Steverinoland

2010-05-30T21:48:00.002-03:00

Out of curiosity, who still has this in a feed or checks it every now and then? I'm keen to find out who's out of the (well, just my) loop.

2009-09-22T20:16:00.004-03:00

Y'know, what? I'm not dead. Holy shit, does it feel like it, these days, though. There is a lot going on and a lot to come.

I'm in the midst of my MET program. Yes, I got in! I'm just taking one course now and struggling a bit with how the whole online course thing works. I'm not convinced I like it more than a regular course yet. I couldn't have gotten this degree here, though, so there ya go.
"Job school" is frigging busy. I like all my news kids (aside from some annoying behaviours), though, which is great. I just feel out of my element when it comes to kids in my upper grades that aren't "up to snuff". What the Hell am I supposed to do with some kids who are a couple or seven (yes, seven) years behind in ability? Why should my job compound like that? Days like today, I think this job is for chumps. I'm sure I'll get over it, though. I always have in the past.
I'm helping to pilot a new L.A. program this year.
I'm DJ-ing for another teacher's business sometimes now. I've done 4 so far. Not too bad of a gig. I get anxious, but then I'm fine when I'm there.
I'm getting a student teacher for a month in November!
Our house reno (we added a porch) is almost done. Can't wait 'til it IS!
I have no idea what to do with my hockey pool yet.

There's some other things floating around in my head/life, too, but this is enough for now. Just to let you know I'm alive and the ol' blog ain't totally dead.

2009-06-23T18:23:00.002-03:00

Holy crap, I actually have a few moments to breathe. Just long enough to get a few points down before I have to go to town to get a lasagna, and then try to finish a (hopefully) wicked slide show, both for tomorrow's grade 8 graduation at my school.

Before I really begin, let me just say that Little Miss Higgins was super-endearing and mega-entertaining on Sunday night. A couple video clips are already up on YouTube and on my Facebook... I'll post 'em here with some pics and pointers later.

Anyway... I had an interesting thought whilst at trivia on Friday; isn't it ironic (don'tcha think?) that farmers are buried when they die? Like, they spend their whole life planting stuff, and then, when their days are done, they're planted, too. It got me to thinking about ideal farewells for people of all professions. A crop duster, for instance, would be cremated then dusted over fields by a plane. A fisherman would be buried at sea, perhaps in a trap. What do you think would be some other appropriate ways to go?

2009-06-07T16:21:00.003-03:00

Ages ago, back on May 1st, my Mrs. and I, along with one of her friends, ventured out to Georgetown to see Cape Breton... nay, Atlantic Canadian... nay, Canadian... nay, world fiddling legend Ashley MacIsaac in concert. Don't let the misspelling on the tickets confuse you. Like Elvis' tombstone, the real deal was inside.

I do admit, I was a little concerned about the quality of the show. You never hear much of anything about Ashley anymore, and I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I wondered if he'd be a little "out there". I really did have more faith in him than anything else, though. I thought he'd pretty much had his act together for the last several years, and should be in fine form. I was sure we'd see a great show. And if it wasn't, we'd have a good story to tell, anyway.

We did get a surprise right off the top. There was an unadvertised opener, Sierra Noble. I think she's only around 19, and wasn't exactly hard on the eyes. Apparently, she's a Métis fiddling sensation, and is just now branching out to play guitar and sing. Her single, "Possibility" was instantly likable, and she had a few other decent songs, too. Her rendition of the "Warrior's Lament" she played at the Vimy Ridge monument was pretty emotionally stirring. My only advice for her is to talk less, play more, and to not stomp her foot while she plays that upbeat song. Her foot loses the beat and it throws the whole song out of whack. A nice surprise, she was.

Ashley popped out to tell us he'd be back after a wee break to "play fiddle songs 'til you're sick of 'em". A nice addition to Ashley's act was piano player (and fiddler, too), and fellow Caper, Robbie Fraser. They'd never played together before, although you'd never know it. Robbie was in shirt and tie, looking like he was ready for his high school grad (although he's more like 23), the visual opposite to Ashley (who's a little more casual). Robbie roamed the keys and kept up with no problem, and got to play fiddle a bit later on as well. He's good, but comes off as a very controlled, old-school kind of guy.

As for Ashley, he really did just pound out the tunes. There were many funny stories in between, as well as a few technical glitches, but that didn't harm the flow of the show. In the half-full house (due to near-zero advertising and the high ticket price), it felt like a kitchen party with an old friend. Ashley showed off his fiddle mettle, whipping out strings of 32nd notes and cute little slides, erasing any doubt that he still had it. You can read more about the show here.

I should have seen it coming, due to his place of origin, but another highlight of the show was his humour and stories. Highlights included:

picking on the swine flu. He said he came off the plane last night in a sombrero, and people didn't think it was very funny. He also mentioned how he had a touch of the flu, with a sly look, and wondered where he could get some Tamiflu. He also did a little snippet of "La Cucaracha". "People just don't see the humour in pandemics anymore", he mused.
he delighted in the Guardian article he read about Richard Brown, our Environment Minister, mentioning in the House that week that he used to blow up beaver dams with dynamite as a summer job.
the woman who met him in Georgetown and asked if she could drive him to see her cottage. He said "Sure", and the ride took about 20 minutes. Nice cottage, he thought, but the trip was a bit longer than anticipated.
the time he and Lee Cremo were going to play at an event, and were delayed for some reason. He looked over at Ashley and said, "Would you like to become a Mi'kmaq?" Ashley said "Sure!" (I see a pattern here), and they went through the whole ceremony of it. Ashley said his Mi'kmaq / Micmac name is "Ashley MicMacIsaac".
he was once escorted away by police from Dundas Square in Toronto. He was walking down the street, and a person in a seal costume was dancing around and got in his way. Turns out it was a protest against the seal hunt. He made some comments to/about them... and how it must be nice to be there while people were working back home in C.B... you get the idea. One thing led to another, and he was escorted away.
the great line, "I'd like to play a number from a rave I did in 2000."
at the very start of the show, as he was adjusting his cord and box on the floor, and moving it from behind him, he commented how he didn't like "things coming up behind me." He then turned around with a sly grin and finished what he was doing. As we laughed, he told us we all had a sick mind and it was us that went where we did. Not his fault.

As a final side note, if you look closely at the top CD of the two I got autographed, you can see I snagged a couple of discarded hairs from his bow... the equivalent of a guitar pick at a rock show, I suppose. Thank God we have a few artists in Canada who have, at least one point in their life, lived a rockstar-style life to make themselves even more interesting for us. Sometimes being squeaky-clean and polite all the time can be a bit boring.

2009-05-17T14:10:00.006-03:00

I just saw that Little Miss Higgins is coming to the Trailside Cafe next month. Awesome. Hopefully I can get her newest CD for a decent price (which can't be done online, as far as I've seen).

2009-05-12T18:09:00.003-03:00

I'm working on finishing my application for a Master's program at UBC. It's for an MET degree, or Master's in Educational Technology.

I'm just finishing off the "professional and scholarly goals that you hope to achieve in this program" and "any other information you feel would be important to the Admission Committee in evaluating your application for this program" sections.

Any advice on what self-elevating information I should include?

2009-05-10T20:16:00.005-03:00

After a couple of great concerts in the last few weeks (by the way, I went to see Ashley MacIsaac & Sierra Noble in Georgetown just a week ago), I dug out a Notepad file I'd started ages ago. Basically, it's just a list of all the musical acts I've seen in my life, to the best of my memory. I know I'm missing a lot of them (probably mostly local groups), but if I knew which ones I was missing, I'd have listed them, wouldn't I? So... here's who I've seen, as far as I can remember...

Rawlins Cross
Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra
Great Big Sea
Wide Mouth Mason
Big Sugar
Big Wreck
Jeff Healey
Thrush Hermit
Sloan
Burton Cummings
The Guess Who
The Miller Stain Limit
Moist
MAdE
Weird Al Yankovic
Pluto
Matt Good Band
Edwin
I Mother Earth
Todd Kearns
Static In Stereo
Shaye
Weeping Tile
Barra McNeils
Guy Davis
Treble Charger
54-40
Emm Gryner
Ron Sexsmith
The Amazing Crowns
The Flashing Lights
default
Nickelback
Kim Mitchell
David Usher
Jimmy Rankin
Blue Rodeo
Nathan Wiley
Remy Shand
AC/DC
The Rolling Stones
Sam Roberts
The Trews
April Wine
Gordie Sampson
Matt Mays & El Torpedo
La Chicane
Sass Jordan
Kathleen Edwards
The Isley Brothers
Justin Timberlake
Belushi / Aykroyd
RUSH
The Tea Party
Hootie & The Blowfish
Live
DJ Jazzy Jeff
Dayna Manning
Ron Hynes
The Tragically Hip
Aerosmith
Ciara
Cheap Trick
Wil
Serena Ryder
Intoxicado
The Tom Fun Orchestra
Mark Trask & Mud Hill
Smothered In Hugs
The Sadies
Grady
The Divorcees
Ashley MacIsaac
Sierra Noble
Joel Plaskett
Billy Talent
State of Shock
Paper Lions
Chris Colepaugh & The Cosmic Crew
Tim Chaisson & Morning Fold
JJ Chaisson
Matt Andersen
The Rude Mechanicals
Eyes For Telescopes
Colin James
Craig Northey

2009-05-05T17:29:00.004-03:00

This is how far the big piggy flu has reached.

2009-04-30T23:44:00.003-03:00

How this swine flu really commenced...

2009-04-28T20:16:00.004-03:00

I like to think I'm a pretty good judge of character. Sometimes I get surprised, but I consider myself a good people-reader. After years of teaching and working in hospitality, I've got lots of experience, after all.

Tonight, I StumbledUpon a site called "Pick the Perp". Basically, you're given what the person was busted for, and you try to pick them out of five perp pics. After flirting with an above-statistical-odds average of 20%, I ended up with exactly that. Ten right out of fifty tries. Exactly what my starting odds were. Hunh.

Maybe you can do better.

http://picktheperp.com/

2009-04-28T18:15:00.002-03:00

Spring has sprung, the grass has ris'! You know what that means... Montreal's out of the playoffs, Toronto never made it, and it's professional flux time! Yay!

By the end of next month, we could find out if schools are closing (11 are slated as possibilities). Our school's to be one of the receiving schools, so... whether we want all of the incomers or not, at least we're not closing. Thing is, though, we don't know if anyone's closing or not. Because of this, we're getting staffing numbers based on no closures. Now, our school only has... let me think... five full-time teachers, one half-timer, a counselor (at about... 17%), and another person at about 25 or 30%. Today we found out that if nobody closes, we're getting cut 1.3 full positions. Hmm. Wonder where I'll be next year... I'm already planning a potential move, but I have to get off my duff and get things in motion to help that along.

If anything changes, you'll know.

2009-04-26T20:47:00.001-03:00

After a click of the StumbleUpon button, I came to the conclusion that emotions are for the birds.

2009-04-26T10:02:00.000-03:00

View all Charlottetown events on Eventful

2009-04-22T17:38:00.003-03:00

Joel Plaskett @ The Confederation Centre

This, as best as I can put it together, is the set list. By the way, if you happen to see them... could someone snag a set list and get all four of them to sign it for me at the merch table after the show? I totally could've done it last night but... just wussed out, I guess. The fact I didn't get a set list from this first show with his dad on tour... and probably could have... and that all four of them were out back before we even got out is eating me alive.

(Joel comes out solo)
True Patriot Love
Work Out Fine
Television Set
Face Of The Earth
Lazy Bones (girls join in)
You Let Me Down
A Million Dollars
Run, Run, Run
Precious, Precious, Precious
Penny For Your Thoughts
Through & Through & Through
Farmer's Daughter (Ana Egge)
Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Intermission :(

Love This Town (Bill & Joel only)
Heartless, Heartless, Heartless
Up Scotty Creek (?)(Bill's old Western solo song)
Nothing More To Say
Rewind, Rewind, Rewind (girls rejoin here, I think)
Deny, Deny, Deny
Pine, Pine, Pine
In The Blue Moonlight (after which all but Plaskett exit)
Radio Fly (shout-out request)
Spinning For You
Nowhere With You
All The Way Down The Line (Ana & Joel only)
Lost In The Valley (Rose Cousins)
Happen Now

Extraordinary (shout-out encore, Joel only... Rose makes brief cameo appearance)
Fashionable People (gals come back out)
Wishful Thinking (everyone takes part in the extended travellin' tune)

The show started just around 8, and counting the intermission (20 minutes), we got out around 10:30. The show was fabulous. Joel was very chatty, playful, and full of humour. They all seemed to have a blast.

