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The weekend was pretty low key due to a mid-term project I have to work on.

After leaving Vero’s, I figured I had some time to kill and I should take a look at cleaning my office. If anyone has been to my office in the past 6 months (I’m talking about my office in my house), you will notice that it had become a landfill. That’s right, I think there were living organisms hidden amongst the debris.

Let me tell you, after starting to clean up, I really hit this moment of depression where I realized some of the stuff had accumulated since Christmas. What had I become? Was I some lazy human being who was content in just letting things pile up in the corner? This also puts into perspective that it’s been six months since someone stayed over in the office which is clearly the cause of my problems! We need more people visiting!

After getting past the bout of depression (no really! I was really depressed!), the room was looking pretty snazzy and now it just has a little section of the desk with some CDs to put away. I need a new CD case but IKEA discontinued my matching colour Billy case. Argh! As if!

Vero then came over and we had some fish which destroyed the place with its fish smell. I came downstairs this morning and I swear I can still smell it. We then mapped out my mid-term video project along with Eric. I think we have a solid idea down and all I have to do is add some theory to it and we are set. I had the choice of writing a 1500 word essay, or creating a five minute video. Something tells me that it may be a little easier doing the essay, but where’s the fun in that?! Plus, it’s a New Media class. Time to embrace the new media! You may see the video in all its glory sometime before July 12 (when it is due).

Vero and I had a strange experience around 2:30AM that night. We were sound asleep and the smoke alarms went off! I have never (in my memory) had that happen to me so it was a surreal experience. Searching for a fire when you’re half asleep is insane. I ran down to the kitchen and there was nothing. I then ran to the furnace and there was nothing. Then I stopped to think “Well where is the smoke?”. I couldn’t smell anything. If anything, I could smell fish from the supper we cooked.

I then ran outside to check if the neighbours place was on fire. Nothing. I looked towards my attic. Nothing. I went inside and disconnected the smoke alarm and then reconnected. Still kept going. I disconnected it again and walked around the house for awhile to see what was going on. Meanwhile, by disconnecting the smoke alarm, some ceiling gunk fell into my eye which wasn’t making a nice experience for me. In the end, I couldn’t get the piece out (or I thought I couldn’t. It was gone (or my eye was scratched and healed) by the morning, thank the Maker.) and we couldn’t find any fire so we reconnected the smoke alarms and went to bed.

Question: I have wired smoke alarms, meaning that they are connected to the wiring of the house, no batteries. Do others have similar systems, and if so, have you ever had the alarms go off randomly?

Very odd. I couldn’t get to sleep for awhile as I kept imagining their was a fire creeping through the walls that I couldn’t find. Everything was fine by morning though.

Sunday was spent nabbing a video camera from Rob (thanks Rob! Lifesaver!) and Vero showing me how Final Cut Pro worked. She is leaving in a week so it’s going to be harder than I thought it would be as I will be the one editing this puppy. Yikes!

I ended up watching The Man With the Golden Gun which is an excellent Bond flick. Probably my favourite of the Roger Moore era. I also started watching the first season of 24. I must admit it is pretty good and I am always anxious to watch the next episode. Hello summer TV viewing! Where I catch up on long lost shows that I downloaded but never got around to watching.

Ack, I hate it when I eat some yogurt and the little bits of berries get stuck inside some crevices in my teeth. Always carry a plastic toothpick in your wallet. Nuff said.

Friday night was fantabulouso as I hit home, relaxed for a bit, then head out to the Barley Mow Pub for a bite to eat with Mike, Eric, Annie and Philip. We had to wait awhile for a table which is not a big deal since the beer was flowing. Keith’s Red was our poison and it is a fine brew. Give it a try! I enjoy the red beers these days. In fact, the amber ales just don’t have enough kick anymore.

When we sat down, we waited forever for our waitress to serve us. When she finally showed up, she apologized as there was some confusion as to whether or not someone had served us or not.

