we will mail 4 u

Really really busy today. Got about ten copies of a junk email today with the subject header "We will mail 4 U". The return address was obviously junk (nonsense letters), and the only way to get off their mailing list is to phone a long-distance number ("and keep trying if it's busy!"). Grmbl. The tips I picked up on the Spam Filter Page seem to be virtually useless. After installing the suggested filters five days ago, only two (2) junk emails got filtered. Sigh. Back to the drawing board.
Discovered a neat new feature of Eudora (my mailing program)...timed email messages. Useful for sending email reminders at specified dates/times (including to myself: "Get offline and do something physical! Now!" :-) ). This sort of thing is only useful for someone who's online a lot. Like me. :) Finished answering the interview questions for the Winnipeg Free Press; hope I didn't sound like too much of an idiot. Canadian postal strike is still on; I'm finding it a bit of a pain because it means I can't send/receive cheques and contracts. Hope the strike doesn't last too long, at least for the sake of those who rely on snailmail for income.

buffalo visit

Visited with Rand & Tanya Bellavia this past weekend, came away with far more stuff than when I arrived, including two jars of Milky Way (thanks, Diana!). R & T introduced me to three new Jelly Belly (tm) flavours and several new Ben & Jerry's flavours as well. Yum. Visited Doug at Watchmen Studios and bought a Fledgling Death t-shirt! Saw and loved The Tall Guy. Found out Rand's secret nickname. Went to the Erasure concert last night with my friends Reid, Luisa, Bronwyn, & Craig...great fun! Also, have discovered a new taste sensation courtesy my penpal-friend Fox: Banana-Flaky Sandwich (made from sliced bananas and a crushed Flaky chocolate bar between two slices of bread...YUM!)

starship troopers review

Sent out Inklings. Jeff and I went to see Starship Troopers last night, by the way. We actually meant to see Alien Resurrection as listed in the Eye Movie Listings, but turns out some of those listings are for movies that start on Friday. Anyway, I must confess that we both enjoyed Starship Troopers. Partly because we went in with such low expectations, and partly (for me, anyway) I'd never read the original novel so wasn't horrified at the butchering I'm sure the movie did. Anyway, I actually think it could be a fun flick if you don't take it seriously. Two-dimensional characters, corny dialogue (my favourite line was, "Rico, you killed dem Bugs good!"), plethora of cliches, simplistic plot, incredible special effects. A comment we overheard from another viewer summarized it perfectly: "...the most expensive B movie ever made." Lots of extremely graphic and gory deaths of both Bugs and humans, probably not for the squeamish. I'm usually in the squeamish category, but the grisly effects were so over the top and the nodpm (number of deaths per minute) so high that I suppose I became numb to all the violence. Plus I never got attached to any of the Barbie Doll characters, so their gruesome demises didn't really affect me. I found myself laughing through a great deal of the movie, esp. at the inane dialogue. Jeff thinks the script was intentionally cheesy; I'm not so sure. Anyway, whatever you do, don't go to this flick expecting to get a serious sf movie. [Update 5:38 PM ] Speaking of bugs, I seem to have gotten one. :-(

ovff report

Time difference is still giving me some problems...woke up at 5 am this morning, worked online for a few hours, crashed again for a couple more hours. Anyway, the UT OVFF report is finally up! I ended up writing the report instead of Allison because her computer ate hers. :-( She did add a bunch of comments, though. Apologies for the weird scratches on the scanned pics...I need to get my portable scanner fixed. The report is at http://www.inkspot.com/blatherings/articles/ovff97report.html. Went to Fune with Mark and Jeff last night for sushi, yum. Major snow in Toronto this morning! Upcoming 1998 UT schedule: It's a definite for Confusion! We'll be doing a kids' concert there as well as a joint concert/jam with Ookla The Mok. Should be lots of fun. :-) Our other confirmed cons next year so far are Contata and FilKONtario.

conversation with sara

Ugh, sick. Allison's sick, too, so UT practice has been cancelled tonight. Anyone out there in Winnipeg? Apparently a version of my interview appeared in Tuesday's issue of the Winnipeg Free Press (in the Internet column by Garth A. Buchholz). Moments before writing this, I got email congratulating me on being chosen Cool Central Site of the Hour. Like most "net awards", it strongly encouraged me to post an award logo on my main page (which would, of course, be linked back to their website). I tend to ignore these types of awards, but was curious about this one because of its hourly choice. Did someone REALLY choose a site every hour? Upon checking the URL (http://www.coolcentral.com/hour/), however, I discovered that although the site was indeed linked to Inkspot, it was linked to the OLD URL. I've had a forwarding "Inkspot has moved" link there since March. This makes me suspect that the Cool Central Site of the Hour is somehow automated, going through some massive list of (outdated) URLs without any sort of judging process involved. (Momentary pause). Hey, my 3 year old niece just called. Here's how the conversation went:

ME: "Hello?"
(silence)
ME (guessing quickly): "Hello, Sara?"
SARA: Hi.
ME: How are you, Sara?
SARA: Fine. Guess what?
ME: What?
SARA: Annie just spit up food all over herself, and all over Mommy!
ME: Wow, sounds like she made a mess.
SARA: Yeah! And then she rubbed it in her hair! (giggles in delight)
ME: Very very messy!
SARA: What do you call a cow that eats grass?
ME: I give up.
SARA: A lawn-mooer! HAHAHAHAHAHA.
ME: HAHAHAHA. That's a good joke.
SARA: Bye.
ME: Bye! Thank you for calling, Sara.