Palmer’s World

The past week has been great. Philipp came up for a visit for the past week as he needed to return to Canada for a work Visa in Brazil. Turns out he got offered a two-year position in some Health Institute affiliated with the Government of Brazil. Sweet! So he did what he needed to do in Montreal and came up for a week to spend time with Vero and I.

Friday I was in Toronto for a conference but flew back in during the evening and headed straight for Darcy McGee’s to meet up with Cousin Rick and company. It was funny to see Rick again so soon as we had met at the Queen and Beaver Public House for some excellent burgers and cask beer the night before. I highly recommend the place!

Darcy’s was bloody cold in the basement as you get the draft from outside. It didn’t help that it was -35 outside! While I can say the night was memorable, they weren’t good memories of freezing our asses off down there. In the end, we realized that we may have to put the Darcy McGee’s outing to bed next year and choose another (warmer) locale.

The rest of the week consisted of a few beer and watching with Alfred Hitchcock films with Philipp. I found it quite entertaining as Philipp is like me when it comes to films…we can watch a bunch in a sitting! Vero finds it hard to sit through a bunch of films. I thoroughly enjoyed our Saturday evening of staying inside the warm house and proceeding to watch five films! It was a great time to spend with Philipp and I’m sure he will have a fun time for the next few years down in Brazil! I doubt that we will return there anytime soon, but there are always other locales that we can all meet up to (like Nottingham!).

My parents ended up ending their whirlwind tour of Southern Ontario by staying with us for a few days. Vero prepared some excellent meals and proceeded to introduce me to the cleanliness of a ‘woman’s touch’ in the house. My Dad even ended up complimenting Vero on how the house looks now! We ended up going over to Lynn and Sue’s one night to find out that it very well may be the final time we set foot in the place as they are trying to sell the house and move to a place in Perth.

On Friday night, Mike and I headed to Stittsville…home to a silent charity auction for our friend Mike’s step-sister. While we didn’t know many people, it was nice to see Maureen, Melissa and Mike and also walk away with some sweet auction items! Mike scored a nice piece of artwork for $90 and I scored some car items for Vero’s new wheels (notably a Beatles travel mug which was last seen (unbeknownst to me as I never participated in the gift exchange) at my own Christmas party!

Saturday, we headed down to the Canal bright and early and arrived there at 10AM to meet up with Shirley, Peter, Aunt Dinah and Uncle Richard, Danny and Kathy. It was quite the group and it was a cool morning. My face was quite cold but the pain went away once it was frozen! Dad and I walked up the Canal as the others skated ahead of us. All in all, I would recommend going to the Canal earlier than later in the day as the ice is beautiful and there isn’t as many people. We headed to the Royal Oak for a bite to eat and found out (to dismay) that lunch wasn’t being served until 2PM! Argh. After a few beers and a Western sandwich, we looked at the ice sculptures. Seeing that it was the first weekend, most of them were not completed but they were hard at work on them all and they looked quite interesting. I especially liked the one that was a giant tarantula.

An afternoon nap was calling our name so we headed home and relaxed and then went out to Rockwell’s Diner on Merivale for supper along with the same group and the MacLeod (Ottawa-side) clan joined us. I had a good laugh when Laurie was offering her services as a wedding planner even though I have no intentions for a wedding anytime soon. She had just got married last Fall and it seems that she still loves to talk anything about weddings.

We headed home, watched the latest Indiana Jones film (which I still say is quite entertaining) and the next day, went to Costco to get Dad some cheap Coors Light and spent the evening relaxing and playing some guitar. All in all, a great couple of weeks with some visitors and they are welcome anytime in the future! Especially when they offer to help me fix my dryer, finish the trim in the kitchen and general maintenance! Thanks Dad!

A few weeks ago, the Apple iPad was announced and like every other fanboy out there, I refreshed the Gizmodo liveblog every thirty seconds to see what the iPad would have to offer.

In the end, I wasn’t blown away, but I am curious as to what it will provide.

