Friday, March 30, 2007

WhooaohahHH!!! IT'S FRIDAY!!!

Our church is reading the bible this week, as part of our celebration of lent and easter. That doesn't sound unusual - but here's the deal.
We are reading it out loud and non-stop, creation to apocolypse, at St-Steven-in-the-Fields church.
I showed up for the 'beginning', but I couldn't stay for too long. It has been kinda cool though, for the past few days, to think that there is somebody there (right now!) reading out loud.
Stop by some time before Saturday evening, if you wanna listen. They should be getting close to the NT, so there won't be any chance of showing up for one of the long name-listing early books!!

Monday, March 26, 2007

Blogger ate my Weekend Update

So you get the summary. It was so good too...

Friday - pupusas and paperwork (health insurance forms, gathering together documents for the impending tax-filing). Good times.

Saturday - recorded a song, for the FI³ sampler CD, which I ended up not liking at all. Threw it out. Went to a DJ type event that Jeremy and co were hosting. Yelled at people over loud music. It was fun, even though we left before the party really started.

Sunday - recorded some melodica for a different song. Leah re-recorded some vocals for a song of hers. Mission accomplished. Church was good - we didn't have to do anything! JFL with Jen and Jeremy. Delicious.

Today - rode the subway all the way to work WITH MY FLY UNZIPPED!! Good times indeed. Finally updated Immigrant Design - went for easy-to-update (ie Blogger) over sexy and flashy (ie that draggable thumbnail flash thingy that I action-scripted about a year ago but never used...)

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Wednesday

So last night I watched my first ever real-life (not on TV) hockey game. I got a pair of Leafs tickets from work (>$150 each!) for coming up with a (fairly crappy-looking) header for an internal newsletter.

Despite having a stupidly annoying headache and not really knowing all the rules of hockey (icing, off-sides, etc???) it was good times. The place was packed, and the whole event was one giant spectacle. The game was pretty good, with Toronto winning 2-1 over the NJ Devils.

There was even a fight, which lasted about a minute and a half. I couldn't believe that the refs just stand by and let these two fools pound on each other's helmets. (I found out this morning that the NJ guy apparantly almost knocked out a Leafs player last time the two teams played - so they sent there biggest dude in last night to punch him for a few minutes...) Everyone in the crowd got really excited, and it was one of those moments that made me feel kinda gross... like humans are really just a bunch of savage idiots. Apparantly it is 'all part of the game' though.

I heard once that the average person in N America is exposed to something like 3000 advertisements per day. Leah and I must have each tripled that in a few short hours at the ACC!

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This morning I walked a half hour to St Clair West because the streetcar wasn't running.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Lilith

If you want to read a good book (assuming you don't mind what some would call fantasy), I direct you to this one.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Weekend

Friday... bought groceries
Saturday... went to the archives again, to pick up some pictures that I ordered. I also stopped by College & Spadina to buy some white (silk-screenable) CDRs for the FI³ fundraiser CD.
That night we hung out with Jen, and stopped in at Sonic Boom.
Sunday... we went over some songs for church, and then we went to church, and then we went to a church meeting after church.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Link me

Check out this wireframe car...
And also this guy's house...
!

Monday, March 12, 2007

Weekend

Friday...
We went to eat dinner at Ka Chi.

Saturday...
I did laundry. I then went to the Toronto archives - were I discovered they had not pulled the stuff that I requested last weekend. I did talk to a very useful employee, who directed me to the Ontario archives - it turns out they might have a lot more useful info.
I also discovered the Furniture Bank. Turns out Toronto has a place where people just out of shelters, or immigrants with no cash, can get donated furniture and stuff. Also - on the second Saturday of each month, there is a fundraiser/sale on old furniture. Not as cheap as Goodwill furniture - but way better stuff. Who knew?
Bought some groceries.

Sunday...
I went to buy some more groceries.
I also spent a bit of time trying to record a song. I was late for church, 'cause I lost track of the time. Turns out the song sounds pretty bad - and I will have to do it all over...




Leah's parents are coming to town.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Those That Care

TTC Crusader
Yesterday evening I ran to catch the bus just before the traffic light changed. It was pretty full, and I expected that we would pull off right after I got on.

After waiting for a while, the driver declared rather loudly, 'I'm still waiting to see a student card.' He was apparantly talking to a young lady, who was maybe fifteen, who did not have a student card to accompany her student metropass.

The funny thing was that she was clearly with a huge group of her school friends (who I assume had the necessary cards), and what's more, WAS WEARING A SCHOOL UNIFORM! The driver, on hearing that she didn't have her card with her, bluntly gave her the options of paying $2.75, or getting off of his bus. I found out that the bus had been sitting there for five minutes before I even got on. He eventually threatened to put the bus out of service, and she eventually got off, and I assume walked the mile to the station.

The whole thing was a little shocking and a little humorous. I guess the driver could be commended for sticking to the rules... except that he was clearly more interested in the rules than in the people they are meant to serve. A few stops later, an old man was getting off the bus, and he asked the driver why he had kicked the girl off the bus. The driver responded by loudly reciting that bylaw number one clearly states blah blah blah... and the old man responded by telling him to have some respect when speaking to a senior. This guy should have been a book-keeper or something, and should definitely remove himself from the service sector, and perhaps the general public.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Weekender

OK, here goes:

Friday -
After work, I met up with the wife and with Jen, to hang out with some people at Walmer Rd Church. Afterwards, I stopped by the McGhee's, and found out that other people have also been rocking the Slowdive recently... maybe it is seasonal??

Saturday -
In the morning I went to the city archives, to look up some info. I hadn't been to the archives since 2000, and I forgot that it is pretty cool. It is where the keepers-of-the-past for the city of Toronto work... while I was there, I picked up a copy of this picture of the Bloor viaduct bridge. This is the bridge that stars in a chapter of Michael Ondaatje's book, In the Skin of a Lion, which I recommend less for the story, and more for its legendary imagery of Toronto past.

I then came home and did some laundry. Jen came over for dinner, and then we went to a fun fundraiser for a trip to India that some folks from church are organizing. Check out some more info about the trip at this (nice) FI³ website. Props to all those involved in putting this thing on, esp. Dylan and Adrienne, for silkscreening a gazillion shirts, and to Pants, for rocking... and to Lisa, just in general!

Sunday -
I did some cleaning, and then went in search of a photocopier, to copy some songsheets for the wife.
Church was hard work for Leah - sound gear was tricky, lights were missing... I am pretty glad I was not drumming, 'cause that would have been one more musician (and 4 more mics for Bradley to troubleshoot)...
I was on 'prayer-duty', as I call it... which was a pretty good time.
Afterwards, we had pancakes for dinner...

Friday, March 02, 2007

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Story time

Taken by Trees

Find the right tree and you can hear a story.

Public Transit

I am a fan of public transit.

But I am a bigger fan conceptually than I am realistically. Riding transit means you never know if you'll be half an hour late, so if anything is really important, you give yourself enough time to show up half an hour early.

And, when a streetcar dies on the way to work, and you wait forever, and then you give up and walk half the way, you don't get your money back. All you get is really late.

But you also don't have to deal with getting it fixed.