I cannot be blamed because you're weak...

Must write regularly. Must write regularly. Must write regularly.

Ok, done. Now I will write regularly. Honest.

And so what has happened since last I wrote... well, saw a couple of concerts, moved into the basement office... hmm.

Ok, so last Thursday I went with Mike and a friend of his to see Nine Inch Nails at the Saddledome. Originally I had been a bit frustrated because Mike's friend got floor tickets and I didn't want to be impaled by a mass of humanity, but I'm actually quite happy we were on the floor now. We got to lurk back towards the rear of the floor and spent the entire concert happily unmolested.

"Death From Above 1979" opened, and while I arrived late and only caught about 2/3 of their set, I was very impressed. Two guys (either from Edmonton or Toronto, depends on who you ask), one on bass and one on drums (the drummer was the "vocalist" who, unfortunately, was rather... uninspiring). As I walked into the saddledome I could hear a steady "thumpa-thumpa-thumpa-chugchugchugchugchugchug". That pretty much sums up their sound - very loud, very dense, but pretty good. If it wasn't for the vocals, I'd definitely pick up their CD...

Next was "Queens of the Stone Age" and I had been looking forward to seeing them. Unfortunately, they left me terribly disappointed... they were dull, way way way WAY too loud, and didn't know how to end a song. You know how sometimes you will go to a rock show and at the end of a particularly intense song, or at the end of the concert, the band will go all crazy and play their instruments all out of control until the song climaxes in this big giant wall of noise? It's a fun moment at a concert.

Except if it's done at the end of nearly every song, which is what QOTSA did. Bah. I was quite pleased when they wandered off the stage. BOOOO!

But then NIN came out, and it was beyond amazing. When I saw them 5 or 6 years ago in Vancouver, it was easily one of the best shows I'd ever seen.

This show simply blew it away - the performance was intense, powerful. The imagery was amazing - at one point the front of the stage was covered with a sheer "screen" - you could see the band through it, but on it were a lot of disturbing gulf war images juxtaposed with happy pictures of rich people (and George W.) - all during the performance of "Right Where it Belongs" - a sad, brooding song which took on complete new meaning with this treatment.

The weekend was very hectic - the basement got finished so we spent the weekend moving stuff around down there. That took some time but we're somewhat settled in now. My office is a mess but it's less mess than the upstairs junk room/storage room/kyle's office, so that's good at least.

Last night we went to see Sarah Slean in concert at the Eckhart Gramatte (probably spelled that wrong) hall at U of C. That room has amazing acoustics - the first time we ever saw Sarah Slean (this was the 4th time) was also at this hall.

The show was simply amazing - just her and a piano, nothing else. Brilliant.

That's all for now... I will endeavour to write tomorrow.

Wheee....

So all I have to say about today is that I hate my vehicle right now with the "Headlight Problem" which causes them to burn out every 2 months or so, and I am also stunned at the brilliance of the City's Road Construction team who decided it would be a bright idea to reduce the Bow Trail & Sarcee intersection to 1 lane in all directions.

Thank you. That is all.

and my heart breaks now and again, it's a crying shame... HEY! And it feels like I lost it all, WHOA!

all I have to say, is they really should have gone for a turnover total in the double-digits.

I mean, if you're gonna throw a game away, really give 'er.

BLAH.

Yeah, this is what I wanted to see yesterday...

Lest we forget

I was planning on writing this yesterday, but considering the fact that I spent the entire day putting primer on the drywall in our basement (and I do mean the entire day, with the exception of a trip to get more primer), I was a bit tied up.

However, I didn't neglect to pay attention to the fact that it was Remembrance Day. I hoped to have a picture of my Grandfather in this thread, but I didn't manage to get one from my dad to scan in time. So I'll simply mention him, and Miles as well. Definitely not forgotten, neither of them nor any other veteran, living or not.

CF-18 Flyover at Miles Selby Memorial Service, 2004

Best to smile, best to squeal for daddy, best to revile, the baby jesus loves the company.

Ok, so I have been threatened by stealthy pencil attacks on Stephen Ave at lunchtime if I don't resume writing. I've also been getting glares at home for not writing. And I've been getting grief for not leaving comments in the wife's blog, too. (Hey, go read her blog. It's linked on the left).

Ok, so since I have too much to do (configuring a TeamSpeak server today, huzzah) today, here's a survey.

7 things I want to do before I die:
1. Finish writing my book
2. Get a Master's degree
3. Play golf at Pebble Beach
4. See at least 1 major league baseball game in all 30 stadiums
5. Go to a MLB Fantasy Camp
6. Visit Europe
7. Visit Africa

7 things I cannot do:
1. A handstand
2. Vote liberal
3. Relax for more than a few minutes
4. Remember things
5. Accept the fact that it's ok for the lightswitch leading to the basement can be "UP" when the light is off, and vice versa.
6. Be completely comfortable in a building or home where there are an uneven number of stairs.
7. Stop answering my cell phone

7 things that I'm attracted to:
1. Stephanie
2. Faces
3. Intelligence
4. Sarcasm
5. Girls with dark hair
6. Agression
7. Power

7 things I say often:
1. Fuck
2. Fuck it
3. God dammit
4. Ugh what is this moron doing? *honk honk honk*
5. Please make sure you're paying attention to the defined process.
6. Good morning/afternoon/evening, Kyle speaking...
7. Darren, please stop promising things I can't do.

7 Celebrity obsessions:
1. Angelina Jolie
2. um... I can't think of any others... sorry :(

Yeah, this is wrong on SO many levels...

Maybe if I was in demand, you would be mine...

So, I have now been cyber-poked by a #2 pencil because I didn't write yesterday. See, I thought I got out of being pencil-poked since the wife didn't write yesterday either, so the poking canceled each other out.

However, I have now been poked by Kelsey. Ouch.

So, here is a combined yesterday and today entry for ya.

YESTERDAY

So, the good 'ol Gomery exoneration... er, report... came out yesterday. I would pay more attention if I thought it would have any bearing whatsoever on anything related to the governing of this country. But it won't.

I did find something definitely unusual yesterday though while on my way to the bank. On the corner of 8th ave and 2nd street there was a young lady. Say, 20 or so.

In her hand she was holding a copy of the Gomery Report.

And she was a shoutin'. And not just shoutin' random things, no, she was shoutin' the report. Word for word. The entire freaking thing.

The only thing that really went through my mind was ... "Honey, you're really preaching to the wrong people here. You're in CALGARY. You know, CONSERVATIVE CENTRAL. If you want to "make a difference", I suggest you go and shout that report out in downtown Toronto." Of course, I didn't say that, because really, it won't make a whole hell of a lot of difference. Not with the sad little consortium of regional opposition parties we have in this country.

Something else I noticed while going to the bank and then down to the Ticketmaster outlet to get my Matthew Good tickets was that there sure are a lot of people on Stephen Ave at lunchtime. Even though it was a bit chilly, there were tons of people outside. I'd guess, I passed maybe a thousand people on my journey across 5 blocks. Maybe 800. But definitely a lot.

I counted 16 people wearing poppies. Every year we seem to unconciously take more and more of the remembering out of remembrance.

Last night was the Matthew Good concert, which was also the first concert I've attended in the new Macewan Hall at the University. It's a jillion times better than the Mac Hall Ballrom. Huge, spacious, great acoustics, etc. And the whole hall was mabye 80% full, so Steph and I were able to lurk at the back of the hall and watch the concert in unencumbered, unsquished, unelbowed, unjostled glory.

And what a show it was. Most excellent.

Today

The most productive thing I have done is write in this blog. Hooray for me.

That is all.


Mr. Good