Age of SuccessAt 12:34 AMby: Nana

I finished the sixth Harry Potter novel over the weekend. It was definitely worth the wait, despite having the ending ruined for me. My regular posting schedule will return.

Harry #@$!*%& PotterAt 8:34 PMby: Nana

The new Harry Potter book is in stores. WE bring you this news first, in classic Pleasant Interruption style!

I am a bibliophile. I love books. I especially love books about space, and/or magic. I can't believe I typed that sentence, reread it, and kept it in the post. Anyway, I like the Harry Potter novels and I couldn't wait for the sixth one to be published.

I decided to reread the fourth and fifth Harry Potter novels in preparation for the sixth one (which was released this weekend). I then decided not to buy the book yet, because I'm waiting until I'm done the fifth one (100 pages left) so I can read it as soon as I get it (it being the sixth book). I finally, I decided to shut myself off from most of the websites I visit, so I don't see any strange spoilers about what happens to Harry and the Hogwart's crew.

I went to a website immediately after I decided this and read a spoiler (by accident). I hate the intarnets.

In the off chance that what I read is false information, I'll thank you all to not post any spoilers about the book on this website. If you do, I will actually hate you forever, regardless of what our prior working relationship was.

The Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Listening To Death From Above 1979At 8:06 PMby: Nana

#5.) Death From Above 1979 are not from the UK. (they're CANADIAN)

#4.) Their name is Death From Above 1979. The name is so long that it screams "importance"... or arrogance, either way.

#3.) Death from Above 1979 are friends with Broken Social Scene, Metric, The Dears, and Stars. Good bands tend to keep good company.

#2.) Their full length EP, You're a Woman, I'm a Machine, is supercharged with hyper-rock energy (times three, or so). Jesse Keeler plays the bass and the synths, and Sebastien Grainger plays the drums and sings. That's right, this band has a singing drummer, and no guitarist!

#1.) You can download their second single, Blood On Our Hands, from the aforementioned album, here.

And since I didn't say already, their official website is deathfromabove1979 dot com. There are a few other free mp3s there as well.

The Transportation DebacleAt 6:35 AMby: Nana

I have a sort of "fear" of pushing the "stop" buttons on buses. I think that if I push them too early or too late that someone will notice. What they will do after noticing I can't really tell you, but this is one of my fears: people observing me not acting like a normal person would. I often joke with Hiro that there was some secret class that everyone took called "social skills 101" that I missed during school. At this class they would teach you things like "how to memorize bus routes" and "how to write cheques", or "which direction to step towards when you're passing someone." I always step to the right first by the way.

Last Monday I had to take the train back to Belleville, after spending the weekend in Ottawa for Canada Day. I awoke to the sounds of a jackhammer next door. Construction men were working on the room next to my friend's (Mark [Uzo temporarily, but I won't get into that... the names don't mean anything to alot of you anyway] and Arjun) apartment. I stayed there instead of at my place because I could take the bus just two stops to get to the train station. I had taken this bus route one other time with my other friend Tom.

I went to the bus station at around 5:30 and caught the bus at 5:40 pm or so. My train was scheduled to leave at 6:10. When my stop came up, I didn't push the button. I expected someone else to push it instead, so that I could leave the bus if this was my correct stop, and stay on if it wasn't. This doesn't make sense to any of you reading, and it doesn't make sense to me typing it, but that's what I did. I watched helplessly as the bus passed my stop and picked up speed down the highway.

The bus ended up going for two more stops before I got off (to St. Laurent station if you know the routes in Ottawa). I exited the station and started to skateboard back to the train station. ALong the way I had to content with the terrible wind of oncoming buses passing me, and going down a steep and rocky slope down to a sidewalk. I got back to the train station without a moment to spare: my watch read 6:05pm when I boarded the train to come back to Belleville.

The Return of My Favourite Weekly PostAt 2:52 PMby: Nana

This is to let you all know that I'll be doing my "Top 5 Reasons You Should Be Listening To" posts again starting this weekend. The next couple of weeks will be about Canadian artists. If you have a recommendation for a band I should talk about, send me an email at polycarbonite (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Expect some self-deprecating humour tomorrow.

What the "mech"?At 5:46 PMby: Nana

I love my cornball title for this post. Okay, so some guy's company (the easy to remember, spell, and pronounce Neogentronyx) is making mechanical mobile suits (or, as we animé and Battletech fans lovingly refer to as Mechs). Neogentronyx is auctioning off their first prototype here. The price at the time of writing this is US $40,000 with no bids.

My favourite feature of the mech are the "clamp styled hands with optional locks for full on crushing or just gentle clasping", for those days when you feel like gently clasping your enemies to death. What? You thought I'd say the flamethrowers didn't you?

Live 8At 10:11 AMby: Nana

To be honest I don't know how we could have possibly missed out on talking about the concerts. Something felt strange, and I only just noticed that we didn't write about Live 8 a day or two ago.

My opinion of the concerts can be summed up by this 10 point list from fellow blog Productshop NYC. It can be found here (don't worry, it's short so I encourage you to read it).

