Month: May 2008

Mike picked up a new guitar last night (which he subsequently is planning on exchanging as the top of it seems a little…off as the two pieces of wood glued together seem like two different colours and it looks quite ghastly) and it is a beaut.  I like the Takamine guitars.

The coolest thing about this guitar is that there is a tube amp built into it!  For the un-initiated, years ago, guitar amplifiers (if not all amplifiers?) ran through tubes instead of solid state transistors that they have now.  I have heard rumours that the tubes made a warmer sound when playing guitar but I have never really had something to compare it with.

Sure enough, I played the guitar plugged into Mike’s brand new acoustic amp (which I drool over because not only does it have a speaker for the guitar, but also one for the microphone!  It’s an acoustic player’s dream setup!  Too bad Mike refuses to sing.) and it sounded great.  But then I turned on the tube amplifier in the guitar and it definitely was a warmer sound.  I was surprised at the amount of difference.

Hopefully Mike gets his exchanged guitar soon enough and we can jam out with the new amp.

Who here watched the Lost season finale last night?  Discuss.

dog14-copy-1_edited, originally uploaded by palm0014.

In a moment all of us will remember for the rest of our lives, today is the day Mom retires from the labour force. She will now enter the curling force, or any other force she feels like joining because she doesn’t have to think about work anymore.

I called Mom earlier this morning and she sounded ecstatic! I cannot fathom how my last day at work would feel, to be honest. I have seen people retire before and they seem to have a love-hate relationship in that they will love retirement, but will miss the people.

Either way, I am happy to say that Mom provided some excellent service to Canadian Tire over the past fifteen years. It is like a blink of the eye remembering when Mom and Mrs. Labrie were in some secretarial (or is that administrative assistant?) course when I started high school and I would get a ride with them to school. Then Mom had a work placement at Canadian Tire and before you know it, Dad started getting great deals at Canadian Tire. Ha ha, I jest Mom. I also remember just walking in behind the counter and walking up to her office once in awhile to get a ride home. I remember it not being the brightest office in the world. You would think they could install some better lighting in that place! I wonder what her new office looks like actually…I have never seen it, and I probably never will.

Congrats Mom on retiring today! I hope you enjoy it and if you feel bored at any time, you can write your memoirs and post them here. You are also welcome to visit at any time and make some chocolate chip cookies.

As for the photo I have chosen…I was trying to find one that was from 15 years ago but I couldn’t find one so I picked this one because I have no idea what she was doing, but it seems funny.

I am a technological caveman when it comes to cellphones (Holly calls me this), as in I do not own one.  Unfortunately, this poses a problem when I’m trying to find a phone number.  There’s only a billion places a phone number can be…is it in my contact list at work?  How about on Gmail?  Oh wait, is it in my address book on my Macbook?

Enough already!  They haven’t come up with an all-in-one solution that suits me so I’m resorting to my tried and true method I adopted a decade ago.

It is called a piece of paper in my wallet.  It has everyone’s number on it.  There.  Job done.  Never again will I be calling Carrie for a beer and only remember her cellphone number when I really want to phone her home number.

It is with great sadness that I post this picture that Joelle sent to me of the Kapuskasing Inn which was torn down.  From what Mike told me, it was torn down last weekend.

The Kapuskasing Inn was a staple in our town.  According to Wikipedia, it was built in 1928 by the Spruce Falls Mill.  It’s claim to fame is the fact that Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip stayed at the hotel on their first visit to Canada in 1951.  It overlooked the Kapuskasing River and the mill and I remember plenty a time where I would walk over to the Kapuskasing Inn and sit on a bench across the street and look at the river.  It was quite relaxing.

Unfortunately, over the years, there just wasn’t enough business coming in and eventually, in 2002, it shut down and no investors came in to fix it up.  In the end, in 2007, some punk kids (I use this term loosely) set fire to a section of it and it pretty well nailed the final nail in the coffin.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there were going to shut the thing down even if there was no fire.  No one was taking care of it and I can only imagine how the structure was inside after years of neglect.

I say it is with great sadness that they tear this building down because I have a problem.  That problem is with the North American way of getting rid of old things.  Buildings, video game systems, old human beings (!).  When I travelled to Germany, I was given a tour around the town and explained that there were some buildings here that have been around for centuries!  They lasted the World Wars, the survived Oktoberfests, they were still standing and they are kept in as much pristine order as they can.  Their society ENCOURAGES keeping these buildings alive.  History shouldn’t just be a photo in a textbook or on Wikipedia.  It should exist with us NOW.

I understand the financial logistics of such an undertaking.  But let me ask you this.  Why is it that years ago, there was more money put into building these grand structures and now everyone just wants to make a giant profit so they find the cheapest way to construct something.  Is that the way things worked years ago?  Was the Kapuskasing Inn the cheapest way to construct a hotel?  I’m thinking not.  Anyhow, I digress.

