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Nov. 27th, 2009 @ 09:19 am Star Wars Concert
Star Wars Concert Toronto 2009

The Star Wars concert last night was really good. Full symphony orchestra and choir. It was amazing! Although I do have to say that there were many times I felt I could have been listening to a CD. That's the thing about amazing musicianship and high technical standards; is it live or on tape!? The sound quality was amazing too! VERY clear and clean sound.

Star Wars Concert Toronto 2009

The props on display were pretty amazing too. Really cool to see these original costumes and props actually used in the movies.

Star Wars Concert Toronto 2009

There was some comedy from the host, Anthony Daniels too. First, he is introduced by Darth Vader who asks us to welcome him, even though he is a traitor and part of the rebel alliance. Later he starts going on about how wonderful the droid C3PO is and gets some looks from the Conductor.

At the end of the show he ran back out on stage wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey.

Star Wars Concert Toronto 2009

Another funny thing was simply a shot on the big screen of the good looking girl who played the triangle. That's all it really was but it seemed kind of funny that she just stood there hit this little thing once in a while. I haven't played triangle since about 3rd grade so I don't really know what's involved but I'm sure there is some talent involved, but it seems a bit simplistic compared to what the rest of the orchestra does. So partly because of that and partly because she was so cute, she got a huge round of applause that had everyone, including the rest of the orchestra smiling.

All in all it was a good time. Tickets were about $80 each which makes it pretty cheap for a concert, especially compare to the U2 tickets I just got ($250 each + surcharges etc). The show was over by 9:30 which gave us time to wander around and see the props a little more and buy stuff after all the crowds had left and I still got home by about 11pm!

I couldn't resist buying a couple of the mini light sabers. And also a program, something I try to get at every concert for my collection.

In other news, I may be getting a LOT more work done on my condo soon. The planning begins tomorrow!

Also I'm thinking about picking up an iPod Touch tomorrow to see what they are like as a sorta primer to maybe getting an iPhone in a year. Any opinions on the HD size? I'm thinking about the 32GB but maybe it would be worth it to spend the extra $100 now and get the 64GB one instead. We always seem to need more space so it might be better to get that one now. Sound reasonable?
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Nov. 8th, 2009 @ 07:50 pm Studio Done!
I finally finished (after 2 weeks) renovating my little home studio. That was a lot of work. I am NEVER painting again!!!!


My Home Studio
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Nov. 1st, 2009 @ 10:50 pm Painting!
So last week I got a text from one of the dance teachers asking if I could do music editing at home. Apparently that's all I needed to get motivated to fix up my little studio. I spent the week planning and friday night went over to Canadian Tire and got some paint.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I've been painting ever since. It never seems to end!!!!! I think the walls and trim are done now but I still have the doors to do. Hopefully I'll be finished tomorrow night though. Then it'll be at least one more night of getting everything set up again.

The room looks spectacular though. Wow! New paint makes all the difference in the world!!

Also, I picked up a couple of chairs. I needed a couple of guest chairs so I found one I liked online and went over to Staples. Of course they only had one, and even that one took a long time to find. In the mean time I found another one I REALLY liked so I grabbed that instead. For me. So now my old office chair will be the other guest chair.

The guest chair I got was marked down from $170 to $90 for some reason and I almost didn't get it because I was worried it might be kinda cheap. That's because I didn't know it was marked down at the time. Once I got it home and built it turned out to be REALLLY comfortable! What a deal!

And the other chair is a sorta managers chair, but with a built in massager. I didn't really care about that part, I just thought it felt great to sit in. However, I'm using the massager right now and kinda like it!

Anyway, that was my weekend. Must sleeeeeeep. Pics soon.
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Oct. 27th, 2009 @ 06:25 pm Wow!
Vince finally got to me. I bought a Shamwow this weekend. Actually the box came with 4 of them. 2 big yellow ones and 2 smaller gray ones. So far all I've really done is cleaned some mirrors with the gray ones. Worked GREAT! Hardly any streaks on the first pass and what I could find was easily wiped away. I've never gotten glass so clean with paper towels!! I haven't really given them an absorbency test yet but I will report back when I do!

My spell checker doesn't know the word "shamwow". How odd!!

