Dear Santa, Part Deux

Since Dubby threw down his #1 item on the Christmas Wish-list, I thought I would put out my ask, in case Santa has me on the "nice" list...

Mmmm. El Camino. See you in the driveway.

Dear Santa...

Since Aaron got his car before Christmas, I thought it only fair to ask for my present early too! Please have one of these bad boys dropped off at my place this weekend. Thanks Santa, you're a sport!

Early Christmas Present...(for Aaron!)

Alright Alright Alright...Christmas comes early for Aaron - Found a near-mint '72 Olds Cutlass in his driveway today.

Well... not really, but it made for good seasonal story-telling.

This is a picture of his new car. Sweet ride! Sounds awesome. Glenn and I are going to pay him a lump-sum to cover fuel for driving us around all summer. EVERYONE gets their own ashtray, and the back 1/2 windows roll down.....

Wooderson felt QUITE comfortable in the back seat...

(Yes...Christa knows about this car...and has condoned its purchase based on the near-immediate removal of the "other" green car. Oh...young love.)

Merry Xmas Moontower!

Here's wishing you guys a Merry Xmas and all the best in 2007!

Long live the Moontower!

Gettin' There

Ok. After a few "IKEA moments", the space is coming together. Here's an in-progress shot of how it its taking shape. To the left of the pic, is 3 bookcases that wrap around the corner towards the entrance to the room. They NEED to be secured to the wall soon, or else they'll topple.

By the way, that is 24" of glory there, with the MoonTower loaded...

The Christmas that Almost Wasn't

Feast yer eyeballs on this piece. You may never think of Rudolph the same way again... or Santa.

Caption Contest

Give this photo a caption and win a kielbasa sandwich!

Check out the source of the photos: Click Here

Updated Navigation/Links

Alright, alright, alright. The links are clean and tidy.

Hertiage Premium Lager

I picked up a 6 of Heritage Premium Lager based soley on the design of the label and the fact that it is bottled in a stubby. But unlike some of the other beers re-issued in the stubby, this is a very, very good lager. A great beer to pull out over the holidays as the design is great, it is in a stubby and it's brewed in the big O!

Cheers!

New Blogger Version?

I keep getting bombarded with these notifications to switch our blog over to the new version of blogger. Looks like it is tied in with Google, and you need a Google account to access it. I think I've got one, but do the rest of you?

Do we want to switch?

Reno nearing completion

Wow. I haven't posted to the MoonTower in a while, and now I am flooding it with schtuff. Have been so heads-down in work and the home reno stuff, I have barely had enough time to check my blogs!

The renos are (finally) nearing completion. Tiling is in, and the carpet gets laid (ha ha) on Tuesday in the family room and home office. We had to do a major purge of our collective office stuff over the last week, and we ripped out the trim, painted and installed new trim on the weekend to get ready for the carpet. Once that is in, the Christmas tree should go up, and the holidays can begin (sort of).

Thursday, our new IKEA home office shows up between 1-6pm. Armed with only a screwdriver, an allen wrench, and bad Swedish instructions, I hope to have that installed by Friday. And some time this week, 2 of the pictured club chairs are arriving. These will be the first major furniture purchase for us, beyond the entertainment unit and the HDTV, so its pretty exciting.

We decided to push to get the whole friggin' floor done before the end of the year, and we are going to be close. Its been a lot of effort over the last few months - hard to believe it started with ripping out that old fireplace back in June. Once everything is in, I'll take some panoramic shots and post them.

That's what's been up at my house.

MacBook Pro Update: 3 months later

Well, its been over 3 months since my MacBook Pro entered my life. Do I think I made the right decision? Fo' sho. Here's what I like:

• Beautiful screen. Bright, wide, 1440x900 resolution. And mine is the non-glossy version.
• General build quality. You just feel that it is well-made, from the keyboard to the chassis, everything is solid.
• Design. This thing was designed to be used. Everything is in the right place, and you get the impression that Apple took the time to figure out how best to construct a usable machine. Even the glowing keys and the logo on the lid are nice touches. It's just damn sexy.
• Size and weight. This thing is thin and light. Easy to pick up, fits nicely in my case.
• Interface. Ok, this was probably the biggest thing to learn, although OSX makes it pretty easy. Everything is intuitive, from the common menu bar at the top, to the consistent look and feel of pretty much every element, regardless of application. Exposé? Hit F11 and all windows appear on the screen - select the window to make it active. Dashboard? Hit F12 and a bunch of widgets (that are actually useful) are there at your disposal.
• Quicksilver. I've been using an app called, "Quicksilver" more and more, and have been able to take a good chunk of the icons off of my dock. With QS, to launch an app, all I do is hit ctrl+space, type in a few letters of the app, and hit enter. Want to send an e-mail? Ctrl+space, start typing the contact's name, tab to the actions, and hit enter. Mail pops open a new message with the contact already there. URLs work almost the same. Its worth getting use to this app - I probably only know about 10% of how to use it.
  
• Stability. This thing almost never crashes. On the odd occasion where an application craps out (usually an MS Office app), its easy to relaunch the app, and I don't think I have ever lost any work.
• Compatibility. The only peripheral that I haven't been able to use has been an old HP Laserjet 1100 that was connected to a Windows machine on my home network. It doesn't have Mac drivers. I was still able to reach it and print, it just didn't come out right. What has worked? Other printers, cameras, external HDDs, LCD projectors, secondary monitors, external speakers, network linking to Windows PCs, SMB (samba) access to file servers at my client location, etc. Compatibility was an issue I thought would be much bigger for me coming from a Windows world, but it turns out that wasn't much of an issue at all.

Ok, so that was a pretty long list of good stuff. So, what don't I like?

