St. Joseph Oratory

I made it to the St. Joseph Oratory today and it was quite an experience. I’m trying to wrap my head around the entire thing, and will probably share some of my ideas about religion and whatever. At this moment my mind is too blown, and the course of the day has made it quite hard to put my ideas and musings in to a blog post.

I actually slipped and fell while testing some “shoe enhancing wheels”, and I am wishing I hadn’t. When my ego and brain are repaired, I promise I will make a effort at a good blog post.

New T-shirts & Contest!!!

Hey everyone! I just made this shit hot new t-shirt and I wanted to share the love with all of you!

So this is the new T, designed and printed all by myself and Joey (From: You Are What You Love). This makes a T-shirt like this extra special because, A; It’s made with love in North America (American Apparel Ts are made in L.A and I printed this in Montreal), and B; They are going to be super rare! and C; They can be custom made just for you!

So in the future I’d like to set up some way to help this system along. Picking your colour, size and type of shirt will be the easy part, shipping and payment will be a bit harder. That being said, I’d like to have some fun before the hard part comes!

Let’s have a contest! I want to drum up some interest in my shirts, see if anyone actually wants one, so help me out by telling your friends about this blog, and following me on TWITTER! That’s actually how you get entered, on May 31st 2009 at 11:59 PM I will go ahead and select a winner of a free T-shirt. The winner will get to pick from any of the standard T-shirt sizes, colour and all that fun jazz.

After the contest, I will release how you too can purchase one of these very limited T-shirts for yourself and loved ones. Depending on demand, the run will be very limited, and I doubt I will make even close to 100 so as an owner you would be in a very exclusive niche.

What more can I say? Check out these pictures!!! (by clicking on “Read more”)

Aloe Vera a.k.a Green Power

While walking home from a nice gathering at the parc I saw a photo op that I could not turn down. Puts a pretty spin on such a concept.

420 Montreal

Update: It looks like the place to be in Montreal for this event is Parc Mont Royal. Be there or be square!

Hello friends!

This is a nice time of year, spring has sprung and our friend Summer has officially RSVP’d so everyone is preparing for her arrival. Everywhere you look, and even in places you don’t, you’ll see the changing face of the urban environment in preparation for all the wonder that such a season will bestow upon us. All because we so dillegently survived a lap around the sun, our reward is astronomical.

Another nice thing about today is the calendar day being represented as 4/20. A counter-culture holiday celebrated by hippies and business people a like, if you’re a regular reader I have a feeling I shouldn’t need to explain this, but a little info never hurts.

Santa Cruz Students Blaze Sadly, I had a rough time finding any first hand 420 info concerning Montreal, but reading this is a good indication of what goes on with some awesome pictures.

Thousands of students from around the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Areas participated in a “Four Twenty” celebration in Porter Meadow at UC Santa Cruz on April 20th, 2008. Four Twenty (420) is a time of day when people, often a group of friends, smoke cannabis together or eat foods cooked with it. For that reason, April 20th has evolved into a counterculture holiday where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis.

Fairly straight forward no? Check out these pictures…

Are these kids fighting a wild fire? Nope, that’s a different kind of smoke.

While there are detractors, haters, police, politician who will shoot down people like this. Those who want to arrest people who get high, who want to smash glass bongs and pipes, and stop people from doing something humans have been doing for centuries. These people get together to show solidarity in marijuana usage, to reinforce the peace and harmony involved in smoking or ingesting marijuana. Trying to prove that Marijuana is not a dangerous substance, but the opposite.

Well, I’m sure I’ll have a perspective employer Google my name and probably not hire me because of this post. If you had the interest to read this far, please consider that I am not an abuser, but a free thinking user who wants to spread the word. I am not a junkie that will space out of his job to smoke pot, or let what I do at home effect what I do at work. I am a normal, functioning citizen of Canada, who can proudly stand behind something I don’t think is all that bad.

