Media Dystopia: May 2004

Blog:

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

I should pat myself on the back. Pattern Recognition was supposed to herald my return to fiction-reading; instead, it sits untouched in the Chapters bag it came in, the receipt-turned-bookmark tucked neatly between the last page and back cover. Unfortunately, until such time as I can psyche myself up for William Gibson's contemporary setting, his latest book will remain in limbo. Fortunately, though, my reading won't: my yellowing copy of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- or, as the publisher prefers to call it, Blade Runner -- a story 35 years Pattern Recognition's senior, has taken its place.

And as if ending my fiction-reading sabbatical wasn't momentous enough, having become a writer in my own right -- okay, a blogger -- during that hiatus is allowing me to look at fictional narratives through new eyes; in fact, I'm feeling somewhat vindicated, if not buoyed, by Dick's frequent use of semicolons and occasional use of dashed asides. If it's good enough for him...

Follow-up: Two days later, I finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and removed Pattern Recognition from its protective sheath. I went so far as to read the glowing reviews at the front of the book, but stopped short of peeking at Gibson's opening line. Now it feels as though I'm perched on the edge of a dock, waiting to plunge into the cold, murky water before me. (Melodramatic enough for you?)

Follow-up: I cracked the spine in earnest the next day.

Follow-up: Pattern review.

posted by media_dystopia @ 00:24 [ link | top | home ]

Blah II. Either The Matrix Revolutions didn't suck as much as The Matrix Reloaded, or my expectations were sufficiently low for the last installment of the trilogy that my disappointment was muted this time around.

posted by media_dystopia @ 00:03 [ link | top | home ]

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Grudgingly posted. This is close as I want to get to talking about the 38th General Election called today:

What the hell is going on?
CBC - Canada Votes 2004
Radio-Canada - Élections Fédérales 2004
CTV - Election 2004
canada.com - Decision Canada
CANOE - Canada Votes
The Globe and Mail - Decision 2004

Who's on the hustings?
Liberal Party of Canada
Conservative Party of Canada
New Democratic Party of Canada
Bloc Québécois (Quebec only)
Green Party of Canada

What, only five parties?
Canadian Action Party
Christian Heritage Party of Canada
Communist Party of Canada
Libertarian Party of Canada
Marijuana Party of Canada
Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada
Progressive Canadian Party

Where are the lines drawn?
Elections Canada
| Voter Information Service
| Canada's 308 Electoral Districts
CBC - Candidates & Ridings
canada.com - Ridings
The Globe and Mail - Riding List

Oh, and on June 28, vote for frig's sake! (Spare me the lame excuses.)

Follow-up: I spoke too soon. Sigh.

posted by media_dystopia @ 23:19 [ link | top | home ]

Friday, May 21, 2004

I'm no aesthete, but... I like the blog's new design. (Blogger's relaunch -- the new suite of one-click-to-use templates, in particular -- made for an inspirational kick in the ass.) Coding-wise, it's a good first step; next, and more importantly, I need to replace the dreaded nested tables with CSS, and transition from HTML to XHTML. For now, though, the clutter is gone; transferring the template's text and links to individual posts will not only speed up page-loading, but allow for easy updating and spell-checking. Woohoo!

posted by media_dystopia @ 14:24 [ link | top | home ]

Thursday, May 20, 2004

Profile:

Male. Canadian. Ottawa resident. Blogger since September 6, 2002. Addicted to dashes. All else can be gleaned from the writing.

posted by media_dystopia @ 23:00 [ link | top | home ]

Contact:

media_dystopia at yahoo dot com

I don't check this e-mail account often, so don't expect a swift reply. And if/when I do reply, don't expect me to be swift.

posted by media_dystopia @ 22:00 [ link | top | home ]

Location:

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (The nation's capital.)

What's the weather like?
What does it look like?
What's in the news?
What's going on in town?
What's on the "don't miss" list?
What can tourists enjoy?
Who's coming to Scotiabank Place?
How are the Senators doing?
Where can I get tickets?
What's happening at the NAC?
Where can I find a map?
Where can I catch a bus?
Which companies are in town?
What's in the Market?
Where can I get a pizza?
Where can I find a restaurant?
What are (some) people listening to?
Where can I buy a computer?
Where can I find used books?
Where can I buy CDs and DVDs?
Is Parliament still standing?

