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If you don’t follow the news on the writers strike, here’s the scoop:

The Writing Guild of America pretty well holds all of the writers in Hollywood. From what I can tell, if you’re a writer, you’re part of the guild. They are striking because their old collective agreement (do they call them the same thing as I have with my union?) doesn’t have any items giving them compensation for some hot-ticket items such as DVD sales or material created for the Internet. Seems to me that whatever they have is pretty archaic! Actually, here is a quote from Canoe:

Writers have not gone on strike since 1988, when the walkout lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry more than $500 million. Source article here.

What’s my stance on the writers strike? Good for them. Heck, they write the shows we love. The least they should get is some of the lion’s share of profits coming from DVD sales or whatever profits are made when the company broadcasts something on the Internet. Let’s not forget about all the content they create for the Internet! I bet TV viewer ship is down over the years but DVD sales are up.

So, what does this mean to you folks out there who like to catch their favourite show on the television?

• Late night shows have essentially went on hiatus and are in re-run mode. No new Jay Leno for you folks.
• Shows like Heroes, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy…down the tubes as far as new episodes go. Sure, they will have some new episodes for the next little while because writers work ahead of time. They’ve probably written another month’s worth of episodes so far. But once January hits, you have to wonder what you will see.

For example, there is talk that an alternate episode will be filmed for Heroes to air as a Season Finale on December 3 if the strike looks like it will run into the new year. Does this suck? Mmm, well, I would like to think that it sucks when an original idea has to be squashed to do outside forces.

Lost has eight episodes written for the new season (premiering in January). Lost is a wildcat anyhow…last season they aired six episodes in September and then waited until January to air the remaining episodes. That was a lame move on their part and they know it…that’s why this season will begin airing in January for the full run. At least, the full run of eight episodes!

That being said, if the strike lasts quite a long time (which is probably going to happen), I recommend the following things considering the winter is approaching:

• Get a hobby. If you have ever wanted to get your hand into wood-working or painting, start it now! With Christmas coming up, you can definitely put a handsaw on your Christmas list. Also needed is some sandpaper.
• Read a little more. Even if it’s ONE MORE book than you’ve read last year, maybe you should sit down and read it. I personally love to read but I find myself reading while on the bus. Take that 30 minutes you would have spent watching Californication and curl up with a book. If you can’t think of a book you should read, go to some of your friends who have similar interests and find out what they recommend to you. I have been introduced to some great reads by my friends Eric, Miguel and Paul. Check out the The Wolfshack for book reviews galore.
• Host movie nights. Everyone loves films so why not get together and watch one! We used to have film nights every week but due to people’s schedules, it wavered for the better part of the year. Bring out the popcorn and bring your thoughts of what film you think everyone should watch! Have themes! Do a horror movie month or foreign film month. You will become cultured and have a great time while doing it.
• If you really want to still watch television there is only one thing you can do. Watch old TV shows! Television has been around since the 50s and in the past decade there has been a resurgence of great, GREAT serialized television shows. You know, the ones where if you jump in the middle, you may be a little lost. It’s like a comic book. Go out and borrow a friend’s DVD collection or download a series that you think may be interesting. Have you ever seen Alias? One of my all-time fave shows (well, up until Season 4 that is) which I highly recommend you should watch if you like a little action, a little conspiracy and a little mythology all wrapped up in a neat package. What about a mini-series? Check out Band of Brothers if you love the war-oriented shows or maybe you’re interested in Canadian politics and should watch the mini-series on Trudeau? The key to accomplishing your quest into DVD watching is to not watch them all in one spurt (although if you are fine with that, great!). Just schedule an episode every day or every couple of days. Before you know it, you will have finished a season of a show and you will have had spare time to do other things around the house or with friends!
• Also remember that just because Hollywood is on strike, writers in Canada are not. Tune in to some great home-grown shows on CBC and elsewhere! I love the stuff that comes out of our great nation like Corner Gas or The Hour (a must-see show with our main man George S.). Heck, try and find an old episode of the Beachcombers while you are at it.

