I Love Morgan Spurlock

i have to start this post by saying just that......i love morgan spurlock! the reason for this, is not, however, his documentary, "supersize-me". don't get me wrong, i did love that film, but his work on a show called "30 days" is what has really caught my attention. the basic idea of the show/running documentary, is to take someone out of their situation, and placing them in an entirely opposite place. the first episode i ever saw, was morgan spending 30 days in prison, which, while good, did not affect me the way that the last one i saw did! the latest one that i watched envolved taking a christian (from west virginia) and having him live with a family of devout muslims. he had to learn the language, ideals, practices, and to live with the discrimination he faced whilst wearing the traditional wardrobe of someone practicing islam. even as a caucasian, anglo-american wearing the traditional long flowing robe, wearing the kufi, or headress, and sporting a (quite conservative) beard, he had to put up with the stereotypes that plague muslims all over the world. one of the best parts of this particular show was when the displaced christian and a muslim lawyer were discussing 9/11. they both thought the same things, but when the christian asked why the muslim public never openly apologized for the actions of those people on that one day, the muslim simply asked back, well, when you heard about the oklahoma city bombing did you go around and start apologizing for him? this went into a discussion about discrimination and about how there is one and a half billion muslims in the world, but when a typical american gets on a plane and sees a muslim he or she immediately thinks of 9/11 and how much danger they are in. if you ask me, it is disgusting. i was recently on a number of international flights on my way to south korea, and i can tell you from personal experience that i was much less concerned about four muslim men sitting behind me, as i was about the guy with the thick quebec accent and the guy with the strong southern accent seeing which of them could drink more whiskey! anyway, i love morgan spurlock, if for nothing else than making me think. thanks for listening to my rant.

-peace to all whom deserve it-

so.......

again, i said i would keep up the posting, but alas......here we are, with no posts this month. Oh well, what do you do? so while i have been trying to update my lifestyle a bit with more healthy choices, i have neglected the blog. so i have been reading alot, and drawing more than usual. not that any of my sketches turns out the way i want, but i have to keep up with it so i dont completely loose my touch with a pencil. to that end, i have started a deviant art page. ( http://wagepeace.deviantart.com/ ) please check it out but dont be too hard on me, as i am just trying to get back into the swing of things. other than that, not much is up. i am depressed about summer ending, but excited to get to do some skating again! i re-read the whole harry potter series, (awesome) and have taken to full metal alchemist like wildfire! not the best idea when i want to be more active and spend less time in front of the damn computer! i was never much of a fan of anime, as i much preferred the written form of the art. however, of late i am re-visiting some of the things i might have skimmed over in the past. well, thats it, hope you enjoyed the october post, and have a happy halloween!

August Music Selection

So here we are, the end of summer looming. For some reason I always find out about really good music in the summers, and so I thought I would come up with a quick list of the tunes I have been listening to. But as I am not too sure what is old, or new, the list will be in no order specifically.

Interpol
White Stripes
Wolf Parade
Michael Franti
Xavier Rudd
Decemberists
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The Kooks
Sufjan Stevens
Ray LaMontagne
Primus
Dispatch
Jurrasic 5
JJ Grey & Mofro
Iron & Wine
Okkervil River
Modest Mouse
The Hold Steady
The Subways
Arcade Fire
John Butler Trio
John Mayer
Him
Buena Vista Social Club
Neutral Milk Hotel
Battles
Of Montreal
Bloc Party
BB King

And that ladies and gentlemen, is a short roundup of some of the music I have listened to this summer!!!

Life

Life speeds by us all at some point, and we can just reach out and grab it. Sometimes I just want to watch it go.

The Reactine Van

So I went to the Annual Beaches Jazzfest in Toronto not too long ago, where we spotted the Reactine van!!! The whole aspect of seeing this in real life, and not on a t.v. commercial was pretty funny, but pale in comparison to the fact that the guy driving was about two times too big to drive the thing!!! as you can see from the picture, his legs are bunched up, but what you can't see, is the fact that he is hunched over just to fit inside! If I was a bit more on the ball, I would have gotten a better pic, but as it happened I was just able to snap one! Too bad because it was pretty funny to see!! Weirdly enough, I had no allergies after he passed by us. (not that I had any before he passed either!!!!!) It was just like the commercial!

