Boo! Halloween 2008

A warm and dry Halloween evening, but only 35 kids came to the door. So much chocolate to throw away now... Not! Chris carved this year's pumpkin while I was roasting the seeds (they were delicious). I like his design and the extra carving he did on the back. Click on here to see the back side. You can't see it in this photo, but the nose is "3D".

I've been following the American elections pretty closely. Looks like Barack Obama is going to lead a Democratic tidal wave on Tuesday. Its been interesting, and satisfying, to watch the Republican campaigns collapse. I guess eight years of George W. Bush will do that. The down side is that I've been following some election web sites a bit obsessively, particularly FiveThirtyEight.com. FiveThirtyEight (the number of electoral votes) is an excellent poll analysis site run by a Democrat nerd. Tonnes of detail and quite objective about the polls. Some good "on the ground" reporting too.

I've been drawn into some extended debates with rabid neo-conservative bloggers too, which has been a real time sink. I just can't let the idiotic lies go unchallenged when I stumble across them. Obama is not a baby-eating foreign-born socialist Muslim planning on instituting a communist dictatorship as soon as he's in office! The absurd length of the Presidential elections gives people plenty of time to get wound up. Funny how Canadians can take the American election more seriously than their own.

Listening to: Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears from Songs From the Big Chair.

All Quiet on the Western Front?

I think it's a bit of a truism that when a blog "goes quiet" it usually means that someone's real life is getting busy or there are big changes afoot that the blogger isn't comfortable talking about... Well, that's true here. As my two regular readers probably know, I've spent the eighteen months wandering in the desert (Moses' got nuthin' on me). I've been casting about trying to find new work and slowly consuming my savings. I made a heavy investment in ignoring reality too.

It's coming down to the nub now though, and I've made a couple of decisions. First, get a bloody job! Helping out friends and picking up random computer consulting work isn't paying the bills and neither is modeling. Like anyone following an acting "career" it's time for me to get a job as a waiter. Second, stop paying this damn mortgage! I'm going to list my house as soon as I can get it prepped and rent until my life settles down again. I'm sad about this decision as I love my neighbourhood and have been very comfortable in my house. This house also represents my last connection to a woman with whom I thought I was starting a new life when I bought it. (Insert frowny smiley face here.)

Turning back to frivolities, the Formula One season started last weekend but Brian and I are carefully avoiding automotive web sites and news until we can get together tomorrow to watch the tape. No spoiler e-mails please! I gave a presentation on swimming at my triathlon club's seminar last night and a woman from Montreal was itching to fill me in on the race.

This evening I caught the film Sharkwater with my friend Adrian. The film has great photography and a compelling environmental message. I always get a bit cautious when a radical advocacy group like the Sea Shepard Society is part of the message though. There's usually too little balance and too much radical action. The film also ended up being as much about the director's somewhat narcissistic experience as it was about the foolish over-exploitation of the sea. The question I left the theatre with was this: "why do so many idiotic Asian superstitions and traditional 'treatments' end up driving species to extinction?"

Listening to: One More Astronaut by I Mother Earth from Scenery and Fish.

A Favicon!

I was poking about the intertubes the other day looking for a better home page. About ten years ago Excite was where the cool kids went to see the day's headlines, check stocks, weather and such. I was cool, so that's where I went too. Well it's 2007 and Excite hasn't cut it for a long time. It's too slow to load and covers way too much screen real estate with ads or links to their search engine. And no cool kids go there now.

The two big local ISPs, Rogers Communications and Bell Sympatico, provide a home page that anyone can use and configure. Rogers' portal is Yahoo-based and has too much Flash and too little info. Sympatico is MSN-based (stop right there!) and drips with banner ads. Neither site is very satisfying.

I did find a couple of interesting "independent" portals though. Pageflakes looks neat but doesn't work in my preferred browser, Safari. Netvibes looks interesting too, but doesn't seem as versatile. I'm trying out Netvibes for now. Let me know if you have a recommendation!

