Craig Nakamoto, very good friend and very avid photographer, is in town with Sara and Sage for a few days before heading off to Hawaii (bastards!). Having both recently got new cameras, we decided to take off for a few hours in the sun to snap some pics of Vancouver. First, the nice stuff: cherry blossoms and Stanley Park. Second, the industrial crud: back-alleys in Gastown. Here’s a few samples, with the nice stuff here, the industrial here here, and Craig’s stuff here.
A few posts back, I put together a horrid photo montage of celebrities that I’d been told that I look like (Justin Trudeau, the guy from Blues Clues, etc). Well, a friend just told me about a site on the web that does all the same work for you - myheritage.com. You upload a photo of yourself and the site’s ‘photo robots’ analyze it and give you a series of celebrities who THEY think you look like.
I think it’s broken. (Wentworth Miller - okay. Denis Quaid - okay. But Roberto Benigni? Harry Houdini? Jackie f*@#$ing Stewart? What the?)
Update: just ran it again with a new picture after seeing Lisa’s bizarre second results and I’m much happier with Hugh Grant and gang. This is my new official headshot
Another update: My brother Brian is apparently 98% female, 2% the dork from Malcolm In the Middle.
Every morning pretty much begins the same way. Cedar wakes up before anyone else in the house, wants to get up and is so full of energy and noise that it is impossible to go back to sleep. I’ve come up with a brilliant solution recently that keeps Cedar happy and Daddy relaxed and in bed…
I’ve turned my back into a virtual drawing board.
One morning, I was still in a semi-coma and Cedar kept poking and jabbing me. I turned over with my back facing her and told her to draw a picture on my back. She drew a princess with her finger. And then she ‘erased it’ by swiping her hand all over my back and drew another picture. And another. And another.
I have a hard time getting any sort of massage or back-scratch from Lisa, but suddenly, Cedar was willingly doing it for half an hour every morning. This must be what Fleming felt like after accidentally discovering penicillin - a brilliant yet unexpected result that brought happiness and joy to the world.
I realize that by putting this on the web, this wonderful ritual will soon end, because: a) Lisa will read it here and demand that I stop because it’s creepy b) Lisa will read it here and demand that Cedar draws on HER back every morning
This is the most depressing winter I’ve ever spent in Vancouver. Usually by this time of year, we’ve had a couple weeks of gorgeous spring weather and I’m rubbing it in the face of everyone I know back East, emailing photos of tulips and cherry blossoms glowing in the sun. Not this year.
I heard on the radio yesterday, in an extended story on our miserable weather and the likelihood of floods and mudslides across the area, that March alone has already had 20 days of rain. We’re on track to break the record for monthly rainfall. In the last two days, we’ve apparently had over 100 mm of rain and are due for another 40-50 before the weekend is over. The Fraser river might overflow and flood huge areas, and communities in North and West Vancouver are likely to be hit with more mudslides. Who knows, maybe we’ll even end up with undrinkable water for another week! (All this is in addition to December and January’s INSANE snow and windstorms that resulted in huge damage to Stanley Park and us having to get a tree removed from our yard before it fell into our kitchen.)
Stats and weather predictions aside, week after week of staying inside with two small children and an antsy dog are a surefire recipe for insanity. Lisa and I put some of last year’s tax return money into an RRSP and now we’re kicking ourselves for not making some sort of vacation fund to escape this lunacy.
Now there are some things that keep Vancouverites going during times like these - tricks of surviving these extended deluges. Generally, it’s the thought of August and spectacular beach weather, boating and swimming in the ocean and kids playing in the sand. I’m beginning to question whether the one month of inspiration is enough to last the rest of the year. (But also asking the question that brought us out here - is there anywhere else in Canada that’s better?)
I am officially obsessed. I’ve become some lunatic preacher, pulling in everyone I know to sit in front of my computer and watch "Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!, " a new show on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim in the States. When I first saw it (courtesy of Jordan Kawchuk, an earlier convert to the show and an even bigger ‘pusher’), I was blown away at how completely original and weird it was - not always laugh out loud funny, but one of those things that gets funnier and funnier the more times you watch it and the more you think about the concept itself.
And the layers! It’s not just things like ridiculous song lyrics, unexplainable rashes (bruises?) on a character’s face, and the show opening that includes kitten licking and exploding faces - it’s also the deliberately brutal video editing, complete with bad transitions, horrible green screen, and jarring effects. It’s meta-comedy for geeks made by HUGE geeks… and I love it. Perhaps too much.
You see, not everyone shares my passion for this genius show. In fact, my wife HATES it and she HATES that I keep showing it to people. She thinks it’s simplistic, stupid, moronic, and creepy.
Generally, I’m finding that Tim and Eric is very polarizing. No one I’ve shown it to has said, "Mmmm, it’s okay." It’s a love it or hate it kind of thing. I sent it to my father when I was home sick with the stomach flu and he thought the sickness had made me delusional and had tricked me into thinking that crap like this was funny.
But as usual when it comes to Tim and Eric, I am gushing. Please watch a few samples and then let me know what you think in the comments. Is this stuff comedy gold, or am I insane? (I’m literally wandering around Vancouver singing these songs on an endless loop… help me)
We had a big family birthday out here in Vancouver this weekend - my parents and my brother all flew into town because we all have birthdays within a month and all live in different cities, so a two-day b-day extravaganza is a great idea.
The only hitch this weekend was that Dawson appears to fear and loathe my brother, Brian (’The Beef’). It’s all very strange, because Brian is a terrific new parent himself and he’s great with our kids - Cedar has LOVED having him around this weekend. Dawson… no so much. Maybe it’s an odour or something, but I know I’m not crazy - photos don’t lie.
Maybe conversations is a little bit strong, but we’re now able to do basic Q&A sessions with Dawson. As long as you phrase it as a yes or no question, you can carry on for a long time with him. His ‘no’ is fairly assertive and curt - ‘No!’ His ‘yes’ is like some sketch character, all drawn out - "yyyyyeah" - accompanied by a big wide eyes and constant nodding.
Sometimes our little Q&A is fruitful:
‘Do you need your diaper changed?’ ‘Yyyyyeah’ ‘Are you thirsty’ ‘NO!’
Sometimes it’s apparent that he can only understand the tone of what we’re saying, knows it’s a yes or no question, and responds randomly:
‘Dawson, are you a 20 foot tall polar bear named Dr. Growlie?’ ‘Yyyyyeah’ ‘Do you have 12 eyes?’ ‘Yyyyyeah’ ‘Would you like us to strap you to our roof and leave you our there overnight in the rain?’ ‘Yyyyyeah’
P.S. We are horrible parents who laugh and find this hysterically funny.
I am officially obsessed with taking photos of my dog running and digging at the beach. I keep getting one or two awesome shots that look like she’s flying through the air like a furry stealth bomber or Sandy the Super Eskipoo, but I still think I can get better ones. So every weekend, I head off to the beach and race the dog around, snapping about a million pics in order to get these…
I also love watching her dig. She flails around, her head and ears flying back, dirt shooting out between her back legs, all in some bizarre attempt to build a nest in which to deposit a crappy stick. I feel I’m probably the only one on Earth who finds these amusing, but I post them anyway in the hopes that someone else shares my sentiments.
