Goodbye beard, hello hat!

Thought I'd take the opportunity to take a snapshot of my look today, as (a) I've got a big (for me) beard that will be getting shaved off in a day or two as it doesn't fit my Hallowe'en costume plans, and (b) I got a new hat today, a brown Canucks one with a yellow whale logo. I'd much prefer a stick and rink logo, or even the Johnny Canuck one, but this was the only one I could find that fit and had a stretch back. Comfort trumps logo choice, it seems. Stupid whale. Anyway, the hat purchase is a momentous occasion, as my previous hat is an ILM crew hat for Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005), which I didn't work on, but a friend did. Before that, it was a free hat from work, and before that... I don't even remember. So new hats (that I actually wear) don't come along that often in my life, so I'm excited to welcome this one into the fold. And at the same time - goodbye, beard! It's been a blast - keeping warm in the rain, repeatedly accidentally dipping you in my drinks and meals, annoying Holly with you... but it's time to move on. I'll see you again, I'm sure.

...

Boy, blogs are sure useless, aren't they? Over and out.

93. Get an autograph from a famous person.

On October 21st, 2009, Hol and Soph and I were lucky enough to meet Gordon Korman, a prolific young adult author (65 books and counting!), Canadian, and all-round funny and cool guy. He also happens to be my favourite author from when I was a kid, so it was a great thrill to hear him speak and get to meet him, albeit briefly.

He talked about how he got started as an author, about his various books, and he seemed like a really down to earth guy. It was an honour to give him a big stack of books to be signed - we got his first ever book, This Can't Be Happening At MacDonald Hall, signed for Sophie. I'm sure she'll be reading our vast collection of Gordon Korman books at some point in the not-so-distant future.

I also got "I Want To Go Home" signed for myself - it was one of my very favourites, and retains the ability to make me laugh aloud when I read it. Here's a compilation of some of his book covers, to take a trip down memory lane, and to see a few of his more recent publications.



A big thanks to Kidsbooks for putting on the book signing event!

90. Write a letter to the city about Burrard Bridge's bike lanes.

Several years ago, the city of Vancouver tried to take away a lane (or two?) from the regular Burrard Bridge vehicle traffic and give them to bikes. The plan was cancelled after an uproar from the driving community.

Fast-forward to sometime last year.

I was going to write a letter to encourage the city to retry the Burrard Bridge bike lane trial, but never got around to it. The plan came up again, regardless - this time, with better planning, more support, and the promise of follow-through.

I was going to write a letter of support and encouragement not to cancel it due to the vehicle lobby (after all, it's just a trial), but never got around to it. They went ahead without my support. There were some complaints from "the cars", but not with the same indignant outrage as before - possibly because the trial was better planned and advertised, or possibly because bike traffic was on the rise while vehicle traffic was dropping. The trial began.

I was going to write a letter to tell them how great it was to commute on my bike over the bridge during the initial week, but never got around to it. They didn't cancel the trial, even without my voice.

By now, I'm thinking that my opinion is just being beamed telepathically into City Hall, and that I should start approving tax cuts and free transit for anyone named Dean, but I got hold of myself and decided to finally write my letter - this time, showing support, offering suggestions, and encouraging them to make it permanent, at least through the Olympics. Seems like the kind of neat thing that would generate the right kind of buzz about our city - and prove that we're still working to improve our much-vaunted high standard of liveability.

Anyway, the letter has been written, and will be on its way to the mayor shortly. Here I am in biking regalia, showing off my mad letter-writing skills.

41. Finish a Sunday NY Times crossword with help from only three people, chosen beforehand.

I love the New York Times crosswords, especially the Sunday ones. Once upon a time (a few years ago), Holly and her cousin Polly and I worked together to solve a Sunday Times crossword, and it was a very satisfying puzzle to solve. Since then, I've been wanting to try again, and see if I could solve another one, still with help.

I made a start on this quest during our trip out east for Richie and Amanda's wedding this summer - I eventually tracked down a book of NYT Sunday crosswords, although it took forever to track down. The airport shops were crawling with NYT crossword books, but none of them were Sunday-specific, or even included Sunday puzzles! (Too hard for all those dumb people in airports, I guess?) I finally tracked down a book of 50 Sunday puzzles in Provincetown, MA, just before the much-hyped drag queen incident. (But that's another story.)