• MS Office for Mac. I am going to throw this one down first to get it out of the way. The MS Office that is built for the Mac is pretty and has some nice functionality, but it is slow. It slows down a 2.16GHz (with 2GB RAM) MacBook Pro. In Entourage (the Outlook substitute), switching between the mail view and the calendar view can take 3+ seconds. Contrast that with Mail and iCal, with zero delay. PowerPoint is a bit of a disappointment as well. The delay between slide switching can be 1+ seconds, which may not sound like much, but is a major annoyance. As well, the outline view only shows text instead of thumbnails of the slides, which is how it works in the XP version. Considering I use this app the most, I have been pretty disappointed. As for Excel, I am used to hitting F2 to edit a formula, and it also highlights cells used in that formula. It doesn't work in the Mac version. Major pain in ass. The other BIG issue? I have had numerous problems with Windows users accessing my office files created on the Mac. I don't understand why there should be compatibility issues considering the software is made by the same company, and it should have been a major drive in the development phase... Conspiracy theories start to open up in my head at this point, so I'll leave it at that. Soooooo, all this being said, I downloaded a copy of OpenOffice, the open source office substitute, and found it to be quite a decent substitute. I am probably going to have to consider a tool such as CrossOver (if they can get it working consistently) in the future so that I can maintain compatibility.
• No right mouse button. The context-sensitive menu that I used regularly on the PC is still available on the Mac, it just takes more work. You have to hold down the ctrl button when you click for it to simulate the right mouse button. I understand the Mac philosophy around simplicity, but this is one area where an extra button would make a big difference. That being said, I have easily plugged in my regular USB mouse and it works seamlessly, with a right mouse button (and a scroll wheel and two more buttons...). I like mouse buttons.
• Shortcut keys. The Mac seems to be built around shortcut keys, and I haven't picked them up as quickly as I did with Windows. Maybe because some of the symbols (are they Klingon or hieroglyphics?) they use for shortcuts aren't even on my keyboard (e.g. ⎋ or ⌥). I still don't even remember which is ctrl and which is option (or alt). At least this one, "⌘", is on my keyboard. Its probably just going to take some more time to get used to.
• Hidden files. Whenever I connect to a Windows drive, Mac seems to add some funky folders and files that are hidden to the Windows file structure. Stuff like, ".trashes". Weird.
• App installation and removal. When you add a Mac app, it usually gets dropped into your Applications folder, but often adds files to other folders. There is rarely an "uninstall" feature, so to remove an app, you often have to go on a hunt to find other files. They often end up in subfolders of the "Library" folder, but I have found that I often have to do a Spotlight search, and even at that, will only find files by keyword. You can buy apps that help uninstall apps, but that seems a little superfluous.

That's probably enough reading material for y'all for now. Conclusion? Mac good.

Splurge

Well, with all the renos that we are doing at home, we decided to extend it into the home office. Hence, a trip to IKEA is pending for tomorrow. As well, we decided to purge one PC, and will now be down to 2 desktops and 3 laptops. 1 desktop for the little guy, 1 desktop and 2 laptops for my bizness, and 1 laptop for the Mrs. That being said, we are ditching the ol' 19" Dell CRT BEAST of a monitor, in favour of a 24" LCD... I am so geeking out on this - I can't friggin' wait to hook the MacBook up to this bad boy. It's also got plenty of video inputs, so it will now become the screen for my old Xbox, the main desktop, and a laptop. Maybe even TV if I can convince my wife that we need a Slingbox. And best of all, my bizness pays for it!

Got to see the G.O.A.T!

On Saturday, (with a big thanks to Christa!), we went to see the Amp'd Mobile Supercross at the Skydome! Through the blue haze of exhaust fumes we witnessed the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) Ricky Carmichael race for the last time in Toronto. It was a truly wicked race, crashes, neck and neck battles and a miraculous come-from-behind for second place for the G.O.A.T.

It was also cool to see the program designed by Christa and the team at Racer X Canada Magazine!

Ali G and West Staines Massiv

It is been pretty quiet here at the Moontower, but I thought this was worth a post...

We all know Borat, but Sasha Baron Cohen is best know for his character Ali G. Back in 2002, there was a feature film released called "Ali G Indahouse". On a reco from our movie store clerks we rented the DVD this weekend.

Ali G is from Staines and this film's plot is all about how Ali G foils a plot to bulldoze a community centre in his home town of Staines. In the opening of the film they show landmarks of Staines including a pub called The Swan Hotel, which is the pub where we worked during our travels to England! It was so cool to see the pub in such and unexpected context!

A couple of other notable films we saw over the weekend: "Clerks 2" and "Art School Confidential". Both worth a view.

Da moontowa is da wickedest, aright!

Xbox Live!

Now that Slippy and Wooderson have joined the online world of the XbOX360, I thought I would post a view of our gamertags...

New Addition to the House

Yeah, not that kind of addition...

Friday night, my foray into HDTV began. I am now the proud owner of 37" of LCD goodness. It was T-I-G-H-T fitting it in that cabinet, but I did it. 1/8" clearance on each side! That's also an XBOX360 on the right... I must say, my eyes are happy. The room is almost finished reno mode - just carpeting and tiling to go!

Now I just have to deal with Brotha Bell to upgrade to HD. Not looking forward to dealing with those knobs.

Troops

I laugh my ass off every time I watch this!

Kid Beyond

Ok. If this guy ever comes to Toronto, I want to see that show. Find a video of this guy - its pretty amazing.

Check it.

Amos Lee

I am going to throw out a reco for singer/songwriter Amos Lee. I grabbed his debut, self-titled album from the library on a lark, because I liked his name. Solid album.