In the course of this portal-play I decided that I needed an icon for my blog. These things are called favicons. You've probably noticed lots of web sites will have a custom icon that appears in your favourites or bookmarks. What should I use? I decided to take a slice of my blog banner's graphic of Mars. (What, you thought that was a red Moon? You're crazy.) The process is straight-forward enough. Make a small square image, save it as an Windows ICO file, name it favicon.ico, drop it into the "top" directory of your web site. You can also do somethings in your HTML to make it happen. Done, but it doesn't seem to be visible sometimes. Hmmm.

I got out for a run this afternoon, just 8K in 37 minutes in the cold and snow. No-one along side to push me! Wish I'd remembered my heart rate monitor so I could have compared the effort to last Sunday's run.

Listening to: Intergalactic by Beastie Boys from Hello Nasty.

Memories Fade (but the scars still linger)

OK, so I haven't posted any of my Florida Keys photos or described my trip. I figure as long as I'm still itching my no-see-em bites I have time on the clock...

I had an audition today for an insurance commercial, with a scripted husband and wife conversation. (I'm worried that we won't be able to get the protection you and the kids need.) A friend of mine was there for the role of wife and we had a chance to chat in the lobby. We didn't get to audition together though.

Late night update: Finally got all my photos winnowed down to a manageable group for posting to Flickr. I've added a photo to this post, to see them click on it or here.

Listening to: Memories Fade by Tears for Fears from The Hurting.

Road Rage

I was talking to a friend, who will remain nameless, about driving recently and they told me about how they used to drive: with aggression and confrontation. They even got into a couple of road-side fights many years ago! Hard to imagine...

Myself, I drive quickly and responsively but not selfishly. Although I'm likely to honk or make an irritated gesture when I see an inattentive driver impeding others (i.e. me) or driving aggressively. But I'm as likely to let someone in as I am to criticize. My driving philosophy is that helping you complete your journey quickly helps me complete my journey quickly. A few girlfriends have asked me not to interact with other drivers that way, but I've never been able to cure myself of it.

Today I followed my regular hard hour of spinning at the Dunfield Club with a 6K run on the treadmill. This is what we triathletes call a "brick" (B for bike, R for run, ICK for how you often feel). The transition from cycling to running is a critical one in triathlon races, as you go from semi-horizontal (easier on the heart) and bent at the waist on the bike to upright on the run (strains the heart and stretches muscles that have been contracted for perhaps several hours). I actually felt pretty good doing it today, although my left ankle and knee hurt for a bit in the middle of the run.

I want to be back in shape for New Year's Day, as I've committed myself to an internet triathlon. Some members of the "International Tri-Blogger Alliance" have agreed to swim, cycle and run at least a short distance wherever they can on New Year's Day. Plenty of us live in cold climates and will have to suffer for their rash commitment. I however will be in the Florida Keys on the day in question, so it should be easy for me.

Listening to: Mad World cover by Michael Andrews with Gary Jules from the Donnie Darko soundtrack (and the Gears of War television commercial).

Watching the Landscape

I'm just back from seeing a documentary film called Manufactured Landscapes with my friend Adrian. The documentary followed Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky to China where he documented the grim scale of Chinese industry and it's impact on the... landscape, obviously! Burtynsky's fascinating photos of industrial activity and waste have been exhibited widely, I saw the local exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario two years ago and came home with both the exhibition book of the same name and one of his framed 'quarry' prints. Now I've seen Jennifer Baichwal's film on the same topic. I think they've covered the media bases. Perhaps a role-playing game for PS3?

So, thumbs up or down? Well, a thumb in each direction I think. The film gave visual context to Burtynsky's photos, which was helpful because sometimes you just can't believe that his images come from the real world. It also expanded them by capturing more of the human presence, which is often incidental in his photos. The film opened with a five minute tracking shot (shades of Robert Altman) along rows of bustling manual assembly lines. The scene showed both the monumental scale of China's industries and the massive and repetitive human activity that makes it possible. Watching a worker assemble a small electrical component at lightning speed and then later watching peasants tapping the metal off of computer chips for recycling reminded me that industry grinds down people as well as landscapes.

