47940000000 Kms, 1 Owner

Fifty first trip around the sun.

There are no posts for the year 2012, because from my perspective, the majority of it was horrible.

The universe reaped 3 people from my life. Two family members and a very good friend. It was greedy, and tried to take a fourth... unsuccessfully. Which resulted in probably the only bright moment last year. A wedding.

Will resume quitting the coffin nails. Last year's epic fail. It was going so well, until all the carnage started happening. Then it all went to sh!te. Hardest thing to do... and yet, long term probably the most rewarding. Quit.

facebook... scourge, resource or clicky highschool bullshit revisited?

great?! so now i'm on fakebook, aka facebook.

let the binary friending frenzy begin. i would add, at this point, the only reason i joined. the nomad became engaged and everyone else in the f'n world knew but me apparently. this is due, in large part, to not being on fakebook.

well... if you can't beat 'em... mock 'em. you can do more damage from the inside anyway.

comment jacking anyone?

how to polish a turd

Day five of the sunless sky, the rain continues... this morning it's subsided to a damp drizzle. It's unusual to go without the sun for this long in the fall. My mood has changed and I'm feeling truly unmotivated today.

Even though I successfully returned Failout: New Lost Wages yesterday, I'm still pissed off about the whole 'gaming industry/marketing machine'. People/gamers have this widespread acceptance that if it is only a game, it is okay to sell you a broken product and then tell you that they're going to fix it.

I know they have to really fix this and make it playable or future sales plummet. But this becomes the movie industry marketing plan at this point. I think the further out that they start showing off/hypeing a polished turd, the more the company is are relying on it's pre-orders to hide the epic fail they will be releasing. Movies are no different. If they start pumping it for a release date 6 months away, 95/100 of the time it's going to be shite.

Release day and the following 3 or 4 days are critical. But does it really matter. No. Because once you buy the product, the company in theory has your money. The risk is all yours at this point. To ensure it works properly, you have to open it. And once you open it, your options for being made whole diminish.

If it works.... awesome... Game On. If it doesn't too bad you opened it therefore you own it. Exchange for the equally defective unopened product, or trade it in for a pittance of the original purchase price.

The problem with Bethesda is trust and a clear lack of deadlines. Saying a patch will be forthcoming in upcoming weeks, is at best, vague. The return clock is usually 14 days on software, which games are, and once you open it... it's yours. Broken or not.

Although it took every shred of my willpower not to open it, it paid off. I got my $91.99 back. A full refund. Good luck to the rest of Betathesda's Beta Testers (aka the customer).

furkids and Fallout

Sunday. Quiet. Inner calm.

The warmth of the coffee pulses through my veins after a trip across the street to medicate, feed, water and litterbox clean the furkids I have been entrusted with for the last 5 days. I'm starting to dread when the neighbours go away. Sam is pushing 20 and needs his meds twice a day. Griffin is maybe 4 or 5 and a bully when it comes to food. My greatest fear is something happening to Sam while they are away. Hopefully it won't be on my watch. They are supposed to be home today. To say he's always more than vague with details would be an understatement. So at what time today? That would be at best, a guess on my part. I think we'll be back on Sunday he says, as he drops the keys into my hand.

Todays agenda. Fire up the PS3 and play some Fallout3 to get ready for Tuesday's release of Fallout: New Vegas.

Although after being booted off the Bethesda Fallout3 forums for calling their GOTY edition for PS3 the 'Grift Of The Year' edition. The truth is, they totally fucked the PS3 owners. And the retailers stopped taking the games back because of the problem. And all Bethesda would post was that they were aware of the issue. Not working on a patch mind you.... but aware of the problem. It left me with a nagging doubt in my mind.

I had never had a problem with my plain vanilla collectors edition. So I chose not to 'upgrade' with any of the DLC's (downloadable content) or BUY the unPS3 unplayable in some regions 'Grift Of The Year' version. Bethesda's customer service leaves a lot of room for improvement.

So I have pre-ordered Fallout: New Vegas Collectors Edition. The love fest of game review sites is always sickening. I guess you never bite the hand that feeds you. But the hype for this game is leading me to wonder if this isn't the same 'Pump and Dump' scheme as their GOTY edition of Fallout3. I guess time will tell. The key will be to not open or play it until I can see some platform specific reviews.

Two more sleeps.

Ah, Sunday morning
cold grey and windswept dawn
hints at next season

Post Thanksgiving Bloat Post

The title says it all.

Apparently I consumed an excess of everything yesterday.... in some misguided attempt to prove how thankful I was. It was a mistake. Not being thankful... but the over-indulging part. I feel like a snake who's eaten an elephant.

Stretched beyond capacity.

But today is garbage day. A chance to burn off all that food with the multiple trips to the curb to continue purging the attic of 60 years of 'stuff'. The majority of which, is not even ours. The abandonments of former tenants dating back to the 1950's. There is a lot of history up there. Glassware for home canning, old newspapers, an old 75 pound cast iron sink, three old chairs... and cardboard boxes filled with other cardboard boxes filled with more cardboard boxes like Russian nesting dolls.

An urban archeological mecca of abandoned history.

Anyway back to the task at hand.

is summer really over?

It's warm this morning. 17C.

