Alright, when I said I was back in action, I lied. Since my last post that I made ages ago, I’ve gotten even busier in life. Next week I go to Halifax for a week for karate nationals so I’ve basically been trying to get ready for that among other things.

However, I haven’t forgotten about Pleasant Interruption and I have taken care of a few things behind the scenes.

First off, Nana pointed out to me last week that if you search for Pleasant Interruption on google, we’re now ranked 2nd. Not that everyone searches for those two words on google, but we feel special nonetheless.

Also, I am proud to announce that we’ve registered www.pleasantinterruption.com so you can all gleefully change your bookmarks and when you try to tell a friend about us you don’t need to go through the trouble of reminding them of the blogspot.com part.

Lastly, we’ve put together some profile pages so you can get to know us a little better. If you look to the sidebar on the right hand side you can now click to view our profiles.

Lastly, to keep you amused, I present to you: Eric Conveys an Emotion

Hours of fun.

As usual, I’m feeling very linky. You need not follow all the links, but it will make me immensely happy if you do.

In Sandy Hill (the area of Ottawa where I reside) there are many old folks homes. This results in an increased amount of ambulance traffic.

Tony told me this funny story, which I will paraphrase for you.

In grade 9 science, there was a kid who beleived that he was intelligent, when in reality he was (and is) quite the opposite. So when the teacher asked for an explanation of what “matter” was, he said: “Humans like us are matter, while things like this desk (knocks on desk for effect) are anti-matter.”

St. Patrick’s Day is over. It was the only day where it was appropriate to propagate a negative stereotype about a group of people. In fact, they encouraged it!

The Stroke’s new album is almost complete.

An easter comic for your enjoyment, courtesy of the webcomic Perry Bible Fellowship.

Tony Tran is trilingual (teriffic!).

People have taken this warmer weather as an opportunity to become more active. Rollerbladers are on the loose! Beware of their uncanny ability to trip and fall when blading on gravel and sand left over from winter!

Ryan and Marissa had better not get back together.

Mark Wilson was Bright Eyes before Bright Eyes even existed.

I now know that it is possible to live on $12 worth of food for a week.

[addendum, 5:42 pm]

It has been brought to my attention that the Amish are the only group of people who can be insulted on the internet without fear of retaliation.

[/addendum]

Alright, even though I’m not American, I’m going to talk about this anyways.

We all know Michael Moore, the popular liberal documentary filmmaker, that continually bashes the Bush administration on it’s policies concerning social problems, and foreign policy, which are highlighted in his highly popular “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9/11″.
Now these two documentaries were highly informative, as it critiques the major problems concerning America today, and what needs to be done before *Expletive Deleted* hits the fan. Yes a lot of it is very eye-opening, but I do my best not to eat everything up that he throws at us, because it is obviously biased and should be taken with a grain of salt. Conservatives in America really don’t like this guy, and they sit there picking apart every little detail about his documentary’s and his image, in order to discredit the information that he is trying to get out to the people. Now I don’t know how making fun of Moore’s wider waistline has to do anything about his argument, but there are people out there that actually want to charge him for Treason. (This is where you say, WTF?)

Ok, this isn’t in support of Michael Moore, actually, I could care less about his documentaries, even though they raise interesting issues that maybe people who are a little more open to ideas “outside of the box” can look at see that something might actually be wrong.
The very idea of trying to charge Michael Moore, many other liberals within America who are American citizens, and speak out against government policy, is absolutely absurd. These people go around trying to convince the average person that his documentaries are destroying America’s stance during war time, and that he is aiding “the enemy” by showing the world bad things about the country. Now these people also go around and say that countries like Iran, North Korea, and China (lots of others) are very bad, because they imprison people for speaking out against the government. OK. Yes I have seen people write on it, and if you take one minute to think about it…Yes, there you go, it makes absolutely no *Expletive Deleted* sense why they say things like that? Seriously now, if you want to spread freedom and let people say whatever they want, then why the hell do you want to put Moore in jail? Don’t try and come up with excuses like “It’s different because we are American’s, and can do whatever we want, because we have the moral authority to save the world.” or something along those lines, because there is no difference between some guy in Iraq speaking out against Saddam Hussein, and a guy in the United States speaking out against Bush, NONE WHAT SO EVER.
So seriously, sometimes it’s really stupid to go to these crazy radical internet sites that want to abolish the UN, and let the United States enforce it’s influence upon the world through the use of force. You know it’s OK to have people speak out against the policies of your government, even if you support those policies, but don’t go around trying to put them in jail for doing it, because if you want, you could go to Iran, or North Korea, and be all patriotic for them, cause their attitude towards those kinds of people fits yours perfectly.

