Darryl is sick

Brian Smith supervises Darryl working on a Flash Christmas card

After watching a movie called "The Secret" or would it be considered a documentary, something in between a self help, belief system, way at looking at the universe video? Anyhoo, after watching the video at Emmanuel's place I walked by Darryl's office. Emmanuel's apartment and Darryl's office are on the same floor of the same building.

I figured I'd knock. It was pretty late and since it's an office it wasn't like I'd wake anyone up. That was my first thought. I suppose it's been known that Darryl has fallen asleep in front of the keyboard from time to time. So okay maybe I would wake someone up. I knocked anyway.

Footsteps walked toward the door and the door opened. It was Darryl. As it turned out he was awake and working on a flash animated Christmas card for Brian "You and Media" Smith. I spent some time talking to Darryl after Brian had left. Darryl looked like he was on the verge of death and sounded worse. Thinking I might catch whatever illness he was infected with I decided to go home.

For those that haven't seen the earlier Christmas flash animation you can check it out here.

Temp Work at Monster

"Hey, You're not Roger!"

Wandered past Monster Records today (yes, that is Marc in the BG). Stuck my head in to say "Hi" to the owner. Only it wasn't the owner. It was Adeem (aka the Mango kid). The picture above was taken before tremendous amounts of partying with dancing girls and copious amounts of alcohol ingestion.

Actually, nothing happened after the photo was taken. I just left. Roger if you're reading this, did I at least have you going for a second? No, I guess not. To the other blog readers. Some days are just not very interesting or at the very least low on the excitement quotient, yes I know it's hard to believe with someone as thrill seeking as myself. But it's true not all days are action packed, unless of course you're the type that stays indoors lying under your bed. I suppose then, anything other than the attacking dust bunny seems action packed.

Al's Diner

Owner Al, in front of the new diner.

After leaving a surprise birthday party, the girl and I visited Al's new diner. Located on Adelaide and Portland the Sadie's Diner had it's opening party tonight. The place was packed. Some recognizable faces, some new ones. We, the girl and I ended up sitting in a corner in the back facing faces in a rather large mirror while taking pictures. For those that haven't actualy tried taking apicture of yourself with a camera with no video display, it's quite the challenge. We must have tried taking at least 10 or 12 pictures, sorry let me rephrase that, it took me 10 or 12 to even the the camera centered on us without being part of the lens flare from the flash. The girl took two and managed to get us on the second try. hmmm.

A thing that I saw that I found pretty impressive was the wall o Pez dispensers. I suppose that would be a good reason to collect anything, it makes for good stuff to look at while in a restaurant or theme park. The Pez dispensers probably date back to the 70s, in Al's collection at least, they don't have the new fatter bases so they don't tip over as easily.


Leah with Al's family.

The girl was starting to fade due to an empty stomach, so after saying our good-byes we left the diner and ended up at a thai food place. Now that I think about it, it was kind of weird leaving one food place for another. I don't even remember if the diner was even serving food.

For more info you can check out the official myspace page
http://www.myspace.com/sadiesdiner

Health and Art

From the refrigerator at Olga's Health food store.

It was really cold today. I found myself walking up to a health food store to see if I could be any assistance to the owner in helping her set up a website. Ingrid, of GAT had told me about Olga and her need to have a presence on the web.

To set the record straight, I am not a web person, nor do I wish to be. Back in the day I thought making your own web site was cool but also very limited. A lot has changed since the early 90s and web programming is much more interesting and media rich. Perhaps one day I might start playing around for the sake of having a hobby but for now no.

That said I still try to help out the people not in the know. Olga, the owner of the food store needed some web pointers. Types of web pages out there, what hosts to use, what hosts are, that sort of thing. For the exchange in info I was given some tiny packs of Stevia to try out.

Stevia is a natural sweetener to replace sugar. It's been banned in the US for use in manufacturing products as "it hasn't been tested long enough". The real reason behind the banning of stevia is more likely that it's a plant and cannot be patented like products such as Aspartame. Despite the "not enough testing" in the States, stevia has been used in Japan and South America for over 80 years. For more information on stevia and aspartame check out the aspartame (nutra sweet) toxicity info center.

