I'm BAAAAAAACK!!

[Darth Wong]

Sorry I was absent for the past couple of weeks. I've been very busy with paperwork lately, and some real-life obligations as well. A few updates:

1) I upgraded the board software to the latest version. This was an unusually significant version upgrade which required more work than usual, with so many code changes that it was easier to download the new version and just modify it to meet our customizations, rather than applying the code changes to the old version. Among the new features are a built-in quick reply function (although I continue to use the old one because I think it looks better), a build-in skill-testing question module for registration which allows rotating randomly selected questions (this allowed me to get rid of the skill-testing question mod I had before), and the ability to apply limited privileges to new users who are below a certain post count.

2) I was at a wedding based on old folk traditions, which included a circle dance. Those circle dances look pretty silly on TV, but I have to say it was a lot of fun. It was much more fun than a traditional church wedding where everyone sits down quietly and waits for the preacher to drone on and on. During the wedding, it occurred to me that the traditional western wedding is actually an attempt to emulate the weddings of medieval royalty and nobility, complete with the very royal separation of the bride and groom from everyone else, the respectful stillness and silence that all others are to maintain during the proceedings, etc.

3) I was helping unload Christmas trees a couple of days ago and I got a good gash from a tree branch on my head. Took two stitches to close it up. I had to wait at the hospital for an hour, but it wasn't too bad. I think it helps when you know exactly what's wrong with you, so they don't have to bother with diagnosis. They asked me but I couldn't recall when I had my last Tetanus shot, so they gave me a Tetanus shot just to be safe. Who actually remembers when they had their last Tetanus shot?

4) I picked up the new Star Trek movie on BluRay. It was about the same as I remember: not a bad movie, but fraught with very serious plot holes and nowhere near as good as the reviews would suggest. We showed it to my sons in particular without telling them anything about it beforehand, and they thought it was "OK". I think a lot of its appeal is the fan-service, including various call-outs, signature lines, in-jokes, etc. Hence, the reviewers who grew up on TOS liked it more than someone would who just comes into it cold.

5) I watched "Blood Diamond" last night. Good movie. I now have the urge to call people "bru" and add "huh" on the end of all my sentences.

6) I'm 40 now. It's just a number but it's still a sobering milestone. However, my blood pressure is still good, I'm still pretty healthy, and the nurse at the hospital (see #3) thought I was joking when I said I was 40, because I apparently look younger and fitter than that. Mind you, it helps that I've gotten back into shape after getting lazy and gaining weight this summer. I'm up to 15 dips per set now. Dips are really good for broadening your chest and shoulders.

7) Addendum to #6: I need a belt. Since losing my summer weight, my waist has shrunk and my pants won't stay up very well any more.

8) I hate taxes and bookkeeping. I really do.

9) My home computer (not the forum server) is starting to go to shit on me. It's started randomly locking up, and it seems to be a hardware problem since it's a dual-boot machine and it started happening on both operating systems. I'm thinking of replacing the power supply in case that's the problem (I could use a bigger power supply anyway). If that doesn't help, I need a new motherboard. Argh.

10) It's almost December. Where's my goddamned snow? I'm living in Toronto, not Vancouver. If I wanted year-round rain, I'd relocate.

[Kane Starkiller]

10) It's almost December. Where's my goddamned snow? I'm living in Toronto, not Vancouver. If I wanted year-round rain, I'd relocate.

I hear you. Here in Zagreb (46deg N) it was 18C during the day. I remember when I was a kid there was so much snow our street would be impassable for days at a time and we used to sled on it. Now all I get is rain, rain and some more rain.

[Lagmonster]

6) I'm 40 now. It's just a number but it's still a sobering milestone. However, my blood pressure is still good, I'm still pretty healthy, and the nurse at the hospital (see #3) thought I was joking when I said I was 40, because I apparently look younger and fitter than that. Mind you, it helps that I've gotten back into shape after getting lazy and gaining weight this summer. I'm up to 15 dips per set now. Dips are really good for broadening your chest and shoulders.

