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Mike_Paradis
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Name: Mike
Country: Canada
Metro: Calgary
Birthday: 5/13/1988
Gender: Male
Interests: I enjoy video games and computers. I like juggling and other performing arts. I'm not much into sports, although I attend a weekly ultimate frisbee game (which could more accurately be described as a euphoric game of strategy and skill rather than a sport). The only recent reading I've done are Douglas Adams books. My music tastes are very broad, I have a little bit of everything except country and rap. However, the majority of my music is techno and Japanese. I started watching anime a few years ago, and have seen many series since.
Message: message me
MSN: mike_paradis@hotmail.com
Member Since:
7/17/2005
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SubscriptionsSites I Read
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| The Count of Monte Cristo
For the last year or so (Yes, I'm a slow reader..) I've been reading the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I've just recently finished, and I can safely say that it's the best book I've ever read. Perhaps that isn't saying much since I don't read that much. This entry is all about my fascination with Monte Cristo and how it began. (No spoilers, don't worry)
 | The first time I ever heard this classic tale of revenge was from the 2002 movie adaptation. I've seen this movie no less than four times; I saw it once at Ron Lowe's place, and then several times in high school because it was the only non-educational movie the teachers could find in our library. I enjoyed the vivid characters and the story of vengance and justice, but I didn't think much else about it until 2004.
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 | In 2004 an anime was released called "Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo", based on the book of the same name. "Gankutsuou" translates roughly to "King of the Cave" which was what the title of the book was when it was translated and sold in Japan. This 24 episode series is a futuristic take on the story. All of the characters are the same, but it takes place far into the future. For instance, instead of being the first mate of a sailing ship, Edmond Dantes is the first mate of a space ship. Instead of attending a party in Rome, Albert attends a party on the moon. And, of course, when people duel, they do it in giant robots now. Okay, this makes it sound awful, I know. I was willing to accept that, in order to sell an anime it has to have fighting robots in it somewhere. I'm good with that. Anyways, I watched the series, and was overwhelmed with new characters and subplots that were entirely ignored in the movie due to time constraints. This series was told by the point of view of Fernand Mondego's son, Albert, rather than Edmond Dantes or the Count of Monte Cristo. This gave a fresh spin to the story and also made Albert a more sympathetic character. However what made me very curious is that the anime and the movie had completely different endings. Some characters died in one version that didn't in the other, and many of the conflicts are resolved quite differently. This curiosity eventually led to me buying the book, to find the real, unadapted story.
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 | I started reading the book sometime last year, and have been reading a chapter a day when I have the time before bed. Throughout the story I was shocked at the depth which was given to characters who were just briefly mentioned- or not mentioned at all- in the movie. Luigi Vampa, the roman bandit lord, has a backstory which spans at least a few chapters. In the movie, they just merged him with the character of the captain of the ship that rescued Dantes from the sea, for the sake of convenience. Because the endings of the series and the movie were different, I was in suspense for the ending of the book, which I found to have a more realistic and more satisfying ending. No longer was it just a story of revenge, but also a story of mercy, forgiveness, and rebirth.
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So now I'm left to choose another book to
read. I'm considering Crime and Punishment, although I already know the
ending because we studied it in high school. I'd also like to read
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, because
I've heard they're good. Colette has reccomended to me the Life of Pi,
and since it's fairly short I'll probably read that one while I decide
on my next book. | | |
| Hey everyone!
Things have been busy, but I too, am afraid of being forgotten and since calgary has too few phone photo booths for me to tear up my pictures and toss the fragments underneath to ensure I am remembered, this is the best way to reaffirm that I'm still here.
Mostly the purpose of this post is my engineering specialization. I went to the information session and have narrowed it down to ZOO, (Electrical, Computer, and Software Engineering). I talked to some people at the booths afterwards and I don't think software sounds as appealing anymore. I'm still not really sure what kind of job I'd end up with after Electrical or Computer though. If I had to decide today, I would probably choose Computer. But the deadline isn't until May so I have some time yet. If any engineers are reading this (I think there might be one or two around?) and have advice or information, it'd be apppreciated.
I've recently discovered another genre of music I like- Chiptunes. Essentially, they are music composed with the limitations imposed by the sound chip in a game system, like the atari or gameboy. There are a startling number of chiptune artists who compose their own music. One group I've noticed in particular is Anamanaguchi. They use the NES sound chip and combine it with guitar and drums. Unlike the name might suggest, they are actually based in New York. They've done live performances which is pretty cool. If you want to check out their debut album "Power Supply", click on the picture below.
(Just scroll down to Power Supply)
I think my favorite is Flora/Fauna but I like them all.
And as the school year starts to close, I can't help but look forward to the revival of frisbee of the ultimate variety. Although I'm not looking forward to realizing how out of shape I am.
