Archive for August, 2005
Zakk defends Ozzy against Maiden
Posted by: | CommentsZakk Wylde has made a statement on the event surrounding members of the Osbourne entourage pelting Iron Maiden band members with eggs during their Ozzfest 2005 tour. Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson apparently berated Ozzy, sending Sharon Osbourne on a path of revenge.
“Iron Maiden were chosen for the Ozzfest tour because the Ozzfest committee felt they were a good band, plus the fact that they had not done shows in the U.S. for some time,” said Sharon in a statement. “From day one, Bruce Dickinson started berating Ozzy and belittling the Ozzfest audience. He stated he ‘didn’t need a reality show to give him credibility’; ‘We’re not just some fucking reunion band’; and continuously complained about the sound system, saying that when he comes back to America he’ll have a better one.”
Dickinson also complained in an interview about American audiences in general saying that “when you do the ‘hits’ tour here [in the U.S.], the audience is smug, and there’s a sense of self-satisfaction, like, ‘We got what we wanted … I’m looking at an audience that is self-satisfied and happy and fat, and getting what it wants and isn’t prepared to get off its ass.”
Although Zakk wasn’t personally involved, he made his views on the incident very clear in a prepared statement.
“Although I’m a huge fan of the IronMaiden band and their music, I have a problem with Bruce Dickinson talking shit about America and more personally, about the Godfather of my first born son.”
Happy Birthday to you
Posted by: | CommentsYesterday was my father’s birthday and Monique’s mother’s birthday, too. Kind of strange isn’t it, having our parents with the same birthday. It certainly has presented some challenges for us over the years, planning and executing the day, but this year was pretty relaxed.
We didn’t leave the cottage for either birthday this year, which made the decision on what to do really easy. We sat out by the lake and enjoyed a relaxing day of doing nothing.
My parents drove up for the day, so we had a little celebration dinner at a restaurant down the road. Actually, it’s more like a truck stop, so the portions are really big. We were all stuffed by the time we left.
We gave Dad his presents and then we all went out on the wharf and sort of played Trivial Pursuit. Dad and I teamed up against the girls, Michael asked the questions and Nicole kept score. Dad and I won.
Oh, the drama of it all
Posted by: | CommentsSometimes no matter what you do, it’s just wrong. That’s what happened to Monique and I on Sunday when friends of ours and their kids came up to the cottage for the day.
Nicole and Michael were lobbying for their friends to stay overnight at the cottage even before we left for vacation. We said that we would think about it and let them know the day they came up.
Dave and Brenda showed up and we sat around talking and had a few drinks. Later in the day we had a few burgers on the grill. The whole time Nicole and Lindsey were hinting about the sleepover.
It didn’t matter to us if the kids stayed or not, but Dave and Brenda couldn’t come back on Monday and pick them up. They decided to just take the kids home and we could arrange for a sleepover some other time at home.
Michael and his friend Andrew were disappointed, but accepted the news. Nicole and Lindsey on the other hand started crying and wailing like two year olds.
It was so bad, it was actually funny at first, but then it got old really quick. They wouldn’t stop and it was one of those stupid crying fits that you knew was planned if the news didn’t go their way.
Monique and I have never allowed ourselves to fall victim to such antics, so Nicole should have known a temper tantrum was not the way to win us over. Instead, acting like that only strengthens our resolve.
To make matters worse for Nicole, she will be punished for her actions. I’m not sure what yet, but I believe that she has to learn that there are consequences for her actions, good or bad.
Well, that news didn’t go over well with her, but I’m her parent, which means I’m not always her friend. That also means that I do what I think is right. If she thinks she can get her way by pulling stunts like this now, she may pull stupid stuff like this again.
Not on my watch!
Lazy days of summer
Posted by: | CommentsIf there were a theme for today it would have to be lazy. Besides taking the dog for a walk we didn’t venture to far away from the cottage all day. Most of the day we sat on the wharf and just talked.
We did manage to pile everyone in the car and go to the farmers market after supper to get an ice cream, but that was the extent of our driving today.
Michael and I went in the paddleboat and went across the lake — that was damn tough on an old guy like me. Michael was just paddling along with no problem at all. Meanwhile I had to stop several times.
When Michael saw Nicole and Monique going for a swim, he wanted to go back, which was just fine with me. We cut across the lake and put in for day. I was never so happy to see land.
Of course, there was lots of time set aside for throwing sticks in the water for the crazy dog. She just won’t stop! We have to physically make her lay down before she will take a rest. A couple of times we were concerned she was getting too tired.
All in all another good day for everyone.
Paddleboats and a swimming dog
Posted by: | CommentsThe first couple of days of vacation were pretty busy, but today we all laid around and relaxed. Michael went out in the paddleboat by himself and later with Monique, but nobody seems to be enjoying things as much as Twiggy.
Michael really enjoys the paddleboat that is at the cottage. He travels up and down the shore picking up rocks and other treasures he finds along the way. We stay out there and watch him, but he’s a good swimmer, so we don’t worry too much — he’s not far from shore anyway.
Monique and Michael went around the entire lake in the paddleboat today — believe me, that’s quite a distance. Monique was tired and sore when she got back, but I’m sure Michael could have gone again. Oh to have the energy of a kid again.