Central Park

View looking up at the buildings surrounding Central Park.

Summer is almost over!

And it is really depressing! I am going to try to spend a bit more time on the water before autumn comes though, I find it very relaxing.

Zen

And it's monday again.......

....I hate mondays, I always feel like the world
would be so much better if we all had three day
weekends! Damn mondays. On a lighter note:
I like beaches! This pic was taken a few weeks back when in Toronto.

THE STRUGGLE

The struggle within us all,

will ultimately be our demise.

The fight that burns in our hearts,

the battle between man and himself.

The animal does not explore itself,

it only lives to live.

It does not yearn,

it does not cry.

It only knows what it needs,

for animals can live only in harmony.

But man cannot.

Man sees only what it does not have,

not what it needs.

He questions himself and asks,

what is life?

What is life but not to ultimately to explore what life is?

This desire to know and to accomplish.

What man does not know is,

when the time comes,

He will know all, and will know what life is.

But then realizes that he can only live,

if he doesn't know.

He will become an animal.

-ian-

I took this picture on the way to see Xavier Rudd at the Ottawa Bluesfest 2007 in July. I really like the definition of the clouds with the silhouette of the stage.

Overlooking Busan, South Korea

NYC

About a month ago, I went to NYC with some friends for a concert! The whole weekend was awesome! I will write more about it later!

RE: Updates

So, my recent efforts at keeping a regularly updated blog have fallen a little shorter than previously anticipated. It's not because I have too much to do, and it's not that I have nothing important to say, (well I really don't, but that never stopped me before!) it's the fact that when I get home from a day at work in front of a computer, I rarely feel like getting back on my computer! So I guess there is only one way to remedy the situation...........blogging at work! I am not sure, but I think I might get my hair cut tonight. Wow, reading that after I wrote it suddenly made me feel pretty lame. I can just see the one reader who might see this by choosing a random blog to read, saying "man this guy is lame!" Oh well. Maybe it's true. Really don't want to be at work today! Last weekend was a long weekend and I spent almost the entirety of it in a lake. The remainder of the weekend, I spent either driving up to the lake, eating, or drinking. All in all, a very good weekend. When we left to come back to the city, it was like I had been there for years, and that I would never see another lake in my lifetime! Needless so say, I didn't feel like coming into work the next day. Then there was this past weekend. Spent some time out in the country just relaxing, and hanging out with a friend who lives in South Korea. Yesterday the only time I wasn't dreading coming into work today was when I was on the golf course. Maybe if my weekends weren't so enjoyable, coming into work after one wouldn't seem so horrible. Maybe, but maybe not! Unfortunately for that to work, I think I would have to stop the habit of thinking about the weekend to get me through the week! It is all a viscious cycle which has ensnared me! I really have to start playing the lottery, because I really feel like retiring!!

My other passion

So I have quite a few passions. One of the prevalent ones in the last few years has been food. So along with random bitching, hella' nerdy posts, and photography, this blog will include food. I have taken to photographing everything I see, (see last post) and some of those things have been what kinds of food I have made.