I hear you. It's amazing what regular exercise and a good diet will do to add to youthful appearance. If it weren't for the obvious wrinkles growing around my eyes and the few flecks of grey in what remains of my hair, I could pass for younger - and not just because of lucky genetics, lifestyle has a lot to do with it. Conversely, I recently met an old high-school classmate who looked like he was ready to retire - slouching, baggy, overweight, pallid, and generally out of shape.

It seems to mean even more as you pass your thirties; the difference between a healthy and sedentiary 20 year old isn't as vastly noticeable as the difference between a healthy and sedentiary 50 year old.

[[R_H]]

6) I'm 40 now. It's just a number but it's still a sobering milestone. However, my blood pressure is still good, I'm still pretty healthy, and the nurse at the hospital (see #3) thought I was joking when I said I was 40, because I apparently look younger and fitter than that. Mind you, it helps that I've gotten back into shape after getting lazy and gaining weight this summer. I'm up to 15 dips per set now. Dips are really good for broadening your chest and shoulders.

15 dips a set, jeez. That's definitely the old man strength working its magic.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Welcome back, I tend to work with my hands more mike, and remember when the last time I got cut by a dumpster, or other worn bit of metal. My last tetnus shot was Febuary of 2005, when I slipped on ice and cut my knee on a construction site fence. I still have the scar from it, and I think I posted my pic of the knee and foot blood clot and all here back then. (Tevar and others were worried about the massive bruise that was my right foot at the time)

[Serafina]

6) I'm 40 now. It's just a number but it's still a sobering milestone. However, my blood pressure is still good, I'm still pretty healthy, and the nurse at the hospital (see #3) thought I was joking when I said I was 40, because I apparently look younger and fitter than that. Mind you, it helps that I've gotten back into shape after getting lazy and gaining weight this summer. I'm up to 15 dips per set now. Dips are really good for broadening your chest and shoulders.

What, you are ONLY 40?
For some reason, i always assumed that you are at least half a decade older than that...(not judged by any photographs, just your behaviour - it's a good thing, i guess).

Either way, good for you - and welcome back.

[Phantasee]

Sorry I was absent for the past couple of weeks. I've been very busy with paperwork lately, and some real-life obligations as well. A few updates:

3) I was helping unload Christmas trees a couple of days ago and I got a good gash from a tree branch on my head. Took two stitches to close it up. I had to wait at the hospital for an hour, but it wasn't too bad. I think it helps when you know exactly what's wrong with you, so they don't have to bother with diagnosis. They asked me but I couldn't recall when I had my last Tetanus shot, so they gave me a Tetanus shot just to be safe. Who actually remembers when they had their last Tetanus shot?

I do, but that's unfair: we get a Tetanus/Diptheria shot in Grade 9, which was only 7 years ago.

5) I watched "Blood Diamond" last night. Good movie. I now have the urge to call people "bru" and add "huh" on the end of all my sentences.

That movie was great. I had the same urge, and I still sometimes say "Yeah yeah" with that Afrikaans accent, kinda like "Yaw yaw" (with a roundish 'a' (I suppose it's more like "Ja ja", though)).

I hate taxes and bookkeeping. I really do.

I feel your pain. Every month. Running your own business isn't as great as it seems, in those moments.

10) It's almost December. Where's my goddamned snow? I'm living in Toronto, not Vancouver. If I wanted year-round rain, I'd relocate.

We have had a disturbing lack of snow here in Edmonton. We had some come down back in early October, when I came home from up North, but that melted and we had the first snow-free Halloween in years (I can't remember ever going out trick-or-treating without a coat over my costume, as a kid). And with some snow last Friday night, which hadn't melted properly, things were looking up, but last night we just got hit with some rain which turned the roads into skating rinks and melted the snow into more ice.

I hope Old Man Winter didn't die in his sleep or something.