The First Amendment of the United States constitution states:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Now there are many people trying to figure out if the freedom of speech part has limits, like in the case of people trying to get Moore in jail for speaking out against the government. They try and say that Moore saying bad things about The USA will only give more reasons for “the enemy” to attack the country. Well let me get this through, if the USA didn’t do bad things in the first place, like going around invading other countries like it “ain’t no thang”. Then there would be no reason for people to hate them. If you are trying to bring up the Constitution again, oh lets say…Article 3 – section 3 – clause 1, and say that he somehow gives them “aid and comfort”, and that’s why he should get charged. Then how desperate are you? Do you really not like him that much? If you can show me hard proof that he hangs out with “the enemy” and helps them directly, then I’ll support you and say that he should damn well be put away But if all you got is what your little group of friends, or small backwoods community thinks about the world, and the only information you get is from one TV station, or even one internet site, and you never been any further then the next town over. Then you should STFU up, and go back to the box in which you think from.

Whatever, this is enough for now.

This blog post is about MSN messenger lists; more specifically, it is about how long they have become. Rather than get straight to the problem like any normal person, I have designed a scenario that you may relate to, in the hopes that it will bring you closer to my frame of mind. It also allows me to dirty up the pristine visage of Pleasant Interruption. She’s been a bad girl, and she needs to be punished with another long and pointless post.

You have just come back from the club, and you have some hot guy/girl’s messenger contact. You load up MSN and you can barely contain the excitement. You realize that you aren’t that excited, and that you just need to go to the bathroom. Afterwards, you come back to your computer and attempt to add said person to your list. This is where you run into a problem – you have too many people on your list.

I have never had this problem, for two reasons. The first reason is that being a cynic and generally dour person is a full time job. Adding a female to the strange and sad series of seemingly unconnected events I call my life would not be advantageous for me (I couldn’t care less about her). The second reason is that I erase people from my list all the time. I realize that some people make friends extremely well and have full lists, but I have never understood the rationale behind this. Unless you actually speak to every one of these people, the MSN Messenger list is just a way for people to look at a large number and think to themselves “Jee Smith (Smith is your name), you sure do have a lot of friends.” Also, erasing people is cathartic. Goodbye, I will never see “‘So and so – I love you POOPOO’ has come online” ever again (hopefully I don’t see you in real life either).

DO NOT BE DISMAYED good readers! The experts at Pleasant Interruption Labs, nestled away in a covert laboratory rivaling the Batcave’s own lab have concocted some solutions for streamlining your list. Here are a few of the estimated million kernels pulled from the minds of said experts.

• Send out a mass message, saying that those who reply with a reason for their undying allegiance to you will be saved, and those of you who do not will be deleted. This works if you are above all the lesser beings who exist only to inhabit your otherwise empty world. I would call you a solipsist, but thems fighting words.
• Become a hermit. Cut off all ties with society and shun all forms of technology. Essentially you’d be Amish, but without the hats and the barn raisings. Since you’ve excommunicated yourself from the rest of the world, you won’t have any problems with your MSN list anymore. This method works best for people who have lots of “friends” on their list who never talk to them. People like me (single tear).
• Erase everyone, and add them back when they talk to you later on. This is pretty effective if you’re the type of person who waits for the conversations to come to them, you cool person you. We’re all so impressed with your magnetic personality.
• Stop using instant messenger programs. Call people, using the thing that connects to the wall thing with that string… oh yes, the PHONE.
• Scour the web, searching porn sites, warez, and other unmentionable-but-probably-will-be-mentioned-later-on things. Eventually your computer will become so infested with viruses that you’ll have to get a priest to perform an exorcism before sacrificing it to a lesser demon. Without a computer you wont have list problems.
• Send me more of those damn chain letters! Then, I’ll tell everyone that you’re into bestiality (See? Told you I’d mention an unmentionable) and you worship reptiles or something like that. I like to imagine that frats worship reptiles, but it’s probably not true. Anyway, this will cause people to block/delete you from their list. When you realize what has happened because you wanted to make your wish come true (who has 20 friends anyway?) you’ll reformat your computer in shame, and cry in some corner somewhere.

