2 important things were released for Jedi Knight yesterday. Yoda, and JediMod+ 2.2. Which I'd been lead to believe was basically going to do nothing but make Yoda work properly. Instead, I was delighted to find out it does so much more. In addition to overcoming the size problems with Yoda, it overcomes the size problems with everyone else, and allows for certain customizations to the lightsabres that should have been in the game right from the beginning. This thing literally fixes every single 'They should have done this' fanboy nitpick I managed to come up with. With the wrong server settings, it allows for something that's pure blasphemy, and I fear that 90% of servers running it will enable it. But I sure hope not. If Raven/Lucasarts were smart, they'd pay the Mod Author/hire him, and test the crap out of it, and include it with the next patch. Not as a mod, just add all the features in it to the standard multiplayer game. Cuz man, it's great. Just throw out the dual-double lightsabres, cuz they're a bit much. :)

And though I'd never really thought of it as a sad song, this is making me mopey. Or at least it's adding to my mopiness.

Why Shmingers wouldn't just say "I want you to meet my girlfriend." I don't know. It's not like I'd have been less inclined to go. She certainly seemed nice in the brief time we actually spent together.

So we're wandering through Wal-Mart (ugh) towards the movie section, and a CD catches my eye.

Glanced back at it, enough for the words Final Fantasy to register in my head. At first I thought it was the soundtrack to the God Awful movie (though General Hein was cool), but it occurred to me I already have that. Then, at the bottom of the cover art, I saw those two magical words: Nubuo Uematsu. What's this? A Uematsu CD? Sitting in a store in Canada? Good Lord. And the price? $7.88 That's significantly cheaper than the typical $40-$60 US + $20 in shipping/import fees. So I jumped all over that biatch. 11 tracks performed by the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra, and 1 track courtesty of Project Majestic Mix. They borrowed key themes from FF VI - VIII, and tossed in a track from IX. 3 tracks seem overly bass-y to me, but hell...for Eight Bucks, I think I'll live.

And though I still hate Wal-Mart, and think it's the devil, they also had Royal Tennenbaum's on DVD for $20. Which is a good $10 cheaper than I've seen it anywhere else. But I didn't pick it up. I need a job.

Lunch consisted of highschool flashbacks. To review:

• Spleeeeeen is a cool word.
• R.H. King is the only highschool to ever elect a backed up toilet as the SAC president, and for that, we ruled
• Shmingers, Bill and I owned the music department
• I used to be fat
• We went to school with the biggest collection of freaks, weirdos and losers on Earth. Of which we were kings. Or Jesuses if you will
• Wyoming doesn't exist

Heather just looked on bemusedly through all of this. Then we drove through Scarberia's frozen centre to drop her off at Kennedy. And Shmingers gave me back a pile of stuff I'd half forgotten giving to him. And I think I'm out of things to write about.

That's going to come back to haunt me next weekend, but it certainly seems appropriate now.

I am slowly going crazy. I'm going to pretend that's actually news to anyone that reads this site.

Okay...this is probably a bad idea, but here goes.

I woke up this morning, absolutely sure aliens were going to invade today. Actually, invade is the wrong word. They were coming to wipe us out. No phoning home, no subsisting on a diet of McDonalds and Coke. They're just coming for the sake of wiping us all out.

The big problem? Only I seem to know about the impending attack. Noone would listen to me. In spite of all the obvious signs of Alien attack:

• Sky turned Red
• Huge ships throughout the atmosphere
• My mailbox had been stuffed full of a family of live Racoons, several tree branches, dead mice, and mail

So, to make my point, I had to resort to drastic measures. Namely, I was forced to take my brother and sister hostage. I did so with the starter's pistol located conveniently on my kitchen table, because after all, there's no way I could really shoot my brother or sister.

So I've got the gun pointed squarely at my sister's face, when I see Jeff sneak around the corner, with one of those big red rubber balls from gym class. AND HE DRILLS ME WITH IT.

Then the police came to arrest me. But just as they were leading me away, to throw me in the loony bin, the skies opened up, and the aliens started to destroy everything on earth. And then

I woke up. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I'm never going to eat FETA before I go to bed again.

I've got to disassemble my LAN for awhile, because I don't have quite enough spare parts to fix my cousin's computer. So I need to steal a NIC, the hub, and some cables. Hopefully I'll be all done and back this evening.

So. Full.

I think I'm off to Posty's for the evening. Wow. What an exciting update.

Power outages are actually vaguely fun now. If only I didn't lose my connection during 98% of them.

It's pouring outside, and all I can hear is thunder. Were I tired, I'd be in heaven. But I'm not, so flickering lights are just annoying me.

In my hand, I hold 3 quarters that I recieved in change last night. None of them look even vaguely like the others. Aside from being silverish in colour. More disturbingly, despite having been pressed in 1999, and 2000, I've never seen these designs before. Passing off slugs as Canadian coinage seems like it would be remarkably easy, since few of us actually know what our coins are supposed to look like anymore.