[Ghost Rider]

Sorry I was absent for the past couple of weeks. I've been very busy with paperwork lately, and some real-life obligations as well. A few updates:

1) I upgraded the board software to the latest version. This was an unusually significant version upgrade which required more work than usual, with so many code changes that it was easier to download the new version and just modify it to meet our customizations, rather than applying the code changes to the old version. Among the new features are a built-in quick reply function (although I continue to use the old one because I think it looks better), a build-in skill-testing question module for registration which allows rotating randomly selected questions (this allowed me to get rid of the skill-testing question mod I had before), and the ability to apply limited privileges to new users who are below a certain post count.

Wow, some nice features. Though so far...the highlight function within a reply box works a tad weird with IE. I'll have to try Chrome or Firefox later.

2) I was at a wedding based on old folk traditions, which included a circle dance. Those circle dances look pretty silly on TV, but I have to say it was a lot of fun. It was much more fun than a traditional church wedding where everyone sits down quietly and waits for the preacher to drone on and on. During the wedding, it occurred to me that the traditional western wedding is actually an attempt to emulate the weddings of medieval royalty and nobility, complete with the very royal separation of the bride and groom from everyone else, the respectful stillness and silence that all others are to maintain during the proceedings, etc.

I've noticed the more involved and involving the wedding, usually the more fun. Nothing so far beats a traditional Korean or Japanese wedding for pure stuffiness or stiffness. Having attended more then a few of those, I take the Church and out of there, in a heart beat. Though I would love if someone would try something different, but running out of friends and cousins getting hitched .

3) I was helping unload Christmas trees a couple of days ago and I got a good gash from a tree branch on my head. Took two stitches to close it up. I had to wait at the hospital for an hour, but it wasn't too bad. I think it helps when you know exactly what's wrong with you, so they don't have to bother with diagnosis. They asked me but I couldn't recall when I had my last Tetanus shot, so they gave me a Tetanus shot just to be safe. Who actually remembers when they had their last Tetanus shot?

Ouch on the injury. As for Tetanus? Somewhere in the eighth grade, when I slammed my hand on a rusty nail by accident.

5) I watched "Blood Diamond" last night. Good movie. I now have the urge to call people "bru" and add "huh" on the end of all my sentences.

It was definitely one of DeCaprio's better films.

6) I'm 40 now.

Jeebus...I'm five years younger then you?! LOL...I feel strangely old and young at the same time. Nothing more then a noting of age.

I hate taxes and bookkeeping. I really do.

My job 24/7. And yes, I've done British/Canadian/French/German/Polish....and a host of others. American still tops the list as the most fucking ridiculous.

10) It's almost December. Where's my goddamned snow? I'm living in Toronto, not Vancouver. If I wanted year-round rain, I'd relocate.

Wow. I'm hoping for something cold because I hate leaving in the morning needing a coat, then entering warm weather lunchtime, to wondering why I have a coat in the evening.

[J]

3) I was helping unload Christmas trees a couple of days ago and I got a good gash from a tree branch on my head. Took two stitches to close it up. I had to wait at the hospital for an hour, but it wasn't too bad.

Hmmm...sounds a little fishy to me. Are you sure you weren't beat up by your wife? Cause that's what it sounds like, I think she socked you in the head for something naughty you said or did.

6) I'm 40 now. It's just a number but it's still a sobering milestone. However, my blood pressure is still good, I'm still pretty healthy, and the nurse at the hospital (see #3) thought I was joking when I said I was 40, because I apparently look younger and fitter than that. Mind you, it helps that I've gotten back into shape after getting lazy and gaining weight this summer. I'm up to 15 dips per set now. Dips are really good for broadening your chest and shoulders.

Awesome! I'd say it's time to go for weighted dips to up the challenge. Step it up and be like Georges St-Pierre.

10) It's almost December. Where's my goddamned snow? I'm living in Toronto, not Vancouver. If I wanted year-round rain, I'd relocate.

Global warming. Which supposedly isn't happening. But when I can go running in shorts in November, yeah. Global warming.

