ChrisTalbot.com

Jacquie and I took in a viewing of Tim Burton's Big Fish this evening. ... Wow. I mean really, wow. I don't think I've enjoyed a movie in the theatre this much in quite awhile. Now I'm really interested in reading the Daniel Wallace novel the movie was based on.

If you get a chance, it's really worth seeing this film.

It took a bit of nagging, but Rawl has finally launched his own blog site. He hasn't registered his own domain name yet, but he says he's planning on doing that around March. So far, his test site is up on his Rogers members site. Check out Rawl's World of Stuff.

For those not in the know, Rawl is one of my oldest friends. The two of us first met in Grade 3 way back when I first moved to Pickering. Except for some time when he went off to university and I went to college, we've pretty much stayed in touch ever since. Wow, I just did the math in my head ... and we've known each other for twenty years.

It's been requested of me to post the title of my favourite book to the site. I figure, hey, what the hell, I'll even go a step further. I'll just roll up my sleeves and dive right in.

When asked about my favourite book, the answer usually comes spitting up pretty quickly. The complete opposite happens when someone asks my favourite movie, but I'll get into that another time. Hands (and feet) down, the winner of the Chris Talbot Favourite Book of All Time Awards goes to The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. This tale set in the Middle Ages (well, a tale that's over 900 pages long in paperback) starts during the reign of England's Henry I and ends during the reign of Henry II, but the majority of the book takes place during the war of succession between Matilda and Stephen (kind of a boy versus girl war in which the boy won *grin*). However, although three of the four historical figures are characters in the book, the novel really focuses on the three generations of commoners and monks that are involved in building a cathedral.

I contacted Ken Follett a few years ago via email to thank him for a great read, and he wrote back within a few days to thank me for being a reader. So not only is he a talented author, he seems like a pretty cool guy. Thanks again, Ken.

However, there are several other books I'd like to mention here as being among my top ten list. In no particular order, I'd like to hand over the Super-Duper Effort Award to Sophie Kinsella's Confessions of a Shopaholic, Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho and Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask by Jim Munroe. (Yes, I realize that's not a full ten, but I didn't really promise you a top ten list, now did I? :P)

I figure of all of those, the Shopaholic book requires some ... uh ... explanation. For those who have seen the book sitting on the shelves, it's pink, it's obviously about a shopaholic and it looks like a chick book more than anything else on the shelf. Heck, it was even a couple of women who recommended it to me. Now, I'm not gay (although that doesn't stop the odd guy from trying to pick me up -- flattering, but ... ahem!), nor am I a shopaholic. However, the novel is about a trade journalist who works for a financial magazine and just abhors her job. Back when I read the book, I almost thought I was reading about my own career, so I immediately took to liking the story.

And on that note, this other article makes me want to start watching talk shows. ;)

Inarguably the best film site on the Internet is FilmThreat.com. Just read it for a week and you'll see what I mean. As we near the Academy Awards season, I think Brad Laidman's article says it best about just how little the Oscars really mean.

GameSpy has an article called "The Top Ten Handhelds that Never Made It," and while it's an interesting read (although they really should learn to copy-edit their articles), I think there's one handheld video game unit on the list that really shouldn't be there. Honestly, the Sega Game Gear had a six-year run before Sega stopped producing handhelds. Despite the fact that it never beat out the Game Boy to take over the number one spot, I don't think that means it was a failure. It was probably the only handheld gaming machine that ever really gave Nintendo a run for its money.

Mmm ... coffee. I've been without my morning coffees for several months now. Since I stopped working in an office environment in early July (and thus stopped drinking office swill with the odd half-decent cup o' joe thrown in for good measure), I haven't made any effort to make coffee at home in the mornings, and it's too bloody far to walk to the nearest Tim Hortons.

However, I recently started getting the craving for morning coffee again. Jacquie said she had a small coffee maker, which she dug up and cleaned up on the weekend (she's such a nice girlfriend ). Yesterday, she stopped at Timmy's on her way home and got me a canister of Tim's coffee. So this morning I got to enjoy my morning coffee.

And the addiction begins ... again.

