BNJMN

Four years ago, my vote in the municipal election would have come down to equal parts name recognition, what the polls said, and a quick read of the top issues for each candidate. Then the O-Train plan for cancelled, costing us $100 million in settlements and expenses. Then there was a bus strike, in which I often walked to school for 40 minutes in often sub -25C conditions . Then an idea for a random tunnel came down and was hailed as a billion times better than the first plan to extend the current train to the Airport, which is all of 5 minutes away anyway! Oh yeah, and our mayor was out fighting criminal charges. So I followed this one a little more closely. In 4 years time, the Web has changed dramatically. Candidates are tweeting and answering questions directly, are putting debates on YouTube, aggregating every article that mentions their name... It's become so much easier to see where everyone stands, and to hear others' opinions, and agree or disagree with them. I hones

Much has happened in the past month. I've been to two concerts, tried Geocaching, got an iPhone, cleaned my website, and got into following the municipal election. Concerts: Jason Mraz and Stars. Both were fantastic in their own way. I met Mr. A-Z (do people call him that? Shoulda asked), and fell in love with a few of his new songs, most notable What Mama Say. First concert at Scotiabank Place, to! Stars had fantastic lighting and a great crowd, and are really good live. Very impressed. iPhone: iPhone4. Is there more to say? It's perhaps the best device I've ever owned. Website: It was attacked somehow recently, and unwanted script ended up on every page. So I cleaned it out old school, and now there shouldn't be any malware warnings when people visit. Check it out: BenjaminWood.Net ! My blog, as part of the site, had also been flagged, so I hadn't updated it just because of that headache. Maybe I'll write more often now. Geocaching: One of the results of havi

I finally got a chance to see Mosaika! After a pretty rainy week, Prashanta, Susma, and I went on a clear, almost cold night.... and the hill was packed! That probably had to do with the night being so nice and it being the final weekend for the light and sound show projected onto the Parliament building. The show was good! I remember going down when I was younger and being bored by the imagery. I had seen the show a few years back and thought it was ok. This year's show was really something! While I didn't cry at any point like the producer had promised during various interviews, I thought the colours and imagery were crisp and beautiful, and some of the effects (ie bricks towards the end) were extremely clever. I also loved how the story was told, through various stories and thoughts of regular Canadians. It wasn't a narration, I wasn't being lectured to. The only thing that would have made the show better was if we had a full-on view of the canvas! We were kinda stuc

Last weekend, the Ottawa edition Metro had a cover wrap ad that said, "get your free glasses!" at ClearlyContacts.ca . My initial reaction to shopping for glasses online was wondering how it would even work. Glasses, I would expect, are something that you really need to try before buying. They're like jeans, strawberries, and puppies - something that requires some form of interaction before making a purchase. But free? How can you argue with free? I went to the site and chose one of the first frames I saw, not because they were amazing, but because I wasn't too keen on scrolling through pages upon pages of glasses. The ones I chose seemed to be for average male heads, though I could have checked the dimensions against mine. Again, too much work at that particular moment. I put in the prescription that I got back on January, but hadn't yet filled (my optometrist did give me the option of getting it filled), and clicked "next." Pupil distance required. Pup

A strange event occurred recently. The 24-hour sign at the local Metro was suddenly replaced with an hours of operation sign. 7AM to Midnight? That's much more like 17-hours a day than it is 24, a practice the grocer started a whopping 6 years ago, back in it's days when it was known as Loeb (see a photo taken some 4.5 years ago, when two friends and I had a sudden desire to make Banana Pancakes). I'd often wander in there at outrageous times during the night, forced to walk through the exit door with "DO NOT ENTER" stickers. Grocery shopping at 2:30 in the morning was probably the best time to do so. The strawberry yogurt bowls from the day before were marked down, leftover bits of baked goods offered together for next to nothing, and aisles were impossible to walk down as graveshift personnel blocked them with palettes of food, ready to be stocked. You rarely had to worry about any in-a-hurry soccer moms narrowly avoiding ramming into you with a cart filled with

Cooking. Cooking is so much fun! But what happens when you have 5 cooks? Hilarity. I'm sure it would be much more hilarity if it involved more than just pasta. We really have yet to move beyond pasta. Or stir frys. Fries? Movie night featured a very young Angelina Jolie in Hackers. I can see why so many people enjoy it - the costumes, people, funky cgi, floppy disks, and pay phones everywhere! It's very much a pre-Matrix cyberpunk flick. Unfortunately I've seen The Matrix. But I did love that whole pool bit. And the hackers uniting. In fact, don't kill me, but I would love to see a remake of this. Technology has changed so much in the last 15ish years... it could be pretty awesome! Or it might just give me a reason to enjoy the "original". Pictures: Making Macaroni and cheese (not Kraft Dinner-style, but I'm sure that would have been much more inexpensive).

