So, excuse me, but I’m about to get geeky.
I collect comic books. I have for over a decade. I blame for introducing me into them.
The one I’ve collected through fair weather and foul is “Iron Man”. It’s probably the nerdiest of the Marvel group. No matter how bad it has gotten, I’ve continued to collect it. (And, Lord, there were some bad times.) Other comics have come and gone, but there is always Iron Man.

Iron Man, Iron Man.
Does whatever an iron can.
Steams a shirt,
Squishes ants,
Puts the creases in your pants.
–Source unknown

Now, there have been rumors of an Iron Man movie coming out. So I’ve been geeking out over the concept. Just so long as it is done well.
Comics should be an easy medium to translate into movies; The storyboards are done for you. The problem is that people want to produce/direct them not for love of the subject, but because they know it will be popular and will make them look good. In fact, I’m sure that some directors feel the opposite. There is mounting evidence that Joel Schumacher despises Batman. He tried to kill the franchise, not once, but twice! The same goes for, Brett Ratner and his relationship with the X-men.
For a good comic book movie to be made, it is important for the people involved to like the subject.
That said, I’m a little leery of the actor who has been chosen to play Tony Stark (AKA Iron Man) in the movie.
Robert Downey Jr.
I’m not a fan of the actor. I always felt that he was becoming famous more for his drug habit than any real talent. So I haven’t seen him in a movie in quite some time. But, Mr. Stark is a recovering alcoholic in the comics, so it might be an oddly appropriate choice.
I’m sure I’ll come to terms with it eventually.

The weirdest thing happened today. I mean, you won’t believe this.
I had two doctor appointments this morning. Separate ones that just happened to fall on the same day. One was at 8:00. The other was at 9:45. I finished the eight o’clock one at 8:45, leaving me an hour to get to the next one. Considering it was five minutes away, that was plenty. So I had time to kill. I could have gone to work, but as soon as I go there I would have had to leave. Going home for half-an-hour seemed pointless.
But the doctor had a nice waiting room. I had a newspaper and a laptop. I could easily entertain myself, and possibly get some work done. So I showed up for my appointment almost an hour early.
I didn’t have time to glance at the newspaper. They took me in, and ten minutes later I was done and out of there.
Can you believe that?!
I mean, that is the total opposite of every other doctor’s visit I’ve ever had.

I had my first acting class today. Nothing too exciting to report. I think I should be fine at this level. Two other people are in the same boat as I am, which makes 33% of the class.
But, as the saying goes; God never opens a window without closing a door. My Sunday evening improv jams have been cancelled. They were a lot of fun, although getting a bit crowded. A part of me is glad, because I’ve been needing to recover on Sundays from all the stuff I’m doing. So this should give me a chance.

It has been a miserable weekend. Specifically the weather. However, this works out well for me.
The Die-Nasty Soap-a-thon is on. (53 hours of improv, non-stop.) So anytime I want entertainment, I can just wander across the street (figuratively) and watch quality improv. Bad weather is conducive to this, because then I don’t feel guilty if I’m inside for many hours.
However, the problem is that life keeps intruding. There are things that I need to do that take me away from seeing the Soap-a-thon.
For instance, this morning I had a pleasant 32.5 km run. Did I say pleasant? I meant grueling. A run that long pretty much ruins the rest of the day. It exhausts you to a level that a sane distance run wouldn’t.
I had decided to use new shoes for this run. My previous pair are getting close to expiry, so it would probably be better if I used a fresh pair. And I knew the route we were doing, so there wouldn’t be any mud involved.
At least I thought I knew the route. I was mistaken. Going through Rainbow Valley we found the construction to reinforce the valley walls. To say there was a bit of mud would be an understatement.
I also tried a new type of energy gel. Previously I had used a PowerBar brand, but this time I used Clif Shots. They are slightly smaller, and I wanted to see if eating two would give me enough energy for the entire run. Lately I’ve been running low on fuel and the last 8km have been a slog. It was better this time, but they tasted bad and didn’t agree with my digestive system.
Experiments will continue until moral improves.

So, the Apple event was last Tuesday.
No new laptops, so I will continue holding off my purchase of a new one. Any day now….
However, new iPods are here. So I will get one. I just want to hear some reviews from other people before I totally commit. My biggest beef with the new ones, is that they look exactly like the old ones. The new features are just nominal upgrades: More memory; Brighter screen. Nothing I can really show off to my friends and make them jealous.
I’ll still get one.
There is another thought though. Maybe I should get the Nano? There is a package available for it that is made for runners. Unfortunately it seems to require Nike shoes. My feet don’t fit comfortably into Nike shoes, so it doesn’t look like an option for me. And I don’t know if it only works with Nanos, or will it work with regular iPods. Or with other shoes.
But it sounds so cool!