In other news, I think I will be doing music editing for the dance teachers from my home studio now. My bosses daughter no longer dances at that school but they still want to use me. So I will have to get a couple of guest chairs and maybe fix the place up a bit. It's getting me motivated to paint and re-organize.

Speaking of the studio, I FINALLY got a real MIDI keyboard controller last week. It's an M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 note weighted key controller. It's like having a real piano keyboard again, which is great because my fingers need the exercise (as much as the rest of me) and I now realize how crappy a plastic synth keyboard is in comparison.

I'm also playing with a bunch of soft-synths in Sonar these days. It's cool to have some of these old synthesizers finally, even it they are only in software form. I now have a Prophet 5, Moog modular and even an old Arp 2600 in virtual form. And these along with the other ones I already had, the OB-X or OPX pro as it's called, wurlitzer and rhodes electric pianos and my favorite, a B-3 organ (VB3). I also got a Pipe organ sound and a nice choir sound.

Now all I need is some inspiration and energy to write songs. So yeah.... someone loan me some energy please.
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Oct. 14th, 2009 @ 09:16 pm Thanksgiving Recap!
So what's been happening lately, you ask? A few things. Let's recap!

Weather
I think I mentioned this last time but WOW, what a fast change! Sunday 2 weeks ago was coolish but ended up a nice warm day. Then monday, COLD! And it's been cold ever since! This is the first year in 5-6 years that I haven't been at the beach on Thanksgiving!

Rotisserie Oven News
I did a turkey in the oven this weekend. 10 Lbs. 80 minutes. VERY good! Yum!! I also did some prime rib last week. It was also excellent. In both cases though I can't really say it was a lot better than doing them in the normal oven. Just a bit less grease since a lot drains out when cooking on a rotisserie.

I can't recommend these oven's enough. But again, I DO recommend you get the pro model that is a bit larger than standard. Makes everything MUCH easier.

Fish and Chips
I found some batter for english style fish and chips in Loblaws this weekend. I've been looking for it for a long time and never realized it would be in a powdered form! I found it in with the Shake n Bake stuff. Its quite good on fish, although I actually liked it better on the fries! I also got the Beer Batter version and I'll try it soon.

And about the fries, I decided to slice some potatoes this time rather than use the frozen ones I get. MUCH better!! I'll never get pre-cut fries again!! MMmm MMMMm!!


Mice
Last weekend I caught 2 more mice in the glue traps. Those ones were smaller and obviously younger. They were both in the same trap. This weekend I caught another adult. After getting rid of these last 3 the cabinet under the sink started to smell better. No more of that wet dog smell that's been there for the last 6 months or so, so I have a feeling I got them all finally!! Wooooo!


Blu-Ray
I finally gave in and bought the new Blu-ray player. I got the LG 390. I decided to spend more money and get a really nice one so that I would be happy with it and it was a good move. It loads MUCH faster than most players and works very smoothly. It's also a media player so it does other cool things as well. I can stream MP3s and Video from my computer, put those files on disks or USB drives and plug them into the USB port on the machine (much better for the HD videos. Those ones don't stream well at all. Very choppy). It also connects to YouTube and I can play those videos on it as well. Kinda cool, but limited info on the screen and doing searches is slow since you have to enter one letter at a time using the on-screen keyboard.

Also, using this new player I finally got to see the videos from my HD video camera on my plasma tv. They look fantastic!!! It's a better camera than I thought!

Car
Car is still fine but there was an odd clunk happening when I hit the gas. I'm pretty sure there is a loose heat shield again. I can hear it vibrating at certain resonant frequencies.

Keyboard
Cosmo Music says they are expecting the keyboard I ordered to be in this week. Yay! I ordered it in July!! It's just a MIDI controller. 88 notes, weighted and a million controller sliders and knobs that I can assign to stuff in the programs and soft-synths I use. It's called the M-Audio Keystation Pro 88.

Raccoons
This morning we found a family of raccoons living in our dumpster at work. So here's a pic!

Dumpster Raccoons

And there's a video!




And that's it for now.
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Oct. 2nd, 2009 @ 11:53 am Summer's Going Fast!
A long update.


Sorry, Yet Another Toronto Sunset!


