Pontiac is dead.

General Motors announced two things today. That Pontiac is dead and that they plan to pay off United States Government Loans with stock options.

Back when Oldsmobile was killed, it was sad, but only from a car guy's perspective. To the average man or woman it was a blip, inconsequential. Olds products were re-branded and moved over to other GM divisions. GM killed Oldsmobile because Olds had lost it's image. To this day I have trouble seeing in my mind what Oldsmobile represented.

GM killing Pontiac is different, it represents more then the loss of a brand, it represents a cultural shift. A dangerous shift as I see it. It was done for petty reasons, to show progress to a system that is blind to all but two things. The next four years and how they will look when those years are up. It is a shortsighted system, a dangerous system that only works because a massive bureaucracy holds it together. GM has no such bureaucracy to make momentum, it looks to its leaders, owners and CEOs, for direction, to customers for validation and this is all being taken away.

A government will own GM.

We are all less for it.

Before you shout out that GM built it's house and has to live in it, remember that GM is suffering because it is fulfilling its debts to the people who made it great. Pensioners, the 55% of the automotive workforce in the 60s and 70s who are not retired. GM is holding to its duty to them.

It is my fear that as GM gives it self away to political committees its dedication to the past will fade. GM is supposed to be America's Car company for the American Man and now it will be the Government of America's Car company for the purposes of keeping elected men in power.

Now they say kill Pontiac, you still have Chevrolet, don't compete with yourself. Soon it will be you need this car. This is what you are allowed to buy.

What do we loose next, Corvette? Camaro? Will we end up with only the Volt, the Volt II and the Volt III to choose from?

We buy what we want. That is how it is supposed to be.

Instead we made a house of loans, debt, lies and irresponsibility.

We are less for it.

Go buy a Pontiac; they're like the Dodo, there will be a last one.

All because of stupidity.

I am sad for us all.

Will

I got a Twitter account

Check it out here if you want.

Twitter I may adopt it, may not but we'll have to see it being able to do a text to anyone is worth it.

Will

The summer plan

This is the List of the summer projects.


Build a stage for the May 24, with power.

Build a 48 by 32 garage

Drive the new tractor around and around

Get a job!

Rebuild the engine of the Buick

Go LSR in Maine in August

Go Drag Racing twice this summer

See a Shuttle Launch

Teach the Nephews how to be men

And do Family stuff.

Directed a Video Today

Made this with one of my friends, for a school project, or at the least a small part of a school project. Enjoy.

Creativity

The thing about creativity is that it doesn't come with an on switch.

I'll miss a nights sleep because the thinker won't shut down, and I'll stare at a screen for a day without so much as a word written out.

I know I write well, and I know I write interesting but consistency is an issue.

Imagine if I could hammer things out on demand, spell words like demand without making three attempts to hit the right combination of keys.

I know, I win at typing.

I should have payed attention in school, or maybe I shouldn't have taken french immersion from kindergarten to grade ocho. That really fucked up my spelling skills.

Back on topic, I wish I could be creative all the time, and I wish when I wanted to vegetate I could without problems.

More

Thought Vortex

I think everyone has adown times and up times.

I think this is a normal pattern.

Today was a down day, I dropped a class for the first time in over a year, not because it was hard but simply because I knew that I can't maintain interest in it.

I need to focus my thoughts, improve things, make better.

And all I can produce is apathy. Useless pointless uncaring apathy.

I'm fucked right now, but I rebound fast.

One hundred percent sooner then later.

Will

A quick test.

Here's the deal, look at this animation to the left, without using Google whats the solution?

I'll give only one hint, if you're a math geek your chances of solving the problem is easier.




And if your wondering what the problem is, how is the empty box possible?

Will

Friday the 13th

The best part about Friday the 13th in March is that the next day is Steak and a Blow Job Day so the opportunity to see some cheezie horror movie before celebrating the manly version of valentines day is nice.

