Special Self-Congratulatory Post!

I'm dedicating this blog post to some stuff I've done recently. I've managed to accomplish a few creative things in spite of the daily grind, the plumbers invading my apartment, and the subsequent waterfall spewing forth from behind my kitchen cupboards (pipes can explode, apparently). I'm going to take a moment to relax with a cup of tea and congratulate myself. I'm going to, as the kids say, celebrate like it's my birthday. But not my real birthdays. Because those depress me.

First of all, a new issue of filmCAN is out and three of my Hot Docs reviews are included. FilmCAN keeps getting better with each new issue. Great interviews with intriguing film makers, reviews, and essays from knowledgeable fans who really know and love the movies. Check out their pod casts and exclusive digital downloads. There's a lot of great stuff on the site and I'm proud to be part of their team.

Secondly, a few months ago I finished a large web project for a client. The site is for an illustrator, calligrapher, and visual artist named Michele Nidenoff. Michele's work has appeared in numerous magazines and children's books (as well as on my office wall). Together we came up with a layout that would showcase her artwork in a clean, intuitive and simple design. I'm particularly proud of the "thumbnail / large image with caption" function that I implemented. It had me stumped at first but through a whole lotta CSS wrangling I figured out how to make this deceptively "easy" function work perfectly. I am very happy with the final site as well as the chance to help this wonderful artist and her growing business.


So I guess I should stop patting myself on the back now (it makes it really hard to type). I'll be posting a new review soon and, as always, I value your comments. If you need a website designer / media critic / person with an unusually damp kitchen you know who to call.

Ever hear of this Joss Whedon guy?

So I am simultaneously proving and disproving my geek cred by recommending a podcast by Joss Whedon. If you are a true geek, you've been following his series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog since it debuted on July 15th. If you're not a geek than you are very lost and have stumbled upon a site dedicated to documentaries, video games, and, to a lesser extent, pez dispensers. So I'm guessing you're not even reading this sentence and have already scuttled off to something cool like a blog dedicated to celebrity gossip or a tattoo enthusiast bulletin board.

For those of you still here (hey thanks!), I am extending a hearty endorsement of Joss Wheadon and his low budget enterprise. Right now DHSAB is a video series available for download on iTunes. It costs a few bucks per 12 to 15 minute episode and there are three episodes in total. Here's the important-so-I'm-using-bold part: the series is only available on iTunes until July 29. After that, it'll be pulled to build interest in the forthcoming DVD. I'd recommend you download the series and buy the DVD, because the DVD is going to have plenty of cra-zay extras like a musical commentary track. What? Exactly.



The series stars Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day and Nathan Fillion. The script is intentionally campy and fun, with the winning mix of drama and sarcastic humour that made Whedon's other shows cult classics. Also, it's a freaking musical, and the actors do an amazing job with some really good, catchy material.

So will Dr. Horrible win the girl of his dreams? Will Bad Horse (the Thoroughbred of Sin) accept his application to the Evil League of Evil? Will Nathan Fillion flex his muscles in that tight little T-shirt? The only way to find out is to watch...

I got pw0ned

Last night I checked this site from my Wii browser. I found that instead of my rotating photo menu and witty witty words, my website was reduced to a blank green screen. Nothing was visible. I was hitting the site, but all was not right in Cassytown.

This morning I checked again in the hope that something I did not understand would correct itself, and my site would be restored. No such luck. Same green screen, same mysterious lack of anything not green. I checked the html source and found that along with my usual code, there was a large block of links hidden at the bottom of the page. They were clumped together, just sitting there looking at me with ugly, beady eyes.

Shock. Horror. Someone had hacked my site.

My site. My little site that gets 10,000 hits a month*. Why on God's green internet would you hack my site? These are dark times indeed. I know other people get spammed, and hacked, but this is my website. I still feel violated, like someone was touching my code.

I thought briefly that maybe Billy Mitchell had read my review of King of Kong, didn't take kindly to the cracks about his hair, and decided to use his awesome geek powers to shut me down. That would be kind of cool, actually. "Midnight Herring: We really pissed off Billy Mitchell! Bookmark us today!". But no. It is only a dream to think I could have that effect on such a giant of videogames and hot sauce. My hacker was probably just a regular old spam bot that found a new sucker with a blog.

So to conclude what is, sadly, the most excitement my little page has ever seen, I am now in the process of contacting my server and rebooting the site. Will I be shut down again? Maybe it's not a hacker - maybe it's THE MAN and I've stumbled upon some secret about... movies or Nintendo... that he doesn't want you to know. Trust no one. The truth is out there.

Peace out for now. I'm gonna be back and bigger than ever in 2008. No amount of hacking can keep me down! Unless of course they change my password. Then I'm screwed.

Merry Christmas! Happy holidays everyone!

*I know, I was as shocked as you to find my hits were that high. One day maybe I can say with certainty that at least 50 people read my blog intentionally instead of landing on my site after a search for late night fishing. Live the dream Cassandra! Live the dream!

