Once again, Iain and I have managed to resolve things amicably, then eat cupcakes made by his mom. There's a pattern with these cupcakes, I swear. Anyway, for the moment, Iain will just try to pay extra attention to Simba and keep his bedroom door open more often. Simba will be going to the vet as soon as possible. Perhaps a professional can tell us something helpful that we don't yet know.

It's weird the relationship I have with this cat. One moment I'll be snarling at him under the couch, trying to reach him so I can wring his neck, the next I'll be playing with him, having him chase a spot of light reflected from a CD. I'm going to have to disagree with Orville, Jack, and Mister. Can't we just do something to his voice box?

Thanks to Scott Kurtz of PvP for drawing the desktop I'm currently using. I edited it to include the title of his post on his website: "Natural 20".

I'm really freaked out that Laura Prepon of That 70's Show is going to be starring as notorious serial-killer/accomplice/whatever-you-believe-she-is Karla Homolka in the film Karla. "Donna... no... NOOOO!!!"

Leave it up to McFarlane Toys, the producers of the Spawn figurines, to make a line of Napoleon Dynamite figurines. No, the figurines do not have large talons.

Fugue in A Minor is now online. Hear it.

Posted at 12:00 AM

I'm at my wits end here.

For those of you who don't know, my roommate Iain has a cat. A LOUD cat. When I say loud, I don't mean loud like a persistent kitten. I mean a loud, caterwauling, deep-voiced little bastard who decides that he's lonely at late hours of the night and starts making persistent noise until someone either pays attention to him or sprays him under the kitchen sink.

Right know I'm irefully envious of all you people who somehow have the ability to fall asleep at a whim. It takes me at least half an hour to fall asleep. Same rules apply if I get out of bed for any reason. So needless to say this little feline has been affecting my sleep pretty severely. I've been late for work several times now because I've slept in. Today at work I dozed off while reading a manual for some software I'm supposed to be configuring. How the hell can I drift off in the middle of the day and not sleep in my own bed? I should just set up a workstation here at home over my bed and read the Filemaker Pro manual to get to sleep.

So now my bosses are pissed off at me for my poor performance. And my roommate refuses to do anything about the cat. He won't keep the cat in his room because it knocks stuff over and keeps him awake, nor will he send the cat back to live with his parents. Apparently, there's no solution and I'm supposed to just "suck it up". The cat doesn't bother him, so there's no reason it should bother me.

I get up for work weekdays at 7:20 AM. I went to bed at 10PM tonight so I could be well-rested for tomorrow. At the suggestion of one of my friends, I put towels under my door in the hopes that it would dampen the noise. After tossing for an hour I finally started to doze off, and what happens? "MEOW! MEOW! MEOW!" Iain has gone out for the night, so after 10 minutes of constant noise I screamed and went after the fuzzy little bastard. He wisely hid behind Iain's computer desk, because I think he could sense that I was ready to kill him.

So here I am: up, angry and fully awake at 11:15PM at night, typing a newspost on my blog because there's nothing else to be done.

Posted at 12:00 AM

Watched Eternal Sunshine again with Iain and his friend Eva last night. So good. It's one of those films you need to watch every one and a while to remind yourself certain things (mainly painful ones) happen for a reason.

World of Warcraft is still sucking away my life. No doubt it will suck away my money too when it comes time to renew the subscription.

Friends of Chris and Denai should keep their eyes on the Gallery section. I've been uploading pictures from their wedding bit by bit. I managed to get a hold of the photo CDs from both the bride's and groom's families, which amounts to over 300 photos. Don't expect me to put that many up, though.

Let's hear it for weekends. It had damn-well better be sunny...

Posted at 12:00 AM

It's finally happened. I've succumbed. I bought World of Warcraft. Since Sunday, it's managed to suck away the majority of my free time. Hours of potentially productive activity, gone. The rest of the day has simply become a grating annoyance that must be endured before I can come home to my sweet, sweet WarCrack.

Meet Mekka: my level 11 Gnomish Rogue. Gnomes are renowned for their technical ability, and receive a racial bonus to engineering. Engineering and mining are my two chosen professions. I've situated myself on a server where Chris W. and Alex play, so they've been able to help my character out now and then.

Abandon all hope! Jesse is lost to you!

