You might have noticed that I haven’t posted anything here in a while, that’s because I’ve been testing out a new site that I’m building using Squarespace.com. If you haven’t heard of it check it out, it’s extremely customizable and really slick once you get over the small learning curve.

Check out the beta version of my new blog at http://greg2point0.squarespace.com/

I’ll probably be remapping the domain newgeekontheblock.com to my squarespace site once I get a few more things worked out.

A few years ago I was working for a small Southern Ontario newspaper and was asked to write an article about what highschool kids wanted for Xmas. Needless to say this didn’t excite me at all, and instead I convinced the editor a better idea would be to write about the increased security at my former highschool and the ethics of security cameras.
Now, no longer binded by the constraints of an editor I’m actually willfully writing a holiday gift guide of my own. Whodathunkit!?!
I’ve also noticed a lot of the gift guides online are ridiculous in that they list stuff well beyond most peoples budget, I’m going to pick things that are affordable (no Macbook Pros or Canon EOS 5D Mark II on this list).

For the tea lover in your circle of friends/family a Starter Set from Adagio.com is perfect. This set comes with the IngenuiTEA pot (which I’ve praised before), a guide to tea, and a sample pack of four teas (either black, green, flavor, or herbal). Adagio sells only the highest quality teas and tissanes which any tea lover will appreciate.
http://www.adagio.com/misc/no_risk.html?SID=de4b172f9a99e2b6a986a8020dfef81e

For the booklover on the go a gift certificate to Audible.com is an excellent present which allows them to choose from any of the thousands of audio books available from Audible. You can get gift certificates ranging from $10 to $250 depending on how much you are willing to spend/love.
http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/GC/GiftCertificates.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

For the iPhone user the Incase Slider for iPhone 3G is a cool case for protecting your beloved Jesus phone. Personally I haven’t been using a case for my iPhone (most of them are ugly as sin, or big and clunky) but the Incase Slider actually looks good, and is thin enough that it doesn’t add too much weight, or width to you phone.
http://store.apple.com/ca/product/TU063VC/A?n=iphone2&fnode=MTY1NDA0NA&mco=Mjg1MDYzNg it’s available for $34.99 from Apple.ca/store

For music and movie lovers I recommend iTunes gift certificates. Nothing is worse than getting a CD or DVD of something you just aren’t into, and seriously who buys physical media anymore? Let them choose what they want to listen by getting a gift certificate to the iTunes store. They come in $15, $25, and $50 donominations (and can be ordered online with free shipping or you can pick them up at most drug stores ie: Shoppers Drugmart).
http://store.apple.com/ca/browse/home/giftcards/itunes

Do you know someone who looks comical T-shirts or webcomics? Is their apartment lacking wall ornaments? I suggest picking something up from the Hijinks Ensue Store, where there are a variety of shirts and comic prints available for resonable prices (plus artist Joel Watson is awesome and you should support him). http://www.hijinksensuestore.com/

Remember when you used to actually get excited for the holidays? In those days Christmas was something to look forward to: presents, candy, food, and a couple weeks off school to play with your sweet new toys. These days the holidays just stress me out, so in the spirit of not being a total downer I composed this list of the most awesome toys/gifts I received in my younger years.

• The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza Thrower

TMNT was basically the coolest thing ever, and when I was young nothing was more awesome than getting a new TMNT action figure or accessory. The Pizza Thrower was a small vehicle the one of the four turtles could sit on, it had moving wheels and shot tiny pizza projectiles. This thing was powered by a pair of D Cells and was LOUD, it seriously sounded like a vaccum or a blender. When I was turned on it would move forward and if you hit a button on the side it sent a barrage of plastic pizzas at a surprising speed. And if you were anything like me you didn’t use this to knock down just action figures. I’d run around the house with this things blasting the shit outta everything: pets, parents and fine china. Did I mention that the pizzas were made of hard plastic, and propelled by an electric motor? Getting hit in the  face with one of these wasn’t like a Nerf dart, it hurt.

• Ghostbusters Firehouse

I remember sitting on the floor of my grandparents house this large present in front of me, anxious to open it and see what treasures it contained. Well it turns out it was one of the coolest action figure playsets EVER. Not only was it almost 2 feet tall, and had a firepole that Egon, Ray, Winston or Peter could actually use to get to the lower level, it also came with a jar of red slime. The red slime was the best because you could place an action figure on the bottom level and pour the slime on the roof, it would seep through the floors and down onto unsuspecting bystander IN THEORY. In reality you’d douce that sucker with slime only to have the vast majority of it pour all over your grandmother’s rug, leaving a permanent red stain, and you without the coolest part of your new toy. (This incident would later be repeated with a jar of TMNT Ooze).

To be continued…

Unlike the majority of Americans I did not get to spend my day watching football and filling my face with turkey and beer (in fact I actually don’t like any of those things, except the beer), because I’m Canadian, which means today is completely meaningless. But the not stop train of tweets about Thanksgiving got me in the mood for some at home comfort food, so I decided to steal something from my mother’s repertoire.

When I was still living at home my mother would make “Cheesy Chicken Casserole” and it was delicious. But now that I no longer consume the flesh of the living (or recently living I suppose) I had to make some slight modifications to her recipe. Here is what I was able to concoct.

Cheesy Not-Chicken Casserole

• 2 cups diced fake chicken (I used “Veggie Patch Meatless Buffalo Wings” cut into small strips, but you could just as easily use TVP, or tofu).

• 1 8 oz pkg. of uncooked macaroni.

• 1 can of cream of mushroom (or celery or broccoli soup).

• 1 cup broth (you can get vegetable oxo cubes).

• 1 cup grated cheese (I probably used about 4 cups of cheese).

• 1 onion, diced.

