Author: admin

Don’t ask me how I came up with this revelation this morning, but I did.

I remember Philipp asking me about ‘dating’ in the North American context. What is dating? What is going out? What is being with a person? I’m sure we’ll go more in depth on this issue in his biography (as it is a fascinating subject), but I think I realized where my first introduction to dating stemmed from.

Archie comics!

It always confused me how Archie would be either with Betty or Veronica. It took me many years to realize that if you go out on a date with a person, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t go date other people. That always threw me for a loop. “Archie, how the heck can you be with Veronica if you’re with Betty?”

Ha ha, that is the most random thought I’ve had in awhile but I just wanted to point out that everything we all know about dating stems from actions of others…namely Archie and the gang (well, at least in my case.)

iplaying: I Want You (She’s So Heavy) – The Beatles (Abbey Road)

Group presentation went well last night. It started off really boring with my part. Essentially the Professor assigned us to present a reading that everyone had already done some work on, so it was just a rehash of information they already knew. BORING. So 15 minutes later after my mouth was parched I stepped away and let the rest of the team handle things.

Until the other girl thought her part was over and left three slides to talk about! I had to cut in fast and just read off the slides. Woops!

All in all, it went over well. We had a lot of class discussion which is awesome. The worst is when the classroom discussion results in nothing and everyone is just sitting there staring.

So now, the only thing left to do in that course is to write a biography on my comrade, Philipp. That’s right, yours truly is going to write about our friend and we’ll see how it comes out. In my eyes, I would like to do him justice, but I also know that a lot of it will be based on the methods I used for the bio and whatnot. So, it may be fairly boring in some parts once I get into the details of how I interviewed the subject.

I realized late in the game that it’s a long weekend for me. I do have a midterm to study for, but I think this weekend will be spent more on relaxing and winding down. There’s some things I’ve been working hard on at work that are ending soon, and now the group presentation is done so there’s nothing much else to do other than play guitar and sleep! Speaking about guitar, Troy has been diligent in my musical theory teachings and I am opening up doors to knowledge that I had always wondered about, but now it’s there right in front of me. I am hoping that it will make me a better guitar player in the end, and a better songwriter. That’s my goal for this winter…write a few good songs. AND finish off the songs that I’ve written in the past. I just read a quote from John Lennon who told George Harrison that the best way to write a song is to write it completely while you’re in the moment, or else you’ve lost the moment and you may lose the song. I will have to remember that.

I’ve also realized that I find my blog entries have been revolving around thoughts in my head, whereas a portion of the original idea was to have a document of what I am doing day to day so I can go back and look upon it and say “Oh yeah, I remember doing that group presentation!” so I’m going to try and keep that in mind.

***Note to fellow bloggers. I just figured out why sometimes pictures don’t upload correctly. If you have a picture that has a space in its title (like george orwell.jpg) then you have to get rid of the space or it doesn’t parse well into the system.***

Philipp, Carrie and I will be at the Heart and Crown on Friday night. Join us!

White Poppies My Ass

Who’s brilliant idea was it to have a white poppy? Read the news people, it’s all around us. White poppies to promote peace, only around Remembrance Day!

Inform yourselves before reading on:

Here.
Or Here.

Jonathan Bartley, director of the religious think-tank Ekklesia says
“The red poppy represents the glorious dead,” he said. “The white poppy says that war isn’t glorious and you shouldn’t look back and see it through rose-tinted glasses.”

You know what? I’m not going to rant about symbols of peace. Hey, I’m all for peace.

What I am disturbed about is the blatant use of Remembrance Day as a launchpad for the Peace Pledge Union who is responsible for the white poppies. Strike One.

Using an already recognized symbol but just changing the colour? Strike Two.

Shoving it back in our faces and saying that we should be promoting peace, not remembering the dead? Strike Three.

Mr. Clark of the Legion couldn’t have said it better (from this Globe and Mail article):

“Instead, said the Legion’s Mr. Clark, peace activists should focus their efforts on Sept. 21, which is the UN-sanctioned International Day of Peace. But even then, he added, white poppies would infringe on the Legion’s trademark. He suggested they use a different symbol such as a dove.

“Nov. 11 is the day that we honour our veterans. We need to make sure that that does not get confused, combined or anything else with another campaign,” he said.”

Excellent points Mr. Clark. I stand behind your thought process. While they’re at it, why don’t they use the peace symbol attached the dove?

Remember, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for peace. But what this is just plain disrespectful.

Sometimes you cannot pass up a purchase. Like last night, I got a newsletter from the Sam Roberts Band and they were talking about the last Chemical City t-shirt released. Now, throughout the tour, I was disappointed with the various t-shirts offered. I rarely buy t-shirts anymore (price gouging of course), so it has to be really special for me to pick it up.

