ok - so a lot of my friends have been suggesting to me that i need to do things differently than the way that i have been doing things.  "you can't live alone", "you can't solve the global poverty problem by yourself", "you can't have imaginary girlfriends" - can't can't can't…  well, i'm a "Canadian", and not a "can't-adian" so i'm going to start to change things that i CAN change.

starting with man-gadgets.  i have a trusted cell phone (sony-ericsson z520), my ipod touch, and my new canon sd750.  that's three bricks that i need to carry with me when i want to go out on my urban adventures.  totally weak.  i need something that will do all of the things that these things do, in the following order of priority:

• 3G or even GSM phone that will allow me to talk in a reasonable speaking voice rather than shout;
• a device that integrates with Microsoft Outlook (because anyone and everyone worth their salt uses outlook to manage their calendar and their contact list) - and maybe even Microsoft Live Messenger, because who doesn't like getting random chats throughout the day to make them look popular;
• an audio recording function that will allow me to take spoken notes, or chase after my cat hans when he is making that crazy wailing sound, so that i can sample him for a better ringtone;
• a proper camera with decent optics and aperture settings and digital zoom so that i can take reasonable quality, low light photos when i'm at the club, or wandering around the world, so that my photos won't look like they were taken underwater during an earthquake while i was having an epileptic seizure - video, not so important;
• a media player that will allow me to store more than 5 songs - let's say, 4GB worth of digital media - so that i can withstand a cross-country flight, or watch a resampled downloaded episode of LOST or 24;
• a device with a full-featured, javascript-capable, flash-player positive web browser so that i can sit on a patio and update my blog or watch my youtube videos;
• a device that will allow me to receive and send SMS text messages and facebook updates using more than 12 keys;
• a device that vibrates or makes audible noises so that i can write alerts at work to myself to remind me to do things when i get home;
• a slick, themable interface that i can customize - actually customize, not just select from the four themes that the device ships with and then never get new ones.  ever;
• a device that i can put into my pants pocket and not make (a) my ass look blocky, (b) me look like i've just taken five Viagra pills, (c) me wish that i had bought a holster for my belt so that i can usher in a new "stormtrooperesque" fashion trend;
• a device with a distinctively laser-etched apple logo on the back;
• a note-taking feature that steve jobs won't make me pay an additional $20 bucks for;
• an e-book reader, because transporting 2,000 books back-and-forth-and-back-and-forth across the country gets freaking expensive, even though e-books don't look nearly as impressible as a wall-full of book spines;
• a device that i can put on one of those cool Microsoft Surface tables and have it order my martini the way that i like - and maybe issue some clever flirtatious remarks to the waitress at the same time;
• a multi-touch interface that doesn't suck and has a copy-paste-clipboard-feature-that-i-have-no-idea-how-to-integrate-but-someone-else-might;
• an SDK that industrious big-heads like myself can use to create his or her own clever applications;

the first company to do all of these things - maybe RIM or apple have already done it - and make this device available to me, here in wintery Canada - will get my… $200?  with no 3-year contractual commitment (?!?!)!  that is a solemn vow!!!

- g

song of the day for demanding something from the world: whip it, devo.

so, it turns out that once you have the "filmmaker's itch", it's hard not to scratch!  i had so much fun with the first timelapse video of my boring-ass life, i had to make another one - just to see if i could make something equally banal look like it was fun and cool.

last year, my mom sent me a recipe for a tasty soup that she had created (or stolen from martha stewart - i'm not actually sure which is the case).  here's the official (not funny) recipe:

• 2 regular sized zucchini
• 1 leek (thoroughly washed)
• 1 tbs chopped ginger
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp virgin olive oil
• 1-2 tbsp soup stock (vegetable and/or chicken)
• 1 cup water

wash and chop the leeks and zucchini.  peel/skin and finely chop ginger and garlic.  heat a skillet with the olive oil.  warm the garlic and ginger.  throw in the zucchini.  cover and brown for two minutes.  throw in the leeks. cover and brown for two minutes.  dissolve soup stock in the water.  when the vegetables have softened and browned slightly, add the stock.  allow to come to a boil.  transfer to a simmering pot.  add water to just cover the vegetables.  bring to a slow boil over low heat.  allow to simmer for 20 minutes.  remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.  take half of the mixture and blend in a blender on medium speed.  add the remaining vegetables and blend.

this soup is delicious and can be vegan-friendly.  also note that it is about as bright a green as you can possibly achieve without adding artificial colouring or kryptonite.

this morning, as i was getting ready for work, i was contemplating what other kinds of timelapse videos i could take of my everyday life that would get more cat-involvement in them.  going to sleep and taking a shower were on the top of the list, but i need to think of a way that i can do this without seeming to want to get into amateur porn.  you'll probably see the outcome within a couple of weeks if you just stay tuned to this station.

thanks to everyone who has been supportive of my efforts to make my cats youtube stars!!!!

