What's under your Mask?

via behance.net

*squee!* - this is beyond awesome! Masks through the history of pop culture :D The simplest design schemas at times can often be the ones that really stand out.

This might be the last post I make of 2009, so make sure you have a wicked New Year's wherever you are, whatever you're doing.

--case p.

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inept baby mouse

via johnnywander.com

Poor mouse. You're full of fail.

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The Great Debate: Real Vs. Artificial Christmas Trees

via scientificblogging.com

Oh, look! Another article on whether real or fake trees are the best way to go. And it's on scientific blogging! Yup - they say that artificial trees would be the way to go - you know, having long-term usability and cost-effectiveness and all, if you know... they weren't all potentially lined with lead.

Just saying.

--case p.

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Rochester aka Juice - A New Day

via revver.com

My jam of the moment: Rochester - "A New Day". I only heard this song for the first time at a party last night, and I knew I needed to find out more about it.

Reppin' Toronto's Islington/Finch intersection, Rochester's had a bit of acclaim in our community, and with this, I can see why. This song's just damn addictive. Was hard for me to believe at first that it came from the T-Dot, but you can hear the influences subtly in the undertones of the rhythm.

Listen, support and give props. I'm probably going to hunt this record down this week.

--case p.

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Christmas by the Numbers

via farm3.static.flickr.com

Source: http://www.billshrink.com/blog/the-christmas-season-by-the-numbers/

A very interesting layout regarding Xmas and Christmas (my own personal differentiation is Christmas = the Christian celebration of Christ, Xmas = the commercial celebration of gift giving). The historical context behind Christmas is news to me, but it's always good to have as much information as possible :)

This is also very helpful for my real vs. fake trees debate that I seem to have annually at this time of year. (Real trees FTW.)

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MEGA MAN!!!

I'm buying these after church on Sunday and NO ONE CAN STOP ME.

Mega Man: Official Complete Works

Source:

Mega Man X: Official Complete Works

Source:

For those who know me well, you'll know that I have DEEP love for Mega Man. Allow me to express how deep my Mega Man geekiness runs:

• I played through the original Mega Man multiple multiple MULTIPLE times when I first got it as a birthday gift
• I can still recite the majority of the music from Mega Man 1-5 off the top of my head if asked. BY LEVEL.
• I was one of those kids who tried to design their own Mega Man characters and do fan songs based on level music
• I pretty much squee'd when I heard that they were putting together Mega Man 9 for the Wii as a downloadable game

Me not getting this is like... those teachers in The Santa Clause 2 not getting those gifts from their childhoods.

Oh yeah. I went there.

--case p.

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Stats make me happy :)

So I've been using Google Analytics to gather stats on my Posterous account, and I've found out some interesting stuff:

Wow! People are reading my Posterous from all over the world! (Don't worry, this doesn't show me IP information or anything - just very general stats on my reader base.) I'd love to know what people from all over the world think of the stuff I'm posting on this account. You don't even need to sign up for Posterous in order to comment (though Posterous IS pretty awesome) - you can log in using your Facebook or Twitter profile to make it easier for yourself.

Looking forward to networking with tons of people worldwide this year!

--case p.

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Battle of the Bands Megapost - Everything you wanted to know and MORE!!!

After weeks of basking in the awesomeness of the event, I think I've finally calmed down enough to take a crack at writing a much-needed entry on the
2009 OPS Battle of the Bands. It was a great event - I haven't heard the official numbers on what the attendance was like as of yet, but I think the
two charities that were being supported by the event - United Way and Ryan's Well - fully appreciated our efforts and that there were a number of winners
that came out from it. But there was a long path that needed to be travelled first before we got there!

*CASEY PALMER: A CALAMITY*

The first question to ask is how I got in a band in the first place! I come from a history of being in choirs and messing around with music, but it's not something I generally advertise, because well, I don't spend enough time at it to be awesome. But it went a little something like this:

My team and I were out at lunch at a place we've nicknamed Lim's Garden. It was probably the first or second week that I'd been with the team, and my boss, Paul, was making an attempt at singing a Jason Mraz song to the team so that we'd all know what he was talking about. After numerous attempts, I helped him out with my rendition of the song, whereupon everyone recognized it immediately. Paul stared at me intently, and the only other words I heard at that moment was from a teammate at the table - "Looks like we just got ourselves a new band member!"

*A PHENOM IN THE MAKING: PRACTICES*

If you're going to perform in front of a bunch of important people, including the Secretary of the Cabinet (you know, the highest-ranking public servant in the province...), you're going to have to make sure that you're on your A-game! So practice was definitely needed. I started getting the invites to hit up my boss' place after work on Thursdays for practice, but I was always busy for a while. Whether it was wrapping up my summer Ultimate Frisbee league, attending a friend's birthday party or whatever, I remember that I didn't end up making it for a practice until late September.

