Author: Dan Dickinson

Why can't they ever vomit on, say, the kitchen floor?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Here I was, having a good weekend, and suddenly whammo…cat problems. Last night, around 1:00, one of the cats pukes all over my laptop bag. Seriously, it’s like he aims for personal items. Trying to clean everything out of the bag and wash it off while still half asleep was buckets of fun. Then this morning I woke up to find the other cat limping; I guess he did something to his foot/leg overnight. Probably beat the crap out of his brother a little too emphatically. I’ll watch it for a day or so and take him to the vet if it doesn’t get better.

.:.

Today’s idiots: Dr. Ted Baehr, who claims Talladega Nights makes fun of Jesus [via Yes But No But Yes], and the lady who thinks the tree in her backyard is gurgling out “God’s water”.

.:.

Another great picture from Sam at Daily Dose of Imagery. You can actually see our building under construction a few blocks to the southwest.

[tags]cats, vomit, injured paw, ted baehr, talladega nights, god’s water, daily dose of imagery, moss park[/tags]

Skin…circles…stain.

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

A few minutes ago I dropped off my dry cleaning. As I leaned on the counter to write my name & phone number on the receipt, the old lady who works there began rubbing the back of my hand. Not in a flirty way (and thank god) but like she was curious. When I gave her a “what the f**k, lady?” look she said, “Skin…circles…stain.” Actually, she said more than that, but her English is pretty broken and that’s all I really heard. At first I thought she was talking about stains on the shirts I was dropping off, but when she repeated her words I figured out that she was talking about the freckles on the back of my hand. At least, that’s the conclusion I leapt to. Anyway, I just gave her a little confused smile and wandered off.

A few minutes earlier some guy riding his bike down the sidewalk on Bloor Street kind of ran into me. Not hard, mind you, but when I came around the corner under some boarding he couldn’t stop in time, and he couldn’t swerve, so I ended up just grabbing his bike and stopping it as he ran into my leg. He apologized and asked if I was ok…which surprised me. I’d already just started walking away; it just seemed like any other pedestrian collision. I guess maybe he was nervous ’cause he was riding his bike on a sidewalk and knew he was in the wrong, or maybe he thought I looked pissed (which I’m told I do when I’m lost in thought), but I didn’t really even notice.

.:.

Nellie’s getting ready to go camping for the weekend. Not that I don’t enjoy her company, but I looooooove having the place to myself sometimes. To get a running start into the weekend I’ve taken today off. I should be able to get lots of work done too, so long as a second visit from The Scotsman and his fiancé (not wife; thanks TimmyD) doesn’t put me out of commission for too much of Sunday.

[tags]freckles, bike riding on sidewalks, alone time[/tags]

Head down

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

From now ’til the 28th of this month I shall be very busy indeed, as I have to write a 40-page paper for the course I’m doing now. The topic is Intellectual Property vs. Public Health. This is not something that will just flow from my fingertips. Fortunately I’m rarely at a loss for (typed) words.

The film festival booklets are released the day after I submit the paper, so I can concentrate on that for an hour or so before I have to get back to the rest of my course work. I should wrap that up the day before the festival actually starts; once it’s over I’m off to the course intensive for a week. I then have thirteen luxurious days to relax (unless the gods are against me and I have to start my next course right away) before we jet off to the Rockies.

So yeah. See you in October.

[tags]intellectual property, public health, toronto international film festival, rockies[/tags]

"You call it an electrified anal prod, I say tomato."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Today I watched Little Dieter Needs To Fly (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a Werner Herzog documentary about Dieter Dengler, a German man who moved to America because he wanted to be a pilot, eventually winding up a prisoner of war after being shot down over Vietnam. It was totally engrossing and captivating, unbelievable in parts. I highly recommend it.

In a funny little coincidence, not an hour after I finished watching the documentary I read that Werner Herzog will be showing a movie at this year’s film festival…a retelling of Dieter Dengler’s story. I’ll be doing my damndest to see that.

Which reminds me…a while back I also watched Incident At Loch Ness (imdb | rotten tomatoes), another Herzog [ahem] documentary. It’s pretty entertaining.

.:.

TOist takes on the ugly yellow obelisk at the corner of Yonge & Bloor. I would have suggested that abandoned storefront on Bloor between Spadina and Bathurst next, but it seems to have found someone to love it again.

.:.

The US Government is moving to protect their interrogators from prosecution even if they’re found guilty of “humiliating or degrading wartime prisoners.” This isn’t surprising, given the kind of things I read about in this Esquire article or how you see Alberto Gonzales act in this Daily Show clip.

