this aint Narnia, kiddo…

Yeah, so I just got into 'Hey Ash', what of it? [update]

It took me a few months of listening to Podtoid to, a) realize why I recognized that dude with the beard so often, and b) that he had a podcast of his own.  After listening to a few hours of Hey Ash, Whatcha Podcast I realized another thing; Ashly-without-an-e is really damn cute.

So, besides two podcast recommendations, I give you this; a very cute girl + something about something about Firefly.

EDIT: WordPress.com does not seem to want me to embed videos, so here is a link.

Anyone else find a podcast (or a podcast-esque thing) that left you with nothing more than question as to how you had never heard of it before?

Here is the deal with FatCows

Due to my lack of credit card (I am not very… responsible with one) , I have been relying on the e-cheque function inside of PayPal.  Unfortunately, it means I have to often wait a few days for transactions to make it through.

This happened and that happened, but I did find a very good looking server at FatCow.com, but due to my terrible credit rating, a new host might take a few days.  On a positive note, I did manage to get myself a backup of everything from my former server.

As for the broken image links, those will all be repaired in a few days, but the RSS feed, although it has stayed the same, is not linked to properly (as per WordPress.com free accounts not letting you change raw code.

I say raw code because, although technically correct, sounds a lot better than HTML or something…

"Ten rules for writing fiction" by people that matter

In the wake of my servers cancellation, I have been too busy to get much written.  Lucky for me (and hopefully for you), I fell upon a list for fiction writers, written by fiction writers.  As someone looking to write a book (or two) I found this interesting.  When I saw that Neil Himself had contributed to the list, someone of whom I am a massive fan of, I knew this had to be shared.

Neil Gaiman

1. Write.
2. Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.
3. Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.
4. Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.
5. Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
6. Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.
7. Laugh at your own jokes.
8. The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

If you are wondering where the last two tips went, guardian.co.uk, with inspiration from another authors similar list, surveyed 13 authors and compiled a list of their lists, the rest of the list can be found here (part one) and here (part two).

Any more lists, tips or tricks that you write with?  As someone who considers himself a writer (of sorts), I actually have to start following Gaiman’s first rule; “write”.

Well that sucked… (and why my website was cancelled)

If you are reading this (okay, this is already sounding like a suicide letter), you would have noticed that this site was down for a day or so.

Essentially, I hate JustHost.com.

Non-essentially, this entire situation is doubly ironic; Kevin Smith had a pisser with a company that treated him like a week old bit of hard salmon roe stuck between their teeth; and Tom Meritt and Rafe Needleman discussed the ‘Beginners guide to blogging‘ on their show, The Real Deal.

Wherein Kevin Smith was kicked off of an airplane for not being able to lower the arm rests (that he very much could), my hosting was cancelled for over-going a boundary I was never told of.  More specifically, my account was ’suspended’ on the grounds of “utilizing an excessive amount of system resources” ’and overbearing on an arbitrary ‘10% CPU Policy‘;

While our shared services are suitable for the bulk of our customers, there comes a time for some websites when they are better suited for a larger plan, which allows for more dedicated CPU and memory resources. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to discontinue service to any customer with a website or other hosted data that takes up more than 10% of the server resources and/or 10% of the server’s CPU. This means that if your website is found to be utilizing more than 10% of the CPU and memory of the service, we reserve the right to take your site offline. If this becomes necessary, you can either upgrade your hosting package, or request a pro-rated refund of the amounts you have paid in advance for the services. Due to the severity of this, and our ability to act quickly to correct these situations to avoid server issues, we will do everything reasonably feasible to provide you with a warning prior to taking your site offline, but we accept no obligation to do so.

The problem is, besides the warning I should have gotten, I was never told what this apparent 10% was of.

I usually leave a post a few days to edit and proof read, as I am far from good enough to pump out quality posts in any form of speed, so I am just going to publish this right now.

Fuck you, JustHost.  Fuck you and fuck your mother.

A tale of two cities, two Facebook's and two brain cells

There are those who take pride in the fact that they do not watch television; they are called hippies, art students or Green Party members.  Being that there is often an online version of any particular social grouping (and by that there is a sizable hint in the title), one would assume there to be an anti-Facebook.

