tap my glass

So speaking of starbucks, recently i’ve been getting my love on for their coffee. It is rich and flavorful, and has a wicked jolt of caffeine. I used to drink the “bold” but now i just stick with the “mild” with a bit of whole/2% milk and i’m on cloud nine for an hour+ (ok i also add sugar on the weekend).

I had quit coffee for a while towards the beginning of the summer, but now that i’ve forgotten what insanity brought me to such a decision, i’m rediscovering my love affair… i mean, having something like a hot, practically intoxicating cup of coffee to look forward to in the morning makes everything ok, and provides adequate reason to get out of bed on otherwise unpleasant mornings. Coupled with a lazy saturday or sunday morning, or even a work from home day when you have “fun” stuff to look forward to, and its a massive motivation maker.

Having said all that, most days i work in kanata. I normally float up march road north to the “high tech mecca” of ottawa, and pass by the metro (formerlly loeb) to pick up a salad for lunch. Via this route to work, there is no official starbucks. There is however an incognito starbucks within the brookstreet, but its a minor detour, parking is slow, they don’t take starbucks cards, and service is also kinda slow. When i can avoid my morning salad, my alternative and preferred route is to take terry fox and hit the starbucks at the (of all things) canadian tire gas station… wtf!!

To give a point to what would otherwise be an endless rant, why the hell isn’t there an easily accessible starbucks in the kanata north high tech area? Not ONE. We have one dedicated tim hortons, plus a tim hortons at the esso, and thats it. Every morning that tim hortons has a line up of cars and a full parking lot, and they don’t even serve coffee!!! (ok some of you may call it coffee, i would have to call it a pseudo-coffee flavoured drink – it does NOT taste like coffee). If i ever loose my job and can strap together some capital, i’m going head to head with those mofo’s and opening my own starbucks in kanatas high tech area, where everyone is friendly and smiling, and we serve wicked product at a fair price. Not only that but we’d have lots of comfy chairs, some seating outside, and all the wifi you could get at so when you need to take a break from constant interruptions at work, you could settle down with liquid pleasure and actually get some work done.

What about this spot right here? (PS – Yay google street view!!! This is the absolute extent of it though, it doesn’t seem to work any further up march).

One note – i would definitely opt for a bridgehead instead, but they should probably keep their exclusive edge and stay in hip neighborhoods, starbucks obviously has no such exclusivity principals… or do they?

I really enjoy going running tuesday mornings as its a good opportunity to spy on what other folks are tossing out in their recycling. Normally all i’m curious about is who’s getting gluten free pizza, or how there is just as much soy milk being recycled as their is normal milk (i admit, this is all mostly a product of running through the glebe).

However this morning during my run all i could oogle at is how many ottawa citizens were in the paper recycling. All the bins appeared to be FILLED with ottawa citizens, dwarfing any insight into new gluten free pizza joints. I am also victim of this, as i guess the citizen is doing some promotion where they are giving it away free for two weeks (at least in centertown and the glebe).

Assuming they don’t already, i think the citizen (and all newspapers for that matter) should pay some sort of tax or kickback to the city to help pay for increased recycling costs. I don’t think its fair that all they need to do is pay to have their product PRODUCED, but its the city and our taxes that have to pay to throw it out, something we didn’t even solicit. Again, perhaps they do already, so hopefully someone can educate my ignorance if thats the case.

I don’t think newspapers are useless, and occasionally enjoy them myself. Every once in a while i enjoy leafing through one over breakfast or a coffee, but maybe only once or twice a year. I’m definitely of the “new media” mind in that i can find all the sources i care about online, can read them on my computer or phone, and don’t need to print anything to access it. Newspapers days are likely numbered as we all know – i think the best way to deal with it is to raise their prices and turn them into a premium product – when i want to read the paper i would gladly pay 5 or 6 bux for it as opposed to less than the price of a tall mild from starbucks (which i’ve been enjoying a lot lately). I think anyone in the news or that does enjoy or need to read the paper on a daily basis could likely afford to pay a few bux more for all the content contained within. That, and the cost really should include some of “total” costs for creation and disposal of the paper, i can’t imagine that <2$ per paper is cutting it (again, i could be very wrong here).

One other thing that bugs me about the citizen is that they released an article a few weeks ago about how they’re going to have this great new mobile frontend – still haven’t seen it. I actually think their current interface is fine on my iPhone, i just don’t like hearing about something new then not actually seeing it or hearing anything about it ever again. What gives citizen??

I had a strange dream last night that as i woke up reminded me of pink floyd’s “the wall” (the movie). But it was nothing like it.

I was with others in some remote amazonian village. There were strange locals there but for the first while we had to hide from from them because we thought they’d kill us or something. We came upon a sacred river crossing that was supposed to be “the place” where some things would happen, and sure enough they did happen. I’m just not exactly sure what but within a short period there was loud noise and thunder as the locals, seemingly hundreds of feet tall came upon us. Then they were normal size, and I was asked by some chief local some very poignant questions in a language i knew nothing about. I answered, wisely i gather, as some music went off and she riffled up a todo list of things i needed to do and collect from the surroundings. I made no effort to remember them because i knew at any point in the future i could access my inventory for a complete list… this is when i realized i was in some sort of video game.

