Flecks of… Gray?

I set Heidi’s mom up with a flickr site and to make things really easy for her, I set her up with an email address that she could send pictures directly to her flickr page. I told her that that specific email address was super secret and that she shouldn’t share it with anyone because they could put strange things onto her page.

Today, she posted that email address on her flickr site by accident and I took the opportunity to exploit that moment of weakness by posting a funny picture of the many mom’s which she thought was pretty funny. The part of this joke that I think was a little lost in translation is that mom think that it’s okay if other people put pictures on her site, the whole web privacy thing isn’t high on her priorities yet.

And to scold me for doing this? She puts a nice picture of me holding Saff – you’re going to have to do a lot worse than that mom!!

I’ve had a song stuck in my head for probably years and I don’t know who sings it. I’ve sung it for people who I think should know but nobody ever does (possibly due to my bad singing).

To combat this, I’ve plunked it down in notes and made it available here – anyone know now?

It may be Susan Aglukark or anyone really, I think that it was big on the radio in ’01. If you know, why don’t you think of a prize for yourself too, my pockets may run deep for this answer!!

There’s more to this melody than I have here but this is the main part, also there’s no words for this part at all, it’s all wordless singing…

Made with help from musipedia

Happy 300th entry to me!

I’ve never heard of Michael Bublé, nor have I heard his music but evidently he’s up for a Grammy for best traditional pop vocal album but plans to stay home and watch the Vancouver Canucks play on the night of the awards ceremony.

Why the snub? Michael said he’s boycotting the event in Los Angeles because his category will not be presented live on TV. I guess that’s a good enough reason for me, even though it sounds a bit pouty. All in all, I like that he’s dissing the Grammy’s in such a Canadian way, that makes me a fan.

CBC story

This is a really interesting development… Catholic agencies have so far been allowed to discriminate against gay couples by not allowing them to be adoptees but a new ruling in Britain (CBC here), endorsed by Tony Blair would force them to allow gay couples to adopt from any agency. The Catholic adoption agencies have threatened to stop offering their services to anyone.

There’s certain to be some good debate over this.

Cardinal Murphy O’Connor says:

“It does seem to me we are having a new norm for what marriage is, because I think normally children should be brought up by a father and a mother and I think that we hold that that is extremely important.

“The government has a right to legislate and homosexual couples are also able to adopt in other agencies but we want to hold onto this principle.”

Prime Minister Tony Blair says gay couples should be able to apply to adopt like any other couple:

And that is why there can be no exemptions for faith-based adoption agencies offering publicly funded services from regulations which prevent discrimination

He has given the agencies 21 months to comply, in the meantime they are allowed to refer gay couples to other agencies.

I’m fascinated to see what comes of this – is the church getting completely kicked out of the political and social sphere? Is that a good or a bad thing?

This ebay’ed NES nintendo comes with all 670 games including the MegaMan quintology, Tecmo Super Bowl, Battletoads and all the other ones that you were thinking of, so far, it’s only going for $31K US so it’s still affordable, bid before it gets out of reach!

I think that I got more feedback on my treadmill than any other entry I’ve put on my blog so far. Not right in the comments, but emails about it – so that’s good – people are reading!

I got a response from the Smooth Inside Sales Manager regarding my price drop request:

Hi There, currently the 6.25P is not on sale in Canada. $1999 is the price. However, I am willing to negotiate with you and provide you with the price of $2000 hr strap/curbside delivery/tax included only if you call me by 8pm tonight to place the order. You would receive the product in about 1-2 weeks time frame. Let me know if you are going to go with this offer.

It’s after 8pm, but I accepted, that is, if they’re still taking my money after 8pm. I’ll probably order tomorrow…

So, this year, I’ve been testing out a few new tv shows and here’s what I’m into so far:

30 Rock – I started watching this one a few days ago and am a big fan. Tina Fey has always been a favorite of mine and Alec Baldwin can really act – I love that guy. Some other supporting characters in the show are quite good and overall, this has been the pick of the season

Heroes – normally I stay away from these drawn out dramatic serials but in this case I faltered (they’ve got superpowers, c’mon!) It suffers from a tv pace when I’m more used to a feature film pace so that’s kinda tough that storylines drag on forever but it’s a decent show if you like these types (not you Luanne, these people do some pretty non-reality based things)

Scrubs – I’ve never really watched scrubs and I do love Zach Braff so I decided to try to start from the top and see how things go. So far, I’m not totally sold but I will probably keep watching. This feels like the TV equivalent of R.E.M. – given what I like, I should like this, but I just can’t make myself…

The Office – This one is pretty ‘must watch’ for me. I really love the characters and you’ve often got some quotable lines or at least some memorable characters after each episode.

So far, I’m looking like the hugest NBC fanboy, but honestly, it’s all coincidence… so far…

Little Mosque on the Prairie – A cbc program that Heidi and I have picked up for the first two weeks. It feels good watching Canadian TV (good, like not shopping at WalMart good) so that’s a plus and it’s pretty topical. I’m not a huge fan of the style of comedy so far, but maybe it’ll grow on me.

Extras – this BBC quick season (6 eps) was a real pleasure, there were some great memorable clips from this last season that I’m still laughing about today.

On the horizon, I’m excited for the starts of The Shield and Entourage coming up

After some Christmas fat has been packed on, it’s now time for the removal. To aid with the pruning, Heidi checked out a nearby gym to find out that you had to join for a year and it would be ~$500. Since she really only wants to run and is limited to indoors only in winter, that seemed like a bad choice – so I’ve been looking at getting a Treadmill.

I’m pretty confident that Heidi would use it quite a bit and I would use it periodically when I start to feel lethargic (rare, but possible). I wanted to get something pretty decent cause that’s the way I roll and after seeing some good reviews I am liking the Smooth 6.25 because they deliver to Canada, and other people that know more about treadmills than me think that it’s good. That didn’t stop me from trying a little online bartering (since some sites said that the sale price was much lower than it is currently going for) – here’s how that went:

I’m interested in purchasing the Smooth 6.25 with delivery to my address in Montreal, QC, Canada.

On the website I see that it’s being offered for $1999 CDN plus taxes. I’ve read some great reviews of this treadmill which has brought me to seriously consider purchasing one; I just have a few concerns.

I noticed on one review site that I should be able to find a sale on one which could drive the price down a few hundred dollars. Are there certain times when these sales take place? Is your current non-sale price negotiable?

Here’s what I would be very interested in (which I believe would still be a good sale for you) – the Smooth 6.25 treadmill with optional heart monitor delivered to my address (not a warehouse) for the total price of $2000 CDN (taxes included).

If this is something that can be arranged please let me know.

PS. On the Canadian page for this product (http://www.smoothfitness.com/canada/treadmills/smooth_625-ca.htm#) you have the note saying, “As the only folding treadmill under $1,500 built for serious runners”. I imagine that this pricing needs to be updated…

I’ll let you know how it goes

Yesterday, Colbert appeared on the O’Reilly No-Spin zone and O’Reilly returned the favor and appeared on the Colbert Report. Proving once again that you don’t need TV for anything (minus sports that is), here’s the videos of those events.

Colbert on O’Reilly
O’Reilly on Colbert

From the guys who brought you Kazaa and Skype, they’re now bringing you Joost which is a way to watch TV over the web. If they somehow squeak this one by all the content owners onto my desktop I’m going to be a happy man! Presently in invite-only-beta but I’m excited to try it when it does come out