I have tickets for Oasis!!!

List of artists to see before I die:

1. U2
2. AC/DC
3. R.E.M.
4. Oasis
5. The Tragically Hip

Soon I'll be scratching one more off the list!

It's been a long time, sweetie ...

Okay, okay, a very long time. Not only that, but I still don't feel like writing complete thoughts, so here's a bunch of point-form about the summer and what I've been up to:

• Summer means Big Brother in the Burt household, and I've watching every season for almost seven years now. My lady Jedi Janie almost made it to the end, so I'm content with the way things went down. I really wish there was a Canadian version of this show, because I would seriously own it.
• The 8th Annual GREAT CANADIAN CABIN PARTY was another success. The new hot tub at the cabin was a fantastic addition! Everyone was pretty lame, with most folks going to bed and getting up early, but at least I had an excuse - I found out later that I had a throat infection. This year I stayed at the cabin almost an extra week afterwards, but it was a brutal time because I spent most of the time in bed or eating ice cream.
• As I mentioned earlier, I made the switch to Linux on each and every computer I use at work and at home, and I haven't looked back. Windows sucks.
• I got a new laptop with gobs of RAM at work and it's pretty awesome. It has a huge battery and seemingly lasts forever. I do have one problem, though - the screen resolution is incredibly high (1400x1050). It gives me a new appreciation for web design, because lots of sites either look bad or are hard to read, and they are sometimes both.
• The word of the summer was wedding.
  • I MC'd my buddy Janson's wedding, and it went like clockwork. We had a blast for the remainder of the reception as well. Good times.
  • Sofi and I drove all the way to Sundre, AB for my friend Christine's wedding. It was also good times. I went up early to Banff to meet up with Colby and Shannon and then later picked up Sofi at the airport in Calgary and we all had a great weekend in Sundre. It was super awesome to visit with lots of folks from Assiniboia and surrounding area that made it up for the wedding. I'm looking forward to our 10 year high school reunion next year!
  • We drove down to the Boodlini wedding in Carlyle in August and stayed at my sister's in Redvers in between the festivities. Not only was it quite possibly the coolest wedding I have ever been to, but we had a great time to match. How many weddings can you think of that involve gorilla suits, cookies, Angel Sombrutski, rave music, baseball games, hay rides, and mandatory shots at the receiving line. I can't begin to describe how fantastic every minute of it was - just perfect and a perfect reflection of the happy couple. I also got to ride in a combine for the first time in my life at my sister's b/f Clayton's farm. Small town Saskatchewan rules.
  • I just got back from an amazing week in Toronto that culminated in Nick's wedding to Allison. I am very proud to say that Nick asked me to be a member of his wedding party, and I accepted. He is a true friend, unlike some others that come to mind. I won't get into all the debauchery over the week, but sufficed to say, it was a good way to cap off the summer. I would, however, be remiss if I didn't mention a few vague keywords and highlights:
    • "What makes you think I won't cut you?" - fun with weapons
    • ...at Degrassi High!
    • Tryin'a catch me ridin' dirty!
    • "What's 'homer-red' mean?"
    • The glass floor
    • The Grey Goat
    • Boodlini pizza
    • Gibson's Finest
    • Hojo Aurora
    • Lunch with Candace in Greektown ... "Do you want to have Greek or ... Greek?"
    • The theme from "The Golden Girls"
• I spent a lot of my spare time this summer work on a new website for CIPS Regina. It turned out okay and I'm pretty impressed with the CMS system we got going on the backend.
• I bought a set of golf clubs and immediately improved my game by about twenty strokes. Too bad I likely won't improve much further ;)
• I had an omnipresent feeling of unease all summer, and I'm not sure why. I think I'm over it now, though. The good news is that for me, unlike Blair, if something bad does happen to me, something twice as good will happen shortly thereafter. Speaking of Blair, his website is back up and running - you should have a look and leave him a nasty comment ... it's really fun.
• I received my professional designation this summer, so I am now officially Derek Burt, I.S.P.
• This summer was a pretty active one for me. I started running outdoors pretty seriously and was racking up some decent daily and weekly distance until I put my program on hold for holidays. I am getting X-rays soon for a possible stress fracture in my leg, but it hasn't stopped me running, playing soccer in the park, or playing slo-pitch with my work team. We had a great season weather-wise and I made the most of it.
• Over the last four months or so I've had the opportunity to watch some decent movie movies:
  • Brilliant
    • Ghandi
  • Great
    • American History X
    • Falling Down
    • March of the Penguins
  • Fun
    • M:I 3
    • X-Men: The Last Stand
    • Superman
  • Whatever
    • Cowboy del Amor
    • Two for the Money
    • Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
    • Free Enterprise
    • The Da Vince Code
    • Day of the Jackal
    • Crash
    • The Sentinel
  • Boooooooooo !!!
    • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
• "Interestingly, frequent Internet use is associated with a decline in local knowledge and interest in living in the local area." - I'll say. This summer I finally admitted to myself deep down inside that living in this province is starting to eat me up inside. I've lived in this province my entire life, and the grass keeps getting greener and greener everywhere else. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think to myself that I live in a socialist wasteland of sloth and selfishness. Don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic place to live, but the economic, social, and physical safety we enjoy comes at a big price - our future. Hundreds of thousands of people have left this province, why haven't I?
• I finally broke down and switched almost all my banking to PC Financial. It just got to the point where I couldn't take any more fees. The moment I switched I immediately saved $150 a year and they even gave me $10 just for setting up a payroll deposit. They also pay obscene amounts of interest. I used to be the biggest advocate of credit unions in the world, but now Conexus is so big they couldn't give a flying fuck about me or any other of their customers. It's amazing that after decades of loyalty they would treat me worse than most banks would if I just walked off the street. I still have my mortgage and car loan there, but eventually they will be gone, too. Why put up with impersonal service from them when I can go to a bank and get impersonal service for less?
• My hair is way too long. It's insane.