Weeds

After seeing such a glowing endorsement a few weeks ago by Wooderson, the Mrs. and I rented season 1 for a viewing.  What a great show!  The characters are deep, and the stories are not a glorification of ganga distribution, but rather paint a picture of the trials and tribulations of trying to maintain a lifestyle in an upscale suburbia.

While we don't have Showcase (yet), I look forward to season 2.  

Little Superstar

Had to throw this bad boy up here. I wish I had those moves...

Shout-out

Well, I upgraded the Mac with another 1GB of RAM as per many suggestions, and the damn thing got even faster. I also threw on a trial version of Parallels, and can now run XP in 1440x900 rez. Lovely.

I have also been pretty impressed by the apps available for Mac, and often the free nature of these programs. While not free, I found this pretty sweet blogging tool called, ecto.

Anyways, hope all is well out there. Check you later.
________________________
Listening to Rhythm & Blues Alibi (acoustic) from the album "Liquid Skin" by Gomez

Technorati Tags: Apple, MacBook Pro

361

It's funny the relevance and memory that a simple number can bring...

Tigga & Togga now on TV!

Fathers of the world rejoice! Tigga & Togga is now airing on TV! For all the details click here: Tigga & Togga

A long time ago...in a Galaxy far far away...

...do you guys remember....in the NOT too distant past...certain Fall-weekend gatherings that involved only the male gender of the spieces gathering for hours of debauchasizing and such ???

If you dont...TRY HARDER !!!!

I got an MSN last night from one Mr. Anthony Whalen...deep in the midst of sleepless nights and potty training lessons for his young daughter...REACHING out to me in an attempt to initiate a "GUYZ-WEEKEND" this fall. "GREAT IDEA !!!" I said...and here I am...pushing the proverbial ball in an attempt to get 'er started.

Understanding we've all grown older...wiser...and FATTER, with committments ever increasing and for some the constant draw of the family....what do you think ??? Can it be done ??? You KNOW you dont have to ask me twice ! Id be glad to champion this fine cause, because given the time that has lapsed since our last "real" guyz-weekend this would almost serve as a reunion of sorts ???

I put the idea out there to you fine gentlemen. I refuse to let this die. No discussions as far as timing and locale have taken place at this point. I know those will most likely big the biggest sticking points, but I would add we've done it before - read whirlwind trip to Montreal for a 2-day weekend...and we can do it again...sure we are all older...wiser...fatter and more committed, but I think we need to have a kick at the can !!!


Join me...and together...we can....we can do it !!!

Wooderson.

Banner Week For Failing Technology!

Last night she went gentley to sleep, battery completely depleted and never woke up. The officials said that the logic board failed and that it would be too costly to repair an obsolete machine. I bid a fond farewell to my G3 iBook (dual USB). You served me well over the last 5 years. iBook is survived by 5GB iPod (with moving scroll wheel).

On the other side, I just picked up my 250GB replacement LaCie F.A. Porche Firewire drive and then promptly went to the computer ghetto at Spadina & College and scored a 250GB Iomega USB 2.0 drive for all my back-up needs. I have learned my lesson. I plan to keep the USB drive off-site. I currently have 580GB of external drive space!

Not sure what the deceased iBook means in terms on future computer aquistions, but I will keep you posted. For now, long live the G4 14" iBook!

Well, that didn't take long

Well, it didn't take more than 3 days for my MacBook Pro to require repairs. Yes, its true. Apparently, you can't stick 2 DVDs in the SuperDrive at a time, and I guess my 3-year-old son didn't read that part of the MANUAL before he jammed 2 DVDs in there when it was in sleep mode. The eject button makes some great sounds, but nothing comes out.

So... tomorrow I have to take it to my authorized Apple store in town. Hopefully they can fix it. At least I'll know which one is mine - its the one with the PEN MARKS on the top that don't seem to want to come off. They match the PEN MARKS scribbled on the screen of our 19" LCD monitor.

Needless to say, the little guy's office accessibility has been suspended. And to be totally honest, that wasn't even the worst thing that happened today. It was truly a banner day. Some days life just shits all over the place and forgets to clean up.

Newz

Woah...You guys are posting machines ! I have a couple of excuses for my lack of Moontower activity...

1) XBox360. Need I say more? Its awesome, and I am not even playing it in HD yet ! Despite my best efforts Pam wants to keep the HD tv upstairs! Oh well, even with the setup downstairs, its awesome. I bought NHL2k7 on Friday, and it blows me away ! I will embark on my first dynasty tonight !!!

2) I am not sure if both of you know this...as a done deal. This is my last week at Anixter. Just wasnt for me. I know I didnt put a lot of time in here, but I could tell. It wasnt the right job for me. Hard to explain, but I couldnt see myself here a year..3 years...5 years down the road ?!? That said...Protek who had kept a close eye on me in my 3 month absence, is taking me back with MORE than open arms. I am thrilled to be going back...of course for more $$$ and an increase in responsibility, something that was sorely missing there before. I am at Anixter until Thursday...taking Friday off, and then Im back at Protek on Monday morning, in the capacity of Service Co-Ordinator.


Thats all I got for now....chat soon.

MacBook Pro First Impressions

Well, its 7:30am on Saturday morning and my son refused to sleep in, so while he's enjoying his morning apple juice, I thought I would post my first impressions of my new acquisition.

First of all, I ordered this thing on Wednesday night around 9pm, and it showed up Friday at 3pm. Admittedly, I paid an extra $23 for expedited shipping, but I did not expect to receive it within 2 business days. It came in a slick black box, all wrapped up nicely in styrofoam for protection.