[Count Chocula]

Welcome back, Mike! I guess your wife and J weren't able to overpower you and make you their sex slave after all. Darn.

40's not so bad, I've got two years on you. I was very very lucky, though: my wife got me a laptop for my 40th, and my mom and father in law bought me a one-hour aerobatic flight! Physically, if you keep doing what you've been doing, it's no big deal. I go swimming every day I'm in town, and can usually do it until December when the Gulf gets too cold for me.

Wait what, you gained summer weight? You're swimming upstream, dude; people usually gain weight in the winter! Either way, congrats on the working out and waist loss.

[FSTargetDrone]

Happy birthday!

[Broomstick]

Sorry I was absent for the past couple of weeks. I've been very busy with paperwork lately, and some real-life obligations as well.

DARN that reality! It's always interfering with my hobbies.

Who actually remembers when they had their last Tetanus shot?

August 2008 - because I went through hell trying to get it BEFORE I was injured and at the time I had no insurance and I live in the US. Was required to get it in order to get more work from my general contractor friend who didn't want me working in filth without a booster.

6) I'm 40 now. It's just a number but it's still a sobering milestone. However, my blood pressure is still good, I'm still pretty healthy, and the nurse at the hospital (see #3) thought I was joking when I said I was 40, because I apparently look younger and fitter than that.

Keep it up. I can pass for 35 despite being a decade past that age. Getting older isn't the problem, getting unhealthy or feeble is the problem.

10) It's almost December. Where's my goddamned snow? I'm living in Toronto, not Vancouver. If I wanted year-round rain, I'd relocate.

Yeah, tell me about it - we should have had snow here by now. On the bright side, though, this means I'm still getting vegetables out of the garden and god knows we can use the break on food.

[Darth Wong]

Good to hear from you all. As for some of the questions and comments:

I hear you. It's amazing what regular exercise and a good diet will do to add to youthful appearance. If it weren't for the obvious wrinkles growing around my eyes and the few flecks of grey in what remains of my hair, I could pass for younger - and not just because of lucky genetics, lifestyle has a lot to do with it. Conversely, I recently met an old high-school classmate who looked like he was ready to retire - slouching, baggy, overweight, pallid, and generally out of shape.

Genetics seems to be a pretty important factor in terms of the way your face ages, but you can control the way your body ages. Of course, smoking accelerates the process, but carrying around a 50 pound sack of lard attached to your frame every day wouldn't help either.

For some reason, i always assumed that you are at least half a decade older than that...(not judged by any photographs, just your behaviour - it's a good thing, i guess).

That's probably because I have a teenaged son. Most people nowadays with a teenaged son are older than me. Parenthood really does make a big difference in terms of forcing you to examine your own behaviour and thinking (assuming you're a conscientious parent; some parents just try to get their kids out of the way so they can resume the lives they had before children).

My job 24/7. And yes, I've done British/Canadian/French/German/Polish....and a host of others. American still tops the list as the most fucking ridiculous.

It's funny how Americans always rant about "European socialism" and "excess government" when in fact their own government has a long history of making ridiculously more paperwork than other nations do. I've heard many times that the American tax forms are utterly ridiculous, and of course, it's hard to forget the fact that the "health care reform bill" is more than 2000 pages, while the Canada Health Act is only 14 pages (including both French and English versions).

Wow, some nice features. Though so far...the highlight function within a reply box works a tad weird with IE. I'll have to try Chrome or Firefox later.

I think that was because I fucked something up with the JavaScript parts of the BlackSoul-SDN, MillenniumFalcon-SDN, and BareBones templates. It should be fixed now.

Global warming. Which supposedly isn't happening. But when I can go running in shorts in November, yeah. Global warming.

It's not just this year. Anyone who grew up in the 1970s will recall how much more snow there used to be every damned year. My friends and I used to build tunnels in the snow piles. It was normal to have Trench Warfare snowball fights, thanks to a landscape so heavily blanketed in snow that you could build snow trenches that would last for weeks.

