Palmer's World

Yesterday I was looking at the recycling bin at work and noticed a Tim Horton's cup which was there to collect pop can tabs.

I thought back to the concept of collecting pop can tabs. The aluminum from the tabs are used to make wheelchairs for the needy. So you need a lot of them. A LOT OF THEM.

Then I put my critical thinking cap on and thought about it. If the pop can tab can be used for the wheelchair, then why can't the entire can be used for it? It's all aluminum. Who collects these pop cans tabs? Who creates these wheelchairs from this aluminum?

I pondered this and remembered to research it (thanks to my handy dandy mental note reminder - the voice recorder). Here's the scoop and it's an interesting story.

The collection of pop can tabs which are transformed into a wheelchair is as mythical as the concept of alchemy - turning metal into gold. It's an urban legend within North America (if not the world? Unsure.) It just wasn't real.

This is what Ray Pearse and Jack Baumber of Elora, Ontario found out. They are members of the Royal Canadian Legion and heard about this rumour back in 1990 and began to collect pop tabs only to find out that there was no truth to the legend. So he sought to change put some truth into the legend.

Nowadays, he sells the pop tabs to Alcan. Here's a quote (courtesy of an Ottawa Sun article here)

"I called Alcan here in Guelph and asked if I could bring in some aluminum tabs. The fellow told me no, not unless I had over a hundred pounds. I told him, `I got about a ton.' So, he told me to come right down. We weighed it and it was 1930 pounds. I got about 47 cents a pound.'"

In 2002, this article indicates that "in the past four years they've collected enough aluminum from pull tabs to purchase wheelchairs for 24 people."

Also, look at this stat from 1992. "Here's the most amazing fact. Ray has collected about 80 million tabs over the past three years, and it's getting bigger as more people find out about it. He tells us, ``What used to take a year to collect now takes a month.''

That was fifteen years ago! I wonder what they are doing now?

So there you have it. The pop can tab legend. It's a feel-good story. I'm proud of these gentlemen.

You can definitely find more on the subject on the Internet if you want to read about this fascinating tale.

iplaying: Headlights - Snow Patrol (Eyes Open)

Friday was a blistery snowy day so I decided to camp out at Vero's until the rush hour traffic decided to subside. I spent a few hours going through her iTunes program and organizing her music files. She has a billion music files which aren't tagged properly and some of them don't even have titles! It's quite the project. It would probably take a straight month of organizing it. In the end, I found a few gems which will find her way to the iPod.

We then had supper and went to Rogers Video where I scored Da Ali G show Season 1 for $4.50! We also bought Flags of Our Fathers and The Da Vinci Code. We had both read the book and enjoyed it and were anxious to see the film (although what the heck was Tom Hanks doing with that haircut?). Vero has spoken to her father beforehand and he said he didn't really care for the film but he had also never read the book. Armed with this knowledge, I made it halfway through the film until I fell asleep. From what I saw, it was an alright flick. Considering I had read the book years ago, I forgot a lot of the story so I must say that the film was a little confusing. I think the beauty of a book is that if you didn't understand what you just read, you re-read it. Not so much while watching a film (unless you want to rewind and watch again I suppose, but that kills the mood the film sets) so there were a few parts where they were rambling on about the Knights Templar and the Priory and I was saying "Whaaaa?". I doubt the film got much better near the end so I will say that the people who read the book will think it's a faithful adaptation but for those who haven't read the book…meh. Did anyone else feel like they wanted Harrison Ford in the lead role instead of Tom Hanks?

iplaying: The Living - Neverending White Lights (Act II: the blood and the life eternal

A few days ago I was looking for something totally unrelated to the Shure SM58 microphone on Steve's Music website and stumbled upon the deal of the century - a Shure SM58 microphone for $100! Also, a $10 gift card for Steve's Music!

I contacted Troy to determine if this was in fact a good deal and he confirmed it and ordered me to pick it up right there and then.

The Shure SM58 is a high end microphone used for recording vocals. Troy has a couple of them and has raved about them.

So it usually goes for $150 so it was surprising to such a great deal on it. The unfortunate part about it is the fact that the sale was potentially ending by November 30 so I weighed the options of asking for it for Christmas vs. missing out on the great deal and bit the bullet.

Steve's Music is pretty slick. I ordered it online, got free shipping, received a $10 gift card and they had attempted to deliver it by 11 the next day! Incredible! I was very impressed at how fast it got to my door.

So now all I have to do is pick up a cable for the mic and give it a try this weekend on the recording equipment. Kind of excited! I have all sorts of ideas running around my head in terms of recording…there's too many to sift through which is hampering my productivity. It's like I'm scared of recording right now because I foresee a very daunting task ahead. But I want to throw away those thoughts and just have fun with my equipment again…where I get a good riff and hit the record button.

I think it's the environment I have set up right now. It's in the basement. It's not too conducive to musical inspiration. I think I shall move it up to my bedroom and see how that treats me. Maybe seeing some sunlight (who am I kidding? Sunlight is gone by the time I get home!) will bring everything into focus.

iplaying: You Oughta Know (Acoustic) - Alanis Morissette (Jagged Little Pill - Acoustic)

I loathe how they start airing these things a month before Christmas and then by the time I`m on holidays, they are nowhere to be found.

The Globe and Mail has provided you with a schedule of all your favourite specials here.

Here's some of my faves:

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer - We're talking about the original claymation one, not those cheap animated knockoffs! Here we see the star of the show…Hermey the Elf who saves the day because of his dentist skills.

Frosty the Snowman - Hey, where's Frosty Returns? That's right…it's not there for a reason (it was horrible). HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

How The Grinch Stole Christmas - If the Grinch came out nowadays, would anyone watch this insane story? A Grinch? Whoville? Wha??? Either way, you can't get around that this is a classic holiday tale.

A Charlie Brown Christmas - While I prefer the Great Pumpkin over this one, I must admit that it has left some pop culture references in our household…especially how every year SOMEONE comments to Dad that he picked a Charlie Brown tree from the forest.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - "Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say, on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day…"how I love this film. I can't get enough. It pains me to wait until the Christmas season to watch it again. Let us not forget how at last year's Christmas party I invited everyone to the basement to watch the film and ended up passed out in the chair while everyone told me that I never invited them in the first place.

A Christmas Story - "RALPHIE! You're going to shoot your eye out with that BB Gun!". How I love how TBS has 24 hours of A Christmas Story. That's what Christmas specials are supposed to be like - airing on Christmas Day while Dad and I munch on peanuts and fight off slumber. My favourite memory of this film was last year when I was watching it on Christmas Day, fell asleep and when I awoke, I was at the same exact part I left at 2 hours earlier!

iplaying: So-Called Chaos - Alanis Morissette (So-Called Chaos)

Read this article.

Recap: One of the crazier stories I've read this year. What's going on here? It's the Apocalypse or something…waking up paralyzed from anesthetic…now a 47 year old poses as a teenager boy which leads to a suicide of a 13 year old girl.

The article speaks about a 13 year old girl (Megan) who committed suicide after her on-line boyfriend (they have never met in real life) suddenly turned nasty and insulted her which led to the suicide.

But in a twist of the story, it turns out that the teenage boy was ACTUALLY a 47 year old mom (Lori) who lived four houses away from the family! Turns out that Megan was friends with Lori's daughter but then they had a falling out so the mom thought she would get to the bottom of it by posing as some teenage boy to find out about the breaking of the friendship which led to the taunting of Megan.

You should really read the article. It's a morbid tale but a shocker. Here's an interesting quote: "In the report, she stated that she felt the hoax “contributed to Megan’s suicide, but she did not feel ‘as guilty’ because at the funeral she found out Megan had tried to commit suicide before.”. They are talking about the 47 year old Mom not feeling guilty.

Palmer's Viewpoints: Thanks to the Wolfshack for passing this my way. Let's get to the point here - society sucks right now. We live in a place where chances are, we don't know our neighbours other than in passing. We also have a society which is interconnected through an anonymous cyber-web. These are all leading up to some very serious issues in the world we live in. How juvenile can that woman be to a) Pose as an imaginary dude on the Net; b) Become an on-line boyfriend with a 13 year old girl; c) Throw insults at a 13 year old girl which drives her to the point of suicide; d) Do this knowing the actual girl?! I can't even really fathom that this has happened. I can't picture my mom doing something like this. Are there really people out there that are insane? It's like the world is full of Jokers.

Here's where I go on a small rant about communities and law in general. Sometimes, the law just doesn't work. If you were in a community a long time ago and this sort of thing happened, this lady would be shunned from the community. But because it doesn't break any LAWS, then everything is fine in the world and she gets to stay in the neighbourhood. I'm not going to dwell on this point.

The point I'm dwelling on this lady is a clear example of people who should be shipped to Mars. Permanently. Without a rocket shuttle.

This also brings up larger issues like computers in the household and whether or not they should be in a public place or not but that's a conversation for another day.

Argh, I'm so frustrated.

