Idiotic Ramblings

Warthog Launch

2004-06-22T20:50:00.000-04:00

Warthog Launch is a great little flash game where you usse granades to launch your warthog vehicle up in the air and destroy the enemies floating above. Of course this is heavily inspired by the the "warthog launch" strategy in the super hit X Box game Halo.

Busy busy

2004-06-18T18:43:00.000-04:00

Sorry if this site has been neglected in some recent days. I'm currently working on another site, A Journey Through Time which is focusing strictly on my interesting history links. I hope it will provide some more focus/direction that the randomness of this current site. I'm not planning on killing this site yet, but just give me a minute or two to gather my thoughts. Please stay tuned.

Mongolians seek to make a name for themselves

2004-06-15T19:42:00.000-04:00

It seems that surnames are making a resurgence in Mongolia. For more than 80 years, everyone in the country was simply on a first name basis after the abolition of the surnames by the Communist Party during their rise to power. They were removed as a direct attack to the clan system and the powerful hereditary aristocracy and the class structure. In the 1990's, Mongolia again became a democracy, and the beautiful freedoms of surnames was once again returned (Wikipedia has a good timeline of Mongolia's modern history) Here are the basics the new laws:

In 1997, a new law required everyone to have surnames. The law was largely ignored, but then a system of citizenship cards was introduced. Slowly the country of 2.5 million began to adopt surnames. Today, however, there are still 10,000 people without surnames. So the government is trying to solve the problem with a mixture of incentives (a discount on the registration fee) and heavy-handed pressure (a threat of financial penalties on anyone who fails to get a citizenship card before the June 27 national election).

It seemed that this need for surnames came as much out of necessity as for convenience. The one-name system was so confusing that some people were marrying without realizing they were relatives. The real interesting situation is the way by which people are choosing their surnames.

The book also suggests other ways to choose a surname. Some people choose the name of a mountain or river in their ancestral region. Others prefer the name of an ancestral occupation: Blacksmith, Herdsman or Writer. Some names are linked to clans: White Camel or Black-and-White Horse. And some names have more obscure origins. One surname listed in the book, perhaps less fashionable today, is Seven Drunk Men.

In western society today our surnames are so much a part of who we are. They carry our pride, our family heritage and our history. I can't even fathom having to simply choose one from a book in the middle of my life. Imagine how complicated things would be in a country where people only have first names. Think about how many Johns, Pauls or Marks that you know. What a nightmare.

Rejection Line: 212-479-7990

2004-06-15T18:12:00.000-04:00

The Rejection line is a pretty interesting concept by greatly simplifying the dating process. Don't like someone? Too scared to give them your real number? No problem - give them the Rejection Line number. The recording will take care of the heartbreak. Here's how it's explained on the site:

We do the rejecting. You spend time doing things you enjoy, like walking in the park, going to cultural events, and dating attractive people. Rejection Line Tips:
Streamline your personal business, and familial relationships
Use at bars, clubs, and art exhibitions
Page to cell phones and beepers
Write on bathroom walls
Store in your cell phone as your "private line"
Leave as a mysterious and sexy voicemail
Give to creditors, telemarketers, and religious zealots.

Lines are available for plenty of other cities beyond New York as well. Los Angeles, Atlanta, Orlando, Oakland among others are included. Don't miss your chance to make use of this service.

The Big Unit: Sunday Afternoon Baseball

2004-06-14T20:34:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned, I attended the Blue Jay's game yesterday. It was a pretty interesting trip. It was full of a good game, good times, good food and some very funny moments. I don't have any time to spare tonight to post my thoughts, but I promise that I'll get to that tomorrow. Trust me, it's more than worth the wait.

Plastic Balls

2004-06-14T20:30:00.000-04:00

Plastic Balls is a great little flash game over on Playaholics. It's a sort of reverse breakout style game with the added headache of severe gravity. It's a very great game. Too bad that the action is far too slow to make it replayable. It seems that it takes 10 or 15 minutes to get to any level where the action is overly challenging. I wish there was a password/leve skip function so I could really get down to things more quickly. I need some more Flash games to pass the hours at work. Please comment on any recent games that you've been addicted to. I just can't get enough.

whew!

