Day: April 27, 2010

With me being so preoccupied, I can’t believe I didn’t mention this already…my iPad will arrive on Ottawa soil on Saturday! My colleague Juan (who is referred to around these parts as our Columbian Agent) is down in Vegas and picked up a couple of iPads for us. Sweet!

I’ve been getting a little (yeah right!) excited for the iPad coming our way. We’ve found ways to download apps for the device easily enough, and I’m looking into the ability to download free e-Books from Google Books.

For example, I’ve always wanted to read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes…well now I can! Legitimately free! That’s an exciting concept. I think it will be interesting to read classic tales that are in the public domain…Sherlock, the Hunchback, Dracula…stalwarts of our current pop culture.

Other than that, we all know that my love for the device lies in the ability to read comic books on it. Unfortunately, it looks like there aren’t that many applications built for that function yet so I will wait patiently until I can choose which one to pick up.

So unless there is someone dropping by to see the house this coming Saturday, the iPad shall be mine!!!

I heard this conversation on the radio this morning and thought it was an interesting conversation topic.

What was the first autograph you ever got?

I will admit that after I thought about it, I don’t even know if I have ever personally got an autograph from a famous person!

I remember my mom meeting James Doohan (Beam me up Scotty!) at Casey’s Bar and Grill and getting his autograph for me on a fridge magnet. That was great.

The greatest story I have of an autograph is when I was scouring the Smashing Pumpkins albums at HMV (why would I do that every time I’m in there if I already owned all of them?) and stumbled upon a Tonight, Tonight CD Single which mysteriously had Billy Corgan’s autograph on it. I can’t remember if I picked it up right there and then, or went to the Internet to confirm if it looked like his signature…I’m going to assume that I took the plunge and nabbed it right there and then.

I get to the cash and the guy working there says “Huh! That’s strange…this must be the manager’s copy that Billy had signed in the store a few years back.” Fear entered my body thinking “I must have this CD!”. The guy didn’t even bother asking his manager, he just sold it to me for $12.

Awesome! In my hands was an autographed CD from Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins. A good day, indeed.

So what was your first autograph?

Vero sent this note to me yesterday and I couldn’t stop laughing and also thanking the heavens that I am not at the receiving end of her Tae Kwon Do classes.

You`d be proud of your girlfriend: I just fought with a guy here that didn`t think I could bring him down.

Véro: ”Want to bring this outside?”

Big Army Guy: ”Oh yeah?”

Véro: ”First successful punch wins”

Big Army Guy: ”Hell Yeah!”

Véro gives the big Army Guy ”the look” and goes in the parking lot.

Big Army Guy follows.

Véro puts herself in powerful ”Taek Won Do” position.

Big Army Guy laughs.

Véro fakes with a jab and punch him with the other hand right in the stomach.

Véro: ”HA YAHHH!!!!”

Big Army Guy, holding his stomach: ”OHHHhhhhhhhhh……”

Véro, still in powerful Taek Won Do position: ”Want an other one?”

Big Army Guy: ”Alright, alright, come on, don`t tell the other guys you kicked my ass OK?”

Véro: ”HA!!!”

Yesterday during the day was going fine and dandy but little things creeped up in the evening that put me in sour mood.

First up was having to scan about 30 pages of mortgage application forms and then find out later that night that the broker couldn’t print them off! Doh!

Second up was the fact that my musical muse is starting to creep back into me (must be the lovely sunsets seen from the office window around 8PM) so I took a crack at writing some lyrics for a song of Troy’s that I’ve been toying with for awhile.

I finally realized that I was hitting a writer’s block at a certain point and I have been for the past six months on this particular tune. So I finally said “Screw it, I’m going to record what I have and use it as a working piece that I can send to Troy and bounce some ideas off of.” The problem is, I have packed up all my worldly belongings and they are in the basement. I pondered if I should tear open some boxes to find the microphone.

In the end, I did just that. With microphone and headphones in hand, I went to the office and pulled out the trusty Fostex MR-8HD recording unit and set it up. All I had to do is load up audio from the Macbook and voila, I could record vocals.

However, there was one flaw in this plan. Turns out that the software that integrates with the MacBook and the Fostex is not working anymore. Clearly this must be due to me upgrading to Snow Leopard a few months ago. Nooooooo! I spent the next few hours searching for information on the Internet but to no avail.

At 10PM when Vero got back, I left the Fostex in disgust and wondered what I’m going to do with this hunk of junk now that I can’t even use it with my computer. Argh.

To top it all off, no potential buyers knocking on my doors. Thanks for the selling tips Uncle Gary! Much appreciated! Also, I would like to thank Katie and Aunt Lana for reminding me of the greatest trick in the book for washing windows…vinegar! How could I forget that?