I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Thing!

It's rapidly approaching that time of year again.

The hap-hapiest time.

With brightly coloured lights, friends sharing food and drink, laughter abounding, stories being told over the warm glow of green felt tabletops.

WPBT time is next weekend. Remember when there used to be blogs about it?

I'm once again in town for my maximum tolerance level, and have once again crammed my schedule full of food and fun. Maybe even a comet this time around, depending on the power of our mighty sun. All hail Sol, destroyer of icy rocks.

I think we've got 13 people lined up for Craftsteak on Friday night so far. Still room for more if you're interested.

I'm running through my schedule in my head. I think I have a window of not doing anything early Thursday afternoon, and of course, post-midnight every day. Of course, this is under the assumption that my last longer partner Vinnay and I end up heads-up in the tournament. I see no reason to doubt that will come to pass.

But hey, Pai Gow and craps are always better after the witching hour, with a stomach bloated with food and a liver working on fine wine and cocktails. Which reminds me to check on my caffeine supply. Ah Vegas, land of health. Hell, dinner on Saturday starts at 10pm. Positively European... except that it's Japanese.

18,682.

Either $747.28 or $622.73 depending on how the bonus works on tier credits.

That's all I need to hit platinum on my M life status. A pittance by Vegas standards. But it has to be achieved by October 1st.

So I'm heading to Vegas this weekend to reach that goal. Clearly I'm a sucker for loyalty programs. I get a 10% better point bonus, taxi and valet priority, and an extra 5% off at retail shops I buy water and snacks at. Oh, and probably better deals on hotel rooms for future trips.

Just checked - also turndown service! (which I've had the past couple trips on Gold, but maybe that was the tip at the front desk). Priority access to cabanas and clubs I don't frequent!

But the card is a different colour, and that taxi thing and better deals are the real appeal. After all, I'll be back in December and February, so that's when this pays off.

Anyway, off to Vegas this weekend on a flight paid with other points. The hotel rooms pretty much cover the tier points I need (due to some big-ass music festival this weekend driving up the prices), but I'll do a dinner or two in MGM properties to make sure... plus the gambling.

Solo trip. But it helps to have friends there so I don't seem too degenerate. I just have to make sure I actually set some stuff up with them. I'm also curious how the festival (which has some pretty huge names) will affect The Strip. Massive crowds usually means expensive tables and busy poker rooms.

But I'm not even sure how much gambling I'll see. I'll likely play in a tournament or two, and maybe play bad poker at cheap tables. I can't see me not rolling some dice and hitting the slots as I wander around, but I can't say I have a huge gambling urge this time around. I suppose that's generally a good thing.

No, I think I'm most looking forward to seeing a few friends and generally taking it easy. I'll keep the planning to a minimum and try to clear my head. Maybe get into the right mindset for my even less-planned birthday the following weekend. After all, it's a completely non-number one. No 5's or 0's. No significant milestones of life, just another tick on the calendar. Hell, nothing even expires this year. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

Who the hell goes to Vegas to relax? This guy apparently, and I don't even know where the pool is.

Hrm, a post on Blogger about a gripe that was catalyzed by Tumblr. Maybe I'll tweet about it.

Tumblr - I'm still not sure I "get" it, but I have one that I post at infrequently. It's a decent way to find some interesting stuff that doesn't necessarily make it to Twitter. One of its major problems, however, is the lack of proper sourcing. Lots of pictures, comics, gifs, etc., fly through it without being attributed to the original source. I've seen a couple of my photos on there with narry a link to my Flickr page or mention of me. I assume similar things are happening elsewhere on the Web as well.

[there was a part in here about Tumblr making it hard to anchor to the original source. This seems to be something they fixed, so that part is gone now.]

There are users out there that do try though.  The Frogman comes to mind as someone who tries their best (or at least, his assistant does) to find out where things are from originally instead of just hitting the reblog button. Likely because he creates a great deal of original work that gets ripped off.

Wil Wheaton is another who has championed sourcing your material. But he often falls prey to the beast of "it's easier to hit reblog".

Case in point, this recent post.

This one caught my eye because I instantly recognized the location. It's the Distillery District in Toronto. That truck is all over the place. I've taken some shots myself. Thinking that "hey, Wil retumbld a shot from my city", I clicked on who he got it from. It was from an actress, who as far as I could tell was neither a ballerina, nor photographer, nor from Toronto. It seemed unlikely she was the original source. In very light grey and a tiny font, hidden amongst the tags of her post, was a "source" link - to a Tumblr of a 19-year-old dancer, or at least dance enthusiast. Okay, this seemed to be getting somewhere. Except that there was nothing else like this in her feed, and no more links to earlier sources. It seemed that this was just someone who liked the shot and put it up without attribution.

To be fair to Wil, he had a more visible link to this same source on his post

So I spent a whopping 5 seconds copying the link to Google's search-by-image tool, and found this article in Chloe Magazine about Heather Ogden, a Principal Dancer of the National Ballet of Canada. The second image in was the one in question. With two others from the Distillery District. Photography was credited to Aleksandar Antonijevic - whom another search revealed is another Principal Dancer in the National Ballet, who also happens to be a photographer.
 
It took far longer to ramble on here than to actually find where this image came from. It's really not that hard. It's even easier if the original poster includes a link in the first place. I mean, I have 10 links in this post alone. They're really easy to use.

Leafs still suck, our Mayor and his lapdogs are still idiots, and I still have no idea what my final photography project will be.

Leafs - 8-0?? 8-0?????? WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Yah, it's Boston. Yah, they own us. Still 8-0?? You can't throw the whole season in ONE game guys! You have to lose them one at a time! Damned Leafs can't even lose right.

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OK Blue Jays!

Brett Lawrie's spring training numbers? 9 games, 23 AB, 5 runs, 14 hits, 6 doubles, 1 triple, 8 RBI, 1 walk, 1 strike out, 5 stolen bases, .609 avg, .625 OBP, .957 SLG!

