matt's boring

take a trip to fleet street

2007-12-23T00:58:00.001-06:00

Go see Sweeney Todd. Do it. I've probably been looking forward to seeing this movie than any since Lord of the Rings first came out.

Tim Burton's version completely lived up to my expectations It's incredibly well done and you owe it to yourself to see it.

wow...

2007-12-14T19:49:00.001-06:00

It feels like it's been ages since I posted here, but in reality it hasn't. By way of a post, here are three things that I hope result in MPs losing their jobs in the next election:

1. the Bali fiasco
2. the isotope fiasco
3. the copyright legislation fiasco

Stupid government.

the night started there

2007-11-25T01:17:00.000-06:00

Went to see Stars tonight. Incredible show, even better than the last one. The Walker is a great venue for them, and being a few feet from the stage sure helped. Hayley even managed to grab the setlist from another girl's hands!
Pictures are up on flickr or facebook.

koo-koo-katchoo

2007-10-15T18:38:00.001-05:00

i was greeted by TWO copies of The Walrus today! yay!

also, yesterday i made a delicious chicken.

i am the walrus

2007-10-05T10:42:00.001-05:00

How awesome is this?

First, some background... i have been a subscriber to The Walrus for some months now, but for some reason I never got my October edition in the mail. I'm sure this is a fault of Canada Post, but I emailed The Walrus' subscription department on the off chance that they'd do something for me.

Dear Matthew,
Thank you for your recent inquiry to Walrus Magazine.
I have since arranged for this October 2007 issue be re-sent to you as requested. Please allow 8-10 business days for this to arrive and I apologize for any inconvenience in this matter.
Thank you for your interest in our publication. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any further questions or concerns.
Lucy Ruscica
Customer Service Representative
Walrus Magazine

i can't forget what you've forgotten

2007-09-16T03:36:00.001-05:00

isn't it nice how i can have what might be a great thing, and because of some weird hangup or something i have, fuck it up? i wonder what my problem is. why do i never end up happy with what i've got (or could have)? i think i have this unrealistic expectation about what it's supposed to be like: fireworks, skipping beats, and all that stuff. obviously i expect too much out of certain parts of life; my life is not a movie, and things will never turn out in this impossibly idealistic way. logically i know this, yet apparently i'm willing to give up the now for the what might be. i just don't get it.

touch me

2007-09-05T20:57:00.001-05:00

holy freaking crap i want one of these:

*insert photo of iPod Touch here*

in our bedroom after the war

2007-08-12T13:10:00.001-05:00

yay! I've got front row-center tickets to the Stars show in wpg on the 24th of November!

And! roadtrip to Thunder Bay to see Matt Good's acoustic show!

lament

2007-08-10T21:31:00.001-05:00

wow... i haven't updated this in forever :(

that makes me sad, since i was on such a good run there for a while.

oh! look to the right! an iTunes widget!

live earth

2007-07-07T11:34:00.000-05:00

So I've been watching this Live Earth thing, and thus far have been pretty unimpressed with the acts I've seen. The only one I'd list as good so far has been Kasabian in London.

While watching I caught sight of this guy from the Hamburg feed, and at first glance I was confused as to why Boromir was performing.

See what I mean?

i'm in love with your pills

2007-07-02T03:32:00.001-05:00

The new Matt Good record is very very good. Thanks Christielli for wising me up to it. Stream it through iTunes and read the bio for the album.

"I don’t remember being carried out of my parent’s house by paramedics or being in emergency. I don’t recall the blur of words to the paramedics in the ambulance on the way to hospital, some of which pleaded with them to let me pass. All I remember is waking up, the white lights of the room, the feeling that washed over me when certain individuals that had been prevalent in my life were not there nor would come to the hospital during my stay, and the feeling that I had reached a point in my life where everything that I was represented little more than a prison from which I could not escape."

weird

2007-07-01T11:39:00.001-05:00

The Canada Day festivities on CBC feature an East Indian/Celtic band... very odd to see and hear. The GG looks to be just loving it. The Indian singer is annoying.

Being that it's Canada Day, I just had to start off with a Tim Hortons breakfast. It retains it's Canadianship even while owned by a US parent company.

I hate Stephen Harper.

Eva Avila has hotted up, but her music still sucks ass.

New Stars pre-release track from the new record due out this fall is online! New Matt Good track too! Tours! Winnipeg stops (Matt Good for sure, Stars damn well better)!

crop circles on the carpet

2007-06-21T23:02:00.001-05:00

Someone make me stop listening to Imogen Heap's genius song Hide and Seek.

I'm still working on this template, for some reason the flickr badge spacing is all wonky it's supposed to be to the right of the text, but instead the text moves below it... any help with the html would be appreciated.

edit: It seems to have resolved itself. Let me know what you think, but it's still a work in progress

testing

2007-06-20T21:18:00.001-05:00

This post was composed in Windows Live Writer. I like playing with new things.

last kiss

2007-06-13T19:38:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I wish I loved someone enough to wait on a porch for them in the rain.

But then the movie ends...

whoever invented the french press is my hero

2007-06-09T11:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday my dad and mom came to deliver the bookshelf I had my dad make for me. This weekend will be spent trying to come up with the best way to move my books from hereto here.

(cat included for scale)

p.s. If you're reading this on facebook, click on through to the original post to see pictures.

i was trying to remember your name

2007-05-27T02:45:00.000-05:00

Friday I spent a good 5 hours driving around with James taking these down:

He did pretty well, over 1000 votes and top 10 finish in the party provincially. Didn't win the riding though, oh well. It was fun.

p.s. I'm hopelessly addicted to Facebook.

i`m spoiled

2007-05-21T23:01:00.000-05:00

This is a brilliant design for a t-shirt (click to make it bigger and readable)!

everybody hurts

2007-05-20T22:29:00.001-05:00

My 2 week vacation has already started, and thankfully with birthday presents! Check THIS one out!

mayday

2007-05-09T18:03:00.000-05:00

I have 2 weeks off at the end of May. What should I do?
Options may include:
- flying somewhere (yay visa points)

input

2007-05-04T20:00:00.000-05:00

I got frames for my album art from Say Hi. There'll be a total of 4 pieces, and I'm soliciting input on wall placement. Let me know which one looks best, or if you have other suggestions.
EDIT: I think I like them better all in the same row, but i'm not taking a picture of that. I'm sure you can picture that.

me in a nutshell

2007-04-17T20:32:00.000-05:00

I was bored a few minutes ago so I took an online Carl Jung and Isabel Myers-Briggs typological approach . The result:

You are:

very expressed introvert
moderately expressed intuitive personality
very expressed thinking personality
slightly expressed judging personality

There was an option to find the most 'compatible' careers, this is what I had:

computer programming
natural science
engineering
management
entrepeneurship
law
librarian

How woefully uninteresting.

tie a tie

2007-04-16T20:47:00.000-05:00

Today I put my most-often worn ties in a drawer. This is better than having the cat all over them.

alycia

2007-04-15T00:47:00.000-05:00

delivers flattering comments via her blog!
As for contradicting your blog title, it doesn't take a psychic to see that you're anything but apathetic.

Zut alors!

((Dare accepted, and completed!))

400

2007-04-12T20:25:00.001-05:00

This is my 400th blog post. It seems like the 300th was just yesterday. I have nothing special planned.
I'm waiting on pictures from Snow Patrol from Jennie, as soon as she gets her lazy ass around to uploading and emailing them.
I do, however, have this to share:(the Apostle of Hustle show is with Memphis)

By the way, Do You Trust Your Friends is a killer album!

do you trust your friends?

2007-04-10T23:01:00.000-05:00

The title of this post is the name of the new 'Stars' album, which is really a reimagining of their stellar record Set Yourself on Fire, with songs done by other great band friends of theirs. Its release date is May 22nd, but I learned today it's been leaded and is out in the interweb tubes. This is by no means a suggestion that you fans should download it, but if you do be sure to buy it after its release! Stars is one band I don't mind at all giving my money to.

Unlike Snow Patrol, Stars didn't charge $15 for their bag of buttons. What a rip off! Oh, the Snow Patrol show was pretty good. I'm sort of over them as a band, but I still thorougly enjoyed the show.

