www.iPedro.com

Lost In Translation

2009-05-12T12:15:00.000-04:00

Films these days tend to miss that sense of taking you to another place, forgetting about your own routine and anxieties and enabling you to travel along with the movie.

I watched Lost in Trasnlation last night. It took me on that ride.

I enjoyed the atmosphere that it involved me in. It's that feeling of being an outsider in a far away place. While everybody goes on living their lives around you, you can't help but notice how different their concept of living is than yours.

I get that feeling every time I travel. Being able to get me there while sitting on my couch is telling of the success of Sophia Coppola's Oscar winning screenplay and the portrayal of the characters by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johanson.

I didn't see Murry and Johanson as actors. They were the characters.

I've been yerning for a good movie like that. In the middle of all the over produced commercial crap being regurgitated into theatres, a movie like Lost in Translation is a welcome respite.

From the Group Up

2009-05-12T05:19:00.004-04:00

So the learning begins.

Folllowing my thrilling introductory flight over Toronto's beautiful downtown skyline one week ago, my ground school manual has arrived. The journey towards earning my pilot wings starts here.

In a year, I'll live and breath aviation. I'll know this book front to back, back to front.

With this manual tattered and crackled, highlighted and note ridden, thrown in the back seat of single engine flying machine, I'll transition from theory to practice... and I will know then: this is what makes life worth living:

Goals and ambition to achieve them.

Once you're devoid of goals, you are no longer alive regardless of what your beating heart tells you. I've got plenty of them to go around for many Pedro's.

Gallery here.

Man On Wire

2009-05-12T04:30:00.002-04:00

Inspirational. Uplifting.

A brilliant documentary on how Philippe Petit and his group of friends were able to string a cable across the two towers of the World Trade Centre ending in the inevitable climax of Philippe in his element, euphoric, walking in the sky, putting a smile on the face of New York City.

This film breaths of nostalgia of an era prior to the now acceptable hyper-security, where every one is a suspect, every one a potential terrorist. Those were simpler times.

It was no easy accomplishment however, and the tension is palpable throughout the film: this dream may be impossible after all.

Man on Wire is a historic record of the towers lost and a reminder of the subtle gradient that has led us to this day where such a feat would be impossible.

Watch it. It certainly is worthy of the 2009 Academy Award for Feature Documentary.

Bravo Philippe Petit! Vous avez conquis votre rêve!

That piece of the pie chart

2009-04-11T18:35:00.002-04:00

I'm 29 and discarding women like rounds on a semi-automatic. I'm not proud of it, but I'm proud of my decision to not settle for less than what I know I want in a partner.

I'm driven by the belief that there are intelligent, independently minded, ambitious and creative women out there. Surely some of them come wrapped in a physical package that tick off the Face-Boobs-Bum side of my chemistry checklist to the tee...

Perhaps I'll turn into a 40 something, expert dater focused completely on myself and what I enjoy doing in life with women coming in and out of it to fill in the sex section on the "How to Be Happy" pie chart.

I've already had a taste of wanting to be with one woman forever, but it turned out that this female mirror of me demonstrated that the exact qualities I want in a woman – namely "independently minded" – contradicted the picture of us being together.

I still have this belief that having children is a form of immortality. Your genes and your knowledge live on in another body. I also feel that a substantial sliver of the previously mentioned pie chart is dedicated to raising a family.

So my journey continues, not quite giving up, yet preparing to become the next "Bachelor" on ABC.

Debbie makes a "strong pull"

2009-02-16T20:50:00.000-05:00

Random Education: Lecture hall on Day 1

2009-01-22T15:34:00.000-05:00

The hall sits empty, the projector Vrooming on, a lecture seems
immenent.

Random Education: Day 1

2009-01-22T15:31:00.002-05:00

This afternoon I felt the urge to mingle with university students if only to satisfy that desparate desire to experience a conglomeration of high IQ - an exposure which I feel will throw a rock in my pond, lately beginning to settle into an eerie quiet.

I first made my trek over to the ROM, in the hope that all the science and history around me would jump start my brain and thus, my motivation to learn.

Later, I headed to the University of Toronto campus, randomly choosing a building. I smile as I read: "Medical Faculty". Great! My favorite subject.

As I wander the halls in search of a lecture room where I can ease into, I'm deterred at every door with a sign reading "no drinks permitted". I'm carrying my distinctive Starbucks, Cinnamon Dolce Soy Awake Tea Misto.

