Oh, Hey There

I guess I've been lost in the tubes. I'd like to say my absence was due to shocking amounts of productivity, but that would be a lie. You have to be careful about when you choose to tell your lies after all. Between the endless rain and the lack of income of any kind, its been difficult to really plan to do anything exciting.

But, somewhat out of the blue, Carolyn's parents have given her permission to use their cottage towards the end of August, so we'll be heading up to the Bruce Peninsula for a few days. I say it comes as a surprise because, despite her being closer to 30 than 20, they still end to be very conservative and protective in their treatment of her. There is of course some level of control you have to be willing to accept living at home, but then there is above and beyond the call of duty.

In any event, we have use of the cottage for a few days, provided we take care of mowing part of the lawn/weeds, and staining or sealing some deck boards of some kind. I can only hope that the wet weather patterns in these parts don't follow us up there so we can actually make use of the few days vacation time.

Valid Code

As nice as being able to control the finest details is with code, differences between things like '&' and '&' that have you Googling around for 2 hours before you find them can be rather frustrating. But now my pictures are displaying properly in Firefox 3, so its worth it? And really, what else do I have to do?

Last week's awesome weather has faded into cold rainy crap, putting an abrupt end to any plans to have an outdoor poker night this week on the picnic table I built this weekend. I'm not a fan of the furnace kicking on overnight in the middle of June.

I am however a huge fan of the Netherlands domination of Group C at Euro, despite handing an undeserving Italy a pass to the quarter finals in beating Romania yesterday. Beyond changing in 9 second string players, there's not much more Holland could have done to help Romania along. Here's hoping they don't go ahead and choke now against whoever of Russia or Sweden they meet on Saturday. If they keep playing the way they did in the group stage, I'm convinced they can beat any team out there. The key is not getting too cocky.

Summer Love

To the couple having sex just off the trail next to Laurel Creek: Sorry we ruined your party. Maybe a bit further off the trail next time would be better for everyone, but at least you were able to laugh about it.

And really who can blame you with the nice weather finally. Plenty of activities I want to do outdoors as well. For now though I have some home brew to bottle.

The Resurrection

Warm weather appears to be on its way back from the dead. The 14 day trend is still almost entirely below the historical average for this time of year, but I have to find satisfaction with above zero for now. Lowered expectations.

The baseball season officially gets under way tomorrow in Japan. My buddy Como and I have tickets for the Saturday game of the Jays opening weekend that I'm told are on the wall in left field similar to the ones I fluked into a couple years back. All this Super Premium, Premium, Value game pricing adjustment bullshit needs to go though. What started with the occasional mid to late summer series against the Red Sox or Yankees being rated a premium game with slightly higher ticket prices has morphed into an increasing number of pricing levels and games for which the pricing isn't just some 'regular' amount. Paying 39.00 for a ticket that cost me 21.00 for opening weekend just a couple years ago is handicapped. I prefer to be called retarded.

And the injuries are already starting to add up for the Jays. Combined with manager J.P. Ricciardi's asinine move to pick-up Shannon Stewart and drop spark plug gamer Reed Johnson, all the talk about the Jays resurrection from the middle of the AL East look like another fictional anecdote to get hopes up leading to the perennial 3rd spot in the East. More lowered expectations.

But the hockey pool is coming together well enough, despite all the Leaf fans who still think they have a chance to go anywhere. Make sure you pass on the word to anyone else that might be interested.

The Last Hurrah?

This needs to be the last snow storm of the winter. I don't think I can handle another without a heavy dose of summer first. Enough of the bloody noses from the dryness. Enough of the shoveling. Enough of the scraping off the van every time I want to go out. Enough of the no sandals, shorts and t-shirts.

The plan is/was to go out for dinner and drinks for Carolyn's birthday tonight, but if the snow doesn't stop dropping soon I doubt there will be much of a turnout, us being the only one's really within walking distance of Uptown. I don't mind driving around town in this weather, but then not everyone can be as cool as me driving around a soccer mom mini-van that sits out of the snow at least a little bit more.

