Ants vs. Grasshoppers

This is the most beautiful song I know.

---- 10/10 It still is, but it's not here anymore. It was "New Grass" by Talk Talk. ----

All right, this time around I got to watch the Martha Stewart Apprentice or whatever it's actually called. I was supposed to go to a band practice, but I bailed because I'd been at work for 11.5 hours, having gotten up at four in the morning, working to meet a couple of really big deadlines that mysteriously materialized an inch in front of my nose, and needed some rest. So instead I purposely sat myself down in front of the Great Equalizer at 8:58, excited at the prospect of getting agitated.

It seems that the Apprentices are the only TV shows I watch. Besides The Price Is Right, of course. Somehow a bunch of people not listening to each other is way more entertaining than anything else that could be broadcast, even though (because?) it's the most annoying thing there is in the squishier but less scrutinized actual world.

And why do I find it extra hilarious that the reason these celebrity everypeople can't get along is that they all work in some creative field or other? Why do I spend the whole hour rooting for the boring and practical corporate schmoes to kick their complementary pastel asses? It's not just the fact that one of the creatives is a complete sociopath, even though that does add to the entertainment value. Is it because the prize for which they're all competing, to work with Martha Stewart, is to me more of an anti-prize, so that I am actually rooting for the drones to get what I would consider their comeuppance?

I don't think so. Because that wouldn't explain the pleasure I take in seeing the designers and writers humiliated by their defeat. I think that my initial impulse to identify with the right-brainies is confounded by the very fact of their voluntary participation in such a disgusting spectacle. They are like me, and yet not at all like me. And that makes them much worse, much less sympathetic, than the characters whose lives have been devoted to the values of the corporate world. Because this is something you would expect of those people anyway. They are already damned, so let them have their little sugarplums of fame and fortune to pacify their empty souls on the long downward voyage.

But not my beloved artists! I demand more from them. They have been given a chance to achieve greatness, and if they decide instead to spend their energy fighting dirty on television for a tinsel-covered bag of dog poop like some kind of immaculately dressed Mexican wrestlers... well, I can at the very least get a good chortle out of their antics over a bowl of popcorn.

Speaking of which, Trump's on in a bit, and Johanna's here to watch it with us. Later.

- Andrew

Meg's Sports Photography

Here are some pictures my friend Meg took during one of the softball games on Saturday. Check out the form.




'Twas a double!

- Andrew

Almost forgot...

We went for a little walk this evening to take a few pictures around the 'hood. Here are the results.

- And & Ali

The Donald

So, we just watched the season premiere of The Apprentice. Missed it on Thursday, but they show it again on Prime on Sundays. I figured out a new drinking game: you watch the show, and every time someone says, "at the end of the day," you have to take a drink.

I know it's a terrible show and everyone on it is despicable and it was created by the devil for soulless halfwits, but what keeps me coming back is that grumpy baby face that Trump makes when he's about to fire this week's patsy. And then, after he's fired them and they're leaving the room, it subtly changes into a grumpy baby with gas face, as his eyes become slightly crossed. Once you've seen it you can't miss a week of it.

- Andrew

Gabbo is coming.

I have a really good idea for this blog. You're going to like it. I tried it out the other day, and it didn't work, but that was only due to a small goofup in technique which I can easily fix.

I know I've promised you incredible results in the past from so-called "brilliant" ideas which for one reason or another didn't pan out. I can see how you could have become skeptical by now and frankly I don't blame you. If I were in your position, I would also be thinking, "Here comes another electric diaper," or, "Why would we even want blowfish that can walk on land?" or simply, "How many people are going to have to die this time?" but I ask you to trust me one last time. This thing is going to be super fantastically, mindblowingly, super great. Really.

Yesterday was an entire day of softball. The playoffs. We played three games in a row, starting at 11:00, of which we won exactly zero. It was pretty exhausting and not always so much fun, really. But I did get a few incredible plays in, and I guess we weren't completely tired of it after the last game, because we then stuck around to watch another team play their fourth game, and after that had an impromptu fielding practice. Today Ali's and my faces are bright red and we feel kind of woozy. Plus, every muscle in my back and legs has become a painfully inflexible piece of sinew. Think there's gonna be some easy-taking of her today.

