Seans Evil Plan

Wait! What?

2012-01-16T16:27:00.001-05:00

OK so it's been a while since I've blogged anything. I really like this new layout but I'm a little sad I can't add gadgets and links and stuff so all my friends stuff is gone...for now. Apparently they'll fix it so that I can add links and other stuff back in.

Anyway, it's been over 2 months since Georgia was born...We've been pretty busy but Georgia is doing great. She's a pretty smiley baby, sleeps and eats like a champ. She's had her first vaccinations and is hitting milestones. She's starting to show a bit of personality too...

Lots of fun!

Get back to work!

2011-11-13T10:44:00.001-05:00

I'm back to work now. It's been a week. Man, have things changed around here. Margo's doing well. Georgia is doing well. My work is stoopid busy while I prepare to take over the job of someone who is retiring in December. Sleep is interrupted. Baby stuff is everywhere. We have lots to do and not as much time to do it as we used to since our errands are timed between feedings.

But you know what? It's worth it since today, Sunday morning, I'm blogging from bed with Georgia , the two cats and Margo who has busted out her hidden rap skills by performing bust-a-move

Back on the home front...

2011-11-04T16:43:00.002-04:00

I've been posting photos of Georgia on Facebook but here are a few:

Pondering the hanged bears

I give up!

So, Some updates...

Georgia and Margo are doing great...Georgia's gaining weight she was up to 6 lbs 9oz. After the weighing in at the doctor the doctor figured that her birth weight was off. He thinks she might have been 6 lbs 3 oz.

She's still smaller than our cats

Amidst all the poop, sleeping and eating

2011-11-03T15:33:00.001-04:00

I found some time to re-wire my Dobro while Georgia was sleeping...You see, a few weeks ago I used the Dobro in the studio with Jamie and it buzzed....not string buzz but electrical wiring buzz. It made it though the session but a couple of days later the electronics crapped out. The guitar always had a ground problem. With acoustic guitars there is no metal bridge to attach the ground wire to so if you have an electric humbucker pickup there's no really good place to ground the wire...

Except with a Dobro, there is a metal bridge so it kinda works.

I opened the guitar up to examine the wiring...it was not wired right at least according to the wiring diagram from the Seymour-Duncan website. I could have repaired it I guess but I decided that I would replace all the electronics except for the pickups and wire it correctly. I bought a new capacitor, a new jack, a push/pull pot switch and a regular tone pot for a technical upgrade (a second mode of use on the humbucker). While I was at it I decided that a small cosmetic upgrade was in order so I got two new chrome tone knobs to replace the ugly white ones someone had installed.

What is clear from opening his guitar up is that someone has already been in there to make some modifications. I'm pretty sure this guitar did not originally come with the pickups that it currently has. I think someone drilled holes for a couple of tone knobs. I've seen pictures of this guitar in it's original condition and it looks a little different than what I have. Anyway it's from the 1970s as far as I can tell and it's an import from Japan.

It took a few weeks but the parts came so I wired it all up...Good as new, maybe better since the ground hum is considerably reduced...I'm still playing with a few things, adjusting pickups etc...but I think it could probably benefit from a real guitar technician looking at it. For now though It's awesome.

I don't have before and after shot but the tone knob heads were those aged white ones which you find on Fender guitars...Honestly if you're gonna make extensive modifications to a guitar like this at least have the decency to make it look nice...

There! I fixed it :

Georgia Charlene Wilson

2011-10-30T10:23:00.000-04:00

On October 25 @ 405am my baby girl was born. "Georgia Charlene Wilson" weighed 5lbs 14oz or 2680g for those of us who think in metric. It was a bit of a scary ride (I will spare you the details) but she's here now and she's perfect, at least, I think she is.

We're home from the hospital now and Margo and Georgia are doing great! We're probably getting more sleep than we should since Georgia is such a good baby. She doesn't fuss too much and she's easy to get to sleep. I guess she's like her mom that way. Margo says she looks a lot like me but I see both of us in her though I will admit she looks more like a Wilson then she does Margo's side of the family though.

Anyway, here she is at 37 hours old.

We're very happy...tired...but happy. I suppose I'll be blogging about baby stuff now :)

The Perils and Pitfalls of Home Renovation

2011-09-16T13:07:00.003-04:00

I frikin' HATE carpet. If I had lots of money I would replace all carpet in the house with engineered hardwood but, such an undertaking is cost prohibitive and though I've learned a whole heck of a lot about home maintenance and renovations in the past year, I'm not quite ready to undertake re-flooring the entire upstairs AND retro-fiting two flights of stairs to be hardwood..

Problem was, the carpet was done. Finished. Caput. It had to be replaced, so it was with a heavy heart that Margo and I started shopping for replacement carpet. Our search took us to End of the Roll.

If you know anything about the way Margo and I approach projects it's that we're organized and frugal. So we picked out a nice carpet, fenegled ourselves a deal on underpadding and set to work making arrangements for the installation.

The installation of the carpet was to be done over 2 days. Margo and her dad pulled up the old carpet everywhere except the master bedroom and all the furniture in the rest of the upstairs was moved to the master bedroom. I had arranged a couple of friends to come and help me move furniture around over 2 days. the installer was to put the carpet in upstairs on day one, everywhere except the master bedroom. When they were done, my friend Shawn and I would move all the furniture out of the master and I would take the carpet out. On day two Jamie would come help me move furniture back into the master.

Sound reasonable? We thought so, and End Of The Roll agreed to our plan...except...

On the day of the installation, the installer had no idea that he was supposed to do the install over two days. I reminded him of this and he asked me for more money to move the stuff out of our bedroom and take up the carpet so he could do it in one day. I refused and went back to work in the basement office.

When next I came up to check on the installer, they had moved all of the furniture out of the bedroom and into the baby's room and started to rip up the carpet. I confronted the installer about this. He said it was better for both of us. since he could do the job in a day. I really had no problem with him moving the stuff but, the whole point of us doing the move of the furniture and the tear out of the carpet was to save some money and protect our stuff. ie. if we move our stuff then we're responsible for it.

The installer worked into the evening. Apparently, his helpers abandoned him part way through the day and he was unable to finish the job and indicated that he would return tomorrow. Shawn arrived to help me with the move of the furniture - originally from the master bedroom to somewhere where the carpet had been installed but since they moved the furniture already it was to move the furniture from the baby's room to the master bedroom. It was at this point I discovered the damage

Walls had been scratched and gouged, furniture had been scratched and broken and the worst of all, they had punctured a hole in our fancy mattress (less than a year old) I called End of the Roll with my complaint and they said they would have someone call me back.

In terms of damage...We had literally finished painting the baby's room the night before. Painters tape was still on the walls so that the trim could be finished. it was really easy to identify the areas where they gouged the trim and walls. For the furniture I really hadn't looked closely at it so I could not say whether or not the furniture was damaged by the installers or not. The puncture in the mattress was definitely a new development. Sleep country Canada had delivered the mattress about a year ago and it was not moved since. There's no reason to move it since it's a one sided mattress which does not require rotation...

We had paid End of the Roll in full by this point but I took pictures of all the damage an emailed them to the Company. First they wanted to send someone to the house to view the damage. We were OK with this until they mentioned that the person they wanted to send had bronchitis. Pregnant lady plus bronchitis...not gonna happen. They argued with me over this..."It's viral so he's safe" they said...What? Gee I didn't realize that you required a medical degree to sell carpet.

They never sent said person...we asked for them to send someone else and they said no. WHAT?

So, working off the photos they decided to offer us $100 to compensate us for the damage which was not acceptable considering the amount of damage they did. First, they complained that they should have been the ones to fix the damage. I said "Oh yeah when can you be here?" They couldn't answer so I told them "look we're expecting a baby and we're on a schedule to have this room finished, I can fix the damage. What I'm more concerned about is the hole your installers put in our mattress" Their response..."Oh we don't think our installers did that."...WHAT?

Somewhere in the chain of emails they changed their offer to $250 to cover the damages to the walls only.

Meanwhile we called the place (Sleep Country Canada) where we had purchased out mattress to find out what our options were. With the hole in the mattress our warranty on the mattress was now on a case by case basis. Sleep Country was excellent, They sent us a free patch kit and gave us an estimate of what the warranty would be worth - 10-15% of the mattress cost. I low-balled the number (took 10%) and added it their estimate of the damages to the walls and sent an email telling them that $340 would be fair and provided justification for how I came up with that number.

During this entire process they were withholding the final bill of sale. We had requested this information along with the warranty information several times. They did not provide this. I argued with them regarding the cost of the damages but they refused to budge on the cost...so essentially they ripped us off for $90. I wanted to file a complaint but with everything we have going on I simply did not have the time to follow up. Plus, since they were withholding the final bill of sale it was difficult to file said complaint without documentation.

In the end I accepted the $250 offer...low and behold when they sent the cheque, they sent it along with the final bill of sale and warranty information..

End of the Roll is a horrible company. They treated us fine until they got our money and then we were treated like criminals. If you are considering changing the carpet in your home, do yourself a favour and skip End of the Roll. The customer service was terrible, The installers were unprofessional and the company did not bother even to tell the installers what the job entailed. As such, the installers were unprepared for the job and made mistakes in the install process which I confronted them about and they fixed but I should not have had to say anything since our plan was clearly communicated and confirmed with End of the Roll several times prior to the installation date.

Lucky Girl - Guest Blogger Margo

2011-09-05T09:37:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone, We are getting ready for our little girl to arrive, 7 more weeks officially till her due date! We hope she sticks close to that because I, as usual have planned our life down to the minute! Got to get all our little (or not so little) projects done before she comes! So all we will do is sit and relax when she arrives....right everyone? Lol! I know all the parents out there are laughing, falling off their chairs! We also have one more road trip to Southern Ontario for my brother's wedding, (I'll be 36 weeks) so no early arrivals!

But we wanted to share the nursery pictures. As we were working on the room I looked at Sean and said. "She really won't appreciate this. We will probably be moved before she is old enough to take in the room, so essentially we are decorating this room for us.....well actually for me"....Sean was like yes. This is all for you. So really the lucky girl in this story is me! I love Sean for embracing my vision for the nursery and being patience enough to execute it! We both love it! I can see many happy late nights rocking, feeding our little girl in this beautiful room! Thank you Sean! Also Thank you to my Mom (she bought the furniture, it is a tradition in our family and she wanted to do it last year so my brothers made sure we got the money to buy it) and thank you to Sean's Mom and Aunt for bringing the furniture to Ottawa all the way from Toronto! (Of course I found it there, but as usual for a GREAT deal!) Enjoy the pictures! We still have a rocker on its way.

Dead PS3 - Update

2011-08-26T08:49:00.000-04:00

After getting the PS3 to spit out my disc and actually come back online. I tried using the data transfer utility to move my old PS3 data onto my new PS. This involves hooking the 2 PS3s up to each other via ethernet cable, turning them on, and then fiddling with some menu items to get them to transfer the data from one to the other. However, to actually do this, first you have to deactivate the old PS3 on the playstation network.

I set this up. The process indicated it would take about 4 hours to complete. It kinda had me worried a little cuz I wasn't sure how long the PS3 would be willing to stay alive. About 5 hours later, the PS3s said they had 34 minutes left to complete the operation. I left for another half hour and checked again...34 minutes left....Clearly the process is stalled...I stopped it and restarted it. The same thing happened again.

At this point I'm pretty pleased that the PS3 has stayed up and running for so long but also pretty annoyed to have gone to all the work to repair the thing and not get my data back. I have another trick or two up my sleeve though.

Over, time, your PS3 accumulates stuff...All your saved games are stored on the hard drive as well as any install data from games you've purchased and any DLC. I don't keep many games around, Once I'm done with them, I sell them back to the store but I often forget to do one important thing when I sell the games back and that is to delete the install data and saved games for the games I no longer own. So I went through the PS3 data utilities and deleted all my old and unneeded saved games as well as any install data and DLC.

My other trick, which is more interesting then just deleting stuff, was to use the "uber-super-secret" PS3 recovery mode to repair any hard disk corruption and rebuild the PS3 database. To do this, you turn off your PS3 then turn it on but, hold the power button while it boots up. The playstation should beep then, turn off. Then, turn the playstation on again still holding the power button. This time, the playstation will double beep. Release the power button when you hear the double beep and you'll put the PS3 in recovery mode.

You have to use a USB cable with your controller in this mode. You've got a few options on this new menu. I recovered the hard drive and rebuilt the database. The recovery menu indicated that the Hard drive was indeed, corrupted and proceeded to fix it. When I rebooted the PS3 there was a little "corrupted data" package in the regular menu which, I deleted. I set up the data transfer utility again, This time it said 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete and about an hour and 30 minutes later it was done!

So all my data was on the new PS3! Woohoo! But, did it work? The answer is mostly. I had to re-download the DLC for Fallout : New Vegas which, was not totally unexpected I guess since the PS3 crashed while I was playing it.

The question remains: What do I do with the old PS3? Well, for starters, I pulled the 500GB hard drive out of it and put it into an enclosure and made myself a nice little mini portable hard drive. I'm still looking in the house for the original 60Gb hard drive which I can put back into the machine then set everything back to default settings and maybe try and sell the thing....We'll see

Dead PS3

2011-08-22T23:07:00.000-04:00

My PS3 gave up the ghost on Sunday night. It's an old 60GB model. I think I've had it for about 5 years.

The thing about a dead PS3 is that:

1. The disc you were using when the PS3 died is stuck in the machine
2. Even if you get yourself a new PS3, You can't get your data off the old PS3 unless it's running. This means you've lost your save games and anything else you've downloaded.

I found both of those conditions really annoying....so here's what I did:

What you're looking at is my old 60Gb PS3 disassembled and strewn across my office desk. That green thing is the main PS3 board and the rest are bits and pieces of the PS3... As chaotic as this looks, I actually had a purpose in disassembling the PS3. I was following a guide I found on the internet on how to repair the Yellow Light of Death.

Yellow Light of Death is a condition which affects PS3s. You basically can't turn them on. When you press the power button you get a brief yellow light, 3 audible beeps and a flashing red light - no PS3 screen.

I guess it's fairly common in the old PS3s like my 60GB version. The repair process involves a complete teardown of the PS3 and then using a heat-gun to heat up certain areas of the PS3. I think this gets whatever thermal compound is in those areas flowing and making good connections again.

You've gotta strip off old thermal compound and then heat these areas up and then let the board cool down. making sure that it's level and not moved so that none of the components move. Once it's cooled you re-apply the thermal compound to the fan connections and re-assemble the whole thing.

I ran through the whole thing and when I was done, the PS3 spit out the disc it had eaten and appears to be working. I'm in the process of transferring my data to a new 320GB PS3 which is a bit of a downgrade for me since I had upgraded my 60GB to a 500GB monster.

To me, the yellow light of death seems like the PS3 version of the XBox red ring of death and the solution is a very sophisticated towel trick. It screams "temporary fix" to me. Further reading on the subject indicates that some people need to "re-flow" their PS3 more then once and after about the 2nd time you need to change what you do to get the thing back up and running.

I hope I manage to get my data transferred over...It's been running for a couple hours now...

The Saddest Jazzy EVAAAAAR!!!!!!

2011-08-22T22:13:00.000-04:00

Look at this:

Jazzy's not quite herself lately. With all the comings and goings lately as well as all the renovations we're doing to get ready for Baby. Jazzy's been feeling a little out of sorts and decided to express herself by peeing on our brand new carpet. Thankfully we know her go-to spot and had plastic down but this was an indication to us that the cat was not handling things well.

First of all, there's the other cat, Charlie. They've never really gotten along. Add into all that, the trips, and the renovations and changes around the house and the poor cat is really stressed out.

Anyway, We took her to the vet who basically checked her out and pronounced her healthy. She's actually lost 1Kg of weight in a year which is a great thing..But being healthy means that the peeing is behavioral.

The vet suggested two treatments. 1 is medical - a short course of Valium basically. The other was a visit to a cat behavior specialist. You can probably imagine my reaction to that:

Sarcastically, "Really?"
"Yes, she's out in Osgoode. A rare bird among vets and a relatively new field of study"
"You're serious?"
"Yes, She's basically a cat psychologist...well not just cats, she treats dogs as well."
"We'll take the drugs"

Actually the vet is great. I'm glad he presented the option even if I think it's silly. He went out of his way to find a different drug for Jazzy which does not come with a risk of liver problems too.

Anyway, Jazzy's taking a medication normally for dogs. It's for separation anxiety.Supposedly 90% effective in treating behavioral urination. The problem is, she seems kinda down and doesn't socialize with us very much...I kinda miss the old Jazzy...I hope she's not gone forever...

Jack Layton

2011-08-22T14:27:00.000-04:00

I was sad to hear this morning that Jack Layton (leader of the NDP) had died of Cancer. He was by no means one of my favorite politicians, if I even have one but, I couldn't really help but look at Jack as a scrappy little underdog who finally made it big. I honestly looked forward to seeing what he would do with the current powers that be and I do like some of the NDP ideas even if I find them a little soft on some issues...It's a bit of a sad day for Canada

Fruits, Vegetables and Babies

2011-08-16T09:59:00.001-04:00

Margo and I have been tracking the size of the baby with the aid of a comparative tool. One of these pregnancy information sites has a website badge which you plug your due date into. At any time you can have a look at the badge and see how you're tracking in comparison to various fruits and vegetables. So, every so often the badge will change and provide new produce which is approximately the same size as baby.

When the produce changes I usually call my parents and let them know what fruit or vegetable the baby has changed to. A few days ago I got this photo in my email from my Dad:

What you're seeing here is my mother holding an acorn squash with a face drawn on it. Apparently, my parents have been running out and getting the produce that the baby is sized as when the baby changes. This time, my mother brought in the squash to the house and then went back out to the car for the rest of the groceries. While she was out, my dad drew a face on the squash.

Once they got over the giggles they took a picture and then sent it to me via email...

Yeah, they're excited to be grandparents

Meeting the Mayor of Ottawa

2011-08-12T13:10:00.000-04:00

So, there I was cooking dinner when the door bell rang. I had onions and garlic in the pan so, I took a quick look through the frosted glass and I saw a suit and some pamphlets...this did not bode well. Pamphlets usually mean someone's trying to convert you to their religion or they want to sell you something, unless they're one of those fixed rate energy companies or someone who says your water heater is out of date and needs to be replaced...those guys carry binders and they never leave their information with you.

Anyway, I open the door and steeled myself for a quick but polite rejection of Jesus Christ as my savior and standing before me is Jim Watson, the Mayor of Ottawa

He says "Hi, I'm Jim Watson!"
Dumbfounded "I know!"
"I'm the mayor of Ottawa"
"I know!"
"every so often I pick a neighborhood to visit and talk with the residents to see what's on their minds"
"That's Fantastic"
"Do you have any concerns or Questions?"
"um, No, I have no complaints. We're pretty happy here"

In hindsight I wished I'd had something more meaningful to say. Honestly though, since I started working from home I'm not all that engaged in the city of Ottawa, I don't drive much or take advantage of the community services. I feel like Ottawa is a good place to live where worthwhile businesses can thrive and grow. So I really have no complaints....but it's still pretty cool to meet the Mayor. He was just walking around our little street no escorts or anything. I don't think the mayor of Toronto could do such a thing

Anonymous Commenters

2011-07-03T22:09:00.000-04:00

Hey anonymous commentators! I just wanted to let ya'll know that google thinks everything you write is spam. I'll do my best to make sure you get your say here but google dumps these comments into the spam bin automatically so maybe if you're feeling creative, type a name!

