Renaming Things

Magic Trick

2007-03-25T11:30:00.000-02:30

Ursula Martinez
Uploaded by Simeons

where does SuperDuper Danatrooper come up with this stuff?

2007-03-25T11:16:00.000-02:30

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Flickr

2007-03-19T19:58:00.001-02:30

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

This is what the summer is going to be like

2007-03-14T16:55:00.000-02:30

Snape does Duran Duran

2007-03-11T12:12:00.000-02:30

My Celebrity Look-alikes

2007-03-08T22:31:00.001-03:30

http://www.myheritage.com

The Ultimate Flashback

2007-03-01T10:06:00.000-03:30

I was playing Ultimate Frisbee last night in the MUN gym, something I've gotten into in the past couple of weeks, and for the most part, I'm enjoying it. It gets me out of the house, meet some new people, and gets me some physical activity aside from walking back and forth to MUN everyday. But last night, in the middle of play, something happened to flash me right back 30 years to public school.

There was a 'rockstar' playing on the team. You know the type. He's big, loud and he's wearing the t-shirt from the Mile Zero Ultimate Tournament that he attended way back in 1992, just to prove that he's a serious athlete. This in a sport where most people show up in cutoffs and t-shirts that advertise beer or old rock concerts.

So the Rockstar has the disc and he's looking for someone to pass to. I'm about 15 feet away, in the clear, and he sees me. But does he pass to me? NO. he wastes the pass on an overhead hammer throw all the way to the endzone where there is NO ONE WAITING!!! Let me make a pertinent point in ultimate frisbee: short passes win the game. It's a frisbee, not an exocet missile! You can throw it as hard as you want, but in the end, it's still a big hunk of plastic creating a whole lot of drag, and if you throw a long shot, there is an ever increasing possibility that someone from the other team will throw themselves in front of it.

So the frisbee bounces off the wall, which makes it an incomplete pass, and the other team gets the disc. And then Mr. Rockstar has the fucking nerve to exhort the rest of the team to 'get closer' to him so he doesn't have to throw long shots. This is just like public school all over again; where the cool kids (they thought they were cool back then, but 99% of the cool kids from my public school are doing hard time now) would throw to their buddies, or waste their shot trying, unsuccessfully, to score the winning point by themselves.

When I was in public school, three little words that never failed to make me feel like shit were, "Let's pick teams", cause I knew that I was going to be the last one picked. So I avoided sports in public school and for the most part in high school as well. I've never understood just what in fact, the PE teachers in public school were trying to instill in me, when they forced me to participate. Was it some sense of fair play? Cause there was nothing fair about it.
Was it some out moded idea that sports would bring us all together in some sort of an alpha male bonding ritual? Cause all it did was push me further to the margins of public school society.
Was it a love of the game? Cause all it instilled in me was a total hatred of anything even remotely sports related.
In fact, I was so totally pleased to get to high school cause I knew that PE was an option, not a requirement. I was thinking on the way home, that part of the reason that I'm enjoying ultimate is that teams are decided on the basis of what colour t-shirt you are wearing when you show up. And that if I'd had more balls in public school, I would have told them to shove their archaic system of torture up their ass, or at least said, "No. I'm not playing."

Easiest Pizza Dough Ever

2007-02-26T20:56:00.000-03:30

Pizza dough from scratch is harder than you might think. I've been trying to come up with a decent one, but to no avail, until I stumbled across this website (thanks to stumble upon) and got this awesome recipe. It's quick, it's easy, practically makes itself.

3-4
servings
time to make 40 min 30 min prep
3 cups flour
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon fast rising yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Throw all ingredients into a bowl and mix together with a food processor (using dough hooks) or by hand.
2. The dough will be fairly sticky but don't add any more flour.
3. Instead scrape it into an oiled bowl, cover with a cloth and leave to rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size. I like to let my dough rise in an ever-so-slightly warmed oven or in an airing cupboard.
4. When dough is finished rising, pre-heat oven to 400 F degrees.
5. Turn onto a floured surface and work in a bit more flour until the dough loses its stickiness -- you shouldn't need too much -- then roll out to desired size, keeping the dough about 1/2 inch thick.
6. Leave to rise for about 10 minutes, before topping with your favourite ingredients.
7. Put on a baking sheet sprinkled with flour or cornmeal and bake for 10-15 minutes in a very hot oven until lightly browned. Our standard is 230-240 C in a fan oven for 10 minutes on a top shelf.

© 2007 Recipezaar. All Rights Reserved. http://www.recipezaar.com

Spring Break = Snow Day

2007-02-21T08:59:00.000-03:30

Figures doesn't it? We are in the middle of Spring Break - a misnamed vacation if there ever was one - and the university closes for the day (the whole day mind you), so that the city can dig itself out from underneath cataclysmic snowstorm #45. I actually went out at one point in time, just in time to see the bulldozer clearing the driveway
(yes, I actually changed out of my pajamas - don't have a cow), to see if I could get to Sobey's for essential snow day supplies (milk, peanut butter, bread) and to see the carnage in the neighbourhood. After negotiating the herculean snow drifts at the back of Our Lady of Perpetual Agony High School, I gained the Sobey's parking lot only to discover that the store was closed. But thankfully, the Georgetown Convenience & Deli was open as usual, and I got my supplies.

Over on Maxse street, the plow only went 3/4's of the way down, and then reversed its way back up the street, leaving the citizens to dig themselves out, except for one guy who was too busy running on his snowshoes up and down his neighbour's snow piles. This is the kind of neighbour that you "accidentally" deck with your shovel while tossing the snow.

Note to self: When buying a house in Georgetown, make sure front door opens IN!

I had to help this poor schmuck get out his front door. He was standing in the window with his shovel, frantically gesticulating to anyone who was walking by. He managed to crack the door about an inch to pass his shovel out. Thank God, I didn't rent the rowhouse I had originally looked at: I couldn't even see the front door!

Hangin' With The Purity Girls

2007-02-17T13:26:00.000-03:30

Last night was the Valentines Burlesque Show at The Majestic (The Molestic) Theatre. Aside from the fact that I hung out with The Purity Girls,

who kept smuggling me free beer from back stage, I was able to catch local icon Gary Palen in drag singing "Cocksuckers for Love":

This was the kind of evening that makes me glad that I live in St. John's, despite it's many hardships. The crowd was raucous and lively, and kept the energy level up throughout the show. I wasn't sure what to expect, never having been to The Majestic before. I was glad to see the bar though, and even gladder when Sarah smuggled me a $20 bill out from backstage in her bra, seeing as I didn't have time to make it to an ATM before the show.

Local band "oddly enough" sings some old Cyndi Lauper

while Miss Jezebel Express needs a little technical support.

Now here's what we need in St. John's!

2007-02-16T18:05:00.000-03:30

RED BULL FLUGTAG CLEVELAND '04

Video Provided by Red Bull Flugtag USA

Never beam down in a red shirt

2007-02-08T11:54:00.000-03:30

This is another funny thing from the wilds of the interweb. As any self-respecting trekkie knows, anyone who beams down wearing a red shirt is pretty well toast.

Get a bathmat, you moron!

2007-02-07T21:39:00.000-03:30

I'm sorry, but I'm a sucker for slapstick comedy. This is just like that show MXC on Spike TV, I watch that and laugh until the tears come.

Capital Video

2007-02-03T23:03:00.000-03:30

Capital Video resides in a small shop in Rawlin's Cross. I never paid much attention to it in passing before I started going in this year. A friend introduced me to it, and when I finally realized what she was talking about, I said,"you mean that boarded up place that is always closed?" Little did I know that that little oasis of old VHS tapes stacked on sagging shelves behind the unwashed cobwebby windows was a movie junkie's fix. Not only are the proprietors knowledgeable about the movies they rent, they are also not above dissing the customer who rents a movie they don't approve of.

Overheard at "The Ship"

2007-01-20T10:41:00.000-03:30

I went down to The Ship for happy hour yesterday where I overheard this little gem:
"How was your week?"
"Well, the Prime Minister of Canada isn't spanking me with a bible, but aside from that, not bad"

Later on, I went out to the Rose & Thistle to hear the first set of Blair Harvey & The Dregs. Blair was in fine form, as usual, howling and wailing away on the tiny stage. I ducked out in the break and went down to CBTG's (if the original CBGB stands for Country Bluegrass Blues - what does CBTG stand for?) to see if anything good was playing. Unfortunately, I was sucked in by the poster on the door which promised "non-stop pounding from 11 till close" by some band called Queen's Maid. If it weren't for the beer being sold, I could have sworn that I'd walked into an all-ages show. The band had to be 19 at the maximum, and were either missing an amp (or two), or had been told by the management (or their parents) that they couldn't turn the volume up. They were so damn quiet (considering they were playing Zeppelin, Idol and a few others that they'd massacred into oblivion) that I could have a normal conversation in the back of the bar. At one point, the lead singer stopped playing and thanked someone named Erica for something. I didn't catch what it was for as I was laughing too hard, thinking that he was going to go on to thank "my mother for driving us down here in the mini-van." It was that kind of show. I got a couple of photos to comemorate the event and I got the hell out of there.

