College Movies and Me

Two or three years ago I was an extra in a movie filmed here in Victoria called The Party Never Stops, (a Lifetime Network TV movie about College binge drinking). I had a beard at the time... well, I had a patchy beard, but I thought that was the epitome of a college student? For one of the big party scenes the director wanted ten of us guys to surround the main actor in this one shot, so he thought he would hand pick them out of the 12 of us there.

"You, you, you, you, (pause), you, you..."

The 'pause' was me, and no my beard was apparently not cool and nor did I look like a stereotypical college student.

Fast forward to last week when I was at yet another audition for a college movie, sans beard, and no creepy mustache like my profile pic shows. Same scenario, director picking the guys to be in either the fraternity Beta, or the 'other' frat party. I guess I'm still not looking like a college student? At least this time there were two other guys with me that also didn't get in the main group.

To be fair (to myself!) I wasn't planning on going to this audition. I was honestly just dropping my wife off at it when the casting director gave Leana AND me an audition sheet, so I was unprepared, and not dressed appropriately. That's my excuse.

Oh wait, and maybe it's also the fact that I am 28 now and I don't look like a college student... and that's probably a good thing for me.

Re: Electric Books

Found this picture today of an amazing artist's work, Su Blackwell, while I was looking for a longboard deck template, and it made me realize something. You can't do THIS with Kindle, or any other electronic book. It's official, I like real books.

Stupid Cheater 'Regifting Robin'

My mom forwarded me this ridiculous little game today called 'Regifting Robin'. Maybe you have seen it or something like it, but you are supposed to pick a 2 digit number and then subtract the two single digit numbers from that number. When you get your answer, you simply match the number up with the numbered 'prize boxes' and then she tells you what prize you would choose, or something along those lines. If you haven't done it before, please check it out here BEFORE you read on! The game will be on the left side of the page... just look for her picture or under the tab 'Guess the Regift'.

Regiftable Robin Game

So have you checked it out now? My mom was a little freaked out with it so she had to send it to my brother and to find out our thoughts. I'll admit, I was a little creeped out at first, but then really creeped out after the 5th time... so then I had to figure it out and make sure it wasn't just black magic haha.

I've got you now you little cheater.

After a few calculations I noticed that every single possible answer is a multiple of 9, so if you picked 11 as your initial number you would get to 9... and that's what you would find with all the numbers from 11-19. From 20-29 you will always get to 18... 30-39 is always 27... all the way to 81. Now if you look at the chart each time you notice that the prizes are always changing. Look at it closer and you will notice all the multiples of 9 are the same! They know what the answer is before you choose your first number! Stupid Robin, all you've got left is a clever advertising campaign for regiftables.com... oh?!

I'm reminded of the time I went to a local fair and paid $2 for someone to guess my age and weight. Their guess was off by over two years and 20 pounds so I won an inflatable snake! I spent $2 and got a .30 cent price. Who really won now?

Stupid Robin.

Energy Drink Extravaganza

I remember when Jolt first arrived in the carbonated beverage scene, it was big deal. Same amount of sugar, twice the caffeine. Then it seemed to disappeared for a while, at least in Canada. I also remember when you couldn't get Red Bull here because the Canadian Health and Safety Board wouldn't approve it. Almost five years later, Red Bull finally arrives in Canada... and opens the flood gates to all and every other energy drink out there.

With such a rapidly growing market for energy drinks, is the government allowing them to exist solely for financial gain. Does profit always out way the health and safety of our society? Should you be at least a certain age before you are allowed to buy them? Kids have enough energy as is, don't they?

A friend once described to me a joke energy drink called Power Thirst, a youtube short worth watching if you haven't seen this before. It doesn't say it at the end, but this is how he remembered it...

Power Thirst is like Crystal Meth in a can!
Power Thirst is Crystal Meth in a can!
Power Thirst is Crystal Meth!

I almost feel this way about all energy drinks, haha, but I should also note that I have only really had Red Bull, and since I don't like the taste of liquid cotton candy, I've been turned off energy drinks. But seriously, should these drinks be regulated. Do they pose serious harm for us down the road?

Electronic: Books? Magazines? and Newspapers?

Will books ever become more popular in electronic form than paperback? What about magazines or newspapers?

While reading a magazine I was bombarded by numerous ads for their new E-Magazine about to start up. In the "Note from the Editor" he spoke about the not-so-distant paperless future of all magazines (his opinion). This spurred me on to Google my options for the future... and it lead me to Kindle.

Could I read a newspaper on a giant ipod? Or a book? How about a magazine? I actually like the idea for books and newspapers, but magazines are all about colour and eye catching design, where the Kindle is (16 shades of) black and white. On the plus side there is free wireless included, under 60 second complete book downloading, and just under $10 for a best seller or roughly $14 a month for say, the New York Times.

