Palmer's World

This is an EXCELLENT website sent in by Maren concerning bands backstage demands on tours.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/index.html

Man...I love a really scrumptious orange. You know those ones that just contain goodness? That's what I'm having right now and the world can do me no wrong.

• I am digging the Earth right now. Why Earth? Because at 7:00 at night when I exited my class last night, I could still see some sunlight on the horizon. That's mint baby. That puts tingles into people's bodies and the thoughts of ladies in their bikinis.
• Test went decent last night. Harder than the first. But fair questions.
• Today marks the day that Apple will make some new product annoucements. Hopefully it doesn't end up being the day the iBooks are released or else I'll be calling up my sister to pick me up one. Turns out that she can get 18% off any Apple product through work. Where was she when I was buying my iPod?
• Mutual Funds are taking over my life right now. Instead of getting into the nitty gritty details, I think I'll follow my wingman's advice and start with ING Direct Mutual Funds. They don't charge you anything and it's not like I'm going to start with $10,000. More like $10. If anyone has some sage advice on mutual funds, drop me a line! I can't say I know much, but would like to know more.
• Google has released a payment system via their DBase..aka, the Ebay killer. I predict in a few months we'll be hearing a lot more about base.google.com
• This morning the clock was set for 6:10 but my body is wonky so it kept waking up every hour. Probably thought that the alarm wouldn't go off. Curse you body! Why does that happen all the time? Same goes for if you have something important (like the first day of work)...you just can't get to sleep.
  

Here's some advice (I consider it good, but you be the judge) that will make you a happier person.

If you take public transit to work, you may be better off waking up 15 minutes earlier.

In theory, if you wake up 15 minutes earlier, you will make it to work 15 minutes earlier.

Depending on what time you catch the bus, this may not be the case.

I woke up 15 minutes earlier this morning and got here 1/2 hour earlier. It's all about the system. Find out how long your bus takes at different intervals. Don't trust the schedules during rush hour periods.

Another fine example is this: I usually catch the bus at 7:10. It gets me in at 8:00. One day I was late and I caught the bus at 7:20. I got in at 8:00. Therefore I could sleep in an extra ten minutes and arrive at the same time. I tried this same 7:20 bus a few times to see if it was a fluke and it was not. It's all about the congestion in the morning. For some reason on my route, there are a lot more people getting on the bus at 7:10 than 7:20.

So take my advice either way you wish...if you like to sleep in, check out if any later buses get you there at the same time. If you like to waste as little time on the bus as possible, perhaps waking up a little earlier will help your quest.

So far, so good. Studying is going well. Not much to study considering I have only had two classes since the last test.

My Friday was an interesting one in that I just discovered some amazing financial knowledge.

As you may know, I took out some money from my RRSPs to purchase my house. Let's say I took out $10,000 for the house. I would have 15 years to pay back that $10,000 in equal payments (aka, whatever is left over divided by 15).

I was under the assumption that I would have to pay back the $1000 before I could put anything into RRSPs that I could deduct from my taxes. So here I was thinking I would have to bust my ass to pay off the $10,000 so I could start back into contributing to my regular RRSPs.

Not so! Amelia filled me in on the secret that as long as I made the minimum payment every year, all the other cash I put into my RRSPs would be good to go!

This opened up a multitude of opportunities for me. Maren lent me The Wealthy Barber on Friday and I was done it by Saturday morning. That book opened up my eyes to A LOT of financial things that I didn't think about. You should all go read it. It's an easy read, 200 pages, and it will change your outlook on the future. I'm don't think I went wrong in the finance area...I knew I was going to need some cash to buy a house and I did.

But now that I'm done that, I'm ready for the next step. Putting my cash into high interest accounts like mutual funds and whatnot.

The main message of The Wealthy Barber is to put your money in NOW. Not tomorrow, but now. Compound interest is your friend over time. Read the book.

Well, what can I say? The return to school sometimes dominates my life.

I have an essay to write (which I've slacked off all week on...actually, I shouldn't say that...I only have 300 words left. That's a ten minute job.), and an exam to study for ALL freakin' weekend.

