After years of being envious of Europe for all its music festivals, it seems there's a big push in North America to have more weekend style festivals.
Just within a couple hours driving radius this summer, I could choose from:
-Hillside, Guelph
-Big Music Fest, Kitchener
-Riverfest, Elora
-Field Trip, Toronto
-NXNE, Toronto
-Bestival, Toronto
But with tickets for 2 big shows already this summer, and the costs inherent with going to Boston for one of them, I'm not sure if a festival is in the cards. Especially with lineups, that, while interesting, are nowhere near the caliber of Coachella, Lollapalooza, or Rock Werchter.
Riverfest will be my pick if I do decide I have more disposable income.
April 27, 2015
April 23, 2015
Finding Focus
Sometimes, I need to remind myself to stop focusing on the details, and at the same time, not get too worried about the big picture. I have been swinging to the extremes lately, and not spending much time in the middle.
April 16, 2015
The Worst
The worst people in the 1st world:
1) NIMBYs; want their houses powered and well landscaped, want it cheap but also locally sourced, bitch to no-end when a wind farm or quarry is started within 20 km of their Xanadu.
2) Anti-vaccination'ers'; needs no explanation. If you're reading this, its probably because you've had vaccinations.
3) NIMBYs; want to consume lots of things, and toss the packaging for those things in the garbage, then move into houses next door to the place where that garbage is piled, and complain.
4) Pseudo-science hucksters; most reasonable people don't actually consult astrology anymore. But in its place, about a billion people, half of them on your Facebook feed, with the perfect aromatic or nutritional solutions to all your problems. All without any peer reviewed, reproducible evidence of efficacy to be found. That aromatic oil you're buying? Snake oil, at best (probably didn't even come from snakes, which would at least be sort of cool?)
5) NIMBYs; move into huge, new build McMansions with no backyards, but still find a way to complain about their backyards.
6) MLB home-plate umpires. The rules of the game are not your own to interpret. Stop calling the strike zone as though it was. No team bias here, watching plenty of neutral games a year, I just want to see the zone not as interpretive dance, but as a clear, concrete thing. Robots could easily do it. Don't give MLB ammunition going into your next #umpshow collective bargaining agreement.
7) NIMBYs; move in to nice new subdivisions near airports, pre-dating subdivison construction, then complain about noise from objects magically flying through sky (those things are only okay when flying to 5 day, all inclusive getaways in resort-land).
8) Politicians.
1) NIMBYs; want their houses powered and well landscaped, want it cheap but also locally sourced, bitch to no-end when a wind farm or quarry is started within 20 km of their Xanadu.
2) Anti-vaccination'ers'; needs no explanation. If you're reading this, its probably because you've had vaccinations.
3) NIMBYs; want to consume lots of things, and toss the packaging for those things in the garbage, then move into houses next door to the place where that garbage is piled, and complain.
4) Pseudo-science hucksters; most reasonable people don't actually consult astrology anymore. But in its place, about a billion people, half of them on your Facebook feed, with the perfect aromatic or nutritional solutions to all your problems. All without any peer reviewed, reproducible evidence of efficacy to be found. That aromatic oil you're buying? Snake oil, at best (probably didn't even come from snakes, which would at least be sort of cool?)
5) NIMBYs; move into huge, new build McMansions with no backyards, but still find a way to complain about their backyards.
6) MLB home-plate umpires. The rules of the game are not your own to interpret. Stop calling the strike zone as though it was. No team bias here, watching plenty of neutral games a year, I just want to see the zone not as interpretive dance, but as a clear, concrete thing. Robots could easily do it. Don't give MLB ammunition going into your next #umpshow collective bargaining agreement.
7) NIMBYs; move in to nice new subdivisions near airports, pre-dating subdivison construction, then complain about noise from objects magically flying through sky (those things are only okay when flying to 5 day, all inclusive getaways in resort-land).
8) Politicians.
April 13, 2015
Sprung
The air smells like spring. The temperatures have teased us so far, but the smell is really there now. Little nubs of grass are starting to poke through flat yellow lawns everywhere.
Everyone I talk to seems to be getting super excited about barbecue as well. I don't have the heart to tell most of them that I've barbecued weekly on average all winter long, with only January really hurting my grill patterns. But I appreciate all their enthusiasm.
The sunny, warm forecast this week has me almost even believing that work near the core of Toronto this week will be a delight, and go off without issue. No budget for hotels, or food really, but still, will be sunshine and rainbows (except for the commute, which will suck no matter what).
