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Well I’m still sick though I’m certainly better than I was a couple of days ago. The aches and pains are gone but I’m still stuffed up (with a sore nose as a result) and I have occasional coughing fits. I also have to watch myself in this extreme cold we’re experiencing today (-23 degrees Celsius air temperature, -33 degrees Celsius with the windchill) because I can quickly run short of breath (as almost happened during my walk from the subway to the bus this morning. I’ve been getting a lot of sleep this week (more than 9 hours a night) and I do feel better because of it but it feels like I’d need at least another 24+ hours to get back to 100%.
Famous Players is dropping the price of admission at their theatres by $4 in the Toronto area. That’s a huge decrease – from $13.95 to $9.95. That might make it slightly more affordable to go see a movie there now. We don’t go out to see a lot of movies anymore primarily because they’re so expensive and we can rent them for so much cheaper. I’m still not sure this will persuade me to go to a Famous Players over an AMC for example but it’s a step in the right direction.
You may have noticed my absence over the past couple of days. One thing can explain that – I’m sick. It started on Saturday night and broke through in earnest yesterday morning. Ugly cough, horrible headache, sore eyes, sore throat and aches all over make for a not-fun experience. I haven’t been to work yet this week and hopefully I’ll be better tomorrow because I have a project to finish next Monday. I’ve been resting a lot, drinking juice and liquids to try and get better.
I don’t why I’m surprised at how disappointed I am. I thought I could have expected more from someone but it turns out that I was wrong. Again. Discussions will be had.
In honour of today’s extreme cold (see I keep on mentioning it) I’m listening to what for me is a quintessentially winter-sounding song. It’s Boards of Canada’s “Kid for Today” from their awesome EP, “A Beautiful Place Out In The Country”. I love this song and the EP. I like it so much that I have two different versions of it (physically). It’s not often that that happens. Boards of Canada songs describe life absurdly well. It’s a shame they don’t put out more music. Quality over quantity is best though so I’m not really complaining.
I want to know what American Airlines will say in response to this letter by Cory Doctorow [via]. It’s absurd that they would compile a list of my friends in destination countries.
Three and a half hours from door-to-door-to-door today. I hate blizzard conditions. This is a new record. I hope the drive home is less intense.
We have a surly building manager. I think I’ve mentioned this before (though looking at my archives it appears not). She is very particular about details and things being absolutely correct. This has caused some difficulties in the past – we had to delay signing our lease for a week because she didn’t inform us about the fact that we both had to be on the lease (being over 18) and we needed separate paperwork for both of us. How delightful! I’ve heard some horrible stories from other tenants in the building and she is not a nice lady.
Fortunately we haven’t had to deal with her that much. Any problems with the apartment I’ve been able to fix with the superintendant’s help by speaking to him face-to-face. However he doesn’t come “on-duty” until after 8 and since we now leave around 7:15 we kind of miss that time window. This morning we blew the fuse in the bedroom/bathroom and since they’re the old-school fuses (as opposed to a breaker) it needs to be replaced. I copied down the super’s phone number yesterday just to have in my cellphone (how fortuitous!) and called it when I got in this morning. It was a pager number so I left my cellphone number but never received a call back. I tried again just before lunch and instead of the super calling it was the building manager. She wasn’t too happy that I was calling the pager number which is to be used ONLY IN EMERGENCIES (her words) during the day. I said that I have no way to contact the super since I’m at work during her business hours and she said that I need to come in and sign a work order so they know what unit number I’m in. Well that’s great if you’re at the apartment before “7″ (in quotation marks because I’ve tried visiting the office before 7 and found it’s already closed) but what if you work longer hours? Not exactly convenient. So we might get the work order signed tonight or maybe not depending on when we get home. Worst case is that I’ll have to go to Canadian Tire and buy a replacement fuse and figure out which one blew. At least in this apartment we know where the fusebox is – in Kitchener we didn’t.
There’s no question about whether we’ll be renewing our lease come September. The answer is already no.
Boy is it cold outside and if there’s one thing Canadians like to do when it’s this cold is comment on how cold it is. I think it’s a pride thing.
As soon as I stepped out of the car my jeans practically froze and my legs were quickly numb. The one good thing about the cold is the squeaky snow. I love squeaky snow. It almost makes the cold worthwhile (ok not really). Fortunately I didn’t have to wait very long for the subway to arrive and my bus was prompt and had the heater on full-blast.
Once I got off the bus I was facing the prospect of walking 5-10 minutes to the office. Fortunately though I happened to notice that the shuttle van was sitting there. I’ve seen it near the building a number of times but wasn’t sure if I was allowed to take it or what it did. Since there was no one else there I decided to open the door and ask. I am allowed to take it and it runs for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening so I can take it to the bus stop tonight if I want. It might be a wise decision given the current temperatures (both real – minus 22 – and virtual – minus 28). At least tomorrow it’s supposed to warm up and then we’ll get snow. Hooray for winter finally being here!
