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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Sean Montgomery's LiveJournal:
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| Sunday, July 19th, 2009 | | 12:03 am |
Orange Dream Machine...in the Park
Homemade 'Orange Dream Machine'...success! Again, not exactly the same...but damn close. Also, Karen and I went to 'Shakespeare in the Park' tonight - with Raquel, Rob, Emily, Nigel and Ben. It's been an annual summer event in High Park for 27 years, and this was the first time that I'd attended. This year's production was "The Tempest", which I had neither read or seen before (apart from its appearance in the last issue of 'The Sandman' comic book series). The setting for the show is quite lovely: the seating area consists of grass-covered steps, with concrete backings to lean against. You can lay down a blanket and have a picnic...and that's just what Karen and I did. We enjoyed some tasty chicken schnitzel sandwiches, followed by strawberries. Alas, the rest of the group arrived pretty late, and there was one more person than expected - so we weren't able to hold enough space for everyone, necessitating a split in seating arrangements. Also, the crap weather continues...it's weird to be bringing sweaters to an outdoor event in July. But we had our jackets on, and that was enough. At least it didn't rain. As for the show itself... Umm. I've never been a fan of Shakespeare, to be honest. I can appreciate his historical importance, but I'd rather watch a story told in language that doesn't need to be decoded for me. It also didn't help that the actors weren't enunciating the words very clearly. I just couldn't follow what was going on, and couldn't appreciate the subtleties of the language. I was reading an interesting article in The Toronto Star recently, arguing that it's a shame that the most important playwright in the English language cannot really be appreciated and understood by the vast majority of its speakers. It's easier to 'get' Shakespeare by seeing one of his plays performed in, say, French (provided you speak French!). Although I had never read the Tempest, I know that this production also took some liberties with gender and race, making Prospero and Ariel black females (Miranda is still white), Antonio is now Antonia, and Ferdinand is played by a Korean actor. It felt a little bit 'PC for the sake of being PC', but all the actors were into it, and it's cool to give Shakepearean roles to actors who don't happen to be male and white. | | Friday, July 17th, 2009 | | 8:26 pm |
Homemade Jamba!
We've had a blender for a while, but haven't used it much. Last night, however, Karen had a great idea for changing that. Why not make some fruit smoothies? In particular, she has been having a hankerin' for Jamba Juice's 'Orange Dream Machine'. I poked around online and found a few Jamba recipes (or reasonable facsimiles thereof). Tonight, I made a 'Citrus Squeeze' for myself (orange juice, 2/3 cup strawberries, 1 banana, 2 scoops frozen yogurt, 1 cup of ice). And it turned out pretty well, I must say. Since we were using Tropicana OJ instead of fresh squeezed, it didn't have quite the same tang...but still: yummy. Karen's out with her stepmom tonight, so we'll try the ODM tomorrow. :) | | Sunday, July 12th, 2009 | | 12:23 am |
Writer's Block: Lights Out
The most memorable blackout for me was the 'Big One', that took out Ontario and a chunk of the Northeastern U.S. back in 2003. With the majority of lights off for a few hundred miles in any direction, it was possible to see so many stars at night in the city. It was kind of fun at first...we cooked on the BBQ and read by flashlight. But then the reality sets in, as gas pumps shut off - followed by the pumps that bring water up to the taps. As water dried up across the city, there was a run on bottled water at the grocery stores. As you mention, it highlights our reliance on electricity. Surviving for a couple of days isn't a big deal, but after a couple of weeks there would be problems. | | Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | | 9:47 pm |
The Stone of Coldness
Oh! I forgot to mention that after watching the play on Saturday night, I walked over to Bay and Bloor, to seek out the new Cold Stone Creamery that just opened. And I found it - it's on Bay, across the street from the Indigo book store. It was so strange to walk in and see all the familiar menu items in a Canadian setting. I wound up concocting my own, though: banana ice cream with a chocolate brownie, almonds, and caramel sauce. Ohh yeah. I was surprised (but pleased) that there wasn't a big lineup. I guess word hasn't gotten around yet. | | 4:50 pm |
