Posts
This is the complete song of Tonka Truck from that show.
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".
Sunday, December 07, 2008
5 Exams then a plane ride to the homeland...
Hi. It's been a while, and no video this time either. I swear I still call myself a videoblogger, and I still think like one...just not getting any videos up to the internets.
In the meantime, a quick update because I am inspired by the fact that my entire family is now blogging...which is amazing!
You can read for yourself here:
Now I'm trying out Google reader so that I am made aware of their updates. It's been a while since I've followed blogs that aren't aggregated by a planet. Time to push myself to get out there more and break away from my school-induced tunnel vision.
In my corner of the world, I moved into a new apartment and have done some basic things to make it a comfortable homework-hovel.
The Living Room (aka homework cage):
Well-Adjusted Hound who will follow me anywhere so long as the bed is there too:
The Kitchen
My first home cooked meal: fishcakes, sauteéd turnip green, red pepper aioli
Finally, I've been listening to lots of great music lately. Been going to quite a few more live shows that usual. Recently I've had the pleasure of seeing Santogold, Sunset Rubdown, Rae Spoon and this coming Friday I will be seeing The Dears and Metric because my sister Lisa is playing bass for The Dears now.
If you want to check out some of the music I've been listening to, download this playlist ( file size: 117MB) and enjoy.
In the meantime, a quick update because I am inspired by the fact that my entire family is now blogging...which is amazing!
You can read for yourself here:
- Moms (via Muheza, now Victoria)
- My sister Rachel (in Korea)
- Ambrose & Leah
- Griffin
- Simon
Now I'm trying out Google reader so that I am made aware of their updates. It's been a while since I've followed blogs that aren't aggregated by a planet. Time to push myself to get out there more and break away from my school-induced tunnel vision.
In my corner of the world, I moved into a new apartment and have done some basic things to make it a comfortable homework-hovel.
The Living Room (aka homework cage):
Well-Adjusted Hound who will follow me anywhere so long as the bed is there too:
The Kitchen
My first home cooked meal: fishcakes, sauteéd turnip green, red pepper aioli
Finally, I've been listening to lots of great music lately. Been going to quite a few more live shows that usual. Recently I've had the pleasure of seeing Santogold, Sunset Rubdown, Rae Spoon and this coming Friday I will be seeing The Dears and Metric because my sister Lisa is playing bass for The Dears now.
If you want to check out some of the music I've been listening to, download this playlist ( file size: 117MB) and enjoy.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Radio Silence is broken...
So I left California and the blog got all quiet...sorry.
A lot has been happening - returning to school, working part time for Mozilla, going to the nolose conference and meeting lots of amazing activists.
One of the ideas that came to me while at the conference was to start a FatPlanet. Mozilla and OpenSource at Seneca both use planet to aggregate feeds, so why not a FatPlanet?
Well - it's here. I got FatPlanet.net and got the ball rolling.
Now I just need feeds to add to it - so send you feed information to: admin@fatplanet.net and get your blog feed into the planet stream.
A lot has been happening - returning to school, working part time for Mozilla, going to the nolose conference and meeting lots of amazing activists.
One of the ideas that came to me while at the conference was to start a FatPlanet. Mozilla and OpenSource at Seneca both use planet to aggregate feeds, so why not a FatPlanet?
Well - it's here. I got FatPlanet.net and got the ball rolling.
Now I just need feeds to add to it - so send you feed information to: admin@fatplanet.net and get your blog feed into the planet stream.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Ubuntu - not just an operating system...
Last night I had the pleasure of eating at Ubuntu, not to be confused with Ubuntu. Apparently this relatively new restaurant is getting high praise for its vegetarian menu, which is really quite diverse and also features a fair amount of items from it's nearby bio-dynamic garden.
The following pictures are only a couple of the dishes I got to try, not pictured is the amazing corn pudding with roasted peach. I've been having a good time with corn this summer, at the Front Porch I fell in love with grits, and I intend to learn how to make them when I get home. After reading Michael Pollan's Omnivore's dilemma, I got a bit corn-phobic for a while but now that revulsion has mellowed into a "if it's organic, it's okay in small quantities" take on the issue. Three food related goals for myself based on this summer's reading:
And now for some food-porn...(photos courtesy of Naomi)
cauliflower in a cast iron pot with our vadouvan roast-puree-raw-“couscous”, brown butter toast amuse bouche:
our carta da musica with truffled pecorino fresh-picked GREENS, lemon, ROSEMARY, trumpet chips:
and finally deep-fried egg with tartar sauce & black garlic smoked potato salad, grain mustard, roast cippolini onions:
Can't wait until I get an iPhone so I can blog about the food I'm having, while I'm having it!.
