Long Blog is Long:

An Apology to those with short attention spans.

Hello!

Well, I haven't been updating all that often, fear not, I am not dead. I did get sick though, and that kinda sucked. More than the coughing, the really bad part was that I didn't feel like doing anything, not cleaning, not bloggin, nothing. So now I will attempt to recap a few major events of recent.

Firstly, to pick up where the last post left off, the cave experience was awesome. We went out to the "long tunnel", aka Mines of Moria (we being Me, Rob, Alex, Kyla, and Jon). It was really fun, and there were no goblin attacks. We did end up making it through the entire tunnel, though there was an old cave-in half way through, and the second half was more flooded (only the old ww2 railroad rails were above water. they were also very close together, and I got along most of the second half by moving in a very tight fencing position ^_^ ). I did get a soaker, but it was okay, since the whole thing was fun. Jon tried to get pics, but they apparently didn't turn out, so we are already planning to go again, and bring a tripod, and boots/water shoes. We kept on going to rupert to get dry clothes and coffee and a few other random things, and then came home.

Then I got sick. Not related to the tunnels, as I was actually getting a little bit of a cough beforehand, but I really wanted to go. so I had a sore throat for the last week, with varying amounts of laziness/tiredness. I still went to work though, so that was good.

At work unfortunately, I encountered a Keno Zombie. these are people who are so concentrated on Keno that they do not react to the outside world anymore. One woman came in to play keno, and ended up standing right where I needed to put down a mat. so I asked her to move.... for 8 minutes straight. 8 minutes of "mam? mam, can you please move, excuse me, mam? excuse me, mam? hello? can you please move for a moment?", but she never acknowledged me. so eventually, i just put the mat down kinda draped around her legs, but she still didn't notice, she just stared at the keno board.

on to other stuff, namely that I am in the market for a new sidekick, as my former sidekick is going solo, off in a new city. It is kinda like with Batman & Robin, where robin eventually struck out on his own, becoming Night Wing. Jay is becoming Night Jay, as opposed to just "Jay" (which is a kind of bird). I send luck and best wishes to Jay in his crime fighting in his new city.

Other than all that I have been cleaning a bunch on my days off, to make up for the whole "not cleaning thing", and now my room is all sparkly again. :3

One thing that happened at work recently annoyed me. I'll keep it brief, but essentially a woman from the Friendship house wanted us to not sell energy drinks to native kids, because she was concerned about the health problems. Really concerned, she equated it to being worse than smoking and heroin, and fell just short of accusing me of being some sort of devil-worshipping drug pusher. Although she was nuttier than a granola bar, it did raise an ethical dilemma in me as far as the balance between "regulation for possible safety concerns" and "Personal freedom and personal responsibility" are concerned. I tend to think that we have gone far overboard on the "for your own good" thing. I worry that we have downplayed the idea of personal choices, freedoms, and responsibilities, maybe even to the point that people don't even understand it anymore.

Take smoking: everybody and their infant knows that smoking is bad for your health, but to some that means that it should be made illegal. The idea of someone having the opinion of "yes, i know it is bad for me, but I choose to do it anyways" is foreign and strange. Imagine if we continued down this slippery slope (admittedly, I think we are already half way down the slope already): you cannot be a police officer, its too dangerous. You cannot join the military, it may be bad for your health. Not allowed to go skiing, you may hurt yourself. Sugar causes diabetes and cavities, we should make it a controlled substance.

"You Betrayed the LAaauuueeeaaaaooaaw"
"The Laaaaeeeeuuuuuueeeaaaaww?"
(judge Dredd reference anyone? sugar is a controlled substance? because its bad for you? no personal freedoms, only the law and the unmerciful judiciary system? anyone?)


So right now, as a creative outlet, I'm trying to work on some stuff for Cold Metal, though I may rename it. Its the post-Apocalypse rpg world where humans actually were annihilated, and the only sentient life now is little religious 6cm tall robots. Mostly I have just been trying to come up with good names that have a Christian/Jewish/Muslim/computer-stuff sound to them.


Anyways, that's my journal/rant/bloggins for today, everyone should have a good day today.
- Andrew XLR

Silly world

Well, I rented the movie "Animal Farm" from the library, as well as the books "lone wolf and cub", and I like the books. However, upon trying to play the movie, I found it was actually too scratched to watch, so I ended up just watching it on youtube.

There is good reason to not rent movies these days, DVD's tend to get very beaten up.

That is all for now, Sunday promises to be grand, as I will be leading an expedition into the mines of moria. Hooray!

- Andrew the Barbarian

Epic Post

Oh hello, I didn't see you sitting there.

Well, I feel much better now, I have returned to creative meanderings, including drawing small chibi (yet pretty cool looking) transformers. I am gradually getting back into other stuff too. Not much else to report I suppose, my mind is jumbled, but its clearing itself back out now.

Woot

- Andrew

Now For the Interactive Portion of the blog!: You the viewer.... suggest something for me to draw, either microhero-ish or otherwise. Do It Now!

Root canal

Hello

Well, its been some not so great days. Sunday I felt sick and bad, and did not go to work, but I was able to call in several hours beforehand and get someone to cover my shift. This morning I got a root canal, that took 4 hours to finish. Thankfully the dentist guy was much better this time, and it went by painlessly (if a little bothersome to lay there for 4 hours with my mouth wrenched open).

