Still at it

I really shouldn't have taken an hour off to watch Wilco perform on Austin City Limits tonight, but it was totally worth it. I'm about as far into my presentation planning as I'm going to get tonight; I've made the subcategories and have started to go back through my notes to arrange individual points. Besides, how often do I get to watch them perform stuff from their first album?

I've got priorities, you see.

I finished almost all of my reading today, so I'm going to take advantage of the extra hour of Daylight Savings Time and finish it off before bed. That way, I can spend most of my time on the unit tomorrow just working on the poster. Isn't it great to have a job where I get paid $20/hour to do homework?

Put your shoes on, we're going out tonight

I'm not really a fan of the game, but Taylor's asked me to go to a poker night he's throwing tonight so I'm heading out. I didn't get enough work done today, so I'm coming home early to get some of my Hoffman reading out of the way. This probably isn't a smart choice, but what can you do?

Work on the children and advertising poster is slowly coming along, I've got a lot more academic papers discovered, and a few areas of the poster mapped out. My schedule:

Tonight:
1. Poker night
2. Hoffman reading

Tomorrow:
1. Reading and jotting notes from papers at work.
2. Start summarizing notes into sections

Sunday:
1. Finish reading at work
2. Pick up poster board and some card (colour suggestions?)
2. Write advertising notes into draft
3. Print and start assembling poster
4. Map out slides for Internship presentation

Whew, I'm tired just writing that. Now the task is seeing if I can keep up with any of it; I've already missed out on this entire week's goal of shaving even a single time. At this point, I'm justifying it by saying it makes me look more dudely.

Killing me softly

It was a hectic October, one that started off with a deadline for a poster I'm presenting in Banff in three weeks and didn't let up until about a week ago. The way it was scheduled, I'd have about two days, three tops to work on each project and it's a miracle I made it through. So I took the last week to catch my breath. Shit.

Now I'm staring down two presentations I have to prepare for next Tuesday, and three papers (four if I want to do something like, for instance, go to grad school and get the career I want) in the four weeks following. So if anybody wants to write on the following for me, it would be appreciated:

-Issues of compliance surrounding forensic clients in a clinical psychological setting
-Children's processing of advertisements and brand recognition
-Issues of individual choice and institutional failures in moral transgressions in Gothic novels

Any takers?

Woes: baseball metaphor courtesy of Fenway

I think I'll hesitate from ordering things from Apple online from now on. Don't get me wrong, I love their products. They're right for me, and I've become a devoted user; no problems there. The problems lie in their shipping.

Last year, when I ordered my Macbook, shipping was repeatedly delayed without them notifying me and I ended up making repeated calls and finally getting a discount. Essentially, my hard drive upgrade was free. I was pissed, but after using the computer I forgave them, because I love it.

This week, my dad and I preordered the family bundle of Leopard from the online store, simply because they guaranteed it would be delivered to our door today, the release date. It's not here. Apple's phone rep was prepared to promise me that it would arrive tomorrow, until I asked him to verify it and he told me to double check with Purolator. I figured that this was the guy who took 5 minutes to find my account and order on the computer, so I probably couldn't take what he said at face value.

Purolator said it would arrive on Tuesday, and Apple said we'd have to just wait, since they couldn't cancel our order and they weren't going to discount it. Unacceptable. The order is now set as a return, and they were going to make us pay for the shipping cost - all of this because of their mistake - until we told them that wasn't acceptable either. They're now covering the cost and I have a copy of Leopard from Westworld Computers sitting in front of me on the ottoman. We would have bought it from London Drugs, but Apple didn't ship the family bundle to any of their locations.

This is two strikes for Apple's online store. I'm not even sure I should give it another pitch.

The Spice is Life.

Dune potato chips?
Originally uploaded by Leask

Faulted

The Arcade Fire are assholes.

Yes, it's true. At least, when it comes to their country. As a fan, it's constantly frustrating to be only a half member of the North American music community; in Canada we share album release dates with America, but routinely get shunned when it comes time for some of our favourite bands to tour behind their recent releases. Toronto is a guaranteed stop, and Vancouver and Montreal are perennial favourites as well. Occasionally, like Spoon recently did, they'll play in Victoria and Vancouver, fulfilling their redundancy quota for the week. In Edmonton, it's often the case that to show my support for a band I love, I would have to drive 11 hours to Vancouver to do it. The real problem? I like to listen only the artist in question the day of their concert, and after that drive I don't think I'd want to see them anymore. I'd turn around and drive home.

I hear you asking, "But why blame the Arcade Fire, if this is across the whole industry?" That is a very good question. There's the expectation that a band takes care of their own first, which is why I can justify not having yet seen Sigur Rós or Hello Saferide. On the positive side of this, I've had ample opportunity to see Sloan, Matthew Good and Danny Michel. So when I first heard Funeral in 2004, I was excited with the prospect of seeing their famed live show (famed that is, by Eastern US fans who had already seen them, often several times)

So I waited. In October 2005, thirteen months after Funeral was released, they finally deigned. After over a year spent touring through the United States and overseas, they finally played their home country, citing good intentions but unfortunate circumstances. Of course, it sold out in less than ten minutes and I wasn't able to go.

But I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, because they seemed apologetic about it. When Neon Bible was announced, I figured they'd amend their mistake and do a decent-sized Canadian tour. Ha. Five months and no date in site, but they've played the usual suspects. Maybe it's an Eastern thing. Maybe it's another unfortunate circumstance.

What I do know is that in the meantime, other Canadian acts with major southern press have scheduled shows here, including the New Pornographers, Final Fantasy, Tegan & Sara and the Weakerthans. Large American bands like Wilco, Dinosaur Jr. and the White Stripes have played here. Hell, The Raveonettes will have scheduled a show, delayed it twice and eventually played by the time my countrymen get to it.

Assholes.

Bet you got it all planned, right?

You're bummed, right? The leaves are changing, classes are starting and you're wondering where it all went. Not the summer, but everything else. Things are coming to an end, and everybody's slowly being knocked off. It started in the spring and it's only getting worse, seeds to the wind before it frosts. You're feeling the need for some weight yourself and offshores are looking dandier and dandier. But it's gotta wait. Tides and seasons and whatever, pollen and nectar.

But don't you nevah be down, I said don't evah. Because it's gonna keep 'em hanging around.

Via Pop Candy: Keepon is gonna soften the blow.