Palmer's World

• First off, I love when the weather gets nicer and then you can switch your gas furnace off and leave the windows open. It's in between those days where you want to put the Central A/C on. Case in point, the gas bill came in yesterday for a whopping $4.21. Awesome.
  
• Let's not forget that Palmer's Automatic Savings Withdrawls really pulled through for the first time this year when his property tax bill came in. I don't get it automatically taken off from my mortgage payment so I can accumulate the interest on the $2000+ in the bank. Instead of scrambling for the next few weeks to find some serious cash, I just simply paid the bill off in full from the money I slowly put away throughout the year! Yeeha!
• The Canadian Dollar is worth a lot of cashola. In Canada, it's still a dollar, but outside of Canada, I can buy things cheaper. Hello Amazon.com!

I was betting good money that this police alert had something to do with my car getting broken into until I read the alert. HILARIOUS.

http://www.ottawapolice.ca/en/serving_ottawa/media_room/news.cfm?nr_id=4325

Krista and I were talking about some daily routines that we all have - in our particular conversation, websites we visit at least once a day (and in my case, in a specific order when the day begins).

First Website - Google Mail before I leave the house (just in case there's that great email saying I am worth a gazillion dollars).
Then…
ChartAttack - Canada's own music source for all the latest and greatest. It's a good fast read. Sometimes there's good stuff, sometimes it's a bust. But they do highlight the new releases of the week. Boom.
ComingSoon.net - An excellent source for up-to-date movie information.
Dark Horizons - Another excellent movie information site. Although by the time I'm done reading ComingSoon.net, this site really isn't needed. But I do enjoy when their Random Spiel column comes up which has various tidbits of information.
Canoe.ca's JAM! Showbiz Entertainment Section - Another excellent Canadian site of entertainment information. I start from the top of the topic list and run down - Music, Movies, Television, Video.
Ottawa Sun - Hey, you have to look to the locals to see what's going on in your territory! I really just browse through this and don't spend too much time.
Canada.com - You never know what's happening around your country until you visit canada.com
Gizmodo - An excellent source for gadget news. This is updated around the clock so I visit this throughout the day for any good updates.
Life Hacker - Lifehacker is a pretty cool site which has tips that will let you enjoy your life a little more (but mainly revolves around technology. Heck technology IS life. Debate that one.)
NME.com - For all around good music information, but focusses on our friends across the seas. New Music Express sometimes gets a bad rap from other music sites, but whatever. It is updated a few times a day which is crucial in the fast moving rock scene.
Nine Inch Nails Hotline - Hey, you never know what Trent Reznor is up to…better check it out here.
TrekWeb - Everyone knows there's a new Star Trek movie coming out so it's good to check out the updates!
Netphoria Forums - For all the latest updates of Smashing Pumpkins news.

Other than that, there are random other ones I check:
My Friend's Blogs - Which have become a ghost town since Facebook moved into town (or they are bored with blogging?)
My own site to see if I got any comments.
Apple Mac Computer Sites - Anything to do with the coolest computers ever.
Star Wars sites - Natch.

What are some sites you check out daily? Post them here!

iplaying: 22: The Death of All The Romance - The Dears (No Cities Left)

My car got broken into last week (more on that later…) but I realized some things after talking with my insurance company.

Now, for those of you who don't know already, chances are your house insurance covers your possessions which are stolen from inside your car, whereas your car insurance covers the ACTUAL car.

Now that we have that out of the way, when I was talking with the representative from my home insurance company she asked the fateful question "Well, have you thought about having your car insurance through us as well?".

Of course I have. But I could get it for $50/mth cheaper at another company so I opted for that.

But she left me something to think about.

"Well don't forget that in a case like this, you would only have to pay ONE deductible to cover both your car damage as well as your possessions which were stolen, but with two separate insurance providers you will have to pay both deductibles."

Hmm…this was a very, very excellent point that I had never thought of.

Let's be honest here…I was never one to really think about my insurance. I was more of the 'Give me the lowest quote you can which covers what I want and you have a client." I'm sure there are a lot of you out there.

Here are the things that are crawling through my mind right now in terms of insurance:

• Deductibles - You know, I had a $500 deductible for my home insurance but that really doesn't help out your cause if you don't have $500 worth of possessions that are stolen. Sure, there would be extreme examples such as your entire house burns down, but take a look at your specific case of a vehicle. You would have to have a lot of big ticket items stolen out of your car to warrant paying $500 to get them back. Off the top of my head, I am thinking a laptop, some high end stereo equipment or about 25 CDs. Maybe some tools? I could go on with hypotheticals but the case in point here is - You should have your deductible be worth your while. I have just put in a request to ask for a lower deductible. I am going to make an assumption (and someone can provide me with the correct information at any time) that the lower the deductible, the higher you will pay in a monthly fee. Am I correct? Why else would they have different levels of deductibles? I'm sure EVERYONE would LOVE to have the lowest deductible available. So now it becomes a cost comparison. If I opt for the $300 deductible, how much more a year is that in monthly payments? If it is extremely more, then it probably isn't worth it. But if it's only $50 more, then you are laughing. Feel free to throw any other information that can be good when looking at insurance.

• Combining insurance - Here's another classic example of cost comparison. Even if my car insurance company comes backs and indicates that by combining my house insurance it would cost me more than the other house insurance provider - I have to compare the case of how much the two deductibles would cost together, as well as the gamble I wish to put on that instance happening. I am going to say right now that Palmer feels his car has a greater chance of getting broken into then his own house. This factors in some variables such as the area I live in as well as the area I usually park my car. So in my case, I am thinking it's probably worth my while to combine the two even if it will come out a little extra…

• But in the end of it all, what's your insurance there for anyhow? We all know the classic curse - "Claim something and your premiums MAY go up!". Krista brought up some good points at lunch today saying that the reason she has the $500 deductible is that it lowers her premiums and the odds are that she would rather shell out the cash out of her own pocket under $500 to fix something rather than make a claim and have her premiums go up. One can assume that people choosing the higher deductible are banking on worst-case scenarios (aka you total your car or your house burns down).

There's a heck of a lot of factors to ponder when thinking about insurance. I think at the very least I am going to look at combining my insurance into one company in the case that if I do have to pay a deductible, then it's just a one-shot deal.

Stay tuned for more info. Share some thoughts in the comments section! I'm sure everyone has their own views on insurance.

Oh yeah, if you're one of those people out there that don't have insurance. Don't be left out in the cold like Cameron who's girlfriend torched his house and all he had left were the clothes on his back, his cat and his Jeep. That's just plain dumb.

Late Friday night, Carrie, Philipp, Vero and I rolled into Toronto. After some meager directions brought to us by Mapquest, we got to Miguel and Katie's place looking for a good time. The good time began when we decided to watch Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 in one sitting that night.

Let's put this into perspective. It is already midnight when we arrive. I have been driving all the way there so I am little zonked. But we need to prepare ourselves for the onslaught tomorrow - the Evil Dead Musical!

People died off through Evil Dead 2 and I must admit that Philipp had to park my ass back down in the couch near the ending of Evil Dead 2 as I was ready for bed. We did manage to watch them both and went to bed victorious.

The next day we meandered around Toronto just doing little chores here and there - mainly looking for a nice white t-shirt to wear to the Evil Dead Musical.

Evil Dead is a movie which came out in 1981 and it follows a group of students who go to a cabin in the woods. Unfortunately, these woods are haunted and soon enough everyone becomes zombies. No worries - we have the lead character Ash (played by Bruce Campbell) who can take care of all his Deadite friends, along with the help of a sawed-off shotgun (his boomstick), a chainsaw on his hand and great facial expressions. Let's not forget the great one-liners.

The movie spawned off two sequels (the second being more campier than the first, then the third being the campiest of all) and has had a cult following throughout the world.

Fast forward to 2003 when an Evil Dead Musical was created in Toronto and then moved to New York. In the past year we've been talking about maybe heading to New York City to see this spectacle but the stars aligned for us and it came back to Toronto for a bit.

Carrie managed to grab every Evil Dead fan she knows and we ended up having 15+ people go to the show. We started off the afternoon well with a great BBQ hosted by Miguel and Katie. The food was great, the company was great, weather was decent also. Let's see...for archive purposes I'll try and remember everyone that was there - Carrie, Philipp, Lucas, Andrew, Myself, Vero, Beth, Tom, Kris, Katie, Miguel, Adrianna, Tyler and Megan. Yeah, that's about right.

We hopped into some cabs (as we figured we may miss the show taking the subway at the late hour) and arrived to the Diesel Playhouse. Outside the Playhouse I noticed a slew of people putting on their white t-shirts.

Why are wearing white t-shirts? Well, we managed to buy tickets inside the SPLATTER ZONE, where you most likely will get some blood on you (if you're lucky!). That's right, blood. Sure, it's fake (or is it?) but I'm sure it'll be a good time.

We walk into the playhouse and check out the merchandise ($60 for an autographed poster? No thanks!) and realize we can drink alcohol in the theatre! This isn't your average musical! We head into the theatre (where I get berated by the ticket-taker lady for not listening) and we find ourselves taking up the entire second row centre! Excellent seats!

The musical starts and it's a laugh-fest from that point on. The actors are amazing, the tunes are hilarious and the stage set up is well thought out. It is everything we needed it to be. Every funny part of the Evil Dead series is put into this musical and then some. (at this point I'm going to talk about specific scenes of the Evil Dead series so if you don't know them, go watch them!) We have Ash chopping off his evil hand and while doing so a squirt of blood is coming out so he puts his face into the stream a few times just to get his face more bloody. We also have some great zombie costume ideas. The scene where the trees attack one of the women was amazingly thought out for the stage production - they had the girl running away with the three other actors dressed up as as trees and they run on the spot after her. Then she takes a tumble and they advance but she gets back up and they go backwards. Very cool scene.

Intermission hit and Tom proclaims that this is way better than he thought it would be. There is mad dash to find some ponchos as the blood hasn't started spurting yet. Adrianna gets berated by one of the staff after asking for a poncho - "Why did you buy tickets for the Splatter Zone if you can't handle it?!". A guy eventually comes around with some ponchos. Vero told me afterwards that she was disappoitned she didn't bring her own white t-shirt to the party. Next time, Vero. Next time.

The anticipation is high when the second half begins. I don't know what to expect. Will it be a full on bloodbath? Does it depend on where we are sitting? I was sitting pretty well in the center of the row…what's going to happen?

The musical continues and we see our first sign of blood. It spews out of the trapdoor on the stage floor onto the left splatter zone section. A tease really! You can already see the division in the splatter zone - those who love it and those who hate it. Another blood fest begins when a zombie takes a beer cup full of blood and throws it into the audience.

At this point I am thinking that it's not that big of a deal and there is only a slim chance we will get hit by anything substantial.

Then it begins. Ash sings his way into Deadite killing mayhem. This part of the night is an entire blur to me as blood starts spewing out in full force on the left and right sides. I see friends of mine getting hit with the onslaught. Poor Beth loses a contact lens due to the blood hitting her eye! Kris looks like Carrie from Stephen King after getting a bucketful in the face. It is terror all around!