Do I regret my choice to return to school? Nah. It gives me more purpose! I feel that as living beings, we should be constantly learning and pushing ourselves...I was becoming a lethargic being who just existed and never bettered myself.

I will say this - going to school takes away from other things in life...I can't seem to find a good time to go swimming anymore, hence my physical activity is at an all-time low (other than the times where I insult Vero on what she's wearing and she chases me!) and of course, I don't even have the time to help my friend Alex with some framing work in his house! That really bothers me considering I've always offered my aid and the ONE TIME he comes for it, I'm unavailable. Boo on me. Boo on school. He's a good guy, he understands.

I predict that my weekend will consist of the following agenda:
- stocking up on sandwich meats so I don't have to cook something major while studying. I am a sandwich freak. Hoagies-r-us. Or as Claude's uncle will say "Hoagies-russ!"
- studying.

I am an awful studyier. I go hard for 20 minutes, take a break for 1/2 hour. I've realized that this is the way I do it. I can't say it's a bad thing since I've never failed (except for that Electronics I test in '99. Curse you!)

So...I hope everyone has a good weekend. I heard there are waffles going on at Duncan's place on Sunday morning. Go raid his palace of waffles.

I received an automated phone message at working asking for a woman who passed away three years ago.

I phoned the company to let them know that they must have not updated their files...

Anyhow...even though technology is great and all, automated phone messages are not really cool.

Granted, I'm sure if there was a human talking to me, it would have been the same deal.

At least it was me they called and not some family member.

I just realized that life is just a bunch of reviews. An event happens and you either like it or do not...hence, a review!

Last night Vero and I went to the Orleans Cultural Complex to catch some high school students duke it out in an improv(isational) match. Vero has been in improv for quite some time, although she is taking a hiatus this semester.

I've never been to an improv match, and once again, I must say that I didn't catch some things they were saying (it was in French...slang French) but I found I understood more than I would have 4 months ago. Vero is rubbing off on me.

Anyhow, Improv Games are great fun...two teams duke it out against each other in make-up situations and the audience votes as to what team they liked better. Whose Line Is It Anyways? is improvisation if that rings a bell.

Great fun...it's funny to see how everyone has a great time (audience jeering the referree), the musician in the background playing funny songs...supposedly the University level and Adult level are even funnier as they have crafted the art of improv so I will have to check that out someday soon.

I encourage all of you to go check out an improv match! You will not be disappointed! Yeah!

Now that school isn't throwing a slew of books for me to read (wait until next month. YIKES!), I have time to go and read some of the literature I wish to read - namely The Chronicles of Narnia.

Hey, I jumped on the Narnia bandwagon just like every other person in the world jumped onto the Lord of the Rings bandwagon a few years back. There wouldn't be one day where I wouldn't see someone reading LOTR on the bus somewhere.

Actually, speaking about coincidence, last week I saw a guy reading Narnia at the same time I was AND I peeked over and noticed he was only a few chapters ahead of me! Strange!

Even stranger was the fact that this morning I started reading George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and sitting across from me was a gentleman reading the same novel! These coincidences are strange but they mean something. Never think coincidence is just coincidence folks!

Anyhow, back to the novel. Chronicles of Narnia assemble the 7 books in the series which all revolve around the mystical world we know as Narnia. Aslan (the lion) comes in and out of the novels helping as he may and there's villains showing up in each novel...whether it be the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe or the Calormene in The Horse and His Boy. Only The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian revolve around the same human characters, hence most likely the reason that Disney has decided that the next Narnia film will be Prince Caspian.

What can I say about the novel? I enjoyed it. They were simple stories with deeper messages within them (ah...what novel doesn't have that?) but it was interesting to see how a world with talking animals works. I enjoyed the fantastical element of it all and it was refreshing compared to other fantasy worlds such as Middle Earth since it is a more peaceful and happy place.

I recommend The Chronicles of Narnia to anyone who enjoys a light read and is into fantasy. I suppose I'll now have to go catch the film version of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe! I hope it is just as good as the book!

