Tuesday, August 03, 2004
The fresh regurgitation of the past week.
I'm still not dead, but I have been doing things, mainly during this past long weekend, the events of which you will be subjected to shortly, if you keep reading.
Most of my time has been spent writing up my co-op report. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, but the topic this term was on ethics, and my normally-chatterboxian muse decided that its' lips were going to be tighter than... than something that's really tight, that's what. She was silent, at any rate, so getting a single sentence onto the screen was like pulling teeth. It didn't hurt that I felt like I was repeating myself over and over again, neither. Needless to say, this was, in my opinion, my worst essay ever. Of course, since I have the impression that these reports are not read all that closely, it probably won't matter all that much as long as I didn't steal the thing, which I didn't, so it's all good.
In terms of actual "stuff" I did, well, that's a bit more mundane.
Last Wednesday, headed out for curry with some chums at a little place downtown, and it was pretty good - not the best curry evar, but still quite tasty. I also had this yoghurt milkshake drink thing for which I forget the name, which was also quite good and came in a really nifty cup! We struck out as a group afterwards for gelato, and after a brief detour during which we experimented on the merits of vocal communication across a street and 5 floors verticality,* eventually disbanded and trudged off in our respective directions.
* It doesn't work so well.
Thursday was going to be essaying, with a break to hang out at fencing and grab a bite to eat, followed by more essaying, but what it ended up being, was attempted essaying, followed by a bite to eat since fencing was more or less cancelled, and then more attempted essaying followed by giving up and going to bed.
Friday was spent doing more attempted essaying after work, with a brief break to go see Scot Free at the Buster Festival. He did a pretty good show - some kung-fu torch juggling and an escape from a Saran Wrap prison, among other things. I finally ended up finishing my essay Saturday in the early afternoon and wasted no time in getting back down to Sparks Street to get more street performer viewing in. Caught Peter Sweet's act (very good - has a great performer persona, and managed to do a slackrope act in the rain; rather daring...), the New York Street Boys (drum act involving buckets, barrels and an empty keg), saw Pane Temov doing his marionette bit (awesome puppets and some really great puppeteering, but his showmanship could be better) and stopped for lunch at the Hortons. Met up with Heather there and we saw the tail end of Jeff Hill's bit and then headed off to the Rideau Center for mass consumerism! We walked out of the mall a short time later both with less money than when we went in, but she was up an EQ card, a Dr. Who DVD and an U.N.K.L.E. CD (I think that's how it's spelled...). I, by contrast, ended up with Monster Magnet's latest album, Monolithic Baby! and the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Vol. 2 DVD, both of which I will expound on later. Finished up the day with some food at Woody's and my swinging by Sparks again to catch Aiden Orange before going home. He had a quite spectacular act, as he's the guy who can fit through a tennis racket. He can also juggle with a dislocated shoulder, fit though a squash racket, and then do the tennis racket bit again, only on fire that time. Showstopping number was balancing a running lawnmower on his chin while people tossed heads of lettuce into the blades. Eventually, I ended up back home for some slackage that mostly consisted of listening to Monolithic Baby! a LOT.
I got to sleep in on Sunday, and was soon enough back over to Sparks Street for more Buskers. Yes, I am an addict. This time the weather was great, so I saw Aytahn, Jeff Hill, the Acromaniacs and Ash Circle. Aytahn had a pretty elaborate act, with some ping-pong ball work,* a bit of contact juggling and some flaming baton twirling/tossing. Jeff Hill did most of the same stuff he did on Saturday, being some fire-eating and ring magic, only with a strait-jacket escape added in. Acromaniacs were mainly a acrobatics/balancing act whose coup-de-grace was the Neck To Neck balance - the hardest balance there is, where one performer is inverted on the other, with only their neck and shoulders touching. Ash Circle, providing a bit of contrast, was largely a fire act with some rope dagger work. Their big bit was the skinny rope twirler standing on the larger fire-breather's shoulders and popping a balloon in the fire-breather's mouth with the whirling rope dagger. They finished it off with a really neat fire-breathing duo bit, which probably would have been super-spectacular at night, but during the day was still quite impressive.