The down side? Well, it kind of dragged on and the sound track was excessively "industrial" and often grating. How many slow tracking shots can you sit through in a night? Still, Manufactured Landscapes is a mind-expanding film that illuminates and expands on Edward Burtynsky's vision and trusts the viewer to interpret it. I loved the clever juxtapositions that highlighted the economic divide in China. The remark "this is an open kitchen", for example, started while we watched a peasant's medieval outdoor stove in use but concluded while we watched the speaker, a Shanghai realtor, show off her open-concept luxury kitchen.

Sheryl got back from her cruise this evening too, I'll be dropping Barkley back to her tomorrow morning. She seems to have had a good time, although her daughter got a bit of food poisoning. What is it about cruise ships and food poisoning? Last week a different ship had back-to-back food poisoning outbreaks in spite of a "through cleaning" between cruises.

Chris had an interesting week at school. He'd decided that he didn't have to follow school rules and was encouraging other students to defy the teachers with him. Needless to say that didn't go over well, and he was given a one day "voluntary suspension" to think things over. Coming on the heels of a pretty mixed report card his mother and I have come down pretty hard on him. He seems to have a pretty poor grasp of the concept of consequences. Poor marks aren't the teacher's fault, they are the student's. Pay attention, do the work, prepare for tests, and guess what? You'll get better marks regardless of who the teacher is. Cooperate with classmates and teachers and guess what? You'll be welcomed into activities. So no computer time for a month and no TV on weekdays until the next report card. That's a consequence that is easy to understand, and with a clear solution...

I've been "re-manufacturing" my blog template lately. The new version of Blogger makes it a lot easier to add components to the pages, including the Google Ads (click! now.) that have so far earned me $0.00, so I've been able to get rid of a lot of the customising hacks I've been using. Let me know if it's not looking good on your end.

Listening to: Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap from Speak for Yourself.

Audience of One

I met an internet fan on the weekend! At the Toronto International Film Festival Staff Party someone said they recognised me from "my pictures." They'd found my Flickr photos while looking for photos from TIFF.

Now if only someone would discover my blog my life would be complete... Oh, a job would be good too.

Listening to: What's My Scene by The Hoodoo Gurus from Blow Your Cool!

Hard-wired

As every blogger knows, keeping spam out of comments is an on-going battle. (Except in my case, because my blog rarely gets comments...) One way to prevent spammers from dropping unsolicited commercial e-mail into your comments is to display an image of distorted numbers and letters and ask the commenter to type them back into a text field. Not hard for the human brain, but tough enough for a computer to make the effort too "expensive". There are a number of systems based on this principle, called CAPTCHA, that bloggers can use. I use the built-in Blogger version just for the hell of it.

Recently a system called Hotcaptcha appeared that shows nine pictures of women and asks you to select the three "hot" ones. Or you can switch to men and pick the hott (is that enough "t"s?) guys. I tried it out and using women's photos I'm able to detect the hotties almost every time. Switching to men, my detection abilities dropped to about 50%! I suppose that tells you something about me. The hottie seen in this post is Desiree Ficker, a top-ranked American triathlete. Wow!

Listening to: Heterosexual Man by the Odds from Bedbugs.

Blogging in my sleep

Last night I dreamt I was blogging! I had a dream in which I was eager to offer a strongly-held opinion about something I had no expertise in. Sounds like blogging to me... In the dream I was at a meeting of outdoor market vendors. Sheryl was one of the vendors, but it was I who was eager to address the gathering about how they urgently needed convince the market owners to install more water taps so they could improve their shops. Ah, dreams... I was awakened by chirping robins (at 4:00 AM) before I could clear my virtual throat.

On the topic of early starts, much like another blogging triathlete, I love the sights and sounds of the early dawn. I just wish they could be observed in the afternoon. But I'm off for a group ride regardless.

Listening to: It's Alright for You by The Police from Reggatta de Blanc.

Oscar the Grouch

Time to exhale a bit of stale air...

First, Canadian politics. Stephen Harper's Conservatives have been busy manouvering and scheming since getting into office. They came in promising "open government" and fiscal responsibility. Instead they have gone out of their way to restrict public scrutiny, buy favour from interest groups, play divisive political games and enact bad self-serving tax policy. Thanks for playing!