Here's a message to my friend Duncan who enjoys these types of films...go read the book! Read a chapter a night. Or 1/2 a chapter a night! The books are always better than the film!

Yesterday was Zelda's 20th birthday! The Legend of Zelda was released on February 21, 1986. Granted, it was released in Japan on that date and the North Americans didn't see it until the following year. But still!

I feel freakin' old. This reminds me of last night's conversation with Mom and how she wants new living room furniture and I was saying how they just bought that furniture but she said it was 20 years old! Gak. I cannot believe that.

So here's another snapshot of the past - Zelda. I remember popping in the GOLD plated Nintendo game into the system and having the start screen pop up with its mysterious soundtrack. I must admit that I needed a few tips along the way to finish this game, but it was amazing nonetheless.

Zelda 2...meh, not so much.

Zelda: A Link to the Past - now THERE was a video game! My fave of the series (but sadly, I have only played those three)...it was like a souped-up version of the Nintendo version...better graphics, more items to collect, you name it, they had it!

I am hoping that I will begin my descent back into playing video games with my most recent download of Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time. I hear it's the best one out there. In some ways, I don't mind the fact that I've grown not to care for video games as much anymore...I enjoy that I go out and do things...but at the same time my inner self is screaming "Man, how could you NOT be interested in playing this game? This is Zelda!!!"

Please post any comments on your memories of only one of the cooler franchises Nintendo has to offer!

Joe has constantly talked about Battlestar Gallactica and how I should start watching it. Being a sci-fi fan, I know that this is one of the essentials in sci-fi viewing.

I believe I've seen one episode from the 1978 series (which I just found out only lasted one season). It was decent. It was cheese. It was what old sci-fi is about.

Now that Smallville has come and gone (aka, Mike and I have finished the first four seasons and they are currently airing the fifth) we need something else to watch so Benoit lent me the first season of Battlestar Gallactica - a revamp of the original series. The first disc is the 3 hour mini-series which spearheaded the actual TV series currently playing...I enjoyed it. It had some good story elements to it and the characters are decent. I can't say I'm head over heels for it yet, but I'll give a few episodes in the series a try to see if I really enjoy it.

In other TV series news, now that I have the XBox Media Center hooked up, I have caught up in watching Season Five of Alias, and am currently catching up on Season 2 of Lost.

Alias...what can I say? I feel that Season 5 has hit an all time low and will only be redeemed with the cancellation of the series. I think if they ended on Season 4, it would have made a good story. Season 5 reminds me of when Mulder and Scully left X-Files - all new characters in the same setting. Boo.

As for Lost...what can I say? I think this is my fave show next to Prison Break (hey, when is this coming back on the air?) and Season 2 has blown Season 1 out of the water. I really enjoy how the show revolves around the mythology of the island and the insight into a character. An excellent way to tell a story. I have heard that J.J. Abrams (the genius behind these two shows) is creating a show which intertwine six people in New York who do not know each other. Should be interesting. He is the master.

This post is dedicated to Mike, who caught a different bus this morning and missed an epic event.

Park the car, walk to the stop, stand inside grumbling about the bus that just took off (isn't that *always* the case?), and I hear PAF!

I think nothing of it, but notice a bunch of people looking in the direction of the parking lot so I take a glance and see some poor guy's bumper has been ripped clear off of his car!

I ask what happened and here's the story.

Imagine yourself driving eastward to an intersection. Imagine a huge bus heading westward to the same intersection. One would imagine that you both stop, right-of-way ensues, all is well.

Not in this case...turns out that there is no stop sign while heading westward on this intersections (this in itself is not really odd, it's a parking lot three-way stop and not a major intersection) so the bus keeps going through the intersection while the car must have misjudged and when he's turning north into the parking lot, he clips the back of the bus with his bumper! PAF! Bumper is hanging by the tail light wires as he parks the car!

Shitty start to the morning I tell you!

In other news, I realized that I get to work at the same time if I take the later bus (as in this case) at 7:20 instead of the one at 7:10. Well I'll be. I've had my suspicions before but this is verified now.

