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Friday, June 9th, 2006
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4:28 pm - Where have you been?
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Yeah. Wow. Its been a while... I am terrible.
I kinda fell off the LJ thing and have been doing my photoblog full time. Updating every weekday kinda takes it out of you :p
So, life's been good. School is going along well. I got some sweet marks on midterms and I'm happy about that.
I got a new camera this week. The Canon 30D. Its my first new camera ever and it is really awesome. There should be more awesome shots comin to my photoblog more often with this sweet cam.
I also got my own car back in November! Its a '96 Audi A4 2.8L Quattro. Its made my life so much easier :)
It got me back and forth to my job at ATI last term which, went awesome! I'm actually going back this fall. Nicest place, best people, awesome projects. I couldn't have asked for more.
I have a photo published in the Spring issue of U&! Magazine! I am so excited to get a copy. My page is here if you want to check it. The magazine is really awesome featuring tons of talented phtographers. If you want to get a copy head over here or here.
Maybe I'll get back into some sort of regular updates for this but I can't promise anything.
But, if you're so inclined, come visit me over at Portway Ave, my photoblog, and check out my photography! Leave comments too! There's nothing better than some constructive comments :)
See ya around
Buy this!
.moneen. - the red tree
current mood:  anxious
current music: Thom Yorke - 'The Eraser '
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| Sunday, October 30th, 2005
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10:02 pm - A few things...
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I'm still here! Well, here being at my new house in Waterloo. Nice house, new TV, 2 roommates of 3 are awesome, havin a car (my bro's) is makin life easier, and school is going okay. Whew! That's a quick summary of the past months.
More recently though a few things of note have occurred. The most important being my upcoming co-op job. I was the number one pick of 90 applicants for a software development job with ATI! The interview just went really well and I am really looking forward to the opportunity. This is seriously huge for me. I'll be working on the Mac OS X 2D driver, so something I work will actually be in every Mac with an ATI video card! Awesome!
I've also put together an Intramural hockey team at the competitive level and we've been doing pretty well. I got a good group of people together including some players from high school (including my brother!) and we've made the playoffs with a decent regular season record. I think we're just picking up on how well we can play together so I have high hopes for the playoffs :) I'm also looking at replacing my goal pads with either the Itech 7.8 Vamp or McKenney Instinct 852. They are both huge steps up from my old pads so it should be hella awesome.
On friday it was Daniel Garcia's birthday and he had a big party with a lot of people from IONA coming up to hang at his place and go to Philthy's. It was lots of fun especially when everyone who was from St. Francis (my elementary school) realized that we had known each other since forever and were now out partyin it up. Amazing to have friends that can really last like that. Afterwards, back at Dan's place, Tony had brought up his drums and Nik had his guitar so we had a nice late night jam session. The first time we've had drums at a party without the cops being called :)
Last but not least I finally put a photoblog up on blogspot. I'll eventually make a killer custom photoblog with my own server space but for now you can find me at Portway Ave : No Exit.
Well, that sums it up!
Cop this, Danger Mouse and MF Doom
Danger Doom -The Mouse and the Mask
current mood: accomplished
current music: CocoRosie - 'Ohio'
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| Wednesday, August 24th, 2005
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7:34 pm - Mighty Problem
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According to a few Apple Care technical support and hardware specialists I may be one of the first people to report a large problem with the new Mighty Mouse to them. After only a few days with the mouse I've run into a problem involving dragging files around. If you drag a file (left click and hold) and then release the file and also squeeze the side buttons (which activates expose), the mouse pointer icon becomes a circle with a line through it (as if to say you cannot drop the item). After you let go of the buttons your file may or may not have been dragged but the real problem is that you now no longer have left click functionality. Click anywhere on the screen and the click registers like you're clicking behind the windows and will keep the Finder active. The only way out of this so far is to command-tab to the Finder and press command-shift-Q to logout of Tiger. Once logged out the left click comes back.
I have not seen this issue mentioned in any of the numerous reviews I've read. There are a few vague mentions of it in the Apple discussion boards but they haven't seemed to be addressed by an admin yet and they're calling it a freeze when really it just seems to be a driver issue.
I called Apple support today and was on hold for a long time as this was looked into. A few of the technicians reproduced the problem in the lab and escalated me to someone who eventually said that this issue would be brought to the engineers and to keep my eyes open for a software driver patch in the near future (hopefully).
Try it out for yourselves if you have a Mighty Mouse. I'm using the latest version of Tiger and it happens on both my Powerbook G4 and Cube. The technicians said they had no problem reproducing the problem either.
Anyway, the mouse is awesome when its working (which is most of the time). I just wish that this issue had been identified and resolved before shipping to avoid adding to my hesitation of switching from my Microsoft Starck mouse.