Other than having Gary make me realize that I'm a walking contradiction judging from yesterday's post about Future Shop (read the comments section), yesterday was a swell day. :-)

First off, I had remembered that Matchbox Twenty were going on tour in Toronto and thought about checking out when the tickets were on sale. Lo and behold, it was 10:30 in the morning and they had a pre-sale which had started 30 minutes earlier! I had to scramble to figure out who wanted to go and I didn't have time to wait for many people. In the end, Krista, Mike and I nabbed three tickets for Row 16 on the floor which is A-OK by us. I haven't seen Matchbox Twenty in a few years and I can imagine that it will be a good concert in that they are promoting their greatest hits/EP of the day. This concert is in February.

Hey, before I forget, we also picked up Foo Fighters tickets for when they hit up the Nation's capital. Rumour has it that it will be an acoustic show!

Krista and I headed over to the Ottawa side to have lunch with Maren as it was her birthday. I enjoyed the roast beef sandwich and pasta salad they had but Krista thought it was lacking of actual roast beef.

After glazing over some Critical Thinking class, I headed home and jammed with Mike for awhile. We are working on a few Trews tunes and also hammering out Stevie Wonder's Superstition which I have always loved but never mastered until a month ago.

One of the cooler things I came across last night was Nine Inch Nails' Remix website has gone live. Trent Reznor has created this behemoth which allows people to post their remixed NIN tracks onto a website and people can share, discuss, tear apart…whatever they want. He has done some wonderful work on this concept as he has offered up the master tracks of his Year Zero album to help with remixing.

The greatest thing about this site is the fact that Trent Reznor has posted all his remixes up there, or any remixes that have appeared commercially. What does that mean to us? Usually every album had a remix album, or singles. I had never picked them all up, but I had borrowed a few from Eric along the way but I still didn't have them all (like the With Teeth Remix EP). Lo and behold, all these tracks are now available to download and use at will. Awww yeah! I'm pretty pumped that I got to pick up a few tracks that I've heard over the years but never had a copy of.

Trent Reznor is really starting to look at the distribution of music in a different light now that he is done with his record label. However, let's not denounce the record label here. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a part in letting Trent share remixes which are already commercially available. I have noticed that there are no remixes prior to the Broken album which may make sense as he was with a different label back then and they were a pain in the ass.

http://remix.nin.com

There has already been a great release of top rated Year Zero remixes called The Limitless Potential which is great (although there are WAY too many remixes of Survivalism).

That's my awesome music update for you all today.

I saw this ad for Future Shop and had to smirk at the great savings on the iPod they are offering.

Congrats! Take advantage of our great savings of….FIVE WHOLE DOLLARS!

Wowza! It's so worth making an actual ad for this kind of savings and put it on other sites! I can't contain my excitement for saving $5. That's the price…heck I don't know…five boxes of Kraft Dinner!

All kidding aside, it does seem a little strange that they advertise this considering five dollars doesn't go a whole of places nowadays. Especially if you are a coffee drinker. How much do coffee drinkers spend in a day? I'm going to randomly pull out a number out of the air and say the average coffee drinker spends $5 a day on coffee.

So for all you coffee drinkers out there thinking of buying an iPod this holiday season…if you miss out on this sale you can just stop drinking coffee for a day and you will still save.

Last night we had an impromptu dinner over at Eric and Annie's. Mmm…stew. You can't go wrong with stew. After chatting awhile about our top secret project for the Christmas season, I had headed out to nab some groceries, and headed to Canadian Tire.

I don't know what I don't go to C.Tire more often. I not only found a wreath at 50% off but I also found some windshield washer on a super sale. I'll have enough windshield washer to last me until next Christmas!

I also picked up a snow brush. Now, when I first bought my car, I bought one of those deluxe ones with the padded handle and the long reach. Then the scraper part broke off it it last year. Well.

So when I was in the store last night I realized that I had the choice between the $2 wooden one or the $10 super-deluxe version. After realizing that this was capitalism at its best (or is that consumerism?), I opted for the wooden one thinking that I could always keep the old brush with the super long reach. It just doesn't have the scraper part. Maybe I should duct tape the two together!

I also played around with the MIDI functionality on the MacBook. I'm starting to read up on MIDI as it sounds like a powerful tool in the home recording studio. Essentially, computer can emulate any sound so you can pull a Trumpet MIDI setting and a virtual piano pops up and you can hit a note and a horn will sound. There are MIDI keyboards out there so you don't have to do this virtually so I'm going to do some research into buying one. Not before Christmas though! Ha, I say that because I stumbled upon this mega deal on a microphone I have wanted for a few years and I ended up buying it yesterday because the sale was going to end in a few days. In my defence, I don't know if anyone would know picked this up for my Christmas gift but nevertheless, Vero was not impressed that I'm shopping for myself within a month to Christmas!

Vero and I also started up the brainstorming for the annual Christmas cards…we think we have a good idea and will run with it this year. I am now debating on whether or not I should send it out again to my mass list or prune it down to those who send a Christmas card back to me. Mom said that she realized over the years that people that she sent a card to every year just never bothered sending anything so she stopped sending it to them. There are arguments on both sides….one could argue that this is the season to be giving and not needing something in return. However the other side of the argument states that when your list starts breaking the 50 person barrier, you have to start thinking on the cost. I'll put some more thought into it and decide when the cards get shipped to the printing press.

If you are looking for a good thing, look no further than Paul. He always recommends some great reads to me.

His latest venture was recommending Kurt Busiek's Astro City to me.

WARNING - These are comic books. Read no further if you have no interest in expanding your horizons to the ever cool picture and text format.

Astro City starts off looking at the superhero Samaritan who seems like a Superman-type figure, flying to trouble all over the world. In fact, that is the focus of the first issue…how he flies everywhere and helps everyone and he really has no time for himself. It takes a look at the other side of being a superhero…what's going on in a superhero's head when he can't get enough sleep because there is a typhoon in Japan.

Astro City is a fictional city which has had it's years of superheroes dating back from the 60s, much like you would think New York in the Marvel Universe is. The story is told in present day (circa '90s when the comic came out) and it's interesting to see the story unfold with names you don't know and such a rich history which is alluded to. Imagine yourself starting to read Batman or Superman and realizing they may be referencing things about Metropolis or Gotham City which have happened sixty years ago!

I read the first six issues last night and they were a fresh read. Each comic focussed on an entirely different aspect of Astro City…a superhero, a super-villain, life as a citizen of Astro City…it was a good introduction to the entire universe.

Highly recommend this read.

I also did a little reading about Kurt Busiek and it looks like his first foray into this type of storytelling was in the Marvels mini-series which showed the Marvel universe from the standpoint of the outsiders - the reporters, the citizens….imagine yourself seeing Spider-Man swing by on your way to work! I am anxious to take a look at the Marvels mini-series.

I was looking back in prior years for a posting I could just recycle concerning this subject but surprisingly, I have never written about it!

Six years ago, I found out about the White Ribbon Campaign through the Canadian rock act, The Tea Party (now defunct, sadly) and have supported their goals through participation within the campaign (by wearing a white ribbon from November 25 - December 6) and by offering some charitable donations.

Here is some information from their website:

What is the White Ribbon Campaign?
The White Ribbon Campaign (WRC) is the largest effort in the world of men working to end violence against women (VAW). In over fifty-five countries, campaigns are led by both men and women, even though the focus is on educating men and boys. In some countries it is a general public education effort focused on ending violence against women.

What does it mean to wear a white ribbon?
Wearing a white ribbon is a personal pledge to never commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women and girls. Wearing a white ribbon is a way of saying, “Our future has no violence against women.”

When is the focus of WRC?
WRC in Canada runs its campaign from from November 25 (the International Day for the Eradication of Violence Against Women) until December 6, Canada's National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. Other countries support 16 Days of Action from November 25th until December 10th but campaigns can occur at any time of the year.

Each year I encourage people at my place of work to wear a ribbon until December 6. I also encourage you to support this campaign if you choose to. If you within physical distance of me, I can provide you with a ribbon and pin as I have a supply.

Last night the professor announced that next week's class would be the final one.

Wow. I didn't think I would see the end of the tunnel so soon!

I must admit that this semester has been grueling. Sociology is a tough nugget to crack…I have done well on the exams but received a D+ on my research proposal and I still haven't seen the teaching assistant about it.

Then there is my Critical Thinking class which is a beast of a course. I am slowly starting to get the hang of it near the end of the course. I have to thank Scott Lynch's book The Lies of Locke Lamora helping me with this course as his book was such a page turner that I read it so fast and didn't have any other books to read at the moment so I started reading my Critical Thinking textbook more. Ha ha.

The only thing I have going for me in Sociology is that the exam is not cumulative. The heavens have shone a light on me. I must be diligent and study for the next three weeks before the exam and not just goof around.

I've said it once, I'll say it again…I enjoy school. It keeps my brain active. I have realized that I was pretty bored just sitting at home after work each night and fiddling around with my computer or watching television. I think that after I am done my BA I will continue on with studies to keep me engaged in the thinking process. However I am diligently learning a lot of guitar theory right now to feed my creative songwriting skills so I must admit that this is another item which keeps my brain working.

Random Vero update: She got a gym membership at Good Life Fitness last night. I like Good Life Fitness. There are A LOT of gyms around Canada. I think there are probably 25 of them in Ottawa alone. I am slightly jealous as I don't know how much longer I can jog in the snow. Especially when there is ice on the roads.

http://www.nme.com/news/nme/32760

So it turns out that Kevin DuBrow of Quiet Riot has passed away for reasons unknown (thanks to Chez 106 and Aunt Lois/Uncle Gary who tipped me off on this fact). I'm sure more details will surface but I figured I should bring this update to you.