What am I going to do while the strike is on? I’m busy enough with school so I will fill my time catching up on some television shows that I’ve downloaded and those that have been recommended to me (like Weeds). The curse of the Internet is that you download a lot of stuff but never find the time to use it. I feel that way nowadays with forms of media that I purchase – I used to rush out to buy the newest CD, DVD or book that I wanted in my collection. But over the years I noticed that there were things that I spent money on and I just didn’t use yet. So now I buy something that I know I will get around to using within the year. It doesn’t make much sense to buy a new book if you aren’t going to read it within a year because in six months time you’ll find it for a cheaper price (usually).

My main man, Michael Geist comments on a recent government led study on the effects of Peer-To-Peer file sharing (read: the concept of sharing music, music, etc. over the Internet for free) and the purchase of CDs.

If anything, it shows that P2P users tend to purchase more CDs.

I can relate to this. There are quite a few bands whom I’ve downloaded to see if I’ll like them and if I do, I pick up their album if I like it. However, let’s tell the truth here people – I tend to buy a new album of an artist I like and wait and pick up the others when I see them in a sale bin. In the end, I’m supporting the artist…just taking my time getting there!

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2347/125/

Picture this: I’m driving on my regular route to the park and ride and I hear on the radio that there is no power at an intersection which is coming up.

Quickly, I realize that the traffic will probably be slower along that route because of the lack of traffic lights so I double back.

Unfortunately for myself, the radio report wasn’t entirely correct…it wasn’t the intersection that had no power, it was the entire area!

Here I was navigating through neighbourhood streets which I’m not entirely familiar with and I finally found my way out of the maze only to discover that since the power was out on one end of the neighbourhood, it was out on the OTHER end that I was heading towards and there’s even more traffic there!

Hence, I became stuck in stop and go traffic for 4 kilometers because there were police directing traffic due to lack of lights in the area. Argh! In the end, if I just stuck to my regular course, I probably would have spent a few additional minutes instead of the 10 I just used trying to find a shortcut.

Case in point – Sometimes you’re not as smart as you think. In my case, this happens a lot. Ha ha.

Right before I woke up this morning I was dreaming a dream which can only be described as one which inventors must have…a glimpse of the insane future where the things you see can only come from Star Trek.

I’m just writing about this to document the event so in the future when it comes out I can say “Hey, I dreamt of that one night on Hallowe’en!”

I was sitting down in some type of theatre, or maybe the Scotiabank Place. Think – the floor with some seats. Right in front of me was Matt showing me a picture he just took on his digital camera.

The things is, the camera screen was huge. Think about a laptop (tablet version) but double that size. So here he is holding up this giant screen for me to look at this picture, but as soon as he’s done, he pushes on the sides and the thing shrinks to the size of a laptop and he goes to take a picture with it.

Now, if you visualize this, you have to admit that hauling around something the size of a laptop to take a photo is ludicrous, but the idea of this invention where you can expand your screen just by pulling on the sides and then shrinking it by pushing on its sides was pretty neat. It’s essentially the concept of zooming in and out on a software application, but in a hardware form.

I thought it was pretty darn neat looking and I hope to see it in the future. Although, not the size of a laptop.

I should also point out that considering this was probably taken in the future, you should be happy to know that Vero was sitting next to me. Which bodes well for her, but not well for me and my quest to date a nuclear physicist.

The night before Hallowe’en, Mike and I did a tour of Bank Street after work where I stumbled upon a rare find – a record store which actually had NEW vinyl! I am very excited at this prospect as I have been searching for one over a year now. We also hit up a couple of comic stores along the way. I was interested to see that Silver Snail offers their comic books at US prices instead of the CDN price. Viva the smart retailers!

We then went to the Manx Pub which we have heard about over the years but have never visited. It was a very cozy place and wasn’t too loud. We had a few drinks until Carrie showed up and then we ordered dinner. Carrie and I ordered the lamb/curry wrap from a suggestion from Krista and it was delicious. I would definitely recommend the Manx Pub to anyone.

We then headed towards the Ghost in the Gallows tour which is a tour where they take you to the old prison in Ottawa (aka, now the Ottawa International Youth Hostel). In all the years I’ve been here, I’ve never gone on the tour so the Halloween time was the best time to go!

