"Godfather can't tell the general we don't do windows."

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Today was a good day. I finished writing my paper (just needs a final read-through and a second set of eyes), took care of some other little things, got a little work done and managed to keep the place in order while Nellie tried to sleep off a cold that’s knocked the wind out of her. Even got some school shit taken care of that I didn’t plan to complete until tomorrow night, so I’m a little ahead of schedule.

33 days left. Not done yet, but I can see the finish line.

.:.

We watched the second episode of the new HBO series Generation Kill tonight. It’s good so far, kind of what I think Band of Brothers would have been like if it were about a different generation and a different war. Still, there’s a lot that’s similar: logistical problems, incompetent officers, and so on…and that makes for good TV. But like my friend Stephen said, I’ll watch anything made by David Simon and/or Ed Burns now.

[tags]mba, generation kill[/tags]

This is our house.

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Today we went to our first Toronto FC game down at BMO Field. The weather called for showers and possibly even thunder & lightning, so we fully expected to get wet. I also expected to see a win, since FC were playing the expansion San Jose Earthquakes.

We took a streetcar packed with red-clad fans down to the exhibition grounds and found our seats; good view of the field, right in the middle, good sightlines. Last time I was there (for a non-FC game) I was on the other side, so it was good to get the other angle. We were in one of the calmer sections, far from the likes of the Red Patch Boys, U-Sector and North End Elite.

The game itself ended in a 0-0 draw, a disappointing result for Toronto. San Jose (more often than not described as “lowly”) mustered only a few moments of offense, so the game was Toronto’s for the taking…they just couldn’t find any scoring touch. Several failed runs, lots of crosses sailing right through the box with no one to put a head to it, even a missed penalty…nothing went right. The crowd was pretty vocal about their disappointment. It’s hard to watch your team struggle like that. They were also pretty vocal about the officiating, which was…questionable.

We lucked out with the weather. It never did rain, beyond a few sprinkles here and there…not enough to really get wet. And it didn’t get too hot either; when the sun finally broke through, the breeze from the lake kept it tolerable. A few minutes after we got home it really started to pour…glad it held off.

Pretty fun time, all in all. We have tickets for one more game in September, after the MBA is done and the film festival is over. I look forward to not having any pressing deadline on a Saturday afternoon other than getting to the soccer pitch on before the first goal.

[tags]toronto fc, san jose earthquakes[/tags]

Aw Come Aw Wry

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Whilst taking a break from writing my term paper I put together a little CD for my dad. I’ll bring it to him when I’m back in Nova Scotia in a couple of weeks.

  1. Barry Louis Polisar . “All I Want Is You”
  2. Black Keys . “Keep Me”
  3. Phosphorescent . “Aw Come Aw Wry”
  4. Neko Case . “Poor Ellen Smith”
  5. Track A Tiger . “Sound As Ever”
  6. Pixies . “Here Comes Your Man”
  7. Long Winters . “Cinnamon”
  8. Cat Power . “Song To Bobby”
  9. Avett Brothers . “Go To Sleep”
  10. Great Lake Swimmers . “Put There By The Land”
  11. Arthur & Yu . “1000 Words”
  12. Carrie Biell . “Don’t You Blame Me”
  13. Tallest Man On Earth . “Walk The Line”
  14. Band Of Horses . “Lamb On The Lam”
  15. Bonnie Prince Billy . “Master And Everyone”
  16. Blue Mountain . “Banks Of The Pontchartrain”
  17. Jose Gonzalez . “Heartbeats”
  18. Camera Obscura . “Razzle Dazzle Rose”

As with CDs I’ve made for him before, I expect him to love some and hate others. The Pixies and Camera Obscura might be wishful thinking, I grant you, but he’ll dig the Barry Louis Polisar…which happens to be the title song from Juno, so he’ll be cool without even knowing it.

[tags]mixed cd, music for my dad[/tags]

Well, there goes the neighbourhood

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Torontoist is reporting that an Ikea (of sorts) is opening on King Street East, just around the corner. Actually, I can see it from here. Seriously, right from where I’m sitting.

King Street East is known for its high-end furniture retailers like Roche Bobois and UpCountry, so it’s a bit of a surprise to see the logo for everyone’s guilty pleasure, IKEA, on a classy King Street storefront.

Torontoist reader Sofi Papamarko asked us to investigate this mysterious downtown presence of the eco-conscious Swedish giant, suggesting that it could be an office furniture location or a boutique IKEA (similar to the Leon’s planned for the Roundhouse or the downscaled Brick store at College Park). The windows at 143 King Street tease a date of July 31, 2008—which curiously is the same day that IKEA releases their annual catalogue.

“It’s not a store,” a rep for the company told Torontoist, “but it is a place where customers can check out products from the 2009 catalogue.”

But will they have the cheap breakfasts?

Also up for betting: Sam Javanrouh bikes past there every day; how long before he posts a picture on Daily Dose of Imagery?

[tags]ikea, king street, sam javanrouh, daily dose of imagery[/tags]

700 people with one pig? Wonderful, magical animal indeed.

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Back in April I blogged about how the federal government is subsidizing a massive cull of swine. The economic wisdom behind this is pretty questionable, but that aside it seemed a huge waste. My articulate plea: “Just give it to some food banks, for chrissakes.”

Well, it turns out that some provinces are. Quebec just announced that they’d donate about 300,000 kg of pork from the cull to food banks. Ditto Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, according to the story; not sure what’s holding up the other provinces.

One of the comments in the CBC story linked above is funny:

Because it makes sense to do this, I am actually surprised it will be done.

Exactly. I’m waiting for some governmental agency to step in with a health concern, or some right-wing think tank to complain about how soft we’re being on lazy-ass hungry people.

[tags]pork farmers, pig cull, food banks[/tags]

What I've learned about this term paper

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  1. I’m really, really interested in this topic. This creates a paradox, since I’m incredibly uninterested in spending time writing about it.
  2. The Mogwai soundtrack to Zidane, A 21st Century Portrait (imdb) is great work music.
  3. I’m so glad I bought an Aeron chair last year. As it is my ass is sore; I can’t imagine sitting in my crappy old chair for 20 hours this past weekend.
  4. It will be very, very applicable to my company, not that it’ll make much of a difference. Not that that will stop me from sending it around to a thousand people.
  5. I would rather poke myself in the eye with a live hummingbird than spend another night working on it.

[tags]mba, term paper[/tags]