I love the look of these buttons [via]:
TTC Buttons
The tilework in the TTC subway stations is a bit bizarre in some cases but it’s unique and appealing at the same time. I like how each station is different and in some way it lets you know where you are without having to read the sign (if you take the subway often enough). I’m not sure that I can justify the expense but they certainly do tempt me.
This doesn’t fill me with glee [via]:
- Tonight .. Cloudy periods. 60 percent chance of flurries this evening. Wind north 20 km/h. Low minus 22. Wind chill minus 32.
- Tuesday .. Sunny. Increasing cloudiness late in the day. Wind light. High minus 10. Wind chill minus 32 in the morning.
I had better make sure I have my toque and gloves on tonight and tomorrow en route from the bus.
Last week (Thursday specifically) I was at work a bit later than I have been and someone noticed something spectacular at the window. We all rushed over.
A minivan was on fire on the Don Valley Parkway. It was already dark out so the flames were showing up extremely well. It was kind of scary watching this vehicle burn and melt before my eyes. Fortunately there wasn’t anyone in it when things started deteriorating quickly. I was surprised how long it took the fire trucks to get there – at least 5 minutes after we started watching. By that point the whole front compartment had exploded a couple of times and all that was left of that part was the frame.
I was also surprised that people travelling southbound (opposite direction where the car on fire was located) were still willing to travel in the lane closest to the car. Here you have a car on fire with a possibility of explosion at any minute and you’re still driving (slowly) less than 10 feet away from it. It was incredible.
Eventually the fire trucks came and they quickly (and I mean quickly!) extinguished the fire. There’s a pretty obvious scorch mark on the pavement but I guess there wasn’t any structural damage to the highway. It was a pretty surreal experience. Imagine if I had been on the ground and that had been my car.
Sorry about having so many updated posts but I’ve gone back and added some Technorati tags to past posts. Things should settle down to normal soon enough.
It seems that the Back to the Future movies (one, two and three) have played a subtle yet observable role in my life over the past couple of weeks.
First, TBS played the trilogy (never in order and never complete at a time) last weekend. Being a sucker for the films I watched most of the third film and most of the first film. Even though I’ve seen them countless times they’re still enjoyable to me and I’ll watch them.
I was watching an episode of The Family Guy last week sometime and it was the episode “I’m Dyin’ If I’m Lyin’“. Peter mentions how his cousin was exploited by making the film “Black to the Future”. It was a pretty funny scene.
On the weekend Joey posted about Crispin Hellion Glover. This is the actor who played George McFly in the first film. He has an official website. I had no idea he was such a bizarre man.
In the late 1980’s, Glover published his home phone number in a number of offbeat publications, promising callers some interesting taped messages. In 1989, having a morbid curiosity and the phone number from Keyboard World magazine, I called the number and was treated a rant about rats that was both creepy and hilarious. There have been rumours about a magnum opus film project on which he’s been working for years. It looks like we’ll finally get our chance to see it: the film, titled What Is It? will be premiering at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 29 and 30. According to Movie City News’ Indie section: “Most of the actors in the film have Down’s Syndrome, but the film is not about Down’s Syndrome. Mr. Glover explains the plot thus: ‘Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are snails, salt, a pipe, and how to get home, as tormented by an hubristic racist inner psyche.’”
Sounds like an interesting film. I watched the trailer and I have to say that I have no idea what is going on in there. I think Joey is right – it’s perfect for a “Bad Art Night” party. I also watched the David Letter interview (I’d never seen it before) and he seems a little paranoid. I hope he finds peace soon.
So as you can see (maybe), Back to the Future keeps popping up into my life. I wonder what will happen next. Will I see a DeLorean? Get invited to an “Enchantment Under The Sea” dance? I’m waiting!
Edit: Joey posts more about Mr. Glover – a music video he made called “Clowny Clown Clown”. It’s from his 1989 album “Big Problem Does Not Equal the Solution. The Solution = Let It Be”. It rivals the infamous “chicken” video that Ian and I watched one Friday night. Definitely strange. The Allmusic biography has a tempting tidbit of information:
This wild-eyed actor (Back to the Future, River’s Edge) stepped out with one of the more bizarre musical styles ever to emerge from Hollywood. He does a lot of recitations, a lot of atonal rambling, and a version of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” that must be heard to be believed.
