Hooooooboy. Where to start...

Really have my hands full at the moment, so I'm going to keep this good and short for the moment. :(

1) Quality Television has moved to a new ISP and has a new URL. Please update your bookmarks to:

http://www.quality-television.net

There was a little bit of stupidity on my part and a lot of customer no service on the part of our former ISP. The old URL is now locked out and I couldn't transfer it to the new website. I'll try to snag it back after it expires but for now, it's .net instead of .com to get there.

*facepalm*

It's going to take awhile for things to settle into the new home. I am looking forward to having to fix tons of internal links, let me tell ya!

Also it takes a good 24 to 48 hours to reset the DNS settings so the website may be in and out during this time of transition. Joyous!

2) To add into the fun, the roof on my apartment has suffered structural collapse and needs repair, which is likely going to require a temporary hotel stay while they fix the mess.

No one's been hurt, my stuff is mostly ok. As long as we are spared from any heavy rain, wind or the like, things should hopefully remain ok. Happy happy, joy joy!

That's all I have for now! The good news out of all this is that the new webspace provides a hell of a lot more room, unlimited bandwidth and more options for potential awesome. More on this as things develop!

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

For those who haven't seen this, I recommend grabbing a cold drink, some Kleenex and making sure that your chair is nice and comfy.

This lecture was given on September 18, 2007 by Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who died today from complications of pancreatic cancer. It lasts approximately 75 minutes and is simply one of those videos that makes you laugh, think and get a little misty-eyed.

Enjoy.

We Crossed The Line...

I've been clearing out some mental debris this past weekend in yet another attempt to realign my thinking.

It started when I was driving home after work on Friday and U2's So Cruel starting playing on my trusty iPod's "Assorted" playlist. The album it comes from, Achtung Baby, was one of those albums that reminds me a lot of high school.

Happy memories, mostly, but it is also the song I have queued up to help put things in perspective whenever I remember Her.

Some of you know all too well whenever I refer to "She Who Must Not Be Named." I now name to her as "Bad Wolf" now because typing out a dozen "She Who Must Not Be Named" is ridiculously labourious, plus it is a term more commonly recognized to people who aren't just Doctor Who or JK Rowling fans.

I played that song on the night I told her to get out of my parents house on the night she stopped by to ask me to go back with her. I was well through with our relationship and wanted nothing else to do with her. She was so quick to play music to me whenever she had a point she had to get across and that night, so did I.

It's a scene, like many others in my life, that just sticks out. It bothers me that this one song is forever tainted and therefore an entire album is also tainted, but there it is.

Just as "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and "I Will Survive," favourites of hers, makes me cringe, so it is with "So Cruel." I hate that.

I hate it and I want my song back. I want them all back. All the songs out there that I connect with certain people and with bad memories, I want them fucking back.

I want my life back.

Let The Laff-A-Lympics BEGIN!!!

What a start, eh?

Should be a fun run this time around. There was a guesstimate floating around that estimated 4 billion people who'd be watching the Olympics this summer.

Amazing. Simply amazing.

Oh, and don't forget the 2008 Puppy Games. You can't miss out on this shit, believe me. Kept me entertained for AT LEAST five minutes or so!

Heh. I love puppies.

Jim Davis - Respect +1

I mentioned Garfield Minus Garfield a few months back. The guy who runs the site, Dan Walsh, has taken Jim Davis's Garfield comic strip and attempted to give us an idea of what the strip would look like if Garfield was removed from the strip.

As you browse the strips, you get a different look at Garfield's "owner," Jon Arbuckle. You almost get the sense that Jon is an eccentric, ofttimes neurotic loner who struggles to get through each day. Several of the strips make you laugh purely at the bizarre randomness of Davis's cartoonist hero, others simply make you ask what the hell is wrong with Jon.

Either way, it's amusing as hell.

In recent news, Jim Davis has not only given Dan of Garfield Minus Garfield his blessing to continue posting the strip online, he has gone a step further and has extended a hand of friendship towards him by offering to work together in combining both the original Garfield and the altered Garfield Minus Garfield strips into one book collection. They will present both strips as a side by side comparison so you can experience the full effect.

This is awesome.

You don't see a lot of things like this in today's litigious society. You really don't.

When I first saw Garfield Minus Garfield I thought to myself that I'd better enjoy it while I could before the dreaded cease and desist letter laid the legal smackdown on Walsh. Especially once Fark caught a sniff of it and presented the site to millions of Internet citizens as a link on the front page.

In my opinion, Jim Davis showed a lot of class here. Walsh wasn't out to destroy the reputation of Davis's creation, after all, just to show us a different side of it while giving full credit to the strip's creator. His intent was to provide a tribute to the festively plump feline (even though he was removing him entirely, I know...) as well as to bring new laughter to the table.

Instead, Davis looked at it and thought, "Huh. You know, this is actually kind of awesome. I should totally get in on this." It was very generous on his part and the while the offer to collaborate will indeed add more lasagna to the wallet, it also is a great step forward regarding reaching out to the public.

Try and see if Cathy or For Better or Worse's creators would ever allow anything remotely like this. Top marks, Mr. Davis, top marks.

I haven't bought a Garfield collection book since '87, but I will definitely be picking up this one when it hits the shelves.