Sunday, October 26, 2008

Yeah, so?

I got my first skateboard when I was about ten or, maybe eleven. It was a sweet translucent blue plastic banana board with a raised tail and red wheels. My aunt had it from the 70s, and I got it as leftovers from a garage sale. It was awesome.

It looked exactly like this, except translucent blue.
There was a little cement patio in my backyard, and I learnt to stand on it and tic-tac around. My father, ever lovin' goofball that he is, stepped onto it to "show me how it's done". Needless to say, if you've ever watched someone who's never been on a skateboard before, the first thing they do is stand on it, perfectly still. Big Mistake. The second thing they do is fall straight on their asses because the board shoots out from underneath them. My dad threw out his back for a few days on that one- and it still makes me laugh thinking about it.

Sometime after that, my parents bought me an "actual" skateboard. It wasn't a pro model, I'm pretty sure they bought it at Zellers or K-Mart, but it didn't matter to me. I didn't know there was such a thing as pro models or skate shops.

The deck was big (this was the late eighties) and heavy as fuck. It was black, and had a picture of a circuit board underneath, with yellow wheels and rails, a noseguard and a big plastic bubble under the tail. I've tried to look for pictures on the 'net, but obviously, there's none.

I loved skating. The extent of my tricklist was what I learnt from the other kids in my neighborhood- tic tacs and pogos. I mostly just used it to ride around on. I eventually gave it up in junior high, because I didn't know anyone else who skated.

In high school, I remember trying acid drops on this kid's skateboard at a party. After several tries, of course, the board shot out from under me and I landed super hard on my tailbone. I had trouble walking for a few days.

When I got married for the first time, I announced to my wife that I was going to start skateboarding. She forbid it. Broken, subjugated man-child that I was at the time, I listened to her.

When I got divorced(here is where the angelic choir sings), I went and picked up the Transworld Buyer's guide, and looked through them to figure out exactly what I needed. Skateboards had changed an awful lot since I was a kid. I went down to the local sporting-goods store(Royal) and went to their skateboard section. (I know, I know...)

I ended up buying a blue powell mini-logo, some Grind King trucks, 54mm wheels and ABEC-3 Speed Metal bearings. I had them put it together for me, because, ah, y'know- I was paying for it, and I'd be damned if I'd get my hands dirty!

So, skating by myself, I began to teach my legs to ollie. Ten years later, and I'm still learning. That's what happens when you start(actually) skating at twenty-two! I can ollie up curbs now(most of the time), and I can ollie quite gracefully out of banks, but my true forte is on transitions. I've never had a problem on quarterpipes, and my bag of tricks include tail stalls, rock and rolls, rock to fakies, frontside 180s to rock fakie, nose stalls, and frontside carves on the coping.

Sure, it's not that impressive, I know, but I'm thrity-two years old and this past summer, while juggling a family and a job, I make time to go skate at least once a week. Without a doubt, this has been my best year skating so far(even though I skate by myself pretty much every time). I've made it a point to hit every park in the city, but my favourite, -MY park- if you will, is the plaza at the forks.

All these pictures were taken by my lovely wife, graciously indulging her fat, old skateboarder husband on a cold fall morning. Now, before you say it, I know I'm not the best skateboarder around- I'm reminded of that every time I go to the park, any park, and see kids half my age back 180-ing down stairs. But I'm still better than 99% of the pedestrians in this city, 'cause most of them will never step on skateboard, and if they do, there's a very good chance they'll end up on their ass.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Quarantine

**SPOILER ALERT**

I'm really glad I went to see the new "Zombie movie", Quarantine. I put 'zombie movie' in quotes because it's not so much a zombie movie as it is a movie about people turned into flesh-craving animals by an unknown disease. For all intents and purposes, the infected people in this movie are zombies.

So, first off, this movie is a shot-for-shot remake of a Spanish movie, 'Rec'. The American version features Jennifer Carpenter and Steve Harris as an entertainment reporter and a cameraman, respectively, who are assigned to follow some firefighters around for a segment on some teevee show. Sure enough, what begins as a simple puff piece quickly turns into a hellish descent into survival horror.

