LATENIGHT - MIRAMICHI

Saturday, January 31, 2004

How nighttime looks to me (for the time being)
Nightclubs in South Korea

I thought I'd post a little status update. Most of you are following what's up with me on my usual blog (K2K Journal). If not, I'll report here that my plans to return to Canada are in place, the severe hiccups involved in that are beginning to be resolved, and I will be in Canuckistan by the end of this month. By that time, Latenight will be my primary blog. So, in advance of that, I've included a little poll on the sidebar to your right. What would you like to see here? What direction do you think I should take with the blog. Since the ol' Fareasterner journal is going to come to a close, I can see this blog taking on a more personal theme than I had originally anticipated. We all need a place to vent, right?

I'm set to continue Latenight's nighttime theme regardless. Consider it a place for all of you vampires to feel at home. By next month, I'll be able to post some actual photographs taken in Canada at night. I'm pretty eager to get out and about, actually-- partly for my own fun and partly for freelancing. My planned work is also going to be along the lines of an early morning shift, so the news that coffee is becoming a cure for what ails you is good news to us nocturnals indeed.

LATENIGHT Lady of the Week

Briana Mulroney, the Maid of Meech!
Pleased to Meech'ya!

Age: 32
Height: 184 cm
Weight: 63 kg
Birthplace: Baie Comeau, PQ

Turn Ons: 'Damn Yankees', the NY Yankees, and Americans in general.
Turn offs: Unknown. It took nine years to figure out how to turn Briana off.
Quote: "Always remember to keep your chin up when you're bending over." and
"When Irish eyes are smiling, sure they steal your heart away!"

[And as an aside about Brian Mulroney, what more can you say about the guy?]

The former H.M.S. Vengeance

You are bidding on a 693' x 80' Colossus Class British Aircraft Carrier.

EBay is now officially, the coolest place to shop in the world. Check out this bid to purchase and own your very own Aircraft Carrier, at a cost that equals only about 0.5% of what the Canadian government is spending on the gun registry! Hell, my hometown if Miramichi is spending a third of this amount to finance a new curling rink/Headless Nun Museum. Maybe they could switch gears and start up a kitty to buy this baby instead. Think of the effect on tourism. Not only would it bring people to the area on vacation-- but you can power project to them during winter months! Use it as a personal yacht, or as a starter purchase for your very own battle group.

[From the site: "The HMS VENGEANCE was originally commissioned to the Royal Naval Fleet. In the vessels early history it placed a key role in the surrender of Hong Kong by the Japanese. Later, the vessel was loaned to the Royal Australian Navy and renamed HMAS VENGEANCE. There, the vessel spent most of its time as a training vessel. Shortly after its return to the Royal Navy the carrier was placed in the reserves, and eventually sold to Brazil in December of 1956. Renamed for the second time, the MINAS GERAIS would play a key role in the Brazilian Naval Fleet as the only carrier in the arsenal. Brazil, unable to afford two carriers, decommissioned the MINAS GERAIS in 2001 to make way for the newest carrier purchased from the French. Her final role as an implement of war would be to escort the newest member of the fleet into port. Throughout the vessels history it has undergone many refits to keep the technology, and its capability up to date."]

After solidifying your purchase, you might be interested in acquiring art prints of this beauty, showing the flight deck lined with F-4U Corsairs, or you could do the generous thing and offer some support to people who already know and love her. You could join the effort to preserve her as a museum, spearheaded by the Friends of HMS Vengeance association.

God Bless Her, and all who sale on her.

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Don't eat the yellow snow

Just a little seasonal distraction to keep you folks busy.

BTW... Does anyone else have info on that UFO sighting over Kent County, New Brunswick on Saturday night?

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

LATENIGHT Lady of the Week

Jenna MacDonald of Kingston, Ontario!

Age: 26
Height: 175 cm
Weight: 61 kg
Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland

Turn Ons: A ~~stiff drink~~ nice cocktail and a romantic ride on the rails.
Turn offs: Metis revolutionaries and Seperatists.
Quote: "Like a lot of Scots-Canadian gals from Upper Canada,
I like to be on top and in charge! Why don't you share a drink with me,
and we can talk about forming some kind of union. *purr*"

Our Board of Directives
I've noticed that many of my readers from before have made the switch over to this blog. Here's one more push to get you onto the bulletin board too. Once on the board, you'll see two spots where you can happily register away. The board is up for discussions on anything, really... but special sections have been added for humour, and other artistic explorations. Go ahead and sign up, then drop an introductory message about yourself. It's free and it's on my own site; so you know I am not going to use your email for nefarious purposes. Heck, I hardly ever email people back, even for legitimate purposes.

