Month: September 2008

I am what they refer to as…a moron.

Or as Krista put it this morning, a scatterbrain (like all men, she says).

I check the calendar last week, I have my annual physical at the Doctor’s office this coming Friday.  I know for a fact that he will be checking out my cholesterol level so I decide to head to the blood clinic this morning.  I get there at 7:15AM and wait in line for 45 minutes to get to the front desk where they ask if I have a requisition form and they inform me that they cannot take my blood without the form.

With this knowledge in my mind, I head to work wondering why I never got a requisition form in the first place many months ago while at the doctor’s office.

Of course, you all know what’s going to be said in the rest of this post.  I am a moron for not realizing that I need a requisition form before going to get blood work.  Krista pointed out that I can’t get ahead of the game and get some blood work done before a physical.  I need to go in and see what the doctor requires of me in terms of blood work and get it done.

In my defense, this will be my second physical examination, hence, the reason I am dumb.  😉

What’s even worse is I phoned to confirm my appointment and they said they had nothing booked AND that my doctor had recently left the clinic and will be contacting all his patients personally.  Well, that’s nice but now that I never had an appointment booked, what does that mean for me?  Another six months to get booked?

*sigh*  Clearly not a good start to the morning!

iplaying: On an Island – David Gilmour (On An Island)

This past weekend I didn’t do much at all which is the second weekend in a row where I had no big travel plans.  It feels…odd to be at home thinking of things to do.  It is the calm before the storm of midterms next month so I’m taking it in stride.  On Friday Vero came over and we watched a DVD of her Lavalleeville play that she did last year.  It must be strange to see yourself act in a play as you never really get to see how you act.  I found it entertaining and it is a good keepsake.

The most ridiculous part of the DVD was the fact that the actors names weren’t in the credits nor were they found anywhere on the packaging!  Imagine watching a film and not knowing who acted in it!  They had credits for the production team (of course) which I thought was ludicrous.  With a few beer in me, I wrote an email in French to send to the guy who created the DVD and Vero corrected it for me.  I did receive a response the next morning saying the next batch would have the error corrected but one wonders how many of these DVDs they will actually produce.  Methinks this was the one and only batch.

The next morning I got up early to take a look at the Smashing Pumpkins tickets that were on sale.  Here’s a little history on the subject…

I found on Thursday night that the two-day package for the Pumpkins would be on sale on Friday morning at 10AM.  This posed a little dilemma for yours truly as I would be in the middle of a course.  I managed to bring my laptop into the course and had the hotel’s computer in the corner as a backup plan.  At 10AM I excused myself for a few minutes so I could order the two day package.  I couldn’t manage to get the laptop up and running in time so I used the hotel computer and was dismayed to find that they changed the whole setup and I couldn’t get the two day package as a presale that day and even if I wanted one, I needed a password!

Argh!  I scoured message boards and official websites for mention of the password and there was nothing.  Defeated, I returned to the course like a man who had lost his trustworthy dog.  I was in a bad mood for the rest of the morning but picked up after heading to Gooney’s sandwich shop (a shop that I shall forever thank Maren for introducing me to) for a great bite to eat.

When I got home on Friday, I logged on to see if there was any word on the password situation and sure enough, I did find the password and I found out that the two day package was now available as a presale AND they were giving away some bonus unreleased tracks if you ordered the two-day package.

I went to order some tickets and found a ticket in the center floor in Row R.  A quick look confirmed that Massey Hall ends around Row T I believe…so the seats are pretty well at the back.  Hmm…well that isn’t the MOST ideal situation but Massey Hall IS fairly small anyhow.  It would probably be the distance I am in a normal arena concert anyhow.  I did try different methods in the next hour…rechecking the ticket site, calling Ticketmaster, etc. but in the end, I decided to not take the chance and get Row R on the center floor as Vero and I were in the balcony for Our Lady Peace three years ago and I would have much preferred to be on the floor.

I didn’t regret my decision until I posted on a message board my concerns and someone mentioned that they would guarantee I could get better tickets the next day during the regular sale. This put a whole lot of doubt in my head and in the morning I woke up to see if I could get better tickets and thought of what I could do if the case were true.  The only thing I had going for me was the fact that the Pumpkins were selling VIP packages which guaranteed spots in the first 20 rows and if you all know where the letter R stands inside the alphabet, you know I wasn’t too far off from their reserved block of seats anyhow.

