Very well. The first comet I really saw. One evening, I was riding a bus from my place in Hamilton to my wife's place in London (this was during the time when we lived apart for career reasons) and got a great view of it out the window.
I've put on some Jamaican Blue Mountain Dark Roast for coffee. Teas are Irish Breakfast and Black Currant. Cold drinks all refreshed.
Temperature has improved here but it's still muggy. At least there's a breeze, which helps a bit.
No comp entry here, just stray thoughts that could become one.
Welcome to day two of Summer Love!! Not some new relationship I'm having, but the StoriesSpace comp that launched yesterday. I'm thinking about possible stories. How about you?
In other news, there's Tobermory Flowerpot Island coffee brewing. In the teapots, there's some David's Breakfast (named for the chain that sells it, not some dude named David) and Kenyan Tinderet. The latter is delish. If you thought all good coffee came from the Far East or India/Ceylon, it's worth a try. There's some nice stuff in Africa, too. Cold beverages are all looking good and will be needed. 31-33C with humidex potentially heading for the 40s here for both days of the weekend.
AI research has to happen. Regardless of what we think of things like ChatGPT and Gemini, AI is a powerful research tool. Already, Google's labs have vastly improved our ability to generate models of protein folding, critical for improving drugs and other biochemistry. Scientists are feeding large data sets into AI models to more quickly and efficiently analyze them. Basically, it's the old computer adage: "Garbage in, Garbage out". Used with a meaningful, useful dataset, AI can work wonders. Used with something like the Internet, which is a mixed bag with lots of meaningless, useless, and sometimes downright harmful data, it pukes out garbage. And research is how we are going to deal with it properly. Now, whether this bill actually helps with that research is another whole issue...
(and that's James the Bear you're responding to, by the way)
I have thoughts. Going to dance through my writer's notebook to see if there's anything there, too. Most of it is longer pieces, potential novel(la)s and such, though.
The other release burning up my buds this week is from another Finnish act with a Nightwish connection, the folk-prog-rock-whatever (it's bloody hard to classify) ensemble Auri. Auri is a trio consisting of Tuomas Holopainen (keys, songwriter), Troy Donockley (various other instruments, occasional vocals), and Johanna Kurkela (lead vocals). Tuomas and Troy are longtime bandmates in Nightwish, Tuomas and Johanna are a married couple. They are coming up to the release of their third studio LP and a major European tour.
Bearwood is an interesting project. Blues-inflected rock ensemble headed by guitarist (and a damn fine one) Marko Karhu. Vocalist is Finnish singer and bassist Marko Hietala, who I know from his time in Nightwish and more recently his solo career. Magnificent musician whether he's singing or playing or both (he just sings in Bearwood). The band has several singles out now but still no indication if an album is the ultimate goal here.
Happy Fourth, my American neighbours!! Have a good one!!
There's Kicking Horse Happy Camper on for coffee. Bigelow's (American brand) Earl Grey and Raspberry Royale on for teas. Lots of sodas from both sides of the border along with pitchers of unsweet iced tea and lemonade for those needing a cold beverage. And in honour of both countries celebrating b-days this week, here's the cake.
So now that my country's birthday is over with, we can get back to our regular fun and games. There's Deathwish Dark Roast on in the coffee pot. For teas we have Cream of Earl Grey and Kenyan Tinderet (a really nice African black tea). And there's the usual assortment of cold drinks in the fridge.
I am struggling a bit with writing. I'm producing, but it's all for another site and I'm despairing of ever being able to get a project for here to the finish line. They just all seem to languish or ramble on. I was reviewing some of my options yesterday and I am still not really sure which one to pursue. Or just toss the lot and start something new. Part of my problem is my penchant for starting to write with a scene or general idea in mind but no real sense of where it should go or how it will end. Or I have an idea of how it will end but grow to hate it as I progress and halt before I get there.
Quote by verbal The bill passed the Senate. The billionaires are in charge now.
Thought that a different version passed the House and reconciliation would be needed? So it may not yet be over. Keep fighting. I was a bit po'd at the revocation of the Digital Service Tax. Giving Trump his way make ape grumpy. I am not a big fan of some of the regulatory moves Canada has made around digital services (like enforcing Can-con on services like YouTube), but using a tax to keep some of the profits in Canada was one I could handle.
It's Canada Day up Canada way on the first day of July...
So sang one of this country's great songwriters, Stompin' Tom. In honour of the day, here's pancakes with real Canadian maple syrup. Coffee is Timmy's Dark Roast (because Canada) and teas are Canadian Breakfast and Vinyl Cafe, both genuinely, authentically Canadian from my local tea shop. There's fresh lemonade and unsweet iced tea in the fridge. Sodas are stocked up, including a selection from Canadian legends, Pop Shoppe. There's actually been two runs of that brand. The first started in London, Ontario (Yay!) in 1969 and I remember them from my youth. They went bust in the eighties but the brand was revived in Burlington, Ontario in 2004. Have not actually tried them since the revival.
