29 November 2004, late at night
Carvill’s Birthday passed last week, and to celebrate Mezan and I went out with her to Starfish, an oyster bar in Downtown Toronto. I had never had raw oysters before and was quite excited about the evening.
We arrived a bit past seven and were seated in a booth of sorts in the corner of the restaurant. This gave us a fairly good view of the rest of the restaurant and the bar. The inside of Starfish is quite nice, and was a welcome change from stank-ass Fred’s Not Here. The place is basically lit with candles, and has a warm feel to it.
To start we ordered a half bottle of Muscadet Sèvre et Maine (2001), which is a very light white wine. I will probably go looking for it at some point in time in the LCBO. Mezan bought a Lobster soup, but was served a mushroom soup by accident. The mushroom soup was quite good, and the waiter quite apologetic. They serve this really sweet whole-grain bread at Starfish was awesome. I ate so much of it. We also decided to share a small platter of oysters. Carvill is a fan of oysters from France, which is where the bulk of our selection came from. We also ordered a few more from Easter Canada I believe.
Raw oysters are strange to say the least. They’re served on a tray of ice, sitting on top of their shells. The shells basically feel like rocks—cold rocks. Oysters have a strange gooey texture, and the ones we ordered had a taste I really can’t describe. I can say I really didn’t enjoy them though. I had 3 or 4 different ones. Carvill likes very strong oysters, so perhaps I would have enjoyed mild ones more. I’ll have to try some next time Carvill wants oysters.
With all the oysters out of the way, we were brought our mains. We each ordered a different fish dish. I had a halibut, Carvill had a sturgeon, and Mezan had some cod. All the fish were quite good. I thought my halibut was excellent. The fish were all served on top of a bed of vegetables and sauce.
For dessert Mezan and Carvill had Crème Brules, while I had a flour-less chocolate cake. The cake was amazing. If you go to Starfish I strongly recommend you get this cake. The Crème Brule was good, though apparently the sugar at the top was too thick.
After dinner we went to Hy’s Steak House for drinks. That deserves its own post.
Starfish was really good, but quite expensive. The oysters and the wine is probably what pushed the bill quite so high. Appetizers were about 10 dollars each, as were desserts. Mains were around 30 dollars each. Oysters were about 3–4 dollars each. The bill came out to around $260 dollars after taxes and tips, which if you do that math is a lot of money for three people to eat. This is one of many reasons why my apartment is still unfurnished.
Restaurants and Bars | Life
27 November 2004, early evening
CBC is running a ‘who is the greatest Canadian’ event. My vote would be for Tommy Douglas. Tommy Douglas is probably most well known for being the father of Medicare in Canada, though he was also a very funny man. He started plenty of speaches with jokes. Kiefer Sutherland’s is Douglas’ grandson. His speach on Medicare is interesting to listen to as well. Especially since I watched him chop a man’s head off at stick it in a bowling bag in 24.
[10] Interesting Links
24 November 2004, lunch time
I’m listening to Nirvana’s Unplugged CD. I remember when they did the MTV performance people were griping about how it was so unlike Nirvana to do an acoustic set. People can be stupid; this performance is excellent. I remember I didn’t have a very high opinion of Nirvana when Nevermind came out. Or In Utero for that matter. I guess I wasn’t particularly impressed with grunge music; I was all about Brit Pop around that time. I think I changed my opinion on the band when they did this performance. It is really only in the last 4 or 5 years that I became a really big fan of the band. I own In Utero and Nevermind now, which are both great albums.
Kurt Cobain really was a very talented person. It’s a real shame he shot himself in the head.
Nirvana’s new box set comes out shortly. I think it will be really good; Interesting at the very least.
[9] Music
23 November 2004, late at night
On my system I can login to a TypeKey powered site in Safari, copy the URL TypeKey redirects me to from Safari to Firefox, and thereby login to the same site in Firefox without entering any of my information. This is essentially a replay attack, albeit a stupid one.
