Palmer's World

New Site

2008-01-11T13:41:00.000-05:00

Until I get everything sorted out (like having a redirect to the new site folder put on the main page, you can catch new entries to the site on this site:

http://palmer.grumpster.com/wordpress

Eventually I'll get everything fixed up. Also, I'll eventually catch up on all my entries. It's been...busy with the interview last Thursday and starting school again and playing around with my Mac based system.

Testing

2008-01-08T22:02:00.000-05:00

http://palmer.grumpster.com/wordpress

Creation Sarcastik

2008-01-08T10:25:00.000-05:00

When Trish and I went to the "Not Your Grandma's Craft Sale" back in November, I picked up a bag for Vero for Christmas with this odd little creature on it.

It was made by Creation Sarcastik and you should take a look at their stuff. It's pretty cool!

Interview

2008-01-08T08:20:00.001-05:00

Gak! What a way to start the new year! I have an interview this coming Thursday! This is stretching the Palmer a little too thin on the study front. Especially since I have classes from 4 - 8:30 on Wednesday night.

While I wouldn't say that I'm not looking forward for a promotion, at the same time, I am in a comfortable position of the fact that it's not an interview for my own job. I think that's my saving grace in these things. If I don't pass the interview, at least I know I can try for another one at another time. Not like the time back in 2004 where it was the scenario of "Pass this, or you lose your job." That was grueling!

My Almost Complete Move to a Mac

2008-01-08T08:11:00.001-05:00

Pretty well a year ago this week, I purchased a MacBook. It has not disappointed me (other than the crackling speaker last week which, this week, I can't duplicate and my warranty is running out in a week which irks me. Time to drop the thing a few times!) and I have enjoyed the experience of using a Mac.

Vero provided the ammunition I needed to fully move over to a Mac-life and potentially turn off my old computer with Windows installed on it. She picked up a nice sleek monitor for me to connect to the laptop.

You see, the laptop is cool and all but for heavy duty workloads I preferred to jump over to my computer with a larger screen. So I never really allowed myself to get into the inner workings of the Mac…I just knew how to get by.

Those days are in the past as I have started building my Mac only station. I have the monitor on my desk and when I want to go nuts on the Mac, I put my laptop down next to me and I have a bunch of cables tie-wrapped together which easily plug into all the ports I need to make the laptop a sweet, sweet station of life.

After playing around for a few hours with the monitor and it's setup, I started thinking about the what this scenario led me to:

- no noise: everyone knows the hum of a computer. If you work in an office building, you probably don't notice it and think it's just the ventilation. While partially true, it's also all those computer power supply fans running and has the power to drown out people talking outside your cubicle. The same goes for in my office at home. When I open my door to my bedroom down the hall, I can definitely hear the fan on my computer running. Over the past 15 years, I suppose it could be considered normal.

With the laptop, it's eerie to not hear anything compared to the hair-dryer like fan on my old computer. Sure, there are new computers out there that have silent fans so maybe I'm behind the times. So here I am clicking away on the computer and I can't hear anything else in the room.

- Storage: Hmm…well this will take awhile to properly figure out. (Geekspeak warning!) Essentially, my whopping 80GB collection of music is on my old computer, which, in turn, syncs up to my iPod. There's no way I can put that music onto my laptop hard drive. In the end, last night I transferred all my MP3s onto my portable hard drive which was a pain because there was not enough room to do it in one copy session so I had to time it so when I copied the MP3s onto my portable hard drive, I timed the offload of data from it back onto the old computer's hard drive. Bah. Why can't I just own 1TB or 2? ;-) Anyhow, this morning the transfer was complete. I think this will solve the problem of the iPod.

However, there is the question about what to do with all that data on my old hard drives? I can think of two possible solutions:

- Rip out the hard drives and put them in portable hard drive casings so they can easily plug into my laptop if need be (or get a USB hub) and then I have the ease of fast USB connectivity. Cons of this scenario leave my old computer as a shell as if I ever needed to use the old computer for whatever reason (hey, the Mac isn't perfect here), then it would be a slight pain. Unless I left the hard drive with the operating system on it. Now there's an idea.
- Use my old computer as a server. Just share the whack load of folders on the old computer so I can access them over the network. Cons of this scenario is that it definitely isn't the fastest option if I want to transfer files. But it should do the trick if all I want to do is stream media from it. Hmm…I could definitely just throw it in the basement to act as a server and not have to think about it.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to a Mac-only existence and the larger monitor will persuade me to record more into GarageBand because it was a slight pain before due to the small screen on the laptop.