We all ordered the fish and chips other than Eric who ordered a burger. We had been waiting for a top up of liquids for quite some time and so when the server came over with our food we asked if we could order some beer. He said he would send the waitress over. I could see her across the way playing around with some machine (perhaps a cash register?) and I swear I made eye contact a few times and she checked our table to see if things were alright but she never came over! At that point she went away and I went to the bar to order a pitcher but I had no cash on me so I just asked for it to be sent to our table and he asked what our waitress looked like. I think he missed the part of the conversation about sending a pitcher over as one never came! The server (who Mike thought might be the owner/service manager) came back after realizing we still didn’t have our beer and promptly got our waitress to bring one over.

At this point the damage was done and we were not impressed. She then came over to pour us a few drinks and ended up overfilling Eric’s glass and it dripped all over the place!

In the end, we had some good food and I like the atmosphere (although, why do they have big screen televisions if all they do is set it to a satellite radio channel and there’s only the text of the artist on the screen? Let’s also note that it was so loud that we couldn’t even hear the music!) but our service was horrible. In the end I pulled out the dreaded no tip card out of my hat. I reserve this for horrible service and it only comes out rarely. Do I feel bad? No.

Mike and I then headed out to Vero and Melanie’s new place as there was a shindig occuring. The party was in full force when we arrived (and only got better once we arrived!). I chatted it up with a few of her friends before settling in and talking with Rob for awhile. The night was killer and the munchies were stupendous! When you throw a tomato, a piece of cheese and (I forget the last item) on a toothpick, you are answering the prayers of all in attendance.

The guitars came out after awhile and we noodled around with them. Jean-Francois is an excellent guitar player and I must admit I had a hard time following some jazz chords he was playing. This, in no way was a result of the number of beer I had in my system. I played a few crowd favourites like Mr. Jones and Back in the USSR and then we called it a night after a singalong to some improv song. Oops! I just remembered that I broke two wooden spoons that night by drumming too hard! This reminds me of the time that Joe broke one of my wooden spoons and I was upset. Now, for the life of me, I don’t know why I was really upset that night but I was and he was a good mate and replaced them. I shall have to do the same for Vero and Mel.

We met a new lady in Matt’s life last night who was pretty cool. Actually she got the Palmer stamp of approval as soon as she said she snuck out of her house to see Pearl Jam when she was 17. You had me at Pearl Jam. Mike and I may have to hit her up as a concert going buddy as she seems to be into that sort of thing. As I am sure Matt will be showing her this entry, please note that there are plans to hit up Montreal to see Silverchair on July 30.

When I arose from my slumber I had a slight sore noggin but other than that, the day started out great.

…When you drop into the Quickie Mart to get a bag of nacho chips and you pass him some lottery tickets you found while cleaning up your place during the weekend and they win $18 so the guy gives you your nacho chips with $14 back in change.

Looks like the trip to New York is pretty well becoming a reality with a super special thanks to Katie!

Now…I wonder if there is anything exciting to do there? 😉

iplaying: Megalomania – Muse (Origin of Symmetry)

“Machines to out-think humans in 15 years, futurist predicts.” – This is a headline from an article in the Ottawa Citizen from a few years back when the movie Final Fantasy came out.

While the thought of that is ridiculous, I thought about this futurist that came up with this idea.

What the heck is a futurist? Is that an actual job? That is amazing! I want to be a futurist! Imagine me throwing out random hoopla from my brain and getting paid for it!

The best part about it is they have the security that is shared by the weatherman. Wazat? Weatherman predicts rain all day but it’s sunny? Man, he got it WRONG, but heck, let’s go outside and enjoy the day. No weatherman can lose their job even if they predict the weather wrong every day!

I bet this is the life of the futurist. Suuuure, we’re going to be run by machines in the future. Uh huh. Wait, what if it doesn’t happen? There should be a public stoning of this futurist since he made us give up technology in fear of the Matrix becoming a reality.

I can see some of the headlines I would come up with when I become a futurist:

• Walt Disney will come back to life to entertain us all.
• We will not need to leave the house in the future to go to work – we will teleport.
• Pets out. Robodogs IN.
• Hot dogs become #1 health item in Canada.

If anyone finds a job listing for a ‘futurist’, you know how to get in touch with me. This is my calling.

Mike let me know that the Chicken and Rib Festival launched yesterday on Sparks Street so we went along with Carrie to check it out.

