Year: 2006

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Munich

Last night, just as something fill the evening, we decided to take in a movie. There didn’t seem to be anything that jumped out at me, but then Drew started tossing the idea around about going to see Munich.

At first I was slightly sceptical, just because I didn’t want to go through the gory details of the 1972 terrorist massacre of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes. But what I didn’t know is that while the terrorist attack is a key part of the film, the story is really about the people that go after those involved and bring them to justice one-by-one, and really it’s about so much more than that, but I won’t go into too many details.

It’s such a powerful and memorable movie—in my opinion (for what it’s worth) Munich is Stephen Spielberg’s most gripping film (aside from, of course, Schindler’s List). I’m not usually much for action films, but when it comes to political thrillers like this one, I can’t put a strong enough recommendation on it. In my opinion, this is a must see for everyone old enough to understand the mature content.

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Tales from Mexico

On Sunday we really cut it close making our plane. We only gave ourselves about 15 minutes of extra time assuming everything else went according to plan, which would have been fine except for a couple of mix-ups like Trev forgetting his runners. Not to mention he also forgot that Drew moved about a year ago and hence he accidentally went to Drew’s old house putting us slightly behind schedule for the road.

Once we got on our way things were pretty uneventful, but there was a near disaster when Forgetful Jones Wallace forgot to pick up his wallet on the other side of security which might have resulted in a missed flight due to no ID. I have been thanking my lucky stars that I haven’t yet done anything particularly embarrassing or potentially trip ending but remember the week is young. Anyway it’s all good and we are having lots of fun in the sun.

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Today we hired a charter to take us to a couple of different villas up the coast and had fun snorkeling as well as hiking around on a couple of different beaches. The boat ride was really a blast. All of a sudden Drew was hit with a wave of nausea and began a not so friendly reunion with his breakfast on the port side. He looked in quite a bit of discomfort so I didn’t think it would have been right to document it in pictures. However I´m pretty sure Steve and/or Trev got a photo.

While Drew was just kind of taking it easy we were learning that it’s the manta ray mating season right now. There are lots and lots of large and small manta rays scouting the area looking for action. We were amazed to see one giant manta ray breach the water completely. Steve and Trev hopped in to get a closer look and I captured a photo with the manta as one of its fins came up out of the water. When I jumped in myself I was too late they were long gone.

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When we got to town, we lounged around a bit, I picked up some stomach settling pills for Drew and eventually we hiked up to see a waterfall. Unfortunately when we got there we discovered it was pretty dry. Apparently they are on the verge of a water shortage in the village and so there isn’t a lot left over for the river, but despite that, it was still a nice hike.

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We had dinner on the beach, enjoyed the weather and scenery for awhile and then and headed back into town.

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New Nikon D70s Digital SLR Camera

My brand new Nikon D70sFor my birthday, coming up in a week from today, my mom got me a new digital SLR camera! I’m still learning all the settings, but I’m loving every minute of it.

It’s a Nikon D70s. I also got a few accessories for it, including a polarizing filter, a camera bag, and a 1gb memory card.

I’m a little hesitant to take it with me on my trip to Mexico, but I got it a week before my birthday so I could do just that. I’ll be watching it like a hawk; at the same time I think it will be worth it.

Here are 12 winter photos I took with my new camera.

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The Curious Guy Interviews Malcalm Gladwell

I love Malcalm Gladwell’s writing and reading an ESPN interview with him only helps to reinforce my impression of him—he’s brilliant.

This week’s exchange is with Malcolm Gladwell, the best-selling author of “Blink” and “Tipping Point” as well as the longtime cleanup hitter for the New Yorker. You would never think that the most successful nonfiction writer alive would double as a huge sports fan … but he does. So I couldn’t resist the chance to exchange e-mails with him intermittently over the past six weeks.

Check out “Curious Guy: Malcalm Gladwell”, part I and part II.

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Moose Crossing

I’ve been working on a hockey fan site for the Halifax Mooseheads—http://halifaxherd.ca. When I started, I was a little worried that I might be overdoing it with the amount of red and black that I was putting in the design, but I think it actually turned out quite nicely.

Not only did I come up with a standards compliant design that fit with the motif he was looking for, but I also set him up with a copy Word Press so that he is now completely in control of his content. WordPress is great because of the amount of customization available through plugins (and brute coding—if you’re into that sort of thing). WordPress also makes it extremely easy for updating and modifying your site. It’s hard to believe something so valuable is available as a free download. Sometimes the free choice, is the best choice.

The site owner still has a couple of things he’d like me to help him with, but Moose Crossing is up and running and (in my opinion) it looks pretty sweet. Feel free to check it out and let me know what you think.

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The Lost Camera Situation

Using digital technology is a great way to share life’s little adventures. A digital camera, a flickr account, and a blog are pretty much all you need, to show off those great vacation photos from Hawaii.

You don’t even have to actually take your own pictures. That’s sort of what someone named Judith decided she was going to do. She went on a trip to Hawaii and things were going great until she lost her very expensive camera.

However, since Flickr is full of pictures from Hawaii, she decided to create a trip journal with the pictures of strangers who had taken similar photographs. Things weren’t great but she was making the best of a bad situation.

But then something unexpected happened! Things were great again because she was contacted by someone (from Canada I might add) who had found a camera which fit the description perfectly.

But then things were bad again because the people with the camera decided they’d rather not do the right thing after all. (Can I just mention how embarrassing it is that they are from Canada?)

The Internet mob is raging and they want names, email addresses and police action! Judith has decided to refrain from publishing personal information but that doesn’t mean she’s not still trying to get her camera back.

And if that weren’t enough, check out this weird twist over at BoingBoing “some guy claiming to be a “lawer” (sic) is “threatening legal action” against Corry Doctorow for publishing the story. Apparently, the so-called barrister doesn’t know the difference between “libel” and “slander” nor does he apparently consider the part of the libel statute that requires that a plaintiff be referenced in a way that is identifiable to be a factor.

The reporters have started leaving comments on Judith’s blog asking for interviews. I predict that this is a story we’ll be hearing more about, and I hope that the crummy people change their mind and give back the camera. It’s the least they could do after making us Canadians look so bad.

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Turn Back!

In 1975, the group Electric Light Orchestra (aka ELO) released an album titled Face the Music. The first song on the record is called Fire on High. It contains a backwards message at the beginning of the song. When played backwards the message, “The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back” is heard.

Fire on High is the most recent addition to my backmasking page.

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