ALRO's Mayhem

Dragon Age Mark of the Assassin: F. Day plays as herself.

2011-11-29T09:03:00.000-05:00

Dragon Age Redemption ep 6

2011-11-28T09:34:00.001-05:00

Dragon Age Redemption ep 5

2011-11-08T12:54:00.001-05:00

Dragon Age Redemption ep 4

2011-11-02T13:03:00.001-04:00

Dragon Age Redemption ep 3.

2011-10-25T10:54:00.001-04:00

Dragon Age Redemption ep 2.

2011-10-18T08:27:00.000-04:00

Dragon Age Redemption webseries

2011-10-11T11:11:00.001-04:00

Been waiting for this forever:

Channeling Freddie

2011-09-23T12:20:00.001-04:00

HOLY SHIT...

Angriest Guitarist EVER.

2011-09-14T11:12:00.001-04:00

Ottawa's Municipal Gov't FAIL.

2011-08-11T08:59:00.001-04:00

From CFRA Ottawa News:

Raw Sewage Flows into River

Summer showers sent more raw sewage flowing into the Ottawa River this week.

The City says 200-thousand litres of raw sewage and untreated water overflowed the sewage system during rain on Tuesday.

So far this year, more than 380 million litres of raw sewage has overflowed the sewage system and into the Ottawa River

.

These fuckers need to get their heads out of their asses and figure this out no matter what the cost!!!!! Stop the red-tape and do your fucking jobs!!!!!

Jeeezuz!!!!

Would you like fries with that?

2011-08-10T09:03:00.003-04:00

It's been forever since I last posted a Blog... and now that i'm starting to get a little more time to do so, I will try to post more often.
What's happened?
Well...
There's so much happening that it's hard, really, to go through it all in one post. But the synopsis..

I got a new job. One that actually has a ton of promise.
In my last job, I felt suppressed, kept in the dark, and stretched far too thin. I'd come home from work and shut down; literally. I really didn't want to talk to anyone when i got home, and when people talked to me, I'd snap and pretty much have to tell them.. "Leave me alone for at least an Hour!"

But here i'm part of a great team of professionals that actually know how to be a team.
Now.. what do i do?
I can't tell you. And that's the truth. But suffice it to say.. it's cool shit!

We are getting a little further in our quest to adopt a kid.. There's a link to our Baby blog on the right link menu if you're interested in following along... Our first Home-Meeting with a case-worker is tomorrow.. updates will be posted on the blog as they come.

We did some camping last weekend at Deb's Dad's property in Cobden. Very nice spot - but damn was it hot!! way too hot at night. But we had a blast on his boat .. did some fishing.. well deb and raymond did some fishing.. i sat and enjoyed watching... but all in all.. a great weekend.

And finally on the band front.. we played our first Real Blues Fest.. at the Otty Lake Blues Cruise.. essentially 6 bands, one night of bbq fun in the sun..

We had to learn 26 songs in 2 months for this little gig... but boy was it worth it. WE had a blast... great music among some of the best blues artists Ottawa offers... so I was really stoked to be among them..

Have a great week.. i know it's a short update.. but it's an update.. and hopefully more to come.

Truely Remarkable

2010-10-12T08:30:00.001-04:00

This guy had balls. His willingness to lose not only his HD camera and his iPhone to do this experiment showed his commitment to this little project... truely remarkable.

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Example of Human Stupidity!

2010-10-08T08:02:00.004-04:00

Every now and then, I come across bits of news that just make me shake my head and wonder how the hell some people found their way out of their mother's wombs!!!
I submit to you, good reader, and example of such a person!

OTTAWA (AFP) - A Canadian woman had to be rescued from the roof of her submerged car after driving into an isolated marsh as she relied on GPS navigation, police said The Ontario Provincial Police said the woman called 911 emergency services on her cellphone for help, after she became lost on her way to work east of Toronto late Tuesday.

"She advised she was standing on top of her car as it was submerged in a heavy marsh," police said in a statement. "She was following her GPS (Global Positioning System) directions and became lost."

The vehicle had become stuck in mud and quickly began filling up with water.
Rescuers searched the conservation area until finally she was spotted "in the middle of the marsh" by firefighters dressed in wet suits who waded into the waist deep water.

You have EYES .... drive with them and stop depending on a talking box!! If the blasted thing was telling you to turn right in the middle of a bridge would you fucking do it???? JEEEEEZ!!!!!

Seriously!!?? Grow Up!

2010-08-25T13:39:00.003-04:00

Being a geek, I fully endorse anyone's geeky idiosyncrasies. But this guy took it too far! And dare I say, probably hasn't seen the finer parts of a girl in his life.

When you're 30 and still live with your parents, and get mad at your mommy cuz she's threw out some TOYS ... that makes you a loser!
When you burn down her house for it... That makes you a fuckin' idiot and we of geek-nation reserve the right to revoke your Geek Cred!!!

Consider your Geek Membership Card revoked! MORON!

TOKYO (AFP) - A Japanese man has admitted to burning down his family home after his mother threw away some of his favourite robot toys from the "Gundam" animation series.

Yoshifumi Takabe, aged 30 and living with his mother, said he had become suicidal after she dumped some of the robots, of which he had enough to fill 300 boxes stacked to the ceiling, the Sports Nippon said Wednesday.

The blaze on August 9 last year completely destroyed their two-storey wooden house in Kasai, Hyogo prefecture, but no one was injured.

"The Gundam figures are like the partners I spend my life with," he reportedly said after pleading guilty at western Kobe's District Court. "I wanted to die with them in a fire if they were to be thrown out."

The Mobile Suit Gundam series, based on an animation TV series which started in the late 1970s, is about space wars fought by gigantic robots

only in Oklahoma

2010-07-22T14:00:00.000-04:00

Oklahoma (Reuters) - A woman wearing underwear on her head robbed an Oklahoma McDonald's fast food restaurant and remained at large as police sought to identify her, police said on Wednesday.

Authorities said a surveillance video shows a middle-aged woman, wearing black pants and a black shirt, gloves, and a blond wig walking up to a McDonald's drive-through window.

The woman has what appears to be a pair of men's underwear wrapped around her face and held in place with paper clips, according to Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes. Midwest City is a suburb of Oklahoma City.

Goodness Gracious!!!

Love things like this

2010-07-15T08:15:00.002-04:00

This is a great psychological test... keep an eye on the basketballs :)

Another reason i hate soccer

2010-07-09T09:48:00.006-04:00

Ok.. rather than beat on the pussy players again (but I reserve the right to bitch about them anytime), I want to draw your attention to the extreme fans of the sport, that bring a little groundhog day to 'the worlds greatest game' *cough - choke - gag - hack*... i mean, the world's biggest joke.

Meet Paul. A PSYCHIC OCTOPUS That's right folks, Paul here predicts the outcome of the games.
So let's count some of the items of stupidity involved in this fucked up game of 'football' shall we?

1) The players are pussies. Case in point? I submit People's Exhibit "A":

2) The officiating, apparently, has been the biggest joke of this year's World Cup. So not only are the players pussies, the officials are blind and stupid!

3) The rules of that game, not allowing video replay using today's 21st Century technology, are archaic and ridiculous... further showing that this sport lacks serious credibility in an era where fans have instant access to the mistakes being made by the poor officiating (See Point #2)

4) See point #1 -- it bears reminding, and i reserve the right to beleaguer the point whenever I want, as mentioned above!!

5) FIFA's decision to use the shittiest ball ever designed in the world of sports - and when they found out the ball was unsuitable for the games, they do nothing about it.... Making FIFA the worst run, and least reactive sports organization in the world!

I petition the world: Soccer sucks... I would rather watch flies fucking after a sprint shopping session of picking out socks before I would ever waste 5 mintues watching that garbage on tv...

But I do admit: I take perverse pleasure complaining about it!

I'm out.
Regards,

He Who Awaits His Assassination Attempt By Fucktards Who Are Nuts For Soccer (sorry football)

JUST WATCH THE DRUMMER....

2010-06-01T12:51:00.000-04:00

.....the rest doesn't matter.

Mayhem Minute.

2010-05-26T13:10:00.004-04:00

BP Fucked UP! That's all.

Live TV by Ustream

Someone get the boy a muffin.

2010-04-30T15:46:00.003-04:00

For my first post in forever... I give you the reason i think soccer players are pussies!

Now someone please explain to these pussy-ass pricks how hockey players play in playoffs with hernias, broken tibias, sprained and broken ankles, broken hands, concussions, no teeth, fractured ribs, and then have them look at this disgusting display of 'pussy-assedness' .. yes, folks, that's an Al'ism! If I was a soccer fan, i'd be embarrassed.

40 year reflection (Top 15)

2009-09-04T10:10:00.004-04:00

So - sporting a bit of a hangover today, thanks to Deb 'n'Em, I want to continue on this series of reflecting back over 40 years.
As i mentioned in yesterday's blog, i wanted to touch on a few of the things that have CHANGED over the years.
And so here's the short list (feel free to add more in comments - cuz I WILL miss some).

1) When I was a kid, (around 8 or 9) I was taking public transportation by myself. No one in their right mind would allow their child to do that today!
2) It cost 0.25 cents to take the bus. Today, over $3 !! WTF.
3) Games I played when I was a kid: Operation, Life, Monopoly, Risk, Pick up Sticks, D&D. Games kids play today: Rockband, Grand Theft Auto, Live 4 Dead, Quake. Game I play today: D&D, Rockband, Sims3, Live 4 Dead, Mass Effect, Guild Wars, D&D online.

4) Tv's were 14'' tube and black and white. They had 13 channels, of which, you would typically only watch 5 channels: Channels, 3, 6, 7, 9 and 13. Now we have a gazillion channels, and 60 inch flat screen TV that have Standard Definition and HIGH Definition.

5) There were no remotes on TV's ... My remote control was, "Yo, Dan get up there and switch the channel (by turning the knob) to channel 13 !!!

6) WE can pause live TV.

7) To listen to music, you had to put a piece of circular vinyl on a turn table, and sit by the stereo. Now. We have solid state re-writable media ... in OUR PHONES! and we can listen to music, WATCH TV, or Movies anywhere. Which takes me to 8, 9 and 10.

8) To talk on the phone, you had to go to that thing on the wall, and lift it up - and could only go as far as the cord could stretch. You had to DIAL a phone... now we have cellular phones, and can talk to someone on the other side of the planet while you're doing groceries. With the use of Smart Phones and Application and services like Twitter, little ol' me can send a text message to an astronaut working in SPACE for crying out loud!

9) Our phones are portable stereo system and can plug into our cars. Soon, phone will have programs that TALK to our cars.

10) To watch a movie, you had to go to the Theater. And if you wanted to see that movie again - you had to pay for it again. And once that movie was done and out of the theaters.. chances are, you wouldn't see it ever again. Now.. We can download movies from NetFlix, and watch them on our PHONES - or even buy the DVD's and play them in our cars! The idea that we could watch movies in our living rooms was novel at the end of the 70s, and in the 80s to watch shows which highlighted our favorite bands perform their music in our living rooms was ... WOW!!! look at this!!!!

11) Cars talk. They play music. They play movies. They can see the road ahead and the way behind you. They are smart enough to tell you you're about to run over your kid while you're backing out of your laneway. There are tv screens in the car that tell you where you're going, and it tells you HOW to get there. Radios were turn dials, which gave you only a limited number of station - and are limited to the station's ability to transmit singnal over the air waves... Satallite Radio give you whatever channel you want anywhere on your continent... perhaps even all over the world...

12) In the 80's we connect to BBS's at 2400 Baud, and that Intranet was limited to 14 users at any one given time. The internet is now a global net, with connection as fast as 1GB/sec. If you wanted to send a letter to someone - you WROTE IT BY HAND, and mailed it. The recipient of that letter would get it a week later. The corresponding letter, would then be mailed back, and the equivalent of one conversation done via 'snail mail' would take over 3 weeks. Now, we type our letter, push a button, and delivery is instantaneous (well give it a few seconds!)

13) To read a book, you had to walk to the book store and buy a book. Then you had to sit down and read it. Now? You can use a tablet or a device that downloads a book - and that device will read it TO YOU!

14) To take a picture, you took a camera, aimed the lens at your subject, pushed a button until it clicked, the flash cube on the top of the camera would flash, then you had to crank the camera to switch frames on your negative reel. After 4 shots, you had to pull the flash cube off, throw it out, and replace it with another one. You would take 12 pictures, and you had to remove the reel, and bring it to a developer, and wait two or three days before they would give you paper copies of your images. If you're lucky, some pictures wouldn't have red eyes.

Now? We have cameras with hard drives in them. They can take THOUSANDS of picture. If you didn't like the picture, you can delete it and have a do-over. The flashes last forever. And red-eye is a thing of the past.. as flashes flash in sequence to eliminate that. You don't have to develop picture anymore, you transfer them to a computer. If you wish to frame them, there are frames now that show your pictures in a slide presentation.

15) Planes FLY THEMSELVES. I don't have to explain that one. They FLY ... T.H.E.M.S.E.L.V.E.S!!!

There are many more!!! Feel free to add your input in comments!

Reflecting on 40 Years. (An Essay)

2009-09-03T09:35:00.014-04:00

Greetings from high atop the hill! We'll call today: Hump Day of the rest of my life, ok?
I turn 40 today. On September 3rd, 1969 - I was hatched. To everyone's great shock, I actually turned out ok. I've had a rich life so far, filled with experiences that I would say are unique. Some say I have one of the busiest lives they'd ever heard of, simply because I tend to fill my time with more hobbies than you can possibly shake a stick at. And we'll get to that.

Today's blog is going to reflect on my 40 years on this planet. And hopefully, by the time you've finished reading all of it, you feel like you didn't waste a whole lot of fucking time! I will go with what I remember; the significant events that have happened to me over the years - and will point out some neat things that have changed over the course of my 4 decades...

4 EFFIN' DECADES! Shit!

Ok..
IN 1969, there were three significant events that took place in that year (4 if you count the fact that i was born. Last I check, it didn't make the news! BUT IT SHOULD HAVE, GODDAMNIT!).
1) The internet was born in 1969. Some bucket-heads in some university in the united states got this great idea on sharing data over a wire. This marked the birth of the Internet Concept.

2) ON July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong uttered the words, "One small step for man; One giant leap for mankind," on the surface of the moon! I'm pretty sure I was watching the old black and white 12 inch TV from the womb - because I have and always have had, a great interest in outer-space. (To this day, I watch shuttle missions live on NASATV online -- check it out - there's a mission underway today: Shuttle mission to IIS Live- NasaTV)

3) The Beatles released, no one but, TWO albums that year. (Yellow Submarine & Abby Road).

My earliest memories go back to 1973'ish - we lived on McFarlane Rd. IN a basement. The carpet was blue. The memory I have of that place is standing on the stairway looking down at my Grandmother. Funny what you remember!
For my 4th birthday, my father bought me a tape-recorder. My first foray into technology. It was a bar-shaped recorder, with a single 3 inch speaker, and a turn knob, to stop/play and rewind and forward. If you wanted to record with it, you have to thumb-down on a red button.
I remember him showing me how to record with it, as I listened to the recording of that day even as soon as my 20's. I don't know where that tape was. But the song playing in the background in that recording was: "1-2-3 by Len Barry".

My dad was showing me the record function, and I remember hearing a very young me saying, "I've never seen this before," in the thickest French accent EVER!!!

At that age, I really had spoken more french than english - and I wish i still had that Tape, to show Deb how french I was!"

My summer memories of this time always go to Red Pine Camp. IT was our yearly summer get away. I would later become a staff member at that camp when I was 16.

In 1974 - we moved from MacFarlane Road to the Quebec side of the river, into a Trailor park in Gatineau. I couldn't tell you how to get there today. But I do remember the exact layout of the trailor... From the Red/Orange shag carpets in the living, to the right of the main entrence - WITH conquistador swords on red-felt mounting frames, to the puce/brown colored couches we had. The main bedroom was off the living room - whereas my bedroom was at the other end (the back) of the trailor, next to washer and dryer. There was a second bedroom, that would eventually be filled in 1975.

Memories from that era. My green bike with long candy-cane handlebars and banana-seat (white leather no less). Playing near the train-tracks, and playing marbles. And some fucking punk that kept stealing my bike. I hope that piece of shit kid is in jail -- but i digress.

Me and Kathleen Trottier: 1975 - Chelsea Qc.

1975: Dan was born. I cried for hours, as I was finally no longer alone in the world. I finally got the brother I'd always asked for. I also got my tonsils removed that year: I think... it was around that time.
Because I distinctly remember having had my tonsil yanked, and it was in October .. could have been October 76 then?? hmmm... it's all fuzzy - it WAS a long time ago -- but anyhoozle... i know it was in October, because on Halloween night, kids were bringing me candy at my door as I sat on the counter -- EATING CRACKERS!!!

1976 or '77, we moved back in to Canada -- I.. I mean Ontario. We moved to 8 Gilchrist Ave. in west Ottawa, where i spent the rest of my youth, and first part of my teens.
I had great years between 77 and 87 -- i spent 10 years of my life in Westboro and made friends that I still see to this day. I got myself in a LOT of fuckin' trouble during those years .. man we trashed a car and when someone gave chase, we LITERALLY were hopping roof-tops to get away from the guy who owned the car. We were.. sheezz -- 10 or 11 .. imagine, would you let YOUR kids run on house roof-tops???
Those WERE the days.

I saw Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and Rocky all in this time frame. Life was good!

Things I do remember out of that house:
Band Practices: My dad was in a band called, Jonas Rock Review. The names of those guys were, my dad, Pete Trottier, Rick Thompson, Bruce Ireland, Phil Reed, and Allen Guppy Gilbert (who is currently in my band The Rivals).
Over those years he had other members: Marcel and Pierre Lalonde.
I'd watch these guys in the basement jammin' away, and there were times when my dad would have to stop the song to tell me to shut the fuck up, cuz I'd be singing over them (and I didn't have a mic). I was just loud, and off key. Essentially that the truth of it.
Music i listened do in those days: Billy Squier, Cliff Richard, The Beatles, any 50's and 60's stuff, Kiss, Bozz Skaggs, Leo Sayer, Asleep at the Wheel, Queen.

As I'd sing over top of the blasting stereo system in my room to my favorite songs, I'd often be interrupted by my dad opening my door, turning the music down saying: "Look, if you can't sing the fucking song on key, don't bother singing it at all - you're ruining the music,"
He slam the door behind himself, and leave me to stare at the spinning vinyl on the turn-table. After a few moments of deep reflection, I'd crank it back to 11, and continue 'working on my craft'. When you really think about it, I've never known a time when I WASN'T singing.

Another story on music before I continue, that you may find -- 'interesting'.
In grade school, i flunked in Music class on year. I don't remember which year. And to be honest, I do not remember the incident at all. I am recalling only what both my parents have told me.
So, I flunked music. Parent-Teacher interviews come around, and my father wanted to meet this 'so-called' music teacher to find out HOW IT WAS that HIS son could have possibly failed in music. His son spent HIS nights singing. Music was everything to HIS son.
The teacher went on to explain to my, very, distraught father, that sadly, HIS son had no rhythm.
'Has no rhythm?!" my dad asked, "Are you fucking kidding me?!"
"Well I'm sorry but... he doesn't!"
"Listen lady, my son has more fucking rhythm in his baby finger than you ever will in your life, do you got that?"

I'm paraphrasing of course - but apparently that's how that went down. Boy, if only that teacher could see me now!
Funny enough, my father always refused to teach me anything about music. But he was never short on being critical on my shortcomings. When dad tells you to do something, he expects that you know what he's talking about and you should just know how to do it...
Because of that, I've become very good at 'sniffing' and established a way to learn things VERY VERY quickly. Because to ask twice wasn't pleasant.
I learned a lot of my music on my own; and that's how my dad wanted it. That's how he had to do it...!!

IN 1979, my sister was born. Andrea was precious to me even as a baby. But goddamnit she cried alot :) I remember complaining about that to my parents... i look back on it fondly, however. I rejoiced over having a sister, because the whole, "I have a brother" novelty wore off.. and I was so busy getting Dan in shit all the time, I needed a new challenge.

In subsequent years, I would visit with my grandmother every Friday afternoon. When I was 9 and 10 years old, i was allowed to take the bus from the west end to the center of town to visit with my grandmother. That's right: Public transportation.

***EDIT NOTE: After reading through all this I realized and it was pointed out to me that I did miss some people, which is always the danger in doing a general reflection on your life.

In the summers, I would spend most of my time with my cousins: Paul and Marc Soubliere. It's funny how I forgot to mention them, because they were two of the most influential people in my life. Summers were spent at my Aunt and uncle, Sue and Reg, playing with Marc or Paul - biking, cops and robbers, street hockey, eating rhubarb, swimming at Shillington Park, getting candy at King's Confectionary, playing in Uncle Reg's car .. backing uncle Reg's car in the street.... I literally spend my summer with these guys.
They were my brothers...

I'm not gonna bore you with all the school stuff - and other shit that kids typically do.
Significant things that happened in the 80's.
- I hated the music.
- 1980 - Empire Strikes Back was the BEST movie E.V.E.R - My grandmother would take me to the Somerset Theater in downtown Ottawa to see Empire - 6 times! That's right, she would sit (read: Sleep) through this movie SIX times in the theater with me.
Note: Somerset theater doesn't exist anymore. It burned down.

- IN 1982: ET is the BEST MOVIE ever!!! I end up going to the theater myself to see it 4 times. (we didn't have VCRs yet)
- Also in 1982, my family went from being one family, to two. My parents separated; a sign of the times, really.

- 1983'ish, my grandmother (dad's mom) passed away. This was a significant blow to me. She and I were very close (how close? She sat through 6 showing of Empire Strikes back with me on 6 weeks in a row on Saturdays - AND PAID -- probably the quietest two hours she'd get all weekend outta me)
My grandfather (mom's dad) also died around this time.. may have been earlier. I can't quite remember the date.

Was also around this time, that I met other parts of extended family. Becky and Ryan and us were put together at my dads and spent a lot of time playing in basements it always seemed. That is my earliest memory. Being the oldest of my 3 natural siblings, I wasn't around much. We spent two days out of two weeks there, and sometimes for me, i worked weekend. I never really got to forge the same kind of relationships with Becky and Ryan that i could living 24/7 with my other extended siblngs...
However, in recent years, Becky and I actually roomed together for about 7 months while she finished university .. then became the wayward traveller going up north to teach..
Memories there were:
Bubba Kegs (um many bubba keg.. i think we were thinking of making xmas ornaments out of them)
Becky putting the neighbour's dog shit on the neighbours porch to send a message.
Becky's wings! Man those were fucking good!
Becky learning guitar (which prompted me to seriously start thinking about picking it up myself)
Did I mention Bubba Kegs?

Ryan and I didn't really keep in touch over the years.. only last xmas did we actually get to reconnect.

- 1984 - I start really liking girls around this time. And I got to meet my step-brothers, Keith and Rick for the first time that summer. They lived in Montreal at the time, and my mother had started dating my step-dad in '84. I sprained my ankle that year, had it in a cast, and slept on a couch all summer long. Good time.

- 1986 saw me go away for a full summer, as i went to Red Pine Camp for the summer to work as a dishwasher. This was my first, ever, job. I was a 'slopper' as we were nicknamed. Basically because the garbage buckets were literally slop. We grew out of our gag-reflexes that year.
Fondest memories of camp that year:
Food fights.
Giving the good looking girls massages while watching Animal House in the Staff Lounge.
Animal House in the staff lounge.
Animal House sound track at Friday dances.
The Rock Lobster.
Toilet Papering the Senior Staff Cabins.
Sneaking out of my cabin after curfew to be with a young camper girl during Week 6. If i'd ever gotten caught - i'd have been fired. Good thing i never got caught. (In a morose twist of fate, that girl died in a car accident about 4 years after that. I was saddened by the news).

I'm still in touch with some of the guys that i worked with at Red Pine, and I consider them family to this day. (Paul Saker, Greg Fenton, Chris Brydges to name a few).

High School years that followed were among the best years EVER.
School at Earl Of March HS was a social gathering that took place over 10 months of the year. And as my career at Earl continued, me and 20 other of my bestest friends ever founded a group called: THE COMPANIONS.

I began writing during this time. Fantasy and Scifi. My first novel was a book about The Companions in a fantasy setting. At the time, it was awesome. Reading it now, it's not so good. But it showed I had imagination.
I dated some of the best women, whom I've always considered some of the best influences in my life. I'm friends will all of them -- ok... most of them.

Best parts of my years at Earl:
The parties! LOTS AND LOTS OF FUCKIN' PARTIES.

One thing I will say. I was very fortunate to have the freedoms that I did in my youth. I was a very independent person, and considered myself a leader amongst my peers, in the latter half of my highschool career. Because trust me, at the beginning of highschool? (Grades 7 to 9) I was meek, and small and had little to no self-esteem at all.
On weekends, my folks would go aways and i would have 50+ people over at the house ever saturday night. I became so common place that parents of my friends, when learning their kids were going partying would ask, "Where are you going to party,"
They'd reply, "Al's place!"
Parents would say, "Ok then, that's ok.. "

Parents knew we drank. Some of my friends were even underaged. But my friend's folks never minded because 1) they knew that my parents were aware of what was going one - and 2) we were responsible. No one drank and drove -- that was a rule! You drank.. you crashed... that was all! No exceptions.
The other rule. Sunday morning, while we made Pancakes made of eggs, batter and Bailey's Irish Cream - those NOT on cooking detail, cleaned the house.
By the time my parents came home, the house was clean than they left it.