Out with a groin strain.  Pulled himself from the game. All indications are he's a full-throttle player but a smart kid. Has superstar written all over him.

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Hey, let's say you really tied yourself to a failing plan for subways, but your council has all the evidence that supports light rail transit instead, and the citizens of your city are slowly swinging that way because they have brains and can see the evidence.

Do you

A) Provide feasible counter-evidence supporting subways as a better long-term solution, along with at least a bare-bones plan for funding the subway?

B) Enter into an intelligent debate in an attempt to find a workable compromise between the plans.

C) Call the latest commissioned report "hogwash", without any evidence, because it 100% supports LRT development as the best option even when money isn't taken into account. Then have one of your lackey councillors hand out pictures of LRT crashes to the opposition, including pictures of a couple that died in one, considering that some sort of evidence that subways are better.

If you said C, then you may be qualified to be Mayor of Toronto! Actually, no, you aren't qualified, you're an idiot who might get elected by people who were too lazy to spend 5 seconds looking beyond your obviously empty promises.

Remember kids - things crash! You know what crashes more? Cars! Also bikes. And planes. And people running, or walking but not looking where they're going.  Oh, and subways sometimes. Devastatingly so.

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Final project is due in a couple weeks for the latest photography class. Subject - whatever the hell I want.  Just make it look purdy.

Except I have no idea what I want to do.  Poker night last semester didn't work as I wanted. So I'm hesitant to set up a whole scene again.

My latest thought was origami.  I have a rather kick-ass Zombiegami book I got for Christmas, with coloured papers and complex designs.  My first attempt from it half worked out, but if I actually started folding when not watching TV, I imagine I could get a nice little paper zombie apocalypse going... a couple set pieces and it could be something interesting.

Yah, I'm liking that more all the time. It's good to type things out.

This etherspace isn't the only thing I need to renovate in my life.

There's also my home. Or more specifically, my kitchen.

I bought my place 7 years ago. Hell, just over exactly 7 years ago.  The plan then was for 5 years, then I'd rent it out and find something more permanent. What I didn't anticipate is loving the convenience of being smack in the middle of downtown, with more space than I need, in a great older building. As it stands, all I'd be interested in for moving purposes would be if my unit, only 7 or 8 floors higher went up for sale at a reasonable price.

That said, with a 5 years, then rent plan, I skimped on the renos when I moved in. I stripped the bathrooms to the walls and rebuilt them, stained the floor, and put in new tile, cheap countertop, and backsplash in the kitchen. The plan was to reface the cabinets, but that never happened.

Now, it's all starting to bite me in the ass.

The bathrooms are generally holding up - except for perhaps the need to replace the showerheads.  The floor is fine, if a but scuffed in places.  A year or so ago I tore out the carpet from the bedrooms and put in hardwood. That's all good.

But the kitchen... oh the kitchen.

A couple years back the faucet exploded. Lucky me - lifetime warranty, new faucet head. But now the unreplaced parts are weakening.  The cabinets are literally falling off.  Their hinges coming loose after 30 years of existence.  The handles are ripping out of the doors. The microwave decided it didn't want to open any more. The handle on the stove is sitting in the pantry now. I don't even want to look in the range hood for fear that years of grease has become sentient and just wants to be left alone. In short, I fully expect the whole thing to collapse around me in the middle of preparing a meal.

So the process to renovate has begun in earnest. I met with a kitchen company last week, and have a meeting with an independent contractor tonight.  I'm leaning to the latter option as he's come recommended, seems friendly, and has been open about seeing his current projects, past work, meeting the crew, etc..

Place will be demolished to the walls. New cabinets, new stone countertops, new appliances, raise the drop ceiling and put in new lights, new floor, new backsplash, new paint, new everything.

It's something I both love and hate. Hate because it's stressful. Picking cabinets, countertops, appliances, colours, etc.. Talking to 3 different people about what can and can't be torn out. Putting together the application to condo management. Eventually I'll be given an estimate and that will be fun.  But then, new stuff! Induction stovetop with double oven and built-in probe thermometer! Fancy new fridge! Schmancy dishwasher! Convection microwave! Quartz everywhere! No more 1981 cabinets! In the end, it will be totally worth it.

So, any suggestions?

I guess I'll have to host another dinner sometime.

This is Toronto-centric. Also, it's long. Leave now if you don't care.

Yesterday, an astounding example of community activism and municipal democracy happened in my fair city.  But first, some background.

Our previous city government, under mayor David Miller, approved the most ambitious transit plan that Toronto has seen in decades. Ours is a city of the car - gridlock during the day, poor bike infrastructure, 3 subway lines, and a bunch of streetcars and buses. The Transit City plan would use LRT lines to expand this infrastructre - replacing a line at the end of its life (Scarborough RT), replacing a dozen bus lines with one contiguous rapid transit line (Eglinton), providing those with the worst commute in the city with a sleek new system (Finch), and extending other lines to the people who needed them.  Environmental assessments were done, provincial funding was guaranteed to the tune of $8.4 billion, and while some compromises had to be found, it was full steam ahead to finally expand a system that had only seen a stub of a subway line added in the previous 30 years of explosive growth.

If it all worked out, even more ambitious plans were in the works - a downtown relief line, extensions to University and College campuses that are currently a pain to get to, connections to major attractions and the airport. In short, what would eventually be better access through one of North America's largest cities.

Then came Rob Ford. Our current buffoon of a mayor. He campaigned on "ending the gravy train" at City Hall. He promised those wonderful "efficiencies" that are all the rage but never really found.  He also promised a subway to our eastern wing, Scarborough.  A subway that would run along a stretch where the density is far too low to support such a system. Hell, they build a Sheppard subway in the 90's that they considered closing in the 2000's because ridership was so low.  He wanted to extend that mistake.