And some Canadian music. The Globe & Mail, one of Canada's biggest papers, did a list of "101 Canadian Albums You Need To Hear" for Canada Day this year. It's a real mix from classical greats like pianist Glenn Gould to the great Canadian singer-songwriters from the sixties and seventies (Young, Mitchell, Lightfoot, Cohen) to popular contemporary stars like Drake and The Weeknd. But one metal band made the list. Anvil started in 1978 and are cited as a major influence on thrash metal (Metallica, Megadeath, Slayer).
Here's a live performance of the title track from Metal On Metal by Anvil, one of the 101 Canadian albums you need to hear.
And forty plus years on, they are still at it. This is from last year's One And Only.
Watched a couple concerts from last week's Hellfest, big rock and metal festival in France. The Warning (Mexican power trio consisting of three sisters) and The Hu (Mongol folk metal).
Decent weather today. Still muggy but the heat is taking a break. Back to 30C tomorrow, though.
Got something out for another site. Gave up on my idea of writing in Obsidian. Too limited and Markdown imposes some weird limitations compared to a conventional word processor. Though I have realized that Markdown is actually the underlying language for the editor on this site. For instance, if you type a "*" followed by a space to start a line, it becomes a bullet. That's Markdown syntax. "# " creates a heading, and you can do Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. by using more "#"s (eg. ## creates a Heading 2 line). Examples of Heading 1 and Heading 2 below. Wish that was made clear somewhere on here. Sorry for the boring geeky stuff. I'm still a paid professional IT nerd so I do stuff like that from time to time.
I'm wondering if tackling the recent Kings will get my reading mojo back. I hear he got good again. The fact that he now has a recurring character in Holly intrigues me. He used to have characters pop up as cameos or background characters in his novels, but never a real recurring character outside the Dark Tower, but that was an actual series.
Quote by gillianleeza looks a lot like a remake of the Gary Oldman version from 1992.
Added a few words to make it more accurate. I mean, did Besson actually read the book at all or just watch Coppola's version over and over? Looks like he's moved the setting from London to Paris so that might change the atmosphere a bit, but in general, it looks and feels like the Coppola. Maybe Dan Curtis', too, which used the "Mina is the reincarnation of Dracula's wife" plot long before Coppola did, though it was grittier and less over the top given it was a TV version and lacked a feature film budget (Jack Palance made a remarkably good Count, though). And I'm not sure Curtis was even the first. IOW, I'm not sure how excited I am for this version. The recent Nosferatu remake stirred more interest, to be honest, and I haven't even seen it yet.
Quote by verbal In other news, got a flat after running over a nail while picking up my grandson from school.
One day I was driving somewhere on a Sunday and felt a tire going. Fortunately, I had to pass my office so I pulled into the parking lot. Put my donut on and went to Canadian Tire which is pretty much the only service bay open on Sundays here. Turned out I picked a broken piece of a metal spoon. No idea how that happened, but it stands as the strangest reason I have ever visited a garage.
Jazz-pop star Laufey continues her ascendence in the pop world. Her new album is due later this summer. She's announced an arena tour (seriously), which is amazing for someone singing in a style that was already considered "old people music" in my youth. I love it myself, but it's hardly what I expected would drive a stellar career in the 2020s. The next single from her upcoming album dropped yesterday and it's another of her forays into bossa nova, the hybrid of American Jazz and Brazilian music introduced by figures like Antonio Carlos Jobim and Stan Kenton in the 50s and 60s. She recently played in Brazil for the first time and was very thankful to them for their contribution to her music.
Happy Thursday!! Bit dark and wet around here but at least the temps have come down. Still a bit warm for my taste, but not unbearable. Holidays loom next week on both sides of the border. Canada Day is Tuesday and Independence Day in the US is Friday. Get ready for some celebratin'.
Tinkering with a new story but it's one of those ones where I have a scenario and some plot points but not an actual developing plot. I'm writing away, hoping one appears. That's worked sometimes in the past.
Well, I don't ski, but if I did, I could be happy with either. I've hiked the Colorado Rockies and visited the Alps, albeit on the Swiss side. Probably Colorado, though, if it was just for skiing. Closer to home.
And the director of the first Bond movie of the Amazon era appears to be ... Denis Villeneuve, director of Arrival, BladeRunner 2049, and the current Dune series. He's got a pretty full plate already, with another Dune movie (Dune Messiah) planned, along with a new movie about Cleopatra so who knows when this will happen. And I've heard nothing about writers and actors, either. Villeneuve involved is good news given the quality of his past work and really suggests a hard reboot might in the offing. He's going to want a lot of creative control and won't want to be saddled with the past, even if he will likely pay homage to it. I remember hearing a lot about Villeneuve when he was still a rising star here in Canada so seeing him land another big franchise is quite amazing.