// posted by Chris @ 9:13 AM 0 comments

I haven't played Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in several months, but I started replaying the game at the tail end of last week. Not sure why -- I just felt like playing it again. However, I started from scratch with a brand new save game. In my other save game, I owned every property and had all of the hidden packages, but I couldn't quite complete the game. I was stuck on the Copland mission (damn Lance Vance kept getting slaughtered each time I tried to run through it).

Anyway, here I am back playing from scratch again. I remember having fun just cruising around, getting hidden packages, exploring and doing some of the early missions. The bridges haven't even been opened up, and I'm only barely starting on the Colonel's missions, but I'm enjoying the game ... again. :)

As usual, the weekend seemed too short. At least I didn't have to do any work, though. Instead, Jacquie and I spent some time playing EverQuest and trying to accomplish a couple of things -- acquiring a spell that drops off a semi-rare monster for Jacquie's druid (killed it, got it on the first try -- after two-and-a-half hours of waiting for it to spawn), getting my ranger the last bit of experience he needed to hit 45th level (did it killing hill giants in Rathe Mountains -- now his Lupine Dagger procs, turning the ranger into a wolf; sweeeeet) and then getting my ranger into the same guild Jacquie's druid is in, Blood of Immortals (done, and then we went raiding in City of Mist last night).

So I guess it was a busy weekend for EQ stuff.

I do enjoy play-by-email turn-based strategy games, and I've searched for a good play-by-email chess application for a long time. I think my search is finally over: SoundChess seems like a good Web-enabled email chess program.

Although the author of this article doesn't really offer any inside information about it, the article she wrote on small business blogs is kind of interesting. However, again, she's an entrepreneur and not actually blogging herself, leading me to ask: Why the hell is she the one writing this opinion piece?

On the flip side, though, I've been hearing many stories of companies firing their Web managers, designers and other types in favour of hiring an outsourcer to build them a corporate blog site. Then some dupe in the company gets awarded the title of Head Blogger (probably it's whoever spellz the best) and the guy/gal starts yammering away about whatever the company is doing, what hair care products it uses and how dismal the next quarter is going to be.

Gee, I'd hate to be one of those would-be, self-proclaimed Web designers that sprung up in the mid-'90s these days. I guess they're shucking fries at McDonald's now, eh? Sucks to be them.

As if having telemarketers call me at all hours of the day isn't bad enough, having assholes that refuse to take "no" for an answer and then argue with me about my reasons for not wanting to sit through their friggin' 90-minute sales pitch, especially when they've just been told I have an important business call in just a couple of minutes, just pisses me off to no end. So, Wayne at GeoHoliday, if you happen to read this, you deserved the verbal beating I just gave you. Don't call me again, ass.

Complete geek-out time: Over the last couple of days, I removed both my EverQuest characters in Luna Rising from the guild. So now I'm completely guildless again, which is something I haven't been since about September. Time to start looking for a new guild, methinks.

When Jacquie came home last night, I was in the middle of a Bubblegum Crisis episode. She sat down, stared at the screen for a few minutes (I was watching it dubbed, which probably seemed odd to her -- I usually watch anime subtitled).

She turned to me and asked, "Aren't you animed-out yet?"

I pointed to the boxed set of BGC, the two Those Who Hunt Elves DVDs, the You're Under Arrest: The Movie DVD and the first DVD of Noir that were all recently purchased and crowding the DVD player on the entertainment unit.

"With my ever-growing anime collection, I can't afford to be animed-out, my dear," I said.

After much consideration, I've opted to eliminate the iPod from my list of MP3 players that I may eventually buy. Even though I know a couple of people who have iPods and love them, I've heard far too many horror stories about getting the internal batteries replaced and dealing with Apple customer service. Of course, I'm not in any hurry to run out and buy an MP3 player. I've barely ripped any of my CDs to MP3 format, and I'm in no hurry to start. It's far too time-consuming.

Also, I don't do a lot of moving about, so it's not like I need a portable MP3 player immediately. If I really want to listen to MP3s at home, my desktop computer has half-decent speakers and the DVD players in the house both play MP3s. And let's face it, I simply don't have the cash to blow on another electronics device right now. So life without an MP3 player will continue.

