You ever have those moments where you'll be in a public place, hear a song, thoroughly enjoy that song, and realize the only way you're going to hear that song again is by complete fluke? Well, this happens pretty regularly in my life and I've slowly been combating it - with SoundHound at my side.
For those of you who don't know, SoundHound is like having your own personal music snob, in your pocket, at all times (only he's not pretentious and won't embarrass you). Thanks to SoundHound, I've been blaring these two songs since Friday:
It's also nice to not be ridiculed by Matt Williams and Sterling Shanski when you don't know a song's artist.
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Saturday 2 March 2013
Thursday 28 February 2013
Off topic: Pay it Forward
No, not that.
This blog post is about real life. This afternoon I was on my way to school and I made a quick stop at the Tim Hortons on Henderson Highway. I ordered my usual, large double-double and got my toonie ready to pay. When I got to the window and offered my toonie to the cashier she shook her head and waved her hand in front of her chest.
"No, no - it's ok", she said.
I looked at her, thoroughly confused.
"No, I ordered a large double-double", I said.
She smiled.
"That woman pay for you", she replied, as she pointed at a blue SUV that was just pulling away from the drive-thru.
Needless to say, I couldn't help but smile. What a nice thing to do. CBC Radio had a feature story a few months ago about people in Winnipeg 'Paying it Forward'. I hadn't really given it a second thought - until now.
I fully intend to 'Pay it Forward' the very next opportunity I get. I challenge you to do the same.
Tuesday 26 February 2013
The War Z
Ahhh yes, the most hated game on the Internet. If you're a gamer and haven't heard about The War Z, well... you're probably not a very committed gamer. There's a hundred reasons why The War Z is the most hated game on the Internet, but I'll only touch on the major ones.
The game works like this, in a nutshell:
1) You spawn in with one of five characters.
2) Look at your map, determine where you are, head to a point on the map.
3) Collect items/fight zombies/kill other players and take their stuff in that location until you're bored.
4) You head to one of three safe zones (place on the map where you can't shoot or be killed) or some other area where it's safe to log out from (you will spawn back in that exact same location on any server after an hour has passed).
5) If you made it to a safe zone, you can transfer the items/weapons from your character into your global inventory (your stockpile of items that you can transfer between characters).
6) Go to bed because it's 4 a.m.
The War Z is a FPS/TPS MMO (first person shooter/third person shooter massively multiplayer online game). It's (kind of) the first of it's kind. I say 'kind of' because technically Day Z came out first, but that game is just an Arma 2 mod that's terribly user unfriendly. But don't worry, Day Z is set to take the stage with their stand-alone version of the confusingly popular Arma 2 mod and learn from The War Z's mistakes - fanboys everywhere are patiently trolling War Z forums as we speak.
People have been screaming for a game like this for years, so why has it quickly become the most despised game ever?
This is Sergey Titov. He is the executive producer of The War Z. He's come under fire from gamers everywhere who've criticized his credibility, work ethic, and inappropriate comments. Sergey used to make announcements about the game and give updates - not so much anymore (must have a PR team that makes smart recommendations!).
But let's talk about the actual game. If the game was good, like, really good - people should have no trouble getting past the fact that the game's producer is kind of a dummy, right?
Well, it's not. I've been playing this game since mid-December, and I'm honestly shocked at some of the stuff that took so long to fix - and the stuff that simply hasn't been fixed at all.
Here's a good example:
Notice the date on this: November 28, 2012! Most of these glitches still work today. Literally, by running into certain spots on some buildings, you are teleported on top of them - just like in real life!
Or this one:
You can actually spawn in, take a few steps backwards (or hide behind a tree) and camp that exact location, waiting for people to spawn in. Since there's a rough 2-4 second delay from the time where your character physically loads into the game to where you can move - you're pretty much helpless.
NOTE: While I think spawn camping is pathetic and childish, I fully endorse it until they fix it. How else do things get fixed?
There's countless other things wrong, so I'll try to make a condensed list of all the ones I can think of:
-You can't consolidate magazines (e.g. I have a mag with 17 rounds and a mag with 13 rounds - I can't make a 30 round magazine)
-Still no 'Friends' function within the game
-Zombies constantly glitch up objects and barricades and kill you
-The game is literally rampant with hackers and not much progress has been made in combating them - other than a system called FairFight which is terrible
-The Marketplace (place where you purchase items with in-game or purchased currency) prices are still out to lunch
-The in-game chat log doesn't have a time stamp
-Zombies are sometimes completely silent
-I can climb a tree by repeatedly jumping and running at it
-Weird lag occurs after you kill someone
-They added 'vaults' to safe zones where you can access your global inventory in-game instead of logging out but placed them so far from the edge of the safe zone that it takes less time to log out and log back in
A more comprehensive list can be found here.
