Front Fell Off

This is just funny. Saw this last night at James' house. Its just so well done.

LOGOS LOGOS LOGOS

This has to be one of the more impressive sites. Not for design, but for sheer content. Want to play with a corporate logo in Illustrator? Maybe you need Dr.Pepper's logo for a design class but the crappy jpgs you find through Google Images just don't cut it. Well check out this site: logotypes.ru

This site has over 5000 corporate logos in vector format, ready for you to manipulate, change, render, whatever. They are sorted by name and come with previews so you don't have to download images you don't want.

logotypes.ru

2008 Marketing Trends

Here is a great article on the trends of consumers for 2008.

http://www.marketingweb.co.za

Coolest Recycle Logo

I think this is from Taiwan. Probably one of the best logos for recycling i've ever seen. Took me about 30 seconds to see both sets of arrows. Can you see both?

Technorati Tags: recycling, ads

Powered by ScribeFire.

Today's Links

Here's a strange one. There is a company selling new seats for motorcycles that contain a EMF shield. This 'shield' protects the rider from the little bit of EMF (Electro Magnetic Field) that is emitted from the bike. Can you say paranoid? Makes sense when you read that he also wrote a book called "MOTORCYCLE CANCER? Are motorcycles KILLING US with cancers of the prostate, colon, kidney, bone, etc?". Wow. Story Here.

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Google has a cool app called Reader that I found today. Its an online feed reader/updater. Works pretty well and looks good from my first attempt at trying to use it. Could be alot better if they came up with a Firefox addon to make it even more accessible. Start reading here.

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And now for just funny, check out this little clip from Bollywood. A ripoff from the matrix maybe? Naw, couldn't be.
YouTube it up.

Penguin Models.

Don't really know what to say about this. Just watch.








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No title for today.

China Suppresses US Based Search Engines
In a bold move by the Chinese Government, any searches directed at Google or Yahoo from a Chinese location were redirected to Chinese-owned Baidu search engine. This is seen as retaliation to Bush's message to end 'religious repression' in china. I havn't seen any news from Google's response to this, but I bet they are not happy.
Full Article Here

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The Spartans Are Coming
Lovers of the movie 300 beware! There is a spoof about to be released! If you liked Epic Movie or the Date Movie, this one looks just as good.
Here's the preview:

Meet the Spartans

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Rock Paper Scissors!!!

So last weekend Dani and I got the chance to go with Nathan and Rachel to Toronto to watch the Rock Paper Scissors World Championships. Needless to say I had never even heard of this until the week before, but it sounded great so we went to watch. Nathan signed up to compete with the other 400 or so people there. I was surprised at how insanely people get into the game. We had full costumes, people protecting their playing hands, and angry people who lost. Nathan dressed up as dynamite, which was actually not even the strangest costume.
Nathan rocked(pun intended) the first 3 rounds and actually made it to the top 16 finals and got to play on the main stage with world champions. He unfortunately got pounded in the first round of 16 people, but he WAS goign against the top people in the world....haha
Anyway, here are some photos from it. Nathan's post and more photos can be found on his website, www.nathancolquhoun.com.


You can see the fear in his eyes.




This is Erin playing (and beating) one of the judges.





Nathan playing the dreaded pirate. Nathan lost i think.







The final round.

Some great ads.

An ad from Smirnoff. The music is perfect for it.



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Gorgeous Enterprises designed this commercial in Britain. Took me till the end to see how its really done.

The Gorilla

This is a brilliant video from 'Glass and a Half Full Productions'. Such emotion in it. You can just feel the mood of the gorilla. Watch it for the full effect.



www.aglassandahalffullproductions.com

Sept 18 Photoshoot

A couple days ago I got to do a photoshoot in an animal surgury for a web design company. It was for sure one of the best animal places I've seen, the people working there were great with the animals and we got a lot of really good shots. We even watched a surgery going on. Anyway, here are some of my fav photos from it.

Finished Book: How I Lost My Virginity (The Richard Branson Autobiography)

I just finished reading the Richard Branson Autobiography, in which he tells about his life until a couple years ago. It goes through his childhood, when he started his first business, signing the Rolling Stones to his record label and the big battle for his Airline. It is written very well, keeping the reader's attention the entire time. His life was a very adventurous one, so that helps as well. I'm sure some parts have been edited to sound better in the book, but just take what you want.

His main concept is that if a business idea sounds fun, if it will produce healthy competition in the market and if the consequences of it failing are not dire, then it is worth investing in. He also goes with a 'screw it, let's do it' attitude that results in business ideas and principles that are different than most big businesses, resulting (with hard work), in its success.

This is a must read for anyone with an entrepreneurial mind. He goes over his ideas for different businesses and the reader can make their own ideas from that. I found that it inspired creative ideas throughout the entire book.

Check it out on Amazon here: amazon.ca

Today's Links

Here is a page with just insane photos of people doing stupid things as jobs. Its bad, but most of them seem to be in or around Asia....
Just a couple samples:




More images here

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And now for the cutest thing you've ever seen:




PeelMyBell.com

Pinery Weekend

We spent the last weekend camping with our good friends Mike, Sarah and Shannon up at the Pinery. The weather was great so we hit the beach, bodysurfed on the huge waves and then proceeded to jump down dunes. I personally love doing this because you can literally jump down 10 or more feet and not get hurt (since you're jumping into a pile of sand). I think next year i'm going to measure how far I can jump in hopes of breaking records. We also played some games including Dutch Blitz, a game that I suck at royally, but i never want to stop playing. I think its because i keep thinking that one time i'll actually be close to winning. It could become an addiction. i'll have to watch that.
Overall it was a great weekend, a good way to end summer. I'll have to link to some photos once Sarah gets them up.

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So i had this idea over a year ago to create a site where you can log in and you get an area to paste bits of text or photos from websites that you want to remember and didn't want to just keep in your clipboard in case you eraced it. But of course I had to be outdone by a little company called Google. They now have a new Google App called Notebook, which lets you copy and paste text and autosaves it for future use. Check it out her at: www.google.com/notebook.
They also have a browser addon to make it easy to open a little copy window.

