Posted On Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 By Zen Render
Guy I used to work with suddenly started talking to me after about a year and a half of nothing. Looks like he got hit by what we at EA used to call an “MSN IQ Test.” Gotta give them credit for incorporating that INTO the bot itself. Remember kids, just ’cause someone you know sends you a link, doesn’t make it safe. ViralBot 1:29 PM hello! Zen Render 1:41 PM Hey man, how goes? ViralBot 1:42 PM i just took an iq quiz Zen Render 1:42 PM Okay… The one for the interview process at work there? ViralBot 1:42 PM Hi! 1:42 PM yeah, I was brighter than I am Zen Render 1:43 PM I suspect that perhaps you’re a bot, or something, instead of actually Mr. (ex-coworker) ViralBot 1:43 PM you should look if u can do better than me, http://{badlink} Zen Render 1:44 PM Yeeeaaaah… Not so much. {ex-coworker}, sorry you got hit, man. Good luck. ViralBot 1:44 PM i bet you cant haha 1:45 PM hey! Zen Render 1:49 PM Hello, Bot McBotterperson. Your programmer should have taught you that most people don’t say HI/Hey!/Hello three times in a five minute period. ViralBot 1:49 PM i Continue Reading
Posted On Saturday, June 26th, 2010 By Zen Render
Since yesterday’s field report was from someone other than me, I’m going to keep it going with one from my mom, who’s in Toronto today: I am glad I had already changed my plans to travel to Kingston, as a result of the rail strike called for Sunday and Monday, because I wouldn’t have been able to get to Oshawa to get the train today anyway. The Go Trains and the subway and the buses stopped running at about 1 pm. No one in, no one out, as my mother used to say. Things were going along fairly peacefully, and I was following the protest on Twitter. I decided, at shortly after 1 pm, to return to Eaton Centre, at Yonge and Dundas to go to Sears. I went there last night, and bought a skirt. The clerk did not remove the security tag, so I decided to head over to Sears to get the skirt detached from the ink-shedding security tag. Because you just never know when you’ll need to wear your brand new skirt. All was calm, actually almost deserted, with bunches of security people around but not very many shoppers and strollers, and no police. The Twitter Continue Reading
Posted On Saturday, June 26th, 2010 By Zen Render
Pvts Burton are upstairs and lights out after a successful shoveling clean of the barracks, followed by R&R in the officer’s quarters. The Sword in the Stone was played for the amusement of the troops; popcorn, fruit, and cheese served for evening rations. Unfortunately, the late arrival of the setting of the sun encourages the troops to chatter and scheme rather than achieving their requisite shut-eye. Disciplinary action may be taken.The master corporal is advised that well seasoned soup is waiting for his evening meal. Sergeant Brenneman will go another day without her Section 8 being successful. She finds it rather frustrating that as a lady, wearing ladies’ things is not indeed seen as sign of insanity. (this is why I love my wife – she’s insane)
Posted On Thursday, June 17th, 2010 By Zen Render
Now, if only I had something to SAY on here from time to time.
Posted On Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 By Zen Render
Posted On Thursday, May 6th, 2010 By Zen Render
Like, backyard sized, maybe PNE ride-sized. Then I can stand on the roof with a little headset on, going “Okay to go… okaaay to gooo…. okaaaaaaay to GOOOOOO.” Seriously, how awesome is that thing?
Posted On Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 By Zen Render
(Posting from my Blackberry, so we’ll chalk up any sentence/grammar weirdness to Transit rage). Hey there. Been a couple of months (seriously, MONTHS?) since I last posted but wanted a quick “Don’t delete my RSS feed yet” before I forget entirely that I even have a blog. Twitter’s been my primary method of getting the word out, and since that’s limited to 140 characters, I guess I haven’t had much word that needed getting out as of late. Work’s good, family’s good, there’s the Olympics coming, and so Vancouver is suddenly swamped with seemingly equal numbers of teal-jacketed volunteers, and black-jacketed security/police. Come the revolution, it’ll be like game of Risk, fought in colours. Over xmas, I ripped ALL of my CDs to MP3 format (that I had left and/or re-bought, after two break-ins in the mid 90s), and I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t actually like very much of my music. Wait. That’s not true. I don’t like it on shuffle on my iPod. It’s like having everyone you’ve ever had a meal with come by and eat one fry with you, and then leave again. It’s jarring, you know? I didn’t ride my bike to work Continue Reading
Posted On Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 By Zen Render
So, National Blog Posting Month wasn’t exactly a action-packed thrillride adventure, but it’s good to at least feel guilty about not writing every day, so I have some reason to take note of the world around me, and at least think “Hey, I should probably write about that tonight, so I have something for Nablopomo.” Oh well. I think I only missed three or four days. Not too shabby. Today, during my ride to work, I was listening to something from an EP by Burial, and at the 3min mark of the first of two 9min tracks, I closed my eyes for a moment (I’d been reading Twitter feeds, and for some reason, sitting sideways on the bus was making me a little queasy), and was suddenly and completely taken away, lost in the track. That hasn’t happened in a long time for me. Music is something that keeps me motivated when I’m cycling, keeps me sane when I’m overloaded by the maddening crowds, and keeps me focused when I’m at work and there’s too many things going on that threaten to knock me off the task at hand. But it’s been a while since music just pulled me completely Continue Reading
Posted On Monday, November 30th, 2009 By Zen Render
Helped Jonny Vancouver moved yesterday, but he was so planned that I was 30 mins late to get to his place to help load the truck, and he was already gone by the time I got there. Now THAT is fast. Many many years ago I moved out of a place on Pacific, but I was such a packrat I had WAY too much stuff, hadn’t thrown out enough, and hadnt packed in a reasonable way (too few boxes that were too big). The fact that Arwen didn’t leave me during that move is just further proof that uh, that she… uh… that I… Yeah, I’m just really REALLY lucky she didn’t leave my ass that day. Tate and I went out to the mall together, which I was happy to do, ’cause he and I rarely get time to hang out just the two of us. Funny, too, to find out that half of the stuff that Tate and I did that *I* thought was new stuff for him was stuff that he does every time he goes to the mall. Tonight we’re we had dinner with Crankenflaire, which was nice, ’cause we get our collective acts together about Continue Reading
Posted On Saturday, November 28th, 2009 By Zen Render
Was watching a commercial tonight for Disney, and it opens with two Dumbo cart things flying through the city. As they swing past us in that opening flight shot, there’s a lens flare, and… …and I start thinking about lens flare, and I was thinking that Ripley and Tate don’t know what lens flare is, as they haven’t yet seen movies that uses gigantic lenses for the, for the glass of it, y’know? Lens flare is an artifact of using glass lenses, and is something that’s become a cliche for computer-generated film folks, as it’s one of the first tools that people started playing with in Photoshop while making the pamphlets for their illegal rave, or their new Business Improvement Project, or whatever. But it’s supposed to invoke the reality of an actual camera filming something, to make you think you’re watching film of Dumbo flying over the city. That’s all well and fine for ME, ’cause I know what a camera looks like from the shoooter’s side, but do my kids know? They have always known digital cameras, with framing your shot by looking at the little 1.5 inch screen on the back of the unit, and not looking Continue Reading