Well, something special came along. A wolf t-shirt! Coolness! At least, I think it’s cool and that’s what counts. There was also a 7″ limited edition vinyl of Brother Down that I couldn’t pass up. You never know, these things could be worth something someday.

Too bad the prices were in US dollars. I wonder what problems the band were encountering with MapleMusic to stop offering new items via the Canadian store?

You know you’ve hit the big leagues when you get the notice of yours truly from one of your comments on my site. BRB is probably dancing around praising the heavens that I finally acknowledge him. That guy has some wacko ideas and even worse, lives by them. While I don’t knack his photography, I do knock his fashion sense.

All joking aside, BRB is the man for bringing up this piece of 80s goodness – Max Headroom. Max Headroom (as seen in this picture) is from a TV show in 1987 (but started in the UK in 1985…whoa!) which revolved around…man, I don’t remember. All I know is that he was a rep for Coca-Cola.

In all honesty, I can remember watching this show, but cannot remember what the show was about. I was fairly young when it came out so higher level concepts probably alluded. By the way, if someone even thinks of making a crack about how higher level concepts probably allude me to this day, consider yourself on the blacklist.

I just remember thinking it was sooo coool to be a character inside a computer. Heck, I probably didn’t even have a computer at that time so I thought that a computer could do this. Little did I know that the only things that I would see on a computer were the following:

C:>

Wow. That’s great. What the heck can I do with that?

Anyhow, I would like people to share their memoirs of Max Headroom in the comments section. Let’s relive the moment where AI almost took over the world! Wait…is Max Headroom the precursor to the Matrix? I can envision a hilarious spoof right now.

Today’s Lesson: If your heart desires something that requires a lot of money, don’t hold yourself back, buy it!

I’ve had a vibration in my front right tire for quite awhile now and so I dropped it off to the dealer…six weeks ago? They said it was due to rust build up or something to that effect. Very strange. A few weeks later the vibration came back, and it was worse.

At the same time, Dad was mentioning how I should get my tires checked to see if I need a new set since the winter was coming up. I figure buying a set of new all-seasons will do me good in the winter months instead of buying a set of winter tires. Too all those reading this entry and who are gung ho on the winter tires, bravo. I applaud you. But they aren’t for me.

Upon seeing the first snowfall of the year, I decide to drop the car off at Canadian Tire instead of the dealer in case they can find something else wrong with the vibration, and at the same time, check out the wear on my tires. After hoofing it home, I get a call an hour later saying one tire is bald, and the three others are pretty well done also. Also, they said that the bald tire was the reason of the vibrations.

Well. This all made sense in my head but I was a little wary of the bald tire causing the vibration (because the bald tire was on the opposite side). Regardless, I order four new all-seasons and pick up the car a few hours later.

Did it do the trick? For sure! No vibration. There may be a small one, but I’m not sure yet as it may just be the feel of the new tires on the vehicle. Must run it around the block a few times to find out if I’m imagining things or not.

Either way, the following observations were made:
– One would think that the dealer would have checked the wear on the tires and noticed they were pretty well gone.
– $564 later, I realize that there’s some cash that could have been used towards something fun in my life. 😉 Alas, the car is my fun. It gets me around places. But don’t hold yourselves back! Spend the money if you have it. This reminds me of the time where we were driving to Montreal and as soon as I cross the Ontario/Quebec border, cops come out of nowhere and flag me down to pull over. Ah crap. It was this giant speed trap where six cars pulled over. I knew I was busted so I waited there patiently. However, all the cops went to all the other cars lined up! I waited a few minutes and figured they must have flagged down the car next to me and not my own! I slowly pulled out (in case I was wrong and the cops were just taking their time getting to me) but no one motioned to me so I took off like a bat out of hell. That day, I bought a few clothing items, because in my eyes, I just won my own money back. Instead of a $150 speeding ticket, I had that in my pocket now for me to enjoy. Yeeha!
– Did you know ING Direct puts a limits on how many virtual bank accounts you may open? Doh! I loved the ability to just open a new account and fill it for random things I need in life – driver’s plates, swimming pass, bearskin rugs…I am on this saving kick where if I know there will be something in the upcoming year (let’s say…your property taxes!), then I just figure out how much it is per week and set up an Automatic Withdrawal system. It is working out supremely at this moment because I don’t get a nasty surprise around my birthday (“Hey guess what! You owe us $100 for your license plates! Happy Birthday!”). Anyhow, I was about to start one for saving up for my next set of tires, but alas, it does not allow me to do so. 🙁

iplaying: Bullet with Butterfly Wings [Live in Barrie 2000] – Smashing Pumpkins