Hey, I just found my copy of Casino Royale tucked in my desk drawer at work! Yes! The day is brightening up!
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Month: December 2006
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Da Funk
I’ve hit this weird funk during the Holiday season where I am feeling slightly depressed. I have no idea where it’s coming from, but the usual holiday season just isn’t doing it for me. I sit around thinking of all the stuff I have to get done and it just brings me down.
I have a 20 page report due by next Friday for my Qualitative Research Methods class. That on its own isn’t too bad (well, so I think..), but I am coupling it with the fact that Christmas is upon us and I have to pick up some gifts. This is the first year I have NO ideas for people. I’m usually good at this! I am depressed because I have no good ideas for anyone. My gifts this year will be crap this year people. Be warned.
So then I think “Ok, well, I’ll have enough time to work on the report and gifts this weekend.” but then I realize that the Annual Christmas Bash at yours truly is being held on Saturday! Holy mackerel, I have to get prepared! Hello Cleaning the House and picking up supplies.
Then there’s the whole Christmas party at work on Thursday which I’ve decided not to go to. This is very unlike me. Why am I not wanting to go to the work Christmas party? Well, I won’t go into the details here, but there’s just circumstances surrounding it which leave me saying “Bah Humbug.” Doh, I just remembered I have to pick up something for the needy family by Thursday! I was supposed to do that tonight. Groan.
What about my Christmas cards? I’m so late with them! I just got them today and still have to pick up stamps and whatnot. Sigh.
Ya see? That’s what the life of Palmer is all about right now. Sure sure, my faithful readers are reading this saying “Whoa buddy, suck it up, we’ve all been there!”. Well, maybe you have, but not the Palmer. Holidays are his fave of the year and right now all I want is good ideas to pop in my head for gifts and for my report to be done. This isn’t the time to be working on reports and studying for exams! They need to adjust the school year so you get a month off as of December 1st.
Ten bucks says Vero will read this and say “Don’t come out with my friends on Friday. Take some time for your report.”. Thank you, but it’s not needed. I think the report will be fine…it’s just everything else at the moment.
All I need is to curl up with some apple cider, some Crown Royal and a copy of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and all will be fine in the world.
Alright, alright, this post makes me realize that I’m whining and I should be thankful for the good things in my life. Fine.
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A Further Chapter in Bus Etiquette
Here’s another rant about public transit etiquette.
Let’s say you are exiting the bus from the back and the bus is such that they have two doors to exit from.
Well, if you are exiting, do not immediately turn in the opposite direction upon exiting the vehicle. Walk a few steps forward until the coast is clear and then proceed in your direction.
Otherwise, you basically smash into the other gentleman getting off the bus to the direct opposite of you and then when you smash into him, he holds up the line of people behind them and a crazy mob-like mentality occurs like barracuda in the sea of blood and it’s all over Gonzo.
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Claude and Sylvie’s Wedding
Well, my wingman flew off into the sunset on Friday night as we went to Claude and Sylvie’s wedding reception. After writing a final exam that afternoon (which…I think I did as well as any man writing 5 essays in 3 hours could do…) I was pumped to go have a good night. They had actually got married down South somewhere so this was a reception for the folks who couldn’t make it.
Vero and I rushed to the mall to pick up a wedding gift and then I headed home to get dressed. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that my pair of dress shoes were left at work so I had to make a detour back into Quebec. After picking up Trish and Vero, we headed to the reception hall which was amazingly decorated. I liked the stark contrast that the bright pink colours created. I had to set up the laptop for a presentation of photos which ended in disaster as the laptop didn’t have Windows XP on it, so it doesn’t have a built-in slideshow feature. After some fiddling around with it (and some heckles from various women around me), I managed to find some mass import feature in PowerPoint which saved my ass that night. An hour later, the presentation is up and running and I finally have time to run to Subway as I had not eaten yet that day. In hindsight, I suppose I really could have mowed down on the food at the wedding but I thought that would be rude (but in the end, there were a ton of leftovers).
The MC was a good time, the DJ was alright also. He wasn’t as bad as Jason’s (“He sucks donkey balls!”), but Claude wasn’t too impressed with him. All in all, I’m a fan of the DJs that play the older music at the beginning of the night and ends it off with some newer stuff. It’s the make of a good DJ.
The speeches were great, but the highlight of the speeches is how the karaoke gig next door were singing Feliz Navidad during the best man’s speech and we couldn’t hear a word that the best man was saying. It was amazing.
The night progressed well other than Pierre spiking my rye with some Tobasco sauce. I found out an hour ago that Benoit retaliated for me, but I was receiving the blame for it from Pierre that night so I was on a manhunt for whomever spiked it. Then Pierre retaliated again. First, you smell some olives, then your lips go numb. That’s what Tobasco sauce in your drink is all about.
I beat Benoit to the garter belt which was amazing. Then they went East Coast Style where I had to put the garter belt on the leg of the girl who caught the bouquet. I had told her I was going to have some fun with her and fondle her leg a little for the show, and she had no problem with it.
