Just got an Airport Express

Just picked up an Airport Express for the new place. Oh man this thing is neat, and tiny. Can't wait to get it home so I can play with it. We needed a wireless router for the new place since my parents aren't about to give mine up and re-string 30 meters of network cable up and down stairs throughout the house, so I'm not going to try and sneak it away again. But it will be pretty awesome for both sabrina and I to use my speakers in the main room and wirelessly stream our own music to it from anywhere in the house. Or if someone comes over with a laptop and iTunes they can play their own music without plugging anything in. Very cool.

The girl working at the Little Mac Shoppe was cute as a button, good thing she was kind of quiet and didn't do high-pressure sales or Lord knows what I might have walked out of there with.

Rustico Christmas Lights

Note to self: Get a tripod. This does look sort of neat, though. More at my flickr site: Link.

Christmas Haul

Got a couple of good things at Christmas, a wool Winter coat that my mom got me to pick out beforehand, some pants and jeans and wahtnot, a couple of ties (officially old.. ugh.) and Volume 4 of the Loony Tunes Golden Collection, which means I now have the full set. Sabrina is going to hate me.

Parents got a DVD player, couldn't figure out how most of the features worked but I showed them how to play movies on it. One of these days they might even be brave enough to rent a movie ot watch. I'm not betting on that happening soon, though. I think I'll get thema copy of An Inconvenient Truth since it's out now.

I'm currently reading The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. Started it the night before Christmas, and fell asleep reading it. Ended up having a scary dream that I was being chased by the invisible man. Merry Christmas. It's a great book, though, and I love H.G. Wells for the fact that he never fell into any science fiction stereotypes or cliches because there weren't any when he was writing.

Got to hang out with my cousins while up West for Christmas, that's always fun. They weirdly ended up all having good taste in music and movies and such. My littlest cousin, Terry, got a bass guitar for Christmas. Hopefully he'll enjoy practising on it. His older brother who plays guitar is living in Fredericton so they won't be able to play together too much, but hopefully it'll be something he gets good at. Everyone needs somehting to be passionate about, there's a big correlation I've noticed among people in my life between having a passion or something they can work on that's enjoyable and avoiding bouts of unneeded unhappiness.

I still have to buy a bed. Ugh. Having the same single bed I've slept in since I was little is not going to cut it any more.

Was at a friend's birthday party last night,, didn't know too many people so I decided to be weird and just talk to everyone. It ended up being pretty fun. Before that I was visiting H-Bomb aand Jeff from Windom Earle showed up. We got the idea to go to Karaoke at the VUG of all places, and since Jeff was with us, already making digareedoo noises on teh way ther,e I knew it would be fun. Sadly, though, the place was not having Karaoke that night, eliminating the only reason to set foot into that place.

Wabbit's Feet

So we all know that all cartoons are supposed to have just 4 fingers on each hand, right?



Well, did you ever pay close attention to the scene in The Rabbit of Seville (Youtube) where Bugs is playing Elmer's scalp like a piano to prepare it for the hair tonic / fertilizer?

Well? Did you?



This is just about my favourite cartoon of all time, next to Duck Dodgers anyway. They don't have enough razorblade maulings in cartoons thesee days.

I'd have definitely put it higher on the list of 50 Greatest Cartoons (all with YouTube links. w00!) that was posted to MetaFilter yesterday. (Thread here: Link.)

Missing from this list that you should watch: Tale of Tales. (Youtube) Brilliant. Amazing.

On the liist, rightfully, is The Man Who Planted Trees. I paid quite a bit of money to get this on DVD as part of a boxed set of classic Canadian animated shorts.

3 Smallwood Crescent

This is a Google satellite map of the block I grew up on, and I've made notes of the important places for your edification.

Link.

The Tears for Fears version is better. (Youtube)

There, I said it.

Rukavina's Coffee Roundup

Peter Rukavina has been making the rounds around charlottetown coffee places trying each of their cappuccinos and putting the unworthy ones in their place and has come down basically along the same lines as I have in my past experiences.

Delta Prince Edward: "served luke-warm...deflated foam...coffee that was bland and tasteless."

Cora's: "Charging more than $2.50 for this luke-warm, tasteless coffee-substitute is criminal."

Brett Bustion (Farmer's Market): "very, very good coffee....The coffee was robust without tasting like burnt rubber. "

Linda's Coffee Shop: "I was so happy to have found a place that approximates what I had in Italy that I walked over after my meal to thank the man who’d made it for me, and we had a nice chat."

Bo's To Go (ATC): "“burnt all to hell” taste on the beans. The foam at Bo’s was dreadful and tasteless, and the whole experience was rendered almost completely null and void because Bo’s only serves coffee in paper cups, so there was also a faint aftertaste of paper and glue."

