Ryan Leland

Sonic Mexico Qualifier Party

So what started out as fairly lame outing, proved to be a really cool evening. Before I go any further, I should provide some back story. I had won the Mi-Fri Mexico Qualifier entry through my daily routine of collecting sonic points, and spending accordingly. After much frustration of not seeing another iPod Touch style giveaway, and no sign of anything epic, I gave into a hunch. That hunch was that I would win a trip to Mexico. So I spent all my hard earned points one fateful morning in mid January, only to receive a phone call that same day notifying me of my winning entry. This was exciting to say the least, as I rarely win anything, and I’ve never been to Mexico.

On to the lameness. My Brother could not make it to this super sweet event, as he was backed up with work. Fine. I decided to invite a buddy from work, which proved to be both the redemption to the lameness, and the partial cause. Okay, so not the cause, but we freezed our asses off 2-3 more times than I normally like to on a harsh winter day, and I need somebody to blame that on. So we go to the wrong pub first. It’s cool. We figure it out after walking about a block towards it. Back in the car! No problem, we call the number of the pub thanks to my GPS, and get the right address. Awesome. Now to find parking. “Hey look, a parkade!”. This might seem promising, but by this point we are already about 10 minutes late, and very cold, standing in line to pay for the parking. Oh, God! The machine won’t accept Chobans Visa, or my MasterCard. This was getting to be rediculous. Neither of us have change, so we decide to get to the pub which is still about a block and a half away from the parking, register, get our names in the draw, get seated, meet some radio celebrities. Yes, ALL the Sonic radio personalities were there, and with only maybe 40-50 people in the lower level of this pub, it was a pretty cool intimate environment. But wait. We kinda need to pay for parking. So I ask Rick Lee politely if my guest and I can leave to go pay for parking. Yeah. He’s pretty sure that’s cool.

Off to pay for parking! We’re still frozen to the bone when we leave the pub, but we’re pretty determined to pay for parking, and get back so we can starting winning. So, a quick stop in a nearby Booster Juice to beg for change (which wasn’t even enough for the machine by the way), was enough to throw a piece of paper on my dashboard, and run back to warmness, and prizes. Now, I had hoped for free food and drinks, but as it would turn out, there was only one domestic beer voucher, and finger food. Which in the end I guess was cool enough. I did end up getting a shirt, calendar, and a sticker. Not to mention the ID card around my neck which I will likely keep as proof of my interesting evening.

So, first name they call for spinning-wheel-for-money game? Choban! More like CHOKE-ban. Seriously. I think anybody could have spun that wheel and won more money than he did. But in hindsight I’m pretty sure it was rigged. It’s okay though. It was only a chance to win $1000 cash, and there was still a trip to Mexico up for grabs. But Mexico drawing came and went, and was a bit of a let down, just like our domestic watered down beers. Upside was that there were some female web developers sitting at our table that had over heard us talking development, and invited us to the Edmonton Flash Users Group meeting afterwards. Uh, totally! How often does one go to a Sonic party, and end up sitting beside female web developers? Not very often. We both agreed this was an opportunity that would not be passed up.

The Flash Users Group ended up being very cool. Seeing previews of Adobe Air in action gave some pretty inspiring ideas, despite not being overly interested in the technology itself. It certainly has some promise, and wide open opportunities for forward thinking web developers. So we ordered up some veggie burgers, and salad which turned out to be awesome, and then ended up taking off a little early for some Starbucks before taking yet another bone chilling walk in the freezing cold.

So all in all, we’re talking 9 walks in ungodly temperatures, 3 sonic stickers, 2 calendars, 2 shirts, 1 EFUG meeting, and a fairly memorable evening. Oh, and one of the longest blog posts I’ve ever written.

By the way Choban… I have your calendar and stickers. We’ll need to do that again sometime.

Snow Day and BSG

It’s gross out today, so I figured it’d be a good day for gaming. I went out, and braved the elements with credit card clutched in hand to pick up some games. I found Battlestar Galactica the game for $24.99. It’s probably not a great game, but despite getting Sims 2 Deluxe, and Battle for Middle Earth Anthology, you can guess what I’ll be installing first. This should be a good day. If the game is fun, I’ll be trying to get people at work on it, as there are other BSG fans there.

About to grab my coffee. It should be a good day.

UPDATE: Yes, just as I thought, I’ve been playing BSG. It is actually quite good for a $25 game, but you need to have a game pad. I can’t see how anyone would play this with keyboard alone. Multiplayer seems like it would be wicked fun too.

Even More Useless Domains

Or maybe not so useless. I got a few website ideas last night, and through my usual brainstorming, and typing random addresses, I found some creative, and useful domains. At least I usually think they are useful at the time. Sometimes you end up with a domain or two that you just have to laugh at. Among what I registered, these two stand out as having little use, but at the same time nearly unlimited potential if marketed the right way. KTHXBY.COM, and UMMMCOOL.COM. I think that kthxby.com is probably my favorite, because based on a google search, it yielded a plethora of results. Why has nobody ever thought to register it? Maybe kthxbi was the original, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen both spellings equally as often. And I did check kthxbi.com too. Taken.

Oh, who am I fooling. They’re both useless, but I love them. I think I’m just addicted to buying original sounding domains. If I’m going to point out some of my what-was-I-thinking domains, I suppose OLDPEOPLEAREGROSS.COM should be mentioned. That was more of a joke, but I had the idea that people could post pictures of old people in gross situations. Like trying to act young, or eating, or being sexual. YUCK. Okay, maybe I should make that site, because now it suddenly sounds fun again. I think I decided not to do anything for fear of a picture of somebodies deceased grandparent being posted, and me getting sued for damages. What a sick world we live in where we can’t make fun of old people in freedom, and possibly make some cash off of it.