Over the holidays, I had a LOT of people ask me "Why a Mac?" In fact, I have had that question over the past year. People know about the Mac. But they don't know why someone would want to purchase it?

It's really hard to put into words…I usually fall back on the 'it's for the creative people'. It's the best platform to use to make films or music, or DVDs (in my opinion). Really, I can't justify telling someone to fork out an extra $500 on a Mac if all they really do with a laptop is look at pictures, surf the Net and check email.

But even those simple tasks are easier to do on the Mac. It's just more…intuitive. Maybe it's because it's one design and there isn't any hardware conflicts because the hardware isn't really an issue like it is with the regular PC where you can swap out components to the point where your computer becomes Frankenstein. I was trying to take a look at the wireless network settings on a Windows Vista computer during the holidays and it took me awhile to find it. You would think someone with experience in Windows XP would be alright around the Vista environment but it was hard! It really wasn't intuitive at first. But on the Mac, the wireless network is pretty neat. If it finds one, it asks you if you want to connect to it. If there's a password, it asks you for the password. Voila, done. Heck, I can't really make any comments on Vista other than that. It does look neat visually.

In the end, I would say that it took me a month to get used to the interface of the Mac. But now I enjoy it more than the Windows system. I definitely think that if I had the choice to get my parents a PC or a Mac, I would get a Mac because in the end, there is a learning curve, but it's much simpler to use in the end of it all. It's just…intuitive.

If any of you are on the fence on getting a new computer and are thinking if it's worth shelling out the extra bucks to use the Mac, find a Mac and tinker around with it for awhile. You may end up liking it. I'll let you know how the full transference to a Mac-life works out for this chap.

Misread

2008-01-07T15:39:00.001-05:00

Ski resort expands search for missing snowboarder

I thought the headline said this at first

Ski resort expands search for missing snowblower

iplaying: Malibu - Hole (Celebrity Skin)

Make Your Own Comic Book Wallet!

2008-01-07T11:40:00.001-05:00

I need to find a crummy old comic book to try this out! That would be way cool!

Thanks to Paul at the Wolfshack for providing this link.

http://www.kerismith.com/funstuff/wallet.htm

iplaying: Show Me The Way - Peter Frampton (Frampton Comes Alive!). Let us not forget that Peter Frampton is the maker of the other great hit Sweet Emotion. Mike, that comment goes out to you.

2008

2008-01-07T11:35:00.000-05:00

I think 2008 brings a little more website updates from yours truly. I feel I let the masses down from time to time.

Dad is Fine Now

2008-01-02T15:37:00.000-05:00

Dad went for an angiogram this morning which lets the doctors take a look inside your heart to see if there is anything amiss. Sure enough, they then took him to put a stent inside an artery as there was blockage. I looked at a picture and I'm not a doctor but I would say the artery was 100% blocked as there was gap between one side of the artery to the other!

He is now resting as they have to cut open the main artery to get in to do this kind of thing and should be out of the hospital tomorrow. Hopefully this will fix it up!

The last few days in the hospital have been interesting and if I feel like it I'll write more about them in the future. For now, I think I'll take a nap but there is also this lingering question...

If he had an angiogram in October and it showed that an artery was 60% blocked and three months later, it is fully blocked (even though they said that would be rare), does this mean:

1) Someone misread the angiogram the first time and there was more blockage than originally thought?
2) Is there somehow some hyperactivity in Dad's blockage-making centers of his body that make it blocked faster than a speeding bullet?

Ah well...we'll figure this stuff out later.

iplaying: The Rose March - The Smashing Pumpkins (American Gothic EP)

Back in My Birthplace

2007-12-29T23:09:00.001-05:00

I try to keep this site up to date over the holidays but sometimes it's difficult and then I'll just throw a random information update which will have you saying "Whaaa?"

