Thursday, March 30, 2006

oh NOESSSSSSSSS!!!!1!!1 Morrissey says canada is as cruel and self-serving as china!! whatever shall we do?

i think i'm gonna go celebrate this news by clubing some seals.

posted by theonlybradever 5:14 PM  1 comments

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Here we are! My first photos from night flying! This is overlooking Humber Bay from over downtown Toronto at 2200ft. I would love to say I got tons of awesome photos, but it's so dark that the camera was really struggling to get enough light, and the plane does NOT make a terribly stable platform to take longer exposures. So I have included the best four I took. Anyway this one is quite nice, you can see the highway etc etc, very pretty.


Here we are looking at Brampton (why'd I take a photo of Brampton and stick it on here? No idea, I was experimenting with the camera and the photo is one of the few ones that came out well...) Also, sorry for the absolutely awful HTML...the Picasa 2 and Blogger format doesnt seem to want to cooperate with me tonight.


So this is a pretty nice one of the downtown. You can see Dundas Square in the bottom right, the main skyscraped core...but where is the CN Tower you ask? Well it wasn't really fully lit tonight. So it was just sort of a black looming shadow. It was damned impressive anyway. I was flying AROUND it. Not over it. No, in fact it was STILL higher up at its peak than I was during my ENTIRE flight. Pretty awesome testament of architecture.


This is my favourite photo of the lot...you can see city hall, all the towers, the QEW...it turned out better than all the rest. But anyway yah...I will soon enough have my night rating (once licenced, a private pilot recieves "ratings" which further qualify him/her for other types of flight) and will be able to take all (or a lot...or some...very few) up to do the same tour! Word to the wise though - I took these photos with my dad's D50...at 1600 ISO...haha unless you have a super awesome camera...getting a GOOD photo would be nigh on impossible. But its still a sight to behold.

 

posted by Not Indie Enough 10:37 PM  4 comments

So here they are! Photos from Muskoka, we took tons more but Blogger only seems to be letting me put up four photos for some reason. Anyway the first photo is Lake Simcoe, taken from about 5500ft above Barrie. Check out the fracture lines in the super thin clear ice...pretty cool.

Then you have some wind turbines which are actually just north of the airport, near Shelburne. Also pretty cool, and though its hard to tell in that photo, they are massive...around 200-300ft tall.



Next up is beautiful Nottawasaga Bay, on the southern shore of Georgian Bay, enroute to Collingwood from Muskoka. You can JUST barely make out some of the ice that remains on the water, which again made some neat patterns.



Finally we have Doral Marine Resort (formerly Wye Heritage Marina) next to the river Wye, off of Midland Bay. Why does this matter? Well cuz it's where our boat, the Alligator is. It used to be Canada's largest freshwater marina with over 1000 sailboats and powerboats! ...but now I have no idea if it can still claim that record. Anyway was a really neat first flight for myself as a licenced pilot!

 

posted by Not Indie Enough 10:15 PM  0 comments

FUCK YES! i agree whole-heartedly.

posted by theonlybradever 7:55 PM  0 comments

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Well, been a lonng week. Went to see Coldplay on Wednesday night, which was pretty freaking cool. For some reason Chris Martin likes to hump his piano chair. But anyway they were really good live, almost better than I expected, and they did a cover of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire, which was pretty cool too, although I am not a fan of Cash. They played pretty much everything you'd expect, EXCEPT for Shiver, which is a surprise to me. I think they played every other single they have...I was also a bit disappointed by that, thats probably one of my fav songs. But all in all, a very good show!

Then I got Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on Thursday. Oh my, that game is FUN. It's definitely one of the prettiest games for the 360 - although PGR3 might still have it beat in terms of absolute realism. But the game is just epic in scale. I've already played around 14 hours and I've not even scratched the surface of what is possible in the game. You can buy a house, and DECORATE it, in this game. haha man, that is total nerdom (I am TOTALLY gonna buy one when I can afford it).

Then finally, today, I went up flying for the first time with my newly aquired Private Pilot's licence. Mom and dad joined me and we flew first to Muskoka (and had a hard landing, stupid wide runways give the visual illusion of being lower than you actually are - hence my hard landing). Then we went to fly over Midland, and our boat, which is currently up on chalks at Doral Marine Resort...kinda neat to see it all from above. Then we crossed over Collingwood, and finally made it back to Brampton. All in all was a pretty painless flight, and definitely a lot of fun to do. Damned beautiful to see the sun reflecting off of Georgian Bay too - photos will be uploaded soon!