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| Like Nailguns on a Chalkboard
Desperate for ideas to get me out of the page of shame, I'm doing a reblog of my sister's pet peeves blog.
Three Word Conversations
I don't think this bugs other people nearly as much as it bugs me, but I don't like it when a conversation
follows this pattern:
Person1: sup
Person2: nothing much
And then person1 doesn't say anything. End of conversation. It's like person1 was bored and wanted to see
if person2 could entertain him or something. There is no point to this conversation, because the internet
isn't real life where even trivial conversations about the weather can help build a connection between
people. Now, this wouldn't bother me much if it was just once... but for a while, I knew a person that
would do this every day. Eventually I devised a strategy to reverse the attack:
Person1: sup
Me: Nothing much, you?
Person1: nothing much
Me: Cool
And again the conversation ends without anything being accomplished, with the ball in the court of the
person who started it. I just can't win these battles.
Commercial Pseudoscience
Commercials are already annoying enough, but it's so much worse when they copyright pseudo-scientific names
for the principles behind the product. These names almost always begin with an abbreviated element, and end
with a verb of what the product does. Like Oxy-Scrub, or Hydro-cleen or Magnesi-blind (That's what a flash
grenade would be called). Now, that's not so bad on its own... but then they call it a "Technology". "Now
with patented Oxy-Scrub technology" is really their way of saying that the product releases air bubbles.
Since most of these commercials are either beauty products or cleaning products, I don't really consider
myself to be part of the demographic, but if I was, I'd be even more offended because they're making the
assumption that I don't know what bubbles are, and that I need a flashy name and a high-school CGI
demonstration to understand what it does.
Teacher Hate
Another thing that bugs me is when people bash their teachers and profs for their crappy grades. I mean,
yeah, some teachers are just bad at what they do. But most of the time, it's just students venting their
rage. For instance, in Grade 12 Chem, my teacher Mrs. Van der Poel was a pretty good chem teacher. She was
a bit quirky and hopped up on caffiene 24/7, but I learned the content easily in that class. And if you
kept your mark above %80, you didn't even have to do homework. For grade 12, that's a pretty sweet deal.
But still I heard people in the hallway "Oh yeah man she's such a b*tch rofl". It makes me sad that good
teachers get a lot of hate.
Reincarnation, Astrology, and Magnetic Therapy
The only reason people believe these things is because it sure would be cool if they were true. It doesn't matter how pumped you are about being a giraffe in your next life (and I know you're really pumped), it's not gonna happen if there's no reason, or scrap of evidence for it to happen. Astrology might be a good ice-breaker, but the minute you see two different horoscopes that completely contradict each other, you know something's amiss. Now, I have to say- magnets are sweet. The stronger, the sweeter. You can totally use them to scramble Cloey's memory stick containing precious, precious CTU information, or to sort your pennies into pre and post 2002 mint dates (some exceptions). But even if your magnetic toe-rings are strong enough to to pull iron in your blood and "improve circulation", it would probably just make it all pool in your toes and give you a fatal blood clot.
Crocs
Soo... bright... my eyes... neon orange does not match with green pants and a blue shirt...
Pallies
Durrrr.. Hay guys, I are invinsable for 12 seckons, okay guyss?
Now u gets teh stunn for liek 6 seccums, cuz i haff magix holey powaar.
And my GI-Joe shooots a billliom miszles at yoor GI-Joe and mine wins okay?
I'm pretty sure a 6-year-old came up with paladins.
So that's about it. It is now my intention to slack off for the rest of the day.
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| Exams are over! That's all I have to say about those. It's been a month since my last post, so I thought I could blog today so I could make some comment about it being the one-month anniversary, but I think that joke's gotten a bit stale.
Throughout the first semester I had always wondered how I had ended up in engineering. It all happened so fast that I can't actually pinpoint the moment when I decided for good to apply. Many will aruge that it was because I had all of the course prerequisites and computer science seemed like a dead end. Others will claim that it is because both my Grandfather, Uncle, and %50 of the male BBC C&C-aged population are engineers. And yes, it was partially all of those things. However, I have recently uncovered the primary reason that I am in engineering, and it dates back to before I even knew of the toils of school. In one of my recent nostalgia binges, I managed to get "Super Solvers Gizmos and Gadgets" working on a DOS emulator. Lets take a look back, shall we?
void FLASHBACK()
{
screen_wave_transition();
2x_gaussian_blur();
set_framerate(10);
}
 
This is Gizmos and Gadgets. In the background is the Shady Glen Technology Center. You are this mysterious guy in the blue jacket who refuses to show his face because he's cool like that. You're a wicked-sweet scientist and you know it, but this guy "Morty" runs the place and he's hating all over you with his robot monkey army. Basically he thinks he's so awesome that he tells you he'll give you ownership of the technology center if you beat him in 15 races. You accept because you know you can make him eat his moustache-ridden words.
