Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Lord of the Squirrels' LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
9:11 pm	Toronto to Boylston I am heading out from Toronto to Boylston, MA on Thursday morning, travelling along the highway 90 corridor. It is an 8 hour drive for which I have all of Thursday and Friday and some of Saturday morning, so I was hoping to see some sights, and wondered if anyone had anything to recommend along the route. I am currently looking at Adirondacks park, but am open to suggestions. (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 12th, 2007
9:12 pm	Reminder & Question A reminder that I have moved my (admittedly infrequent, but I am trying to get to roughly weekly) blogging to weblog.larkvi.com . A question: I can save $2oo on my flight if I can get to Buffalo on the monring of the 26th, however the Greyhound ddoes not run in the mornings on Saturdays... does anyone know of a really keen way to get to Buffalo from Toronto early in the morning on a Saturday that is not prohibitively expensive? I could just drive, but the parking for the month and a bit that I will be gone is prohibitively expensive, and I have no one to drive me otherwise. I suppose if someone had a really keen parking solution in Buffalo, that would work too. (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 15th, 2007
3:03 pm	REMEMBER THE MAINE! To war, my friends--to war! Current Mood: bellicose Current Music: Queen - I'm Slightly Mad (Comment on this)
1:07 pm	University Promotional Video Received last week, from henchminion, by way of the internets: "Want to be in a U of T promotional video? The Strategic Communications Department contacted me and asked if I could be part of a flash video they're going to send to prospective graduate students. It seems they want to portray U of T as a warm and welcoming community despite its size, and they seem to think that images of a wild-eyed medievalist waving a sword would be just the thing to do it. (*Shrug* I don't get it either.) " Not understanding, but being of a generally agreeable disposition, I consented, and suggested that we fence in tweed coats, to truly represent medieval studies. When we showed up, I found that she had not taken me up on the suggestion, but that it had truly been apt: the script read "[henchminion], in medieval garb" next to her lines. Yes, after all the lines touting the scientific and cultural achievements of those in the sciences and social sciences, they needed someone to show that even weirdoes with obscure interests are welcome at UofT, so they thought of medievalists. As if that was not already insulting, they confused us with the SCA! Anyways, we explained that we were professionals who happened to engage in medieval martial arts, not fanboys who dress up and play at being 'Olde Tym-e', and, after a moment of disappointment flashed through the eyes of the director, we went on to filming a short blurb by henchminion and some Type II drill (attack-counter, counter-attack; lines 1-7, then repeat), which will hopefully be edited into us looking awesome in the final product. The practice was good, as henchminion, being a scholler, delivers considerably better blows than the recruits I usually drill with, and I found that my false-edge parries were just not enough against her solid mezzano reverso (sp?), so it was time well-enough spent in any event. After the shooting, she showed the staff a couple simple cuts, and I carried the swords to the salle on the bus. So, if you saw a well-dressed man in tweed carrying swords on the subway or the bus yesterday, that was me. Current Mood: amused Current Music: Queen - Bicycle Race (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
5:44 pm	Winterlicious While I am organizing things: this year I want to go to some of the Winterlicious events, and was wondering if there were others who might want to go as a group. I have not decided where to go, as I was hoping owlfish might have some suggestions for the can't-miss places to eat (preferably ones where it is not necessary to buy lots of extras to go with the prix-fixe). Again, post or email me. Current Mood: delicious Current Music: Team America OST - Montage Song (2 Comments |Comment on this)
5:39 pm	AGO Deal The AGO is offerring a special deal (last chance this Friday) for young adults (18-25) to visit the Ansel Adams & Alfred Eisenstaedt exhibit in groups. I was wondering if anyone here in Toronto wanted to go this Friday and whether there were enough 25-and-youngers (we need 3-5, including me) to get the discount rate. I will be going in any event, as this is an amazing chance to see large prints by America's master landscape photographer, so I thought I would see if anyone else wanted to come along. http://www.ago.net/info/ago_exhibitions/exhibition_specific.cfm?ID=3370 This Friday, 6pm--leave a message or email me. Current Mood: excited Current Music: Homestar Runner - Trogdor Song (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 17th, 2007