(I'll elaborate later)

2009-04-21T08:27:00.003-03:00

I get to enjoy the kick-off of a great musical tour ce soir. Joel Plaskett launches his tour for Three at the Confederation Centre tonight with his dad, Rose Cousins, and Ana Egge. I've been looking forward to it since I got the tickets, and especially since I got the triple-disc album!

2009-04-19T20:46:00.002-03:00

Cookie Monster's got 99 Problems But A Cookie Ain't One. If you've seen Jay-Z's orginal video or know the song, it makes it all the better. On its own, it's still a great potty-mouthed misuse of Muppetry.

See more funny videos and Music Videos at Today's Big Thing.

2009-04-18T19:27:00.003-03:00

This is a student project (not one of mine... some chick on the 'Net). She took a Peaches song (so, of course, it's dirty, vulgar, and danceable), and mashed it up with some classic Muppets footage. I think it's one of the best (if not the best) Muppet mash-ups I've seen.

2009-04-18T10:13:00.005-03:00

I downloaded a new Firefox add-on today, called Zemanta. It sounds like a sleeping pill or something that would cure your itchy nose (but may cause blindness, heart attack, skin rash, or death... you know how medicines are). What it's for, though, is enhancing your blogs and emails. Basically, when I'm writing for either one, I have a couple of new windows now. A couple on the bottom display possible search term labels to tag onto this, and another one lets me make content links with one click. A long one on the right suggests linkable articles, pictures, and whatnot. It even makes sure to find ones that are legally free, so I don't have to worry about copyright infringements (not that I ever did, anyway). I'm hoping it'll increase hits from search engines, make it easier for me to add images, and enhance the whole end product. Let me know what you think in the next post or two!

2009-04-14T20:17:00.003-03:00

The best Blizzard there is... the Georgia Mud Fudge.

We're the king of Dairy Queen!
http://www.chainleader.com/blog/180000418/post/300025230.html

I knew it was busy, but wow. Apparently it generates 2.8 million per year in cold hard cash.

2009-04-05T20:10:00.004-03:00

This is gonna be goooood...

2009-04-04T19:03:00.002-03:00

Well, the week ended and we're all alive. Monday we went home early, due to the commenced storm. Tuesday was a storm day, 'cause we got a ridiculous amount of heavy snow overnight. Today, I saw it hit at least 17.5 degrees in the shade in my backyard. Man, that snow's a-retreatin'!

As for my class' new addition, they're def. starting to act up a little and push people's buttons. My only hope is that my kids are grounded enough to not get pulled down by this other one's antics. One piece of hope from Friday was one of my other kids telling them "... you think wrong." I can only hope they're a good influence. Still, I had an afternoon meeting yesterday, and I couldn't wait to go to trivia (which we won) to try the chicken curry nachos I'd heard about. They were good, but I think I can do 'em better.

Oh, by the way... I made you, yes, you, a playlist of Island music. Check it out!

This Wednesday marks my return to hosting trivia. It's smack-dab in the middle of two diff. days of presenting stuff in front of other teachers @ meetings (ie, very busy, short week), and it's not under 100% ideal conditions (start time is late... 9, only 10 beer to give away, etc.). If I woo 'em, I get to keep the regular trivia gig if I want it. If life gets busier next year (possible start of Master's and who knows what else), I may not want it, but it's fun and it's cash in hand. We'll see how it goes.

I'm reveling in some great new music. I picked up Joel Plaskett's Three, Smothered In Hugs' The Healing Power Of Injury, Neko Case's Middle Cyclone, and The Sadies' In Concert: Volume One, plus a couple of others from the library. I also got a book, which should be a great read, as it's a Dave Bidini book: Around the World in 57.5 Gigs.

Let's hope for more good weather, good entertainment, good kids, and good fortune.

2009-03-29T19:18:00.002-03:00

I talked to my principal for about an hour and a half today at school (this is after our after-church chat). We went over files and notes and marks and past plans and all that kind of stuff. We know what things have been like in the last little while (not so good), and I know what they used to be like, too, firsthand (even worse). Last night, I started to come around to the whole idea. After looking things over with my principal, and talking about it, that made it a bit better still. Not great. Not desireable. Just better.

I still don't like the situation at all, but I know there's nothing I can do about it. All I can do is deal with what I've been dealt. Basically, I could eat rotten lemons and bitch about it, or I could try and make some Limoncello out of them. I'm gonna try for the Limoncello. Time to put my trademark unflappable demeanor and easy-going nature to the test again. I'll be damned if I don't come out on top in the end and let a situation ruin my spring.

2009-03-28T13:26:00.003-03:00

So, yesterday, I had a pretty good day, out at a meeting. When I got home, I checked my school email account. One message was from my VP, saying one thing, and in an "oh, by the way" manner, "You have a new student. Maybe (the principal) told you about (him/her)?????" No. No, they didn't. My mind started to race.

I phoned the school, and luckily, the VP was still there, sometime around 4 or 4:30 or so. I could already feel the sense of dread. It was like I already knew what was coming. Apparently, a nearby school's principal came with this student to our school to basically deliver him/her. They'd had trouble at their current school, so now we get them (how exactly does that work... especially when they live in another school's zone?). So, I guess my principal knew it was coming but didn't let me know. Thanks for that! Anyway, the VP told me the kid saw my pic in a class pic and was like, "I know him! I had him as a teacher before!" They told me he/she had a "red file" and that they were known as trouble. I pretty much knew right away exactly who it was.

Turns out it is a student I had for one subject in a former school a few years back. This student is at or near the top in terms of most-troubled / worst-behaved I've ever had. I was so glad to be gone from that school, partially because of him/her. Now, into my lovely, little, innocent, trustworthy class, they come in. I'm going to try and be as positive about the next three months as I can... and to try and start fresh... but I know full-well that my students are probably going to suffer, and that these last three+ months are going to suck. Ever since I found out yesterday, my old feelings of dread and tension and nervousness of going to work are starting to return. As unprofessional as it may sound, it literally makes my stomach feel sick.

2009-03-23T17:41:00.002-03:00

You know the Shamwow? With Vince? He's got another product he's peddling, called the Slap Chop. In the original commercial for it, he says, "You're gonna love my nuts." Well, today, on Today's BIG Thing, they had a great parody commercial:

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

2009-03-14T08:27:00.003-03:00

I think of an old obscure clip of SNL, where Natlie Cole put out a record of her singing duets with all kinds of dead singers. One near the end was Tammy Wynette. Natalie would sing to the tune of "Stand By Your Man", and the b&w "ghost" of Tammy would kick it off (in brackets):
(I am not dead!) "I am not deaaad" (This is how rumours get started!) "This is how rumours get starteeeeed" (Cut it out, bitch!) "Cut it ouuuuuuut biiiiiiiitch!".

So yeah. I'm not dead.

I just find that Facebook (which I am currently disgusted and angered by) sucks all the bloggin' goodness out of me. Videos, pics, wee thoughts... it's all so easy to share! But, since I had a couple people wondering where the ol' blog was (literally, two... No! Three! I remembered another one), I thought I'd throw a catch-up post. Or mustard. Maybe relish?

What's been going on since the last post?

I'm currently sick. At the start of March Break. And there's a party tonight. Balls!
School closures are still the talk of the day. Our school isn't going to close, but a couple of others are slated to come to us (with, reportedly, a few unsavoury characters). I think, if it allows me to teach fewer things to fewer grades, bring it on. I say that now...
Still playing trivia! I am, however, making a foray back into hosting. It may be just a one-nighter, April 8th, at ISE's. If I get a good crowd, and they like me better than the other two competitors (it's a three-host / three-Wednesday thing), I may win the right to do it a few more weeks this year and then all next year. I'm not 100% sure of the commitment, but it is fun... and I do like the extra cash in hand.
Still downloading and buying tunes galore... I found someone new that's rocking my socks the past week or so - King Khan & The Shrines:
A couple of new sites are eating up my time, too. FailBlog and My(Confined)Space.
Also, a couple of Firefox add-ons have been useful/eating up time. Web of Trust is useful. StumbleUpon is useful (and awesome), plus it eats up time.
I joined my church's parish council... I'm not sure if I jumped into this one too quickly or not. It's OK... I just don't feel useful yet, after two meetings.
Over March Break, I may try to get my ducks in a row in starting my Master's of Education. A bunch of people in the last several years have done one at UPEI, essentially just for the money (nothing wrong with that). It's a (by my estimation) wishy-washy Master's called "Leadership in Education". Sounds like non-specific fluff. I'm going to do mine in Technology. I've settled on an online program with UBC... just gotta get that application in and get accepted! Aside from personal growth and financial benefits, hopefully it'll help me land a Department job should one spring up again (I think a couple will this summer).
I'm excited about a couple of musicians that may be coming to Georgetown in the months ahead: Corb Lund and Ashley MacIsaac.
We were planning on going to Montreal this summer, which we were both pretty excited about. Seems plans have changed, though. We're getting our energy audit done on Monday (after we already did some significant work in the last few years). Mostly, because we're planning on replacing our furnace & boiler. It's gonna cost about $6,500, (minus 15% and maybe about 15 or 18 hundred because of gov't incentives... making it about $4,000 instead. I know the math doesn't add up here. We had it figured to about $4,000, though, anyway. Trust me.). So, instead of fun travel, we get a much more expensive option of a new furnace and probably tearing up our basement to put up new walls down there and some insulation. Wee. I know it'll be worth it in the end, though... someday.
I'm hoping Montreal can hold on to their playoff spot and do half-decently in the playoffs.
I saw Matt Mays @ Hunter's last Friday and am going to see Joel Plaskett on April 21st. Yeeha!
Still digging listening to Tom Allen (6-10) and Rich Terfry/Buck 65 (3-6) every week day on CBC Radio 2. Best music around.
My camera isn't working the way it should. :( I went to the Rocket Richard exhibit in town and took it along, anyway, but a streaky blue line still comes through on the shots. I'm going to have to mail it away for weeks to get fixed. No fun.
This summer's musical menu (in terms of BIG shows) isn't proving worthwhile yet. The province chose to go with a country fest in Cavendish (it'll make $$, but I don't care for the "music"), and the first FOL I heard about was Theory of a Deadman. Yawn.
You'd like Smothered In Hugs. Download some free tunes from their site. They opened for Mays last week. It was the second time I'd seen them, I think, and this was a longer set. They were good! Two of Mearl Crane's kids are in it.

Let's just leave it there... that's a lot of updating! If I think of anything else, I'll put it in a separate post... something to please the masses. All three of you.

----------------
Now playing: Smothered in Hugs - Blank Test
via FoxyTunes

2009-01-16T20:23:00.006-04:00

A couple of things struck me tonight, whilst going through memories on YouTube. The first is that He-Man and Janice Battersby look an awful lot alike.

The second: is it just me, or did Fefe Dobson sing the theme to Owl TV before she was even born (it was actually Cree Summer)?

A Fefe video.

2009-01-15T20:05:00.002-04:00

It's pretty friggin' cold out, eh? Negative 20 degrees plus the wind chill, down to -26 (and feeling like -38) tonight. The thermo's set higher than normal inside, at +20, but it's barely above 18 in here. Anyway, aside from the lesson in integers, I have a piece of water cooler chat for you that I don't think I told you before.

Ever hear the phrase, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey"? It's perhaps a true saying, but it doesn't actually mean a simian-like statue. My favourite explanation is that a triangular pyramid of cannon balls was called a monkey, and when it would get cold, the metal would contract, thereby making the balls fall off the brass (or other metal) monkey. After a bit of research, I found this to be not necessarily true.