(A temporary workaround is to use the SteerMouse driver software. The only problem is it does cost money after a free trial period.)
Check out some awesome new Death Cab For Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
current mood: accomplished
current music: Broken Social Scene - 'Hotel'
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| Monday, August 22nd, 2005
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11:46 pm - To Nate, home is where the rock is
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Well, it's over. Four years of my TV life have come to an end with the series finale of Six Feet Under. It was honestly the most moving TV episode I have ever seen. I cannot remember ever being near tears from a TV show! I won't say anything about what happens but it was a really appropriate ending. One to see for sure. If you haven't been watching the series then there's no time like the present!
The Constantines were crazy good on the weekend. They played until 2:15 in the morning hitting all the great song and having most of the Three Gut family and fans up on stage for the finale. Another thing in my life ends with the passing of the wonderful TGR. Home will always be where the rock is though, so there are no worries :)
I've been listening to a few incredible advance records that I'll most likely be recommending in the next few weeks. Watch out!
A few weeks left at work! I can't wait to go back to school... seriously.
This is why I listen to music, just to hear something like this (although, i think I liked Superconnected live better... but it might be a grower)
Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
current mood:  hopeful
current music: DANGERDOOM - 'Benzi Box featuring Cee-Lo'
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| Monday, August 8th, 2005
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11:40 am - Golf tournament champion
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The weekend started off a little rocky but upon arrival at the cottage I was comforted by all the family already there for our annual Fergie's Fairway Follies (AKA our family golf tournament). My cousin Jay and his girlfriend, my cousin Chris, his wife, Christina, and their dog, Brenna, were all up on Friday night for our game on Saturday. The night consisted of visiting and a little Corner Gas.
The next morning I was awoken in time to get some food and head out to the golf course for the game. We play best ball golf where you are teamed with a partner and only play the better of your strokes in order to speed up the game. I was paired with my brother for our first and likely last time due to our huge win. We scored 2 under par which was a four stroke victory over our cousin's husband, Jay's pair. It was also the best score we've ever had at the tournament. We had three birdies and one bogey on top of the rest of the par holes. My brother is an awesome golfer and I am pretty decent at knowing the game so together we played really well. I even contributed a few drives and two of the birdie puts (one from a distance of a large car length). It was a fun game!
After the game we went back to the cottage and I went Kayaking for a bit and my cousin Lisa also used my Kayak for a short paddle around Lake Huron. It was a very nice day out. We then had the prize ceremony where you can steal prizes from other family members which is always fun. I ended up with what I wanted; a cool fish pen and some smart-core golf balls.
After dinner we went to the Millers (cousins) house to watch the Machinist which was an awesome movie despite some of the parallels with fight club.
Sunday was fairly relaxed with the exception of a trip down to the beach with a raft that my cousin Danny had made with his friends. Ryan (my brother), Danny, his girlfriend Danielle, Pi, and I all went to the beach and the boys pulled the huge raft outta the truck and took it out into deep water to attempt to push each other off of it as well as try to flip the huge thing. We succeeded in all of the above and went back to the cottage for dinner followed by my brother and I driving home. An awesome weekend.
I'm still figuring out my photoblog and how it will interact with this but I do have pictures from the weekend I will be developing this week, so I might update this entry.
I also really want to see this movie Thumbsucker I just saw the trailer for. It looks really interesting.
This album is great for drives to and from the cottage
The Constantines - Shine a Light
current mood: working
current music: Annie - 'Heartbeat'
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| Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005
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4:34 pm - Disaster at the airport
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A passenger plane has just gone down near the 401 from Pearson international airport. I can only hope no one has been injured from the blaze of flames displayed on the traffic cams. I wish internet news was faster at updating so I could find out more in terms of what is going on. CBC.ca has just reported on it. Apparently it skidded off the runway around 4:00. Rescue crews are on the scene.
( My coverage of the accident with traffic cam pictures )
I am now going to try to relax after all this craziness and try to catch the 6:00 news to find out what more is happening with that press conference.
current mood:  worried
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11:10 am - Here I come to SAVE THE DAY
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Hell must have frozen over sometime this morning with Apple's announcement of their two button mouse named Mighty Mouse.
The mouse deceivingly has two touch sensitive buttons to the left and right of the scroll ball. The scroll ball can move in 360 degrees allowing for easy web and desktop publishing scrolling. The ball functions as another button as well. It also has squeeze sensitive sides to allow for another button. All these buttons are completely programmable under Tiger (with support in Windows apparently) allowing for Dashboard, Expose, or anything accessed right at your fingertips. There is also audio feedback built into the mouse in the form of a tiny speaker which produces button click and ball rolling sound effects. It was inevitable that Apple would release a two button mouse eventually but I don't think I expected something with this much functionality. Overall, very, very fancy.
