Wow, its mindblowing to think how fast the last decade flew by. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was busy updating thousands of router configs to combat the Y2K bug. Hard to believe that this was 10 years ago already.

Like many sites out there, I felt compelled to come up with my own personal Top list for the naughties decade, and here it is! I consciously tried to keep it short and to the point as to not bore you too much. These are not listed in any particular order.

Top 5 Music CDs: Metallica’s Death Magnetic. Since its release, that CD has been the music that’s played in my Jeep probably 90% of the time. That one was an easy choice. The other 4 music CDs that really stood out for me this decade are Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth, Korn – Take A Look In The Mirror, Linkin Park – Meteora, Bullet For My Valentine – The Poison.

Top 5 Movies: Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Watchmen, Star Wars Episode 3, Casino Royale.Yup, Star Wars Episode 3 made the list. As bad as Episode 1 was, Episode 3 I felt was amazing and brought both trilogies together.

Top 10 TV Shows: I couldn’t pare this down to 5, so I had to make it 10. Even shrinking it down to 10 was a bit hard. Not surprisingly however, most of these shows were on the air in the latter half of the decade. Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Survivor, Dexter, Family Guy, Futurama, Stargate: Atlantis, Firefly, The Office, Smallville

Top Life Changes: I’ve had quite a few big life changes in the last 10 years, most of them coming in the last couple of years. I bought my first house, I got engaged and married. I had a wonderful honeymoon in Paris, where I fell head over heels in love with that city. After 15 years of smoking, I was able to finally quit the nasty habit (and I’m almost 1 year clean). And very recently I found out that I’m going to be a father for the first time.

Here’s to another great decade.

rapid-fire (rap′id fīr′)

adjective

done, delivered, proceeding, or carried on swiftly and sharply

On Monday July 13th I finally got to see a band that I’ve been wanting to see in concert for many many many years; Stone Temple Pilots. STP were playing the  Cisco Bluesfest festival here in Ottawa. Even though we were cold and wet from the rain that poured down during the open act, it didn’t deter me from having great fun in what I consider one of the best concerts that I happened to lay eyes on.

Scott Weiland showed that he was a true frontman, entertaining and captivating the audience throughout the 90 minute show. Dean DeLeo was electrifying on guitar, his brother Robert was bombastic on bass and Erik Kretz was explosive on drums. Mix them all together and you have a show of epic proportions that rocked the socks off of 25,000 fans.

To view a collection of pictures I took of the show, head on over to my photo gallery.

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My wife and I saw Ice Age 3(D) with some friends of ours. I was a little apprehensive as I didn’t think that Ice Age 2 was a very good movie (I thought it was just OK). I was happily surprised to see that Ice Age 3(D) was almost as good and almost as funny as the first Ice Age movie!

The story is a little slow to get going but after the first 10-15 minutes it does get much better. So don’t walk out on this movie early!

In this 3rd installment, Ellie and Manny are expecting their first child together. Sid grows jealous and adopts 3 abandoned eggs, which hatch into Tyrranasaurus. The dinosaur’s mother soon returns to take her children back, and grabs Syd as well, taking them back to a lost kingdom where dinosaurs still roam. Ellie and Manny, accompanied by Diego, Crash and Eddie head out to find and rescue their pal Syd. Along the way they meet up with an insane weasel called Buck, who helps them to cross the savage lands and find their friend.

I give Ice Age 3D: Dawn of the Dinosaur an 8 out of 10

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My wife and I saw The Taking of Pelham 123 back in June. I found Pelham 123 to be surprisingly entertaining, but that wasn’t a hard feat to reach. I’ve never seen a movie with Denzel Washington where I didn’t think the movie was at the very least entertaining (unfortunately I can’t say the same about Travolta, but in this movie he was pretty good).

The story revolves around a group of led by Ryder (Travolta) who take over a New York subway car full of people hostage.  Garber (Washington) plays a NYC subway dispatcher who happens to be the lucky one sitting in the chair when it all goes down. The movie revolves around the interaction between these 2 characters as Garber and the city try to meet their demands before any hostages are killed.

Viewers are taken through different twists and turns which leaves us asking questions until the last 5 or so minutes of the movie.

I give the Taking of Pelham 123 a 7 out of 10 stars. 

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Its been a pretty crappy summer so far in good ol’ Ottawa. We’ve seen rain, rain and more rain come down. There’s been more rainy days than sunny days, a lot more. Here’s some stats that date back from this past Monday:

- The average temperature for July has been 18.3, down from the norm of 20.9

- We’ve had 0 days in July where the temperature exceed 30 degrees celsius (not counting humidex)

- There’s been only 6 rain-free days in July so far.