Even getting help from lots of people, these puzzles proved to be ridiculously difficult. After a month or so, we got one solved called "European Journal" (August 18, 2002, by Michael Ashley), but with the help of Holly and Kristi and Janet and various others, so that didn't quite count.

Just recently, though, we completed one with just three people - myself, Holly, and Janet. The puzzle was "High Definition" (April 29, 2001, by Elizabeth C. Gorski), and we solved the whole thing with only one or maybe two educated guesses - which turned out to be right, phew! We solved it on September 30, 2009, while Janet was over visiting. Thanks, Janet! Thanks, Holly! Yay for us! And yay for Will Shortz and his awesome puzzles!

32. Watch all six Star Wars movies plus Clone Wars in one weekend.

This Thanksgiving weekend (Oct 10-12, 2009), Sophie had a cold, and we decided to stay home and get her all better, rather than travel to the Island for the usual family/turkey extravaganza. Trying to find a silver lining, rather than dwell on the lack of good company and jellied salad, we each took consolation where we could - for Holly, with the knowledge of how bad the ferries were, and for me, by seizing the opportunity to have a giant Star Wars movie marathon.

The idea with this 101 Things List item was to reacquaint myself with the Star Wars universe in the short space of one weekend. Since this would be a painful amount of movie watching in a regular weekend, I've been waiting for a long weekend with no other major commitments - just like this one. So off to the video store I went, and embarrassed myself thoroughly by asking for all the Star Wars movies they had.

I watched Episode I and II on Saturday, Clone Wars and Episode III on Sunday, and the originals (Episodes IV, V, and VI) on Monday, finishing around 10:30pm. Whew! Harder than it sounds to watch them all in such a short time, especially with a daughter running around that we figure is still a little too young for the movies.

Here are some thoughts on each one:

Phantom Menace: Holy cats, Jar Jar is annoying. He's not getting any better with age. Add this to generally bad acting (Liam Neeson being the main exception), racial stereotyping, and a generally convoluted plot, and this was a tough one to watch. Pod racing was kind of cool, though.

Attack of the Clones: Getting better, more intrigue, more fun than the first one - but still has some bad acting and bad writing... Pluses include first appearance of Kit Fisto (coolest Jedi around), a neat city chase scene, and some decent monsters.

Clone Wars: For an animated movie, I thought this was excellent. It was stylized enough to skirt right around the uncanny valley, the characters were solid and true to the movies, and they managed to take a plot that didn't matter one whit to the main story, and make it gripping, believable, and well integrated. Well done.

Revenge of the Sith: Not too shabby - I thought they did a good job of easing from the Republic into the Empire, in terms of Palpatine's slow reveal, the soldiers and technology getting closer to what we recognize from IV/V/VI, and Anakin's transformation into Vader. This one was darker than the previous two, which I think helped it immeasurably. (RIP, Kit Fisto.)

A New Hope: Love it! Brings me right back to kindergarten, when I saw this for the first time. Love the trash compactor, love the X-Wings, love the Millennium Falcon, love Mos Eisley! Even Luke's whining is endearing with age, since it's all part of the growing-up process. I must admit, I partially fell asleep during the attack on the Death Star, but was awake for the final explosion. :)

Empire Strikes Back: So awesome. The AT-AT Walkers attacking the Hoth base is one of the coolest things ever. And Han getting frozen in carbonite - an incredibly dramatic thing for a young kid to watch - and it still gets me, right there. *sniff*

Return of the Jedi: The whole rescue around Jabba's palace - brilliant. (The only bummer was having Boba Fett meet his fate as the result of a Three Stooges move.) As for the Endor scene, I think it was just because I had just sat through all that Jar Jar, that I didn't find the Ewoks as annoying as I once had. They were pretty cool this time around. And those speeder bikes? Forget about it. It's a toss-up between them and the AT-ATs for the coolest vehicle distinction. Solid ending, too. Take that, Dark Side!

All in all, it was 892 minutes of lightsabrey goodness, just shy of 15 hours. (Maybe 15 if you include the music video to The Saga Begins by Weird Al Yankovic, which I also watched...)

And finally, with apologies and admiration to thehaydenclone for the original art, here's what I figure would have improved Episode I: