Looking forward to seeing this film:
Monthly Archive for December, 2007
Last Friday night we attended “Dirty Dancing” at the Royal Alex Theatre. During the first half of the show, the drunk and obnoxious people sitting in the row behind us really distracted from the show on stage. So much so that at multiple times throughout the performance various patrons could be heard telling them to “Shut Up!!!” You’d think that with other patrons telling people to be quiet that they might make an effort to keep their mouths shut… but these mouth breathers didn’t seem to get it.During the intermission a collection of patrons contacted the facility management to have them deal with the situation, preferably by removing the offending ticket holders. Despite the best efforts of the staff it required the assistance of Metro’s finest before the buffoons would actually leave the theatre and allow the second half to proceed.
Ever since I saw the movie Sideways, I’ve held to the notion that any day is a good day to enjoy a great bottle of wine. So on Wednesday night we sat down for some pasta and a glass of Henry of Pelham’s Baco Noir 2005 Reserve. Both of us are fans of this wine anyway – but I don’ think either of us was prepared for just how good this particular bottle was.
One reviewer described it this way, “Very deep intense purple colour. Spicy, slightly cedary, plummy, red pepper nose with vanilla stick notes. Dry, very tangy, bright, ripe, plummy, gently juicy, black cherry flavours with a lingering cedary finish.” Now I don’t know about the red pepper and vanilla but the gently juicy and bright are perfect descriptions of this delicious and complex wine.
If you happen to find a bottle of the Baco Noir 2005 Reserve, buy it without hesitation and treat yourself to a truly fantastic wine drinking experience. It’ll be the best $25 you’ve spent in a long time. Any other bottle of Henry of Pelham’s Baco is also a good choice, but the reserve is really something special.
No? Well the WGA are: http://www.wga.org/subpage_newsevents.aspx?id=2653. So you’re on strike against the networks who produce the shows you work for, but you’re going to honour them with awards for writing. The writing that you did before you went on strike.I understand the requests that the writers are making in their strike, but I disagree with striking to get it. Most of these writers went into the profession with the current payment structure in place, so they should not have had any misconceptions about how much money they could make.This post will remain unfinished as I’m going on strike. When I started writing it I knew the rules, but now I don’t like them so I’m going to just stop until the rules are changed to reflect what I want.
For the last few years around Christmas, enterprising Mac software developers have created promotions to move huge quantities of their products while creating a significant buzz about said products. This year a new offering from 20MacApps caught my eye, and my credit card! They are offering 20 apps as a bundle going for $40, a 90% discount from the final price. The bundle will increase an additional 1% in price each day until February 1st. Then, by February 1st, each new app will be revealed every fortnight (two weeks) and will be sold individually for $20 each (even though some could have been worth more!). And yes, they’re all new and exclusive apps, so unlike surprise bundles of the past, it looks like we won’t end up worrying on whether we’ll have a second copy of an app to spare.
After many, many months of searching we finally bought a new desk. We bought it from Naked Furniture - a store that I drive past most days of the week as it is just around the corner from my office. Nina (pronounced nine-a) was wonderfully helpful and more than willing to joke back with me. It felt like comedy hour with both of us making jokes about everything – however I was able to finally break her with my final joke of the day! The store’s slogan is “Toronto’s Largest Unpainted Furniture Store” so I pointed out the fact that most of the walls in the store were actually painted… perhaps, like most the “jokes” it was only funny to Nina and I?In 8 to 10 weeks we’ll finally be able to ditch this amazing Ikea kitchen table and replace it with a proper desk and desk chair! Woo Hoo!!
In the envelope with this months phone bill was an insert with the headline “Basic Long Distance rates are changing.” Wow. Nice and straightforward from Bell? Something doesn’t seem right so I continued to read…
Bell are, contrary to other providers, increasing their rates. (At least compared to our current bill, we will pay more for the same calls.And if they were lowering rates, it would be a good sales move to show their old rates compared to their new lower rates… which they don’t do.)
Rogers offer free long distance. Internet calls using Skype and other similar service are unlimited and nearly free. So why does Bell think that the best move is to increase their fees?
Furthermore, why do they have to make things so unbelievably confusing. Take a look at this chart and explain to me how much a peak rate call to a location that is 18 miles away should cost? As I read it, that call should cost either $0.10/minute or $0.12/minute??? What??? And why are they using miles???? And since when is 10 miles long distance? That means that a call from downtown Toronto to the airport is a long distance call?
With each passing day I have less and less interest in having Bell as our phone and internet provider.
I stumbled across an article on Fredrick Banting today that I found very inspiring – as lot of my work day is spent trying to find ways to make science interesting to the average person. While this isn’t exactly a marriage of scientific discovery and art, I still loved the idea of a great Canadian scientist influencing the work of one of our country’s greatest artists:
“And most surprisingly, you see Banting’s work as an artist, influenced by Group of Seven painter A.Y. Jackson, who was one of the doctor’s best friends. Even then, Banting’s inventive mind was at work. Using matchsticks, he devised a method to carry wet paintings from the woods so they wouldn’t smudge – a technique Jackson used the rest of his life.”
It’s back!!! Starting this January American Gladiators returns with all new Gladiators! Hulk Hogan is the host – I wonder where Mike Adamle is now?