Yesterday, Theatre Alberta contacted me. It was my teacher from the acting classes I took in summer. She thought that I could go directly to the Acting II course, and could skip the class that is full. The teacher would know that I am not fully trained, but I could probably do it. That’s a nice compliment. And I took the bait.
So I’m going to be an actor now.
The bad part is that this means the class is on Tuesday instead of Monday. So that means I won’t be able to do Salsa lessons any more.
And that’s bad. Because I went yesterday again, and it was much better this time. I like the substitute teacher that has been teaching the class. There was also a very hot girl there that I sucked up the courage to ask to dance.
I didn’t embarrass myself.
I didn’t stun her with great dancing either. I’m also getting the impression that she might be showing up regularly. (That might be wishful thinking/imagination.) Just when I’m about to start missing classes. I could always show up for the latin dancing that takes place after the Salsa lessons.
Of course, I don’t know how tired acting lessons would make me.
This teacher will be teaching Salsa at another bar on Thursday. It won’t be within walking distance, but it might be a good way to get out and keep active.

I was thinking of taking an acting class. The Citadel theatre had one I was interested in taking. Unfortunately, I finally got around to signing up today and found that it was already full.
It’s my fault, really. It starts in one week, so I am very last minute. But a part of me didn’t really want to go to the class. I am already having trouble meeting my schedule, and a weekly class would have put a lot of pressure on my time management skills.

I tried to get a good amount of sleep last night. It would have been helped if two people hadn’t decided to argue on the street in front of my place about who could use the F-word the most. The joys of Whyte Avenue living.
It was a good run today. 29km. We attempted to do a negative split, so the trip back was four and a half minutes faster than the trip out. The conditions were good. Not too hot. Not too cold. Not too dry. I would say, not to wet, but it started raining, hard, as soon as the run started and didn’t end until, well, the run ended. Nice timing.
The rest of the day had gorgeous weather. Nice enough that I decided to tool around on the scooter for an hour. Which led to an interesting revelation. An hour of scooter riding and I didn’t cover more distance than I ran this morning. That means I was averaging less than 30 kph.
And I ran a lot of distance.
In other news, the Edmonton Journal broke down. They reduced their price and I’m subscribing again.

I’m getting tired of spending money. I haven’t actually been spending money on myself, but treating other people. But still, I have friends telling me to buy things that I don’t need, but they would like to use.
Today a co-worker suggested I get a Segway. I’m a runner and that seems to be the complete antithesis of that activity. (It’s a wheelchair for people who aren’t invalid.)
Another friend thinks I should buy an X-Box 360. I got an original X-Box due to peer pressure. (It came out on my birthday.) I don’t need the upgrade because there is only one game for it I’m interested in, and I have yet to finish the prequel which I’ve had for three or four years.
It was easier when I didn’t have excess money to my name. Then I knew I could just invest any excess cash in sensible RRSPs and no one bugged me.
But I do want to spend money on certain items. Apple is helping. They are going to be making a big announcement on Tuesday, which might be a new iPod. Or a new laptop. I need both.
Yes. I use the word “need” deliberately. I’m a programmer, so a laptop is actually something that I need. An iPod, because I am starting to get to the point that I need something to store large files onto.
Of course, my VCR has gotten vindictive recently. It has started to take the policy that if it can’t record on a tape, no one will. So whenever I eject a tape, it snips it in half. The quality of what it records isn’t anything to write home about either. So I should replace it with the latest in technology. Which would be a PVR.
And the rumor mills are also wondering if Apple might release one of those on Tuesday as well.
I also realize that I am getting absolutely no sympathy from anyone reading this.

I’ve been busy lately. I could say that it has gotten in the way of blogging, but it really hasn’t. But I’ve had two different people visit me recently. Each one of them I’ve tried to spoil rotten. I did my best to keep the constantly entertained to the point of exhaustion.
And I’m tired of it.
For a change I want to be spoiled. I want to do whatever I want, and let some one else takes care of my basic needs.
So I’ve come to my parents in the greater Calgary area, and it has started to happen.
Today we drove into the Kananaskis park. We went for a walk and then had a nice picnic near the Picklejar recreation area. The best part was that someone had started laying out rocks to build a dam across Mist creek. Being my grandfather’s grandson, that could not stand. So I spent an enjoyable two hours finding all the rocks I could to improve the dam. I got myself wet crossing the creek to pillage better rocks on the other side. Soon, the original dam was little more than a waterfall. It was great. I hope some more people come along and do their best to build on these works, but I fear a park ranger will instead tear it down.
Tomorrow I’m planning on catching up on some computer work I’ve been meaning to do.
Good times!