Exterior Design


The first time I came across the concept of projecting large-scale images was in William Gibson's 1984 novel, Neuromancer. Gibson, who coined the term 'cyberspace', is a genius at forecasting our socio-technological future and I find his work fascinating. His description of future-Tokyo's polluted, overcast sky serving as a virtual television or the drug-addicted artist who is able to project holograms due to electronic implants may seem a stretch but are no less prescient. Besides, who doesn't love to see the theoretical become reality? Just ask William Shatner.

Some day, when every surface has become a veritable billboard, this type of image projection might be the bane of our existence. At the moment though, it's serious eye candy. No joke, working on this stuff at companies like The Electric Canvas or Urbanscreen would be my dream career.

Anyway, they've been busy. Check out some of these badass visuals... (more on their websites)

Ahhhh, super fun waves on the lake tonight - south west and gusty. Things flattened out the further you went so I pretty much stayed in a 2km radius around the harbour. Caught some great rides. And about time too! it's been flat or offshore for weeks now.

I got off the water around 6:30 and didn't feel like making the drive home between workouts so went to Starbucks and got a strawberry-banana Vivanno (their protein drink) and then hung out at the club until the Stonehookers practice. (yeah this joke never gets old. Under memo on my fee cheque I wrote $250 for hookers.)

Now I'm tired and haven't had dinner. So happy cleaning lady was here today. House is perfect!

I met Ryan at the club at 6:45 this morning to go for a paddle. It was humid but sunny. Lots of debris in the harbour from the heavy rainstorms. We did about 4 km on the lake, came in to see if Chris' group was there yet, then did 2km more on the river.



Afterwards, we went to Helen's for breakfast. Ran into Eve on her way to Starbucks - so pleased to see her wearing the Stonehookers t-shirt I made! It looks really great. She's writing a paper for a course she's taking so couldn't sit with us for very long.

Since Jared's coming by to install a NEW GARAGE DOOR OPENER (hooray!) we're just hanging out at my place going through some photos I found in that closet I cleaned out yesterday. So fun since most of them date from when Ryan was born. I also struck geek gold when I opened up a box containing original Star Wars figures plus a G.I. Joe plus E.T. with extendable neck. I tried to hold them hostage for cash but it was too cruel teasing the nerd my son instantly turned into when he saw them.

We definitely got the best of the day by hitting the water early! From then on it was fractured by rolling thunderstorms. Jared arrived during a break in one. He said that those light blinking on the back of the motor wasn't a reliable diagnostic tool so he wanted to take a look inside before replacing the unit. He opened it up and pulled out the plastic gear. It was split in half. I wouldn't be needing a new motor after all. On the one hand, I would be saving a couple hundred dollars but on the other, a new motor would have meant a keypad outside of the garage. That would've been handy for running or biking - I wouldn't have to take house keys.

Jared had the unit apart and repaired in minutes. And the door mechanism is so quiet now, I can't believe it! If you ever need an automatic garage door opener or repairs, let me know and I'll give you Jared's number.

I took the boys out to the Pump for lunch and then they both headed home (Jared with a pair of TFC tix in his pocket and Ryan with a carload of furniture, photos and action figures). I carried on with "operation clean-sweep" - my plan to remove anything from my house that I no longer need/use. I've decided to tackle it one floor at a time. Once everything's perfect on the top floor, I'll move to the main one. All that really needs doing there is hanging some pictures and maybe getting some more plants. Oh, and cleaning out the dreaded Tupperware cupboard - containers without lids, lids without containers, old margarine tubs and empty Classico sauce jars. I just need one or two containers and have hundreds! I'm looking forward to that!

The basement is the real nightmare. The spare bedroom down there is filled with old furniture, both mine, Adele's and my parent's. Actually, more space is taken up by boxes of photos than anything - several generations of Currys obsessed with cameras and photography! There are even Daguerreotypes in there. Exciting!

That's one of the reasons I don't want to just arbitrarily throw out these boxes. There's some pretty interesting stuff. I found an 1800-something deed to some land in Apsley, Ontario in one box and some really old photos of Mooneys Bay in Ottawa. You never know - there may be more with some canoeing going on.