- Andrew

General Bloggage

It's really fall now. The tree outside our window is now almost bare and there are brown crunchy leaves all over the "lawn".

---- 10/10 This was "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" by the White Stripes. Now it is gone to make room for more pertinent things. ----

Ali got a couple of shots of my billboard yesterday. Lookin' pretty good. Think I'll ride out there tomorrow morning to check it out for myself.


We have to take Buster back to the vet tonight to find out how many millions of dollars it's gonna cost us to get his teeth out. They'll probably tell us he has to get some little cat dentures made. Maybe we can get some cheap ones made out of wood. And a little George Washington wig to complete the look.

I was practising last night with the as yet nameless band, so I missed it, but according to Ali the first episode of Martha Stewart Apprentice involved a creative team competing against a corporate team to produce the better children's book, and the corporate team won because the creative people couldn't get along or organize themselves in any reasonable way. Wish I'd seen it.

- Andrew

Fall is near.

While working on photos today, I found an appropriate one to welcome the fall. Two days early, I know, but oh well. Not much else to say since I'm off to bed. Maybe more tomorrow. Pleasant dreams...ali

The Sweet Smell of Revenge

Tonight we went to see the "Atlantic Shorts" at the film festival, a collection of locally made short films. It's usually good for a yuck or two, and there are always some people we know involved somehow or other. Soon after we sat down, a ponytailed guy sat in the seat in front of us and began reeking. He was wearing at least twice the recommended amount of some cheap cologne. It was so bad that Alison had to trade seats with our friend Dagny, who was sitting on my other side.

After the films, some of which were not bad, we left the theatre and got most of the way home before I realized I'd left my bicycle helmet behind. I was pretty sure I could remember putting it under my seat before the stinky guy showed up. So we walked all the way back to the theatre and I pleaded with the ticket collectors to let me in, even though the next showing was about to start.

When I got to where we'd been sitting, I came face to face with stinky ponytail, who had changed seats in between features. He and his friend scowled at me as I asked them nicely whether there might by any chance be a bicycle helmet under one of their seats. The friend rummaged around for a REALLY long time, while the source of the offending odour continued to scowl unblinkingly at me. Finally, I started to say, "I guess it must not...," when the friend popped up and with a sarcastic expression proclaimed, "I win," simultaneously hoisting the helmet over his head, thereby launching the empty Pepsi bottle which he had failed to notice inside of it into the air, which bottle then bounced with a satisfying "tonk" off the ponytailed head of our antagonist. I thanked them both and managed to run out of the theatre with my helmet before even cracking a smile.

- Andrew

What goes on?

Well, I guess the game must have been cancelled since there was no one on our or any other diamond on the Common. Hm. Strange that no one called or emailed me to let me know. Hm.

Well, anyway, I guess it gives us a chance to get some errands done on the way to this mockumentary that's playing at 7 as part of the Atlantic Film Festival. It's about the life of a fictional country singer, played by Matt Murphy. Should be very funny.

- Andrew

Mellow Mood

This is how I feel today.

---- 10/10 Had to delete it from Castpost to make room. It was "Yekerme Sew". ----

It's a pretty nice warm day, although overcast, but at least it's not raining anymore. The leaves on the tree outside our window have pretty much all turned an orange-gold colour. It seems to be the first tree in Halifax to go. I don't mind; it looks really nice.

We're about to go up to the Common to play the last two softball games of the season. Next weekend the playoffs happen. Just like in life and video games, you play until you lose. Actually, one team never loses and they are declared the season champions. I predict it won't be us. But it's always lots of fun.


I played a three hour game of chess with my friend Steve yesterday while the "hurricane" "raged" outside. I don't really know why it took so long and it got pretty tedious after awhile. It went pretty much how I think my current game with my Dad is gonna go: I keep making stupid mistakes but manage to hold on somehow so that it takes a ridiculous amount of time for me to lose and everyone is bored and annoyed by the end. Have to learn to lose faster.

