I’m such a sucker for pop music… Right now my addiction is Maroon 5’s new single. They re-recorded If I Never See Your Face Again with Rihanna… So infectious. It replaced Madonna’s 4 Minutes, which features Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. Of course, that’s not to say I only listen to pop tracks. I’ll usually listen to them in between other stuff, including classics like The Beatles or REM. Still, I can’t help but listen to the catchy mainstream stuff… It’s like a drug.

So I went to Ottawa for a few days last week for business… It was pretty crazy, but fun. Microsoft gave everyone in attendance (250-300 people maybe?) a Microsoft Zune, which doesn’t come to Canada until June 13th. I think it could give the iPod a run for its money… It has some really, really cool social/interactive features…

I just finished reading the book Bringing Down The House, which is what the movie 21 is based off of. It’s a true story, actually. What a fantastic book… I wish I read it earlier. I couldn’t put it down. It definitely gets my recommendation, especially if you enjoyed the movie. I really enjoyed the movie, but the book blows it out of the water. It’s pretty intense. Oh, and for those wondering, the movie comes to DVD and Blu-Ray on July 22nd. Looking forward to it…

You know summer is coming when all of your favorite TV shows are winding down… Everything is ending either this week or next week it seems. How sad… Tonight is American Idol (I’m still sticking to Cook winning) and next week is Lost. Now what am I going to do to unwind after work on Thursdays? Hmm…

Anyway, thanks for the feedback on the new layout. I’ve had a number of e-mails on top of the few comments, most of which was positive. It’s been growing on me more too… It was time for a change.

So much for trying to keep this updated… ha. It’s been a while and you know what that means: a fragmented entry to try to bring you up to speed quickly! I can smell the excitement.

- College is going well… It’s a fairly big workload with my other various jobs, but that comes with the territory. The first semester is over in two months and then I am a quarter of the way through the program. Booyah. So what would I like to do afterwards? I’m not sure yet… Eventually I wouldn’t mind ending up in California…

- I finally got around to seeing Across The Universe. Really cool movie. It was one of those movies where you aren’t quite sure what to think immediately following the movie, but as you think back more and more you realize it was really good. It is a bit of a ‘rougher’ movie though, so I wouldn’t recommend it for a young audience or the easily offended. But for the most part it should be an entertaining watch for the majority of Beatles and music fans alike. I’m considering seeing it again, actually…

- I’m going to see KT Tunstall in concert on November 22nd with my friend Krystle. Looking forward to that a lot… She’s supposed to be awesome live and I’m a pretty big fan of her music. You can bet I’ll be talking about it more as the date approaches. My ticket arrived today actually…

- I ordered a new 80GB iPod Classic and it arrived. The only thing that sucks is there is a stuck pixel on the screen. Grr. That’s what I hate about LCD screens. So I’m going to see if it goes away, otherwise I may call Apple and see what they say. I don’t know if it’s going to be more of a problem to fix if there is a custom engraving on the back or not…

- Aside from Xbox 360’s Halo 3, I think the next four to six months are the PS3’s season for new games. There are so many I want to pick up that are coming out… One of which is the new Ratchet and Clank (releasing October 30th). The free demo went online yesterday and it’s awesome. Then there is Uncharted, Simpsons (though its on the 360 too), Little Big Planet, Haze (not 100% sure on that one yet), Killzone 2, Unreal Tournament and more. I may not play games as much as I used to, but I definitely love my PS3 to play when I get the chance…

- The new seasons of Heroes and The Office are both awesome so far… Not a bad episode yet. I love Mondays and Thursdays…

- So the Canadian dollar is currently three cents higher than the American dollar. What a weird situation. It’s too bad we’re being charged more up here now for goods and services than in the States. They need to adjust that so we’re not being ripped off… Rumor has it they will early next year (after the holiday, of course).

- Speaking of rumors… Rumor is OS X.5 Leopard will be releasing on October 26th or 27th. Can’t wait!

- To the industry personnel who have asked: yes, I’m aware my bio is over a year old. Ha. But unfortunately it isn’t that high on my list of priorities right now. So unless someone would like write one for me (ha), it’ll have to be put off for longer. I should try to quickly re-do the links section though, since I barely read any of the current list anymore…

Well, I think that’s enough for now… I’ll try to update more frequently from here on out…

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve updated this. I suppose I should bring you up to speed with what is new.

Florida was a blast. It was very hot, but I enjoyed it. And for some reason my allergies didn’t bother me at all down there, which was awesome. As soon as I got back to Ontario they started right back up again though. Sheesh…

I wish I was still there… The ability to breathe was nice, plus the Disney World environment is just really cool to be in. It’s not Mickey Mouse in your face 24/7 as you might think, it’s just a well developed and thought out place. The staff everywhere are incredible and consistent for one thing, then Disney just thinks of everything throughout their property from its decor to how to make the guests more comfortable in essentially every category. I was impressed.

