| Owl City |
[Dec. 16th, 2009|06:36 pm] |
No, this post is not about that crappy emo-tronic band. I'd never blog about them. But, if I had do, I'd just say this: They suck!
There's definitely an owl nesting on campus. I've heard loud hooting around the bus stops near the Open University building. I've tracked the owl down to one of the trees on the end of the gym, between the gym and the shipping/receiving building. I haven't seen the owl yet, but I can hear him pretty clearly.
This reminds me a lot of the old TRU Owlcam a few years ago, when a rare horned owl nested in a tree on campus and there was a live cam you could watch to see the baby owls grow up. There's some great photos on that website of the owl! |
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| Bah Humbug! |
[Dec. 14th, 2009|02:39 pm] |
Yeah, I'm into my Christmas grumpy phase. Though I've got a wonderful balance with it, with my renewed dedication to my happiness and to my workouts, I think I'm almost upbeat, even with Christmas looming next week.
So, two weeks ago, I had just two treadmill sessions under my belt. Over the past two weeks, I've gotten in four sessions, this despite having to skip my Saturday session due to my back acting up. I'm full of energy and goodness and got a lot done over the past week and weekend. My house is shaping up with some massive cleaning effort on Sunday. And I have a certain special someone brightening my day lately, more so over the past weekend.
Yes, my back is achy. This is mostly from the chair I used in my office. Bad back support on it, but there's not much I can do other than watch that I don't slump in it. Non-profit societies have to use what they can get, so I'll suffer until we get a new chair (or at least a used one better than this one) and I'll get some backrub and make sure to lay down a lot when I go home!
I can feel the edges of my sanity beginning to crumble as more and more Christmas music gets played around here. I deliberately avoid commercial radio during this time and attempt to stay out of stores, since it will be non stop Christmas music. I've said it before, but I hate Christmas music. So saccharine and so cloying. It feels like listening to molasses.
Plans this week: Mail my Christmas package back to mom, workout three times (back problems hopefully cooperating), get yummy baked treats for snacking, listen to more music and review it, watch Ric Flair/Harley Race again (never get tired of this match), sulk. |
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| Back to Pushing the Wheel |
[Nov. 30th, 2009|05:58 pm] |
I signed up for my gym membership over two weeks ago, back on November 15th, and have only been in twice since then, the 15th and today. This, quite frankly, is unacceptable. School and work and other things have been getting in the way, and I need to step up my involvement on the treadmill. I feel so energized and full of life when I get in a proper workout and it's vital that I workout over the winter to keep my energy and metabolism up. Lately, my energy and mental state have been in the dumps and I think this is part of the problem, not enough exercise. That, and I've been making some bad choices for myself lately. What I need it to reaffirm to myself, so that happens today.
Without getting into too much detail (mostly because it's personal, and, frankly, a bit embarrassing), I found myself in a couple of situations and got a bit freaked out and found myself doing a bit of regressing. After a couple of days to think about it and understand what happened, I realized I haven't been listening to myself and trusting my own instincts. I walked into them with doubts, but let myself ignore my intuition because I wanted to try something a bit different. Turns out it was too different, very different. And that's what my intuition was screaming at me from the get go. Time to listen to myself again.
Today, I reaffirm to myself that I will listen to the little voices in the back of my head that give me advice, because there is no one that knows what I need better than myself. I will make good choices for myself and I will dedicate myself again to self-improvement! |
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| INTJ Humour |
[Nov. 25th, 2009|06:18 pm] |
Since I spent the time compiling this from the INTJ Forums on Facebook, let's share it with everyone!
You know your an INTJ when:
- You root for the smart villain rather than the dumb hero
- You have more books that you call friends than actual people
- Before every situation you think out every possible outcome and work your way towards the ideal one
- People think your angry or upset when really you are just thinking
- You can do the INTJ stare, that look of pure analyzing coupled with a slightly sardonic smile that makes people feel uneasy
- Nothing is ever done efficiently enough. Other peoples' incompetence slows you down through your day and it happens far too often.
- What do you mean you don't have a plan?
- You always forget if you locked your car because you always space out when you do it. You also forget where you parked your car for the same reason. You were too focused on what you were going to do next.
- You have a fairly organized room but you have little piles of crap in various corners and shelves. These are your ideas that you are still waiting to get around to. Some are in pieces, some are half made. You should really get around to giving your android army their appendages otherwise your plan to take over Washington D.C., London, Beijing, Moscow, and Tokyo will never work. They are getting impatient.
