Dragon Age release!

Holy crap, I hurt. I'm getting back into the swing of things, exercise-wise. Going back to the gym, doing stuff at home again, and it's been pretty good. I was a fatigued ninja today, though, so I took it easy on the weights. Instead, I did 35 minutes of a flat 3-resistance on the recumbent bike, which made me very happy. Soon, I'll be back to an alternating 6/3-resistance for 30 minutes like I used to do.

But this update isn't about exercise. No, this one is about Dragon Age: Origins, BioWare's latest release. It'll be on store shelves tomorrow, that's Tuesday, November 3. For most of you, by the time you read this update, it will already be quickly flying off store shelves. If our official game forums and brand new BioWare Social Network are any indication, last week's "Borderlands flu"--which I, myself, experienced this past weekend--will look like a scratchy throat compared to this week's Dragon Age-itis. People are already planning on taking the day off to play this game that has been highly anticipated for the last several years.

I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment because, for 2 1/2 years, I was part of the team that built the game, found the flaws and ironed them out, and polished it up into the gem that players all around the world will be seeing. I really feel that Dragon Age: Origins will be BioWare's crowning achievement in the RPG genre. The upcoming Mass Effect 2 may sell more copies, since it's shaping up to be a great game experience, but this will be the game that RPG enthusiasts will be crowing about for months, if not years, as the ultimate in computer role-playing. Funny thing is, that's exactly what they said about the Baldur's Gate series almost exactly 10 years ago, and Dragon Age is billed as "the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate."

A decade on, and BioWare, with the support and backing of Electronic Arts, is standing on the shoulders of its own giants to present a game which some people likened to the long-anticipated and ultimately-failed Duke Nukem Forever. I wish I could find all those "unfaithful" who doubted us and show them that what they'd been waiting for was worth waiting for. And videogamers of pretty much any stripe can enjoy the game: PC gamers, Xbox360 owners, and PlayStation 3 owners alike.

Okay, that's what the professional in me had to say. The gamer in me has been waiting this whole time to say but one thing:

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Holy mother of crap, folks. Dragon Age: Origins is super-mega-fantasti-awesome! An epic adventure, classic fantasy gaming, 6 awesome origin stories, lots of well-realized characters following you around and commenting on things and providing witty banter in their interactions, dark moral choices, blood, guts, sex, violence, kings, witches, dragons, awesome weapons, and a giant story to rival any that George R.R. Martin could pen! Beleive me, I've played Dragon AGe: Origins and read most of what's available for A Song of Ice and Fire, and I gotta say, I prefer Dargon Age. It's much less depressing and sad, and the people you expect to be heroes don't disappoint.

Get this game, people. You can get it in a retail box, or as a digital download from places like Direct2Drive and Steam, which I know a bunch of you are on so you don't have an excuse not to get this game. It's been a long time coming, and a whole lot of people worked their butts off to get it done, and now it is. Hell, I'm going to get and play the heck out of it because even I haven't seen all this game has to offer yet. They've polished it up, increased the fun-osity, and added some great DLC to it which I've never seen, so that's going to be all new to me.

Don't make me come over there!

The best commercial on television today

Normally, I see television as a necessary evil. Episodic escapism, scheduling our own lives around the weekly brain shutdowns, digitally recording those shows we can't watch right away, discussing the latest stories with our friends and co-workers online or around the water cooler. Even though I've tried to be good, I love talking about the latest Top Chef episode with my office mate. I enjoy analyzing the latest episode in the "whodunit of the week" and trying to predict the ending. Hell, I even love the formulaic shows, the procedurals, the medical terms I can't understand, the analogies intended to keep the layman viewer in the loop, the twists and turns that keep us on the edge of our seats.

The one thing I've never really been a fan of is commercials. Soul-sucking marketing messages that add to the corporate intrusion we experience everywhere and can never get away from: on billboards while we're driving, before and after anything we watch, everywhere on the web, and even bundled in with other marketing. All of it determined to get the viewer/reader to buy whatever it is that's being sold, some service or product or person. I caution people against blindly accepting such messages and encourage them to question each and every marketing message they're exposed to every day.

So to come upon a commercial that moves me, that makes me smile and want to champion their service or product, is very rare indeed. But recently, there's a commercial I see frequently that makes me feel really good about myself. It makes me want to support the organization, it makes me fully embrace the message being broadcast, and, hell, I'm man enough to admit, it even moves me to tears some times. This miracle ad contains an overused piece of music, a bunch of regular people, and no dialogue. It contains merely a factual chronology of events, an inspirational message, and is a great example of the determination and ingenuity of the human race, how we as a people can band together (with science, no less) and make the world a better place.