What can I say? I'm sure that my cousin Troy may have a little more to say on the subject as I seemed to have missed out on the glam metal scene of the 80s - Poison, Quiet Riot, Spinal Tap…all bands that I'm familiar with their music only through the radio and don't know all the words to.

That being said, I know I was reading in Guitar World that Quiet Riot were touring around even to this date so it's sad to hear that such a great band has stopped in their tracks for the time being.

On Saturday afternoon I returned to the homestead to find Mike frustrated/depressed about how the United States of America's health system is laid out. He had just finished watching Michael Moore's new documentary - Sicko. Sicko takes a look at the American health care system as it exists now and compares it to others around the world.

In a nutshell, the American health system is not a form of universal health care. Unless you have insurance, you have to pay out of pocket for your health care (from what I can tell from the facts laid out to me…haven't done a LOT of research on this topic.). However, there are private health insurance companies all over the place so as long as you have insurance, you should be fine.

However, this is where Michael Moore's documentary begins its story. It takes a look at how the insurance companies are really out to make a buck and not help out people in need. They interview ex-employees and show how Directors were given bonuses and promotions depending on the number of high expense surgeries they denied. They took a look at how much money these insurance companies made in a year vs. how much the hospitals make.

There are examples of horror stories about how people go bankrupt because of medical bills. It's not their fault they are sick! I wanted to punch one guy at the beginning of the film. He was complaining to his parents that he always had to help move them (they had currently moved into their daughter's place) and that they were an inconvenience. Why were they a bother? Because they were both sick (cancer and whatnot) and had run out of money paying for the bills and had to move in with their daughter or various others. I tend to not curse people, but I hope this son of theirs gets a flesh-eating disease or something.

The first half of the film deals with how the health care system in the United States sucks. From what I know about it, there is an advantage to having private health care systems in the fact that they can afford to have the best equipment and the shortest wait times and the best care you can ever have. IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT. There was an example of one guy who cut off the tips of his fingers on a table saw and he had the choice of reattaching the tip of his ring finger for $12,000 or the tip of his middle finger for $60,000. I had a good laugh when they told this to some Canadian and the guy did a double take at the concept of having to choose between his fingers.

There a slew of examples that paint the picture of how the system kind of sucks for the common folk. The second half of the film has Michael Moore traveling the world to see if there is anything better out there. In the United States, there has been an outcry AGAINST socialized/universal health care, where the GOVERNMENT can make a decision as to what doctor helps you or what mediocre equipment you have at your service. So he wanted to check out what was the big deal with universal health care…

He first goes to Canada (which I always love in a Michael Moore film) and finds out that it isn't so bad after all. Chances are, the majority of my readers are Canadian so I don't have to explain anything here.

He then goes to London, England and Paris, France. This was the most interesting part of the film for me as I had no idea some of the systems they had over there.

For example, France (and maybe England? I forget) have doctors who perform house calls. There was this amazing story of how in Paris there was a guy who had a pipe burst in his house and he called the 24-hour plumber. He then thought "If I can get a plumber at 5 in the morning, why can't I get a doctor?". So he began SOS Medecins which have doctors running around the city helping out people in their homes. They hop in their car, check with dispatch as to where to run off to next and continue all night long. Brilliant!

They also talked about how new mothers get a government employee to come by twice a week to help with anything they need - laundry, making meals, cleaning, etc. The government realizes that being a new mother may be a little hard.

So then Michael Moore returns to the States, has a reflective moment as to why their health system sucks and all is good in the world. Well not really, but there is this hilarious scene where he brings some needy folk to Cuba (of all places) for some medical help.

What did I think of the film?

Content: I thought the information presented was interesting. I personally enjoyed seeing how other countries health care systems were set up and the reasons for it.
Style: Oh, Michael Moore. Some people hate you, but I love his sarcasm. It's chock full of commentary from him which is hilarious. Plus, you can't go wrong at the end of the film when he heads to Cuba (of all places) with rescue workers from the World Trade Center bombings. LOVE IT! While some people denounce how he presents his information (hello bias!), I also feel that it's important to make people aware of issues surrounding them and not have it hidden from their eyes. I am sure that an entire film could be made to denounce every one of his claims within the film but that isn't the point. The point is that he gets his point home and that point is that the United States health care system could take a little work.
Emotion: While Mike was frustrated at how a country could treat their people that way (at one point he proclaimed that he would never support their economy and shop there ever again, but then retracted that thought a few hours later), I can say that I was saddened to see that the United States of America's citizens have it bad when it comes to health care and I never thought about it much until now. I will never take our universal health care for granted again. If you see me complaining about waiting 12 months for an operation, let me watch that film again.

So that's that. I would recommend this film but if you are an avid hater of anything Michael Moore produces, then pass on it. But if you're not, take a look at it, if not to realize that we live in a pretty swell country. However, I think I want to move to France now!

Saturday Mike convinced me to hang up the Christmas lights outside. It was a mild day and no better day to do it.

Well, there was a better day to do it…like today where I think all the snow will melt. I ended up on the ladder snapping the lights to the eaves trough with snow hitting my face and down my shirt and freezing my hands off. Mike was having a good chuckle every time a bunch of snow fell into my face! After a good laugh, we commended ourselves on a great job.

I then hit the town to pick up various items for Maren's wine party that evening. I ended up picking up a bottle of red Merlot from Chile but now that I think of it, I don't think I even tried it! I also picked up a neat neoprene gift bag to carry wine in for her birthday. Those are essential when scaling frozen driveways with a bottle of wine!

When I got back home Mike was in a frustrated/depressed mood after watching Michael Moore's new documentary Sicko. I was intrigued and decided to watch it before heading out to Maren's. I'll review it in another post.

Picked up Vero and after practicing some singing (as she just took a workshop on singing that afternoon as she has to sing a few tunes in her play this coming Spring), we headed out to Allan-Paul and Maren's pad where the wine tasting party was in full force.

I enjoyed the setup of the event. Food galore (the pesto/brie mix was fab), and tons of wine to be had. It wasn't a giant free-for-all, there was a method to the madness. A new bottle was opened and everyone got a little to try and sometimes we even had mystery rounds where the bottle was in a paper bag and we had to guess where it was from or what brand it was. I can't say that I know much about wine (although I think 2008 will be the year to begin) so I threw out a random suggestion of Australia as the country of origin but Dan denounced that. One day I shall have the wisdom which Dan possesses!

There were a few good wines that I tried, especially an Australian wine called 'Two Hands Gnarly Dudes'. Ha ha. There were also a few which were way too dry for me. I needed water at the end of the night after one of them! ;-)

All in all, Vero and I had an amazing time. There was good company, the music was excellent and the food and wine were superb. Allan-Paul and Maren always put on a sociable evening.

Memory: I remember the first time I had drank red wine was at Maren's Christmas party quite a few years ago. 2002 perhaps? I had never had the pleasure and was feeling pretty good after some glasses of it.

So on the way home on the bus, I was feeling good but it wasn't until I got to my stop that I realized what effect that the wine had on me. My mind was crystal clear but my body had physically shut down! I stumbled to the exit from the bus, stumbled out, walked right into the wall of the Bayshore bus station, did a pirouette and fell on my bottom! I was bewildered as my mind was saying "Hey, what's going on?". Some woman asked if I needed help and I let her know that I was fine but she probably heard "Blea..rrr.ggg..uuuumm….harrmmm" I tried to get up and ended up back on the ground in the middle of the Transitway! At that point I knew that the wine definitely had a potent effect and I had to steady myself and take baby steps to get up and walking. I had contemplated asking OC Transpo for the surveillance tape of that night as I thought it would be quite hilarious.

Excellent list!
http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/006398688.cfm?page=1

Here are my faves:
49. Master Sword
The Legend of Zelda

36. The BFG9000
Doom

33. Magik’s Soulsword
Marvel Comics

29. Ash’s Chainsaw Hand
Evil Dead II

16. Megatron
Transformers

11. Sword of Omens
Thundercats

iplaying: Rose - A Perfect Circle (Mer de Noms)

Here's an email I just received!

Hi Ryan,

I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo
has been selected for inclusion in the newly released
fourth edition of our Schmap Brussels Guide:

Musical Instrument Museum
http://www.schmap.com/brussels/sights_ixelles/p=115431/i=115431_14.jpg


I'm famous! I'll either be hunted down for my great photographic skills, or hunted because I was never supposed to bring a camera into that museum!

iplaying: Come As You Are - Nirvana (MTV Unplugged in New York)

Shout out to my good friend and co-loc Mike who passed his competition to get a CS-02 position! In Government land, everyone has a classification. So a CS-02 stands for a Computer Science position at a level 2 (where they go up, 3, 4, 5, etc.)

From the point he dropped his resume in to this point has been almost a year! He still isn't out of the woods yet as his name is on a list of candidates. He will either get a phone call from someone looking for CS-02s or he can farm himself out and say "Hey, do you have a job for me because I'm on a list." In the Government, it's virtually impossible to get a full time position without doing some form of competition.