It's More Fun To Compute
My old laptop began a long, slow decline over a year ago. The battery would no longer hold a charge, it became prone to lock-ups, it didn't have enough RAM to do video editing, and then it started overheating and automatically shutting off. But the last straw came on Friday, when the monitor packed it in. I suppose any of these things could have been individually remedied, if I'd bothered to take it to a technician. But I decided to just bite the bullet and get a new computer. I wound up getting a Toshiba 'open box' model at Best Buy, for $550. It has 4 GB of RAM (my old one only had 256 MB), 256 GB of hard drive space, and runs Windows Vista 64 bit (which I find more difficult to navigate around than XP, but it's not the monster I feared it would be). I've spent the day getting it set up, and it seems to be working well so far. The pain came last night, however. The first thing I want to do is get the internet connection working, so I could get the latest Windows Service Pack. But when I attempted to connect to the wireless router, it prompted me for a password which I couldn't remember. I set it up down in California over two years ago, and it's quite possible that I just used an automatically generated sequence of letters at the time. So I wound up on the phone with Linksys tech support for three hours (with three different people), trying to get it working. Drivers were downloaded, the router was reset, various settings were tried...but all attempts to reset the password ended in failure. By 1:30 in the morning, it was decided that the router was now buggered. Now, I was supposed to be going up to Grand Valley with Karen today, to go fishing on one of her father's properties (with Dennis and Kynthia). But now I was faced with the necessity of getting the computer up and running...so I had to bow out. I went to Future Shop this morning to buy a new router (with a $10 off coupon...yay), and got it up and running. Then I spent all afternoon installing crap on the laptop. I'm still not done, but it's mostly there. Thankfully, I've known for a while that the end was nigh for my old laptop, so I had everything on it backed up. Or at least I think I do...I'll find out in the weeks ahead! We're in the midst of Toronto's "Fringe Festival", which consists of dozens of plays created by local talent...including my friend Chloe (who I know from Queen's University). She co-wrote and co-stars in a play called "The List"; which was based on interviews with multiple women, in which they talked about what they seek in a partner. I thought all four actresses did a great job...although each of them deliver 'testimonies' from multiple women, they all felt genuine. The words felt natural and unrehearsed...it's kind of like a live action 'LiveJournal'. :) Alas, I felt that the premise of the play led to a certain repetiveness to the procedings. I mean, doesn't everyone say that they want someone who's funny, educated, caring? The more interesting bits were from women who diverged from mere list-making to offer some personal insights on the nature of relationships. | | Sunday, June 28th, 2009 | | 12:50 pm |
Talking Trash
This past Friday saw a group outing to Banjara, an Indian restaurant on Bloor Street west. Awesome butter chicken and good conversation were had. The meeting was a surprise birthday party for Chris, who was presented with a group gift: a coffee bean roaster (and lifetime membership at a local 'fair trade' coffee bean place, entitling him to discounts and other perks). That gift was Irfon's inspiration, and it was such a great idea! Last night, Karen, Raquel and I went out for dinner at East. Now, the Toronto city worker's strike has been on for a week now...and the area around Queen and John is definitely showing the effects. All the trash bins are overflowing, and debris is blowing around on the sidewalks and in the gutters. It is not presenting a very favourable image of Toronto to tourists, that's for sure. I have mixed feelings about the strike, to be honest (and this is as someone who isn't being affected by it, since I live outside of the city). I have always been in favour of unions, as a way for average people to exercise a degree of power against bosses, and achieve a decent standard of living which ultimately benefits the whole economy...but in this case, the boss is the city, not some international conglomerate. The city is not in the business of exploiting its employees to make money...it's just trying to balance the books. The cynic in me wonders if the city's plan is to let the