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Turns Out I’m Not Insane

Turns out I’m not insane.

Once again, my clock went off at 6:12 instead of 6:25.

I changed it to the right time, went for a shower, and the clock was advanced in time.

Must be something loose in the clock.

Normally I would just beat it against the wall and see if that fixes anything. But I’m making some coin now…I’m sure I can afford a new alarm clock. Plus, I could always put this clock in the spare room. So what if my guests get to wake up 13 minutes earlier?

—-

Last night I did my Comm Research test which confirmed that I need to take better notes. Either that, or the prof is insane. I then spent a few hours with Vero which was excellent.

Anyone out there have a heat gun I can borrow? I have a dent in my bumper and I’ve heard that if you heat the thing up, you can just push it back out, since it’s plastic.

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Am I Going Insane?

Last night I walk away from my computer.

It’s 10:59.

I walk into my bedroom. The alarm clock reads 11:19.

I check my wristwatch – it’s 11:00.

Clearly, my alarm clock is messed up. This is the SECOND time this week where the time is messed up. I have no idea why.

I change the clock time. I set my alarm for 6:25.

I wake up at 6:25, do the usual stuff and then when I reach for my cell phone and watch, I discover that the time is…6:25.

As in, I just spent fifteen minutes in the shower, and it is now only the time where I woke up.

What the heck?

I believe I am going insane… I had a migraine headache the other week and ever since then, weird, silly things have been happening like the inability to type a sentence, or my clock times changing randomly.

In terms of the clock time changing last night, logic would dictate that it really was 11:19 when I went to bed and both my computer and wristwatch were off…but that doesn’t really make any sense.

So…I’m going insane I think. Or my alarm clock has a glitch.

Speaking about bettering oneself, I’m finally going to go to a doctor to get a physical. I’ve never been to a doctor since I was a kid, and I met a Doctor while in Europe who was saying how I should think about getting checked out before I’m 30.

I’m not worried about something, but it’s good to go to a doctor to get checked out just in case they can prevent something.

So, word of advice for the day – Go see a doctor! They are there to help. Contrary to popular belief, they are still accepting new patients. At least the one I found is.

Categories
Concert Reviews

(random) + Review of The Jeff Healey Band at Lonestar Texas Grill

  • I’ve been trying to upload another Morning Show file to ihud. Ain’t working. Will have to try from another computer. I love technology, but not as much as you and me.
  • Weekend was a bust – read all my books and studied. Do I feel smarter? No. Do I feel scared for the test? Heck yeah. The Prof doesn’t use class notes…he wings it. Maybe he’s a super-genius who remembers things. That’s right…I’m going to expose the University for what it really is. A breeding ground for higher level intelligence. Wait a second. That’s what University is all about anyhow.
  • Still chugging away at organizing the slew of MP3s that Tobias passed onto me when I was in Paris. Man, there’s a lot of stuff there.
  • Starting to learn a new song with Mike – Landing in London by 3 Doors Down. A decent tune. Although I think Mike and I realizing that the way to rock is not to learn another ballad. Ha!

I am amending this entry because I forgot the coolest event of the weekend happened on Friday when Joe, Trish, Mike and I went to see the Jeff Healey Band at Lonestar!

Had some dinner beforehand which was delic and then headed on upstairs to see the opening act Roadhouse who were decent at amping up the crowd.

Lonestar is a strange venue to see a band…the stage is at the same level as the dance floor (well, half of it at least) so when it came to the band coming on stage, I must admit it wasn’t the greatest experience because with a man who sits down to play, only the first row of people can see him! 3/4 of the way through the set we had a chance to push our way up to the front and catch the awe-inspiring playing of Mr. Healey. What can I say? I don’t think anyone in the world plays guitar the way he does…and he’s no hack. He’s an amazing guitarist. The night was filled with a bunch of blues tunes and they even brought on a girl from the Ottawa area to sing a few tunes. Trish thought that her voice was good, but she was moving her body too sexy for that young of a girl and should be punished. Here’s my word to Trish – when you rock, you gotta move.