I would like to think that I had everything to do with him getting this position as he was initially screened out and I knew this couldn't happen because I looked at his resume so I told him to go back and fight it and they realized that he should have been screened it. Granted, Mike clearly doesn't remember the story happening this way and feels he would have called them anyhow, but I would like to think that he owes me his permanent career in the Government when he gets a position out of it. Mike, I take payment in the form of beer, new guitar strings, or snow shoveling for the rest of my days.

Krista, Trish, Mike and I went out to celebrate last night at the Royal Oak which was fun. I had the Sheppard's Pie which was delicious. We had a rousing conversation of 'deal breakers' - where we state our deal breakers when it comes to those of the opposite sex. Some classic ones that came out is "No back hair!" or "Must own all the Star Treks' on DVD!" Actually, I forgot to say that one but it's been a mainstay over the years so I'm saying it here now for all the future generations to see!

We then headed over to Krista's to watch Grey's Anatomy and munch on some treats. Even though the munchies were amazing, I had some awful pains in my stomach afterwards and was glad when Mike and I left as the cool night air helped me feel better.

Speaking about cool night air, I felt like I was living inside a snow globe yesterday. Every time I looked out the window, it was storming. We definitely got hit hard last night and Mike and I were pleasantly surprised to see that our driveway had been shoveled by the new neighbours! I was joking with Mike before getting home that I had better seen no snow in our driveway. If there was none, then the neighbours shall have passed 'the test'. Mike and I shoveled the rest of the driveway when we got home at midnight, as it looks like they focussed more on our area then their own! We have met the woman who lives there and she is very nice and I'm sure her husband will equally be nice.

Once again, congrats to Mike in making it onto the CS-02 pool!

I already spoke at length last year about ordering things via the States. Here's a good article from the Globe and Mail which talks about what to expect.

Read it here.

iplaying: Wipe That Smile Off Your Face - Our Lady Peace (Healthy in Paranoid Times)

I've been sitting here for the past while thinking about what I could write about on the website today but nothing much is popping into my head. I would like to think I try and update it every day but I know that just doesn’t happen lately and then I start to look at the reasons why that is happening.

Part of the reason is sometimes I feel there is a lack of anything of interest to pass out. But I went back into the archives around November 2005 and saw that I posted pretty well ANYTHING that came across my eyes and made me laugh or have some interest in it.

Without further ado, here's some random things that have piqued my interest today:

• The Munchkins get their Star on the Walk of Fame - Read here.
• Probably the most disturbing thing I have ever heard. Except for that time where I was put under for my wisdom teeth and I woke up and my zipper was down. Thanks (?!) to Maren for this crazy article here.
• There's a guy at work who said how he and his wife exchange about $30 in gifts at Christmas. Considering the fact that they are both well off and can pretty well afford anything (well not ANYTHING) they want to purchase, he didn't see the point of blowing wads of cash. Also, it makes it more interesting to see how much you can get for $30 which will also be thoughtful. I'm thinking a picture made out of macaroni myself! All kidding aside, it's an interesting concept. I go through the same thing myself (aka get a gift that MEANS something) but I spend some a bit of cash in the process. You can't get a hot tub for someone without spending the bucks. You're welcome Mom and Dad.
• Mental Note - Being frugal doesn't help matters when you think your snow scraper with the end broken off will still work on the day it snows 15 cms but the night before it rained on your windshield so now there's a film of ice on it. Get out of your frugal self and buy a dang $2 snowscraper will ya? By the way, it's snowing big time down here now. That is disappointing on two fronts - one, the lawn furniture is still in the backyard. I think it shall be moved to the garage now that we have TONS of room in there. Two, I haven't put up the Christmas lights yet. That would have been a smart thing to do last weekend.
  

Ah...I love The Onion.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/unrel...age_guitar_riff
March 5, 2007 | Issue 43•10
GWYNEDD, WALES—Calling it the planet's last, best hope for saving rock music, the Guardians of the Protectorate of Rock announced Monday that they would take the extraordinary step of unleashing a never-before-heard Jimmy Page riff, hidden for decades in a mythic, impenetrable vault.


"We who believe in the immortality of rock, took a vow 30 years ago that we would never release this incredibly powerful force unless we faced a Day of Reckoning—and that day has come," said Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, one of the chosen few who helped forge the Secret Vault to Save Rock and Roll, at a press conference in the Welsh highlands. "Just look at the pop charts, and you shall know I speak the truth."

"Let's give rock and roll its fucking balls back," he added.

The Guardians said recent developments in the music world, such as the unaccountable popularity of the Dixie Chicks and Sufjan Stevens, have created a "perfect storm of lameness" from which rock might never recover. While Iommi refused to say when the vault would be opened, hard rock sources believe it will take place just prior to next month's Fall Out Boy–Honda Civic tour, which many fear will suck the remaining lifeblood from all that still rocks.

"Citizens of Rock, we refuse to stand idly by any longer," ZZ Top founder and Protectorate High Elder Billy Gibbons said. "When a puss like James Blunt is allowed to rule the airwaves, we must respond by exposing this monster riff, and blowing minds into the stratosphere."

The Protectorate, devoted to the preservation of badass jams and blistering guitar solos, was reportedly formed in the 1970s during the rise of adult contemporary music. According to legend, the riff, played only once by Page and recorded on a special cobalt record, contains the raw power, mind-blowing skill, and unbridled passion of all the Guardians combined. Recently translated parchments from the era describe it as a soul-searing power-chord progression faintly resembling a cross between "Smoke On The Water" and "Living Loving Maid," but "basically defying all description."

It is believed that, upon the riff's release, even those who claim that the genre is dead will have no choice but to pump their fists, bang their heads, and bow down to the gods of rock for all eternity.

"May God have mercy on our souls for what we are going to set loose upon the world," proclaimed Queen guitarist Brian May, dressed in druidic robes and bathed in the rising blue smoke of a nearby fog machine. "Will it save rock or destroy mankind? We have no way of knowing—yet we have no other choice."

Members of the Protectorate were each given only partial information about the location of the vault, which they were instructed to open in unison only in the event of a total Rockopalypse. While some believed the vault was buried in Boston, Chicago, Kansas, Europe, or Asia, others claimed it could be found in the Court of the Crimson King.

However, after piecing together clues hidden in Yes album covers and Pink Floyd liner notes, rock historians now believe the riff is locked away deep beneath the Welsh countryside house known as Bron-Yr-Aur, at rock-grid coordinates SH735026. British weather satellites have also photographed an enormous cloud, shaped like a hybrid of an upside-down question mark and cross, forming above these exact coordinates.

The vault's Key, regarded as too staggering a burden for any one man to bear, was divided in two parts, with half entrusted to Eddie Van Halen and half to David Lee Roth, shortly after Roth left the rock supergroup Van Halen. The two men, who have refused to work together for 20 years, recently announced plans for a historic reunion tour.

"Before we shake Heaven and Earth with the vicious power of this riff, we of the High Council of Elders of the Guardians of the Protectorate of Rock ask you: Are you about to rock?" AC/DC guitarist Angus Young said. "If so, we salute you."

When asked to comment on the possible dangers of using the riff, Sir Paul McCartney seemed surprised.

"There's a secret vault to save rock and roll?" McCartney said. "This is the first I've heard of it."

iplaying: Some track from the new Neverending White Lights album but I don't really know what it is because Rogers cut off our Internet so when I loaded this onto the iPod it couldn't access CDDB which is an amazing website which figures out what the tracklisting on your CD is - Neverending White Lights (Act II: the blood and the life eternal)

Hey, is there anyone out there going to the States soon, and going near a Best Buy? If so, please contact me. There's something I need picked up.

Thanks.

This news has been rumour for the most part until now.

That's right, the Cult have hinted towards a tour in 2008.

I'm there.

http://www.nme.com/news/ld-zeppelin/32664

***update***

Ha! My cousin Troy beat me to the punch.
http://www.the-palmer-project.blogspot.com/

Alright, the only reason I know that Celine Dion is touring Canada is the fact that I was on Ticketmaster the other day and saw a slew of dates listed. I let Eric know about it since his wife was (and perhaps still is?) a giant Celine fan and to my knowledge, has not yet seen her live.

Anyhow, Celine Dion was scheduled to play Halifax but then pulled out at the last minute. Reasons cited seem to be 'cannot meet the elaborate stage requirements."

However, this article shows there is another side to the story.

Turns out that journalists and others around Halifax were disappointed in having Celine Dion instead of another big act. Last year they had the Rolling Stones. So she pulled out because the city didn't seem to really be enthused with having her there.

If there is any truth in this story, then I say good for her. If I was heading somewhere to play a show and I heard through the news that I wasn’t really wanted, I doubt I would go either. Sure, there's probably a lot of people that will be disappointed that she isn't coming anymore, but maybe this will make people think twice about what they put in print.

iplaying: I Want None of This - Radiohead - Help! A Day In The Life Of

Around 2:30 this morning I woke up to wet snow hitting my bedroom window. It's official, winter is here.

I hauled out my gloves and winter boots and went out to the car to wipe off the heavy wet snow.

I never really looked outside during my bus ride into the city but it turns out that Ottawa Center never got any snow! Strange! I never even noticed until Krista mentioned it may snow soon and I thought she was joking. Strange how a 20 kilometer distance can make a big difference.