I did take a lot of pictures (and I mean a lot), so that’s why I haven’t uploaded any yet. There are so many to filter through that I need to set some time aside to do that. I’ll try to do that maybe later this week tenatively, so stay tuned for that…

We came back on the 2nd, but then on the 4th I jumped right into college classes. Ugh. I’m on my second week now and it isn’t too bad, but gosh they hand out a lot of homework from the get-go. It can be difficult for those of us who are working while attending college full time (at least 75% of the students in the program). That’s my biggest complaint right now. I don’t mind the in class stuff and some homework, but when you need to spend most of your time away from class doing homework it gets annoying. Then one teacher is a little iffy and incredibly by the books it seems, but we’ll see how she/he turns out. It’s still early on so they may change…

Then on top of school and music industry work (which I’ve been loaded with too as of late), I’m still working 22 hours a week at Future Shop. I think I may have to eventually drop a few hours though as it can be a bit much with everything else going on. We’ll see. Maybe insanity isn’t so bad after all…

On a completely different note, Canadian Idol has come to a close. And who picked the winner from way back at the auditions round? I’m pretty sure it was me. ha. I’m glad to see Brian Melo win though as I always always impressed with him. I love his rendition of Radiohead’s Karma Police, as do the judges evidently.

I bought The Office: Season Three on DVD when it released on the 4th. I’ve been trying to catch up on the show so I can actually watch it week by week on TV this season. I only have three episodes to go in the entire set, one of which is the hour-long finale. So it’s pretty safe to assume I’ll be caught up before Season Four starts on the 27th…

Well, I think that’s it for now. I need to grab something to eat and then head to class. Hooray. Can you tell I’m excited?

Gosh, thank goodness for a day off. I have so much magazine work I need to catch up on today, plus I need to go to an orientation thing for college that runs from 10am to 2pm. First things first though: I need to prep some questions for an interview I’m doing with The Last Goodnight tomorrow. If you haven’t heard of them yet, don’t worry, they are brand new and their debut is releasing on Tuesday. You may have heard their first single, Pictures of You, on the radio though as it is doing quite well. The first time I heard the song a few weeks ago, I had the feeling these guys could really take off. There is just something about their sound… It’s a very infectious pop vibe that reminds me of Maroon 5 at times, without the incredibly high vocal range.

Speaking of The Last Goodnight, we’re actually running a contest on Renown Magazine right now where the grand prize is a digital camera and copy of the new CD. It’s open to residents of the United States and Canada, so boogie on over and enter! Click here for the link. Here’s a link to their MySpace profile too if you want to check out some songs…

It’s hard to believe the vacation has arrived so quickly. As I said before, it’s our first family vacation in about fifteen years (at least), so we’re all excited. It should be a lot of fun hanging out in the House of Mouse for a week. I’m just checking out some of the extra benefits Disney gives their resort guests and I sure am impressed. They really know how to treat their guests with incredible service. Three more days….

For those new to this blog (and there are a lot of you), don’t forget to check out my other profiles around the net too:

- My Tumblr account is where I link to various interesting news articles, links, photos, videos, and so on that I find throughout the net. It’s what they call a Tumblelog and it’s nice because it doesn’t clog up space here.

- My Twitter account is something that I absolutely love. I jumped on the site a couple of months before it exploded at SxSW early this year and now tons of people use it. The question is simply “What are you doing?” and you answer it in 140 characters or less. It’s like an up to date mini-blog that you can use to tell people, well, what you’re doing and other tidbits of information. You can send in entries via web browsers, e-mail, AIM, third party apps or, my favorite, via text messages on your phone from anywhere. Really cool. People have already heard big news through twitter long before on the TV or internet (such as a big earthquake that just happened). So sign up and add me as a friend!

- Flickr is another site that I couldn’t live without. For about thirty bucks a year, you can have unlimited storage and bandwidth to host all of the pictures your heart desires for the world to see. You can then link to them easily and efficiently anywhere, such as the little banner I have on the column to the right. You can bet lots of Disney photos will be coming up afterwards.

Those are just a few of profiles on the net. You can see more of them over at ClaimID. So if you’re on these sites, add me as a friend and make sure you say you found it from my blog…

Okay, off to this orientation thing, then I need to get going on that interview…

I love being able to say I’ve been a fan of something long before it became popular/mainstream. Perhaps it’s bragging rights or perhaps it’s to prove I’m not a bandwagon jumper, but regardless of the reason I can’t help but flaunt it. Consider this my flaunting post.

