Stan

I'm sure I could eventually think of something witty, but I just got my ass kicked in curling (you thought I was kidding?) and I'm a bit tired. So instead I put up this t-shirt. I've always been envious of John's weekly habit of putting up cool t-shirts. I've constantly been tempted to steal the idea from him.

Anyway, I saw this shirt online at this pretty awesome looking comic book store in LA - Secret Headquaters. I'm almost tempted to order one. Or maybe they'll have some for sale when I go to New York.

If you're not a comic book geek, you might not get it. For those of you who are, I think you'll get a kick out of it.



Last Five
1. Love rescue me - U2*
2. Last to die - Bruce Springsteen
3. Knock 'em out - Lily Allen
4. Fidelity - Regina Spektor
5. A pair of brown eyes - The Pogues

Spam spam spam

I'm still making the list of things to see and do in New York in April. One of the things I had pretty much as a lock was to go and see Spamalot, because I'm a bit Monty Python fan. Then I read this story about Clay Aiken, who is joining the cast of the show shortly.

And what can we conclude from this brief interview?

1. He's an asshole.
2. He has no appreciation or respect for the show he's in.
3. He thinks Python is stupid.

Now, it's....all right...to think Python is stupid. Cathy does, and while I think she's crazy, that's fine. I can deal with having a wife who doesn't appreciate the genius that is the "Dead Parrot Sketch."

But she's not going to star in a play about Python. And this idiot is.

So I have two worries about going seeing Spamalot.
1. Aiken will manage to suck so badly that he ruins the show for me.
2. Some old lady sitting next to me might throw a Depends on the stage.

Because while I would be disappointed if the play sucks because of him, I will have to get counselling if a woman in her 60s hauls down a pair of Depends and flings them towards the stage.

Anyway, thanks John for the link and the head's up.

Last Five
1. I'm slowly turning into you - The White Stripes
2. Tell me why (live) - Neil Young
3. Planet of sound - Pixies
4. North American for life - Matthew Good
5. King of Spain - Moxy Fruvous

Loser

Yup, that's pretty much what I am. I didn't see the final results, but I suspect I finished third in the voting, with Darcy making a hard charge to catch me at the end. But it was pretty much a moot point, really. Kate and Jen were that far ahead the only way I was going to win was if I hacked the site and voted for myself about a hundred times.

Which kind of defeats the purpose of the contest, really.

Still, I'm glad Jen won. She has a great, fun blog with lots of photos. I'm actually fairly envious of her photo skills, really. So congrats, Jen.

As for Kate, well, look at it this way. Just think how awkward if would have been interviewing yourself for the newspaper if you had won:

Kate: So how does it feel to win the award for Best Nunavut Blogger?
Kate: Well, I'm completely surprised because there are so many great bloggers up north, but I'm really thrilled.
Kate: What are your plans now that you've won this prestigious award?
Kate: Same thing we always do when we win a prestigious award - try to take over the world!

(Sorry, was having a little Pinky and the Brain moment there.)

Also congrats to Jackie for winning best new blog. I imagine we'll be seeing her in the best blog category next year. And I hope Clare does this again next year. For all my griping, begging and whining, this was a lot of fun and I was flattered to make it finals.

And now, because I promised you all punishment for not voting for me enough....Comic Books and Curling!

We're having a blizzard (of sorts. It's a pretty wimpy blizzard so far) in town today. So everything is closed. But the timing wasn't too bad as when I went to the post office yesterday I got two new graphic novels in the mail (with about another 10 on the way. I went a little crazy with the birthday Chapters money). So I received X-Factor: Heart of Ice and The Frank Miller Daredevil Omnibus Companion. So a snow day is not a bad thing at all. Gives me a chance to curl up and read some comic books. Plus, we're getting ready to bake some chocolate chip cookies. Cookies and comics are always a good mix in my book.

As for the curling, well, you've all been spared too much talking about it, as there's been no bonspiel since November and my Thursday night team fell apart (one injury and then too much duty travel for my other players). But I had a good game sparing last night. We won 10-9 in nine ends.

Normally around here games go about six ends. However, my skip and the opposing skip are both highly competitive. So when the lead was only one after six ends, they decided to go to eight. And then it was tied after eight ends. So we had to go to a ninth. We won, which was cool, but I'm happy mainly because it was a fun game. I didn't shoot the best, but I got some tips for the skip which will hopefully make things better next time I play.

Last Five
1. My favourite things - John Coltrane
2. Cigarettes and alcohol - Oasis
3. Pastures of plenty - Alison Krauss and Union Station
4. Streets of Fire (live) - The New Pornographers*
5. Radio war - Iron & Wine

Grovelling

Well, apparently all pre-text of "Oh, they're fun and all, but I'm not really paying attention to the Nunavut Blogging Awards" has gone out the window in the dwindling hours of the contest.

And hey, fuck it, I'm not above doing whatever I can to lure in those last few votes. So if that means yoga, Facebook, bribery or threats (vote for me or its curling and comic book blog posts for a month, kids), what the hell.

I've been getting near record levels of traffic to the blog this month. In fact, in it's line to be the second best month ever for traffic. Surely some of you haven't taken the time to go here and vote for me. Because really, judging by the numbers on the poll, I could use a bit of help. Or a massive tidal wave surge. Whatever.

Anyway, go and vote. For the love of God go and vote....

(That last sentence was humour, for those impaired without a sense of one)

Weather warning

So, I was checking to see what the weather forecast was today and had a small shock. This is what the forecast is for the later part of the week.

Details Wednesday
30 January
Periods of snow and blowing snow. Windy. High minus 5.

Details Thursday
31 January
Snow and blowing snow. Windy. Low minus 5. High plus 1.

Now, it's apparent that we have some weather on the way. But the real thing to pay attention to is the forecast for Thursday, when they're predicting the temperature will get up to +1C.

I know some people around town are probably a bit excited by this notion for a couple of reasons. First of all, when it gets that warm at this time of the year, odds are there are a few snow days in the offering. And secondly, it's been a pretty cold winter so far. There haven't been many days warmer than -30 so far this year. So the idea of it getting that warm has its appeal.

However, and while I am hardly a seasoned veteran of the arctic, I remember what Iqaluit was like two years ago when we had a magical burst of warm weather. It was the end of February and it rained for about a day and a half. Which you might think was great until everything flash froze when the temperature plummeted (I swear to god it dropped about 30 degrees in less than three hours). It made trying to get around town without breaking your neck a challenge.