Posted at 12:00 AM

A really big news story went by mostly unnoticed a few weeks ago. It's an important world news item, and an item which may affect you, one day. It's filled with political intrigue; it's world history in the making. Unfortunately, it's also a technical issue, and slipped by a lot of people's radar because they didn't understand it. But people should understand it, and I aim to help. So I ask the question: Who Owns the Internet? The answer may not be as simple as you think.

This rant will be branded with my new "Left Turn Only" logo. Meaning that some people may consider it to have a left-leaning political slant. It's up to them if they want to digest that or spit it out. The douche-bags have been duly warned.

Posted at 12:00 AM

Do you know about the Wikipedia? Chances are if you're internet savvy, the answer will be a "Well, DUH!" But I'm not sure all my friends are aware of it's uses.

A wiki is an online article which is edited and contributed to multiple users. The Wikipedia takes this concept and expands it astronomically, by creating an online encyclopedia about... well... EVERYTHING. It's updated by users all over the world, and chances are that if information is incorrect or incomplete, there'll be a dozen Wikipedia contributors jumping all over it within five minutes to fix it. It's based on the open-source model: everyone contributes for free, everyone benefits for free.

So if you want to find out about the history of every Batman villain, or find out where the expression "Red Letter Day" comes from, or read about the life cycle of the Starfish, or look up the Beatles Discography, you need look no further than the Wikipedia: the internet's Fountain of Knowledge.

Posted at 12:00 AM

Every other year, I actually spend some cash to produce an impressive Halloween costume. It's funny how Halloween has easily become one of my favorite holidays: it offers a chance to show off my creativity and to play dress-up without feeling like some weird-ass goth-club regular.

This is one of the years that I would produce an original costume, and a while back I decided that I wanted to be the Joker. Now Iain has decided to be the Riddler. From there, it just snowballed. Persons whose names shall not be revealed for the moment have called dibs on Catwoman and Poison Ivy. So we have an official theme to this year's Halloween party (time and place to be announced): Batman Villains. Some friends have tossed around other names, but haven't picked them officially yet. If you want to be a Batman Villain for the party, send an e-mail to myself or Iain, and we will reserve your selection. Remember to keep your identity a secret from other partygoers!

In the meantime, if you want some inspiration, check out the awesome costumers club of Gotham Public Works. These guys are real pros. The woman who plays Harley Quinn had Iain and I gasping for air. So if anyone wants to be my sidekick, feel free to let me know!

Posted at 12:00 AM

For the most part, Chris and Denai's wedding went off without a hitch... well, except for the hitch that was supposed to happen of course.

For those of you who don't know, Chris and Denai chose to have an outdoor ceremony. The day started out looking just beautiful. We set everything up in record time, then marveled at ourselves for being so efficient. A few of us went out to the store to get cards/snacks, and we watched as the sky opened up. So we rushed back to the scene of the wedding and spent the better part of an hour turning chairs over so that they wouldn't catch water, and putting up a huge tarp over the whole scene.

As the guests started arriving it was pouring rain. So we ushers tried to keep the guests smiling while inwardly grimacing at the rainfall. The wedding was scheduled to start at 2PM. Nevertheless, by 2:15 the rain had stopped, and the sun was shining madly. So the ushers along with some other helpful folks quickly turned the chairs over and toweled them off. We tried to seat the guests quickly (even though a few relatives showed up unfashionably late). And the ceremony began...

The wedding party filed in, and Denai was led down the aisle by her stepfather. We walked to my GarageBand arrangement of the victory march from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The selection was my idea, but Denai endorsed in wholeheartedly, because she loves The Legend of Zelda.

After the ceremony, there was some mingling, then we all headed off to the reception. The music was a bit cheesy at points, but otherwise a lot of fun was had. Rather than hitting glasses, we were encouraged to tell an embarrassing story or love poem in order to get the wedded couple to kiss. So I sang the first verse of "Your Song" by Elton John. Nobody followed my lead. Cowards.

Oh, and one more thing: I CAUGHT THE GARTER!!! WOOOO!!! Chris Waddell tackled me and I had to fight him off, but in the end I prevailed by strength of will.

So, all the best to Chris and Denai, now Mr. & Mrs. Dixon. It was a beautiful wedding, and I hope, the start of a beautiful marriage. You guys totally deserve it!   :-)

Posted at 12:00 AM

ICBC got back to me about how much I'll be reimbursed for my vehicle. Actually, I'm fairly happy with the way that got settled: although I did buy the car from my mother (who was fairly generous with the pricing), it's worth mentioning that I'm getting more than I originally paid for it. So yeah, that's nice. Nevertheless, I think I'll pinch my pennies and wait until the end of the summer. That way I can get something a little nicer, hopefully.

