Matt Demers.com

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated my blog; sadly work has kind of hampered my ability to get posts up with the alarming frequency that I used to. It’s kind of weird that for the first time in my life, I’m waiting for school to start: not being able to write every day (or not being in the mood) is severely cramping my style. I’m also going to blame Numb3rs: I’m enjoying that series incredibly.

So, here’s some work I’ve gotten published lately!

• One project, Nerd Girl Pinups, is finally chugging along, thanks to a number of great people. I’ve been involved with these ladies and gent(s) for approximately two years now, so it’s nice to see some headway being made. The blog updates quite regularly now, with my columns being posted on Wednesdays. You can find my posts here, which include my latest columns about DC’s Birds of Prey series and Valve’s latest free offering on Steam, Alien Swarm.
• Popshifter is a online magazine that has graciously allowed me to publish some columns in their latest issues: my review of Shad’s newest album TSOL, along with an accompanied interview, was featured in the June and August issues, respectively. I also got to write a fun little column about my favourite nerd references in hip-hop. I love that type of writing: quick, painless and fun.
• As always, the Not So Horrible Podcast is available for listening on iTunes or NotSoHorrible.com. Definitely enjoying that, and will be recording a new episode on Tuesday!

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately! Not a lot of Android writing, but that might pick up if Motorola decides to release version 2.2 of the software to my phone. I’m also formulating some ideas for Dungeons & Dragons articles, which I’ll be pitching in the near future. Keep your eyes peeled here, or on my Twitter!

It’s no secret that our minds are on the G20 protests that took over Toronto today. Many of my colleagues in journalism took part in the coverage of the events, or at least weighed in with their thoughts.

In the latter camp, I’m no different; while there’s a pull towards the riots in that it’s something to be experienced, I feel like I possess no emotional involvement. I feel jaded when I see photos of protesters, surrounded by thirty other photographers, looking for that “money shot”. I feel confused by people protesting issues the G20 have no influence in, like problems with the federal government. I feel enraged by the amount of people participating for the chance to break things, or those who treat it as a tourist event.

I also feel saddened by the fact that if today was a peaceful protest, instead, it would be ignored.

I was walking down Yonge yesterday and there was an eerie silence. People were rollerblading and cycling down the road without dodging cars, while cab drivers had taken their patrols elsewhere. High-end stores, like jewelers or HMV, were boarded up. It was like Toronto was preparing for the worst, and today showed them that their caution was warranted.

In an effort to broaden my horizons this summer, I went to my first Hamilton art crawl last night. Taking place on the second Friday of each month, the James North Art Crawl is an effort by Hamilton’s artist community to both expand people’s horizons and show off their work. Galleries along the James North strip open their doors for free (or pay-what-you-can) exhibitions, and buskers seem to come out of the woodwork – they should, because what I thought was an intimate affair amongst a small group turned out to be exactly the opposite.

There wasn’t really a point to counting, but the streets were bustling; that’s something I don’t usually see in downtown Hamilton at 10PM on a Friday night. Coupled with World Cup fever, the neighborhood’s true colors were revealed. I had no idea there were so many nice shops in that part of the city, including a billiards bar with a fully-assembled airplane hanging from the ceiling.

But sadly, I think I might’ve done the whole thing wrong.

I’ve recently started making a weekly ritual out of buying comics; this isn’t a new practice, as many nerds love trekking to their favourite shop when new titles get released every Wednesday. This week seemed to be a DC kind of week for me, as some of my favourite titles (Secret Six and Justice League: Generation Lost) updated this week. I have this thing where I don’t like to start collecting comics part-way through a run, but really, Secret Six and Invincible Iron Man are too good to pass up. So without further ado, my thoughts!

The mission is supposed to be silent. Get in, get the intel, get out. No casualties, no evidence I was there. All weapons and ammo are procure-on-sight. I am supposed to be silent – the shadows should be my home.

I guess alarms going off every which way are a bad thing.

While the Metal Gear games have taught me that I’m just plain bad at stealth, a new title from SEGA called Alpha Protocol had given me renewed hope. Just like every time I decide that I’m going to man up and try to learn how to drive manual transmission in racing games, I would man up and learn the hard way how to manipulate my enemies to my every whim and sneak by like I was never there.

And just like every time I try to drive stick, I was left spinning in circles, just barely dodging death.