Posts Tagged geek montreal

108 results.

How Do You Write A Blog Every Week? – Perspicacious Geek

by on June 7, 2016 at 4:09 pm
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Keith, Perspicacious Geek

26734804716_96351ab6e5_bThat’s a question that people ask me all the time.

Just kidding, that’s a question I ask myself all the time because I know deep down that nobody reads or cares about the fact that I blog.

But somehow, here we are, in the 92nd consecutive week of the Perspicacious Geek and prior to that I went 28 conscecutive weeks writing WTF World back in 2011. I usually aim at around 1000 words per article, which means I’ve written 92,000 words. I’m just 7000 words short of The Hunger Games you guys, except I have made negative money paying for part of our web hosting fees instead of millions of dollars in book sales.

Is it because I have a ton a free time on my hands? Not at all. In fact, just about every single week I am scrambling to figure out what to write about in order to not a miss a Tuesday. I would say that most weeks feature a moment where I’m sitting on the toilet thinking “this will be the week that I miss a blog”. Then I say “no sir” and write one anyways.

Anyhow, if you want to do a thing, here’s my advice. I assume this applies to all kinds of arts, but I only know how to write so that’s how we’re framing this.

1) Write For Yourself and Not Your Audience

Tracking hits and stats for a website can be a dangerous game. Some of my stuff gets thousands of hits, others hundreds and others only dozens. The thousands of hits thing happens once in a blue moon, with the right combination of key words and social media traction. It feels great, but it’s not going to be the norm.

I have a theory that no matter what measure of success you’re having, you still want the next level. I remember once back in my blogspot days I had 1000 hits in a month on my blog page. I was absolutely elated. That number nowadays would depress me.

I tend to take a look at the overall health of the website less and less often now. Why? Because it doesn’t matter and whatever number we hit will become my new high point and anything lower will bum me out. If we pulled 100,000 hits a month, I’d want 200,000. That’s just how it goes. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on How Do You Write A Blog Every Week? – Perspicacious Geek

Look At All My Sh*t – May Loot Crate POWER

by on May 31, 2016 at 11:06 pm
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Keith, Perspicacious Geek

This one is down to the wire y’all. I gotta admit that I’ve been getting my Loot Crates later and later lately, but this is cutting close. We’re May 31st and I got my May POWER Crate yesterday. But hey, it’s still May, it’s still Tuesday, and this blog needs blogging.Loot1

My general impressions of this month were pretty favorable, but by golly was this a geeky box. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I’m geeky as hell. But if I questioning myself about exactly how nerdy getting a box of nerd stuff every month was, this would be a loud and clear “hella nerdy.”

Without further ado, let us take a looksie at what we have in the box! ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on Look At All My Sh*t – May Loot Crate POWER

Is ‘We Are Your Friends’ Worth Watching? – Perspicacious Geek

by on May 17, 2016 at 7:50 pm
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Keith, Movies, Perspicacious Geek

We_Are_Your_FriendsMaybe.

That was a short article, we’re done here.

Just kidding. Today we’re here to talk about the movie about Zac Effron, Bald Crazy Guy, Sort of Johnny Depp and Squirrel, four lifelong friends who grew up in the Valley and are no at various stages of ‘hustling’. Sort of Johnny Depp wants to be an actor, Bald Crazy Guy wants to be a promoter, Zac Effron is a DJ and Squirrel has a car. What happens next is basically the story of Zac Effron’s rise to becoming a somewhat notable DJ.

I remember when this movie came out I couldn’t help but pretty much laugh directly into my stupid TV’s face. The idea of basing a whole movie about the fictitious rise of a DJ seemed so ridiculous and somehow that it starred Zac Effron was an extra punchline.

I think we’re pretty safely in the area where we all know that “being a DJ” is basically a joke aspiration these days. I like to think we’re at the stage where we have identified that a DJ and an electronic music producer are not the same thing. This movie doesn’t really seem to care, and Zac Effron seems to at least make some of the music that he plays during the film. It’s all terrible though, the music is all terrible.

Except for the title track, which the movie totally blows its wad by playing in basically the first scene.

Let’s start off with my history with the song that gave this movie its title. “We Are Your Friends” is a remix by French electro duo Justice of a track that was originally called “Never Be Alone” by a British band called Simian. It came out in 2006. It is a great song. It has a great music video. If you were at all into the electro party scene of 2006 you are fully aware that this track would come up at just about every DJ night going at the time. For real, it has a great music video. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on Is ‘We Are Your Friends’ Worth Watching? – Perspicacious Geek

The Decline of Western Social Media – The Perspicacious Geek

by on May 10, 2016 at 12:34 pm
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Keith, Perspicacious Geek

livejorunalSo, I’m writing this blog post from my honeymoon in Mexico. What does that mean? Two things. One, my wife is currently on the beach which is where I want to be and consequently two: this might be shorter than usual. Another, third consequence has just become apparent to me and that’s that the Spanish keyboard that I’m using is very unfamiliar.

