My generation

The best cover of this song. Ever.

Not for the easily offended

Slug porn

Klaus und Werner

Well, Gordon the first passed away after only a couple of days. It was a sad day. We now have Gordon the second, and also Klaus and Werner, in the photo above. They are Cherry Barbs, they seem to enjoy each other a lot, and is fun to watch them doing little dances and chasing each other around. Luckily they seem to be okay with the other tank inhabitants.

Bottom feeder

It took 6 weeks, but finally our tank is cycled, meaning we can get some roomies for our five neon tetras (you can see one in the background and very out of focus). This is one of the new inhabitant of our tank, a catfish. Since (s)he is a bottom feeder we are thinking of naming him/her either Stephen or Gordon. You're vote might sway the final decision.

Oh yes, we also got 3 harlequin rasboras, but boy, are fish hard to photograph with available light and through aquarium glass.

Say what?

Have you ever wandered what rappers are talking about? I know I have, perhaps not being a native english speaker had something to do with it. Thankfully, thanks to this page now I at least have an idea.

Tagged

I normally don't pay much attention to these things, but if I get tagged by KerryKLove, by golly, I will answer.

Four Jobs I've Had

Fur salesman (don't ask)
Forklift driver
Computer Programmer
Factory worker

Four Films I Could Watch Over and Over

Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Blood Simple
Before the Rain
City of the Lost Children

Four Places I've Lived

Buenos Aires, Argentina
Barcelona, Spain
Vancouver, BC
(I'm afraid I can only come up with three, unless my head counts as one)

Four TV Shows I Like

Deadwood
Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
Six Feet Under
The Sopranos

Four Foods I Love

Saba
Kalvin's hakka style eggplant
Rendang Sapi
Thai Green Curry

Four Daily Websites

BoingBoing
Attu sees all
Flickr
Salon

Four Things To Do Before I Die

Visit Japan
Learn to ride a unicycle
Watch Citizen Kane
Shave my head

Four People I'm Tagging

4? with websites? are you kidding?
Adad
Peter

Happy 2006

This is the shot that got the most attention from flickr users. Go figure.

H got a new dress

Where have you been?

Found this great tool that let's you create a map showing which countries you've been to. I'm up to 34, or 15%.


create your own visited countries map

Back in the cold north

We just got back from a trip to Argentina. We spent ten days in Buenos Aires, 6 days in Misiones visiting Iguazu Falls and 4 days in the Cuyo region, where we went to 2 World Heritage sites, Ischigualasto, also known as the Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) and Talampaya. The trip was great, besides some minor health issues. It's a bit shocking to be back to freezing temperatures after 3 weeks of over 30 degrees weather. If you'd like to see some pics of the trip check out my flickr account.

On a sunny fall day...

We decided to go to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen gardens to take some photos. I've posted a few of the better ones on my Flickr account. The set is here.

Fall in Vancouver

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything, my excuses being the Vancouver International Film Festival and the weather. I saw 21 movies overall, some quite good, some so so and a couple of crappy ones. A couple of documentaries stood out, Everything Blue, about brazilian samba and it's social roots was good, After Innocence is a pretty powerful indictment of the "justice" system in the US.

Strange records

The collected broadcasts of Idi Amin. We found this on a bookstore on Main. Didn't buy it though. I particularly liked the "buy dis noo bes' sellin' el-pee" blurb.

Beware of Daphne

Or she'll chew your calfs off...

Saltspring Island

We spent a couple of days with friends in Saltspring Island, right on St. Mary's lake. The swimming was good, as was the company and the food. The picture above is of a tree frog on a blackberry, the one below is Ganges harbour.

Night Market

We went to the Richmond Night Market on Sunday. It was fun, and it felt fairly authentic. We ate grilled squid, shu mia, curried fish balls, red bean paste waffles, chocolate covered strawberries and perused lots of vendors selling cheap stuff, of note were the ubiquitous 'magic bras' and LED flashlights.

More Cuba

Trinidad

I've added a few more shots to the set.

Chevy Bel Air

I recently got a Flickr account. I will be adding pictures as I get to it. So far I created a small set from our trip to Cuba last january.

Klaus Nomi

Watched The Nomi Song yesterday. Quite an interesting story, and also sad. Klaus Nomi was this german guy who moved to New York and became a celebrity due to his bizarre combination of opera, kitsch and theatrics. He was also one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS.

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!

Genesis