This movie does a lot of things right. It begins quickly, with no credits at the start, no hokey writeups about 'lost footage now recovered'. We are introduced immediately to Angela, the reporter, on camera, doing her intro for the piece outside the fire hall. From here on out, the movie unfolds from the perspective of Scott's camerawork.

The camera perspective brings obvious parallels to Blair Witch and more recently, Cloverfield, but there was only one or two parts in this movie when I thought, "Why the hell don't they put the camera down already?" At one point, the camera is used to bludgeon one of the infected to death, and the effect is remarkable.

I haven't been impressed by an American horror movie in a long time, but Quarantine definitely keeps the faith alive. And like any good zombie movie, this one ends in the perfect way. Everyone dies.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Gas Crunch

I heard on the radio today that gas prices were jumping twelve cents, thanks in large part to Hurricane Ike. So after heading over to my local Red River Co-Op to fill up($76.50) my family van, I thought I would share how I've coped with the ridiculous gas prices this summer.

I've seen signs up at various intersections around the city advertising "a way to get 100km to a half gallon of gas." After doing a little research on the web, I found quite a few web sites shipping chinese moped conversion kits. So, I picked one and ordered a kit from an importer in B.C.

It took about a month to get the kit- an 80cc single cylinder two stroke. My lovely wife Lani had an old mountain bike she was willing to sacrifice for the cause, and after about a week, I had it up and running and past the break-in period.

I looked into registration issues, and found that my motorbike would be classed as a power-assisted bicycle, and no MPI involvement is needed, as long as it is under 50ccs. Oops! Apparently, if it's over 49ccs, or if you're going over 32km/h, it needs to be registered. On the plus side, the engine is not stamped with the displacement, so there's no way to tell it's been bored out to 80ccs. Hooray! So as long as I keep it under 33km/h(when there's cops around) I should be fine.

I can get to work and back(a twenty minute ride, each way) four times on a single tank of gas/oil mixture. Because I don't have a speedometer, my conservative guess on top speed is somewhere between 45 and 50 km/h. Great fun! There's nothing like blowing past someone who paid $3000+ on a lame-ass scooter. With shipping, I paid $270 for the kit, and in total, it probably took about 7 hours on and off to put everything together.

For a long time now, I've been toying with the idea of getting a motorcycle, but now, after riding this thing around for the summer, I'm not so sure. When I ride my motorbike, I can ride on the road, and most of the time, I keep up with traffic pretty well. On a long stretch, I find myself pulling up alongside the same cars at every red light. I also ride on sidewalks, bike paths, pedestrian bridges, and other places only a bicycle can go. Instead of sticking to major routes like automobile traffic, I can travel across the city in pretty much a straight line. The freedom is incredible.

I've only had one problem with my kit, and that comes from the tensioner on the back of the frame. The tensioner keeps slack out of the chain, allowing for a smoother ride. After first installing it, no matter how much I tightened it up, it would twist, and end up caught in the back spokes. If I was travelling fast, no big deal, the back tire would lock up, and I'd skid to a stop. One day, on my way to Home Depot for some bee killer, I was waiting at a red light. When the light changed, I stood up on my pedals to get the most of my start. Well, wouldn't you know it, the tensioner caught in the spokes and because my weight was so far forward, I went over the handlebars and the bike landed on my leg. Embarassed and minorly injured, I got up real quick and pulled my bike onto the boulevard. After wrenching the tensioner out of the spokes and replacing the chain, I assessed the damage on my leg. It looked like the teeth on my pedal had bit me pretty bad on the back of my calf, and the muffler had burned me real nice on the inside of my leg- Awesome! So I bled out a little in Home Depot while I found the insecticide, and when I got home, I had my lovely wife wash the wound, and took this nice picture. Best injury, summer 2008!

I fixed the tesioner by welding it into place, and it hasn't moved since.

