Phones, Coats, Boots, and Comforters

While waiting to meet up with Pixie at the shisha place yesterday, I hit zellers and got some winter clothes, which was needed. My purchases were rung up by Cherehezad, which also made me smile.

I hit Telus and asked Mathieu about bringin an old Verizon CDMA phone (completely unlocked from the Verizon system) over to enroll with them.

Mathieu: "We can't do that. The system is completely incompatible, it will only accept our codes."
Me: "You know that's bullshit, right? It's trivial, you just won't do it."
Mathieu: "Yeah. I've heard of two cases which were personal friends of VPs in the company, but that's about it. Want a phone?"
Me: "No. I will try Bell, since they're the only other CDMA provider. Mind you, they're legendarily more jerktastic than you guys, which is why I tried you first."
Mathieu: "Good luck."

I have to admit that looking over their data plans, I may just abandon the smartphone idea completely. I know cell phone packages in Canada suck, but $50 for 200 local minutes and 500MB a month of data (with a $1 per MB overcharge) is just kind of silly.

First You Get The Sugar: Debut Album Preview #1

Damn it's cold.

See title.
Also, I have the Roadrunner theme song in my head for some ungodly reason.

DADT repeal is dead.

I can't believe I missed noting the anniversary of the first recorded performance of a woman actor playing a female part on the British stage. (The afternoon of Saturday, December 8, 1660)

From Ari: If this sign is true, this is quite possibly the saddest place in the world.

Another from mzrowan, describing the still face experiment, which you might want to mention the next time someone tells you they aren't influenced by how others react to them. (We are social creatures.)

For instance, see this two-year old who has clearly absorbed how one is supposed to express devotion in her culture.

And speaking of social connection, From Teresea Nielsen Hayden and Roger Ebert - a bit on loneliness and how the internet interacts with it. Ebert seems not to be disposed to loneliness, and so wants to attribute it to causes. Hayden sums things up pretty well, and unsurprisingly, Ebert seems to be classy about learning from his audience. As someone who is lonely by disposition, this was an interesting read.

Cupcakes!

Well, not yet. But the store by my house was having a sale on Poderno and I could get quality muffin tins for a decent price.

This means I can experiment with my cupcake plan, which is long overdue.

Natasha as 50s housewife

I had great fun doing this shoot, and there are far too many I like that came of it. We deliberately went for the 1950s-esque advertising vibe, with the super-saturated colours and the like. Lots of the other shots have her with the crazy smile so common with the era's advertising, but this one of her at the stove and then reading after the work is done are my two favourites right now.

(By the way, these are straight out of the camera shot in Vivid+ mode, I haven't dealt with finessing the RAW files yet.)