Mavor's: "Mavor’s cappuccino was about as bite-free and bland as you can imagine. It’s not hard to imagine why Starbucks — whose coffee Mavor’s “proudly brews” — has spread around the world like wildfire: if my cappuccino was typical of their swill, their product is designed to neither offend nor particularly delight anyone.

Timothy's: "the nicest staff of all the coffee shops in town (and certainly the hippest) and it’s the most pleasant coffee shop to simply hang out in. But, alas, the cappuccino came served in a standard coffee mug, which is just plain wrong. And as a result the coffee languished separate and apart from the foam, and it was impossible to effectively stir in the sugar. The coffee itself, perhaps for related reasons, tasted weak and diluted. Sadly, I came away unimpressed."

Beanz: "wasn’t bad"


Probably not convenient for a morning coffee since I don't know what time they open, but Cedar's has excellent cappuccino, at least last time I had it a couple of years ago. The coffee was nice and strong but not tortured, and the foam melted away perfectly into the proper little espresso cup..

Piece of Cake's cappucino is basically the same bland affair in a too-tall glass as Mavor's, which is too bad because the food there is top notch and I love the atmosphere. Cafe Diem does a little better but the coffee still doesn't taste like coffee to me, so it's all just warm milkshakes. The culinary institute needs to offer esspresso crash courses, that seems to be the biggest sin everybody but the few good exceptions are committing.

All of this is making me want to get an espresso maker for the new place. Oh yeah, I could probably mention that Sabrina and I are going to be roomies starting in January. After searching high and low and seeing some pretty run-down houses and torn-up, cardboard apartments, luck brought me to a very nice house in downtown Charlottetown which we walked through and took right away. Damage deposit now paid, I can now say that we've got a pretty sweet new place.

On another plus, I think I'm actually moving even closer to my invisible neighbour m.r.. Maybe we'll actually run into each other offline one of these days.

In other news, I've been working late at work and am starting to get really used to it. It's almost not unpleasant when the constant phone calls and e-mails and chasing people and harrassing them to do things subsides and you can actually work on something for a while. Too bad it's not going to last.

Caption Me

What is my kitty thinking?

Put your answers in the comments.

Also feel free to make fun of me for having a Carol Shields book and the Strong Bad Sings CD on the same shelf.

Says It All

al says:
i'm going to put out a personal ad seeking one reasonably happy person, that is all.

Sweet Relief Came Crashing says:
you'll get too many liars

Did the Stars Shine Brighter?

Yes they did.

I just had the opportunity to hear songs by the David Celia Trio, which included Joan Besen, who first wrote the song to which I first realized I was in love.

The song where I had to admit that love exists and is more powerful than anything else.

They played that song..


I didn't know how to react...

Even though it didn't end in anything, I felt that I was human and real at that young age, and it gave me enough to keep going..



IF I COULD SEE HER NOW
by Prairie Oyster

The signs of love can be hard to see

As the eye of a needle in the candle light

But I thought I saw them in your eyes

When I took you home last night



Did the stars shine brighter on the night we met

Were the blossoms sweeter in the tree

Did the song bird sing in your heart when we kissed

Did you fall in love with me, did you fall in love with me



The northern lights give a ghostly glow

It's hard to tell if they're really there

But I thought I saw a ghost of a smile

When my hand brushed against your hair



Did the stars shine brighter on the night we met

Were the blossoms sweeter in the tree

Did the song bird sing in your heart when we kissed

Did you fall in love with me, did you fall in love with me



Sometimes the one that you really love

Slips away and you don't know why

But I thought I saw you hesitate

When we said good-bye



Did the stars shine brighter on the night we met

Were the blossoms sweeter in the tree

Did the song bird sing in your heart when we kissed

Did you fall in love with me, did you fall in love with me



Did the stars shine brighter on the night we met

Were the blossoms sweeter in the tree

Did the song bird sing in your heart when we kissed

Did you fall in love with me, did you fall in love with me?

Bourbon's House of Blues

Well, this place has been open for about a week now, and I finally got to check it out tonight. Yesterday I was having lunch with e.co and we decided to get together again today and pay this place a visit. I'm working until 8pm these days so it was just a quick trip across the street to the spot, really well lit up, with the lights shining off the snow. This was the flashiest part of the entire setup.

Get in and there's no 'bar' to speak of. There's a rather hefty counter near the back, but no barstools and no bartender waiting for you behind it. Just these high wooden tables with piano stools stowed underneath that you pull out to sit precariously on at the small tables.

The waitress came quickly enough, plunked down menus and asked what we'd like. They have no draught, incidentally. This was exactly the same method she would use during the day serving customers at the Maple Grille that this place is an extension of. No chit-chat, no shooting the shit, just simple waitressing. She took our orders and went into the back of the room and stayed there. This is not the same as walking in and having a chat with the bartender and being made to feel welcome, this is sitting in a restaurant, plain and simple.