Hopefully things shape up for St. Patty's next Saturday. The luck of the Irish has to be better than my own right?

Place Boot Here

After being sick most of the week, Carolyn suggested she was well enough again to get together and watch the Oscars on Sunday night. We both figured that by that point, despite having lingering congestion, she probably wasn't contagious any more. So we got together and watched the awards. Of course, I had only seen the two mainstream, big budget movies up for awards in The Bourne Ultimatum and the latest Pirates of the Caribbean. Michael Clayton and No Country for Old Men have been on the agenda for a while, but being both to cheap to go to the movies, and more comfortable at home, I haven't had much of a window to see them yet.

And then 6:00am Monday came waking up like a wall had just hit me, and my nose dripping like a faucet. A few more hours of sleep seemed to clear things up, and for most of the day I felt just fine. But by the evening, my nose was running again at full drip, and my head in general begin to feel like a fish tank full of mucous. Three days, and plenty of OJ and Contac C later, the nose has dried up, and I'm just left feeling like I'm walking around under 20 feet of water. Just sitting up at the computer without feeling dizzy is a welcome accomplishment at this point.

Despite the sun getting higher and higher in the sky, its still something like -20 out today, so lazing around the house doesn't seem like the worst fate in the world for one more day.

Spring Training

I wish I could get invited to take part in a spring training camp. Not with the hopes of making the team, or even for the chance to toss a ball with the pros, but simply to get the hell out of this cold weather.

Cleaning the car off at 3 in the morning when taking Carolyn home has lost all of its novelty. As have the snow covered streets that seem to have been neglected by plows for at least the last 3 snowfalls, and one rainfall that served to polish the layers into a hard, rutted, suspension destroying mess. Save a couple dollars in taxes by not having the plow go down the street, cost hundreds later in having to prematurely replace shocks and struts. But at least we have RIM Park to show for our tax dollars.

I suppose there are sillier ways to restructure taxes.

And at least no-one around here is paying elected officials to analyze performance enhancement in baseball in as long and drawn out a public sham as possible. I would be shocked to see anything more than stern warnings and a tap on the wrist come of it all. But then, GW needs a sport to come back to when he's done fucking the rest of his country in a year. Better to have his attention on anything but politics I say. So, welcome spring training! Time to go get some home opener tickets.

And I'm still looking for you fantasy baseballers. Info is in the previous post.

Enough

10-15 cm of wet, heavy snow last night, another 10-15 forecast tonight, this shit can stop any time. I'll take a -15 degree weather with not a cloud in the sky to this any day. Of course, the positive side of zero for an extended period of time would gain an even better reception. And if the city could stop plowing 4 foot deep snowbanks up onto the sidewalk that would be great. Between the way the Chinese elm on the corner has to be trimmed back for hydro, leaving half a tree leaning towards the house for the day it falls, and the snowbanks plowed up on the sidewalk every winter, it would be fantastic if the city just claimed their three feet of property space and re-routed the sidewalk.

Anyways, enough of the bitterness. With some help from Steve, I've got another batch of homebrew on the go; this time the Coopers Home Brew Lager. The 'Real Ale' overall didn't disappoint, but I am not one of those people who can settle on one beer to call their own until their death. Or even until liver problems cause me to ease up. As I had hoped from the start, the $22 and time spent to make roughly 3 cases of homebrew turned out to be a great option in the face of spending $30 a case from the store. It was good enough even that Steve decided to go in for a quarter of the latest batch. Three quarters of three cases in three weeks time for me should be more than enough anyways.

This Just In, Weather Forecasting Still Useless

The forecasts all weekend have been calling for a 70-80% chance of rain, thwarting any notions of making plans to do something outside. Finally the rain hits 2:00 Sunday afternoon. At least I managed to get out for a little while yesterday.

Nature's been a real asshole this weekend.

