from one charity to another

after some evaluation, i've decided that it's pretty unlikely that i'm going to be able to reach the $2500 goal for the ride to conquer cancer that I was thinking aboot earlier, so i've decided to focus my efforts on the Becel Ride for Heart.

On June 1st I'm going to be taking part in the Becel Ride for Heart. Is there a certain amount of irony in a charity for the Heart and Stroke Foundation being sponsored by a margarine producing company? I think so.

Anyhoo, I'll be doing the 75 km ride which goes from the Exhibition grounds up to York Mills road on the DVP and back. For anyone considering taking part, there are 3 different rides - a 25 km, a 50 km and a 75 km ride, all along the Gardiner Expressway and the DVP.

For anyone who doesn't want to or can't take part, feel free to sponsor me and pass around my sponsorship link to anyone you know:

https://secure.heartandstroke.ca/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=265808&lis=1&supId=208742731

I'll be the guy on the orange bike somewhere near the back of the group, trying hard to keep up.

bamboo wednesday! six months later!

so here we are at the six month point. 26 weeks since the original bamboo wednesday post - still alive and green:



just look at the progress we've got there eh? got to be a good 4-5 cm of growth


i have an important meeting today and am beginning to think that wearing old reliable - the red shirt edition and blue jeans was probably not a wise choice. in my own defense, i didn't know i was going to be having a meeting of any sort today. well i don't look completely like a slob, i just don't look Frank Sinatra fabulous.

but then again, who does?

coming soon to a photo booth near you

although i didn't have time to watch more movies last night having two jobs and all, i did manage to find time to develop one of my rolls of film.

film you say? yes, that plasticy stuff that came in tubes that you used to be able to put in cameras that resulted in photographs being printed on paper.

well, i just did the negatives last night, and i don't actually have the equipment to print actual photos and shit yet. i do have to get my scanner hooked up so i can at least see the results. i think i left it in the developer liquid a bit too long.

i'm hoping to get a chance to do one more roll tonight, then scan the whole lot of them to see what turned out. in the meantime, i'm going to drink some tea.

a weekend of movies ... and the godfather

i think i forgot to post this last week eh?


i spent SO much time watching movies this weekend, it was borderline ridiculous. some were films i've seen many times, some i've never seen at all, and one that i should have seen but just never got around to until this weekend.

first off was Fido, a reasonably new film out of Canada eh starring Carrie-Anne Moss and Billy Connolly as the main zombie in the film. yes, it is a zombie movie, but it's rather intentionally funny rather than unintentionally funny as most zombie flicks are. having to deal with zombies as a regular part of life, humans have found a way to domesticate zombies and an unpopular boy makes his pet zombie Fido his best friend. hilarity ensues. worth renting.

then came South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut. i know, who hasn't seen this movie a thousand times already. heck, i think i even saw it twice in the theater. that all doesn't mean you can't watch it again. and again. it's worth it all for the uncle fucker song.

next on the list was Guy X. i think that my expectations were set way too high for this one after having seen The Jacket, but i was kind of disappointed here. a soldier is mistakenly sent to a base in Greenland rather than hawaii and is baffled about the seemingly pointless nature of the base. he eventually finds out more than he should about the base and starts getting himself into trouble. the premise around this movie kept giving me hope that something more drastic was going to happen at some point, but it eventually just fizzled down into an overly mediocre ending. it's on Movie Network on Demand if you want to watch it, but i don't think i'd bother paying for it.

then the mafia movies...

Goodfellas seemed like a good choice after being thoroughly disappointed by the previous movie. i've seen it tons of times, but certainly don't mind watching it again. Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta all give some of their finest performances in this mafia flick. lots of swears, lots of killing and a brilliant story written by Nicholas Pileggi based on the true story of mobster Henry Hill. Joe Pesci won the Oscar for best supporting actor and it was nominated for 5 others. absolutely brilliant.

and speaking of brilliant, how come it took me 30 years to get around to watching The Godfather. my only complaint is that it's 3 hours long. and i'm not complaining because 3 hours is too much, rather that it's hard to get that much consecutive time to watch it - and believe me when you start watching it, you don't want to stop half way through. go pee and get your snacks first and you'll see why it's ranked #1 on IMDB's top 250.