The Weekend

We just spent the long weekend (or at least Sunday and Monday) at Dani's parents house, relaxing in the hottub/pool and playing games. And of course moving something for Nathan. I find that trips there are the only time that I can mentally relax. Even if I have no plans for a saturday or sunday at home, I can't seem to stop thinking or feeling like I shouldn't sit down and do nothing. Theres always some kind of yardwork to do, or I could be working on the computer doing something productive. But this all goes away when I get to the Pede house. I leave my computer at home, have no plans and just go with what happens. Its a great feeling. I wish I could figure how to make this feeling come at least once every few weeks at home. I even feel bad taking naps on a lazy sunday, even if I'm extremely tired. My mind just don't seem to have an off switch when i want it to.
Maybe I'll have to invest in a large hammer someday. Then i can sleep when i need to!

Today's Links

This is great, here you can find 43 uses for WD-40 that you probably didn't know before.

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Jars of Clay (yes they are still around!) started a campaign called Blood: Water Mission, which is an organization that is working on building wells in areas of Africa affected with AIDS. The website here is really well designed and has a map and photos of completed wells, along with news articles about them helping. Their '2 Weeks of Sacrifice' is a great idea to raise some money without dipping into your savings account.

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The changing weather in our world has cheese makers worried. According to the cheese makers in this article, the taste of cheese is changing due to changes in weather and because of that, changes in plant life around the fields. This isn't the first product that has changed due to the weather, and i'm sure its just the start of a long list.

Finally a post!

Phew, its been while since i've had a chance to post on here! The past week has been a big up and down week, lots going on.
Saturday we had a great formal cocktail party at my friend Matt's house. He has an amazing back yard, which I plan on using as inspiration for mine next year. Then Sunday I shot dirtbike races in St.Thomas, which turned out really good even though it started with a dust storm which lead into a constant drizzle of rain. Here are a couple shots that I like:






More here



I also shot my first house working for OBEO Tours, which was a disaster. The house looked like an industrial building and some rooms were just too small to get good photos. Then it was raining while i was trying to shoot the outside, and part way through the inside the power went out. Great first gig. The people were really nice tho. Oh and I was stalked by a gang of white geese and a dog that I couldn't decide if it was going to be nice or going to kill me....made it interesting.

And then today Dani's car finally gave in while she was driving to work. Almost overheated and leaking coolant all over the place, so my morning was spent going to get it and taking it to a shop then home while trying to keep the engine cool. So now we're in the market for a new used car.

Sounds like a great week eh!

Gold from God?

While eating lunch yesterday at the Market after Presence, I was talking with some people about whether religious people believed in devine gifts, as in stories of 'a diamond falling from the sky' (literally), or 'gold dust falling from the ceiling of a room'. These are supposed stories from Christians who were "looking" for a gift from God. Which brings about the question, Would God really show himself in the form of riches to someone? If you pray hard enough does this mean a block of gold is going to appear infront of me so that I never have to worry about money again? If i say 'God, if you really exist, show me yourself', will He really just be like *POOF* and there it is? Why would He even think he needs to prove Himself to us? You'd think that if people looked around and actually saw, i dunno, THE WORLD, that would be proof enough?
Then there was a story about someone's tooth filling being suddenly turned to gold. I almost laughed at this one. I could see God doing this one tho. Its kinda like 'haha, you wanted a sign of wealth, good luck getting that sucker out!'
But why do some people think that stories like this are truth? I think it could be some higher people in the religion who think 'Ok, if we say that you'll get rich by coming to our church, we'll get the people in', so they start stories?
I dunno, just trying to understand.

August 9 Links

Here is a great site about Branding. It includes articles about how to successfully brand your new company and more. There are also quotes about branding and links to watch commercials.

A good quote from the site:

"It is a pretty recognizable brand name. Originally it was "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" but we settled on "Yahoo"." - Jerry Yang

http://www.historyofbranding.com

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So for one of the coolest sites I've ever seen, check this one out:

http://users.telenet.be/kixx/

You may need firefox for it...i dunno if it'll work for Explorer. I'd suggest going to this site and just watching in awe with nothing else going on until its done. I don't even know how they do this. Just wow.

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Heres a cool link for those people who are always comparing Bible verses in different versions, here is a new site that you'll love. It splits the screen with whatever two versions you want to compare, verse for verse.

http://onlineparallelbible.com

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What I learned From Ribfest

After being in the London Ribfest this weekend, being either scorched by the heat or dampened by the rain, there were a few things that I saw happening that really changed my mind about people in general. The weekend overall wasn't as big of a success for me that I had hoped. But now I am seeing why. Here are some things that I saw happening this weekend:

1. People would rather waste money on fortune tellers than on art (or anything else more essential). For the first 2 days we were set up beside a palm/tarot reader. This made for an interesting experience as we saw people pay upwards of $35 for a 'reading' done by a mother/daughter team (and sometimes the father jumped in as well, giving me the idea that ANYONE can do this). People actually were lining up for this. Besides totally blasting my opinion that people didn't overall believe that crap, I can't believe that someone would pay that much for 10 minutes of possible entertainment. Its totally absurd. I think next year I'm going to ditch the whole art thing and set up a fortune telling tent to bring in the cash. I mean from what I saw, anyone, no matter how uneducated you are, can 'read' palms and people will pay.

2. While sitting in my tent, just waiting around to chat with people, I got to hear how many people can do what I do. This is probably one of the most fun parts of the festivals for me. Now that digital cameras are the big thing, everyone EVERYONE is a professional photographer. It doesn't matter that I spent 2 years in school, the thousands of dollars I have in camera equipment and hours shooting to get the perfect shot. The people coming into my tent with their $300 camera most commonly exclaim "Oh I could take that shot" or "My 4 year old nephew has a photo better than that". Its taken a good deal of patience to not just jump up and yell at them. Fine, you think you can do better? Why aren't YOU here then??? I'm quite happy that these people don't buy anything since they have no concept of art.

3. I can't put a full post just complaining about people, so this is my compliment area. I think everyone should thank the volunteers who worked the festival, either picking up garbage or helping out crazy vendors. From being there all weekend, seeing the same people endlessly emptying garbage, i have to give them credit for sticking it out. They did an excellent job and I never saw garbage on the ground or a overfull garbage can. I also saw two boys helping out a crazy old vendor for at least 30 minutes while he yelled at them and ordered them around like they were his slaves, and yet they helped without complaining. Good job people.