2007-01-18T10:47:00.000-03:30

Went over to Skylarkd's blog this morning while taking a break from studying piracy. She had this amazing animated avatar on her site. So, of course, you know I had to get one too....

Oh Crap! It''s "Delurking Week"

2007-01-11T17:54:00.000-03:30

Oh crap...it's "delurking week" and I had to find out from someone else.

Snow and Classes...Wheee!

2007-01-11T09:07:00.000-03:30

This post head is like that old internet video about the squirrel (WHEEE!), except instead of "gonads and strife" it's snow and classes. It has at last, snowed! And we are in for more of it tomorrow. And I've dropped one of my distance classes already. 3 days into the new semester and I'm already sick of it. The main problem with this distance class, is that there is no textbook and the powerpoint (the saving grace of pathetic teachers) slides that are supposed to help me are next to useless. So I've dropped it and hopefully in the fall, someone more qualified (or enthusiastic) is teaching it.
And onto the snow! I've noticed looking out my kitchen window that someone has already shovelled the walk! I do like the included snow clearing in this place, after the herculean snow clearing at my last place.
Up at MI the other day, the instructor for my stability class was reading the attendance list, when I heard a familiar name, and sitting behind me was a woman, that had sailed on the Picton Castle with me! I haven't seen her in 8 years. Needless to say (seeing as the class was only about 20 minutes long) we got the hell out of there and went to The Ship to catch up on history over some India beer.

First day of school.

2007-01-08T21:27:00.000-03:30

My laptop decided that last night would be a good time for it to "up and die" on me. Actually it was probably my fault, as I was in the middle of my yearly "re-format the hard-drive and re-install windows" event. Apparently my restore disks are slightly corrupted (or maybe there is some sort of "you can only do this 3 times and then you should buy a new computer" code written into the operating system), or the system just doesn't like being erased and re-installed. Anyrate, I am now on the 4th installation of windows and at last it seems stable. It was a bit of a hassle that I didn't need on the night before school.
School has begun again! I saw a few familiar faces, but no one that I knew from my classes last year. I've only got the one class at MUN this year(1st year French), but my afternoons look to be pretty busy until spring break, with 3 hours per day of Stability up at the Marine Institute. People have been busy signing on to the distance education sites and introducing themselves. As soon as I come up with something interesting to say, I'll have to do the same.
The great unpacking is going well...well at least it's not totally stagnating. I put together a set of shelves and the kitchen table and tomorrow morning I hope to put together the big set of shelves and get the rest of the books out of their boxes.
I apologize to everyone whose link I deleted from the sidebar when I deleted the template. I've been hesitant to put them back up as I keep mulling over taking this blog to a different host. Stay tuned to this space for more news...

Setting Up

2007-01-07T10:25:00.000-03:30

I'm now on my 3rd official day in new apt! It's gone from this:

to this:

The kitchen is put away, and semi-organized, the storage room is put away and semi-organized, the bedroom is a disaster, the bathroom is a disaster, the living room is half a disaster, and the dining room is still full of boxes, chairs and un-assembled IKEA shelves. Gromit has been set up in the kitchen (Lord of all he surveys), and I'm slowly taming the mess in the other rooms. At least I can cook for myself, and don't need to rely on take-out or friends to feed me. Self-reliance is very important. After months at sea, having my own place seems to be taking top priority over everything else. Even though, I know it's going to take weeks to get everything sorted out and put away, I can't seem to stop obsessing over the apartment. On a brighter note, school starts tomorrow and will give me something new to obsess over. But I did go see the professor who will be grading my technical report and she likes my topic, and suggested some ways that I might go about doing it, so I'm hopeful that the actual writing (which I've been dreading for months) won't be too bad.

New Year, New Apt, New Attitude (?), New Blog...

2007-01-01T15:51:00.000-03:30

It's a brand New Year!:

Trashed the old template: Lost the links, the webcam, and the site meter. Feeling like I should start over with the blogging thing. Will try to blog more often and say something worth reading. More stuff, less gromit?
Most excellent new apt in St. John's: out of rabbittown, into the upscale part of town. close to downtown still (sort of halfway between the Ship and MUN), and close enough to the funky DVD store and still get the partridgeberry icecream at MooMoo's. It's good to have priorities in life.
Gonna be the public transportation King of St. John's this year. Jeep died an untimely death (okay, helped considerably by failing safety inspection), thankfully in a garage and not on the open road. Although would be nice to have car if only to take advantage of included snowclearing/plowing service at the new apt.
Got all my stuff in 1 place finally!! Looking forward to unpacking and cataloguing extensive book and DVD collection. Then to doing lots of baking and cooking utilizing new present from the folks.
School: 2 part thesis left to write (and taking French, just because I can) and feeling galvanised to get writing. Okay mainly to get done, so I can get out of debt, and get on with life.
More patience, less stress. More 'go with the flow' and less 'in control.' More humble, less arrogant. More exercise, less sloth. More Newfoundland, less Canada.

CBC calls St. John's "Hyper-Cool"

2006-12-11T12:02:00.000-03:30

Great article on the CBC website about a St. John's artist who makes books and book art. Apparently, St. John's is the cool place to live now.

"... the perfect place is St. John’s, a city that acts as a living metaphor for the line between the values and esthetics of the old and new. In the midst of a long-running renaissance, Newfoundland’s capital has become hyper-cool and overflowing with personality and art. It is home to many refugees from the mainstream..."

I went to the CBC, (not a trek that I make often) looking for more information on Laura Gainey, who was swept off the deck of my old ship, the Picton Castle on Friday. The search has been going on all weekend, but I'm not holding out much hope for a happy end to this story. If there is one thing I understand well, it's the realities of my job. I lived for almost 3 years on that ship, and I know it is almost impossible to enact a successful recovery of a MOB in any kind of weather. Not that I'm being pessimistic or anything, just realistic. I would be delighted to be proved wrong in this case. I'm afraid that this may prove to be the end of the Picton Castle. Her father must be well connected and there will be an inquest at the very least.

We are unloading in Wolfe Cove, Quebec. We should be here about 3 days, if all goes well. I went for a walk (and dinner) in the city last night after walking up the stairs to the Plains of Abraham. As I said to my father, "it's not such a steep cliff, but I'm glad I'm not dragging a cannon!"

what a geek I was in high school...

2006-12-09T17:36:00.000-03:30

I was cruising by skylarkd's blog the other day and came across this. She had googled the top 100 songs of the year she graduated high school and then crossed off the ones she didn't like. Honesty is key policy here. While I can honestly say I did like (and in some cases, still do) some of the songs here, at least I'm not on record with Hanson on my list.

~~1. "Careless Whisper".....Wham!~~

2. "Say You, Say Me".....Lionel Richie

~~3. "Separate Lives".....Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin~~

