Thursday, November 30, 2006

Well.
That pretty much tears it.
Don't buy Canon.

They told me they'd send me a new one? So what do they do? They send me a DIFFERENT freaking camera. I can honestly see what they were trying to do - the camera is very similar to mine. I have the A710 IS and they sent me the SD800 IS. What is the difference? Well the SD800 IS is smaller, has a bigger LCD, and has a better wideangle lens, not to mention costing nearly 150$ more.

So why am I not jumping for joy?

Because it lacks entirely the features I wanted from the A710 IS: a good zoom range, from 35-210mm as opposed to the 800's 28-105mm. It also doesn't take AA batteries - the battery life may be better in the 800's lithium-ion batteries but if I run out of charge on the one or two batteries I have, I'm screwed - the A710 meant I could just pop in a couple alkalines from a local shop. Finally, and most importantly - I do not consider myself a master photographer who knows how to get the perfect exposure...BUT...I like the freedom of experimentation via the shutter speed and aperature controls. And the SD800 IS lacks that. If it had full manual controls, I'd maybe be convinced to keep it. But it doesn't. Not to mention the fact that I bought an extended warranty from Henrys for the A710 IS. No way will they cover a different camera, so that would be $50 down the drain.

Honestly, Canon makes probably the best point and shoot cameras on the market. They have the perfect list of features, they make beautiful photographs, and they are easy to use. Supposedly they also have a good build quality but mine had dust on the interior lens, so I can't attest to that.

But the thing is that I've been without this camera for nearly one and a half months out of the two I've owned it. And then they decided to send me a DIFFERENT camera to the one I bought. They may think they are doing me a favour but clearly I bought that one camera for a reason, and it wasn't even money - if my camera had cost $200 more I think I'd of bought it. I am just really unimpressed that they wouldn't call or email me to ASK if I wanted this new camera. It would have taken five minutes of their time to dial me up and ask. Instead they've wasted both my time, and theirs, and they've really soured me off of Canon. I was almost starting to think that if I were to buy an SLR in the future, I'd maybe go for the Canon, but screw it, now I'll go with Nikon, or even Panasonics.

BAH!

posted by Not Indie Enough 9:43 PM  4 comments

Imma get messed up tomorrow night. Give me a call and maybe we can meet up.

posted by Steven 9:28 PM  0 comments

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

***WARNING - SACRELIGE AHEAD***

The Beer Prayer:

Our lager,
Which art in barrels,
Hallowed by thy drink.

Thy will be drunk
(I will be drunk)
At home as in the tavern.

Give us this day our foamy head,
And forgive us our spillages,
As we forgive those who spill
Against us.

And lead us not into incarceration,
But deliver us from hangovers.

For thine is the beer,
The bitter and the lager,
For ever and ever,
Barmen.



I just found me a new religion.

posted by Not Indie Enough 5:11 PM  1 comments

Monday, November 27, 2006

I seem to be cursed with being around people who know everything. Who know everything and are never wrong.

Just got home and I'm already in a discussion that escalates into the most annoying banter. When I'm finally at the point of letting the person win because the argument isn't worth shit, I am thrown more bullshit in the form of drama. This person isn't mad about the points I've made in our talk, but about shit that has never happened and for things I never said.

Last weekend I went out with a couple of people from high school to see a friend's show (the reason I missed the cottage below). Everyone had an awesome time. Insert alcohol and two venues later bullshit flies between myself and a good friend. The animosity I felt about him the week before rises up. He was wrong, I was right. I was wrong for bringing it up then and there... but I was tired of the bullshit coming out of his mouth.

Dealing with idiots who you love but can't seem to listen to anything you say is beyond frustrating. I take on the shit I'm responsible for, good and bad. I guess I'm just saying I'm tired of letting the other person win to protect a pride built on lies. Own up.

posted by Steven 8:25 PM  1 comments

Raging Alcoholic Boy Drunk Report:
Well, it's been a while since I've REALLY had a reason to give a weekend one of these reports. This weekend qualified. The cottage crew (myself, Steffen, Stephanie, Ryan, Kien, Huong, Mike, Allan and Alister) hit up not our usual cottage haunt of the Vega but instead we were at 58 Cranberry Surf. The name is pretty gay but the place was a nice townhouse - replete with the DVD game Scene It and a wicked CD collection with such highlights as Enya, Genesis, and Elvis *shudder*.