So day 1 in office, he "cancelled" Transit City. A plan, that while not perfect, was our best hope for comprehensive transit in our lifetimes. A project that was fully funded, fully supported, and where DIGGING HAD ALREADY STARTED.  Why? He wanted a subway to Scarborough. Fuck the rest of the city.

So he marched to our Provincial leader and demanded they let him have his way. They acquiesced - an election was coming after all, the world was jerking to the right, and Ford had some sort of inexplicable momentum behind him.

So work stopped. The organization in charge looked at alternatives. Ford demanded that the $8.4 billion, instead of building 2 new lines, replacing a 3rd, and extending a 4th, all be dumped into burying the Eglinton line and replacing the Scarborough RT. Because that's how much it would cost to take a reasonable plan for that street (buried for a bunch, surface route in lower-density areas) into a "subway".  I guess it beat his alternative - the whole kitty into the subway to the east that would be underutilized for 50 years.

But all was not lost! No! He also was going to find magic beans he called "private sector money" to pay for his glorious Sheppard subway to Scarborough. Of course, nobody in the private sector had been consulted. Nobody had done a study to see if it was even feasible. But dammit, Rob Ford felt it in his gut, so it would be!

Except it wasn't. Instead of a proper feasibility study, he asked one lackey to put together a report. This guy came up with "yah, it could happen. If we have road tolls to pay for 60% of it." Road tolls being anathema to politicians in this city. I dunno, New York seems to get by with them. I hear  London has adapted too.

Anyway, along with this report came a legal decision that another councillor had asked for. A prominent legal firm here determined that no, Rob Ford was not, in fact, a king. He couldn't unilaterally cancel a plan that had been approved by the council. The council had to vote on it.

Drats! Democracy again?

And that was the release on the giant boulder at the top of the ramp. Within days of this opinion being released, Ford's plans were being squashed. Karen Stintz, former Ford lackey who he had hand-picked to head up our Transit Commission turned on him. She presented a compromise! A COMPROMISE! THE HEATHEN! She suggested that maybe Eglinton could be unburied a little bit. Not as much as originally, but also not all underground. It could save $2 billion that could restore some of the other plans a bit, and give Ford a boost for his white elephant subway.

The response? NO! NO! NO! Ford gets tantrumy (as is his wont) and his lapdogs on the TTC board turn on their leader and vote her down.

So she says, fine... I tried to be nice.

She gathered up more than half the councillors and had them sign a petition to call a special meeting of council. This is an exceedingly rare occurrence. I'm not entirely sure it's EVER happened before. This meeting was to put forth the original plan in all its glory for final approval. Mayor be damned.

Rob cried and whined! NO! I'M THE MAYOR! PEOPLE ELECTED ME TO BUILD SUBWAYS!! I WILL REND THE EARTH WITH MY BARE HANDS AND YELL CHOO! CHOO! DOWN THE TUNNELS!

Or something to that effect.

The councillors approached him right up the last minute, offering compromises that would still make him look good. There could still be a subway! Just make an allowance here so the poor (literally) people on Finch can get to work faster.  He refused.

So yesterday, the full council met, made speeches, pleas, and motions. Even then, a compromise was made - Sheppard was left off the table. It would be further explored to see if a subway made sense. Rob still bitched. He tried to get the whole thing delayed - that was defeated quickly, and he disappeared for hours afterwards.

His yes-people spewed blatant lies and the same old misinformation to try and swing the vote and instill fear. They read letters from citizens that sounded hand-written by the mayor himself so effusive of his plan were they.  Those who supported the original plan spoke clearly, used facts, and even a bit of sarcasm and humour to shoot down their opponents. They swayed a couple more votes in the process, and in the end, 58% of the council voted to approve the original plan, and tell the mayor to go fuck himself.  In far more political language of course.

So naturally, the mayor called the meeting "irrelevant", his #1 fluffer said the meeting was an exercise in ramming things down their throats.  Some of his supporters looked a bit ashamed that they were following such a moron who had no respect for democracy.  Some claimed the mayor and the province should just ignore the wishes of council. After all, the mayor was elected, so people want what he wants. The rest of council, also elected and representing citizens, be damned.

Then, our esteemed mayor went out the broke-down, soon-to-be-replaced Scarborough RT and rode it. He asked people if they'd rather a subway than that piece of crap. Unsurprisingly, they said yes. Of course, he didn't ask if they'd rather have ANYTHING other than that piece of crap.  It was a publicity stunt that screamed of desperation.

But, to the chagrin of him, and joy of more than him - the province came out almost immediately and essentially said "We will do what council wants, not one man."

So, now the next step comes. Metrolinx (the overseeing organization) now has to figure out the logistics. The TTC has to move forward with them. The mayor will likely try a few more things to stop it, but for now, the will of the people and their representatives seem strong.  People are fed up with a 3rd-rate transit system in a gridlocked city.

This mayor has been a disgrace, and embarrassment, and a fool. We have him for almost 3 more years. But his defeats are starting to pile up as the level of political activism in my fair city continues to rise. People are involved in the process in a way never before seen. They've realized that their voice counts, and that they can bring change where they want it.  Either Ford has to learn to accept compromises, or he has to get used to losing. His "Ford Nation" is now a small island, and it's shrinking.

Right, it's summer. So that means there's always something going on 'round these parts. Toronto can get downright dreary during the winter, so it squeezes as much as it can into the summer. Not that I've been partaking in too many of the city's offerings either.

Bloggers dropping in for international birthdays, my local friends having the gall to have their own birthdays on top of that, and endless stream of movies to see, farmers markets providing an every-cycling range of fresh produce that has to be turned into meals, Jays games, poker games, days too nice to waste inside, and just the day-to-day stuff that takes up time... when I have nothing to do, it comes as a relief.

Except "nothing" translates to either doing some photo editing or playing my way through am ever-increasing backlog of video games (damn you and your sales Steam!). Both of which fall under the category of "leisure" and relaxing.