I am now in Sudbury, the place of my birth as I drove Mom done so we can see Dad in the hospital. They were planning to put both Dad and Mom on the Air Ambulance to go to Sudbury to see the cardiologist but as soon as they were boarding the plane, the pilot informed Mom that no one informed them that Mom would be coming so they had too much fuel on board. So I packed my bags and drove Mom and myself to Sudbury.

I have never really remembered going to Sudbury in my later years in my life so it was odd to hear that I could get there through Timmins. We packed up the truck with all survival gear; sleeping bags, candles, snowsuits...it's a dangerous time to be travelling in the winter up North. Mom kept warning me about the Highway 144 which connects Timmins to Sudbury...it was barren and there no civilization for 300 kilometers.

This was chugging through my head on the way down. The trip only began around 3PM and it already started off bad as the sub we bought was hard to eat while driving and there was now mustard all over my jacket and seat! After getting a scolding from Mom for asking for too many toppings, the rest of the trip went fine until hitting up Wal-Mart for some windshield washer and I couldn't find the latch to pop open the hood of Dad's truck. For a valiant 5 minutes I searched and searched but I could not figure it out. I stared at the mechanism for a solid 30 seconds to see what part connected to which. In the end I realized that it was a simple pull of a lever which had alluded me which popped the hood and we were on our way.

HWY 144 is a disaster. Small. No Cellphone towers. Snows. Argh. While there weren't any close calls, I was on edge the entire trip as we passed oncoming traffic and you were shifted to the side of the road. I felt like a big man coming down the hallway and I was Peter Parker being shoved to the side.

Mom introduced me to the CBC on the ride as the CDs Maureen gave me were god-awful. She even had mixes entitled "Soft" and "Evil". Gak. CBC was amazing....they had some amazing jazz sessions as well as a songwriting session where last year songwriters submitted 27 words that encompassed their past year or what they saw in the upcoming year of 2007 and then other songwriters wrote music to it. Very inspiring and I may ask you all to submit your 27 words so I can use them to build songs with.

In the end, we made it through HWY 144 and after some questionable directions from Mom, we arrived at the hospital (we passed by Northern Brewery!) and saw Dad on the 5th floor. I think it relieved all involved to see a) Dad in Sudbury to see a cardiologist and b) Us show up safe and sound.

After visiting for a few minutes (as it was past visiting hours), we headed to Gary and Susan's place where I was introduced to the most amazing basement (if not house) of all time - a basement with motion sensor lights, a hot tub, beer bottles from heaven's knows where and a beer keg in the fridge. A smile crept on my face when Dad prepared me for it at the hospital but when Gary was showing me how to pour the beer, it was all fun and games at that point. We then headed to their deck which they converted to a den and had fun for a few hours before retiring for the night.

So here I am in Sudbury in a bedroom typing away and hoping that Dad will see the cardiologist tomorrow. Chances are that he won't as it is a Sunday but you never know. At least he is here where some world-renowned cardiologists reside.

As for the quick update before I update the past few days: Dad has been having pain since the beginning of December which resulted in a hospital stay. Hasn't gotten better since then to the point where he has chest pain while walking to the washroom. Brought him into the hospital on December 27th and has now arrived in Sudbury today. Don't know how long we will be here. Vero has in her heart offered to drive us and take care of us but let's be honest...I appreciate that and if we do need your help, you're a phone call away.

Back to the Days of Slumber

2007-12-25T18:00:00.000-05:00

Christmas Eve brought forth the standard fare of wrapping gifts when the clock is ticking. We ended up running out of nametags so I had to resort to the old tried and true method of sticking a piece of paper onto it with someone's name on it.

Church was fine and I would like to mention that Krista and I got a shout out for being some fine servers back in the day and how St. Mark's wished that we could find jobs in town so we could come back and serve. Let it be said here that if I ever came into some money, I would hire the church a server.

I headed over to the Townsons for an excellent feast as well as some drinks and National Lampoon's. The Losiers came over as well as my old manager at Wal-Mart (along with his family) and we laughed at some good stories as well as our favourite parts of the film. Thanks to the Townsons for hosting yet another smashing event!