But yah, was a good weekend. Allan and I decimated the scotch I brought. I swear we'd downed the whole bottle in maybe a half hour. The highlights of the weekend really involved Mike getting beat down on Steffen's Wii by Aaron and Sparkles, as well as the massive quantity of meat we consumed. I gotta say - those hamburgers were just out of this world good. A little bit rare, but oh god, so tasty. My kudos go out to those who organized and came to the cottage - especially Cirkopath who made it out with only three hours prior notice. Our fallen comrades - Drix and Doug - were sorely missed, even if their excuses were pretty bad (only teasing Drix - but Doug, seriously your excuse sucked). So good times had by all. I look forward to the next weekend of debauchery.

Now, on a different note - my Canon Powershot A710 IS is no more. For serious, I called Canon, and they've decided to just give me a new one. I am happy with that - as after the first repair the camera felt tainted - ESPECIALLY considering they damaged a part of the plastic housing of the camera. But yah, kinda sucks that I haven't had it for the past month. But I'll hopefully have a good camera now.

posted by Not Indie Enough 12:55 PM  1 comments

Sunday, November 19, 2006

The new Bond flick kicks ass. The new car is a fantastic Aston Martin DBS, which is to replace the Vanquish as their flagship model. The movie also shows the original Aston Martin DB5 which Connery drove in Goldfinger, which is pretty sweet.

But yah, more importantly, the movie. It has action, it has plot, it has character development (I swear its the first Bond film to ever actually FOCUS on that), it has DEPTH. Now don't misread me here - it is a Bond film, it won't win oscars. It has some disjointed moments of time which are a little confusing. The acting is also of course not exactly stellar. Though without doubt Daniel Craig is my favourite Bond since Moore or Connery - he has added a lot more realistic substance and humanity to the character which was reduced to an automated one-liner machine by Brosnan. (there are still one-liners, but they are fewer and farther between, which I assure you is a good thing).

But probably the best thing of the entire movie is that it doesn't rely too heavily on gadgets or ridiculous stunts. In the scene after the opening titles, there is a moment where Craig hesitates to jump down onto a building, because he is damned scared. This really makes the movie stand apart in the sense that they are showing his flaws as being real rather than quirky and funny. The movie doesn't entirely eliminate gadgets either, but they aren't over the top like the "Vanish" car, and the movie doesn't rely on the gadgets to make a scene, rather they support it.

Anyway, go see it, it rocks. Better than the past three without doubt, I think it's better than Goldeneye was by a longshot too, and probably better than some of Moore's and Connery's movies as well.

posted by Not Indie Enough 9:17 AM  0 comments

jason levesque - bang bang
Audra Green
Pucker Mouth
lip biter

JUN - Birth
bleeding hearts broken art - 2 of 3
bleeding hearts broken art - 3 of 3
flood

dennis brown

pieter frank - cult classic

christopher cox - collage
semiperm entries

mauro gatti - Sex is the key to happiness
love and hate

sixten - 07 score
the kiss
Two

Michael Lewis

Erickson Enriquez - Oh Yea! I love it!

posted by Steven 3:29 AM  0 comments

Saturday, November 18, 2006

So this past week has been kind of crappy. I got a wickedly bad cold, and only today has it really started to get better. On Wednesday I was kind of annoyed because I figured it would prevent me from flying on what was otherwise an okay day to do training.

But that is what made the week REALLY crappy. On Wednesday, I was working in the morning having lunch and heard a radio call for us "Brampton Unicom this is Papa Hotel Kilo." Andrew, my multi-IFR instructor happened to be behind the desk, and he answered. The plane came back and said "Unicom I am currently over Alliston, I was performing a turn and we lost elevator control." For those who might not know, the elevators control the pitch up and down in an aircraft.