While I'm a little disappointed that I shattered my own cool little belief, at least I know better now. Feel free to arm yourself with this knowledge!

----------------
Now playing: Bruce Cockburn - The Coldest Night Of The Year
via FoxyTunes

2009-01-15T18:18:00.002-04:00

Want to feel all warm and fuzzy in these frigid frozen days? How about getting to hear the first track from Neko Case's upcoming album, Middle Cyclone? What's your feeling on helping out animals in need? Would you believe you could do it all at once? If you have a blog, and you repost this track, Neko's label will donate $5 to the Best Friends Animal Society. At the BFAS, they're so good, I saw one of Michael Vick's dogs licking someone. Without the intent of total ingestion. Yep, they're that good. So. Check out Neko's new tune, and maybe post it yourself for a good cause. Here's the info if you want to find out on how to do it. Posting/adding it on iLike also donates $1.

Neko Case - People Got A Lotta Nerve

PS - I can't wait for Neko's new album (insert drool here).

2009-01-05T19:46:00.004-04:00

Obama's Playlist

When I was young, I listened to (and watched) a lot of CBC. After all, what choice did I have? I had two TV channels. When I finally had the ability to watch MuchMusic regularly, I was a junkie in its heyday. You know, back when Much made a difference, played videos every day, and had good artists on regularly (as I write this, God, I miss it). Now, MM is absolute shit. I don't know if there's anything truly worth watching on there any more. The music is gone for sure. One thing that definitely didn't help was the departure of station captain Denise Donlon. She left Much and worked for Sony Canada for a few years. This past September, she was hired on as executive director of CBC Radio's English-language services.
Is it a coincidence the music coming out of CBC as well as the shows are awesome these days? I think not. Although a friend of mine made a great graph of CBC and Much vs time on his site a while ago, I think, aside from age (and other factors), the true tale is the Donlon factor. I love listening to CBC Radio3 online and being interactive. How often can you write about what's going on on the radio and have the host give you a shout-out on the air? It's dang cool. Even more than that, I love the music (and personalities) on CBC Radio2 during my listening hours. I listen to Tom Allen in the morning, and Rich Terfry (AKA Buck 65) in the afternoon. The music is varied, but it's all excellent, intelligent, and worthwhile. Loves it.

An interesting feature that started today (like the Canada East vs West debate of December) is the challenge of making a 49-song mixtape for Barack Obama, to help him better understand the fantastic country above him. My wheels have been turning on this for a while now, to make some choice suggestions. Some online & on air have been great thus far, but I added one that was missing (as far as I could tell). Tonight, I added RUSH's "The Trees".

What would you put on a playlist as songs that best represent our country? Gimme your top five (or so). Whatever else I come up with (that hopefully hadn't been mentioned on CBC yet), I'll let you know. Suggest away!

2008-12-24T13:46:00.001-04:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I couldn't resist...

2008-12-24T08:48:00.001-04:00

Merry... or should I say, Happy Christmas to all y'all.
I hope you have a great one!

2008-12-20T14:05:00.002-04:00

While playing with a 2008 Holiday favourite, Pho-ho-hoto Booth, I got to reading the fine print. The images are based on ones from a site called Sexy People. Best new blog find of the week, for sure.

2008-12-17T22:01:00.002-04:00

'Tis snowing outside, but I fear we shan't have time removed from our workday tomorrow. Shazbut! That wouldv'e been most sweet on that, the 2nd-last day of school.

However, I'm still in the giving mood.

Gift #1 - ever hear of Google's 1-800-GOOG-411? You can use it as a business directory/phonebook. The best part? You can also use it to connect you to any business for free - no long distance charges!

Gift #2 - I loves me some Christmas music every year. I have a pretty large & great collection, and I'm always combing blogs this time of year for more. I found a doozy today. The bad part was I have almost all the good ones on it already, but if you don't... it's the motherlode! The list (downloadable individually or as zipped mixes) is most impressive.

2008-12-10T18:00:00.004-04:00

Once you go black, you never go back. You were only waiting for this moment to arise (get it?)! That's probably the hope of Mozilla, who've created an internet browser called Blackbird that is so black, it urinates oil. Apparently, finding African-American/Canadian/Whateverian content, groups, etc. on the web isn't so easy, 'cause this browser's supposed to make it easier. Maybe it's a great browser... you know, a specialized version of Firefox or something like that. I dunno. It doesn't really call to me to test it out. I guess it's supposed to foster community or something like that, too. I mean, after all... after all these years of racism, don't we want to separate visibly different sectors of the human race as much as we can - even in the mostly equal/invisible Internet? You know... isolate our diversity?

I just don't see how this is a good idea at all, but I'll be interested to hear news about it in the future.

In honour of its trailblazingness, I've come up with some new "specialty group" browsers and programs myself. The intellectual property copyright trademark patent thingamajig has already been filed for, so don't even think of takin' my names! This stuff's gonna be huge. Huge!

Gookle
Wopcrawler
Hindoo!
HonkyTalk
JewTube
LimeyWire
Whiteypedia

Wikipedia has more than one organized page of stuff like this. Weird.
Also, after a brief post-post scan, JewTube actually exists! OMG.

2008-12-09T16:27:00.004-04:00

"Put the Christ back into Christmas," say some signs and people this time of year. Well, when you see 'Xmas', is it really gone? Although the English word 'Christ' is missing, the 'X' is still there, standing in for it. "How can it be?" you say. "You blasphemous blogginbugger!" In my defense, and the defense of those assaulted by a PuttheChristbackinner, I submit to you these facts:

Note the prominent X & P, or 'labarum'.

X and XP have long served as an abbreviation of Christ's name (what does this say about Windows?)
X is really the first letter of the word Xtos (ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ), which in Greek is the word for Christ
The Greek letter X, or 'Chi' (kye) stood for Christ
The belief that the "X" represents the cross on which Christ was crucified has no basis in fact, but it it still was a shape of crucifix that was used (even though it probably wasn't the shape Jesus was on), and hey... if it stands for a crucifix, that's gotta count for somethin'. I mean, Jesus!

So, perhaps don't think of 'Xmas' as a smear/deletion campaign... just a revival of olde (note the extra 'e') ways, lazy decoration, or terminological variety. I hope you've learned something new today.

This post has not been brought to you by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - The Mormons, but by new compound words and single-line quotes. And, this bitchin' sicko Christmas wallpaper.

2008-12-04T20:01:00.003-04:00

I thought this series on Funny or Die was pretty funny. And smart... in a comedic, drunk way.

In unrelated news ('cause it's not funny), I bring up Ben Stiller. He's not funny. The Fockers stuff and the Mary movie were alright, but really... Ben Stiller is the Anti-funny. I watched Tropic Thunder last night. And by watched, I mean endured. And by endured, I mean it was on, and I tried my best to get my worth out of the rental by watching it whilst I made my Christmas wish list on the laptop. And by I tried my best to get my worth out of the rental by watching it whilst I made my Christmas wish list on the laptop, I mean I'm glad I had something else to do, 'cause if not, I'd still be hurting from that painful non-comedy comedy. Consider this a warning. Friends don't let friends watch Stiller.

2008-11-27T18:44:00.005-04:00

Catherine of Siena

One of the things that I found so new & curious in our European trip last spring was the whole idea of relics and dead people (or parts of them) on display. That saints have been chopped into bits and shipped around the world, and then displayed is just weird. The most striking of these, for us, was Saint Catherine of Siena. In the Basilica of San Domenico, at the fringe of the old walled part of Siena, is her head - on display. Now, we weren't allowed to take pictures of her head, or her finger (also on display), which was too bad... but I understand (although I did take a wobbly video snippet of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel).

Due to a class discussion on a reading piece, I got curious about the head and other such things. I started looking for a good picture of her head, as well as some information on her. I was pretty surprised by most all of it. So... here is the scoop on the ol' gal (much paraphrased or just outright plagiarised):

She died at the age of 33 in 1380.
From a vision, she believed she had a mystical marriage to Jesus, and that Jesus had placed his shriveled foreskin (post-circumcision) on her finger as a "wedding ring" (of course, it was invisible). Another source said it was gold with four pearls circling a large diamond. Sorta like a "Prince Albert" maybe?
She had stigmata. Five red rays shot out of the crucifix she was praying to and pierced her hands, feet and heart. She then did what anyone with the stigmata would do, & refused to eat or drink (save for the Blessed Sacrament).
A priest once said that he saw the Holy Communion fly from his hand straight into Catherine’s mouth like a miracle frisbee.
This is what her little chapel in the basilica looks like.
After she died, the people of Siena wished to have her body. A story is told of a miracle whereby they were partially successful: Knowing that they could not smuggle her whole body out of Rome, they decided to take only her head which they placed in a bag (how did they get just the head?). When stopped by the Roman guards, they prayed to St Catherine to help them, confident that she would rather have her body (or at least part thereof) in Siena. When they opened the bag to show the guards, it appeared no longer to hold her head but to be full of rose petals. Once they got back to Siena they reopened the bag and her head was visible once more. Whoa. Freaky.

After being sent to a spa to plump her up and make her more marriable by her mother, Catherine (after cutting her hair) scalded herself in a hot spring to disfigure herself & thwart the threat of marriage.
She was often seen levitating as she prayed.
She had the power to heal.
She was reportedly fireproof.

That's one heck (... uh, heaven?) of a lady!

Read more about her here, in this e-book, or here. Hairshirts, metal belts made with wee crosses (worn tightly to cut herself), whipping herself thrice daily with an iron chain... oh, it goes on.

2008-11-25T20:53:00.000-04:00

24 years ago today.

DTKIC

2008-11-15T07:50:00.005-04:00

Well, Hell, Mel... here's a proper post.

You know the expression "blind rage"? I think I actually experienced it yesterday. I felt like putting my fist through the CRT monitor in my room. I felt like smashing something smashable on the floor. I was so pissed when I left school that I was actually flushed & feeling light-headed with some little blurry stars. I never get mad! I don't ever recall being so angry at an everyday-life event. I'm unflappable! I've cooled down a bit by this morning, now, but when I start thinking about it, I'm still pretty angry internally. What irked me?

I interviewed for a new job last Friday (in the middle of a deluge of work, wakes, and funerals). I wasn't sure how good my chances were, but I thought I had a pretty good chance. It was a job within IT with the Dept. of Ed. It was a secondment position until August 31st (maybe extended?), so there was some security there in terms of pension time, job safety, and whatnot. Probably might've been a pay increase, too. An old boss / colleague of mine was one of the two interviewers. The interview took about half an hour, and it went OK. I felt a bit like I was rushing or flushed, but, overall, I thought I covered most of my good points and things that matched the job. For what the job description was, and what my background has in terms of technology in Education, I may not have had it in the bag, but... I thought I was pretty well poised.

I've been checking the phone and my email all week long, waiting for the + or - call. Yesterday, after school, my principal came into my room to give me some gossip... basically, the principal of a nearby school phoned up looking for a junior high teacher. She gave some names (No! No! No! I'll try her...), and my P. asked what was up. They said a teacher of theirs had to leave A.S.A.P. for another job. She inquired further (on my behalf, probably, to check), and they said the teacher had been seconded to the Dept. for an IT job. She also got the name of who it was out of him. I guess I got my news.

I didn't fully expect to get the job. I was very hopeful, though. I was so keen to do it and to start something new and get out of what my teaching role includes right now (ie, virtually none of my specialty/trained areas of science and tech). I don't know what boils me about it the most, but I'm pretty pissed about the whole end result. First, nobody (former boss / colleague included) called or emailed to tell me I didn't get it. I heard it as gossip. I know the person who reportedly got the job, and he's a nice guy. It's going to be hard to not secretly hate him. I think the thing that cheezes me off the most about it is that knowing what I know about him, where & what he's taught... he doesn't have nearly the background I do in tech in Ed. As far as I know, he's been in one place, in a couple of grade levels, and does some work with tech in school. I've worked in IT at the Dept. before, I've taught at five different schools, and was the Tech contact at two of them (I am currently), I've got scads of skills and experience with tons of programs and hardware, etc... in all kinds of areas. I've taught all the new tech curricula from grades one through eight, plus some time with 9 & 10 in the past... I could go on.

