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Dad wrote in with an update on how the Alaskan cruise is going:

“Just letting you know that our trip is going well. We are in Juneau today .We have been sailing up until now. Greg and i went up 1850 ft. in a gondola today while everyone else shopped. Tomorrow we will stop in Skagway. The weather has been quite cool 10-12degrees C”
Now, I decided to check out Google Maps to see where they were at.  I have no idea what you all think about when you’re thinking of an Alaskan Cruise but I just thought about them travelling the ocean and then stopping in some ports along the way.
That’s what they are doing but I was surprised to see that Juneau and Skagway are off the beaten path and it looks like it’s inland quite a bit.  I guess I just assumed it would be on the sea most of the time.  Either way, it sounds like they are having a great time and the weather has been agreeable so far!

While I don’t have a cellphone, nor do I plan on getting one anytime soon, my curiosity was piqued when I saw that the new iPhone is being released next month and it will be available in Canada (legally) for the first time.

Now, a few of my friends already have the iPod Touch and it’s a killer gizmo. It’s basically an iPhone without the phone part (and a few other things missing, but very few). So I wanted to see how the new iPhone stacked up in comparison to the existing iPod Touch.

Well, the 16GB iPhone is planning to arrive at a $300USD pricepoint. Taking the current exchange rate into account, let’s assume that in Canada they will price it a) The same price but in Canadian dollars or b)People can just cross the border and pick it up for $300USD.

That being said, I just checked out the price for a 16GB iPod Touch and the lowest price I could find was $359 at Future Shop.

I don’t know if they have planned this, or if they are going to slash prices on the iPod Touch, but it seems to me that the better choice would be to buy the ‘more features, less priced’ iPhone which does exactly the same thing as the iPod Touch (if not more!).

The only caveat is that maybe the iPhone is only available if you purchase a cellphone plan but something tells me that won’t be the case. I’m sure if I enter the cellphone store and say “I want to fork out $300 for this iPhone but not activate the phone portion” they will be fine with that.

So, is there something up Apple’s sleeve? Are they finally putting the iPod to bed now that the price has come down on the iPhone to make the iPod obsolete? Or will there be a price slash in the near future on these iPods?

Either way, I know my iPod has been crapping out on me for the past six months but I’m going to keep it until it dies completely.  It still works if I give it a good old whack against a hard object or drop it to the floor from a three foot drop.  But it’s reassuring to see that the prices are coming down.

Here’s a funny story…

I was listening to Malajube (a French band from Montreal) the other day and I decided to see if they were on tour anytime soon.  Sure enough, in July they will be going to Buckingham, Quebec.

I recognized the name Buckingham and couldn’t put my finger on where it was but I knew it was close to Ottawa.

When I told Vero I was interested in going to this festival, she thought Buckingham was close to Montreal.  I didn’t think so and she checked it out and said the place was about 40 kms away from Ottawa.

I didn’t think was too far at all and said it’s probably the equivalent of traveling from Orleans to Kanata.

Anyhow, I went onto the maps today and had a good laugh when I found out where Buckingham was in relation to me.

It’s right across the freaking Ottawa River near where I live!  And it turns out that five kilometres up the road in Cumberland, there is a ferry that travels 24 hours a day!

So I have a feeling I’ll be heading out to see this festival this summer as all other concerts I’ve tried going to this summer have been squashed due to scheduling.

http://www.buckinghamenfete.qc.ca/ 

Mark (guy I work with) just passed me some new tunes to listen to.  Right now I’m absorbed in Airbourne which are quite clearly, the new generation’s AC/DC.  It’s quite uncanny how much they sound like them.  Even the singer!  It’s quite rocking.  I’ve also got some Michael Franti to listen to later in the day.

I also checked out Los Campesinos!, Malajube, The Dears, and some CBC Radio 3 all weekend long while studying.  Very excellent tunes going through my head.

My thoughts right now are all about my final exam on Thursday and the trip to BC coming up this Saturday.  I had forgotten to call Aeroplan to ask them why they switched my seat number (which was next to my cousin).  Hopefully they will switch it back for me.

Other thoughts look towards next week with a slew of guest writers coming to this website to give you their best.  I have no idea what they will write about but I sure hope they actually DO write SOMETHING over the next week and a half and don’t just pile in here one day and leave it empty for the remaining week.  I also hope that you find it entertaining.  I have opened up some floodgates to people to contribute, but also feel that every one of my friends have something of interest to share.  That’s why they are my friends (I don’t hang out with uninteresting people!).

Can I also point out that I enjoy a nice hot day with a bbq hot dog by my side?  Vero and I threw some on the other day at lunch and it was amazing.  The simplicity of a good hot dog astounds me.  Props go to Mom’s way of doing hot dogs as she fries the buns in a pan and they come out a-ok.