Yours truly,
Sean

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!

2011-06-28T14:58:00.000-04:00

OK, I finally got that shot in the arm I was looking for...literally...corticosteroids in my upper forearm. It hurts a lot but hopefully in a day or two it'll be much better. For the next 24 hours it's Tylenol and Advil and maybe some ice.

Tape is not the solution

2011-06-24T08:16:00.000-04:00

Needles are! So far anyway..

I had my trigger finger injected with corticosteroids. It's causing me a bit of trouble with my blood sugars but nothing too bad. Yesterday, I could not move my finger much after the injection. Today, I've got increased finger mobility though it won't straighten out fully yet. Maybe tomorrow!

They're going to do my tennis elbow next week so I'm hoping that this is the end of this ridiculousness. With problems on both sides of my shoulders every day tasks become interesting.

Simple tasks become little more complex when your arms are gimpy. We got our water heater replaced yesterday and part of this process is clearing a path to the basement. We have a bench in our kitchen which was kinda blocking the way to the water heater. I couldn't move it. It was just too big to carry with one hand.

The guys did an "inspection" of the state of our gas appliances and one thing they found was that the gas pipes were not grounded and they wanted $35 to do this. I kid you not, this is simply attaching a clamp to the gas pipe and a clamp to the water pipe and running a copper wire between them so they are connected..Anyway You could pay by credit card, except that I couldn't actually manage to hold on to my card long enough to give it to the guy.

Anyway, so far so good...

Tape : A Miracle of Modern Medical Technology

2011-06-17T09:18:00.001-04:00

I AM THE TAPE MAN....

I've mentioned before that I've got something called lateral epycondilitis or more commonly known as tennis elbow. If that weren't annoying enough, I've also got a trigger finger (on the other arm no less so it's not related)

Throughout this tennis elbow ordeal my doctor and I were trying to avoid the whole corticosteroid shots (due to some possible diabetes complications) so I've been going to physio twice a week, doing my exercises and trying to get better. I think it's working at bit. I cannot fully extend my arm and make a fist. (ie reach to grab something) without pain. That's actually an improvement...I think. I really don;t know they say healing is slow and you have to pay attention to the little things.

The trigger finger presented about 2 months ago, Also painful except it comes with it's own set of challenges, including a finger which is locked into position. It makes grabbing things with my left hand problematic. As an example, I grabbed a carton of milk out of the fridge and my hand gave out. I dropped the carton and of course it broke...milk everywhere. Not good...

So I went to see the doctor about the trigger finger, having decided it wasn't going to go a way on it's own. I've been managing the issue with some stretching. He's going to send me to the sports medicine guy to discuss those cortiosteroid shots after all and, while I'm there, I may as well get the old tennis elbow looked at...

In the mean time, the doctor suggested I tape my trigger finger to a good finger and see if it helps. Well, wouldn't you know it, this was the same week that physio decided to tape my elbow into a position where it doesn't get fully extended. So here I am walking around with all this visible tape on my body...Some days I'm really glad I work from home.

I'm only taping the finger at night now since I need my fingers to be able to type for my job.

KFC - Kentucky Fuming Citizens

2011-06-10T11:31:00.000-04:00

It's bad I know but, every now and then I have a craving for KFC. Usually once a year is enough but this year I've gone waaay too many times.

Last night will be my last for the year not because I've satisfied my craving but, because the people who go to KFC in Orleans are very angry individuals...

Last night I was in a bit of a rush to get some dinner and go to my physio appointment. Margo was on call and could not leave the house, as well, we hadn't really planned a meal.

So, Dirty Bird it was....I went and it was unusually busy for a Thursday night. I had previously gone on Tuesday, forgetting about their $2 special, and basically walked out after I saw the lineup. I was very tempted last night to walk away as well but I needed to bring home dinner so I stuck it out, made my order and waited for them to deliver on it.

Lots of people were waiting for their order...I heard them announce that they had run out of white meat to one customer and that it would be 15 minutes before more was available - I kid you not, panic ensued! The first customer to hear this (a British lady) DEMANDED a refund, didn't have the receipt for her food and then after a prolonged cellphone call, changed her mind .

The next customer in line was asked the same question..Do you mind if there is no white meat? We ran out and it will be 15 minutes until more is ready..He lost it, demanded a refund, started basically yelling at these kids behind the counter that they should have informed him before he ordered and that it was ridiculous...blah blah blah. They had started the refund process for him and he was still yelling at them while they were talking to me asking me the very same question.

At this point, I'm worried about being late for physio. I say "sure I'll take what you've got". They apologize profusely. "No worries! I say" They said they put an extra piece in for me. I would have waited the extra 15 minutes if I had the time to.

When I got home...I looked in the bucket...It was pretty well mixed with white and dark meat...WTF?

So I'm thinking on this a little...Those people ordered between 10 and 14 pieces each..KFC usually has 3 different pieces of meat 2 dark and 1 white. Which means that these people took a fit over 3-4 pieces of chicken.

What is this world coming to?

Been keeping this one under wraps for a while now...

2011-06-08T19:21:00.001-04:00

Margo's PREGNANT!!!

We're due October 23rd!!!

In honour of this occasion, here's something special for you all! Enjoy!

Scotch Pronunciation Guide - Video of Scotch Brand Names

2011-06-01T09:08:00.000-04:00

Those Scots are weird with their crazy outfits and funny accents. Gaelic is a difficult beast as well so if you're not careful when ordering Scotch, you may be asking for a tea bag...(See Té Bheag which is pronounced chay vec)

I found this nifty site to help though they seem to stay away form the really difficult ones:

How to Pronounce The Balvenie - Scotch Pronunciation Guide - Video of Scotch Brand Names

Carribusted or, Adventures in doubles

2011-05-30T13:27:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, Margo and I stopped in at a little place in Whitby, on our way home to Ottawa and picked up something called doubles. Year prior to this incident, Rawl introduced me to these tasty treats.

Since that day in Whitby, Margo and I have been trying to find some place in Ottawa which makes these since they were pretty delicious. We've had no luck, well, that's not entirely true. You can get doubles in Ottawa if you order them 24 hours in advance and are willing to order a specific amount.

Being the persistent and impatient person I am, I decided to try and make these myself. I would have posted pictures of the process but, Margo had the camera...sorry

Curried Chickpeas? No problem...I sauteed onions & garlic threw in a bit of home made curry paste, oil , salt pepper and water and let simmer. When I was done I had a whole lot of curried chickpeas.

The really hard part of this project was the bread thinggys (I believe it is called barra). You know, you have to do your typical bread making things...proof the yeast, mix the dough, let rise, pound the crap out of it and let rise again. This was no problem. I ended up with a firm but sticky dough ball.

The hard part was cooking these dough thinggies. First you had to flatten them out. They needed to be pretty thin which was difficult considering how sticky the dough was. The first few I threw into the frying oil were too thick. So I tried again with thinner patties but that made the dough difficult to handle when frying.

2 or 3 attempts in, I got the hang of it and started churning out misshapen but passable barras. Slapped on some chickpeas and hot sauce. Folded em up and toke a bite..

Not too bad...

I think I'd do some things differently next time.

1. Use less curry in the chickpeas. It was a bit strong
2. Invite people over to eat em. I have quite a few doubles wrapped in foil in the fridge. Pretty much every meal around here is being eaten with doubles....

Rapture in Canada

2011-05-19T10:47:00.001-04:00

Some religious crazy dude (Harold Camping of radio Christian fame) declared that May 21st would be rapture day. For those of you who are not familiar with the rapture, this is the day that Christians are supposed to get sucked up into the sky to meet Jesus, followed afterwards by the end of the world. You know, plagues & pestilence and whatnot; the usual fare from Yahweh

Over the course of time, Lots of people have predicted the rapture, including, Sir Issac Newton. Where Harold Camping thinks he gets off as being smarter than Sir Issac Newton, I have no idea!

Newton was a bit of a religious crazy as well. He was apparently very devout but bordered on being a heretic for his unique views on Christianity. Anyway, Newton said rapture could not possibly happen before 2060 and he's got the power of calculus to back him up. Were I a believer, I'd go with Newton as the smarter bet. Harold Camping seems to be using some kind of numerology; multiplying random pseudo-significant numbers with other random pseudo-significant numbers to come up with his magical date.

To be fair, It's possible that Newton picked a random date in the future to put an end to the rapture predictions of his time. Perhaps hoping that by 2060 we'd be past all this crazy rapture talk and begin to see the bible his way which, at this time, is not entirely known.

So, just for fun, lets go with Camping. - Rapture happens on May 21st. Let's also assume that if you're even the slightest bit Christian, you're off to meet Jesus. Now, In Canada, we're looking at the following demographics for religious views:

Religion in Canada^[1]
Religion			Percent
Christianity			77%
None			16.2%
Islam			2.0%
Judaism			1.1%
Hinduism			1.0%
Buddhism			1.0%
Sikhism			0.9%
Statistics Canada, 2001 census survey results

I grabbed this from Wikipedia. Sorry, I don't have the 2011 census results which would be better but let's make some informed changes:

Christianity is on the decline in Canada about 0.9% per year. I'm willing to be conservative and put this number at 69%. Athiests/Agnostics/Nones are rapidly growing but we also have smaller groups of religious believers growing as well. Lets give the nones 18% and the religious can have the remaining percentage lost from the Christians - 14%

Now, when we subtract the 68% of Christians from the population of Canada. We're left with 32% of Canadians that are left behind. The demographics change a little. Assuming most of use realize we were wrong and instantly convert to Christianity, we have about 56% former non-believers and 44% former wrong-believers.

Now, at some point after Rapture, Satan is supposed to show up and recruit people and I'm not really sure from which pool he'll get his recruits from. I'd like to ignore that for now though since human beings are fully capable of creating their own misery without invoking Satan so, let's pretend like he's just not going to show up. At this point a majority of Canadians will be made up of people prone to more rational thought. Let's be honest, you cannot escape religious exposure in Canada so, no one will be ignorant of Jesus. The nones will have known about Christianity and will have made their choice to be nones.

Most of our government will have been raptured. I don't have data on this but a few MPs will remain and we'll have to hold special elections (by-elections) to fill vacancies. So for all you election weary Canadians, look forward to that in the next few months.

The change in demographic and the sudden disappearance of people will create some confusion at first but ultimately represents an opportunity to reset recent polarity in Canadian thought and restructure ideas for governance. We'll need smart people on this.

This is the ultimate headcount reduction as well, but if you work for a company don't expect a promotion. With reduced populations companies won't do as much business so consider it a restructuring. assuming an even distribution of religious faith across all areas of work, all levels of employment will see a 68% reduction in force and a 68% loss in revenue. You may lose your job if the company can't float after this or you could be catapulted to VP...who knows?

On a personal note, I'll be around after the rapture so, drop me a line if you'd like me to be Prime Minister of Canada or something. OK, I'll settle for being an MP. I'll be tying Margo down to something heavy on Saturday night so she doesn't get sucked up to see Jesus. I probably won't be successful in preventing Jesus from taking her away from me (he is all powerful after all) but, I figure as a non-believer, I'm already in his bad books so I have nothing to loose (unless of course, Rapture is not really happening in which case, I'll just be embarrassed for having tied up my wife)

What I'm Reading

2011-05-11T19:48:00.000-04:00

With the PlayStation network down....haha who am I kidding?! I don't' really care aside from possibly having my data stolen and used by some creepy nerd criminals.

I'm keeping a close eye on my personal data/finances/accounts etc. I don't really play online anyway so it doesn't bother me much. I was a little disappointed that Portal 2 came out with cross platform network support right about the time when the PSN kacked out. I was actually going to try that out.

Anyway, I've been reading a few books. Currently I'm reading "Misquoting Jesus" which is pretty much a detailed summary of who changed the bible from the original text and why. It's a pretty interesting read. I've learned a whole bunch of stuff I didn't know before...So far the takeaway message is, the bible is BS but that's not really new.

Physiotherapy

2011-05-06T11:10:00.001-04:00

So, I've mangled up my right arm a bit with all the renovations. As of today I've had 2 physiotherapy sessions and I've decided that physiotherapy is a strange beast.

During my first session they used an ultrasound machine on my injury. Supposedly this increases blood flow to the area and encourages healing. After that they hooked me up to this machine which sends electric shocks through my arm. I don't know what this machine is supposed to do. They also gave me some stretches to do. The next day left my arm feeling worse.

For my next session they "dug in" to the muscle with some massage techniques I guess. Again they did the ultrasound machine and the electroshock therapy (TENS unit) and let me go. It's kind of expensive too...I realize this is a process but I'm starting to have my doubts. I know that the most effective treatment for injury is stretching and exercise. These guys haven't brought out anything too crazy yet but I swear if I see one single incense stick or if they start talking about energies, I'm outta there. So far so good though....

Trying to blog more...Realized I missed a few key events.

2011-05-06T10:50:00.000-04:00

Margo and I went on a cruise a little while ago...We weren't really happy with it in hindsight but we wanted to try it out since we heard such great things.

In discussions with some friends the term "Boat Jail" came up and I thought it was an apt description of the experience.

I can't really complain about the service or the food. They were truly fantastic. I think what I didn't like about it was being crammed into a small space...don't get me wrong, the boat is HUGE! It even had an ice skating rink but I really felt crowded all the time. Everywhere you wanted to go there was a line up. I also didn't like the system they have set up. Drinks cost extra so you can't help but feel you're being taken advantage of since you can't really get away from it.

Margo and I went on one boat excursion in Grand Cayman. It was bad. They took us to a rocky and crowded beach neither of us were very happy with it. In Cozumel we decided to forgo the boat sponsored excursions and take in the town a little with the hops of going to the beach afterwards. We never made it to the beach and ended up spending the day shopping. It was better then Grand Cayman though....

Anyway, We're not cruise people...We may have been spoiled by our trip to Mexico at a high end resort. I dunno. Anyway, I don't think I'll do a boat vacation again.

Blue Canada

2011-05-03T10:38:00.000-04:00

Wow...The election results were not what I expected...

I would have called for a Conservative minority gov't with the NDP in opposition. Instead we have a Conservative majority gov't with the NDP in opposition.

Truth be told, I did not like any of my choices for this election. I am glad the Liberals were decimated (even though I voted for them) I am also really glad that the Bloc were decimated.

I wouldn't count the Bloc down for the count yet. The NDP did pick up a lot of seats in Quebec but as the official opposition in a majority Conservative government there is not much they will be able to do for Quebec. Maybe Gilles Duceppe is right in that Quebec decided to give a federalist party a chance but when they can't deliver...They'll be back on the Bloc. (bwahahahaha- sorry) I am glad that Quebec realized the bloc is not helping their cause.

Oh the Liberals...So out of touch and yet out of all three parties I disliked them the least. Voters sent them a message..I hope they interpret it correctly. My thoughts would be it's time to re-invent yourself. The left vote needs to merge if they ever have a hope of returning to power. Sorry but it's true.

I can't say I'm too happy with a Conservative majority. I guess we'll see what they do with their new found power for 4 years...We'll see crime bills and copyright reform pass...maybe an elected senate (boo - abolish it!). Abolishing taxpayer party funding will probably kill the Liberal party off. Hopefully they don't try to reward their more socially conservative supporters by banning abortion or persecuting gays.

And then there is the NDP...A huge surge for nothing. The official opposition is pretty much silenced with the solid conservative majority. It's good for them. I like some of the NDP ideas and wish them well but the Conservatives don't have to listen to them or work with them at all.

We live in interesting times...

In other news...

2011-05-03T09:55:00.000-04:00

I have my first physiotherapy session today. With all the renovations going on around the house I managed to mess up my right arm pretty good. It's been kinda sore since October depending on what I am doing. Basically straightening the arm is painful. It's not too terrible so I let it go.

Having Diabetes, Its fairly easy for me to acclimate to feeling uncomfortable. It's a learned behavior since as a diabetic you tend to often feel strange depending on your blood glucose levels. As a person, I try not to let this affect me basically I function under the idea that other people need not be affected by my situation. So when the pain started I ignored it assuming it would get better.

Except it didn't get better and I got used to the pain....Anyway, I saw the doctor, he said it's "Tennis Elbow" and now I have to do some physio to help it get better.

VOTE or else you suck!

2011-05-01T10:42:00.000-04:00

Strong words I know but I am really annoyed at the last few elections low voter turnout. And believe me, I KNOW, all of our political parties are so out of touch with what you actually want that you're probably having as hard a time as I am trying to figure out who to vote for.

I've learned a simple trick though. A little bit of reading (not too much) and I've pretty much decided who is the least worst of the candidates in my riding.

I am applying a bit of strategic voting to my decision, not because I want to or because I think I'm smart enough to figure out what's going to happen, but out of necessity.

You see, I've read the 3 main party platforms and the Greens as well. I found good ideas and bad ideas in all the platforms. From there I was able to eliminate one of the parties based on their recent news items (corruption and contempt) and their platform. Next, I moved on to local issues, reading local media stories and reading up a bit on our candidates. What I found was that the incumbent candidate made almost no effort, and skipped all but one of the all candidates debates. As well, looking at his record as MP of this area it was less then stellar. It really didn't matter to me though since I had excluded this candidate (conservative) based on his party's platform.

The NDP put forth a candidate who is not serious in the slightest. One of Jack Layton's so called stop-gap candidates. This is unfortunate because I may have considered them otherwise. But at least it eliminated a choice for me since I do not want an MP that was not serious about the job. Apparently this candidate is working in another riding to get that candidate elected...way to serve NDP...way to serve. Actually considering the recent surge in support for the NDP the fact that they have stop-gap candidates at all suggests that they might be a little bit out of their league.

This leaves me with the Greens or the Liberals as my choices. Ah the Green party...Unfortunately my memory is long and I still remember the election platforms they put out in the past explicitly invoking the name of Jesus. Even if they've moved away from the deadly practice of mixing religion and politics, they are a one issue party despite what they say to the contrary and I can't vote for someone who refuses to see the big picture, as admirable as their cause is.

This leaves me with the corrupt and evil Liberal party, of sponsorship scandal infamy. I'm really not happy with any of my choices. But these guys are the winners for me as much as that irks me. I am socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I have a bit of a secret hope though...I'm hoping the conservatives win a minority government which falls and the NDP are offered the chance to form a coalition government with the Liberals.

People are talking about merging the left. The parties themselves are resisting it but it seems to be what Canada wants or at least it will be the only thing that works until we could potentially reform our first past the post system. A coalition government is an interesting option because it would force parties to co-operate or lose power. Something I think we as canadians should demand from our government anyway.

Oh yeah! I have a blog

2011-03-30T15:26:00.000-04:00

I should probably write something down here before anyone assumes I've died. It's such a negative assumption to have when someone doesn't blog in a while...You never know, I could have been granted intergalactic super-powers and have just been far too busy saving the universe to blog. Don't look at me that way, It's totally possible!