I don't know why but this year my body has become an ice cube. I have turned into one of those people who complain about the cold. I'm always cold! Argh. I don't know how it happened. If anyone can invent fire for my feet, I'll be the first to purchase it.

http://www.nme.com/news/red-hot-chili-peppers/32626

So my favourite show is having a lawsuit thrown at them because the Red Hot Chili Peppers feel that they own the rights to the word/namesake 'Californication'. They have an album, they have a song, and they have a video with the name.

Come on guys! What the heck? Have you even seen the show? Watch a few episodes and realize that you should have been honoured that such an amazing show shared the same name as one of your albums!

I can't wait until a show is made from one of my subject titles on this website. I'll slap with them a lawsuit. That'll teach them.

Anyhow, I think this is just dumb. Heck, the show may have actually cribbed the title considering it's heavy musical influence, but you would think that the band would have been cool with it.

I guess not.

I'd hate to see the new series coming out called Back in Black, or Led Zeppellin IV.

My buddy Paul had a housewarming party in Toronto. I found out about it via some friends a week before the event so I already had plans to go to the States but if I had known about it when the original invite went out, I would have went up for the rip-roaring good time.

So I email Paul and kindly mention to him that he should think about a simple email to yours truly instead of depending on Facebook because…heck…I just don't have a Facebook account!




Here is his reply:

Sorry man. Why don't you just join the 21st century and get a facebook
account?

:)

You would have been invited had you been on the fb.

Now, I've already given Paul the heads up that I shall be ranting on this very subject right here in Palmer's World and that he should not take too much offense. I'm just going to try and prove a point. No ill will and no friendships shall be scorned between the two of us. I also know that he's joking in his communique.

I begin.

WHAT THE HECK?! So I have to sign up an account out in cyberspace to get an invite to a party? Blasphemy! This is quite the setback in social relations in the 21st century. Or is it a step forward? Do people actually not want to hang out with a lot of people and would rather sit in their room and chat to babes online all day long? Maybe that's the case. Otherwise, I’m sure if I was really wanted to attend this party, I would have got an invite somehow or another.

I'm going to throw out Evite as an example as to how it's a better system. Evite.com allows you to set up an invitation and send out the invite to anyone with an e-mail address and they can peruse the invite. Point 1 - If someone doesn't have an email address (which…I couldn't even fathom who wouldn't, but it's a possibility), I would call them up and invite them. Point 2 - There is this function on Evite which shows you if the invitation has been read or not. For my Christmas party, I'll check out that list to see if there are any people who haven't opened it and get in touch with them personally to see if they want to come.

It ain't rocket science here people. Flash back to 1983 and I'm sure people were getting on the phone and saying "Come to my party." (click).

I'm really not denouncing Paul here because let's be honest here.

1. He's in Toronto which in his mind may put me out there as a fringe friend who probably wouldn't attend.
2. It's not like he's my brother or anything and this will start a family feud.

What I am denouncing is the lazy culture that the network of cyberspace has created. I am victim to it as well. I depend on email as a communication device. I depend on Evite as a communication device. These are not perfect systems, and someone can probably denounce Evite as an awful, impersonal invitation system as much as the Facebook invite system. It's a manner of making things…simpler. It's much easier to send out an electronic invitation instead of phoning up 30 different people. There goes my Sunday afternoon.

Somewhere along the line, we have lost the true meaning of social relations. It isn't about the number of friends you have ticked off in your Facebook account. It's not about the Number of 'Yes, I shall attend your party' you see in Evite. It's about your friends looking for a good time and you are offering that good time.

My favourite line from Paul is "You would have been invited had you been on the fb.". So does that mean that I wasn't invited otherwise? Ha! I'm sure this is not what he meant. Paul is not a bad guy. But Facebook has become an exclusive club. "Join Facebook and you can come to our parties." I feel like I am pressured to do drugs back in high school again and because I never did, I wasn't in the club.

Time and time again, the same excuse comes out though. People don't want to take blame for this error. So instead of saying "I am a moron. I can't believe I didn't think about inviting you." they say "Well, isn't this your fault for not having a Facebook account?"

I'm going to reiterate that I'm really not harping on Paul here. He just provides an excellent example of a few other instances in the past year of parties I've missed out on because I wasn't part of the 'club'. The same reason comes back all the time. "Well why aren't you on Facebook?" Read between the lines on that one: It's your problem. You want to go to the parties, you have to pay the price, and that price is signing up for Facebook.

You know what? Just this one time, I'll take the blame. Yep, I'm the moron here. If I want to go see anyone badly enough, I should be signing up for Facebook. In fact, I'm part of the slacker culture that the Internet has bred. We're all caught up in this web of 'trading off social relations' for 'ease of use systems'. I suppose one could create an entire argument on the industrialization of society and how stuff just isn't made with the same heart anymore as it's just mass produced. It's the same concept with the Internet. It's just easier to use so who cares if a little thought goes out the window?

On that note, I am off to update my Evite for my Christmas party. ;-) I think I've just written myself up as a hypocrite in this entry. But I'm going to redouble my efforts to ensure that everyone I've invited at least knows about the party. This is something to keep in mind while using these 'easy-to-use' systems. You can't just hit SEND and think your job is done.

6AM. I wake up thinking "Awww yeah, it's Saturday and I can sleep in!".
1 second later I realize this is a false statement as we are headed to the States for the shopping trip!

We load up the car, pick up Trish and Krista who have brought baked goods (key note: bring ladies on future road trips) and we were off.

We headed towards Ogdensburg as we heard the Thousand Islands border crossing could be a little insane as it is on an Interstate highway. We waited a whole 5 cars and passed through with no issues. That's right, they did not confiscate my apple!

After some mixed up directions by Mike in which we bickered like an old married couple (which left Krista and Trish in stitches in the back seat) and some very random selections for songs that Trish compiled, we ended up in Waterloo NY where there were some outlet stores to peruse. Mike and I weren't expecting much from this place but we were pleasantly surprised.

Before I forget, there were a TON of Ontario license plates on the way down. I also saw Phil in the parking lot commenting on my car and we had a good laugh at the amount of people that were here shopping.

First stop, Krista's all time favourite store - J.Crew. At that very moment, I knew that the credit card would get warm from use today as there were incredible deals to be had. I mean, everywhere I looked there were signs that said 30% off, 40% off, 50% off!!! I couldn't really fathom it. So I just loaded up my arms and let the inner spirit take me away. I am not much of a shopper but I now realize that it is due to my frugal nature. But once I see these sales, I can't really justify not picking up a sweater. I was telling Mom that we were in the Gap and Krista had picked up a pair of pants that I may want and I perused them until she told me they were $15 in which I stopped wasting my time at looking at them, and said "Sold."

After getting some Arby's in the packed lunchroom, we went wild and came out on top in terms of deals. Around 3:30 we figured we had seen everything and we had a trunkful of merchandise so we decided to head out to Syracuse. Matt, Karilee and Maria were still shopping in the Outlet shops so we left them there (not that we were hanging out that much anyhow. Everyone was doing their own thing.)

After some mixed up directions to get to the mall, we finally arrived at the Carousel mall (one of the darkest, cavernous malls I've ever seen) and hit up Circuit City for some electronics goodness (Mike picked up a camera and I picked up a great Christmas item for a good price!). I must admit that I was very disappointed that I did not see any signs saying 50% off at any point. It made me not want to purchase anything!

We postponed dinner to get our shopping done. I would say that the mission to the States was a success as I am 80% done my Christmas shopping and I managed to save quite a bit of money. Saving money equals more gifts for you people. We were getting very tired of shopping by around 8PM so we headed out to Fresno's for a lovely dinner. Let me point out that I also love the US for the cheap meals. Seven of us ate for $97 and they were good meals. You can't get that in Canada.

We then headed out around 11PM and while we were tired, we vowed to keep each other awake while listening to some more random songs by Trish. The killer lineup came from the songs 'I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred, followed by "Let's Get it On" by Al Green. Classic combo right there.

We hit the border and after proclaiming we had $1400 to declare, the border agent didn't bat an eye when telling us that we would have to head inside. After paying the applicable taxes, we headed for home and retired for the night.

Here's a rundown of some of the deals encountered:

• Mystery Christmas Gift for Someone - In Canada, $130. In the States, $80. Savings = $50
• The McCartney Years 3DVD Set - In Canada, $30. In the States, $19. Savings = $11.
• Sweater from J Crew - At the regular store in the US, $59.50. At the outlet, $29.70. Savings = $29.80
• Jacket from J Crew - At the regular store in the US, $88. At the outlet, $53. Savings = $35.
• Sweater from B. Republic - In Canada, $100. In the States, 25.49. Savings = $74.51!!! Krista confirmed this as she went to B. Republic and saw the sweater yesterday. Let us also point out that some boots that Trish and her purchased at NineWest were $60 as opposed to $180 in Canada.

I created a spreadsheet to analyze all this information to see if I really saved on a lot of things. While I had to arbitrarily enter some values on some items because I haven't seen the actual price in Canada yet, I would have to say that I saved $268 on the clothing alone and $85 on the Christmas gifts I purchased. If you want that in a percentage, wow. I just figured it out.

