Am I … rich?

Over the last … almost week, I’ve gotten three new games.

      Company of Heroes
      Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs
      and most recently, Battlefield 2142 (via the EA Downloader)

    The odd thing? I don’t have a job. Well, I fix computers, and I bought The WarChiefs with money from fixing Quin’s computer… and I got Company of Heroes from fixing Jamie’s computer… and… I got Battlefield 2142 with cash from fixing Quin’s computer, as well as cash from helping my mom with a thing on her computer.

    So I guess I’m just spending my hard-earned cash on games then, yes?

    Well… good for me.

    Anyway, w00t for games.

    October 29, 2006 · Filed Under Announcements, Journal, Mjolnir, Projects

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    The Ballad of Serenity

    First of all, a warning: This post contains spoilers about what happens in the television series Firefly, and the hit movie Serenity. If you read it and are currently watching the show, or plan on watching it, certain things will be given away. I’ll try my hardest not to spoil anything for the readers and future viewers of the show/movie, but I make absolutely no promises.

    So. I ordered Firefly and Serenity on DVD a little while ago, right? And I said that it came in the mail last post. Anyway, it was … awesome while it lasted, but my feelings about the show were doomed from the get-go.

    What do I mean? Well, when I first downloaded the two-hour pilot episode “Serenity” off of Direct2Drive for $1.99, I knew that I couldn’t fall in love with the show. But… after the first gorram episode, I did. I immediately raised a bit o’ cash doing some work, and ordered Firefly and Serenity off of Amazon.ca

    The DVDs came. I laughed, I cried, I even got angry when things happened to the crew of the Serenity. But again, I couldn’t fall in love with the show. I did, but I couldn’t fall in love with it as much as I could’ve; if that makes any sense.

    I knew that there were only 14 episodes. I knew I had already seen one, and I knew that after that there was a 2 hour movie. After watching the last episode of Firefly I felt awful. Thinking of how the people who had watched it on TV must’ve felt after just being cut off from this wondrous universe. After each episode, I counted how many I had left. I tried to space them apart, make them last as long as possible; but once I only had three or four left, I set aside a day, and I just watched them. All of them, in a row, no breaks, no pauses more than a minute or two to use the washroom or get a drink. And I watched Serenity. And I finally understood the history behind River Tam–though as a side note… they never really explained who the men with hands of blue were, or what part they played in River’s story–and I felt… awful. Some of my favourite characters died, and all the mystery surrounding the show just… disappeared. I might have actually been happier if I had just never watched Serenity at all, because I’d be free to ponder. But now that I know what happens… I just have nothing else to think about. The story is over, the crew of the Serenity are still out there in Joss Whedon’s mind, having new encounters and new problems with the Alliance every day. I’m sure that once and a while, he just sits and writes down a bit of a script, or at least the general plot behind an episode. Hell, he probably still does that with episodes of Buffy and Angel, as well.

    But what I’m really trying to say is that all throughout watching Firefly I knew that I couldn’t expect to see a new episode each week, or have another few seasons to watch. I knew I had one small season and a movie that would tie up all the loose ends… but I still hoped, after each and every episode that after watching them I’d go peruse Digg and find a story about Joss Whedon bringing back the show on another network, or something. Didn’t happen of course. Knew it wouldn’t all along, but it felt good to hope.

    Anyway, just like any truly good television show, Firefly helped me grow, and further understand the world we live in. It made me think about things, and it gave me happy moments to think back upon. But the warm feeling of pure bliss and joy that I got whenever watching the opening titles before a new episode is just gone. If I hear the theme, it fills me with nothing but sorrow. Sorrow at knowing that I’ll never see Mal shot again, unless I see it coming. I’ll never see Wash make more jokes, and I’ll never find out what Shepard Book really was.

    Anyway, (And by the way, I use “anyway” way too much, and I’m aware of this.) I enjoyed it to no end when I watched each new episode, but for now, whenever I look at my book/DVD/CD/game-shelf to grab something, and I see the box with Mal standing on the side looking at me, I’m just going to feel awful.

    Finally, if I was to rate the series, I’d give it a 5/5 easily, because of how easy it was to fall in love with the characters. But the movie Serenity? Probably a 4. It was nice to go back into the ‘verse and see the Alliance and the crew of the Serenity (as well as the ship itself) again… but it was just too good at what it was supposed to do. It tied up too many loose ends. It left me with no hope of ever seeing the show again, and nothing to ever wonder about.