Stay tuned for my wine tasting notes, I will try to transcribe them when I am back in Canada next week.
The following pictures are only a couple of the dishes I got to try, not pictured is the amazing corn pudding with roasted peach. I've been having a good time with corn this summer, at the Front Porch I fell in love with grits, and I intend to learn how to make them when I get home. After reading Michael Pollan's Omnivore's dilemma, I got a bit corn-phobic for a while but now that revulsion has mellowed into a "if it's organic, it's okay in small quantities" take on the issue. Three food related goals for myself based on this summer's reading:
- Eat sitting down. This may seem obvious, but I think that I do sometimes tend to eat while doing other things and just stopping to make eating its own task will go a long way towards slowing down my eating and making me appreciate what I'm eating more.
- Avoid high fructose corn syrup. Sad but true: Orangina contains HFCS, as do a lot of other beverages. It's a small thing I can do, even if I am not great at cutting out all sugars, I can do this one.
- Avoid meat from CAFOs. I will continue to eat meat (for now) but when I do it will be better quality, and supporting a local meat economy.
And now for some food-porn...(photos courtesy of Naomi)
cauliflower in a cast iron pot with our vadouvan roast-puree-raw-“couscous”, brown butter toast amuse bouche:
our carta da musica with truffled pecorino fresh-picked GREENS, lemon, ROSEMARY, trumpet chips:
and finally deep-fried egg with tartar sauce & black garlic smoked potato salad, grain mustard, roast cippolini onions:
Can't wait until I get an iPhone so I can blog about the food I'm having, while I'm having it!.
Stay tuned for my wine tasting notes, I will try to transcribe them when I am back in Canada next week.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Week 7, 8, 9, 10 update...
Um, Hi!
So I got a little busy...
Let's see - Andréa came to visit, so did my Mom. I've been working a ton and taking on lots of new responsibilities - with great responsibility comes longer hours and more tiredness.
Also there was Frameline - Allyson, Christina and Amy were here from Toronto. We saw some movies, I met some new people including some of the staff of Frameline who are super nice. Attended some interesting Q&A periods, went to a filmmaker's brunch, spent many hours in Dolores park.
I've been swimming a lot, running a little, biking around. My mom was here and we biked across the Golden Gate bridge which you may notice in the pictures is a little fogged out. It was an exhilarating ride because there was a combination of elite cyclists trying to cross quickly and shouting at people to move over alongside tourist with rented tandem bikes who weaved around and almost crashed many times in front of me.
Since it's been a while, I can really only remember this past weekend. I was supposed to go to LA for Outfest. I had a plane ticket and a place to stay arranged. It was making me anxious though - and I kept wanting to cancel. In the end I did cancel, and stayed here to go to Joey's goodbye party at the Lexington where I stayed way past closing and had tamales from the Tamale Lady SF, and chatted with one of the bartenders for several hours. One of those nights where you just aren't tired...oh and maybe you've had a few whiskeys.
Then on Saturday I went out to Oakland in the daytime so I really got to see it for the first time. It was so pretty and felt much more neighbourhoody than anything I've been in so far. Stormy was having a birthday bbq in a back yard with lots of great folks and I made a few new friends, visited with old ones and played with the pictured baby english bulldog named Tug. I NEED one of those!
Sunday I woke up early and went with Naomi and Sam to Green Gulch which is a Zen Buddhist center. We did a "sit" for about 40 mins, then had a break and then listened to a speaker - this was followed by an exceptionally tasty lunch. There's so much that was great about the experience that I don't even know what to highlight. Sitting was interesting. I haven't done anything like this since I was pretty young. I'm not that keen on organized religions, but this was very relaxing and since there's no overt god-ness about it, I didn't really have trouble with it.
The speaker was pretty funny and made lots of wise comments that still ring with me. I'm curious to learn more about Buddhism - I always knew that I liked the ideas behind it but it's much more tangible here since more people in close proximity to me are practicing. There's even a group called Dharma Punx that meets here and I've downloaded some of their podcasts to check out.
What's amazing about being in California, working, is that I have way more spare time that when I am in school and working. The school part makes sure that you never really feel like you're done. There's always something to be working on. So all this free time is really giving me opportunities to do so much more, and to experiment with new pastimes. I've been hiking and being outdoors more. Biking around SF is easy and practical with the price of gas around here. And now I'm checking out meditation. I'd say that California is agreeing with me.