At this point you may have two, or possibly three people on your list. You may also no longer have a computer. THIS IS THE DESIRED EFFECT. You’re streamlined for 2005, baby!

Although you are in fact streamlined for 2005, baby, other people may not feel as happy about your actions. Somehow they are unable to rejoice with you in your hyper-efficiency. They might be (inexplicably) hurt that you decided to erase them from your list despite the fact that you haven’t spoken to them in months, or that they are lesser humans. But aren’t other people’s feelings rendered meaningless compared to your sleek profile cutting through cyberspace, streamlined for 2005? Baby?

First off, apologies to all you Pleasant Interruption fans for my week of absence. I bear myself before you and plead for mercy. I hope you can someday find compassion in your heart to forgive me.

I’ve been a generally busy person this whole work term since January but this month has been extremely busy. The Karate Nationals are coming up in less than a month so Tom (Kirk), Arjun and I have been training pretty much everyday. So between working out and training karate, I don’t get home til like 8-10 pm everyday. On top of that, I was pretty busy with something else which I will not mention here at this time so that left me with no time to be writing anything for P.I.

I’d also like to give a bloggin’ high-five to Nana for keeping up the fort. See, that’s what team blogging is all about. Covering each other’s backs.

It also appears that the elusive Tony has resurfaced from his secret underground layer. His whereabouts were unknown to even his fellow bloggers and Nana and I still don’t have a clue what he was doing with his time. We have suspicions that his activities may or may not have involved gas-powered staplers, mispeled(lol!) signposts, removable speedbumps and possibly some baby ligers. Make what you will of that information and arrive at your own assumptions – Nana and I adopted the don’t ask don’t tell policy a week ago.

Anyway, today I worked an extra hour and a half from 9 am til 6:30 pm and then ended up walking home for an hour, and finally celebrated my roommate’s birthday(Happy Birthday Kat Amanda!) so no time tonight for a full post.

(Kat is another roommate)

But because I’d hate to leave you so unsatisfied, here’s a video to keep you busy:
http://www.compfused.com/directlink/615/
Hilarious. Just hilarious.

OK, I’ve vanished for quite some time, but it’s all good, now I’m back.

While I was on my “hiatus” I learnt about geomancy, and we got to do our own geomancy charts, which I thought was awesome.
So anyways, it was a fairly simple process, and by the end of it I realized that basically every aspect of the chart was negative, besides some minor positive areas, it basically told me, that everything for me right now, is horrible…actually horrible.
Geomancy is actually supposed to be a game, but it got mixed up in religious dogma over the years, so many people associate it with some kind of witchcraft nowadays.

So yeah, if you know Geomancy from mythology, it means I can shoot fireballs at people….sorry that was a terrible joke.

But for anyone who’s interested, I can do a geomancy chart for you, and tell you about your life, and some other crazy things.

Will you go to hell for it if you ask? No of course not, it’s only a game, and it’s pure entertainment, cause I seriously can’t tell the future…at all….unless!….no.

booya!

The Saturday Morning Cartoon is Dead.

This is nothing like when people say rock and roll is dead. I stand by my original statement: cartoons, especially those shown on Saturday mornings, are dead.

“But Nana!!! I love super powered fighting machines X!!!”
Then you’re obviously in the wrong place, because I hate that show and I hate you even more.

The cartoons of today crave mindless violence (to the X-X-XTREME!), with no substance, story, or dialogue to speak of. You get 25 minutes of explosions and flashing lights, coupled with ninjas/pirates/robots, or some amalgamation of the three. Don’t get me wrong or anything: I love pirates, robots are the best things in the world, and ninjas have a special place in my heart. But ONLY when used correctly.