~~4. "I Want To Know What Love Is".....Foreigner~~

5. "Money For Nothing".....Dire Straits

~~6. "We Are The World".....USA for Africa~~

~~7. "Broken Wings".....Mr. Mister~~

~~8. "Everybody Wants To Rule The World".....Tears for Fears~~

~~9. "The Power Of Love".....Huey Lewis & The News~~

~~10. "We Built This City".....Starship~~

11. "St. Elmo's Fire".....John Parr

~~12. "Can't Fight This Feeling".....REO Speedwagon~~

~~13. "Crazy For You".....Madonna~~

~~14. "Easy Lover".....Phillip Bailey & Phil Collins~~

~~15. "Everytime You Go Away".....Paul Young~~

16. "Don't You (Forget About Me):.....Simple Minds

17. "Take On Me".....a-ha

~~18. "Party All The Time".....Eddie Murphy~~

~~19. "Everything She Wants".....Wham!~~

~~20. "Shout".....Tears for Fears~~

21. "Alive and Kicking".....Simple Minds

~~22. "I Miss You".....Klymaxx~~

23. "Sea Of Love".....Honeydrippers

~~24. "Cool It Now".....New Edition~~

~~25. "Part-Time Lover".....Stevie Wonder~~

~~26. "Saving All My Love For You".....Whitney Houston~~

~~27. "Sussudio".....Phil Collins~~

~~28. "Oh Sheila".....Ready for the World"~~

~~29. "A View To A Kill".....Duran Duran~~

~~30. "One More Night".....Phil Collins~~

~~31. "Cherish".....Kool & The Gang~~

~~32. "Heaven".....Bryan Adams~~

~~33. "The Heat Is On".....Glenn Frey~~

~~34. "Raspberry Beret".....Prince & The Revolution~~

~~35. "You're The Inspiration".....Chicago~~

~~36. "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free".....Sting~~

37. "Miami Vice Theme".....Jan Hammer

~~38. "Freeway Of Love".....Aretha Franklin~~

~~39. "Don't Lose My Number".....Phil Collins~~

~~40. "Never".....Heart~~

41. "Things Can Only Get Better".....Howard Jones

42. "The Boys Of Summer".....Don Henley

~~43. "Rhythm Of The Night".....DeBarge~~

44. "We Don't Need Another Hero".....Tina Turner

45. "We Belong".....Pat Benatar

~~46. "Loverboy".....Billy Ocean~~

~~47. "All I Need".....Jack Wagner~~

48. "One Night In Bangkok".....Murray Head

~~49. "Never Surrender".....Corey Hart~~

~~50. "Lovergirl".....Teena Marie~~

~~51. "Nightshift".....Commodores~~

~~52. "Head Over Heels".....The Go-Gos~~

~~53. "Neutron Dance".....Pointer Sisters~~

~~54. "Axel F".....Harold Faltermeyer~~

~~55. "You Give Good Love".....Whitney Houston~~

~~56. "The Search Is Over".....Survivor~~

~~57. "Small Town".....John Cougar Mellencamp~~

~~58. "Smooth Operator".....Sade~~

59. "Glory Days".....Bruce Springsteen

~~60. "Suddenly".....Billy Ocean~~

61. "Run To You".....Bryan Adams

~~62. "Obsession".....Animotion~~

~~63. "Lonely Ol' Night".....John Cougar Mellencamp~~

64. "Some Like It Hot".....Power Station

65. "Valotte".....Julian Lennon

66. "You Belong To The City".....Glenn Frey

~~67. "Material Girl".....Madonna~~

~~68. "Perfect Way".....Scritti Politti~~

69. "Election Day".....Arcadia

~~70. "Too Late For Goodbyes".....Julian Lennon~~

~~71. "Freedom".....Wham!~~

~~72. "In My House".....Mary Jane Girls~~

~~73. "Summer Of '69".....Bryan Adams~~

74. "Sleeping Bag".....ZZ Top

~~75. "Angel".....Madonna~~

76. "Lay Your Hands On Me".....Thompson Twins

77. "I'm On Fire".....Bruce Springsteen

78. "Would I Lie To You?".....Eurythmics

~~79. "Who's Zoomin' Who".....Aretha Franklin~~

80. "Fortress Around Your Heart".....Sting

81. "Born In The U.S.A.".....Bruce Springsteen

~~82. "All She Wants To Do Is Dance".....Don Henley~~

83. "Voices Carry".....'Til Tuesday

~~84. "Be Near Me".....ABC~~

~~85. "Private Dancer".....Tina Turner~~

~~86. "Fresh".....Kool & The Gang~~

~~87. "Sentimental Street".....Night Ranger~~

~~88. "California Girls".....David Lee Roth~~

~~89. "Do What You Do".....Jermaine Jackson~~

~~90. "Method Of Modern Love".....Hall & Oates~~

~~91. "Walking On Sunshine".....Katrina & The Waves~~

~~92. "Pop Life".....Prince & The Revolution~~

~~93. "You're Only Human".....Billy Joel~~

94. "Invincible".....Pat Benatar

~~95. "Lovin' Every Minute Of It".....Loverboy~~

96. "Get It On (Bang A Gong)".....Power Station

~~97. "Dare Me".....Pointer Sisters~~

~~98. "What About Love".....Heart~~

~~99. "You Are My Lady".....Freddie Jackson~~

~~100. "Dress You Up".....Madonna~~

The Christmas Season

2006-12-04T02:25:00.000-03:30

Skylarkd was writing the other day about the christmas tv season, about how all the old favourites were being replayed, like they are every year, and that the Christmas season wasn't complete unless she had seen a couple of them. Yes, they are cheesy, and we've all seen them lots of times. I made sure this year to pack a few holiday DVD's in my seabag to watch when I got homesick around this time. I'd love to find One Magic Christmas on DVD, but so far it eludes me. These are some of my favourite "new" classics.

a lot of time and energy trying to be curmudgeonly about the holidays (who am I kidding, not just the holidays, but everything in general) but the truth of the matter is that I love Christmas. My favourite Christmas thing when I was growing up was this totally funky paper Nativity scene. A couple of years ago, Mom gave it to me and apparently it had always been mine, a gift from a college friend of hers for me. Unpacking the Christmas books too, alway had a special appeal for me, like old friends that you only see once a year.

Gromit visits the Welland Canal (while I visit the dentist)

2006-11-27T05:51:00.000-03:30

I had to get off the ship today in the Welland Canal and go visit yet another dentist. I think I'm going to give up on the "roaming dentist experience" and just stick with my dentist at home. The dentist that the company fixed me up with was a bit too flaky in my books, and instead of fixing the hole in my gums (through which my jawbone is sticking out), he was all, "lets let Mother Nature take her course." I prefer the old-fashioned approach of my own dentist which is, "lets numb you up, slice it open, grind the bone down, and sew the gum shut. After which I'll prescribe some synthetic heroin for the pain, and some penicilin." Much more effective in my books.

But it did give me a chance to let Gromit out of my room (where he's been languishing since returning from Scotland this summer) and together we checked out the Museum at Lock #3 while we were waiting for the Algowood to arrive and pick me up.

Gromit checks out Lock #3

and some old ship crap at the museum

Like I said to the nice lady who took this picture, "everyone needs a hobby, and I don't have any kids."

mmmm, keep the cat out of this...

2006-11-24T17:27:00.000-03:30

Whoever said these two ingredients should be together was absolutely right! Creamy milk chocolate and smooth peanut butter are the perfect liquid for dipping your favourite fruit or pound cake. Any leftover fondue can be refrigerated and reheated over a low heat for a second fondue session.

8 oz (250 g) milk chocolate, chopped
½ cup (125 mL) smooth peanut butter
1½ cups (375 mL) whipping cream
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla essence
4 cups (1 L) strawberries
2 bananas, cut in chunks
One 298 g pound cake, cubed

1. Place chocolate and peanut butter into fondue pot.

2. In small saucepan bring cream to boil over medium-high heat. Pour cream over chocolate and peanut butter; add vanilla. Let stand for 30 seconds. Whisk until smooth.

3. Serve with fruit and cake.

Serves 8

Beefcake.....BEEFCAKE!!

2006-11-24T06:45:00.000-03:30

It's not exactly Gromit, but it's the best I could do. Not that I carry him around a lot or anything. It's not like it's a problem, right?

It's been a while

2006-11-23T19:41:00.000-03:30

It's been so long since I've posted anything, I feel totally embarassed and a little bit ackward. Now I'm going to have to send emails out to people and let them know that I'm back.
I'm not actually back yet, still 3 more weeks of work to go (3 more weeks of milking the company teat for enough $$$ to sustain my scholastic endeavours for the winter), 1 more (hopefully) dentist appointment to fix the supposed-to-be-hidden bits in my mouth, 2 more trips through the seaway (also producing the aforementioned $$$), but then I'll be back in St. John's again! Drinking India beer at The Ship Inn whilst listening to the cacophany of that band from Fogo Island on amateur night (sorry, Christina, I will forever apologize for that), and trying to find a seat at CGTB's.
I'm getting pysched up for the research part of my thesis, and studying at the MI for my 1st Mate's ticket, and a chance to add more stress and sleeplessness to my career!
I'm busy looking at the apt ads on the MUN housing site, even though I can't do anything about them yet. I guess I just want to feel like I'm doing something productive. Besides I pay this hideous amount of $$$ for the privledge of having internet, I'm going to damn well use all the minutes that I've got.
I've linked to a new (to me) blog at the right. I picked up this one on Dreae's page and it's a hoot. Arse Over Teakettle.
Here's my furry mascot doing what he does best at Loch Ness this summer:

the SciFi convention

2006-09-03T23:58:00.000-02:30

Today was the last day of the SciFi convention in Toronto and I went in hopes of seeing Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) whom I've had a crush on for years. Unfortunately she'd already left by the time I arrived, but I got this great photo of me, Fresnelly and Aberkok from the TFP with Juliet Landau from Buffy and Angel. In case anyone has missed this: DRUSILLA IS TOUCHING ME!!!

life at sea

2006-08-23T00:46:00.000-02:30

Life at sea isn't the romantic adventure that most people think it is. Most days for me consist of staring at the water, eating, sleeping, watching tv and staring at the water again. Every couple of days I get to either load or unload the ship, but then it's back to the staring, eating, sleeping and watching tv. I think it's kind of funny that I used to get yelled at for staring out the windows in grade 4, and now my job mainly consists of it! For some reason, I just haven't been off the ship that much this summer. It always seems to be my watch in port, but last night I managed to go for a walk in Ashtabula, and got some pics to prove it. These pics came off my phone which explains their quality. Ashtabula is one of those towns on the south shore of Lake Erie that seems to exist simply as a railhead for the iron ore and coal towns of West Virginia and Pennsylania. Had some nice houses, and I ended up in a bar on the main drag with tin ceilings and walls.

2006-07-28T08:36:00.000-02:30

Heading up in the Welland Canal on our way to Fairport to load Salt for Picton (back to the dock with the cliff). It's been a busy couple of weeks here on the Algowood, but great news, I'm being put up 2nd Mate at last for the month of August. We are doing the crew change in the canal on the 30th, and they are sending us a Nav Cadet, (figures, just when I'm going up 2nd) so that will make it pretty crowded here. Here's a nice shot I got the other night on our way to Detour.

