Okay christmas day and arguements over who gets to watch what where and listen to what when that I decided to drop a couple of lists here.
First let's start with my personal favourite television Christmas Holiday specials.
The list is always debateable but as I mentioned this is my personal faves.
Let me number these!
23. Santa Claus is Coming to Town
22. The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus
21. Twas the Night Before Christmas
20. Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too
19. Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas
18. Hope for the Holidays - A Bob Hope Christmas
17. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
16. The Man Who Saved Christmas
15. The Littlest Chistmas Tree
14. The Hogfather
13. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
12. the Alister Sim animated Christmas Carol
11. Frosty The Snowman
10. The Little Drummer Boy
9. Rudolph The Red nosed Reindeer
8. A Year Without Santa
7. Elvis Christmas in Hawaii
6. A Rugrats Hanukah
5. California Raisin Christmas
4. A B.C. Christmas
3. O'Henry's Gift Of The Magi
2. A Charlie Brown Christmas
1. A Wish For Wings That Work
Now while this is a personal list it is not to say it's a end all and be all. I mean part of me misses the Dofasco Christmas Choir. There are four other Peanuts Christmas themed specials but to me the original is the best. Rugrats has two Christmas specials and a Kwanza special and to me their Hanukah is miles better. Not that their explanation of Kwanza is at all shabby. I am saying when I see a Power Ranger's Christmas Carol i always get the feeling the broadcaster is selling too hard to re3alize they may be missing the point. That is to say I try to look for actual special not dependent on the current television situation. In the meantime there are going to be less holiday specials in coming years because it's easier for network and cable stations to air holiday movie family events. To this here is a list of my favourite Christmas and Holiday themed films.
Christmas films twenty of my faves of the moment....
22. Fitzwilly
21. Ernest Saves Christmas
20. Christmas In Connecticutt (original version)
19. Muppet Christmas Carol
18. The Shop Around The Corner
17. Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas
16. We're No Angels
15. Holiday Inn (I like it better than White Christmas)
14. Babes In Toyland (Laurel & Hardy version)
13. Ebbie
12. Home Alone
11. The Santa Clause
10. The Bishop's Wife (tie between Cary Grant and Denzel Washington's Preacher's Wife versions)
9. A Christmas Carol (Alister Sim Version) ties with An American Christmas Carol (Henry Winkler version)
8. Elf
7. Bells of St Marys
6. A Christmas Story
5. Miracle on 34th Street (Original version)
4. It's a Wonderful Life (Black & White not Colourized)
3. Love Actually (you can't help but snuggle with your loved ones after this.)
2. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
1. Scrooged (Bill Murray version)
Should I consider something instead? Any objections to the current order?
Then again maybe I have set about your holiday viewing for the season.
See you all next time and enjoy your holiday's whatever they may happen to be.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Christmas shopping
so Today is the 9th of December 2010 and it's the 30th Anniversary of the world finding out about the death of John Lennon. Oddly it was just 9 years ago last week that George Harrison passed away from cancer. Hard to think of the world with only half the Beatles around but such is life that the Monkees out lived them all. Just Imagine.
With two weeks until Christmas I have done none of the real shopping for presents yet. With Mark and U.S. Black Friday we got MASH the complete series on DVD for him, North & South the Compete collected mini-series for him, The Wizard Of Oz Blu-Ray DVD for him, The Princess Bride for Mary Anne, The Flash the complete series for Paul, Ten Speed & Brown Shoe the complete series for me, Red Dwarf the almost complete series for me, Office Space DVD for him, and the House Of Cards trilogy DVD for Mum, and the best John Wayne films of WWII for Dad. What I need to do is get some clothes for the good people like Mary Anne, Mum, Paul, Dad, Mark, and myself. I can try Wal-Mart for Mark and Dad but Mum is wider than Dad and I am never sure of Paul or Mary Anne. For the past two year's Mary Anne has sent back clothes that were Medium, and Large so I need to get it right this year. I think I can get her a couple of T-Shirts at the CBC Store at CBC headquarters with Coronation Street on them. Something she and her mum like and unique enough to be special for the holiday. Paul will be either XXL or XL but the trick will be to get him a jacket or shirt that he can wear every day to work. So I can get him something at Mark's Work Wear House same for Dad and possibly Mark. Mum get's her stuff from Pennington's so either a Gift Certificate or underwear or another blouse she will rarely wear. Socks are good for Mark and they can be cheap at Wal-Mart. Mark has been pretty good so I will try to get him a game at EB GameSpot they have some they use as bait in their bargain bins. With that in mind I will be very busy for the next few weeks so to all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
P.S. Sometime in the new year I will talk of the Police coming to visit.
With two weeks until Christmas I have done none of the real shopping for presents yet. With Mark and U.S. Black Friday we got MASH the complete series on DVD for him, North & South the Compete collected mini-series for him, The Wizard Of Oz Blu-Ray DVD for him, The Princess Bride for Mary Anne, The Flash the complete series for Paul, Ten Speed & Brown Shoe the complete series for me, Red Dwarf the almost complete series for me, Office Space DVD for him, and the House Of Cards trilogy DVD for Mum, and the best John Wayne films of WWII for Dad. What I need to do is get some clothes for the good people like Mary Anne, Mum, Paul, Dad, Mark, and myself. I can try Wal-Mart for Mark and Dad but Mum is wider than Dad and I am never sure of Paul or Mary Anne. For the past two year's Mary Anne has sent back clothes that were Medium, and Large so I need to get it right this year. I think I can get her a couple of T-Shirts at the CBC Store at CBC headquarters with Coronation Street on them. Something she and her mum like and unique enough to be special for the holiday. Paul will be either XXL or XL but the trick will be to get him a jacket or shirt that he can wear every day to work. So I can get him something at Mark's Work Wear House same for Dad and possibly Mark. Mum get's her stuff from Pennington's so either a Gift Certificate or underwear or another blouse she will rarely wear. Socks are good for Mark and they can be cheap at Wal-Mart. Mark has been pretty good so I will try to get him a game at EB GameSpot they have some they use as bait in their bargain bins. With that in mind I will be very busy for the next few weeks so to all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
P.S. Sometime in the new year I will talk of the Police coming to visit.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
pilgrimage to mecca
So here we are in the middle of the annual pilgrimage to mecca and all I got the devil was a stone. You know that always sounds funnier in my head but when I put it into print I think Waldorf and Statler from the Muppet Show cringe like I made fun of the sacred. At this point my response is Oh Well what do you expect from a non-muslim? Humour is a sign we understand the suffering we all endure, doesn't it? QED.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Guy Fawkes Day
Remember remember the Fifth of November, Remember the gunpowder treason and plot? What? I seem to have lost my train of thought much like the series finale for Lost.
Oh Well. Whatever.
Oh Well. Whatever.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Halloween or the bumps of the night life
Well another Halloween has come and gone and I live to tell the tale.
Making it quick because it never lasts this year we had 8 people but publicly I say 18 because I don't want to feel stupid for expecting anyone. I plan for 50 people each year with a selection of mini-posters, buttons, comicbooks, two cases of canned pop, chocolate & candy bars, and the first six treaters get a large bag of potatoe chips. I recycle last years posters and comics so the collection just grows. You would think with such a smorgasbord of delights i would run out but no if anything the nubers are dwindling and I think its a sad sight. My brother Paul had 47 people. My friend Fred Diana had 150 and ran out of treats. Rob Chin had over 100 but said he doesn't keep track. What is it about our neighbourhood where no one wants to visit? I mean we put out a couple of jack o'lanterns, spooky signs (the one on our door reads KNOCK LOUDLY IT's HARD To WAKE The Dead!), I dress up a little (this year I went with devil horns), and kept the noise down. Well at least I was able to relax afterwards to The Walking Dead on AMC-TV then the annual Night Of The Living Dead (or some similar zombie picture).
Meanwhile my own personal nightmare of the F Drive. It's gone AWOL on the computer again and now has taken all the photos and videos and sound files and all the CBRs and all the text documents and related stuff. That's my father's locksmith and scouting notes, my compilation of clix lists, comicbook notes, and music lists with humour, and Betty Page Of The Days. That's three years of digital photos chronicling all sorts of points in life including my brother or my father sleeping in public. Half way through uploading the collection of Peterborough is lost most likely forever my brother reckons. I mourn for it but have to move on after all the backing up this past summer why did I always save the most important and best for last? Well it shows procrastinators never prosper so why bother. ;)
My birthday this year my brother Mark got me a card and a DVD of The Losers. I loved the
Losers as a comicbook but was disappointed with how it ended and the film going for a PG rating didn't help but it was nice to see some of it come to life. Unfortunately it's the Blue Ray and the only Blue Ray player is in his room.
Well it's the thought that counts and he was thinking of me. my parents got me a card and that's it. Money is tight and I know Mum will order in Swiss Chalet for dinner this year because she never leaves the house.