- You walk out of romance movies in disgust and laugh through horror flicks.
- You go onto a discussion board of like-minded people and don't agree with any of them.
- Someone says your smart and you reply "I know".
- You silently listen to people trying to figure out how to do something, then chime in with the correct way while they stare at you stunned because they didn't think you where paying attention.
- you look at every conflict situation as an interesting idea, and it pisses off the person you're in a conflict with (especially xxFx types hehe).
- someone tries to hurt you with words and you don't feel a thing, in fact, you kind of find it funny.
- you have 3-10 different conversations in your head with the person you're actually talking to
- you have your favourite type of agenda book
- you never leave your house without some kind of list
- you constantly get asked WHY and HOW do you think your life plan will work out, and have trouble explaining the amount of contingency plans you have built in
- A" life plan" is irrelevant because you know anything could happen that is out of your control and you have to stay flexible and work out various scenarios. There is no one answer.
- You have actually thought out ways in which you could escape a prison if you were ever locked up.
- You have serious plans for events such as tidal waves, zombie uprisings, nuclear war, etc...
- When you can better explain and understand things like time travel, alternate realities and fringe sciences that you can members of popular bands, reality tv shows or flirting
- You greet a person with, "I've been thinking about. . ."
- You constantly watch the way people do things and create more efficient ways of doing them.
- You upset people by telling them, "The way you're doing [thus and thus] is interesting, but you should do it [in this more efficient manner]."
- Assessing flaws in a security system is second nature to you.
- someone starts a sentence with "Why don't you..." and you turn and give them a very mean look.
- When you just finished explaining something profound and interesting and the person who are talking to goes "HUH?"
- When people say you always look like you are planning/plotting something; the association then often makes them conclude that you look evil.
- you’re listening to someone you quickly jump ahead to their point while multi-processing their motive for telling you, how they jumped to that topic, what level of response will be adequate (verbal, head nod, etc.), and planning whatever it is you rather be doing… all before they even finish their sentence.
- When everyone expects you to give a lengthy speech on a subject in class debate you are indifferent to and give said speech in five or six sentences and still trump the opposition.
- When people tell you "You know, your music is really really odd." whereupon you turn to them and say "Huh, interesting drum pattern here on track 10."
- You get called out in class for excessive daydreaming but still get top marks somehow to the annoyance of most present.
- When you really, honestly don't care what most other people think about you, and are perfectly fine doing things your own way.
- When you have a large mess but know exactly where everything is and people are amazed that you can find anything. You also go through cycles of neat-messy-neat-messy-neat.You are never rigidly neat, you are never overwhelmingly messy.
- You are fine without shopping for new clothes for a year or two.
- when in a debate your most commonly used phrase is "Could I get some proof for that?"
- when you can effectively argue both sides of a debate, you just pick one for fun.
- You refuse to read your annual performance review because a) you really don't care what other people said about out, b) anything you did wrong last year.. YOU ALREADY KNOW it.. and have probably played it out in your mind a 100+ times figuring out how to avoid that mistake again and trust your own solution over someone else's, c) you hate people wasting your time on stupid stuff from the past, d) you hate people wasting your time right now, and e) you don't need to be reminded of all the things you did right last year because you already know it.
- when you are having a conversation with someone and you use more adverbs such as "however, yet, on the other hand; more often than you should because that is the "break" between different view points about the subject being conversed. Then the recipient stares at you blankly.
Lastly...
....when somebody says "you're so smart" and you reply one of the following.
a) I know
b) Only compared to you
c) Coming from a moron like you, that doesn't mean much |
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| Wither Ray Comfort? |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|11:51 am] |
I've been following this Ray Comfort/Kirk Cameron/Origin of Species story for the last couple of months and the story came to a head today. Or rather it should have. Today was to be the day that Ray Comfort and his followers hand out thousands of free copies of Darwin's Origin of Species to college students at 50 universities in the US and 20 in Canada. Sound like a great deal, save that this version of The Origin of Species comes with a 50 page introduction from Comfort attempting to debunk evolution and has 4 chapters excised from it, mostly chapters that held some of the most cogent arguments for evolution. But, Comfort jumped the gun and started distribution yesterday (the 18th) to avoid protests, or so he claims. Comfort, being a Christian, might want to look up those Ten Commandments, something about "bearing false witness to your neighbour"...?
That he handed them out early doesn't bother me that much. What bothers me more is the intellectual dishonest shown by Comfort, Cameron and their ilk. They patently ignore anything that doesn't agree with their narrow world-view and refuse to accept that evolution has rafts of evidence to back it up, despite their claims that evolution is just a "theory" and has no basis in fact. It's the equivalent of telling a child something and have the child cover up their ears and yell "La La La, I can't hear you!"
