I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Thing!

Let's blow the dust off this here space, shall we? Proxy dodginess makes for infrequent posting it seems.

There are rules in life that we shouldn't need to be told about. We learn them from experience or common sense. If you spill the jar of candies, you deny it was you. Even if you're sitting in the middle of the confectionery catastrophe with broken shards of candy jar in your hand.

You don't tell your mom you were "playing doctor" with the girl next door. Although it becomes difficult to lie about when her parents call asking about the sloppy sutures and botched appendectomy.

And for guys, there's one we should all know - you stagger positions at urinals dammit. If there are 5 urinals on the wall, you take 1, 3, and 5. You don't stand next to someone if the ability to put a space between you exists. You don't take 2 or 4 as a first choice because it fucks up the system for everyone else. And you definitely don't compliment the guy next to you on his watch.

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.

How was your New Year ringing-in?

I had a blast. Then I hit that drinking zone where it all goes down like water. I have a vague recollection of downing a glass of champagne in one shot because someone needed an empty glass (I was going to wash it), and then not knowing where the extra champagne glass (it was really a martini glass) came from. Not too long after, that hit me... or maybe it was the 4 or 5 gin martini (min 3oz each) variations, or the other glasses of champagne, or whatever else I may have drank.

Naw, it was the downed glass.

I'm not sure how long I was in the washroom before someone came to rescue me, but it was too long to be considered polite on my part. Granted, it was dry heaves, and I'm very courteous when misusing a friend's facilities. One well-placed comment had me up on my feet and on the couch with water in-hand, beginning my recovery.

I don't remember how the light saber got to someone else, but they needed it.

My very bestest friend got me home, fed my cats so they wouldn't eat me in my sleep, and left me to my own devices, which at this point were starting to click back into place. Combined with some pre-departure prep (close the blinds now, turn off the alarms, make sure there's plenty of water in the Brita, etc.) I might have seemed relatively capable when I poured myself under the covers.

Later in that first day of 2010, I was even able to stumble around and drag a brush across my teeth, pour a pint glass full of water, and toast up a bagel. Granted, I had the cream cheese half on before I realized I hadn't yet toasted the frozen thing.

It took 3 hours to eat that bagel, between naps and lying down to fight off the nausea. But the NHL Winter Classic looked pretty awesome at Fenway Park in HD. Shame they couldn't get the fans closer. But when the sun was setting and the players' shadows were cast across the ice, it reminded me of my childhood days on frozen lakes. You know, if I lived near a lake, it froze, and I could skate, none of which would be true. Still, the imagery was strong enough that some Canadian genetic memory must have kicked in.

After around 11pm, and many hours of extra sleep, I was able to stay upright for extended periods of time. So I stayed up until 4am or so. I even enjoyed some homemade chai tea that previously mentioned bestest friend made me for Christmas. Of course, I forgot the tea part, but the chai part was awesome.

Saturday was nearly normal. Up at the crack of 1:30pm, and plans for a "Not New Years" party that evening. I lazed about for a few hours, watched the latest Doctor Who special, and felt sad that David Tennant was leaving.

Off to the party, which started off like we were a group of strangers trying to make small talk instead of friends who had known each other for, in some cases, nearly 20 years. Eventually though, once the kid went to bed (5 is an odd age, do we have to start watching our language now? What topics can she begin to understand? Do her parents care?), conversation picked up as normal.

I got home around 3:30am, and hit my floor button on the elevator. I'm sure I did. I was stone sober, and not that tired. I hit the right floor.

The door opened, I walked out and noticed that my neighbours had a wreath on their door. Odd that I hadn't noticed it before.

I walked to my door, and there was a Santa hanging on my door. I *KNOW* I didn't have one of those, and my first thought was "Did someone randomly put up Christmas decorations on people's doors?" Then I looked at the number. I was one floor too high. No... I knew I hit the right number. I'm a creature of habit and never go to that number floor anywhere.

