General

Damn snow, January 2012 edition

I remember the delight as a child when waking up to discover the world had been blanketed with snow. It was even more magical if it was still snowing and better still if it was the weekend.

Today I got up to see we had received our first notable snowfall of the winter and it is indeed the weekend. However, it’s also already +4ºC which means that the snow is already melting and will turn into a giant slush pit shortly.

Damn snow.

Pic below. Even the hospital helipad is covered.

I tried to watch Batman & Robin

I tried to watch Batman & Robin. Yes, the 1997 movie with George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger. There’s a Warner movie channel on preview now so I figured I’d record it on the PVR (in HD!) and give it a shot, having never seen it before. I was aware of its less than stellar reputation. I cringed at the first butt shot, winced at the batsuit with nipples and watched through my fingers as if at a horror movie while Arnie lumbered onto the screen and bellowed, “Da ice man cometh!” I found it odd that Batman and Mr. Freeze would meet right at the start of the movie and that distracted me until the hockey guards/attackers skated in.

At that point kitsch was no longer enough. Or it was too much. In any case, that’s as far as I got. I’ll assume Batman won in the end and be happy with that.

The Dark Knight Rises (which is almost as dumb a title as Batman Begins) is coming out this summer. My only concern is that Nolan will fall into his own navel and make it too Grim and Serious. What it is unlikely to be, however, is too campy. I’m fairly confident that Batman & Robin sucked all remaining camp out of the universe.

Reading Lovecraft

I like Lovecraft. Yes, purple prose, eldritch this and gibbous that and of course, the latent racism —  but he could spin a good yarn. Warning has started blogging his short stories. Give his reviews a read. Like me, they may leave you wanting to pick up a Lovecraft collection again.

Proto-mastheads

While mulling over a blog site redesign (which I’m leaning more against, though tweaks are possible) I looked at some of the other images I had made to use as a possible masthead/header for the site.

And here they are!

Sims 3 masthead

This Sims 3 masthead I rejected because while it’s cute, it just looks odd visually with the breakaway walls of the house and it’s difficult to see who the other person being hugged is, which lessens the (allegedly) humorous nature of it.

I still like this one. It’s maybe too centered and it’s my partner, not me, strolling along through the woods. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it just seems odd to feature someone else in the masthead of my own blog. Then again, I ain’t fishing in the one that’s up there now.

Barley is, like most chocolate labs, eminently photogenic. The biggest problem with this image is that I no longer live in the same house as Barley, so the picture isn’t strictly accurate anymore. But he’s so dang cute.

I’ll probably peruse the photos I have to see if anything stands out as a solid replacement for Buntzen Lake. I do really like that shot, I just wonder if sometimes some poor sod might stumble across my blog and expect some kind of nature thing instead of my rambling nonsense.

Me: 1974 and 1975

These two images were taken a year apart, the first in July 1974 and the second in July 1975. I was 10 and 11 years old, respectively.

In the first photo I am at Disneyland, standing in front of Monstro, the puppet-swallowing whale from Pinocchio that serves as the entrance for the Storybook Land canal boats ride. Even as a little kid the ride was cool because the miniature models work on the same level as model trains, slot car racers and other things shrunk way down in scale. To a kid — to a boy, well, to this boy at any rate — these things take on a certain kind of magical quality when made miniature.

And speaking of cool, look at the self-assured pose I’m striking, as if to say, “Yeah, that’s right, I’ve got it, baby.” All while ignoring the fact that my jeans are several inches too short. What can I say? I was growing.

In the second photo I am at the San Diego Zoo, dressed remarkably similar to the year before. And look how I’ve grown! This time I am fitting the jeans a bit better. Perhaps by then my mom was buying ahead of the curve. This picture also reveals the early stages of my Big Hair, a phase that I wish I could go back in time and apply George Lucas-style after-the-fact special effects to because my Big Hair was also Bad Hair. Try telling a kid his hair looks ridiculous and his answer will likely be a thumbs up and “Right on!” As I type this my head is completely shaved.

The most noteworthy thing in the picture has to be the strange grip I have on that poor semi-domesticated animal. Am I trying to choke it? Preparing to kiss it? There are no good answers here. The little girl in front of me is wisely beating a hasty retreat. Perhaps I am trying to stop the animal from going through the EMPLOYEES ONLY door behind us, to keep it from getting into trouble. Yeah, that must be it. Not the choking. Or the kissing.

Out of the east side, down by the river

Which is my way of saying that after over 10 years of having an East Van address I am officially moved out to New Westminster, within spitting distance (well, spitting distance if you’re a hill giant) of the Fraser River in historic Sapperton. I haven’t fully checked out what makes Sapperton historic, though I believe it was settled by little people based on how absurdly narrow so many of the sidewalk around here are.