This is important, head over to this site and sign the petition. It's about net neutrality which is a key to keeping the internet as open a forum as it currently is.

spring is concert season

2007-04-02T22:00:00.000-05:00

April 7th - Snow Patrol
April 28th - Weakerthans
May 15th - Memphis
May 23rd - Feist

It's going to be a great few months. Thanks a LOT to Laura for cluing me in on the Memphis show!

In other news, I think I'm going to get my passport. That will remove one excuse from travelling outside of Canada. Though the other and more relevent excuse is being poor. I have two weeks off at the end of May, so we'll see.

In other news, I'll yet again be a student, this time at the U of M's summer session, in a course called Ethics and the Environment. Yay for courses that count towards my philosophy minor.

That's about all I have to share for now, and for that I apologise.

fluke

2007-03-26T20:20:00.000-05:00

Overheard on the bus ride home today, between a guy and a girl (who after eavesdropping I determined she was pregnant):

guy: yeah well you get to stay home for a year, I have to work 5 or 6 days a week.

rrraaaaaaaggghhhh

2007-03-22T21:57:00.000-05:00

Went out to see Fido today. I was pleasantly surprised, it was what I expected, and quite a bit of fun. Anyone who has it playing near them should take an hour and a half out of their day to go see it.
I also picked up a snazzy 15th anniversary edition of Reservoir Dogs (it's in a metal gas-can-ish tin), and a copy of Dr. Strangelove on dvd.
Finally, I recieved this in my mailbox today, along with a self-adressed envelope to The Netherlands:

bah, I tried to upload it but blogger times out. It's fun, I'll see about putting it onto flickr.

in your sea

2007-03-18T17:00:00.000-05:00

Ah Sundays... for me they're usually either 1) a day of nothingness to enjoy in my pyjamas, or 2) brunch!.
Today was the former. Pyjamas all day, relaxing and doing random chores like dishes, vacuuming, cleaning etc, all accompanied by iTunes on shuffle.
Sundays have an ugly dark side however, in that they are the last day of the weekend, and Monday looms heavy.
But before then, I plan on cooking the ravioli I bought, slathering it in a tomato alfredo sauce, and grilling up some italian sausages to much alongside.

Tuesday of this week I get to go see the dentist afterwork for cementing of my crown, that should be fun. I'm very eagerly looking forward to having the work on that tooth FINISHED, and be able to eat on that side of my mouth again. Ever try eating sushi when you can only use one side of your mouth?

And now you're all up to speed on my Sunday.

goodbye to radio

2007-03-09T22:49:00.000-06:00

Wow.
Hawksley Workman puts on a GREAT show.
Just him and a guy on a piano... amazing.

And here's a video of Hawksley singing You and the Candles sans microphone.

crazy cat lady

2007-03-07T19:43:00.000-06:00

Google News: which if you're not familiar is basically a news aggregation site, that culls news articles and related pictures from all over the net, had something genius on there today. This needs no explanation.

neon bible

2007-03-06T21:35:00.000-06:00

Yay! today is the day tha The Arcade Fire's sophomore album Neon Bible comes out (came out?). Earlier today at work I was checking the apple.ca iTunes site for the new releases, and didn't see it. I was unable to visit a physical record store after work, since I had to go to a 'retirement' supper for someone from the branch I work at.
However, I got home and after iTunes installed itself the new version, I see that it's for sale in the store! yay!
As I type this I'm listening to it, and loving it.

Do yourself a favour and buy it.

Also, if you ever, ever, ever get the chance to see them life, GO!

no such luck

2007-03-04T14:15:00.000-06:00

I was pretty bored this afternoon, and I saw a tv commercial for eharmony.com. What the heck eh?
So I go through what must have been, 10 different questionnaires, and after I get to the end it tells me this:

Unfortunately, we are not able to make our profiles work for you. Our matching model could not accurately predict with whom you would be best matched. This occurs for about 20% of potential users, so 1 in 5 people simply will not benefit from our service. We hope that you understand, and we regret our inability to provide service for you at this time.

So that's why I'm still single...

deutsch?

2007-03-03T15:51:00.000-06:00

I plugged my iPod into my computer the other day, and had iTunes do a restore on it, wiping off all the songs and resetting the firmware.
I did this because when I first got my computer, iTunes and Vista didn't want to cooperate fully, so my only choice was to have iTunes choose a 'selection' of my library and load it on my iPod.
That was fine for a while, but eventually I got annoyed with the heavy doses of Metallica and System of a Down (which I like only in small doses).
I left it plugged in overnight to recharge, as per normal, and in the morning grabbed it off the desk and carried it into the living room where I get ready to face the day.
I clicked it on, and went to scroll down to the Shuffle Songs menu option, when what to my surprise, the whole thing was in German!
Not only that, but the backlight wouldn't turn on anymore.

Those are my gloves that it's sitting on.
I haven't done anything about it yet, but I'll have to work my way through the German menus using my memory of the English menus and basic understanding of German to get it back to the right language. That's a project for later.
I leave you with a picture of Emo.

notitle

2007-03-01T22:18:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone.
Alycia, I can't comment on your blog because apparently the word verification things decided to stop showing up for me. I blame firefox, and assume it will just fix itself.
Now I'm going to go check out facebook.

**edit**

facebook is seriously pissing me off with it's unwillingness to load any page in less than 5 minutes, and often only after the connection times out.

wtf facebook, w.t.f.

subtitle

2007-02-28T18:02:00.000-06:00

Actually it's the tooth behind the silver one. Apparently I've forgotten infront of and behind.
I have just 2.5 more visits... 1 for finishing up the cleaning, .5 for getting the final crown impressiong, and 1 for the crown cementing.

matt's adventures in dentistry the fourth through sixth

2007-02-27T21:04:00.001-06:00

I'm so far behind... I promise to get back into regular blogging.
Today has been such a long day, work+dentist = >12 hours away from home.
Witness my temporary crown: You can't actually make anything out, but it's the tooth infront of the silver one. In its final incarnation it will be gooooooold.

null

2007-02-18T22:24:00.000-06:00

wow it's been a long time since I posted anything in here.
Nothing's really been happening worth writing about...

2007-02-08T22:25:00.000-06:00

updates

2007-01-31T19:06:00.000-06:00

I just finished eating home-made butter chicken. mmmmmmmm...

Also, I bought a new computer.

chav

2007-01-26T18:19:00.000-06:00

This stupid kid was sitting on the bus listening to his rap music from a cell phone. You'll notice the lack of headphones. That's right, he was listening to it on his stupid cell phone's speakers, aloud.

That's right, I'm an old man now.

headless cat

2007-01-22T16:15:00.000-06:00

the one certainty of living is that you're going to die

2007-01-21T02:08:00.000-06:00

What does Matt do when he's feeling lonely?

- listens to Rilo Kiley
- listens to Hawksley Workman's Treeful of Starling album
- watches his favourite movie Lost in Translation

all these things enforce his feelings of loneliness.

Matt is the kind of person that, when feeling lonely, sad, depressed, etc, does not do things to rid himself of these feelings. He tends to do things which enhance them.

Matt's nose is cold.

-48

2007-01-12T18:23:00.000-06:00

When the windchill is -48*C:

-your breath condenses before it leaves your nose
-the city is covered with a frost haze, from all of the car/building exhaust. It looks like fog, but it's an evil sort of fog
-exposed skin freezes in 5-10 minutes
-you want to keep your face bits covered
-your bus will inevitably either be late, or just not come at all
-there will still be just as many people on the sidewalks, and riding the bus as always
-after getting to work in the morning it will take you a good 3 hours to lose the chill
-the last 50 steps to your front door will be the coldest time
-Matt looks like thisThe temperature minus the windchill:

matt's adventures in dentistry, part the fifth

2007-01-09T21:14:00.000-06:00

Today was my 'comprehensive exam'. For something with the word comprehensive in it, it was pretty short. Hottie Alex took a few x-rays of my mouth, and then the doc picked around on a few teeth. Turns out, lucky me, I get to go back for a filling. Also, it turns out it's imperative that I get my root-canal tooth capped asap. So that's another big chunk of coin. I have three appointments, one for the filling and two for the cap in Feb/March. Also in there somewhere is an appointment for a cleaning.
Boy I'm lucky.
Some of you don't frequent my Flickr page, but I wanted to show off my cufflinks here as well.

three times a charm

2007-01-05T23:58:00.000-06:00

Pictures borrowed from theglobeandmail.com.

love is just a laundry line we're hanging on to

2007-01-02T19:53:00.000-06:00

This is going to be a pretty random post.
For New Years I just had some friends over for drinks, food, and Wii. There was much drinking, playing of Mario Kart, and Wii Sports. I'm happy to confirm there were no Wii-related injuries.
He Poos Clouds by Final Fantasy reminds me of something from Sweeney Todd. (Discovered while searching for a link for Sweeney Todd a movie version by TIM BURTON!!! Holy eff I'm exctited for that!).
Sunday Winnipeg woke up to about 30cm of snow. What that means in practical figures, is a layer of snow about 1 foot thick all over everything. Also represented by the hour and a half it took me to shovel my sidewalks.
Witness the snow, though that picture doesn't really do the amount of snow justice.