-Since the beginning of June, we’ve had raid in 7 out of 8 weekends.

-Normal rainfall for July is 90mm. We’ve had 183mm fall on our fair city so far this July.

-This is the worst July on record since 1992.

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And finally, I will leave you with a funny video. Strangely enough, however, I find this video not only funny, but slightly erotic for some reason. I think the Shake Weight exercise machine is more than just a piece of exercise equipment.

Like an acquaintance exclaimed after seeing this video: “This is why in highschool us guys didn’t have flabby arms”. LOL!

Shake Weight Exercise for Women

rapid-fire (rap′id fīr′)

adjective

done, delivered, proceeding, or carried on swiftly and sharply

Summer movie season has started, and right out of the gate we have a front runner for best movie of the summer. Its a really great story, with great characters (with a different twist from the characters we knew before), amazing acting and some special FX that are not only really well done, but they blend into the movie and are used to progress the story, instead of just showing off FX for the sake of showing FX. It reboots the franchise allowing for a fresh start (or an alternate universe, depending on how you choose to see it). If you only see one movie this summer, Star Trek is the one to see.  9 out of 10

The first disappointment of the summer came a couple of weeks later with Terminator: Salvation. Its not a bad movie per say, but its not great either. After having digested the movie a bit, I would place it on equal footing with T3. I was expecting more from this movie. More action, more war against the machines, more John Connor. Instead we got introduced to a new character and most of the movie revolved around him. I think that giving McG the reins on this movie was a bad decision. It wasn’t bad, but it could have been so much more, which is what’s the most disappointing. 6.5 out of 10

Metallica are coming back to Ottawa in October for their Death Magnetic tour. We haven’t seen Metallica in our fair city since 2004. Buying tickets for this show was a no-brainer. Didn’t get amazing seats, but they aren’t bad seats either. The show sold out in less than a day which suprised me. Now the countdown begins!

Stone Temple Pilots is one of those bands that have been on my ‘must see in concert’ for a while now. When the band broke up in 2003, I thought that I would never see this amazing band live and in person. I had to settle to seeing Velvet Revolver. Here we are now 6 years later, the band is not only back together, not only about to release a new album, but they are also playing Ottawa Blues Fest! There’s no way I was going to miss this concert. Getting first row tickets was almost beyond belief! I finally get to see STP live! I’m so psyched!

Who would have guessed that Detroit and Pittsburgh would meet again in the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals. I certainly didn’t, and was hoping not to see it happen again. Out of all the teams that made the playoffs, these 2 teams, along with the Montreal Canadiens, were the teams I really did not want to see in the finals. Can Detroit repeat another win this year? I think so. I don’t think that Pittsburgh still has what it takes to be Stanley Cup champions. I call Detroit Red Wings in 6, and Sid the Kid Crosby crying in the corner again this year.

TV season is over, and here’s some thoughts on some shows and finales; Lost had a great season finale, sucks that we have to wait 8 months until the next and final season. Smallville’s season finale was probably the worst of the series. It was very meh. Survivor was good, finally a good guy winning the million again. Really sucks that My Name Is Earl got cancelled. Hopefully it will be picked up by another network. Also sucks that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles got cancelled. This show really delved into the characters of the Terminator universe. We got to see what made them tick. It was very much a psychological and cerebral show. It will be missed. Surprisingly, Dollhouse got picked up for next season. Rumours are that Summer Glau (Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, Firefly) will be joining the show. Fringe’s season finale was also really interesting. Fringe and Dollhouse are easily my 2 favorite new shows. I can’t wait to see where both shows will take us.

After years of wanting to get a DSLR, and having learned most of what I could by using a point and shoot camera,  I finally got my hands on one. The new Canon T1i. This was my treat to myself for quitting smoking (4 months now), and I also had to drop my monthly comic book sub from approx 30 books a month to 5, but it was worth it. I’m absolutely in love with this camera, and I’m driving my wife and family crazy because I bring it everywhere I go.  I can already tell that I’ve improved my photography skills and technique and hope that the learning never stops and the skill keeps on getting better.

Last but not least, today (May 31st) marks the one year anniversary of my and my wife’s wedding. I can’t believe we’ve been married for one year already. The time has gone very quickly. Here’s to many more years of happiness together. I love you sweetie.

Watchmen. For many years uttering that single title sent shivers down comic readers’s backs. It is considered by many as being one of if not the best comic. I rate it in my top 5, along with Sandman, The Killing Joke, V for Vendetta and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. For years Hollywood and comic book fans alike stated that Watchmen could never be made into a movie. In steps Zack Snyder, the director of another comic based movie (300), takes the Watchmen story and gives us a movie that’s as worthy of praise as the book its based on.