I cover the whole atheist/evolution/Christianity deal in more depth in the last issue of my print zine (available to you for just $1!). These guys here do a better job at debunking Ray Comfort's argument in the introduction, but I'd like to address just a couple of things that especially bother me about the anti-evolution movement.
http://www.dontdissdarwin.com/analysis.php
First, there's some fundamental misunderstanding at the core of some of creationist beliefs about evolution. The one I see over and over is that evolutionists believe that man evolved from apes. This isn't true. This is what creationists believe evolutionists believe. Instead, evolution says that men and primates have common ancestors, that is, a species that, millions of years ago, was the origin of the many types of primates we see today. That ancestor wasn't an ape or a human, but something similar to us, that sprung forth the animals we see today. And the process took millions of years, not something overnight, like Comfort seems to believe.
Often, creationists ask, are we expected to believe that something as complex as, say, a tin can, could spontaneously and suddenly exist by pure chance, poofing into existence by magic? Of course not, but that's not what evolution believes. Evolution believes that the process was gradual, and took millions of years to complete. You don't get a complex organism simply willing itself into existence (that's what creationists believe...), it happens over phenomenally long time periods.
Creationists will also harp about, "If this happens, where are the transitionary fossils?" We already have them. When you present them to creationists, they'll say, "This isn't evidence." Why? Because creationists believe that a transitionary fossil is one that shows a hybrid between two species, like Kirk Cameron's infamous Crockoduck. Evolution doesn't work this way. Instead, the differences are subtle and take millions of years to see. It doesn't suddenly happen that a ape-like ancestor of man suddenly gives birth to a human child. Instead, species mutate subtly and, over time, produce offspring that has traits that let it survive and thrive in their environment. In fact, if you need a nice recent example of a transitionary fossil, there was a recent discovering of a whale with wrist-like structures in its flippers (Ambulocetus natans), showing that there's a transitionary fossil right there of a sea-living creature changing into a land-based creature. And that's just one example. We have thousands of them.
The last thing that bothers me is that creationists seems to think that Darwin's theory is the be all end all of evolutionary thought. His book is 150 years old. Why do they think there hasn't been analysis of his theory, testing, expansion, retesting and research into the theory since then? It's been studied extensively and expanded up, and, yes, mistakes have been corrected. That's just sound scientific theory. No one gets an idea in a perfect form on the first try.
Some are advocating getting the book and burning it, or defacing it by ripping out the foreward. Well, this just plays into Comfort's hand. Let him have his opinion, no matter how ridiculous it is. We're free to have an opinion that his opinion is wrong. And it is. |
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| Forgotten Music #13: The Cramps - "The Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon" (1990) |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|04:48 pm] |
The Cramps are one of the best bands ever to play psychobilly and horror-punk. Cited by some as the inventors of psychobilly, a style of music that merged rockabilly with punk, The Cramps formed in 1976 in New York City. The band had a rotating membership, but always used the core of vocalist Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy. Active in the early CBGB's punk scene, The Cramps released their landmark first album, Songs the Lord Taught Us, in 1979. They recorded and toured steadily up until Lux Interior's death early in 2009.
I became aware of this band late in their career, after hearing the 1990 album Stay Sick at CKUL. I fell in love with their sound and look immediately. They combined the visuals of 50s rock with B-movie horror film and sleazy erotica. Poison Ivy often posed in skin-tight vinyl and played her guitar in a sensual way. At the time, "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns" was making its way up the college charts, but "Creature From the Black Leather Lagoon"'s manic approach really appealed to me. The video is one of the most playfully demented things I've ever seen. If you like this, go listen to "Human Fly" and especially "Garbage Man", featuring Ivy in skin-tight gold pants!
Lyrics:
Better ask my momma how to make a monster...