If you want, you can look at this last period of activity as the time in my life where I did nothing...Only I know the truth though. Anyway, now that I've lost my super powers after saving the earth multiple times and have been returned to my status as a normal powered human being by our intergalactic overlords, I have a little time to blog. As such, we'll return to one of my favorite subjects - Religion.

Oddly enough, I've been spending a lot of time in Catholic churches lately. There was my sister's wedding and I am also the proud godfather of Addison, my cousin-in-law's new daughter. Yes, Atheist godfather. Actually , in general, it's not a bad choice since, according to PEW research, atheists tend to be far more "in-the-know" about religion then the actual adherents.

For the parents of Addison, religion was perhaps, a secondary point. They asked Margo and me to be guardians - A duty to which we were happy to oblige. Church or no. To me, baptism is another example of how the church has co-opted a secular function as a religious rite. To his credit, the priest was pretty clear about this co-opting. He mentioned in his sermon that many people think of godparents as guardians rather then as responsible for religious upbringing. He also mentioned that non-catholics were cursed and that announced with all confidence that Addison and the other "Bapti-sees" were now protected by the lord and nothing bad will happen.

I know what he was trying to say and why he was trying to say it but it doesn't make it true. You can live your life according to any doctrine you want, follow the good path, adhere, be subservient or, anything else that required of you (like hate homosexuals or abuse your family depending on the religious belief) and it does not provide protection from bad things. When bad things do end up happening, religious people tend to try and justify it as "God is testing me because I have been a good person and I do not deserve this". It's heartbreaking to watch someone reason this way - to see someone give up all their personal power to a fictional being they can no more rage against then even see.

My second experience at a Catholic church was not any better. My sister, chose to get married in the Catholic church. She's as catholic as most Catholics are. She doesn't attend regular church but believes in Jesus and God in a very vague sense. The situation is similar with her new husband.

The scene was familiar to me for sure as this was the church of my childhood. I spent a lot of time there preparing for confirmation, and sitting through the sermons. It wasn't all terrible, I have some fond memories of that church. They're pretty much shattered now. Let me list the offenses of the priest running the wedding:

He complained to me that the groomsmen were in the church after having rehearsed their entrance to ensure it was correct.
He found that the flowers were too close to the altar. Attempted to move them and dropped them.
At every chance he got he sent out a dig at the non-catholics attending the wedding.
He chastised the bride and groom for getting married during lent. and made several pointed remarks at non-catholics during his homily.
He forgot the groom's name
He dropped the wedding bands
He did not finish the mass and skipped over several readings.
Lastly, he did not sign the certificate of marriage.

Not one of these things would be acceptable from someone you "paid" to do the ceremony. The church was happy enough to accept a "donation" from my sister though. Marriage is the worst co-opting of them all. Not only is the church in a position of power but, your marriage is at their discretion. They'll happily take your money and then do a piss poor job if the mood strikes them.

I'm beginning to wonder if catholic priests just don't do well in mixed company or if they're under specific instructions to berate anyone who is not of their faith. I'm reminded slightly of Rawl and Linda's wedding where they had 2 ceremonies, a Hindu one which, was cool to see though I have no idea if it was done properly or what (I know is was abbreviated), nothing really stood out as glaringly wrong and the people there were pretty welcoming. The second ceremony was Christian and the priest went to town on the Jesus thing which stood a lot and detracted from what we were there to celebrate.

It seems to me lately, the more time I spend in church the more I am happy with my decision to leave my faith behind. Even if I had only shed my catholic upbringing for a more ambiguous higher power controlling the universe, I think Iwould still be unhappy to associate myself with the catholic church.

If you start wrong, sometimes you've gotta start over

2011-03-01T13:11:00.000-05:00

So I got myself a handy little guide to home music production which covers the basics from recording to building a room to mastering...Really cool. Also cool? It's free. Reading through, I realized my home studio software was configured for failure....Not good.

The problem with the configuration was in the format of the data recorded which means, in order to do it right, I have to re-record everything. If that sounds like a bit of a daunting task...well, it just is. Though it's not as bad as it could have been . I'm not terribly far into my project and a lot of what I have done so far was on MIDI or in sequencing so that stuff doesn't need to be re-recorded.

I'm also not terribly bothered by this ....I had made some mistakes in the initial set up of the songs being recorded which I wasn't really sure how to correct. The opportunity now exists for me to go back and fix these errors as well as some other errors which bothered me.

Hopefully , I've got it right this time but I may do a little more research before I jump right in.

It's time for the mandatory blog entry...

2011-02-28T07:52:00.001-05:00

...you know, the one where I claim I'm not dead and then make a whole bunch of lame excuses as to why I haven't written anything in a while...that one...

OK forget it....Lets just skip the whole thing and get right to something a little more interesting. I'll try and update a little more often in the future but no promises...

I've been consuming media lately so I may spend a few posts reviewing said media. I've also restarted my musical project which got a little sidelined last summer lets start with that why don't we?

I'm not willing, at this point, to reveal too much about it. It will be an album or a "mini album" depending on when I run out of steam. What should keep me going is that I'm hoping to make it a concept album. Recent (not so recent) events have changed my perspective on a lot of things and I don't know if it will hinder or help the effort.

I really hate writing in vagaries but I also don't want to spoil the surprise. If you're interested at all. I will post the album on the internet when it's done. Hopefully I can find some kind of streaming software which will run off of my website otherwise it'll be MP3s. We'll see how that all works out.

No more Hotmail

2011-01-28T11:05:00.000-05:00

I used to use my Hotmail account for websites I don't trust. Normally, I'd sign up for a new service using my Hotmail account and then migrate the service to use my real email account if they proved their worth. The problem with the hotmail account was that I was connecting to messenger with it as well so, I had a contact list.

Again after an extended period of no use, my Hotmail account sent a spam message out to my contacts list. After the last time, I changed my password and reset information, cleared out my contacts list of anyone not on MSN and just let the account sit there. The account was still compromised! That's pretty much the last straw for me. So I killed off the account.

No more MSN for me.

I tried signing up for MSN account only with my Gmail account but apparently Hotmail allows you to send mail from other accounts. NO GOOD... I want out of the Hotmail interface entirely so, sorry to anyone who's got me on their MSN, I'm not logging on anymore and my account has been deleted. (And sorry if you got iphone spam!)

Feel free to add me to your gtalk account though.

A New Year

2011-01-21T08:44:00.000-05:00

Greetings, and welcome to 2011. Please fasten your seat belts and trays and place you seats in the upright position. In the event of a crash or malfunction of the year there is no emergency exit so, just hold on and hope you don't die or get mangled.

Last year at this time, things had already started to go bad for us and they got progressively worse as the year went on. It is very tempting to say 2011 is a new year and a new start but my brain doesn't really work that way. There is no real significance to the position of the planet in relation to the sun in terms of what happens from here on out.

As human beings we tend to assign purpose and agency where none exists or can be shown reliably. All pretenses of a belief in "something more" are attempts to satisfy a deep seated human need for purpose and agency. It's pretty understandable though. Everything we do, we do for some purpose. Our brains are hardwired to work that way for ourselves and it's almost impossible to think of the world in any other sense. Agency is embedded in our language. The idea that everything happens for a reason. Some languages go as far as to assign masculine/feminine to objects which have no agency (that is, they do not act of their own accord) and yet we give agency and assign actions to all sorts of things which are not conscious.

Looking back on my 2010, one could drive themselves mad trying to derive some kind of purpose out of the tragedies we experienced. If you believe in a God that controls everything then, that god is a mean bastard. Not just for what he's done to Margo and me but for what he's done to everyone else who's experienced pain and suffering everywhere at any time, much of which, is worse then what we experienced.

Am I bitter? No. Tired? YES. As an "unwashed heathen" non-believer there's nothing to rage against and no evil tyrant to bring down. This is the lot that we are all born into. Life sucks sometimes and there's not much you can do about it. I learned a valuable lesson this year. It was something I already knew but I guess now it has solidified. Karma is bullshit.

Do good, be good, think good but, not because the universe will reward us for it. At it's very base, the universe is clearly out to get us and no amount of good deeds will stop it (see what I did there?!? I assigned agency to the universe.) Why be good then? There are rewards for it. Throughout our tragedies, Margo and I were surrounded by good people, people willing to help, people who made us feel less alone, people who in spite of everything, showed us that life is not all about pain and suffering. If tragedy befell any of these people we'd do the same for them in a heartbeat.

But I should at this point clarify what I mean by "Karma is bullshit". If you believe that the universe will somehow magically look after you because you're a good person, you're deluding yourself. If, you're a good person, treat people with respect and look after those you care about, people tend to do that same to you. 2011's lesson is that you reap what you sow but the universe will still try to kill you.

Mary

2010-12-07T15:05:00.000-05:00

This is a really hard post for me to write. It's been a few months since I've written anything down. I felt I wanted to start writing again but, could not bring myself to start until I could write about our recent tragedy.

On September 6th at 21 weeks pregnant, we lost our baby girl, Mary. It was following our 20 week checkup that the doctors noticed some problems with the baby. Her kidneys were cystic and much larger then they were supposed to be and there was no amniotic fluid. Biologically speaking, in the womb, the kidneys produce the amniotic fluid, and the amniotic fluid allows the lungs to develop. Without properly formed lungs or working kidneys, there was no chance that our baby could survive.

This was really hard news to take since everything seemed to be going so well. My last post was that appointment I spoke of above. They never told us anything, only that the baby was not co-operating. I know it's not the job of an ultrasound tech to interpret the scan but honestly, some people are just cowards...

We received a call a couple of days later saying that we needed to go to the hospital for a level 2 scan and that the amniotic fluid was low but, it was nothing to be worried about. The scan was scheduled for the day that I was to travel to Toronto to go to the Tom Petty concert. We figured everything was OK so, we made a plan. I would go to Toronto, Margo would call me if she needed me. I got 3/4 of the way home when I got the call. I drove the rest of the way to home, picked up my mother and we turned around and headed back to Ottawa.

We met with the doctors and they re-iterated the situation for my benefit. We made another plan. The doctor was nearly 100% sure that nothing would change but we all agreed to do the scan again in a few days to confirm. When time came again to do the scan we could tell that nothing had changed, the baby was still curled up, not uncooperative as I had said in my last post but, unable to cooperate due to the lack of fluid. Things were getting worse for her as her kidneys appeared to be even larger.

I don't know if it made it any easier or not but, there was no choice for us to make. It was clear that the baby would not survive and, to try and carry to full term, only to have the baby die afterwards would be dangerous to Margo as, child birth is not without risk to the mother. The doctor phrased that option as "insane".

Margo and I sat together in the hospital room for 4 days as hospital staff administered medication to her every 4 hours to induce labour. Mostly, the hospital staff was kind with a few exceptions. One of the residents seemed to be in a rush and kept suggesting that we induce labour mechanically. Mechanically induced labour is a brutal procedure and we were advised against it by some of Margo's friends who were familiar with the process. We asked the resident to consult with the staff doctor on this and our reservations were validated. I'm not going to shy away from pointing out that this resident was an immigrant to Canada and highly likely, from a country where the standard of care for women is inadequate.

Yes, it took a long time but, we were not supposed to be there and, to even suggest that my wife go through additional pain and suffering in a situation which was already incredibly painful just to speed things along was barbaric. I'll point out again that all the other staff at the hospital were very kind and never tried to rush us through this process.

Also frustrating about the experience was that with every shift change, the plan changed. A new resident would come on board and a new plan would be explained to us. 12 hours later, the plan was different, along with the staff.

Eventually, Mary was born. The doctors had told us that it was likely she would not be alive when she was born. Mary was born alive. She lived for 20 minutes after she was born. She even tried to take a breath a couple of times. In my head, I play that "video" over and over again, wanting it to stop and yet treasuring it at the same time. I can't make it go away and even if I could I don't think I would.

You can't fit a lifetime into 20 minutes. All you can do is hold your child while she dies. You don't even have enough time to think of all the things she'll never get to do. Even now, months later, I realize that she'll never say her first words or take her first steps, have her first day at school or her last. She'll never grow up - frozen forever in my head as a very tiny but beautiful baby however wrong she was on the inside..

All the potential in the world - washed away by a genetic flaw. We don't know what caused it and we likely never will. All we can do now is eventually pick up the pieces and try again. We had all the diagnostic tests we could have done and now we are waiting for the results which, will likely tell us nothing. The ashes of our daughter now sit in an urn in our bedroom now waiting for us to decide what to do with them. We'll likely put Mary with Margo's Mother in Nova Scotiia

To make matters slightly worse both Margo and I were not able to get the support we needed to manage this situation from our respective employers. When dealing with people like our respective managers, they were very understanding ( I would go so far as to say "excellent, and upstanding individuals"), however company policies provided no support for tragedy of this kind...

3 months later, all is not really well in the world. After the birth, Margo was not quite right - complications due to the pregnancy. A bunch of diagnostic tests and an intrusive procedure later, we're still held up waiting for a resolution but hopefully we can put this behind us soon and move on.

If you know either of us, then you know it's not really in our personalities to sit around in limbo land...Margo and I are renovating the house while we wait for things to be resolved. It's something we wanted to do before the baby got here...

Freddy's Grounded

2010-08-24T09:15:00.000-04:00

We had another ultrasound yesterday however, the child was very uncooperative. We were supposed to be able to find out whether Freddy was a Freddy or a Fredrika. Needless to say, we didn't find out. Freddy was so defiant (the tech called him defiant) we could not even get the morphology measurements. So, we have to go back in 3 weeks.

We're pretty disappointed and as my first official duty as Freddy's father I've grounded him (or her)

Catch up

2010-08-24T08:44:00.000-04:00

This is the official catch up post. Feel free to gloss over as I quickly re-cap what's happened in the past little while and get you all up to date with the goings on in the Wilson household. I haven't been blogging much lately but I'm sure you all understand.

Anyway...BEST NEWS EVER...OK not quite but, it's still pretty awesome...My sister is getting married!!! Woo!

Margo and I have made a few trips. The first was to my cousin's wedding in Connecticut. It was a bit weird for me considering that I haven't seen my cousin since we were little kids. He's now a NHL hockey player which is awesome. I'm pretty happy for him AND it was really good to see my Family even if it wasn't in the usual setting.

The wedding itself was in Rode Island in a chapel beside a beach. The reception was in the hotel across the road from the chapel. We actually stayed in Mystic, Connecticut because the cost of one night in the hotel where the reception was being held was far more then we could afford. Everything at the wedding was lovely and high class. However, I will have to admit to a bit of a bias when I say I enjoyed my own wedding far more.

During our stay in Connecticut we went to Mystic Pizza...Apparently it's some movie with Julia Roberts in it and this was "THE" Mystic Pizza. I dunno...I've never seen the movie but I guess people ate the pizza and then good things happened to them? Anyway, While we were in Mystic, Connecticut, outside of Mystic Pizza we got a phone call from my Brother-in-law-to-be and he was accepted into the Trade Union so he can start work as an apprentice...Which was great news since he's been wanting that.

My family can be a bit superstitious sometimes...So much so that, I'm not quite sure how I turned out the way I did...Anyway we went back to Mystic Pizza for lunch and they wanted me to eat the Pizza there but I couldn't bring myself to do it because we had stopped at a Pizza Hut Express in a Target store for lunch on our way down to Connecticut. The pizza at Pizza Hut Express was so bad that the thought of Pizza made me sick...I could barely look at the pizza at Mystic Pizza..

We left Connecticut with only a vague plan to get home. We did some shopping and stopped in Lake George New York for lunch where I picked up a bottle of Oban Scotch for no where near what they charge in Canada for the same bottle.. For dinner, and the rest of the evening we ended up in Saratoga Springs, New York for some of the BEST Mexican food I have ever eaten. Seriously, there's not much in Saratoga Springs but I would totally go back just for the Mexican food.

Trip #2
St John, New Brunswick is an 10-12 hour drive. Did you know that? Margo, myself, my brother-in-law, Mike and my nephew, Owen made the trip though. Did I mention it's far? Actually, the trip wasn't so bad at all. Owen managed the boredom of the car quite well. We travelled, convoy style and during my portion of the drive I was following Donna (my father-in-law's wife).

Now anyone who's driven with me knows, I drive like your grandma. Donna, on the other hand, drives like Jacques Villeneuve. With the other adults asleep in the car I really didn't have much choice in the matter except, to try and keep up with her so I would know where to turn off (if anywhere). So, there I am with a fully loaded minivan trying to keep up with a Lexus on the highway to New Brunswick. I did OK. We made it safe and sound with no speeding tickets despite my occasional excess of speed.

The Purpose of the trip to New Brunswick was to attend a family reunion on Margo's Dad's side. Our accommodations were interesting. We stayed at a lovely cabin on the river. There was running water, a shower, a toilet, lights and a stove but, no hot water. Our cabin (I learned a little later in the trip that it's actually called a camp) also had another occupant; a bat which, made a brief appearance by flying around the room a few times on the first morning we were there and then scurrying back up into the rafters.

Anyway, there was a bit of drinking and lots of food. It was generally, a good time until they break out the cards. Personally, I find card games really boring. It's to the point where you have to teach me the rules every time I play them because I never bother to memorize them. Once the game is over, I forget how it's played. I dunno...I never really liked card games. Fortunately, there was a guitar there to keep me busy, so I was happy to do that while everyone else played cards.

It was a pretty good trip. We left on Monday (August 2) which, was my Birthday. Margo gave me a Sony E-reader which, is awesome...

Goodbye Charlene

2010-08-12T12:58:00.000-04:00

It's not been an easy first year of marriage for Margo and I. Shortly after we were married, we discovered that Margo's mother (Charlene) had stage 4 lung cancer. Incurable. I've never mentioned this before because I did not want to expose my family's painful situation to the Internet. Charlene asked me once when I was going to write about it? I told her I would not. I still won't write of the terrible experience now that she is gone.

In a way though, I do feel like I owed her some time on the blog.

The hard thing to wrap my head around is that, though I am married to her daughter, I really didn't know Charlene for very long but, Margo and I are a bit older then a lot of newly married couples and we had a bit of a whirlwind journey to married life and that didn't seem to matter much. Though I'm a relatively new addition to Margo's family, I've always felt welcome by everyone, especially Charlene. I met Margo on June 1st 2008. We were married on October 24th, 2009. Pregnant by April 2010. Charlene was a big part of our lives throughout.

Sadly, Charlene died on July 16th and it's been a bit of a hard time since then for Margo and her immediate family. It's such a huge loss and it's left a great big "Charlene shaped hole" in everyone's hearts that sadly, can never be quite filled in again. As we try to pick up the pieces and continue building the life that we want and, that we know Charlene wanted for us, the hole may seem less deep. After all, we have a new baby on the way, friends and family that love and support us and our whole lives ahead of us.

Grand adventures are still ahead for all of us but, those adventures are also the times when we'll miss Charlene the most. She seemed to love to hear about our antics in the world. I would go so far as to say part of the fun of an adventure was being able to come home and listen to Margo tell her mom about it. In a way, it was a chance to relive the experience by telling someone who was always truly excited to hear about it.