I just don't get it. I feel like, now, hearing what I heard, it should have been mine. I feel like someone's been given an unearned leg up on me en route to a possible position in that area in the future. I know they must have their reasons for going with him, it just feels unfair. I guess I'll just have to remind myself that, always, in the past, things that were unpleasant or didn't go my way professionally (or even in non-work life) always seemed to work out to be something better in the end. I can't see what that something better would be right now (perhaps due to rage-caused vision loss), but I'll just try to remind myself that I've got a good job anyway (however unpleasant parts of it may be), and something better will poke its head out from around the bend, at some unknown point in time.

For now, I'll just try to re-adjust my head to staying where I'm at, try to chill, be cheery, and use this as therapy.

2008-10-06T20:10:00.002-03:00

Some things to think about:

I'm a bit concerned about the new wave of commercials promising me meds that will help me with my colon flu symptoms in this pre-winter season. What is this colon flu, and where do the meds go? I'm worried.
Why do people ask other people if they're going to have a baby or when they're going to have a baby? Why don't they just ask you if you've been having unprotected sex on a regular basis? It's the same thing. Weird.
On a related note, while thinking about the above, I've decided that having kids takes balls. Think about it.

2008-09-28T08:22:00.003-03:00

In anticipation of tomorrow, the best birthday party video ever. If you're at work, it's semi-not safe. You'll see why.

Awesome.

2008-09-26T07:44:00.001-03:00

The article, "To be creative is, in fact, Canadian" marks the second time in my life I've appreciated Margaret Atwood. The first time was when she was a goalie.

2008-09-24T15:41:00.002-03:00

Wow. This is not news. At all. We all knew it from the get-go.

Also, have you heard Harper's comments the other day about arts cuts? Someone needs to grab him by the Lego hair or sweater-vest and smack him senseful. He said the arts cuts are a "'niche' issue that doesn't resonate with 'ordinary' Canadians," and that "ordinary people know you have to live within a budget." Stupid weenie. I wouldn't mind some changes in how funding gets doled out, but to cut it? And to call artistic people non-ordinary freaks? Harsh. So harsh, I have been moved to artfully describe its harshness in a harsh haiku, or "harshku".

Boring gray Harper
I know you play piano
Why hate on the arts?

or

Oh, smarmy arsehole
Don't be such a big arsehole
No arts makes an arse

Here you can read the original full article, and here, you can see what people are saying in a thread about it I may have started.

2008-09-18T21:16:00.002-03:00

Paige! You'd be so excited to be here right now. I'm excited! There's something like over 130 events in late Sept. / early Oct., and they're all local food & beverage-related. I liked the sound of the wine and beer and munchies night, but for $40... I wasn't sure. However, whenever I started to look at what some of PEI's best places were offering nightly during the week, and for what prices... it was tough to narrow it down to only a couple of nights out! Well, we made our picks. Our first night will be "Argentina" night at Off Broadway. For $30 each, we get:

Course 1:
Lemon Scented Seared Scallop Martini in Field Greens
Course 2:
Bacon Wrapped Sirloin with Portobello Mushroom and Baby Potatoes
Dessert:
Molten Lava Cake

Our second outing will be at Flex Mussels (never been yet). The girl that took our reservation sounded unfriendly, but hopefully that won't be our experience. For $45 each, we get:

Course 1:
Island Greens: Slow Roasted Beets, Crisp Gouda Lady Cheese Shards, PEI Apple Cider Emulsion
OR
Flex Mussels White Chowder: North Shore Mussels, Roasted Field Corn, Double Smoked Bacon, Fresh Cream

Course 2:
Lobster Pot Pie: Fresh Chunk Lobster, Field Thyme, Carmelized Baby Onions, Celery Root, Heirloom Carrots in an Old School Pastry
OR
35-Day Aged Striploin: Hand-Cut, Dry Rubbed, Montague Blueberry Honey/Moonshine jus
Served with Russet Frites and Warm Turnip Slaw

Course 3:
Trio of Fall Island Squares
OR
Pumpkin Crème Brulee: with local honey candy crust

Wine and Beer Pairing:
Gahan Island IPA
Gahan ‘Sydney Street” Stout
Rossignol Iced Liberty Blossom

Mmm... I'm practically drooling (outside of my mouth) just thinking about it!

2008-09-18T13:59:00.001-03:00

Is it not at least a little funny that the dud(e) that got Jamie Lynne Spears pregnant is a pipe-layer? David Wilcox would be proud.

2008-09-16T16:20:00.004-03:00

Oh, the things that come out of children's mouths. I've got two good ones for you today:

1. A grade three student explaining to me how tall her mother is... "She's up to here," which was barely taller than herself, which I told her ws too short. "Well, she's up to there maybe (reaching higher)... I'm up to her boob!"

2. A grade one student, getting very mad at someone in a higher grade on the playground... "I'm gonna squeeze your wiener!"

That's right up there with the kid last year (who that last quote was directed at, interestingly enough) who exclaimed to an older girl that had kicked or thrown a ball into his groin... "I'm going to punch you in the vagina!"

I wouldn't be too surprised if the area had a huge population decline in about 10-20 years. Nothin' but mashed privates!

2008-09-15T21:30:00.003-03:00

It's been so long! I couldn't go over a whole month and not update, though.
Let's see... what can I tell you about that's happened since mid-August?

Regained our Dundas Plowing Match trivia crowns.
Started school. Dreaded it, then it's like we never left now. I think I'm going to have a good year.
Got my first cold of the school year, which I've pretty much beat now.
Addicted to Scramble on Facebook.
Caught up to late 20th Century technology and got high-speed internet again! Oh my God what I can do with it now... like... Scramble.
Got a Wii Fit the other day, or rather, my Mrs. did. It's pretty fun, and def. challenging in some of its activities. I'm-a see if I can lose 2.5 pounds in the first week. It thinks I need to lose nearly 50. I think it's wrong. I think 30-35 would be my max before emaciation.
C also brought home the bad-assest computer ever a couple weeks ago, to solve some space (hard drive and house) issues, and replace the old (700MHz P3... 7 years? 8?) Dell. I've been busy transferring all music and files via my Sansa, up to 3.58GB at a time. It's the only method that works. Believe me. It also takes an hour just to load it up on the old compy each time. By the way, this is the computer. 22"HD screen, one-piece. TV & remote, touch screen, blah blah brag brag it's awesome. I'm thinking of using its bluetooth capabilities to hook it up to the stereo receiver somehow... started looking for bluetooth receivers today. Know a good one?
I enjoyed Fey's copy of Palin on SNL from Saturday night. After watching that today, I got to poking around on the SNL site, watching fave fids from the 70's and 90's and whatnot... "Cheezbuger", "Matt Foley", etc. I thought I'd pick this one for you. I may have seen it before, but forgot about it if I did. Genius poetry:

Images by Tyrone Greene ...
Dark and lonely on the summer night.
Kill my landlord, kill my landlord.
Watchdog barking - Do he bite?
Kill my landlord, kill my landlord.
Slip in his window,
Break his neck!
Then his house
I start to wreck!
Got no reason --
What the heck!
Kill my landlord, kill my landlord.
C-I-L-L ...
My land - lord ...
Def!

2008-08-15T19:24:00.002-03:00

I've been instructed of late to make up a birthday list. I'm looking for fresh ideas. So, for a little fun... realistically now, what do you think should be on my wish list? It's wide open. Go imagishopping for me! Let me know what goodies you think I can't do without.

2008-08-09T18:26:00.004-03:00

What if Garfield never existed? Would it help to better show Jon's true mental state? You decide.

2008-08-05T10:29:00.002-03:00

I wasn't going to make a new post today, but I will. Just for your benefit. On Matt May's site today, they have a download for "Building A Boat" available as a download. Dunno how long it's been there, dunno how long it will be there. Check it out! The live version I heard a couple years ago was one of my main reasons to get stoked for the new CD. Download from the link up there, or go to the site if you wanna. mattmays.com

----------------
Now playing: Rush - The Trees
via FoxyTunes

2008-07-20T08:41:00.004-03:00

You must see this movie. So, so good. When I wasn't constantly smiling, I was welling up. If I was in the theatre alone, I probably would have cried three times, which never EVER happens. Awesome. It's in theatres right now (City Cinema, here in C'town). C and I decided against WALL-E (which I've heard is great) to go see this instead. An inspiring, heart-warming, saddening, uplifting, entertaining piece of work. Love it.

The group's site.
The movie's space on IMDB.

2008-07-19T09:42:00.002-03:00

Like Colin James said, "It's been five long years, and I love you just the same."
Hopefully we'll never get to this point:

2008-07-18T10:34:00.004-03:00

I keep all my capsuled calcium in a bottle labelled "Cocaine" in my cupboard. Which is the exact opposite of Steven Page, who keeps his blow in a bottle labelled "Calcium". Seriously, I can't believe Page actually does hard drugs (what's that mean, anyway... as oppsed to the easy ones?). When I heard he got caught, I figured it was the chicks he was with. I mean, he's married! Then, when I heard he and his wife split, I was like... oh... maybeeee. It's all a little tough to believe. Even if he has a million dollars, maybe he'll end up eating more Kraft Dinner... in the clink! how prophetic would that be (minus the Dijon ketchup)?

I hope our weather is good for our upcoming Quebec adventure. It looks like showers to start it off, though. The weather for the thing I'm sorry I'm missing, though, looks good. Paul McCartney is playing a free show on the Plains of Abraham for 200,000-ish people. It's ironically funny to have a Brit playing a show for the French there hundreds of years after the fact. McCartney knows that, but those sovereigntist whackjobs in Quebec can't stand it. They argue that his presence is overly "Canadianizing" the city's celebration." Ridiculous! And... he's British! McCartney had some good comments on it, though... "I think it's time to smoke the pipes of peace, and to just put away your hatchets," and "What are they moaning about? They won. I wouldn't have minded if they lost. It's me that should be moaning, right? I'm only kidding you know." He also commented that he wants all the "Quebeckians" to love him, and hopes he and his band will "conquer Quebec this time." Gotta love him & despise those whackos. Too bad I'll be missing the show.

This has nothing to do with anything, but I had to share it. 20 Baby products great for traumatizing infants. A few highlights:

The Rastafarian baby in #2.

I'd be traumatized by the "manual snot sucker".

Although I'd seen the baby mop before, I love the instructions.

2008-07-07T12:55:00.003-03:00

It's crazy how much I'm looking forward to Matt Mays & El Torpedo's new album this week, and it's ridonculous how much I love that new tune, "Tall Trees". I've been trying to figure the lyrics, and pretty much have it all figgered out, save for a couple or few words. After listening and listening today, I decided to try searching again (there was previously nothin' out there for it). While searching today, I came up with this gem: (play the song in the post below while you read for full effect)

You're on a leek, Gonna sing you a song
Two hundred years in the ground
Tall trees hangin' over the road
Feels like... they're starin' me doooowwwwn
It's in the way that they sway
It's the feeling I git
They just don't want me around
Tall trees hangin' over the road
Feels like... they're starin' me doooowwwwn
Who's gonna love you when I'm gone?
Sittin' leaves to the wind
I'll give her to you in a while
And find... Somebody new in the Spring
When the sun melts snow
And the water runs down
A little lol river flow
And I laid with your tissy
In the grass tonight
And watch him, gro... gro... GROW OH OH OH
Sleep in the weight thing... smilin' bin
Gimme a ride downtown
Tall trees hangin' over the road
Feels like... they're starin' me doooowwwwn
Tall trees hangin' over the road
Feels like... they're starin' me doooowwwwn
Tall trees hangin' over the road
Feels like... they're starin' me doooowwwwn
They're starin' me doooowwwwn
They're starin' me DOOOOOOWWWWWWWN
(Amazing guitar solo)
OW OH OH UH OH OH (Repeat)

Ow OH OH UH OH OH that hurts! That's too funny. Did they edit this at all? Did they look over it to see if it made any sense? Sure, some of it's right, but the wrong stuff is terrible... terribly awesome!