Next, environmental issues. The above-mentioned Conservatives have been busy cancelling environmental initiatives put in place by the Liberals. What's replacing them? Nothing. Thanks for playing! Today I also came across a blog whose American author couldn't understand the fuss about drilling for oil is sensitive areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I had to get my two cents in:

Isn't it nice to still hear crickets? You have to get a few miles out of town though, don't you.

How 'bout this: if the ANWR is exploited and proves to have the anticipated oil reserves it will only provide a few short year's extension for the SUV lifestyle. Then the oil companies will be looking for the next fragile place to convert into stock options.

The "miniscule 2,000 acre area" you think is needed doesn't exist in isolation any more than a ten foot length of your favorite freeway does.

To follow your analogy a step further, you and your family are going to be naked and out of work regardless of whether you "save Bambi". The real decision is this: do we change our pattern before we kill all the Bambi's.

I'm a geologist by the way.

There, that felt better...

Listening to: Nothing Lasts Forever Anymore by Sloan from Action Pact.

Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go!

Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go! is the story of a boy named Chiro's struggle, with the help of five robotic monkeys, against the evil forces of the Skeleton King. Now that's a cartoon that has all the bases covered. I've never seen it, but I love the name.

I've been geeking out today, fiddling slightly with my blog templates. Hopefully nothing looks wonky as a result. The only noticable change is the new navigation links at the top of each post. Except on the main page. Grrr. Maybe the modifications will encourage visitors to read some of my older posts, which while lacking that fresh-from-the-oven aroma still drip with pith.

Another geek thing to note is that my sad little hit counter also keeps track of the last 100 visits. I can't glean much from the information except the following factoids:

• Most people seem to arrive here from a search engine link to my Back in the day post from February 2005. It's kind of embarrassing that their first impression is formed from a photo of me in an ill-fitting Speedo. Maybe that post gets the hits because it contains the word "penis."
  
• The next source of hits is from visitors to a web-friend's blog in Arizona, My Crazy Life. Hi Mary!
  
• My most regular lurker is apparently on an Ontario government network located in New York State. (Huh? Well it's a free hit counter, so I can't complain.)
• Number two on the very short list of lurkers is a Rogers Cable subscriber here in Toronto. (Hmm... That narrows it down to about 200,000 possibilities.)

As an antidote to the above geekiness I leave you with a recommendation. Find the March 27, 2006 issue of The New Yorker magazine and read Calvin Trillin's piece Alice, Off the Page. It's a moving elegy to his wife of 35 years and a frequent personality in his writing, who died in 2001.

Listening to: Two of Us by The Beatles from Let It Be.

Sarcasm as a career

I was on a Mac website yesterday called Daring Fireball, reading an interesting post about the user interface for copy-and-paste, when I spotted a link to a daily video blog called The Show that is apparently a "concentrated, faster-cut, and more sarcastic version of The Daily Show." Guess what? It is! The host, "zefrank", has also created some neat flash animation.

Listening to: Breathe Me by Sia from Six Feet Under: Everything Ends.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I love old Bowie songs... My regular readers (perhaps I should use the singular) will note that I've started listing the music I'm listening to while writing. It's just another way of telling you about myself, and might lead you to a musical discovery. Where possible I'll link them to Apple's iTunes store so you'll have a legal chance to hear a sample, from either a PC or a Mac.

Ch-ch-ch-changes seems like an appropriate title for today's post on the topic of my son. We're just back from his Junior School's "Winter" Fair. Last night and this morning he was adamant that he didn't want to go to his Little Dragons Kung Fu class because it was boring and "Sifu" (his teacher) was an "asshole". But he was looking forward to the Winter Fair because there would be Newfoundland dogs giving cart rides and he wanted to pat their puppies. Of course he got mad when I caught him having fun at his Kung Fu class in spite of himself! :-)

This dog is a two year old Newfie! They grow 'em big out there. My
son, in his favourite hoodie, is on the left. The other boy is the
younger brother of a classmate - C. tried to help his brother
win a birthday present for him.

Listening to: Combat Baby by Metric from Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?