So, weather changed fast eh? Sunday was nice. The weekend was kinda cold but it got warm sunday afternoon and I considered going to the beach but didn't. Monday, COLD!! The weather totally changed in ONE DAY! Cold with dark gray clouds and drizzle or rain. I even stopped wearing shorts!!!

I still think next weekend, Thanksgiving, will be warm. I'm always at the beach that weekend!

Sooooo... what else? My blu-ray player died. Grrrrrr!!! It never worked all that well. Locked up during every movie. My big problem is that I have a bunch of HD-DVDs and wanted a player that did both. Now I'm scared to buy ANY blu-ray player because there are reports of lots of problems with almost every model! Fortunately we have a store right next door to the office that makes it easy for returns etc so I might grab one from them soon and just use my hd-dvd player for the xbox for those discs.

Other than that there's not much going on these days. I keep trying to convince myself to write some new music but I haven't been able to yet. I got some new soft-synths to help inspire me but so far it hasn't done too much. I'm still waiting for a new keyboard I ordered over 2 months ago now to come in and it may inspire me to do something... if I ever get it!

I haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately but if you haven't seen my flickr lately there are lots from the summer. http://www.flickr.com/photos/scotteh/

I think that's about it!
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Sep. 15th, 2009 @ 09:02 am Another RIP
I usually post RIPs and this time it's for Patrick Swazye. I'm not as much a fan of his as other people are but I've noticed a glaring omission from other people's RIP messages so I thought I'd post this one:

Donnie Darko!!

He was also in Roadhouse with Jeff Healey who died last year... I think. Time sure flies.
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Aug. 21st, 2009 @ 09:07 am Crazy Awesome Weather!
Wow, amazing storm last night. Tornadoes north of the city (Toronto, for those who don't know), incredible electrical storm, wind and intense rain. And more thunderstorms forecast for today and tomorrow.

Some pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scotteh/

And a new video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3PHVIVIMtY

If you watch the whole thing (5 minutes) (preferably in HQ, full screen) you can see a wall of rain approach as I see it almost every time it rains. Very cool!
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Aug. 13th, 2009 @ 12:42 pm RIP Les Paul
Well, my first guitar was a Les Paul copy. I always wanted to have a real one. I still don't have one. Someday.... maybe.
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Aug. 12th, 2009 @ 01:01 pm One Year Ago
Yesterday marked one year since my Propane Explosion picture was on the front page of the Toronto Sun. Wow, a year goes by fast!! I was going to post a story about it or something to mark the occasion but didn't really have much to say about it. It was cool, but time marches on.

Also, I found a cool new HD video editing program and was excited about that. But it is fairly slow so it took me a few hours to do a short video, then when I got to the end it wouldn't save it as a finished file!! It crashed several times and only did one on the default setting. You just can't win!!!!

It's here, btw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujAhPeOmDnM

We had an amazing electrical storm sunday night that went on for 2 hours with non-stop lightning. I've never seen anything like it. I took a bunch of video for the first hour, then did still pictures for the next hour. Those pics are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scotteh/

One of them got Explored! Woooo!

Also, I got a new video camera. Samsung H106. State of the art HD camera with an SSD drive. Seems fairly nice but I need to use it more to really see what it can do. So hopefully, more videos to come!
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Aug. 6th, 2009 @ 06:50 pm RIP John Hughes
Well, who doesn't love The Breakfast Club or 16 Candles?? RIP john!
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Aug. 6th, 2009 @ 10:33 am The Summer of Hurt!
Weird stuff happening to me this summer.

First I get a cough that lasts 3-4 months (I still have it a bit and it's noticeable when I talk, but if I'm quiet, not much coughing).

Then I got a cold, which wasn't tooooo bad, but bad enough for a few days.

Now I get a severe back pain! Sunday morning all was fine. I went shopping and came home and didn't do much else the rest of the day. But as I was lying on the couch I started feeling a pain in my lower back. It got worse and worse until I couldn't move or stand up without severe pain.

Monday it was just about as bad but eventually I got out and got some Robaxacet and a few hours after taking 2 of those the pain as mostly gone. Its been just a dull pain ever since.