So if you want to beat high gas prices, and have your shoes smell like exhaust, check out Zoom Bicycles and order yourself a kit. I can say without a doubt, it's totally worth every penny.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Election Call

It's Fall, and here in North America, Election fervor is in the air! No, I'm not talking about Obama or McCain, I'm talking about Canadian politics! I know, I know, after 2+ years of American election campaigns saturating the infotainment sphere, who can think of anything other than the world's greatest two-party system, right? Thankfully, instead of 2 years of campaigning, we get 2 months.

Last election, 45% of Canadians made their way to a voting booth to perform their patriotic duty. As we all know, the conservatives won a minority government, with the liberals coming in second and forming the official opposition. The bloc Quebecois came in third and Smilin' Jack Layton and his New Democrats came in fourth place. There was also one lonely independent(now Green Party).

So The Right Honourable Stephen Harper and his cronies have decided that the House just cannot work in its current form (read: a minority government) and have gotten the Governor General to dissolve parliment. So much for fixed election dates, right Steve?

(A brief explanation of minority/majority governments:
When a federal political party(of which there are sixteen) wins more than 50% of the seats in parliment, a majority government is formed. If a majority cannot be formed, the party with the most amount of seats becomes the minority government, and is forced to work with other parties to pass any new bills.)

In the last election, I voted NDP, the party I feel most closely represents my political views. Their failure to form a majority government does not bother me in any way. Sure, it'd have been nice to have an NDP government, but really, I was pleased with the minority government situation. It lends itself to an atmosphere of flexibility, as opposed to the totalitarian leanings of a majority government.

Now, because the Right Honourable Prime Minister cannot force the other parties to cooperate with him, he feels that the only way he can effectively serve the Canadian people is to dissolve parliment and cost the taxpayers a hefty burden to promote his conservative agenda.

Thank you, Fearless Leader. Thank you for saving Canada from the horrors of a minority government. Just imagine what kind of awful situation we would be in if the parties had to cooperate together in parliment!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

This day in History

Today marks the 63rd anniversary of the Trinity nuclear bomb test on July 16, 1945. Detonation of the device was the culmination of the Manhattan Project, the Allied program to create weapons using nuclear fission as their source of power.

The device was mounted on the top of a steel tower in the New Mexico desert, and remotely detonated at 05:29:45.

The 20 kiloton blast created a mushroom cloud 12 kilometers high, and fused the sand surrounding the tower, creating a radioactive glass crater 3 metres deep and 330 metres wide. The detonation illuminated the surrounding mountains brighter than daylight and the shock wave was felt more than 160 kilometers away.

Upon seeing the power he'd unleashed, project director J. Robert Oppenheimer made his famous quote, recalling from the Bhagavad Gita of Hindu scripture, "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one."

Oppenheimer finished, "Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds." Test director Kenneth Bainbridge replied to Oppenheimer, "Now we are all sons of bitches."

Three weeks later, the bomb known as 'Little Boy' was dropped on the unsuspecting population of Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people outright. Three days later, 'Fat Man' was unleashed on the people of Nagasaki, killing 80,000.


Welcome to the Atomic Age.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Today, on my PSP...

ms0:\ISO\
Atari Classics Evolved
Chessmaster
Crush
Downstream Panic
Echochrome
FLOW
Harvest Moon: Boy and Girl
Me and My Katamari
LocoRoco
Patapon

ms0:\PSP\GAME150\gpsp\ROMS\
Advance Wars 2
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonanca
D&D: Eye of the Beholder
FF Tactics Advance
FF IV Advance
FF V Advance
FF VI Advance
Zelda: The Minish Cap
Metroid: Zero Mission
Metroid Fusion
Naruto: Ninja Council
Naruto: Ninja Council 2
Oddworld
Phantasy Star Collection
Powder
Robotech: The Macross Saga
R-Type III
Super Bust-a-Move
Super Dodge Ball Advance
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Sword of Mana

