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We built GeoCities... on rock and roll!

It's official. Yahoo will be closing GeoCities for good on October 26, 2009. For those that are too hip to remember, GeoCities was one of the pioneers of free personal web hosting in 1995. Before then, having your own webpage was a luxury reserved for only the most hardcore geeks. This service was a pivotal factor in making the web accessible and entertaining to the masses. It was the distant pre-cursor to social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger. Geocities was the stomping grounds for many people who would grow up to become the graphic designers, web developers, and technology nerds of today.

Alas, I am getting too nostalgic. In allowing anyone to have webspace, GeoCities created a glut of low-quality web sites. Compared to present day, the web sites of GeoCities are primitive creations. It is an online "house of horrors" showcasing animated gifs, blink tags, and multi-coloured h1 and h2 tags in the standard Times New Roman font. GeoCities is a relic of the early days of the internet, and the time has come to shut it all down.

I have mixed emotions about this. I have several horrible web sites of my own on GeoCities. One was a stub, which I have since deleted. One has become a personal embarrassment*, that I am happy to see deleted since I have long forgotten my admin login. One was pure creative glory that I am sad to see go. I'm sure that if you have a web site on GeoCities, it will fall under one of these categories. Enjoy them while they last because in a few days, they will be no more.

* One day this blog will be a personal embarrassment to me... if that day hasn't come already.

Papercraft: Kill a tree... but get a toy!

I remember making my own paper chess board as a child. It was a primitive creation, with badly shaded chess pieces drawn on paper squares. I was quite proud of my creativity, but my parents were repulsed at my apparent frugality. They bought me a real chess set the next day.

This leads me into underground world of papercraft. It's a fusion of origami, urban style, and graphic design. Papercraft has been gaining a lot of popularity in the last few years, especially since the recent collaboration of major papercraft players in publishing Urban Paper.

There are practical applications of papercraft, such as the CardBoy calendar, the Voodoo Stubey toothpick holder, and a working pinhole camera. Then there are various pop-culture papercrafts, such as Build-O-Bama, Cubee TMNT, and many many superheroes. Some papercrafts are different designs on the same templates, such as the avian Nanibird template, the squirrelish e440 template, the ursan 3EyedBear template, and the canine Speakerdog template.

I love the creativity, and the edgy balance between cute and strange that all the good papercraft artists seem to revel in. The papercraft community is fairly "open source" because they usually make the model templates freely available for download. So fire up your inkjet printers and grab your scissors! It's time to fill up your office shelves with quirky papercraft.

PS: Mom and Dad? This could have been me: Chess set papercraft

In my wildest dreams...

Capcom is looking to team up (or beat up) a new franchise. They are asking for suggestions. There are so many ridiculous possibilities!

• The View vs Capcom - Barbara Walters vs Blanka!
• Dora the Explorer vs Capcom - Backpack attack!
• Charles Dickens vs Capcom - Mrs. Haversham vs Chun Li
• ThunderCats vs Capcom - Hey, that's pretty cool actually!
• Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge vs Capcom - You have selected 3 wood...

The truth about "Spending more time with wife and family"

My heart goes out to David Miller's son, who was balling tears during the mayor's press conference. The poor boy is only 14 years old, and I bet he feels personally to blame for his father bringing the entire family to a press conference to announce that THEY are the reason David Miller will not run for mayor again. Little Simon Miller must be thinking "No Dad... You don't have to do that. I don't want you to stop chasing your dreams because of me!"

Hey kiddo, don't worry. Your father is NOT REALLY dropping his career plans because he needs to spend more time with you. That's just something politicians say, because it's more heroic than saying "I'm leaving because I messed things up beyond belief. I'm going to cut my losses and go now." My goodness... David Miller, please explain this your children before the speech! Seriously, that was just awful.


More on: Leaving to spend more time with wife and family

Ride to Conquer Cancer

Taking the lead from Of No Import, I've decided to do my part to fund raise for cancer research this year. Aside from Weekend to End Breast Cancer, the Ride to Conquer Cancer is the other annual monolithic cancer research event. The two main differences are that the Ride to Conquer Cancer is a bike ride (not a walk) and that funds will go towards fighting all types of cancer (and not just breast cancer).

I'm doing the Ride to Conquer Cancer with a small team of my co-workers, including a "veteran" who has done many WEBC's and last year's RCC. She is a fund-raising machine, and the rest of our team is looking to her for guidance because... you have to raise $2500 per rider. Yes, I also balked at that requirement! It's going to be a tough feat to raise that much money, especially since most of my friends now live in Mortgageville and New Babytown.

Not all hope is lost though... I've got some creative plans for fund-raising activities. I've also got some fund-raising experience from my dragon boat days. My RCC teammates and I will collaborate and pool our collective resources together. Most of all, I have a strong suspicion that the people at my workplace will be very receptive to my efforts to fund-raise for cancer research. Just call it a hunch...

The forgotten legacy of Steve Fonyo

Around this time of year, I would be gushing over the legacy of Terry Fox and the annual Terry Fox Run. I went to www.terryfox.org and bought the book-DVD-coin combo. The book is something that I've wanted to own for some time. Make no mistake... I will forever be a fan of Terry Fox, as he is my idol and one of the main reasons why I found an interest in long distance running... but I thought I'd do something different this year.

I'd like to devote a blog entry to talk about Steve Fonyo. Chances are that you have never heard of Steve Fonyo, but his story is just as tragic as that of Terry Fox... but for entirely different reasons. Like Terry, Steve Fonyo was a Canadian who lost his leg to cancer. Like Terry, Steve Fonyo decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.

Steve Fonyo's "Journey for Lives" began on March 31 in 1984, about 4 years after Terry Fox had to stop his "Marathon of Hope" in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Journey for Lives was met with criticism from the media, as they branded Fonyo a "copycat" of Terry Fox. There were allegations that Fonyo was doing the run for selfish reasons and that it would take away from the legacy of Terry Fox. Regardless of whether these allegations were true or not, Steve Fonyo only received a fraction of the public support that Terry Fox did during his run.

Eventually, the Journey of Lives took Steve Fonyo beyond Thunder Bay, and all the way to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Steve Fonyo completed his cross-Canada journey on May 29 of 1985. Later that year, Steve Fonyo was awarded the Order of Canada. He had raised $14 million dollars for cancer research. The beach in British Columbia where the Journey of Lives ended was renamed Fonyo Beach in honour of Steve.
Now you're probably asking the same question I asked when I learned about Steve Fonyo: "How come I've never heard of him before?!?" The same year that he completed the Journey for Lives, Steve's father passed away from lung cancer. Steve became depressed, and the media attention he was now getting was not helping. Even after running across Canada and raising $14 million for cancer research, Steve Fonyo was NOT treated favorably by the media. At this point in his life, Fonyo began making some very bad decisions. In the years that followed, Fonyo got mixed up in alcohol and cocaine. He began getting in trouble with the law. His convictions include assault with a weapon, aggravated assault, fraud, possession of a stolen vehicle, and several impaired driving charges. As recently as this month, he pleaded guilty to one count of assault.

For these reasons, history has quietly swept Steve Fonyo's legacy under the rug, favoring the more saintly legacy of Terry Fox. Some people say that Steve Fonyo got a raw deal, cheated by history after his remarkable achievement. Others say that Steve Fonyo was a selfish copycat who does not deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Terry Fox. I am unsure of which camp I belong in... The story of Steve Fonyo is a tragic story of an imperfect human being who accomplished something extraordinary. As I write this, Steve Fonyo may be sitting in a jail cell somewhere. One can only hope that he starts to make some better decisions in life.