Author: Dan Dickinson

Congestion: media & traffic

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I used to think John McCain being the American president wouldn’t be too bad, but between his continued support for the Iraq war and his recent statements about overturning Roe v. Wade, he’s become as unpalatable as the other candidates. OK, maybe not as unpalatable as Sam Brownback, but unpleasant nonetheless.

And I, like most people, am shocked to find myself agreeing with something that Newt Gingrich said:

“Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Friday said the early kickoff to the 2008 presidential race was ‘stupid’ despite a recent poll putting him in third place among Republican candidates.

‘I think the current process of spending an entire year running in order to spend an entire year running in order to get sworn in in January 2009 is stupid,’ Gingrich said at a news conference for his new book, ‘Winning the Future.'”

Amen. Or something.

.:.

Once again, the topic of a congestion charge for driving in downtown Toronto has been raised.  This time we get the hilarious input of CAA spokesperson Faye Lyons:

“In our view, this is just another tax on the already overburdened motorists.”

Absolutely. Overburdened motorists are tragic figures in today’s society, what with how they’ve been forced to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for a comfortable vehicle in which they can ride to work alone. I mean, c’mon, what do you expect them to do? Car pool? Work closer to home? Take public transit? I ask you, sir, have fascists taken over? Is that what’s happened?

Ahem.

Obviously I’m all for this idea. I do think you have to be careful about how you charge people living downtown but still have legitimate needs for a car (families, for example) but if you make the charge a flat fee — say, just over twice the price of two TTC metropasses — I think that’d be fair.

[tags]john mccain, sam brownback, newt gingrich, toronto congestion charge[/tags]

Which reminds me: Le Gourmand is selling whisky-filled chocolate now…

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Guinness Marmite? My brother is going to lose his mind.

.:.

Bought three DVDs today. Well, I didn’t really buy them; I sort of won them, kinda-like. Anyway, here’s what I picked up:

  • Brick
  • The Departed
  • Heat (special edition)

Between the special edition sound level and my fancy-pants stereo, I can actually hear what the hell Jon Voight’s saying in this movie. Speaking of Heat, every time I watch it I’m amazed by how many good actors are in it: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Natalie Portman, Dennis Haysbert (President Palmer!), Amy Brenneman (Judge Amy!), Ashley Judd, Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill!), Mykelti Williamson (Bubba!), Wes Studi (Magua!), Diane Venora, Danny Trejo…plus Jeremy Piven (Ari!), William Fichtner, Hank Azaria (Moe!), Henry Rollins, Tone Loc and Xander Berkeley (Mason!) in bit parts. Amazin’.

[tags]guinness, marmite, brick, the departed, heat[/tags]

"Do you feel bad about this?"

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We just got back from watching Little Children (imdb | rotten tomatoes).  It was good. Very good. It was good enough that I think it’ll take a few days for it all to sink in. There were a lot of things under the covers that need to marinate, and I try not to decipher things while I still watching a film. This one’ll still be catching up with me two days from now, like In The Bedroom did.

[tags]little children, todd fields[/tags]

CBGB & a CBB

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I slept for 11 hours last night. That’s about 4 hours more than I usually sleep, even on weekends. I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m getting sick; I feel like ass today, all stuffed up and headachy. My back isn’t bothering me yet, but it was pretty bad last night. This weekend could be a boring one as I really want to get this healed up.

.:.

Last night we went to C’est What with some friends, caught up, had some food and a drink or two, took a stroll by the new condo,  and went up to the Danforth for some dessert. Not that I needed any after the chocolate brownie bomb I had earlier in the day, but I soldiered on for the sake of comraderie.

[tags]c’est what, le gourmand, chocolate brownie bomb[/tags]

Facial recognition software has not yet reached the maturity phase

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A friend sent me a link for some online facial recognition software and I’ve been playing around with it. I’ve uploaded several pictures, and so far it’s told me I look like the following people:

I kind of wished they’d loaded up Bobby from King Of The Hill. I wanted to test the theory.

