Posts
This is the third time that Tracy and I have done this bit. This time we used an iPod to facilitate our acapella styles. I love how everyone started to sing along, what a great choir!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Last 4 Months (in no particular order)
Just a quick smash-up of the pics I've taken since the end of March. Lots of fun was had including Easter egg hunting, cottaging, drag shows, graduation and much much more.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Mozilla Service Week - making a difference in your community
Mozilla just announced Mozilla Service Week which will be held September 14 - 21, 2009. This week is a push to connect people who can help make the web work better for someone in the community with people and organization who need that help.
Coming from the non-profit arts sector prior to my job at Mozilla, I will be spreading the word with many arts organizations in Toronto who would be wise to sign up for help from such a talented pool of volunteers. Of course I will also donate my time that week even though it's the kind of work I do all the time already. I can't even count the amount of time I've spent setting up routers and networks for less technical folks in my life, or helping them set up their new computers and teaching them basic skills (all teaching sessions include installing and setting up the latest Firefox of course).
The best part of this week, in my opinion, is that it's an opportunity to get hands-on with local users in the community. The library is a great place to start. It wasn't that long ago (around 2003) when I was using the library computers as my primary access to the internet. I'd love to go in now and make sure that their computers are up to date, and write up how-to manuals and helpful hints for beginners. Even better, get some folks to translate those manuals or tip sheets. At my local library I'm certain that there are many folks who would appreciate localized information sheets.
Two areas that are of particular interest to me with regards to the organizations I know in Toronto:
- Bring their websites over to an open-source CMS like Drupal. Many of the sites are hand-coded php (or god forbid Dreamweaver-created sites) with no administrative back-end and keeping the site's information up to date is a difficult/dangerous task for non-technical staff.
- Take their FileMaker Pro databases over to MySQL or PostgreSQL so that they are no longer locked in to expensive, proprietary database software that requires additional hosting costs. Three organizations I have worked with are on three different versions of FMP and none of them the latest. Upgrading is painful for them and their hosting costs are ridiculous (especially the ones who are on older versions).
If you're technically inclined, go to the site and sign up. If you've got an organization in mind, tell them to sign up. Let's make this event a success so it will inspire more weeks like this in the future.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
The last 6 months...
A speedy slideshow of my last 6 months. I really miss vlogging regularily, so this recipe is the best I can do between homework and assignments,
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Music to watch snow melt to...
Momentarily there will be a new spring mix up here:
http://avnerd.tv/sharedFiles/Music/springMix.zip
Download it (110MB) and enjoy. This time I created an .m3u file which if you open that with iTunes instead of importing all the songs, should put them in order of how I set up the playlist. That order, in case you do not for some reason use the m3u file (or if it doesn't work, or you don't use iTunes) is:
aForest.mp3
parentheses.mp3
satanSaidDance.mp3
letMyShoesLeadMeForward.mp3
parisIsBurning.mp3
raiseMeUp.mp3
youCantGetItBack.m4a
fatalistPalmistry.mp3
explode.mp3
goldenCage.mp3
myNightWithTheProstituteFromMarseille.mp3
walkingOnADream.mp3
sixteenthStage.mp3
lucifersJigsaw.mp3
untouched.mp3
sexyBitch.m4a
mindsEye.mp3
http://avnerd.tv/sharedFiles/Music/springMix.zip
Download it (110MB) and enjoy. This time I created an .m3u file which if you open that with iTunes instead of importing all the songs, should put them in order of how I set up the playlist. That order, in case you do not for some reason use the m3u file (or if it doesn't work, or you don't use iTunes) is:
aForest.mp3
parentheses.mp3
satanSaidDance.mp3
letMyShoesLeadMeForward.mp3
parisIsBurning.mp3
raiseMeUp.mp3
youCantGetItBack.m4a
fatalistPalmistry.mp3
explode.mp3
goldenCage.mp3
myNightWithTheProstituteFromMarseille.mp3
walkingOnADream.mp3
sixteenthStage.mp3
lucifersJigsaw.mp3
untouched.mp3
sexyBitch.m4a
mindsEye.mp3
Monday, March 09, 2009
A Letter to Mama Chaiken From FTM
Just want to give a shout out and some fresh eyes to this AMAZING letter written by Riese over at automatic straddle. I happened upon this from the L Word Online site and boy am I glad I did! I've been spitting mad about the Max character for years now and finally someone put all my rants into a nice, legible letter.
I hope this gets back to Ilene Chaiken and that she recognizes what a terrible disservice she has done to all the gender outlaws.
I hope this gets back to Ilene Chaiken and that she recognizes what a terrible disservice she has done to all the gender outlaws.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Cupcake Camp Toronto
Today from 2-5pm in the East end, there was a cupcake bake-off where dozens of bakers brought cupcakes to show off and more than 350 people turned up to chow down.
It was a Mad. House.
Things started to go awry when I realized that I was not going to get to have a nice, polite sampling of every kind of crazy cupcake the bakers had dreamed up (I saw one with HAM on it!). Cupcakes were being served whole, from two tables in the long, open, studio space and it seemed that at most each style was represented by no more than 2 dozen individual pieces, often less.
My suggestion for next time? Put tables around the edges of the space where each cupcake baker can have a spot to set up at and let the people walk through in one direction only. Start at the door, end at the door, and get to try a section of a cupcake from each table along the way as your taste buds are tempted by the offerings. We should go to the cupcakes, we can not be trusted to have them brought to us.