I wonder how difficult it would be to find his version of that song. Probably not too difficult if I look in the right places. Here’s the review of the above-mentioned album:
Most actors who want to become rock musicians tend to take traditional routes. Kevin Bacon tried his hand at blues-rock, Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves took on alternative, and even Russell Crowe played in a pub rock band. But Crispin Glover took a much different approach to making music. Sounding like a cross between King Missile and circus music, The Big Problem is one crazy slab of sound. Glover’s voice (which has an thin, endearing tremble) serves as the narrator to the world of nonsense he’s documented on this album. Occasionally he takes the listener by surprise with a melody. Both the hypnotic “The New Clean Song” and the soothing “Never Say Never to Always” are actually pretty good songs hidden among the madness. But mostly he rants and raves in a stream-of-conscious manner over the genre-hopping music. Most of the time this works in his favor; in fact, his Residents-esque cover of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” is a nervy delight. The original songs, like the hilarious “Clowny Clown Clown,” can be equally entertaining. But sometimes he runs headfirst into his own limitations, like on his disturbing attempt at rap, “Auto Manipulator,” a harsh tribute to masturbation that lacks any subtlety at all. A good portion of the material is taken from his books of poetry, which are definitely crazy but not always engaging. But Glover is a very original entertainer, making his musical mark with this weird collection of songs. Fans of edgy, bizarre music will probably enjoy this one immensely.
“One crazy slab of sound”. That’s my kind of music!
I’ve decided to join the fray in using Technorati Tags in my posts. You’ll find tags at the bottom of each post linking me to the rest of the blogging world through Technorati. We’ll see how effective it is but judging from my traffic over the weekend it could prove useful. My post last week on Paan received a lot of hits (and some interesting comments) based on its being the #2 post for the Toronto tag at one point. Anyway, we’ll give it a try – the more people who participate the better the program will be. There are already a bunch of plugins available to manage the tags on your blog and thanks to Chris Lott I’m using the TechnoTags plugin for Wordpress.
I’m not sure what the deal is but lately I’ve felt like I can’t make a good cup of coffee. Today’s is better than it has been recently but it’s probably still a bit too strong. I think I’m having a harder time adjusting to the coffee grinder that we got in November. Either that or I’m losing my touch.
I solved a major problem at work this morning, one that was giving the CEO troubles. I spent most of the day trying to figure out what was happening and in the end a simple STATIC keyword insertion fixed everything. This should fix the problems one of our clients was having and eliminate the number of runaway problems on the system. In the end I’ve made our system more stable and flexible. The client was following a use case that we never anticipated.
It’s good that Al Gore supports the Creative Commons. I applaud him for that. But wow he’s looking old/sunburnt. Those are not very flattering photos.
I was reading this Boing Boing post yesterday and realized that the delicacy they’re describing is something that I first discovered a couple of months ago. We went to Iqbal Kebab & Sweet Centre for lunch and after the main course Remi suggested getting paan. I’d never had it before but he seemed pretty enthusiastic about it so I gave it a try. I have to say it was one of the most delicious and refreshing things I’ve ever eaten. It helped with the digestion of the meal and freshened my breath. The next time I see them offered in a restaurant I’ll definitely spend the money to get one. They’re highly recommended!
An update on this previous post. Bill Gates clarifies his statements about communism and intellectual property laws. [via]
The CBC Toronto regional website now has a new look. I like it. It feels less cluttered than the old site. As a big CBC fan (see this post in particular) I think this is great progress towards a more usable and better online presence.
Well I guess I officially past the probationary period here at work because I now have a fat benefits package. I’ll have to read it over when I get home. This is definitely good news.
Via the boys at Tagliners (nice to see some more regular posting there again) I read about Clint Eastwood’s verbal jab at Michael Moore.
“Michael Moore and I actually have a lot in common – we both appreciate living in a country where there’s free expression. “But, Michael, if you ever show up at my front door with a camera – I’ll kill you. I mean it.”
Very interesting indeed. I guess Michael will have to reconsider his project focusing exclusively on the life of Clint Eastwood. I saw Moore at the People’s Choice Awards on Sunday. Marcy said he looked like a metrosexual. He looked much more professional than other times that I’ve seen him.
Current problem: the ATM downstairs isn’t working. It’s not reliable at the best of times but I need it to be reliable today. It’s not a life-or-death need but I need enough money to be able to take the bus/subway home. I don’t have a lot of cash on hand this week for a variety of reasons and I bought 5 tokens on Monday. A plan had been to maybe deal with my car at the dealership but with the freezing rain today I don’t think it’s advisable to do any extra driving. We can deal with that tomorrow if need be.
Fortunately I was able to find a Scotiabank branch within walking distance so I venture out into the weather to get some money. The sidewalks were pretty slippery and the rain soaked me on the way back but at least I can get home again. I had to make sure to have exact change ($2.25 for cash fare) so I bought a drink downstairs to break the $20 bill. A successful transport of myself is imminent.
Well not the city specifically but rather some Telus cellphone user with the number 514-293-4862. The phone has rung once for the past two days and comes up as a missed call. I’d call them back but calling long distance during the day on my cellphone isn’t advisable. It’s likely that they’re looking for the baggage claim for Air Canada (incompatible browser my foot). I’ve received a lot of phone calls for them recently.
I want to see this movie. The soundtrack looks good too. It’s getting fairly good ratings but I have a feeling that the movie isn’t exactly what they show in the trailers (I’ve seen two wildly different trailers for the same film). I have to say though that I think the director is better known as the director/producer of the American Pie series. I guess they want to emphasize the connection with About a Boy which was a better movie cinematically.
