Freyburg

Ever wanted to see colonialism in action? Here’s your chance. Video of American troops blowing the crap out of Iraqi insurgents. Not for the faint of stomach. There’s also a terminally crappy Realvideo version here.

By the way, you’ll need Bittorrent to download it. Though if you’re anything like me, you’ve already got it (arr, matey!)
Just goes to prove that Bittorrent is useful for more than just downloading DVD-rips of “Terminator 3”. Not that I would do anything so horribly immoral.

Nerd update! Here’s a list of deviations from book to screen for Lord of the Rings. I’m not gonna read it, because the whole thing smacks of the eternal “Star Destroyer vs. Enterprise” debate that permeates geekdom. But I’m sure some of you cats will dig on it, so enjoy.

Also, they’ve (they being some anonymous Hollywood backroom nabobs) picked a cast for the long planned Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie. I’m cool with most of the choices, but Mos Def as Ford Prefect? Huh? Not that I’m against putting African-American actors in “white” roles; I thought Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin was one of the only bright spots in the otherwise excreable Daredevil. But Mos Def doesn’t strike me as being anything like Ford, in any way shape or form. I look forward to him proving me wrong, though.

Jesus H. Christ, it’s cold. I’ve got a huge window overlooking my bachelor suite, and it’s been leaking heat all day. I had to don longjohns indoors, which is sort of silly when you think about it.

At any rate, there isn’t much to do except hole up indoors, surf the net and wait for it to get warmer. So I’ve noticed a few trends out there on the Interweb that bear mention…

For one thing, the blogerati seem to have gone into the “rejection” state in regards to social networking software like Friendster and Tribe. (Full disclosure: I joined Tribe to participate in the BoingBoing discussion list when their comment forums got hacked, but I got bored pretty quick.) At first they were all ga-ga about it, but now they’re quite contempuous. I’m not too sure why. It reminds me of that delightful wag The Green Goblin, who at one point says to Spiderman “the one thing they love more than a hero is to watch him fall, fail, die trying.” One blogger raises the good point that you’ll talk to your friends via email and IM anyway, so these sites are more or less irrelevant. I’d agree with that. I keep up with what’s going on in Vancouver, Edmonton and amongst my far-flung j-school buddies every day, and I don’t need Friendster to do it.

The other trend is the rise and rise of VOIP. It seems that phone-over-net is finally catching on. I’ve only had my Primus box for less than a week, but can do nothing but heap praise on it. It doesn’t get much simpler than picking up the phone and dailing.

A final trend that I was really late to the table for is selling stuff over the Net. Amazon now lets you sell your books using them as an intermediary, and I’ve been a happy user of the service for a while now. I used to hoard books (and to an extent I still do) but I have to say I don’t mind making a few bucks and spreading booky joy to people across North America. It also helps keep the amount of crap I have to move down, which is double plus good.

So there are two ways to get to Edmonton from Blairmore. You can drive, which I’ve done in the summer and fall, but will not attempt in the winter. It’s a seven hour drive, and my skill level behind the wheel can’t match the vicious winters meted out by Alberta. Today is a particularly nasty example, with wind, biting cold, and presumably icy roads.

The other option is the Greyhound. The only problem there is that it only shows up at 3:50 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Normally I take the early morning bus, as it gives me an extra evening in Edmonton. So this morning I stood out in bone-chilling cold at 3:30…4:00…..4:30…..5:00 a.m. At that point I broke down and called Greyhound’s customer service line (which had just opened, apparently the 24-hour universe doesn’t apply to the Dirty Dog) and asked where in the hell my bus was. I got a completely assholeish reply out of the phone monkey on the other end. I finally gave up, went back home and crawled back into bed. Luckily the depot (well, store parking lot) is across the street from my apartment.

So I went and talked to the guy who books the tickets (and who, unlike the jackasses at Greyhound Central Command, was very helpful and friendly), and he called Kelowna dispatch. He discovered that the bus I was supposed to be on was an hour and a half late by the time it hit Kelowna. So I could have waited until 8 a.m. and still not seen the foul beast.

I’m still planning to hop on the 1:30 p.m. bus and get to Edmonton tonight. But man, what a lot of crap to go through.

Update: the afternoon Greyhound is going to be at least another hour late. I’ve decided to say “sod it.” I’m holing up in my apartment, drinking hot chocolate, and watching movies.

Got the Primus box today, and it works just fine. Except that I think Telus has some nefarious blocking going on, since I got a busy signal on my parents regular phone and both cell phones (all Telus). When I call them on my Telus cell, I get through fine. Other Telus phones are A-OK, though.

There’s a new website called Wonkette that just started up today. It’s based on ripping into Washington politics and making fun of all the nimrods in D.C. It’s also a part of the flourishing blogging empire that brings you such fine sites as the nasty (and very funny) New York gossip site Gawker, the nerd engine known as Gizmodo, and a little porn celebration called Fleshbot. That last one probably isn’t safe to check out at work.

Update: This cat is the guy behind all those fine websites.

Further update: To fix the blocking problem, have the person on the other end call your phone. Then you can call them back with no problems. I don’t know why it works, but it does.

I have to say that I’m pretty surprised that Kerry took Iowa. I thought Dean had it in the bag, but his defeat and subsequently maniacal sorta-kinda concession speech has me wondering.

In other political news, the saucetastic fascist front runner for the Conservative party made her intentions plain. Now if only she’d make her undeclared love for me public. 🙂

Conrad Black sinks further into the muck. As my dad is fond of saying (with a tip of the hat to A.J. Foyt), “the race is 500 miles long.”

And finally, some genius decided that Fight Club would make a good Street Fighter 2 clone. Do I get to make soap out of liposuctioned fat in a bonus round?

Wired has a good “memo to the MPAA” that pretty much sums up everything I’ve argued about why Hollywood should spend less time chasing “pirates” and more time finding a way for me to give them my money in exchange for downloading their films.

Sorry that I’ve been so slack about updating the site. Busy busy busy.

I have no intention of voting for the new Conservative party when it soon springs forth, but I have to say I heartily approve of Belinda Stronach in leather pants and a cowboy hat.

Just added a Lillerant logo (designed by the ‘Buen himself) to the left hand side. Click that Che Guevera-esque visage to read his trenchant thoughts on all sorts of balderdash.

Space was running the animated Lord of the Rings film from the 70’s a while back. I originally saw this when it came out in the theatre, and I’ve had 20-odd years to wipe it from my memory. But these screen-caps convey some of the horror I felt watching such a terrible film. Peter Jackson’s live-action epic trounces practically everything this filmic abortion attempted. The only thing the Ralph Bakshi film had going for it was John Hurt’s voice as Aragorn, and that ain’t much.