2004-06-14T19:34:00.000-04:00

There is a great deal of crazy crazy weather here in the Greater Toronto Area tonight. At about 5:30 today, the skys completely opened up. I've never seen it rain so hard, so fast. Within 15 or 20 minutes the parking lot was absolutely flooded. There was at least 3 feet of water. At intersection after intersection, people were totally freaking out as they attempted to wade through such a large amount of water. Driving the small, weak Toyota Tercel that I do, this sort of off roading was pretty much out of the question. SUV driver after SUV driver was able to barrel through the rapids with nary a beat of an eye. This completely through off my entire route home. I was unable to use my usual backroads. This meant that I was about 1/4 of the way home at the time I usually am able to be home and safe. It was painful, just painful. Listening to the radio on the way home it seemed that this wasn't exactly an isolated incident. There were numerous tornado/thunderstorm warnings across Southern Ontario. We passed countless downed trees on the way home. I hope that everyone made it home alright tonight. I feel bad because my mother has to almost head straight back out now to pick my brother up from work at Canada's Wonderland.

Weekend Notes

2004-06-12T13:14:00.000-04:00

Seems to be a quiet weekend around these parts. There isn't much of interest that I've come across to post in the last couple of days. I guess a certain amount of weekend relaxation starts to take place since the summer has started. I know I'd wouldn't want to do much more than sit in the sun and just relax. It isn't overly hot here, but at least the sun is shining. I'm planning on heading to the Skydome tomorrow to check out the Blue Jays. They're facing the Arizona Diamond Backs, which doesn't overly excite me beyond the fact that Randy Johnson is pitching. I always like to head there to see the future hall of famers and stars of the game, if possible. Just so I can tell my kids one day that I saw them. I can't think of a better way to spend a nice (almost) summer day.

Midget Tossing

2004-06-11T18:45:00.000-04:00

Midget Tossing is a great little flash game where you attempt to throw a dwarf across a valley and into a corresponding garbage can that is being operated by other midgets. The game may be a little bit lame, but I promise you that the song is more than worth the effort.

Pimp War

2004-06-10T18:49:00.000-04:00

Pimp War is a great free, browser based online game. You can live out all your pimping fantasies here - work your pimp hand, make crack, hire goons, buy a sweet ride and all the other things that pimps do. Here's the full explanation from the site:

You will become a master at the art of pimping your hoes, commanding your thugs and battling your enemies to protect what you have and to help your empire grow. This game is NOT for whiners. PimpWar players have 5000 ways to call you a bitch ass. So if you think you can handle it we suggest you get a couple friends together so you are not alone in this bad bad place and then bring yo bad self.

It's highly addictive. Don't even get started if you're not ready for a commitment.

Questions

2004-06-09T19:53:00.000-04:00

Have a question? Fucking Google it!

Google Is Your Friend All Smart People Use Google You Appear To Not Be One Of Them

This site couldn't be more right, tell your friends.

Tales from the Mental Hospital

2004-06-09T19:16:00.000-04:00

Just read an interesting article (via Metafilter) from a Something Awful forum post that describes the experiences of a particular man in numerous mental hospitals in New Jesery. Here's how he describes it all:

During my formerly frequent stays to various psychiatric facilities in NJ, I've met quite a few characters. They've ranged from scary violent psychos, to hilariously deranged schizophrenics, to the just plain bizarre. That statement also includes some of the people who worked there. Sometimes, the staff is just on the wrong side of the desk. Needless to say, each separate hospitalization was a truly unique experience. That's right, the hospital can be fun.

It's a really long article, but well worth the read. You'll really see what really goes on in places of this sort.

