The Genius Toolbar

My favourite new function of iTunes, The Genius Toolbar

This article gave a great explanation, “Once you opt in to the service, which sends your music library and usage data to Apple anonymously according to the company, iTunes can generate a list of music in your library that sounds similar to any song in it, from which you can make a playlist. The Genius sidebar … performs essentially the same function, except that it draws recommendations from the iTunes music store. Those recommendations include similar songs, top albums by the artist, songs by the artist missing from your collection and iTunes Essentials collections that include the song.”

So I click on a song that I want to listen to, then generate a Genius playlist and I have an awesome mix of music that is just what I’m in the mood for. If nothing else it’s a slightly less random use of the randomizer.
L

We Are Stupid

Brad and I know we love Snow Patrol, have gone to their concert and loved it. They released a new album in October yet we didn't get it. I would remember occasionally and think, "Oh I'll get it later".

I've listened to the first song and half of the second and I'm sad that I've been missing this for so long.

Crack the shutters open wide
I want to bathe you in the light of day

And just watch you as the rays
Tangle up around your face and body

I could sit for hours
Finding new ways to be awed each minute

Cause the daylight seems to want you
Just as much as I want you

It's been minutes it's been days
It's been all I will remember

Even if the rest of the album is no good (unlikely) it's already a great new find. Good enough to beat out the Christmas music for a little while.
L

Following the Leader

Popular Items / Movies / Movements I never got into

1. Napoleon Dynamite – didn’t' ever see it
2. NKOTB's Comeback
3. Twilight – book and movie
4. Pirates of the Caribbean – the second was laughable, I didn't see the third
5. National Treasure - Causes much eye rolling
6. The Rocket Summer
7. The iPhone
8. Skinny leg jeans
9. Voting for anyone's baby – Vibe 98.5 Calgary's Cutest Baby Contest

Trends I Have Succumbed To

1. Blogging - though I've been doing it so long I think I started before it was trendy
2. Facebook - it took a long time but eventually I gave in
3. iPods
4. Gmail

I'm sure there's more I just can't think of any right now.

So I know, 3 posts in one day is a bit much but there's very little work to do and I'm feeling very opinionated.
L

Good Treat Gone Bad

So I'm starting to have misgivings about Starbucks… perhaps I should cut myself off.

I needed a little something to get myself through the morning. Something more than my usual steamed milk; I wanted something yummy, blended and with whipped cream on top.

After careful inspection of the menu board I made my selection, a Chocolaty-Chip Frappucchino listed in the Coffee-free section (they're really just cream and ice blended with flavoring).

It only took a sip or two before I suspected that it was not as coffee-free as advertised but I just couldn't be sure. I took a few more sips trying to ignore that after-taste and finally decided to just go ask the lady if she put coffee in my coffee-free beverage. She assured me she didn't so I headed back to my office, not totally convinced.

By the time I got back to my desk I was really unsure so I got a second opinion and had a co-worker taste it. We still couldn't decide so I took it to the website.

The "coffee-free" Chocolaty-Chip Frappucchino is made with mocha syrup.

It was sad to watch my $3.00 treat run down the drain but at least I only got half the calories.
L

Ice Cream Heaven

Okay, I know… I've been slacking lately but there just hasn't been anything blog worth.

For a couple weeks now Brad and I (okay so it's really mostly me) keep randomly suggesting that we make a trip to the Chocolate Bar but then it never really happens.

Well last night after dinner I again made the offhand remark that we should go, never actually expecting it to happen. Brad was serious though and jumped on my suggestion so we called the Anviks and it wasn't long before we were seated.

The Chocolate Bar is a small coffee shop on 17th Ave that sells nothing but desserts.
There was a slight hiccup in the ordering when there was no Carrot Cake or Belgium waffles but substitutions were made.

They make these sundaes… (what I'd been wanting every time I suggested)
They serve them in deep wine glasses and cover the top in real whipped cream, topped with a cherry and its ice cream heaven.

