell him how I respected how he took all the internet hate he got with his first costume and turned it into something pretty great. I also met MC Frontalot for the first time, and let me tell you, he's really fun to talk to: after listening to his voice for years, just having a conversation with him gave me this feeling of listening to a secret hidden MC Front track, where he's just, you know, shooting the breeze. Nice. I didn't get to talk to Matt but I wanted to tell him I like the way he's living his life.
Interesting panels for me were hearing the different perspectives on community and news between the Reddit team and Drew from Fark and the OC Remix guys. OC Remix is a video-game remix/cover site and it's been one I've been reading for five or so years, so it was a thrill to meet them and thank them for the Jazz Plumber Trio cover.
Here's a picture from the panel Randy and moot and I were on:
from Scott at Laughing Squid, who took some awesome pictures
WHO ARE THESE HANDSOME PARAGONS OF THE MALE FORM?? I was worried about the panel: moot and Randy have huge audiences, so I was touched when the moderator said "Here's Ryan North from Dinosaur Comics" and there was all this applause. I was honestly surprised to be that well-received! We all got tons of applause for just sitting on chairs up there, which was insanely flattering. Thanks, everyone! The talk was streamed but I don't know if it's available online anywhere after the fact. M-Maybe?
Anyway IN CONCLUSION it was fun and surreal and I'm really glad I was invited to go talk and be famoused for a weekend! |
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| Club Native |
[Apr. 21st, 2008|03:02 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Andrew W.K. - She Is Beautiful (Live) | ] |
I saw Club Native (there's a brief clip at that link) at Hot Docs yesterday afternoon: it's a film about the struggle some Native people face in Canada trying to be recognized in their communities.
The background for the movie (just touched upon in the film) is this: in the past, the Canadian Government set up rules to solve the Native Problem: give them status, then give them rules that make status very hard to hold on to: marry a non-status person, and you lose status. That way, in a few generations, there are no more natives left to worry about, because they've all been assimilated. Magic!
Needless to say this was not a popular plan, and recently the Canadian Government gave tribes the option to decide status for themselves. In the Q/A after the film the director said about 66% stayed with the government plan, while among the other third, their plans range from the inclusionist "if you want to be a member of our tribe, great", to the other extreme of her own community, where there's still this weird focus on bloodlines. They want 4 of your grandparents to be Status if you are to be Status.
The movie explores the absurdities that come out of this: a women with a native mom and white dad (and who looks white) is not a Status Native, despite the fact she's lived in the town all her life, is a member of the community, and so on. On the flip side we follow a young women who says she doesn't really care if she's recognized as Native or not, but who eventually goes before a council and gets approved by 13 of the 14 members - and it's clear that this means a lot to her. In some cases children are left undecided until they're 18 years old, at which case they can make their case to a council.
The whole situation is weird: you have the filmmaker arguing from this that what it means to be native is hard to pin down, but that it's definitely a matter of culture and beliefs, not blood. On the other hand you have these communities that have set up their own rules for who's native and who's not, and it all seems to come down to blood for them: they care about culture, but they interviewed a former member of the council who was saying that as soon as they saw the reject woman's parentage, she was out - the rest of the application and the interview with her was all lip service.
ANYWAY - the movie was good, but the main disappointment for me was how the filmmaker didn't push these issues harder. There is an former Olympic athelete who goes off to the Olympics, meets this guy, a white guy, falls in love, and has this huge crisis, torn between her love of him and her desire to "marry Native", to keep their people and traditions alive. Fair enough - if you've been raised to think that race is so important, then you're going to have this trouble when your heart decides it isn't. And she eventually calls up her partner and confesses this and says "I want my children to be Native", and he says "Okay, fine, sure, I understand and I still want to be with you." Good for him!
My friend Dr. Priya read this as "I want my children to be RAISED native" - since we'd spent all this movie effectively saying that culture is what's important, not blood. But I thought differently, which was confirmed later on in the movie (and in the Q/A afterwards) in which, no, she wants her children to have native blood.
What?
It's clear that this is a difficult issue even from the outside, and it must be more confusing from the inside. But I can't get inside the midspace of "I love this man and want to have kids with him, but we're going to adopt children because his DNA isn't native. I want my kids to be native not only in culture but also in blood".
I think the issue is that I really don't think blood is important, and think for the most part race is made up of pointing to a point in the past and saying "THAT's who we are", and wanting to keep it there. I know Thomas King thinks race is a fiction we tell ourselves, and I can see where he's coming from.