A short while later i was aboard some boat on one of these rivers, likely out performing some of the quests. The boat was made entirely of logs and 2×4’s and had a flat surface, kind of like a barge but made entirely of wood and really high off the water… like a floating “deck”. I remember having one of my accompaniments flinging skateboards off the deck into the river below. I annoyingly asked him why he was doing that, and he seemed perfectly justified in doing so, even though the last skateboard he threw off belonged to me. I was determined to skate on top of the boat, but he wouldn’t go fetch my board, and somehow i was incapable of doing so myself. Then finally i remember thinking that the whole amazon/quest thing was some movie that often reminded people of pink floyd’s “the wall”. Then i woke up.

I like the occasional weird dream, but have been absent from them for some time. I find if i’m not reading or generally exploring some sort of creative pasttime, i don’t dream. Well after many months of being incarcerated within work and duty, i realize its time to let myself out. I picked up a copy of William Gibson’s “Spook Country” and started reading it last night, along with Neal Stephensons “Anthem” – both came highly recommended, but considering how slow and pathetically i read, i should start with the shorter one.

Dost dangers lie.
Our strike be over and not a day shy.
While it brought me passion,
And brought others pain,
I can’t help but wonder,
When it will happen again.

Damn pigheadedness!!! To paraphrase that andre guy – “I would’ve preferred the city come around and accepted our deal. We brought a deal to the table. It was a fair deal.” WTF!!! Does the guy even realize what he’s saying and the ridiculous irony and bias he’s buried in talking about FAIR!!! HA!!! I wish people in general would take a more honest and fair approach with the world, it would win me over at least… i guess thats not the point though, and that would be counterproductive for them. But then at least i’d have a better view of humanity!!!

SELFISHED!!!

In other news i now have my google calendar on my iphone. The gdp may be down 0.7% but my happinness is up WAY% and thats all selfished ole me cares about right now!!!

I really don’t like seeing election signs everywhere… but i’m torn because i’d likely forget about the election if i didn’t see them everywhere. And i’m pretty sure i should care about the election, and vote and stuff. But i’m pretty self involved lately, so that would be out of character.

I’m afraid i have no solution to this problem. Luckily i have few other problems right now. I’m a little sick, and the fridge delivery guy scratched up the floor. Other than that, everything’s great.

So very incognito… so little time to blog. This past month of august was the biggest and best month of my life. Many things happenned, but i’ll summarize briefly:
- i’m engaged
- we bought a house, a single house for just us (and the kitlets)
- i’m busy unpacking
- and working many hours at my job that pays for all of the above

YAY LIFE!!! We just got cable back yesterday so this is the first time i’ve really hung out near a connected computer since we moved. Being wired again is GREAT i can look up stuff like epinions fridge reviews. Does anyone write a review for a fridge they actually LIKE? Very few…

I won’t excuse my busy-ness. If you’re reading this, you’re likely on rss, so this isn’t out of your way. All i do is complain about busy-ness… well, i’m not complaining anymore, i’m thankful! Yay full plates!!

Hope all is well with folks that are reading this.

I have a big problem with assumptions, and a real hate for being late.  Those two flaws collided when i was 1 week, 30 minutes early for my eye appointment this morning.  Its in my schedule for next week, yet i woke up assuming it was this morning.  I need start double checking things and assuming i know whats going on…  not only was i one week too early, but i would’ve been 30 minutes early had it been this week!!!

I also ordered some new shoes, i didn’t even think when i put the size in…  the size was wrong.  If i had used my brain, i woulda realized i shoulda checked my shoe size.

Whats up with all this?  Am i in too much of a rush these days?  Too presumptuous??  Have scatterbrain syndrome?  Yesum.

So every day i change, and every day gets a little different, sometimes harder, most of the times easier. I’m coming to terms with things better now, not so angsty, more understanding. Running long distances helps put things in perspective, and i’ve been doing a lot of that lately.

I can scoff instead of resent the brooding 17 year old fashionista i pass at 7am in the percy underpass, with her frail grip on her morning smoke. I can accept that most smokers live in complete denial that their butts are garbage and pollution, and they’ll always be on the sidewalk to be avoided or flattened once again by my heavy feet. I can smile at the 20-something hip government dude on his way to the archives, halling back on heaven – his initial reason to get out of bed in the morning. Or the older more somber folks outside early in the morning at that weird group home with the awful green awning and park bench on glebe ave.. And all my friends and family and everyone else i know that smokes, i can accept it. I will probably still get annoyed if they interrupt a perfectly good conversation, activity, or pastime, to “take a break” and satisfy their addiction, but i’ll learn to deal with it.