I'm very sad that my child will not get to meet Charlene, but he or she will get to know her through the memories of Charlene which, we can share. For a non-believer such as myself, this is the closest thing to an afterlife as I can grasp. We who are left, are the the custodians of those memories and products of Charlene's influence on our lives, obviously more so with Margo and her brothers then myself. But, for myself, I think I will always remember how strong Charlene was, how bright and fun she was and how not much escaped her notice and comment.

Those memories are precious things, worth protecting, worth writing down so that our minds do not change them. Time is usually very kind to the memories of a loved one though, in Charlene's case, I don't think any time is needed.

Whatever you do, don't say the B-word!

2010-07-10T09:33:00.002-04:00

BABY!!!!!!
It's been a little quiet around the blog and, not for lack of news either. I've been kinda avoiding writing anything for a while because I couldn't talk about what I really wanted to talk about, and that is, Babies. Specifically, I'd like to write about how Margo and I are going to become parents in January.

Anyway, we're in the second trimester and it's OK to start telling people now. Of course most everyone knows already. I believe, after we gave my mother the green light to tell people she informed most of the world. If you haven't received your notice yet from her then just be patient...the mail room is working overtime :P

Anyway, We're going out today to look at nursery furniture. I probably have no idea of what I'm getting into...it's all good though. I'm pretty happy about the whole thing.

While I'm out shopping why not have a look at our ultrasound photos?

Here's the standard pose. This is the photo everyone uses to tell people on Facebook that they're having a baby. I'll get to that eventually. It looks like grey blobs but if you use your imagination you can see a cute baby here.

These blobs aren't as cute as the last blobs but, you can see that the baby's skull has formed which is really cool. Again, not so cute, unless you're dad. :) <--That's me!

Yet another cool picture! You can see the spine has formed.

I've got one more baby thing to share until the next entry and that is the baby's heartbeat. Margo and I purchased (because it was cheaper then renting) a fetal heart rate Doppler. This is a cool little bit of technology that allows you to listen to your baby's heart beat. Of course, I figured out how to record it on the computer :) click here!

The earth will shake...

2010-06-24T02:05:00.000-04:00

Lil ole' Ottawa had an earthquake today. Relatively speaking, it was a big one for Ottawa. A 5.5 magnitude. Consider however, if we lived in California a 5.5 magnitude quake would barely be noticed.

My personal experience of the quake was that I was on the 2nd floor of my house. The house started to shake. my first thought was "earthquake". I remember a long time ago my dad took a geology course and when I set about moving to Ottawa for university, he informed me that there were fault lines in Ottawa. We've had a few of these in the years I've been here...Though I think this one was probably the biggest I've felt. All in all, minimal damage. A few things were knocked over.

They say the animals know earthquakes are coming...I'm calling BS on that. Our cats seemed pretty clueless during the entire episode....

The issue that will not die

2010-06-22T12:29:00.001-04:00

The IT outage from last week rears it's ugly head again. This time, in the form of paperwork. Of course, we need to know how long we were out, who we took with us and most importantly why and what we're going to do to prevent such things in the future. Oh, and we need this now...right now.

And look at me go...Here I am, blogging about it! It's because even though they say I'm on the hook for the paperwork, I'm not.really. I thought I was but, when I went to find out how to get this done I found out that I actually am not on the hook for it. I only need to be available to answer questions for the people who are on the hook for it. No problem.

I had already written the report anyway and I provided it to the people who are on the hook for it. They'll review it and ask me any questions they have. Hopefully, It will be done by it's due date.

A "thank you" for my work during the crisis came my way as well. It's a small thing but, it means something to me.

I walk away with a lesson from all this and that is to get helpdesk people involved as soon as possible. Don't wait to confirm a problem. They'll may be able to tell you.

Ouch...things are rough

2010-06-15T13:19:00.000-04:00

New lesson, children:
Don't use FTP for anything important.unless you have no choice.

I have no choice....FTP has made the past two days of my life miserable (at work anyway)...

Basically, I got a bad file through an automated FTP. One bad character and one of my processes imported said file and didn't realize there was a problem with it...Chaos ensued. There was fire and burning. Men with machine guns descended from the ceiling and started to kick down cubicle walls... Wolves howled and carrion animals scoured the wasteland that was my office building for human remains. Faintly, in the background of the carnage, I heard a soft whimpering of what was likely a programmer/analyst separated from their protector; a parent or perhaps another IT guy.

The sky turned black and there was a voice from above. "You really need to fix this as soon as possible".

"Yes" I reply. My eyes ever fixed on the computer screen; my window to potential salvation.

No one cares that I saw this coming and no one cares that I tried to warn them. The prophets are seldom wrong. No, the only thing that matters now is salvation and the restoration of order or, at least, the appearance of order.

It doesn't help that I've been awake since 2:30am working on another crisis and I can't even see straight. It helps even less to know I will be awake at 2:30am again tomorrow because one apocalypse begets another.

The issue is resolved. Now, we wait...for salvation

Day 2: I arrive at the crisis centre early. Maybe, if I keep my head down they won't notice me...No luck. I'm spotted. Maybe, if I walk fast and pretend I'm deaf or busy I can get away. No..

A daunting task lies before me. Find the survivors and tend to the injured. Re-assure those beyond hope, that everything will be OK. I almost believe it myself but, you kinda have to if you're going to say it to others. Eventually it will be OK, but things will be different. They HAVE to be.

I begin my search. Some of the injured will find me, but they are not usually the ones I need to help. Carefully, I write down everything I find. I listen to the voice from above from before, for advice you see but, there is no help for me, only demands...I must obey.

Heal the sick, they say. Make it better. Make it so that this never happens again...I must obey.

IT Outage perspective by Sean Wilson

Cure the blind? Not if Jesus has anything to do with it...

2010-06-02T12:25:00.000-04:00

Embryonic stem cells are amazing things...They can be used to create new organs (like Eyes) for people who have lost part of themselves to disease or accident or whatever. Personally, I could use a new pancreas. I'd imagine some people could use new eyes or livers

check this out

Now let's add some context. Many Christians are opposed to such research. I, for one, am very glad that some people have the courage to stand up to these barbarian cavemen and advance these causes anyway. The potential of this type of research is huge! If we could grow their own organs for people then imagine the consequences...cures for diseases previously thought to be incurable. The enhancement of already (proved) viable life.

I agree that it would be immoral to create an entire lifeform and harvest it for one or two organs...I don't think you'd get any argument about that from most people but if you can grow an organ, technically, something that cannot survive on it's own (ie without a body), Why not do it? Cure some blind people, Diabetes whatever...Really, what would Jesus do? According to the Catholic church, rather then heal the sick he would damn us for all eternity to hell.

The stem cells we're talking about here only have the potential to become viable life if we allow it. If we were to allow it, they'd become a clone of the donor...tell me that's not cool? I'd totally clone myself and then raise my Sean clone pretty much the same way I was except I'd have him taught ninjitsu....

Rawlio's Sausage Party

2010-05-26T22:48:00.000-04:00

My first movie...Sure, It was filmed in March and we had no plan...Maybe the next one will be better

Credit To Margo and Rawlio for narration. Directed by Sean Wilson. Executive Producer: Sean Wilson

Been choppin' on the axe

2010-05-11T12:56:00.000-04:00

Otherwise known as playing guitar...Lately, I've been stuck on Tom Petty songs..some of the easier ones...Wildflowers, American girl, Alright for now (which, is harder then it sounds), Yer so Bad etc...Most of Tom Petty's songs are easy to play. I guess I'm excited for the concert this summer.

In other entertainment news...there aren't really any interesting video games coming out until the fall which is good because some of the better ones are like a black hole into which all time, matter and energy flows into and never escapes. So, maybe there will be some more time to play guitar this summer. I'm still trying to get used to playing with a wedding band on which, is more difficult then I thought I would be..

Has anyone seen my brain?

2010-05-11T12:22:00.001-04:00

It's been one of those days... I made it around the corner from home before I realized I forgot my Cell and GPS (needed for after work) at home. I turned around and drove home to pick them up and continued on my way...I got as far as Kanata when I realized that I forgot my Laptop at home too so, I drove all the way back to Orleans to pick it up figuring, that I would just work from home until noon and drive in when the traffic wasn't as bad so I could make my afternoon meeting.

Yeah so , I forgot also that today was "migration day" meaning, I couldn't work from home because they were changing something on my PC account and you need to be in the office for it to work so, I drove all the way back out to Kanata in prime rush hour traffic. I arrived at work for 9am. Normally, I'm in just after 7am. The rest of my day has been uneventful and I seem to have recovered my brain somehow.

An Introduction to the World of Consulting

2010-05-06T09:02:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been working 2 jobs. My regular day job as well as another part time job. A former colleague who moved on to a different company sought me out to help with his company's LDAP server. I had to think about this for a bit. The problem was that the company that my colleague works for is a supplier to the company I work for so, If I just start to work for them (even part time) I'd be in a perceived conflict of interest position.

I have about 30 more years of work to put in so, being fired for an ethics violation this early on in my career would be a really bad thing. Still, there's always the draw of a puzzle which gets my interest up. So, Ethics violation or no, I'm still interested in a difficult problem which, is what this company has.

Margo and I don't absolutely need the extra money from one of us holding down a second job, though a little extra cash is always handy. We need to purchase a car to replace Margo's ageing Mazda Protege and our 13 year old mattress is finished so we recently purchased a new bed to replace it. These are 2 very important things...sleeping and driving. I HATE driving but there's no discounting it's importance.

So I ran through the process. I flagged the opportunity to my manager from my regular job and indicated that it was a perceived conflict of interest situation. I also was upfront with her and said if this was going to be a huge issue then I would be OK with not engaging with the other company to avoid any ethics violation in my regular job.

The request needed to go up several levels in the organization I work for but, they got back to me fairly quickly with an answer of "Yes, but future requests will not be entertained." I think that's a bit of a strange response. I mean, why not just say no if it's an issue?

Anyway, I've been working on this problem in my spare time while I'm not at work. What's interesting about this experience is that I'm functioning as one of those consultant type of people. I decided my rate of pay and I have to invoice this company for hours worked. We have an understanding that I cannot work on their problem while I am engaged with my regular employer. Obviously, this has an impact on how much work I can do for them as I do need a bit of time to myself to eat and sleep. The other interesting thing is the taxes. I'm not en employee so they're not taking taxes off what they pay me. I'm also not a business or self employed but the income I make from this job still needs to be declared. I did some research and it counts as casual employment which means I will need to set aside some money so I can pay the tax on this income for next years taxes.

The Acoffeelypse is Upon Us!!!

2010-04-29T13:26:00.000-04:00

Long ago, the elders of this land prophesied that one day there would be no coffee and those who did not like coffee would begin to thirst for it in a desert of hot chocolate and tea. I'm afraid, my friends, that day has come. The first seal has been broken and coffee filters are beginning to disappear from the earth.

Under normal circumstances, running out of paper coffee filters is not a big deal. When this occurs I usually switch to my backup plan, a permanent filter. This morning however, no permanent filter was to be found. This forced me to enact my tertiary backup plan: Bru.

Bru is an instant coffee from India (sorta) It's different enough that you don't feel like you're drinking instant coffee and yet coffee-like enough to feel like you're not missing out on your morning coffee...There was none left! Shocking! I know!

There was no choice, I had to enact the quaternary plan. Maxwell House instant. I knew it would be safe. Not even the gods would want it. It' wasn't so easy though. The jar was hiding. As if to say "Take me with you magical coffee stealing angels!" Amidst some major concern that my brain would explode and I would die from lack of caffeine, Margo saved me and found out where it was hiding.

I await the second seal....

Today on Sean's Evil Plan: A subject very dear to my heart.

2010-04-28T08:15:00.000-04:00

Pop Tarts.

I really have a strange obsession with PopTarts. For the past little while I've been looking on the internet for a recipe of some kind which, calls for PopTarts as an ingredient. I haven't had any luck. I think If I ever found such a recipe I wouldn't make it because it's bound to be bad for me.

Still, PopTarts aren't as bad (nutritionally) as you might think. In terms of carbohydrates, 1 poptart contains about the same amount of carbs as 2 pieces of toast. I guess that makes them some kind of dessert/toast replacement for breakfast.

My fascination probably has something to do with not having these things growing up. Back when I was learning to carb count, I walked through the grocery store looking for quick foods valued at about 35g of carbohydrates. PopTarts fit the bill

I also noticed some "suggestions" on the PopTart boxes which weren't around when I was a kid. I guess putting a PopTart in the toaster is getting boring because they now suggest that you freeze them and eat them instead. I can't be bothered with that. Just put them in the toaster on level 3 and I'm happy.

There's only 2 kinds of PopTarts I really like. Chocolate and Strawberry. They've got all sorts of flavours out there and I've tried some of them but really....chocolate and strawberry are the best.

Anyway, would you imagine my surprise when one of the foodie blogs I read posted a recipe for home made PopTarts. They listed directions for all my favourite flavours and some other interesting combinations as well. I'm not going to make them though...Margo and I decided we need to eat better and home made PopTarts are bound to be worse for us then the store brands

Car Shopping

2010-04-20T13:58:00.000-04:00

Margo's car is done. It broke down yesterday again. The timing belt went on it.

We're going to fix it this time but, only so that we don't have to rush into buying a new car because we're desperate.

I think that this Saturday, we may do a few test drives.

I have done a bit of research and I have a not-so-short list of cars I think we should look at.

And, Rawl, the Pontiac Vibe didn't make the list ;) neither did the Toyota Matrix...I'd love to get another GM car (especially with my discount) but I don't think they have what we're looking for at the price we want. SUV/mini Van/crossover..

No more Quebec Masseuses!

2010-04-15T12:48:00.000-04:00

The French have a lot to answer for...

First, they manipulate the medal standings at the Olympics to make it seem like they're doing better then they actually are (Yeah I said it!! Take that Jaqueses Rogge...of course, he's actually Belgian but they're French too right?)

Now, the latest in offences from "the French" is a trap they call they Wakefield Mill. Oooooh sure, they suck you in with a Fantastic dinner and brunch, quaint rooms, local history and small town shopping in a beautiful setting. Then, they send you down to "the spa" for a "treatment". *cue scary music*

Our trip to the Wakefield mill last weekend was a very generous wedding present from Margo's work colleagues. Margo and I chose the couple's massage as our treatment.

At the time, the massage was relaxing but unfortunately, all this week I've been wracked with weird and unexplainable little pains, as well as regular back spasms. I even had a weird muscle pain in my throat! What the heck is that? My throat? Its actually the muscle under my jawbone on the right side...

One day, Frenchies...You'll get yours...You just wait....

Actually, Margo and I really had a great time at the Wakefield mill. We went and saw Lester B Pearson's Grave and browsed through the history of the mill, did some shopping at the kind of stores you can't find in "the big city" anymore and ate very well. Though It's true that I'm kinda messed up at the moment with the weird pains and spasms..

No, I won't back deaoown

2010-04-13T12:30:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time dream of mine to see Tom Petty in concert so, This year the opportunity presented itself and I took it. Margo and I are going to see Tom Petty in Toronto in August!

Tom's getting on in years so, the sooner, the better...I don't really have a bucket list but if I did, this would be on it.

And now, a message of the utmost importance

2010-04-08T08:24:00.002-04:00

Goblet...

That is all...

The end of sugar run...

2010-04-06T13:26:00.000-04:00

Almost half a year, every year is dedicated to the pursuit of large meals and sugary goodness...

It starts at the end of October with Halloween (candy), Then there is Xmas (candy,baked goods turkeys) New Years (more bad eating...) followed by Valentines day (chocolate) St. Patrick's Day (Beer) and of course, Easter (more chocolate and maybe a turkey or a ham)

We're done now for another 6 or 7 months. There are no more chocolates, candies or turkeys to be had They've all been eaten. Finally! We're free of the tyranny of the turkey...Actually, I quite like turkey but I do also like the alliteration "Tyranny of the Turkey". Consequently I'm not one to turn down turkey but I'm relieved that for the next 6 months or so tradition does not call for it nor does it call for sweets...

Bring on the BBQ and Salad I say!

Are you "green"? If so, then, you're likely a big jerk.

2010-03-31T15:33:00.000-04:00

I heard about a study on the radio where some researchers figured out that people who are exposed to environmentally friendly products are nicer then people who buy environmentally friendly products..I made a mental note at the time to look into it since it seems like a really odd statement to make...

Anyway, I found the article...and it does pretty much say that if you're looking to buy green products, you're more likely to steal, lie and cheat then someone who buys conventional products, (at least, in Toronto). It also says that exposure to green products make us nicer...

In a series of experiments they established that we tend to assign higher social and moral values to people who buy "green products" They then set out to test some hypothesis about people who are exposed to green products vs. people who buy them.and I won't describe the experiment in detail but you can go to the link and look at it if you want..

Anyway, the results were basically that people who were exposed to green products are more altruistic then people exposed to conventional products and that people who purchase green products are more likely to cheat, the system, lie and outright steal, than people who purchase conventional products.

So, from now on, when I see any "environmentalists" in the grocery store buying recycled toilet paper, I'm going to run up and kick them in the ankle for being mean! - Kidding.

Actually I think this study really tells us that charity (perceived or actual) in human beings is a limited resource...

Final Fantasy 13

2010-03-30T09:42:00.000-04:00

I've looked...It seems possible without having to give up every spare moment I have:

The platinum trophy for Final Fantasy 13.

I don't normally go after trophies...but I don't have any platinum ones so I'm considering trying to go for it. Usually, platinum trophies are pretty hard to get (hence, why I don't have any). Typically, it involves getting every other trophy in the game first. I got close on Assassin's Creed 2 but I missed one opportunity to get a trophy and blew my chances and I'm not about to go back and play the game all over again for one chance. It's really not that important.

The thing is here, I'm enjoying the game...Even though I took a break from the story and found a place to do a little bit of level grinding at the moment, I'm actually enjoying that as well. If I get bored with level grinding I can go and do some of the "missions" now which also have rewards to improve your characters.

I think I'll be getting my money's worth out of this one...Due out later this year is Final Fantasy 14 which I found out recently is a pay-for-play...Very disappointing.

Tim Hortons 1 for 11

Ann Coulter run out of town!

2010-03-29T11:57:00.001-04:00

This post is a bit late...I stated it days ago and just haven't had the time to finish it...

In case you're not familiar with her, Ann Coulter is a social/political commentator on Fox News. She says some pretty hateful and ignorant things and gets a lot of attention for doing so.

Coulter was scheduled to give a speech in little old sleepy Ottawa. Prior to her appearance at the university, the provost of Ottawa U sent her a warning that she should educate herself on what is acceptable as free speech in Canada. Warning her that, if she goes "too far" there could be consequences including, potential criminal charges pending as, Canada has some hate speech laws that the US does not. This is, in fact, true.

Of course Coulter, being the antagonist she is, took the letter and ran with it, complaining about "being censored..yadda yadda free speech violated...na na na. Canada sucks...whatever..."

Generally speaking, Canadians seem to be pretty "tolerant" people. It doesn't really matter much to us what your schtick is...Welcome to Canada, have some bacon eh? What we as Canadians tend to not tolerate well is intolerance and incitement to hatred, violence etc as well as other things considered to be crimes in this country. Of course, not all Canadians are tolerant people...we have our own Coulters to deal with.