That being said, Marijuana is not for everyone, and I want you readers to be aware there are consequences to all actions. Do not take my blog post as a recommendation for illegal activity, or to incite illicit behavior.

One love, peace be with all of you!

White Lies – To Lose My Life…

 

these are the saddest british people at SXSW right now.

http://www.myspace.com/whitelies

 

A funny occurrence came about while cellphone shopping last Thursday. I was feeling annoyed with the whole procedure, so I grabbed some Onion rings and ducked in to HMV for a quick browse while I calmed down. Turns out, the trip was a bit of a bust because they didn’t have the phone I wanted in stock, but turned out positively because I happened to see White Lies’ debut album “To Lose My Life…” being advertised at only 7.99.

I must say that 7.99 is a very interesting price for CD. If you find a CD in a bin for 7.99 it’s either a classic oldie, or probably pretty bad. This was however being fully advertised as an “Import”, and on a regular shelf. The price coupled with really enjoying the newish Crystal Castles remix of the single “Death” (which is pretty catchy AND hasn’t a single 8-bit sample) made an impulse purchase a no brainer.

While it’s becoming old fashioned, I still buy CDs when I have money. Recently, that has been scarce, but I do make an effort to support the music industry when I can. In this case, I have not been disappointed by my choice. Buying a CD and having to wait to get home to listen to it is quite a feeling, even though it’s becoming a scarce practice.

Anywho, enough with my long winded babble! The music is why you care about an album, not the procedure, or the reviewers inane prose. I must mention that the music is in fact VERY GOOD. Actually, almost everything about CD is great. It comes on one of those BLACK CDs, has rad cover art, and it was cheap. Score.

Musically speaking, the album is reminiscent of Joy Division. Dark herky jerky power pop-punk that can get your toes tapping. However, you may notice that while your toes are tapping, you begin crying, because like Joy Division, this album is rather depressing. Right from the first track “Death”, and immediately in to the second (and title track) “To Lose My Life…” you are constantly reminded of your imminent doom. Hell, even the band’s Myspace is depressing.

This is not a flawless album, I’m not in love with it. I don’t usually do reviews because I immediately fall in love with a lot of albums and have nothing to say but gushing romantics about how the album will change your life. While I’ve only listened to this album a maximum of 3 or 4 times, I must say that my life is not changed.

While it’s nice to be treated to a taste of what a new Joy Division album could have sounded like, the album feels overly polished to have a deep impact on me like Joy Division does. The drum beats are a little more friendly, the production is clean as crystal, and the lyrics are lacking deeper metaphor. Where the song writers for bands like Tears for Fears, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Smiths and (of course) Joy Division will dig deep in to poetic wordplay to touch on the deepest of human fears, White Lies is a little more obvious.

The title track “To Lose My Life…” is a catchy number that I enjoy, but there is something shallow about the lyrical hook “Let’s grow old together, and die at the same time”. It’s sort of blunt in a bad way that makes you cringe a bit. To be fair to the band, the hook is super catchy and it’s been stuck in my head since I first heard it. (And further discussion could be made on British song writing, but we won’t go there today.)

So I’ve become long winded again, I can’t help myself when it comes to writing music. I’ll get down to the brass tacks. This album is sweet and if you like powerful driving post-punk with pop sensibilities, check this album out. It’s available online and at the previously mentioned HMV (if you don’t see it, just ask). Also, according to their myspace, they are coming out with a single for the song “Farewell to the Fairgrounds” which includes a cover of Kanye’s “Love Lockdown”. The cover is enough to make me interested enough to buy it when it comes out. 7.9/10

Please Enjoy these files:

White Lies – Death (Crystal Castles Remix)

White Lies – To Lose My Life… (Oops this is actually a m4a not a mp3)

Grandma’s Boy

 

I'm a game tester in montreal

 

 

Have you seen the movie grandma’s boy? It’s amongst the first films to explore the subject matter of being a video game tester. If you can handle the boob, pot and feces jokes for 90 some minutes, I suggest giving this funny stoner/videogame flick a bit of your time. Many people who have seen the movie now assume that being a video game tester is all mirth and shenanigans. 

