Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
I voted but why does it feel like I wasted my time? How can I feel that what I did was helpful for the country when voter turnout is at an all-time low? How can anyone feel they are doing their country any good when they sit and do nothing? I feel like we are running up hill and only a portion of the team is actually doing anything about it.
There was no surprise that Conservatives won in my riding, although there was no canvasing or phone calls in the five weeks leading up to the election. Maybe the candidates in my riding felt the same way I did, no matter what I do it will end up as a Conservatives government.
So say hello to Alberta, the entire province in blue except the one riding in Strathcona that was able to take down the blue dragon. I wonder what laws Harper will have dissolved in order to see that his personal agenda is carried out unopposed and how far he will go to see to it that he gets his way?
Monday, October 13th, 2008
I have been writing blog posts on seagurs for three years today. Three years equates to 1096 days, and had I wrote something for every day my post count would be double what it is now. I still find inspiration to write something comes and goes. There can be a week where I have a post every day, and sometimes I will go a week without an update.
When I do have something to write about I usually have little trouble coming up with a My title for it. Although I wonder if I have repeated any of my titles before. I think I have intentionally come close to a few but some of my titles are so generic that they could easily be repeated.
The last twelve months have been interesting and have two significant peaks to them. The first started right on the 13th with me breaking my ankle and spending the next two months on crutches and a few more after that trying to walk again.
The next peak was several months later in June for our wedding. It seems that if anything has happened in the last year it can be dated by those two event. Something may have happened while I was on crutches, or fell sometime before or after the wedding.
I have taken a step back from concerts in the last year, perhaps it is a combination of age and financial responsibility but I haven’t felt the need to go like I did before. In the last twelve months I have only been to two shows and that left me content.
I was thinking about The Strokes concert from spring 2006 and wondered why I went, I wasn’t a huge fan but I went because I was a causal fan of their music and didn’t think they would come to town again. Faced with the same decision now I would never consider going.
Project 365 also turns another year older. Since acquiring the iPhone I have used my point and shoot camera less and while I enjoy the convenience of having a camera always available I miss being able to have high quality images in focus. I am still considering getting a DSLR, but in the mean time I will remember to bring along my old Pentax.
One thing that hasn’t changed in the last year is this WordPress theme. I don’t think I have kept a theme this static for so long. I am in no rush to change the theme, but after wearing the same shirt for a year I may casually see if there is anything available that grabs my interest.
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
Looking at the lack of posts I have made for this month has made me sad. The decrease of updates on Twitter is also a tell-tale sign that things are busy.
What has been keeping me busy? Mostly work and obviously a new TV season. Last week saw the launch of the new CurlTV. Functionally it is the same but comes with a new look, updated navigation and unpopular pages were dropped.
My year long hiatus from purchasing a CD ended on Tuesday with the pre-sale for Matthew Good’s Live at Massey Hall. I, like many other Matthew Good fans who were buying during the pre-sale, refreshed the online store for hours and were eventually treated with the double CD being available. Once all available copies were bought we waited for the vinyl to become available.
Hours passed since buying the double CD and there was still no vinyl available. Finally word came from Matthew Good that there were some crossed wires and the vinyl would not be available for purchase until November. I will be out of the country when the vinyl goes on sale but fortunately I will have a friend buy it for me.
After loving the NHL 09 demo I was thrilled to get my hands on the retail copy recently. I was able to play a single game and then the game would constantly throw a disc read error. I followed the on screen instructions, I checked the disc for blemishes and rebooted the Xbox but I would still get a disc read error.
Since other games would play fine and the NHL 09 disc went from the case to the console I suspected something was wrong. Apparently this disc read error is well documented and has a fix of clearing the memory cache. Now I am back in the minors playing for Manitoba in the Be a Pro mode and loving the game. There were so many subtle changes that NHL 09 feels like a completely different game compared to the previous one that it will likely see more play time because of it.
The majority of my free time this week will be been spent with Gord working on our Evil League of Evil submission. Gord reacted to rumors of this contest ages ago and began working on lyrics.
When the contest was officially announced we sprung into gear and this week we created music, sung the lyrics and will be spending the remaining days this week putting our ideas to film. There is a certain awkwardness that comes from singing to yourself for eighty minutes in a bathroom.
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
Keepon (key-pon)
1) Yellow snow cone that dances to the beats and rhythm of music
2) Unexpected relationship with music from Spoon
3) Something everyone wants to own
Need to know more information? Then familiarize yourself with Keepon from the two videos below that launched Keepon into our hearts.
Keepon dancing to Spoon’s “Don’t You Evah” (4:05)
Keepon dancing to Spoon’s “I Turn My Camera On” (3:37)
Now that you know what I am talking about, this amazing little dancer will be going into production soon. Right now the device carries a $30,000 price tag and was hand built when needed but it will soon be available for researchers and eventually will see a consumer model released.
It seems so long ago that I first read about Keepon and my first thought was when and where I could buy one, I wasn’t alone in thinking that, and it seems our prayers will be answered soon. This is such a simple thing, like a revolutionized dancing sunflower, or an adult Furby and it will sell fast.