Twiggy is just insane about the water. She just runs of the end of the wharf and jumps into the water whether you throw the stick or not. She seems to be enjoying the water more than the kids at this point. You can certainly tell at night because she is beat.
We haven’t done a lot so far, but that’s okay, it is vacation. The kids are reading a lot of books and I’m playing guitar and putting together some tracks, so all is well.
Heading back home in the pouring rain
Posted by: | CommentsThursday was supposed to be our first full day at the cottage, but it didn’t work out that way.
Michael was finishing level 10 in swimming, so we had to go back this morning for one last class to see if he passed — luckily the trip was worthwhile and he did pass.
Monique took Michael to class and Nicole and I stopped off at the house — she talked her friends on MSN and I got a little bit of work done and answered some emails. We didn’t stay too long. We were back on the road again in a couple of hours and back at the cottage by mid-afternoon. We picked a good day to get away because it absolutely poured rain all day.
Even driving was bad there was so much water on the roads. It started to pass by late afternoon, so we got some walking done at the end of the day.
A busy first day of vacation
Posted by: | CommentsI should have known it was going to happen. My first day of vacation was the busiest day of work I had all week — figures. At the last minute I did up a feature story on building a Widget to go along with the release of the Macworld Dashboard Widget.
By the time you read this, my vacation will be over; I’ll be back home again; and the Macworld Widget will already be available for download. That’s because I have no Internet access at the cottage we rented this week. I’m always fearful of not having Internet access, but I’m kind of looking forward to having the time off.
We managed to make it up here about mid-afternoon and get everything out of the truck. Then we had to go into town and pick up some groceries for the week, which included a good helping of Heineken for me.
Michael went in swimming for a bit with Twiggy while the rest of us just kind of laid around and rested. Twiggy has no fear at all of the water — she just dives in.
By 7:00 pm I was beat. I was yawning and looking for a quiet spot to lie down, but I didn’t want to go to bed too early. I don’t sleep that well most times — I’m often up until 3:00 am or later and get up several hours later — so I was happy to see I was so tired.
After the kids went to bed, Monique and I watched a couple episodes of Alias on DVD. We just started watching the show a few weeks ago and are on season 2 now.
Sadly, after being so tired for so long, I couldn’t get to sleep. I laid there for hours trying and finally dozed off. We have to go back into town tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll be rested enough.
Bruins sign Thorton, Travis Green
Posted by: | CommentsThe Boston Bruins have made moves to solidify their front line this week by signing center Joe Thorton and Travis Green. Two great moves by the Bs. Getting Green back on the roster was definitely a great move, but getting Thorton was an absolute must.
Thorton, in a few short years, has become the backbone of the Bruins — not every team has someone to fill that roll. With the addition of veterans like Brian Leetch, Thorton is free to work his magic with Glen Murray and Samsonov.
If I have one wish for this season it’s that the league keeps to its word and speeds up the game. These no talent players that hook and grab to keep up with players like Thorton need to either learn how to play the game or get the hell out of the league.
Working with CSS drop shadows and image galleries
Posted by: | CommentsI really like what CSS can do for a Web site. I try to build everything now without using any tables whatsoever and for the most part it’s worked really well. CSS itself has come a long way allowing you to do many things including shadows, which is what I’ve been working on recently.
There was really no need for me to have an image gallery on the site since Peter gave me a Flickr Pro account, but it’s one of those things that I wanted to work on for myself. I’m using a really nice piece of gallery software for WordPress called Gallery Manager.
Gallery Manager gives you everything you need and integrates well with WordPress itself. Having that out of the way, I wanted to give the thumbnails and images a nice drop shadow, but I didn’t want to use Photoshop, I wanted it all done with CSS.
So the thumbnails you see on this page have a slight bit of padding and a nice drop shadow, which gives them some nice depth.
I tried it with Safari and it works great, but when I align any of the thumbs to the right Camino and Firefox won’t show the images. Strange, but I’ll keep playing around with that.
Update: Shortly after posting this I found what I was doing wrong to make the images align right in Firefox and Camino. If it doesn’t look right to you, let me know.
A trip to the Halifax International Buskers Festival
Posted by: | CommentsLast night Nicole had a party to go to at her friends, so Monique, Michael and I decided to look for a little outing for us. We decided to take a trip in town and see the buskers that gather every year for the Halifax International Buskers Festival.
Buskers — or street performers — from around the world have been gathering in Halifax since 1987. It’s been 15 years since Monique and I went to the festival — that was before we had kids — so we didn’t know what to expect. Neither one of us remembers much about the last time we were there, but we figured it would make a nice outing for Michael.
Among many others, there were acts from Australia, Portugal, Vancouver and a really good act from Halifax called Squid. They were a group of five guys — four playing percussion and one playing bagpipes. It was kind of like Stomp, if you have ever seen that. They were really, really good.
We walked the one-kilometer stretch, watching jugglers with flaming torches, machetes and various other dangerous items. One guy had himself wrapped in Saran Wrap for about 10 minutes and then managed to escape. Silly, but still it was funny.
Overall it was a good night. We all had a lot of fun.