Coulter said recently that all terrorists are Muslim so Muslims should not be allowed to ride planes. A 17 year old Muslim student called her out on this comment at her speech in London ON and Coulter told her to take a flying carpet instead. Apparently the student said she didn't have a flying carpet so Coulter told her to ride a Camel. Is it offensive and perhaps inappropriate? Yes definitely her handling of the question is offensive and personally insulting., but consider that when Chris Hitchens has said a very similar thing and nobody blinked an eye. Hitch said something like, The majority of terrorists are Muslim men so, when a Muslim man gets on a plane it makes sense that security may scrutinize him more.

--Sean's Side track---

The practice is called racial profiling and it's a bit controversial. The problem is that racial profiling is an affront to our sense of fairness. It's like picking on someone because of their religion or skin colour. Our charter of rights and freedoms says we cannot do this and yet here is a tool that could potentially allow us to better protect ourselves...or would it? Racial profiling would actually miss any threats that don't meet the profile if we relied on it exclusively. Another question, is what Hitchens and Coulter say actually true? Maybe....Coulter is a bit of an idiot and known to make stuff up but Hitchens is usually solid in his facts.

Consider for a moment, these statements: Most terrorists are men, Most terrorists are in their early 20s, Most terrorists are flying without their family (ie alone) Most terrorists act nervous in an airport. Most terrorists appear heavy set (because they're carrying tools etc) or whatever, I don't know how anyone gets anything on an air plane these days... In any case, these are risk identifiers. Assuming the statements are true, used all together, it's called just profiling...

Throw race or religion into the mix and it becomes controversial but consider that the statements alone are discriminatory against men, early 20-somethings, singles, heavy set individuals and nervous flyers. Why not add race an religion into the mix if we're already doing this?

In my opinion, my security of person takes precedence over any hurt feelings. So I will gladly submit to a body scanner search or whatever reasonable security measures are required and I support the mechanisms used to identify me as a risk factor...not that I am....

---End Side Track---

So, when Coulter was scheduled to give her speech, 2000 student protesters showed up with signs saying "this is what free speech looks like" Apparently, Coulter's security decided it was "too dangerous" for her to give her speech with so many people around. (What?) So, essentially, Coulter was run out of town like some "old-school" cowboy movie..."We don't like your kind around here boy (actually girl...sorta)" During the protest there were no arrests, and no injuries...so, all in all, though they say it was "aggressive and threatening" either the police were on the side of the protesters or it really wasn't all that rowdy...We're Canadians. We don't really have violent protests.

So...First of all, good for Ottawa U students for standing up for your beliefs. I, however, am a bit disappointed in the way this drama was handled.

I'm no fan of Canada's hate speech laws. It's not because I want to go around preaching intolerance but rather because Canada's hate speech laws are stupid. If we have laws preventing people from saying mean things how do we know who the stupid people are and how could we possibly hope to engage in dialogue with them to change their minds? Canada's hate speech laws prevent us from being able to find the people saying this stuff and use public discourse to expose them. With these laws in place we force them "underground" where they can fester and grow in the absence of another opinion.

For example, in Canada it is illegal to deny the holocaust in WW2. No doubt, this is a hurtful and ignorant thing to do. Making it illegal means we, in Canada, punish people for being ignorant. Further, if someone holds these views they're free to believe this in relative isolation...with no challenge to their belief system since they cannot make this claim in public without risking the wrath of our government..

Another reason why Canada's hate speech laws are silly is because they are so open to abuse...I can file a human rights commission complaint against someone who is critical of me or whatever group I belong to (see The Human Rights complaints against Mark Steyn for an example of this) The government will pay for me to make my case but if I am the one being complained against then I must pay for my own defence at my own cost... Anyway, it's besides the point...The law is the law.

That being said, when you visit another country, you abide by their laws (silly as they may be) if you choose not to abide by the law of the land, then you face the consequences of breaking the law. In this case if, Coulter had incited hate against an identifiable group someone could have made a human rights complaint. As much as I enjoy the thought of Ann Coulter spending some time in a Canadian jail there are a couple things that make me think that's a bad idea.

1.Our hate speech laws are stupid. Putting Coulter in jail for breaking them would make Canada an international laughing stock. We'd be no better then the Saudi's or other third world countries who execute people for "wizardry". The appropriate response to hate speech is not to throw someone in jail but to challenge their belief publicly, shame and humiliate them for their ignorance..

2. She would learn absolutely nothing from it and probably gain even more publicity...

Really the best response is to just ignore her...

Say Nope to the Pope

2010-03-18T13:08:00.000-04:00

The Vatican has been in the news a lot lately...Child sex abuse scandals in Ireland, Belgium, Germany and Brazil along with some revelations (excuse the pun) that the Pope himself helped to cover up these crimes. As well, there are more accusations of the Vatican itself, being a hot bed (excuse the pun) for gay prostitution which, in of itself, would not be a huge deal, if not for the discriminatory and prejudicial treatment of homosexuals by the Roman Catholic church.

And those are only the recent crimes...Add to that some of the older child sex abuse revelations from Canada and the US, repetitive and methodical obstruction of justice. Some more modern crimes of the church involve the abuse of the mentally ill by priests often called exorcism. Instead of getting treatment from a doctor, The possessed person can be tied down and prayed over.

More modern crimes of the church include the church's stance on birth control makes them almost guilty of mass murder when they tell an African nation ruined by HIV that condoms makes HIV worse despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Oh and there's also the matter of the Pope beginning the beatification process for Pope Pius XII. Pope Pius XII was the Pope when Hitler was exterminating Jews..As I understand it, the jury is still our on this guy. He didn't really speak up against the holocaust...but then again, he was also living inside Italy. Either he was a secret hero, a coward or a bigot. One would think you would try and figure that out before you make a person a saint. Let's not forget the Pope's own participation in WWII and his other run-in's with bigotry (women, jews, muslims and homosexuals)

I find it's getting a lot harder to stomach these days. I guess because it's seeming more and more that this is not just a few bad apples but rather, a culture instilled from the top down. These crimes, especially the abuse and obstruction of justice/cover up are against the law almost everywhere. When will these people be made accountable by secular laws for the ills they do to society?

Unfortunately the answer seems to be "likely never". Here's why. The Vatican is it's own country where the Pope is the head of state. As the head of state in the Vatican, he is immune from prosecution because, according to Roman Catholicism, he is the highest authority on earth and infallible. There is no political mechanism to remove him from his throne. He can't be forced to retire or voted off. He cannot be removed even if he's too ill to do his job. If he wishes to step down , he may do so but he cannot be coerced into doing it.

As the head of state for a country the Pope is also immune from prosecution by other countries (by foreign policy convention) at least, while he is head of state. Sooooooooooo......Here's what you'd have to do.

Either convince the Pope to retire or invade the Vatican and depose the Pope from his throne.
Once he's no longer the head of state and still alive you can begin legal proceedings against him.

Since the pope isn't about to step down, we're gonna have to invade. This won't go over very well with a LOT of countries so, you'd probably need to do some political manoeuvring before you make any moves. Otherwise you might find yourself friends with Osama Bin Laden. No, They'd pretty much have to decide to submit to legal proceedings...

Tim Hortons - 1 for 10

I am the Irishest of the Irishest

2010-03-17T09:09:00.000-04:00

My name is Sean and I forgot today was St. Patrick's day.

Needless to say, I'm not wearing green but, then again, I'm not a big fan of St.Patrick's day anyway. My experience with this day has been that it's a poor day to go out to a pub...For one, you probably can't get in unless you're there at 8am and for two, even if you can get in, It's crowded and people are acting like idiots. Sorry to be a curmudgeon. I'm sure a lot of people enjoy that sort of thing

Anyway. basically, St. Patrick brought Roman Catholicism to Ireland. They say that he drove the snakes out of Ireland but evidence suggests that Ireland never had any snakes to begin with. It's suggested that "driving the snakes out of Ireland" is allegory for converting the local populations of druids who used the serpent as a symbol of their religion.

Yep, It's a religious holiday. Specifically, Roman Catholic, and it functioned as a break in the 40 days of Lent. So, if you're taking part in Lent, today is your day to giv'er because tomorrow, it's back to sacrificing for Jesus. Enjoy the brief respite.

I guess that's why it seems so many people act poorly today... But then again, what do they say? "One bad apple spoils the bunch." Personally, I will be staying away from pubs and green beer today. St.Patrick's day is my second least favourite "day" right behind Halloween (it's not really a holiday cuz I'm at work)

If you're wondering about Tim Horton's, I'm currently perfectly aligned with the odds : 1 for 9 (free doughnut!)

more playing around with the blog

2010-03-11T21:49:00.001-05:00

So, I changed the address and now I've done away with the old template. Blogger released the template designer today for blogger in draft...I thought I'd give it a try. Whaddaya think? This is a pretty basic layout. I haven't customized much aside from the whole title thing...I will probably play around more with it later but I still need to get used to using GIMP instead of photoshop. I'll probably take in a few tutorials and get up to speed...

It's all part of the evil plan....

2010-03-11T15:29:00.000-05:00

So I've got a new web address!

You can go to the old one if you want and it will still work....but now you can come to blog.seanwilson.ca.

I was over at Rawlio's World and learned that Google was not allowing people to do FTP anymore and were pushing people toward using what they called a custom domain....So, I set it up...It works pretty good! I have a few tweaks to do still...like figure out how to get the dates back on my posts...all in good time..

Bioshock 2

2010-03-10T09:09:00.000-05:00

So, I've been playing this one for a little bit. At first, I wasn't terribly impressed. The fact that I played the first one which, was excellent kept me interested. Bioshock 2, like the first one, is a typical first person shooter. Like all first person shooters there is only so much you can do to distinguish your game from other first person shooters. One of those things is the story surrounding the incidents...Why are you running around shooting everything that moves? To me, that's a pretty important thing to get out of the way in a credible fashion.

Bioshock 2 is part of the story of Rapture, an underwater city established to house the best and brightest minds that humanity has to offer, away from the constraints of government and religion and other human functions that impede the progress of the acquisition of knowledge an the application of that knowledge. Science and art allowed to flourish without censorship or restrictions placed on them by the societal structures that exist to control people..The experiment failed and Rapture devolved into a nightmare. You learn the story of Rapture by picking up "diaries" of individuals long after the events in question occurred. Essentially, you must deal with the nightmare of Rapture and reconstruct the story of how it came to be as such.

Bioshock 2 takes place after the events of the first one. The premise is similar, you're a different character and you must reconstruct what has occurred in the time since the end of the last game and "now". It seems that, after you disposed of the architect of Rapture, Someone with a completely different philosophy took his place. Rather then seeking to remove control, this new villain enforces it through psychology and religion. The results are the same...Chaos. It's an interesting commentary.

I'm kinda glad I waited until I finished the game. Though it was enjoyable, I found the ending a little disappointing. Oh well...

Final Fantasy XIII is out now....Generally speaking, I've been a HUGE fan of Final Fantasy since Final Fantasy VII. I skipped one of the final fantasy versions because it was all online and I'm not really big into online play. Mostly due to having to deal with online people...

If you're wondering, I'm 0 for 8 with roll up the rim to win...

Lots to learn

2010-03-05T13:24:00.000-05:00

So the audio interface is in, the computer is here and the software installed. I've begun the task of learning how to use all the stuff together. As the equipment came in I was using it to work on a little recording project which, I won't talk about too much right now. I've put that aside at the moment to figure out how this new equipment changes my setup for a live performance.

All the gear is rack-mount so, it's installed in a rack. This makes access to mic/input ports a little difficult but I think I've managed to plan this out carefully so that I won't always be shifting around cables. The audio interface has 2 inputs on the front for guitars/bass and 8 on the back for microphones and line in. The ones at the back of the device could be a problem for access but I'll figure that out as I go. For now I've plugged in empty cables into some select ports and that should work out fine for me.

Over the years, I have amassed a small collection of good microphones...2x Audiotechnica AT3035, A Shure SM57 and a Rode NT3. The AT3035s (which require an external power source) can be used for vocals and instruments that aren't ear bleedingly loud...like acoustic guitars and mandolins etc. They are a neutral sounding, clean microphone and do a good job of capturing the sound as it is as long as it's not too loud which, can actually damage these mics. You wouldn't want to place them in front of a guitar amplifier. I have 2 of these gangstas.

The Rode NT3 is the same kind of microphone as the AT3035s in that it requires an external power source. This is a bit of a nifty mic in that it's external power source can actually be phantom power or a 9v battery built into the microphone. the difference between this mic and the AT3035s is that it "colours" the sound and it can take a lot more volume. Colouring the sound means it's changed slightly by using this microphone. You can put this mic in front of a guitar amp or use it for vocals. The nice thing about the battery is that you don't have to supply power from the board and you still get all the benefits of a cardoid compression mic. I've used it for vocals live and it performs well..

Lastly, the Shure SM57. Well...This is a pretty (gold) standard microphone. It's very common and has been used record pretty much everything. It doesn't require power to run, doesn't cost a fortune and you get good sound out of it..one would say, "legendary" sound...It says so on the box ;)

Audio is transferred digitally between the sound module and the interface so there should be close to zero fidelity loss when committing MIDI tracks to audio. The keyboard controlling the sound module also can control 8 fade mixers in the software and panning, effects, mute, solo etc...It'll do pretty much what I program it to do including stopping and starting the song or recording...Looks like I'm all set..

Anyway, if you're wondering, I'm 0 for 4 in the roll up the rim to win....

Oh Canada!...get to work would ya?

2010-03-04T13:14:00.000-05:00

So, after a lengthy prorogation of parliament our government comes back with "Let's change the lyrics to Oh Canada to make them more inclusive!"

Wait..What? I thought there were some serious economy issues to deal with? Shouldn't parliament be working on that rather then song writing? Your tax dollars at work....What a waste.

The line of contention? " "true patriot love in all thy sons command," - not gender neutral... RED ALERT!!! never mind that it's been like that forever and most people assume our SONS means the people of the nation regardless of their gender. That's actually a pretty fair assumption since we speak a language that distinguishes between male and female and that the masculine form of a word is usually all-encompassing.. For example..."Man" when referenced as a species refers to both male and female...

Ok, Fine..While they're at it, why don't they rewrite "God keep our land, glorious and free" which alienates about 15% of Canadians if you consider the word "God" to encompass Allah, Thor, Odin, Yahweh, Mithras, Jesus...the list goes on...It alienates even more people if you consider it to be only one of the many gods people worship...

We might actually win a prize for the most unoffensive PC national anthem of all time!! That would be pretty Canadian of us wouldn't it?

I'm not fan of the Conservatives but I thought, at least, with them in power we wouldn't have to deal with some of this stupid politically correct idiocy that come up from some of Canada's other political parties...apparently this is not the case...I mean, there is discrimination and then there is pointless PC. The national anthem does not stand as a barrier to anyone (including my godless self). It makes it worse that they're bringing this up now instead of doing their jobs.

I took a shot at re-writing the entire anthem:

O Canada!
We've got the oil sands
True corporate love in all thy taxes grabbed.
With growing debts we see thee rise,
The Con-ser-va-tive Par-ty!
From the Liberals,
And the NDP, we have no political parties.
Hoc-key is grand, but costs too much to see!
O Canada, we pay much more in fees..
O Canada, we pay much more in fees.

No?

Curse you Tim Horton! Curse you!

2010-03-03T10:42:00.000-05:00

Tim Horton's has lots of sugary treats and, most of the time, I don't have a problem resisting the need to eat a doughnut but, every now and then they have the bane of my existence for sale:

The chocolate white coconut doughnut...or even worse, the chocolate toasted coconut doughnut.

Thankfully, These don't show up often at the Tim Horton's here at work and I could count on one hand the number of times I've seen the chocolate toasted coconut doughnut or timbits in any Tim Horton's. Most recently, I spotted the chocolate toasted coconut timbits in the Montreal Airport on our way back from Mexico. I had to purchase a couple and since Margo was with me, she got to experience these rare treats.

Before Montreal, I spotted the chocolate toasted coconuts in a Tim Horton's on Bank St. in Ottawa back in 2007. If you see them, GET THEM...They're delicious and, you can buy single timbits...though one probably won't be enough and you'll likely feel weird asking for a 20 pack of only chocolate toasted coconut timbits.

Chocolate white coconut shows up about once a month here at work, at least, from what I've noticed. They're not as good as the toasted but still pretty hard to resist. Sadly my willpower caved into one of these this morning and I feel shamed...

Roll up the rim to win...

2010-03-02T15:24:00.000-05:00

OK, It's "stereotypically Canadian" of me but, I do like the Tim Horton's "Roll up the rim to win contest". Call it a guilty pleasure. It reminds me of getting those instant win things in potato chip bags when I was a kid or finding an instant win underneath a bottle cap.

It's nearly instant gratification. How could you not love it? I think the only thing that would make it better is if some Tim Horton's employees jumped out of the nearest hiding place and threw you a party when you won something. No, wait, that might be creepy. Anyway, Coffee and Prizes are awesome. I suppose if you don't like coffee then this contest is not for you.

This years odds are 1 in 9 that you'll win a prize (the same as last year I think). Technically, this means that after about 9 cups of coffee you should win something. In reality, you only see the 1 in 9 odds when your population of coffee drinkers is sufficiently high. Some people may get their prize after 5 cups. Others may have to drink 11. Some may not even get a prize at all.

Cars, Computers, Cash, Gift Cards, Coffee or doughnuts. These are the rewards. I, personally, could use a car (for Margo) or the cash would be nice too. Likely, I'll win a free coffee or a doughnut. There's nothing wrong with that either..

Here's my Timmy Ho Ho status as of today:

Coffee : 1
Prizes : 0

GAH!!!! My car is being recalled!

2010-03-02T10:16:00.000-05:00

I wonder who's going to do the repair? Ottawa or Pickering?

Anyway, my car is being recalled. Check the link. Apparently they're going to replace the power steering motor which can fail...I really hope I don't have to take it back to Pickering to get it fixed.

Now that the 2010 Olympics are over...

2010-02-28T19:16:00.000-05:00

Let's take a look at the weighted medal standings:

here's the medal count results:

Medal Count

Top 10 Medal Winners

COUNTRY				TOTAL
UNITED STATES	9	15	13	37
GERMANY	10	13	7	30
CANADA	14	7	5	26
NORWAY	9	8	6	23
AUSTRIA	4	6	6	16
RUSSIA	3	5	7	15
SOUTH KOREA	6	6	2	14
CHINA	5	2	4	11
SWEDEN	5	2	4	11
FRANCE	2	3	6	11

And here is Sean's weighted medal score:

Remember: Gold is worth 3, Silver is worth 2 and Bronze is worth 1

Sean's Weighted Medal Count

Top 10 Medal Winners by score

COUNTRY				TOTAL
UNITED STATES	27	30	13	70
GERMANY	30	26	7	63
CANADA	42	14	5	61
NORWAY	27	16	6	49
SOUTH KOREA	6	6	2	32
AUSTRIA	12	12	6	30
RUSSIA	6	10	7	23
CHINA	15	4	4	23
SWEDEN	15	4	4	23
FRANCE	6	6	6	18

Not much changes...South Korea moves up...Congrats Canada...you did great!

Soon my pretties...soon

2010-02-22T08:12:00.001-05:00

There is one piece missing from the studio...The audio interface.