I then headed over to the Konopelkys with drink in hand and finished off the night there before heading home with my family.

The next morning I awoke from my slumber to find a stocking thrown at my face. All I know is I peeked into it and noticed the words lose flab. I groaned and turned over. No magazine should say those words on Christmas morning!

After some excellent breakfast from Mom, we headed downstairs to start opening the gifts.

Highlights:

Mom yelling at Dad for opening up one of my gifts (it was an excellent book called Run of the Town by Terrence West. He comes from Hearst and lives now in Ottawa where he has written stories about his youth in a small Northern town.) Anyhow I had picked this gift up for Dad but we didn't realize that Mom and Dad had also picked it up for me so Mom thought Dad had opened up my gift! Ha ha. We had a good laugh and I added "Quel surprise!" when I opened up my own copy.
Maureen got me some excellent Christmas tree ornaments in the form of some characters from A Christmas Story as well as a very original gift in the form of a gift certificate to Ticketmaster to help out with all my concerts. Neat-o!
I also got some excellent gifts from Nannies (Thanks!) as well as some other great gifts such as a work bench and some great books/DVDs.

The Konopelkys came over for an early lunch where we watched some Christmas specials on TV, had some great grub and lazed around until the nighttime. Unfortunately, Dad wasn't feeling too good again so he had to lie down for awhile. Hopefully it wasn't the turkey which did it!

Merry Christmas to All

2007-12-25T09:27:00.000-05:00

Recapture some of that magique that you had when creeping down the stairs to see what Santa brought you under the tree today.

Also, gorge yourself with some wine, turkey and let's not forget the stuffing. It's called that for a reason.

12 Days of Christmas: Day 13

2007-12-25T09:16:00.000-05:00

Uncle Gary sent in the final Christmas survey of the year to round out our 12 Days of Christmas (however unlucky the number seems to be!). I hope everyone has enjoyed reading these surveys and I hope it got you in the mood for the holiday season which we are pretty well in the moment of right about now!

What is your favourite thing about Christmas?
Giving a gift that makes everyone say " How did you think of that ". Throughout the year listening to your loved ones, making mental notes of what they like, love enjoy, miss from years ago, etc. The spending hours, upon hours, making, building, asking, looking, searching, planning and finally giving the gift that wow's them all. Never use lists !!!!!!!! Enjoy the ART OF GIVING !!!

What's your least favourite thing about Christmas?
Sacrificing being with your family to be with the ones you love, being too many miles away to be close to them, to see their smiles, to see their happiness, to be a part of their life !! But, all the while enjoying the life you lead and the new family you created !

What's better? The Christmas Story or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? Why?
You must add "It's a wonderful life" to me it win's hands down over the two spoof's of Christmas. Think about your life and ask yourself this question " How wonderful is your life?"

Do you have a guardian angel, by the name of "Clarence" or "Sydney" everyone has one...mine is "Sydney" he brought Lois into my life !!!

What's your favourite drink during the holiday season?
Rum punch or Pina Colada on a tropical Island called Cuba.

What should Vero get Palmer for Christmas?
Vero should GIVE Palmer all the love that Palmer has GIVEN her all year long, Palmer on the other hand should GIVE Vero MORE of the LOVE she deserves for being a part of Palmer's life and making his a "WONDERFUL LIFE!!!"

He also wanted to add the following:
Christmas is about being YOUNG, thinking young, feeling young, living young and most of all believing in Santa.

Back in the Past

2007-12-24T22:13:00.000-05:00

The Holidays Gods have blessed me with a clear head after a hard night of rocking at the legion. Dad showed me how to operate the plough on the ATV and plowed the driveway for awhile as it was raining and crappy outside so everything was slush. After resting easy in the morning and picking up a few last minute things (including some wrapping paper as someone misplaced theirs), Randy and Lina came over to visit. I haven't seen Randy in a few years and had never met Lina so I was anxious for the day to begin. After talking with my folks for a bit, Randy and I retired to the basement and the magic was recaptured as we jammed together again. Randy was the first person I really jammed with when I started playing guitar. We played some classics and he introduced me to a few tunes I never tried out like Tripping Daisy's Piranhas and Chris Isaak's Wicked Game (which I remember Three Days Grace covering last year). John also showed up with his electric guitar and provided some mythical lead guitar. He is by far the most talented guitar player I have ever met. It comes naturally to this individual.