GRRRRRR

2004-06-09T19:06:00.000-04:00

What a shitty day at work today. I had a huge blow up with one of my coworkers. She came in and started yelling at me because a mailing had been sent back 'return to sender' to us. Somehow, that was my fault for not properly updating the the contact record when I was going through them recently. I told her it had been updated, but she didn't buy it. The last updated date quite clearly read 06/02/04. She was screaming that I hadn't updated that - as that date was in February. Well, I knew that was wrong. It was quite clearly June 2, not February 6. She was crazy psycho about the whole thing - apparently I'm not allowed to tell people when they're wrong. I was really nice about it all, but she just didn't care. No one in the entire office likes her. Her opinion means nothing to anyone, but she still got me fired up. No one should be yelling at me - especially about such a stupid little detail like the date. Is it Friday yet?

Gmail invites

2004-06-08T20:09:00.000-04:00

June 12th: My invites are now gone. No need to email me. Maybe next time sorry I have a Gmail invite available to anyone who's interested. I checked out Gmail Swap, but that seemed a little impersonal and greedy to me. If anyone would like an invite, email me with your contact information (name and email address you want the invite sent to) and I'll hook you up. The only thing that I ask is that if you have a blog or website or something related that you trade links with me. If you don't... well still email me. I may as well put these invites to good use. Don't say that I've never done anything for you.

Bowman

2004-06-08T19:16:00.000-04:00

Bowman is a great little flash game. It's tricky as hell at first, but it's really a lot of fun once you get the controls down. Try it with the wall and wind enabled - it's a whole different game. So much for being productive.

Stanley Cup

2004-06-08T18:50:00.000-04:00

I watched Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals last night and boy was I ever disapointed. I was really rooting for Calgary, Canada's team but it seems that they just really ran out of gas at the end. They battled hard and made it so much further along than anyone had ever expected which is quite an accomplishment in itself. Sure Tampa has a lot of Canadian's too, but it's time that the Stanley Cup came back where it belongs. I guess there's always next year - maybe even the Leafs could have a chance.

Urban Dictionary

2004-06-07T19:05:00.000-04:00

Urban Dictionary is a slang dictionary with your definitions. It's all user created - you can add your words, rate them, and decide which definitions are trash. It's a giant user created dictionary of popular culture that's pretty interesting to just browse. You can really see what sorts of words 'the people' are using, and a great place to look up that interesting term like ambulance chaser, blumpkin, or snuff.

Smarty Jones fails to win the Triple Crown

2004-06-05T19:26:00.000-04:00

I just got finished watching Smarty Jones finish second in the Belmont Stakes, which ended his ultimate dream for the Triple Crown. I'm not a huge fan of horse racing, but I've enjoyed betting on a race or two in the past and I must say that I was left rooting against Smarty Jones. The story has simply been overwhelming the media in the recent weeks, so much so that it has created a great deal of resentment, at least from me. It would have been great from a historical point of view to see him emerge victorious, but I'm always rooting for the underdog and I'm happy that Birdstone was able to pull it out at the end. I must say though that I was pretty disgusted with the coverage that NBC provided. Sure, everyone's tuning in to see Smarty Jones so it's understandable that they heavily focus on his entry and preparation for the race, but after the race was over why the complete disrespect to Birdstone and his owners/jockey/trainer? Smarty Jones' jockey was the first to be interviewed. An interview of the owner of Birdstone (?) was interrupted midstream so that NBC could rush over and interview the owner of Smarty Jones. Birdstone won the race, and deserved to be given the respect that is due to one who wins such a prestigious event. The owners, as well the jockey of Birdstone also were equally disgusting. I can't believe that they were apologizing to Smarty Jones and the fans for WINNING THE RACE. Why enter if you don't want to win? The old lady kept talking about just hoping to finish second to Smarty Jones. Guess what? You won! You did better than you thought. You should be happy, not breaking down crying because you had upset such a hisorical event. I don't know why you would put all that money/time into a venture and hope to be second best. It just don't make sense to me.

Design your own advertising

2004-06-05T08:23:00.000-04:00

PBS Kids has an interesting feature called Don't Buy It, which helpts to promote critical thought and media literacy among young people. They set out to teach the youth how to interpret, question, analyze, and evaluate the messages of media. That's all well and good, but the really interesting part of the site is where you are able to design your own cereal box, or to design your own ads. It really crystallizes the messges that advertisers are trying to send about their products, and really just how about they go about selling their products....... and fun shockwave applets are also just fun to mess around with.