So I walked back to the elevators and hit the down button. The light turned off, and the door opened.

Except it didn't.

It sounded like it opened, and the button reacted like it opened, but the door was still closed. I hit the button again. The light turned off and the door opened.

Except it didn't.

I touched the door to make sure I wasn't insane. Nope, it wasn't open. Only the inner door of the elevator was opening, but the outer one wasn't catching.

Busted elevator.

But you know that chill down your spine when things aren't right? I had that. My head went to that "maybe you're dreaming" state of feeling. I hit the button again. Nada.

So I walked to the stairwell and cautiously opened the door, half-expecting a deranged madman to be waiting for me, hook for hand and teeth gnashing. But the stairs were empty. I quickly walked down a floor and turned to my door. Double-checked the number and walked in, where I was greeted by my cats.

So at least I knew I was home. But the haze in my brain remained. I chalked it up to my odd hours, fed the cats, and crawled into bed.

Up at the crack of 3:30pm Sunday, I was still a bit off-kilter. It was dad's birthday, so I had places to be in a few hours. I managed to waste more time than I had playing games and futzing with some new Photoshop plugins, and neglected to do minor things like eat or drink.

This might have contributed to the feeling of disconnect I was experiencing, and the sense of needing more sleep despite getting a dozen hours of the stuff.

Night was uneventful, except I forgot gifts again, but remembered butter. Home, waste time until 3am, try to sleep, alarms go off, and I'm strangely tired for only 4 hours of sleep (note: not strange). Up, out, and the subway announcement experiencing a Doppler Effect reminded me that 2010 is going to be a little bit odd. Maybe they're trying to make contact already...

I was reading a Canadian personal finance blog over the Google Reader, and the RSS embedded ad that came up was this:



Yup. Checkraising the Devil and apparently a hell of a stock picker to boot!

Yah, I was squeezed out some 32 years ago today. My mother remembers it vividly. Me? not so much.

Yah, that's right, I'm still younger than you.

But what's 32? Nothing major. No milestones there. Still, a week's worth of activities await me. Dinner tonight, dinner with the people who lived with me for 20-some years (also called family) tomorrow, dinner Thursday, was out for dinner with friends last Saturday, and then another friend's birthday party is Friday, and then it's Nuit Blanche on Saturday, which isn't birthday-related, but still fun.

Slow down? Hah!

I called the MGM Player's Club membership line today to set up my online login, once I verified my birthday, Amber wished me a happy one without a missing a beat. I'd forgotten (for the 5th time today).

Anyhoo... let's review my brilliant NFL picks from last week, followed by the winner:

CLE @ BAL - BAL - BAL - DING!
WAS @ DET - WAS - DET - WHA???
JAC @ HOU - HOU - JAC - sigh
GB @ STL - GB - GB - DING!
NYG @ TB - NYG - NYG - DING!
TEN @ NYJ - NYJ - NYJ - DING!
KC @ PHI - KC - PHI - sigh
SF @ MIN - MIN - MIN - DING!
NO @ BUF - BUF - NO - Buffalo hates me
CHI @ SEA - CHI - CHI - DING!
PIT @ CIN - PIT - CIN - WHA???
DEN @ OAK - DEN - DEN - DING!
MIA @ SD - SD - SD - DING!
IND @ ARI - ARI - IND - sigh
CAR @ DAL - CAR - DAL - sigh

8 right. An improvement over last week. The alphabet failed me a few times, and what the hell are the Lions and Bengals doing WINNING GAMES? I mean, the cats they're named after are awesome and all, but aren't they supposed to suck? Not that I know, I hate football.

Have a great birthday! Mine that is.

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?

Mookie, 45 man NLHE SnG, and $5k last night. No cash in any. No brilliant plays. A couple fantastic catches to save my ass, but more completely expected screw-jobs by the board to kick it.

I need some live play.

Oh, that's right... I'll be doing that on Sunday.