I've been watching some Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 tonight. I haven't seen this series in a couple of years, I figure. It's still one of my favourite anime series, though -- right up there with the likes of Cowboy Bebop and Record of Lodoss War. But hey, chicks in powered exoskeletons kicking the crap out of rampaging androids -- how can you go wrong with that? Some people like their mechs; I like my Knight Sabres. :)

A little earlier, I jumped onto Star Wars Galaxies for awhile just to see what's new. Not much that I noticed running around Mos Entha on Tatooine, but my character doesn't have the credits to buy a vehicle or anything. However, I did notice that the SWG team gave people hints as to how to unlock a Force-sensitive character. My hint was waiting in my in-game email inbox. Apparently I need to get myself up to the point where I'm a master smuggler before I can unlock a Jedi type character. Well, I hadn't really planned on going the smuggler route with my Rodian -- when I stopped playing, he was mostly trained as a marksman with a little bit of scout in him. If I'd progressed both marksman and scout to master level, I was going to turn him into a bounty hunter, but I didn't play enough (or long enough) to get that far. Oh well, I'm sure playing a Jedi is overrated anyway ... right?

Excellent timing, I must say. I just finished watching A.D. Police last night, and the copy of Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040: Perfect Collection (basically, the complete 26-episode series in a boxed set) that I ordered from an eBay seller arrived today via XpressPost. More boomer-killing action!

As Mr. Burns would say.... Excellent.

Today is the day LucasArts/SOE is supposed to be reactivating all those cancelled Star Wars Galaxies accounts for a 14-day trial (re-trial?). I'm going to try jumping on sometime today to check it out and see what they've done with the game.

I frankly don't have high expectations. I was already disappointed in the game once.

In late December, I picked up the two-disc DVD set of the anime A.D. Police. It's a twelve-episode series that's kind of based on the story set out in Bubblegum Crisis (pick your version of BGC). I just finished watching the last few episodes tonight, and it was an excellent anime and definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of Japanese animation.

However, it seems to be a re-imagining of Bubblegum Crisis rather than a tale set in the same universe. In this case, it takes place in Genom City (i.e. Tokyo) during 2020 and follows certain members of the boomer-fighting A.D. Police. However, certain changes in the plot and in names of characters seem to indicate that there is no continuity between A.D. Police and Bubblegum Crisis. I had expected the two to be linked, but it seems I was mistaken.

The weekend is over and I'm definitely not feeling all that rested. I haven't slept very well since Thursday night. Last night was the worst, though. I swear I woke up at least once an hour. I just have too many things on my to-do list today, and my poor brain wouldn't stop thinking about them. Oh well.

Aside from the articles I have due today, I swore to start my Vampire: The Masquerade play-by-email game today. The chronicle is set in the City of New Orleans, and I'm running it via a Yahoogroups email list. I've got a lot of work to do on the game before I go to bed tonight.

I sense another sleepless night ahead. :-/

I just felt a disturbance in the Force. It's as if hundreds of thousands of voices suddenly cried out "This game sucks!" and then were promptly ignored. Heheh. Couldn't resist that.

An email arrived from LucasArts/SOE today stating (not asking, but stating) that the Star Wars Galaxies account team would be reactivating my canceled SWG account as of Tuesday, and I would have a free 14-day trial to check out all of the new features, including player-run cities, player vehicles (about fucking time!), player mounts and new places to explore (that are probably filled with newbie-killing butterflies or something -- damn Corellian butterflies, they'll get you every time).

Anyway, I don't mind that they're trying to convince players that gave up on SWG a freebie in the hopes that they'll come back to see that the game is now complete (except for, y'know, unimportant things like being able to buy a frickin' starship -- that's what the first expansion will add), but I don't like how they're just reactivating my account without me first opting in. It just irks me. First they release the game too early with a bajillion bugs and no player vehicles (and let's not even get into the inability to play a Force wielder), then they start dicking around with my account without my permission.