Later on in the evening, off to the art gallery. Tonight's work featured a photographer. The photos contained trees and a blue element to them for the most part. It was like looking out a bunch of windows into a forest. Well that was my impression. The main image had a wooden shack surrounded by trees (you might be able to make it out in the following picture, on the right).


...to the Art Gallery With Emmanuel in his suave new coat

Seeing photographs larger than 4x6 is a nice change. There are details that pop out that would be normally to small to see. Seeing these large images was inspiring. I'll have to try thinking up some kind of theme and doing a show.

The Stem

At the Stem

The highlight of the day was to meet up with Emmanuel to eat at the Stem. As stated in a previous blog entry, the Stem is an old style restaurant that serves greasy spoon type comfort food. It's also a place for Emmanuel and I to sit around brain storming ideas on work, life, women and the universe in general.

Today's discussion had a guest speaker, of whom I can't remember his name but was a sound engineer who happened to be eating in the booth next to us. After sliding over and showing some picture of a mountain (I think it was Everest) on his cell phone he proceeded to talk about some new, up and coming music talent that he referred to as the new Van Morrison.

Other than that I really don't remember much of that day other than the fact that I noticed a lot of construction happening along Queen street. Buildings being torn down, buildings going up.

Habitat Lounge

Feeling better at Swatow

The night was spent at Andrew's party, at least for the most part. The girl and I had popped in to say hello, see my photos on display, talk to people we knew, then we went off down the street to grab some jerk chicken at Albert's. We were both famished.

The owner, or maybe cook... we'll just refer to him as the operator on duty that night, gushed as the girl praised the jerk chicken. She told the operator that she had dragged me there and that it was the second night this week that she had gone to Albert's to order it. Perhaps it was the nice comments made or maybe because she seemed to be glowing, the cook commented on her radiance that made her blush a bit, whatever it was it was some of the best food I've ever eaten at Albert's.

It would be an easy thing to say that it was the company of this girl. This goes with my theory of going to Paris, France. It's known for romantic get aways, being with a lover, seeing the Eiffel Tower, and all the other great images from that city. The only thing is when you go to Paris it really stinks, I mean it smells like garbage. That said, if you're with someone that means that much to you I suppose the memories of the stench just goes away and is replaced by just being with that person. Paris becomes that place for happy romantic thoughts again.

That said the girl being around had nothing to do with the food tasting great. As far as the food goes it was tastier than I remembered during previous visits. It could have been that I was just hungry. I'm pretty sure it was the food though. As for the girl, I felt pretty fortunate to have her as company. It's possible that she might have influenced the cook with her positive comments. He may have taken extra special care and attention when preparing the food and serving us.

Morale: Good comments equals good food, good service. Bad comments equals pee in your drink.

The only place to sit was at a counter in front of the main window looking outside but I guess because it was late there weren't that many customers around. For all I knew it seemed like we were the only two there. It was nice.

After inhaling the food the girl was tired and decided it was time to go home. I walked her to the subway with the intention of going home as well. It wasn't until I got off the train that I realized I had promised I'd help clean up. I doubled back to the Habitat Lounge.

By the time I arrived people were leaving in droves. It was about 11pm and since it was a school night I guess the exodus was understandable. Darryl had found that his bicycle was stolen. He had parked it across the street from the restaurant.

Andrew and Josie invited us to go to Swatow for some soup, to eat, and to cheer Darryl up. I felt pretty full from eating at Albert's but decided to tag along for the company.

Errands and the Eyeball

Roger shows his laptop with an image of Monster Records visitor Scott Thompson (Kids in the Hall)

I ended up wandering downtown today to pick up some stuff I left at Monster Records. A tube of super white paper to be exact. It was originally brought to Monster Records to shoot some head/torso shots sporting the new Monster Record T-shirts. The shoot died along with the model agency that took forever to get back to me and give me a reasonable quote.