i'm going to try to watch The Godfather Part II tonight. i need to know the rest of the story now. Part III shall follow later this week and perhaps i'll finish things up watching Casino (another Pileggi penned book-t0-film).

an opportunity to be a conqueror

i'm considering taking part in the Ride to Conquer Cancer. it's a 200 km bike ride split across two days from downtown Toronto to Niagara Falls. the sponsorship requirements are a little high - you need to raise $2500 to take part - but i think i have enough time to do it if i hit up people at both jobs.

my question to the bicycle riding internet: is there anyone out there who would be willing to join me if i were to create a team? i don't plan on riding overly fast. in fact, i'm just out of shape enough that i will probably be towards the end of the pack. what i'm looking for essentially is to get a couple of days on my bike and to raise money for a good cause.

if you or somone you know is interested in raising a ton of money and riding your (or their) bike for two days, let me know either via comment or email me at untastic@gmail.com.

the basics of the ride: 100 km each day, the first night will be spent camping in Hamilton. there are pit stops every 25-30 kms with snacks and drinks. when you reach Niagara Falls, if you don't have someone to pick you up, you have the option of taking the train back - more info here. there's an option for the faster riders (which i am not) to do an extra 50 km after the first day's riding with Canadian professional cyclist Steve Bauer.

so like i said, let me know if you want to join a team with me. should be loads of fun eh.

not so good with the wednesday! part of bamboo eh?

i've really been enjoying listening to the heavy metal versions of 80's pop music tracks made by bands like Korn, Disturbed and Powerman 5000. is that a bad thing?

i mean, they still rock hard, but they have that familiar sound that reminds us that as much as we try to put it behind us, the 80s still happened.

Korn did a version of Cameo's Word Up, which was coincidentally also re-done by one of the former Spice Girls at or around the same time. i can't remember which version came first, but i know which one i like better.

Disturbed tends to release one of these tracks on pretty much all of their albums. Their Down with the Sickness album featured Shout 2000, a cover of the Tears for Fears hit from the 80s and their album 10,000 Fists featured Land of Confusion, an old Genesis track i remember being regularly played at McDonald's back when i worked there.

Powerman 5000's version of Let the Good Times Roll, a Cars classic i remember being in frequent rotation as a kid stays quite true to the original, but adds a harder edge that i'm sure the song would have had if it were made 15 years later.

If anyone else knows of good metal versions of 80s tracks, leave a note in the comments so's i can hunt them down.

i should have a nail GUN

i know i've mentioned it before, but it's worth saying again.

clipping your nails at work is not appropriate.

especially when you're at your desk and there's a half dozen other people within ear-shot. personally, i'm of the belief that it should be done in the bathroom behind a closed door. i think it's the sound that bothers me most. it just makes my skin crawl.

and also, someone should come by my desk with some orange juice already. i mean seriously.

That's what they say, 500 up on the ladder

today marks the 500th post on this here place by myself, is it appropriate that it's two days after bamboo wednesday! should have been and i'm only just posting my photo now?


we're almost at the 6 month mark on this expedition of trying to find out why office people kill bamboo so frequently. i still haven't been able to figure it out, though i'm sure i will some day.

today my boss sent an email out saying that he was going to be taking a mini spring break with his kids out of the country, so he's not going to be around until wednesday next week. within seconds of people in my office reading this email you could hear the cheers and comments of "hey, does that mean WE can take a march break too?"

i think we should. well, two of these next few days are days off anyways because it's a holiday. maybe i can get away with the "making an appearance" style of coming to the office for monday and tuesday. i've already gotten a head start today i suppose since i didn't actually get into the office until nearly 1 o'clock. if i leave at 5, that would make today a 4 hr work day. frickin sweet. just like back in high school when i only had a part time job, except i get paid a lot more to do this and don't have any calculus homework to do afterwards. the sucky thing is that i have to go to job number two tonight and work there until 11 o'clock, so really, i suppose i'm going to actually be pulling a full work day after all.