Anyway, there's that room and then the laundry room. I want to set that area up as a silk screen studio so will need to get rid of the dismembered kitchen cabinets that the last owner installed and create a darkroom in the cold storage at the back. Those have been my hiding places for all kinds of junk, "out of sight...". Oh and then there's the crawl space. I completely forgot about that. It's full of boxes. Ugh. That floor is a whole winter project!

Good point. Look at what I found in Now Magazine's Letters section;

Rethinking garbage

I ride my bike back and forth to work in Toronto and pass two of the temporary garbage sites. At first, the smell of the garbage made me angry with striking city staff. Their labour action directly affected my bike ride along the lakeshore. My focus shifted to the garbage when I saw the piles growing higher.
The temporary dumps present the most visible evidence of our “use once and dispose” culture and, more importantly, of our “out of sight, out of mind” perception of garbage. The temporary dumping sites are an opportunity to educate people about how quickly we accumulate garbage.
We need to rethink what we do with our garbage and what viable alternatives exist. Education and action could be the good that come from having garbage dumps in our city parks.

Marisha Roman
Toronto

Marisha says they edited it some but was pleased it made print. She also received a personally signed letter in response from Dr. David Suzuki! Who says they don't listen to the little people?

A couple of videos I meant to post. Big fan of the Beastie Boys, big fan of the Tour (and Lance).



I had to remove the Lance video because I couldn't disable the autoplay feature. sorry about that.

mmmlah. My mouth is frozen. I've had some gradually increasing pain in a bottom right molar so called up the dentist and luckily got an appointment for first thing this morning. Love Harley! I was worried I'd need a root canal but it turns out a 20+ year old filling needed to be replaced. He did a fantastic, painless, job of removing the old metal filling and putting in a new white one. In at 8:00am, out by 9:30. And he's convinced me to go to Crossfit in Mississauga with him some Sunday.
The freezing is all in the back of my mouth so my tongue feels all swollen up. I imagine this is how someone with a peanut allergy feels when initially exposed. I don't mind this as much as freezing in the front where your whole face feels rubbery and coffee dribbles down your chin when you drink.
yeesh, the freezings starting to come out and it really hurts.

So, I found the online manual for my garage door opener. The LED error code on my unit indicates a logic board failure. I was hoping that reprogramming the remotes would do it but no...I actually have to purchase the part and climb a ladder. Stupid house falling apart! Anyway, at least it's something I can fix. Love the internet. I want to marry it so it can fix everything in my life.
It started pouring rain just as I left work tonight and there was a massive backup on the ramp from the 427 onto the QEW westbound. It took awhile to work my way down to and across the Lakeshore, plus it was still raining as I went by the club so I went home instead. Since I have Doug's practice at 8:00 I went early and did 8km on the lake. There was basically a line running south off the end of the Ridgetown - east side of the line, in the rain - west side of the line out of the rain. Weird.
When I came into the dock, Chris was just going out in the motorboat to coach masters, carrying a deli tray of finger sandwiches, like he'd just come from a conference or something. I didn't care, I was doing back-to-back practices without dinner - I took two and they were delicious (buttery!).
Blake came to practice tonight so both crews were on the water at the same time. Ours is starting to come together even though we were missing a few people. After practice I gave Eve the Stonehookers t-shirt and asked Chris to give Matt the Cleese. When I came out of the changeroom, Chris had Matt's shirt on and said he was keeping it. By the time I got home Matt had posted a protest on FB so I told him I'd print him a new one. If anyone's a fan of silly walks or stonehookers, let me know.

I got out on the water a couple of times today - late morning and afternoon. In the afternoon, I ran into Mike out in the harbour on his SUP. There was a lot of chop but he's rock solid on the board. We paddled in together but he went back out to try and catch a ride on boat wash as the fishermen and sailors packed it in for the day.

News item that granite counter tops may have come from contaminated sites. "The cancer comes from within". yeah the fear-mongerers were calling the item something like that.

Went up to Chapters for a semi-annual book-buying blowout. I think I'm set for the rest of the summer.

Garage door is not working. Can't figure out why. To the internet!

