Archive for the Category ◊ Blah Blah Blah ◊

14 Mar 2010 March Showers Bring April Flowers?
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Beautiful blooms at The Brides’ Project yesterday, courtesy of Bernard Thibault.

It’s been storming mightily out there, on and off, since Friday. That’s what took down the power on Friday afternoon and hopefully that won’t repeat before it begins to warm up again this week. It’s blowing rain and, ahem, gale force winds…

While I love the deep red tulips, my focus here is on the green roses. I’ve never seen green roses before, and I love this shade of green.

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11 Mar 2010 I’ve Gone To The Dark Side
 |  Category: Blah Blah Blah, Consumer  | 7 Comments

That’s right, I’ve upgraded my phone. Finally.

upgraded

This is why:

  1. The wireless company gave me the Blackberry for free.
  2. I’ve kept all my features, except free incoming call airtime (it was the only one I couldn’t transfer from the basic handset to the smartphone) without being subjected to price increases, and locked in the price for two years.
  3. My new plan that includes smartphone data (versus the unlimited PCS data I had before) is only $2.30 more per month than what I paid previously.
  4. My 100 minutes per month free long distance would expire in August.
  5. I couldn’t check my Mobile Me email on the old browser.

The iPod Touch will still get used daily, but since I can only use it with wi-fi, I couldn’t pass up a free phone upgrade. We’ll see if my cameraphone shots look any better!

26 Feb 2010 Ode To Slovakia
 |  Category: Blah Blah Blah, Europe, Music, Videoclips  | 2 Comments

Bratislava

Slovak Parliament

hello Slovakia!

I very nearly lost a bet tonight, while the country held its breath for the entire third period of the mens hockey game when Team Canada dodged a bullet from Team Slovakia. At no time was I absolutely, 100% sure Canada would win, but I was fully prepared to live up to my promise of buying a Slovak hockey jersey and wearing it if Canada lost its game tonight. I would’ve even worn it in the office, where I’d never live down the scorn. As of Friday afternoon, I heard people in the office were on the phones booking flights to Vancouver and tickets from the internet for the gold medal game on Sunday — that’s how confident everyone was that Canada would win tonight.

I think in sport anything can happen and once in a while national pride from even a small country like Slovakia can surprise people. And it did!

I sent the message to Radovan several days ago after Slovakia beat Sweden, with every intention of ponying up the cash for a Slovak jersey if they beat the odds. If they did, Radovan probably wouldn’t be sipping the icewine I brought over from Toronto last June like he is in this picture, he’d be slugging it back like it was beer. In fact, making a trip back to Bratislava (which was part of my high-stakes bet) would probably land me in a big party in the streets.

Radovan in Vienna

No matter which country won, I’d be the least disappointed (non-Slovak) since I’m a Canadian who likes Slovakia and would love it if either team beat the USA. Ha!

As it stands, Slovakia made a valiant effort while Canada scared the living daylights out of everyone from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland by nearly blowing a 3-goal lead. As an ode to gutsy Slovakia, I dug back through my archives from last year and proffer a few more trip photos from Bratislava. I had a great 37th birthday there!

Bratislava

Bratislava

Bratislava

Bratislava

More Bratislava photos can be found here (the album is very far from complete!).

Video from today: a photo slideshow of Slovakia from YouTube

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22 Feb 2010 Whiteout
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It’s quite amazing, after yesterday’s gorgeous sunshine, to look out the office windows and see a complete whiteout this afternoon! It didn’t last long, but reports are for more of the white stuff this week.

And here I thought, at the end of February, that I could declare this snowless winter OVER… apparently Mother Nature isn’t finished with us yet!

19 Feb 2010 Random Friday Thoughts
 |  Category: Blah Blah Blah  | One Comment

me at 191 Peachtree Tower
self-portrait reflection on the floor of 191 Peachtree Tower, Atlanta

It’s a familiar scene at the House of Fielding: late at night, CBC Radio in the background, speed-reading through articles in my bloated RSS reader, mental notes for dozens of blog posts and unable to decide on one, at least 20 tabs open in three browsers vying for attention, and a Zip.ca movie that’s been waiting patiently for me to watch it since the beginning of the month.

(I have the cheapest subscription at Zip.ca: one movie per month, but with a max of two movies before I have to bump up the subscription. I thought it would be easy, but I’ve become such a computer nerd that I’ve found it much harder to break away from internet reading than I thought. In 2008 I realised that nearly all the films I watched were on planes, so this was my attempt at returning to regular movie-watching again. Except last year it once took five months before I watched the DVD that was mailed to me in the spring. It went from being a cheap DVD “rental” to something that would’ve been less costly had I ordered a copy to own. So far I’m doing marginally better in 2010 having watched two DVDs, but hey, it’s only February.)

You know what, though? It’s not such a bad place to be in, having too many hobbies. For everything I always consider the alternative, and the thought of having no hobbies at all makes me shudder. My work pays my bills and maintains my nerd cred, but my hobbies are what keep me sane, motivated, grounded, happy and inspired. Recently I’ve had discussions with people who admit that work accounts for much of their time, not because working longer hours makes them more money but because they’re bored, or can’t think of anything else to do. What?!?

I feel a rant coming on, so I’ll stop here as I’ve got volunteering in the morning… and for someone who routinely rolls into work at noon, having to be somewhere at 10am feels rather early.

14 Feb 2010 Happy Hearts Day
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Happy Hearts Day

Also, Happy Chinese New Year! I didn’t bring any red clothing with me, but my wallet’s red, maybe that counts…

02 Feb 2010 Groundhog Day
 |  Category: Blah Blah Blah, Food + Drink  | 2 Comments

go away!