2006-07-27T20:37:00.000-02:30

2006-07-18T18:59:00.000-02:30

The Picton Salt Dock (or the dock at the bottom of the 100ft cliff)

2nd Mate on the top of the cliff directs the boom (cause the Mate on deck can't see the top of the dock)

I'd like to meet the man who thought, "hey, here is a 100 ft cliff - I think I'll build a dock on it and make ships come here to unload!" Seriously though, what kind of person dreamed this up? The Algoma Manual for self unloaders states that the ship should always be in a white condition (or even keel) for unloading. Obviously that person has never been here. We did the whole unload on a red light (or slightly listed to Port [left for you landlubbers], or even better two red lights, just to prevent the boom from coming into contact with the top of the cliff! It's a scary sight to be down on the deck, and swinging the boom out (the boom, that to cause even the slightest damage to it means being fired) and watching it come so close to the top of the cliff, that wildflowers on the cliff are being bent over.

2006-07-17T15:55:00.000-02:30

In the Welland Canal on an incredibly slow transit. Just as well, as Frasers have a crew on board welding up the crack in the port heavy fuel tank. If we are going to have a fire, I'd rather have it here than on the lake. There is still fuel in the tank, which the guys are standing in. They've covered the residual fuel in fire retardent foam, but I'm glad it's them down there and not me.

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2006-07-17T15:44:00.001-02:30

Fairport, Ohio. Loading salt at what my be the slowest loading rig in the Great Lakes, about 1000 tonnes per hour. It will probably take about 20 hours or longer to load. Thankfully, the former Columbia Star got out of Nanticoke in record time, about 13 hours. I went over to see it after lunch to get an ETA and the mate kicked me off!! I still can't believe it...

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2006-07-17T15:44:00.000-02:30

The moon came up orange qnd nearly full tonight as we made our way across to Nanticoke. Columbia Star arrived at the anchorage @ 2300 to wait for the Enterprise to finish and leave. We are arriving at the East dock, to do the crew change, before going out on the hook to wait for the Star to get done. Hopefully we won't spend the weekend on the hook.

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2006-07-13T15:12:00.000-02:30

Currently heading down Lake Huron on our way to Nanticoke, to unload our 30,000 tonnes of coal, our little contribution to global warming. 3 other ships, including the former Columbia Star (62,000 tonnes of coal) are there ahead of us, so that may delay our arrival for the canal.

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2006-07-07T19:52:00.000-02:30

testing

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2006-07-07T18:58:00.000-02:30

View from the Algowood of Cherry Street Slip in Toronto

What I look like after unloading 30,000 tonnes of coal in the rain

Trip #13 went off about like you’d expect from a trip with “13” in it. It was uneventful until about halfway through the Welland Canal (in #5, for anyone who knows just how bad that is) when I spaghetti’d the #4 wire. Imagine a dropping a pot full of freshly boiled pasta on the kitchen floor…now imagine that pasta is 1” thick steel cable…now imagine that it is attached to a winch that has the capacity to pull 11 tons at 50ft/minute. Or in practical terms, that winch can pull a Ford F-150 truck (with the driver in it, in gear and pedal to the metal) backwards off a wharf (don’t ask how I know this). It was, as my friends in square-rig ships would put it, a cluster-fuck. We held up traffic for about 45 minutes before giving up on it and using the tag wire as a #3 and the #3 as a #4. We finally got it straightened out at on the way to the #3 lock.

On arrival in Toronto, I got woken up at 6 and during a shift at around 10:00 the #4 wire (which we had slaved over the night before), broke a strand at the swage fitting. So I had to call another mate and two more guys to replace the wire. Thankfully the rest of the trip went off without a hitch. Now we are on our way to Sandusky to load coal at the most clockwork loading rig in the lakes, and then back through the canal to Hamilton.

The Weekend Past...

2006-05-15T17:30:00.000-02:30

It's been a busy weekend here in Ontario. Friday night was Sarah's concert at the church. It's always fun when Sarah shows up in Cobourg and this time she brought a friend, Shiona, with her. So Friday's concert was 2 sopranos (no, not those kind) and an accompaniest. They were fabulous, and then there was a post-concert party at Sarah's parent's house (The O's) where Sarah broke out someones (borrowed? stolen?) fiddle and graced us with some tunes.

Saturday morning, I went to the city to meet my old friend Kathi for lunch. Kathi and I were great friends when I was in college in Toronto years and years ago, but I lost touch with her. We meet at the Queen Mum for lunch at 1:30 and were still at the table laughing at 5. This could have continued for a while, but it started to rain, and I had to go check in to the Delta Chelsea and go out to the TFP meetup at Hernando's Hideaway. The usual TFP crowd showed up (Charlatan, Seige, Cellophanedeity, Fresnelly, Aberkok) and a new addition, Mantus, as well as some spouses. This meetup didn't go as long as the Christmas one only from 7 to 10:30-ish, but was great fun.

Fresnelly met me for brunch at Pappas Grill on the Danforth and then we went to a movie. He was one of the few TFP'ers free on Mother's Day, on account of the fact that his wife and infant son had left to fly to France the day before.

The Move is Complete!

2006-05-12T14:03:00.000-02:30

Finally, at long last the endless (at times, it seemed like it was going to be) move has been completed. I took the last load of stuff from Owen Sound to Cobourg, in the middle of a howling rain storm yesterday (and of course, today is beautiful) and got it into storage. This is the last time that I will ever use a trailer, the jeep just really hates it. Next time I have to move (which will be Christmas) I'm using movers to do the schlepping.

Now I've got the TFP meetup this weekend in TO to look forward to and meeting up for lunch at the Queen Mum with my old friend Kathi from Centennial College. Haven't seen her in about 15 years, but got in touch again through the power of Google.

Here is a photo of Prince Rupert playing in the packing paper from the move:

Gromit Sees Canada (well, ok, the Eastern Part!)

2006-05-06T16:25:00.000-02:30

Here is Gromit and I at the apt in St. John's prior to setting out on the great trek. We got off to a late start due to having to pack the jeep in the morning, rather than the night before (I don't trust my neighbours that much!), but got away by 10 to drive across Newfoundland. Here is a couple shots of Gromit on the road and taking in the view at Terra Nova Park.

After a long drive, Gromit made it to the night ferry at Port Aux Basques where he (and I) made an uneventful crossing to Cape Breton.
While driving through Cape Breton, we stopped at the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, and gave two Comissionaires the highlight of their day (and probably their week).

Our next stop was my old shipmate Rigel's house in Sunnybrook, Nova Scotia. Gromit enjoyed watching Rigel re-leather his oars in his kitchen, and then he watched from the shore as Rigel, his wife Ariel, and I went for a nice sail in the inlet.

This is the Dory Shop in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia where my friends Kim and Jill build dory's and sew sails, respectfully.

We left Nova Scotia behind and headed on to New Brunswick pausing now and again, so Gromit could stretch his legs and look at the scenery.

It was absolutely pouring all the way through Quebec, so we didn't get a chance to stop and look around, but headed straight on to Cobourg, Ontario, where my parents put up with us for the night, and Gromit was able to go for walk on the beach.
We left Cobourg behind and headed on to our final destination, Owen Sound. Since then Gromit and I have been busy emptying out our storage unit and moving things around, but we took time out for our traditional Saturday brunch at the GingerPress Bookstore and Cafe (shameless plug), where Gromit snuggled with MaryAnn, met the Mole Sisters and enjoyed a cup of Denise's java.

Boat Trip

2006-04-30T10:54:00.000-02:30

Currently sitting in Rigel's Kitchen, where his wife and I unsuccessfully trying to talk him out of launching a major expedition in his newly launched boat. Rigel seems to go through life by the seat of his pants, but it's never dull. We think it would be a good idea to go as far as the end of the inlet, but he is busy packing up his charts and instruments and planning a trip out to Tancook Island.

I'm taking a bit of a break from the road trip, and accepting Rigel's generous hospitality and staying for 2 nights before taking off again. I'm still planning the next stage of things, and I'm thinking of going along the Gaspe, instead of going inland to Edmunston, like I did last time, although that might add some time to the trip.

While I'm here, I'd like to see Jill the sailmaker and see the recently restored St. John's Church.

In Nova Scotia

2006-04-29T14:44:00.000-02:30

on the road in Newfoundland

2006-04-28T12:41:00.000-02:30

What Is Your Battle Cry?

2006-04-25T08:49:00.000-02:30

Who is that, prowling out of the fields! It is Izenkumon, hands clutching a jeweled meat hammer! And with a vengeful roar, his voice cometh:

"I'm going to reduce you to ash, and sell you as spice!"

What Is Your Battle Cry?

How To Bathe A Cat

2006-04-12T06:55:00.000-02:30

1. Thoroughly clean the toilet.

2. Add the required amount of shampoo to the toilet water, and have both lids lifted.

3. Obtain the cat and soothe him while you carry him toward the bathroom.

4. In one smooth movement, put the cat in the toilet and close both lids (you may need to stand on the lid so that he cannot escape).