I got the machine out of the box, and plugged it in for a charge, but the battery was already full. I started it up, and the Mac began asking me some simple questions (e.g. region, language), and promptly found my wireless network and connected. I was beginning to get impressed, but I felt like it was saying to me, "dude, don't worry - this is the easy stuff". After registering my account with Mac and denying a few things like setting up a .Mac account, I was at the desktop. Immediately, a window popped up with software updates, 12 in total, so I let it do its thing while I started making dinner.



Everything updated just fine, so after the little monkey was put to bed, I got down to really checking it out. First of all, the finish is amazing. Brushed aluminum, translucent apple logo inset in lid, gently backlit keys. Then you look at the screen. This thing is breathtaking. Its HUGE compared to the screens I've been using in the past, its bright, crisp, and just a pleasure to gaze at. The laptop is light - less than 6 pounds - but it feels big. Fold it up, though, and it seems fairly compact. Probably because it is very thin, even though the footprint isn't so small. When this thing is plugged in, it runs hot. I don't mean warm, I mean HOT. Those online reviews were not lying. I do find that when just on batteries, it is considerably cooler, though.

I feel like I might be rambling a bit, but I am just throwing down things as they come to me. The backgrounds that come with the machine are a nice touch, and convey the quality of the screen nicely. I started checking out system preferences and some applications. Browser worked nicely, and did many of the applications. They all seem pretty basic, but I'll have to spend some more time with them to understand if I will use them. I found that most things were self-explanatory, but at times, I was left wondering how to do certain functions I would previously had done by clicking on the right mouse button.

One of the first things I did was to connect to the network, and grab an MP3 off of our desktop (Windows) computer. Found the machine just fine, got to my music, and selected, "By My Side". iTunes launched, and sweet music began to play. The sound was crisp, albeit a little tinny, but that might mean it needs a bit of adjustment. I checked out the trial versions of a few programs (MS Office for Mac, Keynote, Pages), then thought I would get down to business and try out WinXP. I decided to try Parallels, and downloaded the trial version.

I started a virtual machine and threw in my XP disk, but after considerable time, I realized it just wasn't installing. It "hung" while trying to "detect and install devices", so that didn't work. It may be because I used my OEM disk from my Dell, so I am going to have to try another version.

So, all round, my first impressions are about 90% positive. Can't wait to get more into this machine - still getting use to some of the OSX stuff!

Fun (not really) with Camera-phone

Here's what I am doing right now. Siebel Analytics demo. But I am still checking the Moon Tower!

Interesting Weekend - UPDATED

See post below.

A Stern Warning - BACK UP YER FILES!

I just got news from LaCie that my 160GB drive decided to kick the bucket today. It had been making some odd noises yesterday, but I didn't think too much of it and now I have lost almost my entire digital music collection, some of my digital photos, and some of my key work files.

I was lucky to have backed up my current project last night before setting an animation render which was the last thing that poor drive would ever do.

Back up yer files!

On a posting tear

I've picked up the bug for posting again. Figured I'd play with my camera-phone as well and start adding images to my posts. This is a picture of my workspace right now, and yes, those are MegaBlocks. Why? While I would like to say that I am "building a robot out of a garbage can", the blocks are for a training exercise. My client likes the warm and fuzzy approach. That laptop there will be joined next week by a new MacBook Pro. Did I mention that I went Apple last night?

Notice I got a shot of the MoonTower in there? So... what's your desk looking like today?

Slippy switches teams!

I know what you are thinking: "How could he do it? He has such a nice wife and child!", but it is true - I have gone to the Mac side. Yes, that's right. No more PC for Slippy. He will now be the proud owner and user of a MacBook Pro 15" marvel of technology.

But he won't stray too far from Microsoft, or even Windows, yet. He'll still dual boot, and even use Parallels and XP to get at the MS Office. And he'll give Bill Gates even more money in the months ahead when he drops $500 CAD on an XBox360. But he will show off his shiny new silver surfer. Oh yes.

Tips ARE Sexy!

At a burrito place near where I work (Yonge & Sheppard)...

I guess just putting the label,"TIPS" in the jar just wasn't bringing in the coins.

NHL (the video game)

Its that time again... and by the sounds of it, Woods beat us all to the next generation of gaming platforms. Am very excited to hear your first impressions! That being said, which hockey game are you gonna pick up, EA NHL '07 or NHL2K7?


P.S. Isn't that freaky realistic? My first glance, I thought it was a photo...

Interesting Weekend

It was a weekend of contrasts. It started with me going to the Lincoln County Fair to gather footage for a short film I am developing. Talking to farmers, horse exibitors, carnies and craft people. It was good fun.

In a 180 degree turn, last night I went to the after-party of the showing of the film Shortbus at the Toronto Film Fest. It is the latest offering from actor/director John Cameron Mitchel who is the man behind Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Quite a night put on by the Queer Lounge at The Phoenix. We held up the bar like a couple of kids at a highschool dance as Posey Parker and Jennifer Coolidge cut a rug on the dance floor. We also rubbed elbows with Moses Znaimer and Scotty Speedman at the bar (yes, Slip I did say hi for you).

UPDATE: After watching some entertainment news programs on television today, I realize that since Slip mentioned his connection to Scott Speedman until today, I have had him mixed up with Shawn Ashmore of X-Men fame. It was indeed Mister Ashmore at the party, not Mister Speedman. My apologies to all, especially our anonymous commentor (it was nice to have you around).

Other Stuff

Well, what a banner blogging day or two. Its been a while since I've thrown down 3 posts in a row, but what the hell. I found a new blog that I am in love with. It probably won't surprise you considering my other faves, but this one speaks to me, and the emptiness that is my wallet.