P.S. - I might not have come back from the dead if it weren't for the many folks I ran into over the course of the summer, some I hadn't seen in literally years, who told me they keep up with me via this site, even if it's only once in a while. To you I say this: I write here because you don't call.

So I finally broke down and bought an iPod:

Why did I buy one? Simple - I needed an MP3 player for the gym and saw a refurbished one on sale. I got all of the style without paying the Apple tax :)

One problem, though: most iPods need software called iTunes to work. iTunes, however, sucks. Any songs you buy from their store have DRM all over them, which means any songs you buy you don't really own:

• Want to listen to your songs on anything other than your computer or an iPod without burning a CD? Too bad!
• Want to edit or change any songs you purchased? Too bad!
• Want to burn more than half-a-dozen copies of your favourite mix disc? Too bad!
• Want to use Linux instead of chronically-insecure and virus-ridden Windows or chronically-expensive Mac OS X? Too bad!
• Bonus: if your computer gets fried you can't just re-download all the songs you've already purchased, you get to pay for them all over again!

Now my iPod isn't perfect. It's like all the other iPods out there in that it won't play certain file formats from competing vendors, but it does play MP3s, which is all I need. It also has a special feature that other models of the iPod don't have: I don't need iTunes to use it! If you are like me and don't like to be forced into using software you don't want or need, then download the iPod shuffle Database Builder. It's easy to download, install, and use. Plus, you will feel good giving Apple the big FU.

P.S. - Did I mention that the Shuffle also doubles as a USB key that works with any operating system, so you can put other files on it, too? It does.

Which one is the Messiah?

(hat tip for photo to U2log.com)

From U2log.com:

U2 will appear on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on NBC this Thursday, October 6, and on your preferred p2p client soon after. The band will be on the full hour (12:35-1:35 am) and will perform multiple songs.

It is the first time Conan has devoted an entire show to one guest. Sorry, four guests.

D’ya think they’ll open and end with Vertigo?

We had a great long weekend at the cabin celebrating Canada's birthday. The weather was pretty much fantastic and I did nothing but relax. We did lots of fun things like attending my cousin's grad party, watching the Rider game, enjoying the big concerts, and spending time out and about in the park.

Canada Day 2005 at Cypress Hills

Cow and calf moose behind our cabin

Sofi and I are camping this weekend in Buffalo Pound, so I'm taking Friday off for that. We're slowly building our camping arsenal but I'm hopeful we'll have everything we need to survive for a few days in the not-so wilderness!

I just drove by the Sevens Club today and noticed that "Hells Bells" (an AC/DC tribute band) is playing there this Friday. Me and Tyler saw them at the Owl many moons ago and had an amazing time. They are virtually identical to seeing AC/DC (the world's greatest band) live! I will be out of town so I will not be able to attend :( If you are in Regina on July 1 and don't go to see them play, you're pretty much stupid.