So, some pics... then maybe I'll get to finishing my writeup on Happy Gilmore for Filmchaw's continuing (and drawn-out) 90's character challenge... yah, I'm the guy holding up this round. Sorry.

I was at my first Jays game of the season on Sunday. Robbie Alomar Hall of Fame day. First Jay in the Hall as a Jay (others not as a Jay include Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor, Rickey Henderson, and Phil Niekro - all of whom have obviously stronger affiliations with other teams). Great crowd, and has me missing the glory days.

I opted to not bring my SLR this time, as I knew the place would be sold out and I'd worry about the camera too much. So the iPhone came into play.





I'm not a huge fan of the camera by itself on the phone due to how noisy it is, but it's easily replaced my point and shoot for the "better to have any photo than no photo" moments.

But I need to get out for a real shoot again soon, because apparently I feel the need to increase my backlog of photos I'd really like to finish off an post. The other question is, "where?" I'll keep my Flickr account, but I'm thinking maybe 500px might be worth a look for my favourite pics. Flickr is just falling behind on features, layout, and monetization.

Alright, enough rambling.

I don't know about you, but when actually start to study a topic I already know something about, I often see the baby flying out in a large splash of bathwater before I pull it back in. Or less terribly-worded, I jump into the new ideas, ignoring what I already know, but eventually find the right combination of new and old experience.

Politics - what's the old saying? You're a democrat until the government takes your money, and then you go republican. I'd like to think that as we become more exposed to life, the intelligent among us start to see the subtleties and realities that we missed in our younger rose-coloured days. We find what we're passionate about, or what makes sense to us, and follow that path. Some eschew all materialism and build a cabin the woods to live off the land while giving all their possessions to an orphanage. Others become birthers who move to a cabin in the woods afraid the gubmint is gonna take their teeth. Most find a happy medium where they develop an opinion about stuff and continue on with their daily lives, adjusting as needed.

Poker? Read Harrington, or Negreanu, go through a thread on a forum about small ball, and our game changes overnight. Suddenly we're playing crap for small bets or checking M constantly to determine if our JTo is push-worthy. Inevitably, sticking "to the book" results in being very easy to read and control. Good players adapt and find some combination of lessons that fits their situation. Changing gears and all that.

We read about someone who took their own path and found a life model that made them rich and successful. Suddenly, what they did is what we're going to do, with no consideration for the differences in our situations. You can't invent a second pet rock and expect it to sell as well as the first.

No, eventually the excitement of our "discovery" of new methodologies wanes, and our old practices start to reassert themselves. These former rivals often find a means of melding into a new outlook that often works better, for us, than either did by themselves.

I'm slowly coming to that stage in photography. I find I'm swinging wildly between old habits and new lessons. I long ago started filtering the information being fed to me through a screen of care/don't care, but now I'm starting to see what's left behind.

We covered portraits a few weeks back, something I've never really done. I learned something - I hate portraits. I can't help but think that a couple pieces of advice from the teacher might have changed that mindset a bit. Even so, posing someone, checking lighting while the subject is in flux, and trying to make a living, breathing, feeling person look good is a collection of things I don't like. If you take a bad picture of a landscape, the landscape isn't going to care, and it will still be where you left it. The whole class was me trying to apply the various points of instruction from the previous week. I was a bit stressed, and fairly unhappy by the end. I looked at the hundreds of shots I took during that session, and was glad I only had to find 5-10, since I dislike most of them. I had applied none of the things I've learned in the past, and my shots look like those of a raw newbie. I'll see what I can fix in post.

But then we did black and white photography - another area I have zero experience in. This time, I had much more fun. I can look back and see various reasons - subjects that don't move or care what their picture looks like, more real-time advice from the instructor, and a bit more comfort in the studio after the portraiture session. But I think the key change was me tossing aside some of the opinions that had been pressed on us and going with what I knew. My tripod was out early and my camera stayed on it. My Promote Control was attached and I was bracketing shots for HDR use later. I switched between prime and zoom lenses as needed (although I pretty much stuck with my macro by the end). I went back into a comfort zone I've known for years and found the right amount of new education to bring in. Looking through the, again, hundreds of images from that session, I loved most of them. I'm in the process of whittling down the count to a displayable number, some HDR, some not.

I think my favourite part of that session was when the teacher was talking to my group towards the end. I had my camera 6ft in the air on the tripod, control in my hand, and I fired off 9 bracketed shots. The "what the hell is he doing?" look crossed the teacher's face, which one of my partners graciously responded to with "HDR" in a tone that said, "he's been doing this all class." El instructo thought for a second, said, "Black and white HDR?" thought some more, and then said "That could be really interesting."

Considering HDR is all about light and texture, the same areas that B&W focuses on, I had thought the same thing.

Favourite shot from the session so far:

My first semester of classes in over a decade are wrapping up in the next couple weeks. I'm actually missing two of the remaining six classes due to a small gathering of (sometimes) like-minded individuals in the desert. It's been a lesson in time management, and reminder that while I can still pull off the last minute cram session, it's not nearly as much fun as when I could sleep the next day away.

But the real question at the end of any period of education is - did I learn anything? The short answer is, "yes," but not necessarily in the way the institution had in mind.

The class that approximately equates to "Digital Photography for Dummies" actually turned out to be "Intro to Lightroom". The Photoshop course pretty much lived up to expectations of being far too rudimentary to be of much use to me. The history course? Completely useless and the most stress-inducing of them all for the least amount of gain.

So what did I learn then? There were snippets of usefulness here and there - try this setting, here's a list of shortcut keys, here's a feature I didn't know about. Largely things I could have learned if I bothered to Google the right questions, or just played around long enough. Of course, the key part is that I wouldn't have - so this is information I wouldn't otherwise have in reality.