I had to order it from the US. I hate doing that but I didn't have much choice...Everywhere I looked in Canada it was "out of stock" and so, I was forced to look at other options...I found an online store that says they ship "no hassle" to Canada but it's a hard call. I don't know this store from a hole in the ground. Are they legitimate? is it really "no hassle".

So, I put my monocle on along with my deerstalker cap and went to work investigating this place.

The company that makes the audio interface lists the company that I purchased from as a preferred distributor. The company I purchased from seems to be the "amazon.com" of musical equipment on the internet. They've been in business since the 1980s. Everything looked pretty good...So I ordered it from this US company.

And yet for all my work I'm still wondering what the status of my order is...I received no email confirming that I made an order. Several days later, I got an email from them saying that my order has shipped. They provided a tracking number but no link to the shipping company's website. I can do a Google search with the best of them but, the point is, I shouldn't have to. I should just be able to look at the order and figure out when it's going to be here...

So off I go to the shipping company's website, enter the tracking number and ... nothing...We can't find any order with that tracking number. I'm sure it's just a matter of updating the various systems and that the package will be here. My gripe here is that this seems that everyone involved could have done a better job on the automated customer service. I'm not likely to use this company again for that reason...unless there's no other way.

Olympic Medal Counting

2010-02-20T19:40:00.005-05:00

Hey check this out...Something bothers me about the way the news media reports the medal counts from the Olympics...Take a look at the table below and tell me if you see anything wrong with it.

CBC Medal Count

Top 10 Medal Winners (as of Feb 20th)

COUNTRY	G	S	B	TOTAL
UNITED STATES	6	6	9	21
GERMANY	4	6	4	14
NORWAY	5	3	2	10
CANADA	4	3	1	8
AUSTRIA	2	2	3	7
FRANCE	2	1	4	7
SWEDEN	3	1	2	6
SWITZERLAND	4	0	1	5
SOUTH KOREA	3	2	0	5
RUSSIA	1	2	2	5

Look closely now...See it? Every medal whether it's gold silver or bronze is worth the same. That's not how the Olympics work so, why do we count medals like that? They don't take the top three winners and say they're "Winners" and send them home with a shiney trinket . Instead, they differentiate the top three spots into "the best", "the second best" and "the third best" and then hand out appropriate awards based on that ranking.

I was curious to see if a weighted medal count would make any difference in the rankings so, here's what I did:

Gold medal = 3 points
Silver medal = 2 points
Bronze medal = 1 point

I assigned these values to the medals already won and calculated a point value for each of the top 10 countries provided by the CBC.

Sean's Medal Count

Top 10 Medal Winners (weighted)

COUNTRY	G	S	B	TOTAL points
UNITED STATES	6	6	9	39
GERMANY	4	6	4	28
NORWAY	5	3	2	23
CANADA	4	3	1	19
AUSTRIA	2	2	3	13
SWEDEN	3	1	2	13
SWITZERLAND	4	0	1	13
SOUTH KOREA	3	2	0	13
FRANCE	2	1	4	12
RUSSIA	1	2	2	9

So far, it doesn't seem to do much for the rankings except, knock France down a few pegs. To me this makes way more sense in terms of answering the question "How are we doing at the Olympics?" Anyway, just a thought...Aren't gold medals worth more?

Cakewalk

2010-02-15T08:13:00.000-05:00

Maybe a week ago, Jamie and I went to Long and McQuade. I purchased Cakewalk Sonar 8 Producer Edition which, is a very expensive piece of software. I managed to get myself upgraded to the fully windows 7 compliant 8.5.2 version after about 3 calls and 7 or 8 email to Cakewalk customer support. While normally I'd find that unacceptable, the customer support guy really tried to help me out with the free upgrade and due to some technical issues ended up having to go above and beyond to get me my free upgrade. I think it's going to be a bad month for internet usage since I downloaded the entire product..2Gigs in size..

Anyway, A long time dream of mine has been to have a home recording studio. My time in recording studios really had an effect on me. The idea to just be able to pick up and record an idea or a whole song on a whim is very appealing. To that effect, when it was cost effective, I purchased musical "toys" that were of professional grade and that would be useful in a home studio environment. It's why I purchased a rack mounted Roland Fantom XR sound module rather then a Keyboard with the same patches and it's why I have my big keyboard with all the knobs buttons and sliders.

The big keyboard is a pain...It's heavy and it's huge but I don't regret it's purchase because it can function as a control surface for Cakewalk. If you're unfamiliar with a recording studio, a control surface functions like a mixing board. Each slider controls the volume of a particular instrument. I have 9 sliders, 24 rotary knobs and 18 buttons. I can do something called an automation record and change the volume, panning, effects on a track while it' is playing. In a digital studio, its non-destructive editing so if I don't like it I can tweak it or erase it and try again.

There's only 1 piece missing from the setup and that is an Audio interface. I had hoped I could use my old TASCAM interface but, it doesn't work properly with Windows 7 64 bit. It actually messes up the rest of the computer so I'm looking around now for an interface...

I almost forgot!!!

2010-02-15T07:34:00.000-05:00

See what happens when you blog late at night, children? You forget half the stuff you meant to write about!

Yesterday, Margo and I went to the Bell store with Margo's Mom and Aunt and we helped Charlene pick out a new phone...It's a gold colour, which, I think is hilarious for some reason..I'm a little jealous ;) it's very stylin'

The deal with the 13th is that Margo and I are going to do our valentines day on the 13th instead of the 14. Margo was saying that valentines day is one of the worst nights to go out for dinner. The restaurants are packed and the kitchen staff is over worked and tired. Bad food and a crowded restaurant are hardly romantic.

Anyway, Among my group of friends, though they are all paired up in some way, valentines day is pretty well ignored.

Happy not-really valentines day

2010-02-15T00:04:00.000-05:00

Well, to be fair, it's valentines day today. Margo and I didn't do much aside for have a nice dinner. I made fettucini carbonera with a baked garlic chicken breast served with an nice gewurtztraminer that we picked up on honeymoon 1.0. We also went to Margo's brother's for a bit for pizza lunch with Margo's Mom, Aunt, nephews and nieces.

The big event for this weekend was the celebration of our engagement...February 13th! For this auspicious occasion I made reservations at a new restaurant called "STeaK". I was going to take Margo to Hy's but her mother beat me to it. :)

I was focused on the steak house so the radio commercial came to mind pretty quickly so I made our reservations. A few days later I started to have some second thoughts: What if this place is a dump? I don't really know anything about it aside from it's in the market and market restaurants can be kinda shady.

I started to bill "date night" as an "adventure"just to cover my bases. In fact, It really was an adventure since neither of us had been there before.

Well, as it turns out, the place was nice and the food was delicious. But I'll get the bad out of the way first. We booked our reservation for 6:15 and the serving staff basically told us they had another reservation coming in at 8...but "don't worry about it, you have lots of time" That put us off quite a bit. I found the music too loud, and the staff was a bit flustered (it's OK though they're new) At one point the server poured water into the wine glass (white wine) of the lady sitting next to us. The tables were small and it was a bit crowded.

The good...The food was delicious and you didn't wait long for it. nice atmosphere, decent prices. The good far outweighs the bad...

I learned a valuable lesson though...I am not order more then 12 ounces of meat in one sitting. I ordered an 18 ounce ribeye steak. This was a Fred Flintstone steak, as Margo says. It really was. It had the huge bone on it and everything. I ate all of it...including my green beans and potato. We decided to be good and skip dessert...Though at the time I thought I still had room for some cheesecake. By the time we got home I had realized that cheesecake would have been a huge mistake.

Blogging falls out of favour with young people...

2010-02-04T12:49:00.000-05:00

At least that's what the CBC says...

Apparently they're all on Facebook instead...Personally, I've noticed a decline in posts from the blogs I follow which, is fine, though disappointing. Not too long ago they were talking about how blogs put the Internet back into the control of the user, meaning, that if you wanted to find out some information you didn't have to go to a corporate website to get it. That's a good thing for people who want information from a practical and real world perspective rather from a salesman. Obviously, a company selling a product is not going to provide you an unbiased opinion on the product they're selling.

Of course, there is a downside. The general public isn't really subject to the same control that journalists are. They can say pretty much whatever they want. The Internet gives a voice to everyone so, it's important to correctly pick the sources you can trust when looking up really important things.

Even with all due diligence done you can still go astray. A good example of this is the whole thing with the Measles/Mumps/Rubella vaccine. Though the report in the Lancet (a respectable medical journal) identifying a link to autism has long been discredited. The report got so much media attention that there is now a huge anti-vaccination movement who are endangering our health and their own by refusing vaccinations for children leading to a stark increase in diseases we had almost eradicated.

I have my Facebook account too but I really don't pay a lot of attention to it. I guess I'm weird but alas, I've gone off topic and started ranting about the crazies which is not what I wanted to do (even though I often end up doing it)

So anyway, the point was that I think I will invest a little time in the blog and do a redesign...I change templates about once a year and I think it's time so, you might see a few changes here and there. Don't be alarmed! Actually, I've realize that a lot of people come and visit the blog looking for more information than I generally post here so, I plan to make the template more multimedia friendly...pictures, videos etc...

Groundhog day

2010-02-02T15:01:00.000-05:00

Really?

Wiarton Willie, Punxsutawney Phil & Shubenacadie Sam all saw their shadows today which means, according to local tradition, that we've got about 6 more weeks of winter...Unsurprisingly, having some rodents determine the beginning of spring doesn't really sit well with me when we have Doppler radar and satellites at our disposal.

Then again, they probably are about as accurate as the weather anchor on the news considering what we've seen of them lately...

I have an idea...every year on February 2nd if my cat Jazzy wakes up hungry then winter is over right then and there....think it'll work?

A Tale of Golden Pistachois and the Isle of Women

2010-01-23T23:05:00.003-05:00

Margo and I took off to Isla Mujeres (The isle of women). We drove around in a golf cart and got swindled into buying a small bag of pistachios for $5USD. Yep, they taste like miniature little silver monkeys hand picked these golden pistachios from the lost and golden Aztec city of Muahahahalatera and then traveled half way across the country in single file to deliver them to this guy walking on the beach so he could sell them to us for $5. It must have been a great hardship for him to let these precious, tiny treasures go. Margo and I feel a little guilty that his family is most likely starving and freezing because we didn't pay more.

Anyway Ilsa Mujeres is kinda neat...we saw turtles and iguanas. The really interesting thing about it is that the water changes from the green it is here, to a brilliant and beautiful blue out by the island. It's most noticeable on the ferry coming in With some of the scenery there it was absolutely beautiful...unfortunately a lot of the rest of the island was trashy. There was lots of real estate available though. I got a hat!

On the way out of Isla Mujeres there was a really drunk woman behind us on the ferry...Somehow it reminds me of Ottawa..

Who says there are no zombies in Mexico?

2010-01-21T23:33:00.002-05:00

Margo does...but she's wrong...I just saw them! Of course we were just at a Micheal Jackson tribute and they did perform "Thriller". The show was great. The guy doing the Michael Jackson impression was eerily like the man himself... It was really great. Margo is glad she stayed up for the show.

Laid out..

2010-01-19T19:58:00.002-05:00

I spent most of today horizontal in the hotel room. Whatever gas I had yesterday got a lot worse. It might have been Montezuma after all. I haven't been able to eat all day but I'm about to try a chicken sandwich.

Mexico : Day 4

2010-01-18T20:30:00.001-05:00

Lots of sun and warmness...good food made expertly for us every day. People bringing us drinks by the pool...I'm not sure how much more of this I can take!!!!

:P ok lots

There must be something in the air, or the food, or the water...

2010-01-17T15:12:00.002-05:00

No Montezuma has not gotten his revenge on us gringos but we're having a bit of gas...it could be the steady supply of re-fried beans and other Mexican delicacies...

Observations from Mexico

2010-01-15T21:47:00.002-05:00

This is probably the nicest hotel I've ever been in. Margo and I coughed up a few extra bucks to make sure our honeymoon would be awesome. It's only day one and so far everything is great. We had a mexican feast for dinner this evening and we're full...We're also a little drunk since we sat at the bar before dinner and had a few drinks. We're still getting the hang of the "resort living" but I think we'll settle in soon.

The resort we're at is a fair way away from the airport one of the things we noticed in Cancun was construction. There are some beautiful new buildings here that look like the most modern things you'd ever see. the other thing we noticed was graffiti ...It's weird...no matter where you go, graffiti always looks the same. We're taking pictures and video so we'll have lots to share with those who are interested.

Random acts of blogging

2010-01-13T08:37:00.001-05:00

On the video games front, I've finished Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Assassin's Creed 2. I would give positive ratings to both but I don't want to talk too much about them. Call of Duty was too short and Assassins Creed 2 fixed everything that was wrong with the first one. I'm on to Dragon Age: Origins now and RPG apparently there is a lot of content in the game. I feel like I've already steered my character wrong so I may reset and start again. The thing that surprises me the most is how much that game sucks me in..It's a "story driven" game which I guess is why I feel like I've played a lot less then I actually have.

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In case you're wondering from the last post, no I did not try and put Jazzy in armor...

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Margo and I are trying to get ready to go to Mexico. We've got the house and cats taken care of while we're away. I need to pack still but that won't take me very long at all. I'm looking forward to some time off. It's been hectic at work since they're pushing really hard to get a project finished. I'm trying to get everything done before I leave but I'm not sure it'll happen.

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I've picked up a few books for reading on the trip. World War Z, on Jamie's reccomendation, Musicophilia and something else by Michael Chabon. I also spent a lot of money on a book that covers CISSP certification which is a project for when I get back from Mexico.

Monetizing Your Pets

2010-01-12T12:29:00.007-05:00

When it's all said and done, cats really don't contribute much to your home. For sure they can be good companions but you have to feed them, take them to the vet and clean up after them. There are other costs associated with cat ownership as well, as if the vet and food bills aren't enough you still need to buy pet supplies like cat litter.

You don't really need to buy entertainment for your cat. All those crazy cat toys are more for our entertainment then theirs since cats are pretty happy chasing a piece of string or hiding in a box. They don't need that fancy-schmancy laser pointer or fishing rod cat toy. The only thing that you might buy in terms of "cat entertainment" that you may have difficulty scraping up from junk in your house is cat nip. Even cat treats are unnecessary.

Long have I searched for a way to recoup the cost of cat ownership. Ideally, a cat career in acting would be the most lucrative. Unfortunately, Jazzy's let herself go and Charlie has "psycho-cat" episodes where he absolutely must run all over the house, climb on everything and cry.

I briefly thought about police-cat. Cats have a keen sense of smell but they're not very trainable. They couldn't really take down a bad guy on the run but, I'm pretty sure they could find drugs at the airport. I'm pretty sure Jazzy could sniff out drugs but, large dogs are the traditional holders of these kinds of jobs so even if you had a cat which could do this it would be a rough go to actually get them employed.

check this out:

AND

EQUALS

WarCat! A freelance, military grade housecat for hire

She's got the size, She's actually pretty agile and surprisingly quick (when she wants to be) for such a big cat. Sadly, I didn't think of this sooner so she's been declawed which limits her usefulness as a superhero mercenary housecat but she'd be willing to make celebrity appearances...no?

OK actually, the cat armour is an art piece from a guy out in calgary who makes armour for cats and mice...hehe

2009 : The Year in Review

2010-01-04T10:02:00.005-05:00

Margo suggested that I write a year in review. Since I don't think making new year's resolutions is a productive exercise, I thought I'd give this a try.

Probably the "biggest" thing I did last year was to beat the video game Demon's Souls....

OK, I'm kidding. The biggest thing was getting married! Much of last year was consumed with wedding preparations but there were a few other things which happened as well.

I got married - Yep. This is the big event of 2009 for me. I've blogged enough about it though...Best wedding I've ever been to. Sorry to anyone who's wedding I've been to, Margo and mines was better - mostly due to Margo

I moved to Orleans - Technically, I suppose you could call this a wedding preparation but, when I moved I was not married and this was from one end of the city to another so, I think it counts as a big deal. Unfortunately, I'm perpetually lost in Orleans because in suburbia, everything looks the same. I'm still amazed that Margo can navigate what seems to me to be an endless maze of streets with houses that all look the same and arrive at the mall without spending much time on a major road at all. If I'm going to the mall I have to use major roads or my GPS.

My grandfather died - Aside from the actual dying part, the worst part of this was that Margo didn't really get a chance to get to know my grandfather. She met him once but, he was in pretty rough shape - certainly not himself. I know he was happy for me - getting married and all. In the end, he lost his mind. It's sad because I think he really wanted to keep his faculties about him. Fortunately it was only a short time. I'll miss him.

Margo eats the chili - and likes it!! I really have to count this in the "big win" category for the year. Margo was pretty clear about not liking chili. "But my chili is really good" I said but, I'm sure she's heard that before. I was prepared for a life with very little chili in it but thankfully now, I don't have to. We kinda had to ease Margo into chili with nacho chips..

Lets face it, bad chili is a serious societal problem! You probably make bad chili. In Seanland, meat and beans are the base of good chili. Limit the vegetables...The more vegetable you add, the more water you add and so your chili will likely be soup. My chili recipe is a combination of my Mother's chili recipe and a variation of one of Jamie's chili secrets and a few tweaks of my own.

Spending time in the kitchen - a lot of time was spent in the kitchen in 2009. The hits of 2009. Invisible cookies. These are chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal cookies (from my aunt Mimi which, are mostly sugar). Marbled cheesecake brownie was a big hit as well. I learned to brine and BBQ turkey, roast a beef tenderloin and make sesame broccoli as well as roast green beans in shallot butter - all good.

The misses of 2009 - Margo! (misses/Mrs. Get it? we got married so she's a Mrs. now..hehe -Bad Pun) Ok seriously... the misses of 2009. BBQ Pizza - Made my own dough...burnt it. Peppermint twist biscotti - The candy cane in the dough added too much sugar...burnt it.

Taking this show on the road - Margo and I did a lot of travelling around to see family, go places and do things. It was a busy year for that. Probably since I moved to Ottawa, 2009 was the year I've seen my family the most either, going to them or them coming to see us. We've been all over the place this year. It's been fun but we need to remember to schedule ourselves some downtime in the future.

Revisiting the keys - Way back when I was a young'n I learned me to play the piano. In 2009 I've gone back seriously to playing keys again. I still play my guitars however, I'm working with Jamie who's launching a new band (yet to be named, I think) It's an interesting experience for me and a challenge as well.

Sold for a song - at the end of the year, my job was outsourced to another company. I work for a different employer now, doing the same thing I've been doing for the past 8 years for my old employer. I don't have a warm fuzzy feeling about the transition but I'm keeping my options open at the moment.

I think that's it for now...Maybe I'll think of something later.

Demon's Souls Part 3

2009-12-27T21:52:00.005-05:00

OK...I beat this game before I left for the holidays. It was a pretty good game. Gamespot agrees with me and they awarded this game the prestigious "Game of the Year : 2009" title. Demon's Souls is now in the hands of Rawlio. I probably won't sell it right away when I get it back since I have a funny feeling there will be some add-on content for this game.

I'm not sure it deserved "game of the year" but I haven't played all the runner ups yet either. It's a unique game, for sure but I can see a lot of people really really hating it for the frustration factor. I never got frustrated with it myself but I can see a lot of people might want to chuck the controller across the room.