As a side note, I ordered the CD from his site a couple or few days ago... 12.99 plus GST. Not bad. Plus, there's supposedly a "really good chance" I'll get a signed copy. I'd damned well better! It's the main reason I ordered through him (that, and band support). After shipping, it came to over $19, whereas Future Shop has it on sale tomorrow for $9.99. I hope it actually arrives tomorrow or in the next few days, too. I'll keep ya posted.

2008-07-05T13:35:00.003-03:00

It's summertime, bitches! Time for travel! Food! Music! Video games! Theatre! Lazing about! Trying to avoid yard work! Beer! Reflection!

Yes, reflection... I'm thinking I've got a stand-up routine that's building itself. It started with my Swiss Chalet revelation a post or two ago. Then I was thinking... can fetal alcohol syndrome also apply to men? Like... they start drinking more when they find out their special lady's preggers? Also, how having a child is a joint decision between a man and a woman. I figure that must mean marijuana... like, you'd have to be stoned to plan having one. Or, one person could be convinced to have one if they're having a j. I wonder how this will keep unfurling...

Summer = music! I went to a "special-pass-only" warm-up gig put on by Molson last Saturday. It featured Chris Colepaugh and The Cosmic Crew, of which I am now a fan. He rocks pretty hard with that double-neck Gibson. I had 'em figgered as more of a psych-rock jam outfit. I'm happy to say I was wrong. The Trews played about 7-8 songs or somethings like that. I swear... of all the shows I've ever seen, it was top three in terms of volume for sure. It was a good show, but uncomfortable for the ears. That night, I went to see the main show, kicking off the Festival of Lights in town. State of Shock were blah and instantly forgettable. Like, right in the middle of the show. The Trews came on next and were great. With their growing catalog of songs, it gets less important that their sound isn't too diverse. They did a great mucho-rockin' cover of "These Arms of Mine". To close the night was Billy Talent. They were F'n A. They did a new song called "Turn Your Back" which almost has a "Run, Run Away" or Irish drinking song beat. It had even the skeptics going, "This is pretty friggin' awesome." Have a listen down there.

I am enjoying Matt Mays & El Torpedo's new song "Tall Trees" entirely too much. It's on repeat. I think you can hear it here. I think our similar age and shared eastern-ness makes me "get him" or something. Whatever. I'm totally stoked to get the new CD next week, esp. since "Building A Boat" is on it, too. I just pre-ordered it today from his site in hopes of getting a signed copy.

There's a local site that I just heard of a week or so ago. I've shared it with a couple of you already, and posted it on Facebook. You really should check it out. I've only seen about 2.5 of the whole set of videos, but they're pretty friggin' funny. "The Streets" is a great parody, and I'm currently loading ( for hours now... dial-up, remember) "The Littlest Jeremy". Frickin' hilarious. Check out some of our Island humour, akin to Sketch 22.

(That's our place with the green sign.)

We've also started booking our trip to Quebec. While in QC, we're going to stay at an old place within the walls of vieux Quebec. The funny thing is that the woman the place is named after... her husband had ties to Catherine de Medici... while in Italy last March, we learned meatballs' worth of info on the Medici family, and saw so much of their influence and mark on the country.
I'm a little disappointed in that a couple of days before we land there, Paul McCartney is putting on a free show on the Plains of Abraham (a the French having a Brit help to celebrate their 400 years there on that battlefield? priceless). Ah well. I can't linger on it. I'll get depressed. The plan is to be in QC for 2-3 days and come back via the Gaspe peninsula over about 3-4 days.
Should be fun! Any travelling tips for la belle province?

2008-06-23T22:31:00.001-03:00

Slow Motion Baby Laugh

Saw this on Rob's blog and had to share. Rob thinks he discovered that crying is just slow laughing. I think the baby sounds like a stoner.

2008-06-23T16:55:00.002-03:00

As a spin-off from a recent Holly post...

I ask you this; "So... what do famous, talented Canadian musicians do now?"

Well, they talk about copyright law with Shame-us O'Retard or they become an action-drama star. While watching Saf say his piece, seeing Hugh Dillon in the ad for the new show was just weird.

2008-06-17T22:43:00.003-03:00

If family happens at Swiss Chalet, how come I never saw anyone screwin' there? Would they kick someone out if they tried? Do they have an alternate use for their bird basters in the back room? Like... a "clinical" use? Who thought this was a good slogan? Maybe that slogan would be better for a bunny ranch.

2008-06-17T22:14:00.002-03:00

My love of eBay has been rekindled. I've been trying to get a good deal on The Sadies' New Seasons since I saw them a couple of weeks ago. Of course, I've checked eBay. I lost a couple of conservative auctions, but kept watching, and another popped up. It was one of those starts-out-at-a-penny ones. I've seen the one-cent auctions before, but when I won this one, I checked out the seller's store. Apparently, they were the first penny-auction people, and they have a crapload of CDs and other things for sale. I've been hooked on browsing their music! So far, in the last two days, I've bought:

The Sadies, New Seasons
The Police, newest 2-CD Anthology
Andrew W.K., The Wolf
Pride Tiger, The Lucky Ones
Jeremy Fisher, Goodbye Blue Monday

The total for these 5 titles (6CDs)? $26.66 Cdn. Ridiculous! I'm now just waiting for an auction to end tomorrow on a best-of Thin Lizzy CD and an older Serena Ryder disc (which I hope makes the 7-day cut for payment and group shipping).

I also saw a couple of autographed CDs at reasonable prices that call my name. MIA's Kala and Silverchair's Young Modern. If I wasn't so frugal and money conscious, I'd have clicked "buy now" already! Especially the Silverchair one, since I don't have that disc yet.

2008-06-15T15:02:00.004-03:00

Holy shit. It's that time of year again. I'm so deep in marking crap that it's like when a kid craps soft-serve style in their diaper and it comes out the top. See, you can tell I have a ton of important time-sensitive stuff to do, 'cause I'm here. I must have, like, 15 full sets of things to mark or more. I do it to myself, but hey. I can still complain. Plus, there's lots of other end-of-year responsibilities to take care of. Sorting, counting, inventory (how about the entire library? seriously...), cleaning. I think I have to say a few words at the Gr. 8 grad. I don't really want to. Then, the night after our grad, I got invited to be the guest speaker for grad at the school I was at the 2+ years before this. It's not something huge, but since the kids asked for me, I take it as a really big compliment. Now I just have to decide what to write/say! I'll also have to walk the line of serious/useful/funny. Oh crap. The things to do. Plus, I'm trying to sort summer music out in my head, and C and I keep putting off booking our summer road trip! The plan is to go to Quebec City and come back via the Gaspe Peninsula in the new wheels. Any pointers?

Speaking of the new car, I picked it up on Friday! I like it muchly. I mean... I couldn't even wait to go to church this morning! I just wanted to get into it, smell the new car smell, turn the tunes up, and drive.

If you haven't picked up the new Sloan yet, you should. I think it's their best lately. It kind of fits between One Chord To Another and Navy Blues and Navy Blues and Pretty Together. It kind of flows together in spots the way PT does, but it's got the songs and feel that fit more into OCTA and NB. Jay's got this song called "Witch's Wand" in which Scott & Murphy chug along like ABBA, but the tune has enough clapping and rock to keep it in check. Love the piano. Quick, classic-sounding, pretty, & awesome.

2008-06-09T16:16:00.005-03:00

I was just reading this article on how beer sales in Canada (still topping 8 billion) are dropping, while wine sales are on the rise. They broke it down, province-by-province (territories, too), and showed how much money each province spends on beer. They showed wine, too, but who cares. It's Canada. As much as those central Canadian weenies seem to like their wine, I'm going to focus on beer. So... I went to Wikipedia, looked up the populations, and figured out how much each area spends on beer per capita. It'd be better if I could figure it out per drinking age person, but this is ambitious enough. I wasn't about to go scouring Statscan to find out how many in each province were drinking age. So... the results?

The full list:
NL - $353.99, PEI - $251.71, NB - $293.00, NS - $291.09, PQ - $297.44, ON - $225.47, MB - $204.45, SK - $235.53, AB - $252.11, BC - $252.86, YK - $480.01, NT - $106.74, NU - $436.92
Canada - $253.04

Several things in these results are suprising:

NB and NS spend more on beer than PE? I guess we just drink more hard liquor.
MB drinks less beer than pansy ON? Weird.
What the heck is going on with NT? YK is ridiculously drunk, and NU isn't far behind, but why so dry in NT?

Anything stick out for you? I think I'll make some sausages, and have a Heineken.

2008-05-27T19:10:00.004-03:00

The times are a changin', but in which direction? Ahead? In reverse? Vortexically? (I love using words I'm not even sure are real)

As the self-labeled Littlest Hobo of my school district, I have found out I don't have to change schools at the end of the year if I don't want to. This is a good thing and a bad thing. It's a change in that it's not a change, so... it sheds no illumination on which way things are a-changin'.

Tonight, I am listening to my signed copy of The New Odds' Cheerleader. Thank God a Canadian band that kicked ass is back kickin' ass. While they're looking to the future, I'll still call it a rewind.

Did you watch Test The Nation: Sports on CBC the other night? Chris Murphy of Sloan was the guest player for the Extreme Sports team. No longer did he wear his black Adidas indoor soccer / casual shoe. He casually sported a very similar pair, made by New Balance. Like the new Sloan tune says, "I'm Not A Kid Anymore"... and Murphy's shown it in his footwear choice. As Sloan and I age together, it's a step ahead.

That leaves things all tied up!

I guess it's just a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same. What d'ya think? Notice any change / non-change of note?

2008-05-08T19:21:00.003-03:00

I'm stoked about the amount of new music that's out or coming out. I just got my advance copy of Shaun Verreault's upcoming CD, Two Steel Strings. He recorded it during Wide Mouth Mason's trip on the "Holiday Train" going from Montreal to Vancouver last December. It's a little lo-fi, as you can hear the railway sounds here and there (but not just out of nowhere... he made it work), but it helps to convey the closeness of recording in one of the train's cars. It's not quite like you're right there, but darn near. I just hope Shaun can swing out East and play 'em for us! Also, a new WMM CD is in the works, plus another fully-produced effort from Shaun, and a new CD is just about to come out from Earl(WMM's bassist)'s sideband, Mobadass. These alone would be enough to make one giddy. Sample the album's title track here from vanmega.com.

I got a message in my email today about the pre-sale of the new CD by The New Odds. Basically, if you liked The Odds, you'll like this new incarnation, too. Back in the fall, Craig Northey told me it was "all killer, no filler", too, which bodes well. Get it at www.maplemusic.com for $9.99 now, and get a signed copy! Can't beat that.

Sam Roberts has a new CD coming out on the same day, too. www.killthe8.com has signed pre-order copies, but shipping is about $10 per CD, vs. Maple Music's $3-something. Frig that. I have a signed Sammy CD. I'll wait to buy a plain one. Should be good!

Don't forget Sloan has a new one coming soon, too!

Plus, there's always other good stuff on the go... stuff I just never got yet but want... (last CD from Healey, latest Grady, Hey! Rosetta, Tom Fun, Daniel Lanois, etc.), plus a trio of chicks from the library: Shelby Lynne's Just a Little Lovin' (inspired by Dusty Springfield... some goodness, but a little too understated), Alicia Keys' As I Am (what I heard so far doesn't excite too much), and Jully Black's Revival (kinda sounds like a response to Winehouse's Back To Black in some ways. Its upbeat tunes are actually quite good... way better than I had expected, and trumping the beginning of Keys' CD, anyway).

2008-05-06T07:52:00.002-03:00

Is it coincidence that the letters of our Island's Latin motto, "Parva sub ingenti" (which means "The small under the protection of the great") can be rearranged to spell "Pin us, brave giant"?

Just seemed pretty appropriate after yesterday's post.

2008-05-05T16:20:00.005-03:00

Check out the beer skids!

The other day, Holly sent me a little CBC story link in a Facebook message whose gist was "For reals?" You see, a great big ginormous thing happened to our province over the weekend. We got canned beverages. Again.

Back in 1984, we used to have canned beer and pop. But, in an effort to save jobs at a bottling plant, and, as a measure to prevent litter, the province banned canned carbonated beverages. That meant we could have juice and whatnot, but no pop, no beer, no "energy drinks" with fizz. Really, it did work. The jobs remained, and for the most part, other than broken glass here and there, there wasn't much garbage from drinks. Plus, many folks got their spare change, main change, or fund-raised change from collecting bottles.

