Is anyone else kind of underwhelmed by this year’s Mercury Prize shortlist?

Man, reports like this bug me. From eMarketer:

A new survey finds that the average American worker wastes over two hours a day — much of it online — costing industry billions a year.

So…why not publish similar reports that tell us how much time employees waste on the phone? Or getting coffee? Or doing their nails, or talking to co-workers, or taking a piss?

People use the internet for lots of stuff, just like they use the office phones and mailboxes and bathrooms. Get over it.

And now, the eternal question: do I go home and go for a run? Or do I go home and lie down and hope this headache goes away?

Tonight was our last summerlicious dinner with T-Bone (who brought along the lovely JC), Lobby being our final stop. I was very pleasantly surprised; every time I’ve walked by I’ve laughed at the pretentious white sofas and velvet rope out front, but I enjoyed tonight a lot. The food — I had carrot & ginger soup, molasses and mustard brick hen with jalapeno corn sauce, and crème brulee for dessert — was very good, the server was…well, hot, but so was the temperature inside the restaurant. That was my only complaint: the heat…but that’s hardly their fault, ’cause it’s hot enough in this city to melt the paint off a car. Ooh, and it was also fun to watch Nellie and T-Bone try to climb into the tall, heavy chairs.

We’ll definitely be going back there, maybe for dinner, maybe just for drinks. I have to say, for a summerlicious lineup that seemed pretty underwhelming, I think we’ve done pretty well thus far. Square was great too, and we still have one left: Bruyea Brothers.

Another day, another heat/humidity/smog/death warning. Seriously, it’s so bad that we can’t even bear to be in the apartment unless the a/c is on at least medium, and even then we’re sweating like pigs. Fortunately the office is like a meat locker.

Yeesh…in four days we’ll be back on a plane, headed for the family farm. I think I’ve seen just about enough of airports and exit rows lately.

Stupid Air Canada cancelled our flight and moved us to a later flight too, meaning we won’t arrive at the farm until 2AM. I called yesterday to tell them that we want to be put on an earlier flight, but after half an hour on hold I just gave up.

Despite the rough-sounding title, Martha Wainwright‘s “Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole” is one of the most captivating songs I’ve heard in a while. It’s like an softer version of Sleater-Kinney‘s “Turn It On”, in that I can’t figure out if it’s meant to be a love song or a giant fuck-you.

And really, that’s what makes it good.

Man, why didn’t I watch The Animatrix (imdb | rotten tomatoes) sooner? It’s got all kinds of useful information about things leading into the second Matrix film, and the animation is pretty impressive. The last few (it’s nine different vignettes, for those of you who haven’t seen it) I didn’t care for too much, but it’s worth watching, especially if you want the backstory about the war and some pieces of information that are referenced in Reloaded.

Seriously, why does The Learning Channel even call itself that anymore? Why not just Home Renovation Central or something?

And while we’re on the topic, why doesn’t The Life Network just rename itself The Wedding & Baby channel? Ooh, and Showcase could just rename itself HBO & pr0n…

I finished my assignment this morning, so I’ve been spending a couple of hours going through and uploading some of the pictures from our trip to flickr. They’re here if you want to have a look.