My only gripe about the night is when these crazy cougars in the front row were reaching out to touch Jeff Healey’s hands while he was setting up to play. He even pulled away at one point and made a comment about it. Alright…I don’t see a big deal about touching someone’s hand…but then during a song one lady rubbed his leg while he was playing! That’s just rude. He’s a man, not an object for you to bewilder. Just because the man is blind doesn’t mean that you have to touch him like that. Did anyone rub the other band members legs? No. Why not? If she were to answer, she would probably say something like “Because they’re not special.”

Anyhow…I was hoping to see her later on so I could rub her leg and see how she liked it. 😉 Moron.

All in all…2 thumbs up for performance, no thumbs up for stage setup. We were saying how when we hit up Toronto next time, we should stop into his bar seeing him play. I’m sure they have a better setup.

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Uncategorized

Pet Peeve: Fridays

You all know me, I’m an easy going guy. Nothing really rocks my boat.

But when the dreaded Friday approaches, I cringe.

Sure, I’m happy that it’s the end of the week. I would be stupid not to. Work seems a little more slack on a Friday…it’s like I am the leader of a zombie pack and I am a zombie myself.

But, the one thing that irks me, is the following conversation that happens with people.

Me: “Hey, how’s it going?”
(Random person): “It’s Friday!”

ARGH! I know it’s Friday! Everyone should know it’s Friday. Friday is not an emotion. I know these people are only trying to say “Hey, I’m doing pretty good. The week was hard but it’s the end and I’m looking forward to relaxing this weekend.”

But give me something with substance here people! It irks me when they use a day of the week to convey their emotions. You know it wouldn’t even be so bad if someone replied:

(Random Person): “I’m doing pretty good. It’s Friday!”

Hey, I can relate. I hear ya man. Good times are a-coming, especially when you have plans to see the Jeff Healey Band tonight with some friends. Can’t complain.

But when you just say “It’s Friday” it irks me. Especially when the same people do it. It’s like ‘their thing’ to say when Friday is coming up.

I’m going to try out the ‘It’s Tuesday’ for awhile and see how that treats people. What will people think? Will they think I’m happy because it’s new release day for most different forms of media (aka new CDs, new movies, etc.). What about if I said “It’s Wednesday!” Does that mean that I’ve made it to hump day and I’m good to roll down the other side of the hill. Maybe if I still collectec comic books this would show that I’m glad it’s Wednesday because there are some new comics on the rack.

Oddly enough, I don’t have this feeling when it’s Monday. I think there are a few people who say ‘It’s Monday’ and I just don’t bother to care either way. Maybe it’s because I’ve led my pack of Zombies from work on a Friday but still am a Zombie when I return to work on the Monday.

Happy Friday People.

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Sayonara Cassettes!

A stroke of ambition hit me late last night and I decided to test out the TV tuner card Mike lent me to see if I could digitize my old videocassettes.

Success! Sort of?

The thing works…I started recording a Smashing Pumpkins: Intimate and Interactive concert back from…1998? It records in real time so I figured it would try and tape the entire 6 hour tape. I left it running overnight and when I awoke, I found it did in fact tape the 2 hour long show, but didn’t bother capturing any other footage on the videocassette. Another drawback is the fact that this 2 hour long MPG file is 8 gigabytes large…I would need a dual-layer DVD to put this onto.