* Involves juggling a couple of them with his mouth. Sounds lame, but is really impressive.
The day continued as I meandered over to the Diner to see if anyone was hanging out after fencing, but ran into Heather and her Mom instead, and after eating, stopped by Sugar Mountain before going home again. I didn't stay home for very long though, and headed back out, not so coincidentally, to Heather and Pierre's place to watch the antics of the Champions of Norrath group. Unfortunately, or rather somewhat entertainingly (depending on if you're me or them), about 3 hours of play was lost from the PS2 locking up, so we migrated over to Larry's apartment for some Settlers of Catan. There, I tried Red Bull. Red Bull is a very interesting beverage. It's supposedly an energy drink, but it doesn't really have the effect of giving energy so much as it gets you rather high. This effect is increased if you also drink a can or two of Monster. Monster is basically carbonated Red Bull, but while RB is a 150mL bottle, Monster comes in a 420mL can, and the nutritional info for it is actually for a 1/2 can. Wee bit underhanded there, but whatever. Anyways, after having 2 cans of Monster and 1 bottle of the Bull, I ended up doing various things until 3 am, not unlike a crack addict. Seriously folks, those drinks are strong stuff - handle with care.
Monday was more of slacking. I did some laundry, some dishes, bought some food, but mostly sat in my chair in my underwear and relaxed. Read Understanding Comics again - such a sublime book! I also watched some Doctor Who, as lent to me by Heather. In particular, it was the Key to Time season from the Tom Baker days. For some reason, his is the Doctor I think about when I think of Doctor Who - the coat, the scarf, the hair... At any rate, despite being of low quality by today's standards, there's something about the spirit of the show that appeals to me. I think it's the very 70s style of the naming of things, and the TARDIS of course. Gotta love the Police Call box that's bigger inside than outside! I've only seen the first story arc of the season, The Ribos Operation, but I'm looking forward to the rest of it, which I'll probably watch this week. I also watched a bit more Zim and some ATHF and of course, more Monolithic Baby!
Monster Magnet's latest album is really quite awesome. The Magnet is really one of those bands whose sound is so unique to them that it's hard to describe. Kind of a stoner, spacey, heavy metal with a hint of psychadelia, but that doesn't really do it justice at all. Neither do the two songs that made it onto the radio - Powertrip and Space Lord - since while they are Monster Magnet, they're not really representative of what makes the band awesome. Anyways, Monolithic Baby? It's more of that. The good stuff. The tone of the lyrics has shifted a bit from drugs to sex, but they're still post-apocalyptic and sometimes rather bizarre, but in a good way. All the requisite wailing of guitars are there, and they have some downright catchy stuff in Unbroken and Master of Light. Now since I bought this disc - yes, with money and everything - I got the bonus DVD, and I must say that made the difference for me. The only reason I bought the album was because I couldn't download it, and because it was not on a RIAA label like all the other Monster Magnet albums. So I figured, if I'm going to pay money for this album, I might as well get the one with the DVD, and having the music videos and some concert footage was worth the few extra bucks. Especially the Unbroken music video - that one's great. In terms of overall greatness, I am not yet sure where to place Monolithic, but it is definitely in the Top 3 along with Dopes to Infinity and God Says No.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force, on the other hand, is something. I would go so far as to say it's the stupidest smart show on television. It jockeys with Trailer Park Boys for the top slot. The difference between ATHF and really stupid shows on TV is that AHTF is intentionally stupid, and it manages to be intentionally stupid in a very smart way. You can tell that someone has thought very hard at how to make the show exactly like it is, and they're good at it. Every episode barely makes sense, and more often than not the protagonists* don't end up being very protagonistic and just run away at the first sign of danger. Still, it's highly entertaining, if only because it's so very odd.
* A milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball, all living together in Jersey. Not kidding.
So that was my weekend. Fairly eventful by my standards, but not really when you think about it. Anyways, I think I've got enough stuff here already. I'll try to post some neat links tomorrow.
¶ 2:25 p.m.
I'm still not dead, but I have been doing things, mainly during this past long weekend, the events of which you will be subjected to shortly, if you keep reading.
