Losin' it!

When I first moved to Calgary I hated it because I couldn't find a decent place to get my hair cut and my hair isn't that hard to cut.  Eventually, I finally found a place I liked, so I've been going there for the past 12 years or so.  It's called Signal Hill Barber Shop and it's over on Sirocco Drive SW, they do shaves with a straight razor.

Since I've been going there for so long I just have to walk in and they start cutting my hair and it's always done right.  Rob can cut my hair in like 5 minutes.  Recently, Abdul left to open his own shop in the NW and Eddie is in Iraq right now, so they are short a couple barbers.  They're all Lebanese guys, but it's kinda funny that they went and hired a middle aged Korean lady.  She cut my hair today and it took her a lot longer than five minutes to do it, but I guess she was taking her time to do it right.  I like my hair cut short, but she cut it a little shorter than I usually get it on the top.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Now it is so short you can really see that my hair is thinning out on top!  It's official I'm old, fat and losing my hair.  The ladies will all know I have nothing to offer, but they all knew that already.  The good news is that it will grow back.  Until then I will just wear a cowboy hat to cover it up, everyone wears them here in Calgary, so I will blend right in.

Yo Joe!

Did anyone go watch G.I. Joe: Retaliation when it came out in the theaters?  Well don't worry if you didn't because as of tomorrow, July 30, 2013, it will be released on home video.  If you head over the the G.I. Joe: Retaliation website there is a program that lets you create your own G.I. Joe solider.

That's my dude!  He has the worst solider code name ever!

Since the standard card you download is pretty low quality, here is a picture that looks ever so slightly better.  My dude wears a headband so the sweat won't drip down in his eye.  I just wish he had more pouches and a knife.  You don't need to reload a knife.

Fun fact: This post marks the fourth post in the history of this blog that has "Yo Joe!" in the post/subject title.  And now you know!

Sign up today!

I'm running out of stuff to write to about, so I'm falling back on one my good old "stuff I have in boxes" posts.  Last time I was back in Cranbrook I was going through a couple boxes when I found my awesome Vision Street Wear bag, well in that same box were some signs that I've "found".

I got this one up on the South Star Trails behind my house.  I'd like to point out that I didn't steal or take it, but it fell off the tree all on it's own.  I simply picked it up off the ground because I was doing my duty and cleaning up and keeping our forests green.  Too bad they cut down that forest. :-(

Just a plain old boring plastic "Employees Only" sign.

This one is a nice metal sign, but I'm not sure where I got it, or the sign above it either.  One of them may have been lying on the ground up on Moyie Mountain.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Just a boring old plastic "No Trespassing" sign and again I'm not sure where I got it.  Man, this post is going downhill fast!

I've saved the best for last with this metal "Exit" sign from Parkland Junior Secondary School.  This one I totally did find lying on the floor!  We were goofing around by the gym doors down the stairs the wood/metal shop with a volleyball or basketball or something.  Anyway, the ball hit the exit sign and it fell off and landed right in my backpack.  What was I supposed to do?  I guess it's a real collector's item now though.

Now that I think about it, I probably don't need those signs anymore.  I should go around and put them up in random places that make no sense.  Or I could throw them in the garbage.  Whatever.

Previously enjoyed

I was way up in Crowfoot the other day on my day off to go a used music and movie store called Urban Sound Exchange.  It's a bit more expensive than buying used stuff at Cash Converters, but while they have less of a movie selection they have a better music selection.  They also have a frequent buyer's card, but I always forget to bring mine, so over they years I've collected quite a few.

This time I had planned on going there and remembered to bring along four cards with me, so I could get them all combined.  When I did I had enough for a free CD and I ended up getting the soundtrack to the Living Daylights.  A-ha!  I also ended up buying a Pixies album.  Not just any Pixies album, but a live album.  From a concert they played in Calgary!

 04.19.04

 Double disc!

Ohh, limited edition!

I probably paid more than I should've for it, but I still got it cheaper than whoever bought it in the first place.  This isn't a bootleg either, it's legit from DiscLive.  I don't get why someone would trade this in?  I'm sure they went to the show when they played and ended up buying the show on disc online and then decided to sell it for whatever reason.  Good for me I suppose.  Or is it?

After doing some snooping around the Pixies website and store you can buy digital downloads of tons of their live shows for only $3.99.  Dammit.  Oh well, if I pay for something I'd rather have a physical copy of it I can hold in my hands, look at, smell, and smooch.  Not some data that is on my hard drive until one my computer breaks and all my files get messed up.  CDs will be here forever.