What is this miracle advertisement? I'll let you watch it for yourself.



Words can't adequately express how much I love and appreciate this ad. From the very first sign showing when the Princess Margaret Hospital opened its doors and started this mission to the final message of courage and hope ("Conquer cancer in our lifetime"), this ad grabs a hold of my heart and keeps me riveted to the screen. The stories told in short, simple sentences written on bold, blue cards are stories of the triumphs that are seen every day, every month, and every year at the Princess Margaret Hospital. The son who saves his dad by donating bone marrow, the life-saving brain surgery, the limb amputation that doesn't diminish a woman's spirit, the volunteer work and fund-raising efforts undertaken by not only regular folks but patients and survivors, are heartwarming. Though none strikes me harder than the one that comes near the end.

A huge group of people united in a common purpose, all holding signs of their victories and accomplishments, and the one survivor who holds the sign "Given 2 months to live" and flips it at the most emotionally effective moment to reveal "4 years ago." That is a message I can get behind. That group of people is a force that I would be proud to join.

I don't know that anyone in my family has ever suffered from cancer, though my great-grandfather had part of his stomach and some other interior bits removed after decades of a moderate coffee and cigarette habit. I don't know if that was cancer, as I was too young to even know the word at the time, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. My mom has been in the hospital for some procedures, but it's not something she talks about, nor is it something I ask about, so I don't know if any were the big C.

All I know is that cancer is one of the Very Bad Things in the world, and that science is making huge strides in understanding how it works and how it might be stopped. From cancerous cell-blasters to cancer-blocking cell coatings to specially-built nanomachines to some kinda magic genius dolphin shrinking to cell size with a tiny magic wand, things look good for cancer research. None of this sky wizard malarkey, no magic herb or candle or vibration hokum, just plain old, ordinary, beautiful, inspiring science.

Science: is there anything it can't do?

Ninja update: September/October

It's been a couple of months since my last update, but I've been itching to get back to writing regularly. Every once in a while, it feels like I have nothing to say and that my Facebook updates encapsulate my feelings perfectly. Other times, I feel that Facebook is inadequate to say what I want to say, but I haven't the energy to type it all out. Come on, robot dictation machine, where are you and why did I leave you in the trunk of my flying car?

This update should catch people up regarding the three things I talk about the most: Apocalypse Kow, work, and geekery.

Apocalypse Kow
Remember I mentioned that there was stuff going on that I couldn't talk about until after Fringe? Well, that thing is the most giantest thing to happen to our modest a cappella group since our inception 10 years ago. The Barber, one of our founding members, announced in the months prior to the Fringe Festival that he was intending to leave the group after his August commitments were done. The details of his departure were stressful and troubling, but he needed to free up the time Kow was taking up. His work was sending him to job sites out of town for days, sometimes weeks at a time, he was getting married soon, and he had plenty of other commitments. Fair enough.

What followed after the Fringe, however, was a series of drama-filled emails that sprang out of an inability to properly communicate with each other. There were misunderstandings all around, and heated words were exchanged across the internets, but eventually, after many stressful days of talking things out with a number of people, we settled everything amicably. Any fans of Apocalypse Kow among my regular readers might want to stay tuned for announcements of our February concert, which may very well be the last time Kow performs with its old line-up.

Work
The summer convention season closed with both of our major to-be-released projects, Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2, being seen by millions of gamers worldwide. Both games got rave reviews from those who played them at our convention demos, our preview videos and gameplay trailers have been getting hundreds of thousands of hits, and it looks like they will be our most successful games yet.

Regardless of whether you're a hardcore computer RPG player or a console shooter enthusiast, you owe it to yourself to check out both games. They're chock-full of special editions, cross-promotional in-game items, easter eggs, inside jokes, and some of the best stories and character interactions this side of the Final Fantasy series.

It's success like that, that make all the crunch time and sacrifices worthwhile. We do it all for the fans anyway, so to see this groundswell of support and passion for the games is heartening.

