If there is a belief in balance, then there needs to be a new element of madness.
Years ago, an element of madness would be to speak to yourself…on the street, in a store, etc.
Now with Bluetooth wireless headpieces, I come across people asking a head of lettuce where they want to go dancing, or ranting about relationships at a bus stop.
We cannot call these people mad any longer.
So what shall be the new element of madness?
Ottawa was rampant with rumours last night…did Annie REALLY have her baby that evening? Was it kidnapped for governmental studies? Did they in fact decide to name their son Flash Gordon?
But all these rumours were squashed when Eric sent some photos out this morning saying that they had a son sometime this morning. Congrats!
Back in October, I talked about an article outlining how I can upgrade my internal 80GB hard drive inside my Macbook to a whopping 500gb! Here’s the entry I’m talking about.
For the past few months I have been keeping an eye on the prices of a 500GB drive and finally stumbled upon a good deal. Last week, I noticed that there were some drives available on the Costco.ca website for $170 so I managed to get to Costco in Gatineau with Ferda (real reason: their delicious hot dogs!) but there were no drives in that size available. Boo. Then on Sunday, Eric and Annie graciously offered to go to the Costo in Gloucester with me but I couldn’t find the hard drive there either. What the heck? How do you offer something online, as well as have it in stock in major metropolis like Vancouver and Toronto, but somehow fail to offer it up in Ottawa? Bah.
Then I started reading about price-matching. I had known about the idea of price matching but had never tried to do so myself. I then saw that newegg.ca had the drive down to $152. That’s more like it! I printed off the pertinent information and Vero graciously brought me to Best Buy last night. I found the Western Digital My Passport 500GB drive and headed to the cash. It was around 6PM so there wasn’t many people around the cash which probably aided my case.
I asked the cashier about price matching and she said “Most certainly we price match, depending on some factors.” I showed her the price of $152 for the drive from newegg.ca. She then said it didn’t account for shipping. I then produced a sheet indicating that the shipping would be $13. Success! She said that’s fine and started punching numbers into her calculator. Here’s some advice to all those who want to price match at Best Buy. The 110% is a flawed logic, or at least one that I didn’t understand. Essentially you can get it for the price that you show them (aka, the $52+$13 from newegg) and then they figure out the difference between their price and the competitor’s and then they take 10% off of that difference. I was thrown off of this for a bit as I thought I was supposed to be getting another couple of bucks off but she explained it’s a percentage of the difference.
Nevertheless, it came out to $163 before taxes and that was pretty well the same price I would have got it for from newegg.ca, only the difference was that I have the drive in hand vs. having to wait for it to be shipped. PLUS the cashier said that if I found a better deal in the next thirty days, I can get the difference, even if I found newegg.ca was offering free shipping! I shall be a hawk looking for a better price than $163 in the next thirty days!
I walked out victorious!
Vero and I then headed back to my house so I could pick up some tools. Vero was not impressed with this leg of the trip as I had originally asked if it was “alright to go home and pick up some tools” in which she thought I was talking about her place! I found a precision screwdriver and grabbed the new tool kit that Vero’s parents gave me for Christmas and headed back to the house.
Warning: From this point on, it gets boring for those not interested in the swapping of hard drives.
I get home, and first off, start following the instructions from that great article mentioned above. A great public service was made by this individual who outlined the process!
First step was to make a copy of my laptop drive onto the external drive. This was the most painful portion of the process as the copying process took 3 whole hours. I was not expecting this. When it was done around 10PM, I booted the computer back up using the external drive as my boot drive (just to test it out) and it was successful!
I then went to town on cracking open the external hard drive plastic casing to get the hard drive out. This was quite annoying as I didn’t know the inner workings of the plastic case. After ten minutes, I finally managed to slide the hard drive out. I then carefully pulled away the plastic/rubber fittings and pulled the SATA/USB interface chip (which was quite tough to get off. Give it a good yank).