I read about this break-in over the weekend and realize how scary this could be for the university. Having access to all of the keys for the engineering faculty means that you can look into every single lab and look at every single valuable (extremely valuable) piece of lab equipment/computer. I’m not sure if this means they have the keys to the professors’ offices but if so then that’s doubly bad. Professors like to keep research and laptop computers and such in their offices. I’m not even sure you could put a price on their intellectual property. We’ll see how this plays out.
The Government of Ontario is a sponsor of an anti-smoking site (targeted at teens) called stupid.ca. They have a few commercials that they’ve been playing on tv and in movie theatres before films (one of the few useful aspects of having such advertisements). It’s a neat site and I’m glad my tax dollars are being put to a good use such as this.
I approve of this court ruling.
The decision by the province’s Court of Appeal could set a precedent because previous decisions have decreed that parents with sufficient means are responsible only for seeing their children through undergraduate degree programs. As far as the courts were concerned, adult children have been on their own when it came to paying for postgraduate education in most circumstances.
The father in this case, a doctor who makes over $170,000 per year, is not very happy:
“It’s just very wrong to teach the children of this province that if they happen to be the children of a person who makes more than an average amount of money, they can just sit on their ass and do absolutely nothing and expect to be paid for it, as long as they’re making good marks,” he told the Vancouver Province Tuesday.
Imagine being this man’s daughter and hear him speak about you like that? How disgraceful. That man should be ashamed of himself.
If we had a perfectly complete underground transportation here in Toronto then it would make my life so much better.
Unfortunately we don’t have such a system here. Days like today make it rather uncomfortable to be a pedestrian. We have freezing rain this morning and that makes the roads slippery. However since cars are continually driving on the roads the rain doesn’t have a chance to freeze. Sidewalks are another matter. They’re skating rinks. People were slipping and sliding all over the place once they got off the bus. The drainage system on the roads is blocked so you end up with huge pools of water at major intersections (like the one near my office).
I was lucky that I didn’t take the bus 30 minutes later than I did because apparently (from what one of the co-op students tells me) there is a car on Don Mills that is stopped in the centre lane and refuses to move his car. Naturally this would cause quite the traffic delay.
The freezing rain is supposed to stop later this morning and then it’s going to rain for the rest of the day. January 12th and we’re getting rain. It’ll be 10 and 12 degrees tomorrow and Friday respectively. That’s crazy. Following the cycle, the weekend is going to be cold again and then likely we’ll see another warm period. I certainly don’t remember winters like this when I was younger (old man comments to yourselves please). It’s hard to argue that the weather systems are changing if only subtly. However a short-term subtle change can easily add up to a long-term major change.
Yesterday we left the story of my car with me taking the TTC. Yesterday’s travel home was relatively uneventful and took about an hour from the office to the Wilson Street subway station. My route is as follows:
- Take any bus on Eglinton going west to the Eglinton subway station
- Take the southbound Yonge subway to Bloor
- Transfer to the Bloor/Danforth subway line and take a subway heading west
- At the St. George or Spadina stop transfer back to the Spadina subway line
- Take the subway heading north
- Get off at Wilson and wait for a ride home
It’s a little complicated but it works. One advantage of taking the bus is that the drivers are far more aggressive in traffic than I could ever be and they have the right of way so cars need to let them change lanes where appropriate.
I called the service manager at the dealership where my car is yesterday morning. I told him that we’re not going to do the repairs and if he could ask the used car manager if they might be interested in purchasing the car. He called back a couple of hours later saying that they weren’t interested. It would be too expensive to buy and repair so I was out of luck on that front. I asked what my options were and he said I could sell it to a salvage yard or donate it to a car recycling charity and get a tax receipt that I could use on my income tax return. I had a pipe dream of maybe getting the book value for the car but that seems extremely unlikely at this point. On top of that, the dealership wants my car out of there since it’s taking up space and they need the room for other cars (allegedly). He said I could keep it there a couple more days but anything longer than that he’d have to start charging for storage. I have no idea how much that would be.
I talked with Ian a sales guy at my company who used to work for an Acura dealership in the area a few years back. He said I would probably get $50 from the salvage company. $50 for a whole car. That boggles my mind. He said the charity route might be the best bet. He also gave me some advice about leasing vs. financing vs. buying (if we decide to go that route). He told me that he has one rock-solid car and then another car that he drives to work that costs around $3000 (currently a ‘92 Nissan Maxima). He drives that for 2 years and then sells it for around $3000 and buys another one. That could be a possibility for us but it means we’d have to have $3000 on hand in case the older car fails at any point. An important thing (for us) is he said he’d find us a good mechanic in our area since he knows quite a few where we live. We could also use his Acura/Honda specialist in Brampton if we so choose. It’s good to have a fair mechanic.
