Faraway, So Close

It's hard to believe the weekend is over after waiting for it for so long. Our trip out to Montreal was definitely too short as far as visiting but the U2 concert was amazing. Arcade Fire were really, really good. It was neat to see them in their home town and have a crowd that actually appreciated the opening band almost as much as the featured band.

Our tickets were just General Admission (standing on the floor) tickets and then when you enter the stadium they scan your ticket to see if you get in to the 'ellipse', basically the catwalk the band runs/walks around on during the concert. We didn't scan in and were bummed - but thanks to some of my u2log.com friends we were able to get smuggled in.

Obviously I'm a bit biased being a U2 fan to being with, but it was an amazing concert. Being that close to the band in such a small space with 300-400 other fans made it feel like a really intimate show - but then looking up and around you and seeing 15-20,000 other people singing along made it feel really, really big.

There were many, many highlights from the concert - it was treat to hear them close out with '40' with Adam and Edge swapping instruments. It was also neat to see the band so visibly moved by the response from the loud Montreal crowd.

Here's a video montage of a few clips I took with my digital still camera. And here's a whole schwack of pictures I took during the concert. Way too many but I figured since it's digital you can always go back and delete them later. :) Enjoy!

Posted by iChris at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've arrived in Montreal safe and sound. We've hijacked Matthew & Heidi's place (and their computer) while they're in T.O. until tomorrow. We walked down the street a few blocks in snowy Montreal to a Chinese restaurant and grabbed a bite and now we're going to hit up Matt's massive movie collection for a video to fall asleep to while dreams of U2 float in our head. :)

Posted by iChris at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Blue, blue, 'lectric blue...
Originally uploaded by u2log.com.

Saturday we leave for Montreal... Monday night is the U2 concert. It hasn't really sunk in yet that we're going. So many fun things to look forward to. Seeing Matt & Heidi in their new place, watching the Grey Cup with them, touring around Montreal and of course, watching a U2 concert. Can't wait!

Posted by iChris at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I think this is the direction five2nine need to head.

Posted by iChris at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google base is live today. It's basically a big database of information that is user submitted. So if you want to store your favorite chicken tikka masala or are looking for a used car or course information related to differential equations - it's all there. It's basically a classified ad system for the internet that's free.

Posted by iChris at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a Mac only tip, though I'm sure there's something out there for Windows like this. MacOSaiX makes a mosiac using images from either your iPhoto library or a Google image search. Depending on the size/complexity of the photo you're trying to create, it might take awhile.

Posted by iChris at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My flickr set for photobooth pictures.

Posted by iChris at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Photobooth Big Head
Originally uploaded by iChris.

Fooling Around with the new piece of Apple software called 'Photobooth'. An utterly useless app but we had a lot of fun with it in the store. Currently shipping only on new iMacs, but hopefully will be made available to everyone eventually.

Posted by iChris at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Photos are here.

Posted by iChris at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Women's Journey of Faith: Jason Setting Up
Originally uploaded by iChris.

... drummers take soooo long to set up.

Posted by iChris at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Animated GIF - someone with lots of time on their hand. :)

Posted by iChris at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This weekend I'm playing guitar with/for Heather Clark at the Women's Journey of Faith conference being held at the Centennial. 800-1,000 women from around the province gathering together finding out about their true purpose, drink coffee and to hear me play guitar. Haha.. Just kidding about that last part.

The funny (scary, wierd, etc) part about the whole thing is that I've never met Heather Clark, nor do I have any idea what songs we're playing on Saturday at the conference or at the concert she's putting on Saturday night at the Southridge Outreach Center. Whew! I'm a bit stressed... but then I think that if nothing else, I can snap one of my guitar strings on the first song and never be asked back! :)

Posted by iChris at 7:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well things have changed a bit since I last posted. Tomorrow (Friday) begins a period of me working 1 less day a week. I've felt for a long time that I could be a better pastor's spouse by helping Sue out more with her job, but always felt exhausted/tired/sick of talking come Friday - which is when Sue is gearing up for Jr High. I was trying to come down from work and relax when she was trying to get ready to go for her busiest night of the week. I'd always gone back and forth on the idea of asking to go to a reduced schedule at work (am I being lazy? Is it stupid of me to give up 20% of my wage? Will my coworkers hate me?) but we really felt that we needed to test this out.

It will be interesting to see where this takes us. It really is only an extra 8 hours of my week that will probably get filled up pretty quickly with 'stuff' (see the next entry, doh!) before I realize it. The challenge will be to not become so busy that we're right back where we started, only with less money to show for it. :)

Posted by iChris at 7:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)