The Gem

Monday night is once again the night to go to the Gem. I especially like the place in the fall and winter, 'cause it just seems more appropriate somehow. Hopefully we can maintain the critical mass necessary to keep it up - for the last few weeks it has been us and Rachel, with a rotating guest fourth person in attendance...

Last night, as we were getting ready to leave, the waiter/host/busboy/DJ/cash guy put on Gary Jules' version of Mad World, by Tears for Fears. I don't think I had heard it before (I have yet to see Donnie Darko...) Anyway, it is a pretty sweet song, and you can check it out at dude's myspace page. The music selection at the Gem is always pretty nice, since they have a stack of old vinyl at the cash register... (and it is probably the only place I have ever heard the Drive-By Truckers being played.)

Afterwards we went home, and I put on Songs from the Big Chair while I did the dishes.

Wee Ken Dup Date

So, let's see...

On Friday, our 'plans' to get together with some people and watch a movie kinda fell apart. Instead we went to see a play that friend Kate assistant directed (I think that's right!), Tiny Dynamite. It was the first night of previews - so not the official version quite yet. I enjoyed it and think that you should go and see it.

Saturday was Jen's party! It was a good time.

On Sunday I rode my bike down to the lakeshore. I was hoping to go out to the Beach(es), but didn't think I had enough time. Instead I headed through Liberty Village, and down to the giant wind turbine. It is weird that I never see Lake Ontario. It is also pretty weird that I live on one of the Great Lakes. And one more thing that is weird is that you can't really swim in it 'cause we pump so much poo and other junk into it. That is messed up.

I then negotiated the Scotiabank marathon, and related traffic craziness, to church. I ran sound, which did not go smoothly - so it was hard work from 2:30 - 7:30.

After church, I biked up the hill. I cut up to Loblaws, which basically closed their doors in my face. Oh well, at least I got to try biking up the hill around Casa Loma, which is crazy...

Leah and I went for a Sunday night date to Nova Era... of course, she couldn't get anything more than a tonic water, but it was fun.

Weekendupdate

Friday - we watched not Joe vs, but Dark Days instead. This movie, even on its third or fourth viewing, is a good one. We also did a mess of dishes, laundry, and grocery shopping.

Saturday - we had a (church-ish) meeting in the morning. Later Leah made cookies, we went to feed the beast (Binky), and then went to feed ourselves at KOS.

On Sunday we went to the park. Later we went down another park for a baptism service and picnic. It was fun.

Friday

Rick at work told me that he heard that everybody's working for the weekend.

Some plans:

Watch Joe vs The Volcano tonight, with some friends. That movie was ahead of its time - the name alone shows that it came out about 15 years too early (and that it should have really been an indie band, or dance remix by some LCD Soundsystem type entity, rather than a movie...)

Attend an elders' meeting. It is still funny/scary that our church is essentially run by kids. Idiot kids like me.

See Mates of State. They are sure to go on stage about 6 hours after I would usually be in bed... however, Leah and I are tired of missing shows for this reason, and this one is on a Saturday.

Hopefully pick Mabel up from the vet. Hopefully survive the shock of being given the bill for 3 weeks of kitten hospital care, 2 as-yet-unpaid-for surgeries, and a bunch of lab tests. Mabel's new nickname may be 'The Million Dollar Kitten'. She will for sure have one wicked scar.

Groceries

Laundry

'Clean' Graffiti

This guy is a genius of sorts...

J vs t V

I have been wanting to rewatch Joe vs the Volcano for quite some time now. Partly I want to see if it is as good as it used to be, and partly I am pretty sure that it is, which is reason enough.

And then Reeve posted a J vs t V quote on his site, and I will take that as a sign that I should track it down and rent it. Anyone else wanna watch??



Bonus factoid: Now you know where my hotmail address (jumpsoda) comes from...

Weekend

So - we went to Katherine the Teacher's house on Friday night, which was fun, even though everybody was tired and stayed up too late.

On Saturday we went out for Indian food with Don, and then watched Everything is Illuminated. It was pretty good. I liked the story that the guy was trying to uncover, but not as much the story about him uncovering it (which was pretty much the whole movie). It seemed like maybe a good story that wasn't told all that well. Keep in mind that a lot of people think this movie is great, so I guess you can take my opinion for whatever its worth.

On Sunday, we went for a walk in the park. Then we went to the Andy Warhol exhibit. It was pretty cool to actually see some of his paintings in person (I never thought of a lot of them being as big as they are).

And then church. Afterwards we stood outside Roy Tompson Hall for a little while (could it have been fifteen minutes!?), in the hopes of seeing some famous people on their way from whatever movie was showing there. (The guy in front of us had some pictures on his digicam of Samuel Jackson, from earlier in the evening.) Then we got bored and went home.



That is it. Why do you people even read this??! =)

That logo's a no-go!

Sometimes at work, I take a break by spitting out a logo or new desktop wallpaper. Since my graphic design skills are pretty weak, and since I spend about a minute on them, they are usually kinda bad, and often amusing in how much they bite directly from other logos..! Here are a couple that will likely never be used.




So the first one has a kinda generic Chuck Taylor thing going on - maybe that's just the star - but I figure you could switch out the symbol in the middle for whatever wing-ding you prefer... a skull, a heart, a flaming something-or-other...

And the second one has a certain datedness to it (if I had real designer-tude, I might say timelessness!)... and its funny how it puts the string DMZ into our church name. Sadly, I'm not sure that I like it any less than our actual logo (my apologies to whoever did that one - it's just not my style, is all).

etc...