Anyway you might enjoy the film! It raises some good questions about race and stuff? |
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| PRIMUS |
[Apr. 4th, 2008|01:33 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | MC Frontalot - Gonna Be Your Man | ] |
So a few months ago I posted about Primus, and my post was basically "PRIMUS IS GONNA SCREW ME GUYS I CAN FEEL IT". In retrospect I should have waited until they actually screwed me, because otherwise my post is just sour grapes when the grapes are still pretty good. That is a "metaphor".
Anyway, since then I've received emails asking for what ended up happening with Primus. Here's what happened: I called them up and said "Guys I'm cancelling my account because you never got it hooked up properly" and the guy said "Sure thing, there won't be any charges."
You can probably see where this is going!
A month later we get a bill for $100, for a month's worth of phone service. So I call up again and say "Guys I cancelled and you said there wouldn't be any charges" and they said "Oh yeah, right! Sorry! You'll get one more bill but it will show that you owe us $0."
A month later we get another bill, this time for $200. I call again and this time I get told that whoever spoke to me before was wrong, and the process is that they send me a bill for $200 and I call, and *then* they remove the charges. I have to "dispute" the charges. But it's fixed now, Ryan!
Today I got an email from their collections department asking me to call them. I call again and ask what the deal is, and after being transferred a bit I'm told that everyone else who spoke to me was wrong but this time, this time for sure, there'll be no charges. The lady just had to make sure that she was allowed to refund my account, so she'll speak to her manager. If the manager disapproves, she'll call me back, but if they approve, then in her words, "You'll never hear from us again."
So here's hoping! I should mention that everyone I spoke to was nice and helpful and polite and eager to help. They didn't apologize for botching the installation and refusing to fix it, but they did seem to want to make my account status right now that I've gone back to Bell. It's just that Primus as an organization appears to be this runaway train, and to get that train to stop, reverse, and fix something a few towns back is not a task easily accomplished. |
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| This looks like a good site! |
[Apr. 4th, 2008|09:56 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Lemon Jelly - Pushy | ] |
Does anyone have a Paid Account on LJ? I came across Leigh Walton's blog and I find it to be extremely excellent, but there doesn't appear to be an LJ feed of his RSS, and you need a Paid Account to create one! |
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| I like Holmes on Homes. I guess it is "reality television" but it has none of the fake drama and is |
[Apr. 3rd, 2008|06:41 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Torgny Melins - Hey Boy | ] |
Holmes on Homes is this great show where this contractor, Mike Holmes, goes to places where other contractors have done sucky jobs, and he fixes them. Guys. It's so satisfying to watch. There is what I will call a pure satisfaction in seeing someone supremely competent fix things. Every episode is pretty much the same: interviews with the homeowners saying what's wrong and how they got ripped off, Holmes taking it apart and showing them what's wrong, and then Holmes rebuilding it and making everything right, explaining things as he goes. At the end the homeowners see what's changed, are happy, and thank Holmes.
The first episode I happened to see was a special one, I guess, because it was two hours long and there was so much wrong with the place that Holmes knocked it to the ground, put in a new foundation, and then built them a new house. It doesn't hurt that Holmes is really personable and also looks a little like Duke Nukem.
Anyway, if you're looking for a show, that's what I'd recommend! I don't watch much TV but I like Holmes on Homes whenever I see it. |
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| I guess the problem is that both Cory and I really like Modern Mechanix and XKCD. |
[Mar. 26th, 2008|09:47 am] |
Okay, so here's a first-world problem that I'm sure other people have. I like BoingBoing1, they have a lot of great posts and even if I don't share Cory's interest in Disneyland2, it's still a great site and a great feed. I also like the Modern Mechanix blog, in which they take old articles and advertisements from vintage Modern Mechanix magazines, scan them in and transcribe them. It's great!
What I don't like is how, whenever there's something cool on "MM", "BB" will post about it that day, or maybe the day after. It's actually pretty bad with BoingBoing, since most of their content comes from linking to other blogs. Some days close to 60% of what I read on BB I've read before by the time it's posted there. I like BB because its interests match my own nicely, but when it's the same thing I've already read, the match may be a little TOO close, or maybe Cory and I just read the same sites.
MY POINT: are there other similarly-themed blogs that people would recommend? Ectoplasmosis is fantastic (fantastic!) and covers stuff I haven't already seen - there must be more!
1I always thought "BoingBoing" was spelt with an internal capital and no space, but that seems to come from nowhere. Their logo is one word no-caps, but their title tag is two words with a two capital Bs. WHAT AM I TO DO
2It's so weird! He's all creative commons information wants to be free let's protect the future of the internet, and then he posts all this stuff about Disney and Disneyland and the haunted mansion and ride redesigns and it's like the total opposite of everything else he believes in. He is a study in contrasts! |
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| something I would like to do |
[Feb. 29th, 2008|02:56 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Gene Marshall - Jimmy Carter Says "Yes" | ] |
Something I would like to do is be alerted of server status when I am on the road. The idea would be something like this:
a script notices something I want to be aware of
the script sends me a text message
i get the message on my cell phone and say, "Ah, no biggie".