But more so has been a massive improvement in my workflow. Having never used Lightroom before, I now see why it's such a beloved tool. It easily covers 80% of what needs to be done to most photos. I still have to switch to Photomatix for HDR, and CS5 for stitching, more advanced work, and actual editing instead of processing, but so much is now encapsulated in one fairly quick program that I may one day get through my massive backlog of photos.

Also, I think the actual pictures I'm taking are getting better. This is through no fault of the courses, and more a result of the sheer volume that I've taken with the specific goal in mind of "take different, good pics for class" instead of my vacation M.O. of "take a ton, sort 'em out later". There are still swaths of near-duplicates, but it has improved.

Perhaps the biggest change, and most recently noticed - keeping the work. I used to edit my photos, flatten the layers, and save it as a high-quality JPEG to save space. This recently bit me in the ass when I went back to edit my bounty picture. The aggravation of not being able to find a TIFF or PSD file with previous changes in place nearly broke me. I finally tracked down a full-sized JPEG and ended up altering it as necessary (sharpening and cropping to a standard print ratio). The whole time, an instructor's voice in my head - "I don't know why you WOULD get rid of your layers and save it as a JPEG or something. Then you can't edit it later." Lesson learned.

So now, with plans for yet another massive desktop upgrade (my 13" Macbook became the powerhouse with a simple memory upgrade, that can't stand), a new camera on the horizon (5D Mk III can't get here fast enough), and a noticeable drop in my bank account accompanying all that, I feel like I'm actually taking that next step in my photographic process. Amazing how even so little actual education can lead to such major progression.

I'm exhausted today. Why? Because I in a foul mood for hours after the PftR game last night.

The evening started off poorly when I tried to get rush tickets to a doc I really wanted to see. My own stupid last minute change in plans and lack of compensating for the extra time resulted in my being too far back in line to have a chance. But I stuck it out anyway. Kicking myself on the walk back, I figured I'd soothe my mood by picking up some quality food if the Healthy Butcher was open. Nope, missed it by half an hour.

I cabbed it the rest of the way, and opted to turn just over a pound of ground elk into spaghetti sauce.

Caramelized some onions, softened up some yellow pepper and zucchini, all with a bit of salt and a mix of fats (vegetable oil, olive oil, butter, garlic oil, and bacon fat). Added garlic just before tossing in some ground star anise, and then browning the elk with it all. Shake some fish sauce on top (mmmm... umami), ground coriander seed, and more salt. Some canned tomatoes were added to the mix with dried oregano, smoked paprika, and a bit of cayenne. Bring to a simmer. Taste, added a mix of green peppercorns, black peppercorns, cubeb pepper, white peppercorns that were mortar and pestled. A splash of hot sauce, some spicy sundried tomato hemp pesto, and a couple splashes of worcestershire sauce finished it off.

It was delicious, and served on some barolo-infused pasta that my best friend got me ages ago and gently reminded me I'd never opened. Also delicious.

Having cooked some tasty, I was back in a happy place, 10 minutes before game time.

I sat down, and on the 3rd hand I saw KJo. Buddydank put a standard raise out and I called in position.

Flop comes KdJdx. Okay, top 2. Buddy bets, I raise, and he calls.

Turn comes 3d. Buddy checks, I bet, and he thinks and pushes. I have BDR on, and he's talking about how he's putting me to the test here. I review the hand so far, and figure there's no what he turned a flush. The talk on the radio is obviously meant to make me think he's weak. But I figure he's fairly strong here. Knowing it's Buddy, I put him on AK and make the call, and am willing to go home now if he's got AKd.

He shows AdAx. Stronger than I thought, but for all intents and purposes, the same thing. Before I can say "here we go" the 4th diamond hits the river, giving Buddy the 4-flush and sending me to the rail as Gigli.

Sure, it was the first level, and I could have folded on the turn, but you have to go with your reads, or why bother playing? If I win there, Buddy's gone, I'm the chipleader 3 hands in, and I can loosen up BIG TIME and maybe build a significant chipstack early on. I can't be pissed with Mr. Dank, but I can be plenty upset about the river. And I was.

This hand covered everything I needed to do to up my game in this tournament. Trusting my reads, making a good one, and being aggressive. I just needed a touch more luck, and I'm off to the races. In the end, if you get the money in good, and the river kills you, that's poker.

Still, I was back to a foul mood. So I fired up Arkham Asylum and beat the crap out of Joker's goons. Then I quit and played angry super turbo SnG's. The $5 one didn't go so well, but I was HU in the $10 one before the 25/50 level was over. Properly revenged on poker, I called it a night.

Except when I hit the pillow, I couldn't sleep. Bad moods will do that. At some point, exhaustion won. Still, today's looking to be a foggy one.

It's become a tad colder here in Toronto of late. Almost as if it's seasonal. Phrases like "wind chill" are being heard frequently these days.

I was walking home last night, and had opted to bundle up. Coat done up, scarf wrapped up to my nose, and ears covered. I'm fighting with a cold you see, and didn't want to offer it more ammunition.

The thing about that configuration is that all my breath gets funneled upwards. Being a warm-blooded creature, my breath is hot in comparison to the outside temperature. Being myopic, I've been known to wear glasses. This was the case last night.

So the glasses instantly fogged up, causing a near-complete lack of vision. I dropped my head and peered over the rims of my spectacles and saw the world through the usual vaseline smear that is my near-sightedness. Without some sort of corrective lens in place, my vision is at best, rudimentary. Colours and the roughest ideas of shapes are visible.

So I had a choice, the fogged-up non-vision of my glasses, the blurry impressionism of my warped eyes, or I could take my nose out of my scarf.

I didn't have enough tissue left for the last option to be pleasant. Besides, I knew the walk home like the back of my hand, and after listening to talk about the role of absences in film, I figured this would be an interesting way to see the world.

