[ Click for a set of well organized bad ideas ]

Got the final word from school today.

I've won the academic achievement award. To qualify there couldn't be any unauthourized absences in my first year record and the first year cumulative GPA had to be at least 3.75 (4 was the highest). I received the letter yesterday and my eyes just about bugged out of my skull.

This helps make up for a crappy experience I had earlier yesterday - no reason to get excited but it deserves a follow-up at a later time... it's just too ironic for me to articulate at this moment :P But that's another story.

Yeah, money, F### YEAH!

( click for larger bong bong bong )

(Edited to replace failbucket)

http://gov.ca.gov/pdf/press/2009bills/AB1176_Ammiano_Veto_Message.pdf

This is a response by California Governor Ahnold as posted on the government website.

( The naughty acrostic bits are here. )

Scientology convicted of organized fraud in France

» Fined for fraudulent practices but not banned due to new law quietly passed that doesn't outlaw $cientology (poop).

Canadian filmmaker Paul Haggis denounces Scientology over same-sex marriage

» He's taking a stand stemming from $cientology's stance in support of California Proposition 8 and the org's "disconnection" from family and leadership tactics.

... other news:

» I might have time to go to club Friday night and provide some silly, but the rest of the weekend is out... assignments up the yinyang but it's what I gotta do.

» Somebody put in a bid on this for me, ok?

» My old geocities site (where I practiced before getting a domain) is gone, and I didn't even realize it.
 
» http://amusedbypolicescanners.wordpress.com/ v. http://www.cykf.net/Liveatc/Index.html  ... you should be a able to tell which one has the pro's and which one has the wtf's ;)

» Reach out and spear someone! (KIDDING! slightly dangerous)

... ok back to work.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=110-439&vReviewShow=1&vReviewRand=2818820

edit - darn, the comments got turfed ... they were even wackier than the wolf shirt page.

( click yip yip for larger yip size yip yip )

Oh the fun I'll make with this - might even venture over to the club that night if I have time (who am I kidding, I'll want to make people laugh :P)

(Yip Yip click uh huh yip yip yip for larger size yip)

I needed to take a break from crap and books and spent an hour or two whipping this together, need some pipe-cleaners and some googly eyes to complete this before taking it to school Friday (just need a volunteer to use the video camera for some of the antics I have planned).

Everything is pretty much 50% off at the local House of Knives.  What caught my attention to this was passing by at the maul (spelled like that on purpose) and noticing their usually well kept (crappy) sword display was virtually empty with 50% of notices.  I walked in to discover that name brand items such as Gerber, HK, and Leatherman articles also had their prices slashed and asked what the deal was and the employee said that 'we're clearing out items before we get new stock'.

I'm not convinced at all about that explanation - and neither was the employee.  No company would let their shop look so choppy with gaps in their displays without other items of a higher price after the feeling of 'hey I found a bargain so why not' settles in and isn't capitalized on.

So, if anyone checks out the other HoK location at Eaton Centre (I think it's still there) and sees something up - lemme know.  

tl;dr version: I predict that House of Knives will be closed pretty soon, sorry for the employees out of work but I didn't shop there much if at all because I didn't see much that caught my interest.

After my second encounter this weekend with energy marketers I felt it would be wise to share my findings.  I've had run-ins with what appears to be a new company going door to door trying to sucker get people to sign contracts for gas/hydro.

This new company is called "Just Energy", the same company that changed its name recently from Universal Energy - a company that was exposed by CBC News: Marketplace, "Power of Persuasion" earlier this year.

I want to warn folks that it looks like it's the same thing again and if someone comes to your door, please arm yourself or those they prey upon with information.  Don't show them your bill no matter what they say or who they claim to represent.  Previous incarnations of this trade such as Ontario Energy Savings, Direct Energy, etc. been caught before and from my experience the names of the company(s) change but their methods do not.