    But I know that I will go back and watch the series and Serenity over again. Probably every year… at least once, during a boring summer. And each time I’ll get that pure joyous feeling again… but after viewing it, I’ll feel the way I do now again. I do that with many things. I just get too attatched.

    Finally, a quote:

    Take my love, take my land.
    Take me where I cannot stand;
    I don’t mind, I’m still free.
    You can’t take the sky from me.

    Take me out, to the black;
    tell ‘em I ain’t coming back.
    Burn the land, and boil the seas,
    You can’t take the sky from me.

    Have no place I can be,
    Since I found Serenity
    But you can’t take the sky from me…

    October 28, 2006 · Filed Under Announcements, Buffy, Journal, Mjolnir, Projects

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    White & Nerdy

    Alrighty, it’s post time. Let’s get started, m’mkay?

    First off, I bought Company of Heroes yesterday. I originally went to London Drugs to buy Age of Empires III: The War Chiefs, but they didn’t have it there. My backup plan was to buy Battlefield 2142, but they also didn’t have it there. In fact, on their main shelf, there wasn’t a single thing I was interested in. All games I either already owned, wasn’t interested in, or were collections of either. But while looking through the reduced/on sale rack, there was a single copy of Company of Heroes on a DVD-ROM, unscathed. There wasn’t even a scratch on the box! That’s what unscathed means! Pristine! Anyway; I bought the game for about $10 to $15 off of the normal asking price. Sweet deal, you say? Well, you’re right. ;)

    Coming in at number two, my Amazon.ca orders finally arrived today. The U.S. version of ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s “Straight Outta Lynwood” on DualDisc, all of Joss Whedon’s “Firefly” and “Serenity” on DVD. I checked the Chapters/Indigo website, and the estimated arrival date of my book on PHP–Beginning PHP and MySQL 5, From Novice to Professional – Second Edition–which I finally ordered is tomorrow; but I suspect it will come a day after then.

    Finally, coming in at number three; Firefox 2 was released! Rejoice! ;)

    Okay, so that wasn’t the last point I wanted to make, sosumi. Anyway; Do you find yourself at all interested in blogging, WordPress, PHP, or web design? If so, visit the Articles & Guides section of http://www.theundersigned.net

    October 25, 2006 · Filed Under Announcements, Journal, Mjolnir, Projects, School

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    The Golden Rose

    Vista is awesome.
    I got the RC2 working again. Just reset the video card drivers, and poof; no more BSOD. Didn’t I read somewhere that Vista is supposed to have a Red Screen of Death, rather than a Blue one? Meh.

    Anyway, I’m writing this post because I found an AWESOME tool called “Colour Swatches.” Seriously, it’s a li’l widget that sits in the Windows Sidebar.

    I wish I could find a copy that would work with XP, since Vista hasn’t been released yet, but when it is; hoo-boy, is that going to be my favourite gadget. It’s purty.

    Oh, and I’ll be adding a gallery of Vista screenshots to my online gallery soon. When I do, I’ll post the link either here, or in a newer post.

    Anyway, if you’re using Windows Vista RC1 or higher (I’m using RC2) you can find the gadget here.

    October 22, 2006 · Filed Under Announcements, Journal, Mjolnir, Projects

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    Sick and tired…

    Every time I get a new layout/theme for my site, I essentially just find one that I like, hack it to high hell, add some features, change some features, move things around, switch nearly every colour, and finally add a new title graphic. Why? It’s faster than designing a new theme. (Not that I haven’t done that before. One of my previous versions of “The Lazy Canadian” was a homebrew theme that was pretty cool, but I got sick of it after a while. … Anyway…) Now it seems that once again my theme doesn’t work in Internet Explorer. It works in IE6 on a handful of machines (I don’t know why…) but not on the majority, and it’s broken in IE7. It works fine in Opera, Seamonkey, Firefox, Netscape, Safari, Camino, Konqueror; you name it, it works. Everything ‘cept Internet Explorer!

    WHY!?!!?!?

    Anyway; as I am sick and tired of changing my theme just so it works with the most popular (and most unsecure/broken) browser out there. If people wish to visit my site in Internet Explorer, I’m sorry, but it’s going to be a tad broken. Please either switch to another browser when viewing it, or don’t view it at all. Bottom line is I’m just so very tired of changing it. Though I plan on switching to a new theme soon, (I don’t know why, but I just like changing the blog around every few months. Keeps people on their toes!) I’m not going to guarentee that it will be compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, or Windows Internet Explorer 7.

    End of file.

    October 21, 2006 · Filed Under Announcements, Journal, Projects

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