Anyway, Just before the Xmas holidays the guys who run the Demon's Souls Server shifted all of our game's world tendencies to pure white. This is a yearly event I guess. Around Christmas, the world tendency goes pure white and around Halloween the world tendency goes pure black. This is controlled by the server and not by anything you would do in game. Anyway, pure white tendency makes the enemies easier and it makes them drop healing items when you beat them. Pure black tendency makes the enemies harder and makes them drop better items.

Now You may be thinking, oh they made the game easier and then Sean beat it..not true. It's not that much easier.

Anyway, the advantage for pure white tendency was that with each pure white or pure black tendency there are unique events which can only occur when you're in one of the pure white or black tendencies for the world. I realize this sounds like gobbledeegook. It's something you can only really understand if you're playing the game so I won't talk too much about it...I played the game and I didn't get what the heck they were talking about with these world tendency things until near the end. ...Anyway, Sean's recommendation : If you're interested, rent the game first. Don't buy it based on my opinion. I thought the game was great right from the start but I don't think it's for everyone.

Anyway, I'm moving on now to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - This should be short or so I've heard.

Demon's Souls

2009-12-27T21:52:00.001-05:00

Demon's Souls part 2

2009-12-18T09:25:00.002-05:00

More weirdness....

I've managed to hold on to my body now for a while and have started picking off Bosses. Mostly these are the final bosses of each world so I am now slowly approaching the end of the game. There are lots of rewards for beating these guys so my guy has been leveled up quite a bit.

The leveling up is a bit weird. There was a little while there where I could level up and have almost no effect on game play but that seems to have changed at the higher levels I have my guy at...He's actually pretty tough. I might do some level grinding and see where I can potentially take him. Dare I say, the game has gotten a little bit easier? It's probably due to "over leveling" on my part.

In any case, my guy seems pretty tough. Fights don't last very long and I get invaded on a regular basis. People try to kill me a lot except, for one guy...

Some dude invaded my game carrying what looked like it was probably the sword you win for beating the game. It looked like it might be a tough fight ahead...except he started to dance around...I took a swipe at him but my guy is a bit slow because he wears a lot of heavy armour, The dude dodged my swipe and danced around again but he didn't attack me...I'd sorta heard about this - people invading other peoples games as "bad guys" but actually helping the person. This guy went and cleared out the level for me. It was easy for him because the other computer controlled bad guys don't react to people invading the game. I did not really need the help but he got me up to the boss of the level and then left my game... I wonder how often that happens or If I smoked any "black phantoms" that were there to help.

The other weird thing is that for one of the boss fights, the boss of the level summons another player on the network to be the Boss. I fought this guy who tried to ambush me by hiding in a corner so that when I entered the room he'd be behind me. That was actually a bad strategy because I kinda knew he was there so I pinned him in the corner and hacked away until he died He was trying to roll away but he couldn't. Maybe I've been lucky so far...

Demon's Souls

2009-12-16T14:02:00.003-05:00

I've been playing this game for a while now...

So, someone invaded my game and tried to kill my guy whilst I was playing. I experienced everything the reviewers said I would. I felt a weird sense of dread as the words "Your world has been invaded by So-and-So" popped up on the screen. I turned around in time to see the red outline of someone running toward me, weapon drawn. I made my guy switch to his sword..

Chop-chop and the fight was over...I won! YaY!!! It was a really quick fight. I dunno how the game picks opponents so maybe I was not evenly matched but that's besides the point. It's a really cool feature which actually makes the game harder. If I had been somewhere else in the game and unable to focus my attention on my unwanted guest my dude would have been killed.

I died shortly after anyway...I never manage to stay alive long in this game becasue it's so hard. In that sense, I've gotten used to just having less hit points (a consequence of dying) so that's an advantage too I guess.

The Christmas Wars

2009-12-15T12:32:00.003-05:00

We're well into the Christmas season and I've noticed something or rather, the lack of something. There's been hardly any news stories about the war on christmas. Maybe I've been too busy to read a lot but, the Christmas controversy seems to be at an all time-low this year. These doesn't seem to be a lot of complaining about holiday trees vs christmas trees or complaining about putting up religious/non-religious symbols in public places.

I did notice a story about a group that goes around and identifies companies that hate Christmas by the way that they advertise at this time of year. This group then encourages people not to buy anything from the stores that hate Christmas... Honestly can you imagine a consumer based company that hates Christmas? This is like the best time of year for them with so many people doing their holiday shopping...It's like christmas to them...oh...wait. Anyway, this isn't really news though because this group does this weird report every year. (Here is the link!) The list seems kind of arbitrary to me and I have a hard time believing that people are not going to shop at Best Buy this year because they're on this list as "Naughty"

Last year there was a big hububaloo about "holiday trees" in New Brunswick. This year seems pretty quiet. I wonder if it's a sign of people becoming more reasonable or if it's just an off year

Wilsons, boots, TVs and the invisible cookies

2009-12-11T08:58:00.006-05:00

Tomorrow is the Wilson family Christmas party and Margo and I are headed off to Pickering in the morning to attend this illustrious event.

In preparation for the festivities, I spent the evening baking invisible cookies. Invisible cookies are pretty difficult to make. How successful you are with invisibility in cookies depends on a lot of things.

Production of cookies leaves a lot of evidence. To minimize your cookie footprint you must dispose of the evidence. This means that once cookies are produced, you must either hide the cookies or eat them all. It's not just the cookies you have to hide either. You must also hide the evidence of producing them. The area in which you made the cookies must be cleaned and appear as if no cookies were made. You can't over clean either otherwise this could arouse suspicion - "Things are clean...too clean...YOU MADE COOKIES!!!!!"

One thing that's really hard to hide is the smell of freshly baked cookies...You really need to allow ample time for the cookie smell to dissipate. Unfortunately for my invisible cookies, I was a little bit strapped for time because I was driving all over Orleans running some errande so I didn't get to start until later then I wanted to. I probably lost 2 hours of cookie smell dissipation because of these errands though they were worth it.

The first errand was a visit to Futureshop. It seems that the large 52" TV I purchased not too long ago went on sale. Futureshop knocked over $200 off the price I paid for the TV. My Brother-in-law who, helped me pick up the TV noticed and told Margo so, we hit Futureshop and got our $200 rebate!

The second errand took a lot more time. I needed new winter boots. The boots I had hurt a lot to wear. It was weird too because they were Columbia boots which is a good name from what I understand. The boots were comfy when I bought them but I've never been able to wear them for very long I figured they just needed to be broken in but after a couple days I had these painful red marks where the boots rubbed in the wrong spot. I've tried to wear them every year without success so, I'm done with them now. They're in good shape so I'll donate them somwhere...They should be able to keep someone's feet warm (as long as they're not walking around in them)

Hunting for boots in Orleans was hard. I went everywhere I could think of. I'm not that picky they just need to be warm, waterproof and fit properly...I didn't even care what they looked like and yet, everywhere I went there seemed to be a shortage of size 9 boots. There was no way I could wear my old boots for another day so I had to find something. I eventually spent a lot of money on some good boots at Sports Experts after going to Marks Work Wear house, The Shoe Company, Walmart, Payless and Canadian Tire.

Back to the cookies for a minute...I kinda figured I'd be found out so I planned my strategy as a strategy within a strategy. Wheels within wheels. I made two different kinds of cookies! One batch of cookies was sacrificial which I expected to be discovered. The plan was once the second sacrificial batch of cookies were discovered someone might make the assumption that there were no other cookies, thus the first batch would remain invisible...I even baited the "cookie monsters" by leaving a single cookie from the second batch out on a plate!

I made some mistakes and my efforts were discovered. Here are the rules for next time based on the mistakes I made:

1. Start early enough that the smell will dissipate
2. Don't over clean because it arouses suspicion
3. Don't hide the cookies in the same place.
4. Don't be cocky and bait the "cookie monsters"
5. Don't blog about invisible cookies

:)

Pianos

2009-12-08T12:22:00.002-05:00

I found this really cool site which teaches you to play songs on piano. It seems geared towards people like me who learn by ear and muscle memory rather then read music. I can read music but I find the whole process really cumbersome.

Consider, modern musical notation - staves, notes, meter has not changed a lot. Modern notation is focused on piano with modifications for other instruments as needed. For something like a guitar, a song written in standard musical notation makes it much more difficult to learn the piece. Still, if you want to play with another instrument, there is a need to have a standard notation that everyone can read even if that notation is not very helpful for a particular instrument.

So back to reading music...Even on the piano where standard musical notation works best I find it doesn't work well for me. I was always amazed by my piano teacher who could just look at a piece of music and play it. I got through many piano lessons by reproducing what she did from my ear. She even caught me once when I accidentally transposed a song by a semitone and didn't realize it. More often then not, I would only use the notation when I was lost. She did actually teach me to read music but I was never very fast at it. Basically, I memorized where middle C was and a couple of mnemonics to place the other notes. I don't think she was a very good teacher though since I took an introductory music course in university and aced the course. They covered all the notation stuff and I understood a lot more.

Anyway, this website is pretty cool...It uses a "guitar hero" notation along with actual video of hands but for piano. There seems to be lots of songs available including some good ones by Ben Folds...You know where I'm starting.

Dear ol' Dad

2009-12-04T12:45:00.002-05:00

Well, he's OK. I might kill him the next time I see him but at least he's OK...for now.

Dad had a stent put in to open a blocked artery. He's so lucky there's been no damage to his heart. So anyway, he gets out of the hospital after this procedure and what does he do? He goes to the friggn' hockey game. *hand*-*palm*-*head*

He's supposed to be on bed rest, doing nothing. He's gotta take meds, do rehab, change his diet, lose weight and get some exercise as part of his new life 2.0. I know a little something about that myself. Sean is not pleased...

Uncultured bloke eats at fancy restaurant

2009-12-04T08:30:00.004-05:00

Ok, I'll admit it, I'm an "experience junkie". What this means is that I will seek out new experiences and sometimes commit a significant personal expense to experience new and novel things. My wife is the same way but we share slightly different interests. One thing we agree on is food so we were excited to go to "Atelier" together with some friends. Atelier is a fancy schmancy restaurant here in Ottawa which, was written up in several places (including the Air Canada magazine we had during our trip to Nova Scotia) as one of Canada's top 10 new restaurants.

First of all...there's no sign on the front of the restaurant. In a way, that actually contributed to the experience for me since we seemed to be going to a "secret restaurant". I can imagine a few practical reasons for not having a sign out front though.

You don't order at the restaurant. Instead, you get 12 courses of small servings of whatever they're making. The group of people we went with has a mixed bag of allergies and strong dislikes so, we're all actually pretty creative cooks ourselves since, we have had to work around issues with fish and sea-bugs, nuts and beef when we get together as a group. The restaurant gladly took down all our requirements and modified what they were making to suit.

I have a "strong dislike" of fish and sea-bugs (lobster, crab etc). I'm not sure "strong dislike" is a strong enough term since I actually have a physical reaction to eating things from the sea. Mostly it turns my stomach upside down and causes me a bit of nausea. I can stomach it if I have to but, it's kind of uncomfortable. One of the substitutions they made for me and my dislike of sea bugs was Elk. I found out that I like Elk and now I'm a bit curious as to how I could make it myself.

Anyway, 12 courses, no matter how small the plate, is still a lot of food over all. And speaking of plates, these guys invent their own cutlery to serve special purposes...they have a spoon which had a clip to attached some torched rosemary so you would smell it as you're eating whatever was served on the spoon. The spoon was rested on what looked like a bit of PVC pipe. They had another spoon with a test tube vial built into the handle.

The actual plating of the dishes was awesome. The food looked great almost, futuristic. some of it almost didn't look like food but, everything was edible.

Now, the most important part...How did it taste? Well, I won't rush back and there are a couple of reasons for that. One reason is the price. It's $85 a person. Now, I don't feel like I was ripped off or anything just in general $85 is a lot of money. My understanding is that this restaurant is doing quite well so I would not expect the price to go down at any point.

Another reason I wouldn't rush back is that I'm a picky eater. Now, I was never served anything that was horrible for me to eat. In fact, I even tried some things I know I dislike and found them to be actually pretty good. Still there was some stuff I didn't love. I suppose with 12 courses you can't love everything though. I did find a few dishes that were really delicious. The funny thing was with the large group, none of us could come to a consensus on what was delicious and what was not so delicious.

I guess that is the worth of the evening...You may not love everything but the experience was awesome. 12 courses was actually exhausting. We were there for 4 hours and I'll tell you, I slept like a log that night. So my final word on this is it's worth it to go at least once...being the uncultured fellow that I am and not having much of a refined pallet, I suspect that $85 for this type of meal/experience is actually pretty reasonable (in comparison to going to a "trendy place" like this in New York city or something) so, I would go before they realize it ;)

No more delicious cookies!!

2009-12-01T11:54:00.003-05:00

I've been pretty busy lately... I haven't had a lot of time to do any blogging so this is one of those "I'm still alive" posts. You know, the kind of post where I say "I'm not dead" but, I don't really write anything significant.

It's been a bit of a whirlwind couple of weeks for me:

I went to church, ate "Jesus cake" and did not instantly convert to Catholicism nor did I melt or experience any ill effects whatsoever.
I travelled to Nova Scotia for a few days to meet some new family
I transitioned to a new employer
My dad has developed some unknown health issues so I've been a bit worried about him.
I had a really odd coincidence...I flashed the bios on our home router and noticed afer, that I was unable to log into the playstation network. The upgrade was a significant one. It actually required an upgrade of the software we were using to share our printer. The really weird thing was the playstation network was having a massive outage for Ontario and Quebec (I believe it was limited to Bell internet customers only) at the same time as the modifications to my router so I spent a little bit of (wasted) time trying to figure out what the issue was.
I made a vat of Jambalaya (delicious and healthy)
I baked delicious cookies (from my great aunt's recipe) which Margo has now forbidden me to make ever again because they're too delicious.

OK...that's all for now.

Winter Tires

2009-11-17T08:06:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year, again. I've got my Michelin X-Ice winter tires (the ones I got for free last year!) on my car now. It funny how tires make a difference. I must admit, I prefer how my car handles with the winter tires on then my all-seasons (summer) We haven't had that first snowfall yet but when we eventually do, I'm ready.

I had some other maintenance done on my car - A brake job, an alignment check and they cleaned some induction system. All together, it was kinda expensive...but the car is happy.

I stick to the standard GM maintenance schedule for my car...I really don't know any better. I know some people scoff at the standard maintenance schedules as being excessive but I honestly wouldn't know what to refuse and what to accept...So far, what the standard maintenance says has been pretty good. I was overdue for a brake job according to the maintenance schedule and you could tell. The brakes were squeaky and the car shook when I applied them...no longer.

The Wedding afterthoughts and a little something special from the LCBO

2009-11-13T13:23:00.004-05:00

With all the wedding stuff 0ut of the way Margo and I are starting to try to get the house back in order. This means taking account of the many gifts we received, putting stuff away, organizing and writing thank you cards as well as paying off the last bits of the wedding costs.

I was talking with my sister last night about the wedding. Maybe one day soon she will be walking down the aisle herself. Anyway, I was saying that I was pretty happy about how we managed the wedding financially. We got a fantastic deal on a lot of stuff because we booked early and at the beginning of "Off season". We did our research and evaluated everything fairly critically. We splurged a little but we could afford to since we got good deals elsewhere. We did a lot of DIY. We put large purchases on hold (unless absolutely necessary - like the floor in the basement) We arranged our finances to fully utilize our money. All our savings for the wedding were placed in a high interest-savings account which gave us access to the money to pay off the bills. We also put everything we could on my credit card which, pays out rewards, the more you use it.

I was explaining the costs of everything to my sister and she was amazed at the deals we got. The photographer, the hotel/food, the cake, transportation, music. Personally, I saw these prices and had some major sticker shock. Having had the big day now, I can't imagine anything I would change and I don't feel like I was ripped off.

---

So, anyway, in taking account of our situation, we noticed that we received a gift certificate from the LCBO as a gift. Margo and I have a lot of wine from our trip to the Niagara region so more wine is a no go. Margo said she thought I should use the LCBO gift card for a bottle of scotch. That sounded good to me but, what should I get? I'd been keeping an eye out for anew bottle of scotch since I said goodbye to the cask stength Macallens. There were a few that caught my eye but obviously, I don't want to spend the money on something and be disappointed - scotch is expensive stuff...

My favorite scotch ever has been the Oban 14 year but it's gone up in price a bit. I loved the Macallen's cask strength which is also expensive and I'd had it before. I thought hey maybe this should be something I haven't had before so I looked at this very german looking bottle of scotch called Auchentoshan. I had nearly purchased that one a while ago too...

In the end, I ended up going with Glen Breton Ice. I've had Glen Breton Rare before. I liked it! It's Canada's only Single Malt Whiskey. They were sued by some scotch association for using the "Glen" on their label despite being made at Glenora distillery in Glenville, Cape Breton, NS. Needless to say those Scottish Scotch drinking bastards lost their case :)

Anyway, Glen Breton ice is basically Glen Breton Rare aged in icewine barrels. It's something you could really only do in Canada. I like the significance of it all...It's single-malt, which was part of my bachelor party, It's from Nova Scotia like my wife and it was aged in ice wine barrels which was a big part of our honeymoon (1.0)...On second thought, maybe I should keep it forever and never open it... ... ...Nah, who am I kidding?

I'll open it...And for my Scotch drinking friends, I'll save you some but you'll have to come to Ottawa to get it...You know who you are...:)

PS3 : Demon's Souls

2009-11-10T10:51:00.002-05:00

I'll cut to my big gripe with this game - What kind of game has no pause feature?! Seriously!?

Demon's Souls is really hard...brutally hard. The worse you do at the game (ie the more you die), the harder it gets. This is a feature they call "world tendency" I'm not quite sure how it works but, from what I gathered from reading online forums, you can push your world tendency to either black (hard) or white (easier) which, will trigger an special event that could allow you to reset your world tendency. I really wish someone could explain how this works to me. The manual is useless, and the online forums appear to be translated from Japanese (either that or people who like this game are illiterate) Apparently the company that made the game can decide to just switch your world tendency whenever they feel like it. They apparently switched everyone's worlds to black for Halloween weekend.

Another nifty aspect of the game is it's "online" features. People can leave helpful messages for you warning of traps or dangers...It works the opposite way too and people can leave false messages telling you to walk off a cliff to get some treasure. You can also invade someone Else's game and try to kill them or try to help them. Consequently, you can also be invaded or helped.

The game itself pretty unique. I've not had the (good or bad) fortune to be invaded in my game yet since I spend most of my time in what's called "soul form" where you have to function with about half your "hit points". Soul form happens when you die. When you're killed, you're forced to re-start the level. If you can get to the point where you died, you can re-claim all the souls (currency) you lost by dying but you cannot regain your body (and all of your hit points) . The only way to get your body back is to use a special item or defeat a boss or through some aspect of online play- about which, I don't know much. My PS3 is wireless so any online competitive or co-operative play isn't going to go over so well..in any case...If I get my body back someone can invade and kill me again.