I mean, I am not anti-Facebook, I post frequently enough on Twitter to show I have a fascination with telling people I do not know about things that I am either doing, or pretending to do.  The case is, simply, that I just do not like it.  I use it once a year to organize a birthday party, because at 23, I really like paying people to act like they are my friends, or are at least somewhat fond of my company.

Regardless, it is that once a year (exaggerating, most likely) that I notice Facebook has a new layout, and with that layout, thousands and thousands of very, very stupid people starting and joining petitions regarding how much they hate having to move their mice to different places on the screen (or in some cases, the right to complain about benign, idiosyncratic bullshit).

It is after that, my attempt at redundantly establishing how stupid some people on this vast and expansive webs, that I give you this Read Write Web article, where upon people, whos only capability of accessing the Facebook login; “Facebook Wants to Be Your One True Login“.  No offence to the Read Write Web, but the popularity of this article has nothing to do with the text written, but with the abundance of people (1700+) that had no idea this was not Facebook.

Do I sound bitter?  Then I apologize, I am not bitter, I am but amused.  Amused at how stupid some people are, amused at the general lack of education about navigating the Internetz and amused by the fact that we seem to actually need one.  In a way, these posts remind me of the Republican Tea Party movement, with their utter ridiculousness and complaining about things that they were once for.

And if Captain American (be him Bucky or not) pokes fun of a group, well, I sure gotta side with the dude.

Where Verizon is awesome – even in Canada

Being a Canadian, I do not have access to Verizon; being a complete, lifeless and boring nerd, I know I am not supposed to like AT&T, and therefore, adore Verizon.

Being a half-decently well-read and literate person, I also know that Stephanie Meyer is the most successful, illiterate author of all time.

And thusly, being myself, I know that this is hilarious.

Because I finally get the pun; the Buzz on Google Buzz

There were a few days this week (or was it last?) that I was confused as to why everyone was talking about the free haircuts Google was (or was not) giving. Sharing an opinion of the new Google Service with my friend, Heather Laird, I do n?ot care for it much – yet.

Google is much like John Ensigns sex life; everyone knows about it and when something happens, everyone talks about it.  Well, Google did something, and I am someone to talk about it;

Turn off auto-following

As do many similar services, Google Buzz offers to search your contact list and add anyone whos account coincides with the e-mail addresses on there system.  Not only is the problem that Buzz automatically adds anyone in your list, it is also that GMail adds anyone you have ever e-mailed to that said list.  That equates to a lot of people you do not know or people you wish you did not know.

Give us a better way to find people

After turning off auto-following, we will need a good way to find people.  Most services give you a list of applicable users, but what can Google bring to that?  If you have maintained any bit of a Google Profile, you will have, already, your entire social media sphere listed there, so what if Buzz found applicable users from those sites as well?  What if, when listing said users, it showed things like, how many posts they have made?  What if every idea I ever had was in the form of a question?  What if Syfy did not have such a damn-stupid name?  What if, what if..?

Fix friend/ contact lists

Within the Twitter-verse, there have been many ‘ethical’ arguments over follow-backing anyone that follows you on Twitter, some argue for it and some against it.  Although I definitely do not follow back everyone that does me, I do not block them, Buzz does not seem to let you do that.  Unless I am mistaken (for it is something I often am) you cannot not follow someone unless you block them.  If I was a person who’s non-following offended someone, I am sure I would have a much more passionate response towards this issue.

Don’t worry, I do know that no one cares if I do not follow them.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi50KlsCBio&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Where even Lionhead keeps a journal…

It was late August that I first posted something about the rumor of an upcoming Fable title, and within that exposition, I spoke of my love/ hate relationship with it.  As short as the games tend to be, or as easy as a final boss can be, I still enjoyed the games and I am still looking forward for the third in this series.

Although not so much the case as was so with the Star Wars prequel trilogy, sometimes the development of a project can be as entertaining as the product itself.  As they did with Fable II, Lionhead is releasing, and has released the first of, a series of ‘Developer Diary’ entires.  As promising as this video looks, saying to look out for embellished promises from Peter is beyond cliche.