If I didn't have plans already, I might have done it drunkenly on Saturday in NY, but alas, someone only notified me 4 days beforehand.

Actually, it's a weekend I'm looking forward to. Rocky Horror-esque movie-watching for Toronto's Fringe (*IF* rush tix can be got... stupid nobody telling me about this stuff beforehand. What, I'm supposed to look it up myself?), restocking the ol' pantry (hey, when you cook as much as I do, that qualifies as enjoyable), more jam (raspberry this time - much easier), grilling some meat, drinking some wine (that can't be a problem with muscle relaxants, can it?), live poker, and general merriment. All with a fucked back.

Right, the back. Anyone following me on Twitter (link's up to the left) is well-versed in my whining the past few days. Whatever I did to my back two weeks ago is back with a vengeance after pretty much fading away. Standing up, be it from a chair or bed, is excrutiatingly painful. Bending over? Really depends how much moving around I've been doing beforehand. In short - being still leads to extreme lower back pain when I decide to move. Constantly moving seems to ease it. Go figure. Naturally, my doctor is on vacation, so my appointment with him is in 2 weeks. In the meantime? Robaxacet, ice, and various pillows in various places. But not there... those aren't pillows.

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.

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.

Is it post-BBT (forever) burnout? Trailing flu recovery? Or just summer rolling in? For some reason, I've followed a similar pattern this week. Get a good night's sleep, go to work, come home, and fall asleep for a few hours before getting up, throwing together some dinner (or cleaning up after the dinner I had before passing out), and then puttering around for an hour before going back to bed.

I had planned to play The Mookie last night, I swear! But by the time I pulled my ass out of bed, it was 10:30 and I hadn't had anything to eat yet. Nor had the cats, who had surprisingly not destroyed my place in retribution. So I whipped up a sweet PB & J (which had been the plan from mid-afternoon onwards), and decided to make some lemonade. This took me through the Dookie late-reg, so I said screw it and played Assassin's Creed instead.

That PB & J was so good, I may repeat it tonight. Or maybe I'll bring it up a few levels. Multiple types of jam, some honey with the PB, or some hot sauce. Or both. Triple decker time. Or I'll add some homemade marshmallow crème. I mean, I have a loaf of mass-produced white bread to get through people!

Right now, I wish I'd brought some of that lemonade to work with me.

Mookie tonight! Full Tilt, 10pm ET (9pm CT, 8pm MT, 7pm PT), pw: vegas1. 7 shots at BBT4 TOC seat left! Chances of me making the Brit game on Sunday are below slim, so only 6 shots for yours truly.

Skillz went horribly last night... largely because I had a huge case of "meh" going on and didn't give a rat's ass. Oh, and because my trip aces with a better kicker got riverboated.

Tonight? Condo general meeting, which is always aggravating and boring at the same time. At least they're not installing 800k worth of A/C on the roof this year. I should probably open and read the package sometime. Mookie after that, and I may, possibly, be riled up.

Jays lose 2-1 to the Red Sox last night. Pitcher's duel, with Wakefield coming out on top... barely. Tallet continues to impress.

Wings go up 2-0 in the series against the Hawks. Chicagoans, ask yourself honestly - can the Hawks win 4/5 against Detroit?

Speaking of Chicago - I've got an invite to head down that way in June or July for a weekend with a bunch of friends. Still debating if I can swing the time. There's also the possibility of a weekend at a cottage closer to home which is slightly more appealing (nothing against Chi-town, I just like relaxing next to a lake with beer, and seldom get the chance)... I'd ideally like to swing both.

Spinal Tap/The Folksmen - Unwigged and Unplugged tomorrow night! Should be a good show... Tap acoustic could be interesting, no idea how you turn an acoustic performance up to 11.

I've been playing around with High Dynamic Range (HDR) a fair bit these days, some might say too much. But then again, I don't go to the completely unrealistic extremes some do out there. For some reason, I particularly like this shot. It's right on that border of hyper-real and looking computer generated. I like the almost bump-mapped look of the pavement too.



Alright, enough ramblin' for now.

Well, there was a weekend in there somewhere.

Friday was all about Star Trek - got there just as the line started to form, which meant dead-centre primo seats for me and 7 friends.

What can I say? Great pilot episode. Better than TNG, DS9, Voyager, or Enterprise did for their pilots. What's that you say? It's not a series? Oh.

Well then, great first in a long series of movies. Everyone's talked about what a great reboot it is, and I have to agree. Abrams unabashedly said "This is a reboot, deal with it." while not insulting the audience. It has left the future wide open, with changes both subtle and grand. It also showed a ton of respect for what has gone before.

Oh, and Karl Urban = the perfect McCoy. He NAILED it.

Pegg wasn't as Peggish as I feared (Pegg is awesome, but I don't want Shaun as Scotty). Quinto was a good Spock. Pine did a good young, altered Kirk. Uhura and Chekov suddenly have abilities and skills (Chekov = boy genius, Uhura = xenoliguistic specialist, think Hoshi, but already knowing the languages), and Sulu? Well... he can still fence. John Cho was sadly the weakest redo of the characters - too bland, and sometimes I only saw Harold.

I just hope they signed them all for multiple movies, because if they start messing with the cast, it could cause problems with the Trekkies.

And I have no doubt a series will spawn from all this.

Saturday - I woke up at 5pm. I recycled. I made a lemon meringue pie. I threw up more phots on Flickr. I accomplished little else.

Sunday - Mother's day. I went to an interesting, if overlong documentary. I returned home. I cleaned like a maniac. Family came over, we ate, I served my lemon meringue pie. It didn't hold as well as I'd hoped (forgot the butter in the curd), but well enough to still be pie and not lemon soup with crust. I played the $5k PLO and got screwed by terrible beats. Similar things happened in an FTOPS #24 satellite. I uploaded Iceland Day 4 (only 1.5 years after the fact) to Flickr. Hey, at least my place is clean again.

Today? Haven't a clue. Make some dinner, play some RC/PPI at 10pm on Full Tilt, probably do more photo stuff.

Because I'm looking forward to tomorrow. The Yankees come to town for the Jays first real game of the season. Halladay vs Burnett just amps up the game. This should be a great matchup. Field level, 1st base side, but sadly 17 rows back. I'll be sure to take some pictures.

Oh, Jays, still in 1st in the AL. 2nd overall in the league.

Ovechkin gets a hat trick? Well then, Crosby steps up and gets one in the same game. Shame someone else scored a 4th goal for Washington. Or not. I don't really care as I'm so far out of the money in my playoff pools that it doesn't really matter.

Here's hoping Pittsburgh steps it up and wins a couple. I'd hate to see this series end in a sweep.

On the far more important front, after blowing through a big chunk of change on Sunday (did that day ever suck poker-wise), I grabbed back some of it last night by taking down a $30 super turbo on Tilt. No skill involved in those, just an ability to fold and catch.

But I'll miss the PLO Skillz Game tonight (dammit!). Don't YOU miss it, 9:30 ET on Full Tilt, password : skillz.

Tired, unfocused... that's today. That's every day. Still, got a doc at 10 tonight that I want to see. A Rothschild discovers Thelonius Monk, that's got to be a good story. The puma-raising meth addict ticket is bought as well, but that's later on.

And I only caught the first bit of Star Trek: Generations last night (up to Picard crying about the loss of his family), but I'll be damned if the beginning of the whole thing isn't better than I remembered. The "joke" about everything coming in on Tuesday seems to have a darker tone now than it did originally, and the camaraderie between the original crew (or, Kirk, Scotty and Chekov at least) moves nicely to the friendship with the Next Gen crew on the deck of the sea-faring Enterprise.

The Undiscovered Country was on Sunday - yup, pretty great Trek movie. The Rura Penthe stuff was a bit weak though.