The game play is hard too...You can't just run in hack and slash and expect to get anywhere. You have to know your enemy (which most of the time means you've been killed by your enemy) and make a plan of attack. For some guys, you can just run in and attack, other's you have to wait hidden and sneak up on. Some enemies are vulnerable to only certain type of attack (specified by the weapon you're using) or only vulnerable by stabbing them from behind. You could get into a fight with some guy that isn't hurt much by a slashing sword but is hurt by a stabbing weapon. The dungeons are littered with traps, traps and more traps.

The combat is hard...You have to block but you can't block indefinitely. You can take a few hits while blocking before your stamina runs out and your blocking (and your attacking) is ineffective. Further, some enemies can just power on through your block (even if you've got all your stamina) and hurt you anyway so, you need to dodge.. but dodging takes up stamina too so you could just end up just standing there while some bad guy is beating on you cuz your dude is to tired to move...

Needless to say, you end up dying a lot which, makes the game harder...It sounds like the most frustrating game ever...and I'll admit, I've had to walk away from it but I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit. Everything looks great, the story has enough mystery and subplot to keep me interested and the enemies, oddly enough, don't get boring...even when playing the same darn level over and over again...they're always in the same place but you can experiment with the best way of dispatching them. Most of the time I can get through the first level without being killed.

Still even though I can "get through" the first level. There are still some things about the 1st level which my character can't do yet...so you constantly have to visit old levels and try your hand at a new challenge once you improve your character...

Anyway, Sean likes...

About that GPS?

2009-11-09T16:49:00.001-05:00

As it turns out, We had my old GPS the entire time we were traveling. It was in the car the whole time...No regrets though. The Garmin GPS is awesome

H1N1

2009-11-06T13:52:00.004-05:00

For all the crazy anti-vaccination talk out there there is a huge push on to get this vaccine. I was "lucky" to get the vaccine if, you can call being in the high risk group lucky. I can't really give you all the details of this story though but if I know you, you can ask me about it in private.

I got a first hand look at how the city is managing this out in Orleans here and it's not good. First, you gotta line up. I stood in the line, I looked around at the other people in the line and most of the people looked healthy...but then again, I look healthy too and I'm still in the high priority group.

There was a guy from the city talking to us in the line about how the queue worked:

They have 700 shots to do per day
Everyone in line can request a reasonable amount of wristbands for their families etc.
The nurses would not vaccinate the people who were not on the high priority list.

So, they'd give out 700 wristbands in the morning and then tell us that the clinic was closed. the wristbands have a time on them and you are to come back at the appointed time to get your shot. The nurses would work their way though the wristband queue and apparently reject people not on the hight priority list so, by the afternoon the shots that were spoken for by people not on the high priority list have become available again.

They'd give out the remaining spots in the afternoon apparently rejecting the people who are not on the high priority list. (not really)

Here's what was going on:

People lined up at 2-3am
People were picking up wristbands for their families so you saw people with 5 or 6 wrist bands at a time.
You self identify yourself as high priority by filling out a form. I was not asked to provide any proof of being on the high priority list. I don't think they could have managed it if they had to ask everyone to prove their eligibility.
I guess some people were getting "caught" not being high risk because they told us we could take our chances and stay in line if some of the shots were not given out and they re-open the clinic.

So what's the issue?

Well, there were some H1N1 Deaths of healthy kids and media hype which, created demand.
There was also the mismanagement of this by our government who decided to go with only one supplier for the vaccine which, contributed to a shortage.
There is also a lack of staff to administer the shot.

Anyway, I'm glad I got the shot...I should be immune any day now...

Old Man Wilson tells his side of the story - The honeymoon

2009-11-04T13:55:00.004-05:00

After the wedding we had the family brunch the next day. We saw off most of our out of town guests either at the brunch or on the Monday following. The brunch was a great idea. Being the guests of honour at the wedding means you don't have a lot of time to spend with any particular people. You move from table to table, person to person but you don't get to sit down and have a meaningful conversation. I must have repeated the same line so many times at the wedding - "I'm so glad you're here!" I meant it but, I felt like I couldn't actually benefit from their company since we had so many other people to talk to. The brunch was nice for being able to spend time with everyone. Even though there was still a lot of people around, we could all have a little more time together.

Once our peeps were gone we got down to business - getting ready for our mini honeymoon. We tried to get the H1n1 vaccine before we left but the line up was stoopid...we couldn't. The clinic was closed for the day and Niagara falls was expecting us! We did manage to get our real honeymoon booked and paid for. We got an awesome deal. Then, we drove to Niagara falls. We cut through the US to save a bit of time on the advice of our travel agent.

We managed to avoid the temptations of the outlet malls and arrive at the US/Canada border in Niagara falls. NO GPS...I apparently forgot it so we used a map. They had only Valet Parking at the hotel - a first for me. We had a bell man help us bring our stuff up to the room...Very cool. They even gave us a nice box of chocolates on check in! Our hotel room was awesome...Top floor of the Fallsview Marriot. There was a fireplace, a double jacuzzi and the most comfortable bed (King) I've ever slept on in my entire life! We had an incredible view of Niagara falls right from our room. We had access to the concierge lounge so before dinner we went in there and hoarded all the free stuff we could :D Classy!

We had dinner reservations at the hotel... The service was great and we got a free desert for being honeymooners but it wasn't worth the price AND we had a $75 voucher that came with our room!!! While the experience was nice, the price of it really disappointed me

Maybe it was the awesome bed or the driving or the tiredness catching up to me but I crashed hard.

The next morning I went back to the concierge lounge and got Margo and I some coffee to drink while we got ready for breakfast....We caught the tail end of breakfast...it was OK. We checked out of the room and went to explore Niagara falls a little...We decided we needed a GPS. It wasn't a snap decision, contrary to what it may appear. The GPS I have occasionally and randomly sends me off to Alaska via the most inconvenient route possible. We were managing fine with our map navigation skills but it seemed like as good an opportunity as any to pick up one of those nice Garmin GPSs so we headed to Futureshop. On the way there I got a call from work to let me know I was being outsourced to a different company...more on that in another post maybe.

It was cold and a little rainy so after we looked around Niagara falls at the Hershey store and the Coke store and the falls we decided to head to our next destination. Niagara-on-the-lake.

On the way to Niagara on the lake we stopped at a couple of wineries. We used our brand new GPS to get us there but we stopped at a few places to take in the scenery. We saw an actual fox!

We arrived at the Harbour House in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The place was nice but, from the internet pictures and everything I had read on it, my expectations of what it would actually be were a lot higher then what it actually was. Still, more gifts on check in, and supposedly, their beds were rated the most comfortable in Canada. I have to disagree. The Marriot is still the winner in my books.

We ate dinner at the Niagara Collage Culinary Institute. It was Awesome! Great price, Fantastic food and wine. A 5 course meal (fancy restaurant quality) with 2 glasses of wine for $60. Can't beat it. This more then made up for the restaurant at the Marriot

The next day we had a London Cab drive us around Niagara-on-the-lake for wine tastings and tours. It was a wedding gift from my brothers and sisters in-laws...(not sure if there's a word for that) That was great!! We got a tour of the Reif Estate Winery...very cool...They walked us through the entire process of making wine we even got to meet the head dude! We went to this little winery called cattail creek...they were awesome there too. we bought a lot from them.

Then we had lunch at the supposedly haunted Angel Inn...OK I like ghost stories but, when I go to a place that is "Haunted" I like to taunt the ghosts (has to be in front of other people or else it's no fun). Col Swayze was killed at the Angel Inn when hiding (like a coward) in a barrel. The Americans had stormed the place and were very thorough in their searching for the English by stabbing every barrel with a bayonet. He got the pointy end in his stomach and died (in a barrel!!) Apparently he was there to meet some girl so he was actually in derelict of duty since he was supposed to be out on the field fighting or commanding or something...I made sure to trash talk the "ghost" a little before I left. As you can see there was lots of fodder for that from his story.

Anyway, Lunch was tasty. I ate the fish and chips. Then we headed out for Stratus and Konzelmann wineries. Stratus was a really cool building...Wow...expensive wine though. The cab driver told us he was nervous about going in there (I guess they have a bit of a snobbish reputation) but When we got in there we found that they were pretty cool. They said right up front that they are aiming for the premium wine market but they were pretty open and friendly. They let us try their wines and to be honest, they're kinda going for the wrong market. We did get a couple bottles though. Margo liked one of their red wines and I liked their icewine.

Konzelmann was a little more our speed. They were great. They gave us a sparkling wine to drink out of a glass shoe.

We also did a little shopping in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The locals there seem to like to exaggerate. The dude at the hotel told us the little jam store they had in town used to be the "purveyor of jams to the royal family" We went to the shop and asked them about it but they didn't know anything about it. The next one he told us was that the Executive Chef at the restaurant he booked us for dinner trained with Gordon Ramsay (he's that British chef who swears a lot but doesn't actually ever cook anything on TV)

By the time we were going to dinner we'd figured out that the locals like to exaggerate (the cab driver told us a tall tale about the Angel Inn - which we researched and found to be not quite accurate). Of course, we asked about the chef at the restaurant and as it turned out what we were told wasn't quite accurate. It was still good food though! I was pleased (I had Duck) but Margo ordered something she doesn't normally have (Sea Bass) So she wasn't as impressed. We were so full from the wine tasting and dinner that we skipped dessert and just went back to the hotel.

I'd promised Margo that we could try and pick up some Riedel icewine glasses in Niagara-on-the-lake. Margo had seen them at one of the wineries a few years ago but she couldn't remember which one so we hit a few of the larger wineries and another one (Ravine) which is partnered with one of the celebrity Chefs on the food channel (Anna Olson? - I wouldn't know her from a hole in the ground but Margo follows her) We found our icewine glasses at Inniskillin after a recommendation from the person behind the counter at Ravine. Apparently , Inniskillin is "THE ICE WINE winery" and they had these special glasses made. We got an awesome deal on them - and more icewine including a sparkling icewine!

We left niagara-on-the-lake behind us and headed for Prince Edward County wine country - Also known as "four blocks southwest of the middle of nowhere". Since we were passing through, we stopped off to see Alexis and then made arrangements to see my mother.

It was starting to get dark by the time we turned off the highway toward Picton (our approximate destination) The way there is via country roads...some paved, some not, none of which are lit. On the road there was enough light to see that we were playing that old video game, Frogger in real life...except, we were the bad guys...it was kinda creepy.

We got to our destination, The Huff Estates...By this point, I was really happy with my purchase of the GPS. It was pitch black and Margo and I agreed that there was no way we could have found this place in the dark without the GPS...The hotel room was awesome - again! This time, there was a TV in the bathroom as well as in the suite! a multi head shower and jacuzzi, a double sided fireplace and a pretty comfortable bed and a nice microfibre red couch...

We were hungry though...So we looked through the menus of various restaurants in the area...There was a lot of game on the restaurant menus...I could have eaten Emu!!..Not that I would, they're too cute and goofy looking. We settled on a restaurant in Picton where I had Pasta in cream sauce with chicken...I was craving pasta for some reason. With my Pasta, I had one of the best Cesar salads I've ever had. The pasta was great too! Margo had a chicken crusted with nuts which was also pretty good (I got a bite of it!)

We headed back to the hotel and crawled into bed and watched an episode of "Criminal Minds" in which some crazy psycho captured this couple in a hotel room and proceeded to torture them...how romantic! It rained that night and since the Huff Estate has a metal roof it was really really loud. It was also really windy.

The next day we hit the wineries starting at 10am. We went to visit a few. Here is what I will say: Prince Edward County does not have any sweet wines. Everything is pretty dry which is fine if you like that sort of thing. We ended up getting a few bottles here and there but I will say that by far, the best experience we had was at Norman Hardie. Their wines could have tasted like crap and we still would have bought some... The assistant wine maker spent a lot of time explaining how they grow wine in the region and what they have to do differently from Niagara (they bury the grapes!!) , he was really busy and you could tell but he still spent the time with us and let us try the wines they were making. You could tell he was proud of his work...It helped that his wines were pretty good too ;) The head wine maker showed up too and talked to us for a bit! They also cater to an Ottawa restaurant market and told us to which restaurants they sell. we recognized some and had eaten at a few too! Honourable mention goes to Sugarbush Winery which is actually owned by someone who works for the same employer as I do. - small world

I must return to the GPS for a minute...Once it got us to our destination it became pretty much useless...We navigate by map from here on out. At least it was light out.

Our last stop in Prince Edward county was the Black River Cheese company. Margo knew about this place but when I got there I noticed that the labels were familiar....I thought that I had seen them before . It turned out later that we actually get cheese from this place in the Orleans Metro!! We got some yummy cheese curds though which, you can't get in the Orleans Metro..

We decided to head back home to Ottawa...the GPS took us onto a ferry. Where we could catch a highway back to the 401 and continue on our way...It started to get dark again (funny how that happens) at some point, I think I hit a rabbit who made a dash across the highway. I felt the bump and I saw some kind of animal.

Finally , we made it back home to Ottawa just in time to be unpacking the car while kids were trick or treating on our street (AKA bad timing). Thankfully, the parents said children realized we weren't prepared for trick or treats and moved on. We quickly unpacked the car, checked for rabbit guts (found none), ran inside the house and shut off all the lights...(we had no candy to give out)

Old man Wilson tells his side of the story - The wedding

2009-11-03T10:19:00.002-05:00

So much has happened in the past couple of weeks that I may forget or gloss over a few details but here goes:

I'm married! YaY!!!

The whole process started on October 21st. We finished up the last of the planning activities for the wedding and it was now time to execute.

October 22nd - Rehearsal/Rehearsal Dinner

You know, They actually called me from work during the day. Some dude was having a conniption fit about something he screwed up. I had to log into work and fix something while trying to get everything ready to get to the hotel as well as running last minute errands. The basic idea was to get everything for the wedding to the hotel and do the rehearsal...then, head off to the rehearsal dinner. So, numbnuts wasn't helping at all!

For your amusement purposes, I was on my cell phone in my car in the parking lot of Walmart trying to walk my backup through the process of fixing the issue. Some woman had just laughed me out of the pantyhose isle in Walmart but, I completed my shopping mission! I just needed to go and get my shirt from the cleaners and go home to fix the problem

Everyone got to the hotel OK but a few people got lost trying to get to the restaurant. It served as a reminder of how bad Ottawa streets actually are. The problem is even worse while King Edward is all torn up. We lost my family and Rawl in the process. Thankfully, my friend, Shawn saved the day and got everyone where they needed to be.

The rehearsal dinner was pretty good, the price was reasonable. There were lots of homeless people around that night. Not in the restaurant mind you but, just around. It was a good reminder of how fortunate we are.

We also had house guests since Wednesday. You'd think that would just add to the stress but actually they were a HUGE help.

October 23rd - Pre-wedding bash

My parents rented a suite in the hotel so the plan was to host a little gathering there. Margo dropped me off at the hotel and I helped my parents get the food together for the evening. My parents brought about half an LCBO worth of liquor and the party got started.

We were loud...We Wilsons are loud people. I'm a bit of a black sheep in that sense but I have my "Wilson moments" as well. Margo made an apperance at the party for a bit as well as some of Margo's friend whom I've never met and Margo's Mom and Aunt. The rest of the crew was My aunts and uncles and my parents friends and my friends...A good time was had but there was no sleep for me in the evening.

In the room was a pull-out couch where I would sleep. It was not very comfortable, the room was loud as well. I could hear everything going on on the street. My parents slept fine but, I'm a really light sleeper (I have to be alert for ninja attacks) So, I laid awake until 8:10am. I then got up and got dressed to meet my crew for breakfast at my favourite spot The Lieutenant's Pump.

October 24th - The Wedding

When I got back to the hotel, It was time to get ready. I had instructions from the photographer to only get ready so far. Shirt and pants only. Before I could start there was a knock on the door. It was a delivery of a present from Margo - an engraved pocket watch. The thing is, we agreed not to exchange presents. I had a present picked out for her but we'd talked about it and she told me she didn't know what she was going to get me so we agreed to just skip it - I should have known.

Not To be outdone, I assembled a strike team. Jamie and I headed to the jewelry store. We tried Howard's but, they were no help and the sales person consistently failed to realize that we were in a hurry. He kept offering to make what I was looking for no matter how many time I told him I needed it now...Next, we tried the place where I got my wedding band. They're a subsidiary of Howard's but they at least understood the situation. I found something I liked...The saleswoman showed me something better so I bought that. Pearl earrings and a matching pearl pendant.

I headed back to the hotel room to get ready and left Jamie to manage the rest of the task. Jamie delivered the gift to groom central and I sent Shawn to deliver the gift to Margo with a hastily scrawled note written on hotel stationary...Classy, I know.

Everyone was looking fancy, People were gathered outside of the room. I could hear the string quartet setting up. We poked our heads in to see where they were at. Shortly after, they opened the doors and people were seated. Somewhere in the process our programs got lost. It's OK though.

I kinda wish the aisle was lined up with where we got married...I couldn't see Margo come down the aisle until she was about half way. It one of the down falls of being slightly below average height. Margo looked great... Simply stunning. What was really cool was that, having never seen the dress, the earrings I purchased earlier for Margo were perfect - like they were meant to be there.

It was hard to keep it together...The photographer managed to catch a moment of weakness where I almost cried but I couldn't let that happen, I could see Margo was ready to go and if I started crying then she might start too and that would not be good...A few jokes later we were OK..and married!

The ceremony went off without a hitch...At least none that anyone would have noticed. Margo and I had edited the ceremony to remove references to "God" but the chaplain put one in anyway. I noticed but it was no big deal.

Next, we took a trolley ride to the Museum of Civilization for photos. It was a busy day for wedding photos at the museum. I saw a wedding party wearing the same accessories as me. I could have easily snuck in with them ;) It was a bit cold for the ladies. Formal wear and fall weather do not mix well for the ladies. The guys were ok since we always wear multiple layers. Margo thought of everything though...We had blankets on the trolly. Unfortunately, the blankets were from our house and they had cat hair on them :) oops...But, like I said, Margo thought of everything and there was a lint roller in the bathroom at the hotel.

We did some family photos and sent them back to the hotel on the trolley. Next, we did wedding party photos and dropped them off at the hotel on our way to parliament hill for just bride and groom photos. My friend Shawn was a huge help to the photographers.

Finally, we were back at the hotel and we were hungry. I did get a chance to have some of the champagne punch which was delicious! We were running a little behind schedule so my sister managed to find the programs that were lost and distributed them to the tables which apparently, kept people busy while we got our act together.

We made out grand entrance...I have to admit that I was a little distracted by our wedding cake...It looked FANTASTIC! From the grand entrance, Margo and I went right into the first dance. The experience was a bit surreal for me.

We took our seats and got started with the dinner and the speeches. MC Rawlio Introduced the evening and the Kissing game (a donation to the Canadian Cancer Society in memory of My Grandfather) Rawl was a great MC. He mixed in a lot of personality and information into the night - exactly what we were looking for. We mixed the speeches in between courses so that people would not get bored...But, everyone's speeches were so well done we probably could have, just as easily, put them at the end. My sister gets extra bonus marks for her speech! So many people commented on how good it was. I got roasted pretty well by a lot of people.

When the party started, people danced all night long...past last call. It was awesome...

BTW the cake not only looked good but it was delicious too!!