I wonder what's next :/

In other news, I got a video camera! Woo! I've always wanted one, although I got the Nikon P50 for that and haven't really used it much. This one is HD and has some cool time lapse settings so hopefully I'll use it more. It's the Samsung H106 with a 64gb SSD drive. So far I really like it. The image stabilization works very nicely. The focus is a bit slow in low light and sometimes cant get it at all, but there are a couple fo ways around that. Also the colours are a bit soft. They could have been a bit more vivid. But the picture is nice and sharp and this thing does right up to 1080i.

In other interesting news, HD-DVD might make a comeback as China Blue!!
http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=562&tag=nl.e550

Very interesting since I've had so much trouble with blu-ray disks locking up etc.

Other than that it's been a fairly boring summer. Weather hasn't been all that hot and people are complaining about it quite a bit. Personally I don't mind it at all. It's nice, just not really hot. But who wants that anyway?? I can't believe it's august already!

There's been a total of 6 people laid off at this company since last November. Well, a few left/quit/retired on their own and haven't been replaced. The economy needs to pick up soon!

Oh and also, I have mice again. Under my kitchen sink. Annoying little bastards!
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Jul. 22nd, 2009 @ 11:12 pm RIP Les Lye
Les Lye, from You Cant Do That on Television has died. I only watched the show for a while in the 80's but I definitely thought it was pretty darned good for a bunch of kids running around imitating Laugh In. There aren't many Canadian shows I can say that about.
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Jul. 17th, 2009 @ 10:02 pm RIP Walter Cronkite
Another one gone.
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Jul. 15th, 2009 @ 09:13 am Cold Gone
Well, I think the cold is totally gone now. I'm just back to my normal stuffiness, which also sucks, but with less burning face.

Cold FX conclusion: Did nothing at all for me. I do like the idea of it boosting the immune system, but it doesn't fight cold symptoms at all and it is VERY questionable whether it does anything at all!

I have colds that last 10-12 days and I have colds that last 5-7 days. This one seemed to be moving fast the first day and I predicted it would be over soon. So did Cold FX shorten it to 7 days or would the cold have been gone in that time without it? Impossible to say but I really don't think it made any difference at all.

I am hooked on reading these days. I finished One Train Later by Andy Summers and LOVED it! Really funny book, really interesting story! Highly recommended! So I went into a book store and came out with Don Rickles' autobiography and A Brief History of Time. I'll be finished Rickles' book soon. It's pretty short and also a fun read.

Movie Review: Children of Men: Did not care for it. I picked up the blu-ray because people said it was good but it was not. This movie has NO POINT to it AT ALL. It sets up a futuristic scenario and THEN...... nothing happens. Well, something fairly obvious happens, and the entire movie is just a chase scene after that. That's it. No real ending. No exploring the futuristic setting. Nothing. Just a small group of people running away from everyone else, much like 100 other stories. NOT recommended!

TIRED!!!

What is the deal with this??? As soon as it gets kinda rainy, I am SO TIRED I can hardly get out of bed! Why is that??? I really feel like something has changed in our atmosphere like a lessening of the Oxygen level or lower air pressure overall. As soon as the barometric pressure drops even the slightest bit I feel this way and I don't think this is right.

I spend the first hour or more gasping for breath on mornings like this as if there isn't enough air. I'm sore all over (more than usual) and my head hurts and just cant seem to get going. All that because of a slight decrease in pressure?? You'd think our bodies would be very well adjusted to that since I'm sure (or am I!?) that this has been going on as long as we've existed.

Lens Note: I got the Nikon 1.7 teleconverter last week and it works fairly well, but only at F7 or greater. Below that everything is kinda blurry. Hopefully I'll get to do some moon shots with it soon for more testing.

Chicken/Ronco Note: I'm pretty sure now that the chicken I'm cooking in my Ronco Rotisserie oven is just as good as Swiss Chalet's chicken. The only secret they seem to have is the sauce, which I'm sure gets brushed on as the chicken is cooking.This oven is still the best thing I've ever bought for the kitchen! I did ribs last week and thy were fantastic too!

So. Everyone go out and get one. Use the money you saved by not buying Cold FX or Children of Men!
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Jul. 9th, 2009 @ 08:56 am Bad Cold
Well, I definitely have a bad cold. Other than the weird cough I got a few months ago, and STILL have, (just a little though) I haven't had a cold since I moved. I got one in the second week I was off work and moving into my new place. It was really bad and killed that whole week for me.