In the end, I couldn’t manage to get better seats and I do wonder if there will be better ones opening up later, but I am satisfied that I shall be in Massey Hall to see the Pumpkins play for two nights where no two songs will be duplicated over the two nights!  This 20th anniversary tour shall be fantastic!  PLUS they are selling soundboard recordings from the concerts so I will have a memory of the concert I went to.  I’m really pumped.

Plus it looks like I’ll be able to work from Toronto for the Monday and Tuesday so I don’t have to dip into my holidays.  My old manager managed to get me a workstation for the Monday and she is looking into it for the Tuesday.  Look at me…a big wig working downtown Toronto.  At least I think that’s where the offices are!

All in all, it’s looking to be a great trip for me.

The rest of Saturday was spent helping Vero draft up some questions to ask some Aboriginal veterans that she will be filming this upcoming week in Thunder Bay and Winnipeg.  She will be gone from Tuesday – Sunday so we all know that I am now a free man and there will be a week-long party at Chez Losier/Palmer.  Ha ha, all kidding aside, I hope she has a great time and I think it’s pretty cool that she gets to interview these veterans.

We also watched Air Guitar Nation which I shall write a review about later.

Saturday night we headed out to James and Ferda’s place for a shindig.  I quickly spied Dr. Mario being played so I jumped on that opportunity.  They have a few additional controls to get used to on the Wii but overall I did pretty well (except vs. James who was a master.  Kudos).  We did put in Guitar Hero for the rest of the night and had a hoot playing it, especially the song by Dragonforce.  Thanks to James and Ferda for the great get-together!

iplaying: This Heaven – David Gilmour (On An Island)

The fall season is upon us…let’s look into my thoughts on what’s out there on my tube.

Heroes – Good start to the third season which is entitled ‘Villains’.  I enjoyed Season 2 but thought it was lacking compared to the first season.  But a good run nonetheless.  I was reading about how Tim Kring references a lot of classic story lines into his series…The Legacy Virus (X-Men : Virus wipes out mutantkind), Days of Future Past (apocalyptic future)…you can’t blame the guy, these are classic stories to integrate into his universe.

Californication – It started off with a bang and I don’t think I’ll be disappointed this season as Hank Moody tries and keeps a hold of his love.

Generation Kill – A slew of people at work recommended this to me.  Two episodes into it, I’m enjoying it.  I see it as a Band of Brothers series but set in the Iraq War.  So far, so good.

Smallville – Two episodes in, I’m already liking it more than last season.  Clark is now working at the Daily Planet and you can see something happening between Lois and Clark.  Awww yeah!  I predict it shall be the last season though.  They lost Lex, they lost Lana, they lost the two original creators of the show.  When the two original creators realize it’s time to move on, it’s time to move on.

Greys Anatomy – I haven’t even seen the season opener yet but I predict it will be more of the same.  Last year I was utterly dismayed with the show until after the writer’s strike where parts had me laughing at the TV screen.  Can they keep up the magic?  Well, if your magic is the same thing every season, sure they can.  So much for originality anymore in this series.

Veronica Mars – Season 2 is as good as the first one so far.  Vero and I really enjoy this show.

Fringe – New show from JJ Abrams.  It’s really good so far.  If you like X-Files, I think you will like this.  It involves the FBI looking into cases that are supposedly interconnected and they usually deal with fringe sciences (reading minds, mutants, dark matter, etc.).  The FBI get the help of some eccentric scientist who did experiments in the 70s in the fringe sciences and you now gets help from his son, our very own, Joshua Jackson.  So far it’s pretty good as it mixes the odd cases like X-Files but has a bit of mythology in each episode.

Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles – I’m really enjoying this series as it follows the ascension of John Connor.  I like it’s quirky look at the Terminators and I’m enjoying how Shirley Manson of the band Garbage is now in the series.  If you like the film, you will love the series.

90210 – I watched the first episode and it was not bad.  But I’m too old for this sort of thing.  So if you like that sort of show, go for it, it looked good.