I currently use the Microsoft S+arck designed optical mouse for my web development on my G4 Cube.
It is a wonderfully designed mouse that I have enjoyed using the past few months however, the new mighty mouse has all the features I thought the S+arck was lacking in a similarly awesome designed mouse. I feel an upgrade coming on.
Some people may complain that the mouse is not wireless but anyone who takes there design and/or gaming seriously will know that you need a wired mouse. Hey, I still have my Apple Wireless Bluetooth Mouse for the road :)
(I just realized I use 'So' a lot at the beginning of my entries... Don't look back and check, let's just move forward and avoid it :p )
I can't believe I haven't recommended something by this band
Pinback - Blue Screen Life
current mood: working
current music: The Vermicious Knid - 'Belly Grasp'
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| Sunday, July 31st, 2005
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8:12 pm - Quality cottage time
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So Jeff's birthday deal yesterday was quite a bit of fun. Jeff, Beth (his girlfriend), Jane (Beth's roommate), Rich, Jackie (Rich's girlfriend), and I went to dinner at the Mongolian Grill. I had some awesome chicken egg roll things and this magician came by our table and did some cool tricks. I still can't understand how he got the card in my hand to change but... I guess some things are beyond my realm of understanding :p
We then went back to Beth's apartment to wait before going out to Phil's later. We watched Bruce Almighty there and my friend from classes last year, Sean, came by and eventually went to Phil's with us. Scott finally showed up just before we went to the bar. Rich, Jeff, and I were already pretty gone from all the shots but decided it would be a good idea to attempt to do the whole 1.75 beer list (which is a hard enough feat when you go there sober!). It was all good and fun until Jeff wandered away. Which is not unusal, however, it was the first time he ever wandered away while out with Beth. She got really worried and upset so Beth, Sean, Jane, and I went looking for him. I must have asked a ton of people if they'd seen a guy named Jeff but no luck. We walked all over looking, even going back to his old house to see if he'd gone there but he hadn't. Defeated, we walked back to Beth's house where we realized that he had gone to sleep in his car... which we hadn't noticed the first time we walked past it. Mystery solved and Jeff rescued we decided it was time for some rest.
In the morning, really hung over, Jane and I watched Million Dollar Baby which is probably the feel good hit of the summer until about half way through when it becomes so sad and depressing.When everyone got up we had some delicious Cheerios with raspberries.
I then got a call from my Aunt Joanne saying she'd be there to take me to the cottage in about 15 minutes. I got ready quickly and we drove to the cottage in her awesome Sebring convertible with the top down. It was a nice drive and when I got there my mom, grandmother, and grandfather were there too. I decided to go relax in the lake on my kayak. I went out for about 2 hours and it was really peaceful despite all the extra people on the beach and in boats due to the long weekend. I also managed to get some sun :o
I need to order tickets for the Interpol concert in September.
Check out this album for something a little different
People for Audio - And this will become our homecoming
current mood: relaxed
current music: Aloha - 'You've Escaped'
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| Saturday, July 30th, 2005
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3:46 pm - Let's go out to the lobby
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I've been to a bunch of movies recently. Here's a quick recap: Batman Begins was fantastic, back to the basics and done right! War of The Worlds woulda been awesome if it weren't for the script, it goes nowhere. Wedding Crashers was insanely hilarious ("She just eye-fucked the shit out of me!"). And Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was an order of magnitude I can't even comprehend better than the original. Johnny Depp was fantastic.
( Movies I'm looking forward to seeing )
( Movies I just finally saw )
I also finally completed my Wes Anderson film collection with the addition of the Criterion Collection DVD for Rushmore (it should be coming in the mail next week!).
If you like Hayden then you'll definitely like
Great Lake Swimmers - Bodies and Minds
current mood: rested
current music: The Constantines - 'Shine a Light'
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12:50 am - Sleepless In Waterloo
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| Saturday, July 2nd, 2005
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3:13 pm - Oh Canada
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Canada Day was quite awesome!
After spending countless hours fixing a dying iMac G5 and getting it back up and running it was time to get the hell downtown for the Apostle of Hustle and Feist at the Harbourfront Centre.
I rushed home but realized I needed gas for the car and a sweatshirt for my body before I left. I grabbed these things and booked it downtown to a very congested Queens Quay. I ended up parking blocks away near Bay St for $20 and running back to the Centre. Halfway back I realized I forgot my cell phone in the car which would be necessary for contacting my friends who were there. So I ran back to the car, felt dumb, grabbed the phone, and ran back to the Harbourfront Centre. I ran into Matthew Blackett of M@B fame on the way in and said 'Hi'. He's a really cool guy. I made it for the last few songs by Apostle of Hustle and they were wonderful. The last one even had a cool tap dancing as percussion part. Very unique!
