Wall outside the Student Association office (I think) at the NSCC campus in Truro.  Nothing else really needs to be said.

And then Liz got in touch with me and asked if I wanted to go see The Avengers.  Um, let me think about tha— YES!

Now, I will say that, except for Star Wars, Buffy & Angel and the odd few issues of Superman or a random series, I’m not really a Comic Book geek.  That’s not to say that I don’t  appreciate comics… I just have enough other things to spend my time and money on that are ahead of ‘comics’ on the ‘list’.  My brother is/was big into comics, but he was more a DC guy, so I was more familiar with, say, the Justice League than the Avengers.

I’m thinking The Avengers are way more awesome than the JL!  No doubt Joss Whedon had a lot to do with that.  The movie was non-stop awesome.  It was good and hilarious and even sad in parts.  The writing was great.  The movie was about the group more than any one character.  Unlike the upcoming Dark Knight, and possibly even Spiderman, this is definitely a movie for the whole family.

There are too many great scenes to list here, but I think my favourites are Iron Man calling Hawkeye ‘Legolas’, the Hulk’s random smack down, and the very last scene.

What did you think about the movie?  What other movies are you looking forward to this summer?

I’m looking at maybe getting a phone in the next month or so.  But I’m really not sure… At the moment I don’t have any phone at all and while I’m not that worried about it.  Everyone keeps telling me I need one.  So… I’m thinking about it.  Honestly, I want one that I would just use for travelling.  Something I don’t have to pay for every month, only when I need it.  I realize that having a phone when I travel would be a good thing.
This is my dream of what I think I need want:

• Fairly inexpensive hardware (optional, depending on the rest)
• No contract/no monthly fee/pay only when I need it
• Unlocked, preferably if that will help save money when travelling.
• Travelling also means GSM, I believe.
• Definitely Texting
• Probably voice
• Data would awesome if I could do that.
• I currently have an old iPhone 3G.  Can that be used for any of the above?

I think that’s it for the moment.  Sounds like Ting would be the best option, but I don’t think it’s available in Canada.

Do you have any suggestions or recommendations?  I’d really appreciate it! I’m travelling in a month and a half, so if I’m going to get one, it needs to be before then.

I think this was probably the best conference we’ve put on so far.  I haven’t read all the evaluations (hopefully I’ll get time to do that next week) but I think most people would agree with me.  The conference was for Early Childhood Educators.  Most came from our area – the Annapolis Valley – but we had people from all over mainland Nova Scotia and even Newfoundland!  (That really excited us :) )

We had workshops on Math, science, toddlers, storytelling and more.

I always love conference time!  I wish it was longer (though I was beat when I got home as it was).

Collage photo frame?  Win.

Vintage View Master reel?  Win.

Collage photo frame that looks like a giant View Master reel?  Epic win!

I was backer #1 on this project - REEL-MASTER Picture Frame – and I think I backed it within five minutes of it going live.  The delay was because I had to message the guy running the project to deal with shipping.  I want this package!  (I ended up ‘ordering’ two different picture frames, the guy’s business card and a vintage reel for my actual View Master.

The problem at the moment is that he only has 9 days left to receive full funding and he’s only 10% of the way to his goal.  If you have a bunch of photos you want to put on the wall, or you want a photo frame that is a great conversation starter, go back this project!

My first passport, used twice! (It surprises me that a passport issued to a child as young as I was at the time would still be valid for 5 years.  Seems to me the 7 year old, at the end of the passport’s life, would look completely different from the 2 year old that first received it!  Even more so than an adult who maybe lost a lot of weight and dyed their hair in those 5 years.)

Also found the document that temporarily made me my brother’s guardian.  *insert evil laugh here* Too bad I didn’t take better advantage of that power. ;)

“Well, Chin, I’m glad you asked!  You see, all you have to do is go to the website, click on this banner and you get 25Gigs free!”

“Wow, I thought watching McGarrett take down 10 men with both hands tied behind his back was amazing.  I was wrong; THIS is amazing!  What would we do without Microsoft!?”

—

I was listening to Windows Weekly and they were talking about Microsoft lowering SkyDrive’s data storage, with a loophole.  That was all fine and good and then, while washing dishes, I started thinking about Hawaii 5-0 and the blatant product placement put in by the execs and writers.  It’s not as bad as that Bing scene (I think it was Bing) from the first season but it’s still so, so very obvious at least to me in every. single. episode.  REALLY takes away from the episodes and I’m sure the actors can’t like it.  Product placement is a necessary evil these days, but the more subtle the better.  It’s actually even worked on me.  I bought an iPhone thanks to CBS product placement!  

Anyway, this popped into my head and made me LOL so I thought I’d share. 

It seems like stamp collector = nerd.  I dunno, maybe that’s true, but I never counted myself as a ‘nerd’.  Geek, yes. :P  But anyway, I have been collecting stamps for over 20 years.  I even started pen-palling (remember that? when we use to meet people from all over the world via pen and paper?) to help build my collection, though it turned into a fun, interesting hobby in its own right.

from Diorama Sky on Flickr

I’ve got stamps from all over the world, some that I collected via stamp sales, or from pen pals; I even bought a collection or two.  I have too many favourites to name, but my concentrations lie with stamps issued by the United Nations and the Vatican, as well as Astronomy themed stamps.

The collection is currently boxed up at my parents house and I haven’t really messed with it a lot for a couple of years.  Of course, I could organize the collection (which really needs doing) if I couldn’t afford to add to it, but supplies are sometimes as much as the stamps.

Of course, this all made it really hard to attend the Valley Stamp Club’s annual Exhbition and Sale.  I didn’t even know there was a stamp club in the area, so part of the reason for attending was to find out about it.  They meet the first and third Saturdays of ever month (except July and August) at 1:30pm in the Community Room of the Super Store in New Minas.  I think I might check it out in the fall, as I’m pretty busy the next couple of months.

The other reason I checked out the show was, well, just to take in the hobby a little bit.  I haven’t attended a stamp show since 90′s so it was nice to go and browse and watch everyone with their tweezers and references sitting at the tables, browsing through albums.  What was not so nice was making myself hold back from buying anything.

All in all, I had a fun, if frustrating, morning with some fellows ‘nerds’.

(And I have to say, several of them were surprised that I was there)

Anyway, I’ve been wavering back and forth as to whether or not I wanted to since… well, since the last Con.  I’ve had my mind pretty much made up for a month or so, but still didn’t cancel the hotel ‘just in case’.  Once I did, there would be no going back.  Well, it’s done now.  Had it been held almost anywhere but Orlando my decision may have been much different, but I’ve been there once and the city is pretty boring.  Aside from perhaps spending another day at the Kennedy Space Centre, there was nothing that was really interesting about the destination aside from the convention.  As for the event itself, well, after a lot of thinking on the matter I realized that the only thing that kept me wanting to go was a ‘fear of missing out’ (which is a very interesting and useful phrase that I heard Gina Trapani say on This Week in Google).  I do also enjoy meeting up with people but at such a large convention, even that is hard.

I haven’t ruled out all future conventions (I really like Fan Days) but… there’s more I want to do and see than follow around sci-fi conventions.  And though I’ve cancelled this trip, I’ve got others in the works.  I’m already booked to fly to Kentucky to visit a friend in just a couple of months and have three other trips to choose from over the next year.  I’m either going to California in November or a photo tour to Peru or the Galapagos Islands :)  I Can’t wait!