While Christmas shopping at Toys R Us, I happened across Viking Lego. I freaked out because it was Lego based on the Viking myths I'd just finished studying in my Old Norse Mythology class. Everyone was there, Nidhogg, the Midgard Serpent, the Fenris wolf, but sadly no named Viking people/gods. I picked up the Fenris wolf lego, it being the cheapest.
Et voila. Click to make 'em bigger.

The last thing I want to post is this video from youtube. Take a second and watch it, I bet it'll make you feel all warm inside.

three eleven

2006-12-27T14:59:00.000-06:00

Three years of blogging.
Three years ago I was 22, and living in the basement apartment.
I worked in the call centre, and had a car.
There was other stuff too, but I can't remember.
I was blogging about the World Juniors, and here I am watching them, except I'm in my house instead of a basement apartment.

Not only did I score one new suit yesterday, I scored two, for $200! Yay for 50% off of a 30% discounted price.

Anyways, happy three year birthday to my blog. Now I just need to figure out a template for Laura to make for me :P

do you hear what i hear

2006-12-25T22:09:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas to all. I hope you all enjoyed good times with family and friends.

My mission for Boxing Day: head downtown to The Bay and pick up another suit.

Wish me good luck.

p.s. Everyone share their favourite gift received/given this year.

Wiitastic

2006-12-22T17:55:00.000-06:00

This post is being typed on my Wii, thanks to the Opera browser. Be jealous.

thank you very much....

2006-12-18T18:54:00.001-06:00

There was a Santa Elvis on the bus home from work today, in a blue velour outfit and carrying a computer printer from the 1990s.

stupid stupid federal government

2006-12-14T21:17:00.001-06:00

This makes me so very very angry.

Discuss.

matts adventures in dentistry, part the fourth

2006-12-05T22:23:00.000-06:00

Four parts, I can't believe it.
This was to be, and thankfully was the last trip re: my root canal. He opened up the temporary filling, and all was good. He stuck that little wire down my root canals, and that somehow told him how deep they were. It's got something to do with the sounds the machine it's hooked up to makes. Then, he used three spike-like things (of metal coated with something) down the canals. I then got to sit up for an x-ray. While sitting up I still had the rubber thing on my tooth, and Alex (hot assistant) had to put a thingy in my mouth so as to 'develop' the x-rays on (it's all computerized). Poor Alex... sitting up meant that my drool didn't drain down my throat, but pooled in my mouth. I was quite drooly.... I'm sure that was very attractive to her.
So after the x-rays, things looked good, so the dentist took out the spikes, coated them in some sort of compound and stuck them back in. Then he used the cauterizing tool for something... I assume to cut off the bits of the spikes that were sticking out too far? The cauterizer made smoke come out of my mouth.
After that, he picked up something that looked like a glue gun, and stuck that in my tooth. He pulled the trigger and I felt it heat up. I eventually deduced that it was injecting some sort of compound into the cavity left in my tooth. After that, the final compound was applied, and I he then ground the tooth down a bit so I wouldn't bite directly on it, apparently there's a chance it could crack. That's why he says I need a crown. $700 more, yay. That can wait until next year when my Health Spending Account is rejuvenated.
When I got home, the side of the filling closest to my tongue was kinda sharp, and it actually cut up my tongue the night afterwards. I've since fixed that.
There will be a fifth part, on the 21st I have an appointment for a complete exam. Yay... Well, at least I'll get to see Alex again... that's some good motivation to go see the dentist!

and the winner is...

2006-12-03T21:03:00.000-06:00

... Emo. My thanks to Alycia for her excellent suggestion. Thanks to all others who offered theirs. I have to compose a post about my fourth dentist trip for this root canal. I'll do that sometime later this week, I've got an exam on Tues.

macthough

2006-11-30T18:32:00.001-06:00

Shouldn't it be a 'Big Mc"?

cat without a name

2006-11-26T14:26:00.000-06:00

I need a name for my cat.... it's a she.

a wii of a story

2006-11-22T22:56:00.000-06:00

Okay, so now that I've ripped myself away from the insane fun that is Wii Sports, I'll tell you all the story of how I managed to secure my Wii on launch day.

Being that it launched on a Sunday, I was blessed by not having to wake up at some ungodly hour to go stand in line. Also, since Nintendo was nice enough to ship a hell of a lot more units than Sony, I wasn't expecting a ruthless experience.

I hopped on the bus and headed down to my local Zellers, I figured that'd be a pretty good bet since it's in a senior's neighbourhood. I got there around 10am, to see a group of 6 kids waiting inside who told me that they were told the store had 6 systems. Okay, great. So I was very sad.

Then I remembered that farther down the road is a Superstore (Loblaws type thing). I waited VERY impatiently for the bus to head down there, and got there around 10:30. There were a few people sitting inside the outer door (but outside the inner door). I asked if they knew how many systems the store had, "12" I was told. There were 9 people there. Huzzah! I pushed the door open, breaking it somewhat in the process, and got into the atrium. People showed up after I got there and piled in, and around 11:15 or so the store manager came with 12 Wii passes. I was actually surprised at the civility of the people there, some people acknowledged the fact that they arrived after other people, and that the other people deserved a pass first.

Once 12:00 came around everyone made their way straight to the electronics department. I snapped up a copy of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and stood in line to claim my Wii. I smiled to myself each time someone in line asked where I'd gotten the pass, and then left dejectedly.

Anyways, I'm not going to get into a full review of the system or the games, but the pack-in game - Wii Sports, is so damn fun. I don't have any friends, but I imagine it'd be even MORE fun with other people. I hate sports games, but the motion sensitive controls simply make these 5 games. Go get one, when you can.

can't blog, gaming.

2006-11-19T22:27:00.000-06:00

matt's adventures in dentistry, part the third

2006-11-16T18:21:00.000-06:00

Today I had booked what was to be the final appointment to complete the root canal. Well, it was originally booked for Nov. 2nd, but I had to postpone it.
Turns out that was a bad idea, since apparently due to the time delay it became re-infected.
Today's appointment was some more drilling, some more bacteria-killing wire shoved into my tooth, and an injection of calcium hydroxide.
I've got another temporary filling on it and another appointment on the 30th.
This time I remembered to bring my camera though, the result is this:

well blogger's being a bitch, so I guess I'll have to upload it later. But it's in my flickr stream if you head over there.

remember.

2006-11-11T10:09:00.000-06:00

This week I read a disappointing statistic about Canadian youth and their knowledge of Canada's WWI and II heroes. I don't have it for you, or I'd post it, but I can't seem to find the story on cbc.ca. Suffice it to say, a buncha youth though that General MacArthur was a Canadian general, but didn't know who Billy Bishop was. The people at the Dominion Institute have set up an online petition to try and convince the government that the last veteran of WWI to die should be given a state funeral (if his family wishes it), as a way to honour all of the WWI war dead. There are three remaining WWI veterans alive, all over the age of 100. That means, that in all likelihood before the end of the decade, Canada will no longer have a living connection to The Great War. If you'd like to sign it, click on this.

Another thing that the Dominion Institute has done is establish The Memory Project Digital Archive. This is an incredible site, filled with personal stories told by the veterans, newspaper clippings, pictures and other paraphernalia. Head on over there (just click on the link there) and spend some time listening, and looking at the incredible trove of memories. No one in my family served in the army during either WWI or WWII to the best of my knowledge. On my mom's side they probably would have been conscientious objectors, due to their religion. My dad's side I'm not sure about, but they were Quebeckers and probably farmers. Or perhaps there was just no one of suitable age. I'm not really sure, but that's something that I've resolved to find out.