I spent the day at Model Citizen with Julian making screens and printing shirts. The weather wasn't outstanding so I don't feel like I missed anything. Besides, we were in the basement most of the time and never knew what was going on out of doors.

I did my usual thing of forgetting I needed 2 designs laser printed on paper until yesterday afternoon but I was going to the TFC game and couldn't do anything about it at the time. I always do this, ignore jobs I have to do until the last minute and then rush around trying to cobble something together. Somehow I always seem to get away with it. I'm starting to think I do it on purpose because I enjoy the challenge of proving I can pull it off.


So this morning at 9:30 I called a Kinkos on Hurontario to see if they could do a couple acetates on short notice. The girl who answered the phone wasn't sure but said to email the images and someone would call me back. Great! Now I just need to come up with some art.

Okay, keep it simple....simmmmmpulllll...simple. Simple, plain graphics that are eye catching. Got it - one I've always liked is the adaptor you put in a 45 record to play it on a regular turntable. Easy! One down, one to go. I had already started working on one of a stonehooker so cleaned that up and added some text. But then I came across some images of John Cleese doing his silly walk. I thought it would look amazing all strung together so did that too and sent them all off to Kinkos asking them to let me know if I could pick them up in half an hour.
I had to leave the house at 11:00 to get to Kensington Market in time but I still hadn't heard from Kinkos when I stepped out of the shower at 10:50. I was starting to stress a little - I couldn't just show up empty handed.

As I was heading out the door, Kinkos called. They'd received my images and could have them for me anytime. I asked them to increase the size to fill 8.5 x 11 sheets and print 2 acetates and 2 plain paper of each. This was actually going to work out! Yeah, I would be a little late but I would have something to work with.

Julian called just as I crossed Bathurst & Dundas. He was getting things setup so we were cool. (See what I mean? I should be more organized and definitely shouldn't get away with this stuff.) Julian had already made the frames so we just had to stretch the fabric screen, coat it with emulsion and set it in the darkroom to dry. By then it was 2:00 so we took a lunch break... at Big Fat Burritos, my favourite!

When we got back around 3:00, we positioned the artwork, exposed it on the light table for 11 minutes and then rinsed the screen, blasting out the image.

I'm really pleased with how my stuff turned out - especially considering how last minute it was. I never did print the 45 spindle but will save that for another time. Maybe for cushions or something.

One of the guys at work found a two-way radio on the road outside our office. He brought it in and now we're listening to the various conversations going on. This is better than reality tv. We suspect it might belong to one of the striking union members picketing at the Etobicoke Civic Centre across the road so they're trying to come up with a dialogue guaranteed to piss them off. Dorks.

Aw, Danielle's so sweet. I shot photos at her "before prom" party - no big deal - and tonight I find a thank you card in my locker with two really generous gift cards - for Starbucks and Pier 1. So not necessary (but I love both)!

Had a great day which disintegrated at the end when I got an email from a friend who'd received bad news. But tomorrow - sun is shining.

Arrived in Toronto around midnight last night. I had a nice little trip to Halifax for Jenn & Trent's wedding - what a great time we had!! - and now I'm hunched over my third bowl of coffee, filtering through the photos so I can get them up on fb for Jenn. I'm still in my housecoat and haven't even unpacked my bag except to get my camera.
There must have been a power outage over the weekend because all of my clocks are flashing 12...12...12... And even though it's only an hour's time difference, I had no idea what time it was when I woke up. By the time I found my phone and saw it was 7:35am, it was too late - I couldn't go back to sleep. Way too early for a day off!

Is Judith Hill the new Yoko Ono? Okay the comparison isn't exact (although closer than I realized - a quick google indicates she's also of Japanese decent) but it came to mind because of an old joke "What do crows and Yoko Ono have in common? They both make a horrible noise and live off dead beatles ."
Judith, if you don't know, is the backup singer turned featured artist who sang "Heal the World" at Jackson's memorial. While her singing isn't nearly as awful as Yoko's during the Plastic Ono Band days, it is not outstanding. And that's why I looked her up - how did such a mediocre vocalist come to such prominence at this epic event when she'd barely make the final 12 on American Idol? Good publicist? Clever agent? Some kind of family connection? Time will tell. Still, no good can come of launching your career off a dead icon's coffin.