Check out Kevin's entry here.

Upload a photo of yourself and you can find out what celebrity you most look like at http://myheritage.com

Only THE coolest thing on the Net this week!

I don't see what the big deal people have with doing their taxes.

I've never had to pay back money...

And if my calcuations are correct, I'm bringing home a cool $3K...[EDIT - Feb 21: It's more like $800. I just messed up a calcuation] home in a refund this year.

Booya.

Chances are my calcuations are WAY off.

Today only, 50% off at Walue Willage!

Take the afternoon off!

Hey, I like Nickelback. So that's why I went to see them on Saturday night.

Live opened up for them. LIVE! Man, what a great show...I would pay good money to see Live anytime of the day...very strange seeing them opening up for Nickelback...it's more of a "Let's get our touring chops back up before our new album release". Their new songs were mint. Songs from Black Mountain will be a great album.

Nickelback comes out with a thunder and a few pyros...heck, we can feel them from 20 feet from the stage. Awesome.

All in all, very reminiscient of their last stadium tour...they stick to a winning formula and don't disappoint - pyros, heavy riffs, drum solos, and added to that, a girl 10 feet away from us flashing the band while on top of her boyfriend's shoulders! That's a rock show folks!

I'm thinking this is the setlist...can't recall if there are few missing songs.

• Animals
  
• Woke Up This Morning
  
• Photograph
  
• Breathe
  
• Someday
• Medley/Jam from Curb
• Never Again
• Band Jams while they toss stuff into crowd
• Savin Me
• Side of a Bullet
• Drum Solo
• Follow You Home
• How You Remind Me
• Too Bad
  ENCORE
• Rockstar (Sylvie's Fave)
  
• Figured You Out

Can I just say that if Ed Kowalczyk from Live needs a few ladies for himself, Sylvie and Vero are more than willing. I don't understand how they find a guy who is most likely 40 by now is hot while prancing around with no shirt on. ;-)

I want to tell you a little about the XBox Media Center (affectionately known as XBMC).

As you all know, I am slow on the video game bandwagon and finally bought a mod chip and modded my XBox. Matt and Duncan (and others) have already done so years ago and know the knowledge which I only now know..

Have you ever heard of Media Centers? They allow you to view your digital media via your TV in one central location. I won't go on about the theory of media centers as you will now read what my actual XBMC can do.

Music - I can read music off of a CD, or on a network drive (aka, my computer upstairs and Mike's computer downstairs). I can have a listing of all the freakin' music I have in the world, as long as it's on someone's computer. I can also go into my iTunes database (how convenient since I already have one set up for use with my iPod!) and access all my files and playlists. For the non-tech savvy, do you know that you can use iTunes to organize all your music on your computer and you don't need an iPod? You also don't need to pay for it, it's free. Try it out today!

I can also go to streaming Internet radio stations for some cool music. I want some Lounge music? BOOM. Done. Jazz? Done. 500 radio stations to browse through. Take that Satellite Radio!

Programs - Heck, I haven't really played around with this, but the coolest part of this is that you can a) Copy XBox games (alright, it's illegal. Big deal.) and b) Play emulators. Emulators basically mimic the functionality of the old video game systems you've grown to love. Right now, I've installed a Nintendo Emulator and loaded up 'The Legend of Zelda' last night. That's right people, I'm not talking about the super-duper Wind Maker version on Gamecube...I'm talking about the original! With a bullet.

Eventually I will download emulators for other vid systems such as Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64. Maybe a Turbo Grafx 16 console while I'm at it.

Videos - My fave option on the whole thing. I download vids a lot. I download TV shows a lot. I don't really mind watching it on my piddly 17-inch computer screen, but dang it would be cool if I could just watch it on my TV screen downstairs.