CBC.ca also has a great in-depth feature on Remembrance Day, right here. That wonderful pictures is from wikipedia.org.

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
- John McCrae, 1915

coming up at 7:30...

2006-11-10T19:23:00.000-06:00

Wow, well I didn't intend on taking so long to post again, but both my internet and tv (they come into my house on the same wire) were down since Wednesday. I've had intermittent internet access, but it's been so frustrating I haven't bothered. So I've spent the time with a mix of reading, and watching dvds with the commentary on. I've learned a lot about SCTV, and about the making of Death to Smoochy. Well it's been fixed, turns out I was on a bad port at the phone company's switching station, down the street. It feels quite good to be connected again. I missed internet access much more than the tv, as is to be expected.

Once a year at work we have to write an exam to be able to continue to sell mutual funds, this Thursday while I was in my office listening to streaming internet radio and writing the exam, I realised the EXACT moment that I got sick. So here I am, sick with a head/chest cold. I was recommended a type of medicine, and bought some today. I took a dose at work in the afternoon, before I realised that it was drowsy-inducing. That made for an interesting, drowsy afternoon.

Okay, well I'm going to lie down and watch 22 Minutes.

Oops, I guess I should post this.

a little place in the wilderness

2006-11-03T11:02:00.000-06:00

Last Wednesday was the memphis show. When I bought the tickets they were playing at a medium-sized performance venue, but I got an email a day or so before the show that the venue had changed, to a much more intimate one. A local bar.
In total, by the time memphis took the stage there were probably only 75-100 people in the bar, most seated at tables around the stage. After a song or two, Torquil (the lead singer) told everyone to pull the tables right up close to the bar, had the sound/lights guy turn off the spotlights and instead turn on a disco ball.
They did pretty much every song from A Little Place in the Wilderness, and one or two from the earlier EPs. The show was amazing, and Torquil did a lot of talking with the audience. For a few songs he strayed out from the stage and stepped onto tables to sing.
Despite the small crowd, he noted that Stars' first show in Winnipeg had less people, so he was excited for the future shows.
I plan on being at each one of those shows, since this show actually made me like the band and songs even more than I did before. If any of you out there have the chance to get to a memphis show, do it. This picture was taken before we pulled the table up closer. For the majority of the concert I was about 4 feet from the stage.

In other news, I finally bought new frames yesterday:

c'est l'halloween

2006-10-31T21:50:00.000-06:00

This shall be a retelling of my genius Halloween plan.

Tonight being Halloween, it's also a Tuesday. Tuesday means I have class at the University. I've already skipped two classes, and the course is done in the beginning of December, so I really had to go tonight. That being said, I still wanted to provide candy for the neighbourhood kids, even though I'm poor. I had a leftover box of cheesies from last year, about 40 bags left. I poured a bunch of other candy in the box (some crappy dollar store marshmallow candies (I'm poor!) and some mini chocolate bars (I kept most of the Reese Peanutbutter Cups for myself)). I then fired up Photoshop to make a sign for it. My plan was to put the box on the front steps, and let the kids fend for themselves. Following is a photologue of the process:

The Sign that was attached to the box.

I figured some kids might just steal the whole box (since it had handles), so I attached this note to the bottom.

The complete contraption.

The contraption on my front steps.

Success! The box after being set out from 5:30 - 9pm when I got home from class. It's still out there, I'm curious to see what will become of it in the morning.

as clever as the invention of pillowcases

2006-10-30T23:40:00.000-06:00

Well, I had to resort back to the old thermostat. I'm still not sure if it's the thermostat's fault or the fault of my old furnace unable to cope with it.

For all of Saturday night and most of Sunday I had no internet or tv. It had something to do with the changeover from my roommate's account to mine. I got a shiny new set-top box. I spent that whole time watching seasons 1 and 2 of Battlestar Galactica. That just may be one of the best television series' ever.

I like this new Firefox 2. The spell-check feature is really neat.

We got our first permanent snow today. It snowed all day and tonight is blowing with a windchill of -12. I forgot how much I hate walking in snow.

trial by fire

2006-10-28T11:18:00.000-05:00

Okay, so last week I bought a programmable thermostat from Canadian Tire. I installed in on Thursday, set up the programs, and it was working well. The temperature would go down when I was asleep, and when I left for the day for work.
Good right?
Well by Friday night, the furnace wasn't responding to the thermostat anymore.... so the heat wouldn't go on.
Now I have absolutely no idea why it WAS working, but isn't any more, other than it and my piece of shit furnace are conspiring to drive me mad.

a second island

2006-10-25T23:11:00.000-05:00

You purchased 2 tickets to:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Memphis
West End Cultural Centre, Winnipeg, MB
Wed, Nov 1, 2006 08:00 PM

yay!!

Not much else is new. I'm off next week, so that's exciting. Only two more days of work!

alone in the cinema

2006-10-22T18:31:00.000-05:00

Memphis is coming!!!

just imagination...

2006-10-20T20:38:00.000-05:00

Riding transit on a twice-daily basis (at least) breeds a certain familiarity.

You get used to seeing the same people waiting at your bus stops.
You get used to seeing the same people as you ride your bus.
You get used to seeing the same people getting off at the same stops on the route.
You get used to seeing the same people getting on at the same stops on your route.

It becomes a sort of a comfort, just as anything which we become used to does.

So when something is different, someone doesn't get on at their usual stop, or isn't on the bus, it upsets your morning just a little; temporarily, of course.

Othertimes, you can be riding a bus which is not part of your regular daily schedule, and you'll see someone that you recognise from one of your normal bus routes.

I think that is part of why I enjoy riding transit, and am in no rush at all to buy a car (even with winter rapidly approaching). Riding the bus, to me, means being in a public space with other people. Now I know, I hate people, and sometimes they really do bother me on the bus. That being said, I think I would miss that if/when I commuted to work in a car. It's not a social experience per se, just one of being amongst other people.

You know?

i think i'll be a good ghost

2006-10-14T13:11:00.000-05:00

To answer a question from the comments to my last post, yes I do have to go back for some last work on my tooth, my appointment is on Nov. 2nd, but I think I'll have to change it due to personal reasons.

After I got home and the freezing wore off, I had NO pain at all, ever. The only discomfort was opening my mouth too wide, when I felt a little soreness in my jaw from where my tooth roots were reamed out. A bunch of my tooth is missing now, and it's got a little pointy bit.

My keyboard batteries died in the middle of that paragraph. That's always annoying because it keeps typing the last letter I pressed until I click on a different window, so it looked like 'toothhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'. I wish it had a blinking light that warned me, like my mouse does. Oh well, they're recharging.

I had my eye exam this morning, which for $79 took all of 10 minutes. Thy guy didn't even do the air puff test. I hate getting my eyes tested at a place that also sells glasses, they try to pressure you so much into buying from them. The eye exam guy said "I only guarantee my prescription for glasses you buy here." I thanked him for his time and left with my prescription scrawled on the back of a business card. I won't go back there again. Not to mention they had a shitty selection of frames. So, my quest for new frames continues... at least my prescription hasn't really changed, though the one the new guy gave me is weaker than my old one, which is odd.

matt's adventures in dentistry, the second

2006-10-10T20:05:00.000-05:00

I write this with a frozen half-face. The first part of the root canal is completed, and so far no leftover pain, thanks to the remaining freezing. Once again, the cute assistant was assisting, Alex is her name, according to her nametag.
This post will probably be shorter than the last one, since there weren't really any surprises.
He started out pretty much right away, injecting me with the stuff then leaving while it set. CBC was on the tv above me, except it was Coronation St. so I didn't really pay much attention. What followed was quite a lot of drilling, and the dentist saying things like "Oh this is a difficult one", and the assistant asking me how I was doing.
There wasn't any pain, except when he was cutting away some of my gums, he moved the cauterizing blade a little too far back, where it wasn't quite numb. Also, when he was jamming that wire down the roots of my tooth, if he went a little too far it stung.
So now it's covered with a 'temporary cap', and as such I'm not supposed to bite down on anything with it.

