Category Archives: Hobbies

When my butt isn’t in this chair…

More Numbers

Hobbies

So I gets me a new camera. It’s pretty freaking sweet. You all know that.

And I goes to the Zombie Walk here in Toronto last weekend. I take a bazillion pictures and post some of them up to Flickr.

A couple are picked up by Flickr Blog and hosted on their main page for all the world to see.

My stats spike. Wow!

Look at that spike! In total, the entire population of my old home town clicked on my pics to see. Puffy chest!

Today I see over on BuzzFeed, a popular meme tracking site, my pics were posted as part of a Nerdy Zombie article. Okay that’s cool. Wait… no credit! Even with a Creative Commons Licensing agreement attached to my photos. I’m kind of miffed, but not overtly so. The internet is about sharing, and to police it would be madness. I just wish a link back or nod would have been nice.

Look at me. I’m a fucking numbers hog now.

Boba Felt

Hobbies

I have a career waiting for me if I ever leave the loving embrace of Graphic Design: T-shirt design!

While ordering my tea at my local Starbucks, the barista behind the cash notices my home made Boba Fett felt tee.

“OHMYGOD That is a-maz-ing!”

Other baristas stop what they’re doing and look over. “COOL!” “AWESOME!” etc.

“Where did you get it?” one asks

“I made it myself. I’m teaching myself to sew…”

I barely get the last bit out when I’m interrupted by “NO! WAY!!!”

“Can you make me one? How much do you charge?”

I consider this for a moment. Materials, time and profit factored in would probably jack the shirt up to about $40. If I wasn’t a greedy artist and dropped “time” and “profit” I could make one for about $17.

“A lot,” I respond. I don’t even want to get into the whole copyright thing.

Nice to know I could fall back on my skills, though.

Canada’s Next Top Model

Distractions, Hobbies

With DecalsFinger to throat dunking, attention starved career minded individuals? No! I’m talking removing plastic from flash, glue huffing and decal ripping fun! See, I’ve had this dang model sitting in the back of my closet for years and because we didn’t plan anything for May 2-4 weekend, it seemed like a good time to work on it.

The model came with about 20 pieces, shifting loosely inside the box. The instruction sheet was as helpful as a mute at a karaoke bar:

The year is 1997. Space travel has become routine. There is a regular exursion to Mars on the SS (Space Ship) Mars Liner class rocket…

Impossibly vapid assembly sheet here (PDF).

If the design looks familiar it’s because you’ve probably seen it on Uncle Walt’s desk (if you’re that old) as he waxed philosophically once a week about how great the future was going to be:

Tomorrowland, Disneyland

I’ve always loved this kind of futurama rocket design – the landing pads, the portals, the grace of travel through the harshest of climates, the hope for the future, etc. I bought the model in a dollar store long before I met SharkBoy, long before he implanted my Disney obsession (somehow starting up my love for Disney blanked out the ship from my weekly Disney TV memories) and didn’t know that there is a life sized version at Tomorrowland (at least I think it’s still there – it was when I took that picture!), so you can guess I went a bit wobbly kneed when I came around the corner and saw this staring up at me.

It’s a shame I never got around to making it.

With the weather and the lazy day attitude, it was as good as any day! Enjoy.

Of Cabbages and Kings

Distractions, Hobbies

I love my slow cooker. I have a fairly hefty sized one that I got in 1997 and it’s been like a good friend – a good friend who spends his entire day cooking for me as I slave away at work. I love coming home to a house that smells like I have an Italian woman chained to a stovetop forced to cook for me like she was a mail-order bride, eager to make me happy so she could kill me with cholesterol.

Last week I was asked to partake in a University of Toronto study of men who cook. The meaning of the study is much more involved (some sort of gender bender study) but I’ll leave it at that. Know that there is a research group at the Uni looking into men who enjoy cooking. I gladly said yes because, hey, look at me sideways on. I love to cook. I’m not incredibly super at it, but I love the planning and the execution and the enjoyment of eating. Obviously.

As part of this study I was asked to keep a diary of my cooking habits and so far, it’s been successful. While planning meals in advance of the week (and to up=play the diary, admittedly) I was digging down into the ice age era of my freezer and I discovered a pack of stewing beef. Perfect. One of my favorite dishes immortalized in this study: “Everything In The Fridge Stew”

Basically you start out with a base:

1/2 cubed beef or pork

1/3 cup flour

2 cups beef or veggie broth

2 medium sized potatoes, quartered

A carrot

2 celery stalks

Sliced onion

At least 1 cup of whatever veggies you have sitting around

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

Dollop of BBQ sauce

Cayenne pepper/dried basil/orageno

Toss the meat into the slow cooker. Add flour, salt and pepper. Stir well until the meat is coated. Add veggies. Add Broth. Add spices. Turn the damn thing on for minimum 6 hours. Go enjoy life.

Anyway. Yesterday morning I got to the part where you throw sit-around veggies in and I found some orange peppers and yellow string beans – nice stew foddder. Then things went south. I found a cabbage SharkBoy likes to get me to boil for a side dish sometimes (boil til soft, drain, add vinegar – yum – cheap ‘slaw!) so I thought I should add some. Chop chop chop, add add add, cook cook cook.