I'm just not even going to comment on the fact that our bills are so heavily counterfeited that we're not allowed to use Fifties or Hundreds anymore. And the Thousand is just plain gone.

Nope. Not going to comment on it.

The Phoenix last night was good. I'd complain of being sore today, but my night could have gone a lot, lot worse. At least I can still hear.

I hate to toss around a term like the next Radiohead, because a big part of why Radiohead rules is that they've yet to put out a bad album. These guys obviously have a long way to go before they'll be anywhere near where I can call them the next Radiohead. They're Doves. Anyways, enjoy.

Doves - There Goes the Fear

Out of here
We're out of here
Out of heartache
Along with fear
There goes the fear again
There goes the fear

And cars speed fast
Out of here
And life goes past
Again so near
There goes the fear again
There goes the fear

Close your brown eyes
And lay down next to me
Close your eyes, lay down
'Cos there goes the fear
Let it go

You turn around and life's passed you by
You look to ones you love to ask them why
You look to those you love to justify
You turned around and life's passed you by
Passed you by again

And late last night
Makes up her mind
Another fight
left behind
There goes the fear again
Let it go
There goes the fear

Close your brown eyes
And lay down next to me
Close your eyes, lay down
'Cos there goes the fear
Let it go

You turn around and life's passed you by
You look to ones you love to ask them why
you look to those you love to justify, why
you turned around and life's passed you by

Think of me when you're coming down
But don't look back when leaving town
Oh think of me when he's calling out
But don't look back when leaving town
Think of me when you close your eyes
But don't look back when you break all ties
Think of me when you're coming down
But don't look back when leaving town today

There goes the fear again
Let it go
There goes the fear
Let it go

Think of me when you close your eyes
But don't look back when you break all ties
Think of me when you're coming down
But don't look back when leaving town today

I'm also going to toss in a reference to Sigur Rös, because they're great (blame j for my obsession with them), but I'm not going to include lyrics I don't understand, and I'd have to type an awful lot of &codes. And it's too late to look all of them up. So just a link for you.

Posty's going to be all pissed off that this post has nothing to do with Halo: Combat Evolved, but everyone else that reads this site (well, nearly everyone) will know I'm talking about And All That Could Have Been. Having watched/listened to it in it's entirety repeatedly this weekend, I will without hesitation say that Still is the best piece associated with it. The DVD is great, but Nine Inch Nails' energy just doesn't entirely come through. Oddly, Closure seemed to do a better job of that. For me, at least.

Anyways, on to Still, and why I started writing this in the first place.

On occasion, I'll plow through a book, that doesn't exactly require a lot of thought. Simple plot, one-dimensional characters, quick-paced. When I do, I usually do other things to keep my mind from wandering. Generally, that means tossing a CD into my stereo/discman and leaving it on repeat, so that I'm not tempted to re-pick music every 40 minutes. The problem is, the 2 experiences invariably intertwine, and I'm totally unable to seperate them.

The strongest case of this was with Judgement of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959 and Daft Punk: Discovery. I simply can not listen to that CD any more without 1 scene from the book playing out in my head.

But, back to the matter at hand, Still. I think I must have been reading Books of Blood when I first picked up Still, in part, because the timing would be about right, but also because the last track, Leaving Hope, absolutely terrifies me. It's a rather ominous song to begin with, but for some reason it fills me with a sense of dread, that I can't ever recall being matched.

Friday, I kept jumping back, looping And All You Could Have Been. When I'd finally had my fill of that, I let the CD play out. During that last song, as I made my way up Yonge Street, for the first time in the last 4 years or so of hanging out downtown, I felt exposed and vulnerable. That's the only time I can recall worrying that I could be mugged.

If that made no sense, I'm going to partially blame it on getting a whopping 1 hour sleep last night. Well, this morning, actually. But, in a way, it beats how I slept Friday night. Ever woken up face down, with your arms folded up, under your chest, and wanted to scream as you try to get the circulation going/the elbows to straighten? That sucks.

How, after millions of years of evolution, has the human body not adapted to stop us from doing grevious bodily harm to ourselves while we sleep?

Probably the same reason I seem intent on doing myself grevious harm while I'm awake.

I listened to this all the way up Church today

Nine Inch Nails - And All That Could Have Been

breeze still carries the sound
maybe i'll disappear
tracks will fade in the snow
you won't find me here

ice is starting to form
ending what had begun
i am locked in my head
with what i've done
i know you tried to rescue me
didn't let anyone get in
left with a trace of all that was
and all that could have been

please
take this
and run far away
far away from me
i am tainted
the two of us
were never meant to be
all these pieces
and promises and left behinds
if only i could see
in my nothing
you meant everything
everything to me

gone fading everything
and all that could have been

please
take this
and run far away
far as you can see
i am tainted
and happiness and peace of mind
were never meant for me
all these pieces
and promises and left behinds
if only i could see
in my nothing
you meant everything
everything to me

Well, the day started off craptacularly.

