Have not been the same.

Aight. So the round up.

Got the new website launched at work. Done exclusively by yours truly. Yes it’s a mere blatant hack of a WordPress blog (well 3 actually), but at least give me credit for some decent hacking. I’ve purchased a CSS book, I just haven’t got past chapter one yet.

We also saw the release of my first completed book at the new gig, Miller Brittain: When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears. I thought it turned out really well and lots of folks – including the author – dig it as well, so that’s a relief as well as a cool thing. Giddy up.

I did manage to finally finish the tome that is Have Not Been the Same and if you visit the above mentioned site, you’ll see that segues nicely into one of our Fall titles. The overall conclusion after the read: I missed out on some good CanRock in it’s time, and though I’ll try to seek some of it out, I doubt it will be the same. I sort of feel like I was late to the party. Kind of like I did with the whole DC Hardcore thing. I went prog rock way too early, which brings me to…..

The new Rush album, Snakes and Arrows, which I finally got and it’s good. That’s all I’ll say. You either like these guys or you don’t, and nothing I say is going to change your mind, so you’re free to roam the record aisles as you wish, there’s no accounting for taste, I tried to help you out, but perhaps it’s true, ignorance is bliss.

I also picked up the new (well, new to ME, it came out last year) Sam Roberts record, Chemical City. Excellent as well. I highly suggest all my faithful readers in the States check him out.

On a related music note, my boy tDog and I have begun a cross-province musical exchange program whereby we send each other albums of interest from our respective vast musical libraries for the other’s perusal. It could be considered ‘cross-border’ as well, as he’s a true Canuk and I’m a Yankee. I will be trying to convince him that David Hasslehoff is not our most valuable music export, and he will attempt to demonstrate that, though excellent, Neil Young is not the only practicing musician to be born in Canada.

So far I sent him The Old 97’s, Too Far to Care and the Twilight Singers’ Powder Burns. He dug the 97’s, giving it a ‘6 out of 10’ and declaring it ‘backyard, bbq, toss the ball around music’. TheTwilight Singers he hated, stating only an overwhelming sense of shock and the instinct to call off the exchange project all together if I didn’t redeem myself with the next send. Whew. Tough room. Really, though, I’m still batting .500.

He sent me the White Stripes’ Get Behind Me Satan, which I thought was good, however not quite up to all the hype I’d heard about it. I gave it a 6.5 or a 7. Today he sent me Nick Drake’s Five Leaves Left, stating it was ‘without a doubt a 10. [He’d] give it a 14 if [he] could.” I had to agree that it was, indeed, that good, though a bit melancholy – but hey, ol Nick eventually offed himself, so….10? I dunno, I’m thinking 9, maybe 9.25. At this point I don’t think I can give it a 10 just to spite tDog. I mean, he dissed the Twilight Singers, that just don’t play.

On the family tip, Jr. still hasn’t shown his face yet, though, due date isn’t until June 14. Lyn’s ready for him to be out now though. She’s fed up. As I’ve mentioned before, ultrasounds have shown him to be a big boy and though we’ve decided on a name – Colin William – I’ve taken to calling him ‘Big Bubba’ or just ‘Bubba’. I think that’s sufficient and effective. Most folks can’t stand it, which pleases my twisted head even more.

In a weird freak of happenstance, my main man DT read my last post lamenting my lack of percussive instruments and noted that he’s had drums collecting dust in his attic for years now. It’s a crazy world man, someone outta sell tickets.

Weather is finally breaking and I hope to soon begin construction on the pump track. Julia started soloing on her new bigger bike without training wheels 2 days ago and is already pretty much going by herself, so I figure it’s only a matter of time before she’s busting table-topped x-up one-handers over the gap while giving the ‘metal horns’ to the camera, so I gotta get cooking. That reminds me, I gotta get going, it’s getting dark and I’ve got a bit of a covert op planned for up the road at a logging site…there’s a big 3 foot section of log about 26″ in diameter sitting out at the road that is just begging to go in the little ‘skills section’ I wanna get happening in the backyard…sssshhhhh. Pictures to come.

Owt.

:: update ::
Log acquired. Check.

-b