Right after the set was done I talked to Wayne via cell phone but he already had a seat with some people and was unable to really move. That was cool because one second later I ran into Alex's cousin Steph. So i ended up hanging out with them most of the night. Alex needed to get some scarf thing from one of the vendors so we went and got that between acts. She's a pretty great haggler due to her lack of shame :p Steph and I were just amazed at the deals she was able to get during the course of the evening. Then they grabbed some food (I had a hotdog during the running back and forth on Queens Quay) from the Haitian food booth. It looks pretty good; chicken, rice, carrots,and plantains.
Feist started playing just as we got the food so we hurried back. Tanner was to be saving us some seats up front so we made our way through a very crowded right stage-side. I noticed two things; 1)Alex was holding her chicken way up in the air and in peoples faces caused them to back off to let her through and 2) every time the girls passed by some people, the people would close back off and not let me through :p Tanner had kinda failed his end of the bargain in saving seats so we just stood, which was fine because everyone there was standing.
Feist was really fun. I didn't notice any of the reported diva-ness but maybe she was just in a good mood. She told some funny anecdotes from the Ottawa Canada Day thing and claimed that she was shooting the fireworks out of her chest when they started over the lake, making a funny explosion sound and motioning to be throwing things from her chest out at the lake. The set was awesome too, all the great songs were played occasionally employing Andrew Whiteman on guitar and bringing out a lot of people at one point including Kevin Drew.
After the show we wandered over to see some more vendors and the girls haggled over some earrings and stuff from this cool Jamaican dude while I just stood there amused. At the end of it they got a pretty good deal and the dude said I could have a neat wooden ring for waiting so patiently! Sweet!
We then wandered into another concert and met up with this dude who Alex and I always run into at concerts who has shite taste in music (surprisingly, he's never at any concert for the band that's actually playing). Then we ran into Reg from Gentlemen Reg and Kevin Drew from Broken Social Scene!! We chatted with them for a bit in the line-up for drinks (which wasn't moving and thus we never got any :p) and told them how awesome their bands were. They appreciated the feedback and we left to hunt down the other bar at the centre (the one right on the water). When we got there though it was closing :(
Instead we got Fruitopia from a vending machine and sat on a bench in the park area. It was there that we discovered if you take a picture holding a camera towards yourself with other people in the picture, the person holding the camera will always look stupid unless the person holding the camera has long arms (AKA me). The weather was aweomse too, clear skies and not too hot.
We then walked back to Bay St where we split up cause they parked way up at City Hall.
I drove home and grabbed a delicious raspberry triple thick milk shake from McDonald's.
Overall, quite a wonderful Canada Day night.
Oh, and the reason my mood is aggravated is my brother just totally fell back on our deal that I would be borrowing the car tonight to go to the Billy Corgan concert... whatever, I'll get there somehow!
(I hope to add some pics to this later when I can get in touch with Alex)
You should listen up to
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - 'Clap Your Hands Say Yeah'
current mood:  aggravated
current music: Masters And Moderns - 'A Portrait Of A Dying Existence'
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| Thursday, June 30th, 2005
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11:11 am - Olympian music festivities
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Alright, let's break it down: Most Serene Republic, Do Make Say Think, Metric, Broken Social Scene, Modest Mouse. Goddamn! That's a sweet lineup! That was Sunday.
My weekend, as usual, started Friday when I left work early to go pickup my new skateboard I had ordered from Full Tilt. I ordered an Element Margera Coniferous deck.
Then I had to decide what to get in the rest of my complete package. I decided on Independent trucks, Ricta wheels, SpeedDemon bearings, Shorty's risers and hardware, and a nice Element graphic grip tape :) The deck uses Fibrelight technologies so it has a fibre glass beam in it, has incredible pop, and weighs very little. I love it! I'm coming from a few boards that are all at least 4 years or older, so it's a huge improvement!
Then I went back home to play with my board while waiting for Jeff to come pick me up so we could head out to Waterloo. He got there later then he thought due to crappy traffic and him getting lost near Mississauga road :p
We got to Waterloo in good time. He went off to hang out with his girlfriend (Beth) and I went to my home in Waterloo for the first time in a month or so. No one was home so it was real quiet and I ate some delicious Easy Mac and Kool Aid for dinner. I had told Steph that I'd call her before going out to see what she was up to so I called but was surprised to find her really upset. Some real not cool shit just went down between her father and her (they don't actually talk that much but he was a dick and emailed her with his 'opinions' of her). Anyway, she was in no mood to go out and was really upset so I decided to cancel my plans and just hang out with her to try and cheer her up. It took forever to get over there due to the buses running infrequently but I made it and we rented Dodgeball and had some chips and dip. It was a fun, quiet evening and she really appreciated some company to get her mind off of things.
