8 Articles from July 2006 | Ben Babcock’s Blog

Rocking the Fort (in our own way)

Thursday, July 20, 2006 6:46 PM -04:00

No, I didn't go to Rock the Fort this year (you American people of course have no idea what I'm talking about, let alone you poor people in Britain, Singapore, Ireland, India, etc., but bear with me). However, today my friend Laura and I did take a trip out to Old Fort William Historical Park to take a tour and have some fun (and to laugh at our friends who were working out there).

For those of you who don't know, Fort William was the largest fur trading fort west of Montreal and was essentially the "bottleneck" for furs coming eastward from the interior of the country. Back in the nineteenth century, this is why people settled here. The Historical Park, rebuilt to detail after the original Fort burned down, attempts to bring that atmosphere alive with costumed guides who play the roles of all sorts of people there, including the famous voyageurs.

Several of my friends work there, including Graham and Cortney, so Laura and I agreed that it would be cool to spend the day down there and take a guided tour and see if we could locate our friends. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. Once…

Superman Returns (Original Soundtrack)

Wednesday, July 19, 2006 5:14 PM -04:00

I bought the original soundtrack for Superman Returns today. Wow. It's so awesome.

I don't know if John Williams knew what he was creating when he composed the original Superman theme, but I love that music sooo much it's not even funny. :wub: So to here it again in theatres was absolutely amazing, and now I can play it anytime I want! John Ottman did a tremendous job composing new music that was based off Williams' themes but that would work with the new movie, and this CD was definitely worth the buy.

Muwahahahaha.

Tidbit Trivia on Hanging

Saturday, July 15, 2006 1:01 AM -04:00

I was reading up on hanging according to Wikipedia because I've got a scene coming up in my novel wherein some of the characters are slated to be hanged. My original reason for looking up the article was to see if it had information on why we use "hanged" instead of "hung" for the past participle when referring to the capital punishment. It does have such a section, although the reason behind the grammatical discrepancy isn't obvious; it's more of a note than an explanation.

So my curiosity wasn't really sated, but here's some funny things I saw in the article.

Until 1808 the law in Britain offered the death penalty for some 200 offenses, including attempting suicide, being in the company of gypsies for one month, and vagrancy (for soldiers and sailors); even children aged 7–14 years old could be executed if they committed a capital crime and showed "strong evidence of malice".

(Bolding added for emphasis). Excuse me? People were killed for attempting to kill themselves? I'm sorry, but that seems rather silly to me, since you are essentially granting their wish. :ermm: "What are you doing honey?" "Oh dear, I'm just trying to kill myself?"…

iHave iPod

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 9:24 PM -04:00

It's true, Apple has sucked me into the world of bottled music. :o

While I enjoy my job at the gallery far too much for my own good, I do bike to and from work 40 minutes a day, five days a week. For the past week or so I've been toying with the idea of getting some sort of portable music player to help relieve the monotony of such rides. I wasn't sure if I wanted to get one, however, because I was concerned that I wouldn't use it much and that it would distract me from hearing traffic.

Today I went shopping, though. I decided that it would be worth a purchase, since I spend most of the journey on sparsely-populated bike trails anyway, and can simply turn it off or pause it for the parts where I must traverse roads. I didn't have my heart set on any one type of player; I was keeping my eyes open for which ones were the best deals.

Although I found a relatively cheaply priced MP3 player from The Source, I decided to go with the slightly pricier iPod nano from CompuSmart, largely because I prefer CompuSmart to The Source…

Serendipity

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 12:49 AM -04:00

Literally just when I was thinking about embedding media and how much trouble I've had with it in the past, Elizabeth Castro and A List Apart publish "Bye, Bye ".

It's almost as if they read my minds. :ph34r:

I love A List Apart because of their wealth of articles. They provide such interesting information that I often experience the "Wikipedia effect" (where I just follow links for hours on end from one article to the next).

So yes, I have thoughts about media. :shifty:

Superman Returns

Thursday, July 6, 2006 10:53 PM -04:00

There is only one word that can describe Superman Returns: iconic.

That's what Superman is to people; an icon for all that is good. And I think that Superman Returns captures that in its purest form. I went into the movie expecting it to be great; not excellent, but okay. I came out from an awesome experience that left me nearly breathless. It was way better than I expected.

Spoilers are ahead.

The best parts of the movie were by far the parts that showed Superman's humanity. That was really the true conflict; summarized by Lois Lane's article "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman". But the world does need Superman, and as this film shows, Superman needs the world.

Both Viv and I expected Lois' fiancé, Richard, to be a jerk. We expected him to be overbearing, arrogant, over-compensating in the face of Superman's return to Lois' life...and we could not have been more wrong. When I think back to everything that happens to Richard over the course of the film, he emerges as a mature character. He knows his wife still loves Superman (even if she doesn't at first), and I think he realizes the truth…

Another Day, Another Dollar, Another Win for the Bordercats

Monday, July 3, 2006 1:46 AM -04:00

I biked to work today even though it wasn't the smartest thing to do, what with having a sunburn and no sunscreen. But it worked. So I worked for five hours, then biked home and relaxed until we went to another baseball game.

Everything started well. Cody Allen hit a home run in the second inning, much to the cheers of the crowd. Unfortunately as the game progressed Mankato snuck in a three-run homer to tie us 5-5. Several pitching changes and an infield game of musical chairs for Mankato to cover an injury slowed down the game in the last innings. It all came down to this: bottom of the ninth, one man on base, two outs, and Joey Lieberman up to bat. Would he make the cut?

Well, of course, he's Joey! At first it looks like he'll strike out, but suddenly the ball comes cleanly off his bat. Nothing fancy, just a deep hit to the outfield, enough that Marcus Jones can score from first base to win the game! :w00t: Now that's baseball.

Incidentally, I got a photo taken of Slugger and I. You can also check it out on my Flickr account. I…

Happy Canada Day!

Sunday, July 2, 2006 9:12 AM -04:00

Yes, Canada Day was yesterday, and I fully intended to post yesterday, but wouldn't you know...

I spent Canada Day doing one of the best things possible: going to a baseball game with my dad. It was raining, unfortunately, so the 1:05 start turned into a 2:05 start, and for a reason which I have yet to discern, the auctioned Border Cats jerseys were yellow, not red. Way to go with tradition. :rolleyes: But the game did not disappoint. We won 8-3 with some awesome plays that I don't remember anymore. :D It was great.

Afterward we rented Fantastic Four, which was okay but not great, and ordered in Chinese food which I shall warm up in about ten minutes for breakfast. Then it's time for work, and then more food, and then relaxation before I sleep.

That's what this week is about. I'm officially off school, and I have this amazing urge still to be productive in other ventures. Maybe I should. But I also think that a lot of my stress comes from the fact that I am too stubborn to ever relax or completely take a break--even when I am "relaxing", I have to…