Mine was yummy with pecans and chocolate and caramel sauce, I highly recommend if you're craving something sweet. Go for the half order though, I can't imagine anyone eating a full order.
L

Deny Everything

I've been sick the last couple days, the kind of sick where you do nothing but lie on the couch and watch tv. The kind where you'd like to read a book but you're too exhausted to hold your arms up. So I watched tv. One of the shows I caught is new this season, Fringe. A little gross to begin with as people's faces sort of melt off but it's definitely the new X-files and I think I love it.

If you ever loved X-files you should check it out.
L

The Truth is Out There

Brad and I have a love of tv box sets, we like that they can be either a short 40 minute time filler or 3 days of bingeing and so we've watched our fair share. To name a few; Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Veronica Mars, Grey's Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother.

After seeing promos for the new X-files movie I remembered that I used to love that show and there are also tons of episodes I haven't seen so we've started making our way through. We just started season 2 and there are a few things that have become apparant.

• X-files is old… just check out Scully's hair and shoulder pads for verification
• The writing wasn't actually that great in the beginning, explains why it got such poor rating in the earlier seasons
• Some episodes are down right silly
• Some episodes are still really creepy
• TV has come a long way in the last 15 years
• It's a show that, 15 years later still keeps us hooked

L

Jimmy Reprise

Brad and I got to see Jimmy Eat World in concert in October so we were suprised, but super excited when they came back to town so soon. They played at Flames Central which was a place neither Brad and I had ever been but it turned out to be a really great venue. There's lots of standing room on the main level but we were lucky to get a seat on a padded booth on the 1st level, we had a great view of the stage but got to be comfy and seated the whole time.

The concert was incredible. The music was just as good as expected and you could tell the band was having a great time, they even declared it the best night on the tour.

Go see them if you get a chance, it's definitely worth the cash.



They played with a band called The Midway State, they weren't great in concert but show some potential, they have a new album coming out that might be great.

L

Satisfied

Dear Red Lobster:

My husband and I have not been frequent visitors of your restaurant but in the recent past we’ve visited your Calgary NE location twice.

Both times we were so impressed with the service we received.

The first visit we were in a bit of a hurry so we let our server know this and she did everything she could to accommodate us. She brought our salad and appetizer together and our meal followed shortly after, the food came so quick and we had plenty of time to eat and enjoy the delicious food. She (we think maybe her name was Shauna) seemed to make a real effort to get us fed and out on our timetable.

Today we made a repeat visit. Trudy was especially friendly and made some great suggestions, including reviews from other customers on the specials. We informed her that we we’re on a carb free diet so she offered to take out the croutons from our salad. She showed a genuine interest in our satisfaction and since it wasn’t busy even took a few minutes to chat with us.

In a city like Calgary where there is a shortage of workers you often find employees who don’t care about the work they do, it was refreshing to have such wonderful service twice in a row. We’ll definitely be visiting the same location again.

Brad and Laura Wiebe

Tracking

You know what I love? What makes me so excited that I obsessively check the website looking for change... When you can track your FedEx packages. What a brilliant idea.

You order something online and you're excited for it to come and then you get to watch as it travels across the country. And better yet one day you click and it tells you it's arrived in Calgary! That will be a few days off I'm sure but I'm excited for my estimated delivery date of June 11.

My package has left Orem and is in Salt Lake right now.
I look forward to updates.
L

Edmonton, the Undiscovered City

Coming from southern Alberta I have strictly held up to the loathing that is required of Edmonton. I tolerate it on the occasional visit because let's be honest, it's a pretty wonderful mall but that's about as deep as I've ever delved into the city.

This weekend we attended a wedding up there and I have to say my opinion may be slightly altered. We stayed at the downtown Marriott hotel and besides the exorbitant price for parking it was very lovely. The room was itty bitty but cozy and that king size bed sure was comfy. The restaurant we wanted to eat lunch at happened to be a short drive away and we enjoyed above average service. The wedding location was just as close as was Long and McQuade which was perfect when a last minute rental was needed (we were in charge of sound). I'd never been downtown and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Playing catch in the sun was the perfect addition to an already wonderful day.