Read the rest of this post. (442 words)
[6] Technology | Weblogs
21 November 2004, early afternoon
I watched the conclusion to the Office last night. I bought the first series on a lark several months ago, and the second series shortly after. The show is absolutely brilliant. The second series ended on a seriously low note; it was quite bleak. The Christmas special is two parts long, and follows the cast of the show 3 years later, as the documentary team that was filming them goes back to see how they are doing. Funnily enough, not much has changed, which is what I think one of the themes of the show was. People are still stuck in the same ruts they were in when the second series ended, regardless of the ‘changes’ they have forced on themselves or have had forced upon them. The show ends in a very satisfying manner which was apparently very well received when the show was run in England. Shima was on the edge of her seat. I’m not sure if this last special is as funny as some of the previous episodes in the series, but it was definitely a good conclusion to the show. I’ve said it plenty of times before, but this show is too good not to watch.
Television
20 November 2004, late at night
If you look far enough back, you’ll see my first entry for this site was a conversation I had on ICQ with Gary. That was posted back in August 2003. Back then this site was run using blogger and served off the web space I had at the University of Waterloo. The orange was still there, though the layout was nothing like this. The colours I was using were much deeper and darker. I also had a 2-column layout, which I now find thoroughly boring.
I registered funkaoshi.com on November 19th, 2003. I announced to the world the domain was up on November 20th, though I don’t think that many people were interested. The site was a fair bit different back then. I would post the inane details of my life, primarily for my friends to read. I would also bitch about the pointless nature of this site. This went on for quite some time.
I changed the layout to the one you see today, and moved things over to textpattern in the middle of the winter. This was probably the worse time to do that, since I was knee-deep in the compilers course I was taking at Waterloo, which is a big bitch. The layout of this page hasn’t really changed at all since then. I changed the name of the site to A Funkaoshi Production from The Not So Immaculate Conception. I’m not sure why I changed the name. I think the old name was too long and I couldn’t work it neatly into the layout. I also noticed that no one referred to the site by that name.
At some point I started writing about movies, and couldn’t stop. I think this is actually the point in time I started noticing that people I didn’t know were regularly reading this site, which was strange to say the least. I call this period, “the summer”. Unemployed and done with school, I took some time off to do nothing. Well, almost nothing; I would watch movies and work on this site. You’d be surprised how long you can do that for and not complain. With employment came an end to my summer. Those of you who have been reading this site for quite some time will have noticed the lack of movie reviews. If there is one thing I really miss, it is watching lots of movies.
So this brings us to now. I was worried my domain would disappear into the ether, but 1&1 automatically renewed it for me. Another year of A Funkaoshi Production? Oh my, whatever will we do?
[2] Weblogs | Life
19 November 2004, early evening
“There is a dude on the subway eating a whole Baguette for breakfast. That is a lot of bread to be eating in the morning.” I wrote that in my small Moleskine this morning. I don’t know why I bought another one. I think I’m addicted to notepads—nice notepads.
[1] Life
19 November 2004, the wee hours
I met Mezan after work, and the two of us made our way to Pikto to drop off some slide film I wanted to get cross-processed. We met Carvill later at Union Station. The three of us made our way to Fred’s Not Here, which I had remembered being much better then it actually was.
Ugly décor and fairly slow service started our meal. The table cloths in the restaurant were covered with white paper, which I have usually seen at other restaurants accompanied with crayons to draw on. For the Fall, the restaurant is offering 2-courses for 25 dollars, which may sound like a deal, but trust me when I say it is not.
We all ordered Kobe Beef Burgers, which sounded quite good. I don’t think we’ll ever know if they actually were or not, since the waiter came out and told us while we were eating our appetizers that they had run out of the burgers. I ended up ordering Sole, Carvill got some Salmon, and Mezan some Beef Brisket. The appetizers were good I would say, the highlight of the meal. I had a Crab and Lobster Bisk that was quite enjoyable. Unfortunatly, the mains were all really disappointing. I don’t think the food was bad, it just wasn’t good—at all. Swiss Chalet would have been a better use of our money. Little things, like the fact the bread and butter they served us were all hard as a rock didn’t help matters.