Best memories from those parties:
Horror movies.
Spa-pizza (it's a long story)
Pancakes made with baileys.
Kraft Dinner made with vodka, Baileys and rye - snack of champions.
Hot Dog wars.
Ping Pong and Pool.
Jeremy going face first into a tree sliding down a hill in front of the house one New Year Party (The scabby chin from that accident was immortalized on his Driver's License Picture).
Jeremy walking around in Tiger-Stripped Underwear.
Dancing in the living room where the floor was actually bending beneath the weight.
Playing cards on new years party, when my parents came home, my mother joined us in a game of cards. Jeremy met my parents for the first time that night, as he puked at the table into the garbage can. (GOOD TIMES).
Kissing all the girls when the Apple fell on New Years night. I always loved kissing all the girls.
More horror movies.
Never having any fights at any parties in the history of having parties with this group of friends...E.V.E.R.

My people: Jeremy, Andrew (jer's cousin), Colleen, Peta, Nadine, Joanne, Sharon, Derek, Graham, Adam, Laurie, Pam, Kevin & Charlene, Will, Marnie, Marie-Anne, Pretty-Boy Jason Bell, Dawn, Marc (my cousin) & his clan of people, Kim Day (I wonder where she is), Keith and Rick, Stephanie (she was tall that one), Scootch (if i could remember his real name i'd put it here), Thomas Ikura, Juliette Sandwell ... these were my best friends in high school. (I admit to recruiting Jeremy to help me with some of this list. Please remember I spent 100% of my time at these parties somewhat inebriated).

So.. we had some GREAT parties together. Alas, as life would have it, we hardly see each other anymore. We've been spread out all over the place, but i do think about those days a lot.

Throughout my twenty I went through a lot of changes. Anywhere from having a lot of money to having NONE.
I worked as dishwashers, messengers, stockboys, toilet cleaner and housecleaners, salesman of electronics, to vacuum salesman to selling cell phone.

Throughout High-School I did have a nemisis. Jeremy Sprott. That fucker always wanted to date the same girls as me, and I'd be goddamned if I'd let him. In the latter half of my tenure in HighSchool - i couldn't stand the guy. He was kind of an asshole, really.
When I graduated, all of my school mates were still going through their last year. (I'd flunked out of grade 8! I KNOW, RIGHT? Who knew?!!!)

That year, Jeremy and I, by some fucked up twist of fate, ended up in the same restaurant for a job interview. Our greeting was a kind of cool,
"Hey..."
Me: "Oh, hey.. Jeremy right?"
"Ya,"
"Right.. Interview?"
"Ya,"
"Huh.. me too?"
Jer nodded, "Pizza maker?"
"No, prep and salads,"
"ah.. cool,"

When it came time for the interview, we were actually interviewed together. Which was REALLY weird.
Needless to say, we both got our respective jobs, and by another twist of fucked up faith, we were usually scheduled to work the same shifts.

Weird memories from that time:
Grand-Theft Sausage: During a breakfast buffet clean up, i was tasked with the unenviable job of tearing the buffet down, tossing out all the food. That particular day, I hadn't eaten breakfast (something about the hangover i had) and as I brought the leftover food to the back, I took a sausage and ate it. a manager caught me -- in other jobs, eating like that happened all the time; no one cared right? I was written up - and Jeremy took acception to that and dubbed the incident: Grand Theft Sausage.

The Power outage: There was a poweroutage one day, and we were all sent home early. At this point, Jer and I decided, that I go over to his place and hang out. He lived near my dad's. So we did.
Which brings me to why I'm spending so much time on THIS stage of my life.
That day was a landmark day in the friendship i have with Jeremy that lives on to this day. As funny as it is, Jeremy and I went from mortal nemesis' to the best of friends in the span of one month; all because of a power outage. We found that we had A LOT in common. From our split family histories; to attitudes towards how we'd deal with life (not to mention our similar taste in women).

My fond memories of that year with Jeremy:
Steve Martin records: (Some people come to me and they say, "Hey'a - how'a can'a you be'a, such a swig'ing'a sex.. god!"
Sam Kinison.
Ajax Liquor store by Hudson & Landry.
Jeremy being refused a shift off in order to come to one of my parties. He punched every tomato can and broke his hand, and here's a shock, he got to leave early to come to the party.

And here's one: We went to the cottage one weekend -- On the sunday i was supposed to go out on a date with my girlfriend, by 6pm. We figured... we have time.. Let's take a 24 of beer on the lake, do some fishing, and leave in time for my date. Keep in mind, that it took about an hour to get home. We almost finished the 24. we were HAMMERED. Got a little hungry. Caught a turtle. Yes, that's right, we were fishing without bate, caught nothing, but i netted a turtle. DON'T ASK.. it made sense at the time!!!!

WE go to shore. I see that time is 5:45pm. Woops! Late for my date.
We packed up and drove towards the ferry to cross over to Ontario. Remember.. I had half a 24 of beer. Disappointed that i was OUT of a beer. I stopped my car in the middle of the road, popped the truck, fetched two more out of the case, and popped them. Gave one to Jeremy.
"One more for the road!"
"right!"
I negotiated that car onto the ferry - which takes a great deal of precision driving.
TO this day, Jeremy told me my guardian angel was at the wheel.

By 6:30pm, we make it to my girlfriend's house.. and she can tell we're SMASHED.. She's really pissed off too! BUt, in our stupor, we knew we had an ACE IN THE hole.
"I have a gift for you, dear, " i said.
I showed her the turtle.... YOU BET FOLKS, i put the turtle in the back seat.... "We named him SHMED!"
I was relieved from duty (i was told to go home).. and passed out drunk on my bed AFTER driving Jeremy home. I slepted from 7:30pm till noon the next day.
NO HANGOVER!! Oh to be young again.

i VOWED never to drink and drive again... and I never have.. not to that extent ... 3 beers is fine for me.

It was around this time, when I met my first wife, and then realized that if i wanted a future with this woman, I needed to better myself.
I went to Praxis Learning Institute to learn the art of Server technologies and became certified in windows server and internet technologies.

My marriage fell apart after actually scoring a GREAT job which was crazy. and i'm not gonna dwell on what went wrong.. it doesn't matter. But I took it hard. Despite my seperation... I decided to go to Mexico with my Dad, his wife Wilma-Louise and my brother!
It was two weeks of a getaway that i seriously needed. We all had a blast.
Best memories of that:
First night there. 7pm. Drank all afternoon in the sunshine. Everyone else had already passed out. Me being a 'getter', I decided, drunk or not, I was going to the beach!! 4 inches of water came up and touched my foot, and i tripped over it. Time for bed.
Miss Green Bay (Bad scene).
Dad passing out on a chair.
Super-bowl at a bar in IXtapa... was AWESOME.
Card every afternoon.
Ping Pong Tournament.
Swim up bar.
Dan's Sunburn from hell!
The two girls that were part of the entertainment group.. Hotness!!!

returning home, however, I needed something else to fill a gap, and that is when I decided to join a band.
It only took me 31 years folks! But i finally took the jump into the musical arena.

Looking back, I had a lot to learn. Over the 10 years prior to my first foray on stage, i did do guest spots with the various bands my dad played in. I'd do 3 or 4 songs MAX, and those were the only songs I knew.
When I decided to join a band, i went thru the whole auditoning process and had two weeks to learn 28 songs.
Remember I said before --- because my dad forced me to learn things On my own, it taught me how to learn quickly. This one another one of those times.
I asked my dad .. let's join a band. and he refused. He wanted me to do it on my own first - because he knew how demanding he was as a player.
I played in a band called 3 Guys and a Drummer for about a year before my dad asked me to start a new band with him. These stories have all been chronicled on this blog!!!

So i'll be brief - now that this has gotten so long.
Musical highlights: Learning to play guitar in 3 years. Learning to play harmonica. Finding new ways to sing that have made me 100 TIMES better than i was 9 years ago.

Music has also fostered some new friendships that i consider VERY dear to me.
1) Micheal Q (who Raymond has dubbed, "My brother from another mother").: Mike and I, after meeting at a gig in Quyon of all places, started playing music together when he subbed in on drums for a few gigs. We started a great friendship that continues to this day, and has been one of the best teachers both in life, and musically to me. I love the guy! He's always got a place in our home! (especially when he brings scotch).

2) Kyle Gilbert. His father has played with my father since 1973! I have a memory of Kyle as a baby.. even tho' it's quite fuzzy. When we needed a new drummer, Kyle was a logical extension to having his dad in a band, and since then, he has become a member of my family.

3) Tony True: Tony and I only recently reconnected at the end of last year, after not having seen one another for nearly 15 years. Back then, we were only loosely acquainted through my dad backing him up during his gigs in a bar named: The Nashville palace. More recently, Tony and I have gotten together a lot to blend our families together into a tight group, and we've written at least 8 or 9 songs together during our time getting to know each other again.

Finally.
The most recent developments in my life took place 6 years ago. I met Deb.
Deb and I met at a gig in Pembroke; which i still consider to be the worst gig I've ever played. I don't do Small Town mentality!
The last six years have been the best six years I've ever had, as it pertains to having a relationship with someone.
She was not what anyone had ever expected.
1) she was a single mother of a 2 year old at the time.
2) she was on welfare.
3) she wasn't the typical girl that I ever dated.

I saw so much potential in her that I really fell for her attitude and her sense of humour - and her openness. SHE WAS FEARLESS.
People didn't give us a lot of time. People told me often that our relationship was doomed to fail. But I'd never felt so in tune with another person as I did with her. Everything came easily. There were no head games. Just blunt honesty!
At 34 years old, my saying was, "I'm too old to put up with bullshit. If you don't like it - there's the door!"
WE established a solid basis for a loving friendship and relationship that's still new to me even 6 years later.
Raymond was an obvious BIG addition to my lifestyle. But he's also a huge part of my life, and can't imagine a day without him - no matter how often he tests my patience!!

My best memories:

Raymond's 3 birthday.
Jeremy and I cooking her a full steak dinner the night after our first date.
Her graduating college.
Us buying a house together.
Nights at the cottage.
Fishing.
Quiet nights by the fire.
Potty training Raymond.
Playing D&D with them.
Gaming with them.
Playing music with them.

Over 40 years, I've had a full life. It certainly hasn't been boring. And these are only some of MANY significant memories that i have.
If you actually read through all of this! Then thank you for taking the time! I can be long winded sometimes! But 40 years is a long time! A LOOOOOOONG TIME!

The Guild Season 3

2009-09-01T09:17:00.004-04:00

I'm excited to share that Season 3 of The Guild - Created by self-professed Geek and Gamer, Felicia Day, is finally out to the masses.
If you are an XBox360 Live Gold Member, you would have had the opportunity to download it for free on your Xbox in HD...
For those of you who have never seen the series, it's a semi-exclusive online series about a group of gamer-geeks that deal with the addiction to an MMO video game, not unlike WoW.
I say semi-exclusive because they DO release their show on DVD.

I will post Season 3 episode 1 below - but I feel compelled to also post Episode 1 of Season 1 for those of you who get the bug.
Deb thought I was a little nuts watching these shows on YouTube but once she saw ONE episode of The Guild, we ended up watching both season in their entirety ... Great cast, Great writing.

The Guild: Episode 1 - Season 1

If you look to the right of the video, all the links to the subsequent episodes are there.

---
For ALL THE VIDEO - including extras -- Go to this link. THE GUILD'S MSN PAGE!

THE GUILD: EPISODE 1 - SEASON 3
<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&vid=6f31eb66-4360-439a-ad62-f2bdf28f550e" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 1: Expansion Time">Video: Season 3 - Episode 1: Expansion Time</a>

THE GUILD OFFICIAL WEBSITE!

People who complain about technology: WATCH!

2009-08-26T10:46:00.003-04:00

I dedicate this post to the decedent punks that are the future of our planet.
I'd like to give a special mention to any spoiled rotten punks that lives in KANATA Ontario. You know who you are!

News Mayhem Minute.

2009-08-25T13:22:00.005-04:00

Haven't posted a blog in a while because I'm a loser!
There that's outta the way!
Let's touch on some news being thrown around here shall we.

I'm pleased to report that people are still stupid, and I have some stories to prove it.
A quote from a local news site:

A new study out of the University of Ottawa suggests age and health issues add to the risks for heat-related illness or injury.
The study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal finds people over the age of 60 are the most vulnerable to heat waves.

Is this REALLY fucking news?! Really? We didn't know this 30 years ago? C'MON!
And in more medical news ... cuz there's no way that you'll know this... and THANK GAWD there's a watch-dog group out there to do extensive studies and take the time to report the OBVIOUS!

The Lung Association has some simple advice for Canadians about how to protect themselves against a possible surge of the H1N1 flu this fall.
Spokesman Dr. Peter MacLeod says frequent hand-washing, using hand sanitizer and coughing into one's elbow are among the best ways to avoid the flu.

That's right folks, I'm here to tell you - if you wash your hands and don't blow a hork-burger in your friend's face, you CAN and WILL avoid getting the H1N1 FLU... and what about the NORMAL run of the mill flu?? Well, ya, that one too, but pfft.. it's boring. H1N1 flu: now that's buzz word. I mean, H1N1 was a PANDEMIC... cuz at least 1800 people died ... WHOA!!!! A WHOLE 1800 PEOPLE out of 6 Billion people?? That's a whole... 2.8% of the worlds population... GET ME TO A SHELTER!!
Seriously folks.. not a pandemic at all!
Now if it was a million people dead... ?? Ok that'd get my attention! IN my area ... 6 people have died from it... all were elderly with a history of health problems.. the rest lived and said, "Man that was a kick ass puke session; I may have even pooped myself once or twice!"

In Hockey News: Dany Heatley is still a dink.
IN football news: Brett Favre is a dick and should learn to make up his fucking mind.

And now for the Douchbag of the week News Story:

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A woman is suing a Chicago-area zoo for a 2008 fall near a dolphin exhibit, accusing zookeepers of encouraging the mammals to splash water and then failing to protect spectators from wet surfaces, local media reported on Thursday.

In her suit filed earlier this week, Allecyn Edwards said she was injured while walking near an exhibit at Brookfield Zoo, where a group of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins were performing, media said.

Officials "recklessly and willfully trained and encouraged the dolphins to throw water at the spectators in the stands, making the floor wet and slippery," but failed to post warning signs or lay down protective mats or strips, the suit said, according to the reports.

Edwards is demanding more than $50,000 for lost wages, medical expenses and emotional trauma from the Chicago Zoological Society and the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, which operate the zoo in Chicago's southwest suburbs.

The suit was filed in Illinois' Circuit Court of Cook County.

Only in the USA can you sue the Zoo for being a fucking useless tit!!

Judge: Did you see that the ground was wet?
Ms Edwards (Who's still single cuz she's a fucking idiot): Well yes, but...
Judge: And did you know that wet surfaces can be wet & Slippery?
Ms. Edwards(Who'll always be known to be a fuckin' dummy): Well of course, but the dolphins were....
Judge: SO let me get this straight! You walked, knowingly, in an area of the park, where you know dolphins are swimming and splashing about, and in a place where you observed the ground being wet and slippery, and yet, you continued, of your own free will to walk in said area. And you were SURPRISED when it was ACTUALLY slippery, and you expect ME to grant you a law suit of $50,000 because you are a fucking idiot is that it?

Ms. Edwards: The zoo keepers should have...
Judge: Was I correct, Ms. Edwards, or do I need to ask the Court Recorder to read back my statement?
Ms. Edwards: It was slippery. And I fell and... my back...
Judge: Ms. Larner, could you please read back my statement.
Court Recorder: Yes, Your Honor. You said: "You walked, knowingly, in an area of the park, where you know dolphins are swimming and splashing about, and in a place where you observed the ground being wet and slippery, and yet, you continued, of your own free will to walk in said area. And you were SURPRISED when it was ACTUALLY slippery, and you expect ME to grant you a law suit of $50,000 because you are a fucking idiot is that it?"

Judge: Did you misunderstand my question, Ms. Edwards? Or do I require a Grade 8 English teacher to take the stand and give you an education on the basic of the English language?

Ms. Edwards: Yes Judge.
Judge: Yes, WHAT, Ms. Edwards.
Ms. Edwards: I'm a fucking idiot.
Judge (Slamming malot on the desk): Guilty as observed, Ms. Edwards. The zoo is off the hook.

And that's this month's/week's mayhem minute.

America's Got Gunt

2009-08-06T22:03:00.003-04:00

Ya.. that's what i said.
I don't know what it is with America, where the fuckers down there can't recognize TRUE talent when they see it.
For those that don't follow it - and good for you, cuz i got fuckin' suckered into thinking that America's Got Talent was better than American Idol -- the Dancer, (i can't remember his fucking name ok... i don't care), ends up getting thrown past the Quarter Finals and why??? Because he can pirouette??
Fuck that....
14 year old, Thia Megia should have kicked the dancer's ass.
I'm not saying that the dancer was bad?! Ok?
I'm not saying he wasn't talented? ok?
I'm saying that Thia Megia was fuckin'... 100 times more talented (read: Less cheesy and fuck of a lot more crowd savvy than the ... i digress -- dancer)
There is no way that kid- - the dancer .. whose name escapes me cuz really.. he wasn't that good for me to remember ... can make a show in Las Vegas...
The singer girl??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously?
Sigh........
Hold on... i have to take some medication.. because the stupidity of the 1/3 american judges is causing some sort of melt down...

Had this been a Canadian show... the dancer would have been told " yer good.. bue let's face it.. the chick has pipes, and she can kick your ass!!! ... Go get a Beaver Tail, and have a nice - tinker bell - life.."

I'm just saying...

And seriously.. what ... the... FUCK.. is this all about??!!
Ladies...????? Weigh in ok?? cuz this is disgraceful!!!

Seriously.. I see this on Facebook.. and every fuckin' god-damned fricken info site i see..... WHAT IS IT WITH YOU WOMEN.... can you REALLY stand for this stupidity...

if you're fat.. you're fat... ok? i get it.. don't ADVERTISE IT ... last thing that sell is your GUT in a picture and some hot chick selling her 6 pack to fake it for you... for fuck sake.... STOP!
facebook??? Stop it..
MySpace.... Really... FUCKING STOP IT!!!!
Everyone??? Stop it.......
these ads are bad cheese on an unclean scrotum on the internets........... just stop!

Presenting Tommy Emmanuel

2009-07-25T16:00:00.000-04:00

Ok.. on acoustic guitar, this guy is a legend... ok? Nearly a god!
But on electric guitar, the man can fricken scream!

This is just a mild studio display of what this guy can do with a guitar..

Daughtry and Dane Cook

2009-07-23T10:05:00.001-04:00

You have one of the funniest guys in the world hanging out with one of the most prevalent singers in the world, and magic happens!

Spreading Awesome around

2009-07-23T09:11:00.002-04:00

I know i've been a lazy ass just posting YouTube vids, but it's the new Crack-Bomb!
This is a song I actually started learning. Great Song by Geek Troubadour, Jonathon Coulton.
1) it's awesome.
2) It's true! So Love it!

Mayhem Informercial! GET ONE!

2009-07-22T09:50:00.003-04:00

Watch them both. Seriously! Cuz it makes the second video so much funnier.

Original:

NOW THE FUNNIEST THING E.V.E.R!:

Best Rant Ever.

2009-07-21T16:21:00.001-04:00

Phil is Awesome.

You're NOT Smart!

2009-07-21T09:14:00.001-04:00

And that's all.
No .. stop it.. stop..... STOP... STOP IT NOW.. you're stupid .. ok?
You can believe....? Stop... Seriously... listen to yourself. Stop and listen... yaaaa.. see? S.T.U.P.I.D.!
And that's all!

New Daughtry

2009-06-23T13:37:00.003-04:00

The new Daughtry album is due to hit the stores in the July (July 14th to be exact) and with the release of his new single: No Surprise out there and getting a ton of air-play, I can honestly say, that after hearing that song, i got really excited to hear that he continues to write amazingly good music.

But he made and announcement on Twitter today:

@CHRIS_Daughtry: BTW, 'Back Again' leaked out somehow....did NOT make the record but is Euro B-side.

I looked for it, and eventually found it.
Now that I've heard Back Again - I thought to myself, "Jesus, if a song THIS AWESOME doesn't make the 12 song cut for the album - how fucking good is this new album gonna be??!? I went to iTunes and immediately Pre-Ordered the album, which btw, will have 3 bonus tracks on it -- FOUR if you pre-order it. So if you're gonna get the album anyways? Go to iTunes and get more bang for your buck.

I'm posting the link here to the song 'Back Again'. For the record, I really hate it when artists like this have their music leaked. But I DID ask if there's a way for me to get a hold of the song and pay my .99 cents for it. *(I'm currently waiting for a response).
However, listening to this leaked song is what wet my appetite enough to pre-order my copy, so i think it serves a higher purpose to spread the news and encourage others to pay for the music they listen to! Support live bands. Support Recording artists everywhere. A lot of work goes into these albums!!!

**EDIT** apparently it got pulled off of YouTube!

Album List

2009-06-17T11:24:00.002-04:00

We got a platinum rating at Uplaya.com ..
If you actually wanna hear it... go here: Rivals On MySpace

Be Nice to Your Wives:

2009-05-29T14:48:00.001-04:00

I'll be learning this song for a gig .. i promise you this!

The "WTF Were You Thinking" File.

2009-05-14T10:52:00.003-04:00

This from the "What the fuck were you thinking" file, a man from New Delhi decides he'd be better without taking a bath for 35 years. I seriously believe he does his fellow country-men a dis-service by admitting this..
And what was the reason for this fucking stupidity?!??

NEW DELHI (AFP) - An Indian man who fathered seven daughters has not washed for 35 years in an apparent attempt to ensure his next child is a boy, newspapers reported.

Kailash "Kalau" Singh replaces bathing and brushing his teeth with a "fire bath" every evening when he stands on one leg beside a bonfire, smokes marijuana and says prayers to Lord Shiva, according to the Hindustan Times.
"I still don't remember how it all began," he said in Saturday's edition of the paper. "I just know it started about 35 years ago."

Dude! If it didn't work after 35 years ... WTF!!!
I can't imagine. Is that not the most RIDICULOUS reason NOT to take a bath!? Jesus, some people are stupid!

From Star Trek To Star Wars

2009-05-13T15:16:00.003-04:00

If you haven't seen Star Wars: Episode IV ... here's a synopsis.
If you HAVE seen Star Wars: Episode IV -- you'll LOVE this.

Where Abrams Goes Where No One Ever Wanted To Before.

2009-05-11T12:24:00.002-04:00

This may come as a shock to many of you. But I'm a Star Trek Fan. I have been for 35 years. I've watched Trek since The Original Series started reruns in 1974, and watched them every night throughout my youth ever since. I've watched every single episode of Star Trek ever made (sometimes more than two times). I watched the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was a fan of every other iteration of star trek thereafter. I own the box-set of the movies. I own the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D Technical Manual, and I own the Star Trek Encyclopedia, where you can learn anything there is to know about Trek.

Am I a geek? Yes.
Do i dress up as a Klingon at the movies? I'm not a nerd, ok?!

All that being said, when the rumours about J.J Abrams rebooting Star Trek came out a few years back, I got excited. It was what Trek needed. The movies were becoming the same ol'shit rehashed over and over again, and there IS such a thing as re-writing history, as the TV shows simply copied each other. The proverbial well had run dry and Trek was a dying franchise.
Paramount knew this, and sought out Directors and Writers that were willing to take Star Trek into new directions. Not many jumped at the chance, and those that did, brought nothing really 'NEW' to the table... at least not enough where fans wouldn't start a riot in the streets.

Enter J.J Abrams. He's brash. He's fearless in his movie making (Cloverfield proved that!) He's willing to suffer the slings and arrows of fans that could possible reject his idea of a New Trek. But he's also a genius at movie making.

LilDebLynn and I went to the theater for a 1:30pm showing at an iMAX theater on Saturday. WE showed up at Noon, cuz i knew the line ups would be insane, and luckily we did show up early, because we managed to get AWESOME seats.

My Impressions about the movie:

I'll start here by saying - There may be a few spoilers here. But i promise to keep spoilers to a minimum, and if y'all wish to discuss them in comments, we can do so.

My first impressions of the film was that the visual eye-candy presented on the screen was STUNNING. The USS Kelvin is the first ship you see in the movie, and in some scenes, as the ship maneuvers through space, you feel as if you're standing right there on a Nacelle as it pitches. Amazing.
Exo-planet scenes were spectacular, and the models used for space stations, shuttle-craft, props --- you name it - were detailed and extremely well done.

Battle-Scenes?? Rocked my socks off. The sound effects in the iMAX theater made me duck a few times. J.J Abrams is very good at painting a scene of mayhem. I actually found myself holding my breath a few times.

The writing: The writing was amazing in this movie. There was great character build up, some very sad moments (LilDebLynn admitted to tearing up in this movie), there was some HILARIOUS moments, some SHOCKING moments and even some scarey moments too. This movie had it all.

It was a non-stop roller-coaster ride! Just when you start catching your breath, the action starts up again, and you sit wide-eyed.