My brother Paul hasn't responded yet but I dropped off a large section of the birthday cake (double chocolate with creme dulce (caramel) sauce filling and barvarian chocolate buttercream frosting) the very next day after my birthday. Almost my fave but the frosting was a little too heavy for me. Paul and Mare always leave it to the last moment but could they have forgotten this year? Well probably procrastinated. I scanned the Gift Certificate he gave me last year and placed it on my facebook page as a tribute to Rob's since Rob's was supposed to close permanently now but Rob is staying open on New Comic Wednesdays now to service his long time customers. Go figure maybe he will stay open more than a month at a time. Well happy all Saints Day everyone and speak to you all sooner than later.
Making it quick because it never lasts this year we had 8 people but publicly I say 18 because I don't want to feel stupid for expecting anyone. I plan for 50 people each year with a selection of mini-posters, buttons, comicbooks, two cases of canned pop, chocolate & candy bars, and the first six treaters get a large bag of potatoe chips. I recycle last years posters and comics so the collection just grows. You would think with such a smorgasbord of delights i would run out but no if anything the nubers are dwindling and I think its a sad sight. My brother Paul had 47 people. My friend Fred Diana had 150 and ran out of treats. Rob Chin had over 100 but said he doesn't keep track. What is it about our neighbourhood where no one wants to visit? I mean we put out a couple of jack o'lanterns, spooky signs (the one on our door reads KNOCK LOUDLY IT's HARD To WAKE The Dead!), I dress up a little (this year I went with devil horns), and kept the noise down. Well at least I was able to relax afterwards to The Walking Dead on AMC-TV then the annual Night Of The Living Dead (or some similar zombie picture).
Meanwhile my own personal nightmare of the F Drive. It's gone AWOL on the computer again and now has taken all the photos and videos and sound files and all the CBRs and all the text documents and related stuff. That's my father's locksmith and scouting notes, my compilation of clix lists, comicbook notes, and music lists with humour, and Betty Page Of The Days. That's three years of digital photos chronicling all sorts of points in life including my brother or my father sleeping in public. Half way through uploading the collection of Peterborough is lost most likely forever my brother reckons. I mourn for it but have to move on after all the backing up this past summer why did I always save the most important and best for last? Well it shows procrastinators never prosper so why bother. ;)
My birthday this year my brother Mark got me a card and a DVD of The Losers. I loved the
Losers as a comicbook but was disappointed with how it ended and the film going for a PG rating didn't help but it was nice to see some of it come to life. Unfortunately it's the Blue Ray and the only Blue Ray player is in his room.
Well it's the thought that counts and he was thinking of me. my parents got me a card and that's it. Money is tight and I know Mum will order in Swiss Chalet for dinner this year because she never leaves the house.
My brother Paul hasn't responded yet but I dropped off a large section of the birthday cake (double chocolate with creme dulce (caramel) sauce filling and barvarian chocolate buttercream frosting) the very next day after my birthday. Almost my fave but the frosting was a little too heavy for me. Paul and Mare always leave it to the last moment but could they have forgotten this year? Well probably procrastinated. I scanned the Gift Certificate he gave me last year and placed it on my facebook page as a tribute to Rob's since Rob's was supposed to close permanently now but Rob is staying open on New Comic Wednesdays now to service his long time customers. Go figure maybe he will stay open more than a month at a time. Well happy all Saints Day everyone and speak to you all sooner than later.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Hope and Faith and George Costanza
Today is Wednesday 27th of October 2010 and Friday is my birthday and again another year goes by and I feel like George Costanza from Seinfeld. My net worth is actually negative $11800.00 That is I have to earn $11800.00 just to be broke.
A year ago my father had a stroke and I spent months visiting him in hospital and taking back and forth to therapy until he was cleared to do so independently again. My mother has grown so worried about leaving the house that even on a great day like today and a distance really close by she would not make the effort to leave the house to Vote. She hasn't left the house in more than a month and it is not for lack of trying to get her out. My brother's both much younger than me are doing marginally but years better than me with one married and one just avoiding going on strike at a job that he's been at a decade. The last five companies I have worked for over the past two decades have disappeared. There is no contact to prove I spent years with them and in fact in two cases the buildings are gone they operated from.
Now in spite of how depressing my life can seem I endeavor to strive to carry on and look upon or for the bright side of life. What keeps me going forth to climb out of bed each morning? What keeps me from jumping off the bridge over the nearby highway to end it all? What keeps me from swimming out into the middle of Lake Ontario and not come back? The fact is I Hope. Hope things will turn around. Hope someone from one of my old parts of my past life will remember something and say DaveR could be good for this let me see if he is available for this. Hope that some pretty lady I meet somewhere in my travels will overlook my flaws, my predicament, my girth and stick with me like the way the Lord did with Job and this is all just to try my Faith that there is and can be a better tomorrow. That's all I really have in the end is Hope.
Is that all anyone can ask for?
A year ago my father had a stroke and I spent months visiting him in hospital and taking back and forth to therapy until he was cleared to do so independently again. My mother has grown so worried about leaving the house that even on a great day like today and a distance really close by she would not make the effort to leave the house to Vote. She hasn't left the house in more than a month and it is not for lack of trying to get her out. My brother's both much younger than me are doing marginally but years better than me with one married and one just avoiding going on strike at a job that he's been at a decade. The last five companies I have worked for over the past two decades have disappeared. There is no contact to prove I spent years with them and in fact in two cases the buildings are gone they operated from.
Now in spite of how depressing my life can seem I endeavor to strive to carry on and look upon or for the bright side of life. What keeps me going forth to climb out of bed each morning? What keeps me from jumping off the bridge over the nearby highway to end it all? What keeps me from swimming out into the middle of Lake Ontario and not come back? The fact is I Hope. Hope things will turn around. Hope someone from one of my old parts of my past life will remember something and say DaveR could be good for this let me see if he is available for this. Hope that some pretty lady I meet somewhere in my travels will overlook my flaws, my predicament, my girth and stick with me like the way the Lord did with Job and this is all just to try my Faith that there is and can be a better tomorrow. That's all I really have in the end is Hope.
Is that all anyone can ask for?
Monday, October 11, 2010
Dark man rule and Thanksgiving
So here we are in the middle of the traditional Canadian Thanksgiving weekend Sunday 11th of
October 2010 and Paul and Mary-Anne are due to arrive in the next few hours. Turkey is now
in the oven lovingly prepped by Mom and there are two pots on the stove and two casserole
dishes filled with her stuffing and two holiday pies (pumpkin and apple) waiting to be eaten and mom is already onto her third round of frantic why don't we just call the whole thing off. I would agree with her except she loves having Paul and Mary Anne over and will sit and listen to them talk and talk untill 99 minutes after Paul's arrival they leave. I call it the Darkman clause. You see in the film Darkman after the scientist applies the special skin he has approximately 99 minutes in the light until it melts. Paul has a tendency to stay with his wife at the house for a visit for about 99 minutes and then says mare's getting tired so we better go and that's the last we see of them untill the next gathering.
We used to get one possibly two visits a year at their place but now we barely get one and that's Christmas time. For the last five years the personal gifts for the occassion has shifted from a shirt or a personal book or CD or DVD to a Gift Card and a scratch lottery ticket. We personally hate Lottery Tickets especially Scratch lottery tickets because we have no idea how to use them and no idea how to check them. What's worst is what do you do if you win big? I mean here's a shirt for Mare and a bottle of wine for her mum and a nice DVD for Paul and thanks for the $100,000.00 I'll use it to pay off the bills and fix some stuff up and if there is anything left over I may go for a trip, enjoy your shirt and DVD!
Sheesh it's a loaded trap that all they did was here is a $20 GC and a $2 ticket and they were done sometimes on the same day as the occassion. Then if the ticket loses it's a worthless piece of paper. My mum has a collection of over $140.00 worth of these gift cards for the book chain that her son Paul works for and she has used some of these over the years. Grocery Gift Certificates usually get used on the next special occasion or the next big grocery trip so there will never be a collection of them. It's fun the HBC cards that I figure Mare picks up usually get used to buy presents for Mare and her mum or sister so we always give back more than we receive from her.
The problem is after a few years of bath sets or Old navy t-shirts what do you get for someone who has everything (my brother Paul)?
So increasingly each year it gets to feel like the laws of diminishing return are yanking away the ball before we can kick it ala Charlie Brown & Lucy. Well I think Paul and Mary Anne are getting a Shirt,and DVDs this year and I sincerly hope Paul doesn't give us anymore
lottery tickets and I really hope he doesn't give me any of the toys on sale at Rob's. Well
maybe that Creeper or Blue Devil figure.....;)
Actually I wonder if they will bring my birthday present over early this year. it would give me a good gage on how to plan for the holidays. Thanksgiving is always a rehearsal for Christmas. Birthdays are birthdays. Last year for my birthday Paul and Mary Anne gave me a Gift Certificate for Excalibur Comics bought on the day of my birthday. With a lottery ticket added to the card. I got Paul a DVD and a Shirt to go with his card for his Birthday. So I try to put some thought into it with a red shirt (Star Trek Joke) and Fanboys! I think if I can get Mark to cave I will see about a Bon Appetit GC and a DVD for him this year. Well at least a DVD.... maybe The Flash collection.