"And then there is Disneyland on the Rideau. Dear Ottawa, the city that fun forgot." -- Allan Fotheringham

posted by media_dystopia @ 21:00 [ link | top | home ]

Listings:

Ottawa! Online - Webloggers, Journallers and Other Geeks in Ottawa
< ? Bloggers of Ontario # >
I am [Canadian] Online Journal Registry
Blogdex: Overview
| Most Popular Pages
| Links From This Weblog
Popdex Citations
Daypop Citations
Technorati: Link Cosmos

These listings used to be on the index page; since their removal, they've probably lapsed. (Like I care.)

posted by media_dystopia @ 20:00 [ link | top | home ]

posted by media_dystopia @ 19:00 [ link | top | home ]

Blogroll:

Meme:
Attu sees all
FARK.com
linkfilter.net
memepool.com
MetaFilter
The Presurfer

Group:
B3TA
Boing Boing
Canada Kicks Ass
Gauntlet.ca
GTA Bloggers
Kuro5hin
MemeFirst
morons.org
Neowin.net
Slashdot
Vive le Canada

Media:
J-Log
JD's New Media Musings
The Obscure Store and Reading Room
mediajunk

Personal:
Circadian Shift
DiVERSiONZ
evhead
existential dishwasher
go fish
lizvang.com
Maniacal Musings
Path of the Paddle
Proudly Canadian Stories
Scripting News
Sky Watching My World
The Snakepit of Bweezy's Mind
Tim Swanson
webraw/blog
WIL WHEATON dot NET

Ottawa:
Mad Mitch
Manifesto Multilinko
wwwaif.net

posted by media_dystopia @ 18:00 [ link | top | home ]

Interests:

In no particular order...

Music:
Toolband.com
The Tool Page
A Perfect Circle
Genesis
AMG All Music Guide

Books:
William Gibson
   | Blog
William Gibson aleph
Robert J. Sawyer
Philip K. Dick
Max Barry
jeffnoon.com
Official Vurt Website
Paul Di Filippo
Iain (aka Iain M.) Banks
Chuck Palahniuk
The SF Site
Fantastic Fiction
Made in Canada
Locus Online
   | The Locus Index to Science Fiction
Political Writings of George Orwell
The Literature Network - 1984

Movies:
BladeZone
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Television:
CBC
   | Rick Mercer's Monday Report
CTV
   | Corner Gas
Citytv
Rogers Television
Zap2it.com
Doctor Who
   | links

Radio:
LIVE 88.5 [added 01.10.06]
101.1 XFM (R.I.P.)
106.9 The BEAR
CHEZ 106
93.9 BOB FM
580 CFRA
102.1 The Edge
Mojo Radio AM640
Milkman UnLimited
Radio-Locator

Humor:
George Carlin
Lewis Black
Canadian World Domination
   | Forum

Gaming:
Battlefield 1942
   | Official Site
   | Desert Combat
   | BF Tracks - North America
EverQuest
   | links [added 01.31.06]

Internet and Web design:
Corante
   | Internet News
World Wide Web Consortium
   | HTML 4.01 Specification
   | Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
   | ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) Characters
RGB Hexadecimal Color Chart

Search engines:
Google
   | Advanced Search
Yahoo!

Shopping:
Amazon.com
   | Amazon.ca
chapters.indigo.ca
Patriots.ca
Crazy Shirts
ThinkGeek

News:
CBC News
Radio-Canada - Zone Nouvelles
CTV News
CANOE - CNEWS
The Globe and Mail
Toronto Star
Ottawa Citizen
National Post
canada.com - National News
Pulse24.com
Google News
   | Canada
Yahoo! News
   | Canada

Media and journalism:
Journalism.org
   | Daily Briefing
Poynter Online
   | Romenesko
I Want Media
CyberJournalist.net
   | J-Blogs: The CyberJournalist List
Common Dreams
MediaChannel.org
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

Reference:
Merriam-Webster OnLine
   | Merriam-Webster Unabridged
Dictionary.com
Bartleby.com
OneLook Dictionary Search
The Word Spy
UrbanDictionary.com
The Jargon File
Refdesk
CIA - The World Factbook
GlobalSecurity.org
Online Conversion
AltaVista - Babel Fish Translation

posted by media_dystopia @ 17:00 [ link | top | home ]

Friday, May 14, 2004

Out with the old; in with the new. I finally bought William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. I'm still miffed at the trade paperback's $21 price tag, and iffy about the novel's contemporary setting -- not finding it in the science fiction and fantasy section was disconcerting -- but I'm happy to round out my Gibson collection. (Speaking of which, I just reread his very enjoyable 1993 WIRED article "Disneyland with the Death Penalty," courtesy of an aging printout.) I just hope his latest offering doesn't disappoint me -- the preceding Bridge trilogy certainly did (no offense).