After a few hours of jamming, Mom and Dad were gracious enough to invite everyone to a feed of moose meat. We then piled all the equipment into John's Suburban and headed to Jeff's. It was nice seeing him again and it was the first time I met his wife Kate and she is lovely. We continued the jam session and John taught me a few things about playing bass guitar and I had a good time while it lasted. The night descended into madness fueled by jamming and alcohol and by 1:00 I was ready to hit the sack. It was nice to walk the long walk home in the middle of a snowy night as it reminded me of my youth as I cut through the backyard of the french high school. Too bad that it had snowed all day long and the path was about a foot deep! I navigated well until the end where it turned into slush and it was all downhill from that point!

12 Days of Christmas: Day 12

2007-12-24T22:08:00.000-05:00

Our Mac enthusiast Artoo writes in with his thoughts on Christmas! Please note the photo with his true love...

What is your favourite thing about Christmas?
Oddly enough, I have to dig into Christmas past for this one. Christmas time memories of yore is what I like most about Christmas. From the time the lights go up to the time we take them down, it just seems that everything I do just reminds me of great past memories.

Wether it be at four or five years old, opening up my table hockey set and Star Wars action figures at my grand parent's place on Rockwood street and then playing with my 3 cousins in the halls of that huge house -- or a couple of years back, meeting my sweet right before Xmas and us going on our first date on boxing day. Christmas time is magical.

What's your least favourite thing about Christmas?
The shopping. The hectic pace in public places. The stress that many people inflict on themselves to conform to the commercialism of Christmas. Relax people, it's just Christmas!

What's better? The Christmas Story or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? Why?
National Lampoon's is my favorite of the two films. I have been watching it for years. Let's face it, there is a little Griswold in all of us. I saw A Christmas Story for the first time a year or two ago. To quote Palmer on this one: 'Don't get me wrong, It's a great film" but it's not yet in my annual rotation of Christmas Specials.

Speaking of Christmas films or specials, I must admit that for me there is a new king in town. "Elf' has become my favorite of all favorites. Syrup on pasta... Mmmmmm!

What's your favourite drink during the holiday season?
Bailey's... definately Bailey's!!

What should Vero get Palmer for Christmas?
She should get him Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii or the Game Rock band for the PS3. Should she have trouble finding one of these items, she could buy him a cool Tintin book or the movies Spiderman 3 or Ratatouille in Blu Ray format. There is also an new Adventures of Young Indy Jones DVD set that just came out or the new Keane or Kylie Minogue Concert DVDs or... ... oh.. what should VÉRO buy PALMER... .Ehm... nevermind!

Back in the USSR

2007-12-23T11:46:00.000-05:00

The drive home was a success. It was a great success from Ottawa to North Bay where the roads were bare. The drive from North Bay to Cochrane was pretty bad. Luckily for me, I felt drowsy at this point and let Vero drive for awhile. But it was pretty bad. There were a few times where I decided to stay in the non-passing lane because it was too icy to pass anything. However, that doesn't stop 20 other cars from passing me and then I have thoughts of one of them side-swiping me!

In the end, we counted 10 cars in the ditch on the way up and one was just past Moonbeam and was flipped right over. They were alright so we continued on the trip. It took us 10 hours so it wasn't that bad of a trip. We played Christmas trivia and had lively discussions with Krista (who was getting a ride).

We dropped by the Konopelkys where my parents were having a drink and we relaxed for awhile and then headed back home for the night. After some beers, great pizza and watching the Beatles Help! film, Vero and I headed out to the Legion where everyone was. Maureen also showed up for a beer and we had a good laugh when realizing that we were both wearing the same outfit - red sweater and jeans! I proclaimed "You have the town to yourself for the entire year, this is my town for one week! Go home and change!".

