Month: September 2003

Categories
life Music

Go Deaf for Def Leppard Update

At the crack of dawn this morning Anna-Maria and I headed off to Rock 106 to try and win some concert tickets. When I got there, there was only one other contestant. Things were looking up, but then they got on the radio and asked more people to come down and be in on the contest. Well a few more people started to show up and after a slight mishap with dead batteries in the decibel reader they got things underway.

First off, I should explain the basis behind this contest. The idea was that whoever sang the loudest Def Leppard line would win tickets to the Def Leppard concert on Monday. They talked Anna into also participating and she sang at an amazing 101.2 decibels (or was it 102.1?) She sang Pour a Little Sugar on Me — which she said she didn’t even know and nobody else sang louder than Anna-Maria, in fact nobody else even broke 100 decibels, except for me. I yelled a spectacular 106.6 decibels of Let’s Get Rocked and then after the contest was over did an encore performance and sang at 108.1!

We won the tickets and now all that’s between me and a sweet free Def Leppard concert is getting out of my evening class on Monday night. We are pumped.

Categories
Miscellaneous

You Can’t Keep the Mountain, But How About an Airport?

Former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was honoured today at a ceremony to rename Montreal-Dorval International Airport to Trudeau Airport.

“The world remembers Pierre Elliott Trudeau,” Alexandre (Sacha) Trudeau told several dozen family members, friends and other invited guests.

Of course, you know what they remember? “For us, Trudeau is a dictator,” said one unhappy Quebecois who wishes they would just leave the airport’s name alone.

Categories
animation copyright Music

Girl 12, Settles Lawsuit

Recently, the RIAA laid charges on a 12 year old girl from New York State for copyright violations by downloading music over the Internet.

It has now been announced (CNN story) that the RIAA has rushed to settle with the young Brianna LaHara, after serving her with a lawsuit on Monday. It looks like her single mother will be paying a $2,000 fine to the RIAA for her daughter’s song-swapping, which they had thought was legal. They purchased the software that allowed them to swap files with other users.

Quoting Brianna: “I am sorry for what I have done. I love music and don’t want to hurt the artists I love.” What a relief this must be for the huge bands like Metallica.

You might think that the RIAA was being excessive but see, downloading files is just a gateway crime… by the time this girl is 17, she’ll be sharing video games, and maybe by the time she’s in her early 20’s she’ll be giving away illegal copies of Microsoft Office! Thank goodness for American justice.

Categories
life

2003/2004 Swim Season: How to Deal with Muscle Cramps

I just finished the first swim practice of this season. I am exhausted. I could feel my legs ready to cramp up at any second; my right leg did cramp up just as I was getting out of the pool at the end of practice. If you have never had a leg cramp let me tell you, it is a very painful experience.

The other swimmers tell me that the best thing to do to prevent leg cramps is to eat foods with lots of potassium, like bananas. The best thing to do when you already have a cramp is to fully extend your leg – although at the time that may seem like the last thing you want to do.

The cramp I had this morning was such a painful big cramp that I could actually see the muscles bulging out where the cramp was. Tonight I will consume a whole tree’s worth of bananas.

My coach says the whole banana as a cure for muscle cramps is a placebo.

Categories
life Music

Go Deaf for Def Leppard – Rock 106 Radio Contest

I forgot to mention that this morning on the radio I heard them talking about free tickets for Def Leppard for the next 10 callers. Well I whipped out the cell phone and then Fraser and Rosie (the breakfast boys) explained to me that I didn’t win yet but that I had to come down to the studio on Friday morning and sing a short clip from Def Leppard. Whoever sings the loudest will win the tickets. Somewhat hesitantly I told them I would be there.

Update: Apparently I have quite the ability to raise my voice — see how the contest turned out.

Categories
Miscellaneous

Potential Make-Up Artist for Hire

I told Anna that I might advertise her skills as a make-up artist for this Halloween. She would have a blast doing it and whoever had their fancy custom made mask/make-up would really love it too. It’s a win/win situation. They could slap on some old age makeup or try out some elf ears. I’m sure Anna could come up with a lot of other cool ideas too. Maybe Mom or Dad would like her help to dress up this year. I’m guessing Mom really would like something fancy to show off for her Kindergarten. Hopefully she (Anna) is not off working someplace when Halloween rolls around.

Categories
Miscellaneous

The Fridge, The Roommate, and Me

It’s finally come to this – I need a second fridge. Not just for space but for sanitation reasons as well. One of my roommates had one of those giant cans of tomato sauce in the fridge. You know the kind I mean, they must hold about 5 litres of sauce. Well instead of sealing it away in any kind of airtight container he just cut the lid half way off, folded it up to use it and then folded it back down to, you know, keep the mold out. Well needless to say he had a fine culture growing rapidly in a mostly full 5 litre can of tomato sauce. He seemed hesitant to throw it out.

He did eventually throw it out and we cleaned the fridge up pretty good. However, the situation still requires a second fridge for all of our food. Anna’s mother so kindly gave her a huge amount of groceries and we don’t want any of it to go bad so we need more fridge space. Luckily everything fit so far. We really do appreciate the groceries. So if anyone has a fridge for sale or for “giving away” please let us know.

Categories
life

Anna’s Back and We’re Both in the Hat

Anna-Maria arrived back in Western Canada on Friday afternoon. We spent the day shopping at Chinook Centre and decided to go back to Lethbridge rather than spend the night in Calgary. We saw Finding Nemo here in the Hat yesterday and I still give it two fins up. Although with fish movies two fins up does imply belly-up which is bad, I mean “two fins up” in the “it’s really good even the second time” way.

Categories
Miscellaneous

Burnination at Kelsey’s

Anna-Maria’s brother Josh works at Kelsey’s. Last night he phoned home to let his parents know that he was “very badly burned” and would like someone to bring him some ointment and second skin to put on the burn. Well he had us pretty worried. Lana and I went to check it out and bring him the first aid. He explained that while he was pouring some hot grease from one container to another and rubbed his arm up against the pot but it turned out that while it probably hurt quite a bit, his arm seemed to be ok – just a little red; no broken skin though; not even a blister.

Categories
games

Jeff Milner Video Game Review: Pirates + Xbox = Fun

A long, long, time ago Gary purchased a game for our Laser Computer (Apple II Compatible) called Pirates. It never did work on that computer. Well yesterday Anna’s sisters got a game for their Xbox called Pirates of the Caribbean (Official Site) and boy is it ever cool. I mean for a single player game, boy is it ever cool. In a lot of ways it takes me back to the way gaming used to be played. It reminds me of Dragon Warrior in that you go around talking to people and completing different tasks. It also reminds me of Taipan (another classic from our Apple II gaming days). I wonder if it’s possible to exploit the loan shark high interest trick in that game? In conclusion, I must admit that while I’ve only played it for a little bit and I don’t really know all about the game, from what I did see I liked it.