So yeah, warm weather would be nice, but I could really do without the town turning into a hockey rink for days, if not weeks. Something between -1 and -10 is plenty warm enough for me at this time of the year.

Then again, this is Environment Canada. They have an almost passable accuracy rate on predicting the weather up to about 36 hours in advance aroud here. After that, well, monkeys tossing their feces at marked spots on a wall would likely have better results.

In other words, I'll believe it when I see it.

As for the school, more drama today, but I'll refrain from saying anything until it gets officially announced.

Last Five
1. Everybody knows - Leonard Cohen
2. End over end - Foo Fighters
3. Send a message to her - Beck
4. You know what it's about - Sloan
5. Harvest - Neil Young*

Cloverfield

So I went to see Cloverfield tonight. Considering this is its second week in town and they are showing it at both 7 and 9 pm (normally the theatre shows one movie in one theatre at 7 and another at 9) I figured the movie must be highly in demand. I even got there early in case there was a line.

Not only was there not a line, but I got to experience something that's never happened to me in my movie going experience - I had the theatre entirely to myself. I was sitting there waiting until about 7:05 when the owner pops into the theatre, goes "Oh, we do have a customer" and then goes into the room behind where I'm sitting and starts the movie. I guess everyone went to see it opening weekend, which explains why its box office dropped nearly 70 per cent this weekend.

Weirdness. Kind of cool, but weirdness. On the one hand, it's nice to have an audience with you to get their reaction. On the other hand, I didn't have annoying teenagers and kids talking their way through the movie. I think the good overcame the bad in this situation.

As for the movie itself, not too bad at all. I didn't get sick or dizzy like some people have claimed to have experienced. Kind of hard to believe no one had really tried this before - a monster movie from the perspective of the people who get stomped on. Then again, this is the first generation that in the middle of chaos and horror, their first reaction is to whip out the cell phones and take photos or record it. So this movies makes sense now. All that was missing was a scene where a character tries to upload the video to YouTube.

But the movie worked for me. There's enough glimpses of the monster, some good scary stuff and suspense. And because the cast is filled with nobodies, you don't know for sure who, if anyone, is going to survive. Yeah, you don't get the history of the monster and all the military and scientific types explaining things for you, but it still works in this context. It's something a bit different. And yeah, I would have liked it if the camera didn't bounce around quite so much, but it's fine. Eighty-five minutes is about the right length for this. Any longer and you would get bored. Or, depending on your disposition, puking.

Although I will offer one piece of advice: If you're in a dark subway tunnel and you glance down and see large numbers of rats running past you, your reaction shouldn't be "huh, that's weird" and fiddle with the camera. Your life's goal, no matter if you life is only going to be measured in second at this point, is to out race the rats. Trust me.

Last Five
All from Achtung Baby by U2

Adjusting plans

Yes, I'm still alive. It's just been a fun last few days. As this story shows, the drama with Cathy's school is far from over. The kids are being dispersed throughout the community for at least a week until they get things straightened out with the school. So she's going to be at the middle school with her class. Which isn't too bad. But it certainly a bit of extra craziness at this time of the year.

And they aren't exaggerating the smell. We went back to the school Friday afternoon. Cathy needed supplies to make her classroom work next week, which meant a quick plunge back into the school for books, pens, markers and whatever else could be thrown into assorted milk crates. The only way we were allowed into the school was wearing face masks. And even then, after 30 minutes I could definitely taste something unpleasant at the back of my throat and could feel the beginnings of a headache. Cathy was wheezing and had to stand outside for about 5 minutes taking deep breaths, and then headed home to pop some Tylenol.

Oh, and to just add insult to injury, she slipped coming down the stairs outside our building the other morning and cracked her tailbone pretty hard. My poor dear is the walking wounded.

In other news, I've been doing some research on what to do in New York when I'm there. This is one of those, "Well, that's bloody obvious" moments, but it's kind of overwhelming. Even a cursory scan of things to do in Manhattan is mindblowing. I've written off the other boroughs with the exception of the Bronx to catch a Yankees game. And still...I'll be lucky to get a fraction of a percent of the things I'd like to do get done. So far I've been using Wikitravel, which is giving me a nice basic overview of things to do and place to see while in Manhattan. But realistically I have 2.5 days, maybe three if I blow off the first day of the con (it's only open for 4 hours to the public the first day) to see Manhattan. A place like the Museum of Modern Art recommends you take two to three days exploring it. Strand Books could easily kill a day. So could FAO Schwartz, I suspect.

The original plan was to hit New York, wander and see where the day takes me. I suspect that's out the window now and a more careful plan of attack is needed.

And finally, I'm getting my ass kicked in the Nunavut Blog Awards. As predicted, Kate and Jen are running away with it. If you would like to lessen my ass-kicking, please swing by and drop me a vote or two. I suspect a comeback is pretty much out of the question, but not losing by quite so much would be nice....

Last Five
1. Revelations (comedy) - Bill Hicks
2. Surveyors and cranes - Bob Mould
3. Song for Marvin - Mark Bragg
4. The kissing dance - Kelly Russell and the Planks*
5. Neighbourhood #4 - The Arcade Fire

Closure

CBC is reporting what we've known around the chateau for a bit - Nakasuk school is closed until at least Monday. As this also happens to be Cathy's school, she's going slightly out of her mind.

It's been a bit of a rough start to 2008. A problem with frozen pipes and now there's an air quality problem which is causing a pretty awful smell in the school. For the first time in her professional career, Cathy had to walk out of work yesterday. She went in early to get caught up on some work and called about 15 minutes after she left the apartment. I could already hear her wheezing. Whatever is going on in the school is not reacting well with her lungs.

It's a side of Cathy I don't see all that often. She's struggled with allergies most of her life. But she has them so well under control, and we've tweaked our lifestyle ever so subtly that we rarely have problems. Even she's gotten used to the being healthy all the time and not dwelling too much on her allergies. So this was one of these jarring moments. She didn't particularly like the reminder of what her life used to be like until her meds got straightened out about a decade ago. It's not everyone who can say they've died twice and are still around, and yet Cathy is one of them.