I used to be a decent-sized gamer. Just searching my Flickr for game or Nintendo shows collection images, photos from gaming events, the President of Nintendo of America playing Wii, and a number of hardware-related pron shots from my Canon A70 days. There wasn't a week that went by when I would scribble some notes for an article or editorial for N-Philes (or should I say Nerd Mentality ? I'm still iffy on that name change). Lately, however, I've written more business plans than I have theories on the casual/core gamer war. I've read more book chapters (if not books) than bosses I've waggled my Wii Remote at. One day my mom (the avid reader in the family) and I were on a bus, me book in hand, and she proudly engaged with her Nintendo DSi XL. All I could think was, "when did this happen?" While my bank account has enjoyed my recent and supposed natural avoidance of EB (or are they all Gamestops yet? I don't even know...) and Best Buy, I miss that feel

I really like the iPod Touch. I've wanted one since the first hit the market, but held off up until a couple of weeks ago, when I thought I had lost my friend's sister's Nano that I've been using this year (which I later found in my pants pocket in the laundry). I bought it with the idea that, if I really did like the device, I would return it and get an iPhone 4 once my cell contract expires this September. Supposedly, it has a really nice screen, though my left-handedness might interfere with you know, calls. Interestingly, I find the iPod (or smart devices in general) much better e-social devices than the computer. Where have I been all this time? I'm on MSN, Facebook, Twitter, and all these social tools much more, and reading what other people update. But I really do need a camera and internet connectivity - hence iPhone upgrading... They better be readily available in 2 months. Or maybe I'll find some other smart phone between now and then. Movie Nights, Zi

Through the magic of Zip.ca , and the lovely art of procrastination, I have managed to watch a few movies. One line reviews: Star Wars: Clone Wars - Through production values kinda sucked, it was much better than those Episode I-II-III movies. Slumdog Millionaire - Very interesting storytelling, but not worth all the hype. Doomsday - The English made a Resident Evil movie, only incredibly gory and visceral and filled with plot "conveniences" - plus Doctor Bashir is the PM. Space Chimps - Sometimes it takes a non-Pixar movie to remind me why I love them sooo much. Beverly Hills Chihuahua - A surprisingly decent modern ripoff homage of Homeward Bound (which itself was a remake), which I preferred. I really like the idea of renting movies over the internet (Zip.ca is the Canadian Netflix) because it allows me to make a list of movies I say I want to see, and I'll actually eventually see them! So often I'll see trailers and decide to want to see a movie, just to not see

The buttons arrived! I forgot to take advantage of a promotion that Six Cent Press was running. Not only did they apply it, split the 50 free buttons between the two styles that I would have wanted. Very much appreciated! Also, I found a book that I made in grade 2. I just know you want to read it... Click the cover page below!

I decided today that the CFFN AGM needs some buttons for everyone. After some research on what's the best way to make 'em, I decided to go with SixCentPress . Their site is well designed and has a bunch of awesome pictures. Plus, their process is pretty straightforward. There were a couple of other places I found online, but neither had the style or gave me confidence like SCP did (a tip to companies out there... design a nice site if you want me to buy from you). I came up with three designs: Now I want to make buttons for everything! Before you know it, I'll start making round art and go into huge debts making horrendous amounts of buttons for every and any occasion. What I would really like to do is make actual pins, but you need a lot more lead time for that.

For the first time in what feels like ever, I haven't anything to do. Well, I have an interview to edit, a case study to complete, exam material to study, an article to write, presentations to prepare, a website to populate... but nothing that is absolutely required for today! Friday was the final school-related presentation. It went well! Above, Sarak is ready to sleep not too long after. Despite the slow start, it's going to be a huge week. But for some reason, all I want to do is buy books! I'm not sure what Malcolm Gladwell did to me, but I have a number of books in my Amazon checkout (where you can get Airmiles, so I discovered) and I do want to read them. But I have to finish Blink first. There are a few pictures I've rustled up from various memory cards. My American quarter set, which is nearing completion, some Disney frogs, perogies, a parking lot, and nap time.