I am disappointed that there was no financial backing to keep the Kapuskasing Inn running, but I don’t know specific details as to how much it would have cost.  All I know is yet another community (more importantly, Canadian) landmark has been demolished and there is simply a pile of dirt resting there.

Maybe I just have a problem with my hometown being whittled down of the things I remember…

Last night I went over to Eric’s to change my car brakes. I had never attempted to do this in my life, so I enlisted the help of Simon as well as Eric and Mike who provided some observational duties and the occasional ‘searching for a missing part’. Around 7PM, we set out to change all four brake pads and rotors on the Mazda3 with the notion that we would be done in 1.5 hours.

3 hours later with the sun down and the mosquitoes out, we finally test drove the car and were happy with the results. It was a little grueling at times, but we got through it. The first rear tire started out decent; got the wheel off, got the brakes off (with a lot more effort than needed because I had forgot to take the parking brake off!), took the rotor off, and then we hit a snag. The tool Simon had borrowed did not fit into the caliper. There were five different attachments and none of them fit. I now recall Mazda telling me that we needed a special tool for the rear caliper. We were pretty upset at the fact that the Japanese have to do things a little differently. Almost enough to make us go into the shop and get the thing done professionally.

But our engineering spirit came out and we managed to find a way to push and twist the caliper back into place without the special tool. After that, the brake pads weren’t lining up correctly and wouldn’t go over the rotor. This required another bit of time to think about but we figured out what went wrong and after 1.5 hours, we had the first brake done.

Once the learning curve is breached, it is smooth sailing. The next brake took us 30 minutes. We then moved to the front brake which we thought would take less time (more ease of access, less finagling) but the dang rotor was rusted on and we had to hammer it out and that took 15 minutes. What a pain in the ass. I realize now why I never had any interest in mechanics…I have no patience for that sort of thing. Mike also pointed out that I seem to be a little careless when I’m hammering away. Case in point, I accidentally hammered in one of the tire bolts. Luckily I hit it straight on and it just popped out so we popped it back in otherwise we would have been in a mess of trouble. I will have to pay more attention in the future when I’m prying away at something near someone’s fingers. Thanks for the tip Mike!

The final tire had to come off with the sun down so we brought out the light and the mosquitoes were out as well. We were tired but determined to get it off fast. No such luck as we were plagued by the rust problem again and it took us another 20 minutes to hammer this rotor off. Let it also be noted for historical reference that the front pads and rotors most definitely did not need to be changed. Mazda had told me they still had two months in them, Simon figured about another 20,000 kilometers. There was little wear on the front pads. So for those who are venturing into changing their own brakes, take a close look at them and determine if they really do need to be changed!

Three hours later, the job was done, I hopped in the car (Simon provided a handy plastic sheet for the car seat in case there was grease on my jeans) and I went around the block and the brakes worked fine. I had this idea that they would be stopping on a dime as soon as I touched the brake, but they feel the same as always which is fine by me.

All in all, I was happy to have Simon show me how to change my brakes. I like learning and the mechanical ways of this world have always eluded me. I now now what brakes consist of and understand when someone talks about calipers, rotors or pads. I really appreciated him taking the time to explain it all to me and the fact that he took time out of his evening to help me complete the job! I encourage everyone to go ahead and try and change their own brakes, with the help of a mechanically minded friend!

Now all that is left to do on the car is to fix the dent in the driver’s door, get a transmission flush and give it a good spring cleaning!

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/hobbitnews.php?id=45413

Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro took some time to have an online chat and answer some questions concerning their production of the Hobbit films.  It’s quite a lengthy read but if you are interested in the Lord of the Rings, you should definitely take a read.

Of interesting note:
– They got Ian McKellan back as Gandalf!  Yay!
– They are expanding upon The Hobbit into two films.  It’s an interesting concept to fathom as The Hobbit is definitely short enough to translate into one film.  In explaining their motives to this, they wanted to integrate the two new films into the existing trilogy as much as they could so that it would flow for five films.  That being said, the biggest reveal they had is that they are trying to integrate ALL the characters from the original trilogy into the second film (or part of the first if they could do that…).  I find that quite interesting.  I assumed that they would simply use the back material from the unfinished works of Tolkien to fill to expand on some material.  When you think The Hobbit, you have to think it’s like the prequel trilogy of Star Wars.  It takes place a few generations before Lord of the Rings.  So if we do see the characters from the trilogy (Frodo, Legolas, Gimli), they would have to be considered a younger version…a MUCH younger version.  I believe the second film will actually be closer in time to the trilogy than most people think.  Unless they want Elijah Wood to be playing a 7 year old Hobbit!