Feel the Heat

I picked up some hand warmers today. Working on set the last week has been a pretty cold experience. Even though it's spring, the temperature has dropped down to 5° C. With the ice on the ground and being near a body of water it feels colder.



Dave, the other matchmover on the show, brought in some heating devices that came with his coat. He gave me one to keep in my pocket to warm my right hand (the one I use for taking notes) while we were on set. It helped a lot. So I bought two today and a bunch of fuel sticks (charcoal) for future use.

The nice thing about this particular heating device is that ash is the only product left when it's done. Unlike the chemical versions like hot shots that leave behind unwanted chemical crap. The only drawback is that you have to have a lighter to be able to start the charcoal going.



I need something for my boots the steel in the steel toe is making my feet freeze.

Back to the old hood

Awesome sign on Queen Street and Portland

Today's day off had me wandering around queen street and eventually making my way over to the old apartment to pick up my bike. Unfortunately there's a lock on the bike and the key is buried in some random box.

Today's goal was to help (or more accurately watch) Chris break the lock so I could wheel the bike home. In the end the lock didn't break and I'd have to make a second trip back. On the plus side I got to see the old neighbourhood again.


Ever wonder what's on the other side of the Queen street fence?


Heather and Jeff


Felix "I'm cute and rolling around. Pet me."


Carl goes to pet Felix


Felix attacks.


Felix still attached to Carl.


Simon wants nothing to do with this.


Meanwhile on the other side of the house Pumpkin is oblivious to the attack taking place and simon sneaking away behind him.


Simon runs for the hills to avoid being implicated.

First day of work

A cold wet College street

I woke up early to go to work today. It was raining. By the time I got out of the house it was 5am. The sun hadn't come up yet. For all intensive purposes it was still night. It was wet and cold and I was making my way over to the Sutton Place hotel at Bay and Wellesley or there abouts. It would be in front of a garbage bin that I would be picked up by Harrison (the visual effects coordinator) and driven out to Stouffville for my first day working on The Thing. I didn't forget what I was working on. It's not something, it's the Thing as in a movie like the John Carpenter's Thing from the 80s.


Parking Lot

There's an interesting thing about morning outings. Maybe it's the light, the lack of people, maybe the water washed all over the roads. Makes for some great photos. I didn't have a lot of time to soak up the surroundings (I realize that that was a bad pun) as I had to make my way across town.


The Timmy's across the street from the garbage bin

Pizza Time

Today's pizza

I arrived home early and made a pizza. Today's toppings included: mushrooms, purple onions, pepperoni, cheese, Prego spaghetti sauce, and asparagus.


Pizza crust

While the technique for making a pizza round still needs work, the pizza was quite tasty.

Rice Crispex Squares

Ingredients

• 4 cups Rice Krispies cereal
• 2 cups Crispex cereal
• 250 gram bag of mini marsh mallows
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1/4 cup of butter

Directions

1. melt butter in pot until liquid
2. add marsh mallows
3. add vanilla
4. stir marsh mallows until uniformly melted
5. add cereal, careful not to crush, by stirring into marsh mallow goo
6. turn off heat
7. pour mixture into glass tray
8. spread around so that it's even
9. let cool

Additional notes

You can pretty much use 6 cups of any type of cereal you want. Originally this recipe called for just Rice Krispies. Since I like Crispix I replaced two cups of the Rice Krispies with the Crispix.

Additonal additional notes
I was going for the sci-fi, X-files look with the above photo. The space age food container and lab like lighting. While the food may not look as appetizing with the dramatic sci-fi lighting, it is tasty. Especially just out of the pot. Trust me on this.

The Search for a Gretsch

Yonge and Dundas (near the HMV superstore, Future Shop, Best Buy, and the Game shack)

Spent the day looking for a wireless guitar for rock band. Specifically the Gretsch model made during The Beatles rock band game launch. It's supposed to look like George Harrison's guitar.

A while ago, William and I saw the guitar at Toys R Us. It looked a lot better made than the equivalent Guitar Hero version. It was also a bit more money ($90 vs $60). When I see something that there's only one of I should really buy it at the time. In the long run it would have saved me this day to walking around.