Acting: The acting was GREAT. This movie has a brilliant cast, which shared the same chemistry as the original series.
Chris Pine as Kirk was awesome. He put his own flare on a very, overbearing, woman-chasing Kirk, with a lofty arrogant attitude at the beginning, to a more enlightened and battle-hardened Kirk near the end. And here's a spoiler. Kirk consistently gets his ASS KICKED. I mean, how many times can a single man get abused like this guy? If he's not getting punched, he's falling down a snowy mountain-side, or getting prodded by Dr. McCoy, or tossed by a vulcan - or shot at by Romulans... Pine spent most of his days in makeup, just cuz from the get-go, he always had either cuts or bruises on his face.

Zach Quinto as Spock. Brilliant. They really showed a Spock in this movie who struggled between his Human and Vulcan sides. There was a scene in the movie when Quinto and Nimoy faced off in some quippy dialogue and their mannerisms were perfect. (Oh and um... there's romance in this movie for Spock .. Yip yip)

Pegg as Scotty was awesome. Some of the movie's funniest lines were delivered by Scotty in this movie. He's a gung-ho character - i loved Peggs take on the character.

Yelchin as Checkov. awesome. His dialogue was great. Right down to the "Wessels"

Cho as Sulu: The sulu role wasn't much more as a stand-in role, accept for the katana wielding scenes on the Drilling station. but he was good.

Zoe Saldana as Uhura: She was really good, and had a bigger role in this film than Uhura usually did in any of the other movies. She brought a new kind of sensuality to the uhura role, while maintaining a great "Modern Smart Independent" woman strength to the role. Oh and uhm... there's romance in this one for Uhura too .. wonder with whom??? It's a shocker.

Karl Urban as McCoy: Put simply - he channeled DeForest Kelly through some Wija Board shit man, cuz, not only did he nail his lines, he sounded like him. His portrayal of the Good Ol' Southern Doc who hates transporter devices, and whipping through space at ungodly speeds because of what it can do to your molecular structure was PRICELESS!!! And they even explain where he got the nickname: Bones. Nice touch.

Eric Bana as Nero... well he's an all new brand of romulan. He's pretty much insane. And he has good reason to feel that way.. he was a romulan with nothing to loose after loosing everything (and that is as far as I'm willing to go with that.... to say more would ruin it for those who have yet to see the movie).

Star Trek was one of those movies that I can watch over and over again because so much happens on the screen that you're bound to find shit you missed the last time you watched it. Abrams put out an awesome product.

If you ARE a fan - even remotely close - like me, you will not be distracted by the reboot. They explain it in such a way that makes the entire redo palatable.

Between the stunning visual effects, to the brilliantly done lighting, to the heart-stopping action, to the great writing which pays homage to some of Star Trek more well known lines (Such as: Damnit Jim, I'm a doctor not Magician - type dialog to Scotty's "I canna push 'er any faster Cap'n), right down to Nimoy's reliving his Prime role as Spock (which got applause the instant they showed his face on screen) this movie was brilliant.

Even if you're NOT a Trek fan: See It! It's THAT good.

I would call this movie one of the best movies I've ever seen. I simply cannot find faults to what they did. Sure, we can nit-pick about few things, but i was completely willing to ignore them.

I'm gratified to learn that they are at least making two more movies with this cast.
So until then... Live Long And Proper!

So NOT in the mood.

2009-05-08T10:12:00.006-04:00

Recently, I read a blog about how the author (I'm not mentioning names here) felt that she was unfit to be a mom sometimes.
With my chin held high, I explained that she was an awesome Mom because she cared. And I typed my comment with confidence and pride in the fact that I'd felt that way before.
Today is ONE OF THEM DAYS, folks.
I have to be honest, I'm fucking tired. I'm tired of fighting with the kid. I'm tired of constantly pointing out the things he does wrong, because the things he does right, are fewer than those he does wrong, lately.
His whole attitude of late is: "I can't do it!" or "I don't want to do it!" or "I need help - my homework is too hard" or "I'll do it tomorrow - i want to relax cuz, phew, I'm just too tired," [Enter exasperated sigh, with proverbial back of the hand to the forehead, looking upward, head shaking and dumbfounded, with an unbelievable dramatic flare, here].

I'm at my wits end. My patience has gone from unsurmountable - to an empty tank. I think, both, LilDeblynn and I are at a loss.
I'm not an over-achiever by any stretch (tho' Deb arguably is), but Jeezuz...

Here's what happened yesterday - but first, I'd like to give some history as to why I thought yesterday's drama was simply RIDICULOUS.

When i was 7 years old, I would visit my grandmother every Friday night - and I would spend the weekend with her. It was a thing. Times were different then, I realize that, completely, Ok? I get that. To show HOW different a time it was. I would get off of school at 3:30pm (not 2:15pm), and I would walk to the bus-stop at the corner of the street, and I would take public transportation across the city to my grandmother's apartment building - on my own. Armed with the $5 that my father gave me THAT morning, I would walk down the back alley way, leading to the back door of an Italian Restaurant, (no doubt run by a mob), place my $5 down on a half-door ledge and order a box of Zucchini Fries (which came in a large pizza box full!!!! With my $1 change, I would walk up to my grandmother's apartment and visit with her, while having my zucchini fries and a can of coke ... ALL at the age of 7 years old.

On Saturday mornings, I would wake up at 6am, and watch my cartoons. By 10am, it was breakfast time, and my grandmother would ask if I'd like to cook my breakfast myself. "Hell ya!!! Gimme a frying pan, some bacon grease and potatoes, and I'll whip us up some home-made home fries and eggs baby! ya!!"

My Grandmother showed me how to cook eggs and bacon, and homefries... I wasn't allowed to do it until she was up, however, but when she woke up - i fired up the stove and cooked for myself.

by 8 and 9 years old, i was baking cookies, and cooking steaks. I could cook a roast when i was 10 - and Spaghetti by 11 -- was cooking dinner for my family between the ages of 12 and 18 ...

So when Raymond, last night, said, "I'm hungry," i thought in my heart of hearts, "I'll let him cook an egg sammich!" just as my grandmother did. When i was allowed to cook at age 7, I was excited.
Raymond? Not so much! Not giving in to his misgivings, I encourage.. "no - you do it yourself.. you'll see - it's super easy."
And then the same ol' words came out.. "How 'bout if it isn't?!"

GOD I HATE THOSE WORDS!!! Fucking "What if.." questions drives me insane, people. IN ...... SANE!
I explained the entire process. Not once.. but 3 times. I wanted him to do it on his own.. we were in the very next room, with quick access to the kitchen... if there was a nightmare, we could be there in two seconds... we just wanted him to be proud of a NEW accomplishment. Like i did when i was a boy!

We talked him through it - all the while, he was tear ridden... After 3 minutes of "pulling teeth" Raymond, in a HUGE FIT of drama, he started screaming like he was shot in the back with a .45 pistol at a drug-raid! We get up - and he's bawling.. "I "accidentally" touched the metal part of the handle when i was moving the pan" ... he cradled his pinky finger. Now.. the metal part of the pan, would be next to the INDEX finger... NOT the pinky... there was no burn mark.. and he kept poking at it saying it hurts...
Essentially, he sabotaged his entire effort in order to get out of doing it..

That is the story of our lives people. Raymond trying to get out of doing ANYTHING he doesn't like. Homework. Chores. Eating dinner that's good for him (instead of Toast with sugar on it - which is what he wanted instead of an egg sammich).

Oh, btw, the finger today? Not a mark!

It drives me insane. Batty. Crazy. up the wall and around the bend.

I push hard because, Raymond needs to be pushed. If we didn't... he would do nothing. The boy is smart, bright .. but lazy as fuck. And I have to be honest, I'm starting not to care. I'm getting to the point where, I don't care what he eats. I don't care if he wears a sweater on a cold day outside or not, because the sweater is upstairs, and even tho' it's cold out, going upstairs seems like too much of an effort to stay warm - so best just freeze and who cares right? Ya.. I don't care about that anymore. I don't care what he eats. Wants to eat Sugar in a bowl... Fuck if it means peace and quiet in my home - then so be it!
Homework? What's that, anyway? Dont' wanna do it.. DON"T .. i don't care. Flunk..

I said that to deb last night. He deserves to fail. In fact, I think he needs to. he needs to taste failure because he doesn't realize how good he's got it.
He's content to be like his dad (which isn't me btw)... A grade 9 drop out - and a non-owner truck driver by necessity, who recently bought a t-shirt for his child with "School Books for sale; NEVER BEEN USED" on its chest. Way to enforce your stupidity ASS HAT!!!
It's too bad he doesn't aspire to be more like his mom ... who's a hero really. She's fuckin' smart. Accomplished, by working HARD with very little and successful. But that'd require work, and it's much easier to have other people do everything for you.

I'm saddened and depressed about it. I'm depressed because it reminds me of the fact that I'm not happy in my working situation, and i'm hard pressed to find the courage to leave it. Simply put.. I can't afford to take a pay cut. we are at the very limit of our finances and a move at this stage of the game would mean at least ONE missed paycheck, and a huge financial strain.

After Raymond went to bed last night, I looked at Deb and said, "I'm not cut out for this, I don't think. I simply don't have the patience anymore." and what saddened me even more, was she looked as helpless as I felt.

Fighting back with the boy isn't working. It's not. It's worthless, and i'm loosing far too much hair over it, and the hair that is remaining it turning white. I've endeavored not to care.

When he came down this morning he said, "Good morning Al.. You know.. I think i want an egg sandwich for breakfast," I told him in no uncertain terms, "Don't frackin' start with me,"

I'm afraid that this kid may be doomed as an adult, eating hot dogs and microwave kraft dinner for the rest of his life, and that I've failed to be a parent.

I'm not perfect. And sometimes I think my life would be so much simpler if I just didn't give a shit!

I'm Herrrre!

2009-05-06T09:06:00.002-04:00

Hello my lovelies!
Ok, so I know it's been a while. But life has thrown me for a few curves, and i really needed to pull away from a lot of things, not the least of which, was blogging.
However, a story in the news today caught my attention - and it's just another example of how Quebec is becoming more and more communist than ever.
It's no secret, I can't stand this province. I don't enjoy the culture here. I find it backwards. I hate driving in this province - and now that i work within the province, I almost feel dirty. I swear to you - 50% of the people who work in this building smoke! IT's disgusting when you see them all out there at 10:15am killing themselves. Blech!
This is just one man's opinion, don't get me wrong. I have family in Quebec. But i don't hold it against them.
But seriously, driving in Quebec is like driving in a foreign country. It's amazing, how when you take a 1 minute drive over a bridge across the Ottawa River in to Quebec, the roads, road-signs, the lights, the streets - everything just looks ... DIFFERENT/foreign.
I've driven in cities in the United States that felt more familiar to me than driving 2 minutes over a provincial border. The streets are too narrow. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to how the roadways work... they go all over the place. In order to drive south, you first have to take a street heading East for about 2 minutes, than turn left - heading North -- drive for another 5 minutes, before taking a highways, that leads South finally, which turns East - and then eventually turns back West, in order to take a easterly jaunt ... it's retarded.
The Urban planner for this province is a drug-addict i SWEAR!

In any case... the story in the news is as follows:

MONTREAL - Quebec's civil registrar wants a Montreal couple to explain why they want to give their baby boy the middle name "Avalanche."
It's the latest hurdle for the family, who were originally told - because of a translation error in a letter - that the registrar had rejected the baby's first name of Logan.
But Marie Godbout, a spokeswoman for the registrar, says the translated letter should have said the government had a problem with Logan's middle name - Avalanche.
She says the registrar only rejects uncommon names it feels will cause children to be ridiculed and that parents can appeal the decision.
William Azeff says he and his wife chose the name because it reflects their commitment to nature.
He the registrar originally took issue with the name of his other son, Brant Glacier, before giving approval.

Come ON! The province is now telling people how they are to name their kids!! That's fucking ridiculous! It's unconstitutional and WRONG! If James Hunt wants to name his kid Mike - that's his fucking prerogative! A governmental body has no RIGHT to tell people how to name their kids... plain in simple.
However, here in Quebec, not only can they do THAT - they can tell companies which languages to use when dealing business. They've instituted law that states that should a company not serve its customers in french FIRST (or HAVE signage in its windows that are in FRENCH and NOT ENGLISH) THAT it will face fines upwards or close to $5000 or more. Communism in its purest form!
I hate this place! That's all i have to say about that.
Every time i come to work now, I have an innate need to take a shower.... which by the smell of the air just outside my front office door, many people here need!

yay - friday - woopty-fuckin'-do!

2009-03-27T09:48:00.004-04:00

I'm so tired of being broke.
I'm tired of coming to a payday, and seeing less that $100 left in my bank account.
I'm tired of never being ahead anymore.
I'm tired of getting pissed off because i can't go somewhere because i can't afford the fucking gas!

I'm fucking tired of not being able to afford getting my teeth fixed .. cuz it's another $1000 I don't have.

I'm tired of seeing bills that are way too high, and not enough money in my account to fucking pay them!
I'm tired of telling friends "Naw man, sorry - i can't go out - uhm.. i don't have the money!"
I'm tired of not paying bills some weeks so that I can actually go out and do things - because if i don't have a life, I go MENTAL.

I'm fucking tire of this shit!
I can't LIVE LIKE THIS.

I admit it; I cried!

2009-02-27T10:42:00.000-05:00

Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

Diary of a V-Day D and D weekend.

2009-02-17T15:15:00.005-05:00

Last weekend was a long weekend, (in the States as well as here in Ontario), but Saturday was also Valentines Day. Now we all know how i feel about V-Day *cough - money grab* *Choke* *what's that barbeque?*
Anyways. At the same time, I do like to recognize, to my wife, that I love her very much (even tho' i do make it a point to tell her at least once a day). This weekend, however, we managed to have an entire weekend alone - and we did spend some IDEAL quality time.

Now as a Geek, I have to tell you, that when I was a teen ager, I wrote poetry to my darling girlfriends, and gave them candy, and as I grew up I bought jewlery and all that shit, but i was never comfortable with it. Luckily, I've now found a woman who is geeky herself and this year, we spent Valentines day playing Dungeons and Dragons.

So, when we play, we did keep a visual diary of our evening/day.

The event took place from Friday Night (Feb 13th) till Saturday night (V-Day night - late.. REALLY late).

And this is what I saw!: (for those of you who are not avid D&D'ers.. the commentation with each picture should give you something to do throughout the post. But the map images are impressive as hell so feel free to click on them to EMBIGGEN!

Ok, so this one is a picture of the Character Builder we use to create our characters. Knowing I'd blog about this, I took this picture to use as a great starting point, and to plug the Character Builder cuz it's awesome. I know there are a lot of traditionalists out there that enjoy making and writing their own characters sheets up because it's organic and fun. But when you manage more than one character, and have to pause to Level your character up, and updating spells and skills and all that shit, the character builder built by Wizards of the Coast is unbelievably well made. And so this post is brought to you by: WotC's Character Builder!

This is what i see when I set myself up! My laptop with character builder already queued up and a Map of Overlook (see below and right) at the ready. We are playing The Scales of War adventure path, which spans 18 issues of WotC's Dungeon Magazine. LilDeb decided she'd take it upon herself to be Dungeon Master (pics to come) and so far she's been awesome. Directly left of my laptop is a glass of Scotch - always nice to have a little Dwarven Ale to replenish my Hit Points as I play.

You can never have enough pencils throughout a game of D&D - and my miniatures which represent my characters that I'm playing. sometimes we have friends and family come over to play. During those time i relinquish control over a few .. but i generally will always control MY characters, Bahl (my tiefling [pronounced Tea-Flng] rogue and all-round bad-ass, cocky, prick bastard guy) and Axym (My drunk, dwarven ale, whiskey scotch drinking bad-ass berzerker barbarian dwarf!)

And the stars of the show are there as well.. My Dice!

You also see my character sheets book, and my custom leather-bound D&D adventure book which LilDeb bought for me for X-mas... it's AWESOME.. and yes, it's cool as it look. It contains all of my notes I gather throughout a game. It has drawing of maps as I hear about them in-game ... kinda like cartography via lecture (and as it happens my maps are rather accurate - which is a testiment to my DM's descriptions).

You can't have a game of D&D without a DM - and here's mine. Usually she'd kill me for putting a pic of her up - but she looks really good here. This was taken during our Valentine's Day session. The curious thing I'd like to point out, is that she's reading some descrips to me and she's literally covered in birds. Yes, even the birds enjoy watching.

Going from left to right: Loki (on her wrist), Dax (who looks like he's ready to pounce), and that's Onyx on her left shoulder.

Even DM's like a SMALL glass of wine every-now-and-then.

Now - let's get into the gaming maps.

An encounter on the way to Overlook!

Not the best roll to have as a FIRST ROLL OF THE SESSION. I groaned almost right away.

Being Ambushed in Overlook. It wasn't pretty - but Bahl got to torture someone ... that was fun! Chaedi, our Lawful Good Cleric didn't like that ONE BIT! Bahl told her he'd make amends with his god by have Rodeo Sex with Two Halfling women! (he followed through on his promise).

Close up of the ambush. Bahl is the one with Two Sword.

A bar-room brawl. As one of the missions that we undertook on our own, we decided to help a dwarven bar-owner in the District of Blister (which if you look at the map above, is to the far upper-right district of the city. Not a place of the soft at heart (and stomach). Essentially, (Scales of War ***SPOILERS HERE) a group of Mobster types called the Lost Ones have been terrorizing the merchants and inn-keepers of the outer-city. We offered to take care of one such group .. and she, the Innkeeper, set Bahl up with a couple of 'afore mentioned halflings .. Ohhh ya.. AAALL NIGHT LOONG!

Finally.. A close of up a battle raging underground below the District of Tradestown. Tradestown is located one wall district left of Blister.

And I'll leave you with this pic of LilDeb at the pub before we going home to play D&D. We decided to go to our local haunt for a pint or two and some grub. I love the picture, so i'm sharing it.

Hope you all have a great week..
Ciao! and happy Gaming!

What Is He On?

2009-02-13T14:57:00.001-05:00

Adapt and Overcome Personified!!!!

2009-02-09T10:06:00.003-05:00

I rant alot on this blog. This is my little space on the Inter-Weeb for me to put my thoughts down .. and usually, my thoughts comes out as critical and somewhat bitchy, all for the sake of entertaining you!

But every now and then, there comes an event that I observe, sometimes just in passing that impresses the fuck out of it, that i feel compelled to share it! Today, I had one of them moments.

Anyone who doesn't know about the HELL that Jennifer Hudson has gone through, well, they've probably been hiding under a rock. Coming back to a singing career after the devestating murder of your mother, your brother, and a 7 year old nephew - well how do you dig deep in to that well of desire in order to come back to a life lived in the public and perform in any way that is palatable by your adoring fans.

I wouldn't know. Honestly, I don't know if I'd have it in me. Which makes the Jennifer Hudson story so damn heroic!

She performed at the Grammy's a song called: "You Pulled Me Through," which she clearly sang to the audience, her fans and her friends who sat en mass to see her. IT was the story of the Grammy's (Her Big Come Back). And I've gotta tell ya, I'm not afraid to admit, I got emotional!

Reasons why I always like William Shatner

2009-02-06T14:05:00.006-05:00

I know there are a lot of people who make fun of Shatner - Hell he makes fun of himself, but frankly, it's things like this that re-enforce how much i like him!
The fact that Shatner (or rather, Shatner's character in Star Trek) was a hero of mine as I grew up, it was watching him in the show Boston Legal that allowed me to become wise to his incredible sense of humour..

Now.. Everyone has heard the Christian Bale rant - where he completely undresses the Lighting Coordinator on the set of Terminator 4 -- well.. this is the way I WOULD HAVE ranted on someone who, clearly, hasn't a clue what he's talking about, tells a huge star like Shatner, he's not doing something correctly. (and the result is Shatner just making this guy feel like a complete ass-hat!)

Having been in the studio, and knowing that the producer is VERY important to the success of whatever you're recording, I completely understand the unique perspective that a producer has... but in this case - this guy was just .. and IDIOT!

Paragon Path!

2009-02-02T09:55:00.011-05:00

And so - to further my Geek Speak... I've taken some more pictures of the D&D game that LilDebLynn and I have been playing for the past few months.. It's a HUGE game .. covering over 18 issues of Dungeon Magazine from Wizard of the Coast.. It's called "Scales of War"

In this episode of "Scales of War", our intrepid adventurers are sent to a Monestary to warn the monks that reside there that the ORCS ARE COMING, THE ORCS ARE COMING!!!

These pictures are the shots of our adventurers in battle, with the orcs bent on our deaths!!!

(Clicking upon the images WILL EMBIGGEN!)

This is one of our birds: Loki - eating her eggs while we set up the table! She loves the little men... she was obviously hungry as she tried to eat my Dwarf - and so i figured a good feeding was in order.

As our adventurers enter the Dwarven monestary...

Close up of the enemy!

My Tiefling Rogue facing the horde!!!!

Entering the HALL OF HEROES !!!!

Hopefully what these pictures truely shows, is the amount of hard work that goes into GAME MASTERING (or DUNGEON MASTERING) a game of D&D .. Not only does it LOOK COOL.. it's fun as hell to play when the Dungeon Master pays that close attention to the details of the encounter.

BTW - my Dwarf nearly got killed going down into the tunnels beneath the hall of heroes ... it wasn't pretty!!!

Twitter on iPhone

2009-01-27T09:13:00.003-05:00

So.. I am now part of the iPhone elite! That is to say, that most people who use Apple products seem to have this attitude that the tech choices they make are better than everyone elses. Seriously!!! Try to tell a Mac person that PC is way better, and they will go OPRAH ON YOUR ASS!!
Mac-elitists are very possessive about their cutsey lil machines, and their nice shiny colors, and they protect their underdog technologies with vehement conviction; but i digress...

As far as cell phones go, the iPhone is awesome, and is now our newest addiction. That being said, I've also gotten really good at typing with the touch-screen, and i've become far more active on TWITTER.

I use a lil application on my iPhone called; Twitterific - I can post, and reply to Tweets really quickly.

If you haven't jumped on the Twitter bandwagon yet, don't wait too long. It's a neat way to keep people in the loop as to what you're doing, and offer them funny little quips about your day, and an easy way to keep up with some of your favorite celebs: IE: Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: TNG, Author/Blogger, LA Times contributor, World Renown geek), Greg Grunberg (Alias, Heroes, Lost, anything JJ. Abrams).

So get your Twitter Account and start following your friends (and even me if you wanna to read my daily doses of sarcasm as I live it).

As far as applications to write tweets from your desktop (without having to log in at the website) i'm using TweetDeck. It works on Linux, Windows, and MACs.

Twirl is also a nice app.

Nothing like a little geek-on during the course of your day! :)

Happy Tweeting!

But Seriously ... This Guy Can Sing!

2009-01-19T14:37:00.003-05:00

I've always been a huge fan of Jonny Lang. But this is one of those songs where you listen to it and wonder -- is the guy singing this song a big, fat, 450lbs black blues singer in his late 50's, that's smoked 3 packs a day for 40 years and downed a bottle of Jack Daniel's per night just because he could, with a soul full of blues, with a gorgeous 1957 Rickenbaucher guitar strapped to the front of his protruding belly???!

The answer??? No! It's a 28 year old, 150lbs soaking wet, blonde kid from Fargo, North Dakota with a sunburst Les Paul, big teeth, and a throat full of soul!!!!

I love this song from his latest album (which is actually blue-gospel). I use this song to warm up my voice in the car before gigs. Awesome to see it done live.

Geek Gaming and Recording Studio

2009-01-19T12:42:00.017-05:00

Greetings Orc Crushers and Ice Mephit Hunters ... Today's Blog-Post comes with a Disclaimer!
**WARNING: The following post contains and is dripping with geeky gooey goodness. There could be mention of Magic .. or even dice. It definitely could be mistaken for a GEEK Post .. as well it should! Be warned: THis is all about D&D.

That's right folks, i've gotten back in touch with my Geeky-Self and started playing 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons again and I managed to pull LilDeb into it (Hook, Line and Sinker!!!!) Not only have i pulled her into it .. i've created a Dungeon Mastering monster and for me... that's awesome! It means, that instead of always having to RUN THE GAME scenarios all the time, she will take that roll over and i can actually play as a PLAYER instead of the Game Master.

We recently finished the first part of our ADVENTURE PATH called Scales of War. Where, for the sake of the adventure's mechanics I'm running two characters (sometimes 3 of Raymond isn't around).

I could go into a whack of statistical details about my characters .. but unless i'm specically asked about it, I'll spare you all. Suffice it to say, Bahl Shadowhand, my Tiefling Rogue and Axym Thunderaxe, my Barbarian Berzerker Dwarf, KICK ASS!!!

Bahl is a womanizing, dark-humoured Tiefling (Half demon-spawn with red-skin, horns and ravishingly haunting good looks) who has embraced his inner-kleptomaniac and is able to stealthily skulk through dungeons undetected, while swinging a deathly arc of a silvery short-blade! He's not afraid to tell you to go to hell ("I'll meet you there when my time is up!", he'd say), and he's certainly all about bedding as many women in one week as he possibly can. Given the fact that he has a long pointy tail, gives him that extra rare third appendage with which to send his consorts into an erotic frenzy... and he's good at it too. He has a thing for Halfling women too - the shorter the better (variety is, afterall, the spice of life, is it not?? Why discriminate).