Oh and Friday, had a right proper pub crawl throughout Toronto with Jesse. Goooooood times. Did anyone else know that apparently if you can't get a seat at the Green Room - they have reached capacity? I thought a bar had standing room? I guess it's not a bar!

posted by Not Indie Enough 5:18 PM  3 comments

Friday, March 24, 2006

My head is fucking throbbing. Good show. Coldplay = good times. Better than expected for sure. Ended up with some rowdy Italians from high school. PrreeeeeeeooOOOOWWW

How does one initiate the office romance? I'm clueless.

posted by Steven 12:43 AM  3 comments

Friday, March 17, 2006

I could make a huge long post...but I won't. Turns out today I had my flight test...and I passed.

I'M A FREAKIN PILOT AT LAST!!!!!!

posted by Not Indie Enough 5:51 PM  7 comments

Thursday, March 16, 2006

It's about that time!!

March Madness is upon us. honestly, tournaments just don't get any more exciting!

i just wanna start shaking beers right now here at work. tomorrow's gonna be awesome.

posted by theonlybradever 1:20 PM  1 comments

Saturday, March 11, 2006

The single most perfect day in the past month to fly. No wind. No clouds. No precipitation. No icing. No turbulence. Nothing to prevent my from doing my flight test whatsoever. It was booked. I had a plane.

When I went to do my written test for my private licence, I had it initially schedule for a day in December. I showed up at the flying club, and was told that the tester wasn't going to show up, at all. So I went home. I was told to go in the next day. I showed up the next day, and he was a half hour late. Then he couldn't get the computer to work. I'm sure I've written about this before. Why am I saying all this?

Because again, it's the single most perfect day in the past month to fly. This past week I've been waiting to do my flight test so I can finally get my private pilot's licence. I was originally told Wednesday, and then Wednesday morning I basically knew it wasn't happening, kind of late notice don't you think? Then people suggested Saturday, and finally last night at 5pm I was told I was going up today. Great.

So I studied hard, I prepared well, I expected the worst of the weather too. But the weather shined down on me happily.

And then I got a phone call. Telling me that my flight examiner is sick.

I can't take it anymore. This is the biggest fucking bombshell to be dropped on me from this awful organization, and I am absolutely furious. I know it's not his fault he is sick, but he had better be hardly able to fucking move, because damnit I am sick too, I have a freaking cold and I feel like shit, but I was going to get up there and fly my ass off to get my licence once and for all. And the simple fact is that I've had countless classes cancelled on me, or classes changed, or promises made about what the course will do for us, and then never seeing the follow-through. I'm sick of it. I'm absolutely sick of it.

posted by Not Indie Enough 10:06 AM  0 comments

You decide to work overtime and get locked out of the office. The lobby security guard refuses your re-entry because your name doesn't appear on the system. You yell goodnight through the walls of the 19th floor to the handful of people still inside. You wander downtown and circle the Shoeless Joe's on King until 9pm when you expect to see people you know. The girl you're kind of seeing but not really tells you she is sexually frustrated over the phone. You offer her a quick solution and end the call with "just joking" but you really weren't. You drink 5-6 pints to celebrate Friday and hit on your workmate's roommate because she smells good. You gracefully lose to him in pool to make him look good. You say goodnight and goodbye to former workmates off to Scotland and tell them stories of the Castle Rock Hostel on last summer's vacation. They are impressed. You stumble on the last train to Finch and buy street meat from the shady stand in front of the station. You finish your dog and jump into a taxi where the cabbie proceeds to give you gambling tips on tomorrow's adventure to Niagara Falls. He tells you that you have nothing to worry about, and that the Chinese are naturally lucky people. You delicately explain the existence of Filipinos. You look forward to tomorrow because you will see good friends. You sleep and hug your pillow tight thinking of the girl you're kind of seeing but not really.

posted by Steven 2:08 AM  5 comments

Thursday, March 09, 2006

hahahahhaha in your FACE USA!

hahha. "do they have a league in the skydome" hahahaha. holy crap this makes me laugh. go team canada!