4. Now lastly, on the topic of garbage, I'm going to say that Ribfest has got to be the most environmentally unfriendly festival in the city. Every rib vendor used styrofoam containers for their ribs, resulting in thousands of containers being used and thrown out right away. I am really appalled by the amount being thrown out. Maybe next year they can think of something else, like maybe using paper plates for the 90% of the people who stay and eat at the park. Paper breaks down faster than styrofoam and doesn't take up as much room in the garbage. Think hard about the environment that you're hurting for the future kids, Boys and Girls Club!!

Today's Stuff

I am always browsing the internet for cool photos, either just to see them or to get ideas for new projects. Anyway I came accross these ones today, and they are a few years old, but still are pretty cool to see. This is from a sand storm in 2005 in Iraq:



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For those times when you're completely bored at work and you need something to spice up a good 15 minutes, check out http://readymech.com. All you need is a printer, some tape and a high level of boredom and you'll get these fun critters to play with!!

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The New Rules of Website Creation:
(taken from this site)

1. Build: Build and they will come. If they don't what have you lost? Lose quick. Lose cheap.

2. Listen To Users: They will tell you what they like, what they hate and what they want.

3. Don't Market: Don't spend money or time on expensive advertising.

4. Product Is All: Spend money and time on making your product/service as good as you can (this, of course, is marketing but let's not quibble).

5. Ignore The Business Plan: The goals of business plans (e.g. raising capital) are not your goals. Flexibility is much more important.

6. Be Aware Of Competition: Don't be totally insular. Obsess about your customers but don't forget to keep an eye on potential competitors and what they're doing better or worse than you.

7. Self-Publicise: You know more about your business than anyone else so you're the best (and cheapest) person to promote it. Take every opportunity to tell your world about what you're doing.

8. Utilise User Passion: If you show you're listening to them, they will willingly talk about you and promote you. For nothing. Faciliate this in every way you can.

9. Be Frugal: If you don't spend, you don't burn through your cash and therefore retain more of you business in the long run. Equally importantly, frugality makes you focus on the essence of the issues at hand.

10. Have Fun: If you don't love what you're doing, you won't exude passion for it and you're unlikely to do it remarkably well.

Ribfest Update

Ok so in the rush of getting ready for Ribfest this weekend I put the wrong dates in the last blog. Its actually from Thursday til Monday 11am-8pm.

Sorry for the mistake!

Today

One year! Can you believe it. Me and Dani have been married for one whole year as of yesterday. Its gone super fast it seems but I'm happy and its all good! We spent the day just hanging out, had a nice picknic in Springbank, got my butt kicked in a game of Scrabble and went for Brushetta with Feta at kelseys. Over all a good day!


So it is festival time for me again! I'm going to have a tent in the Ribfest in London to sell my art (or try to)! They have an 'Artist Alley' which i'm assuming is a couple artists put into one area of the park for the ribfest. I've never been in this before and have no idea what to expect. The Sunfest a few weeks ago is the largest festival in London for my kinda thing, so ribfest could be good or bad. Either way it'll be interesting. My lovely wife dani will be helping out for the week as well. So if you're in the area, come see me! I think its running Wed-Sunday, 11am-8pm.


This video is just gross if you don't like to see things decomposing. Yet its very informative. This guy took one of each main sandwiches from McD's plus a pack of fries and let them sit in jars for 10 weeks to see what happens. The results of the sandwiches are slightly normal, but the fries are just weird. It just shows you what they could do to your body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh2bvL7YNts

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Back from the cottage!

Well we just got back from a week up north cottaging, and I'm proud to say that I'm about 5 shades darker (tanned). We had a great week of 24/7 relaxing (like i need it), but it gave me a chance to rest and read and think and plan (and also to fish! but not catch fist...i'm not good at that i found out...). I got some interesting ideas from reading Richard Branson's Autobiography 'Losing My Virginity'. Its a very interesting look into his life, how he came about to create one of the world's foremost companies. It is for sure a must read for anyone getting into business or interested in entrepreneurship.

So this week I've got a few things planned out, hopefully getting some work going with something. Its also my anniversary tomorrow!!! One year! Wow!

Today's awesomeness

Now to selflessly promote a website. This has got to be the most awesome website i've seen in a while.
Its call Picnik.
Basically its a image editor online. You can edit contrast, colors, apply a vignette, add effects, crop and more! And the best part is that its hooked into facebook and flickr, so you can just take your own photos from there and edit them online!
Now i know this isn't as good as photoshop, but imagine that you can edit a photo from a internet cafe and have it available to see on flickr.
Its free for now, but they are going to start charging soon, so check it out while you can!!!

http://picnik.com

Christian shopping!

I may be stepping on some feet here but the topic of today's blog(rant) is 'Exclusive Christian marketing'. I just recieved a business guide in the mail that markets only Christian businesses. That means if you arn't a church-goer, then you don't get to be in the guide. Now i can see how some people could see this as good: "yahh now I can deal with only christian businesses and not have to worry about getting screwed over!" But i think the people behind the guide missed a certain few sunday school lessons. I personally thought that as christians we were NOT supposed to push others away, NOT think we were better than other people. John 13:34: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." Hmmm now does detaching the 'non-Christian' businesses from the Christian world sound like love? I don't think so.

Do people really think that advertising as a christian business is going to get them more business? Well i guess some shoppers would concider that business more righteous, but I personally wouldn't change my shopping plan because of that. As bad as it sounds I sometimes dont' even like dealing with other 'religious' business people and would rather go to someone who doesn't flaunt church in your face.