I’m in the midst of a week long course and I must admit that it’s a little mind numbing as a lot of the stuff they talk about is knowledge I have acquired through my Communications courses at U of O.  Coupled with the fact that the day doesn’t end until 5PM (quite out of the ordinary for a chap who has spent the past seven years getting used to heading home around 3:30PM), it is getting TIRING on the soul, and it’s only Day 2!  I believe I am feeling even more wiped as I had to head to U of O for my other class directly after my day long course.  That’s a lot of knowledge inside the noggin.

Tomorrow shall be the killer…course until 5PM, then a two hour break before going to a 7-10PM class.  Argh.

A lot of concert announcements creeping up which is great as this year has been lackluster on the concert scene.  I’m already heading to Matt Mays and El Torpedo on November 4th, I’m definitely picking up tickets to see the Pumpkins on November 3 and am also picking up tickets to see Nine Inch Nails on November 11.  The only band I haven’t picked up tickets for is the Sam Roberts Band as Ottawa has mysteriously not shown up on their tour dates of Ontario.  I’m holding out but if I find out they aren’t coming towards Ottawa, I shall hoof it over to Montreal for a show.

I find it funny that awhile ago I was questioning myself in whether or not I am slowly getting myself out of the concert scene (these questions brought forth by multiple concerts coming to town where I simply shrugged and thought I could use the money elsewhere…Bluesfest, Coldplay) and now blammo!  November is hitting me on all fronts with bands that I can’t pass up.

Weekend is shaping up to be good.  Got a note from James that there is a shindig going down at his house.  I’m pretty sure I don’t have any other plans (although that’s hard to confirm as I usually keep my calendar up to date AT WORK.  Very inconvenient this week.) so that’s on the horizon.  Plus, maybe I should start looking at those pop culture notes…pop culture is starting to go over my head in class…structuralism?  Was I asleep for that lecture?

iplaying: Paralyzer (Demo) – Finger Eleven – Us Vs. Then Vs. Now

The Pumpkins have been hinting to go back out on the road this fall in celebration of their 20th anniversary.  I never really thought there would ever be a chance to see them closeby, but rumours are that they are playing Massey FREAKING Hall on November 3, 4.

Honestly, I would like to say that I should save my brain from melting until after it’s confirmed but I can’t help to feel that part of my brain has started to already.

This is…fabulous news.  Massey Hall.  What an iconic venue.

update: It’s confirmed.  Two nights at Massey Hall.  Interestingly enough, all the dates on the tour seem to have a two-night stint.  They could be planning something interesting over the two night span.  Too bad I already have tickets to see Matt Mays on the second night the Pumpkins are playing at Massey Hall.

If anyone is interested in going with me, let me know ASAP.  Tickets go on sale Friday.  But no worries, it wouldn’t be the first Pumpkins concert I go to alone.

I’m on a week-long course for work and I’m not sure what it’s all about.  I suppose I’ll tell you after I go to it.

So I hit the snooze button on my alarm clock this morning and noticed that it snoozes for nine minutes.  Is that a standard thing or is it different for all alarm clocks?  I’m just curious to see whether or not someone calculated if the ultimate snooze was nine minutes or is it just my particular alarm clock.

I got geared up to work on my Adobe Flash assignment this weekend and discovered that the files I needed were at the computer lab in school.  Argh.

Matt: “Nine Inch Nails hasn’t had a good album since Pretty Hate Machine.”

I thought this meant he thought the music was crap after Pretty Hate Machine but this wasn’t the case at all.  He just wanted to note that all albums have become progressively worse, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t like the music.  He just thinks it’s not as good as the first.

He then pointed out some interesting comparisons to other bands where he thought their best album was their first.

Pearl Jam – I concede on that one.  How can a band still be so kick ass but in the end, are still best known for their first album (that, and being the best live touring band since Led Zeppelin)

The Cranberries – That’s an interesting one.  I personally think their second and third albums were better than the first, but it’s all the same piece of pie really and I’ll give that to him.

Counting Crows – You know, Matt is onto something here folks.  Counting Crows first album definitely was their #1 album, even though I prefer Recovering the Satellites more, you can’t deny that August and Everything After was their quintessential album.