However as a single guy, tomorrow every single message I send to any girl will be treated as if I have a hidden agenda, not that I don't, but the suspicion will be extra present tomorrow. Which will definitely cast a shadow over and message I send. In fact this morning I sent a MSN message to a friend "come visit tomorrow" and her reply was "and bring a steak, yea right" now she does have a BF but I wasn't even thinking of that when I sent the first message, it didn't stop me from regaining the lead by pointing out that her BF was a vegetarian, I know I'm clever ish.

But luckely since I started writing this I've made plans, poker night, nice safe plans, and more importantly a chance at winning $$$$ and drinking beer.

That second chance is much higher then the first one. But chance is always a nice thing.

I might even break out the funnel.

Well I am about ready to bail on class, which means I need to wrap this up and move forwards with planning my nap and the rest of the day.

Will

In bed at four up at seven.

Just to be clear that's 3 hours of sleep, not 15 hours of sleep, that was how productive my Monday was. I now have a feeling that I was coming down with the plague on Monday and my excessive amount of sleep was my bodies way of demolishing it before it started.

But back to the mature behavior that led to me only getting a fraction of a nights sleep. First I'm dumb, second I put Heat on at 12:30ish, third I have kegs.

Yes, I know, I knew better but did it anyways.

Heat was an excellent movie, had I seen it before yesterday I would have made a better prediction to the outcome to Righteous Kill and possibly won myself a prize.

Finally I have Kegs, two of them in a temperature regulated freezer with an ample supply of C02, this is always a bad idea but it works out so well for people like me because my beverage expenses are low.

Now as some of you can guess I'm not a morning person, in fact I'm an epic fail at the AM, but I am glorious in the PM, so good in fact that even with my 3 hours of idiotic decision making sleep I'll still be up until 3am because tonight is my mid week Friday.

However this having no responsibilities on Thursday can backfire as I discovered last week when I spent all of Thursday hungover and unable to function of to achieve the levels of thought that were required by the assignment due Friday.

But in defense I was drinking with my buddy who has just finished dealing with a rough nine months and if you catch my meaning is heading towards a rough 18 or so years. I almost feel bad for him, except for the fact that his kid can be considered an accident in the same way that not using birth control is considered an accident. In his defense he has since learned and wrap every time.

I don't know what I'm talking about in this post other then give me sympathy for seeing what sunrise looks like. Which by the way I will appreciate if say I had not spent time sleeping only minutes before.

Well I've been in class for an hour now, so I'm going to sign off, an hopefully my next post will be more productive.

Will

CTRL + and the wireless keyboard

I'll be honest I like to lounge when I type, I like to stretch out lean back and let the words flow out of my hands. Sometimes I even use my thinker to filter what I'm typing, as I am naturally inclined to type like I speak the filter is good, as anyone who has heard one of my Can't Understand Normal Thinking tangents knows I need a filter.

I also need to find a way to deal with tangents, sometimes they are good while the rest of the time I get far off track and will never end up talking about what my subject says.

As I said before I like to stretch out when I write, it makes things flow better, mind you so do 7 beers but the problem with using beer is that after 12 I stop being funny or literate and thats the point where tangents end up killing me.

As the Title says I have a wireless keyboard, it came as a combo with my mouse from Logitech for $99 at Costco, which means that I have a lot of extra button and options to rely on to get things done, right now I can do everything blog related except spell check which requires a right click to access using my Firefox spell-checker add-on.

However to get to the damn point that I am aiming for when I lounge out with my keyboard I love being able to hit CTRL and + to increase the magnification, that one feature makes life so much easier for me, no longer do I need to feel bad because I need glasses to read off of my 22 inch man screen or my 15 inch side screen which is usually filled with msn, but msn is a different tangent.

I just want to take a moment to be thankful for being able to know and use these shortcuts that make my life a lot easier when it comes to computing.

Will

March Showers bring...

...fucking awesome spring.

And you know what Spring leads to? Camping and Driving season. Roadtrips and tents

[i thought I lost this post, but thanks to auto draft saving I can finish it]

This weekend it rained, it rained and rained and rained and it was awesome as most of the snow is now gone and all I have to look forwards to is the sexiness of summer.

Tanning, driving the muscle car, drinking in the sun at 9pm, I love it.