CAUTION: Do not get any part of your body too close to the edge, as his paws will be reaching out for any surface they find.

The cat will self-agitate and make ample suds. Never mind the noises that come from your toilet, the cat is actually enjoying this.

5. Flush the toilet three to four times. This provides a 'power wash and rinse' which I have found to be quite effective.

6. Have someone open the door to the outside and ensure that there are no people between the toilet and the outside door.

7. Stand behind the toilet as far as you can, and quickly lift both lids.

8. The now clean cat will rocket out of the toilet, and run outside where he will dry himself.

Sir Paul visits New Finland

2006-04-11T10:00:00.000-02:30

Waiting...

2006-04-11T09:46:00.000-02:30

I'm waiting for the Rude Guy to come and look at the apartment. It's now 10 to 10 and he was supposed to be here at 9:30. This guy has pissed me off right from the get go. He calls me and leaves a number on my answering machine (which is a different number than my call display showed), so I returned his call. It rang and rang, no machine, so I hung up. He calls me back a couple of hours later.

Me: Hello?
Him: Who is this? You called my cell phone!
Me: you called me first and left the number. I've got an apartment for rent.
Him: mmmmm...Is this the apartment for rent?
Me: Yes, were you interested?
Him: I've got a client flying in next week and we want to see it, 9:30 Tuesday morning.
Me: OK.
Him: (hangs up)

Honestly, if I wasn't desparate to rent the place, I'd have told him to piss off with his rudeness. Who answers the phone with "who is this?"? and now it's almost 10 and they aren't here. You'd think (in a civilized society) that if you'd made an apt. for 9:30 and it was getting on to 10, you'd call and say that you were running late, right?
There's so much that I wanted to do today, starting with going out and getting some coffee, and it's a beautiful day too. This isn't getting it off to a good start.

2006-04-10T15:34:00.000-02:30

Get FIREFOX!!

2006-04-05T11:23:00.000-02:30

This blog is best viewed using the Firefox browser I just checked out how it looks using Internet Exploder and it's all centered on the page with my beautiful sidebar at the bottom. So stop using Internet Explorer, it's full of bugs and doesn't have nearly the amount of cool features, extensions and plug-ins that Firefox has. Having problems with Firefox? Drop me a line, I'll be glad to help.

I saw a new thread last night in the Tilted Forum Project about the Seal Hunt. For those of you not familiar with the TFP, it is the board where I spend a lot of my internet time hanging out, playing games and discussing things with other members. As usual with the seal hunt, some one seized on the graphic pictures of the cute baby seals, and started a very one-sided argument (and really wasn't looking for any other viewpoints - because he tried to bitch-slap me when I disagreed) about how cruel and un-necessary it all is. Now I don't profess to know all there is to know about the seal hunt, but I do know that people here in Newfoundland don't like being told how to run their business. For that matter, people anywhere don't like being told how to run their business. I do think that when rich and famous people with their multi-billionaire livestyles come into someplace like this and preach to people who are trying to earn a living without having to resort to government assistance they havent' gotten the whole picture.
To that end, CBC Newsworld is broadcasting the documentary "My Ancestors Were Rogues And Murderers" on Saturday night. I'm going to watch it, and I think everyone should as well. Thanks to Skylarkd for pointing it out to me.

On Moving...

2006-03-31T13:15:00.000-03:30

Things I Will Miss About St. John’s

The magnificent view from the top of Signal Hill

Beer in my corner store, Funkman & Frogs

Trinity Pub

The Ship Inn

Nautical Nellies

India Beer (like I’m taking about 300 cases back to Ontario)

Did I mention the view from Signal Hill?

Cool old architecture

Rupert and Jericho (even though they are my cats, this will be the last time I will live with them.)

Memorial University (strange as it sounds)

Being in the QEII @ MUN (especially the reading room on the 4th floor at the long tables looking over the edge)

The Harbour (The Newfoundlanders haven’t felt any need to “reclaim” their waterfront like so many other cities have. These people understand the need for a wharf!)

all the artists, and assorted cool folk who live here. Did I mention that I almost creamed some clown on a unicycle juggling batons who was coming down the Signal Hill Road as I was coming up?

Things I Won’t Miss About St. John’s

Potholes

Drivers (I’ve been in so many close calls since I’ve been driving here)

The total absence of any snow clearing on Feild Street

The delay to get mail from the mainland

Being a CFA

Memorial University

Why do I always buy Tortellini?

2006-03-29T13:17:00.000-03:30

Why do I always buy Tortellini?

I bought a package of tortellini, in a moment of weakness the other day. Why do I keep buying that stuff? It just sits in the fridge for a week and then when I get around to making something with it, it always sucks. Which is kind of a pain, cause I’m a decent cook when I have a mind to be. Now that the tortellini disaster is over with, I’ve got a hankering to go to The Keg for a good steak. Maybe I’ll do that on the weekend…

2 Term papers are finished, and they were the big ones. I’ve been in full on stress mode for the past three days and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank C, H, and especially L for calming me down.

And I helped L set up her blogger page, with some HTML coding tricks which I sent over the IRC channel, to help her add some links to the template. That was my good deed for the week and made me feel pretty good about myself.

In the night kitchen

2006-03-25T11:43:00.000-03:30

I'm actually in the library, being a beautiful Saturday and all.
Seriously, the sky is blue, the snow is melting, I think I may have heard a bird singing too. The snow is finally gone from the traffic island at Elizabeth and Allandale, which is great cause there are now 4 lanes again, rather than the 2 that we had to put up with all winter.
My goal today is to get that freaking Tech Comm paper finished once and for all. It's been hanging over my head all semester, honestly you'd think that at nearly 40, I could come to terms with my procrastination once and for all, and just accept it, but I don't. I'll probably still be putting things off at 70. That's a scary thought, "No, I'll oil the wheels on my chair tomorrow."
I've been thinking a lot about me and my life this week. It's kind of an offshoot of all that is going on in my life these days. The major players know who they are. I feel the beginnings of a mid-life crisis coming on. I'll have to sell the jeep and get a porsche. Although as D says, "We're having our mid-life crisis, dude. We're at University!"

Spirit of the West

2006-03-24T11:36:00.000-03:30

So S calls me last night at 2320. I wasn't even home yet as I was having a beer or two in the Breezeway bar at MUN with Jason, the deaf guy from my Sociology class. I got home at about a quarter to 12, and she calls a minute later from Club One. I can barely hear her, but she reminds me that Spirit of the West was playing there. I'd only seen that today in The Muse, but I figured it would be sold out, and I was planning on going to Fat Cats anyway. But there were only about 100 people in Club One and Spirit of the West were fantastic!

Amazing Race Ticker

2006-03-21T12:00:00.000-03:30

Omigod! mini post! but I've just found the most kick-ass thing for my blog. Scroll down the page and check out the Amazing Race Tracker in the sidebar!.

Day Two in the QEII

2006-03-21T10:26:00.000-03:30

I'm in the library for the second day in a row. Why is it that I get work done here that I don't do at home? I'm not sure why, considering the only thing I'm missing here is the TV and the cats. I don't mind working here, they've got these nice long tables with great views over the courtyard, and I can plug in my laptop, connect throught the university wireless, and still do the daily stuff. The only down side to working here is I to take the bus, because I can't find a parking space at the University, and I'm not at home to play with the cats, so they are both waiting by the door when I get home. I've had the sneaking suspicion for the last couple of weeks, that Rupert has taken to sleeping on the stairs when I go out in the evenings. If I come in late at night, he is sitting on the stairs blinking his eyes like he just woke up.

I'm finally on the downward slope of my life at University, and feeling pretty upbeat about leaving Newfoundland. Let me get through the next couple of weeks and I will be good. I'll miss the good local music at Fat Cats, that cute little bar Trinity (which was packed on St. Patrick's Day) and that great view of the ocean from the top of Signal Hill. I drove up to Pouch Cove last weekend (just felt the need to get out of the city), and I'd like to drive over to Carbonear way and see the other side of the bay. Maybe I'll do that when C visits.

Speaking of C, she is the only person whom I've told about the TFP, that has bothered to go and sign up for it. Now that she has, she seems to be getting quite addicted to it. I spent about an hour on the phone with her last night, teaching her how to link photos, and how to get Chatzilla set up so she can chat with the rest of the crowd in the TFP channel.

I'm looking forward to getting settled down in Kingston finally once and for all. I've been perusing the housing market and have found a great little brick house in the city, that is in the right price range. It looks like it might be in the middle of the ghetto, but what the hell? The appeal of having a permanent address and finally my own place (where the landlord doesn't care if I poke holes in the walls [not that I have done here or anything]), so I can stop changing my addresses in my magazine subscriptions.

If St. John's is the new Prague, then Mt. Pearl must be the new Scarborough!