At work things are great too. The stuff I'm working on is in the spotlight a little bit right now and so that's keeping a fire under me. The summit in Whistler is coming up and I'm going to be meeting people from the community all over the world to talk about the future of the organization. Also, it's a possibility that I could keep working on my team as a part-timer throughout the school year. My fingers are crossed that this happens because it would be a perfect scenario. Not only to keep working on a project that I'm enthusiastic about, but also it would be the best fit with my hectic school schedule. This fall I'll have 6 courses again and it looks like 3 out of 4 days will be 9 am - 5pm up at York. Having work that I can do in the gaps between classes will be key.
Okay - that's my big update. I must say that now I have crossed the halfway point. It's closer to the time I will be going home, and that is feeling good to me. I've started to miss home, miss my people, my home, family. Hope everyone there is having a good summer.
So I got a little busy...
Let's see - Andréa came to visit, so did my Mom. I've been working a ton and taking on lots of new responsibilities - with great responsibility comes longer hours and more tiredness.
Also there was Frameline - Allyson, Christina and Amy were here from Toronto. We saw some movies, I met some new people including some of the staff of Frameline who are super nice. Attended some interesting Q&A periods, went to a filmmaker's brunch, spent many hours in Dolores park.
I've been swimming a lot, running a little, biking around. My mom was here and we biked across the Golden Gate bridge which you may notice in the pictures is a little fogged out. It was an exhilarating ride because there was a combination of elite cyclists trying to cross quickly and shouting at people to move over alongside tourist with rented tandem bikes who weaved around and almost crashed many times in front of me.
Since it's been a while, I can really only remember this past weekend. I was supposed to go to LA for Outfest. I had a plane ticket and a place to stay arranged. It was making me anxious though - and I kept wanting to cancel. In the end I did cancel, and stayed here to go to Joey's goodbye party at the Lexington where I stayed way past closing and had tamales from the Tamale Lady SF, and chatted with one of the bartenders for several hours. One of those nights where you just aren't tired...oh and maybe you've had a few whiskeys.
Then on Saturday I went out to Oakland in the daytime so I really got to see it for the first time. It was so pretty and felt much more neighbourhoody than anything I've been in so far. Stormy was having a birthday bbq in a back yard with lots of great folks and I made a few new friends, visited with old ones and played with the pictured baby english bulldog named Tug. I NEED one of those!
Sunday I woke up early and went with Naomi and Sam to Green Gulch which is a Zen Buddhist center. We did a "sit" for about 40 mins, then had a break and then listened to a speaker - this was followed by an exceptionally tasty lunch. There's so much that was great about the experience that I don't even know what to highlight. Sitting was interesting. I haven't done anything like this since I was pretty young. I'm not that keen on organized religions, but this was very relaxing and since there's no overt god-ness about it, I didn't really have trouble with it.
The speaker was pretty funny and made lots of wise comments that still ring with me. I'm curious to learn more about Buddhism - I always knew that I liked the ideas behind it but it's much more tangible here since more people in close proximity to me are practicing. There's even a group called Dharma Punx that meets here and I've downloaded some of their podcasts to check out.
What's amazing about being in California, working, is that I have way more spare time that when I am in school and working. The school part makes sure that you never really feel like you're done. There's always something to be working on. So all this free time is really giving me opportunities to do so much more, and to experiment with new pastimes. I've been hiking and being outdoors more. Biking around SF is easy and practical with the price of gas around here. And now I'm checking out meditation. I'd say that California is agreeing with me.
At work things are great too. The stuff I'm working on is in the spotlight a little bit right now and so that's keeping a fire under me. The summit in Whistler is coming up and I'm going to be meeting people from the community all over the world to talk about the future of the organization. Also, it's a possibility that I could keep working on my team as a part-timer throughout the school year. My fingers are crossed that this happens because it would be a perfect scenario. Not only to keep working on a project that I'm enthusiastic about, but also it would be the best fit with my hectic school schedule. This fall I'll have 6 courses again and it looks like 3 out of 4 days will be 9 am - 5pm up at York. Having work that I can do in the gaps between classes will be key.
Okay - that's my big update. I must say that now I have crossed the halfway point. It's closer to the time I will be going home, and that is feeling good to me. I've started to miss home, miss my people, my home, family. Hope everyone there is having a good summer.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
California Internship weeks 5 & 6
Well, I missed last weekend's update because I was out having a lot of fun with a little boxer dog named Ruby. You'll see her in the slide show. Please do not tell my dog that I was out hiking with another dog - we didn't really chat about opening up our relationship while I am away.
This week I got to take in some of the National Queer Arts Festival going to the Hogwart's Express Harry Potter Musical, Kirk Read's "This is the Thing" and next week I'll be at the Deep Lez Potluck and Performance Night and Home-Made Super Hero. Also starting next week is Frameline - whoo-hoo! I'm going to get huge doses of gay and art...two things I love.