I looked at car donation organizations in the area and I think I’ve decided to go with Car Heaven. The only problem is that I need to mail my ownership to them and only after they’ve received it (and I’ve filled out a form online) they’ll contact me for pickup. That could be a week or more away. Car Heaven gives me a free tow and a tax receipt worth at least $60 which at this point is all I’m expecting to get from this experience. I’ll keep you posted on any developments. Hopefully we can lay my car to rest soon enough though I’ll have to remember to take some final pictures of the car that got me through 5 years and 150,000 km. It was a good car to me.
As an antithesis to the post last week about missing cats is this post about having our cats back in the apartment again.
On Saturday we met Marcy’s mom and Sally in Port Hope. It took much longer than we expected primarily due to the 8 snowplows that were blocking every conceivable space on the highway ahead of us. We were travelling about 30 km/h for about an hour. Instead of arriving at 1 or shortly thereafter we didn’t get to Port Hope until after 2. Not a good scene. The worst of it is that it didn’t seem like the plows were doing that much at all. Most of the 8 didn’t have their plow down so they weren’t moving snow around; they were laying down some salt but not a tremendous amount. This one transport trailer pulled a sneaky move to get around them: he exited the highway and then re-entered the highway at the same interchange. With enough speed he was faster than the plows travelling through the same interchange and he was in the clear. I tried doing the same thing near the service station past Peterborough but the plows were pulling off then so it didn’t do me any good. Once the plows were out of the way we could travel much faster and while the left lane was snow-covered, the other two lanes were perfectly clear. It didn’t make much sense to me to block all lanes travelling east at the same time. It’s a good thing that I don’t plan the schedules of snow plows.
We pulled into the parking lot and we could see Elle and Pumpkin in the back seat of Marcy’s mom’s car. As soon as they saw us they started meowing. We went in for lunch and took longer than we expected. By the time we came back outside I think the cats were getting a little chilly because they weren’t very happy once we transferred them to our car. Elle meowed a lot on the way back to Toronto; Pumpkin sat on Marcy’s lap and had fun exploring. At one point she came too close to the heater’s vent and meowed very loudly at the vent and then started to pant. She’s essentially a dog sometimes.
We got the cats home ok and they seem to have settled back into their normal Toronto routine – lots of sleeping, chasing and eating with occasional cuddling. Sunday night they were cuddled up together on the computer chair and they looked like a ying-yang symbol. It was pretty cute.
I’m glad they’re back.
An affordable Mac? It’s pretty neat looking and incredibly small. Maybe this will be my next computer. Speaking of tiny, the iPod shuffle is ridiculously small – one ounce, smaller than most packs of chewing gum. The downside? No screen. The upside? $99 for 512 MB, $149 for 1 GB. I need something to listen to on my TTC ride to/from work. Perhaps this will fill the gap?
I saw this neat site on the Photoblogs site this morning. Found photos are pretty neat especially if you’re creative enough to come up with a story. I guess I need to print off some of my own photos so that someone can do the same thing with my life in 50 years. What would they say about me?
Well I love movies so I figured that I’d continue what Ms. Saltwatersound has started (post not linked to because of security restrictions). I’ll cut it so that it doesn’t take up the whole front page. Read the rest of this entry »
Via Lawrence Lessig’s blog I discovered the invention of WP-CC, a plugin for Wordpress that lets you easily manage your Creative Commons license. I have previously discussed the inclusion of such a license in this space. You can see the license at the bottom of every page. This makes it very easy to modify my license if I ever need to do that. It also eliminates the need to copy and paste the license meta information each time I upgrade Wordpress to another beta version. Thanks to Firas!
I like it when Foxtrot (en Español) does techy (re: geeky/nerdy) jokes (click for full-sized version).
Following Augie’s example, here are the movies I’ve seen from the 100 Essential Films as put out by the National Society of Film Critics.
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
5. Annie Hall (1977)
15. Casablanca (1942)
18. Chinatown (1974)
19. Citizen Kane (1941)
20. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
28. La Dolce Vita (1959)
32. Enter the Dragon (1973)
36. Fargo (1996)
39. The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974)
40. Gone With The Wind (1939)
42. The Graduate (1967)
46. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
50. L.A. Confidential (1997)
52. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
54. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
57. Metropolis (1927)
59. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
62. The Night of the Living Dead (1968)
71. The Piano (1993)
72. Psycho (1960)
74. Pulp Fiction (1994)
75. Raging Bull (1980)
76. Rashomon (1950)
79. Schindler’s List (1993)
84. Star Wars (1977)
94. Unforgiven (1992)
96. Vertigo (1958)
99. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Not too bad I suppose – 29/100. A lot of the movies on the list I’ve been meaning to see (I actually own the DVD of The Seven Samurai but haven’t watched it yet). I’ll endeavour to watch more of the classics.
There’s only so much secrecy available to you when you’re on the Internet. You can’t always control how people find out about your site (forums, searches, etc.) but you can control who you give your URLs to. You take a risk offending any new readers.
