Explanations

For the first time in awhile I feel like I need to sit down and write out some thoughts, it's very strange!

So the plan is to move to Vancouver in a little over a year, which is both very scary, yet extremely exciting. As weird as it is, it has kind of given me a proverbial kick in the butt by speeding up some latent thoughts that I've had at the back of my mind over the past few months, mainly that I'm getting kind of bored with my job as it is and I need to work towards doing something I enjoy better.

Now, the next step would be much easier if I had any concrete ideas of the sort of job I want to end up in. I'm definitely drawn towards the creative end of things because despite my background in business (ha!) I'm clearly more rooted in the arts in my day to day life outside of work. The main issue of course is that, at least in my own opinion, I'm not a terribly 'artistic' person. I'm not a musician, I can't draw terribly well, I can't paint, and I don't think I could ever write a script or screenplay. This of course limits my options, which (I think) is a blessing in disguise. To start I think I need to work on getting familiar with graphic design again. I say again because many a moon ago (circa 2000ish?) I did use programs like Adobe Photoshop pretty regularly in conjunction with some web design/HTML stuff that I played around with in high school. Today at lunch I walked to the Millennium Library and took out a couple books with some general design principles, pretty obvious stuff for the most part, but more than anything I think I just need to get exposed to that 'world' a bit more again.

Taking some courses through RRC or somewhere else may happen in the future, but they're expensive and honestly I probably wouldn't learn a whole lot more than what I can figure out on my own with a little bit of guidance. What I really need to find is a good book that goes through a lot of the Photoshop features as well as a book so I can get back into using Illustrator. Any suggestions are definitely welcome.

I guess the ultimate question though is, where does this lead me? The answer is that I really don't know, it's just a step towards an imaginary job that I enjoy. With a one year limit before moving to Vancouver, I'd really like to get some more random skills under my belt to improve the chances of lucking into an awesome job when we get there.

Cassette tape manipulation

Posted everywhere, still pretty amazing though

More

Learning to change

Why put so much sexual innuendo into a sandwich commercial?

Will he ever grow up

Somehow in the span of a month I leave my debit card in an atm and also my new credit card (old one expired) gets lost in the mail and they have to send a new one.  After going through all the steps of reporting a lost debit card and getting a new one today, I learn that apparently it takes 24 hours for the card to be activated nowadays.  What the hell? I don't remember it ever being this way in the past.  So essentially I'm back to the stone age fund-wise for the next half a day, I definitely had to put off getting groceries because I don't have enough cash on me.  Dumb.

'Twas a good weekend for movies at least.  Rewatched the SNL Will Ferrel dvd because honestly, the amount of quotable lines in that is astronomical.  We will definitely be referencing it way too much in the near future.  

Also, saw Rip: A Remix Manifesto and it was definitely everything I was hoping it to be.  He presented everything very intelligently while getting all of these ideas and information across in an easy to understand and entertaining way.  I was getting a bit bummed at how Girl Talk-centric the movie was, but then he spent an entire section of the movie talking about Negativland, which definitely bumped the movie into new heights of nerd-dom in my books haha.  The whole movie I was hoping for some mention of Biz Markie and the history of legality and sampling that has been played out in the past but it was to no avail, though honestly the movie was already quite long and I'm not sure he could have done it justice in a short period of time.  

We also went to see I Love You, Man which was also pleasantly surprising because while I was expecting to laugh, I wasn't expecting to do it as much as I actually did.  This just furthers my own love of Paul Rudd and while I still think that Jason Segal was the worst actor to come out of Freaks & Geeks, he was good in this movie as well.  The topic of the movie is interesting in itself, because honestly I do see myself at least in part.  Forming lasting friendships with other guys when you're in adulthood is very hard I admit, I am still a guy where all of my best friends in fact have vaginas.

I've been in the midst of a small-ish bout of spring cleaning here as of late, selling a bunch of stuff around my apartment in order to pay off my debt because frankly I'm sick of paying all this money every month when I could be putting it to better use.  Hopefully soon.

While I'm not super into this particular song, I think the idea for the video and the way it was shot is pretty much genius.  Also, I can think of at least a few girls in the city who look way too much like her now.

Accomplishments

Tonight, for the first time in approximately 2 years, I successfully put in and wore my contact lenses without any pain or discomfort.

You cannot understand how happy this makes me, and how much more I'm looking forward to summer now.  Glasses in summer? Hell I say, hell.