Anyhow, this is just a bit of an expansion of a shower thought that I had a while ago about how we share our lives on the internet, and how we’re getting worse and worse at it.

I remember back in college, everyone I knew had a LiveJournal. Like, everyone. If you’re like 12 or something and don’t know what a LiveJournal (or ¨LG¨as the kids would say back then) was, it was basically just a simple blogging platform. You could customize the look and feel of your LJ, set moods, and write blogs. As with everything, there were a million LiveJournal Quizzes, with topical things like ¨which member of the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar are you?¨(that’s a Matrix reference if you’re wondering), memes like Peanut Butter Jelly Time, and most importantly, blog posts.

From my friends sharing their favorite movies (9to5’s own Scott kept his LJ going far longer than most, with his posts going all the way to 2008, check him out), to complaining about their day, to dropping massive social drama bombs, it quickly became the way to share you thoughts and feelings online. I remember how many conversations began with ¨did you read _____’s LJ post?¨. The thing that stuck out to me was how well thought out these posts were, sure they were jam packed with the sort of teenage drama you would expect from a group of teenagers given a space to vent freely and publicly about their perceived woes, but these posts were often paragraphs long. People put time and effort into what they were writing. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on The Decline of Western Social Media – The Perspicacious Geek

Look At All My Sh*t – April Loot Crate “QUEST”

by on May 3, 2016 at 9:11 pm
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Keith, Perspicacious Geek

Hey everyone, I’m very sorry this is late getting posted but I got married this past weekend and I’m still recuperating. Anyhow, we’re here, it’s still Tuesday. It might not be April anymore but here’s my monthly look at the Loot Crate.Loot 1

This month’s theme was “QUEST” which seems like a slightly broader version of last year’s “FANTASY” Crate, and honestly, with a very small exception it just as easily could’ve been FANTASY 2. I don’t really have a problem with that, I play Dungeons & Dragons and I love me some Harry Potter, without further ado, let’s take a look at what we’ve been questing for.  ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on Look At All My Sh*t – April Loot Crate “QUEST”

Is Everybody Wants Some!! Going to Be A Cult Classic? – Perspicacious Geek

by on April 19, 2016 at 11:22 am
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Keith, Movies, Perspicacious Geek

everybody-wants-some-trailerSo let’s preface this with the fact that I love most of Richard Linklater’s films. A Scanner Darkly, Waking Life, the Before trilogy, Boyhood and of course Dazed and Confused all rank somewhere in my ever growing list of “great movies”.

There are a few movies that I’ve watched a lot. My room used to be in the basement of the house, so more or less the entire basement was appropriated to be my room. This meant that my “room” was as much a living room as it was a bedroom.

Anyhow, I used to put on movies the way most people put on music. If I bought a VHS tape, it would mean that I was ready to watch this movie multiple if not dozens of times. Films like Clerks, Mallrats, Empire Records, Hackers and Trainspotting all made that heavy rotation. So did Dazed and Confused.

All that to say that I might just be a little bit biased when a movie comes rolling out in 2016 written and directed by Richard Linklater and touted as the “Spiritual Sequel to Dazed and Confused“.

That’s not just marketing talk, Everybody Wants Some!! is most certainly the spiritual sequel to Linklater’s 1993 film (wow, that makes me feel old), in a multitude of ways. Where D&C takes place on the last day of high school, EWS!! is the first weekend of college. D&C takes place in the late 70s (1976 to be exact) and EWS!! takes place in the early 80s (1980).

Both films deal with finding your place in an ever expanding world that outwardly seems to care less and less about you. The football players of Dazed and Confused wonder about their fate as they move to college and losing their “top dog” status in high school. The baseball players of Everybody Wants Some!! are dealing with that exact reality. They were the best players on their high school teams, now they’re in a fight with equally talented players for a spot on the lineup.

Without expressly taking the same characters and checking in on them in college (which would be an impossible task with all of the actors being 23 years older and mostly in their 40s), Everybody Wants Some!! plays as much like Dazed and Confused as you can get without being fully derivative.

Of course, the other similarity is that both movies are essentially about nothing in terms of plot. The characters bounce around from party to party, with hanging out in between. You’re not watching this movie for the plot, you’re watching it to see these characters, from their different walks of life and philosophies interact and figure their shit out.

