048 - Of Stamps and Secrets

Photos: Alanis, Chickens, Meaghan Smith and Ron Sexsmith, Pixie Hollow, Snow in October, escalator, Halloween Costume (Joe Jonas, Jonas Brothers), Pramod Dhakal, Wall-E and Eve art, someone's parcel paid in a whack of 52¢, 96¢, $1.15, and $1.60 stamps.

I completed a huge project that didn't involve school. I'll reveal it very soon, as early as next week. It's pretty awesome, but still a secret. That's what I've been up to. I've also been working a lot and doing some school. Oh, and watching television shows! Stargate Atlantis, Dexter, and Pushing Daisies are impressing, and Heroes is getting pretty tricky. It makes me wish that there were two Bryan Fullers, one for Heroes and one for Daisies. And perhaps one for a new Star Trek as well.

Speaking of Star Trek, someone revealed the new original Enterprise (photo) for the 2009 movie. I must say that I really like it, except for how the nacelle pylons' positions. But that's enough geek from me for one day.

Recently, I've seen the following movies: Strange Brew, which I didn't understand at all. It was too 80s Canadiana for me, I suppose. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which proved to me that not only is Kevin Smith pretty brilliant at creating a cohesive world and making it entertaining across various viewpoints and characters, but he can also create a spoof that isn't of the terrible quality of spoofs post-Scary Movie. I must see Zack and Miri make a Porno, if only because it's a Kevin Smith film.

Anyway, I must get back to preparing for a presentation for later this week. More later!

047 - Wind Gods and Ringtunes

October is here, and my room is freezing cold. I really think I need to reinsulate the window area, and possibly get a new window. My plan is to go, hire the worst guy possible, then complain to Mike Holmes. In response, he'll come here, ask how on earth someone whose job was to insulate a wall and replace a window used 17 junction boxes in the process. After a few words like "unbelievable", he'll fix it for me, add a shiny new seat and electrical surge protector, and proclaim that he "love his job". Simple, no?

In other news, I've dusted off my Wii. It's sad how I've become accustomed to not having the time to play such fandangled devices. In a rare spurt of energy, I went and beat Lostwinds, a WiiWare game that I bought back in May and stoppe dplaying after all of 41 minutes. It is a great little game, one that I'd love to have seen more of (seeing as I beat it after another 3 hours). Hoping to continue the trend of actually playing the games that I've bought, I moved the Wii back to the living room. It gets more light there.

My DS is far from neglected though. After I get to finishing Kirby, I'll get back to The World Ends With You until the new Castlevania arrives. I hope there's a last minute pre-order bonus with it, though.

Which leads me to movies. The last ones I saw were Bee Movie (cute, but not Pixar by a long shot), A Dog's Breakfast (funny, but not as amazing as I was hoping, despite Rachel Luttrell yummy cameo), and National Treasure : Book of Secrets (much better than the first, surprisingly). I'm working on Hello, Dolly. Walter Matthau is about 30 years younger than what I know him as. It's quite something.

Lastly, I have a new ringtune for my phone, in celebration of Halloween. Listen.

046 - Scooters, Fog, and Rainbows (oh, my)

045 - I think I'm Going to Need a Bigger Box

The new TV season has kicked off with a pretty epic set-up for Heroes' third season, as well as a nice start to Big Bang Theory's second. I love when shows don't pick up right where they left off, but that's often hard to do when the vast majority of 'em have cliffhanger season finales. Heroes cheated a bit last year by throwing you a few months after the events of the season 1 finale, and then taking a later episode to answer 'how did they get here?" Those are perfectly exciting. I expect a similar filler this year too, at least on a couple of storylines. Up next: Dexter, Californication, Chuck, Pushing Daisies, Corner Gas, and Little Mosque on the Praries, though I have no idea when that one starts - or where I"m goig to find the time to watch all of those. Despite my crazy-expensive cable package, torrents and my PSP may become my best friends.

In the meantime, I need to prepare a presentation of sorts for work. There's a staff meeting this weekend, and I get to discuss, well... magic. I do have a basic guide form which to work, but I hope I'll have the time to really add my own perspective to it, if at all possible.

One big accomplishment I accomplished earlier this week: I finished ripping all of my music to my computer - that's about 220 cds! I've never had such instant access over my entire library (including songs downloaded form iTunes, Puretracks, and other less legitimate sources). I just have to decide what to do with it all. Twenty-five gigs of music might merit the purchase of an iPod, not because I don't have a fabulous mp3 player already (8 Gig Creative Zen Microphoto), but because I use iTunes anyway, and I need something bigger so that I don't have to pick and choose. Apple did just release a cooler, cheaper 32-Gig iPod Touch - but it's still over $400. Maybe after Christmas...

044 - Dusting off the eStuff

Well, I had the summer off, from a blogging perspective. But now that fall is officially here, it's time to e-dust off my blog, my website, my and Prashanta's podcast Livejournal, Flickr, and the like. That, and I have a fancy new laptop with which to do everything on. On which to do everything? Reminds me of a Fifth Grader Australia question. Anyway, I do have big news: Prashanta and I will be podcasting soon. Our revival was inspired in part by another podcast effort that we're working on.

That effort, which involves Nepali Youth discussing (in Nepali) topics and stories relevant to them, finally got off the ground, and has actually been accessed by people from all around the world. When I think about that - how within one day of putting content online, people from Australia, the US, India, Nepal, Europe, and across Canada - it reminds me of how truly powerful the Internet is. That and how Canadian politicians are wasting resources scouring the 'net for pictures and postings that get their rivals in trouble. It's almost scary that if someday I ran for Canadian Prime Ministry, someone could spend a day on archive.org or something and find out that I wrote something like "Oh, I wish the power would go out" the day before the Blackout of 2003, and get me booted off the ticket for having beliefs and wishes that would destroy the very fabric of Canadian life.

Actually, I would probably make a great party leader. I would be more effective than Dion, warmer than Harper, and less annoying than Layton. I would focus on my platform and how it would benefit Canadians both in the present and the future. And I would explain it thoroughly, with realistic timelines. Simple, no? I think if people respect you and see you as someone without a personal agenda, they'll hear and care about what you say. Unfortunately, I can't say that I'm overly interested in any politician right now.

Photos: A recap of the summer.

043 - Digital Nightmare

Sony lies. "Watch videos on your psp" they say. I'm a fairly tech-oriented person, but I really have no idea how to put movies on the bloody playstation portable. I think you need some sort of Sony diploma to do it. It should be as simple as click-and-drag, but it's not. You have to convert whatever movie file you want to one of the twoish video formats the device can read. And then, if you're lucky, it'll fit on the system. No, Sony, I'm not buying more of your high-priced memory.

Let alone trying to take a movie from a DVD and trying to get that on a psp. That requires more software just to take the movie file(s) on the disk and putting it on the computer. And possible intermediate software to take that and convert it to something the psp converter can understand without freezing your system. And that special edition Juno dvd that comes with a digital copy? Brilliant - unless you have a psp.

No matter what, it'll take longer than the 15 minutes you have before you need to leave.

This is why I want an iPod Touch. I'm sure it's much more friendly, even if files need to be converted. Though I'm sure there's an even easier kitchen sink player out there. Actually, probably not. That's just a dream. And if it were real, it would probably be ugly, and suck battery life like no tomorrow. Kinda like the psp.

Why, if there's a standard dvd format and a standard high def format, can't there be a standard video format? Digital protection (DRM) on files is also a terrible idea that just makes it that much harder to deal with. Especially when there's more than one type of protection. *points finger at Apple, Microsoft* Bad people!

Pictures: Tim Hortons chai tea, Chinatown, hair colouration

042 - Buck 65 Concert, Photoshop Experiments

I like concerts. There's something about live music, being in front of the people who make said music, being surrounded by people who are equally (or more) into the music than you are... something about that whole process that makes the music exciting. In contrast, I don't really like live concerts on cd. There are a few exceptions (Great Big Sea's Road Rage, for example), but the music without the atmosphere is only half the experience. Recently, I saw Buck 65 at the Bronson Centre, with Skratch Bastid and Cadence Weapon. It was a good show despite the mediocre sound and audience-not-at-capacity. Even though the venue is seated (it's an ancient high school auditorium), I still found myself standing by the stage. My ears aren't particularly happy when that happens, but it's worth it.

It's even better when you get a few good shots. My battery life was limited (and died eventually), so I enjoyed the music rather than try to capture it. I wasn't particularly happy, but it was a good concert!

Michele accompanied me to the concert. A few days later, we had some work-related adventures including a trip to our offsite via OC Transpo and a trip to the mall's garbage and recycling facilities. I like adventures, even the ordinary, ordinarily boring ones.

On another note, I've decided that I should probably learn how to use Photoshop. I have such a powerful tool sitting on my computer, and the most I use it for is resizing pictures. Today,I experimented with smoothing out skin tones, leaning how to, as Nelly Furtado would put it, "Make it look whiter than it seems / Paint me over with your dreams." Not that I'm looking for a job over at Maxim or Cosmo or anything...

Before (click to enlarge)


After (click to enlarge)

Just don't show her, because I might get hit. Or worse.

041 - Earth Day, April Fools

These last couple of days were a harsh reminder that, on occasion, Ottawa weather likes to mess with you just a little bit. After a solid week of weather jet lag that made believe it was mid-June, we returned to late April without much warning. I got snowed on, albeit wet snow - and for all of five minutes. But during that five minutes, I was riding my bike. Figures.

I was dismayed not to have a Future Shop or Best Buy flyer this week. I though perhaps it was the deliverer, since they aren't exactly known as being a good pot of gravy. But no, a quick trip to FS's website quickly reveals that "We will not print a flyer for the week of April 25" to "support Earth Day." I felt kinda proud for them for about five seconds, until I realised that maybe they should have told me so in their flyer last week - the one that's good for two weeks. Or maybe they did and I'm just not as Sherlock Holmes as I thought I was. Anyway, I thought about just how much plastic their products ship in, and how much energy the use to keep their dozens (per store) of televisions powered to sway meandering customers and school them in the wonders of acronyms and contrast ratios. But maybe keeping only one cash open when there's a seven-person lineup is another quiet method of their to save the Earth, just like not printing a flyer once.

Personally, I didn't really celebrate Earth day. I forget it even happened, though in retrospect, I remember seeing a poster at my local grocery store made by grade school kids, telling people to turn their lights off. But these token "let's love the earth for a day" won't really matter until every day is Earth day. Recycling took a while to catch on; people laughed at the idea of separating their garbage when it was introduced. Resource conservation will catch on mainstream-style at some point. Maybe by the time my kids are in school.

040 - Maple Music is the Simon Wilcox to my Tulip Festival

I love Maple Music. For the uninitiated, is a little online music retailer - one that specializes, or at the very least exclusively distributes Canadian music. Arrogant Worms, Billy Talent, Jill Barber, Sarah Slean <3. On top of music, they also have some merch: hoodies, posters, autographs, and even concert tickets.

I also love how my spell check doesn't know the words Slean, merch, nor hoodies.

Anyway, I've made two orders with them so far, and they're just awesome! The prices are what I'd call reasonable, at least prices that would sway me to buy stuff if I were at HMV or something like that. I bought Simon Wilcox's newest, The Charm and the Strange and Kinnie Starr's Anything. A few years back, I bought Simon Wilcox's second cd, Smart Function, in part because the listening station had it and I was impressed (and in part because it'd give me something to see at Tulipfest). So a follow-up cd was a no brainer for me. Smart Function is a work of art. A slightly dark, highly-energized, low energy (if that makes sense) work of art. Kinnie Starr, I had heard a couple of tracks that I love (including the La Le La La that I had already purchased through iTunes), so I figure I'll like the rest.

Sorry for all those brackets.

Anyway, I bought the cds thinking they'd take a good week to arrive (as indicated by my shipping method). I got them two days later. W00t!

And so far, I'm loving the Simon Wilcox. It's actually pretty rare for me to buy a cd that I don't like, even if I haven't heard it before. Kinnie Starr is still in the shrink wrapping, but I guarantee that'll change soon. Funny story about Simon Wilcox - after I bought her cd a few years back, I saw her at the Tulip Festival. She was wonderful! I remember Vivi thinking all of her songs sounded the same. I digress! After she performed, she went to the signing tent. And I hadn't brought my cd jacket! I went in line anyway to meet her, and she was so nice, and enjoyed my little story of having bought her cd, but not having the jacket. I need to get it signed someday.

MyMusic.com is another Canadian music retailer, but they have all kinds of artists - it's CD Warehouse's online store (or at least they're affiliated somehow, I think). I haven't bought anything from it; while there's lots that separates it from Maple Music, I prefer Maple. Though the idea of having a Desert 5 list is pretty awesome.

So yes, the whole point of this entry: Maple Music, brackets bad - at least for those who buy music and read, respectively. But seriously, who buys music and reads these days?

I miss the concert series at the Tulip Festival.

039 - Doubleyou doubleyou doubleyou dot

Yesterday, I was just abuzz with energy, so I began work on my website, for the first time in about two years. And surprisingly, I'm almost done! Hopefully I'll get enough work done on it this weekend so that it can go up. The image is just a snippit of what'll be shown on the site.

And the Sens aren't in the playoffs anymore! I was looking forward to working on those dead nights where the entire city is collectively focused on televisions big and small not in the store. Oh well, what's that great Ottawan saying? "There's always next year"?