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
The launch of the Do Not Call List yesterday generated 1,562 calls per minute, according to the CTRS. The website, which was down for me throughout most of the day, had received nine million hits by mid afternoon.
If there was any doubt that this system would not be popular then the Canadian public spoke very loudly! When the 30-day grace period ends and our number will be skipped on phone lists Jenna and I will be down in Mexico but upon our return we should have no fear of answering the phone.
If we do see 1-800, or 1-866 flavor number we can assume that it is from a company we deal with and finally learn about the new deals Presidents Choice Financial, Citi Bank Mastercard or Rogers Canada have to share with us.
Flip Fold For All
Last weeks season premiere of The Big Bang Theory showed Sheldon using a t-shirt folding machine named the Flip Fold. I originally saw this device in use during a YouTube video years ago and loved it. It puts everything in a neat and proper form and a single shirt is completed in seconds.
I could never justify the $20 retail cost for a few plastic pieces but admired the idea. When I saw the Flip Fold in action again last week I became determined to make my own using a tutorial like the one below. Once I complete this cardboard machine expect a complete trip report.
How to make your own shirt folder (1:31)
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
I wrote about this back in July but the day is finally here, today you can register for the national do not call list by telephone (1-866-580-3625) or by registering at this website.
Of course when I visit the registration site I receive a The service is not available. Please try again later message so we will see if this improves over the day or in the future, or perhaps the site has already been bombarded with people signing up that the servers were brought down under the stress.
For all the good that this will provide there are some concerns that telemarketing calls will be replaced by junk mail and spam. Others suspect that entire phone books could uploaded to the list by hackers.
My concern is that when you register your number, and whatever additional information is taken down, that the data collected is sold or becomes the golden egg for thieves. It is bad enough that a USB drive containing criminal data can go missing in Britain but this collection of do not call data needs to be under lock and key. The ultimate irony of it would be that the people who do not want to be bothered by third parties have their data sold and receive even more unsolicited calls.
Of course this list doesn’t make everyone exempt from receiving inquires over the phone, the telemarketing exemption list includes:
* Registered charities seeking donations.
* Newspapers looking for subscriptions.
* Political parties and their candidates.
* Companies that have an existing business relationship with a consumer within the previous 18 months.
* Organizations directing calls and faxes to businesses.
After submitting this post I went back to the online registration page and they are definitely having problems, they at least put up a nice graphic instead of the previous one I saw.
Update: 8:54 AM
It looks like the website is not the only avenue getting slammed this morning.
Website, phone lines for do-not-call list overwhelmed.
So many people are trying to register their phone numbers on the federal do-not-call list, the website has crashed and the phone lines have a constant busy tone. link
Friday, September 26th, 2008
After a long time, I think I have successfully made the transition to the digital medium for my personal music collection. The last CD I can remember buying was July 2007’s release Hospital Music, and I have not looked back since. Now that I have an auxiliary input into the Jetta’s factory stereo I can listen to my iPod with greater ease and clarity. Furthermore I have not listened to a CD in the car in months.
All of this is about to come crashing down. Just when I think I have weened myself off of CD’s something like this comes along.
October 7th – Physical Release Pre-Sales
Pre-sales for the limited edition double CD and vinyl releases will begin on October 7th through the Matthew Good online store.
On Tuesday, November 4th, 10,000 limited edition double CD’s will be released at retail. Availability of the vinyl release will remain exclusive to the online store.
Limited edition CD and a vinyl release? Only 10,000 pressings of the double CD? I cannot pay for this fast enough, I had the urge to grab my credit card the moment I read that. For some reason I feel compelled to buy both of these formats, even if I will not listen to them immediately.
I have no rational reason but I need to own both. I do not even have a record player but yet I have a collection of White Stripes, U2 and soon to be two Matthew Good vinyls just waiting for their chance under the needle.
As someone who records live music and trades my concert collection why am I suddenly going to break a fourteen month abstinence from physically buying an album for something that isn’t new or unique? Is it because of the artist, or because there is a limited amount, or some other subtle marketing strategy?
Whatever subliminal message is being this live albums release I am definitely looking forward to it and will likely rip the CD once and store it on the shelf so that it can sit beside the Matthew Good albums I have bought over the last decade.
Thursday, September 25th, 2008
If you check the comments of my posts you may have noticed an interesting one on My Tree Trunk of Time post earlier this month, which talked about my experience at the Against Me concert. I mentioned one of the opening bands, Japanther, in a single sentence and they took offense to it. Here is the single line in question:
When they finally came on stage they put in a solid set and made me forget the embarrassing performance of Japanther.
Their response was short, and to the point. They had no time to start a debate or inquire what I thought lacked in their performance, they simply said three short words…or rather, two words.
I was a little surprised to see a comment like that on my blog, especially with the name being Japanther. I was curious about this, had the band really commented on my blog? I wanted to know more about this comment so I went into the comment administration area of WordPress and got some vital information that was recorded when the comment was made.