Oh well. If you can't beat 'em, use 'em and leave 'em ... again. I'll see y'all in Star Wars Galaxies next week. ;)

Well, I've just about lost my lead in the Civ III: PTW game I wrote about a few weeks back. I currently have 87 points, and the Iroquois AI player has made it up to 86. Lawrence (Babylonians) and Rob (Carthaginians) are still each more than six or seven points behind me, but they're gaining quickly. And now I seem to have buggered up my civilization real well.

For some reason that I haven't quite figured out, the capital of my civilization went into civil disorder this turn. Apparently it's overcrowded, but the population only hit three this turn. Maybe Scandanavians are bigger than ordinary folk and thus they can't have high populations. ;)

Although I think I will be able to get out of civil disorder in the next few turns, that's going to seriously hurt my chances of maintaining a lead ... or regaining it once I've lost it. I think I'm screwed.

Even though I whine, bitch and rant against spam, I occasionally do see something that catches my eye. I learned of the Power Flash USB Watch via spam just a few minutes ago. This product actually sounds kind of cool. It's basically a USB-based portable storage device in a wristwatch. However, the price of US$50 is a bit high, especially considering you can get 128 MB USB-based memory sticks for not all that much more than that these days.

If they ever make a pocket watch version, though, I'm sold. ;)

I have to admit I've become quite fond of reading another blog. Up until now, the only one I ever read regularly is Wil Wheaton dot Net. However, I decided a few weeks ago to add The Daily Brad to my blog-reading diet.

Brad's entry today reminds me of when I first started getting into MP3s. I spent a lot of hours sitting at the computer ripping my own CDs...and I still only ever ripped a fraction of my entire 300-plus disc collection. Like Brad, I've been considering getting an MP3 player (I'll be damned if I know why -- I don't think I really have a use for one; I just want one), and the Apple iPod does look kind of sweet for an MP3 player. It's definitely a heck of a lot smaller than the Creative Nomad Jukebox, making for easier transportation (as if I ever leave the house).

Last year, my friend Rawl (who is one of the few people who read this blog) picked up an iMac and then an iPod. While I'll die before taking the plunge on an Apple computer, the idea of owning an iPod is starting to grow on me. ... Help me. *cry*

Although the intentions were good behind the U.S. federal government's CAN-SPAM legislation, which just recently went into effect, the simple fact is that CAN-SPAM didn't do jack to keep spam out of the inboxes of our American cousins. Although spamming mofos are now required by legislation to include legitimate information (such as a real address, contact information and a way to unsubscribe that really works), the first couple of weeks under the legislation has shown that spammers don't give a fuck what the feds say (anyone surprised?), and CAN-SPAM did nothing but cost American taxpayers money to put the bill in place.

However, in today's Penny Arcade strip, Gabe and Tycho show what the consequences might have been had the CAN-SPAM legislation really succeeded. I think we're better off with spam in our inboxes.

I tracked down my backup copy of VGA Planets last night (I had burned the files from the 3.5" floppies to a CD-R -- good thing, too, 'cause I have no idea where the floppies are). I installed the game, grabbed the updates at the Web site, downloaded the CPlayer (computer player) application, ran the setup on the game with my preferences, created a batch file to process turns and then started playing. ... Yeah, VGA Planets comes out of an era of PC games when you had to work for your enjoyment. If you didn't know your way around batch files and manual updates, you were screwed.

The puppy saga continues. Jacquie was at the pet store-slash-groomers where she takes Stupid Cat (aka Hissybitch) to get trimmed (more like sheared -- the cat ends up looking like a rat afterwards), and apparently the place is going out of business. They have several puppies that are going to be sold off cheaper and cheaper as it gets closer to the time when the place will close down. Well, on the block are a bunch of toy poodle pups.

Now, I hate poodles. They're stupid, yappy and have few traits that I admire in dogs. Sooooo....we're having a bit of a discussion about this, especially considering we agreed not to get a dog until June.

Want to see something funny? Go to Google.com, type in "miserable failure" and click on "I Feel Lucky." Look whose biography pops up.

The U.S. frightens me to no end these days. Check out What Good is the Bill of Rights? by felixrayman. Isn't this the kind of behaviour that the U.S. was trying to stop when they made war on Iraq?

After laughing my ass off at Fansy the Famous Bard, I decided I'd give the Sullon Zek deity alliance PvP server a try. Check out the Fenlok's War Journal link on the right for how things are going (so far, just starting).