Will it simply take the new generation of computer savoy kids to accept reading from a screen in all mediums, or is there something else to it? I know Sara Quin will never use one and loves books the way they are. But talking with Chris Walla about it, he says he could totally get into it. I found this article while searching for a picture and maybe it explains the above...

With the capacity to carry more than a thousand electronic books, the new e-book reader from Amazon is perhaps the computer geek’s or environmentalist’s dream gadget. But is it the bookworm’s?

This is what I know for sure. I would much rather pack a "flattened ipod" in my suitcase than I would four or five large books. Not that it is all about packing a suitcase for me, but I am writing a book about it so...

Under New Management

Driving past a Subway restaurant this morning I saw a large banner over their sign announcing to the world that they were under new management. It made me think. Does that or should that mean anything to me? This is a Subway after all, the second largest fast food chain in the world. People go there because they know what to expect, and for the most part it is consistent throughout. Why do I care if it is under new management, and anyways, I deal with the restaurant's employees and they don't change do they? I'll go to one over another if I like the staff better, but if they are changing staff then I wouldn't go there anymore so...

Ok I do care, cause I've figured it out.

It's all about efficiency. That's what new management means right? Employees stay the same, but work with a more, or newer sense of direction... employees are better managed. Makes sense now. I'm reminded of a Subway I went to in Melbourne on this past T&S tour. Even with a small line, I was at the till and paid in under one minute flat, I swear. The moment I left I turned to my friend Johnny 5 and said,

"That was..."
"Incredible right?!" he interjected immediately.

New Management: a good thing even in fast food joints.

I hate mustard. I'm not a fan of the colour either. I am however a big fan of Jamie Oliver and my favorite recipe of his does contain mustard, at least in seed form. Actually come to think of it, this recipe also has mushrooms, which I'm not a fan of either. How can I love this meal so much when two of the main ingredients are things I don't like? It's just that good.

My Old Man's Superb Chicken

Art of Change

So I spend a while yesterday re-working my colour scheme for the blog and ended up settling on the classic black and white style theme... at least for the background colour and text. Sure there are blue and red accents with the B&W, but a day after the change and I am already bored of the new look. I feel this way with my bass playing at times, I switch something up and initially like it... come the second day, hate it. Maybe that's the problem with art, it can change with your mood. Or maybe it changes your mood, and that's what is so great about art, it evokes so many feelings and emotions?

What should I do with my blog to spice it up or give it new life?

Celebrating U2 tickets the Chinese way

For the first time in my life, I'm going to a U2 concert. I had to join their fan club first, ($50 for the year) but then it gave me a presale password, almost guaranteeing me tickets. Luckily (and without knowing), I joined an hour before presale started, and ended up getting great seats... however during that hour before I was bewildered, and panicking that my presale code wasn't working.

I got tickets to U2, time to celebrate? Is a 12 course meal from 6pm to 9pm a little excessive? Absolutely. Here's what I had:

We started off with a cold plate of jelly fish and surrounded by slices of octopus, pork, and other meat-type things?

Second was a deep fried crab ball with a sweet and sour dipping sauce. The little crab claws are protruding out of the ends so you can use them as a grip.

Thirdly we had these huge oysters in their shells with ginger sauce and chives.

Then there was this mushroomy traditional dish with scallops and a really thin dark vegetable that looked like the hair you pull out of your sink, but taste much better.

Then a shrimp type dish, with something else?!

Then a shark fin soup, although I strongly disagree with this! If you haven't seen the movie Shark Water, then rent it today, it's amazing. I hope our soup was imitation shark fin, actually I'm banking on it for my conscience's sake.

Then there was a giant lobster plate, kinda like the picture shows but ours had a gooey sauce. I made a mess.

Then a chicken dish with the head still on the plate and a small tomato in its mouth. Nothing new here, but still amazing how they just cut it up right through all the bones. Funny how I get so annoyed when I have to eat around the bones all the time, especially with chop sticks. I must be a spoiled North American kid.

Another plate with bones, but more expected when it's a whole fish. Googly eyes and all here. Apparently Leana used to fight with her brother for the fish gills... I didn't try them.

If you weren't full at this point then you could eat the black bean noodle dish, and then have some of the sticky rice. I wish I had room to enjoy the rice, as it's one of my faves.

Desert was also served. Almond cookies? Sesame cookie balls?

An extremely expensive and excessive meal, but maybe I forgot to tell you that this was for my wife's brother-in-law who recently got married? Perhaps I forgot to mention to you this was a celebratory dinner for them, with all their relatives? Did I at least let you know that I was there with my wife's family and relatives as the only 'guilo', and Leana couldn't even make it?! I haven't seen the majority of these people since my wedding, but there I was, waiting for the odd conversation in English and still having a good time; I can only pick out the odd Mandarin word if it has to do with food, but there was lots of food talk so...

See you at the concert? Oh ya, and I don't even know if I can go yet; we are touring around that time, haha.