We're starting to get some major spurts here and there. Andrew is one of those people who are hating the moment and you can hear him scream "No, NOOO!" when he gets some blood coming at him.

Then it happens. Ash rips a heart out of a zombie right in front of us which explodes into a gush of blood coming for us! I raise my arm in fear of losing my entire face to the onslaught of red stuff! I am soaked. I think I got the worst of the entire crew actually. Philipp was kind of disappinted with the amount he received and Carrie didn't have any at all on her. I have no idea why I thought my shoes and jeans would be safe from this carnage, but it wasn't. It was everywhere. Miguel said the blood that hit him had soaked through to his underwear.

As we sat in happiness of the moment, the musical quickly ended and we cheered and cheered again! This was an event not to be missed.

If you are not liking the idea of fake blood hitting you, then no worries. There are plenty of seats outside the Splatter Zone. I highly recommend this musical for anyone who will like a good cheesy comedy night. I enjoyed it so much that I want to go back again right now. If anything, I may be up for an annual trek (if it remains that long). Phantom of the Opera, eat your heart out.

After the musical, we headed to the Underground Garage which was an excellent rock bar. The place is plastered with polaroids, vintage rock n' roll posters and bras hanging from the ceiling. We owned the dance floor and we had a most excellent night. Many fond memories, but my fave is this:

Carrie - Do you have any Timberlake? DJ - Lady, this is a rock bar!

Highlights of the Night:

• Carrie telling off some lady who was yelling at us for being too loud. It was justified - Carrie said "Sorry." the first time but the lady just kept yelling at us. That's not cool.
• Miguel passing out in the cab and waking up to give the cabbie the wrong directions home, then waking up later to wonder why the cabbie is going the wrong way.
  
• Philipp sleeping in the bathroom.
• The sheer awesome music which was being played. I love rock.
  

Thanks to Miguel and Katie for the excellent time in Toronto and special thanks goes out to Carrie for picking up those wonderful tickets.

My good friend Phil who lives in Montreal has a sweet air flight deal site starting up which will list the greatest of greatest deals there ever was (or the ones he can actually find for you!)

Take a look at his site and also note that it will always be on the menu bar to the right in case you ever feel like going for a flight to Turkey anytime soon!

http://www.airplusplus.com/montreal/

iplaying: Muzzle - The Smashing Pumpkins (1995-02-28 Double Door - Chicago IL)

How has my day been so far?

Pretty sweet.

I took the day off and it's a beaut outside. I started the day by watching the season finale of Smallville. Very cool...very...bizarre (this is for all those who don't like being spoiled).

I then headed out to The Brick to pick up a few armchairs for Vero and Melanie (Vero's new roommate) but they didn't have them in stock so they'll be in on Tuesday. They looked pretty swank.

Then I headed out to Blackburn and dropped by Lynn and Sue's pad but they weren't home (well, I suppose that isn't a huge surprise being a working day) so I headed to one of the greatest pubs in the world - the Blackburn Arms.

Sat myself at the patio, ordered a beer and some fish and chips and started reading the newspaper where I realized I forgot an important birthday today!

Star Wars turned 30 today. This is a huge day. In fact, I find there is more emphasis put on the age 30 than 25.

There's not a whole lot that I can say about Star Wars that I haven't said before. I thoroughly enjoy the movies, they really made an impact on me and I'm glad to see that there is still A LOT happening with the legacy.

There. That's it! I'm sure you were expecting more. You should watch Star Wars tonight just for old times sake.

iplaying: Blew Away - The Smashing Pumpkins (1995-02-28 Double Door, Chicago IL)

As I noticed my underwear one day, I was thinking "What does the name Fruit of the Loom actually mean?"

So I went to Wikipedia and found this bit of trivia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_of_the_loom

The name "Fruit of the Loom" is interpreted by many as a play on words with respect to a part of the Hail Mary prayer: "...blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." (cf. Gospel of Luke 1:42) The two phrases are unrelated: it is merely a coincidence that "womb" rhymes with "loom".

iplaying: Drugstore - Stabbing Westward (Darkest Days)

Maren wishes that I write a new blog entry so she can live vicariously through me so I guess I'll have to post about…new things?

Let's talk about Maren for a moment. Right now, she is probably in the midst of insane wedding preparations. As someone pointed out the other day, the first 25 invitations are fun to do, the rest of them are a chore. ;-) Hence, my belief in using evite.com to send out wedding invitations! Anyhow, Maren is working in another office since December and from what I've heard she is doing well although working downtown probably doesn't help her wallet that much. I know I would be upping my spending if I worked downtown!

Nothing has been going on in my life that is of importance. Although, the Pumpkins community has hit overdrive as they played their first concert in seven years yesterday in Paris. I was here for the action around 2:30 in the afternoon. All Pumpkins message boards crumbled under the weight of people refreshing their screens to see any more information on the set list. Our only outlet was a single blog set up to give us pictures uploaded from someone's cellphone. It was amazing. It was so…raw. I can't really explain how I felt to hear that the Pumpkins were actually back on stage. I am awaiting the bootleg of the show - soon.

Yesterday I went with Vero to pick up a used desk. I personally think it's a sweet desk, and they threw the office chair in for free (with just reason. It's a craptacular chair). We found it on usedottawa.com. If you have never gone on this site, check it out! Its better than the Glebe Garage Sale.

Speaking about the Glebe Garage Sale, its on this Saturday which is very unfortunate for Vero and I as we will be in Toronto to catch the Evil Dead Musical. :-( Very disappointed as the Garage Sale is somewhat of a memory for us as this was where our first date took place. That's right, Palmer knows how to treat a lady right. If any of my faithful readers haven't been to the Glebe Garage Sale before, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! Overall, I can't say I've ever found anything amazing at the garage sale, but if you go for one item in your mind, chances are you will find it there. Case in point, I found a weedwacker last year for $2. Beauty.

I am sporting a white dress shirt today (purchase for the Prom I went to a few weeks ago) and it's the first time I've sported the white shirt at work. The question that arises when wearing the white dress shirt is this:

Should you wear an undershirt?

At first, I thought no because maybe my hairy chest would be visible and that ain't cool. So I scavenged through my drawer to discover an old white t-shirt. I threw that on but noticed the collar was falling apart. With that idea in hand, I figured I should go without it. But as soon as I put the shirt on without an undershirt, I heard the cries of fashionable women everywhere (Maren and Krista, I bow to you) saying that this is a no-no.

How to get out of this quandary? Well, that's what I have a roommate for. With any luck, there will be a fresh undershirt waiting for me in the dryer. Sure enough, the planets were aligned and Mike had a few undershirts waiting there. By the way Mike, I have one of your undershirts.

The story of undershirts brings up this interesting part of The Rebel Sell which spoke about years ago when men wore the same shirt for numerous days but wore a new undershirt every day. It makes sense, but nowadays there is a stigma attached to doing so. Why is this? Well the clothing industry jumped on the bandwagon of different colour shirts and changed the way shirts were worn and it wasn't COOL to wear the same shirt twice in a work week, so they ended up making more cash in the long run by selling more shirts! Very shrewd. Interesting how a clothing change can influence the way a society thinks ("Ew, you're wearing the same shirt TWICE?!")

So another question about undershirts is this - clearly I have not worn an undershirt with my other dress shirts, but should I? What is the etiquette on the undershirt? Clearly it is needed for the white dress shirt…but what about the others?

My colleague is selling XBOX games for $5 each. Here's a listing. Let me know if you're interested in any of them.

- Counter Strike - online enabled
- Hitman: Contracts
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars - online enabled
- Medal of Honor Frontline
- Pac Man World 2
- Dead to Rights
- Gunvalkyrie
- Ralli Sprot Challenge
- Enclave
- Oddworld Munch`s Oddysee
- Kung Fu Chaos
- Starsky & Hutch
- State of Emergency
- Burnout 3: Takedown
- Rainbow Six 3 - online enabled
- Conflict: Desert Storm
- 007 Agent Under Fire
- American Chopper
- Project Gotham Racing
- Malice
- Gun Valkyrie
- Mad Dash Racing
- Battle Engine Aquila
- Apex
- Dark Summit
- Tony Hawk`s Underground
- Night Caster: Defeat the Darkness
- Splinter Cell: Stealth Action Redefined
- Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
- Pisoner of War
- BRAND NEW STILL IN PKGING - X2 Wolverine`s Revenge
- Star Wars the Clone Wars and Tetris World - online enabled
- Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick
- Monster Garage - online enabled
- Spider-man
- Azurik: Rise of Perathia
- Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers
- Dead to Rights
- Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- NFL 2K3 - online enabled
- XSN Sports Top Spin - online enabled
- XSN Sports Links 2004 - online enabled
- Thirteen - online enabled
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Enter the Matrix
- Syberia
- NFL Street
- Brute Force
- SpyHunter
- Blood Wake
- Rayman Arena
- Mission: Impossible M:I Operation Surma
- Ghost Recon - online enabled
- Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2
- NBA 2003 Inside Drive
- Rally Fusion
- The Thing
- Drag Racing 2004 - online enabled
- Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
- Invisible War
- All Star Baseball 2003
- Terminator: Dawn of Fate
- BMX XXX
- NFL Fever 2004 - online enabled
- Unreal II The Awakening - online enabled
- Tao Feng
- Reign of Fire
- Turok: Evolution
- Max Payne
- Kill Switch
- Red Dead Revolver
- Wreckless - The YaKuza Missions
- 007 Agent Under Fire
- UEFA Euro 2004 Portugal
- Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller
- Shenmue II
- RLH: Hunt or be hunted
- Night Caster II
- Cell Damage
- Genma Onimusha
- NCAA Football 2004
- Test Drive
- Solder of Fortune II
- Panzer Dragoon
- Amped Freestyle Snowboarding
- Unreal Championship
- Max Payne 2
- Transworld Snow Boarding
- Fuzion Frenzy
- Big Mutha Truckers
- Rogue Ops
- Tenchu - Return from Darkness
- Project Gothan Racing 2 - online enabled
- Jetset Radio Future

I haven't seen this movie, but I know it's about two ladies traveling the roads in their car and getting into trouble.

This is what I think about with Mom who has gone to visit Nanny for the week. I kept asking Mom what they had planned and she was very cryptic. She said something about hopping in the car and traveling around and asking if I knew how to put the odometers back on a car. I have this vision of that scene in Ferris Buehler when they try that. ;-)

Anyhow, here's to Mom and Nanny who probably won't even read this until they are done their adventures to God knows where. Don't get into too much trouble!

Who the heck are The Himalayans?

More importantly, who knows Adam Duritz?

Of course everyone knows the name Adam Duritz as the singer from Counting Crows. Counting Crows are the best band ever (except for the Smashing Pumpkins). They aren't even on the same scale, but there. It's been said. Much of my guitar playing is credited to the great songs of Counting Crows.

So before Counting Crows got together, Adam was bumming around looking for something exciting to do and he answered an ad in the paper asking for a singer of a band. This band became The Himalayans and I never knew about them until now as they re-released a remastered first (and only) album.

Turns out that the band was going to make it big but then Adam left to create Counting Crows. While this gets a little muddy in my brain, I guess there are some musicians out there that are in multiple bands and then decide to focus on one at a time. This is what happened here. Adam left for Counting Crows.