Too many short-sighted people in the province whined and moaned about it, though, and this new Liberal gov't (which seems to show inexperience and lack of forethought more and more as time goes by) decided it was time to change. They said nobody would lose their jobs when the bottling stopped. This ended up being wrong, because the minister responsible didn't really talk to the pop people. They just guessed. So, we lost some jobs, and now we have cans.

On Friday, a day before the big popping of the "first" can, the litter was already out. Girls were walking around town with can-shaped Red Bull backpacks, handing out freebies on the street. Of course, since can's don't break, and their deposit isn't worth nearly that of what the bottles were, the cans were left in the street. OK, I saw one, but it was within feet of the girls. I imagine many more lazy folks did the same. On my way to work today? At least one plastic bottle and a box for grape Fanta. This has also turned into a great tax grab for the gov't. Now, things that never had a deposit do. It used to be only pop and beer bottles that had a deposit, but now all drink containers (even tetra packs!) have a ten cent deposit, and we only get 5 cents back. Not much incentive. Make it fifty cents and give us 45 back! Entice people to keep their litter and return it!

Saturday saw a street party with free pop and music, and that ceremonial opening of the "first" can by our environment minister. As the pop was doled out on silver platters, he said, "I want to thank... Pepsi."
Yeah. Nothing wrong with that scene.

So, if you hear about PEI getting cans, and you hear about the hype (I heard people were fighting over it at Wal-Mart on Saturday morning... Why? Bottled always tasted better anyway!), and think that we're awfully backwards, I'd agree. I wouldn't have last week, but I think I might now.

2008-04-24T19:28:00.007-03:00

Holy frig it's a busy time of year. There's so much frigging school stuff to do. Too much work! And I'm sure you all can guess how much I like that.So, in lieu of work, let's get everyone up to speed on a few things of the past couple o' weeks.

My secret visitor
Long-time amie, but never in person, Paige decided to drop by just over a week ago (seems like yesterday!). She arrived with a bouquet of nice flowers, and a cold, which was too bad (the cold, not the flowers). We drove her around the north shore in the prov. park, taking her to Dalvay. We went to eat at the Pilot House, and I then treated her and I to a Grady show in town @ Hunter's! I wish I coulda said a proper see ya, but I didn't have the heart to wake her in the morning. We never even got a picture together! :S At least we got to revel in the rock awesomeness that is Grady, complete with Big Sugar memories and phlegm-loosening bass. How's the cold, Paige?

(I didn't take these two show pics... someone on peilocals did.)

Reggie got da rig, and so do I... almost
The blue Corolla S with the moon roof was sold by that Monday, a couple days after I talked to the owner in S'side. These things are hard to get with a standard tranny! I decided on blue with no moon roof, although I have to wait a while. It was destined for NFLD, but it's coming here to me instead! It gets built on May 20th (A Tuesday, the best day for cars to be built), and should be here by early June! The only thing I don't like so far is the tires prices... so far, from what I see, tires prices are about double that of my current car.

I have always hated Boston... Bruins
That series was too close for comfort. It nearly rekindled the full-on hatred of Boston from my youth. Hopefully Montreal will make short work of Philly. Go, Habs, go! Oft heard during the games now - "Jesus Price, what a save!"

Yep yep yep yep yep yep yep yep yep yep yep... un-hunh, un-hunh
Yep Roc's site is once again offering autographed Sloan CDs. I got mine all ordered up. I didn't even know this one was coming! Bless their little musical hearts, those Sloan boys. Ain't much better than new Sloan in the summer. Early June's gonna be sweet!

Two Steel Strings
Why didn't I know this was available in advance? Crap! I'm about a month behind the ball on this one. Ah well. At least it'll be on its way as soon as Shaun gets my SASE & moola! I only wish he picked a diff. pic for the cover. I don't like it nearly as much as some of the others.

WTF?
Mother Nature's gone bung. It's like Christmas outside! There's a poor little robin under the pine out front that's all like, "WTF?!"

Feathered Friends
There's some ducks and geese hangin' around the new ponds out front. I hope some stick around and have some bird babies!

2008-04-17T23:32:00.001-03:00

Pfft. I know I can do better than that.
Also, I made my car decision, and I'll tell you about the musical Masonite visit later.

2008-04-15T08:32:00.003-03:00

Well, I talked to the dealer yesterday, and the sticker price is the price. I know he's giving me a great deal on my trade-in, and his mark-up isn't huge, so I'm OK with that. I think it's fair.

Now I just have to decide: blue with a moon roof at about $1000 more, or silver. I wish I could just get blue with no moon roof! When I think of what else we could do with the $1000, it sways me towards silver... but when I think of the silver one, I wonder if I'll look at it and always think, "I wish it was blue." I like the silver, I just don't know if I like it more... like save-1000-more.

Hrmm...

At least there will be a meeting of Masonites tonight for the Grady show in town! Any guesses on who's stopping over?

2008-04-13T07:43:00.003-03:00

So... I'm thinking of getting a new car. Trade in the '02 Honda, and try out a Toyota. In "town", they offered me about $4850 - $5000 for my car, without seeing it. The black book says somewhere in the $3300 - $4850 range. The initial offer on the new car was the starting price. Nothing surprising. We went up to S'side yesterday, 'cause basically most people agree that doing business is better and cheaper there than in "town". We liked the owner, I tried one of his cars, he tried mine. He heard the same new noise I heard in mine. He thought it might be the axle on the left front. Max $400, worst-case scenario. If that's it, and it's taken care of, he's offering me $6500 on my car, which may be all he gets for it (maybe up to $7500). The orig. price on the new one stayed the same, but, really, we were already happier with this place.

Now.

Two questions for you.

He doesn't have any manual transmission '09 Corolla S models in the two colours I wanted, blue or silver. Initially I want(ed) blue, but it's harder to get, and the silver one I tried out yesterday looked pretty nice, too. Either way, he's got to try and make a trade for me with a dealer in another province. My options: wait until mid-May for a blue one... but it comes with a moon roof. I wasn't going to get the moon roof package because it's an extra $900-something. Probably near $1200 after tax and interest over 5 years. If I go with silver, with no moon roof, I can get it by the end of this month. Which way would you go? And how much would you haggle with someone you just met who made you a really good offer on a trade-in? Would you "cheat" and bring in a print-out from something like carcost.com? How much would you push your luck?

Well, since I totally blew my two-question goal, I may as well keep going. Which do you like better? Blue or silver?

Hmm... wait a couple weeks more, to pay more, to get the colour I liked first, with a fancy lid... or get a silver one with no fancy top for a lower price. Decisions, decisions...

2008-04-10T22:53:00.002-03:00

Dear sweet baby Vishnu. When I decided on trying to buy a Dell laptop, I had no idea I'd be getting Delhi. Mr. Dell, if you're reading this, there's a farmer in you, and, more importantly, stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Or get the people in your call centers to do some accent training.

Here's how it went down. We picked a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop online to buy. The only changes we wanted were the "cool" "Chill" pattern on the top of it, a better processor, and XP instead of Vista. So, I called them to try and arrange this. Allow me to try and recreate the ordeal in point form. All of the players except for "American Woman" are East Indian.

JJ (his name wasn't JJ, but I'll call him that) was 95% unintelligible. He patched me through to an English-speaking American woman. Little did I know that this would be the last time I encountered this language as I know it. She wanted to know what business I was a part of. Apparently, JJ put me through to the wrong #. She asked if I was calling from Canada, then
put me through to Michael. He understood me, then hung up on my when he tried to put me through somewhere else. I have no idea what the next one's name was. They put me through to Kiran. I could understand him 75% of the time, and I think it's vice versa. I've been on the phone a long time at this point. I explain what I want, and Kiran puts me on hold (he did this several times, sometimes for a long time) and tells me I can't have the computer I want, the pattern I want, or anything like that. But, he can sell me another one (thanks!). At this point, I know the computer has changed, but I don't really know why, and I generally have no idea what's going on. Trying to talk computer specs with someone with a really strong Indian accent is extremely confusing and stressful. I'm basically convinced by this point that I'm going to end up with something nothing like what I want. Did I mention how much sax/synth strings/vibraphone music I've been subjected to up to this point? A LOT. It really wore down my will to deal and haggle. In the end, my Inspiron turned into a Vostro. He tells me I can get XP on it, and that it's exactly the same except for the processor. As the minutes wear on, with me trying to understand him, I find (among other things) that there's no webcam, the memory's a bit different, and the hard drive has 120GB instead of 160 GB. I try to express my desire to have 160GB, but he argues with me that I'd never need more than that. I tell him I just might, he says I won't, this goes on for a few rounds (the nerve!). I ask him to email me the specs and call me back (dial-up). I check my mail, and I can't see 'em all. Gmail has some kind of problem. It's fine anyway. I need more time to think about it and check around. The confusion was making me nervous. He calls back, and I tell him it's a no go tonight. He says he'll call me back in two days, but he needs my credit card number. I say no, 'cause I'm not sure I want to commit. He uses various excuses, and I end up having to be a bit more forceful and very blunt about him not getting my # for something I don't know I want. He was getting pretty forceful with it, and I had to one-up him in that department. I was disgusted. I was spent. I was on the phone for about 1.5 hours.

I checked around yesterday and today, and the make & price he came up with really was the best on an XP machine I could find. We settled on a Dell Vostro 1000 (with things a bit better than the base), at a price of $609 plus taxes. My call tonight still had some confusion, but at least it was much shorter. I was hoping to get a mouse with it, too, like a gal we know did, but no dice tonight.

I'm still a little nervous about what may show up when it arrives. It damn well better have what he sent me the specs on. I'll keep you posted in 7 - 12 business days.

2008-04-07T16:37:00.002-03:00

The average is 8, so I'm not that bad. Mind you... I apparently scored higher than 69% of the people who've tried it out. Fucksakes. Maybe now I'll be up to 14%.

2008-04-01T21:12:00.002-03:00

Don't think you can cook? Boy, are you wrong! After what I saw on TV tonight, anyone can be a real chef in seconds flat. Picture it: the kids are all racing into the house after school. What could you possibly cook for them? Just open up a jar of Tostitos spinach dip, pour some into a bowl, and put the bowl on a plate. Pour some Tostitos on the plate. Voila! Instant snack! You know what's really unbelievable? "More recipes can be found at www.tostitos.com." That thing was a recipe? Wow. That sucked.

2008-03-26T18:44:00.004-03:00

Just like The Fat Boys before me, I'm comin' back hard again! It's been a while, eh? Well, I've been out of the continent for the past couple of weeks, so that's my excuse. Never got to even touch or see the internet. Not once! I was so busy with our trip, though, that I never really missed any of my usual time-eaters like video games, TV, and the Internet. But, now that I'm back, I can dabble once again.

The trip was ridiculously awesome and ridonculously jam-packed. Every day was an early-rise-late-to-bed affair, with tons of stuff to see, do, and eat (not necessarily in that order).
There's just way too much stuff to cover now. Maybe I'll have to do posts based on certain places, over a span of time. In short, we went to Frankfurt, Rome, Pompeii, Florence, Pisa, Montecacini (I think that's it), Vernazza, Sestri Levante, San Gimignano, Siena, Nice, Monaco, and Paris, and we saw or drove by / over / through many more. It was a marathon of planes, trains, and buses.

It's been tough re-adjusting to normal small-province life. It feels kind of weird (and cold).
The tiredness doesn't help, either. Also, my car did the weird "battery light" thing again today. It did it a while before we left, then was fine, but it came on on the way home today. I just have a sinking feeling that it's not good. Like I'm going to get stranded on the way to or from work either tomorrow or Friday. It's kind of like that "I have a bad feeling about this" Han Solo line.
My car (2002 Civic) had the alternator go in July of '06 (wtf?), and I'm worried it's the same again (over $400). What the hell is wrong with my car? This is some abnormal crap that's goin' down! I hate it. It makes me paranoid and nervous.