5:17 pm	FACT Open House, Saturday, 20 January 2007, 3:30pm This Saturday at 3pm, the Fighting Arts Collective Toronto is having its annual Open House. Demonstrations will be conducted by all the various schools, and I am informed there will be beer there, as well. (Beer and swords--what could go wrong?) The schools are: *The Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts, which teaches historical swordfighting circa 1400. AEMMA will have armored and unarmored combatants giving demonstrations and mat-cutting with sharp facsimile swords on Facsimile Human Targets. [ www.aemma.org ] *Jeet Kun Do, Bruce Lee's re-inventing of martial arts based upon a principle of keeping what is most effective and most likely to keep one alive in a real fight. As taught in Toronto, it includes elements of Kung Fu, Phillipine stick fighting, military martial arts, boxing, wrestling, and other traditions. *Wing Chun Kung Fu, the oldest and most traditional school of that art (as I understand it). *TAC3, which is kind of like paintball with plastic BBs. I think the Capoeireia guys will be giving demonstrations as well. It should be a lot of fun--come and see it. 3:30 until late, but demos will probably be weighted earlier. I will have to leave ffor a party, so I will only be there until 6 or so. You can find FACT above the Master Mechanic shop, just West of the intersection of Dupont and Ossington, on the South side of Dupont. There should be a little sign by a door, go up to our space on the second floor (not the first door you pass, though that confuses everyone). Current Mood: amused Current Music: NPR - Story of the Day Podcast (2 Comments |Comment on this)
11:39 am	Jorge Cham -- Here! Everyone who is able to come should have gotten the same email I did, but for anyone who has not already booked their appointment, what are you waiting for? Join the creator of the popular comic strip for grad students, Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD) Jorge Cham on Wednesday January 24 at noon as he presents, The Power of Procrastination. Book signing to follow. Limited seating is available so please sign up online at www.careers.utoronto.ca. If you are not currently registered with us, you will be asked to do this first in order to access the sign up schedule. PhD Comics may be found here, for the incompletely educated. A fair warning: the sign-up process to get a career centre login is so poorly designed that it filled me with rage. "You must sign up for at least one of our services that you neither want nor need." "Your throwaway password must be at least 8 characters." "With a number." "And an uppercase letter." "Not an uppercase number--that would be too easy for you." "Now you need lowercase letters." "I am sorry, but IHATETHISF#%^&%#&^#%INGFORM is not a legitimate password." And on and on... Jorge Cham is worth it, though. Current Mood: aggravated/giddy Current Music: NPR - Story of the Day Podcast (Comment on this)
Monday, December 4th, 2006
2:50 pm	Marmot, Yoho National Park of Canada A lot of my posts are just going to be filler which I will duplicate on my new blog, when I relaunch my website. So, furry animals for now. Current Mood: groggy Current Music: Nightwish - The Beauty of the Beast (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, November 10th, 2006
9:08 pm	Signs of Their Times: Route 66 (Two) Alleviating the long boring stretches of the drive between sites of scenic wonder, bits of the past sticck out from the thousands of miles of museum tha Route 66 is, and eclectic mix of the old and new, fading bits of a bygone age preserved to eke out a living from the nostalgic, curious (or just thrifty) traveller. The few that I an presenting are ones that especially caught my attention for some reason. This one seems very representative to me; it is also red, with all of the powerful color association that gives (red is the color the eye is first drawn to and most captivated by, for better or for worse, depending upon composition; so says color theory--I tend to agree). Current Mood: tired Current Music: Bok, Muir, and Tricket - Julian of Norwich (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 8th, 2006
11:26 pm	Signs of Their Times: Route 66 On my way from Toronto to California, I kept along Route 66 for a good portion of the way. One of the great remnants of Route 66 is the wealth of signs left from its heyday. I have chosen a few of the choicer ones, and will post them in the coming days. Current Music: Escape Pod Podcast (Comment on this)
8:27 pm	A Pumpkin Grotesque henchminion is quite the adept pumpkin carver, preferring to find knobby pumpkins and bring out their innate character. She asked me to photograph her most recent effort, which, though a bit soft from age, is nevertheless very impressive. A color version may be found behind the cut; she may have another on her journal soon. ( Read more... ) Current Mood: amused Current Music: Escape Pod Podcast (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 6th, 2006
11:17 am	Fog, Trees, and Reflection; Dawn, Glacier National Park 2 A third image in my series of fog and trees from my trip this Summer. As always, comments and critique are welcome. Current Mood: calm Current Music: Have Games, Will Travel Podcast (Comment on this)
Monday, October 30th, 2006
