Archive for November, 2004

Jenn and I hit the road early yesterday morning — with the new snow tire, sans snow — and started heading southwest. We stopped in Toronto for a few hours and took the subway to the Yonge and Eglinton area. Jenn wanted to do some Christmas shopping, I just wanted to ride the trains.

On the way back to our parked car we had the sense to sit in the very front of the front car. Jenn got a seat by the front window and I just stood by the conductor’s cabin watching him control the train and watching as we went through the tunnels. It was my first time sitting in the front car. A couple stops from where we got off the conductor must have decided that I was safe enough to talk to. He asked me if I wanted to drive — and I fell for it, “Really?” No — ha ha ha.

We headed to Guelph late in the afternoon and as we were driving up highway six we saw the Sleemans Brewing Company. So, I had to stop by and ask a question that I’ve been wondering about for a few years. At the restaurant Moxies they serve a beer called Big Life Blonde and the menu says that it’s brewed by Sleemans. So, I stopped in and asked about it. The first person had no idea, but another guy told me that many resaurants uses Sleemans beers and rename them. This fellow was almost certain that Moxies uses — get read for it… Pabst Blue Ribbon! Eww! How can I ever drink it again?

Sorry, I got so busy today that I didn’t record AWwaP for the rest of the week. I hope Tuesday and yesterday’s were good enough for you.

Sounds pretty cool, eh? When I get older and qualify for medicare, I’m gonna pick myself up one of these babies as fast as I can. Then I’m going to start nebulizing things! How come grown ups get all the fun toys? Pretty poor excuse for a post, eh?

So, I’m back at work with the podcasts. I recorded two episodes today and even though I’m not going to be around on Friday, I’ll try to get two more done this week. From what I can tell, it looks like each episode is getting downloaded around 30 to 35 times. Of course, I can’t tell if they are unique downloads. But even conservatively, that translates into an hour of ear-time a day the penguin and bear are getting.

So, I got this new host for my website a week ago last Sunday and I can’t get any support for it. It’s good and cheap, has unlimited bandwidth (which is great for podcasts — yes, I know I’m delinquent) but something happened in the setup and I can’t use all the great CGI stuff I wanted to. I had planned to switch to new blog managment software (that’s CGI) and run some other cool scripts I’ve been collecting and tweeking, but I can’t because I can’t get my host to get CGI enabled.

Robin uses the same host and I’ve played with some of the scripts on his hosting and they work just great. I’m just about ready to cancel the hosting, get my money back and sign up again with the same folks, hoping they’ll get it right this time. Arrg.

Don’t get me wrong, I think fall is one of the best seasons going, but I’m hankering for some snow! I bought some new winter tires today and they’re very agressive looking. The sky teased around lunch time with a brief flurry, but it didn’t stay long enough to accumulate at all. But the forecast calls for snow later this week and I might get my chance to try out the new rubber.

Some people have great memories. I don’t. As I’ve writen before, I don’t remember much of what I read, though I do remember enjoying (or not enjoying) most things that I’ve read — and I do a fair amount of reading. I often remember feelings and impressions of books. But, I have to really study and re-remember things if I want to keep them in memory.

I also have a hard time remembering things I’ve said (or done.) I don’t remember specifics from most conversations I’ve had, though I can often remember general topics and how I’ve felt about the conversation. As a result, in the past (and I suppose in the present and in the future I will) I’ve been hurt by people or taken offense to something they’ve said, but can’t tell them the words they’ve said that have injured me. That’s no good for me, ’cause I come off like an “emotional wimp” and I can’t help the offending person in curtailing their offensiveness.

The good thing is, I don’t have many bad memories. I know I’ve had some good fights with my mom (like everyone) but can only remember one specific one — the time I swore at her. I also remember blowing up at Robin in my dad’s truck on the way to class in first year university — but I can’t remember why. For the most part, as long as someone isn’t a consistant jerk (like everytime I meet/talk to them) I remember them fondly. I think it’s good for my emotional health, though I could be sub-conciously supressing things and you’d better watch out. Hee hee.

