Moving

Hello everyone, this blog is moving. You can check out the new site here. This account will be active for archiving purposes, but please update your info to the new page as this one shall never ever be updated again.

Algonquin Park

The view from the Algonquin Park Visitor Center.

There is an animal sighting board at the entrance where everybody writes down what wildlife they've encountered and at what time and where etc. Definitely two different bear sightings on our campground in the wee mornings of the AM, but I didn't get to see them my self. Pretty sure we heard them knocking a BBQ around (why you would bring a full propane BBQ camping? I'm not sure.)

I've only seen wild bears on one occasion. Portaging through Algonquin with Nick and his pops a long time ago we saw two cubs paddling across the lake. Nick and I wanted to get closer but his dad insisted that there is no worse idea than getting between a momma bear and her cubs. The momma never made an appearance but the ranger told us on exit that a hostile female bear had been removed from the area.

Looking forward to getting to know this park over the course of my life.

a world of reference

Life's been busy but great as of late. Here are some of the things I've been investing some of my spare time in. Spread the disease.

Summer. A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

A great way to start a Saturday:


When you travel with your boss, you get a better hotel:


It's important to personalize your workspace:


Winter got the best of this classic dock:


Just because it's grey out does not mean you can't enjoy the beach:


This is what summer looks like on the 401:


The only thing this snake likes more than slithering around is weed:


The proper way to celebrate a birthday:


My friends are blessed people:

Today in Toronto rock history

Fancy cars for fancy times

I have never really been a car guy, but I've spent 4 years of my professional life working on automotive accounts. In that time I've grown to appreciate car design and what goes into making these vehicles. Poking around on autotrader and ebay makes me want to save up for a sweet vintage whip. If anyone out there really wants to show me some love this one is only 7 grand, hint hint. Here are a few of my favourites.

BMW 635 CSI
I love the angles on this car, especially the sloped front. I'd tint out the windows and maybe get an Uzi to keep in the glove compartment. Not sure why, maybe because it has a bit of a gangster vibe.



Porsche Carrera 1986
Love the fat spoiler and jubilant look of this vehicle. It's like a giant smiley face.



Ferrari 365 GT/4 2+2
This is the car equivalent of owning your own Mako shark to whip around town in. Ferocious angles, immaculate body, and a motor to boot. When (not if, positive thinking!) I win the lottery, this is going to be the first purchase I make.

hermano

Not everyone who reads this knows this, but I have a pretty talented little brother AKA Butta Beats. If you've got 3.33 burning a hole in your pocket give his new EP a DL. He's also the drummer and occasional beat-boxer for Montreal's multiculti party sensation Nomadic Massive, voted number one rap group of Montreal in the Mirror's poll.

desert blues

Most good music comes from struggle and Tinariwen are no exception. This is a short documentary about a band made of up of nomadic rebels. Pretty bad ass. These dudes live out in the desert and rock out on hypnotic tribal blues.

Ultimate Animation

“The frequencies in my head are not known to normals”

Book Review: 1984 George Orwell

It really blows my mind that this book was written in 1949. This is my second time reading Orwell's dystopian novel. Safe to say I got a lot more out of it now than I did at the age of 14. On my first read I appreciated the novel for the story and the dark vision it painted of the future (even though I read it in 1991, which was technically the future). But reading this today, it's almost impossible not to draw parallels between Orwell's world and with what's happening around us: the pervasiveness of surveillance, the diminishing amount of privacy, and the move towards united global superpowers. Orwell wrote this book more as a warning of what totalitarian government could bring and less about the loss of privacy, implying that the first would bring about the second. But today it seems like just the opposite is possible.

“In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.”

“For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realise that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.”

“To these people the war is simply a continuous calamity which sweeps to and fro over their bodies like a tidal wave. Which side is winning is a matter of complete indifference to them. They are aware that a change of overlordship means simply that they will be doing the same work as before for new masters who treat them in the same manner as the old ones.”

“You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable.”

* I picked up this version of the book with a cool Obey cover, but love this retro version (courtesy of So Much Pileup).