more like space

You Are 90% Non Conformist

You're incredibly strange. And a weirdness like yours takes skill to cultivate!
No one really understands you. And you're cool with that. You just hope you never have to understand them!Are You a Nonconformist?

i know all you've been hearing about for the last couple of weeks is mario dumont but holy crap.

counting is in progress.

results remain to be seen.

no one really knows.

the fat lady hasn't sung yet.

still...

shades of ontario in 1990, methinks...

yes, still.

well, it's not so much a diet any more as an adjustment to an overall healthier eating pattern. once you've lost weight (and as of christmas, i had lost upwards of twenty pounds), your body starts doing a lot of the work for you.

for instance, yesterday, the man and i decided to stop at chippy's, toronto's fish and chip nirvana, where your choice of fish (generally haddock, cod, halibut, salmon, scallops or shrimp) is battered before your eyes and served over a pile o' fries. a few hours later, we topped this off by sharing a sinful dark chocolate and banana crepe at the place whose name i don't know, but who are right next to fluevog, so they're easy for me to find. obviously, i'm not obsessing over what i'm eating.

except that i spent most of the night feeling like i was going to be sick. why? because i'm not used to it any more, and stuffing my face with grease and sugar en masse is something that i can no longer handle physic…

Nothing you could say
Can tear me away from my guy
Nothing you could do
'Cause I'm stuck like glue to my guy

I'm stickin' to my guy
Like a stamp to a letter
Like the birds of a feather
We stick together
I'm tellin' you from the start
I can't be torn apart from my guy

Nothing you can do
Could make me untrue to my guy
Nothing you could buy
Could make me tell a lie to my guy

I gave my guy my word of honor
To be faithful and I'm gonna
You best be believing
I won't be deceiving my guy

As a matter of opinion I think he's tops
My opinion is he's the cream of the crop
As a matter of taste to be exact
He's my ideal as a matter of fact

No muscle bound man
Could take my hand from my guy
No handsome face
Could ever take the place of my guy
He may not be a movie star
But when it comes to being happy we are
There's not a man today
Who could take me away from my guy

No muscle bound man
Could take my hand from my guy
No handsome face
Could ever tak…

as some of you may be aware, i'm a bit of an amateur wine enthusiast. while i couldn't tell you from an objective standpoint what makes a good wine, i'm more than happy to wax poetic about what i like and what i would go back for.

having successfully installed brand new, funky-looking, funkier-sounding speakers on my computer, i'm relaxing with a particularly nice bottle and felt the need to share. (not the bottle, which i unfortunately can't share over the internet, but the information.)

today's selection is from l.a. cetto. i'm not one of these people who knows how to properly describe the bouquet of wine (although i understand why some people use the term "cat pee" to describe the scent of sauvignon blanc). i'd describe this one as being more fruity, a bit sweeter than most red wines. picture unsweetened raspberry jam with alcohol, but in a good way.

this wine is surprising for a few reasons:

1. it's from mexico, an area known for kic…

You Will Be a Cool Parent

You seem to naturally know a lot about parenting, and you know what kids need.
You can tell when it's time to let kids off the hook, and when it's time to lay down the law.
While your parenting is modern and hip, it's not over the top.
You know that there's nothing cool about a parent who acts like a teenager... or a drill sergeant!Would You Be a Cool Parent?

i like st. patrick's day. i like the fact that there is a holiday that celebrates celtic-ness and drunkeness at once (you could argue they were pretty close to begin with). in fact, it's probably second only to halloween as my favourite publicly recognised holiday.

so every year, i have to have my little ritual and that ritual involves visiting a pub and partaking of the cheer. i've made attempts at watching parades in various cities, but i've more recently given up that practice because a) eight out of ten times, it's freezing cold and/ or snowing in canada on march 17th and b) the parades seem to consist entirely of trucks carrying people who are as drunk as i would be, if i weren't freezing my tush off watching them. so i've backed off the parade in recent years.

however, a visit to the pub, the longer the better, is still an important thing for me.

next year, however, i'm going to have to plan things a little better.

first of all, i didn't …

hentai :: toy factory :: vital

if you look at the album artwork to the right, you're going to get a better impression of what this album sounds like than i am going to be able to give you. with a title like "toy factory" and tracks like "dead teddy bear dormitory" and "insane puppet asylum", you pretty much have a sense of what you're getting anyway.

there is something innately creepy about toys, particularly those which have past their prime. the child's play franchise, as well as the new film dead silence are testimony to this. but attempts to exploit this intrinsic creepiness are often done in a schlocky, juvenile way. this one isn't. in fact, the execution is almost flawless, marrying electronic pulses with disembodied samples that nicely ape the lonely sighs of rusted components and damaged heads as the wind blows through an abandoned toy factory.

to my ear, the closest sonic reference points are nightmare lodge at their most sweetl…

(image comes courtesy of the flickr "guinness groupies" set.)

it's always sad to see the passing of a music stalwart, particularly when you're interested in music that doesn't allow too many stalwarts to survive. so let's all bow our heads for a moment of silence to remember that manifold records, purveyor and distributor of fine music since 1992.

sadly, vince the manifold guy has decided to put his distribution service/ online music store to sleep, citing the various difficulties in maintaining a distributorship in an age when downloading and filesharing are rampant.

i have to say that in my own experience, downloading does not hinder my desire to buy music. in fact, downloading albums is one of the main ways i discover new music, which i then go out and buy. if i don't buy it, it basically means i either wasn't going to buy it, or i was going to get it based on a one minute clip and be disappointed and probably end up selling it to a second hand shop. i realise that not everyone is scrupulous about this, but i know a…

most people have gone through a phase where they went out to clubs. since a lot of the time, this activity is associated purely with trying to get laid, the activity generally ceases once they find ways to achieve this goal without having to spend money and deal with a hangover.

for my part, i've always just enjoyed the experience of dancing. it is, after all, such a uniquely human activity, with no point whatsoever beyond itself. and if that sounds too esoteric for you, i say that any type of exercise that allows, nay encourages me to consume alcohol during the workout is ok in my books.

long ago, i assumed that i never heard music i really loved when i went out (save for those times when i was the dj) because i lived in a small city at the time. however, i've since learned that the stuff i truly want to hear just isn't getting played anywhere.

it's my loss, of course, and i've responded by going out less and less, because i no longer feel i have the time to wa…

i've heard earlier material by pimentola that left me completely cold (i'm often leery of material that comes from the metal scene because, in many cases, it lacks finesse). but for some reason, i just found myself attracted to the cover of their new album.

aside from the fact that it appeals to me as a lover of silent-era german film, i like the way they've updated it and the english wordplay from a band whose native language sounds like diabolical incantations is impressive. in fact it's that cleverness which is making me interested. (they're also responsible for a track called "psychopompous", which is simply a brillliant title in my book.)

the sound clips on their web site are intriguing and the web site itself could qualify as a sort of contemporary art. have a look. have a listen. i'm curious for more...