I realize that the point of the concerts wasn't to raise money but to raise public awareness of African poverty, but I don't believe that it really did this effectively. People went to the concerts and said "poverty sucks man" and then went home and forgot about it again. And the points from Productshop NYC only convince me more that this is what happened. I'm glad I'm not the only person who thinks that Live 8 was a failure.

EDIT: To say that Live 8 was a complete failure is too harsh a judgement, considering the fact that the G8 have decided to increase aid to Africa and to reduce even more debt (I'm not 100% on that second part) to some of the poorer countries. If Live 8 was primarily what influenced this, then the concerts did serve some purpose. But I don't believe that this is the case. This almost suggests that without the added pressure of the Live 8 concerts, the G8 countries wouldn't have done anything about the poverty situation in Africa - which is completely false, because poverty was already part of the agenda of the G8 meeting. Arguing over how effective the concerts were in influencing the amount of aid being sent to Africa is a moot point as well, simply because there is no way of knowing.

Please comment on this, even if you agree with my position.

Terrorist Attacks on LondonAt 3:12 AMby: Nana

In the typical Pleasant Interruption style, we bring you late breaking news (get it? It's a pun). The bombings in London, England on Thursday were the latest terrorist attacks on those countries who chose to help the United States in the war on terror. I know that the thoughts and prayers of Hiro, Tony, and myself are with those affected by the attacks. I hope this doesn't deter actions against terrorists around the world, by the British and by the other countries who wish to stamp out terrorism once and for all.

It's terrible that so many innocents are dying because of some people's twisted beliefs.

The Geek HierarchyAt 2:13 AMby: Nana

This has been passed around the internet like a spliff at an Arts party, but I still think that it's relevant to any conventional conversation about geekyness. If you ever wanted to know where you stand in relation to other geeks, here's your answer.

In case you were wondering, I fall under the second level of comic book fans, between the first level of anime fans, the third and fourth levels of sci-fi book readers, and I'ma video gamer and roleplaying gamer. I'm also a sci-fi/fantasy lit fan, I watch sci-fi tv shows, and I'm a trekkie.

If you don't know what a "furry" is, then leave me a short message and I'll devote a humourous post to them.

The Guy Who Fights PeopleAt 12:03 PMby: Nana

When I was walking to my friend Carly's place yesterday to hang out with the chums, I overheard a conversation between a policeman and a woman. I like listening in to conversations between the police and drunk people, for reasons which I think are quite obvious. This one didn't disappoint. Apparently there was some guy on the next street over who was randomly fighting people as they walked past him on the sidewalk. She was telling the officer about this, and he was trying to get her to come quietly into the back of his squad car for some reason. I made sure to go one block out of my way to avoid any confrontations. I didn't feel like killing anyone on Canada Day.

Nana's Canada DayAt 11:38 AMby: Nana

I'm going to post in disjointed point-form sentences,and probably switch back to normal well formed sentences near the end. I just thought I'd fill you in.

- Got back to Ottawa on June 30th around 9:45 pm. Hitched a ride from Tony's brother, Patrick. When we got back we discovered two strange things: our only phone (a cordless) couldn't hold a charge, and the internet wasn't working. We were cut off from the world.

- At around 11:30 pm I fixed the internet problem, but the phone still wouldn't work (the battery is still weak even as I type this). I suspect that the battery is dying or something. This is supported by the fact that I bought the display model of my phone instead of a new one.

- The next day Tony and I went out for some McDonald's breakfast. I had Burger King for lunch. I almost had a triple threat, but I didn't go out for Wendy's for supper (or dinner, depending on where you're from). Instead, I went to this Mexican restaurant in The Market (a section of downtown Ottawa) called Ahora. I went there with my friend Uzo, his girlfriend Monica, and Steph. We all went to see the fireworks at Parliament Hill afterwards. It was a spectacular show, with fireworks shaped like hearts and happy faces and stuff.

- I was supposed to meet some friends after the fireworks, but I never got around to it. Instead we walked back to campus to see Monica off at the bus station. On the way I saw some high school friends (Mike Henry, Brad Delaney, etc).

- After dropping Monica off, Steph, Uzo, and I hung out at her place for a bit, talking and eating peanuts. We left to go to this party that didn't exist. After finding that out, I went home and caught a message on my answering machine, which revealed that the guys were all at a different house. I parted ways with Steph and Uzo, and went over to Carly's place.

- WHen I arrived (it was 1:30 in the morning or something) everyone was already done drinking. I chugged down a beer and we went to get soem pizza. After grabbing some slices we walked back to Carly's. her roommates just got back from their night out. I helped one of them by giving her her clothes which were behind some cushions on the couch. They included, but were not limited to: a bikini bottom, and some undergarments. I was trying to be helpful, but I kept picking up her underwear and stuff.

- The night winded down after this. I got a drive home from the one and only Phillip Vicente (amazing driving skills by the way!) and settled in for a good night's sleep.

So there you have it, the raw feed of sensory information as I rememeber it. Happy Canada Day to everyone, and I hope you all had good nights.