2 July 2008, early morning
I like reading about getting things done and all of that task management junk. I find it interesting to see how people keep themselves organized. For all of my reading on the subject, I am still incredibly disorganized. I was using a moleskine day planner for a little while, which worked reasonably well when I would actually use it. When I bought my iPhone I switched to using iCal again. You may recall I was using TaskPaper for a little while. With no way to sync stuff to my phone — neatly — I stopped using it for a long while. The latest development version is really quite nice, so I might switch back. There are some tricks out there to integrate it with an online version, tasko, which makes the whole system more appealing. Really, I should just copy whatever it is that Shima does. I think a part of me likes setting up elaborate organizational systems more than actually using them. (Are you the same way? You might enjoy reading this: iPhone Task Management a Go-go)
[5] Life
26 June 2008, terribly early in the morning
When I met Shima she had long hair. And then it got longer. She wanted it longer still for the wedding. That out of the way, she decided it was time to chop it off. Now she has a bob and looks really cute.
[6] Life
19 June 2008, early morning
The wedding went well. It went really well. It was pretty much exactly how I wanted things to be: very casual. There was a wedding, and then there was a bunch of people spending an evening together. I didn’t want the wedding to be the main attraction. My friends were in saris, and they all looked quite lovely. The Persian girls did a knife dance. Shima and I fed each other honey. There was lots of photos taken. There was a team kata. We signed our marriage certificate on my dining room table, in the rush between the Hindu and Persian ceremonies. I hung out with Dave before the wedding, at my aunts house, while my cousin scrawled out the logistics of the ceremonies. I sat with Mahi in our living room late at night — I apparently missed a soul train. My uncle broke two coconuts, and did so like a pro. Shima’s dad read us poetry. I didn’t get to eat, but I did drink some scotch. Krishna’s friends did lots of hard work, and then drank all our beer — a fair trade. There were garlands that were swapped, and a thali that was tied — symbolically by me: my two aunts did the hard work. We traded rings, mine a battle to get on. It didn’t rain. Shima looked beautiful. My hair was too curly? It was a nice wedding. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Life
14 June 2008, terribly early in the morning
I was going to write something late last night, but Shima doesn’t like it when I type away on my keyboard. (This doesn’t stop me usually, because a part of me likes to wake her up when I get home late and she’s already sleeping.) We’re getting married in a few hours now. I had thought i’d be more nervous the closer this day approached, but no: I’m feeling just fine. Asking someone to marry you is one of those questions you should really only ask when you already know the answer. I’m sure there is a lesson to be learned with regards to follow through based on how I feel at this moment.
[5] Life
9 June 2008, early morning
I generally try and keep this site devoid of too much detail about my life. In part, this is because my life is really not some stranger on the Internet’s business. Also, my life is pretty boring as peoples’ lives go. I like to think of funkaoshi.com as an impersonal personal web site. Of course, my life is now closely tied to that of another person, and so it bleeds through in other places on the web. It’s good to make note of important events in your life. We had a party this past weekend with some of our friends. Next week, a bunch of those people will be replaced by a bunch of brown people, and we’ll have another party. And after that we’ll be married.
[8] Life
27 May 2008, terribly early in the morning
I have managed to cripple myself. My right shoulder is all sore—again—as I type this. I need a job that doesn’t involve sitting at a desk typing junk into a computer. I remember when I was a co-op at CI Funds, laughing at my boss who said slouching so much was a bad idea. Oh, how stupid I was. Children reading this: sit down properly when you use a computer; get up and walk around when you start to feel stiff; and for the love of god, exercise.
[3] Life
20 May 2008, terribly early in the morning
The air is brisk and cool. The sky is grey, overcast. I walk to work with a touque on, my hands in my pockets. You can tell winter is fast approaching. No wait. It’s May. Seriously Canada?
[5] Life
12 May 2008, early morning
I hop on the 191. It’s 8:45, so I ask the driver if he stops at Atwell, just to be safe. He replies, “yes.” I sit down and start reading my book. When I look up again the guy across from me looks to be hopping off the bus on the highway. I think it’s a bit strange, get back to reading my book, then look up again to realize I have no idea where we are. I get up to talk to the driver.
— Where are we? Do you stop at Atwell?
— Where do you want to go?
— Dixon and Atwell.
— We’re at Bellfield and Highway 27.
— Where is that? Where is Dixon and Atwell.