I had to contact them three times to get a final quote. The quote got bigger with each phone call until the cost of the model for eight hours was just over $2500.00 not including additional service fees for distribution. To top it off we would only be allowed to use the pictures that I shot for a year before incurring additional fees. I suppose I would have been more pleasant had I heard this quote during the time I contacted them. Instead I got some vague not even ball park figure.

After the visit at Monster Records I walked over to Andrew's place to, well at least I thought, get some glue stick for a board I was going to work on for his party. Since he had won the Gold award at the Design Exchange he decided to celebrate by throwing a party at the Habitat Lounge. My job was to create a board containing my photos of the jumpsuits he had designed.

I got the wires of communication crossed as he thought I was going to bring all the stuff, so it could be assembled, to his place. Whoops. I took some notes and the glue stick and eventually left.


Gudrun sticks out her tongue.

Across the street I went to visit Gudrun. Her right eye, pupil, was larger than the left one. I asked if it was hockey related but it was something else. After catching up and taking a few pictures using her weird colored ceiling light I left for home.

Get that printer working

Chris and Kyoko work out the portable printer

While visiting Chris and Kyoko's I volunteered for my brain to be picked. Helping out with computer/camera gear seems to be my speciality. The free meal is an added bonus. You get to help out friends and did I mention the free meal?

Bill's Party

Dance the night away

Bill's studio party is a good chance to meet new people and dance if so inclined. It was one of those nights where a bunch of people you thought might show didn't show up or at least didn't show up as early as you did. It's actually a good thing in that it forced me to meet new people. I suppose "forced" is not really the word I was looking for... "encouraged" is better. After a bit of mingling I realized I had actually met a number of these people at the last Bill party I attended, maybe a year ago.

It's easy to stay around the food area when you're at parties with people you don't know. "Hello potato chip bowl." I managed to veer away from the food consumption until I was offered a margarita. Holy crap! The alcohol content was high in that small drink that fit into a dixie cup. I started getting a buzz by the time I finished the thing.

I wobbled over to the food table when I stuffed myself with some snack that resembled "Bits and Bites". It was there that some blonde woman started rubbing up against me asking if I had seen some guy who's name I can't remember. Actually I think she was a bit tipsy as well. She wasn't rubbing against me but using me as a stationary object to give herself some stability. I suppose the slurred speech was a give away.

I managed to pass her on to a guy that was interested in her and retreat into a dark corner on the other side of the table was stratigically keeping myself next to the pretzel bowl. My pretzel barricade didn't last long as I bumped into a couple of art people I knew.

Or rather I had bumped into at various other events. I can't remember their names just the faces. They sort of have that look like they don't belong in any of the places I've seen them at. Kind of like librarians at a kids birthday party in a McDonald land playroom. Something about their lack of energy seemed to make them stand out. It wasn't like they were sleeping while standing. When they moved or interacted with me it seemed like they were consciously trying to use the least amount of energy to do so. What added to the oddness was that they would both move at the same time like their brains were attached via some invisible link. They would also stop moving at the same time. Odd, really odd.

During the whole night I thought about "the girl" and wondered if she would have a good time if she'd shown up.

Keep an Open Mind

Actual snow on the ground

Early this morning I made my way up to Don Mills and Lawrence via TTC (bus) then a short walk across some pretty slippery pavement to the Overland school of Learning. The purpose? To shoot a class on intuition or more specifically the instructor teaching the class on intuition. Kate Opashinov a very gifted, inspiring instructor who can adjust her course outline to match each of the individual students requests and needs at a moments notice uses her humour and energetic personality to keep the class from getting glassy eyed. Her ability to keep this up for 6 hours (10am-4:30 with a half hour break) is incredible.


