First things first, I’ve uploaded another day of photos from my trip this summer. Yeah yeah, I’m not very quick at this am I? Perhaps by the time I’m done uploading all three weeks worth of photos I will be all set for another trip somewhere! Here’s to hopefully thinking. Just click on the little kitty to visit the gallery.

So I had probably one of the best Christmas days in years. Lots of good food, gifts, and cozyness. Snow everywhere, too much gift wrap (my parents are making an effort to re-use fabric as wrapping paper for the following years instead of throwing out garbage all the time), and some fun tobogganing. I hope everyone managed to make it safely to their respective holiday engagements and were able to indulge and relax. Boxing day was back to the grindstone slinging Soy, Skim, and Spro.

Christmas is fast approaching, a mere handful of days are left to go. I’m busying myself by coughing up all sorts of mucus and phlegm in the morning and consuming as many tissues as I can without eroding my nostrils so there is only a single ‘nostril’ remaining. Thankfully, after a chaotically busy saturday, my weekend has arrived.

The next two days shall be spent sleeping in, eating comfort foods and playing animal crossing. Oh sure I may very likely venture out into the sub-zero air, running small errands, only to quickly return back inside and cozy up next to a toasty space heater. I’m fortunate enough to of completed most, if not all of my holiday gift shopping. There’s a stack of elegantely wrapped boxes right next to me and a sleeping cat. There’s the possibility that on Monday I might go beyond walking distance and collect a few stocking stuffers, but no promises.

I’m looking forward to my families Christmas dinner this year. Mostly because a big deal (at least it sounds like) has been made regarding the menu. There will be both Turkey and a Ham, a rarity for our family. An epic feast is anticipated and behind it all this year is my Sister. She has taken on the task of preparing all our eats this Christmas. I would find such a thing so daunting as I can barely work a toaster oven on a good day. Cooking and cellphones, those are my weaknesses.

Meanwhile, In a complete derailment, I’ve been grooving to the latest Terminal Sound System release, Constructing Towers. There is a really big drone or drone metal influence to this record that I find quite pleasing. Electronic drone effects, I’m always a big fan. Additionally there is a real atmospheric and uplifting vibe throughout this release. One might even describe it as epic.

I’m three Kronenbourgs and a Caeser into the night. What better time to write a post about nothing than now? Let’s kick things off with some Yo Majesty, because they are everything aweseome right now on my stereo.

Actually to be honest that’s not whats playing right now. I’ve spent most of the week listening to shoegazers like Spiritualized, Brian Jonestown Massacre, and The Black Angels. This short list by no means covers everything. The last.fm radio system is a great tool for trying out music that is similar to what you want. Feel free to add me.

For a day off in a generally busy time of year I’ve been rather unproductive. Sure I tossed a few bucks into a couple gifts, but for the majority of the day I spent my time wandering the streets in the already packed down by the hundreds of weekend Christmas shoppers snow. I started off at the new Elysian Room with my girlfriend for a nibble and a coffee. Ignore the website, there is another location and it is located on the corner of Broadway and Ash Street, across from the massive London Drugs, Whole Foods, Olympic Skytrain, Condo construction zone. After escorting m’lady to work I wandered aimlessly around the West 4th area and down unto Granville Island. It would seem holiday festivities of some sort were taking place, something to do with giant gingerbread men on stilts. I would know more, but honestly that kind of outdoor performance art stuff isn’t really my bag.

After walking about the main market as briefly as I could muster (I basically B-lined it to the bank machine), I had a short visit with some co-workers keeping weekend holiday shoppers caffeinated. From there I wandered into the Kids Market. I don’t know why I even go in there sometimes, it always makes me feel kind of grim. It never fails, a parent will be yelling at a child who is yelling because they aren’t getting something they want and the situation will somehow be so out of control volumewise it’s hard not to want to involve yourself somehow and mediate things. Being the holiday season things in the Kids Market were especially frantic with parents desperate to stay on task and children running amok and literally in some cases climbing the walls. I probably didn’t learn my lesson and will be back on my next visit to the ‘island’.

It was a relief to get back out into the biting cold and walk along the water and under the Burrard Bridge into Vanier Park. It’s almost always a nice walk that direction, and never is it very busy with foot traffic despite it’s easy access.

Someone (my mother) asked me this week what I would like for Christmas this year. Despite what a large amount of my blog posts might tell you, I don’t spend much time clamouring for gifts. The fact is, making a list of “cool shit” that I find when browsing around the net and then posting on my blog is essentially just laziness and my lack of inspiration to write anything actually worth reading. With that said, please carry on reading as I still wouldn’t mind finding something off this list stuffed into a large sock come Christmas morning.

I think I will start with the nerd/geek items first.