ms0:\PSP\GAME150\NesterJ\ROMS\
Bionic Commando
Blaster Master
Bubble Bobble
Bump n' Jump
Castlevania
Castlevania 2
Castlevania 3
Contra
Crystalis
Destiny of an Emperor
Dragon Warrior
Dragon Warrior 2
Dragon Warrior 3
Dragon Warrior 4
Dragon's Lair
Dungeon Magic: Sword of the Elements
Earthbound Zero
Faxanadu
Gargoyle's Quest 2
Gauntlet
Gauntlet 2
Genghis Khan
Heavy Barrel
Impossible Mission 2
Iron Tank
Klax
Legend of Zelda
Legend of Zelda 2
Little Nemo
Low G Man
Mega Man
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 6
Menace Beach
Metal Fighter
Metal Gear
Metal Mech
Metal Storm
Metroid
NARC
Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Gaiden 2
Ninja Gaiden 3
Nobunaga's Ambition
Nobunaga's Ambition 2
Predator
Prince of Persia
Rampart
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2
Solstice
Strider
Super Dodge Ball
Super Mario Bros
Super Mario Bros 2
Super Mario Bros 3
Super Pitfall
Sword Master
Swords and Serpents
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3
Tetris
Tetris 2
The Immortal
Ultima Exodus
Ultima Quest of the Avatar
Ultima Warriors of Destiny
Willow
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
Wizardry: The Knight of Diamonds
Wizards & Warriors
Wizards & Warriors 2
Wizards & Warriors 3
Zen, the Intergalactic Ninja

ms0:\PSP\GAME150\smsppsp\ROMS\
Alien Syndrome
Choplifter
Impossible Mission 2
Kenseiden
Lord of the Sword
Shinobi
Ultima III
Ultima IV
Virtua Fighter Animation
Wonder Boy in Monster Land
Wonder Boy III - The Dragon's Trap
Wonder Boy in Monster World

ms0:\PSP\GAME150\SNES9Xtyl\ROMS\
7th Saga
Alien 3
Breath of Fire
Breath of Fire II
Bust a Move
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy III
Flashback
Illusion of Gaia
Lost Vikings
Lost Vikings II
Lufia & The Fortress of Doom
Lufia II - Rise of the Sinistrels
Might and Magic III
Nobunaga's Ambition
Nobunaga's Ambition - Lord of Darkness
Ogre Battle
Prince of Persia
Prince of Persia 2
Rampart
Romance of the Three Kingdoms II
Romance of the Three Kingdoms III
Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV
R-Type III
Secret of Evermore
Secret of Mana
Super Castlevania
Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World
Super Metroid
Super Valis IV
Ultima Runes of Virtue
Ultima VI
Ultima VII
Ys III

ms0:\PSP\GAME150\TOME

Friday, June 6, 2008

Jessica

Jessica Chobot and her PSPI love my PSP, or as she is more commonly known, Jessica. I'm not ashamed to admit it.
Over the years, I've owned and/or played a lot of different game systems. Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Intellivision, Colecovision, TRS-80, Sega Master System, NES, Amiga, Lynx, TG-16, Game Boy, Genesis, Game Gear, SNES, N64, Game Boy Color, Playstation, Dreamcast, Playstation 2, Game Boy Advance, Gamecube, Xbox, DS, PSP, Xbox 360, Wii. Add to that list many different computers- from my first experiences on a glowing green Apple IIe to my current Dell.

I loved them all, in one way or another. Some fleetingly- maybe only for a single game, and some I've loved hard, Nintendos and Gameboys in particular. Some I've demolished in fits of rage- oh, will you ever forgive me Master System? And some I've cherished so lovingly as to be ridiculously careful, like my current love, Jessica, whom I keep encased in a padded metal carrying case.

Once, I was a diehard Nintendo loyalist, or 'Fanboy', if you will, but with the advent of the slim PS2, I ducked out on my Gamecube and took a vacation with a sleek, sexy, second gen Sony. I was hooked. Soon, my lovingly decaled 'Cube was relegated to late night booty calls, when I itched for bouts of Super Smash Brothers Melee or Resident Evil 4. I spent most of my time with my new beau, playing Grand Theft Auto, Mercenaries, or Star Ocean.