The Jays lost on home opener day, again. That also seems like a sure sign of spring. Of course, many Jays fans lost before the game had even begun, standing in massive lines in the rain awaiting 'security' scans which likely were about as effective as the 'scared to offend' courtesy patdowns of yesteryear, and only really effective in backing up large crowds of people outside the venue. Anyone really wanting to attack wouldn't even need to pay for admission.
A friend posted an interesting link this week on death statistics. Note in particular the comparison chart near the bottom of the article. While it seems to miss a lot of non-cancer disease, it still manages to highlight the absurdity of the emphasis we place on 'security'. I'm curious to see what, if any backlash will come out of this, or if we can just expect cavity searches next year to gain entry to ball parks. Hell, maybe if they train the staff well enough, you can build in your yearly exams at the same time. You know, bring health care and policing together in one happy place. Huge tax savings.
Right, back to spring. Breath of fresh air. Baseball. Record Store Day. Game of Thrones. There's just enough there to distract oneself.
Everyone I talk to seems to be getting super excited about barbecue as well. I don't have the heart to tell most of them that I've barbecued weekly on average all winter long, with only January really hurting my grill patterns. But I appreciate all their enthusiasm.
The sunny, warm forecast this week has me almost even believing that work near the core of Toronto this week will be a delight, and go off without issue. No budget for hotels, or food really, but still, will be sunshine and rainbows (except for the commute, which will suck no matter what).
The Jays lost on home opener day, again. That also seems like a sure sign of spring. Of course, many Jays fans lost before the game had even begun, standing in massive lines in the rain awaiting 'security' scans which likely were about as effective as the 'scared to offend' courtesy patdowns of yesteryear, and only really effective in backing up large crowds of people outside the venue. Anyone really wanting to attack wouldn't even need to pay for admission.
A friend posted an interesting link this week on death statistics. Note in particular the comparison chart near the bottom of the article. While it seems to miss a lot of non-cancer disease, it still manages to highlight the absurdity of the emphasis we place on 'security'. I'm curious to see what, if any backlash will come out of this, or if we can just expect cavity searches next year to gain entry to ball parks. Hell, maybe if they train the staff well enough, you can build in your yearly exams at the same time. You know, bring health care and policing together in one happy place. Huge tax savings.
Right, back to spring. Breath of fresh air. Baseball. Record Store Day. Game of Thrones. There's just enough there to distract oneself.
April 05, 2015
Row Over a Row
Early in the winter, I decided that a rowing machine would probably get a lot more use than our failing treadmill, and offer more of a full body workout, all while allowing me to watch a couple shows, or some sports.
In March, true to form, I finally pulled the trigger on buying a machine, well rated all across the interwebs, but a little more expensive than I might have opted for, had I not screwed up my first rough run through of my tax return. In the end though, I'm glad I paid the premium. Despite a technical issue still keeping me from logging my workouts to a flash drive properly, the company has a well organized website, a great community of users on the workout log portal, and has been very prompt and engaging in trying to work out the USB drive issue, though through an increasing e-mail chain.
Maybe its still the newness of it, but I've also managed to log my target average of 20km per week, except for the week I had the flu, despite an accelerating field work schedule. And now baseball is starting for real, which should mean easy, distracted workouts while watching games on the 'off' days.
If I keep up the pace, the machine will have paid off the equivalent of a gym membership by the time the Jays baseball season is done (in early November...instead of early September this year) and hopefully will still be whooshing right along. Hell, I might even be fit by then!
In March, true to form, I finally pulled the trigger on buying a machine, well rated all across the interwebs, but a little more expensive than I might have opted for, had I not screwed up my first rough run through of my tax return. In the end though, I'm glad I paid the premium. Despite a technical issue still keeping me from logging my workouts to a flash drive properly, the company has a well organized website, a great community of users on the workout log portal, and has been very prompt and engaging in trying to work out the USB drive issue, though through an increasing e-mail chain.
Maybe its still the newness of it, but I've also managed to log my target average of 20km per week, except for the week I had the flu, despite an accelerating field work schedule. And now baseball is starting for real, which should mean easy, distracted workouts while watching games on the 'off' days.
If I keep up the pace, the machine will have paid off the equivalent of a gym membership by the time the Jays baseball season is done (in early November...instead of early September this year) and hopefully will still be whooshing right along. Hell, I might even be fit by then!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)