I'm back.. sort of.

This part of my blogging life is still dead. For academic purposes, I've started another blg located here called "Blogging Because I Should". This new blog will likely be more focused on world issues and events, with the occasional new thought or idea mixed in. If you want to read it, cool. If not, that's cool too.

It's true.

All spelling errors aside, it's true this time.
I'd say more, but I think all three of you who read this understand.

Ladies and gentlemen, LosRicos has left the building.

1997 - 2007
Ten years ain't half bad.

Backyard Camping I go.

I don' t think you're ever too old for it. Especially when TheWife™ had never gone. Consider this a practice run before my Cottage Week vacation on the French River. We don't have to sleep outside-- I just think it'll be easier as there are 13 confirmations so far. Besides, I don't mind sleeping and whizzing outside. S'all good.
Actually, I'd like to go on a "real" camping trip at some point this summer. By "real," I'm referring to a campground that has bathing facilities on premise.

I believe I've seen it all on the Gardener Expressway. This week while driving to work I saw some schmuck eating a bowl of cereal while driving. A BOWL OF CEREAL! Seriously. What's wrong with people? I hope one day the milk lands all over his lap and it looks like he got a little too friendly with himself in the bathroom.
I actually learned the (and I use this term loosely) joys of driving home from downtown Toronto at 4 in the afternoon. I learned it thrice, and I wish not to learn it again. I was close to losing it a few times, ready to let lose a barrage of fists against the ceiling of my car. I can't do this again. Maybe I can switch it to a 7 - 3 shift when I have to do this shift again in eight weeks or so.

I'm still playing Second Life. I like it, because I'm learning new things. There are so many intricacies and new things to explore there. It's like what if the internet went 3-D. I don't know how much longer my infatuation with the virtual world will last, but hopefully I'll continue to enjoy it for a while longer. It's a getaway without having to get away.

Mingle² - Online Dating

This one really caught my eye, and is a nice reprieve from what has become the Facebook mayhem of donkey dung.
So rated PG. Shitty. But sure beats the hell out of G (HA HA Daejin)

New Toys

As some of you may know (I believe I've likely talked about it enough), I'll be going on a cottage trip towards the end of July (19th, to be exact). This is an annual affair that I haven't been able to attend in four years. Now comes lucky number 5 (?). This year's turnout promises to be pretty large. As such, TheWife™ and I went out today and bought a new tent. Tents have come a long way since the last one I had (when I was somewhere in and around 13). It so was super easy to assemble, and it also came with two sleeping bags, a light, a beverage cooler, and a convenient carry-all bag for all this camping goodness.
The wife has never owned a tent, and is very excited about the prospect of sleeping outside. So much, in fact, that she wanted to sleep outside tonight. I convinced her otherwise. We'll have our chance soon enough.

What's been keeping me even busier, and I hate to say this, is Second Life. For those of you who are blissfully unaware, I'll provide a brief explanation.. courtesy of Wikipedia.

Second Life (abbreviated as SL) is an Internet-based virtual world which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007. Developed by Linden Research, Inc (commonly referred to as Linden Lab), a downloadable client program enables its users, called "Residents", to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another.

This is actually the first time I read the wiki-blurb.. and strangely enough I drew a similar comparison, which is the strikingly similarities to the virtual world Linden Labs provides, and that which was written by Neil Stephenson in Snow Crash. It really is a virtual world with no real winners or losers. It's what it's name implies.
What's blowing my mirrored nature of it all. An exchangeable currency to the US Dollar, real estate, "live" entertainment and clubs, red-light districts. It's really an amazing effort and rather bedazzling. Move over facebook, I'm somebody else's bitch now.

Good stuff.

Like any good music store, the iTMS will have sales. I jumped on the opportunity and downloaded three albums. What seems to be most listened to at this point is Foo Fighters most recent offering-- Skin and Bones. The 15 tracks on this album are all live acoustic tracks recorded live at the Pantages theatre in LA. I've always been a fan of their acoustic work, and this album exemplifies it all. A good listen if you're a fan of the Foo.

I seem to get these random compulsions to upload a bunch of photos to Facebook. Just before I sat down here (I didn't really move.. I'm still in my decrepit office chair) I went through something like 25-30 pictures and thought I would share with everyone. It appears I'm still owned by Facebook. Any guesses as to how long it'll be before some major corporation buys them?

Hobbystar Marketing has taken TheWife's™ and my money, which means we'll be exhibitors for the Artist's Ally at the Hobbystar FanExpo 2007. This, for lack of better adjectives, is awesome. Sunflower is is super excited, as am I. We hoped to go last year, but all the tables were taken by the time I thought about it. It was probably better that way though, since we have that many more Anime Oil Paintings to display. We'd be thrilled if people came down to see us, but I guess it depends all on how much geekdom you can handle. Myself, I will be in my element.

I should put something here.

Listening to:
Tarantula from the album "Tarantula - Single" by Smashing Pumpkins

It's all about my personally felt obligation to put something on the blog. It's what brings me back here each time. Suffer with me.

There's actually quite a lot for me to talk about.
I downloaded the full season of Heroes, after the barrage of praise the show got from those around me who'd actually seen it. I'd never buy the DVD upon it's release, nor rent it, so I don't feel as though I've done anything wrong. If anything, it simply ensured that I'll tune in next year to watch it. Besides, I don't have any intention of keeping it on the hard drive, or backing it up. I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

If Heroes was crack, I'd be a junkee. 'Nuff said.

***
I'd been wanting to pick up the book for a long time. I almost picked it up during a day trip to Hong Kong, although I was afraid of what might happen to me if I got caught bringing back across the border to the mainland. I saw it at Chapters @ 20% off-- I couldn't say no this time.
Mao - The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday is an unauthorized biography about Mao Tse Tung, the not so founding member of the Chinese Communist Party--one fact that you'll find within this books pages. Also within it's covers is some 150 pages of bibliographical references. I guess you could say this book was well researched.
Grindy gave me The Templars to read while I was off to China, but in all honesty, I don't think I got more then ten pages into it. This book, however, has me hooked. Likely because it's of a topic that's a little closer to me, given my time in China, not to mention my wife. It's powerfully written, although it's a little more than obvious that there's a little bias in there. Despite that, it's an interesting read. It'll be the first biographical/historical book that I've actually read. Heck, it made me put down "Neuromancer" by William Gibson. It's that good. If you're interested in modern historical reading at all, this book is definitely worth checking out.

A bit of a spoiler here-- Mao dies.

"Mao: the Unknown Story" (Jung Chang, Jon Halliday)