Geekery
The main geek event recently was the Pure Speculation Festival, for which I served as Events Coordinator. We have our post-mortem tomorrow, and I don't want to spoil things here that already have in my report, but I'm very pleased with how things turned out. Everyone I talked to had fun, and my part of the event--the discussion panels and presentations--seemed to go without any major hitches, and many of them were standing room only, from the guest of honour panels to the fan films, the science discussions to the pure geekery.

Our guests of honour were, as usual, very entertaining and open to pretty much anything we threw at them: photo ops, autographs, interviews, even joking around with their panel audiences. Rick Green, of Frantics, Red Green, and Prisones of Gravity fame, was a hilarious panelists. I heard that at one of his panels, he told his audience to laugh uproariously whenever a latecomer walked in and he signaled by saying "watermelon." He also posed for a series of pictures where he got annoyed at one of our country music radio station DJs and strangled him. The pictures turned out great!

Our gaming guests of honour love our little convention. Monte Cook, one of the architects of D&D Third Edition, is a huge fan of us and was more than happy to return this year with t-shirts, stories, games, and a "that's what she said" competition with yours truly. He conceded the victory to me. Our other gaming guest of honour was Wolfgang Baur, a designer for Pathfinder. I didn't interact with him very much, but I heard he had a wonderful time and kind of "got" what our geek festival was all about: friendship, community, and sharing one's passions and fandoms.

Our original author guests of honour, Spider and Jeanne Robinson, were unable to make it out this year due to illness, so Regina author Edward Willett stepped up and agreed to be our head honcho on short notice. Along with discussing science and books on some of our panels, he entertained us with song at our preview event. He also donated a very huge prize for our Geeks for Geeks charity auction, the proceeds of which were going to help Jeanne Robinson's fight against cancer. Mr. Willett matched a prize that last year's author guest of honour, Robert J. Sawyer, donated: the winner's name would be used for a character in the author's next book.

Incidentally, speaking of Robert J. Sawyer, is anyone else watching Flash Forward, the ABC drama series based on his science-fiction novel of the same name? It's a pretty awesome premise and differs in all the right ways from the book. Creepy, intriguing, and exciting, that's what I say.

* * *

So there you have it, folks, a summary of the last two months. This upcoming year-end and the next year should be pretty exciting. There are a couple of big projects that I want to either start or start full-scale production on. I'm going to be writing a lot more, and collaborating with at least one good friend, maybe more. More news as it develops.

Things Ninjas Like: The Fringe Festival

Here's the Fringe schedule for Apocalypse Kow. We're on one of the outdoor stages, and we'll be passing the hat after each performance.

TransAlta Power Stage
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Saturday, August 15, 5:15 pm – 6:00 pm
Sunday, August 16, 6:15 pm – 7:00 pm
Monday, August 17, 7:15 pm – 8:00 pm
Tuesday, August 18, 8:15 pm – 9:00 pm
Wednesday, August 19, 9:15 pm – 10:00 pm
Thursday, August 20, 10:15 pm – 11:00 pm
Saturday, August 22, 1:15 pm – 2:00 pm
Sunday, August 23, 2:15 pm – 3:00 pm

Edmonton Journal Stage
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Friday, August 14, 10:15 pm – 11:00 pm
Saturday, August 15, 12:15 pm – 1:00 pm
Sunday, August 16, 1:15 pm – 2:00 pm
Thursday, August 20, 5:15 pm – 6:00 pm
Friday, August 21, 6:15 pm – 7:00 pm
Saturday, August 22, 7:15 pm – 8:00 pm

Things Ninjas Like: Performing

The general anxiety level of this scrappy little ninja has been steadily increasing as the summer progressed. Summer festivals, manpower shortages, intolerable heat, and everything on the "list of stuff I need to do" has added to this anxiety. Add to that my inability to plan or take a decent, honest-to-goodness vacation and my increasing need to take one, and the uncertainty of the nature of--and, indeed, the sheer availability of--future performing opportunities has got me in a bit of a stress meringue pie.

Oh, not as bad as my stress was earlier this year, not by a long shot, but I'm feeling myself pull into my shell more often these days and I have to work at doing things and going out and seeking out my friends. Traditionally, I maintained a wonderful equilibrium between stress and contentment by performing as often as possible. This is one reason Apocalypse Kow has existed for so long. This coping mechanism is also the reason I have a metric truckload of friends on my Facebook: friends met through theatre.