Note: This doesn't reflect my opinion of Yoko Ono, just my generations. I was too young to have an opinion on her relationship with John Lennon and its effect on the Beatles but after seeing her exhibit at the AGO, I'm actually a fan of her art and the impact it had at the time. Definitely not a fan of her music. Here's a sample from their gig in Toronto in 1969;



It's so weird to see this in colour. They showed part of the concert on the news but we just had a black & white tv back then.

You know, I could swear there is stuff they only teach guys. Like today. I have a day off and decided to tackle those household jobs I've been putting off. There's a particular pile of laundry which I've moved from one spot to another just to avoid sorting and folding it. That needs doing. Also, I should hang the pictures that have been lounging around the house for years, leaning against walls at potential points of suspension, their little faces tilted up as I pass by, deliberately ignoring them. And I really need to attend to the rehabilitation of my lingerie drawer (okay, that job I don't really mind as it involves shopping and pretty things).
Anyway, the main job I set for myself today is replacing the washers on the leaking faucets in the two upstairs bathtubs. The one in my bedroom leaks so badly that I started using the main bathroom exclusively as soon as Kyle and Gavin moved out. Unfortunately, the main one has started leaking and I can't keep ignoring the fact that the washers need to be replaced.
It's not that it's a difficult job. In theory it's pretty simple; turn off the water at the main valve, remove the knob cover, unscrew the valve stem, remove the screw that holds the washer in place, flip over or replace the washer and return all to their original state. I've done it before in my old house (circa 1935) with no trouble. In this house though (built in 1984), the problem is that I can't loosen the valve stems. I've actually attacked the faucets a couple of times but I'm just not strong enough to budge the buggars. It's very frustrating knowing I'm just not strong enough to do something. And in the process I'm chewing up the fitting with the wrench.
Today I was determined to fix this once and for all. I'll spare you the details but after about an hour spent searching for tools and struggling with various parts of the fixtures, I successfully removed the valve stems in the bedroom faucets. As the screws holding the washers wouldn't budge, I wasted another 15 minutes trying to locate a vice grip before deciding to take the whole valve stem up to the Clarkson Home Hardware. Those guys are great and I thought they might be able to give me a hand getting the various pieces apart.
Did you know that for $5.99 you can just buy a whole new valve stem complete with washers that you can then just screw into place? I didn't. But I bet that guys know this. That little bit of knowledge would not only have saved me about an hour of work but I probably would have fixed the issue ages ago!

Results from 2009 Pan Ams in Rio. Canada finished with 23 medals (11 gold, 10 silver and two bronze).

1000m

K1 - 3rd Neil Lang
C1 - 3rd Cory Rublee
WK1 - 5th Marie-Pier Langlois
WC1 - 1st Mallorie Nicholson
K2 - 1st Neil Lang / Wesley Hammer
C2 - 5th Antoine Meunier / Dustin Shaw
WK2 - 2nd Hanna Vaughn / Tierra McLeod
K4 - 2nd Geoff Clarke / Hugues Fournel / Chris Mehak/ Phillipe Duschesneau
C2 - 1st Maria Vera Halavrezos / Jenna Marks

500m

K1 - 4th Wes Hammer
C1 - 2nd Cory Rublee
WK1 - 2nd Tiera Mcleod
WC1 - 1st Mallorie Nicholson
K2 - 1st Hugues Fournel / Chris Mehak
C2 - 2nd Dustin Shaw / Antoine Meunier
WK2 - 1st Nicole Brown / Marie-Pier Langlois
WC2 - 1st Jenna Marks / Maria Vera Halavrezos
WK4 - 2nd Erika Taras / Nicole Brown / Tiera Mcleod / Hannah Vaughan



200m

K1- 2nd Hugues Fournel
C1- 2nd Cory Rublee
WK1 - 1st Erika Taras
WC1 - 1st Mallorie Nicholson
C2 - 2nd Dustin Shaw / Antoine Meunier
WK2 - 1st Marie-Pier Langlois / Hannah Vaughan
WC2 - 1st Jenna Marks / Maria Vera Halavrezos
WK4 - 2nd Erika Taras / Nicole Brown / Tiera Mcleod / Hannah Vaughan

Whole lotta crazy...

