Die Hard Three

Hello everyone I’m back to travel blogging (my favourite kind – and yours I hope). This time it’s a quick sixty-seven hour visit to New York City to catch a taping of the Daily Show with Jon Daily. If you recall last time I went to the show it was all standby but this time we actually have tickets. They have not yet announced the who the guest is and I’ve been anxiously stalking Twitter for the past week looking for some indication of which historian will end up crushing my lifelong dream of seeing a celebrity in person.

So stay tuned for various updates on my adventures. Or not. I don’t really care. Unlike most writers I’m pretty indifferent about the quest for blog hits. The other day I did an experiment to boost my ratings by posting a nudie picture of myself and not one person clicked through. Not even the Google web crawler. Oh well.

I was never one to follow the rules (I was supposed to list ten items) so here are 12 random things you may or may not know about me. If you “like” this post I will give you a number and then you can make your own list and post it on your Facebook wall.

1. I don’t actively cheer for any one sports team – I cheer against specific teams. Ottawa, Vancouver, Portugal, and others.

2. I have the world’s largest collection of promotional material from the Die Hard films. I do not know exactly how much money I’ve spent on this over the past 25 years but it’s probably more than $3,500 CDN. The collection is uninsurable as there is only one person on planet earth to whom it is worth anything.

3. I’m happiest when I’m traveling and I’m second happiest when I’m building, designing, or writing something. I’m actually happiest when I’m doing all of these things at the same time while enjoying a beer.

4. When I was 24 I wrote a full-length movie screenplay that I recently reread and found to be terrible but I remember the 24-year-old me was really pleased with it.

5. Back in high school some friends and I were going to play pool one night and there was no space in the car so I went in the trunk and on the way there we got pulled over by the cops.

6. I rarely shave my face with a razor and when I do it’s never lip or chin. I’ve shaved my entire face with a razor exactly four times in the past 15 years and I know the exact dates of each of these four times.

7. When I enter or leave any building that has a foyer and the weather is extreme (very hot or very cold) I wait until both the interior and exterior doors are closed before proceeding so that the heat or cold does not escape.

8. I’m competing with my brother to see who can go longer without owning a car. He’s winning but only because he’s older than I am. He’s not aware of the existence of this competition.

9. I’m a bit dyslexic (self diagnosed) and this condition has given me the power to see both sides of an argument or situation.

10. I once solved a 1000-piece Ravensburger jigsaw puzzle in just under six hours. I did not take any breaks for food or bathroom or internet.

11. I once built a portable, life-size 13-foot (4-metre) crucifix that was taken to Europe in a ski bag and used to mock-crucify a lesbian vampire on a beach in Cannes France to promote a movie during the film festival. The wood I used was pressure treated and (at the time) was illegal to export outside of Canada. I never told this to my friend who transported it.

12. When I was in grade school I saved up the proofs-of-purchase from all my GI Joe toys and mail-ordered a not-available-in-stores working parachute kit for the figurines. I took it to school strapped to Snake Eyes and the first time I threw them in the air it worked as advertised but it landed on the roof of one of the portable classrooms. It’s probably still there. I never saw Snake Eyes again.

Hello everyone. It’s that Movember time of year again. For those of you who are not aware, Movember is a month-long fundraiser for men’s cancer (not promotion, the defeat of). Participants are supposed to clean shave their faces on November first and then grow a moustache for then next thirty days. A proper moustache can be any size but it must be a physically separate island of upper lip facial hair not touching the sideburns or chin whiskers. The idea is that while a full-on moustache is a beautiful thing (witness the awesomeness that is Ron Swanson) the growing phase is… let’s say, awkward. And it’s this awkwardness of visibly sporting terrible facial hair that will help raise awareness and money for a good cause.

For the past two years I’ve participated in Movember, and participated well. But I always found something to be a bit lacking. I think it’s the idea that a terrible mo can only start from a clean shave. So this year I’ve decided to take my Hallowe’en costume (Alan from the Hangover Part 2) and build a terrible moustache from a full-grown beard.

I feel like an idiot

I did a quick survey and confirmed that I do indeed look ridiculous. So here is what I propose:

if I get $300 CDN in the next 24 hours (before 16:00 Ottawa time on Friday Nov 15, 2013) I will keep this terrible mo until November 30, 2013. Otherwise it gets removed.

You can donate here. And James, your move.

For my Australian readers, birthplace of Movember.

And one more

I think $290 would be a nice amount.

Here is the final post for my trip to Boston. I had a great time. Got to see a Bruins game. My good friend Bill Linehan was reelected handily in District 9. And I also took a tonne of photographs. Some of my readers like looking at the pictures I take on my vacations. I have no idea why this is. I think they’re kinda boring. Anyway, here they are.

Here’s a picture of me with a no parking sign.

One of the buildings we tried to visit was not open.

Street parking is complex in Boston.

I tried to turn on a red and was almost arrested under a state-level statute.

One can only go straight here.

Some of the parks were off limits.

Sometimes parking is only allowed for film vehicles only.

Danger lurks under every sidewalk – every hollow sidewalk.

One of the locations where cat burglar Malloy buried his treasure.

I was not authorized.

Does it surprise anyone that the horses get lunch *and* water breaks?

I was asked to give a speech on the rights of women and minorities. “Asked?” Okay, I volunteered. 

The end.