The funny thing is, I enjoyed Fred’s Not Here the first time I was there. I’m not quite sure what was so different this time.
[4] Restaurants and Bars | Life
14 November 2004, late at night
I’ve walked past Bloom, a restaurant in the Bloor West Village, several times. The place isn’t hard to notice as it stands out next to the sea of Ukrainian delis and bakeries. The place always looks like it’s closed. Friday I called them up and asked for reservations for two. The plan was to take Shima out for dinner.
We arrived at Bloom a bit past 7:30. The place was fairly empty, just a few other tables were full. The waiter was quite friendly, and showed us to our table. The interior of the restaurant is quite nice. A handful of tables line the wall along the left side of the restaurant and end at the bar. White brick walls contrast the smooth red ceiling nicely. On the right are a few larger tables and a booth of sorts. The place is dimly lit, which is what makes it look closed from the outside when you peer in through tinted glass. I wanted to steal the chair I was sitting on, but didn’t think I’d be able to sneak it out of the store.
Shima is actually not a big fan of food. She is a very picky eater. So, actually going to nice places to eat is a bit of a problem. Bloom had a very small and simple menu. If I recall correctly, there were 6 mains, 6 appetizers. There were no vegetarian dishes, which may be an issue for some. I ended up getting a Tuna dish; Shima, after some serious thought, ended up getting the Salmon. The appetizers looked good, but neither of us were that hungry.
We munched on some very good bread while waiting for our food to arrive. I drank a red wine from California that was quite enjoyable. Our food arived in a reasonable time, and looked amazing. My Tuna dish was served on a small rectangular plate. My dish was sushi-grade tuna, seared on the outside, raw on the inside, served on top of red cabbage of some sort, with these shoots-come-celery sort of thing lighted fried so they were like spring rolls almost. Shima’s salmon was served on a large circular dish, the salmon resting on top of some risoto.
Shima liked the food—a lot. I thought my food was amazing as well. Everything tasted great. The portions are probably small for your average person, but were good for Shima and I. I think getting an appetizer would be a good idea for your average person to feel more full. I imagine the meals are made to had with an appetizer and a dessert.
For dessert Shima and I split a chocolate almond torte on top of a blueberry comport. Basically, a sort of brownie on top of blueberries. I think it may well have been the greatest brownie I’ve ever had in my entire life.
I’d definitely go back to Bloom. I was very impressed with the place. The meal for Shima and I was 76 dollars after taxes. The mains were on average about 24-30 dollars each, appetizers were about 7-14 dollars each, and dessert were about 7-12 dollars each. Many times you go to nice restaurants and wonder what it is you are paying for. I didn’t feel this way with Bloom, it was definitely worth the money.
[4] Restaurants and Bars | Life
14 November 2004, terribly early in the morning
What y’all thought y’all wasn’t gon’ see me?
I’m the Osirus of this shit
Wu-Tang is here forever, motherfucker
—Triumph by Wu-Tang Clan
[5] Lyrics
10 November 2004, the wee hours
Eric Meyer, of CSS fame, has posted his opinions on the election: Behind the Beauty, Cracks Appear. The article focuses primarily on the Gay marriage issue. I think this should be called Behind the Cracks, Cracks Appear. I think many Americans are in love with a country that only exists in their heads. Of course, I’m horribly anti-American, so you can take that with a grain of salt. But in all honesty, I don’t understand what people are clinging to. At some point you need to look around and ask yourself, “This is my home?”
[24] Politics | Interesting Links
9 November 2004, the wee hours
Thailand is the new Hong Kong. I watched Ong-Bak over the weekend with Mezan, Steph and Carvill plus a bunch of Krishna’s friends. The movie is insane. The plot is simple, a small town village boy travels to the big city to get back the head of a Buddha statue that was stolen from his town. The movie has some excellent action sequences, and you would be at a loss not to check it out. I think the film features almost no special effects, and more then that I think the fights are all done with out wires. It is crazy.
