The Secret is OutAt 8:31 PMby: Hiro

Arjun had his monobrow(he didn't want me to mention the other word) waxed today.

That is all.

All Deafening on the New Orleans FrontAt 5:27 PMby: Nana

This blog is amazing. It's written by a guy who is stuck on the 10th floor of a building in New Orleans that is surrounded by flood waters from the Hurricane Katrina. The building is a data center that deals with maintaining servers for various websites, including Something Awful.

He has streaming video from the building running nonstop and some commentary about the events that are occuring in New Orleans, including looting and other crimes.

It really drives home how selfish people can be, when all they can think about is profiting from unfortunate circumstances like Hurricane Katrina, even at the risk of their own lives.

UPDATE

It completely slipped my mind to mention that the Red Cross is taking donations for a Relief Fund for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. You can donate online at Red Cross dot Org or by calling 1-888 HELP NOW. Our thoughts and prayers go out to anyone affected by the Hurricane, or by any of the other terrible things happening in the world at this instant.

So You Think Things Move Pretty Fast 'Round HereAt 4:25 PMby: Nana

It's finally happened. I've replaced my tried and true discman today. We had a good 5 year run, but it's time to move on.


RIP - NANA'S DISC PLAYING OBJECT - 2000-2005

Kicking at the wainscottingAt 2:46 AMby: Nana

I have a huge post coming up for you all. It involves a wedding.

I'm headed back to the O.C. tomorrow night.

Does anyone else think that all this hurricane watching stuff is stupid? News shows devote too much time to stuff like this.

It's getting late, so I'm going to sleep.

Hello from EuropeAt 5:21 PMby: Hiro

So apparently getting internet access while doing a whirlwind tour of Europe isn't as easy as you would think. There have been internet cafés available but rarely the time to sit down and use them.

I'm now in Amsterdam and it's my 3rd last day in Europe. It's been an insane 2 weeks and been having a blast. Tons of fun shit has happened and my video filming is coming along great. I'm up to 10 tapes of footage now so hopefully enough decent footage to make a quality dvd and oh what a movie it will be.

So tonight we walked around Amsterdam's red light district. I swear I was in sin city or something. I couldn't believe that shit. Sex shops/shows everywhere, and every 10 feet there are these glass doors that the hookers stand behind and smile at potential clients as they walk by.

Backtracking back to the beginning of the tour, ít's been incredible seeing so much of Europe in such a short amount of time. We started off in London where the boys (Mike, Dave and Tony my roommates from Waterloo) and I adventured around using The Tube. I swear we saw all of London. Tiring as hell but loads of fun. Later that day we met our Contiki tour group and stayed the night before heading out to France. France was very nice and we did the tourist things like the Eiffel tower (which I would argue had one of the most beautiful views I've see in my life) and the Louvre museum.

From France we went on down to the tiny but lavish country of Monaco where we got to tour around in one of the richest cities of the world. It was just ridiculous. So much money everywhere, it was unbelievable. The view driving along the mountains looking out at the coast was absolutely spectacular.

Then we drove to Italy where we toured Florence, Rome, and Venice. Italy was very nice and we had loads of fun. I loved the views of the mountains as we drove around Italy. 10 out of our 14 days in Europe are "travel days" where we spend a solid 6-8 hours on the bus. As such we go to a lot of service stations. An interesting thing to note is that every service station I can remember in Italy was an Autogrill. What's even more interesting is that every Autogrill is actually owned by the Vatican. Interesting.

Speaking of service stations, here's a weird thing about Europe. You have to pay to piss! They actually have these people sitting outside of just about every washroom and they have a tip jar where you're supposed to tip like 50 cents. The free washrooms are like a diamond in the rough. We go totally wild when we find one haha.

Leaving Italy, we passed through Austria where we made a short stop at the Swarovsky Crystal Museum which was pretty cool...moreso for the girls I guess. After that we dropped into Munich, Germany where we had an awesome time at a German Beer Hall. Man the German's know how to party. They drink from 1 litre glasses(called Steins or Tankards) of beer. When we were at the beer hall, there was another Contiki tour group as well and a number of them had been "skulling" (Aussie term for chugging - more on Aussie slang some other day) or attempting to skull their 1 litre glasses of beer. The ones that finished sure as hell took their sweet time. So yours truly, with the help of some peer pressure, stepped up on behalf of our tour group and skulled it in 18 seconds. Good times.