Do you recognize this celebrity??

The massive purse was the giveaway for me because I just saw her itemizing it’s contents on TMZ like some 14 year old. I would never have believed this is Courtney Love if it hadn't been confirmed by Dlisted.
"You can never be too rich or too thin", my ass. This is what the ol' drugs will do to you kids.

Canada day.

Huh, I forgot it was coming and my only plan is to meet Doug and Stringer for a downwinder at 3:00pm. Don't know what to do with myself.
Coffee? check. Book? check.
To the couch!


I couldn't really lay on the couch for too long. I actually fell asleep for a bit but when I woke up, was desperate to get out of the house. I didn't feel like waiting until 3:00pm to paddle. I headed down to the club not knowing if it would be open or not. They have the Dominion Day regatta today - 125th anniversary, I believe. Anyway, with the city workers on strike, there are no ferries to Toronto Island so they moved the event to Welland.
I was in luck! Not only was the club open, it was busy. Jess and Del were just loading their boats onto the car, Pete had some clients, some dbers had set something on fire between us and the rowing club (okay it was a bbq). I put my car keys in my dry bag and headed out onto the lake - straight into a perfect south-west wind. Paddled out for 4km, rode waves back in for 2km, turn, repeat, turn, repeat. It was great. I came off the water, put my boat away, grabbed a Starbucks and then wandered over to the park where the annual PC CD festivities were happening.
After a walkaround town, I realized I was starving. Normally, that meant a stop at Burrito Boyz but I wasn't feeling it so stopped by the crazy-guy hot dog stand by the totem pole. As usual he was ranting on to no one (or possibly his dog) about politics, specifically the Quebec referendum. I just ignored him and tried not to make eye contact while I waited for my sausi-dog.
Walking back to my car, Chris pulled up. There was no parking anywhere near the club but since there were pylons put out for the club trailer, I just moved one enough to fit his van in. There was still a ton of room for both truck and trailer but Chris figured he'd be back in before they returned anyway.
I left those guys unloading their boats - I wasn't quite ready to go back on the water. I left my car there though and walked home. I'll probably head back around 6:00 for a leisurely evening paddle and don't want to fight for parking (I need my car since I can't carry my ama and iakos on my bike). Hopefully there'll be fireworks.

Around 5:30, I rode my bike back to the club. Chris Abbott was just leaving but there were still paddlers on the water so the club was open. Forgot to pack my GPS, watch and ipod but this was just going to be an easy paddle anyway. The lake had flattened out considerable since this afternoon but the wind was still from the south-south-west. I had checked the weather network and NOA websites but all they could tell me was that there would be thunderstorms sometime today. I could see thunderheads waaaay off in the distance - probably Chatham area but we all know how quickly a storm can move in. A much better gauge was the sailing regatta going on just off Lakeshore Promenade. I knew they'd head for the marina if there was any radio indication of an incoming squall. I just did a few km on the lake before the clouds moved in - I must be getting better at reading them, the rain hit just as I got to the dock.
There was a really good Neil Young cover band at the park so I took my time putting my boat away. As I stood up on the dock, I looked up the river and was presented with one of the most stunning scenes I've encountered - the sun and rain combined to create what looked like a trail of diamonds meandering up the river. Of course my first thought was "where's my camera" but I knew I could never capture this phenomenon. So I just stood there staring, creating a mental image. It was spectacular!

Rory, Darryl and Tamlyn were just leaving the club. Tamlyn was making fun of Rory for wearing maternity pants when she doesn't look at all pregnant yet. They were very stylish jeans, but she lifted her shirt and, yep, there was that ugly spandex panel. Too bad, because I was about to aske her where she got them. Anyway, I totally get why she's wearing them. The people around us are never aware of how "thick" a pregnant woman's waist gets before she gets the baby bump. I give her 2 weeks.

Now I'm at home listening to the neighbourhood fireworks and remembering how my dog used to tremble on any Victoria or Canada Day. Someone should create earplugs or headphones for dogs to protect them for the fireworks terrors - they'd make a fortune!