I'm the creature from the black leather lagoon
I'm a beautiful monster from outer space, too
Learned how to shake my hips in the inner sanctum
Satan gave me tips and then i thanked him
I'm the creature from the black leather lagoon
Black black, black-a black-a leather
Smash smash, black-a black-a leather
Kill kill, black-a black-a leather
Crash crash, black-a black-a leather
I'm the creature from the black leather lagoon
I'm a chicken-fried fire-eatin' son of a gun
Concieved by my devil daddy on a chicken run
Like a fireball flyin' down thunder road
Daddy made mamma but she shoulda said no
I'm the rawhide monster they named number 1
Black black, black-a black-a leather
Smash smash, black-a black-a leather
Kill kill, black-a black-a leather
Crash crash, black-a black-a leather
I'm the creature from the black leather lagoon
I'm the creature from the black leather lagoon
I'm a genuine juvenile delinquent from the moon
I'm like a hundred billion hydrogen bombs
Mama wanted a goat, but i got mom's
I'm the creature from the black leather lagoon
Black black, black-a black-a leather
Smash smash, black-a black-a leather
Kill kill, black-a black-a leather
Crash crash, black-a black-a leather
I'm the creature from the black leather lagoon |
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| This guy is one of my heroes |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|12:21 pm] |
Back when I was attending the U of Lethbridge and doing my English degree, I started to become interested in feminism. Often, we tend to think of feminism as fighting for rights of women, but, as I explored the topic, feminism isn't just about women's rights, it's also concerned with the rights and roles of men and children. The role a woman must put on (the demure, acquiescent, perfect housewife, for example) also affects me, who also must project roles (like being strong, virile, confident and a steady breadwinner). Those roles also damage men.
During my time at Lethbridge, the Montreal Massacre occurred at Ecole Polytechnique. Out of that formed something called the White Ribbon Campaign, founded by Michael Kaufman.
http://www.michaelkaufman.com/2009/04/19/appearance-on-mens-room/
http://www.whiteribbon.ca/about_us/
The campaign is focused on teaching men what is means to be a man not to buy into stereotypes. More importantly, it's focused on eliminating violence against women and teaching people exactly what violence means. We think of violence as hitting and shouting and emotional abuse, but it goes beyond that. It's about learning to respect everyone around you, regardless of gender.
Every since I became a feminist, I've proudly worn a white ribbon on my winter coat and often attend the candlelight vigils that mark December 6th.
If you are a man, listen to this man talk and understand what he is telling us. If you are a woman, listen to him as well and hope his message gets to the assholes that often surround and degrade you with leers and whistles. Everyone, please spread his message and wear a white ribbon if you care about women's rights. |
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| Sometimes, bad is good |
[Oct. 27th, 2009|10:33 am] |
Every once in a while, an album comes across my desk that is so mind-bendingly bad, it becomes hilarious. I had one show up at the station yesterday. I give to you: Gregest!
http://www.myspace.com/gregest
This is a horrible, walking and singing cliche of a singer. Just check out the profile picture. He looks like Leonard Cohen without the cool and his music is paint by the numbers club dance, sung so deadpan that no one could ever dance to it. Just listen to the songs on that site and try not to crack up laughing. All of his friends are models that look like they'd never even give him the time of day. Is this serious or some kind of elaborate joke? Only Gregest knows!
On the other hand, I got another album the same day that really blew me away. This is Kaye Bohler.
http://www.kayebohler.com/
She does a very tasteful and soulful mix of vocal R&B and blues. Her voice is amazingly warm and just gritty enough to make her blues growl stir something in your gut and in your loins. If you like the blues, I can't recommend this enough! |
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| My first MMA PPV |
[Oct. 26th, 2009|08:19 pm] |
I went out with a bunch of new friends to watch UFC 104 on Saturday night. And, to my surprise, I really enjoyed myself. Being a lifelong pro wrestling fan, I thought MMA lacked a certain something, a certain athleticism and showmanship that pro wrestling has in droves. Turns out I was totally wrong.
Back when UFC first started, I watched the first 6-7 with my brother. They used to come out on VHS, no pay per views back then. I found them enjoyable enough, but too often, the fighters would end up on the ground and roll around for 5-10 minutes with very little in the way of action. Most of it was grappling, which is interesting if you're watching the Olympics, but not as an event billed as "no rules fighting". Striking was just as boring, looking like boxing, which I've always found to be a boring and tedious sport. But, it looks like those days are totally gone.
The lead up to the event was straight out of a pro wrestling PPV. The action was pretty varied too, no fighters that just roll around. The first fight ended with a knockout 21 seconds in. There was an awesome mid card bout between a big, strong puncher and a Brazilian guy that just destroyed him with take down after take down. The main event was good too, though I've heard a lot of people thought it was boring. One guy just worked on the other, kicking him in the legs and stomach. The guy was red all the way down from his stomach to his shins. It was amazing he could still stand by the end of it.
