Catching up

Just some of this and that and general catching up. I don't think I mentioned this in a previous post but I January 10th of this year I had Lasik eye surgery. This is how I looked before.



Now that I have had the surgery I look exactly the same. But now you look different to me.



Pretty spiffy huh?

Also if you live in Calgary this is not news for you, but if you are living in Japan for instance this might come as a bit of a surprise. The weather changes very fast here, in fact last week we had one day with fog, snow, rain, hail and sunshine all on the same day. I remember seeing snow in Japan and laughing because it barely collected on the ground. So for my friends in Japan, here are a couple of pictures of the snow from our back yard.





I am keeping busy at the bakery, making bread and decorating cakes. I have added a few pictures of my cakes to our Flickr site. This first picture is a cake I made for a customer mainly because my co-workers said it couldn't be done. Normally a 6"x8" cake is pretty small for putting a cake kit (themed toys that go on a cake) on but it is still doable. I took the challenge and put two kits on one 6"x8" cake, thereby creating a beautiful fusion of Spiderman and Barbie that perhaps the world will never see again.



My next creation was for my good friend Andrew's birthday. We sometimes play a game called World of Warcraft together and so I though a cake inspired by this game might be fun. I bought a toy and used it as a cake kit, and created a rocky outcropping complete with bloodstained rocks and voidwalker bracers (way to geeky for me to even explain), to accompany the undead warlock that stood watch over the cake. I only wish the picture had turned out clearer to capture all of the airbrushing that went into it.



Anyhow, that's enough for now. Cheers!

Singing in the Brain

I know I haven't posted in more than a month but to tell the truth I don't think anyone noticed. Colleen and I have been crazy busy with practicing for the Kiwanis Music Festival and our show "Ace Morran and the Snow Job" which played last night at the Pumphouse Theatre's One Act Play Festival to better than expected reviews. I managed to record a few of the numbers from Kiwanis and with some help have made them available on the Internet. So without further ado, here they are.

Patrice Barnes Troupe singing Run Freedom Run from Urinetown



The Merry Makers singing We're All in This Together from High School Musical



Colleen singing See I'm Smiling from The Last Five Years



Nikki singing Easy as Life from Aida



and finally Jeremy singing I Need to Know from Jekyll and Hyde



Cheers for now, I will post some miscellaneous photos in the next week or so. Carl.

Real Life Super Hero

When Colleen and I were living in Japan we had the opportunity to see a very interesting New Years program. It's an obstacle course that apparently they do every New Year and everyone who is everyone from TV personalities, stand-up comedians, athletes and movie stars are invited to take part, and it has a huge turn-out. When Colleen and I watched the 2005-2006 event it was an all day televised extravaganza. An obstacle course in four sections. The first one is timed and many people don't get past this part. The second section is also timed and weeds out even more people. The third section is not timed and is all endurance sheer muscle power. We never saw anyone make it past the third section. One guy got very close but couldn't finish. This year from what I gather someone actually made it to the fourth section and won. Keep in mind this whole thing is done in just one day, so no rest days to recuperate. This video highlights the winning performer in his superhuman feats of daring do. Check it out.



And now you can't say that people can only do that stuff in comic books.

Unreal reality

So I came across this video a few minutes ago, and thought I would share. Even for those who are not technically savvy, (which I barely am) this is really cool stuff. You can take a photo of anyone and render a movable 3-D image. If this stuff becomes mainstream, just try using a photo as evidence in the courtroom. Have a look for yourself.

I'm a bad man

While I'm not an advocate of beating children, I do find child on child violence a source of pure entertainment. I'm not talking junior high school students stabbing each other, I'm talking about five year old kids delivering a two handed Etch-A-Sketch to the cranium. Or using a lazy-boy to catapult your sibling into the next room. On American television they have shows like Nanny 911 or Super Nanny. I watch the first five or ten minutes that generally show a montage of the kids wailing on each other. Comic gold I say. This is why the video camera will always be nearby when I finally have kids. So when they are killing each other I will have it on video, to be enjoyed in slow motion (at their wedding many years later). Does that make me bad? I was surfing the web and came across this little clip I at first found it to be somewhat disturbing, but then it turned into something great. Kid on Dad violence. Have a look.



Cheers.

Happy New Year

Well Colleen and I rang in the New Year sick as dogs. Hacking, coughing and sneezing away we rang in the New Year drinking and playing games. I phoned my friend Chiaki in Japan to see how things were and to see if she could send me some Japanese New Years food. Unfortunately fish doesn't travel well in the mail. But she did send me some pictures that brought back great memories from last year when her family shared their New Years tradition with us.







Wishing you all the best in the new year.

Ranting

I love listening to people complain about the holiday shopping crowds. Mall shopping in Calgary at Christmas time can be hectic but it still doesn't compare to everyday afternoon shopping in Japan. I hope I have all of my shopping done, but luckily if I have forgotten anything, Shoppers Drug Mart is open 24 hours even on Christmas day. I feel sorry for the staff.

Here's a video some of you might have seen, involving another man ranting about a song he doesn't like.

The pain, the pain boss!

Well it's official. We opened the show last night to a full house and it seemed to go off rather well. My knee has developed a nice blister from the artificial leg that I wear but it's getting less painful to wear. As soon as we get some pics I'll try to put them up. I was surprised to see how much we made from selling kisses at the intermission. I made fifteen dollars just by myself.

Oh and here's an eleven year old Japanese girl dancing. Totally safe for work, she's a great dancer.



Cheers!

Just when you thought it was safe!

So I got this thing started and then didn't post again for like a week. Things have been super busy with Moby Dick but I'm glad the weather has finally gone from -30C to +10C. It makes the early morning commute to work much easier.

I saw this little clip on Youtube and I had to share. I've seen several videos where they remix movie trailers to change the intent or style and this is one of my favories.



Also, if yo are reading this and are living in Calgary, don't forget to come out and see Moby Dick.



To get tickets or info go here. Come have a blast and make fun of me in a skirt. I'll even kiss you during the intermission.

And so it begins again

For those of you not in Calgary right now it is really, really cold. It's so cold you could freeze the balls off a brass monkey. Ever wonder where that came from? Look no further, click here for the answer. But really, it's cold. It's about -25C right now and with the wind it feels like -35C.

Since being back in Canada, I have been keeping very busy (not just trying to keep warm). I just finished posting all of our wedding photos, along with the honeymoon photos. They're on the same site with all of our Japan pics. Right now Colleen and I are doing "Moby Dick the Musical", for info or tickets go here.

And just for something fun.