Category: Daily life

"Oh, that name is intolerable. It suggests midgets working in a factory."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Apart from getting up very early to buy groceries (I wanted nothing to do with a grocery store on the 23rd of December) it’s been a lazy, relaxing Sunday. Gift wrapping and corporate finance will come later; we decided to spend the morning watching movies.

We actually watched Keane (imdb | rotten tomatoes) yesterday, not today. It was not an easy film to watch, I thought, but it was impressive for two reasons: the nauseating feeling you got seeing this man get hurled into and out of madness, and the performance of Damien Lewis. He was on the screen for practically every second, every scene, every shot, and to so skillfully show this man being buffeted by the forces that afflicted him must’ve taken incredible patience. Damien Lewis might just be the most underrated actor out there.

Keane represented the last of our Zip movies. When it’s returned, my account will officially be closed.

Shifting gears, we watched Who Killed The Electric Car? (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a documentary about…well, you can probably guess. Some documentaries are haphazard and jump all over the place, or seem designed only to outrage, but this one had a very clear narrative and a real quality of production that you don’t often see from the genre. Lots of background and facts, but presented clearly and concisely. The story of the GM EV1 electric car is interesting, but the story about the car’s quiet demise — which I’d not really paid attention to — is rife with intrigue and conflict. Highly recommended.

Oh wait…shifting gears…I just got that. Sorry. I hate puns. They’re lazy humour.

Finally, about an hour ago, we watched Mrs. Henderson Presents (imdb | rotten tomatoes) which was ok, but not great. Cute and clever, to be certain, and the two leads — Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins — were awfully good, but it veered too close to schmaltz (and dove nose-first into sentiment, for that matter) too often. I suspect it would’ve been labeled a good family film except that there’re naked ladies every which way you look.

[tags]keane, damien lewis, who killed the electric car, gm ev1, mrs. henderson presents, judi dench, bob hoskins, windmill theatre[/tags]

Return to Thundersnow

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At 3:30 last night we were awoken by a noise on our balcony. Not the howling wind; we were used to that by the time we went to sleep around 2:00. This time it was paint cans; we’d forgotten that we’d left a box of nearly-empty paint cans out on the balcony, and the wind had finally flipped the box and sent paint cans everywhere.

It’s been that kind of storm so far: violent winds and lots of snow. I can only see the occasional intrepid (“intrepid” means stupid, right?) soul walking or driving on the streets below us. The city’s pretty much shut down. Fine by us; as I said yesterday we used yesterday to finish everything that required a trip outside. I’ve used this morning to do a little work, read my feeds, finish off a bunch of small errands and even read a chapter of corporate finance. Nothing left to do today, really, except watch the Raptors game, pick off one more chapter of my textbook and watch some movies. It should be a very relaxing Sunday.

As I wrote this I saw a few lightning flashes and heard some thunder. Huh…two thundersnows in one year.

[tags]toronto storm, thundersnow[/tags]

They both involve snapshots

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I’m making the most of my MBA-cation. I got so many little things done tonight my hand is sore from checking things off lists. Tomorrow I’ll finish my Christmas shopping, and then tomorrow night, the last hurrah before I get back to the studyin’, we’re going to the Whippersnapper gallery with CBGB to see the photoblogger exhibit.

And then…back to tax shields and dividend policy.

[tags]whippersnapper gallery, corporate finance[/tags]

"It's just like the 60's. Only with less hope."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Been home sick the last couple of days. Nothing too bad — just a low level nausea and complete lack of energy — but there’s no particular reason why I need to be in the office today, so I’ve stayed home. My boss is leaving on vacation tomorrow and the last thing I want is to infect her before she leaves.

The worst part about being moderately ill like this is that I can’t focus. Yesterday I tried to do some work, but it took me about 3 hours to do what would normally take me 30 minutes. I just couldn’t concentrate and focus on the screen. I’m blogging right now ’cause I know that by noon my brain will be mush again.

.:.

I would’ve paid a great deal of money to see Led Zeppelin last night, but I hope they don’t tour. It kills me to say that — I consider them one of the greatest bands of all time, and regret that they effectively broke up when I was still in diapers — but I hope they don’t go after the carrot that must surely be dangling in front of them.

.:.

Couple of movies we watched on the weekend (when I could still focus on the TV):

Shortbus (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was as weird and explicit as I’d heard…and that was about it.OK, it was mildly funny in places too, but I think the shock of the film is what would have made it remarkable if I wasn’t already hyper-aware of the film’s racier content following last year’s film festival.

American Gun (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was one of those films with a compelling subject and stellar cast that just never got anywhere. With Forest Whitaker, Donald Sutherland and Marcia Gay Harden starring in a film about America’s obsession with guns, you’d expect more meat on the bone, however the director decided to play it. I have no problem with subtlety, but I do have a problem with melodrama. It was OK, but I couldn’t really recommend it.

[tags]led zeppelin reunion, shortbus, american gun[/tags]

'Tis the season to be zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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I’m so tired. Been at a conference the last two days, and didn’t get very much sleep at all last night. I’m a zombie tonight; no energy left. I’m so out of it I actually left my card in the ABM and walked away. Still signed in. Some nice lady had to chase me down and give it back to me. I should not have been out in public.

I’ll blog more tomorrow when I’m coherent again.