With all that being said, I enjoy the game. I do. It's fun to play with some buddies and run around killing people for their gear. It's fun to coordinate a raid on a zombie infested military base. It's fun to collect rare items. It's fun to spawn camp people and watch them flip out in the chat log.
My point is, I'm going to keep playing until something better comes along. And by the looks of the Day Z developer diary, that won't be for awhile.
The game works like this, in a nutshell:
1) You spawn in with one of five characters.
2) Look at your map, determine where you are, head to a point on the map.
3) Collect items/fight zombies/kill other players and take their stuff in that location until you're bored.
4) You head to one of three safe zones (place on the map where you can't shoot or be killed) or some other area where it's safe to log out from (you will spawn back in that exact same location on any server after an hour has passed).
5) If you made it to a safe zone, you can transfer the items/weapons from your character into your global inventory (your stockpile of items that you can transfer between characters).
6) Go to bed because it's 4 a.m.
The War Z is a FPS/TPS MMO (first person shooter/third person shooter massively multiplayer online game). It's (kind of) the first of it's kind. I say 'kind of' because technically Day Z came out first, but that game is just an Arma 2 mod that's terribly user unfriendly. But don't worry, Day Z is set to take the stage with their stand-alone version of the confusingly popular Arma 2 mod and learn from The War Z's mistakes - fanboys everywhere are patiently trolling War Z forums as we speak.
People have been screaming for a game like this for years, so why has it quickly become the most despised game ever?
This is Sergey Titov. He is the executive producer of The War Z. He's come under fire from gamers everywhere who've criticized his credibility, work ethic, and inappropriate comments. Sergey used to make announcements about the game and give updates - not so much anymore (must have a PR team that makes smart recommendations!).
But let's talk about the actual game. If the game was good, like, really good - people should have no trouble getting past the fact that the game's producer is kind of a dummy, right?
Well, it's not. I've been playing this game since mid-December, and I'm honestly shocked at some of the stuff that took so long to fix - and the stuff that simply hasn't been fixed at all.
Here's a good example:
Notice the date on this: November 28, 2012! Most of these glitches still work today. Literally, by running into certain spots on some buildings, you are teleported on top of them - just like in real life!
Or this one:
You can actually spawn in, take a few steps backwards (or hide behind a tree) and camp that exact location, waiting for people to spawn in. Since there's a rough 2-4 second delay from the time where your character physically loads into the game to where you can move - you're pretty much helpless.
NOTE: While I think spawn camping is pathetic and childish, I fully endorse it until they fix it. How else do things get fixed?
There's countless other things wrong, so I'll try to make a condensed list of all the ones I can think of:
-You can't consolidate magazines (e.g. I have a mag with 17 rounds and a mag with 13 rounds - I can't make a 30 round magazine)
-Still no 'Friends' function within the game
-Zombies constantly glitch up objects and barricades and kill you
-The game is literally rampant with hackers and not much progress has been made in combating them - other than a system called FairFight which is terrible
-The Marketplace (place where you purchase items with in-game or purchased currency) prices are still out to lunch
-The in-game chat log doesn't have a time stamp
-Zombies are sometimes completely silent
-I can climb a tree by repeatedly jumping and running at it
-Weird lag occurs after you kill someone
-They added 'vaults' to safe zones where you can access your global inventory in-game instead of logging out but placed them so far from the edge of the safe zone that it takes less time to log out and log back in
A more comprehensive list can be found here.
With all that being said, I enjoy the game. I do. It's fun to play with some buddies and run around killing people for their gear. It's fun to coordinate a raid on a zombie infested military base. It's fun to collect rare items. It's fun to spawn camp people and watch them flip out in the chat log.
My point is, I'm going to keep playing until something better comes along. And by the looks of the Day Z developer diary, that won't be for awhile.
Saturday 23 February 2013
Off topic: Demoted
I'm a huge fan of David Cross. I get pissed when he's not mentioned as one of the greatest stand-up comedians in history. Needless to say, I see all of his movies regardless of how bad they look, except Chipwrecked (Cross told Conan's audience specifically NOT to see it). I check his IMDB page periodically to see what he's up to - which is how I came across Demoted.
Basically, the movie is a huge pile of crap. I can't say enough terrible things about it. Half the cast can't act, most of the punch lines fall flat, the story is absurd and the ending is predictable.
All that being said, David Cross's humour does manage to peek through some of the crap - as with most of the questionable movies he acts in.
I'll leave this one on a good note.