This is some good advice about making project estimates. If your manager isn’t too technical it’s a good approach to take as a compromise.
I read this post this morning and found that he doesn’t flow with the prevailing opinion about the tsunami. That’s ok, contrary points of view aren’t necessarily bad.
When I first clicked on this story I thought it was a contestant on Fear Factor, not a viewer. Reading it more carefully I find it a bit ridiculous that they’re trying to get compensation for enduring an episode and becoming ill. It just sounds worse than the fast food lawsuits that were attempted in the U.S. If this goes anywhere I’ll be very surprised.
In honour of this post I’m labelling myself a copyright communist. I think “intellectual property” laws should be reformed. If Bill Gates thinks that such people are communist then so be it.
I haven’t seen Alexander but I did read some reviews. It has a score of 39 on Metacritic which means that most of the reviews are negative. I was a bit surprised but not really that Oliver Stone (the director of the film) blamed the failure at the box office on the “moral fundamentalism” in the Southern U.S. as opposed to the movie being generally not that good. I guess he has every right to defend his film but my feeling is that most people could care less if Alexander is bisexual in the film or not. I turn to the venerable Mr. Cranky:
Watching “Alexander” is like going on a first date, noticing in the first five minutes that your date hums to herself and suffers from bouts of involuntary drooling, then realizing that perhaps those tickets to the unabridged reading of War and Peace weren’t such a hot idea.
and
Most bad movies eventually provide some relief by ending, but “Alexander” stubbornly refuses to give up the ghost. At one point, Alexander takes an arrow to the chest and we dare to hope the final credits will roll. However, he emerges bandaged but alive – at which point in my screening a perceptible wave of nausea flowed through the audience. It continues: People die. Emotive speeches are made. Then Old Ptolemy reappears (uh oh) to drone on incessantly about What It All Means. At this point, that nausea I mentioned became materially measurable. Whenever the result of a movie involves broad-jumping puddles of vomit on your way out of the theater, one can say confidently that a failure has been had.
That doesn’t exactly have me beating a path to my local movie theatre. It’s not even a movie that I’d consider renting at this point.
Via the FlickrBlog I saw this really interesting series of photos (Photoshopped obviously) called Composites. Worth a look! I have a Flickr account but haven’t really done much with it yet. I’m not sure how I feel about relying on other servers hosting my photos. Maybe I’ll investigate how best to integrate it with my current setup.
Via BoingBoing I got some interesting information about the Interstate highway system in the U.S. I’m very familiar with sections of 2 Interstates – I-90 (the longest in the country) and I-94. When I lived in Seattle I knew I-90 (that’s where it ends) and I-5. Here in Canada we really only have one interprovincial highway – the Trans-Canada. Sure certain provincial highways do run into one another but they’re not funded by a national body. Still, I think the highways in Canada are nicer to drive on and the landscape is usually nicer to look at than when you’re driving on an Interstate highway. I can’t really put my finger on the differences but I do know that I prefer Canadian highways to American ones.
We miss our cats. They’re staying with Marcy’s mom and sister in Belleville and have been there since last Tuesday when we came back to Toronto before going to Ohio for New Year’s. The plan was to pick them up again on Saturday when we drove back but that wasn’t possible and then Sally got sick and now it looks like we’ll pick up the cats on Saturday.
Having no cats in the house when you’ve had cats in the house for an extended period of time is a strange feeling. I see their food mat in the kitchen and wonder where they are. I’m used to having them sleep on the bed or at least be in the bedroom and it’s strange to wake up and not have them there. It’s so quiet when we’re eating dinner or watching tv – no cats running around meowing or wanting to be petted. It just feels weird. I’m definitely looking forward to having them around again after this weekend.
You may remember the original “Old Reddie” post.
This one is subtitled – “Why I can’t drive my car very far.”
During my drive home on Tuesday night, I stopped at the grocery store we go to. I pulled off the highway and had to stop at the first stoplight. While I was stopped, the car started to shake and shudder. Cars aren’t supposed to shake and shudder so I knew that something bad was happening. This had happened one other time but hadn’t repeated itself since I got the radiator fixed in December. The traffic wasn’t moving very quickly so I had to wait for a couple of lights to see if the car woudl accelerate up to normal speeds. It felt like it was about to stall so I was praying that I could at least make it around the corner and not stall in the intersection. Once I was able to make my turn I found that I had very little power. It felt like the transmission was in too-high a gear. I pressed more firmly on the accelerator and it found its way into the proper gear and I could resume normal motion. At the next stop light I slowed down a bit sooner and the car shuddered a bit more but it was nowhere near as bad as the previous intersection. I pulled into the grocery store’s parking lot and parked the car. Once the car was in park the shuddering resumed anew. I hoped that letting the car cool down/shut off for a few minutes would alleviate the problems.