This seems like a neat project to try out at a future party…

Read here.

I saw myself on Moitie Moitie yesterday.  It was pretty cool to see me sitting down in the background.  I was also with Mike and he got a little bit of face time as well (as much face time you can ask for as an extra).  He gets a massive closeup shot in a future episode though.  It will be great!

For those of you who are reading this before Sunday night, the show airs either at 5PM or 5:30PM on TFO (which is Channel 12 in Ottawa).  We are in the restaurant scene about 10 minutes into the show.  I have taped the episode to show everyone so later in the summer we’ll have a little party to celebrate.

Dang, it’s hot today.  But awesome hot.  Maybe it’s awesome because I’ve sat around with no shirt on since I woke up.  I don’t even have the air conditioning on.  I have grown accustomed to the heat nowadays but maybe I’ll throw the A/C on when I go to bed.  Sleeping while it’s hot is horrible.  But I think it’s starting to cool down now.

I’ve studied all day while Vero laid in the sun in the backyard all day long with me.  It was great.  We popped in a new album Maren passed to us to take a listen to.  Los Campesinos! is an amazing band and we really enjoyed the album.  We listened to it twice while sitting in the sun, absorbing life’s rays, and drinking iced tea.  I then switched over the listening medium to CBC Radio 3 streaming radio.  I haven’t listened to it in awhile and I don’t know why I ever gave up.  I have this love/hate relationship with radio.  I love what it has to offer (well CBC Radio3 at least…) but then I find I don’t pay enough attention to albums I actually go out and buy!  Where’s the good balance?

Right now I’m descending into a strange place as the sun is going down and it’s cresting over the mall outside my window.  A cool breeze is coming in, I’m listening to a live Dears concert I found on CBC Radio, and there is a beer in front of me.  Studying has finally taken a break for the day and I feel good about it…

As my final exam approaches, I realize that I will have the rest of the summer off (well other than my actual job!).  Here’s some things that are in the works of what I want to accomplish and what I’m actually doing:

• Travelling to Victoria, British Columbia from June 14 – June 21: Mom and Dad are probably boarding an Alaskan Cruise as I type this (Bon Voyage Patterson Clan!) and afterwards they are going to visit Uncle Brent in BC.  I decided that this would be a good time to finally go out and visit him and I managed to convince Troy to come along and Nanny will also be along for the ride.  Mom and Dad will pick us up in Vancouver in a car they will rent and then we will head to Victoria.  We are going to take things easy and if we feel like going out for a trip on the coast, we will.
• Traveling to London, Ontario from June 21 – June 24: When we arrive back in Ontario, Troy and I will head out to his house so we can do some recording.  It worked well last year while recording The Stomper (hey, isn’t that ready to be released yet?!) and we are hoping that the trip to BC will inspire us to write some stuff and maybe think about recording.  I can definitely see us laying down 705 while we are there though as long as we can find the right guitar tone.  If it cannot be found, perhaps a cover song.
• Canada Day weekend – Looks like Vero’s sister and husband are coming to town that week so that should be fun.  Vero and her sister are going skydiving!
• Modify Mike’s Xbox.  Now that school will be done, I can catch up on the things people have been waiting for!
• Go for a bike ride with Carrie.  Ottawa, watch out!
• HOPE Volleyball: Once again, we will terrorize the beer tents.
• Resurrect Movie Night with Trish: This may involve scoping out drive-in theatres, films in parks or pubs, etc.
• Travel to Gaspe – First week of August: Patterson Family Reunion!  Should be fun.  I hope to spend each day either swimming in the ocean or biking around the loop (about 15 km).  The last time I attempted this feat, I ended up half way around and I couldn’t go any longer.  I was young and stupid and didn’t bring any water with me.  Since then I have grown up and learned how to bike properly.  I also will bring my guitar down and may or may not need to perform every night.  The strip club lives on!  (you do know that our cottage is an old strip club, right?)
• Have some BBQs with friends: The one thing I hate about going to school is the fact that my friend visiting quota goes down to 1%.  It is quite awful.
• Have Maren and Allan-Paul over for supper: Considering I never have and I have definitely had a great meal over there once or twice, it’s only courteous to do so.  Also, sneak some of their wine.  😉  I suppose if I forgot anyone on this dinner list, they should let me know!

What big plans do you have for the summer?

Heads up!  I have asked a few of you to contribute to the website while I’m traveling this summer!  If I haven’t contacted you and you wish to put your spin on Palmer’s World, feel free to ask and contribute!

