It's super effective!

Future Daughter's School Clothes

Behind the scenes

Good Grief

One of my favourite episodes of AD was just given new life.

Mew

It's going to be legen -- wait for it --

Tyranitar

I will be alternating between scary/cool and cute Pokemon

Girafarig

Girafarig is a palindrome.

Scizor

I rotoscoped the Scizor game sprite into a vector pseudo-watercolour. I want to make more.

Sfumato

It's that time of year again

when the birds fill the air with their call,
when the snow begins to thaw.
the chill in the air abates and
the Sun breaks through overcast greys.

It is March;
there will be rain.

Redecorating

Pocketfish is in the middle of some renovation at the moment. I still need to sit down and hash out the colour scheme, standardize fonts and clean up the template clutter. Your opinions and suggestions on the new decor are welcome. Eventually, I would like to design a template from scratch; alas, I am currently not brave enough.

EDIT: Dec 20
Added Post Expansion to long entries to keep scrolling on the main page to a minimum. To expand a post, click the button below to see the rest of it.


Instead of "Read more..." or similar text, I decided to craft a little button that matched the theme of the blog. I am hoping the plus sign is self-explanatory enough.

I just thought I'd let you know that

Nerd Corner: Samurize

The first time I took up Samurize was documented in this previous post. Having successfully removed the clutter from my desktop workspace, the background developed a potential for functionality. At that time, I chose to turn it into an at-a-glance Heads Up Display of sorts for things like battery life, processes, CPU, hard drive and RAM usage. In the intervening years, the little widget on the bottom-left corner of my desktop evolved from being amateurish eye-candy to a more utilitarian box of bars and numbers.


It was adequate and useful, but generally a bit of an eyesore because it looked so out of place. So pitiful was the design that I even set a keyboard hotkey to hide the thing from view. For the most part, I prefer form and function to walk hand in hand and those previous attempts left something to be desired. However, I never bothered to change it because I never really had any particular urgency, or any particular inspiration, to gussy it up.

Last week, a blog post on Lifehacker popped up on my radar. They have been featuring the desktop customizations of an enterprising and generous individual. Naturally, seeing something awesome makes me want to be awesome too.

I won't burden you with having to see the 'before' desktop (it was boring) or with how it was created, per se, as Samurize has a bit of a learning curve that cannot be expained with words as well as it can be learned from trial and error.

Here is the new one:
Click the screenshot for notes. Click here for full size.

List of Programs (etc) that contributed to this desktop:
Overall Theme: FlyaKite w/ Leopard 3.0 Visual Style (Dark)
Wallpaper: Dawn in Madrid
Windows Explorer Address Bar: QT Address Bar
Windows Task Bar: Finderbar 3.1
System Tray: Dexpot and Notebook Hardware Control
Application Launcher: Launchy 2.0 with MinimaLaunchy skin
Dock: ObjectDock with Konfabulator Glass skin, Leopard GTD Icons
Desktop Monitor: Samurize, collapsible self-made config

System: Asus Z63a Pentium M 1.83 GHz running Windows XP SP3

Movie Review: Once (2007)

If anyone asked me what kind of music I preferred to listen to, I'd say, "acoustic." As far as genres go, "acoustic" is more of a technical style, rather than a musical style. I like it because it strips away all the musical crutches available to an artist -- post-production editing, mistake-covering electrical instrumentation, overwhelming rhythms -- and exposes the singer, instrumentalists and the song itself for what they are. It's pretty easy to tell when a song or singer is not that good once those elements are taken away. By the same token, it is very easy to tell when a song or singer is most excellent when unplugged.

Such is the case with Once, an independent Irish musical film shot and produced on what essentially was an independent budget. The actors had one appearance's worth of experience between them all. The aforementioned budgetary contraints also meant no fancy sets, no fancy costumes, no Hollywood pretties and next to no lighting. If ever there was an 'acoustic' film, this was it.

In this way, Once is either a love-it, or hate-it kind of movie. Some people watch movies to be blown away by boobs and bombs, or other shallow gimmicks designed to hook you in. Once is a film that requires a patient audience that can see beneath the surface and truly experience a story for what it is.

At its core, Once is like a Chekovian short story: a tale of broken people going through the motions of their lives until a chance encounter sets them on a new path for a brief period of time. The two leads are unnamed, down-and-out musicians who cross paths one day in the shopping district of Dublin, Ireland, where the Guy is busking on his worn-out guitar, trying to make some extra cash for a trip to London to win back the girl he writes songs about. The Girl is a poor Czech immigrant working a number of menial jobs to support her family. A broken vacuum cleaner brings them together and out of their shells. Fixing the vacuum cleaner at the father of the Guy's vacuum cleaner repair shop allows them to begin helping each other fix themselves.

The one element of this film with polish is, naturally, the music. Performed and written primarily by the two leads, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, the songs themselves are reflective of the film's understated mise-en-scene. They are raw, plaintive, simple, and surprisingly good -- illustrative of the film as a whole. The guitar that Hansard plays also acts as a metaphor for the brokenness of the characters as well as the film's. Everyone and everything is sort of just hanging in there and hoping for the best.

Put together, Once is far better than the sum of its humble parts. The interweaving of the story and music is occasionally forced, but never beleaguering. The acting is not A-grade, but all the more honest for that. The occasionally improvised dialogue is often broken by the mannerisms and filler words of everyday conversation -- a big no-no in big-budget mainstream films, but perfect here. The story teases and hints but refuses to go the Hollywood route. The camera work borders on homevideo quality, imparting a sense of intimacy that steady filming and adequate lighting cannot achieve. Like a good friend, Once is a gem of a movie whose flaws only serve to make it all the more endearing.