I don't have a cell phone right now, so the field is open there. What I'm asking is, what's the best way to go about this? Ideally I'd like to be able to just email an address (ie: mycellphone'snumber@provider.com, say) and have that be delivered as a text message. What's the best provider to go with for something like that?
Also if I did get a cell phone I wouldn't make many calls, if that changes things.
also i am in canada
also i have been doing my own research beyond "hey maybe i'll ask the internet" but all the pamphlets I have say "UNLIMITED INCOMING TEXT MESSAGES" and then restrict based on "premium text messages" and have no details on how they get there, so what I need here is the Voice of Experience.
Ideas? Suggestions? |
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| theory for which I have no proof |
[Feb. 24th, 2008|07:38 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Thomas Chalmers - Castles in the air 1909 (Edison Cylinder) | ] |
I HAVE A THEORY, and that theory is that Wikipedia has killed the fan page. Now, the itch to make a site about Show X, with Show X pictures and favourite sound clips and episode summaries is too easily scratched by adding to the Wikipedia page about Show X, or even just reading the existing Show X Wikipedia node.
I think this is a probably a good thing for society as a whole (less duplication of work across the twenty different Show X fansites) but I missed the old Geocities fan sites with sparkling background and Unique Capitalization, especially when compared to Wikipedia's more consistant background images.
I have no proof for this theory but here I am typing it anyway!
NOTE: I exclude larger fan sites from this because they are profitable and have more momentum. But the small one-man fan site (the kind that would get updated for a few months and then abandoned) I think is in decline.
oh well, right? |
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| mister wonderful |
[Feb. 12th, 2008|02:10 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Big Rude Jake - Andys Requiem | ] |
Chris linked me to Dan Clowes's very sweet Mister Wonderful, which was serialized in the New York Times, but which you can read for free right now! Just be careful: the list goes from Conclusion to Chapters 1 through 19, and you really want to save the conclusion for last.
thanks Chris! |
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| So I'm almost moved now! also: PRIMUS |
[Feb. 9th, 2008|05:42 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Andrew W.K. - Party Hard (Live) | ] |
Guys I have moved from my old place at Spadina and Dundas to my new place which is closer to St Clair!
Jenn had been here for about a week or so ahead of me, but the phone company Primus (Oh, Primus, you are not so good) had been entirely unable to hook up our phone or internet access, and as a man who is apt to "spend his time" on the internet, I couldn't really move fully in. So I used my old place as an office! But now Bell has got our phone and internet hooked up so here I am, with my new office.
So: Primus. What's the deal with Primus, am I right? This is what I will say: "I can't really recommend Primus."
Jenn used Primus and had no problems, so I thought "Yes, I *would* like to save on my phone and internet bills!" and we gave them two week's advance warning to get the phone and internet hooked up at our house. They failed to hook up our phone and internet for three weeks, and after a comedy of errors they finally said "There is a wiring problem in the house", which, if you've moved before, you'll probably recognize as the catch-all solution for when they don't want to deal with it. This is like a busking juggler messing up and dropping his bowling pins all over the place, but saying it's not his fault because there's a - a wiring problem in the audience or something. It's just not an answer, Primus. The phone was working here 4 weeks ago for the last guy, Primus, and I watched him. He didn't take the internal phone wiring with him when he left.
I'm going to call Primus tomorrow from the phone beside me, the very phone which they claimed couldn't work but which Bell got working on the first try without ever even going near the front door, and tell them that. I think they're going to try to demand the $50 installation fee but they are not going to get it. I have worked up my Indignation and have witty quips already prepared, in case Primus says what I think Primus will say. To wit:
Primus Guy: "I'm sorry, sir, but our Terms of Service clearly specify that the $50 installation charge is non-refundable."
Me: "I understand and empathize, but you see, MY Terms of Service clearly specify that I'm not going to pay you $50 for not actually hooking up anything?"
Bah-dum-dum ching!
Anyway I am going to be polite but firm. I understand the person on the other end of the phone is just doing their job, but Primus, I called you three times and begged you to come back and try again. Please, just check the phone box. It's not the internal wiring. I was willing to forgive. I paused for the right amount of time and I said "Maybe your guy made a mistake. Maybe we all made mistakes." but no, you wouldn't send a guy out again, Primus. You kept repeating "internal wiring" because when you said that you felt like it wasn't your fault anymore. You said I should get an electrician to rewire the house.
Oh, Primus.