Axym, on the other hand, is a typical dwarf who enjoys far too much Dwarven ale and Scotch Whiskeys. He speaks in a heavy scottish-like dwarven accent, thick with drink, and an eye for bearded dwarven women. Unlike his Roguish friend, Bahl, Axym is more about bedding his OWN kind, and stays far away from Tiefling women (They simply could not handle him anyways - he's FAAAAR TOO MUCH DWARF for the likes of the half-demonic she-devils... and let's not even get into Eldarin women.. they are far too stuffy with their snubby noses, and pointed ears!)
He's a fierce barbarian; so fierce, in fact, that when in the heat of battle, he looses his marbles and goes into a blind rage and thrashes any that come in his path, cursing in dwarven and insulting his enemies mother's heritage.

Being Deb's first forray into Dungeon Mastering, I thought it would be choppy at best with a lot of pausing for research and question-answering, but she was awesome. She really studied the adventure backgrounds, and came to the table prepared every session!! I'm proud of her. DM'ing is not easy. It's a lot of work. And I've found myself always falling into the Roll of DM .. it's fun to finally have a good trusting DM to play with.

And, getting Raymond involved in the whole game is really good for him and for me: Sharing D&D, for me, is the ultimate reward for my inner-geek.

So i've chronicled the games with some pics:

This is the table set up with my cool D&D book, dice and pencil. DM screen blocks the actual adventure notes from Player's prying eyes.
Game setup, maps and terrain blocks:

Raymond with his character sheets.

And there you have it .. news on the D&D front.

Now for the band front...
We are currently recording some tunes in a STUDIO including some original songs. I've managed to snap some pics of that too...

My dad and Guppy laying down the Accoustic tracks and bass tracks during our first session:

This is Dave Poulin, our Engineer at Studio9 recording.

This was my section of the studio when i laid down a couple of vocal tracks for the song. (My office as it were).

Which was readily taken over last weekend by Kyle - our drummer, as he laid down the drum tracks this past Satuday.

All in all, it's a fantastic experience so far. A lot of hours so far (almost 10 hours of work has gone into the first song), but it's so damned fun, you don't see the time go by.

So there's my update for now... Have a good week all!!!!! And may the God Of Ebberon be with you!!!

Devil Spawn - Or Not...

2009-01-15T11:07:00.005-05:00

I know having kids is a time to rejoice.. but as i looked upon this picture, only one thought went through my head:

Doesn't Lisa Marie Presley look like the evil nanny who just took a portrait of herself after she stole the kids??!?!

"THEY'RE MIND, I TELL YOU... MINE!!!!! AND YOU CAN'T TAKE THEM AWAY... " Hissssssssssssssssss.... RAAAAWR!!!! "Curse you.. currrse.. you.... Satan will drink your blood!! Blaaaaaahhhhh.... "

And what's with those fake lips?!?! Jesus, woman... you'll never be your dad!!! YOu and your mom have to STOP! The Whale Blubber injections just don't cut it, honey.. please... you're scaring your children...
THat's all i got on that....

I'd just like to say one more little thing.. It's not overly important.. in fact it's quite funny...

Uhm...

Ottawa (that's where I live, but I use the name as if I am addressing a person ... ) So uhm.. OTTAWA... LEARN HOW TO FUCKING DRIVE YOU BUNCH OF LOOSERS.... Perfectly fucking sunny day outside and it took me 3 hours to get to work because of you jackasses!!!!! STAY HOME ....!!!

There... see? not so bad... I'm calm now..

If I Were President....

2008-12-30T11:23:00.003-05:00

I was chatting with my brother's girlfriend today, and she was telling me how much she hates reading or watching the news. Her point was, that no matter what the story, they always interviewed the most retarded people the interviewers could find to put home their point.
It seems that some people believe that the Big-3 (USA, Canada & Britain) are evil because we are not getting involved in the conflict at the Gaza strip!
It happens, you know? People actually believe that those of us that DO NOT involve ourselves in other people's bullshit, that WE'RE the ones at fault.
This spurred on a twisted, tongue in cheek (and for those of you who do not understand what that means ----- GO AWAY!! CUZ THIS IS GONNA PISS YOU OFF!!!), fucked up conversation on what i would do if i were the president of the united states.

And so... I'm looking for YOUR votes!

So, let's see. If i were president what would i do??

The first thing i would do is say that the carpetting in the Oval office is far to regal for my tastes, and insist that it be removed IMMEDIATELY. I'd replace the carpetting with Yellow Shag carpet, and add a beer-fridge next to my desk - which I would decorate with Dungeons and Dragons Miniature, and a bumpersticker on the front of my desk that reads: "If you can't beat 'em; fuck 'em!"

Next, I would declare that I'm not fond of OVALS .. and i would decree that the office be transformed into a Trapizoid Office .. this would be far better for me, and I would be able to ~~rule the world~~ run my country far more effectively!

Then, on to WORLD BUSINESS:
To address our nay-sayers concerning the Gaza Strip i would.... Let's see.. I would:

Blow up the wall! That's what i'd do - i'd send a missle at the wailing wall and giggle my ass off as it blew into a bunch little bitty pieces and ask them if 1) Do you think i'm evil NOW? and 2) NOW, what are you going to fight about?

Next - i would move onto the middle-east crisis, and pull out all of our troops, both allied and domestic. PULL 'EM OUT I SAID!!!! just like that. No more sorry-bastards are gonna die. They want us to fight.. the taliban eggs us on, blowing themselves up left right and center taking us with them.. fuck it! No more of it.
Poeple say the only way to fight an enemy like that is to nuke the fuckers ....
NO! WRONG... there are OTHER ways. Way not even their twisted little minds could surmise....
That's right... You guessed it.. I'm talking about outfitting our Apache Choppers with loudspeaker that can play music at ear-blistering volumes and playing Elvis Presley songs over their airspace 24/7!!!!!! Just think of all the money we'd save on bullets.
That's right... outfit every goddamned aircraft that the allied airforces have and blast Elvis Presley's: "All Shook UP", "We're gonna win this race", and classics like, "Wise men Say... Only fooooools ruuuush in... For Iiiii can't help... FALLING IN LOVE .... WITH ... YOU!"
After a month of that, I declare that every hour on the hour, Sound Bites of Heath Ledger's JOKER's interpretation be played between songs, "WHY SO SERIOUS!" followed by the classic Joker's laugh, and a LOUD OBNOXIOUS FART... Cuz Farts are fucking funny!!!! Then it's right back into Elvis Presley's classics!

ON the 15th of every month, I would declare it Simon and Garfunkel day, and on the 30th, the middle east would shake to the assitate pressings of Metallica & Megadeth ... because I can!

After 4 months, they'll beg us to stop. Their will to fight will deminish from: "You are infidels for not following OUR interpretation of the Quran!" to "You are all infidels for playing Elvis Presley, Simon and Garfunkel and Heavy Metal in our air-space..."
NO ONE would take them seriously, for god-sakes! They'd be an international joke.

We accept their unconditional surrender only if they abandoned their 'version' of their religion, admitting their wives are whores, and if they promised, to never ever ever make tv shows again!

We would turn the middle eastern countries over to the less radical, and more sensible governments over their and withdraw our Elvis Presley shouting aircraft out of their airspace as they play: "VIVA LAS Vegas" one final time!

The USA and Canada would have a surplus, saving our money for important things like, Health Care, Financial reform and prooving Aliens actually exist by unearthing the secrets of Area 51 (that's always been a dream of mine); rather than spending your good hard earned money on bombs, bullets and missiles.
WE'd send men and women to Mars, and send Senator Palin to the moon. I would make Clint Eastwood my personal Advisor (just cuz he could kick ANYONE'S ass), and I would surround myself with the brightest, smartest people out there.
Peewee Herman videos would disappear.
Spongebob Squarepant would be irradicated.
Barney would be hanged publically, and there would be a 24/7 G-Force, Hercules and Smurf channel.
Paula Abdul would no longer be allowed on American Idol, and Paris Hilton would be poor and destitute, forced to ~~sell her body for a living~~ strike that... What kinda president do you think i am??! Paris Hilton would be free to have your way with ... so get in line!
Kelly Clarkson would be a patron saint, and my own personal vocal trainer.
Mariah Carey would have unexplained throat surgery completely fucking her career.
Celine Dion would be erased from this planets -- all memory of her would simply vanish as if she had never existed.
All of the worlds beer would be made in Canada and Ireland: Cuz lets face it - all other beers suck ass or are too weak!
There would be a National Scotch Drinking day; where everyone got hammered on Scotch... Let's make that September 3rd (cuz it's my birthday ... and i like scotch).
We wouldn't have Beauty Pageants anymore: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder .. let's not allow rich, snooty uptight fuckers determine what beautiful is any more!!!!
I would only help out auto-manufacturing companies that are going under in todays bad financial climate (soon to be better by my financial upheavals for using elvis to stop a war and not bullets), if they built cars that didn't pollute our planet..
I'd have a pet dolphin who fetched my mail and my daily news paper.

I would go to space, so that i could see my a clean planet.

And you would all revear me as the greatest leader who had ever lived!
Statues would be erected (amidst a lot of false protest from me). You would all love me. And I would love you all.

IF I were president!

Merry Ho HO.

2008-12-22T10:45:00.002-05:00

Yip.. it's been a while. Life is always happening when i'm making other plans.
Since completing NANOWRIMO, i found that my willingness to sit at the computer and type long narratives was lost on me. I needed a break from being creative (tho' that didn't really stop me from writing a couple of songs for my upcoming CD (if we ever get that underway))...
Between Xmas plans, Hockey, work, and my band schedule - we hardly have time to take a pee pee these days!

Things on the go: Xmas is always a busy time of year. We always seem to have less and less time, and less and less money to spend on shopping for xmas. after 30 years of buying the same people presents every year, I find myself at a crossroads. What do you buy when the people you're buying for don't need anything. I can't afford the big expensive gifts anymore. I bought a house: We're fucking broke. I poured all of my money into that house, and so my limit for most gifts is around $50. So it kinda sucks when you have that kinda limitation. So, i have a feeling that this year will be the year of Knick-Knacks.... buying useless shit for poeple who open their gift and think.. "Wow that's really cool" and then they place it on a mantle and let it collect dust.... aaaahh the world of Knick KNacks.

So .. i'll take this time to wish you all Merry Christmas and have a Great New year.

November over... I'm ONE book Richer.

2008-12-01T13:07:00.004-05:00

Well ... November is finally over. And I managed to cram a full novel with over 60,000 words into a month. I'm happy with it. I'm even proud of the story. But it still needs a lot of work; and I believe i'll need to re-write the ending. But as a first draft... i like it a lot.

The end-result of cramming over 60,000 words into a novel in less than 30 days is the utter-shutdown of my brain. My creative well has be sapped. I can hardly think of what to post here and so I will probably take another month off of writing anything truely creative just to replenish my brain!!!

So here's a snippet - hope everyone enjoys the week!!

“Get them back!” Locke cried to Lucy.
“I’m trying, but it’s like they’re not even answering; the channel is… well.. dead!” Lucy said.
“Ethan, take navigation; plot an intercept course to the pod… Ensign fly us to within one thousand kilometers.
“Captain!” Ensign Mitchell pointed at the view screen – “Something’s happening.”
There, near the belly of the alien vessel, shuttle-pod 1, with a spray of steamed gases, broke away from the derelict. The pod, however, flipped into an uncontrolled spin. There were no running lights. No fire-blooms off the Fusion engine. The pod was as derelict as the alien ship.
“Captain. Two Alien Vessels on approach at starboard … 300,000 kilometers and closing.!” Brill Reported from Science station one.
“Ensign punch it.. we don’t have a lot of time,!”
“Aye,” Mitchell engaged the engines, and moved Amethyst in to position.
“Ready Tractor beam!”
“I have it in my sights,” Frosty said, his finger on Beam control.
“Activate,”
A beam of indigo light shot from Amethyst and enveloped the shuttle pod, taking it in tow. “pull it in and get us out of here,”
“We cannot engage phase drive until the pod is securely aboard. We’d lose it,” Brill said. Laura glanced at the scanner, “the ship is 150,000 kilometers away… and it’s charging weapons,”
“we can’t bring that pod aboard if we raise shields,” Frosty said.
“Reel it in, we’re not going anywhere without them,” Locke said.
Lucy looked up, “we’re being hailed.”
Locked looked back at her, “Really.” It was a statement. “Put it up! Maybe I can stall for time,”
The screen flickered and Locke was face to face with two figures. One was a giant of a creature, with a mouth far larger than anything she’d ever seen. It’s eyes were electric blue, and arms so long the palms touched its knees as it stood in the picture. Next to the giant, was a shorter frail looking woman, with skin seemingly made of liquid silver. Her hair was midnight blue and eyes as black as a Grennans. “Grennan heritage indeed,” Brill spoke.
“I am Vayeen Keldar of the uth’Varreth central command. We have you surrounded and demand your immediate surrender,” the voice was cold but musical.
Locke cleared her throat and collected herself, “We are here on a rescue mission. We’ve come in answer to a distress call from one of our outposts in the Gamma-Theta system. Our investigation has led us here. WE saw two ships like the one we’ve found here in orbit around Gamma theta seven.”
The woman nodded, “We were aware of the outpost and the humans that infested it,”
“Infested? I beg your pardon?”
“Humanity is an infestation; a plague. We wiped it out!”
“What gives you the right to kill over 2000 colonists!?” Locke barked.
“The right of revenge!” the giant spoke with a guttural growling voice.
“My second, Commander Veck of the Varresh Special Guard, and his second, Vahl.” Vayeen introduced.
“Revenge?!” Locke stood up, “I’ve never seen people like you in my life! We have no record of ships even remotely looking like yours.” The silvery uth’Varreshan woman stared blankly at Locke, “What could you possibly want revenge for?”
Vahl’s face grimaced in a show of teeth as long as he finger, “the death of millions of my people, captain, in the Charkavian system,”
Locke looked puzzled at Laura Brill, “Do we know where that is?”
“Checking,” Brill accessed star charts and navigation logs from her station. She shook her head.
The captain addressed the view-screen, “I’ve never heard of this system.”
“It seems your race has a predilection for lies, captain. You are the third human to plead ignorance,” Vayeen’s face took a menacing turn as he eyes of black narrowed.
“I swear to you, Madame, to my knowledge, Gamma-Theta is as far as any human has ever been,”
“It is as I said, Commander,” Vahl said.
“NO!” Veck shouted, and even in the safety of her bridge, Locke took a step back, but noted the second varresh’s posture.
The prisoner, she thought.
The silvery uth’Varreshan looked to one of her crew out of sight of the communication and a fiery beam bolted from the enemy vessel. Amethyst shook violently as the explosion rocked through the super-structure of the ship.
Locke looked at Frosty. “They struck the Tractor emitter. The pod is floating in space.”
“Shields up!” Locke ordered, then turned back towards the transmission, ‘Why did you fire upon me ship!? We have shown no such aggression towards your vessel.”
“The POD is gone, captain!” Frosbeld shouted, “Just disappeared out of space,” Frosty got up from navigation and unlocked his weapons’ station charged the turrets.
“What have you done with my crew?” Locke stepped forward, sub-consciously imposing her will through the view screen.
“They are safely aboard my ship in a cargo hold. Consider them prisoners of war!” Vahl’s mouth twisted.
“War? I was unaware of any declaration of war?!”
One of the crew of the Varresh vessel spoke in a guttural, throaty language. Vayeen looked back at the view screen with a wide eyed gaze, as her crewmember continued.
“What’s happening?” Mitchell watched on fearfully.
“Your guess is as good as mine, Ensign!”
Vayeen’s face looked distrusting at Locke, “Things may have changed, captain. As it seems you are in possession of a Halmek!”
“I do not know what that is, Vayeen. What of my people?!” Locke pleaded.
“They will not be killed …” the silver skinned woman smiled, “yet. But the presence of the Halmek is unexpected. This is something I must see for myself. We give you one hour for you to drop your shields and surrender.”
“I cannot surrender my ship; not when we are being wrongly accused of genocide. It should be me asking for your surrender,”
Vayeen’s laugh was piercing, “Your threats amuse me, captain Locke. You have one hour!”
“How can I be sure of the safety of my people?” locke asked.
“You can’t! You have one hour!”

30,000 Words and Counting.

2008-11-13T13:10:00.009-05:00

Well.. this month, NaNoWriMo is my life, as you all know, but seeing as how i did get SOME comments on my last blog-post, i figured i'd give a little update and another wee-sneak peak.

I'm ahead of the game in Week 2 of NaNoWriMo, and thank goodness too. I do most of my work on the novel during the week, as my weekends are taken up with family time, minor-hockey or gigs with one of two bands (Which i will get to later). However, i managed to get a lot of the writing done last week to the tune of over 27,000 words, making my week 2, which, historically, is a really tough week, a little lighter.

Week 2 usually begins a transition phase within your story line. During week 1 your deep into introducing your characters, making them flashy and vibrant. You're setting up your characters to deal with the PLOT of the story.

Week 2 - you start writing the plot. This is where your characters are living their normal lives, and their lives suddenly become very interesting as conflict starts to his them square in the chest. Making that transition can be dry and tough to keep interesting. Having two story arcs, in this instance, makes things alot easier.. and that is the path i chose.

Tonight, I'll be joining some fellow WriMos at a meeting so that we can get together and write word-wars .. who can write the most in 15 minutes type of deal. i have to admit, that since i started writing this novel, my typing has gotten a ton faster! I'll post pics of the wrimo-writein when i get a chance.

Now.. onto the band stuff.
Over the last 2 months, i'd be rehearsing with a second band called Fanatical Jack. The band consisted of two guys I'd never before played with, nor met, and a drummer with whom i'd already played. The drummer had phoned me and asked if i could play a few gigs that they had already booked, but their singer had bailed.
I agreed. The guy was a great friend, and a guy i really enjoyed playing music with. So for two months, we rehearsed ... A LOT. I don't like rehearsing. In fact I hate it. I listen to music all the time, and by osmosis i tend to learn my parts just by playing the songs in my car.

Rehearsals break up my week too much. After working all day, to have to go to someone's house and work another 4 hours and not come home until 11pm .. and then sleep... only to have to do that again 2 days later, and then play two nights during the weekend?? I felt like i was consistantly working the night-shift... and the day shift at the same time.

But - after all that time, we played our first gig which turned out to be one of the worst gigs i've ever played.. it was a nightmare. We weren't tight. The sound was aweful, despite having a soundman who really couldn't do anything with the sound. The room was too small for the power that we had... and it was aweful.

However, the other two gigs that i played with band ended up being pretty good. We got some pics from that... so i'll post them here.

Here's Fantatical Jack: Ron Pesano (Bass), Billy B. (Drums), Kevin Pinks (Lead Guitar) and ME (Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar), and Larry M. (ON Sound and guitar for one night).

This is the stage during setup. We had WAY TOO MUCH gear!!!

A wider view of the stage with Larry and Kevin working away.
My stuff is already set up (See left part of the stage - single black guitar amp in front corner of the stage -- that's me)

Ron Pesano, Me and Kevin standing on stage before show-time. Waiting for a nice band picture.

Here's Fanatical Jack, with Larry The SoundGuy!

Before the show. Yes, that LilDeb sitting with me, ron and billy

Me and Larry doing a couple of songs together. Ron isn't on stage, because when I played guitar (I'm a lefty) our headstocks (that's the top of the neck of a guitar) would knock. He was setup with a wireless.. so he was out walking around the bar.

Singing Brown-Eyed Girl with Larry on Guitar.

Billy whack his skins (heheh double-meaning there), kevin on guitar, and me belting out a tune (i don't recall which one0

Ron with his wireless walking around.

and now for a wee-exerpt from my story. I'll keep it short.

Commander Aimee Carson was sitting across from the creature simply talking to it when the blast shattered the perpetual silence. The creature was on its feet so fast, she could not have reacted had it wished to do her harm. She sat at its feet gawking up at it as it stood over her, chomping its jaws open and shut with a clank.
“Step back,” Price came in with his pistol trained on the alien’s chest.
“Wait, Allen, wait,” Carson waved him back.
The creature grunted and waved Allen into the shed. Frantically it waved as gunfire rang through the cave, and screams of horror and pain rented the air.
The creature’s face grew mean with impatience and again it pointed to its corner and stared down at Allen.
“I think he wants you to come in,” Aimee surmised.
“Why, so it can tear my head off?”“I don’t think so,” her voice betray her uncertainty, but she was willing to trust her own instincts, “You can’t hurt him!” she said. “He is important to me!” she tapped her chest and pointed at Allen, “No harm!”
The creature nodded, and waved again, grunting, standing over Aimee. As she looked up at the eight foot tall creature, it was difficult not to close her eyes with fear. She sat prone on the floor gritting her teeth as it took a step towards Lieutenant Price. It pointed at the door and slapped it’s huge hands shut.
“Close the door?” Price didn’t know what to make of it.
Another grunt and a nod of its head. It held its hand out and pulled the door shut as Allen moved into the opposite corner. Once the door was closed, the alien creature crouched never taking its eyes off of Allen Price’s gun.
“What the hell…” Price wondered.
“I’m telling you, Allen, these creatures are intelligent. They are not the pawns Warren thinks,” She assured.
Another explosion rocked the cave, and the cracking of failing bedrock came from overhead. The alien creature looked up, concerned, but it remained patient.
“It’s as if it knows what’s going on, Aimee.” He pointed, “It knows…”
“It knows we’re beaten,” Aimee frowned and nodded knowingly.

Suddenly, everything went silent. The alien stood up and waited. It looked at Allen’s gun, which had since been aimed away from the creature. The creature pointed at Price’s hip and it spoke something guttural.
“Put your gun away,” Aimee nodded.
As Price complied, the shed door opened; nay, was ripped from its hinges and another one of the alien creatures roared as it spied the two Alliance officers. It raised a blaster and prepared to shoot, but the alien prisoner took hold of the weapon, and yanked it from its comrade’s grip. The two shared a heated exchange of clicks, grunts and tongue twisting words, and the alien solider was handed its weapon back and walked away.
In a soothing deep and thunderous voice, the creature spoke three words.
“Come! No Harm.”
For her part, Aimee spoke two, “My God!”

10,000 Words and Counting: Anatomy of NaNoWriMo

2008-11-05T13:20:00.010-05:00

Well, I'm on track. I'm over 10,400 words in to my 50,000 word novel that needs to be done by November 30th, and there's no slowing me down. Well, not yet anyways.

NaNoWriMo is very good at supporting its membership, in that they send "Pep-Talks" by various staff and/or other past-participants that help you get over the HUMP of writing a full novel in less than a month. And even tho' this is my first time ever participating in something with so large a scale, i've been writing for a long time, and i have a very, very fertile brain with way too many fricken ideas in it.
My problem, more often than not, is keeping those ideas in order and flowing properly on 'paper'.

And so, I thought some people my find my 'creative process' interesting.

First of all, let me say, i'm NO EXPERT. But what i'm about to share works for me.
Also, this IS the first time i've ever done somethng like this. I've written novels before, but it took me well over 6 months to write them and frankly, they weren't very good.

I've reached a point in my WRITING 'career', for lack of a better word, where I actually feel that my writing is worth reading. Where you can take something i've written and not believe it was me that actually wrote it. And that's excitng for me. That is why I decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo.

So because of the humongous scale that this would be, and because it proposed a massive challenge for me, i decided to do things right. I'd actually follow a lot of the advice that writers like, Wil Wheaton, Anne Rice (who doesn't even have editors edit her stuff... she edits her own drafts and they are published as is... that's impressive!) and other thing that we learn in Creative Writing course.

I decided the actually draw up a Premise and and wrote a prequel to my story to get a clear idea of what my characters would be like.
It's VERY important to KNOW your characters .. to be in their heads. To be able to destinquish one piece of dialogue from another character's dialogue you have to know who your characters are... how they talk.. their idiosyncracies. And actually, my prequel turned out great.

You can read it here.

Once I did that, I started brainstorming the NOVEL, bringing a notepad, pretty much anywhere I went, with me. If i had an idea, no matter how trivial, i would write it down. Even bits of dialogue that i thought would fit in the story.. i jotted it down.

Next i started writing out the premise. Ideas in short-form, point-form -- whatever form i could think of.

Specs for technology, ideas for technology

I'd write out character names, ranks, personality traits, relationshiop with other characters. I'd put down factions, feudal, democratical, anarchy... whatever..

And lastly, draw out a story-map to keep my facts straight.
Though, it may seem like a lot of work, it's a lot of scribbling down over a long period of time, and once you start thinking things through, you don't even see the time go by..

So!! I'm at 10,400 words .. only 39,600 to go.. PIECE OF CAKE, right??!

And The Marathon is on.

2008-11-03T12:36:00.004-05:00

Hey all..
Finally an update eh?! Sheesh!
So, as November 1st passed us on Saturday, my marathon to write a novel over the next 30 days has begun.
I'm participating in the Write-Marathon that is NaNoWriMo .. which stands for National November Writing Month. I am one of over 150,000 participants who answer the challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days and becomes champions of literary genius....
Ok.. maybe not genius .. but at least I'll have a finished Novel (if I can do it!!! [see Yoda Side-Image for gut-check]).
Fueled by, beer, wine, the new ACDC: Black Ice CD (Which fucking rocks!), I'm determined to make this work.

