chumptastic dot org

aha. i’ve finally resolved all of my dns issues, and as a result i think i’ve successfully switched everything over to chumptastic.org. screw you and your inconsistent service, dhs.org! so yeah, if you find anything not working, and you will, please let me know.

auf der maur kicked my ass last night. mitch (being severely star struck and excited) arrived at the grad club super early and got us seats at the table beside the stage - a plan that was somewhat foiled when the keyboardist commanded “get these tables OUTTA HERE! you look like you’re going to fall asleep!” even so, i was standing in front of the stage - so close, in fact, that the guitarist (who didn’t actually fit on the stage) would hit me with his guitar if he turned around too abruptly. at one point during the show, melissa (of hole and smashing pumpkins fame) commented that one of her favourite bands is queens of the stone age. this makes sense ’cause their music is relatively similar - loud, driving, guitar-based goodness…and it was nice to hear her sing for once.

apparently that was only auf der maur’s third show as a band, but it didn’t show. they were apparently using kingston and a few other smaller cities to prepare for shows in toronto and montreal, as well as a big europen tour all winter. lucky for us. it was pretty cool to see a big rock star in, as melissa put it, “your mother’s living room”. oh, and she seems genuinely nice too - lots of autographs were signed and pictures were taken. good.

an aside: holy shit. 182 chumptastic visitors yesterday. who ARE you people?

steve reintroduced me to this today. i’d forgotten about that site. fun.

good news: i made it so i can post new entries again. until i get a stable dns setup, comments still won’t work on chumptastic.org though (although spammers seem to be intent on hammering away at www.chumptastic.org). blahblahblah.

so what’s new?

well, for starters, my birthday finally concluded on the weekend when sofi visited. she bestowed upon me many treasures, including a t-shirt that says “computers are fun and useful”, a talking mr. t keychain (first name mister, middle name period, last name…….t), and wilco and neutral milk hotel cds. spoiled! saturday was also robin’s and my birthday party, and i discovered what happens to me after drinking 1.5 litres of wine. not pretty. but fun (for me anyway).

sunday night: maggie and i saw fix, a documentary about the vancouver drug scene and the pursuit of safe injection sites. it was extremely well done, and what made it even cooler was that it was introduced by the director, and after the movie she led a panel discussion, including a couple of “stars” of the film. very well done.

and finally, last night sloan played the grand theatre. now, i’ve seen sloan at least a dozen times, so i was less excited than i am for, say, melissa auf der mar’s band on wednesday - but considering the declining quality of sloan music over the last few years, i’d say that was warranted. it kind of made me sad to note that all of the hyper-excited kids at the show (who consider themselves massive sloan fans, to the point of making their own t-shirts and screaming continuously for several hours) think sloan began with navy blues or between the bridges. this was evident with the declining excitement from the crowd during songs like coax me or deeper than beauty (i, of course, was far more excited for the oldies…but then again, i’m old). also: sloan didn’t tour with a keyboard. gah! that was a big let down. the only good thing i can say about that is that their keyboardless version of c’mon c’mon was excellent. overall, they did a much better job of mixing up new songs with old ones than they did in the past, but their glory days are behind them. oh, and boy (who opened) kicked their ass, much like the dears did last time i saw sloan at the grand.

as you may or may not have noticed, some stuff on chumptastic has decided not to work with the new domain (posting comments for example). yes i know. yes i will fix it someday. i’m just slow.

whoa. rob really DOES suck.
check out the last comment recently appended to this old post for proof.

hey look, it’s robin’s birthday. again. that guy always seems to want to steal the limelight.

happy birthday regardless. stealer.

ah, so another birthday has come and gone. i’m approaching 30 which is currently freaking me out for a number of reasons i’d rather not discuss here. it’s interesting though - a lot of jokes are made about my age (and i think i make more than anyone) compared to the people i hang out with most (mere pups), and this is the first time i’ve actually thought to myself “wow. old.” i’m sure this will pass.

anyway, as for my birthday itself, it was lovely. kristi brought scotto and tim for a visit on sunday, and the showered me with dollar store birthdayness: noisemakers (that make no noise), party hats (one is still attached to my car’s antenna), reading glasses (man, they definitely look like they cost $1), a fabulous archery set (designed to take out an eye) which also included a lovely gem-encrusted dagger, and no doubt other things i’ve forgotten. they also brought me a cake (mmmm), a yo la tengo cd, a futurama dvd set, and the about a boy dvd. not a bad haul.

my actual birthday was yesterday, and jo also provided me with a cake (mmm again). other loot: a t-shirt advertising the fact that “i’m a rocker. i rock out” (courtesy of jo), a mighty wind on dvd (mitch), so i married an ax murderer (robin) and, get this: http://www.chumptastic.org (also robin). how cool is that? so update your bookmarks because i’m entering the realm of non-profit-dom. i’ll probably be doing a site redesign sometime soon to celebrate.

anyway, it was a lovely birthday so thank you all.

kill bill is good. especially if you like a lot of serious blood spraying and gurgling. you should see it. right after you see lost in translation, that is. that movie kicked my ass.

in other news, kelly and maggie had their first lessons on how to drive standard this evening. they put me to shame with how fast they picked it up. sure, there was some lurching and the occasional stall, but wow. i remember my first lesson…i’m pretty sure my dad got whiplash. i must be stick shift stupid.

you can’t kick jesus! are you retarded?