I saw an advertisment, running during the closing ceremonies on CBC, for a beer that I think was called "Steel Head Red". This ad is one of the most caustic assaults on artistry, intelligence, and any dignity that we as Canadians may retain. This monstrosity featured some sort of Canadian "entertainer", presumably known to some, likely the feeble- minded and terminally loathsome, obviously constipated, and, as evidenced by the bulging veins in his neck, straining with a pathetic, pedestrian, and largely imagined emotion. The ogre in question was marshalling an assault in our national anthem which actually, without exaggeration, caused me to recoil in disgust. Compared to this, that atrocious pre-Moxy Fruvous one was the music of the Spheres itself. Interspersed with these scenes of horror, and badly interspersed due to the sub-moronic efforts of a clearly inept editing staff, were X-TREME!!!11! close-ups of the beer in question being poured. The whole ghastly affair was concluded by the guy who does the voice-overs for FOX's "When Minorities Attack" declaiming... "Steel Head Red; Proud supporter of the Argonauts and EVERYTHING CANADA STANDS FOR." There is nothing that needs to be said about that. Readers of this log are intelligent enough to discern for themselves the motives behind that claim, and the implications of it. That advertisement has not only guaranteed that I will never consume that swill, but has also guaranteed my enduring hatred for everything involved with it. Holy crap.

Tropical storm Francis is brewing, and Hurricane Gaston is on the way. This is the lamest storm season ever.

My computer is slowly falling apart. I don't know what the problem is, but I have now confirmed that it is not the unremovable virus. It turns out that the file it's "finding" doesn't exist at all, and Norton probably needs to be wiped and uninstalled. Meanwhile, there are other problems.

What can I say? I'm lazy. That and the Mbari Hogun thing has really hung me up for a while.

Anyways, Heapkings has recieved it long overdue update. The flatting process has been over hauled, posing new problems, and resolving old ones. I think this way looks better though.

[Edit: My grammar is exceptionally poor in this one, I know. I'm also missing pronouns. Whatever.]

Whew. That's a long drive. Anyways, had a really good time in Quebec. There was the fun of revisiting places we went in grade 7, and of finding out where my memories diverged from reality. In general, I remembered quite well, but the locations of certain things were badly skewed. Additionally, had a good night out with a group of people staying on the seventh floor of our hotel. That was cool, but I've no clue how some of these people knew eachother. This one guy didn't speak either French or English fluently, and his name was Orving or something weird like that. Anyways, good times. Had to get the museum aspect into the trip too, if only to fulfill rather hamfisted estimates, and therefore, went to the "Museum of Civilization", which is a misnomer. Unlike it's Ottawa counterpart, this is actually a museum of the Humanities, or of Sociology, displaying predominately temporary, multimedia exhibits, often culled from commissions on the subject. Ranging from innocuous museum material such as Gaul v. Rome and Memory, to the pretensious and ineffable Sand and Blue, I found it to be very original and interesting, and would certainly appreciate one here, where I can read more of the signs.

Speaking of that, I think my French has improved somewhat, at least in reading. There was little call to converse in French, and therefore, I remain as functionally illiterate as ever.

So, off to Quebec tomorrow, until Friday. I will leave you with a song.

      Ash Hash. The song VSmack was talking about that Moxy Fruvous did on Just for Hacks. They didn't write it, but comandeered it, vessel like, from Bob Snider. I'm going from memory here, so gimme a break if I'm not exact.

If all this ash used to be hash, what the heck time is it now?
Last thing I remember I was looking at my stash just before the late late show,
then we threw a couple movies in the VCR, and I remember driving buddy home in my car,
well, we got no gas so we couldn't have gone far.
What the heck time is it now.

*Howling, crazy noises*

First thing in the morning, I'm giving myself a break.
You've got to get an early warning when your fingernails and eyelids ache.
Well, it might be closer to the afternoon, but the big point is I'm going to do it soon,
there ain't nothing underneath this moon will ever make me toke another take.

But what's that on the table? Why it looks like a little chunk.
I bet old Petey dropped that there, he always was a drunk.
Well, it looks so good just sitting there that I believe what I need is a bite of the hair.
The doggone stuff is like a breath of fresh air, I think I'm going to sell the farm.
I think I'm going to sell the farm.

And on the way out, here's that questionaire. Go ahead an comment; I'll read 'em when I get back. OUT.

1. Who are you?
2. Are we friends?
3. When and how did we meet?
4. Do you have a crush on me?
5. Would you kiss me?
6. Describe me in one word.
7. What was your first impression?
8. Do you still think that way about me now?
9. What is the best thing I've ever done for you?
10. The worst?
11. If you could give me anything what would it be?
12. How well do you know me?
13. When's the last time you saw me?
14. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
15. Are you going to put this on your blog and see what I say about you?

Okay, so I didn't update promptly. Sorry. Good time at wndrlnd and Alan's house. What the hizzle happened to Victor C.? If you're alive, tell me what happened? Where were you?

Sometimes I think the world can't be real. I was just doing some coding, and I noticed that one referrence wasn't working, so I checked the file name, and there was an "r" in there where there shouldn't be. I change the reference tag and it worked. Somehow, that really struck me.

Additionally, I was doing it on a computer which blows my mind in normal circumstances. Think about it.

Huh. I found a Calvin and Hobbes strip wherein Calvin demands reform in the funny pages. The content is quite different, but that is quite a coincidence.

Here it is, with a freshly misappropriated one besides: (Wait a day or so for the pics to clear remote linking.)

I returned the stylus today. It worked excellently, but it just didn't help with line art, so I decided to save $90.

It appears that those lines are from a film called "Freaks", and from what I've seen, it looks like a good one. I think I may have to rent it, if possible. Apparently the DVD is coming out next year.

Also, it looks like I'm going to be going to Quebec anyways, though the itinerary is undecided. My folks thought it would be a good place for a short vacation (we haven't had one in years), so that is the destination for 4 days. Should be good, but of course, not nearly as it could have been.

In any event, Wonderland is still happening, as you know. I haven't been able to get a hold of Ash, Lulu or Pyle though. If you happen to read this and feel like trying them for me, I'd appreciate it.

COMMENTS:
Sorry, Katy. I didn't know you were moving when it was scheduled. You will be in our hearts and minds. *aww*.

Additionally, although I returned the stylus, I guess I'll post a little about my line art.
It was some model of Epson stylus, 1024 pressure settings, and some crappy crappy software bundled with it. All in all, a fairly good one, although I don't know the model number. The way I'm doing line art now is in black pen, overlaid with felt-tip, to get that thick, dark line you need. After scanning, I run it through Adobe Streamline to smooth it out. So, the lines are pretty sweet now. The problem is that when it rasterizes in Streamline, certain sections, especially curves, don't convert properly, and I end up with messy breaks I have to patch in Photoshop. And yeah, the shrinking thing works very nicely, but when I'm doing series for GIFs or something, my drawings are too small for that too work. Any suggestions?

Panel 1: I'm fed up with newspaper comics. They're stale, unimaginative and unfunny.

Panel 2: Incessant character based gags drag them down to mere observations based on presupposed familiarity with the comic. I demand growth! I demand realistic and thoughtful dialogue!

Panel 3: If comics aren't going to be enlivening or enriching, what's the point? Why do they bother printing what they surely must recognize to be trash?

POTENTIAL panel 4: What ever happened to Dick Tracy?