Lastly, couldn't anti-seal bashing groups focus their money and effort on something important, like actual endangered or threatened species? Howsabout the plight of frogs worldwide? Or sharks? The Amur leopard? Tigers? Pandas? They're even cuter than the baby seals that don't get clubbed. Putzes.

2008-03-03T00:33:00.003-04:00

I love music. I think we all know that. Back in my formative years, when I was in elementary school, one of my favourite musicians was Jeff Healey. He was a great Canadian musician I could watch on Video Hits and listen to on tape, and I thought the way he played the guitar and the way the band sounded was just too cool. He was one of the first musical figures I really dug, and probably one of my first exposures to blues rock. I had to wait well over a decade to see Jeff in concert, and I was lucky enough to do so three times. Even luckier was getting to meet him all three times, and getting to hang with him on a couple of those occasions. I read on his site a while ago that cancer had unfortunately struck him again, but he said treatment was going well. In the letter, he seemed in good spirits. It was a shock this evening to hear on the news that he passed away. Thanks for the near-lifetime of memories and the lifetime of music. I'll miss you, Jeff.

----------------
Now playing: Jeff Healey - My Blackbirds Are Bluebirds Now
via FoxyTunes

2008-03-01T23:06:00.003-04:00

Whoa... can you tell me if that's Muphy or McLovin?

“Get tough on crime, bring forth Brian Mulroney! Hang him high, hang Mulroney! Let’s get this Mulroney before the courts as soon as possible and hang him high! We gotta get Mulroney, put a noose on his head, put a noose on his head. Get tough on crime.’’

You go, Shawn Murphy! Yes! Nothing like pouring on the sarcasm and rhetoric. Good use of taxpayers' money!
http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=113112&sc=98
For the record, I did a Google Fight, and Brian beat Shawn by a score of 446,000 to 274,000. So, you best watch out, Murphy. I wouldn't attempt to use your Boy Scout knottin' skills in the vicinity of Mulroney. He'll whoop ya! Probably with a head / chin butt.

2008-02-26T20:32:00.002-04:00

The latest book I went through was Drew Carey's "Dirty Jokes and Beer". The first part of it is fine & dandy. The last part of it is a collection of short stories Carey did. I couldn't get through them. They just didn't interest me at all (which seems to be most fiction books, lately). In the aforementioned dandy section, though, there was one wee chapter devoted to 101 big dick jokes. There are some real gems in there... like #s 1, 10, 32... oh, but why just tell you about them? You can make up your own mind. Here they are, for your viewing pleasure, in their entirety:

1. My dick is so big, there's still snow on it in the summertime. (John Caponera)

99. My dick is so big, it charges money for its autograph.

100. My dick is so big, it has an agent. My dick's people will call your people. Let's have lunch with my dick.

101. My dick is so big, it's right behind you.

2008-02-25T21:42:00.003-04:00

I didn't really like the idea of a new Poet Laureate for PEI, since I like, and have so much respect for, Frank Ledwell. He had an extended term as PL, and I just love his writings. That being said, I quite like what the new PL, David Helwig has set up. He wants poetry on PEI to be more accessible / visible, so he put up a site where Islanders can post their own work, as well as see and hear the work of local contemporaries. Cool idea. So, I posted a poem today. Lookit, me, ma! I'm a poet!

2008-02-18T21:15:00.002-04:00

Ryan Adams' Easy Tiger is a really good CD. That is all.

----------------
Now playing: Bob Dylan - Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
via FoxyTunes

2008-02-09T09:37:00.000-04:00

A couple of good quotes this week from the world of school. I can't remember the best one, though, from yesterday, I think... I hope it comes back to me. At any rate, here's a couple I do remember:

"That cat has crop circles on it."

Student: "I can't find the word in the dictionary."
Me: (Seeing that he's looking for 'acquaint' and in the ac- area of the dictionary, I ask him how we'd find it around these pages, getting the idea across that you search letter-by-letter, left to right.) OK, I'll give you a hand. So, you're looking for 'acquaint', right? You're pretty close to it now. What are the first three letters?"
Student: "A-B-C".

Once again, I ask... please, think of the children. They need your help.

2008-02-09T09:05:00.001-04:00

The Big Book of British Smiles has a new entry to add in their next printing...

My gawd, poor Amy Winehouse. One of my kids was saying something the other day about her horrible teeth, and I'd never heard/seen it. I didn't think it was true, but then again, I didn't ever recall seeing her show her teeth. I guess there's a reason for that. Apparently her health is so poor (from drugs and whatnot) that she's gotten to the teeth-falling-out point. Sad.

Holy crap, look at that face. Is that not the look of someone who's totally out of it?

In my searching, I found this custom Simpsons toy scene. It's too bad it's not available to buy. It's a classic scene. I thought they did a great job of the book and that I should share.

2008-02-09T08:58:00.000-04:00

Not far from my house is this local community church thingy. They have a tall, lit sign on the road, and it always has a funny saying on both sides. I swear, people are joining up there just because the sign's so gosh darn funny. A day or two ago, they changed the sign (changes about every week), but both sides of it, I think, are sending a different message this week:

"God is at the end of your rope."

"Don't let worry kill you, let the church help."

Is it just me, or are they sending out the wrong message?

2008-02-09T08:40:00.000-04:00

MAHTHAFUGGA! I get up, I turn on the computer, it comes up with some blue screen thing, to check a drive or whatever, saying it recovered some files and put them somewhere or something... nothing to be concerned about. I open Firefox. So... bare. Where are my tabs? WHERE ARE MY BOOKMARKS? All lost. ALL GONE. I had a shitload of bookmarks. I couldn't find all that stuff again if I tried. Links to movies, music, files, sites for school, sites for fun, sites for shopping... all fuckin' gone. Sweet Noah's Ark, it's all gone. I am NOT happy. I did find a backup of bookmarks I made once... in 2006... but it's just not the same. I can't even think of all the cool stuff and pages I want to re-find. This is not cool.

2008-02-02T18:27:00.000-04:00

So, a few days ago, it was announced that Stone Temple Pilots are reuniting. It's pretty cool, but whatever. Deano will be excited, though. And maybe Neil Barry. After that... I think that's about it.

On a related note, I'm actually reading for enjoyment in the last couple of weeks (wtf?). Usually, I find that I can't discover books that interest me enough to put the time into them. However, I have found a couple in the last few weeks. The first is Slash, by, well... Slash. It was a meaty book, but I figured it'd be worth the read. I was right. While I didn't learn any new words, I did learn a lot about Slash, Guns N' Roses, and people in their periphery (like Sly Stallone, the guys in Metallica, other music types, strippers, etc). More informative & somewhat insightful than entertaining, it left me wanting more juicy bits & stories and whatnot. However, it's still well worth a read. There's enough rock gossip, strippers, drugs, and stories to entertain. Also, as an added bonus (at least for me), I discovered that I know a girl who sang backup for a guy who had an affair with Slash's mom. We're, like, close! Toight!

Next on my list from the library is Tommyland by Tommy Lee. While I'm only 1/4 of the way through the half-as-long book, it basically fills in the gaps Slash left with some gooey stuff that I'd rather not touch. Holy frig is it entertaining. It's got a much stronger voice than Slash's book. It reads like you're listening to Tommy Lee. Plus, it's got all the raunch you'd expect and more. At the risk of being punny, it almost seems like Lee blew it in the second chapter, devoted to sex. I mean, how much more of this stuff can he cram in the last 3/4? I can only imagine. For your reading pleasure, a dirty excerpt (You've been warned... it's explicit! I'm serious!) from that chapter... some advice:

"Dr. Lee would like to take a moment to discuss a related item, that is, going south on a lady. I refer to comedian Sam Kinison, who suggested that men trace the alphabet on their girl's clitoris. It's a good idea. It gives you a focus and keeps you engaged. Of course, if you don't know the alphabet, you're fucked. I do, and I like it when I get to the letter "i" because I just grab the clit and suck on it to dot that fucker. But I don't only do the alphabet, I mix it up: a little hard, a little fast, a little nibbling, and a lot of licking. My favourite thing to do when I'm in the southland is to pull my girl's lips all the way back so that her little Gummi Bear just pops out at me. Dude, I love Gummi Bears!"

I don't know why, but something tells me Rox will think this is pretty funny.

----------------
Now playing: Van Halen - Pretty Woman
via FoxyTunes
(funnily enough, this track is from the album Diver Down, heh)

2008-01-29T08:23:00.000-04:00

(as started on Tuesday, January the whateverth)
It figures, right? We get a couple of storm days, and I and C are sick. She's full-on, whereas I'm on pace to be miserable when we get back to school tomorrow (this proved to be true... I feel worse than ever, and it's Friday). Dandy.

SO why have we received this bounty of hometime?

I wish I had my camera with me last night. Some trees were touching the road, and some of the lighting of these icetrees was pretty awesome. Ah well.

Why was I going anywhere last night? It was the Trivia Host Challenge. Hosts from the Island take five people from their trivia night to play on their team, against all other hosts and their players. This was my 3rd year on Doc's team, and we finally won! Woot! Not everyone could show up, due to the weather, but we were on last night anyway. First round we had 10/13, where the next closest team had 4. Wasn't even close. So now Neal & I are current reigning Doc's and Island champs. Shweet. Enough gloating.

In stark contrast to those icy pics, is this. Pics of a once-booming town being reclaimed by the desert sands. Click on the pic to see more.

I saw this other site today (Tuesday). Pretty cool. It's 360-degree 3D photos. Turn around, look up, look down, zoom in, zoom out. Nifty.
http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen/fullscreen46.html

And, lastly... I saw this on Rob's site and I couldn't resist sharing:

2008-01-22T21:57:00.000-04:00

Tonight, on Jeopardy...

Alex - "Postal codes in Canada follow a 'letter-number-letter-number-letter-number' pattern. His is H-zero-H-zero-H-zero... Ho, Ho, Ho."

Stupid American Woman - "Who is the Prime Minister?"

I bet she was all glad she remembered we don't have a president.

2008-01-10T18:50:00.001-04:00

As I sit here drinking a Hobgoblin, and listening to the first band on the moon, searching for Life, I thought I would share a couple of things with you. It would be criminal not to.

Before we get to the unlawfal material, I give you this. It's old, but I know some of you wouldn't have seen it. It's enjoyable.

He looks cold. Maybe he should put on a Cardigan.

First, is from "town". Apparently, an old boy who wasn't too big broke into a local bakery, brandishing a big knife. Without begging, I bet, he beat it with a bundle of bread (the cash, not the buns). The bloke was wearing a blue jacket and blue baseball cap. By all means, if you know something, you should bellow to the authorities.
If you know the place, you know why this is funny.

In Kent, Washington, a guy made his own dummy (cloning, anyone?) to use in his car so he could drive in the car pool lane. The guy got caught because of the seat belt law. Cops noticed the dummy (the lifeless one) had slipped in its seat / had no belt on, and stopped the guy, only to find out what was really going on. I also suspect the cops stopped him 'cause he was driving with the Unabomber.

2008-01-04T10:14:00.000-04:00

The best music of 2007? I know you're dying for me to tell you, whether you're musically challenged, or just bow to my tastes. Or not. I'll make it a brief one-post offering this time.

Songs of the year:
I'm not going to pick a single of the year. It'll take too long. I think my current (and surprising) fave is "I Want To Be In The Cavalry" by Corb Lund. Great song. It sounds like a pub classic.
If you want more of a list of great '07 tunes, then just ask.

Albums of the year:
My choice would be Amy Winehouse's Back To Black. However, it was released in '06. It's just that it got released / big over here in '07. Fantastically-produced classic-sounding album.

