joe randel's art dump

So I’m sure that most out there know by now there was an earthquake here in Ontario Canada yesterday. What?! You didn’t know that? Well, there was an earthquake here in Ontario yesterday. It’s centre was just North of Ottawa and measured 5.5 in magnitude. Now, I’m not in Ottawa (anymore… I lived there when I went to college), I live about 7 hours away and I STILL felt the quake!

Our studio is on the 9th floor so when the tremor started the building began to vibrate a little. I thought someone was just running down the hall behind me but then it got stronger. Computer monitors where rocking back and forth and everyone got up from their desks to look out the window. Not sure what they expected to see really. The best way to describe the feeling was it seemed like the building was wobbling back and forth. It was really quite scary. It last about 15 seconds so not very long, but long enough to shake up everyone in the studio. Even after it was done and over, I felt that if I rocked back and forth I could make the building sway again.

Even though it was just a minor tremor, the mind tends to make up “what if” scenarios. I work on the 9th floor of a building, if something more serious where to happen, would I be able to make it to safety in time? I have issues with death and dieing that I’m working through (that’s another post) so something like this made me a bit edgy. I wasn’t in hysterics or anything. I’m actually quite calm in emergency situations. It’s only after that I see how scary something was.

Anyway, I’m okay and by the sounds of it everyone else is too. Which is a good thing. ^_^

Has anyone out there been in a scary/serious situation before? How did you react?

I’ve got a canker sore in my mouth and it hurts like crazy! o_O

Does anyone else get these things?  It’s like a little pit in the bottom part of my gums and it hurts to do just about anything face related.  It hurts to eat, talk, shave, it hurts to brush my teeth… hell, it hurts to just sit here and do nothing.  I’ve had it for about 3 days now and they usually last about a week to a week and a half.  Good grief this thing hurts like hell!

I haven’t got one in long over a year, probably two.  I could have gone longer without getting one and I wouldn’t have minded.  I’ve done research on what to do when you get one, how to avoid getting them and how they start in the first place.  From everything I’ve read it would seem that doctors don’t know how or why they start, there is no way to avoid getting them and nothing to do when you have one.  You just have to suffer though it.

God damn this sucks…  I’m going out for sushi with fiends this weekend.  I hope it’s gone by then.

So today I went to see Iron Man 2. I really enjoyed the first film and was pretty jazzed about seeing the second one and seeing what if they could keep the same rock’n feel of the first one. They did a pretty good job, but it did fall a bit short in my opinion. It started off pretty cool, but as the movie traveled on, I felt that I was just waiting action to happen. Now I know it can’t be all action all the time, but it felt more like a valley between the beginning and the end. It was still fun and I enjoyed it quite, just not as much as the first one. Mickey Rourke was good as Ivan Vanko (Whiplash) and he fit the character pretty good I though, although he didn’t say much during the film. I have to admit that I think Terrence Howard was better in the role of Col Rhodes then Don Cheadle, but he wasn’t horrible.

Now, I don’t know comics or follow the Iron Man history so I have no idea how much they’re gumming up the story of Tony Stark/Iron Man. I think that sort of works in this instance though. I’m not sitting there going on about how they’re not staying true to the comics, I’m just enjoying the ride.

So my final take on Iron Man 2 is it’s good, not as great as the first, but still lots of fun. While there I saw trailers for Super 8, The Last AirBender and Inception. They all look pretty cool and I’m interested in seeing how they turn out. I also ate enough popcorn to feed a small village drank a ton of pop during the movie. I had to pee so bad I’m sure I did damage to myself, but I didn’t want to miss anything. So next time I go to the movies… I’m getting a small drink. ^_^

Oh, and Scarlett Johansson is totally hot.

Today is my Beagle’s birthday!

YAY!!!

He’s 8 years old! We where fostering his mommy at the time she was pregnant (we later adopted her) and so we where there for his actual birth, plus his 6 siblings. We even helped break the birth sac on some of the puppies. Beagle puppies are the cutest puppies. ^_^

Here’s looking at you buddy!

