Category: General

A big steel decoration

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The good news: we picked up our barbeque today.

The bad news: our natural gas connection doesn’t seem to be working.

.:.

CBGB came over this morning for brunch. There was much sitting on the balcony. Then there was gelato. Then there was an overwhelming desire to nap, followed by work and some painting. Truly, a red-letter day.

.:.

We watched Nacho Libre (imdb | rotten tomatoes) yesterday. A few funny bits early on, but overall pretty disappointing. I expected more from Jack Black and the director of Napoleon Dynamite. One interesting thing: the female lead, Ana de la Reguera, looked like someone had spliced Winona Ryder together with Penelope Cruz.

[tags]natural gas barbeque, gelato, nacho libre[/tags]

The dreaded cheese-lump

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Is it possible to have an allergic reaction to cheese? That lasts for several days and causes (among other things) a lump on the back of one’s head? ‘Cause if it isn’t, then I don’t know what the hell’s happening to me.

[tags]cheese, allergy[/tags]

"My painting went from gentle sweeping strokes to stabbing motions."

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There was snow this morning for the first time. Not a lot, just a little bit in the air. Now that it’s December and there’s a bit of snow in the air, I’ll allow myself to feel like Christmas is getting close. T-Bone and I were talking yesterday about how we’re feeling stressed, like we’ve left gift shopping and decorating far too late because the merchants have been decked out for the season since Nov 1…or earlier, if you’re The Bay.

.:.

Speaking of Christmas-overload: the Globe and Mail discusses the now-ubiquitous Christmas Musak. I suppose it’s not fair to pick on yuletide Musak though; it’s awful all year round. Instead, what worries me is that I’ll have to hear the same shit Christmas music every day for the next month; “Wonderful Christmas Time” by Wings, anyone?

.:.

Met M2, KP and DI for some food & drink last night at the Rebel House. I haven’t seen them in a long time, so it was good to catch up and have a few laughs.

.:.

If you liked Shaun Of The Dead, you’ll be as excited about Hot Fuzz as I am. Check out the trailer(s). Bonus points for excellent use of an Eels song too.
[tags]snow, christmas season, musak, rebel house, shaun of the dead, hot fuzz, eels[/tags]

I hope you take a chit, 'cause a chit is what you're getting

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Last night I went out with two university friends (who happen to constitute 2/3 of the market*) and their wives to Cava, the new tapas restaurant run by Chris McDonald, formerly of Avalon. While I still have a bit of a mental barrier to tapas — some part of my brain refuses to feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth unless I leave the restaurant in stomach pain — I really enjoyed the meal. Some of the things that sounded really tasty are now verboten to me, like the chorizo sausage and the venison, we had plenty of delicious things: the watercress & roasted beet salad, the duck portion of the charcuteria, the sablefish, the swiss chard w/ pine nuts, and especially the boneless roasted quail stuffed with spiced chicken. The desserts were amazing as well, two warm ybarra chocolate cakes and a vanilla & orange sundae with pine nuts & candied violets(!).

We left full, but not in pain, which was kind of a nice feeling. You also don’t drink nearly as much at tapas (when it’s done right) because there’s constantly new bits of food coming at you, so that helped. The service was great too.

Because of some technical issues (*cough* Bell sucks *cough*) we weren’t able to get in touch with friends for drinks afterward, but we’re heading out in the next few minutes to have brunch with them, so…all’s well.

*it would take way too long to explain that, and I’m not sure I understand it myself.

[tags]cava, chris mcdonald, tapas[/tags]

Adequate transit is just a fantasy, can you live this fantasy adequate transit?

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Interesting Smart Economist article on the economic effects of an aging population. Among the more interesting statistics:

  • In 1950, the median age in developed countries was 29; by 2000, the median age had risen to 37, and by 2050 this figure is projected to rise to 45.
  • In Japan, in 1950, there were 9.3 people under 20 for every person aged 65 and older; by 2030, this ratio is predicted to fall to 0.59.
  • Between 2003 and 2030, the fraction of elderly voters in the United States will rise from 19.8% to 30.5%.
  • In 2005, the US government spent nearly 6.5% of GDP on transfers to the elderly; a shift of 10% of the population into retirement would cause federal transfers to increase by 4.7% of GDP — or over $500 billion.