Monday 15 October 2012
How to beat* your cold - five easy tips.
I've noticed a lot of people around school getting sick lately so I thought I'd help out my fellow man (and woman), by writing five of my best keep secrets about waging war on the common cold. After you read this, you'll be shocked and delighted at how easy it is to celebrate victory over that nasty bug.
1. Drink as much green tea and orange juice as humanly possible.
NOTE: Vomiting is simply your body's way of telling you it has enough nutrients, and now it's time to rest.
Simple! Just drink as much as you can until you feel better. The time it takes you to get better is directly proportional to how much green tea and orange juice you drink -- the two healthiest things on the planet. If you failed to follow tip one, and are now in full fledged sickness (or don't like green tea and orange juice), please read on.
2. Hang around as many healthy people as you can.
It's basic science: you have a limited number of gross sick germs crawling all over you when you're sick -- by hanging around healthy people, the germs your harboring won't be able to resist a fresh host and they'll leave you (naturally making you less sick) and infect others. "But Aaron, won't my friends and family get sick?" Of course they will! But not for long if they follow tip one.Don't be afraid to go big! A well landed sneeze will get several million bacteria out of your body at once.
NOTE: As a rule of thumb, don't sneeze on anyone bigger than you. I've seen tip two go wrong very quickly.
3. If you do heroin, stop doing heroin.
Heroin is a bad drug. Don't do it. Don't watch Jersey Shore either.4. Hit up your local tanning salon.
When you tan, the harmful UV rays that cause skin cancer will also kill any bacteria crawling on your body... or mutate them into super-bugs -- I really can't remember. Only do this one if you REALLY need to.5. Hold in ALL bodily functions - then release.
Remember what I said about your body having a limited number of germs? Here's what you do: don't urinate, defecate, blow your nose, vomit, spit, cry, anything -- until you feel like you can't hold anything anymore. Then, release everything at once (make sure you're near a toilet) and go straight to tip one.Basically, what you're doing is tricking the infection. You let it build up its little nasty germ army, then you get rid of the entire force in one fell swoop! It's brilliant, I know. And by going back to tip one, you ensure killing any last stragglers that might've.. not quite made it out.
*These methods may not work as well for you as they did for me. Use with caution.
Friday 14 September 2012
Off topic: Silent film project
Yesterday, a classmate of mine and myself shot our brilliant rendition of a story I wrote for Creative Writing last semester. We had some very talented friends come down to help us out (only because we promised free beer, unfortunately). Since we both love The Roots, we chose one of their songs to use for our video. The video will be up shortly, stay tuned!
Friday 7 September 2012
Individual Professional Project: Bannerman
In the second year of Creative Communications, each student is required to complete a huge project of their choosing. Projects can be a variety of different things: writing a book, fundraising for a company, shooting a documentary, or re-branding an organization. I chose to write, film, direct, and edit my own web based comedy series entitled Bannerman.
Bannerman follows Eric, a naive young man who causes tension between himself and his parents. Eric eventually gets kicked out of his house and is quickly thrust into a world where he is forced to grow up. He moves in with CJ, a socially awkward narcissist.
At the end of second semester, last year, I posted audition notices around the city. Auditions were held in June of this year. I found some great local talent to be a part of my creation. Scripts were finished in August, and we are scheduled to shoot our first episode this weekend.
Cast list:
Don (Eric's father): Rick Genisorek
Laura (Eric's mother): Cheryl Genisorek
Eric: Nick Petuhoff
Jane (Eric's friend): Jessica Cuddy
CJ: Lucas Brazeau
Earl (an interesting homeless man): Ward Massner
Extra: Bridget Young
Also, I'd like to extend a huge thank you to Owen Swinn and Matthew TenBruggencate for helping me out with auditions. I look forward to working with all of you.
Bannerman follows Eric, a naive young man who causes tension between himself and his parents. Eric eventually gets kicked out of his house and is quickly thrust into a world where he is forced to grow up. He moves in with CJ, a socially awkward narcissist.
At the end of second semester, last year, I posted audition notices around the city. Auditions were held in June of this year. I found some great local talent to be a part of my creation. Scripts were finished in August, and we are scheduled to shoot our first episode this weekend.
Cast list:
Don (Eric's father): Rick Genisorek
Laura (Eric's mother): Cheryl Genisorek
Eric: Nick Petuhoff
Jane (Eric's friend): Jessica Cuddy
CJ: Lucas Brazeau
Earl (an interesting homeless man): Ward Massner
Extra: Bridget Young
Also, I'd like to extend a huge thank you to Owen Swinn and Matthew TenBruggencate for helping me out with auditions. I look forward to working with all of you.
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