Back to what happened - the organizers would bring a baker to the microphone and we would hear a description of what was about to be set on the table (aka fed to the wolves). Often before the tray could even hit the table, the cupcakes on it were snatched away by the throng.
I watched cupcakes go in milliseconds as I parried for a better position. Finally I got right up to the table's edge and then waited patiently, muscles twitching for my chance.
After I was once again cakeblocked by the hordes when the lemon meringue homage landed, I realized that my plate and napkin were a red herring and that I must have both hands free if I was to score any cupcakery for myself and my partner in crime.
The opportunity came 15 minutes later, this time for cupcake gold - the cafe latte - which was a cupcake perched in a sugar icing creation that resembled a coffee mug. The cupcake icing was the steamy milk top. Pictures are attached. The second set was a Rolo-inspired cupcake with mini Rolos on top of the butter-icing dome and a caramel center in the moist cakey part.
Pleased with my cupcake providing, my partner in crime and I pulled back from the table to let others get their just deserts (sorry, I couldn't help myself) which is something I wish more people had done. I watched several people stay close to the table's edge even though they had already eaten cupcakes, and that just lacks the kind of goodwill you hope to see at an event like this. Our treasure was tasty and well enjoyed, worry not.
Walking back down Pape St. with the sugar starting to rush to my head, I found myself saying "That was like something that would happen in New York City", and "There were lots of artists there obviously, but a totally different crowd than in the West End. Who were those people?".
For me, it was an excellent (food) adventure that took me outside the usual Queen West/Parkdale style events, and for that I applaud the organizers. A final note, I would like to also express my appreciation for the tech-savvyness of the operation. I heard about it through a friend who knew one of the entrants, then found the Facebook event and while at the event learned of the Twitter feed...not many events in Toronto have their sh*t this networked yet that I have seen. So extra applause for using the great tools that exist to your advantage and for making this event so multi-dimensional.
It was a Mad. House.
Things started to go awry when I realized that I was not going to get to have a nice, polite sampling of every kind of crazy cupcake the bakers had dreamed up (I saw one with HAM on it!). Cupcakes were being served whole, from two tables in the long, open, studio space and it seemed that at most each style was represented by no more than 2 dozen individual pieces, often less.
My suggestion for next time? Put tables around the edges of the space where each cupcake baker can have a spot to set up at and let the people walk through in one direction only. Start at the door, end at the door, and get to try a section of a cupcake from each table along the way as your taste buds are tempted by the offerings. We should go to the cupcakes, we can not be trusted to have them brought to us.
Back to what happened - the organizers would bring a baker to the microphone and we would hear a description of what was about to be set on the table (aka fed to the wolves). Often before the tray could even hit the table, the cupcakes on it were snatched away by the throng.
I watched cupcakes go in milliseconds as I parried for a better position. Finally I got right up to the table's edge and then waited patiently, muscles twitching for my chance.
After I was once again cakeblocked by the hordes when the lemon meringue homage landed, I realized that my plate and napkin were a red herring and that I must have both hands free if I was to score any cupcakery for myself and my partner in crime.
The opportunity came 15 minutes later, this time for cupcake gold - the cafe latte - which was a cupcake perched in a sugar icing creation that resembled a coffee mug. The cupcake icing was the steamy milk top. Pictures are attached. The second set was a Rolo-inspired cupcake with mini Rolos on top of the butter-icing dome and a caramel center in the moist cakey part.
Pleased with my cupcake providing, my partner in crime and I pulled back from the table to let others get their just deserts (sorry, I couldn't help myself) which is something I wish more people had done. I watched several people stay close to the table's edge even though they had already eaten cupcakes, and that just lacks the kind of goodwill you hope to see at an event like this. Our treasure was tasty and well enjoyed, worry not.
Walking back down Pape St. with the sugar starting to rush to my head, I found myself saying "That was like something that would happen in New York City", and "There were lots of artists there obviously, but a totally different crowd than in the West End. Who were those people?".
For me, it was an excellent (food) adventure that took me outside the usual Queen West/Parkdale style events, and for that I applaud the organizers. A final note, I would like to also express my appreciation for the tech-savvyness of the operation. I heard about it through a friend who knew one of the entrants, then found the Facebook event and while at the event learned of the Twitter feed...not many events in Toronto have their sh*t this networked yet that I have seen. So extra applause for using the great tools that exist to your advantage and for making this event so multi-dimensional.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Welcome to the new FatPlanet
This is the first post to test the new FatPlanet set up that I am now running from my home server. If all goes well, this will be up in about 30 minutes and then I can start making the page look prettier and adding more feeds.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Hussysnaxxx @ Underworld - Montreal 1997 - Clip 1
Today's been a flashback kind of day...digging through old photo albums and finding little gems to put up on the internet for posterity. Here is one such clip of my old band Hussysnaxxx (I always hated that name but now it's kind of funny). There's another one coming with our hit song "Tonka Truck". Stay tuned.
Friday, January 02, 2009
Polar Dip 2009 - Ocean Beach, CA
It's that time of year again. After missing last year due to illness, Joey and I (with a bunch of fellow daredevils) jump in the Pacific this year, in San Francisco. I thought it was warmer than our jumps in the Atlantic from years past. The waves were amazing, and there were surfers all over. Great way to kick off "Closer to Fine, 2009".
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