This however, is not the case at all. Now I’m not up on what  happens after work at this place where I am working, but I must mention that nothing about the movie “Grandma’s Boy”. So far there have been no shenanigans, no gamer rivalries, no zany co-workers, and no guy who talks like a robot. In many ways, this current job is exactly like any job that doesn’t fall in to the “Dream” category. 

Firstly, there is a lot of security. Most places dealing with pre-release software or music must be tight due to potential piracy/espionage issues. This is no lax matter, it’s rather serious and not a lot of tolerance is given to those who break the rules. No Bags, No Cellphones, No USB Keys, No baggy sweaters with pockets. Essentially it is a good idea to limit yourself your clothes, a drink and leave everything else in a locker. When you do get to your desk, your internet connection is severely limited.

Second, there is procedure. The most freeform of games can be made in to a repetitive chore by having to test the most minute details, scouring for bugs and glitches. What was once fun can become very boring and dreaded. I won’t slam it completely however, there are fun portions of the whole procedure, I just won’t rack it up next to the shenanigans featured in “Grandma’s Boy”.

Thirdly, the actual company I am working for doesn’t actually make games. So the best and the worst games get outsourced to us, we play and test them, they fix it, repeat. There is nothing wrong with the company, they’ve been nothing but great to employ me. However I must say the entire thing seems a bit drab. Apart from some awesome Lego, desk toys and desktop pictures, the office is fairly boring. Plain blue walls are screaming for posters and random other fun, maybe there is someone I can e-mail about that.

So anyways, where was I going with this? Was I trying to paint a picture for you? Regardless, I hope I have cleared up some misconceptions about working as a video game tester, and this post was entertaining enough. I’m sure it would have been a lot better if it wasn’t for this darn NDA.

Have a nice day.

Yellow!

I had the honor of being the photography assistant to Joey this morning, and I must say that we were able to make some good pictures…

WOW! Check out her blog!

Also, let’s not forget the word Yellow in music…
OH YEAH!

Yellow Submarine

Yellow (Coldplay)

Please comment with more!

Sad Week

With my Baby gone is California, I haven’t had the heart to blog. I promise a nice post later today about my retarded week.

Until then, check out her homemade swimsuit!!!

She made it with her hands, she really did, I saw her do it!

http://youarewhatyoulove.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/its-always-sunny-in-california/

Watch the Oscars on-line?

Is there anyplace to watch the Oscars if you don’t have a television? I want to watch the Oscars Online if I can, at least the good bits near the end.

Ask MetaFilter usually has the juice, but it doesn’t seem like they have a great answer either:

It seems like there’s gotta be a home-grown solution to this… basically hook up with someone in the US with a Win/TV-card. Have them either point a camera at their tv and video-conference that to you with Skype serving the audio, or somehow set up their video conference software to send Win/TV’s video source across the net instead of their camera’s output (I’m not sure how one would do it but it seems like it could work).

Love Guru makes good (bad) at Razzies

Mike Myers’s The Love Guru shocked no one and took home several awards from the Razzie Awards.

Love Guru Takes Home Big Loser Prize

The movie looked so shockingly bad, I can’t believe anyone actually paid money to watch it. I’m not at all surprised it won both Worst Actor and Worst Screenplay. If it was an award, I’d like to nominate it for “Worst Trailer” as watching a once respected comedian completely embarrass himself for 30 seconds on Television made me want to puke so hard I couldn’t even imagine watching the entire thing on a big screen.

To be fair, I didn’t see the movie, I can’t let an award show tell me what is truly bad or not. I will however say that I think Myers needs to get over what he has done in the past, (Powers, Shrek) and make a film with some intelligence.

On a related note, I’m not going to watching the Oscars, but I know a guy in the academy and he told me that Heath is going to win all the awards. All of them, even “Best Animated Short”.