Well I was wrong. After buying my things I turned on the car and the same problem showed itself. It felt like I was in the wrong gear. I got onto the road again and was able to get into the right gear (or at least the car had more power) and managed to get home. The only worrying part (besides the shuddering/no power/fluid burning smell) was that when I pulled into the parking garage the engine temperature started to spike. Never a good sign. I was able to pull into my parking spot without any other troubles and checked under the hood but honestly, I’m not a mechanic and I have little idea of what to look for under there.
I talked it over with Marcy and she knows much more about car troubles than I do so she suggested that it could be a problem with the transmission or (hopefully not), a problem with the head gasket. I checked what time the Canadian Tire closest to our building opened (7:30 AM) and planned on being there right then to see if they could figure out what the deal was.
I arrived at Canadian Tire at 7:35 and there were some other cars ahead of me but they were getting tire changes and such so I figured I wouldn’t have to wait that long. The guy said that he didn’t have a technician that could do the diagnostic tests in until around 8:30 so he suggested that I come back at 9 and by that time he’d have a better idea of what is wrong.
I should probably describe how I even got to Canadian Tire. I didn’t sleep that well the night before because I was worried that the car was on its deathbed and it was going to cost us a lot of money. When I turned it on it was still shuddering and shaking and spewing all kinds of exhaust. The drive over is may 2 minutes but I didn’t think I was going to make it. Once I parked the car it was surging with lots of exhaust.
I went over to Tim Horton’s to get a coffee and muffin and read my book. I strolled back over at 9 and noticed while walking that my car hadn’t even moved from where I parked it. I waited to speak with the service manager and he didn’t seem to know what was going on; he said that one of the technicians had the paperwork so he’d be “right on it”. I sat down in the “car owners’ lounge” and continued to read. I sat in a spot where I could see my car and it didn’t move. For two more hours. There was some issue when they first opened and the automotive department head was extremely angry at the technicians. I guess they didn’t clean up properly or something and was giving them all a warning. They had some meeting at 10 o’clock which pushed all of the service schedules back. I decided to get my hair cut (desperately needed at that point).
I came back 20 minutes later to find that finally they had driven my car into the garage. That’s an important step. I talked to the manager again and he said they were just looking at it now and they would come get me when they had information. I waited. They called my name and said “it’s not good news, my friend.” I walked out to my car and he said that the head gasket needed replacing and that there was some “engine knock” in the “bottom of the engine”. I’ve never heard any engine knock and I’ve driven the car a lot. The head gasket problem though is not good news. There are hydrocarbons coming up in the coolant which isn’t good for any part of the engine. I’m sure there’s coolant in the oil too which engine parts don’t tend to like that much. The mechanic said that it was surging because there was too little coolant and once he filled it up it ran smoother (he made it seem like it ran fine but I have a hard time believing that). The manager tried to convince me that the whole engine needed replacing though I could run it “for up to a year” if I watched the coolant level everyday and kept it full. The mechanic said that I had to also open the radiator (when the engine was cool of course) and keep that part full too. I was a little leery of doing that since just a couple of weeks ago we saw a man who had the radiator explode on him and it scalded his face. I know that part of the engine is under a lot of pressure so I wasn’t too enthused about doing that.
I stocked up on antifreeze because I anticipated needing a lot of it to keep the car running satisfactorily. I turned on the car and it still shuddered but once I got onto the highway it ran very smoothly. I was keeping a keen eye on the temperature guage and it was in the normal position (just below halfway). All told it took me 5 hours to make me way towards work. Not quite the ideal situation. I missed a “welcome to the new employees” lunch too. I stopped at McDonald’s which is two blocks from work and the shuddering/shaking had resumed but only at low speeds. I got my food and turned on the car again. The problems were still there. I drove towards the office and when I turned onto the side street I noticed that the car temperature had really started to rise and quickly. Halfway. Two thirds. I was maybe a block from the parking lot and I wasn’t sure if I could get there before reaching the danger zone temperature-wise. I was into the upper reaches of the safe area when I realized that I couldn’t make it. I even tried throwing the heater on at full fan-speed but that did nothing. It was blowing cold air. I pulled over and shut off the engine.
I then called back to the Canadian Tire. Unfortunately though I spoke with the surly head that I mentioned above. He growled into the phone and said I needed to replace my engine. I said “well that’s not very practical advice for right now” and he mentioned something about checking the coolant levels and hung up. Great, thanks! I left a message on Marcy’s voicemail at school and turned on the engine. I managed to get the car into the parking lot and the temperature was back down to the normal region. Naturally I was a little shaken by this episode and found it kind of difficult to concentrate on my work once I got into the office.
I looked at AutoTrader yesterday and found a few Civics that are a very good price. A bit newer than mine and far fewer kilometres. The only problem is that I’m not sure we can scrape together the requisite cash. Ideally I’d like to keep my car now running until later this year when we will have more saved and can buy a new(er) car. But I don’t want to turn my car into a money pit where I need to spend nearly as much if not more on repairs until then that I’d spend on buying another car. Once cars get older you definitely reach a point where you’re not gaining much with your repair costs. You’re just staving off the inevitable.