5:28 pm	finfin loaned me his copy of Gankutsuou: the Count of Monte Cristo, and I just finished watching the first disk. I must say that I am enjoying it immensely. Lavishly illustrated, it is a faithful retelling of the Dumas classic, with two major differences: 1. The Count is a blue space vampire (nobody mentions this, because it would be impolite) and 2. The series is set ina space-travel future where Luna is a playground city like Vegas, and Marseilles is a horrible place that no one ever visits. From what I have seen, it is altogether brilliant, and I recommend it highly to anyone interested in Japanese retellings of classic Western stories (for the same reason, I recommend Reign: the Conqueror, a fantasy-retelling of the life of Alexander the great). Current Mood: amused Current Music: Have Games, Will Travel Podcast (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 25th, 2006
1:25 pm	Fog, Trees, and Reflection; Dawn, Glacier National Park A short period around dawn on this morning represented my most productive section of the entire trip, all in the first mile of an 11-mile hike, half straight uphill over broken rock to a glacier, the other half right back down. On one litre of water, no less (I had accidentally forgotten my iodine tablets). The dawn was special: the fog and clouds kept blowing in and out of the trees, and the mist across the lake; I shot continuously for much of that hour, pausing in shooting only to move to the next shooting location. Current Mood: tired Current Music: Have Games, Will Travel Podcast (Comment on this)
Monday, October 23rd, 2006
5:12 pm	Fog and Trees, Jasper National Park of Canada, Summer 2006 I have not posted for a while, but I am finally getting into the process of editing my Summer photos, and a trickle of them will start appearing here. The first one follows, with an alternative version appearing behind the cut, so I can get your thoughts on how dark is too dark. ( Read more... ) Current Mood: cold Current Music: Have Games, Will Travel Podcast (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 22nd, 2006
1:23 am	Courtesy of lord_whimsy and well worth watching: http://www.bravia-advert.com/ I rather like this new phenomenon of high-interest viral advertising on the internet, as I really do not object watching an advertisement for a company if they make it amusing enough to be worth my time, unlike the vast majority of advertising, which seems to work under the assumption that your attention is captive, so the entertainment value really matters very little. Current Mood: enervated Current Music: Heart - Sylvan Song/Dream of the Archer (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 3rd, 2006
10:20 pm	Well, suprisingly fast, I have new (and larger, though more expensive) accomodations. No internet or phone as yet, however, and still some kinks to iron out with the landlady (I need more food storage space!), but I am not floating about from house to house anymore. Current Mood: relieved (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, September 1st, 2006
11:40 pm	So, after more than two weeks sleeping on some friends' floor, today I was supposed to be able to move into my new place, which I had committed to take several days ago, due to my housing situation having degraded over the Summer, necessitating a new place. I called several times during the day, but could not reach the lady at her office or home, and even dropped by to find an empty house. I finally caught up with her after 10 in the evening, when she returned home, and she told me that she had decided earlier in the day to let out the room to someone else, without so much as bothering to contact me. Her reason: I had not contacted her yet. Ignore that I told her I was going to be driving up from New York, which would have taken the better part of the day (I did not end up making that drive after all, as I was not needed, but it would suggest that I would not be calling before the afternoon anyways) and the fact that I had firmly committed to the place, even offered to mail the money to her before, and even then her logic would be a bit shoddy--if someone does not show up at all, that is one thing, but it was still the first, and I had been trying to contact her all afternoon. Even if I had not showed up, she could have at least had the decency to try to contact me first, instead of deciding before the day was up to let it out to someone else. So now, I am once again homeless and sleeping on a friend's floor, and tomorrow will be frantically rushing to find a new place. It's been a month and a half since I have slept in an actual bed, and while much of that was camping by choice, it is nevertheless getting tiring and thoroughly depressing and is sseverely eating into my ability to get anything done. Current Mood: exhausted (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 17th, 2006
3:52 pm	Submitted for your perusal, an article by Tom Stoppard and some interesting, and I think both relevant and fair comments by Tom Wolfe about modern art and the craftsman tradition. These comments are already under attack, and Stoppard is perhaps backpedaling a bit in the article, but I think that they have good points that the elite of the art world don't want to hear, but should. (Comment on this)