Most of my time has been spent writing up my co-op report. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, but the topic this term was on ethics, and my normally-chatterboxian muse decided that its' lips were going to be tighter than... than something that's really tight, that's what. She was silent, at any rate, so getting a single sentence onto the screen was like pulling teeth. It didn't hurt that I felt like I was repeating myself over and over again, neither. Needless to say, this was, in my opinion, my worst essay ever. Of course, since I have the impression that these reports are not read all that closely, it probably won't matter all that much as long as I didn't steal the thing, which I didn't, so it's all good.
In terms of actual "stuff" I did, well, that's a bit more mundane.
Last Wednesday, headed out for curry with some chums at a little place downtown, and it was pretty good - not the best curry evar, but still quite tasty. I also had this yoghurt milkshake drink thing for which I forget the name, which was also quite good and came in a really nifty cup! We struck out as a group afterwards for gelato, and after a brief detour during which we experimented on the merits of vocal communication across a street and 5 floors verticality,* eventually disbanded and trudged off in our respective directions.
* It doesn't work so well.
Thursday was going to be essaying, with a break to hang out at fencing and grab a bite to eat, followed by more essaying, but what it ended up being, was attempted essaying, followed by a bite to eat since fencing was more or less cancelled, and then more attempted essaying followed by giving up and going to bed.
Friday was spent doing more attempted essaying after work, with a brief break to go see Scot Free at the Buster Festival. He did a pretty good show - some kung-fu torch juggling and an escape from a Saran Wrap prison, among other things. I finally ended up finishing my essay Saturday in the early afternoon and wasted no time in getting back down to Sparks Street to get more street performer viewing in. Caught Peter Sweet's act (very good - has a great performer persona, and managed to do a slackrope act in the rain; rather daring...), the New York Street Boys (drum act involving buckets, barrels and an empty keg), saw Pane Temov doing his marionette bit (awesome puppets and some really great puppeteering, but his showmanship could be better) and stopped for lunch at the Hortons. Met up with Heather there and we saw the tail end of Jeff Hill's bit and then headed off to the Rideau Center for mass consumerism! We walked out of the mall a short time later both with less money than when we went in, but she was up an EQ card, a Dr. Who DVD and an U.N.K.L.E. CD (I think that's how it's spelled...). I, by contrast, ended up with Monster Magnet's latest album, Monolithic Baby! and the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Vol. 2 DVD, both of which I will expound on later. Finished up the day with some food at Woody's and my swinging by Sparks again to catch Aiden Orange before going home. He had a quite spectacular act, as he's the guy who can fit through a tennis racket. He can also juggle with a dislocated shoulder, fit though a squash racket, and then do the tennis racket bit again, only on fire that time. Showstopping number was balancing a running lawnmower on his chin while people tossed heads of lettuce into the blades. Eventually, I ended up back home for some slackage that mostly consisted of listening to Monolithic Baby! a LOT.
I got to sleep in on Sunday, and was soon enough back over to Sparks Street for more Buskers. Yes, I am an addict. This time the weather was great, so I saw Aytahn, Jeff Hill, the Acromaniacs and Ash Circle. Aytahn had a pretty elaborate act, with some ping-pong ball work,* a bit of contact juggling and some flaming baton twirling/tossing. Jeff Hill did most of the same stuff he did on Saturday, being some fire-eating and ring magic, only with a strait-jacket escape added in. Acromaniacs were mainly a acrobatics/balancing act whose coup-de-grace was the Neck To Neck balance - the hardest balance there is, where one performer is inverted on the other, with only their neck and shoulders touching. Ash Circle, providing a bit of contrast, was largely a fire act with some rope dagger work. Their big bit was the skinny rope twirler standing on the larger fire-breather's shoulders and popping a balloon in the fire-breather's mouth with the whirling rope dagger. They finished it off with a really neat fire-breathing duo bit, which probably would have been super-spectacular at night, but during the day was still quite impressive.
* Involves juggling a couple of them with his mouth. Sounds lame, but is really impressive.