Another bad thing is, unlike simple arithmetic (which I’ve learned is really just long term memory symbol matching,) I haven’t bothered to remember how to spell many words. (Don’t worry, I don’t plan to bring up spelling every two months on the blog or anything.)

All this because I was trying to explain why the Ottawa Train Station reminded me of the old (really old) Thunder Bay Airport. I was wondering, how much can I trust my memories, how accurate are they. I have memories of being in the really old Thunder Bay Airport when you could walk outside on the second story balcony to watch planes take off and land. I remember a baby blue cafeteria on the north side of the building. I remember high ceilings, flat walls and lot’s of cement. And the feelings that come along with those memories match the feeling I had when I was in the Ottawa Train Station.

Jenn’s cousin, Brad from Guelph, is staying with us this weekend. He’s a story-teller and is in town for the national story-telling conference. We picked him up at the train station around lunch time. It was my first time inside the Ottawa train station, and I was less impressed than I wanted to be. It kind of reminded me of the old (really old) Thunder Bay airport — nothing like the cool old European ones. But, the conductor didn’t mind when I walked out by the platforms, though nobody else was out there. Oh, and parking was ultra-cheap too. Only 50¢ for two hours!

So, Brad’s train arrived and I was wandering around looking at the trains and people while they were aüsgang-ing. Jenn was in a better place to see Brad, but she came running up to me all excited. Apparently Leigh from Broken House Chronicles (a crazy home renovation show done by two punks here in Ottawa) got off the train just before brad. I confirmed this later when we walked by him on our way to the parking lot. So, not only did I get to check out the train station, but we had a minor brush with minor celebrity. Of course, Jenn didn’t get as excited when we walked past Don Newman on a crosswalk in the Glebe last week.

Okay, just so everything is clear, Andrew Caldwell and I are still friends, right Andrew? There was some confusion over yesterday’s post about venting. I used his name in the comments section as a joke response to the previous anonymous comment (don’t ask me what was funny about it — I don’t even remember myself.)

Anyways, the skinny is *all the people who read my blog are friends of mine. I feel okay about venting about strangers, for example I sometimes vent about bad drivers. But sometimes my friends irritate me — possibly as much as I irritate them? No, that’s not possible. So, should I blog about that? No. Can I blog about my irritations in general? Maybe. Should I learn to suck it up? Yeah.

So, the apology. Sorry Andrew for besmerching your fine, upstanding name. I’ve learned another lesson in the shcool of harsh jesting today. Also, after re-reading the first comment, I think it sounds like Doug. Was I right? Maybe I should go back to the halo-scan comments. I like them better than the built in blogger comments.

*There are probably strangers who stumble across my blog too, but you know what I mean.

Jenn and I spend almost all of our freetime together. Except for unusual circumstances, like a camping trip with the boys in Fundy or the girls from work coming over (and I needing to get away for my own sanity) we spend all our freetime together. Tonight was an unusual circumstance — a work deadline for Jenn. The whole office is working late. I’m going to pick her up at ten o’clock. Anyways, it left me with a night to myself.

I dropped by after supper, just before seven o’clock to drop off some liquid refreshment and to get some much needed affection. Then I headed to the library — Chapters — for two and a half hours. I read an interesting book on the history of “performance magic” from the mid 1800′s to the mid 1900′s. It was very interesting, and I learned a few more secrets. What I enjoyed most was that it wasn’t a book about how to do tricks, but a book about the people, the performace behind it, how ideas and techniques developed and a number of give-aways. The give-aways were just part of the history though, and inspite of the fact they “ruined” a few tricks for me (like the levitating lady, sawing a person in half, people disapearing in boxes and almost all of Houdini’s escapes) I had a very enjoyable time.

But, I don’t think I need an evening to myself for a while. Jenn on the other hand might…