Caveat: sometimes their services may be worth it, but the tactics observed used by "Energy Marketers" going door to door are downright scammy.

I posted the original video for my USCM friends to download and edit and a colleague went ahead and just uploaded the file in two parts.

This is video from the heavier Pulse Rifle with the metal mini tripod tied on. After the misalignment issue with the camera mounted too high on the hat during the last sweep I was determined to get a better result this time. Note that in the second part I get the camera to switch into "First Person Shooter" mode with the barrel and shroud visible in the frame.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xEAUOZI1og part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gla9yfCqTCY part 2
(both have HQ/HD option)

I have about six hours of video yet to look through but so far it looks great, the new "RifleCam" mount using adhesive Velcro™ worked amazingly well (especially considering I came up with the idea in the hotel room)!  From what I can recall a number of people I met that weekend wanted to know how I did it so I think an instructional guide should be in the works... don't want to get too ahead of myself even though I got all my schoolwork for the weekend done already :P

» Survived the Medieval Faire, our parts as pirates went over very well - to the point were cheered more than the good guys :O.  The sword fight went off very well and a special thanks on that goes out to my partner who gave me a quick reminder for one strike out of the whole sequence.   The biggest response was not for anything rehearsed but rather my 'unconscious' body removal from the tourney ring which involved an improvised dragging me away by the feet by two other pirates. :P

... much fun, apparently there's a video of some stuff we did where I did some really cool improv but I'll be damned if I remember what it is I did until I see it... I hope :P

» Despite copious amounts of sunblock used, my face and in particular my ears are burnt.  There was a distinct line from where my bandana was placed showing the before and after - it was all for a good cause so hey what the heck.

» Will finally get started on photos and video from DragonCon, anyone interested in the raw riflecam video from the Parade and the Colony Sweep can email me for them.  If all goes well I can get them compiled and up on youtube faster than last time.

» I have an interesting email assignment due Tuesday that I haven't started yet.  Essentially I have to type a proper memo to a professional organization or government representative but I am not procrastinating per se but rather trying to have a go on a topic that really catches my attention.  Maybe the debacle over the Security and Private Investigator licensing requirement in Ontario in how basically anyone with a pulse and $80 can get a license for either, or plop down double the cash for both without any proper government regulated training and certification in place yet... or worse companies screwing hopeful applicants over with outright lies and terrible training.

» Hey!  Did you hear that?!

» I think I'll have a moratorium on having a personal life until December - time to rock and roll!  Oh who am I kidding, I'll probably get dragged (kicking and screaming of course :P) with the crew to Club Abstract again for Hallowe'en.

» Site is due for renewal and I was tempted to downgrade to retain a few pages and the domain control until I figured out how to overcome the Vista FTP upload glitch.  Two more years, here we go.  Bonus, easy additional hosting to re-up videos that were on failtube since 2006 until evil record company unfairly had them silenced in the last few months.

» Saturday was Talk like a pirate day.  Today was Talk like a ninja day.

... that's all I can coherently put together tonight, fun after party was had, too much food eaten but it ok, help me hibernate for 10 hours :P  Sleep now good.

Awesome rehearsal video from Dragon Con's Thriller record attempt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4aE__sxMmQ

The ALIEN's name is Abe and he came in from the U.K. and yes he is the best performer in the video. ;)

Patrick Swayze is dead.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2009/09/14/patrick-swayze-dies.html

[ click for larger sized photo ]

Just a quick note to let folks know I made it home well enough.  Photo above courtesy of one of a number of folks who snagged a photo of my costumes throughout the con, I have about 8 hours of video and about 400 photos to go through, including footage of the parade march and the colony sweep.  The camera mount on the pulse rifle and Vera v.2 worked amazingly well and hope to share some of the great video captured asap.

I'll get to all that as soon as I can but the next week and a half is going to be schedule-intense :O

Reviews and thanks and all that good stuff to come soon.

Today's interesting site:

http://peopleofwalmart.com/