I keep asking myself why I am not blown away. It’s a device pretty well near the size of a piece of paper that you can read content on; the Internet, your e-mail, books (when they are available in Canada! Hopefully this will happen soon to the launch and not a year later like how the Amazon Kindle worked out), and the piece de resistance…comic books.

Ever since I got my MacBook years ago, I read digital comics on them by taking my laptop in my hands and rotating them so it was like I was reading a book. This was quite awkward and cumbersome, but it was pretty amazing to be reading some digital comics in this fashion. It was the closest thing to holding a real comic book.

I have toyed with the idea of picking up an iPad and I don’t know if I can justify the purchase. What would I use it for? Vero brought up an interesting point last night that she feels that even though the iPad has tons of features, she would simply use it as a e-reader. I thought this was ludricrous at first but then I realized that she is completely right. Sure, I would check my emails and surf the Internet from my couch once in awhile, but how lazy am I that I can’t simply go upstairs to my laptop (or bring my laptop to ME), but the main use would most likely be reading comic books and I would give reading books on it a try. I have never read an entire book on a screen before so I am not sure if I would be fine with it.

If I do end up enjoying it, I can see myself carrying it on the bus, reading a book and listening to music on it at the same time. It wouldn’t make sense to be carrying my iPod to listen to music and at the same time, carrying my iPad to read a book. So I’ve essentially replaced my iPod, but only if I’m reading a book. I think it would be quite silly to haul out my iPad all the time to listen to some music!

I must admit that I’m disappointed that there is no camera inside the hardware of the iPad. I have recently been introduced to Skype and while I don’t go on it all that often, I think the option of having a webcam inside it would be nice. But as Vero pointed out, what’s the use if the main use will be for reading?

In the end, I am slowly realizing that with all the bells and whistles that it has, it is essentially an e-reader and I think I’m fine with that…I think it would be interesting to start reading comic books and magazines on the iPad…I’m not sold on reading an entire book but I’ll have to wait and see how I like it. In regards to comics and magazines, if Marvel Comics decided to offer a subscription service/pay per comic service, I would have to really consider it considering I don’t really believe that collecting comic books is a worthwhile investment for the future (unless we are talking about comics from the sixties…that’s a different story altogether) and the main reason I got back into buying comic books is that I started downloading them for free and felt that I was enjoying them so much, that I may as well be paying for them. There is always a fear that with any technology, it will advance and it will be next to impossible to read old formats of e-books, comic books, etc, whereas a book is a book. You pick it up off the shelf and read it.

I must interject a random thought…if older people who do not care for computers or simply use it for surfing the Internet or checking email primarily (which, arguably…is ALL of us!) had the choice between a laptop or an iPad, what should be the go-to option?

As you can tell from this post, I’m all over the map when it comes to the Apple iPad. I have concerns over some lack of hardware, but don’t know if I would use said hardware anyhow (ie webcam). I believe it would be a fun device to have, but I don’t know if I would maximize it’s use considering I already own a laptop and an iPod touch which essentially do the same things as the iPad, except for allow me to read comic books easily.

iPad, a glorified comic book reader?

I haven’t been excited for the Apple iPad until I read this article on Gizmodo about the comic reader application made by Panelfly.

I just got back from a swim, a whirlpool and a steam room. So far the trip to Toronto is A-OK. I’m here for a conference on Friday and heading back Friday night to hit up Darcy McGee’s with Cousin Rick. Feel free to drop by!

While on the bus ride home yesterday, I noticed that they have installed those nifty electronic announcement systems inside the bus that will let people know what the next stop is. Well, at least on the Transitway where my bus was running.

However, I noticed one peculiar thing. It was only in English.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t there a big issue with OC Transpo drivers not announcing the bus stops in both languages? So now the electronic computer voice doesn’t either?

Methinks this smells fishy.

When video games were impossible to beat!  I personally can attest to Ninja Gaident, Mega Man and TMNT.

Last night I accomplished absolutely nothing. Well, almost nothing. After my trip to the dentist, I had visions of arriving home after Vero had been there for awhile preparing dinner. Sweetness! But this didn’t happen. I roll into the house around 6PM and it’s dark. I have to dodge a bunch of recycling bins which were thrown into the middle of the driveway. Vero has been working overtime because of the Haiti crisis. It’s pretty amazing that they are in contact with the Canadian Forces down there and interviewing a bunch of people. I highly recommend checking in with Army News if you’re interested in hearing interviews from there.  http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/land-terre/life-vie/haiti-eng.asp

After preparing some spaghetti ala Palmer (that’s with a lot of meat!), I was falling asleep on the couch while Vero chatted with her grandmother. I realized it was futile to ignore my sleepiness. At 8:30 I headed for bed. As I crawled in, I picked up the first volume of The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman. I have heard a lot of good things about this series over the years so I figured it was due time to jump in. Heck, even AMC is making a pilot for a TV series.

The Walking Dead follows Officer Rick after he was shot in the line of duty. He wakes up from a month long coma and is the only one inside the hospital (Think: the beginning of 28 Days Later). He looks around the hospital and encounters a zombie! What the heck?! After escaping, he finds his town empty and heads for home where he can’t find his family. Some humans have holed up in the house next door and explain that somehow people have become zombies and the government has asked people to head to major city centers to find aid. He figures that his family could be in Atlanta so he heads out there and finds that the city has been taken over by zombies! He then finds a group of survivors who are camping outside of the city limits and takes refuge there where they discuss what they should be doing next, how they are going to get supplies, etc.

All in all, I really enjoyed the first trade paperback of the series. The story is not an original one, at least not at this point…everyone knows what a zombie story is like. However, I like how the comic focuses more on the characters and how they interact with this crisis…that’s what makes a good zombie story a great one. The character development. You can see the difference in Officer Rick’s life as she changes from this mild-mannered cop from a small town where he only shot his gun a few times in his life, to a commanding force who has to take out dozens of zombies when they attack.

I also enjoyed the artwork by Tony Moore. The artwork is not in full colour but in gray tones which adds to the creepiness of their environment. Ha, wouldn’t that be awesome if the final issue would be in full colour all of a sudden? Kind of like how the Matrix ended with a full colour spectrum in the world instead of the greenish hue.

Recommended! I’m excited to see where the series will go!

My anticipation was high for this film. A new horror film by Sam Raimi, famed director extraordinaire of such modern day tales such as the Evil Dead trilogy and the Spider-Man films? Excellent!

Then Benoit comes into work and says “Meh.” and a fear comes over me. Is it actually all hype?

I popped the film in last night and I have emerged with the following breaking news bulletin.

It’s a great campy horror film.

Who doesn’t like a little camp in their films? Camp definition: something that provides sophisticated, knowing amusement, as by virtue of its being artlessly mannered or stylized, self-consciously artificial and extravagant, or teasingly ingenuous and sentimental.

The film follows a Christine Brown who pisses off an old gypsy lady who puts a curse on her. The curse involves three days of haunting by a demon and on the end of the third day, chances are, you are being dragged to Hell by this demon. That’s a heavy-duty curse!

There are some great bits if you are a fan of Sam Raimi films…like the appearance of his 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88…I remember my parents having that car! In fact, I remember that being the first car I got into an accident with! Woops? Anyhow, that car shows up in every one of his films.

There are some great characters in this film…the psychic, the crazy old lady who keeps haunting Christine, the dude from the Mac commercials…brilliant!

All in all, I will admit that when I heard that this is the a really great horror film, I thought it would scare my pants to the ground (much like the first Evil Dead still does to this day), but in the end, there were some good shock moments, a good storyline (do you really need much story for a horror film? I think not!) and all in all, some good fun moments where you just have to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Classic Sam Raimi flick.

Well, you know Kap has hit it bigtime when they have their own Kijji website!

