Weblog and Playground of Gord Fynes

IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT I’M ALMOST thirty-five years old and just bought my first suit yesterday. Thirty-five. Yesterday. Yes, you read that right. I’ve forever been in receipt of mix ‘n’ match hand-me-down jackets and shirts from my Dad. I wasn’t wearing a proper suit when I got married. Our unofficial maid of honour bought me the tie I wore on my wedding day. The shoes: borrowed.

Our friends Lisa and Geoff are to be married in a few short hours. Seeing as Laurel’s the maid of honour, the least I could do was try to look reasonably respectable. I’ve never been into the whole clothes-shopping thing, although even Laurel was impressed with how I lucked out in buying the first suit and pair of shoes that caught my eye. At nearly thirty-five years in age, my selection process when shopping for clothes has been somewhat honed.

If you happen to be in NYC over the next two weeks, check out the latest Christo and Jeanne-Claude installation happening in Central Park (where Laurel and I were married nearly seven years ago). Jason Kottke has posted wonderful photos and should be pimping the artists on his photography skills for the coffee table book.

ONE OF THE BEST FILMS that I’ve seen in recent years was Denys Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasions, which had me checking out earlier works of his. I’d seen the excellent Jesus of Montreal years ago at the Bloor Cinema not too long after it started making the rep cinema rounds. In fact, as we were walking up to the theatre, a crowd and comotion involving spotlights and blaring music were gathered just outside the front doors. Turns out, the once ubiquitous look-how-clever-we-are musical punsters, Moxy Fruvous, were shooting a video for their single, “My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors”, starring none other than Mr. Book TV himself, Daniel Richler.

Announced earlier today, Mr. Archand is to be appointed to the Order of Canada. Well deserved.

BEING A READER OF A LOT OF AMERICAN BLOGS, I’ve been jealous of TiVo only being available south of the border. That is, until the communications empire known as Rogers (you know – the new SkyDome person/people) started offering PVR capability as part of their digital cable service. That, and the fact that digital cable is currently half-price for the next two months. I decided to give it a go, PVR and all. The only thing I’ll say now is that I’m getting my money’s worth, catching ALL the programs I wasn’t watching before. That, and I’ve now introduced Spongebob Squarepants into the home, two or three times a day!

School is still enjoyable – motivational and inspirational. If I were to win the lottery, I’d give serious consideration to attending university fulltime. Oh, and with a kick-ass TiBook, of course. Class is done in two months, at which point I’ll have to give serious consideration as to taking a summer course. Time and money permitting.

A photography/modern art website that I’ve been working on over the past month from scratch is just about done and should be launching shortly. Watch this space for more details. I’ve now decided that CSS is my new best friend and toy.

The old VW bit the dust at work this week. I vowed that after having to borrow cash just after Christmas to fix it, the next time it crapped out would be the last. I was not going to sink another dime, outside of oil changes, into the bastard. Wouldn’t you know, I haven’t started paying back the loan to have it fixed. That’s telling ya something. I’ll now be catching up on my reading and music listening as I ride the bus to work in the morning.

UPDATE: My review of Jeff Parker’s new disc can be found over at this week’s edition of The Brain.

ANOTHER WIND-CHILLED, WAY SUB ZERO DAY in which the fuckin’ car wouldn’t start. The third time in almost as many weeks and another $40 cab ride to work. The boy sat patiently in his seat while I tried starting the car until the battery was drained, commenting that the car sounded like badgerbadgerbadger. The funny boy.

The other g-d amazing line of the day from my pal Brendan at work. We’re in the office cafeteria enjoying morning coffee; me stuffing a creme-centered fake’n’cake into my face. As another co-worker comments on the garbage I’m eating, without missing a beat, he shouts out “Take that, metabolism!” I nearly choked from laughter.

Over at Brainwashed, Jon’s got a new announcement sign-up list to keep ya interested in Brainwashed and Brainwashed-type things in the know. That, and the splash page now centers in Safari!

My bro’s got things pretty happening with his Township Expansion project and has even received a nod from one-time Toronto Sun music columnist and Eye Weekly contributor, John Sakamoto. Dude.

The video, photography and other artistic talents of Mike Nowland just keep getting cooler over at his Slowmotionlandscape. If you happen over, tell him we say “hi.”

Family Guy is back real soon-like! At least Fox is good for something positive these days – besides the Simpsons, of course.

More overtime to work and essays to write.

THEY SAY THAT YOU TEND TO GROW BORED with the design/layout of your site long before any of your viewers do. Agreed. After all the time and thought put into to it, long before anyone else sees it, I suppose it would only be natural.

In keeping with learning some more about CSS, I ended up tooling about with this site’s layout ‘n’ stuff.

I hope it’s not too unpleasant for you.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to really get a footer to work without changing this site’s style sheet drastically, lemme know.