After a long day at work, it warmed my heart to knowing that I would throw open my apartment door and smell a rich beef stew. I love doing that to our neighbours – take that, Mr Noisy at 3am fuckers! That’s right, we’re eating beef! Ha!

I shoved my key into the lock and I yank the apartment door open! I inhale like a post-theatre student in his first Bounce commercial.

ACK!

I forgot that cabbage has a distinctive odour when it is cooked. Especially when left in a warm environment for over 10 hours. I had bothered my neighbours, alright. The food taunting had backfired on us – the apartment smelled like Betty White’s underwear after filming The Proposal.

Seriously it smelled like gym sock, fart and had a delicious aftersmell of cooked beef. I avoided the kitchen and walked into the office to find SharkBoy is on his computer, window open, hand over nose.

“Toronto smells today!” he muffles. He often complains on how Toronto smells when the wind blows off the lake across the sewage treatment plant.

“Uhm. That’s dinner,” I offer.

“WHAT!?”

I cautiously open the lid to the crock pot. The smell. I can only compare it to living with a dormitory of athletic guys during some higher education session. Without the sexy glances in the hallway to the showers. Or like durian left in the sun. I gingerly took a nibble…

…and it wasn’t half bad! In fact it was quite good, once you got past the smell. The cabbage tasted quite good!

Currently every window is open in the house. My interview with the Uni students will be conducted with used Bounce sheets taped to our noses.

WizardWorld

Celebs and Media, Gaming, Hobbies, Toronto

Fortressofsolitude, SharkBoy (check out the new site!) and I wandered around the stalls at WizardWorld comicon yesterday. Seriously, dudes, change the name. It sounds like a Harry Potter cash in.

Much smaller than the massive FanExpo in Aug, this comicon was more personal and less stressful. Although the stars were definitely Z-list (Numerous female wrestlers who would let you touch their g-strings, the guy who played The Gorn in the original Star Trek, Winston from Ghostbusters, etc.) the booths were well spaced and not so claustrophobic as the big Expo. Prices were through the spectrum ($30 for a toy… er… action figure?).

Still, the day was spent in good company and I did manage to get a Japanese Star Wars remix t-shirt AND meet up with Doug, who I interviewed a while back here.

Here are some pics! Please enjoy responsibly.

[nggallery id=17]

Halloween Fruition

Distractions, Hobbies, Personal Bits, Toronto
Raaar!

Raaar!

After all the work I put into that costume I have to say last night was worth the effort. I was mauled for pictures and had a great time posing with all the Japanese tourists (I’m generalizing – there were some Eastern Europeans too) . Well, except for the one drunk guy who grabbed my snout and hauled my face down. Thank god for SharkBoy who stopped me from ripping his head off. Let’s just say he’s going to be spitting fake fur out of his mouth and eyes for a few days. Other than that, the night was fun. The stilts held up and worked like a dream, except I should have rested more often. 3 hours seems to be the max and I was on them for just over 4. Yeah … blisters and aches this morning.

I’m really glad to see that costuming on Church Street is becoming more “serious” and thoughtful, like the Queen and the Palace Guard (with England’s national anthem coming out of his big furry hat), or the giant H1N1 virus, or the Chandelier Guy. I’m almost thinking I want to take next year off to just take pictures…

Heh… mmmmaybe not. The attention was addictive.

Here’s where I point out that SharkBoy’s costume was simplistic perfection: he got a lot of recognition but not as much photography mauling as I did. I think he did a fantastic job on his Where the Wild Things Are kid, Max. Here is is full picture set, but I’ve copied some for my blog below (clicko to embiggo). Enjoy!

Full Suit

Full Suit

I Have My Father's Eyes

I Have My Father's Eyes

Tyra Called. I Win!

Tyra Called. I Win!

"Hi! Are you paying too much in Car Insurance?!"
I love this guy! The one on the right.

I love this guy! The one on the right.

Simple Bike Message

Hobbies, You Stupid Dick

Cute simple message about bike safety via Gizmodo on a quiet Sunday.

I’m slightly disturbed by some of the comments left by the viewers:

As a cyclist who rides every day to work I say tough f*ing luck if you don’t like it. In downtown Denver I’m faster than all you twats stuck in traffic growing your fat asses. If the intersection is open I’m taking it. You want you’re (sic) road back? Give us real bike lanes or be prepared to ride behind me. Don’t worry, you’ll get to your red light on time. I don’t want you to think about me or act any different than if I were not there. I’m depending on your poor skills behind the wheel. I can see you texting, on the phone, fighting with your wife, changing the radio station, eating your fat ass burgers. I take full advantage of your lack of attention. As soon as people behind the wheel try to accommodate me, they suck even more. I don’t care if you hate me, if you want to hit me (you won’t), if I slow you down. Its my road too.

The rest of the ass hat comments run along these lines on both sides of the argument. It’s not a war, people.

Face/Off

Distractions, Hobbies

If you’ve been following Dead Robot Heavy Industries the last while you’ve probably seen my “Getting Ready for ‘Ween” pictures. I’m not about to reveal what I’m doing but know that in researching my costume, I’ve been led into the weirder bits of YouTube. Apparently in Japan it’s trendy for guys to don latex masks of their favorite Anime characters and wave at their web cams.

This meme would not be complete without some 180° turn about mind fucking:

And of course, when it hits North America’s shore, it’s just a pale imitation: