Author: Dan Dickinson

Including the phone call where they pretend the band has broken up?

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I’m now more than 90% of the way through my MBA program. To tell you the truth I haven’t been thinking about it much lately. I haven’t worked on it — no reading, no writing, no ‘rithmetic-ing — for about a month, but I have an assignment due six days from now, so I think I know where my weekend is headed.

.:.

Man, would I love to go to Summercase in Spain this July. I have no desire to see an outdoor music festival, but Sweet Screaming Jesus would I ever love to see Mogwai play the entire Young Team album live.

.:.

This Richard Florida blog post contains three things that shock me:

  1. there are 17 large American urban school systems which have an expected high school graduation rate of below 50%;
  2. the average for the fifty largest American cities is 51.8%;
  3. the Detroit city school district — worst in the country — projects that less than one student in four will graduate.

Toronto, by comparison, runs about 75%.

[tags]mba, mogwai, young team, summercase, richard florida, american school system[/tags]

Hey look

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…it’s spring.

While I don’t expect it to last, it’s 12 degrees and sunny outside my window right now, so I’m calling it. Printemps, enfin.

This better not be an April Fool’s joke. Same goes for the long-range forecast, which says sunny and ten degrees on Saturday. I may just buy a frickin’ party hat.

[tags]spring, april fool’s[/tags]

Wait…wasn't she some kind of Russian witch?

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While walking to work today I noticed a sign in a store window that read, “Clinical strength Cutera Yag.” I thought to myself, That’s good, ’cause when I eat* Cutera Yag I’d only want the strongest, most medicinal kind.

Seriously, I don’t know why anyone would even bother with the mild version. What’s the point of buying some Cutera Yag if it’s just weak-ass shit that won’t do the job. I mean, really. I should also point out that the store was in/near Yorkville, so you just know that all the crazy plastic ladies who lunch who hang out around there wouldn’t be having no substandard Cutera Yag.

* It should be obvious by now that I haven’t a fucking clue what Cutera Yag is. I also have no idea what one does with it…does one eat it? Smoke it? Rub it on one’s skin or else it gets the hose again?

UPDATE: a Cutera Yag is some kind of laser that destroys hair and veins. Or something. So there you go. You learn something new, expensive and retarded every day.

[Journey] "When the lights…go out…in the city…" [/Journey]

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OK, it wasn’t quite that dramatic — this is a camera effect, not reality — but Earth Hour was at least noticeable from our balcony. We had CBGB over to observe the darkening, and while the effects from here weren’t as dramatic as if we’d be airborne, we could see the difference. Toronto even exceeded their 5% power reduction target.

Nellie was struggling to get good night shots — she still needs a decent tripod — but a few turned out. You can see them over at my flickr account.

[tags]earth hour, toronto[/tags]

Et le but

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Last night I went straight from work to the Auld Spot, to meet up with Nellie & CBGB. A good unwinding was exactly what I needed, and a few pints of Dennison’s took care of that. However, I ate way too much yesterday (big breakfast, team lunch, big dinner, beer) and I still feel gross. Clearly I can neither eat nor drink like I used to.

I got home just in time to see the end of the Montreal-Buffalo game. Montreal was down 3-1 with less than three minutes remaining in the game, but scored twice late to tie it and then won it in OT. It’s a pleasant, if strange, feeling to see my team playing so well.

.:.

The plan for today: summon enough energy to go run some errands and buy some food, and then welcome CBGB over for Earth Hour this evening. We’re still not sure what we’ll do, short of turning off all electrical draw. I don’t expect a major difference in the appearance of downtown Toronto, but there are some promising signs.

.:.

A shooting occurred last night on board a TTC subway car, near where I used to live. Crazy.

[tags]auld spot, montreal canadiens, buffalo sabres, earth hour, toronto, ttc shooting[/tags]

Buried under a fucking snowbank, that's where

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Spring has sprung
grass has ris
I wonder where
the birdies is?

Dear rotation + trajectory of earth: we would like spring now please. Kthxbye.

.:.

The second-quickest way to invite my scorn? Be a telemarketer and call at dinner time. The quickest way to invite my scorn? Be a telemarketer, call at dinner and try to sell me a subscription to the Toronto Sun. For bonus scorn, argue with me when I say no.

.:.

The new Silver Mt. Zion (etc., etc.) album garnered an A- from the Onion AV Club. I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, but I just assume I’ll love it. Maybe I’ll take the same approach that I did with Horses In The Sky: buy it, put it on my Zen, forget about it, and then nearly have a stroke six months later when I hear a song like “Teddy Roosevelt’s Guns” for the first time.

.:.

One of these arrived in the mail last week. I bought this one from Threadless last week. Now I’m tempted to buy this. I need help.

[tags]ogden nash, telemarketers, toronto sun, silver mt zion, threadless, tshirts[/tags]

What, no genocide? Howzabout some prison torture?

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I picked up our Hot Docs tickets today. After our abridged outing last year we got a full slate (five films) this time around:

So, to recap: terrorism, bleak antarctic landscapes, serial killing, a plane crash & ensuing cannibalism, and we wrap up with violently dysfunctional children. It’s the feel-good film festival of the year!

.:.

I know a few people who should have a Death Star grill. Like, uh, me.

.:.

As if I needed them, the Cameron’s Brewing Co. blog lists 8 healthy reasons to drink beer. Granted, this is not unlike McDonald’s telling you why it’s healthy to eat a Big Mac, but I choose to ignore this particular equivalence. [via]

.:.

Today my Google News page showed me something odd. It was an eCanadaNow (whatever that is) story about internet stalkers, but it was the picture that caught my eye. Here’s a screen grab:

Ummm…unless I’m mistaken, that’s Ellen Page in Hard Candy (imdb). And yes, in that film, Page does play someone who’s stalked online, but…well, clearly the real-life scenario does not play out like the film. Also, why wouldn’t this site indicate that they’d lifted a scene from a fictional film to use in their news story? Weird.

[tags]hot docs, death star grill, cameron’s brewing, beer, google news, internet stalking, ellen page, hard candy, ecanadanow[/tags]