The main problem with these shows versus the ones that we grew up loving is excess. New cartoons take the things that should be good and mutates them to the nth power, where n equals some extremely large number that even God’s calculator needs to pause to compute. They then take these terribly malformed and stygian ideas and fuse them together in what can only be called some sort of terrible fusing synergy combining machine. I imagine that this machine is powered by the gnashing of people’s teeth as they watch the end product.

I long, nay, I PINE, for the days of Transformers, GI Joe, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Batman the Animated series, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. the days when you’d want to wake up early to catch these shows, skip bathing, and any activities that you had for the day. When the roller coaster ride ended at noon and you could get on with your life. When you’d switch between YTV, Fox, and NBC looking for the best shows.

Now I need to make a distinction (all you philosophy buffs may take a moment to groan here, I will wait for you to finish). First of all, I am exaggerating a bit. There are some cartoons that I still enjoy. Second, I understand that everything in life needs to grow to avoid stagnation. But when things get this bad I begin to question how good change actually is.

I’m not sure how this happened. The previous post was NOT supposed to go in Pleasant Interruption. I apologize for proverbially flashing you with my geeky nether regions. It will not happen again. But for continuity’s sake, I’m going to leave the post down there. Let this be a lesson to all of you bloggers out there: double check which blog you’re posting in before you post.

I didn’t pick up any random titles this month, just the regular stuff.

I grabbed Justice League Elite and Detective Comics from last week, and picked up Green Arrow, JSA, and Superman. I won’t bore everyone with reviews, because you can get those anywhere else.

Really excited to see how the DCU is going to lead up to Countdown at the end of the month. I’m thinking of picking up Adam Strange to prepare. Any thoughts?

I have writer’s block. I’ve had it for awhile, and it’s starting to get to me. So today, dear readers, you get to take a look at my creative process!

By nature, I am a very talkative person. If I can weasel my way into your comfort zone (thereby destroying my OWN comfort zone), I will talk at any lengths about any topic. However, this had not been translating to the blog very well as of late. I have had many false starts over the few days, and I’d like to talk about them to you today.

Basically, when I write a post I try and tax the far reaches of my vocabulary, dredging up words and phrases that will make me out to be pompous and haughty. I try and use this as a foil for the silly things I write about.

An assumption will now be made that most of the people who read this blog are of the legal drinking age. Another assumption will be made that of those of you who are the legal drinking age, most of you have been to a club, disco, dance hall, or whatever you want to call it. Taking these assumptions into account, I can write this post without alienating too many people. It’s fun to be coldly considerate!

I am now going to talk to you about the types of people who you can find in the club. 50 Cent will not be one of them. I do not usually have fun going to these things, so I have alot of time to look around and laugh at people, all the while becoming more jaded and callow in my attitude towards life. I am going to jump straight into the meat of this post, so get ready.

I’m not quite sure what I was thinking about here. I guess I thought that it would be funny to do another category post. Thing is, I would need to do field research for this sort of subject-and I’m not a big fan of clubs. As stated in a previous post, I’m a pub kind of guy. I much rather drinking until I fall asleep or pick fights with older gentlemen at eating establishments. I think I’ll shelve this idea for awhile, and possibly come back to it later.

Here’s an ode to my favourite board game (sorry Risk).

Jenga is like a religion. The Tao of the Jeng tells us that when our tower (that’s life, folks!) falls down, we must rebuild it and start over again, building up into the sky.

Aside from sounding like a raving lunatic, this post has some premise for hilarity. Too bad those lines up there were all I could come up with within a 2 hour period.

The text below is a really rough draft of a post that I came up with the day after I came back to Ottawa. I was writing really fast, and I just drafted what I wrote below. I haven’t touched it since.

next post is going to be about how people say useless things to people and do not expect an answer fitting whatever they said to the person. an ackward sentence, but let me gtive an example:

hey, what’s up? (reply: nothing) good. (you?) nothing.

I will talk about how it doesn’t matter what the person says, so long as they respond. I will also make efforts to respond to what people say with actual information, and record the results.

I think I like this idea though. I’ll be talking about it sometime in the upcoming weeks, but it’s going to take awhile to get something cohesive together.

Well, I guess that’s all for my interruption. Have a pleasant day everyone.