The stats go like this. You have to write around 1667 words a day to meet the 50,000 mark in 30 days. I knew i had to play a gig on Friday night and on Saturday and so Saturday afternoon, i wrote over 3600 words in one sitting; (That's to the beginning of my 3 chapter -- Which is Chapter 2...(Prologue is sorta Chapter 1 if you catch my meaning there)

It's a scifi novel about a Space Cruiser, captained by a Captain Trianna Locke, who travels to the outter-fringes of our galaxy and finds herself embroiled between a civil war and a growing tension with a race of people who have seen fit to attack human colonies deep within the Galactic frontier. It's an epic idea, that i hope is fresh and won't fall into the catagory of .. "Been there and done that".
Who knows .. maybe someone will pick it up!

So i will leave you with the Prologue which I published on NaNoWriMo's site.

Prologue: Distress Call.
Alliance Command - Alpha Centauri III: November 1, 2108

"Come in, Gamma 7. Say again: what is your status," Ensign Frank Thrason tapped his ear-piece.
The command room was all but silent, as the monitors flickered with static. Command personnel stared blankly at it.
The door openned, snapping the gathered throng into action, and the cocophony of voices resumed as Admiral Maury Guillman hung over the Comms-man.
"What's your report, Ensign,"
"We received an Emerg-hello from Gamma-Theta-Seven, fifteen minutes ago, Admiral, and the message has been badly jammed. I've been trying to reach them on all channels, but their orbit takes them on the far side of Gamma's Sun," the ensign shrugged, "the lag is terrible at best,"
Guillman paced behind his comms-man, and wondered aloud, "What was the nature of their emergency?"
"An E.T, sir!" Thrason said. This stopped the admiral in his tracks, and he added, "a hostile E.T to boot,"
Comms crackled, and the monitor flashed with ugly black-and-white lines, the hint of a visual of a woman: Aimee Carson.
Pulling a headset to his ear, Admiral Guillman pushed a send key, "Aimee, it's Maury Guillman, can you read me?"
There was a long delay, Ensign Thrason had forgotten to count the seconds. The woman on the monitor nodded, wiping her brow, "Yes, Maury, we read you. It's good to hear your voice. Everything is destroyed, Maury. Our colony is all but rubble. We've..." the channel blinked, and the video went black for 3 seconds before her face returned; there was fear in her eyes, "... in the caves below the colony. We're using our last remaining satellite to bounce our signal..." another blink, "... ships are large, Maury, bigger than anything we've ever seen. My people are calling it, a flying Apocolypse," there was an explosion - dust, smoke and rubble fell overtop of Aimee Carson.
"Are you alright, Aimee?" the admiral asked staring worriedly at the smoke and fog filled screen. Screams of horror and pain were ajumble over the crackling and failing channel.
"We are sending..."
"... yes, i'm fine for now, I ..."
".. a ship..." the two spoke in unison over the lag of the transmission. The admiral stopped first.
Another 3 second of lag.
"Oh ok.. You don't know how happy I am to ...." another explosion rocked the picture and the channel went dark.
"Aimee?" Admiral Guillman shoutted into this mouthpiece. "Aimee do you hear me?!"
Ensign Thrason got a prodding finger jabbed into his shoulder, "Get them back!" came his order.
"Yessir, Admiral. I'll do what i can!" Thrason promised, "Gamma 7, this is Alliance Actual, please respond," he repeated his hail after the token ten-second wait.
Nothing.
"Gamma Theta 7, this is Alliance Actual..."
The admiral cut him off.. "Fuck it Ensign; get me Colonel Grey and Captain Locke. I want to know the status of Amethyst's refit. Tell them to meet me in my office right-away!"
"I'm on it sir, right away!"
The ensigns fingers worked his keyboard, and he pushed a red send key, "Colonel Harmond Grey and Captain Trianna Locke; report to Command Proper; Code Red - Repeat Code Red."

Stupid Poeple Should Give AK-47 UZIs to Their Kids.

2008-10-28T12:47:00.005-04:00

Authorities in Massachusetts are investigating a gun fair where an 8-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself in the head with an Uzi submachine gun while under adult supervision, police said on Monday.

Seriously folks... as parents, would you REALLY let your 8 year old child handle an UZI?? SERIOUSLY!?
We tell our kids to NOT run with scissors. We tell them not to go near the stove cuz it's too hot. we tell them not to swim without their floaties on... BUT LET'S GIVE THEM A FUCKING UZI... for fuck sakes dude... you should be shot yourself.. you killed your kid -- i hope you have to live with that for a long time!!!!

While the kid was handling the AK-47 Uzi .. his dad was reaching for the camera!! Ya.. good one dad... smart!!! Too bad you didn't snap a picture of your kid blowing his head off ... that'd stick with you for a couple of days eh?? Jackass!!! It's not your kid's fault you're a fucking idiot, but he certainly paid the price for it, now didn't he, SCROTUM-HEAD!?

What are PEOPLE THINKING??! Gaaaaahd!!!

READ THE DAMNED STORY if you wanna get pissed off like i am right now about it.

Change of Pace: Happy Birthday Dax

2008-10-22T14:00:00.003-04:00

I'm a little late sharing the news : Only because my fricken schedule lately has been stupid.
We got Dax a year ago; and it just seemed to Zip by. I'm not one to lament on and on about our pets .. but our birdies have become integrated members of our family.

So a big happy bday to our oldest birdy: DAX -- he's the big ZERO-ONE!

What you have to look like to bbq your family.

2008-10-17T10:31:00.005-04:00

Poster Child for being stupid!!
DUDE.. I CAN SEE IT NOW.

YOU: "Yo man, what the fuck do you want!?"

OJ: "HMmm boy.. you sure do have a perdy mouth!"

Nothing like a good BBQ.

2008-10-16T10:28:00.004-04:00

When shit like this happens, you have to wonder what the fuck goes through the minds of the average american human being!!

CORNING, Calif. - Police in Northern California say the family of a dead elderly woman cremated her remains on a makeshift barbecue and continued collecting her retirement cheques - amounting to more than $25,000.
Ramona Allmond's daughter and grandson were arrested Sunday on suspicion of embezzlement, elder abuse and disposing of a body without a permit.
Sheriff's Capt. Paul Hosler says the 84-year-old woman likely died of natural causes but investigators are still trying to determine the exact cause of death.

Seriously... i know there's a economic crisis, but cooking a relative for money is a little out there isn't it??

Read the whole article here

KARMA: Definition...

2008-10-06T09:13:00.003-04:00

n.: Meaning: What goes around comes around!

GUILTY!
ROT IN HELL OJ, YOU GOT WHAT YOU DESERVED YOU PIECE OF SHIT!

There, i feel better now.

Jeezuz - October 1st

2008-10-01T10:19:00.008-04:00

I'm not ready for Winter!!! not even remotely fricken close! I don't want winter, i dont' want the snow, i don't want the headache that comes with having to deal with snow. The summer is too short!
Can someone, please send me some money and a deed to a house somewhere in Mexico - where it's nice and warm all year round! That'd be really nice!

So, I'd like to take this time to trash talk the Detroit Red-Wings for the next paragraph or so. Red-Wings suck (they don't but ..) They have no good players at all, they're gonna choke this year (Which isn't at all true - the team is stacked to the hilt and will probably be in the finals this year again) ... and will never see the Stanley cup again.. cuz they suck -- not as bad as Toronto Maple Leafs, but pretty damned close (which again, is a complete fabrication, no one can suck nearly as bad as the Leafs .. they have a whole new level of suckage .. Red-wings could have their worst game ever with 3 super-stars injured, and half the team sick with the flu, and they wouldn't suck as much as the Leafs!)
So there you have it CHOPPZ ... gauntlet down....
The Church of Alfie is strongly behind the Sens this year ... we will vie for the cup this year, on a mission to Smite the Red Wings!!!

In other news. Our house has been busy with gaming lately... (no we don't do it all the time - it's a well balanced thing) .. I recently bought, Star Wars: The Force Unleached and it fuggin RAAAWKS!!! awesome game play, awesome sound fx, AWESOME music score, AWESOME animation, AWESOME game-play (did i mention that one yet??) ... this is an amazing game for any type of gamer. I'm not into Star Wars games ... all the other games developed for the Star Wars franchise did hold my interest. I found them clunky and frustrating. This game, however, ---- AMAZING.

We also got Rockband 2 -- for people who have Rockband 1 -- get the second one .. 100 new song, whole new interface... better tutorials that'll actually teach you how to play the drums for real .. better missions in Tour mode -- great online play... and the tunes are good (accept for the beastie boys tune which totally sucks).

Well everyone.. Enjoy your October - get ready for Halloween. I've been preparing for a gig on Halloween night with a new band. By all acounts, everything is going well. I should be ready by then. Learning ALOT of new tunes. My head is crammed full of new songs on guitar and lyrics coming outta my hoop!

Now if only I could really learn how to sing - that'd be helpful :)

Signs that i'm not what i once was.

2008-09-23T11:56:00.003-04:00

Well, i'm not even two weeks in to my 40th year (having just turned 39 years old September 3rd,) and already my body is telling me, "Ok dude, Uhmm.. ya, you know how you used to be able to drink like that - and do all that shit you're doing on stage right now?? Ya, see, i have a problem with that now? Like, uhm.. stop it, ok?"

Friday night we had an awesome gig at the Carleton Tavern, in west-end Ottawa. Was a great jam. Sound was great -- great crowd that go right into the music. But by the 3rd set, my head was screamin'. I started to get the worst headache i've ever had - and singing with a head ache is one thing, but this time, Jeeeezuz - i was in alot of pain. I was in a dead sweat -- i was drenched and I was thinking to myself, "WTF, man!!"
I stood on stage and just concentrated on hitting my chords on guitar at the right time, and managed to stay on my feet. My stomach was upset - i felt like i needed to puke... it all wasn't very pleasant at all.

On Saturday, I went to visit with my Dad for the first time since he moved out into the boonies (for those following, I bought his house, he moved to the sticks). Now High Blood Pressure, Cholesterol all that shit runs in my family, and he has a Blood Pressure machine to test his BP every-so-often. So i thought, you know what, i'm gonna use it ..

So we strapped me into this contraption, and lo' and behold, my BP is 164/96 --- (120/80 is normal -- 140/90 is ok) ... ya.. that scared the shit out of me. Since then, I'm not drinking anymore -- i've reduced my salt .. eating way more veggies .. i'm gonna start eating more bananas -- and I'm walking an hour a day ...
I had a headache for 4 days .. it's finally starting to go away.. which is promising. But i did make an appointment with my Doc for this friday to have everything checked out. My lowest blood pressure on Sunday was 144/88 - which is closer to normal for me... so at least it can be easily controlled.

I have to learn, once again, to be relaxed. For the last couple of weeks, I've been really bitchy. Small things irritate me; which are definite signs that my BP was up... cuz I'm usually a happy go-lucky type.

Anyhoo.. that's the news from the zoo... i'll keep y'all posted.

More Liberal Stupidity: Reprise

2008-09-19T09:18:00.003-04:00

This is a reprise of my, afore written, Mayhem Minute earlier this week, to highlight the ongoing fucktardiness of our Liberal Government, currently, in power in our provincial Gov't.
Liberalites, listen well!

OTTAWA (CBC) - Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is renewing his call for a ban on handguns.
ADVERTISEMENT

McGuinty said the ban is the best way to reduce the types of killings and woundings that occurred Tuesday in the GTA.

After three separate shootings - including two killings - McGuinty was asked if anything can be done to stop the gunplay.

"I think we should be banning handguns," he told reporters at Queen's Park on Wednesday. "I know they are the weapon of choice. They are convenient. They are easily concealed."

But McGuinty is not getting the support he wants from the either the federal Conservatives or the federal Liberals.

Conservative Leader Steven Harper wants tougher sentences, not an outright ban.

"Let's be clear on the gun issue: Canada has very strict laws," he said. "The other parties do not believe in tougher laws against criminals," Harper said Tuesday.

Like i said in my earlier post... spending money on a GUN BAN is FUCKING USELESS, you imbecile!
Do you REALLY REALLY think, that this kid who shot the other kid, REALLY got the gun legally?? C'MON!!!! Work with me here... you get paid alot of money to be smart; to help run the country -- to run a province (Ontario) which is the SECOND LARGEST province in Canada... You, who gets paid, at least, a 6 digit figure salary -- really are this stupid?? is that what you're telling me?

I officially announce my candidacy to become the next Leader of Ontario -- if only to bring LOGIC, smarts, and COMMON-FUCKING-SENSE back to Canada. Cuz these fuckers haven't got a clue!

Gah!! Liberals of Canada piss me off..

A Perfect Day

2008-09-18T15:19:00.003-04:00

This is a Ficlet I wrote today (A Mini-Short-Story) only 1024 characters long.
::::

“Have you ever seen an opossum?” Jeff asked Marty.
“A possum?”
“Opossum! Did you know that when threatened, they fake death,” Jeff sat by the river, making ripples with a stick in the water.
“I didn’t know that!” Marty sat back on both hands looking up at the cloudless sky.
“Ya,” Jeff nodded.
“What’s the difference between an Opossum and a Possum?” Marty wondered.
Jeff looked back at him from the river, and shrugged, “I don’t know, really. Opossums look like fat rats with hair.”
“And Possums?”
“I don’t know”
“How do you know the Possum isn’t the one that fakes its death then, if you don’t know the difference,” Marty inquired.
“I just know,”
“Hmm, cool,” Marty nodded, sat up and looked at the swirls in the water from Jeff’s stick, “Whatcha drawing there?”
“Nothing,”
“Hmm, cool,” Marty sighed. It was a perfect day, wasn’t it?
“Hey,” Marty started.
“Hmm?”
“Have you ever seen an opossum before?” Marty asked Jeff.
Jeff shook his head, no.
“Can’t say I have,”
“Hmm,” Marty said, “This was useless,”
Jeff nodded, “Ya”

It's Been A While: Mayhem Minute Time.

2008-09-16T14:07:00.007-04:00

But i just have to rant!
I know you've all been hungering for my famous rants, and after reading some news, I may actually have some shit I can rant about.
As most of you know, I have little patience for stupidity. Some people can deal with stupid people, I, however, cannot.... let me put this another way: Some people are stupid cuz they have no choice (a disability, mental illness etc.) i have NO PROBLEM with those people; in fact, I have tons of patience for those lovely people. The people with whom i have no patience are those that are stupid and should know better! There, DISCLAIMER DONE!

So, up here in Canada, we have another fantastic example of the Liberal Party's (of the past) great failed experiment : The Gun Registry. To reset, i'll explain that to those of you who may not know what that is. See, our previous gov't (cough-theive -- corrupt idiots i'd never vote for) created a policy called "The Gun Registry" whereby all gun owners had to register their firearms or have them confiscated. (Works great if you know who has them in the first place; but what if you don't know who has guns -- how will you confiscate the guns??? ---- Ya they didn't think of that one either -- anyways, moving right along!) The idea here was to know who had all the guns and prevent crimes committed by people who wielded said fire-arms. Should work right??? WRONG!!
In fact there has been little to no reduction in violent crime at all. The opposition at the time said.. "...take all the guns away and people will find other ways to kill themselves" .. Case in point... Strange dude on bus in Manitoba sits next to a another dude headed home, and cuts of his head for no reason. Good job, $2 BILLION DOLLAR GUN REGISTRY... Wooooo-- thank goodness we have that to protect us.
Another case in point: Yesterday, in Toronto (the largest Canadian city - and some in Toronto would say, the Jewel of the Great White North (barf!)), a school had to be evacuated as a kid (described as tall, 18 to 25 and dark skinned [that's about 6,000,000 people in canada]) shot another kid in the school. Guess that sorry sack of shit didn't register his gun, or dad-gummit, there'd be no way he could kill that kid..
So - fuck you to politicians that wasted our money there.
In more news....
Oh .. and right here in ottawa... in the West-End where i used to live (but don't anymore cuz the whores and drug-dealers have seen fit to take over the neighbourhood .. breaking in to cars to steal our money, purses, condoms for their next fix) two young kids enter a store, and tell the clerk at gunpoint to put face to the floor while they walk away with money and cigarettes! I mean, musta been one fuck of a nicotine jones'in going on there!!

AS the days go by, this town is going to shit! And you wonder why i moved to the suburbs.
There was a time when I argued with friends and cousins alike that i would never live in the burbs, because people out there kept to themselves and their stuffy rich yuppy houses, spoiling their kids (i maintain that happens in some of them... Kanata where i work is full of kids that have had everything handed to them on silver platters), and that i would choose to live within the inner-west-end of the city because the working class live there. There was always a comradeship among the people that lived there. You could walk into a bar and be greeted nicely, and offered a seat with the locals, and enjoy a good pint of beer and some good live music.
Now?? I'm not so sure. The bars i play in, where once the people were unbelievably receiving to newcomers have become filled with drunks, hard-heads who are less receptive to newcomers and have become cliquey bars for Regular customers only ... Crime is up so badly in West Ottawa, it's hard to be optimistic about the safety of a young woman walking alone after dark in my old neighborhood. And that's sad.

Now, we live in an East-End suburb. In a nice neighborhood where my kid can play with 5 friends in the street without fear of abduction. We have a bar, where we've become regulars, where the people greet newcomers with smiles and accepted readily. But... just to crush any of you dreaming that we live in a GUN FREE ZONE.. STOP IT... gun are shot all over the place - it was still a $2 billion dollar waste of fucking money.

And finally .. in classic Mayhem Minute tradition, I give you today's Darwin Award story of dumb-fucks thinning the herd.

(July 16, 2008, Italy) Ivece Plattner, 68, was queued at a traffic light in his Porsche Cayenne sportscar. Before one reaches the light, there is a railroad crossing. As you might imagine, given Murphy's law, a train was coming.

The man did not let the queue progress forward far enough before he crossed the railroad. The safety bars came down, leaving the Porsche trapped on the rails. It took the driver awhile to realize he was stuck, according to witnesses. Finally, he jumped from the car and started to run -- toward the oncoming train, waving his arms in an attempt to save his car!

The attempt was successful. The car received less damage than its owner. He was pushed hard enough to land 30 meters away, and attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

The moral of the story? Momentum always wins.

And that is YOOOOOOOUR Mayhem Minute....
Good night.. And Big-Balls! (I love Wipeout)

Bang my head.

2008-09-12T13:40:00.003-04:00

AS most of you know, i'm a closet Head Banger. I love my good raunchy music.
From Testament to Iced Earth to Megadeth to Metallica all the way down to Black Sabbath and Dio - i love them all.
But I've been a fan of Metallica since 1983 when they blasted onto the scene. As a 14 year old kid looking to find his niche in the music world, I found myself hating the POP music of the day and edging more and more towards heavy metal.
In came Dio, Def Leppard, Judas Priest, Motley Crue, WASP and finally my first introduction to Thrash metal, Metallica.
I have been a faithful fan ever since. My favorite albums include Ride The Lightning and the 'TALLICA CLASSIC: Master of Puppets.
But as the years went on, my fanaticism had been tested; alot! The last effort by Metallica; St. Anger was brutal. I didn't like it at all. Listening to the music on that album, you could tell that the band had completely fallen away from what had made them great throughout the 80's and the 90's. The music was disjointed... the lyrics didn't suit the music.. the sound was aweful. They'd lost touch with themselves.

After 2 years (plus) of not having set foot in a studio, the boys got together, once again, at Metallica HQ and started hashing out the next record. And this time... without a shadow of a doubt, they got it right! This time, they went back to basics. This time, they reconnected with whatever they have inside them to bring out another CLASSIC ALBUM, second only to Master Of Puppets, which i doubt they'll ever top!

Death Magnetic is a cross between Puppets, Lighting & And Justice for All - bringing back all the great riffs that make them the genius' of metal that they are. You can tell they had fun recording this one.

They forewent the 'commercialism' that shot Enter-Sandman up the charts .. all those nice melodic "pop-style" hard rock riffs were left out of this effort. This Album is a Head-On collision of a crowbar to the melon; an all out Metal-Riff attack to our ears.... IT FUCKING ROCKS!!! PERIOD!!!

Thank you guys for coming back!!!
Death Magnetic = HEAVY METAL GOODNESS!!

To sample the album, Metallica is streaming their music HERE

I know that not many of you are avid Heavy Metal people like me.. but if you know poeple who are .. tell them.. 'Tallica got it right this time and encourage them to support Artists by buying the music; not ripping it.

There's my Soap-boxing for this year.
Have a head-banging weekend y'all!

Two Weeks gone!

2008-09-06T10:19:00.009-04:00

Has it already been two weeks??? Shit man, it went way too fast!
Well.. I know i've been away for a while, i apologize, but when i go on vacation, I GO ON VACATION. Away from computers too!
The last two weeks have been:

1) Relaxing.

2) Fun

3) Hard on my liver!

Our first week of vacation was spent at the cottage, where, I - your most humble author, was food-fodder for all the little wee mosquitoes anywhere in the vacinity of our cottage. ON my right leg alone, I had over 17 bites. This doesn't account for the ones on my face, my arms and my ankles, and the ones near where the sun don't shine.

All that being said, we had a really great time up there - and relaxed alot.
As for the the "hard on the liver" comment, let me put things into perspective.
During the course of the week, Deb and I were, for the most part, the only two adults in the cottage.
For that, we required, 2 cases of beer (MGD for those who would inquire), a 40oz'er of Amaretto, two 26er's of Peppermint schnapps and baileys (for orgasms - the drink not the event!! "Gutter minds!!!")

On Wednesday, we were visited by a friend from Kemptville (which is outside of ottawa), and she would spend some time with us with her daughter Addy - who's the most adorable thing! Her son, Grayson had spent the whole week with us, camping out with Raymond.

For her visit, we needed two more cases of MGD, cuz our other two were almost gone, and we decided that we were going to have Ceasars -- so we bought a 40oz'er of Vodka and two huge things of Clamato Juice, and another 26er of Amaretto (cuz the stuff is good and the 40 oz bottle didn't stand a fucking chance!).

We also brought 6 bottles of our home-made wine, which didn't stand a chance, the last one being drunk Saturday night during a Steak Dinner when my mom, step-dad, and my buddy Mike showed up for me to good bbq steaks, and freshly lake-caught Bass fish.

So ya.. hard on my liver!

Coming back LAST SUNDAY, we were treated to the fact that our air-conditioning had blown a power capacitor. This isn't good considering we were going to have a really hot week. Thanks to Deb's foresight, we were insured for that - we called the energy company on Labour-day morning, and it was fixed by that afternoon. SCORE.

The rest of the week was pretty much me doing a whole bunch of nothing. I played video games, read, watched TV and did some odd yard work and cleaning around the house.

ON my birthday... umm.. i really didn't do much. This year is #39 .. one year to 40!!!! But it came and went without much fanfare. I had a lot of messages from Facebook, a few emails here and there, and Deb took me out for dinner; but other than that - it was uneventful. I'd partied enough the week before to fully compensate for a mid-week crazy party and we elected to do nothing. Which was just fine with me.

For the rest of the week, I played alot of Soul Calibur IV, Baldur's Gate for XBOX and Mass Effect. Like i said, my goal for this second week of vacation was to be as lazy as possible. I believe i've succeeded.

Tonight, I have a gig that we accepted just before i went away on vay-kay. I have to drive 2 hours out of town for this one, and it's an outdoor gig... which sucks cuz it's pissing rain out. so - who knows how this'll work out. What sucks is i have 4 hours of driving to do tonight.

I leave you with gratuitous pics of our birdies and kidlet at the cottage.

Metal Bands of the Past: We're stars.

2008-08-21T16:14:00.000-04:00

I loved this song when i was a kid...

Weekend that was....

