31 July 2012

There was a spider in my dream last night. A massive fucking spider that was huge and had an exoskeleton like a crab, and it was so big and robust that when it's legs touched other surfaces they made a tapping noise. It was dangling from the ceiling in a hallway in my parent's house, its legs were knocking together and rattling like an evil wind chime. I must have been young in the dream because I yelled for my father to come kill it and I called him "Daddy."

Trophy hunting is deplorable.

http://www.themarysue.com/

26 July 2012

I'm going to be visiting my brother in Toronto, and I convinced him to take me out to a vegetarian restaurant.  Today I get this email.
I found a couple of restaurant options within walking distance.  They both sound horrible, so you should like them.
I went to renew my passport today. It was totally and utterly painless. The entire process, including waiting in the queue, took 15 minutes. It was very similar to my experience getting the passport originally. Now I have nothing to write about. Damn them and their efficient office and pleasant staff.

24 July 2012

Obviously, I’m an idiot


I was listening to the radio this morning as I was getting ready and there was a piece on a meeting in Halifax of international experts on piracy. As part of the anti-piracy meeting they were going to discuss the concern over the growing number of young people participating in piracy. Obviously, there are more young people involved in piracy. They are the ones who pick up new technologies first, and are probably more willing to flout copyright laws for the quick fix. This doesn’t strike me as very big news, or really even something to be concerned about.

22 July 2012

Grandmothers and thirteen year old boys agree: Andrew Garfield is awesome.

I didn’t write about The Amazing Spider-man yet, but of course I saw it. I have seen all the other, surprisingly recent, Spider-mans (Spider-men?). They had some good bits, certainly, but were ruined for me by the fact that I don’t like Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, or even James Franco much.  


This one I liked. It wasn’t nearly as perfect as Avengers, but I don’t think a comic book movie will ever be as perfect as Avengers in my eyes. Perhaps a Joss Whedon Avengers sequel that somehow manages to incorporate Buffy and have Angel and Spike bickering in the background while Mulder tries to convince Scully that Loki is an alien. But that wouldn’t be canon. Not that I care about such things: I’m obviously not a comic book movie purist. Anyway, geek dreams aside, it was a good movie. Again, though, the 3D was unnecessary or poorly done. It’s hard to tell which.  

Fireworks over Halifax Harbour

20 July 2012

Happy Friday!

It's Tall Ships time! That semiannual festival that always makes me think I should have sailed the world instead of going to school. It comes complete with nightly fireworks over the harbour. I can see them from my balcony. Kind of. I could see them if it weren't for all the trees.


19 July 2012

What I'm mad about today

Anyone who grew up in, or across the lake from, Ontario is very familiar with Marineland. Even if you never went there (and I, aspiring marine biologist that I was, never went there), chances are you know the commercials by heart.



My brother is taking his kids there this summer, so I was looking on the website out of curiosity to see what kind of animals they have now. I clicked though to look at their future development plans, and they're going to build the world's largest aquarium complex. One of the buildings is called Friends of the Sea, that's where the dolphins will be. The sharks though, will be in an exhibit called Terrors of the Sea. That's just great. What we need is to actively perpetuate the idea that sharks are human-hating monsters who glide unstoppably through the water killing indiscriminately. Lots of animals kill - dolphins kill humans too - why do we still hold sharks up as having such an unparalleled blood lust? Peter Benchley would not approve.

04 July 2012

High Plains Invaders: Spike vs Aliens


It makes me happy to pretend every role James Marsters does is just Spike backstory, because it's fun and makes everything he's in that much more interesting (especially this). Thus, I felt compelled to watch High Plains Invaders. I tried to pseudolive blog about it, but I kind of lost interest. Lucky readers! (Still, this is spoilery, so if you want to watch this movie without it being spoiled, you should stop reading now).

Once upon a time there was a guy in a horse drawn cart collecting rocks. He arrives home and his wife comes out of the house,

Wife: Are you hungry?
Man: First, I must take care of these rocks.

Yeah, cause those rocks sure won’t keep. The rocks seems to be fuel for some steam punk contraption. Or perhaps, they are processed by the contraption. As he “takes care of them” he hears a noise from outside. Assuming that someone is fucking with his rock pile, he takes his rifle and goes to investigate. He is promptly attacked by something that, I think, eats the skin off his face (insert au courant bath salts joke here). His wife discovers him and screams as we fade to black.

02 July 2012

Two weeks of the year, I get to trade-in my cubicle for a shucking house. I'm pretty damn lucky, and I know it.


This year, I saw this monster barnacle on a scallop.  This thing** is huge.

01 July 2012

The last time I watched the puppy cam, the puppies were sleeping non-stop. Now they seem to be always awake and playing. They're jumpy, playful little balls of fluff and ADHD.