These days, I'm lucky if I get to perform twice a month, and even then, it's one hour of singing over the course of a single evening and it's done. Rehearsals are two hours a week, one hour of which is usually spent in discussion or joking around, and then nothing. Back when I was doing theatre, I could count on at least three rehearsals a week, each for maybe three hours, much of which was spent working. Performances were for at least a couple of night, and could run as long as a week and a half (dark Monday, of course). There were new shows all the time, new people to meet and work with, cast parties, a fresh audience every night, and the sound of all that applause that I could pretend was just for me.

Performing on stage was originally a way to overcome the almost crippling shyness I grew up with, a shyness that sprang from feelings of inferiority, of being different than the people I went to school with. If I didn't grow up with such a huge extended family, I think that shyness could have been even worse. It was also a way to be someone else for a while. I could stop being this short, dumpy, awkward guy who was different and not at all interesting. On stage, however, I could be interesting, attractive, sexy, dynamic, and entertaining.

Gradually I came to lose much of my shyness and feelings of inferiority, but there's still an awkward kid in there somewhere, and the longer I go without performing, the easier it is to hear and listen to him. Due to time constraints and gimpiness, I've had to put theatre on hold for the last couple of years. I miss it terribly, and I hope I can go back to it one day.

The closest I've come to reliving my past theatre glories is the annual Fringe Festival. While not as structured as a regular show, going out on those stages to thrill new audiences with the Apocalypse Kow sound over 10 days feels really good. So if you're in Edmonton, come on out to the Fringe Festival to see Apocalypse Kow. Schedule forthcoming.

Things Ninjas Like: Seafood

The second in a series of updates reminding myself that there are things out there that are good and fun and light and not at all designed to wear me down and punch me in the junk, that life is not tying babies to its shoes and kicking my puppies through plate glass windows, that I am not the target of a major karmic backlash.

Seafood. It's one of the things the whole Ninjafamily can agree on. Except for the Ninjabro, and even he's started coming around these last few years, everyone in my family enjoys seafood. And forget "like." No, this one's a full on love. Love love love, even to the point of lurve. Yes, that's right, I lurve seafood. I may even wuv it thiiiiiiiiiiiiis much, but I'm not willing to admit that in public.

Sushi
Okay, most people, when asked their favourite kind of seafood, will have one of maybe three answers. One of those answers is sushi, which is technically an incorrect answer. But it's my answer, since I like almost everything sushi offers me: bite-sized portions to match my big mouth, the manliness of raw meat, various condiments (who doesn't love a good condiment?) and artistry. Really, I can count the number of times I've ordered a bento box at a Japanese restaurant on two hands, but I'd be hard pressed to count the number of times I've just said "I'm ordering from the all-you-can-eat menu."

Aside from some specific kinds like squid and scallop, which I enjoy prepared nearly any other way, I've enjoyed pretty much every sushi topping I've had a chance to try, from more common fish like salmon and tuna all the way up to various roe, like masago (smelt roe) and tobiko (flying fish roe). I've had crab and clam and eel and even octopus. And yes, I've had vegetables in my sushi, too. Kappa (cucumber) maki is very common, as are mushroom, pickled radishes, avocado and tofu.

Ah, yes, maki. Those rolls of rice and things all wrapped up in seaweed. Endless combinations, including soft-shell crab, shrimp tempura, and some combinations one might not find in Japan. Some examples of maki that originated in the West include the well-known California roll (which was "invented" in the 1960s), the dynamite roll, or up here in beef country, the Alberta roll. That Alberta roll is pretty good, kind of a Japanese take on the Philly cheese steak: shaved, sizzling marinated beef (sometimes with a vegetable) wrapped in rice and seaweed. Once during crunch time at work, we ordered food from both a sushi place and KFC. One of the QA guys dipped his Alberta roll into the KFC gravy, and thought it wasn't bad. For me, the flavours would really collide with each other.

A couple of weekends ago, I went to Moxie's and saw that they had an ahi tuna tartare as one of their feature appetizers. It's practically tuna sushi, I thought, so I ordered it. It turned out to be even better than I imagined. Chunks of tuna sashimi balled up with finely chopped tomato, onion and cilantro, served with bite-sized slices of crusty bread. I can't wait to get back to a Moxie's to have it again.

Preserved fish
I don't know why it is that I like fish every which way but "normal." I like it raw, battered and deep fried, canned, pickled, smoked, kippered, souped, or chowdered. But catch me a fish and serve it to me as a filet, steamed or baked or grilled or poached, and I'm not nearly as keen on it. Sure, I'll eat it, and there are one or two types of fish which I find delicioius this way, but I don't know their names because my parents only knew their Chinese names and couldn't translate. Heck, some of the time they didn't even really know the proper Chinese names for the fish we ate.