strike run for a couple of weeks, by which time the wages that they didn't have to pay out will cover the cost of a 3% pay hike. After dinner, we went to go see The Hangover. Mixed feelings about that one. Parts of it were amusing...but in the end, I just couldn't relate to these guys; and it irked me that the whole point of the film was to hold getting wasted and doing crazy shit as being the essence of maleness (an attitude which I began rebelling against in high school. I have never found the idea of being 'out of control' to be appealing in the least). The female character who gets the most screen time is controlling and unpleasant, who gets repeatedly slagged for having had sex with an outside partner while on vacation (whereas it's perfectly okay for the guys to go to Vegas and bang strippers). But you can't argue with success...a lot of people are seeing and enjoying the movie, so they must be relating to it on a level that I am not. I guess my big problem is that I haven't had a group of 'guy' friends since Grade 9, and never bought into the 'Mars vs Venus' gender wars B.S. | | Friday, June 26th, 2009 | | 10:51 am |
| | Sunday, June 21st, 2009 | | 11:48 pm |
Father's Day Weekend 2009
Fun weekend. Saturday included another Games Night (at Oksana and Irfon's), at which Pandemic was played again (and won this time!). I also played Shadows Over Camelot or the first time, which was pretty cool. But it's a difficult game to win. Tonight, Karen and I organized a big Father's Day dinner at the Mandarin buffet restaurant in Brampton. Karen's folks came down from Orangeville, and mine came up from St Catharines - along with my grandparents. Add my siblings and their kids, and it was quite the gathering. I ate too much (as usual), even though the food is pretty average. Karen's dad very kindly insisted on paying for Karen and I, which was much appreciated! Tonight was the first time that Karen's parents have met my paternal Grandfather, and they seemed to get along well. Klaus and my Granddad are both outdoorsmen, who've dropped a moose or two in their time. | | Friday, June 12th, 2009 | | 10:36 am |
| | Monday, June 8th, 2009 | | 10:02 am |
Google Car spotted
I saw the Google Maps 'street view' car at the corner of King and Jarvis this morning. | | Sunday, June 7th, 2009 | | 11:04 pm |
Up
I saw 'Up' twice this week...once with my co-workers, and once with Karen. My first reaction was that that it was an awesome film. But after the second viewing, it may now also be my favourite Pixar movie. Not that it's perfect...in particular, I really didn't really buy the villains' storyline. But the relationship that is established between the lead character (Carl) and his wife is so affecting, that it completely carries the movie. I love what it has to say about the fact that most of us won't get to go on grand adventures, but it doesn't matter because you can build a life of wonderful memories no matter where you are. It's also a beautiful movie to look at, but the lighting (and animation) are made to look naturalistic instead of showy. It was all very inspiring for me. | | Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 | | 5:51 pm |
The Media Circus Came To Town
Starz Animation held a big media event today, which was attended by Ontario's Premier (that's like a governor, all you U.S. folk) Dalton McGuinty, and Sir Elton John. The former was touting a $23 million grant that we just got (for providing R&D jobs to Ontarians) and the latter because he is writing songs for the film that we've just started working on (and he's in town to perform a couple of shows this week). In this clip posted on the Toronto Star website, you can see me standing right behind Sir Elton: http://www.thestar.com/videozone/640761 | | Sunday, May 24th, 2009 | | 11:09 pm |
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir
So, I did indeed make it to the Mandir today, and I'm glad I did. The building doesn't seem overwhelming when you pass it on the highway...it's only when you get up close that the level of craftspersonship becomes apparent. The entire structure is made of marble and limestone (no metal), which was originally assembled in India, then taken apart and shipped to Canada for reconstruction. Like Angkor Wat in Cambodia, it is covered inside and out with depictions of important figures from Vedic lore...each one hand-carved. It's a crazy amount of work. 2,400 artisans worked for 2 years straight to carve it all. After touring the building, I decided I'd profane myself with a visit to the slot machines at nearby Woodbine Racetrack. I made a quick 40 bucks and then went home to pick up Karen. We drove down to Hamilton to see our friend Cheryl, who's getting married this summer. Karen is going to be making jewelery for her, and they had to talk about designs. We also made a trip to the Six Nations Reservation, so Karen could pick up some tax-free cigarettes. And then we drove to my folks place, to mark my brother Kevin's 28th birthday. All in all, a good day, | | Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 | | 10:19 pm |