I then took the battery out of the laptop and proceeded to yank the hard drive out of it. I hit my first snag in that it needed a torx screwdriver but there must be a precision set of torx that was needed because the set I had was too large. I didn’t want to admit defeat so I took some needle-nose pliers and turned the screws that way (strangely enough, the same exact way the person writing the article did it). I then swapped the hard drives and put the laptop back together and brought the laptop over to Vero for the moment of truth.
The chime came on and a blank grey screen appeared. Hmm..this wasn’t looking too well. However, after thirty seconds, the Apple symbol appeared and presto! It worked! I shut the computer down to try it again and sure enough, it took about 30 seconds but it worked! My thinking on the long boot up times may be that I have moved from an 80gb drive to a 500gb drive so maybe it cycles through some hard drive check and it takes a lot longer.
Either way, the project was a success! I then went back to the old 80gb drive and placed it back into the external plastic hard drive case and now I have a nifty little 80gb external hard drive. Let me tell you something about the Western Digital Passport drives. They are TINY! Because they hold a 2.5″ drive inside of them, those things can fit inside my pants pocket if I wanted to! It also runs off of one USB cable so I don’t have to bring a power supply anywhere with me. This will be extremely handy for those times I want to pass the drive over to Benoit and say “Fill ‘er up!”
So in the end, it took 3 hours to copy the entire 80gb, and about 45 minutes to perform the surgery. I was extremely impressed with how easy it was to do. Heck, Apple isn’t stupid. They know people want to upgrade the hard drives. They even have a tutorial on their own website on how to do it!
I really think this will be a great advantage in editing videos now. Before it was daisy-chaining over to the external USB drive which was slow but now I’m anticipating it to be quite fast.
If you are the feeling the crunch with the small laptop drive that you have, swap it!
Next steps in the computer world are to track down a match for my burnt out Seagate Hard drive (no luck yet) as well as pick up another hard drive to act solely as a backup to all my files. I’m not getting burned twice! Plus, Apple has a nifty backup software called Time Machine which makes backing up…fun?
Whenever I get a chance, I like to tune into the newly bought out ‘Bear’ station…now Virgin Radio.
There’s one thing I’ve noticed…they play A LOT of Tea Party tunes! I’m talking about every time I turn on the radio there are Tea Party tunes on there! Plus I heard some OLP, some Matt Good…and we’re talking vintage tunes here.
The only reason I can think about is either a) They know good music or b) Virgin Radio has policies which enforce MORE Canadian content than the minimum.
If that’s the case, I say ‘good on you’ Virgin Radio. Good on you. You’re showing the people what music is all about.
In my calendar it indicates that it’s Katie’s birthday today so I’m going to have to assume that it’s correct! I know she was having a grand birthday event this past weekend so I’m sure that she had a great time with friends.
Katie is one of those rare gems out there that not only is fun to be around, but has a caring soul while at the same time is intellectually stimulating. Heck, why not go for another quality and say she’s pretty darn good looking also.
Dang, I almost forgot her #1 trait…she is a spectacular cook. Honestly, you have to somehow get her to cook for you. The only reason I bought Smashing Pumpkins tickets last fall was to stay at Katie’s to sample her fine cuisine.
Anyhow, I hope you have a marvelous day and let’s all throw out some Happy Birthdays to Katie! Also, I know you love that picture.
After skiing, Vero and I went to The Bay to spy some discounted Vancouver 2010 Olympic clothing but I couldn’t find any toques I wanted. We then headed my home for a bit to watch an episode of Coupling, a BBC series that Benoit introduced us to. It’s quite a funny show and we recommend that you take a look at it.
We then picked up some St. Hubert and headed for Vero’s and scarfed it down before we headed out to the National Arts Center to watch the French play, Broue.
Broue is a play that started on March 21, 1979. That’s thirty years ago for those non-mathematicians reading this! It turns out that three guys from Quebec; Marc Messier, Marcel Gauthier and Michel Côté created a play which takes place in a tavern and consists of a revolving set of characters who enter the tavern. They each play different characters in the play so it’s funny to see the caliber of acting in them all.