In other news, it snowed today! See Flickr for some pics if you're so inclined.

a thorough knowledge of solvents

2006-10-09T00:32:00.000-05:00

Phew, I am filled with the goodness of turkey and other assorted tastily-prepared carbs, proteins, and sugars.
Thanksgiving supper this year again was at an uncle and aunt's house, a few minutes outside of the city. My cousins are finally getting to the age where they can take part in a conversation, the oldest one that was there is 18 or 19, and the youngest two are now 10. It's pretty enjoyable. I got a crack about being from the 'commune', since I went there wearing my hat (which has made an appearance in some of my pictures on Flickr).
Before I left I snapped this picture:

Hurt myself again today / And the worst part is there's no one else to blame

2006-10-06T18:22:00.000-05:00

So it's been forever since I've updated here, this time it's because I've been pretty busy actually:

Monday - work, then out for wings
Tuesday - work, then class all evening
Wednesday - work, then a gala for work
Thursday - work, then beer+pizza at the branch for Oct. birthdays
Friday - work, then this. No plans, thank god.
Saturday - Nadine's birthday party
Sunday - Thanksgiving with the family

Next week should be a bit less busy, the only things I have planned other than work are
Tuesday - work, then my root canal
Thursday - work, then the WAG with Sonja
Friday - work, then a party for a work friend

Thank jeebus for Google Calendar.

I meant to take a picture of my pink attire today, for that breast cancer day. Nothing too special, pink shirt+tie; thought I did get a fair share of compliments.

Thanks for hanging in there, loyal readers.

they write books about this sort of thing

2006-09-26T22:20:00.000-05:00

Yes I know I haven't blogged in forever, and for that you have my sincere apologies.

My iPod headphones broke today :( But thankfully I purchased a pair from eBay which should be arriving presently.

This'll be a short post since I've got to get to bed soon, but I saw this picture on the Globe and Mail website, and figured I just HAD to share it.
The picture credit is AP I believe.

I had another freaky iPod moment. I have 2 tracks by Lukas Rossi (Fix You, and Livin' on a Prayer). I usually always have my iPod on shuffle all tracks (800 or so), and this morning it played Fix You followed directly by Livin' on a Prayer!

Freaky!

matt's adventures in dentistry, part the first

2006-09-18T22:20:00.000-05:00

So today was the big day, the examination to determine the root (pun intended) cause of my recent jawbone pain. Yay for missing the first half of my work day though!

So 10:00 sees me arriving at the office and sitting down to fill out 3 pages of questions. The receptionist asks me if I want anything to drink. My first response is to ask for coffee, but my brain quickly overrides my mouth when it realizes that some guys face is going to be quite near to my mouth, and I ask for water. Receptionist graciously delivers a bottle of water, which goes unopened on the table beside me as I fill out said forms. While filling out said forms, I happen to watch through the glass doors to the dentist side, and notice the cute assistants. Frowning to myself that one of them is going to be exposed to my mouth, I turn my attention back to the clipboard on my lap and finish answering the questions (Do you have a venereal disease, do you have HIV, do you have AIDs, etc). Said forms are handed in, and return to my seat to wait.

A few minutes later, the cutest of the dental assistants walks out and introduces herself, and another girl who will 'be helping'. I wonder aloud if I should be worried that it'll take two assistants to Xray me, which draws a chuckle. I'm walked back to the big stand-up head Xrayer. I'm told to step into it and bite onto the little plastic-bag covered piece of plastic. Once I'm in there, the cute assistant starts telling the other one what she needs to do, and I realise the other one is in training or something. So, awkwardness ensues while I'm standing in the machine and she moves it around to get it properly set up, while the cute one is right in there pointing at my face and telling her how to correctly position the machine. Shortly thereafter (or abouts) my head is blasted with X-rays for 15 seconds, after which I'm allowed to step out, and shown into an exam room.

Taking a seat on the chair (I'd like one of those for my living room, they're damn comfortable, and recline-y!). The cute assistant swings a computer monitor around the chair infront of me, and shows me my x-ray on it. Now, prior to coming into the office I thought the pain might have been caused by 1 of 2 things. A) my wisdom teeth pushing on the teeth in my lower jaw thereby causing pain, or 2) a cavity. One glace at my x-ray revealed the cause. A nice big black mark on the tooth in pain. I remember from school (I think?) about how cavities show up as black marks on x-rays.

The dentist then comes in and we make a bit of small talk about the shitty weather. He then asks me what's wrong, and I tell him that it looks like I have a pretty big cavity there. So he goes into my mouth with that pick and starts picking around. Turns out that a filling I got some years ago was applied poorly, and ended resting up against the tooth next to the one filled in. This prevented me from being able to floss between them, or brush between there adequately. This allowed a cavity to form and fester. Now granted, I probably should have gone in earlier, but that's neither here nor there.

So bottom line is, that at least I need a root canal done, with possibly a cap. I may also need some sort of surgury called 'flap surgery'. Which, to my understanding involves cutting into the gum from the side, going in between the twin roots of a molar, and cleaning out an infected area. Now that sounds like fun.

The good news is that he didn't say anything about removing my wisdom teeth, except that one might have a cavity... Well, stupid me decreased my dental coverage from 80% to 50% this July, during the annual period where I can change my benefits. So I'm going to get the root canal done ASAP (October 10th actually, $850), and the rest can wait until next year, after I jack my dental coverage up to 90%.

I had asked if I could be provided a copy of my x-ray, but was denied as they told me it was a proprietary file format. I was hoping to have it for this post.

I was going to address this news story in this post, but I think it's long enough and shall save it for another day.

wellington saturdays

2006-09-17T13:03:00.000-05:00

So last night was The Weakerthans concert. My friend and I got there just after 8, when the first band was playing. It was some jazz trio made up of 3 old men. Thus, we left the venue and went to a nearby pub for a beer. Overhearing another goup of people on a cell phone, we heard that The Weakerthans were to take the stage.

They played a great mix of their older songs, from Fallow, Left &Leaving, and Reconstruction Site, as well as 3 or 4 new songs. The new songs were okay, but I was stoked that they played songs even from as far back as Fallow. After they played the first song of the night from Fallow, John remarked on how they didn't play it very well, so he gave some guy in the audience $20. He did it again later, after playing another and claiming he forgot some words. I took several pictures, but you know how tough it is to get a good picture in a dark venue with no tripod, or nothing to put the camera down on. If you want to see them they're in my Flickr account, so just click over there on the right. They played a great mix, and a lot of songs. There were 2 encores, and had they not turned the house lights up, there would have been many more.

I also took some videos, since I knew the pictures would suck. The first video is a portion of the song Plea from a Cat Named Virtue and can be seen here. The second one is the first encore, John came back to do a solo version of One Great City. You can hear everyone singing along to the chours lyrics "I hate Winnipeg". That video is right here. Rather than embed the videos in here just follow the links, cuz embedded videos are ugly.

I ended up purchasing two shirts, a black one with a red line-design whose proceeds all go to R.A.Y., a charity for street youth. Another grey shirt with a cat's head on it (perhaps a cat name Virtue?).

Bottom line, it was a kickass show. Go see them if you're lucky enough to get the chance.

fatality666

2006-09-14T17:19:00.000-05:00

In interest of doing some research for myself into Kimveer Gill's blog/profile, I headed over to google to see if I could find a cache of his profile. I'd heard that the profile had been shut down by the police, and as it turns out I'm not skilled enough, but I headed over to boingboing.net and found that Xeni had posted a google cached copy of his profile on vampirefreaks.com. Sure, I'd heard news folk talk about things contained in there, but I know that news people tend to be idiots when it comes to anything internetly. I also wanted to see what more that was to him than what the media covered. They seemed to mainly focus on the fact that he played Postal, was a 'goth', wore a trenchcoat, and generally hated everything.

His profile is filled with quizzes and surveys, such things as 'how depressed are you', and 'how will you die?' (suicide, which incidentally was the way he went). Strangely, in the 'what is your heart filled with?' survey, he scored highest on 'wonder'; 'hate' was second.

He prefered group dates over single dates, chocolate over vanilla, and has been in love. His goal for this year was to 'stay alive'. To the question 'How would you like to die?' he answered 'Like Romeo & Juliet, or in a hail of gunfire.'

Amongst his 'likes', he lists: Heavy metal, Germany, first person shooters, kittens, swords, sawn (sic) off shotguns, assault rifles, semi-automatic handguns. He lists his favourite tv shows as: The Daily Show, Chapelle's Show, and Law and Order: SVU.