Now, what really piqued my curiosity about this album was the fact that it has turned out that Counting Crows Round Here was actually a COVER of the original which was recorded by The Himalayans! Imagine! So I picked up this album (only available from Adam's new record label Tyrannosaurus Records if you want it) and am plesantly impressed with it.

I must admit that I have come a long way in my music tastes. I am more into the classic rock styles so this low-key alternative music isn't exactly my thing anymore. But I managed to but my 1991 ballcap on my head and listen to the album as it should be listened to - with your frame of mind back then, and not in the year 2007.

In that, I find a great album with some great tracks intermixed with radio interviews. Essentially they wish to collect everything that the band was at this moment in time. It is strange to hear Adam sing to different songs and especially strange (yet cool) to hear the original Round Here. It's rolling bass line holds the song in familiar territory. The album is worth picking up for this reason alone!

So there you have it. If you're a Counting Crows fan and enjoy Adam's great vocals, and won't mind a different style of music from Counting Crows (but still clearly from the early 90s), then pick this album up.

Iplaying: Angels in American - The Himlayans (She Likes The Weather)

Is this a Linkin Park album or something else? Gone are the days of their hybrid of rap and rock (or nu-metal for those of you in the know). They have revamped their music entirely which I was a little scared of at first. Can a band still survive when they change their direction? I was hearing strange things from the studio - listening to a lot of Pink Floyd during the recording. How can Linkin Park survive an uprising from metal-esque screaming music to some laid back riffs?

Well, they managed to pull it off. This is definitely NOT the Linkin Park of old. Forget everything you know about them. Just appreciate this as a good album and you will love it. I cannot get this out of my stereo right now. There are some key tracks which I come back to (Valentine's Day, Bleed It Out (which, coincidentally I heard on Saturday Night Live last week and thought it was the most horrible song ever. Clearly their live versino of the song doesn't do it justice). They have the classic Chester vocals all over the place and a lot less of Mike Shinoda. Some of the tracks remind me of old Linkin Park (ala My December-like).

I thoroughly enjoy this album but prepare yourself for something entirely different from the Linkin Park you know and love. But you will enjoy this album if you enjoy some good music.

iplaying: Diamonds and Babies and Cars - The Himalayans (She Likes The Weather)

Hey, hey! A new Megadeth album is out! I'm sure my faithful readers know my love of Megadeth as the kings of heavy metal. I dig them more than Metallica, that's a fer sure.

This is a follow-up to their The System Has Failed album which brought Megadeth back from the dead when there were fears that Dave Mustaine had put the beast to slumber due to him losing mobility in his arm. But he fought back and he is back with a vengeance with both his last album and this one.

I have listened to it a few times and I must say it may become one of my faves. As always, Megadeth have politicized lyrics and this album is no exception as we enter the atrocity of the current state of affairs. Their tunes Washington Is Next is reminiscent of Holy Wars (but not as good, of course!). They also re-record one of my favourite tunes - A Tout Le Monde featuring Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil on co-vocals. An excellent re-recording of the track although I prefer the solo from the original. It's interesting to note that for the longest time everyone thought this was a song about suicide but it was really about a person facing their death - like an older person sitting there realizing that death is upon them. It's an interesting note.

Overall, an excellent Megadeth album and I can see the new lineup in the band may become one of the better ones (alongside the classic lineup of Marty Friedman, Nick Menza and David Ellefson).

iplaying: She Likes The Weather - The Himalayans (She Likes The Weather)

I was introduced to Ted Leo and the Pharmacists by my co-worker Rob a few years ago with the Shake the Sheets album. It was a rocking album and I tend to listen to it while I'm out on a jog. Ever listen to the Strokes and it makes you feel like running? This is what this album makes you feel like. So when I heard there was a new album out from Ted Leo I scoured the entire city for it. Finally stumbling upon Music World in Orleans, I ended up with the copy with the limited edition EP along with it! Beauty!

It has some excellent tunes on it and I can see he is honing his songwriting ability. There are some good rocking tunes for the most part, and mixed up with a reggae tune and some sombre tunes makes for a decent album. I would have to say tht I enjoy Shake the Sheets better but if you are a fan of Ted Leo, I would recommend you pick up the album. I feel this will be my summer album as it has the feeling of hanging out on that porch with your friends on a sunny afternoon.

iplaying: Jaded - The Himalayans (She Likes The Weather)

Weekend was spent having a great time at Matt's cottage. Went out on the boat a few times (although I am stoked to get a ride in Alex's new boat. This thing is huge.) This is the first time I've been up to the cottage where the weather was beautiful so I learned to appreciate it more. There wasn't much to report other than we had a great time and there was plenty of beer, BBQ and boating. Plus a campfire and fireworks.

Let us not forget an amazing Hollyism that came out during the weekend: http://hollyisms.blogspot.com/2007/05/beef-or-burger.html

I also caught up on some TV watching as I just realized that a bunch of season finales are coming my way and I haven't caught up on them. Of particular note is Lost which I hadn't seen the last 5 episodes of. I am intrigued once again. I enjoy this show and where they take you.

I also went on an excellent bike ride with Vero around Orleans. We stopped and had some fries at the chip stand and continued up and down random streets that I had never been on. This is the way to explore a community! The best part was when we stumbled onto some trails through the woods. Very beautiful. I will end up going back there again to explore. I never realized how much of a wooded area there was in Orleans until now.

All in all, a great long weekend was had (especially since I took the Friday off also). I am looking forward to a few things that are coming up, such as the Evil Dead musical this coming weekend in Toronto. Woohoo!

I'd like to put a shout out to my sister who I heard makes a hell of lot more tips than I do at her new job back home. Man…I wish I had a tip jar.

By the way...what has been playing on my iPod for about 50 gazillion times this weekend?

Tarantula by the Smashing Pumpkins. The new single is amazing.

Whew! I caught up on all my things I wanted to talk to you about so I could get to the real juicy review of Spider-Man 3 which I saw last night with Chris, Sara and Krista.

We headed to the SilverCity to capture the magic which is Spider-Man. I love Spider-Man. He's my favourite of them all. Sure, X-Men are cool also. I enjoy the stories more in X-Men (well, maybe not lately…actually I haven't read a new X-Men story since 10 years ago but I heard it's going awful), but Spider-Man is a character that I can relate with. He's goofy, but cool at the same time. Enough about the character.

We had the entire theater to ourselves which was nice. This was the first time I had seen a Spidey movie with friends as I had seen it alone the other 2 times. Some people find that strange, but I say you don't really talk during a movie so if you want to go see a flick and no one feels like going with you, go on your own anyhow!

***spoiler warning*** I will not be revealing anything that hasn't been in the movie trailers. I will be speaking about various characters and how I felt about them in the movie, but I won't give away any plot points. If you feel that me talking about the characters and the general story are too much for you, then you should stop reading now. I would also disregard the comments section as you never know when someone may write in "I can't believe Darth Vader is Luke's father!!!"

The film picks up with Peter Parker still in college but at least in this time period, everyone loves the Spider-Man. New York City embraces this cool superhero and there is Spidey merchandise everywhere (much like around our own world!). He is still with Mary-Jane Watson and life looks pretty good.

The story revolves around three main villains - Harry "Green Goblin" Osbourne, The Sandman and everyone's fave…Venom! When hearing about three main villains I was assuming that Harry would enter the film early on and then somehow leave the film early on to make way for the other two new villains. I was also worried about having three main villains. Seemed a little extreme for me. This reminds me the old Batman films which got out of hand with two villains fighting for screen time.

My fears were fully realized when the film is pulled in too many directions with trying to follow all three villains stories, as well as following the Peter Parker story. I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the Peter/Harry storyline and it had a twist that left me satisfied (although it may not be satisfying to many others). I am glad that they had an emphasis on Harry Osbourne as I had fears that with Sandman and Venom showing up, he would take the back burner.

However, that being said, this took away from Sandman and Venom. Venom could have his own entire film dedicated to him - as should be! He is an excellent villain. Plus, he's a fan favourite and rightly so! So I was disappointed in his screen time in the film. They should have just focussed on Sandman and Harry this time around. Sandman fell into the same bad scenario where he only had a little background story and then was all action. I loved how Spider-Man 2 really looked at Otto Octavius's soul and really got into what the character was about. Sandman…not so much. However, maybe there's really nothing to go on with Sandman…I can't remember reading too many stories with him in it 10 years ago.

The other critique of the film was the whole 'Superman 3' vibe that was given. You know the film where Superman has an evil twin…god, it was a horrible film. Well, Peter Parker gets a mean streak in him during the movie and styles his hair differently and acts like an ass to everyone. It was too cheesy. It really was. He wasn't a dark, twisted Peter Parker…he was the macho, suave, jock-like Parker which is the opposite of what he is. At this point in the film, I analyzed Sam Raimi's other trilogy - The Evil Dead Trilogy, and realized that Spider-Man 3 was his Army of Darkness as it was very high in the cheese factor. VERY HIGH. Maybe he can't hold it back once he hits the third movie stride? Anyhow, I found it really took away from the film. I like the little points of humour in the first two films. The wink and the nod if you will. But Spidey 3 really goes overboard to the point where you really are groaning at the things that are happening to Peter Parker.

Action was pretty cool for the film although as Krista pointed out, it's sometimes impossible to focus on as it moves way too fast on the big screen and all you see is a blur. I can only imagine what it's like on the IMAX. Are films supposed to overwhelm you? I suppose so.

My favourite part was when Sandman first is created and he tries to walk. It was a beautiful moment in both special effects and emotion. Very cool scene.

Wanna talk about Venom? Hmm…what to say. Not enough screen time. Was it meant to be this way? Was this a teaser for a film in the future? I'm sure they will eventually bring him back along with his cohort in crime - Carnage. But where is the Venom we love in the comics where he wants to protect the innocents and only wants to kill Spidey? That would have been a great take on Venom. Also, no offence to Topher Grace but it was hard watching the kid from That 70s Show play the coolest villain ever. They should have used an unknown actor and I now know why George Lucas does so in his Star Wars films. His origin was well told though as it would have been hard for Peter Parker to end up on another planet during the Secret Wars (lik in the comics).

The future is interesting for Spider-Man. There is still the possibility of The Lizard appearing as every film has some cameos by Doctor Curt Connors. I personally would like to see Mysterio show up sometime soon and maybe the Vulture? The Vulture is an old man though and isn't the best villain. Doctor Octopus is my favourite Spidey villain and that was covered well in Spider-Man 2.

Final Verdict: Very high on the cheese factor, plus being pulled in too many directions makes this installment of Spider-Man the least appealing of the three of them. It's still a decent flick though…heck, it's Spider-Man. You have to remember that he IS cheesy in the comics. But it was just a little too much.

On Tuesday, I surprised Vero with a night at the National Arts Center for a play called 7 Important Things. I really didn't know much about it other than it had to do with rebellious/counterculture elements which intrigued me after reading The Rebel Sell. Sara and Chris went to see it and they had a 50/50 split on liking/not liking it.