One of the reasons that like 300, Watchmen really works is that it very seldomly deviates from the comic that its based on. Heck, the first 20-30 minutes of the movie is a scene for scene, dialogue for dialogue copy of the first few chapters of the book. This is the closest a movie has come for capturing not only the characters from a comic book, but the story and the atmosphere as well. As far as comic book to celluloid is concerned, Watchmen does it even better than The Dark Knight or 300. As expected, some subplots were removed due to time contraints (IE: Almost all the newspaper booth stuff, and most of the Janey Slater stuff was cut back). The ending itself is mostly different, but it still conveys the same theme, atmosphere, intentions and feelings as the book. I’m not quite sure why Snyder decided to deviate so much from the original story for the ending, but it does not make it bad in any way, shape or form.

[rant]A quick sidenote: If you’re a parent, Watchmen is not Spiderman or X-Men. This movie barely missed getting an NC-17 rating in the US. This is purely an adult movie in theme and execution. In ways its even darker than The Dark Knight. If the adult nature of the story isn’t enough to keep your younglings at home, also know that there’s very graphic violence, a graphic rape scene, nudity and sexual activity, with a tiny bit of swearing tossed in. If you can’t get a babysitter, don’t go see this movie with your brats in tow. I consider myself liberal, and I would still not suggest this movie to anyone under the age of 15-16. [rant off]

I won’t get into the story of Watchmen. If you’re never read it, head on over to Wikipedia and read a very good summary as to Watchmen is all about. Although the way the movie was made, you don’t really need to know anything about Watchmen in order to enjoy it. If you have read this masterpiece, then I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

I give Watchmen a 9 out of 10 

rapid-fire (rap′id fīr′)

adjective

done, delivered, proceeding, or carried on swiftly and sharply

Finally, a world war movie that shows the Canadian point of view. A powerful film about the sacrifice made by Canadian soldiers during World War I. Written by and starring Paul Gross (of Due South fame), who based the story on war stories shared by his grandfather who fought at Passchendaele.

It could have used a little less romance and a little more action, but regardless its still a very enjoyable film.

I rate it a 7 out of 10.

This 5th season of Lost is starting off on the right foot. The 3rd and 4th season sometimes seemed to lack direction but the ship has been steered back on course. Inhabitants of the island are now travelling back and forth through time, having an adverse effect on some of the survivors. Some members of the Oceanic Six realize that they have to find a way back to the island. That their destiny is to be on the island and not back with regular civilisation.

The best season since season 2. If you stopped watching in the last couple of years, do yourself a favor and start watching this show again. Its the best show on television.

Craig Hartsburgh was fired from the head coach position of the Ottawa Senators earlier this week after a big loss against the Washington Capitals. He was replaced by Cory Clouston, the head coach of the Sens’ farm team in Binghamton. Though I feel the problems are a lot deeper than the coaching, it was obvious that Hartsburgh could not find a way to inspire his players. He was a good coach, just not for this team at this time. His defensive minded system did not gel with the offensively-built Senators. I’m reserving judgement on Clouston until he’s had 5-6 games under his belt, but so far the team is playing with a lot more passion and heart. Lets just hope they keep it up.

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Blizzard offering me a free 10 day trial of the World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King. This offer couldn’t have come at a better time. I was already itching to try it, and having given up smoking I wanted to do something to occupy my time. It was great to catch up with people in the game that I had last spoken to over a year ago when I quit playing.

So far this expansion is more fun to play than the previous expansion Burning Crusades. There’s less grinding, more quests, more variety and just more fun.  Much to my wife’s dismay, once my free 10 day trial was over I continued to play but just as a ‘casual’. There’s no way I’m going to be a raider again, as that requires a huge timesink that I do not have or which to give.

I’m on day 14 of quitting smoking. The cravings still come and go, but less often and with less intensity. Every day I’m breaking more habits where I smoked in certain situations. It hasn’t been easy, but at this point I figure that there’s no point to have suffered for these 2 weeks and take up smoking again.

Now I’m just a little worried of what will happen when I stop taking the Champix. I’ve read some horror stories that the cravings come back bigtime once you stop the pills. I guess I’ll find out in a few weeks.

Last week the OC Transpo strike that’s paralyzed the city since early December finally came to an end. Both the city and the union agreed to go to binding arbitration. Funny how they both agree to that just as the Federal government was ready to introduce a back to work bill and just before Obama’s visit to our capital. By going to arbitration both sides save face and can state that they didn’t give in to their demands.

Buses are expected to start hitting the streets this weekend, but isn’t expected to be running at full capacity until April or May.

Lets just hope that we don’t have to go through this again in a couple of years when the new contract will be up.