I remember once hearing a conversation between a business owner friend who was talking to a customer:

Customer: Hey Jack, with me and you both being christian, how about you give me a better deal on this $20 item??
Owner: Sure, for you, being christian and all, i can sell it for $25.
Customer: (confused) But that's more money!!??
Owner: Well yah, because now its a christian item!

haha

Smoke

I just got back from a nice drive over to UWO to shoot some inter-mural soccer, had the windows down enjoying the evening air when I had the joy of getting a face full of smoke. No it wasn't from my engine. It was from this car infront of me whos passengers were blowing cigar-smelling smoke out of their windows. I'd never imagined that I would get bombarded with secondhand smoke in my own truck.
Now i don't really care if these people are out to kill themselves with the smoke, but I myself don't want to breathe it in. I've never experienced this before. I mean i have seen lots of poeple smoking in their cars, looking all hip with their windows down an inch to let out the smoke (i guess they don't like the smoke themselves eh...), but the people tonight must of had a smoke machine or something. I'm talking clouds coming out of the windows while driving.
So it brings to mind the question, can something like this be allowed to happen? I mean you can't smoke in any buildings now, and i'm sure its going to happen to most public places (outdoors) as well, but can we stop people from smoking in cars? I know tonight was a weird situation, but it was like i couldn't breathe while behind this car.
And then, to make things worse, i watch the driver just toss his cigarette butt out the window. That just adds to the hate. But that is another rant for another time.

How to end world poverty :: Theory One

While in Europe last month we made sure we saw as many 'tourist' sights that we could. This included statues, old buildings and churches. It was during visits of the latter when I had this brilliant idea on how to end world hunger/poverty. You see, there are thousands of old catholic-based churches in europe. And by experience, I've come to two conclusions about catholics. 1.Their faith is so shallow that they must build and decorate elaborate churches to 'house' God, and 2.They are greedy. I know this doesn't extend to the worshipers there, its just church itself.

In almost every large church that we visited, there were countless historic paintings, gold idols...er...statues, relics and more. Now i know that it says in the bible that God loves the wealthy more than the poor...wait no it doesn't...yet these churches hoard these relics like there is no tomorrow.

So here is my proposition. I would bet anything that if the catholic church sold off even 50% of their treasure they could pretty much buy half of Africa and maybe bring a better life for those who need help.

Now i know you say giving money doesn't stop poverty, but I'm not suggesting that. What i mean is that the church could then fund enough programs of irrigation, drinking water, crop stabilization, etc to let those in poverty build themselves out.
So what if you can't worship or pray to the painting of mary on the wall of the church. Do you think that God would be hurt if you didn't have that statue of a naked cherub greeting everyone as they entered the church? I mean they can say that these are priceless peices of history and art, but really, is it seriously worth more than helping people live better?

Take another example that I saw: the Vatican. Biggest tourist trap ever. Come see where the pope lives! Yah!! As if the catholic church didn't make enough with collection plates, they charge you to get in to see the world's famous Bastilia. And I'm sure there are hundreds of people every day paying $75 for private tours. They even charged us just to walk to the top of the church. I really thought that God didn't like people using the church for profit. hmmm

So here is the challange Catholic Church! How about you realize that God doesn't care if the church looks rich and pretty. He doesn't care if it is a work of art. I'm sure whoever buys it will cherish it just the same. God wants you to care about others, his people, the poor who Jesus treasured above others. Does the vatican think they can bring that wealth when they die?

Ok enough ranting.
Send any death threats via comments.

Cheers.

Stuff for today.

Something i just got hooked on is the iGoogle page. I've had a custom homepage with yahoo for a while, giving me updates on news stories, science, comics etc, but with the iGoogle it is just so much more advanced and user friendly its crazy. Check it out when you have time to spare:: http://igoogle.com

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Apparently according to the roman catholic church, if you're not catholic then you're not really a real church. Pope whatshisname issued a document stating that if you don't see him as your ruler than your church is 'defective':

"It follows that these separated churches and communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation," it said.

The document adds that Protestant denominations — called Christian Communities born out of the Reformation — are not true churches, but ecclesial communities.

I think this is the first step in the Pope's plan to take over the world. Seriously.

Sunfest

Currently in the middle of this year's Sunfest, I'm about as tired and sore as i was after a few weeks of backpacking. I've found that sandels give you zero support while standing all day, yet i keep wearing them because with the heat shoes suck.

Sunfest has been great so far being busier than the past few years already. I've met some interesting people, some who liked my art, one who educated me in an overall view of the middle easy conflicts and others that are artists as well. What i've noticed tho is that generally people are just not friendly. My Sunfest neighbour stated how much he hates londoners because they are the least friendly of any other festival he goes in. I've noticed that as well now, how poeple don't even want to talk to others, even when one of the said parties tries to be nice and friendly. are we so scared to open ourselves to the idea that someone wants to genuinely talk to you that we can't even try? i know that as a vendor i'm tagged as 'only wanting to sell my product', but do you have to be that rude that you'll ignore any attempt to strike a conversation.

Ok enough rant. Its from working for 14 hours today and not having enough sleep.

Good night.

Europe Day 31 - 32:: Edited July 1

Day 31.
Brugge. Trained from antwerp and bussed to the hostel which is in the old city area. The hostel is one of the more known ones in all of Belgium and was pretty big, even having its own bar and restaurant. We walked around town to check it out. It was pretty cold and no sun. Got some frenchfries from one of two "competeing" stands in the main square. I guess these are famous fry stands that get auctioned off every 7 years to a new company...no idea why. We shopped for a bit and found this random art exhibit with an amazing artist (probably one of my most favourite artists ever now), named Arthure. I love his type of paintings, really abstract yet brings feeling. We headed back to the hostel for supper and watched a belgium soccer game in the pub as i tried some belgium beers. They have this cherry beer that is really good.

Day 32.
We wandered around brugge today, walked to the top of the Belfry (big bell tower), which was about 300 stairs. It had a great view but sucked when the bells started ringing as we were beside them...very loud.
We found a candy store that actually stretched the candy infront of you, and was quite amazing to watch. Got some great kiwi candy there (that actually looks like slices of kiwi!) We then headed to this church that supposedly has a vial of Christ's blood that was brought over from the middle east by the crusading knights. People can actually pay to pray with the blood (which is watched over by two creepy looking women).

Europe Days 29- ::Edited June 30

Day 29
Antwerp. Caught an expensive train from Rouen to paris, then to brussels then to antwerp. Walked a decent distance to the hostel, but we had a map from a nice tourist office, so it went easily. Antwerp is the diamond capitol of europe and also has a good number of jewish communities. It must be a hair stylist's nightmare for sure since most of the guys seemed to have the same partly shaved head haircut. Fun to see anyway. We walked around town a bit, hit up some stores then went to bed. Our hostel is one of those 12 beds in a room ones, but we lucked out with having only a few people in there.
Since its belgium people smoke everywhere, and our hostel's kitchen and main room were just filled with smoke making us not want to stay down there. But the room was decent.