2008-08-18T09:14:00.002-04:00

Well, I'm suckin' back the coffee this morning, folks. I'm fuggin' tired!
This weekend was a particularly busy weekend, in that, i didn't get a lot of sleep. Couple that with the fact that I've been out of the music-circuit for 2 months, and I had a gig on Friday night, and that spells F.A.T.I.G.U.E!
The band got together on Friday night at the regular haunt. The same one where i nearly punched out someone's lights!! Same two guys were there, as I expected them to be, but my dad and I went into Friday night with a plan.
You see, typically, if there was a relatively good crowd there, we'd start at 9:30, a half hour earlier than usual. But this gave us the freedom to end early too, if the crowd was small near the end of the night.
For those too lazy to click on the link to read what happened, I'll reset a little, two guys went off on us because we had started at 9:30 and wished to end off the night at 1:30, instead of 1:45am. All this on a night our bass player hadn't showed up, so we were all in bad moods to begin with and played 4 hours without a groove.
So.. this time, we decided, without exception, we were going to play at 10pm, and no earlier, and finish at 2am. No encores. No getting on early, no getting off early. 10 till 2 and out!
That turned out great. We hammered it home to the fuckers that pissed us off the last time. "We're on at 10pm.. and we're on till 2am.. and buh-bye!". We got a lot of people appreciating the extra 15 minutes, and I bought a beer for one of the guys that harrassed us last time -and he was very thankful, and had a great time.
The guy who told me to go fuck my bitch? Well I reported that fact to the owners of the bar, and to the waiting staff that, after playing in that bar for 10 years, I would expect a small level of respect from the patrons. What that guy had done and said was unacceptable in my books. I was told the situation would be dealt with. The guy was, afterall, a regular. I'd spoken with him every time i played there. I know his name, and I've seen him in the neighbourhood. The staff were very candid with me when they reported that over the last few months, this guys had gotten really bad. He was drunk all the time, and as time went on, his drunkeness had become aggressive. I know i was shocked when he went off on me; cuz for 10 years, even drunk, this guy was typically a good guy. (Which saved him - cuz i really wanted to kick his ass!!!)
On Friday, after the second set was done, I walked to him I slapped him on the back, asked how he was doing, and he looked at this feet and said he was fine, told me he loved the set; the music was awesome and then he walked away. He stayed for an hour, and left.
So on the whole, we went in with a new outlook, playing for ourselves, and had a really really tight jam. The crowd was into it. The sound was great. And I faced the two guys that took issue with me the last time and made everything right. There's something to be said about taking the time to think about your actions and reacting in a positive way instead of using avoidance as a strategy.
The big difference, too, this time? I didn't live 5 minutes away anymore. hehehe. So by the time i got home, it was 4am Saturday morning. I had a slice of pizza, and a beer. Watched some Olympics and finally went to bed.
Do you think I could sleep in??? Deb had spent the night at my sisters, I had the whole place to myself - and could i sleep?
Fuck no!!!
I was up at 8am - stayed in bed until 9 and said, "Fuck it!" Got up, made some coffee, let the birds out and then cleaned the house. By the time i was done it was around 11:30am, Deb came home and thought - now would be a good time to 'get it on!" we had a good Nooner (that's a mid-day romp -- cuz we could), and high-tailed it out of the house for some lunch at our new hang-out, Broadways Bar & Grill. We did a little shopping, played some RockBand when we got back, and it was Back-Deck time.
My buddy Jeremy showed up, we sat on the Deck, drank Ceasars and beer until around 8pm - and we BBQ'd some awesome steaks.
By the time our evening was done it was after midnight and we crashed (after another romp -- cuz we could) so bedtime was actually around 2am ..
Do you think I could sleep in the next day??
Fuck no... i was pretty much up at 9am again. Sounded like a good time for another romp - so I did ... it's not like Deb was saying "NO" ok??
Sunday was Nascar day - and i was really looking forward to watching the race. We had a nice visit from an old High-school friend of mine and her family. They visited for about an hour before they had to drive all the way home in Toronto. It was really nice to see them again.
We watched the race, had some Chinese food for dinner, gazed out of the telescope for as long as I could take the Mosquito bites and finally decided I needed to sleep. I was exhausted.
So we took a hot bath in the large RomanTub - and went to bed (after another short romp) and i slept.. until around 2:30am when i had to pee... and i always have trouble sleeping.
So today - i'm WIPED OUT!
But it was a great weekend.
Now.. i just need to get through this week so that i can be set for 2 weeks of Vacation.. WOOOHOO!!!

Hanniman-Bowes-Rozon Look-alike Meter

2008-08-12T11:41:00.002-04:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Here's what's funny about this! I'm not Raymond's biological father! But people tell me all the time that he looks like me.. funny eh?

Toronto Burns.

2008-08-11T16:39:00.004-04:00

Well, if you haven't heard about it yet, Toronto was the site of a HUGE - nay - MASSIVE explosion as a Propane Plant errupted in a very Hyroshima-esque way.

Some people were rocked by explosion near 4am Sunday morning, took out their video cameras and caught this on tape!

Just do a search on google for "Toronto Explosion" or at YouTube and you can see and read all about.

I Miss You And I Love you: But you don't keep your fucking mouth shut.

2008-08-11T15:41:00.001-04:00

I've never laughed so hard @ work in my life: People think i'm crazy.

From Mother-Effin'-Nature to Political stupidity.

2008-08-06T09:50:00.002-04:00

More ranting folks. I only report it. I, as a blogger - and i'm sure you'll all agree, i NEVER ever ever.. have an opinion.. Right?

So - with all the rain that's coming down in our fair city these days (4 days of sunshine in 97 days here) that's a lot of rain. This is the news that's coming out of our City Counsilors' office.

Almost every time it rains this summer, raw sewage is poured into the Ottawa River. According to a report in the Ottawa Sun this morning, there has been a constant flow of warnings about fecal matter in the River from staff to councilors this summer. The most recent came yesterday, when councilors were told that about 15,000 cubic meters of sewage entered the river on Saturday. It takes as little as 5 millimeters of rain to cause an overflow.<

This isn't news to us, folks. City Councilors in Ottawa have known about this problem since March! What have they done? What they always do: NOTHING!
The city councillors' office is full of fuckers that don't know how to make a decision. Collectively, they are whining machines that elect to do a "Study" rather than to actually do something about the situation, for fear of political backlash.

I'm not one to get too political, here, but these fuckers have to stop playing at politics and just DO POLITICS. The word POLITICIAN is derived from latin for "Policy Maker". These hacks don't know how to do that. They're Students! They makes studies of things and let Staff and City Managers make recommendations that they'll never heed.

So ... WAY TO GO, City Councillors ... when you're walking along the Ottawa River and smell the shit floating to the surface, SHAKE YOUR FIST AT IT AND SCARE IT AWAY... it seems to be the only thing you're fucking good at!

Family reunion Update: Mother Nature can go to hell!

2008-08-05T16:21:00.003-04:00

So a bit of an update from the Long Weekend that was.
Firstly, I'd like to submit my complaint to Mother Nature. She's done a piss poor job this summer with managing the amount of sunlight we, here in Eastern Ontario, are getting. I know she's busy. I get that, with us all melting down the Arctic circle, we're making things very difficult. But in the grand-scheme of things, I doubt that we, here in Eastern Ontario, are the sole cause of said things that keep Her busy.
That all being said, i would like to propose to Mother Nature a couple of things that she could do for us, in order to make us happier and to make life for her a little simpler.

1) FUCK OFF!
2) See #1
3) We're sick of the fricken rain, already.

We have seen rain, literally, every single goddamned day since the beginning of June. Look it up people... fuck it - don't bother, I did it for you, and I'm telling you Eastern Ontario has seen.. GET THIS FOLKS, 4 fucking days of sunshine -- that's 4 full days of sunshine where it didn't rain, cuz Mother Nature was doing her hair that week. FOUR ..... UHH.. DAYS!! Four days... Since June!! Did I hear 4 days?? out of 92 days! Every other mother effin' day has had rain or thunder. Someone say it with me. Stop raggin on us, Mother Nature. We're sick of it.

So we're driving the hour and a half ride to Alexandria, which is South-East of where I live in the pouring deluge that Mother Effin' Nature gave us. We, with our tent packed in the trunk, cuz we thought we were supposed to get a nice weekend finally.. but NOOOOOOooooo.. we had to get rain... Surprise surprise!!

In a lull in the down-pour, we managed to get our tent up, and because we like to make life difficult, my father and I decided to bring our band equipement with a laptop full of midi songs that we can play to to entertain the masses at the family reunion. IT was a damned good thing we did.. cuz for the two and a half hours straight that we played, is was pissing rain outside of the tarped area that our cousins erected to keep us dry. But not to be out down .. oh no,, not the BITCH herself.. no no.. Mother Effin' Nature had to have her say. Knowing that our huge tarp would keep us dry, and that we were going to ragale in song and dance in spite of her, Mother Nature threw WIND at us.. that's right ... WIND!! You see, the tarp was litterally help up by 4 12 foot beam, held in place by a rope secured and pulled tightly two trees on either side of the tarp. The tarp is then held down by 4 ft long wooden stakes and army-tied securely with more rope. Now.. as we were setting up - i sorta noticed that the beams were precariously leaning to one side.. and i told my ol'man.. "Look dude.. i don't think these posts are gonna last .. did you bother asking your cousin if these are to Code-Spec... " he laughed.. Ya.. but, I said, "I'm not taking my guitars out dude, until they tighten those things, I'd hate for my nice little guitars to get crushed.."

No sooner had i said... had Mother Effin' Nature blew a warm shinooky fart at us .. that huge gust of wind lifted the tarp and sent one of the beams coming down behind me.. hitting one of my cousins in the shoulder (thanks for that - my back was to it ... and had she not deflected it- i would have taken it in the head...) and where did that beam finally lay itself to rest??? Right on top of my two guitar cases with my guitars still protected within them...

My dad looked at me and nodded, "You were right!"
Of course i was.. Mother Effin' Nature has it out for me.. and she's bitchy!

All that aside.. the music went on, with a couse nursing a sore shoulder with ice on it, but none the less into the festivities. We sang Beatles tunes, Wild Cherry, old 50's and 60's and some tradition old fashioned ACDC (what's a party without ACDC right?)

Dinner was fantastic.. awesome BBQ chicken... and after we tore the gear down and my father leaving around the 9pm .. we sat by a bonfire!! ahhh... we were nice and comfy by the toasty fire.. crick-cracklin' away... my cousin brings me my acoustic and we play more music... Not to be outdone.. Mother Effin' Nature decides to pee pee on us again... Imagine our shock!

By 1:30am i went to bed in the tent. We woke the next morning to headaches, snoring and --- YOU GUESSED IT... RAIN!!! Gah!!! But we were served to a great breakfast served up by Great Cousins and given cups of Heaven-Sent coffee.. i swear some of the best coffee ever.

WE got home on Sunday afternoon in time to watch NASCAR .. during that time, it was nice and sunny... of course it was.. I watch Nascar every sunday... of course Mother Effin' Nature knows that.. so she makes it sunny... BITCH.
After nascar, I decided to bbq some turkey burgers .. and guess what happens...
Say it together everyone ... IT STARTS TO RAIN... I sat outside, with my beer, staring daggers at Mother Effin' Nature and Deb opens the back door as I sit soaked beside the bbq, "What are you doing?"
"I'm staying out in spite of the rain," I said.. Now it had gotten personal.
The one thing I had going for me, was they had predicted a nice Monday .. for our Monday off. This would allow me to sit outside on the back deck and enjoy the day.

We woke up Monday morning. It was grey, foggy - and .. what??? RAINING.
It's raining today. It will rain tomorrow.. and straight through until Saturday - and if people on the radio tell me that it will be nice on Saturday.. I won't fucking believe it .. cuz Mother Effin' Nature is simply too bitchy to leave it be!!

So - yes I had a great weekend... In spite of the rain... but it can stop anytime now! We, here in Eastern Ontario, are fucking tired of the rain!

And that is this week's rant!!

Holy Shizna! Where have you been?

2008-08-01T09:20:00.008-04:00

First from the Wall of Wierd. I don't know if it makes it down to the states, but we had a horrible attack that simply defies logic near Winnipeg Manitoba. A carny sits at the back of a bus, listening to tunes on his mp3 player, head against the bus-window. He's minding his own business looking forward to going home.
Another dude walks to the back of the bus and sits next to said carny. Dude grips a knife and starts wailing away at the carny repeatedly (ok like constantly) 40 or 50 times in the throat ... with gurgling screams, the carny is powerless to defend himself, and eventually the Dude isn't happy enough with just whackin' the guy with a knife. He proceeds to cut the sinew in the carny's neck to decapitate him while the other occupants of the bus rush out of there...

Now.. I submit to you. What kinda fuckin' pscyho do you have to be to just walk on a bus, arbitrarily pick a guy to kill like that?? I ask ya!!! What the fuck is this world coming to.

now they're saying they wanna put metal detectors on a bus?? What the hell is that gonna do. What? Are you gonna put metal detectors in side-walks now so that people with knives don't threaten the local population???
Good thing we have a GUN REGISTRY that cost us BILLIONS of dollars to stop people from shooting each other.. oh ya.. that really worked out great eh?? If people wanna kill poeple - they don't need a gun.. You can't stop a fuckin' nut-job.. cops shoulda popped this fucker in the head the minute he came off the bus with the Carny's head in his hands. KAAKPAAAOOOOWWW!! Goodnight!

Ok.. From the sick, repulsive to a little lighter topic.
As all of you know we have a new house. New Backyard. New furniture. New tub. New everything so we thought; "Why stop there!?"
So we have a new Birdy too.
This is Onyx. He's a Grey-Fancy Pied - but he really does look black. even his beak and feet are black, and so Onyx seemed like a fitting name. Nothing like just calling him Black, only with a different language... very creative of me. but it works so .. shush!!!

On the docket this weekend. We have our 25th annual Family Reunion this weekend. I have family coming from all over the place, going to my Father's cousin's cottage. I remember going to the first one of these reunions 25 years ago .... it was fun back then, and now that i'm old enough to partake in the beer - it's a lot more fun hehehe..

My dad and I typically bring our guitars and have a wee jam while the family dances around the fire. It's alot of fun. The one difference this year, is we're pitching a tent and spending the night to party. The cottage is over and hour and a half away - which sucks for driving after a day of drinking (or not drinking if you have to drive). So! WE decided, Deb and I, that we're just gonna let loose and camp out.

So - that's that mes amis! Have a good weekend.

I leave you with a picture of me with my Cousins Roxie, and her ALL TOO TALL husband Shaun (who's cousin is Chris Phillips from the Ottawa Senators btw. (can you see that size runs in the family there?)), my dad's cousin JoJo and her daughter Melissa. From the last Reunion i attended back in 2005.

I look forward to partying with my Cousin Roxie -- she's the Shizna!! :)

Let's Dance.

2008-07-22T11:38:00.002-04:00

This is something to bring smiles to faces out there.
In a world where media is frought with death, war, global warming and the threat of human annihalation...
I bring you, Matt Harding.

There is some Geek-Lore here - so beware!

Matt Harding is an American video game developer and Internet celebrity known as Dancing Matt for his viral videos that show him dancing in front of landmarks and street scenes in various international locations. Harding has since achieved fame through widespread coverage of his travel exploits in major print and broadcast media outlets.

This video, most recently, was posted at NASA's Picture of the Day Site. and it really brought a smile to my face.

If you're having a down day - this is sure to cheer you up.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Find Matt here!

Weekend Review: "Holy Bats, Batman"

2008-07-21T15:31:00.008-04:00

Let us start with Friday, before we get to "Batty-Saturday".

Friday, I came home to a relatively quiet house. I wasn't in the best of moods after spending a day dealing with translating Korenglish into English.

"What is Korenglish?" you ask.
Well my curious little friends, Korenglish is what you get when someone in our Korean head-office takes a Korean Press-Release, translates it into their broken-down English and sends it to us to have it proof-read. IN essense, it's terrible english.

"How did you get roped into doing that? I thought you were a System Administrator/Computer dude?" you wonder.
Yes - all that is true. However, when it is well known that I write as a hobby, and i'm actually not bad at it, and our tech-writer/verification engineer/documentations person/ / / you get the idea... feels she's very swamped and knows i could really lighten her load, she asked me if i'd help out. Me, not knowing the sheer scope of what this wee job entailed, i agreed.
In hind-sight, i was a fuckin' idiot to agree.

Seriously, with something as important as a Press-Release, they should consider having a professional, not a webmaster (in korea) translate english based on her "English as a second language" schooling. No offense to her, but she's just not qualified to come up with the appropriate Marketting Language to suit something of that importance.
Do I? Probably more than her, from what i've read.
I fixed around 4 documents, each one more contradictory than the next. And with my ignorance of our product model, it made RE-WRITING the documents more and more difficult. The more i read, the more pissed off i got at how terrible the english was. I started getting the "I can't work like this" attitude.

1) it wasn't my job.
2) we should be getting pros to do this.

To make things worst still, when they realized that two of us were willing to help, they started sending us all of their documents (3 to 4 a day) to "PROOF" read. I said to my colleague here in Ottawa, if proofing is all they want, I'm willing to circle the whole document in Red-Ink and say, "RE-WRITE" .. Proof-reading is not re-writing in legible and understandable language.

Long long story short, i was in a pissy mood Friday night... but we had a good BBQ-steak, and wine - and all was right in the world after that.

Now.. on to "Batty-Saturday".
We woke up a little earlier on Saturday, because we knew that by 10:30, we were leaving.
"To where?" you ask.
To the theater, to take in the latest Batman movie, Batman: The Dark Knight, that's where. Tho' Mike Q (my good buddy of ALRO-Nation fame) and LilDeb thought I was crazy, i was bent on making the theater steps before 11am for the 12-Noon showing. But i was quickly vindicated as we made our approach towards the movie-house. Yip, there in all their glory were around 100 other geeks just like me. By 11:15, there were at least 250 people on the front steps.

Once we got in - we just barely got good seats for all 4 of us, Me, Deb, Q and LilRay.

Now - from here on - get ready to be gooped up with gooey, geeky goodness!!!
Let me preface this. There will be some minor spoilers.. but i swear not to give anything critical away... like.. "Batman dies" or anything like that... no, i will strictly leave that out. (I was kidding about the 'Batman dies' thing!!) (oooor was i??? Hmm.. you'll have to see the movie now won't you?!)

Ok.. So if you were not part of the mob of people that dropped $153 million this weekend on The Dark Knight movie, this is my reaction to it.

HOLY FUCK!
Parents out there will ask: "IS it ok for children?"
I will say "Yes" so long as your kid doesn't frighten EASILY. We took Raymond (7 years old) to this movie and he loved it. (of course, he's a geek in training and follows the creed of all geeks -- comic book movies rock no matter how fucking psycho the villain is!!)

We all know that Heath Ledger passed away from an accidental overdose of anti-depressants, sleeping pills and booze. That saddens me. A LOT! I think we were all struck by the fact that this man did not get to see his own brilliance.
TO say that Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker was good -- nay, great, nay fucking brilliant is not good enough. Frankly, i don't think that anyone hereforth will ever be able to match this man's performance... EVER! and i don't say this lightly!

Ledger's performance BLEW. ME. AWAY!
The rest of the performances were very strong as well, making the movie so believable, you lost yourself in the movie giggling and laughing throughout the film at Joker's brilliance, his cunning, his savvy, his sheer love of chaos...

This movie also really showed that The Batman is not - JUST ONE MAN. The Batman is a team of people working together. And it's awesome.
There's tons of chemistry. Clearly the actors bought into the directors vision and ran with it.

The result is a deliciously evil villain, against a morally acute protangonist with a great ensemble of supporting characters that make for a unprecidented, chilling ride in to the mind of a Super-Genius Madman. A madman bent on bringing chaos to gotham no matter what the cost.

Ledger's performance is so great - and the writing for his character was so brilliant, that at the end of the movie, you respect the Joker's genius. When you look at the painted face in the movie, however, you don't see Heath Ledger anymore. You see -- something else. A monster. It's not much of a wonder why he fell into depression following the end of filming. As a method-actor, delving into the mind of this madman that he'd created.... what a fucking mind job that would have been.

I cannot endorse this movie enough. See in in IMAX.. loose yourself for 2 and a half hours.. and just be WOW.

We found ourselves saying, "I can't believe he just did that!"
Heath Ledger, rest his soul, deserves a posthumous Oscar for this movie.

So that's what i got on THAT.

ON Sunday, we went to my Dad's new place in the country. It was his birthday, and so, armed with a bottle of 18 year old scotch, we made our way there for bbq and a nice afternoon on the deck.
So Happy Bifferday to Him!!!!

Lastly, the new Star Trek movie finally made some splash. JJ Abrams is really keeping this movie on the hush-hush. The only thing known about it is that it's about Kirk and Spock just after the Academy days. Probably pre-5 year mission (but noone really knows for sure). If you go to imdb.com and do a search for it, you can see who's in it... but other than that, there are no details at all about the movie.
BUT>.. they did release the posters for it... 4 of them.

1 of Kirk.
1 of Spock
1 of Uhura
1 of Nero (the villain)

When i put them together, using only Paint in windows, you get the well-known star-trek symbol A.K.A (The Delta).
So, in my geekiness i'm sharing.

Have a good week all.

It happens every week!

2008-07-18T11:30:00.003-04:00

right folks. Every week, there's a phenomenon that occurs, and you can't stop it. It's unrelenting. It's always there. It ends with the letter "Y"

You got it!; IT'S FRIDAY!

And so, I'd like to take this time to rant about shit (cuz I'm so good at it), detail stories that confound me, and just have a little fun.

Firstly: RANTS.

I'm surrounded by people who like to hork back their phlegm. You read that right. People, grown-ups i might add, enjoy the sound of snorting back a sinus-cavity worth of mucus. This is not something that I, personally, understand. I get colds like the rest of us, but I do that thing.. what is it again? With a tissue?? Oh ya, BLOW MY NOSE!

First of all, Mr and Mrs Sicky-Fucking-People-At-Work, you shouldn't even be here. Why would I want to share in your misery.. and why do i want to listen to the mucus in your face rattle about like a disgusting blob of goo?!?!? (Graphic enough? - ya, try living it).

There are about 3 or 4 people in here that are constantly sniffing. and it bugs me ... A LOT!

Secondly. People who smoke! Those of you who have taken to smoking in your car, and flicking the butt out of the window so that it lands on my windshield, all nicely lit, and stinking up the inside of MY car?!?!? Ya.. FUCK OFF!!

If i wanted my car to stink like an ashtray, i'd pick up the habit myself, but seeing as how i HAVEN'T joined that club, I'd kindly (or not-so-kindly) like to ~~demand~~ ask that you keep your shit in your car! Thank you! I think i speak for most of the civilized non-smoking community when i say... it's GROSS, rude and unacceptable.

Finally, for you movie goers... the movie of the year, in my opinion, comes out this weekend. And we're going!!!!

Batman: The Dark Knight arrives today. We'll be going tomorrow .. WoOT!!! Can't wait.

I think this movie will be Heath Ledger's Legacy -- right here.. history in the making. It's supposed to top the $100-million dollar mark this weekend. And i believe it...

Ok, The Good Side Of Music.

2008-07-16T20:40:00.006-04:00

In the interest of sparing you all from the torture that was my last post.. i give you my latest purchases.

I know that not everyone shares my love for Hard Rock, and Alternative...
but seriously, Shinedown's new album is AMAZING... it's ground-breaking. It's out there.. It's the shit!
Not all of it is heavy heavy, tho' they did make an effort to be a little heavier on a few tunes.. but their writing is unbelievable.
If you like Nickleback, Theory of a Deadman, and that kinda stuff.. this is a must buy!

The next one i'm really hooked on .. is Disturbed's latest effort...
Man oh man, this album ROCKS!!
Awesome Lyrics.
Awesome Riffs.
Unbelievable tightness ( is that a word? )
Very very goood album.
It just makes me grit my teeth and bob my head forward and back to their groove. Awesome shit, if you're into that kinda thing.

I suggest giving the samples a listen on iTunes... and buying it, if you're in to that kinda thing.

Now - Motley Crue's latest CD... i was very encouraged by Nikki Sixx's "SixxAM" album, cuz it was AWESOME... and so i thought that, perhaps, i'd fall in love with The Crue's new work. I was disappointed.... A LOT! It sucked.
The music is great.. but i can't get past Vince Neil's voice.. it's whinny and doesn't meet the powerful riffs that come out of the rest of the band...
So if you want a deep taste of melancholy, angst and power.. Buy the Sixx:Am's album.

Last but, not least, another CD that i bought, kind of on a whim, was the new Offspring CD. now, i'm not A HUGE Offspring fan. But I do like some of their stuff. It's very melodic, while being cutting-edge and in your face... and that's what i like.. Their latest effort is very very good. I love it.

So there ya are.. my taste in music.. for what it's worth.. but this is the stuff i listen to, to calm me down during my shitty drive home..

Final Countdown: Earplugs required.

2008-07-16T09:47:00.001-04:00

Makes me proud to be a musician!!!

http://view.break.com/534656 - Watch more free videos

The weekend that was..

2008-07-11T15:25:00.005-04:00

And so - we've spent 5 nights in the new house, and i can honestly say, it did not take us long to feel 'at home' in our new home.
The other day, thursday i think, I asked Deb to do NOTHING with regards to the move. Despite the plethora of shit that still needed to be done, we'd been so exhausted that we were starting to burn out. So i asked her to enjoy the new house for a change; find some fun things to do with the space. So she went shopping, bought some "fowlers" (that's Deb-speak for "flowers").
When i got home, she was puttering around the gardens of 'fowlers', weeding the lawn - all the shit she loves to do to relax and calm herself. I'd never seen her happier. So i decided, myself, to change, pour myself a nice glass of scotch, put out the patio chairs, brought the birds outside with me, and sat down in the nice sunshine and relaxed. It was glorious.
Friday night we pretty much relaxed outside with the birds on the patio. I read Volume two of "HUSH: Batman" graphic book. Was awesome. The art was fantastic; story was great. (yes i'm a geek). Deb finished weeding the yard (it looks awesome now).

Saturday, we got up, had a coffee and then went outside to do more yardwork. I cut the cedar hedges at the front (needed to be done). In the process, i got about 5 mosquito bites (i guess that comes with the territory). WE cleaned the patio chairs, and then went shopping for steaks, beer and wine. (oh and vodka for Deb's Vodka-smoothies). My brother, Dan, came over - and so did my buddy Jeremy. We sat outside, enjoyed the warm weather, and did bbq! Mmmmm steaks!

Sunday was a rainy day. we took advantage of that by actually setting up the basement. The basement is now starting to look more like a home-office now. WE emptied a good chunk of the boxes. My desk looks full again. And Deb's machine is finally up and running.

Raymond finally came home to see the house for the first time. He was very excited as he took the tour. He got to see his new bed, and he was pretty pleased with that. More importantly, he wanted to get his tv set up in the basement so that he could play xbox, or gamecube, or just watch tv. So I helped him with that.