After getting a bowl of chili at Tim Horton's (warning: this may not be a good idea on a date), we got to the NAC and stood in line for awhile and then found out a seat in the Theatrical Studio.

At first I thought the stage was extremely minimalist. A chair here, a podium there. But my thoughts changed throughout the course of the play.

The play follows the character of George and his life in becoming a hippie, to the destruction of hippie living and more responsible living (aka working) and then the punk movement of the 80s and then now. It follows his path through life and how he feels that he is searching for happiness through these movements, but in the end, he isn't really that happy at all with the way his life has been lived.

The play bounces from the past and present at many points and uses first and third person narratives frequently. There is also the breaking of the fourth wall when they speak with the audience at various points. I loved the use of music - contemporary music; as well as the use of different forms of media; the lighting, the projectors with images from their past. I loved how if an image was being projected, one person moved the projector while the other held up a giant white placard and followed the image. Very cool. The set became a multi-purpose set as different areas were lit differently and represented different periods in George's life.

There were also discussions on marketing and counterculture and the art of rebeling agasint something. Nothing new to hear but it was interesting to see it on stage.

I have now started to realize what sort of theatre I enjoy. After being cultured for the past two years, I feel that the modern/contemporary plays really hit the spot in my heart. I love the use of music and various other technologies and not just people on a stage using their emotions. Extreme uses of music and lighthing are a personal favourite of mine which has transitioned nicely over to the theatrical rock concerts that I've seen: Nine Inch Nails, Tool, U2…I enjoy a good spectacle. Don't get me wrong, I love the music, but the visual is an equally important piece.

I would recommend going to see this play. I think it's here for the remainder of the week here in Ottawa.

Krista lent me The Rebel Sell which lays out a critique on mass consumerism and counterculture which occurs in our society today. I really enjoyed this book as it touched upon a lot of thoughts I've had on society but have never been able to articulate in such a coherent matter.

It took a look at how life has changed since the 60s and how progress has affected our lives. It also takes a look at how culture can't be jammed as the culture becomes the counterculture. Let me explain if you don't understand what I'm talking about.

Ever see those funny advertisements that mock an organization? Let's take the Nike picture posted above which I found on Google. This is an example of culture jamming. Where someone mocks something about our culture and misrepresents the original image of the organization. So I'm assuming that they are either talking about how we are slaves to buying Nike shoes just because of the brand name, or maybe they are talking about sweat shops that are used to create the shoe. I'm really grasping at that one as I don't really have any information leading to whether or not that's true. Anyhow, this isn't the point. I'm trying to show you what culture jamming is.

So if you think about the original culture jammers, we're looking at the hippies. They were against the way the world was. They wished to rebel. They grew their hair long (gasp!) and listened to awesome music. Let's fast forward to the punk movement - wild hair, piercings here and there, mish-mash of clothing. This was the way to counter the culture which was upon us.

Thing is, culture then catches onto this underground movement and commodifies it. Instead of buying safety pins from your local pharmacy store which has been done since they were created, you can now buy a box of 'PUNK STYLE SAFETY PINS!!!" or something to that effect. The punk style can now be bought at your local Wal-Mart. The concept of counter-culture has been turned on its head and now the counter-culture movement has to move elsewhere.

This is what Kurt Cobain had a problem with (amongst other things). Here was the underground alternative movement. We were tired of the glam which was the 80s. We wished for a simpler time where we could just haul on a pair of jeans and a plaid shirt over a t-shirt and that's that. No glam, no fuss. Grow our hair long and that's that. But then out of nowhere - whammo! It became popular culture. What the heck? How did that happen? Somehow in the middle of this, he (unfortunately) became the figurehead of a movement. The alternative movement. It killed him. It tore him up inside. He didn't want to be this person that people looked up to. He just wanted to make music and have fun. Look at the album In Utero. Let's all be honest…is this not a cry against the masses who loved Nevermind? I digress…

So there you have it. There's a lot more to this book than just the counterculture movement. They have some fascinating looks at consumerism. Let's take the free-range chickens. They are more expensive to buy but you get the peace of mind knowing that they had vast fields to roam inside of instead of being kept in cages. It was interesting to point out that on a nice warm day they would rather stay in the shade in a corner of the barn anyhow. So, why do we pay more? For peace of mind? Come on. So they take a look at a lot of these examples and infuse the book with amusing anecdotes about child life and good thought-provoking theories. I think Uncle Gerry would enjoy this book (if you're reading this entry right now, pick up this book!)

I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It definitely is a thinking book and not your average Star Wars novel. There were a few chapters where I had to really hunker down to get through, but for the most part, it was a fascinating look at how we live our lives today and how we feed the machine which is our society.

Wow, I am really slow on playing catchup. I think it's because I want these entries to be of a high caliber and catch the emotions, the fun times and the sheer insanity that can only be recreated in one of those cool machines from the movie Strange Days. You know, the ones where you can relive your old videotapes like YOU WERE ACTUALLY THERE. If you have not seen this movie, go nab it. I love it. Post-apocalyptic future and all of that jazz.

Sunday we awoke to clear heads all around and after hauling Philipp out of bed to get a bite to eat, we found a diner on the corner. I made the mistake of ordering the smoked meat sandwich with the free soup. Let me tell you, if you know there is a plate of fries and a sandwich coming your way anyhow, the soup is a little too much. That being said, I had to leave the entire plate of fries as the sandwich was the size of my head! Everyone was impressed at the sheer size of this monstrosity which I gazed at wondering if I could attempt such a feat. Heck, I was hitting the road home soon, so why not?

On our way back we said our goodbyes to Philipp and then popped into a geek store which had statues and action figures of your favourite comic book and movie heroes. Very cool, but very expensive. They even had a replica of the Terminator series robots for $9,000. That's a pretty penny to spend, but it was life size!

Mike and I cruised home in the late afternoon…it was a beautiful drive through the countryside and it rejuvenated me after a hard weekend of late nights. I think I'm going to start taking alternate routes to places so I can admire the scenery.

I headed over to Vero's place where she was unfortunately not there. She still doesn't have a phone at her place so it's a gamble whenever I head over there. Along the way, I picked up some form of tree at the Garden Center as a housewarming gift which I named Jacque Letrie. I left it on her porch and headed home. A few hours later she called from the mall and I headed back to see her and she had a good laugh when she saw Jacques sitting alone on the front porch! After hanging out in her pad for awhile (which hasn't been organized yet due to the painters being late to paint the place (15 days late! Inexcusable!)) I then headed to the National Arts Center with tickets in hand to see the legendary B.B. King.

I arrived and checked out the merchandise booth which had some amazing deals! I especially like the limited edition lithograph of a painting of B.B. for $25. I passed on that purchase and picked up a sweet vintage tour poster for $10. When I say vintage, it had a vintage style to it but still listed the tour dates of the current tour. Very cool. Haven't seen a $10 tour poster in a long time. Something tells me that the King of Blues doesn't overcharge for merchandise like we see a lot of other bands do.

Benoit, Cinthia, Trish and Melissa found me and after waiting for Mike for awhile, we figured we should head into the auditorium as the show was starting in 5 minutes. Upon entering I told Trish how I really had to go to the washroom but she suggested I wait for the intermission or be locked out for the first half!

We found Mike already in his seat and we took our seats in the second row of the balcony area. While far away from the stage, I don't know if I would like to have spent much more money to sit closer (they were expensive seats to begin with). The promoter of the show came out to tell us that we sold out the fastest on the entire tour and everyone was excited for the night! The backing band came out and did their thing for 15 minutes and then the King of Blues himself comes strutting out in a gold jacket! We gave him a standing ovation before he even got to his seat and you could see he was enjoying the attention.

At 81 years old, this man still has fun. I would say in the 2 hour concert, half of that time was spent telling us stories of his youth, or how 'young' his band members were (young being 60+ in age!) and how the world works in the eyes of the King.

Here's some examples of some funny stories (for my memory bank of a blog) (all paraphrased of course!)
B.B. King: Now, this next song sometimes gets the men in trouble. I want the men to sing the chorus '(ain't it) Just Like a Woman.' Now sometimes I've had men come to me and say they had a great time at the concert but after singing that chorus, their lady friend just wasn't impressed with them! Then you go home after a good night out with a lady and she don't make no supper. I'm not talking about the food either. ;-)

B.B. King: Now, years ago, a man could go out and gamble a little and bring home $10 - $15 to his lady and she would accept it without a question and give you a kiss and say "Thank you B.B.". Nowadays, you bring home $200-$300 and the first thing she says is "Where were you all night long B.B.? How do you have all that money? Were you GAMBLING? Unbelievable!" but then they take it anyway and there's no kiss for B.B.

He also talked about how it was Mother's Day and how we should all love our mothers, but also love the men who will eventually make the women in the room mothers. I would like to say that B.B. King put a special shout out to my own mother, but that never happened even though I passed him a lot of cash to do so. (Really Mom, I did!). At this moment I'd like to wish Mom a Happy Mother's Day 5 days after the fact. I live by the credo 'better late than never'. I would also like to point out that when I ordered flowers on the Monday morning, the lady at the flower shop said to me "Now, I was going to put away the Mother's Day decorations this morning but I KNEW there would be someone like you giving me a call today!"

In the last 30 minutes there was less talk and a lot more jamming. This is the high point of the night for me. To see the King of Blues in action. He was having a great time that night. I don't know how long his concerts usually go for but I had a feeling that he was only scheduled for 90 minutes but he ended up playing for 2 hours. He was very reluctant to be leaving the stage. He thrives on his audience (which was an excellent audience by the way…very respectful). At the end of the night, he stood up (with the help of friends) and threw out guitar picks and what appeared to be gold chains of sorts. I mentioned how it was 'Bling from the King!'.

Let's not forget that they were in the middle of When Love Came to Town and no one shouted out the chorus line so he stopped the entire band and gave us a lecture of how unbelievable it was not to know this song as U2 wrote it and how they are just as famous as B.B. Something tells me this is part of the humour in the show and they just play off of it as they did this a few times in the night.

The concert brought revelations of how blues in the past (if not the present which I don't know about) was played and there was a lot of interaction and storytelling involved. It also makes me realize that I have to start checking out local artists and not the big names in town all the time. Sure, they are great because of who they are, but I'm sure there are a ton of local artists out there (here's a shout out to my fave band from Ottawa - For The Mathematics who coincidentally have an interview posted at Chartattack.com today!).

Too bad that there was no intermission as my bladder exploded and had to be put back together again.

If anyone can afford to and has the opportunity to go see B.B. King in concert, do it. He is amazing. Everyone had a great time and it wasn't your average concert.

Waking up to a head full of cobwebs is not the best way to start your Saturday in Montreal! We were all feeling a little rough (except for Philipp who probably had the help of the two schwarmas before heading to bed) so we took our sweet time getting ready to hit the road.

We ended up at Schwartz's for a smoked meat sandwich which amazed me as there was no lineup and there was a table available for us! I was ecstatic! It was a good sandwich and I love the pickle I had to order on the side. Philipp was not impressed with his frankfurter as it was a weiner.