The alleged hurricane was really just an average rainfall, though everyone acted as if we were about to witness Armageddon. We coincidentally had to buy groceries the night before, and there was almost nothing left in the store. Every single variety of mushrooms had been wiped out. Mushrooms!! Since when are they emergency stock? It seems to me that if the power goes out and everything is wet, they would be one of the crops you wouldn't need to worry about.

This music, by the way, is from the sixties by an Ethiopian guy named Mulatu Astaqe. He was heavily influenced by western jazz. I hope you like it. If you do, I strongly recommend you see the recent Jim Jarmusch/Bill Murray film Broken Flowers, in which it's heavily featured.

Off to the ball game.

- Andrew

Russafrussa, diddley doodley...

Man, did I ever end up in a bad mood last night! Maybe I still am a bit. Work yesterday comprised having a really interesting project handed over to me and then gradually taken back away from me bit by bit, topped off at the end with the handing out of time sheets which I guess we are all expected to fill out from now on, listing what we've done each half hour.

Right after work, we went to see a special preview of this crappy movie, Proof, that I'd won tickets to a couple of days before. We had to take the bus out to the industrial park where all the big boxes are to get there, which meant no dinner. Which meant eating french fries with Kraft Dinner cheese on them and frozen yogurt in the theatre, while non-stop promos and announcers blared at us. The movie was a hunk o' junk with no changes in any of the characters' situations or plot of any sort; don't bother seeing it. Then on the bus back we ran into Matt's friend whose name I infuriatingly can't remember and that reminded me how much I miss Matt and that we haven't gone into the practice space or worked on any music once in the month since he left.



Then walking home we ran into Charles, who filled us in that a woman who owes me a lot of money no longer works for the organization through which she owes it to me, and that a really good friend of ours has kind of gone off the deep end and has been wandering around à la Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas.

Pshhhew! Hopefully today will be better. Wish me luck.

- Andrew

Feel better today.

Ha ha! Thanks for the comment, Dane. I guess I assumed she had thrown out those letters long ago, but what disturbed me was that she would so readily admit it. However, in the clear light of a new day I see that the whole episode was really just one in a recent series on the theme of lost connections. Johanna and I had been talking about some people we fell out of touch with, and someone at Charles and Kelly's told a story about running into someone they had known long ago and how they seemed to have completely changed, and what with my guilt (Eri, you'll relate to this) over not working hard enough on the connections that are important to me in the present, I guess I was just prepared to be saddened over the whole idea of People I No Longer Know.

I can see this morning, though, that it's important to be able to let people go, because trying to stay friends with everyone is really just collecting people in the same way that crazy people sometimes collect newspapers. Still, I do need to watch out that I don't close my life off to people I know now. Which is where the blog comes in. Thank you, Blogger! :)

- Andrew

Tunage

Just wanted to try out a sound file post. This is an Our Igloo song.

---- 10/10 Had to remove it. It was "Let's Get Metaphysical". ----

What do you think?

Last night was our friend Krista's birthday, so we hung out in a really smoky bar and drank beers until later than we should have. It was actually really fun and lots of awesome people were there, but I've been working late and going in early a lot, trying to get the stupid bi-weekly used car newspaper insert done so people can throw it in the garbage on schedule, and now I'm sort of wiped out. I was supposed to go over to this guy Jay's tonight because I've been playing music once a week with him and a couple of other people... I guess we're sort of becoming a band. I don't know, we'll see. But anyway, I had to stand him up ("je l'ai posé un lapin," as those kooky French people apparently say -- "I have posed him a rabbit.") because I just needed some time to myself and to get to bed early.

Ali's at a play tonight: To Kill a Mockingbird. The woman she works with at the government got free tickets. I had a good idea to draw a cartoon with the caption, "Cats waiting for Godot to kill a mockingbird." You can imagine what it might look like.

My billboard is up now, I found out, and from all accounts looks spectacular. I'll have to ride out to that end of town and get Ali to take a picture of me in front of it. Sorry, Mike, it's a Viacom. Not my decision.