2006-03-06T15:15:00.000-03:30

Last night I skipped out on the Academy Awards (for the first time in years) and went down to Roxxy's for the John Lennox farewell show. Man, what a hole! I did a Dana, and arrived so early, John was still doing sound checks. But all was not lost...I picked up an India beer and settled in for some Elliptical Pool with Darrell and John.
Elliptical Pool looks like something that Salvador Dali would have invented. Round pool table, about 4 feet in diameter with a honking big hole off center. There are 3 cue balls and an unlimited number of people can play. Balls have to be sunk using bank shots, and the person who sinks the last ball wins. It's kind of fun when you get used to it, but the balls tend to congregate at the edges of the table rather than in the middle, so you spend most of your time breaking up the clumps of balls. I managed to find this picture of an elliptical table on the i-net. The surrounding are much fancier than Roxxy's!

John's show was great as usual, and since I was taping the Oscars, I wasn't worried about missing anything major. Lauren Bacall did the Elizabeth Taylor thing this year. I just don't get the point of trotting out some once great actor, and making them make a spectacle of themselves on live tv. Aside from the Bacall show, this years Oscars were rather tame. The women's gowns were classy and understated (aside from Charlize Theron's massive bow), no one pulled a Halle Berry by bawling, and despite Ben Stiller's antics in the green unitard, most of the presentations went off well.

Food and Drink

2006-03-05T12:18:00.000-03:30

After a little mix-up with the dates, Dana and Stu came over for dinner on Friday night. Just as well they did, because I had a whack of fondue and no one to share it with. I made Dragon Noodles and we had the Chocolate/Peanut Butter fondue for dessert. Now my fridge is full of pasta, pound cake and chocolate!

I've been cruising around on other people's blogs, and lifting clever bits of programming to stick in the side bar, to try to jazz up this space. So far, I've managed to get the site meter, and the graphical version (which I think is really cool - I mean, who in Churchill, Manitoba is checking out my blog?), I've got the webcam of downtown up and running (which is good, cause it has that view of the narrows that is blocked by The Rooms at my house), and now I've got some images of books and DVD's that I'm watching and reading.

Firefly is excellent, I don't know how I missed it when it came out. And the Space channel is running 2 hours of Angel everyday, so I can get my Joss Whedon fix.

Here as promised for Dana is the recipe for Dragon Noodles, and here is the link to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario website, so you can browse the recipes from past issues of Food and Drink.

Dragon Noodles

Infused Oil
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp very finely minced fresh ginger
1/2 tsp crushed chili flakes
1 tsp dark sesame oil

Salad
1/2 black beans
1/2 lb capelli d'angelo
3-4 cups shredded cooked chicken
3-4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 carrot, grated
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh coriander
1 lime
2 tsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt

1. Heat Canola oil with garlic, ginger and chili flakes in a measuring cup in the microwave for 30-60 seconds until hot with rising bubbles. Stir in sesame oil. If using within a few hours, leave at room temperature, otherwise cover and refrigerate until needed.
2. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and refresh under cold running water until cooled
3. Combine drained pasta, cooked chicken, green onions, carrot and coriander in a large mixing bowl
4. Finely grate zest from lime and squeeze juice; stir zest and juice with sugar, soy sauce, and salt. Then whisk into infused oil. Pour over pasta mixture; toss from bottom of the bowl until ingredients are shiny and evenly mixed.
5. Covered and refrigerated, salad keeps well for a day or two.

40 cm of snow + 100 km/h wind over a 24 hour period =

2006-02-26T12:08:00.000-03:30

Yesterday was another big blizzard which unfortunately closed The Ship, thereby preventing all of us from seeing John Lennox' farewell performance. I was all set to go, when Dana messengered me with the news. After walking around this morning, I got to thinking about that alley that The Ship is in. Probably looks like some of these drifts now. No wonder it was closed.

Music Part 2

2006-02-24T11:54:00.000-03:30

Dave and I went down to CBTG's last night to see the John Lennox show. Unfortunately for us, we just caught the last song. I guess we figured that 12:30 would be fashionably late or something...Thankfully the next two bands were great, the Reels from Halifax and (I'm guessing)local boys Blair Harvey and the Dregs. The Reels were this country rock outfit doing some serious channeling of Blue Rodeo and Sons and Daughters. If you've never heard of Sons and Daughters, I'm not surprised, but have a listen to the track Johnny Cash and see if you think like this reviewer:

a darkly theatrical, distinctly celtic noise that's part Alternative Country, part Psychobilly, part Indie Rock and part New Wave post-punk, with songs that make you want to rub your sweatiest bits against your neighbour's muddy jeans.

I'm just getting into the local music scene here in St. John's, and it's quite lively. I've always said, that one of the things I liked about living in Owen Sound was the local music scene, that we could go to Jazzmyn's and hear good live music. But now that I think about it, it was mainly the same 15 players over and over again, playing the same 30 songs over and over again. The Byrds, Neil Young, old Eagles, etc. Not that I'm dissing the great hits of the 1970's mind you, they're classics. But it does get a little repetitive.

I'm really looking forward to John's final show at The Ship on Saturday night. If his show a couple of weeks ago is anything to go on, this one will be excellent. He had a couple of tunes last time that sounded like he was channeling early Pink Floyd. That's Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Pink Floyd, not Dark Side of the Moon, good as it is.

Music and Memories

2006-02-14T14:56:00.000-03:30

Dreae put out a request for some mix tapes to help her write poetry and get "Dora the Explorer" out of her head. I wrote her, because I've got this tape from Joe's Bar in Porto kicking around on my desk. God only knows why I've hung on to it this long, because I don't have any way of playing it, save for the crappy player in the Jeep. But while I was writing a comment in her blog, describing the tape, memories kept flooding into my head, things I haven't thought of in a long while.
I remember one evening during the Tall Ships visit, when while being rowed ashore (we were anchored off the shipyard, cause the Sagres had taken our spot on the dock) some of the hideously polluted D'ouro river water splashed on my foot, which unbeknowest to me had a scratch on it. By the time that Elin and Ellen showed up about an hour later, my foot was swollen and weeping blood and pus. Elin went back across the bridge to the ship and brought back some antiseptic before the blood poisoning travelled up my leg. I've still got the scar.
But there are some happier memories as well, nights filled with music and conversation; putting on a record and ducking out to go to the cafe for one of my 20 nightly expressos; someone bringing back that weird latenight Portuguese pizza; going to Meia Cave after Joe's closed at 2, and then to Industria to dance until 6; making my way home for an hour or two of sleep before starting work.
This isn't from that summer, but from the following winter when Elin and I were sailing on the Eye of the Wind, but it reminds me of that time.

The Canadian Women

2006-02-12T14:05:00.000-03:30

So the Canadian women are kicking ass all over Turin (Torino, whatever) in which ever venue they appear in. Ok, Beckie Scott kind of let us down there in the skiing, but I'm hopefull that she'll stage a big comeback later on.
Trainspotter Dana was commenting that my blog was "so 1994" with it's centered-ness, so I had to go back to the drawing board (the html tweaking board) and fix it up some more. I'm still trying to get the background colour to something that moves me, but haven't had any luck yet. I guess more experimenting/tweaking/procrastinating is in order.

Yet Another Incarnation...

2006-02-10T10:19:00.000-03:30

Yes, big change for those few people who read my blog. I tried out the email blogging which I actually got to work, but which screwed up my blog beyond belief. So I had to find a new template. This is the Minima template which is the same as Dreae's, but which I've tweaked the html code to something I like. As Dana says, html tweaking is great, but you are never sure if you are learning one thing or procastinating on another.
For those of you in the know, major changes are happening now in my life. That's all I'm going to say on the subject, but I felt that since so much was changing, I'd better go with a new look. Maybe, as usual, Dana has something to do with it as she's broken down and gotten a new blog, and is taking up her usual post as my inspiration.
And I finally met Dreae at the Ship last weekend!

2006-02-09T21:29:00.000-03:30

What kind of pirate am I? You decide!
You can also view a breakdown of results or put one of these on your own page!
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

2006-02-02T18:45:00.000-03:30

soundslikecrickets: "Made it, ate it II: the recipe!"

Music

2006-02-02T12:53:00.000-03:30

So I spent part of yesterday, (the part where I wasn't outside shovelling snow - like the dutch boy with his finger in the dyke (dike?) desperately trying to keep ahead of the flood of snow or the snow plow) trying to get a music player integrated into my blog. The main reason why I devoted so much time to this project, when I could have been skivvying off on my tech communications project, is I had a flashback to when I was DJ at Joe's Bar in Porto. My then Swedish girlfriend, Elin, introduced me to this incredible band Hedningarna, and I suddenly thought that maybe I could get some of their stuff off the net by using Limewire. Hedningarna sounds (as I described them to a friend) like a couple of fairies hopped up on meth accompanied by the Valkries on electric guitars! I've always liked the foreign stuff, now described as "world music," but I liked it before it got fashionable.