Seagate FreeAgent Go – I can always use more storage space. These might be a little hard to find just yet in Canada. I’d suggest using Ncix, as they seem to be able to order up just about anything. Yes, It’s the red one I’m pining for, blue as a secondary choice.

A Logitech G15 Keyboard would be a great upgrade to my current chunky brick that I acquired from work several years ago when they were tossing out all the old computers.

I don’t really know if this Spy Lens will fit on my camera. It should be ok with a 58mm lens adapter. Neat idea and solution to a common problem.

I’ve always wanted to shave with a straight razor. The savings of not having to replace your blades (with proper care) alone make the idea tempting, but of course I just think it would be badass to trim the old fashion way.

Okay, I suppose I’ll cut this short as this is basically what I thought it would be, a “cool shit” list. I’m also very distracted by something.

Meanwhile back in Cubetown Sizzly J is taking over in his strawberry suit! I am so (re)addicted to this game it hurts.

When you take a lot of digital photos, you often find yourself wanting to share a quick image with a friend now and then without much hassle. Putting aside the issues of transferring files, there was another problem I often encounter with my photos, they are absolutely huge. Since nobody likes to receive a 3 megabyte photograph I like to resize things down to a digestible dimension. I caught myself right clicking on the files looking for a resize option, no dice.

My next step was the internet where I knew I could find the solution. I was expecting to find perhaps some over bloated software that added this function, or maybe some little open source project of windows add-ons. Imagine my surprise when Microsoft themselves actually offer exactly what I wanted with absolutely no extra fluff installed.

Image Resizer

Now I can quickly nab some monstrous 3264 x 2448 from a folder, right click, and pick a more managable 800 x 600. No need to open any image editing software, just fire and forget. Clearly I am pleased with this as I chose to post about this nonsense.

As I’m sitting here on an rainy Friday, diligently backing up over 500 gigs of data from one hard drive to another before the old one dies, I’ve decided to post. Copying this much information, while relatively easy and simple, is rather time consuming when you are using limited transfer rates.

What’s new these days? Quite a bit actually. My workplace has had a slice of the hierarchy re-arranged, with Robert taking off to the east coast, management being switched around, and my own schedule changing from evenings to those always unpleasant early early mornings. Getting up before 5:00AM is not my cup of tea, but the perks of having afternoons off and better days off to share with my girlfriend is something I cannot deny.

Speaking of my girlfriend, yesterday was her birthday and we celebrated with a SEVEN course tasting menu at the Banana Leaf last night. It was a last minute decision, and one I’m glad we made. The meal was delicious, full of variety, and by the end we were stuffed silly. Back at home there was plenty of chocolate and cake waiting. The bakery staff mispelled my name on the cake, it’s not “Jessie“, and never will be.

In our free time these past few weeks, me and my lady have been delving deep into Fallout 3. We each approach games differently so our characters within the game have taken considerably different routes. For me, the game is also a slice of nostalgia, familiar elements from the first two games are in abundance, details are everywhere, and the fun factor is high. It’s a game that has been worth the wait, and is very immersive for anyone who likes to spend a little time in a wasteland.

Completely on the other end of the video game spectrum, sans gore, very light comic mischief, and nothing but cute is Animal Crossing: City Folk. This is the game you play when you want to relax, spend some time never worrying about a ghoul who might be around the corner, the biggest fear is getting stung by a bee. Me and my girl have both set up homes in Cubetown, and are slowly paying off our debts to the infamous Tom Nook.

All these are just distractions from things I should be doing, things I’ve decided I should be doing, and things I must be doing. Half way through painting a room, organizing clutter, and repairing stuff. I did successfully repair two light switches, one I did major enough damage to that I actually took the time to tackle the issue. Still have another lamp socket that needs replacing, a cat that needs vet attention, and my own teeth that need a dentist soon?

Good way to kill the next fifty minutes. Interesting brief look at the counterfeit industry and how rampant it is. Frightening when you consider the health risks of counterfeit food, medecine, etc.

A few days ago I stumbled across an article mentioning the top science fiction films of all time. Most were the usual names you see quoted endlessly on television shows and between some of your geekier friends. One film however, stood out as something not the same. Kin Dza Da, a Russian film set on a the distant planet of Pluk.

The idea is rather simple, two strangers get lost across the galaxy after mistakingly using a instaneous space travel device. Along the way they stumble across numerous strange characters and work towards finding a way back home while puzzling out the social peculiarities of Pluk’s society. For all it’s simplicity, Kin Dza Dza has some great complex ideas and comparisons to modern day Earth, or the way it is headed.

Unfortunately this film has never had any proper distribution outside of Russia, and so there are no DVD’s available with dubbing or subtitles for those of us still incapable of decyphering the language. As a direct result of this, The film has been placed on Google Video in two parts. It’s so worth it.

Kin Dza Dza! – Part One
Kin Dza Dza! – Part Two