.:.

If this is true — or even close to true — then people are even dumber than I thought: 30 percent of them can’t remember what year the September 11 terrorist attacks took place.

[tags]little dieter needs to fly, werner herzog, rescue dawn, hudson bay obelisk, interrogation, prisoner abuse[/tags]

Telephone poles, excetera

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

It seems Aliant, phone provider for Atlantic Canada, has found a way to get another $2 million out of Rogers using just a comma. Those maritimers are sneaky. [via Rocketboom]

.:.

Yourdictionary.com has published their list of the 100 most mispronounced English words. I’m guilty a few of these; I guess I have a ways to go with my grammar. At least I don’t say nucular. [via Yes But No But Yes]
[tags]aliant, rogers, mispronounced words[/tags]

Awww…

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Here I was, all set to write a big scathing post concerning the constant whining I hear about gas prices…and I remembered that I already did, about a year ago. Too bad; my fingers were itchin’ to type. I need another reason to vent my spleen.

Ah…the Middle East! Right.

  • Israel may have the right to defend itself, but self-defense is not what’s been happening for the past month. Focused and surgical strikes — which Israeli armed forces are very good at — against Hezbollah would make sense, not destroying infrastructure and killing hundreds of civilians.
  • America is sitting on the sidelines for political reasons, not logical or humanitarian reasons. Not that this should surprise anyone. However, Canada’s taking an equally passive approach; I think that’s surprising.
  • I’m not sure where Israel plans to go from here. I don’t see an end to this; they can’t hope to wipe out Hezbollah entirely. The draft UN resolution will only move the fighting to another location. Lebanon doesn’t have the ability to wipe out Hezbollah on their own, and neither Syria nor Iran are politically motivated to do so. I really can’t see where this will go.
  • Despite what Bill Maher thinks, criticizing Israeli military tactics does not make one an anti-semite. That’s a cheap accusation, an attempt to deflect the world’s conversation away from the real issue at hand. Does criticizing Guantanamo Bay torture make me anti-Christian?

[tags]gas prices, israel, lebanon, bill maher, anti-semitism[/tags]

Scotsman

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The Scotsman (a friend of my brother’s), his lovely wife fiance (who I’d heretofore thought imaginary, given her absence during my two previous visits to London) and a few of his friends were in town tonight, so we popped out for dinner and a drink with them. They’d had a bit too much to drink the night before, and The Scotsman has misplaced his lunch earlier after a flight (sort of), so it wasn’t quite the night of debauchery that it might have been otherwise.

We had a drink at the Irish Embassy, walked over to Golden Thai for some dinner (which was very good…handy to know, since we’ll be living nearby very soon) and then hit C’est What for a beer. That was about all they had in them, and we us. Hopefully we’ll see them again when they return on Saturday.

[tags]scotsman, irish embassy, golden thai, c’est what[/tags]

Creepy … crawly … creepy … crawly … creepycreepycrawlycrawly …

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Last night we decided to head (further) downtown for some shoppin’ and some eatin’ and a movie. We picked up a new backpack for me at MEC, had dinner and some new beer (both very good) at Smokeless Joe’s, and went to see The Descent (imdb | rotten tomatoes) at the Paramount theatre. Nellie and I were attracted to it by the good reviews it’s gotten to date, and by the reputation it’s garnered for being scary. We weren’t disappointed.

There were three parts: standard setup, claustrophobic tension and violent mayhem. It didn’t lapse into any silly horror movie clichés, nor into any female horror movie stereotypes (there were no major males characters). They used a few standard horror movie devices (e.g., panning shots as a person backs up toward a dark corner), but sparingly. All in all, I’d recommend it…if you’re ok with scary movies. Oh, and enclosed spaces; I don’t consider myself claustrophobic, but some of the scenes where they’re crawling through tiny passages made my freaking skin crawl.

Oh, and one final note: if you’re just going to talk with your two friends at cocktail-party volume throughout the entire film — as the trio of chattering assholes behind us did — do the rest of society a favour: wait for the DVD and watch it at home.

.:.

Then we came home and watched a schmaltzy, sappy, dorky movie…a Christmas movie, in fact: Noel (imdb | rotten tomatoes). I have no idea why, nor am I even sure why it was on our Zip list. Nellie thinks it was a film festival movie. In any case, avoid this one if you can.

[tags]descent movie, noel movie[/tags]