It makes me think of the people who hate the summer, you know Goths and Emos and Twilight wannabes who don't find a 100 year old vampire bing in love with a 14 year old girl creepy, sorry tangent.

And I'll admit Goth girls, can be hot, and so can Emo girls, but it's much harder since their appearance is so close to Emo boys that just an Emo appearance will set of alarm bells, sorry tangent.

I know people who love the winter, and while I respect their views they are insane, because lets be honest for us to enjoy the summer you need a case of beer and tent and a bonfire, to enjoy the winter you need, some kind of plank to strap yourself too, a big assed hill, and a good adrenalyn reserve to eb able to find nearly dying every time you go down worth it, oh and you need a chalet, and you shoudn't drink because it will always lead to a crippling injury instead of only sometimes like camping.

Point is, I love the sun and warmth and awesome that Spring leads too.

Will

Roomate moved out, Internet is down.

This is just an FYI for everyone, I'll have no internets at my house until at least the 5th.

Why? you ask.

One of my roommates moved out over the holidays and the internets was in his name, this meant that when he left so did the internet.

Now being the organized folk that we are we managed to sign up and figure out the internet last night the catch, Bell can't get their service robot out to flip the switch until Thursday.

So happy fuck, no internet till the end of the week, too bad life and school revolves around a stable internet connection.

Will

Birthday postives

So after my last post on birthdays I was given this comment from quackers:

" I demand that you counter this with at least one positive thing about adding another year to your age ... come on, just one ..."

Since I have the unnatural compulsion to do what I'm told when I can't think of a reason why not too I guess I need to meet her demands.

One positive thing, well let me see, how about I'm one year closer to the sweet release of death? Nope, even though Al Bundy said it doesn't make it positive. How about one year closer to Arthritic Massage, I know it was funny in the commercial, not in real life. I've got it, I'm one...


...nope I lost it, got distracted.

I'd make a sex reference but it would just turn into a Viagra joke.

I suppose the best reason for getting older is that you understand yourself better and you understand your wants better and I can't forget the confidence that comes with age, I think thats the best part.

Pre-Birthday Anxiety

Pre-Birthday Anxiety is a big deal. Especially as you get older the countdown to the transition becomes more pronounced.

I remember as a child dreaming that in the year 2000 I'll be 18 and that all of the cars and hover boards from Back to the Future should be arriving.

That was a dream of mine, when I was around ten. Hoverboards! And now where did the love of the future go? The love of untapped potential.

It's gone, replaced with dread, a fear of the future, a fear that it will never get any better that it is all down hill from here.

But look at the world we live in, a billion screaming angry chinamen, total economic collapse, depression, oil death, global warming and Paris Hilton.

No wonder we refuse to age, we're programed to like what was and not look forwards.

The Test, do it if you're brave.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?

I was named after my grandfather on my Dad’s side who left two years too early to meet me, and my great grandfather on my Dad’s Mom’s side. I’m the oldest so I inherited all of the strong family names. Even my middle name means the same as my first name, so when all of the nomenclature stuff is competed it reads out as Leader of Leaders born of Leaders. So my name means a lot to me.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

Grade… 11 I think. Getting stabbed in your back by your best friend and being stabbed in the front by your girlfriend has to hurt. But it might have been the other way around. So ladies if it take me time to say that four letter word that you want to hear that’s why.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?

I don’t know. My hand Writing doesn’t make me angry at me, or make me hate me, so I suppose I like it. I’ve never gotten booty from my handwriting so I suppose that there is room for improvement, but yes I suppose I like it.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?

Steak or Roast beef. I know they’re not sliced meats. But really why not break some rules and go all out for the bread-slab of meat-break combo.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?

I have some nephews who I love like my own, but I’ve never managed to have any children of my own, and if it counts I’ve never coat-hangered any kids of my own either.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?

No, fuck me, I’m only good at two things, being mean to people and being fun/good/entertaining/nice/adequate/ok in bed

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?

Do I like BJs? Yes. I like BJs like I use sarcasm.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?

