Clapboard - Full Frontal Nerdity

So here's one of those bullet list updates that will someday win me blogger-with-vision awards because it does away with all of those unnecessary things like transitions, complete sentences and proper punctuation.  I'm in Montreal where there's still like 2 feet of snow that just won't melt.

• first of all, it's supposed to go above freezing today.  I haven't gone outside yet, but you can bet your ass i will as soon as I've written this update and showered.  I need to get a bit of Canadian money and some breakfast.
• Went to the gym this morning after passing out on my bed at 1015pm.  No alcohol, just a short night the night before.
• played a little bit of WoW yesterday - the server seems to be empty, or else everyone is doing something else.  I remember playing before and having no problem finding people doing similar shit that I was doing so we could pair up.  It's less fun leveling alone, but it does make it easy to not go out for a beer.  I've already made back the $40 I spent on the playtime in not-bought beers.
• There's an office building across from my room, and the floor that's on my level is empty.  Makes me want to get in there and shoot some photos, but A#1) I couldn't get in there and B#2) I don't know anyone in town here to shoot.  Shame to waste a cool space like that.  Of course, it's not a waste when you don't actually have it to begin with.
• I offended everyone on my bus yesterday when I told them that I didn't like the Beatles. Didn't know it was a prereq to working on a rock tour to love them, but now I do.  (insert bitterness here.)
• Montreal looks pretty - i wish it wasn't covered in slushy blech where I have to walk.
• It's impossible to get hotel rooms cool enough so you can sleep comfortably.  In the summer, I can sort of understand them setting a lower limit on the A/C but in the winter?  just turn off the heat and it'll cool down, right?  No, the thermostat ignores you.
• Today is wander around Montreal a bit and get some work done. My SH.com redesign is coming along swimmingly, but it's tough to work on it from the hotel.  Maybe I'll also do some writing.  Wouldn't that be amazing?  I've actually done a bit, but not enough, this leg already.

Okay, that's enough for now.  Happy Thursday. Do something fun for me today and send me a picture.

So the diet thing is friggin' impossible to maintain while on tour.  The food is good, but there's simply not enough of it served without carbs to make it possible.  And while I love water, without anything sugar-free to balance it, i just go crazy.  I think I'm going to have to put fruit and fruit juices back into my diet to offset this problem, as well as the occasional bread offering (lunches are almost entirely bread-supported over here).

The tour has gotten off to a pretty chill start, so I've had time to get things done otherwise, and I've even managed to avoid drinking heavily, even when it was an option.  I'm sure I will, but it's easy (right now) to figure that there's really no benefit to it.  I've got videogames, what do I need beer for?

If you're bored with this drivel and just want to look at the ceiling behind my head in slightly higher-res, check out the "Read More" link here for an 800x600 version of my face.

If the Brothers Wright could see what atrocities were being done to their work by the TSA and a willing public these days, they'd probably have kept flying to themselves.

Flying today has become an embarrassment of epic proportions - incompetent drones following absurdist mandates from an ever-terrified group of know-nothings in suits who sit in dark rooms and think up ways to look like they're doing their jobs without once considering whether their jobs are providing the service for which they were intended lo those many years ago.  The act o getting to a seat on an airplane these days can make even the sanest folk crazy.  No wonder Americans largely eschew flight for staying home and watching American Idol.  They're not ignorant, backwater, dis-engaged and incurious, but rather staging the largest, longest and most sedentary sit-in of all time because they know what the TSA can (and does) do to you when you dare to try to fly.

That said, it's still marginally less obnoxious than driving across the country (and sailing across oceans), so I do it when called upon by the minstrel gods of rock and roll.  Especially when those same singers give me a couple of days off to hang out with my mom in Glen Mills.  Good stuff.

There's snow here (that I should be shovelling out) and the poor dog is lamed by cancer (most likely) in her shoulder and foreleg, but mom is well and the house looks great.  I'm getting work done sitting here at my mom's kitchen table, checking 4 email boxes with only a bit more difficulty (and 2 computers) than usual.  This leg of the tour is the official start of the "working from the road" program that I should have been implementing throughout all of 2010, but was too lazy to attempt.  so far, it's been a smashing success.  Having Emily at home to help out is actually really awesome - knowing that things will get done well in my absence is important to my mental health, I think.

Okay, time to get outside to shovel a little more of the driveway before moms gets home.