“Live” Dinosaur at a museum

This is video from a museum in LA, where they had a “live” dinosaur wandering the halls. Its not CG.  If you look closely at the dinosaur, you’ll see what’s going on.

Extinct, my ASS! from The Original Joe Fisher on Vimeo.

Thinking like a smoker

The last month or so, I noticed something: I seem to still think like a smoker.  What do I mean by this?  I mean that I find myself looking at Zippo lighters thinking that they look cool.  I find myself walking down the street thinking that a smoke would be really good right now.  That’s the toughest one: I still crave cigarettes.  Its actually quite annoying.  I’ll crave a smoke, and wonder “why am I wanting this?” and I have to fight the craving.  I keep wondering, when the cravings will finally go away, and I keep hoping that I won’t be fighting cravings indefinitely.

All you ex-smokers who may be reading this: Do you still get cravings?

In other news, gave the dog a much-needed bath yesterday.  Bathing a large dog is an athletic exercise, since most dogs don’t tend to enjoy baths.  Getting the dog into the tub was one battle, keeping him there is another, as he’ll try to get out of the tub every time you take your hands off him.  And so, when it was all over, the bathroom was pretty much soaked, and I was covered in all the excess hair that came off the dog, and neither of us were happy.

Finally, over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be shooting some scenes for a werewolf movie.  Its going to include a new experience for me: special effects make up. 

Steampunk

I’m feeling a little steampunk lately, so that’s the reason for the template change.

Those reading via RSS won’t have a clue what I mean, but you can always click through to take a look.

Apology

I realize that I’ve been writing a lot about this Canadian Copyright reform debacle, and that this might be approaching tediousness to some people.  I admit that I’m passionate about this issue and do have a tendency to rant.

For those of you growing tired, I’ll apologize and assure you that I will be blogging about other topics soon.

The Great Canadian Journey

This past week on the Vinyl Cafe, Stuart McLean did the show from a car on the Canadian, Via Rail’s Toronto - Vancouver train.  This is the classic Canadian trip, that lets you see Canada out the window as it passes.

I’ve always wanted to take a trip across Canada, and going by train would seem to me to be the best way to do it.  Listening to Stuart McLean’s stories about the train, and describing the cross-Canada trip, I’ve decided that this is a trip that I absolutely have to take.  Sadly, its an expensive trip.  The Silver & Blue class (which I think is the best option…what with having a bed and all), is more than $4000 return *gulp*.

I suppose it can be a trip for sometime way off in the future (well, its not like I can afford to go anytime soon).  But its definitely a trip I want to take.

No Voice

Last Saturday, I woke up with a pretty nasty cough.   The cough got worse, and by Sunday it had cold-like symptoms with it.  So I took Monday off, hoping that a day off would help me get better.  But it didn’t, and the cough remained. The cold-like symptoms have faded, leaving only a slightly runny nose, a bit of a wheeze…and that damned cough.  But the cough has been so bad that its torn up my throat, and yesterday I woke up with almost no voice.

Today, the cough is comparatively better.  Though the only vestige of a voice that I have is barely a whisper.

Here’s hoping I’m on the mend.

10 Questions about Canadian DMCA & sick as a dog

I haven’t posted in a bit because….well, there hasn’t been much to post about.

Today, I am continuing the brutal cough and cold that hit me like a hammer to the chest on Saturday.  I barely have a voice, and I’m hacking an coughing so much that even if I did go to work, I’d probably disgust everyone around me so much that I’d be sent home.  I know I’m disgusted by the noise I’m making.  What’s more: I have now (over the course of two full days) coughed to the point of vomiting twice (I know you’re glad I shared that with you).

Why do they call it being sick as a dog?

Finally, in order to add a bit of substance here, I will point you to Michael Geist’s excellent new 10 questions for Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice on the forthcoming Copyright bill that is rumoured to include US-Style DMCA provisions.  You should check it out, and then send a letter to your MP.