Eventually I headed down to COMDEX, which sucked ass this year. So I didn't stay there long.

Then I went to Passage and got a new stud.

Then I went to Grandma's for dinner, and it was packed, with young children.

Screaming Children: Nature's Ultimate Contraceptive^TM

Literally. Everything. Gummi Bears are a ripoff. Double Bubble is a ripoff. Clothes, Services, Games, Computers, Cars, the Bus. Skittles. Hotel Rooms. Internet Access. Gas. Everything should be half the price it is now.

Except my fees. They're fine.

For the last week or so (actually, this stretches back over months, but it's been particularly noticeable lately), Roger's Proxy servers have been slow to respond. My connection is fine, I'm sustaining downloads in the 100+ K/sec area, but as soon as the link has http:// at the beginning of it, I'm cut down to sub dial-up speeds. The Rogers Email server is doing a similar standup job under it's current load. So why are they trying to get more customers? I need off this sinking ship fast.

Keanu Reeves shouldn't be allowed to operate a motor vehicle, let alone play Buddha.

Did some heavy updating around the site. I still need to:

• Convert the site database from CGI-generated text to a proper SQL database (shouldn't be the end of the world)
• Something or other with the logos (which should be even easier, but I'm too tired to attempt it tonite)

And the power's gone out twice in the last 3 or 4 minutes (God Bless the UPS), so I guess I'll wrap things up and go to bed.

What do you get when you take The Tick, Dr. Evil, a time-travelling toilet, and pretty much everyone I've ever known?

One of the most bizarre dreams I've ever had. Also, the culmination of about 3 months of getting absolutely no sleep.

Actually, as anyone who's watched my icq status can attest, I sleep alot. But I keep doing so in 20/30 minute sessions. I need healthy, natural sleep. Or, more exactly, I need rest.

I also need to make this site SQL based. Then the Settings page will actually be worthwhile.

Dirty Vegas - Days Go By

You are still a whisper on my lips
A feeling at my fingertips
That's pulling at my skin

You leave me when I'm at my worst
Like a feeling as if I've been cursed
From the bitter cold within

Days go by
And still I think of you
Days when I couldn't live my life without you
Without you

You are still a whisper on my lips
A feeling at my fingertips
That's pulling at my skin

Days go by
And still I think of you
Days when I couldn't live my life without you
Without you

Does anybody remember this saying, it pre dates Word up and it's eventual successor...just plain Word. I know I'm not insane, so I need the names of anyone who does remember this out of date slang and there credit card numbers to email me asap.

I think I picked a bad day to get caught up in a book, and with War Craft III. So I'm gonna get everything on my site as up to date as I can.

That was the single craziest coincidence ever. Or I'm psychic. Hmmm, since I proved last night that I don't have any psychic powers, I guess it's just a crazy coincidence. But...the odds are just...wow.

That was cool.

And I have some temporary work tomorrow. I'd actually venture to say life is pretty sweet if I didn't know it'd result in my being struck by bus.

Obviously I'm not American. But regardless, this is the single greatest 4^th of July article ever written. Special bonus points to Seanbaby for subtly calling Aquaman a fag.

Yay for the pool! Especially when it's really really warm.

I finally feel clean again! Huzzah!

It's also nice to occasionally be reminded that I'm not completely insane.

Highlight of Edgefest...to end all highlights of Edgefest: Cake got booed off the stage. I don't care what Edge 102 has to say about it...The bottles were just an excuse. They were booed off the damn stage.

Other highlight (better, just not quite as amusing as I found Cake) was Nickelback, which put on the best set I've seen at an Edgefest (this year, last year, and I'm lumping Summersault 2000 in with them). Yeah, Tool was better, but they really didn't have to do much to impress me. Maynard, for instance, could have stood at the back of the stage and sung to a tv screen for the whole set. Oh wait. He did. But I'm not a huge Nickelback fan, and I was blown away.

Other comment worthy stuff:

• It was Unfuckingbelievably HOT. I've certainly been in conditions hotter than that, but I tend to shun them in lieu of Air Conditioned splendor. This was 8 hours of uninterrupted sweating.
• By odd coincidence, I wore exactly the same clothes I did last year. Except possibly the socks.
• Having to apply sunscreen every 8 seconds due to sweating it off that quickly, sucks
• My body is vaguely able to tan after all
• Cake sucks
• A Black Sabbath tribute band should really cover Iron Man.
• Melissa Auf Der Mar (too lazy to look up if I spelled that vaguely right) should wear white clingy outfits more often
• Robin Black is best experienced by not experiencing him

I very rarely stumble into my house in the wee hours of the morning, and feel a desperate need to shower. In fact, tonight was the only time I ever recall doing so. I stil feel greasy. And now I'll pass out.