Weekend purchases

I'm honestly not too sure which is more ridiculous

(Almost) Spring Cleaning:

Went to the gym later today (7pm rather than at 5) and it's quite a different mix of people, and the number of Tapout related articles of clothing increases a lot at 7pm.  I'd imagine that by 9pm approximately 80% of the gym would be wearing something related to Affliction or Tapout.  My goal of prolonged, continual gym attendance is still going strong 16 months in and I will say that I'm probably the most shocked by that, though obviously pleasantly surprised.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about debt, money and the future as well, and I'm sure that reading personal finance blogs has not helped this one bit.  I really have to kick myself for getting back into debt so quickly after I was essentially homefree and down to zero debt last fall.  I'm in the midst of going through most of my earthly possessions (aka records) and I'm going to sell a whole bunch as a way of financing a summer trip and hopefully paying off my credit card debt before summer hits.  While sitting beside this immense shelf of records that I own I'm constantly reminded of how many of them I've owned for many years and have honestly never listened to, just sad.

Recent spins of records:
Alice Cooper - Killer

Alice Cooper - Love It To Death

Sisters - Self Titled

Masshysteri - Var Del Av Stan

Pavement - Terror Twilight

Good Luck - Into Lake Griffy

The nights just fly by

I am now in the midst of my third attempt at reading Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and I swear that this will be the time that I successfully complete it.  Based on my experiences with it (past and present) I definitely agree with the comparisons to Moby Dick, not only in literary 'value' but in pure difficulty to actually read.  I feel like I should dive more deeply in McCarthy's work again now that The Road is being released as a movie shortly and after watching No Country For Old Men for the second time last weekend.  While his range is certainly limited, if you want a kickass book set in Texas, about cowboys with a penchant for brutal violence, he is the author you should go to immediately.

Ps. It still weirds me out that The Road was an "Oprah Book Club" selection.

I also recently experienced Winnipeg's newest 'avant-garde' musician, which is one of the few times I've ever actually cringed while listening to something.  It's like a delightful mashup of Wesley Willis and electro, lo-fi/no-fi bedroom artists like This Song Is A Mess But So Am I, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone and Xiu Xiu at its worst.  This is probably a good indication of why anyone from Winnipeg with an experimental bent either never plays shows or moved away.  It just sucks because I actually totally don't hate the person behind the project. 

If anything this has suggested to me that maybe I should get off my ass, spend the cash and start buying some more equipment and start recording something that I feel is interesting.  Despite the fact that I am painfully non-musical (at least in my experience) I feel that sitting down and programming a drum machine or setting up a sequencer is way more my speed than strumming a guitar.  It's just hard when most of your income is spent on not so fun adult things like kitchen supplies and stuff to better organize your bathroom.  Here's to hoping for an preposterously enormous tax return.....

Boo, weekend is almost over

Some of my favourite things of the moment:

• All thing related to Matt Berry
• Huevos rancheros and putting salsa on everything
• Not even being able to keep up with all the new music I want to check out
• Trying new recipes and them working out awesomely
• New socks
• Spending time with the 'other' family
• Yes Men lecture coming up on Tuesday and record movie on Thursday
• New stereo and finally being able to file away my 'to listen to' pile
• Spending all weekend just the way I wanted to
• Ice cream, and lots of it

The Food Post v2

In my effort to try new recipes....

...I made some pretty delicious and fancy roasted garlic and dill potatoes.

Also, I saw this in the 'blogosphere' earlier today and instantly made me think of someone I know who's kind of obsessed with the commercials. Plus the fact that it is totally ingenious and interactive makes it even better.

There's even a live webcast of the billboard here 

http://www.cadburycremeegg.ca/

UP

So excited for this movie, I anticipate a new favourite Pixar movie for me possibly.

The Food Post

In my opinion, these are the most addictive things in the entire world and I could easily sit down and finish off an entire bag of them without even thinking twice.  It is probably the best for my waistline that I only shop at Superstore very rarely.

I honestly am not too sure why I have become so much more interested with cooking and food in general in the last few months, but it has been a welcome side effect to living on my own and now actually cooking for 2 people occasionally.  While I would say that my skills are hardly anything to write home about currently, I do have about 5-8 things that I can make and make very well, though obviously increasing this number is the most important thing right now.  I made some amazing salsa and guacamole last week.

I wish I had the extra money to just buy a whole bunch of fancy cheeses and try them all out.  Too bad I still buy the same things I usually do whenever I go grocery shopping, experimentation with cooking with new foods is just something that I'm still not into.

This post was prompted by finding this on the front step to my building earlier:

Pretty much the only ~10 minute online video I've ever watched with full interest, definitely worth the time.