So this dish turned out really well, and was dead easy to make! All ingredients were bought that day, which made for a very fresh meal! So the first thing to do is get the chicken ready. To do this you will need to trim the fat off of the breasts. (I dont usually do this, as it adds great flavour to the chicken, but this way of preparing uses a lot of different flavours and would be a pain to de-fat after it was cooked) So the marinade I like to use for this type of chicken includes, but is not limited to, red wine, soya sauce, extra virgin olive oil, pepper, garlic, and balsamic vinegar. As I never measure any ingredients, I could not tell you how much of each to use. The amount of each depends on tastes, and the amount of marinade needed. The only thing is not to use too much balsamic vinegar, as it does a really good job at overpowering everything. Wisk ingredients together and in a large bowl or plastic bag, completely emmerse the breasts in the marinade for at least two hours. While the chicken is marinating, you can cut up the veggies for the salad. The chicken is so full of flavour that the salad should be very simple, just to compliment the dish. The salad i choose to make is made up of tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. I find that if you cut the veggies a little bigger than one normally would, it gives the dish a kind of rustic feel. Maybe this is just me, but thats what I think. When the chicken is marinaded, put it on a foil lined baking pan, (with sides, not a baking sheet) and into a pre-heated to 375 degree oven. Cook the breast with the round side up for approx. 8 minutes, flip, repeat on the other side. When both sides have cooked for 6-8 minutes each, flip again, but then remove from heat. Place the breasts on a cutting board and drain most of the liquid from the baking pan. Cut the breasts in diagonal lines about 2/3 through the breast at about 1 inch spacing. Turn the breast and do the same thing, in turn, creating some x's on the top of the breast. This will open the breast up and allow for full flavouring. Once completed comes the fun part!! You could change the garnishes or the ingredients here, and please do, because chicked is such a blank slate when it comes to flavours. What I did was drizzled a small amount of lemon juice on the breast, followed by a slight sprinkling of pepper. Then the parmesan cheese (amount according to taste, I used a very small amount). Cover the top of the breast with hot salsa (again does not need to be hot, but I like it!!), and then top it all of with marble cheese. Place back on baking sheet and put back in the oven for approx. 12 minutes. When the chicken is fully cooked, it still has a wonderful moist texture. Chicken needs to cool for only a minute and then is ready to serve. Salad is topped with an oil-garlic dressing, and now it is time for the garlic bread. This method works for me, and was shown to me by my mother, so substitute the recipe your mother gave to you here. What I do, is melt butter in a sauce pan and mix with finely chopped garlic. When the garlic has heated for a couple of minutes in the melted butter, cut in half a large loaf of french or italian bread and cover both halves. Once covered, sprinkle parmesan cheese and marble cheese to cover the bread. Bake in oven at the same temperature as the chicken and it should be done in a few minutes. The garlic bread will immediately fill your kitchen with the most wonderful smell, but be carful because it will burn easily. Once everything is ready, plate and serve. ENJOY!!! Thanks for reading my completely random blog!

And apparently I dont know how to delete posts!

Sorry bout that folks (who am I kidding, noone reads this anyway!!! hahahaha!) but that last entry is a duplicate picture inserted! Ooops. My bad!

Adjustable Shutter Speed

PIC_0194
Originally uploaded by ian_k

So before my trip to South Korea, I purchased a camera. I looked for a while, and thought about buying one when I got over there, but didn't because of two things. Firstly I was not sure about making this purchase in a country where I did not know the language! And secondly, I wanted to document the trip there. The shopping proccess included going to every camera store i could think of, as well as those online. The requirments were simple: small enough to fit in my pocket (as it was thirty degrees every day I was there), it had to take video with sound, and it had to have memory compatible with other digital devices (not Olympus or Sony). This limited my selection to various cameras which were all out of my price range. So the search continued. I found a site when I searched the internet using these parameters, and found a very comparable, well-priced product which I then began to search for here in Ottawa. I dont use credit cards, nor do I even have one, so buying the camera online was not an option. Not one store I went to had even heard of this brand name of camera. So when a friend of mine told me that he had found the same camera on ebay, and I could use his account, I was sold. So I purchased the camera, (SVP XThinn 864, 8.0 MP) which came with all of the accessories promised, and a free 2gig SD card. I have had nothing but success with this camera so far in the two months I have been using it!! I am still trying to figure out all of the features on it but so far there is still a few I havent even used. This setting is using the night setting with an exposure rate of 8 seconds. The focal length can be varied as well, but I find the pics come out the best when the camera automatically selects the focal range. It can automatically adjust the shutter speed as well, but I like the pictures better when I choose it.

Sunset and Wires

Sunset and Wires
Originally uploaded by ian_k

I am not sure why, but this picture really intrigues me. It is taken right behind my apartment, and just at the right spot for all of the wires to be passing overhead. I am going to try to take another from the same spot, but with a little more light.