Granted, this is after setting it up for 45 minutes and letting it run overnight. I’m sure this weekend I will find the answers to the following questions:

  • The resolution of a TV set is 320×40. But if I record at 700+ it turns out to be less in size. What’s up with that?
  • Is there a way to bring down the size while recording? When trying to create the DVD, it does start talking about how it’s WAY too big for a conventional single layer DVD and attempts to downgrade the quality, but it only shaved off 500MB. So two options appear: 1) Figure out a way to record it into a lower quality to begin with. 2) Use a program to downgrade to a nice 4.7GB size (perhaps DVDShrink? Does it work with MPGs?)
  • What do I do with all the old videocassettes afterwards? I’m talking EVERYTHING. I want to first transfer any home videos, as well as stuff I’ve videotaped off of TV. Then I will ahead and tape actual movies. But afterwards, should I just chuck them in the garbage? In essence, I have converted the videos and they will be on a nifty DVD. I have heard that DVDs degrade over time, but so do videocassettes…
  • Can I make a business out of this? Someone told me that a business charges $75 per hour of video that they convert to DVD. That is insane. I mean, I haven’t gone through the whole process of making a DVD yet, but I don’t think it will take too much of my time. MAYBE if I have to search for different scenes and make a menu and whatnot.
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Uncategorized

Burning of the Vid


This blog entry is posted in the honour of Vero. Who loves Star Wars. Not yet, but she will.

Lately, Benoit and I have been on the DVD burning bandwagon (fueling the reason why I’m modding my XBox since my DVD player was crap – by the way, I got my mod chip last night. Niiice.) for Star Wars related flicks.

It’s not enough to have just the movies…we have to have it all! So far we managed to get some highly sought after vids from Jennie – the Original Trilogy (that’s right – not the Special Editions!) from the Laserdisc rip, as well as the beloved Turkish Star Wars which I will soon have a viewing party for. It is great. I have just fast-forwarded and so far I have noticed footage from both Star Wars AND Raiders of the Lost Arks. Oh, you non-copyright Turkish films…you art funny.

Anyhow, I’m just stoked that the Internet is a wild, wild place for making professional looking DVDs. I mean, I can burn a DVD that I download from the Net, print a label to stick onto the disc, and buy an empty DVD case to place a cover onto. This is a full-fledge bootleg business here!

I heard a rumour that someone makes copies of DVDs and sells them on EBay to foreign countries because it is not illegal for them to buy them…that is a sweet, sweet business my friend. Extra cash? No problem!

In random other news, Mike the Roomie is starting to get some interviews coming his way. Congrats! Too bad one of them is literally across town in Kanata. Yikes! Invest in a video iPod! Or, at the very least, buy my iPod Photo off of me so I can buy a viPod.

update: Literally a minute after posting this, Mike gets a job offer from his old co-op position! He doesn’t even have to go for an interview today in Kanata! Yay!

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Grades or Bust!

While reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (I just realized that I haven’t hyperlinked much text in the last while…I suppose it’s just a little extra time out of my day whereas you can just Google anything your heart desires…) I came across this interesting concept where a teacher didn’t provide grades throughout the term which pissed off people at first, but then it changed the way students approached the learning angle – they actually ended up producing better work and paid more attention in class (as opposed to the end of term slump where everyone knows their marks anyhow and they don’t really care). It shows that students should be in an institution of education to learn and not to get a grade.

This was an interesting concept as it ties into the whole theory that you should be educated because you want to be, not because you are told to. Granted, this doesn’t work for children…they wouldn’t know any better. Or would they? While reading Race Against Time I am finding that as soon as gov’ts eliminate school fees, 1000’s of children are coming to school because they wish to learn. This is hard concept for a lot of people who have grown up in the education system we have here, where everyone gets an education…my prof mentioned that it’s funny to see that University courses are the one thing in the world that you pay a lof of money for, but are ecstatic if it gets cancelled one day! Imagine an opposite scenario where you had to give the Prof $100 each class you attended for a three hour lecture. No wonder the universities take their tuition up front!

Anyhow, I feel that I am now entering the point in my life where I am wanting to be educated, and not for grades. I recall when I decided to return to University, I was driven by the fact that if I didn’t have a degree, I would probably not be able to become a Director one day. That was my driving force. I didn’t even really know if I would enjoy Communications…the only reason I took it was because it was a 90 credit course.

But I slowly realized that I enjoy going back to class as I get to learn something. I put a lot of actual thought into the essays I’ve written and it’s something I actually care about. I look at what errors I’ve made and where I can improve. This isn’t the Palmer of yesteryear where he just cared about his grades…this is the Palmer of now where I am more concerned of what I take from the class.