In the beginning, I remember the group being a lot smaller and the nature of the practices far different. We spent some time feeling out the songs we
would potentially perform and had random jam sessions of songs such as Bob Marley and the Wailers' "Waiting in Vain" or The Police's "Message in a
Bottle". I think we had a bunch of random people at first as well. In time, the people who would make up The Calamities that would perform at BotB started coming by while Paul took a three week vacation in India. (I'm still jealous.)

At one point, our setlist included Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl" and Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive", but those were scrapped - one for being too campy (and the band's outright refusal to do a ska version of "Brown-Eyed Girl" despite a very insistent Paul) and the other for previously having been performed by the Calamities.

With an ever-changing setlist (and practice attendee list to match) and tensions rising with incorrect lyrics and unwanted instrumental mishaps, one may have worried at a point that the Calamities might not have pulled it off. But as the weeks passed, with extra practices and refocused vigor, we came to a point where our sound was clear and our cues to remember. It was just about time to perform.

*THE OUTFIT*

So a special event needs a special outfit! Originally, I had no idea of what I'd wear for this, but our lovely vocalists Carny and Emily were quick to come up with a set of criteria about a month before the battle:

Blue or black

Yeah, those were pretty much the rules. But for the vocalists, they came up with an EXTRA rule:

Sequined.

What man owns anything with sequins these days??? Those went out with disco BEFORE I was born! But I'm a team player, so with the rules iin mind, I set out to find something wearable in Toronto. All I could come up with was a sequined hat from Malabar. I'm not the type to put just anything on my head, so no - the hat wasn't happening. I called up numerous costume shops and scoured their websites, but it didn't look like I'd find was I was looking for in Toronto.

When all hope seemed lost, in the midst of one of the singers' (many) email conversations on how we planned for things to do at the battle, they sent a couple of links for companies who sell sequined vests in the US:

http://www.sixstaruniforms.com/Merchant/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=UV&Category_Code=VEST_SEQUINS

http://www.everythingsequin.com/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=40&gclid=COiGiPvDl54CFQ_xDAodOUiFlg

(and sequined hats for good measure): http://store.malabar.net/product_info.php?products_id=3250

So a good week and a half prior to the battle, the vest was ordered (at $25 US for the vest, with another $22 on top for international shipping - the things I do for The Calamities, eh?) with a note attached reading: PLEASE get this to me by December 3rd, as I have an event then that I need this vest for! Thanks! So all was well, since yanno - New York is pretty close, and on the site, it said they'd take 5 days to ship it. Easy peasy, right?

Oh so wrong. Let's take a look at a few things.

*There was an EXTRA clause on the site. In addition to the 3-5 business days it would take them to SHIP the vest, they allotted another 3-5 business days on TOP of that to actually PACKAGE it. I don't quite know why they needed so much leeway, but eh
*Customs can be a pain in the butt - had the vest been made of any explosive materials, it probably wouldn't have made it on time
*I was having the vest shipped to my workplace, and since we're on the 8th floor, I didn't quite know where the vest would be shipped to: The post office in the basement? Straight to my floor?

So I was happy that I'd have an awesome vest, but anxious to get it on time, or else I'd have paid all that money for nothing. Here's a look at what the schedule went like for getting the vest in:

	Delivered Abroad, December 03, 2009, 2:51 pm, CANADA
	At Foreign Delivery Unit, December 03, 2009, 8:04 am, CANADA
	Out of Foreign Customs, December 01, 2009, 4:02 pm, CANADA
	Into Foreign Customs, December 01, 2009, 1:36 pm, CANADA
	Arrived Abroad, December 01, 2009, 1:36 pm, CANADA
	International Dispatch, November 28, 2009, 6:21 pm, ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)
	Arrival
	Electronic Shipping Info Received, November 23, 2009

So as you can see above, it was a pretty close call. I was happy on the 23rd when they received word that they were getting the vest, but a little pissed that it took all the way until the 28th for them to actually SEND it. I started biting my nails a little by December 1st when it made its way through customs, but without any word of where the heck it was going after that. Things really hit the fan on the day of the Battle, with it being at the Foreign Delivery Unit in the morning. The day went a little like this:

• Get in to work
• See the vest is at the FDU
• Call USPS to see where the vest is - they say it's at the FDU and to call Canada Post to check
• Call Canada Post, who say that the vest WAS at the FDU, but is now in transit
• Check with the post office downstairs to see if the vest would come there, but they tell me if it did it wouldn't be until 5 PM or maybe even the next morning. Well THAT won't work
• Go back to the office - coworker calls USPS to give them a piece of her mind on the matter, they blame the company shipping the vest
• We call the company to give them a piece of our mind and see what we can do about getting a refund
• Go to dim sum for lunch, crestfallen
• Go back to the office, find out that we have an office mailbox down there and one of the admin assistants have a key
• Head downstairs to see if it's in the office mailbox
• See a guy with a USPS box going in the OTHER elevator as we exit.
• Me: "...nahhh, it... CRAP."
• Coworker and admin assistant go to check the office mailbox, I chase the guy upstairs on the other elevator
• Return to office to see coworker signing for vest
• Get box
• Tear it open
• You get: SHINY ROYAL BLUE VEST!!!!

(Source: http://www.sixstaruniforms.com/Merchant/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=UV&Product_Code=SQ-189-ROYAL-BLUE)

So it was an epic battle of patience and running around, but in the end it turned out okay. I was getting ready to head out, and my coworker asked something along the lines of "you're not wearing THAT under the vest, are you???" So then I found myself being forced to go to H&M to buy a black shirt to wear under the vest - and while at the cash register, I saw they were selling fedoras. FOR FIVE BUCKS. Yeah, there wasn't even a moment's hesitation there. My outfit was complete. I was ready to go duke it out with five other bands and see what they were bringing to the table!

*THE BATTLE*

The event itself was an ever-changing test run. We didn't really have time to do a soundcheck, since:

1. A lot of the needed musicians didn't turn up on time
2. The architecture of the building led to some interesting reverbations when you didn't want them
3. Equipment not quite working the way you wanted it to

As a result of these and other factors, we were left with no stage monitors and low microphone volume. Thus, you couldn't hear yourself sing, you couldn't hear the OTHER vocalists sing and you had to try and get those notes out. (Yes, this is my excuse for why I sound like I'm shouting through all the videos.) I still had fun though - our bands really came together in the end and I look forward to any future times we can come together and jam! I'm already thinking about potential songs for next year :)

*THE AFTERMATH*

In the end, I'm glad to have been a Calamity in this event. It was fun, it was energetic, and we were raising money for a good cause! (And we won the People's Choice Award for the second year running as a sidebar!) I'm hoping that we'll have another gig coming up in early 2010 so that everyone who missed the first one can see what the Calamities are all about! We even wound up on the internal website for our organization's newsletter, which was pretty cool:

I've posted most of these before, but for those of you who missed the event here's a ton of videos and clips to show what the event was all about!

Heatwave (Part 1)

Heatwave (Part 2)

Superstition

Solsbury Hill

Could You Be Loved

Gimme Some Lovin

Photos and More Video Clips:

Seeya next time!

--case p.

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I ate these!

Download now or preview on posterous

Godiva Truffles.pdf (201 KB)

A coworker had brought in truffles and told all of us to have one, since he's a really nice guy. Since I'm a nice guy, I let everyone else go first and ended up eating the 2008 Crème Brûlée. I'm not usually a fan of chocolate, but it was DIFFERENT. TASTILY DIFFERENT. I recommend it to anyone. (And you can always sign up to Godiva's mailing list to get a discount before you go in and spend stupid amounts of money on chocolate.)

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Weekend Sketches

Hey y'all, just a quickie for now. You'll probably start to see some more sketchwork from me as I try to put together all the stuff I doodle in notebooks, on scraps of paper, whatever I can find. People often say that you won't find me without at least a pen/pencil and a piece of paper to draw something on. What can I say? I keep busy. This mini-collection shows a logo I'm just taking a stab at, an old design for an evolved sea monkey from my webcomic Fish & Chimps (coming off of hiatus soon) and a random sea monkey looking as cheery as ever. Hope you enjoy!

--case p.

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My personal motto for work at the moment...

I'm just saying, if you try to plan out for contingencies and Murphy's Law in general, much stress and madness can be avoided.

But who am I to say this? My team's focus is only, yanno, project management...

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Hangin' at Second City waiting for the improv - should be good!

It's Darryl Hinds' last night and he's about to do a best of of his skits he's done over time. I'm definitely looking forward to this!

Second City. You're always guaranteed a laugh :)

--case p.

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Casey's Cup of Awesomeness

I'm at a Christmas party that's pretty fun - meeting lots of cool people and drinking out of the Cup of Awesomeness. We've made our own sub-party upstairs. Currently talking with some Christmas botanists who know the difference between mistletoe and holly. Okay, yeah, I got nothing. --case p.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Avatar 3D goodness!