So I walked, peering over my frames at the blurred surroundings I passed. People I couldn't discern from the dark background until they were a few feet away, and whose faces I'd never see, passed me by, seeing their world clearly. Cars became moving headlights, and my eyes were constantly watching the ground in front of me for splotches of shadow that could be ice. At one point, I nearly got angry at a parking meter for not moving, until I realized what it was.

The soundtrack to my promenade was the voices of those I passed and the noises a city makes on a cold winter night. It was a playlist that was both soothing and revealing. Echoes of John Cage sitting silently at a piano.

Eventually, I was a few blocks from home and decided to drop the scarf and readjust my glasses. I was passing through an area I'd rather be able to see than not. As the fog on my lenses cleared, the remaining, partially-frozen condensation shattered the world into crystalline shapes. Lights sparkled, and reflections were moving bursts. Slowly, the world came into focus around this stained glass filter. The tower that symbolizes my city stood solitary against the night sky in front of me, welcoming me back to the world of the sighted.

I turned a corner, pulled the scarf back up, and returned to the far more interesting world I'd just left. Knowing I had only a block left before the warmth of my home cleared everything back up again.

Sometimes, the world needs to be seen from a different perspective.

I'll be the first to admit when I'm not playing well.

I'm not playing well.

But beside my poor play, I'm once again playing with decks that contain 12 aces, but none of them coming to me. Seriously, how many times can I take a pair against A-rag and see the A hit by the river? Oh, that's right... EVERY time.

Shove the dollar up your ass.

Which, lucky for me, led to a break-even night. Which is far better than my usual returns, or lack thereof, of late.

It boils down to boredom. I fire up a game because I THINK I want to play, then at some point, I realize I really want to play something else, or watch something, or sleep, or SOMETHING other than click the fold button for half an hour before mixing it up by raising a middling hand and folding to two re-raises.

Then, of course, I realize I have a few hundred sitting on Bodog, and I never play there, because the client is SOOOOOO terrible. Maybe trying to figure out an efficient means of using it will present an interesting challenge.

That was my thought as I went to bed last night and set my alarms. Half of me still believed the weekend couldn't possibly be over. It was the same thought as the alarms went off this morning. I lay in bed debating if it really WAS Monday or not. When I finally determined it was, I still refused to accept it. Sitting now at my desk, this still seems a remote possibility.

But, it's Monday. The weekend flew by, despite my nearly 6 hours in traffic on Saturday.

From the west end of Toronto to Niagara Falls is around a 1.5 hour drive. An hour on a good day. It took me 3.5 hours to get to the Seneca Casino on the other side of the Canada-US border. Traffic for miles for no apparent reason. Moron after moron on the road, driving slowly on the left side, a wide-open right lane, drifting into my lane without checking a blind spot or using a blinker (since I was often passing them at the time). Many were also deaf as the guy leaning on his horn (me) alongside them didn't seem to make them realize they WERE ABOUT TO HIT ME. It was absolutely no surprise to me when there was a 5-car accident on the way back.

The border wait didn't improve my mood. The trunk search (it's completely empty) only aggravated me more. The families of 12 crossing ON A RED FUCKING LIGHT WHILE I WAS DRIVING TOWARDS THE INTERSECTION nearly pushed me to a vehicular killing spree, but I had no desire to end up in one of those filthy US prisons I've heard so much about. The card death at the table seemed fitting. Up $35 after 2.5 hours (and what should have been around 5).

VinNay had a much better time. Next time - he comes across the border.

But, I picked up my DVDs from our Buffalonian friend and made it back across without incident (which annoyed me because I spent 10 minutes hiding DVDs around my car, but better to not be searched than searched and found out I suppose). I was looking to be just a little late for a friend's birthday dinner, until I discovered that all lanes on the highway were closed at about the halfway point home. So I turned off, grabbed some fast food (a donut will not sustain you for a whole day, not even if it's boston cream), and debated on detours. You'd think a tourist office would have a decent map available.

Detour determined, the ride home wasn't too bad, but took about half an hour longer than hoped, which meant I completely missed the dinner. I felt bad. But I did make it for post-dinner festivities.

Sunday was much more relaxed, brunch with the family for my brother's birthday, chilling out at home watching movies with my best friend, and then driving them home afterwards.

I could have hit 5 different cyclists on that drive and been exonerated of all charges on each of them. People on bikes in the big city are FUCKING MORONS. There are LAWS for bike riding, FOLLOW THEM YOU STUPID FUCKS. Instead of flipping me the bird when I honk at you for running a stop sign and turning left from the right side IN FRONT OF MY MOVING CAR without giving any sort of signal on your bikes without any reflective surfaces and then taking up the whole road - why don't you realize that I could have crushed you under my wheels and slept soundly that night without fear of prosecution because you'd be 100% at fault?

I love biking. I think the city needs more people on bikes. I also think they need to be licensed and held responsible for following the rules like any other vehicle-user. This has been a shitty summer for bike behaviour here.

So yah, it can't be Monday, because the weekend was far too aggravating for it to be over.

This is all about fixing a computer. Skip it if that isn't your thing (I now expect about 4 people to actually read this).

About a month ago, my computer up and died. Lucky for me, we live in a world where I have access to 3 more. Still, this is my main machine, one I've built, upgraded, reformated, rebuilt, pulled from the brink, and generally treated like every other machine I've owned.

This was a new one for me - no POST. For those who are lost already - no starting beep. No memory test, no "press DEL to setup BIOS", no anything. Blank screen. Little monitor message box letting me know it's going into powersave because the video card ain't sending a signal.

Harder to diagnose the problem when you lose the visual interface.

I spent a couple days on it. I disassembled the beast, removed everything but the CPU, and still wasn't sure what the problem was. As usual, the Internet was mostly useless, with plenty of people having an IDENTICAL setup to mine, and the same problem, but nobody having a solution.

Then I threw out my back and decided being hunched over a computer wasn't the best idea. Back's mostly better now, and I revisted my aluminum friend the other night.