South Gate

South Gate
Originally uploaded by ian_p

So the day all started off really well. Partially because we had spent the night before at "jim jil bong" which is a sauna/spa. Maybe starting the day with a cold beer didnt hurt either. We rode a gondola up into the mountains surrounding Pusan, got a small map, some beers and soju, and started for Bemosa. The map we got didn't actually have the mountain that we we looking for on it, but we (ok, maybe myself) decided that the map covered a very small area, and we should go on. Well........haha!! as it turns out, we hike for a few hours, find a small family's sort of restaurant way up in the hills to buy more soju at, and ask them if we can make it to Bemosa before dark. Well, when the guy heard that we were going to Bemosa for the celebration of Buddha's birthday, he rushed off and came back moments later with a bag full of kimchi, and four sets of chop-sticks. Apparently he didnt think we would make it before dark. Then it started to rain, hard. So, after hiking for about another hour or so in the pouring rain, we came upon a road, which featured a large roadside map of sorts. Unfortunately, we still couldnt find the mountain we were looking for. The next car that happened to drive by was a cabby, so we flagged him down to give us a ride up to where we needed to go. We were in the cab for forty minutes. At least we made it!!! Stay tuned for more posts!

I am completely addicted to webcomics

One day it all started with taking a break for lunch at work and reading www.boingboing.net (which I am also completely addicted to as well but I will post about that addiction later!). In one of the posts there was a link to www.xkcd.com, so I thought I would check it out. Well, if I had of known that it was only the beginning of a downward spiral into complete procrastination from all things employment related, then I would have.......uh......er....yeah I would still be reading the webcomics but I would have at least waited until I got home to start! Two days later, and having accomplished very little at work, I had read all of the comics and was waiting impatiently for the next one to come out. This was only the beginning of the complete addiction to webcomics. Before the addiction, my daily ritual when I arrived to work was checking my email, getting a glass of water, reading boingboing and then starting to work. Usually starting to actually work about 20 minutes or so after getting into the building. That was before the addiction. Now the routine has ballooned into email, glass of water, boingboing, and about another half an hour reading comics or searching out new ones! So now it is almost an hour before I even start getting any work done! So off I go to read another strip of one of my favourites right now. As of today, my fav’s are: www.explosm.net/comics, www.xkcd.com, and www.questionablecontent.net. Enjoy the reading, I know I have!!

Why I haven't been posting any blogs..........

.......because I am a lazy bastard. There you go, now you know. I rarely stay too long at my house if I dont have to and the weather is nice. But I am going to try to start blogging at least a couple times a week. Not that anyone actually reads this, but if you do then there you go! So stay tuned, because the opinionated, slightly-nerdy, slightly-retarded blogs will be coming more frequenly! Thanks.

My-space Poem

So this poem was written about five years or so before the website myspace was conceived. It seem slightly less relevant now, but as it had a great impact on my young life when I wrote it, I am posting it anyway. Thank you for reading it.


My-space
My-space is the deepest place between,
The rational soul and the imagination.
And it is where I will call my resting place,
For all of eternity.

-peace and good spirits-

DISPATCH:ZIMBABWE

So, I'm off to see the best musical reunion tour ever!!! Dispatch is coming back after a hiatus of about three years. The members all have explored musical endeavors since leaving the band, and all have gone in different directions, however, not directions far enough apart that they couldn't come back for one (three) show(s)!! What started off to be one show to raise money for the people of Zimbabwe, ended up to be three shows in one weekend. Due to overwhelming populatrity, the first, and second shows posted, sold out the Madison Square Gardens just to friends of Dispatch on myspace. They have since added a third show to cap off the reunion weekend!!! I am going to assume right now that this show will be the best show I have ever seen, or heard, and I think I might go totally crazy thinking about the next 140 days that I have to wait!! Since getting the tickets on the 10th of December, I have watched the Dispatch "All Points Bulletin" DVD about twenty times! So for all you Dispatch fans out there who are going to the show, "I will see you there!" and if you are not going to the show it was probably because you couldn't get tickets, (or you live on the other side of the world!) "sorry guys, we will rock it out for you though!" And lastly, if you have not heard of Dispatch, (shaking fist in the air right now) then go back and search for them, it will change your world!! Peace to all, and see you in NYC!!!