Hey all,

So I got to check out Avatar in 3D! It was good times - elaborate visuals, crazy special effects and interesting wildlife. Worth every penny? Probably not, though it was pretty cool seeing everything. In 3D!!!

Casey's rating: 8/10. --case p.

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Today's Mail

I was hoping to tell you all stories of how I got my Threadless t-shirts in the mail today, but the girl who answered the phone at the local post office gave me the wrong closing time, and so by the time I was done hanging with my friend who's in town from Sweden, the window of opportunity had closed. (Hopefully I can snag them on Monday.) Instead, this is what was waiting in the mail for me - a Christmas card from my pastors' family and my Moo Minicard holder (which was free not including shipping). Still a good mail day!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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GPOYW - @ Karaoke

@ the Fox and the Fiddle on the Danforth, sippin on a Strongbow, getting ready to sing some songs. Tonight's tracks: Michael Jackson - Man in the Mirror; Bell Biv DeVoe - Poison

Let's do this!!!

--case p.

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Sea Bass w/ Shrimp Fried Rice @ Spring Rolls

The rice is decent, the fish is bony - all in all, not a dish I'm getting again, but hey. You only live once. --case p.

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[HD]自主制作アニメーション『the TV show』

via youtube.com

Videos like this can make you wish you weren't living in North America.

You can basically look at it like the same sequence of videos done four times over, but it's after the first time where the madness starts to begin!

Round one is the premise;

Round two brings you to reality to show you how it all fits in;

Round three shows what happens when we merge that crazy TV land with reality;

Round four shows the consequences.

What do we get? 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = EPIC WIN.

--case p.

P.S. On second look, there could be more like 7 rounds... and you've gotta watch out for all the subtle changes - for there are MANY!

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The Calamities - Martha and the Vandellas "Heatwave"

via youtube.com

The first of the videos to surface of The Calamities' performance last Thursday! One of Carny's friends brings you "Heatwave".

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THE BITTER END

via thebitterend.tv

I recommend The Bitter End if you want some edgy comedy that'll make you laugh. And cry. And make grotesque faces at your monitor.

From the brother of people I went to school with, The Bitter End.

It's a bandwagon you should already be riding like poison children.

(You'll see what I mean...)

--case p.

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Blue Santas @ Lunchtime

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what it was all about. --case p.

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When Editors Sleep on the Job: Hangin' Out at St. Peter's

http://mobile.torontoist.com/2009/12/hangin_out_at_st_peters.php

This is a prime example of what happens when people aren't doing their jobs right.

I must say, it probably made for an interesting commute into work for the bazillions of people who pick up this free Toronto paper, daily.

Well, that is if they were awake enough to see what was... *ahem*... staring them in the face.

--case p.

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You Know You're on the Computer Too Much When...

Girlfriend's Roommate: Casey, did you even sleep? You're in the exact same position!
Casey: Ha - (*realizes it's true, since I slept after her and woke up before her and returned to the computer*) - awww =/

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Prepping for a Dinner for 11 (+ baby)

When Casey wants to experiment with his camera, he starts taking pics of random crap. In this case, it was my girlfriend and her friend Sherrie preparing dinner for our House Group from church - we were expecting 11 people (plus Amelia, one of the cutest babies ever). I think it was an excellent table setting and the atmosphere was put together quite well. Check it out here:

You might ask why I wasn't helping with the cooking.

Simple answer: Because I'm a lousy cook.

--case p.

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The Calamities: Now With Video!!!

via flickr.com

Hey all,

I got around to posting some video on top of the photos that have been popping up on my Flickr and Facebook. Here's an example above, and I think there's another five for you to check out in the 2009 OPS Battle of the Bands gallery on my Flickr here:

The videos so far include interviews, intros and other such humorous filler - the songs will come later into the week, along with my blog post.

Hope you're looking forward to it!

--case p.

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The difference between Harry Potter and Star Wars: A New Hope = ...pretty much nothing!

via hidama.tumblr.com

I'M ON TO YOU, J.K. ROWLING!!!

Another example of the classic S&M (Steal and Modify) model in action.

The worst part?

NO ONE WAS HURT IN THIS PROCESS. LUCAS AND ROWLING are BOTH RICH.

Damn it all.

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News: deviantART Presents: The dAPRO Camera Bag!

via news.deviantart.com

dA Pro Camerabag?

OMG, COVETTTTTT!

Though I should see if Lowepro has something better for a comparable price...

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2009 OPS Battle of the Bands Photos!

Got my photos uploaded, geotagged, normaltagged and ready for viewing!

Blog post to hopefully follow later on into the weekend!

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