Oh, and on the attempt that said I resembled Daniela Pestova, it said my wife looked like Elijah Wood. I don’t know what’s worse, that I look like a Czech supermodel or that I married Frodo of the Shire.

[tags]myheritage, facial recognition software[/tags]

Giant little animals

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Working from home today so that the pulled muscle in my back can heal. The chairs at work just seem to reverse any healing progress it makes at night, so I’m giving it a day off. So far so good.

While I work I’m listening to a mix I made last night of my favourite 20 songs from last year. Well, sort of…I spent about 20 minutes figuring out which songs should be on there, and it might change slightly if I took more time with it, but cost/benefit and all that. I also kept it to one song per artist; otherwise Regina Spektor and Band Of Horses would’ve had multiple entries.

Here ’tis:

  • amy millan . “hard hearted (ode to thoreau)”
  • and you will know us by the trail of dead . “wasted state of mind”
  • asobi seksu . “red sea”
  • band of horses . “monsters”
  • camera obscura . “razzle dazzle rose”
  • cold war kids . “hospital beds”
  • heartless bastards . “blue day”
  • hidden cameras . “awoo”
  • jeremy enigk . “damien dreams”
  • ladyhawk . “war”
  • mates of state . “fraud in the 80’s”
  • mercers . “use for abuse”
  • mogwai . “we’re no here”
  • neko case . “john saw that number”
  • raising the fawn . “carbon paper”
  • regina spektor . “field below”
  • swan lake . “all fires”
  • tv on the radio . “wolf like me”
  • viva voce . “we do not fuck around”
  • yeah yeah yeahs . “cheated hearts”

.:.

We’ve opted out of our organic delivery service. There was nothing wrong with the food, but we just weren’t eating our money’s worth. I guess I’m not a very good vegetarian yet…

[tags]best songs of 2006, green earth organics[/tags]

Happy Valentimes!!

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If you watched 30 Rock last week you’d find that title funnier.

.:.

Uh oh…is 300 gonna suck??!?!

.:.

A few nights ago on The Daily Show Jon Stewart made fun of last week’s non-stop “news” coverage (which has let up only slightly this week) of the Anna Nicole Smith story.

“She might’ve been our Lady Di?” Come…the fuck…on. Not that I have any great respect for anything to do with the British royals, but Anna Nicole Smith was famous for a) having giant fake tits, b) marrying a decrepit old man for his money and c) being retarded. Those three things, nothing else.

Come to think of it, that may be the most accurate analogy for American celebrity worship that I’ve ever heard.

[tags]valentimes, 30 rock, 300, daily show, anna nicole smith[/tags]

Florida? Really?

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Four years ago today I got engaged. Happy engagiversary to me.

.:.

The Canadiens have become le suck. They lost again tonight, and are barely holding on to the final playoff spot in the east.

.:.

Speaking of le suck, 24 has been predictable for the last three seasons, but now it’s getting to the point where we can’t go 5 minutes without making fun of it. If I manage to make it to the end of this season, I think it’ll be my last.

[tags]engagement, canadiens, 24[/tags]

In so deep as in, "Which way is up?"

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I’ve done something to my back. It’s tweaking like a bastard just under my right shoulder blade. I think it started with the benches at Eggstasy and my chair at work just made it worse.

.:.

We watched Miami Vice (imdb | rotten tomatoes) last night. I liked it, but I seem to be in the minority on that. I confess to being a full-on Michael Mann junkie; the way he shoots his films is enough to make good movies great (Ali, Collateral) and make great movies classics (Heat, Last Of The Mohicans). In this case it made a mediocre film good.

.:.

It’s (apparently) confirmed now: we take possession of our condo April 9th. That would be…less than 2 months. Our inspection’s only a month from now.

You know, this condo thing has been going on so long it’s felt theoretical. It’s almost hard to believe it’ll actually happen soon.

[tags]back pain, miami vice, michael mann, condo inspection[/tags]