Dizzy Dragons

Monday, September 3, 2007

If I've learned anything from watching The Lost Boys, it's that the best way to cure the summertime blues is a trip to the boardwalk amusement park. Next best thing, today, is the CNE. Anyway, I'm trying to get an interview prepped for posting today but I might not get it done by the end of naptime so it may wait a day or two before it's up…

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Connor MacLeod

Monday, September 3, 2007

I made a shrimp bahmi goreng last night (I grew up eating nasi goreng; this is sort of the same thing but noodles). I wasn't sure if it was going to turn out well or not when I was making it but the result was excellent and I'll cook it again for sure!

Jon and Nefarious went fishing this morning — it was good timing because I discovered this morning that due to some sort of a crash, the update from August 28th was only partially updated. Basically the images got uploaded to the server, but weren't properly inserted into the databases, so they didn't appear in the galleries (or at least didn't appear permanently — they may have for about 12 hours). Anyway, I wrote a pile of diagnostic software to deal with corrupted databases on BME, as well as some backup software that's much more efficient than what was currently in place for my local machines.

The images from the 28th will be in tonight's update, and should appear between the updates from the 31st and the 30th so they won't be missed, even though it makes the sort order a little wonky visually.

***

A while back I got a drinking straw construction kit for Nefarious from ThinkGeek that lets you build custom straws — here's a four-cup experiment she built:

Other than that, I've been fantasizing about moving to Cape Breton Island, up in the Highlands — probably a more reasonable fantasy than the Magdalen Islands (and my French really isn't good enough for that anyway). Perhaps I will spend my remaining days learning to playing a fiddle! There are better pictures if you look around but it's a really beautiful place — I think GQ magazine called it the #2 island to visit on vacation in North America (#1 was some place in Mexico).

A guy can dream!

For now I am stuck in a (relatively nice) house in Toronto, although the service station down the road — I think they're to blame — has had some sort of contamination problem lately and the whole neighborhood has smelled of gasoline, giving me a headache, for the past week.

Anyway… I've got to get a bunch of images together for the folks from Bizarre. They're doing a big feature on BME in one of the next issues. I'm told it's quite lengthy so I'm looking forward to that — hopefully I'm quoted accurately and didn't say anything too bad, ahaha! I can't remember what I said that could possibly have even filled as much text as I'm told there is. We did the interview either right before or right after my surgery so I was in a ton of pain and in a weird headspace, so fingers-crossed it wasn't embarrassing!

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Ominous Premonitions of Doom

Monday, September 3, 2007

I was woken up a 4AM with an insanely loud high-pitched ringing in my ear. It's partially subsided now but it was deafening. I don't know if it's just city noise pollution feedbacking in my brain or what… I felt really unpleasant and couldn't get back to sleep. I might go to the CNE again today to try and relax. I'm looking forward to the Royal Winter Fair… the farming stuff at the CNE sucks this year. There was… one tractor… ooohhhh…

Update:

DAMN MY PSYCHIC POWERS!

Yeah, I got some terrible news in the mail today.

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Off to school

Sunday, September 2, 2007

I made a frame for the painting I think I posted yesterday, but the frame was about 1/8″ too small and I didn't want to force things, so this morning when I discovered that I gave it (with a masonite backing) to Nefarious to draw in. The drawing she did was really nice, so I painted it for her in acrylics (right over top of her sketch). Here's the final result of our combined efforts:

It's her on the way to school (she's four; this is her second year at Montessori), wearing a pink dress and her backpack (from which the ball behind her fell out of). She got lost, but is getting directions from a friendly bird and unicorn (which, amusingly, has two horns because “it's a very special unicorn”)… The sun, an apple tree, and a mountain are in the background.

Anyway, off to cook supper!

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I got my ski mask on.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

So I'm driving to the store to pick up some lumber to do framing and there's a really annoying old man in a caddy in front of me, driving at about 2/3 of the speed limit. My truck overheats so I can't drive it for long so slow driving really bugs me right now. He crept through a yellow light, and I followed him, with the light turning red essentially the instant I entered the intersection — and, surprise surprise, I look in my rearview mirror as I'm crossing and there's a cop car a hundred and fifty feet behind me…

I finish crossing the intersection and I guess he decides to ticket me and I see him start to accelerate — and the instant he enters the intersection a car crashes into his hood section at full speed and totals both cars (I'm sure the cop was OK, but the other guy may have been hurt). I considered stopping for a moment (having been charged with “failure to remain” as a kid), but because he had not turned on his siren or lights I figured I was within my rights to drive away.

When I come back, he's there with a couple more cars and a tow-truck (that's when I took that picture). I round the corner and I see him gesturing at my truck, which is pretty recognizable because it's an obvious lifted off-road conversion… I doubt I can get in trouble… right?

Anyway…

I did a little more work on my take on Sir John Everett Millais's The Blind Girl. I'd put it aside for a few months but I think I'll try blasting it out over the next week or two.
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