I don’t know what’s stranger…the fact that Kitchener, Ontario seems to be the hotspot for comics books, or the fact that I swear this woman looks a little like Mom…

I have been hinting about some recent comic book acquisitions.  I felt that I needed some time to really think about the great gift that was given to me and how I can properly document it.

Aunt Lois and Uncle Gary’s friend was giving away their old comic books.  I really didn’t know what to expect from them but I said I would definitely take them off of their hands as a comic is a comic!  I thought I would have some entertaining reads.

But later in the day, Aunt Lois started telling me about the titles available…Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spider-Man.  My heart skipped!  Could it be that I was getting a slew of my favourite titles?  Then Uncle Gary even listed some of the Fantastic Four issues they obtained…#33, 34, 41..etc.  I couldn’t believe what I was reading.  Vintage comics!  A dream of mine was to finally read some old comic books.  In comparison, the comics nowadays pale in comparison to what was released back then.  Back then they focussed more on squashing a story into one issue.  Nowadays they gear a storyline to fill a tradepaperback in most (not all!) cases.

I received a notice that as soon as their friend realized that they were taking his comics off his hands, he now wanted to sift through them and decide which ones to get rid of.  Ah well, I realized I would be in the same position and not want to get rid of my gems.  I figured I would still get to read a few good issues though and left it at that.  Aunt Lois did phone later on and mentioned that there were about a hundred X-Men comics so my hopes soared back up again!

Fast-forward to my trip to Aunt Dinah’s, I arranged for Aunt Lana to pick up the comics for me from Aunt Lois.  I will still drop by your house in the future Aunt Lois!  You can count on it!  I didn’t want to show TOO much excitement when Aunt Lana rolled into the driveway so I never brought it up for most of the afternoon.  It wasn’t until after dinner that I figured this was a good time to meander out to the car and pick up the boxes.  I brought them downstairs and started to sift through them.

Shock went through my system as I started to sift through the comics.  Rick and Tracy were there as well and Rick went through a few and was yelling out names “Thor!  Fantastic Four!”.  Aidan (age 4) wanted to read one so I passed him a Green Arrow book.  I ended up looking through every comic after everyone went to bed.

In the end, I ended up with a slew of Silver (60s) and Bronze (70s) Age issues…something I’ve always wanted to read but never had the opportunity.  The majority of them are Marvel Comics (my fave) and I ended up with 164 Uncanny X-Men comics and the strangest (fate?) thing was that the last issue in the series was #272 and my own collection starts at #273!  I couldn’t believe how fate put these comics into my hands.  I thought it was just plain good luck but after seeing how coincidental it was for the X-Men issues to line up, I knew there was a higher power at work here.

I catalogued all the comics the night I got back into town and I ended up inheriting 621 comic books, with a slew of Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four, Nick Fury, Iron Man (over 100 issues), Incredible Hulk, a bunch of Spider-Man comics (even a few old Amazing Spidey!  Awesome!  That’s my fave series next to X-Men)…I even received a few older DC Comics like Justice League Europe, Action Comics…I haven’t ever really read many DC Comics but here’s an opportunity to start!  The majority of the issues come from the Bronze Age and a few touch into the Modern Age (80s+).

I have started to read a few each night before going to bed and am enjoying what they have to offer.  They are much different than the newer comics I read now.  I started reading some Iron Man (as I have never done so before), some Fantastistic Four and some Captain America.  I usually just reach my hand into the box and pull out whatever issue there is to read and have a fun time reading it.  It will take me quite awhile to get through these issues and I look forward to reading them all!

Some may marvel at the fact that I obtained quite a wealthy amount of old comic books.  While I realize that some of them fetch a few bucks due to their age, I must admit that I’m more excited to actually read the stories that shaped the comic books that we all know and love today.  I’m more excited to see Jack Kirby’s artwork and Stan Lee’s dialogue than to see how much they will eventually sell for.  I want to see Spidey’s witty banter and fighting some classic villains.  Feel free to drop on by and read a few with me on a rainy day!

A special thanks goes to Aunt Lois and Uncle Gary for thinking of me when this gift came their way.  As for the gentleman who passed these gems along, I thank you good sir and rest assured that your comics are in good hands and they are being enjoyed immensely.  You’ve brought someone’s dream come true.

Appendum: On a related note, after hearing about my love of comics again, Maureen called me and said that her friend Amy was getting rid of her old comic books!  I ended up with 350 newer comics (from the late 90s) and a few of them will definitely fill up my decade of missing X-Men issues!  I haven’t gone through them fully yet and there are a few that are in questinable shape (covers torn off, pages missing) but all in all, I came out on top and will catalogue them soon.  Thanks to Maureen and Amy!  Clearly I should just be on the lookout for comics people are giving away and not thinking of buying any!