Plus, she just wants to get in and teach. There's enough teachers lurking around this blog to know this much…you have limited windows to get work done with your kids. There are all kinds of distractions during the school year. There are weeks and months where it is almost impossible to get anything done (December and June come to mind). But January is one of the months where you can get lots done and because of the disruptions, that's not happening. It's driving her nuts. There's still five months left in the school year, but she's going to be hard pressed to get everything done with the recent disruptions and the days sure to be lost when we get a couple of blizzards.

For the next couple of days she's going to be at the local parish hall working on some other things. I'm glad for that much. I'm sure most people like an unexpected day off or two. Cathy's not an exception to that rule, but she's been climbing the walls. It's not been a couple of days. We're 13 school days into the new semester and she's taught five of them. I think even Boo is going to be glad to see her get out of the house.

Here's hoping the school gets straightened out. Not just for the sake of my wife's sanity, but also for parents around town. I imagine most of them are anxious to get their kids out of the house and back into school as well.

Last Five
1. Down to the river to pray - Allison Krauss and Union Station*
2. Flight attendant - John Rouse
3. Alien sex fiend - Garbage
4. Gilligan's Island Theme - Bowling For Soup
5. Manifest - The Weakerthans

Where to vote

In my rush to talk about the awards last night, I forgot a couple of key points. First, you can go to Nunavut Blogs to go and vote. You don't have to live in Nunavut to cast your vote, and I hope people take a moment to swing by. Voting ends January 29. Also, while I said who I thought would likely win, I didn't list everyone who is nominated. So cheers to Port Town Ghosts, Jen of Nunavut, Way Way Up and Adventures in Medicine. I'm in very good company. Also congrats to those listed in the best new Nunavut blog. There's some good choices there as well.

I'm also losing, which I guess is to be expected given the quality of the competition. But hey, it's early yet.

And once again, a bit hat tip to Clare for creating these awards. If his blog was eligible I would be getting an even bigger ass-kicking right now.

Last Five
1. The delaney - The Libertines
2. Listen like thieves - INXS
3. Shattered - Dropkick Murphys
4. 1,000 oceans - Tori Amos*
5. The coldest night of the year - Bruce Cockburn

You like me....

So the big awards were announced today. No, not the Oscars, but the Nunies. You know, the really important awards, damn it. Clare claims he didn't plan this, but I'm not sure I believe him. The time is a little too perfect.

Anyway, in a fairly cool turn of events I'm apparently a finalist for Best Nunavut Blog. So to everyone who voted for me, thanks for that. I'm not betting on winning - I think Kate or Jen will, but hey, it's still a pretty cool thing.



I know the awards are meant in good fun, but I actually am kind of flattered to be nominated. I've always had a weird relationship with awards. I never won many as a kid (everyone go awwww) until I got into curling and won a few (including a good sportsmanship award, which to this day is the funniest thing I've ever won). And after that, the next ones I won were journalism awards.

I know there are a few journalists on the local blogs. Let me tell you, journalism awards are cool and never let anyone tell you otherwise. I worked with two different editors who had different views of the awards. The first was a diehard in trying to win them. So she not only demanded good copy during the year, she also went through the process of making sure we entered a bunch of different awards and that letters went with each entry. And each year the paper routinely won the most journalism awards of any community newspapers in Newfoundland and hell, Atlantic Canada.

The other editor entered the categories and did the work, but really didn't care so much about them. They were nice and all, and it was cool when we won, but it wasn't a big deal. The awards were kind of silly and judged by one person and were decided by his or her's whim.

WIth the first editor I won seven journalism awards. With the second one I won none. I don't know if that's a coincidence or not, but I don't think it is.

Winning the awards was cool, no matter if you knew how the sausage was being made. It was great being recognized for your work. It was a boost to the ego. It looks great on a resume. And, as the first editor used to say, every time we run a story saying we won a dozen journalism awards, it makes the people in the community appreciate just what a good paper they have.

Which, I guess, is a long winded way of saying I know this award is just for fun, but I still think it's pretty cool to be nominated. Not sure if I'll add it to my resume, but hey, you never know.

Besides, I figured it was easier to ramble on about journalism awards than the Oscars. Aside from having not seen many of the nominees this year, the death of Heath Ledger kind of put a depressing air on all things Hollywood today.

Anyway, good luck to all my fellow nominees. And I hope lots of people take the time to go and vote.

Last Five
1. Goodnight Saigon - Billy Joel*
2. Ribbons undone (live) - Tori Amos
3. Gypsy biker - Bruce Springsteen
4. Evil and a heathen - Franz Ferdinand
5. Driver - REM

Blue Monday

1. So today is Blue Monday, which is apparently the most depressing day of the year (also a great comic from Oni Press). The formula for arriving at this day is something to do with the lack of daylight, when mixed with impending credit card bills, tossed in with an (un)healthy mix of failure from all your doomed New Year's resolutions. Why January 21st as opposed to January 22nd is perhaps a bit more contrived than I need to dwell on.

One of the solutions to overcoming the blahs is more exercise and activity. Which sounds like a plan. I've been meaning to get back to the gym, but figured I'd wait until all the New Year's resolution people failed and dropped out. That essentially means I was waiting for Blue Monday. Guess I should swing by the gym sometime in the next week or so.

2. Imagine Iqaluit, but instead of the 7,000 or so people who live here now, imagine 200,000 people. Sound horrific? Sounds a bit like Yakutsk, the coldest city on earth. I'm kind of used to the cold up here at this point. I'm not saying I'm happy when I wake up in the morning and discover the temperature is around -45, but there is something oddly invigorating about going around with your jacket undone and no hat on your head because it's a balmy -20.

Having said that, I think one of the things that makes Iqaluit bearable is that it is relatively small and compact. There's something about a city of 200,000 people all dealing with that level of cold, with all the smoke and fog hanging in the air that sounds really unappealing. You actually hear Inuit in town complain about how big and fast pace Iqaluit is and how much they want to go back to their home community, where it's quieter.

Might sound crazy to those of us from larger places, but it makes sense. I think the idea of hell for most Inuit would be for Iqaluit to grow into some place like Yakutsk.

3. The East Coast Music Awards are being held in Corner Brook in 2009. I would have more to say on this, except I pretty much view the ECMAs as little more than the Nova Scotia Music Industry Awards, just on a bigger scale these days.

4. You've got to love the Japanese marketing ability. For those who need a smoke and a coffee to get going in the morning, the Japanese have a suggestion for you. Honestly, I want to buy this. Not for myself, but I can think of several people who love this. Although if you need a can of coffee and two packs of smokes to get going in the morning, you have problems.

