Merry Christmas

Just want to say, to anyone who may be visiting the "Entertainment Emporium" today, that I hope you have a joyous Christmas and a wonderful, happy, and safe New Year!

And leave me some comments, will you? :P

New Design, New Sections, and New Year (Almost)

Well... I've FINALLY relaunched my site. I know a few of you were waiting for this for quite a while. To those people, well, I don't understand you. :P My life is not that interesting, and my "new" website doesn't exactly have much new on it... actually, right now, it has less than it did when I took it down.

However, it WILL have more new sections. I plan on developing the "Photo Gallery" into something far larger than it ever was before, with many more photos and a better organization between all the photos. There will be better space devoted to each one of my friends, and to all my awesome trips, concerts, and events. I also plan on putting up a "Calendar" page shortly, which will include things going on in my life, other people's big events, advance screenings, etc. (for those who care about keeping track of such things).

The new stuff that's here right now include a re-written "Bio" section (and updated sub-sections within that) and a much fancier and updated "Music" section. Oh, and everything on the site (with the exception of these main page Blog entries) is now written in third person. Cause it's funnier that way. No really, it is. Seriously. Check it out. It's funny!!!!!! Shut up!

Anyway, I've got work to do, so I'm gonna finish this up. Enjoy the new website, and come back regularly to check out all the updates that are still to come!

MPAA Ratings System Anger

This is one of the many reasons I'm glad I live in Canada...

Our rating systems (every province has a seperate ratings board) is not based on stupid, limiting occurances. Each movie is watched and given a rating based on the overall content. Sometimes the ratings vary province-to-province (the Ontario board has been known to be a tad harsher than other provinces at times) but at least it's not completely mind-boggling. They give you very clear reasons why each rating is given, and it makes sense.

But in the U.S., the MPAA ratings seem to treat language and nudity as considerably worse things than violence, and it doesn't seem to matter the context, either. I had heard this before, but it was reaffirmed by Zach Braff in his latest Garden State blog post that 1 use of a certain expletive is accepted, but 2 uses of that same expletive in a movie and it is given an automatic R rating (roughly equivalent to Manitoba's 18A... if you're under 17, you can only see the movie accompanied by an adult).

Now, for anyone who knows me, obviously I'm not a huge "fan" of swearing. I do my fair share, but make a conscious effort not to. I don't even like listening to music with blatant or unnecessary foul language. But when presenting a movie based on real life, sometimes it is called for. For instance, I watched The Shawshank Redemption with my parents when I was 13 or so, and they didn't mind all the foul language being presented on my young, impressionable self. They explained that while it wasn't good to use that language, it was accurately representing what language in prison would be. People wouldn't be saying "gosh darn". I think most young people in their teens can understand this concept. However, a movie where the "cool hero" blows the head off of a bunch of people, say a neat-o catch phrase, and wink at the camera can get a rating of PG-13 in the U.S.? Yet Garden State, which doesn't have any real violence or even sex, gets a Restricted? Absolutely ridiculous.

In other news, CanadaMovies.net / MovieContests.com is switching servers over the next couple days, and I will be OUT OF TOWN when it happens. This is both absolutely wonderful and potentially disastrous. It's wonderful because even if there are problems, minor or major, I will be away at a cabin and will not have to deal with them. But if the problems are large enough, it could make some movie studio peeps, along with our visitors, a tad angry. And that's never good. Regardless, it's gonna happen this way, and there's nothing that can be done about it now. Heh.

Well, I must get to finishing the transfer of everything over to the new server so that the transition is as smooth as possible.

Resurrecting the Blog from Nothingness

That's right, I've decided to resurrect my blog from the nothingness that it has been for months now. Why? I have absolutely no clue whatsoever. But I am.

So... what to say? Well, I've been busy, although my own procrastination (check that, lack of an attention span) has made it so it's taking me longer (day-wise) to get work done. I will spend an hour or 2 on something, and then just totally get distracted with a TV show, something I remembered I wanted to look at on TV, or resurrecting my website's blog. For instance, right now I have something I need to finish, and instead I'm writing this. Sure, I'll finish what I need to, but it will just mean I'll go to bed much later than originally planned.

Speaking of which, I now do have the ability to go to bed at a "normal" hour (meaning before 1am if I really need to!) except for days when I delay work and then must stay up to finish stuff. But I love it when I do get to bed early (by my past several years' standards) and can actually wake up when it's actually AM. It's nice to experience much more of "daytime".

I'm Very Busy and Things are Busy-Like

Yeah, lots of work right now, but it is good. Oh, and Little Web Pages is now the New Media Division of a Winnipeg IT company called "do IT with us". More info on that later.

Toronto Photos

Just in case anyone out there hasn't seen the links on The Brethren, Flyboy's Hangar, or LiveJournal, or been to the Photo Gallery, my Toronto trip photos are now up on my website.

CLICK HERE for the direct link to the photos, for those of you who are seemingly "out of the loop".

That's about it.

"Glass Shadows" CD Review

The response from my CD release has been overwhelming. At the top of it all is that famed music critic Deke Tidings actually wrote a review of Fair. To read the review from The Deke, you can visit the LiveJournal of thrust_of_pain. So exciting!!!

Buy My CD... Or Don't... Whichever is Fine...

Hey everybody... figured I'd plug the fact that I've officially got a CD out there on the "market" so to speak. It's available from the fine people at CafePress.com, and if you'd like to purchase it, you can do so by going here:

• http://www.cafeshops.com/moviecontests.9605062

The cost of the CD is $10.99 US, and for those actually in the U.S., shipping is only $2.25, so the total cost of the CD is only $13.24! That's pretty cheap, eh? In Canada it's going to be $6.00 US shipping so a little more pricey... still only around $22 Cdn for the whole thing including shipping, though. (Hey, I even need to pay this for my copy!)

There is a booklet, disc art, and the whole shebang. Even lyrics and thank you's and the like. It's like it's a real CD. Wait, it is a real CD. The songs are mostly just recorded here at the ol' house, but... they're not HORRIBLE.

Anyway, buy it or don't. But I'd appreciate it (and love you forever) if you did. :P