I got home sometime after midnight to a hot, stuffy house that I didn't want to sleep in. I had very little choice so I cranked the ceiling fan and lied in my bed perspiring all night. Fun!
Saturday. Jeff, Beth, and I had plans to go to Phil's Bar for drinks that evening but first Erin was having a barbecue at her house and a lot of people from Scarborough were coming from all over (well, Scarborough and Guelph anyway :p). The barbecue was delicious and a lot of fun. Throwing around the football turned into the most awesome retarded game known as Soccer in Judge Dredd uniforms with mallets and skewers. It really involved none of the things in the title in practice but would if it became a real sport. it was mainly kicking a football at each other and having pointless numbers and letters assigned for different things. It was incredibly fun :)
Before we left for the bar, some more drama had to go down because that seemed to be the theme for the first part of the weekend. Jane had just gotten back together with Eric (for the millionth time!) and he and her drove over to the BBQ in his car but he was tired so he went home and told Jane to call when she needed to be picked up. So she called and he said wait outside because he'll be there shortly. Half an hour later she was still waiting, so she called and he basically said he didn't have the car anymore. No explanation or apology. Seriously, he could've called! Anyway, she looked so upset, I felt real bad but she's really just gotta be tough and stop goin back to him.
Then there was Scott's whining about not wanting to go to Phil's and wanting Philthy's instead because it was closer. We offered to just get two taxis for everyone but most people said they'd just walk and finally Scott caved and said he'd walk too. Beth, Jeff, Rich, and I took a cab to Beth's to drop off our shit and then walked the short distance to Phil's.
We were there relatively early and it wasn't busy but they were already playing some great music including the Smashing Pumpkins and the Pixies. Jeff and I decided to try and have a different brand of beer with each new beer and try to get through the whole 1.75 domestic list. We did eventually complete it with the exception of Blue. As we hung around and the hours passed we realized no one else was coming from the BBQ. WEAK! They come all this way to hang out and then Scott most likely talked them out of walking! Whatever, it was fun just the four of us anyway.
Oh and I ran into Nancy there! I thought she was in Thunder Bay but it was surprising/great to see her! (Life Aquatic party in the fall? I have the DVD, you name the place :p)
I slept on Beth's apartment's floor which seemed like a good idea because they have A/C but I forgot to get a blanket so really I just froze all night.
In the morning, Jeff and I departed for Olympic Island Toronto. We made it to the docks for the ferry around 3ish. It was blistering hot out and waiting for the ferry was the most excruciatingly terrible thing ever. Sweat was beading from my neck all the way down my body! Ewww..
Finally on the island, we headed straight for the music to enjoy The Most Serene Republic's last few songs which were incredible! The band is so great live!
Do Make Say Think were up next and we got up close and started to sweat profusely in the crowded area near the stage. Despite sweat stains, DMST were incredible! They just know how to create this incredible soundscape the rocks its audience to their core. Very enjoyable!
After DMST, I met up with Wayne and chatted with him for a bit before it was time for Metric. We got front(ish) and centre for this set and Metric didn't disappoint! New and old songs were played with the old songs taking on new arrangements that sounded awesome! Calculation theme particularly sounded great. Emily is a bit crazy but you learn to ignore/enjoy it :p
I then met up with Alex and her cousin for Broken Social Scene. We were a little farther back but had a blanket to sit on which was great. BSS are simply amazing live. They came on as the sun was setting and the heat was finally giving out! The whole band was there including Feist. They played for 75mins and performed a bunch of the songs from their forthcoming Windsurfing Nation (Oct 4). Kevin joked "Just pretend that we released the record a year ago, which we should have. Pretend that Pitchfork gave us a 10 and that all the other indie bands hate us for it and pretend that we're about to play your favourite song off the new record!". Very awesome set. Especially Shorelines and Almost Crimes (which had all three female vocalists!).
Modest Mouse came on when the sun had finally disappeared and played a wicked set as well. Including oldies like Interstate 8, Paper Thin Walls, Tiny Cities Made of Ashes (the 15 minute jam version :p) as well as the darker Good News Satin in a Coffin and the View. And then the singles of course, for the 70% of the crowd who had just been introduced to MM with the Good news album.
(all pictures copyright their original photographers, thanks!)
We decided to leave at the last song in order to get the hell off the island without having to wait forever for a ferry, which was definitely the right thing to do because we were both pretty drained. I picked up a copy of Underwater Cinematographer, the Most Serene Republic's new CD and we made our way home.
Overall, a great weekend sprinkled with drama and a fantastic Sunday concert!