Last Five
1. Windows blues - Band of Horses
2. Past due - The Weakerthans*
3. Choux pastry heart - Corinne Bailey Rae
4. A boy and his machine gun - Matthew Good Band
5. October - U2

Behind the scenes

This story about Dairy Queen workers in St. John's getting up to some shenanigans is generating quite a bit of comment, much of it of outrage, some of it dipping into moral outrage. You know, "what's wrong with kids these days?" blah blah blah.

First of all, let's make one thing clear, even if I was back in St. John's, I think I would be giving this place a pass for awhile. Which is a pity because I've stopped at that Diary Queen quite a few times, seeing as how it's near where Cathy's parents live. I don't normally go for the hot food, just the ice cream. When I need a burger fix, I go to Burger King or Wendy's.

Still, this Dairy Queen broke the prime rule of fast food places - never make it public what happens behind the scenes.

Look, none of us are idiots. I imagine a good few of us have worked in the food industry over the years. While I was fortunate enough to have never worked at MacDonald's or company, I did wait tables at several restaurants (all of which went bankrupt, but that's another story), including a Pizza Hut. I saw things that I'm sure the customers wouldn't have appreciated. I engaged in activities I bet the owner and customers wouldn't have liked (the worst being taking a particularly hated manager on his last day, dragging him into the dish room, hosing him down and then emptying a bag of flour on him. What can I say? He was a prick and so were we).

But we kept all of this out of the public eye. Whenever you go to a restaurant, especially a fast food place where most of the employees are young, you engage in a willing suspension of disbelief about the food. You know the food is bad for you by any standards. You're probably getting your weekly fat intake when you have a double Whopper. Not to mention how the food was treated before it got to your hands. It could have been reheated. The people who handled it might have forgot to wash their hands. They might have been use the paddy as a puck before you walked into the place.

Some part of your brain knows this, but you chose to not to acknowledge this possibility, because you're hungry and this is what you're craving.

The schmucks at Dairy Queen shagged around. I don't doubt it happens at every fast food place in St. John's a daily basis. Boring work, for crap pay doesn't always inspire the best behaviour in employees. Where they got stupider was putting the video up on Youtube. How people still haven't figured out that most of the odder video up there can come back and bite you on your mooned ass one day is beyond me. But they haven't and this is what you get. Something that happens every day becomes a story. Why? Because there's video. And video always helps to make a bland story that much better.

The hit this Dairy Queen is going to take is substantial. I imagine most of the staff is going to be fired. Because of the bad publicity, it might even close. And that Dairy Queen has been there a long time. I think it's the oldest in town. And it probably deserves it, because it broke the covenant between fast food and consumer.

But never doubt that it happens all the time, and probably worse, in St. John's.

Bon appetite....

Last Five
1. Mother (live) - Tori Amos
2. Neighbourhood #3 (power out) - The Arcade Fire
3. The dope - The Dandy Warhols
4. Another pearl - Badly Drawn Boy
5. Highway patrolman (live) - Bruce Springsteen*

Got them Saturday morning reporting blues

There are many reasons why I'm glad I'm no longer a reporter back in Newfoundland. First and foremost was that I was burnt out on the job. It took me awhile to realize that, but I was. And there are other factors why I'm glad I moved and moved into another field of work. Cathy's right in some way, I don't handle change, especially significant upheavals, all that well. If it wasn't for her I still might be slowly losing my mind somewhere in St. John's, trying to pump out copy.

But here's another reason that had me going, "there but for the grace of God..." this morning.

I found out one of my former colleagues is leaving his reporting job at the end of this month. One of the main reasons appears to be he was tired of the long hours and crap pay and wanted to move into something that paid better, that wasn't as stressful and where he could actually watch his kids grow-up without being off covering a meeting somewhere.

Did he go into PR or some kind of government work? Nope.

He's taking a job with a hardware store.

What the fuck does it say about newspapers in Newfoundland when they pay better at a hardware store? There's something deeply, deeply wrong with that.

So yeah, I got up, kissed my wife and thanked whoever is out there that I was smart enough to get out of that racket and go somewhere at least I'm appreciated.

Last Five
1. Jesusland - Ben Folds
2. Famous last words - My Chemical Romance
3. Rena - Blue Rodeo
4. Cool on your island (live) - Tori Amos
5. In the back seat - The Arcade Fire*

38

Well, today I turn 38. I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm never really going to age gracefully. And by that I don't mean I'm going to go and start popping Rogaine or check out on the price of facelifts and whatnot. I'm just going to be mildly annoyed with the whole idea of getting older and hate kids.

I also have my lovely wife reminding me that I am, in fact, old. This is the one thing they never tell you about marrying a woman who is younger than you are (Cathy turned 30 back in December). That while they will love you and be wonderful and all, they will also never cease in reminding you how much younger they are than you.

The one thing I take some comfort in is the commentators saying Barack Obama is too young to be president and he's 46. So, you know, 46 is young. Then again, he's eight years older than me and has a reasonably decent chance of being the next president of the United States. So it's best not to look into that analogy too deeply.

Anyway, as an age, 37 wasn't too bad. I travelled to Ottawa, went home for a couple of weeks and had a nice vacation in Florida and a Caribbean cruise. My health is still good, albeit I'm still weighing more than I hoped for a year ago. I said I was going to lose 50 pounds. I might have lost 10.

I started a novel that's now sitting around 125,000 words. Plus I managed to sell a couple of freelance stories, write something in excess of 300 blog posts. And work continues to chug along just fine. I don't mind it and it pays me exceedingly well, which is certainly a step from a couple of years ago.

And myself and Cathy continue to be very much in love. I'm not saying there aren't the occasional hiccup or challenge, but hey, welcome to marriage.

So yeah, that's a pretty good year, all things told. So what's the plan for my 38th year?
1. Finish the novel and shop it around to agents.
2. Do at least 300 blog posts.
3. Try and do the odd freelance piece just to keep in practice. Plus, they're a lovely tax write off for expensive toys like cameras and computers.
4. Get back at the gym, which I stopped doing around October. Drop about 20 pounds.
5. Travel to New York and Italy.
6. Try and overcome general hatred of telephones and call friends and family more often.
7. Get off the computer more and spend more time reading books and with Cathy.
8. Continue to control temper at curling by not cursing.