In terms of clothing, I saved 106% comparing to purchasing it in Canada.
In terms of the Christmas gifts - 29.2%

Not too shabby.
All in all, I was amazed with the savings at the Outlet mall alone. I have vowed never to purchase clothing in Canada again while this Outlet mall exists! I am already planning a trip in the Spring/Summer.

Some other notes:

• If there were no outlet malls, there were quite a few items that I would not have saved money on, such as CDs, DVDs. This surprised me. In fact, without doing research, I ended up losing $1.25 on one item I purchased (after figuring out all the taxes and whatnot).
• You can still get some good deals but you have to do your research. The mystery Christmas gift listed above was an ideal example as I had to log onto the internet and do some research.
• We definitely didn't feel any border wait times but at the same time, hitting the border at 1AM probably helped out.

Last night I dropped by Music World before heading to Vero's to pick up the new (old) Beatles film - Help! Before they jacked up the price. Music World takes no time with their announcement that they are shutting down; there were signs all over the place saying "STORE CLOSING!" and here's the scoop from the Palmer:

- The Music World stores will be shutting down by the second week in January
- 20% off all white ticket items (white tickets are the ones not on sale).
- 10% off all blue/orange ticket items (which are the ones on sale).

So I saved $2 on my Beatles film which isn't too shabby. It isn't anything to thank the heavens for, but that's money in my pocket.

After munching on some lovely fajitas courtesy of the lovely Vero, we settled in to watch Help! I have only heard the album/soundtrack and have never seen The Beatles in film before (other than the first 10 minutes of Yellow Submarine…but does that really count? I don't think so!) so I was excited to see what they had to offer.

It was a hilarious tale with some spy/action/deadpan humour mixed into one! I have only seen a few films from the 60s but I love the carefree nature of them. This film is absurd! But that's the fun of it! You can see they are having fun in this film.

Turns out that some Eastern cult is about to sacrifice a woman but discover she isn't wearing the sacrificial ring. We find out that our favourite drummer Ringo has acquired it and so begins the hunt for the ring. There are many factions after the ring as some realize there must be some power inherent with it as it cannot easily come off of Ringo's finger (believe me, they try!). They film is also interwoven with The Beatles performing seven tracks from their Help! Album which are a treat as they are integrated into the film (like when they are performing in Austria after escaping there to get away from their hunters).

I read on Wikipedia that they had discovered their love for marijuana during this period and had it every morning before shooting began and the director (Richard Lester) said it was impossible to get them to do much after lunch. While he said it was frustrating, everyone had a great time doing the film at the time.

I can say that I'll watch this film again as it reminded me of the absurd films that Monty Python are famous for. Perhaps this was what the sixties were about in film-land - just having a good time with a mediocre plot.

Highly recommend for a good laugh and a piece of history.

iplaying: All Your Love - John Mayall & The BluesBreakers (Crossroads Disc 1)

Krista and I got to talking about god-awful Christmas gifts that we've received in the past.

I shall bring up these entries in the future for a special 12 Days of Christmas portion of Palmer's World, but in the meantime, if you would like your Christmas gift story to be showcased during the 12 Days of Christmas, send it my way (not via the comment section people! Then people will see!) and will have a rundown of the worst Christmas gifts received and whoever has the worst one will receive something special from yours truly.

Actually, I think I'm going to expand this thought to our Annual Christmas Party and we will share the worst Christmas gifts stories for all to hear (along with some cider and rye).

Read article from Globe and Mail here concerning how in less than 50 years, we will see the birth of love-bots.

Jude Law, eat your heart out.

Hey, these are pretty neat designs for your iPod!

Click here.

If you're interested in one, get in touch with me because if you order three, you get the fourth one free!

We are in the midst of planning our trip to the United States this coming Saturday. It will be an exciting road trip to end all road trips. There will be Christmas excitement in the air while we search for amazing deals. Also, some good road trippin' tunes. Really, it isn't about the destination, it's about the great trip we will have. Although Krista just told me that she hates it when we play classic rock during the trip so we'll have to switch things up. Although she then told me how she has a short attention span and likes to skip through songs after the first chorus or not hear songs by the same artists in a row.

What the heck? We're definitely not letting her control the radio here or else it will be like the scan feature on your radio!

We are also mapping out the best route. Matt got a tip that the Thousand Islands entry point may take 3 hours to get across so we found another one near Prescott which may help us more. HOPEFULLY. Although I just found out there are toll booths along the way. The bane of my existence.

After nine years of filling up a 40 oz bottle of Absolute Vodka with pennies, it was finally full.

Time to count the change!

Let's recap some past events involving me counting change. Like when I counted my beer bottle of change in which the beer bottle was the size of a small dog and there was $1000 in it. Awww yeah!

So I know that pennies don't really amount to much but I had these visions of having at least $50 from it.

In the end, it took me three hours to count out $24. Ah well. It had to be done. I'm glad this will only occur every nine years.

Neat-o. Marvel Comics jumped on the digital bandwagon and are providing a subscription service that allows you to read old and new comic books on-line.

It is too bad that they won't allow you to just download them so you can bring them on a portable device (like a laptop, or the handy dandy iPod Touch!).

However, it's a step in the right direction. It's cool to get a chance to read all those back issues from the '60s. In the past year I have been reading the X-Men series and am hovering around the year 1986 right now. So I've basically read twenty years of X-Men issues so far! It's getting a little insane as in the 80s, the X-Men exploded and there's a whole bunch of series to read.

Anyhow, here's a little comic book trivia for you -> Marvel and DC own the trademark to the name 'super hero'.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=6992

By the way, if you are looking for a Christmas gift for any Spider-Man fans out there, there is this cool new book out called Spider-Man - The Icon which looks at Spider-Man throughout history. It's pretty neat how much is part of our society - action figures, films, cartoons...

It just hit me this morning that the music world (ha, I just caught my own pun) that we live in is changing drastically.

Music World across Canada has filed for bankruptcy and will be closing its stores unless someone swoops in and saves them.

What does this mean to all of us? Well, Sam The Record Man shut its doors sometime in the past year. While I never frequented Sam The Record Man (they didn't have many stores in Ottawa and when they did, they just didn't have the prices that Music World or HMV do), it had quite the following as my cousin Troy can attest to as he mentioned how he used to find old Metallica imports in the shop down on Younge Street.

Back to Music World, I am pretty bummed that this store is closing shop. I usually hit up Music World in the mall over HMV because they tended to have better prices on their new releases. I also like checking both stores all the time to compare. It was my thing. Now, all I'll have to go to is HMV. While I enjoy HMV's crazy combo item sales (like BUY TWO FOR $20!), I felt Music World had more of the music fans working in it. You could talk about an album with the employees and see what they thought.

Where does this put the world of music stores? It's a strange world we live in where there are reports of CD sales actually increasing due to downloading of music, but in the end, I guess it's still not enough to help the record shops stay open?

Now we'll have HMV in the malls and that's about it. Other alternatives are electronics stores like Best Buy and Future Shop which aren't that bad when it comes to new releases and they are actually priced great. But what about smaller communities that can't afford a Best Buy in town? I feel bad for the teens of Kapuskasing who are growing up with downloading because all they have is the craptacular music section at Wal-Mart…the store which bans certain albums from hitting their shelves. Ugh. I always cringe when I go home and peruse their music section. Half of it consists of those 20th Century Greatest Hits packages!

What's the future in music retail? Well, if HMV eventually caves, I think you'll see the resurgence of local record shops which will specialize in albums. Sure, it will be more expensive (ack!), but maybe it's worth it for the personal experience you will get when entering the local music shop. I always enjoyed going to AVE (I think that stood for Audio-Visual Entertainment) in the Model City Mall. The people working there always had some good thoughts on what I was purchasing. I also remember someone telling me how CD singles would be gone within the year. Oh, how wrong you were…how wrong you were.

Side-note Rant - Let's talk about the Future Shop in Orleans. Newly opened up, this place sucks. I've been there twice on 'new release day' but they don't have all their stock out! I had to wait 30 minutes for them to fish out a Pearl Jam DVD that had just come out. I went there last week to pick up the new Beatles Help film and it was nowhere to be found! Argh. Mike also had a hard time when going to purchase an external hard drive which was in the flyer. When the helper (can he really be called that?) said there were none there, we made him look in the database to find out there were 17 in the store. Then when he took off looking for them, we saw him chatting it up with his buddies for 10 minutes! What the heck?

Future Shop in Orleans - shame on you. If you have commercials indicating that customers run to your doors on new release day, the least you can do is have the stock on the shelves and not in the stock room.

Back to the original thought of this posting - I am sorry to see Music World leave. Although I must admit their cataloging system was like a code you needed a decoder ring to break.

Mike and I watched A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) last night after a great raclette meal over at Eric and Annie's place.

I had picked AI up at some garage sale at work a few years back and didn't think I had seen it. Considering Vero is scared of anything to do with robots, I had to resort to my non robot hating friends to watch this film.

The scoop is that this film was the brainchild of Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielburg for the longest time and then Kubrick passed away so Spielburg continued with the vision of the future where robots are a part of our society and one robot maker wishes to see if he can make a robot which can LOVE.