Sunday Afternoon

2006-01-29T17:09:00.000-03:30

I went for a drive this afternoon over to Fort Amherst to see if I could get a decent photo or two of the battery to carry on my photoshopping, but it was getting too dark by the time I got turned around (after getting on the Pitt Parkway by mistake - I always do that), but I did get these nice shots of two guys having fun on a Sunday afternoon...

The Banff Mountain Sponsorship Film Festival Tour Thingy

2006-01-29T12:21:00.000-03:30

Last night was the Banff Mountain Film Festival. H and I went, and the evening went something like this:

"Thanks for coming everyone, before we get started, I'd like to thank our sponsors....(5 minutes later)....and our first film is..."

Lights go down
Film (9 minutes)
Light go up
Pupils audibly dialate

Talk about next film

Lights go down
Film (50 minutes)
Light go up
Pupils audibly dialate

"Before we break for intermission, I've got some announcements and I'd like to thank our sponsors..."

Intermission

"Before we carry on with the second half, we've got some door prizes, and I'd like to thank our sponsors..."

Lights go down
Film (15 minutes)
Light go up
Pupils audibly dialate

Talk about next film
Lights go down
Film (9 minutes)
Light go up
Pupils audibly dialate

Talk about next film
Lights go down
Film (26 minutes)
Light go up
Pupils audibly dialate

Talk about next film
Lights go down
Film (5 minutes)
Light go up
Pupils audibly dialate

"That concludes our evening, I'd just like to thank our sponsors again..."

And just think, if you were masochistic enough, you could do it all over again tonight. Honestly if that woman had thanked her sponsors one more time, I would have....well, ok, I probably wouldn't have, but I sure wanted to!
And for a woman, who appeared to be in her sixties, speaking to a theatre of adults, at a university, she could perhaps tried to not sound as though she was addressing a nursery school. "I'm from Alberta, which is out west, and I didn't realize St. John's was as far as it is...did you know it's a 12 hour flight?" Yeah, woman, we get that we live on an island, it's not like you're telling us something new...

Winter

2006-01-28T17:04:00.000-03:30

I went for another walk today, this time by myself as H was not feeling up to a brisk walk in the sub-zero temps. I walked down Gower street right across town to Ordnance and then through town. I stopped off at the Harvey's wharf to see if I could get some nice shots of the Battery. I got a bunch and when I got home, fired up "The GIMP" to try out my hand colourizing. I saw a shot downtown in the Weavery (for about $300), and thought I would see if I can do a fair approximation myself. This is the result of my playing. Not bad for a free program off the internet. Seriously though, for a free program, I've been pretty impressed with the range of features.

H and I are doing the merry-go-round cold thing this week. First she had a sore throat, which I picked up and that developed into a cold, which she now has picked up. As long as I can kick it and not pick it back up again, I should be ok. This was from the other night while H was giving Roo and Jericho their evening treats.

Picton Castle

2006-01-24T16:49:00.000-03:30

I found this awesome photo of the Picton Castle somewhere on the net, might have even been on the Picton Castle site. Man, I miss those days: hot sun, wind and salt spray in your hair, bare feet on the deck, huge cockroaches in your bunk, and a 1000 miles from anywhere with nothing but the wide ocean stretching out in all directions.

Something in the Air!

2006-01-23T15:45:00.000-03:30

There must be something in the air today. Some whiff of something that came blasting down into St. John's with the arctic air today. It's gotta be blowing about 150 kmh out there and every so often a big blast comes and shakes the house. Some whiff of something in the air, that as soon as I found out that Dana had dropped 4200, I made the decision to drop one of my distance classes and pick up another evening class. Actually, I'm pleased about my decision. Now I only have 4 MSTM left to finish my degree and I can do those anywhere! If I could scrape up the cash, I could do another 3 this spring and finish next winter. And Cold! Holy Jeez, I just about froze getting the car started today. H and I went to the movies last night (Last Holiday for her, Underworld: Evolution for me), and the Jeep was so cold when we came out that I had to wear the huge mitts that her parents gave me for Christmas so I could hold the steering wheel. Looking out my living room window, I can see the jeep rocking in the driveway, and out the kitchen window, (if Rupert isn't blocking my view) I can see the trees in the neighbour's backyard bending. Whenever it snows hard, I lose my view of the oil tanks and houses on the east side of the harbour. St. John's town council really must have been having a wiggy day, when they approved that tank farm. Now I hear, thanks to Dreae's blog, they are planning to allow some Yank developer to expand the Battery hotel into some huge condo/hotel/eyesore that will block most of St. John's view of Signal Hill. I suppose for most residents, Signal Hill is a forest/trees sort of thing, they don't really notice it anymore. But for me, transplanted mainlander, I always get a thrill when I see it. The Battery is just so rugged and majestic, and so Newfoundland. Dave and I went to the MI, last week to see about some upgrading, and when we left (and after we'd taken our useless [and incredibly expensive - if you happen to lose one, or leave it in Ontario] cable boxes back to Rogers), we went looking for a place to eat. He suggested Scampers, but I groaned and said, "No more Newfie food" at which he laughed and suggested that the bloom was off the rose of Newfoundland for me. But it's not, I really like it here, I feel like it could be my city, or that I could make it my city and then sometimes I can't wait to leave, or at least make up my mind what to do. H and I went for a walk on Friday, before the arctic weather arrived and walked way the hell and gone down Circular road and down Forest Road, ending up at the far end of Empire Ave down around the Hometel. Really some spectacular houses and colour schemes. St. John's is such a mélange of styles, from the Edwardian to Queen Anne to Georgian and then to the rowhousing of Rabbittown. If I had $500, 000 I could buy a house on Forest road, only a 5 minute walk from the $60,000 houses of Rabbittown. I guess it must be the Ontarian in me, but I can't see plonking down $200,000 on a rowhouse or duplex. Dana laughed when I told her this, and she said it was the Newfie in her that said, "only one side, excellent!"

Hello Firefox, Goodbye Exploder!

2006-01-21T11:31:00.000-03:30

I've finally made the move from Internet Explorer to Firefox. I've had Firefox on my laptop for about 6 months now, but have only used it sporadically. I guess it was that two of my favourite toolbars, Roboform and Google wouldn't work in Firefox. Then last week, I downloaded the latest update for Roboform and with it came some increased compatibility for Firefox. And I realized that with the Google Deskbar at the bottom of my screen, I didn't need the Google toolbar on my browser. So I went back to the Firefox Extensions site and downloaded everything that looked interesting. And a few that looked fun, like Ping Pong! I picked up the Firefox version of Leechget, my download manager, plus Shockwave player, Adobe, Flash, and an IRC client. I un-installed Trillian, which was getting on my nerves (and I think letting in some spyware) and re-installed MSN Messenger. And I've completely fallen in love with the browser tabs. It's so much nicer than all the windows that explorer opens up. Last night Holli and I were playing Scrabble, I opened up all the word lists in tabs and it made all the difference. I enabled all the security features on Internet Explorer and then hid the link in my Documents folder. Unfortunately I can't delete Exploder entirely, because for some reason, my router doesn't like Firefox, so I need to keep it around to help restore my internet connection which the router drops every other day or so.

Email Blogging and Chatting

2006-01-18T09:25:00.000-03:30

I'm still trying to get email blogging figured out. I've configured blogger the way the directions say to, but nothing happens. Frustrating! It's too bad, 'cause I picked up a great Konfabulator widget the other day so I can blog straight from my desktop, if only I could get the email thing to work. Whats that you say? You don't have Konfabulator? Go get it and get some widgets! It's called Yahoo Widgets now, but it's still Konfabulator to me.
I managed to get Trillian to work for me last night on the irc channel, and spent the next hour chatting with Sheesus, Ngdawg, Amonkee and Malificent from the TFP. I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't a member of the TFP. Probably get a lot more work done!
I finally finished my assignment for Tech Communications. Now today, I'm going to get cracking on Project Management.

Procrastination Sensation!

2006-01-16T11:28:00.000-03:30

Dana had this posted over at her blog and I thought this might be a good opportunity (as I procrastinate:

cleaning the bathroom
vaccuming the litter off the floor
making pasta
putting books on the shelves in the office
oh yeah, WRITING MY TECH ASSIGNMENT!!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Peter!

About 100 people choke to death on peter each year!
Peter is the sacred animal of Thailand!
Never store peter at room temperature.
A lump of peter the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.
If you lie on your back with your legs stretched it is impossible to sink in peter.
Some birds use peter to orientate themselves during migration.
Europe is the only continent that lacks peter.
If you kiss peter for one minute you will burn six or seven calories!
Peter is actually a fruit, not a vegetable.
The Australian billygoat plum contains a hundred times more Vitamin C than peter.

So maybe this is a good an opportunity as any to post some funny stuff that has found it's way to me this week. These two were posted over at TFP:

Snape

falling sand

have fun and enjoy your proctrastinating!!

Photos

2006-01-12T11:35:00.000-03:30

I posted some collages that I shot with my new camera on the original blog, but I thought I would add the 14 shot mega panorama that I shot of St. John's harbour before Christmas. This is the first one that shows where the photos were merged, but I think that I can be forgiven, because I was standing in about a 60 kph wind, and the windchill had to be about -25!!

