johnbowman.net

All right, you greedy bastards. I’ve had three requests (orders?) today for me to get on my cam and show my head.

I’m afraid some people are going to be disappointed. This isn’t going to be like that scene in the diner in the video for Time After Time, when Cyndi Lauper takes off her hat and shows off her bright-red dyed, checker-board shaved hair.

The colour’s pretty subtle actually, and it doesn’t show up very well on my cam (hey, what do you want for 50 bucks?). Maybe next time I’ll go a little more dramatic. One step at a time…

Well, I got my hair cut and coloured and… I love it! It’s not quite as dramatic shown in yesterday’s projection (fractal time phasing is not an exact science), but I think it looks great.

But I didn’t have time to pose in front of the Webcam last night, because Lindsay had just arrived in town and I had to guide the frightened child around the city. Poor thing. She did have this to say about my new do, though:

“If your hair were a drink and people drank it, their teeth would turn blue.”

*sigh* But, then again, why should I trust the opinion of an entity of pure evil?

So, last night, Lindz and I wandered around the Annex, had some Thai food, made fun of the muscial tastes of the owner of a used bookstore, and finally ended up at the Maddy. Lindsay had a whole pint of Strongbow. And didn’t pass out. I’m so proud of her.

We’re planning on going shopping today. She’s chomping at the bit to get to the used clothing stores on Queen West. But maybe she won’t keep me out as late this time, so I’ll be able to do a little cam show tonight to show off my new hairs.

Using multi-modal fractal time phasing, a Website called StorTroopers, a magic eight ball and a bit of Photoshop, I was able to construct this representation of what my hair will look like at around 8 today.

Apparently, my head will look like it’s on fire. Kewl.

I just came back from karate. My feet hurt … with DESTINY!

I bought a Webcam earlier this week and have set up a page for it.

I think I’m hooked. This is just too much fun.

I just got back from seeing Requiem for a Dream and Pi back-to-back.

I’m going to give my brain a rest now before I begin my own decent into maaaadness.

All right. Lots of stuff to type. Let’s go.

It looks like I’m going to get my domain name back soon! The monkeys at Network Solutions have finally changed my contact email address, so now I can make changes. And the first thing I’m going to change is to get my domain name away from them. If I stuck with NetSol and it took as long to change my DNS entires as it did to change my email, johnbowman.net would be up sometime in the spring. No, thanks.

I read something today that made my gut sink. It was in Jan Wong’s article about falun gong in today’s Globe and Mail. (Not on their Web site, and even if it were it would be gone in a week.)

“If [China's Olympic] bid is successful, it plans to hold the beach-volleyball competition in [Tiananmen] square.”

I tried to imagine this and the conflict of imagery struck me as sadly ridiculous. This was the scene of a violent government crackdown against pro-democracy demostrators, which, thanks to CNN, was seen around the world. And now they’re planning on trucking in a load of sand so they can play some company picnic game. And the female competitors will be in bikinis, as dictated by the sport’s governing body. The mind boggles.

And, finally, I just picked up a Valentine today from my best friend, Tara. It is the inspiration for my new quote, up in the breadcrumb bar. She Fedexed it to me to try to get it to me on time, which just makes me all gushy. So, I want to send all my love and a big *tacklesnuggleslurp* out to her. Thanks, Schwesterliebte.

Here’s a few tips for all you would-be counterfeiters out there. If you’re going to try to pass off some 1930s-era American bearer bonds:

• Don’t make them in $100 million denominations. The entire American dept in the 1930s was $30 billion. They never made them that big.
• Don’t put the address of the U.S. Treasury on them, complete with ZIP code. ZIP codes weren’t invented until the 1960s. You might as well put the URL for the department’s Web site on them.
• And for heaven’s sake, don’t make $25 BILLION worth of them and try to spend them all at once. It’s like trying to buy a Mercedes with a big, fat wad of $1000 bills. It arouses suspicion.

I first noticed it when I started working here and was watching the news on TV again. Female anchors in leather jackets.

I thought it was odd when I saw one of these leather-clad women reporting from the field. And then it was the anchor in the studio. Recently I saw a female business anchor in the studio… in red leather. What’s going on?

What is the image the leather is supposed to convey? Respectable yet rebellious? Sensible yet sexy? Breaking news and all the rules?

I pointed it out to my boss, saying, “I don’t get it. You never see Peter Mansbridge or Ian Hanomansing wearing a biker jacket.”

I spoke too soon. Last night on Canada Now, we saw exactly that. There was Ian, doing his anchor stand-ups in a stylish black leather jacket. I guess the Corporation is trying to shake off that stuffy image of theirs.

I still don’t get it.

Oh, and Netscape on the Mac? Twice as bad.

Why do they make the screen fonts on Macs so damn small?

~grumble~