This is something that works best in a big group in a bar, I think. I tried watching some last night on TV and it didn't have the same energy to it. Needless to say, next time my new friends get together to do this, I'll be tagging along for sure! Oh, and I'm sure some of the great atmosphere came from the beautiful lady that convinced me to come out to see it (Thanks C!, I'm still gonna watch pro wrestling though!) |
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| Balloon Boy... ah who cares |
[Oct. 18th, 2009|05:36 pm] |
There's little wonder that no one pays much attention to the mainstream media much, or that it's in such a sorry state as it is. All you need to do is watch CNN for a while. 24 hour coverage of balloon boy, even when nothing is happening. Why does anyone need to know about this story? It's clearly a regional story at best. Probably run one or two times on the front page of a Colorado paper, then get buried three pages back. The only reason it's getting this kind of attention is that it's a sexy story. It's got human interest, it's got sensationalism, it's got "weird people" that like ballooning. But it isn't a story that contributes to what you need in life: information.
Back in the 90s, I got a chance to interview Knowlton Nash. Those of you who aren't Canadian (or as old as me), Nash used to anchor The National and was one of the most well respected journalists in Canada. One thing I've always carried with me as a journalist is his description of what journalism is. Journalism is the backbone to democracy. It provides the information that you need to know to make informed decisions in your life. You need to know what the politician is doing to decide if you want to vote for him. You need to know what the weather conditions are before you head out on a drive. And you need to know where you can find information if you aren't getting it from other media sources. Journalism is information that you can use. Now, can anyone use information about balloon boy? Or is this just a story that's distracting you from what else is going on? Is CNN just an entertainment channel now.
I recall the term "trial by media". Yesterday, CNN had a body language expert on analyzing the taped interviews with the boy's family to determine if they were setting up a hoax or if it was an honest mistake. When did the media become the police? Any journalists reading, repeat after me: I am not the police, I am not a lawyer, I am not a judge, I am not on a jury. I will let the authorities decide if the party is guilty or innocent. I respect that the "innocent until proven guilty" part of our justice system is important and I will not report speculation or half-truths. I will report the goddamned truth only when the truth is revealed through honest journalistic practices!
Wasn't there a big debate on Capitol Hill on Obama's healthcare bill this week? Where's that story CNN? Not sexy enough?
Fuck CNN. |
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| Like, what's going on, like, in my, like, life |
[Oct. 16th, 2009|04:46 pm] |
Hideeho kids, about time for an update of what's going on. First a couple of bitch sessions.
Lately, I've found myself surrounded by very heavy smokers. At least three in the past week have had smoke smell about them so heavily, it lingered in the room. I seriously gag when this happens because I have a nasty allergy to it. Today, riding home on the bus, a heavy smoker sat right next to me, and it was one of those people that try to hide their smell with perfume, so I got a smokey flowery blast from her. I feel a massive headache coming on...
Then, there was a woman sitting behind me who was describing a book she was reading (sounded like Twilight or something similar) who used like every fifth word or so. I counted them while were were stopped at a light and counted 27 times she said "like". It's a minor irritation, but it concerns me when college students can't even string together a coherent sentence. She must have been a business major...
School is going fine. I just aced some assignments on English grammar. The teaching end of it is still a bit of a pill, but I'm working on it. It's funny how comfortable I feel in front of a microphone on the radio talking to thousands of people, but I freeze right up when I'm in front of a classroom. I'm teaching to my peers, not an actual class, but it still freaks me out. I guess I'll get used to it in time.
Planning a trip to Kelowna with a bunch of other music fans to see the legendary John Mayall on November 12th. He's pushing 80, so it will probably be the last time I get a chance to see him. So far this year, that will be three legends I've seen: Bob Dylan, Buddy Guy and now John Mayall.
On the creative end, I have a few projects on the go. First, my old friend Gary Flanagan is producing a 10th anniversary edition of his zine (and now website) Nightwaves asked me to write a piece on the history of Canadian new wave. I started research last week and should be ready to start writing next week. So, Gary, if you're reading, I'm on it!
My own zine is slowly coming together. I'm working on my review zine, The Curmudgeon, issue #2. I have shitloads of music and zine reviews done. I want to finish up about 5 more movie reviews I have on the go, about 4 book reviews, and there's a small stack of zines I need to get through. I'm cutting off the music reviews, since I get bogged down in them (there's still at least 40 discs in my review stack), grinding through the other reviews, then going to layout, when I get time. So, December maybe? No promises.
Lastly, I'm in the process of moving my radio show's website from Geocities (sadly dead by the end of this month) to it's own dedicated URL. I've bought the URL dntta.com and will move everything over in the next couple of weeks. I also have to move all my pictures from Geocities to my Flickr too and upgrade my account so I can store all of those pics...