What kind of question is that? Do I have all of my fingers and toes? Twenty Six pairs of chromosomes? Two balls? An appendix? 100% of myself? Yes!

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?

Yes, but only if I can take someone with me. Quackers you in?

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?

Raisin Bran. No seriously. I can’t explain it.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?

My shoes have no laces, really they don’t so I guess the correct answer is I don’t untie my shoes when I take them off. To all of the shrinks in the audience, I have women issues, trust issue, issue issues and I end up untying my shoes right before putting them on.

12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?

Well even though Green Tea is not a Chapman’s approved ice cram flavour and hence not a real flavour I could accept it as existing if I had tried it. So rocky road is my number one.

13. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?

Gender. No really, I can’t describe what any guy I know looks like, without resorting too words like tall, black, white, alcoholic etc. When it come to the ladies I know everything, I suppose that means I’m a jerk or something.

14. RED OR PINK?

I can’t see pink, or red. No really, I’m red-green colour blind in the red spectrum. Which means that for me, red is a dull colour, even bright red is bland, and pink, I can’t see. If you take a white sheet of paper and write on it with a pink highlighter there is a 80% chance that I won’t be able to read it. It looks like a slightly off white gray.

15. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?

I’m a narcissist, I love myself, so the least favourite thing about me is that I push people away.

16. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?

I haven’t seen blondie in a long time, and I haven’t seen JA9NE in years and Tania in nearly a year and Danielle in what feels like forever and Puddle in ages and… I don’t know I suppose if I had to chose I’d say Danielle, but I miss her from before I saw her last, so it’s complicated.

17. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST?

If you do, you do, if you don’t you don’t.

18. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?

Blue jeans and no shoes. Take that world. Socks and Sandals, that’s right fashion world go fuck you’re self with a hammer. No lube.

19. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?

A clock ticking. I like quite.

20. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?

Green, I love green, it reminds me of so much that’s worth missing.

21. FAVORITE SMELLS?

Pumpkin pie. Stolen from Tania, but it’s true. Ladies if you want to lure me into anything your chances improve dramatically with pumpkin pie.

22. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?

Darkness.

23. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?

What kind of like? As a friend, yes. As more? I don’t know. Would I look to find out? Possibly. Should I? Who knows? Is our friendship worth risking to know? Probally not? Would it risk our friendship? I don’t know, we’re both mature and responsible adults.

24. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?

NFL, CFL, NHL, F1, NASCAR, Top Fuel, Funny Car, sex… etc.
25. HAIR COLOR?

Brown, or Brunette if I was a chick, but I’ve got junk so Brown.

26. EYE COLOR?

Gold in spring, Gray in winter, Hazel in fall and I’m never near a mirror in summer.

27. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?

Nope, I refuse to finger bang my eyes.

28. FAVORITE FOOD?

Anything I can cook and anything I order in restaurants.

29. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?

Happy endings, I wish them for humanity so why not for my ficton.

30. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?

Red Dawn.

31. SUMMER OR WINTER?

Summer, because fuck you winter and snow and cold and suck and snow and cold and…

32. HUGS OR KISSES?

Box? Kisses.

33. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?

I refuse to speculate.

34. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?

I’ll give you a hint, if I tagged you I want to know what your answers are.

35. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?

“The Reality Dysfunction” by Peter F. Hamilton

36. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?

A Beer, well I don’t have a mouse pad but the place where I would put a mouse with this computer is been taken up by a beer.

37. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?

Nothing, zero, that’s two days, counting today with no TV.

38. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?

The Stones, they never joined a mystic crazy cult.

39. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Vancouver, for my grandmother’s wedding. I miss her.

40. WHERE WERE YOU BORN

The Nation’s Capital! Born and raised Ottawa boy!

41. WHAT SUPERPOWER WOULD YOU TAKE IF GIVEN THE CHOICE?

Knowing what I will succeeded at before making the attempt.

What am I writing?

Aside from this blog I write in my spare time.

I have two paper diaries, which I use as draft books.

The articles/entries/essays can be about anything but I have rules that I try and follow.
First I date everything.
I limit myself to one page single spaced.
If I change my mind I keep the old and start a new page.
When I have enough articles/essays I'm going to publish it.