So, what do you think about this? When I was a teenager I had this HUGE unrequited crush on a girl in Halifax that I didn't really know, but had met on a train. When we moved to Markham I wrote to her all the time, trying to sound very smart and hip and thereby make her fall in love with me from afar. It didn't work, but I got friendly enough letters back and continued to pine away for her, i.e. Halifax, because by this time she had taken on the symbollic proportions of an entire city.

By the time I moved back to Halifax I was over my childish infatuation and would run into her infrequently, and that was fine and normal, etc. Then I went to Montreal for six years or so and when I came back with Alison the girl -- or actually married woman now -- was still here. Sometimes, though again not very often, through converging social circles or work-related circumstances, we would end up face to face, and now so much of our lives had passed independently that we really were barely even acquaintances and it would be awkward and uncomfortable to even acknowledge the youthful, long-distance false start our relationship had had because we were too close to being strangers to talk about such intimate things. Or at least that's how it seemed to me and I judged from her behaviour that she felt the same. So there has been an unspoken rule between us for the past, oh ten years or so, that we make no reference to how we know each other. Conversation is kept to general niceties and references to the present or very recent past only.

Except. The other day I ran into her as I was just about to go in the front door to where I work, and she told me out of the blue, as a self-deprecating illustration of her quirky character, it seemed, that she had only recently gotten rid of all the letters I sent her. As in, "I'm such a pack rat, can you believe it?" I really didn't know what to say and kind of stammered uncomfortably and got in the door as quickly as I could. I still don't exactly know how to feel about it besides surprised that she both 1. broke our unspoken rule, and 2. admitted cheerfully that she'd thrown out my very thinly disguised expressions of youthful, boundless love. Am I overreacting? What do you think?

Kitty on Steroids

Sweet Buster braved a shot yesterday to help calm his itchy skin. Poor guy's been lickin n scratchin somethin fierce these days. No evidence of fleas but the vet prescribed flea medication anyway. Plus, she made me feel like a bad pet owner. It wasn't pleasant for any of us. Buster seems better now though. :) ali



Yeah, AND, $200 later, we have to take him back in to probably get at least one tooth extracted, which may cost thousands of bux. What a freakin' racket!

What we thought Buster would be like at the vet:
What he was actually like:
(I guess the truth is really somewhere in between, though the judgmental vet might say the former was more accurate.)
- Andrew

We won!

Well, we won the second of the two games, anyway. 9-5. What a way to make a living. They actually cleaned our clocks 19-10 in the first game, but that just made the comeback that much sweeter. Highlights included two spectacular catches by Ann and an old man in the slowest motorized wheelchair in existence using the outfield to cross the Common.






Saw Jeff off after the game. He was going back to Bedford to spend his last night in town with his parents. It was great that we got to hang out with him quite a bit while he was here. We'll keep checking the local job board for ya, buddy.

- Andrew

Low Key Hijinx Last Night

Good thing we cleaned the house yesterday because we ended up having people over last night for beers and chitchat.





Had a real nice time hanging out with Jeff, Sherry, and later Johanna, listening to random 45's we'd picked up at various flea markets and yard sales over the years. I don't think we'd even played a lot of them before. Turns out the theme to "The Greatest American Hero" is not nearly as enjoyable as I'd remembered it from my youth. "One Night in Bangkok," on the other hand, remains a crowd pleaser.

After Jeff and Sherry left to catch their buses and Ali went to bed with beer heartburn, Johanna and I stayed up until what to me these days are the wee hours, drinking wine and discussing intuition and the limits of rationality. I was borrowing heavily from John Ralston Saul's On Equilibrium and she from, well, the Bible, I guess. It turned into a rehashing of a very convoluted and probably not very productive argument I'd had with her dad the weekend before on the island, about evolution, causality, the existence of universal laws, and God. This time, though, we got a chance to actually listen to what each other were saying and avoid the horn-locking that is as good as inevitable between a continental and an analytic philosopher. She saw my point that Hume's investigation into our knowledge of cause and effect was doomed, since to ask why or how we come to know about anything already assumes that the answer will refer to some sort of causation. I think of this as one of Wittgenstein's "hinge propositions," about which there can be no questioning without language breaking down, and which must therefore be taken as a matter of fact purely on something like faith. Johanna saw in there room for God in logic, since religious belief also involves both faith and rationality. I wish I could remember what conclusion Hume eventually came to. Was it one of those seventeenth century arguments, like Descartes's, that ends up invoking God to solve the matter, but everyone later just remembers the interesting conundrum and not the kind of arbitrarily tacked on "solution"? I'll have to reread it.