After the broken bike fiasco of two weeks ago, my friend Armen located a better bike and this morning we went on a 23 mile trip, this time bringing along Dan who was riding a cruiser bike rented from Stanford. I was a bit ambitious in choosing this ride and I hope they will forgive me and come on a ride again next Saturday. The coaster bike was awfully hard for Dan to ride, and it turns out that 20 miles is about 32 km...I had been thinking in kms when I estimated it would take us an hour and a half to ride it. It took 2 hours and 20 minutes. Oops.
At one point in the ride Armen pointed out some fruit-bearing tree and exclaimed how fruit were "like apricot" but better. So later in the ride, when there was another of these trees right in front of me, I stopped at it, intending to see if Armen wanted to pick some. Unfortunately, the two guys behind me did not notice that I had come to a complete stop. Dan swerved by me, Armen crashed into me. I now have a permanent slo-mo visual memory of Armen coming straight for me at full speed and me crying out "Oh my god - Armen!" CRASH!
Thus, the bleeding elbow you will see in the slideshow. I also have some bruises and a scrapped up knee. It's my own fault so don't cry for me. I must learn the hard way to use my hand signals for more than just turning.
Interesting things happening at work - Firefox 3 is coming out on Tuesday (you can play with the sneak peek, it's basically the same thing). I encourage everyone who can to download it and try it out, especially since by downloading it on Tuesday you will be part of setting a Guinness record for the most downloads of a software package in a 24 hour period. Firefox 3 is really amazing, and instead of trying to explain it to you - I can point you to this: "A Field Guide to Firefox 3" by Deb Richardson which is the ultimate guide as far as I am concerned. I look forward to hearing what you think of it.
On Tuesday there will be parties all over the world in celebration of Firefox 3. Here in Mountain View we will have a BBQ with a rock climbing wall, Wii tournament, music, movies, and lots of other festivities. I'm personally looking forward to trying the rock wall cause I'd like to see if I can do it. There will be plenty of documentation from that event, I assure you.
Well, here's some of the best pics from the last couple of weeks. Some of them are from the Fremont Older Preserve where I took the boxer dog Ruby on a 9 mile hike last Saturday. It was a significant hike for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it but it has also prompted me to invest in real hiking boots since my running shoes are not actually that comfortable for hiking. Anyway, at the Fremont Preserve, there was a reservoir along the way where tons of people sat out in the sun fishing. I was amused by this as there was also a sign on the path shouting loudly to "NOT EAT THE FISH". Some people's idea of a fun way to spend a Sunday is very different than mine.
This week I got to take in some of the National Queer Arts Festival going to the Hogwart's Express Harry Potter Musical, Kirk Read's "This is the Thing" and next week I'll be at the Deep Lez Potluck and Performance Night and Home-Made Super Hero. Also starting next week is Frameline - whoo-hoo! I'm going to get huge doses of gay and art...two things I love.
After the broken bike fiasco of two weeks ago, my friend Armen located a better bike and this morning we went on a 23 mile trip, this time bringing along Dan who was riding a cruiser bike rented from Stanford. I was a bit ambitious in choosing this ride and I hope they will forgive me and come on a ride again next Saturday. The coaster bike was awfully hard for Dan to ride, and it turns out that 20 miles is about 32 km...I had been thinking in kms when I estimated it would take us an hour and a half to ride it. It took 2 hours and 20 minutes. Oops.
At one point in the ride Armen pointed out some fruit-bearing tree and exclaimed how fruit were "like apricot" but better. So later in the ride, when there was another of these trees right in front of me, I stopped at it, intending to see if Armen wanted to pick some. Unfortunately, the two guys behind me did not notice that I had come to a complete stop. Dan swerved by me, Armen crashed into me. I now have a permanent slo-mo visual memory of Armen coming straight for me at full speed and me crying out "Oh my god - Armen!" CRASH!
Thus, the bleeding elbow you will see in the slideshow. I also have some bruises and a scrapped up knee. It's my own fault so don't cry for me. I must learn the hard way to use my hand signals for more than just turning.
Interesting things happening at work - Firefox 3 is coming out on Tuesday (you can play with the sneak peek, it's basically the same thing). I encourage everyone who can to download it and try it out, especially since by downloading it on Tuesday you will be part of setting a Guinness record for the most downloads of a software package in a 24 hour period. Firefox 3 is really amazing, and instead of trying to explain it to you - I can point you to this: "A Field Guide to Firefox 3" by Deb Richardson which is the ultimate guide as far as I am concerned. I look forward to hearing what you think of it.
