i've always loved tomb raider (the game) since its humble beginnings over a decade ago. a new game is coming out in november, and i simply can't wait. gretel and i drew this picture of the latest model to represent lara croft, alison carroll, in an epic pose of tomb raideryness.  besides, it has been almost two months since my last timelapse video, and this is the least that i can do to keep up with the demand!

- g

song of the day for loving lara croft just a tad too much: if i was, midge ure (the 80s will never die!!!) 

the centrepiece of my week-off television-inspired vacation was to be a "what not to wear" inspired revamp of my wardrobe and overall presentment. while i didn't have any fabulous personal fashion consultants, nor did i have $5,000 to spend on a new wardrobe, i did have a will to pare down my closet and get a bit of a makeover, and it took over two weeks to bring it all together. the first step involved whittling down the redundant and useless elements of my wardrobe. i've been living in t-shirts and baggy dress shirts too long and it was definitely time for them to go. all the fashion tragedies that i've been carrying with me since the 80s had been purged a couple of years ago, so the emotional trauma of parting with favourite patterned shirts or too-many-pleated slacks was dealt with long ago. now, the simple rule was if i hadn't worn something for a year, and didn't foresee myself wearing in the next year - out it went. and so, i amassed a considerable pile of shirts and t-shirts and a few pants that would never again be close to my skin. on a really positive note - none of those clothes were in terribly bad shape, so rather than having to throw out a lot of clothes, all of them made their way to clothing donations in support of cerebral palsy, which, i think, is a pretty decent outcome for some once-loved clothes. the next step was to get some new clothes. as i said, i didn't spend two days and five grand scoping out clothes that would transform me as a man. i did go to mississauga though to get to some outlet stores. mexx was the most successful of these and i got a few shirts and some stylish shorts that made me look less like a college student and more like a guy with shoulders and a waist. good colours, sharp lines and a close fit keep me going back to mexx, and as i never seem to see anyone at clubs wearing the same thing that i am - so i think that it's a good fit for me - fashion-wise. the final part of any good "what not to wear" episode is the hair and make-up. i was planning to do a spa day on my week off and maybe get a facial or something, but that didn't happen. after my vacation was over, i decided to crop the hair that i'd been trying to grow out since last winter. i thought the extra length would be counter-fashion and cool, but it hasn't been terribly successful for me, so i gave my hot stylist license to make me look good again, which she did, to my great joy. sigh. i'm glad that i've finally finished reporting on my five tv-based vacation adventures and can move on to more pressing matters like live as a mac in a pc-world, or the love of cats for all things cardboard. i need to shift the focus of my entries away from myself for my own personal well-being!!! - g

song of the day for reshaping oneself: welsh morphology, david west (universal religion remix)

i used to love this show. debbie would take these things that the home owner had around and add some paper plates and plaster and some antiquing effects and make something that looked about ready to send to the dump like you had just paid $2,000 for it.

i've had a storage problem for a long time. i've got all of these art pads and things that are too big for my bookshelves that i've wanted to find a permanent home for (on top of bookshelves is not a suitable home after all). i also have tonnes of junk in junk boxes (since my apartment has about four shelves in total) that i've been longing to place in drawers of some type. so this week off, it seemed like it would be a good time to go and procure the drawers of my dreams (omg - i hope that doesn't sound the way that i think it does).

i bought a set of wide, deep, flat drawers from ikea for about $150, but didn't want it to seem like i was loading my place up with anonymous ikea crap - so i thought customizing it in some way would be a good idea. since gretel has proven to be my most loyal and loving cat, i thought putting her beautiful eyes on the cabinet would be a good start, so i came up with a plan. i took my favourite photo of her, converted it to a black-and-white line-screened image that i could trace onto the drawers with a data projector, and painted the traced image with acrylic paints. the entire process took over 20 solid hours of my vacation (1 hour for initial construction, three hours to trace the image, and 17 hours to paint), but i am so incredibly pleased with the results, i don't even mind that i can't sit up straight. i love these drawers, and i love that they are on castors so i can roll this into my bedroom/office when i need to. but more than that, i love that i managed to bring the whole thing in on time and on budget. now, i figure if i could sell these for $3,000 a pop, then i could quit my day job and make these for the rest of my life for paying clients.

- g

song of the day causing yourself excruciating muscular pain with your stupid do-it-yourself projects: no one, yamin (andy duguid remix)

it's been a long time since i've posted a video of any actual cooking - it's all been about the cats.  i felt pretty bad about my diet for the past few months, so i thought that it was time to get a little more strict about what goes into the old temple.  so i researched some prominent  chili recipes and came up with something that isn't too bad - it's a little tomoato-ey, so you might want to hold off on the extra can of smashed tomatoes that i added in a panic.  it's worth noting that the cats didn't seem to want to have anything to do with all the vegetables that i had going on.  i guess if i had made tuna chili or ham chili, it would have been more to their liking.  more cats next time!

10 servings:

• 3 cups red kidney beans
  
• 2 cups white kidney beans
  
• 2 cups black beans
  
• 1 cup onion, diced
  
• 1 cup green pepper, diced
  
• 2 large celery ribs, diced
  
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
  
• 2 packages st. yves soy ground beef substitute (i used mexican and italian flavours)
  
• 1 jalapeno pepper, diced
  
• 2 cups white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
  
• 1 teaspoon onion salt
  
• 2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce (or to taste)
  
• 2 tablsepoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 bay leaves, crumbled
  
• 2 teaspoons salt
  
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  
• 1/4 cup chili powder
  
• 3/4 cup stolichnaya vodka (the only kind)
  
• 1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes
  
• 1 (16 ounce) can crushed tomatoes (probably not needed)
  
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato paste
  
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  
• 2 tablespoons honey stricken for not being vegan (who knew!!!)
  

 - g

song of the day for veganizing your vodka intake: havannah, dreas pres. havannah (asot 355 mix)

the painful reciprocal cost of having two beautiful cats greet you every time you return home is that you have to leave them alone every time you depart.  i often hear hans or gretel mewing for me to return as i wait for the elevator to take me on my next urban adventure, and i wonder how they deal with the departure of their source of food, water, and a slightly more tidy litterbox.  this video was shot over about a week and clearly indicates that gretel is far more co-dependent than hans.  gretel will spend... well, hours... sitting in front of the door waiting for me to come  back whereas hans will apparently take the opportunity to look for ways to get into trouble while the hooman in away.  

i had hoped to have an entire week's worth of videos, but a technical glitch killed my friday filming, and saturday, it was too morbidly humid to do anything but stay in and play videogames with the air conditioning on.  so i hope that you will be able to appreciate this statistically incomplete survey of the cats' behaviour.  in the end, i think that they were happier with me staying in than going out.

- g 

song of the day for hating to leave your precious friends at home: love you more, armin van buuren featuring racoon.