Although, I doubt that any disappointment could exceed that caused by Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which I satisfyingly ditched at a used book store this morning before going to Chapters. My dog-eared copy of Snow Crash notwithstanding, I was happy to be rid the sprawling novel that soured me on buying -- wasting money on, more like -- new works of fiction. There's nothing worse than a pompous, didactic author, especially a look-at-me-I-know-advanced-mathematics-and-cryptography-here-let-me-show-you-at-length one. I don't care if it is in their fictional nature, characters sitting around using high math to do mundane tasks is a real turn off, particularly when it's obvious that the writer is projecting. It's no wonder, then, that I gave up on the book part way through and shoved it in a box for several years.

Follow-up: Pattern review.

posted by media_dystopia @ 23:12 [ link | top | home ]

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Say... Is anyone else enjoying My Hero on BBC Kids as much as I am? Just wondering.

posted by media_dystopia @ 01:38 [ link | top | home ]

Monday, May 10, 2004

Double whammy. The beautiful WestJet/Tim Hortons woman with the dark red hair and slightly breathless voice has me paying attention during Canadian commercial breaks these days. Although I'm familiar with the pain and suffering of air travel of which she speaks so empathically, I've never flown with her airline -- sorry, I can't speak to it being the solution to "Advanced Airline Dissatisfaction Syndrome" -- nor am I enticed by the egg salad sandwiches her bridal-shower-crashing boyfriend craves so much. My consumer shortcomings notwithstanding, I'm keeping my eyes peeled for the ads in hopes of seeing more of her. (Who me typical male pig?)

Follow-up: It is the same woman, right?

Follow-up: Early in 2005, she began flogging Quaker Chewy granola bars, playing a mother who reassures her daughter as she heads off to a new school...by secretly stocking her lunch box with extra bars to be used as bribes. (It's good to teach children about the effectiveness of bribery early in life.)

posted by media_dystopia @ 12:48 [ link | top | home ]

Do I care? Do I really need to know who became the GM Goodwrench Service Specialist? Is it important to me which contestant, Eric or Brigitte, earned the title? Have I been on pins and needles for weeks, waiting to see who would win? Actually, yes -- and I don't know whether to congratulate or curse GM for it. When a series of commercials masquerading as "reality TV" are more interesting than "reality TV" itself -- certainly better than Survivor (although that's not saying much) -- the apocalypse must be fast approaching.

posted by media_dystopia @ 04:08 [ link | top | home ]

It's only fair. Since the folks at Blogger were nice enough to upgrade and beautify their service -- The Great Blogger Relaunch -- I decided to take the time to make some changes to my template. It's still clunky, busy, and downright ugly, but now there's a list of recent posts, as well as less broken links. Eventually, I'll get around to developing that CSS template I've been thinking about for months. Well, maybe.

Follow-up: Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention that I really like Blogger's new look and features (minus a few annoyances).

posted by media_dystopia @ 03:27 [ link | top | home ]

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Right on cue. The Leafs were eliminated in the second round after eliminating the Sens in the first round. So, to Toronto fans, particularly those smug bastards who have been swaggering the around nation's capital, I say, "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye!" followed by a heartfelt "Ha-ha, you suck!" Sorry, were they expecting me to be sympathetic? These are the people who, during the "battle of Ontario," made it clear that Ottawa sucks, and always has. (Ironic considering that, last year, the Sens made it to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final -- one win away from a chance at the Stanley Cup.) Therefore, according to the rules of trash talk, scoffing at the blue and white is not only permitted, but encouraged.

Oh, and go Flames go!

posted by media_dystopia @ 21:55 [ link | top | home ]

Monday, May 03, 2004

What's wrong with au naturel? Lindsay Lohan is beautiful, yes, but she has got lay off the sunbathing or bronzer or whatever else -- I shudder to think -- gives her that sun-ripened look. Some of her recent interviews and public appearances have been crimes against pale skin. At times, the contrast between her extreme tan and her already-white teeth has made them beacon-like, enough to draw my lascivious gaze away from her ample cleavage (if you can believe it). Surely she realizes that part of the turn-on of a freckled redhead is her pallor. Luckily, her character in Mean Girls appears to be less melanin-reliant than her public persona.

posted by media_dystopia @ 03:13 [ link | top | home ]