So after a month of the production, it turned out to be quite the hit so they continued onward but it got bigger, and bigger, and bigger! So big that it holds the Guinness title of the longest running play (at least…according to Wikipedia). I believe the show we were at was somewhere in the 2800’s. That’s quite a few plays in thirty years! This play is so popular that Vero mentioned that it is playing in Ottawa over the next three weekends and they are all sold out. In fact, the three original actors have been doing this play from October – April every year for the past thirty years! That’s quite an accomplishment!
We arrived at the NAC to find Simon and Vero waiting for us. We chatted for a bit and found our excellent seats in the Orchestra and the play started up a little late (I commented that they were probably having a beer backstage!). The stage setup was an old-school tavern and it looked like they had suds coming out of the top of it. There was a clock on the top of the set which indicated the time passing between skits. The play starts out with the bar owner opening up shop at 8AM and having to let a patron inside to have his first beer of the day! This drunkard was quite funny…he asks for his gloves which are behind the bar and when the owner asks him why he doesn’t wear them outside he responds “Because people would try and steal them!”
The skit ends and you see the clock advance in time and new patrons come into the tavern and chat it up…a Fire Chief, 2 laborers talking with an English fellow, a father and 16 year old son…there’s a motley crew of characters entering the bar during the entire play.
During the intermission, we headed to the bar for a beer. I picked up a beer for Vero and Simon who had run to the washroom but I didn’t realize they were going to pick up their own beer on the way back! We had a good chuckle at the misfortune (I call it misfortune because the intermission was over by the time we finished one beer!).
When we headed back in, we saw our friend Marie-Claude (who is an usher at the NAC) and she motioned something to Vero and Vero told me that former Prime Minister Jean Chretien was a few rows behind us! Sure enough, I nonchalantly turn around and he’s there chatting with some people in front of him. I felt like I was part of high society this evening, which is a hilarious statement if you were at the NAC. There was quite an assortment of patrons in the theater that night!
The rest of the play was enjoyable and all in all, I had a great time. It was quite hard to hear the actors as they didn’t have their microphones turned up high enough. I felt really bad for the people in the back of the theater. I also had a hard time understanding half of the play because they used a lot of slang, or their characters were using methods of speaking that I wasn’t used to (hyper fast speaking, stuttering, slurring, etc.) I still got the gist of it and had a great time.
The play is well worth checking out! I’m sure you can find a time to go see it in the next thirty years!
iplaying: Let Me Give the World To You – The Smashing Pumpkins (Machina Acoustic Demos)
On Saturday, the moment had arrived for Vero and I to go cross-country skiing! I had managed to acquire an old pair of three-pin boots from someone at work. Actually, I haven’t even met this person. My friend Steve was asking his father about some spare ski boots and his office-mate heard him and said that they may have a pair I could use. They were a perfect fit (although I think the leather needs to be broken in a little on the left side. It was quite tight!) and we were good to go skiing!
We headed to Orleans to pick up the skis from my garage and applied some wax to them. We decided to head out to Mer Bleue to do some skiing as the National Capital Commission indicated they had some trails there. I assumed that it was down Mer Bleue road but alas, this was not the case and it’s around Anderson Road. This may put a kink in my ‘skiing every day after work’ plans and may have to find another trail to hit up.
The parking lot was full so we parked on the side of the road. Some poor soul had the same idea but went to far into the snowy shoulder and the vehicle had tipped into the snowbank a little. It was gone by the time we got back so I guess the tow truck had come and left.
We strapped on the skis and headed down the dusty (snowy) path. Right away, I noticed two things: the trails were not groomed and my skis were WELL waxed! Vero and I couldn’t figure out if the trails are generally not groomed or if it was the simple fact that it had snowed a lot in the past two days and perhaps the NCC hadn’t got around to grooming the trail. I’ll have to ask a few people around town if they know.