Carrie, Mike and I walked around downtown for awhile, hitting up Simons along the way where I got two pairs of jeans. Can't go wrong. I dig Simons. It's a trendy store and I always find good deals there. We then headed for Old Montreal where at the point in the day after three hours of walking we all decided it was time to get to a pub and have a beer. We ended up in my favourite watering hole down in Old Montreal called Les Deux Pirouettes and had some soup and beer. We were also next to the water which was nice. I would like to go at night one day as I have been told that there are a few live bands during the night.

After heading home and having a glorious pasta dish by Philipp, Carrie showed me FaceBook which is a pretty neat piece of web-ware. Mike and I then headed out to the Arcade Fire concert at the Maurice Richard Arena.

After hopping off the subway we entered this massive lineup which I quickly found out was the lineup for people who had to pick up their tix. Lucky for us, I got them mailed to us and we skipped the line. My excitement was building as I had only seen the band open for U2 in 2005 so I was interested in seeing their entire show.

Unfortunately we hit a snag. Mike showed the ticket person our tickets and she told us they weren't floor tickets! I was dumbfounded as we walked up the stairs to the arena sitting section as we were holding general admission tickets. How is this possible? How could general admission not be the floor section?

Our answer appeared before us as the entire arena was a free-for-all. That's right…finding two seats together was like finding a needle in a haystack. It was awful. I was really discouraged. We finally found a couple of seats near the back of the arena. On the positive side, it wasn't a huge arena like the ScotiaBank Place or the Bell Centre…it was a local hockey rink so in the grand scheme of things, we weren't too far away from the stage. But it was a pain when one of us had to stay with our seats at all times. Plus, they hard seats. I had to manage carrying four beer back to our seat which wasn't accomplished without spilling a few drops on myself.

St-Vincent opened the show…it is fronted by Annie Clark who is also a member of The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Steven's touring band (info taken from their myspace site). While I was super impressed with her guitar playing, the arrangements of the songs were erratic and could have flowed better. All in all, I give her and then band a thumb up performance.

After checking out the merchandise booth and scoffing at the $30 tour poster which listed all the Canadian dates (I would only buy a $30 poster if it would just list the Montreal dates I think) I returned to the seats and waited for the lights to fall.

The concert started with five small round video screens showing us a woman going on a biblical tirade which fit into the whole Neon Bible theme of the album. The band (with ten members!) appeared on stage and got into Black Mirror which is a decent tune off of the new album. The crowd on the floor was pretty intense whereas the stands were pretty lackluster. No standing up whatsoever. Seeing that my state of mind was "I NEED SLEEP!!!" I didn't bother standing up at all either.

The sound was pretty muddy throughout the arena and Mike commented that it wasn't loud enough. This got me wondering if this is always the case when sitting so far away from the stage as it was the same when seeing The Who in Ottawa.

I was super impressed with the set list as they pretty well played most of both the Funeral and Neon Bible albums. This is a rarity on this tour as they tend to focus more on their new album. I also read that a few tunes made their first appearance on the tour at this show so we were in for a treat! I actually got a bootleg of the concert already so I am excited to take a listen to it.

While the two percussionists weren't as wild as the first time around in Ottawa (with ski-doo helmets and drumsticks) the entire band was full of energy - always moving around the stage and rocking out hard.

We ended up standing up near the end once Power Out and Rebellion started playing. At this point, the night took the most amazing turn. The concert had ended and the crowd just cried for more as well as singing the last refrain of Rebellion until they came back out. I was amazed that it kept up but the Arcade Fire know how to create some memorable chants in their music catalogue. They ended with My Body Is A Cage and Keep the Car Running. They then left the stage again but were called back once more because the crowd demanded it (at this point I congratulate the Montreal crowd in giving them a warm welcome home. You could feel the magic in the air at this moment in the night!) and they ended with their anthematic tune Wake Up.

All in all, I give the show two thumbs up and would probably add a third thumb if we were on the floor and if they played Black Wave. ;-) But really, these are minor points and I'm glad that we experienced this grand event.

After the concert we hopped onto the subway which was hell as I messed up and when transferring we went the wrong direction! We then had to wait awhile in the muggy, humid, stinky subway station until we finally caught one back to Philipp's place. After having a few drinks, Carrie managed to get us in the party spirit (it was 2 in the morning!) and we headed down the street to this amazing bar where the band was unfortunately done playing but they had these great tunes from the 50s-60s playing so Carrie and I danced the rest of the night away. I also spoke to the drummer of the band who thought B.B. King had passed away last year and was in awe that I was seeing him the next night in Ottawa. We also had a good laugh looking at the drunkest man alive - you know the guy - the one who at the end of the night is struggling to finish his last beer but can't just put it down as he had paid good money for it. But then he stumbles out of there.

We also had another Quebec treat on the way home - a nice poutine from Rapido. Mmm boy it was great!

Setlist:

• Black Mirror
• No Cars Go
• Haiti
• Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
• In The Backseat
• Une Année Sans Lumière
• The Well and The Lighthouse
• Intervention
• Ocean of Noise
• Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)
• (Antichrist Television Blues)
• Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out) ->Rebellion (Lies)

Encore: My Body Is A Cage, Keep The Car Running, Wake Up

After traipsing around Ottawa on Friday afternoon running some errands, we finally hit the road to Montreal after picking Carrie up at the bus stop.

I love driving to Montreal down the 174. It's a more relaxing and scenic drive. I would recommend it to anyone. My only beef is that I wish you could see the river at all times during the trek. That would be amazing.

We arrive at the soccer field with time to spare and eventually see Sven the Flagman doing his flag thing on the turf. Seeing that it's getting cold out and the game is still on, we head into the sports bar and order a pitcher of beer. Philipp and Sven join us later to have some good laughs with Carrie's remote controlled fart machine and we have a few more beer before heading out.

Let's keep in mind that Mike has never really experience the city of Montreal yet so we're doing our best to be tour guides during the drive home. I had to point out all the good spots for a smoked meat sandwich.

As soon as we find a parking space for the weekend (very hard to do sometimes), we unload the car, crack a beer and head to the roof where the party is already started. I meet Philipp's roommate Jean who I assumed was French (due to his name) but it turns out he is from PEI! We have a great talk about music and I realize that his passion in life is also music. I love it when you meet someone who shares the passion with you and you talk about the little things like 'What song do you really want to hear at the concert? Or "What's your favourite track off of this album?". That's what music lovers are all about...talking about the little things.

It was good to see Morad again and he brought along a few workmates - Shane and Wayne. After hanging out for awhile we realize it's midnight and decide its time to head out to the party.
I have no idea whose party this was or where it was in Montreal but somehow Morad knew them. We walk in there and I think I'm getting strange looks as Sven had painted the German flag on my face at the soccer field. This also brings up a good story of how he did this to the famous Schwarma Nazi back in Ottawa and he cried out "I've been Germanized!!!".

There were a good number of people at the party so we just found a spot in the hall to call our own and begun the mingling with the crowd and meeting people. I wasn't around for this event but supposedly someone came up and asked the group if they were Anglophone and then walked away! Perhaps someone reading this can give me more specifics on this event as I wasn't around for it.

Highlights of the night:

• There was a CREEPY car out in the backyard. Looked like something that was lost in the woods and there is a dead body in it. Jean, Philipp and I were in fear mode walking near it. There was just something about it…no air in the tires, parked at this angle to the house which you feel could never get back out of. *shudder*.
• Jean came up to me at one time in the night and says "I think some guy is trying to make a move on some girl who is passed out." After he points this out to me, I suppose the guy did look strange hugging this girl who is passed out on a bed. But it's a loud party, I can't tell what's really happening. To prevent anything from happening, I haul the guy off of her and tuck her into bed. Let's point out that this isn't an empty bedroom. There are at least a dozen other people partying in this bedroom so I doubt anything was going to happen. But you know how you get when you have a few beer in you. You don't really think.

So then this girl grabs my arm and says she needs to go to the bathroom so we haul her to the bathroom and I leave Jean with her to look after her while I get another beer. When I come back, the original guy is there with her and Jean! "Jean!", I cry. "I thought you were supposed to be looking after her!" He says "I was! But he just showed up!"

So we keep an eye on this individual and then when she saunters back to bed this guy is getting close to her and talking and whatnot so we have to intervene again but then the girl laughs and realizes what we are doing. She tells me the guy is her friend and it's alright. While we all laughed at the situation and Jean and I pat each other on the back for a job well done. Hey, we didn't know they were friends; this guy could have been a creep. In the end it all turned out alright. I can see Dad reading this entry right now and thinking "You are asking for a fight if you haul a guy off of a woman." No worries, he was smaller and I had Jean as backup in case things turned rough!

• There was this guy playing some great guitar and there were some good Francophone tunes being sung in the living room. It was a good way to end the night.
• Let's not forget how someone found this mask of either George Bush or Richard Nixon (someone said it was Trudeau!) and I put it on and walked around the kitchen. I was getting the craziest looks and I don't think the women really appreciated the absurdity of the moment. Clearly these people were not up for a good time with random people they didn't know!
  

After we left we went for this amazing schwarma at a place called 'Sara'. It was so good that Philipp ended up eating two of them as I had picked one up for Mike (who was in a different cab) but he had grabbed some other food on the way home.

All in all, we had a great night and we would like to thank Morad for bringing us to this shindig, as well as Philipp and Jean for being excellent hosts that night!

Friday Night - Met Wayne at the party…

Wayne: Are you on FaceBook?
Me: No.
Wayne: Me neither! But everyone is asking me if I am…like I'm their friend or something! Once I say 'no' they just leave me in the dust.
Me: It's like we are oppressed.

Saturday Night - Carrie on the computer
Carrie: So it just keeps track of all your contacts and friend's contacts and whatnot...
Me: It is actually a pretty neat system.

Sunday Afternoon - Matt contacts me on MSN.
Matt: Are you on FaceBook yet?
Me: No.
Matt: What's your birth date?
Me: (insert my birth date here.) You should know this Matt.
(insert random other chats for the next few minutes until this appears)
Matt: What would you say is your primary email address.
Me: Primary email address? What the heck…Matt, are you signing me up for FaceBook?!
Matt: Yeah, you see if I tag my pictures with your name, then I can click on it and it goes to your profile.
Me: But I don't want a profile. This is identity theft!
Matt: Technically it's not until I actually use your profile. Look, I'm sending it to your email. Just accept the profile and never look at it again but then I get to have cool tagged profiles on my pictures.
Me: I have the upper hand. I have just deleted the email.
Matt: What? No! Argh. Now I will have to actually go make a profile for you and use it.
Me: Hence, the identity theft.

(this exchange is heavily paraphrased from memory)

Anyhow, there you have it. A piece of social networking software has infiltrated my life during each day of the weekend. And I don't even use it.

I especially love how we were oppressed at the Friday night party. If you want to really network socially, be prepared to do it in person people. It was honestly the lamest thing I have ever seen when someone wouldn't bother talking to us because we didn't have a FaceBook profile.

Now that my voice recorder has been found, all is good in the world and I'll start integrating various clips into this site.

Here are my thoughts on my first motorbike ride today with Mike.

Click here.
MP3 file - 350KB.

Last night was starting off well. Got home from work and cooked a little supper before heading out for the concert. Mike and I were getting pumped up for the weekend.