Uncrate - The Buyer's Guide for Men

Yeah, that's right. Its got stuff for men. Real men. Men who like a little hair spray mixed in with their BMW X5s. A bit o' cufflinks, salad bowls, hand grenade oil lamps and HDTVs. 'Nuff said.

So my daily reading now consists of my Yahoo! home page, the Moon Tower, Engadget, Joystiq, Uncrate, and Boing Boing. Of course, I try and sprinkle in a dash or two of productive work here and there, but who's got time when the internets are so darn interesting?

Beyond that, the little guy had his first day at Montessori school yesterday, and we are pleased to announce that he was allowed to return today.

Sudan man forced to 'marry' goat

BBC NEWS | Africa | Sudan man forced to 'marry' goat.

Tough weekend for that dude.

Gold, I tell ya!

I keep forgetting about this, but its time I resurrected it. Here's the teaser.

Tease me.

You wanna buy a t-shirt?

PSST. I hear that guy started designing shirts. You can buy 'em here.

Thanks.

The man is amazing. I BELIEVE IN A BETTER WAY ! What energy. Amen Omen. Ground on Down. Faded. Glory and Consequence. Another Lonely Day. Burn One Down. Sexual Healing. Waiting. Kisses. Diamonds.
Ben, Juan, Michael, Jason, Leon, Oliver. Thanks.
There is A BETTER WAY.
- Wooderson72 (CAN) 9.3.2006 @ 18:44:06

Let's get the chatter going!

Hey did anyone mention that we are going to see Ben Harper this weekend! And Damien "Jr. Gong" Marley! And the homegrown Bedouin Soundclash!

As a wise bus driver once said as he slapped an 8 track of Bob into his deck and steered his van towards a Ziggy Marley show with our dear Woods in tow, "if I a go to see jah son, mek we listen to jah father."

Keep the Bob spinning 'til the weekend.

What's the plan? I hear there is a expected 1pm arrival at the dub-bunker on Saturday.

Acquisition

Toshiba 34" HD Ready TV....

STEAL THIS FILM!

Hey, check out this interesting film on P2P filesharing. It focuses on the guys who run the Pirate Bay torrent site. You can download many different file formats of the film here: STEALTHISFILM

Mister Canoehead

I just got back from a 4 day canoe trip in Algonquin Park. We paddled our way through North Tea, Three Mile and Biggar Lake. We saw a couple of moose and the strangest and largest green catepillar type creature. A few blisters and sore muscles, but otherwise we survived the wild once again.

The image is a new desktop background inspired by the trip.

Game Over

I thought this was brill. You may have caught it on BoingBoing...

Oh Bob. I hope you can't see this.

In a bizarre move, someone is attempting to soil the memory of Bob Marley with this new cellphone game:


Hey Mon! Enjoy the tropics as you play as Bob Marley in some fun mini games. This game celebrates Marley's passions, from island life, soccer, and of course, music - Reggae style! Juggle the ball in the air like a pro, and rack up combo points for hitting special power-ups. See how far you can kick a ball while timing the bounce to Marley music. It's simple yet addictive fun, all set to your favorite Marley tunes including "One Love", "Stir It Up", and "Could You Be Loved". This game is the ultimate tropical experience!


On behalf of humanity, I apologize, Bob. They know not what they do.

Jack Desktop

Here's a little Jack to go with your Ben.

Ben Desktop

Woods...here ya go, for your juicy double monitors as the countdown to the Ben show begins!

By the way, I downloaded the Ben Harper iTunes Exclusive set...not bad, some interesting words from Ben, a couple of new live in-studio performances, several tracks from exisitng albums. Nothing to jump up and down about.

Name that band!

Without the help of our collective memory (aka the internet)...can any of you name this band?

PS if you download the full sized image, this makes a pretty cool desktop image.

HALO: The Movie

Hey, check out this vid:


The director of this commercial is going to be the director of the new HALO movie coming out summer '08, with Peter Jackson as the Exec. Producer...

UPDATE:

The director's name is Neill Blomkamp. I am pretty sure he is from Vancouver. He is represented by a Toronto production company called SPY Films. I am a big fan of his work. Check out these links. If the HALO film is anything like that commercial and these, then it will be awesome!

Alive in Joburg
Adicolor - Yellow

UPDATE 2:

Here's a portfolio of his work embedded on one page for your viewing pleasure:
Scrutinize halo director's CV with videos

Fire at the Townes!

Last night we returned from Ottawa at around 10:30pm, around 12:30am, I smelt smoke and checked out our back window to see if someone was burning something, a couple minutes later Sarah came running from the bedroom, yelling "FIRE!". She was already on the phone to 911, I ushered us outside only to see the townhouse across the way totally ablaze! Huge flames were coming from the top, pretty sure a bbq propane tank blew up as the fire spread. No one was hurt, and we had no damage, but 2 units are really burnt and the 2 units beside them have tons of water and smoke damage. We were evacuated until 3:30am. And then they were pumping water and smoke out of the units until around 5:00am. No idea what started the fire. The firefighters are still around investigating.

You can check out the "in-depth" report at CityTV News - click

UPDATE: Check out the photo of the damage to the main unit that caught fire. Apparently 4 units are burnt in the back and have severe water and smoke damage.

Lemonade

'Evenin'

Havent but dabbled in this yet, but its a must-buy if only for Bens contribution on "Let the Music Play". Crazy song. Listen at

Myspace.

(No - its not actually MY Space)

Some Live Songs EP

Have either of you heard this EP?

Pandora!

Have you guys tried this out? It is an internet radio station where YOU put in the artist you want to hear, it plays a song by them, then searches for music conceptually and technically similiar. Wow.



Wow.

Gabacha Palabrotas UPDATED

Hey, I finally posted a translated version of the Mexican design film I did. Watch it through the Spanish version, then the translated version will play. You can check it out here:

click here, I know you want to...