It was a great first weekend in our new house. And hopefully i'm done talking about the NEW HOUSE. I should be back to regular, non-house, posting after this.

Now - onto my geekiness, again.
There are some unbelievably great pictures coming back from Phoenix, the Mars Lander, as it tries to determine what kind of ice Mars has. And being a total space nut, I wanted to share this panoramic image that has taken over 38 sols (Sol=Mars days which is just over 24hours long.. in fact it's around 24 hours and 39 minutes long) to capture.

So - everyone, have a geeky week.

Update again..

2008-07-09T09:08:00.008-04:00

We are so tired. But - we're moved in to the new house.
Things are still a bit of a mess, but we got the living room finished last night, the dining room set up -- dishes are still being washed and put away. We got raymond's room nearly done. Our bedroom has a bed in it... but the furniture isn't quite set up yet. Cable TV works, and i got internet working last night.

The office isn't even close to being finished (i'll work on that tonight) .. but all in all, the move went very smoothly. For instance.. here's the office ... ya.. not even close to being done!

Here's part of the kitchen:

When we get the house done, i'll take some GOOD pictures with a good camera and post them.
For now - i'm hoping to sleep at my desk here... we still have so much more work to do..

The Move: UPDATE**

2008-07-07T13:32:00.009-04:00

Well, tomorrow's the big day. We're one day closer to living in our new spot - and i'm looking forward to having it done.
Right now, my mind is working 200 miles a minute, thinking about all the shit that needs to get done between now and tomorrow afternoon and it's mind-boggling.
Furthermore - i have to be at work - and so, Deb is forced to undertake alot of this on her own... which i do not envy her for that. She'll deal with movers in the morning, and i will take off early (like around 11am) tomorrow to be at the new house to help with pointing people in the right direction... And tomorrow is going to be a crazy day.
But let us start with our progress since the last move update.
On the weekend, we packed up our home-office, and purged nearly 4 full garbage bags of shit that we had stored in there over the last 8 years. That's a lot of shit! Tonight i'm going to dismantle my computers (of which we have 2 out of 5 still going) and load them into my trunk for the move tomorrow (no one touches my babies!).
We moved some dry & canned food to the new kitchen, as well as bought cleaning supplies to be ready to tidy things up once the movers are done with the place.
We bought Raymond a new bed for his new room (he doesn't know it yet) and my sister was nice enough to donate a single boxspring and matress for his new bed.. Mike Q and I picked that up yesterday afternoon and stored them - along with my Sword, all my band equipment and other miscellaneous shit that i can't remember into the garage at the new house.
Deb is at the new house today. The carpets were cleaned, and she's doing some dishes that she'd brought over yesterday.
Now - for tomorrow (move-day), we have the movers coming over around 9am to unload the old house. By the afternoon, we'll have the movers, Leons (who'll deliver our Fridge, wall-unit, bedroom set and Raymond's bed) - as well as our Cable dude to install our TV cable and internet -- and run some networking cables to the livingroom so that i can network the house. -- all this in one afternoon! It's gonna be Pandalirrium!!! Afterwhich, we have to get the kitchen somewhat working, our bedroom set up so we can sleep, the entertainment wall unit up, with all of my electronic set up -- and Raymond's bed put together. That is what I HOPE to have done by tomorrow.
Mike Q will help me with some of that, and my Mom and step-dad will be there to help as well..
I imagine i'll be so fucking tired & sore by the end of tomorrow, I'll wanna die rather than come to work on Wednesday.. But at least it'll be done.

After that - we have to get rid of the stove, a couch, an old tv and other pieces of furniture that will be left behind at the old house. then - we're done! And then, I'll relax in my nice full backyard on my 20' x 15' patio! Yip.. that'll be nice..

On another front - some more Urband legends were sent to me via email this morning - concerning, specifically the Darwin Awards for 2008. Of the multitudes of entries that i got to see - i'll share the top 3 that i liked.

#3: Sylvester Briddell, Jr., 26, was killed as he won a bet with friends who said he would not put a revolver loaded with four bullets into his mouth and pull the trigger.

#2: After stepping around a marked police patrol car parked at the front door, a man walked into H&J Leather & Firearms intent on robbing the store. The shop was full of customers and a uniformed officer was standing at the counter. Upon seeing the officer, the would-be robber announced a hold-up and fired a few wild shots from a target pistol. The officer and a clerk promptly returned fire, and several customers also drew their guns and fired. The robber was pronounced dead at the scene by Paramedics. Crime scene investigators located 47 expended cartridge cases in the shop. The subsequent autopsy revealed 23 gunshot wounds. Ballistics identified rounds from 7 different weapons. No one else was hurt.

#1 Most unfortunate death: Zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt ( Paderborn, Germany) fed his constipated elephant 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged-up pachyderm finally got relief. Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive oil enema when the relieved beast unloaded. The sheer force of the elephant's unexpected defecation knocked Mr. Riesfeldt to the ground where he struck his head on a rock as the elephant continued to evacuate 200 pounds of dung on top of him. It seems to be just one of those freak accidents that proves.... 'shit happens'

All of these, I imagine, are unconfirmed. But even if there's just the possibility of these being true - it makes for an entertaining read.

Bit of an update here... My boss was nice enough to give me the day off tomorrow - which means we can better organize the moves... yay!!! progress..

Mi casa; mi casa

2008-07-04T16:10:00.010-04:00

HOUSE UPDATE: As of 2:30pm this afternoon, the new house is officially ours.
The lawyers called me and told us that the Land Transfer was complete and the house is now in our name!
Woohooo!!!!! That part is OVER!

So - now that it's official, i feel i can share with you the layout of the house..
So if you look at the pics below, you'll see optional set ups for the house... we got all the upgrades... Bigger bathroom and bigger loft-type bedroom with cathedral ceiling (only we don't have a loft -- it's all inclosed (that's the only difference).

Once we've moved in - i'll actually post pics of the interior and the backyard.

First (Main) Floor.

Second Floor.

And Basement/Office Area.

For my Southern Neighbours.

2008-07-04T09:59:00.003-04:00

I'd just like to wish our American Neighbours a Happy, Safe & Enjoyable 4th of July!

And because we, Canadians, love to poke fun at ourselves alot of the time - and because we Canadians have to listen to Americans poke fun at us too..

I'd like to clear up a few misconceptions Americans have about Canadians, just for FUN!

We don't live in igloos, and not all Canadians know how to ice skate (though they should! :D)

Some people live in Boxes, tho! Does that count?

We don't have to worry about keeping our pets or kids indoors cause of polar bears roaming around in our back yards

This fact is becoming more and more true. in our area, bears ARE spotted in urban areas looking for food! Maybe not your children -- YET.

We don't keep beavers or moose as pets

We don't?

We don't know everyone who lives here, so don't ask if we know "Jon" from Canada

This is TRUE. I know JoHn -- but not a Jon!

We do have McDonald's here, and they don't serve McCaribou.

But we do have a McBuffalo-Butt burger. -- ok no we don't but wouldn't that be funny?

Fur trading is NOT our #1 industry

Nope.. Prostitution is...

We don't turn off the Niagara Falls at night

But what if we could? Would you then still think we're wimps?

We do have the same Christmas as you.

Now it's just a non-denominational holiday with a fat guy giving away presents yelling, "Lady-of-The-Evenin', Lady of the evenin', Lady of the Evenin'" -- that's a Larry the Cable Guy joke!!

Yes we have more then 1 TV station and we get the same Movies and TV shows as you

All in glorious High-Def, too!

It does get warm here in the summer, and the snow actually does melt.

We were worried for a while, there..

We don't find it hilarious when you ask us to say "EH" over and over again

What?? We LOVE that!! Nooo doot aboot it..

So - there - just poked a little fun at y'all!! but seriously, I have nothing but fond memories of all of my times i've spent in your nice country! Besides - your booze is cheap - and we canadians know how to drink!!! Long Live Drive Thru booze!

Happy FOURTH, USA!

Canada Day Fun; Move News

2008-07-02T10:13:00.003-04:00

To all the Canadians out there, Happy Canada Day.
We had a fun day off yesterday, spending it with some friends that live about an 30 minutes away. They live right on the Rideau river, a gorgeous spot for the kids to run around and be kids, and for the adults to sit on the peer, drinking in the sunshine while fishing. One fish was caught - and it was a big'un!
We went with my buddy Mike Q, and visited with Tasha and Tim (both of whom are musicians, and i've had the pleasure of playing with Tim on one occasion).
Tim and Tasha were unbelievably gracious, inviting us over for bbq, fishing, a day of relaxation, which, I can tell ya honestly, Deb really needed. For one day, we forgot about the move.
Mike and I had some good scotch too! Mmm.. very tasty.
Mike's hurt, you see. Bad back after helping Tasha and Tim move.. the pain was starting to get the better of him, and felt he needed to take a walk to loosen up. I know what it's like to be in contant pain. Between IBS and Plantaars Faciitis, I've done my share of suffering, and know that it can make you cranky, and frustrated. Especially when at a gathering like that, when you wish you could do more but you can't!
So i went walking through town looking for mike, found him walking down a road nearby and we decided to take a walk to one of the little bars with music coming out of it. Once n the bar - we ordered a couple of Double-Scotches Neat! Very nice.
We stayed there for about a half hour, ordering a couple of double-Irish mists ...
The most expensive half hour ever. The bill came to $80! Did i mention the scotch was good!??!
In any case. Once we walked out of there, Mike was in a far better mood - and the scotch and whiskey did the trick by numbing some of his pain. TO me, that was worth $80! Hey! What are friends for anyways?
Today, we're back to reality, and we're getting closer to the move-date.
It's getting very close, and we're just organizing the last little bits before taking the house over on Saturday.
We have a meeting with our lawyer tomorrow afternoon to put our downpayment down, pay taxes (cuz you can't get away from that) and legal fees.
I just found out today, that i HAVE to put a phone line in the house so that our security system will work. I was originally told it went through the cable system(I didn't understand that, but i didn't argue it either). Deb and I pay a lot of money to have Blackberry's , and frankly, land lines are wasted on us. All they are are outlets for Telemarketters to get a hold of you. After having a landline in my current house for 4 years, the only people calling me on that line were telemarketters and it was irritating.. so we cancelled it; and life has been far more harmonious since. I don't feel the need to bore the telemarketters with a fiction sob-story about how my wife beats me, and talking about the horrible drinking problems i have because of it - and how my children have a contract on my life, and how happy i am that they call me because if not for telemarketters calling me, I'd talk to no one... and how my car is rigged to explode when i start it - and I don't know who did that - but i'm sure it's rigged; I can't proove it - but when it didn't start on the first shot, last winter during the worse snow-storm in recent history - did you know that snow sucks and is very difficult to shovel when it's 4 feet deeps -- *Click*
Fucker hangs up on me every time! How rude!
So you see: I don't like having a land line.
We'll have to get one, but i'll be goddamned if i plug a phone into the outlet!! Ain't gonna happen.
Last Sunday we went to the new place and measured out some of the rooms to make sure that the furniture we bought - did indeed fit. We're pleased to report that we have a floorplan formulated and everything should look awesome. I really can't wait to move in - and use that backyard.. what a yard... it's gonna be awesome.
So - now i'm gonna go back to hibernating here at work (the last place i really wanna be).
Have a good one! (ONE what? I dunno - but if you get a ONE, I hope it's good)

The Proof is on The Lawn!

2008-06-26T11:42:00.002-04:00

Yip that's all the shit we're throwing out ... THIS WEEK.
More to go next week!

The Countdown!

2008-06-25T15:22:00.009-04:00

Today's Blog-post will cover a few things.
1) The move.
2) Shopping!
3) The weekend that was (which fucking sucked)
4) More news on my Ficlets.

1) The Move: The Countdown is on people. LilDeb has made a huge dent in our packing this past weekend. AS it is, our house is a virtual maze and obsticle course. Walking around in the dark at night - it's hard not to stub your toe! I don't think the birds really know what's going on... (There's a stretch -- ok THEY DON'T ok??!?)

2) On Shopping: Yes.. with every move comes spending gobs and gobs of money to make your new home a little classier. In our case, we're buying our first house.. and so - alot of the furniture and appliances that we currently have are OLD, shoddy and simply would not go with the decor of the new place. So - we bought a ton of shit!
On the shopping list was: New wall-unit for the living-room. New Couch (10 feet long - oh ya.. don't go small!!). New bedroom furniture for the master bedroom. New refrigerator ... nice stainless steel look - digital everything. Fuckin' nice!! I think the fridge is the most exciting thing for me about this move!! ahahaha. (Check that .. getting a fuckin' awesome backyard is the most exciting thing). In total we spent just a little under $6000. Not bad all things considered.

3) The weekend that was!
Well, suffice it to say, I was very very unhappy on Saturday night. I mean, friday was great. LilDeb and played Rockband and shared a few laughs over a few pints of beer. Was a good, nice, relaxing night. Saturday came around, we did rockband again, my sister came over and we watched Happy Feet, which, if you haven't seen it yet, go rent it! Laughed my ass off! And performances by Nicole Kidman, Robin Williams (Who did 3 voices in this one), Elijah Wood (who's the main bird), and Hugh Jackman were awesome. I can't remember the other girls name in the movie. Once you watch that one, get Surf's Up - another penguin movie - and laugh yer ass off in that one too! Anyways - got a little derailed there.
So, saturday, right! I had to play on saturday, and by 5pm that afternoon, i was really jacked about playing. The band had been out of action for a month, pending our inevidible breakup, come December 6th - and we were playing at one of my favorite bars to play in. We call it the CT!
The first of the disastrous things that happened that night: Our bass player didn't show up. WE ended up having to play as a foursome with our keyboardist/rhythm guitar guy having to play his guitar all night like a bass guitar. For those that don't know much about that stuff.. it can be done - but it really really doesn't sound the same. IT's JUST enough to get by, but there's absolutely no groove; no really good feel to the music. It sounds very empty. Which was the second disastrous thing ...
Because the sound isn't right, none of us, no matter how good we were, couldn't get any mojo while playing. THat punch was gone. We literally went through the motions. Imagine ACDC with no guts! Hard to play Funk Music without a good bass-riff thrown in there. I had to hand it to our Keys/Guit guy... he did everything he could.. but an Epiphone 335 guitar is no match for a good 5 string Fender Bass when it comes to gutsy sound.
Disaster three came at the end of the night. My ol'man was determined to finish the night at 1:30am. On saturday nights, the crowds are quiet, having partied a ton the night before (this is why we don't accept alot of saturday night gigs at this place). At 1:10am or thereabouts, we did "Save a horse, Ride a cowboy" which is great song to get people into screaming out lyrics. WE had lots of people dancing - they were enjoying the music, but when we tried to get them to sing, "Save a horse; Ride a cowboy" parts .. we could hear a pin drop! So we just said, 'fuck it - we'll pack up and put an end to our misery!'.
Two guys in the crowd (drunks for certain) got pissed! We got off the stage at 1:35am .. and they wanted us to play until 1:45am .. "hey all the other bands do it.. you guys suck!"
Yes .. see? that's how you get the band to perform for you!! You insults us. We're just pieces of meat right? And playing music for 4 to 5 hours is EASY.. let's be honest... setting up all that equipments at 7pm - so that we can have a 9:30pm start - pffft... piece of CAKE! *pls, note sarcasm*
So when people are beligerant like that.. we pretty much tell 'em to fuck off! And we did.
But one guy wouldn't let it go! He was yelling at each of us individually, and frankly, I don't care. Let's the drunk motherfucker swear at me all he wants! I couldn't give a rat's ass! But it's when he started in on me, pointing to LilDeb, saying, "Ya.. just go shag your bitch .."
At that moment - something in my head snapped! I started to imagine all the different ways I could inflict a world of pain on this man. Like there was no measure of restraint that someone could put on me that would stop me from ripping this fucker's face off.
I was in shock. I was in complete disbelief that this idiot decided to make a band finishing 10 minutes early, his own personal mission to make a personal attack on someone who wasn't even involved. The guy had spent 10 minutes insulting us -and when he couldn't get a rise out of us.. he attacked my spouse! His strategy worked. I was INCENSED!
So I said.. "Well that wasn't polite!" Like i said, my brain was working so fast on ways to kill him, my mouth didn't know what to say!
The one thing i DO HAVE, however, is a healthy fear of being arrested for hurting someone.
I've never been in a fight, because of that. I tend to outsmart, rather than out-muscle... but this time, something primal in me didn't wanna think about being intelligent and witty. And so I turned around, and did the JOB. I packed up my guitars. I folded cables. I put my mics away. Stowed my guitar-amp.
I remember lildeb trying to talk to me. I ignored her.. that was best! Because, inside, I'd snapped! I'd lost control! Inside my head, i was all a rage!

His friend, in the meantime, decided that he should further voice his disappointment to me about us finishing 10 minutes early! REMEMBER FOLKS... WE FINISHED EARLY FOR THE AMOUNT OF TIME IT WOULD TAKE TO PLAY 2 TUNES! had they been polite, appreciative and eager to participate, we would have done it. But they were rude, beligerant fucks! So as I collected my water bottles off the floor, and walked them to the bar to throw them out, he's telling me again, other bands play till 'a quarter to..' and that he didn't get why we would have stopped. It was, afterall, only two more songs or so. He told me that i had a shitty attitude cuz i was ignoring him. So i said, in the most quiet voice that i had..
"We stopped at 1:30. It's what we do! Don't like it? The door is at the front of the building. Use it and be best to leave me the fuck alone, before i decide to do to you what i wanna do to your friend there! Don't like us? Good.. Don't come back! Who needs people like you watching us anyways. ' i started walking away, "Rude fucks!"
The guy never said another word! but he and his other friend gave me the eyes all night. I was good at ignoring that with a smile.
I practically begged someone to swing at me. I never got my wish!
Like I said, I never fight. Fighting doesn't enter my mind, ever! And so - i don't know how to deal with this. For some people, they shrug it off. I can't. I haven't slept a night since. I've been in a foul mood since Saturday night. I don't feel guilty. I'm protecting my family. There's nothing for me to be guilty about. Something instilled in my inner-psyche since the dawn of time wants me to tear that fucker apart. I feel cheated that i didn't get to impose my will on him.
Now, small things piss me off. Before i sleep every night, my mind wanders back to that night. And it starts to formulate different ways to hurt this man. My heart races. I get anxious. My bloodpressure soared. And I get mad all over again. By 3am, my gut wakes me up, like i'm nervous about something. It's weird.
It's a damned good thing that i'm not playing there for two months.. cuz if i see the guy.. i'd go have words with him - and push him into a confrontation, I know, i'll regret.
So the weekend TOTALLY FUCKING SUCKED!!!
Now onto more pleasant things. Wrote a few more stories at ficlets today. I will leave you with one today. The theme of this ficlet was to write a story 1024 characters long, inspired by the lyrics of a song that you like.
I chose a song by Dio called; Invisible.
Story inspired by these lines:
“The only way, to really stay, is to walk right out the door,
“You can go away, You can Leave here,
“I can be invisible and go away.”
and:
“You never touch me you never feel me you’ll never see me again because I’ve just become unseen”
So i called the Ficlet:

INVISIBLE:

The mirror never lies. That is why she never looks into it. But it’s high-time she faced herself and the damage he’d done. Gaining courage from the blood-stained porcelain sink, she looks up at a battered version of herself. A left eye is swollen shut, a tear sqeezing past burried eyelashes. Her lip is split and bleeding. Her cheeks are bruised, black, and blue.
She weeps.
The razor blade glints in the afternoon sunlight, peeking through the half-opened bathroom window. Her trembling fingers reach for it, and stop.
No! She won’t. Not for him! Not because of him! Why martyr him!
The only way she can stay in this world, is to walk right out the door! Leave!!
“You’ll never touch me again. Or see me!” she offers herself a small grin, “I’ll just become invisible!”
She turns from her reflection and makes for the bedroom. She packs a bag with essentials and makes for the kitchen.
Dousting the pilot light on the stove, she turns the gas on, lights a candle, and walks out the door.
The explosion was glorious.

Have a good Humpday!

Sad Day.

2008-06-23T14:09:00.003-04:00

George Carlin has left us! I've been a fan of George Carlin's for 20 years. His rants on the Human Condition and his unique take on how we use language are legendary!

and so i give you: George... click on the picture to Teleport to Youtube!!! And get ready to see the light!

Make The Devil Cry.

2008-06-20T09:45:00.004-04:00

Hey all!
As most of your know - i write stories. I've written many many stories. Some novels. Some poetry. And some short stories, too - called Ficlets.
Ficlets is a place where you can write a series of short stories limited to 1024 characters long. (that includes spaces). This limits your word count, while still trying to get your point across, and it makes for a very interesting writing experience.

I'm very new at Ficlets.com, having only written 40 ficlets myself (some have written over 400.. I'm a newb!) However, I did just finish my first series, and I'm very proud of what i've accomplished so far. There is something about finishing a project that just makes you feel great!!!

This series was inspired by a Black Sabbath song called: The Devil Cried. A sorted story that has a man condemned to hell, and has a chance at redemption if he could just make the Devil shed a single tear.

Here are the lyrics:

One fine day in Hell
The master told a story
Someone lied so well
He sent him back to Glory

There are whispers between the screams
That this deed can be done
Even sinners must dream
And I can be the one to make the Devil cry

I can win this game
If all things come together
I know this sounds quite strange
I won't be smart, just clever

It's the law on the other side
Just a tear lets you run
And how many have tried?
I know I'll be the one to make the Devil cry

At last my time has come
I must not give him pleasure
I can be the one
One chance or burn forever

So I told him about my pain
And the life I've been through
He just smiled and the laughter came
Then I told him that I love you, and the Devil cried

Tears from his eyes
Eyes of fire
And the Devil cried

I wanted to take a stab at actually documenting the journey this man undergoes to have his one chance at "Glory!", and now i wanna share it with you.
As you read this - each section is a single ficlet, 1024 characters or less. It took me about a month to write. I hope you enjoy it - and look forward to commentary about how fucking twisted I am.

---------

And the Devil Cried:
By: Al Rozon

The smell of burning flesh woke me with a start. It took a few seconds for the searing pain to subside. I focused my eyes on the blazing fires that surrounded me, with brimstone highways oozing sulphuric gases that choked the air. The skies bled lava out of crimson clouds. A soundtrack of tortured screams sailed in the hot wind amidst His laughter.
Just another fine day in Hell.
Where in Hell, tho’ was I?
You could never tell where you’d end up at your awakening and there was little time. He had no doubt dispatched His seekers to hunt me down and bring me back; a game we had played for 200 years, for His, Demonias’ amusement. It was my punishment for a mortal life of murder and thievery, my torture.
I ran through smoke and fire towards Abyssal foothills to my right, each step making a sickly hiss. I’d hope for shelter there in buried catacombs below the surface. I was going to hide there for a spell. If I got lucky, I’d find the undercity.
Then I heard the demonic howls over the ridge.
They’d found me.

A distant rumble shook the ground beneath my feet, as I dove into a cave. The stampede of hooved feet tromped past. There had to have been 50 seekers out there. I scurried into the shadows, saying, “He’s pulled out all the stops this time,”
That’s when I realized that I was alone.
“Who isn’t?”
My heart lept into my throat, my vision went red, as a low growl echoed from my chest. Through adrenaline fogged eyes, I saw hands raised defensively.
“Please,” said the voice. The rage in my breast calmed. With ragged breath i managed a query,
“Who are you? what do you want?” my throat was dry as sand.
“To hide,” replied he, “just to hide,” the man wept, “I don’t know where i am; i’m lost. This place..” he gulped between sobs, “is…wrong!”
“Welcome to Hell.” I spat, training an ear outside, “If you wish to die quickly tonight, you best be ready to run.”
A dumbed look befit my new-found friend.
“Hell, how?”
“You’re dead. And you’ll die again, tonight, and every night hereafter, unless…”
“Unless?”

I’d said too much already. Initiating a newcomer was the last thing I needed. I wanted to get to the undercity.
“Unless what?” he pushed.
“Unless you can earn redemption,” I replied.
A great roar came from the mouth of our little hideaway, and I knew the jig was up. I’d been found.
“What the hell is that?”
“A seeker,”
Seekers were Demonias’ pets. Twice the size of a normal man with twisted billy-goat horns, the maw of a lion, eyes of a hawk, the body of a man, and hooved feet and legs of a horse. It’s teeth were long, and dripping with acid, it’s breath worse still. Its arms were tree-trunks, and rippling with sinew and unnatural balls of muscle. Seekers were His twisted creation to find runners and bring them back to his Throne for punishment; a slow & fiery death.
By the strike of midnight, the awakening brings one back to do it all again! Twisted fuck.
I searched the floor for a stone or stick.
And then it occured to me,
“Take us. I wish to make a trade”
“What?!” shouted my companion

“Running is futile. There are seekers everywhere.” I said to my companion, “It seems the Devil takes great pleasure in my suffering,”
“What’s your trade?”
“You!” i said frankly.
His eyes were saucers. There was sheer terror on the man’s face, “No,” the scream was primal, “No, you… you stay away from me. I don’t even know you.. I’m not dying for you?”
“Dying? You’re already dead. This is hell,”
I reasoned, “It’s our way into the UnderCity.”
“What good is that to me?” he asked.
“A way to get redeemed. A way out!” he stared blankly at me, “Do you know what that means?” His head shook. He still did not believe. His mind was still caught in the Over-World. “You have a chance to be reborn! I can help you. But first, you must help me!”
“How?” he was caving.
“What’s your name?”
“Benjamin,”
“Ben, my name is Laurence. If you allow me to trade you for a chance at redemption, I will tell you the story. You will at least have a chance to leave here!”
Ben thought a minute, then, “Will it hurt?”
“Of course!”