We met up with Vero and Mel, had some hot chocolate and started walking with the group towards the prison. Stopping along the way, our guide recounted tales of how Darcy McGee was assassinated and how the ghost of the murderer haunted the old prison house.

The old prison house/hostel is quite the archaic place. It was odd to see a bunch of youth hanging out there as it was a hostel, whereas we are a group of people traipsing along hunting for ghosts! We checked out a few old prison cells, heard about the ghosts that have inhabited them, heard about how the top floor has been shut down due to hostel-dwellers being freaked out by ghosts appearing in the middle of the night…it was all very fun. We also saw the gallows with the noose and while the guide was talking, the steel floor let go beneath it with a BANG! It gave us all a fright and she was very concerned as that never happens.

Well, at least that’s what she said. We had heard a scream and a bang when we entered the building and so a few of us thought it was part of the act. I would like to believe in the ghosts myself.

We grabbed some hot apple cider and toured a little more and the tour was over. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I believe the others did as well. I am anxious to go on the other haunted walk in the future as it takes you around various locales in Ottawa that are haunted.

Highly recommended!

I must admit that this article indicating that Ontario has busted over 1000 offenders for speeding over 50 km/hour over the speed limit has me surprised. I can’t say I’ve ever sped to that degree so it surprises me that there are quite a few people who do.

On another note, why doesn’t the law make some ludricous fines to ensure people don’t do this? For example, instead of confiscating their vehicle for a week, take it for three months! A year even! Fines should be increased to a point where they will be paying out of their ass for quite some time!

I don’t think there should be a balance when it comes to laws…they should be in extremes…low extremes for things like underage drinking and smoking marijuana…high extremes for murder and drinking and driving. I understand the concept of rehabilitation so why don’t they have the concept in some laws that the first chance is all they get and then afterwards, nothing goes?

http://www.canadaeast.com/news/article/112066

I’ve realized that I no longer take a lot of pictures with my own camera as there are a gazillion going around at parties I go to. However, this puts me in a conundrum because my entries are not photorific! However, Joelle sent me this nice snap of Vero and I. Please note that Vero went as Charlie Chaplin’s Mistress. I don’t know about you, but if my mistress dressed up like me, I would think that would be odd. ;-P

Saturday was the most laid back day in the Universe. I literally rolled over in bed, grabbed my laptop and read some comics. Then I rolled out of bed, went downstairs and watched TV and read comics. It was raining outside so I couldn’t do any of the work I had intended to do outside. Faithful readers of Palmer’s World, fret not! I can still accomplish much sitting around and doing absolutely nothing around the house on a rainy day! Especially when lunch is being served in the form of beans and weenies. Why am I hooked on that stuff? It’s my Saturday lunch treat lately!

Mike finally got me out of my laziness when he started getting his Hallowe’en outfit ready and wanted me to rip off the sleeve of his suit to zombify it. Seeing that I had always wanted to do this to someone I jumped at the chance and pulled with all my might. Let me tell you now that either I’m really weak or it’s impossible to tear of a suit jacket sleeve without some help (read, a knife). We managed to mangle his outfit after some good shredding with the knife and it was looking pretty darn good. I got the Hallowe’en spirit in me and proceeded to try on my outfit.

In true zombie fashion, I had a low key outfit because I wanted the focus to be the zombie portion. So I dressed up as a golfer, along with an Arnold Palmer vest I found at Value Village.

After picking up Vero and getting dressed I realized that we all had some pretty slick outfits on this year. I was very excited to go to Duncan’s party as it was a zombie-themed party and I think themes at parties are hilarious (hence, my Christmas sweater theme at my Christmas parties).

We headed over to Rob and Janice’s where the action was happening in the form of 16 kids running around like maniacs hocked up on a sugar rush. Awww yeah! This is what Hallowe’en is about! I must admit that they did a great job on decorating the place, including the haunted house/room in the back corner. I had a great time acting like a zombie with the kids and indulged in the kids needs for a little wrestling as I fell to the floor and they zombie-piled me. This was all good fun until some kid in the back proceeded to stomp on my leg! Hey, that’s not cool! So I asked him to stop that and later on he proceeds to grab a box and pummel my face with it! This kid has anger management issues, clearly.