Some people out there do not realize that Canada has Thanksgiving twenty years before the Americans as a holiday and over a month earlier. When I hear all these Yankees next month what are you thankful for this holiday I will say the same thing, a) Thanksgiving was last month, b) rampant consumerism, c) Canadians got it right! Right now I am thankful for me and my family's fairly good health (all things considered), a roof over our heads, and the ability to enjoy what little we have. have a happy thanksgiving everyone and my Mother just broke a bowl. Good luck.
October 2010 and Paul and Mary-Anne are due to arrive in the next few hours. Turkey is now
in the oven lovingly prepped by Mom and there are two pots on the stove and two casserole
dishes filled with her stuffing and two holiday pies (pumpkin and apple) waiting to be eaten and mom is already onto her third round of frantic why don't we just call the whole thing off. I would agree with her except she loves having Paul and Mary Anne over and will sit and listen to them talk and talk untill 99 minutes after Paul's arrival they leave. I call it the Darkman clause. You see in the film Darkman after the scientist applies the special skin he has approximately 99 minutes in the light until it melts. Paul has a tendency to stay with his wife at the house for a visit for about 99 minutes and then says mare's getting tired so we better go and that's the last we see of them untill the next gathering.
We used to get one possibly two visits a year at their place but now we barely get one and that's Christmas time. For the last five years the personal gifts for the occassion has shifted from a shirt or a personal book or CD or DVD to a Gift Card and a scratch lottery ticket. We personally hate Lottery Tickets especially Scratch lottery tickets because we have no idea how to use them and no idea how to check them. What's worst is what do you do if you win big? I mean here's a shirt for Mare and a bottle of wine for her mum and a nice DVD for Paul and thanks for the $100,000.00 I'll use it to pay off the bills and fix some stuff up and if there is anything left over I may go for a trip, enjoy your shirt and DVD!
Sheesh it's a loaded trap that all they did was here is a $20 GC and a $2 ticket and they were done sometimes on the same day as the occassion. Then if the ticket loses it's a worthless piece of paper. My mum has a collection of over $140.00 worth of these gift cards for the book chain that her son Paul works for and she has used some of these over the years. Grocery Gift Certificates usually get used on the next special occasion or the next big grocery trip so there will never be a collection of them. It's fun the HBC cards that I figure Mare picks up usually get used to buy presents for Mare and her mum or sister so we always give back more than we receive from her.
The problem is after a few years of bath sets or Old navy t-shirts what do you get for someone who has everything (my brother Paul)?
So increasingly each year it gets to feel like the laws of diminishing return are yanking away the ball before we can kick it ala Charlie Brown & Lucy. Well I think Paul and Mary Anne are getting a Shirt,and DVDs this year and I sincerly hope Paul doesn't give us anymore
lottery tickets and I really hope he doesn't give me any of the toys on sale at Rob's. Well
maybe that Creeper or Blue Devil figure.....;)
Actually I wonder if they will bring my birthday present over early this year. it would give me a good gage on how to plan for the holidays. Thanksgiving is always a rehearsal for Christmas. Birthdays are birthdays. Last year for my birthday Paul and Mary Anne gave me a Gift Certificate for Excalibur Comics bought on the day of my birthday. With a lottery ticket added to the card. I got Paul a DVD and a Shirt to go with his card for his Birthday. So I try to put some thought into it with a red shirt (Star Trek Joke) and Fanboys! I think if I can get Mark to cave I will see about a Bon Appetit GC and a DVD for him this year. Well at least a DVD.... maybe The Flash collection.
Some people out there do not realize that Canada has Thanksgiving twenty years before the Americans as a holiday and over a month earlier. When I hear all these Yankees next month what are you thankful for this holiday I will say the same thing, a) Thanksgiving was last month, b) rampant consumerism, c) Canadians got it right! Right now I am thankful for me and my family's fairly good health (all things considered), a roof over our heads, and the ability to enjoy what little we have. have a happy thanksgiving everyone and my Mother just broke a bowl. Good luck.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Peterborough trip
Tired and home from the ravages of the wild outdoors on this Sunday 26 September 2010 and I
won't even attempt to think of this day in history.
Took my baby brother Mark up to Peterborough for the Phantasm RolePlaying Gaming convention and decided to tour the sights. Peterborough is one of those places that produced industry and trade for about two hundred years untill economics started to take it's toll. Home to Trent university, Sir Sanford Fleming college, The Canoe Museum, the Lift-Locks, the Quaker
Cereal/Pepsi plant, G.E. lightbulb factory and a waterway that led to a railway that led to trade across Ontario, Canada, and to the u.S. of A. and not just beaver pelts. Really weird is the place has heavy irish roots and heavy african roots that black Irish seems to have originated here about twenty years before New York City. To me the place is a marvel for still having working lift-locks a hundred and some off years after being built. Oh course if I could have aranged a tour of the Quaker plant where many cereals are made and lots of fruit beverages I would probably gone with that. I did see Sir Sanford Fleming College which is on the same grounds as the Peterborough museum which just finished relaunching after an extensive renovation. I
Fleming feels a lot like the portables that used to be at the North West of Humber College.
As if the whole place is waiting to be moved into a larger permanent domicile. Don't let that knock the town to a learning annex feel it has a definate small town vibe like a training ground for bigger things. There is really nothing to do after 4 or 5pm on the weekends unless you want to see a novie or drink at a bar or try to eat at a grill. They even shut down the dancing lights on the Fountain in the reservoir when it's after labour day. Their walk of fame needs a pamphlet or a website to find out who all these so-called "famous" people are. Mind you with all the used book stores gone in Toronto, Peterborough is a goldmine if you are looking for some lost treasure from the 1970's to the 1990's. They also have a number of gaming stores and head shops and cultural stores which is to say it's a lot like a small college town.
They have a nice public library. Only one I found in the entire community. Some nice looking schools and the views are amazing. You want to see the fall leaves change colour you better make sure your camera has a panoramic feature because you will want to see it all. Oh and this is one of the hilliest places I have ever been to so be prepared to climb lots of stairs. That's right the place is highly wheelchair inaccessible so make sure your cane has a good stopper on it because it will get a work out. Mind you once you are in most buildings, the newer ones are very wheelchair complacent and sprawl out. It's just getting into one such place is where you need people to lift your chair. The town is very internet accessible with Wi-Fi just about everywhere and cable lines for fast secure connections.
There is also a seeming abundance of accountants, lawyers, and therapist's office around the town and lots of local art galleries. Well I may be biased you see yesterday was their annual Gay Pride Day and their annual doors open and the end of their Arts week so there was an abundance of the unique or at least artistically balanced. I will also jump up and say most of the art I saw was novice at best striving to be amateur.
Now while I respect the town and would love to hide away in it I realize that eventually I would grow bored to death without my big city amusements, cable TV channels, and freedom to pick a different thing each week. But if driving were no problem and I had a place to stay in the city this would be the place to retire to. Any place that doesn't bat an eye at a bunch of medival type LARPers chasing an open horse drawn carriage at midnight down busy downtown streets past it's greyhound bus station is the place for me to hide out my life.
Quintessentially magical and subtle quiet.
Now I haven't stayed in a hotel for a while and this comfort Inn was pretty darn good. Could use a bigger indoor pool and maybe a TV guide but considering for an extra twenty dollars I could have gotten a Jacuzzi tub in the room nobody is complaining. The all you can eat complimentary breakfast was fantastic with the belgium waffle maker, mini dainish, three pump juice machine, two kinds of eggs (scrambled and poached), hash brown patties, home fries, bagel toaster and choice of real jams and jellies it was very filling. I did not care for their choice of three cereals but then I prefer Rice krispies, Fruit loops, Goatmeal Crunch, or Captain Crunch in the morning not cornflakes, Special K or Rolled Oats and Oatmeal. They also need to make the free newspaper stand more visible and accessible but outside of that colour me impressed. One thing that got me in the room was I am used to actual glasses or mugs when I drink in one of the room but they have replaced that with cellephane wrapped plastic cups. Plastic cups are great for entertaining but I would not want my lips using it to rinse my mouth out in the morning.
The Peterbourgh tourism office relocated to the outside edge of town and closes at 5pm Saturday until Tuesday morning. My guess is unless it's summer time your tourist dollars are
not welcome on the weekend. Shame really as I have stated it's a really nice town.
Phantasm is an annual Role Playing Games gaming convention to capitalize on the fact that there is so much gaming out here just no real organized place to centrally play. They have been around for twenty years and are fairly diversified in their time just seasonal in the playing. Much of the games are either refurbished scenarios from Anime North, Polaris, and FanExpo or they are moderated testing for ad Astra and the previously mentioned conventions.