Things are looking up! |
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| RIP Project Rockstar |
[Oct. 10th, 2009|09:27 pm] |
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What a shock I got when I tried to log in today and play my Project Rockstar game. The game is apparently dead to due some lawsuit. I've been playing this for a good 4-5 years and really enjoying it. Now what will I play online? |
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| Hockey Pool #3 2009 |
[Oct. 8th, 2009|09:05 pm] |
Jim's annual pool. Pick 12 players, top 10 count towards your score. We had 12 teams this year, so it was a very deep draft.
1) Eric Staal - Carolina
2) Jeff Carter - Philadelphia
3) Johan Franzen - Detroit
4) Mike Cammalleri - Montreal
5) Nicklas Lidstrom - Detroit
6) Loui Eriksson - Dallas
7) Bryan Little - Atlanta
8) Stephen Weiss - Florida
9) Jason Blake - Toronto
10) Nikolai Zherdev - NY Rangers
11) Martin Erat - Nashville
12) David Backes - St. Louis |
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| Hockey Pool #2 2009 |
[Oct. 3rd, 2009|03:53 pm] |
This one is the local Rotary Club pool, it's city wide. It's also one of those "pick the best player out of these five similar players" style of drafts.
Alexander Ovechkin - Was
Henrik Zetterberg - Det
Simon Gagne - Phi
Alexei Kovalev - Ott
Jason Pominville - Buf
Loui Eriksson - Dal
Shawn Horcoff - Edm
Chris Pronger - Phi
Jarome Iginla - Cgy
Jason Spezza - Ott
Brad Richards - Dal
Jonathan Toews - Chi
Kristian Huselius - Clb
Joe Pavelski - SJ
Nathan Horton - Fla
Scott Neidermeyer - Ana
Marc Savard - Bos
Thomas Vanek - Buf
Patrick Kane - Chi
Johan Franzen - Det
Ryan Smyth - LA
Michael Ryder - Bos
Wojtek Wolski - Col
Brian Campbell - Chi |
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| Hockey Pool #1 2009 |
[Sep. 30th, 2009|06:41 pm] |
Yahoo Roti League with the guys at Obner
1) Pavel Datsyuk - Det
2) Tim Thomas - Bos
3) Ilya Kovalchuk - Atl
4) Eric Staal - Car
5) Patrick Kane - Chi
6) Mike Richards - Phi
7) Marian Hossa - Chi
8) Patrik Elias - NJ
9) Steve Mason - Clb
10) Loui Eriksson - Dal
11) Brad Boyes - StL
12) Ray Whitney - Car
13) Phil Kessel - Tor
14) Ales Hemsky - Cgy
15) Scott Neidermeyer - Ana
16) Ray Emery - Phi
17) Brian Campbell - Chi
18) Jason Pominville - Buf
19) Ryan Smyth - LA
20) Niklas Kronwall - Det
21) Jaroslav Spacek - Mtl
22) Marek Zidlicky - Min
23) John-Michael Liles - Col
24) Jason Arnott - Nsh
25) Jonas Gustavsson - Tor |
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| WWE Vintage Collection |
[Sep. 19th, 2009|04:47 pm] |
Those of you who love wrestling (and I know there are either many of your or very few) should check out WWE Vintage. It's airing on Score on Saturdays at 4 PM Pacific. Basically, they air old matches with a bit of a theme to them. For example, on the road up to Summerslam in August, they were airing classic Summerslam matches. From a historian's and fan's, the show is gold. Since the WWE have tape libraries for WWE, WCW/NWA, WCCW, Stampede and lots more, they have thousands of matches at their disposal, and they don't just stick to the pay per view matches. You usually get 3-4 matches a week, a lot of them coming from TV broadcasting, which, given the episodic nature of pro wrestling, only air once then are forgotten.
Just a sample of the main events from the past three weeks:
Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage (from the UK Rebellion PPV from the 1991)
Marc Mero vs. Faarooq Asaad (finals of an 8-man tournament for the IC Title, 1996)
Steve Austin vs. Ricky Steamboat (US Championship match from WCW, with Bobby Heenan announcing!)
The show is hosted by Gene Okerlund. According to Wikipedia, the show doesn't air in the USA, so you're out of luck Yanks! |
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| The end of summer walks |
[Sep. 6th, 2009|04:52 pm] |
I bet there's only a couple of weeks left for decent weather for walking. This past week, some developers started working on a vacant lot behind the Days Inn, which is a place I cut through on one of my walking routes. The whole lot is fenced off now, and there's a walking path up to beside the highway, but it's steep and a bit rocky. They were knocking down the hotel part with two steamshovels. Tell me that wouldn't be a fun job!