Long before the television show Heroes made its debut in the fall, I was following its production time line / notes and was greatly anticipating its arrival while hoping it would actually be good at the same time. I think it was at least half a year before its debut that I was heavily eying it. Of course, after a few episodes, the word start spreading and it went on to become one of the highest rated new television series on air last season. Obviously I am thrilled with this, but I can’t help but grin knowing I was a fan half a year before anyone had really heard of it. ha. Okay, I’m done with the flaunting…

So the second season of Heroes is beginning on September 24th and I’m pumped. They just released a teaser promo to start the hype already. The first season will be releasing on DVD and HD-DVD this Tuesday and I’ll definitely be picking it up the following week after I get back from vacation (four days to go!). Unless I pick it up down there at Downtown Disney if they have it and it is cheaper… Hmm…

If you haven’t seen the show yet, do yourself a favor and go buy the first season on Tuesday. Keep in mind it can be a little graphic at times for those easily offended by blood and bodies, but it really is a great show…

My copy of iWork ’08 came in last week. It’s a fantastic piece of software and is definitely worth the upgrade from the previous installment. The new word processing aspect of Pages removes the need for Microsoft Word, Keynote’s brilliant transitions and effects make it arguably the best slideshow presentation software out there and the new Numbers program allows you to create incredibly professional spreadsheets in minutes. The cost for the full version? $79. Much nicer than the hundreds of dollars a Microsoft Office suite will set you back… Now I need Leopard…

I just realized that I bought the greatest hits from Bon Jovi and The Police a month or so ago and they are still sitting on my shelf, sealed in their shrink wrap and begging to be played. I need to get on that this week…

So the reason why I haven’t updated in a while is because I’ve been insanely busy working full time at work. Insert your pity here. ha. Of course, I’ve had some deadlines pop up with music industry work on top of that, which didn’t help any. The good news? Only four more shifts of work left, then I’m off to sunny Florida come Sunday morning! Man, I can’t wait. Less than six days to go… Hanging out inside Disney World for a week will be a blast (we’re staying on property), but I’m also looking forward to the flying portion. It’s fun traveling down to the States. Of course, it gets boring quick, but it’s still fun nonetheless. You can expect lots of pictures from the trip…

So Canadian Idol update… Canada sure got Greg’s elimination wrong a couple of weeks ago. Sheesh. But at least they got last week right with Tara. That was long overdue (as is Jaydee)… Now, for those keeping score, my pick of Brian Melo winning the whole thing is still in play as they enter the Top 5. I always like to choose one (or sometimes two: a boy and a girl) at the auditions level for who could win the whole thing, then see how far they go. It’s usually easy enough to choose once you hit the Top 10, but the auditions level is always a challenge. Brian was my primary choice, then for the girls I chose Carley Rae. We’ll see how things turn out… The last time I went all of the way was with Carrie Underwood, though I’m usually in the top few. ha.

I’m loving my PS3… I think I’m going to play some for an hour to unwind before heading to bed. I work the early shift tomorrow (story of my life the past couple of weeks) and then only three more shifts to go until Florida! Hooray!

Today is a holiday in Canada, so I have the day off but still get statuary holiday pay. Score. I’m just taking it easy and doing some work on the computer. I guess it’s not a completely work free day then, is it?

It looks like things may be finally in motion for the “big changes” coming to Renown Magazine that I’ve been mentioning for a while now. Things could be materializing very soon… Stay tuned…

Speaking of Renown, the second interview from GMA Week went online today. Check it out here…

I’ve been playing with Skype this morning for the first time. It’s pretty cool. I made a little cartoon avatar thing through their site for free, he’s even holding pizza! I’m not sure how much I’ll use Skype right now, but I have a feeling it’ll come in handy in the not too distant future…

I’ve also been experimenting with Jaiku for a while now. It’s almost up there with Twitter, but not quite. If they could add in an update-via-SMS for North America and a code to integrate your updates into a website/blog without the feeds, I’d consider moving over. But until those two things happen, I’ll be using Twitter primarily…

Tonight is the season finale of Heroes! Can’t wait to see what happens…

I’ve still been fooling around with my new digital SLR camera. I like it. I still want to eventually pick up a lens or two, some filters, a monopod, a flash, maybe a remote control for the shutter and lighting/umbrella kits… It’ll be expensive, but if I upgrade overtime it won’t be too bad. Who knows, maybe it can help bring in some extra cash if I freelance some pictures… Here is a couple more from my testing stage:

Well, I’m starving. Time to grab some lunch…

So it is Jordin and Blake in the finale… Next week’s American Idol should be a good one. Since about the Top 10 or Top 8, I picked the two of them to be the ones who will make it to the finale and have chosen Blake as my pick to win the whole thing since his very first audition months ago. So hey, at least I’m guaranteed to have him come in second. ha. Either way, my little games aside, I’m glad these two made it through. Should be a lot of fun…

Both Heroes and Lost end next week as well. Three shows in one week — everything is coming to an end! These two are really getting good too…. I can’t wait to see what their season finale’s have to offer. There is always a good cliffhanger.