Stone Temple Pilots – I can’t really comment on this band.

Matt brought up some interesting points and I’m wondering why there were quite a few bands back in the 90s that just couldn’t capture the magic that was their first album?  Was it because they had their entire lives to hone their craft and record it for their first album, and then they have 2 years to record and release their next one?  It’s an interesting point that Matt brings up and is one that I need to think about.  I totally agree with him that there are quite a few bands out there whose first album is the best one.  Isn’t that a bad thing as musicians?  Shouldn’t these bands be achieving better?  Or…is it the fact that they are better albums but popularity wise, they just don’t cut it?  Now that I think of it, No Code (Pearl Jam’s fourth album) is actually my favourite, but I can see why Ten is their best one.  It’s just so…amazing on so many levels.  But No Code speaks to me and me alone, whereas Ten had the mass appeal to it coupled with kickass songs that no one can deny.

As for Nine Inch Nails…tis a shame that he has the opposite viewpoint than me as I think The Fragile was his best work, then Downward Spiral and then Pretty Hate Machine.

Either way, we’re going to Nine Inch Nails in November!  Awww yeah!

I am currently looking at changing my gym membership from the Goodlife Fitness club to the City of Ottawa fitness membership.

In all things in life, one must be true to thyself.  And if thyself is me, you should realize that you haven’t gone to the gym all summer long because you’ve been cycling or doing other activities outdoors.  Case in point, find a membership which offers you something less than a year ‘locked in’.

The City of Ottawa seems to be a prime candidate on that front…they offer daily, monthly, 3 month, 6 month, 1 year memberships!  Beauty!  That’s what I’m talking about.

I’m going to chew over the numbers first, but I think the best approach is to get a six month Class B membership (which allows you to go to the gym vs. the gym and everything else in the complex such as a pool and squash courts) and pay the extra daily fee if I so ever choose to go swimming/play squash.  I think I would save money in this manner in the following ways:

• Six month membership would be ideal.  No worries about wasting money in the summertime.  Let’s take a Class B membership at 121.50 for six months.  If I wanted to extend that to another 3 months, that would be an additional 65.50…total of 187 which is still underneath the 220.50 for an entire year.  Judging from previous Palmer patterns, I wouldn’t even set foot inside the gym from June-August so it looks like this option might be the way to go.
• The difference between a six month Class A and Class B membership is 65.75.  I can’t seem to find a listing of how much it would cost to go use the pool or play squash for a day…it looks like a daily usage fee is $7.50.  So that would mean that in six months, if I chose the Class B option, I could go eight times in the six months before it’s worth it to spend the money on a Class A membership.  This is a tough call.  Eight times in six months doesn’t seem like a whole lot.  That’s once a month with two spares.  If I ended up liking squash, I would probably want to play a lot.  I think the best route in this case is to try out Class B and if I approach the eight times in six months, I’ll see if I can upgrade to a Class A.  Will I lose money?  Maybe.  But I’ve lost a lot more on a lot less over my lifetime.  This is peanuts.  But, it’s something to think about.
• I also may be able to get the student membership considering I am a student of University of Ottawa.  I’ll have to call and see what the scoop on that front is.

All in all, the City of Ottawa looks like the way to go.  I know in Orleans specifically, there are two rec centers with pools and one with a squash court.  Much better than driving across town to Pinecrest to play a game of squash!  Not that I minded that one time Maren gave us amazing lessons in playing it, but I wouldn’t want to make it a habit a few times a week of driving 40+kms to play squash.  Maybe if I cycled there though…

P1010562, originally uploaded by palm0014.

At thirty years old, I figured it’s time to realize that I will never be able to grow the full beard so I should accept what the good Lord has given me and let it grow.

With that in mind, I started growing a goatee. While I have grown one in the past or let a moustache grow also, it has never grown to this length before. Here’s the only recent picture I could find that gives an indication of how it looks.

Here’s some thoughts that have been crawling through my brain concerning growing the facial hair:

– It is a pain to get used to the fact that food will automatically cling to the hair even more so than to your skin while eating.
– When it gets to the point that I can chew on the hair growing on my lip, is it too long?
– What is too long? I want to grow a turn of the century moustache where I have to wax it. That would be awesome. I’m not sure how I go about this considering I trimmed it yesterday so it didn’t cover my lip. Is the trick to simply trim around the bottom of the ‘stache/top of the lip and let the rest grow out? Then will it get to the length where I can wax it?