That Japan statistic stunned me.

.:.

Spacing points to this fantasy TTC map. Now that’d be pretty sweet…the airport connection, the line that runs up to where I go “away” on course, the Beach, Skydome (love the anti-Rogers station name!), and so on. Sigh…instead we’re stuck with a service prone to underfunding operated by a union prone to tantrums.

.:.

Umm…that’s some Aldo Nova in the title. In case you were wondering.

.:.

Three-armed babies freak me out.

[tags]economics, aging population, fantasy ttc, aldo nova, three armed baby[/tags]

(Many) more thoughts on mesh

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I left halfway through that last session with Dave Pollard (and two others: Tom Williams from GiveMeaning and George Irish from Amnesty International) and popped next door for the session about media with Jian Gomeshi (from the CBC), Andrew Baron (from Rocketboom; sadly, Amanda didn’t tag along) and Amber MacArthur (from TechTV).

After a quick walk, we were off to the last session of the day. I had trouble deciding which session to attend, but settled on “How and Why to podcast” with the afore-mentioned Amber MacArthur, which turned out to be pretty busy. Apparently the “Blogging 101” session earlier was packed too.

In general, it was less geeky/techie than I had originally thought it might be…which is the whole point of the “social web”. There were lots of people there from the business/marketing/entrepenurial side of things, and some from the media area as well. The most interesting session was Michael Geist’s talk on digital copyright law…which, from the title, you would think would be the most boring topic on the planet. But he used his powerpoint well, just throwing up visuals to support what he was saying, and talked about things that affect us every day and just happen to be about digital copyright as well.

Little things:

  • I love, love, LOVE the MaRS space. I’m trying to convince my boss to move us down there. Not that it’s up to him; he’d move us there in a second, I think.
  • I bumped into an old colleague from Delano. I haven’t seen him in a couple of years, so it was good to catch up. His company was just bought by Verisign, so congrats to him.
  • While standing at the registration desk the guy next to me said “Joey deVilla” when asked for his name. Without turning I said, “Hey, the Accordion Guy.” As he said, “Yep,” out of the corner of my eye I looked…and he actually carries a frigging accordion with him. I thought it was just a name, but dude actually straps on an accordion when the leaves the house. Now that’s living up to a reputation. Anyway, I was so dumbfounded for a minute that I didn’t even introduce myself or anything…I just wandered off. I’m sure he wondered who the big rude dick was.
  • My favourite 1/3 of the “15-minutes of fame”: Are You Frank?

There are lots and lots of pictures from the conference up on flickr already, including this one where you can see that I have a blurry bald spot. Lovely.

[tags]mesh06, mesh conference[/tags]

"I consider it pure joy, my brother, whenever you face trials of many kinds."

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Do Americans know that it’s shit like this that make everyone sit back and laugh at them?

From The Guardian: Bible-bashing American football team must keep God off the pitch.

“The Birmingham Steeldogs, based in Alabama, had been planning to carry biblical texts on the back of their jerseys for their home game against Louisville Fire, a first in US sports history…The jerseys have been made by the Christian Throwback Jersey Company, which says it ‘specialises in outfitting today’s Christian with a wide array of religious sports and athletic attire’.”

So much awesomeness…can’t absorb it all…

Victor Mancini

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I just can’t picture Chuck Palahniuk’s book Choke being made into a movie. But I’d love to see someone have a go at it. I read it a few years ago (my brother’s copy…it kept me occupied between London and Toronto) so I only remember bits and pieces, but what I remember would be challenging to film well.

.:.

If you live in Toronto and can think of something that another city’s transit system does that the TTC should, check out this post over at Spacing. They want to hear from you. I suggested something like Seattle’s Busmonster.

.:.

I have a four hour meeting tomorrow afternoon. Who schedules something like that on Friday afternoon? They’d better have Diet Pepsi on hand, or I’m likely to snaploseit.

.:.

That’s right, Girlfriend Du Jour is back. There’ll be a fresh new entry tomorrow morning, and each day for at least a month.