Ding-a-ling!

Check it! My new Uniden TRU9485 cordless, 5.8 ghz, digi-answer, customizable display, intercom, handsfree, one-bad-mo-fo telephone!

Talking shite has never felt this good.

In YOUR FACE...

The Boy.


All is good in London. All is good. My son IS turning into some mix between Dennis the Menace, and Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes. Lots of fun.
How are things ??? Talk to me...

In Your Face: Part II

Hey I started blogging at warrenbrown.ca/blog.

Check it out.

Interactive Mosaic

This site is addictive. Real time/community built/digital mosaic...

The Broth - Mosaic

Matisyahu

Have you guys heard of this guy? I have been resitant to dabble in his music, but I watched this bit on him from YouTube:

Matisyahu Interview

Check out the video for his song, "King Without A Crown" here:

Matisyahu Website

I'm diggin' it.

MacBook Pro

Holy crapatola. A guy working for me on this project has one of the big 17" sidescreen MacBook Pros, and this thing is frickin' bootiful. He is running "Parallels", which allows you to run Windows XP virtually, and the whole thing is blazingly fast. I think my next notebook might be the 15" version of that badboy. Either that, or one of the Alienware laptops... But those weigh in around 9lbs...

Walking on Stumps

After sitting in a certain position for a long time (e.g. on the potty), do you ever get the numb legs sensation, and then when you walk it feels like you are walking on stumps? Then you get the pins and needles in your feet? Do you ever get that? Yeah? Me too.

Website

Hey Version 1.0 of my website is now live!

www.warrenbrown.ca

#622: Kid Silverhair, the Man of Indeterminate Age

#622: Kid Silverhair, the Man of Indeterminate Age
Originally uploaded by Dubby Hornblower.

Here's my latest offering to the 700 Hobos Project

An Inconvenient Truth

I had the opportunity last night to go see Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" about climate change. This is a must see. It is no slapstick doc like "Fahrenheit 911" or "Supersize Me", rather it presented information about climate change in a clear way and explaned things that I had no idea were actually happening or could actually happen in the near future (like Greenland breaking up and melting in the next 50 years).

Here is my political rant for the day. It is such a tragedy that Al Gore lost the presidency the way he did to George Bush. Go see this film. Here's the link.

An Inconvenient Truth - Climate Crisis

Looks like we have a plan!

Hey,

Just talked to Woods about this weekend. It looks like he has some appreciation soiree on Friday where he will be roasted and given a gold watch as part of his depature from his current employment, so he won't be coming over until Saturday. I am just going to be lounging on the deck all day, so come on over anytime on Saturday. Give me a call when you're getting close, so I can get out of my tanning Speedo and put on some real clothes.

See you Saturday. Slip, don't forget the meat!

Video Game Poll

Seeing as how there has been a bunch of new info released on the 3 main video game consoles over the last month, I thought I would throw this poll out there. I added an option for a 360 and a Wii since you could probably get both for the price of the PS3. Whaddya think?

Funny Photoshopping

Fellas,

Thought this was reeeeeeally funny. Its a photoshop contest on how video games are perceived by grandmas. Check it out: Video Games According to Grandma.

On another note, I just wanted to point out that Wooderson's post below with the Mod Club video was #300 for the Moon Tower! W00T!

Mod Club Video

Near-DVD quality video of about half of the Mod Club Ben concert. Worth a watch...

Woods.

http://entertainment1.sympatico.msn.ca/Music/Artists/Articles/benharper

(Dubby - I think you might need a PC to view ?)

WWF on The Apprentice

If you watching and want to keep all aspects of the finale of The Apprentice a surprise, then stop reading, but if you want a little insider info on the show then here it is...

The finale involves the World Wildlife Fund and The Barenaked Ladies. The VP of Communications for WWF Canada, who will probably be on the show, works at the Toronto office.

And nothing close to Woods Ben Harper encounter, but I had the chance last week to attend a WWF organic food event where Steven Page was speaking on behalf of WWF. But in hind sight, my most memorable celebrity encounter will still always be filling up at a gas station along the 401 between Toronto and Kingston last Christmas across from a sunglasses/hoodie clad Gord Downie. Don't fuck with the 401!

Songs We Sing

Check out Matt Costa's "Songs We Sing".
Enjoy...

When are we getting together ??? What do you guys have on Saturday June 3rd?

NEWZ from London...

Gents - News from London. Gave my 2-weeks at Protek on Friday. Im off to Anixter...yes the same Anixter that spurned me but a month ago. That was screamin' up on 3 years in the same job for me. Toooo long. Looking forward to the new challenges that lie ahead.
Lets talk soon.
C.

(Heard of "Wolfmother" ? Not bad. New-ish Black Sabbath meets Zeppelin...)

Lotion & Tissue

Two things you DON'T want to find under your male colleague's desk...

What Celebrities Do You Look Like?

I uploaded my ugly mug to myheritage.com, and apparently, my closest matches are (in order):

John F. Kennedy

Viktor Yushchenko - didn't this guy go all pock-marked due to KGB poisoning?

Russell Crowe

Julio Iglesias - I am most proud of this one

James Garner - my namesake (Brett Maverick)

Joe Pesci

Pierce Brosnan

Go figure.

A Swarm of Angels

I came across this project last week and found it very interesting, I even signed up. There are already several amazing people involved including Cory Doctorow (BoingBoing) and Tommy Pallotta (Waking Life, A Scanner Very Darkly). Check out the info and link below.

Want to Remix Cinema?

You can help invent the future of film by joining the Swarm in creating a £1 million pound film and giving it away to over one million people in one year.