Sooo panic set in at the airport. We had to call our general manager, our chief flight instructor, we were trying to figure out what we could do. The pilot on board the plane - which by the way is one of our two twin-engine aircraft - was luckily our most experienced instructor with something like 9000 hours of flying. Anyway, they got back partial control, then lost it again, but they managed to bring the aircraft back to Brampton entirely using what is called trim, which is an ancilliary control which controls pitch indirectly, and - most importantly - separately from the elevator controls. So the instructor and his student landed safely thankfully. It was a rough landing but about the best you could do under the circumstances. The cable connected to the elevators snapped.

And now the plane is in for repairs for at least a month to two months. That is one of the two planes I am doing training in. What's worse, is that if we discover that a similar process that lead to this issue is occuring to our other twin, it will go down for a month or two. And those are the two aircraft I was training on right now. Sooooo GOODY my training might get delayed AGAIN by shitty circumstances. Can't say I'm too happy about that.

I started other training as a flight instructor this week. Hopefully by some time in April or May I'll be a class four flight instructor possibly working at Brampton Flying Club.

In other news, go and pick up Brand New's latest album called The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. It's fairly different from Deja Entendu, but I would say it's possibly the best album I've heard in a VERY long time. I've been really put off of rock/alternative/emo/punk lately (especially on the Edge...when the HELL did it become such a perveyor of utter awfulness - ie. My Chemical Romance, Champion, Three Days Grace, 30 Seconds To Mars, illScarlett, Evan's Blue, and Stone Sour). But this album is good, it's not got the stamp of being mass-consumed by tweens or teens (even though I am sure it will be) or being "the next big thing in rock" (even though many of those bands I listed above seem to be part of the machine of hype that gives them that label, despite all of them being totally unoriginal). Anyway - go grab the album, it's really good, my fav songs include Luca, Jesus Christ, Sowing Season (Yeah), and The Archer's Bows are Broken.

posted by Not Indie Enough 10:33 AM  1 comments

Monday, November 13, 2006

How to turn a perfectly hot song into bullshit.

posted by Steven 10:31 PM  1 comments

Thanks to everyone who came out on Friday. It was filled with hilarity and loud music. Dropkicks have been mailed out for those who did not attend.

Xpresspost™ Canada is a shipping service for documents, packets and dropkicks to the face.

Much love to the 77 boys, CCITers, Newmanites, Barbaras kids, and family who made it out. The guest singers and guitarists added to the song selection and flavour of the night. The security lady bought me a drink and gave me a stack of Pringles after everyone packed up and left for a job well done. I apologized for all the noise and broken glass.

'Raycroft... I don't want your shit!' Andy never ceases to amaze.

~ARJB~ and 'sMuRf have pics up. More to come for sure.

Been a hectic month so far with no signs of slowing down. I'm being sent to an Adobe Seminar tomorrow! Word.

posted by Steven 7:54 PM  1 comments

Friday, November 10, 2006

After tonight I am going to sleep for 8 years.

posted by Steven 12:38 AM  1 comments

Monday, November 06, 2006

= = = = REMINDER = = = =
The Live Amps play On The Rocks November 10th.

I ain't asking you to come out, I'm fucking telling you!

I'll give you 10 reasons to go:
1) I'll dropkick you in the face if you don't attend!
2) All the cool kids are going
3) You'll get to see The Live Amps LIVE!
4) We have a song called Japanese Fellatio
5) There will be beer and a merch table
6) We're so indie we don't have a myspace!
7) We will vibrate your soul from head to toe
8) If you had a band we'd go and support you
9) The guitarist is fucking sexy
10) It will be a blitzkrieg of sonic fury doused in gasoline and set a light by the fire in the hearts of the crowd! (that's you)

I know it's only rock n' roll but I like it! Like it! Like it! Yes I do!

posted by Steven 12:02 AM  6 comments