There's Always Next Year
I had been making tentative plans to check out Doors Open Toronto today. It's an annual event where interesting and historic buildings throughout the city allow the public to come inside and wander around. Some of them also provide guided tours for the occasion. It's a pretty cool idea, and even though this is the 10th anniversary of the event, I've never been to it. But, once again, I failed to make it. First off, I wound up sleeping until past noon. Then, by the time I'd showered and had lunch, I figured that there just wouldn't be enough time to make it worthwhile. And after reading ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) okoshun's reports of long lines at the more popular sites, I feel vindicated in my decision...although I would have liked to have seen The Carlu. It's on again tomorrow, but Karen and I have to drive to Hamilton tomorrow afternoon, and then join my family for dinner. I'm toying with the idea of going to see the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in the morning, since it's pretty close to our place in Brampton. Karen and I watched 'The Princess Bride' tonight. Still a fun film. | | Saturday, May 16th, 2009 | | 11:05 pm |
Crack-a-doodle-doo
While driving to work this past Wednesday, my car windshield took a direct hit from a piece of debris that came flying off of the road. This happens to everyone, of course...in most cases, whatever it is just ricochets off and that's that. I took a look for signs of a chip, and didn't see one...so I forgot all about it. Well, until last night. As Karen and I were heading out to get dinner, she noticed a crack was starting to form above the passenger side windshield wiper. When we stopped at the restaurant, I traced the crack's origin to a star-shaped impact mark, just below the wiper (which is why I hadn't noticed it). And by the time we got back home, the crack had grown to about 6 inches in length. Today, it's almost a foot. So...windshield's gotta go. Now I get to see what my insurance company has to say. | | Monday, May 11th, 2009 | | 10:59 pm |
Highly illogical...but fun!
I made my pilgrimage to see Star Trek tonight...and the bottom line is: I enjoyed it. The plot is completely ridiculous, and if someone had tried explaining it all to me beforehand, I probably wouldn't have been interested in going. But this is not about plot. It's about fun, fantasy, action, and reintroducing familiar characters with just enough changes to make things interesting and new again. "Prequels" usually suck (*cough*Star Wars*cough*) because you already know exactly what's going to happen in the future...but here, it's made clear that events are free to move in different directions from here forward. I liked that a lot. The cast is fun, the dialogue well-handled, the pacing rapid, and it all *looked* really great..it's such an astounding difference from the models on wires and rubber suits of the 1960s show. I'll be curious to see where it can go from here, though. The various Star Trek TV series lent themselves to different kinds of stories, some slower and more cerebral...whereas the films tend to demand big villains every time...and I fear that this new series could very quickly find itself falling into that kind of predictable formula. But I'm definitely curious to see where they go with it in the next film. | | Sunday, May 10th, 2009 | | 11:45 pm |
Mother's Day Weekend
Friday night, I went out for dinner with epi_lj, okoshun, adventureaddict, kristnaskelfir, svala_lj and the now lj-less Sue. It was great to see the gang all together again! It was especially great to meet for dinner instead of a film, since there was time to chat. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a lot of unhappy news around the table, but we were all laughing by the end of the meal anyway....thanks to a discussion involving the various uses of Crisco. Karen couldn't make it, because it would have required a trip across town at the peak of rush hour...plus, she's been dealing with a persistent cough for the past few days. She's taking medication for it, and hopefully she'll be better soon. Yesterday's crappy weather kept me inside in sloth mode for most of the day, but our friend Catherine came up in the evening. We got some pizza, and watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on Blu-Ray (which I picked up this past week). Many films lose a lot of their charm on a second viewing, but this is one that I enjoyed just as much the second time. Catherine also stayed overnight, so that Karen could give her a ride up to Orangeville today. Unfortunately, I didn't get to talk to isle_of_woman this weekend. It's become difficult, now that her job requires her to work Saturday and Sunday, and leaves her feeling burnt out. We'll work something out though. I spent at least an hour yanking more weeds from the lawn today. I don't know why I bother, really. No one else around us seems to be making an effort to get rid of theirs', and we're just going to be bombarded with dandelion seeds anyway. Then I drove to my parent's place for a delicious pasta dinner, prepared by my father. Karen, meanwhile, had dinner with her mom....who, it turns out, just got a new puppy. It's a Pug-Bulldog mix, and full of energy. Karen's brother was also there, with his Weinmaraner (named 'Spinach'). Jersey was none to pleased with this state of affairs, apparently. She's used to being the Princess, and on this evening she had been relegated to second banana! While driving home tonight, I heard about the protests by Tamil demonstrators which have shut down the Gardiner Expressway downtown. I hope that's cleared up by morning. I'd better consult the train schedule, just in case. Tomorrow, I'm going to be seeing Star Trek with the gang. Unless the city gets shut down by more Tamil protests! | | Monday, May 4th, 2009 | | 5:39 pm |
| | Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 | | 6:27 pm |
A lovely day
Friends of ours, led by dvarty and adventureaddict, had organized a hike for today - to which Karen and I were invited. And it was an absolutely perfect day for it...sunny, mild, light breeze. But the plan was to hike 12 km (about 6 miles) - which is a little farther than Karen and I were comfortable with. The longest train we ever hiked in Algonquin was 8 km, and that was years ago, when we were younger and in better shape. I had this vision of us calling for time-outs every 20 minutes, while the others were rarin' to go. Plus...we were just too lazy to get out to the site for 11 a.m. In fact, Karen wound up sleeping in until 2! But I'm sure those who went had an awesome time, and look forward to hearing the details. I had some things to do today anyway. I spent some more time with the yard, pulling weeds and patching more dead spots. The lawn is already looking way better than it was two weeks ago...although the abundance of rain that we've had recently gets most of the credit for that. I also had to duck out and get a few groceries, and do a little cleaning around the house. The tub drain in the ensuite bathroom has been running slower and slower over the past few weeks, and I got it running again. Pride of ownership! | | Saturday, April 25th, 2009 | | 5:13 pm |
The 'Summer' Switch Gets Hit
Toronto awoke this morning to find that Summer had arrived. It was sunny, breezy and warm...in other words, like an average day down in Southern California. I decided to take advantage...by getting outside to cut the grass; sweep the dead leaves out of the garage; and lay down some 'Patch Master' on the lawn, to rehabilitate the areas that Jersey killed with her urine over the course of the Winter. Then I took Jersey out for a quick walk, as a huge thunderstorm began barreling towards us. The rain started very suddenly, accompanied by strong gusts of wind...and we ran back to the house. I found that the wind had blown over the BBQ...yay. Karen and I had been planning to use it tonight, but now it looks like we'll be pan frying the meat. I'm currently drying off, while I watch the overhead lights flicker. Speaking of cooking...there's an anecdote from last weekend that I didn't get to share. Karen and I invited a few friends over for dinner, and I saw it as the perfect opportunity to break out the cupcake mix that I'd brought back from California. Karen was happy to take on the task of making them. I'd been warned by isle_of_woman that they'd be messy to make (true) and tasty (also true). But Karen was more influenced by the messy part, and is not keen on making that particular mix again. Also, the amount to icing that the recipe called for was ridiculous. After frosting the 12 cupcakes, there was enough left over for a whole other 9" x 13" cake (which Karen made on Wednesday night). But damn, it was yummy. |
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