— It’s 5 minutes South. pause I missed the stop.
— OK. Well, I’ll get out here then. pause Thanks.
— Sorry.
And so I started walking South on Highway 27. Now, I wouldn’t have been too bothered about the whole affair had the driver bothered to announce that he’d missed the damn stop. Seriously, WTF TTC?
[4] Life
30 April 2008, terribly early in the morning
Shima and I sorted out wedding rings in the afternoon. She left for Karate, and I left for the Carlu. I was out with some of the Well.ca boys and girls yesterday night. Ali, Alex, and Chris were in town for Startup Camp North. They chose the event to launch Startup Index, a project they are working on along with the guys from Startup North. And I use the term ‘they’ loosely, since as far as I can tell, Chris does all the work. (Oh Snap!) I always feel a bit out of place when I go to events like this. At the Rails Pubnite, people always gave me this look of both disappointment and sympathy when I told them: a) I had a job b) writing C++ code c) for a company that hasn’t been a startup for a very long time. At this event, people assumed I worked at Well.ca, since that is who I was sitting with … and then I would correct them, and you could see that glimmer of disappointment. Of course, that didn’t last long, because Ali would inform them that I’m a Ruby guru, or a Rails master. I suppose that’s not a total lie, but it’s pretty close. That said, I’m going to have to start introducing myself as, “Ramanan: Ruby Master,” from now on. I think you just need to say stuff like that enough and it becomes true. Well.ca is the biggest online pharmacy in the world. Or it will be anyway.
[3] Life | Technology
19 April 2008, terribly early in the morning
Shima is destroying my ability to sleep in. I woke up at 8:30 today. It’s saturday. That’s just not right. I guess it’s time to be productive.
[3] Life
17 April 2008, terribly early in the morning
I had chocolate milk tea yesterday at the Ten Ren at Empress Walk. I think the tea I used to get at the Market Village Ten Ren were sweeter — it must be the brown cow — but this was still really good. Before yesterday, I can’t recall the last time I had bubble tea. I used to get bubble tea all the time. My life near the end of high school involved a lot of bubble tea (and lemon coke). My friends and I would go to Axia or Ten Ren several times a week — easily. Axia still exists, but when I walk past it now it’s lost all its charm. When we were in high school the girls who worked there were cute, and it was open late. Ten Ren at Market Village closed down a while back. When they stopped letting you smoke inside its business suffered a lot. It’s a shame really, that was the best bubble tea shop in the city. I think as the years pass the place gets more and more mythic in my mind. It makes me very nostalgic when I walk passed where it used to be in Market Village.
[1] Life
10 April 2008, terribly early in the morning
I used to make fun of Mezan all the time for the stupid money he spent on jeans. Then one day I went to Delphic on Queen and spent a stupid amount of money on jeans. After that, I had to stop making fun of him — about the jeans, anyway. I’ve been wearing a pair of Julian Red California jeans pretty much non-stop since I bought them last November.
These are unwashed (raw) denim jeans; you are supposed to break them in before washing them. Breaking in jeans simply means you wear them a lot. The general consensus is that you should wear the jeans all the time for about half a year: that’s a long time to go without washing your jeans, but who am I to question the denim experts. Raw denim jeans are stiff as cardboard when you get them, they are so full of starch. The indigo on the jeans will also rub right off onto anything White. The idea with jeans like this is that you will loose indigo wherever the jeans crease, so over time the jeans will fade based on how they fit your body. When you wash your jeans the indigo fades evenly. So, after washing your jeans, the areas that you’ve creased will be a fair bit lighter than the areas you haven’t. You should end up with jeans that look like they were distressed just for you.
There were fewer than a dozen days I decided not to wear the jeans out, usually when there was either torrential rain or a snowstorm to worry about. I ended my denim experiment 40 days early, after wearing the jeans for 142 days. There is all sorts of discussion online about how to actually wash your jeans: I simply through them inside out into my washing machine on the gentle cycle with a little bit of Tide Cold Water. When the machine was going to do its spin cycle, I took the jeans out to fold them neatly in half, and then placed them back inside the machine along the inside edge: I didn’t want them to get whipped all over the place. The Julian Reds actually kept most of their indigo. They’ve faded a bit since I bought them, but are still fairly dark in colour. There are spots that have lost more colour, behind the back of my knees, and the tops of my thighs, where my iPhone fits in my pocket, and my wallet in my back pocket, but i’d say this is pretty subtle.