Some other good ones:
Bachman Cummings' 2-CD Jukebox
(good, but not fresh / remarkable enough to make it to the top)
Bedouin Soundclash - Street Gospels
(good, but kinda the same stuff as before)
Blue Rodeo - Small Miracles
(I've not liked their last two records as much. The big tunes aren't there.)
Colin James & The Little Big Band - CJ & TLBB Christmas
(It's good, but not that good. Besides, a Christmas CD can't be top five! Pfft.)
Feist - The Reminder
(Quality, with a few killer songs, but it seems to have lost some of the sincerity / innocence / cohesiveness of Let It Die)
The Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
(A few killer tunes, some not so killer. Just doesn't have the Colour & the Shape of their best)
Jim Cuddy - The Light That Guides You Home
(I swear, the only tune I really remember is "Married Again" with Kathleen Edwards. I didn't even find the title track that memorable. The first time Cuddy went solo was great. This one, not so much.)
Kanye West - Graduation
(Thank. God. That Kanye has stopped that retarded sped-up sampling of old tunes. It annoyed the Hell out of me and sounded like crap the 2nd time he did it. This is a fine album, with a few amazing tunes.)
KT Tunstall - Drastic Fantastic
(Nothing wrong, nothing overly remarkable. S'good.)
Rufus Wainwright - Release The Stars
(He's getting better again, but is still stuck in the post-great-debut slump.)

Good, but Disappointing:

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
(Worth buying, for sure, but I find it sorely lacking in energy / interest. It's got its moments, but it leaves a bit of a bland taste in my mouth.)
Sloan - Never Hear The End Of It
(Ever hear of how too much of a good thing isn't good? I would've thought that more Sloan would mean more awesome, but it's not the case. Thirty songs on a single disc is too much. In there is a great, great, record, but it's hidden & mired down. They should've split this over a couple of records or each released their own simultaneously.)

So... that leaves the Top Six!
(It doesn't have to be five. Who said it does?)

Buck 65 - Situation
Secret House Against the World was good, but quite diverse. A little too much so. This record's got some variety on it, but it's a definite return to basic hip-hop. The beats and production (by Skratch Bastid and Buck) on this is great overall, and at times, superb. The whole concept of a record about 1957 is pretty cool, too.

C'MON - Bottled Lightning (Of an All-Time High)
When you just want some great, gritty rock-n-roll, and you're pressed for time, this is the one to pick. It's over far too quickly, but unlike the Sloan record, leaves you wanting for more. There's even strings on this one! Betcha Campbell's old band (Nashville Pussy) wouldn't be doin' that.

Jill Barber, Rose Cousins, Meaghan Smith - A New Kind Of Light
A Christmas CD? In the top six? Yes. It's too bad you can only buy this at Lawton's, but it's good that it's a Food Bank fund-raiser. The standards are refreshed, and the new songs are great. There's even a few tunes on here which could (if they catch on) be eternal Christmas classics. Meaghan Smith (who I'd never heard of before) has a new fan.

M.I.A. - Kala
I wanted to get it, 'cause I liked Arular, but I was cautious, because I found much of it sounded the same after a while. Kind of like Sitting in a strip club for hours on end. Or at least, so I've heard. I'd almost written Kala off before I got it. I was pleasantly surprised, though. It's more diverse in beats, styles, and sounds than the last one. Worth getting if you like this kind of thing.

The Top Two:
Joel Plaskett Emergency - Ashtray Rock
Two Hours Traffic - Little Jabs

I don't know if I can pick a favourite! I have different #1 reasons for each of them. Joel's is a fantastic record that's combined some way-old songs of his with some new tunes. He put them together as a story / concept album about two friends. They have a band, they party (at Ashtray Rock, a real place), they fight and break up over a girl... there's highs, there's lows, you'll laugh, you'll be touched, you'll rock out. It's solid.

Being a local band of youngins from UPEI, I'd pretty much do the local thing and write off anyone from your hometown as being really good. I thought it was pretty cool how Plaskett had taken these blokes under his wing for the past few years, though. Plaskett produced this full-length album for them. The lyrics and vocals are good (and surprisingly distinct for a younger fellow). In short, though, it's wickedly catchy pop-rock that doesn't lag or drop you the whole way through (that doesn't mean that every song is upbeat all the way to the end, though). It pops, it rocks, it's a perfect pop-rock record. Ideal for summer (or any season) listening.

2007-12-25T16:44:00.000-04:00

Happy Christmas, bloggerinos!
I'm stuffed!

I hope you're having a most excellent Ed Grimley day, I must say.

Lots of goodies to report on. I'll do a better job later (with pics), but, in brief:

The complete Planet Earth / Blue Planet DVD series.
TPB - Season 6 DVDs, Calendar
Buck 65 - Situation
Craig Northey - Giddy Up
Stripper's Union - Local 518
Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
Joel Plaskett - In Need of Medical Attention
MIA - KALA
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace
A Joyful Sound (one of dad's choirs) - The Joyful Sounds of Christmas
Some arty supply stuff (water colour pencils, brushes, sketchbook, info books, pencils, etc.)
Framed design of the back of my House of Blues T-Shirt I can't wear anymore
Book of quotes
Binoculars
Emergency light / flashlight / hallway lights
A few new board / social games
Sweets
This and that
6 Blue, 6 Rickard's, 11 International / Specialty beers
A couple / few gift cards / cert's
Two shmooth-lookin' Wilco shirts. A little snug, perhaps (especially one) but maybe that'll be motivation to drop some poundage.

I am full of food and need a foolishly large beer.
Cheers!

2007-12-20T22:19:00.000-04:00

We're pretty much over the hump now! Today had its ups & downs, but we shan't go there. Friggin' children (in some cases, and those ones just seem to stick with you more than the nicer ones). While browsing for some more Christmas tunes (you can never have enough, and man, I've got scads now!), I came upon this pic from WHAM!'s "Last Christmas" single. I don't have to tell you that it's pretty special. It looks like they're having a gay old time. George is really riding ol' Andrew!

Now, for some light-hearted Christmas tunes (what, as opposed to those serious ones?), here's a link to an entire album of Bob Rivers' Christmas parodies. My personal fave is "Police Stop My Car", sung to the tune of "Feliz Navidad". A sample lyric: "Police stop my car. Police stop my car. Police make me stop, walk a straight line and blow a balloon up. They wanna wish me a sober Christmas... "

Enjoy!

2007-12-18T22:33:00.000-04:00

OK. I go online, the lawless international waters of commerce, and find a few things on a site to buy as Christmas presents. I order them, and pay to have them shipped to me. Why is it when I buy something from another country, stuff that's got nothing to do with my own government, that I have to pay tax on it here before I can get it? It wasn't made here. I didn't buy it here. It's not Canadian goods. Why should I have to pay provincial tax and a national goods and services tax on the stuff? It makes NO SENSE.

2007-12-16T16:13:00.000-04:00

HilARious.

2007-12-16T16:07:00.000-04:00

Saw this the other day and HAD to download it. Whackjob video, but I like it (would you expect anything different?). It's a pretty good song, too. I figured, in the spirit of Christmas (as the heavy snowfall begins here), I should share it with you.

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Now playing: Mecco Monardo - R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas
via FoxyTunes
(It says Mecco Monardo, but it's Jon Bongiovi A.K.A. BON JOVI!)

2007-12-16T14:51:00.000-04:00

CBC is finally getting better again. I mean, hey... they used me in a "Blog Watch" on one of their stories, so that has to be a good sign. I also think it's kind of funny, since that post was such a short, semi-humourous, stylized, seemingly-inarticulate-to-an-untrained-eye post. I'm going to have to write about more newsy things. See what comes up.

2007-12-13T07:12:00.000-04:00

I love the humour that can be found in words & language. A seasonal example? During French class last night, I asked the teacher what eggnog would be (I've never thought to check the carton at home). She said she just calls it eggnog (but with an accent, of course), but also thought there was another name for it. Sure enough, she found it (and I verified it in my fridge when I got home). Eggnog, in French, is "lait de poule". Translated directly, it's "chicken milk". All I can think of is tiny little milking machines hooked up to chickens, or people pulling wee little chicken teats. Hmm. That could be a new KFC side order. Popcorn chicken too big for you? Try some chicken teats.

2007-12-06T22:22:00.000-04:00

As the students filed in this morning, they noticed the Christmas lights around the board (one of them nearly went into a burnt-toast seizure of glee), and the outline of what we were going to do this morning. One thing we did this morning was watch a video on Rick Hansen for our Terry Fox novel study.

Looking at the Rick Hansen item, a student said, "Is he the guy that made The Muppets?"
You can imagine my response.

This is the same student, weeks ago, when commenting on Martin Luther King in a project, described him as the guy that ended slavery. At least he/she didn't say King rode the bus.

Please, someone pray for the children.

2007-12-03T20:04:00.000-04:00

The scene begins with one of my students approaching my desk. He approaches it most days at the break, to tell me some joke from the paper.

Student 1: "Do you want to hear a joke?"
Me: "Sure, but I've got one for you, too. It's short. Only three words long."
Student 1: "OK."
Me: "Toronto Maple Leafs."

Student 2, sitting behind Student 1 hears this, as he was intended to.

Student 2: "Oh yeah?! I've got a three-word joke for you... Montreal!"
Me: "Actually, that was pretty funny."

2007-11-28T23:55:00.000-04:00

I was cleaning / USB-vacuuming up my keyboard the other day (you know, underneath the keys). C said it looked scuzzy, so I decided I should clean it out. It had been a while since I'd cleaned it, after all. Now, a keyboard that's in a house with a cat, and in front of a guy who sometimes snacks at the computer... you'd be surprised how much dirt and fuzz can accumulate. It's gross, but have a look:

Blech. Fuzzcrumbs. You may want to clean out your own keyboard.

2007-11-27T20:44:00.000-04:00

Is this not the friggin' coolest surprise or what?

Paige finds the coolest stuff. Thanks, Paige! I love it.
I'm going to have to scan this & print it to go next to my autographed Rocket Richard photo.

Oddly enough, on a related Rocket Richard note, one of my students sold me a few raffle tickets on a PEI Rocket jersey a couple / few weeks ago. And, as you figured out ('cause you're smart like that... plus, you can see the pic down there, Captain Obvious), I won! Wohoo! The jersey's, like, $120 or something, and it's autographed by Lessard (their captain, and Senators draft choice) and Lafleur (Flyers pick? Handrahan, you'd know). It's my lucky week!

----------------
Now playing: Bob and Doug McKenzie - Twelve Days of Christmas
via FoxyTunes

2007-11-24T17:47:00.000-04:00

A co-worker of mine told me something on Friday, and I can't, for the life of me, get it out of my head. I hope this helps.

She's from Newfoundland, and she said it's "the shortest Newfie conversation."

"Arn smarn?"
"Narn Smarn."

Translation:
"Herring this morning?"
"No herring this morning."

Arn smarn? Narn Smarn.

2007-11-24T11:50:00.000-04:00

On a not-good note - and this might've been the thing I tried to remember last time (can't remember, of course) - a musical favourite and acquaintance of mine, Jeff Healey, is not doing so well these days. When Healey was quite young, he lost his vision/eyes to cancer. What he didn't know until very recently was that people with this type of cancer have a 50% chance that it'll reappear somewhere, sometime later in life. Apparently, he's had a couple of tumors removed from one leg, and is undergoing treatment on another before having it removed. Also, the cancer has appeared in his lungs and liver. It sure doesn't sound good, but he says he feels fine and all. He continues to work and be busy. Oh, and as I checked the link to make sure his writings were still there & current (and they are), I saw another noteworthy piece of info...

It may shock the majority of you to know that, during all I'm going through health wise, I'm being pursued for money by Tom Stephen, former drummer for the Healey band and former business partner in Forte records.
Despite the fact that I handled the pay-back of about a quarter of a million dollars in debts owed by Forte records upon their demise--something that has not been made absolutely official, as Mr. Stephen refuses to O.K. the paperwork to do so--Mr. Stephen feels that I owe him money for... well, being me, I guess. He seems to feel that his association with me means a lifetime of being taken care of financially by yours truly. He was just found guilty of insurance fraud here in Toronto.
He had claimed that he was physically unable to play the drums (a fact that most of us were a painfully aware of during his agonizing (to others) performing career).

He further went on to claim that he was physically unable to earn money at all. In short, these claims were thrown out of court, and he was ordered to pay back the insurance company the money he has thus far embezzled from them. It takes all kinds to make up this interesting world of ours, ladies and gentlemen. I wish I didn't have to have met some of the characters I have over the years.

Wow. Scuzzbag! I wonder if I should put a paper bag over his head in the Healey Band 8x10 on my wall... I'll do this for the moment, anyway.