Still for two days of condensed gaming play and sales this is the place to meet new people, try new games, and get caught up with changes in the industry. Would I go again? Yes I would like to think I would even though it's not my type of gaming of the moment. For example while I like the idea of mixing The Sopranos with Call Of Cthulhu the fact is as He Who must not be Named enters the plane Madness would effect all so it doesn't play my sympathies well enough to get involved. Similar to the idea I don't care how interchangable the tiles are for your board game it's still a board game just with a mixed board. How are you susposed to get into a generic Hero Card game if there is no preview story to enrapture you in their history? Pretty art on a card will not be enough to sell a Generic Hero Card Game just ask Phil Foglio and his XXXphile Fantasy card game which came out gangbusters then crapped out flat after two years. Still if you are looking for some niche game to play this is the place to try before you buy.
Well that's enough for Peterborough and Phantasm and my long drive home in the dark from the
home of Trent University. Need to wind down and get some sleep so I can find out what I
missed in the morning.
won't even attempt to think of this day in history.
Took my baby brother Mark up to Peterborough for the Phantasm RolePlaying Gaming convention and decided to tour the sights. Peterborough is one of those places that produced industry and trade for about two hundred years untill economics started to take it's toll. Home to Trent university, Sir Sanford Fleming college, The Canoe Museum, the Lift-Locks, the Quaker
Cereal/Pepsi plant, G.E. lightbulb factory and a waterway that led to a railway that led to trade across Ontario, Canada, and to the u.S. of A. and not just beaver pelts. Really weird is the place has heavy irish roots and heavy african roots that black Irish seems to have originated here about twenty years before New York City. To me the place is a marvel for still having working lift-locks a hundred and some off years after being built. Oh course if I could have aranged a tour of the Quaker plant where many cereals are made and lots of fruit beverages I would probably gone with that. I did see Sir Sanford Fleming College which is on the same grounds as the Peterborough museum which just finished relaunching after an extensive renovation. I
Fleming feels a lot like the portables that used to be at the North West of Humber College.
As if the whole place is waiting to be moved into a larger permanent domicile. Don't let that knock the town to a learning annex feel it has a definate small town vibe like a training ground for bigger things. There is really nothing to do after 4 or 5pm on the weekends unless you want to see a novie or drink at a bar or try to eat at a grill. They even shut down the dancing lights on the Fountain in the reservoir when it's after labour day. Their walk of fame needs a pamphlet or a website to find out who all these so-called "famous" people are. Mind you with all the used book stores gone in Toronto, Peterborough is a goldmine if you are looking for some lost treasure from the 1970's to the 1990's. They also have a number of gaming stores and head shops and cultural stores which is to say it's a lot like a small college town.
They have a nice public library. Only one I found in the entire community. Some nice looking schools and the views are amazing. You want to see the fall leaves change colour you better make sure your camera has a panoramic feature because you will want to see it all. Oh and this is one of the hilliest places I have ever been to so be prepared to climb lots of stairs. That's right the place is highly wheelchair inaccessible so make sure your cane has a good stopper on it because it will get a work out. Mind you once you are in most buildings, the newer ones are very wheelchair complacent and sprawl out. It's just getting into one such place is where you need people to lift your chair. The town is very internet accessible with Wi-Fi just about everywhere and cable lines for fast secure connections.
There is also a seeming abundance of accountants, lawyers, and therapist's office around the town and lots of local art galleries. Well I may be biased you see yesterday was their annual Gay Pride Day and their annual doors open and the end of their Arts week so there was an abundance of the unique or at least artistically balanced. I will also jump up and say most of the art I saw was novice at best striving to be amateur.
Now while I respect the town and would love to hide away in it I realize that eventually I would grow bored to death without my big city amusements, cable TV channels, and freedom to pick a different thing each week. But if driving were no problem and I had a place to stay in the city this would be the place to retire to. Any place that doesn't bat an eye at a bunch of medival type LARPers chasing an open horse drawn carriage at midnight down busy downtown streets past it's greyhound bus station is the place for me to hide out my life.
Quintessentially magical and subtle quiet.
Now I haven't stayed in a hotel for a while and this comfort Inn was pretty darn good. Could use a bigger indoor pool and maybe a TV guide but considering for an extra twenty dollars I could have gotten a Jacuzzi tub in the room nobody is complaining. The all you can eat complimentary breakfast was fantastic with the belgium waffle maker, mini dainish, three pump juice machine, two kinds of eggs (scrambled and poached), hash brown patties, home fries, bagel toaster and choice of real jams and jellies it was very filling. I did not care for their choice of three cereals but then I prefer Rice krispies, Fruit loops, Goatmeal Crunch, or Captain Crunch in the morning not cornflakes, Special K or Rolled Oats and Oatmeal. They also need to make the free newspaper stand more visible and accessible but outside of that colour me impressed. One thing that got me in the room was I am used to actual glasses or mugs when I drink in one of the room but they have replaced that with cellephane wrapped plastic cups. Plastic cups are great for entertaining but I would not want my lips using it to rinse my mouth out in the morning.
The Peterbourgh tourism office relocated to the outside edge of town and closes at 5pm Saturday until Tuesday morning. My guess is unless it's summer time your tourist dollars are
not welcome on the weekend. Shame really as I have stated it's a really nice town.
Phantasm is an annual Role Playing Games gaming convention to capitalize on the fact that there is so much gaming out here just no real organized place to centrally play. They have been around for twenty years and are fairly diversified in their time just seasonal in the playing. Much of the games are either refurbished scenarios from Anime North, Polaris, and FanExpo or they are moderated testing for ad Astra and the previously mentioned conventions.
Still for two days of condensed gaming play and sales this is the place to meet new people, try new games, and get caught up with changes in the industry. Would I go again? Yes I would like to think I would even though it's not my type of gaming of the moment. For example while I like the idea of mixing The Sopranos with Call Of Cthulhu the fact is as He Who must not be Named enters the plane Madness would effect all so it doesn't play my sympathies well enough to get involved. Similar to the idea I don't care how interchangable the tiles are for your board game it's still a board game just with a mixed board. How are you susposed to get into a generic Hero Card game if there is no preview story to enrapture you in their history? Pretty art on a card will not be enough to sell a Generic Hero Card Game just ask Phil Foglio and his XXXphile Fantasy card game which came out gangbusters then crapped out flat after two years. Still if you are looking for some niche game to play this is the place to try before you buy.
Well that's enough for Peterborough and Phantasm and my long drive home in the dark from the
home of Trent University. Need to wind down and get some sleep so I can find out what I
missed in the morning.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Billy Joel songs
Egads it's been months and now it's 22 September 2010 the anniversary of the first issue of National Geographic was published in 1888, ITV went live to air in 1955, Debby Boone and Joan Jett and Andrea Bocelli were born, and Martha Corey was the last witch hung at the Salem Witch Trials while this is also the anniversary of the deaths of Marcel Marceau, Dan Rowan, Isaac Stern, it's also the Autumnal Equinox and Trumpet Day. It's also the day after DC Entertainment announce it was closing it's WildStorm Offices and cutting 20% of it's 250 staffers and moving just about everything but the actual comics from New York to L.A. so Warners can make media with it. Zuda the digital comics is gone too. Marvel is streamlining as well but no where near as drastic. So what's been happening in my life? Well Mark has been going for all sorts of medical tests and has returned to college for a couple of days a week. I| have been busy doing the shopping for the family and visiting the local farmer's markets because Mum really enjoys the bacon from the local farmer's market. I have taken pictures everywhere I go which includes those Farmer's Markets and various street Festivals including Taste Of The Kingsway, and Ukrainian Festival on Bloor West not to mention TIFF celebrations downtown.
Then there was Rob. Rob Chin whose Comic Shop I have been patronizing since a month after it opened in April 1987 has decided to close at the end of October this year due to high rents, and diminishing returns. The next nearest place is another 2.5 kilometers away. On top of that Rob's dad died on the Labour Day weekend so he shut the store for a week. It was the week I ordered the newest HeroClix and because Rob's was closed for the funeral the order came went back and they distributors canceled it. I had to make the trek all the way downtown to get my brick of Web Of Spider-man HeroClix. One in five of those clicks were doubles leaving me wanting for 25 others most Super-Rares. On a lighter note in collecting I am only missing 4 figures from the Brave & The Bold set and 9 figures from Hammer of Thor set.
Oh did I mention my very late arrival to the Terry Fox Run at West Deane Park and no spare working batteries this past Sunday? mind you i think i did my best time yet except that by the time I got to the finish line a little after 1pm they had shut down and left for the day. So no one to see me complete the run well walk actually.
What else is happening in my little self absorbed world? I had a Churro at the Ukrainian Festival and it was good but no where worth the value they charged for it as opposed to a true Canadian doughnut.
Halo Reach finally came out and I literally gave up on it 30 minutes after starting. My brother Mark loves it and cannot stop going on about the story.
We also finally visited the OLG Slots at Woodbine racetrack. Most of my winnings were lost by my brother but to be fair I started with five dollars. I know my limit and more than play with in it.
Dad had some real slow days at the beginning of the month and as a result took to infrequent napping which has resulted in starting one program and then asking if it's repeated later in the night so he can see how it ends. I have to tell him no it was on regular network TV alot. I think that's why he's gravitating to AMC and History Channel so much they tend to repeat more than their fair share. Of course it doesn't help if he falls asleep during Death Wish original and awakens during middle of Death Wish Two. Ditto the Dirty Harry films.
