Ever had one of those moments when you’re watching one of your favourite programs on TV, a big movie or television star is on screen, you look at their surroundings, and you’re like, “Hey, I’ve been there!”

Well, I had one of those moments two weeks ago while watching the programme Corner Gas on CTV HD. I was watching the episode entitled “Coming Distractions” when it came to the setting shot the show used to transition to the scene in the theatre. Lo and behold, that’s the very same theatre I frequent a couple times a week, which is less than a ten minute walk from home.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised when that happens, considering they mainly film in a town not an hour’s drive away from the city, but I don’t care. It’s still pretty cool, nonetheless.

Maybe it’s because it’s shown nationally during prime time and has huge ratings. It’s not the same as Puttnam’s Prairie Emporium, which never left the studio AFAIK. And as cool as they are, local cable access channels don’t count either.

As for movies, I had it a few times watching Just Friends, but less so during The Messengers and not at all during Decoy.

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My apologies to Miss Judy Garland.

A few more hours and I’m off to Edmonton again for the weekend. Just got over a cold, so we’ll see how the changes in altitude affect my sinuses. The Oilers have been unsuccessfully hunting their 1000th win in franchise history for a few games now. They screwed the pooch last game, with a 4-2 lead ending in a 7-4 loss. Ouch.

I think they’ll take it, based on my 3 minutes of perusing each team’s respective web site. Still won’t top that time I was there for the Oiler goal during the Big Mac Minute.

Can you tell my parents had just been to China? Dad’s a faculty member at the University of Regina (he’s been the Head of the Computer Science department, off and on, for a fair majority of his term, and is currently still filling that position, for just a little while longer anyway), and our family is well connected to the Chinese community. My parents were part of a group that travelled to China in 1984 in an effort, I believe, to blossom relationships and so on (I won’t go into detail, mostly because I don’t know or remember them). Long story short, Jinan, the capital of Shandong province, is Regina’s sister city. They’ve since gone back many times over the years, Mom especially.

(BTW, if you ever bump into Dad, make sure to tell him how much he looks like the fantasy writer, George R. R. Martin. He loves hearing that…)

This picture also marks the beginning of the epic mystery of the origin of the red mark on the upper part of my right cheek. I have a theory of what caused it, and Mom has a completely different one. Regardless (or irregardless, whichever you prefer), as you’ll see over the next several days, it lasted for years.

It’s old, I know (and incredibly passé, considering it’s been on Ellen), but, damn it, I like it! It’s Matt Harding!

If you like it, definitely get the better quality version (preferably in QuickTime), and check out the rest of his site while you wait for the download.

Man… How inspiring. That’s something I would totally love to do. Maybe not the dancing part. And maybe not the video-recording part. And probably not the posting-it-to-the-Internet part, but definitely the traveling part. But that’s my only problem. Do they have beef and potatoes in the Bengal Jungle, Kilimanjaro Summit, Serengeti Plain, or Impenetrable Forest? Preferably with no flavour or spices. I’d even settle for pork or chicken.

Didn’t get to do a whole lot of the stuff I wanted to do. Still haven’t watched the last few minutes of Lupin III: Voyage to Danger after falling asleep the last time. I only managed to watch the first 5 or ten minutes of City Hunter: .357 Magnum. And, when I finally had some time to myself, I was going to watch my long-awaited episode 2 of Neon Genesis Evangelion, only to find out that the sound wouldn’t play (which I only just found out is because I unknowingly had it encoded in 5.1 AAC audio and not stereo).

I guess the good news is my brother and I finally got around to playing our copy of Wizard’s Quest that we bought at a garage sale, like, 20 years ago brand new. And Carcasonne, too. Oh, and we watched Terror of the Autons.