Arrr Mateys! Ahoy there!... and such

September 19th is not just the day before I finally get my hair cut. Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. You read that right. Nerds who desperately want a pirate's life of scurvy, and sailing from flea infested harbour to herpes infested wench now have their own magical day. So there you go. What's next? Smurf Appreciation Week? Ninja Day? According to Wikipedia, Ninja Day already exists. It’s creators were inspired by ITLAPD. And that, my friends, is why the internet will truly be the death of us all.

Making fun of people who love pirates is like picking on people who think they are vampires. At first it's easy to ridicule these outcasts with their strange talking, dressing, rum/blood drinking habits. Soon, however, you begin to feel bad because you realize how close you are to your prey. We are all part of the greater nerd hierarchy and we all have a place. One nerd's sword collection is another nerd's goth poetry. Can't we all be socially awkward together?

So instead of taunts, today I am offering an olive branch and snappy eye patch to pirates everywhere. I'm going to talk like a pirate - at least at home with my cat. In fact, I'm renaming Oscar "Ye Old Scurvy Land Rat" until tomorrow. Pirates are pretty cool, at least the movie ones that wear outrageous hats and spend pieces of eight. Also, the people who created this day were featured in a truly awesome episode of Wife Swap (your new husband thinks he's a pirate! Good luck getting him to pay the phone bill!). In celebration of... ugh... pirattitude...I offer my favourite pirate things. Enjoy them with loved ones. Unless your loved ones are normal people. Then ditch that boring family, because it's pirate day matey!

Cassandra’s List of Pirate Treasures! (get it?!)
1 - Parrots on your shoulder! Did the birds poop on the pirates? Did the pirates even care?

2 - The pirate simulation game Tropico 2. A friend gave it to me based on a brief conversation and a general feeling that I would like to spend hours pretending I'm a pirate. He was right! I love this game.

3 - The sailor / pirate on Family Guy who has two peg legs and two peg arms. That guy is hard core.

4 - The Styrofoam pirate hat my pal Stephanie made during dinner one night at our University cafeteria. It was an inverted soup bowl with a skull drawn on it. She’s no Martha Stewart but that hat was the cat's meow. Or the pirate’s' wench.

5 - Three words: Captain Freaking Blood. Oh my God. Errol Flynn IS Captain Blood. The original posters proclaimed "6 feet 4 of fighting manhood!", and they were so SO right. This is the best pirate movie ever. It has horrible French accents, sword fights, booty, and just a dash of slavery.

Captain Blood is good, but Captain Levasseur is OUTRAGEOUSLY French!
6 - The band Ghost Pirates Without Heads. That name totally says "I wear horn rimmed glasses and Green Latern tee-shirts ironically. Here's a song I wrote about watching TV, which I also do ironically."

7 - The trailers for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies that just said "PIRATES!" over and over again until I had to laugh and clap my hands like a happy monkey.

8 - Pirate monkeys... Okay, now I'm just doing word association.

Enjoy this stupid day nerds! Arrr!

Spiffy New Look

Hi there. Welcome to Midnight Herring.net - version 2.0!

Super heartfelt thanks goes to Anson for helping integrate this blogger template with my new site design. Look ma! I've got labels! Also, thanks to some nerds for writing the code that makes the image at the top randomise every time the page loads. I didn't want to switch over to php and I appreciate this fix. There is still lots of content to add but the design is pretty solid. Please let me know if something looks really wonky on your system.

I know this site looks good on most versions of Safari & Foxfire on Macs, as well as Explorer, Netscape and Firefox on PCs. However, if you try to look at it on the now defunct Explorer for Macs browser it goes crazy and explodes across the screen in all-centred and all-green ugliness. I'll try to fix that but it's mostly blogger not talking to stupid old Mac Explorer so we'll see. Why are you using Explorer anyway? I'm afraid I have to pull out the patented eye roll and snort nerd combo if you think browser choice isn't, you know, really important.

So aside from an obvious lack of content on the "Documentary" section of the site we are up and running! I have big plans for the site and I look forward to giving it as much time and effort as my other labour of love, Folk Art Canada. In the coming days and weeks I will undoubtedly change a few things around so please bear with me. Reload reload reload and empty your cache if you want to keep up with the blazing speed of our improvements. Plus, when you reload the page you get a new photo! What will it be? Paris? My cat? Me in a sombrero? All excellent and exciting options!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like the new and constantly improving MHP site!

Hey, I'm checking out this whole "comments on my blog" thing. Posts should have a comments section and SOON (bonus) a label so that you can search my blog posts for just film reviews or documentary news or (and I know I'm just flattering myself Mr. Smarty Pants), posts about me and my life.

I hope this works. For all three of my readers this should mark a better and more enjoyable reading experience. Make sure you comment! I want to hear what you have to say... person I probably know anyway... Sigh. Hi mom.