Special Features

I posted the video Cody and I made the other day, now it's time to hear about how it all came together.  When I first got Murray's chest I knew I would have to do a blog post about it because I have nothing else to write about.  My original plan was just have a picture of me opening the chest and I'd stick a lamp inside it, so with the lid open it would look like the inside was glowing.  Cody said we could that and then he'd put me in a shot from Raiders of the Lost Ark.  I said okay, but it sounded pretty elaborate when I just wanted a picture.

I was at work and was thinking about the idea and I thought, "Why stop with one scene from Raiders?"  I was came up with a basic story (that doesn't make much sense) and a bunch of scenes we could use from the first three Indiana Jones movies.  When I went for my lunch break I took a piece of paper and started writing stuff before I forgot anything.  When I got home I gave to Cody to look over and he said he could it, it would be a lot of work, but he could do it. 

Cody and I both had the next Saturday off, so after lunch we started filming.  The process of filming only took just over an hour.  We filmed outside our townhouse, the sidewalk on the street in front of our place and a park a few blocks away which is all in the beginning of the film.  Everything else is all entirely green screen shots except for the end scene which is me in our kitchen.  With all the easy stuff done, I could sit back and relax and let Cody do all the hard work of editing, the green screen work, sourcing the Indy footage from DVDs, the effects and everything else I don't know how to do.

I took almost two weeks to get all the post production work, but I think it turned out better than I had expected.  During the green screen stuff I was just running around acting like an idiot, but I wasn't wearing my shoes.  In some scenes you could see I was barefoot, so Cody had to crop it so my feet weren't visible.  Also, had we sourced our Indy scenes in advance we probably could've known exactly what shots we needed to make them work, instead of Cody just doing his best with what we had.  We made a few mistakes, but we learned some stuff too, so next time it will be even better.  Maybe.

This is my four page "script" I scribbled out while at work.  We sometimes even did what was written on the page.   Props to Cody for going off script and adding two of the best things from the movie, the potato on the head and the map montage.  I thought up a bunch of other gags that we didn't use including the chilled monkey brains from Temple of Doom and an Arby's joke.  That one was for Cam.

Cody's fancy pants Canon camera.  I don't know how it works.  It is big.

Cody sets up for the first shot of the movie.  Using the LCD screen in the blinding sun is pretty difficult.

Yep, that is the green screen set up in our kitchen, we're so Hollywood.   It's just some green fabric Cody got from Micheal's taped to the wall.  In the scene where the chest on the ground next to the fertility idol from Raiders we had to lower the fabric so it covered the floor so the chest would sit on it.  We had to move everything in our kitchen over to the side out of the way to make room.

Cody is checking to see if the light from the blinds would mess with the green screen.  We can't have any shadows.

The camera set up down the hall.  Cody is actually reading the script?

I had gone out shopping earlier in the morning and forgot to get a potato.  We walked down to Co-op and I bought a baker's potato for 50 cents.

That's it.  Leave any questions in the comments and Cody or I will answer them.

Fortune and Glory!

Starring Murray's chest.

Bag *something funny*

I found this while going through a couple boxes of my stuff.  Every time I go home I try to look through some boxes and try and get rid of any junk I can.  I'm slowly (very slowly) getting rid of some stuff.  I took a bunch of old books into Pages, but I am definitely keep this awesome bag.

I got this bag from my Grandma who got me something, I can't remember what, from a skate shop down in the US.  I think she got me an extra bag and I had this one up on my wall as a poster.  I had it taped up with scotch tape because tacks would put holes in it, so now it's like in mint condition.  It's currently preserved rolled up inside a tube of other posters from the era like the Kevin Eastman Turtles, "Bo Knows", Kimberly ski hill map and Mars (Spike Lee) Blackmon for Air Jordan/Nike. Oh sweat!

The easy way out?

You know I should turn this blog into nothing but rabbit pictures, that would be pretty easy. 

Hello from Cranbrook!

Okay, here is some stuff from my trip to Cranbrook.  I was going to post it yesterday, but I got distracted, then disappointed by some blue ice cream.

I ate lunch at the Subway downtown and had a good view of the Armond.  Even though it was downtown and it was lunch time, it wasn't really that busy.  They really should do something with that building, maybe one day Willie's dream will come true of fixing it back up into a movie theatre.  I can make the popcorn!

At first glance this is a pretty boring picture, but the concrete square framing the tree has little cast iron pictures in each corner.

They're trains!  I noticed a bunch of different ones, but didn't see Thomas.  I'll have to admit that downtown Cranbrook doesn't look half bad, well at least on 10th Ave it doesn't, but it's not like there is anything done there to look at.

The war memorial in Rotary Park.

Nice parking job there champ!