I searched for their email address and it linked to the Japanther MySpace blog. The plot thickens! Using their IP address I did a traceroute and found out the originating location of their comment. Assuming they were not behind a proxy or anything they had left that comment while in Olympia, Washington. I knew Against Me was headed West after performing in Edmonton so it was likely that they would end up going through the Pacific Northwest.
I checked Japanther tour dates for September and they were in Washington at the time of posting! This seems very promising.
17 Sep 2008 20:00 Vera Project Seattle, Washington
18 Sep 2008 20:00 Hall of The Woods Olympia, Washington
The next logical question I wondered was How did they find my blog, I only linked to their AllMusic page? I searched for three different queries, “japanther edmonton“, “japanther eec” and “japanther tour” and Pioneer On The Internet did not appear on the first five pages, so how did this band find my website?
It is not like there was an audio sample posted that could have been shared on an Against Me message board that would have attracted additional attention. Stumped and confused I tweeted about my crushing defeat and still do not know how they came across my little slice of land on the Internet.
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
This is really several drafts mashed into one, and I have been sitting on this since last week so I am going to publish this now and not have to think about improving my grammer, adding more text and so forth. Without further adieu here is a week of thoughts.
For the last five years I have been spinning play counts on last.fm. I have written about last.fm a few times and in the last week I surpassed two milestones. The first was recording over 80,000 listens and the second was scrobbling my 9,000th White Stripes song.
Like I did in July I planned my milestone and made my 9,000th song one of my favorite White Stripes songs.
Now that I seem to have scrobbling on my iPhone sorted out I should be able to count more plays on my commute to work and not just what I listen to during business hours. The beauty and convenience of last.fm has made me wish that audio playcounts were tracked outside of normal methods, for instance if I listen to the radio. I have taken for granted that everything I hear will be counted to my overall count, and when it is not I am a little surprised.
Hard Truth
Yesterday I was checking my iGoogle homepage when I noticed that my Facebook widget was giving me a subtle hint.
My Tube Challenge
While in Lac la Biche last weekend I ate ten hot dogs over four meals and am half way to my goal. I do not think I will have a problem eating twenty six hot dogs in the next ten months so stay tuned for the next Challenge update.
In other meat news I am on the verge of thirty days since I returned my Lumberjack to Safeway and so far am Listeriosis free and shall continue to vaccinate myself with a healthy does of hot dogs to ensure I stay healthy past the maximum 70 day incubation period.
Monday, September 15th, 2008
Let’s take a look through my draft posts and see if we can’t add them together, throw in some meat and maybe get a stew going!
Friday night I went to Against Me! at Edmonton Events Center. When I arranged to buy tickets for the show a few months ago I was really excited for the show but as the date drew closer I forgot about it all together and it wasn’t until the night before I was reminded about it. I realized a few important things while at this show:
• I am getting old. Not in the long beard and straggly hair sense, but I don’t fit in with the live scene like I did a few years ago. Standing for several hours is more of a punishment then something enjoyable.
• Kids seem to get younger at shows, this could be a side effect of above.
• This was my first concert since Matthew Good in June, which was my first since September of the previous year.
• I really like seated venues, there is a better sound and generally a higher enjoyment for the show.
• Above all, no matter how much renovations they do to Red’s / Edmonton Events Center it will always have a poor sound, awkward layout (the majority of your audience should be infront of the stage, not off to the side in the adult area) and a small floor. The best spots along the upper floor are blocked or reserved and the few rows of seats fill up fast.
I will never understand why I continue to see shows there but unless a band I really love comes through town that may be my last trip there for a concert.
With all of that said, I thought Against Me! did a great show. When they finally came on stage they put in a solid set and made me forget the embarrassing performance of Japanther. The guys did a healthy blend of new and old material, the crowd loved them and they were really enjoyable.
Unfortunately one of the supporting poles was in my line of sight with the lead singer so I spent my time watching three quarters of the band and my recording was also affected by not having a direct line with the speaker. The recording came out well enough but I will take my time editing it because the quality does not immediately encourage me to work on it. When a song sample is available I shall post it here.
In other music news it seems that some news has finally started to surface about Third Eye Blind’s new record, due next February. The guys will be releasing the material in an attempt to see what fans produce without having the official release of the song to affect their end product.
Jenkins saw the value in letting go of some of that control by giving fans the stems for free before the band has finalized its own mixes…The best mixes and remixes will be selected by the band for a digital compilation album to accompany the official version.
I am still on the Twitter train and I am finding a lot more use for it than I thought I would. Funny thing about Twitter is that not only am I able to see what is happening with a Mars rover or cylons; finally prime minister candidates have joined in on the action.
If there was any lingering doubt that the curious blogging phenomenon called Twitter has gone mainstream, it dissipated the moment that Stephen Harper signed up.
I have found a lot of use following tweets from technical websites, breaking news groups and like minded people is a huge plus but being able to follow my political candidate is something very unique to this election. My only hope is that such an outreach by candidates in this election to social networking sites will encourage more people to vote and hopefully remind those running that there is a generation out there not accessible by traditional means like television and print.