Oh well. I guess I’ll just call it a fun hobby for now, and maybe one day I’ll stumble on something great.

Ryan, the Family I.T. Guy.

So, I still live at home. I rent out most of the basement. A large room, bathroom, and access to laundry, and enough room in a spare fridge to store my own food. Sometimes I can go a whole day without seeing my parents, and I can do so for a laughable $400 a month. Obviously still not an ideal situation for someone of my age, but the economics of the area I live in, and my career choices have nearly made it necessary for now. But anyhow, I’m getting really off track of my main point. That being that the biggest price I pay at times is being the household I.T. guy.

My parents both have a PC laptop each, and my sister has a brand new iMac, and an old PC laptop I sold her. All of them have basic computer knowledge. But none of them are willing to read, or do anything that would require effort should something go wrong. Add to that the fact that I have a desktop running vista, a MacBook, and 2 gaming consoles, and suddenly simple things like changing the wireless network key becomes a real pain in the ass. That’s 8 machines I need to get onto and type in a 24+ character network key, and that’s just if things go as expected.

Last week I had to re-install XP on my Mothers laptop, and get all Her apps installed. Later on that day, I hear the complaint that Facebook is gone. I come upstairs expecting to see that the network is down, or she had typed in the wrong address. Nope. Facebook merely wasn’t in Her bookmarks any longer. I bookmark it, and restored the glory of Facebook to all of mankind (you can all thank me later).

Internet vs Scientology

Does anyone else think this is starting to get excessive? I mean, I’m all for exposing shady organizations, especially when they control people in the name of religion, but the amount of coverage right now is starting to concern me. It might be just a fad, like making fun of Britney Spears, or whatever else is worthy of being made fun of at the time. I just can’t help but wonder if this is the sort of thing that people within the Scientology organization actually want. When has outside ridicule ever done anything to a cult, or religious group other than solidify their dedication through martyrdom syndrome?

What if somebody takes this to far, and ends up planting a bomb, or something else totally ridiculous that brings the situation to light to political correctness elitists, and human rights organizations? Hmmmm.

I think the approach should just be different than this bandwagon “lets bring down scientology!” mentality. There are a lot worse organizations, and causes that could be worth so much more time and effort as well. But those are just my thoughts. I worry about the children of people involved in what’s pretty clearly a cult, but these people who join one organization, are just as likely to join something else equally as harmful in my opinion. I don’t know. I’m just not sure what to think.

DRM Free Canada?

Well, probably not, but at least somebody in Ottawa sounds like they understand some things regarding what DRM is, and what it isn’t. I was so happy to hear that the law makers lost the battle for the $75 dollar MP3 player tax. And some of the things pointed out in this article sounds promising to me. While I AM against piracy. Okay, maybe let me re-phrase that. I am FOR supporting artists who have exceptional talent that wish to share their gifts with the rest of us. Now, I also believe in consumer privacy, and freedom. I think in the end, those values are more important than supporting a failing copyright protection method that’s not doing anything to actually protect copyrights anyway.

I hope this is a small step towards freedom from all the, “consumers-are-criminals” style DRMs out there.

Post Cloverfield

So I just got back from watching Cloverfield. It was a great rollercoaster of human emotion, and visual effects. I left the theater feeling nauseated, dizzy (both from the shaky cam), confused and a little depressed. Needless to say, this certainly isn’t a feel good movie. But, I’m sure that the creators of the movie accomplished exactly what they wanted. For that, I’d say it’s pretty close to a masterpiece. Some parts of the movie had me wishing the movie would just be over. This is not to say I regret seeing it. But the experience wasn’t an enjoyable one for me. But it is one I’ll remember. Again. Congrats to the makers of the movie, as I think they know what they were doing.

But, would I see it again? No. Nor do I have any desire to. The movie is worth seeing though, for the simple fact that it is really amazing. And after all, how often do movie goers get to see a movie that takes chances, and does some original things? Yeah, not often. So for that I give it big credit.

I Don’t Just Think About Battlestar Galactica…

I think about it a LOT. Okay, so I’m not quite the 40 year old living with his mom, and going to conventions, but seriously. If I’m honest with myself, I could so easily give into my compulsive nature and be that guy. I work about a block away from a comic/game store that sells sci-fi figurines, and I’ve started collecting a series of the lego style BSG action figures. I plan on getting the whole collection. And, it only gets worse. I’ve been looking up BSG facts on wiki now.

So, I hope I’m not making myself sound like to much of a freak here. Thankfully, I think I’m about 10 years, a few thousand cheeseburgers, and some conventions away from friends and family saying, “Dear god, that guy needs help”. Luckily I think I have more self control, motivation, and hopefully enough pride to keep this new-found addiction to a respectable level.

But anyway. It makes me happy to watch. There’s just something about that show that sucks me in, and sucker punches me, then picks me up, and kicks me in the junk. I know I make that sound bad, but trust me. It’s great. How so? I think there are just so many aspects that feed my greatest fears, and so many fantasies at the same time. There are so many moral, religious, and scientific topics brought to light through the clever writing as well.

And that is all. Maybe in a few months I’ll be done with the obsession (as is usually the case) , but for now, I’ll just say the show is incredible, and I’d highly recommend it.