Bookstores

2006-01-11T22:03:00.000-03:30

So the MUN bookstore is sold out of the text book for one of my distance courses! Kind of strange considering I went on the second day of classes to look for it. Not only is it sold out, but they had no plans to order any in. I changed their minds for them in a hell of a hurry! The text for one of my PolySci courses was only published in December, so they haven't even arrived yet. The other PolySci course doesn't have a textbook, the prof is going to wing it using the internet. Not sure how it's going to work, but he's taught it before so I guess, he has experience on his side. Certainly cuts down on the number of $100 texts that I've got to buy, that I will only use once. Like the Business text from Rajiv's class last year, now I can't get rid of it.
Now that school has started, I'm finding myself very busy with the distance courses. 3 of them! what was I thinking? However I did pick up a book on html and CSS code so I can continue to tweak the template code on this page. So far I've managed to figure out one or two things, and hopefully I can find the time to do a little more

Rupert

2006-01-10T12:04:00.000-03:30

Success! Rupert settled on my lap today for about 20 minutes. Neither Rupert or Jericho have shown any desire to sit on our laps until now, although Rupert likes snuggling under the blanket when Holli lays on the couch. He still won't jump up on his own, but when I pick him up, he settles in and lays down, purring loudly. Now we'll have to start work on Jericho, she'll be the real challenge.

First Day of School

2006-01-09T22:09:00.000-03:30

First day of classes in the winter semester, and I dutifully went to one of my two actual classes. Like Holli says, "no wonder its taking you forever to complete this program, you're never at the university." I'm actually taking 5 classes this semester, it's just that three of them are distance. Kind of funny in that I came to Newfoundland to avoid doing the distance thing.
My "seminar" in International Law wasn't quite what I was expecting. Maybe the fact that there were 50-odd students. I wasn't expecting a whole whack of maritime studies people, but I thought there might have been more than me and Dana. Next class I need to sit nearer to the front, I'm not sure if my head is spinning because of the instructor's lecture or the fact that I kept straining to see over the huge head of the guy in front of me.
On a different note, Rupert has developed a fascination with my knees; he's been sitting under the desk nuzzling my knees, and occasionally taking little nips at my jeans when I'm not paying him enough attention. I guess they are a little starved after two weeks on their own. Even Jericho has warmed up a little.

New Year, New Blog

2006-01-08T12:31:00.000-03:30

Okay, then, back in St. John's after a fun two weeks on the mainland in Ontario. The cats seem to have survived their sojourn alone here with only the sitter for company. They are both starved for attention, Rupert to the point of being annoying, but he did sit in my lap for about 5 minutes last night, while Jericho circled on the floor crying. I could see that she wanted to be up there too, but couldn't bring herself to jump up. School starts tomorrow night, I'll have to go in during the day to pick up my books. Hopefully I've got enough $$$ to make it to spring.

Shopping

2005-12-22T19:47:00.000-03:30

Christmas shopping is Done!!! well, sort of...No, no, no, I'm done. Finished the last of it yesterday downtown, in those little shops that look exactly alike. Did see some interesting things though. The Newfoundland Weavery has got these oilskin coats that are absolutely gorgeous! And freakingly expensive ($290!) The kitchen shop in Murray Premises has got some cool kitchen gadgets and the Silicone Rolling pins, and muffin cups! Unfortunately, 'Home on Water' is sold out of the bird feeders, but I can't complain as I pretty much bought out their stock in bath stuff. That travel store down by the strip club at the far end of water street, has got day-glo luggage tags that say things like ,"Hands Off", and "Mine". I think they should skip the niceties and have one that is shockingly pink with big words: Piss Off!!
Now I've got this huge pile of stuff for various people and I've got to put it together in a way that makes sense, and somehow make it fit in my bags.

December

2005-12-22T19:45:00.000-03:30

So this is pretty much the way I figured this blogging thing would pan out. A brief flurry of activity and then nothing for weeks, sort of the way my university experience is going too. My last entry was on the 6th and everything was hunky-dory. Everything went to hell in a handbasket rapidly thereafter.
Holli got up to go to work on the 7th at 5:30am, and came back into the bedroom and asked me, "where's the car?" Yes, you guessed it, in the middle of the first big snowfall of the year, some asshole smashed in our back window and stole the jeep! Not a great start to the Christmas exam season. Thankfully the police found it about 9 am around the corner from where we live. I guess there was nothing of interest in a '94 Jeep to bother with. Absolutely nothing, not even the coffee change out of the console was stolen, and the vehicle was undamaged aside from the broken window and ignition cylinder. So we were very lucky! Thankfully the insurance took care of everything from getting a tow truck to cart it off to the body shop to paying my cab fare back and forth from the body shop to see to my poor car. But we got it back on Wednesday, and all is good. The insurance people waived the deductible (which I look at as my Christmas present to myself) and took care of the whole bill.
So I took my windfall, and went out and bought a digital camera, since Holli is taking the SLR with her this Christmas. Do you think we'll ever get to the point that we stop referring to digital cameras as 'digital'? Since then, I've taken and deleted endless pictures of the cats.

Just went over to Dreae's blog, and she was writing about Internet Personality Quizes, and it reminded me of this which I did yesterday. I've got a 56% match to Anthony Hopkins, and a 50% match to Paul Newman, and a 40%match to Joaquin Phoenix, which made Holli roll her eyes.
Face Recognition Website:
http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/tryFaceRecognition.php?s=1&u=g0&lang=EN&restore

The Effect of Puncuated Equilibrium on Group Development

2005-12-06T19:43:00.000-03:30

I'm busy studying (yeah, right) today for Organizational Behaviour on Saturday. I've got 1 exam before then (English) on thursday, but I'm not too worried about it. I'll read over the short stories, poems and skim over the "Jakesbeer". I'm more worried about how I did on the re-write of my epic comparing "Jabberwocky" and "The Things They Carried", but I can find that out after the exam.
Finally made a decision about Christmas and got our flights to the mainland yesterday. We are leaving the cats here, cause that'll be cheaper and less traumatic for them than carting them to Ontario and back for a couple of weeks.
I managed to get all the classes that I wanted (almost) for next semester when the reserve lists were dropped on Friday, but I wish I could get into Sociology 2120 instead of one of my distance courses. Next semester I only have class on 3 evenings a week, and nothing before 5:00. I could probably get a dayjob if I wanted to. After the Maritime Studies dept. changed the course requirements, they aren't offering one of their new required courses! What's up with that?
The first major snowfall of the season was last night, almost blizzard-like at times and apparently it is going to majorly dump on us tonight too. I actually may have to leave the house to shovel tomorrow. Only 1 bottle of India Beer left, so I guess I will have to go get more from the corner store. Holli picked up some Apple Cider when she was shopping today, so I will make the Hot Buttered Rum recipe from the Food & Drink magazine that Dad sent us last week. I don't know how the newfie's survive without Food & Drink!

Never trust a house elf

2005-11-29T19:39:00.000-03:30

Finished HP & The Order of the Phoenix last night at 1:36 am. Couldn't put it down, and what an exciting read it was too. All I can say is (despite how pissed off I am that they killed off my favorite character - all right, my favorite after Dumbledore and Ron) it's too bad that the dementors aren't still guarding Askaban Prison! Cause "someone" would be getting what has been coming to them for the last 4 books! But it wrapped up everything I was wondering about (almost) and now I've got to go get the half-blood prince to find out what comes next. I almost bought it in hardcover in the University bookstore today, but I resisted.
The bookstore was having a 20% off sale today, so it was good to stock up on some Christmas presents for people, even if I don't know who is getting what yet. Well, that's not true either, I've got Gillian done.
Watched the Lords of Dogtown over dinner. Not a bad flick, but I'd really like to see the original documentary Dogtown and Z-boys that it is based on. But I liked the way that the original people in the movie all were offered cameos and in most cases got to interact with the young actors that were portraying them. Stacey Peralta, who was wrote the screenplay and directed the documentary original also did another documentary which I saw this summer, Riding Giants, about big wave surfing in Hawaii and the men who started it in the 1950's. Riding Giants was excellent, and I think that Dogtown and Z-boys would be excellent as well. But the local Blockbuster doesn't have it anymore. BUT, Murderball comes out on DVD today, so go and get it!! Outstanding documentary!

Sunday, rain, fire alarms, tests, freaky cats

2005-11-27T19:36:00.000-03:30

Overcast sunday, woken at 1:30am by friends of Holli's in Ontario, who thought it would be funny. Hahahaha, but no. Slept in, only to be woken by sound of smoke alarm going off. Holli's cinnamon buns have risen too far and are dripping into the oven creating more smoke. Laundry day, cats are chasing each other around bouncing off each other, the walls and the furniture. The washing machine always makes them mental.

Checked out the blogs and the TFP to start with. Posted my term paper yesterday in the literature section looking for criticism/comments. Finally passed my 500th post and got a custom title. Promptly changed my title from "Psycho" to "King of Shadows". Just a little bit more free expression in the home of free expression.