Mum is same old stuff. The hair on the back of her head is a nest of one large knot. She refuses to have it seen to and figures it will just grow out. She has the same plans for many months now for me to take her out to a jeweler to get her a new watch band and a new watch battery and earrings. Except I got her some nice gold stud earrings for her birthday last month and she keeps slipping as I got her two different pairs. Then there are places of people she wants to see
(doctors to drop in on out of the blue that she hasn't seen in five or more years) and she backs out of going at the last minute. Although her last minute can drag on for a couple of hours. Just the other day I made Pancakes for breakfast for everyone and she took half an hour to come down the stairs. The actual stairs were less than a minute. It was the get up and go and prep to come down that took most of the time. Oh and there is the paper piles. She goes through the newspapers and cuts out various articles and then piles them up with the fliers and brochures and free weekly magazines and mail and all sorts of other notes that the table is sometimes one big loping pile. After a period of time she goes through it and we end up with a lot of stuff recycled and a bag or three of assorted notes. Okay sometimes it's a manila envelope but still. Sometimes what spurs her to clear the table is company coming or we need to find some important document amongst the piles. It can end with screams of we don't respect her and are mucking her system when we taper or try to straighten things out for our selves. Rarely a good time. More so things need to be done. Maybe that's where I get the hoarding mentality.
On that note the home renovations seem to be as done as they are ever going to be. We had a gentleman come in and take out our upstairs bathroom window screen and returned promptly a week and 5 hours later with the replacement. During that time the window was open and I killed over 17 moths that had flown in to take residence in our upstairs bathroom. They still haven't comeback to repair or replace the toilet paper holder which fell out of the wall the day after they installed it. It took a month after the inspection and the plumber repair to clean up the lobby of the fallen ceiling. The Janitor just dumped the debris from the fallen lobby ceiling out by the corner fence.
What's for the future for me is I think a visit to Peterborough for the Phantasm RPG Convention this coming weekend or a visit to CTV studios openhouse or Woodbine Center mall's 25th anniversary celebrations or maybe a visit to the new studios for Q107 who moved out of the Hard Rock Cafe ten days ago. Then there is ScotiaBank nuit blanche and the following weekend there is the annual Toronto Zombie Walk and Thanksgiving then the Loblaws strike and then two weeks aft5er that my birthday and Halloween. Oh and maybe a trip to visit my Aunt Marilyn and see the Oktoberfest Parade in Kitchener-Waterloo but that will be for another entry.
Well that's all for this time hopefully I won't take so long to make a post in the future.
Then there was Rob. Rob Chin whose Comic Shop I have been patronizing since a month after it opened in April 1987 has decided to close at the end of October this year due to high rents, and diminishing returns. The next nearest place is another 2.5 kilometers away. On top of that Rob's dad died on the Labour Day weekend so he shut the store for a week. It was the week I ordered the newest HeroClix and because Rob's was closed for the funeral the order came went back and they distributors canceled it. I had to make the trek all the way downtown to get my brick of Web Of Spider-man HeroClix. One in five of those clicks were doubles leaving me wanting for 25 others most Super-Rares. On a lighter note in collecting I am only missing 4 figures from the Brave & The Bold set and 9 figures from Hammer of Thor set.
Oh did I mention my very late arrival to the Terry Fox Run at West Deane Park and no spare working batteries this past Sunday? mind you i think i did my best time yet except that by the time I got to the finish line a little after 1pm they had shut down and left for the day. So no one to see me complete the run well walk actually.
What else is happening in my little self absorbed world? I had a Churro at the Ukrainian Festival and it was good but no where worth the value they charged for it as opposed to a true Canadian doughnut.
Halo Reach finally came out and I literally gave up on it 30 minutes after starting. My brother Mark loves it and cannot stop going on about the story.
We also finally visited the OLG Slots at Woodbine racetrack. Most of my winnings were lost by my brother but to be fair I started with five dollars. I know my limit and more than play with in it.
Dad had some real slow days at the beginning of the month and as a result took to infrequent napping which has resulted in starting one program and then asking if it's repeated later in the night so he can see how it ends. I have to tell him no it was on regular network TV alot. I think that's why he's gravitating to AMC and History Channel so much they tend to repeat more than their fair share. Of course it doesn't help if he falls asleep during Death Wish original and awakens during middle of Death Wish Two. Ditto the Dirty Harry films.
Mum is same old stuff. The hair on the back of her head is a nest of one large knot. She refuses to have it seen to and figures it will just grow out. She has the same plans for many months now for me to take her out to a jeweler to get her a new watch band and a new watch battery and earrings. Except I got her some nice gold stud earrings for her birthday last month and she keeps slipping as I got her two different pairs. Then there are places of people she wants to see
(doctors to drop in on out of the blue that she hasn't seen in five or more years) and she backs out of going at the last minute. Although her last minute can drag on for a couple of hours. Just the other day I made Pancakes for breakfast for everyone and she took half an hour to come down the stairs. The actual stairs were less than a minute. It was the get up and go and prep to come down that took most of the time. Oh and there is the paper piles. She goes through the newspapers and cuts out various articles and then piles them up with the fliers and brochures and free weekly magazines and mail and all sorts of other notes that the table is sometimes one big loping pile. After a period of time she goes through it and we end up with a lot of stuff recycled and a bag or three of assorted notes. Okay sometimes it's a manila envelope but still. Sometimes what spurs her to clear the table is company coming or we need to find some important document amongst the piles. It can end with screams of we don't respect her and are mucking her system when we taper or try to straighten things out for our selves. Rarely a good time. More so things need to be done. Maybe that's where I get the hoarding mentality.
On that note the home renovations seem to be as done as they are ever going to be. We had a gentleman come in and take out our upstairs bathroom window screen and returned promptly a week and 5 hours later with the replacement. During that time the window was open and I killed over 17 moths that had flown in to take residence in our upstairs bathroom. They still haven't comeback to repair or replace the toilet paper holder which fell out of the wall the day after they installed it. It took a month after the inspection and the plumber repair to clean up the lobby of the fallen ceiling. The Janitor just dumped the debris from the fallen lobby ceiling out by the corner fence.
What's for the future for me is I think a visit to Peterborough for the Phantasm RPG Convention this coming weekend or a visit to CTV studios openhouse or Woodbine Center mall's 25th anniversary celebrations or maybe a visit to the new studios for Q107 who moved out of the Hard Rock Cafe ten days ago. Then there is ScotiaBank nuit blanche and the following weekend there is the annual Toronto Zombie Walk and Thanksgiving then the Loblaws strike and then two weeks aft5er that my birthday and Halloween. Oh and maybe a trip to visit my Aunt Marilyn and see the Oktoberfest Parade in Kitchener-Waterloo but that will be for another entry.
Well that's all for this time hopefully I won't take so long to make a post in the future.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Me and me vices real and psychological
Okay back after a long time and it's now September 9th, 2010 and the anniversary of the first Terry Fox Marathon and the anniversary of Elvis Presley making his first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. So since my last post I have been busy with carribana, visits to Montgomery's inn, various Farmer's Markets, seeing the summer stock play The Taming Of The Shrew, to having the police visit me for suspicious behavior at The Taming Of The Shrew, to seeing some summer films, to going to the annual Canadian G.I.Joe Convention (met Larry Hama Go Joes), to visiting JerkFest 2010, to seeing World Ukranian Day, to going to three and a half days of Fan Expo, some innukshuks in the Humber River near Etiene Brule Park, and my mother's birthday, my brother Paul's Birthday, and my parents 44th Wedding anniversary. So in spite of all appearances it's been a very busy summer.
So they have come and inspected the kitchen twice and just finished the upstairs bathroom over a week ago. There are no drawers in the bathroom and the mirror/medicine cabinet is half the size of the previous one. The shower curtain is half a foot lower and the tiling is slapped on that it will eventually buckle from the wall. Well it's awkward but the one good thing is they redid the ceiling so no more mold hanging down from peeling paint. One bad thing (of already several) is mum's bench is major source of water leakage so we have to mop the floor during and after with a bath towel. So what's next is they haqve someone coming in to fix all the window screens and then it's done. complete, finished, finito.