I’m not sure if I should have waited longer or not. I can say it feels good to wear clean clothing.
[1] Life
4 April 2008, terribly early in the morning
I saw the Woodhands again last night. They were playing a set at the Wrong Bar to celebrate the release of their new CD, Heart Attack. I’m listening to the CD now, and it really is quite enjoyable, but you really need to see the boys play live: they are amazing. Dan and Paul are both very skillful musicians, and there is clearly a good chemistry between them — they both play off one another during the course of a song. This show I actually got to see what Dan gets up to when he’s on stage: I had a good view of his set up and what he does while playing. Sadly, I still have no clue how he makes all the sounds he does. There is some multitasking going on that I just can’t grasp. The dude can play a Keytar: I think that’s enough reason to see the band live. Paul rapped a verse from Triumph — fuck yeah — and he didn’t mess up like the last time I saw him do a verse from California Love. (Although, I actually think his messing up at the last show actually got the crowd even more hyped up.) As before, Paul played the shit out of his drums. The crowd was dancing and it was good. The show last night was awesome.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the opening act, Machetes, a 4 girl band that reminded me of something vaguely British, though I suppose that isn’t very descriptive. The girls looked like rockers, and rocked like a mother fucker. I can’t describe how disappointed I was to learn they didn’t have any music for sale. I’ll have to find out when they’re playing live next. Seriously, I was really disappointed they didn’t have a CD. Also, the lead guitarist and purple pants on which looked hype.
[1] Music | Life
1 April 2008, terribly early in the morning
Cathy used to work at a small software company with a fellow, Darrin Rose, who decided one day to become a stand-up comedian. I’m not sure how you make that leap, but it seems to have been a good choice on his part: he’s quite funny. Rose, along with Graham Chittenden and Jeff McEnery put out a CD called the Very White Album. Cathy, Patrick, and I went to the CD release party last night at the Gladstone. All three dudes were quite funny. (The opening acts were funny too — bonus!) This was actually the first time I’ve been to a comedy show live. I need to do this more often.
[1] Life
29 March 2008, early morning
These are my orange shoes. I bought them over the Christmas break. I’m wearing them for the first time today. It looks sunny outside, so it should be A-OK. I haven’t had white sneakers in a while now.
[3] Life
27 March 2008, terribly early in the morning
Cathy and I went to a fund raiser for a theatre group our friend Yeena is connected to in some way. It was taking place at the Wrong Bar, which is out in Parkdale. Parkdale doesn’t seem to be quite the same place it was a few years back. The Wrong Bar is a really nice venue. It’s very spacious, with space for a stage at the back. There is a single bar in the middle of the venue. The front is wallpapered in this gorgeous felt lion print wallpaper, that reminded me quite a bit of the Rorschach inkblot paint job at the Drake. The two of us bought some beer, sat on a very tall bench, and waited for Little Foot Long Foot to start their set. There was a silent auction taking place, so while waiting I bid on a Spa package for Shima. Little Foot Long Foot’s set was quite good. It’s a two person band: there is a guitarist singer and a drummer. The place wasn’t that busy, which seems to be the case for a lot of these shows I go to. There is a lot of good music happening in Toronto, but I get the sense it goes largely ignored. It’s a shame. I bought the bands CD which I’m listening to now. I bid once more on the Spa package, and then Cathy and I called it a night. You need to walk way up Lansdowne to catch the Lansdowne bus back North up to Bloor.
[4] Music | Life
24 March 2008, terribly early in the morning
The Spring equinox was on Thursday. It’s the tail end of March. This would be great if not for the fresh snow on the ground. And the sub-zero weekend weather. When people make fun of Canada, this is totally what they are laughing about. I’m so sick of the Winter. It is making me crazy. (And by crazy, I suppose I mean full of rage.)
[3] Life
15 March 2008, early morning
I’ll have to write up something longer about the inaugural Babylon Telecom event, but for now just know that I wasn’t lying when I said it would be hype like DJ Hype. The whole event reminded me a bit of Matt’s old weekly night Inner City / Outerspace at IV Lounge. There were a lot of familiar faces from his past events. I’m listening to We Love’s EP right now, and it is good.
[2] Life | Music
7 February 2008, evening time
In high school we shot yearbook photos on bulk rolled spools of Ilford ISO 400 B&W film. Sometimes we’d grab a roll to shoot our own stuff, there was so much of it laying around. I did this twice. The first roll I shot Rishi developed for me. The second roll I never got around to developing.
