Just so you know, REEB has been updating on schedule (!) for the last two weeks.
That is all.
Awesomeness.
Just awesomeness.
Check it out for a robber-baron Jabba, a Confederate Vader, a Victorian Boba Fett, and a monocled-Chewie…
Later.
Another Day, Another Design
So, the MaximumRandomosity.com site has a new design. What does that mean for you?
Well, first it means that the site will display well on just about any display you’re using, whether it’s 20″ monitor, a 8″ netbook or an iPad. I’m assuming that nobody will care about looking at the site on their iPhone/Android/Blackberry because the screen is too small, but I’ll be doing some minor testing on that later this week.
Second, it means that I’ve had to go back and do some touchups and that CBZ files will be popping up on that site later today. I cringe at some of the pages/panels, but I need to just let it go at this point.
But does it mean that we’ll finally get new comics?
Yes. Yes it does.
New pages start going up on August 25th. It’d be sooner, but I’m going to be incommunicado next week. Every Wednesday. Mark it. It shall be done.
See you on the 25th.
Hitmen to Play Outdoor Game
Curtis Glencross tells us what he really thinks of signing Raitis Ivanans (Sun Media)
Yes, I know, all the hullabaloo is about the Flames and Habs playing the Heritage Classic on the 20th, complete with Ronald McDonald-inspired jerseys1, but really, the most exciting news of the day for me is that the Hitmen will be following it up with a game against Jordan Eberle’s alma mater, the Regina Pats, the next night. I believe this will be the first outdoor game in WHL history, so I’m incredibly excited that I could be a part of that. I mean, there’s every possibility that the weather could be crappy, because either a) it’s 15 C out and Chinooking or b) it’s -20 C out like it was in Edmonton seven-plus years earlier, and hey, it’s Alberta, so why not have both? But I digress. Outdoor hockey. Not every day you get to be a part of that kind of spectacle or atmosphere. I wonder if the Hitmen will reach back into Calgary’s WHL/WCHL past and play with the sweaters of the Calgary Buffaloes or something like that; goodness knows the Pats have the history to bring to bear for this thing. I also wonder how well-attended it will be, especially by people without the money or interest in going to the NHL event.
Speaking of, what’s even more exciting is that there might be a possibility I could go to both games. I mean, I’m purely speculating here, so don’t go running off saying this is a done deal, but it sure would be nice if there were some sort of package for Hitmen season ticket holders to get good seats to the Monday game and shitty high seats to the Sunday game. Again, I’ll get to be part of a once-in-lifetime event, seeing an outdoor Habs game with my Montreal-born-and-raised mom, and furthermore, I’ll get to laugh when the Habs beat the Clownshoes Flames while non-ironically wearing that Godawful barberpole the Habs put out a couple of years back when the Centennial celebration began. (As an aside, thank God the Habs went conservative and settled for bringing back the late Forum-era numbering as their only “throwback.” I liked some of those designs, but the barberpole across from the McDonald’s jerseys would’ve been too much. Though if you’re going to recall ’24, why not go all out and bring back the globe jersey?)
Regardless of how it turns out, though, this is a very exciting time to be a hockey fan here in Calgary. I’m already anxious for February.
1 – Yes, yes, I know that they’re based on the 1924 Calgary Tigers, who played in the city’s first Stanley Cup Final against the Canadiens. I figured this would happen, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the Flames for actually reaching that far back into the city’s hockey heritage, which most people probably didn’t even know existed. Note, however, that hockey sweaters used to have a million stripes, whereas now they don’t, because they look awful in new materials with more vibrant dyes and lighting and white ice. So it was with the Habs, so it is with the Flames.
Dear Media Industry
I love your products; really I do. But I have a bit of a complaint.
See, I went out today to rent a copy of Clash of the Titans. I’ve heard it’s pretty bad, but I wanted to see it anyway so rental was the only real option. I’m generally a pretty busy guy, but I had some free time so I thought “why not?”
Now, there are no video stores nearby me. You might know this. Apparently most of the rental places are closing. I used to have an HMV nearby, but they’ve also closed, so I couldn’t even buy the movie without a 20 minute excursion, even if I wanted to. There is, however, an automated system at the grocery store, but they don’t seem to have you in their system yet. That’s unfortunate.
So next, I turned to my PS3, which recently got a Canadian video store. But apparently they don’t update on release dates either.
So I checked iTunes, and sure enough there’s a rental there. Of course, since I don’t have an AppleTV I can’t actually rent an HD version to watch on the TV, and short of connecting my computer to the TV I can’t even get a decently upscaled SD version to play on my TV. And that’s at a $5 rental cost. So basically, I need to spend a third of the purchase price (via Amazon) for a rental that will not look as good on my TV as an actual DVD without going to a fuckton of effort. Also, there is no way for me to rent an HD version today without spending another few hundred dollars.
This is not a good deal.
Look. I know your industry is facing some problems and you think DRM is the solution to them. But you know what? If I could download a video which I could stream to my TV I’d be happy to pay for it. You could have a number of stores online, and a number of different solutions to the problem. I mean, software to stream video from Macs and PCs to iPads and TVs exist, so why don’t you bundle your DRM to some sort of streaming solution if you insist on this DRM crap? I mean, a video that I can’t see is of no use to me and no money for you.
In short: Fuck you.