Check out this album,
Death From Above 1979 - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
current mood:  tired
current music: Jim Guthrie - 'Nighttime/Anytime (it's alright)'
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| Monday, June 13th, 2005
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1:00 am - Changing your name
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Caribou AKA the band formerly known as Manitoba was incredible!
Hadn't been to the Opera House in years (the last time was for a terrible J-Pop band *shudders large*) and the place looks the exact same inside but all new and nice outside. Got there a little late which was cool cause Junior Boys and some russian something band were already done. Sat through the next band that came on in costumes and did this long self-indulgent intro that was hella boring. Once they were gone though the real show finally began.
Four Tet came on and took control of the crowd. Fuck 'Two Turntables and a Microphone' he was rockin two laptops and a mixer. My experiences with DJs live has been varied but this seriously rocked. The second 'Smile Around The Face' started fading in I knew that the set would rock. Every song was reworked masterfully and when he finally closed the laptops I was left wanting more. Seriously.
Then it was time for some Caribou. They play live with mostly prerecorded vocals and a large projector showing animation that went along with the music. It was quite an awesome presentation. They played a bunch of the new and old tracks which was great. They even had two drum kits going for the last two songs which was intense to say the least. Very, very stellar.
Problems with the show. 1)Very, very hot in there. 2)Obnoxious guy who hated Caribou yelling that no one was rockin out (which was inaccurate). Seriously, no one was forcing him to stay, luckily, he did leave. 3)Bar tenders downstairs would give you glasses of water for free while those upstairs would not.
I saw Diana's 'friend' Erin there as well as hanging out with Alex for most of the time. Alex will be working for 18 days straight and I'm convinced that she may be crazy :p
I bought both Four Tet's and Caribou's latest albums on vinyl at the show which felt good cause I had been listening to my downloaded copies so much for so long.
Listen to this album if you like good music
Caribou - The Milk of Human Kindness
current mood: tired
current music: Four Tet - 'Smile Around The Face'
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| Monday, June 6th, 2005
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11:55 pm - Distant Relations, Less Distant
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So, today was very interesting.
Had a hella boring day at work but my online friends kept me entertained :) Thanks imo
My whole morning basically led up to the big Apple World Wide Developer Conference Keynote, where Steve Jobs was rumoured to announce a switch from IBM's PowerPC to some form of an Intel x86 chip in their computers. When I heard the rumour I DID NOT believe. Plain and simple. Not possible. But at 1pm our time it was confirmed by Jobs himself. At first I was stunned and I felt betrayed for some reason. I now realize that I was just worried about not being able to have all my PowerPCs running the current Mac OS as has been the case from the G3 all the way through the G5. But then I realized that this was a ridiculous thing to hope for. Eventually my beautiful Cube and Powerbook would become extinct. With or without a switch of processors. So that feeling eventually passed and I moved on.
I started thinking of all the new things this could mean. Would Mac OSX be available for regular Intel machines? This was answered shortly by Phil Schiller stating that, no, OSX will only run on Mac Intel machines and that it had been running on them for 2 years already. I then wondered about application support. Apparently this will either be handled by a recompilation through Xcode to make a universal binary that would be both PPC and x86 compatible or using an emulation environment called Rosetta (which coincidentally comes from one of Steve Job's old friends from the NeXt computers days). Lastly, will windows run on Mac hardware? Schiller responded that they would not actively limit this option. Which is VERY interesting. This could mean having a partitioned machine with both OSX and XP/Longhorn on one computer (wonderfully designed by Apple Computer). It also means that with the new architecture it will be easier to port video games to the mac, run windows apps in an emulated win environment (like wine or Virtual PC) with better performance, and a million other things. Cooler running Intel chips mean that G5 laptop you've been dreaming about may finally come out (of course, it wont be a G5 in there :p ). And an overall drop in price in the mac hardware department putting Apple in direct competition with Microsoft and PC hardware companies on exactly the same playing field. This is a brand new beginning. Its Apple thinking differently, by knowing they can compete (and win) by thinking similarly.
The other big event today was seeing my cousin Jay from Thunder Bay for the first time in 5-10 years (well approximately that long). He's moved down here to work and live in Toronto. It was so cool to talk to someone who understood and contributed to my techno babble. It was awesome to hear about his various work experiences over the years in the tech industry and to tell him about my limited, similar experiences. Overall it was great to see another person in my family who thinks the same way, in computer and computer related products :p My cousin Paul is pretty tech savvy, but Paul being ten years Jay's senior, he's starting to fall behind :p Anyway, it was really awesome to see Jay. (and to learn that he likes some similar music as I do!)
Seriously, listen to this, I mean it!