I'm not declaring my love for Edmonton or starting to pack up the apartment but it made for a great trip that I'd be happy to repeat.
L

Grande

A Grande Steamed Milk with Cinnamon Dulce Syrup

My new discovery and the only thing interesting about this morning. And don't forget the insightful words of wisdom taken from the back of the cup.

The Way I See It #283
The most important thing in life is to stop saying "I wish" and start saying "I will." Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.
L

* After some initial concern over my coffee consumption I've changed to word latte to be less confusing. Rest assured, it's nothing but steamed milk and syrup. Sounds much less gourmet when you put it that way eh?

Awesome

Brad and I watched this new tv show the other date, The Sarah Connor Chronicles and it’s a show based on the old Terminator movies. We were pretty skeptical about the show to begin with but it actually wasn’t that bad. Now I’m not saying this is groundbreaking television but it was mildly entertaining.

Through the course of the episode it came to light that Brad has never seen any of the original Terminator movies. This is just beyond acceptable, they’re each such gems. So a Terminator viewing party was organized.

Ideally it would have involved all three movies being watched in one night but we’ve been married a little too long for that so we only made it through the first. It was every bit as great as I’d remembered and we're eagerly anticipating 2 and 3.

Favorites
“I came across time for you Sarah. I love you; I always have”

H-K’s = Hunter-Killers

The amount of lines Arnold doesn’t have... they really made him say as little as possible.

Arnold’s looking in the mirror about to fix his busted up eye. He pulls out the eye (super gross) and the camera pans to show us what’s left. He has a robotic red eye and he’s obviously not Arnold anymore but a robot they made up for this scene in the movie, it’s ridiculously fake.

Linda Hamilton’s hair

Watch this movie, you won't be disappointed.
L

Not to Tall Anymore

Brad and I had this super crappy shower head. Brad had no problems with it but me being quite a bit taller did not appreciate that the water hit me at chest level and to rinse my hair I had to crouch a little. Over time I’d gotten used to this shower head and almost didn’t notice it. And then we went down to Utah for Christmas. We stayed in hotels for 5 nights and I so enjoyed the showers I took! No crouching or leaning or trying to make myself fit under a very short shower head.

I’d finally had enough so last night we made the trek to Canadian Tire where we had a gift card from the wedding and picked out a really nice Waterpik shower head. It’s on an arm so it raised up a couple inches, not one of those removable ones with the cord. I didn’t want one of those.

This thing is incredible! It’s like the most pleasant shower of warm rain you can imagine. The pressure is great and I actually fit underneath it! We waited so long because I didn’t want to fork out them money, I’m so glad we remembered that gift card! It’s changed showering as I know it.
L

Love at First Listen

This new Relient K Christmas Album is easily the best part of this Monday; from the first note it was love.

If you need a pick me up or just love some good music, check it out.
L

Men on a Mission

The 2008 Men on a Mission calendar features twelve handsome returned Mormon missionaries from across the United States who, for the first time ever, have dared to pose bare-chested in a steamy national calendar.

Usually seen riding their bicycles and preaching door-to-door, these hunky young men of faith explode with sexuality on each calendar page. Hand-selected for their striking appearances and powerful spiritual commitment, the "devout dozen" are stepping away from the Mormon traditions of modest dress, and "baring their testimony" to demonstrate that they can have strong faith and be proud of who they are, both with a sense of individualism and a sense of humor.

The general public is largely unaware of the selflessness and
sacrifice of these missionaries. They have helped the poor, fed the hungry, built schools and homes, and provided service to many people in need. Theirs are stories that deserve to be told.