Dad, scour this each day! You may find good deals!

http://kapuskasing.kijiji.ca/

Rob picked me up around 5PM on Friday night and I was in full pirate gear. A great hat and eyepatch from Vero’s disguise box (as she likes to call it. I prefer the term ‘tickle trunk’). I was also going as Captain Unibrow Pete so I applied some makeup to form a nice looking unibrow!

In I jumped into a van of rowdy ten-year olds and I chuckled to myself as they wanted to show off their costumes. One kid was quite proud of the chest hair he had painted onto his chest. Was I this rowdy as a kid? Probably.

The murder-mystery party/pirate mutiny turned out to be a decent time in my opinion. Rob and I discussed it afterwards and we found that even as adults, I don’t think we could have figured out the solution to who of the crew threw Captain Unibrow Pete overboard, so we can only imagine how hard it was for the group of kids. But they were having a great time. Everyone came in costume, everyone had swords…what more can you ask for at a birthday party? Swordfights were going on at a constant pace as First Mate Robbie Burns and I passed out clues, read pages of dialogue to push the story forward.

If you are not familiar with a murder mystery event, let me explain a few things. You start off with a mystery…who threw Captain Unibrow overboard? Then everyone gets clues…some clues are meant to be hidden from others…basically a ‘For your eyes only’ clue. Others are meant to be said aloud to the rest of the party to give them hints as to who was involved or not. Then, as everyone had read their clues aloud, another round comes into play and another set of clues to further the story arrives. There were five rounds in total, the sixth round being the round where everyone’s story comes out and the solution is revealed. I thought this round was great as everyone had made their picks for who they thought was responsible and then as soon as they realized they got something wrong, they just went about their night instead of listening to the rest of the solution!

After some pizza, cake, swamp juice (a concoction of whatever soft drink you can mix find!) and some gift giving to Ryley, the night was over and we headed back to Rob’s where we hung out for awhile. All in all, it was probably the most fun I’ve had at a birthday party in years!

Saturday morning I woke to the phone ringing at 9AM. I rolled over and ignored it. But then the phone rang a SECOND time which brings out fear in me…is this an emergency? Has someone fallen down a well? Is The Beer Store on fire? Of course I jump out of bed and find a message from Holly asking if we want to go out for breakfast for Joelle’s birthday. She told me later that she phoned the first time and thought “Ooh, I wonder if this is too early” and didn’t bother leaving a message. But then she phoned back the second time thinking “Well, the least I can do is leave a message.” which triggered my panic. Smooth move Holly!

All kidding aside, we headed to Broadways which is home to my favourite Philly Steak sandwich…mainly because they put hot banana peppers on it. Yum! Joelle, Holly, Vero and I chatted about everything under the sun and I had so much fun that I think I shall have breakfast more often in the future. However, if you all know me, you know that I don’t really like breakfast so I’ll order from the lunch menu if possible.

We headed home where I played a few more levels of Plants vs Zombies and then we finally cleaned up the house. We stripped all the Christmas party decorations down, cleared out all of our Christmas gifts that we had dumped into the house before heading to Brazil, and gave the house a good scrubbing. It’s looking a little better now, although the garage is chaos and my office is the last resting place of all sorts of junk. Sigh…

Mike and Trish came over later that night to hang out. Trish ended up getting me the Star Wars cookbook for Christmas which have some hilarious recipes (like the Han-Burger!) and she also made me a fridge magnet with a Boomerang Bros from Super Mario Bros! Awesome!

We hung out for awhile, had some beer and then watched a documentary on Mike and my favourite film, Dazed and Confused. Mike had ordered the Criterion Collection version which had a bunch of special features. I then proceeded to pass out while Mike and I started watching Pink Floyd’s The Wall and headed to bed. Classic Palmer move.

The next day Vero went to a theater practice..she’s in a new play scheduled to debut in…May? June? I basically laid down for the entire day and watched Being Erica, which is a decent premise for a show – girl with problems has a therapist that can send her back in time so she can fix her regrets.

All in all, I would say it was the best weekend…one that is productive, but one that is relaxing at the same time!