It felt odd handing over the keys to the old basement suite today. The first 15 years of living in Vancouver saw me moving on average once every week. Or so it felt like. But I got some unintended longterm living out of that East Van address where the lovely Everett clan put up with my quirks with nary a complaint for over 3,650 days so I thank them for that.

I’ll get out and get some shots of the new neighborhood as soon as the monsoons stop because it is full-on monsooning right now. Damn rain.

The move was done in three steps thusly:

Step 1: Mid-summer, moving a few things like the PC to the new place.
Step 2: Moving all other stuff I was keeping.
Step 3: Moving all the stuff I wasn’t keeping and taking it to the dump or recycling.

Step 3 was my bane as I tweaked my lower back when hoisting the couch or mattress onto the truck. It didn’t feel like much until later when it switched into Move A Certain Way to Experience Terrible Pain mode. Fortunately a day of not lifting anything heavier than a box of cereal has helped with the recovery immensely. It was nice to get rid of all my old electronics in an environmentally sound manner. Goodbye, 2X CD-ROM drive, you served me well!

I leave you with what is my most favorite picture of Barley ever. When I saw him earlier today he was as sedate as always.

My New Year Resolutions for 2012

As mentioned on the Martian Cartel forum:

  • Keep fit.
  • Keep slim.
  • Keep together.
  • Keep working.
  • Keep writing.

In 2011 I feel I managed to:

  • Keep together.

Keep fit? I spent the last three months of the year pretty much not exercising thanks to my stupid body.

Keep slim? See above. I gained weight.

Keep working? I ended the year out of work.

Keep writing? I utterly failed at National Novel Writing Month and wrote little in general otherwise. Apart from being with my wonderful partner, 2011 was a bust for resolutions (I use pretty much the same set every year).

I aim to do better in 2012, Mayan predictions of doom notwithstanding.

Happy time to get drunk and close stores early 2011!

It’s New Year’s Eve 2011 and instead of spending it rockin’ I spent it moving, collecting up the second load of possessions from my olde basement suite on East 19th Avenue and trucking them with the assistance of Jeff and Jason to the condo in New Westminster. After more than 10 years I am finally, officially moving on. The third and last load will be picked up two days hence when the civilized world re-opens after the debauchery and drunkenness that is already underway tonight. That load is destined for recycling or the trash so all of my important stuff (re: junk) is already here, some of it even unpacked. Most of the unpacked stuff is still unpacked from when I lived in Vancouver. I’ll have to go through that stuff some day.

As it was I still tossed a good six bags of garbage out, dispensing with plenty of non-recyclable items. I was strangely unmoved by sentimentality into keeping many things I’d had since moving off the island 25 years ago. Most of it was just clutter I never looked at and will not miss*.

Meanwhile, as the clock ticks down the final hours of 2011 (it’s already 2012 a.k.a. The End Times If You’re An Ancient Mayan in other parts of the world), I reflect on how transit is free this evening from 5 p.m. on. Think about it: so many people will be getting drunk that to avoid total carnage on the road, the transit authorities are sparing party-goers the sum of $2.50 in exchange for not murdering people from behind the wheels of their cars. It’s nice but what kind of person would say, “I may be hammered but there’s no way I’m paying $2.50 to ride on a bus full of drunks!” Maybe the kind of person who spent all his money on booze, perhaps.

Anyway, Happy New Year. 2011 was a pretty good year for some but it was mostly down for me. 2012 doesn’t have to achieve much to be better.

 

* I reserve the right to be horribly wrong about this

Merry Christmas 1966!

Here I am on my stylin’ wheels in 1966. As a kid, Christmas was always good times. Presents, lots of food, yummy snacks, no school (okay, that part started around 1970) and sometimes snow to play in instead of rain. And since I never had to shovel it or drive in it, snow was always awesome. Snowmen, snow forts, snow whatever, it didn’t matter!

Vroom vroom

 

Merry Christmas 2011!

Christmas this year was both the usual and different.

The usual: blustery, mild and wet.
Different: It actually cleared up and the sun came out for a little while.

The usual: I hate traveling due to the usual blustery conditions.
Different: I didn’t travel this year, instead choosing to celebrate the holiday with Jeff here in New West.

Overall it was a pretty good day. I slept in a little, lazed around and watched some TV, opened presents, did a brisk 7K walk to make up for the lazing around part, had a real turkey dinner with all the fixings and even with dessert (chocolate ice cream) amazingly came in under my calorie count for today.

Given that as an adult I generally hate this holiday, I figured it went pretty well.

21 Days of Shaved Head

Here is another mug shot with my patented ‘where is that left eye looking off to, anyway?’ look, this time exactly three weeks after I shaved my head. I had no idea I had that patch of white hair on the right side of my head. It looks like some weird kind of affectation. The hair is itchier now than when it was newly-shaved, though it’s still not generally itchy.

I am planning on shaving it close again after letting it grow out a little more to see how my New Hair evolves.