*** 1/2 / 5

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova performing the Academy Award winning song "Falling Slowly" on The Late Show with David Letterman.

Minor Details

The Ford Mustang has updated its branding for the 2010 model.

The change is subtle, but significant.

I think it can go further than that, so I've taken the liberty of redesigning the iconic Mustang badge even futher. You're welcome, Ford.

Politics: ur doin it rite

Sean Tevis for State Representative of Kansas

Can you resist the allure of references to:

bulletin board-speak

xkcd

Napoleon Dynamite

indexed

Rickrolling

Battlestar Galactica

300

all in one?

Pygmy Orca (Orcinus pygmaeus)

Not to be confused with the Pygmy Killer Whale (Feresa attenuata), the Pygmy Orca is a docile, hand-sized cetacean generally found in sub-tropical waters. Its name stems from the uncanny resemblance to the full-sized Orca (Orcinus orca), known to the Inuits as the Sea Wolf, and more colloquially as the Killer Whale.

Pygmy Orcas, like their larger cousins, congregate in pods of up to 32 for safety. Their communal nature and higher than average intelligence is also evident in their feeding patterns. They work together to herd and swarms of krill into a waiting subset of the pod. Pygmy Orcas are the only toothed whales to actively predate on krill, as it is the only food that will fit into their mouths. Like their larger cousins, Pygmy Orcas employ echolocation to navigate the seas and to find food. Each pod has a designated alpha couple who coordinate feeding and migratory paths. Pods of Pygmy Orcas are often seen coasting in the slipstream of full-sized whales, allowing them to traverse vast distances on minimal energy.

Pygmy Orcas are very familial and mate for life. A couple can produce up to 3 babies per litter, but are only fertile every 3 years. The pups take about 14 months to reach full maturity and size. The adults take turns tending to the pod's nursery, while others hunt. The average lifespan of a Pygmy Orca is about 15 years.

As they are mammals, Pygmy Orcas can live out of the water for brief periods of time, but their skin is delicate in the air and will dry and crack if taken out of the water for too long. They are not large enough to have large stores of blubber, so they live in warmer waters than their namesakes.

has u Flickr?

no u how Flickr sez HAI in srsly lots langwiges?

cliksie FTW

LOLSpeak Dictionary: The Definitive Lolcats Glossary
ICanHasCheezburger.com: Lolcat Central
LOLSpeak as a Second Language in 5 Easy Steps
The Lolcat Bible Translation Project

lost and found

i was printing something today when i noticed a notebook off to the side. i peeked inside. they were my high school notes from grade 12! sweet! free teacher resources! and look! doodles!!!!

click for more

the one in which a lot of things happened and then i wrote about them

placemarker post for the time being. i will decorate it with words and so on when i has have the time. see the wonderful labels for a brief taste of things to come.

[REALLY]
i went to the Ishskwaday 08 conference last weekend at TKPC. note to self: try to avoid conferences the weekend before school starts up after a march break holiday because you will be completely thrashed for the rest of the week. there was going to be a writeup with commentary and anecdotes, but who would read that? point-form play-by-play it is!

Friday:

got there early (2:40 pm) for a 7:30 pm start because i was told they needed volunteers and moyee was supposed to be there for worship team practice at 3. way too early.

saw Pastor Rolland for the first time since Longlac, and learned that his name had 2 l's.

so it turned out they had enough volunteers. commence loafing about and developing mental map of church. it is shaped like a Superman crest.

got a name tag. the registration desk was covered in Macbook.

listening to Broken Walls practice their set and struggle through trying to communicate with the AV team. the band was used to AV teams that understood the lingo (EQ, 128 Hz, monitors, drum sample, etc). it was pretty painful for me to watch and hear.

went for a walk. snowballed some geese. hopped a fence and trespassed through a snow-covered schoolyard on closed-circuit camera wearing aforementioned name tag. brazen!

Jaffray attendees arrive, hungover from TC. weird stories and giggling ensues.

program starts and everyone wants to wait for the bus from Longlac to arrive, but they're behind schedule.

speaker is hilariously candid and remarkably learned.

who hates colonialism? everyone.

who knows what colonialism is? i do, thanks to Early American Literature

looks like someone is not a fan of legalism and is not afraid to name names. they're like prescriptive linguists.

Longlac friends arrive!

Justin remembers me: "hey! it's robot man!"

man, they sure love their Koreans. who wouldn't?

Saturday

it's not as early as school, but it is still early. i wonder if i'll survive workshops (3 of them!). i should go pick them.

the first workshop was led by the keynote speaker. more elaboration on why colonialism is not the way to go about evangelizing.

"missions shouldn't be like putting a potted plant into the ground; it should be like planting the seed of the Gospel into the native soil and letting the nutrients of the culture feed the Word and allow it to blossom the way it is supposed to."

you can't have unity without diversity

lunch! settled for McDonald's. played Contact for way too long.

nothing much of note in other workshops, unfortunately

apparently, someone else out there came up with a cracked jar story.

final keynote message: repeat of first workshop. oh yay!

friendship circle dance = longest sideways conga line i've ever participated in

some people danced all night while others stood to watch.

there was a little 6 yr old girl in full regalia gracefully dancing her heart out. she was like a beautiful wind, twirling and flitting about amongst the legs of other dancers.

Japanese Shirt Folding

some of you may have seen this before (like two years ago?). if you have, forgive me, for i am slow at internet.


my favourite part is the Zen Master Wood Flute Motif of Englightenment.

in British:

my favourite part is the girl that folds the shirt.

i tried it immediately after watching the first video twice and pulled it off without a hitch. if someone as domestically incompetant as i am can do this, you can do it too. i just spent ten minutes trying to determine the correct grammar for the previous sentence; i had to edit 5 times with different word combinations before settling on the least awkward.