On Tuesday there will be parties all over the world in celebration of Firefox 3. Here in Mountain View we will have a BBQ with a rock climbing wall, Wii tournament, music, movies, and lots of other festivities. I'm personally looking forward to trying the rock wall cause I'd like to see if I can do it. There will be plenty of documentation from that event, I assure you.
Well, here's some of the best pics from the last couple of weeks. Some of them are from the Fremont Older Preserve where I took the boxer dog Ruby on a 9 mile hike last Saturday. It was a significant hike for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it but it has also prompted me to invest in real hiking boots since my running shoes are not actually that comfortable for hiking. Anyway, at the Fremont Preserve, there was a reservoir along the way where tons of people sat out in the sun fishing. I was amused by this as there was also a sign on the path shouting loudly to "NOT EAT THE FISH". Some people's idea of a fun way to spend a Sunday is very different than mine.
Friday, June 06, 2008
What's new in Firefox 3? Check out this demo!
A quick (< 4 minutes) overview of some of the new features in the soon-to-be-released Firefox 3. Check it out, then head over to http://www.spreadfirefox.com/worldrecord/ and sign up to be notified when the new version comes out!
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Sunday, June 01, 2008
32 Mile Ride
This morning Armen and I took the Caltrain from Mountain View to Bayshore with our bikes and then proceeded to ride them back to our apartments.
When we got to the Caltrain stop and purchased our tickets, I put in $11.50 for the both of us to ride one way through 3 Zones. We were rushing and worried we would miss the train so I just grabbed the first thing that popped out of the machine and we booted it over to the platform. A moment later I looked at the piece of paper and saw that it only claimed to be one ticket for $5.75. Armen ran back to the machine (very fast!) and there was nothing else in the dispensing area. Because we had in fact paid the correct amount, we still got on the train and I secretly hoped that we would not be asked to provide proof of payment. Two stops before our final destination a guy came through asking to see tickets. When he got to us, he did not believe the story about the machine and in my nervousness I blurted out that this was our first time on Caltrain and that we were Canadian. Well! That changes everything because it turns out that he is also Canadian (from Winnipeg) and that he has family in Cobourg. Phew! He let us off the hook and was very nice from then on.
Armen had purchased his bike from Target for $89 yesterday. At the time I had suggested to him that he reconsider this idea because any bike for $89 is probably not mechanically sound and it's also politically dubious. About 1.5 miles from the apartments, after having strange rear wheel issues for about 6 miles, the bike finally crapped out. We inspected the bike to try and figure out why turning the pedals was not turning the rear wheel. The gears seemed to be loose from the hub of the back tire so we took it off and when I tried to inspect the gears, a ton of bearings poured out onto the sidewalk. That pretty much cinched the deal and I left Armen at a gas station to go home and get the car.
Needless to say we returned the bike and now Armen is going to look into either renting from Stanford for the summer or purchasing a better road bike so that we can do more rides.
For anyone interested, here is the map of our ride:
When we got to the Caltrain stop and purchased our tickets, I put in $11.50 for the both of us to ride one way through 3 Zones. We were rushing and worried we would miss the train so I just grabbed the first thing that popped out of the machine and we booted it over to the platform. A moment later I looked at the piece of paper and saw that it only claimed to be one ticket for $5.75. Armen ran back to the machine (very fast!) and there was nothing else in the dispensing area. Because we had in fact paid the correct amount, we still got on the train and I secretly hoped that we would not be asked to provide proof of payment. Two stops before our final destination a guy came through asking to see tickets. When he got to us, he did not believe the story about the machine and in my nervousness I blurted out that this was our first time on Caltrain and that we were Canadian. Well! That changes everything because it turns out that he is also Canadian (from Winnipeg) and that he has family in Cobourg. Phew! He let us off the hook and was very nice from then on.
Armen had purchased his bike from Target for $89 yesterday. At the time I had suggested to him that he reconsider this idea because any bike for $89 is probably not mechanically sound and it's also politically dubious. About 1.5 miles from the apartments, after having strange rear wheel issues for about 6 miles, the bike finally crapped out. We inspected the bike to try and figure out why turning the pedals was not turning the rear wheel. The gears seemed to be loose from the hub of the back tire so we took it off and when I tried to inspect the gears, a ton of bearings poured out onto the sidewalk. That pretty much cinched the deal and I left Armen at a gas station to go home and get the car.
Needless to say we returned the bike and now Armen is going to look into either renting from Stanford for the summer or purchasing a better road bike so that we can do more rides.
For anyone interested, here is the map of our ride:
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