Interesting article today on the state of filesharing.
I especially like Rob Thomas’ comments about new artists.
Click here.
iplaying: One Evening – Feist (Let it Die) – yes, a song that I downloaded. Actually, the entire album. But I’m more of a try before you buy kind of guy nowadays. In some cases not even! I’ll go buy an album on a whim and if it sucks, ah well.
Vero’s friend let her know that there was an opportunity to apply on some job at the French television show Volt! which is on TFO (the french equivalent of TVOntario). Heck, I don’t know anything about this show but every french person I seem to ask knows all about this show. Here’s the link.
Anyhow, she decided to apply considering it was for August 2007 and she would be done school by then.
Turns out that this was wrong and it was for August 2006 (aka next month!). They ended up calling her and asking for an interview! With so many thoughts on her mind, she decided to decline the interview as she wanted to finish her year in school.
However, Volt! doesn’t back down so easily! They said her portfolio was AMAZING!!! (as we all knew of course.) They said they would pay 1/2 her bus fair down to Toronto for an interview. Considering this job probably has Vero directing, producing and acting in a show, she realized that she couldn’t pass up the interview and is heading down there tomorrow afternoon.
I am excited at the prospect that Vero may get to be on freakin’ television! I don’t care if I won’t understand most of the slang that they speaking in, she shall be a celebrity!
I shall stop right now from speaking too much about it as an interview is an interview, and nothing is guaranteed. However I know Vero and when she has her eye on something, she gets it. Heck, that’s how she beat off the hundreds…thousands of females who were after the Palmer back in the day, but I was holding out for this special lady. But since that special lady didn’t come around, I figured Vero was just as good, minus the love of Star Wars. Vero, I’m kidding!
So, I know you’ll do great on the interview Vero and I send (along with the faithful readers of Palmer’s World) good vibes your way for the trip to Toronto. Casser une jambe!
Well, I suppose an update on the Canada Day weekend is in order. The above picture sums up the good times had with Maureen! Ha ha, man I love that picture. My rule of thumb when bringing a digital camera out to the bar is not look at the pictures right away…save them until the morning after where everyone may have a good laugh!
Friday, I skipped out on some wine action at work (which I contributed to. Very disappointed someone took off with the box of wine considering I wanted it left at work!!!) to pick up Maureen down at the University of Ottawa. It was cool seeing her and I must say that I think she has myseteriously become a super confident person with a little more ambition than usual – getting a drivers license for one…applying on receptionist jobs out of town…I believe it has to do with the new boyfriend John, who is definitely cooler than Maureen. ;-P
Drinks were had, Katie and Miguel showed up and we headed to the Heart and Crown for Mike’s birthday. Good times were had and Mike was a trooper considering his first batch of friends left around 10 (they had been there since 4) and then he stayed with teh second batch (aka us) to watch the band. So many people came out of for the event and I believe there were a good 20 of us owning the dance floor. Rumour has it that the hippy winners of the last Amazing Race were also in the bar – proof in the form of photos by Amy and Krista. Hello celebrity sighting!
Friday night also introduced the moustache on Ryan’s face. I thought it was a gem of a ‘stache but Vero had other thoughts. It was quite the hit of the night. I have since shaved it off, but will continue to grow it again after Shannon’s wedding this weekend which I am an usher. I suggest you take a look at the photo gallery for goodness on that front.
Saturday came with aspirin for Mike and Maureen and we moped around until the afternoon jaunt to Duncan’s for a kickass BBQ. The old homestead is looking in fine shape and I was impressed with his Belgian waffle making skills. The night progressed with my introduction of bocce ball which I have now taking on as my professional sport. I am like Umberto Granaglia. Well…not yet.
We headed down to the crowd of 80K in the downtown core to check out the fireworks. We arrived fairly late as parking was hell but ended up seeing the fireworks behind the Supreme Court. I have heard they got cut early due to the rain. What happens to unused fireworks? Do they last until next year?
The rain started to get harder and harder as we walked back to the car. Fortunately we split up and Miguel, Katie, Paul, Sarah and Mike picked us up some Elgin Street Diner poutine for a treat at home. At one point I was thinking of just bailing out of the car with the eight poutines in my lap but figured one would suffice. I must be getting older (or wiser) as I used to be able to eat an entire poutine but now can only finish half. Judging by the leftovers, I notice everyone else feels the same way.
