Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I thought it was fun, It definitely has that Tim Burton quality to it, but I still like Gene Wilder better in that role. In any case, I found it enjoyable.

La cadena de la amistad.

Hace un par de dias lo llame a un amigo para preguntarle si queria venir a un concierto cerca de casa. Me dijo que no, que estaba un poco ocupado. Y tambien me conto que el dia anterior le llego por email una de esas cadenas que dicen algo como 'si le mandas este mensaje a 5 personas tendras suerte en una semana, si se lo mandas a 10 en 3 dias, etc, etc.' y al final ponen algo como 'si no mandas esto en 2 dias es que to te interesa la buena suerte. Arturo Gomez no lo mando y se le cayo todo el pelo del cuerpo en una semana' o alguna otra cosa por el estilo. Mi amigo decidio que no iba a mandar esto. Con un poco de resquemor, tal vez pensando 'y si es cierto, si por no mandar esto me pasa algo horrible' borro el mensaje. Al dia siguiente mientras almorzaba lo llaman por telefono. Era un amigo de el, que le dijo que acababa de oir en la radio que mi amigo habia ganado una casa en una loteria que los bomberos tienen todos los años. Asi es que mi amigo, al dia siguiente de ignorar el mensaje era un millon de dolares (peso mas, peso menos) mas rico. Que tal? Alguien aprendio algo?

Unicycle

This is Heidi's new unicycle. We'll see what effect it has on her health. I will try to learn to ride it also, so I might have to learn how to type with a pencil in my mouth sometime soon.

Chain letters work!!!

A good friend of mine who's identity I will protect received one of those 'good luck' letters, you know the kind: 'Send this letter to 5 people and you'll receive good luck in 5 days, send it to 10 people and it will take only 2, send it to 20 and your luck will improve in 1 day, send it to 30 or more and you'll see your luck improve in 3 hours. If you haven't sent this letter in 2 days you'll fry in hell forever' kind of thing. Well, my friend decided that incurring in the wrath of any potential recipients wasn't worth the trouble. With a nagging 'Don't screw around with fate' feeling he pressed the delete button. The next day he won a million dollar house in a lottery. Of course you would have heard about it if instead of winning a house he had been run over by a bus, or if he had actually sent that stupid letter as adviced. And the moral of the story is... heck, I don't know, I'm sure there is a moral there somewhere.

Pulp Fiction in 30 Seconds with Bunnies

Pulp Fiction in 30 Seconds with Bunnies

Folk Festival

We went to the Vancouver Folk Festival Yesterday, and we'll be going again today. Above is a picture of Heidi with Roy Estrada and Napoleon Murphy Brock, of The Grande Mothers. They were in Zappa's band for many years.

Dot Matrix

Today we went for a bikeride to Granville Island and W 4th ave. I went to Zulu Records and headed to the used section and voila, there it was: Symphony #2 for Dot Matrix Printers, by The User. I've been looking for it for quite a while (since I heard a couple of tracks in Daniel Miller's RadioEins show Elektro Beats. Highly recommended), but it is out of stock at Asphodel's site. Very cool stuff. (Also got Fennesz' Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56'37" / Minus Sixteen Degrees 51'08" and Patricia Barber's Verse. Looking forward to listening to both.)

Toenails

Well, we got a disturbing piece of (snail) mail, it consisted of a Seasons Greetings card (it's July for pete's sake!!) with something stuck to it with a piece of tape. On closer inspection it turned out to be a toenail. It came from our friend Adad , and it has a bit of history. Last summer we were in Montreal visiting, and Adad told us about a black toenail. He had followed some internet advice to drill a hole in it so the blood would drain out, which it had and it was starting to look good, and he was happy that he wouldn't lose it. However, later on that day when we were getting ready for the 13th. bacon birthday party (a whole other story) he walked into me, digging said toenail into my foot, resulting in an almost detached toenail. He ended up hosting the party with his foot wrapped in bubble-wrap in a vain attempt to protect it.
Well, it seems he decided I should keep it as a trophy. (I was going to scan the card and post it, but decided against it, since there is enough gross stuff on the net already).

LG LDA 530 report

Well, I got to try out the new DVD player. So far I'm very impressed, it played everything I threw at it, inclucding some XviD files that refused to play on my old Lite-On. It seems to be region free from the factory, so no need to tinker with firmware upgrades or secret codes. The only downside so far is that there is no way (that I've found, at least) to show the remaining time on whichever file is playing, and it drives my better half a bit nuts.

Car CD/MP3 Player with SD slot and USB

I have to get me one of these...

DVD/DivX player

Well, finally I found the player I was looking for, LG LDA-530. Future Shop has been out of stock for weeks, and my old Lite-On 2001 is giving up the ghost, so I was getting a wee anxious. In any case, found one at Visions for 88 bucks. Whoohoo!!

Today's music

A few weeks ago I got my hands on a copy of Amadou et Mariam's latest cd(thanks Pedro!), Dimanche a Bamako and it blew me away. I love Malian music, and the production by Manu Chao works sooo well. You can find some excerpts here. (French)

Shareware

Are you looking for a calendar/schedule program? I found Rainlendar quite useful, fairly customizable, lot's of skins (and easy to modify/create your own) and free (as in beer). Worth checking out.

Today's Music

Today I'm listening to Pappo's Blues, argentinian blues band from the early 70's. It brings back a lot of memories. Pappo, born Norberto Napolitano died in February in a motorcycle accident.

Happy Canada Day!