Oddly I find my self pondering a new TV Show called hoarders where they come in a clear out people's homes who cluster it up with too many things they can't let go or organize. The reason I ponder this is sometimes I think there is something wrong with me as I feel one step away from being a hoaqrder. Nothing gives perspective like cleaning up a house hold and shifting items around the home. You see I collect comicbooks, posters, pulp novels, buttons, keychains, cereal toys, HeroClix, HorrorClix, brochures and magazines and specialized catalogs. All this accunulates and has to be organized and stored. You see I noticed a decade ago that while I collect some things I don't always pay attention to them like a collector should. You ever read the book or see the film High Fidelity by Nick Hornby that starred John Cusack. Both great works but I digress so let me focus on the film version. In the film John Cusack portrays Rob who has just been dumped by his long time girlfriend Laura and decides to go and rank all his break-ups in life so far. Then Rob decides to revisit these break-ups and starts ranking other things in life. You see Rob was a DJ then moved on to running a new & used record store and when you deal with that sort of thing in life you are constantly ranking things and in this case it makes a great soundtrack. Collecting things will make people constantly rank things and list them and discuss them with like minded or even curious strangers. Like Top Five songs to spy by which would include Secret Agent Man by Johnny Rivers, Spies Like Us by Paul McCartney, You Only Live Twice by Nancy Sinatra, Wanted Dead Or Alive by John Bon Jovi, Live And Let Die by Axl Rose. Now that's off the top of my head not from the film but if you collect comicbooks you will accumulate as your collection grows hits and misses and you will have favourite titles and favourite stories and favourite characters and hated characters and hated stories and you will inevitable tie them to points in life. I bring this up because Rob's collections or music from life and DJ led him to open his failing business and with it failing along with his relationships he goes on this voyage to reorganize his personal record collection not by title or artist or chronologically even alphabetically but instead biographically. Now when you deal with thousands of titles like that it can turn a scene when you really think about that in September 1980 you can like Starting Over by John Lennon just months before he was assassinated at the same time as Queen's Flash Gordon and Dolly Parton's Nine To Five you were suffering the indigniti3es of grade six. To put this to a comicbook collector I know that I was at a Voyager Restaurant and service station at the end of August 1980 driving between Brockville and Toronto two months after my maternal grandmother's funeral when I picked up Avengers 201 and Uncanny X-men #137 the death of Phoenix. I can trace from that point to a year later Uncanny X-Men #151 and the start of the Brood Saga with showing off my collection in Mr Ashenhurst's Grade seven class and being asked to public speak before the class five months after that about Spider-Man and having my father scrimp so I could get some classic specials of Spidey to allow me to display to class. Biographical is not necessarily linear since it ties to your life experience and if nothing else can be very emotional. Forest Gump is a very linear story and is told chronologically but is also biographical and emotional. I like to think Stupid is as Stupid does and I would like t5o stop doing stupid by just accumulating things and get my life in order if I can just figure out how to do that.
So before I got so far off topic on the fact I feel like a hoarder for lack of practicing my organizational skills let's refresh with a list of the previous paragraph.
- shifting things to clean up during renovation of home.
- I collect things.
- I list things.
- i collect comicbooks, and assorted other items.
- I like Nick Hornby and High Fidelity and John Cussack.
- My grand mother's death and Grade seven and uncanny x-men.
- I don't want to be a hoarder.
- I think of myself as Forest Gump.
- I am still lazy.
- I need to change.
That's a top ten list of what I think my life has become. Isn't that sad?
With that my life has to move on at the moment and I will get back to this blog for the moment I feel tapped out so until next time stay free.
So they have come and inspected the kitchen twice and just finished the upstairs bathroom over a week ago. There are no drawers in the bathroom and the mirror/medicine cabinet is half the size of the previous one. The shower curtain is half a foot lower and the tiling is slapped on that it will eventually buckle from the wall. Well it's awkward but the one good thing is they redid the ceiling so no more mold hanging down from peeling paint. One bad thing (of already several) is mum's bench is major source of water leakage so we have to mop the floor during and after with a bath towel. So what's next is they haqve someone coming in to fix all the window screens and then it's done. complete, finished, finito.
Oddly I find my self pondering a new TV Show called hoarders where they come in a clear out people's homes who cluster it up with too many things they can't let go or organize. The reason I ponder this is sometimes I think there is something wrong with me as I feel one step away from being a hoaqrder. Nothing gives perspective like cleaning up a house hold and shifting items around the home. You see I collect comicbooks, posters, pulp novels, buttons, keychains, cereal toys, HeroClix, HorrorClix, brochures and magazines and specialized catalogs. All this accunulates and has to be organized and stored. You see I noticed a decade ago that while I collect some things I don't always pay attention to them like a collector should. You ever read the book or see the film High Fidelity by Nick Hornby that starred John Cusack. Both great works but I digress so let me focus on the film version. In the film John Cusack portrays Rob who has just been dumped by his long time girlfriend Laura and decides to go and rank all his break-ups in life so far. Then Rob decides to revisit these break-ups and starts ranking other things in life. You see Rob was a DJ then moved on to running a new & used record store and when you deal with that sort of thing in life you are constantly ranking things and in this case it makes a great soundtrack. Collecting things will make people constantly rank things and list them and discuss them with like minded or even curious strangers. Like Top Five songs to spy by which would include Secret Agent Man by Johnny Rivers, Spies Like Us by Paul McCartney, You Only Live Twice by Nancy Sinatra, Wanted Dead Or Alive by John Bon Jovi, Live And Let Die by Axl Rose. Now that's off the top of my head not from the film but if you collect comicbooks you will accumulate as your collection grows hits and misses and you will have favourite titles and favourite stories and favourite characters and hated characters and hated stories and you will inevitable tie them to points in life. I bring this up because Rob's collections or music from life and DJ led him to open his failing business and with it failing along with his relationships he goes on this voyage to reorganize his personal record collection not by title or artist or chronologically even alphabetically but instead biographically. Now when you deal with thousands of titles like that it can turn a scene when you really think about that in September 1980 you can like Starting Over by John Lennon just months before he was assassinated at the same time as Queen's Flash Gordon and Dolly Parton's Nine To Five you were suffering the indigniti3es of grade six. To put this to a comicbook collector I know that I was at a Voyager Restaurant and service station at the end of August 1980 driving between Brockville and Toronto two months after my maternal grandmother's funeral when I picked up Avengers 201 and Uncanny X-men #137 the death of Phoenix. I can trace from that point to a year later Uncanny X-Men #151 and the start of the Brood Saga with showing off my collection in Mr Ashenhurst's Grade seven class and being asked to public speak before the class five months after that about Spider-Man and having my father scrimp so I could get some classic specials of Spidey to allow me to display to class. Biographical is not necessarily linear since it ties to your life experience and if nothing else can be very emotional. Forest Gump is a very linear story and is told chronologically but is also biographical and emotional. I like to think Stupid is as Stupid does and I would like t5o stop doing stupid by just accumulating things and get my life in order if I can just figure out how to do that.
So before I got so far off topic on the fact I feel like a hoarder for lack of practicing my organizational skills let's refresh with a list of the previous paragraph.
- shifting things to clean up during renovation of home.
- I collect things.
- I list things.
- i collect comicbooks, and assorted other items.
- I like Nick Hornby and High Fidelity and John Cussack.
- My grand mother's death and Grade seven and uncanny x-men.
- I don't want to be a hoarder.
- I think of myself as Forest Gump.
- I am still lazy.
- I need to change.
That's a top ten list of what I think my life has become. Isn't that sad?
With that my life has to move on at the moment and I will get back to this blog for the moment I feel tapped out so until next time stay free.
Friday, July 23, 2010
From the Drive-In
Greetings and salutations and I just logged something here. Today is July 23rd, 2010 and on this day in history astronauts who were the first to walk on the moon started to head back home to Earth. Since then a lot has happened.
Let's start with the fact on the evening of 5 MaY 2010 while I was downtown celebrating so to speak and my fan and cooling system at the old home computer jammed frying the system and ruining one of the hard drives. So in that time I have slowly been working on my brothers upstairs computer while week by week putting the old one through replacement and recovery.
Roughly put I had a terabyte of assorted files on the computer ranging from years of the Bettie Page of The Day pictures, to seasons of tv shows, to dozens of lists made copied and forgotten. For example something that I have kept since 1997 was Christopher Titus's Rules Of Life which I have always found poignent, funny, and honest. Well I had not needed to see it in quite some time and when I had to go through my files to see what could be backed up this is one nof those files I came across. One of thousands of files from over the years. So nostaqlgia slows down the recovery and review process to the point my brother thinks it takes forever and a day to get something done.
So that said the repair replacement and recovery is tenacious at best and only a stop gap untill something else happens.
So other than that what else have I been up to You might ask? Well after Cinco de Mayo we had Victoria Day Weekend with some fireworks, then Anime North filled with lots of costumes, then all the season TV enders and from there we had D-Day memorial at City Hall, the G8/G20 Summit with accompanying riots, the Tall Ships at the Harbourfront, Twilight concerts at Applewood, Dad's Birthday, Paul and Mary Anne's Wedding Anniversary, Canada Day Weekend, Toronto Ribfest, Gay Pride Parade, the RBC Canadian Open Golf Tournament, Toronto Jazz Fest, yuk Yuks just for laughs comedy festival, free concerts from Chakka Khan, Macy Gray, and Cyndi Lauper, not to mention the Global Groves at Yonge-Dundas Square, and then we had the Honda Indy which was free on the friday, which leads to Caribanna and Lord John Graves Simcoe Day next weekend.