And really, that's about it. I think that's a good enough list for now. If I get most of that list accomplished, I think 38 will be pretty good. Granted, I'm going to have to start gearing up for 40. There's a tradition of small breakdowns in my family among the men when they turn 40. My uncle bought a Corvette. My dad bought a convertible Camero and fled to Toronto. I turn 40 in January, so my options are somewhat limited, especially if we're still in Nunavut. Still, I'll have to come up with some kind of spectacular meltdown that year. Any suggestions?

Last Five
1. Mutiny, I promise you - The New Pornographers
2. Bittersweet symphony - The Verve*
3. Gloria - U2
4. Old Dan Tucker - Bruce Springsteen
5. Bluenose - Stan Rogers

New York, New York

So Cathy has been going slightly nuts the last couple of weeks trying to figure out what to buy me for my birthday. I'm apparently a thorough pain in the ass to buy for when it comes to these kinds of things. There are several good reasons for this. First, there isn't all that much I need. Secondly, when I do find something I need or want, I tend to buy it immediately rather than hint around for it.

For example, when we were on vacation I bought pretty much everything Cathy could have possible have picked up for me as a gift. Most infuriating was the watch. I have a nice one, but it's a bit heavy. So I wanted a nice, lighter one, and watches are dirt cheap on the islands. However, rather that pointing out several that Cathy might get for me, I instead went and bought it myself (a Citizen Eco-Drive). Same thing with a Swiss Army Knife I happened up in a store. And a few other things.

Anyway, I think Cathy had just about given up when we hit on a brain storm last night. I was discussing whether or not I was going to head to New York in April and working out a budget. I hadn't checked on plane tickets from Ottawa to New York in awhile, but they were quite expensive the last time I checked. The absolute cheapest was over $500 and most were over $600. For a 90 minute flight, it seemed pretty ridiculous. So I hit a few sites and discovered there was a seat sale on. I hemmed and hawed about it, and then Cathy had a brain storm.

"Why don't I buy you the ticket to New York for your birthday?"

And so we had a plan. I booked the ticket and now I'm heading to New York on April 15 and come back here April 21. It's a pretty snazzy gift. Although it's funny. Cathy steadfast refuses to buy me graphic novels. I have a list of about 30 on my wish list there right now. But she will buy me a plane ticket to send me to the New York Comic Con.

When I pointed that out to her, however, she did point out it's not just the comic con. I've already got tickets lined up to see Jon Stewart and I'm trying to get tickets to Letterman. I'm looking at going to see the Yankees and Red Sox play, although a ticket in the nose bleeds - I mean in the upper deck in centerfield - start at $40. Something down the left field line start around $200. So we'll see about that.

And I might catch Spamalot. Plus there are hundreds of other things to do during my time there. Go to Central Park. Go to the Empire State Building. Find some cool, funky shops. Hit weird book stores. And God knows what else. I'm sure some of you nice people can find a thing or two for me to do.

So yeah, a couple of days ago I wasn't sure about going. Now I'm really looking forward to it.

Last Five
1. The Heinrich Maneuver - Interpol
2. Phantom of the Opera - Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies
3. Parting gift - Fiona Apple
4. Trust me - The Fray
5. Join together - The Who*

Same old same old

Dear God I am so sick of this shit. No wonder I hardly ever write about Newfoundland related politics anymore. Aside from the fact that I've been away from the island for more than two years now, so that sort of distance makes it hard to comment intelligently. But even if I was back there now, if I had to comment every time Williams went spoiling for a fight with a prime minister I would lose my mind.

It's fucking boring. And judging by some of the reaction in the Globe's comments section, people are long past bored with this. Williams is a smart man, but I really, really wish he would find a different drum to beat and get on with governing the province instead of constantly picking fights with the feds. Jesus, I know no Newfoundland premier has ever gone wrong picking a fight with Ottawa, but how many premiers have picked this many fights? I he determined to find what the upper limit of Newfoundlanders tolerance is for this crap?

And guess what? Harper is probably right. Seven seats out of 300+ do not make a difference 95% of the time. Hard reality, but hey, that's Canadian politics. Build a bridge and movie on.

sigh No wonder I've been finding US politics much more interesting lately if this is what's happening back home.

Oh, and since I'm back taking a look at Newfoundland, Buckingham got off fucking lucky. Seven years for the shit he did. He's probably out in less than 2.5 years. Granted, he'll likely never practice medicine again, but still. Selling drugs and sexually abusing women when you were their doctor. There's a special place for people like that and I hope Buckingham spends most of the next 2.5 years there. Wanker.

Oh, and this is quite possibly the worst local news story I've read in ages. Ivan is normally a good writer, but I honestly wondered if this story also came with a free blowjob. They should use this in journalism schools as an example on how to not write puff pieces.

Apparently I'm feisty this evening. I'll try and be in a better humour tomorrow.

Last Five
1. One plus one is one - Badly Drawn Boy
2. Virginia Avenue - Tom Waits
3. About a girl - Nirvana
4. Blister in the sun - Violent Femmes*
5. Well Allright! - The Hives

Performances

No, I'm not dead. The cold persists longer than I would have liked, but that's not the reason I haven't been around. I'm trying to spend a little less time on the computer these days and a bit more with my wife. Of course, that will be put to the test now that I finally have Windows running properly on the Mac and have managed to get Civilizations IV running like it is supposed to. It's actually running better than when I had it set up on Cathy's old Toshiba laptop. Go figure.

So yeah, part of this weekend was spent with Cathy. The other part was spent immersing myself in the joy that comes with destroying Civilizations. That hasn't left much time for blogging.

Although we did manage to get out and see a movie last night - I Am Legend. Cathy's still a bit mad with me over that one. She doesn't like scary movies and I thought it was going to be more action oriented than it was. She's still pretty upset about the scene with the dog.

I did like it, but more the first two-thirds than the last one-third, where it kind of goes off the rails a bit for me. But really, that's a pretty decent acting performance by Will Smith. That's about some of the best acting you're going to see in a zombie/action/horror movie.

Speaking of good acting performances, I like this story about Gordon Pinsent and the Oscars. He has virtually no chance of being nominated, let along winning. Nominations are as much about money and politics as they are the quality of performance, and Pinsent doesn't appear to have many in his corner with money or influence, despite the near universal acclaim over how well he did in Away From Her. But you can't help but like how modest he is and how genuinely touched he is the nice words Daniel Day-Lewis has to say about him. Both men are class acts.