In order to build a vehicle that will totally pwn his, you have to get parts. And everyone knows that mechanical parts are found in large multi-story warehouses dispersed in vast mazes beyond doors locked with science puzzles.
But there's a catch! Morty's got his robot monkeys working doubletime to build his vehicle while he sits at home eating Rip-L-Chips and watching reruns of Seinfeld. If those little buggers catch you, they'll break your shins and take one of your precious pieces. Unless of course you throw them a banana, which will make the robot fall asleep because (this part is interpolation) the tastyness of the banana activates a napping subroutine programmed into the operating system of the monkey.
 
Some of the puzzles get pretty tricky for the intended age group, but most of them can be solved with trial and error.
So anyways, you lay the beatdown on these monkeys terminator style. Then you race Morty and lap him like 3 times cause he's noob. Each time you reach a certain number of points, you rank up. Even before I knew the meaning of the word, good times were associated with it.
If you still doubt this game's connection to engineering, take a look at this. It's the blueprints that you can study to find out which parts are the fastest. This is the description for the airfoil of a glider.
Keep reading... that's right... LAMINAR? What the? That sounds like ENGG 201 jargon to me! Irrefutable evidence!
As promised, I have taken pictures of my nerf paintjob. I decided against the japanese kanji for the decal because they were impossible to make a good stencil for. Instead I put the oroboros from FullMetal Alchemist. The painting went okay, but as you might be able to see, some cracking formed in the paint, but I sealed it under the clearcoat. It was probably because I sprayed outside at -20C and then let it dry at room temperature inside.
   
As a quick side note, I'm getting a cellphone sometime this Christmas season. However, I'm having a hard time deciding on a phone/service/plan. I know I wont be using it a ton, so I'm pretty sure I want a pay-as-you-go type of thing. However, I've checked roger's pay-as-you-go phones and they all look kind of... not good. I'd really like to get either of the sony ericssons (the orange swivel one or the black flip one) because they look sweet and since they're mp3 phones I can have custom ringtones without having to pay a dollar for each one... but they aren't availible in pay-as-you-go and they lock you into a 3-year contract if you want to get any sort of good deal on the phone. So, any advice on this front is appreciated.
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| Recently I've been listening to a new band. They're called "DragonForce" and they're a british fantasy-metal band. It's got fast paced guitar and heavy drums, but the lyrics... oh, the lyrics... let me give you some examples.
Take you with me, we will fly across the sea
To the land of the sun where our journey's begun
All fear is gone, we sail until the dawn
Deepest fears will burn inside your mind
For the souls lost in endless time
Okay, that was the warm-up round. If you're thoroughly disgusted or crying with laughter or... just plain crying... then don't continue to the next examples.
Into the fires of forever we will flare through the heavens
With the power of the universe we stand strong together
Through the forcing of power, it will soon reach the hour
For victory we ride, Fury of the Storm!
I bet you were okay until the "universe" part. I bet that hit you like a brick in the gut. Are you ready for the finishing move?
TATSU-MAKI-SENPUU-KYAKU!
Proud and so glorious
Standing before of us
Our swords will shine bright in the sky
When united we come
To the land of the sun
With the heart of a dragon...
The heart of a dragon...
The heart of a dragon we ride...
Yes. Slant rhyme of "glorious" with "us", swords, and of course, dragons! Just add a few magic missles, a pair of boots of escaping, a D20 and a bag of cheetos and you've got yourself the ultimate in shamefully nerdy lyrics.
I'm pretty sure if you were to run a population chart of the words used in their songs, these would appear high on the list:
Fire, Flames, Oceans, Seas, Freedom, Light, Soul, Eternity/Forever, Sun, Far/Distant, Heart, Dream, Steel, Glory, Victory, Fly, Power, Night, and Dragon (of course).
But despite these sickeningly cheesey lyrics, the guitar and drum combination is so uplifting that I can't help but enjoy it. It also makes you feel really hardcore when playing World of Warcraft. This is fanfare worthy of those ever-frequent southshore battles.
If you're still not convinced, take a look at their music video for "Through the Fire and the Flames". Now, I know that it could be a LOT worse (the abscence of both swords and dragons is reassuring), this video will still make you really want to get a haircut. Even if you don't watch the whole thing, at least fast forward to the 3:30 mark because they do some sweet picture-in-picture guitar solos.
I enjoy this music so much that I think I'd see them in concert if ever the chance arose. Then again, I doubt there would be any concert more plagued by the stifling stench of LARP.
Here are some uploads of a few of my favorites so you can see just how addicting this music is:
- Lost Souls in Endless Time
- Cry for Eternity
- Through the Fire and the Flames
In other news, I'm almost done painting my nerf gun. There were a few complications in the painting, and as a result some areas have a kind of cracked texture, but it works. I'll post pictures next time fo sho.
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