I have a RPG that I play. I've been playing since 1991, which means that I have an encyclopedic knowledge of the setting rules and game history. The game is Battle Tech it is the single greatest table top game in existence.

Because of the way that the RPG was written as the extension of a war game it is rules heavy by its nature. I don't fault the CBT:RPG for what it is because it does what it is supposed to do very well, I just personally don't like rules heavy RPGs I like nice simple nearly freeform RPGs where the rules only exist as a couple of pages and creativity is encoraged.

So I wrote my own RPG rules, for Battle Tech, it has been posted online for criticism on the main BT message forums and it appears to be liked and enjoyed. I have a couple of friends who are into different RPGs and they love the simplicity and the ease of use.

My final writing project is the setting for my RPG, even though I have it set in the Battle Tech univers and that univers has been activly publised in for nearly 30 years I stll have needs as to the story that I want to tell. So I bumped the BT time line forwards to a pace where my changes will seem apropriate and then I began planning and writing.

Thats all for now,

Will

What am I reading?

I like to read. No day goes by where I haven't spent time on Wikipedia or on message forums.

Right now I am reading The Night's Dawn Trilogy written by Peter F Hamilton, I am on page 52 of the first book, The Reality Dysfunction, and I'm impressed.

I like Peter's writing style.

I'll be honest even as a life long reader who had his own library before he had his first girlfriend I was intimidated by a trilogy of novels that had a higher page count for each volume then the complete LotR Saga.

His book reads nicely which is excellent.

I can't remember the last time I was intimidated by a book.

I'm looking forwards to this adventure.

Will

Spiral

Something was triggered today.

It started a spiral.

I want to say despair but the Emo Kids have ruined that word.

It is a feeling of insignificance. A crushing and sinking feeling. Like being smothered by reality.

I don't really know what triggered it. Or what made the dam break. But the flood is here and even though I know it will pass it makes me reflect.

I guess I could blame the Sun whose light I miss, and I should blame my sleeping schedule that makes me waste the day.

Winter blues, that what a friend calls it.

It hits her hard, every year, she gets sad and depressed and as much as I want to cheer her up, I find myself pulled down by my own need to bask in the sun.

Maybe I should tan. Bake in an oven. Maybe I should reinvigorate and focus and turn things around. It is after all a matter of willpower and perseverance to turn a crushing weight aside.

The future

Lately I have become very pessimistic about the future.

Not my future exactly, I have managed to maintain my optimism regarding what my life will hold.

But on the future in general.

I see rocks turning into dust.

I see collapse, and famine, and war, and selfishness, and ignorance.

I see it all ending.

And it hurts me. It makes me fear leaving a legacy.

Why make something to last, if it won't.

Why make something...

I don't think that this fear is rational, or productive.

But it is there. And I have to face it one day, stare it down and find a way to make a future possible.

That is my biggest dream to be involved with what one day will be considered the thing that changed everything.

For the best.

Or at least the less bad.

That would be a nice legacy.

To be an Oppenheimer.

He changed it all, or at least had a hand in it. And as much as people look down on what he created, there were so many benefits. Intangible, transparent and hidden benefits but they are there.

Reading

I read for fun.

Which means that what I read must entertain me.

I read a tremendous volume of material in any given day.

I'm certain that if I did not have the Internet I'd go through a novel in an afternoon.

I don't6 know why I read so much. Must of what I read can be safely termed as useless.

Some of it is downright scaring. Sometimes there are things that you don't need to know.

Somethings are like two girls and a cup. But in sentence form.

The most disturbing things that I've read are that way because I believe that they are true.

If I thought that they were fake I would dismiss them.

The next time I'm given a link to a chapter of a book that was cut because it was too much to put into a book on murders and rapists I'll stay away. Some times ignorance is bliss.

Many times ignorance is bliss.

But I still read can still consume the Harry Potter series in a week without it crippling my productivity.

But now I have information that I don't want to face burned in behind my eyes.

It is no wonder why I drink.