The decor is pretty sparse, off-white walls lined with simple lamps along the upper edge, a few small framed paintings to break the sea of beige but that do nothing more than accentuate it.

There is no room to stand, no place to sit at the bar, and definitely no room to dance or mingle around. If you don't have a table, you don't have a place there. Now there may be the odd Friday night when the place is really hopping and things relax a little but it would take a lot of people to form this critical mass.

They don't have a sound system in yet, so the music they were playing (which they didn't put on until we got there) just comes from a CD player in the back. I don't know who the huge blues fan in this operation is, I suspect there may not be one, because the CD had "Mustang Sally" on it -- Just something found in the 'blues' section of a clearance bin, perhaps.

The musician that was set to play brought his own amp, and it was pretty clear this was the extent of the sound system for supporting the live music.

Now, for this to be a fair and proper review, we'd have stuck around long enough to hear the music, but honestly I just couldn't see myself sitting there for that much longer waiting for the guy to decide to start playing. So we paid our tabs, mine coming to nearly $30 for an appetizer and 3 drinks, and bid the place good night. The waitress informed us that we could sit there at lunch now, which, I'm guessing, might be the majority of times that I'll see the inside of Bourbon's House of Blues again. It's pretty much just extra restaurant seating with a busker hanging out up front.

Robin's Donuts: Not Terrible

Because of the gigantic snowflakes bombarding Charlottetown today I had to finally bite the bullet and try Robin's for my coffee, since it's right next to the ATC.

It was too hot inside, even though it's winter, no air conditioning, a really annoyig buzzer every the door is opened and closed, very sparse interior.

The service was OK once the girl realized I was there (the loud buzzer isn't loud enough apparently) and finished up the conversation she was having with her apparently superfluous co-worker.

They pour their coffee from those dispenser things liek the gas stations have. I could have done it myself if they put them out from behind the counter. Then I could leave $1.50 on the counter and the poor overworked girl woulddn't have to get up or walk over to the cash register.

Anyway, the coffee was very mild, and 'double cream' means a lot more cream than Tim Horton's does, or Tim's coffee is just stronger. Who knows. Once this weather clears it's back to old reliable timed-to-the-second-service Tim's or the always cool folks at Timothy's.

Stretching

Maybe I'm spreading myself so thinly on purpose, so when Ilose something or someone I don't feel it as deeply.

Personality Types Summary

Loser - Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
Loner - Introverted Sensing Feeling Perceiving
Pushover - Introverted Sensing Feeling Judging
Criminal - Introverted Sensing Thinking Perceiving
Borefest - Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging
Almost Perfect - Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving
Freak - Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging
Crackpot - Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging
Clown - Extraverted Sensing Feeling Perceiving
Sap - Extraverted Sensing Feeling Judging
Commander - Extraverted Sensing Thinking Perceiving
Do Gooder - Extraverted Sensing Thinking Judging
Scumbag - Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving
Busybody - Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging
Prick - Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
Dictator - Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging

Liveblogging the Liberal Leadership Convention

7:23 - haha, Ignatieff is left hanging when he tries to start the cheer and Dion can't get them to stop.

7:15 - Ignatieff and Rae took each other out with their campaigning. Made each other distasteful to the rest of the voters


7:00 - Results time.

They're pretty sure of Dion.

Total: 4625
Spoiled: 20
Valid: 4605
To win: 2304
Dion: 2521
Ignatieff: can't hear

5:51 - jean chretien is giving a speech, he just backhandedly buried ignatieff by mentioning how proud he was to oppose invading iraq

5:29 - John Turner up to speak.. man this is going to be a barrel of excitement. Wow he's at death's door.

5:07 - quebecers hate the rest of canada enough to vote out of spite en masse

5:04 - Of course being french and therefore disliked by default by the Alberta neanderthal population and _also_ disliked in Quebec is going to be a huge problem.

4:57 - It's really hard to dislike Stephan Dion when you hear him talk. the media was always concentrating on the potshots between rae and ignatieff, now I think he'll really grow.

4:55 - about half an hour till the final count.

4:45 - If Bob Rae sticks around and becomes foreign affairs minister or something I could really still get behind the Liberals.

4:42 - Where's Jean Chretien? He's probably in a back room engineering someone's political death. I wish I could get into that scene.

4:33 - al says:
the party was rejecting the infusion of outside blood
Do You Ever Get The Feeling? says:
I don't want to know how Iggy got the blood he has
Do You Ever Get The Feeling? says:
I am scared he took it


4:26 - I'm starting to feel good about Dion.

4:25 - All the passion has been drained out of the room.