Day 30
Antwerp. Went to the zoo!! Saw Penguins!

Europe Days 25 - 28 :: Edited June 29

Day 25
Paris. Woke up after the day of hell and switched hotels to our original hotel. We then metroed over to the catacombs, a really cool place, lots of bones (millions!). Definetly one of my favourite places. Then we walked over to the eiffel tower and up to the second level of it (700 steps!). We then walked to the Arc de Triumph, but wern't allowed to go up to it due to some armed guards and a memorial service. I also got to try my first BigMac (who knew i'd eat that), then we headed back to the hotel in the pouring rain.

Day 26
Paris again. Wandered around, saw NotreDame, ate crepes, hit up tourist shops. Went to the Louvre that evening to get in free (Free for students friday nights!), saw the mona lisa and other cool art. Then walked to the Eiffel tower, got some supper and at 11pm watched the Eiffel tower sparkle. really. sparkle.

Day 27.
Trained north to Rouen where we read that Joan of Arc was killed. Got out of the train station and were surrounded by bagpipe players. Quite confusing, but we found out that we happened to get there on the weekend that Joan of Arc was killed, so it was a huge festival in the entire town. So basically the main old-town areas were converted into festival areas with medevel costumes, cooking, blacksmiths, crafts and more. We bought this fresh fire oven bread that was still hot and tasted amazing. That night there were firebreathers, dancing and more. I got to hold the flaming torch as one firebreather blew, really cool.

Day 28.
Went to the 'Grand Picnic', got a plate of amazing stew that had 3 kinds of meat in it. Watched some sweet funk bands playing. We went to the memorial service for Joan that evening, which was kinda cool and weird. I mean shes been dead for so long...haha

Europe days 21-24 :: Updated June 29

Days 21-23
Barcelona. One of my favourite european towns. We got in around 12 and made our way to a hotel I stayed in before, which is located in a mall (fun!). Its a great cheap place right by the Rambla, the main walking road in the south of the city by the beach. We walked around the area, found a cool antique market, saw the harbor and got some dinner before heading to bed. Our second day was spend first touring around the city, saw the Sagrata Familia, the huge gaudi designed church, plus a few other cool landmarks and parks before heading to the beach to relax for the afternoon. The next day was the same, some touring of ancient runes and churches then heading to the beach for the afternoon. Went out to 'Sinatra's' for dinner of Tapas, our most expensive meal.

Day 24 (aka day of hell #1)
Trip to paris. We headed for the airport really early to catch our plane to paris. got to the airport, couldn't find the ryanair area and were told that we were at teh wrong airport. ok so not the happiest news, but we had 3 hours to make it to the other airport, so lots of time right? We find out that its a 1.5 hour drive to teh other airport. too bad we didn't have a car. so we took a train back into town, and tried to get a train out to the other airport, but the only train we could get would get us there 5 minutes before our flight. so that was bad news. we checked out how much a taxi would cost, and didn't think that 140 euros was worth making it a few minutes earlier. so after trying to call ryanair and getting nowhere, we accepted our fate and knew we would get there late. so we caught the train, which was painfully slow and finally got to the Girona train station hoping the airport was right there. turned out that it wasnt. go figure. it was an extra 20 minute taxi ride to get to the airport. on the plus side we found another guy who missed the flight as well, so we didn't feel so dumb. then going to the ryanair desk we tried to get a flight later that day and coudn't get one until 10pm and they charged us an extra 150 euros just to rebook it. not nice ryanair, not nice. after waiting 10 hours in the airport, we got into 'paris' only to find that it wasn't paris but an hour bus ride away from paris. so at 12am we are stuck on this bus for an hour getting to paris. we were then dropped off in paris where we had no idea where to go. we just followed people who seemed to know where the metro was, and made our way to the station closest to our hotel. after walking for at least 15 mins we finally found our hotel. after ringing the bell we finally got someone to come and although she didn't speak english we understood enough that she had already given our room away since we were late. so now we were homeless in paris at 1am and it was raining. we were not happy. it took us at elast 30 minutes more of wandering around the dark streets of paris before we found a really creepy hotel that was open and had rooms free. We FINALLY got to sleep at about 2-3am.

Europe days 16-20 :: Updated June 22

Day 16
Nice. (The city, not the exclamation.)
Left florence at about 8am to train to Nice, france. Got to Nice around 4pm and found our hostel. The hostel people seem pretty dence, but we got in a room with two girls from Guelph, so that was fun. We headed down to the beach/shopping area to get food and check out the town. Lots of really expensive cars around; fararis and such. Would be a fun place to live if you had money to throw away. A one bedroom apartment downtown is about 450 000 euros to buy.

Day 17
Hiked up the side of a small mountain to check out an archeology museum. Turns out that romans left some buildings there a long time ago. Who knew. We then hiked back down to the beach to relax. For a really expensive resort town, the beach sucks. No sand, just large pebbles. Not too comfy unless you can afford a beach chair. Walking along the beach later in the day to a point that jets into the water, we saw a huge school of dolphins swimming and jumping from one horizon to the other.

Day 18
Monaco. Headed from nice to monaco for the day. Its only a 20 min train ride and costs almost nothing. We also found out that the Monaco Grand Prix was on that week too which was cool, but it made the city busy and loud. We walked over to the palace which overlooks the whole area and gives you a good view of the racing as well. We also headed to the Oceanographic museum which is world renound. Had some sweet looking fish and old relecs. We also walked up right to the races but couldn't get in. Was a great walking day until my $7 walmart sandels decided to completely fall appart (shoulda known), but besides that it was great!

