I just saw the cover art for skate 2 for the very first time yesterday. I can't say or actually even know when it'll be in stores but I'd appreciate it if you could tell your friends to buy a copy. I'm working quite diligently on the game to make it worth their while.

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Today was a big day for geeks and scientists alike as they turned on the CERN Large Hadron Collider for the very first time. Even non-sciencey people might have read about this since there have been some fears the ambitious undertaking could lead to the destruction of the planet (via black holes).

For those who don't know what goes on with the LHC near the Swiss-French border, it's quite simple. Scientists are attempting to accelerate particles at each other near the speed of light and smashing them together. The resulting collision, they hope, will shed some light on the mysteries of quantum physics that have eluded physicists for some time.

The facility is interesting for many different reasons. First, there is the whole "it can destroy the world" controversy. I have read that technically the experiment could produce black holes, which by their nature coud suck all matter into them, including our planet. I have also read though, that such black holes would be too small and live too short to do any damage.

Second, such a large scale and ambitious experiment has had many parallels in fiction already. The most famous of which comes from the video game universe of Half-Life. In that universe, a large scale experiment relating to quantum physics goes horribly wrong, opening a portal to another world. Aliens from that world enter our world through the portal, effectively starting the end of civilization. The hero of the series, is none other than an oddly silent physicist, who was working on the experiment.

Third, I actually knowing a scientist working at the LHC who is there right now. Frank, who I met while living at SJC, is doing a PhD in physics and was lucky enough to witness the "flip of the switch" today. We always joked how Frank was the closest thing we had to a real-life Dr. Gordon Freeman but little did we know he'd take it a lot farther than we'd ever guess.

Last but not least, there's something you should consider. You may believe everything is cool since they turned it on and we're all still here. Keep this in mind, today was just the initial start up test. They only got the particles moving in one direction or the other today but not opposite directions at the same time. There were no full speed collisions today. In fact, they don't plan on having big smash ups occurring until near Christmas. How do I know this? Frank told a whole bunch of people this and he should know. So it'll be a few months yet before you can let go of your crowbar.

Stay vigilant!

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About a week ago, I received the following e-mail (with no subject line no less):

DO YOU HAVE GREYS ANATOMY SEASON 4 THE COMPLETE SEASON AVAILABLE AND HOW
MUCH


THANKS
JESSICA

The all-caps e-mail message. I haven't received one of those in a long time. We're almost ten years into the new century. E-mail etiquette is now widely known, at least it should be. Sending a message all in caps means, of course, that you're shouting. Had Jessica been mad at me, then all caps would have been appropriate. I did not think, however, that Jessica really intended to yell her request for Grey's Anatomy Season 4.

Anyways, I do not know Jessica if you're wondering. You might also be wondering why she's asking me for Grey's Anatomy Season 4. It probably has something to do with the fact I have a few pages on this site about bootleg DVDs. Keep in mind, no where does it state nor imply that I make, distribute, import, or conjure up bootleg DVDs. I simply show how some bootleg DVDs have inferior image quality compared to the real thing.

Over the years, I received about three or four of these types of messages. Now that torrents are all the rage, there's really no reason to be looking for bootleg DVDs.

By the way, I looked up Jessica's e-mail address domain. It looks like she lives in or near Atlanta. Knowing that isn't really relevant to this post but it sure adds to the word count.

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Congrats go out to Tyson and Tom for making it to Cape Town. Their motorcycling journey through Europe and then Africa was certainly an enormous undertaking and I am glad they got to the end safe and sound. You can read Tyson's final post of the trip here. Also, the lads were featured in a Sunday Times article. It's a great summary of their trip and there are some amusing comments from some readers at the end.

Tyson is now back in Toronto, resuming his education in the medical field. I wonder if all that seems dull now compared to riding across the plains of Africa? Bone, I'll see you in about a month in Ottawa! You can tell me about all the unwritten stories!

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Because I possess the maturity of a 16 year old boy, I found the above headline to be quite amusing. Tee-hee!

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What you're seeing above is a receipt that I found at a bank machine that I was using at a local 7-11. In this day and age where every bank machine asks you if you want a receipt or not, why would you press "Yes" but then not even take it out of the slot? I do not understand that.

Anyways, whenever I encounter a receipt left in the slot, I always look at it. Call me a snoop or nosy but I admit, I like seeing how much money people have left in the account. In this case, when I looked at the account balance, I had to read it twice to make sure I wasn't missing something. Sure enough, this account was in the negative for close to $33 000. There's no way someone could be overdrawn that amount. This must be a line of credit or similar account.

I do understand that many people in this financial climate live with large amounts of debt. I understand that students come out of university with large amounts of debt. I understand people use debt to fund a lifestyle that might have been out of reach otherwise. Hell, I'm willingly looking to go into debt for over $200K with my apartment-owning aspirations. Still, $33K is a lot of money to be owning to the bank for reasons that one ATM receipt can't let us know.

I wonder what they did or are doing with that money. Tuition for them or their kids? A boat? A car? A vacation? Mortgage payments? Jewelry? Gambling debts? Booze? Blow? Hookers? Comic books? Tempura? Their own business?

I suppose I will never know what that money is being used for.

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