Sunday rolled in and Maureen left to see Rebecca. Maureen, we enjoyed your company and I’m sure glad that you left so much beer. We ended up taking it easy while watching some Heavy Metal Parking Lot – a documentary about metalheads waiting for a Judas Priest concert back in 1986. Pure hilarity as mullets, metal, and meandering men in one piece zebra suits adorned the video. Turns out that this heavily bootlegged video has made its way through 20 years of fandom and just got released in DVD form for its 20th anniverary edition. I am curious how the bootleg market thrived without the Internet. Nowadays, I can get anything I want on the Internet…but how woudl I have started out in Kapuskasing? Would anyone have heard of Heavy Metal Parking Lot? I highly recommend this one to Troy as he was probably the same age as most of these people and most likely dressed like them.
We then played bocce ball (how I love thee) for aproximately six hours unti we couldn’t see the balls in the dark anymore. Katie and Miguel unfortunately had to leave that night to get back to Toronto. Paul, Sarah, Mike and I then played Euchre and watched some vids/pics from the years gone by and had some laughs.
Monday said goodbye to the guests, a little cleanup and then we went to the beach with Mike, Vero, Annie and Eric. A good day but volleyball was cancelled that night due to flash floods everywhere in Orleans. It was pretty bad but I didn’t realize how bad it was until I read the newspaper the next day and found out a power line went down in the middle of the Queensway, manhole covers blew out of the streets, basements flooded, and people were swimming in the streets. I applaud those individuals brave (read: stupid) enough to swim in the streets now realizing that it’s water spewing up from the sewers. Mmm…boy, I’m thirsty right now.
Let me put a shout out to Vero who is the best girl in the world for so many reasons that I really don’t need to write them down here…but we definitely appreciated you driving us home all weekend long.
iplaying: Gold in the Air of Summer – Kings of Convenience (Riot on an Empty Street). I am really digging these tunes.
Screw this.
My apologies to the younger readers of Palmer’s World out there but enough is enough.
Ever since EuroTrip 2005, thoughts of going to the doctor have been in my head after meeting Chris (aspiring Doctor-to-be in Chicago).
We all know in the winter I made an appointment with a doctor but when I showed up, there was a note on the door saying the office was closed due to an emergency.
Unless he had a major case of diarhea, I don’t care what is going on…you should call me before I have to leave work to get to your office.
Anyhow, after months of ranting to myself, I decided I may as well try again. Turns out that this is the only doctor with hospital privileges close to me so I give the guy another chance.
I show up, all is good, he walks in, asks me the standard set of questions:
I told him that at 27 years of age, I think it’s due time I start coming in for annual physicals.
Anyhow, he proceeds to tell me that judging from my age and no health problems, he doesn’t take patients in that fit my profile and that if I have any major problems that I can return.
Riiight.
But wait, I DO have a major problem. I have a problem with the fact that this guy isn’t proactive and wants me to wait until something is going wrong. Heck, you can’t really knock him for his outlook on life: “Don’t worry until you have to something to worry about.”. Man, it’s like he’s taking a page out of my life’s mottos!
Whatever. Then he passes me a form to read and fill out in the waiting room. Turns out that this form is all about setting him up as my primary doctor and that I cannot go to other doctors before consulting him.
I handed the form to the receptionist (who was cool by the way) and said I wasn’t interested in filling it out seeing that a young man with my health has no place in this establishment. She found it odd that he would not do a physical.
So there you have it. This post is dedicated to Carrie and Vero who were the two people pushing me to go to a doctor. Well, I did, and they just confirmed that clearly, I am in mint condition.
Do yourselves a favour. When calling for a doctor, and ask them if they are accepting new patients, ask them if they are accepting new, young, healthy patients or do they want some corspse wannabe walking through the door first.
Palmer out. I’m off to enjoy the rest of the day seeing that the doctor took a whole 3.14 minutes of my time. That’s right, I timed it. It’s py time baby.
Years ago, when I first began working on the 4th floor, I always wondered what was in the door attached to the bathroom stall.
Then a few years later, I ended up having discussions with Benoit about what it could be. The girls involved with the conversation were intrigued that there was a random locked door inside the men’s bathroom, let alone, inside a stall.
Benoit thought it was a secret passageway for covert government operations, whereas I thought it was a mere janitor’s closet. Benoit even took a picture of the door with his cellphone to show the ladies what we were talking about.
The mystery was solved today when I came back after lunch to open the bathroom door and to discover the door was open!
I freaked out. There it was…the answer to our five-year mystery. Inside was a passagway with a lone lightbulb inside. My mind exploded with a myriad number of thoughts:
“Where does it lead?”
“Where is the janitor’s closet?”
“I need a camera for proof!”
“I need to go tell everyone!”
I ran from the bathroom to ask people for a camera. Finally, Pierre had one so him and I and Shawn went inside to take a look and a guy came out of the passageway. We chatted nonchalantly and told him we were interested in seeing what was inside. He said “Go ahead” and it turns out that it’s an access passageway to the plumbing to the toilets and sinks. Unbelievable! Well, totally believable, but exciting at the same time.