Yes no matter what I do try to keep busy. After all idle hands are the devil's playthings I do believe. It's odd the building management decided that selected units would get kitchen and bathroom remodeling. So for the week of the G20 Riots and my Dad's Birthday they tore up and out the kitchen. Everything was either boxed and sent down to the basement or moved to the dining room table or the counter that was shifted next to the computer in the living room. It made things very crowded, cramped, and creepy. There were a few days were we couldn't cook anything since the stove and oven could not be plugged in. They changed the lights to fluorescents which means that it's supposed to save energy except they literally take a two second count to come on after you flip the switch and they are sealed in their covers. By sealing them in their covers it's to make them safer except fluorescent burn out after a couple of years and the cover is going to collect dust non-stop during that time. when they do burn out we have to call the superintendent to change a light-bulb. Sheeesh. Now I could mention they didn't measure things in the kitchen properly and the counter is half a foot too short or the cupboards are too high for mum to reach anything other than the bottom shelf or that you can't open up any two side by side cupboard doors or you'll rip them off their hinges or that they don't hang properly on their hinges to begin with is really something but I am not one to complain. ;) Lol.
So that's it this time time for me to move on till the next post.
Let's start with the fact on the evening of 5 MaY 2010 while I was downtown celebrating so to speak and my fan and cooling system at the old home computer jammed frying the system and ruining one of the hard drives. So in that time I have slowly been working on my brothers upstairs computer while week by week putting the old one through replacement and recovery.
Roughly put I had a terabyte of assorted files on the computer ranging from years of the Bettie Page of The Day pictures, to seasons of tv shows, to dozens of lists made copied and forgotten. For example something that I have kept since 1997 was Christopher Titus's Rules Of Life which I have always found poignent, funny, and honest. Well I had not needed to see it in quite some time and when I had to go through my files to see what could be backed up this is one nof those files I came across. One of thousands of files from over the years. So nostaqlgia slows down the recovery and review process to the point my brother thinks it takes forever and a day to get something done.
So that said the repair replacement and recovery is tenacious at best and only a stop gap untill something else happens.
So other than that what else have I been up to You might ask? Well after Cinco de Mayo we had Victoria Day Weekend with some fireworks, then Anime North filled with lots of costumes, then all the season TV enders and from there we had D-Day memorial at City Hall, the G8/G20 Summit with accompanying riots, the Tall Ships at the Harbourfront, Twilight concerts at Applewood, Dad's Birthday, Paul and Mary Anne's Wedding Anniversary, Canada Day Weekend, Toronto Ribfest, Gay Pride Parade, the RBC Canadian Open Golf Tournament, Toronto Jazz Fest, yuk Yuks just for laughs comedy festival, free concerts from Chakka Khan, Macy Gray, and Cyndi Lauper, not to mention the Global Groves at Yonge-Dundas Square, and then we had the Honda Indy which was free on the friday, which leads to Caribanna and Lord John Graves Simcoe Day next weekend.
Yes no matter what I do try to keep busy. After all idle hands are the devil's playthings I do believe. It's odd the building management decided that selected units would get kitchen and bathroom remodeling. So for the week of the G20 Riots and my Dad's Birthday they tore up and out the kitchen. Everything was either boxed and sent down to the basement or moved to the dining room table or the counter that was shifted next to the computer in the living room. It made things very crowded, cramped, and creepy. There were a few days were we couldn't cook anything since the stove and oven could not be plugged in. They changed the lights to fluorescents which means that it's supposed to save energy except they literally take a two second count to come on after you flip the switch and they are sealed in their covers. By sealing them in their covers it's to make them safer except fluorescent burn out after a couple of years and the cover is going to collect dust non-stop during that time. when they do burn out we have to call the superintendent to change a light-bulb. Sheeesh. Now I could mention they didn't measure things in the kitchen properly and the counter is half a foot too short or the cupboards are too high for mum to reach anything other than the bottom shelf or that you can't open up any two side by side cupboard doors or you'll rip them off their hinges or that they don't hang properly on their hinges to begin with is really something but I am not one to complain. ;) Lol.
So that's it this time time for me to move on till the next post.
Monday, March 29, 2010
The decays of highly excited string states.
Good Evening it is 29th of March 2010 and the first night of Passover so I hope everyone is having a happy seder. Also Dr. john Pemberton brewed the first batch of Coca-Cola in his backyard in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., the Canada Act 1982 received Royal Assent from Queen Elizabeth II, setting the stage for the Queen to proclaim the Constitution Act of 1982, two great things in history. Also Happy Birthday to Cy Young (1867), Eric Idle (1943), John Major (also 1943), Christopher Lambert (1955), Lucy Lawless (Xena 1968), and Prince Hamzah bin Al Hussein of Jordan (1980). As well the anniversary of the demise of Eric Williams (first PM o Trinidad & Tobago in 1981), Mitch Hedberg (comedian 2005), and Andy Hallett (Song & Dance man in 2009).
So I have attempted to log in a couple times over the past two months and was befoiled by the password reset, the blue screen of death, sleep, and errand runs. But I am here now and that is what is important.
So what has changed or happened in that time. Well let's see working backwards I have a start of a small head cold. Bronchial in nature the cough is no where as bad as Mum's or Mark's but then I have put a lot into not stressing it out unlike the two of them. This past weekend was the first Wizard World Toronto Comic Con formerly the Paradise Comics Toronto Comic Con and Earth Hour 3rd anniversary. I didn't really attend either unless you count huddling in the dark corner celebrating participating in Earth Hour. As much as I would have loved to have gone to the free Earth Hour concert at Yonge Dundas Square or down to the Direct Energy building for Wizard World or even BMO Field for the Toronto FC season opener (they bloody lost), it was a case of no money for it. On top of that the motivation to go it alone (anywhere) was something that held me back. Suffice it to say it will be something I will regret for months (if not years until they make a working time machine hopefully sans hot tube).
Moving right along two weeks ago was Mark's Birthday and we had Paul and Mary-Anne over to celebrate and I got the following for the celebrations: swept the floors, vacuum the carpets, ordered and picked up the cake, set the table cloth, got the wrapping paper, got a barrel of pretzels (they were out of cheese puff balls), 8 pounds of roast of beef, 30 pounds of potatoes, 4 pounds of Brussels sprouts, and the gifts of Chuck season one on DVD, Jericho the complete series on DVD, a stylish black shirt, Final Fantasy XIII with game manual, and Gunsmith Cats Burst Volume 4. I also went out of the way and bought two bottles of Dad's Root Beer so he could celebrate. This way he got a little something he wanted from each member of the family (Mum, Dad, Me and the group).
Paul and Mary Anne got Mark a card and a git card for $15 from Blockbuster that said "To Infinity And Beyond" which Mark used to get a Blue Ray DVD of Ghostbusters.
Mark took the age off his cake embarassed that the George Costanza reference is moving from me to him. I said he is more like Chris Elliot on Get A Life but he says no one watched that show in the beginning so no one will even no what it is now except for TV addicts like me and Paul and the newspaper reviewers. Either way he is embarrassed he is not more.
The problem with that is I am trying to get him out and he is working against me thinking he does not want to be part of Larry, Daryl, and Daryl from Newhart. I keep saying he should try for the better part of the experience. No sale.
Now last year Pop's got me a Costco membership and I had not used it until the weekend before Mark's B-day because a) Costco is South of the Queensway and East of Islington and hence too far away. b) Costco is not much of savings compared to Price Chopper, Food Basics, & No Frills. c) Costco doesn't have all the brands we like such as Nestle Quik, McCain frozen goods, or Dove Shampoo. Sum it up Costco good for bulk not for distance, savings, or selection. Mind you if I wanted cheap sweets in bulk then yum!
So I went to them to get some bulk cheese poof balls like in the third season debut of Chuck for Mark and they told me they were out of season so try the pretzels instead. Well at least they are kosher so perfect for Passover. La Haim!
Got to one HeroClix game and lost one round won two! Got to one HorrorClix game and lost one round and won another. Got myself a Heimdall and a Beta Ray Bill at the last game. Yum!
Anyway got to go pick up Mark so until next time put the seat down and learn to aim better.
So I have attempted to log in a couple times over the past two months and was befoiled by the password reset, the blue screen of death, sleep, and errand runs. But I am here now and that is what is important.
So what has changed or happened in that time. Well let's see working backwards I have a start of a small head cold. Bronchial in nature the cough is no where as bad as Mum's or Mark's but then I have put a lot into not stressing it out unlike the two of them. This past weekend was the first Wizard World Toronto Comic Con formerly the Paradise Comics Toronto Comic Con and Earth Hour 3rd anniversary. I didn't really attend either unless you count huddling in the dark corner celebrating participating in Earth Hour. As much as I would have loved to have gone to the free Earth Hour concert at Yonge Dundas Square or down to the Direct Energy building for Wizard World or even BMO Field for the Toronto FC season opener (they bloody lost), it was a case of no money for it. On top of that the motivation to go it alone (anywhere) was something that held me back. Suffice it to say it will be something I will regret for months (if not years until they make a working time machine hopefully sans hot tube).