Anyway I'm kind of looking forward to the call! I'm willing to escalate. I will ask to talk to managers. I'm prepared to charge back fees on credit cards. I won't curse but I will use words to make them feel bad |
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| "Easter Time... Easter Time... Chocolate Time... Do all your shopping at Wal-Mart!" |
[Jan. 18th, 2008|02:48 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | The Most Unwanted Song | ] |
I read Cat and Girl through RSS, so I missed Dorothy linking to Komar and Melamid and Dave Soldier's The People's Choice Music, which is brilliant.
Take a musical survey, ask people what they like and dislike, and then use the results as directions in composing The Most Wanted Song and The Most Unwanted Song. It's really worth reading their results before you listen to the music:
The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition. The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be large, and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13% as the most unwanted instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and "elevator" music, and a children's choir sings jingles and holiday songs. The most unwanted subjects for lyrics are cowboys and holidays, and the most unwanted listening circumstances are involuntary exposure to commericals and elevator music. Therefore, it can be shown that if there is no covariance—someone who dislikes bagpipes is as likely to hate elevator music as someone who despises the organ, for example—fewer than 200 individuals of the world's total population would enjoy this piece.
Of course what makes the Most Unwanted Song so much better than the Most Wanted Song, is that these elements in combination are great. An operatic soprano rapping about the open plains of the old west? YES PLEASE.
This looks like it came out way back in 1997, so it may be old gnus to some of you, but it was "gnus to me".
Guys what if I used the same idea to generate The Most Wanted Comic and The Most Unwanted Comic?
look for a survey soon |
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| new year's resolutions |
[Jan. 2nd, 2008|10:28 am] |
| [ | music |
| | A plus D - Don't Stop Believin' In Planet Rock (Journey vs. Afrika Bambaataa) | ] |
NO 1024x768 JOKES ALLOWED THIS YEAR
My new year's resolution is to stop eating fast food: I'm only allowed it when I'm on a road trip or something, so if everyone wants to stop for delicious Whopper sandwiches, I won't be the guy that says "nope". My brother made this resolution a few years ago and has stuck by it and he seems to do well by it!
I am interested - what are your new year's resolutions?
ps: that image I found for "new year's resolution" really seems like Party A drew the pictures and Party B wrote in the words, so if anyone wants to add in their own words, that would be most acceptable |
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| I thought this was pretty cool! |
[Jan. 2nd, 2008|09:40 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Go Home Productions - Passenger Fever (Peggy Lee vs. Iggy Pop) | ] |
this thing, I mean
I like Dr. McNinja's one the best! |
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| moustaches |
[Dec. 31st, 2007|02:42 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Al Green - Love And Happiness | ] |
Like most men of my age and disposition, I look upon a lapse in shaving as an opportunity for ridiculous facial hair: grow it out some, and then, when you do shave, shave it into something memorable. This strategy has never failed me in the past. GUYS. It failed me yesterday.
I shaved my face into the classic "math teacher moustache", a thick line of hair over the upper lip. I didn't do anything wrong and I didn't do anything I hadn't done before. It should have been hilarious, but it's not. It's awful. I look terrible and if you laugh you stifle it because somehow, this moustache says, "wait, he might be serious". I don't get it.
I'm going to shave it off tonight and hope that next time it goes better. Are my facial-hair days behind me? Can I somehow no longer pull off the "I have this moustache because it was more fun than shaving it" aesthetic?
Where did it all go wrong? |
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| Passage |
[Dec. 8th, 2007|08:14 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Sarah Harmer - Lodestar | ] |
Leonard linked to a game called Passage, by Jason Rohrer. I recommend checking it out! Each game takes exactly 5 minutes. If you're not sure what's going on, check out the nicely-written Artist's Statement.
If you click on Jason's name you can see other games he's done too! |
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| Something that everyone else knew, but that was NEWS TO ME |
[Dec. 2nd, 2007|08:37 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Fatboy Slim - Psyche Rock (Fatboy Slim Malpa | ] |
Hey guys, did you know the great Futurama theme song was based on an earlier work from the late 60s? It's true!
Listen to this song and remixes of it, and you'll feel like you're listening to a Futurama remix. Nothing wrong with that!
Pierre Henry, "Psyché Rock", 1967:
(the video is from 2000 though)
Fatboy Slim remix (1999, I believe?):
I was gonna link to the Futurama theme song, but you all know what it sounds like. Here's the credit sequence with Psyché Rock remix on top:
Now you know more about music. |
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| questions: answered! |
[Nov. 30th, 2007|10:13 am] |
John answered some questions on his LJ and I was lucky enough to be the first one to ask anything. Woohoo!
it's pretty great you guys |
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