We then separated ways as he went to pick up Krista and I dropped my car off at the Mazda service depot for some servicing. I perused the used cars while waiting for Mike and Krista. My car is being sold for $15K. Not too shabby right about now. Actually, that is pretty slick considering I only have under $10K to pay off mine. Does that mean I could sell mine for $15K and pocket an extra $5K? Mike pointed out the money I've spent over the years may be up to the $5K difference. It would be interesting to calculate it out.

While driving down to the concert, Mike cuts through a yellow light which he should or should not have done, but no worries. But then a cop throws his cherries on behind us and Mike is freaking out.

Then when he pulls over, the cop blows by him. Success! He wasn't after us! At this point I recall my story on how I thought I got pulled over in Quebec in a speed trap but it wasn't the case so I spent a whole pile of cash in Montreal considering it was now considered bonus money. You know the sort...you don't have to use it to pay a ticket, so it's yours to splurge!

Later on in the trip...

Me: "Do you guys smell something?
Mike & Krista: "No, what?"
Me: "I don't know...something burning?"

When we come to an intersection I notice wisps of smoke coming from the passenger side of the truck.

We start moving again...

Me: "Mike, I don't know but I think your truck is smoking."
Mike: "What? Really? What's going on?"

So I manage to hang myself out the window to peruse but no smoke is to be found. Mind you, we are traveling at this point. As soon as we pull up to another intersection a cloud of smoke envelops the truck as we realize it is definitely coming from our vehicle. At this point, let's point out that a fire truck was passing by and kind of looked at us and we wondered if they would have to hose the vehicle down.

I get out to quickly check it (as we are in traffic) and realize it's the brake that is smoking. We pull over in a safe spot and sure enough, the brake is seized. As if! So we're standing there and a random jogger drops by and asks if she can help. Considering I didn't see a cellular phone on her, I really don't know what she could have done to help, but it was nice of her to stop.

So we analyzed the situation and realized that we have no tools in the truck and even if we did, there's not much we could do. There was fear of the tire exploding as the rim was super-hot from the friction being caused. We then hightailed it to Canadian Tire and they said they would take a look at it that night and give us a call in the morning.

With that, we looked at our options and realized that we would call a cab and enjoy the rest of the night! We had a great cabbie on our trip out to the concert. Not too talkative. Just the way I like 'em. We arrive and we can hear the final notes of 'Welcome to the Black Parade'. No worries...we've missed about half of 'The Black Parade' album as the concert started at 8PM instead of the usual 9PM. Remind me to write a letter to the venue...

We head down to the floor with a beer amidst a sea of teenagers. This is a decent thing as they are all short. We had a great view of the stage. The stage was amazing. I had heard rave reviews about The Black Parade tour as it was more of a theatrical spectacle than anything. Very much in the vein of The Wall or Ziggy Stardust. Dressed in marching band uniforms they performed in character while playing the entire album. The lighting, the visuals, the sound...all was amazing! I would definitely recommend anyone to go see the show if they have a chance. It's a grand spectacle.

Highlights of the Concert:

• The flames shooting out for a solid minute during the song Mama where they sing about going to Hell.
• The thousands of screaming teenagers. I do enjoy that they are an enthusiastic crowd!
• I enjoyed how the ended The Black Parade set but then came back out of performance outfits and ripped into their older hits. Very nice segueway. Although I was disappointed at how they are covering AC/DC's For Those About To Rock but they ended it when it was getting good!
  
• There was an amazing, amazing dancer in front of us at one point. I could not believe my eyes. She was doing a cross between the two-step and the hokey pokey. It was a beautiful. It was definitely worth the price of admission alone. She was flailing around so much that she got Mike right in the stomach! She was also wearing a fanny pack. Beautiful.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed The Black Parade set, but I must admit that the other half of the concert reminded me of the last time we saw them and I wasn't overly impressed. The singer has a very hard time of hitting the vocal high notes as on the album. Perhaps it was due to it being at the end of the concert, but still. Kind of disappointing. But the first half was stellar.

After the concert we hightail it outside to discover there are no buses! We assumed they were coming later as the concerts are usually done at 11PM but this one finished at 9:30PM. We then scoured the area for a cab and lo and behold, our same cabbie was there! Excellent! We reveled in this occurrence and got dropped off at the closest bus station so we wouldn't be paying $60 to get a cab into downtown.

We then headed to Krista's to watch some Grey's Anatomy. We also picked up an amazing panzerotti from the Pavorazzi Pizza joint. I've never been there before but the panzo was pretty darn good.

Krista gets extra kudos as she not only helped me get some work done at work so we could leave at a decent hour, but she also drove Mike and I home as we were vehicle-less.

Wait, where does the canola oil come into the story?! Well, it turns out that a few weeks back Mike did some repairs on his brakes himself and didn't have any grease in the house so he used canola oil (aka cooking oil) to grease the parts. I had a good laugh when hearing this and I tormented him with this fact all night as I believed the canola oil to be the culprint the brakes seizing.

This was not the case as we found out this morning after calling Canadian Tire. Alas, they just seized and messed up the other front brake and the ordeal will cost $700. Ouch. But will that destroy Mike's wild weekend in Montreal?

Mike: "No man, let's give'r."

That's my man!

Mike just made me realize the amazing weekend which is shaping up.

Tonight - We just scored ourselves some tickets to see My Chemical Romance. While I thought their last tour was 'so-so', I wasn't planning to go to this tour in support of their album The Black Parade, until I started reading the rave reviews of the show. I felt like I would be missing out on an event. Plus, I REALLY love their new album. Definitely in my Top 5 of last year. So after some hassle, we managed to get some General Admission tickets for tonight. I really hate sitting down at a concert so I'm glad we snagged these. Mike, Krista and I shall be enjoying the show. Rise Against and Muse are opening for them.

Friday - If I can manage it, I will ask for the day off to relax before the big weekend in Montreal! Friday night, Mike and I (along with Carrie possibly) will head out to Montreal to enjoy some time with Philipp. Who knows what the night will provide! We'll pick him up from his soccer game and then all will be good in the world.

Saturday - When Saturday night hits, Mike and I will be heading out to see The Arcade Fire! I am pretty excited to see them in their own proper concert setting. I've only seen them open up for U2 a few years ago and their performance was high-octane.

Sunday - Sunday night brings ANOTHER legend into our midst as we'll head out to see B.B. King at the National Arts Centre! Holy Mackerel! We are getting bombarded with great music this weekend! Spring is in the air my friends! I am excited to see B.B. King as it may very well be one of the last times to do so!

I hope that everyone's weekend will be stellar!

I'm starting to get the craving which occurs when a new Pumpkins album is upon us. I start to pull out the old bootlegs and start listening to every nuance. I yank out old B-sides and just hit the RANDOM button. I scour the Internet for any little piece of information.

The time is close…May 22 will be their first tour date in Paris. I predict a bootleg of the show the next day. I'm also predicting a 'greatest hits' heavy set list with a few new tracks from their upcoming album Zeitgeist. It only makes sense - the band has been away for seven years…think about Metallica when they came back for their St. Anger tour. 90% of the show was old stuff. However, those were festival dates - which the Pumpkins are doing all summer long.

I think playing your hits at a Festival when you're on your reunion tour is the way to win over the people who pay big money to see you. If you just went out and played all-new material, there would be disappointment from the masses who don't know much about you. However, if you're a fanatic like myself, no worries. We crave new material.

note: it's actually pretty hard to find a full shot of the novel.

A few weeks ago I finished the second Stompin' Tom autobiography entitled Stompin' Tom and the Connors Tone.

It was a decent read…seemed longer than the first one. I enjoyed how it really got into the aspects of his tours and when he started to get famous. He seems to harp on his views of how the music industry in Canada is for the birds and is in need of serious revamp. I totally agree and I found his points interesting. I was speaking to Dad about this novel and he enjoyed the first one better as he didn't really care much for the music industry talk; which takes up a LOT of the book. It seems like every second chapter he comes up with another way of stating his views on the music industry.

I found it interesting to hear that he left the music business altogether during the 80s because of his distaste with the industry. Imagine! Then his comeback tour in the 90s occurred and as far as I know he has been touring around now and then.

I can't say that I know much of his music but I will pick up an album one of these days and if I ever have the chance to see him live, I will jump on it. I admire what he has done for Canada (heck, he even received the Order of Canada for his work!).

I enjoy his writing style and it feels like he is talking to you in conversation rather than stating facts about his life at a certain point in time. His novel inspired me to want to get out on the open road and just drive. I remember this occurred right before Easter and the Spring was in the air and I told Mike that we were heading home for the weekend because I just wanted to get on the road again. However, when the Blizzard of 2007 hit up North I thought that my open road would not be as exciting. So now I am anxious to head out on the open road again and perhaps travel around Canada a little more than I have done in the past. Usually it's more of a 'let's just get home as fast as we can!!!' trip.

Two thumbs up for the autobiography. If you're interested in Stompin' Tom, or Canadiana, pick it up today!

iplaying: The Lost Brigade - Ted Leo & The Pharmacists (Living With The Living)

Our good friend Mike is our guest blogger today as I felt he had some interesting things to say about the insurance company he is with for his truck.

From the Autograph Website:

Have you ever felt that your insurance company lumps you in with every other driver on the road, regardless of how you drive? Wouldn't it be nice if more responsible driving habits could be reflected in the cost of your auto insurance?

Autograph will enable eligible program participants to accurately track their driving behaviours using a data-gathering device that plugs into the diagnostic port typically found under the steering column of most cars made since 1996. Then, they simply drive the car. The device records data on factors statistically proven to impact risk, including how much, how fast and when a car is driven.

You policy is renewed every 6 months at which time you can optionally upload your driving data to claim your discount. The insurance company (Aviva) will e-mail you a few weeks before you are due to renew your insurance to let you know to upload your driving data. You can choose not to share your information and get no discount but even if you see that you have bad driving habits you still get a minimum 5% discount just for sharing your data.

I just uploaded my information a few weeks ago and earned myself a 28% discount on my insurance for the next 6 months. Score!

Mike
----
Editor's Note - I must admit this seems like a win-win scenario. Now instead of paying $79.33/month, Mike is paying $65.80/month for the next 6 months (until they recalculate what he should be paying). Note that there is a clause that the fees will never go above the $79.33/month. So if you are a speed demon, they can't screw you over.

Now, Mike and I were talking about it last night and thought the only downfall would be if they are using this information to screw you over in the long run - like if you had to actually file a claim under your insurance and they say "Hmm...looks like you speed all the time! No dice my friend." This could very well be the case as the driver is willingly providing them information.

Let's also note that Mike doesn't necessarily follow the posted speed limit, so it's not like he got the discount by driving the posted speed limit all the time. Also, this isn't all about speed limits, they take a look at what hours you are driving (are you driving to and from work every day, or just using the vehicle for leisure?).

All in all, I think the system is pretty cool if you know you aren't a speed demon all the time. But I would be wary if you are as I would put some good money on the fact that they would use this information against if you had to file a claim. Otherwise, it's pretty swell.

I sauntered over to Subway for lunch today and perused the selection. Hey, looks like the wraps are the same price as the 6" subs! Nice! So I promptly order my wrap and all is good in the world.