The school, 55 Overland

So what is a class on intuition all about you ask? Have you ever have a "gut" feeling about something? A light bulb go off or your spider sense alert you for no apparent or logical reason? Perhaps something about a person that you liked or disliked even before talking to them? Maybe you forgot your keys somewhere and for some reason you thought to look in the freezer? Maybe you're taking on a new client and something is giving you the heebie jeebie's but you can't put your finger on it. Maybe there's something that makes you decide to take a different route to work. These are all examples of intuition.

The class begins with Kate introducing what intuition is. The students are then prepped into a relaxed state before diving with both feet first into actual exercises. Some of the exercises are done with all the students as a whole group and some where the students are separated into pairs. In both cases you as an individual get to interact and participate using the skills you have.


Katherine Opashinov

In traditional schooling we are taught based on physical, tactile, and things that we can see or measure. Nothing really explains things like intuition. Some people may have good intuition and some may have bad intuition but there aren't a lot of ways to be taught other than the school of hard knocks. Kate's class is great in that it's actually okay to make wrong guesses. She doesn't swoop in a yell at you saying "you suck". That would be like yelling at a baby learning to walk. "What he didn't walk on the first try? Get him a wheelchair cause he'll never learn.". Sometimes we may get the right thought into our head but for some reason our brain decides that it's not practical. Maybe based on past experiences, or maybe because we get distracted by something else.

Among some of the exercises while in pairs, one person is designated to emote (person A) while the other performs the duties of a receiver (person B). For example, Person A will concentrate on a feeling (ie. feeling warm, prickly, cold, wet, mad) meanwhile person B will try to guess what person A is feeling. For this exercise I was put into the emoter part and a woman in the chair next to me was the receiver. It was kind of odd to concentrate on a single feeling. How often do I do this with the mindset to send this message to someone else? Maybe when I'm trying to get the girl to say "yes" but that's more trying to brainwash than to actually just have her repeat a thought in my head. While doing the exercise I couldn't help but put my fingers to my temples as if it actually assisted in sending out my thoughts more. Sort of like the amazing Raveen or a magician trying to think of the card you picked. A bit theatrical but whatever. The receiver when asked thought I was thinking of being wrapped in a warm blanket made of valour. She put emphasis on the texture of the blanket which I was trying to picture in my mind.

Her answer freaked me out a bit as I was indeed thinking about being warm and wrapped in a blanket, but a blanket of polar fleece. Maybe not exactly the same material but pretty close in terms of texture. There were other exercises where the role was reversed. We had to imagine ourselves somewhere. The woman concentrated and I my job was to figure out where she was. The first thing that popped into my mind, about 10 or 20 seconds after we officially started, was that she was on a tropical beach with water lapping toward her. To my surprise I was correct. To make sure it wasn't just pure luck I thought we should have another go. Go, Ten seconds, I thought of a place with rocks, rocky jagged large rocks. She told me she was on a mountain. Granted I could have said rock quarry but see could have thought of a bunch of others things with no rocks in the environment. Desert, north pole, ocean, even beach again to throw me off.

The odds of thinking the same thing are astronomical if we think there's just coincidence. The following exercise was a bit more unnerving. One of us had to concentrate on a past injury or current injury. I was partnered up with a different subject. As soon as we were told to start. I thought that the girl's whole left leg was bugging her, from her ankle to her hip. Then as an added flash had the impression something was wrong with her neck. Keep in mind that she was sitting in a chair. It wasn't like she was standing with a limp. As it turns out she had had an accident where her knee popped out of her joint and as a result required surgery to bolt her leg back together. This made her whole left leg feel sore including her hip. As for her neck, it turns out that she slept in the wrong position the night before and her neck had a kink in it.

When one considers the odds of about 85% of the class, the class being about 12 pairs, getting the "correct" answers one has to wonder if there is more to this than just luck. At one point while walking around the room Kate picked up that I was thinking Jello. How add it that?

For more information on Intuition and other courses Kate teaches check out her web site at www.katherineopashinov.com. She is also available for one on one sessions which are also described on her web site. If you end up taking a session and mention you found Kate through this site you won't get any discounts but maybe I'll get lunch. Work that Karma. :->