By using the Internet as a medium to fund, help make and distribute this film A Swarm of Angels wants to remix cinema.

A Swarm of Angels is a new way to create cult media. The project is a giant new media experiment to gather 50,000 people paying £25 each to create a new type of movie.

This feature film and associated original media embraces the flexible digital-age copyright of Creative Commons, because we want people to freely download, share, and remix the original media made for this project.

A Swarm of Angles

This guy ROX0R$!

At first, I thought someone caught Colin on tape, dancing up a storm in Vegas...

Viva Las Vegas !!!

I'm off to Vegas this Saturday for the Perritt-McCall Wedding. Going to be RIDICULOUS ! Can't wait. I'll be back NEXT Wednesday, and we will HAVE TO CHAT, big news from London pending !
C-money.

(Edit - No. I have no affiliation with The FRIEDMAN Archives)

In Your Face

Slip, since you have your creative hat on, I thought you would be interested in the "In Your Face" project at the AGO. It is an open call to send a 4 x 6 portrait to the gallery (by June 1) and they will add it to the collection. On July 1 they exhibit will open and it is anticipated that it will be the world's largest collection of portraiture art ever assembled.

For more info go to the AGO website

Gabacha Palabrotas

I was invited by a Mexican font collective (called Tiypo) to take their most recent dingbat font which came together as a collaboration of several Mexican graphic designers. Each desginer created a graphic that reminded them of Mexico. Animators were then asked to take the font and create an animation that was tied to the theme of 'Mexico'. I decided to search the internet for slang that was exclusive to the Spanish spoke in Mexico. I used bits and pieces of the dingbats to create characters, threw together a pumping music track, animated my characters dancing to the beat and delivering the slang which was clumisly strung together by yours truly, a non-Spanish speaking animator from Canada! The title of the animation is "Gabacha Palabrotas" which is clumsy Mexican slang meaning "Foreigner's Big Words"

You can check it out here:
Gabacha Palabrotas - Quicktime

Slippy Photos

Yo. Decided that with all the internet trollers and strange individuals online, we would take down our family photo blogs (e.g. the one of Will), and instead put it up in a photo gallery that had a little more security.

Youze guyz are more than welcome to join and see photos. You can even add your own if you feel so inclined (no nudies, dubby, please, although pics with REALLY long sausages are acceptable), as I have some excess server space right now.

Here's the link! http://www.toggle.ca/gallery/

Check you later!

Hobos (Part 2)

Wormy Gleen and Nootka the Flatworm
Originally uploaded by Slippy McGavin.

Following in Dubby Hornblower's footsteps, I added a hobo of my own tonight... #640 - Wormy Gleen and Nootka the Flatworm.

Although always a big hit at boxcar parties, Wormy Gleen and Nootka's shapeshifting abilities often scared the hobo children.

Sketches, Snapshots and Scribbles form Mexico

I've posted some of my sketches and photos from my trip to Mexico. Take a peak...

Sketches, Snapshots and Scribbles fro Mexico

Picture in a Frame

No Burritos? NOO!!!!

You've probably heard about the immigration debate going on currently in the US. I thought this guy summed it all up with his sign.

El Mariachi

El Mariachi! Snapped this photo of some tough looking Mariachi ready to play some fuckin' Mariachi tunes! This was at Agua Azul waterfalls, just down the road from the Miso Hal waterfalls (where they shot Predator).

Toronto

Was on a boat cruise last night, so I thought I would share a photo. Took it with my Treo - I am actually pretty impressed with the quality I am getting out of it, with minimal manipulation in the 'pooter. Too bad it is only 640x480 max...

E-HOBO

Remember when I did the illustration of the hobo a while back, well there was some junk about Flickr not allowing illustrations, only photos, so some guys set up a group for the hobo images, now there is a website. My hobo is #400

E-Hobo.com

The Simpsons

I thought this was well done...

Hola from Mexico!

Greetings from Oaxaca!

We are making our way through Mexico. It seems like ages ago that we flew out of Buffalo. We hooked up with my pal Mario (from Habitat) for a few day in Mexico City. He has a wicked pad in the hills where we chilled out and dashed in a out of the city to take in some of the sights.

From the city, we flew to Villahamosa and checked out the giant Olmec Heads. I did a paper on these ancient sculputres back at Western. We zipped deeper into Chiapas and visited the Mayan ruins in the jungles of Palenque. Spent a few days over Easter in San Cristobal de las Casas in the highlands. On Good Friday the people of the city took the streets and acted out the stations of the cross and the crucificion of Christ for all to see. It was surreal.

We are now in Oaxaca City wandering, eating and drinking the mezcal! We are heading back to Mexico City tomorrow to hook up with my friend Nacho´s parents, then with good luck we are going to catch a night of 'Lucha Libre' - Mexican wrestling!

Can't wait to see you guys and catch up! Adios amigos!

Ben Tix Secure

Kids - Got 6 tickets - Section 201 - its to the right of the stage, and I dont know actual seat #s yet, but we DO have tickets. One group of 4 (Colin, Brett, Warren and Sarah) and a group of 2 (Christa and Aaron).

Hopefully Saturday September 2nd is a nice day, as the doors open at 3, and Im pretty pumped about the opening acts - Bendouin Soundclash and Damian Marley.

Cant wait !

C.

Interesting Gaming Theories

Interesting top 10 list...

Guess where I am!

In an attempt to start blogging from unusual locations, I bring you my first post. While I highly doubt that I am the first to blog from here, it is a first for me. Thanks to my trusty Treo 650 for providing the capability to do this.

Guess where I am!

Magical Night at the Mod Club Pt. I

Life is complete...I met Benjamin Chase Harper.
Took a chance and went down to the Mod Club yesterday afternoon after a somewhat shady email transaction to secure a ticket.
Lets just say it was a good chance.