The official Ong-Bak web site.
update: I watched the film again last night with Rishi. The film was as intense the second time as it was the first. I know I basically tell you, the readers of this site, to watch and read everything I read, but this movie is seriously worth watching.
[2] Movies
7 November 2004, the wee hours
I watched the Star Wars III trailer last night. Now, I’m not one to hype up a movie, but I think it’s safe to say that Star Wars III is going to be the greatest movie ever made of all time—well, assuming it is much better than Lucas’ last to attempts at Star Wars movies. I enjoed Star Wars II, but I mean, it’s still a bad movie. I want Star Wars III to be good. I want it to be good so bad.
It feeels like I haven’t watched a film in ages.
[11] Movies
5 November 2004, mid-afternoon
Here are what other people are saying; you know, people who live in America:
- Not A Dollar Short Shows off a new Canada. I think I’d like this new Canada since I could finally visit New York. Seriously, why don’t some states just leave the US. Like California? It could go it alone.
- A Whole Lotta Nothing [1] [2]
- Scribbling [1] [2]
- What Do I Know
- 1976 Design [1] [2] The second post attempts to explain liberal anger to the
crazies people that voted for Bush.
- Greg Gnauss
- Valdok
- Reclaiming Reality A brand new site by a reader of this blog. This is his first entry.
- Airbag discusses America as a police state and a flame war erupts.
- Nedward
- Kottke.org lets us know Americans are all stupid; Jason Kottke says what many of us around the world already knew. (And yes, I am quoting out of context. I’ll stop when CNN stops.)
- Peace and Jellybeans. I found this post to be quite depressing.
- Tom Tomorrow suggests reasons why the Democrats are big losers for Slate Magazine.
- Jane Smiley expalins why the democrats should be in no rush to covet the Republican voting base.
I originally posted these links at the bottom of my post on the election, but I think they deserve there own entry. I don’t read too many (any) web sites where people are happy about the re-election of George Bush it would appear.
[1] Politics | Interesting Links
5 November 2004, lunch time
I ordered Design Patterns from Amazon earlier in the week—Tuesday to be exact. I got an email at 7:30 PM last night telling me my order had shipped. I make it a point to check the extra-lame free shipping option whenever I order over 39 bucks worth of stuff so I don’t get billed for shipping. My order was slated to arrive some time next week, between the 10th to the 14th of November. Since I am working I shipped to my office, which I imagine is quite close to the shipping centre Amazon uses in Toronto. I’m guessing it is close because my book arrived today, at 10:30 AM. That’s some serious service, apparently facilitated by: Amazon, Canada Post, and some convenient geography. I don’t think FedEx could have got the book here faster.
[7] Life | Comics and Books
4 November 2004, late at night
I got sent this link to an animation on America’s position in the world, titled What Barry Says. It’s definitely worth checking out since it’s really well done. The video looks like the opening to a video game. I should say up front, it’s left-leaning-liberal-homo-communist-anti-america-terrorist-loving-freedom-hating propaganda; you can’t win ‘em all.
[5] Interesting Links
3 November 2004, mid-afternoon
I wonder how much of the world is glued to their TVs waiting for the election results of the US. Incredible the effect one country can have on the rest of the planet. I’m heading to Matt’s now to watch the spectacle, and I’m quite sure it will be a spectacle.
update 12:13 AM: Matt’s party was fun; I got to watch the Daily Show. However, the election results are looking pretty grim so far. I am hoping things turn around, but it is looking like Bush the sequel right now. I don’t understand how Americans can vote for him again. Come on people!
update 12:30 AM: Thinking about it more, it’s actually quite disappointing. I’m hoping that some time soon the tides will turn in Kerry’s favour. But, even if they do, I can’t believe so much of the US is still in love with Bush. Even if you can’t get behind everything Kerry says and does, how can he not be better then Bush. I mean, honestly, how can anyone not be better then Bush. He’s like walking talking incompetence.