4:16 - Dion's gone up 20% since the first ballot, Ignatieff only 4%. Liberals are keeping to themselves.

4:15 - Ugh, this is going to be a long last hour.

4:06 - Ignatieff's people should appeal to the Rae supporters with the fact that Dion will have a very tough time in Quebec.

4:04 - The sick Liberal body is rejecting the new blood and new ideas..

I relally like John Manley, it's too bad he's got all the charisma of a damp bathroom mat.

4:00 - a lot of liberals are in denial about how hard it will actually be to get elected


3:58 - This Liberal party idiot talking about outsiders is the embodiment of the party-over-ideas idiots that I hate about the Liberal party.

3:54 - Lots of Rae people going to Ignatieff, this could be close.

3:49 - Rae is being a bitch and taking his ball and going home.

3:47 - Why is Rae letting Judy Sgro appear near him in public? Does that mean he's got a room full of Romanian Strippers out back?

3:44 - I can't see all of Rae's delegates going over to Ignatieff. I'm gonna say Dion will take it just by the split of the Rae vote.

3:41 - Ignatieff is going to offer bob Rae any cabinet position he wants.

3:39 - it's time it's time it's time!!!!
Total: 4823
6 spoiled ballots (each of the minor lame candidates.)
Total needed to win: 2410
Dion: 1782
Ignatieff: 1660
Rae: toasttoasttoast 1375


3:36 - Hearing Trudeau in a video over the PA system is making everyone in that room with they had someone with some real charisma and strong passionate ideas again.

3:35 - Jesus, get on with it.

3:31 - Ignatieff should work to make Boston part of Canada so he can live there.

3:30 - People should probably just accept that Bob Rae is a Liberal, his whole family are Liberals, it was actually an anomoly for him to go to the NDP. But partisan political types seem to hold grudges for a long time.

3:30 - I wish Mike Duffy would switch teams and come to the CBC. Don Newman is sooo damn boring.

3:29 - John Manley just made a really great point that if all three of the remaining candidates stay on as a core of the new Liberal opposition / potential cabinet that things will look really good for the Liberals.

3:27 - ohhhh almost time.

3:25 - I'm starting to warm to Dion, if he ends up winning I think he'll be smart and hold back a little and let people get a better image of him

3:21 - It's almost useless watching the reporters talk, no one is saying anything meaningful to them at all. Where's some anonymous guerilla convention blogger feeding all the good dirt to the Internets?

3:15 - It'll be pretty awkward for Rae or Ignatieff to directly endorse the other guy after all the shots they took at each other through the campaign.

3:10 - I bet Belinda Stronach has an LBT.

3:08 - All the Liberal technocrats will align with Ignatieff, worried that Dion is poison in Quebec.

3:06 - The Ignatieff people are getting arrogant.

3:05 - Rick Mercer is dying.

3:00 - They're playing "The Groove is in the Heart' in the background. I love the chick in that video. Gonna go dig it up on youtube now. way hotter than John Manley

2:59 - Right now I think the best hope Rae has is that a few of Kennedy's supporters go on their own towards him.

2:54 - Looking more like Stephan Dion will be on the final ballot.. He'll have a tough time winning a federal election.

2:53 - Rex Murphy should get omre air time.

2:48 - Quote from Taylor: "These conventions are more fun to watch when it's a Party you hate though because it's sweet to watch them make mistakes."

It just occurred to me that I have no idea waht any of the candidates actually care about. This must be a Liberal convention.

2:46 - CBC needs more fancy graphics. Last election I watched was CNN's coverage of the US mid-term elections and now I'm spoiled.

2:45 - Ever second Liberal being interviewed makes sure to inject a snide little asisde about 'real liberals'.

2:42 - i wonder if rae will stick around and run as a liberal if he doesn't win

2:40 - Dion will get ahead of Rae on this ballot. This will make things quite interesting.

Stephan Dion is looking very strong right now, after Kennedy endorsed him.

I think that Ignatieff might actually drop off the next ballot if Dion gets all of Kennedy's guys.

Hard to say if he'll definitely go to Rae or not. You'd think he would, even though they're sort of opposites of each other.

I'm actually pretty comfortable with whoever ends up winning. I won't vote for the Liberals with Ignatieff but I don't think he'd be a bad prime minister.

I'll keep updating this as I have more musings.

I still say Copps should be the Liberal leader. She can speak perfect French, the Quebecers just adore her, and she'd grab a lot of the labour / NDP support as well.

Plus she can apparently drink like a champion.

They made a comment earlier that all of the candidates were very very strong intellectually.

Peter Mansbridge is so grandfatherly when he's answering retarded viewer questons and trying not to have his contempt shine through.

There are lots and lots of meetings between Ignatieff and Rae's people. I can't see ignatieff's supporters going all to Rae, but you never know, it might be enough.