I am enjoying this experiment and Vero was all for it at first but she does think it is quite annoying at this stage in its growth. I also scare her with the prospect of eventually getting rid of the goatee portion and simply having the moustache. I think that will be the eventuality as I think hair should be not something to be ashamed of, but to be proud of!

P1010570, originally uploaded by palm0014.

A thought entered my head that I should attempt a surprise 23rd birthday party for Vero. Her birthday was on September 15 but I figured if I could manage to hold something on Saturday the 13th, all would be good in the world. What better way to celebrate a birthday than to have a deep-fried turkey and corn on the cob?

The invite went out and I slowly planned the event. Rob pointed out that I was stupid for holding yet another corn roast in the month of September as we had a hard time finding corn last year at this time. He was right…what was I going to do? I got a tip from Steve to look on St.Joseph and sure enough, I managed to scoop up the best corn I’ve had all season at $5/dozen. A fair price to pay considering the lack of corn around the area.

The plan was set into motion on Friday night when I realized that I had not figured out a good way for Vero to show up at the house for the party. It presented itself when she wanted to go see a comedian out in Hawkesbury on Saturday night. Knowing full well that this would be the time of her party, I asked if this was something she REALLY wanted to go to and she said she wouldn’t mind, but it wouldn’t kill her if we didn’t. Perfect. I arranged for her to show up at my house around 2:30 on Saturday so we could have an elaborate meal before heading out for the evening.

Note for next year: Do not have a party starting at 2PM. That’s just plain silly. In my head, when it comes to a party, I’m of the Northern mindset. That mindset says “You know what? I don’t really care when you show up. It could be 10AM if you wish. But just know that we’ll still be roaming around getting things ready for the event.” So that’s the reason I said 2PM was the start-time. In hindsight, I should start the thing around 4PM. A more reasonable hour for people to show up.

Vero was actually the first to show up to her surprise birthday party so Mike and I had strategically positioned ourselves in the front husking corn so she sat down and chatted. She did notice that we had five dozen corn for a meal but I just said that we got a really good deal on it. Five minutes later, her cousin Melissa showed up so we couldn’t put the surprise off any longer as it’s not common for her to show up in Orleans so we yelled “Surprise!” and I now have a vivid memory of what Vero’s face looks like when she doesn’t know what the heck is going on.

We went inside the house to find balloons, party treats, you name it, we had it (except for a pinata). Mike and I then started to get things ready for the turkey roast and people started showing up shortly after that and by 5PM the backyard was packed.

The evening went off beautifully. There was (once again) too much oil for the bird to fry in but it came out great. The corn was super superb…best corn of the year. I even won a corn eating contest against Duncan that night.

After supper we cleaned up and Vero opened up a few gifts. A few of us then went outside to enjoy the night (and play some lawn golf) while others stayed inside to watch Back to the Future. I personally ended off the night watching Ghostbusters (which Jean-Francois and Marie-Claude picked up as a birthday gift for me!) but passed out half way through the film.

Highlights of the evening:

• Giving Melissa’s brother Tommy tips on how to treat a lady. He even wrote them down. Some favourites were:
  • Me: Open the door for a woman. But don’t push her out of the way in order to do so.
  • Melissa: Don’t stare at a girl’s chest. Look at her eyes.
  • Rob: But don’t be afraid to glance at her chest once so she knows you’re interested.
• Lawn Golfing! What a hit. Glad to see Mike constructed his own set.
• Vero receiving a magician’s hat as a gift. That is amazing.
• The fact that the cakes Mike and I made didn’t suck.

I’m sure there are a bunch of other highlights that people will comment on. All I cared about is that everyone had a great time, especially Vero. It was great to see her friends show up for the event.

My only beef about the day is that when you are hosting a party, it’s hard to sit and talk with people until the night is over. It’s really hard. So I apologize for Mike and me running around getting things ready for supper. But I’m sure the turkey and corn makes up for it.