Today I was struck by an odd sensation. For the first time in... as long as I can remember, so Ill say at least half a year, I did not feel creative. I just didn't feel like doing anything, like drawing, like writing stories, or like making rpg stuff. I just sat around after my dentist appointment, not remembering what else there is to do. I ended up hanging out in Alex room with him while he played warcraft, and having some gin and tonic. I honestly can't remember what else I used to do when I wasn't being creative.

Thats it for now
- Andrew

Oh, Herro

Ohai

Just got back from work, and things are going well.

I have been watching the old transformers cartoon show, and "Oh Mys". The writers must have been on something. Perhaps they were on several things. I like the show overall, but they have some major plot holes, and continuity error (the biggest and funniest being that sometimes all the robots can mysteriously fly, and other times they are limited to the ground. all depending on what the plot requires).

Yep.

So here is my question to those reading this blog, Did you watch the transformers? and if so, Did you have a favourite transformer. Moreso, I invite you to suggest to me a good transformer (basically some sort of vehicle and a rank/role/concept). Yep.

Free Loves for All! (in the form of Internet hugs)

- Andrew of Castle Workenstein

Eggs & Bacon

Hello

Nothing is really happening today, just thought I would say hello to those who read this. I am somewhat bored right now, but I shouldn't be, since I have things I should do today. Its my day off, so I get to do some cleaning, some dishes, some laundry, and dangit, I intend to do some writing.

Been watching a lot of the videos from Nostalgia Critic and company recently. They are quite funny. All of the "that guy with the glasses", "the dudette", "spoony", and some of "linkara" are pretty good (though linkara - being a reviewer of comic books - seems to not like Garth Ennis or "the boys" - odd).

So I am writing a short story about giant monsters, known as Kid Kaiju. The specific story I am writing is entitled "Kingzilla vs. Mechakingzilla". It is a comedic parody, and damnables, I wanna keep working on it.

That's all for now - *Internet High Five*

- Andrew the Oates

Multi-Culture

So I was reading my morning news sites, and I stumbled across an article on the CTV website that said some eastern Canadians were up in arms about the lack of bilingualism in the Olympics. One Quebecois politician apparently remarked that VANOC is treating the Quebecois culture as a "subculture". Which it is.

Now what they don't seem to understand, is well, many things. firstly, calling a limited regional culture a Subculture, and using the prefix "sub" is not calling it inferior (cue the wonderful remark "there isn't anything inferior about submarines."). Being that Canadian culture is literally an amalgamation of subcultures. I don't know if there is any major over-arching Canadian culture (which admittedly, is a bad thing), meaning that all the subcultures in fact combine to form our Multi-Culture.

Secondly, I take serious issue with the Quebecois advocated trying to make their culture literally more important than all the other ones in Canada. No culture is more superior than any other, since cultures aren't rated on a scale, nor can they be qualified as a few bad or good things. The age-old rationale for Quebecois culture being more important is that they were instrumental in founding Canada. So was Britain, the too-numerous-to-even-write-down native cultures (many of which in Quebec, are still not allowed to carry out their native traditions, I might add), Chinese immigrants, Japanese immigrants (there are Japanese villages on the coast that existed since 1800's, until WW2 when they were relocated to inland camps). Canada was made up of hundreds if not thousands of cultures, which when mixed together, amalgamate into one large thing we call our Multi-Culture.

Thirdly, and possibly fourthly, its Fricken Vancouver. Why would half the games be in Quebecois and half in English if its held in Vancouver. Around 8% of people in Vancouver can speak any french, let alone fluently. Now I can understand that the Olympics is supposed to represent Canada, but in the past when it has been held on the eastern side of this country, the Quebecois content has understandably been much more. Considering its being held in Vancouver (and seemingly paid for by only British Columbia, and for the next 20 years to come), maybe it should show the subcultures relevant to Vancouver and British Columbia, such as Coastal Natives (and there is a lot of them), Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian (from India), as well as numerous others - even white people (which are actually many subcultures, like Scots, English, Germans, Ukrainians, Italians, French, Scandinavians, and many more, but we all get clumped into "white", since our culture isn't important :P ). If Vancouver wanted to be Bilingual, maybe they should have been in English and Cantonese.

So why is it primarily in English (to the ear-burning anger of all Quebecois)? Well, because English has taken on a role as a somewhat universal language, indeed, itself being an amalgamation of hundreds of other languages, starting as a means for Roman soldiers to solicit Anglo-Saxon women. Thus, most people in Canada, nearly all of them, will understand English. Speaking Quebecois in the Olympics makes about as much sense as having major speeches spoken in traditional Gitxsan. many people would have no clue whats being said.

Now don't get me wrong, I generally don't support that massive over-spending and stereotyping incurred by the Olympics, but in the situation pertaining to not having enough Quebecois content, I can't blame them. As a British Columbian, the concept of "wait a minute, does this adequately represent the culture of a regional people who live 3500 km away?" just does not come to mind.

Well, that was a heck of a rant, I didn't mean to write all that, but oh well.

- Andrew the Scottish, English, North Thompson Indian, Gitxsan, Nisga'a, Viking, and Canadian