• 1/2 cup diced celery.

Saute the celery, onion, and fake chicken. Partially cook the macaroni and set aside. In a large bowl mix the soup, broth, and grated cheese. Once the celery, onions and fake chicken are sufficiently cooked mix into the large bowl. Combine all ingredients in a large buttered (I use margarine) casserole dish and cook for 25 minutes on 425.

[NOTE: I haven't been completely honest. I was given these measurements by my mother, but I didn't measure anything. Firstly I don't own any measuring tools (except a measuring cup, which I mostly ignore), if you are lazy like I am just go ahead and eyeball those ingredients.]

I mentioned the theatrical trailer for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek that premiered with Quantum of Solace, well now it’s online in glorious High Definition.

You can check it out at Apple/Trailers. (I recommend the 1080p version).

The XPERIA XIa (who names this shit?) is now available for pre-order, and it has a heafty price tag attached to it. $799 (US) will get you Sony’s answer to the T-Mobile G1 (and the iPhone, Blackberry Bold/Storm, HTC Touch HD Pro… whatever it’s called).

Is it really worth it? Would you pay that kind of money for a smartphone? If the iPhone was that expensive I doubt I would have got one. That is the kind of money I would expect to pay for a much more functional computer. Seriously, what makes the XPERIA X1a so special? For that price it better be making with the head.

I was skeptical about watching this trailer online because I didn’t want to spoil it for myself. I’d really like to see it in the actual theater, but I haven’t been to a movie in months and I doubt I’ll actually see Quantum of Solace anytime soon.

New Star Trek Trailer

It is somewhat off putting that their are cars in the 23rd century, especially an American muscle car like the one you see Kirk recklessly driving in the trailer. And depending on what you consider canon cars were practically unheard of to the people of the future. In Enterprise, the crew of the NX-01 discover an old Chevy truck in space (I can’t remember why it was in space, but none the less they find it) and Trip is the only person who actually knows what it is, and how it works. He has to explain what a combustion engine is! But apparently I’m the only one who actually liked Enterprise and consider it to be actual canon in the Star Trek universe.

Today Orson Scott Card’s newest addition to the slew of Ender Wiggins books entitled, Ender in Exile, was released. I have very mixed feelings about this book for a couple of different reasons.  Firstly, it is being called the first true sequel to the classic novel Ender’s Game, which is a book I’ve read (and listened to) several times, it’s an excellent science fiction story that I USED to cherrish. Ender is Exil is supposed to take place in the time after Ender’s Game, when Ender realizes that he cannot return to Earth. Prior to this release Speaker for the Dead, was the only sequel, which actually takes place 3,000 years after then events of the original novel (so it wasn’t much of a direct sequel).

Now all this is not what troubles me, what troubles me is Orson Scott Card himself. Between the time that I read a great deal of his work (including Ender’s Game, Ender’s Shadow, Shaddow of the Hegemon, and Speaker for the Dead) he has revealed himself to be a very biggoted individual. In recent years he has revealed his very strong opinions on gay marriage, and has attempted to justify his homophobia. Check out one of his rants here.

This is particularly disturbing to me because in my opinion science fiction has always been a genre that has embrassed diversity, and for the most part fans of science fiction have always been open minded and accepting of others.  Star Trek for example was ahead of it’s time by embrassing multiculturalism, and encouraging open mindedness.

I’m entregued by Card’s newest novel, but will most likely neglect to read it (I’m certainly not going to purchase it) because I do not wish to support someone with such ignorant, and discriminating values.

Check out Topless Robot’s take on Ender in Exile.

Check out this video previewing the update to the WordPress app for iPhone/iPod Touch. I’m a big fan of the original application, but to be honest haven’t used it too often (mostly because you couldn’t type in landscape mode, and it’s hard to share links). This update looks quite promising though.

It would be even more promising though if Apple added Copy/Paste so that adding long URLs is actually possible.

[NOTE] For some reason WordPress’ own video won’t embed properly in this post, so check out their iPhone page instead.

[UPDATE] Oh hey, looks like it’s working now. Neververmind, but click the link to see what the people at WordPress have to say about the iPhone app.

You know when you casually ask someone how they are doing (but you don’t really care, because fuck if you care about anyone else’s problems) and you get a response other than “I’m good” or “OK”, “Good, how are you?” this happens to me all the time, especially with coworkers.
Their are some people who will regularly give lengthy answers, usually about how it’s cold outside and they are depressed, or they have a cold and feel shitty, or their parents have been hassling them a lot lately (apparently people still live with their parents, weird eh?). Well, today I had one of these experiences, except the response I got was not to be expected. It went something like this.

Me – “Hey man, how’s it going?”

Coworker – “Uhhhh….. (insert long pause and deep sigh)”
“Not good.”

Me – “That sucks…”

(this is the point where normally I would internally kick myself for even asking and prepare for the onslaught of problems this person supposedly has, but this time was different).

Coworker – “Yeah. I’m really worried about the bees.”

Me – “Bees?”

Coworker – “Yeah man, the bees. They’re disappearing. Their are no more bees.”

Me – “Do you mean like now, because it’s NOVEMBER… In WINNIPEG! I’d be more worried if their was an army of winterized bees. Like if they wore little parkas, and started feasting on human flesh instead of pollen.”

Coworker – “No, like… They’re disappearing. Apparently bees are going extinct.”

Me – “Umm… So you feel shitty because you think there aren’t going to be anymore bees in the world?”

Coworker – “Yeah, it’s a really bad sign.”

Me – “Huh, I supposed that is bad.”

At this point our conversation was interrupted by a customer.

There was no real point to this story, I just thought it was odd, and definitely the weirdest conversation I had all day.

Apparently he was right though, honey bee colonies across Europe and North America are disappearing.