Category: Me

Well…it's not flesh-eating disease…

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

It’s shingles.

Seriously.

Because, apparently, I’m 72. What the hell?

Sigh.

I’m staying home the rest of the week because my co-worker, who I sit next to and probably have the most contact with in the run of a day, has never had chicken pox (which is the virus that causes shingles) and there’s a chance I could give it to her. This sucks, because I have a very busy week of stuff that I was looking forward to, including tomorrow night’s Rheostatics concert, their penultimate show.

Frack.

This just seems weird to me. Not the shingles themselves; apparently it’s not at all uncommon. Anyone who’s had chicken pox can get shingles, but it’s usually triggered by something. Here’s WebMD’s list of typical triggers:

  • Have a weakened immune system (such as people with cancer or HIV)
  • Are over the age of 50
  • Have been ill
  • Are experiencing trauma
  • Are under significant stress

Cancer: nope; HIV: nope; over 50: nope; ill: nope; experiencing trauma: nope; under significant stresss: not that I’m aware of. Honestly, the best that I (or Nellie) could come up with is that my body might be rather weakened by the recent drastic shift in diet. Whether that’s it or not, I can’t ignore the fact that I’ve been sick more in the past three months than I had been in the past three years. Maybe that’s coincidence, but when you consider that we haven’t done a great job of adjusting our diets (I know we don’t get enough protein, for example), it seems to be something that I have to address. So, reluctantly, I think I shall have to start eating fish again. Temporarily, until I can adjust my eating habits enough to be vegetarian and be healthy about it.

Goddammit.

.:.

OK, changing gears now: is it wrong that I want to eat Jesus?

.:.

The proposed 60-story condo on the southeast corner of Yonge & Bloor has become a proposed 80-story condo. Any new development on that intersection would be an inprovement. As (city councillor) Kyle Rae put it, “I sorely would like to hide the Royal Bank building on the northeast corner. It’s brutal.”

.:.

There’s so much stuff in the new Harry Rosen magazine that I want that my wallet has begun to glow, kind of like Frodo’s sword when there’s an orc nearby.

.:.

I’m with Serge Savard: hockey should be banned from fighting. It has nothing to do with the game. No other pro sport allows it, let alone condones it. If you’re excited about watching two guys fight, there’s another sport called boxing which I believe would be right up your alley. If I’m watching hockey I prefer skill plays and hard bodychecks to pre-arranged fights and tough-guy posturing.

[tags]shingles, chocolate jesus, toronto condo, yonge and bloor, harry rosen, serge savard, hockey fighting[/tags]

Nice car, great architecture, pretty sunset, blah blah…hey lookit, our condo!

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Staying at home today. Feel as if my gastrointestinal system is under attack. Will try to gather enough strength to drag ass to the drug store and collect some supplies. #1 on the list: Gatorade.

.:.

Today’s picture over at Daily Dose of Imagery has a nice picture of our new condo building. Well, I guess the picture is of the red Mini in the foreground, but you can see our building in the shot.

[thanks Jen!]

[tags]gatorade, daily dose of imagery, spire condominium[/tags]

Black Friday

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

According to People magazine (which I don’t read, thank you; Stanzi told me about it), Salma Hayek is engaged.

“Double the good news for Salma Hayek: The actress is engaged to businessman boyfriend François-Henri Pinault – and she’s pregnant.”

Here’s what kills me…Even I’m better looking than that old dude!! OK, granted, he’s a rich old dude, but still…

However, I think I shall choose to look at it this way: my wife has better taste than Salma Hayek, which means I made the smart choice about who to marry.

Ahem.

[tags]salma hayek[/tags]

Florida? Really?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

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?"

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

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]

A gurgling stomach is "one of the signs" of My Lunch's imminent return

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

First of all, some big news: my oldest brother is now engaged!!! Everybody pop over to his blog and say congratulations to TimmyD and She Who Must Not Be Named.

Needless to say we’re extremely happy for both of them. We adore SWMNBN, and love how happy she makes my big brother, so we couldn’t be more pleased. Huzzah!

.:.

We tried a new place for Winterlicious last night: The Savoy. T-Bone joined us once again, along with her friend AS. We had a MUCH better experience this time than we had at 1055. My wine (can’t remember what it was…something Tuscan) was really good, my starter salad was excellent, my mushroom risotto wasn’t bad (I don’t like mushrooms, but even then…pretty decent) and my creme brulee was just right. The service was also very good, and best of all our table was in an enclosed booth, so the four of us felt very private and cozy during our meal. To top it off, it was actually cheaper than the typical ‘licious meal — $25 instead of $35 — so we definitely felt like we got our money’s worth.

The Savoy could very well become a neighbourhood joint once we move into our new place.

.:.

