Giving thanks

Online shopping is great. Its allowed me to get my hands on various products unavailable in my part of the woods and on some others that were selling much cheaper elsewhere.

One drawback though is the lack of human interaction. You'll get no smiles from your computer when you purchase electric legwarmers over the Web.

I'm pretty used to this by now and I never pay much attention to the thank you page that usually appears after I've completed an order.

But today, when I opened an email from the online music store I just bought a CD from, I was amazed.

Here is what was written:

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves withsterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sureit was in the best possible condition before mailing.
Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell overthe crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that moneycan buy.
We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole partymarched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Wednesday, October 31st.
I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby.
We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year."
We're allexhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now doesn't that make you feel all warm inside?

Of course there might be a touch of exageration in the steps stated above, but just the fact that someone took the time to write such a thoughful and funny email amazes me.

Go to cdbaby.com and buy something, anything. I'm pretty sure you won't be rewarded by such gratefulness anywhere else.

CBC and new music

I haven't gotten any comments on this yet, but I still feel the need to make it clear right away. I am in no way associated with the CBC; I just have a major crush on it.

It just amazes me that I only discovered this radio station two years ago. I know I'm still pretty young, but still, everyone should be aware that the national broadcaster also broadcasts on the airwaves.

Don't have time to listen to the radio? Own a MP3 player? You can still take CBC with you, most shows being available as podcasts.

Just to prove to you that its worth listening to, I'll show you this. I discovered this while listening to the Radio 3 podcast with Grant Lawrence today. I also discovered this. And, although some of you might already know of this, I wasn't aware it existed. So there you go, three great finds in one podcast. You should now be convinced of the importance of listening to anything produced by the CBC. After all, if you're Canadian, you are paying for it.

I'll tell two other secrets that aren't so secret before I let you go:

1. Lions love CBC. No one knows why, but I think its because lions are just that cool.
2. On this station, you'll never hear advertising. Never!

Vinyl cafe

Do you have favorite shows?
I have favorite shows.
Most people I suppose have favorite shows.
But unlike most people, mine are radio shows.

Do yourselves a favour and tune in to the next installment of Afghanada. This series often keeps me up past my bedtime.

Also be sure to give a listen to Stuart Mclean's Vinyl cafe. You'll hear a mix of great stories and cool tunes by bands you may never have heard of.

I should tell you that I started this post on Sunday, but that I had to leave before finishing it. I had begun writing full of inspiration and filled with the intention of giving a detailed and amusing account of both shows mentionned above and was hoping to hold on to that inspiration until I found the time to get back on Blogger. Tonight, my hopes were dashed. So, unfortunately for you, these lines are the best I can manage at the moment. Do not despair however, as I will surely find the spark to write some inspired rant at some point during the week.

Really though, I'm not kidding; both shows are some of the best out there and everyone who can tune in to CBC's Radio One should check them out.

Apple pie (edited)

This year I baked some apple pies for the first time. That might not be a particularly shocking statement to anyone; I'm not big on making elaborate dishes, and had really never baked anything before this year. But now I'm living pretty far away from my pie maker/mother (or should that be the other way around) so I had to take matters into my own hands. Pie after all is my favorite dessert and you just can't go without your favorite dessert for too long before you loose some marbles. Of course they sell pie at the store, but that crap just doesn't cut it. Marbles won't be saved by storebought pie.

I'm going to switch to first person plural here. Don't freak out, I just had company for the rest of the story.

There was excitement and flour in the air. We were about to make our first apple pie. Neither of us had ever attempted this before, but I felt pretty confident. After all, she was in my eyes a dessert-making expert and I had eaten quite a few pies in my day. So we ventured on. Slicing the apples was easy. Mixing the dough was easy. Flattening the dough was a little tricky. And, finally, assembling the pies was the most fun you can have with sliced apples.

We managed to make four pies and one crumble. Pretty good for me, a first timer. She seemed happy with the results as well.

We went out for a walk afterwards. Leaving is a very important part of baking apple pies. You have to go outside for about half an hour just to enjoy the smells of fall and the special mood that this season brings along. When you get back, you'll get rewarded by the sweet smell of pie baking victory which will have filled every corner of your dwelling space.

The day was ended as every apple pie/crumble making day should end; with a good diner topped off by some oh so good pie and some delicious crumble.

I ate a slice of those pies tonight and it brought me back to that afternoon. I know it hasn't been that long since they were baked, but I'm still glad. I'm glad to know that I'll most likely be reminded of that day every time I eat homemade pie for the rest of my life.

Thank you for the wonderful day. Thank you for the wonderful memories.