9 years is a long time to let a roll of film sit around. The only picture I can remember taking on this roll of film was of Matt’s sister Rachel. I remember her looking sideways and me snapping the shot. The rest of the roll is a blur. And so it remained till today.
On my snow day I decided to go downtown and get this 9 year old roll of film developed. The picture of Rachel is exactly how I recall it — well minus the harsh light and all the grain I guess; in my mind it had become this brilliant lost photo. The rest of the roll is a strange look back in time.
[5] Life | Photography
6 February 2008, terribly early in the morning
It’s a snowday at work, which is strange, because I don’t see any snow outside. I’m not sure if they feel bad for making us trek to work the day it was actually snowing like a mofo, only to send us home when we got there. Word on the street is it will be snowing a lot later. I patiently wait.
Update: Yeah, that is a lot of snow.
[2] Life
22 January 2008, early evening
Looking through some old photographs, I stumbled on this picture of Liz, Matt, and Shima. They’re all wearing their planning shirts. (The t-shirts were for the FEDS campaign — which they won.)
[5] Life | Photography
17 January 2008, early morning
Yesterday evening was busy. After having decided to buy a Bessa I found one used on Craigslist going for $450: If that’s not a sign I don’t know what is. $450 may sound pricey for a camera without an LCD display and Mega-Pixels and all that junk, but you’ll have to believe me when I tell you that $450 is a deal. Still, being an avid negotiator I emailed the seller asking if he’d sell it for $400. He replied with $425 and we had a deal. I was off after work to grab my new camera.
I asked the seller why he was getting rid of the R2A. I think when buying used gear it’s good to find out why the person doesn’t want it anymore. (I have faith in people not to lie out their asses.) When I bought my 17-40L the seller wanted to buy some prime lenses to take photos of his baby indoors — clearly he didn’t need a slow wide-angle zoom anymore. This fellow was selling this range-finder because he never used it’s auto-exposure modes. Also, he already had not one, but two Leicas. Son of a bitch.
Actually no, the fellow was quite friendly. We met in the lobby of his building and he explained the ins and outs of the Bessa, and compared it to his Leicas. All three cameras had very bright viewfinders, though the 50 year old M3 seemed to be the winner in that department. The controls are what’d you’d expect from any old film camera. Of course, I need to grab a lens and start taking photos to really form an opinion on the camera. The R2A is a nice solid camera, but the Leicas he had were really something else: you could bludgeon someone to death with that M3.
After parting ways I was off to see Magneta Lane play at the Rivoli.
[11] Life | Photography
31 December 2007, evening time
Happy New Years everybody. I’m playing Bang! Right now and it is awesome.
[10] Life
21 December 2007, terribly early in the morning
I’ve been looking for boots recently. Actually, I was willing to settle for anything remotely suitable for winter weather. This shopping has complicated by the fact I am also spending most of my time wearing some skinny jeans I bought a couple months back. It’s hard to find shoes that go with skinny jeans.
I hopped off the subway at Dundas West station, early for a dentist appointment. I’m not a skater, but since the Junction Skateshop sells shoes and is right next to the station I thought i’d pop in. It’s a cool shop: they have a lot of unique and limited run stuff. I tried on a couple different pairs of Vans, but had to run off before I could buy anything. The dude I was chatting with about shoes was nice enough, so I told him I’d be back.
There is a brief interlude here where I learn my appointment has been delayed. Rather than go back to the shop I decide to go buy a giant tub of detergent that I am way too skinny and weak to carry back to my apartment. Somehow I manage.
After getting my teeth cleaned I was back at the skate shop. This time I thought I’d try on some high top shoes. I’m almost certain I haven’t worn high tops since high school. I was torn between two pairs. The first was a pair of The Quiet Army / Telfords. The second were the ones I bought: the every so slightly more practical all-weather MJ-3 Highs. I am one step closer to my dream of becoming a skateboarder. I’m still undecided if I like the way they look with my jeans. I guess I’ll have to get used to it either way.
As you can see my life is very simple and uncomplicated.
[3] Life
19 December 2007, terribly early in the morning
I just had the most awesome chocolate croissants from Ma Maison. My coworker brought some in on her way to work. I think I might like them more than the ones from Clafouti. Damn that was a good croissant.
[1] Life