- g

song of the day for making the most boring stuff look like fun: shapes, maor levi (oliver smith remix)

ps.  these nutty techno songs are ripped from my running mixes - i don't listen to them because they're brilliant music or anything, but they keep me moving fast when i might rather sit at home and watch video on my PC.

during a lunch conversation last week, i remarked to my friends that the spirit of discovery and exploration of mankind seems to have taken a break from human awareness.  i had listened to "apollo 11" by orchestral manoeuvres in the dark on the way to work that day - and that's probably what catalyzed that day's thoughts.  i was born at the very end of the 60's - the decade when so many of the beliefs that were held by traditional culture started to change in the biggest ways ever seen - the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, the cold war, and the space race.  what happened to that will to explore - to seek out new frontiers and new challenges?  it's well into the 21st century, and  i see less and less of the will to explore and go beyond our mortal confines on this planet than any time in my life.

for example, in february, mission STS-122 saw the launch of the space shuttle atlantis to dock with the international space station to deliver the columbus laboratory.  this installation is a component that will further the capabilities of the interenational space station and furthers an era of international cooperation in the exploration and investigation of space.

SPACE - i mean... this is the biggest quest possible for mankind!  to reach the stars!  to explore the heavens!  to look into the sky, and learn what secrets it holds!

i remember growing up with star wars and star trek and superman and being captivated and fixated on the challenge and awe that came from above.  i remember thinking that there was no greater achievement or expression of human collaboration and will than the will to escape gravity itself to float among the stars.

it saddens me then that here in 2008, we have so little interest in sending people into space.  i told my lunch friends, there's no curiousity about space anymore, because we KNOW what's up there - we've seen it through five star trek series and stargate and a bunch of lesser science-fiction series.  our collective curiousity has been sublimated by (a) showing that space is full of aliens who are just as trite and trivial as we are and (b) the lack of economic or technological gain that our exploration has recovered.  we've not discovered powerful laser weapons capable of destroying cities or space ships; we've not discovered space-folding transportation mechanisms that allow us to cross the galaxy in a heartbeat; and we haven't even discovered endless clean sources of energy that we can eploit to power impossibly powerful computers capable of independent thought.... so clearly, there's no profit in exploring space.  all we get are moon rocks and studies telling us that humans aren't designed to live in space.

this easter weekend, i spent most of my free time watching abc's LOST.  it's a great show.  during easter, it was a very fitting show to watch - observing the potential for redemption and rebirth that the ridiculously photogenic castaways get to enjoy.  however, within that easter-weekend theme lies a shred of hope for an explorer like myself.  i see the need - the hope - among the viewers of this highly rated show to explore the unknown - to learn about our individual capabilities and capacities - a yearning to know more than what we think we know about the world. 

we are all lost.  we all are castaways in a world constructed of boundaries and the semblance of predictability.  however, there is so much more to discover, beyond the treeline - inside the jungle... so many more secrets left to be discovered.  so many more lessons left to be learned.  we are all running from our pasts - or rushing towards a future... can we not work together any more to achieve something really great - to discover the truths of some really fascinating mysteries?  why does it feel to me like there are no more frontiers that we as a dominant species on our planet can explore - other than merely to avert our own extinction?

- g

song of the day for looking upwards, for some greater challenge: apollo 11, OMD

i've been blogging for a few years now, and while it has been very rewarding and valuable to me, it like all things has to grow and evolve to remain engaging.  blogging has entered the video era with the availability of cheap computer memory, enormous hard drive capacities and the advent of youtube and other free video-hosting services.  it's high time that i add the fourth dimension of time to my cataloguing of my personal experiences onto the interwebs.  as if it were fated, i had to buy a new camera this month, and i opted to buy the canon sd750, partly due to a recommendation from a friend of mine, but mostly because of a feature that this model offers of recording time-lapse video in its video capture setting.  there's nothing better, in my mind, for the modern ADD mindset, than timelapse!  it compresses real-world experience that would take literally hours into brief seconds or minutes and makes experience fun and interesting, even in the most mundane situations.

for example, each week (more or less :) i clean my little apartment of the cat-hair sheddings that my two feline masters see fit to deploy upon my floors and furnishings.  this task is just about as boring as any upkeep task could possibly be - but when you speed it up to 15x, it takes on a vitality and joy that is surreal and off-the-hook funny!  don't mind the tosser in the wifebeater in this vid, my first ever youtube video posting.  the real gold is watching my funny cat-masters supervising his performance!!

- g

ps.  if you would like an HD DVD-burn of this video, please send me your visa card numbers, expiry date, and security code along with an email address and we'll figure something out!

all of the irish people i have ever met have been incredibly bright, creative, wonderful people. a song that is (wrongly, unfortunately) associated with ireland and st.patrick's day is "danny boy" - one of the saddest, most baleful and romantic songs perhaps that has ever been dared to be written and recorded - over and over and over again. somehow, this misappropriation has been allowed to continue throughout st. paddy's day celebrations, for generations, and today seems a fitting day to point out the mistake, but to also revel in its significance at the same time.

about a decade ago, a very very very dear friend of mine introduced me to the singer, eva cassidy. eva had the one of the most amazing voices and talents of any singer of the 20th century and was taken far too soon from the world and the age of 33 by metastatic melanoma. but while she was on this world, she managed to record danny boy in her inimitable style with her impossibly heavenly voice. i can think of no better tribute to the spririt of the patron saint of beautiful ireland than the marriage of this woeful dirge to the splendid sound of eva's voice.

for safe measure, i've had two pints of guinness today. i hope that you had a chance to do at least as well :)

- g

(erroneous) song of st. patrick's day: danny boy, eva cassidy