We then took a few pictures and snuck Maren inside to check it out which was probably overwhelming since it was her first time seeing the guy’s washroom at the same time – “Urinals? What are those?”
Pictures to follow!
Weekend plans are looking good – my sister and John are coming up, as well as Miguel and Katie. Mike’s birthday is on Friday night which should be good times. Saturday will consist of checking out the Portugal World Cup Game at Duncan’s where there will be a BBQ happening. Then we’ll go downtown in the evening to check out the fireworks.
Sunday is up in the air but thoughts are leaning towards going to the caves in Gatineau Park. It will be a most excellent trip if we end up going! We will see how we feel when the time comes.
Other random goodness:
So, Eric has been raving about this last.fm website for quite some time now and I have taken a little notice but never dug my fingers into it. After hearing about it again, I decided to take a look.
Last.fm essentially is a music service which tracks what you listen to, then compiles charts and whatnot, but also recommends similar music tastes that you may have.
Much like Pandora, if you type in an artist you like, it will let you stream music from similar artists so that you may discover new music.
How does it track what you listen to? Well, in my case, it installs an application where it links to iTunes and keeps track of whatever you listened to and then uploads it to the last.fm system. Within this database, you can also see other stats like how many times this song has been played throughout the dbase and whatnot. Heck, if you just wanted to stream a song, chances are they have it in their database.
On the right hand side of the blog, you’ll see that I am currently displaying what I have recently listened to. I can choose to publish different lists such as weekly top 10, or overall top 10, but I thought you would be interested in seeing what I am currently listening to. However, this list would only update when I have been listening to iTunes on my computer. Please note that over at work, you can’t see this…must be blocked. Sorry fellow colleagues.
I was talking with Claude today about his upcoming wedding and asked him about a bachelor party. He was undecided about his bachelor party and said he didn’t really feel like partaking in the classic events (such as getting sloshed drunk and becoming a fool).
I was telling him that we live in a new era of bachelor parties. Gone are the days where you tie up your buddy onto a chair, pelt him with eggs (and whatever other god-awful things that would stick to him) and throw him in the back of the pickup truck for a night on the town. Or the days where you MUST make a trip to the gentlemen’s club for a night of debauchery.
Personally, upon hearing these stories of old, I think of how awful that must be for the bachelor and that a new order should emerge in the times of friendship, hence, I present ‘The New Bachelor Party Order’.
What does this order consist of? Well, the most important rule is to do whatever the bachelor wants to do. This is his last time of freedom boys, he should be allowed to just sit and watch movies all weekend with the boys, or play poker on a Saturday night and just enjoy the moment. Or, if he really wants to get ripped and go out to the gentlemen’s club in Montreal and discover he’s in Los Angeles by morning, heck, that’s fine too. Don’t get me wrong, Palmer is a fan of the ladies.
I’ve been to many bachelor parties in my day and I appreciate that nowadays, it’s leaning more towards whatever the bachelor wishes to do. As a friend, I don’t feel that I should pressure my buddy into doing something he doesn’t care to do. Do I want the bachelor to hold a grudge against me and then have him take it out on me in the future? Heck no!
I remember Eric’s bachelor party and how we went into his apartment, taped him up and dragged him out in front of his wife to be. That scared him a little, but in the end we told him we were just trying to scare him and that the weekend was his to enjoy! We drank beer, watched some movies, went bowling, went out for dinner, played some Tagzone – all in all, a good weekend out with the boys.
Enter the new Bachelor Party Order gentlemen. Do what the bachelor wants to do, even if you think it’s lame and you want to get pelted with tar and eggs when your time comes. Your time will come. YOUR TIME WILL COME.
Aww man, there’s something wonky with Blogger today and I cannot attach a great picture of a moustache here!
So Katie’s cottage party is coming up in August and entry fee for this year consists of growing a moustache.
Not one to grow much facial hair, I decided to start growing one last week, along with a goatee so Vero doesn’t have to be embarassed walking next to a moustachioed man.
So far, so good. It’s probably been this long before on a lazy week…I’ll be starting to enter new terrain soon enough…where Ryan’s hair has never gone before!
What will it look like? Will I realize that I could have grown a pretty sweet moustache all these years ago, and that I am on my way to being a true Ladies man?
Who knows? Unfortunately, it dawned on me that I’m the usher at Shannon and Maureen’s wedding in a few weeks so the experiment will have to end there, and start up as soon as the midnight bell rings that Saturday night.
Well, I received word that after six months of waiting, the appeal on my competition has been dropped. Yeeha!
Granted, I won’t believe it until I sign a piece of paper saying I accept a permanent position at my level. NEVER TRUST THEM.