I had Marcy pick me up at work and she looked at the car and knew that it was the head gasket causing our problems. She reassured me because I wasn’t in such a good state by the end of the day. She said that I hadn’t blown the gasket because the car wouldn’t have gone 20 feet before overheating completely. She said worst case we’d be looking at $1200 in repairs and the car would run fine again. I wasn’t so optimistic but I should tell you that Canadian Tire has a bad habit of recommending far more repairs than your car needs. You need to pass their estimates through a filter to come up with what really needs to get fixed in your car. We got home and Marcy got the phone number for her super-mechanic in Belleville. Hopefully he can recommend someone in the city that can do our repairs.
I also found out that there’s a Honda Technical Service Bulletin (a.k.a. a “secret warranty”) regarding this very same problem (faulty head gaskets). It’s valid apparently for 1988-1995 Honda Civics. We’re going to try and angle the dealership that we bought our Accord from to approve the repairs under this TSB by saying that we’re looking for a dealership and that we’re planning on being in the city for a long time and that we buy a new car every 4-5 years and that we will buy a new car later this year from them for helping us out. I’m not sure if it’ll work – I tried calling them this morning and I need to bring the car in for them to look at it and then I’ll need to talk to the service manager about the TSB issue. We’ll see if that leads anywhere.
Meanwhile we’re back to commuting with one car which isn’t ideal but there’s not much we can do about it right now. I looked into how I’d get to work and back via the TTC and though it’s not pretty it’s definitely feasible.
For today at least my car is sitting in the office parking lot collecting snow. I have no fear that someone will steal it because you’d be a fool to try and drive that car very far. It could possibly be towed for a parking violation but they have to assume that there are people who work long hours in this building (lots of tech companies here). I think I’ll scrape off the snow/ice before I pick up Marcy tonight so it doesn’t look totally abandoned and also to ease the job of cleaning it off to drive it tomorrow to the dealership (unless I cancel that appointment).
The timing of this isn’t ideal but it never is. You can’t really forecast this kind of thing happening. You just have to hope that you can get through it. It’s a good thing that I’m not driving to Kitchener for work because I’d have to find some other way completely to get there (VIA most likely).
I guess this is another “feature” of “adult life” – problems arise as frequently (maybe more frequently) as when you were younger but they’re much more expensive and there’s not always a clear winning solution.
I discovered through looking at my log files that if you search for formal tea on Yahoo! or MSN my photos of our tea reception last summer rank #3 on each site. I’m nowhere to be found on Google because apparently Google has stopped indexing my site for whatever reason. I’m sure people who are looking for instructions on how to serve a formal tea will be much appreciative of pictorial evidence of our formal tea. I say enjoy!
I should note that the pictures are only result #8 on MSN’s beta search site. Not bad for having near-zero web visibility!
In a way it’s great that I can’t drive my own car because this morning I drove Marcy to work and then drove back towards my office. Since that’s usually a lot of driving we left earlier than usual. Good thing too considering today’s weather forecast. Driving out east the roads were clear but the volume was pretty heavy; I guess a lot of other people had the same idea as us. I dropped Marcy off and then got back on the 401 and it had started to snow. Not enough to accumulate – it was blowing around too much. Traffic volume heading west was surprisingly light until around the DVP when it slowed slightly. Travelling along the DVP was not too bad – much like a typical morning I’d say. I pulled off the highway and parked the car on the street (I don’t have a pass for the new car in the parking lot). The snow was coming down a lot heavier. I got to my office and realized that I had left my cellphone in the car so I went back down to get it and the snow was now mixed with freezing rain/ice pellets. Since I can see the highway from my desk, it’s been an interesting morning watching the traffic slow down to a near-standstill during the worst part of this morning’s rush. Traffic is still moving quite slowly though it doesn’t appear to be snowing as much anymore. I’m so glad we left when we did otherwise it would have been quite hellacious driving to work. I just hope that the drive home (including the extra drive eastward before heading back west) isn’t so bad.
I’m too depressed about my car to even talk about what has happened. Let’s just say it’s not good. The TTC might be my new friend.
So according to this story, revenue in the movie industry was up from last year but attendance was down for the second year in a row. The increase is due to the rising ticket prices. The average ticket in the U.S. is now $6.22, up from $6.03. Read that sentence again. $6.22. I haven’t paid that since living in Kitchener and that was only at the theatre downtown that no one would go to. If I go see a movie at Famous Players it’s up to $13.95. That’s per ticket! It’s only marginally cheaper during the day or on weekends. It’s almost beyond reasonable to go see a movie there. That’s why we rent so often – it’s much more affordable. I can’t imagine that we’d ever go out to a movie theatre if we had a family. There has to be a breaking point somewhere for this industry.