^_^

Wow… I can’t tell you how happy I am to see so many people voice their opinion on the great “American candy sucks” debate (here, at DA and at FA).  It was great to read all the responses and I honestly wanted to reply to all of them, but I figured this was the best way to reach everyone. Thank you everyone, you’re all awesome! ^_^

Lots of people spoke up and stated that I should try M&M’s, Reese’s, Snickers and such because they’re quite good.  And they’re right, they are very good, plus they’re American made and internationally sold.  So my original, sweeping statement isn’t exactly true, and I quite enjoy a good Snickers Bar to be honest.  But not all candy gets to make the trip to strange lands.  There is so many snack treats that not only never make it to the border… never make it across the country.

Quite a few snack treats are regional and so people a few cities over might never know about them.  Like how you can buy Strawberry Crush in Quebec, but not in Ontario.  Which is really the whole point of the Snack Swap idea.  To try fun foods from other places.  Which is why sending me M&M’s in the mail won’t work, because I can already get all those here in Canada.

Now to all those who agreed with me that American candy sucks… I’m still on your side… US candy blows.  But I am willing to change my opinion.  I wanted to take people up on their offer to swap snacks, but I didn’t really know who to pick.  But then some one stepped up, sent me a note and offered me a list of American candy for me to choose from that would send.  In exchange, I offered up a list of things they could pick from.  Once the details are laid out, we’ll ship them off and I’ll jump back here and give my opinion of them (and probably post their thoughts of the Canadian candy I sent).

I think this is the best way do things at this point.  I can’t wait to be honest.  Getting crap candy or totally awesome candy if fun ether way.  I just love trying new things.  Maybe once a month or so I’ll put the call out for snack swaps and see who responds.  Oh, and if people are wondering what my Canadian list of treats is… here it is…

Smarties – Chocolate candy like M&M’s
Big Turk – chocolate bar
Aero – chocolate bar
Ketchup Chips – chocolate bar
All Dressed Chips
Caramilk – chocolate bar
Kinder Egg – chocolate egg with toy inside
Bounty – chocolate bar
Crispy Crunch – chocolate bar
Eat-More – chocolate bar
Miss Vickie’s brand chips
Hostess Hickory Sticks – chips

Joe ^_^

I’m sorry.. but it has to be said. Consider it tough love from your Canadian neighbour. How do I know this? Well… my wife has friends in the States and on rare occasions we do a snack swap. We got a bunch of Canadian snacks together (ketchup chips, Caramilk bars, Eat-more bars, Kinder eggs, etc…) and sent them off and in exchange we got a…

Zero Bar
Cherry Mash
Whatchamacallit Bar
100 Grand Bar
Heath Bar
Baby Ruth Bar
Pay Day Bar
and something called a “Chick O Stick” o_O

Well, we sampled everything and came to the same conclusion. They all tasted extremely cheap. I’m talking like they we bought a bunch of these from the dollar store. The Zero and Cherry Mash tasted like the chocolate you get at easter. You know… like you can taste the wax in it. The Whatchamacallit was… um… interesting. The 100 Grand actually wasn’t so bad and the Heath was quite similar to our Skor (but cheaper tasting). baby Ruth was like our Oh Henry! and Pay Day was… strange. No chocolate in that one… just nuts and caramel. It wasn’t bad… just different.

Then there was the Chick o Stick. Good grief, what can one say about this thing. It’s orange… it’s… um… a stick… it’s crumbles when you eat it and has toasted coconut rolled up in it. It looks sort of like a turd. Sort of… It tastes like peanut butter… sort of. And it’s currently the last piece left from what was sent to us because no one wants to eat it.

The next day I went to work and asked one of my US co-workers “How and Americans get so fat off candy that tastes like crap?” He laughed and asked what I had received from our friends, then proceeded to say some of those where pretty good. o_O He then gave a pretty good reason for why things taste the way they do South of our boarder. He said, as sad as it is, a lot of American’s don’t care about food quality. What they do care about it getting a lot of it for as little as possible. “How much of that can I get for a nickle” is how he put it. He also said that most don’t even realize that they’re eating crap, it’s so far to Canada or Mexico that they’re just stuck with what ever the companies make them. He also agreed that a lot of what we have up here does taste better.

After I heard that I felt sorry for central US people. Not ever really knowing there is better confections then what they get at the local store. I seriously tempted to do a snack swap with others out there that are willing to do so. I’ll send some tasty Canadian treats and you try and convince me that there are snacks out there that are of decent quality in the States.

Anyone up for the challenge?