[tags]sleepydan[/tags]

In which I geek right out

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  • That’s a pretty kickass-lookin’ Iron Man.
  • Jenna Fischer wants to do more nudity in her films. Well, if that’s what she feels she has to do for her craft, I guess we’ll all just have to support her.
  • Ray Park, the who portrayed Darth Maul (probably the only good thing about Star Wars: Episode I) will now get to play Snake Eyes in the upcoming G.I. Joe movie. That’s two iconically cool characters in one lifetime, Ray. Give thanks.

.:.

May not blog for a couple of days. Conference. Talk amongst yourselves.

[tags]iron man, jenna fischer, ray park, darth maul, snake eyes, g.i. joe[/tags]

UnZipped

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Here I thought taking some time away from the MBA would be nice and relaxing, but with work being what it is and with Christmas just around the corner, it’s still loopy. Still, anything’s better than reading about the effect of tax shields on corporate financing decisions.

.:.

Do you love yourself? Do you love good music?

If you answered yes to both of those, then ask yourself this: have you listened to Spoon‘s Kill The Moonlight? If you haven’t, then you were probably mistaken about the first two questions. Really, it’s one of the best collections of music I’ve ever heard. If you haven’t heard it, I can’t really give you a good reference point for comparison, even if you’ve heard other Spoon albums. Just do yourself a favour: go download it. At first you’ll only like one or two songs, but soon they’ll all grow on you.

.:.

I have signed up for The Movie Network and am planning to cancel my Zip account. It’s just not cost effective; I’m paying $15/month and not watching any movies. TMN, on the other hand, gives me a lot more immediate variety (as opposed to variety that I have to order) and access to TV shows that we want to see in real-time like The Wire and Dexter. Some day — like when the MBA is finished — we may go back to Zip, but for now it’s going bye-bye.

[tags]spoon, kill the moonlight, tmn, zip.ca, the wire, dexter[/tags]

Ow! Yawn. Hooray!

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I’m very excited, Internet. I finished my latest assignment this afternoon and, while I’m sure I’ll have to fix a few problem following my review in a few minutes, that’s it for me for the MBA for a little while. OK, only eleven days, but still…I’m looking forward to not reading finance for a week and a half like you can’t believe. Should give me time to finish up some shopping and knock off a few other niggling tasks.

.:.

Last night was my company’s year-end party, so we had some folks over for a pre-event drink or two, then had mingling & dinner & such just a few blocks away, and then back here for another drink or two. T-Bone somehow managed to get home even though standing seemed a struggle, and I somehow managed to knock over a pepper mill which knocked a martini glass off the counter which sent glass shards flying in all directions. Oy. In my haste to extract a cat from the glass minefield and clean it all up I got a piece stuck in my foot. I couldn’t reach it so I had to sleep (not very well, mind you) with it stuck there until Nellie woke up enough to pry it out with some tweezers. On the plus side I managed to clear some room in the liquor cabinet by finishing off the lingering drops of two different bottles of scotch: a 10-year-old Macallan fine oak and a 10-year-old Bruichladdich. So yeah, a fun night. Looking forward to next year.

[tags]walkin’ on, walkin’ on broken glass[/tags]

That was my first pomegranate foam intermezzo

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Last night, to celebrate CB’s birthday we had dinner at Canoe. It was, as always, spectacular. This was our first time getting the tasting menu. It would take too long to list the full details of everything we had with all the wine pairings, but here’s the brief overview:

  • our amuse bouche was shaved carrot, mushrooms, caper berries and beans and a chocolate sauce
  • next up was warm goat cheese on bannock with shaved black truffle and vanilla foam & veggies on lentils
  • the salad was warm lobster (which I normally don’t care for, but this was quite good) with a dill pickle tartar & lemon thyme
  • the intermezzo was a pomegranate foam with olive oil and a light salt on top
  • our main was a BC sablefish with a black mustard dressing. CB had the same thing with foie gras on top. The others had caribou.
  • dessert was a quince bread pudding with fruit and candied almonds, paired with a 2006 Fielding Estate Select Late Harvest Gewurztraminer

It was an excellent, excellent meal. I can’t imagine Canoe ever falling off my list of favourite Toronto restaurants.

.:.

Today’s been a busy one. We have people coming over in a couple of hours so we’ve been scrambling to get stuff ready, and to run all the errands we didn’t have time for this week. We just carried our new chairs home; of course it’s the coldest day of the year on the day when we have to be outside carrying packages…so it goes.

OK, must shower and throw together a playlist.

[tags]canoe, tasting menu[/tags]

Can I get a copy of that?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Here’s how my life is gonna go for the next couple of days. Tonight I have to work on my finance assignment. Tomorrow I have to go to work, of course. Tomorrow evening we’re having dinner at Canoe with CBGB; Saturday I’ll watch the PVR’d hockey game and then we have to run a pile of errands and pick up our new chairs. Saturday evening we have people coming over before we head out to a holiday party. Sunday will be spent recovering, watching another PVR’d hockey game and finishing — hopefully — the finance assignment. It is at that point that I will collapse onto the couch, read the newspaper and give the middle finger to the MBA for two weeks while I focus on Christmas shopping.

Weird to have the next 72 hours of my life planned out like that. Kind of depressing too.

.:.

Today’s episode of What The Duck distills the troubling conundrum of “entertainment news” down to a three-panel comic.

.:.

I will be going to this:

Whipper Snapper Gallery recently announced an exhibition of Toronto’s top four photo bloggers for the month of December. It’s called The Too-Explicit Injustice of Kind Population! and it runs from the 6th to the 29th. The exhibition title is an anagram of the different website names. Don’t worry… I don’t get it either!

More info.

[tags]canoe, what the duck, whipper snapper gallery, toronto photobloggers[/tags]