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Quotes: One about samurai lawyers
Tue, 25 Jul 2006

Theres so much for me to write about, from lazy afternoons on Sauble beach to this or that crazy technical exploit, to something very amazing going on that I'll talk about in just a couple of days - promise! However, when I'm mulling over the idea of having an underwater villain lair defended by those giant Japanese crabs with dolphin commanders and my eyeballs hit this phrase on Slashdot.. I had but no choice to parrot it here:

Lawyers are how you get business done in civil society. They are in many ways even superior to violence, because they can be used to attack vaporous legal constructs that you can't well go out and shoot if you wanted to. They're like samurai: have enough of them, and you can do anything you want. Don't have any, and you're just a peasant.

Words of the wise Kadin2048

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Day by Day: A video parody of the '80s
Sat, 15 Jul 2006

(This ones for you, The Tux) Some would say the '80s disembowel themselves, but I'd still say they were good times, though they featured the origin of the angst-filled music video. Really, no video of the decade was complete without this scene - I think The Killers ought to do it:

Black and white - a solitary figure with shockingly blonde hair strolls through the rain; his hair is tussled and runs down into his face, his tears rolling into his eyes unseen due to the rain. Thunder rolls and he pulls his wet shirt close for some warmth, but he stumbles to reveal that his soul cannot be warmed further.

It must be serious, since the street lights are reflecting in the wet asphalt, and its black and white. It continues..

The figure spies a telephone booth (it was the 80s, we had them still) and tumbles in. His fingers tremble as he dials the buttons to call his presumably ex-girlfriend; half through he slams the receiver down, but his resolve melts and he dials again. This time you hear the brrrp-brrp of ringing but when she (he?) picks up, the phone is slammed down. Hard.

You see, the phone symbolizes his whole world. Videos, you know? Continuing..

As the phone strikes, the phone contraption shatters into shards of glass. Zoom out, and the phone booth shatters; zoom out, the nearby buildings shatter (like glass, not like buildings.) Zoom out, the city shatters - the country - the landmass - lastly, the earth itself.. to hammer home that the phone call was his whole world

Get it? hah hah.. yeah, that was the 80s music video :)

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PSP: How-to homebrew on a recent PSP (firmware 2.6 say), Or, Downdating, Downgrading, Whatever
Tue, 11 Jul 2006

When buying a car, I'm sure most people assume it can offroad if necessary - to park on the grass for a concert or party or go game hunting in the deep savannah .. at least to go where they tell it. Likewise, when you buy a Phillips VCR or DVD player you can safely expect it to play home movies, or videos published by someone other than Phillips.

Another long entry typed in on a cellphone :) This one is light on details since I'm not trying to be technical or delve into the many obscure interesting things going on over the last year or two.

See more ...

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Day by Day: Quickies and catch-up
Mon, 10 Jul 2006

We took a few days vacation so time has flown by. Sadly those wondrous vacation days are gone, leaving us only to fire up the power washer and grind off the bug bits from rural highway driving..

Superman Returns: A pretty good film; from the television commercials I feared a melancholoy soppy show but instead it was a good old fashioned hero story .. much like the original Superman movies. The lead actor that no one has heard of did an excellent job - he pulled off an affable likeness to the late Christopher Reeve. Its refreshing to see in these days a simple hero again -- sure, he's got all the powers, but he also has his blinders on; theres good, theres bad, and he knows where the line is. I do think they threw in a bit too much what with Lois and the other guy's relationship .. Superman was never much about plot or drama, because as we all know.. real heroes think with their fists ;)

Observation: Do they have tree farms? While driving north to our various destinations last week, we noticed many very carefully laid out plots of tree-lings; a field of one kind beside a field of another. Not fancy trees for gardens, but Maple and Oak and whatnot. I'm betting these are for selling to home builder companies for plugging into eventual front lawns..

History or fiction: I've often read there is a custom for when riding in a hot air balloon or dirigible - to have champagne upon landing. I had always assumed this was merely to celebrate survival or the enjoyment of having aimlessly drifted in the sky for awhile, but last week someone told us the custom descends from the days when a balloon would land haphazardly in some farmers field .. and in those days, drawing attention from shotgun toting farmers could land you in the hospital. As such, a balloonist (?) would keep simple gifts in the basket (cockpit?) to give out to the local landowner upon landing. Neat.

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