I become aware that I may not somehow quite blend in. Does a medical student look any different than a creative person, an arts student? I'm leaning towards saying "Yes" to that.

I'm quickly reminded of that as I walk into an empty lecture hall when I pull out my Mac. Dead giveaway! Medical students carry the standard issue IBM/Lenovo or Dell. This is a Windows crowd.

Still, I'm insisting: I'm going to attend a lecture here today. This afternoon I begin my long postponed socio-academic experiment.

People are slowly beginning to pour into the lecture hall and if the size of the class is sufficient, I'll probably be comfortable to merge in.

I enter after feeling a sudden infusion of testicular fortitude. I sit near the centre if the hall, only 2 girls sitting down below and no professor here yet.

The projector is on. It seems that a class is immenent.

What will the lecture be about? I don't know. This is what this experiment will be about: learning bits and pieces of accumulated knowledge, and at some point in the future gluing it all together to form a comprehensible tapestry of Random Education.

New Mineral Gallery @ TheROM

2009-01-22T14:10:00.001-05:00

Lunar rock @ TheROM

2009-01-22T14:07:00.000-05:00

New mineral gallery @ TheROM

2009-01-22T14:06:00.001-05:00

Pterosaur

2009-01-11T16:04:00.000-05:00

Gordo again...

2009-01-11T15:56:00.001-05:00

Gordo the Barosaurus

2009-01-11T15:52:00.001-05:00

The real Gordo

2009-01-11T15:48:00.000-05:00

photoBlogging from the ROM...

2009-01-11T15:34:00.001-05:00

I'm @ The ROM

2009-01-11T15:30:00.000-05:00

Working the ClubZone NYE ticket centre

2008-12-29T17:53:00.000-05:00

Lost in Translation

2008-12-16T15:40:00.001-05:00

Films these days tend to miss that sense of taking you to another place, forgetting about your own routine and anxieties and enabling you to travel along with the movie.

I watched Lost in Translation last night. It took me on that ride.

I enjoyed the atmosphere that it involved me in. It's that feeling of being an outsider in a far away place. While everybody goes on living their lives around you, you can't help but notice how different their concept of living is than yours.

I get that feeling every time I travel. Being able to get me there while sitting on my couch is telling of the success of Sophia Coppola's Oscar winning screenplay and the portrayal of the characters by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johanson.

I didn't see Murry and Johanson as actors. They were the characters.

I've been yerning for a good movie like that. In the middle of all the over produced commercial crap being regurgitated into theatres, a movie like Lost in Translation is a welcome respite.

A drawing of a spider should settle it...

2008-11-14T23:30:00.002-05:00

I spit my tea out while reading this!! HAAAAA!!! HAAA!!!!

The AGO Preview Breakfast

2008-11-09T14:23:00.007-05:00

After years of following Frank Gehry's Transformation AGO, I got my first peak at the gallery, nearing completion. It opens to the public November 14th.

There was a breakfast held for donors this morning that Debbie and I attended. I was impressed the most with all the woodwork inside the museum. The serpentine staircase in Walker's Court is gorgeous! It will definitely become the focus of the gallery.

Arriving at AGO, one is greeted by an outstanding wooden ramp that sparks memories of Chicago with its reminiscence to the bridge linking Millennium Park to Grant Park. Cuts in the floor, intertwined with the ramp, allow a view to Ken Thompson's ship models in a gallery below.

The interior of the new modern art wing is quite nice with the wooden blinds on the windows facing Grange Park, generous spaces and sun wells that allow natural light into the gallery throughout the 5th floor ceilings.
The only caveat is that the massive windows facing the park are virtually blocked. An opportunity for viewing the city from the gallery – a beautiful vista granted by OCAD's Alsop building next door – is interrupted by those wooden blinds and dotted glazing. You get a peak at the city, but it doesn't go beyond the tease. That's too bad.

For the preview today, both organic stairs were closed off. The only access to transit between floors was via a single elevator at the back. Eventually, staff recognized the problem and began using the large service elevator instead.

The sculpture gallery is impressive and allows much more visibility to the city below. All that wood just sings "Oh Canada!". The ribbed structure feels like the inside of the hull of an upside down ship.

