my birthday

It's my birthday today!

Had a ton of fun at the local filk at the SF Cafe last night, saw some folks I haven't seen in a while (like the Horvaths! wow, their kids are big). It was Glenn Simser's birthday, too, and there were two cakes presented as a surprise (one for each of us :-)).

Got some cool gifts from Jodi and Allison. Jodi gave me a gift box of peach-ginger tea, a very pretty mug, Belgian chocolate dipped spoon, Lindor chocolates (my favourite one so far is the white chocolate). Allison gave me a goody bag (a SPICE GIRLS bag, how thoughtful) with a New York Scratch-n-Sniff Postcard kit, M&Ms, friendship tea and some other herbal teas (I'm a big fan of herbal teas, if you hadn't noticed by now), a chocolate computer mouse, pretty pressed flower bookmark, Spiderman lip balm, a Flower Fairy craft kit and a KamiKaze Mosquito craft kit.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

italian letter

Enjoyed yesterday. Jeff and I visited the One-Of-A-Kind Craft show and I bought a spider to hang over my computer. I'll take a picture to show you. Had sushi for dinner, yum.

Here is my Letter of the Day:

From: Biblioteca - Ciamician (email address removed)

To: ohi@inkspot.com

Subject: what about pineapple on your pizza?

MIME-Version: 1.0



Dear Debbie,

we are italian postgraduate students who are trying to understand how to
compose an HTML page.

We are learning an italian book about this.

Here we found an example of home page: it was yours.

So we decided to write you just for asking some questions.



#1 How can you like pineapple on your pizza ?!? It's desgusting, my dear!

#2 What does "styrofoam container" mean? (in Italy we are bad english
students) Why does it make that "eee-eee-eee" noise?

#3 Do you like ice Hockey? Are you a Maple Leaf fan? Do you know the
italian icehockey team Bolzano?



If you are interested in our silly questions, please send us a reply
message as soon as you can at the email address



Bye Alex and Luke



P.S.: sorry for the few mistakes we surely made in the text message

Of course I had to reply to this letter. :-) I'm assuming that the book they saw my home page in was HTML AND CGI UNLEASED (first edition) by John December (Sams Net Publishing). The author came across my personal website (which has changed drastically since then), took a liking to it for some reason, and published a screen shot in his book as an example of a personal home page. :-) Over the past three years, I've received quite a few interesting emails as a result.

bakka move

Jeff and I helped Bakka pack last night. Bakka is the best science fiction bookstore in Toronto and is apparently one of the oldest in North America (est. 1972). The store has been on Queen St. for as long as I can remember, but skyrocketing rents have forced them to find a new location. The fact that so many people showed up to lend a hand gives you an idea of Bakka's loyal fan base. I got to see Michelle's newest book cover (second in the Sun Sword series, first was Broken Crown, DAW, 1997, by Michelle West), had fun hassling her brother Gary, saw Lloyd and Yvonne Penney, met a bunch of new folks, packed the used paperback section N through P. Bakka ordered in a pile o' pizzas for dinner. The actual move is today, but I won't be able to help because I have to work on inklings. Anyway, if you're in Toronto and like sf, be sure to visit Bakka at their new location, 598 Yonge Street, phone (416) 596-8161. You can be put on their mailing list by emailing the owner, John Rose.

pilot software

Must rave about my new Pilot Software. One is Fretboard, v.0.9. Shows you notes, scales, chord locations on a fretboard diagram...will also play them! Author Dave McCleod, member of the Celtic band Belt of the Celts. His homepage is fun, and helped me find Palm Tree, a useful-looking Pilot resource page. McChords is another fun Pilot app, by Michael McCollister. Choose any chord, see it outlined on a piano keyboard, hear the notes in the chord. Last but not least is PocketSynth...I'm still exploring this one so can't give a full overview, but it looks like a GREAT deal of fun. You can play tunes on the mini keyboard, program a song, play it back.
Author is Eric Cheng (echeng@cs.stanford.edu), shareware $10 (yes, I sent my money in).

taxes

Did taxes all day, ugh. Looking forward to UT practice tonight...Allison has two new songs for us to learn! FKO is only in a couple of weeks, yay.

I am going to get a bike this summer. I haven't bought a bike since I was thirteen. That bike had a banana seat and the long V handle bars (totally impractical, but cool-looking back then) with colourful plastic tassles, and was a really putrid colour of green. I loved it. I think it was a three-speed. Anyway, I figure it's about time to get a new one. David Goulden says he'll show me some of the local trails and promised not to let me kill myself. I trust him. Really. :-) I've already tried mountain biking a few times with a borrowed bike (I bought an obnoxiously pink helmet so that Jeff would be able to find me if I happened to fall off and knock myself unconscious in the woods). I still have a scar on my left arm from my first day of mountain biking in May/93. That was when Jeff and Scott (see picture of Scott above, he'd kill me if he knew I posted his picture, I'm sure :-)...he's a history professor at the University of Belfast, the guy we visited in Germany) told me that I didn't need a helmet, that I wouldn't fall. HAHAHA.