But nothing since then so I can't complain too much.

This one started 2 days ago. I spent the day feeling really stuffed up and sneezing a lot but even though I said I thought I was getting a cold, I didn't take any of the echinacea I always have with me. I totally forgot :( Normally my colds start with a dry spot on the back of my throat, which I always think is just a normal thing (and don't take the echinacea) until many hours later when I suddenly realize it's not, so this was weird.

Anyway, I was fine other than the stuffiness until after I ate supper tuesday night and then it came on strong. Within 6 hours it became really bad and my face was on fire and I didn't sleep much that night.

People have been recommending a Canadian product called Cold FX so I decided I'd try it. It turns out it isn't a medication to fight cold symptoms, it's an immune system fortifying method. It supposedly makes your immune system stronger so it can fight off the cold faster.

The package I got is very specific about how to take the pills. 3 at a time, twice the first day, then 2 on the second day, then 1 on the third day. I took the first 3 last night and the second 3 this morning. I am noticing no difference so far.

I had to fight the symptoms last night so I took NyQuil and it really knocked me out. I'm still feeling the chemical grogginess this morning. So we'll see how it goes. I think this cold is going through the stages fast, although they are less defined this time around so I'm not really sure. Hopefully the Cold FX makes it go even faster.

In other news, I got a 1.7x teleconverter so I can zoom in closer on the sun and moon and planes I'm taking pics of. First results show it to be a bit soft but I think I need to work with it a bit to determine optimum settings and usage. Pics soon, I hope!
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Jul. 7th, 2009 @ 11:35 pm Sick
I am definitely sick. First time since I moved. Almost 2 years healthy.

:(
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Jul. 6th, 2009 @ 09:58 am Nice Day
Ok, time for an update that doesn't include celebrity deaths.

Yesterday was a great day. I did normal stuff in the morning, shopping, and... well, that's about it other than sitting around for a while. Then waffled on going to the beach for a while and finally went. It turned out to be a reallllllly nice day to sit there and watch volleyball! Really relaxing. Really nice sunny day.

Then when I got home I cooked some ribs in the Ronco Rotisserie oven and they were the BEST RIBS EVER!!!! Once again, I highly recommend this thing! So easy to use, such great results!

Then I sat out on the balcony taking pictures of the sunset and reading and it was all perfect!

If only more days could be so nice.

In other news, I finally perfected a bread recipe for my Breadmaker. It turned out to be pretty simple, I just replaced the water with milk, swapped the oil for melted butter, and added an egg. Now it's perfect and yummy!! I highly recommend people learn to make their own bread. It's really not hard and doesn't take a lot of ingredients, and fresh bread and butter makes it totally worthwhile!!

Book Reviews:

Between the Bridge and the Water, by Craig Ferguson. Great book! Really funny and makes you think a lot about life and death.

One Train Later, Andy Summers. Well, if you're a fan of The Police you'll want to read this book. If you're a musician you'll also want to read this book. It's a very well written account of Andy's life starting from birth during the War (that's WWII for you young ones). It's the story you would probably imagine hearing the average rock star tell, but he tells it in an absolutely hilarious way! For some reason I always imagined The Police as a fairly clean cut band and was pretty surprised to hear about Andy's adventures. I was also pretty surprised about who he has known through his life. Hendrix, Clapton, well, you name someone, he knows them!

I got this book to read while I was sitting out on the balcony tanning (ie. burning) but I will need to find another one very soon because I cant put this one down. I'm almost finished it already. HIGHLY recommended.

And that's it for today.
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Jul. 1st, 2009 @ 04:12 pm RIP Karl Malden
Nope, it's not over yet....


LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Veteran actor Karl Malden, who won an Academy Award for his role in "A Streetcar Named Desire," has died at age 97, his manager said Wednesday.

Karl Malden died in his sleep at his Los Angeles home, his manager says.

Malden died in his sleep about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, said his manager, Bud Ross, told CNN.
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Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 10:41 am RIP Fred Travelina
Comedian Fred Travalena dies of cancer

(CNN) -- Comedian and impersonator Fred Travalena died Sunday afternoon after a seven-year battle with cancer. He was 66.
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