Short History of the Orgins of Espionage

2004-06-05T08:14:00.000-04:00

A short article over on the History Television Canada about the history of the orgins of espionage. Apparenetly is goes all the way back to Biblical times:

The earliest references to intelligence gathering date from a wide span of ancient sources, suggesting that the need to learn secrets is an inherent human trait. Indeed, one of history's earliest spies may have been Moses, who was urged by God, in the book of Numerology, to send agents to "spy out the lands of Canaan." Unfortunately, the intelligence gathered by the 12 agents (that the people were richer and more powerful than the Israelites) displeased God and they were punished.

Espionage is something that's so very much associated with World War II, who knew that in actual fact the roots went so deep.

Internet Archive Wayback Machine

2004-06-04T19:01:00.000-04:00

I've known about the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine for a long while, but for some reason I never thought to check out the main website of my deep and dark past. Back in the day, I ran/designed CTF Central, a website that focused on the capture the flag variant of id software's Quake 2 and I had long since lost any copy of the site that I had. It's nice to be able to just see the old site, and save the basic logo/graphics that I worked really hard on when I was a youngster. For those who don't know, the Wayback Machine allows you to see the internet that used to be:

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is a service that allows people to visit archived versions of Web sites. Visitors to the Wayback Machine can type in a URL, select a date range, and then begin surfing on an archived version of the Web. Imagine surfing circa 1999 and looking at all the Y2K hype, or revisiting an older version of your favorite Web site. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine can make all of this possible

Honda's New Accord

2004-06-03T20:52:00.000-04:00

Just watched an interesting new Honda Accord ad.... a really interesting machine they've got going on there. It's apparently inspired by the filmmakers Peter Fischli and David Weiss and their film "The Way Things Go"

Grrr..

2004-06-03T19:42:00.000-04:00

Shitty day at work today. We had to go through and correct a typo that was in a bunch of letters that had already been folded, enveloped, posted and ready to go. Seems that someone around work thinkks that hygiene can be spelt hegene. That could have been caught by a SPELL CHECK, which would be saved an extra 2+ hours of work completely redoing 200+ packages. Wasted time, wasted money... *sigh* We also took a personality test today. Turns out that I fit into the perfectionist model. I place high demands on myself, and judge other's work through logical, rational means, without letting emotions get into the way. I am accurate and have a keen attention to detail, but I need people to clearly lay out their expecations and to push me into creative directions. All in all, I think it describes me pretty well which is really suprising to me because most of these stupid tests are so far off. Only wish I knew the name of the test, it would be worth looking at again.

Condom Emergency! Condom Emergency!

2004-06-03T18:42:00.000-04:00

A Swedish aid organization has rolled out a new community service: the condom ambulance. By calling 696969, a van will come to deliver the necessary goods. It's a little weird, but not without a cause. It seems that they're desperate to get the condoms into the hands of the youth:

The incidence of sexually transmitted disease is increasing rapidly in Sweden and not enough young people use condoms, Osvald said. "We need to change attitudes to condoms," he said. "If we need to get out in to the bedrooms to make things better we will do it."

I wouldn't want to be that delivery guy, I'm sure that could become a really weird scene. I hope that they just don't get too far into the bedroom....Let a man take care of a thing or two.

Tired and Uninspired

2004-06-02T18:48:00.000-04:00

Just got home from work and I really don't have the time/energy to post anything worthwhile. I've been really having a lot of trouble sleeping recently (I've averaged like 3 or 4 hours a night for the past week), so I'm a total mess. I think I'm going to use the time that I would otherwise waste to take an early evening nap. Sure, I won't be able to get to bed at a reasonable hour but damn, I just want to sleep. I can't believe that I made it through the day today, driving to and from work without dying. I'm proud to be alive. If anyone has any hints to sleeping, I'd be happy to hear them. Right now I think I'm going to be turning to raging alcoholism to help put me to bed. I don't think that it would be best to undertake such a thing on a work night....