So, I guess it's all's well that ends well. Not that it will be truly over for a few more months (or a few years if you count my forthcoming rate hike). My worst dreads have been put to rest.

We had the rehearsal for Chris and Denai's wedding last night. I had so much fun. Something about weddings gets me all full of twitterpated energy the kind of which makes Iain want to vomit on me. Chris and Denai ridiculously stressed out too, but somehow their wedding is giving me a lot of stress relief. I look forward to it.

Oh and by the way. YOU, and YOU: you're next. Yeah... you know who you are...

Posted at 12:00 AM

Everything sucks. I've just come to terms with it. That doesn't mean I don't still get to hate everything.

Chris and Denai's wedding is sneaking up on me. I'm an usher, so I'll have to find some way of getting my carless self down to Maple Ridge in time for the rehearsal tomorrow night, and then back to PoCo for the night, where I'll stay at my parent's, then off to work the next morning. Fun times. No matter, it's my first time in a wedding party, and I'm honored to be there. Thank you, Chris D.

Meanwhile, the wedding music I arranged for them is ready and waiting. I hope those of you in attendance will like it. I'll post it on the site for your review once it's been unveiled.

Posted at 12:00 AM

It's amazing what 24 hours can do to you...

For example, less than 24 hours ago I was partying it up at Chris D's bachelor party. Such fun we had. Juvenile madcap hijinks were abound. Oh, what tales to tell...

Then this morning I got the call. The one from Boyd Autobody informing me that ICBC, in their infinite wisdom, has written off my car. That means they think that the value of the car does not exceed the costs of repairing it. So basically they'll sell it for parts and I'll receive a paltry sum.

I returned Boyd's courtesy car and shuffled around Vancouver with a bag full of the meager belongings once associated with my vehicle: jumper cables, some tools, some documents, and my plates. I took the bus home.

So there we have it. I've been utterly humbled: no car, no vacations, no mobility. Fuck you, ICBC. Fuck you, every stupid jackass who drives like an idiot and somehow manages to get away with it. Fuck the system, fuck society, fuck humanity. And fuck me, because it's all my fucking fault.

Posted at 12:00 AM

I got the counter program working, as you may have noticed by looking at the bottom of the page. When it started crapping up on the old server, it was around 7,000. Given the many months of great traffic I've had, I've decided to set it modestly at 10,000. Seems fair.

Posted at 12:00 AM

Parents do weird things out of love. Like, freaky-weird. Even more strange, they never seem to reference the weird things that they do with their kids by the weird things their own parents did with them. It's hard to blame parents, though: they're only trying to do what's best for their offspring. It's a primal, unreasonable urge masquerading in the guise of reason; a relationship that often fails to produce arguments convincing to the offspring.

The feelings can be pretty extreme. Some people I know have extremely protectionist parents. I've already had similar feelings for certain people. I can't imagine what the real thing is like. I suppose I'll find out.

That's why I wrote this poem: Preserves. It's by no means my best work, but I did put it on my creative writing portfolio. Once again, this is dedicated to the "you" person. They know who they are.

Posted at 12:00 AM

Happy Canada Day!

I'm back from Victoria, where I had a decent chance to unwind in a beautiful city. I also got the following picture. There's a rainbow flag flying across the street from the BC Provincial Legislature. It's there because late Tuesday night the Canadian Parliament passed Bill C-38, legalizing gay marriage. We're now a member of a fairly exclusive club including Belgium, the Netherlands, and (as of yesterday) Spain.

Critics continually argue that allowing gay people to get married is the beginning of the end for the institution of marriage. Far from it: we live in a social climate where young people have become increasingly cynical about the concept of marriage in general. We come from a generation where many of our parents' marriages have ended in divorce. I know at least a few people who say that while they might have long-term relationships, or even kids, they have no plans for getting married.

The fact that monogamous gay couples have fought so hard to have their relationship recognized as marriage does not invalidate the concept of marriage, but rather legitimizes it. I hope that loving couples will continue to get married well into the future.

More pics from Victoria coming soon.

Posted at 12:00 AM