We spent a night in the Rhine valley yesterday and now we come back to today, when we arrived in Amsterdam in The Netherlands. I already mentioned the red light district but we all know that this place is much more known for its tolerance of smoking weed. We checked out a "coffee shop" tonight and it was so weird. It was like I was in an alternate universe. You go up to like a ticket booth and order your weed. You can get it in a bag or pre-rolled. They even have a variety of different types depending on what your mood is. Then everyone just sits around like a pub and smokes up.

Anyway, I don't have much time to keep typing and I can't think of any great stories off the top of my head so I'll have to go back and recount some of the better stories from the trip.

Tomorrow we spend another day in Amsterdam and enjoy our final night of debauchery and then the day after we head back to London where we spend another night there and finally leave for Canada the next morning.

See you in Canada!

All That TV Watching Pays Off... Sort OfAt 9:42 PMby: Nana

Ross Hull, the guy who played Chris Shepherd on Student Bodies, is a weatherman (weather-person?) for the Weather Channel. I really can't take him seriously after his previous work (he was on "Are You Afraid of the Dark" too).

Did anyone else think Mags and Flash were really, REALLY hot back then?

P.S: Uzo tells me that the guy who played "Romeo" is on a pizza commercial too.

I rule several schools and have skills capable of paying any number of billsAt 1:30 PMby: Nana

As promised, the low-down on The Avant-Garde Bar.

This bar is located at 135 1/2 (that's not a joke) Besserer Street, in Ottawa. From the first time I saw the bar at the beginning of the previous school year, I knew I had to go in there. It's one of my wannabe philosopher things, I guess. Or maybe it's just a poser thing.

Anyway, when I walked into the bar I immediately noticed the Soviet themed decor. They also have Russian stylized posters on the walls and play music from eastern (and western) Europe. The menu is all Russian food too! I didn't know what to order, so I asked my server to give me whatever she thought was good, and a bottle of Russian beer (the brand was called Baltika).

As I waited around for my food to be prepared, I too another look around the place. There was a wall with a large painting, which had some phrases outlining what the Avant-Garde movement is, on it. There was also some hockey memorabilia, and other souvenirs from Russia. I began to read a book which contained some funny stories by some famous poets and writers, when my food arrived.

I had borscht which is a cold soup made of beets. It also contained some eggs (boiled, and halved), some sour cream, and some chicken. It was really filling, and tasted good. And the waitress was nice too, so that helped liven up the experience.

Since I don't rate bars and such, I won't give The Avant-Garde bar a rating. But I'll be going back there again some time, because they have live bands on Wednesdays.

What do Mustaches, Designs and Europe Have in Common?At 1:58 AMby: Hiro

Nothing.

First off I just wanted to share with everyone a picture from a couple weeks ago. To give you a little background information, I've been in a bet with my housemates from Waterloo for over a month now. The bet was to see who could go the longest without shaving off a dirty, dirty mustache. Not only did we have to grow a mustache, we had to keep the rest of the face clean shaven to increase the dirtiness of the mustache. As of this post, only Dave and I remain in the competition. At the end of July, it was the last Bomber (an on-campus bar at U of Waterloo) night of the term and the theme was Wild Wild West. It was perfect timing since our mustaches had been growing for some time. Here is my favourite picture of the night, taken with my friend Meghan. I look intense.


Meghan is hot.
As you may or may not have noticed depending on your observational skills - or lack thereof - I have changed the design of Pleasant Interruption. I was growing a little tired of the fun but cheap looking design and it was also a good excuse to get myself back into blogging mode. I hope you find the change pleasant. If you're wondering where that picture is from, I took it from the airplane somewhere above Chile on my way there last September.

Lastly, I'm leaving for Europe today. I'm going on a Contiki tour with 3 of my housemates from Waterloo - Dave, Mike and Tony. We'll be hitting up England, France, Monaco, Italy, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, and Belgium over 16 days.

At this point you may be wondering about our mustache challenge. We're taking this to Europe. How long will Dave and I last? Who knows.

They're going to regret letting us into their countries.

In addition to a digital camera, I'm also bringing a video camera with 16 tapes. That's right, 1 tape/day. When I get back I'm going to edit the footage and make a dvd movie which I'll share with everyone. That likely won't happen for a few months though.

Anyway, I'm going to try to get internet access as often as I can while I tour around the continent and if I can, I will be blogging about our mischief so you can tour Europe vicariously through my writing.

With that, I am off.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Sunday, Bloody SundayAt 2:49 PMby: Nana

I had some objectives to complete for this Sunday. They all have to do with me being in Ottawa.