This made me laugh so hard that my sides started aching. You probably have to play EverQuest to find it absitively, posilutely hilarious. Fansy the Famous Bard makes me want to get a character on Sullon Zek server just to see if he still plays.

I found out about this a couple of days ago: Fourth Annual Weblog Awards. The 2004 season has started, but I know I'm not going to be getting any votes. I suck, after all. However, check out the winners of the previous year's Bloggies in the Best Canadian Weblog category:

Grand Prize Winner: PhotoJunkie

Nominees:
Everything Falls
AKA Cooties
Riley Dog
She Speaks Good English

What do these winners have that I don't have? Y'know, besides irrelevant things like talent, good designs and something interesting to say. ... D'oh!

Whoops! Spoke (posted?) too soon. Also from The Register: Beware of strangers carrying books, warns FBI.

People are morons. 'Nuff said: Flight Sim enquiry raises terror alert. ... I don't think this even warrants a comment. It's just too damn easy.

I'm just sitting here listening to Neil Young's Harvest Moon CD and thinking about how I can waste some bandwidth tonight. I guess I'm kind of bored tonight...and feeling like not doing too much. I can't even be bothered to go upstairs and pop a DVD into the player.

Tonight, Jacquie and I went out to the mall so she could get a calendar at fifty percent off for her classroom and the Underworld DVD (an okay movie, but weren't those guys ripping off White Wolf...who in turn ripped of Anne Rice...and so on). I popped into EB and found a GBA carrying case. After hitting a bank machine, I went back to EB and got the case (fuck banks and their transaction fees!). Now I can tote my new GBA around with me and play Puzzle Fighter II whenever I feel like. Hmm...maybe during the next staff meeting...or not. ;)

Yup...one of those evenings when I have nothing to say. However, notice I do what every other useless blogger would do on a night like this and STILL waste bandwidth.

There. For kicks, I added a counter to the site. Someone had been asking me to add one for awhile. Can't remember who, though.

Thought of the Day
I'm okay. You're an idiot.

Thank you for your time.

At this point, I figure the only people who are reading this page are people who know me. And so that means my entire readership knows I'm a gamer (video games, computer games, pen-and-paper roleplaying games, war games, strategy games...if it's a game, I'm at least up to giving it a try). In this case, though, I'm talking about pen-and-paper type of roleplaying games. Keep the geek comments to yourself, thanks.

When I didn't have time to run weekly or bi-weekly (or even bi-monthly) gaming sessions at my place on a regular basis or when I wanted to play or run something that my tabletop group wasn't into, I used to run and play in play-by-email (PBeM) RPGs. However, about three years ago or so, I swore I'd never run another PBeM. At best, they'd last about a year-and-a-half (and I only had a couple of campaigns that ever did that well). At worst, they lasted about as long as it took to make characters. Those worst case scenarios died out as soon as I lost my initial enthusiasm for them.

Anyway, here I am starting up another PBeM. My current tabletop group really isn't into Vampire: The Masquerade (well, some are, but they're not into the socio-political element -- they just want run around with fangs and kill shit), so I had little choice but to turn the Internet. I recruited a few players I either knew or had gamed with over the Net before and started up a Yahoogroup to run the chronicle.

In the past, I'd always used email and run games as double-blinds for the players. Players never communicated directly with each other. They only communicated with me, I whipped up narratives of what was going on, sent customized ones out to individual players and then waited for responses. It was bloody slow. Conversations could easily take weeks. Combat was hardly fast-paced and action-filled. That micro-management is probably also what would eventually cause me to lose interest in running the games. I think the campaigns just became far too much for me to handle and I finally ran out of steam each and every time.

However, this time the double-blind and micro-management is being taken out because the players will be interacting directly with each other in that above-mentioned Yahoogroup. The chronicle will be based on White Wolf's New Orleans By Night sourcebook and should be starting in the next couple of weeks.

Just as an addendum to that last little postie thingie, it's definitely worth checking out The Best Page In The Universe (where that review is from) if you have some time. However, you will need a really sick sense of humour before pointing your browser there...otherwise you're just going to get all pissed off at Maddox, the fucked up dude who runs the site. Again, you've been warned.