posted by theonlybradever 9:58 AM  2 comments

Monday, March 06, 2006

oh wow, jenn found one of the best craiglist posts i've ever seen today. check it out here before it's gone.

some people just make me laugh.

posted by theonlybradever 4:34 PM  2 comments

Sunday, March 05, 2006

I still have to see a lot of the films that were represented this year...so I can't say much about a lot of the categories because so many different people won from so many different films. For example, Brokeback Mountain got the most nominations, but only came away with three Oscars. Meanwhile Crash and King Kong came away with four each. I totally agree that Ang Lee should have won best director...I only saw Brokeback Mountain today, but it truly is a really great film, it's not just breaking cinematic taboo. I have no opinion really of the best actress...I have only seen Mrs.Henderson presents, but from what I've heard I'm sure that Reese Witherspoon deserved it.

Best actor to Philip Seymour Hoffman I can't debate because I haven't seen Capote, but personally I thought that Heath Ledger did a really great job too, so that is a shame. Both the writing credits went exactly to where they were due...supporting actor and actress I think are also great choices - although again, Jake Gyllenhaal did a really good job too, so that is a shame too, but Clooney is the man.

Anyway....the most important bit...is that freaking Crash won. I really enjoyed Brokeback, and I can see what the fuss is about. I have seen Munich too...that film can't even touch Brokeback...but honestly...Crash it just phenomenal. I can't tell you how awesome it is that it won...no more of this Hollywood favouritism over genuine good film-making like Million Dollar Baby over...oh...I dunno...ANY of the other four films from last year (especially Ray and Sideways...I mean...SIDEWAYS...so good...)

WOOO CRASH WON! Go Canadian Paul Haggis!

posted by Not Indie Enough 11:27 PM  4 comments

Saturday, March 04, 2006

So this morning I flew in some rather nice weather. The purpose was to just do a quick flight with one of my flight instructors, Mike, to demonstrate that I could properly fly an aggravated stall and a steep turn. I went with Mike on my pre-flight test on Thursday and he wasn't fully satisfied with my results on those two maneuvers. The steep turn I screwed up on because I somehow lost "coordination" of the rudder and aileron at the beginning, and that just screwed up the rest of it, but I know exactly how to fix it and demonstrated some pretty good ones to him today. The aggravated stall is a bit trickier. It doesn't feel tremendously natural to purposely stall an aircraft so I've always had a bit of trouble demonstrating those, but I've finally got the hang of it.

Why does any of this matter? Well, assuming the weather is good in this coming week, I will FINALLY have my flight test - and with it - probably my licence. Soooo that kinda rocks.

Also - in response to Eric's request...
A slight delayed RAGING ALCOHOLIC BOY DRUNK REPORT:
So this was last Saturday. Myself, Eric, Marco, and Mr.Martins (and later Mr.Few) all drank ourselves into oblivion at the Duke of York. It started out with some beers...then some scotch...martini's...and some REALLY good pub food. Fries and nachos, good stuff. Probably the funniest thing of the evening was that the area where we sat down at was absolutely FILLED with women. haha there were like the four of us, and about 20 girls from a hockey team. haha man, that was pretty ridiculous. Anyway, Eric apparently doesn't remember the ride home. And I went and got schwarma down the street. Good times, VERY drunk times.

posted by Not Indie Enough 12:27 PM  1 comments

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

blasting: Fat Jon - No Way Back
cravin': Sleep

Alberto is the man. His job was in danger after finding out that his plant would close in the beginning of this year (next week actually). He put in 15 years at this place. They manufacture pillows, felt, and cushions. If you think I complained about my jobs, you should hear him bitch about this factory. Like father like son (except his complaints were based on legitimate stress). He basically told me he started looking for another job 6 months in.

I can't count the amount of interviews he's been to and the amount of times employers have said no. He kept a good attitude, kept the job for his family, and kept looking.

Yesterday he got a job offer, higher wage, newer plant, and better overall working environment. I have never seen him so happy. He signed the new contract today and filed his resignation at his old job. Then he polished off a bottle of red to celebrate.

I bitch about not being able to find salary. Then I'm reminded that I haven't been out of school for a year, that I don't have a family to feed, and basically that I haven't paid my dues like my dad. I am in no position to whine. What's sitting in a cubicle for a while longer while the stars align in my favour.

posted by Steven 12:29 AM  2 comments