Day 19
Marseille. We trained to marseille and tried to find the hostel that we booked. After taking a metro and a bus, we started walking and walking and walking and finally found our hostel, which turned out to be this couple's house (awkward) and whats worse (and funny for me) is that we were sharing a room with two guys from holland who spent all night drinking and listening to the most random music, and then to make the stay more fun, the "free internet" turned out to be their own home computer in their living room, so when we tried to search for a room for the next day with 5 random people sitting in the room with us was most awkward. Anyway, we did get the chance to boat over to the Chateau d'If (the location for the Count of Monte Cristo), which was really cool. A nice old prison island. Had warning signs about seagulls who attack people...and one happened to divebomb Dani. Really fun! haha

Day 20
Beizers. Found this little town on the coast between marseille and Barcelona. Big mistake. We trained here and planned to get info about our hotel at the train station. Turned out that the station was too small for info...so going with my memory of the general direction of the hotel, we started hiking. After walking for a while, we founda bus stop with a map, which didn't help. We then had a gang of teens throw fruit at the bus stop and start following us while we walked. It was just pure luck when we finally stumbled upon a tourist info building with nice ladies who informed us that the hotel we wanted was not a good place and like 7km out of town. They then got us a hotel right next to the train station, where we spent the res of the day and night in because i'm pretty sure the town was run by gangs. Not happy day. We were glad to leave.

Europe days 9 -15 :: Edited June 22

So this may be the biggest sets of blog posts ever when i'm done with it. Since internet here has been iffy at best, and can cost as much as a good meal for an hour, i could not keep up as much as i would have liked. so what i'm doing now, nearing the end of our trip is i'll condense it into short blurbs for each day/event with the help of Dani's well written notes in her conventional journal and enlarge them when possible. so this post should keep getting bigger until i have filled in all the details. so here we go:

Day 9
heading to the train station to go to rome we met some fellow londoners (what are the odds!)They gave us some advice on things to see in rome, which turned out very helpful even tho i've been there 3 other times...
We arrived in rome late, as all trains it italy are late, and after metros and busses we made it to our hostel which was a campground just on the outskirts of the city. The place was pretty nice, we got our own room and bathroom. It even had a pool and 'jaccuzies'which to them are round tubs with cold water jets...not my idea of a good hot tub...oh well cant complain.

Day 10
ROME! We bussed and metro-ed downtown to check out the old sites, including the Trevi fountain, old ruins, tomb of the unknown soldier and the collesium. My fav part was thanks to the Londoners we met the day before. As they told us to do, we followed the buildings to the left of the unknown soldiers tomb and eventually found a small door that led downstairs into an old cell. turns out this cell is where the apostle Paul was supposedly held. The cell is small and very few people seemed to know about it since it was pretty empty when we were there. Rumor has it that Paul baptised fellow prisoners with a small stream that went through the cell and that the water actually glowed. There's a small mural in the cell showing this event, but besides that it doesn't tell anything except a list of names of who was in the cell, including Paul.
Cool eh!

Day 11
The Vatican. Bussing into the city, we walked into see the vatican's huge walls that surround the city. We didn't know where to go there, so we saw this huge line (as in thousands of people), and decided our best bet would be to join the line and hope we get somewhere. Thankfully it went really fast and we got into St.Peter's Bastilia. Well actually it went UNDER the bastilia to the tombes of the popes. YOu'd think with all the money that the vatican has it wouldn't have to bury the popes in the basement eh! haha. What was really weird was that when we went past the most recient tomb (John Paul?) people were actually praying to the dead pope, leaving gifts and more. NOw i'm not big into catholic things, but thats just weird people. We also saw the tomb for St.Peter (from a distance, since no one is allowed in). We then went into the church itself, which is amazing in terms of architecture and design. I also think that if they auctioned off everything in there they could pretty much end world poverty. But they're too greedy i guess. God only likes really expensive churches, right?
We then decided to get in another huge line and climbed up to the top of the bastilia which was about 550 stairs, some that led through tunnels that were slanted on an angle, so that you had to walk crooked. Came with a great view of the upper roof of the church (painted by michelangelo) and a good overview of the whole city.

Our plan then was to go see the sistine chapel, but after walking all the way to it, we found that it just randomly closed for the day (sign said it closed one day a month and it just happened to be our day there...blah). On the plus side we found this amazing gelato place were we got 6 scoops of the icecream. not bad.

Day 12 and 13
We took a train to our next town, a place called Filgine or something like that. We had booked this campground place that we knew nothing about but it was in the Tuscan area, so we figured it would be good. We got there at about 2:30 and got a shuttle to the campgrounds, on top of a mountain, which we found out happened to be a resort. (but we only payed $13 per night!) IT had 6 pools, tennis, soccer, restaurants, market and more. It was basically like a 4 star camping resort. we decided it would be a good place to relax for a few days (by the pool of course). We also noticed that it just happened to be the weekend that the European chapter of the H.O.G. Club (Harley-Davidon Owners Group), got together at that resort, meaning lots of bikes and noise! Was very interesting.

Day 14
Florence. Took an early train to florence where we left our bags and took another train to Pisa. Walking through the town we found the leaning tower (very cool) and the historic area. After taking the normal 'holding up the leaning tower' photos and wandered around for a bit, we then headed back to the train and back to Florence and a bus to our hostel.

Day 15
Walked through florence. Our hostel is on top of a hill overlooking the city and is right beside a lookout with a huge statue of David on it. We wandered around the streets and churches for about 8 hours. Didn't see the original David...most museums were closed that day. oh well.

Europe day 7-9

I appologise for the lond delay bettween posts. Internet was hard to get in italy for cheap, so we only used it when needed.

Rimini was a fun resort town right on the beach. the hostel was cool; probably used to be a hotel and kept a 60s feel with the colors and furniture.
We mainly layed on the beach which looked to be fully set up for the upcoming tourist season with rows and rows of beach umbrella holders. would be quite a site to see in full season. we also tried to get a bus to the nearby city/state/country of San Marino, which is the oldest country in the world; but the busses ran too sparatically for us and we had to ditch the idea. so we just put in more beach time.

we met some people from london there on our last morning, and it was good to talk about things we knew!! plus got some info about other towns from them.

Then after two days in rimini, we hopped a train and started for Rome.