Well, The Law (aka my friend Lawrence) is a meany. He's deserving of a severe ass-kicking today. Only a creep would ever send someone a review of a movie he hasn't yet seen with a great, big, nasty spoiler right up top...impossible to ignore. And if it wasn't for the fact that the movie he spoiled was The Matrix: Revolutions by pointing me to this (spoilers here be -- you've been warned), a movie that probably sucks even more than its immediate predecessor, I'd be damn ticked off. But I forgive him...this time.

Trusty Google has cached Christopher Byron's column from the New York Post. Thanks, Google.

I was informed today by my friend Tom that the New York Post is comparable to the Toronto Sun. I must've been thinking of the New York Times when I read that article from the Post. D'oh! Well, I guess that makes sense why they would run something so stupid and shameless as that pathetic column I ranted about yesterday. Hmm...interesting. As of today, the link to that story no longer works. I don't even see it in the archives. I wonder if the editors took it down.

I really hate it when mainstream media and other dumb shits out there come down on video games as the reason the world has problems. I mean, one asshole basically said playing Grand Theft Auto III was worse than molesting children. And that dick isn't some nutjob religious fanatic with a cucumber up his ass, either -- this particular nutjob works for the New York Post, which I had until now assumed was a respectable news outlet (not anymore, though -- what kind of editor allows this shit to go to print?). It's times like these I'm ashamed to be a member of the media.

Not quite as sickening but still pretty fucking stupid is what happened with the guys over at Penny Arcade during their charity drive for children. Take a look-see.

And finally, this essay is one of the most intelligent rebuttals to the absurd claims that video games and video game players are perverse freaks out to destroy all that is good in the world. Way to go, Gonzalo.

A conversation via Yahoo Messenger regarding this post and this post from Dec. 21:

Lawrence:BTW, Blog-boy, Rob isn't playing the Germans and he isn't a militaristic culture. He's playing the Carthaginians.
Chris: Heheh.
Chris: I never did check on that.
Lawrence: Remember, we set it up so we each had different cultural aspects. Me: Religious, Scientific; you: Militaristic, Expansionist; Rob: Industrious, Commercial.
Chris: Yeah, yeah, whatever. Gimme a break. I was at my parents and
working from memory. And last time, he was the Germans.
Lawrence: The funniest part of that (being in the know) is you were all like: "I think Law is playing the Babylonians, so... Rob is playing the Germans, so..."
Lawrence: No, no. No sweat. I just got a kick out of it.
Lawrence: You were unsure when you were right, and fairly certain about the thing you were wrong on.
Chris: :))
Chris: Okay, I think the Carthaginians are going to win. ;)

It's about frickin' time. It took me a week to get that Dec. 29th post up. Something slipped up on my Web hosting provider's end that made it impossible to use Blogger (apparently it had something to do with losing the ability to use the PASV FTP protocol that Blogger uses to securely transfer data to the host -- I checked, and PASV FTP is a common protocol to use, making me even more annoyed at DollarHost.com for how long it took to fix this problem). Anyway, things seem to be back up and running, so that's good. I'm definitely not happy about losing the ability to blog for a whole week, though.

Because of my blogging downtime, I didn't get a chance to wish whoever might read this a happy new year. So... Happy New Year! Happy 2004! I hope you survived your hangovers.

For New Year's Eve, Jacquie and I stopped by my friend Rawl's place to hang out and drink. It was a small party this year, with seven people (nine, if you include the cat and the Big Fish...but they remained sober). It was a good party, though. I drank Asahi beer all night, and then some champagne at midnight. Oh yeah, and a gin and tonic. Ick! I still can't drink gin. It's like licking a tree. Bleh.

I rarely make New Year's resolutions, because I know I'm unlikely to keep them. But this year, I do have one: To exercise more. Since July, I have got very little exercise, so I think I've actually put a little bit of weight on (I'm thin as a post usually, so I'm probably only now approaching my ideal weight for my height). But I want to make sure I get more exercise so that running up the stairs or running for the phone isn't cause for heavy breathing and panting.