It was nice seeing some familiar faces and the band was in top form. My highlight of the night was when Bruce called me up to sing and we thought Back in the USSR would be a good fit. Luckily for me that I had been practicing this song for the past few months so the lyrics were fresh in my inebriated mind (as opposed to all the lack of memory on all other lyrics in this world!). So I was impressed with myself and we had a good time once we figured out what key to sing it in. Special thanks to the band for allowing me to sing on one number. I've included one photo which shows me in my rocking stance. I was telling Vero that it's a different feeling being up there without a guitar as I don't really know how to stand so I just tried to think of the greats; Robert Plant, Bono, Mom...and channeled that energy into the performance. I was offered the guitar at first but figured that it would be hard enough remembering the lyrics let alone playing with the entire band!

Highlights:

What was with the draft beer that night? I swear there was definitely some sugar added to it.
I have no recollection of how this started but somehow the slogan for Mike was that he was Hepatitis Free so every time we saw him we cheered this fact. Let it be clear that Mike has never had hepatitis!
Seeing Brent take the drums for a few songs.

All in all, a good first night back home. It was good to see Danny and Carol as they are heading out fairly soon during the Christmas break as they have to go back to work.

12 Days of Christmas: Day 11

2007-12-23T10:09:00.000-05:00

Mom graciously sent some survey answers our way so we can round out the 12 Days of Christmas! Special thanks to Aunt Lois who reminded me that Mom did send something in as I had not put it in my Christmas Survey folder and had forgotten! She also didn't send along a photo of herself and she explained it with this message: "As you know, I Don't have a scanner so I can't send any pictures from long ago, also, you may not have realized, but I never seem to spend Christmas with you guys, since there are no photos of me." If this isn't a hint at what she wants for Christmas, I don't know what is! She sent along a favourite photo of hers where I was impersonating an old man that Nanny would be dancing with in an old-timers home.

What is your favourite thing about Christmas?
My favourite things about Christmas are getting together with family & friends and all the
decorations.

What's your least favourite thing about Christmas?
Most people who know me will know that I really dislike trying to shop for people who don't need anything (or go and buy it for themselves just before Christmas). We have long forgotten the important things about the season.

What's better? The Christmas Story film or National Lampoon's Christmas
Vacation film? Why?
I really like Christmas Vacation. I don't really know why.

What's your favourite drink during the holiday season? Slush

What should Vero get Palmer for Christmas?
The question should be what should Palmer get for Véro?

Toot Sweet!

2007-12-21T13:58:00.001-05:00

I was reading an article on old Marvel superhero toys and I found this following statement:

Needless to say, the Marvel license was snatched up toot sweet and the rest is toy history.

Read here.

Myths - Busted!

2007-12-21T12:01:00.000-05:00

This is a great Globe and Mail article about medical myths that have been debunked. I send this article out to my friend who always had some water by her side!

Read here.

iplaying: Wave Song - The Smashing Pumpkins (Mashed Potatoes)

Ho Ho Ho

2007-12-21T11:44:00.001-05:00

Ah..the holiday spirit is approaching fast! I had my sociology exam last night which went well solely because the professor gave us example essay questions and indicated that she would choose two of them for the exam. That saved my ass because the multiple choice were out of this world. As in, she doesn't choose her questions from her lecture points, she chooses them from the textbook! I find this frustrating as I'm typing a mile a minute on my laptop to capture everything she says and in the end, all you need to do is memorize the textbook (which is no easy feat!). Plus there are questions that are obscure like "According to a statistic regarding population, what was the 3rd largest minority?". What the heck? Do I have to memorize every graph in the book? Argh. Anyhow, I'm hoping it went fine.

It's the last day at work before the holidays and I've already received a few gifts. I got a great Guinness Beer gift set from my manager and I also got a Christmas Trivia game from Krista. There are 1200 questions so I think that in 120 years we can use the entire set if I have a Christmas party every year!

I have to pick up some more things tonight because I haven't had that much time to shop and I will have to pack up the car tonight with things to keep me interested over the holidays. Up on the chopping block is bringing my guitar and recording equipment home, borrowing Eric's Lord of the Rings set to watch and bringing some movies that I think Dad would be interested in. I also am going to get Dad to teach me how to play Crib again. Haven't played in years!

Not looking forward to driving this weekend...rain all the way. I can only imagine what that will mean in this weather. Slush and lots of windshield washer. Guh.