Yah, this definitely gets tagged under "rambling".

What's going on with The Mookie this month? Hoy wins? Pauly wins? And now Al wins? I suppose this is all part of the nefarious plan to raise the awareness of the Wednesday ritual. Congrats to Al on a job well done. Way to end it in two consecutive hands with Broadway in both. This time around, we won't have to debate about giving a ToC seat to the organizer. Couldn't have happened to a better guy. Well, okay, it could have happened to ME, but I went out 37th without playing a single hand.

Still haven't seen the Heroes finale. It's sitting at home, waiting to be watched. Tonight! Maybe. If I don't fall asleep or get so wrapped up in chores that I end up cleaning my whole place. Is it sad I only want to watch it so I can rant about it? That I look more forward to bitching about however they messed it up again than actually watching them mess it up?

Where's some new Torchwood or Dr. Who when I need it?

They broke up the Tamil demonstration this morning. Commuters are rejoicing, and war continues in Sri Lanka.

Jays lost 11-3 last night, which means they won't win their 7th straight series. Best they can hope for is a tie. Brian Burres, the rookie who got spanked in the 6th on Saturday, gets the start this afternoon. No idea on the kid - he could be the type to bounce back and buckle down or he could be shaken up and get blown out early. Either way, after giving up 11 runs yesterday and only scoring 3, I expect the Jays to whack around the Royals a bit today.

Blackhawks at Canucks tonight. As I started yesterday, the media's picking up on Luongo vs Khabibulin. I give Luongo the edge here, but the Bulin Wall has a tendency to raise his game when needed. I think the goalie battle overshadows the mounds of talent both of these teams have though.

Now I should go submit LAST year's taxes and get the money the government owes me from then... then I'll work on this year's.

Big honking picture of Toronto taken from the CN Tower on Saturday. Around that time, I think I was walking on Queen St.


Just look at this video. 1000 fps (2500 fps in some parts). Fucking awesome.

I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel from David Coiffier on Vimeo.

There's a full-screen high def version there too.

Once again, Wired puts up a cool article. Neuroscience and Magic as told by Teller. I've always loved magic, and was damned near fanatical about it as a kid. Sadly, I don't remember any tricks anymore. Sorry... illusions. Tricks are something whores do.

A couple quickies. Let's go from angering to cool this time.

First, Betty Brown, Texas State rep, thinks Asian-Americans should change their names so that Americans can understand them. This stems from some fuck ups at a recent election when the morons who put together the registered voters list couldn't get it straight and the IDs of the people who showed up didn't match the incorrect lists. Please note: Asian-AMERICANS should change their names so AMERICANS can understand them. I'm pretty sure that Asian-Americans are still Americans too, especially when they CAN VOTE. Perhaps Betty Brown should change her name to Fucking Moron.

Now, the cool.

Peter Funch set up his camera at various locales in NYC, day after day. He'd take pictures from the same physical place at different times, and then Photoshop the images into composites. The results are awesome. Some of them take a second to figure out the common theme, but they're all pretty cool.

I'm on a mission, and this may actually be one I see through. In fact, I fear discussing it in much depth in a public forum, as right now, despite my history of laziness, procrastination, and total lack of ambition, I can't help but think I may try and see where this goes in the long run. Oh, it's food related.

I want to celebrate my city and bring something to it that it is still severely lacking (although in an arena that is slowly expanding and improving). The fact it's missing from this humble town of 3 million people is shocking, since so many of its residents are devotees already.

My first attempt was last night, and I think it went rather well.

It's a shame Eh-Vegas already happened, otherwise I'd use it as a source of guinea pigs. Maybe there needs to be Eh-Vegas '09 Part II in the summer...

Staying up until 3am for the second work night in a row ranks about... well... pretty damned low on the scale of bad ideas I suppose. It's not like I decided to look under my eyelid with a rusty steak knife or something.