But one thing they did know was how to make a decent, thrifty meal, and once I started making my own food, I kept the traditions alive. Anyone can make instant ramen, just toss the noodle brick and the soup base into water and boil it. Done. But can you make it all fancy and meal-like?

When it comes to a boil, crack an egg into the pot and turn the heat off. Cover and let sit for a couple minutes (depending on how firm you like your egg yolk) and voila, you've got noodles with a poached egg. Or, better yet, get a bag of salad and pour some of that intot he pot when the water boils. Cover and let sit for however long you like your vegetables to sit in boiling water. If you like the crunchier texture and taste, don't leave them in as long as you would if you, like me, grew up with soft leafy greens. Or add your favourite prepared meats. I like going to a CHinese BBQ place and getting BBQ pork or BBQ duck. Heck, even a couple of sausages or hot dogs will do for a quickie. (Don't laugh, you put them in mac and cheese, don't you?)

When I was growing up, I'd do the poached egg thing, sure, but I also liked to open a can of preserved dace (that's a fish) with salted black beans. The salty, oily fish made a great complement to the hot noodles and soup. After moving out on my own and doing my own shopping at Chinese supermarkets, I thought I'd try something different, and lo and behold, I could get the same preserved dace with salted black olives or with pickled vegetables! Two new taste sensations!... okay, only one, since the salted black olives were really icky. the pickled vegetables, however, were a big hit. I started branching out and trying other brands of preserved fish, and even found some preserved eel that I enjoyed. It got so that my roommate at the time would comment on my "stinky fish," which he didn't really care for.

But a couple years ago, I discovered that the brand of dace I bought was nowhere to be found. Heck, I couldn't even find preserved dace anywhere. Granted, I only looked at the couple of places with were convenient to me, but they were pretty big places, and I don't know if I could brave the stores in Chinatown with my mother riding shotgun. So since then, I've had to make do with other fish. I've had good success with pomfret and crucian carp, but that's also hard to find now, and I takes my chances whenever I buy mackerel. Is it a whole fish or is it cut up into chunks? Whole fish good, chunks bad. And I can't read the darned labels to be able to tell. Sad, isn't it? So Chinese you're unsure of what I'm eating, and yet not nearly Chinese enough to get by.

Shellfish
I occasionally curse being in Alberta because either coast would serve me better, shellfish-wise. I visit the Keg several times every summer for their Lobster Summer promotion, and I was even duped into visiting Red Lobster restaurants because of their commercials. The difference is that the Keg (usually) makes a great lobster tail, and Red Lobster makes everything really salty. At Chinese banquets, I will usually see lobster and crab, which is one of the reasons I'm going to insist on a Chinese banquet for my wedding. It's just too bad I'm not getting married anytime soon.

I also seem to like mollusks pretty well: clams, mussels, octopus, oyster, squid, scallops, snail. I think I've even had abalone. And it's all good, whether in sushi or chowder or deep fried or baked. Damn, now I'm hungry.

* * *

If you want this ninja to be happy, come have some sushi or seafood with him; he'll be glad of the company. Or find him a source for that brand of dace he used to eat. Something seafood-y.

Things Ninjas Like: TV

Things haven't been okay in Ninjaland, but there's not much that anyone can do about it, even if I were inclined to say what's going on. I'll be able to say more in the coming months, but for right now, I may be more emo than is healthy for me. To try and stay buoyant in these interesting times, I'm going to talk about some of the things I like.

First, television. I was off television for a while, but since Jago got the satellite, it's been pretty darn good. I'm not glued to it all the time, but I generally watch something every night because there are so many interesting shows on. And not just educational or reality programming like Mythbusters or World's Biggest Fixes or Dirty Jobs or Hell's Kitchen. No, I'm talking good old-fashioned fiction. Here are some of the shows I like watching on television (first-run, as opposed to DVDs, but including shows we PVR), in no particular order:

The Unusuals
This ensemble cop show isn't as dark or edgy as other cop shows out there, but it's a whole lot of fun. Take a whole bunch of characters, each with his or her own little secret, and pair them up on a squad that deals with cases that aren't your regular cup of tea, like the old man on a crime spree, the murder of a nude guy running down the street, or maybe investigating a porn producer who breaks into people's houses to film his movies.

