Month: June 2009

Had to go to London then Kitchener today.  From along the way:

june 10 2009

Top Row
Those are directions to the same place… in red are Google Map’s, and beside it in pencil are from a human; humans win.  On the right is a round-about.  They are popular in the Kitchener/Waterloo region, and are much more efficient than the stoplights they’ve replaced.  

The St. Jacob’s road sign reminded me of something I once heard about Amish people… that they’re some of the world’s best designers of… high-end, large-scale weaponry.  

Second Row
An easy joke.

Third Row
All lines on the road should be this colour… it’d spruce up things in the winter, too.

Last Row
That’s an old-fashioned radar-detector.  And on the right is a place I’d forgot about till I saw it.  That’s Brescia, Canada’s only just-women university.  When I had a little home on CBC last year there was a comment box on my page, and someone who worked here had written in a long letter and asked me to come speak there (that’s why I figured it was okay to do this).

Here’s the kicker: I wasn’t allowed to write back to any of the comments left for me on that page.  As I typed that sentence I was shaking my head in both confusion and disgrace… my apologies to those who never heard back from me.

june 10 2009

It’s called a ‘gate vault’:

Up you climb, fold yourself over the top of the “gate” and throw yourself down the other side using your arms as stabilizers.  Don’t be impressed, it’s very easy and just looks dramatic. It’s also easy on playground equipment like this because the top is smooth… different story when you’re going over a chainlink fence with those sticky-up pieces at that top you need to use pure arm strength to avoid.

What is impressive is this:

june 9 2009

That’s my friend vaulting the studio, and those are his handprints on the roof I should have washed off at the gas station this evening but didn’t because I think they’re funny.

Side note: I was gabbing on the phone while waiting for him in a parking lot.  I saw him in the distance, told my phone friend to hang on and then yelled to get his attention.  I put the phone back up to my ear and proudly exclaimed, “I can yell sooo loud!” and a lady, who had materialized behind me, heartily agreed.   

I’ve got some pals in the speaker business and one of these days we’re going to go do “Exploring Sound”, and I’m hoping they have a little decibel-tester machine we can use to see how loud I can actually be.

In no particular order:june 9 2009

1 – I have a hankering to go to Hamilton.  I did some looking into what’s there, and turns out there’s a lot, look:

– the first ever Tim Horton’s
– the Royal Botanical Gardens 
– over 100 waterfalls
– 60% of Canada’s steel is produced here
– the HMCS Haida has sunk more enemies than any other Canadian warship, and is the last Tribal-class destroyer in existence

2 – ET Canada started following me on Twitter today?  Odd.  It’s not like I’ve ever tweeted about celebrity gossip (even though I like it), and my last tweet before that happened was how I’d vacuumed my dishwasher (probably I use my appliances a bit differently than you) so that doesn’t make sense either.  Ah the mysteries of Twitter.

3 – I’ve lost my lucky coin.  Remember when I spent my two lucky nickels during the first, “Exploring the Petroglyphs“?  A friend felt bad, carefully chose a coin and gave it to me as a replacement.  I covered the thing with bright pink nail polish and have kept it in my wallet since (almost two years) but I think I accidently used it to pay for parking last week.  If you happen upon it, I need it back please.

june 9 2009

He’s been in my ‘Top 3 Favourite Authors’ since 1997 but might get kicked out because of this fiasco.  

It’s his latest in the Nick Stone series and 20 pages in it’s obvious it’s been ghost written.  I look forward each year to the latest installation and well, the disenchantment on my face runs deep.
 
You can just tell; the sentence structure, expressions, rhythm, he’s missing in all of it.  I’m maybe 100 pages in and already have found two chunks of text that’ve been copied and pasted from his other books.  I get that he’s busy and his brand is blowing up, that’s cool, but this is not.

A prediction: you might not yet know him but you will, because I predict his books will be turned into Hollywood movies and the Nick Stone franchise will become as big as the Bourne one.  And get this: he’s sold the movie rights three times to one of his books, brilliant.