Complainy | Because it’s fun to complain.
I am having way too much fun with this. Possibly my favourite thing is that each item in the RSS feed is labeled “bitch #1,” “bitch #2” and so on. I even got to throw up a meta-bitch: their RSS feed had a spelling error, so I complainy-d about it.
[Via Accordion Guy]
[tags]complainy[/tags]
Stop hiding!
It’s been a great weekend so far. It’s been fun having Nellie’s friends around, though they’ve been off gallivanting about the city most of the time so I’ve had plenty of time to myself too. Today, for example: they’ve all gone off to Niagara for god-knows-what. Yesterday one went to visit nearby family while another went shopping with Nellie (following a shopping trip of my own…stupid Harry Rosen private sale). On Friday they went to the zoo, as you can see above. Click the flamingos to see some other great pics Nellie took.
While they were out last night enjoying some Korean barbecue I stayed home and relaxed, read and finished watching A Mighty Heart (imdb | rotten tomatoes) which reinforced my love for all things Michael Winterbottom. It wasn’t until this morning that I remembered last night was Modernmod‘s last night spinning at the Mod Club or I might’ve gone.
Today was a brootiful spring day in Toronto. While it’s still pretty windy up this high I spent some time out on the balcony, and left all the doors open so the wind could pound through. The cats especially seemed to enjoy sitting by the screen door and letting their fur ruffle in the breeze. However, the girls will soon get home and my quiet, fun weekend will come to a close. I’ll wake up early tomorrow and start a week that includes long meetings, an MBA assignment and a trip to the dentist.
Those birds have the right idea. Time to hide.
[tags]harry rosen, a mighty heart, korean barbecue, mod club, toronto[/tags]
I’m supposed to be at a friend’s house for a barbeque right now, but whatever I had for lunch has made the idea of eating anything very unappealing. Really, the only thing getting me through the shaky afternoon at work was — once again — the Frightened Rabbit album. While the whole thing’s fantastic, I tend to really fall hard for one song at a time. First it was “Floating In The Forth,” then “The Modern Leper,” then “Good Arms vs. Bad Arms.” Today it was “Keep Yourself Warm”* but I can already tell my next favourite is going to be “The Twist.”
Once I got home and called in my bbq regrets, all I had the energy for was to do a couple of computer-based errands, including downloading a bunch of music: A Silver Mt. Zion‘s 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons, Sigur Ros‘ Hvarf-Heim, last year’s Frightened Rabbit album Sing The Greys, and the special tenth anniversary edition of Mogwai‘s Young Team. Ye olde eMusic subscription got a workout tonight.
However, just as my energy was flagging, I’ve been dealt a blow that will surely relegate me, bummed and queasy, to the couch for the rest of the evening: the Led-Zep-in-Toronto rumours appear to be groundless. Crapmonkey.
* Not only is this song excellent, I suspect it’s the only song ever recorded to feature the words “choo-choo train” while also including five instances of the word “fucking.” Suck it, Raffi.
[tags]frightened rabbit, silver mt. zion, sigur ros, frightened rabbit, mogwai, emusic[/tags]
In less than an hour two female friends will arrive to spend the weekend with us, at our condo, which means I’ll be outnumbered 3-to-1.
Pray for me.
[tags]male sacrifice[/tags]
Worrisome goings on in classrooms. From the Toronto Star (via Quill & Quire): “[Toronto District School] Board removes book on genocide.”
Barbara Coloroso’s Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide had been selected as a resource for a new Grade 11 history course about genocide and crimes against humanity, but the book and the course came under review after they were challenged by members of the Canadian Turkish community.
And, more worrisome still, from MSNBC: “Creationism edges into U.S. high school classes.”
One in eight U.S. high school biology teachers presents creationism or intelligent design in a positive light in the classroom, a new survey shows, despite a federal court’s recent ban against it.
Apologies to CSN&Y for this post’s title.
[tags]toronto district school board, censorship, msnbc, creationism[/tags]
From the CBC: Backstreet Boys creator gets 25 years in prison.
[tags]backstreet boys, lou pearlman[/tags]
reading: The Angel Riots by Ibi Kaslik and Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach by Charles Hill and Gareth Jones. Eye Weekly and Now Magazine every Thursday. Toronto Life once a month.
listening to: Saul Williams by Saul Williams, though any minute now I’ll move on to Death Cab For Cutie‘s Narrow Stairs or Visiter by The Dodos.
watching: almost nothing. I’m paying only marginal attention to sports (go Pens! go Celts!), The Office and 30 Rock are done for the season and The Shield hasn’t started yet. All that’s on right now is Battlestar Galactica, and even that’s on 2-week hiatus.
scanning: 190 news feeds, averaging about 509 articles per day. Of course, these are only my personal-interest feeds; I have just as many work feeds. I mainly skim the headlines here, and pay attention to maybe 50, flagging 5-10 to read later.
browsing: 6-7 websites per day. I rarely have a need to visit particular websites now (see ‘scanning’, above) but a few are applications (e.g., Google Analytics) or snapshots (e.g., the weather) that don’t work in an RSS channel. There’s also Bruce MacKinnon’s editorial cartoon every day which, despite my best efforts, I cannot wrangle into a Yahoo Pipe. Again, this is personal-interest only; there’re other work sites.
running: 3-4 times per week, 3 miles at a time. On a treadmill. Half flat, half slight incline.
eating: penne with sundried tomato pesto. Well…an hour ago, anyway.
looking forward to: our rockies/BC trip in June; Euro 2008; visiting Nova Scotia twice in August, once to visit with family and once to wrap up the MBA.
wondering: why the hell I started writing this blog post in the first place.
[tags]angel riots, ibi kaslik, toronto life, saul williams, death cab for cutie, narrow stairs, dodos, visiter, google reader, bruce mackinnon, yahoo pipes, euro 2008[/tags]
While talking to my dad today (he turns 65 today — happy birthday Dad!) we were chatting about what’s going on at the farm right now. He’d planned to start planting today but it rained, so they stuck to indoor work. One of the things he did was work on cleaning out the old farmhouse, which is being renovated. The house is over 150 years old, so he found some interesting stuff in there, including — get this — a tool to make musket balls.
I know any Europeans reading this are probably thinking, “150 years old…big deal.” However, when you’re rummaging through a house that was built before your country was even officially a country and you find a working tool that goes with a freaking musket, I’d contend that’s still a little surprising.
[tags]musket ball[/tags]
Given that it’s been a relatively lazy long weekend so far, we’ve watched a couple of movies.
Transformers (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was a pretty acceptable little action movie. Flashy and dumb like all Michael Bay films, but the special effects were amazing and we actually laughed quite a few times…especially at Shia LaBeouf’s parents. Stupid, but fun.
The Lives Of Others (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was juuuuuust about the polar opposite of Transformers. Not at all flashy or fast-paced, but a scary study of life in East Germany in the 1980s. Well, scary but…uplifting somehow. Or reassuring. Or just slightly less scary. Anyway, it was very good…though not good enough to steal the best Foreign Language Film Oscar away from Pan’s Labyrinth, in my opinion. Still, I’d recommend it.
[tags]transformers, the lives of others[/tags]
[tags]moonlight, lake ontario, toronto[/tags]
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 