So begins the tale of David, the boy robot who comes into the life of a family who think their son will never come back from whatever ailment he is suffering from. While the robot started off as being quite creepy in the fact that it just stood and started most of the time, the owners (parents) initiated the imprinting protocol which would allow the robot to love the parents. This is when David actually becomes like a normal kid which didn't freak me out as much.

However, it's just not David's day as the parents real son makes a recovery, comes back into their life and then David is jealous and ends up getting taunted into doing crazy things by the real son (like taking a lock of their mother's hair to show how much he loves her).

In the end, the robot gets booted from the house and then the real cool part of the film happens as you enter this Blade Runner-esque world where humans and robots interact but it's all very film noir - you have thousands of robots being thrown into trash heaps because they are obsolete, you have flesh-fairs where they destroy robots by firing them through canons or dropping acid on them and the spectators cheer.

It was all very marvelous and I love the imagery once they started looking at the universe outside of the parents home.

While the concept was pretty cool, I really thought the ending was cheese - ala Spielburg endings. What can I say? I can't knock the guy. He knows that he's making a decent flick here about the hope of robots. It was like ET but for robots. :-)

While I was watching it I realized I had seen it before but really couldn't remember the ending and at one point in the film, something in my memory triggered the fact that I was entering new domain in the film - as in, I had seen the film up until that point and for whatever reason had shut it off. It was strange for my brain to register the exact moment where I had last seen the film...which would have been years ago.

Verdict: It's a decent flick, but I prefer the darker futuristic movies (gotta check out Blade Runner - The Final Cut when it comes out in December!).

iplaying: Surf City Eastern Block - The Arcade Fire (2007-11-08 Berlin, Columbiahalle)

Check out the email I just received!

I am writing to let you know that one of your photos with a
Creative Commons license has been short-listed for inclusion
in the fourth edition of our Schmap Brussels Guide, to be
published later this month.

Now, the funny part about this email is the picture shown above was indeed taken in the Brussels Music Museum (which had a bunch of assorted instruments which were AMAZING) but the museum had a strict NO PICTURES ALLOWED policy!

I hope that if my picture does get selected to be in their Schmap Brussels Guide, the museum doesn't come after me!

I must admit it is pretty cool to think that something I posted on my Flickr website may actually be published. The reason they contacted me is that I have all my photos set to a Creative Commons License which says that people may use the photo for Non-Commercial reasons, but need to get my permission first. I have this setting on all my photos because I wouldn't want to one day stumble upon a picture of my family on some poster and wonder how someone got that picture without my permission!

Just wanted to send a thanks to those who have fought/do fight in conflict to better our lives.

Thanks to Sara for sending me this time killer. Create your own slogans!
http://www.sloganizer.net/en/

Here's some of my faves that were generated:
You better get inside Palmer.
The Spirit of Palmer.
Palmer for me!
Oh my gods, it's a Palmer.
The view on Palmer.
Every Palmer has a story.
Palmerrific.
Always the real thing, always Palmer.

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/multimedia/2007/11/gallery_saddest_cubicle

Stop yer complaining about your office! There's now way they are worse than these ones!

My favourite is how they put an IT contractor is a steel shipping container!

Wow. I'd like to thank Paul for inadvertently recommending this book via The Wolfshack. I haven't read a book which had me wanting more in awhile. Sure, I dabble in the Star Wars novels if there are new ones, but they are the same old. This was a fresh tale of thieves and their swashbuckling ways.

The story revolves around Locke Lamora, a thief in the fictional city/village/whatever you want to call it of Camorr where it plays like something out of an old role playing game like Quest For Glory - where they have thieving guilds, magicians and brute force. In Camorr, they are under the rule of Duke Nicovante and Locke Lamora and his fellows (The Gentleman Bastards as they like to call themselves) take it upon themselves to steal from the rich and elite to line their pockets with a small wealth. They start out as regular thieves but end up becoming con-artists in the process and thinking up more elaborate schemes.

Scott Lynch (from reading his bio and whatnot) is a young chap…my age or thereabouts who wrote this marvelous tale. He doesn't shy away from admitting that he is into video games, comic books, everything that is good in the world…so the book was like a familiar friend. The sense of camaraderie between Locke Lamora and friends made you feel like you are eavesdropping on a grand adventure. I especially liked how the author intertwined flashbacks at the appropriate times.

I haven't read many novels this past year but I would probably say this will make it as my #1 of the year. I am tempted to pick up the second one, but the series is seven books long and the second one is the only other one out there. I feel like he is pulling a Harry Potter…the first novel was a self-contained story but left us with questions at the end which will undoubtedly be answered within the series.

Trish sent me this article about a girl in India who had two legs and two legs removed, while keeping her remaining two legs and arms.

While I do not disagree that she probably wouldn't have the most normal life, I must question (on behalf of X-Men lovers everywhere) if science is interfering with evolution. What would have happened if she had two extra sets of hands? She could do everything twice as fast! It's a thing of science-fiction, but it's reality!

Anyhow, I think we should start up a School for Gifted Youngsters so these people don't feel out of place in society.

Article is here.

I am known in some circles as both stubborn, frugal and a procrastinator.

For example, I still haven't got that dent in my car fixed. At first, there was a method to my madness in that I did not want to get it fixed right away for someone to have dented it again. But now it's been six months later. I should really get that fixed.

Another great example of this would be the fact that in my bedroom for the past two years, the only light at night would be my small bedside lamp which definitely didn't shed any light on what is lurking in the corner of the room.

This is never a big deal to me during the summertime as there is enough daylight in the morning to scour through my dresser to find some matching socks.

But when the winter hits, it is impossible to pull open the sock drawer to find a black sock, let alone any sock at all! It is a mess of fabric inside that drawer which I can't see and I just feel around for something that feels like a sock, walk over to the lamp to ensure I have the right ones and if not, you'll find a collection of socks on my bedside table under the lamp because I left them there in frustration.

Considering this happened again the other morning, I finally decided to get off my ass and buy a lamp for the room. After hitting up four different stores with Mike, I finally settled on some four-lamp set from Wal-Mart. They have me by the hair on this one because:

A) The only nice lamps you can find come in sets.
B) I do not want one of those craptacular stand up lamps for $14 that everyone has (including me. I probably have three of them.) I want something that is timeless. Classic. Looks like Keith Richards puked on it back in the 70s.

So I ended up buying this four lamp set and I think the tall lamp is a little crooked but Mike didn't notice a difference. I also have two lamps that I really have no use for so I guess I'll throw one of them in my office?

But at least I can find a matching pair of socks in the morning.

I was just talking with my buddy about how I didn't bother going to see Zeppelin and he says:

"If jimmy page’s finger was still a-hurtin’ at the concert, you would have had the chance to get up on stage and replace him, dude! You blew it! ;)"

This brought up one of my favourite stories of yesteryear. I was back home for the holidays and the night before Dad drove us home (for some reason I remember Randy and Carol in the car…don't know why Carol would have been with us. Maybe getting a bus to Oshawa from Ottawa?) we ended up at the Sunshine with Double Time (was that their name?) on stage. Double Time comes through town a few times a year and they are a great act.

So as the night weared on, I decided to hit the road as I was feeling good but a few people stayed over. Of those people, Randy stayed. Maybe Carol also? Carol, let me know in the comment section why the heck I remember you in this story! He ended up partying with the members of the band up in their room for the night and didn't get home until 5 in the morning and we were picking him up between 6-7 in the morning!

He was in rough shape when we were cruising out of town. He was recounting this tale about how he was showing them some stuff on guitar but he was so drunk that he couldn't play at all and it was horrible! We all laughed when Dad brought up the fact that Randy blew his one big chance to make it big! Ha ha, we kept razzing him about that for the rest of the trip. I'm sure he looks back on that day and realizes he could have been touring with Double Time by now!

iplaying: First Days of Spring - Neverending White Lights (Act 1: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies)

If you don't follow the news on the writers strike, here's the scoop:

The Writing Guild of America pretty well holds all of the writers in Hollywood. From what I can tell, if you're a writer, you're part of the guild. They are striking because their old collective agreement (do they call them the same thing as I have with my union?) doesn't have any items giving them compensation for some hot-ticket items such as DVD sales or material created for the Internet. Seems to me that whatever they have is pretty archaic! Actually, here is a quote from Canoe:

Writers have not gone on strike since 1988, when the walkout lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry more than $500 million. Source article here.

What's my stance on the writers strike? Good for them. Heck, they write the shows we love. The least they should get is some of the lion's share of profits coming from DVD sales or whatever profits are made when the company broadcasts something on the Internet. Let's not forget about all the content they create for the Internet! I bet TV viewer ship is down over the years but DVD sales are up.

So, what does this mean to you folks out there who like to catch their favourite show on the television?

• Late night shows have essentially went on hiatus and are in re-run mode. No new Jay Leno for you folks.
• Shows like Heroes, Lost, Grey's Anatomy…down the tubes as far as new episodes go. Sure, they will have some new episodes for the next little while because writers work ahead of time. They've probably written another month's worth of episodes so far. But once January hits, you have to wonder what you will see.

For example, there is talk that an alternate episode will be filmed for Heroes to air as a Season Finale on December 3 if the strike looks like it will run into the new year. Does this suck? Mmm, well, I would like to think that it sucks when an original idea has to be squashed to do outside forces.

