Month: October 2004

We're packing up Katy's things. I just burned all the pictures we took on her trip to CD. There are 843, that take up just over 1GB of disk space. That's scary… As for how I'm feeling right now… I don't really want to think about it :(

I'm going to see Katy during hte holidays, huzzah. Got my ticket freshly confirmed and all :D I will not even attempt to understand the mysteries of air travel. The flight I have is Ottawa->Toronto->London. It's 650$. If I do Montreal->Toronto->London on the exact same dates, it's 900$. If I do Montreal->Toronto, it's ~675$, but I can't really do that because of schedule constraints. It was a pain in the ass to find the sweet spot, date-wise. The day you're leaving seems to have a huge significance, but it's not always consistent. Also, the expedia website listed two exact same flights, dates and times, for two different prices. I don't get it, but it's not important anymore :D

My flight information:

Fri 24 Dec 2004

Ottawa (YOW) to Toronto (YYZ)
Depart 6:00 am
Arrive 7:10 am
Duration: 1hr 10min
Flight: Air Canada 479

Toronto (YYZ) to London (LHR)
Depart 9:00 am
Arrive 9:15 pm
Duration: 7hr 15min
Flight: Air Canada 868

Total distance: 6075 km (3775 mile(s))
Total duration: 8hr 25min (10hr 15min with connections)

Sat 8 Jan 2005

London (LHR) to Ottawa (YOW)
Depart 4:45 pm Arrive 7:20 pm
Duration: 7hr 35min
Flight: Air Canada 889

Total distance: 5362 km (3332 mile(s))
Total duration: 7hr 35min

Two little edits: yes, I'm leaving Ottawa at 6am. That means I need to be at the airport at 4am. That means I really shouldn't really sleep that night, cause I'll need to wake up at 2:30 am. Normally, flights to europe are in the afternoon, but I didn't want to land on xmas morning.

Edit #2: to all those people who sniggered because I always keep my passport in my bag, I say HA! I needed it just now to confirm something, so I say neener neener in your general direction.

Day started rough this morning. Katy had a rough night sleeping last night, so I kind of felt it too (and Katy, if you're reading this, stop apologizing for it, we all have bad nights. The broccoli did it, so let it take the blame). Got into the office a bit late-ish, but got some good news.

I'm moving up in the world – I have an office now. I'm squatting in the office of a professor that's semi-retired and won't be in until next May, so I get to mooch her space. I also have a phone line now, so those of you who know how to get in touch with me and want it, lemme know.

Going ot be a slow day today – I ned to type up some meeting notes and that's about it. Good thing too :P

I had one of the best sushi dinners I've had in a very long time tonight. Met up with Katy and told her the good news about the trip on the way to Boshoku, where Michel joined us a little bit later. The dead fish was excellent, and the company was even better. After dinner, we crossed over to Hurleys where we had a few drinks. Sara called and came over aver her dinner with Steph, and much hilarity was had – as well as much inappropriate groping and scaring of bar patrons.

Sara made herself some nice puffy nipples out of the bar bill, and we headed out to Provigo for some impromptu grocery shopping – where, yet again, we scared innocent shoppers with boob grapping, nipple fondling and inappropriate phone noises.

Quote of the night:

I have scary big hands. If I were a man, I'd have a big penis. Come to think of it, I'm a woman and I do have a big penis.

Life is good when you're surrounded with people who can laugh to the point of snorting.

My request for vacation time in january has been green-lighted. I will be spending the holidays in the UK!

Ahem, yay!

LONDON – Two giants of 1970s cinema, Robert De Niro (news) and Al Pacino, have topped a British magazine's poll of the greatest living movie stars over the age of 50. The two stars of the “Godfather” saga took the top two places in a poll, released Thursday, of 10,000 readers of British film magazine Empire. Anthony Hopkins, in sixth place, was the highest placed British actor, and “Alien” heroine Sigourney Weaver, in 10th place, the top-rated woman.

1. Robert De Niro
2. Al Pacino
3. Jack Nicholson
4. Paul Newman
5. Marlon Brando (who died in July before voting was complete)
6. Anthony Hopkins
7. Morgan Freeman
8. Dustin Hoffman
9. Clint Eastwood
10. Sigourney Weaver
11. Gene Hackman
12. Harrison Ford
13. Sean Connery
14. Meryl Streep
15. Ian McKellen
16. Christopher Lee
17. Sidney Poitier
18. Robert Redford
19. Alan Rickman
20. Judi Dench
21. Samuel L Jackson
22. Peter O'Toole
23. Bill Murray
24. Albert Finney
25. Woody Allen
26. Helen Mirren
27. Christopher Walken
28. Ben Kingsley
29. Lauren Bacall
30. John Hurt

Is there danger on board? Yes. And it's in your CD player or radio!

Turns out, if you listen to certain songs or musical compositions while driving, you could be courting disaster. And the No. 1 tune to avoid is, oddly enough, classical music: Richard Wagner's “Ride of the Valkyries.”

That's the word from Britain's RAC Foundation for Motoring, which has helpfully released a list of the top five songs you should never listen to while driving. The raucous “Ride of the Valkyries,” written in the mid-1800s, earned the top spot because it's too loud and the tempo is too fast. You might be tempted to match your speed to the beat.

Top five tunes you should ban from your car CD:

“Ride of the Valkyries” by Richard Wagner
“Dies Irae” from Giuseppe Verdi's “Requiem”
“Firestarter” by the Prodigy
“Red Alert” by Basement Jaxx
“Insomnia” by Faithless

Original link: http://channels.netscape.com/ns/autos/package.jsp?name=fte/drivingmusic/drivingmusic

Respond to this post, and I'll tell you what I think of you.

I did something reeeeaaaaallly bad. I know it.

I'm not feeling tall in my boots right about now.

I was supposed to meet Katy for lunch. Just as I get there, I run into an old coworker with his gf. Properly chastized from MJs birthday incident, I wanted to do things right.

I open my mouth, and the words that come out are:

Phil, let me introduce you to my girlfriend Nadia^†.

And then my brain realized what I'd just said.

And then I cringed.

† The only thing I can say is that I'd just seen her not 20 minutes before when she was in my office to say hello and say she wanted to meet Katy.