While blindfolded, I realized that putting a garter belt on seems a lot harder than taking one off! I had to use my hand at one point to get it over the foot. Anyhow, things were going decent and then the MC stopped everything and when I took the blindfold off, I realized they pulled a switcheroo on me and they had put the bride’s mom there instead! We all had a good laugh!
Other than that, things progressed well. We had an excellent table and I got to chat up with a few people I don’t get to see often, as well as Pierre’s wife whom I had only met at their wedding for a whole 2 minutes. She is pretty cool.
The night ended at 1 and we headed home amidst a giant snowstorm which hit in the past few hours. Two thumbs up for the wedding!
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Behold, The Music!
Troy unlocked the Pandora’s Box for me a few nights ago when showing me how major keys in music work and what chords sound good together.
In some ways, it is some information that I knew along (ie, what chords sound good together), but never realized there’s an actual science/math reason behind it.
With this, I wrote a song in honour of Stompin’ Tom the other night which is a great tribute to the legend. After reading his biography as well as a biography on the Beatles, I realized that music isn’t supposed to be all serious-like. It’s about writing about anything you want, like the gum stuck to the bottom of the shoe!
Now that the knowledge in my head has increased, I anticipate quite a few new songs coming out of my head.
Thanks to you Troy! You don’t know what you’ve released.
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Review: Magical Mystery Tours
Reading Magical Mystery Tours by Tony Bramwell felt like a magical mystery tour. Enter the realm of the sixties…an era which I hadn’t really researched or heard about, although when I think about it…I suppose my parents were in the prime of their life when the late sixties occured. Were they part of the psychadelic movement? Something tells me Dad wasn’t a hippie…but who knows? I should consult the old photo albums!
Tony Bramwell is a childhood friend of the Beatles, growing up with them in Liverpool. There are insights to the beginnings of the band, as well as the music scene in general all over the nation at the time. It’s an interesting read to see not only the inner life of the Beatles, but the financials aspects and how the record companies ran back in the day. For example, the industry was very-single driven. Now, that is definitely the case nowadays (“Hear your favourite hit single on the airwaves NOW!”) but the single is usually found on the album of the day.
Not back in the day. Singles were singles. Released on vinyl with a B-Side. Rarely showing up on the actual album. Very strange.
The story follows the Beatles throughout their lifetime and then focusses on Tony Bramwell’s life after the Beatles which is exciting on its own as he was big in the music industry being affiliated with the Beatles. For example, he promoted Bruce ‘The Boss’ Springsteen and convinced Paul McCartney to record the soundtrack to Live and Let Die, the first Roger Moore James Bond film. Neat!
The best parts of the book were the random encounters with various celebrities such as Mick Jagger and Keith ‘Keef’ Richards, where John Lennon accuses them of being a country band, and how Keith Moon gave Tony Bramwell his apartment as he was bored with it. Imagine!
These are the stories legends are made of, and Tony Bramwell gave me insight into this wonderful time.
Thanks to Mom and Dad for picking this one up for Christmas last year. It was a great read!
iplaying: No Use – jazzanova (In Between)
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Ferda’s Birthday
Good times were had at Ferda’s birthday. I started out the day recovering from the YPS (Young Public Servants) Christmas party which brought us to the Naval Association, Paddy Bolands and the ever faithful Heart and Crown. We closed down the Naval Association and it was nice to sit by the fireplace at Paddy’s as we encountered an ice storm during the party. Maren and I thought we were literally going to fly off the bridge at one point.
I then went over to Claude and Sylvie’s to help Claude set up his modified Xbox. While most of the night was spent figuring out his wireless router, we achieved mild success and are now plagued with problems concerning the version of the XBMC he is using. Will have to do some further digging.
After picking up Mike and Trish, we headed to Barrhaven for the party. I had some moments of serious doubt while driving out there as I couldn’t tell if I had past the turn-off or not. We finally managed to find the right street and we got out of the car and started searching for their house. Here is an excerpt from that night’s conversation:
Trish: Hey, isn’t their house number 96?
Me: I don’t know?
Trish: What about the street name? They live on Palmytown (name changed) Hey, we’re only at #32 on the house numbers!
Me: Well…we must be on the right street. Hey, when did they build apartment buildings here?
Trish: Ryan, are you sure we’re on the right street?
Me: Of course we are! Let’s go find a street sign. Here’s one…it says…Gallywagger.
Me: (pondering)
Me: Ah crap.
Then we all had a good laugh as we were lost in the maze which is Barrhaven (or any suburbia for that matter). I knew generally where we were as I am a human compass and discovered we were one block off from the target.
The party was in full force when we arrived. The majority of people were downstairs playing the new Nintendo Wii (which is fab). We had some munchies and chatted with everyone while trying to evoke some good Hollyisms from Holly.
I hope that Ferda equally had a great birthday party!