His list of 'hates', ends with: 'GOD DAMN MOTHER FUCKING JOCKS'.

He filled out a 'what crime would you most likely commit' survey, to which he scored 'murder'.

Anyone interested in looking at his page can follow this link.

His pictures appear to still be available online, and have been commented on by people after his death. The pictures and comments can be viewed here. They may not be available later this evening.

Is this all morbid? I don't think so. Unless it's morbid to want to try to know more about someone's motives and life. What he did was an incredibly awful and pointless thing, and I'm in no way condoning or accepting his actions.

here's your ho ho ho

2006-09-13T19:52:00.000-05:00

So Lukas just won the latest season of Rockstar. 2 Seasons and 2 winners from Canada, that's pretty damn good, I think. Granted, who's heard anything lately from INXS? Not me...
I occurs that I should have done a 'live-blogging' cover of the show, but too late now.
awww now he's brought Magni out to play gee-tar.
I think they made the right choice, Dilana (while good) wasn't the right fit.

Once again I have to apologise for the delay in blogging, but really nothing has happened that warrants blogging. I'm thinking of quitting my job, but I have to stay there until Dec. so I can get my annual bonus.

Holy crap I want one of those new nanos! The only bad part is that the black only comes in 8GB size, and is the same price as a 30GB video ipod... the 4GB comes in the other colours, but NOT black... bah.
it's only 1/4 of an inch thick!!!

This laptop is hot on my lap, so I'm going to retire.

over my head

2006-09-06T19:20:00.000-05:00

I bought the newest version of The Walrus magazine the other day, and after reading straight through it I got to the last page, and was rewarded with this! (click to make it bigger. DO IT!)

I wanted to make a story with the individual pictures, but since blogger's picture insert thing is SO lame, I'll have to devote more time to doing it as an image file in photoshop I guess.

In other news, I finally got around to calling my last hope for my desired frames. The lady there said they had them (only in one colour, she didn't say which), but that they had sold them a month or so ago. Figures, stupid fates. Oh well, I guess I'll have to order them from eyeglasses.com if I want that specific frame. That raises concerns over duty and customs taxes though, which will NOT be reimbursed (boo).

Anyways, you're welcome to steal that picture I posted and make your own epic stories! I'm interested to know which one is your favourite.

just know that these things will never change for us at all

2006-09-03T17:28:00.000-05:00

Not much to blog about.
Lately I've been reading a lot of Christopher Moore books. I started out with A Dirty Job, which regular readers may remember I got for my birthday back in May '06. Well since then, I've purchased 4 more of his books. They're excellently-written pieces of fiction, and extremely pleasurable reads. He's got an excellent sense of humour and whimsy.
For someone who's looking to break into his writing, I'd suggest first A Dirty Job, but second to that Bloodsucking Fiends, which is about a young woman who wakes up one night to find out she's a vampire. I'm on the hunt for Lamb - or the gospel according to Biff, but last time I was at McNally Robinson it had been sold!

In other news, the picture in this post is proof positive that my scanner is working again. yay! Stupid HP scanner/printer/thing.

I was looking through an old Stuff magazine from 2001, and I stumbled across this (click on the image to make it bigger, otherwise it's useless):
$28,000!!! Only 5 years ago. According to bestbuy.ca today, the current price for a similar unit is only about $7,000. That's for a 58", but still. Amazing.

i tried to feel it but you couldn't choose

2006-08-31T22:11:00.000-05:00

Yikes, almost a week since my last post.

Well I haven't updated at all much because nothing much has happened. I STILL haven't gone for my eye exam, STILL haven't checked with that one last chance store in Wpg if they have the frames I want.... it's turned into such a damn ordeal.

Tuesday was Jon's going away shindig, he's moving out to BC (Kamloops or Kelowna, I can never remember which one). So James picked me up after work here and we headed out there for pizza, cake, salad, and later a big fire and coffee. It was nice to get together with 4 other guys who all used to hang out together in highschool. There are pictures from the event on my flickr account (look to the right).

"I love your Dr. Zaius!"

breaking the bank

2006-08-27T18:36:00.000-05:00

So it's Sunday. I suppose I could follow suit with some other bloggers and do a 'random sunday' post. Let's see how that works.

- This weekend I didn't do much of anything. Today however I was out doing some gardening, ripping up the tiger lily plants that I discovered were planted in the flower bed at the back of my house. It's something else to dig up all the bulbs and shit that they send forth under the soil. I found out that there are lots of worms in the dirt there. I plan on replacing them with some herbs next spring.

- So another long weekend is coming up, thank god. Every weekend should be a long weekend.

- I spent Friday after work making 300 social tickets for my roommate's wedding this fall. They're printed on business cards, and I think they turned out pretty nice. Simple, but not plain. If you don't know what I'm talking about you're probably not Manitoban, in which case click the link in this bullet point to be educated.

- Someone in the neighbourhood is playing a radio station REALLY loud right now.

- This is the last week of August, that is insane. My favourite time of year is Autumn.

- I've enrolled in one course at U of M this fall, unfortunately it was the only one that fit with my schedule and prereqs. It's a Norse Mythology course, which I think should be interesting.

-Around lunch time I was standing in line at Subway to get a sub, and the guy before me ordered his sub. He ordered that new chicken florentine sub, and when asked what kind of bred he wanted, he answered 'siabata, or whatever'. Then the sandwich 'artist' took out a piece of bread and he asked her to show it to him. He then said he didn't want it, and proceeded to order the parmesan oregano 'parmesan (s like 'sauce') oreGANo'.

- I have to go do laundry and dishes now.

i was here but now i'm gone

2006-08-23T22:38:00.000-05:00

Nothing more to update really. I still haven't called that place to see if they carry the frames I want. I tried calling them on Saturday, but got just a pre-recorded message. If they don't want my business, then I'll happily keep it from them.
Jerks.
I also apparently lost the fax copy of my prescription I had. So, being the industrious individual I am, I called my optometrist and asked to get a new copy faxed to me. The receptionist on the phone had the gall to tell me that it had expired and would probably not be filled by an optician. I just wanted my damn prescription so went through all the motions about lying as to why I couldn't come get my eyes tested again. Even after that I never got a fax. I may just make an appointment at a place downtown and go after work one day.
Jerks.
That's all in the life of me as of late. Some new pictures are on my flickr stream, but the people that look at that already know this.
It's already Thursday tomorrow, thank god.

p.s. the link I had for the Steve Carell picture in the post below seems to no longer work, but I won't be updating it. You all know what he looks like.

edit: Heading on over to The Canadian Encyclopedia, I happend across this little gem. On August 24th: 1814 - British forces captured Washington, DC, during the War of 1812 and set fire to the White House.

blogger?

2006-08-19T01:26:00.000-05:00

So... there's a new blogger that's in beta? I'm unimpressed so far, to take advantage of the new stuff I'd have to choose a template all over again and lose all of the customisation I've worked oh-so hard on.
I'll just wait until I get Laura to make me a kickass layout, once I come up with some sorta plan for her to follow.

The main thrust of my post tonight was to be to tell you all to go see Little Miss Sunshine, as it is a brilliant movie. Steve Carell is excellent in it. Plenty of funny moments, interspersed with some poignant ones. So yes, go see it.

Tomorrow I'm going down to my last-ditch hope for my frames in Winnipeg. Sunday I'm apparently going baseballing... that is, watching Nadine's boyfriend play baseball. Actually, I'm going for the sunflower seeds and novelty of it.

this makes me emo

2006-08-15T20:49:00.000-05:00

Okay... I know, another week between updates.
So my glasses... last Saturday I found a guy in the city here who could order them in from New York, and put lenses in them. So I paid him my money, and left the store on cloud nine.
The next day, I get a message at work from him telling me that they've been DISCONTINUED! Apparently the NY guys tried the designer's HQ in Paris, and still no dice.

Well mother fuck.
If that just isn't so expected.
God damn it all.

So here's the plan. One other store in Winnipeg stocks Alain Mikli frames, but they've been closed for the summer, reopening on August 19th. I plan to phone them, find out if they have any in stock. If they do, then good. But they won't, so I'll have to order them from eyeglasses.com. They still seem to have the frames in stock, and after the exchange, the price is only a few dollars more than the local store was going to charge me. The only sticking point, is the customs and duty.... plus shipping, plus taxes (I'll have to pay GST), so that makes them a bit more expensive. Not to mention that all those extra costs more than likely won't be reimbursed by my insurance.
That being said, I still will most likely purchase them. If you're wondering which ones, I don't feel like relinking, so eithe read down, or google A0325 (it's a zero).