Cast includes Amber Tamblyn of Traveling Pants fame as a super-rich girl who worked hard to become a darn good cop and tried to hide her origins and family from her compatriots. And Harold Perrineau from "Lost? and "Oz" as a superstitious cop who believes he'll die some time in the next year, so he tries to protect himself at all times with a bulletproof vest and lots of hand sanitizer.

It's light, the characters have great interactions with one another, and it's been renewed for next season.

Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire
Yeah, I know. You've just yelled "What?!" at your screen. But I assure you I haven't gone 'round the bed. This is a new Comedy Central series that's just appeared in Canada. It's a fantasy romp about a "chosen one" that knows it's a fantasy romp about a "chosen one." It doesn't take itself very seriously at all, making all the obvious jokes (and some not-so-obvious) a group would make around the D&D table. Even the party composition is some kind of cliche.

There's Krodford J. Mandoon, the guy with the flaming sword. He's pretty straightforward--he's got the magic sword and is destined to lead the Reistsance against the evil Emperor (or the Chancellor, the Emperor's local representative). Krod's main lackey is a big dumb brute who can't aim a crossbow worth a damn. More often than not, he manages to hit Krod. Another party member is the sorcerer, whose story we don't know yet but it seems pretty obvious that he might not have as much magical ability as Krod thinks he does. He's also the wise-cracking black sidekick. Krod's girlfriend is pagan, which in this universe means sexually uninhibited. She has the uncanny ability to accomplish theings with sex and is the kind of character that all teenaged geeks wish geek girls would play. Finally, there's the new addition to the team: Bruce, the gay Hispanic bard lover of the late leader of the resistance.

Together, they fight the evil Chancellor, hilariously played by Matt Lucas of Little Britain, whose whims can determine the life or death of pretty much anyone around him. The Chancellor is working on decoding an ancient artifact with enormous destructive powers, so of course it's important that Krod and the gang stop him.

I didn't think I was going to like this show, but once the narrator (Chris Parnell of SNL and Dr. Spaceman on 30 Rock) started making wry comments about what was going on, I was kinda sold. It's fun and funny and should appeal to anyone who likes simple humour, dick jokes, and epic adventures but is too lazy to sit through all of the extended edition of Fellowship of the Ring.

NCIS
All right, I admit it. I'm an old man. How else can you explain why I love the same show that grampas like? I can't explain it either, but every time it's on I try to tune in, even if I've seen the episode before. It gets a little easier to turn away if I've seen the episode more than three times before, but even then I probably have the show on in the background.

What do I like about it? It's a procedural, which I find myself enjoying because I don't have to put a lot of energy into watching it, but it's also a show about an enforcement agency that most people aren't familiar with. The Naval Criminal Investiagtive Service deals mostly with naval crimes and crimes involving naval peresonnel and Marines. And that's all you need to know about the technical side of the show.

The rest is pure cop show with a little more military flavour, and the characters are just fun. Mark Harmon kicks a lot of ass as the quietly competent, almost preternaturally disciplined head of the group. Michael Weatherly from "Dark Angel" is the cocky one, who spent half the episode through an entire season on an undercover mission to get involved with the daughter of an international arms dealer. Usually, he's lording his senior agent status over the others or trying to keep Mark Harmon's character happy. Rounding out the squad are: a rookie agent who's both a computer expert as well as a well known (under a pseudonym) and successful author; a beautiful yet deadly agent on loan fron the Israeli Mossad; and the supporting characters, a sexy goth-inspired forensics tech and a doctor.

The show is a spinoff from J.A.G., and even has its own sequel in the works, NCIS: Los Angeles, where the likes of Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J will be doing undercover work for an NCIS office in L.A.

Castle
Nathan Fillion's show, so you should watch it for that alone. He's a very successful author who assists in a police investigation of a serial killer whose M.O. matches those in his books. As his latest book kills off his long-running main protagonist, he requests to be attached to the squad (and the hot detective) under the guise of research for his next protagonist, who will be based on the hot detective.

Back at home, he lives with his studious daughter who, in a bit of a switch, is the sane one while he is the reckless one. He also lives with his former Broadway star mother, a nosy woman who enjoys the good things in life and misses the limelight.

Not much else to say about it. Just check it out, since it's been renewed.

* * *

That's not everything I like on TV, but they're shows you might not have considered in your usual channel flipping.