I loved Nintendo, but Sony just had so much more to offer. That is what led me to Jessica. I'm no stranger to portable games- I've owned every incarnation of Gameboy to date, including a DS. At first, I thought the PSP was just too big. "How could that ever fit in a pocket?", I remember thinking. And then, one day, on my favourite videogame news site, ign.com, I ran across a few pictures of future game/culture writer Jessica Chobot, licking a PSP. She was quoted at the time saying that the PSP was the sexiest thing around.


I instantly agreed, and threw all my previous doubts out the window. I arrived at EB Games, my favourite place to buy games, and threw down nearly six hundred bucks for a PSP, 4 games, and the extended warranty(the only time I've ever bought an extended warranty). Now, that may seem like a lot of money to some people, but I've spent more on consoles before- (Gamecube and Slim PS2) and this PSP would be worth it, I could just feel it.

I guess I was suckered in by the photos, which coincedentally were not paid for by Sony in any way- but I just had to have one. Once I had my new PSP in my hands, I couldn't help but fall in love. It truly is a beautiful piece of electronics. The screen is so much bigger, sharper and brighter than any other handheld ever to come before. The finish on front of the system is smooth, shiny black, and the clear buttons on the face and shoulders are simply gorgeous.

Before I even left the store, I'd decided to name my PSP- something I've never done with any of my other game systems. As stated earlier, I christened her Jessica, based mostly on Ms. Chobot, but also taking into account several other famous Jessicas- Alba, Biel, Simpson... It became(for a time) my default name for a sexy woman.

When I got home, I hurriedly began the process of charging the battery, being very careful not to turn on the system until it was fully charged. When she was ready, I booted up the first game, Lumines. Instantly I was enthralled by the colours, the addictive gameplay and the pulsing techno beats. (If you've never played it before, give it a whirl- you can't be disappointed)

I began to bring my love, my Jessica, everywhere. I bought several more games, and after a time, began exploring the options this perfect game system allowed. Wi-fi, downloadable content, UMD(the psp discs) movies, MP3 playback, and soon, customizable backgrounds and colour combinations for the XMB- the 'operating system' of the PSP. With the advent of this update, I hurried to my computer and fixed myself a 'desktop background' for my beloved PSP. Now, my photoshop skills are padawan at best, but I managed to come up with an image I could be proud to leave on my PSP for all time.



When I first got to know my beautiful and loving wife, Lani, we were out at the lake with a mutual friend- and I was amazed at how much she took to Jessica, and Lumines in particular. Though she rolled her eyes pretty hard when she found out I'd named Jessica after some broad I read about on the internet(which is a common reaction), we got along really well and began dating later that summer.

Things progressed pretty steadily with Lani and Jessica for a few years; I bought and traded many games, oh, Lani and I also got married, too. Now, in the last year and a half, with the growing needs of my son, Ajax, I've had a dramatic decrease in funds relating to video games. I resigned myself to a new game every three or four months- which to me was a huge blow, as I'd been feeding my low-grade videogame addiction multiple times a month for many, many years.

Then, one day last summer at work, an angel appeared to me. It manifested in the form of my awesome co-worker, Julie. She leant unto me her PSP, which had been, *gasp*, hacked.

My whole world changed. It was like Jessica had been keeping a secret from me. She'd been whispering to me for such a long time about the dangers of hacking, and the utter finality of 'bricking' a PSP- where the system is rendered inoperable by tampering with the system software. Undaunted, I began my quest to unravel the mysteries of 'custom firmware'.

After many hours of research, and painstaking trial and error, I finally threw open the gates of my PSP, unlocking the most powerful game system ever, in the history of man. Now, I play emulated games- NES, SNES, Game Boy Advance, Sega Master System on my PSP, as well as homemade(or homebrew as it's known) games and games that I've bought as well. Best of all, I can now download copies of full games off the internet, and Jessica plays them without any problems, limited only by the free space on her memory stick. I have seen the light- and truly, it is the PSP.

I love my wife(I'm sure she's rolling her eyes as she reads this post) and son, but coming in a close third is Jessica. I love you, girlfriend!