Aden and I are on a new regimen… well, sorta. We’ll see how long it lasts anyway. We’ve started playing tennis on two of the three days when the little guy isn’t with us, and this week we’ve started doing length swims during lunch at the local pool (I’m way out of shape, or at least my lungs are, and I can only do about 15 minutes before I start getting a little dizzy). We also rode into work yesterday for the first time in a couple months, which is a positive step, except now we have to ride it home at some point, if only we could just ride in (the ride in is easy, mostly down hill, about 1/2 hour… the ride home is tough, mostly uphill and about 1 hour, and it causes me lung inflammations).
Our regimen is loose but we’re looking at:
Sunday/Tuesday - Tennis
Monday/Thursday - Swimming
Tuesday - Ride In (transit home late)
Wednesday - Ride In
Friday - Ride Home
Call it half-assed cross-training
I <3 Google
Well, I suckered myself back into another 3-year term with Rogers, so I won’t likely be able to do the whole Google Android thing for a while (but I’m much more interested in it than the iPhone). I like my new phone… a Samsung (whatever), which means I have a working phone again so people can get in touch with the 401 Kent once more should they need to.
But what’s got me enthused is Chrome, the new Google browser. Although I’m really not geeky enough to care too much about one browser or another (I do prefer firefox to MS Exploder though), I’m thrilled that Google hired Understanding Comics guru Scott McCloud to illustrate an on-line Comic Book to explain away what it is that makes Chrome so awesome. And it’s awesome. I love comics.
With BNY keeping me away from buying new music, I’ve turned to podcasts to help keep me in new and different music. My goodly buddy GAK has his very own radio show on CITR, the Radio 3 of CBC giving me all the indie slice of Canadiana I can cope with, and They Might Be Giant’s Family Friday Podcast because the little guy loves their kids albums (and even some of their non-kids stuff), which is where we found this gem.
For all my friends not working right now, for whatever reason, it’s a joyful mantra you can get behind, and for all us corporate drones and wage slaves, it’s a message of hope, or at the very least, a great way to kick off a vacation. My stepson and I have both declared this as our new favourite song.
Media: web stream (now available on CD) Release Date: January 15, 2008
My overwhelming affection for Stephin Merritt and his numerous side projects dissipated about two or three years ago with both “i” (under the Magnetic Fields banner) and “Showtunes” (under his own name) being disappointing diversions (I didn’t even manage to locate his Lemony Snicket instrumental project, but also didn’t put much effort into trying). I think Merritt is one of today’s greatest lyricists and equally one of the most talented composers, but I’m almost loathe to say that he piqued at his epic “69 Love Songs” and he has been working in the shadows of that behemoth ever since.
As well, the conceptual meaning behind his side projects, like Gothic Archies and Future Bible Heroes have essentially been integrated into his Magnetic Fields gig, and somehow it’s less interesting this way. I should be terribly disappointed that I can’t buy Merritt’s latest album, but previewing it now, I’m not.
Since I’ve been thinking a lot about my debt, I figured I should work a little harder at planning how I spend my money. I’m going to look at all the advanced solicitations from the bigger publishers so I can help figure out what I’ll be buying, what mini-series and stories perhaps I should stop buying in order to minimize purchases.