Europe Day 4, 5, 6

To start off, Venice is definetly one of the most visually astounding cities i have seen, if you take away the crowds. We started day 3 (after sleeping in) with a boat ride right into venice. my last experience here was not a good one, so it was great to finally see the city in good light. I liked the 15 min boat ride in along a 'water highway', it lets you into the city in the most fun way, and its a great buildup of anticipation as you see it coming closer. The boat drivers are amazing here. they just cruise into these little spots with such grace, where i am sure i would have rammed straight into the walkway. its like they can control the boat within inches.

getting around venice is not an easy task. there are no straight roads, most zigzag around and end in either big squares, sudden dead ends or into the water.
it makes for an interesting walk, but is hard to follow on a map. so for the most part you just try to head ina general direction and you should be good.

we got to see some pretty cool old churches with amazing paintings on the walls that have to be hundreds of years old. we also went to the top of a 100 meter tower that looks out over all of venice, pretty cool. its fun seeing all the red brick roofs and all the rooftop patios.

I think my favourite part of the city are the small streets and bridges that are deserted. its just a wonderful place to see.

on day 6 we headed out by train to Rimini, a costal town on the east side of italy. Trains are hot, stuffy and hot here. Did i mention they are hot?

We got to the town at about 6 and after catching rides on multiple busses (a few that ended) we found our hostel.

Europe Day 1, 2, 3

Starting out with a flight to London england at 9:50pm, we began our 48 hours of no sleep travel. We landed in england at 9:30 am after a night of not sleeping on the plane and enduring 2 children crying right next to us during the last hour of flight. We trained into london and left our bags at a train station locker and wandered around for a few hours. We made our way to the KLondon tower and the Tower bridge, which were great if we wern,t so dead. The weather kinda sucked, it was cool and rainy, which ruined our plans to sleep in a sunny park somewhere. Having enough by about 4pm we headed back to our bags (nearly forgetting them) and hopped on a train to the next airport, waited in the airport over night for a 7am flight (airport floors suck to sleep on), then flew to Bologna Italy. Taking a bus then a train then a bus, we made it to our current hostel and crashed in our beds for a nice 3 hour nap followed by food and a 12 hour sleep.
The hostel here is one of the best iàve been at, with nice showers, private trailer rooms, a restaurant, market and you can see the city of venice right from the hostel. a boat goes right from the front gate into venice. a very nice setup.

Coming next: day 3 and 4 in Venice!!!

Europe Trip 2007 - Day One

Well its been quite a busy week here. This past weekend I got to enjoy my sister-in-law Rachel's wedding to Nathan (see link to the right). It was a great wedding, as well as the few days before and after. I got to hang out with Nathan's friends for two nights, met some cool people there, won $80 at a casino and got to watch nathan get dressed up like a girl. All in all an eventful time! The wedding was like nothing i've been to before. The cerimony was nice and short (thanks Joe!) and the reception was a pot-luck, which was a great idea by Rach and Nathan. Definetly came with a sense of community; everyone coming together, providing food for each other, enjoying the night. It was great! I'll link some photos with this post later today.

But on to more exciting news. Today we leave for europe!!!!!!
Me and Danielle are going to be flying out to europe tonight for 6 weeks. Staying in England for a day, we then get to hang out in an airport all night and grab an early flight to Bologna, Italy and train over to Venice to start our adventure. From there we have no plans, no itinary, no clue. I think this is the best way to travel! This way you're never late for your plans, you don't have to rush and you will probably see things you didn't even think about!!

So watch this blog for updates (as many as I can when I get to a internet cafe). This is going to allow me to update more of you faster than emails, which bodes well in 6 euros-an-hour cafes.

Photos::

Time to die Yellow Signs

I have come to forcast the downfall of what was the "big thing" in advertising a few years ago: Yellow Signs (or any version of them!)
A few years ago the idea of yellow signs (and their flourescent counterparts) surged around the area as a great way to advertise your business, attract attention, and make people read a bright sign in hopes of making them crash their moving cars. Ok so i may have made that last one up. But needless to say, peeople loved this bright way of diverting attention from on-coming cars and other businesses.
I am stating now that this form of advertising has reached and passed its peak. In a country where we are trying to clean up our cities and make them more green, natural is the new yellow. I was reminded of this just the other day when driving downtown I saw three yellow and one black/ugly/flourescent signs on ONE business' property. FOUR SIGNS!!!! It was more than hard to look at. It was just plain ugly. Have these businesses sunk so far into the idea that people want to see advertising that they've decided to hide their buildings with the yellow signs? I do believe that there was a garden under the signs, but you wouldn't notice it at all due to the glare of yellow. Plus it can't be good to have cement blocks in a garden!
Its time for a change. I LIKE seeing oncoming traffic as I drive or try to pull out of parking lots. I LIKE being able to see buildings and not have to look at big yellow boards taunting me with their messages of what I 'need'. I don't want a new watch. I don't need half price shredders. I don't care if I get one can of tuna for the price of two, or something like that.
I look forward to seeing less of these signs as people realize that direct, in your face advertising is coming to an end. I hope that people can voice this opinion to see less yellow and more green (and i don't mean green signs, you geeks). How about you take a minute and think, ponder, pull hair about a prettier way of letting people know that they should buy that arm chair they can't live without.
Just watch this blog. I'll tell you how in the future. Until then, let's take down the yellow signs. We could probably build a house for a needy family with all that wasted materials.

Today's Stuff

Watch out Superman! Kriptonite exists in Serbia! haha that is so cool! Too bad a superman isn't found with it eh! Check out the full story here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/oukoe_uk_britain_kryptonite

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And now scientists have found a planet that superman could come from! Seems a new planet was found 20 light years away that is called a "Super Earth" being 1.5 times the size of ours. more here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6589157.stm

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And just when you thougth the world wasn't nuts enough, "Polar bear cub Knut in the Berlin zoo received an anonymous death threat, causing alarm at Berlin Zoo on Thursday and prompting heightened security." Now come on. A baby polar bear, cute as anything, getting a death threat? Do you think he could read it?? Maybe get a little scared? yah...wow.

Bell Canada

About a month or two ago, when moving my studio to my basement I had to discontinue my internet from bell canada. Of course you would think it would be a pretty simple task which could go like this:

Me: Hello bell canada representitive. I need to cancel my internet because my business is closing at the end of the month.

B.C: Not a problem Mr.Robb, we'll bill you till the end of the month and send a box for the modem after that. Is that everything? Have a nice day!