The trail is quite nice. It’s in the woods and once in awhile you can get a good view of some wetlands in the distance. There are a few options of trails to follow so we decided to go all out and take the #50 trail which I had read was around 5 kms. We moseyed along and I must admit that I was having a little trouble with my skis. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Sometimes my left boot was just hurting my foot but most of the time, my feet would push off to the side of the ski. I can’t figure out if it was the non-groomed path, or perhaps it was the width of my skis being smaller than my actual boot (which would lead to the back of the boot pushing off of it). I also thought about how I cannot skate and wondered if my technique is…lacking. 🙂
Vero hooked me up with a sweet candy half way through the trek which gave me the boost I needed. I must admit that I didn’t feel like I was getting that much of a workout so I couldn’t figure out if we just weren’t going fast enough or if I’m a well-oiled machine considering I’ve been jogging for the past few weeks! I’m going to assume it’s more of Column A.
At one point we had a choice of trails to go on so we decided to keep going on #50 which also had a sign to our Parking Lot. Unfortunately for us, this trail ended back up at the road and we had to trudge up the road on the side and it was quite a nuisance. There were cars zooming next to us and we were skiing through some slush. At the end I ended up dropping right into the snowbank and had to remove my skis and walk the last 50 meters to the car. I looked at the map the next day and realized that if we across the road, the #50 continues. We will have to remember not to take that bit of the trail the next time!
All in all, we had a great time going out for a ski. It’s a nice trail and even though it wasn’t groomed, it wasn’t all that bad. We cannot complain considering we had to pay nothing to use it (unless you think of our taxes paying for it). There are a few other trails around the area so we’ll go check a few of them out.
iplaying: Toast (Performed by Me!)
Friday night, Mike dropped by Vero’s place to have a few beer before we headed out to see the Sam Roberts Band at the Bronson Center.
The Bronson Center is a venue that I’ve only seen a theatrical play in. I had no idea if it would be a great venue for a rock concert but I noticed that it’s gaining popularity as a venue. We arrived there a few minutes before The Stills took the stage and I was disappointed to see that the place was PACKED! Argh! General Admission inside a theater…no fun. We found three seats together near the back and then I went to peruse the merchandise table. I scored a vinyl copy of the new album for $20 and a tour poster for $5 which were each $5 less than what I would have paid on the website. I’m glad I held out to see if I could snag the vinyl from the booth.
I went back to our seats and sure enough, when the Stills started up, no one was standing up. I was groaning because I thought we had entered classic Ottawa rocking standards…I still remember going to Eric Clapton and we were the only people on the entire floor who were standing up during the concert. Anyhow, the tables turned when The Stills said it was alright to go in front of the stage so a SURGE of people ran up to the stage. We decided to follow suit but by the time we made our way up there, they were turning people away and asking them not to stand in the aisles. We spied a few seats that were empty so we nabbed them and I must say I was much happier with our new found seats which were a few rows from the stage.
I really couldn’t understand why the Bronson Center was becoming a venue for a lot of rock acts considering they didn’t server any beer and they had theater seating. Then Mike hit the nail on the head…he mentioned that it allows it to be an all-ages show. My disdain for the venue and the band immediately disappeared as I realized that living in Ottawa, there must be a ton of underage people who miss out on seeing their favourite band for the sole reason that it’s held inside a bar somewhere. The fact that I couldn’t get myself a beer disappeared and I appreciated the energy coming from the crowd during The Stills set. This is the first time I’ve seen The Stills and they put on a good show. I enjoy how they have two vocalists.
After a short break between bands, the Sam Roberts Band hit the stage and started out with their title track from their new album, Love at the End of the World. I love this tune and it got the party started. The band doesn’t look too different than the last time I saw them at Bluesfest. The only new addition that I spied on the stage was an LED setup behind them.
Sam thanked the crowd from the onset and mentioned how it was nice to end their Canadian tour in the place where it all began…probably a shout-out that Ottawa radio first picked up his breakthrough single ‘Brother Down’ (I nabbed that factoid from the Ottawa Citizen review).