This isn’t Punxsutawney Phil, but maybe a cousin? It’s a Pennsylvanian groundhog alright, but one living in Dunmore.

This is the second time in a few days where I’ve been meaning to take photos of my restaurant food but was so intent on devouring it that I forgot I had a camera with me. Consequently, no food photos but it was #412 (chicken with chilis and lemongrass) at Xe Lua, which you’ve seen many times before! It seems that I don’t bother with eating anything else there, but the truth is I don’t go as often as I used to and I haven’t been there in ages — tonight I had #412 in mind, AGAIN.

Xe Lua Vietnamese

To add to the deja-vu I was with Sergio. I was able to dig up this photo from September 2008, which was pretty much the same scene, just different clothes. We both ordered #412, AGAIN. Punxsutawney Phil would be so proud!

In other news, it also happens to be my twin nieces SIXTH birthday today. Wow, from preemies in the NICU to first-graders kindergarteners, where does the time go??? (I aged them a bit by accident, they just turned six, so of course they don’t start first grade until September!)

Video for today: 4 minutes of scenes from the movie “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray. Classic! I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this movie, but it makes me laugh every time. The whole film is available on YouTube, someone’s uploaded the whole thing in 10 x 10-minute segments.

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28 Dec 2009 Edwin Avenue
 |  Category: Blah Blah Blah, Urban Life, Videoclips  | 2 Comments

it had to be done...

I’ve been living in Toronto’s west end for two and a half years, and I pass by this sign from time to time. Finally, FINALLY, today I took a photo of it from the beginning of the street, which is short — just like me.

I had a couple of errands to run at midday, the last of my five days off, and I brought my camera along with the low-profile lens, the thrifty fifty (also known as the “nifty fifty”). I took some shots around the Queen Street East area before heading north to the vet on Eglinton Street to stock up on the expensive low-protein cat chow that keeps the beasties healthy. The bits of white in the photos is snow, but there isn’t much of it and nothing is sticking, which makes Toronto snowless this winter as of December 28. Such a far cry from last year, and even the year before. No complaints from the House of Fielding!

No photo viewer this time, I’m going to paste in all the photos one by one…

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15 Dec 2009 Winter Raccoon + Wireless Windbagging
 |  Category: Blah Blah Blah, Consumer, cameraphone  | 9 Comments

Get a load of that raccoon hat! So fetching! Sai and I met up with Natalia this evening to prep for tomorrow’s filming of a winter concert at a primary school. More than 100 little kids belting out holiday tunes… I’m sure this would find some readers beating a hasty retreat or putting fingers in their collective ears, but personally I think it will be really, really cute. Bring on the cute, I say!

In totally different news, now that I’m using Photobooth, I thought I should relegate the craptastic cameraphone pictures to a different space and not let the non-DSLR photos take over this website. Step in Twitpic, which is a picture feature for Twitter from the mobile phone (or smartphone, i.e. Blackberry, iPhone, what-have-you). I’ll be sending the silly stuff from the cameraphone directly to Twitpic and they’ll end up in Twitter, out of the way unless clicked on. You’ll see my Twitter feed on the sidebar — that’s where I’ll be posting most of my goofy mobile phone shots.

The Telus retention people have been on my case for months, sending me direct mail pieces and calling me because my 2-year contract is up very soon. This is the best time to renegotiate the existing contract terms, but I’m still sitting on the telecom fence. A smartphone is very tempting — the iPhone and Blackberry the most obvious choices for my level of use — but frankly I’m quite resistant to using any smartphones although the GPS and data would be helpful from time to time. When I see people with such devices I think it’s often such a waste of features because they only use a fraction of what smartphones can do and I have to ask myself: are these really necessary? Do I really need a smartphone? So far I’ve been able to answer no to that question — I can read my email, browse most of the web pages I need, and read news headlines on Twitter on my tiny, low-profile Samsung U510. When I have a wi-fi signal I switch to my 2+ year old iPod Touch which still works just fine. Answering “no” to whether I need a gadget is a very non-geeky response from a geeky person — I mean, geeky people are very much gadget collectors, but my budget is strictly for tools of my trade. There is also an added monthly charge to the wireless bill for the data and right now I have unlimited data for a very small fee. Maybe if I get the phone for free and there’s no increase for the additional data… especially U.S.-carrier data, which easily doubles my bill with a single roadtrip. U.S. (voice) roaming is cheap, but data is not!

Probably by next year I’ll be ready for a smartphone upgrade without feeling like a poser, but for now unless a telecom company hands one over for free or my current not-quite-as-smart phone breaks, the Telus retention people will have to keep sweetening the deal.

Music for today: Elvis Presley’s “Wooden Heart” — an oldie but a goodie, unless you dislike Elvis…

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01 Dec 2009 When There’s An (Over)Abundance Of Night, Take Nightshots
 |  Category: Blah Blah Blah, Canada, Music, Videoclips  | 6 Comments

Ottawa

I think you can always tell a ‘Gail at Large’-shot horizon because it’s guaranteed to be crooked. Can you tell this is Ottawa? Here’s a larger version. Zhu says she’s never seen the water this low.

Be glad you’re seeing this on a screen and not anywhere near me. No, I don’t have H1N1 or another flu or anything remotely debilitating, but my nose can’t decide whether it’s running or taking some downtime (or on strike!) and my eyes are streaming like I just chopped some onions. I was editing all night until 6:30 this morning, which probably didn’t help. I’m too old to be lectured about it, though, it’s called freelancing.

Why, hello December. I hope you pass quickly.

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