There's not a lot of people signed up yet, but they already represent four-and-a-half continents between them. (BTW: Is Puerto Rico considered North or South America?). Prepare the way for variety!

Go Team! *cheer*

Monday, January 19, 2004

CNN is reporting on a botched exorcism in Atlanta. Let this be a warning that exorcisms are serious matters and should be dealt with only by professionals with the most up to date exorcism techniques, and never in Kenya. People requiring exorcisms should contact the proper priests or lay clergy, rather than performing the rites and prayers to St. Michael themselves.

... and at least keep your clothes on.

Saturday, January 17, 2004

Lovecraftian Evangelicals-- catch them here.
(Or read a helpful Cthulu FAQ.)

Just quick note. This blog is going to be taking on a bit larger of a scale in my life very shortly. It turns out that I will be repatriating to Canada within the month. When that happens, my previous blog will have run its course and anyone looking for my most regular postings will find them here instead.

Put some steaks on the BBQ for me.

Saturday, January 10, 2004

I know there are a couple of Gibson fans reading the website. I was doing a search today for blog tools (that wasn't my search criteria so don't read anything into this). The results page turned up a link to cyberpunk writer William Gibson's blog. It makes for a interesting read, although he hasn't updated since September which is around the time I bought this book. I'd been saving "Pattern Recognition" for some less busy days-- but those days haven't materialized yet. Perhaps in February I'll be able to cut down on my electronic reading and go back to picking up some paper. I was, and am, still looking forward to reading this one.

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Before allowing 2003 to pass away into complete obscurity, here's a link that might be of interest. From the website "Project Censored", the listing is "Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2002-2003". It's a great read to ring in the new year for anyone interested in spin doctoring, disinformation, or world domination.

Saturday, January 03, 2004

The last couple of nights, I've been looking into music licensing and so forth. Somebody was asking about the legality of streaming music on the site... like I check these things out! *sheesh*

So I started checking it out.

Here's what a newbie like me has discovered. Bear in mind that this site is actually being hosted in South Korea, where copyright infringement reigns supreme. Nonetheless, Latenight is thematically a Canadian site so I want it to be in line with Canadian policies, of which there doesn't appear to be any concrete enforceable legislation yet. (It's coming but for now, things seem up in the air).

Music Licensing.
Normally, SOCAN handles the licensing for radio stations and other public performances of music, but the legislation to cover user fees related to internet programming is still being debated. At the heart of the issue is Tariff 22. It's goals are to levy a blanket fee on ISPs rather than going after individual users as was the case in the United States last year. A site such as mine, which is operating like a crude radio station, would be expected to pay $0.25 CAD for each subscriber/listener as well as a percentage of advertising revenue. Admittedly, I have put some ads up on the site and if they ever create revenue for me, I'll likely be so shocked that I won't mind handing over a piece of the pie.

For better info, check out the campaign at RantRadio.com:

Other internet battles of 2003
While looking up the SOCAN stuff, I also came across the Toronto Star's A-Z of Canadian Internet Disputes. This one article points to a lot of the fights for control over the internet throughout the past year. It makes for an interesting read on the state of the net in our icy home.

New on this website.
Once again, I'm going to direct you folks over to the "Discuss" tab. The bulletin board is finally working. A number of members have signed up and I'd like to see if we can get some discussions rolling.

You'll also notice some advertisements. I don't suspect they'll equate to a vast fortune... although I do have my eye on one that could be worth the while. On the "Stuff" page you'll see that, in lieu of any real content yet, there is an advertisement for purchasing cigarettes online. I checked the fine print and they say that they are able to ship to Canada. Now I know that a lot of people reading this are smokers. Not only that, but they are smokers who are fed up with paying $13 bucks a pack. (As I said before, I live overseas and it only costs me $2 bucks a pack... ) So, I am relying on some adventurous internet shoppers to give it a go. It might save you some cash on smokes. I just checked, and a cartoon of Marlboros is going for $18.95 US!

Smoke 'em if ya got 'em.

Thursday, January 01, 2004

Just a quick note to say that the bulletin board does not seem to be accepting members. I'm guessing that it is a problem with the permission settings so I'll run through them again as soon as I have time and post when the problem is cleared up.