Other than that, there isn't TOO much lined up for the holidays which is fine by me. Christmas Eve at the church and a gathering afterwards, I think there is a night at the Legion tomorrow night, maybe there will be another wings and beer night at the Losiers and I will probably spend New Years Eve over at Vero's.

I will try and update the blog but who knows? Holidays are kind of nice to let go of that sort of thing...

Here's some reading for you concerning Charlie Brown's Christmas.

12 Days of Christmas: Day 10

2007-12-21T09:32:00.001-05:00

Joe took time out of his busy schedule of unpacking boxes into his new house in Brockville (in preparation for a wild Christmas dinner which everyone is invited to!!!) to give us his thoughts on Christmas.

What is your favourite thing about Christmas?
The gathering of family together and feeling the love!

What's your least favourite thing about Christmas?
Christmas shopping traffic! Love spending the money, but hate getting there!

What's better? The Christmas Story or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? Why?
I go out side the box and take A Chrismas Carole with Alister Sim, Awsome! If I did have to pick, a Christmas story, I love BB guns I feel the kids pain!

What's your favourite drink during the holiday season?
Warm egg nog with plenty of Rum!Most alcohol will do, I'm not picky at all!

What should Vero get Palmer for Christmas?
How about a ice/snow brush for the car when his $2 breaks! [Palmer's Note - Man, those $2 snow brushes may not have the reach of the $20 ones, but they are indestructible.]

Winter Tires Mandatory in Quebec

2007-12-20T13:59:00.000-05:00

Whoa! Just heard word that the province of Quebec has made it mandatory for cars to have winter tires between November - April.

That is quite the ruling. Does residents get a tax break from that? Will the tire shops jack up their prices because it is now mandatory?

Here's an interesting statistic from this Globe and Mail article.

"Currently, 90 per cent of Quebec drivers switch to winter tires. But Minister of Transportation Julie Boulet wanted to make snow tires compulsory, even though buying them will represent an additional cost for some owners."

That's quite a high percentage. I never realized it could be that high. So then I'm wondering, why the heck are they making it mandatory if 90% of the population does so anyhow?

Here's another stat worthy of discussion:
"Last year, 717 people died as a result of accidents on the province's roads."

Questions (from my critical thinking mind):
- Of those 717, how many were snow-on-the-road related accidents?
- How many of those snow-on-the-road related accidents involved vehicles without snow tires?

I would think that if 90% of the population has snow tires, chances are, even if the 717 were involved in snow-on-the-road accidents, some of the cars had snow tires.

What I'm getting at is that I don't think the statistics help the case for a mandatory snow tire policy. Now, if they said it was voluntary but you got a rebate from the Quebec government, maybe the number would creep up past the 90% mark. But 90% is a heck of a lot and in many circles is deemed a good average.

I don't even know if 717 people dying due to provincial road accidents is higher compared to other provinces or if it's in line with the average. I stand by my original question as to how many of these deaths are winter-tire related.

Maybe I'm just commenting because I don't feel I need snow tires, but people who buy them anyhow are ADAMANT that they are needed and call me foolish for not doing so.

On a related note (I'm sure I'll get flack for this comment), I wonder how many accidents are caused because people think if they have snow tires, they can go about their merry day and drive like it's the summer in the middle of the winter? I'm sure there are a few.

Anyhow, in the end, considering there's only 10% of the population in Quebec that don't buy winter tires, it's a small percentage who will have their say but will get drowned out by the all the others who buy winter tires anyhow. I'm going to mark in my calendar to take a look at the province wide road deaths a year from after the ruling is implemented.

Another interesting point was the banning of hand held cellular phones while driving which is going to go into effect on January 1. I guess I agree with it…I've noticed some drivers in the past who are merging into my lane when they shouldn't and I wonder why they are doing that and then I notice they are on their cellphone. However, I've been there and done it, and don't feel that it hinders my driving but that may be my ignorance speaking and it would be interesting to take a driving test while talking on a cellular phone to see how reaction time is diminished. In the end, I don't think it's a BAD idea and it doesn't cost anyone money to not talk on phone while driving. Quick! Sell some hands free sets in Quebec for the Christmas season!