Lost has eight episodes written for the new season (premiering in January). Lost is a wildcat anyhow…last season they aired six episodes in September and then waited until January to air the remaining episodes. That was a lame move on their part and they know it…that's why this season will begin airing in January for the full run. At least, the full run of eight episodes!

That being said, if the strike lasts quite a long time (which is probably going to happen), I recommend the following things considering the winter is approaching:

• Get a hobby. If you have ever wanted to get your hand into wood-working or painting, start it now! With Christmas coming up, you can definitely put a handsaw on your Christmas list. Also needed is some sandpaper.
• Read a little more. Even if it's ONE MORE book than you've read last year, maybe you should sit down and read it. I personally love to read but I find myself reading while on the bus. Take that 30 minutes you would have spent watching Californication and curl up with a book. If you can't think of a book you should read, go to some of your friends who have similar interests and find out what they recommend to you. I have been introduced to some great reads by my friends Eric, Miguel and Paul. Check out the The Wolfshack for book reviews galore.
• Host movie nights. Everyone loves films so why not get together and watch one! We used to have film nights every week but due to people's schedules, it wavered for the better part of the year. Bring out the popcorn and bring your thoughts of what film you think everyone should watch! Have themes! Do a horror movie month or foreign film month. You will become cultured and have a great time while doing it.
• If you really want to still watch television there is only one thing you can do. Watch old TV shows! Television has been around since the 50s and in the past decade there has been a resurgence of great, GREAT serialized television shows. You know, the ones where if you jump in the middle, you may be a little lost. It's like a comic book. Go out and borrow a friend's DVD collection or download a series that you think may be interesting. Have you ever seen Alias? One of my all-time fave shows (well, up until Season 4 that is) which I highly recommend you should watch if you like a little action, a little conspiracy and a little mythology all wrapped up in a neat package. What about a mini-series? Check out Band of Brothers if you love the war-oriented shows or maybe you're interested in Canadian politics and should watch the mini-series on Trudeau? The key to accomplishing your quest into DVD watching is to not watch them all in one spurt (although if you are fine with that, great!). Just schedule an episode every day or every couple of days. Before you know it, you will have finished a season of a show and you will have had spare time to do other things around the house or with friends!
• Also remember that just because Hollywood is on strike, writers in Canada are not. Tune in to some great home-grown shows on CBC and elsewhere! I love the stuff that comes out of our great nation like Corner Gas or The Hour (a must-see show with our main man George S.). Heck, try and find an old episode of the Beachcombers while you are at it.

What am I going to do while the strike is on? I'm busy enough with school so I will fill my time catching up on some television shows that I've downloaded and those that have been recommended to me (like Weeds). The curse of the Internet is that you download a lot of stuff but never find the time to use it. I feel that way nowadays with forms of media that I purchase - I used to rush out to buy the newest CD, DVD or book that I wanted in my collection. But over the years I noticed that there were things that I spent money on and I just didn't use yet. So now I buy something that I know I will get around to using within the year. It doesn't make much sense to buy a new book if you aren't going to read it within a year because in six months time you'll find it for a cheaper price (usually).

Californication is a new series which stars everyone's favourite conspiracy theorist - David Duchovny! He plays Hank Moody - a writer's block author who had a few great novels in the past, even one that got butchered into a film.

Hank lives on his own but has a daughter Becca with the love of his life Karen but Karen is marrying some other guy because Hank and Karen are no longer together (for whatever reason). The series follows Hank's pursuits with women as well as the cure to his writer's block.

I love David Duchovny in this show. He is so sarcastic. I love it. I also like the situations that he gets into which are rip-roaring funny. Couple this with a great theme of the love of music (where every episode title is a song name) and there is always talk of musical pop culture references - (my fave - "What you need is a guitar that is timeless, and classic, and looks like Keith Richards threw up all over it in the 70s.). The character development is amazing. I love these characters and all their idiosyncrasies.

This show does not disappoint and it's probably one of my more favourite series since Friends and that's saying a lot. Mike and I enjoy the show thoroughly and he said he sister watched the entire season while she was up here for the past two days and she loved it also.

My only caveat for people who are interested in checking it out is that it's not for the faint of heart. There's cussing, there's nudity, there's talk about what leads to the nudity…it's pretty graphic. So keep that in mind. I personally am not offended with this stuff, but some people are.

Season 2 starts airing Summer 2008. Gives you plenty of time to check it out.

My main man, Michael Geist comments on a recent government led study on the effects of Peer-To-Peer file sharing (read: the concept of sharing music, music, etc. over the Internet for free) and the purchase of CDs.

If anything, it shows that P2P users tend to purchase more CDs.

I can relate to this. There are quite a few bands whom I've downloaded to see if I'll like them and if I do, I pick up their album if I like it. However, let's tell the truth here people - I tend to buy a new album of an artist I like and wait and pick up the others when I see them in a sale bin. In the end, I'm supporting the artist…just taking my time getting there!

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2347/125/

The weekend was a semi-bust, what with me studying for my sociology mid-term tonight. That's right, another mid-term! What the heck? I did one two weeks ago!

I spent Friday night catching up on all the readings which was fine with me. It allows me to sit on the couch and listen to some Pumpkins bootlegs (their latest - New Orleans Voodoo Festival is a top notch bootleg).

Saturday I moseyed around the house in preparation for studying. I ended up watching the last two episodes of Californication (read my review elsewhere) and jotted down some study notes on social control, deviance, and minorities within society. The thing about sociology is that a lot of it is stuff you've already heard before so you have a hard time studying it.

I also watched Friday the 13th Part 4 while studying which was a great time. It's probably the best of the series (although I've only seen up to Part 6). Vero surprised me by dropping by with supper which was great as she was on the same wavelength as me considering I left her a message (which she hadn't checked) saying I was tired of studying and that we should have supper. We had some great salmon along with Mike's relatives who were in town for the World Ringette Tournament. After that Vero and I hung out in my office checking through some pictures of her graduation and Hallowe'en and eventually headed to her place to watch The Others.

The Others stars Nicole Kidman and a bunch of other people and involves her living in a haunted house. I've seen it before and enjoyed it. Check it out if you're up for an original idea.

Sunday turned out to be a strange day where it feels like the longest day ever. It's a wonder what one extra hour does to your system. Vero cut my hair, I studied for awhile and we went to the mall to check out some treadmills. Dang, those things are expensive. I then went home and spent the night just relaxing which turned out to feel like an entire day on its own. My system was definitely in a strange place.

Hopefully the midterm does well tonight. November is ramping up to be a busy month. I'm trying to finish a report for sociology this week so I can have the weekend to myself. The weekend after is the grand trip to the United States of America to do some Christmas shopping. You can't go wrong with our friend, the Canadian Dollar.

iplaying: Storm - Godspeed You! Black Emperor (Lift Your Skinny Fists...)

http://www.nme.com/news/led-zeppelin/32241

Read article. Then read here.

I've learned a valuable lesson here folks. No matter how great the band is, don't even THINK about getting a flight to London England to see them because the guitarist hurting his finger may happen.

Imagine the uproar there will be over the next few days of ALL the people around the world having to cancel their flights?!

Picture this: I'm driving on my regular route to the park and ride and I hear on the radio that there is no power at an intersection which is coming up.

Quickly, I realize that the traffic will probably be slower along that route because of the lack of traffic lights so I double back.

Unfortunately for myself, the radio report wasn't entirely correct…it wasn't the intersection that had no power, it was the entire area!

Here I was navigating through neighbourhood streets which I'm not entirely familiar with and I finally found my way out of the maze only to discover that since the power was out on one end of the neighbourhood, it was out on the OTHER end that I was heading towards and there's even more traffic there!

Hence, I became stuck in stop and go traffic for 4 kilometers because there were police directing traffic due to lack of lights in the area. Argh! In the end, if I just stuck to my regular course, I probably would have spent a few additional minutes instead of the 10 I just used trying to find a shortcut.

Case in point - Sometimes you're not as smart as you think. In my case, this happens a lot. Ha ha.

Right before I woke up this morning I was dreaming a dream which can only be described as one which inventors must have…a glimpse of the insane future where the things you see can only come from Star Trek.

I'm just writing about this to document the event so in the future when it comes out I can say "Hey, I dreamt of that one night on Hallowe'en!"

I was sitting down in some type of theatre, or maybe the Scotiabank Place. Think - the floor with some seats. Right in front of me was Matt showing me a picture he just took on his digital camera.

The things is, the camera screen was huge. Think about a laptop (tablet version) but double that size. So here he is holding up this giant screen for me to look at this picture, but as soon as he's done, he pushes on the sides and the thing shrinks to the size of a laptop and he goes to take a picture with it.

Now, if you visualize this, you have to admit that hauling around something the size of a laptop to take a photo is ludicrous, but the idea of this invention where you can expand your screen just by pulling on the sides and then shrinking it by pushing on its sides was pretty neat. It's essentially the concept of zooming in and out on a software application, but in a hardware form.

I thought it was pretty darn neat looking and I hope to see it in the future. Although, not the size of a laptop.

I should also point out that considering this was probably taken in the future, you should be happy to know that Vero was sitting next to me. Which bodes well for her, but not well for me and my quest to date a nuclear physicist.