crazed monkey

My trial version of Radio expires in one day, possibly tomorrow. Since the only platforms Radio supports are Windows and MacOS, it is doubtful that I will buy a copy as I use Linux at home. I have been using Radio from work and, while I have been impressed, I don’t think it is worth the investment, especially considering I would only be able to use it at work. Radio eats a lot of time out of my work day.

However, I have been thinking about implementing a Radio-like application in Python. I like Radio’s idea of off-loading the rendering to the client and only displaying static webpages on the server. After a couple of weekends I might have something which will enable some basic weblog updates. We shall see.

Posted on August 14th, 2002 in meta, site - No Comments »

Many who know me are aware of how I loathe the popular music of the day. Much of it causes me actual physical pain. It is because of this that my gym has become my own personal hell. Three days a week since February, they have been piping in the same tunes over and over and over again. Today was crappy dance music day. I can almost tell which track will play next as I don’t think they bother to shuffle their playlist. Once or twice they have been known to break out and play something different, like classic rock or retro eighties. One day a month ago they even played reggae & dub tunes all morning! That was the best hour I’ve ever had at that gym and I will cherish it always. In the meantime, so long as I want to become physically fit, I will have to endure the personal hell that is my gym.

Posted on August 14th, 2002 in meta, person - No Comments »

Drinkers in British Columbia will soon have until 4 a.m. to imbibe alcohol at their favourite bar or pub.

I’ve always thought that Toronto should do something like this, although it would never happen. Before the World Cup, businesses lobbied city council to increase the hours where alcohol could be served so that fans could watch the games live from South Korea and Japan while downing a few pints. City council voted against this idea as they thought it would create chaos as drunk revellers collided with morning commuters.

I don’t head out that often but, when I do, I don’t arrive at a bar or club until about 11pm, leaving only three hours before the place closes and the subways stop running. Sure, I could head out earlier but most clubs I would go to are always empty before 11pm anyway.

Increasing bar hours would mean nothing unless the TTC increased its subway hours so that drunks could head home safely and cheaply. Not very many people would stay to drink if they had to ride an even more crowded vomit comet up Yonge after the subways closed, or dish out $15-$20 for cab fare. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t go as the TTC is strapped for cash as it is.

Posted on August 13th, 2002 in culture - No Comments »

I recently finished Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled and am terribly glad that I kept with it after the first half.

It is very difficult to read a novel in which you abhor the protagonist, which is how I felt about Ryder, the novel’s narrator. Here is a man who, throughout the novel, makes a lot of promises and accepts a lot of invitations but never keeps the ones which are important, wanders about as if in a dream and, at many times, acts like a complete and total asshole. At one point, Ryder goes to a screening of 2001 at a local movie theatre, incorrectly names the movie’s lead actors as Clint Eastwood and Yule Brenner, and then leaves in the middle without the woman he came with, quite likely his wife or mistress. In another scene, he leaves a boy, who might be his son, at a cafe for several hours as he allows himself to be led away by photographers and then by a local musician.

In addition to being very frustated with Ryder’s actions, I became very puzzled with The Unconsoled’s surreal setting, specifically the relative distances between locations in the village. In one chapter, Ryder is whisked away from the hotel where he is staying in the centre of the village and driven to what seems like a large house in the country for a formal gathering. When the gathering is over, Ryder is then led through a door which, quite miraculously, leads to his hotel. Later on in the book, Ryder drives to a gallery in the middle of the country, remembers that this is the same place where the gathering was located, and then finds his way back to the hotel through another door.

Because of my frustrations, I would have abandoned The Unconsoled altogether but did not as I wished to get to the bottom of Ryder’s behaviour and because of the tense build-up to the climax at the end of the novel. Having read this book, I look forward to reading Ishiguro’s other works, including The Remains Of The Day, for which he won the Booker Prize in 1989.

Posted on August 13th, 2002 in books, culture - No Comments »

Sunday I went to the Taste of the Danforth with my friend Vic and his friend Kevin. This food festival features booths providing culinary delights of various restaurants along the Danforth.

The name “Taste Of The Danforth” might evoke a lush variety of offerings from the vibrant community which resides along the Danforth east of Yonge. However, it should have been called “The Meat On A Stick Festival” as pound-for-pound, from Broadview to Donlands, there were more sticks surrounded with meat than any other food. Yes, there were smatterings of sushi, samosas, waffles and pasta but these food items and all others were vastly outnumbered by the mighty and ubiquitous meat on a stick.

If you can’t get enough of meat delivered to you on a wooden stick, then by all means mark the date of the festival down on your 2003 calendars. Lucky for me, I won’t be joining you.

Vic also has a few words to say on this subject.

Posted on August 12th, 2002 in culture - No Comments »