The first objective was to go to the university bookstore to finish up a story (I won't give anymore details). The university bookstore is closed on Sundays.

The second objective was to get all of my comics from the comic shop, and pay for next months issues. The comic book store is closed on Sundays as well (I didn't know cause I never go on Sundays).

The third objective was to get a new battery for my cordless phone. I was able to do this, but it set me back 30 dollars (I bought the phone for about that much, because it was a display model).

The fourth was to go to the music store to see if they have any used acoustic guitars. The music store is closed on Sundays.

My fifth and last objective was to go to the pawn shop to see how much the gitars there were; if they were cheaper than the ones at the music store, then I would buy ones from the pawn shop. THE PAWN SHOP IS CLOSED FROM AUGUST 3RD UNTIL AUGUST 28TH.

As you can see, this was the worst day for planning ahead in history.

I also broke the mop/sponge thingie that I brought from Belleville, and had to spend another 30 bucks on a new mop/bucket/misc. cleaning supplies. And I still haven't slept yet. [/whine]

But I did go to a restaurant/bar that I've been wanting to go to for awhile. I'll talk about the Avant-Garde Bar tomorrow.

Now That It's Over, I Love You More and MoreAt 10:29 AMby: Nana

I haven't slept yet. I stayed up the whole night. It wasn't on purpose.

What usually happens after one of these nights is that I have a crazy story to tell. I have a funny story to tell. For later though (for real this time, and I'll get to the furry story sometime soon too Liam).

The Happiest Place on EarthAt 2:05 PMby: Nana

I ate a brownie batter blizzard today and almost died from the richness of said blizzard.

Jennings, the Rawkingest Anchor That Ever Rawked AnchorsAt 4:08 PMby: Nana

It's time for us to say our farewell to Peter Jennings. He's been a fixture of American news and of Canadians watching American news. There's not much else that I could say that hasn't already been said somewhere else, and I didn't know him personally. But I know that he did have some influence on me, as I did entertain the idea of being a journalist at some point. Also, he was probably the most rock and roll out of all of the big three anchors (maybe he's tied with Brokaw, I don't really know, but he definitely beats Rather).

Rest peacefully, Mr. Jennings

On a Strange Sort of PointlessnessAt 4:00 PMby: Nana

People do all kinds of pointless things. I name my electronic gadgets.

My habit of naming things that I own began with my first "two-wheeler" mountain bike. It was my pride and joy; I'd ride it everywhere, going on little adventures with my friends(and not so little ones).

The problem with naming things, as most people know, is that you form an attachment with the named thing. When a child threw rocks at my bike and put a few dents and chips into it's frame I went nuts. I still haven't forgiven him. And I didn't learn my lesson.

Time passed for a while and I didn't really name anything else. I got video game consoles which I could have named Peter or Sally, and used family computers I could have called Bill. (When I built my computer I did name it Rosie, [Rosie is the name of the robot maid from the Jetsons, and is a name that I'm fond of. It's also called Rosie because when I turn my computer on it talks in a female voice. I'm serious.] That's a story for another day.) But all of this would change when I got my first discman.

I didn't really have a name for it, but we formed an immediate connection from the moment that I wrenched it from it's moulded plastic prison that fall day 5 years ago. The discman was with me through thick and thin: through backstabbings from friends, through being turned down comically and repeatedly in school by girl after girl, through my first love in grade 12, and through my first heartbreak months later. I've taken it to two other continents, and to various provinces and states. It's been with me through cold weather and hot, and through exams and vacations. I don't think it would be much of a stretch for me to say that I love the think, but I won't. We throw those sorts of phrases and words around so much that they lose their meaning. But that really is the feeling I get when I put on my headphones and walk to class every day.

But when I came back to Belleville this summer I left it behind. I guess I needed a clean break from it all because our relationship is over. 5 years is long enough, and it's probably time for a change.

The Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Listening To LowAt 3:47 PMby: Nana

#5.) Low are not from the UK.

#4.) They pretty much defined a whole genre of music, aptly called "slowcore" for it's slow but powerful force. (from their bio) "The idea, all that time ago, was to play as slowly and quietly as possible[.].."

#3.) Mimi Parker (drummer and singer), Zak Sally (the bassist), and Alan Sparhawk (on guitar and vocals) have been making music steadily for over 10 years and 7 albums.

#2.) The Great Destroyer, Low's newest album (released in January of this year) is one of the best album that I've heard. Ever.

#1.) You can sample some of Low's songs at their website, chair kickers dot com. Or, you can download the first song from The Great Destroyerhere, from download dot com