The Seeker roared his displeasure. Clearly, waiting was not something they did. With a searing touch that burned my flesh, I was hauled out of the cave with Benjamin ensnared into the other talon.
“I haven’t agreed, yet,” he shouted.
“I don’t think they care, Benny-boy!” I smirked.
“You promised to help me, right .. you’ll tell me the story,”
“Yes. The story must continue,” I said.
The story had to continue. Or else redemption was impossible.
With an incomprehensible command, a ring of fire rose from the brimstone, that acrid taste of sulphur coated my tongue. I spat. But it was all in vain. Inside the ring was a vortex. That was the gateway. That was the key! That had been my quest for 200 years less a day. The way to the Undercity.
Despite the burning welts on my flesh, I allowed myself to be pushed through, and as the hot winds of Hell’s Magic surrounded me, and pushed me down into the depths of the abyss, tears flowed from my eyes as I cried tears of joy for the first time in 2 centuries.

“Where are we?” Benny asked.
It was darker here. An acrid sulphuric cloud hung in the air, burning my eyes. We stood at the center of lava-island, lined with Demonias’ slaves.
I shrugged.
“On the road to the UnderCity, maybe?” I was unsure.
There was no happiness in this place. Only moaning, screams and suffering. The air was oppressive.
Our escorts pushed us into a caged carriage, pulled by fiery bull-like, fanged, creatures. With a whip-crack, we were on the move.
“Where are you taking us. I demand..”
I stopped Ben, “You don’t demand here, man!” I said, “You’re in their world, now.”
“I shouldn’t be here,” he said, “I was an accountant.”
“Not a very good one, if you landed here, Benny-boy!” I laughed.
“Who is this Demonias?!” he wondered. “What does he want?”
“Satan. The Devil. Belial. Lord of the Underworld. He goes by many names. On this plane, he’s known as Demonias. And it is I that wants to speak with HIM ”
“What?! Are you crazy?”
I smiled, “200 years down here will fuck you up, Ben,”

Benjamin’s eyes went wide, convinced of my insanity, “Why would you go out of your way to meet The Devil?”
“Redemption, Benny, redemption,” I said, “Trust me when I say: After 200 years in this Hell-hole, you’ll do anything to get out. Even it means not being near Him,”
“You WANT to be near Satan?”
“When in His presence, you, too, will be in Awe of Him. There is none more beautiful, none more powerful, none more worthy of your devotion than Demonias,” I said factly, “He is opposite to the domain over which he rules. If not for his porpensity for torturing all the souls that roam his Kingdom, I would gladly stay by His side. But..” I winced at a memory.
We rode in silence for a spell. I stared at the passing barren landscape.
“But?” Ben pressed.
I sighed, “I’ve burned to my death over 72,000 times; each burning more painful than the last. You say I’m insane. I’m not sure you’d have fared so well in my place,”
“Tell me about redemption,”
I nodded and began The Story.
“It starts with the Masters…”

The Master’s Stories were legendary, and they spoke of a man who lied so well, The Devil wept and sent him back to glory. None knew what he’d said. None cared, for the Dark Lord’s wrath could be felt on all 9 planes of Hell in the years that followed. Dark chasms split down into the hissing abyss, as The Dark Lord’s thirst for more souls became a dark obsession. Some say, Demonias created his favorite vassel that day. A man so dark of soul, so twisted, that the entire overworld went to war to stop him.
World War II, the greatest chess match ever to be played by Demonias and The Man Upstairs!
“And so you will try to make the Devil cry?” Benny asked.
“That is what I said!”
“That’s impossible!”
“Not impossible; only improbable. But I believe that where thousand have failed, I will be successful,”
“How?”
“By being clever and telling Him the truth. No more lies,”
“And what will you tell Him?”
“Those words are for Him alone!”
“How will you get close enough to speak with Him?”
“You are the key,”

Benny and I were taken into the land of the Hisskans, on the edge of the Under-City. Hisskan were cruel & violent servants of Demonias, whose scaley bodies rippled with muscle and sinew, and whose heads split with the maw of a lizard. Their eyes were beady and as black as their hearts.
I was close now.
“How can I be the key? I just got here,”
“Demonias takes his pleasure on The Hunt. Out of the millions of souls he governs, less than a thousand of us serve him as The Hunted.”
“I don’t think I like that sound of that,”
“It beats the alterative of being the kindling for His fires!” I smiled sardonically, enjoying the fear on Benny’s face far too much, “The Hunted are honored here, the untouchables. For to deny Demonias The Hunt is to bring down your own pain and suffering the likes of which you cannot imagine.” My heart sored with pride at that moment, and i could feel my chin and my lips tighten. “I will miss it,”
“The Torture? you are crazier than i thought!!” said Benny.
“No, Serving Him!”

“You will wait here,” hissed a hisskan; they all looked the same to me. Their scales were rank with death, their breath reaked of flesh.
Benny gagged.
We did not protest as we were pushed into anti-chamber. A symphony of agony was all about us. Cries of pain, shrill shreaks of fear and torment echoed in the halls.
I felt at home; at peace. For too long had I run.
“What do i have to do?” asked Benny. He was anxious. I, for one, envied him. To see Demonias for the first time, for me, had been an overwhelming experience.
“For me to have my audience with The Dark Lord, I must offer him a gift: You. And you must accept the gift that I will bestow upon you.”
“To become a Hunted!” Benny nodded, getting it, finally.
“Yes. From this day forward, you will be hunted throughout Demonias’ realms and should you elude them, your death, at two minute till midnight, will be swift. By the strike of midnight you will undergo The Awakening.”
Benny frowned, “And it will start all over again!”
“Yes!”

Benny sat limply at my feet. “all I did was launder money,” he smiled weakly up at me, “And now look at what’s in front of me,”
“Yup! Hell’s a bitch, Benny-boy!”
“If I’m caught? What happens?”
“You burn for a Hell-Day, until the next midnight”
Benjamin would burn alright! There was no warrior in him. He would not be much of a quarry. My new friend, Benny here, would learn horrible suffering, I was sure of it.
My lips curled in to a smile.
I turned my back on him, and took to staring at the door. Behind it was Demonias. Trading one soul for mine was nothing new to a murderer like me. I killed for sport in the Overworld. But 200 years in this place changes you. I found myself torn. Oh i didn’t pity Benny-boy, here, or sympathize. I didn’t know this man, from Adam. I didn’t care if he burned forever. He was my meal-ticket. Nor did I envy the torture that he will, undoubtedly undergo.
No, I envied the proximity that he would have to Him, while I would all but forget Him. Forget His fire. His power.

Hours passed, and Benjamin sat, brooding, in the shadows. My mind spilled over the words that I would speak to Demonias. My words had to be powerful but not too dramatic. I had to choose them wisely. I could not give Him pleasure. I could not show Him pity or beg forgiveness. Such contrivences would only make Him laugh. No,I would be cunning, I thought to myself, using truth as my dagger.
I could not fail as other had before me. The alternative was too horrible to imagine.
“Tell me,” Benny started me out of my ravery, “If you are a Hunted, that means that you were once offered to the Devil as a gift, yes?”
“There you go, Benny, you’re not as stupid as you look,” I crossed my arms, nodding “My benefactor sought the same salvation as I do, now. I was just like you; lost. I don’t even remember how I’d died. He told me the stories and convinced me to take the Oath of the Hunted.”
“What happened to him,”
“No one knows, but i hear his screams of agony from time to time,” I said, “No second chances, Benny-boy!”

Benny stood and chuckled, “I don’t know if I should admire your courage or think you’re a fool!”
“It takes being a fool to fully understand courage, Benny-boy. The sooner you embrace that, the better things will be for you here!” I said, slapping the accountant on the shoulder. I shook my head, and bit my upper lip. my mouth formed a painful grimace, “Don’t admire me. I know what lies ahead of you. By this time tomorrow, you will hate me!”
“What makes you think I don’t hate you already!”
For the first time, I saw a glint of fire in Benny’s eyes. I nodded and smiled, “That’s better!”
I showed him my right palm. There, burned into my flesh, was the mark of The Hunted: Crosshairs. “You will be branded. You may want to prepare for the pain,”
The door to the anti-chamber openned. A hisskan stood in the door way. It hissed at me,
“He will see you. Is this your gift to Him,”
“It is!”
A second lizardman entered and took Benny away.
“wait?. where?”
“Are you ready?” the hisskan asked me.
“I was born ready,”

The halls of the Under City were made of gold, onyx and marble with fountain of liquid fire, and teaming with horned demons, succubus and hellhounds. Here, the screams of the tortured were incessant. One cry fell in harmony with the next like an organ of agonized souls playing a tune of melancholy and sadness. A song of the dead.
Ectophantasms danced in etheral winds before the throne. And upon it..
My breath caught in my throat. A tear fell from my eye. Feeling His presence so close brought an overwhelming joy to my heart, I’d not felt in 200 years.
“Laurence Kane!” came Demonias voice, and I trembled before it. My body crumbled to the marble floor as i genuflected before him.
“My Lord!” was all I could muster.
“Stand before me and look on me,”
“I am unworthy!” I replied.
“Yes you are!”
I stood and forced my gaze upon his magnificance. He’d chosen a human form. Tall, lithe, sinewy with an angular, beautiful face, framed by jet-black long hair. His eye glinted of fire.
“But I obey,” I said.

“You have come for the Right of Passage!” said the devil.
“I have!”
“I will not be without my prey,” His eyes burned and his voice boomed throughout the halls sending fear through all gathered.
The Hisskan brought Benny in shackles. I smiled as the accountant beheld Demonias’ great majesty for the first time. He wept openly. This pleased the Dark Lord.
“My new toy!”
“Yes, My Lord,” I answered, “I beseech you to accept this offer. He will be easy prey for the young seeker!”
“A thoughtful gift! A wise choice. I grant you your Right!”
I glowed. It was time. This is what I’d come to do. Redemption would be mine if I played this right.
“The Right of Passage has been invoked,” cried a lower-demon – and roars bellowed from all sides of me as the audience of Masters, Slavers, Seekers, Hisskans and Lost Dark Phantoms came around to see The Devil Cry.
Countless thousands had tried.
Those souls, now, lit the fires of Hell.
Would I be the next candle burning in the pits?
A hush fell.
And Demonias spoke.

“I’ve not wept in millenia, my legion! But this one soul has come believing that I will shed a tear for him. It is The Right of Passage. Should I cry, he will once again, have a chance at glory! If he fails. He will burn forever!”
A cheer filled the hall.
“What say you, Hunted!” bade the Devil.
I told Him of my life in the Over-World. I told Him of my pains. I told Him of the suffering He’d put me through. I showed Him the scars He’d left upon my fallen soul and showed Him the black stain He put within my heart.
And, then, I waited.
Only His laughter split the air, “You pethetic soul,” He said to me.
And I waited.
“Your suffering entertains me, Fool!” he said, “Your pain is my joy! Your scars are my mark upon you to show you that you are mine. I rule over you, Hunted, because it pleases me to impose my will upon you,”
He stood over me. And I felt triumphant. I wept as I saw my victory.
“And for all of my pain and suffering I realize that .. I love you, My Lord”
And the Devil Cried.

The Devil Cried: Epilogue

The shrill scream filled the hospital room.
“Push honey!” came her husband’s encouragment.
“I AM PUSHING , for Christ Sakes, Peter!” Ellen shouted, “it hurts.. it hurts… I can’t do this. I’m tired.”
The OBGYN , a portly woman, Dr. Hadenweis, reported, “I can see the head. It won’t be much longer. I need you to bear down one more time!”
“I can’t,” Ellen’s body quaked as another contraction spilled over her. She took Peter’s hand and sqeezed it. She tried to breathe (those lamaze classes were full of shit!)
With another push she felt a tear and the head pop. She stopped pushing as she was ordered. And with one final contraction, she gave her last push and felt euphoria.
The baby cried.
Hadenweis laughed. “He’s gorgeous!”
Peter wept. “He’s beautiful. We made a boy, Ellen. I love you!”
Hadenweis wrapped the child and handed him to the new mother. “Have you a name?”
“Laurence!” nodded Ellen. “Laurence Kane Smith,”
Peter nodded, “Merry Christmas, honey,”
It was two minutes to midnight.

The END !

Somethings are just plain Stupid!

2008-06-17T13:50:00.003-04:00

In my daily ritual of searching the internets (s in intentional, there) for news and craziness in our world, there are times i stumble upon the nuttiest stories, that i simply need to share with all of you -- but i'm forever a student of odd human behavior.
We men are useless when it comes to doing laundry -- We KNOW that; we embrace it as our own personal quirks. My ineptitude at doing laundry is enough to send LilDeb into OCD convulsions. That being said, it's not to say that we are INCAPABLE of doing laundry. How fucked up would you have to be to call your ex-significant-other in to do your laundry?
Would that person even bother to come in a do it for you?
WHat would happen if that person didn't feel like doing your laundry anymore?
One Roman guy has the answer:

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian man was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend from a pub, taking her home and forcing her to iron his clothes and wash the dishes, police said Monday.
The 43-year-old man dragged the woman out of a pub in the port city of Genoa, shoved her into a car and took her to his home where he made her iron and wash dishes after threatening her, they said.
Police arrived at his house after being tipped off by a friend of the woman who watched the scene at the pub.
The man, who was apparently furious at his ex-girlfriend for leaving him, was arrested on charges of kidnapping, police said.

And just when you think kidnapping your ex to do your chores is crazy... just think that Romanians can do better.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - The residents of a Romanian village knowingly voted in a dead man as their mayor in Sunday's municipal election, preferring him to his living opponent.
Neculai Ivascu, 57, who ran the village for almost two decades, died from liver disease just after voting began -- but still won the election by a margin of 23 votes.
A local official said the authorities decided to keep the poll open in case Ivascu's opponent, Gheorghe Dobrescu, won, avoiding the need for a re-run.
"I know he died, but I don't want change," a pro-Ivascu villager told Romanian television.
In the end, election authorities gave the post to the runner-up, but some villagers and Ivascu's party, the powerful opposition Social Democrat Party (PSD), have called for a new vote.

C'mon!!!!! I know he died, but i don't want change?!??!?!! Are you fucking serious?!?!? THe guy's DEAD you fucking idiots!!!! ok ok... here's one!: if the guy is DEAD.. ok??? are you with me.. he's dead right?? Ok.. so IF -- LET'S JUST GO WITH IF HE'S DEAD... HOW WILL HE GOVERN???? NOBODY'S MAYOR??? I'D SAY THAT A BIG FUCKING CHANGE THERE SPARKY!!!

*takes pulse*
*Calms himself down*
*reaches in to his desk for bottle of scotch and takes a haul*

I can see why the EX-MAYOR died of liver disease... Sorry sack of shit had to be drunk every day to listen to his constituants complain about nothing!!! If you served stupid people like that, you'd be a alcoholic too!!!

It Hurts; can ya lick it?

2008-06-16T09:59:00.003-04:00

The title is COMPLETELY unrelated to anything. Well, sorta.
I hurt in places i didn't think existed. My brother moved on Saturday, and I helped him move. It was hot an humid on Saturday, and we had to carry his shit 3 flights of stairs (no elevators). Luckily it was quick (my brother doesn't own a lot of stuff), but still i completely overheated.
Having once suffered from Heat-Stroke, I know what it feels like to have it coming on, so I went home and took a long cold shower to cool my head down. I went so far as to put an ice-pack, and a wet-doyley on my head to keep cool. As funny-looking as I was, it worked, and i woke up Sunday morning feeling pretty refreshed. I wasn't even hurting from the move yesterday...
Today's a different story. My shoulders and the back of my arms are killing me.
Father's day was yesterday (as everyone should know -- if you didn't -- WARNING). As we do every year, we take a walk up the street to the Italian Festival, where they have Bike Races every year on Father's Day. IT's a great opportunity for the ladies to watch tight-bodied bikers zoom past at 40 miles an hour while we, men, eat and drink. Yesterday's races were very exciting as two really bad thunderstorms came through the area.
When it rained... IT RAINED... in bucket-loads. The lightning was all around us - and one even struck a telephone poll a block away (to say the boom was loud is an understatment.) You know it's close when you can hear it sizzling on the way down before the strike.
But the bikers forged on, however racing in the deluge.
It was still fun, despite the rain. We ate some of the best mussels i've had this year. Shared some laughs with my ol'man - drank copius amounts of wine and BASS beer... was good.
Today, being a Monday, i'm automatically pissy, because i hate mondays. But i'm just plain tired! LilDeb got today off - and I'd say she's really lucky but, I know she's packing today so that's not all the fun it's cracked up to be, people! I know packing for a move sounds fun!! I know you'd all love to be her right now... but it's NOT fun at all!!

On a Sports front! Dale Jr. finally won a race this weekend!!! AND I MISSED IT. Why? Because no fucking station up here carried the race!!!! Pisses me off. For half the year, Fox gives great Nascar coverage in HD - and the second half of the season, TNT carries it, and we don't get it up here in Canada... so we're dependant on TSN to carry the feed... only Golf was more important this week - so i missed the one Race i would have liked to have seen!!!!! Cock-Knockers!

But.. all that aside... Congrats to Jr. Glad he's finally got his win. Now he can go on and win 5 or 10 more!! WoOt...

Mayhem Minute & Geek Talk

2008-06-13T14:12:00.004-04:00

Hey Folks. ALRO here to, once again, bring you tales of Human Stupidity and Craziness. Near the end, however, i will ragale you with signs of my brilliance as I educate, you the reader, with some Geek Talk!
My first story of interest takes us to Singapore - where, I'm startng to find out how a lot of fucking weird poeple in it (i must go there some day!!!!), where a man has been jailed for 20 years and is to be caned 18 times for .. *gulp* .. SNIFFING ARMPITS.
C'mon man?!? What kinda fucking social life can you possibly have, that is so bad, that you've taken to sniffin' someone sweaty pit?!? *Gag* something in that isn't right! Kinda the same as sniffing ass-crack isn't it?? TO each his own, I guess!

Let's see.. what other insanity is going on in the world, that you just have to know about!??!

Oh yes... This little tid-bit (or terd-bit)... from the Darwin Awards website:

(21 May 2004, Texas) Michael was an alcoholic. And not an ordinary alcoholic, but an alcoholic who liked to take his liquor, well, rectally. His wife said he was "addicted to enemas" and often used alcohol in this manner. The result was the same: inebriation.

The machine shop owner couldn't imbibe alcohol by mouth due to a painful throat ailment, so he elected to receive his favourite beverage via enema. And tonight, Michael was in for one hell of a party. Two 1.5 litre bottles of sherry, more than 100 fluid ounces, right up the old address!

When the rest of us have had enough, we either stop drinking or pass out. When Michael had had enough (and subsequently passed out) the alcohol remaining in his rectal cavity continued to be absorbed. The next morning, Michael was dead.

The 58-year-old did a pretty good job of embalming himself. According to toxicology reports, his blood alcohol level was 0.47%.

In order to qualify for a Darwin Award, a person must remove himself from the gene pool via an "astounding misapplication of judgment." Three litres of sherry up the butt can only be described as astounding. Unsurprisingly, his neighbors said they were surprised to learn of the incident.

Nice going ASS-HAT!!

Now for our Geek Talk.
in the endless search for a good Internet browser, whether you're a M$ hater and love open-source software.. or just looking for something new and cool, i present to you, Opera 9.5.

I've started using Opera full time now, as it give me all the functonality that I get from Avant Browser but tons more stability. Lately, Avant Browser which has been my defacto Browser for nearly 6 years, has become increasingly more unstable. IT locks up alot, doesn't close properly. Sucks up a WHACK of system resources. Granted, Opera can use up a lot of RAM too, but nowhere near as bad as Avant or IE.

Esthetically speaking, it's sexy - and allows you to choose where the Tab Bar is to be placed: Top, Bottom - the side - whatever. Installation is quick and easy. Importing Bookmarks from other browsers is seemless.. but one of the cool features is the "Speed Dial" feature, where when you open a new page, it give you 9 blocks that you set with your 9 most visited websites. For a guy like me - that's awesome!!!

For it's stability, cool features, and a pop-up blocker that actually works -- i love the new opera. It's better than Firefox (which i am NOT a fan of!) and has superceded my love for Avant Browser.

There's your geek talk... and YOUUUUUUURR Mayhem Minute!
Have a good weekend all!

Wedding Bliss..

2008-06-09T11:43:00.005-04:00

At least for my sister.
WE finally did it - we married her off... (like we had anything to do with it!).
Last Friday, my sister and her hubby finally got married amid controversy and a lot of stress... but it went - pretty much without a hitch.
Ok.. the groom was still in jeans and t-shirt setting up the dj booth at the wedding time - but that's all good!!! in 15 minutes (hear that ladies --- FIFTEEN minutes), he was ready to go.

So - i'd like to take this space to welcome Mike to our family and wish them both happiness... and marital bliss!

We had a blast at the wedding reception and dinner. The food was awesome. Music was great. Everyone had fun! that's what it's all about.

Even Raymond got a job that night working the lights for the DJ..

And LilDeb was gorgeous.

R.I.P

2008-06-03T10:00:00.002-04:00

Death of a legend. Bo Diddley died yesterday. Born Ellas McDaniel - Bo Diddley influenced the likes of U2, Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi and Buddy Holly. Even if you're not a blues fan, you've heard the name Bo Diddley... and at one point or another have heard the song, "Hey Bo Diddley."

RIP brother!

Geek Alert.

2008-05-28T10:28:00.003-04:00

It's time to get my geek on.
As some or most of you know, I follow NASA's goings on daily. Whether it's monitoring NASA-TV's coverage of a shuttle/ISS space mission, or paying close attention the unmanned missions on Mars, I could always be seen reading weblogs and website pertaining to these subjects.
If you are Spacey-virgins, you may not know another Mars lander touched down on Mars' polar shelf. Emily Lakdawalla's Blog for the Planetary Society is an amazing source of quick-stop information on all things "Solar System". In particular, she has been very good at reporting the status of the Mars Landers, and even holds an Online Video Chat to keep subscribers up to date. All that being said, I'm super-excited about the pictures coming out of the HiRISE Camera from the Mars Orbitter. Specifically, the image to the right which is a shot of the Lander making his parachutted landing next to a huge crater called, Heimdal. It landed some distance from it, but the image is spectacular (click on the image to embiggen).

Below is the True Color image of the landing site, with the Lander at the top of the image, heat-shield to the right-center, and the heat-shield and parachute at the bottom of the image... Incredible that our technology is at the point where we can find this proverbial needle in a haystack in so short a time. The landed image was taken 22 hours after landing.

In a day and age where our news is splattered with images of war, murder, High-School shootings and soldiers coming home in coffins, stuff like this sparks the imagination and is just FUCKING cool!

While yer at home nice and cozy, this Mars Lander is sittng on Mars' pole in temperatures with a deirnal range of -80C to -30C (-113F - -22F).
(Click on the image to Embiggen)

Music Picture quicky!

2008-05-26T16:21:00.002-04:00

Wanna see just how busy our stage is ... embiggen the picture there and see all the SHIT we have on stage... and that's not even all of it!

Taken last friday at my gig. Love that new Sheraton guitar !!! woooo!

Long Weekends

2008-05-20T11:11:00.005-04:00

Long weekends are great until the first day you have to go back to work. Then, you think to yourself: "Man it would be cool if the weekend was longer!"
We went to the cottage this weekend. It was our first trip in a very long time. There were the usual suspects: Mike Q (my buddy) came up to visit with us, LilDeb and LilRay.

LilDeb, LilRay and I went up Saturday afternoon - and by the time we go settled it was 5pm.. after cooking some burgers and having a rustic, cottage-type dinner, we played "Wizard" (the card game - not doing magic tricks) and then after Raymond went to bed, Deb and I got into a game of "Trivial Pursuit - The Drinking Game". Armed with a bottle of Shmirnoff Cosmos and a bottle of Amaretto (and beer to chase it all down) ... we would ask each other questions ... if we couldn't answer - we'd take a drink. If you don't answer any questions from a single card, you have to drink again... however, if you answer all the questions, the person asking them has to drink.. The rules are as liquid as the stuff we're drinking, so stay sharp..
Finally got to bed around midnight'ish! (the clock was rather blurry)

I awoke around 6am with a splitting headache (thank you advil extra strength). I took some drugs for the pain, did a tinkle and was back asleep before the flush of the toilet was done. We woke up around 10:30am - and i made some coffee and cooked breakfast (standard eggs, snausage, and toast with slices of orange). Raymond was nice enough to share his english muffin with Loki & Dax.

Mike Q showed up sunday around 2pm and the two of us, amidst copius amounts of beer, played guitar for a ... very long time. i believe our bedtime was around 3am Monday morning. Needless to say, we spent most of our Monday sleeping... drinking and playing guitar for 6 hours can be tiring. But we did get some fishing in there, somwhere.

We had good bbq up there too. Nice steaks, pork tenderloin, italian sausage - and some very non-descript vegetables .. (aren't sausages a vegetable, anyways??)

So after alot of fun ... i return to work today - tired & spent. I need a long weekend from my long weekend.