Anyway, it was all very interesting to me because I'm currently reading this sort of new-agey metaphysical but at the same time very scientifically based book that I got at a yard sale called Synchronicity - The Bridge Between Matter and Mind, in which the author attempts to connect physics and psychology through the fact that current physical models of the universe can't entirely be called causal in nature, much like the workings of the human mind. Seems kind of far-fetched and kooky, I know, but so far the guy's been pretty rigourous in his argument. I'll let you know how it turns out. But the fact that I keep ending up in discussions about causality and spooky metaphysics is an interesting little coincidence, and coincidence is itself always one of the main themes of these sorts of discussions. Neat.

Baseball this afternoon. Jeff will be playing too, but on his old team in a different game from ours. I hope we do as well as last week. Go, Bellies!

Have to go do the laundry now and work on the crossword over brunch. I'll post some "party" pictures tomorrow.

- Andrew

Pics

Well, we decided to make a special trip into work just to upload some photos. Enjoy.





I'm skipping a rock here, by the way, not trying to fly. You can see the splash on the left.


Here's a picture of Ali that she took in the tent with the digital camera she'd brought. It was the only way she had of checking her hair.



And here's one of the Steffen family going back to the mainland in their boat. Wait, come back!

Curmudgeonly Rambling

We've been trying to get this blogamajig working on our nineteenth century calculating engine at home and it seems that many things are not possible. I can't control the typeface, for instance, but more importantly we can't upload photos. I'll have to do that part at work on my hypermodern supercomputer. Expect pictures that are not taken from the chesterco website any day now.

The summer's been really nice with lots of socializing and carousing, and now the weather's starting to cool off in a not unpleasant way. If only the autumn didn't bring so many lousy students with it, it might be Halifax's finest season. I've heard a lifetime's worth of the words "like" and "whoo" in just the last week. Plus they make the grocery stores look as if they've been ravaged by pestilence. Which come to think of it I guess they have.

Our friend Jeff is in town now, visiting from Toronto, so we're getting to see quite a bit of him. He works every day at a library in Vaughan -- a five dollar, hour and a half commute each way on the TTC and North York Transit, for any non-Ontarians who may have stumbled on here. I think he's basically waiting until a library job comes up in Halifax. He says his coworkers are always asking him when he's going to either buy a car or move to Vaughan, and he doesn't have the heart to point out that there's a third option they are omitting.

Camping last weekend was really great, what with the beach bonfire and the ubiquitous deer and the rockclimbing, but this weekend we have to get this house in order. It's a huge mess. I think a big part of the problem is that we have about twice as much stuff as will fit comfortably in our little minihome, and don't know where to put it, so it just ends up in little random piles all over the place. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of randomness from way back, but this is approaching the chaotic. Seriously, it's like being a pinball trying to get around in here. It's gonna be a big job, which I guess explains the fact that you're being treated to a scintillating new post.

We were at our friends' Charles and Kelly's house last night for some cheese, potato salad and beer, and Kelly had this book lying out that I became totally obsessed with. It was a compilation of something called "Found" magazine. I don't know if you've heard about it, but it's such a great, simple idea. I just checked out their website: www.foundmagazine.com. I don't know whether that link will work or not, but do yourself a favour and copy/paste if it doesn't.

I guess that's it for now. Gotta start ruthlessly throwing stuff out. We're going to try to keep this new-fangled diary machine updated fairly regularly, but who knows how that will work out? I'll give you some photos to look at on Monday.

- Andrew

Can't add photos!

Hey, all. I'm trying to add pictures here of our trip to Mosher Island this past long weekend. It was great camping right by the beach with no one else around (really). I guess our Netscape and I.E. versions are too old, as well as our OS. Too bad. I'll try again soon...

-ali