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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Respite From The Heat.

Another month ends, and with it, at least for a couple of days, the heat and high humidity that has plagued Saskatoon for much of July. Perhaps it's my imagination, but the humidity this summer and last summer seems higher than it has in the past. Of course I must also admit I really hadn't paid much attention to this factory in the past. Usually we think of Saskatchewan as having relatively "dry" heat in the summer. But this year especially there seems to be more prominence given to the humidex rating in weather forecasts, and we've had several high humidex warnings this summer. It's possible this is yet another symptom of global climate change, with high humidity air masses appearing in places where they hadn't previously.

I did a lot of walking in the last week, and I was sure glad to be carrying a bottle of water during that walking. A 500 mL bottle fits easily into a pants pocket, and is especially pleasant to have if you freeze it solid the night before.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

An Odd Choice.

Visiting James Nicoll's Livejournal tonight I found out that Dark Horse Comics, North American publishers of my fav manga, Blade of the Immortal, are going to reprint John Norman's Gor books. I've discussed the series before, but for those of you who missed those posts the short version is that the books took place on the planet Gor, where men are men and women are slaves or in their hearts want to be slaves. They'd likely be written off as crappy sword and sorcery fantasy if not for the bondage content of the series and the fact that John Norman by all accounts actually believes women really want to be slaves to men. And there are people in the real world who agree with him and base part or all of their personal lifestyles on these concepts. Interestingly the Dark Horse press release I linked to makes no real mention of the controversial content of the series, which I have to wonder about given that a lot of book sellers who sell other Dark Horse products probably aren't familiar with the notoriety of the books.

As you can imagine the announcement Dark Horse will begin reprinting the series has gotten some folks upset. I can't blame them given the sexism and misogyny that underlies the setting of the books. The obvious question is why Dark Horse decided to pick up the Gor series. I would suspect that in part it's because the rights are available cheap. Recent attempts to reprint them have been less than successful, so it would seem to be a bit of a risk for Dark Horse to release them. It will be interesting to see how well their omnibus release of the first 3 books does, and whether there will be a second release featuring the next 3 books. Or perhaps a better question is whether they will release a third omnibus, given that the second one is probably already late in the preproduction stage.

Congratulations, Chris MacClean

If blog hits are any indication it looks like another winner for Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch. My previous post about their new Teletoon series Total Drama Island has generated quite a few hits already. Hopefully they'll be able to sell the series to foreign markets just as they did with 6teen. And hopefully they'll be able to get the series on an American network that will actually make a commitment to giving it a fair shot, unlike what happened with Nickleodeon's abortive airing of 6teen last year.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Go Check Your Oven.

Boy, did I make a major screwup tonight. I baked some fish and potato patties for supper. But I neglected to turn off the oven. I only just noticed it was still on a few minutes ago. We're in the middle of a heat wave here so having an oven on isn't the best thing when you're trying to cool off your house. I don't like the idea of the wasted electricity, but that will be made up for by my deciding not to use the oven for several days. But the real scary thought is what might have happened if I hadn't spotted the oven light still being on because of the kitchen lights being turned off. I have no idea how much longer it might have run before I noticed it.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Shameless Hit Count Whoring.

Tonight's the night. The final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is being released. Therefore I shamelessly present to you this post, which has no other purpose than being a blatant attempt to boost my traffic. So c'mon Potterfans! Visit here now. After all you owe me for all the wanking that will result online from whatever JK Rowling has in store for poor Harry(although rumour has it the kid lives), wanking that could be expended on more valuable topics, like Doctor Who.

Silent Footsteps.

It was 38 years ago today that that Neil Armstrong became the first human being to walk on a world besides the Earth. Will it be another 38 years before this happens again? Perhaps. Unfortunately until recently we hadn't been able to find a convincing excuse to return to Earth's Moon since the Apollo 17 mission, and even with current plans to return to the Moon we can't be sure if they'll actually happen as currently predicted.

I have no memories of the landing, not even being two at the time. And I suspect that I may not live to see the first humans land on Mars given the technical difficulties and cost questions involved. Too bad all those sci fi shows so many of us watched as kids made it look so easy.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

A Little Bit Missing.

Last night I decided I wanted a Fudgsicle, but couldn't find any at the local convenience stores. Deciding tonight I still wanted one I decided to bite the bullet and grab a package from Safeway. All they had were "fat free" ones. Something just seems wrong about eating a fat free ice cream product, even though I really should cut back on my fat intake. Still, the one I had tonight wasn't bad, although it was smaller than I remember the last one I had. The quotes around fat free are because this product technically isn't fat free. Each one actually contains 0.4 grams of fat, which isn't much but is still an actual detectable amount of fat.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Charles Lane, RIP.

I just found out that veteran American actor Charles Lane died Monday at 102. Brent McKee's obit for Lane can be found here. Interestingly I heard a CBC radio documentary about Victor Jory a couple of months back that included some recent comments by Lane, a good friend of Jory's, and it sounded like he was still pretty sharp.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

"You're off the island."

Tonight saw the debut of the series Total Drama Island on Teletoon, with the first two episodes being aired. Created by 6teen creators Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch the series is a spoof of reality shows like Survivor. A group of 22 teens are divided into two groups who compete in various challenges, with the losing group having to choose one of its members to leave the island. But its not just the dangerous challenges they'll have to face, but the horrors of a run down, vermin infested summer camp on an isolated island in Northern Ontario instead of the luxury resort they were promised. The art style used is very reminiscent of Clone High, which isn't a surprise given the involvement of Elliot Animation, who worked on that series. The voices will also sound familiar to anyone who watches much Canadian made animation and include 6teen regulars Christian Potenza and Megan Fahlenbock as well as the almost ubiquitous Dan Petronijevic. My verdict? Not bad so far. We'll see how they do over the course of 26 episodes, and there's the obvious question of how they might continue the series if it does well enough for Teletoon to spring for a second batch of episodes.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Triple 7

Today is is the 7th day of the 7th month of the 7th year of the century, so not surprisingly many people thought today would be especially lucky. I didn't notice things being lucky for me, and for many people today saw their luck go entirely bad, such as the 100 some people killed in a truck bombing in Iraq. Yet such superstition persists. I can't think of a way for it to disappear easily other than those who don't believe such things not playing into it.

Monday, July 02, 2007

I Think I'll Pass.

It's amazing the goofy gimmicks people will use to sell a product. A Winnipeg pizzaria called Porno Pizza offers pornographic pictures with each pizza it delivers. You must provide proof you're legal before they'll let you have the pizza, but the idea is otherwise legal. Porno founder Corey Wildman says he might consider turning the idea into a franchise if it does well. I'm afraid I won't be a potential customer. I see no need for porn with my pizza, and if I may be vulgar I'd be a little leery of where the pizza shop workers might be putting their hands given the porn they'll be seeing.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Happy Canada Day!

I hope everyone across the country has enjoyed their day so far, even if all you've done is sit around the house like me.

No, I haven't been away or sick. I just simply haven't gotten around to writing about anything of late, but I hope to get things back to a bit more regular pace in July.