But then again, so is the Republican senates hypocritical obsession with fillibustering, whatcha gonna do, eh?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLdv6n6Tq04&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Chistopher Nolan to bring Batman to Metropolis?

That is one hell a  Google-bait of a title, isn’t it, eh?

It may have been Nolan’s Dark Knight that brought a much needed seriousness to comic book and superhero movies, it was Marvel’s Spider-man (and subsequent) films that brought the market.  With the popularity of the ’second generation’ of movies in Iron Man, Hulk and the upcoming Thor and Captain America, so is it bringing a market towards team films.  At least, I hope so.

As someone who was oft the butt of a joke about a new Superman Returns movie (as in, sarcastic optimism), it came as most joyous surprise to hear that Christopher Nolan, director of the previous two Batman films, has taken it upon himself  to reboot the movie I still wish Kevin Smith would have a chance to write – Superman Returns… Again.

According to Finke, Warner Bros. has asked Nolan to “play godfather” on a reboot of the Superman movie franchise that will not include Bryan Singer or Brandon Routh, but rather start afresh, a la Nolan’s own Batman Begins. The project is said to be in “early development,” with Finke claiming that Nolan is currently busy working on the third Batman movie with brother Jonah and David Goyer. [http://bit.ly/9Gl0P1]

Now, in regards to this post title, there has been no promise made by Nolan that he will actually be bringing the greatest superhero of all time with the most iconic superhero of all time.  But with the speed that DC responded to news of an Avengers film,  I believe any suspicion of this happening is well within warrant.

Soon after the latest Wolverine movie release/ was terrible, a Deadpool spin off, and as terrible as the movie was, Ryan Reynolds was a great Deadpool.  Although Reynolds has taken the role of Green Lantern, he is still sticking to the Deadpool movie.  And being as that is, if this connection is true, odds are they will incorporate Green Lantern into the roll, and with that character bringing the movies deeper into space, as Superman’s origin is little more than a backstory in the films, it would be a good time to introduce The Watchtower.

And for all you Smallville fans, this is the one in space, not the one with Chloe.

Oscars 2010: the who will and will not [updated]

The Oscar season means a few things, namely blog posts about the nominations made and nomination screeners appearing on torrent trackers.  As seems to be the cape of cynical bloggers, I, too, think them to be bunk.  And besides damn predictable and self-masturbatory, they seem to be so damn political…

It was last year that I called most of the awards won, not to be  self-congratulatory, but a movie about poor Indian kids and a dead guy that should have won the year before?

As for the categories of which I made no comment, of the 5 filmes nominated within it, I will have either seen less than 2 of the films, or am not well red in the category to make a cynically intelligent review.

Best Picture

Who will: Avatar
Why: wanting to obviously appeal to more viewers (hint: no one watches the Oscars anymore), the Best Picture nom now includes 10 movies.  The contenders will not change at all, but it gives more fans more reason to think that ‘their’ movie has a chance to win.

Who should: The Hurt Locker
Why: besides being a very powerful film, this movie successfully portrayed the life of a militant over in the east without sounding at all political.  Without stereotyping, it portrayed one of the most natural feeling male relationships and, without a half billion dollar budget, put one of the years most intense scenes into the passenger side of a busted sedan.

Animated Feature Film

Who will: Up
Why: as did they last year with Wall-E, Pixar makes amazing movies.  And, although not at the same time as most critics, I even cried.

Who should: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Why: I was never a large fan of Wes Anderson’s movies, he is the type of director that tries to be artistic and filmy.  That being said, this movie was fun, smart, charming and quick.  Not short, but quick; I was entertained all the way through and barely ever felt a null in the story.

Directing

Who will: Avatar
Why: because the direction of Avatar is the only thing worth any of the praise this mediocre film has received.

Film Editing

Who will: James Cameron
Why: Because it is James Cameron and because the money he made saved a whole lot of theatres.  Also, because I am rather indifferent on the category.  That, or blind to it.