Dean's Blog

So, just south of where I live there is a vast expanse of land that is slowly being developed into commercial properties.  So far we have 4 banks all side by side, which is pretty ridiculous IMHO. 

We also have a new bypass being built so they can wrangle up a new interchange for the LRT to pass on by.  Yesterday they had the northbound land of Metis Trail at 64th ave NE closed.  So, right along with any closed lane in this city you have typical Calgary morons, speeding along in the closed lane up to the barricade, and then expecting that if they put on their signal light, that the rest of us will just happily let them in after we’ve been waiting in the proper lane for 20 minutes.

Well, here comes the latest thing to turn life upside down.  Plastics.  Well before the Bisphenol-A product bans, my wife was telling me that most of the plastics we handle food with are bad, such as the disposable plastic Ziploc containers for food, which I was always using in the microwave, to the Lexan based drink containers, which now are being pulled off of the store shelves. 

It makes me wonder, how else plastics are making life difficult.  The chemicals in our environment could plausibly be having a rather drastic affect on behaviour and development problems in children, or carcinogenic effects, or who knows what.  So, anyhow, without further delay, we’ve been eliminating the plastic from our home that is used to handle food preparation.  That means, teflon pans are being replaced with well-seasoned cast iron.  Lexan water filter pitchers are being replaced with an under-sink filter system, and stainless steel water pitchers.  The Gladware and Ziploc containers are being replaced with glass, ceramic and stainless steel, while cooking utensils are now all stainless and silicon.

We’ll do what we can, but there is only so far you can go that is reasonable.  One major project is to replace all the carpet with wood flooring, as to get rid of the chemicals that are put into the household from the carpet, but there is a limit to that too, unless I want to sleep on a slab of rock to avoid all the chemicals that make my mattress and curtains fire-retardent.  But, a little at a time will hopefully help out. 

Lately my wife and I have been discussing the fact that you cannot commute to work without hearing at least 3 Nickelback songs on the radio. Consequently you canot commute home from work without also hearing 3 Nickelback songs on the radio.  This is also taking into consideration that there are several stations to choose from, so if you turn off one Nickelback song, there is a pretty good chance that there will be another one playing on the next station.  It’s creepy, and all Nickelback songs sound the same.

I like going to the movies.  For me, it is a favourable way to spend a few hours.  It’s usually a comfortable chair, a bag of popcorn, entertainment, and no need to talk to anyone.  However there are often things about the experience that tend dull the mood.  For instance, beyond the queue at the box office desk, there is the lines for the consession stands.  Now, for some reason, all the fast food joints have figured out that most of the time, if there is a person taking your order at the cash register, that someone else should be making the fries and filling the drinks.  Why do movie theatres not do this?  the same guy who takes my order has to go stand in line at the popcorn machine, and then he comes back to put my popcorn on the counter, then he fills my drink, then he puts that on the counter, followed by fetching my milk duds or whatever.  It seems to me that if they had a few runners who fill orders, that things would go faster.  You could place your order, and move to the next station to receive your order.   Oh well, perhaps my logic is flawed.

The other annoying thing is the people.  I love it when I get to sit in a nearly empty theatre.  There are no annoying teenage girls flapping their lips about "ohmigosh r u kidding me??" and "totally serious".  There are no stupid guys kicking seats, and no old hens clucking about their ovaries and the guy at the office who steals pens.  Usually, I am stuck in a fairly full theatre, which is full of these sorts of characters.  It’s worse when they can’t shut their traps during the film, and then have to repeat every line to each other because they were not paying attention.  I also enjoy it when people insist on flipping open their phones to check text messages or the time, or play dating simulators or whatever during the movie, illuminating the audience in a lovely blue glow.  Then there are those who can’t blow their nose and have to sniffle loudly and constantly for 2 hours.  Man, I really love those people, along with the candy bag rustlers and the empty beverage musical straws.

When I go the the movies, I am prepared.  My cell phone is left at home because there is no way in hell I am answering the phone while I am watching a movie.  I bring kleenex so that I don’t have to sniffle and snort snot through an entire movie, and a go to the bathroom 5 minutes before showtime in order to not have to get up in the middle of the movie. 

So, the next time your are at the theatre trying to evacuate the last molecule of soda from your empty beverage container, and making a terrible racket with your straw, if you hear the sound of cracking knuckles, pay it no mind, I’m sure checking the time on your cell phone and then whispering loudly to your friend will make it go away.

Well, it seems over there in Ontario, Mayor Miller is in a wee bit of a snit. I won’t make light of the circumstances that have stoked his fire, as shootings by criminals should not be tolerated.

But that is exactly the case. Mr Miller has a blanket solution for his problem, and that is to take away all the handguns in Canada. Well, all the ones that they can find, which would be all the ones that have been registered, meaning, legally purchased and owned handguns, owned by law abiding citizens.

This approach doesn’t make sense to me. It doesn’t remove the illegal unregistered handguns, possessed by unlicensed individuals. It does well to punish those who obey the law, but does nothing to those who ignore the law. It’s the typical backwards thinking that seems to permeate politics.

Crime Control, not Gun Control, seems to be a better solution Mr Miller. I am glad I don’t live in your city.