In other news, thanks Christielli for turning me on to Memphis! I just bought the cd :)

EDIT: I bought the album, in this case from iTunes Music Store. I haven't bought an actual cd in ages.

Why was 338?

2006-08-08T19:09:00.000-05:00

This is post 338. My how time flies. Especially when I update as infrequently as I have in the past few weeks. I apologise.
This post, however, will make up for all. It comes complete with Dutch mail!

First, to lay the groundwork...
During the World Cup, I happened across some Windows Live Messenger developers blog, where they indicated that Germans can order 'WLM cards', basically businesscard-sized cards which contain your msn email address, and a contact number, if so desired. This being only for lucky Germans, I figured I was out of luck. However, being me, I filled out the application form.
I use a lot of commas.
I had all-but forgotten about them.
Until today.
When they showed up in my mailbox.
First, the envelope. As you can see, it has no postal code, and my country is written as 'Germany'. Some enterprising individual has put a line through 'Germany', and scrawled 'Kanada' beside it. In the upper right, it has a 'postage paid' type thing, and the originating place is Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Somehow I don't think they planned on paying for this to come across the Atlantic. Anyhow:

Note, my street address has been blacked out for my protection!
So that's the envelope, here are the cards, front and back:

I got my tickets to Amy Milan today :D

you bring out the whiskey in me

2006-07-30T12:07:00.000-05:00

So as it turns out, that place that I found here that sells Alain Mikli frames is closed for the summer! After bussing all the way out there, walking the 3 blocks because I got off on an early bus, lo and behold the sign on the door says "Closed for the summer, reopening August 19". I'm not sure I want to wait that long, I just may succumb to the embrace of the internet and buy them from eyeglasses.com.

Any recent visitor to my myspace will have noticed a new entry on my calendar there. Sept 27, Amy Milan is swinging by the city and I picked up some tickets. $12! She's playing at the West End, which is a nice intimate place for shows. So that means so far September I'll be seeing The Weakerthans, and Amy Milan. This makes me happy.

I bought Terry Goodkind's newest Sword of Truth series book last week, and finished it yesterday. A note at the bottom of the last page reads "Watch for the next and final installment". Yay! Finally one of the monster fantasy series I've been reading since high school will end!

i'm not an addict

2006-07-26T22:31:00.000-05:00

Stolen from Christielli, 5 things.

5 Things always in my purse/briefcase/backpack:

1. Ipod
2. A book
3. Business cards
4. Mints
5. A pen

5 Things always in my wallet: [I don't actually have a wallet, my wallet is made up of my licence. But I'll list the things in my little Winnipeg Transit fold thing too)

1. My Debit Card
2. My Visa
3. Student Card
4. Bus Pass
5. Library Card

5 Things always in my refrigerator:

1. Cold water
2. Milk
3. Leftovers
4. Old food
5. Mayo

5 Things always in my closet:

1. Dress Shirts
2. Dress Clothes
3. An empty suitcase
4. Jackets
5. 2 Winnie the Poohs

5 Things always in my car:

1. I have no car
2.
3.
4.
5.

5 (or more) Things always on my desk: (at work)

1. A computer monitor
2. My Demotivationals(tm) little desk stand poster thing
3. My Daily Calendar (Proverbs from around the world)
4. Business card holder with business cards
5. My mug that says "Ask about an RBC Homeline Plan" (that one has pencils in it, my drinking mug is a Demotivationals(tm) one too.)

do do do dodo doooo

2006-07-24T20:16:00.000-05:00

I had forgot to add on my last post, that the taxi driver home from the airport was the OLDEST working man I've seen. I was walking down the airport taxi area and saw him standing infront of a cab, so I picked his.
Why? Sympathy I guess.
What? Me, smympathetic?
Yeah shut up, he was an old guy who has to drive a taxi in his 80s to pay his bills. That's sad. So, I chose to give him my patronage, and a nice big tip.

Nadine found me a place in Winnipeg that sells Alain Mikli frames! I hope they carry these ones.

I had more to post, I think, but I can't remember.

oh yeah, I want to get this put in a button, so I can wear it on my bag or something. It's from the bottom of a McDonald's coffee cup.

all good things...

2006-07-22T18:12:00.000-05:00

All right, so I've returned.
It was an extremely enjoyable week away from here, despite the fact that the whole time was spent with family.
Saturday I flew out of here, connected through Toronto, and arrived in Quebec City at midnight. I was originally only going to be in TO for 20 minutes, but the Air Canada women put me on standby for an earlier flight there, so I was able to have some more time to waste there. That allowed me to pay $9 for a cheeseburger, and $6.95 for 15 minutes of wifi access. You'll know these things if you read the entry before this one.

The day after arriving was spent just hanging out and visiting, which was enjoyable enough. The people I was there visiting are my dad's sister, and his mom. They don't speak english, so the whole trip was an exercise in active listening. I find it hard to understand french if I'm not actively listening. Even then, I far from understand every word, but 9 times out of 10 manage to get the idea what's being said.

The next day was the ritual trip to Place Laurier, a mall in downtown Quebec. Every time we used to head there to visit (every 2 years, for probably 12 or 14 years) we'd go to the mall where my brother and I would buy toys from the Toys R Us there. This time I had a different mission, to see if any lunetterie carried Alain Mikli frames. Alas, I didn't find any compelling frames to buy while there.

We headed out to Old Quebec on Wednesday for another ritual. Several hours of walking around, then stopping at a specialty grocer for homemade cheeses, terrines, and baguettes, then a picnic. Usually the picnic's on the Plains of Abraham, but this time it was in a park by some old armoury and foundry. Lots of walking (who knew chucks were so good for that?) and pictures later we ended up exhausted at back at home. The beginning of the week was ungodly humid, but thankfull that went away and things cooled down a bit for that walk. Overall we enjoyed beautiful weather, with thunderstorms only happening overnight (on 3 or 4 occasions).

Friday my mom, brother, dad and I headed out for a drive around Isle d'Orleans (another ritual trip). It's a gorgeous island, with an insane amount of gorgeous old, and old-style houses. Also lining the roads are many many small farm business, places like strawberry and raspberry picking farms, specialty cider and wineries, cheese places, and erabliers. My parents ended up stopping at some cider places and buying some liquers and ciders, and we spent (alltogether) $70 at a cabane a sucre, on maple syrup. Not that it was expensive, it was just so crazy inexpensive that we ended up buying a LOT. 1 litre of clear syrup for $10! The clear syrup is the top quality type, most stuff sold in stores as 'genuine maple syrup' is the medium grade, one or two levels below clear. I also had a killer sandwich, smoked lamb, some sort of wonderfully pungent Quebec cheese, and a great grainy mustard. I'm salivating just thinking about it.

Friday night was time for poutine and sugar pie.... heaven, nothing more can be said but that. Two things that I had been looking forward to since I booked the trip. I only wish I could have brought home a crate of St. Hubert sugar pie. So friggin good.

Tonnes more pictures are up on my flickr site, just click that link over on the right there, and be entertained.

if you walk away i'll walk away

2006-07-15T20:57:00.000-05:00

$6.95 for 15 minutes of 11mbps wifi at Pearson Int'l! What a rip off!

And of course, I paid for it.

God I hate little kids. They seem to run amok especially worse at airports.

Hey James, one of those guys we saw that looked alike in the van was seated beside me on the flight here.

Anyways, I'm sure I should go. I finished my $9 cheeseburger, and now I'm itching to go buy some magazines.

p.s. People who STAND on moving sidewalks are IDIOTS.

someday i'll fly away

2006-07-14T23:33:00.000-05:00

So I'm off to Ste. Augustine-de-Desmaures (or some spelling like that) tomorrow. I fly outta here around 6pm or so, stop in Montreal for a few minutes, then hop over to Quebec City, where I should arrive around midnight. I say should, because I'm flying Air Candada, so we'll see.

I may have a chance to get online while I'm there, I know my grandma has internet access, but I've no idea the quality or availability of it. I hope that someone near them has an unprotected wi-fi network. I'm also hoping that I'll get some time to look for glasses while I'm there.