Death to Winter

Its March; Gimme a Break

Snow days are spectacular events when they happen. A few days after the fact however, once your assignment and exam time-line for the following week gets all compressed; not so much. On the plus side, I'm done everything for 2 of my classes til exams. On the horizon though, 3 exams in a 24 hour period, 4 exams in 4 days. Under some circumstances I could probably have one of those deferred, but because the distance education office and registrars office seem to refuse to work together (a recurring theme with many of the University administrative services) I likely won't be able to do much about getting bent over and made a multiple-choice bubble colouring bitch.

But this week is over, and the weather is looking up. Forecast highs above freezing for the next week, and some rain in there to help melt the thick pack of grungy gray-white, pebble and car-part filled snow lining the streets.

Hopefully I'll manage to unwind this weekend, have a few beers, and help the girlfriend celebrate her birthday. Then next week I can resume the stress involved with grinding out my thesis before the 22nd, and hoping to hell that the government tax system gets its shit together soon so I can file my return and get some much needed cash returned to my needy student self. That's enough whining for now though.

Funny story for the day. I'm out picking up some gas, and running some other errands. I'm stopped at a traffic light, when this year or two old black Nissan Sentra pulls up to me with sports seat belts and after-market rims, and the sound system blasting out some modern hip-hop. I look at the driver, and there's this balding, greying, forty-five to fifty year old white guy droppin' more bombs than the bible's got psalms right along with his system. That, combined with the fact that it was warm enough for me to have the windows down and hear it all, made my day.

Reading Week

It had to come eventually. After such a mild December and January, the snowfall was due, and mother nature took a big white dump on us this week. On the plus side, the first big hurrah, may also have been the last big hurrah of the season, as the long term outlook is looking at weather getting up above freezing again soon. It will be nice to not creak when I go outside in the mornings.

Its officially reading week now, which for some people means flying off to nice white sand beaches in the tropics. For others it means trying to put together a Bachelors thesis in a week, while also playing catchup in actual reading and assignments. Its what I signed up for ultimately.

I also signed up years ago for the NIN mailing list, and unlike other bands whose mailing lists I've also been on at one time or another, there is very little garbage advertising that gets pumped into the account from NIN.com. So yesterday when I got an e-mail I was obliged to open it, and found that there is already a new full length album coming out in 2 months, and that two of the songs are posted on the NIN myspace page.

Of course for the slightly more initiated, the songs are available out there for download, though not in spectacular quality. The first single, Survivalism, follows a political tone more apparent in Trent's latest work, while still replete with biting sarcasm and enough variation in sound again to make it a decent single.

I'll admit I was slightly shocked to see the songs available a full two months before the album release date, but then Trent Reznor is known for embracing technology and inviting fan remixes, as well as providing various forms of media under the NIN name. And when there is invariably a leak of material before the official release of an album these days anyways, why not embrace the opportunity. I'm looking forward to the release.

I also heard on the radio in the lab yesterday that Chris Cornell has once again decided to fly solo, leaving Audioslave. I think Audioslave was getting tired anyways, and this just opens the door for a more permanent reunion of Rage Against the Machine, should their gig at Coachella in the spring inspire them.

Now about inspiring myself.

Fun Fact Friday II

The United States military is aspiring to become the aliens from H.G. Wells' The War of The Worlds.

You can now get all the myriad health benefits of coffee and doughnuts in one. I was personally hoping McDonalds or Burger King would inject their burgers with caffeine first in their pioneering tradition of wholesome food. Now they will seem like unoriginal hacks.

Nick has a new blog for his puntastic t-shirt ideas. If he made a Cafepress store for some of them I'd probably buy a hundred. Okay, that may not be a fact. Maybe I'd buy one. But still, check them out.

It was -22 last night, without windchill. While not Prairies cold, that's still pretty fucking cold. Today we got dumped on with snow all day. I'm sick of this 'winter' shit; I'm gonna go tell Al Gore to talk some more so he exhausts more carbon dioxide, and water vapour, and accelerates this climate change thing.