It's a dry heat...

It's officially here.

The one week of the year in Edmonton where we could actually use air conditioning in the house. Especially me, being in the upstairs part of the house. When it hasn't rained to cool things down, it gets stinking hot up there.

Bye bye sheets. Bye bye PJs. Time to just lay there sweltering in my own sweat.
My sure fire cure for it being too hot to sleep used to be to drink enough to pass out. Unfortunately that's not always the greatest solution on a work night.

What I need is some genius to come up with the 'cold blanket'. Now there's a million dollar idea, I tells ya. If only I had a penny for all my million dollar ideas - I would have a million dollars!

Until then - I sweat.

Public service horoscope

To any spare scorpios out there...here's this week's horoscope:

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I asked my readers to make a prediction about what age they'll be when they finally know exactly who they are. "I hope I NEVER completely know who I am!" wrote Bridjet. "I love discovering new things about myself, and to change as everything else around me changes. It is one of the most beautifully thrilling things about life." If you share that perspective, Scorpio, the coming days should be pretty fun. You're likely to become dramatically more mysterious to yourself. You'll be evolving, even mutating, in ways that may amaze you, and you'll be coming face to face with hidden aspects of yourself. Let the confounding, enriching expansion begin!


I'm just not sure how much more mysterious to myself I can be. Could make for an interesting rest of the week...

Late night learning

The best part about insomnia is late night radio. Either you've got Coast to Coast for all of your UFO/conspiracy needs, or CBC latenight, which has broadcasts from around the world.
It's almost worth the lack of sleep some nights.

Last night was some really interesting stuff from radio australia, including a health report featuring an interview with a professor at the University of California on some new studies into diet and obesity.
What I'm taking out of it is basically - 'Eat the fruit, don't drink the juice'.
Apparantly, north american diets are way to full of sugar - specifically fructose these days - which does bad things to the liver.

If you're interested - the entire transcript is here...
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2007/1969924.htm#transcript

Un-covered

You know how I know when I'm listening to a great song? - when the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Not too many songs do this to me, but I love when I find a new one that does. Or even a new version of an old song. I think that's the mark of true greatness - when even cover versions of songs have that effect on you.

We were in some small cafe the other night and heard a fantastic version of Radiohead's High and Dry by a couple that was playing there. Fantastic stuff. That's always been one of my favorite songs - in fact - I'd just downloaded a spanish language version of it off iTunes the week before. There's something about a cover version of a good song that broadens my appreciation of the original. Like it's exploring some nuance that opens up new ways of enjoying what the original artist put out there.

Here's to finding some more good music this month...

http://www.rhythmsdelmundo.com/

Needed: Cure for Idiocy

Sometimes my brain makes me sad.

Usually I'm plenty simple without the encouragement of alcohol - so adding a beer or two can sometimes lead unfortunate slow downs in brain activity. I'm sure MRIs would prove interesting to look at.
Usually my idiocy takes the form of thinking up that witty retort or comeback at least 30 minutes too late.
What's worse is being slow on the appreciation of good things.
Life's nearly perfect moments are too uncommon to waste when they're happening.

Here's hoping my brain's more awake for the next one...

A 3 Clone day.

You would not believe the amount of running around one man can do over one lunch hour. I had about a zillion errands to run and only an hour to spare. In the end, I ended up taking an hour and a half and only forgot one thing (I think). Not bad, but man - I could have totally used a clone or two helping me out.

There was this book I read last year, can't remember the name - some near-future setting - in which people could purchase clones of themselves. You could then get these clones to go and do stuff for you all day - send one to take your laundry to the dry cleaner and do your shopping, another one you could send in to work for you - if you were feeling adventurous, you could send one out skydiving or motorbike racing. Meanwhile you could be enjoying the day, pretty much doing whatever the hell you wanted - hopefully involving various quantities of relaxing and debauchery. At the end of the day, all of your clones would come back and you would be able to download their memories - so effectively, you would have done EVERYTHING.

Today was a 3 clone day...

Long Weekend Hangovers

It's amazing how long a two day weekend can feel when you haven't had one in a while.

So after a few boozy nights and stuffing myself with WAY too much at the BBQ...it's back to work. Highlights from the BBQs included the usual mini-soccer tournament, some small accidents with the fireworks as well as making various children cry (including my large friend, Pepsi). Bottom line - the house didn't burn down, no one was permanently maimed and (as far as I know) no lawsuits are pending.

On the bright side - it's already tuesday, so in theory it's only a four day week.