Ridiculous. I could write a book on the events of April 10th...let alone a Blog post. Magical...incredible, unbeleivable. Not enough superlatives. I know I love my Ben, but he is amazing. About 530PM, waiting in-line with the typical menagerie of 12-15 Ben fans one might expect, a white van pulled up to the front of the club, it was immediatly obvious that Ben was inside. He poured out of the van, and walked right up to us, as the group I was with had been at a similar show in Montreal the night before.
Talk about humble. He was just a normal dude ! Not that I expected him to hover off the ground or anything, but MAN was he cool. Trying to remember peoples names as he met them...listening to every word his fans had to say, just as they listened to his music. Can you imagine me ? I was in total awe. One of the Benharper.net icons was there and chatted with Ben like they were best buddies. Pictures were taken...posters were signed, and handshakes were exchanged. Needless to say, I was in my glory (and quite honestly, am going to be for a while). I would not have needed to fork-over my cash for the ticket, as Ben was quite willing to add ANYONE to the guest list. A couple of guys who had just shown up in hopes of getting in- were in, just like that - no questions asked.
Remember..in my little story, Im still in-line OUTSIDE the bar !!!! It only gets better. I met some cool people in line though, and had a great afternoon alst while buzzing like crazy after meeting THE MAN.

Magical Night at the Mod Club Pt. 2

...not sure if you have ever stepped foot in the Mod Club when its primed for a concert, but if not, imagine yourself stepping foot into a Quentin Tarantino movie (kind of Kill Bill meets From Dusk til Dawn?). Amazing joint...Ben aside the environment alone was verging on surreal. Red, and orange lights cast over everything. Two 'Both Sides Bullseyes beeming across the room, and on the stage with a light mist wafting over them...two chairs and mike-stands sitting idle on the stage. Deep purple lights fill the stage area...



The 45 minute wait was long, but only helped stir the antcipation ! We were AT THE STAGE. Christa was LEANING on the stage, Aaron and i perched close behind with a direct line of site at the stage ! (Also a PERFECT spot for the Creative Labs Nomad to record might I add).
Heres the quick version of what transpired. Imagine a FULL BLOWN Ben concert...with only two members performing...with ONLY acoustic guitars ! It hits you JUST THE SAME WAY. Bone chilling in fact. Deafining clarity like you have NEVER heard before, especially from acoustics. Mind you, I was standing beside a speaker tower probably 15 ft high ???
Setlist as follows -
(Played about 2Hours - Most acoustic sets he does are an hour - hour and a half. Not sure what it is about Toronto, but he LOVES to play there)


Power of the Gospel - Amazing. He screws up the guitar at the beginning and starts over - gets a good chuckle - very apologetic.
Another Lonely Day - Man...Ben can WORK an acoustic. Litterally BENDING the guitar as he plays it.
Walk Away - A classic. Well done.
BADASS Instrumental (called "Walk Alone" on the setlist) - CRAZY BLUESY DOBRO. Cant quite describe this, but Ben at his "guitarical" best !

11th Commandment/Well Well Well - Sweet sweet guitar....
Please Don't Talk About Murder - Michael joins Ben for their first song together. Again...amazing to me this song was played with ACOUSTIC guitars. Shivers.
Reason to Mourn - One of my new favourties. Very Cat Stevens to me.
Picture in a Frame - I maintain...the new Amen Omen, might be slightly more amazing with the Band, but still acoustic genius.
Crying Won't Help You Now - Beautiful, heartfelt song.
Engraved Invitation - One of the high points for me. Ben screams chill me to my core. We are so close, we can litterally see spittle fly out of his mouth as he rocks the chair back on two legs, SCREAMING at the TOP of his lungs. Deafening.
Never Leave Lonely Alone - Another new one...takes some growing, but outstanding nonetheless.
Morning Yearning - Didnt think acoustic guitars could sound like that. For the "new" Criminal, Micheal is OK with me...
Gather Round the Stone - Ben chats with the crowd here. About his love for Toronto...his love for all the STYLE in Toronto.
Please Bleed - Words cant quite describe. This is something Ive ALWAYS wanted to hear acoustic, and it did NOT dissapoint. Not sure what was better - Bens vocals, or Micheals guitars.
Waiting for You
There Will Be a Light
Where Could I Go

Encore:

In the Lord's Arms - SOOO Rare. Beatiful.
The Drugs Don't Work - A request made by Neil - the guy who hooked me up with the ticket. Ben never plays it. It was awesome.
Forever - Classic. Purple lights.
Diamonds on the Inside - Another "new classic". Done slightly slower than normal, but equally as impressive.
Glory & Consequence >>> Indifference!!!!! >>> Glory & Consequence - We could see Ben trying to coax Michael into Amen Omen at the crowds urging, instead we were BLESSED with this. CMon are you KIDDING ME. Starts with a CRAZY version of G&C...blends into a funky parlay on which I had no idea where it would end up, and next thing I know they are into Indifference by Pearl Jam. At this point in the night Ben should NOT have had a voice, yet its HERE where he unleashes the most chlling VOCALS of the night. As per the vocals, he litterally SCREAMS HIS LUNGS OUT !


2 Hours of absolute bliss. Im SORRY you guys could not be there as it was INCREDIBLE. Im not teasing you here or bragging...I want to SHARE this with you guys !!!

Rumour had it, right from the horses mouth that after the show, Ben was going to hit the Revival for Open Mike...a bunch of concert go-ers headed over, but sadly after waiting over a few beers, we gave up. Oh well !!!! I was exhausted as it was. Sorry for the long post - their still may be a Part III.