So, both of my walking routes are messed up now. The other route has been broken up by some new houses going up. It'll be treadmill season in a couple of months anyway. And my left knee has been feeling much better.
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In the "Jokes that only I will get" section today.
Forster's have changed their restaurant name to Ora. I think they should get this guy to be their mascot! |
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| Old Man Pains |
[Sep. 1st, 2009|05:41 pm] |
Well, a man getting older pains anyway. Yes, my left knee aches and it just might be arthritis. I am now taking glucosamine and chondroitin to hopefully help with the joint pain, and my exercise regiment should keep the spring in my knees. My knees were in rough shape after my trip to the Okanagan, mostly because my left knee sat unused in the car while I drove and I rarely walked unless I got out of the car. I think getting a car with a manual transmission may solve this problem, but I don't think rental places have them anymore.
Weirdly, I found out about glucosamine by accident. I was reading a thread about improving cat's lives as they get older and have trouble jumping and moving around. People were saying glucosamine was a miracle cure for their cats and how much it improved their lives. I was reading and wondering if it could have improved my Sam's life when he was an older cat, since we had to put steps up to his feeding table so he could move around, or lift him up to his table so he could eat. I idly thought, "I wonder if this stuff works for humans". One Wiki search later and I was enlightened.
I talked to my mom on the weekend and asked her about glucosamine, since she's had arthritis in her hands for as long as I could remember. She uses it and says it works great. So, I picked some up yesterday. The bottle says it takes about 2-3 months to see results though, but that should take me right up to treadmill season, so things work out. |
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| The vacation/The haul |
[Aug. 27th, 2009|06:46 pm] |
Each summer, I take a short vacation which gives me a chance to a) buy lots of used music and b) drive, both of which I look forward to each year. I don't have a car, so I only get to drive about 2-3 times a year, so driving is usually a lot of fun for me. Getting to dig through stacks of CDs and LPs I've never seen before is always a lot of fun. I mainly buy used, since decent new CD stores are hard to come buy unless I go to Vancouver. The hunt and the finding of a rare piece of music or something that fills a hole in my collection is exhilarating. First, the haul, then the story of the trip
CDs:
Architecture in Helsinki - Places Like This (bought new)
David Byrne - The Forest
Echo and the Bunnymen - Crocodiles
The Evaporators - Ripple Rock
Front Line Assembly - Caustic Grip
Gowan - Strange Animal (replaces my cassette copy)
The Horrors - Primary Colours (bought new)
Love and Rockest - Sorted! The Best of Love and Rockets
MSTRKRFT - Fist of God
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - 13 Above the Night
R.E.M. - Eponymous (replaces my cassette copy)
Rush - Signals (replaces my cassette copy)
Shout Out Out Out Out - Reintegration Time
Sonic Youth - Sister (bought new for $9!)
Soundgarden - Louder Than Love (replaces my cassette copy)
Synthetic Folk Hero - S/T (lo fi new wave from Montreal, awesome!)
Trans Am - Red Line
Vast - Music for People
V/A - Tea for 2000 (Beggar's Banquet comp, features Hefner, Gus Gus, Bows, Mojave 3, etc.)
LPs:
Freur - Doot Doot
Howard Jones - Action Replay EP
Limahl - Don't Suppose
Platinum Blonde - S/T
Talk Talk - The Party's Over
Ultravox - Quartet
Visage - The Damned Don't Cry (12" single)
--
I left Kamloops on Wednesday morning, around 9:30 AM. The rental place gave me a Suzuki Swift, which was a nice little car. I was surprised how much kick it had on the hills and mountains. Most cars just die on BC hills. Cheap on gas too, filled up for about $30. I set out for Kelowna/Penticton via Vernon. I stopped in Vernon to hit the two pawn shops, one book store and the CD Plus in the mall. As usual, the CD Plus had a great selection of new music. It's kind of sad that Vernon has a better record store than Kamloops and Kelowna. Kamloops just has Spinners (overpriced) and FM and Future Shop in the mall (horrible selection). Kelowna's A&B Sound shut down, but CD Plus was still better than what they had. After a couple of hours, I was ready to leave for Kelowna, but I got lost in Vernon. I drove straight past the turn off for the highway without realizing it, then spent a half hour consulting the map and driving around to try to find the highway again.