The show was great and I was surprised at how the time flew. Mike mentioned that I wasn’t imagining it…they played an hour before heading off stage and returning for another 30 minutes of an encore (which included a member of The Stills on saxophone during Mind Flood and…Brother Down I believe?). They probably played a shorter set due to the fact that they were returning the next night for another show.
There was a lot of energy throughout the entire show and I really enjoyed how the set list was heavy on the rock and interspersed with a few slow numbers…the ideal rock show set list!
The Sam Roberts Band have hit a point where they have a bunch of albums to pull material from. If I were able to, I think I would have went to the next night as well to catch a variation on the show. There are so many classics I missed this night…The Gate, No Sleep, Don’t Walk Away Eileen…I was also hoping to hear The Pilgrim or End of the Empire from the new album. But I really can’t complain. I stumbled upon a night of a stellar setlist. Heck, I got to hear The Resistance AND An American Draft Dodger in Thunder Bay? Beauty.
Set list (in order that I remember it…could be wrong)
Love at the End of the World
The Resistance
Fixed to Ruin
Hard Road
Up Sister
Stripmall Religion
Bridge to Nowhere
Where Have All the Good People Gone?
An American Draft Dodger In Thunder Bay
Lions of the Kalahari
Brother Down (w/ saxophone from The Stills?)
Them Kids
With a Bullet
—–
Detroit ’67
Words and Fire
Mind Flood (w/ saxophone from The Stills)
iplaying: I Might Be Wrong – Radiohead (Amnesiac)
You know when you were young, and your parents went away and you had a lot of fun and maybe some mischief? Maybe a party, or maybe a full-out fight with your sister when she wouldn’t eat the burned ravioli that you made her for lunch.
You also remember how it was that your parents called and said they were returning a day before expected and you’re looking around the house and wonder how a landmine of destruction went off in the past two days? Then you put away your differences because, in the end, your petty squabbles are nothing compared to the wrath of your parents coming home.
That’s how I feel about the OC Transpo strike being over.
The Federal Government didn’t even have the CHANCE to meet and talk about legislating binding arbitration…just the mere thought of them getting together had the city and the bus union officials scrambling to say “Ok, ok! We get the point! We’re done with our battle!” What the heck?
I had some real faith in the process…I knew it was a hard one with two opposing factions with very diametrically opposed views. But I had faith that the process would work itself out. Now I realize that this could have been averted weeks ago with the mere mention of the Federal Government stepping in. So I have lost faith in the process and find all parties involved laughable. If anything, stick to your guns and wait for the legislation to send you back to work! I would rather be forced to go back to work instead of admiting defeat at this point! What was the point of holding a vote two weeks ago saying you want to stick to your guns and strike longer? For those out there that believe they weren’t admitting defeat but FINALLY helping out the poor citizens of the city…take a closer look around you. This strike would have lasted until June without intervention of the parents.
The talk around the office for the past few months have been ones of frustration, dismay, tiredness…but when I came in this morning, we looked at each other and there was a sense of a lackluster finale. Someone put it perfectly “We didn’t win anything, we just got back something that was lost.” In fact, if anything, we just lost something out of this whole thing.
I doubt I’ll be returning to the bus routes anytime soon…at least for the first few days. Word on the street is that no express buses will be running. I can only imagine how packed the regular routes will be without the express buses running. Plus, I have visions of front page newspapers showing riots in the streets. I am a fan of public transit, don’t get me wrong. I enjoy taking the bus in our fine city and generally do not have any complaints about the routes or the drivers.
The end result of this charade has left a bad taste in my mouth.
You’re talking to a CHEO Lottery winner right here. When I got home on Saturday I perused the mail. Lo and behold, there was a gift certificate for $125 to HBC…so Zellers, The Bay or Home Outfitters! Score!
Not too shabby for our first foray into purchasing lottery tickets for an organized charity. In the end, the ticket cost four of us $100 and we got $125 back. Carrie, Mike, Vero and I will be heading out on a grand shopping spree with our gift card soon enough! The opportunities are endless if you think about how much my $31.25 will buy!