After some good cake and the parents picking the kids up, we helped clean up a little and headed on our merry way. Vero and I gave Ryley his birthday gift which I think he liked. Some people find it strange that I give Ryley his birthday gift on Hallowe’en instead of in January but I figured it’s cool. Hallowe’en is such a great event, why not couple it with a great gift every year?

We picked up Joelle and Martin and headed to Duncan’s. Hey, Duncan’s place got new tiles in the kitchen! If no one knows this, I lived at his place for quite a few years when I first moved to Ottawa. The place was decked out Hallowe’en grandeur although I must gripe about something.

I don’t know if it’s because people are too old, or they are lame, but I have to wonder about the lack of zombies at a zombie-themed party, INCLUDING THE FREAKING HOST! Not cool. In total, there were three zombies – Mike, me and Trish. Although I’m sending some kudos to Alex who surprisingly looks a lot like Deaner.

There were some good eats and the wine was a-flowing and we loaded up some good old pictures from Hallowe’en yesteryear which Duncan projected onto the wall. There weren’t as many people as years past but we still had a great time. Although I need some Monster Mash to appear at every Hallowe’en party. Duncan, take note!

After some debauchery, the night ended and we hightailed it for the East end of the city and crashed for the night while my head swam in a sea of wine. Wine Likers, take note: I tried the new Farnese…argh, I can’t remember the name of it…it was labeled as NEW at the LCBO. Anyhow, it was great. I enjoyed it.

Sunday brought a nice day and a bad hangover. The deadly combination – where you know you can’t laze around and do nothing all day because there is work to do. I got Vero to help me with putting caulking around a few leaks in the eaves trough that has been plaguing my house for a few years now and never were properly fixed. Vero is excellent on the applying the caulking. I also threw some roof tar on the roof in a few spots. Now all I have to do is put the patio furniture away before the snow hits and I can consider the house fit for the winter. Unfortunately, my painting of the garage door and front door is 95% complete and will have to remain that way until the Spring as it is too cold to apply another coat of paint on the front door. I’m kind of disappointed, but it’s not that big of deal. I’m proud that I adhered to my housework philosophy – get it done, but don’t kill yourself in the process. However, I’m thinking this may be attributed to sheer laziness?

iplaying: I’m Going Down – Bruce Springsteen (Born in the USA)

Hey Ho, let’s go! Another day, another blog entry. For the masses. You are it. The people who come to Palmer’s World and crave to hear more from my existence.

Last night I existed on many fronts – I existed on the exercise front where I jogged around the block while stopping into the post office to pick up my smashing new vinyl! I ordered a few Smashing Pumpkins 7″ vinyl singles from the UK. Unfortunately for me, shipping from the UK sucks price wise and let’s not forget that usually the vinyl is more expensive anyhow…but that’s the life we live in when North America isn’t friendly to the vinyl collectors.

Later in the evening I picked Vero up from work and we headed out to the Scotiabank Place as we had tickets to the Sens Army event for the night (courtesy of Eric and Annie, thanks guys!). We strolled in there, took our seat on the floor around Row 30 and watched them introduce this year’s Ottawa Senators. After much clapping and all around hockey goodness we waited for the first comedian to come on for the night.

Scott Harris came on and we had a good laugh with him joking about being old and a slew of stuff about Tim Horton’s which was hilarity. Unfortunately for Vero and I, the acoustics in the Scotiabank Place SUCKED last night. I believe Mike and I were in the same boat one time at a concert where we are in this spot on the floor where the sounds emanating from the stage reverberate back as an echo so the sound is muffled with an echo and it’s hard to hear.

It wasn’t TOO bad for Scott Harris’ set but then the headliner came on (Jeremy Hotz – he was doing this weird thing where his hand always went to his forehead) and we couldn’t hear a word he said. Of the words we caught, I just didn’t find it funny so Vero and I decided to cut out early.

Unfortunately for us, as soon as we walked ten rows back from where we were, we could hear the guy clearly! We must have been in this echo zone of sound but we escaped it! We still left but it’s good to remember for next time – don’t sit in the echo zone!