Author: Dan Dickinson

Sheer quality

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I forgot to blog about this on Monday. I support the cause behind Live Earth, but I also support Barry’s right to slag the Black Eyed Peas and James Blunt. To wit:

Since the Live Earth concert the other day, everything has changed. In these 2 days since the concert the environment has apparently regenerated up to 68% of the damage done by humans because of the sheer quality of the music played by David Gray and Black Eyed Peas. When Madonna played, the ozone layer hole sealed up, probably to keep the great music from leaking out into space!
Most amazingly of all though, I woke up this morning to find 3 new full grown trees in my back garden with a note from James Blunt which read,”I’m planting trees in your area for the environment’s sake, stay beautiful”.
How good is that?

From Mogwai.

[tags]mogwai, live earth[/tags]

The gathering storm

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A thunderstorm rolled in over Toronto in the early evening. It came in over the lake, providing this awesome contrast. There was crazy lightning too, as well as a giant rainbow (picture to come another time).

By the time, the title is also the name of a Godspeed You! Black Emperor song. Well, part of a 20-minute song called “Storm”. You should really download it. It’s brilliant.

[tags]toronto, thunderstorm, godspeed you black emperor[/tags]

"She was the still point of the turning world, man."

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The shortlist for the Polaris Music Prize is up. It’s very, very good. You’d have to think the odds are with the Arcade Fire or Feist albums, but my dark horse is…well, The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse.

.:.

The Virgin Suicides gets better every time I watch it. The scene near the end where they play music to each other over the phone just kills me.

.:.

Create your own Simpsons avatar over at the official movie site. I made one last night but it’s on another computer and (you guessed it) I can’t be bothered to go gittit. [via Showcase Sideshow]

.:.

Maybe more than any other show, The Shield just stays at an incredibly high level. There’s never really a lull or a down episode; it just stays good.

[tags]polaris music prize, the virgin suicides, simpsons movie, the shield[/tags]

Can we rig up an LCD and a bar fridge in the bathroom?

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Playing basketball for 2 hours in crazy-ass heat takes a lot out of you. We had a lot more people out tonight, including some people we didn’t know, so we ended up playing full court for a while. Now I am teh tired. I want to eat, watch The Shield and shower all at the same time.

.:.

I think the lightning fried my network card. Nellie can connect but I can’t, and we’re using the same router. It just…stopped. However, I can’t be arsed to fix it when I get home this late.

.:.

In unrelated news, I would beat up a nun for some chocolate right now.

[tags]basketball in the heat, fried network card, chocolate[/tags]

And warmer than his armpits

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When I get home from work at 8:00, the last thing I want to do is work on a paper for school.

.:.

The air today was thicker than Jim Belushi’s head. I hope it thins out and cools down before I play basketball tomorrow night. Nothing worse than breathing hard and feeling like I’m sucking broth into my lungs.

[tags]mba, pollution[/tags]

2 down, 17 to go

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Nellie took this last weekend. It was such a perfect view of the full moon on the inner harbour that we sat on the balcony, had a drink and just stared at it. You can click on the picture for more sizes.

.:.

Fatblogging check in #1:

  • Original weight: 233
  • Weight this week: 231

Mild success. About what I expected, considering I had two veggie burgers and half a pizza in the span of 24 hours this weekend. As my friend Joe pointed out, if I can lose 2 pounds a week for 9 weeks I’ll be doing pretty well. To that end, I just got back from another 2.5 mile run. I’ll keep going at this easy clip for maybe another week or so, then I need to push it. As it is I’m running those 2.5 miles in ~27 minutes and not even breathing hard, so I either need to speed it up or add a second exercise (we have a 30-minute limit on our treadmills). I think I have a jump rope around here somewhere…

[tags]toronto, full moon, harbour, fatblogging[/tags]

If you're depressed and have ADD and you know it, download these (and clap your hands)

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If you’re in need of a song that’s less than two minutes in length and guaranteed to put you in a good mood, here it is: “Quito” by The Mountain Goats.

Ah shit, I’m feeling generous. Here’s another: “Half-Empty Halls” by The Evaporators.

You’re welcome.

.:.

Nellie’s away for the night, and part of tomorrow. I lazed around for a bit, did some errands, went to the Nike store (as I was paying I realized Jason Spezza was standing next to me, buying a stack of stuff as tall as my wife), went for a run, ordered some pizza, watched JFK (just ’cause), cleaned up and am now listening to music at a volume that seems to frighten the cats.

.:.

I needed a drink last night after work, so we met up with CBGB and a friend at The Auld Spot. The veggie burger was extra tasty, the beer was cold, the waitress was hot and the conversation was lively. It was just what I needed to ease into the weekend.

.:.

As of today I am 5/7 of the way through my MBA.

Aweso.

.:.

Two cool bits of news courtesy of the two best Toronto-centric blogs: Torontoist points to the new and improved driving directions on Google Maps (which is very helpful if you’ve ever tried plotting a scenic route) as well as a neat little mashup called Taxiwiz that predicts your Toronto cab fare. BlogTO, on the other hand, discusses the recent decision that permits street vendors to sell more than hot dogs.

.:.

Finally, I leave you with this hilarious little comic my friend Dino sent me.

Vegetarian Zombies

[tags]mountain goats, evaporators, nike store, jason spezza, auld spot, fun with fractions, torontoist, blogto, taxiwiz, google maps, vegetarian zombies[/tags]

From treadmills to tzatziki

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S’been a long day. Up at 6, run, work until 8, dinner at C’est What and home around 9. Ran about 2.5 miles this morning, so that’s getting better already. May go again tomorrow, or I may take a break until Saturday…not sure yet. That falafel ain’t gonna burn itself though.

.:.

I think I took on more work today, and I have to accelerate my MBA “side-project” work plan (interim paper’s due Aug 1), but on the plus side I have a few vacation days coming up in a few weeks and Nellie’s away this weekend. Not that I don’t want her around, of course, but I can get a lot of stuff done when I’m on my own schedule. Besides, we introverts need alone time to recharge every now and then.

.:.

Nellie picked up a new adaptor and wide-angle lens for our camera today. That’ll be terribly exciting for us when we’re actually on vacation some day.

[tags]c’est what, fatblogging[/tags]