Anyway, health providing I'll try and post more over the next few days.

Let them eat tofu

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a bunch of links, but I think these all work well together:

1. I know that 2008 is but a crying infant at this point, but I’d like to present an early contender for quote of the year for all things relating to Nunavut. Ladies and Gentlemen, let them eat tofu...

2. I want my own personal army of witch doctors to cower people and make them live in fear of me.

3. I don’t know if this alarm clock is real or not (because Think Geek likes their gag items), but if it is, then I totally would stop hitting the snooze button in the morning. The problem is, there are so many organizations I hate, I’d be hard pressed to pick just one. Although if I had to pick one right now, an organization that suggests the Inuit should eat tofu rather than hunt animals would likely be high up there on the list.

4. Funny how Canadian North and First Air always announce their seat sales on the same day, and that each route, such as Iqaluit to Ottawa, have the same price. That ticket, by the way, is $1,258.26 return, including all taxes and fees. I think the days of getting a flight from here to Ottawa return for less than $1,000 is now over and done with.

5. I still have decided if I’m going to New York in April. I think it depends on a couple of factors…how bad the Visa bill is from the recent cruise, if I can get a decent seat sale from Ottawa to Newark and if I can budget the trip, all expenses in, for under $2,000. But if I do go, I desperately hope U2-3D is playing somewhere. It sounds like an awesome concert movie and after watching Beowulf in 3-D IMAX, I’d love to see this in the same format.

Last Five
1. What am I to you - Norah Jones
2. I would die for you - Garbage
3. Hallelujah - k.d. lang*
4. Ghost in this house - Allison Krauss and Union Station
5. Teeth in the grass - Iron & Wine

Fever dreams

I'm on Day 2 of feeling like crap. Well, Day 3 really, but Day 2 at home. I really figured I was going to go to work today when I went to bed last night. But I didn't get much sleep and what I did was deeply weird. I don't normally remember my dreams...I've never known if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but last night they were vivid on the rare occasion I managed to nod off when not coughing, sneezing or wondering why my head just didn't explode and get it over with.

And weird? Well, I didn't do much yesterday other try to do some reading, watch some TV and play a new video game - the Lego version of Star Wars: The Complete Saga. The video game is quite fun, although my brain really couldn't handle much of it yesterday. About the only other thing I spent any time on was watching the New Hampshire primary last night. So much for the Obama momentum, eh? Now we're into a dog fight.

Anyway, I managed to have fever dreams that combined the New Hampshire primary with Lego Star Wars. Don't ask me how. Don't even ask me to describe it, really, because I just can't. But it was weird enough that I couldn't sleep for more than a few minutes at a time. I ended up going out on the couch so I wouldn't wake up Cathy with my tossing and turning.

Anyway, woke up this morning, felt like crap and decided to burn another sick day. I would have been useless at work today.

Cathy didn't have a great night's sleep either, what with me flipping over every two minutes. One thing we miss about being down south, other than the warmth and shopping, was that we had real beds. I think we slept in a Queen-sized bed once. The rest of the time, including all of the cruise, we slept in King-sized beds. Now, those beds are almost too big and if we had one all the time, I think it could be weird. But considering we sleep on a little Double bed, those large beds were real luxuries.

They also had good pillows on board the cruise ship. As Cathy would say, they were "Ninja Pillows." You could buy the pillows and sheets from Carnival, but we decided not to. I think we're regretting that now. It's our first, "here's something we should have bought while we were out" moment - new pillows. The ones we have now are a couple of years old and mine felt like trying to rest my head on a brick last night.

We'll take a look around town on the weekend, but I'm not optimistic. We were looking at Sears for pillows, but they have something like five pages of them. And really, pillows are one of those things you like to try out a bit before buying.

Cathy has said I've been brain dead for the last couple of days. The cold is, of course, to blame. But if you need further proof, this blog post might be in. Fever dreams involving the New Hampshire primary and a need for good pillows. That's all I have in my brain today.

I look forward to the cold being over so I can think reasonably straight again.

Last Five
1. Let it die - Foo Fighters
2. Little tragedies - Hawksley Workman*
3. Wake up dead man - U2
4. End over end - Foo Fighters
5. Sun King - The Beatles

Sick day and awards

Stayed home sick today as my head felt like it was going explode and I felt just generally crappy. I might have tried to tough it out, but what was shaping up to be a major pain in the ass week at work magically got easier yesterday, so I can afford to stay home sick for a day, possibly two if necessary.

Oh, and we finally got the car back from the garage....again. The dead battery is repaired. The guys at the garage agreed that an eight year old battery in a Hyudnai Accent that has already died twice was pretty much a lost cause. No idea of the damages yet. They were working late because of the backlog of vehicles and didn't have time to do up a receipt yet. I'll find out what it is tomorrow.

Boo is going slowly mad. He hasn't been out in days, but with the temperatures so cold, we can't take him outside. Even with his coat and boots, it's way too cold. -53 today (schools close at -55, apparently). Tomorrow it gets up to a balmy -47 with windchill. Dear god....

On a more sunny note, I discovered after I got back that Claire has decided to create the Nunies - the Nunavut Blogging Awards. There are three categories - 1. Best Nunavut Blog 2. Best New Nunavut Blog (started in 2007) and 3. Best Blog Post.

For the record, Claire is disqualifying himself; his awards, his rules. Which is fine and I agree as far as that goes. But let's be clear, Claire would win this if he didn't exempt himself. So give him a lifetime achievement award or a Nunavut Blogging Excellence nod or something like that. Most of us wouldn't have found each other if not for the list of blogs that Claire keeps. So hats off to him.

I'm still deciding on who I'm going to submit. There are some that would be shoe-inns if they had only blogged a bit more in 2007. But I might nominate them anyway just because what they wrote was that entertaining anyway. The best post category is going to be the hard one. I think I might have to go back and dig around some of the blogs to find one. But there are a lot of good blogs with a lot of good things to say. It's going to be tough to narrow it down.

I know the award is just for fun and not to be taken too seriously, but it is nice to see the little blogging community thriving and doing well.

Last Five
1. What goes on - The Beatles
2. Monkey gone to heaven - The Pixies
3. Infatuation - Maroon 5
4. Whatever it takes - Ron Sexsmith
5. Not even jail - Interpol*

Jesus, the cold

Folks, there's no other way to describe it....it's fucking cold here today. -57 with windchill. Jesus Christ.