The CPU came out this time too, but this had little effect. It was time to play with component combinations. The RAM came out and the wee PC speaker started beeping maniacally. Okay, so it knows if the RAM is there or not. The RAM was replaced and the video card was removed - nothing. The video card was replaced - nothing.

This tells me the hangup is in the RAM. It knows when it's missing, but can't get past it to the video card test. Since the PCI-E LEDs still light up when the card isn't seated properly, I doubt it's a port issue.

RAM comes out. I have no other boxes that take DDR2. I don't have any spare DDR2 around. I call my brother, who I long ago taught everything I know when it comes to fixing these beasties. He does it for a living now, and still hasn't learned the cardinal rule of saying "no" to your friends when they ask you to fix their machine. At least he charges them a nominal fee these days. This all means he has spare parts and access to tests I don't... at least without a viable machine handy. I dropped off the RAM yesterday, and he couldn't get the closest machine to boot with it. Of course, there are other possible reasons - my RAM is 1066, the motherboard he was testing on is 533, so it might not downscale the RAM automatically. He took it home to test in my other brother's machine - no boot.

Sooooo... 3 machines that don't like my memory. Seems promising for my "must be the RAM" hypothesis. Which is waaaay better than my original "must be the motherboard" one. Why? RAM is $60. Motherboards are $200.

So now, he'll bring me another stick of RAM to test on my machine. If it comes alive, then the problem is solved and I just have to drop 3 score on some new RAM and the my baby can come back to life.

Because although my little Macbook is fine for web surfing and playing two tables of poker, it really blows when it comes to screen real estate for multitasking, and the processor just doesn't have the juice for CS4 to do it's thing. Which means my little photography hobby has slowed down in the interim. Not to mention the lack of games.

I, of course, fully expect that once it's back up and running, my RAID array will have been borked by my fiddling and I'll have the fun task of recovering the data I didn't have backed up (lucky for me - that's only a couple weeks worth of pictures and downloads). If this isn't the case? Double win for me.

Now let's see if there's any way I can get this done before I head southeast this weekend.

Hmm... I've had a bit of a bad run online of late. BR is once again approaching uncomfortably low levels. I've managed to extend the reload through some timely wins to the point where a reload doesn't sting as much though. Do I ever suck at poker. The 2 bubbly finishes in the nightly $5k didn't help. Need to work on my PLO aggression in the middle-late stages.

But I don't think I'll play tonight. Instead, I think I'll pop in a movie or two and find some way to lie comfortably without my back killing me. Maybe I'll finally get around to that new batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, to be turned into cookies 24-36 hours after I make it.

Yah, Friday night with no plans. It's a welcome respite. No real plans at all this weekend in fact. Which is fine by me, as next weekend is a housewarming and maybe a Niagara craps trip. The weekend after that is Atlantic City.... which is looking pricey. What the fuck is with those hotel prices? Harrah's is offering me my choice of hotels on the Vegas strip for free, and Caesar's for a pittance, but AC is asking for $350/night? Hey, Atlantic City - you're in FUCKING NEW JERSEY, get over yourself.

Whatever, Key West was free accomodations. Whistler was free rentals and lift passes. I can afford to pay a bit more for a middle-of-summer weekend getaway. Besides, I'll just pay for it with my winnings of course. Right?

You know what I'm looking forward to? Breakfast. I've got a hankering to make some waffles, which I haven't done in forever. I also crave real oatmeal. And fruit.

Pie wouldn't be bad either. I blame Kat for that one.

Strangely, I've gained weight the past couple weeks. I wonder why. Oh yah... the shitty back. It's dropped my activity level to zero, and increased my snacking due to a whole bunch of lying around being bored and in pain. Yup, I'll blame the back, and not the lack of willpower.

Perhaps I'll cease the rambling.... now.

It was the weekend. It was a good weekend too. I just, as often, wish it felt longer.

Friday went off-plan when my friend and I gave up on the idea of catching a Rocky-Horror-esque movie/play thing due to the rush line being around the corner over TWO hours before showtime. Instead we wandered to Little Italy, found a solid restaurant with a great drink selection and nice back patio, and spent a few hours eating and drinking and generally having more fun than standing in line. I capped off the night with a pricing error in my favour at a local music store, leaving with a little Stevie Wonder and a mispriced Simon & Garfunkel Old Friends tour DVD, which is still one of the best shows I've seen.

Saturday was restocking the pantry. Costco, farmers market, and then back home. 2 litres (8 cups) of raspberry jam, a couple mojitos, marinated (barolo vinegar, bourbon, dijon, oil, and spices) bone-in ribeyes on the grill, bad red wine (trying to work through the cheap old stock - this might be a mistake), kebobs, and grilled mashed potatoes later (best friend's idea - mash 'em, wrap 'em in foil with garlic and butter, put on grill - very good) and it could be called a filling and satisfying day.

Sunday involved poker. Naturally, I was running late, and arrived 35 minutes after "start" time... to a table with 3 other people around it. The turnout has been suffering at the home game. The bigger issue is that the host is getting 9-15 affirmatives up to the night before, and then 50% of the people actually show. Last game only had 6. I finished 2nd, which was good for... well, points. Winner-take-all for only 4 people. It wasn't the most satisfying live poker I've played by a long-shot.

The route back home takes me past the folks', so I stopped in to say hi and eat their food. In return I took home more food, kitchen supplies, astronomical binoculars from my grandparents' place and the HUGE tripod that came with them (nearly 6' extended, probably 6'6" with the centre column raised). The tripod could come in handy photography-wise, except it's heavy and gigantic, so not exactly easy transport. What it really does is swing my monopod or tripod decision firmly over to the monopod side for travel purposes. I mean, if it's good enough for Flipchip, who am I to question?