Architecture in Helsinki - In Case We Die
I usually only recommend one album but I'll suggest the new Coldplay too.
Seriosuly, I've had this for a week and haven't stopped playing it.
Coldplay - X&Y
current mood: content
current music: Imogen Heap - 'Hide and Seek'
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| Wednesday, May 25th, 2005
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12:03 am - Work
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Wow, so its been a while, again, sorry.
A lot has happened. I've met some cool people at school, finished my second year (passed everything!!), moved back to Mississauga for the summer (still have my room in Waterloo to retreat to), got a great job in downtown Toronto, made some big decisions, and have now finally settled down.
So back at school I saw Sin City with some friends (Justine and Wayne, sorta) before it opened and it was fantastic. If you haven't seen it, make a point to.
Then there were exams, which was actually pretty decent. I had two finals before exam period and they were a breeze. This only left 3 exams spread evenly over three weeks, which made studying no problem. I even got 99% on my computational physics exam!!
Back to Mississauga where I immediately began to miss living in Waterloo for a number of reasons including my bed at home seeming uncomfortable and problems with my mom and bro. But those things have passed and now its pretty chillin here. Settled back into having a little bit of money and access to a car to do what I want, which is awesome.
My job is with Travelex as a Quality Assurance and test scripter. Basically I am writing a series of scripts to test a bunch of web based software applications. The job can be boring but it's also quite interesting when I want it to be :p
Also, I am looking forward to a ton of movies this summer. I just saw Star Wars Revenge of the Sith, which was awesome (its now my second favourite of the films next to Empire).
( My Summer Movie Preview )
Btw, definitely listen to
Say Hi To Your Mom - Ferocious Mopes
current mood: relaxed
current music: The Headphones - 'Shit Talker'
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| Wednesday, March 9th, 2005
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1:11 am - Alexey Pazhitnov, my hero
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| Thursday, March 3rd, 2005
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12:19 am - Just in time to miss my birthday
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| Wednesday, March 2nd, 2005
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12:24 am - Ok... it's been a while
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I'm bad with the updating... what can i say?
So a quick little update of my life
School: Pretty decent. Did well on most of the newer midterms and assignments... things seem okay for now but that might change after four tests in the next two weeks
Home: I had reading week!! Yay. I got to go home and sleep in. Played a lot video games with my dog during the day and snowboarded on the weekend. Quite enjoyable. My injury from January due to an evil rail is all behind me and I had a lot of fun the times I went out!
Music: Lotsa concerts the last month or so. There was the Dallas Green (from alexisonfire) show with Raising the Fawn and the Sourkeys. That was a fun night, good bands, great friends, in the wonderful starlight venue. Then was the Stars also at the starlight and they were really, really awesome. They played an incredibly long, heartfelt set. I'm glad I was with some good friends or else I might of been pretty depressed due to the sad subject matter of some of the album! The day after was Joel Plaskett also at the starlight. I went over to radio laurier's superstar indie rock DJ Wayne's house for a few drinks with some friends before the show and we ended up having such a good time that we ended up missing the opening band and turned out to be very drunk by the time Joel started. But it was all good cus we all had seen Joel before so we just sat down at the show and had a very relaxed evening with some fantastic live music. Lastly, there was the last two Viking Club shows in Waterloo at the Starlight and then Toronto at the Rockit. Very fun shows including the always awesome Sourkeys, the very NY urban Japanther and the incredibly danceable, hip-hop sounds of Ninja High School. And of course the Viking Club put on the best sets of their lives. All in all a ton of music since my last update. I think I should steal my mom's nice digital camera (that I picked out) to take some pics at these shows... that sounds fun. We'll see i guess...
Guitar: been playing more of it... still not too good but someday :)
Well that about sums my life up right now. Very good times
An incredible album
Jim Guthrie - Now More Than Ever
current mood: mellow
current music: Stars - 'one more night'
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| Wednesday, January 5th, 2005
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8:38 pm - Good break, bad beginning
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Seriously, WTF? I mean it. My life revolves around school in such a terrible way.
Well, the beginning is where I should start. The good then the bad, i guess...
Exams did go pretty well and I shot up to my cousins the day after for family Christmas and it was really nice. Then I came home to a bunch of appointments including eye appointment (I am not getting any more blind which is good, because i was told i would :) ), my first physical (i got to keep my boxers on so I was cool with it :p ), and then a haircut to fix my mom's terrible job of trimming my bangs before Christmas. we did our gift giving Christmas eve because we were going to go up to my grandma and grandpa's for dinner on Christmas day and that was really nice as well. I got my guitar and I have been playing a lot since!