Getting lunch in the depressing, cheaply designed, sparse, dundas square mall

I travelled to a few places looking for the guitar. Yonge and Dundas, Yonge and Eglington, Dufferin mall. None of the video game stores had it in stock for the Wii. Actually, there were no Rock Band guitars for the Wii of any model. Guitar Hero or Band Hero yes, Rock Band no.

I never got the guitar today and ended up settling on the purchase of a used copy of the Rock Band AC/DC track pack. It was only $5.


Dufferin mall Toy R Us, no guitar here either.


huh.

On the way home from Dufferin mall I saw a blue bear mascot for Boston Pizza. Weird.

Late night snack

Homemade Cinnibon

Made some cinnibons from one of those Pillsbury pre-made can things. While I love the smell of these things I find the icing way too sugary. I'll have to attempt to try to make these things from scratch one day (when I have more time).

Greta Constantine, two for two

FW 2010 Greta Constantine line

The Greta Constantine catwalk tonight was a success. At least to this photographer. The designers, Kirk and Stephen, still coming up with some great designs to wear. This is the second catwalk I've photographed of theirs and the second one I've been impressed with.

For more on the Greta Constantine line click here.

I have to give these guys props for doing their catwalk independent of Toronto Fashion week. Getting a nice venue and having good lighting isn't something that comes cheap. But perhaps not having any association with Toronto Fashion week is a good thing.

Generally only a handful of designers get press during fashion week. It's generally the same designers year after year. The newer designers get nothing in terms of media coverage. For a designer that's a lot of money to shell out for 15 minutes of runway time. Toronto Fashion week was late this year as well. Way after buyers would have bought anything for the fall/winter season.

Canadian Horror

Alan Gordon and Allan Price of Cannibal Girls

There was a screening of Cannibal Girls (1973) at the Bloor Theatre tonight. The two "surprise" guests were the two Allans from the movie. They played the first two victims.

The movie was pitched to me as a movie with Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin, a campy Canadian comedy directed by Ivan Reitman. I found out in the theatre that it was a horror movie that resembled Auntie Lee's Meat Pies... or vice versa since the Canadian movie was made 19 years earlier.

While I'm not really into the horror genre I did find the film entertaining. Probably had more to do with the people that I saw the movie with than the movie by itself.

Made to Measure

The Disto D8

I've been wanting to get one of these for a while. The last job where I needed to measure stuff I had to talk 5 meters through knee deep snow, battle the winds trying to use my trusty tape measure. Improvising by packing one end of the tape measure under a block of ice didn't help. The wind was too strong. Eventually I got a distance and it probably wasn't that accurate. I also permanently bent the metal tape thanks to it folding in on itself.

To measure the height of the camera which was about 20 feet up on a crane was another story. I used the shadows around and using similar triangles approximated how high the camera was. The shot was done quickly and the shadow moved. Didn't give me enough time to have accurate markers let alone take an accurate reading.

Enter the Disto. While they're handy, they're also expensive. It's a tough to justify if you're not using it every day. To be honest I'd rather buy another lens. Borrowing the device off someone else is possible if they're not using it, that is provided someone else has one.


What you get with the Disto D8

I bit the bullet so to speak and picked up the current model, the Disto D8. It fires a laser that slices through the air and is accurate over a 30 meter range by plus or minus one millimeter. Supposedly it can measure up to 650m if on a tripod.

It's cool. You just point the laser (watch people's eyes though) at what you want to measure the distance to and viola your measurement is displayed on the screen (in metric or imperial). "What was that you say? It's too sunny out and you can't see the little red dot of the laser?" No problem, there's a built in camera that can show you on the screen what you're pointing at!

If that's not geeky enough, there's some simple trig functions in the unit that allow for other measurements pretty easily. Like the height of that window way up on the fifth floor. Just zap the top of the window and the bottom of the window. Using the built in 360 angle locater and the distance it'll calculate the height for you. You can then transfer the data using the built in blue tooth option.

Crazy nerdy fun... and it works off two non-proprietary AA batteries!!