Now, on to the lions

Fun facts about lions # 1

A male lion is referred to as a lion or tom. (wonder who's the guy who said "you know what, I know it's a lion, but lets just call it Tom")

Evolution

He felt quite happy about his life now.

He still remembered the day his best friend told him their friendship would be over if he didn't try to get along with one of his pals. That was one of those defining moments you remember all your life. He was a kid back then. He thought about how things had changed since then. About all the friends he'd made over the years. About all the ones he'd lost. About how it would be much cooler if he was thinking about this in front of a fireplace while smoking a pipe. Ah well, you can't have it all he thought.

He'd evolved a lot over the years,
High school had made him a better kid.
University had made him a better teen.
The workplace had made him a man.
Moving away from everything he had ever known had made him a better version of that man.

He felt he was now finally ready. Ready for what he didn't know, but ready.
He was happy and he was intent on staying happy.

Tamers

Good morning, afternoon or evening to you, fellow internauts,

If you're reading this, it probably means you stumbled onto my blog while searching for new tricks to teach your lion. After all, the whole jumping through hoops of fire thing does get old after a while. Innovation is the key to keeping the audience happy.

If indeed you are a lion tamer, you'll unfortunately have to get ideas from someone else; I only publish taming tips.

But mostly I write some silly things and some less silly things as a way to hone my imagination, so that I have at least a couple of lines to put in the book I'll publish when I become a surfer. And there you go; I've lost all but one of you. It's okay though. You see, I have this concept about people who are known as surfers and I intend to put it to the test once I become one of those people.

Are you amused by what you read here today? Good. Hold on to that feeling. People who smile are just more fun to look at.

That's all for now folks.

Take care,

R.

Lion taming tip # 19

Buy a really big clawing board, your furniture will thank you.

Vibes

I've got them.
Do you have them?
Do you even know what them is?
I'll tell you what them is.
Soon.
Very soon.
Now...

Vibes.
Not just any vibes.
Phantom vibes.

Training

He just sat there, waiting for the training to start, praying to the universe (the universe was about the only thing he prayed to these days) that the small group in his classroom didn't include people who asked a lot of questions. He didn't particularly frown on people who ask questions, the thirst for knowledge being an admirable quality, but he did harbor strong feelings of disdain for those who ask useless questions which only serve to slow down the process.

The facilitator began his class, and the Universe took a break...

If you're in school or in university, asking questions is alright, most of the time, but if you're taking some other type of class, let it go. Everything you need to know will be taught. If you absolutely need to know something about circumstances that apply only to yourself, wait until class is over and talk to the facilitator one on one. The other people just don't care...

There you have it, now you know one of my pet peeves. I will now proceed to be happy for the rest of the evening.


Lion taming tip # 17

When you walk your lion, do it at night and wear a clown costume. Your neighbors will feel much safer knowing that they have hallucinations than knowing someone on their block has a lion.

It lives!

It had been more than a month. More than a month since he left La belle province. More than a month since he stopped taking the bus to work. More than a month since he entered his now transformed hellhole. More than a month since he abandonned his blazingly fast Internet connection...

This morning, when the problem was finally fixed and his modem stopped showing him the red light of death, he felt that this had not been such a bad experience. Perhaps being offline for a month had allowed him to attain a certain level of zen, or perhaps he had really gone mad.

He was nevertheless very happy because he knew that he could now finish setting up his office, a task that he had put off since arriving because he just couldn't stand to look at his computer in its isolated state.

So there you have it dwellers of the virtual universe, I'm back. My posts should therefore regain some sort of regularity and lion taming tips should also be back soon.

This whole ordeal has left me with only one question: What could have pushed one of the previous tenants to physically sever his or her own phone line? I'll get back to you with the answer if I ever find out.

Until next time, take care of yourselves.

R.

Live

You just haven't experienced music until you've heard it played live. The energy from the artists and the vibrations from the speakers add a dimension to the sound that just can't be reproduced on a CD. If you've never seen a band in concert, try to do it as soon as possible.

Offline still

Maybe warning the Bell people about the lion wasn't the best idea, he thought while sitting in front of his useless computer.

Comments

First of all, gracias senor Crescenet para su commentario, and for trying to help me out in these depressing times, depressing as far as my computer is concerned anyways.

Live in Brazil? Looking for an Internet provider? Check out the comment to post #16. Be warned that I don't know anything about the company mentionned so don't take this as a recommendation. Before signing up, do what you should do when you get into any contract, search the Web for reviews and comments from existing or past customers.

Hasta luego.

R.