The day continued as I meandered over to the Diner to see if anyone was hanging out after fencing, but ran into Heather and her Mom instead, and after eating, stopped by Sugar Mountain before going home again. I didn't stay home for very long though, and headed back out, not so coincidentally, to Heather and Pierre's place to watch the antics of the Champions of Norrath group. Unfortunately, or rather somewhat entertainingly (depending on if you're me or them), about 3 hours of play was lost from the PS2 locking up, so we migrated over to Larry's apartment for some Settlers of Catan. There, I tried Red Bull. Red Bull is a very interesting beverage. It's supposedly an energy drink, but it doesn't really have the effect of giving energy so much as it gets you rather high. This effect is increased if you also drink a can or two of Monster. Monster is basically carbonated Red Bull, but while RB is a 150mL bottle, Monster comes in a 420mL can, and the nutritional info for it is actually for a 1/2 can. Wee bit underhanded there, but whatever. Anyways, after having 2 cans of Monster and 1 bottle of the Bull, I ended up doing various things until 3 am, not unlike a crack addict. Seriously folks, those drinks are strong stuff - handle with care.
Monday was more of slacking. I did some laundry, some dishes, bought some food, but mostly sat in my chair in my underwear and relaxed. Read Understanding Comics again - such a sublime book! I also watched some Doctor Who, as lent to me by Heather. In particular, it was the Key to Time season from the Tom Baker days. For some reason, his is the Doctor I think about when I think of Doctor Who - the coat, the scarf, the hair... At any rate, despite being of low quality by today's standards, there's something about the spirit of the show that appeals to me. I think it's the very 70s style of the naming of things, and the TARDIS of course. Gotta love the Police Call box that's bigger inside than outside! I've only seen the first story arc of the season, The Ribos Operation, but I'm looking forward to the rest of it, which I'll probably watch this week. I also watched a bit more Zim and some ATHF and of course, more Monolithic Baby!
Monster Magnet's latest album is really quite awesome. The Magnet is really one of those bands whose sound is so unique to them that it's hard to describe. Kind of a stoner, spacey, heavy metal with a hint of psychadelia, but that doesn't really do it justice at all. Neither do the two songs that made it onto the radio - Powertrip and Space Lord - since while they are Monster Magnet, they're not really representative of what makes the band awesome. Anyways, Monolithic Baby? It's more of that. The good stuff. The tone of the lyrics has shifted a bit from drugs to sex, but they're still post-apocalyptic and sometimes rather bizarre, but in a good way. All the requisite wailing of guitars are there, and they have some downright catchy stuff in Unbroken and Master of Light. Now since I bought this disc - yes, with money and everything - I got the bonus DVD, and I must say that made the difference for me. The only reason I bought the album was because I couldn't download it, and because it was not on a RIAA label like all the other Monster Magnet albums. So I figured, if I'm going to pay money for this album, I might as well get the one with the DVD, and having the music videos and some concert footage was worth the few extra bucks. Especially the Unbroken music video - that one's great. In terms of overall greatness, I am not yet sure where to place Monolithic, but it is definitely in the Top 3 along with Dopes to Infinity and God Says No.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force, on the other hand, is something. I would go so far as to say it's the stupidest smart show on television. It jockeys with Trailer Park Boys for the top slot. The difference between ATHF and really stupid shows on TV is that AHTF is intentionally stupid, and it manages to be intentionally stupid in a very smart way. You can tell that someone has thought very hard at how to make the show exactly like it is, and they're good at it. Every episode barely makes sense, and more often than not the protagonists* don't end up being very protagonistic and just run away at the first sign of danger. Still, it's highly entertaining, if only because it's so very odd.
* A milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball, all living together in Jersey. Not kidding.
So that was my weekend. Fairly eventful by my standards, but not really when you think about it. Anyways, I think I've got enough stuff here already. I'll try to post some neat links tomorrow.
¶ 2:25 p.m.
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Yes, well. It's much easier to go on about stuff that happened on the weekend than it is ethics. There's only so many times you can say "Be Good".
Cait: Yes, we get Trailer Park Boys here. Best show on TV, I say! Highly recommended, but the latest season has been the best.
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Cait: Yes, we get Trailer Park Boys here. Best show on TV, I say! Highly recommended, but the latest season has been the best.
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