Yes, it's profanity level cold. And as we're on at least Day 4 of an Extreme Windchill Warning, with about another 36 hours of it left, then I think it at least should be met with an extreme amount of profanity. It's God damn, fucking cold here and there's no way around that. And this just isn't some transplanted southerner bitching and moaning about the cold. People who have lived up here all their lives are complaining about the cold.

I did some checking around earlier, and while I stand to be corrected, I think Iqaluit was the coldest place in Canada today. By a lot. I couldn't find anywhere in Nunavut that came close. And that included checking Grise Fiord, Eureka and Alert. The northern tip of Ellesmere Island, within spitting distance of the North Pole, was warmer than Iqaluit today. That's just deeply wrong.

About the only people happy with this kind of cold are the garages. This is the kind of cold that killed our car's transmission last year. This year it just took out the battery. I called the garage today to see how it was going on getting that replaced. They haven't yet as they spent most of the day running out to tow in vehicles that have died. They must be making a fortune.

Actually, I'm wrong. There are other groups happy with this level of cold are kids and teachers. Seems there are new regulations that says when the temperatures drops below -50 with windchill, they close the schools. They don't want kids waiting for the bus out in these kind of temperatures since you can get frostbite in a matter of minutes. So Cathy got an unexpected day off. That made her happy.

Me, I had to go to work. Getting a taxi was a challenge because:
1. No one wants to walk to work in this kind of cold
2. About half the cars in town are probably in a garage for repairs.

You know things are deeply wrong when you're wishing for the balmy temperatures of -25 like we had in Ottawa last week, let alone the mind-blowing warmth we had in Fort Lauderdale when it was a scorching 9 C. The 35 we had in the Caribbean? Might as well be the surface of the sun to us right now.

It's going to be a long winter, I think.

Last Five
1. Down on Rodeo - Lindsay Buckingham*
2. Dance hall days - Wang Chung
3. Not about to lose - Ron Sexsmith
4. Love is a place - Metric
5. Underneath days - Bob Mould

Computer headaches

So, last day of vacation and it feels like I'm coming down with a cold. That's not bad timing, I guess. Certainly better than coming down with one on the first day of vacation, but I don't think anyone at work is going to believe me if I call in sick tomorrow. So unless I'm half-dead on Monday morning I'm going to have to tough it out.

As for today, I wish I could say it was spent relaxing and taking it easy on the last day of vacation, but instead I did somethings probably not all that bright. First thing I did was touch up a good chunk of the photos we took during vacation and then sent them off to Wal-Mart. Cathy's folks are going to pick them up for us and send them up in a care package in a few weeks. Yes, our printer can do photos, but it's still much cheaper for Wal-Mart to do it then using our own ink on the photos.

Anyway, I thought that might take an hour or two. It was closer to four because of a few hiccups with the Wal-Mart site.

But then we had the real migraine...I decided to install Windows on my computer.

The nice thing about the new Macs is that I can do this. When I was in Florida I bought VM Fusion (software that allows Windows to run at the same time on my Mac) and a copy of Windows. I know Windows is evil because I use it at work. But at least there I have tech support when things go horrifically wrong. Here, I just have myself and I haven't used Windows on my own since about 1999.

Anyway, after some head bashing against the wall, I managed to get Fusion installed and updated, Windows installed and updated and then an anti-virus program installed and updated. So that was several more hours up in smoke. The one thing I failed to get done was my copy of Civilizations installed. I kept getting error messages and gave up at that point before pitching the works of it out the window.

If nothing else, dealing with Windows has once again reconfirmed why I love Macs so much. Turn them on and the bloody things work out of the box. Hours of fussing around with Windows and my work still isn't done.

Anyway, tomorrow is back to work and I guess back to posting about things other than vacation. Tomorrow is kind of the unofficial start to the new year in Nunavut. All the schools are back and most people who went out for Christmas are now back, or will be shortly. Break time's over.

Home again.

So I can manage to post every day I'm on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean, but as soon as I hit dry land, I promptly disappear. Typical. Anyway, it's been a busy few days, so here's what's happened since the ship docked in Fort Lauderdale on January 2.

Jan. 2
We hit port around 7 a.m. Once you get into port the cruise people would like to get you off the ship as quickly as possible so they can get the next group of people in. No kidding, by 10 a.m. they have everybody off the ship. By about noon they are taking on the next load of passengers and by 5 p.m. they're off to sea again. Not much in the way of relaxing.

By the way, one last thing about being on a cruise ship. They tell you to budget spending $100 per person, per day. Considering there were two of us on the ship for nine days, we were a bit horrified about that thought. Mercifully, we didn't come close to that. I think what helped is that we didn't drink very much - about five drinks between the two of us - and we didn't gamble at the casino. Our biggest expenses were the internet, soft drink cards, the zip line excursion, photos and tips. We did spend money ashore, but St. Maartin was the worse for it (duty-free and tax free. Everybody went a bit nuts there). The other three islands we didn't spend much at all.

There are two ways of getting off the ship. The slow way is to put your bags outside your door around midnight before you land, and they will take them ashore for you and assist you in disembarking. The quick way is to crab your own gear and drag it off yourself. We wanted to get ashore as quickly as possible. No sense waiting around the boat when we could punt around Fort Lauderdale for the day. Although most of the ones wanting to get off quickly had early flights to catch.

Anyway, we hit port at about the same time as a blast of Arctic air. We got off the ship thinking it was just a bit chilly in the morning, but no, the temperatures remained consistently around 5-10C throughout the day. That mean we needed to change out of the shorts, t-shirt and crocs we were wearing quickly. Fortunately, when we went to the hotel, basically just to drop off our bags, they let us check in early. That made up for the internet not working in the room during our stay (hence the lack of posting).

We kicked around town a bit, finally managed to find a Borders book store and gleefully spent several hours there. That evening, when Cathy found a Beals (where she bought tops for $5 and was very happy) I went and saw Beowulf in 3-D IMAX. Cathy passed on seeing Beowulf....lingering traumatic mental damage from high school English. But I never read it and was curious.

I can't say I loved the movie's story or characters, but by god it is spectacular to look at. In that format, it is probably one of the best looking movies I've ever seen. So I'm glad I went. It was the only movie I saw on vacation, which is a disappointment, but we just had no time.