So if you don't go to Frdmz, you might not have seen this link to 100 Huntley St...
[Big File]
[Small File]
(You might wanna Right-Click, Save-As that piece)
But if you don't go to Frdmz, you might also not care... 'cause you won't recognize half those cats as people that you know. You might see the wife in there playing some guitar though... (oh yeah, it's all RealPlaya format; my apologies if you're a hater.)

In other news, Mabel did indeed go under the knife one more time... They cut all of that mess out on Monday, and sewed her up like new. Leah says she is also getting fat from her weeks at the vet, but it could be that she just looks fatter, since she is now squeezed into half the amount of skin.

And lastly, I forgot to mention some more things from the weekend. My bike got a flat tire (boo), I fixed it (yay), and I pickup up Slowdive's Souvlaki, with bonus disc of EP/remix stuff... (yaaaaaay)

Weekend

Update of pertinent events:

We watched Brick with David and Jen. Good movie - stuck in my head all weekend. If anyone wants to watch it, I'd be up for a re-screening... (maybe I can catch the other 50% of the dialogue that I missed the first time).
I will warn you that there are 1 or 2 scenes that I found a little violent (although if you watch any movies these days, you probably won't be phased).

We learned that Mabel may need a 4th operation; this one would basically be to physically remove some nasty infection.

We went to Jamie's birthday party. She is 21.

We went for a walk in the park.

Church was sweet.

We found another restaurant where Leah can eat. This is good news, even if the place has a slightly flaky/peace cult vibe to it.

Lady Catherine ended her 5 day visit.

Masta Killa - Street Corner

[Looking on various street corners, I'm sure you've seen it yourself, standing on the corner is an alleged brother, dressed in blue, or green, red and black, and spouting the news that the revolution is coming, and you'd better get ready, sort of like the end of the world is coming.
Unfortunately the world is just going to drag on and on.]

...It's me and you, son
Forever in the struggle
No doubt we hustle
Survival is the motto...

Masta Killa [with GZA & Inspectah Deck] - Street Corner

blah

Sometimes (not too often) I wake up with a headache. Usually it will fade away sometime between showering and 9.30ish.
Sometimes it doesn't.

In other news, Mabel still has her stitches in her. This is good.
We have a visitor at our house. The Lady Catherine de Burgh is spending a few days with us. Petrie doesn't quite know what to think, and neither does the Lady, but I suspect they will be friends soon enough.

Update

So Leah took Mabel back to the vet. The deal is that she can somehow get at her stitches with her back paws - she is some kind of kitty-contortionist. Anyway - they are going to patch her up, and keep her there for a week. All we have to do is pay for it. But at least she will be OK.

In other news - I just got a message that the bike shop is done fixing my wheel. They ended the message by suggesting that I get a new wheel, since this one isn't going to last much longer.

Wouldn't it make more sense to tell me that before they spent the time and parts to fix the old one?? Hopefully it will last me the rest of the biking season...

Shoegaze

I have recently been listening to these Slowdive songs a fair bit.

Weekender

Oh man

The weekend was fun - Zellyn and Bevin came up to visit. It was great to see them, and we basically just walked around Toronto, and ate at JFL a few times.
Good times.

In other news, Mabel managed to fully de-stitch herself on Friday night. I took her in to the vet on Saturday, and she had to have more surgery. They cut out the old wound, and re-stitched her - this time with internal stitches. They also put a cone on her head, and put her on a course of antibiotics.

Turns out that something is up with that cat, 'cause yesterday her newly fixed wound started opening. Leah is taking her in to the vet today - so we will see what happens.

Last night we went to bed at around 11. Zellyn and Bevin had to get a cab to the airport at around 3am. I was also sleeping with Mabel right beside me, and trying to make sure that she wasn't messing with her wound all night, so I was getting a pretty crappy sleep.

Also, at 5 or so, the sketchy bar a few doors down caught on fire. It wasn't bad, 'cause the fire dept. was on the scene putting out fires, climbing through upstairs windows, and generally making a lot of noise...

If we're lucky, maybe they will be closed for a good month or two.

Petrie owns Kittenwar

Jen put this picture of Petrie, which she took when he was little, on the Kittenwar website.

While we may never know how a Petrie 'The Kitten' Hunter VS Scotia 'The Ferret' Hubble cage-match would turn out, at least we know that young Petrie can hold his own in an internet kitten battle royale.

Good work Jen.

I do not like the term 'Grups'

Some interesting, although perhaps slightly uncomfortable, thoughts about why you and your friends can't just get a job...

With unsettling frequency, I find that my generation can only identify and embrace success if it stems from self-expression, to such an extent that people are numbing and abusing themselves through drink and drugs to suppress frustration and a crushing sense of failure over having a 9-5 job. Unheralded, productive labor – a paycheck – is a drag because it's not fun and it's not "me." Individual recognition is such an enormous part of our models for success and accomplishment that we derive no sense of satisfaction from our jobs. We are in conflict because work is ordinary, and we are supposed to be extraordinary. Mom said so.


So we were told that we are special, and we aren't.
Although I still suspect that we really were meant to be...

More than one way to Skinner Cat.

Since there seemed to be a general amount of response to the cat related post below... here's a follow-up:

Here's how I see it.
Cat does undesirable action while you're watching - cat gets punished in some fashion.
Cat does undesirable action while you're not watching - nothing happens.

Since there is only enough space in a small cat-head for a peanut sized cat-brain, I can't think of a way to make them realize that the activity itself is bad, not just the doing it WHEN YOU'RE WATCHING.



Unless you use robots.

Oh yeah, and +100 dylan points if you got the Skinner reference.
Um, or Trent points, if you like - but dylan points are cooler (and his blog is more interesting)...

Red

This morning at work I learned this cool trick where you get red ink on your shirt.