I'm off to pack, I'll see you all in at most, a week from Sunday. Adios!

it's just the end of the road

2006-07-13T21:04:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I left you all in suspense at the end of my last blog post. I did end up buying a new camera. It's nothing terribly fancy, a Kodak V530. It's SO much slimmer than my old one, I'm pretty happy with it. I think I got a pretty good price.
That's it. I'll take some comparison pictures for quality purposes maybe when I get back from Quebec, since I'm curious too.
Oh right, I promised a picture of that little flower I found, here it is (with the new camera. WOW it's such a major change of the old one!).

Feelin' hot, hot, hot.

2006-07-12T19:31:00.000-05:00

Today is the third straight day of +30*C temperatures, and I heard on the news that there hasn't been any meaningful rain in parts of the area since the beginning of May. Almost consistently at night it clouds over and looks like it'll rain, but it doesn't.
So far I've been okay with the heat, even though I don't have air conditioning, since at night it had (past tense) cooling down to around or below 20*C, except last night it was 27, and about the same tonight.
The other night I was out pouring bleach on the weeds between my paving stones, I noticed a little purple flower! It was cute, so I spared it the bleach. Of course I took a picture, but I haven't uploaded it yet, because that requires expending energy (see first paragraph).
I leave for Quebec City on Saturday, and I'm looking forward to it. I'll be heading out there to meet up with my parents, who started the drive there on Tuesday, while my brother will be flying there from Alberta, and I'll be flying there from here.
That has turned into an excuse for me to look for a new digital camera to buy before I leave, but I reaaallly shouldn't.... or should I?

forza azzura!

2006-07-09T19:04:00.000-05:00

So today was the final match of the 2006 World Cup. I followed it somewhat, and this game was a fairly good one. At least there was quite a bit of back-and-forth action, with only a few dives. Plus, there was a head-butt to the solarplexus (way to go Zidane!).
Well, I live quite close to a street called Corydon Ave., the heart of Little Italy in Winnipeg. As such, part of me was pulling for Italy, because I know there'd be one hell of a party.
And there was. Right after the final penalty I could hear horns honking and peole cheering from over there. I ended up meeting up with a friend there and we wandered around, after which I snapped some pictures with my camerafone. The whole street was blocked off, and there were hundreds of people milling about.
Sadly, only one of the pictures turned out at any decent size, since my camerafone apparently ran out of memory. It likes to take pictures of the inside of my pocket, which I don't notice until it says that it's full.
Yes, that guy ran infront of me. That picture really doesn't do the volume of people there justice, off in the distance is where the party really starts, and it is packed full of people

stolen

2006-07-05T20:34:00.000-05:00

Okay, so last night was the City & Colour, and Dashboard Confessional show. We got there just shortly after Dallas took to the stage, and were able to enjoy 4 or 5 songs from him. He's excellent live, and has a great rapport with the audience. I hate going to shows where the artist doesn't try to engage the audience with dialogue. I completely enjoyed his live show, the one thing is that his songs do tend to sound very similar. He's a great guy. I bought one of his shirts. I also bought one of Dashboard's shirts. I will post pictures of them for Jynelle, who wanted to see them, but later. I'll also throw up some pictures of the show, once I get them from Kayla, as I forgot to bring my camera, and she was sneaky enough to get hers past security.
I'd never been a really big fan of Dashboard Confessional, but after that show, I can't help but be amazed by Chris' voice. The set was over an hour long, and he has one hell of a powerful voice. He was pretty hokey the way he played to the crowd "This is the best crowed we've had", and "I think I've made a few new friends tonight!" But yeah, kickass voice, pretty good show.

smithers, you must believe!

2006-06-29T19:11:00.000-05:00

So today my highly-anticipated copy of McLean's found its way into my postbox. In lieu of putting any thought into a post, I figured I'd rehash some stuff from the magazine. This post looks long and boring to read, but I assure you, it's mostly made up of empty space.
First, a quote highlighted by them:

Every member in the House will soon have an opportunity to stand up and be counted on accountability. Let us replace darkness with light. Let us replace accountability with corruption... Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order to correct the record. I should have said, let us move to accountability from corruption.

-President of the Treasury Board John Baird misspeaking in the Commons on the Federal Accountability Act.

I like that one.
Now, this issue had the results of their annual Canada Day Poll, which included comparisons to answers given in earlier editions of the poll. Some interesting figures:

"I approve of premarital sex"
1975 - 67% overall
now - 80% overall
1975 - 90% of people aged 18-34
now - 77% of people aged 18-34
1975 - 40% of people aged 55+
now - 75% of people aged 55+

Approval of homosexuality
men women
1975 33% 52%
now 61% 70%

I approve of marriage between blacks and whites
1975 - 55%
now - 94%

Percentage of Canadians versus Americans who approve of:
(stupid editor, CDA answers on the left, USA on the right)
Homosexual relations 60% 38%
Premarital sex 80% 64%
Legal abortion available on demand 43% 27%
Immigration 78% 64%

How Often do we have Sex?
Daily - 2%
Several times a week - 20%
Weekly - 24%
Monthly or less - 12%
Hardly ever or never - 28%

What do we Value?
Freedom - 90%
Family life - 83%
Being loved - 82%
Being Canadian - 62%
A rewarding career - 51%
Community involvement - 15%

Whom do we feel uneasy around?
Sex offenders - 96%
Alcoholics - 71%
Former mental patients - 63%
Born-again Christians - 31%
Policemen - 24%
Muslims - 18%
Jews - 5%

Almost 75% of Canadians disagreed with the statement: We should worry about Canada and let the world take care of itself.

That's enough I think.

another post

2006-06-26T19:38:00.000-05:00

Hooray, I picked up tickets to The Weakerthans! I just have to wait until September to see them.
I've watched Kitchen Nightmare, that show with the Scot chef Gordon Ramsay, who loves to swear more than anyone else I've ever seen, but watching his new show Kitchen Nightmare is quite an experience. I mean I can understand that he's passionate about cooking, so that when people don't perform up to his standards, he has a problem with that. Yelling at someone for that seems reasonable enough, but really, resorting to personal insults?
Wow, did you know that 7-up now only has 5 ingredients? That's pretty impressive. I haven't tasted the new stuff yet though, so it could be shit.
This weekend I was blessed with an ungodly, constant pain in my mouth. It seems that somehow a cavity has snuck its way into a tooth of mine, and felt like suddenly making itself known to me in the worst possible way.
I leave you with a picture of Tigress sitting inside a Boston Pizza delivery bag. She jumped in there all by herself.

wellington wednesdays

2006-06-22T18:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, I know it's Thursday. It's a Weakerthans song.
Thanks be to Christielli for hooking me up with the fact that The Weakerthans have scheduled a Winnipeg date for their Impossible Distances tour! Click on that link to find a stop near you. Sorry Laura, it doesn't look like they're swinging by the east coast this time :( Though, perhaps it's an excuse for a trip to Ottawa! Tickets go on sale this Saturday, and I shall be picking them up for sure. I'm quite excited. Thanks again Christielli!
One of the guys I used to work with in the last branch I was at is getting married on Saturday, and my roommate was going to go with me. Suddenly, she's got some thing to be doing for her own wedding that day, so can't come. Anyone want to come to a Portugese wedding this Saturday? lol Anyone from out-of-town gets rewarded with tickets to the Ex.
Buck 65 is also coming to Winnipeg as part of the Cool (tm) Winnipeg Jazz Festival, I might end up seeing him, if I can find someone that also is somewhat interested in going.
I was bored and moseyed on over to Pitchfork and looked through this very fun column about the Best 100 Music Videos. Are they the best? I don't agree with all of them being the best, but they're all good fun. I especially like The Postal Service's 50's kitch video (and of course, how can you NOT like Twisted Sister's video for We're Not Gonna Take It! Dee is the ugliest 'woman' EVER).

breathe me

2006-06-16T23:26:00.000-05:00

On the way home from work today, I had planned to get off the bus at the train station and take some pictures. The bus stopped across the bridge from there, probably 7 blocks. Something about an engine overheating, I wasn't listening that intently, but everyone had to get off the bus and stand around. Eventually I decided to say "screw it" and just walked across the bridges to the station. Instead of fighting with blogger to post pictures here, just click on the link to my Flickr pictures over there on the right.

Or don't. Either is fine with me.