update 7:31 AM: I was quite disappointed last night; did it show? I think it did. I realized this morning that I shouldn’t be sad. Why? Because at the very least, I don’t live in the USA, I live in Canada, the greatest country in the world. There are lots of reasons Canada is the best thing since sliced bread, but I’ll just bring up the smallest reason: we do a pretty bang up job of counting all the votes in our elections in one night. It is quite impressive. Lets see if they figure things out by the end of the day, right now it is 254 vs. 252 with 3 states still counting.
update 8:42 AM: Also, to continue my shock and outrage, how many states voted to outlaw gay marriages outright? The only thing better then bigotry is institutionalized bigotry. Good on ya’.
update 12:07 PM: Well, Kerry has conceded. Four More Years! Four More Years! Four More Years! I need to get that on a T-Shirt. Well, maybe Four More Years? Or perhaps, Four More Fucking Years?.
[14] Life | Politics
29 October 2004, terribly early in the morning
The Tangiers are amazing. There is no doubt about that. They are one of the best bands I’ve heard live ever. Tyler had been bigging this band up like they were the second coming; he was definitely right to do so.
Read the rest of this post. (422 words)
Music | Life
27 October 2004, evening time
I got an email from someone that reads my site, telling me to check out the new Eminem video. I was aware his new video was anti-Bush, but didn’t bother to check it out. I finally got around to downloading it today. The video is an animation, and features Eminem and a assortment of people who get screwed by Bush marching to sign up to vote. Are they playing this song on MTV yet, or on the radio? The message is quite clear. November 2nd is only a few days away. To the Americans who read my site, I certainly hope you go out and vote—for Kerry, just so there is no confusion. If you want to vote for Bush, it’s your choice, but it’s probably a foolish one to make. As I see it, unless you are a Christian heterosexual rich white male, there is no good reason to vote for Bush.
[1] Interesting Links | Music
26 October 2004, the wee hours
Rachael Yamagata didn’t have the breasts to pull off the top she was wearing. Thankfully, that is really the only bad thing I can say about the girl and her show tonight. She put on a great performance tonight.
Tyler told me about the show yesterday. He said it started at 7:00 and that the act would be good. I went to her web site and heard some Fiona Apple sounding tune; I was definitely in the mood for something like that. I left work late and decided to go straight to El Mocambo , where the show was supposed to be. In terms of my token usage that was a good call, but this meant I didn’t have my camera on hand. Oh what a dumb-ass I can be.
The show was hosted by her label, BMG, so it was free and catered. That was a first for me. I imagine there were people from the press at the show who they were trying to impress. I want to get invited to stuff. I’ll need to figure out how to go about making that happen.
Rachael Yamagata was fantastic. I really hope she gets some air play when her CD comes out. I find it depressing that all these ‘I can act like a pop-star’ singers are rich and famous while there is plenty of serious talent that remains untapped, and will most likely never get the audience they deserve. I think Rachael Yamagata is some what reminiscent of Alanis Morisette, and as I mentioned earlier, Fiona Apple. Vocally I found her very similar to Fiona Apple. Her backing band were also great. I thought the lead guitarist was quite impressive. I think my brother would have liked to have seen this set.
El Mocambo is a cool venue. I’ll definitely have to check it out again. Apparently the booking agent for the club is quite renowned. If you are looking for some good live music, this might be a great place to go check out.
[1] Music | Life
24 October 2004, evening time
I bought a copy of The Five People You Meet in Heaven at Chapters last weekend, using the same metric I have used to buy many a book before it: I grab one that is 30% off and near the front of the store. So far, this has served me well.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven was quite good. The story begins with the death of Eddie, the maintenance worker at Ruby Pier ammusement park. The book follows his voyage through the beginnings of his afterlife. Though he feels his life is unexceptional, through the course of the book we see how his life is not without purpose and meaning.
I think the concept of heaven presented in the book is interesting. Heaven is a place where you are given time to reflect upon and understand your life. The author suggests that upon entering heaven we are introduced in succession to 5 people who each will teach us a lesson about our lives. The author suggests, and I would agree with him, that are lives are all intertwined in ways we may never fully comprehend.