Critters' last day

For the last 5 months or so--pretty much since the weather turned warm again--the house has seen (or, more appropriately, not seen) a bunch of bugs crawling to and fro, usually to a couple of the occupants all snug in their beds and fro the same couple of occupants after taking a bite out of them. Don't worry, visitors to the House of Style, they only come out at night.

After much stress, sleepless nights, maddening itchiness, and growing anger at the circumstances which allowed this problem to remain unresolved for so long, we finally got in touch with an exterminator who should be arriving at the house in about nine hours. Hey ninja, I hear you say into your futuristic speech-to-text virtual reality cybermodule implanted in your brain, if the exterminator's going to be there soon, why aren't you asleep? That's a good question, future man. For the last couple of days (nights, really), I've been going through my bedroom to clean it up all nice and clear-like for the exterminators to get into as many nooks, crannies, holes, gaps, and crevices they can so that they can Take 10 (at least) on their Exterminate Bug skill check.

I really wish I could have cleaned the room enough for them to Take 20, but I severely underestimated just how much junk accumulates in a house full of geeks over the years, not to mention how infrequently I look in my closet. Like with spring cleaning, I looked over pretty much every single thing in my room to decide whether or not I could toss it. If I didn't realize I had it, or if I didn't even miss it, into the trash it went. If I felt some kind of nostalgia for it, it stayed, but in a much more efficient storage space. I did pretty well, I think. Four large trash bags full of trash that will no longer be cluttering up my room. So our rooms are mostly cleared now, except for one room which is totally cleared as it's the bugs' suspected spawn point, and any space that's not going to be fully exterminated, like the kitchen, is where we're keeping all the stuff. Unfortunately, we can't clear off every shelf because we've got no place to put their contents, and we can't move every piece of furniture away from the wall because we'd have no place to walk. I just hope it's enough to allow me a full night's sleep again, and a full week without my arms and legs looking like a mouse has been mining for gold there with a tiny, adorable pickax.

It's been especially maddening because last weekend, I had an allergic reaction to an overdose of anti-itch lotion. Yeah, the irony of that wasn't pleasing at all. So I haven't been using my anti-itch lotion at all, which means I've been itching. And that means I'm being bitten.

So here's to a successful fumigation and a critter-free house. I hope.

Back up

Not only has my knee gotten much better in the last week, I've also exhausted my major time commitments for the time being. Apocalypse Kow is done except for a wedding gig and the Fringe, but that's a couple months away. I'll be able to sleep again now that I'm less stressed and, hopefully, our bug problem is finally on the wane. And aside from some kerfuffle with the family, life is back on track. I don't remember summer being this busy and stressful.

Oh yeah, and I've got some vacation time coming up. Nothing special, but I hope it'll be enough to get by on until I can take the rest of my sabbatical time (25 days) and vacation (40 days).

And you know what a less stressed ninja means? That's right, more updates! Coming up: BioWare's successful showing at the Electronics Entertainment Expo, game updates, and more Apocalypse Kow.

Down for another weekend

One would think that it would be difficult to be down for two consecutive weekends, especially with the gimpiness. Sadly, not so. After a weekend of relative mobility--albeit slow, painful, and cane-filled--yesterday's knees were filled with bad. And it didn't seem to matter whether I had my tensor on, my giant steam-powered clockwork knee brace, or no support at all, I still had trouble putting any kind of pressure on it. Even gravity was punching the knee in the junk, it seemed.

It all came to a head last night, with the wailing and gnashing of teeth and taking entire minutes to come to a sitting position that didn't require me to cry for a medic. Also sadly, no medics in the house. The Dorklord may be well versed in first aid, but a) this isn't really first-aid-related, and b) he's housesitting for the Tartan Avengers for a couple of weeks.

So this is the week that will, if not kill me, make me wish I were a robot.I've got the slideshow to take care of, the guilt of making the Jago take care of not only me but outside stuff that needs taking care of, a very important concert to put on, and a wedding to attend. Oh yeah, and let's not forget all that work I have to catch up on if and when I can actually go in and this knee thing to deal with in the meantime.

Let's get the important stuff out of the way first. The Apoocalypse Kow 10th Anniversary Concert (and Slideshow) will be held othis Saturday, June 20, at the Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre at 7:30pm. Tickets are $18/$15 and are available at the door or from your favourite member of Apocalypse Kow. Local a cappella group Epsilon are our special guests.