Jan. 3
Up bright and early to catch our flight to Ottawa. Now, here's the thing. Unless you're an idiot there are plenty of signs and warnings telling you that when you travel internationally to and from the United States, you arrive at the airport early. As in about two hours early. Our flight left a little after 8 a.m. So that mean we were up at 5, caught the shuttle to the airport at 5:30 and were at the airport by 6. We didn't clear security until about 7:15 a.m.

Were the lines that bad? No, not really. The reason it took so long is that Delta Airlines does this unique little thing that I've never seen before. They go through the line and yell out what time your flight leaves. So at 6:20 they started asking if anyone had a flight leaving at 7. A bunch did. So they pulled them ahead of us in the line to let them get checked in. And this went on and on. I'd estimate a good 40-50 people skipped ahead of us in the line because they were late showing up at the airport. Whereas our reward for not being idiots and showing up for an international flight 45 minutes before it departs two days after New Years was to constantly have people waved passed us.

I finally had enough as the time was pushing closer to 7 a.m. and told the woman escorting people passed us that we were taking the next agent and that my patience with these people being late and getting rushed passed us was over. I was polite, but really, that's bullshit. You arrive that late, you deserve to miss you flight.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We breezed passed customs in Ottawa and then spent the rest of the day in a rental car doing some last minute resupplying before heading up north. Cathy discovered our bags were actually light. You can't go back to Iqaluit with bags not packed to the limit. So we hit a Wal-Mart and a few other places to grab a few things.

Jan. 4
The big event of this day was that we made it into Iqaluit. Although I checked the weather the night before and it said it was supposed to be clear and cold (God damn cold. As in around -50). I figured the worse we were going to face was trying to get a cab at the Iqaluit airport. With all our bags, all the passengers and with us wearing light winter coats, it was going to be pretty brutal.

Little did I know a blizzard manage to sneak up on the town. And since we were late leaving Ottawa because of deicing, we arrived in the air over the town just as the blizzard was beginning to kick into gear. So we spent about 20 minutes circling town, waiting to see if we could land. Cathy and I were offering up prayers to anyone listening as we not only really wanted to get home at this point, but wed already emailed the person housesitting for us they could go home. That meant there was no one to take care of Boo if we got redirected to Rankin Inlet for the evening.

However, we did get to land. Not the smoothest landing in the world, but we did. And once we were on the ground, they began cancelling flights all over the place. So it was pretty lucky we got down when we did.

And it was as cold as I expected. Folks, never doubt for a second that -52 hurts when you're not wearing the right clothing. I had to run out into the parking lot to get a cart to carry our luggage. Perhaps the most painful two minutes I've had in several years. It hurt. My skin was burning and my head aching for hours afterwards.

Anyway, we got home safe and sound. Boo is one big furry knot having not been brushed in a couple of weeks, but he seemed pretty happy to see us. Although he's unhappy about not getting walks, but really, we're getting extreme windchill warnings from Environment Canada for the next few days. That cold we experienced in Fort Lauderdale had to have its start somewhere. I'm not saying it was in Iqaluit, but I suspect we're pretty close to it.

And now, back to work on Monday. Man, vacation time just flies....

Cruising, part 8

So here we are on the last full day of the cruise. We’ll disembark tomorrow morning and that will be that. We came back from lunch to find a US Custom declaration form and the questionnaire on how was the cruise.

I think that’s been a topic of discussion amongst a lot of the passengers. We’re cruise ship virgins, and I don’t think we’ve hit any others in that category. I’m sure they’re here, we just haven’t met them. Most have done several cruises at this point. We met one couple who said this was their 18th cruise. I overheard a guy who said this was his fifth...this year.

None of them seemed especially wowed. They didn’t hate the cruise. They thought it was perfectly fine. But they had all been on better ones with other cruise lines (Royal Caribbean and Princess were cited as being better). And while this was our first and we enjoyed ourselves, it certainly could have been better.

I think one of the disappointments was that since we were travelling at Christmas and New Years, we were expecting more festivities. This was a cruise that happened to take place over the holidays, rather than a holiday cruise. There’s a difference there, obviously. It’s almost like the cruise line was a bit afraid of offending people who weren’t Christians. I’m not Christian, but I’m not going to be offended if someone wishes me a Merry Christmas or a Happy Hanukah. It’s the holiday season. Enjoy it, whatever it’s called. And the cruise line should have done more to celebrate the occasion.

It’s a nice ship, I like the decor. The staff has been very friendly, especially our marvelous waitress, who is originally from Poland, and speaks English in a marvelous singing accent. And our room stewart, who keeps making animals our of towels and leaving them on our bed. Mercifully, we haven’t encountered to many cases of the passengers being asses to the staff.

I think the disappointments have been the food, especially in the main meal in the evening, and the ship board activities, which have been kind of lame. Also, the constant attempts to milk money from you in any number of ways. I appreciate all cruise ships probably do this, but really, it’s exhausting dealing with it going on all the time.

Will we do another cruise? Maybe, but it’s not on the immediate priority travel list and nothing we’ve experienced on this trip made us want to bump off other planned vacations for another cruise. We’ll get around to the Panama Canal eventually, but I think Italy, Australia, Costa Rica and a couple of other trips will come first.

As for the islands, I think we would come back and visit both St. Lucia and Tortola. St. Maarten was nice and all, but it was mostly for the shopping. St, Kitt’s just seemed kind of bland. I know there is much more than than what we saw, but there wasn’t enough to make us want to go back and discover it.

St. Lucia is a lovely tropical paradise. It’s beautiful, with nice people and amazing beaches. I could easily go back and spend another week there. As for Tortola, well, I think I need to either learn to swim or sail first, but it’s a lovely island. And as part of the British Virgin Islands, there are plenty of other islands nearby and easily accessible to explore. I don’t think it would be hard to kill a couple of weeks there. For that matter, if someone made Cathy a decent enough job offer, I suspect we’d be moving there in short order.

I don’t mean this to sound like a downer post. We’ve had a really good time the past couple of weeks and it tends to be easier to focus on the negative than the positive. It was a much need break of warmth and sunlight. Aside from wanting to see Boo and having to go back to work so that we can pay for this vacation, we’re quite happy to stay here. Iqaluit is certainly going to be a shock to the system.

But hey, it’s been fun while it lasted.