Hey, look! Wallpapers!

800×600 | 1024×768 | 1280×1024 | 1280×800

Based on a recent update from my artblog! I felt like making wallpapers, which is a feeling I haven’t had for a while.

A roll of the dice

While listening to the latest podcast of Webcomics Weekly (#62), laughing at how Kellett, Guigar and Straub are poking fun about how the same topics keep coming up in every cast they do, I decided to skim through my list of bookmarks on Delicious. One of the sites I skimmed through was SPLITREASON.COM, a site that has some pretty good geek apparel.

One of their partner stores is for Tim Buckley’s Ctrl+Alt+Del (CAD), which has been with them for a while. As a good number of webcomic readers may know, one of his story-arcs in the past year was a pretty drastic twist in the series.

While some of the criticisms were hilarious to read, such as Mike Krahulik’s (Penny Arcade) description of Buckley as an “art criminal,” one that stood out was Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s video discussion on webcomics on Zero Punctuation. It starts off like an ironic stab at a form of gaming-culture entertainment, but then it later feels like it’s more of an angry stab against just CAD. Unlike his poke at Penny Arcade’s sacks of infinite money, his criticism against Buckley’s comic seems almost genuine.

Fast forward to today, where I realize something I didn’t notice before, but has possibly been there for a while.

click to enlargen image

Apparently, CAD and Zero Punctuation are sharing the same vendor for selling merch! From what it looks like, they’ve been doing so for a while, but I don’t really know if it was before or after Croshaw’s video, nor do I really know if Croshaw’s whole anti-CAD anger bit was just another folly made by him to fool us all.

Either way, it’s frickin’ amazing.

Even to those who don’t read webcomics so much, I think I’ve supplied enough info for discussion. Any thoughts?

A case of the lucky!

The general way the auto licencing system works here in Ontario is like this: a graduated system, including two novice levels (G1 and G2) and the completed level (G). In its entirety, the novice-level licences share in total 5 years in validity. I was in a bit of a pickle today, going to the DriveTest centre to remedy my ability to take my G Road Test.

You see, I had my G1 for about 4 years. This meant that when I graduated to my G2, I had 11 months left in my entire novice term. The problem with this is that I need to hold my G2 for 12 months until I can take the test, and if the card is expired, I can’t renew it and would have to requalify for everything from scratch. That’s another $125, another G2 Road Test, and another few years of driving and practicing menial things.

Fortunately for me, I was able to extend my licence expiry date. Whether it’s basic protocol or not to extend a novice licence if brought in before expiry, I at least feel lucky, considering the attendant I was talking to said the word “requalify” and scared me a bit.

But yeah. I’ve got a few more years on my G2. And I like driving now. I never thought I’d say it, but I like driving now. It’s a good feeling.

…well, that is until hovercars are invented. Then I’m fucked.

A case of the stupid.

My weekend so far has not been the greatest of times.

First off, I realized that I signed up for the wrong driving test to gain my final G licence. As well, I finally considered how stupid the written duration on my licence is; I got my G2 in July or August, and it expires in more than a week. Note the SNAFU here. I’m not allowed to actually sign up for the G Road Test until I’ve had my G2 for 12 months or more. This is something I need to sort out on Monday, and it’s pissing me off.

Other than that, everything’s great.