pictures from morden
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
What follows are some pictures from the Corn and Apple Festival. Click on any picture and be rewarded with a larger view.
This is a really creepy place that advertised 'children only'.
Jon posing with Miss. Manitoba.
The view from the back of the lineup for the free corn.
John Gerrard was the guy that gave me my cob. He's the guy in the red hat, and is the only Liberal MLA in the province. I don't think anyone else knew who he was.
I think this is the best billboard ever. Click it for a larger image. This was photographed on Hwy 3 heading west out of Morden.
After we left Morden Jon directed us down some gravel roads. We happened upon this cairn, which turned out to be a memorial to some town that used to be here but isn't anymore. This was literally in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farmer's fields. Jon on the right, Travis on the left.
All in all it was a very fun and worthwhile trip. Though I did almost fall asleep at the wheel driving home. But it's all good.
Fuck, I just noticed I now seem to be getting comment spam...so I'm going to take advantage of that verification word feature for comments. Hope that doesn't turn any of the commentors off.
author: m@ » comments:
your eyes must do some raining if you're ever going to grow
Friday, August 26, 2005
So I was offered a position today at a different branch, finally getting rid of that 'trainee' moniker that had been attached to my 'personal financial services representative' job title. The branch should be a good one, it's located in a very culturally diverse part of the city, which could make it fun. Earlier this month one of the other PFSRs from the branch I'm at now went there, to help them out because they're experiencing a higher-than-normal turnover rate. I'll miss the branch I've been at since January, every single person there is really cool, and getting to know new people can be tiresome sometimes.
I'll also miss bussing through the downtown, which I do now every morning and night. I really love changing buses right at the Bay building, because its' an excuse to go in there and spend some money.
But it will be nice. It was nice that they called my boss and asked if I wanted to go there, because otherwise I'd have to go and apply at different branches, go through interview shit again.
I'm pretty pumped about going to Morden tomorrow, turns out a third will be joining us, Jon, who after 2 years in Scotland has returned and is still exactly the same.
Here's a question, best suggestions on ways to start a conversation with a girl on the bus (or at a stop) who consistently wears headphones. I'm not a fan of the just-start-talking thing, because that's assinine.
author: m@ » comments:
randomness
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
So it's been a while since I've posted, but never doing anything other than going to work will do that. No, that's unduly harsh. I did hang out at Shane's new house, which was a pretty fun time. It's always cool hanging out with him and his wife. He's a teacher (math primarily) and clued us into a website he's working on for his kids. It'll be up here once school starts.
I rented a car for this weekend, and a friend and me will be driving down to Morden (a town in SW Manitoba) to take part in their annual Corn and Apple Festival. Mainly for the novelty of getting out of the city for a day, but also for the free corns on the cob and apple cider! Should be a fun, at least it's an excuse to go for a ride.
"I have a background from my younger days in hockey. When somebody slammed you into the boards with undue force and aggression, you took their number," Emerson said. "I think we've got to take their number."
That's a quote from Industry Minister David Emerson speaking about the United States' decision to ignore ruling after ruling declaring the trade tariffs imposed on Canadian softwood. He and Ottawa have been identifying areas where tariffs imposed by our government would have maximum impact on the U.S. economy. The difficulty being, not to select items that would unfairly punish one specific part of Canada (i.e. setting export limitations on crude oil would impact Alberta plenty more than any other region). That was my first reaction, if going for maximum impact. I've heard talk of putting restrictions on newsprint export, which I think would be a good start. Next should come electricity. But what do I know, I'm just an armchair politician.
author: m@ » comments:
i'm pissed off
Monday, August 15, 2005
CBC has locked out some of its staff, and as a result cbc.ca has suffered badly. As well, Newsworld seems to be mostly airing BBC news, rather than my preferred CBC news. This bothers me. I rely on cbc.ca for my daily hits on news. I suppose for the duration of the lockout I'll redirect to the Globe and Mail site.
Message to the stupid union: Stop being asshats.
author: m@ » comments:
free giveaway
Friday, August 05, 2005
For the first time in matts' boring history, I'm having a free giveaway! For what you ask? A free music download from Canada's very own www.puretracks.com. First comer only!
Note, this is in no-way an endorsement of that site (as I don't really like it), or of legal music downloading.
Simply follow the following instructions:
"Get your free music download from http://www.puretracks.com. Choose your selection and checkout, entering your unique Serial Number and PIN. Your Serial Number is 598808 and your PIN is 8108944011."
Whoever claims this free giveaway as their own
must leave the details regarding which song they used it for, and who they are in the comments section of this post. If you try to use the numbers and they don't work, chances are you're too late, and too stupid to check the comments.
author: m@ » comments:
apples and oranges
Thursday, August 04, 2005
I'd been watching the TSX and the Dow for the past few weeks, as I'd noticed that the TSX was closing the gap. The last time that the TSX was valued higher than the Dow was a few years ago, I ripped out the little article from the paper that showed it, just because.
Now I know, I know.. the two indices are completely different, so there's really no reason as to why I should be happy when our Canadian index is higher than the US one. But I am, so shut up.
In other news, CIBC (TSX:CM) has taken a NOSEDIVE in the past few days as a result of their recent settlement in regards to an Enron lawsuit. The settlement is valued at about $2.9 billion Canadian, more than their 2004 profits of $2.2 billion. According to the lead-plaintiff in the lawsuit, this is the largest settlement by a financial institution, even more than the payments made by Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase ($2, and $2.2 billion respectively). Working as I do, for the Royal Bank, that makes me happy.
Market Indices graph courtesy of cbc.ca.
author: m@ » comments:
family guy and penguin are awesome
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Everyone click this link for a bit of the irreverent comedy that makes the Family Guy as good as it is at times.
And in other news, ripped from a post over at boing boing:
Amazon.com is selling the Penguin Classics Library, all of it, for $7989.99, saving $5,324.75 off the cover prices. The 2005 list includes 1,082 paperbacks titles, from Edwin A. Abbott to Emile Zola, from The Complete Pelican Shakespeare to The Portable Sixties Reader. The collection weighs 700 pounds. Fortunately, it qualifies for free shipping
Amazing!
author: m@ » comments:
round and round they go
Monday, August 01, 2005
So being the incredibly interesting guy that I am, I took a drive out west with my parents today to see the windmill power generators Manitoba Hydro put up a month or so ago. They're pretty neat actually, and large. They move so methodically slowly that you just know they'll last forever... or some such thing. Above is (obviously) one of the generators (I really like how the sky turned out), and below is a pictures showing that putting a chain between two concrete blocks across the road leading to the tower isn't enough to deter people from going there. Go figure. Too bad my dad was too chicken to get closer. Below that are two other pics, one complete with bug splatters on the windshield 
author: m@ » comments:
This is a really creepy place that advertised 'children only'.
Jon posing with Miss. Manitoba.
The view from the back of the lineup for the free corn.
John Gerrard was the guy that gave me my cob. He's the guy in the red hat, and is the only Liberal MLA in the province. I don't think anyone else knew who he was.
I think this is the best billboard ever. Click it for a larger image. This was photographed on Hwy 3 heading west out of Morden.
After we left Morden Jon directed us down some gravel roads. We happened upon this cairn, which turned out to be a memorial to some town that used to be here but isn't anymore. This was literally in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farmer's fields. Jon on the right, Travis on the left.
