Tired and Sore

I'm a bit tired and worn out from biking nearly 25 kilometers yesterday. I went out to the RealDecoy BBQ at Andrew Haydon Park near Bayshore, and it nearly killed me. My legs and behind were sore all over from biking out there, and I had trouble falling asleep last night from the pain in my legs. I had to take a couple of Motrin just to attempt to fall asleep. Needless to say, I was pretty dead tired this morning, and could have used some extra hours of shut eye.

But I did have fun at the event. I even won a $20 gift certificate to Best Buy, which is cool considering I usually never win anything in draws and raffles. It was a good, relaxing time with the coworkers, and while I can't say that I bonded even more closer with anyone, it was good to get out of the house, I guess.

I also have some cool news. My first short story in eons is about to be published in A New Spin, a Web zine put together by a high school acquaintance, DeeDee Sanderson. It's actually a piece I wrote maybe about a year and a half ago in Toronto, and has been sitting on the back burner for awhile. I got an e-mail from DeeDee today, and this is what she had to say about the story:

"I read your story, I liked it, it's kinda of twisted, as you probably know. The interesting thing is, is that the story is even better after a few days rattling in your head. (I read it a week ago). I really laughed hard at the 2nd or third paragraph. Howled."

That's probably the nicest thing I've ever heard an editor say anything about my work. Cool!

What's up with the new Blogspot design? I can't do a spell check on this post thanks to the new design. Boo. Hiss.

The National

So I went and saw the National last night at Bluesfest. They were very, very good. Well worth the $60 I spent on a ticket. They only played about an hour, and didn't play "Daughters of the Soho Riots" or "All the Wine" but I was generally happy with the show. I could have listened to the lead singer's baritone all night long.

I didn't really stick around for KISS. It was too much of a zoo, and I overheard one woman say upon entering the grounds that "This is like a carnival, but for adults." It was too much of a one for me. I sort of felt like I was back in Toronto with all the crowd of people. I saw KISS take to the stage, and the music immediately felt canned. I felt a little bit ripped off as well, as, if I didn't check the Bluesfest website beforehand, I would have missed that the National got moved back to 7:45 p.m. instead of 8 p.m., to make way for an extra half-hour or so of KISS. I don't know what people see in KISS -- I didn't really recognize the first four or so songs that they played, and it just felt like a mass influx of sheepies being lead to whatever the media feeds them. Is Ottawa this starved for attention whenever a major act comes to town? I wonder.

My First Day of Work

So, I'm finally home from my first day of work at Real Decoy (or RealDecoy, which I have to get used to spelling). It was a bit of an overwhelming experience, considering all the new faces and names I need to know. It was a pretty good experience, though. I spent much of the day researching case studies, which will be a new thing for me to write. I've never done them before. I've gotten a lot of help, though, from my PWAC colleagues, and the job should prove to be challenging and exciting. I'm feeling a bit wiped out at the moment from my first day on the job, granted. I guess this means no more watching The Price Is Right in the mornings. :-) I'm glad to be working again, though, and it seems like there's a lot of work for me to do over there at Real Decoy. Plus, I have a genuine respect for the people working there. So I guess we'll see how it goes in the long run, but right now I'm feeling quite content and satisfied. I can only hope the feeling lasts ... .

I had also written a bit about Broken Social Scene last night, but lost it in a version edit. Don't feel like typing it in again, so all I'll say is that the show was just OK.

Starting Work Tomorrow

Well, I guess that my six-month "vacation" is about to come to an end. I start work tomorrow as a Writing Practice Lead at Real Decoy tomorrow morning, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. A little elated? Yes. A little nervous? Yes. I honestly don't know what to expect, so I guess I'll just go in there tomorrow and wing it.

I'm going to go see Broken Social Scene play Bluesfest tonight for free. I'd gladly go pay to see them, but they're playing some Bluesfest in the Byward Market kind of deal. I have "Lover's Spit" kind of stuck in my head right now. I wonder how much they'll play from You Forgot It In People, and how much new stuff they're going to play. It's been nearly five years without a new album from them, save solo projects, so it should be an interesting show.

Another Popmatters Book Review

Hi all. Just a short post to let you know that I have another book review at Popmatters online. You can read it by clicking here.

The Move

Sorry for not being more active here lately. I just finished moving to Ottawa, and, for the most part, things went smoothly. Nothing really new to report there, and I don't want to get into a blow-by-blow account of how things went. I'm happy to see that my cat is finally warming up to the new place. She was one stressed out kitty when we did the move, meowing all the time.

I'm under a little bit of stress, though, as Rogers has bungled my e-mail account. I've been told to wait 24 hours in order to process things, but I wonder if that's really the problem or someone screwed up on Rogers' end. I'm tempted to think it's the latter. So I'm currently without my e-mail account. Grrr.

I'm also trying to get ahold of the folks at EI by phone to get my address changed in their records. You'd think that with so many people on EI, it'd be easier to reach them by phone. But no. I keep getting that same message to try my call again later. Maybe I'll finally reach them by Thursday at this rate. It's stupid. You'd think you'd be able to do this all by the Net, but no. It's a screwed up process.

I'm hungry. Maybe I should get something to eat.