Until I get to the cash.

Cashiers: Alright, that’s $5.92.
Me: Doesn’t it say $4.29 on the sign?
Cashiers (yes there are two of them in Quebec): No, that's only for the six inch sub.
Me (while pointing at the sign): But the sign says "Six Inch or Wrap" for $4.29
Cashiers (looking dead ahead at me all the time and not even bothering to look at the sign): No, it's more expensive.
Me (then realizing this may be a language barrier issue): (in French)No, but look at the sign. It says "Six Inch OR Wrap". Listen, I don't really care if I have to pay an extra dollar but the sign says otherwise.
Cashiers (never acknowledging the sign): The wrap is more expensive.

This leads me to believe that the people who work at the Subway in Hull are actually robots who cannot process anything past taking our cash and giving us back change! They couldn't even tilt their heads to look at the sign. It was quite unbelievable. At one point I wanted to ask the woman next to me if I'm reading the sign wrong but I decided to pay the extra buck and hightail it outside into the beautiful, beautiful weather.

http://www.mcfly2015.com/

Definitely one of the funnier petitions I've seen in awhile. A petition for the Marty McFly (of Back To The Future) sneakers from his visit to the future. Hilarious.

Let's talk a little about the future for a moment. I must say, in the year 2007, I'm kind of disappointed with the technological advancements of late. Sure, we have the cellular phone. But where is the crazy stove where you pop a small packet inside and then in 3 seconds a pizza emerges? Or the flying skateboard? OR FLYING CARS?!

Sure, the flying cars were pushing it (imagine the traffic problems!), but we need more future items NOW! If anything, we are stuck in the past. Heck, my hairstyle is stuck in the past. Time for a haircut.

A little bird told me that it's Trish's birthday today. What the heck is up with all these birthdays around the same time? Holy mackerel.

While we celebrated her birthday in style at the H&C on Friday night, I'm extending a St-Hubert meal her way on her birthday. Redeemable at any time, but give me a heads up for when you wish to go for it Trish!

What can I say about Trish other than the fact that I miss my work buddy. You know those people at work who goes to every break/lunch/whatever with you during the day and you laugh at the minutiae which is your daily life? I still remember the laugh we had when we were looking at some OC Transpo signs that had penguins on it and she said something about their tails between their legs in which I pointed out that it didn't look like it was a tail hanging between their legs. Oh, the laughs we had that day on the bus!

Trish is the woman of style, pizazz and flair. Plus it doesn't hurt that she is attractive. No one wants ugly friends.

She is known to rock and aspires to become one of the rocker girls that history will remember, but she doesn't really know how to play a guitar, let alone hold one. Trish, we recommend another sport - like knitting.

Always one with an opinion but also with a kind ear for when Palmer wants to rant, she is what you call a good friend. I feel ashamed for how long I have made her wait to install her CD burner. I am clearly not as good of a friend as Trish is.

Let us not forget that Trish claims to be a feminist and has a legion of 'menions' at her beck and call. Actually, let's point out that she coined the term 'menion'. Trademark that one.

On your birthday, Trish, we salute you. You are a honey-of-an-o.

I don't know where you all were this weekend, but I was in paradise. That's right, Ottawa had the most beautiful weather. Saturday had a little chill in the air but Sunday was that weather which you dream of devising an evil contraption that will harness the controls of the weather so you can this one perfect day all year long except for Christmas because we all love snow on Christmas Day because we all know that's what Jesus had in Bethlehem. Snow. Let's take a look on the map for a second. Hmm…Bethlehem…wow. Nowhere near the North at all. Hey, where did the snow come into the picture then?

Saturday morning I arose from my slumber as I drove Vero to her class. This is her final class FOREVER. It's only three full weekends. While that sucks, let's keep in mind that instead of going to 16 weeks of class, you only have to go to six days of class. She'll be done in a few weeks.

Feeling a bit rough, I get home and decide I should not head back to bed. I watch some shows that I haven't' seen in awhile and when Mike and Danny get home (from dropping Carol off in Cornwall) we cook up some lunch and head downtown to grab some LPs. Mike and Danny scored on that front but I didn't see any albums I was interested in picking up. I'm trying to find Paul McCartney & Wings album 'Band on The Run'. I'm starting to pick up classic albums that should be in all collections.

We then headed to Le Baron for a GPS battery and then Danny finds my voice recorder that I've lost since Christmas! I am ecstatic! It was lodged under the seat! Vero is not going to kill me anymore (as she had bought it for me). After doing a happy dance, we headed home, took a much deserved nap, headed to Montana's for some ribs and wings and then finished off the night by watching the Senators win big and then popped in our favourite film - Dazed and Confused.

After Danny left on Sunday morning, Mike and I hit our productive stride. I gave the inside and outside of my car a much needed cleaning. I even shampooed the carpets inside. It was more to get rid of the salt which it had a hard time with. Does anyone have the much needed solution to getting road salt out of a carpet? I thought a shampoo would do the car good as there was this awful smell in the car in the past year and we couldn't figure out what it is. I assumed someone through a tuna pita under the seat but I didn't see any.

We then took a crack at cleaning the garage which is always…fun? Mike has come up with some good ideas for the garage so one of these days we will tackle putting some shelving inside. In the end, the garage really only took us a good hour of clean-up. We made a trip to the beer store with our bottles; including wine bottles now that they take them back. I had grand aspirations for making my own wine again so I was holding onto the bottles. But after 2 years I realize they were just taking up space.

We then headed over to Eric and Annie's to borrow his grass seeder as there is a strip of dead grass along my driveway which is ugly. I haven't seeded/fertilized before so I figured I should start one day. Turns out that I had enough for the back lawn also so I mowed both lawns and spread the seed. We'll see if it sprouts anything.

Considering Vero has some ham and water in her fridge we brought her some St-Hubert last night and enjoyed her balcony view (her new apartment is awesome!) and then headed to see Spider-Man 3 but it was 7:55 with a movie starting at 8PM. We had to get a refund on our tix as there just wasn't anymore seating.

I think it's a shame that today is a beautiful day and we are stuck inside work all day. Perhaps I should join construction?

There are times in one's life when you go out with some friends, you either have a great night, or one of those nights which make your brain collapse in the sheer awesomeness which was that night. Friday night was no exception.

Sena and I left work to pick up a few gifts and then head to Trish's. While we waited….and waited…and waited…we had a few beer and watched some TV. Then we got going out to the homestead where I was expecting some dinner ready for us as the crew had the entire day off while we had to work all day.

True to form, the crew at home were lazy all day and had nothing ready for us, so I had to haul out the meat to BBQ. I am making the situation sound worse than it is - I was fine with cooking up some sausages for all!

Fast fact: I did not know that it's smarter to boil your sausages before throwing on the BBQ. Who else does that? I especially like how both Mike and Danny were giving each other the eye when I threw them on raw but they said nothing. Ya goofs, if you know I should boil them, you should tell me! ;-)

Carol ended up cooking the sausages as the rest of us were in the middle of a mean game of washers. In the end, it took Sena and I awhile but we finally caught up and beat Mike and Danny as they had started to go back down in points (which happens if you bust at the end).

After a few drinks and a few laughs, we then headed downtown for the celebration of Trish and Carol's birthday. What better place to end up, but the Heart and Crown. We were very excited as we had discovered that Shaydid was playing and it wasn't until Trish pointed out that this was the same band we saw on Canada Day weekend who rocked our socks off! Let it be known that Trish was also trying to pick up the drummer last Canada Day weekend.

Us (to the lead singer): Hey, my friend thinks your drummer is hot.
Lead Singer: I do too! That's why I married him! (while flashing the ring)

Woops! Sorry Trish. Didn't see that happening! Ha ha.

We arrived just in time to grab Duncan off of the patio and we headed into the back area where the main act was coming on. We had an excellent vantage point and the night started off great when I was downstairs getting some beer and heard some sweet, sweet Pink Floyd playing. I thought it was through the radio, but no! It was the band! I raced upstairs and had forgotten that they have this amazing guitarist (who last time had a sweet, sweet moustache). This guy could shred.

The night starts up in fine fashion and all is good in the world.

Highlights of the Night:

- Alright, here's where I throw a little back story. Years ago, Carrie, myself and others frequented the H&C a lot more than we do nowadays. During that time we noticed an old man who always was at the bar. He wasn't a leery old man, he was a good time and we had a few pictures taken with him. We never knew the story behind him. Old-timers like that always have a great story attached to them.

Months after that moment, Carrie and I were searching through old pictures and had a good laugh when we realized that this old man had appeared in other pictures we had from before that moment! He's been there forever! A permanent fixture one might say! From that point on, any night that we found this gentleman in the bar upped the greatness of the night.

This night was to be no exception. Sure enough, out of nowhere, the man shows up and I proclaim "This will be the best night ever!". At this point, Carol and Danny realize that they did not go wrong in coming to Ottawa for Carol's birthday. I'm sure they had their doubts…I mean, who wants to leave a slew of your friends back home for your birthday to come party with a bunch of people that you don't really know? But this was not the case - this was the beginning of a grand night.

In the end, we found out quite a bit about this gentleman. His name is Roy and he was celebrating his 80th birthday! He also mentioned that his birthday was last weekend but he was still partying. I want to be this guy when I get to be 80!

- Here's where the other highlight of the night occurs. At this point I need to get to a phone to call Carrie to tell her that the old man from the photographs is here at the bar and that she needs to get down here pronto. I ask Duncan for his phone to call Carrie. As soon as I mention her name she emerges from the crowd! At that point I whispered "I need to call Elizabeth Hurley." but she didn't appear so I thought I should get back to reality. Coincidences like these are not to be ignored - there was a reason she was at this spot at this time and it was to have a great night! She had a good laugh when she saw Roy dancing away in a t-shirt that said 'LURE' on it. Classic. CLASSIC!

- Let's talk a little about the band Shaydid. I love this band. Honestly, I can now put them above Fortune's Hand at this moment in time. Hey, we all know I love FH, but ever since their guitarist left, I don't know…maybe the last time I saw them I was turned off by the entire crowd being followers of the new guitarist who were shouting his name during THE ENTIRE NIGHT. While I suppose that is cool in a way, it did get annoying after 30 minutes. So back to Shaydid, they have it all. An amazing guitarist, KEYBOARDS (a must for any classic rock band!) and let's be honest, the singer is quite amazing. When they started Fleetwood Mac's You Can Go Your Own Way I lost it as this has become a new/old favourite of mine. I love this tune. As Krista points out, it's an excellent driving tune.

Shaydid never put on a bad show and I am looking forward to this Canada Day weekend when they return. I highly recommend that everyone mark their calendars now to see this band in action. They are over the top.

- Let's not forget to talk about my new hat and how everyone was making a grab for it. Yikes! It was funny at first, but sometimes you have that fear that someone will not be a gentleman and leave the bar with it. I think I need to attach a chain to it.

I'm sure the others can add some memories in the comments section. All in all, I was once again impressed with the Heart and Crown. We ended the night by picking up a schwarma, checking out Vero's new pad and heading home.

Last night after Vero got off of work we headed to her new pad to unpack some things.