I seem to have buggered up my knee somehow. Tried to run on it Sunday afternoon and had to hobble to a stop after 45 seconds. This happens occasionally; hopefully a day with the knee brace should fix it up. But of all the weeks not to be able to exercise: Winterlicious week. Deadly.

.:.

This post on the Showcase Sideshow blog makes an interesting observation: the quality of Mexican directors right now is pretty impressive. It’d be pretty tough to find a better trio of films than Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro), Children Of Men (Alfonso Cuaron) and Babel (Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu) in theatres right now.

.:.

Holy blessed mother of hotpants, this Washington Post story takes climate change denial to a whole new level of silliness:

Hardison, a parent of seven here in the southern suburbs of Seattle, has himself roiled the global-warming waters. It happened early this month when he learned that one of his daughters would be watching “An Inconvenient Truth” in her seventh-grade science class.

“No you will not teach or show that propagandist Al Gore video to my child, blaming our nation — the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet — for global warming,” Hardison wrote in an e-mail to the Federal Way School Board. The 43-year-old computer consultant is an evangelical Christian who says he believes that a warming planet is “one of the signs” of Jesus Christ’s imminent return for Judgment Day.

His angry e-mail (along with complaints from a few other parents) stopped the film from being shown to Hardison’s daughter.

The teacher in that science class, Kay Walls, says that after Hardison’s e-mail she was told by her principal that she would receive a disciplinary letter for not following school board rules that require her to seek written permission to present “controversial” materials in class.

Seriously…if you’re the school how can you discipline a teacher for that? You’ve opened the door for teachers to be disciplined for discussing anything, since there’s always some nutbag parent who’ll get their knickers in a twist. Teaching evolution? Sex ed? Geology? Astronomy? Prepare to be disciplined. Hell, if a kid’s parent works for Verizon they’re even likely to complain about the math.

[via Cinematical]

[tags]engagement, savoy restaurant, winterlicious, climate change, inconvenient truth, frosty hardison[/tags]

The summer of Dan

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I’m a very happy MBA student right now. Not only did I just finished stats/quants (which is generally thought to be one of the least pleasant courses), and not only am I now more than 60% of the way through, but I have a very favourable series of courses coming up:

  • Information Systems (IT is kind of my specialty, so this will be like a 3-month vacation for me)
  • Strategic Thinking (I took this course before I even started the MBA; that doesn’t mean I can skip it, but I’m already more than familiar with the subject matter)
  • Financial Risk (as I understand it, this is running computer simulations to determine financial risk of various investment & spending strategies…again, computers + numbers = my wheelhouse)

That puts me into September. I’ve been joking with classmates that this is the summer of Dan (a term I adapted from Seinfeld), and offered my assistance since this is probably one of the few times I’ll be of any help to anyone.

George: This is gonna be my time. Time to taste the fruits and let the juices drip down my chin. I proclaim this: The Summer of George!

[A bee comes and George has to run inside]

[via]

I also have a large comprehensive term paper to write up by the end of October, but I’m not worried about that. A classmate and I already have a topic in mind, with a ton of supporting material already lined up, and neither of us struggle to fill pages.

.:.

Since it’s cold out and neither of us are feeling that well, Nellie and I are undertaking the very winter-y exercise of watching the Leafs play the Canadiens, and then watching a movie: The Devil Wears Prada. Now that is the definition of marital compromise.
[tags]the summer of dan, mba courses, leafs, canadiens, the devil wears prada[/tags]

That copy of The Da Vinci Code? Not mine.

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

My latest obsession: Shelfari. I’m slowly inputting my collection. The best part is how it shows you how many other people have the same books as you, and lets you browse their collections (or even chat with them) for recommendations. I told my brother about it too, and he’s got a shelf or two of his own.

Hat tip: Duarte.

.:.

I’ve finally finished watching loudQUIETloud (imdb | rotten tomatoes) after squeezing bits of it into many lunch hours. It was great to see that even bands who have as massive an impact on music as The Pixies did are made up of screwy individuals. David Lovering and his metal detector? Frank Black and his self-help tapes? Joey Santiago not recognizing his own baby? Kim Deal…full stop? Awesome, all of it; it reminded me that dorky people can be influential too.

By the way, I swear I have a different favourite Pixies song every day, depending on which one I heard last. Today it’s “Caribou”.

.:.

Google Reader has added user stats, which is piles o’ fun for a geek like me. Apparently in the last 30 days I’ve read 11,672 news items, or 389 a day. That’s probably a bit less than I’d usually do as there were a few days over the holidays when I didn’t read any, and just had to blow the items away. 400 a day sounds about right. I don’t read all of those, obviously; I skim the headlines and mark the ones I want to read.

[EDIT] That 400 doesn’t include the 300 or so I read for work each day.
[tags]shelfari, loudquietloud, pixies, google reader[/tags]