A Crybaby Christmas

Dunlop Crybaby Wah Wah pedal - woin wah woin whinnnn wouin!!!

It was by far the least punctual wedding gift we received (about five months late), and it isn’t something that both of us an really enjoy, but the gift that arrived today has to be the most awesome of all.

My good friend Alan at Gen X at 40 bought me a wah-wah pedal. A genuine Dunlop Crybaby© Wah Wah. The dunlop site features a short audio sample (WAV file) of the funk that is wah-wah.

The package arrived under an hour ago and I already have blisters on my fingers.

Awesome.

 

California Travel Notes

I had the good fortune of traveling to San Francisco this past week. Being places is great – going places sucks. It’s also a unique way to live and highlights some strange thing about life. Here are some highlights and observations:

  • I woke up in Charlottetown, had breakfast in Montreal, lunch in Chicago, and dinner in San Francisco. This is not in any way glamorous. Eating alone in an airport restaurant, surrounded by other people eating alone is a cruel and ironic type of isolation.
  • What do airport authorities bother getting logos? I suppose it must be the “mug effect”. All airport authority logos seem to consist of a few common elements: an abstract runway, take-off-flight-swoop, or a paper airplane. In th world of interface design, if you can’t come up with a good idea for an icon to represent some action or tool, it probably shouldn’t have an icon at all. I think the same goes for logos.
  • What’s with the terrible tin-can-sound-quality in-flight radio?
  • The in flight movie was better than my last lot (two Ashton Couture movies). The movie, Cinderella Man, had some bad acting, some terrible writing, and a lot more punching than I’m usually up for (it’s a boxing movie). That said, Russell Crowe was actually pretty good, and some of the fight scenes were actually quite gripping.
  • I suppose anything an become routine if you do it often enough, but how anyone can work on a powerpoint presentation on their laptop while we fly over the the rocky mountains at sunset is beyond me.
  • When Ben Goddard (sp?) sings “I Will Follow You Into The Dark”, I’m pretty sure he’s singing to me.
  • There’s an fscking in-flight version of Access Hollywood?!
  • Wifi was spotty or not available in th areas of both the Montreal and Chicago airports I was in.
  • Miles from Charlottetown to Montreal: 515
  • Miles from Montreal to Chicago: 747 (is that a coincidence?)
  • Miles from Chicago to San Francisco: 1846
  • I can’t help but think that travel of such great distances shouldn’t be this easy. It’s as though we’ve made some sort of deal with the devil.
  • I’m probably the only person in the world who actually enjoys those little bags of sesame snacks they server on the plane.
  • Toilet paper with at least enough strength to pull it’s own roll without tearing is a basic human right.
  • I took a tour of a vineyard and winery, had lunch at Google, spent a few days at the Mozilla offices, took in an NHL hockey game, and went to see Death Cab For Cutie and the White Stripes with Kevin and some others from the Digg/Revision3 crew. Who says the dot-com boom is over?
  • As a Canadian, it was a great shame that my first ever professional hockey game was between a team from San Jose, California, and a team from Florida.
  • Unfortunately, Death Cab for Cutie didn’t play “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” at the concert. Fortunately, this meant I didn’t have to hold hands with Daniel and cry.
  • On the return flight, they played a show called Three Wishes that consisted of Amy Grant singing to people, and buying them houses for going to war, or having their husbands die there. Giving a war widow a new home is fine, I suppose, but making entertainment out of it seems somehow evil.
  • Delays and missed connections suck
  • Hard
  • When I missed a connection in Montreal (my connecting flight was gone before I even got on the ground), I was told that the airline wouldn’t pay for a hotel, since the delay was weather-related. The Air Canada guy even told me where the best place to spend the night in the airport is, in case I didn’t want to pay for a hotel myself (not a bad tip, actually). I went for a hotel, and when I got there, there were other people from my same flight, with vouchers from the airline to pay for the hotel. Apparently the delay was not weather related. Now I get to “fax the refunds department” when I get home. Awesome.
 

Acts of Volition Radio: Session 23

Acts of Volition Radio: Session Twenty Three

My last session of Acts of Volition Radio was recorded in the waning days of my bachelorhood. Though this session now features a married host, the music continues to rock (though sometimes gently). I’m as excited about sharing these great songs as I was when recording the first session. This session is the first available in Ogg Vorbis format (info and rational, though the MP3 version is still available if you prefer.

Songs that rock, gently. Recorded Sunday, November 6, 2005 by Steven Garrity. Run time: 47min.

Session Twenty Three Playlist:

  1. Fountains of Wayne – Mexican Wine
  2. The New Pornographers – The Bleeding Heart Show
  3. Denison Witmer – Little Flowers
  4. Starflyer 59 – Good Sons
  5. Sum 41 – Pieces
  6. Nada Surf – Always Love
  7. Without Gravity – Beautiful Son
  8. Death Cab For Cutie – I Will Follow You Into The Dark

For more, see the previous Acts of Volition Radio sessions or subscribe to the Acts of Volition Radio RSS feed.

Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio: Session 23
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