Welcome back, Mike! I guess your wife and J weren't able to overpower you and make you their sex slave after all. Darn.

40's not so bad, I've got two years on you. I was very very lucky, though: my wife got me a laptop for my 40th, and my mom and father in law bought me a one-hour aerobatic flight! Physically, if you keep doing what you've been doing, it's no big deal. I go swimming every day I'm in town, and can usually do it until December when the Gulf gets too cold for me.

Wait what, you gained summer weight? You're swimming upstream, dude; people usually gain weight in the winter! Either way, congrats on the working out and waist loss.

No, there's no sex slave action going on. But Rebecca did get a new two piece skimpy nurse outfit, which she (briefly) modeled for me as a birthday gift. As for gaining summer weight, that's actually normal for me. In summer, I do a lot of traveling, which means a lot of eating out. I also don't exercise when I'm traveling, because that's time that I could be using for sightseeing or other activities. Meanwhile, winter forces your metabolism to run faster to keep warm, you have to walk around loaded down with heavy coats etc., and you do snow shoveling, which is as good a workout as any gym would provide. It actually makes a lot of sense to gain weight in summer and lose weight in winter. The only reason so many people do the opposite is that their weight gain is motivated primarily by cosmetic goals rather than fitness goals: they lose weight so they will look better in summer clothes.

Keep it up. I can pass for 35 despite being a decade past that age. Getting older isn't the problem, getting unhealthy or feeble is the problem.

Absolutely. Subjectively speaking, when you see that a person still has a spring in his or her step, that takes off ten years, or more. Conversely, a hunched-over shuffle adds twenty.

[Shroom Man 777]

Welcome backs, Mike Mangs!

3) I was helping unload Christmas trees a couple of days ago and I got a good gash from a tree branch on my head. Took two stitches to close it up. I had to wait at the hospital for an hour, but it wasn't too bad. I think it helps when you know exactly what's wrong with you, so they don't have to bother with diagnosis. They asked me but I couldn't recall when I had my last Tetanus shot, so they gave me a Tetanus shot just to be safe. Who actually remembers when they had their last Tetanus shot?

Not me. But, man, how big was the gash on your head? How many inches? How many stitches? Goddamn. It's a good thing that you went for that bald hairstyle, since taking plastered dressings off hairy heads and then removing the stitches with all those hairs can be pretty annoying.

5) I watched "Blood Diamond" last night. Good movie. I now have the urge to call people "bru" and add "huh" on the end of all my sentences.

And hopefully not smash people's skulls with goddamn shovels.

[Zor]

10) It's almost December. Where's my goddamned snow? I'm living in Toronto, not Vancouver. If I wanted year-round rain, I'd relocate.

Its not just in Toronto, even in Winnipeg we have not gotten any snowfall which had an effect greater than light confectioner's sugar which lasted more than a few hours.

Zor

[FSTargetDrone]

Global warming. Which supposedly isn't happening. But when I can go running in shorts in November, yeah. Global warming.

It's not just this year. Anyone who grew up in the 1970s will recall how much more snow there used to be every damned year. My friends and I used to build tunnels in the snow piles. It was normal to have Trench Warfare snowball fights, thanks to a landscape so heavily blanketed in snow that you could build snow trenches that would last for weeks.

I was surprised to still be hearing crickets this past week. In November? In southeastern Pennsylvania? I can't recall ever hearing crickets this late in the year. I'll be amazed if we get a white Christmas this year. Last time we had a white Christmas was in 2002 or 2003, I think.

Absolutely. Subjectively speaking, when you see that a person still has a spring in his or her step, that takes off ten years, or more. Conversely, a hunched-over shuffle adds twenty.

Indeed. How many times have you seen people in their 20s and 30s walking around with heads slumped forward? It's as if they are too lazy to hold themselves fully erect.

[Edi]

Welcome back!