Prof. Lowes says that the best students don’t get the best grades. I am starting to see why he says that.

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Mod Chip or Bust

Check this people…today we’re going to go into a little technology lesson Palmer style with the introduction to (insert those mighty sounding trumpets right about…NOW!)

Mod Chips.

Whoa whoa whoa buddy…don’t we have Wikipedia for all this stuff?

This is true. For the real scoop on things and not just the way things are observed by yours truly, log onto wikipedia.org for the real deal.

Anyhow, let’s give you a little background on some forces that played into my ordering a mod chip.

  • My DVD player is ancient and so if I watched a burned DVD (such as a kickass Smashing Pumpkins concert), it’s all choppy.
  • I have media galore – music, vids, you name it.
  • Mike has media galore also.
  • Video games are cool.
  • NINTENDO video games are cooler.
  • I had to sell all my old Nintendo games when I was kid to purchase the Super NES. My parents didn’t understand the concept of owning TWO video game systems at the same time. Oh my, if they only saw Benoit’s place.

To solve all these problems, I looked at my XBox which is sitting there and decided not to sell it, but to overhaul it with semi-legal (what?) mod chips. Pop one of these puppies into your XBox and you can do whatever you want with your XBox. For example:

  • I can use it as a DVD player and it will surely be better than my existing one. No more choppy video.
  • It can act as a storage for all my digital media…if I want to check out my pictures on my digital camera, voila, it’s there. How about my music? Voila, it’s there also.
  • I can have emulators (basically, programs that emulate the functions of an actual gaming system such as the NES) which can play all the games I ever wanted.

Voila! Presto! I’m done. I think it will be cool.

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She’s a Superstar!

Read this previous entry here.

The other day I pass by a new poster up on the Ottawa U campus with 100 mugshots of students celebrating International Diversity Week or something like that (cleary, I did not really stop to look) and thought that there is no way Vero would have made it onto that poster considering she isn’t from another country.

I was wrong. Vero told me she found herself on another poster?

What can I say about this beautiful, photogenic person I am involved with? Should I say I feel privileged to be around such a star or should I begin to get scared that I will be left with the life where I sit at home watching the Golden Globes while she walks down the red carpet with Lenny Kravitz?

Maybe I’m looking into this too much. If you’re at Ottawa U, look for her face – now appearing EVERYWHERE.

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Reviews

Review: Swing Dancing

What’s my favourite thing in the world? Swing dancing!

Not really! I have never tried it. Until Saturday night when Mike, Duncan, Claudine, Vero, Marc, Sara and Chantelle ventured out to the free lesson at Ottawa U. What can I say? It was alright. The only problem I had with it is that I had a whole 2 minutes of dancing with Vero and then had to switch partners. Boo. I don’t mind dancing, but let me look like a fool and a fun time with someone I know.

I was also severely snubbed during the event seeing that when I went to the next girl in line, she bailed and went to dance with a friend who just showed up, which left me standing in between couples dancing and me staring the wall. Then memories of the same events happening at Grade Eight dances came flooding back (actually, let’s be honest here and realize that no one actually danced at Grade Eight dances and it was cooler to just hang out near the wall) and I felt dumb so I did what every good man does – bail for the washroom. Ah…the safe haven. No one can question what you’re doing in the washroom. Unless you spend 20 minutes in there and your girlfriend sends my friends over to see if I’m alright. Anyhow, I’ll admit, I bailed, I was a baby, but whatever. I don’t dig dancing with people I don’t know.

So…would I do it again? Well, why not? Only if I could just dance with someone I know.

Also, I don’t know how useful swing dancing is in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps ballroom is better suited? What am I saying? It’s not like I go to any balls or anything from the 19th century here.

iplaying: Hot Metal Streaking Down the 401 – Sam Roberts Band – 2005-08-25 Buffalo NY