First stop was her new roommate Mel's place as she had the two keys to the new place. She will be moving her stuff this coming Saturday.

We get to the place and Vero inserts the key and tries to turn the lock but nothing is moving. Then she realizes that she can't get the key out.

I try to attempt to jostle it from its place but this thing is wedged in there tight! It can only turn so much and it doesn't even have one ounce of wiggle room when trying to pull it out. Clearly we are victim to a Wal-Mart key cutting experience. ;-)

While I try and pull out my superhuman strength to remove this key, Vero goes downstairs to the superintendent and he grabs some tools and tries to remove it himself but it isn't working.

Then, out of nowhere a police officer pulls up!

Officer: "Uh, what's going on here?"
Vero: "Our key is stuck in the lock."
Officer: "Do you live here?"
Vero: "Yes, we just rented the place this week."
Officer: "Oh thank God, I thought this was a Break and Enter!"

Here I am with this giant smile on my face of the sheer hilariousness of this situation. The police officer had to call off her backup also. After taking some information down she was gracious enough to find some locksmith phone numbers and give them a call but she said they either were on the other line or busy.

At this point, I would like to thank the Ottawa Police for the kind service they provided in our predicament. When I think of police, I suppose I think of 'movie' police and how they are only interested in crimes, but she was kind enough to not leave us high and dry. Kudos to you.

So after she leaves, I head down to the bowling lane to use the pay phone. This is where my night hit an all-time peak.

Now, if you don't know who Salad Fingers is, it's this very insane character found in some animation clips on the Internet. It's not for the weak of heart but if you're interested, Google and watch some Salad Fingers episodes. I personally find him hilarious.

So I walk in the bowling lane and use the phone but to no avail so I grab some change from the cashier. On my way to the cashier's desk I see these two teenage girls. One is walking, talking and just acting weird and the other is filming her with her digital camera. I then realize that she is imitating Salad Fingers! Awesome!

On my way back from the cashier's desk they are eyeing me up and acting like Salad Fingers while taping it and they just want to see my reaction (which, if no one would know what the heck she is doing, they would probably think she was disturbed.).

Me: "Wow, cool. Salad Fingers!"
Them (mouths gaped open in shock/awe): "YOU KNOW SALAD FINGERS?!"
Me: "Yes, of course. Who doesn't?"

I then walk away and let them revel in the fact that they aren't the coolest cats on Earth. I am.

Locksmiths don't pan out (where's the 24 hour locksmith when you need him?) so Vero breaks the key so no one could get into the place (I say potentially considering we couldn't even get into it) and we head home.

While I know Vero was disappointed in the night as she had high hopes for unpacking, I must admit that I thought the night was hilarious and you have to enjoy these random nights when they come your way. Especially when someone is doing an impression of Salad Fingers.

(work) Mike doesn't like pink shirts.

More specifically, he doesn't think pink shirts should be worn on men. We've heard rants, we've heard raves - the message is clear: "No man should wear a pink shirt!"

With this knowledge in hand, a brilliant idea was hatched between conniving Krista and Palmer as we decided to go for the gold and pick up a pink shirt for Mike for his birthday.

But knowing very well that he would burned it with a magnifying glass under the sun, we had to think of an ingenious way to get him to accept it, and potentially wear it.

I felt like we were spies on a mission with the prep work that was done to it.

We mailed the shirt along with a nice note to his wife. In the note we asked his wife if she would be a kind soul and ensure that Mike wore the pink shirt on his birthday.

Sure enough, his birthday comes along and we receive an email saying "Thanks for this birthday gift. I can't believe I'm wearing this shirt!"

Turns out that his wife (God bless her soul) washed and ironed it and said "Mike, can you wear something for me today?" and passed him the shirt. Awesome.

So here you have it - Mike in all his glory in his pink shirt. I'd like to also point out that he already spilled coffee on it in defiance of the monstrosity which adorned his hairy chest. I do enjoy the fact that he was getting compliments on it all day.

While I could have gone for a more vibrant colour, it is pink nonetheless and here is proof that Mike did indeed break his credo.

Many moons have passed overhead during my friendship with Carol. So it is fitting that on her birthday, I should write something about her.

Carol is actually anxiously awaiting to see what sort of birthday greetings she will receive via this virtual networking Frankenstein creation called Facebook but I know that secretly she was waiting to see what I would have to say on this space right here.

Let's first talk about how I now realize how a lot of you are disappointed when there isn't anything of substantial…Palmer inside these postings. For example, Carol said she was craving some good postings this week and all she got was a posting on how CD sales are dropping! Lame! Mike also piped in and told me how Palmer's World is his sister's drug of choice - she can't get enough.

Well, this has redoubled my efforts into making this an entertaining space for the masses! Not only shall I redouble my posting efforts, but I will once again just spew random thoughts onto this page; more than you wish to read about!

Anyhow, back to Carol's birthday.

Fast fact - Did you know that Carol's phone number back home corresponds with her birth date? That is awesome.

Carol and Danny arrived last night (which I didn't know about or else I would have taken the day off) and we had a few beer and called it a night. Carol was talking about how it's been a decade since we left school. This is true…it's been ten long years since we've left the good halls of KDHS. I can probably pinpoint that ten years ago around lunchtime I had a grilled cheese sandwich and some fries along with Carol. Or maybe she was laughing at me printing out a t-shirt with the Palmer Platter. Carol, if you're reading this today and I'm not around, go into my bedroom and in my top drawer you will find the Palmer Platter t-shirt. Perhaps I'll wear it out tonight.

Carol is one of those hidden gems in life where she is this great person who is caring and fun to be with but you don't realize how MUCH you depend on her until she goes away. This is how I felt when we went our separate ways to college. She's the one who not only thinks about you and wants to know what's going on in your life, but makes you feel good about yourself (and rightly so!). I just hope that everyone around her (including me!) make her feel the same way. Because she's THAT good.

Now, seeing that it is her birthday, I suppose we should come up with some random memories of Carol.

• Let's us not forget the fabled time where I visited her in Oshawa and her roommates bed was empty but Carol would not allow me to sleep in it, or on top of it, hence I had to sleep on the floor. Watch it Carol, this may happen to you tonight!
• Carol + Internet were the same word essentially back around 1995-96. Let's be honest. We all were into it. But I bet Carol had a gazillion friends via the IRC channels which blew me away.
• I remember how she introduced me to I Mother Earth by having the Scenery and Fish album on one day and I caught Earth, Sky and C and was blown away. Heck, while we're on it, she also lent me her Siamese Dream album which created the monster which we know day (aka the Smashing Pumpkins fanatic that I am).
• The constant times where we were hungover at Wal-Mart and she had refuge in the back room of the shoe stocking area. I definitely hid out there a few times in my life. Let's talk a little bit about Wal-Mart shall we? We were reminiscing last night about our times at Wal-Mart and Mike told us of how one day he was covering Sports section early in the morning and was feeling pretty rough so he unrolled a sleeping bag and slept ON TOP of the counter and then the manager comes by and asks what he's doing. Classic. Man, I had a good laugh last night when he told me that!
• Flashback: Oshawa circa 1998 when I was in a club and Carol told everyone to keep an eye out for a crazy dancer and they would find me. Pshaw.

The coolest thing nowadays is the fact that we see each other a little more. I think we stumbled upon the fact that just because we went to different towns during college doesn't mean we have to stay separated all the time. So I occasionally end up in her town and she occasionally ends up in mine and all is good in the world.

Happy Birthday Carol! I invite everyone to trade tales of Carol on her birthday. Or, (as she would prefer) send her a birthday wish via FaceBook!

Blockbuster has their minimum $5 return special on trade-ins for old DVDs. Vero and I walked over with 4 old DVDs (two of which I ended up with at a Christmas exchange two years ago FROM Vero and never really wanted to watch them. Woops!) and reveled in the fact that they accepted them all and I have a sweet $20 credit at the store now.

Eric had told me that there were a few that he brought in that weren't accepted so I was worried about a few of them, but it turned out well. It especially turned out well for the return of Kentucky Fried Movie - an amazing film, but I picked it up at Blockbuster a few years back, it never worked and it was too late to return it (or I was too lazy to return it). So Blockbuster gets their own copy back after all these years. I knew I would win this battle eventually! Never cross the Palmer. He always wins somehow.

This week had Vero stay with us because she doesn't have all of her stuff at her new apartment but we'll go and unpack her stuff tonight. Should be fun - I always love unpacking…it's the mark of the new age. It has been fun having her hang around the place and we will miss her.

Last night Eric and Mike pretty well supervised me tear apart Vero's bicycle which is a mess and try and rebuild it. We started out with Eric's old bicycle and thought we could just fix that up. It was in an accident the front forks were bent. After a few hours of playing around with that (Read: His bike is awesome. Vero's - not so much. It's like riding a piece of rust.) we bent the fork a little too much which automatically eliminated our chances of success.

We then decided to see how much we could fix up the rust-cycle and it didn't work out too well. The gears don't work (which for a moment, didn't really matter as Vero insisted she doesn’t need gears!) but then we couldn't get the back brakes functioning too well. While I believe her when she says that she would be fine on it, I don't believe traffic can always be on her side - something that Eric can attest to when some truck hit him a few years back. So we convinced her not to use the bicycle for now. Maybe I'll go back and try and change a few things - a new brake cable and get some new gear shifters, but something tells me I can probably find an old bike somewhere that is in better condition than this one.

Hey at least my bicycle seemed to be in top shape and now that I put some air in the tires and threw some WD-40 on the chain, I'm good to go! I'm excited to venture out into the wilds again with my bicycle. I've said it before and I'll say it again - the only thing I regret about my new pad is the fact that it's just a LITTLE too far to bike to work.

Danny and Carol are coming up this weekend for some fun at the Heart and Crown. We will be celebrating both Trish and Carol's birthday this Friday night.

Here's a call out for everyone who likes a good time, to come on out!

Before we head out, Mike and Ryan are inviting you over to Casa Losier & Palmer for a little pre-party action in which the BBQ will have propane.

Spread the word. Perhaps I'll send out an Evite.

Helped Vero finish the move out of her residence last night. It's weird to leave a place barren. There were good times had there over the past year although Mike and I both agreed that it couldn't have been THAT great of a time as we never saw any parties during the year!

We managed to make the final load in one shot and drove out to Vero's new pad. It is pretty flippin' sweet. Definitely something that I've never been in (as apartments go!). It's only three years old, it has central air conditioning with a remote control so you can control it from the comfort of your couch. It also has some nice hardwood, an open concept kitchen/living room and all in all, it's pretty swell. I think her and her new roommate Melanie will enjoy it.

I'm not going to lie and say that I didn't appreciate the fact that Vero lived on campus for the past four years. It was awesome to go to her place before class and have some supper. I'm also not going to lie and say that I didn't enjoy the fact that after a night at the pub I could walk on over to the University and fall into a deep slumber instead of heading back home.

But these are minor details and the coolest part about it all is the fact that Vero is into a new movement in her life where she has her own pad and it's awesome and she also has a sweet, sweet job. Coupled with the fact that…heck…she has me, she probably has what people would call 'the high life.'