As for the snow, yep, no snow here either. There is some in northern Finland, some 500 kilometers north of here, but nothing in the south. We had some for a couple of days a few weeks back, but not for weeks now. Rain and above zero temperatures all around in southern Finland.

[aerius]

It's not just this year. Anyone who grew up in the 1970s will recall how much more snow there used to be every damned year. My friends and I used to build tunnels in the snow piles. It was normal to have Trench Warfare snowball fights, thanks to a landscape so heavily blanketed in snow that you could build snow trenches that would last for weeks.

I grew up in the 80's and I still remember there being a lot more snow than there is now. We had a 2 car garage and by the end of January at the latest we could tunnel all the way from the garage to the sidewalk in the snow piles. We didn't have quite enough snow for trench warefare at school, we had to build walls in front of our trenches to make it work.

As for gaining summer weight, that's actually normal for me. In summer, I do a lot of traveling, which means a lot of eating out. I also don't exercise when I'm traveling, because that's time that I could be using for sightseeing or other activities. Meanwhile, winter forces your metabolism to run faster to keep warm, you have to walk around loaded down with heavy coats etc., and you do snow shoveling, which is as good a workout as any gym would provide. It actually makes a lot of sense to gain weight in summer and lose weight in winter. The only reason so many people do the opposite is that their weight gain is motivated primarily by cosmetic goals rather than fitness goals: they lose weight so they will look better in summer clothes.

I lose about 2-3 pounds every summer, it's not because I'm more active, I just go from more strength based sports in the winter such as hockey to endurance sports like mountain biking. I lose a bit of muscle and gain better cardio. At the end of hockey season I'll have more strength and lots of explosive power, I can easily dunk a basketball and toss a cinderblock across my yard like it weighs 5 pounds. At the end of summer the dunks aren't so easy anymore and damn those cinderblocks feel heavy. I know I should do a strength & power training routine in the summer but I'm just too unmotivated to do that, I'd rather be out biking.

[ArmorPierce]

I had just gone over the Star Trek Nemesis commentary the other day and was wondering if you were going to do one for the new Star Trek movie. Any plans?

[Adrian Laguna]

I was at a wedding based on old folk traditions, which included a circle dance. Those circle dances look pretty silly on TV, but I have to say it was a lot of fun. It was much more fun than a traditional church wedding where everyone sits down quietly and waits for the preacher to drone on and on. During the wedding, it occurred to me that the traditional western wedding is actually an attempt to emulate the weddings of medieval royalty and nobility, complete with the very royal separation of the bride and groom from everyone else, the respectful stillness and silence that all others are to maintain during the proceedings, etc.

That is an astute and correct observation. Originally only the nobles got married by priests and in churches. The reason being, in part, because back in the old days priests did not work for free, so only the upper classes could afford their services. Everyone else got married by obtaining permission from the local lord, and then throwing a wild party to celebrate.

[Dalton]

Does this mean I can't rule with an iron fist anymore?

[J]

Does this mean I can't rule with an iron fist anymore?

Ummm....yes. You are now the board's official teddy bear, who we can all hug for good luck and stuff.

[Dalton]

Does this mean I can't rule with an iron fist anymore?

Ummm....yes. You are now the board's official teddy bear, who we can all hug for good luck and stuff.

That will not do at all.

[General Zod]

Does this mean I can't rule with an iron fist anymore?

Ummm....yes. You are now the board's official teddy bear, who we can all hug for good luck and stuff.

That will not do at all.

How about the board's official Ewok?

[YT300000]

10) It's almost December. Where's my goddamned snow? I'm living in Toronto, not Vancouver. If I wanted year-round rain, I'd relocate.

I'll add Calgary to the list - we only got our first snowfall yesterday, and it was barely a centimeter. Temperatures have been well above seasonal, but still consistently in the 0 to -5 range, so it's mostly the dryness that kept it away.

That said, I remember making enormous snow forts and getting Snow Days at school less than ten years ago. It is really quite shocking...