I thought the end of the book was a bit weak, but on the whole it was a great read. The book is definetly worth checking out.
Comics and Books
23 October 2004, late afternoon
Write Impressions is a stationary shop down the road from where I live. While wandering Bloor West looking for a bathroom mat I stopped in to see what the store had to offer up. I left with a small card for Shima, with a simple quote by Goete: There is nothing more important than today. The store sold Moleskine notebooks, which I glanced at quickly before coming home.
Today I wandered Bloor street again. The streets were full of people today. It must be the sun. During the fall and winter people really do start to miss the sun; I know I did. I walked alone towards Jane, and then turned right back around and walked back. Every so often I would duck into a shop to see what sorts of things they were selling.
I ended up back at Write Impressions. I really wanted to get a notepad. I think Mezan’s subtle suggestions to get a Moleskine left some impression on me. I stood there looking at them for quite some time, and ended up buying the large ruled notepad. I must say it is a well crafted notepad.
I’m still not sure what I will do with it. I am thinking of keeping a journal—a real journal, one without hyperlinks and valid markup. So much has happened that I don’t want to forget, and at the same time don’t think I want to share with the whole world.
On an unrelated note, I find that I have been posting nothing but links here for the past few weeks. Though I will be the first to admit I have an aversion to overtly personal weblogs, I suspect that what makes weblogs so interesting to read is the personal nature of them. To this end, I hope to start posting to this web site at the same rate I was earlier in the summer.
[2] Life
Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head
See, the sea wants to take me
The knife wants to slit me
Do you think you can help me ?
Sad veiled bride, please be happy
Handsome groom, give her room
Loud, loutish lover, treat her kindly
(Though she needs you
More than she loves you)
—I Know It’s Over by The Smiths
23 October 2004, early afternoon
After work, on a Thursday afternoon, I got off at Jane station instead of High Park, and began wandering down Bloor West Village. Bloor West is home to a good majority of Toronto’s Ukrainian community, and is a very quaint place to live. It is a 10 minute walk from my home. I’ve been through the area a couple times now, trying to get a handle on what exactly is in Bloor West—apparently quite a lot.
On this particular outing, the first shop I walked into was a Deli/Bakery. Bloor West is full of them. Each seems identical to the next. This one however was run by a very friendly lady, and sold some tasty sausage rolls. I don’t think I’ve bought a sausage roll from a bakery since I left England, so it was quite the treat. I ate the roll as I walked down the road, unsure of what exactly it was I was looking for.
My apartment is still quite barren. I find I am without simple necessities with each passing day; I’m talking about the sorts of things you don’t miss till you are without them. My bathroom lacks a mat of some sort. This as it turns out really isn’t such a big deal, however I wanted to get one. It seemed like something I should own.
Interior Luxe sold expensive furniture. I could see this was the case the moment I walked into the store. Nevertheless, sausage roll in hand, I wanted to at least give off the impression I was in the market for furniture. They sold a lot of interesting pieces, including mats. I would be lying if I said what I bought looks anything like a bathroom mat, though the lady at the store assured me I could use it as one.
I laid the mat out in my bathroom when I got home. “No, this just wouldn’t do.” I’m not sure if it was too nice for the bathroom, but it was definitely too expensive. I don’t want some schmuck pissing on on my new mat. I couldn’t bring my self to put it at the front of my home either. I don’t want people treading all over it in their shoes. So it sits, in the middle of my floor, black bordered bamboo in all its glory.
My place is still empty. This is a new beginning I suppose.
[6] Life
She’s a clever kind of girl
hailing from suburbia.
She daydreams of travelling abroad.
She knows it isn’t everyday
this kind of magic comes her way.
She’s crossing her fingers that he is the reason
there are stars in the sky
with the moon hanging by,
and the boy of her dreams in her arms.
He leans a little closer
as he gets to know her.
She’s smiling and he is in love.
–
The theme from ‘Kiss Me Goodnight’ by The Shoestrings