Voila! My wish has come true. I just go search for the video files via the network (which are stored on my physical computer upstairs) and they play them! They can even play them in 5.1 surround if someone has encoded the video that way (like the Smallville eps on the Net). And it plays EVERY format possible. We all know there are a slew of formats out there and you need a different player for each...not with the XBMC. Somewhere in the code, they've handled all of that gobbledegook...it just opens and plays the vid. Oh my...I am in heaven. I can now watch my eps of Lost that I downloaded.

Pictures: Who needs photo album these days? I just go into the folder I want to view photos in, and hit slideshow. I can even shuffle the pictures. I can even have my music playing in behind them while we watch. This was especially effective while showing Eric last night while popping up some wedding photos along with some acoustic Lifehouse. Tugs on the heart strings I tell ya! Everyone can see the screen - no more just sitting around a little photo album!

Other features:
Weather! Hey, wanna know what the weather is for the next five days? There's a linkup to the Weather Network right on the Main Menu.
Movie Trailers - Same deal! I can view all the new movie trailers (from the Apple Quicktime website - THE source for new movie trailers) all from my main menu of the XBMC and on my TV.

I have just begun to play around with the XBMC - but it's the best time (a lot because of the soldering instructions - let's say 10 hours in total) and money - ($80 for the chip, and $60 for a wireless network card) that I've put into a project. I suppose you have to include an XBox in that price also, but it was a gift. Thanks Mom and Dad!

I encourage you to come see what the XBMC is all about and perhaps build one yourself!

I apologize to my tech savvy friends reading this...I always try and make my blog entries non-tech savvy for the others reading it.

Hey hey hey! Here's another installment of "Ryan is itching to buy something".

I feel the need to buy things every once in awhile. It is a curse I tell you.

Anyhow, this is the story about how I'm slowly getting hooked on Mac Computers.

I haven't had much experience with Apple products. It was always "Don't buy those overpriced pieces of hardware!" and I didn't.

Then came the iPod. Huh...a neat toy that will be obsolete in 5 years. ;-P

But then I started to hear more and more about what Mac computers can do. For example...being from the musician's walk of life, I have heard about GarageBand, an easy to use song creation tool that comes with the Mac. Even Nine Inch Nails released a few of their songs in GarageBand format so you can remix the songs with their own individual tracks! That is wild. Alas, I could not play around with it due to no Mac in my possession. But not a real big deal, right?

In the past year, my needs for a computer have changed...I am beginning to burn more and more DVDs and I wish to make them more and more slick looking. Nice menus, good chapter transitions...I am even thinking of turning it into a business one day. Coupled with the 'I can transfer your old videocassettes onto a DVD", I could make a few extra bucks.

So I've tried to do the 'create your own DVD' thing...it's worked somewhat. A lot of different software to use to get what I want, but never reallly what I want.

Then I read up on the Mac computers and how they are the be-all end-all of video editing and whatnot. I've always known this - you always see musicians or film producers with a Mac. Heck, did you know that Napolean Dynamite was edited using Macs? That's wild.

I mentioned getting a Mac to Benoit when he was thinking of getting a new computer and he dismissed the idea almost immediately but after a few weeks, he had purchased one on a whim and is loving it.

Last night Vero let me play around with her PowerBook (aka Mac Laptop) from work and I was really impressed with it. It's slick. It's smooth. And it has some very cool software. Garageband was really fun to play around with and I didn't even have to read a manual (like Cubase. Gak.)

So...I always told myself my next computer will be a laptop. I don't think I will buy the power-user Mac laptop (as it's over $2000), but they will be releasing a new version of the iBook soon enough...in the next few months.

So faithful readers - my quandry (quandary?) is this. I can't really justify buying this at this moment in my life.

So what does one do when they can't afford something? Sell something they own!

Give me some ideas of what I can sell off to make this purchase. I was thinking my comic books, but really, that is a long procedure and I don't think I would make much profit off of them. I was also thinking old computer parts...but alas, I really don't think old computers are really profitable (unless I find someone who doesn't know a thing about computers and bail it on them.)

iplaying: Hello Old Friend - Eric Clapton - Crossroads

Taken from Ferda, who took it from Jen who stole it from Jill. Chances are she stole it from someone else also considering our generation has no original ideas, only ideas stolen from the Internet which we sometimes try and pass as our own. But, the good people who are Ferda and Jen have at least referenced their findings. ;-)

Four Jobs You’ve Had In Your Life
1. Wal-Mart Greeter
2. Forestry Herbicide Sprayer
3. Burier of bodies at the town graveyard
4. Paper boy!