While the fact that twelve young returned missionaries are posing shirtless will certainly raise eyebrows, it may also help to sort out some common misconceptions of Mormons by celebrating the beautiful bodies, great looks and amazing stories of service of these deeply spiritual men. Intended to be a light-hearted spin on a social taboo, the Men on a Mission calendar is a tongue-in-cheek celebration of the selfless servitude of missionaries.

Donations to Worthy Causes

The Men on a Mission calendar will benefit a variety of worthy causes.
Each of the twelve missionaries will have the opportunity to donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the calendar to a cause in the area he served. Some of the charities supported will include Care For Life, Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity.

The Italicized portions are the ones that struck me as especially ridiculous.
Any thoughts?
L

Jimmy Eat World

I'm sure you've all been waiting to hear about the concert so here goes.

I really love Jimmy Eat World, I mean really love them, so when I heard they were coming to Calgary I was excited and bought tickets as soon as they were available.

On the night of the concert we met up with Dave and Naomi and heard on the radio that the concert was delayed for an hour. We were glad we heard about it before we got there so we didn't have to wait around for longer.

The opener was a group called Maritime. They were not good but we put up with them, waiting for Jimmy.

I'm sad to say that the concert ended up being dissapointing. Don't get me wrong, the music was incredible, the sound was probably the best I've ever heard at a concert and the lighting was so good. But the band didn't interact with us at all. They came out, introduced their songs and then they were done. They came out and did an encore but had no energy at all.

After the concert the crowd went out to buy merchandise only to discover there wasn't any. Apparantly the band got held up at the border. That's why the concert was late, the merchandise never came and they were super bummed.

I'd be interested in seeing them again because I've heard good things about their concerts. Hopefully they come back.

I'm posting some pictures and videos, so enjoy!

Pink and Pink

I don't know what it is about these, but I LOVE them!

Pink M&M'a

Brilliant marketing
L

Doing my Civic Duty

At Brad’s encouragement we’re attempting to be well informed for the upcoming Mayoral election. To help I’ve investigated the candidates (those that had websites anyway). I didn’t want my time and effort to be wasted, so to help all you Calgarians here is some info on the candidates and my opinions about them. I will warn you, this is going to be a fairly long entry.

David Bertram – Doing what's right for Calgary
Additional Info:
– Accountant
– Really crappy web site

Dave Bronconnier – Leading with Passion and Purpose
Additional Info:
– Far more info than I was willing to write down but I know that I like him.

Elizabeth Fielding – People First
– A responsive unified city hall is the most important change I plan to bring to Calgary.
– “The issues are not what any Candidate wants them to be, but what the majority of Calgarians feel they are. That’s just a dumb sentence
– “Respect each other, respect ourselves, this can prevent arguments, change attitudes, move mountains or at least remove road blocks!!!”
– Feels strongly about the poor treatment of Seniors and is focusing on that.

Additional Info
– Doesn’t look even a little bit professional. Really should have a better picture on her website. Really terrible photos
– Got sick and used allopathic and alternative healing methods
– “She is planning for a Positive Approach, Progressive and Unified City Hall that will set the Pace World Wide for Innovative Municipal Government.” Fairly certain she didn’t write this sentence at all, it’s far too good compared to the rest of the site.
– Seems a bit over ambitious. States a couple times that she wants to make Calgary world leaders in certain aspects.
– Random use of capital letters bugs me

Al Foster – A Move Forward
– Calgary is a Great City with a Proud History of Honest Hard Working People and it's time we gave The City back to these people. Apparently the city has become so crime riddled that it’s been taken away from the honest people? That’s just silly.
– Basically he says that Bronconnier is crappy. He notes how taxes have increased and supposedly 69% of Calgarians don’t like Bronconnier and I guess it’s him and his friends that run the city.
– “It’s time we had an Accountable Leader not a Politician running this city”
– “It's Time to FOSTER some New Ideas in City Hall” Heh heh heh, clever
– “A Vote for Foster is a Vote for Yourself a Vote for the Future”