Dinner at the grandparents was cool. I went down the street to my uncle's and saw all his kids (who are all in their 30s or something) and that was awesome. I got to see my cousin Jamie who is the only doctor in our family and he lives in the states. He got a nice white Audi A4 which is pretty much my favourite car! It was great family time. my younger (AKA similar aged) cousins came by after dinner and we played their new Lord of the Rings RISK board game which I won and it was a blast!
I saw The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou which was fantastic. So imaginative and witty. One of my favourite movies of last year!
Then came some nice snowboarding in Quebec. Three straight days of boarding, i was dead by the end but it was worth it. Mount St Anne's is really a great mountain and it has changed a lot since i was there last. My mom's coworker's family also came up and they have two daughters, one who snowboards so she tagged along with my brother and I. Then we met up with this cool girl from New York, Peggy, who we boarded with for the whole time as well. Really fun, great conditions!! Mount St Anne's Pics
Then I came home for a few days before going back to my house in Waterloo.
That's when I got my marks. I knew chem was close but I did in fact fail :(
And I was okay with that. I mean I knew I didn't do well. So ill switch a few courses around and do it again this term. Sucks but I could handle it.
Then moved back to school, met the new guys who are renting some rooms at my house and they are cool. First day of school was good and my computational physics course seems awesome!! I was then going to go out to a bar to watch the Canadian juniors play Russia for the gold medal game.
That's when I get the real puzzling and unsolved as of yet bad news. It came in the form of an email from the science dean of admissions telling me that my algebra mark, although a pass may not count as a transfer credit to my new program!! WHAT! I took the course again in the science form so that over 50% is a pass whereas the engineering version over 60% can be transferred. I was under the impression that this would count. But now I'm not sure. And the real catch-22 of this situation is if it is true, and this credit can't be transferred I pretty much can't do the program I want because you cant take a course more than twice ( i took the science and engineering versions). So I'll be stuck and forced to choose something else. Which is not cool. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I love computers. if I'm not doing something with computers then I'm really going to have to re-evaluate everything... I don't need this right now. I've already done this to switch from engineering to science in the first place. School just doesn't agree with me anymore. i miss when it was easy and I did well and was happy...
seriously
when I'm sad i listen to
Luna - Rendezvous
and it cheers me up!
current mood:  confused
current music: Low - 'California'
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| Saturday, December 11th, 2004
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12:16 am - Everything
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So exams are going okay, as it turns out I am also killing calculus so assuming I do well on the final I might actually get a mark I can be proud of like in High School. Chemistry is the only tricky one... I just pray that I pass :p
So my winter is looking quite good. Exams finish early for me (after a terrible week of 5 exams in 5 days) and I will then head off to my family Christmas on the 18th. Then i can look forward to me friend Anthony's friend's short film to work on. I'm probably goin to be doin a little of everything including writing, editing, general post production, and even possibly acting seeing as its about snowboarders and I fit that bill. I'm really excited because Anthony and I always try to make something big but always just end up with our silly GogsTV jackass stuff. Which is fine, cus that stuff is fun but working for real will be good times i think.
Then on the 27th I'm heading off to Quebec for some snowboarding at Mt. Ste. Anne's. St. Anne's is probably my favourite mountain other then my stomping grounds of Mt. St. Louis Moonstone. I'm pumped and it will be incredibly fun. I haven't been there in so long so it'll be interesting to see all the cool stuff they've added! I read they have 3 board parks now and a new huge glade skiing area! Sounds killer anyway.
Plus, my mom seems to actually be listening to something I ask for for Christmas. She will usually try and get something that I want but don't know it (which has mixed results but its the thought that counts). But this year I asked for an acoustic guitar and she totally went out to Long and McQuade's and did some research and keeps mentioning things about it to me! I'm stoked! She found a really good, cheap Canadian hand made acoustic from Simon and Patrick and they look awesome! I read some stellar reviews too where tons of people compared their sound quality to that of Taylor and Martin. I'm looking at getting the Cedar top because it sounds warmer and the mahogony body was suggested to me and I like the way it looks/sounds too! this will technically be my third guitar in a year due to the crappy (relatively) Epiphone Strat rip-off I got and then my baby, my Epiphone Les Paul Custom. Anyway, I'm excited!
I've also been working on two playlists that will eventually make their way to full CDs with covers and whatnot. One is a happy take on 'emo' music with a bunch of supposedly emo bands playing some happy songs. Then is my more experimental one which will probably be two discs. Its theme is dreamy songs or songs that make me dream. Its hard to describe but all the songs on this mix are awesome to listen to when your just chillin and need some good music in the background that doesn't depress or impose on you. I think they are coming along nicely.
Well, I'm hungry so I'm going to go eat.
Make sure to check out this album
The Inbreds - Kombinator
current mood: hungry
current music: Interpol - 'Slow Hands'
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victor_smithe's journal