I drove straight through Kelowna and off to Penticton. This was the first time I had driven over the floating bridge over Okanagan Lake and it was a bit freaky. The east side of the bridge is right on the water, but the west side arches into the air to allow boats to go under it. Keep in mind that the bridge isn't anchored either. It didn't sway or anything, but knowing it wasn't attached to the bottom of the lake was a bit unnerving. I might add that the traffic in Kelowna on the highway, over the bridge and all the way into Westbank was always insanely busy. Kelowna isn't quite such a laid back city anymore, it feels like a miniature version of Vancouver now. But, once you get off the main drag for a couple of blocks, it still feels like a rural BC town.
Westbank to Peachland was gorgeous. Most of the drive runs right along the lake. After Peachland, the province has been widening the highway, so they're blasting away the mountainface on one side. That meant a 15 minute wait outside of Summerland. There was a small truck in front of me during that time, with Quebec plates and the Crocs logo on the side, so I think they were hauling shoes. Both of the people got out of the truck and took pictures of themselves stopped in the middle of highway traffic. Pentiction felt a lot like my old home town Cranbrook, but more artsy and with more history. There are some beautiful old buildings in town, plus some high scale hotels on the lake. I was in Penticton for two places: Remember Music and The Grooveyard. Remember Music is no more though. There was an art studio where they used to be. The Grooveyard, however, was hoppin'. Great selection of new and used music, plus a nice collection of used vinyl (which I just had time to glance at quickly). Lots of band t-shirts and rock and roll wear, so if you need that, go there. Across the street was a fantastic book store, where I got a nice book on electronic musicians.
Back to Kelowna, I stopped in Summerland on the way back to check out the beaches and to dunk my feet in the lake. Summerland reminded me a lot of rural Ontario, with nice, small brick houses along the beachside, old wooden docks and people just walking around enjoying the lake air. I took a bunch of pictures, which you can see on my Flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/devoguy/
A quick drive back to Kelowna to hang with a friend for a while, then to an overpriced hotel room, where I watched some Star Trek and read some of the free media I picked up. I had a light sleep (I don't sleep well when I'm not in my own bed) and dreamt about a person I despise and whom I told to "shut the f**k up" many many times...
The Denny's breakfast experience seemed overhyped to me. The portions seemed small in the Grand Slam, though the wheatcakes (combined with the fresh fruit) were excellent. I hit all the usual haunts in Kelowna starting at around 10 AM, starting with tracking down a pawnshop I had yet to find in my previous two trips through the town. I found it and did find some interesting pieces of vinyl (found that Limahl record there). The place is called Darky's Pawn, it's on the highway in the north of town. The three shops in Rutland didn't have anything, for the second time in a row, so I've struck them off of my list for stops. There's a great used book/comic/book store on Sutherland that always has a great selection of music and I recommend stopping there (it's a couple of blocks down from where A&B Sound used to be), and the Trade and Save on Ellis is the other must-stop for music in town. Oz by Cole doesn't have a store front anymore, but you can find him online on eBay. He has a 12000 piece collection of vinyl. The last stop was a pawn shop in Westbank, but he mostly dealt in DVDs and musical instruments, no music to speak of.
I gassed up in Westbank and had a funny and kind of embarrassing time of it. First, I couldn't figure out how to open the gas tank cover, so I had to look it up in the manual. Then I took a few minutes trying to get the cap off. Then I tried to use the gas pump, but didn't realize I had to put a debit card into the machine first. I heard a woman's voice coming from somewhere, then realized it was the woman inside the station talking through a speaker on the pump itself! She told me what I had to do and things went well from there. I apologized to the workers but they brushed me off after finding out I only drive about once a year. I also saw an adorable little beagle puppy there, but I didn't have my camera with me at the time.
I drove back from Westbank to Merritt on the Okanagan connector 97C, which I had never driven before. Pure heaven. Three lanes through high mountains, 110 km/h the whole way. pine in the air and clear blue skies and fresh air. I imagine the highway is pretty hellish in the winter though. In Merritt, I drove 5A back into Kamloops, which is another thing I've never done before. This was a lot of fun. The highway was narrow and underused, so the whole thing had a "backroads" feel to it, like a step back in time. The highway twisted along the shoreline of a long lake, spotted with tiny communities. A lot of the signage was old BC stuff too, stuff I hadn't seen in decades. No shoulders, just gravel or a ditch in most places. Gorgeous throughout. Next time I travel, I'll drive 5A and 97C in the other direction, I think. |
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