PWN3D:AIN

Over on Gamer-geek.com, my co-blogger Chris pointed out that I was a relative n00b to online gaming.

Gosh, I’d like to thank Chris for outing me as a n00b. Being outed can be a painful experience, one fraught with many emotions. However I’ve chosen to accept what’s happened with as much dignity as I can muster, and will try to make myself an example to help others who might be in a similar situation.

This has spawned a regular feature on the blog, called “PWN3D: Adventures in N00b-dom“, in which I will discuss the trials and tribulations of being a N00b.  Chris has his weekly “Reasons for Living” feature (which has of late been very GTAIV focused), and this will be a nice second weekly feature.

Hope you’ll drop by and check it out.

Dog owner fun

Now the spring has spung, my dog’s winter coat has blown.  Fur comes off him like…I dunno…water off a duck’s back?  The point is, he’s constantly shedding.  No matter when or how often he is brushed.  This has resulted in a layer of fur on the floor of my apartment.

So, yesterday, after work, I decided i was going to d something about this fur.  I broke out my trusty vacuum.  I turned it on.  The brush got tangled with hair. I cleared the brush, and started again.  30 seconds later: tangles with hair and wouldn’t turn.  Repeat the process again: clean, start, clog.  Again. clean, start, clog. clean, start, clog. After about 20 minutes of this, I gave up. I was getting no where.

The dog’s fur had seemingly killed the vacuum.

And all I had done, it seems, is loosen and kick up a bunch of fur into the air.

And now my allergies…the fur is making me wheeze like crazy.

Don’t it just figure?

Censorship - still a dirty word?

Yesterday, actor, director and screenwriter Sarah Polley went to Ottawa to speak before a Senate committee on the proposed tax ammendment bill, C-10 which contains a provision to deny tax credits to films deemed “morally objectionable”.

Polley rightly points out (via the Star):

She said the proposed law threatens not just the artistic quality of productions but also the industry’s financial future.

“I think ultimately that’s the cost of freedom of expression. We’re all going to see things we don’t like. I see movies that I don’t like. I see things that offend me politically. I see things that offend me morally,” Polley told a Senate committee.

“I choose to debate them, to have a dialogue about them or to turn away from them, not to say that they shouldn’t be allowed to exist and certainly not to give that power to the minister,”

But the Conservatives came back preaching to the choir:

“Hard-working Canadians are growing increasingly tired of special interest groups telling them what to do,” Tory MP Pierre Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton) said in a news release. “If famous actors and actresses want to produce materials that are offensive to the majority of Canadians, they can do it on their own dime, not on the backs of Canadian taxpayers.”

It should be noted that although these comments are attributed to Pierre Poilievre, Prime Minister Stephen Harper does not permit any statement to go to the press without his say-so.  These comments, therefore should be considered to come directly from him.

I just love how the statement above manages to use language from the Mike Harris playbook, calling the actors who spoke yesterday (of which Sarah Polley was just one) “special interest groups”, rather than actually addressing the issue at hand: that this proposed bill is censorship, plain and simple.

Naturally I’m disappointed in the other parties (Stephane Dion, Jack Layton, I’m looking at you) who passed bill C-10 without a second thought, regardless of the censorship contained within.

What’s at stake here?  Canada’s film community is difficult enough (don’t believe me?  When was the last time you saw a Canadian film?  See what I mean?), without a film maker having to appease the political leanings of whomever forms the Government.  “I’m sorry, you cannot make that film, we find it morally objectionable”.  That’s censorship.  Of course, what the government says is “we never said that the film couldn’t be made, we just said that we won’t issue a tax credit.”  The way film works in Canada, however, is that banks won’t back a film without the tax credits.  So, in essence they are saying the film can’t be made.

I really wish the Opposition parties would grow a pair and finally vote to defeat this minority government.  But it seems to me that all the parties lack both the stones and the leadership to do such a thing.