More summer than fall.

I had coffee on the deck to take advantage of the fact that although we are in the middle of hurricane season.... the cold harsh reality of the next season will soon clench it's icy grip on the Great White North.

It's been a month since I had the mighty KLR out for a stretch... so that's my plan for today. Made half a dozen phone calls by 9AM... and then piss some time away from the saddle. I've earned it.

Yesterday's suckerpunch from my ongoing legal skirmish over my copyright's has really pissed me off... and I need to clear my f'n head.

From one Starving Artist to another... your day in court is coming you thieving no talent bitch. Stuff your lazy ass $200 offer and choke on your lame apology. I rather ruin your career at this point than listen to any more of your lies.

sipping the stillness
at the end of september
pre-dawn coffee warmth

Easy Rider Down

Dennis Hopper
May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010

Actor, Artist, Director, Painter, Poet, Photographer, Sculptor,
Father, Grand-Father, Human Being

"It's not who you boys are or what you look like,
it's what you represent that scares these people."
George Hanson quote from the movie Easy Rider

Struggled to find words for this, and put off posting it as I thought about it. I'm a fan of his art and his movies. Easy Rider is in my Top Ten Favourite Films of all time. It was a film that changed me. Whether that was a change for the better is debatable, but it helped shape who I am. Don't bother to post a comment if you haven't seen it. If your excuse for not seeing it, is a preconceived notion of 'biker movie', shame on you. Even if you can't get into the plot, it is still some of the best wide open vista road footage ever, and one of the top 3 counter-culture films of all time.

Rest In Peace Billy

Birthday Haiku

The b'day today... and I'm off on my annual pilgrimage




two birthdays today
silence substitutes for song
remembering yours


whoooops... totally forgot to post this after I wrote it

braincase: blockages and blurts

Monday morning... pre 7AM. Coffee, the sound of the wind howling outside. Feels more like fall than spring. Ms. Slippers (aka the cat) has gone out for her morning reconnaissance mission. I'm not sure I have anything to write about, other than hockey, and my bad mood.

I am tired. Drained. A talk with the lawyer on Thursday, put me in a bad mood, that is only now beginning to subside. More money and still no result. I'm not sure I'm getting good counsel for my money. All I know is that, it's expensive, and I'm no further ahead than I was before.

The braincase switches to the abstract. My friend Damons' dad was a lawyer, he passed away a few years ago. Mike Cooke was a great lawyer... and crappy business man. The kind of lawyer that would give you 110% in court and took clients on a 'pay what you can' basis. It's times like these, when a loss is felt so deeply, that it seems fresh.

In 9 days I'll be making my annual pilgrimage to the cemetery. Sadly. To wish my friend Mike Dixon a happy birthday. Mike was the best man at my wedding. We had the same birthday, he was exactly a year younger than me. After he got married, he sort of fell off the face of the earth. Saw him maybe a handful of times over 20 years. That's what happens when you marry up socially. You get a new 'class' of friends... her friends. Sadly, that usually means you are forced to abandon your friends. The friends that knew you best. A tragic end to a life and a friendship. The choices he made, still effect me to this day. For the past 4 years, I reflect on my failings as a friend.

I can't seem to move passed it.

Reckless Restless

Having trouble getting jump started today. Coffee isn't helping at all. Reflective, somber and sense memory overloaded.

Now that I've gone to all the trouble of digging out this gear, I'm surprised by how much camera gear is in my possession. It's sad because it should be used, that's what it was built for.

Every piece of gear, has it's own history. Whether it started with me, or has ended with me. I have a great old, circa late 1920's box camera.


A Kodak Rainbow Hawkeye No.2. Red. Uses 120 film, it's still available. On a good day it's worth maybe $35. And yet it's still usable for what it was designed for, taking photographs. Solid mechanical design, nothing fancy or complex, but it works... 90 years on.

Wait and see if there are any first versions of an iPhone 90 years from now. Things are disposable now. It helps fuel consumerism, if you make product with a finite lifecycle.

Braincase Query
Do we ever truly own something, or are we merely caretakers of it?

Print v. Post

Lazy Monday morning, not super warm... but at least it's not raining, and the wind has calmed a bit. I should do yard work today, now that I have fallen behind. At a minimum, I should try to get some fresh air.

The last couple of weeks, have been spent researching copyright law, and sitting within arms length of a landline, waiting for industry people to call me back. For obvious reasons, none of the details can be posted on the internet, until there is some sort of resolution. It is causing me to lose sleep. And my appetite. The moral and ethical scope of protecting my work is expensive. Not just financially, but mentally. If it goes unchallenged, someone 'gets away' with something. But if I pursue it, I'll ruin somebody's career and livelihood.

dreaded post #1

The dreaded first post.

Every blog starts at post #1... and then either dies a slow horrible lonely death, or is updated occasionally/whenever you think about it, or becomes a thought provoking tour de force.

The litmus test of whether anything I have to say (or type, as it were) is important, relevant, sane, or useful, is up to you.

Unlike the Marines, I have left a blog behind. It served it's purpose and then was promptly abandoned by me. Like digital trash. 0110001010000111100100100111101001010101010 littering at least one server somewhere. Litter sucks...