Cranbrook Ed and Puss in Boots!  Way back when I originally started my "Free photo apps series", that went nowhere, I downloaded the free Puss in Boots app from Dreamworks.  It's been on my phone for over a year and this is the first time I used.  It's pretty basic and the image quality is a bit poor.  At least I finally got to use it and now I can remove it from my phone!

A full size picture of the Doctor Love 'vette without Bieber getting in the way.  It would be funnier if they drove a Mini or a Fiat.

I stopped by Willie's to drop off a CD-R of Windy City 4 mp3s, but he wasn't home.  I'm assuming he wasn't home as his mailbox was stuffed full of old papers.  I thought this would be my perfect chance to break in and help myself to all his Pearl Jam stuff.  I went to sneak around the back where it would be more discreet, but noticed he got a new guard dog.  Well played Willie.

I stopped at the Husky in Radium on my way back to grab some beef jerky and Red Bull, but they were all out of Sugar Free Red Bull.  What a rip!  I managed to make it home without falling asleep though.  As I was sitting in my car getting ready to pull out I saw some sheep on the hill behind the gas station.  I just zoomed in with my phone and took the picture.  I should've ran up and tried to feed them beef jerky.

That is it until next time!

I scream!

It was nice after having three days off to get only a five hour shift on my first day back at work.  Since I finished at 2 pm I had time to go home and change and do some other stuff like take in the recycling.  I dropped off the recycling and then headed over to the Marble Slab Creamery which right near there.

It was warm out,  I was craving ice cream and I really wanted some maple ice cream.  I was excited!  I should know by now not to get too excited because they didn't have any maple ice cream.  I even checked on their website which says they have it, but the location by me just didn't have any to annoy me.  It's like I'm not allowed to be happy.  All I wanted was maple ice cream!

With no maple ice cream I just went the next flavor that caught my eye and that would be bubble gum because it was practically glowing a mesmerizing neon blue.  I won't say how much it cost, but it was pretty expensive, but unfortunately it didn't taste that great.  It didn't even taste like bubble gum and there weren't even any bubble gum bits in it.  I did have some strawberries (s)mashed into it, but they didn't help it from being such a disappointment. 

I just blue myself.

Next time I will just go to Dairy Queen and get a strawberry blizzard.  Or I could buy some bubble gum ice cream from work which is cheaper and tastes a lot better.  Never again Marble Slab!

The Doctor is in

Hey, I'm back!  I bet you didn't even I had left, but I did.  I had three days off in a row, so on Monday I left for Cranbrook and then came back today.  It was quick, but it was nice to actually sort of do something instead of me just sitting around the house in Calgary doing nothing.

I was only home for a bit, but I grabbed some very lame pictures and have accompanying lame stories to go with them, but I'm all lazy tonight.  I'll put them up tomorrow night, most likely.  In the meantime here is a picture of Biebs for Cara.

Rabbit stuff

Yesterday I got myself two rabbit pictures on two separate occasions!  It's like he's just hanging around now waiting for me to take his pictures.

I got this picture first, he's up at attention just waiting to attack/bolt.

This is the second time I snapped him, and he's in stealth mode, and not very good at it.  I can see you!

I actually saw him again this morning, but decided to give him a break and not hassle him for at least a day.  I'm a nice guy once in a while.

Christmas in July

I already teased Murray's Christmas letter, so now it's time to deliver.  As I said when Katherine was going through the storage she found some stuff she was going to get rid of.  Murray's Christmas list almost found it's way in the recycle pile, but I saved it!  Recycling is evil!

The letter is addressed to Santa from Murray and as you can see the letter never actually made it's way to Santa, but instead went straight to Santa's middle man, Murray's mom. 

When I read the letter I thought, "Wow, 5 year old Murray has pretty nice penmanship."  Then I realized that Murray didn't even write the letter!  Murray probably just dictated the letter to his secretary, also his mom, then signed his name on it.

Sorry if anyone was expected some hilariously and poorly written letter to Santa from Murray because we all got shafted on that one.  Murray totally redeems himself by including pages straight out the Sear Wishbook with his letter to help out Santa, again his mom, with picking the gifts.  The pages from the Sears catalog are AWESOME!

I scanned the pictures in a large size because you need to see them in the full size glory to really appreciate them.  They are coming in around 1 MB per page, but so worth it.  Enjoy.

 

DEAR SANTA, I WANT IT ALL!!!

But what I really want to know is, did Murray get what he wanted for Christmas that year?

Suit up

I went and bought The Simpsons season 14 on DVD just so I could take those screen caps and do this post.  I gladly accept monetary donations, large or small.  Thank you.