Saying hi and staying for dinner also means dessert, tea, and hanging around chatting for a bit. I pulled myself away, got home, and decided the bunches of mint in my fridge needed to be used immediately. There's a pitcher of julep iced tea in my fridge now, along with a jar of mint simple syrup.

And tonight? I should probably have some more of the roasted tomato cream soup I made last week, and use at least one of the fantastic sausages I picked up on Saturday before tossing the rest in the freezer. Chipotle with beer and onions (that would all be in the sausage) or red hot chorizo with red wine? Any bets on how long before I buy a meat grinder and sausage casings?

It's Tuesday. I need to keep reminding myself of this. Because I think it's Wednesday. But it's not, it's Tuesday. Tomorrow is Wednesday, because today is Tuesday.

I feel like I've missed Tuesday both times the last two weeks. It's an odd feeling.

I'm sure the drinks with co-workers and the boss tonight won't help with my internal calendar.

And Canada Day next week is on Wednesday, not even a long weekend, just one of those freaky "break in the middle of the week" holidays.

Shit, where the motherfuck did Monday come from?

I swear it was Monday yesterday, and I was bitching about it being Monday.

Well, I guess when you find yourself busy all week, it can fly by.

Now, summer starts and thing should slow to a crawl, as the dress code slowly slips until September.

Anyway, a good week. Saw a few movies I enjoyed (Frost/Nixon, and Up, which is far, far better than Wall-E could have hoped to be, but still hasn't reached Toy Story 2 height in the Pixar pantheon). A birthday bbq on Friday that let me catch up with a few good friends. I've been hermitting a fair bit recently, and have been late in emerging from the winter hibernation. That might have been the event to kick my ass into gear. Saturday I fixed a computer in my usual way (showed up, turned it on, and it worked fine because it feared me), followed by Up and tasty sushi and drinks. Sunday was father's day, but I first managed to get a few things done around the homestead, go for a walk around the downtown, have some ice cream, and veg around a bit before heading to the folks'. Of course, I played a few $5 SnG's on Stars, only to get raped by their RNG each time. Nothing worse than playing the turned flush perfectly only to have the river pair for your opponent's boat. Oh wait, it's worse when you knew it was coming from the flop.

And now I want this weekend to roll around. Friday is another birthday, a costume party - dress as your favourite person. I'm going as myself.

Saturday? Taking advantage of a late strawberry season in Ontario and planning to pick a few tonnes of the red berries, turning them into various other forms (jam, sorbet, sherbet, ice cream, shortcake, syrup, vodka, waffles, and I'm sure I can think of others). Hoping there are a few raspberries too. Hey, this is Canada, you jump on the opportunity for fresh, local produce.

I'd also like my predictions about the Jays to stop almost coming true when I put a pessimistic spin on them. 1-2 against the Nationals? Ugh. Way to waste what should have been the easiest series of your existence.

Cincy next. I expect the Jays will take the series, but not sweep. Then it's time to welcome the Phillies to town. Hrmm... maybe I'll see if anyone wants to go to the game on Sunday. Doc may be back in the rotation then.

Yah, one of those posts.

What can I say? Heading home, making pizza, eating said pizza, and then vegging in front of some sort of screen doesn't make for worthwhile rambling.

I did wander the city with my camera yesterday, heading for a couple Luminato installations. A few preliminary shots are on my Flickr page.

Ended up at the Red Ball the same time this guy was there. Which is kind of cool since his photo blog is probably the best on Toronto. I wish I had an ounce of his skill. Of course, I wasn't SURE it was him, and didn't say hi out of fear I'd have the wrong guy. Actually, I was sure, I just hate coming off as a stalker (it happens far more often than I'd like... I should really stop stalking people). I'm surprised I didn't run into him earlier though, since he lives about 3 blocks away from me and always seems to be taking pictures of places I've been to, around the same time I was there. Maybe I'm the one being stalked...

You know what's mildly depressing? When a guy you interviewed and recommended for a job 6 years ago just got promoted to head of something while you're in the same spot you were 8 years ago. Then again, I didn't want to move to NYC, and am also one lazy procrastinator. He, on the other hand, is a workaholic. I can't stand workahol.

The meeting with the CFO tomorrow could be interesting though. Or routine.

Poker, let's talk about that. I suck at it. Well, I suck at it except when I don't and then get sucked out on. Online BR is dwindling again already. I think I reloaded 3 weeks ago. Need to play within my limits. At least I'll never have any of those pesky withdrawal issues successful players have. I mean, you can't withdraw if you don't have any winnings, right?

Yah... it's one of those weeks. Yet still, I haven't had a drink since Saturday. Man, I need a beer... and a scotch... and maybe a martini. Not necessarily in that order.

I was tired most of last week. This was odd because I got a lot of sleep. I chalked it up to my body finishing off the flu from the weekend before.

Saturday night, around 3am Sunday, I went to bed. I finally got out of bed around 6pm Sunday evening. I wasn't tired any more.

It's always odd to sleep away an entire day. You obviously get very little done (me? two rounds of dishes from the night before, put away laundry, cleaned cat litter, and vegged around). I also completely spaced on the TOC, but congrats to JJOK, actyper, CK, and karmarules for taking down the seats! 10k to JJ and act, 2k to CK and karma. We know CK will put that 2k to use in a bracelet event, but will the others?

I forgot about something else too, but I forget what it was now.

Oh, and congrats to sprstoner on taking in around $200k in sweet, sweet, WSOP ka-ching!

Wasn't this guy using part of the last rent money he had a year ago? Man, what a turnaround.

If I do Atlantic City, it will likely be later in the summer. If I do Vegas, it will either be the 2nd last or last weekend of June. Where should I stay? Near the Rio or near the Strip?

And would it kill UPS to send advance notice of COD charges? I get it, I have to pay sales taxes on the US-purchased order, but my front desk isn't going to pony up $55 for me. I need to leave a cheque. Now everybody has to make a second trip.