***update*** So our friend pollcrazy left this comment:
" What about the insurance industry not covering your claim because you didn't have snow tires on?". This intrigued me as I had never heard of this happening but heck, you never know with insurance companies. So I decided to go straight to the source and emailed my insurance supervisor and she said that it simply wasn't true. Now in pollcrazy's defense, perhaps his insurance company has a different clause, or perhaps he has friends that this has happened to or has seen investigative reports on this type of thing. Heck, we've all heard horror stories about insurance companies not processing your claims. At the very least, I have received a Christmas present from pollcrazy in the fact that I now have an email from my insurance company saying not having snow tires won't affect my claim if something does happen. Yay!

12 Days of Christmas: Day 9

2007-12-20T07:51:00.000-05:00

Day 9 rolls in...egads...we are close to Christmas! I wasn't even thinking about how close Christmas actually was until I noticed the date on my watch yesterday. I hope that everyone is done their Christmas shopping so they can relax and enjoy a good book. I have my final exam tonight and tomorrow will be a whirlwind of last minute shopping, packing and dropping off gifts. If you see an amazing looking gift on your doorstep on Saturday morning, it was from me.

Katie sent in her Christmas thoughts and she gave me a variety of pictures to choose from. I definitely wanted to put up the cowboy picture but I also thought a Santa hat may do it justice. You can decide which one you like better. Also, she sent in what can only be described as something she picked up after a ride in the Delorean.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas?
My favourite thing is probably giving gifts, whether it's something that puts a smile on your face, or inviting friends over to enjoy a meal, or giving to charity. It's such a good time of year, I sometimes have a hard time reigning myself in.

What's your least favorite thing about Christmas?
Hmmmm...I don't have a lot of least favourite things. Maybe getting up super early? Also the crowds whether in the stores/malls or the crowded living rooms.

What's better? The Christmas Story or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? Why?
Okay, I'm sorry, I have to go on a bit of a rant here. If you guys think that the best Christmas movies out there are the two choices listed above, boy are you missing out. The best Christmas movie, by FAR, is One Magic Christmas. There's tons of humour, some sappiness, some scrooginess, heartbreak, hope and of course Santa!!! And the two cutest kids (brother and sister) ever. Oh, and did I mention that it's Canadian. This doesn't tell you much http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089731/ but you must believe (ahem, perhaps a recurring theme in the movie) in what I say. Oh, and a very very young Sarah Polley makes an appearance. [Palmer's Note - I am definitely going to take a look at this film over the holidays! I am intrigued.]

What's your favorite drink during the holiday season?
Got to agree with the mimosa's Christmas morning.

What should Vero get Palmer for Christmas?
For some reason, I still think love is enough.

Smashing Pumpkins To Release Acoustic EP

2007-12-20T07:44:00.000-05:00

We are living in the land of 'I need my music now and there is a way of achieving that!'. Case in point, hot off of their 2007 tour, the Smashing Pumpkins went into the studio and cut four acoustic tracks which will be released on January 2. This is quite the quick turnaround. In the yesteryear, we would have had to wait until 2011. Not anymore!

They will release this EP on iTunes in the US, but everywhere else gets a sweet physical copy. I am stoked by this because...I like my physical copy. It's nice to pop it into the car stereo. It's also nice to have as a backup in case my hard drive dies. Don't know how I feel about the digital realm yet in terms of purchases.

Anyhow, I am excited for this new EP and I hope that it brings forth new methods of distribution for the Pumpkins. They are toying around with how to get their music out there when they feel it's hot and not wait until they have an album worth of material. We can see clearly that the entire industry has went back to a single-driven world (well, did it ever really leave?) where you used to buy your 45s with your new favourite song.

Music World - 40-60%

2007-12-19T10:16:00.001-05:00

If you have been living under a rock (or do not have a Music World in your town), you should know that each week they increase their discounts on merchandise leading up to the January 15 closing date.

I am treating myself to some deals as I won't be around a store during the holiday break. Mainly I'm catching up on some killer albums that I have downloaded but never got around to purchasing. Like Metric's new album and Silversun Pickups.

While out shopping this holiday season, go here before anywhere else. You never know if you'll find a better deal.