But alas, customer service is not on bell's prime objective summery. On my first phone call, I was told that I couldn't cancel because I was signed up on a 5 year contract that started last december when (and I do remember this), a bell sales person called me up and asked if I wanted to upgrade my account to a wireless modem (which never worked because bell doesn't understand that people use MAC computers...). I did verbally agree to this, since I had no current plans to move at that time, but mind you I signed no contract. Needless I hung up with the rep, knowing that I needed to look back into my bills before to get more info.

A week later I called again, going through their automated phone services, and got to talk to a very nice rep who I could not understand what she was saying for the life of me. I explained my situation and what was going on and after being on the phone for just over 10 minutes, and asking her to repeat everything she said at least twice, I hung up in frusteration again when she kept saying that I can't cancel. She did give me another phone number to call to talk to another service rep that may help better. Calling this new number brought me through another set of automated messages (which by the way you don't have to deal with if you just keep pushing 0 as fast as you can!), and I started talking to another lady who spoke slightly better english. Explaining my problem, and the steps i've been through already, she looked into my account and after talking to her manager told me that I could get out of the contract (woo hoo!), but only after paying for 1/2 the time left which equaled about $3400 (not so woo hoo...). I then got my dad involved (he can talk people out of anything), and it was only after he called and had to ask the service rep to repeat herself 5 times that he asked where she was located. Turns out that India is the headquarters for bell CANADA. Great to see a canadian company keeping the jobs here. My dad did finally get a number for a rep here in canada and after only 3 calls to him and an email to the president of customer service for bell did we finally get a call saying that the charges have been taken off and we are free to stop the service.

So quite a relief after being told I had to pay $3000+ just to not use their internet any more. So all was happy.

Then a week later I recieved two new modems in the mail (on the same day). The same modems they tried to get me to use before but don't work with mac computers. (Oh and a side note, according to their tech reps, no one at bell knows how to use mac computers, they're not trained on them at all. You can tell who keeps up with the changing economy of technology!)

Finally today, after a month of waiting for bell to send a box(which they never did) to return the modem that they most likely would try to charge me for, I physically returned ALL the modems to a bell store (no more automated service for me).

So kids, the moral of this story: don't use bell for anything. if you want to work for bell, all the best, but at this rate they'll be going under soon (one can hope).

End of my era.

So i'm told that an era is a long period of history with a noteable feature or characteristic. I guess this applies to the past two years for me. At the end of this month I'll be closing down my studio location (just the location, not the photography business). It is an era for myself in that I built everything there with my own hands, my life and heart (and some blood here and there) went into it. I took it from an empty, dirty back of a wharehouse and made it into my second home. I know all the creaks, leaks and what steps not to step on (damn those stairs are hard to build straight). Its been my shelter, my bat cave, where creativity came, and left. The reason for the closing is mainly money. It was costing me too much to keep it open with rent, and driving there with the price gas is now was just insane. Plus only 1 out of 10 shoots happened at teh studio, most of what i do are on location. This also gives me the chance to get out into the location photography groove which i've been neglecting since having a studio to fall back on. So it comes to an end. The future is bright, the money I save should help pay off some debts and hopefully eventually I'll open a new location that meets more of my current needs.

Stuff for Today

One of the more utterly rideculous ideas i've ever heard, but also one of the most unique: Advertising on the Homeless
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I dunno why I like this comic....

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We don't need farms anyway.

I believe that farmland, fields and flatlands beside highways should be the first to go. I mean the destruction of all things natural is inevidable, so I just want to make sure that our drives to and from cities are covered first. This of course will be beneficial during winter drives where snow blows accross the road, causing black ice, drifting and cold cold death. Thats right, death! Who knew that an open field causing no resistance to wind and therefore blowing snow would cause such a catastrophe. The farmers should be ashamed. Driving through inches of blowing snow due to flat pastures is just insane! INCHES!! Plus you have the fact that people drive about 20 km/h less than the speed limit at the very sight of snow, so encompassing the highways with nice big buildings will decrease travel time! It is a win-win situation for everyone! I mean we will have to give up the sight of farmland, rolling fields, animals and pretty much all of nature, but who needs that. I'm going to grab my shovel and start digging a skyrise foundation now!



The preceeding blog is a farce, in that we made it up. The complaints are fake, the locations are fake and no animals were hurt in the making of it. Please conserve our ever-shrinking farmlands. Moo.

Wow its been a while....

I really need to make this blog something I do more often. It gets put on the back burner too much, probably because my memory is so short that when I think up good blog topics, they're gone by the time I get here...

So heres the update on my life right now.

This sunday is the first Presence, being held downtown London at the Arts Project. I'm leading (well not really leading...more like organizing a group of people) the worship this sunday, and by the look of it, the next few as well. I'm working on getting people to see the idea of 'alternative worship', in that its not about the songs, the lyrics, how we play, but about the idea of coming together, using our talents, creating something unique.
It will be an interesting day. Website here: http://presencelondon.blogspot.com

I am currently in the process of closing down my studio location (not the business, but just the location) as it was costing me too much, and I rarely used the space. I'm converting my basement into an office/lounge (retro baby!). Besides saving me money (wow gas prices are $1!!!!), I'm using this as an opportunity to expand my creativity to location shooting. There is no cushion of having a studio to shoot in with simple backgrounds and set up lighting (though I do like having total control). I now have to push myself back into shooting at different locations, which I have been wanting to do for a while now. I get bored too fast with the same thing over and over, so this is good.

I'm also starting a magazine called Revolutions. This is a motorcycle lifestyle magazine. So far i've had some good responses about it. People wanting to write for it, giving me new ideas, etc. Its going to be alot of work, at least for the first one, but I think its worth it. I've been playing with this idea for a few years, but now seems to be the time. I'll be editing and publishing and writing and photographing and....wow...You can check out the temp site here: http://revolutionsmagazine.com

EUROPE!!!!! Oh i've missed traveling. Its been almost two years since I last went traveling, so i've been getting antsy. Me and Dani leave May 8th for england and don't get back until June 20!! We have no real plans on where to go (just the way I like it), but Dani is making a list of where she wants to see. We'll be backpacking, hitting the hostels, getting lost and loving it. I can't wait to take more photos over there. Attention National Geographic: my resume will be coming this summer. haha

Umm that is about it. I will hopefully get this updated more often, and hopefully someone reads this!

Cheers