It gets a touch exacerbated (still nowhere near sledgehammer to the balls bad though) when you factor in that I'm heading to the B-lo to meet this guy tonight for some hockey action (GO LEAFS GO!) followed, likely, by poker (quel surprise!). So I must somehow muster the energy to drive 2 hours to the border, get crazygonuts for hockey, then sit in a dark poker room and fleece locals before driving back again at what will surely be an ungodly hour.

Oh taurine and caffeine, my good, good friends. Maybe a little James Brown will help too.

Although to be fair, if I was staying home tonight, I'd probably be up until at least 3 anyway. Funny how that works.

Some days, Boing Boing makes my day.

Some teenagers in spain launched a big helium baloon with a digital camera attached for a science class... here are the pictures

Did you know Detroit's in a bit of trouble real estate-wise? Artists are moving in. $100 homes, $500 homes... stripped bare, and being bought by optimists with a vision. This is the sort of true grassroots sort of thing that can change a city. Seems more magnanimous than my plan to start the Ontario Co-operation Project (or OCP for short) where I buy up all of Detroit and create a cyborg police force...

Then there's the clips of Bill O'Reilly reading from his bad porn novel. How this blowhard, or good ol' Rush can be taken seriously by anyone is beyond me.

Of course, there needs to be some slack-jawed disbelief.

Live in Colorado? You can't collect rainwater from your own property. Someone else owns it. Gotta love moronic laws. The reasoning? By holding that water, you're keeping it from reaching the waterways. Nevermind that most rainwater doesn't reach them anyway (absorbed by plants or soil, or evaporated), or that the reason people store grey water is to WATER things, which would have the same effect of it raining.

And then there's the mother who dared to let her 10-year old son walk 1/3 of a mile to soccer through their neighbourhood... alone! Police came, picked up the boy, and chastised the mother for endangering him. "Hundreds" of people called 911 apparently. That is one densely-packed neighbourhood. Ten... that would be grade 5 or 6? I'd been walking to and from school by myself for at least 3 years by that point, and that was a solid 1/2 mile! This careless, unloving "mother" even gave her son her cell phone so he could call if needed, was going to be 15 minutes behind him, and had walked and driven the route a bunch of times with him beforehand... and let him do this in BROAD DAYLIGHT! IN A SAFE NEIGHBOURHOOD! The nerve! At least the police chief apologized for his idiotic officer.

Maybe next time I should start with the aggravating items...

Nobody told ME Julius Goat was going to be on BDR on Wednesday. I would have listened! Umm.. I mean, while I obviously WAS listening, I wouldn't have turned down the volume during that segment when I smelled something funny.... yah, that's it.

Eh-Vegas is.... TODAY! Let's say the official kickoff is in... like... I dunno... 8 or 9 hours? Sure, why not. No idea what the plans are other than at some point tomorrow we'll be at Kat's playing poker and drinking and snacking and laughing and totally not calling up every stripper in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) to come party with us. I imagine there will be food and drink tonight... I'm hoping it's downtown so I can stumble home from wherever it is. Niagara on Sunday? Huh? Huh? I gots me a jones for casino action.

Fuck! I just realized I'll be in Whistler during Goat's BBmT! Well, I'll be done with the slopes by the time it kicks off, and I'll have my laptop... network access is another question. No, I can't commit. Even though that would be the ultimate in bad management. I mean, I'm visiting my brother, and that's the last night I'm there. Stupid Gregorian Monks and their calendars.

Sometimes (okay, most of the time), XKCD nails it. I wonder if it works with the Candyman too...

Speaking of funny - Dimetri Martin? Hilariously low-key. This kid could be something. If nothing else, he gave the world the proper answer to the question "Are you ticklish?"

Great Daily Show last night - entire show dedicated to Jim Cramer... Stewart did his usual slow build to destroying someone. People go on this show figuring he's the funny guy, but he's possibly the most dangerous interviewer on TV when he wants to be.

Powered speakers at my desk? Oh, that's dangerous for a professional environment.