Well, the company Christmas party is over, which means that it’s time to post up a review of the restaurant we ate at last night. It was a newcomer to Calgary, Alloy Restaurant located at 220 42nd Av SE of all places. It’s been open for 6 weeks so far, and our party of 8 managed to have a great time. The location is a bit off of the beaten path, but it has fantastic parking, and the restaurant itself is very comfortable, other than a few awkwardly placed overhead lamps that might cause a few bumps on the head. The Menu is a fusion of traditional hearty fare such as lamb, duck and beef, with hints of Asian and Spanish flair to express a unique quality to the dishes. I had the Ahi tuna tartar with guacamole and wonton crisps that was really quite nice to set the tone, followed by seared duck with sweet potato gnocchi and a giant chocolate truffle with passionfruit sauce to end the meal. The dessert nearly killed me, but it was darn good. Best to share that one.

Good sized portions, and prices on par with other restaurants in Calgary offering fine dining without overt pretension.

People are not like electricity or water, because those latter two things will take the easiest route to whatever it is they need to get to next. Water, for example, is quite lazy and will always go downhill rather than uphill, and electricity is always taking the easy road and simply burning your toast instead of nicely browning it, because the insulation of your toaster has prevented it from frying your brain to kill you instantly, it uses carcinogenics as a chemical weapon against you.

At any case, Humans have a philosophy of resistance. It begins at a young age. Babies resist digesting their milk by spewing it down the collar of your shirt. Toddlers prefer to have a stewing diaper at critical mass, rather than have a clean bottom. Kids resist bathing, cough syrup, and homework, teenagers resist responsibility and accountability, and finally once we get out of the larval stages of human development, it gets worse.

I’ve been helping a friend of mine for several years now with his Mobile Disc Jockey service, and of course this is the time of year for corporate Christmas parties. We try to be quite sensible about how we set up the equipment, as it is expensive, heavy, and full of many many little electricities. We try to keep things out of the way so that no one will trip, fall, bump, or otherwise gash themselves to death. We also make a clear path so that anyone can come up and request a song that they would like to hear. So, in the seven years that I have been involved with all this, how has it all turned out?

Sometimes I wonder how we even managed to invent the fork, without blowing ourselves to bits. Invariably, every event people approach the DJ booth to request a song, by pretending that they are Delta Force Operatives who also just happen to be missing one hemisphere of brain. It is somewhat horrifying to turn to the side and see some 80 year old gentleman crawling through the assorted cables, wires, and truss support system that makes up 1800 pounds of electronic equipment. They come in droves, tripping over everything that they can possibly touch in order to come talk to us, scraping their elbows, knees and other associated extremities in the process, all the while a clearly indicated and unobstructed access point exists. Of course, once they have managed to crawl through the trenches to get to us, I do point them out to the appropriate path that they should have taken, and refuse to speak to them until they use it.

I don’t download music from file sharing sites. The reason? Despite going against my rough moral fiber, the quality is terrible. Here is the beef.

The 128kbps Song you downloaded sounds fine on your crappy computer speakers, but slap on a set of studio quality headphones, or listen to the song on a good home stereo.. and something is lacking.

It’s the same reason that your favorite DVD has little digital artifacts that show up on your big screen TV.

Digital Compression generally reduces quality, and unless you have very good compression software, the results are less than desirable. I’ve purchased MP3’s from overseas record companies that have had terrible blips, pops, and skips in the audio, and I find that unacceptable. The fidelity of the sound on a high quality stereo system also speaks for itself.

Now I do have an iTunes account, and I find the 192kpbs ‘equivalent’ bitrate to work fine for casual listening, and allows me to purchase albums that I can’t find in stores. However, I much prefer the real thing.

But I don’t share songs online, and all my software is legitimate.

And I really doubt that if that woman who was charged $220000 pays up to the RIAA, that a single red cent will actually go to the artists in question.

Similar to how I really doubt that any of the levies in Canada go to the artists.

Actually this blog entry has nothing to do with sharks. I just thought it was a cool title I could rip off from a recent documentary.

Although as far as things that could still be working, I might be referencing my ancient computer, on which I do all of my freelance motion design and other things, as it is an ancient beastie. It is still working, but my is it slow compared to the workstation I have at.. work.

So, I’m in the market for an upgrade. Thinking about a custom Quad Core, with insane amounts of RAM. Also really interested in a few of the Nvidia Quadro FX cards, which are quite smashing. of course, there are Turn Key solutions, such as those from Boxx, which are great, or from Dell, which are sort of like those multi-packs of cold cereal. You know, there are 2 good kinds in the pack, and then all the rest are some iteration of bran flakes. That’s a Dell computer.

Tech aside, I’m feeling re-energized on the creative side, and getting back to finishing off projects that I had backing up. Of course, the paid ones get done first, one has to make a living, and save up money for a new computer.

Well, it looks like I no longer have to really worry about Calgary Transit, which is nice, as we purchased a new car, and now having 2 cars, can zip about burning up fossil fuels and avoiding the sounds of teenage girls, very late buses, and “Attention Calgary Transit customers, there will be a 20 minute delay on all lines heading in or out of the Downtown core, and your connections will not be compensated in any form.”

Anyhow, it’s funny that floor mats are considered an extra in cars these days.