Additional Info
– Grouchy Looking. Would look much more approachable if he shaved his beard
– He’s 55, been married for 34 years and has 2 sons
– Until he retired he worked at a pipe manufacturing plants doing inspections. He supervised and trained something like 133 people.
– Ran for Mayor in 2001 and 2004
– “Al believes in the health, welfare and safety of all Calgarian's and again if elected is pledging 25% of his salary to local charities and community programs.” Very cool
– Thinks the Tusina Nations dispute would have been solved if Dave hadn’t bullied them
– Doesn’t think we should be paying for Highway 22x improvements, it’s a provincial road
– I guess Dave is arrogant and has poor negotiation skills

Harry Heck – We can...
– Focuses on the standard issues. Taxes, Transportation, homelessness, all the basics.
– Has a lot of great ideas but doesn’t mention how he plans on following through.

Additional Info
– Wow, he’s the same age as me
– Marketing Consultant, Real Estate Agent (basically a bunch of random jobs)
– Seems really honest. Isn’t afraid to show people his failures and how they’ve made him better. Seems a little young to be mayor though

Sandy Jenkins - Expect More, Calgary
– Build LRT Subway Downtown – Would cost $600MM
– Open up the Taxi Commission, get cabs on the street
– Discontinue Market Value Assessments after 25 years of ownership
– Legalize all Secondary Suites
– Move West leg of LRT to Mount Royal College
– Campaign Finance Reform

Additional Info
– I expected Sandy to be a girl
– Has a blog, I appreciate that
– Looks like a good candidate

Jonathan (JJ) Sunstrum – ABC, A Better Calgary
– He had a link on smoking so I got excited thinking maybe he’d want to really get rid of it but he’s just saying there should be ash trays to avoid cigarette butt trash.
– The graffiti in this town “is really lame, and you know who you are”, sounded like he was 17.

Additional Info
– Also has a blog
– Uses a lot of really crappy quality video to tell about his issues. It’s hard to hear what he’s saying over the loud wind.
– His site was a pain to use so I didn’t actually read about all of the issues he’s addressing, it took to long. They’re all on their own page, with their own crappy video.
– Site quit on me and I didn’t care enough to restart it.

Jeremy Zhao (JZ) – Didn’t have a campaign theme
– Taxation
– Environment
– Affordable Housing
– Transit
– Homelessness
– Infrastructure Maintenance (spelled wrong)
– Voter Apathy

Additional Info
– Very cool website
– Daily updated blog
– You can easily add him to your Face book account, yay! (there’s sarcasm there)
– Only 19
– “All streams of media decided Jeremy Zhao was not notable enough to be discussed. Therefore Jeremy has decided to re-announce his intentions to run again. I am very excited to re-announce my plans to run again,¨ says Jeremy. Failure in getting a good head start has forced Jeremy to look for other methods of spreading his campaign, including Facebook and YouTube.” A little sad

There was one more candidate, Alnoor Kassam. His website wasn't listed on the City of Calgary page so I didn't look him up until just now. He has a very nice website but I've already made up my mind about who I'm voting for so I didn't feel like cutting and pasting. If you want to check out Alnoor is website is here.

Happy voting!
L

Love Love Love

I'm ridiculously in love with my new purchase.

I've been looking for a new set of sheets since we got married. I want purple ones to match some pillows I made from fabric used at our wedding. So far I've had zero luck finding these sheets, I didn't reazlie it's be so difficult.

So it's become habit that as we walk through a store that sells sheets we check them out, hoping for some purple ones. The other day we're walking through Walmart and go through the sheet aisle... and then I see them. They're not purple at all, not even remotely, this picture doesn't do them justice... pink, paisly. They're hip granny sheets and I love them.

They make me giggle every time I see them! As an added bonus they were super cheap (although not the greatest quality).

Apparantly when I picked them up to buy them Brad though, "Is she kidding?" I wasn't kidding, and my joy at them has yet to decrease.

L