In the same way that Dazed and Confused doesn’t have hammy “jokes” neither does Everybody Wants Some!! Instead, you’re just along for the ride as the characters themselves are genuinely funny. I got genuinely excited by some of the casting choices when I saw Glen Powell in the role of Finnegan. He was easily among the best parts of Scream Queens (which I also loved) and it was cool to see him get a major role in a fantastic Linklater script. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on Is Everybody Wants Some!! Going to Be A Cult Classic? – Perspicacious Geek

Look At All My Sh*t – March VERSUS Loot Crate

by on March 29, 2016 at 12:25 pm
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Keith, Perspicacious Geek

We’re back once again with another Loot Crate unboxing blog, which is always a treat for me since a) they more or less write themselves and b) I get cool stuff.Loot 1

Last month I was a (little) disappointed in the lack of diversity in the DEAD themed crate (in that it was just Deadpool and Walking Dead stuff) and was a little worried the same thing would repeat this month with VERSUS. However, this was happily not the case! Let’s see what we got going on here. This Loot Crate happily celebrates a number of grudge matches and doesn’t just focus on one or two intellectual properties. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on Look At All My Sh*t – March VERSUS Loot Crate

Look At All My Sh*t – February 2016 Loot Crate “DEAD”

by on March 8, 2016 at 10:35 am
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Keith, Perspicacious Geek

Hey! It’s the first week of March which means it’s obviously time to take a look at the February Loot Crate. Not sure what happened here but I seriously only got this crate last Thursday, took an extremely long time to make its way up to Canada.DeadCrate1

Anyways, no use crying about it. This month’s theme was DEAD and even though I try my best to stay spoiler free there was no avoiding the fact that there would be some Deadpool merch in here (the Deadpool cufflink subscription upgrade was the main tip-off). Of course, a new season of Walking Dead kicked off in February too so that was another likely candidate. Well, both those things were represented. In fact, they were basically the only things represented. Which was a bummer. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on Look At All My Sh*t – February 2016 Loot Crate “DEAD”

My Love/Hate Relationship With PAX Continues Down South

by on February 9, 2016 at 11:39 am
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Keith, Perspicacious Geek

pax1As you probably heard last week, Jono and I went to PAX South this year. I thought I’d share some of my pics, thoughts and experiences about the delightful Southern edition of what is probably the most “fan forward” video game/gaming convention going these days. If you only want the photos, feel free to just head to the flickr album here.

First of all, there’s the weather. I’ve never been to PAX West (formerly Prime) or obviously PAX Australia, but I will say that one of the (slight) detractors of PAX East is that Boston in the Spring is just a slightly warmer version of Montreal in the Spring. Which means it’s still jackets and pants weather. Not so in San Antonio. We hit a high of 29 Celsius on Sunday last week (84 Fahrenheit), that’s shorts and pants weather. If I’m going to be dealing with flights and exchange rates from the abysmal Canadian dollar, warm weather is a definite bonus.

The other thing that I really liked about PAX South is the convention location. It’s literally right in the middle of downtown San Antonio, anyone who’s been to PAX East (with the exception of the first edition) knows that the convention center is located quite a ways out of the city. Sure, it’s pretty easily accessible from public transportation, but not in any kind of walk-able distance. That means you’re either “at the con” or “in the city” and transitioning between the two takes some time and a subway or taxi ride. Not so at South. Every single day of the con we could pop into PAX, head out for drinks or food, go back to PAX, head to the hotel, go to dinner, go back to PAX for a concert or what have you. It felt like a good excuse to get out and see San Antonio, and not just wind up either skipping a whole day of PAX or ignoring the host city.

So weather and location were upsides for me, how did the actual convention do? ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on My Love/Hate Relationship With PAX Continues Down South

Keith and Jon Go To Pax South 2016!

by on February 2, 2016 at 11:27 am
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Keith, Perspicacious Geek, Podcasting

Now, this is normally when I would have a brand new Perspicacious Geek , since it’s a Tuesday and everything. However, I don’t. Instead I have something (arguably) better! Jon and I went all the way to San Antonio, Texas over the weekend to check out the city, the Alamo, the Alamo Draft House, a San Antonio Rampage AHL hockey game and perhaps most importantly, PAX South.

In the next day or two I promise I will upload some of the hundreds of photos I took, but in the meantime, recorded live from the historical Menger Bar at the Menger Hotel, here’s a podcast! This 30 minute podcast special runs through our whole weekend down in San Antonio. We hope you enjoy the show. Pictures soon.PAXSouth

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Obviously. we’d love to hear about all the fun stuff you got up to at PAX South, so feel free to comment here, or on Twitter or Facebook.

Our theme song is “Bacterial Love” by Rolemusic is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on Keith and Jon Go To Pax South 2016!