Moving right along two weeks ago was Mark's Birthday and we had Paul and Mary-Anne over to celebrate and I got the following for the celebrations: swept the floors, vacuum the carpets, ordered and picked up the cake, set the table cloth, got the wrapping paper, got a barrel of pretzels (they were out of cheese puff balls), 8 pounds of roast of beef, 30 pounds of potatoes, 4 pounds of Brussels sprouts, and the gifts of Chuck season one on DVD, Jericho the complete series on DVD, a stylish black shirt, Final Fantasy XIII with game manual, and Gunsmith Cats Burst Volume 4. I also went out of the way and bought two bottles of Dad's Root Beer so he could celebrate. This way he got a little something he wanted from each member of the family (Mum, Dad, Me and the group).
Paul and Mary Anne got Mark a card and a git card for $15 from Blockbuster that said "To Infinity And Beyond" which Mark used to get a Blue Ray DVD of Ghostbusters.
Mark took the age off his cake embarassed that the George Costanza reference is moving from me to him. I said he is more like Chris Elliot on Get A Life but he says no one watched that show in the beginning so no one will even no what it is now except for TV addicts like me and Paul and the newspaper reviewers. Either way he is embarrassed he is not more.
The problem with that is I am trying to get him out and he is working against me thinking he does not want to be part of Larry, Daryl, and Daryl from Newhart. I keep saying he should try for the better part of the experience. No sale.
Now last year Pop's got me a Costco membership and I had not used it until the weekend before Mark's B-day because a) Costco is South of the Queensway and East of Islington and hence too far away. b) Costco is not much of savings compared to Price Chopper, Food Basics, & No Frills. c) Costco doesn't have all the brands we like such as Nestle Quik, McCain frozen goods, or Dove Shampoo. Sum it up Costco good for bulk not for distance, savings, or selection. Mind you if I wanted cheap sweets in bulk then yum!
So I went to them to get some bulk cheese poof balls like in the third season debut of Chuck for Mark and they told me they were out of season so try the pretzels instead. Well at least they are kosher so perfect for Passover. La Haim!
Got to one HeroClix game and lost one round won two! Got to one HorrorClix game and lost one round and won another. Got myself a Heimdall and a Beta Ray Bill at the last game. Yum!
Anyway got to go pick up Mark so until next time put the seat down and learn to aim better.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Happy Kwanza or Merry Diwali or say what!
Good Evening it is 25th of January 2010 and the fiftieth anniversary of bubble wrap.
So for all those people coming late to the show let me say Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Diwali, Screw you Boxing Day, and a Happy New Year.
What's new? Well let's see where do I begin?
With the family on Christmas Eve I let Dad drive Mark to and from work on his own and had him do some more driving on the days to follow. Unfortunately his work has dried up and he has no where to go except to the Red Cabin or the 401 Dinner for breakfast to talk his lack of incoming work with his cohorts. Speaking of cohorts one of them Linda had to stop work at one of her accounts when they failed to meet their registration for their business. Poor repo comapany.
Anyways Dad spends a lot of time sleeping or mini-napping and fretful for his two other problems. You see a couple of days before Christmas he ordered a Universal T-Coder from Apollo-Auto in China. Nice machine great for short term work. Except the company sent him a machine a couple of levels down that is basically a key cloner. Great if you are copying keys not so great for cutting fresh new keys. Also it's a 33% price difference. So Pops has sent a few e-mails and gotten no response from the company. That's problem number one.
Problem number two is that Dad has gotten no response from Scouts Canada as to why he was forced in to the position of Scouter At Large an enforced retirement from Scouting from the past 36 years well 33 officially. They gave him a little ceremony yesterday during the church service and I put $5 on the collection plate but I noticed that the minister Cora didn't pose for any pictures with Dad afterward in spite her asking him to walk out the aisle with her and shaking hands farewell as people left. Well now that Dad isn't involved in Cubs he finds himself restless with no camps to plan or lessons to gather especially on Tuesday evenings. He almost dragged me to see Alvin & The Chipmunks The Squeakuel. Almost.
Okay so that's Dad what about Mum? Well Mother has been Mother sticking around the house. She got all prepared to leave to see Dad get his presentation that she bailed 5 minutes before we were due to leave. She says she doesn't think he could hold a civil tongue during the event. Mother just got a clean bill of health last Friday from the Pacemaker clinic. She also had me drive her all the way up Erin Mills to see one of the last Grand & Toy stores around. She was disappointed at how small or bare the store was. For Christmas Eve we had Paul and Mary-Anne over for a dinner of Roast Beef that Mom would cook up. On Christmas Day she cooked a Turkey. For New Year's Eve she ordered in Chinese food from Golden Wok she left Mark's order of General Tso's Chicken but since Mark was with me when we picked it up we added it to the order. Last week she had seen the 4 Litre bags of chocolate milk on sale at Price Chopper and she had me pick up 7 bags Tuesday and Wednesday that were totally gone by Sunday. That's all the out o the ordinary eating and celebratory meals. Oh wait I had my first trip through the McDonald's Skymark drive-thru where she had a hamburger and fries and I had a large fries and the worst veggie burger. ever. under toasted bun and burnt patty that tasted like it was nuked then clamshell grilled. There is a reason why it's been year's since I went there. Anyways that was Mum and nothing else is really going on with her except this Wednesday she has her eye doctor tests first in a couple of years.
My baby brother Mark has been peddling along with getting back to college and schedule changes and bad placements. Outside of that he has completed all of his HaloClix Collection finally! Now he is gearing up for all the video games coming down the pipeline. Still hasn't bought into the whole Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 games. His Star Wars book mobile came crashing down after hanging in spot or almost 18 years. Nothing was hurt but the pride the string finally wore out.
And that 's about it for me this time I hope to get back before Flag Day see everyone soon.
So for all those people coming late to the show let me say Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Diwali, Screw you Boxing Day, and a Happy New Year.
What's new? Well let's see where do I begin?
With the family on Christmas Eve I let Dad drive Mark to and from work on his own and had him do some more driving on the days to follow. Unfortunately his work has dried up and he has no where to go except to the Red Cabin or the 401 Dinner for breakfast to talk his lack of incoming work with his cohorts. Speaking of cohorts one of them Linda had to stop work at one of her accounts when they failed to meet their registration for their business. Poor repo comapany.
Anyways Dad spends a lot of time sleeping or mini-napping and fretful for his two other problems. You see a couple of days before Christmas he ordered a Universal T-Coder from Apollo-Auto in China. Nice machine great for short term work. Except the company sent him a machine a couple of levels down that is basically a key cloner. Great if you are copying keys not so great for cutting fresh new keys. Also it's a 33% price difference. So Pops has sent a few e-mails and gotten no response from the company. That's problem number one.
Problem number two is that Dad has gotten no response from Scouts Canada as to why he was forced in to the position of Scouter At Large an enforced retirement from Scouting from the past 36 years well 33 officially. They gave him a little ceremony yesterday during the church service and I put $5 on the collection plate but I noticed that the minister Cora didn't pose for any pictures with Dad afterward in spite her asking him to walk out the aisle with her and shaking hands farewell as people left. Well now that Dad isn't involved in Cubs he finds himself restless with no camps to plan or lessons to gather especially on Tuesday evenings. He almost dragged me to see Alvin & The Chipmunks The Squeakuel. Almost.
Okay so that's Dad what about Mum? Well Mother has been Mother sticking around the house. She got all prepared to leave to see Dad get his presentation that she bailed 5 minutes before we were due to leave. She says she doesn't think he could hold a civil tongue during the event. Mother just got a clean bill of health last Friday from the Pacemaker clinic. She also had me drive her all the way up Erin Mills to see one of the last Grand & Toy stores around. She was disappointed at how small or bare the store was. For Christmas Eve we had Paul and Mary-Anne over for a dinner of Roast Beef that Mom would cook up. On Christmas Day she cooked a Turkey. For New Year's Eve she ordered in Chinese food from Golden Wok she left Mark's order of General Tso's Chicken but since Mark was with me when we picked it up we added it to the order. Last week she had seen the 4 Litre bags of chocolate milk on sale at Price Chopper and she had me pick up 7 bags Tuesday and Wednesday that were totally gone by Sunday. That's all the out o the ordinary eating and celebratory meals. Oh wait I had my first trip through the McDonald's Skymark drive-thru where she had a hamburger and fries and I had a large fries and the worst veggie burger. ever. under toasted bun and burnt patty that tasted like it was nuked then clamshell grilled. There is a reason why it's been year's since I went there. Anyways that was Mum and nothing else is really going on with her except this Wednesday she has her eye doctor tests first in a couple of years.
My baby brother Mark has been peddling along with getting back to college and schedule changes and bad placements. Outside of that he has completed all of his HaloClix Collection finally! Now he is gearing up for all the video games coming down the pipeline. Still hasn't bought into the whole Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 games. His Star Wars book mobile came crashing down after hanging in spot or almost 18 years. Nothing was hurt but the pride the string finally wore out.
And that 's about it for me this time I hope to get back before Flag Day see everyone soon.
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