The single disappointment – one that I expected when I saw the original drawings years ago – is the glass roof above Walker's Court. When walking into the court, one's eyes are immediately drawn to the light source from above. Once there, the sight isn't as rewarding as the invitation would lead you to believe. The metal trusses and ordinariness of the triangular structure disappoint. For Gehry – and a quarter Billion dollars – you'd hope to see a beautiful pièce de resistance, a glass sculptural ceiling worthy of the place it is in. Gehry's DG Bank (Berlin) comes to mind.

The main attraction turns out to be the one you can see from the outside. The Galeria Itália's massive expanse of curving glass with its tears on either end will no doubt transform this part of Dundas.

Come to think of it, it already has.

Home Entertainment Nirvana... almost there.

2008-10-21T18:46:00.003-04:00

About a year ago, I had finally had enough of reality TV, constant "news" about the likes of Paris Hilton and the lives of other celebrities, and of paying $100 a month for a zillion channels with nothing ever on...

So I cut cable and began to build my home entertainment around the principal of watching what I want to watch, when I want to watch it. I started on the concept of video podcasts, independent content made available for free via the internet. You subscribe to a collection of these podcast "shows" and when they're updated, you automatically get the new one.

Check ON Networks and Revision3 for some great internet TV.

Of course, it wouldn't be enough to sit in front of my computer and watch these podcasts. I had to be able to do it sitting comfortably on my couch in front of a big screen TV.

AppleTV fit the bill. It's a device that acts pretty much like an iPod for your TV. Instead of taking your music, videos, photos and podcasts with you in your pocket, you have AppleTV sitting next to your TV, feeding it all the content you get off the internet.

The first step in putting together my dream media system was getting the centrepiece: a big screen TV. I picked up a Sharp Aquos 48". AppleTV came right after to start me off on the way to entertainment independence.

Even though I was quite satisfied to be able to enjoy my painstakingly refined music collection via AppleTV, and the vast library of professionally produced video podcasts, I was missing some of my favorite shows. I couldn't get Heroes and SNL on iTunes... yet.

Just in time, AppleTV Take2 arrived. TV shows could now be purchased à la carte and movies could now be rented, directly from the couch. I could now spend $1.99 an episode of a show I know I want to watch rather than $100 per month for fluff on Rogers Cable.

To put it into perspective, if I buy an iTunes card for the $100 I was sending off to Rogers every month for cable, I can buy 3 to 5 entire seasons of my favorite shows. And since I don't follow more than a few shows anyway, I'm only spending $100 flat twice a year!

About six months into my experiment, I began to realize how disconnected I was becoming from my local reality. I was watching and reading the news on CNN.com and other of my favorite news sources, but I was missing out on what was going on in my local community.

A little research landed me into Digital Broadcasts. In February of next year, the Federal Communications Commision (FCC) has mandated that all american analog broadcasts – the kind you pick up with your old fashioned rabbit ears – will need to switch to broadcasting in digital. What this means is that a TV like the Sharp Aquos that I bought earlier, has an ATSC tuner that can receive 1080i HD – and 1080p when it becomes available – crystal clear digital picture... over the air.. for free. With a pair of rabbit ears.

I have a clear south view of the lake from my apartment, and the CN Tower is practically my neighbor: absolutely the ideal conditions to pick up American digital broadcasts and all the local ones too. Technically, the rabbit ears wouldn't suffice – those pick up VHF signals, I needed the loop that picks up the UHF signals which digital TV is being sent out in – so I started looking for a UHF antenna.

It turns out that those things haven't been for sale since the late 80's when cable really took off. It was practically impossible to find a mainstream store carrying a good UHF antenna. So I set out to build one myself.

Living in an apartment building, I couldn't just plop one on my roof or outside my window as I'd have the landlord up my ass. I also didn't want an ugly home made antenna in my apartment. So I disguised it as an IKEA magazine rack. :)

Recipe:
1 long piece of 2"x2" wood beam that I found in the trash
4 wire hangers
3 feet of cable that I had lying around
1 cardboard box cut out into a rectangle and shielded in tin foil

I won't get into the instructions as this guy has a great step by step here: uhfhdtvantenna.blogspot.com/

The result: I now get crystal clear American and local channels, most in 1080i or 720p HD... FREE.

Here's the list of the channels I get perfect reception for (I've skipped a bunch of religious channels and Buffalo weather networks):

2.1 NBC (plus 2.2 which is a Buffalo weather station that I've skipped)
4.1 ABC
5.1 CBC
7.1 CBS
7.2 RTN (80s tv shows)
9.1 CTV
11.1 E!
17.1, 17.2, 17.3 WNED/PBS
23.1 CW23
25.1 CBC (Français)
29.1, 29.2 FOX
41.1 Global
44.1 OMNI2
57.1 CityTV
64.1 OMNI1
66.1 SUN TV

Other channels may appear in the coming months as the mandatory digital switchover is completed.

I can now watch casual TV and keep in touch with local news, as well as watch all the best shows for free and in HD.

One final hurdle had yet to be overcome: While I was a Rogers Cable subscriber, I grew quite attached to having a PVR. I would select which shows to watch via the on screen schedule and it'd be recorded, ready to watch when I was ready.

I find the solution in El Gato's EyeTV. It's an ATSC digital receiver, with excellent software that records HD TV, converts it and sends it into my AppleTV's TV Show menu. Perfect!

My birthday is approaching so Debbie – my room mate – wanted to get me a gift so she picked up an essential piece to my home entertainment puzzle: a 1TB Time Capsule. Thanks Debbie!! :-D

Time Capsule is a network HUB that connects all my entertainment items together and allows wireless access to the hard drives that hold all my media. Time Capsule also goes to work in the background, tirelessly backing up all my data without any intervention on my part.

Here's the almost complete diagram to Home Entertainment Nirvana:

Click the diagram for a hi-res in depth look at my media setup (8MB)

It's been an amazing experience being on the cutting edge of the new era of TV. Digital distribution is upon us. Most people aren't aware of it yet... but AppleTV is gaining some fans ;-)

"Attack of the Show" host, Olivia Munn likes her AppleTV

Jib Jab

2008-07-17T03:34:00.002-04:00

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

An entertaining new video by Jib Jab in anticipation of the US Presidential election.

(If you're seeing this on Facebook and you can't view the video, click here)

Bloomberg: Pedro Marques first iPhone buyer in Toronto's financial district.

2008-07-13T03:31:00.005-04:00

Bloomberg covered the launch of the iPhone on Bay Street in Toronto and I was first in line:

For the story, go here.

An Artificial Segregation

2008-07-08T19:42:00.005-04:00

Today, I felt compelled to register an experience that had me learn about myself and my beliefs.

For the past month, I dated a girl who I came to care about. An unfortunate circumstance dictated that an eventual impasse blocked our way to truly becoming a couple:

She's a Christian, strongly dedicated to her religion and firm in her beliefs, and I a firm atheist, a man of science, of common sense and of logic.

Through this month, I set out in a personal spiritual trek within my mind in search of a compromise and I suspect she did the same.

Ironically, my analytical self expedition made me an even stronger believer in Darwin's Theory of Evolution and Natural Selection and of how one can truly be happier by opening one's eyes to science as a tool of individual inference and free thinking rather than laying in the blissful ignorance of an established religion. I've experienced both.
I was a God believer from my childhood to a point in my teenage years where I learned the truth through personal conclusions. From that defining moment to this one, I was – for lack of a better word – indifferent. As of this event, I've become a de facto Atheist, proud to let it be known and happy to explain to those willing how I've found in me the power to release myself from the obfuscation and fear of Catholicism.

There was something about this my personal casualty of religion and about our failure as a couple due to what I perceive as a silly artificial segregation of two humans, that sealed the deal for me.

In this personal case, her and I lost what otherwise could have flourished to become something very special.

Her religion eventually won over her desire to be with me and we both concluded that our relationship was not possible.

It's a tragedy that didn't have to occur.

Fun Deconstruction

2008-03-04T01:30:00.004-05:00

Tonight my buddy Rob who's opening a new Krav Maga martial arts school on Dundas + Dovercourt invited me over to the location where he's setting up his school.

I showed up and he was tearing down some walls, meticulously unscrewing screws, hammering out drywall.
I was looking for an outlet for all my built up nervous energy so I took a different approach: Running into walls, side kicking, ramming 2x4's into them. Anything went, just as long as it was noisy and involved flying dry wall shrapnel.

The most fun I've had in a while!

I'm committed to training at the school at least three times a week starting in mid March when it officially opens for business. I've been meaning to train in martial arts since I was a child and the opportunity finally presented itself.

Pedro, martial artist... I can get used to the idea.