I received a check in the mail today for some print work I do here and there. It came at a perfect time too as I also received my Visa bill today. ha. As much as I love the internet, it’s always cool to have an article or two in print… It gives yourself something physical to hold, plus a tiny bit of cash. ha.

I tried taking a some pictures with my new digital SLR camera this morning before the day went chaotic. I also got the chance to shoot some tonight but I haven’t uploaded them yet. Here’s a couple of shots from this morning for now:

I finally got the chance to listen to the new Linkin Park CD once today (I had heard a few songs last week, but that’s it). It’s certainly a lot different… I’m not sure what to think of it yet. I definitely liked it, but I’m thinking I like their older material and style better. Who knows what will happen to my opinion after a few more spins though…

Okay, enough rambling. Off to play some Halo 3 beta for the first time with some friends from work…

The first interview from GMA Week has been put up on Renown Magazine. You can check it out here:
http://www.renownmagazine.com/main/modules.php?module=interviews&id=85

I think I’m going to add another section on the GMA 2007 page over there that will list all of the GMA interviews as they are posted. I also need to add my commentary from the Doves, just as a fun FYI since you won’t really learn a whole lot from it. ha.

So Heroes on Monday was freaking awesome… Wow. I can’t wait until next week now.

Lost was really good tonight too. We got a few more answers. It’s just starting to bug me how slow paced it is… But the season is almost over, so they have to start releasing some juicy info soon. It looks like they are setting it up that way anyway.

American Idol… Blake was awesome last night. One of my favorite performances on the show, period. I’ll embed the video below in case you haven’t seen it. I don’t agree with the first person who was eliminated, but I had a feeling it was coming. It was cool to see Bon Jovi on the show this week though, even if his/their newer material isn’t as good as the classics.

We went to Mandarin, an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet, the other night. It was good, as always. ha. At the end you get those silly fortune cookies and usually they are laughable, but this time I got one that was kind of cool. It said: Life is short - don’t spend too much time deliberating how it should be spent. Amen.

I’ve been missing Nashville. It’s hard to come back after doing what you enjoy doing, hanging out with friends, and making new ones to hardly a music scene at all and working at Future Shop (Best Buy). One day I’ll be moving on to bigger and better things… Perhaps even in that direction…

I’m actually liking Windows Vista. I installed it on my laptop shortly after I got back from Nashville and I’m already getting used to it. My only complaint is that it sucks up battery life even faster on the laptop, but the operating system itself seems decent. I don’t know what all the bad rep is about… I’ll have to give it some more thorough testing though.

Well, that’s all for now…

Peace.

So far so good, I’m digging the new layout. Things are so much smoother and easier to maintain from a behind the scenes point of view. It’s all under one roof, Wordpress, so I like it. Thanks for all of the e-mails expressing your opinions on it, I appreciate them. Feel free to comment as well and share your opinion.

Have you been following my Tumblr account? I’ve been having fun with that one. I have it set up in Firefox that if I find something cool I want to share, I simply have to click one button and it is posted in a matter of seconds. I actually think I’m going to keep it now… So continue to check the site or subscribe to its RSS feed.

As you can see, my Twitter updates are now integrated right into the sidebar on the right. As I said a few times, I was never a fan of that old gray box. This new software also has the option of posting an entry that will list all of my Twitter updates for the day. I think I might turn it on and try it out, just to see how well it works. So if you see entries that say “My Twitter Updates,” you’ll know why.

American Idol… Not much of a surprise for the results this week. I wish Sanjaya would just go home already though, and hopefully before some of the really good talent get the boot. Gwen Stefani’s performance was rather rough too, wasn’t it? Her voice isn’t normally that low and off… Usually she sounds much better. It’s too bad the contestants weren’t limited to only singing her songs (both solo and in No Doubt), now that would have been really fun.

Lost… Crazy episode. Pretty creepy too. But it seems a number of people missed out on a few references and comments throughout the episode, causing them to think the opposite of what they should be. ha. People can’t blink when watching this show or else they’ll miss something. It needs your full attention!

I just noticed a black spot on one of my LCD monitors. I think I have a burnt pixel. That’s the problem with stinkin’ LCD technology. Oh well, if it is I don’t really care…. Actually, now it is gone. Odd.

Anyway, I’m off for now. Thanks for hanging in there in the midst of the changes. Don’t forget to subscribe to (and/or keep checking) this site and McTumblr. I’ll try to keep it interesting.

Rock on.