Four Places You Have Lived
1. Sudbury
2. Cobalt...SCRATCH THIS! Dad reminded me of the coolest spot to live...Abitibi Canyon. Population 30? Maybe 100. Did they even have grocery stores there? I cannot remember. I was 3.
3. Kapuskasing
4. Ottawa

Four Music Artists You Can’t Hear Too Often
1. The Smashing Pumpkins
2. Mogwai
3. The Arcade Fire
4. Mike

Four Favorite Books
1. The Thrawn Trilogy
2. Lord of the Rings Trilogy (including the Hobbit and the Silmarillion)
3. Dune Series
4. The Karate Dojo

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over
1. Legends of the Fall
2. Dazed and Confused
3. FUBAR
4. Napolean Dynamite

Four TV Shows You Love to Watch (currently)
1. Lost
2. Prison Break
3. Alias
4. Smallville

Four Places You Have Been On Vacation
1. Europe
2. Gaspe
3. Florida
4. Boston

Four Websites You Visit Daily
1. www.chartattack.com
2. www.gizmodo.com
3. www.redflagdeals.com
4. www.comingsoon.net

Four Of Your Favorite Foods
1. Steak
2. Grilled Cheese
3. Any kind of sandwich with some mustard and meat inside
4. Lemon Pie

Four Hobbies
1. Listening to Music
2. Playing guitar
3. Going to school. Heck, it takes up most of my time so it must be considered a hobby!
4. Going to the Heart & Crown

Q: Why did Sheryl Crow leave Lance Armstrong?

A: She found someone that owned a car.

Ha!

On a random other note, go to Futureshop.ca here and there are select Buy 1, get 1 free TV Series.

update: As per Ferda's comment in this posting, I want to draw your attention to my previous posting about TV series on DVD here. Here I outline alternatives to purchasing TV shows on DVD.

Now, let's put price aside for a moment. Clearly, with this Future Shop deal, it is most likely worthwhile to pick up a season or two.

But regardless of price, would you watch it? I cannot for the life of me seeing myself sitting somewhere in my house and saying "Man, I would love to watch an episode of Friends right now, I'm going to pop one in!". It's always more like "Man, what is on TV right now? Whoa whoa whoa, a Friends marathon?! I'm in!" and I am glued to the TV for hours.

This brings up a thought on TV shows on DVD (consider this Part 2)...maybe there are only certain shows which are better suited on DVD. I can think of the serialized dramas with cliffhangers at the end of every episode (24, Alias, Lost, etc.), but when it comes to the old sitcoms you love to watch...maybe not so much. If they weren't already on reruns, then maybe it would be worthwhile. But if they are already somewhere on tv, then why bother?

Here's another point - I bought the Thundercats Season 1 - Volume 1 about 3 months ago. I love Thundercats. It is my fave cartoon. I jumped at the chance to see it on DVD.

Have I watched them all? Heck no! Why not? I don't feel the need to watch the next episode. I'm not hanging there thinking "Oh man, what's going to happen to Clark Kent and Lex Luthor in the next episode?!" and pop it in and waste away an entire Sunday afternoon.

So I am updating my theories on TV Shows on DVDs. They may be worthwhile to purchase if you feel you can justify the price point (otherwise, look into the other alternatives in my 'Devil in Me' blog entry) but you also must actually WATCH the entire season. ;-)

Here's another random thought that I'll touch upon in the future...what if you watch the entire season and you love it, but then you never watch it again? Serialized TV shows are not the highest in replayability factors, unlike sitcoms where you can think "Hey, I wanna see that Friends episode where Ross kisses Rachel, the 14th time!" MAYBE, in five years time I'll want to watch an entire series again, but no time soon.