For Great Justice

Librarians in the Branch Library of Babel

nfg — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 01:21:02 +0000

Because it must be shared: Librarians in the Branch Library of Babel, by Shaenon K. Garrity. I’ve never read Moby Dick, but I don’t think it’s strictly required to enjoy the story.

(Because the “Related Posts” plugin didn’t pick it up, let it be known that Miss Garrity rocks my socks. Artie!)

The Three Musketeers (2011)

nfg — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 04:07:14 +0000

Today work took everyone to the theatre to watch the new version of The Three Musketeers. I really enjoyed it! It wasn’t great — 2D characters, random accents — but I was entertained pretty much the entire way through. Awesome locales (Venis! Paris!), sword fights, crazy steampunk weaponry and gadgets… what else do you need? And it doesn’t help that I’m a sucker for Milla Jovovich…

Also: I think I figured out why 3D generally sucks. Before the film was a trailer for the 3D-converted Star Wars movies. If you think about it, there are two different 3D effects: images that appear in front of the screen, and images that appear deep within the screen. The Star Wars clips did the former, which totally makes sense — because you can’t reveal any additional background (without digitally inserting new background, anyway), popping out is the only way you can go. But the Three Musketeers was filmed in 3D, and most of the elements were deep in the frame. And that’s actually pretty easy to watch, relatively subtle, and it makes long shots look incredibly awesome.

Anyway, 3D is no longer a dirty word. “Upconverted” is. Boo, George Lucas!

Lotus

nfg — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 01:00:32 +0000

This is mostly just a test to verify that I can A) embed youtube videos, and B) they get successfully propagated to other venues, like buzz and reader (pubsubhubbub and rss).

And besides, this is a catchy song.

Car Free Vancouver!

nfg — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 05:45:29 +0000

Today was Car Free Vancouver! Gavin and I (and his dad) went to the big one on Main Street, which stretched from 12th Ave to 29th or 30th. It was a little quiet at first. I think it might’ve been a little too spread out; some stretches were pretty light on booths. But there was lots of stuff to see, and it was pretty fun.

After that I went home… sorta. As a proud West Ender, I had no choice but to pop by Car Free Vancouver on Denman Street. It was considerably smaller than the Main Street version, but considerably funkier.

Observe:

This mechanized spider was powered entirely by two sets of pedals.

Three clarinets and one sax:

There was some hardcore fencing c/o Academie Duello

Seriously hardcore.

This eye monster represented some sort of Taiwanese film festival.

There weren’t any cars, but there were still hooligans careening dangerously on the road.

There were some bands, but not nearly as many as on Main.

The Zeitgeist people were there, as usual.

The Museum of Vancouver had a table where people were invited to write their opinions of the West End and Vancouver on flyers. I had a good talk with the woman working there.

I believe this was part of a Vancouver Public Space Network display.

The novelty giant chess pieces were out again.

And a tent for the Canadian Foreskin Awareness Project.

Inside the tent was an … awareness demonstration, they called it. That’s how I got this:

The West End Neighbours were there, of course (as was WERA and some seniors groups). I find WEN to be incredibly NIMBY, even by Vancouver standards, but I support community organizing.

I also got to talk to Adrienne Carr (and briefly Spencer Herbert, my MLA). It was pretty cool!

Also, as for the rest of the weekend… on Friday some friends from work and I went to La Belle Patate on Davie Street for poutine, which was delicious. Saturday morning I had a dental appointment — not for long — and then hung out with some friends and played Rock Band, then went to The Eatery, and then finished the night at Celebrities on Davie Street to see a drag queen show.

It’s been an awesome weekend.