Its really amazing though how long it took my body to recover from it, but now that i’m through the worst, how much more efficient my body is… its really great, i wished i had done it sooner, but am very thankful its at least done with. My lungs work way better, my digestive system is definitely more functional, and i’m stronger. And i get more done because i’m taking less breaks… an arguable benefit.

When something has been a part of me for almost half my life, its hard to let go, and i’ll be doing it forever (or at least as long as i did it for). And now, i’m happy about that too.

I do have to say though, without the smoke breaks to take from hardcore renovations, beers sure are going down smoother.

I’ve been recently informed by the dear Aggie, that she would like it if i blogged more. I really should. Here’s a start.

I’d blog more if i had an iPhone and an unlimited data plan. Those things are likely quite sweet (never actually played with one, only iTouch, and it is sweet), but apple annoys me. iTunes annoys me. The macbook air is a pretty sweet looking and feeling computer though. I definitely see an additional mac product in my arsenal within the next 2 years (i currently have a first gen iPod mini, that is all).

Similarily i would also blog more if i could do so via SMS or text messages… or perhaps i wouldn’t. I’ve been using twitter here and there, mostly just to get techcrunch’s tweets on my cell. They’ll send you the tweets of any individual via SMS, and thats pretty sweet. I should really look into more useful tweets, ie for the weather in ottawa or something.

I got a letter from rogers today about their new charges for excessive downloads, my plan will run an extra 2$/GB for all GB’s over 60 up to a max of 25$. Apparently my nov and dec were under, but i used ~180GB in januaray, ouch. As of only yesterday i was talking to them to reduce my monthly bill, got 10$ off by giving up tbs (or peachtree, whats up with that). Now i’ll likely have another 25$ on it every other month. Ahhh cable monopolys. Is it time to go DSL? Likely yes…

I have work to do tonite, so i was planning on hitting up some dirienzo’s sandwiches as they’re cheap and easy. But my lunch today consisted of a loeb greek salad and one of their ciabatta demi-bagettes. Its a lot of tasty bread really (and good value too, 1.39 per), i didn’t feel like any more. So what did i do? I stopped by sazloves and got some of their chicken souvlaki skewers. I wanted to make a recent recipe i learned from the Urban Element’s indian class (an amazing experience i shoud’ve blogged about), a very high taste to complexity ratio’d basmati rice recipe, but had no basmati rice. I did have reserve minute rice. Which worked great surprisingly enough. I was missing a bunch of other stuff, but in the end the rice was perfect. I bbq’ed outside with no jacket, broke some hard ice away, drank some sleeman, and had a merry old time. When it came to eating, i positioned the rice chicken and taziki (i forgot about the taziki, they recommended it on their label, i fell for it, no regrets), put the leftover chicken in the microwave (not to cook, but so the cats wouldn’t hair all over it), and i sat in front of my computer, read local ottawa blogs, eat scrumptiously, and feel very rich for the experience.

I also should say that the spring/summer will be an exciting time, hopefully some reno’s, lots of work (its been busy lately), getting my summer tires on (yay!!!), etc..

I have nothing concise to say.

Oh, i do want to get jamie olivers’ newish book, i had a peek at it and it talks about skills/notes for growing misc veggies and stuff. The part about the british hunt kinda turned me off, but i think i can look past it into the sometimes vain mr. olivers dreamy pictures of cooking food over an open garden barby. 40$, but i think i’ll actually learn something from it.

Here’s a misc picture i’m really happy with, but whose tone and attitude totally does NOT jive with that of this posting:

One final thing. I’ve been going to the gym, and listening to some podcasts, cbc’s search engine for one. I may or may not of heard this there, but when i read a blog posting and want to refer to it i say “you should check out so and so’s latest blog posting”. I don’t say “you should check out so and so’s latest blog”. Am i wrong? I would assume that someone’s “latest blog” means they started a new blog with a separate URL and so forth, and it has new/different content than their other blogs. If anyone agrees with me please honk.

I’m basically addicted to #705 at camcong right now. Its their spicy veggie soup. It is occasionally hit or miss, possibly depending on my mood, but lately its been bang on. Lots of veggies, right amount of noodles, quite spicy, not too greasy, no massive chunks of galangal, lots of good tofu, its really really good. However, i was quite disappointed last night when we showed up at 8:10, and they were closed. Still had customers, but closed. Their sign says they close at 9pm. But its private enterprise, they can do whatever the pump they want. And because they have one of the best most addictive products in ottawa to myself right now, i can’t afford to boycott based on this one early close…

So we went down to new pho bo ga la and i got a much more traditional s9, pho with bbq pork and shrimp wonton’s. Not nearly the same addictive soup, but good nonetheless.

I think spicy foods are addictive to me. A few years ago, i wasn’t much of a fan. Now i actually crave them… another sign of my feverously addictive personality.

We’re going to the dominican republic in a few days. Its going to be boring as hell, and perfect as hell. It’ll give me time to come to terms with many things, including my various food addictions. And to read some books, get a tan, listen to tunes, brainstorm, tune out, swim, and hopefully not get food poisoning or anything worse.