It’s really hard to choose which vendor you’ll buy from. They need to implement a taster program where you can get a few ribs before spending $20 on a full rack. Speaking of full rack, they kept hollering it out whenever you ordered one and at one point Carrie thought they were yelling about her. 😉

Carrie and I split a full rack along with some beans and coleslaw which were superb. Actually, I never realized but splitting the full rack with someone is by far the best deal they have going on there. Perhaps I shall return to the Fest later on in the week to check out the pull-pork sandwiches. It looked divine.

Mike and I then headed out to the beach to set up the volleyball net for the first night of Orleans Vball. Essentially, anyone is welcome to come. I forgot how beautiful the beach is. I love the fact that it is right on the river and there is vast open spaces of water, sand, and trees. Beautiful! We had a good turnout and the guys didn’t do too badly at all, although I know that I have to get my volleyball moves up to snuff. Mike and Rob seemed to be handling it nicely whereas I was treading water.

Iplaying: Time is Running Out – Muse (Absolution) – Speaking about Muse, I don’t know why I suddenly had this urge to check out this band, but I downloaded a few albums to check out what they are all about. So far, I’m four songs into the album and it is amazing stuff. I think I shall enjoy Muse.

Here is your PSA (Palmer Service Announcement) for the day.

What are you doing on July 14?

It doesn’t matter because you’ll be dropping all plans to go to the HOPE Volleyball tournament at Mooney’s Bay!

http://www.hopehelps.com/ottawa_home.cfm

Taken from the site:

HOPE is a volunteer-driven, not-for-profit events management organization that raises funds for community-based charities. Inspired by Terry Fox’s run across Canada, in 1981 a group of friends in Ottawa founded HOPE to make a difference in their community.

This is a pretty great community/charity event to take part in. I try and go every year on a volleyball team, and if not, there is an excellent beer garden with amazing bands. This year the following bands are playing:

Finger Eleven, Mobile and Matt Mays with El Torpedo!

You can’t go wrong.

Fun times will be had. Come down to the event and have a great time while helping out local charities!

iplaying: A Night in Tunisia – Dizzy Gillespie (To Diz With Love)

This is a pretty funny article about how a judge cites 42 Beatles songs in his verdict:

Click here.

iplaying: Storm – Lifehouse (Who We Are)

Pretty well every reader of this site knows that the Smashing Pumpkins are releasing their new album Zeitgeist in about a month’s time.

Details are arising (not officially, but through the beloved Net) about exclusive bonus tracks on the album depending on where you purchase it.

A different bonus track from Best Buy.
A different bonus track from Target.
A different bonus track from Amazon.
A different bonus track from Your Mom.
A different bonus track from iTunes.

This stems from decreasing CD sales (woe is the record label distributor who cannot make some more money from the masses), therefore marketing gurus have said “Well, if we can’t capitalize on unsuspecting victims, let’s go for the hardcore fans!”

Tsk tsk. This is an interesting concept. Let’s be honest, there are fans out there that will buy every version of the album like the fools they are.

Myself, I’ll do the responsible thing. Buy the album, most likely a special edition version, heck, while I’m at it, pick it up on vinyl because I like that kind of thing…then I’ll download the bonus tracks. Something tells me that the band doesn’t mind this ONE BIT.

So…back to the marketers…what are they thinking? I mean…don’t you think that this would actually start to piss off the hardcore fans out there? Way to kill your fanbase potentially.

This interesting thought process was brought to you by me, for you.

iplaying: Broken – Lifehouse (Who We Are) <- which is turning out to be probably their best album since No Name Face upon my first listen...

From an email from Vero:

“…..I’M DONE MY LAST UNIVERSITY PROJECT EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WAPIDOUWIWAPWAPPIDOUWOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Just as I start my new course tonight at the University, Vero is done school forever! What a great feeling! Plus she gets to celebrate by visiting Europe for the summer? You can’t go wrong! Good for you babe! To recap, Vero was technically done going to classes but she had two reports to finish up for her co-op terms.

In other news, I gave Ryley a guitar lesson yesterday. It went as well as I expected. I didn’t know what to expect until Troy gave me some pointers and offered to send over some lessons to start him out. It’s interesting to see him struggle with the things that I struggled with when first starting (for example – your fingers hurting!). Hopefully him and I can learn some things together. I didn’t know what to expect with teaching a kid the ropes, but he seems to be interested so far. We shall see next week!